It has been a long, long while since I last bought us a DVD, and truthfully, I am ashamed to admit that I have kind of lost touch with the movie scene for a while. tsk..tsk..tsk. I am so out of it that I am even more ashamed to call myself a movie buff!
Anyhow, a few days ago, I decided to go kaypo at the DVD corner shop near our office and so, I came home with not just one, but three DVDs. Actually, not so unusual considering that I would usually be hoarding more than 3, but this time I hauled 3 DVDs that weren't really for me: Happy Feet, Curious George and Looney Tunes.
Okay. I love Looney Tunes, and it was more of an after-thought than anything else. But to have bought Happy Feet (a silly penguin movie which I had disliked before just because I find the characters a bit annoying) and Curious George..? Gosh! What was I thinking!
For some reason though, the movies meant for adults in that shop I went to weren't so interesting, and then my eyes just darted out to the cartoons that they have.Given Spud's intense liking for penguins and monkeys these days, I figured, oh well! if it gives her some sort of education to appreciating animals, why the hell not!
Needless to say, Spud is loving those silly penguins and she is also now asking for "watch monkey" pretty constantly. She has, miraculously, stopped asking for Gruffalo when she discovered Nemo and so, we actually have not been watching that for a while. Which is okay, I guess.
But because she now knows she has a choice of movies before bedtime, she can't seem to make up her mind, and sometimes I just wish she's just be happy watching that damn Gruffalo!
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
19 months update
Spud has been full of surprises these days. Besides the ever popular No word to everything, her vocabulary is expanding like anything,
These days, I hear her trying to string words together into small sentences. Her pronunciation is still crap, and we still have trouble trying to understand what she is trying to tell us which makes her even more frustrated, but she is getting better at letting us know what she wants, when she wants it.
Last week, she surprised me with a, "Mama. Why? What happened?" when I was dressing her up. Not that anything happened. I just happened to dress her after her morning shower and I thought I heard it wrong the first time. I then repeated what she said, only to have her repeated the same back to me. I thought it was hilarious and I just played along with her by blabbing on of "what happened".
Just the other day, she surprised me when we were in a taxi as she mouthed off what sounded like "eight". I could not really figure it out at first, and then she pointed her little finger on the license plate on the door of the taxi which actually had three number 8 on it! I had a "wow" moment. Then I figured, she probably recognises the number from the daily elevator rides to our apartment since we usually let her be the one to press the button and then tell her what the number is.
She has been nicer to me too. Now, every time I sit down anywhere at home, Spud will come to me and then goes, "Sit down. Sit down with Mama" - which she then plonks her ass right on my lap. The "with" used to be silent, but after days of repeating back what she said by just including the word "with" in my sentence as a way of acknowledging her, I can hear it slightly more clearly now.
Although, the "sit", tends to sound more like "shit".
Like I said, her pronunciation is still crap, and when she says "frog", she leaves out the "r". I have to pretend I did not hear what I hear when she gets excited on seeing a frog in her books and starts mouthing of "frog" on repeat mode without the "r"...
She also has a habit of completing the last words of a sentence in the books (which apparently shocked her nanny) we read her before going to bed - I reckon this is a function of us reading the same book to her at bed time, day after day, after day for months on end. (We tried other books, but she won't hear of it)
She chatters , she sings. A lot. And, mostly to her self. Sometimes it is just funny to watch her and a couple of weeks ago, as she sat in the child seat behind me while Silver Bullet was driving, this little chatterbox went, "Spud...OK. Enough. Mama. Enough.". And she said "enough" pretty much in a similar stern tone I would usually use on her if I mean business, that is enough is enough.
I had to laugh.(I also think she meant to say "Mama said enough", but could not figure the word "said" yet)
Who would have thought that we now have our very own private label of a super absorbent sponge in our hands!
These days, I hear her trying to string words together into small sentences. Her pronunciation is still crap, and we still have trouble trying to understand what she is trying to tell us which makes her even more frustrated, but she is getting better at letting us know what she wants, when she wants it.
Last week, she surprised me with a, "Mama. Why? What happened?" when I was dressing her up. Not that anything happened. I just happened to dress her after her morning shower and I thought I heard it wrong the first time. I then repeated what she said, only to have her repeated the same back to me. I thought it was hilarious and I just played along with her by blabbing on of "what happened".
Just the other day, she surprised me when we were in a taxi as she mouthed off what sounded like "eight". I could not really figure it out at first, and then she pointed her little finger on the license plate on the door of the taxi which actually had three number 8 on it! I had a "wow" moment. Then I figured, she probably recognises the number from the daily elevator rides to our apartment since we usually let her be the one to press the button and then tell her what the number is.
She has been nicer to me too. Now, every time I sit down anywhere at home, Spud will come to me and then goes, "Sit down. Sit down with Mama" - which she then plonks her ass right on my lap. The "with" used to be silent, but after days of repeating back what she said by just including the word "with" in my sentence as a way of acknowledging her, I can hear it slightly more clearly now.
Although, the "sit", tends to sound more like "shit".
Like I said, her pronunciation is still crap, and when she says "frog", she leaves out the "r". I have to pretend I did not hear what I hear when she gets excited on seeing a frog in her books and starts mouthing of "frog" on repeat mode without the "r"...
She also has a habit of completing the last words of a sentence in the books (which apparently shocked her nanny) we read her before going to bed - I reckon this is a function of us reading the same book to her at bed time, day after day, after day for months on end. (We tried other books, but she won't hear of it)
She chatters , she sings. A lot. And, mostly to her self. Sometimes it is just funny to watch her and a couple of weeks ago, as she sat in the child seat behind me while Silver Bullet was driving, this little chatterbox went, "Spud...OK. Enough. Mama. Enough.". And she said "enough" pretty much in a similar stern tone I would usually use on her if I mean business, that is enough is enough.
I had to laugh.(I also think she meant to say "Mama said enough", but could not figure the word "said" yet)
Who would have thought that we now have our very own private label of a super absorbent sponge in our hands!
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Sweet treats
Years back, I have had Indian colleagues introducing them to me and it was such a bad discovery that I remember banning myself from the office pantry for a while. They were bad for me because they can be so, so, so good! Eating them is like inviting an immediate diabetes to happen.
I don't know what exactly they are called, and I vaguely know that they usually are made of pure ghee and tons of sugar...They are so darn sweet that the moment we put them out on the table for after-dinner desserts, the ants somehow found their way to these Indian goodies within SECONDS!
They melt in your mouth and you can just go on and on and on and on, because after several bites, you stop tasting anything else because the sugar just kill your tastebuds.
Monday, March 5, 2012
A cat's life
It must be nice to be a house cat...living life with no worries, and knowing that you are safe.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
A humble beginning to discipling a toddler
Sometime ago, I mentioned something about "putting Spud in her place" which I thought was a rather interesting piece of story to share after experiencing a violent rejection from my own child.
I am not sure if "disciplining" is the appropriate word to use, and, it almost seemed absurd to have to put that label on a child who was barely 18 months old then. After all, an 18 month old does not know or understand anything right?
Well. We thought so too, initially. Guess what! We were wrong. We underestimated Spud and she certainly understood more than what we gave her credit for. Because, from what we gathered, she understood us. And she understood us very damn well!.
If you have read the story, you would have a background as to how Spud behaved towards me for a rather long period of time. It got worse when we were on vacation in Holland; and after several continuous days of giving in to her whims, letting Silver Bullet handle her as I watched from the sidelines because she absolutely did want to have anything to do with me when Silver Bullet was around,and at the same time watching Silver Bullet getting torn apart while she continued to violently reject me (she was sick, so it was an easy excuse), I decided that enough was enough.
It was time to take charge, stop her nonsense and this was what we did in our attempt to establish some boundaries with a very strong-willed child:
Now, here's the thing: Spud tend to behave rather well with me when Silver Bullet was not around, and she acted up only in the presence of Silver Bullet. While I sometimes indulge her whining, I very seldom cave in to her. I have noticed though, that the more I gave in to her, the more she tend to act up and the more she pushes my buttons.
Me being me, I don't have as much patience as Silver Bullet. So, when she gets a bit too much to take, I usually would sit her down, put her to my eye level (a tip I got from Super Nanny series!), raise my voice - enough to stop her in her tracks, and in a very stern voice, tell her enough is enough without having to scream my head off at her.
This is the bit when she would (usually) wail out in distress after being "scolded". If she is only with me, then , she would tend to cry out for a few minutes more, and I would usually be holding her shoulders firmly and stroke her back while telling her repeatedly to calm down in a very calm voice. She would then put her head down and sobs quietly. More often than not, she would stop crying and soon enough, without warning, will likely to flash me a sheepish smile. It is then I know that she has calmed down. A kiss, followed by a hug and a sorry is then in order and we are good to go again.I tried this tactic several times, and I found that it worked very well each time I am alone with her.
However, this technique does not work very well if there is someone else in the room. I am always the impatient, stern one, and Spud, bless her, KNOWS how to work the system.
It used to be that she would immediately go to Silver Bullet for comfort, and without a doubt, Silver Bullet has a lot more patience to deal with her, and so would usually pick her up almost immediately - mostly to stop her from prolonged wailing because when Spud cries, she cries her bloody lungs out and wake the dead.
So, on that one fateful morning, after watching Silver Bullet from the sidelines in trying to get some food in her while handling her unreasonable temper tantrums, and sensing that Silver Bullet was getting supremely frustrated, because nothing worked, I intervened and told him that I'll handle this my way by just forcefully removing Spud from Silver Bullet. While others believe that she was just a little kid who was a little under the weather, I was convinced that she was just pushing it.
She was strong - she screamed her piercing screams , deafening me in my ears and she kicked and she pushed me away while I held on to her. At that point, Silver Bullet just removed himself from the scene for a few minutes as he has HAD it.
Spud was none too happy, of course. I kept my cool and I applied the same technique I mentioned earlier. Silver Bullet then re-joined us, and this time what he did different was instead of trying to comfort her and taking over from me so I could get a breather so-to-speak, he too, had that stern voice telling her, "Spud, enough!". Then he calmly told her several times to listen to her mother as I tried to keep my grip on her. He flatly refused to pick her up when she reached out for him several times, and, every time Spud cried bloody murder when she did not get her way, he maintained his stern tone of voice and kept her at arm's length while I continued to be the one holding her.
After what seemed like hours of a crying fit (actually within 20 -25 minutes), she finally "got it". She kept her head down and started sobbing on my shoulder. And, after a while, even gave up trying to reach out for Silver Bullet when she realised that Silver Bullet would not cave. I then managed to calm her down and even managed to feed her 2 jars of food!
I think that episode convinced Silver Bullet that Spud being sick was just an excuse, and she just needed to be put her in place. Spud did try the same trick a few more times later that day, and instead of me being the "bad guy" this time, Silver Bullet kept up on not giving in to her, using the same technique.
These days, so far (fingers crossed, touch wood), a low, stern voice and saying "enough!" with some punch of authority is enough to give her the message that unless something is terribly wrong, her whiney behavior will not be tolerated.
It does not work all the time, but it does work most times. On our end, both Silver Bullet and I recognise that we need to work together on this, support each other and be consistent with her. We also just need to be conscious that we don't over-use the technique and only use it when push comes to shove.
So, if parenting is tough love, so be it. For us, we recognised that she is a strong-willed child and for a tough child like Spud, she just needs tougher parents to will such measures in place.
It is amazing what that little change in technique has done. She has since been nicer to me - a LOT nicer, and she seems to get it when we mean business.
I guess the discipling has already begun; albeit a little bit too early in mind. God knows that I hope we did the right thing in raising this little rascal of ours.
I am not sure if "disciplining" is the appropriate word to use, and, it almost seemed absurd to have to put that label on a child who was barely 18 months old then. After all, an 18 month old does not know or understand anything right?
Well. We thought so too, initially. Guess what! We were wrong. We underestimated Spud and she certainly understood more than what we gave her credit for. Because, from what we gathered, she understood us. And she understood us very damn well!.
If you have read the story, you would have a background as to how Spud behaved towards me for a rather long period of time. It got worse when we were on vacation in Holland; and after several continuous days of giving in to her whims, letting Silver Bullet handle her as I watched from the sidelines because she absolutely did want to have anything to do with me when Silver Bullet was around,and at the same time watching Silver Bullet getting torn apart while she continued to violently reject me (she was sick, so it was an easy excuse), I decided that enough was enough.
It was time to take charge, stop her nonsense and this was what we did in our attempt to establish some boundaries with a very strong-willed child:
Now, here's the thing: Spud tend to behave rather well with me when Silver Bullet was not around, and she acted up only in the presence of Silver Bullet. While I sometimes indulge her whining, I very seldom cave in to her. I have noticed though, that the more I gave in to her, the more she tend to act up and the more she pushes my buttons.
Me being me, I don't have as much patience as Silver Bullet. So, when she gets a bit too much to take, I usually would sit her down, put her to my eye level (a tip I got from Super Nanny series!), raise my voice - enough to stop her in her tracks, and in a very stern voice, tell her enough is enough without having to scream my head off at her.
This is the bit when she would (usually) wail out in distress after being "scolded". If she is only with me, then , she would tend to cry out for a few minutes more, and I would usually be holding her shoulders firmly and stroke her back while telling her repeatedly to calm down in a very calm voice. She would then put her head down and sobs quietly. More often than not, she would stop crying and soon enough, without warning, will likely to flash me a sheepish smile. It is then I know that she has calmed down. A kiss, followed by a hug and a sorry is then in order and we are good to go again.I tried this tactic several times, and I found that it worked very well each time I am alone with her.
However, this technique does not work very well if there is someone else in the room. I am always the impatient, stern one, and Spud, bless her, KNOWS how to work the system.
It used to be that she would immediately go to Silver Bullet for comfort, and without a doubt, Silver Bullet has a lot more patience to deal with her, and so would usually pick her up almost immediately - mostly to stop her from prolonged wailing because when Spud cries, she cries her bloody lungs out and wake the dead.
So, on that one fateful morning, after watching Silver Bullet from the sidelines in trying to get some food in her while handling her unreasonable temper tantrums, and sensing that Silver Bullet was getting supremely frustrated, because nothing worked, I intervened and told him that I'll handle this my way by just forcefully removing Spud from Silver Bullet. While others believe that she was just a little kid who was a little under the weather, I was convinced that she was just pushing it.
She was strong - she screamed her piercing screams , deafening me in my ears and she kicked and she pushed me away while I held on to her. At that point, Silver Bullet just removed himself from the scene for a few minutes as he has HAD it.
Spud was none too happy, of course. I kept my cool and I applied the same technique I mentioned earlier. Silver Bullet then re-joined us, and this time what he did different was instead of trying to comfort her and taking over from me so I could get a breather so-to-speak, he too, had that stern voice telling her, "Spud, enough!". Then he calmly told her several times to listen to her mother as I tried to keep my grip on her. He flatly refused to pick her up when she reached out for him several times, and, every time Spud cried bloody murder when she did not get her way, he maintained his stern tone of voice and kept her at arm's length while I continued to be the one holding her.
After what seemed like hours of a crying fit (actually within 20 -25 minutes), she finally "got it". She kept her head down and started sobbing on my shoulder. And, after a while, even gave up trying to reach out for Silver Bullet when she realised that Silver Bullet would not cave. I then managed to calm her down and even managed to feed her 2 jars of food!
I think that episode convinced Silver Bullet that Spud being sick was just an excuse, and she just needed to be put her in place. Spud did try the same trick a few more times later that day, and instead of me being the "bad guy" this time, Silver Bullet kept up on not giving in to her, using the same technique.
These days, so far (fingers crossed, touch wood), a low, stern voice and saying "enough!" with some punch of authority is enough to give her the message that unless something is terribly wrong, her whiney behavior will not be tolerated.
It does not work all the time, but it does work most times. On our end, both Silver Bullet and I recognise that we need to work together on this, support each other and be consistent with her. We also just need to be conscious that we don't over-use the technique and only use it when push comes to shove.
So, if parenting is tough love, so be it. For us, we recognised that she is a strong-willed child and for a tough child like Spud, she just needs tougher parents to will such measures in place.
It is amazing what that little change in technique has done. She has since been nicer to me - a LOT nicer, and she seems to get it when we mean business.
I guess the discipling has already begun; albeit a little bit too early in mind. God knows that I hope we did the right thing in raising this little rascal of ours.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Life's simple pleasure...
...is me sipping a cold, cold, cold glass of coke filled with ice in the sweltering heat. I got high from the unexplained sensational satisfaction that comes with it.
It was, one of life's simple pleasures, indeed.
It was, one of life's simple pleasures, indeed.
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