Sai Pi turns three

We were planning to have a birthday party for Sai Pi but cancelled the plans when she fell ill earlier in the week. It was to have been a fairy party where the girls and their cousins would make their own tiaras and wands (see picture of Sai Pi with her home made tiara and wand). It was a blessing in disguise because I was so busy last week I wouldn't have had time to prepare for the party. Instead we celebrated her birthday with lunch at Spaghetti's and a birthday cake at home. Happy Birthday Sai Pi!

My hidden talent

Having children is the perfect excuse to be a kid again. And with that, I am indulging in something I used to do when I was little up till my late teens or maybe even older than that. I call it my hidden talent because it's something I'm good at but have always been quite embarassed about and I'm not sure even my closest friends know about this habit of mine. I'm talking about playing with stuffed toys.

I didn't just move them about, I gave them elaborate personalities and did voice-overs so real, the toys really seemed alive. There was Bowwow Bowzer Darling - only one to call Sis "Mummy", spoilt brat, liked to throw tantrums stopping only when given a potato chip, had a bank account with $1 in it, had a best friend called Fatty Chong Ah Boon. And my favourite - Wally, a little white bear in a clown outfit, very senstive and in touch with his feminine side, Sis's fashion consultant. There was also this other white bear who told the same joke over and over - "Are you hungry?" "No, I'm stuffed. Ha ha..".

Sis was my partner in crime. She did not animate the toys at all but she had a big part to play - the toys were alive only because she believed in them. At times she would tire of this childish nonsense and wanted out, and the toys would "die". Guilt ridden and perhaps missing the fashion advice from Wally, she would return to our make-believe world and all would be well again.

It wasn't easy having to animate so many stuffed toys. After the 20th one, you kinda run out of voices and personalities. And I didn't just animate our stuffed toys, even the bolsters were not spared - PoPo, PiPi and BoBo but they had very little personality those bolsters. The pillows were lucky to get away.

Lest you think I'm completely insane, I don't just animate any stuffed toy. I adhere to the Golden Rule of Stuffed Toy Animation. Look at the stuffed toys below. Two of them can be animated while the other two are inherently inanimate and you should not try to animate them. Figured it out yet? It's in the EYES!






*** Golden Rule of Stuffed Toy Animation: Animate only stuffed toys whose eyes comprise of only pupil and no eye white. Stuffed toys with eye white are completely lifeless and no amount of effort would bring them alive. ****

Some years ago, I saw an ad for a character voice-over artist for Disney Channel and I was quite excited until I saw that they were looking for someone with a Caucasian accent. Being the self-respecting Singaporean that I am, I don't put on a fake foreign accent; I speak proper Singaporean English ala Tommy Koh and Chan Heng Chee (well I try). Want me to talk like Ang Mo...? Cannot lah!

Kids say the darnest things

Last Saturday, I flew to KL for work. When I got home that night, Tai Pi showed me a story she had written for me. It was titled "Mummy the Exsporer". She wrote "One Saturday morning, Mummy was on a field trip to Kl. Mummy had to take an aroplane, because she could not drive a car. So she had to take an aroplane." Well, she is right... I don't have a driver's license.

My 3-year-old niece gave this valuable advice to her newly licensed-to-drive Mummy - "do not drive into another car." Kids really do say the darnest things!

Five Million Dollar Dream

I had it all planned out. I would share my fortune with my family, donate generously to charity and keep the rest in the bank to generate income and then quit my job and become a volunteer charity worker (so noble hor). But alas, it was not to be...

I pooled with a colleague to buy $104 worth of Toto tickets hoping to win the Hong Pao Draw top prize of $10 million. We did all we could to make it happen, like getting a lion to dance in my colleague's office and believing with all our heart that it was our destiny to win. Wasn't there this thing about if you believe hard enough your dreams would come true? Well, whoever said that never bought Toto! So here I am, my millionaire dreams shattered - instead of being $5 million richer, I am now $52 poorer.... *sigh*

Versatile fashion

I am very pleased with a couple of skirts we bought for Tai Pi and Pumpkin for the Chinese New Year. The girls love long skirts that they can twirl about in so we got them these long flared skirts from Zara. Later I realised that the skirts could also be worn as dresses which is great because each skirt cost more than $60 so I want to get as much mileage out of them as possible. And they come with elasticised waists and are so long the girls have to wear them above the waist which means they will be able to wear them for some years.... that is if they don't fall apart by then; already one half of the drawstring on one of the skirts came off and the elastic on the other is coming loose at some parts. Pity about the quality.

A different Chinese New Year's Day

Over the years, we seem to have fewer and fewer people to visit during Chinese New Year. It was like that yesterday, so we had time to do something we had mentioned before to the girls. We finally went on a cable car ride! Auntie V from France was here for a visit so it was just the right time to be doing something touristy.

I can't remember when I last stepped foot on Mt Faber but the place has undergone an amazing transformation. The souvenir shop sells beautiful stuff instead of your standard cheesy Merlion knick knacks (see pic of Pumpkin at the shop) and the washrooms are so stunning, there were tourists taking pictures there.

Being the typical Singaporeans, we didn't spend any money at the souvenir shop, only on the main event - the cable car ride. KK and I have a fear of heights so when the cable car left the tower, we were feeling pretty nervous; I didn't dare look around or even move an inch at the start; fortunately we did not get one of those transparent floor type of cars. But the girls were totally fearless and were thrilled with the ride from start to finish. You could say we started the new year on a high note!

Hairy hair accessories

The parcel arrived one morning and the girls tore at it and finally got it opened. They stared at the contents... what in the world...? Now the girls are very familiar with hair accessories - clips, clasps, pins, bands, you name it. But these... they had never seen anything like these! I guess the best way to describe them is that they are a hybrid of hair elastic and hair extension. They are made in Thailand but clearly for the Singapore market, because they are kiasu hair accessories - elastic band with furry bits and feathers and bead-decorated long braided hair attached. Once the girls figured out what Kong Kong and Mama no.2 had sent them, they had a blast with the hairy hair accessories. Don't they look smashing?

Little Miss Entrepreneur

I used to get them for free but now I have to buy them. While she was staying home with chicken pox, Tai Pi's thoughts somehow turned to making money and she rang me up at the office and told me she wanted to sell her drawings "downstairs" which means the condo grounds. I didn't have the heart to tell her that the people here wouldn't want to buy her drawings so I told her that maybe she should first sell them to Mummy and Daddy. When we got home, there it was - her gallery, with her drawings nicely laid out and their prices, 50 cents, 80 cents, $1 and even $5, clearly written. KK and I bought some of the cheaper drawings (there was no correlation between the aesthetic value and price of the drawings) and Tai Pi happily put her earnings away in her piggy bank. She even sold a drawing to the next door neighbour for $1. Here is what a typical Tai Pi art piece looks like. This one is a drawing of grandma cooking in the kitchen. This morning, the girls did some painting. Here are a couple of Sai Pi's paintings. I think they are pretty good for a two-year-old...might be able to sell for a dollar or two...

Our favourite stories

A few weeks ago, I found this book at Borders which I read when I was a child - The Five Chinese Brothers. It is exactly the same as I remember it. I loved this book and now the girls can enjoy it too. It is based on the classic Chinese tale of the, I think it is 10 brothers but here it is just 5. I love the illustration, especially the part where the first brother holds the sea in his mouth while desperately trying to get the naughty boy to come back to shore. It is hilarious!

When I buy books for the girls, I like to get them funny stories. We have a good laugh and I think these funny stories are somehow more imaginative. Some of our favourite funny stories are "Not Now, Bernard" and "The Hill and The Rock" both by David McKee, Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola, and there's "Bad Bad Barney Bear" by Tony Ross which is the funniest children's story I've ever read. I like to think that these stories help the girls develop a good sense of humour.


Talk about imaginative tales, nothing beats Hayao Miyazaki's films. He is one of greatest animators and film directors ever. His stories and characters are very compelling and full of imagination. He is a true genius. We have a whole collection of his films which we have not finished watching. My favourite is My Neighbour Totoro which does have much of a plot but is very captivating and we have the Mandarin version to give the girls more exposure to Mandarin. The girls' current fave Miyazaki film is The Castle of Cagliostro. I've not watched it yet so I think we'll put it on this afternoon... another wet day with nothing much to do....

Not so good first week

Our new year could have had a better start. First I came down with flu after we got back from KL and then towards the end of the week, so did Sai Pi (and she only just started Nursery this week). But worst of all, Tai Pi has Chicken Pox! We quickly got Pumpkin vaccinated against Chicken Pox but it might be too late, we can't tell yet. Sai Pi could not have the vaccination as she was running a temperature. So now we can only wait and see if Pumpkin and Sai Pi will develop Chicken Pox. Tai Pi is coping well. I hope it runs its course quickly. Already, she will miss her first Tae Kwon Do grading which is scheduled for tomorrow. Now she'll have to wait till April for the next grading exercise.

KL Trip

We got back from our KL trip day before yesterday. It was a kids' holiday and an adults' holiday - the kids had fun with their friends while the adults had their own fun (well at least the women did, with all that shopping!).

We stayed at Berjaya Times Square Hotel which is part of this huge development with a big shopping mall (a lot of vacant shops and low traffic - not a very successful mall) and a theme park. The theme park is what makes KL a good family holiday destination, nothing else really. The theme park is very well maintained and has a section for younger children. And it is an indoor park which is good because there is no worry about rain or hot weather; why don't we have an indoor theme park in Singapre? The kids especially love the bumper cars and went on them over and over again. After they have their fun, we leave them in the hotel room with the maids to have a take-away dinner (burgers, pizza, etc) and to watch VCDs. See pic of them glued to the TV.

While the kids are kept amused in the hotel room, the adults go out for a sumptuous meal. We also went for a foot massage and tried ear candling. See pic of me with a burning candle stuck into my ear. There is this street which is just packed with foot massage centers that stay open till way past midnight; I suppose to cater to tourists. We should have establishments that open this late in Singapore; shops in Singapore close too early, so boring. On New Year's Eve, we left the kids in the room with lots of junk food and balloons and they had their own "children's party". They've been to so many parties, they were able to organise their own party games. I'm glad the kids are so independent; it makes life that much easier for us. See pic of the kids with the balloons we bought from a roadside vendor at the New Year's Eve price of RM35 for 9 balloons.

Christmas fun

This has been the most stressful Christmas for me! Because of the unusually heavy workload (for this time of the year), I wasn't able to take leave on some days that I was supposed to be on leave and as a result had less time to do my Christmas shopping. And of course I just had to volunteer to bring a pinata to the Christmas party and so I spent Christmas Eve working on a pinata with the girls while KK wrapped the presents.

I am most pleased with my pinata making skills. We managed to make something that looked like a Christmas tree. But unfortunately, when it was whacked by the kids, it tore at the top end instead of the mid section or bottom end. But I'll work on that...

Anyway, yesterday's Christmas party with the usual gang was fun. The kids whacked at the pinata, played Twister (see picture of Tai Pi and the boys all twisted) and unwrapped their presents. Tai Pi was a little disappointed that she got clothes and more clothes. And poor Pumpkin developed fever during the party and missed out on the pinata fun as she was taking a nap. She asked about the pinata after she woke up and I had to break the news to her that she missed it. Poor thing.

And see Pumpkin's new hairdo. She wanted to have her hair short and so we had it cut on Christmas Eve. I was afraid she wouldn't look good with short hair but she still looks as adorable as ever!

Tai Pi learns a lesson or two

Lesson #1
The Saturday after Tai Pi made her first $10, she went to work again, eager to make another $10. When we went to pick her up in the evening, she appeared gloomy and we found out from the Lau Ban Niang that Tai Pi and her friends (Lau Ban's children) were at one part of the afternoon, playing more than they were working. And so they got a scolding from the Lau Ban Niang and Tai Pi was paid only $8 for her day's labour. She's lucky to get $8; the Lau Ban's children got zilch. Let's hope Tai Pi learns from this experience that if you are going to monkey around, you'll be paid peanuts....

Lesson #2
Last Wednesday, Tai Pi committed the cardinal sin of writing on my luxury Italian designer sofa with a marker... and this was not the first time. I couldn't be more mad and was screaming my head off at her. Why did she do that? As she said, she "wasn't thinking". To give her a taste of her own medicine, I forced her to write her name (that's what she wrote on the sofa) on her favourite stuff toy - a most adorable little green thing with an oversized head and a little leaf coming out of its head. She cried her heart out as she wrote her name on the toy. I was upset too as I also love that cute little thing. But sometimes, the only way to teach someone a lesson is to do it the hard way. I asked Tai Pi how it felt to have her favourite possession dirtied like that and she said she felt sad and I explained to her that that's how I feel when she dirties my sofa. Fortunately the marker was not a strong one and we were able to wash off the markings from the sofa and the stuff toy. Only time will tell if Tai Pi remembers this lesson.

Tai Pi goes to work

We always felt that the girls could do with a better sense of the value of money. So when the chance for Tai Pi to work at a friend's office presented itself, we asked her to go for it. She didn't need much persuading; the $10 a day pay was enough to entice her. So last Thursday, she spent the day sticking on barcodes and attaching hair elastic to cardboard pieces. But it was not all work. She and her fellow worker (Boss' son) had lunch at McDonald's and also played hide and seek at the office. At the end of the day, she was rewarded with her first pay. See picture of Tai Pi with her hard earned money.

Tai Pi was eager to make some more money and so this morning we sent her to work again. When I spoke to her on the phone this afternoon, she was complaining that her fellow workers (Boss' sons) were teasing her. Well, when she grows up, she'll probably encounter difficult colleagues so might as well learn to deal with it now....

All together now - Heeyah!

Yesterday, after a week of psycho-ing, Punpkin was eager to give Tae Kwon Do a try. She enjoyed it very much and now the 2 girls together with their friends will spend their Sunday mornings kicking and punching and shouting "heeyah!'. Pumpkin needs to work on her high kicks (she fell on her bum while trying to execute a kick) but her "heeyah" is easily the loudest in the class.

The girls and I have started playing a new game - a frog hunt, where I hide 12 little frogs and they have to go look for them using a list of clues. Tai Pi enjoys it very much and makes us play over and over again.

And a new game I've been playing which gave the girls the creeps at first is this online game where you are trapped in a room and you try to get out with the help of a series of clues. I still have not figured it out. Give it a go and if you do manage to crack it, drop me a hint. Try the game "Crimson Room" at http://www.fasco-csc.com/index_e.html

Tai Pi signs up for Tae Kwon Do

This morning, we went for a trial Tae Kwon Do session at a Tae Kwon Do school located in town. Tai Pi enjoyed herself so much, we couldn't not sign her up and so we did. And she was really thrilled with the uniform too. See how smart she and her friends look! Pumpkin was supposed to give it a go too but didn't feel up to it, maybe because of her neck strain; she hurt her neck maybe from watching too much TV while lying in bed - there's tennis elbow but this is the first time I've come across couch potato neck!

The verdict is out

Last Wednesday, Tai Pi brought home her report book. She scored 87% for English and Chinese and 77% for math. There was no indication of class or cohort ranking so it's hard to say where she stands relative to the rest but I suppose it is average which is good enough. She got an "excellent" for her conduct and "A" for non-examinable subjects such as PE, art, etc, except for a "B" in music. Tai Pi is very pleased with her results and so am I!

Pumpkin in concert

One week after Tai Pi's concert, it was Pumpkin's turn. Unfortunately, I was not there as I had a course to attend. But KK taped it down for my viewing pleasure.

Pumpkin put on a fantastic performance and looked like she was thoroughly enjoying herslf. And even when she slipped and almost fell at one point, she was totally unfazed and continued like a pro!

Tai Pi was busy serving refreshments to the guests. See pic of her with her good friend and two big piles of curry puffs.

Our first post-exam weekend

Oh it feels great not having to do any revision, any coaching! Last Saturday, we made our second pinata - a colourful bird. We'll have a whack at it once we get the goodies to fill it up with.

And yesterday, Tai Pi and I attended a jewellery making class at the clubhouse. I made a ring and a pair of earrings while Tai Pi made herself a ring. Tai Pi wants to be a jewellery designer when she grows up. Two of her close girlfriends have already said they would help out in her store.

We also visited a children's fair at the Singapore Expo yesterday. Popular Bookstore was there but I was able to steer myself away from their assessment books and moved over to the more interesting booths. We signed up Tai Pi and Pumpkin for a trial Tae Kwon Do session this coming Sunday. The girls also tried their hand at archery. To think that in the old days, the kind of sports we indulged in was table tennis on a coffee table with cassette tape boxes for a net!

Speech & Drama Concert

Yesterday we attended the much awaited Speech & Drama Concert put up by the Primary 1 children at Tai Pi's school. Tai Pi was in this number about animals in the zoo. She was placed in the front centre because, as she says, she could sing loudly and clearly. And really, even with some 60 kids on stage, I could hear her voice.

The performances were pretty good and of course the audience, comprising the parents, were supportive, but the funny thing was, you couldn't hear very much applause. Why? Because all the doting parents had their hands occupied with various recording equipment - still cameras, video cameras, handphone cameras!