Who has a hug and kiss ?

Did this layout some time ago but never got around to taking pix and posting it. I have been feeling nostalgic, cos little Faye is turning 4 and growing up too fast. This game cum nightly ritual which we used to enjoy when she was just 3 entailed her asking the blessed question ("Who has a hug and kiss ?") every night before bedtime, and us (Papa, R and me) scrambling to be the first for the prize :)

Inadvertantly, I was always the winner :P and Papa left teased and wanting, without any !

haiz... alas, no more... just the memory and a scrappage :P

Sex and the Olympic City

This article is darn farny, and insightful to those clueless libido-conservative individuals :P

Just had to share... enjoy !

Explorer Kids - Treetop walk

Bad pix i know with my archaic handphone - but just had to share this.

R was keen to try this 'death-defying' (to her) stunt of walking on tightropes secured with a harness, and manoeuvring across various contraptions like a sliding plank, a huge ball, and a spiderman rope wall :P

But my, she IS such a worry-er (is there even such a word ?) !! The minute she realised she actually touched the tip of the minimum height gauge of 1.2m and could enter this gated adventure zone, she agonized over whether she should indeed try it out. This took her a whole of over 15 minutes, till we almost gave up and lost our patience with her.

Shouldn't kids have a more dare devil attitude, with no sense of fear, and game to try whatever, especially if it's conceivably FUN ??! Yet, my dear little one would pack her little head with lots of 'what if's and 'but then's before she would actually do something. Seems like it's becoming a trait of hers, which i'm not sure at the moment how i feel about it. Surely, over-cautiousness can't be a good thing ? Yet, i was glad she finally worked up her courage to give it a go. And i hope through it she realised, that sometimes, you just need to take a chance with things, cos the glee at the end of it is surely worth the regret if one doesn't even try :)

ps - thanks P for emailing the pix ! Promise i will remember to bag my camera from now !

My Sunshine - an Embellished Tile Momento

This was such a happy and successful project that it kept me smiling the entire day ! Felt really guilty that i haven't scrapped my girls as much as I should so whipped this up with the K&Co Berry Sweet line. For now, it takes centrestage on my mantle - that is, until my new favourite comes along. Hope you like it too :)

No. 1 Friend

Continuing the theme of friendship, this time Ash and C - they are such an item - and the cutest, most adorable pair, so i can't resist - have to post about them again.

Here they are with their classmates during their national day party in school. Their teacher sent a bunch of pix through email to the parents - and check out these 2 - hand in hand AGAIN !

C came home with a purple comb in her bag today- a decidedly male one. As she's got curls, we only own brushes or long tailed ones to tie the girls' hair with. She proudly announced "mommy, asher gave me his comb, he's my Number 1 Friend ! " And when the time came to get ready for her music class, she insisted she had to use A's comb, even though it's not very effective in tying hair - and threw a fit at me, cos' i tried to reason with her. Gosh... love tokens at 4 yrs !!

But it IS really sweet and innocent - and i'm happy they are discovering the warmness of what friendship is all about.

Here they are... one more shot, taken during National Day... Awwwwww....

Self arranged play-date

the bento prepared for the girls' lunch

My dear R, of her own accord, had arranged her own play date among her friends yesterday, and my, did the girls have a blast !! They chatted, played board games, had lunch together and basically just chilled and had fun. It was so heartwarming to see them teasing each other, going a little wild at times, yet always knowing the limits that sensible girls should - all testimony that my daughter was well settled into school life and that the friends she had made and chosen to be close to, were also those that i really adored ! And this little group, were really so cute together - with a mix of personalities, yet all melding well, each complementing the other. Friends are such a huge part of school life. For her to find her little niche - and to see how well they play together, and nudge each other in well meaning ways, i'm just so reassured and glad that she has a fulfilling school life in more ways than the academics allow...

A big national day weekend

The girls had a fabulous time! Here they are checking out the action from our hotel room window at the Ritz with their godsister.

For those of you thinking of booking a room for the forthcoming NDPs - Ritz offers the best view as it is directly opposite the floating platform. Marina Mandarin is good too.. although the rooms are at an angle to the stage. Pan Pacific is largely blocked.

While the parade segment itself couldn't hold their attention for long, they were awed by the aerial display which seemed to be coming right at us and of course the fireworks. This year's seemed a trite less spectacular when compared with the previous year though... bad times, NDP budget had been cut - i guess :P

Embellished photoframe

Something i did for a friend for her new-born baby girl... thanks for looking !

Check this out !!! J and R on Poster!!

This gave me a HUGE shock !! I clicked on what i expected was one of another promotion for Esplanade events, and saw this GRIN smiling back at me !! And i must say, the photographer is EXCELLENT, to actually ever capture J (my DH) smiling so naturally !! R of cos, as usual, looked good :P Lucky i didn't just send it to the trash bin !



We did this da:ns festival beginning of this year (they only have this twice a year), and it was SOOOOO Fun ! Very good bonding. Jay took R for Swing, while I did hip hop with R. Best of all, the price was so reasonable. If i recall correctly, it was $12 per pair for a 2 hour session. And instructors were good ones from renowned dance companies like Jitterbugs. The minimum age stated for the kids is 7 years, but I saw kids who looked like they were 4 or 5 there too ! Some would initially just sit in the corner, but would slowly warm up.

I would strongly encourage you to go if your kids love such stuff ! For those of you who know J, this is so totally not his thing but he had a blast - guess the pictures attested to it !! This is a huge coup for me, since i wasn't there to witness :)

Anyone wants to join me for Jive and Belly-Dancing this round ?

GOSH ! I must really scrap this for posterity ! hahhaha

Sleep woes

Why is it that my kids can't seem to sleep through the night even up to today ???!!!

I watched and marvelled at how a girlfriend of mine recently put her 3-week old baby to sleep. All she did was watch him yawn, decided it was time for his morning nap at 10am; trotted off to put baby in cot in his bedroom, and reappeared a minute later. Throughout the entire 2 hrs i was there, not a single sound was heard ! No patting, no rocking, no singing, no pacifier (human or otherwise) ! Why can't such bliss happen to ME ???? My girls at 4 and 7 are still giving me grief !!

ok... are you all ready.... i am going to rant, so please bear with me, and try to follow this hugely complicated process !!

part 1 - putting to bed
Each night, i would patiently (though this had gotten very hard of late) put first R to sleep at 8pm cos she wakes up at 6am for school. Although she drops off fairly soon, it still takes a good half hour.

Next comes C who is in the process of weaning off day naps, but still takes them when i gauge she's tired. If she naps - bedtime would be 930pm at the earliest - AND guess who's entertainer after having put R to bed? ME. If C sleeps (like R) at 8pm - i would shout "hooray" cos' i have both girls down and i get an early night ! But alas, this good fortune wouldn't last for long !

part 2 - ME time
By 11pm - ME time would have been watered down to at least 2 interruptions with pitter patter feet and screams of "mummy". I would grudgingly trot and put C back to bed, and as i sneak out, she would wake and start crying again! This can carry on for several cycles on bad nights, by which time, R would have been woken up, and my annoyance would have reached a feverish pitch. Threats like "don't wake jie jie... you going to sleep by yourself outside on the corridor!!" would have flown out of my mouth before any sense of composure, which of course simply serves to raise the level of the crying even higher !!

part 3 - BEDtime
if all goes well, both go back to sleep after waking episode/episodes. But in another 2 hours, usually 1am - R would have found her way onto the mattress beside my bed, C would be ON my bed right between us. Sigh....

All sleep guides like this one tell you that the key is letting them fall asleep on their own. Sure, in theory. In practice, i've never accomplished it, though to be honest, i must have been the meanest parent around - making my kid, C especially, cry for minutes on end, many times up to an hour - repeatedly, until i couldn't take it... just so she would learn to fall asleep. Yet the art somehow still eludes her, and ME.

So i continue to truddle on.... Anyone shares my misery ???