who cooked dinner tonight?

Do you know this Hi-5 song?

"Some salami (ham) and zucchini
And a lot of mozzarella
Some salami (ham) and zucchini
And a lot of mozzarella
Pizza, Pizza, Pizza is a lot of fun!"

I soiled my hands while gardening this whole afternoon. So guess who prepared dinner tonight?

gardening...

my last chance this spring, sniff...

the return of the cat in the hat...

great and greater inventions...

On my way out of the bathroom, I met Alan. Told him I was in a hurry to start the third machine running in the house: the dishwasher! That was after I had loaded up my dryer and set a timer for another load of wash in my washing machine.

What would the modern women do without all these ingenious, lifestyle-altering inventions?
Gee... I would have absolutely no time to even think about spa!

daily devotions...

We've been busy with these books for the past few days.

I am stunned by what Bryan has to say to each daily devotion.

On the story of Creation, he stopped me and counted, "1-2-3-4-5-6-7..., errm, and on the 8th day God rested." Well, not very accurate there, but the point is he remembered there were 7 days. And that God rested. It was great fun that we could take the opportunity to talk about the Sabbath.

And because he's a budding reader, he enjoys studying the colourful pages filled with informations on our Almighty.

happy birthday, mommy!

Well, I didn't quite remember it's Mommy's birthday, had she not reminded me last night.

It's school holiday this whole week, so Kristin and I got to follow her around wherever she goes. We even went to the gym with her yesterday! After that, she took us to our favourite Japanese restaurant for lunch. But I wasn't very good - Basically, I talked too loudly with my friend Daria that the waitress had to come by to tell us to pipe down. Didn't know why. Guess those men in clothes like Daddy's weren't too happy seeing us in the restaurant. Kristin was pretty good - so Mommy said. She finished all her food!

So what did we do today?
By the time I woke up this morning, Daddy was already gone. I think Mommy said he was working in Switzerland today. Oh yes, I've been in Switzerland before. It's nice. We saw alot of mountains, cows and lakes. But it was a very very long drive. Can't remember what we were doing in the car. But Mom and Dad weren't too happy. I never knew why they were always in such bad mood. I just wanted to listen to my favourite song. It's called "Fly Birdie Fly!" It's on CD 3, Track 19. I just wanted to listen to it again and again. But Mom said no. I think she said something about the navigation system going down if I kept asking for the song again and again. Funny... oh, but it did happen once and we had no maps in the car. We got lost, you know.

Oh yes... Daddy was gone. We got up late. Mommy was very tired. I think we had a very long day yesterday. We went and watched a funny show. There was a lot of singing. Couldn't understand what the people were singing. But at the end of the show it was very funny. Kristin and I had a good time laughing because the people threw cake at each other.

Anyway, Mommy complained that she had pain all over. And she said it was her birthday and that we should let her rest. So Kristin and I decided to play a little in the playroom. Then we got into a fight. She destroyed my lego flying garage for cars. I was screaming at her. And then Mommy came in and said it was her worst birthday ever. Next we were barred from playing. Kristin started looking at Mommy dolefully and asked to watch some DVDs. I wanted to watch Magic School Bus but she always wanted to watch Elmo. Mommy made a funny noise and then we both agreed that Kristin would choose for the first DVD and I would choose the second one.
So we got to watch something. Yay!

Then we had breakfast, I think. We had toasts. My favourite food! Yummy! It's strawberry cream cheese with Gelbwurst sandwiches. I can eat those sandwiches everyday! Mmmmmh!
After that I got to watch my Magic School Bus.

Mommy said we had to get ready even before the DVD ended. Anyway, Kristin had already switched off the TV, although I could still hear the Magic School Bus song on the radio.
Then Mommy finally said we had to go or the ducks would be sleeping by the time we get to the duck pond. Hmmm, I thought I heard her say we would be feeding ducks. Yay, we hadn't done that for the longest time. We finally got into the car and Mommy drove past our school and then she said something about going to the supermarket first. I couldn't understand why we had to go to the supermarket first when she said it was already going to rain and the sky did look grey.

Anyway, Kristin and I love to go to the BIG supermarket. By the way, I just learnt that the name is spelled R-E-W-E. We love this place because it has a funny machine that takes in plastic bottles. I love throwing bottles in there and hearing the crushing noises. It's the coolest thing ever! And this place has got cars as shopping carts! But Mommy said no, we couldn't have two cars today. Anyway, Kristin and I thought it was fun to run about, until Kristin fell down and went sliding on the slippery floor and then Mommy said we couldn't run there and it wasn't a playground. You know, she always says that when we go somewhere fun like the mall, supermarket... But it's so boring when you cannot run, you know!

We finally filled out our basket and then Mommy said we had to hide the basket somewhere and something about going back to the car quickly and that she forgot her purse. Mommy doesn't have a good memory, you know. She always forgets things. She always forgets to pack candy for me as snacks in school. And she always forgets to give me juice for lunch. She also always forgets to bring Kristin and me to the playground. She said once, she only had a brain as big as a peanut. I told her the stegosaurus had a much bigger brain than she did because it's the size of a walnut. And she said I was a smart boy! :)

Then we went back to the cash desk and checked out our basket of food. We were pretty happy that we could go to the duck pond now. But Mommy stopped at the bakery and said she wanted some doughnuts and asked if we wanted some too. I said, yeah. But wait, there were chocolate muffins. "Oh, Mommy, could we have some chocolate muffins instead? You know we never eat them at home!" So Mommy bought a doughnut for herself and a muffin each for Kristin and me.
And yes, we finally got into the car and Mommy drove us to the duck pond. It's near our school, you know. I told Mommy I could lead us there. It's easy and I know the way. And then she said something about not running and bicycles running us down. You know, that never happened to us. I wonder why she always says things that don't happen.

At the duck pond, Mommy gave us each a bag of bread. But there were only two ducks at the pond. Mommy said we came too late coz the ducks were all taking afternoon naps already.
Then I told her we could go to the other side of the pond. I saw more ducks there. Another 4 more. So I told her, "See, we're not too late. There are so many more ducks here." (Mommy: Yeah, right!) I finished my feed in no time. I asked Kristin to share some of hers with me. But she said no. You know, she never shares anything with me, although Mommy said it was very generous of her the other day when she gave me some of her cheese crackers. And that I should be nice to her too and thank her for sharing with me.

Then we walked to a bench, sat down, had our snacks. Kristin and I had muffins and Mom had a doughnut. The ducks were waddling towards us. Mom told us not to give the ducks our muffins. Then she finished her doughnut and told us it was time we should go. That it was getting too cold and the sky looked like it was going to rain. We then walked another way back to the car. I told Mom I could show her how because I know the duck pond very well. The teachers in school like to bring us here when the sun is out.

When we got into the car, Mom told Kristin not to fall asleep. Then we drove and went past our home. I told Mom that we missed our turn, but she said we had to go to her gym to return a DVD. I asked her what DVD it was and why we didn't get to watch it. And she said it was some scary movie. You know, she likes to watch scary stuffs, esp on her computer. By the time we reached the Daddy's office garage, Kristin was already sleeping. Mommy put her in the buggy and we went to return the DVD. Then Mommy said we still had some time. So we went to the market to look at some plants. I was so excited. I hadn't gone to the market for such a long time. She said we could buy some strawberry plants and plant them on our balcony. We looked for a very long time and Mom finally found the strawberry plants in one corner. Then she said we weren't going to buy them today because she wouldn't have time to plant them today and by the time we came back from Munich the plants would have already died since no one would be here to water them. Sigh, what a disappointment.

Then she got a call from Dad and said we had to hurry home. By the time we got to the garage, Kristin was awake again. I told her she missed the strawberry plants in the market. And then she started whining to Mom that she wanted to eat strawberries. Mommy turned around and gave me a long hard stare. I was quite scared and kept quiet all the way till we got home.

When we got home, I asked Dad why he was back so early if he went to Switzerland to work today. I remembered we drove for a long time. By the time we got to Switzerland it was already dark. And by the time we got back home in Frankfurt, it was dark too. And it's still so bright and Daddy was already home, so early!

Then I saw Dad giving Mommy a kiss and a bunch of flowers. This was the first time I saw Daddy giving Mommy flowers. Usually, Mommy would buy flowers for herself. And then she would ask me if I would buy flowers for her when I made money next time. I said, Of course!
Anyway, I didn't have anything to give to Mommy. So I told her, I love you, Mom! And then Kristin came up and hugged her and said that she loved her too. You know, she always copies me.

We went to this cow place near our home for dinner. I don't like that place but Dad said I would get a toy if I finished my dinner. I finished my dinner real quick tonight but the waitress forgot to give me the toy until we were about to leave. It was pretty cool, it's like a torch, but Daddy said it was a reading lamp and that I could clip to my book when I read in my room at night. I asked if I could bring it to Munich tomorrow. He said yes. Kristin got a bottle of bubbles. I asked her if she would share with me. She said no. You see, she doesn't share anything with me!
Then Dad said no one but he would blow the bubbles. Kristin and I were having so much fun popping the bubbles, until Mom said we had to go and that it was raining. O yes, it finally rained. Remember she said it was going to rain at the duck pond. But it only rained now.

When we got home we had ice-cream as cake for Mommy. Dad said her favourite was Strawberry Cheesecake flavour from Haagen Dazs. But I said my favourite was chocolate flavour. Then Dad said it wasn't my birthday. Yes, he's right. Anyway, I thought strawberry cheesecake tasted quite good. I think I will eat it again. :)

Then Daddy said it was very very late already and he put Kristin and me to bed. Before I went to sleep, I asked Mommy if it was her best birthday ever. She said yes!
I smiled and said good-night!

buran on rhine

on its way to its new home in Speyer:


I almost wanted to drive up to Bingen to get a better look of this Russian space shuttle when I heard this on the radio this morning.

Looks like we need to make a trip down to the museum in Speyer soon.

reading "green eggs and ham"

Apparently, Bryan's been doing Dr Seuss for this week in class. Somehow, I didn't get the schedule for this week until I read the notice board outside his classroom yesterday.

So gotta strike while the iron's hot, this was what I offered him last night while waiting for his dad to come home, Green Eggs and Ham!



Again, it was me on left, and him on right. He's happy that it's a balanced division of work:



I could tell from the smirk on his face that he was secretly happy that this time only Mommy was on:



Now, he wasn't too happy. "Mommy, it's not funny, you know." I had to remind him he didn't have to read at the last go.



"Mommy, it's unfair. You still don't get anything!"
"Life isn't always fair."
"No, I don't want to read anymore!"
But after having a peek at the next two pages, he decided to "resign" to his fate:



"Haha, now you see, life isn't always fair, Mommy!"

Really, I wasn't lying when I said he's a lazy bum. He's discouraged by the number of words he has to read on each page. Looks like it will still be mainly picture books for a long period of time!

jack and the beanstalk

Bryan's been into colouring these days. I have no idea why this sudden interest. His colouring skills are, fortunately, straightening out, alot.

e.g. This was what he presented to me at the pick-up today.

When Bryan came home yesterday, he had this sudden urge to complete this page. He even told me he would stop watching TV after the Kipper disc and finish up his work. Why the rush? Because he wanted to have it ready by today for Daniel Lucas' birthday. He was planning to give it away as a gift!

Ok, I know the theme isn't quite appropriate. It's an Easter colouring page. But hey, we're celebrating birth, right? :)

When Bryan finally presented his final product for my approval - think praises, that's what he was soliciting at the end of the day, I decided it was TIME to hand him this book I picked up at the Frankfurter Bookfair 1.5 years ago. Yep, 1.5 years ago! There are many more that aren't age-appropriate at the moment. I could have given it to him then, but he wouldn't have done justice to the book. The book certainly did not deserve the ill treatment of a preschooler, who could neither colour nor read. It would have ended up in shreds.

So Jack and the Beanstalk it is:

He felt proud to be handed this book. Because I said to him solemnly as if it was some family heirloom, "It's time. Now you will receive this wonderful book from me."

But we didn't get to the colouring immediately. He wanted to read the book!

"Ok, let's read it together. "

"No, it's too difficult. "

"Well, I take the left page. You do the right. "

"Hmm, ok. "

I eventually persuaded him to read the book with me,

He was reading... reading the most amazing things, at least they are to me. Because prior to this event, I was only expecting him to read nothing more than 1-syllable words and those sight words he knows.

e.g. "woman, mother, magic, giant, some, window, castle"... were some of the words I didn't expect him to know.

While he didn't at first get the word "tip-toed", he cried it out when I covered up the second part of the word. I think when he reads now, he's beginning to associate the words with his spoken vocabulary. Finally... phew! And all this while, he's had me on, thinking he couldn't read!

Lazy bum!

reds and whites...

Something I will certainly miss when I'm back in Singapore for good: Fresh flowers at affordable prices, 24 roses at 4 Euros!

missing frankfurt already...

I was going through the people/things that I would find myself missing most when I'm back in Singapore for good.


I know this is funny, but the No. 1 on my list is my cleaning lady Halina from Poland!

She's such a warm and pleasant lady. Without her, my household will come crumbling, as evident in the past couple of weeks when she was back in Poland for the Easter break. Though she barely speaks German and I don't know a single word of Polish, we seem to understand each other very well. She cleans, irons, folds my laundry for me every week. And when she leaves, the house is spick and span again! I wish she would move with me too... sigh!

an emerging reader?

Just a couple of weeks back, I was still lamenting how little Bryan could read on his own, or rather how much I had to read to him. Alan and I made our recent discovery that our son is probably not the independent sort.

At 4.5 years, he can sleep on his own, but he'd rather not to. So we stick him and Kristin in the same bedroom for now.
Bryan can get dressed all by himself, yet he still gets an earful from me each morning, with threats of a TV-ban for the whole week if he continues to dawdle and fritter away the precious morning hours and get us all late for school.
He can self-feed, most definitely or he'll starve in school. However, Mommy has to scoop his food in a spoon before he can shove it down his throat on his own.
He'll feign exhaustion when he has to put on his shoes or coat at the end of the day when I pick him up in school.
He can shower, but he'd rather let you do it for him.
The list goes on. Bottom line is he's a lazy bum! That's the same with reading too. Why should I read when my parents read for me, anyway?

Tonight something got to him. He read me all the readers he could lay his hands on. Some twenty of them all in one shot! I think it's time Mommy takes a backseat when it comes to reading...

inspiring clowns...

The reason why Kristin remains all composed despite the deep scratch on her nose is...






we've been entertaining her with tongue twisters and songs from this book.

a good facial is...

to have regenerative power like Claire Bennett does.

This is the best we can do right now for Kristin: lots of Vitamin E cream. Didn't mean to scare you. Those on her cheeks and chin were slapped on because she wanted to look like a silly clown. :)

Hopefully her baby skin will heal fast. Don't think she'll resemble the alternate future of Peter Petrelli from Heroes.

disfigured!

Just the other day, I was asking Kristin about her friends in school. Apparently, she has more "enemies" than friends.

"Do you like J....?"

"No, he's (always) fighting!"

"Do you like R..., I mean R. K.?"

"No, but I like R.S.! He's nice!" Broadest grin on her face!

"Whatabout this girl, Kei?"

"Errr, no. She's (always) fighting."

Bryan never told me if he got along with any of his classmates when he was at this age. He would always say he liked everyone!

When I picked up the kids in school today, Kristin greeted me with this deep scratch across her face:

I asked her what happened.

In her words: "I was playing in the gym. Kei scratched me! She hurt me!"

Remember the girl, Kei, Kristin doesn't like?

Too bad the teacher and the parent of the girl were not within earshot. When I checked with her daycare teacher later, she told me the scratch was already there when Kristin went into the gym. Bryan gave me another report, while Kristin's teacher was shocked to see the scratch (obviously Kristin didn't sustain this scratch in the morning in class.)

Ok... I'm no CSI here. I told Kristin that she should tell Kei's mom when she sees her again in school. And CRY MURDER the next time this happens to her.