Growing Joys

How do I know my little boy has grown up?

1) He is learning to savour Black Pepper Crabs (Singapore style)...coming from a boy who cries and screams when he tasted a tinge of chilli in his food.
2) He is opening up to adults, making small talks.
3) He shares riddles and cracks jokes.
4) He orders "Curry Beef and sphagetti" for dinner.
5) He tells the hairdresser the exact type of haircut he wants (no more than just a "trim". To TS's dismay, "Did you cut???")
6) He is dead serious about keeping his sideburns.
7) He has a certain way of "styling" his hair.
8) He colour coordinates his dressing and differentiates dressing for "going to town" and "going downstairs".
9) He watches horror movies(behind our backs!)...and narrate the whole story after that to us, complete with some drama
10) He shows you how he tackled a difficult maths sum (which he had great difficulty in the past)
11) He acts like a little gentleman in front of little girls, much to their delight.
12) He is reading "Lord of the Ring" (I would think a younger Ryan would be put off by the density of words on the pages)

How time flies, my little spiderman is almost all grown up, but he stills wants Mummy to put him to sleep...every night.

Flower Power

We needed something to cover an empty area next to our sofa. So after scouting for weeks for a nice pot of plant, we realise just how expensive the shops were selling them. Take "I Wanna Go Home" (a home decor store in Singapore) for example. A simple arrangement can set you back by $200! We decided to buy the articial flowers from wholesale and did a simple arrangement. I think, we got the effect we wanted!

Excuse Me, You speak 华语?

I was testing Ryan in the Chinese Oral Exams the other evening. I gave him a picture of a zoo and then he started to describe the details of the picture in Mandarin. He went on and on, enthusiastically in his "interesting" sounding mandarin. He speaks very little mandarin at home, but he studies in a school immersed in the Chinese culture and tradition and has a great tuition teacher from China. I am just thankful that he is appreciative of the language which is so important because I have always wanted him to know his roots and appreciate the rich Chinese culture. He was excited about the orals, describing enthusiastically but some stammering along the way...UNTIL the final, concluding statement.

我们不应该做弄动物因为如果老虎抓到你，你就会死得很惨。
(We should not provoke animals because if the tiger catches you, you will die a horrible death.)

Good grief. Are you going to say that to the teacher for your exams tomorrow, son??

WCP

Working from home today. Decided to start off the day with a nice quiet morning in the park. So we hopped over, had Mac's Breakfast, and took a walk around the park. Ryan and I talked and got some quality bonding time. This is the kind of things that I had been missing out on few years ago. I realised, we can have both fulfilling working lives and quality time...and I am really glad I moved on.

Ryan himself said, "This is Life!" A friend said he has this ability to relate things in his own way, and he is very sensorial learning type of person. At first, I put it down as having some really wild imagination about things. But having said that, I guess he is!

WCP is just a beautiful place, away from crowds and you feel space, something that is becoming scarce in Singapore.

I am a Texan, that's why.

"Give me beef!" That's what Ryan asked for at one dinner.

"Are you sure...you can eat the whole thing?"

"Can!"

Okay, here's an 8oz beef steak for you. And my goodness, he really wallop the whole thing. Just beef, nothing else...oh, and the "grass" too.

Maybe it has got to do with the large amount of beef I had consumed when I had him. Yes, I had my share of beef, the Texan way. My favourite those days, a whole T-Bone, shiok!

Now we know he does have the Texan blood in him. Way to go, Cowboy!

Beauty

It was a well hidden sanctuary. We could see from our apartment a bird's eye view of the park and coastline. After an early dinner, we decided to venture into the woods. And we found a gem...and best of all, there are few people and it is relatively unspoilt.

Simply beautiful. It looks and definitely feels like a different world. We could hear the soft music playing from one of the private liners, diners at the private club, soft lapping of the waves, with the skyline of the setting sun. We stopped, and admired the scenery, soaking in the peacefulness and that was enough for the weekend, which otherwise seems to pass by so quickly.