Reading story books out loud is daily routine for me. Many many times a day actually. From baby picture books naming colours and animals… to adventure stories on superheroes, Lego characters and Star Wars. I always aim to put my heart into each reading. Even if it’s simply a book about naming colours or animal sounds. But if it’s a book for slightly older children, I really like to get right into the story. Especially if it’s a good one. Here are four favourite children’s books of mine which I especially love. I often get a lump in my throat as I read them…. sometimes it even gets my tears going (if I happen to be feeling particularly emotional or wistful that day). **** Jonathan and Martha by Petr Horáček I’ll give it to you straight. This is actually a love story. And an incredibly sweet one at that. It’s about two lonely  worms named Jonathan and Martha who inadvertently met one day through their love of eating and eventually fell in love. Nathan enjoyed the story too as w...

Bizarre conversations that have been happening in our household lately… “NO Grace! You’d better stop that! I mean it! Or I’m going to get The Lobster!” “NO LOBSTER!!! NOOOO!!!” “Alright then!” “NO! I don’t like lobster. LOBSTER GONNA EAT MY EARS!!!” In case you’re trying to figure out what that is, it is a little purple lobster wind-up-toy. It was a present from my brother and sister-in-law for Grace at their wedding in Singapore . Supposedly as a thank you gift to her for being the flower girl . And probably something fun to keep her amused at the reception. When you wind it up, it makes a funny buzzing noise as it rolls across the table or floor. Unfortunately Grace found the toy lobster absolutely terrifying. She refused to touch it or let it get anywhere near her. I kept aside and forgot about it for a while. One afternoon a few weeks ago, Nathan came across it among a box of toys. I picked it up and wound it up just for a bit of fun. Grace went absolutely ballistic. ...

Do you remember performing in one of those obligatory kindergarten concerts as a child? I remember having to dress up in a super frilly dress, and having make-up on… very red lipstick and very pink cheeks. The performance itself was a blur which I barely can remember now. I was only four or five years old then. I do remember enjoying the feeling of having make-up on. It felt very grown-up. Hubby remembers his kindergarten concert. He told me he had to wear make-up too. He distinctly remembers the weird sticky feeling of having lipstick on, and walking around his lips pouted out the entire time because his lips felt so weird. The circle of life goes on, and now we’re back again at the scene of a kindergarten concert performance. Though this time it’s not us wearing the costumes and make-up. We are now the paparazzi parents in the audience with our eyes glued on the little orange-maned lion on the far right. Nathan distinctly requested a lion costume for his performance as they were...

Was looking through some photos today and just had to share these favourite photo moments of my kids with their uncles… “Only the BEST brothers get promoted to an UNCLE” ( Quote from here )   Reminded me of this very famous uncle from an old favourite sitcom…   ( Source )   Here are some interesting reads and fun links I thought were pretty cool…   Famous cast silhouettes quiz (how did you score?)   Reading these notes broke my heart.   The true gritty secret to success . This video clip blew my mind.   How cool are these convertible handbags ?   My four-year-old has a dark side .   And this deeply intriguing article about Alice in Wonderland and Imaginary Mathematics —-which I learnt was a real thing. It’s a little long but I think it is quite worth the read.

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...