transposable element

during jan’s toddler years, we were very strict his with tv exposure. he virtually never watched tv before he was two and even at nearly three, his consumption was kept to about half an hour before bedtime.

with mia, though, it’s more challenging to keep her unexposed. having an older sibling who watches makes it close to impossible for her not to. if we had a large house, it would probably be possible to whisk her away to some other room while jan watches his programs, but as it is, it’s just not possible. even more now that we’ve decided to finally to get a bigger screen plasma tv (there goes my Sony Vaio budget!). she watches in passing, especially when she hears a catchy tune, but unlike some of her friends of the same age, she hasn’t displayed any real interest in tv so far.

oh well, let’s see how long it takes before she catches the bug and get addicted to the purple dinosaur.

finally, we’re back on track… sort of.

the month-long school holidays are over, with a bonus week because both hubby and jan were put on quarantine after our return from thailand, plus a long weekend because of youth day. so finally, yesterday, tuesday, jan was back in school, and life returns to normal, hehe.

no more sleeping-ins for me (hubby’s no longer there to look after mia in the mornings!), back to homework, forget unrestricted tv-time, online games and PS3. this term, jan’s schedule is a logistical challenge. every wednesday afternoon, he has a supplementary conversational chinese class. this means two things. one, he will have to eat lunch in school; problem is, he’s not very enthusiastic at the food offerings in the canteen. two, the next schoolbus he could take home is 45 minutes after the end of his class, so i (and mia) will have to pick him up.

in a few months, mia will also go to a nursery of some sort. and i can already foresee how my days will be spent, shuttling the kids to schools and back, doing the grocery runs and house chores in between. this is it– the stuff i see on tv shows featuring stay at home moms. fab!

or not.

a few days before we were set to fly to thailand for a week’s holiday, i was so close to canceling the trip. not only is thailand included in the list of countries with community spread of swine flu, it was also jan’s last week of school holidays, so if he does fall sick, he would have to miss the first few days of classes, which i consider very important in setting students off to a good start. i was chastising myself for not having considered these before i made the bookings, but then, at the time, there wasn’t a single case of swine flu in southeast asia. how was i supposed to know it will spread like fire, and from zero, the number of cases here in singapore has ballooned to about 700 in a span of just a month!

and although we were armed with hand sanitizers and N95 face masks, i felt so heavy about the decision to push thru with the trip, knowingly putting my children at risk, for a reason as frivolous as having a vacation. it was an unnecessary travel we could have easily skipped.

it’s been a week since we’re back, and i think i can now safely say that we have made it unscathed. both hubby and jan have been ordered to stay away from their office and school though, as a form of quarantine. jan has been receiving lessons and worksheets from school which we work on at home sans the classroom desks. it helps to at least keep him busy, instead of just whiling away the week.

we are scheduled to fly to the philippines in september. but if the swine flu alert does not ease up until then, we might just have to skip it altogether. good thing we got those flight tickets dirt cheap, so it’s not a lot of money thrown away!

jan’s school holidays come to a close (er… somewhat, but more on that later). i can’t believe this blog has been neglected for two weeks! time flies by fast when you’re having a great time. although it has been busy, it’s been fun having jan at home. sure, he got on my nerves at times, but fortunately my younger brother has decided to extend his stay and spend the rest of the month with us. he and jan kept each other company in jaunts to the cinema, parks, and hikes. otherwise, if i had to look after both jan and mia, by the end of the month, i probably would have looked like i was taking Liporexall!

he came to singapore to look for a job. well, he found one… yayo, hehe.

with jan on school holidays and my younger brother with us for the last couple of weeks, it’s no wonder that posts on this blog has been few and far between recently. i barely have time to sit down, and when i do, mia knots her eyebrows at me, and chooses to take that opportunity to raise her arms (and voice) to be carried, aaargh!

jan’s first two weeks at home have been relatively relaxed, and i intentionally planned it to be that way. what vacation would it be if it would still be packed with activities, eh? the school holidays is a break from work, and given the rigorous schoolwork they have here, it’s really the only opportunity to veg out for days on end and enjoy doing nothing for a change. well it wasn’t really nothing; with his grandmother and uncle around, he had enough to spice up his days.

the next two weeks, though, are quite packed. this week, jan goes in the afternoons to a theatre workshop that will culminate into a stage presentation on saturday. we’ll see if the boy’s theatrics has better use than just wheedling himself out of trouble, hehe…

i also just remembered that my brother is a seasoned tennis player and i’ve asked him to teach jan tennis in the mornings. alarms are set a bit earlier this week, as they need to hit the courts and be able to play a bit before the sun gets too fierce. i wish it had occurred to me to ask my brother to give jan lessons as soon as he arrived, because unfortunately, there are just a few days left to practice. because…

next week, we’re off to phuket for a beach break. though i’ve been to bangkok and northern thailand many years ago for work-related travel, it will be my first time visiting the much talked about holiday island. let’s see if it holds up to its reputation. and more importantly, hopefully it remains H1N1-free, ack!

when we return, there’ll just be enough days left to get jan back on school mode. i hope that by then, he’ll not only be re-energised for the second school term but also have fond memories of his first real school holidays.

this video clip was forwarded to me by email (thanks again, MissA!) and in the spirit of mothers’ day, i thought to share it with all you moms out there. those who have very young kids might not be able to relate yet, but if you’re like me who has a kid of jan’s age or older, watch this and see if you don’t hear yourself, haha:

for the last 6+ years, i can count on one hand the number of times i went to the cinema to watch something that wasn’t kid oriented. to be honest, i really don’t feel like i’m missing much. maybe i’m just not that much of a movie-goer, and i don’t follow the hollywood who’s who, so except for a few films, i seldom get the must-watch-that feeling. i actually get pretty excited with the latest animation films though (ab durch die hecke/over the fence installation hedge is one of my favorites, second to ice age).

last weekend, jan and i went to the theatre. ok, it was a puppet piece, but it was held at the arts house, in a real theatre hall. we went there with me thinking the show was for him, but i found myself enjoying it and laughing as much as he did. after the show, we had some ice cream sandwiches and had a stroll along the singapore river.

and there it hit me. i just had a date with jan, and i truly, thoroughly enjoyed it.

either jan is growing up, or i’m regressing.

marble number… oh heck, who’s counting anyway?

booking travel accommodations has become a tad bit more complicated now that we’re four. if we are to have a fairly good night’s sleep, we now need to order an extra bed for jan. most hotels now provide baby cribs free of charge, but after seeing the (dubious) state of the baby cot and beddings we were offered during our last trip, i’ve been considering getting a travel cot for mia. i was considering something like the tent-like kindercot, until i came across the baby bjorn travel cot light. this has got to be the coolest travel gear for babies ever. it’s the size of a normal luggage, so you can easily check it in as such, weighs only 5kg, and yet transforms into a sturdy 1-meter bed, in less than 10 seconds. coolness! watch this video:

if you know someone who is expecting a child and loves to travel (even if it’s just to the in-laws), this is the perfect baby shower gift!

it wasn’t until a few days after that i was able to watch obama’s inauguration. i’ve recorded the entire cnn coverage when i figured out that he wasn’t going to get sworn in until around midnight in our part of the world. too bad, i even prepared a commemorative all american dish for dinner (hamburgers, hehe), thinking we could all have dinner while watching the usa president take oath.

it was difficult explaining to jan what the hoopla is all about, though. he already knew who obama was, praise his kindy and school teachers. but i wasn’t sure i wanted to get into the details of what makes obama special from all the rest of the U.S. presidents so far. so he’s black. and? to jan’s eyes, race or skin color does not have any meaning other than the literal definition. obviously he’s not blind and he sees the difference between someone from china to someone from bangladesh or america. but to him, it’s a simple recognition that people come from different parts of the world. born in a biracial family and raised in a multicultural milieu, he truly does not have any prejudice against nor preference to any race or nationality. how can he, when he’s mingled with all of them without any bias? he respects that some of his friends do not eat pork, and others speak some other language he does not recognize, or that some of his teachers wear a head scarf. he respects each individual, and their idiosyncrasies. he recognizes the person, not the skin color.

so how does one begin to tell a child blissfully unaware of racial discrimination what a milestone it is for someone of african descent to be the president of the united states of america?

i’m bracing myself for 2009. even without the help of an astrologer, i can already foresee that this year is going to be challenging. no, not because of the global financial crisis (in fact the crisis’ effect on residential and commercial real estate might even work to our favor as we are due to renew the lease on our flat this year), but because of the changes in our daily rhythm now that jan has started school.

for one, i’ve never prepared lunch for anyone except myself for the last 6-7 years, and now suddenly i need to have lunch ready on the table when jan gets home from school. where do i squeeze in the time to fix lunch? and when do i get to do activities with mia? she’ll also need to start playgroup soon. how will i help jan with homework with mia around?

i have absolutely no idea how to juggle all that needs to be done without meltdowns (mine, not the kids’). i can’t imagine how other parents do it and manage to stay sane! there must be a secret, a key, a combination of buttons to push. if you have the code, would you mind sharing it?