Journey to Immortality

It was morning and the museum has just opened. There weren't many people about and we had the space almost all to ourselves. I thought Jethro would be afraid of the low lighting and monumental, forbidding Egyptian exhibits at the basement. Instead, he very excitedly explored the underground-like area and was particularly taken with the falcon and sphinx statues. We explored a little of the National Museum above too, just the public areas - I didn't buy the tickets for the rest of the museum. Hardly surprisingly, it was my first time there since its refurbishment in 2006. Jethro got rather active and initially I was worried we would be told off by the many people working there. But a really jovial Malay man working at the museum, who apparently liked children very much and had lots of experience with them (he has 6 kids), actually tried to engage Jethro. So, it was a simple, fun, rare outing to the happening downtown. Thanks to K for making it possible.

One Specific Human Nature

Ethan has been in this 'Not me!' phase for quite some time. Not all the time, but there are situations when he knows you are going to point the finger at him (or at least ostentatiously to check with him) or start blaming him and he'll say he didn't do it, it's not him, it's Jethro etc. Sometimes we choose to believe him, sometimes it is quite obvious he's not telling the truth, like yesterday. And it was quite hilarious.
On certain days we have dinners at home instead of going to the grandparents' place. For the dinner yesterday, I had used some pork ribs to boil some soup (old habits die hard) and given him a couple of the pork ribs. They are his favourites, among other junks like ice cream, fried chicken, crackers etc.
Our dining table is the kind that has a second level under the table top (glass surfaces and chrome legs, bought at the time when we had no kids and just wanted the furniture to match the stainless steel window grills the previous owner left us). After awhile, I noticed the pork rib bone which was initially placed on the table top having been transported to the lower level. So I asked Ethan, "Why did you put the bone there? It'll make it dirty." Ethan's immediate reply was, "I didn't put it there! It flew by itself!"
The answer was so incredulous I had to laugh, when usually I try to keep a straight face to his fanciful reasons. Jianming tried to hide his amusement as he asked him, "And how does it fly it there? How can it fly by itself?"
"The wind blew it..." followed by some action sounds and gestures showing how the bone could have been blown by the wind and 'moved' from the upper surface to the lower surface.
This brings to mind one book I read about child development. The author said that 'children who cannot conceive of the contents of the mind of another cannot really be said to be lying. They are probably describing the situation as they wish it had occurred... “2 and 3 years olds are such terrible liars, they hardly qualify as liars at all…"' She gave the age when children generally are truly lying (what an oxymoron) at about 5 or 6. So we are probably getting a preview of Ethan's lies now. However, the reason given was so highly improbable that I feel we cannot really begin disciplining dishonesty yet.

Sunny Side Up

Time for some of the regular updates. It shall have few words, because gee... the weather is hot and I just want to relax and not do too much typing.

Kids at play.


More kids at play.


One kid at play.


The zoo.
Part 1:


Part 2:


Familiar?


Squatting because brother does it.


Walking with Daddy.


Chinese Garden.


Trying to catch me smiling huh?