Factoid of the Day

My mum was sharing this with me the other day.

She was having lunch at Tampines Mall. My Dad was at the gents. Next to their table in the foodcourt was seated a mother and her toddler daughter.

My mum, being the auntie that she is, was curious and started observing the little girl.

And being the auntie that she is, she started a conversation with the mother. Turned out that the girl was around Little Baby's age. At 20 months, she's around 2-3 months younger than Little Baby.

My mum mentioned to the younger mother that her daughter had a nice almost full set of teeth, vis-a-vis Little Baby who is till now only sporting just 8 teeth. The younger lady told my mum that her daughter was refusing to speak though and only says some words like "milk", "mama" and "dada". In response, my mum told her Little Baby was chatty and talkative although she is trying to pronounce words well enough.

The lady said, "Oh yes, babies whose teeth pop out earlier and fuller will end up being late bloomers in speech. And those whose teeth take a longer time to pop out will end up speaking much earlier and better!"

So there you go, factoid of the day.

Or old wives' tale of the day? Hmm. :)
My mother had never ever heard of this before haha. Neither have I.

Suddenly

Time has a way of suddenly popping up in your face and telling you that Dday is near. Be it school or work project timelines, wedding dates, etc....and of course, pregnancy delivery dates.

Suddenly, there are only 4 weeks left. 

Jitter. Jittery. Jitters!

Still some more things to be done before I feel more ready.
Still at least 2-3 more gynae visits before D-day.

Breathe...

thoughts of...granny

Woke with tired eyes and a stuffy nose this morning.

Mainly because I bawled hard for a good 5-10mins yesterday. I was re-reading an old blog post I made last April, about the day my granny left us.

There were other subsequent posts relating to the proceedings for her wake but I decided not to read them. Otherwise I would have been bawling for more than that amount of time.

On hindsight, I can only conclude that either I was already feeling emo, or that I am a writing maestro and my written words were simply too fantastic and powerful and could evoke such strong feelings in someone.

I choose the latter. Hehe :p

Sun shiny day

"It's gonna be a bright, bright, sun-shiny day!"

Got onto the cab earlier on and Kiss 92FM was playing this song. 

Awesome start to the day. :) 

Definitely perked up my zombified self somewhat. Why am I zombified? Cos Little Baby woke at 12am, 130am and then 530am....zzzzzz. She had a heavy dinner and we had initially thought that we would be having a smooth night ahead of us. Guess we were wrong...

Anyway, Jiayou to both K and I!!

FB Memory Feature

FB has this new feature where it shows you your previous posts made on the same day in past years. 

So nostalgic and sentimental. Perfect feature for me. 

A short look back into the past. To remind you somewhat, of where you came from, how things and people have changed from then till now, and how much you have traversed in body, mind and spirit within that few years. 

Taking some stock too. 

Like? Don't like?

She had her first taste of durian today. It wasn't from an actual durian fruit but it was close enough. She was licking and chewing on a piece of Mao Shan Wang durian snow skin mooncake from Goodwood Park Hotel.

She gave a cringey look but continued licking and nibbling anyway. And son after she rejected it lol. Not sure if she liked it or not. 

Photos for posterity! 

Male chivalry

Popped by Opera Estate's Baker & Cook branch for breakfast this morning again. A convenient place to head to since they are open for business very early. Before we discovered them, we only had MacDonalds as an option.

Left the place after a happy meal or croissants, scrambled eggs, ham and cheese. Kyne was carrying N and had gone out first. I, being the slow and shuffling one now, was trailing far behind and by the time I reached the exit, the door had already closed. I reached out to push open the door and was then pleasantly surprised when a Caucasian guy popped out of nowhere to help me open the door. 

I said a big thank you. Felt totally grateful and appreciative of his gesture. If the cafe had been full of local guys, I doubt any of them would do it. (Ok, K begged to differ though haha) 

Anyway, thank you sir. For helping me with the door. And for putting a smile on my face so early in the morning. 

Counting Down

Approaching 34 weeks.Time really flies.

While most of the pregnancy has been relatively smooth and manageable compared to when I was having Little Baby, I didn't count on feeling much much heavier (and more breathless) in my last 2 months of pregnancy this time round.

Pelvic pressure is building. There are days when I walk awkwardly due to aches in my loins and at the thigh joints. The belly seems mighty heavy too.

And since around 2-3 weeks ago, there are days when Peanut seems intent on sucker-punching me form the inside once every few minutes till I feel winded. She must be having a ball of a time stretching, kicking, somersaulting, and basically trying out every conceivable gymnastic and pugilistic trick in the book. She stretched me so much last night with a mighty kick that I instinctively sucked in my breath in shock.

I hope she doesn't turn out to be as feisty and stubborn as her older sister haha.

The jitters have been on the rise. Yes, even though this is my second pregnancy, I am still feeling the jitters. 

Praying for a smooth csec delivery and a smooth recovery after that as well.
Praying for a smooth time in nursing Peanut.
Praying for sufficient rest.
Praying for a compliant, cooperative and understanding Nadya during the time of my confinement too....

Praying.

Hans Zimmer

Hans Zimmer accompanies me this morning...what an exceptional composer.

His pieces conjures up tonnes of emotions...

Inspiring, haunting, scary, uplifting, soothing, loving, you name it....

Currently in love with the following:

• "Gortoz a Ran" from Black Hawk Down (all time fav since a long time back)
• "Chevaliers de Sangreal" which is the main theme song for the Da Vinci Code
• "Time" from Inception 
• "The Way of the Sword" from The Last Samurai

Pls explain

I simply do not understand.

How does one BLATANTLY claim to be busy and have a big workload.

And still also have time to BLATANTLY read newspapers everyday at her desk?

Please explain to me.

I am too dumb to understand how such a contradictory situation can occur.

Conversations with a 22-month old Toddler

Scene: She stole my pillow. I was trying to take it back. We were both holding onto separate ends of my pillow.

Me: That's Mama's pillow. Can you give it back to me please?
N: Mama! No! Let go!
Me: *stunned*
Me (thinking): where did you learn that? we only ever use "give it back" with you....lol.

===========
Scene: She was sitting on my bed with K. I had just taken a morning shower and was walking out of the bathroom.

N: Mama come! Sit down! Bed!
Me: Ok, coming.
N: Mama come!!!
Me (thinking): you need more patience my little one......

===========
Scene: I was lounging on her bed. She had just gotten off it and was pacing around her room looking for something.

Me: Are you looking for something sayang?
N: Dada! Book! Where Dada put the book?
N: Where? Where? Where Dada put the book?
Me: Haha...Maybe it is under your bed? Underneath your bed. (She likes the word "underneath")
N: Oh...underneath....*proceeds to peer below her bed for whatever book she was looking for.*

Work in progress

Reminds me a little of my grandmother's sarongs for her kebayas. Not those she used for daily wear but those more intricate looking ones she wore for special occasions. 

Gratitude

We were in the cab on the way to work this morning. I looked over to K's side, out through his side of the car window and unknowingly had a small smile on my face. K asked what I was smiling about. I didn't quite answer him...:)

Truth of the matter? I was just savouring the moment.....


The moment when I took a deep breath and told myself that today will be a good day, a beautiful day, a wonderful day.

The moment when I caught the morning sun's rays falling on the trees lining the side of the expressway, turning their leaves from green to bright sparkling shimmering hues of gold and yellow.

The moment when I saw the bright blue sky, way up high with small fluffy clouds of white.

The moment when everything seemed right with all stars aligned.

The moment when I felt grateful for everything I have, including my loved ones and their unwavering presence in my life. 


Yes, those were what I was smiling about......

17 August 2015

How fleeting life can be.

While I can't claim I know you very well, I think you've had a relatively well-lived life.

You've always been fun-loving, smart and loving life.
You recently graduated and got your hard-earned MBA. 
You loved and were loved in return by friends and family and Wanling.
You mostly enjoyed your work and you had the chance to travel to some places these last few years. 

I hope you didn't suffer too much in the last few weeks.
And I definitely hope that you are in a better place right now.

Rest in peace Mahesh.
I wish you well wherever you may be.

And I'm glad that Nadya had the chance to see and play with you at least twice....

Newest obsession

Colouring. In an adult colouring book. :) 

So aside from a recent obsession with buying things from Qoo10, colouring is my newest hobby. 

I love the colouring book I got. It's called "Secret Garden" by a lady named Johanna Basford. She has a full range of adult colouring books, all filled with copious amounts of lined images of flowers and plants, animals, sceneries, fantasy images, etc, 

But I hated that the online vendor "cheated" me of my Staedtler colour pencils and gave me some low quality weirdass Mexican or Spanish brand of colour pencils. 

So I need and want to get a new box of either Faber-Castell or Staedtler colour pencils. 24 colours perhaps, if the 48 colour box proves to be too expensive. :) 

.......

I had originally wanted the last few weeks before I deliver to be more relaxed and smooth-sailing.

Turns out there are various things happening that are bringing me some form of stress and frustration.

2 colleagues "choot" pattern now regarding my covering duties. It's only regarding a small matter but now I seem to have to mediate between the two when it was of no fault of mine.

There are other things happening as well.

When can I get the chance not to think about anything at all?

Gynae visit this morning

Peanut is 32 weeks along and weighing 1.7kg now. Diameter of her head is at 8cm and she has wedged herself comfortably in a corner of my tum, with her head down already and her back/spine at the left my of tum.

My blood pressure was around 94-50. A little low by a normal person's standards but according to the doc and nurses, it's oerfectly normal for a pregnant lady. Good. 

I've put on 11kg so far. Just nice I think, considering I've about 6 more weeks to go.

The doc asked if there were 10kicks in a day. I told him it was uncountable, definitely more than 10kicks in a day lol. 

And he has also confirmed that Peanut's a girl. :) I'll have 2 princesses! More hair to play with too haha. 

And so I've also spoken to the doc and he (bless him) will be granting me a 2-week MC before the date of my csec. Which means my last day at work will be 4 Sept. 

With that I can safely put into action my leave clearance plan with my company. Good. 

Her Speech

I'm pretty stoked that Little Baby is speaking quite abit. I don't know if other kids are doing the same but I'm just rather proud of her haha.

Some examples of stuff she has said so far...

• Mama come, draw.
• Mama read the book.
• Nana feed horse, carrots. 
• Dada help Nana feed horse, carrots

And I just realised she can count from 1 to 10 in Mandarin! And that she actually knows a fair bit of Mandarin words and phrases as well like 大象， 牛奶， 睡觉，要不要，好不好，臭臭....etc.....

Proud mama...haha.

random thoughts

忍一时风平浪静
退一步海阔天空
有进的时候
也有退的时候

风筝的线
有时该拉紧 
有时也该放松一些
好让它飞得更高更远更久

Preps

Booties, socks and mittens see sunlight again after 2 years hidden away in a box.