ninja? not....

All parents find that at some point in time, they have actually morphed into pseudo ninjas.

• After the baby sleeps, you tiptoe past the cot and make a dash out of the baby's room.
• After the baby shifts its attention away from you for that split second, you grab your drink and gulp it all down to quench your parched throat and then put down the cup out of reach of the baby. Yes, within that few seconds. 
• After the baby gets distracted and you quickly keep its pacifier.
• When the baby is about to trip over something and you zip in front of it to clear the offending obstructing article from the ground.

I put Little Baby to bed each night. It used to be a more elaborate ritual where she would bounce all round in the cot before finally agreeing to lay her head down on her pillow or hug her bolsters.
These days, it is just several minutes of me either humming a particular lullaby or patting her back or stroking her hair or just being there in the room with her. Sometimes if I stop prematurely and think she's fallen asleep already, she would then remind me that she still wants me there. How? By turning around to face me with her eyes wide open haha.

Once she's fallen asleep, I'd then do an about turn and tiptoe out the room.

Just that.....

I don't make a very good ninja.

I have creaky knees.

And ankles.

And feet.

And I have no idea why.

So I end up taking a step and then pausing. Taking a second step and then pausing. Taking a third step *CREAK* and then pausing with bated breath to see if she stirred.

So instead of spending 4 seconds tiptoeing out the room, I'd end up spending much longer.

Ninja? Not really....*fail* haha...

precious moments

I had a medical check-up at SGH yesterday afternoon and it so happened that my Dad had his eye check-up as well. My mum was with him too and so we all met up for some tea before going home.

It’s times like these I treasure. Carefree and intimate moments with my dear and loved ones. Fully immersed in the moment and fully committed to the presence of the each other’s company. Much talk, much laughter. Some nagging (which is expected when you’re dealing with aging parents haha).

They were so sweet and sent me home by cab after that.

I love my laobeh and laobu. :)

prep talk

More adventurous and challenging times ahead. :)

Getting more emo the last few days and trying valiantly to keep a more balanced state of mind.

(Can't believe I bawled so much while watching a 10-minute SEA games infomercial on Fandi Ahmad's life story yesterday evening. -_-'')

So anyway, here's to keeping our heads up!
Onward we go and onward we charge!

Ganbatte!

Bah

Friggin hormones are out of whack. 

Just bawled my eyes out cos I was feeling a little miserable. 

Feeling like a petty 2-year old who is throwing a tantrum over something trivial. Bah. 

Snippets

Upset over something.

Consider it an invasion of privacy? 

Was too shocked and flustered to say anything at the point in time. The person did apologise.

Now feeling the annoyance and irritation at the incident. 

If you could have the initiative to apologise to me without me even saying anything, that means you knew it was not right to do what you did. And if you knew it was wrong in the first place, then why do it?

We had an agreement and an arrangement to do it in a different manner but you didn't follow instructions. Sigh. 

===========

Went home in the afternoon because I wasn't feeling well. Hit by sudden nausea and slight wooziness around 3pm. Retched in the ladies several times but didn't vomit. 

Caught a cab home and crashed into bed. But some neighbours' kids were playing downstairs and I think I only managed a sort of semi-sleep for an hour. 

===========

Need to stock up my fridge and food cupboard again. Opened them this evening and was underwhelmed by the available stuff to cook a quick dinner. 

Ended up with macaroni and sausages. Not a healthy meal but suffice to end my hunger pangs and provide me with much needed sugar in the body. 

People around me know that I get easily lethargic and "lembeh" when I lack food. 

===========

With each passing day I fall more and more in love with Little Baby. 

Love it when she grins at me 

Love it when she hugs me

Love it when she needs me and calls for me

Love it when she hugs my leg like as if I'm her tree

Love it when she pats me

Love it when she looks for me if I disappear from her 2m radius 

Love it when she runs to me

Love it when she offers to feed me her food

Love it when she falls in a heap into my lap

Love it when she snuggles her head against the nook of my shoulder.

Love it when she grabs me tightly and squeezes my arms. 

Love it when we sit together on the floor to read her nursery rhyme book

Love it when she reaches for my hand when we're walking

Grow well Little Baby....not too fast not too slow, just enough for Dada and Mama to savour your babyhood.....

Bob Marley

For past weeks/months, if I felt the need to listen to any music while at work, it would either be Bruno Mars or some instrumental music from the Study Music Project (check Dennis Kuo out on YouTube, his compositions are good).

Today, for some weird reason unknown to myself, I decided to search for Bob Marley on YouTube and ended up listening to his greatest hits playlist.

And so here I am chilling, at 930am in the morning, nodding my head to his reggae beats from Buffalo Soldier, Three Little Birds, No Woman No Cry, etc....

I have to admit, I am not concentrating that well this morning.
I spent some time googling about Bob Marley and reading about his life. He lived a short life and passed away at the young age of 36. But in this short period of time, he'd touched the lives of millions of people and became one of the world's best-selling artiste ever. Amazing feat.

Aiyo.

Many keyboard warriors.

Several people making snide remarks about the recently announced budget on my FB feed. 

Some making outright complaints with cuss words like KNN, WTF, etc.

Why don’t you come up with constructive ideas instead of complaining and whining all the time? This is macroecons. Not some masak masak budget you do for your Accounts class. 

If you're so good and if you think you will be able to make better policies and strategies for moving the country forward as a whole, why don't you do so?

If you're not happy with anything and everything the government does, feel free to leave the country....

身在福中不知福。

Our government may not be perfect but it is one of the best in the world. Period.

jiayou

dealing with nincompoops early in the day.
after many days of break from office work.

stay cool.
stay calm.
stay zen.

sigh.

maybe

Maybe "office taiji" is really a survival skill, amongst others like "boot lic..." oh sorry I meant "relationship management", "knowing when to put yourself in the limelight" (whether you deserve it or not), "knowing when to duck below the radar" and "having thick skin".....

Hehe

This was several weeks ago when we brought her to the Marine Parade Library. Love this pic a lot haha.

"Quick! Dada's not looking! I shall see how this things tastes like!"

*chomp chomp chomp*

Her vocabulary

And so, besides Mama, Dada, Porpor, Yeye and Nainai....the following are the words she uses to communicate with us...

1. Opok or Obok - means "open". Mostly used when something's in a sealed box or plastic bag and she wants to get at it.

2. Poopoo - well...as the name suggests

3. Wark or Walk - pronounces it correctly sometimes

4. Meerk - means "milk". Most often used before bed or when she wakes in the morning or in the middle of the night.

5. Baobao or Baba as a short form - means "carry me". 

6. No more

7. More

8. Mum mum

9. Nana - sometimes this refers to herself and sometimes it is just a random sound she makes

10. Bar - means "bus"...she can't seem to make the "s" sound 

11. Tar - means "star", same thing that she cannot pronounce the "s"

12. Baabaa - means a particular black sheep featured in a nursery rhyme book or the song "Baa Baa Black Sheep"

13. Dog or Wou Wou - means "dog"

14. Ter - I think this means "water" but I need to observe her more. I've only heard her use this a handful of times.

15. Mar - I have yet to figure out what this means as she has only just started using this these couple of days. 

Thankful

For some reason, although my event is taking place in Singapore, people from overseas have been buying me meals. Some have given gifts for Little Baby as well. Maybe they feel they know her from my posts and pictures of her on FB lol.

Feeling really thankful and blessed. And grateful too!

Happy camper. :)

Get well soon little baby (and me)

Here we go again.

Doc says I have stomach flu. That was this afternoon.

And now it seems I have diarrhoea too. 

Not sure if the little girl passed it to me or I to her. 

God please let us heal soon! 

This Saturday is buah keluak making day, next week I have an important event and and and...CNY is coming too...

Bah....

Today is one of those days where at the end of the day, I feel like bawling my eyes out.

Not to say the day was without its high points. Just that the difficulties and challenges sort of outweighed the good stuff. 

On the more positive side of things, I managed to get a load of washing done and I managed to mend my torn skirt. 

Spent the day at home looking after the girl who wasn't feeling very well. Bad stomach and diarrhoea yesterday. Her diarrhoea was not so persistent but her distension and general stomach discomfort was very much present, judging by her stickiness to me. Practically carried her the entire day. 

So here I am now at night, with sore arms and back, groggy with my own medication and having bad indigestion. I feel like puking. Bah. 

breathe.

working.

with the school calling me every now and then to update me that Little Baby is pooping watery stool.

working. (or trying to)

with the boss coming over every now and then to ask me things or discuss stuff.

working. (or trying to)

with a team member asking me every now and then how to do this and that.

working. (or trying to)

with someone from the ministry on my back chasing me for something.

feeling abit pekchek.

called people. no one is picking my call.

more pekchek

有时候

有时候有些事心放宽一点

有时候有些事还是少说

有时候有些事收在心里比较好

有时候有些事就别去想

有时候有些事...

starting the green stuff again....

I dragged K and Little Baby out on Sunday afternoon. We popped by Katong Flower Shop for about an hour. And I came back with 3 new pots of plants and other paraphernalia.

Little Baby slept early that night and I managed to get the opportunity to do some simple gardening in the balcony. Glad K brought me to the nursery to get all those things. It's been a very long time since I managed to do any potting about in the balcony.

Not that it's my own balcony that I'm fiddling around in, it feels even nicer...

Current projects:
(1) Try to keep all my pots healthy. One or two of them which I bough a few months back when we first shifted in are showing signs of not doing well..I hope they survive!

(2) Propagate my Bowles' mint and African Violet.

My colleague's Venue flytrap is a young plant and is currently only doing so-so...he said once it gets stronger he might be able to get me a leaf to propagate...hehe. I'll be excited if that day really comes. Always wanted one but it's a challenge to find bugs and flies to feed it...

Little Baby

She's growing fast. Wishing sometimes that she could slow down a little and let us savour her toddlerhood and babyhood  more.

She's speaking more now.

Dada. Mama. Yeye (my FIL). Por por (my mum). Ball. Bird. Cow. Flower. Poo Poo. Shoe. Park (means carpark). Tah (means star).

And she understands a lot more words and sentences, and she can also understand 2-step instructions like "Pick up the ball and bring it to Mama". 

My favourite game with her is the "Where?" game. 

Good way to distract and sometimes it offers me a way to get her off my back when she is too clingy. 

"Where is doggy?" That's her soft toy.

"Where is your waterbottle?"

"Where is Winnie the Pooh?" Another soft toy. 

"Where is Dada?" Go find Dada. 

"Where is your bolster?"

And she toddles off to go find these things. Sometimes she gets distracted along the way and sits down to play with whatever it was that she chanced upon. Sometimes she really does go find these things. 

Somehow the first shape she has learned to recognise is the star. Not a square or circle or oval or triangle. But a star. And she clasps her fingers repeatedly when she sees a star in a book. That is her hand signal for the song "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". 

She is getting cheekier too. She knows I would get miffed if she spits out her food and so she sometimes does it. Slowly. She would spit out a little and I'd wipe it off. Apparently she would keep food in her mouth and after I wipe her, she would spit out the rest in installments. Again and again. Till I find something else to distract her. 

Baking

Worked from home today. 

And decided to give baking a shot again when I had some time in the afternoon. (Actually it was more like I was too xian to work. I thank my boss and company for this flexibility). 

I made muffins on Saturday but they (especially the surface) turned out quite hard. I called them biscuits instead.

Today's muffins were much better and I actually enjoyed the choc chip ones. They could still be better though. Another time, I'll try again. 

Fashion

She picked this outfit yesterday when we wanted to head out. Well, at least the pants and shoes.

Not that matching and a little obiang. 

She's still a baby though haha. Let's hope she gets more colour coordinated and develops more finesse in aesthetics and fashion next time! 😜