And so we have watched the movie, CARS 2, a Disney-Pixar production.  

What’s my thoughts?
1. It is not as innocent as the original CARS movie – the movie was laden with the themes of spies, gangsterism, “killing” other cars, sinister motives etc

2. The sub-theme seems like an afterthought
- In the first movie, there was a strong theme centering around how a selfish and boastful car was transformed into a humble, selfless and well-loved car.
- In this sequel, the sub-theme about accepting “accepting your friend as they were” didn’t fit too well into the story

3. The number of new characters seems overwhelmingly large
- is this a ploy to get kids hooked into buying all the characters?

At the end of the day, I can safely say most children under the age of 6 wouldn’t understand what the story was about. The only thing that kept them going was probably the idea of how many of the new toys they could buy!

Fresh Air host families are volunteers who live in the suburbs or small town communities in the US.

Host families range in size, ethnicity and background, but share the desire to open their hearts and homes to give city children an experience they will never forget. Hosts say the Fresh Air experience is as enriching for their own families, as it is for the inner-city children.

There are no financial requirements for hosting a child. Volunteers may request the age-group and gender of the Fresh Air youngsterthey would like to host.

If you are keen to find out more, click on the banner below! There’s only 1 week left to sign up!

I recently did this montage for the family of my wife’s good friend. In focus are their 2 kids, Joshua and Jonas, who are regular playmates with our son Jadon.

Shamelessly,  I have slipped in quite a few pictures of our son Jadon in there as well

2 things I need your help on:
1) Do give me your honest feedback on how I could improve the montage. I do take my “creative work” very seriously.
2) I am looking to do more of these montages. For the first 3 person to respond to me, I’ll create your very own montage for free!

Awaiting your responses!

In line with our earlier post on “Where is your ideal summer vacation?”, this video looks like great rustic fun for city kids!

Thanks for your inputs, Donald, Bk and Affection! I myself am thinking where to bring my parents and my own little family of three to. Tough to think of an ideal location where young (my 4 year old son) and old (my 70 yr old parents) can equally enjoy.

I know it is winter still for the folks in the northern hemisphere. I am just getting a little ahead of time here and would actually like to know where do city parents usually bring their city children to during the summer holidays?

How do you identify or determine where to go and what to do?

My guess is to bring the kids to somewhere to enjoy some Fresh Air! No, it should be a lot of Fresh Air! To roll on grass, run by the beach, smell the flowers, etc… Or on the other hand, it could be determined by where we the parents desire to go

For those of us who can afford it, we would even bring them to another country and experience the diversity of life on earth. Who doesn’t like to travel anyway?!

Where is your ideal summer vacation for you and/or your kids?

I don’t know about you, but I was so so touched when I watched this.

Susan Boyle epitomises the very song she sang – I Dream A Dream – in the recent audition in “Britain’s Got Talent”

What can we teach our kids, or for the matter, ourselves about her amazing adventure?

NEVER STOP DREAMING.

PS: I seldom watch TV these days, but I am absolutely hooked on the this show after watching some SPLENDID auditions on the show’s website.

Check out my current top  4 :
- Shaheen Jafargholi
- Flawless
- Julian Smith

& of course,  SUSAN BOYLE.

PSS : For a talent-hunt show, I find it amazingly touching. Enjoy.

(written by footywife)

The other day while my little son and I were in school waiting for the lift, we saw his classmate with her father.  Because there were a few other parents and kids standing between us, we didn’t get to say hello.

When the lift came all of us got in.  Before we could turn to say hello to the little girl, she opened her mouth and started ranting about how rude my son was, how he didn’t say hello to her even though he saw her, how she had never met anyone so rude… blah blah blah… Mind you, she is only 3 years old and a lot smaller in built than my little son.  But she was so cute in her little tirade that the adults in the lift including myself couldn’t help laughing.

But the best part is my little son couldn’t understand a word of what she was saying because she was ranting in mandarin (my little son is not very proficient in Chinese).  So he kept quiet all the while, smiling and probably wondering what it was that his friend was talking about that was making all the adults laugh.

Finally I told my little son to say hello to the little girl.  When he did that, the little girl stopped ranting immediately, looked satisfied and smiled.

Well, that surely is a feisty little girl that you don’t wanna mess with.

My little son’s good friend, Joshua, sometimes like to make fun of his pronunciation or should I say “mis-pronunciation”.  Joshua, being over a year older than my little son, could pronounce his “s” and “f” and what have you.

Once we went out and my little son told his little friend to “old my and” (hold my hand).  “Yes,” Joshua replied cheekily, “I will old your and”.

In my little son’s “mis-pronounced” world, a fish is a “cheesh”.  Football becomes “chootball”.  Night Safari (which is the nocturnal zoo in Singapore) is “Night Afari”.  Rambutan is “lambutan”.

However recently we noted some changes in his pronunciation.  What was “old my and” is now hold my hand.  Fish has evolved to “pish”.  Football is sometimes “pootball” but other times still “chootball”.  Night Safari is unfortunately still “Night Afari”.

We have never attempted to correct our little son’s “mis-pronunciation”.  He sorts of self-corrects as he grows older.  Or maybe the teacher in school taught him.

As much as I am happy that my little son’s linguistic ability seems to be on its way to maturity and that one day he will be able to pronounce difficult words with ease, when that day comes I will surely look back and miss those days when a rambutan was a “lambutan”.

One of the DVDs I have at home is Madagascar (the first one).

We seldom play through the credits portion at the end of the show. But we did one day, and this was what happened…..

And here’s the REAL thing :

(written by Footywife)

Lately my little son has the desire to “get inside the TV”.  It first started last week while he was watching Barney.

“Can you bring me inside there please mama?” he asked.

I was taken by surprise by that question.  “Why do you want to go in there?” I asked.  “Because I want three children,” he replied.  He meant he wanted to be the third kid in the show, as there were only two kids with Barney.

This week while he was watching Winne the Pooh & Tigger, he again asked, “Can you bring me inside there please mama?”

I asked him why and he said, “because I want to talk to them”.

“Oh, we can talk to them when they come to the shopping centres,” I said.  “We can’t go inside the TV because there’s nothing inside there.”

I then showed him the back of the TV.  “See, there’s nothing in there.”  I said,  “and Pooh, Tigger and Darby are not real people, they are fake.”

“How about me?” he asked.

“You?  You are real,” I said.

“No!  I don’t want to be real.  I want to be fake!” he declared, upset that he wasn’t the same as Darby or Pooh or Tigger.

Today, just before his nap, he told me “Mama I want you to buy me Darby but not the flat one.  But like us.”

I think he meant he wants a 3-dimentional Darby, not a 2-dimentional one like in the TV.

Or did he mean he wants a real Darby, not a fake one?!!