Have I mentioned lately that I love my kids?

Sighhh. I spent this afternoon spending time with them and I’m just so grateful. We had so much fun together just doing spontaneous things. We watched Madagascar (Daniel and Mariam’s latest craze), we made pancakes together in the shape of hearts and mickey mouse and stars and had fun arranging chocolate chips to make smiley faces, we took a nap, we woke up and drove around the basement for no reason, and we snuggled up to sleep together after reading a book together. All four of us just having no plans whatsoever this evening and just randomly followed whatever the kids wanted to do. I mean, who makes pancakes at 3pm?!

When we were cuddling, Daniel turned to me and said “Mommy, it was really fun today!” and my heart just melted as I said “Me too,” back to him.

We were all sleeping in Daniel’s room – me and Daniel on the bed, and Mariam and Dean on the pull out bed below (we’re very clingy, everyone wants to sleep in the same room). And as I hugged Daniel and the room was quiet, I felt sad thinking about the future. Yes, Daniel said he had fun today and Mariam I’m sure did too (she laughed so much!) but guess what, he’s not going to remember any of this when he grows up. Just as I can’t remember every fun thing my parents and I did together now.

It made me rethink. I keep saying to people “put your phone away and enjoy the moment” which I agree to some extent. But I also think it’s important to immortalise good memories because they fade away really quickly. Memories are intangible and as more and more memories pile on one another, you’re bound to forget a lot of them. I think I already knew this from long ago, so without realising, via blogging I stored all memories of my life journey in this blog. I’ve been blogging for over ten years and that’s a decade worth of my memories growing up from uni till the person I am now! And those are only the ones that I bothered to write about – so much is left forgotten which is a shame. I think that’s why I constantly have my phone around me, immediately snapping photos and videos of my current views especially my kids – instagramming their moments in life that I don’t want them or me to ever forget. My family always complains that I always have my phone with me and I make a conscious effort to put it away when with them, but being the stubborn me, I always find myself somehow sneaking it back in because I want to snap any amazing moments between us.

I showed Daniel a video of him as a baby and he gasped in disbelief because he didn’t recognise the boy in the video. I smiled as I explained how he was as a baby and I told him what he used to watch etc – he looked at me and continued watching Madagascar. -___-” Couldn’t care less. But I know that he and Mariam will one day appreciate all these videos, all these photos, all these memories that I’ve managed to capture. When one day Mommy passes on, know that I’ve kept all your precious photos and videos growing up in my hard drives, my Instagram and in my phone – these are all things that money can’t buy. Time will pass on so fast and people are losing that sentimental quality in life, as things get more fast-paced and digitalised. But I want you to never lose that appreciation for good memories that will put a smile on your face.

Human beings, by nature, will forget. So I want to rephrase, guys. Don’t put your phone away. Instead, use it for the good to capture moments of happiness in your life. And hold on to those tightly so you can look back one day and realise these memories are exactly what you needed to remind yourself that you have many things to be thankful for. Whether or not the people in your photos are still around in this world, whether or not you still remained friends, whether or not you’ve moved countries – at least you know you were blessed enough to experience those memories.

And then you can thank your mom for always taking good photos and videos of you. *blows nails*

A photo that always lifts me up. My precious munchkins laughing as they bully their dad on the bed after work. P/S: you guys have loads of fun times with Mommy too btw, it’s just that I’m always the one taking the photo hence I’m never in it -_____-” #sacrifice