Patriot Boy

Part of our bedtime routine with the twins is to sing to them. The requests are usually action songs they learn in church which winds them up rather than settles them. For the last two days however, the requests have been bizarre.

Evan has had a thing for the Singapore Flyer for quite a while. He loves anything with the prefix Singapore in front of it. Singapore Flyer, Singapore Flag and most recently, Singapore Songs! So, every night before he goes to bed, he requests for me to sing Singapore Flag songs! And these are the songs that really help him settle so I accede to his request.

Thing is, I don't remember much of it. I remember on average, two lines from each of the songs I try to pluck from my memory and I falter badly after that, making up my own words as I go along. Evan's favourite seems to be "We are Singapore" and I have a strange suspicion, it's from the time we took the twins to Packrat's school for the National Day celebrations. They still talk about it from time to time.

So, it has been every night, I lie beside him and mutter the lines I know. Last night, I googled the words to "We are Singapore" and copied it onto a piece of paper. Unfortunately, the boy took away my piece of paper and then commanded me ala the Phantom of the Opera to SING. I made it up as I went along while rolling my eyes at my son's choice of a lullaby.

"This is my country, This is my flag
These are my people, these are my friends...
This is my garden, these are my pets...
We are Singapore, Singaporeans!"

The only bit I get correct is the pledge, but he doesn't like that bit. Neither do I actually, but I'm not telling him that. As I've said before, I'm going to let him figure out cynicism and disenchantment all by himself. He's not going to get any help from his father or myself.

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