Sing-a-long Brothers

There was a song which Z sang on the way home from Legoland which X loved. During the chorus of continuous ‘ah’, X would echo along when he heard the cue “mouth open wide”.

Sometimes, X would even ‘sing’ and ‘ah ah ah ah’ by himself. When we heard that, we would ask Z to sing the song for X.

What a cute singing moment for the boys.

It went like this:

If all the raindrops
Were lemondrops and gumdrops
Oh, what a rain that would be!
Standing outside, with my mouth open wide
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
If all the raindrops
Were lemondrops and gumdrops
Oh, what a rain that would be!

One for all and all for one

At the risk of sounding like a ‘kiasu’ mother, I discovered with a startling heart that we had many pre-school assessment books at home.  We were given many books when the company my dad worked for had to clear their inventories.  As such, in order not to waste the books, I had to allocate some time for Z to do.

We were lucky that Z did not kick up a fuss and accepted it as it was.

X would like to sit next to Z as Z did his work.  He would flip picture books as he waited for Z to finish up.  I would really call that team spirit!

This pair of brothers shared such a great relationship (at the moment) that it brought smiles to our faces all the time.

Earlier, Z was at X’s room to play and both boys were giggling so hard over peek-a-boo.

Looking out – Water Play

This was at Gardens By the Bay.

I was with the boys when Mr H was scouting for a parking lot. I changed X while Z changed himself. The water sprinklers were wild and I did not want to get wet. Hence, I ordered Z to look after X.

Initially, Z was caught up with the excitement and would run off without X. How could a 15.5 month old catch up with Z?

After a while, X cried and Z earned a scolding. I told Z if X was too scared to play, we would all go home. That sobered Z up so he was a patient and sweet korkor to X the entire time.

That was a great way to entrust responsibility.

The best thing which came out of the episode, X adored Z even more and could utter ‘teh teh’ in his attempt to address kor kor.

X feeds Z

X was happily on his chocolate brownie fish biscuits when he gestured to feed Z.

Then he really did.

X might not have the best tempers but he showed the deepest adoration for his elder brother.

Times like this always made me feel fuzzy and warm, and of course grateful for these two kids in our lives.

Playmates

Sometimes, I thought we were so crazily blessed that both boys take to each other so well. I had heard horror stories of how some siblings seemed to have character clashes from the very start or how petty jealousies would lead to odd smacks.

Z was probably about the biggest hearted boy ever. Even before X came along, he was reputed (in school) to take care of new students, especially those who cried lots after getting dropped off.

When I was pregnant with X, we were careful to communicate the right message to Z.

That was why it was so important for Z to bunk over with me at the hospital. He treated it like a staycation and more often than not referred to Thomson Medical Centre as that ‘hotel’. It made all the additional dollars spent worthwhile because we had upgraded the room to near suite-level for the extra space and brought our own mattress along!

X absolutely adored his brother. He would follow what Z did and he knew his brother indulged in him so much that he bullied Z. X would playfully hit Z’s head all the time and we would tell X off. Z would tell us that it was not painful and that X was just trying to play with him. Awww…

Anyway, for being such a nice big brother, we allowed Z to open some of his new toys (from his birthday). I told Z that it was to reward him for being such a nice brother and he was to share the new toy with X.

The more they collaborated, cooperated and played together, the more new toys they could open together. Z was mightily pleased because he knew just how hard it was to get us to agree to opening new toys.