I must have been repeating my ‘key messages’ to Nat too often…

There are times when Nat will willingly sleep in his own room with one of us accompanying him. Usually, it’s me. Recently, he chose tehpeng. Mummy me of course “felt jealous”! When I asked him why doesn’t he want mummy to sleep with him…

Nat :: Mummy, you got baby. Your tummy getting bigger.

Right…this is what I tell him to prepare him that there will come a time I won’t be able to sleep with him, cos he tends to kick quite often in his sleep. Heh.

Of course, there are still nights he wants to sleep with us. Strangely, co-sleeping has never been on our agenda since he was a baby but now that he’s older, he chose to sleep with us!Other than space, sometimes, he wants my bolster too. When I tell him that’s mine…

Nat :: No mummy, must share!

LOL right!? It’s really using my words back at me!

And speaking of kicking in the night..the other night he was more rampant in his sleep-kicking and I got irritated cos I was woken up, I kept pushing his legs away and in a slightly irrtable (hey, it’s 3 am la!) tone told him – stop kicking mummy!

Nat :: I’m soooo sorry mummy

Complete with the woeful, Im-really-sorry-I-didn’t-mean-it tone. My heart softened and I felt bad for being irritated.

Then, the next moment, his leg came a-kicking again. Zzzzz.

拿他没办法…

Currently, Nat’s favourite bedtime activity went from storytelling about Cars or Toy Story to stories “about me”.

So we have been re-living our trips to Hk & Bali, and fun activities such as NDP parade staycation and recently, we added the YOG men’s diving prelims to the story bank.

We enjoyed ourselves at the Diving prelims. We cheered for the Singapore diver. Even Nat went “Go Singapore!”

And of course, the funniest thing was when he shouted out: He’s wearing red underwear!  (the red speedos worn by one of the divers….)

I’m not a sports-person but when the YOG rolled around, I found myself watching the news highlights on YOG News Channel every night and was really impressed by the youths’ determination and their sporting efforts. Which really deserved to be commended and supported.

Even Nat was rather enthralled and he will go “Watch Olympics!” when we switch channels.

Ask him about this favourite sports & he will say : Boxing and that kicking one.

He meant taekwondo. Erh…ok.

As usual, by the time we thought of getting the tickets to some of the games, the tickets were kinda sold out. Thanks to DC family who gave us their diving tickets as they were double-booked for another event, we had the chance to be at an Olympics games.Which is quite an experience, don’t you think?

I was telling Nat, at bedtime just now while telling the Oylmpics story , that the (Youth)Olympics happens every four years. And that he will be 7 years old at the next one and it won’t be held in Singapore and we can only watch the games on TV…

For the closing ceremony, we timed our drive home back from my mum’s, took a longer detour and was rewarded with the fireworks bursting out in front of us overhead over the Sheares Bridge. Traffic was crawling, but we didn’t mind.

Now, if you ask Nat about the Olympics games, he will tell you “No more Olympics!”

There’s this CD of children’s songs (which we bought from Mothercare) which both tehpeng and myself will definitely list it as one of the “most-utilised” item we’ve ever bought for Nat.

For some reason, the whole repertoire of songs will calm Nat down, during car-rides and when he’s fussing since he was a wee one. So, we had the songs in our itunes/iphones which was really useful for our travels. I remember having to play the album for Nat, during bedtime on our first trip to BKK. I remember having it on repeat mode during our long roadtrips while in Melbourne. Yes, we even burnt a copy along for the rented car. Even for some car rides in SG, Nat will request for it. Before he could speak, he would fuss and would only calm down when we play the album. So much so, tehpeng has to title it “A Old Macdonald” just so it will be top of the playlist for easy access!

And now that he can speak, he will ask ” My song please daddy!!” in enthusiasm before we set off.

Last night, he surprised us all by singing along to almost every single song. For some songs, he knew part of the lyrics. For some songs, he knew the beat, he knew the instrumental parts and would make the appropriate sounds. It was really too cute. Made me realise, all this while, he’s really been absorbing everything going around him, in his quiet manner.

At bedtime, I was singing “Jesus Loves me” and you know what? He knew the lyrics to that too!

Then I sang the “Wise man built his house upon the rock” and he knew the lyrics too (ok, only the last few words of each sentence).

It was enough to make mummy tear. I mean, my boy is (almost) all grown-up!

Preamble::  Im still a pyscho-mummy in the sense I kinda still restrict Nat’s diet – homecooked and less salt (minimal) and nothing fried if possible. And no sweets as yet. Fruits is the choice of the day. Macdonald’s Happy Meal? Not for him. I just want to provide him with nutritious food at this age and I believe he will eventually start on junk food anyway. He’s still a darling in the sense he is still compliant to mummy food-rules. If we do go out to eat, I try to order nat-friendly food (no seafood, non-fried etc etc) so he can pick from my plate. Again, I try to feed him his proper meal before heading out so whatever he takes in are small portion. Yes, I’ve already said I’m psycho this way.

Yesterday, after a morning of work, I felt like brunch-ing and after a quick call to Dada, we decided to head out to PS Cafe Palais.

I’m happy with my PS Breakfast Stack

while Nat was happier that the plate of truffle fries was placed in front of him. He kept going at them.

With a small round table and having ordered a main each and having to choose the fries or the hot chicken soup with alphabets (sounds totally suitable for Nat!) to be placed nearer to Nat, it was a tough decision. At which point did we stop him? Well, I swopped the plate with the soup (when it was colder) and he was just as happy having the soup (mummy has to feed him of course) and telling me which alphabet pasta he wants. Yes, he did protest mildly but was quickly placated if he has a fry in hand.

I like the place. The food is not bad  and it’s a good way to kickstart the weekend.

Happy siigh. Now I feel like having afternoon tea!

Just this evening, it poured. Nat told me “Rain”. I went to close the windows.

Then he told me “Good job”!

Haha, I guess I’ve been saying that to him quite often.

I read somewhere that children praised for effort, rather than intellect, tend to put in more effort instead of thinking that they are clever and need not try or put in any effort. True or not, I don’t know. But I kinda believe in the theory. No harm in trying to practise this. Of course, I do let slip a few “So clever!”. It’s so hard not to, when your child can do certain things for the first time.

Recently, we bought a “where’s wally? kinda book but it’s Cars-themed.

This morning, we were flipping through the book and trying to solve each puzzle. Nat could point out most of the items on every quiz, to my surprise and delight. He’s got a keen eye.

At one particular picture, he couldn’t find an item and he said “Dont have”. I looked through the picture and couldn’t find the item too.

I thought there was a production mistake and told nat ” So clever! It’s really not there!”

When tehpeng came home,  I told him what happened and showed him the picture. But tehpeng kinda found the ‘missing item’. It was small and hidden away.

Nat then looked at me and said “HAVE!!!!” and pointed at the item.

Lilsnooze :: Nat is clever, but daddy is more clever. Only mummy is silly!

We all had a good  laugh over this. Precious memories these are.

Nat gets all excited and curious whenever an ambulance, police car or fire engine  is in sight.

So, when I happened to walk past the Central Fire Station and noticed the sign ‘Open House, Sat, 9 am to 11 am” I thought it would make an exciting trip for Nat. I realised every fire station is open to public every Sat morning. And so, it was a date with Edgar and Noah (and parents) last Saturday.

We arrived almost on the dot and there was already a long Q of parents and their boys.

It was really like a tour – we had a friendly SCDF officer showing us around, presenting the (very heavy) tools they use and demo-ing their work for us. And letting us explore the insides of their vehicles.

Quite educational but of course, all words were lost on the boys. They wanna see action!

And action they had. They had a go at the hose!

The ladder went up up up. And the men came down down down the pole. It was infotainment in front of our eyes.

And we had more than we bargained for, when there was a real fire call (video uploaded by silver_crv) and all the men and engines had to be deployed. I was really worried we were in their way, but the men were certainly very pro and we witnessed what goes on behind the big-firestation-door-before-it-opens.

Sadly, this also meant there’s nothing (left) to see but surely, this being our first time, it won’t be our last.

I want to remember this day April 27 2010. Not cos MBS opens its doors. But cos it’s the day my son said to us “I love you”!

Ok, not on his own accord…but rather we realised he could say these 3 words and we made him say it to us. HAH

As my helper played back the audio-recording of his babbles and him saying that, Nat was visibly shy. He didn’t want to do a ‘live’ performance,despite us egging asking him to.

Till, tehpeng took his milk bottle “hostage” and in exchange, Nat said it to him. Of course mummy wants it too!

He then came over and gave me a hug and said the beautiful ‘I love you”.

Then he took his bottle and got down for his “nightcap”. As if it was just another bedtime routine for him

Far from it, baby.