Buy buy buy!

This is what happens when you haven't shopped properly in a mall for over a year. Maybe even 1.5years. 

You end up spending $1,000 in 4.5 hours. 

Macham ”被放出来” haha...

I'm just glad I met all my objectives of this shopping trip (except one which I forgot about).

Amongst the stuff I got:

- 14mths supply of contact lenses

- 2 dresses

- 4 pairs of casual footwear

- 1 pair of shoes for work

- 4 tops for work

- A pair of shoes for Little Baby 

- Some educational stuff for Little Baby

- Some clothes and other knick knacks for Little Baby

- Some Xmas presents for Adrian, relatives and friends 

Before heading out I told myself, don't think too much, just buy to your heart's content. It's something I don't usually do so today was out of the ordinary haha. 

I set myself a time limit because I wanted to go home and rest before having to go pick Little Baby up from my inlaws' place. 

If I had the strength (I was carrying loads of shopping bags!) and more time, I think I would have easily spent another 200 more...

Ok that's it. Enough shopping to last me for the next 10mths lol. 

And oh ya I forgot to buy a water bottle for her...it was on my list but I missed it out....

Parenting

Different parents have different approaches to parenting. This I know. I just find some parenting styles odd and well...maybe a little disturbing.

I recently had some interaction with a lady who has 2 sons, aged 3 and 1.5. During our interaction, she proudly proclaimed to me: "Baby number 2 is 1.5yrs old already, I have never showered him before. The maid does that. I don't know how much milk he takes and at what intervals. The maid settles those. The same went for number one. Well, my main (and only) responsibility is to give birth, that's all." 

"我只是负责生孩子而已。" Those were the exact words she said. 

There was a previous situation end of last year. K and I were out with this lady and her husband at a restaurant when their number 2 needed a diaper change. The husband went to settle it and she proclaimed "oh, I don't change diapers one!"

Like what? As a mum, I cannot fathom how uninvolved this lady is in the caring of her children and their upbringing. 

holding one's ground

Treat me nicely and I will treat you nicely. Just came out from a meeting.

The most senior woman in the meeting was aggressive/overly assertive towards me at certain points in time. I had to raise my voice as well as my own assertiveness slightly to get my points across to her. Her two staff were making eyes at each other and enjoying the exchange between herself and me. (It was me alone with the three of them.) I kept my smile on though at certain points in time I think I did not fare too well and had furrowed brows instead.

Oh well. Learning to hold my own ground. Did well earlier on but I think I can still do better.

Proud mama

For posterity, I need to blog this!

Little Baby took her first steps on 19 November 2014! At the age of 13 months 1 week and 3 days. :) 

The Little Sponge of a Baby

She is a sponge soaking up bits and pieces of info and knowledge. And somehow in the last few weeks something in her brain must have clicked into place and she's been on a roll since. Her vocabulary has increased a lot and our communications with her are more two-way now.

While she is still developing herself linguistically and can only babble most of the time (though she can say dada, baba , mama and nana), she understands quite a lot these days. A lot to me at least. She understands:

1. Where is [insert noun]? 

Nouns she knows are Daddy, Mummy (or dada and mama), gong gong, po po, ye ye, nai nai, doggy (her soft toy), doll doll (soft toy), rong rong (soft toy again), Winnie the Pooh (yes, soft toy too), bolster, tissue, water, home, car, dog, cat etc. When you ask her a "where is" question, she'll make the hand gesture for it too (hand at chest level then turn palm up with fingers spread apart). And when she spots the item or person you are asking about, she will point to it. When I stand at my lift lobby these days and ask her "where is home?", she can point in the general direction of our home. 

2. Throw the [insert item]

Not a good thing for her to understand though haha

3. Stand up/sit down 

When we are sitting down or lying down and she wants to be carried, I'll tell her to "stand up first" then mummy will "bao bao" you and she will get herself into a standing position ready to be carried lol. 

4. Blow kiss/flying kiss

5. Wave bye bye / Say hello / Say hi 

She will wave to the person or object when we say these phrases. She does this on her accord too. 

6. Press 

Many kids toys have buttons to press and all, if not most, of them either trigger a song or light up something. For some reason she understands the word "press". Maybe she picked it up in school. 

7. Kiss [insert name of someone]

I taught her this hehe and I want to claim credit. I think she's gotten sick of me asking her to kiss me that she is ignoring me now when I ask her to do it...:( 

8. Hold [object]

9. And other things....which I can't recall at this point in time....

Needless to say everytime she demonstrates an understanding of a word, instruction or concept, we get all surprised, delighted and excited at the same time haha. 

Here's to more surprises for us and to more learning for her! 

pressies for myself?

Bought myself some body lotion for myself for Xmas. I'm a little greedy.
I'm thinking of a pair of sneakers as well and maybe a black watch for myself if I can find the time to buy them....

Granny

In a flash, it's been 7 months 6 days since she left us.

I think of her everytime I sing songs and nursery rhymes to Little Baby, mainly because my earliest memory of Granny was of her singing songs to me while lying with me on our sofa in our old home in Bedok. I was around 3 or 4.

This is the first Christmas without her.

Thankful for

Been awhile since I last had a "thankful for" post. Here's one...

• My inlaws. They pick Little Baby up every day from Monday to Friday to bring her to school and then fetch her from school at the end of the day. And then they look after her for around 2hours before I manage to rush back from work to their place. They give her her daily intake of fruits as well...While sending Little Baby to school, along the way, they also drop K and I at each of our bus-stops. Without their "transport" K and I would have to walk pretty far out to our stops.
• My parents. For always being there. For always listening (Well, at least my Mum does haha. My Dad loses patience and gets distracted after awhile.) For always thinking about my brother and I and our families. Special shoutout to my mum: for always filling our tummies with our favourite foods.
• K. For always being there. And if he somehow can't, he will make up for it in his own ways. For always listening. For cooking lovely meals (with lovely food presentations to boot haha). For taking care of the harder menial chores at home. For working hard for our family. For just...being him....

Xmas is coming!

We've not given each other Xmas presents for a long time. But sweet K got me this for an advanced Xmas present this year. He must have seen the pathetic state of my current Creative earphones.

Never had such a good quality piece of audio equipment before. Kinda feel like I'm not fit for it lol. 

Thank you sayang...:)

 

sigh

累。想哭。纳闷。无奈。疲倦。

Souvenir from Columbia

I didn't buy anything for myself when I was in Cartagena, Columbia back in 2012. This time round, when Adrian went to Bogota, he got me this bag. My first reaction was "Wah so bright!" 

Nevertheless I was touched he bought it for me. 

Staycation

We had a mini staycation. A 2D1Nstay at Swissotel the Stamford. Friday till Saturday.

We brought the girl out to Suntec and Marina Square. I hope the sights and sounds were not too overwhelming for her. She managed to have her naps as usual. We kept to her daily schedule as closely as possible to minimise any disruptions. She slept on the king-sized bed, her first time haha.

She had her first bath in a bath tub! She didn't seem too impressed though and was more curious about the tap spewing water out than the huge bath tub itself.

And as usual we rushed through all our meals because she got fidgety after too long in a high-chair.
Still, I think the food at Podi and it's sister restaurant Cedele were good...Pity we had to rush through our food.

The staycation turned out more tiring than we expected though, especially with the little girl waking up and throwing a hissy fit at 1am till 2am on Friday night...um...Saturday morning to be exact.
Maybe it was a new environment, a new cot (we used the hotel's baby cot) or a bad dream or night terror?....

She was also cranky at lunch time on Saturday too and we had to wheel her around in her stroller to get her to open her mouth and feed.

Other than these she was pretty much a good girl. Cooing, smiling and playing and generally being awed by the lights and sights at the various malls.

Nadya at 13 months

And so Little Baby turned 13 months yesterday. What's her stats now?

Weight: 9.2kg (>50th percentile, I think she's maybe around the 60th percentile)

Length: 74cm (around 50th percentile)

Teeth: 1.5 lower front incisors (an upper incisor is just below the gum surface and about to break through already)

Mongoloid marks: Status quo. The one on her right shoulder is faint but still visible.

Motor Skills

• Her aiming has improved and whatever finger food I give her she can put it into her mouth directly. Previously she would sometimes try to feed her cheek instead.
• She's still cruising around but is learning to be more steady on her two feet without any support. When I encourage her to take the first step forward, she is excited and wants to try but doesn't dare. And she usually just ends up leaning her whole body forward and crashing into my arms haha.
• She zips around pretty quickly on the floor now while leopard-crawling, usually in gear 4 or so. Gets excited when she thinks we're chasing her and then goes into gear 5 with full throttle. 
• She can point.

Cognitive/Emotional Development

• She has learned to point and can ask for things now.
• She has learned to shake her head and will do so if she does not want whatever you are offering her. (Trying to teach her to nod her head...)
• Throws a hissy fit when you take something away from her or when you don't give her what she wants.
• Stil loves music and sways to it or bounces on her bottom when she hears her fav tune. She knows the action to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star now and will do it when she hears the song when we sing or play it on a toy.

Communication/Social Skills 

• She is still waving to everyone, even the neighbour opposite our balcony.
• She understands when we say "no" but no longer stops what she is doing. Seems like she is challenging and testing the boundaries. Sometimes when we insist on stopping whatever she is doing, she throws a mini tantrum by either crying or arching her back and flinging her head backwards (which can be dangerous if she's on the hard floor).
• She now understands many words and instructions including pointing out a cat in a particular book when I ask "Where's the cat?". She points to her ears when asked "Where are your ears?". 
• She understands "Kiss Mummy"! :) I received my first kiss of sorts from her on 5 Nov 2014. :) I was really excited when she responded that night.
• She is starting to recognise Gong Gong and Po Po (my parents) and is willing to sit and play with them more easily. (We go over to their place each Saturday evening)

Food

• Introduced mee sua and baby pasta to her. The baby pasta needs to be cooked till quite soft and mushy. I made the mistake of not cooking it till very soft on one occasion and had a nightmare feeding her at a mall that day. She started spitting out every mouthful I gave her. Big mess.
• Other new foods that she's tried in the last month include:
• more egg (ok not new but...oh well..)
• buttered rice (just some small nibbles)
• barramundi fish
• chye sim
• spinach 
• cabbage

Aiyoh

My love-hate relationship with cabs.

When I desperately need one, they are nowhere to be found. None around me and can't get through the booking hotlines.  

When I made a booking and am standing around waiting for it to arrive, a whole slew of at least 3-4 available cabs hang around in front of me. Bah...

Breathe

I saw this on a friend's Facebook and thought it was meaningful.
How often have we been in such situations?

"Breathe. You're going to be okay. Breathe and remember that you've been in this place before. You've been this uncomfortable and anxious and scared, and you've survived. Breathe and know that you can survive this too. These feelings can't break you. They're painful and debilitating, but you can sit with them and eventually, they will pass. Maybe not immediately, but sometime soon, they are going to fade and when they do, you'll look back at this moment and laugh for having doubted your resilience. I know it feels unbearable right now, but keep breathing, again and again. This will pass. I promise it will pass." 

— Daniell Koepke

My loves!

I ordered online and paid for them yesterday. They arrived in the mail today! Super fast!

I've been using Nalgene bottles for as long as I can remember. Since my ducktours days I think, which is at least 10 years or more. 

Loving these purchases. Especially the red bottle :) 

Belated birthday gift

A dear friend from another division attended a terrarium-making workshop just to make me one for my birthday. She knows I like them. While the gift came late, I was very touched, because she's one who is totally clueless about such things. 

Thank you KH!

*ROAR*

It's my issue. It was my update to the boss.

And he escalated the updates to the top bosses for their information but he did not cc me, instead he cc-ed the other two team members (granted, they are of a higher grade than me) when they had nothing to do with it. Nor did they do anything at all. And they get exposure just like that?

I wrote the update email and provided all information and I don't get any exposure at all?

What the #$#@%$#%

大家都不是十六岁了

The older we get, the more responsibilities, challenges and 烦恼 we seem to have. Is this part of growing older?

Just had lunch with TH today...it was an almost 2-hour session of talking and listening. A good session.

I hope he resolves his issues in time to come. They are a little tricky and would take time to settle. I wish for the remainder of this year and 2015 to be smoother for him...and for Diana as well. May their wedding preparations go well too.

He has gotten more white hairs recently. I've gotten more wrinkles. Signs.
That we are all no longer exuberant and carefree 16 year-olds. 

Hard to imagine we used to wear T-shirt and berms and run around on Pasir Ris beach.

Om nom nom

K whipped up this 爱心晚餐 last night. Grilled salmon with salad greens and zaru soba by the sides. 

Thank you baby, really appreciate it!