Browsing Category

kids inc

kids inc

Reading with Elephant & Piggie

December 23, 2013

You guys! We just found the best kids books ever. Ok, we found it a while back and I only finally managed to get around to talking about it.

We’ve been trying to get the kids to fall in love with reading since they were born and on the scale of being interested in books, Tru has mostly been on the end of “not entirely impressed”. We got them tons of Dr. Seuss, Julia Donaldson, Oliver Jeffers, and he does sort of join in our reading sessions but often with very little enthusiasm.

And then a friend bought them a book from the Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems.

Total gamechanger.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Tru loved it. He almost never voluntarily picks out books to read on his own but these days, we often spy him sitting on the couch with a book in his hand and a smile on his face and I AM SO THRILLED to see my son in love with words (and pictures!). He thinks they’re hilarious and he’ll be giggling to himself while he reads. Did I mention that he’s reading them on his own? He still struggles with some words but his reading has improved tremendously since he started on these books and yes, I can’t stop raving.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The husband was so impressed he went out and bought the entire series from book depository.

You know what? We love these books so much I’m doing a giveaway – just a little something on the house. I have two of Truett’s favorite elephant and piggie books up for grabs. Just leave a comment below with your favourite kid’s book of all time and two winners will be chosen randomly. Contest ends at 11.59pm on Friday, 27 December.

by
kids inc, Kidspeak

No way, José

January 10, 2013

have my cake and eat it

Back when I was a kid, I don’t remember being very good at dealing with “NO’s”. If I wanted something that my parents said no to, I’d do what most kids did – whine, sulk, plead, cry, scream, the usual. But none of them were very effective because my folks were the stick-to-their-guns sort.

I’ve realized that Truett, at age 4.5, is quite the master at getting what he wants, and all without shedding a tear or shrieking. He’s got moves I never even thought of back in my time.

Plan A: Agree to disagree 

Usage: Works best when I’m distracted or busy.

Example:

Tru: Mom, can I have potato chips?

Me: No, you just had some an hour ago. Ask me again tomorrow.

Tru: Ok, I’ll go take.

Me: *obviously distracted* Mmmm

I’ll see him with chips in his hand several moments later and I’ll be all “hey, I thought I said no chips” and he’ll tell me calmly “but I said I’ll take and you said mmmm”.

Plan B: Logical Reasoning

Usage: Works best when I’m too tired to engage in a lengthy discourse.

Example:

Tru: Mom, can I have some 100 Plus?

Me: Nope.

Tru: But why? I like 100 Plus so much.

Me: You’re still coughing. I’ll give it to you when you’re better.

Tru: I’m not coughing anymore. Can you hear me cough? No right? See, I’m well.

Me: Okay, but I think you need to give it a day or two to make sure you’re really totally well.

Tru: How about I drink the one that’s not cold?

Me: How about after dinner? You can have it as a treat if you finish your dinner.

Tru: But I saw you drinking 100 Plus just now. You ate your dinner already?

Me: Well, no…I was really thirsty and I can have treats any time I want because…I’m an adult. *caught in the douchey I’m-an-adult excuse*

Tru: Children will get thirsty too, you know? I promise I will eat my dinner and I won’t ask anymore.

At this point, I can say no and feel like a meanie or go “ok fine, just a little bit.” Usually the second one.

Seriously, when did kids get so savvy?

by
kids inc, Kidspeak

For better or worse

December 19, 2012

Best friends, sort of

We’ve always known that Kirsten is a little firecracker but she seems to have gotten a little bit more fiery of late.

The husband rolls his eyes all the way back into his head whenever I sigh and say “I have no idea where she gets that from.” I have no idea why he does that either, seeing how my disposition is so sunshine and rainbows. There’s the occasional cyclonic thunderstorm but those are pretty rare. Besides, I got that from my daddy, who was a firm believer in grabbing life by the horns and giving it a proper smacking when life was being an ass.

Wait, this hereditary argument is not quite working for me here.

Okay, so it seems like I might have contributed a little to her feistiness but this girl has really taken it to the next level.

Her temper is the screamy kind and she’s very vocal about her displeasure. Like this one time, both the kids were talking at me so I kinda stoned out and Truett raised his voice to get my attention and Kirsten started yelling, like “WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING AT ME?? YOU DON’T SHOUT AT MY EAR OKAY!!!” Oh, the irony.

“First of all, Truett wasn’t shouting at you and it doesn’t warrant the screaming. I need you to apologize,” I told her firmly.

“Sorry kor kor.”

On that note, I have to say that Truett is often both the cause and object of her wrath. He intentionally antagonizes her by saying things like “You are shorter than me so I will call you shorty” just to drive her insane.

“No, I’m not shorty. I’m a big girl now.”

“But I’m taller. See, my head is higher than yours,” he says while standing on tippy toes for added emphasis.

“I’m tall just like you.”

“No, you’re short, so you have to be shorty. Ok, shorty.”

“NOOOOOO DON’T CALL ME THAT!!! *cue whiny, hypersonic meltdown*

I think this sort of behavior stems from the dumbass, masochistic part of his male psyche. Which is also evidently hereditary because the husband also suffers from the same condition. But to his credit, Truett does take her outbursts in stride and he’ll calmly give in to her to stop her from screaming.

They had another situation the other day when Truett compulsively destroyed one of her Lego creations. He does these things and it’s like his brain finally caught up with his actions after all the Lego pieces crashed to the floor and he suddenly realized that “oh crap, she’s going to lose it.” So just as she opened her mouth to scream, he scrambled to rebuild her masterpiece, muttering “ok ok ok, I build another one for you…”

We’re working on getting Tru to be less compulsive and getting Kirsten to be less temperamental but in the meantime, I guess part of being siblings is having to live with each other’s crazy.

by
kids inc

Nailed it

October 15, 2012

It’s a curious phenomenon. Baby Finn hardly ever gets riled by anything. He’s ok with baths, meds, nose cleaning, doctor’s visits, even blood tests. I mean BLOOD TESTS! Where an actual needle goes into the flesh and there’s lots of blood coming out. The kind of test where screaming is totally legitimate, y’all. Till this day, I take a blood test and I’m like “ok hang on doctor, give me a minute to compose myself…”

Two weeks ago, Finn had to take a blood test to check for jaundice and I was standing there wincing on his behalf but this little guy didn’t even let out one squeak when the needle was going in. Even the nurse administering the test was amazed by how cool he was.

There’s just one thing that drives him completely nuts – fingernail trimming.

It’s bizarre. This kid doesn’t even flinch while getting pricked by a needle but when it’s time to trim his nails, he screams bloody murder.

In this sort of situation, there are two ways to handle it. One, you try to cajole and pacify, hoping that they eventually acquiesce without putting up a fight. But it’s a gamble because it may or may not work out after 20 minutes. Two, you go for the kill. It’s less pretty and there may be lots of screaming but at least the job gets done in a relatively quick manner.

I usually go for the second option.

Today was one of those dreaded nail-trimming days.

I held his finger steady and before the nail clipper made contact, he went hypersonic, shrieking up a storm. Kirsten has never heard him go crazy like this before so she came running into the room. I turned and saw her standing at the doorway with one hand covering her mouth, looking absolutely horrified, like “Good heavens, mother, what manner of madness is this?”

I could see why she was appalled. I had baby Finn in a stranglehold, grabbing his hand like I’m about to slice it off while he screamed and flailed like a stuck pig. The way he was yelling, I might as well have been brandishing a lightsaber instead of a nail clipper.

I was all “This is not what it looks like, sweetheart. I’m just trimming baby Finn’s nails.”

I could tell that she wasn’t convinced. She looked at me like “Yeah right, mom. I wasn’t born yesterday, you know.”

“No, really. I’m not hurting him. I have no idea why he’s so upset. How about you come help me cheer him up while I finish up the other hand?”

She came up real close to peer at him, then said “No thanks, I need to go play toys. You be careful with baby Finn’s hand alright?”

I actually thought I was the boss of them but turns out, now my parenting skills are being assessed. It’s tough being a parent around here.

by
kids inc, precious moments

Babysitting tag team

October 11, 2012

Watching the kids interact is one of the warmest and fuzziest parts of being a parent. Ok, maybe not the kind of interaction where they’re clawing each other’s eyes out. I mean the other kind, where nobody’s screaming or bleeding or mortally wounded.

Truett and Kirsten are already pretty tight. They’ve been each other’s person the past 3 years, having spent almost every waking moment together. They get each other’s jokes, are crazy over the same shows, play toys together, watch out for each other and generally enjoy the other person’s company.

I put them at about 78% chummy, 17% you’re-mildly-annoying and 5% apocalyptic-showdown.

It was interesting to see how their dynamics with Finn would be like.

From their interaction so far, Truett is affectionate, but in a quiet, no frills sort of way. He absolutely has to hug and kiss Finn before he leaves for school every morning. Sometimes, he forgets his goodbye kiss when he leaves the house and he’ll have to run back to do it. He does get bored with the baby quite quickly but every time he hugs Finn, he’ll close his eyes and look so blissful it makes me want to cry.

Kirsten, on the other hand, is really relishing her new status as a big sister. She fusses over her baby brother. A lot. She babytalks him, takes toys for him, squashes his head in her arms and is all “I’M GOING TO LOVE YOU WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!”

I figured that I should milk the attention and make the most of it while it lasts. So the other day, she got her first babysitting assignment while I attempted to have a quick breakfast.

Kirsten: Hey baby Finn…Look! jie jie is here.

Finn: Eh…eh…eh…reowwwww

Kirsten: It’s ok, it’s ok. *pats him on the head*

Finn: Reowww…REOWWWWWW

Kirsten: Are you crying? You want jie jie is it?

Finn: ERHHHH…REOWW…REOWWWWWW!!

Kirsten: You see, jie jie is here, no need to cry.

Finn: ERHHHH…REOWW…REOWWWWWW…REOWWWWWWWWW!!

Kirsten: Um, guys?? I need some help here…

Me: Hang in there, mommy’s just going to finish up my coffee.

Kirsten: Ah never mind, I think maybe he wants kor kor, I will go call him.

Me: Sure, you guys sort it out, I’m going to have a croissant as well then.

*They didn’t actually sort it out and I didn’t get to have my croissant but I did manage to have a cup of coffee so I’d say it was a decent first attempt. They’re going to need some practice. 

by
growing up, kids inc

Wake me up when September ends

October 1, 2012

I spent the better part of this year being pregnant and when I finally gave birth in August, I hung up a sign that said “wake me up when September ends” and went into hibernation. And by hibernation, I meant the kind where I have to wake up every 3 hours to feed a hungry baby, burp the baby, express milk, change the baby and try to make him go back to sleep before it’s time for the cycle to start again.

Which in actual sleeping terms, is the opposite of hibernation.

Amidst the frenzy, I woke up this morning to find that September has bitten the dust. We’re into the final quarter of the year, F1 fever is has come and gone, drama season is starting and I’m as exhausted as ever.

In other news, Finn is 5 weeks old. He spends a longer time awake, responds to our voices, gurgles when he’s happy and is getting chubbier by the day. Every morning after his bath, I do the thigh test. It’s where I bite his thigh to see how chubby it is and so far, it’s still hovering at the not-chubby-enough mark. The husband says normal people use a measuring tape for this sort of thing but he doesn’t understand that I’m also measuring the firmness, bounciness and juiciness at the same time. Besides, it’s so much more fun this way. I just took a bite this morning and in my expert opinion, I’d say give it another month or so and it’ll be just right.

He’s also developing a quirky sense of humor. After his feed earlier, he made a pack of poop and started grinning goofily. Like “hur…hur hur hur…hur…”

We couldn’t agree on a nickname for him so we’re all calling him by different things. Tru calls him baby Finn, Kirsten calls him di-di (little brother), the husband calls him Finn Finn and I call him handsome.

I think he likes mine best.

by
kids inc, not feeling so supermom

Food Wars

May 18, 2012

Among all the battles I’ve had with the kids, none has been as epic as the one we’ve had with food. And I’m not referring to food fights, although there have been some.

For people that are so small, they seem to have big ideas on nutrition. Most of the time, all they need to do is look at the food before deciding what is allowed into their mouths and what’s not. At first, it all seemed random and arbitrary but after observing their eating patterns for a while, I’ve narrowed down their criteria in determining whether food is edible.

1. Texture

As a rule of thumb, anything that’s crispy is sure to be a hit. Whenever Truett is introduced new food he hasn’t tasted before, he’ll peer at it for a moment and then ask the question: “Is it crispy or not?” If it is, it goes straight into his mouth.

If it isn’t, it will be subjected to the following tests.

2. Color

You’d think that being kids, the brighter the color, the more likely they are to eat it. Unfortunately, the contrary seems to be true. Earthy colors have a higher chance of being eaten, like beige, chocolate and golden brown.

Generally, the brighter the color, the more suspicious they get, with green leading the pack on the list of banned food. Purple, red and orange are approved on a case by case basis, mostly depending on whether they are M&Ms.

3. Temperature

This is pretty much a no brainer, i.e. the colder the better.

In summary, this.

 

by