Capturing Mischief

There is this cliche, about how boys are made out of 'snips and snails and puppy dog tails'. I'm not sure of its origins, but I can attest to it being true. Cliches have to come from some where. So, the stereotype that the boys are always up to some mischief? True. The fact that girls are supposed to be gentler and quieter? True, well, to a certain extent since mine does have two brothers to rile her up. But anyway, I caught mischief in action today. Muffin...

Read More

Capturing freedom

As a child I hated being in front of a crowd. I always feared being embarrassed. I was always self-conscious.  I don't think I dared to speak in public. My voice would tremble and crack. And not until I went to uni and had to do a VIVA, did I dare to speak in front of an audience. After that, I haven't been all that fazed. I ended up choosing a career that required me to stand in front of people and speak or teach. Call the VIVA the baptism...

Read More

Bird Brain

In the last month, I have lost 2 water bottles and a pair of sunglasses. For the record, it isn't the first pair of sunglasses that I have lost. The last time I lost sunglasses, I was in Disney World with the kids and as punishment (to me that is), I spent the rest of the vacation with a pair of Mickey Mouse sunglasses perched atop my head. And that doesn't include all the close shaves where I misplace my sunglasses, keys, phone and cannot find...

Read More

Capturing Concentration

At 3 or at 6, even the simplest things are difficult. It's very easy to give up. It might be figuring out how to tie the laces on a sneaker (Evan), hold the stencil still enough so that the picture you draw isn't wobbly (Muffin) or trying not to fall off the balance beam even if it is 4 inches above the ground (Jordan). We keep telling them to keep at it. So they do, albeit reluctantly at times. And when they do try, the look of concentration...

Read More

Capturing Wonderment

When I was on vacation with my mom and my brother, we inadvertently started talking about our childhood memories. What struck me was that the memories that we had were mostly about things that weren't really meaningful to anyone else but us. Anyway, since this blog is primarily for JED (for me too because my memory sucks), I'm going to endeavour to do a series of snapshots capturing some of the things that they might like to have memories and even...

Read More

10 Years on

10 years ago in May, we got married and to symbolize our unending love for one another, we slipped on these rings. In it, we had engraved 1 Corinthians 13 (4-8).   10 years later, in June, while in Penang on holiday with the family, Packrat's ring floats off in the sea into the Straits of Malacca somewhere. We could have mobilised the naval divers but the chances of finding it would have been akin to finding a needle in a haystack.  The...

Read More

Lest we forget

Some people may think that the Americans being over-sentimental and over-dramatic make too big a deal about their tragedies. When I was in Epcot on December 7, the family wondered if some important American had died and that was why the flags were flown at half mast. I said it wasn't and it was to commemorate Pearl Harbour. The reaction to that was a great amount of eye-rolling about how the Americans were over-dramatic. Perhaps. But at the same...

Read More

Something old to something new

We have 3 playgrounds near where we live. JED have visited them so many times that they are bored of them and bug us to take them to new play spaces. But on Thursday when it rained as if the gods were crying and the whales starting beaching at NUS, there was little for them to do to in the house except to drive us all insane. I decided to take them to the playground in the rain. That was the one guaranteed to make sure that the old folk that sit...

Read More

I woke up over Afghanistan

I meant to post this yesterday. But I forgot. And this morning, I woke with a start over Afghanistan and realised that I had forgotten to post this. So, here I am, doing it in Frankfurt while waiting to board en route to JFK in New York. For the next ten days I'm on leave from being a mom to JED. I am however, not exactly scot free. I'm going to be my mother's tour guide over the East Coast of the USA. It's a tad early for the fall foliage but...

Read More

Spoil Market

I get very stressed with Teachers' Day because JED aren't old enough to fully take charge of Teachers' Day gifts. But Jordan and Evan can do some of the bits with minimal supervision. They can make cards. Except, Jordan doesn't just make a card. She insists on writing a book for her teacher; fully illustrated and coloured. She even tells us very specifically where the 'conflict' is in her story. Evan looks up at his effort, looks...

Read More

Killing two birds with one stone

It's Teachers' Day season and the twins are fully aware that it is a day meant to honour and celebrate their teachers. They've been made to make umpteenth cards, tie bows and select presents that they then covet for themselves but are not for them to have. Every year, we also bless all the staff in their kindy. Not just their teachers but every single adult person who works at the school. We do this because we see the combined effort they make to...

Read More

Figuratively speaking

Occasionally, JED come home with book lists from Scholastic. It allows us to order cheap paper back versions of kid books. It's mostly shooting blind; the books are either a hit or a miss. But sometimes I order one that is a gem. A Chocolate Moose for Dinner is definitely a gem. It's filled with words that have homophones that mean something very different. It's all wordplay and figurative language. And it's from a child's perspective; the child...

Read More

Childhood wonderment

Occasionally, I hear the twins use phrases that sound far too old for their age. We're not talking about swear words or anything. Just words and phrases that run incongruous to their six year old voices, stature and worldviews. So, we try very hard not to dampen any sort of belief or view that while is common for a child is deemed as rubbish and stuff fairy tales are made out of for adults. One of those things is the Tooth Fairy. Both of them love...

Read More