Once upon a time, that someone who came up with the saying that “your child will grow up to be just like you” must have had firsthand experience. If it wasn’t, then I think my own encounters are probably good enough to justify it and put some truth in that statement.
Elaina is starting to sound and look like a little “kaypoh”… little as in size and age but the “kaypoh-ness” in her is big enough to beat any of the adults in the family. She picks up the tone and mannerism from the female adults surrounding her. She will rest her 2 hands on her hip when trying to show her dismay even the tone she uses sounded just so familiar. She bosses everyone around like a parent talking down to a child or a superior exercising her power over the subordinates. Often, we end up having to self-reflect if we need to change ourselves in order to change her.
To make it worse, she has also picked up Singlish unknowingly and from who else other than us. I remember that Matty was using the less than perfect English at one point but it stopped after a while. Whilst I think there is nothing that bad about speaking another “language” it is hard to explain to a 3-year old why she should exercise some discretion from time to time or when to use what and who the target audience should be.
Matty is not any better except that he doesn’t mimic the tone and mannerisim but he uses our line of argument against us (talk about Karma!) not with the agenda of getting back but it still made us eat our words after that.
Couple of weeks back I told Matty that he needs to drink his milk in order to grow tall and strong and how I didn’t like milk when I was a child which resulted in me being less than the average height. Subsequent to that conversation, he will probe me every now and then on the reason why I didn’t take to the taste of milk. Because there was no logical explanation to that, I was only able to tell him that it was the taste. Wrong move… because shortly after that when I tried to make him swallow his greens, the next question that I was be met with was “Why didn’t you like your milk and why didn’t you drink your milk?” with him sounding innocent. I was dumbfounded. At that point in time, how I wish it was in me to tell him not to disobey his mother.
Making Matty eat his vegetables is equivalent to making him swallow poison, other than if it was mixed into his soup. We threaten, cajole, hid it in his rice and even explained to him the good of fibre. If we can make him take one leaf, it is as good as wining it big time. The father often go with the line of “you never know until you try it”. And yes that came back to bit him big time too when he outrightly told his son that he didn’t like apple juice (which the boy loves). Matty took what was said to him in the past about vegetables seriously and handed his dad a cup of apple juice muttering the exact same words – try it… if you don’t try it how do you know you won’t like it?
Wednesday 28 April 2010
Thursday 15 April 2010
Japan
3 April 2010 marked the day we flew off for our third family holiday (if you include the cruise trip on top of the one to Australia) - this time round to Japan to catch the Cherry Blossoms. If we didn’t do it before the kids start formal school, we will need to wait for years to get to do it.
The packing was so much easier as compared to our 10-day trip to Australia. Perhaps I had been well-seasoned from the last experience and was able to put everything in the bags for the entire family in just 2 hours. We could even find time to go shopping the day before the flight when we were supposed to be home-bound and preparing the luggage. I was extremely proud of myself to fit all the clothing, toiletries and what-not gizmos into a trolley bag, a hand-carry and a backpack. It was a logistic nightmare thinking back how we ended up with a trolley-bag, 3 hand-carries and a backpack for the previous 10-day trip. The diapers we brought along took up one hand-carry, not forgetting the tin of unopened formula milk that was just as bulky.
We had a good start I must say. The kids were excited enough not to fuss even though they had to be woken up at 5 in the morning to catch the flight. The excited look on their face as they sat around waiting eagerly for the cab to bring us to the airport was unforgettable. The 7-hour flight from Singapore to Tokyo was a smooth one and it went by so quickly and painlessly. Comparatively, it was hell for Elaina when we took the flight to Adelaide. I swear that the 7-hour we had onboard felt like forever and I just kept looking at my watch.
The bad part is that half-way there, Elaina started to sneeze constantly and it turned into a cold when we got to Japan. The drastic change in temperature took a toll on her system.
The mood nosedived on the second day of the holiday. Elaina was cranky by the afternoon probably due to the late night she had after the need to take a connecting flight from Tokyo to Osaka and dinner which didn’t end until 10 at night. And like all package tour, she had an early start to the day. The dip in temperature made it worse. Thankfully, her mood worked its way back up after that dreadful second day.
The experience at Universal Studio was pretty bad. The queues were long and the whole park was crowded because it was the Sunday before school starts. There was nothing much to keep the kids entertained for the 6 hours we had there. Most of the rides had height restriction or didn’t appeal to children as young as Matty and Elaina.
Other than that, everything was fabulous. We caught the Cherry Blossom in full bloom at Osaka Castle. It was simply gorgeous with the pink and white Sakura plastered to a perfect blue sky just like a postcard.
Matty and Elaina had their first encounter with snow which was unexpected. It was supposed to be a trip to the waterfall in the midst of a mountainous area. What started out as rain became snow when we got to the top. Even though I have seen fallen snow on the ground, I have yet to see snow falling. I have to admit that I was equally as excited. The most amazing part is to be able to stand at at the top looking down only to see snow-covered trees and you hear nothing but silence. Maybe because it wasn’t part of the itinerary and came totally unexpected, I thought I enjoyed the snow more than the Cherry Blossoms.
Not forgetting the food which never fails to make us gorge ourselves silly. Perhaps everything can be considered as more expensive when in Japan but the authentic Japanese food is definitely more affordable than what we pay back home. I get indigestion after each meal because the portion is way bigger than what I can stomach but because it is so damn good that I didn’t want to let it go to waste.
The highlight for Matty and Elaina is nonetheless Disneyland. We had 7 hours there but there was still so much left undone. It was a totally different experience from Universal Studio. I was freezing to death by the time the sun had gone down but both kids didn’t seem to mind the cold and had plenty of energy to keep going. I am sure Disneyland left them deep impressions because when we got home they told me I have to bring them to Disneyland again (hmmm… that will have to wait because it ain’t cheap to fly everyone there and I need to mend my pockets first!).
The packing was so much easier as compared to our 10-day trip to Australia. Perhaps I had been well-seasoned from the last experience and was able to put everything in the bags for the entire family in just 2 hours. We could even find time to go shopping the day before the flight when we were supposed to be home-bound and preparing the luggage. I was extremely proud of myself to fit all the clothing, toiletries and what-not gizmos into a trolley bag, a hand-carry and a backpack. It was a logistic nightmare thinking back how we ended up with a trolley-bag, 3 hand-carries and a backpack for the previous 10-day trip. The diapers we brought along took up one hand-carry, not forgetting the tin of unopened formula milk that was just as bulky.
We had a good start I must say. The kids were excited enough not to fuss even though they had to be woken up at 5 in the morning to catch the flight. The excited look on their face as they sat around waiting eagerly for the cab to bring us to the airport was unforgettable. The 7-hour flight from Singapore to Tokyo was a smooth one and it went by so quickly and painlessly. Comparatively, it was hell for Elaina when we took the flight to Adelaide. I swear that the 7-hour we had onboard felt like forever and I just kept looking at my watch.
The bad part is that half-way there, Elaina started to sneeze constantly and it turned into a cold when we got to Japan. The drastic change in temperature took a toll on her system.
The mood nosedived on the second day of the holiday. Elaina was cranky by the afternoon probably due to the late night she had after the need to take a connecting flight from Tokyo to Osaka and dinner which didn’t end until 10 at night. And like all package tour, she had an early start to the day. The dip in temperature made it worse. Thankfully, her mood worked its way back up after that dreadful second day.
The experience at Universal Studio was pretty bad. The queues were long and the whole park was crowded because it was the Sunday before school starts. There was nothing much to keep the kids entertained for the 6 hours we had there. Most of the rides had height restriction or didn’t appeal to children as young as Matty and Elaina.
Other than that, everything was fabulous. We caught the Cherry Blossom in full bloom at Osaka Castle. It was simply gorgeous with the pink and white Sakura plastered to a perfect blue sky just like a postcard.
Matty and Elaina had their first encounter with snow which was unexpected. It was supposed to be a trip to the waterfall in the midst of a mountainous area. What started out as rain became snow when we got to the top. Even though I have seen fallen snow on the ground, I have yet to see snow falling. I have to admit that I was equally as excited. The most amazing part is to be able to stand at at the top looking down only to see snow-covered trees and you hear nothing but silence. Maybe because it wasn’t part of the itinerary and came totally unexpected, I thought I enjoyed the snow more than the Cherry Blossoms.
Not forgetting the food which never fails to make us gorge ourselves silly. Perhaps everything can be considered as more expensive when in Japan but the authentic Japanese food is definitely more affordable than what we pay back home. I get indigestion after each meal because the portion is way bigger than what I can stomach but because it is so damn good that I didn’t want to let it go to waste.
The highlight for Matty and Elaina is nonetheless Disneyland. We had 7 hours there but there was still so much left undone. It was a totally different experience from Universal Studio. I was freezing to death by the time the sun had gone down but both kids didn’t seem to mind the cold and had plenty of energy to keep going. I am sure Disneyland left them deep impressions because when we got home they told me I have to bring them to Disneyland again (hmmm… that will have to wait because it ain’t cheap to fly everyone there and I need to mend my pockets first!).
