Nate's old hairstyle

I miss this old look of Nate... so surfer boy.

On another note, sorry i've not had the time to blog much recently because we're settling into the new farm.

It's all good and we're all loving it by the way.. will update y'all sooner than later!!

Call me Aunty if you like.

I have been having to do quite a bit of grocery shopping lately and i've been finding it really tough carrying heaps of heavy laden plastic bags and grocery bags around with me while trying to hold onto Nate's hands as well. So I decided to get me a trolley dolly which makes total sense. It takes the load off, and it's totally environmentally friendly. Many have called me "Aunty" while seeing me do the trolley dolly thingy but hey, in this day and age, the the trend seems to be leaning towards being eco-friendly. Nevermind if you look a little bit nerdy while at it, but being env conscious seems to be the way to go.. no matter what you look like. For me, that doesn't really matter. I've never been one to be self-conscious in this respect - I guess you don't really care when you've past 30 and don't wanna have to deal with plastic bags cutting into your arm and a 4-year old tugging at your other! (: Seriously, go get yours now.. it's a life saver!

Uh Uh ... How?

Got a bit desperate today on finding a subject to shoot. Decided to head out to the Botanic Gardens and make a pretty picture. I hate shooting flowers and I guess it shows. I make them look strange. It was a nice walk and visit to the National Orchid Gardens anyhow. Decided to tag these photos for a Tourism feature for work. Sometimes the challenge in shooting in quiet news Singapore is to find visuals that are interesting without a news peg.

7-years on, i'm still learning and still being challenged.

And I don't believe in that saying that "There's nothing to shoot in Singapore."

Awwww.

When he was looking like a wet hamster and flashing everyone and we all still thought it was cute.

Pick and Choose Your Battles

So for the first time in his life, Nate got into a fight, well, not all that action and drama but sort of - in a 4-year old fashion.

We were standing in line at the check out counter at Ikea when I noticed Nate had started messing around with another boy - later finding out that he was a couple of months younger than Nate.

They started slapping each other around and at this point i'm thinking that that's just boys...they are rough and tough and besides, they were laughing.

I'm also not one to over-parent a child or at least I try not too.

They're boys, let them be. Time for them to learn to stand up for themselves.

Suddenly I heard a yelp and suddenly Nate's face starts to cramp up and tears started flowing down his cheek, stinging a scratch below his right eye.

In slow motion, you see it turning red and it's prolly like getting a paper cut. Except that this was caused by the other boy's finger nails.

So I turn to Nate and ask if he's ok, playing it down because honestly, its just a scratch. No big deal..

I see the boy back up in a guilty manner and I think to myself to let it go.

The other kid definitely didn't mean to do so. They were playing and accidents happen but for some reason, Nate wouldn't let it go.

His pride was lost.

And no matter what I did to sooth him, it didn't help.

At this point I look at the kid's dad who saw what happened but he didn't do a thing.

You would think that he would at least ask if Nate was ok because at this point he was bleeding and at least ask his son what had happened.

But you see, its Ikea and it was 2330hrs and I as a parent understand that we function on selective hearing and vision - only because we're just tired.

Besides, he was toggling with 2 other kids - yes they have 3.

So Terence makes a remark about children not knowing manners and i'm still fighting the inner battle on whether I should bring this matter up to his parent.

I definitely don't have the energy to deal with defensive parents but at the same time nate is feeling really wronged and short changed.

So in this 3-minute battle in my head, I decided that "Hey ok. I need to do something to stand up for nate but how do I do this right and set a good example?"

You see, in Singapore, 4-million out of 5-million people are defensive and take offense when you make any remarks about their children or any part of their property.

I absolutely Hate that.

Saying sorry its such a lost of pride for Singaporean Chinese it's not funny.

So now you know my dilemma.

So I decided to be as politically correct and soft in my approach because, yes, I would like it if someone told me if Nate had scratched his/her kid as well.

"I'm sorry to interrupt but OUR kids were playing and it just happened that your son ended up scratching Nate in the face. I'm not BLAMING him but I thought I'd point it out to you...."

The whole time i'm thinking that she was going to yell out "BUT THEY'RE KIDS!!"

And to my surprise, she was on the complete same wavelength as me, and started explaining that her kid was rough too and apologized. We kinda gave each other the "oh my god i'm so tired and motherhood sucks but we love it look and moved on from there.

In the end, Nate was satisfied, I was satisfied and we all shook hands and went on our way, battle scar to remember and hero story to tell.

I gather there are more moments like this to come and like they say, it's about picking and choosing your battles.

Happy Chinese New Year

Hi all, it's 3.33am and I just wanted to wish all Chinese out there, a Happy Chinese Lunar New Year!

I leave you with an image I made at work today, where thousands of Buddhists gathered at a local temple to stick burning incense sticks into an urn for good luck and a form of offering to their gods at the stroke of midnight, the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year!