Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

The weather's turned this week for the colder, so instead of going out for walks after his nap in the afternoon, we've been cosying up indoors.

Yesterday, we whipped out the play dough again, and to my surprise, little D breaks into a full rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" inspired by the star-shaped cookie cutter he'd been playing with.

Out came my camera to capture the action, but he saw it, came off his seat across the table from me, and clambered up my chair to get a closer look - all the while still singing.

His moving while singing and watching the camera makes this a little MTV-ish, don't you think? The poor framing towards the end is thanks to me having to keep the camera out of his reach! Oh, so cute - I'm biased, of course.

At Play - places and moments we will miss

The one time you can count on D to really be good and enjoy himself is when he's at play. Sitting still, listening to Mommy and Daddy's instructions, not so good.

Put him in a space with lots of options to swing, slide, run, and ride, he's off and having a blast.

Here are some moments from this month that highlight little D at play!
Slippin' and slidin'


Friends D & G brought their little darlings H & E to visit us, and the kids had fun blowing bubbles in the sun at the bbq/picnic/playground (H in the background, D in the middle, E in the foreground):



At Puff's Magical Playcentre in Traralgon, he goes wild on this little go-cart thingamajig.


Going up the bouncy castle:


And chilling out in the toddler ball pool -




The best part about being a toddler is playing pretend!

In a neat little corner our little tyke prepares brekky with a toast -

Singing "I'm a little teapot short and stout!"


And becoming Bob the Builder in this little get-up... or is he Phua Chu Kang?

Chicken a la Carte

My sis-in-law A emailed this video link, and watching it made me cry.

Produced by one Ferdinand Dimadura and set presumably in the Philippines (or maybe Indonesia?), it's titled "Chicken a la Carte".

"How can your laughter bring tears to my eyes?"

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

I suppose one sobering effect of the world financial crisis is that it makes us more sensitive to the plight of the underprivileged, our fellow brothers and sisters who form the underbelly of society who literally eat out of the refuse of the affluent, and yet have the spirituality and joy de vivre that put me to shame.

And here we are living in plenty, providing our sons and daughters with more than they can or want to eat, and we end up throwing the excess away without consideration. Something I hope to show Dylan when he is old enough to understand.

D's Malapropisms

I am amused to no end by D's malapropisms - you see he's not yet learned to pronounce many words properly yet - so what happens is he sounds like he's actually saying something else altogether... which can be pretty funny.

Here are some. When he says, "big yodel", he means he wants to watch a "video", when he says "dish shway", he means "this way", when he says "tradition", he means "train station", "capital" means "caterpillar", "jar beige truck" means "garbage truck" and "tow night" means "豆奶".

My favorite is when he sings "Eensy Weensy Spider". Today, I finally got it captured on video to last for perpetuity - hahaha! (evil parent laugh.)



His words:
"Eensy 'pider/ Water come out/
Down rain wash 'pider out/
Out sun dried up rain/
Eensy 'pider gain"

Home Made Play Dough

With Easter just around the corner, the schools are taking two-week Easter break, and so are Dylan's usual playgroups and lessons.

That means this mommy will have to think up new, inexpensive ways of keeping the little tyke occupied. That can only mean one thing: home made play dough!

I got this recipe from K, a lovely grandma who makes the play dough for playgroup, and found to my relief that, no it doesn't mean I have to sacrifice a pot to make it. Real easy.

You will need:
1 cup plain flour
1 cup water
1/2cup of salt
1 tablespoon oil
2 teaspoons cream of tartar (which I didn't have so I used baking powder instead)
Food colouring


Mix all together cook on low heat until a workable consistency. You will know when to take it out of the saucepan.

D doesn't quite know what to do with it just yet, but he looked like he had fun stabbing it with the mixing spoon...


And naming the things that I fashioned out of the dough. Precious. =)