Dear Ceyone,
May'18 was a business as usual month in our household. There were a few exciting things that we were looking forward to. One of them was my 36th birthday and you were looking forward to blowing the candles. And the other was the power of dreams, rather your dreams. You had set up a box with some leaves in the hope to catch a lizard. You were very passionate about reptiles while I was totally repelled by those slimy, obnoxious creepies. As destiny would have it, I was switching our aircon on and off to figure out if we needed cooling. Just then something dropped from the aircon blade on the edge of our fuchsia sofa and was wiggling. I ran to call Tita from her room and you confirmed that it was a lizard whose tail had gotten cut off. Tita brought our blue fish net immediately and scooped up the lizard for your box. You put some leaves, water and Tita added some crumbs to the transparent plastic box with a fully perforated blue lid. I worried about the lizard's survival and joined you in feeding it smashed ants and bugs everyday. I never imagined I'd do that and with you there were endless possibilities.
On my birthday, we attended your music class in the afternoon and in the evening went for dinner at a German burger restaurant chain called Hans Im Gluck at Orchard. You loved my slightly spicy walnut burger and swapped with me.
Your interest in music lessons was getting better and you wanted to sing title tracks of your favorite cartoon shows. I sometimes wrote down the lyrics for you and made you practice the words. Similarly, you got a bit better engaged at swimming lessons though you continued to have splash battles with our swimming instructor Leong.
I made a touch and go trip to India and had lots of fun there for a reunion meet and spending time with family.
On the weekends you often enjoyed going to the Mt. Faber cable car with Papa and one of the days Tita went along to get her eye test done.
One of the most awaited events of the month was the first show by your class on Michael Rosen's book We're going on a bear hunt. You played the part of being the snow and were very excited. I came to watch the show in between my office. After the usual English version, you all also performed a mini Mandarin version. Your class had been practicing from several days and everyone was super enthusiastic.
At home we continued experimenting with healthy recipes. Sometimes it was Tita's pizza and other times it was my salad. Once in a while Tita would cook her speciality stuffed whole chicken for us and we all happily feasted. You were a huge fan of Tita's food and often complimented her by yourself.
Visits to the National Library on Victoria Street, Bugis was a regular Friday feature of our week. I tried to make it fun combining it with dinner out. I tried to bring you to try various cuisines to expose different food groups to you. In May we went to Artichoke and Urban Bites, both Mediterranean cuisines. You loved seafood and were mostly a good risk taker at trying new dishes.
One morning while getting ready for school I was rushing you to finish everything fast. Ofcourse you did not like to be pushed and when you came out of the bathroom you looked at me and said 'peer pressure mom!' I started laughing and asked you if you knew what it meant and you said no and then we all laughed some more.
One of the weeks you received a certificate for showing Creativity in class and I attended your assembly upon invitation from Ms. Cass, your home room teacher.
That was our room where we had pillow fights, rolling on the bed and reading a dozen books under the lamp every night. I had stuck a massive world map in our bathroom and we often discussed names of countries there. It was a good brush up on Geography for me as well.
I had been researching bird feeders from a few days as there were several beautiful birds in our neighborhood ranging from green parrots, toucans, hummingbirds, woodpeckers, yellow canaries and of course the uninvited mynah birds. We cut up a water bottle and glued it to a plate with the glue gun and pierced a tiny hole in it with hot knife. Then we filled it with bird food and placed it on the periphery of our window balcony. We had been waiting patiently for the birds to show up but didn't have any luck till then.
Your weekly rotating play date took place at our place in May. Samar, Vivaan, Bella, Aria, Jane and her brother came to play and enjoy Tita's food. After the children had their food, the nannies enjoyed all the food exchange.
During our Friday outings I ensured that we traveled by subway and buses instead of taxi. I wanted you to experience, learn and get used to public transport. It meant extra walking and I was very strict about it. Both you and Tita frowned at me for that often. But Mumma was Mumma after all! When you got tired, we rested but didn't give up.
Tita and I got inspired to try Muhammara (hummus with walnuts and red bell peppers) at home after trying it in the restaurants. Tita fell in love with it and after watching a few YouTube recipe videos, made Muhammara for lunch on the weekend. We all licked our bowls clean.
With the summer heat and occasional rainy days of Singapore, time was running fast. Often people walked up to me and commented that you seemed taller than before. I knew in my heart that the days of you being my little, cuddly boy were limited. No matter how tired I returned from work, I always spent time with you in the evenings when we did writing practice, reading, chatting, running around and listening to One Direction songs together. You were a beautiful, kind hearted little boy Ceyone and Mumma was your fan.
With Love,
Mumma
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