Eavesdropping Spud

As willful and defiant as my daughter can sometimes be, there certainly are many things about her that makes me smile, particularly of the things she said.

I've started capturing the little random things she blurted out as and when, and there is no doubt in my mind that these would surely bring back some fond memories in the years to come.

The sweet innocence of a 2 year old child can be oh-so-endearing - and here's the first few to start with:

“Well done, Mama, well done. Good job!”  says she, as she saw me sitting on the toilet when she caught me peeing or pooping during the earlier days of her potty training.

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"Mama, you're cute. Very cute, Mama, very cute," says she to me out of the blue. This was quickly followed by, "I like your rubber band, Mama," she added as she tried to take the band off my hair.

What do you know - isn't it awesome that my daughter thinks I'm cute! (Although, between you and me, I think she had meant it for the rubber band...)

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I guess I'll just have to post up more of Spud's random blabbers as they come along.

Bigger devices

My banks in Singapore sent me their new online security devices. You know, that device that generates a new code every time you want to log in online to do internet banking for added security? 

I don’t have any issues with the security device at all – in fact I love it. My only problem with them now is that those things are getting bigger and bulkier. It is a hassle to have to bring them around with me all the time and they are taking too much space. 

Phones are already getting bigger these days. Why do they have to make these security things bigger as well? I miss the smaller versions.

 

Related randomness

Yesterday, a scheduled post on "Of garbage trucks and traffic" was up sometime in the afternoon. I wrote that post a few days prior not as a rant, but from a perspective of a concerned parent on the issue of safety in this country.

This morning,  I came across an online article of a traffic accident which killed 2 boys in Singapore within several hours after my post went up. The accident did not happen anywhere near me here in Bangkok (obviously!) and not even in my (parent's) neighbourhood, but it sent a shiver down my spine.

Somewhere in Singapore, a set of parents is mourning the loss of not just one, but two of her kids at a go. A mother's mind is forever haunted by the gruesome scene she saw and her heart is forever broken. It breaks my heart to hear stories like that and I could only imagine the massive loss she must have felt. How could anyone cope with such pain?

It was a gruesome accident, and shortly after it happened, pictures of the accident went viral online - I accidentally came across one and I could not bear to look at it. I am hoping that people stop circulating such pictures around and give some respect to the parents and family of the deceased.

As I read on, curious to find out what had actually happened, I stumbled upon another article which has a "mood meter"on it - where people can express what they felt about the article. I am appalled at what I saw (see the red box I highlighted):

WTF?!

What?! Really?! Unless LOL stands for something else rather than the commonly known abbreviation for "laugh out loud", 79% who read the news actually went "LOL"! Are you seriously fucking kidding me, Singaporean readers?  Isn't there any kind of compassion left in you to deem the article as such? What if it had happened to you or your family? That would not be so funny for you to "LOL" wouldn't it now?

As I read some other comments on an FB page, I thought a few comments that went along the lines of "Malays or Chinese?" were also pretty "off". I mean, come on - 2 brothers were killed in an accident. What is it you if they are Chinese or Malays or Indians or white or black or green or purple? How does their race matter in this case and why the fuck would such information be useful to you? Somebody lost their loved ones - can we not just show some compassion regardless of language, race or religion rather than start asking such a useless question? I truly find such questions about ethnic group borders on being discriminatory. 

Last I checked, if the kids were still alive and needed blood transfusion, race would not be a big problem to qualify for a donation; your blood type, however, would!

Most are also quick to judge and jumped to the conclusion that the cement truck driver was at fault. Regardless if he was at fault or not, I am pretty sure that it was not something he was able to foresee. It could have stemmed from recklessness, or sheer unawareness from blind spot, but assuming he really is some decent chap, the poor guy would have to live through the guilt his entire life. The truth is, for the truck driver, a lifetime of jail sentence would probably not able to reverse how bad he felt about the whole thing. Not to mention, having the world hating him for it at the same time.

It was, indeed, an unfortunate thing to happen to such young souls. Life can be so unpredictable, and I am being reminded once again how vulnerable we are at the mercy of Bangkok insane traffic filled with crazy motorists, inconsiderate drivers and oblivious street-side food vendors.

An update of the incident was reported this afternoon. Articles can be found here and here.

My heart felt condolences to the family of Nigel and Donovan Yap. May your parents find the strength to survive you both and may your young souls rest in peace. God bless.

Of garbage trucks and traffic

In any other (civilized) country, I would think that a dump truck would have more sense to do its round at a certain time of the day when the streets are not busy with traffic. Or at least, I would have thought that would be the most logical thing to do.

Not quite so in downtown Bangkok, where I have discovered, on several occasions that a huge-ass dump truck found it very necessary for it to pick up garbage on a weekday morning AND during the busiest hour of the day in a fairly small two-lane soi.

The soi, by default has already been littered by street vendors setting up their food stalls and frying their stuff in open fire, and also is a make-shift car park where you'll easily find vehicles parked on both sides of the soi, making the soi narrower than it already is.Top that with a massive dump truck hogging the ONLY road accessible to a school during the busiest hours in the morning while vehicles of various sizes driving into the soi to drop kids off to school as other parents/guardians walking into the very soi on foot or on a motorbike or even bicycle while carrying their child in their arms or as a pillion rider, the result is just mayhem – there just isn’t much room left! Cars and pick-up trucks that get through there usually just zoomed past at quite a speed without checking their blind spots.

It gets even more bizarrely annoying. While there are several people stationed there (including a traffic police) whose job is to direct traffic, I don’t think they are particularly apt in doing their job well. Having walked that soi every day to drop Spud to school, I have a sense that those people tend to prioritse traffic as opposed to pedestrians. Many a time, I was told to wait for a car to move first instead of them telling the car to stop for me and my child – a 13 kg child whom I was carrying in my arms under the sweltering heat

This is what I don’t understand - I am walking, I am a pedestrain, I have a child with me and I am carrying tons of stuff at the same time. How is it that pedestrians like me not get the priority as opposed to those who are sitting all snug and comfy in their cars?

This is how bad the soi can be with a garbage truck in the way:

As for the dump truck, could they not just change their schedule to pick up the garbage at night instead of during the busy peak morning where a million other people and cars are trying to get to the same soi to send their kids to school?

Safety is relative in this country. Just a few days ago, there was some crazy moron who decided to throw glass, bottles and what nots from the balcony of a condo along the soi onto this very same street. As both Spud and me walked passed it, the road was littered with broken porcelains and other unidentifyiable stuff. It was quite scary!

It is things like this that can drive me absolutely mental.

Sleep training Squirt

[Warning: a lengthy blog post]
 
Sometime towards the end of November last year, we decided that it was time to move Squirt into his own bedroom. He was just short of a few days before turning 6 months old (we moved Spud to her own bedroom when she was at about 5 months). Although sleeping through did not happen every night, he has proven to us that he was more than capable of conking out till dawn breaks for a few intermittent nights over several weeks when we put him down at 6.30 pm (with the last dream feed at 10.30 pm).

Although there were nights when he would wake up once or twice, whimpering or just crying, we discovered that if we just leave him to his own device for 5, maximum 10 minutes before checking up on him, he would usually fall back to sleep. If he cries for more than 10 minutes (sometimes we let him go for 15 minutes), we took turns to soothe or sush or pat him for a little and then leave him alone. We do this over and over at 10 minutes interval till he eventually fell asleep on his own - which could sometimes be for hours. Sometimes, all he needed was just a little cuddle and then off to sleep he goes!

Squirt was waking up at ungodly hours – at time, just 5 or 3 minutes before 5 am during his final last 2 weeks leg in our room. Way, way , way too early to be waking up and it was getting annoying! It was also the time when we realised that if we ignored his fussing long enough (doesn’t even take 10 minutes), there was a good chance that he would fall back to sleep. He probably did not want to go back to sleep because he knew that we were there. It also made us wonder if he was actually being woken up by us tossing and turning or the occasional coughing and sneezing while we were asleep!

And so we thought Squirt was ready to be moved to his own bedroom, not only just so that we all could sleep in peace, but the fact that we could also have our own bedroom and privacy back!

Getting Squirt to sleep through the night without a feed was not easy. While we did start sleep training earlier (at slightly over 3 months) with a much, much milder version of it as opposed to Spud’s version, it took us (and him) at least 2 months before he was ready to sleep through.

This time round with Squirt, Silver Bullet was physically and emotionally behind me. Yet, this time round, I was the one who wavered with the techniques of sleep training.  I was the one who was unsure and I had my reasons.

While Spud gave very clear cues and indication that she was feeding out of habit for me to embark on a full-on sleep-training; with Squirt, it was not as clear cut.  I hesitated mainly because of his reflux, and he had seemed to need his night feeding more than his sister ever was. When he fed, he fed ravenously.  However, there were nights which he skipped his first night feed without any intervention from us. Using that as a cue, we managed to stretch out his night feeds for longer, reducing the number of feeds from 3 to 2. Squirt was quite unpredictable - there were times in between when he would wake up every 2 or 3 hours, and, sometimes, we cannot always be sure if it was triggered by his reflux or something else or if he was genuinely hungry. We were riddled with thoughts that there may be an element of growth spurts at play – something we know we should not be messing with in the name of sleep training.

And then, there were times when he would just be sleeping till 4.30 am after his last 10.30pm dream feed. Sometimes, he would fall back to sleep, and sometimes, he wouldn’t stop crying for more than 20 minutes – by then, everyone in the household would be wide awake. Every night was different, and we never know what Squirt would be up to.

And so, it took us a long time to reduce his night feeds to just one and eventually none. Given his reflux was a major consideration, I cannot count how many times both Silver Bullet and me were on the verge of giving up on sleep-training altogether.  We even considered getting some real (paid) help with his sleep-training, and only to find that he would be sleeping through again a few days later.

It took solid team work from both Silver Bullet and me to pull this through. We weren’t always sure if we were doing the right thing, but we become each other’s devil’s advocate. When I wavered, he persisted. When he got frustrated, I persevered. We both were always knackered from the constant wakings during the night to sush and comfort Squirt, but eventually the night feeds at ungodly hours stopped when he was about 5+ months old.

We eventually dropped the 10.30 pm dream feed altogether as  of the first week of Jan 2013 (7 months) as the little man was showing signs that he was annoyed when we shoved a bottle into his mouth. And, if he did drink from it, he would take no more than 30 or 40 ml before he pushed the bottle out with his tongue and rolled over – whinging and whimpering and sounding irritated. It was a marked difference considering that he easily would polish off up to 180 ml while being dream-fed in a single sitting not too long ago.

These days, Squirt gets his last bottle of the day before he goes to bed at 6.30pm. Squirt is a fickle feeder – he would struggle and clamber and we have to try several times before he eventually decides to take the bottle and drink his milk. Refusing to be held and fed at the same time, he usually finishes off at least half a bottle of his milk while he lies in his cot – a habit I am not too fond of, and something I hope to be able to break when he is a little older.

Other than that, I am actually quite happy that our little man is now able to sleep through rather soundly – a testament that our persistence and hard work with sleep training had paid off.

Unlike with Spud, I don’t even remember what we actually did on a day-to-day basis to get Squirt to sleep through the night. Sleep training Squirt felt like eternity, and I was too knackered to record his sleep log.  I could only remember that it took us more than 1.5 months to wean him off the night feeds.

One could argue that maybe he wasn’t ready when we started. Or maybe, had we waited it out, he could have done it all by himself, we need not go through such trouble and we would have not ignorantly be starving our child at night. Who knows! Regardless, it was something we had to do.

Besides, he was (still is!) such a big baby that we think he has excess fats to spare and that night feeding would just be extra rather than him actually needing it. In the end, everyone wins. He is sleeping better, and so are we.

I hope I’m not jinxing it by saying that it has now been almost a month since we stopped his 10.30pm dream-feed.  Squirt is now officially sleeping through till 6am. (Most times till 5 or 5.30 and on some rare occasions, 6.30). For now, I can’t complain.

Sleep and naps are a much more pleasant affair these days. It does appear that Squirt seems to be cutting us just that little bit of slack as compared to Spud. That being said, I am also quite convinced that, in a way, we probably could not have achieved much without some form of sleep training.

It was hard, but all worth it!

Related post(s);
Sleeping through the night
Demystifying cues

Colours and shapes in Sukhumvit

This very spot in downtown Bangkok has had a facelift just about 2 weeks ago – from round colourful balls to something different this time.They are looking a little bit more like lotus now or perhaps even coloured steam buns!

I guess it makes the view more interesting ; especially if you are stuck in traffic! The other side of the bridge is still filled with the same round balls, but a different shades and tones of greens and blues.

Another wonderful day

Every day, I look forward to reading the notes or comments written by Spud’s homeroom teacher on what Spud has been up in school. 

This was the message that was written on the first day of school. It brought a smile to my face: 

As I found out a few days later, her BFF had missed a couple of days in school. Apparently, she missed him and was truly very happy when she saw him that she immediately went up to him and hugged him. The boy was not too happy – he was quite “off” that day, said the teacher, and was quite happy not to interact with anyone for the entire day. 

I had to laugh when I heard the story. It is so like Spud to be so quite shameless like that! 

Duplo Jello

With Spud getting more interested playing with her Duplos, and the variety of snacks and food becoming a little bit more central to her life these day, I reckon it would be exciting to try combining the idea of Duplo (or Lego) as food - an interesting idea I stumbled upon (I believe from a FB post) not too long ago.

It must be quite easy to make these:
1. Wash duplos
2. Make a jelly mix
3. Pour them into the duplos
4. Refrigerate
5. Serve when they are ready to eat

I'll probably try to attempt to make them for Spud one of these days. How exciting is that!

A wedding speech

If you are having a wedding and have been cracking your head to do one of those annoying mandatory wedding speeches, this video here should help.

I have to say though, this is truly one of the best wedding "speeches" if you'd even call it that) I have ever seen. I cannot even begin to  imagine the amount of effort he put in to pull all of this together – he is definitely talented in his own right and if this does not come across as sincere, then I don’t know what is.

Watch this only if you have 14 minutes and 41 seconds to spare. It is one of those moments that makes you go awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww…

(I'm sure a lot of women out there melted, and a whole of guys hating this guy for doing it)

Napping and Squirt

When it comes to naps, Squirt still does not nap very much as compared to most babies. However, we can’t quite complain as it has to be said that Squirt has been a much better napper than Spud ever was.  

He goes down for at least half an hour, most times up to 1.5 hours, 2-3 times a day. He fights naps, but not half as bad as Spud had. Most important of all, he has gotten used to sleeping in his own bed for naps after being bounced or rocked for just a little bit – thanks to some form of nap training when he was about 6-8 weeks old.

Until just about a month ago, we used to bounce him on the yoga ball to get him to nap.  These days, however, the Nanny discovered that when it comes to Squirt napping, all she needs to do is just put him in his cot (awake!) and he would be drifting to sleep within minutes. 

While I had noticed earlier that he always seems quite upset if he is being carried or rocked and fusses a lot more while being held in my arms as I try to get him to nap, I always pinned it down to him fighting off sleep. He grumbles and grumbles and “yodels” away until he falls asleep. It did not occur to me that he did what he did mainly because he was trying to tell me that he is ready to do it on his own. As I realised, he is much happier when he is being left alone in his cot to wind himself down when he is tired and about ready to take a nap.

I am not a stickler for nap routines as opposed to bedtime routine, mainly because we tend to be out and about quite a bit over the weekend. It is, thus, hard for us to have a strict routine, preferring to keep naps a little “loose”. However, if there was one thing I was adamant about, it was to get Squirt to get used to sleeping in his own bed for naps and not be carried all the time. It was hard initially (he was used to napping in the bouncer or being held), but it pays of really well in the end.

There were no tricks – just persistence and consistency. 

Day 1 – 1^st Nap:

Bounced Squirt on the yoga ball and as he drifted off to sleep, I put him down in his cot (we used to put him in his bouncer). He cried bloody murder as soon as his body left my arms. I left him crying while I “camped out” in the adjacent room, wanting to apply the 10 minutes rule.

He stopped crying 3 minutes later. I smiled my biggest smile – surprised that it worked so quickly. It turned out that the Nanny had picked him up without my knowledge. Grrrroooowwwwwl. I imagined that she found it difficult to hear a crying baby and probably thought that I was abusing my child by ignoring him. I wasn’t – I was just giving him 10 minutes!  

My effort had been undermined. Squirt was now happy being carried and was wide awake. Fat chance that he would go down for a nap immediately. I was livid.

Lesson learnt: always inform the Nanny/minder that you are sleep training and that she is not supposed to interfere!

Day 1 – 2^nd Nap:

Cried bloody murder again the moment he left my arms. Got the Nanny out of the way – I can tell that she was having a hard time ignoring the crying. I let him cry, but went in every 10 minutes to comfort him. Sometimes I shushed him, sometimes I do a pick-up-put-down or just pat him for several minutes without picking him up, said nice things to him and then leave the room.  40 minutes later, he drifted off to sleep for half an hour. Better than nothing!

Day 1 – 3^rd Nap:

Same thing. This time he went on for an hour before he slept for 45 minutes. Hmmmmm….

Day 2-Day 4:

I can’t quite recall what happened in the next few days after that, but I got the Nanny on board to help me out.  (It got easier for her as the day passed). The 10 minute rule applies the moment we put him in his cot.

Day 5 onwards:

It took us 2 weekends to drill this down to a pat. I remember that the first weekend, both me and Silver Bullet took turns to comfort him while applying the 10 minutes rule. Each time we tried, the crying went harder.  For one of the naps on that weekend, Squirt finally napped for 1.5 hours after 40 minutes of controlled crying.

It was promising. And it got better by the day.

Looking back, that was all we had to do – sit and live (or sleep) through the cries. When the crying got unbearably distressing at every 10 minutes interval, giving up became too easy. I have to admit that even with #2, there were moments when we thought that the technique was not working. And then suddenly, without warning, the crying just stopped, he got his much needed nap and Squirt gave us hope to continue again.

In the end, it probably was the best decision ever. As silly as it sounds, getting a baby to sleep is probably one of the hardest things to do and we are happy that we now have a baby who could and would nap in his own bed!

It later dawned on me that putting him to sleep in his own room, in his own bed during nap times should have started on the 1^st day when we came home. It would have been a lot easier! 

Duh.

Calvin & Hobbes

I'll take this grumbling any time as opposed to a toddler who screams her guts out to wake the dead each time she wakes up from her nap...

My Me Day

“Mama, Happy Birthday, Mama!” said my 2.5 year old daughter with a big smile on her face as she gave me a slobbery kiss right after she got out of the shower and ambushed me while I was still in bed. I reckon she did that at Silver Bullet’s instigation.

It was a sweet wake up call.

It was in the middle of the week, it was a working day and it was incredible to be able to start the day by not being in the office. The prospect of not having to do any work or having to deal with anything that remotely resembled work just for one day (while being acutely aware that my colleagues are busting their ass off!) was appealing.

It was a “me day”, and I had taken a legitimate birthday leave as granted by my organization to just dedicate the day to myself.

Apart from getting 3 new releases of Green Day CDs from my other half as my birthday gift, there was absolutely nothing special planned.  I took the day easy by having a nice little breakfast by myself, going for a post natal consultation and followed by a 1.5 hour foot and back massage. I treated myself to a mandatory chai tea latte from Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, then spent pretty much of the afternoon just walking around town with no agenda before heading home to tend to the kids. I tried doing some shopping, but I gave up because I got bored and I couldn’t really find anything that I like. I was tempted to go get myself another round of foot massage - but I didn't have time for that.

While I enjoyed the day to myself, I was also looking forward to see the kids later and then spend a little bit of time with Silver Bullet in the evening.

I don't care for much as I mostly like my birthday celebrations low key and fuss free. That being said, my 36^th birthday was probably one of the most low-key birthdays I ever had. As soon as I got home from my “me day”, I tended to the kids, put them to bed and settled up all the prep work or the kids that needed to be done for the next day.

Silver Bullet only arrived home slightly before 7.45 pm as he had left the office late, and by the time we had dinner, it was 8 pm. We ate left-over noodles (maggi mee noodles which I had cooked the day before) and had our nice little fancy meal in front of the TV. I then had to pump, clean the pump and prep my pump up for the next day. By the time I was done, I was beyond exhausted. I was in bed by 9.30pm.

It turned out to be one of the most memorable fuss-free birthdays I could ever have had - and eating some left-over home-made fried noodles made by me was quite a nice touch to my own fuss-free birthday "celebration".

It was simply...epic.

Toddlers and snacks

While minding a 3 year old toddler for a fellow mom acquaintance at Spud’s swimming class as she had to go into the pool with Kid #2, I encouraged Spud to share her bowl of snacks which she was eating at that time with the toddler. I thought that it was a good way to encourage some interaction as well as keeping both kids occupied.

Besides, when it comes to snacks, Spud is usually very willing to share hers. She can be so kind with food that I have been told by her teachers several times that most times, she forgets that the snacks were hers and give them all to those who she was sharing with…leaving herself with nothing.

And that was exactly what she did when I told her that she could offer her snacks to the other kid if she wanted to. The 3 year old soon ate alongside Spud as soon as she offered her bowl of snacks to her. Watching the dynamics from the side, I quickly noticed that the kid was quite happily munching away on Spud’s snacks as Spud has forgotten about her snacks altogether while they shared an iPhone screen. Needless to say, most of the snacks were eaten not by Spud, but by the 3 year old and another toddler who joined in later. (Not that I minded to be honest!)

When we had to leave, I had to laugh when the 3 year old came up to me and said, “ I don’t like it” as she returned the almost empty bowl of snacks and shoved it in my hand.

Toddlers are really funny creatures.

Sunset in Bangkok

As I hurriedly  made my way out of the office, I caught a glorious sight of the sun setting while waiting for the elevator. The sun was a perfect looking egg yolk. It was a perfect circle. It was bright, it was orange, it was majestic. The sky was a canvas dusted in orange hue...

...and quickly, it turned into one of those moments when even in my rush, it sorts of forced me to slow down, take a deep breath and appreciate the grandeur of nature that was bestowed upon me.

The sight of the setting sun accompanied my thoughts in the elevator as we were going down. It was a marvelous sight and I came out of the elevator to the lobby smiling.

My 5 crazy days

After being on my own for 5 days, I am ever so glad that Silver Bullet is finally home from his week-long business trip.

So how did I fare? Apart from a small window of a rather chaotic afternoon on the day Silver Bullet left, I was expecting the worst to happen. This is when my “values of pessimism” paid off (always do!) – I lower my expectations of any happening that was remotely good, so I could prepare myself for the worst.  In doing this, I would be mentally playing all the bad scenarios of what might happen so I have the strength to deal with any setbacks later. And if the opposite happens, it is a bonus and I would appreciate those happy highs much better! I call it being realistic.  

My days started as early as before 5.30 am. The plan was for me to get myself ready before the kids are up so I can tend to them.  That worked well on the first day. I even had the time to catch up on a 15 minutes nap before Spud woke up at 6.30am. The only problem was, Spud went mental when she discovered that her Papa was not around. She went berserk, running to the bathroom and looking for him everywhere while screaming her guts out. It took me about 10 minutes to get her to calm down. By then, her screaming had woken Squirt up…

My only consolation was that Squirt was happy to play by himself in his bed for a bit while I settled up his sister before I bathe him. Breakfast was peaceful and we managed to get ourselves out of the door by 7.30 am for me to drop Spud off to school.

2^nd day

Spud decided to wake up before 5.30 am, and refused to go back to bed. She eventually did 10 minutes later because I refused to budge. She played in her room whilst I get myself ready before I tend to her at 6am. Squirt woke up at 6.30 am.

The rest of the morning went pretty well. Out of the house by 7.30 am!

3^rd day – 5^th Day

Even though Spud work up before 6 am, the mornings were all pretty pleasant. Squirt has been waking up at 5 am, blabbering away – but I was glad that he went back to sleep after 45 minutes of amusing himself.

The usual routine was in order – I got myself ready, I pumped (while Spud runs around the room), I showered Spud and dressed her before I tend to Squirt, fix Spud her breakfast, prepared Squirt’s milk, pack my pump stuff, wait for the Nanny to take over, get Spud to put on her shoes, get out of the house by 7.30 am, dropped Spud off to school (we walked for half an hour door-to-door) and drop me off to work.

All in, 2 hours of my life in the morning just flew by! And even though I get home in time to put the kids to bed by 7pm, my day typically did not end till 9.30 pm. It is the only time in the evening when I was finally able to sit down (wind down, and then continue doing some work!)after completing the evening routine that has to be done in preparation for the next day to happen all over again.

It was 5 crazy mornings and evenings, and it was tough having to do it all alone. Thankfully Murphy cut me some slack this time. The kids behaved, and most important of all, Spud co-operated very well without me completely losing my head.

Spud was a star -  I am very proud of her, and I make sure that I tell her that every day before she goes to bed. She seems to be quite pleased with the compliment, and I’m only hoping that she would be able to keep it up for as long as she can.

Colourful Sukhumvit

Downtown Bangkok is getting more vibrant with one of the over head bridges being decorated with giant, colourful balls in the recent weeks.

They look pretty neat from afar,vibrant even! However, when you are actually walking on the bridge itself, the giant balloons are actually installed on a thick piece of cement boulder from one end to the other with each boulder pretty much blocking half of the intended walkway meant for overhead users; which means the space for walking is now much, much narrower than it already is.

But, that doesn't matter. Downtown Bangkok is now looking more cheerful than it ever was before. And THAT, is all that matters! :D

(I have also been wondering if they move the colours around, because sometimes, I thought the purples are replaced by greens. But my eyes could just as well be playing tricks on me)

An iPhone contract

This  article about an iPhone contract written by a mother for her 13 year old son got me in stitches. I am shamelessly cutting and pasting the 18 clause she outlined here:

1. It is my phone. I bought it. I pay for it. I am loaning it to you. Aren't I the greatest?
2. I will always know the password
3. If it rings, answer it. It is a phone. Say hello, use your manners. Do not ever ignore a phone call if the screen reads "Mom" or "Dad." Not ever.
4. Hand the phone to one of your parents promptly at 7:30 p.m. every school night and every weekend night at 9:00 p.m. It will be shut off for the night and turned on again at 7:30 a.m. If you would not make a call to someone's land line, wherein their parents may answer first, then do not call or text. Listen to those instincts and respect other families like we would like to be respected.
5.  It does not go to school with you. Have a conversation with the people you text in person. It's a life skill. *Half days, field trips and after school activities will require special consideration.
6. If it falls into the toilet, smashes on the ground, or vanishes into thin air, you are responsible for the replacement costs or repairs. Mow a lawn, babysit, stash some birthday money. It will happen, you should be prepared.
7. Do not use this technology to lie, fool, or deceive another human being. Do not involve yourself in conversations that are hurtful to others. Be a good friend first or stay the hell out of the crossfire.
8. Do not text, email, or say anything through this device you would not say in person.
9. Do not text, email, or say anything to someone that you would not say out loud with their parents in the room. Censor yourself.
10. No porn. Search the web for information you would openly share with me. If you have a question about anything, ask a person -- preferably me or your father.
11. Turn it off, silence it, put it away in public. Especially in a restaurant, at the movies, or while speaking with another human being. You are not a rude person; do not allow the iPhone to change that.
12. Do not send or receive pictures of your private parts or anyone else's private parts. Don't laugh. Someday you will be tempted to do this despite your high intelligence. It is risky and could ruin your teenage/college/adult life. It is always a bad idea. Cyberspace is vast and more powerful than you. And it is hard to make anything of this magnitude disappear -- including a bad reputation.
13. Don't take a zillion pictures and videos. There is no need to document everything. Live your experiences. They will be stored in your memory for eternity.
14. Leave your phone home sometimes and feel safe and secure in that decision. It is not alive or an extension of you. Learn to live without it. Be bigger and more powerful than FOMO (fear of missing out).
15. Download music that is new or classic or different than the millions of your peers that listen to the same exact stuff. Your generation has access to music like never before in history. Take advantage of that gift. Expand your horizons.
16. Play a game with words or puzzles or brain teasers every now and then.
17. Keep your eyes up. See the world happening around you. Stare out a window. Listen to the birds. Take a walk. Talk to a stranger. Wonder without googling.
18. You will mess up. I will take away your phone. We will sit down and talk about it. We will start over again. You and I, we are always learning. I am on your team. We are in this together.

I have to say though, I don't quite understand why people had negative comments about the writer being draconian and mean, and whatever else. This is just brilliantly written in my opinion - a humorous, tongue-in-cheek sort of way, but with a "don't mess with me because I am your mother and I am teaching you to be responsible" undertone.

These are all sound advice and I like the last one the best. That being said, I don't think I would have to use any of these on my kids simply because I am such a tight-wad - they would not have the luxury of owning any iPhones!

Original article can be found here.

Resolution and being stupid

It has now been more than a week since the first day of 2013 and most people I met are asking or telling me what their resolution(s) for the year is (are). Good for them I’d say.

Me? I have none; I gave up making one more than a decade ago, simply because I could never be bothered to follow through any of it. They (resolutions) usually sound pretty damn good on 31^st December, and come 1^st Jan, they lose all meaning, I lose all steam and then think it is the most stupidest thing I could ever think of.

Above all, I (really do!) think resolutions are just bullshit – I mean, if you have made up your mind to do something, just go do it – find the necessary time if you have to, but just start working on it regardless the time of the year. Hell - if I made up my mind to bake at 10 pm, I’ll do it regardless! That does not mean that I’ll start baking at 10 pm every day.

Resolutions are nothing but a self-fulfilling prophecy. Realise that they can be detrimental to your health as you would have kindly set yourself up for failure if you don’t achieve the goals you purposefully set with full-on determination.  If you do achieve those goals, I’d say, good on you. And if you take yourself too seriously, well…don’t. Life is too short for that.

Just because I stopped making resolutions for the new year does not mean that I stopped wanting to improve myself altogether. Au contraire. There are things that I would want to do, but I’d prefer to space them out and not be bound by them in black and white imprints. I don't want to stress myself out unnecessarily.

In the years that passed me by, I have learnt to relax and let-go better. I am happier when I am able to laugh at myself. I love self-deprecating humour and I have no issues laughing at myself. I have no ego whatsoever and maybe, that’s just my doom. But that’s OK, because the only way I can learn is knowing that I can be entitled to sometimes feel comfortably stupid.

The one who stayed behind

When Silver Bullet told me that he was due to start travelling for business again about a month ago and that he was leaving on a Sunday, it dawned on me that since Squirt was born, I have never ever actually been left alone with the kids.

The thought of being left to my own devices with a usually cranky, highly spirited, unpredictable 2.5 year old toddler and now a rather mobile 7-ish month old crawling baby stressed me. It would be the first time, on a Sunday where I would have to mind 2 kids by myself, plus another 5 days of managing morning chaos to get everyone ready before I head out for work.

All by myself.

Brilliant. Perfect. Big yikes.

My only consolation to myself is that if the Nanny can do it, damn it! So can I! So with a big fat sigh, I accepted the challenge rather apprehensively, mostly unsure of myself and feeling extreme anxiousness if I could step up to such a draining task. Although I know that I have the option of asking the Nanny in to help out, I figured this is just something which I would just have to deal with sooner or later…

So I did just that. I survived the first Sunday of being alone at home, juggling 2 kids without losing my mind. Spud has, to her credit, been rather well behaved. The only drama I had was when she woke up from her nap – wailing bloody murder and, in the process startled Squirt and woke him up as well.  Spud hardly ever wakes up from her nap pleasant – she is somehow, always crying her head off as if she has been tortured. This time she had wet herself as well and that sent her off on another tangent.

Suddenly I had 2 wailing kids - both needing attention at the same time.  I had to let Squirt cry in his cot while I changed Spud, calmed her down and then changed her bed sheets as quickly as I can before I picked up Squirt. They both stopped crying within 5 minutes.

The rest of the Sunday was pretty pleasant despite Squirt being a little crankier than usual. My hands were full with Squirt refusing to stay in his play pen and Spud getting into trouble.

With Squirt’s ability to crawl and by now, able pull himself to a stand (very wobbly!), he needed to be supervised all the time. And, even under very close supervision, he fell backwards and hit the floor flat on his back (cripes!!!) right under my nose. While I was actually there in front of him, I was on the wrong side and was just a little distracted when he decided to reach out to a small table of his height and instantly let go, fell backwards and so, I could not dive to him in time to prevent him from falling. It was his first major tumble so far.

He cried, but not inconsolable. He did fall quite hard, but the foam mat we had on the floor was a big saviour. He calmed down within seconds, and come to think of it, he cried a lot harder when left alone in his play-pen, preferring to be carried for most of the time.

I managed to juggle dinner and bath time for the both of them, and by 6pm, I had both of them in front of the TV – mesmerized by Alice in Wonderland. It was such an endearing sight to watch them sitting together quietly in full concentration for 5 full minutes.

Both were in bed and asleep by 7pm. 

I survived – and have several more days to negotiate the morning ritual. Let’s see how I fare on that one.

The fearless one

It was such a joy to have been able to spend some one-on-one time with Spud for 2 consecutive half-days in the last few days before I am officially due to go back to work next week after a self-imposed holiday season.

We had lots of fun, Spud and I. The first day, I took her for a little excursion to Siam Ocean world (again!). Needless to say, the penguins continue to be her favourite exhibit. She has warmed up to the giant crabs (she refused to come anywhere close to it before!) but is still apprehensive of the moving light projections on the floor which seemed to scare the living daylight out of her. (I have no idea why.)

She had her lunch of home made fried rice which I packed, and because she behaved so well, I figured there was no harm to share a little bit of my chocolate milkshake (she finished most of it!), some chicken tenders and french fries from Burger King.

Spud closing in on the giant crabs' exhibit

The penguins remain her favourite!

Day 2 of our day together, I took her to a newly opened play centre called Kidzoona. It is such an awesome place that I think it would need a separate review on its own. It is a huge play area, and it is of no surprise that Spud's favourite station is the one with the big giant slide! 

This little tot is just fearless - she just goes, and goes and goes; each time with a big massive giggle when she hits the bottom. A few times, she actually bounced a few times at the bottom before she stopped. Quite hilarious to watch her in this video:

For once in a long, long time, she was a really pleasant child to be with. I really did enjoy our day together - something which I haven't done with Spud for a while. It is heartening to know that she is able to behave and listen really well. And most of all, she was actually very nice and kind to me! 

She was so tired out after our day out that she fell asleep almost immediately when I put her to bed for her afternoon nap.

It was 2 half days worth spending with my one and only daughter. Watching her go was just priceless and there is no doubt in my mind that she enjoyed herself thoroughly.

Chocolate heaven

This is when I died and went to heaven...

What I am trying to say is that this chocolate Swiss roll is just bad, bad, bad. So bad that I would advise Silver Bullet against putting one in his mouth. So bad that Silver Bullet is willing to sacrifice himself to eat half of the portion on my behalf so I would not be subjected to its awfulness. So bad that I think this should not be shared...

There is just too many problem with this Swiss role I recently discovered. It is so disgustingly good that I think by far, it is the best I have had. It is soft, it is light, it is cholatey-ly flavourful, it melts in your mouth and it is heavenly decadent.

This is bad.

The one with the ant bait

While we had lodged in a complain several times to the management of the apartment with regards to our ants infestation problems, we have also tried to find solution on our own – simply because the solution which our apartment provided was not working too well.

Sure they provided pest control – but that did not seem to deter the ants from coming back. With the last complaint, instead of trying to get to the source and eradicate their nests wherever they may be the apartment, the technicians came back to our home to instead plaster up all the holes in which the ants may have come from. Needless to say, the ants found some other holes to come out from!

The influx of ant population out of nowhere to our residence has since resulted in Silver Bullet’s near obsession in trying to find that perfect bait to create an ant holocaust. Finding a near-perfect type of ant-bait he did, and we are finally seeing those ants taking the baits to bring them back to their nests – quite an intriguing sight to watch!

Then came the pest control once again - with their ever willing attitude to help us kill those pests.  (Bless them!). When I got home in the evening, the resident manager of the building stopped me short in my track as I was about to take the elevator up. She was so full of enthusiasm and wanted to update me on the pest-control deed they had administered in our home whilst I had been away.

She then declared that the technician, had this time found the source of our ants’ infestation and, “K. Sleeping  Dragon – many , many, many ants came to this box and they go to the wall and bring this back into the wall. Many, many ants come here and they like this. So technician give me this and I show you”, said she.

She then proudly showed me the evidence they found to be full of ants - the very ant bait (which took us days to find!) removed from the spot we had placed for the ants and all kept in a ziplock bag.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.

I tried to keep as straight a face as I could when I saw that, while trying to explain to her that those things are poison and that we are using that to try to kill the ants. And that, yes, the ants are attracted to that and each ant would then bring a little piece of those into their nest, which would be fed to the queen. We hope that they would eventually die.

She seemed shocked at my explanation and then offered me the ziplock bag with the bait already scattered all over within it. I had to decline and told her that it probably would be best if she makes sure that she washes her hands clean because those things are poison. Again she seemed a little bit surprised.

For the second time, I couldn’t decide if I should laugh or cry. So I smiled and  thanked her for her effort, and went on my merry way up the elevator with a silly smile on my face as I shook my head as I could not wait to tell Silver Bullet what happened.

This...is my Thailand.

Mucking about

Trust a toddler to keep herself occupied and finding something new to do (sometimes annoying things) while we were chilling out during our morning coffee at a coffee place near home.

Wondering what she was doing there in that picture? For most part of our time there, she ran in and out of the coffee place, and then for a good few minutes, she smacks her lips on the glass panels (which was funny initially) before deciding that licking the glass panels from top to bottom and side to side would somehow make the game more interesting.

She thought it was funny, and apparently, Squirt thought the whole thing was quite amusing too.Getting her to stop licking the glass panel became a different ballgame altogether.

So there were mysterious looking gunk and splotches on the glass panels, and god knows what other nasty stuff Spud might have licked off the glass panels...I don't think the coffee joint would have appreciated the free cleaning services from my toddler either!

7 months

As of two Saturdays ago, Squirt is officially crawling! He has been quite a mobile little thing these days as he continues to perfect his crawling skills.

Just several weeks ago, we observed that Squirt has been painstakingly learning to slither around on his stomach whenever he gets some floor time.  The boy has been practicing real hard, and every time he scooted around, he used every inch of strength he has in the arms, back and neck. He has been making good progress as he propelled along like an inch-worm to cover some serious half a meter distances to get to a toy which he was eye-balling from afar. Sometimes, he moved backwards.

This boy has been nothing but extremely persistent with his crawling practices. While he does get frustrated after trying for a while in the initial stages, the drive he has appears to be relentless.  He kept on trying, and trying and trying and trying – and most times, always with a smile on his face.

He had refused to sit for a long time  – not because he cannot, but mainly because he just did not want to as it seemed that he was giving priority to learn how to crawl. He has demonstrated that he could stay upright for almost a minute when we sit him up, but he would quickly topple over and get on his tummy. I reckon, he probably thought that sitting would just be a waste of time – after all, why bother sitting as it can’t get you anywhere when you can be mobile by inching your way through the house! As of today, he still hasn't mastered the art of sitting just yet.

In fact, just a day short of his 7 month's birthday, he has trying very hard to pull himself up to a stand, and is happiest if he is being walked on his feet as we support his little lithe body. I keep telling him that he needs to sit up first, and then stand up even before he starts walking. The boy ain't listening...

With solids, he seems to have a preference over commercial jarred food rather those I make at home – something which I am not too thrilled with! He loves his sweet potatoes and hates his peas and rice cereal. Pumpkin is a hit and miss, and because of his reflux, I am a little reluctant to feed him carrots, apples and a whole lot of other reflux-trigger food.  It is still too early to gauge if he takes to solids as easily, but I am hoping – really hoping – that Squirt would be kind enough to cut us some slack in the food and feeding department.

He has by now completely rejected the boobs. When I offered him my breasts a couple of weeks ago because he was wailing away while waiting for his bottle, he took it but did not really quite know what to do with the nipple. He then gummed it and immediately gave me strange looks as if I was a nutcase. He couldn't figure it out and it seemed like he has forgotten how to breast-feed. I found it so funny that I burst out laughing - only to get stranger expressions from him as to why this crazy woman was laughing her head off like a silly old witch. Oh well! Just as well - no love lost in that area.

Here's Squirt getting a few pointers from one of our resident cats on Crawling 101 - very noble of Fudge considering that Squirt has been chasing the living daylight out of her since he discovered that he is now quite mobile.At such a young age, I can tell that like his sister, Squirt is going to be a big, fat cat lover.

Related post(s):
Spud's 7 months update