The dragonfly's trauma

Well, this is closest to kampung style living you would get in Singapore. Dragonfly in a tub, boys half-naked running wild and terrorizing little insects. What more can you ask for... although I think the dragonfly will beg to differ.

en shopping

Brought En to the supermarket that night, and he was really enjoying his ride on the shopping cart, weaving through the aisle and pointing at everything and say "THERE". (That's another word to his limited vocab of "car","ba" (which I shamelessly associate with "Pa"), "bear","where","bathe" and of course "THERE".)





His hands were everywhere, poking at the cereal and wanting to take a bottle of water (which incidentally was much bigger than him) from the shelf. No wonder kids are hazard in the shopping centre!

(Notice his bruise nose has turned purple. Very macho - ha ha).




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Meantime, xuan smiling (as usual) at home.

Fireman En

I dunno what to say. Melanie (maid) says En now bears the mark of College Green i.e. a bruised nose he gathered after chasing after a ball that is half the size bigger than his head and falling face down onto the Court. He cried for a while but went on to get the ball while at it. It was funny at first - with him and the red nose, but it turned deep purple today and it looks damn gross. His legs are full of mozzie bites. This is kind of typical of the kids here, and I reckoned it's fine for character building ha ha (Said like Calvin's father, i.e. Calvin and Hobbes). Doc says apply lots of lotion, and I did. Not helping a lot though, the mozzie bites look like twenty cent coins.

And he enroute to role playing and is ready for dressing up now. We bought him a fireman hat from Toys 'R' Us, and he enjoys putting them on for the camera. The same day, we saw his cousin Kai Kai riding a bicycle outside in his Superman costume. Apparently he wore this to his violin class and was "suan" by his teacher to play like Superman.

Growing up nowadays is fun.

fatherhood explored

I purposely forced my good friend Kok to carry baby xuan to test his aptitude for fatherhood, and I must admit he surprised me with the tender, loving manner he handled xuan. He was coo-ing and talking to him in a tone I have never heard before. Ha Ha.

Think when you are the only one in the clique with children (and two for that matter), you kind of want to "pull" your friends along this road of no return. You keep telling them tales of your adventure and misadventure with your children, in a bid to brainwash them into thinking that having kids is exactly like what they portray in pro-family ads you see on TV (Why the typical couple always have kids of both gender, when it seems that I only can produce sons - does that mean that I not perfect family?)

It brings me back to two days ago when I tried to conjure multiple reasons for blinkymummy in an online debate on why couples should have kids. Can't really remember what I wrote, but they are all lame to be honest. I guess different couples have different reasons, or they try to think of one so that they can justify and convince themselves that having kids is their calling.

For me, I love kids and I think having them makes a family complete (along with my dogs). It could actually boil down to the fact that I'm the only child and I often yearn for the company of siblings. I was lucky cos' when I was about 10 years old, my parents decided to move in one floor below my aunty who has five children. Immediately, they became my pseudo-siblings and I still see them as my sisters and brothers now. It was a family that was always filled with laughter, and the initmacy was infectious. Hence, I decided, quite young then, that I wanted a family like theirs with children - and lots of them if possible.

I conclude that there is no "magnificent" or "revered" reason to have children. Neither should it be seen as a duty or resposibility to your ancestors. Most of the reasons are selfish, but the efforts we have put in to bring up the kids (so that they wouldn't let you vomit blood in future) is selfless. And it has been a wonderful journey to date. And the best part is, you will never know until you are a parent. Ha Ha.