Intruder Alert!

Because it's been so hot recently, we've been leaving our windows open to ventilate the place when we go out. So our windows were left open when we went out for dinner two Saturdays ago.

When we got home, my mom went into the kitchen without turning the lights on. I was just outside the kitchen taking my earrings off, PF was just about to walk into the toilet and DN was sitting on the couch in the living room, all of us within eyesight of each other. Suddenly, a blood-curdling scream erupted from the kitchen. My goodness, I'd never heard my mother scream before, and man, did she let it rip.

Now what do you do? Do you drop your earrings and run to her aid, not knowing what lies in the looming darkness? Do you run to turn the lights on to frighten away whatever has caused your mother's distressed state? Or do you whip your head towards the kitchen, stand rooted to the ground and then let it rip as well?

I'm sorry I chose option 3 mom. (I think I screamed louder than her.) In my defence, immediately after my mother screamed, I heard loud scratching on the floor moving in my direction, LIKE A GIANT RAT WAS RUNNING TOWARDS ME. At this point, let me share with you this fact : we've had a rat problem before (PF actually caught a rat in a cage!) and we had to renovate our kitchen and change the roof to flush them out. So now you understand why I screamed right?

At this point, the only thing I could think of was a big grey thing (the scratching was getting closer to me!) with a thick, long pinkish tail whipping around behind it, running over my feet, its long whiskers brushing my shins, depositing germs everywhere.

So I continued screaming. Now of course, all this happened in 3 seconds, but in rat years, that's like what, 3 days?

Anyway, I finally stopped screaming when I realised it was not a rat. It was a cat! And I think the poor thing was more scared than my mother and I put together. You should have seen it shoot across the living room and leap out the window. I swear, it lost one life there and then.

After 3 seconds of shocked silence, my mom turned the lights on and discovered the reason for our little intruder's entry. I'd left a box of food (1 polo bun and 1 egg tart) on the table. The critter had eaten half of each!

Then I remembered DN. What was the poor little guy thinking, hearing his mother and grandmother screaming their lungs out, and seeing a grey cat dash just across him and spring out of the window??? Not a word or whimper he had uttered throughout this whole debacle. But he did have this look o_O on his face.

I kicked myself for frightening him with my shriek and ran over to comfort him. "It's okay DN, are you alright, I'm sorry for scaring you, are you okay, don't be scared DN..." Suddenly, he burst into tears. Of fear I assumed, and kicked myself harder. Then, through his tears, I deciphered what he was saying.

"Cat ate my bao! Cat ate my bao! Der Nen's bao! Der Nen's bao! Cat ate my bao!"

LOL! Der Nen Der Nen, you never fail to make us laugh!

ps : DN carried on talking about HIS bao for days after it happened. LOL.

This is what theatre is all about!

Last week, DN and I watched a play at The Arts House. In The Garden was part of the Act 3-Prudential Children's First Festival. It was a good choice, and I'm glad it was pitched at the right level (1-4 years). There was no story, which was fine because at DN's age, to get them to concentrate, absorb and try to understand a 45 minute story is impossible anyway. There were hardly any words too, and honestly, it didn't need words because it was so visual. There was the use of shadow puppets, multi-media and music, and that was enough to grab DN's attention. The entire performance was made up of tiny tiny action sequences - being chased by elephants, looking for a boat in choppy waters, getting wet in the rain etc... things that very young children can understand and enjoy. No words needed.

DN was engaged throughout! He laughed at the funny moments, shouted out the names of the animals that he saw on the screen, tried to imitate the actions of the actors (only 2 of them) and basically enjoyed himself very much. He responded to this so much better than when we watched The Rainbow Fish last September. Of course, he's older now, but I think the content, and our seats (we were seated almost right at the back for that one! LOL), also made a difference. This time, it was a much smaller theatre space, very intimate and we sat on the floor.

However (and you can crucify me for this one), I was just a little disappointed to hear other parents in the audience repeatedly shush their little ones during this performance. It's children's theatre, CHILDREN'S theatre! Let them laugh out loud, let them them shout "elephant!", let them enjoy themselves! Come onnn... they're not watching The Bridge Project, so give them a break already! As another parent in the audience, I won't mind if your child makes "noises" during the show. If I did mind, then I didn't deserve to be there. I should be watching The Bridge Project instead.

I'm now reading David Wood's Theatre for Children and he puts it succinctly when he says...

I shall never forget standing at the back of the auditorium of the Swan Theatre, Worcester watching the first production of "The Owl and the Pussycat Went to See...", my second play for children, co-written with Sheila Ruskin. The children responded with huge enthusiasm, rooting for the Owl and the Pussycat as they pursued their quest to get married, beset by marauding Jumblies and the ever-hungry Plum Pudding Flea. One minute they listened attentively, the next they participated with ear-splitting excitement. The way they willingly suspended disbelief and entered into the spirit of the performance was incredibly exciting and strangely moving. They laughed, they shouted warnings, they became emotionally involved, they cared. And the victorious, abandoned cheer when justice prevailed and the Plum Pudding Flea was vanquished was sheer joy to behold. A couple of years later Braham Murray, director of the prestigious 69 Theatre Company in Manchester witnessed the same triumphant moment with tears rolling down his cheeks. "This," he said, "is what theatre is all about!"

How brilliant!

He then carries on to say...

Such uninhibited displays of happy enthusiasm are all too rare in adult audiences.

Aiyoh. But that's true in everything we do isn't it? We lose all those wonderful child-like behaviours as we grow up and we mind our p's and q's (although many living in Chin Swee Road don't and still pee in HDB lift toilets!) with everything. Oh well. I guess I'm also not going to jump like a kangaroo when I find my favourite Kate Spade bag on sale at 50% off. Hmm... okay, I might.

Two days after the performance, we decided to do a little art project at home. After the performance on Sunday, every child was given a little butterfly to bring home. Of course, by the time we put DN in the car seat, it didn't look like a butterfly anymore, more like a beetle. But I kept it anyway and traced it out onto many sheets of coloured paper.

DN and I then decorated the butterflies with other little bits of coloured paper which he tore up into smaller pieces. We were aiming for the mosaic look, but failed miserably!

That night, I got him to help me scotchtape the butterflies onto a piece of ribbon and we strung it up on his cot. He loved it! You could detect a big dose of pride in his voice when he showed it to his Dad the next day. And he says goodnight to them every night now. Awww...

Apple Crumble

Last week, I bought a big bag of pink lady apples. I like these apples because they are normally very sweet and very very crunchy. Yes, I said 'normally'. The apples I bought last week were so sour! So, besides making a face that looks like this, what else can you make with a big bag of sour apples?

Apple Crumble!

And because I'm such a cheat, I bought pre-made mini tart shells for the apple crumble. At least I'm an honest cheat huh? But I swear, it must have saved me 2 hours of sweating and trying to press dough EVENLY into an aluminium cup without losing my sanity, patience and head.

So today, all I had to do was pop those babies out of the box, chop up one apple and make the crumble topping. The only thing was, because of our blasted weather, the butter in the crumble kept melting, so I had to keep popping the bowl into the freezer, taking it out to crumble the mixture and then popping it back in before it started melting again. Except for that, it was pretty easy peasy. After DN woke up from his afternoon nap, I told him we were going to bake cakes and he was so happy. The first thing I got him to do was fill the tart shells with apple. And here we have Mr Sneaky caught in the act of eating some of the apples! Because of this, we ran out and I had to cut another apple up!

After that, I told him to add some raisins, cranberries and dried blueberries. He took it upon himself to reward himself for the effort by eating some of the raisins. -_-

Next was the crumble topping. Okay, I have to admit, at this part, my heart started palpitating and I had to take deep breaths as DN sprinkled crumble all over the tray, himself, his chair and the floor. I rotated these two mantras : "Mess can be cleaned. Mess can be cleaned. Mess can be cleaned." and "Ants won't come. Ants won't come. Ants won't come." Of course the buggers came. So I concentrated my efforts on squishing all of them rather than snatching the spoon out of my son's hand and doing it all myself. DIE ANTS DIE!

Here's Mr Messy looking very pleased with his apple crumble tarts.

We baked them for about half an hour before sharing one together for afternoon tea. It was SO delicious! DN would have scoffed down the whole tart if I had not snuck a few bites in for myself.

I'm still at it!

Today, PF looked at my Lock N Lock box full of bento stuff and asked me (cynically) how much I'd already spent on my new hobby. After mustering all the energy I had, I gave him the dirtiest look ever and then set about trying to prove that this hobby is here to stay. Humph!

So here we have a little snack bento for DN that we brought out with us this morning. From L to R: Red Grapes (under the pretzels), Pretzels, Apple Cubes, Quail's Egg with a bottle of soya sauce.

As predicted, DN attacked the egg first. He didn't even see the seaweed tree! And I ask myself again, why do I bother?! Next, he scoffed down the 2 pretzels. He had the obligatory grape and apple cube and Mummy ate the rest!

DN hearts Breakfast

My little popadum is a funny one. Here are the top 5 phrases (arranged according to frequency) he says in the morning when he wakes up. Honest to goodness, he doesn't say anything else.

#5 : Good morning Mummy/Papa!
#4 : Mummy/Papa wake up!
#3 : Mummy/Papa stand up!
#2 : Why can't the two of you just wake up already?! I want to go downstairs!

... and the number 1 phrase...

#1 : I want cookies!

So yeah, DN wakes up ready to eat breakfast. For breakfast, he always gets a cup of soya milk, fruits, some carbo (bread/cereal) and protein (ham/eggs). All pretty easy to throw together in the morning because I can't really be counted on when I'm in my zombie state. I mean, I have served guests salty coffee before, and once I made french toast with 2 tablespoons of salt instead of sugar. :p

Here's what I made for DN's breakfast on Saturday morning. Hee! From L to R: Cereal, Quail Eggs (with a small bottle of soya sauce), Dried Fruits (apricots, raisins) and Ham and Apple Chutney Sushi Sandwiches.

On the bottom layer (L to R): Pear Stars and Flowers, Seedless Grapes, Mandarin Oranges

DN ate the quail eggs first. Then he unrolled ALL the "sushi" and ate only the ham. -_- The mandarin oranges were a bad idea because I totally forgot about the seeds in them. He chewed on one slice and spat it out when he got to the seed. And that was it, he refused to touch the rest. He ate some grapes and pears, nibbled on some cereal but left the dried fruits alone.

This bento thing is quite fun buuuuut... honestly, I don't know how long I'm going to last!

Kids Really Do Say The Darnest Things

I just love having little conversations with DN now. Of course, there are times when our conversations make me go "???" because DN is off on another planet visiting the aliens.

Me: "DN, did you like your breakfast today?"
DN: "I have red car!"
Me: "Yes. But what about breakfast? Did you like the peanut butter sandwich?"
DN: "Ooooh, monster behind!"
Me: "?????"

But of course, there are conversations like these too, which just make me think, "You are so cute I want to chew on your chubby little arm! Grrrrr!" Okay, sorry, that sounds a wee bit disturbing and praying-mantis like.

Me: (walking down the stairs, DN behind)
DN: "Be careful Mummy!"
Me: "Alright DN, you be careful too."
DN: "Ya!"

PF: (tickling DN on the bed)
DN: "Hahahaha!"
PF: (still tickling)
DN: "Stop Papa! It's my body!"

Okay, so technically, these aren't really "conversations" and we don't talk about double helixes and the global recession, but they're just so funny! Just the other day, he made the darnest observation. We were walking out of his bedroom when he suddenly pointed at his baby monitor and said, "Koala!"

Here's our monitor...

and here's a koala.


Come on, admit it, they do look alike right!