(pardon the slacks gone askew.)
(hey btw, go google “askew” and see what happens to your screen. nice one, google people.)
(i love how parentheses interrupt me.)
(ok i’ll stop now.)

it’s said a headstand is the equivalent of a facial because it stimulates blood flow to the face, and prevents wrinkles.
me, i’m in it for the ‘happy hormones’.

well ok the egg’s supposed to be star-shaped, but because the egg we had was too small or maybe because i didn’t leave it in long enough in the fridge, it ended up looking more like a fat flower, but whatever! i was still fascinated by the fact that someone actually had the idea to invent such a thing.

had to restrain the kids from first, opening the mold too early, and then, from gobbling it all up. because they simply LOVE hard-boiled eggs, whatever the shape they come in.

the boy had brought back a whole bunch of longkang fishes from his school trip to the kids’ kampung some time back.

at least 95% got seasick on the way back / died of natural causes and went to fish heaven / refused to live without slimy longkang water / committed mass suicide as a revolt against poor living conditions / thought they were tributes in the Hunger Games. in very Capitol-like manner, we all had a morbid time watching and guessing how many would be dead by the end of the day. 2 eventually survived. i should have named them Peeta and Katniss. (no, do not call them PeeNiss.)

then the daddy indulged his children by buying a proper tank, an air pump, a vial of fish food AND 3 new colourful fishes from an actual pet shop. 1 of the longkang fish quickly went afloat. after some fishy observation, i concluded that the reason why the sole longkang survivor lived was because he was one aggressive fish – he promptly pecked at the new fishes to show that he’s the boss. oh the lessons we should learn from animals.

anyway, yeah. so we have fishes in a tank. all 4 are still, miraculously, alive.

(and this is actually a preamble to what’s happening on saturday…)

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he may not know or understand every word he comes across, but i’ll just have to trust that he’s absorbing whatever he does. as it is, his reading has improved, but spelling is still a painful thing… for me. (to keep coming up with ways to motivate him to “learn” those damned spelling lists.)

#brrr

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O_o

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“DADDY, can i do my homewooooork??”

what the…..

(i am ashamed to say, she has turned into an activity-slash-assessment-book fiend, despite my worst efforts. yes, i have turned to The Dark Side. in moments of weakness. at Popular bookstore, the axis of evil…)

we’ve completely run out of shelf-space, despite occasionally handing down books to their child care centre, and regularly discarding worn-out toys, and with his recently acquired pile of primary one school books and paraphernalia, we’re even more hard-pressed for storage space.

we seem to have little luck looking for the right bookshelf – many times our intention to shop for one was shelved (so to speak) due to circumstances; one time we managed to step into ikea tampines but the shelf we eventually decided on was sold out; and a few days ago we got round to the ikea at alexandra, finally purchased one to our satisfaction, but when we got home to assemble it, it couldn’t be fixed and the wood broke (we got a full refund).

it’s as if SOMETHING is conspiring to prevent us from getting a new shelf in his room… or perhaps, just one from ikea?? i don’t know. (we could be reading too much into it.)

meanwhile, our furniture woes continue.

hmm.

“Facebook.. it’s like, a place on the internet – you know, internet? on the computer? – you can tell people what you are doing, where you are, put up pictures to show your friends… Daddy has a Facebook. Aunty Nur has one too.”

“wah, Daddy also got? some more, who else? you got also?”

“i used to have one, but i closed it down.”

“why??”

hmm.

“because i didn’t like it, so i closed it down. why, you want a Facebook? but your friends must also be on it, then you can add them. your friends have or not?”

“have! i think they have! I want, I want also!” [i seriously doubt they do.]

“you sure? then you must know how to spell, you know. but who told you about Facebook? your teacher, is it?”

“nooo. i saw, you know, that one… the man, the *PRESIDENT*, that one, came to our school… then we take picture with him… i saw, he say ‘join me on Facebook’….”

“OHHH, that one not *PRESIDENT* lah! that’s our MP! Mr B/a/e/y! Hahahahahaaahahaha”

(well, at least we know he attempts to read what he sees in his surroundings.)

speaking of which, come, guess who else has a FB account?

our domestic helper.

!!!

she’d acquired a mobile in secret, we discovered it, and decided to give concession for use only on weekends. during one of her (naive/foolish?) over-enthusiastic ‘sharing of information’ about other maids, she SHOWED mum their FB pages from her mobile, and also revealed how she found her old boyfriend’s Facebook, leaving him a message, etc.

!!!

i mean, i know FB has become so ubiquitous and universal, any literate person with net access can easily open up an account and start sharing, expressing, interacting, trolling. and it really shouldn’t surprise me that our domestic workers too have jumped on the social network bandwagon.

and yet, i still find it… kinda disturbing. my domestic employee, active on FB. sure, it’s somewhat an accepted norm now for any employee, especially those in an office, to access FB in the course of their work day. so how is it different for maids? how exactly does it cross the line? should i stop her, would it be hypocritical of me?

anyway, i’m letting it go. for now. i can’t justify why she shouldn’t have a social life, albeit a virtual one, while under my employment.

perhaps I should even warn her how social networks can be scarily addictive and detrimental to one’s health and well-being.

or maybe I should just tell it to aniq. and hopefully quell his curiosity all together. (and that’s another issue to ponder – young children on FB: yes/no? i bet you can guess my answer to that…)

a father and his children and their dog go on an impromptu adventure to hunt for a bear, overcoming obstacles of nature in the form of swishy grass, sploshy river, squelchy mud, stumbly forest, and swirly snowstorm (gotta love alliterations!). they find that they can’t go over or under these obstacles – rather, they have to go through them, battling their discomforts and fear, all in the name of thrill and adventure. they end up in a cave by the sea, where they do eventually come face to face with… well, a bear. which makes them all helter-skelter trace their route home (and here’s where the kids put their memory skills to use), the bear close on their heels. and they resolve, all huddled together under the bed covers, never to go on a bear hunt again, however exhilarating the experience was.

i like how naturally playful the children are portrayed, and the subtle ways they look out for one another; the older siblings taking turns to carry the baby, the older sister helping her younger sister put on her muddy shoes, the baby reaching out his hand to his older brother and dog as they cross the river.

and i know the bear’s made the villain in the story, having chased the family all the way home and seemingly trying to paw his way through their front door. but i prefer to interpret the bear, shoulders slumped, trudging back to his gloomy cave all alone, as somewhat… despondent. sad, because all he wanted was to be part of the family.

BUT THAT’S JUST ME BEING EMO.

as for auni, well, the repetition of these catchy, sing-song lines won her over, obviously.

and hey whaddaya know, a stage adaptation of this book is coming to town in jan/feb next year, and if you have funds to spare, sistic is selling the tickets. (though, as what i mentioned on twitter, it’ll probably cost me less to go on an actual bear hunt than buying tickets for the family to go to the thea-tuh, sigh.)

so with all the hari raya preps and excitement, i forgot our 8th anniversary (!!) yesterday, which was hari raya itself, BUT i did remember his birthday today.

and i sacrificed one entire nutella roll aka kek tapak kuda to celebrate it. see what a good wife i am??

ok, so i made up for it with a proper dinner at a nice place. i swear, i did! (aptly enough, at aquamarine @ marina mandarin. talk about themes, right?)

oh, by the way, right after daddy’s song was sung, candles blown, and cake eaten, auni had to ask the question on every 3yo’s mind with regard to birthdays: “DADDY! where is your goody bag??”

happy 34th birthday, daddy. enjoy getting your own birthday present at the Comex tomorrow.

and DON’T FORGET YOUR GOODY BAGS, ha ha ha hahaa.