Of Red And White, Crescent Moon And Stars

Janine's school celebrated National Day yesterday and we enthusiastic parents excitedly squeeeeeezed into the small hall to see our little ones sashay, dance and marched their little hearts out to the tune of some of our favourite National Day songs.

And of course, what's a party without FOOD? The spread was "downsized" to cater to their little taste buds (and perferences), but even then, look at the variety!!! They are on their way to being your typical food-loving Singaporean :D

I leave you with a short clip of Janine, together with her classmates, performing "Rasa Sayang":)(yes her DEBUT performance!) Look out for their little turn-on-the-spot at the beginning. The teachers spent many hours helping them to "perfect" that little turn so it definitely deserves some special mention :D

[Edit: Apologies! Having some problems uploading the video clip @.@ Ack! I promise it will be up akan datang!]

HAPPY NATIONAL DAY SINGAPORE!

Random Conversations

Once, KY was vacuming the carpet while the little girl, perched on the sofa, was watching her all time favourite Veggietales. At one point, he had to stand in front of the TV to vacum a spot and inevitably blocked her view. Then...

J (after craning her neck this way and that): Papa...
KY: Yes Janine?
J: Please Papa, can you don't block me? I want to watch the TV.
KY: ...

Confirm TV addict @.@

Just the other day, while I was giving her a bath...

J (pointing to my toenail-less toe): Mommy pain pain
M: Yes, Mommy fell down and hit my toe. So pain pain (its a long story but that's generally what happened :P)
J: Mommy toe pain pain...got blood...mommy must go see doctor and put medicine
M: *chuckle* yes, must put medicine then not so pain
J: put medicine then not pain already

Doctor Janine is in. Btw, did I mentioned that she has her own doctor's kit? Complete with stethoscope (with heart pounding sound effects), thermometer (that displays temperature), kidney dish, syringe, etc which is all contained in a pretty and matching pink carrier case. Gift from one of KY's teacher friends. How cool is that.

This one is a classic for me. When we visited KY's parents this week, I had parked the car rather near to the drain that runs alongside their house. I had to fish something out from inside the car, and as a result, was standing rather close to edge of the drain.

J (after a moment of observing what her crazy mother was trying to do): Careful the drain, mommy
M: OK...
J: Careful the drain wait you fall down...then I cannot help you...
M: !!!

How true. From the mouths of babes comes words of wisdom :P

Rather precocious coming from a 2-and-a-half-year old, I must say. Whatever the case, her sentences are getting more and more complex...more coherent and still quite funny! ^^

Eat Your Heart Out Aunty Esther!

My (pathetic) attempt at trying to re-create those artistic modeling shots that, even if it doesn't entice you to buy the dress that you probably can't fit in, lets your eyes linger a little longer at the composition or perspective of the picture taken.

Will I try again? Probably not in a loooong shot (no pun intended) because I discovered (to no surprise) that cajoling children to pose, hold that pose, smile etc while angling the camera or adjusting the setting to capture that image I have in mind, is no easy feat. Even if the model is my own daughter! That, if anything, possibly made the session even more frustrating. Or maybe what I REALLY need is a dslr? Hah! Excuses!

Anyhow, enjoy Esther! For your info, the brown one is her favourite to wear and dance in (which explains why there are more shots of her in the brown frock). Thanks heaps! and *MUACKS* (from Janine)

Model: Janine
Clothes: From Aunty Esther's shop in the US!
Photographer: Me!

Little RED Dancing "Shoes"

I present to you:

Title: Little RED Dancing "Shoes"
Medium: LIPSTICK!!!!
Artist: Janine

My daughter, on top of discovering that her legs can be her canvas, has also realised the potential of the simple lipstick.

[Edit: Good friend Esther says the the lipstick marks look more like blood and, especially where it got smeared on the floor, makes for a rather gory picture. We joke and say I can use this picture in the future to scare off future would-be suitors who come a-knocking at the door. I can already hear myself "I am warning you...bring her back past the curfew hours and THIS is what's going to happen to YOU!!!!" while waving an enlarged version of the picture in their faces. Alternatively, I could use it to "encourage" the girl to be back by curfew hours "Come back after 7pm and THIS is what will happen to YOU!!!". Oh what fun. Parenting sure has its perks! *evil grin*]

I Am Very Proud Of You

My dear little princess,

You did something today that made me very proud of you. It may seem like a little thing or even nothing to people, but not to me.

Today (and for the last few days), because your Papa is over in Chiangmai, I (together with your Grandpa) brought you to school. I know you are not exactly very enthusiastic about school at the moment. And when I buckled you out of your car seat today, I noticed your down turned mouth and blood shot eyes.

I brought you in to your classroom, hung your bag on its hook, gave you a goodbye kiss and hug and proceeded to leave. You were VERY teary, but you didn't cry. You didn't burst into tears or kick up a racket. Instead, you clung on to your water bottle and barbie doll (instead of me), turned around and joined your classmates already seated on the floor.

In that spilt second I could see the pain of seperation in your eyes and I can only imagine the pain you must be feeling. To have to "step out into the world" and "endure" unfamiliar faces and processes, to be apart from the people you love and whom you draw your sense of securities from must indeed be extremely painful.

Instead of fussing about it and kicking up a racket, you grit your teeth and embraced that pain. Some people may say that you "surrendered" to the system. But I prefer to say that you, like some brave soldier, walked into your "battlefield" and took on your "Goliath". Although you were scared and unsure, you still went and sat with them anyway.

There will be many more events like this in your life, times where you will be thrown into situations you least expect or dislike, times where you and your ego will be placed in a vulnerable position, times where there may be no one familiar by your side to hold your hand and comfort you. But in those times, be my little soldier once more and bravely face your giants. For one thing, know that God who created you fearfully and wonderfully in my womb and who takes care of the flowers in the field and birds in the sky, will surely take care of you. And your papa and I, wherever we may be, will be standing tall and proud and truely blessed by the precious gift of you.

We love you.

Mommy

Body Art

One evening, I walked in on this rather hilarious sight.

By chance, my little artist discovered that her canvas can extend to her legs as well!

Leave her alone to entertain herself for a moment while I finish some chores around the house and she manages to get up to some monkey business. [Note to self: when things get TOO quiet around the house, check on Janine IMMEDIATELY! :P]

I hope I am not looking into the future where she comes sweeping into the house and brandishes a fresh tattoo somewhere on her body in my face *shudder* I will most certainly freak out and demand she remove it or, by golly, I will scrub it off her skin till there's no trace of it left!

For now, it's just plain funny...so I just laugh, cross my fingers and pray that this is as far is it will go where Janine and body art are concerned. OK, so on top of being paranoid, I am also an old-fashion prude. But she's my daughter! Pfffft!

Fish Tank Updates!

There are NEW additions to our tank community - 7 Cherry Shrimps!

Four of the seven whizzing around in their "quarantine" tank

An office colleague was housekeeping his tank of shrimps and I was one of the lucky few recipients who took home some of his "babies" ^^

Let's hope they survive in MY tank and don't get eaten / bullied / dismembered by the other fishes or themselves!!! Oh yes, they can get quite cannibalistic by shrimp standards...we have eye witness accounts to boot!

At Long Last...

FINALLY! After 7 loooong years, you are MINE to have and to hold!

Interestingly, I have been eying the Canon Ixus ever since the beginings of the digital camera age. I remember droooling over the adverts and I telling myself that with my first pay packet, I am going to use it to buy the Ixus (back then it cost like $1000!). But then, my dad passed me his Coolpix 885 and so I shelved my little "dream". That was 7 years ago (has it been THAT long! Good grief!).

And then PC Fair 2008 came along.

Why did I wait so long? Well, I already had the Coolpix and this robust little digicam has served me very very well over the years. Only in the last year or so did it start to act up - battery goes flat after a few takes, the focussing is getting off, etc. And while my dad passed me his semi-dslr, the Kodak DX6490, I still looonged for a smaller, more versatile camera.

And what can I say but that I am thoroughly in luuurve with my Ixus 80! I luurve the quick start up, the way how all the functions and settings (there are so MANY settings lah - baby, night shots, fireworks, portrait, etc) are intuitive, quick and easy to access, the way I can hold the camer centimeters away from an object and still take CLEAR shots, the way it can detect a face (face recognition) and zoom in on it, the way its sleek body feels in my hand, the way I can easily slip it into my bag (or Janine's bag!) and bring it EVERYWEHRE with me...IloveitIloveitILOVEIT!!!!

Similarly with every other relationships, where the starting is always very exciting, fresh and fun, so is my relationship with the Ixus 80. There is STILL so many other functions that I am still exploring and playing around with. Its like suddenly my horizon has broaden and I can see and capture the world from perspectives that once I couldn't before.

Documenting life's little and not so little moments has just gotten easier, more interesting and a whole lot more fun.

Random Conversations

Today, after dinner...

Me: Janine! Come, let's go and "pong pong" (take a bath) already.
J: Don't want lah, I just want to play.
Me: ...

And then later in the evening, after she has had her bottle of milk for the night...

J (inspecting the animal prints on her bottle): Got sun. The sun don't have eyes
Me: Yes, this sun don't have eyes. Where's the zebra?
J (points to the zebra): Theeeere! (pauses and ponders for a while) Not zebra... horse lah!

At this point in time, I cannot help but burst out laughing. I've got myself a Singlish speaking little girl :D

Little Girl Down And Very Out T.T

Janine is down and out. Instead of trapising around the house, she is content to just sit on my lap and lean her head on my chest.

For Janine, this is a RARE moment indeed!

And when this happens, the alarm bells in my head starts to go off. And they ring even louder and more frantic as my mom recounts to me in detail how she managed to eat close to NOTHING today because everything that she took in seems to come out the same way (For info: she just threw up the miserable slice of bread she had for dinner all over the sofa and carpet because I was a little too hasty and fed her too much fluids)!!!

Even now as she sits on my lap, I can feel the HEAT emitting from her little body. She is running a fever and the last we checked it's 38.1 T.T

Our doctor friend's (Thank God for Teck Wah! Janine's paed, on all days, is away on leave!!) over-the-phone consultation assessed that it could be gastro-something something which translate to gastric flu. The good thing is, I just need to keep her hydrated (meaning get her to drink lots of fluids) the bad thing is that at her age, there is no medication that she can take to ease her symptoms.

AAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!