Walking with dinosaurs

Kai is into dinosaurs now. Here're the dinosaurs through the eyes of my 4yo.

The ankylosaur. (Note the spikes on its back and the club tail.)

The tyrannosaurus rex. His short fore legs are reaching for pieces of meat on the left.

The stagosaurus with his plated back.

This is my favorite drawing: the sauropod. He has almost finished eating the leaves from the tree on the left.

Stamps

My dad used to be an avid stamp collector. When I was (a lot) younger, he gave his album to me. For a while, I added to his collection though my collection was really nothing compared to his.

I had to send some documents to the US about two weeks ago. I have forgotten how pretty stamps are, and each design has a story to tell. Weighing letters, buying stamps, and sticking them on to envelopes used to be something we all did rather frequently. But gradually over the years, technology caught up with us and I stopped thinking about stamps. Almost every thing and any thing can now be dissected into bits and bytes, and sent through cyberspace, over networks.

Will my boys even use stamps at all? Or even know what they are?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

An accident to mark his 1yo milestone

Nothing wakes you up in the morning like seeing blood dripping down your baby's face. I just got out of the showers and was thinking about how badly I needed a cup of coffee when I heard Kit's cry outside, followed by a frantic knock on our bedroom door by our helper who was minding him. Kit had apparantly slipped while crawling and fell against the edge of Kai's toy.


It was a whirlwind of activity after that. We drove to Gleneagles A&E where Terence's friend was kind enough to see us immediately. He 'glued' the wound together with surgical glue, followed by some Steri-Strips.


It could have been worse; i know friends whose kids have had gone through worse too. It was really the shock of seeing the blood ooze down right after it happened. I am glad he was back to his normal self almost immediately after the accident.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The morning after

I was about to pack away Kai's paper Thomas lantern (for the year) when I noticed a candle stub left in the candle holder. I thought Kai had opted for light bulbs to light up his lantern for yesterday's lantern festival. So imagine my surprise to find out that his daddy had managed to convince him to go the traditional way of using a candle.

Amazing. And the lantern didn't burn down. Mine always did when I was a kid.

Remembering you as a one-year-old

Dear Kit,

Your dad and I, try as we might, can't remember how your gor gor Kai was like when he was one. We have pictures and some video clips, but how did he smell? What made him smile? How did he feel in our arms when we carried him? We can't remember every precious detail.

I want to remember you as a one-year-old, as clear as day, even when you are 16, 21, 30 or whatever age you are when we die. This blog entry will not capture everything that you are, today on your one-year-old birthday, but I hope it will jog up memories from the recesses of our minds.

I like picking you up after your naps because you feel soft and smell so sweet. You weigh 8.3kg on our digital home weighing machine, and look pint-sized compared to other babies. You love to watch Sesame Street podcasts on my iPad. That's just about the only thing that will keep you still for, oh well, 5 minutes.

I love nursing you. You always have the sweetest smile for me, and sometimes even a chuckle, after every feed. We'd end up giggling together, like you have cracked the funniest joke.

Happy birthday Kit, our sunny, happy, little boy.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Working on a computer

I came into my room and found Kai furiously tapping his fingers on a book, which was on my bed. Another book was placed behind it, leaned against the pillow. So I asked, "What are you doing Kai?"

"I'm on the computer, Mummy!"

Then he pressed a 'button' on the 'keyboard', flipped the 'cover' of his 'laptop' down, and said, "Ok, I'm done!"

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Hello Mr Turtle, and other fishing friends

Kai has been pretending to be a fisherman lately using a make-belief fishing pole made with a yoyo tied to a train track. And after reading Joel Henriques' fantastic blog, made by joel, I was inspired to make a fishing pole and a few fishes for him to play fishing with.

Mine looked nothing like Joel's fishing set of course, which looked like it came straight out of an expensive toy store. (Joel is a professional artist!) I had to work with whatever materials I can find in the house like unused chopsticks, sewing thread, paper clip, and fridge magnets etc. And since I involved Kai in almost every step of the way, you can expect things to look, well, unfinished. I drew a few fishes and a turtle for Kai to color in. Then he drew a turtle on his own, which looked really adorable!

I asked him what kind of faces he wanted on them (e.g. angry, happy).

When everything's done, we went fishing together.

He loved the small starfish I made for him so much that he refused to let me fish it!

Mummy, I want to do some art and craft

And so ok, I said to him, "Let's make a magic wand!"

No time for retrieving clip art from the computer, so I had to draw the outline of the stars in freehand.

My heart is in my mouth each time he uses the scissors.

Ta-da! The unused chopsticks from Chinese takeouts came in handy at last.

Stinky shoe ballon?

I bought Kai a red ballon, and it was in the car.

As we were walking back to the car after school, the conversation went like this:

Me: Hey Kai, guess what? I've got a surprise for you!
Kai: Oh, oh! Can I close my eyes?
Me: Of course!
Kai (Excitedly): What is it mummy? Is it a stinky shoe? I love stinky shoes!

My funny bunny

Life's a laugh with my 4yo. He does silly things in front of the lens, and off. Here's Kai kissing his spade, just for fun.

And he's an expert at making funny faces by now.

The "i" generation

Need I say more? Even Kit loves watching Sesame Street podcasts on the iPad!

Of witches and princesses

I was playing a game of snap with Kai yesterday night, and he asked me to pass him the card with "the witch" and another with "the princess" on it.

It took me a while to compute what he meant by the witch. The princess was easier.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Warning: This innocent, sleeping baby poops five times a day

Kit wakes up at 5.30am everyday without fail with poop in his diapers. I'll hear a whimper first, and then it'd slowly escalate to a long wail ending with a "ma ma!"

That's when I try to peel my eyes open and shuffle to his room. My chirpy energizer bunny will be standing up in his cot, and he'd greet his half-asleep mummy with the broadest grin. He'd twist and turn as I try to clean his butt as part of his early morning aerobics routine. I'll be fully awake after his shenanigans.

Then he poops before lunch, sometimes during lunch, after lunch, and before bed. I hope this is just a passing phase!