Lanterns

One of the things I remember about my early childhood days living in a huge ancestral house was Mid Autumn's Festival. Every Mid-Autumn's, the gardener (yes, the house and the garden was big enough to have a live in gardener) would string lanterns with candles inside all around the garden and on our Casuarina trees as well, making them look like giant Christmas trees. The lead up to it would be unearthing huge bags of lanterns from the storeroom, checking to see which were usable and sticking candles into them. That took days but was always fun to do and occupied us for hours on end. On the night itself, the extended family would gather around and eat mooncakes, drink tea and eat pomelo. It was great fun. We used to see how many lanterns we could set fire too. Too bad I was too young to think about photographs at that time because what I would give to have photographs of that now.

I also recall knowing when Mid Autumn's was upon us because of the stores that would have rows and rows of colourful cellophane lanterns hanging outside that would entice almost any child. I would gaze in wonderment at the lanterns and try and figure out how to convince my Nanny or my mom to get me one. Seeing shops like that now, still bring back the same memories. Nice ones.

There's a shop like that near where we live now. It's a Chinese Ma and Pop store and they sell party gifts and all sorts of decoration. You always know what festival is upon us because the outside of the shop would be dressed correspondingly. Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day, Mid Autumn's, Halloween, Christmas...

We brought the twins there yesterday to get a lantern each. They needed one for school and I wanted to get them one as well since it's nostalgic time for me.

They reacted in the exact same way I remember reacting. They wandered through the rows, touching the colourful transparent lanterns, squealing as they identified the various animals (we told them they weren't to get Barney and Barney was an animal) and generally having loads of fun. Of course, they made us sweat as we had visions of having to pay for rows and rows of damaged lanterns.

In the end, we decided to get them each a goldfish. No point getting anything different because that's just an invitation to fight and they have enough opportunity for that as is.

They banged it most of the way home and led Packrat to quip that had there really been a candle in there, the lantern would have caught fire very early on.




















The lanterns are now hanging, out of reach in my wardrobe, in the hope of making them last till Mid Autumn's itself.


Technorati Tags: twins, Mid Autumn's Festival

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Happiness is...

Sitting on the refrigerator stoop drinking Mommy's packet of cold chocolate milk first thing in the morning.


















Secret: I give them 1 part chocolate milk to 10 parts plain fresh milk. But they're none the wiser and love it just as much.

Of course the grandmas will complain that the milk should be warmed up.

But where's the fun in that?


Technorati Tags: twins, drinking milk

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The People Mover

With a new bub on the way, our family saloon car will no longer fit the family. As is, with 2 full-sized car seats in the back, our helper (who is on the large side) has to wedge herself in between. I've given up climbing in between since the belly popped out. So the hunt has been on.

The problem is anything big enough will break the bank. We could go for a mid-sized MPV but that may just be another stop gap measure, somewhat like the family car we have now. Had we bought the MPV before the twins were born, we wouldn't be in this conundrum now. However, we were busy wrapping our heads around the idea of twins and couldn't deal with that as well as trying to work out the finances for something that was ugly, huge, a fuel guzzler and somewhat unnecessary at that time.

Now, we're paying for it. Car prices are skyrocketing, I am no longer on a full-time salary and the bub is already on the way. So, it's not a matter of being able to put it off for much longer because, very soon we can't.

We've had some absolutely ridiculous suggestions like

1. We shouldn't go out with the entire family. Just take some of them out and leave the rest at home.

2. We shouldn't go out. Whoever wants to see the kids, let them come to us. This includes 70 something grandparents who are in the danger of wrapping their car round a lamp post every time they drive it.

3. We should cab everywhere. That could work but I do traverse the island quite a bit every day and I'm uncertain if it'll cost any less.

4. We keep this car and just buy another car to piggy back. I think that's environmentally unfriendly, running 2 engines, buying twice as much fuel etc.


--- We break for intermission as I go off to test drive the MPV of choice with Packrat---

---Back from intermission---

Because COE prices are set to go up in the next couple of months, because car prices will also spiral, because there is never a good time to buy a car when you're broke and because we've been looking around and hedging on this for like 5 months, Packrat decided that it was time and it was the right car and put down a deposit for it.

Am I pleased? I am never pleased when I have to spend such a large sum of money. If you left it up to me, I would just sit on it and sit on it and be in delivery and realise "oh crap, baby is coming and we haven't bought the car yet!"

But I'm going to suck it up, trust my husband on this one and bite the bullet, the payments and go on a perpetual austerity drive because despite what some others will say and are convinced about, we do need this larger car.

Time to eat bread and water for lunch.

Technorati Tags: twins, Buying an MPV

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Mormon Mom

I think I'm weird.

I was just chatting to a colleague about how leaving for work is difficult when the twins are at home (they've got a bit of a viral bug) because they are distraught that Mommy is leaving. She said her son, who is the same age as the twins, has rationalised it as Mommy work= Mommy has money= Mommy can buy me toys. And I said, my kids don't know how to ask for toys because they have no concept where toys come from.

Tis true. We hardly bring them shopping. Almost never. To them, toys just appear sporadically in the house, either kept from birthdays, Christmas, hand-me-downs or when I really like something and decide to buy it for them and they descend on it to devour.

Do they have concept of "buying" things and money? Yes, they do. But they think money is good because money can buy them apples and bread. That's what they tell us when they want us to give them money.

I'd like to keep it like that. Is it bad that toys do sporadically appear in front of them and for all they knew, a toy fairy or Santa Clause brought it for them? I don't know. But I do think it's better than them chucking huge fits and demanding that we buy them the latest Thomas what not. The one time I brought them to a toy store to buy Jordan a replacement beanie elephant, she picked more than one beanie, hugged them all and walked round the store a little bit and then left them on the floor. Evan got bored and ran out of the store to play with the escalator.

Yes, my children are country bumpkins when it comes to shopping and toy sections.

My colleague asked if I did bring them out. I said yes. To parks, to our friends' homes or to go for a swim (although that doesn't happen often either). I admitted very frankly that I didn't bring them to the mall much because 1. Mall time is Me time. 2. There's really not much for them to do there except run amok and get over-stimulated on toys and perhaps develop the ability to demand the toy. 3. It used to drive me crazy to see kids screaming and running mad in malls even as a teenager and I swore early on that I wouldn't add to the ruckus.

It doesn't mean that I disapprove of those who take their kids to the mall. It's just that I haven't seen the need to. So it makes me slightly Mormon and my kids slightly under-exposed, especially in Singapore where there is less to do with children. But hey, if it'll eventually help me bring up kids who don't demand PSPs, DSs, mobile phones with bells and whistles or the entire Barbie/ Thomas collection, I'm not changing it. Let their classmates laugh at them next time!

What a cruel Mommy.

Technorati Tags: twins, toys, consumerism

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Twins share everything

One of the most difficult things to get self-centred little toddlers to do is to share. It is even more difficult when both of them are the same age, live in the same house and have clashing personalities. One would think that sharing would be second nature to them because they shared a womb right from the beginning.

But no.

So, it filled me with great glee this morning when Jordan proferred Evan his blanket (by the way) and said "share share". So she pretended to be him and sucked a corner of his blanket (he is the blankie-thumbsucker while she is the pacifier chomper) while holding out the other corner for him.




















For about 5 minutes, they resembled Siamese twins attached by blanket walking round the house in tandem with separate corners of the blanket stuffed into their mouths. And when the connection was broken, Jordan who is always the more domineering, proffers once again a corner for her getting slightly distraught brother.






It is hilarious and it certainly made my day. Hopefully when No. 3 comes along, they'll happily share their things with him/ her.



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Sing out loud

The twins may not know what day of the week it is. They are blissfully unaware although they look forward to the weekdays because they get to see their beloved school teachers. We suspect Evan has a crush on one of them. :) But they seem to know when it is Sunday and when it is time to go to church.

Going to church is a big highlight for them because in Sunday School they get to sing all sorts of songs with all sorts of actions and they are at the age where copying actions is the best thing in the world. So, if you ask them if they wanted to go to church, it would be a resounding YES followed by a cocked head "Grow Grow Grow?" It was the first action song they learnt, well, the parents do the action. It goes"Read your Bible pray everyday, pray everyday, pray everyday...Read your Bible, pray everyday... you will Grow Grow Grow" And with each GROW, parents are to heave the child even higher above their heads. It's harder for me to do it now so I get the twins to jump instead but it's still a thrill.

I couldn't catch them Grow-grow-growing but I got this instead. Evan having fun with "Alleluia!" and Jordan with "O, Magnify the Lord" and her arms up in a perpetual "O".







Technorati Tags: twins, sunday school, singing

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Tears of frustration

Between the 2, Jordan has always been the one that has had more trouble staying asleep. She falls asleep fine, often, earlier than Evan. The trouble is keeping her asleep and getting her back to sleep when she wakes in the middle of the night. Some have suggested crying it out or controlled crying or some form of training for her to learn to self soothe.

The problem is Jordan has a powerful set of lungs and a strong mind to match. So she basically can cry for long stretches if she doesn't get what she want.

Last night was testament to that. She'd had a long day in school and fell asleep early. But by 1 am, she was awake and needed to be coaxed to go back to bed. But the little girl had got it in her head that she needed Papa (currently her flavour of the month). When I told her that Papa was sleeping, she was not pleased and became intent in getting out of her room. She started to cry herself into a state because I didn't want her to leave her room. I didn't want to make it a habit for her to fall asleep in our room, which I knew she'd do the minute I took her over.

By that time, Packrat had woken to her loud screams and had come over. But even he couldn't calm her down. There were more tears and flailing of limbs followed by the inadvertent gagging because she'd cried so hard, she'd choked. I am once again thankful that I'd somewhat weaned her off a night feed because then, there wasn't really anything to throw up.

By then, it was 3.30 am and she'd cried for 2 1/2 hours straight and both mine and Packrat's nerves were somewhat jangled. I'd made it a point not to scold her in the middle of the night because I'd figured she would be half asleep and somewhat unaware of what she was doing. But last night, something snapped at about 3.30am and I raised a warning finger at her and told her in a soft but unmistakeably stern tone to stop her nonsense.

For some strange reason, she obeyed at that point, came obediently to me and lay down in my arms. But by then, my nerves were so raw and I was so exhausted from 2 1/2 hours of wailing that I just started to sob while I lay there with her in my arms. She sensed that something was different because she turned to me, held my face and said "Mommy, no no no". And proceeded to keep checking on me till she fell asleep.

Packrat thinks she was contrite for putting us through hell. I don't know. But all I know is that, with this girl, crying it out is not an option. It is a battle of the wills and the adult has to have the stronger will, unfortunately, she has a stronger set of lungs and a stronger constitution.

So even though we won the battle last night, we sure as heck didn't win the war and I feel tired just wondering about how many more of these nights we will have. I thought the all night crying ended when the colic ended. It turns out, I was wrong.

Technorati Tags: twins, sleeping

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Gender bending

Baby J has discovered, without our help a love for dresses and all things pretty. She demands many times over to be allowed to wear 'pretty dresses'. Occasionally, she will pick them out herself.

While some feminist moms and non-moms alike would be shaking their heads in disapproval, I say, I pick the battles I want to fight with her and this is one I don't want to get into. So I let her pick out dresses and shoes that she likes. I wouldn't chuck too big a fit either if she wanted to play with Barbie because I played with Barbie.





















What did bother me slightly was when Evan, two nights ago when I was putting on their pyjamas, that he also wanted a pretty dress. It is funny though because he is only doing it since his sister does it, although I draw the line at pretty dresses at bed time. When she's older, she can pick out night dresses but till then, she's sleeping in PJ pants and tops.

Anyway, I told Evan that he couldn't wear a pretty dress because he was a boy and dresses were for girls. That seemed to satisfy him for a while although he did ask again, yesterday after his shower, if he could have a pretty dress.

Packrat told him, he could ask for a handsome shirt.

It might make us a little bit conservative by doing this, but well, that's what we decided. We like our boys boys and our girls girls. We're ok with him playing with hairclips and hair bands and tottering around in Mommy's 4 inch shoes. Don't ask us why, but we drew the line at the dress.



Technorati Tags: twins, speech development, gender identity

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Backyard swimming

After completing Mommy's homework, it was time for the twins to have some fun. And since they were all dirty from having painted themselves while painting the fish tank, I decided some water fun was in order. We seemed to have discovered a pattern with the twins. Every time the kids took a dip in our inflatable pool in the back, they'd get a cold a couple of days later. So, the grandparents have banned the inflating of the inflatable pool.




















We haven't done it for about six months but since the twins seemed to have become somewhat stronger after the pneumonia bout, I decided why not? After all, they really like water. Any body of water. Waterfall, fountains, ponds, lakes, drains with running water, of course swimming pools and the seaside. Both Packrat and I are also of the opinion that they should learn to swim as soon as they can, not because we want them to be competitive swimmers but because we think it'll help their lungs get stronger and then less coughs and colds, plus both Packrat and I love the water.

In the six months, I realised that the twins have grown a big belly full of confidence each and they're more confident about themselves and what they can do and it makes for funnier footage.









Jumping jellybeans who need to learn they can't jump, trampolene style, in an inflatable pool especially is if was placed on concrete rather than grass.

I took something like 10 videos and 10 photos of the short 15 minutes they were in the water and when I was in Perth and felt a little bit blue missing them, watching them was enough to burst some stitches and definitely worked as an antidote to the blue.

But of course, as we've discovered with many other things, disobeying and not listening to our parents is always to our own peril. Our parents are irritatingly mostly right. And this was one of those situations. 3 days later, the twins came down with the sniffles and coughs.




Technorati Tags: twins, water play

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Mommy's homework

Every now and again, the twins' preschool sends home a notice that informs me that I have to do a "home-school" project with the twins. We did the last one in March and missed the July one because everyone was sick and I just couldn't bring myself to do that one. In theory, it sounds like a good idea. A project that the twins and I can embark on and have fun doing together while stretching our creative minds.

But all this is in theory.

In practice, it stressed me out totally, knowing that I needed to get it done, so close to the Teachers' Day card and brownie making project and my leaving for my last vacation with Packrat before the airlines refuse to let me fly again. I am right now doing this in Perth after 5 days of being without Internet! (A most surreal and disconnected feeling, I must say!)

The project this time round was to build an aquarium from scraps because they were doing the Rainbow Fish in school. Anyway, as with any last minute job, there was the staying up the night before to do all the prep work which included having to cut out the sides of a box, wrap it with white paper so that the twins could paint over it and find some shapes of fish that could be printed the next day at Packrat's office while the twins were in school, all in time for them to paint the minute they wake up from their nap. (Long sentence but that was how breathless I became doing this)

Thankfully our helpers wanted to get involved as well and built the inside of the aquarium from magazine pictures of ocean vegetation, green construction papers and some puffy fish stickers that I had lying around. So all that was left was for the twins to paint the outside of the box, which they did, in dark technicolour mixed from the three primary colours and applied with both paint brush and hand.



































As usual, they made a grand mess of everything, including themselves, freaking out the grandparents and the helpers. I'm not sure why the fuss because the paint is all washable and they got to play around in a water-filled inflatable pool (see next post) after that.





















This was the end product which looked quite good. All that was left after that was a story board I had to do, with photos and a little write up about what we did. And like any good tardy student, I handed up their homework in parts. First the fish tank went with them to school with instructions for Grandma to let their teacher know that I would be emailing her the rest of it from Perth.



And I just completed it and sent it off, 4 days late, somewhat chastised.

Lessons learnt from this "Home-School" project

1. Cutting through a cardboard box is hard especially when your knife blade isn't all that sharp.
2. Whatever painting apparatus presented to children to use, they will find better alternatives. Give them brushes, they will use their hands. Tell them to use their hands, they'll use their feet and so on and so forth.
3. Only allow them to work with one colour at a time if one needs to see distinctive colours on the end product because when given various options, they create their own blend of colour. Fine by me but not so by more strait-laced Grandma and helpers who were exclaiming that their tank wasn't blue. Leading me to defensively comment that water in the aquarium was blue only because of the blue chemical put in to make the water safe for the fish.
4. Try and start their projects earlier (This will never happen. I am certain of it. But I can always hope).
5. I need someone to photograph them so that I can be in the picture to show that it is a parent-child collaboration although anyone who sees it will be dreaming if he thought that my two-year-olds were able to create all they did without any assistance.
   

It'll be harder from next week on because I'm actually going to be returning to work. I don't really want to but I don't really have a choice what with the baby coming next year and more and more bills to be paid. It'll just be harder to figure out but when it do, it's fun enough, especially when I take photos of them having a ball!


Technorati Tags: twins, preschool, homework

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From the other side of the fence

Traditionally for me, Teachers' Day has been looking forward to the term ending, a good lunch and occasionally some memorable presents thrown into the mix.

This year marks the beginning of something different. And even if I did go back to work full time, this will not change for the next 10 years at least! For the first time, I found myself on the other side of the Teachers' Day fence and it wasn't fun. Well, I guess it could be fun if I had all the time in the world and wasn't rushing round Singapore running errands and all the other countless things I do in a day. But it being the way it was, there was little time to come up with gifts for the twins' teachers.

At some point, they'll do it themselves. Right now, I do the bulk of it and they pretty/ mess it up. Progressively, they'll do more and I'll do less but it'll still be up to me till they hit secondary school and figure out for themselves what they want to give their teachers and which teachers they want to give presents to.

As a teacher, I knew that teachers generally don't fancy another stuffed toy or flower and often preferred useful gifts. A teacher mom friend of mine makes it a point to get her son's teachers red pens (VERY USEFUL) and her daughter's kindergarten teachers muffins or lozenges (lozenges are also useful and often much needed). So I set out to try and do something that wouldn't be a waste of time but would be easy enough to execute because the only time I had was Sunday night after 10 and that wasn't enough time to make something for 4 teachers as well as cards to go along.

Eventually, we settled on easy bake brownies with M&M chocolate bake bits and sprinkles that the kids could mix in and toss about. Of course, most of it went into their mouths, including the brownie which I quickly took away from them. A mom once commented that every mom had a thing they were particular about and what I was particular about was food. Hmmm, perhaps. Am I weird that I don't allow my kids to indulge in junk food, sugary foods, salty foods or deep fried foods? I'm particular about other things as well, like manners, sleeping times and the amount of tv they watch so I must be an aberration, being particular about so many things. Or I'm just particular. Ha!

Anyway, that's not the point.

We also made cards for their teachers, or rather I thought about it, found cardboard, stencilled it and Packrat cut it out. I wrote the cards and the kids scrawled on it and stuck it on. A communal effort of sorts. Sounds easy enough but in execution, exhausting, stressful trying to get everything done in time with as minimal error as is possible for two-year-olds.

I don't look forward to years of this. But it's a nice thing to do and it's a nice example to set for the children. Not so much that they had to give presents but they had to learn how to show appreciation to people who have been there for them.

I'm glad it's over and I have another year before I have to worry about it again. Now, I just need to get on with their next project. Building a fish tank. Being a mom of 2 playschool-going kids sure is tough and full of homework. Gah.


































Decorating and making sure the brownies passed the taste test.











The eventual baked good product. Not looking all that bad.





























Of ducks, rabbits, cats and coloured paper cards. One in halting and stilted Chinese because it's been more than 10 years since Mommy has concocted a written sentence in Chinese. To make sure I got it right, I wrote it on rough paper first with my mobile phone's dictionary on as reference. Stressful and tiring on the wrist.





















All packed and good to go! And now, Mommy can breathe again.


Technorati Tags: twins, Teachers' Day

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