okaaay, i’m sure girls are too. heehee. :p

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CHAK!

i alarmed my Nanny when she released me at the playground the other day. she’d never seen me go down the slides or run across the rickety bridge all by myself before. huh, serves her right for not bringing me to the playground more often.

but i guess that’s coz most of the day she’s not my Nanny. by the time she comes home in the evening from her other job to be my Nanny, it’s too dark to go to the playground.

there! the playground’s THERE, i say! now stop taking pictures and take us there, you lousy nanny you…

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do you spy with your eye a boy with three chords and the truth?

come up the bus with us!

(and the real message, for the record, is here.)

*************

oh, i should also mention the craaaazy thing we did afterwards.

attempt to buy groceries at the Giant across the road!

it was a Gigantic mistake, to say the least.

the crowd was Gigantically impossible, but the worst thing wasn’t that.

it was the sight of sinjaporeans FEASTING on the fruits and other perishable goods that were in the open, making the whole place a freaking buffet line! they swarmed around the 49cts/100gm roasted chestnuts and blatantly stood there, peeling off the chestnuts and had a heck of a Gigantic time eating them! a few steps ahead, another group swarmed around the oranges, peeling off the skin and munching away!

i stood with my jaws open and stared at the sight of these vultures.

why stop there? go ahead, bite into the apples! dig into the ice-cream! open up a few cans of coke while you’re at it!

needless to say, we left feeling rather disgusted (yet somewhat bemused).

… and headed to parkway’s Giant where the air was fresher and the people more civilised.

tsk.

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while many would shudder at the thought of massive crowds, i’ve never really minded them, so braving orchard on saturday to watch The Parade was not such a big deal.

it was the first time i’d even been to one of these things, having always shunned the live tv version each year. i’d always associated it with chingchong-fied cheesiness, creepy big-headed figures, and.. it’s just not very cool, is it? :p

so what triggered me to do what i’d never bothered with before, then?

well, the thought of being stuck at home with an (over?) active child over the weekend is a big factor! (plus, when you’re a parent, uncoolness sometimes gets thrown out of the window.)

staying home drives me up the wall, and i’ve clearly transferred my kaki-jalan bug to the little one. just mention the word ‘nak jalan’ and he’d toddle, in nothing but his diapers, to the door, sit down, attempt to put on his shoes/sandals, and make a big fuss.

and you know just how tiny singapore is, there’s hardly anywhere exciting to go to. i’m always cracking my head thinking up of things to do to jam-pack our weekends and holidays. and with his love for all things visually and aurally stimulating, the parade would be perfect entertainment for him.

i didn’t know we had to pay to get seated (i didn’t know you could even have seats, i always thought people just stood around, but singapore being the ever orderly country, you gotta have barricades and proper seating arrangements huh), and thankfully, a friend offered a pair of free tickets.

so, apa lagi!

the parade

“when I was a young boy,
my father took me into the city
to see a marching band…“

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ok, so this isn’t as romantic as that john legend song, you know, the one about kissing underneath the stars and not caring about going too far in public, etc. (seriously, where got time to be romantic nowadays?? ceh.)

…

so, every place we go to now has to fulfil a certain criteria.

the first question we’ll invariably ask is: “is it family-friendly?”

whenever we go to restaurants and other eateries, the first thing we look for are high chairs for The Royal Highness. if they do not furnish us with one, we’d scoff at them with a “huh! so un-family-friendly!” rant and turn away with our noses in the air. (hey, if simpang bedok/hawa restaurant/et al have them, you air-conditioned food courts should jolly well have them too.)

shopping malls are judged by whether they have nursing or diaper-changing rooms. if they make us go through an entire maze of escalators and fire escape routes without finding even a broom closet with a handwritten cardboard sign that says “Baby Room”, we’d throw our hands up in the air in exasperation and nevermore swipe our visa/master/nets cards there again.

anyway, back to the park.

it can’t get any more family-friendly than this.

(well, in the day-time, anyway. come night-time, i’m sure other kinds of ‘family-making activities’ take place… *cue that john legend song*)

wide open space, green grass, blue sky, balls, bicycles, and best of all… horseys and ponies! wahhh… (yes, i AM very jakun like that. lol)

you know, i don’t think i did or went out much as a child. my parents aren’t exactly the outdoors sort, and i didn’t have anyone to run around with. (which probably explains my aversion to P.E and ECAs that required any outdoor activities.) i don’t even remember what toys i had, except girly ones like strawberry shortcake or barbie. i tried asking mum at what age i did what, but she didn’t exactly have a blog or a digital camera or anything back then. :p

so, yeah, i really don’t remember much about my childhood. all those stories other people have about climbing trees, catching spiders, playing chapteh, sound like cliched fairytales to me.

nevermind playgrounds, i was terrified of sliding down the pole, and disgusted by the sand which smelled of cat’s pee.

cycling? can’t!

throw me a ball? i’ll duck!

and you know that game you used to play during recess, where you jump over a string of rubber bands (see, i can’t even remember what it’s called), forgeddit! i was hopeless, and it didn’t help that i was the size of a hobbit child.

my gross motor skills, as you can tell, are almost zero.

but looking at the little boy, i’m amazed. i’m not sure, though, if i should be too smug at the rate they’re developing. i heard something about kids who start walking at an early age being more stubborn or headstrong or belligerent or… something when they’re older. i don’t know. (in any case, i think any stubborn streak should come from me, his motor-challenged mother.)

nevermind. let me be amazed now (“you mean one-year-olds can do THAT??”) and worry later.

i just hope one day he’ll look back and remember the fabulous times he had as a child.

and i’ll look back and remember the fabulous times i had with him.

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this little waterboy of ours.

seeing this picture conjures the image of how his head must’ve looked like to the doctor, the nurses and the daddy when he first made his crowning appearance out of me. a big, wet, round head. how that ever came out of me is still an unfathomable mystery.

as i was uploading my ‘unnamed’ blog archives, i came across how he’d loved being bathed and splashing around in the tub right from the beginning when he was merely a few days old.

and not to mention how he made all those incredible ‘waves’ while he was still floating about in my waterbag.

so yeah, back to the present day. we’d planned this sentosa trip waaaay back, but never thought how exceedingly crowded it’d be on a public holiday. yikes.

in any case, the water bambinos had a whale of a time getting wet in the waters. (while we adults, well, were not too thrilled with the wet weather.)

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the weather was perfect for a little splash.

and it was a perfect day for a little meet-up with some hunks and babes.

dan sementara mereka-mereka sibuk ber-gong xi fa cai, kami pula berkongsi gambar di multiply…

hope you guys make damn good use of the nice long PH.

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the latest movie to hit the screens this holiday season – ‘Sleeping Beauty and the Beastie Boy’.

starring an oscar-award winning actress in a role as a princess confined on top of a castle tower in paris, banished to sleep while waiting for a knight in shining armour to give her the kiss of life.

check-ch-check-check-check-ch-check it out…

so the knight wore Gap and kissed everyone, including the princess’ mother, uncles, grandmother… and oh, her (evil?) stepmother, who is also an award-winning actress for an unforgettable role as a nenek tua in a comedy series/drama.

watch it in theatres now!

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boleh tak? macam cool gitu lah, duduk kat atas stage.

….

now let’s see.

one seat for nunu, one seat for sharleez…

hey, not enough chairs leh!

how liddat??

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fun fun fun!

you gotta love parties, even if they’re for the kiddies.

he sure as heck does.

though he was more occupied with the entertainment than the food and games. (bah, those are for kiddies…)

more…

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ole!

yep, it was my first trip to the stadium to watch a football match.

it was red team versus blue team.

i was a little confused. see, i was wearing red, so i thought i was supposed to root for the red team. but everyone in red around me kept booing at the red team and scolding them with funny-sounding words like *beep* and *beep*. (eh, how come they come out as “*beep*” ah? got censor ah this blog?)

go red team go!

anyway, i made a lot of new friends there. the indian men sitting in front of us were quite funny and i poked their shoulders a few times to tell them so. they whistled very loudly and jiggled their butts and waved their hands in the air everytime something exciting happened in the field. i believe they were doing what is known as the bhangra. and i dunno why but unkle shukor kept calling me “ah-neh”. it’s ah-neek lah, unkle! hmph.

then there were the nice ladies sitting behind us. one of them even gave me a chicken nugget. then they carried me here there and everywhere. i was hoping i’d get passed along the whole stadium together with the kallang wave, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen. but mummy was more than happy to have her hands free for a while anyway.

oh, speaking of mummy, it was also her first trip to the stadium! my goodness, mum, you’ve never been to one of these in all your twenty-nine years of life? so deprived you are. luckily you managed to fish out that red adidas tee from your wardrobe that you’ve never worn before.

nevermind lah. you stick to your shopping malls, ok? at least it got you prepared for this event.

now stop asking where Precious is!

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i really like all the pictures we took on our second sunshine session, so i’m just gonna, erm, let them do the storytelling….

SPLASH!

oh, and let me tell you, i feel very mak mak when i saw this, though. eiyerr.

(yes, he had a change in outfit, thanks to that big SPLASH.)

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backtracking a little to two sundays ago, which was the first in our series of let’s-kickabout-in-the-sun-and-avoid-shopping-malls sessions.

and we survived! well… barely. (it proved to be too much vitamin D for this mummy that she took urgent leave the next day. weak betol.)

despite the sweltering heat (which was really a nice change from all that rain… really…) the kids took it in stride, sweat and all.

Team Bambino

naufal: “you think we can beat the Lions?”
aniq: “huh? i thought we’re at the botanic garden, not the zoo?”
nuha: *rolls eyes* “tsk, boys!”

ouh, just a little side note about his latest ‘thang’. hand smooching. and i mean, a big, fat, juicy, wet and noisy SMOOCH. it’s really too bad hari raya’s over. he’d have garnered extra green packets for every adult hand being smooched, i think.

siapa-siapa punya tangan pun bedal jer lah.

anyway, suffice to say, we chickened out on mister sun and went scampering back to the comforts offered by, er, mister carrier man (you know, the air-con guy).

ok, so we compromised and sat al fresco, sipping on our cold lattes and chocolate ice blended.

hey, this won’t be the last of it.

we were very good and brought the bub outdoors again yesterday.

but gimme another day to get over the overdose of vitamin D again in the meantime.

(don’t worry, i didn’t take urgent leave this time round.)

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little did they know, they were to become great bosom buddies (in more ways than one ha ha).

through three weddings, three pregnancies, four babies (of the two-legged and four-wheeled kinds, heh), many birthdays, various hairstyles, fluctuating bra and belly sizes, and countless hugs and laughter.

it seems like we’ve known each other much longer, somehow.

we still harbour dreams of going into business together, with each of us having our own individual ‘talent’. ;p

maybe some day.

but one thing’s for sure – our promo flyers and posters SURE HAVE OUR PICTURES ONE! wuaahaaa.

…

how, can sell or not…?

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