trippingdifferently

A couple of weeks ago i posted an interesting post about allowing kids to do dangerous stuff like drive a car etc…

Well, play must be the topic of the season cos today Nino @ Cease, Cows, Life is Short! is reviewing a new book – The Case for Make-Believe.

i’m completely in support of what the book proposes – based on the review by Nino (i have not read the book yet). Children should most definitely be given more imaginative play time – however, having said that – i also commented that i think there needs to be a balance between that & what i shall call “Tech-Media Time”.

Basically in this tech-age & info-age & media-age – we need our kids to know about these things – so that they can use them to their advantage – of cos this also involves teaching them about the ills of it. Just like Ted (see here) proposes allowing kids to handle things like saws so they can build stuff but at the same time we teach them how to handle the saw correctly so they don’t hurt themselves.

Watching lots of TV/Movies & being on the computer does not rule out imaginative play in a child’s life – one just has to have a balance. i remember watching loads of TV & movies as a child – in fact, watching TV together is still a family pastime @ my mum’s, we all pile onto my parents’ bed & watch TV in their room – yes, we have a sitting/living room – but it’s just more fun in their room, we laughed together, gained knowledge together, are shocked & scared together – it is a real interaction time in my home life while i was growing up & still is when i go back to visit. i also remember that i spent lots of time playing with my imaginary friends & toys & i read tons of books – i used to be able to read 1x thick novel a day (oh the carefree days of being a student ;P). i still am a great book worm – just trying to find time between being a wife, a mum & being involved in a few activities & running a book biz – it all leaves little time to truly sit & read. But i strive to find more time always…

syc

Ok ok i know – this is way late to be posting Tobias’ Birthday photos – but there is good reason – i was waiting for all 3x parties to be done with to post all of them together – yes yes – he had 3x parties this year – but 1x major one & 2x really small ones so….
Anyhow, this will be a very photo-heavy post – so be warned!

Birthday Party No. 1 – at home with 4x little friends & their mums, on the actual day – 20th May 2008:
It was an Airplane themed party & mummy baked the cake & even tried her hand at decorating it herself this year – oooh so much work but it was fun putting it together – thot i must admit i was very stressed thru the process.

Here’s a photo of the basic fruit cake which will be covered in the next photo:

Here’s the cake covered with the icing & decorated – as you can see, the letters have gone funny – partly the very liquid writing icing & partly my bad estimation of available space – hahhahhaa 😉

Here’s the cake finished – with the final touch of the little red plane:

As it was an Airplane party, we had lots of airplanes flying around the house:

& of cos, here’s birthday boy with his windmill-airplane – he was thrilled to bits with it.

We also made little goodie bags & little take-home paper-planes on little stands for our little guests to take home.

Birthday Party No 2 – was at church, but it sort of became a non-event as i was so stressed over the Nasi Lemak going all wrong & people didn’t wait for the cake to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ – so when i did bring the cake out, no one paid attention to it – but never mind – Tobias loved this cake – it’s a Rescue Vehicles cake.

Here he is eagerly waiting to get his hands on the decoration toys.

Birthday Party No 3 – was at Tobias’ daycare – i had planned it for the 19th May but the teachers said better on the Friday afternoon (23rd) – then Tobias fell sick that day & had to come home from Daycare at lunchtime – so then it was postpone another week & we finally had it last Friday afternoon (30th).
It was a lovely simple garden party.

No cake picture for this one as the cake was already cut & eaten by the time i got there. But for those interested, it was a simple lemon sponge cake, decorated with chocolate rice. Also baked by mummy – but it was mostly out of a pack so it was little effort there.

Well, all that’s over now – we get back to normalcy? … don’t think so … we’ve had people over for dinner every week since the start of May & now have Walter’s Spanish colleague staying with us till he finds an apartment & will be expecting more visitors at the end of June – on top of all that, Walter will be away for 1x month as of this Sunday – sob sob… so… well, we’ll cope – i guess.
syc

Yep, he did – what happened? you ask

Well, Thursday is the 1x day of the week we get up extra early as Tobias & myself attend BSF which starts at 9am & is about 35mins away – so Walter normally takes the bus (in bad weather) or takes his bike – seeing it is late Spring, weather has been quite good – he said he’ll take the bike. So we left & went for class & at about 1230pm got an sms saying he had an accident with the bike, had to have 2x stitches at the hospital but is ok. Of cos, being the worrying wife that i am, i rang back at once – just to assure myself that he’s fine.
He said he was trying to adjust something on the bike while still on the bike, so he only had 1x hand on the handlebar & … the rest of the story takes place in the hospital. He rang a colleague who lived nearby, who took him to the hospital. He isn’t badly hurt – just very scratched up! Have a look for yourself…

The doc says he’ll survive & need stitches removed next week – sigh! All this happened less than 100m from our home!

Over dinner with some friends tonight (Yep, we still had guests over! – we couldn’t cancel – it was a real Italian offering to cook us Italian food – yummy!) – anyhow, we were of cos talking about it & guess what – this is Walter 1st visit to the ER, here in Switzerland, as a patient. All previous times we visited the ER it was either cos of me or Tobias – so as a family, we paid our dues to the ER department – hahhahahaa 😉

Well, off to do some work now. The poor guy has dozed off watching telly.
syc