I used to wonder how I would survive parenting when the children eventually all drop their naps. I expected the days to drag on miserably and leave me begging for bedtime to arrive sooner. Surprisingly this new phase of parenthood has blossomed out beautifully. On most weekdays, four-year-old Nathan goes to school. Which he absolutely looks forward to each day. While at home, two-year old Grace still naps for a good solid two hours. You get the best of both worlds with two-year-olds as they need a nap on most days, but can also stretch and skip a nap every now and then. On weekends, we sleep in and have a slow leisurely breakfast. And then we might head out to run errands or get groceries. Maybe round things off with a late lunch or afternoon tea. With Nathan lo longer needing naps and Grace being able to skip a nap sometimes, we can stretch the day longer as we no longer need to rush back for naps or time our activities around naptimes. On afternoons when we stay at home, we esta...

I haven’t shared a ‘ play ’ post for while here. But make no mistake that our days have been packed to the brim with play. We make it our everyday business around here. Here’s one of our favourite books we’re currently reading: Walter the Baker by Eric Carle (who also wrote the very popular children’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillar which I mentioned in this play post ) It’s a fun and engaging story about the invention of the pretzel. Not a historical true account of events. It was simply retelling of a familiar tale the author heard as a child. And the main lesson of the story I believe was about persevering through challenges. Even seemingly impossible ones. In the story, to avoid banishment our dear baker, Walter had to… “Invent a roll through which the rising sun can shine three times It must be made from one piece of dough and most of all, it must taste good!” After working all day and into the night, dear Walter finally did it (with some support from his loving family...

There are a few places from my childhood that still hold a special place in my heart. I call them the playgrounds of my childhood. These are the places that hold some of the happiest moments that still shine crystal clear in my memory to this day. For years I’ve been wanting to make a return trip to this particular childhood playground… Manukan Island . I still remember the very first time I stepped foot on that island with my family. I really believed I had stepped onto the most beautiful place on earth. **** I remember I walking along the newly constructed jetty for the very first time. I could still smell the lacquer on the dark wooden beams. I remember gazing in wonder at the crystal clear water below us. I could see right through to the coral reefs and the myriads of rainbow hued parrot fish, clownfish, butterfly fish, angelfish. I even saw numerous starfish and sea cucumbers lying on sand right at the bottom of the seabed. The white sand on the beach looked so clean and fre...

So earlier this month, my youngest brother finally tied the knot. And after ten years, we finally took a sibling group photo together (the last time being at my own wedding). NB: The long interval between my wedding and his is not in any way an indication of how old I am. It’s more likely an indication of how young I was when I walked down the aisle. Or maybe more likely an indication of how OLD my brother is at his wedding. It’s a big thing trying to wrap my head around the fact that my youngest brother is now married. In the same way I felt at my other brother’s wedding , I am faced with yet another new dimension of this person I’ve known almost all my life I now have to reconcile with. I still have the clearest images in my mind of him as a chubby, dimpled, bright-eyed little baby. I relished my big sister role with a baby brother to ‘mother’. I remember running after him, bowl and spoon in hand. feeding him rice porridge… reading story books out loud to him… trying to lift hi...

Apologies for the slightly later than usual post this week peeps, I still have a couple of posts on our holiday in Kota Kinabalu and my brother’s wedding in draft mode. Which I’m working on in between the other times I’m supposed to be spending on my Early Childhood Education assignment. For now, allow me to torture some of you with images of this majestic fruit. I think we kind of overpaid for a taste of these (RM50 per kg). But we were told that it was still quite early in the season. So it was unlikely we would be able to find a better price anywhere during our trip in Sabah. We didn’t know when we might have chance to taste fresh Musang King durians straight out of the fruit again. So we bit the bullet and just went for it. Incidentally, this was Grace’s first ever taste of durian . Her reaction was somewhat underwhelming actually. Just kind of like “ Hmmm… Oh. Okay. Food. Eat. ” Then she proceeded to chomp it down as usual. Just as she would with any other food. I gues...

So our dearest Gracie hit the big two ten days ago. It feels like she has been at the two-year mark for ages though with her hitting all the key milestones at an earlier stage . I suppose it comes from having an awesome big brother to look up to and wanting to keep up with him and all her adopted family day care big brothers and sisters she sees every day. She still comes in an adorable two-year-old packaging. Coupled with her funny attempts at sophistication, it makes an irresistibly adorable combo. For example, she likes to mimic forms of adult conversation and start off random sentences with big sounding words such as “Actually…” or “Sometimes…” in a very sophisticated, matter-of-fact tone. The actual content that follows gets a bit hazy after that first big word. Like today she said to me very importantly: “Mummy, you know… SOMETIMES… (important pause)… row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream… Okay? Yah?” She can get a tad bossy with other children sometimes. Even w...

In case you’ve been wondering where I disappeared to. Our family had headed back to Kota Kinabalu for my youngest brother’s wedding. Yes, I know I was just away for my other brother’s wedding a couple of months ago. These are the only two brothers I have. So I think our family is done with the weddings for a long while at least. I have beautiful bunch of photos to share once I’m done sorting through them and doing the edits and whatnot. But in the meantime, I want to share this absolutely heart-melting moment with you involving these two bestest buddies in the world. On the morning before our flight out to Kota Kinabalu, I was bustling about with the final packing and getting everyone ready. As I was picking up Grace out of her cot, I grabbed her pacifier-monkey-lovey as well to make sure I didn’t forget to pack it. Nathan was by my side, waiting to give his good-morning cuddle to his little sister. when he noticed something. “Mummy, why Grace doesn’t have anything in her cot?” N...

I stumbled across this old snapshot of Nathan at one-and-a-half years old …. Compare that with this snapshot of him at four-and-a-half years old… I spent one lazy Sunday afternoon just hanging out with Nathan, watching him play and listening to his numerous made up stories about his Lego characters and action figure toys. He doesn’t have many action figures, but the ones he has, he treasures them immensely. The Spiderman and Soundwave Transformer are hand-me-down toys from hubby’s childhood days. The small Bumblebee Transformer is a souvenir given by his grandpa from Universal Studios Singapore. And the grey robot is a McDonalds Happy Meal toy which he named ‘Kudor’. It was great fun getting acquainted with a few of the many characters in Nathan’s imaginary world and getting caught up in the suspense and action as I listened to story after story unfold in his own words. “Don’t ask him to live in your world… Visit his world instead” ( source )

{A special post in support of the heroic mountain guides who lost their lives in the recent Sabah earthquake tragedy} It was nearly fifteen years ago. My first and only climb up the iconic Mount Kinabalu of my homeland, Sabah. Climbing up an endless stairway upwards. Step, after step, after step… “How much longer?” we ask our guide. “Not long, just a little more”. The same patient answer every time. The question was a pointless one I suppose. It didn’t matter how much longer it was. I still had to keep walking. The next morning at we were roused before dawn to continue the final painful ascent up the mountain. It was dark and cold and damp as we trekked up the rocky incline. Why did I ever decide to do this? My muscles were burning. My lungs were on fire. I couldn’t think of anything else except… “I can’t do this any more”. The distance to the peak was just about 50 metres away. But I simply sank down on the ground and refused to move. If I took one more step, I ...

On the other end of the spectrum (next to his little sister’s fixation on all things practical and tangible) is my imaginative four year old with his whimsical and sometimes offbeat ideas… “Mummy, when I grow up, I want to be a knight. I will ride on a horse and have a sword. I will wear a black helmet with a red feather. I will fight dragons and bad people. Grace can be the princess. And I can also be the prince so we can get married.” ***** “Mummy, you know what? I wish our blue car can drive by itself. So daddy will sit in front, but the wheels will turn by itself and the car will go on its own. And our grey car too! And I can sit in front and the car will drive by itself. That will be nice.” ***** “Mummy, I was thinking about something… that our family can all be like superheroes. Daddy can be Batman. I will be Superman with a blue cape. You can be Batgirl. Grace can be a Superman but a girl Superman… Oh I know! A Supergirl. Daddy and you will drive a Batmobile. I will driv...