Kindle

My Kindle in sunny Bali!

Have I ever mentioned how awesome the Kindle is??????????? Yes I bought a Kindle. Bought it a year ago. I wrote an entry on it 2 year ago. What made me change my mind about it? Mainly it is the price tag. It has dropped to below 200 USD. Of course I was tempted!

 After getting it, I became a book slut. Jumping from one book to another. Something that I never do when I read real books. I don't have a lot of books yet. A lot of parenting ones, which I am not all too keen to keep but still want to read those because I am such a clueless parent. Fiction I still prefer buying a hard copy. Nothing more romantic than a good old book in hand, with hours and hours to spare and a nice drink at the side. Sigh, gone are such days.

After a year, I am still as in love with it as I first got it. I was blown away by the e ink. It absolutely looks just like book prints! I wish I had it before I had kids. I will bring it everywhere with me. Sit down at a cafe and read to my heart's content. Soon... those days will be back. I just need to cart them both to child care. WHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone who loves to read and thinks it will kill the reading pleasure - It won't! Go get it. It will be one of the best things that you can do for yourself. You can't carry The Odyssey or Ulysses around all the time right?

Another good thing? There are free classic ebooks to be had! Now, tell me that doesn't do it for you!

Reading

I have told myself that this year, I will read 12 books. All fiction. None of that parenting stuff that I have been reading lately. I need some form of escape. Reading fiction provides me that. I miss reading beautifully constructed sentences, they delight me endlessly and puts me in a very very romantic place.

This year, I have so far read a grand total of 3 pages!

I will want to put the blame on my two children. Truth is, that is the truth! Well partially.. I was hooked on pinterest for a while. That site is bad and unproductive! Not really... I found plenty of things and ideas that I love. Like ideas to keep a toddler busy and how to peel a  whole bunch of garlic in 30 seconds.

I need to get back my reading groove.

Suppering

I think I had too much supper. I feel so bloated that I can't sleep.

I had 1 char siew bao, 2 bak bao and then, not feeling totally satiated and somewhat needing some kind of stress relief fix from battling with my toddler with regard to her bedtime, I had a huge bowl of cereal with a banana doused with full cream milk.

I can't tell you how grossed out I feel right now. Especially when I have a full term baby in my tummy at the same time.

All this in the middle of a big Braxton Hicks contraction some more.

Pretty Ballerinas

Thanks to some friend, now I am surfing this site and can't decide how much of V's college fund I should spend on shoes......

Shoes

How do I convince my husband that a housewife like me, who barely is able to put herself together before heading out of the house needs a pair of shoes like these.....

or these

or these

or these

30mm 1.4

In line with sticking to my new year resolution, I have finally finally decided to get the Sigma prime lens already.

Enough of worrying about the cost! I will get it before CNY! I will bring my chunky DSLR and a couple of lens to New Zealand. Never mind that I have a squirmy, sometimes whiny, sometimes cranky and all the time active baby who needs almost constant attention.

Right now, I will go email the camera shop to get a quote on the lens. The last I know, it was about $650!

Hopefully The Husband reads this entry and go get it for me as a surprise!

Resolutions

I promise to put aside more time for myself to read.
I will pick up my DSLR more and get outside and shoot!
Do more baking! I miss that!
Get part time help more often.

.... Generally more ME time less chores time.

Oh, and get her room done up already!

Hapy New Year!

2010 has been a good year! Tiring but good.



Still a newborn. I miss her being so tiny sometimes. On her tummy during tummy time. She didn't like tummy time too much.


First time in the baby carrier. She struggled and cried a lot when we tried putting her in. She must be about 4 months old already. Bearing some weight on her legs.


Sitting on her own. Crawling finally at 8 months. I didn't think she would. She didn't show any interest at all. She only wanted us to hold her so that she could 'walk' on her own. One fine evening, she decided to surprise us by crawling.


When she could pull up on her 2 feet, she would climb up our pillows almost every time we put her on our bed. She is reaching for the remote. Cruising in the zoo.


Still cruising, a bit better. Walking finally!


Taking her shower.

I watched her rolled over, smile, laugh, giggle, pull herself to a sitting position, pull herself up to stand, babble, cut teeth, crawl, and walk! All in a year! There are plenty more that she has accomplished, but I can't possibly list everything. Well okay.. I will list a few more. She has graduated from taking baths in the baby tub to standing up having showers instead. I also learnt that her tantrums are of diva proportions. She understands more than I think she does.


We took 2 trips this year. A road trip to Penang and a trip to Taipei. This baby is made to travel! She was her usual bubbly self and more.


She was in a baby gym class for 3 months. She was more interested in doing her own thang than doing what the teacher wants her to. She enjoyed herself and it was great to have kids of her age around. This poor girl doesn't have any friends of her age!


This is how she thank me when I try to give her puree. Mess up and have a great mush fest. Most of it ends up on her, the table and the floor. Sometimes when I tried feeding her baby food or purees, she made a horrible face, gag and spit it right out, as if it was the most yucky thing she had ever tasted in her whole life. (Maybe that is true). She has finally finally begin eating more solids. If I didn't know about baby led weaning, I would totally be lost when she rejected the puree I wanted to feed her when she was 6 months old.

We had some renovation done to the flat. Added more cabinets and shelves. A baby does take up a lot of space.

I have been married for 4 years! We had a very good dinner at St Pierre, with a lot of good food and too much good wine! Still wondering if I should take a photo of the bill and shock the living daylights out of everyone. It sobered me up alright.

I do not know how much motherhood has changed me. I can tell you though, that it has made me really really happy. I love being a mum. I can remember a lot of the happy times I spent with her, and the not too happy ones, I can't really remember. My life revolves pretty much around her. I don't have time to do much else. This year, I will try to squeeze in more me time. My books are screaming out for some attention. I will pick up my camera more too. Yes, and I will get part time help more often to help with the chores.

2011 will be great!

New Obsession

ETSY.

Obsession

Now I know why parents plaster their baby's photos all over Facebook and their blogs. The sense of pride you feel is unexplainable.

I just do it on my blog though.

My Day These Days.

I have been meaning to post but I have been pretty caught up with daily stuff. I always have thoughts and have been wanting to write posts about them, but when I get to the PC, I draw blanks. For the life of me, I can't remember what exactly that I want to post. There are some non-baby related ones, but I just forgot all about them! Too tired. Most of my days start like this...

Get woken up by the baby. Yes, usually, she will be up before me, at about 8am, sometimes earlier. She gets her diaper changed and we get her out of her PJs. The husband will have a coffee and then be doing some exercise on the rowing machine and she will exercise alongside him, jumping in her Jumperoo. I will make the bed, hop in the shower for a quick one. Then I will clean the floor or some other house chores. She doesn't last very long when she just wakes up, so after cleaning the floor, she will be looking sleepy already. I will nurse her and she will nap for about 2 hours, sometimes more, depending on how well she slept the night before.

I will then have my breakfast, read the papers and go about doing more chores and plan dinner if it is a cooking day. This happens when she is really good and naps for like 2 hours. If not, aiyoh, after breakfast wake up already.

Then when she wakes up, we will chill for a while, play a little and then her bath time. She loves her baths! She will then be ready to nap again. I take my naps with her at this time. Cannot tahan if I do not nap!

Sometimes we take walks around the neighbourhood. She loves looking at buses. Children just love big moving vehicles don't they? I remember being fascinated by the huge cranes, steamrollers, and especially cement mixers! They are such colourful things and the exciting part is when they start pouring out the cement onto the roads. I had a morbid thought when I was a child, I kept imagining what would happen when someone gets cement poured on them, would they die? Would they just turn into statues? I will have images of those statues in my head!

After walks, she will be in a mood for another nap. So another feed and then a short nap. I will then be in the kitchen preparing dinner. If she isn't napping, she will be in the kitchen, sitting in her rocker with me. This is the time when I hope The Husband comes back soon and take her off my hands for I can cook, have some music on and treat it as my Me time. We will have dinner, while she nap or she will be at the table with us. I will then wash up, have another quick shower and she will have another round of milk.

If it isn't a cooking day or eating at our parents' day, we will be out for dinners. Usually, she will have milk in the car. Hahahaha! Coming back home after 10pm. (Yikes, I know I know! Very late for a baby! But she isn't cranky or anything! I don't feel so bad now because I found our that our friends put their kids to bed late too!). When she gets back home, we give her another quick bath to settle her into sleepy time. We will hang out and chill for a little while more then she will have her last feed and then she will sleep!

PHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Long day right? By the time we get our own time, be it just having coffee, milo, browse magazines, surf net, watch TV or pack the diaper bag already dunno what time. (See the time I blog you know already!) Sometimes, or rather, a lot of times, I will still do some chores, hoping that the next day will be easier.

Something has gotta give. That something has got to be the chores. I can have a part time helper or go easier on the chores. The part time helper I am not too comfortable with. I hate having a different one all the time, because I have to tell them what to do and how to do the chores every single bleeding time. Maybe once in a while to clean the windows, wash the toilet will be sufficient. Try as I may, it is hard for me to ignore the chores and live in a messy home. Especially now that she is sitting, the floors will have to be very clean. So what do I choose to give? My sleep. I sleep late, because I want to have it all (other than more sleep that is). I still want to have some time on my own and still have the apartment in order. It is silly I know, me not resting enough, I will not be able to give her my best. But, I got to say, I am coping better than before. Sleeping more now. I had problems falling asleep some weeks back and it is pretty frustrating. I would lie in bed for hours, sometimes falling asleep at about 5am or later. Some bad days, I will see the break of dawn and it is most upsetting because I wold feel so stressed about not being able to sleep! Sigh~ Lucky now I can sleep more. So now I sleep around 3am. I wonder if mothers are programmed to survive on not as much sleep as fathers or people with no kids.

Tomorrow...

I will charge all my camera batteries, get my camera and lenses cleaned. By the way, I can't find my kit lens. Time to get that dry cabinet already!

I will sort out the photos and get some developed.

I will find time to read Monocle. Not gone through the previous issue, already bought the latest one.

Decide on the highchair of choice.

Clean/wash all her toys and barang barang. Pray tomorrow plenty of sunshine and no rain.

Decide when to go for my next hair cut. These days I have become quite thrifty, cut hair once in 3 months. Not by choice though.

Call polyclinic to inform them that they have booked the wrong date for me.


Tidy the study. (It rhymes!)

Bake some scones and have tea.

Get some bills paid.

Get some ironing done.

Do some marketing for this week's dinner. Oh, and do double portions of some of them so that I can freeze them for days when I am too tired to cook.

WONDER WHERE TO FIND THE TIME TO DO ALL OF THE ABOVE.

Shopping

The only shopping I do these days are grocery shopping and online shopping.

The scariest thing that should happen to me is that I remember my credit card details by heart. SHUDDERS!!!!!!

I am resisting buying stuff on J Crew. Argh.

I am resisting buying matching tees for me and my baby from Threadless. Hohohoho!

I am between sizes now, my maternity bottoms are so loose that I am swimming in them and I can't fit into my old stuff. The agony! I am so busy, it is hard to find time to squeeze in any exercise. Just look at the ungodly time I am blogging this.

My dream wallet that I have been eyeing forever cost more than my most expensive bag.

We went shopping last week because I am in dire need of some pants or skirts that don't threaten to slide off me ass. While shopping for myself, I looked at baby stuff too. Just can't help it lah!

It has been a year since I visited Antipodean. I fear that I would be depressed should I visit the store, find something that I really like and can't fit into it now.

I don't use my camera so often now, but I do want to get another prime lens.

I miss shoe shopping.

I miss book shopping more. I miss the hours I spent in Kinokuniya. Now, we are in and out of there in half and hour.

I now know where the nursing/baby rooms are in malls. Somehow these places didn't seem to exist before I had a baby.

LOMO

Only someone who knows me well will get this baby for me. Thank you so much! I feel so bad when it comes to getting you gifts. How I wish I know you better.

Thank you so much! Though I have yet to have time to even sit down to load the film, let alone go through the manual!

After the Rain

Anyone noticed how greener leaves on the trees are and the trunks and branches are a delicious deeper brown shade? How they look great in contrast with the much darker roads after a heavy downpour?

Another reason why I love the rain.

Gift Wrapping

I ran out of gift wrap paper and decided to DIY. Turns out surprisingly nice. I had quite a fun evening stamping all over the white paper that I have lying around the apartment. It was meant for practising Chinese calligraphy but I have not been really practising. The Husband was pretty impressed on the ways I managed to keep myself occupied sometimes.

Running out of Time

I had all my stuff all planned out. The Husband was meeting a friend last Friday and I decided to stay home and catch up with some stuff that I have been meaning to do. I met a friend for dinner instead. I will be meeting up with some friends later on today for tea and dinner. Then my mum and my siblings on Tuesday. Another dinner on Friday with another group of friends, then dinner at the in-law's on Wednesday. Which means, the Christmas tree better be up on Thursday. I hope I can get the rest of the stuff done too, despite all the appointments.

It is time that I accept that I can't do everything all the time now. That it is okay that some things are left undone, that it is alright if the windows are a little dirty. Think about the things that I have already done instead!

Where is the Love?

Every time I see an elderly couple holding hands, laughing or just plain enjoying each other's company, I feel really happy. I get a little teary eyed even, especially now when my hormones are all messed up.

I wish we would still be laughing and having fun when we are 60. Just like watching the first 10 minutes of the animated movie Up! Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Not all old couples are so loving after a few decades. Even couples who are together for just a decade aren't that into each other anymore. Do people just grow apart after a while? Does it really take a lot of work and effort just to make love work? Personally, it should really be effortless, because it is love! Like you wouldn't mind the strange quirky habits, and in some unexplainable way, you love those habits secretly because they make your partner who he or she is. My friend once said, I am not complaining about the chores I do daily, because I am in love and I am doing it willingly. I couldn't agree more. I suppose I would be really whining about it if I didn't love him all that much. So, in that sense, I don't feel that it is a lot of effort. ALTHOUGH IT IS STILL NICE IF HE ASKS ONCE IN A WHILE IF HE CAN GET ANYTHING DONE FOR ME.

Like how it isn't much effort to shop for a present for him, or how it isn't too much effort to come up with new stuff we can do together. Like how I enjoy waking up and making breakfast for him on some mornings when all I want to go is to sleep in. It is in the state of mind when you do such things. If you are happy, you won't feel like it is a lot of work. If you are doing some stuff grudgingly, then it becomes a chore and then it feels like you have to put in a lot of effort.

I wonder if I am making any sense to anyone at all.

Why I do not Work

I do get asked if I get bored staying at home all the time ever since I stopped working. Some asked what I do at home. Some people assume that I have a tai tai lifestyle. I never really have an answer when people asked me. This is my story, and hopefully, the questions will stop.

It happened at about the time when we were flat hunting. At that time, I was working full time as a preschool teacher. Most people think it is a fun job without it being too demanding. Let me tell you now that it is not. I am not paid well, and I start work at 7am to 3pm. I don't really have a proper lunch break. Most times it is just 15 minutes during the kids' nap time. After that, I will try to pack their bags, straighten out the classroom and try to do some lesson plans. Most times, I wouldn't be able to finish my lesson plans during the short time while the kids try to sleep. Because, there will be kids who wouldn't sleep and I will have to tend to them. So off I go at 3pm. I will rest a little at home, have dinner, most times at home and then meet The Husband. We would go out and have some coffee and then when I am back, I will start preparing materials for lessons or continue with my lesson plans. It was really hectic and I had no life to speak of for the time I was at that preschool. I had no time for anyone, I didn't meet my friends much and all I could think of was work.

It clearly wasn't very healthy. I stayed up the whole night one day, preparing lessons and a birthday card for The Husband. He was upset that I wasn't getting enough rest. He was feeling bad that I did that just for him. Halfway through flat hunting, I quit my job. At that point, I needed to choose - work or a life. I was about to start a new life soon, I didn't want to miss out in anything. Clearly, The Husband was feeling a little sad seeing that I have to work so hard. With a new flat coming, we need to plan for the wedding. All that took time, and it was only logical that I quit and be the main person coordinating all the work that needed to be done.Besides, us moving to Bukit Batok means that it is really silly to work in the preschool that is situated in Seng Kang.

I did think about going back to work after the moving in and the wedding. It is nice to work, I enjoyed working, even when it gets a little hectic. In the beginning, I worry about losing myself, if I stayed home and become a housewife. I miss having my own money to spend. It was a little hard taking money from The Husband and spending it. Just not that shiok, you know what I mean?

Slowly but surely, I got rid of those feelings. I love being a housewife. I love just doing the chores and then have some time on my own to indulge in my past times. I can bake when I feel like it, go out for walks, go to the museums when they are empty, read, think about what to cook for dinner, do my handicraft things, do up the house, go out and take some photos, be on the internet blogging and surfing randomly. All the things that I had no time for, I have the time now. I do the chores so The Husband doesn't have to when he comes back and we can have the evenings spending time together talking and doing whatever we like, instead of doing the chores. I know myself a lot better than I care to admit, but if I have to work, I will still insist of a home that is almost spotlessly clean. That means, evenings will be spent doing chores instead of just chilling out. So me staying at home works best for us. I am happy doing what I am doing now and he is happy being the only one bringing home the bacon. Should I ever want to go back to work one day, he will definitely be more than happy and supportive of me.

I always wanted to be a full time mum, and if I work, I will need to quit when the baby comes along. It is hard to quit when you are taking care of and teaching preschoolers. The emotional attachment to the kids makes it really hard for you to say goodbye.

I still think a bit more than I used to when it comes to spending money. I don't buy myself expensive things, except for camera lenses. I am hankering for a Sigma 30mm f1.4 and a macro lens! I don't have a tai tai lifestyle. I don't have afternoon teas with friends, (well, only sometimes) nor do I pop into spas or salons for treatments every week.I don't shop for clothes often. But man, I have all the time in the world to do my own stuff. And that is coming to an end in a month's time.

Xmas Pressies

Christmas is certainly early this year. At least to me. I am not feeling especially Christmasy yet, and I think it is due to the weather. Just as I have mentioned, I have started on the Christmas present shopping early, I have 2 wrapped up already and it is not even November!