wild wild east

his daddy has been asking him the same question again and again, everyday, “nak pegi swimming tak?” and the little one would guilelessly nod his head and go “nak! nak!” each time and start pulling at his shirt to take it off.

till lately, i think he’s stopped believing his daddy coz he started saying “tak!”, hehe. you see, i said, it’s like the boy who cried “wolf!”, or rather, the daddy who cried “nak pegi swimming tak?”. empty promises, so stop asking him, for heaven’s sake!

but he really meant it this time, so he asked the little one the whole day. so irritating hor, little one?

so are we or are we not?!

we woke up nice and early and were out by the unearthly hour of 10am (heh), headed to downtown east for a mac brekkie, only to find out that the place we were supposed to go to didn’t open till 1pm on weekdays! gah, imagine the extra time i could have slept in!

anyway, the sky was unforgivingly cloudless and the sun was starting to beat down on us, so it was just as well. (and of ALL days, i realised the red flag was raised just as we were leaving.)

we took our time running errands and having lunch and letting him nap first, before heading back again at five. looked up at the sky, yup, nice billowy clouds and a low-lying sun. perfect.

time to get wet, like, finally.

wow, he *really* brought me swimming this time. can’t believe my luck.

hey, those people in baywatch didn’t need to wear THIS!

dang those height limits.

if it weren’t for the little one, we’d have tried out all the adult rides, like the tsunami one, fwah. but we did manage to take turns down the long slide on the raft while the other waited with him at the bottom.

other than that, we pretty much knocked ourselves out at the kiddy slides over and over again, him squeezed in between us, and went round and round the winding river on floating tyres, him covering his face with his hands during the water shower parts.

at this point, i realise that every new experience for him is also a new experience for us, or at least, a fresh one. it’s like seeing and doing things for the first time, from his point of view. and if not for him, we would never have bothered to go to places like this. (well, it helps that we get free tickets of course, hehe.)

perhaps it’s that ‘first-time parent syndrome’ again, i don’t know.

in any case, it was, for lack of better words, really fun lor. (i love slides!) we were the last few to leave the place at 7.

husband, nak pegi swimming lagi tak? nak? nak?! please get free tickets again, thank you…

(and yes, i did get myself wet and wild, red flag notwithstanding. am officially no longer a t****n virgin, gasp!)

no milk money required

so i picked up the paper some time ago and found something which piqued my interest, which then led me to more interesting stuff.

angelina jolie was quoted as saying:

“Someone saying to me that I’m thin is not a compliment. I’ve always been lean and this year I lost my mom and I’ve gone through a lot. I have four kids and I finished breastfeeding – it’s been hard to get my nutrition back on track. Instead of people saying I look like a person dealing with something emotionally, they assume it’s because I want to fit into skinny jeans.”

so i tried to google for a photo of her – no, not being skinny – but breastfeeding.

there was one, but detractors have claimed that it’s fake. oh well.

i was telling izad that the tummy flabs are coming fast and furious, and he tried to psycho me into jogging with him, but i didn’t have any running shoeees, i lamented. i asked if i could take pills instead, but he wasn’t too keen about giving me half his liver, so that’s out of the question. the last resort – i’ll just need to get pregnant again. then the fat is justified, and when i b/feed again, i’ll be skinny again! yes!

anyway, back to my googling, which led me to find other celebs who b/fed. and WOW! there’s like, a whole website dedicated to spotting celebs who are preggers, who’ve given birth, etc. and naturally, quotable quotes from stars who b/fed.

http://www.celebrity-babies.com/breastfeeding/index.html

yeah, i’m always happy reading about people b/feeding, STILL. macam fetish liddat. and celebrities – they have the power to inspire mere mortals, so it’s great that that they speak on the issue in public.

oh, and i also found this international breast milk project – more wow! it’s a programme for volunteers to donate breast milk to the babies in africa orphaned by HIV. very noble cause. imagine, you can be the ‘ibu susuan’ (milk mother) of many african babies, no need to adopt them ala angelina or madonna!

and today’s straits times, there’s a front page report on filipino mothers staging a protest against milk powder companies, by baring their painted breasts to the media. goes to show that you DON’T need to be hollywood celebrities to get the message across, after all.

“The companies making baby-milk formula, led by Nestle, whose founder invented the product 137 years ago, and a clutch of American health-care giants, have long drawn fire for hard selling an expensive and – if mixed with unclean water – potentially lethal product in the developing world. Breastfeeding campaigners say that has gulled generations of mothers in poor countries into believing infant formula is superior to their milk.”

i suppose their agenda is slightly different, in that it really affects the infant mortality in the country. according to Unicef, 16,000 infants die a year in the Philippines from incorrect feeding practices, including the use of formula mixed with contaminated water. and more and more poor, low-income people there have fallen prey to the advertising message that infants raised on formula will grow up to do well in school, and thus find good jobs. they also regard b/feeding as “old-fashioned, low-class and backward”. how sad.

the filipinos are surely one of the strongest advocates in b/feeding. i was hosting a group of filipino officials just last month, and during our discussion on infant care centre facilities, one of them was really impressed and happy when i told them that it’s a requirement to have a separate fridge for storing b/milk. they were even more impressed when i told them that many working mothers here are encouraged to express b/milk with the availability of nursing room facilities.

yeah, yeah. here i go again, huh, being all militantist? tsk.

now, somebody hand me some paint… *unbuttons shirt*

mandai and me

we spent the whole afternoon watching animals on tuesday.

it’s my second time visiting the zoo, courtesy of daddy’s Organisation. (you wait and see where else we went for free!)

anyway, i couldn’t remember much from my first visit, but this time round, i get it.

all those funny-looking creatures i’ve been seeing in books (like my Topsy and Tim book) and on tv (like Animal Planet) and oh, heard of in songs (like Old Macdonald), they actually exist and aren’t some made-up things by the adults! :p

i see a lot of resemblance between the animals and humans like me.

for instance, see this tiger? that’s how my teeth look like, i swear!

but unlike the tiger, i don’t show them off voluntarily, even not to my own mummy, who has to pry open my mouth everytime she wants to count my teeth. well, it doesn’t help that she usually attempts it when i’m busy munching on my snacks.

now, look at those zebras. see how we have similar tastes in outfits? stripes, yo!

but of course, black and white is a tad too boring, so i would really recommend the zebras to jazz up their look once in a while, mix and match a bit, say, green and pink, orange and purple, that sorta thing.

next, the sea-lion. all i can say is – I FEEL FOR YA, BRUDDER! i know what it’s like, having to perform in front of an audience, seeking approval and applause each time. and i too emphathise when you took your time to do the tricks and made a few boo-boos on purpose. but i really gotta learn from you how to balance on your flippers like that. (i wonder too if the fishy treats they throw at you taste as good as the coco crunch mummy throws at me. mmm…)

and of course, there’s the monkeys! the baby monkey’s like me, mummy and daddy say. i guess what they mean is, they’re cute like me?? or maybe it’s the way i climb all over and cling onto mummy just like the baby monkeys do with their mummy monkeys. or maybe i’m hairy like them. or err…

the baby monkey and i are both curious lil fellas who like to reach out and touch things?

ouhh, the baby goats, my favourite. now this one’s easy – we both drink the same milk!

the last hokey pokey

he had his final poke in the thigh yesterday, ie. the 18th-month jab. the last he’ll see of the needle till primary school! i guess we won’t be referring to that health book again for some time?

dah kena inject, tidur lah. lemah, you know.

kena tricked lor. two days of enjoyment, then kena inject! huahuahua!

he complained to everyone about his poor injected leg afterwards, pretending to limp and going all dramamama with a fake whimper and animated gestures. fake sympathies were offered to him (“alalalalaaa, kesiannn”), and he’d chuckled gleefully. very bertuah punya anak, ok.

we’re grateful that he’s passed all the milestones according to his grand age of eighteen months, and marked at the fiftieth percentile in height and weight. “good,” declared the doctor.

well, thank you. that’s all we liked to hear.

ps: total dvd count for the past 3 days of our ‘faux holiday’ = 4! not too good, must work harder…

go go bambini

can you tell i’ve been busy?

i’d like to thank unty misa very much for recommending this place! thankfully, it only cost me $6 to play for an unlimited time, since i’m not two years old yet. my folks say maybe they should leave me here the whole day because of the unlimited access, and i could have my meals and naps and baths in between all that playing. hey, sounds like a fabulous idea to me! :p

mum initially meant to do her nails at the indoor nail spa (a nail spa within an indoor playground?! that’s just radical, man…) but she ended up getting her nails even more ragged from running and climbing about in the play area with daddy and me.

oh, and not to mention PELTING PLASTIC BALLS AT ME!!

wth?!

anyway, speaking of radical, hullo, mr ben & mr jerry. your quaint and cosy ice-cream parlour next door sure beats boring ol’ mr haagen daazs’ anytime. there’s even a kids’ drawing room in there, like, how thoughtful, right?

and so wraps up the second day of our so-called ‘holiday’.

needless to say, i was pooped and turned in early, just as my old folks had planned. and what did they do then? why, they had their long-awaited dvd marathon till the wee hours of the morning, what else!

bah, these couch potato adults…

fly me to the moon

this month, i didn’t see abang dadam very much, but when we do, rest assured we get along REAALLLY well.

if you can call hitting, beating, pulling, pushing, and general bullying each other ‘getting along’. hehe.

we had a belated father’s day for opa, who kept wanting to eat at han river in eastpoint. he’s always craving for buffets, my opa. the other day we brought him to sakura at downtown east, but he couldn’t get enough. despite all he eats, he’s skin and bones. it’s hard getting opa around these days, he has his own stroller which is much bigger than mine. the wheels on his stroller are huge too! he needs two people to carry him from his stroller. i suppose that’s coz he’s much heavier than me. it only takes one person to carry me, but even that person (ie. mummy) complains after ten seconds and shoves me at daddy.

anyway, in the evening of my first day of the so-called ‘holiday’ that mummy and daddy have declared, they took me to…

the moon!!

or so i was led to believe.

daddy got a discount for the trip to the moon via the DHL balloon. i don’t think he could afford what NASA charges for the trip on their rocket. did i mention that the balloon is REALLY giganormous?? it was bigger than daddy’s head, even!

we were almost reaching the moon, what with the strong gust of wind blowing us up higher and higher, but it hung frozen halfway during our journey! i didn’t mind though, coz not only did we have a mesmerising view of the shimmering lights from below plus the cool air, there were fireworks just across the sky, bursting in colourful sparks at the same moment we were up there!

the fireworks lit the sky in thunderous glory. wow. i can tell mummy loves fireworks very muchly. she kept going “WAHH!!” like a little schoolgirl. me? i hung on to mummy for dear life, like a little schoolboy teehee. (shhhh…)

and yeah, that’s how the first day of my so-called ‘holiday’ started.

with a right bang!

oh, and i guess i’ll take a rain check on that trip to the moon. i’m sure NASA’s price will drop soon.

don’t call me baby!

now, give me some ice-cream.

(*is it too much to hope for mr ben or mr jerry to see this and give me a free pint?)

friday, i’m in lurve!

can i just say…

IT’S FRIDAY! IT’S FRIDAY!

my stating (or exclaiming) the obvious is to emphasise the fact that tomorrow officially marks the start of our ‘holiday’.

well, if you can count five days – including weekends – a holiday. sigh. we make do with what we can get, eh?

being the ever, erm, resourceful (read: cheapskate) and, erm, efficient (read: kiasu) parents, we have the itinerary packed to the brim with activities starting from, well, tomorrow lah. (ok, we’ll leave some buffer in the schedule for aniq’s nap-time, my blog-time and izad’s… jog-time?) our mission is to let the little one vent out as much of his tornado energy as possible throughout the five days.

next week, no more big children swarming the playgrounds, pools, malls, void decks, and every imaginable kids’ hangout other than schools!

so, all you babies and toddlers, you can reclaim your rights to these places then, ok?

hmm, perhaps mummy and daddy could squeeze a movie date in there somewhere too. (i still can’t believe we managed to catch ocean’s 13 that day! miracle o’ miracles!)

and since we’re at it, i hear the zara sale is around the corner. a little shop-time would be nice. (i know i know, i brought back enough shopping bags the past few days already. *snort*)

speaking of which, this has been accumulating in my head since THAT sale began on tuesday.

Some Tips To Survive A MNG* Sale.
(i’m quite sure other more veteran survivors out there would have additions to this, so feel free to jump in.)

1) head for the main MNG stores, as they have more variety in terms of sizes and models. forget outlets in department stores, eg. iSetan, as the selection (and space) is limited. furthermore, some of these iSetan people will insist you dump your belongings into a crumpled garbage-like plastic bag and seal it with cable ties ala mustaffa shopping centre, before they let you in.

2) do NOT, i repeat, do NOT bring your boyfriend/husband/child into the sale area. these persons only waste valuable floor space and cause obstructions to the serious shopper scrambling for that piece of tank top spotted from ten metres away. if you insist on bringing them in, however, make sure that they stand in the furthest corner of the shop and not linger at or block the passageways. i might add that this is also for their own safety as women at MNG sales are a vicous pack.

3) do some physical work out before attempting to go to one of these things. because you’ll need the strength and stamina to elbow through the crowds of women hell-bent on rummaging and scrounging through piles of garments for the best bargains in their sizes.

4) wear the thinnest possible piece of clothing, preferably skin-tight, so that you can easily try on an item on the spot without having to wait in line for a fitting room. i mean, have you seen those queues? do NOT waste precious sale time, people!

5) if you see something, GRAB. this is no time to be gracious. nevermind if it’s one size to small, you can always starve yourself later. remember the saying, ‘everything’s fair in love and war’? well, women at a sale and at war, little difference.

6) this one’s a little flexible, but some of you may be cranky shoppers on an empty stomach. when hungry, your much-needed energy and concentration is wasted on a rumbling tummy. in such case, eat something light before you brave the shops. i emphasise the word light, because if you eat a heavy meal, you’ll frustrate yourself from not being able to fit into your usual size and then blame the MNG manufacturers for defective measurements. come come, that’s hardly fair, is it? as i mentioned, this is flexible, so you may choose to go in without food if you are the kind who can single-mindedly focus on a task and have a strong desire to squeeze into size 0 pants.

7) this is optional – go in pairs. tag-team it. you can cooperate by finding sizes for your friend, and advice on each other’s buys. if you prefer to go at it alone, that’s just as good. hey, less competition!

8 ) you’re all familiar with the concept of blog-hopping and island-hopping, no? well, here’s one more – shop-hopping. plan your route in advance, and shop-hop away! for example, your starting point can be, say, centrepoint… then on to ngee ann city… then wisma… then lido (which has two MNG stores), or you could do it the other way. why shop-hop? don’t be silly! who knows what other treasures you can find in the other outlets.

that’s it for now, happy shoppers. be safe now!

(*MNG stands for Mango for the uninformed. like, hello! which coconut shell have you been living under??)

desperate housewife

mrs esah solis attempted to seduce me by first luring me to her house for an intimate dinner for two…

what? no candlelights?

i gallantly offered to help her clean up after the meal. i have, after all, had experience as her gardener, mowing the front lawn of her house. so this was nothing, really.

my mommy taught me to use the wet wipes well, mrs solis.

she then instructed me to change into something “more comfortable”. i obliged. she seemed quite… ecstatic. the kitchen floor, mrs solis? well, if you insist…

who let the dogs out!

she wrapped me in an amorous embrace, and that was it – resistance was futile!

i’m too sexy for this romper.

oh well, what can i say…

ps: dear mr fadz solis, apparently your wife is not only a lesbian, she is also a cradle-snatcher. please don’t beat me up. thank you.

the strokes

both of us were at a mcdonalds in the heartlands yesterday, and while munching on the salad (yeah i know, what kind of mcfreak eats a salad at a fast food joint, right?) our attention was drawn to a middle-aged couple (and by middle-aged, i mean, older than us, ha ha) with two young kids, looking for seats. they seemed harried and dishevelled.

our first impression was, what stern-looking parents they are.

and well, we were right.

they sat at the central table and before we knew it, the father had whipped out a quintessential rattan cane from god-knows-where, and started threatening the two little boys to behave.

the surrounding patrons and us peeped from over our shoulders at the ‘circus’ or ‘lion taming act’, trying hard not to seem bemused. a group of makciks at one table were even chuckling and shaking their heads, more at the antics of the older boy, whom by now had started running around the table in circles, agitating his cane-wielding father even more. he kept rapping the cane on the table and chair, and i think, even the floor, both him and his wife scolding loudly for all to hear. the ringmasters, ladies and gentlemen!

i asked izad just how effective it was to bring a cane along everywhere you go, just to scare your children into submission. judging from the boys’ behaviour, it didn’t seem to work that well. after a while, or perhaps after wood came into contact with flesh, i’m not sure coz i wasn’t facing them, the older boy threw himself on the floor and started a wailing tantrum. i even goaded izad to take a picture with his cameraphone, HURHUR, but he declined, on the grounds of ethics. (perhaps he didn’t want the man to come after him with the cane too, lol!)

so what happens when they don’t bring the cane? will that make the children go even wilder, knowing that the ‘weapon of torture’ was not in sight? will being without cane make the parents handicapped?

what kind of long-lasting effect will this sort of public humiliation have on a child? i’d say – pretty long. at thirty, i still have lingering memories of being belted by the dad for whatever unjustified crimes i’d committed in my early childhood, but thankfully, they were meted out within the four walls of our house. i think i’d have liked and respected my dad more if he’d tried a softer method in disciplining me. i’d probably have less rebellious moments. i may have turned out a less cynical and negative person. then again, it’s always easy to blame our shortcomings on our parents, isn’t it?

izad thinks caning may work, but only occasionally, and only when a child is say, in primary school, because he would have the capability to rationalise and internalise what he’d done wrong. but the two kids in the above scene were barely 2 and 3 years old respectively, so what does it do except provoke a meaningless pavlovian reaction to specific behaviours?

as we left the circus show behind, i asked izad another question: where in heck do we find canes anyway?? coz i’d never seen one in shops before! as we passed by some of our friendly neighbourhood shops, i was tempted to ask the ah-pek shopkeepers if they sold any. izad reckons they’re likely found in toy shops. along the way, we saw wooden curtain rods, plastic toy bats… but no rattan canes. darn.

perhaps they’re passed down from generation to generation, we thought. like family heirlooms or inheritance. “i now bestow upon you, The Family Rotan, so you may use it on your child… and him on his child… and all subsequent children in our family forevermore!”

personally, i wouldn’t be caught dead carrying a rattan cane everywhere i went.

for one, it definitely won’t match any of my outfits! :p

(maybe if you paint it a cute pink or orange and decorate it with flowery stickers…)