Earth, Wind and Water

We have wonderful memories of the Marina Barrage from a year and a half ago and have always talked about going back. We never quite got round to it. We always had excuses. Too hot, too crowded. Too tired. But over the weekend, we decided to just brave the crowd and do it. The twins were old enough, Evan has a big thing for water features, the Singapore Flyer and they were old enough to understand and appreciate kites.

What we didn't fully grasp even though we were well aware of it was the crowd. When we went to the Barrage last year, kite flying was not a big thing. It has since become a huge thing. So the Barrage was full of people banging into one another with their kites tangled and knotted. Many a child was in tears because their kite had had the string snap and it had fallen into the depths of the channel below.

On top of it, as with every other day in Singapore now, it was blistering hot with too little breeze to make kite-flying a breeze. Packrat and I were hot and harrassed. I was worried because none of the kids had sun block and we'd forgotten to bring water for the adults.

But I'm slowly realising with my children, that they are great teachers and they teach me the value of chilling and simplicity. While both parents were fussing about the crowds and the heat, the twins were merrily weaving in and out of people, pointing at kites and having a blast of a time at the water playground.


















In between all the running about and making friends with dogs and adults (especially those who were flying the Little Princesses, in Jordan's case), they finished all their dinner, went to the toilet more times than we would have liked (the bathrooms were gross, had long queues and were a mile away) and drained 2 water bottles of water, which explained the multiple toilet trips.
























One big lesson Evan learnt was that if he stepped on the dormant fountains and kept his foot there despite warnings from me, he'd get a rude and powerful spray of water when the fountain timer clicked on. And for a boy who doesn't like his clothes wet, realising that no amount of whining was going to get him out of his wet clothes (Mommy did not pack a dry set of clothes for either of them and much as Muffin is growing and can fit into Evan's old clothes, Evan cannot fit into Muffin's!) was a rude shock. He had to make do with waiting for the unforgiving sun to dry out his clothes naturally.



















Jordan, on the other hand learnt that she was not to stray from Mommy. The girl has a habit of just running off. And we've learnt that it is too tiring to keep up to them, what more when all three, in future, take off in different directions. Being an ex - track athlete would only take me so far. So Packrat and I are trying to teach them that while they can walk ahead of us, they are responsible for turning around and making sure that we're behind them. If we're not, they've strayed too far and that's not good. So, I let her run off despite me yelling for her to come back. Once she got far enough and I was out of her line of sight; I was off to one side, she started to scream and cry.

When my children cry, my instinct is to comfort them. But since they've entered this defiant, tantrum-filled stage, I have become a bit more hard-hearted when they cry and was tough on her, berating her for running ahead and losing me. Both got a good lecture on the way home about just running off without a care in the world.

We're not sure how much of it got in but it's a message we intend to continually drum into them. For their safety and our sanity.

But despite the lessons, everyone had fun and Evan was back to telling everyone who would listen what he did at the Marina Barrage.

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