Surviving a wedding with 3 year olds

The twins attended their first wedding today. They had very little idea what was going on although we tried to explain it to them. Obviously Jordan was a little bit more enthralled than Evan. Evan was downright bored and couldn't understand why he was in a church but couldn't sing "Jesus Loves Me" or "Read Your Bible, Pray Everyday". Thankfully, we did at least sing Amazing Grace which he wast familiar with.So I had to find ways of entertaining them....

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Muffin's milestones

This has been a week of firsts for Muffin.First, he can now officially travel. Collecting his passport thankfully was a breeze. The secret? Go first thing in the morning when there is no crowd. We were in and out in 5 minutes. Muffin, who had to be present to collect his passport dazzled all the staff by his big eyes and toothless cackling.And later in the day, Muffin sits up. On his own. While driving home the point that children don't really need...

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Fun with goop

I was on leave today because Muffin had a really congested nose and that meant he couldn't sleep and couldn't feed very much. But I ended up also taking the opportunity to do messy play with the twins. For a while, I've been wanting to make goop for them. I've always liked letting them muck about with mixtures of things. And this time, it was cornflour and water. Corn flour on its own already feels different from flour which they've played with....

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Gratitious love

Half of my Facebook page is filled with updates on the kids and their pictures. I do that because of people who know the children but don't get to see them very much. Bue I also know that some of my friends who do not have kids find it a tad obsessive and too 'mommy-fying' for them.So I thought about creating Facebook pages for them. But upkeeping another 3 FB pages that perhaps one day they might be keen on continuing just felt like WAY too much...

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Grape Run

Inspired by Sher and Joel, I decide to do a marble run as well.I pull apart new boxes of cereal. This was akin to pouring out the whole packet of cereal so that one could get to the toy at the bottom of the box. I'd decided that today was the day I would make the marble run because they were giving out grapes at work and as discovered by Sher, grapes make a great replacement for marbles and there wasn't the concern that anyone would swallow them.Of...

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Flattery gets you everywhere.

I have this book at home.One day, I saw Evan flipping through it. I asked him who this person was.He said Mommy. I was most flattered.Sometimes when we are in the car, he would suddenly quip "That's Mommy!" And I would have no idea what he was talking about.Then one Sunday, on the way to church, a bus whizzes past us.Evan yells: "That's Mommy!"Mommy: " Mommy's here!"Evan repeats: "That's Mommy! On the bus!"I look at the bus. It has this ad on it.I...

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Jordan's little mouse

Jordan likes animals. Her favourite animal is the elephant because she has a very bedraggled and sorry looking stuffed elephant that she takes everywhere. She also loves giraffes because they have long necks. She stunned Aunty PY by identifying a giraffe as a 长颈鹿 before saying that it was a giraffe. She also likes dogs, cats and mice. All three she learnt in Chinese class recently.This morning, while everyone was rushing about getting ready to go...

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In all honesty

There are not enough mums out there who are as honest as Tofu Nation and Project Subrosa.Why do I say that?Tofu Nation is honest about not being a perfect mom by modern standards.A perfect mom by modern standards would only give their child organic food.A perfect mom would find ways of stimulating the child and there will never be silence.A perfect mom would relish and revel in her perfect child's existence.A perfect mom would not let her child watch too much television.A perfect mom would not admit that some days, she just wants to chuck it, give...

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Baking Banana Bread

I was very saddened one day when the twins came home from school ravenous. I asked them what they'd eaten in school and they told me Milo and biscuits. My poor children had nothing to eat all morning apart from that. Because they leave for school so early, I don't give them breakfast. They have a hard enough time prying their eyes open and getting changed. I doubt their guts are up at that time. I bank on the fact that they have milk in the early...

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Where no baby has gone before

It is true that by the time the next baby comes a long, parents are a lot more blase about them. With the twins, we were terrified about taking them out, let alone travelling with them. By the time Muffin came about, Packrat and I were quite adept with managing the twins on our own and I was quite happy to look after Muffin on my own. It helped that he was cheery, a creature of habit and easy to entertain.All this built a certain amount of confidence...

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Speedster

One advantage of having hand me down toys is the ready access to toys that Muffin has. He doesn't need to wait till his birthday, Christmas or when his Mommy has money for him to have new toys. And we have discovered that the boy has a penchant for vehicles. Toys that not just move but move with him in it. We discovered this when we bought his pram and put him in it. He was happy to sit in there and be pushed for hours on end. This was useful for...

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A Simple Life 7

This is the last "A Simple Life" installment. It's got to do with white clothes, fabric markers and one bored Mommy.Little J's gotten into a Little Mermaid obsession. She loves The Little Mermaid. Primarily because Ariel exposes her belly button to the world. My daughter is at the same time scandalised and fascinated. Packrat downloaded some of it to show her. And as with all Disney franchises, The Little Mermaid has many spin offs to it.Today, Packrat...

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A Simple Life 6

Muffin is quite a poor little boy. His siblings were such a novelty, being twins. As a result, they got loads of stuff. And as a result of that, Muffin has had loads of stuff and none of them his own. The only things he has that are really his are his diapers and his milk bottles. Everything else is old.There is a lot good with this system.1. Hand me down clothes are more comfortable, having been worn.2. We don't waste. Others don't waste. I hate...

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A Simple Life 5

Saturday mornings are we do something fun with the twins. Everyone's not in school and both Packrat and I have had a little bit more sleep than usual. It ranges. It could be hotcake breakfasts. It could be a visit to the park. It could be an outing to somewhere more significant like the Singapore Flyer.But generally, we try to do something that doesn't cost a lot and doesn't involve shopping malls. Packrat's mantra is 'if it was good enough for us...

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A Simple Life 4

Thursdays are long days for the twins. They have school in the morning, come home for lunch and they go off for Chinese class after that. They skip their afternoon naps in order to accomplish that.As a result, I always feel bad for them and everything that happens the rest of the day is a treat for them; they get to do things that they don't get to do on a regular basis. They get bottles of ice-cold milk straight out of the supermarket chiller. They...

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A Simple Life 3

Both Packrat and I are great fans of durian. We love the stuff. I would eat more of it if it wasn't also the most fattening fruit around. I was also able to eat it all through both pregnancies and thankfully, did not gag at the slightest whiff of it. One of our greatest wishes for our kids was for them to enjoy durians the way we and their grandparents did. We saw it as a family tradition to like the stuff.Packrat and I have fond memories of our fathers coming home with thick brown paper bags with the durian scent emanating from it. We also have...

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A Simple Life 2

It's been blissfully cool lately with the rains. Instead of contributing to a growing carbon footprint to stay cool with air-conditioning, we've taken to sleeping with the fan on and the windows wound down in the car.I never realised how we'd been depriving the twins in a bid to always keep them cool and 'sterile' in a non-polluted car environment.In their 3 years, we've apparently never driven with the windows down while they were in the car. This...

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Mommy amnesia

I was telling Packrat just now that when I feed Muffin, I have to hold the hand that is away from my body. If I don't, he tugs at his ear furiously and yanks out hand fulls of hair. As is, my mother is threatening to shave him bald because he looks like an old man with generally short hair but long, girl like tufts on each side of his head.Anyway, Packrat remarks that Evan did the same thing when he was a baby. I am surprised. I ask "Really?". As...

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A Simple Life 1

I'm grading papers about how people don't know how to stop and smell the roses. It's true I guess and I think the only people who truly are able to enjoy the smell of the roses without any cynicism are children.One of the twins' favourite toys is the umbrella. It doesn't matter the size. The huge golf umbrella or the tiny fit-in-the-handbag ones. The point is it's a versatile toy. It's a microphone, a walking stick and of course, an umbrella.Now...

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Fashion faux pas

This is what happens when you let a little girl dress herself.1. Pink Hello Kitty hairband with flowers.2. Orange and white polka dotted dress that is too short for her.3. Pink socks.4. Purple Crocs.Put together, she looks like a little tourist from some far flung Timbuktu village.Then she sees a cruise ship (we are at Harbourfront) and she takes off her hairband because now, she's the Little Mermaid (her new favourite tale) and Little Mermaid doesn't...

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