catch the moon!

Val and his $1.80 lantern
Originally uploaded by tumbleweeed

Val has a book called Seven Ways to Catch the Moon! he loves catching the moon in a hot air balloon, on a magic carpet, or on a witch's broom. Last week we brought him down to the carpark area to celebrate the full moon with the kiddies in the 'hood. it was great fun. He loved his cheapo lantern from Carrefour ($1.80 with flashing LED lights inside and traditional paper on the outside), but i suspect he loved seeing the older kids burn down their paper lanterns even more! Happy belated Mid-Autumn to you!

we're still around ... just busy busy busy

blowing momma a raspberry
Originally uploaded by tumbleweeed

the boy has sprouted since the last we blogged. He's still at the same weight but has stretched taller. He's had a bout of flu recently but has sprung back to his lively (naughty) self. The surprising thing is how much he natters on in Mandarin (!), speaking whole sentences and pronouncing his words quite well. I think it's the grandparents and also the two Chinese nationals working at the childcare who are the nannies assisting the English speaking teachers. It's a lil weird but i think it's good thing for now since English is so much easier to pick up and so he could do with some Mandarin for now. Okay, back to my paper - obviously it's the reason why i'm even blogging, cos i was desperately looking for a distraction. @#$%^&*

Warming Up

There's a plan hatching in the house - to deliver the lil one to a childcare centre up on the hill, behind our place. It's a small little semi-detached house on Jalan Pari K, with a lovely outdoor playground and there's no air-conditioning in sight - a boon in these times of H1N1... But for Mr Anti Social, this plan must not be made known to him. Instead, we've had to sneak it up to him. For the past week, grandma's been casually walking him up to the place, and "accidentally" stopping by to chat to the teachers. He cottoned on quickly and wailed each time. Today, the whole family trooped up the "hill" (okay it's a slope!) with him. At first he wailed, but once he saw the miniature kitchen in the yard, he was enthralled and busied himself "washing hands" at the sink. We stood by hopefully, eagerly, waiting to catch signs of him being sociable. Alas, the minute the other kiddies came out to play, he scurried out of the kitchen's window in an attempt to escape human contact. Sigh! But at least he didn't cry. He likes the outdoor play area for sure, and he EVEN held onto a teacher's hand briefly. but after half an hour, he was ready to say "GO!" still, he didn't forget his manners, and waved goodbye to the teachers. We'll have to keep doing this for a while, and then harden up our hearts to leave him there. Arggh. Grandpa's already voted himself out of the game. He can't stand hearing Val bawl. No such luck for the rest of us! Wish us best of luck!

Of songs, slippers and sea stars....

Val and one of his favourite books - of trucks- his obsession for things that go have begun!

Now that Mr Smellybottom has found his 'tongue', he's begun to parrot most of what we say to our bemusement - most of the time. Often, he spouts words in Chinese because his grandparents are the main caregivers. it's quite apparent the influence of caregivers cos in the first year when i was with him, most of the words he picked up was in English, now the new words are invariably in Chinese.

But kids do say the darnest things...! One day we caught him holding a paper bag, and when we asked him what he was doing, he said "take bag...." and we prodded on, "take bag for?" he replied "shopping" AIYOH! hilarious. He also knows that "money" goes into his plastic piggy bank, and often requests that we give him "money" so that he can feed his "pig". Thankfully, he's yet to make the connection between money and buying things.

These days, he charms his aunt calling her "Ah Yi..." sweetly over the phone, he beseeches his grandma with a well-timed "Po po...." and he absolutely melts his grandpa's heart by calling out for his "Ah Kong!" in the middle of the night or while looking for him in the crowd.

The boy also loves to watch the telly...unfortunately. The saving Grace is that the videos we play are all songs and kiddie programmes - so he's learning loads from them but well, sometimes, the too-many requests to switch on the TV gets to me. I'm mighty worried that we might be creating the next couch potato in the family.... Not that we have done badly - i mean, this is a family that sat around the TV eating, but still grew up well and not at all dysfunctional. So there's hope...

The songs he's learnt - he doesn't sing them. But he's becoming quite adept at filling in the blanks for us or doing the actions to accompany the songs. Row RoW Row your boat is a crazy mime of his hands rowing the oars - while he will sing "tar" to each line of Twinkle Twinkle little Star. His best song would be 1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive. The lil 'un had unconsciously picked up all the last words of this song so it's pretty amusing to hear him do it as he intones the words like "bite" and "right" with a curious British accent. (Think "Rawght" and "bawwte") There are a couple of Chinese songs that he does the same too.... but nope, he doesn't sing them. He just nods his head vigorously - so much so that Grandma fears he might injure his neck!



And it seems that all babies have a shoe fetish - perhaps it is the human desire to fill in shoes that way too big for them! But he absolutely loves going about in over-sized and potentially dangerous footwear. Sometimes, even while he's wearing his slippers, he tries to surreptitiously step into my Crocs and attempts to make an escape in them. It's funny but also scary ... in the event that he falls and cracks his coconut. I have some videos of him waddling about in these slippers but my bandwidth is an issue and i'm a lazy bum, so there...just a picture will suffice.



Here're some pic from our exhausting and very hot day out at Chek Jawa, Ubin last Saturday. Val saw sea stars up close, dug his hands into the gooey mud, traipsed all around threatening to snuff out sea anemones, and threw plenty of dirt at crabs. The little boy did so well.... still full of energy after the excursion (he had only a catnap) while the rest of the 4 adults with him were absolutely bushwhacked. I was almost close to tears trying to beg him to take another nap. The pocket dynamite fell asleep only at 530pm... gosh.. needless to say, it was a crazy night for me later on.....i think i'm still suffering from that ambitious day out.

With his auntie who woke up at an earthly hour to drive us to Changi - thks Ah yi!

Sea stars never fail to intrigue - even the adults were clamouring to stroke them!

oh boy!

The lil guy and I at the Botanic Gardens some weeks ago (yes, that's how late i've been in updating my photos!)

We're back in action! Mommy's tummy has stopped running, and Grandpa's attack of the shingles seem to be at the end stage. I declare ourselves officially "safe" enough for public interaction with other human beings.....

On saturday, i brought him to a free sampler of ACT 3's class for the VERY YOUNG. Remember ACT 3 - all those from my generation? Ruby Lim-Yang (who used to be the single Ruby Lim) is still heading this amazing drama company for children. I saw her in the flesh, and boy, drama for kids must be quite the elixir of life cos she looks still so energetic and young! of course there were wrinkles, but come on, who don't get them! laugh lines are a blessed feature, i say. But i digress. Anyways, i was full of energy in the morning - even going as far as taking the bus and the train, and then a taxi to get to 126 Cairnhill Road for the class. But the minute i stepped into the courtyard, the lil 'un began shaking his head and refusing to go in. Somehow he had the sixth sense and could tell that this was going to be SOCIAL INTERACTION with other kids, which was still a big no-no for him. I had to usher him into a green room and nurse him (yes yes yes go on and tsk!) cos i really wanted him to feel reassured and confident. But no luck. Soon, there were loud sounds, and noises as big kids outside demonstrated what DRAMA was all about. He began fidgeting and kept pointing to the exit. Then, when the class started - we were led into an air-conditioned room - socks and shoes off. Sat in a circle, parent and kid, with teacher Eileen. Val and 2 other kiddies were obviously unwilling participants. They all stuck to their parents like a koala. Sigh.. It was Tough. I cajoled him to no avail. Even a bright green ball failed to unlock his grasp on me. There were some kids who were dancing delightfully to the music, much to my envy. Oh how i wished.... Then it was storytelling time. He liked it enough to stop wailing, watching from a distance, while the other kids had clambered to the front. But when the teacher told them to "push down the imaginary sandcastle" he gave a wail and shook his head. he was distraught by the thought of them destroying the castle! He wailed so loudly. I didn't know where to place my tomato-red face. Finally, there were more dancing, and one last bit that he loved - climbing up the wall with me supporting him. He kept making me do it, even after everyone had stopped......... err......

Tick tock... the minutes on the watch never seemed slower. Finally the hour was up, and i was LIBERATED. Yeah, let's go. I couldn't believe my luck. He didn't bawl too much at least... But boy, was i defeated. I hopped onto a taxi (no way was i going to try public transport), got home, fed him and fell into a deep deep slumber - the fatigue draining out from my digits onto the bed... gosh. i wonder when i might muster up courage to bring him to another class.

dungbombs

There's now a very good reason for the already anti-social me to reach the acme of anti-social-ness. I have become a walking dungbomb so downright off-putting that i can't even stand my own company. it's the evil fishballs that are still wreaking havoc in my guts. Excuse me while i poison myself, fester in my air-conditioned room, trapped with my own gas. @#$%^&^& Poor Val. he must be wondering what the ....!

the runs - and i'm not talking exercise

i think it was the fishballs. those mega-sized fishballs that should have gotten my suspicion up. but no, we gorged on them. and now, 3 adults in the family are down, stricken by what-should-not-be-discussed. ironically, it is the bedrest that has given me the pleasure of time to blog finally.

so here i am, cloistered in another room - away from my son, he doesn't know that Mommy's in the same house - not yet. i sneak off to that place for a quick solution when he's not in sight, i just snuck back from the kitchen, for that bowl of horrid, plain fish porridge - punishment for gluttony all well deserved. when he was asleep, i crept into our room to stealthily remove my 12" so that i could get connected to the world and do my work.

again, the hiatus from blogging means i know not where to start. my internship with Action for AIDS continues to give me insights into the world of VWOs, last saturday we finally got the final draft of its annual report off to the printer's. fingers and all other digits are crossed that the printing concludes in time - for the annual general meeting's this saturday. Gawp.

i bombed an indecent amount of money on a pair of Oakleys with transition lens. yup. i just had to get those Oakleys because mine have served me for 5 years and are still, frustratingly, hanging in there despite its trials. it had once been swept off my face and mangled in timor, and of course, since Va's arrival into this world, the pair of Oakleys have stood up to much more torturing. so of course, i had to go for another pair of Oakleys when i finally decided to make a new pair of glasses. And why not, throw in more Galleons for transition lens that are touted to protect my twinkies? so there. i did it. it's impusive and stupid but i've done it.

then, there's Val who's become the most talkative babe in the world - at home, that is. he's picking up words, left, right and centre. speaking them, and also reading more of them. he finally learnt to say "ah kong" and "popo" a few days after reaching his 17th month mark - which of course has earned him much more love - sometimes i feel like there's a honey river flowing in our house when he turns on the charm and goes "ah kong" and "popo", with that fluttery eye look. outside the house, he's still pretty quiet, shy sometimes. But just a few days ago, he demonstrated signs of becoming a bit more sociable - the boy was spotted "talking" to a one-year old, and patting her head! Gasp! He still doesn't like strangers to accost him - hates close body contact with people who are brusque, and does not enjoy screaming kids. The time draws nearer to our date to send him to half-day childcare to interact with other babes - but the H1N1 has kinda put paid to that for now. we'll just wait and see how the virus mutates or not.

when the energy comes, i will upload videos of the lil man...

The world according to val....

Pensive? Apologetic? Contemplative? Such an oneiric photo....And yes, this is how he most often poses for the camera. Staring straight in, head slightly cocked to one side, and looking pretty sombre - for a toddler. And if he says "Sorry", with ginger flower in hand, doeful eyes like that, would u ever be able to be angry? Charmer!

Nobody knows who Val was In Conversation with. His apple? An imaginary friend? or was it me? Whatever it was, this was a funny moment, and really captures val's character. i do so often find him with such an expression, just never managed to catch it.

Now he's really talking to someone.... that's my beautiful sis on her grand day.

Hello lil one, what are u thinking now?

Getting up to some mischief... that glint....dead giveaway... i've learnt to spot those just in time to stop the prankster from comitting his funny crimes.

And of course, i'm only gonna show photos that dun make me look too goofy! And trust me, there were plenty bad ones....i was truly the most unglamorous person about - what with an Ergo baby carrier strapped over my dress; no hair styling to speak of; no contact lenses due to an eye irritation (i have dermatitis in my eye!!); and not much makeup to speak of - and any little i had thrown on were probably lost to perspiration, and a very sticky boy face plastered against it. I definitely looked more ready for baby combat than wedding dinner! Haizzzz.... How to be glam mom liddat??!!!

Many thanks to KC of Greymatter Photography for capturing these moments of my son - automatic cameras simply fail to capture his all. :-)

hullo again

On sentosa: Val is enthralled by the nicest smelling ginger flower i've ever encountered. He finally decapitates it, not deliberately of course. ;-P

it's been a long while since i last blogged. many things have happened - most notably, my sis got married two weekends ago so everyone was real busy and caught up in that. it was great. We brought Val to Sentosa (where the wedding was held) and had great fun on the beach. I was a "bad" mommy, allowing him to stay up for the wedding dinner which lasted past ten pm. Finally at 1030pm, i couldn't stand the fatigue and finally brought him back to the room. Val was really well-behaved the entire day - he cried once when i brought him up the stage for a 'yam seng'. other than that, he was a real charmer for all the guests. He was the only child there too - since my sis kept it to a M18 affair. Some other parents asked if Val might have a bad night cos he stayed up late. I didn't know. But thankfully, i put him to sleep pretty quickly when we got back to the hotel room. He slept well - no nightmares or anything like that. And we were off to the beach tmw for a morning of good sunny fun.

On Sentosa: The boy is togged out on "resort wear" the day after the wedding.

Now he's ready to tackle the surf! My very own surfer dude!

The babe has really become a boy - i know i keep saying that! but really. these days he's developed a real penchant for toy cars after we dug out those old metal cars that my mom bought for me and my sis almost 30 years ago! he would lie on the bed and go "boooo" as he moves them up and down the bed, enraptured by his own boy world. He sat in a buggy on Sentosa and loved the ride. Now he signs the word "car" by showing the steering motion (he finally understood what i was doing all this while after seeing the buggy driver do it up close) and says "booo boo" for car. yesterday, he finally intoned "kar" with a sophisticated "r" at the back. He's beginning to speak more in Chinese too. Now he says "gou" for dog, and "shu" for tree.

More words he says now:
"may" - moon
"air-pan" - aeroplane
"mama ne?" - where's mama in chinese
"mama - koon" - mama's room (i have no idea why?!)
"cheeees" - cheese
"boo" - book
"coc" - clock
"beer" - bird
"hug" - hug
"tak" - tap

more words he can sign:
train
sorry
sleep
book
aeroplane
kick

it's really fun to be with Val these days - he scunches up his face, making funny faces that guarantee to make me chuckle. He's funny that way. How not to be in love with this lil fella? :-) That feeling of falling in love - yeah - i'm definitely head over heels with ma-boy.

new words new discovery

Val surprised me a few days ago when i came home and heard him shouting, "throw!" it's funny to hear it, cos he says it with very exaggerated lip action - with his lips puckered up, and with lots of spittle to go with the word that he seems to spit out. Now, occasionally he combines it and goes "throw ball!" and then furiously hurls balls (or any other objects close at hand) all around. He's also picked up another Chinese word - ma (horse). We have no idea how. One day, he just pointed at a picture of a horse, and went "ma." Of course, he doesn't get the right intonation, so he could just be calling me a horse.

balancing act

As Val grows older and more cognisant of the dos and don'ts, he's also pushing the envelope more and more. He KNOWS when he shouldn't do something, but does it anyways to see how I'd react. He holds his spoon out and goes "oh no, no no no" but still flings it down with gusto. He wants to see what i'd do. These days I try all ways.... from stern warnings, to strong eye contact, to holding him back, to light smacks on the hand or the bum. Sometimes they work - especially the eye contact thing. I learnt it from the Horse Whisperer himself. (really!) But still, i think discipline's really a balancing act - how much is too much? Spare the cane and spoil the child? or smack the kid and hurt his ego? There was one night, i was frustrated with him - - he had been awake since 2pm and was still going about like a dynamo at midnight -- I shouted at him loudly. His reaction? He laughed, he giggled, he chortled even. He thought it was funny. @#$%^&&*** Parenthood - tough job

why is he so shy?

The boy @ Let's Take A Walk Dec 2008 (Gosh time does fly!)Photo by Linus Long

Val is literally a "long" or dragon at home and a "chong" or worm when he's outside. He screams, he runs, he chuckles, he does all kinds of weird stuff at home but once he's outside, he's usually "too" well-behaved - to the extent of being timid. He hides behind my legs to peer at the world ; when bigger kids brush past him or take his toys he bawls; he seems scared of so many things when we're outside. i dun mean being at the beach or at the mall when he's still essentially interacting with us, but when we're at someone's home and there're other kids, he really becomes another person. It takes him a loooong while to warm up - usually when i'm about to leave (yes, his engine takes that long to warm up!). The only explanation is that he really doesn't have enough kiddie company during the week, so i really have to bring him out to places with more kids. 2 weeks ago, just being in Go Go Bambini was enough to freak him out - - the hordes of screaming kids at OTT decibel levels just didn't do it for him. I remember once we were in Vivocity and there were loud announcements made by the DJ - Val hated that to the core. He much preferred being out in the open. Today at JH's house, he also refused to be indoors, much preferring to kick a ball in solace, fleeing to me once a stranger came up. He even cried when an older boy tried to hug him. HARUUMPH..... Guess we really need to help him socialise more. Right now, there're plans of sending him to a 2-hr daily playgroup when he hits 18 months....

our lil mime actor

i'm pleasantly surprised by the benefits of sign language, even my parents have cottoned on to the advantages of a toddler being able to express himself - he hardly cries because he can actually tell us what he wants with his hands and eyes, and by making lots of expressive sounds. recently, he has also invented new signs for the things he wants but can't say - - e.g. for crayons and pens - he signs with his hand how we would sign to waiters asking for a bill - you know, like clutching a pen and signing something. yesterday he told me that he wanted something on the desk by vigorously blinking his eyes and then putting his hands in front of them. When i figured out that he meant the camera, he was quite delighted. And of course, he never fails to tell me when he wants his milk - now that sign he is very proficient in making. in fact, i have a suspicion that he's now jus making the "milk" sign for fun, rather than when he really needs the breast. My mom calls the breast his opium. it's true - when you occupy him with things to do, he never asks for "milk" but once i am alone with him and he is not doing something, he leaps onto me, signing vigorously for milk. i try not to oblige but when the lil bugger actually adds on a sign that looks like "please" how can i say NO? haha.....see, We've trying to get him to sign "please" and "thank you" - by doing it ourselves whenever we ask him to do something - so must lead by example right....

anyways, a quick update of what he can say now (more for my own benefit as i haven't been keeping a real journal)

Truck - - says "tuck"
buckle - says "tiak"
car - - goes "booo booo"
thunder --- goes "brrrooom" with fingers in the air
cat --- says "mao" - his first chinese word!

***funniest****
"OH NO..." - - yes yes, he actually says that... with a really nasal accent that totally mimics my dad. it's super hilarious cos my dad always go, "oh no, no no no" with Val


other gibberish
wawabu -- we suspect it's from a chinese song he often listens to "wa wa bing" (meaning toy soldiers)
papuji - - we suspect it's mimicking my mom going "pua pua si" (fall to death) in hokkien when she chides him for spilling water on the floor cos it could make her fall to her death


no videos or pictures to show cos i've been a lazy photographer... and also the fact that it's close to impossible to snap him in action - because the moment i whip out the camera, he forgets everything else and leaps towards it.

life lessons

ONce again lil Val taught me something today: no matter how much you plan, things may not work out to your heart's desire! :-) Our family had set about making elaborate plans to visit the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden on Sunday - what time to go? who would be free? where shall we eat after? The adults were in a tizzy shifting around plans to make it one fun outing. And then Val develops a fever this afternoon after coming back from a lunch with my friends at Dempsey Hill (my gosh this is another post for another time ! i totally felt out of place at one of the eateries) - which means all our plans for the grand excursion tomorrow are chucked. Oh well.....as long as the lil fella get well soon. that's most important eh?


@Sushi Tei some weekends ago when the boy was well and up to all sorts of mischief

does filial piety count excuse my spending? tell me ...

So i went to the interchange this afternoon and had the time to stop by the telco shop. see, i've been thinking for a while to get my dad to stop his pre-paid phone cos it costs so much each time we call him. So i found out that if i got a new line under my name for him, it would cost only $9 a month for him. COol right? money saving right? so i went ahead and got him a new Nokia phone for $48 plus a sim that cost $26 - totalling $77, and then upon walking out, went DOH! i spent ! how? yikes?

So my question, dear friends, does it count if i spent out of piety? ;-)

maybe he really can read...?

leafing through nature
Originally uploaded by tumbleweeed

i bought a doodle pad - one of those with a magnetic pen and you scrawl on the white board and then erase everything with a button - when Val was few months old. sometimes, i just pick it up and scrawl pictures or write words for him. maybe 2 months ago, i wrote 'ball' and kept showing it to him. Obviously due to his Ball infatuation, he had no problems pronouncing the word. In fact, it was clear that he wasn't reading the word - just associating the doodle pad with ball really. cos, occasionally when i pick up the doodle pad, he goes "ball" already. Anyways, so yesterday, i decided to just write the word 'dog' , and guess what he went 'dot'. I thought i heard wrongly, and wrote 'ball' and he went 'ball' and then so on and so forth. So thanks to "My Baby Can Read" videos, i am quite sure that Val can now at least differentiate between 'ball' and 'dog' he may not even understand what these symbols mean right now, but he sure can tell the difference. It's an interesting start - cos according to the researcher who made the series, the first 50 words are the hardest to pick up, but once that happens, the baby's vocab simply accelerates, soaking up new words all the time.

I don't harbour big dreams of him becoming a genius and neither do we hothouse him at all - he watches the videos only once a day or sometimes twice a day after his baths. My only hope is for him to discover the same joy of reading as i did when my sis and i were given a few dozens of second-hand Enid Blytons during our primary school days. I am a staunch believer that if one is comfortable with words, and books, you can never be a real loner. I was always at ease with being on my own - solitude was never about loneliness cos i always had the worlds of acclaimed writers to visit. Ah.... reading. Love it!

err.... the fiscally impossible update

okay i 'fess up. yes, much to the delight of those laying bets on the sidelines, it would seem that the odds are definitely against me. i was boobytrapped yesterday into spending. (yeah yeah blame it on others you say) but truly! it all started out as a perfectly innocent idea of tagging along with my mom and sis to the mall - mom had to make glasses, while sis had shopping to do. for more than an hour, i was being the good girl - just window shopping , i even resisted the temptation to make new glasses, reminding myself to delay the spending till april.... and then when we were about to leave, the instigator (aka Sis) asks me to treat her to a coffee. Being the generous person i am (*cough*) i agreed without thinking. Sure, why not? So we headed for a cafe (all this while i must have been hypnotised or something). Then we all sat down, and then, i suddenly remembered that the instigator has a Dome card with really good deals - and then in a flash, i had agreed to also sign on to be a Dome member - dishing out ......$80 ... wait wait..but in return, i got $43 worth of coffee credit, $30 of vouchers, plus five or six more food and beverage vouchers. good deal right... i mean, i was going to fork out at least $20 for 3 cups of coffee and cake.. so why not go the full monty right? haha... right....... whatever. so that said, i now have a grand total of $100 to donate to a charity once easter is over..... please people, stop laying traps for me! ;-P

learning curve

Val's been on a steep learning curve this week, so i have been told by Grandma. The most significant would be that he is now indicating that he would like to learn how to put himself to sleep on the bed unassisted, i.e. without us carrying him in the ERGO and rocking him to sleep. Grandma says for 3 days now, he has insisted on tossing and turning around on the bed at nap time to try to go to sleep. He would try to shut his eyes close very tightly and lie down on the bed trying to nap but normally he would fail. Then after a lot of lolling about and whining, he would finally fall asleep. But today, somehow, after an hour of the sleeping attempt, he was still wide awake and frustrated so it was back into the Ergo again to rock him to sleep. I'm really proud of his attempts and hope that he will continue to do so over the weekend while he's with me... hmm.....

the other significant achievement would be that he has finally decided that he will now sign MILK MILK again with his hands! Yeah! YEAH! YEAH! so now, he promptly signals MILK whenever he sees me and i always try to nurse him if we're at home and if he's had his meals first. and suddenly too after this, he now signs "rabbit" as well! But he only puts his little hands up till his ear level instead of on his head to indicate the long rabbit ears. Cute. Oh, and a self-invented sign for "Scared" . he's a little drama king - ever since he learnt the concept of "scared" (he puts his hand on his chest and pats himself) , he kept going around being "scared" of everything - from the neighbour's dog barking, to people talking to him. Oh, and that poor neighbour who cut his hair a second time? Val bawls at the sight of her - he goes "scared scared" with his hands frantically whenever he sees her now. :-)

On the speaking front - Val has finally progressed beyond "ball ball" he nows goes "butt!" when he sees a bus, "tuck" when he reads the book with trucks and tractors, and of course, his new favourite word is now "dog dog" - and may i say *brag*, like the word "ball" , it is PERFECTLY pronounced ;-P it's funny cos sometimes in the middle of his sleep, if he hears the dog barking, he would rouse, sit up, point outside, go "dog dog" and then tumble back to sleep. Aiyah. he's so cute. i love my lil man.

another observation - i dunno where he learnt this - but he teases people. he would blink his eyes and tease us with it, knowing his eye blinking attempts are so comic. Then recently he learns to pretend to give you something, and then runs away with it, cackling with laughter. nobody taught him this. so where did he pick it up? grandma asked, with some concern today, whether he might become a lil bully in school - since he loves to tease people. hmmm..... only time will tell. we just have to teach him properly - draw out his boundaries for him.... ah... parenting... complicated.

fresh air #2

Yeah. i did it again. This morning, i managed to drag my tired ass up Fort Canning Park again. I was soooo tempted to just say "another time" but decided to just get out of the office and go for a morning walk. It wasn't as cool as the first time, since i was about 15 minutes later than last week's jaunt. But it was just as nice and refreshing going up the steps and circling the mound briskly. I saw a little squirrel scurry up a tree... a black moth flitter up the stairs.. and of course, the endless chorus of the cicadas made me think i was in a forest. Nice. Are you also minutes away from a brisk walk or a quick swim from your office? Do you feel tired and listless during the week? I highly recommend a 20-minute break from the routine to get your blood pumping, rejuvenate your mind, and just let the stress out. Better than Yomeishu i believe. It's free too.

lent part #2

call it an impulsive move: i broke my lenten promise without even realising it until seconds later. and it was for the silliest thing. something that i usually DON"T even buy. arrgghhh... guess what it was? drumm roolllllll......

A box of Magnum ice cream on promotion! Comes with a free ice bag! Plus five sticks of solero ice-sticks too! For just $20.

My eyes must have glazed over the moment the ice cream sales woman flashed me a picture of a Magnum. Perhaps it was the past two days of "abstinence" that just got me silly. But there i was, without a moment's hesitation, i went "yes yes yes, i'll get it" and then realised, oops i did it.... and it was just way too pai-seh to tell the woman i didn't want it anymore. So there. Yup. $20 bucks spent and wasted on fattening and unhealthy MAGNUMs no less....

so that means $20 will now be pledged to a charity - i haven't decided yet. it's silly really. not the pledging - but the buy. so impulsive, so irrational. so dumb dumb cos this morning i was going to buy a bag from Bloom - run by Diana based in Siem Reap - and then told her i was on this no-shopping thingie and then tonight i splurge on bl***dy ice-creams! Arggh....

but boy, these 2 days have been quite challenging and interesting in more ways than i expected. First, there were all those 20% discount vouchers for TopShop and Karen Millen passed around the office - they expire before my 40 days so i had to pass them up. Then, i chanced across the cutest key chains at a mall going for $2.90 but i managed to walk away. This morning, i walked past Starbucks and was so tempted to have that warm blueberry skinny muffin.... aw.... nope, i gritted my teeth and plodded on. I have bought some Old Chang Kee fishballs though - but for subsistence really cos i was so hungry going home. And then, the MacAddict texted me this morning that a cheaper version of the imac is now on sale! What shall i do???? Chewing my fingernails already. Aw........ and the IT show's next week......

Gosh.. i never guessed that i was so addicted till now.