Youth Olympic Games, Singapore 2010

The inaugural Youth Olympic Games  (YOG) has officially begun, in our sunny (and often thunderstormy) island state of Singapore. Being very pregnant (I’m now pushing 8 months), I didn’t think I’d get into much of the sports hype. But out of sheer spontaneity and coincidence, Littlelam and I managed to get in the thick of action during the YOG Torch Relay. The 6-Day Torch Relay, which began in a girls’ school on 8 Aug 2010, involved people from all walks of life and even went over waters in a Dragon Boat. Part of the route for the Relay on Day 2 happened to be at the road right in front of my HDB block. To keep the onlookers occupied, and no doubt to drum up more interest, there were even mini carnival games set up at the waiting area by the side of the road. Apparently it’s called “Experience the YOG Torch Relay in the Heartlands” or something like that. With cotton candy, popcorn and balloons attracting the kids, how could I resist taking Littlelam to experience a part of history! After all, this would be the first and (and probably last time) I would get a chance to see the actual Olympic Flame.

Red YOG Bus that first appeared... and the obligatory police convoy that always follows official vehicles!

The Blue YOG bus that appeared 2nd

Olympic Flame!

Somebody enjoying her cotton candy!

Trying her hand at throwing plastic fruits into Taz's mouth

The next carnival game was not really a ‘game’, but rather a booth to encourage people to save energy and adopt a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. As I mentioned before in my Earth Day post, people who are not very rich already have somewhat of a ‘do not waste’ attitude, which probably comes in useful in games like these.

Spin the wheel, answer a question, get a prize!

The sweet teenage girl (who was undoubtedly roped in as a ‘volunteer’ from her school) was so surprised that Littlelam was actually able to answer the question on her own! Then again, the question was REALLY EASY:

Q: What should you do when you leave the room? Turn ON or Turn OFF the lights?
Littlelam: Turn off!

Heh, guess my nagging does pay off! I always remind her to turn off the toilet lights when she’s done.

The little makeshift 'carnival' area and the thronging heartland crowd

The other really hilarious thing that happened was that she sneezed at the Guest of Honour, the Member of Parliament (MP) for our district, Minister for Transport Raymond Lim. Well, not exactly AT his face, but out of sheer coincidence (again), Littlelam and I happened to be standing along the path where he was walking to the stage. I kinda saw it coming, that’s why I was trying to escape the route, but had no choice but to stand there like the perfect photo opportunity that I was, because the police were stopping people from walking off the other side. So, yes, the nice Minister came up to me, shook my hand (while the cameras around me flashed), and then looking down at Littlelam, said, “Oh, is she yours?” And at that very moment, she must have sneezed and as EVERYONE looked at her, there was this super long drip of thick mucus streaming from her nose!!!!! I promptly swiped it off with my bare hand (the one that was not shaking the Minister’s hand) and laughed sheepishly together with the Minister, who was having a good chortle himself! The old aunties around exclaimed and fussed, “Poor thing! Aiyoh!” and started handing me tissues, after the Minister had asked me a few more questions about my bulging belly — ” Congratulations. When are you due? etc. etc..” I am sooo glad we didn’t end up in the news. I think if she actually sneezed ON him, or sneezed out the YOG flame, then that would be a different story… heh! Sorry, I obviously did NOT get a picture of this.

ANYWAYS, here’s wishing the YOG athletes all the best!

Football Fever

*Argh! Spain won!*

I seriously can’t believe I actually woke up at 2:30 a.m last night to watch the Finals of the FIFA World Cup 2010. The things I do for love. And the match was kosong (nil) – kosong at full time some more. When it went into 30 mins extra time, I prayed that SOMEBODY just score, please, and don’t let it go into Penalty Shoot-outs, or the poor footballers would be so stressed and the person who misses would really feel so bad. And God did answer my prayer because Iniesta from Spain did score and I could finally go to bed. By the way, I have been supporting Holland (for entirely floozy reasons) but I’ve also been supporting the Paul the Octopus, whom I have a soft spot for because I like marine life & have always been fascinated by Octopi (?). See, entirely floozy reasons again. I think I do have a good head of football knowledge, but that’s attributed to my partner of 12 years, and I think my little girl seems to be following in her Daddy’s (and Mommy’s) footsteps.

You see, since the start of the World Cup this year (or actually a couple of weeks before it), the 7-Eleven stores in Singapore started selling these gimmicky MicroStars WorldsStars figurines in sealed packets. On one of their Father-Daughter walks, they somehow ended up buying of these figurines just for the fun of it. It is not cheap -$3.90 and it doesn’t even come with a snack (which is what I was expecting from a gimmicky 7-Eleven toy), and the figurines don’t even look that realistic, to me.

Excitedly tearing open the packaging

BUT, the point is, Littlelam seems to get a big kick out of opening the packet and making Daddy guess the player by describing the colour of the jersey, his hair/eye/face colour, the number on the jersey, and if Daddy still can’t guess, she gives him a clue, the first letter of the chap’s name. Usually by then Daddy gets it right. She is absolutely thrilled with this special little game of theirs, because I think it’s something that the two of them share, and each time she sees a 7-Eleven, she’ll want to buy a ‘footballer for Daddy’. So far I’ve allowed them a player or two each week (maximum of 3 per week) and they’ve amazed a huge collection of strange-looking men that are sitting next to my tooth impression on the display shelf!! There are 40 in total to collect, and I think we’ve collected nearly 20… sigh.

As you can see, some of them look a little freaky. But Littlelam really likes them, and the best thing is that she can name nearly all of them. She even has this game where we’ll all play ‘Alphabet Footballers’, in which we take turns naming Footballers according to the letters of the alphabet. It goes something like this:
Mommy: A for?
Littlelam : Aquilani. B for?
Mommy: Ballack! C for?
Littlelam : Cahill! *big smile* D for?
Mommy: Drogba!
Littelam: Hey we just got him yesterday, right?
and so on…

This little girl of mine sure has a good memory. Sometimes I lose cos I get stumped and she remembers the names of the players better than I do! *sigh* If only she can memorise Bible Characters so well. We are trying to find out Bible characters according to the alphabet so we can play this game too, but we can’t seem to find any name that starts with “F”!!! It’s usually a “Ph”. If anyone can think of one, please leave me a comment! Tx! And I think when she gets older, I’ll try to introduce memory verses instead! Maybe some of you who have older kids can try this game too.

The entire freaky collection of little men!

Of Pedicures

Due to the Chinese New Year festivities last month, I got myself a rather ‘new year-ish’ (read: ang ang, or red) pedicure. I’d been super lazy to remove the remains of this pedi until recently, which sparked a very funny conversation and creative piece of work on Littlelam’s part.

I’d somehow overlooked a glob of Blu-tac that I’d left on the corner of the table after I’d removed some of the CNY decorations still on the wall, and so the lump of blue clay-like temptation too much for Littlelam. She got her hands on it without me knowing, and I came into the living room to this sight:

Apparently a new, safe for kids version of a temporary pedicure, haha! Of course it didn’t last more than 5 minutes of her walking around, but well, I think it was a good attempt on her part! She was particularly amused with herself and declared, “Look, Mommy!” very proudly, I must say. I showed her my feet and a very interesting conversation ensued:

Littlelam: Your toes [sic] are red, right, Mommy? Mine are blue!
Me: Yeah, you did yours very nicely! That was a very good idea!
Littlelam: Yah, mine is not real.
Me: Yes, little girls shouldn’t be using real nail polish.
Littlelam: Next time when I am bigger, I can, right?
Me: Yeah, sure.
Littlelam: When I am 30 years old?
Me: *choking back a laugh* er, yeah… I think younger also ok. Don’t have to wait till you’re Mommy’s age!
Littelam: How about 20 years old? *pause* I think maybe 12 years old better.

12 years old it is! I shall hold her to her promise that she will only paint her nails when she turns 12!!

On a side note, I reckon this could make a fun girly thing to do with young daughters – get more colours by using playdoh instead!!

The accidental meme: Girly Pouch Contents

My dear tomboy-at-heart childhood pal recently discovered that she didn’t have a girly pouch like many other girls, and so decided to assemble her own. I thought it was hilarious and practical at the same time, so I decided to have a look at the contents of my own pouch:

Embarassingly fat, pink, Hello Kitty pouch

I’ve just realised, to my horror, that I think what I have isn’t really a girly pouch, but a bag organiser. Albeit a very cheap one that only cost me $2 (from Daiso, where else!). And, another horrifying realisation is that practically everything in this pouch is PINK! argh! And I don’t even like pink! Anyway, this is a really good exercise because I just realised that I’m missing several important things that I should be carrying around but am not. Here are the bizarre contents of my pouch/ bag organiser:

 

• Body Shop Tea Tree Oil Hand Sanitizer
• Carefree ‘ahem’ pouch
• Missha Fruits Shine Lip Tip
• Ballpoint pen
• Thumbdrive
• Namecard holder
• Littlelam’s hair rubberbands and hairclip
• Gummy bear sweets (Thomas Sabo one was a free sample)
• Del Monte Raisin Fruit Snacks

The Kate Spade wallet & Agnes b Cardholder don’t really qualify as part of the girly pouch I think? But yes, I stuff it in there anyway!

And, what is glaringly missing is my Watsons pocket TISSUE PAPER PACKETS! I MUST have at least 2 packets in my bag at any one time. Tonight it’s not there because I’ve used them up! I also realise I probably need more make-up items and some Panadol and Antihistamines in there!

I’m tagging everyone else who wants to do this – leave me a comment and link to where you’ve posted yours!

Who Built Me?

I realise I didn’t do a Mothers’ Day Post because I was waaay too busy celebrating birthdays and stuff over that weekend. But today a friend sent me an email that made me chuckle.

It reminded me of something I wanted to post for a long time, but kept forgetting. Kids really do say the darndest things and my 2.5 year-old is no exception. This is a truly amazing conversation I had with her a while ago, after playing Lego.

(I’m cleaning her up and changing her into her pajamas for the night)
Littlelam: (Looking at her naked body) Mommy, who built me?
Me: Who BUILT you? Er… God MADE you…
Littlelam: (looking at her body parts again) It’s all correct!

Needless to say, I was stunned into silence by her simple but amazing observation.

Here are some other funnies by kids that are equally true!

WHY GOD MADE MUMS

Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions:

Why did God make mothers?
1. She’s the only one who knows where the sticky tape is.
2. Mostly to clean the house.
3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

How did God make mothers?
1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.
2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.
3. God made my Mum just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.

What ingredients are mothers made of ?
1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.
2. They had to get their start from mens’ bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.

Why did God give you your mother and not some other Mum?
1. We’re related.
2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people’s Mums like me.

What kind of little girl was your Mum?
1. My Mum has always been my Mum and none of that other stuff.
2. I don’t know because I wasn’t there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.
3. They say she used to be nice.

What did Mum need to know about Dad before she married him?
1. His last name.
2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?
3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?

Why did your Mum marry your Dad?
1. My Dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my Mum eats a lot.
2. She got too old to do anything else with him.
3. My Grandma says that Mum didn’t have her thinking cap on.

Who’s the boss at your house?
1. Mum doesn’t want to be boss, but she has to because Dad’s such an idiot.
2. Mum. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.
3. I guess Mum is, but only because she has a lot more to do than Dad..

What’s the difference between Mums & Dads?
1. Mums work at work and work at home and Dads just go to work at work.
2. Mums know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.
3. Dads are taller & stronger, but Mums have all the real power ’cause that’s who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friend’s.
4. Mums have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.

What does your Mum do in her spare time?
1. Mothers don’t have spare time.
2. To hear her talk, she pays bills all day long.

What would it take to make your Mum perfect?
1. On the inside she’s already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.
2. You know, her hair. I’d die it, maybe blue.

If you could change one thing about your Mum, what would it be?
1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I’d get rid of that.
2. I’d make my Mum smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it and not me.
3. I would like her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

Happy Belated Mother’s Day!