Brothers

I called Aunt's place to instruct the helper to be ready in 5 minutes for us to pick her up.  After speaking to me, she passed the phone onto Small Boy.  "Where is Kor kor?" was his first question to me.

When Small Boy entered the car, he realised that Kor Kor is not there.  Asked the Husband "Where is Kor kor, Papa?"

Happy that Small Boy loves Medium Boy.  Medium Boy shares his food and toys with Small Boy frequently.  I am not worried about the flow of love in that direction.  Small Boy however.... takes every chance to fight with his brother over toys.  Once in exasperation, I wondered aloud in the presence of Small Boy "Why do you fight with Kor Kor all the time?!".  "I like to fight, Mama!" was Small Boy's earnest answer. 

Ah, the truth emerges.

Liquid crystal displays and a child's wisdom on Aging

There is something about the moving words and numbers on liquid crystal displays 'LCDs' that attracts the attention of the little ones.  The highlight of any airport jaunt for Small Boy is the stop at the gigantic flight information display board at Terminal 2.  He will not move from the spot until he has seen at least one set of numbers quote, unquote 'jumping'.  "Please hold on to the handrails" in the skytrain between the terminals fascinate him.  So does "Bus stopping" on the SBS bus.

Medium Boy used to love moving words and numbers.  Why, we had to bring him to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authorities to collect his first passport in person.  He was 5 months old then, and stared like a stunned zombie at the red letters and flashing numbers across the LCDs.

This morning, I told Medium Boy that he finished all his broccoli and chicken last night, hence he is taller and stronger than before.  He earnestly replied "Then I will be 6 years old correct?" [He is currently 4 years 2 months old].  In his mind, eating vegetables makes him grow up tall and strong, and .... older.  Hmmm.  Well, dearest, Mummy is still faithfully eating her vegetables at every meal and yes I am growing older too.  You might well have a point there.

Hooray for Education Minister

Finally the school ranking system is scrapped! I remember that the Straits Times first published a ranking of all secondary schools in Singapore when I had just finished my secondary education. My mom and dad 'allowed' me to choose my own secondary school when I finished my primary education. My only criteria then were (1) if my primary school classmates chose that school and (2) if it was reasonably near to home as I did not want to get up extra early to go to school. Heh, lazy me, always searching for the most efficient way to get things done.

Apparently parents now conduct a lot of research into secondary schools so that their darlings might get into a good school, however they define good.  I have started to think about this for Medium Boy and Small Boy, but for primary schools, not secondary schools.

More on Moxie

Oh dear!  So much drawing of lines in the sand amongst parents... primarily mothers! 
http://www.askmoxie.org/2012/09/more-on-free-but-not-cheap.html
Pax sisters.... Use the arms raised now in anger to hug a mother who does not mother the same way as you do.  Use the passion behind the words to build a better tomorrow for our daughters.

(Hypothetical daughter for me.  Since I do not have one)

I belong to the category of moms who do not, simply do not like the drudgery of the jobs part of parenting.  I dearly wish that there was a magic wand that I can wave with a swish, and both Medium Boy and Small Boy are capable of self care.  I do however realise that the jobs are what I make of them, and the relationships are what I make of them.

Last night, Small Boy woke up from 4-5am, murmuring to himself and keeping me awake, and could not sleep even after his milk feed.  I was so afraid that he would make enough noise to wake up Medium Boy.  Small Boy eventually rolled around and went back to sleep at 5am.  Ah.  Both boys do look like angels when they are sleeping.

I would write more on Moxie's post.  But I need to dash.

Weather forecasts in Singapore

The meteorologists in Singapore have it easy.  The weather forecast is inevitably "Sunny with occasional showers in the late morning and early afternoon" in all of the weather reports on the television during my growing up years (when I still watched TV).   I heard that particular sentence again this morning on radio.... The time is nearly 2pm.  The sky is clear with little sign of the rain-bringing cumulus-nimbus clouds.  Where oh where are the showers in the late morning and early afternoon hiding?  I need rain.  It is too hot to think now.

When I was living in Melbourne, the weather forecasts were more varied, and to my great surprise, accurate.  Melbourne is famed for having 4 seasons in one day.  I learnt to keep abreast of the weather news in order to plan my weekend activities there.  I remember one summer day in Jan 2003 which started off at 44 degrees C in the morning.  A squall blew into St Kilda's beach around noon, and the temperature dropped to 21 degrees C.  I was prepared for the wind chill and brought my wind breaker out with me.

The only weather variance in Singapore is when I step in and out of air-conditioning, which seems to be set at a chilly 20 degrees C.  Brrr.  Hopping in and out of air-conditioned places into 30 degrees C sunshine is not good for health at all.

Upcoming concert

Thanks to E (a fellow April mommy) who dased down yesterday to buy tickets from the Sistic counter, the Husband, I, Medium Boy and Small Boy are going to the SSO Babies Prom concert on 6 Dec 2012 10am.  We had brought the boys in 2010 and 2011 to the Esplanade Concert Hall.  In 2010, while bringing Medium Boy to the stage to wander amongst the orchestra at the end of the show, part of my little toenail was ripped off in the rush to the stage.  My fault - I wore Birkenstocks to the concert!  Having learnt my lesson, I made sure to wear covered shoes to the 2011 concert.  Normally rational women turn into a mob when jostling for space to watch over their little ones on the stage.

It is a pity that I only got to know about SSO Babies Prom in 2010.  Medium Boy would have enjoyed the concerts very much in earlier years.  He listened to "Uncle Peter's music" (quote unquote) all through and his eyes were fixated onto the stage.  He knew when to clap enthusiastically too...!

Small Boy was just half a year old in 2010, but I put him in an ergo and brought him along anyway.  Last year (2011), he seemed to enjoy the drums best.  Perhaps his hearing is not so developed yet that he can pick out the higher pitches. 
I look forward to attending the concert with Medium Boy and Small Boy this year.  Indeed children see and hear things differently from adults. 

Hmm.  Time to send them to music appreciation class?  I enjoy my weekends with them too much to ship them off to class.  Maybe another year.  I was teaching Medium Boy the music notes (A-G) using the piano at home.  At one point, he knew where Middle C is.  I stopped earlier this year due to work pressures.  Need to pick up the music lessons with them again, and teach them how to read towgay (= beansprouts.  Singaporean slang for musical notation).

End of post.  Double Bar Line.  *grin *

Monday musings

I live right next door to a popular primary school.  Today marks the first day of the last primary school semester of the year.  Woke up at 7am to angsty honking of cars.  Ah well, the light rain last night probably meant that many primary school children were roused up from their sleep for their first day of school after the week long school holidays.  Thus the parents were already in a bad mood when they arrived at school with their sleepy children in tow. 

There is only one narrow road to drop the children off at the carpark behind Tao Nan when it starts to rain.  Guess the honking parent(s) was thinking about all the things that they needed to complete, and saw the cars in front as yet another obstacle to the start of the day.

My dad used to drive us all to school in the mornings when we were in primary school.  I remember it always being a mad rush out of the house after gobbling down my Milo and egg-and-toast sandwich.  My mum believed in feeding us all breakfast before we left the house to give us energy for the school day and the work day.

I am grateful for the rain today which cleared away some of the haze from Indonesia.  Plus... the plants get some water to drink.  The last week in Singapore had been hot and hazy.  Perhaps the smoke particles trapped more heat in the air.... the humidity was very high!