Huaihao has grown even more in this last month, no longer a little kid, he is rounder, taller, fuller, firmer. His vocabulary improved lots spewing out words such as hypothetically, logically, don’t beat around the bush and lots of others. He gave me lots of riddles and asked me about how the Titanic sank, telling me about the third moon of Mars.

Irregardless, every friday we spend a day at grandpa’s and ah yi’s for good food. Here’s one!

At first, the kids observed how ah yi made sourdough crackers, then they started making it too. Needless to say what fun and fulfilment , plus bonding too!

Ting Xie or spelling is nothing regular when its done the Huaihao way. He adds all these cute doodles alongside the words.

Weekends are spent walking by the beach in the sun, then grocery shopping with mom. This day, Huaihao saw a rolling pin that might work for ah yi at SCOOP!

We got a reservation at Summer Pavilion and its always good there! Huaihao’s appetite has grown tremendously and he loves the XO sauce too! The fried rice is da bomb and he continues to have it at home!

On another day, we headed out and let the the kids have MOS Burger. Then grocery as usual and here’s Huaihao picking out a watermelon.

On another evening, we had dinner at Blu Kouzina—greek and then walked back o the beach barefooted in dusk

I love how Huaihao always teases me and makes me feel happy. Recently he asked for spaghetti and would dream up his own pairings such as a runny egg with seaweed toppings or ebikho! Palate is good!

And here is one goodnight hug which the boy needs.

To address how his eyes twitches due to excessive iPad use, Huaihao stops every 30min (when dad is around) and looks out far for 15min. This really did help him lots!

Before the school holiday ended, Huaihao wanted sushi and we headed out for dinner

We took the opportunity to shop for a present for grandpa and got him a replacement water bottle. We are celebrating Gengyan jiujiu’s birthday too and the kids couldn’t find anything suitable. Then Huaihao asked dad: “what does a man need?” Hilarious when mommy heard this!

Then they wrapped up the present!

And we had an Israeli dinner

before the staycay with ah mei ah yi starts,

Bedtime with HuaiHao

And I asked him how he felt seeing me at the school gate waving ferociously at him welcoming him ? And he said, “ you are the brightest star in the night sky. I can see only you.”

I was like—- wow.

But what he said was the truth. I could see only him too.

He asked me a riddle. And told me he thought of it himself.

“A captain was on a ship and he said hi. What was the name of the ship? ”

And he said, “ What”

Haha.

Then he asked what if we could turn back time. Can we?

I asked where he wanted to go. And he said, “ Redhill because I grew up there. I kissed the floor you know.”

He did that beautifully when we were moving out

And if I felt cold, HuaiHao would get up and tuck me in bed, the way he did it, he would tuck the blanket below my body and it reminded me of the way the kids’ dad did it for my mom.

It was a great opportunity to release the pain or at least, the discomfort I felt in my chest. It took me a few days to get that kink sorted out, but now when Huaihao tucked me in, I made the effort to tell myself, Mom must have been happy to feel the care and that is a past long gone. So many things have changed and we have moved. And now I m not Mommy, and this is my son showing his love and care for me. Thankful for the opportunity to release this.