The Artist In Me Or Not?

Apart from JJ who showed some natural ability to create some nice drawings (he could draw very detailed renderings of his favourite Pokemon characters from memory), we as a family don't really have any artistic talents. So it was a real surprise that the two boys created these Chinese water colour paintings when they were enrolled in a cultural enrichment class in Singapore. When they were there, they learnt Chinese calligraphy and water colour painting.


These were JW's who was nine years old at that time.

 
And these were JJ's who was seven at that time.

 

From then till now, they have not touched a Chinese paint brush :-(

The plan is to frame these up as a keepsake, but publishing them here will do in the meantime :-)

My Chicken In My BMW Car

I suddenly recalled something that JW did when he was two and a half years old. But a little background first.

When he was just 18 months old, I enrolled JW in a playgroup. As both my husband and I were working, I did not want JW to be at home with Lucia, our domestic helper, all day long. So the moment he was old enough, I enrolled him in a playgroup. It started with just a few hours twice a week.

It was tough at first. He went through separation anxiety. No, correct that. We BOTH went through separation anxiety! I recall the first day when I was there with him. Not wanting to distract him, I just sat in a corner and observed. Being only 18 months old, he had already learnt how to walk. But sitting on a chair and getting off by himself was still a bit of a problem. My heart sank when he fell as he tried to get off the chair and sustained a bruise on his cheek. That was his first day at Raintree.

Raintree was housed in an old black and white colonial house set in a beautiful large piece of land . I was drawn to the lush and quiet surrounding. It was so green and peaceful, with lots of space for kids to run around in. Sadly, the school has since closed and the house is now a private residence.

The first weeks were still rather difficult and he would cry in school. According to one of his teachers, whenever he went to a particular area during his break, he would start to cry. Then one day, she realised why......there was a wall where photos taken during field trips were displayed. And there was photo of me together with him in one of the photos! Poor JW was thinking of and missing mummy....

JW was such an adorable boy that everyone in the school knew him. One day, when he was about 3, his teacher had to be away for a while and the school supervisor, Miss Joanne took over the class. When his regular teacher came back, he went to Miss Joanne and said to her, "Miss Joanne, you can go now. My teacher is back." Miss Joanne was so tickled, she told me about the incident.

Oh dear, how old memories start flooding back when I think about the early years. But back to what I wanted to write in the first place. One of JW's teachers, Mrs Surreinder, had captured what he said by typing out on a piece of paper with his drawing of a chicken. It was titled My Chicken:

My Chicken

My...My  Mrs Surreinder my white chicken is my friend. I love my white chicken. My white chicken can paddle boats. Chicken sit inside the boat and merrily merrily down the stream. Then my chicken sat in my BMW car. My chicken send car lighting store. My chicken went to the lighting store to buy car and lighting. Lightning comes first then rain will come. 

Mrs Surreinder had captured the word "lighting" but I'm pretty sure he meant "lightning" because if I recall correctly, just around that time, my brother or my dad had told him that lightning comes before thunder and that if you see lightning, it means that the rain will come soon.

Ten years on and my boy is still telling stories, but not of chickens anymore!

Dear Daddy

How often do young children realise what a great dad they have? Or for that matter, how do dads know that they are loved and missed? At the time when when the boys were about 3 and 6 years old, there were some incidents which I found really heartwarming. So when Father's Day came, I decided to pen something as a gift from the children to their dad. JW was the one who got to go to Thailand when I was there on a business trip. I wonder if he remembers the incident. I definitely do.

So here's the boys' tribute to their dad.

Dear Daddy,

Mummy says you are a great dad
You may scold us, cane us
But you still love us

After you scold us
You go all soft
And a hug you will give us

Remember that time
When Mummy was in Thailand for work
And you were coaching me at maths?
But you got all upset
When I couldn’t understand what you said

And what happened after that?
I got to become the ‘Big Bag’ you carried everywhere
And a real big surprise for Mummy after that
You brought me to Thailand
‘Cos you felt so bad!!

(Oh, and Mummy was so touched
She never felt so much love for you
than on that day)

You may scold us, cane us
But you still love us

Which is why
After you left for your holiday
We missed you everyday
And asked, ‘Who’s going to scold us now?”

Yes, Mummy is right
You may scold us, cane us
But you still love us

Happy Father’s Day, Daddy
And we love you too!!

Written on behalf of JW and JJ as a gift for Daddy (‘cos really, Daddy doesn’t know what a great dad he is!)