kids in motion

Hey there, Monday! This past (long-ish) weekend was the perfect combination of spontaneous outdoorsyness and homebound downtime, which was exactly what we needed. It was so good that the residual aura of the chill pill we took spilled over to this here Monday, making for a less bluey start to the week.

Especially since my calendar tells me that this week is going to be a hectic one. Weekends are sometimes a nice end to the week but other times, I like to start my week with a relaxing weekend so Monday is like the third day in and I feel like I’m hitting the ground running, if this makes any sense at all.

Here are some of the interesting bits (this is debatable):

1. It was Children’s Day on Friday and the kids had a special party to attend in church, just the two of them with thousands of other kids. These parties are seriously rad and they get to take a big bus all the way to Jurong West all on their own (with teachers on board). They were real excited about it all week and on Friday morning, I woke up to see them sitting on the couch discussing strategy.

“Later we’ll bring some snacks and milo, we sit together ok? Then we can share.”

“And gummies! Don’t forget gummies!”

“Oh yes, gummies! I’m so so so excited, are you excited?”

Moments like these, I think that having them back to back was the single best decision we made as parents.

2. Baby Finn usually wakes up at 6.30 in the morning but for 3 days straight, he’s been waking up past 8 and in a fabulous mood. He sits up, peers at us through his floppy hair and flashes a killer grin before doing his morning tumbles on our big bed.

3. We decided to check out GRUB for the first time. It’s been on our list of places to check out for a while but we never quite got around to it because Bishan Park is one of those places that’s well, not entirely compelling for an easterner. A few times, we thought of dropping by but having to drive out for half an hour with the entire crew doesn’t quite constitute dropping by. But we were itching for somewhere new to try over the weekend so drop by we did.

3.5 The beef & guinness pie is good, the churros are excellent and the fish burger is pretty cool. But you’ll want to skip the breakfast set and the portobello. And go early if you want to explore the park a little. By the time we finished eating, the only place left to explore in the sweltering heat was the shaded carpark.

4. It’s apparent that Finn is happiest whenever his favourite tiny humans are around. All 3 of them spent a good part of their Sunday morning stomping around the house single file style, laughing and falling over one another in a giggly heap.

5. We’re having a bit of a Breaking Bad withdrawal. It’s been such a huge part of our Mondays the past couple of months and last night, the husband was all “Mondays aren’t going to be the same again now that it’s over.” The only consolation is that the end has been fitting. And so satisfying. Today, we’ll be commemorating one of the best TV shows in the history of ever with pizza and Ben & Jerry’s.

Also, if anyone knows where we can get Stevia here, hook me up.

Okayyy, I’m going to go ahead and take back everything I ever said about yoga. Except that one time when my yoga instructor told me to let my skeleton escape from my skin and imagine my thigh bones are rainbows. That part still stands as the craziest thing I’ve ever heard anyone say to me.

Long story short, I got really bored with my 30-day shred routine, and not bored in the “I’ve nailed this, moving on and look at my giant muscles” sense, but more of the “just thinking of it makes all the stress immediately return to my thighs” sense. I figured that at this rate, I’m going to give up completely so I thought I’d move on and try something a little more relaxing, like yoga – letting my stress melt into into the floor and all that.

#1. Jillian Michael’s idea of yoga is not relaxing at all. You want the happy baby pose? Do it on your own time. Corpse pose? Don’t even think about it. Which brings me to point 2.

#2. Yoga is HARD. Not as hard as the 6-week 6-pack routine but much harder than I thought. But it’s the good kind of hard. My back is extra happy with all the core-strengthening poses it’s been getting.

#3. In fact, it’s so hard that I ended up mercilessly butchering most of the poses I attempted, which is a good thing I’m doing it at home where very few people will get to see it. Although the husband did at one point laugh his head off. Good thing he didn’t see the part where I got stuck in a pose and couldn’t get out of it and I panicked for a whole minute before slowly letting myself fall over to the side.

#4. There’s none of that “letting your buttocks blossom” yogaspeak so if you’re into that sort of thing, this probably isn’t for you. In fact, I’d say it’s a yoga-inspired regular ass whipping by Jillian Michaels so make of that what you will.

#5. My kids doing synchronized yoga is about the cutest thing in the whole world. That session there was so cute it just killed me dead right on the spot.

//The end.

I woke up this morning with a colossal long weekend hangover and after checking to make sure that it was in fact, really Monday, I stuck my head under the pillow for a full minute and took that time mourn the end of my little break. Seriously, that’s it? That did not feel like 4 days at all. I feel like I need another long weekend to recover from my long weekend.

Well, there’s a trip to Bangkok without the kids this weekend but more to come on that eventually.

In any case, this nose? Firmly back to the grindstone.

We did have some really great moments with the kids the past couple of days, which I guess was the whole point of this break. In that time, Finn discovered the joy of copying everything Truett and Kirsten did. Right up to this point, he’s mostly been in his own baby world and doing his own baby things but now, he wants to be around them all the time. He doesn’t know what they’re doing half the time but he’s happy to just be near them watching while they’re simulate one of their elaborate pretend scenarios.

While the other 2 kids were off on their striders again, we took him for a spin on a baby trike and he was beyond thrilled. He looked so thoroughly pleased to be part of the gang – my baby boy must have grown 5 inches right there (pretend) cycling next to them.

There were also some of those “MOMMMM BABY FINN IS DESTROYING MY STUFF” moments thrown into the mix but I’m telling you, watching the three of them together like this pretty much makes my ovaries spontaneously combust.

On the downside, all this excitement have resulted in 2 out of 3 babies coming down with a flu. Thankfully it’s nothing serious, just a mild fever and moderate level whining so here’s hoping it goes away quickly and quietly.

Also, I need another coffee.

Kirsten had a dance recital a couple of weeks back and I’ve been getting requests from you guys on the details. So for those who are interested, here they are.

It’s a dance class by O School called Boogiestar, tailored for younger preschoolers to introduce them to some basics. Instead of focusing on like intensive dance moves (which I believe is available for the older kids), they use stories and music to get them grooving. It’s all about self-expression and being comfortable moving to the music for now.

I guess it’s working because these days when we step into a store playing groovy music, Kirsten spontaneously breaks into a freestyle dance – it’s super cute. I’d try to keep up but the only dance move I know is Just The Hands Part Of Single Ladies, and obviously with much less finesse than Michelle Obama so I’m just going to leave all the boogieing to my little boogiestar.

And of course, a video of the recital below!

Last Friday was puddle stomping day.

Why, you ask? Because puddles exist to be stomped on.

This is not one of those philosophical “If a tree falls in the forest” type of douchebag question. I know this because I have 2 preschoolers who will tell you that the very existence of a puddle means that it has to be stomped on with gusto. Also, I’ve been raised to step around puddles when I see them because I’m a lady and ladies don’t get their dainty toes wet but every time I find myself stepping around a puddle, there’s a moment where my inner 3-year-old screams “JUST DO IT, JUMP IN.”

I’d like to be the kind of parent who lets their kids stomp on every puddle but since I’m the one who does the laundry, more often than not, I’m all “Don’t do it, guys, I’m serious. Resist the urge. Put down your foot and slowly step away from that tiny pool of water.”

But my kids are compulsive and they live by the “Stomp First, Talk Later” motto.

Well, since it was raining last Friday and it was too wet to hang out at the playground, we bundled them in their raincoats + wellies and set them loose on all the puddles in the neighborhood.

Who knew that a little rain could be so much fun.

We were at Universal Studios Singapore last Friday for the launch of their newest ride, the Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase.

It was a huge celebration, with a special performance by Elmo & his friends, a spaghetti-cutting ceremony and a bunch of themed carnival games, as well as a preview of the ride itself, which we were all really looking forward to.

The entire New York Street in USS was decked in Sesame Street themed decorations and it all felt very happy & festive. I imagine that’s how it feels like to be walking along um, Sesame Street.

Being the Sesame Street fan that I am, I think I was more excited than the kids were and that’s saying a lot because they were pretty excited.

The ride itself is really cute. As far as thrilling roller coaster rides go, this is a level 2, with 0.5 being the Madagascar Carousel and 10 being the Battlestar Galactica. But then it’s not meant to be a scary ride because even Kirsten could ride it (she just made the height limit at 92cm). The story and setting were incredibly well done though, and it’s filled with most of my favorite Sesame Street characters, with a handful of new cuddly villains like Macaroni the Merciless and his two henchmen, Zester and Shredder.

There are some sections that might be a little dark (as in literally) for preschoolers like when the space capsule blasts into outer space, but there are tons of little blue lights to light the way and it’s more like adventurous and super cool kind of dark instead of the scary kind of dark.

In fact, the kids loved it so much, we went on it 11 more times after the first ride.