happy campers

a normal day. the usual work. mommy got home about the same time. hubs' car was already parked in the garage. mommy finds the living room quiet, figured the boys must be upstairs watching cartoons. mommy went into the kitchen, no one there. so up the stairs mommy went & found not 2, but 3 boys grinning back at her! mommy smiled & the lil one said, "surprise!" cute, but mommy didn't think anything of what was said & opened the door to our bedroom. mommy was very surprised after that, then speechless to find a big tent properly set up in the room with the boys' 2 single mattresses in it. mommy looked at hubs & he responded with, "i bought it for RM50."

the littlest of mommy's 3 boys loves playing "pretend camp" or if directly translated from hokkien as he puts it, "make camp". their everyday improvised "pretend camp" or tent is the good ol' blanky & all 3 boys would be under it waiting for mommy to enter the room for bedtime & when she does, "surprise!" they say in unison. being under the blanky can sometimes be warm, followed by stuffiness if the period stayed under there is longer than it should be. therefore hubs' great idea was to purchase a real tent for the boys, more like a dolly/play house for the girls!

with the tent in the room, the 2 younger boys gave mommy no trouble in getting ready for bed. teeth all clean & sparkly with fresh pyjamas on, they excitedly went to bed, or camp at 8pm. by 9.15pm, hubs had to put the tent away as it was far too much distraction for the 2 to really fall asleep in a "pretend camp". despite the hassle of folding the tent, hubs looked at mommy & with a boyish satisfaction on his face said, "they'll never forget this night. they'll talk about it when they're older."

robot boy

the movie

an's latest interest is none other than leader of the autobots, optimus prime, from the animated series, comics & recent hit movie, transformers. we brought him to the big screen on a school day, after school i.e., as a surprise. an was indeed happily surprised when he found out that we were going to watch transformers! hubs & i'd planned this earlier & took a day off work so that we can break the everyday routine & take him to the movies on a weekday. the cinema is also less crowded which is a good thing.

the toy

when we went out for lunch on one of my long friday lunch breaks, with time to spare, we headed to a departmental store to look at books. next to the books is the toy section & from a distance, we spotted the neat shelves filled with the new action figures from transformers. an of course flipped out. i did too but tried not to show too much excitement! because he has been behaving well, i told him to choose ONE toy only. so he took his sweet time & carefully decided on a reasonably priced* optimus prime from the rest & stayed very faithful to it ever since. he carries it everywhere he goes & for the first time, he takes great pride + care of his toy. i'd say he has been transformed :o)

* an likes looking at price tags/stickers & reading them out. i believed his interest in numbers grew after he started kindy this year. when he runs through the prices in any shops, he'll pick out items & ask me, "mommy, is this expensive? " or "mommy, do you need a lot of money to buy this? "

growing boys

it sure feels great to be blogging again. it's like not having written an entry in my diary for ages & the pages are longing to be filled with eventful scribbles. writing is definitely therapeutic when it comes to documenting the childhood days of my growing boys :o)

an doesn't like being 5 lately. he wants to be older. beats me! it began in church one fine sunday morning & mass was about to end, a youth went up to announce that the parish has formed its own youth group & is encouraging boys & girls as young as 12 years & older to register & be part of this ministry. an looked at me excitedly & told me he wants to be in. i explained to him that when he's old enough, 12 to be exact, he can be part of the youth. he stubbornly replied, "i don't want to be 5. i don't like 5." on a different day, he declared to be 6 & not 5. again i explained to him patiently that he'll turn 6 next year, for now he's 5. he then retorted, "i'll take the 5 out of me & replace it with 6."

i suppose we all go through that phase of wanting to be grown ups instantaneously. i remembered wanting to be 13, then couldn't wait to reach my sweet 16 birthday & when the excitement of being 16 wore off, 18 looks awesome & 21 even better presuming that i'd know everything by then! silly me!

at 2 years of age, lil han on the other hand thinks that he's the solar system & for that, everything revolves around him. now that's another story altogether! i'm glad that his big bro has taught me a lot about the sometimes terrible 2 behaviour & tantrums. han is into wanting to have anything that he sees on the spot. thank goodness it doesn't happen in the shops but mostly with what his big bro is holding or having, be it a book, toy or food. poor an will have to put up with this for a bit. of course when han shows too much of his lil power & his big bro is looking helpless, daddy & mommy will come to the rescue!