There are NEW additions to our tank community - 7 Cherry Shrimps!
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!
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.
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
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!!!!!!!
(If you think this is going to be a post heralding the arrival of another Ling, you will be sorely disappointed.)
I am pleased to announce that we are now proud parents of (used to be 8 T.T now) 6 Neon Tetras, 2 Mickey Mouse Fish (which I just bought from Clementi) and 2 Sucker fish ^^
Can you see them swimming HAPPILY in our newly acquired fish tank?
On ANY other occasion, I wouldn't want anything to do with keeping pets, let alone keeping fishes . Honestly, the thought of having to clean the tank, feed them, and make sure they STAY ALIVE is not something I relish.
But then, a fellow colleague at Oldham Hall, who was leaving, offered us his BIG fish tank...together with filter, a water plant, gravel and FISH!
And then the little girl LOVES fishes...or rather anything that swims and/or comes from the sea (dolphines, "nemo" clown fish...you name it she likes it). Actually, we have been toying with the idea (for some time already) of keeping a fish tank for her sake. I even talked to a good friend of mine and reserved a SMALL fish tank with him for this very purpose. But because of time and reasons stated above, we held back.
So now, with a free tank at our disposal, we decided to bite the bullet. Despite my earlier reservations, knowing that Janine will most definitely have endless hours of fun with them and in the glorious name of "education" and "exposure", we adopted the fish tank.
We probably will add MORE to our current brood ^^ I mean, won't they get LONELY swimming in that BIG tank? Must get more fishies ^^
Let the craze begin!!!
Edit: One of my Mickey Mouse fish JUST gave birth to more babies!!! Ohhh! What a thrill!
I just learnt TODAY that My daughter has succeeded in GIVING her first black eye.
Yup. And she hasn't even started school yet. She's a prodigy that way *roll eyes*
The unfortunate recipient? Her mama (my mom)!
I think ever since her fall from our bed at 8 mths old, her cranium must have evolved into metal. It at least explains why she seems unaffected by any knocks she gets.
It's really no joke when she runs HEADLONG, at FULL speed, into your legs or somewhere below the waist. And get off the bed when she starts throwing herself around on the bed!!! Too slow and you will suffer a similar "fate" like my mom or a bleeding nose like me because of that iron head of hers!
It heartens me to know that when she DOES go to school, she has some (natural) self defence mechanism in place so she won't get bullied that easily. On hindsight, as IF she will let herself be bullied in the first place. Eeeps! I am already mentally preparing myself for calls from school with regards to her future playground escapades!
People who think Christian music consist of (only) hymns or the slow moving (in other words BORING!) variety obviously don't have the Hillsongs Kids "Tell The World" DVD playing (on an endless loop) in their car.
Here's a SMALL dose, a clip of one of the songs (of the same title), from the collection.
So vibrant and so much ENERGY!
THIS is for KIDS. Can you imagine what us (most definitely cool and hip) GROWN-UPs would be listening to? We are such happening people. Really! Well, at least we try to be lah! Hahaha!
Now THIS is MY favourite take from the DVD and since I am the one with the car more often these days, it'll be no surprise if that track gets worn-out faster than the rest! Lol
Great way to get my engine going in the morning ^^
This post comes after our shopping trip to Takashimaya yesterday in which my dear daughter succeeded in bringing down one of the manequins in the store and breaking it to pieces!
You can imagine my rage, embarressment and dismay. I just turned my back on the little girl to pick something out in those trolleys displaying their wares and then in that few seconds of neglect, there was a thunderous sound of something crashing to the floor. I turn around to see the girl visibly stunned with the pieces of the manequin scattered at her feet.
My first reaction was to scream at her. "Janiiiine!!!! What did u do!???!" I was standing there deciding whether to smack her good and proper there and then or continue to rage at her. Then the nice salesgirl who was assisting me tells me, " It's OK madam, kids are like that, don't scold her in public"
A lot of thoughts coursed through my mind immediately by her that one statement
"Kids are like that"
WHAT!! You mean to tell me that that its OK for children to go around breaking things in shopping centres / public places? That such errant behviour in children is excuseable?
Do parents of this day and age subscribe to this kind of mentality that damaging a few things along the way is OK because "kids are like that"? And then if I don't agree with that kind of thinking does that make me a weirdo? Already as it is, I find myself being overly strict with the little girl. Like I will scold her if she takes too long to follow my intruction or smack her hands ever so often when she takes things other than her toys to play. Am I being an overly strict and fiercesome mother because I expect and demand that my daughter (and other children in future) to behave themselves in public (like no running around like some wild thing, no touching or pulling things down from the shelf)?
"Don't scold her in public"
Am I making a scene of myself if I were to discipline her there and then? And then I wonder about all the other times in the past when I scolded / smacked her in public for her misbehaviour. Do I look like some horrible, bad tempered, impatient, mad, deranged, unloving mother?
Am I hurting her pride (like what all those good parenting books will caution us)? Will such incidents scar her for the rest of her life? Is she going to grow up with some serious emotional hang ups all because her mommy lost her cool and smacked her in front of strangers?
But then if you don't address the issue there and then, then when? I don't expect a 2 year old to relate the punishment that she will be receiving at home to the incident that happened a few hours ago. I just feel that such method of disciplining just won't be effective enough.
And then, if I were to subscribe to that mentality that "its ok, kids are like that" and not discipline her, will I become a mother who can't control her child? I could already feel the looks of disapproval from the salesgirls who tried to piece the broken manequin together. I can almost hear them going "aiyoh...this mother ah, dunno how to control her child, tsk tsk". It totally didn't help that one of the sales girl, while picking up the pieces, kept looking at Janine @.@
After what that sales lady said, all I could do was just to glower at the little gir. I restrained myself from going further into a screaming rage (which in any other circumstances would definitely have happened).
To her merit, the little girl KNEW she did something wrong because once she got her senses back she was apologising rather profusely "Sorry mommy, I'm sorry mommy, sorry sorry..." and then as if wanting the reassurance that she was forgiven, she kept asking to be carried "carry mommy, I'm sorry mommy, carry carry".
Thankfully I wasn't asked to pay for the broken manequin. But I am left somewhat perplexed by the whole incident. I am still reflecting on my actions / lack of action for yesterday and wondering just how in future I should react if the girl misbehaves again (which I am sure WILL happen). I am also wondering if I did / not do something for the girl for her to be misbehaving like that?
Sigh...the woes of a mommy.
I have a little planner that sits on my table that gives me little nuggets of parenting secrets everyday. One day (Mar 28) suggested that we "keep a journal of the funny things your children say. You may think you'll remember them - but the odds are you won't"
So I am going with the odds.
But I'm not going to just remember the funny ones, but those that capture the sad, happy, profound, difficult or light-bulb moments. To me, they will be like a little window that gives us a little peek into that particular time in our life as we watch our child(ren) growing up.
And maybe if there's enough, I can compile them into a book and publish them and make BIG bucks and retire early and travel the world and ...OK I digresss :P
Yup. That's the sentimental (calculative) mother for you! ^^
This morning, the princess (got) woke(n) up earlier than usual and kicked up a racket when she realised that I was already up and getting ready for work (read: going to leave her for the next 9 hours). I, the hard hearted mommy, resolved not to let her crying get to me and carried on putting my things together, leaving the girl to wail and writhe in her Papa's arms.
After a few minutes of tolerating the seemingly anguished, distraught and heartbreaking cries of a little girl who obviously have separation issues, my sleep deprived husband rouses from his sleep and admonishes the screaming one with the promise of the "rotan (cane)" if she keeps this up.
With the battle clearly not in her favour, she, slumped on the bed, tries a (rather weak) last attempt to collaborate with her father in an effort to detain me at home.
J (in a small clear voice) : I want to bully Mommy, Papa, I want to bully Mommy.
KY (half asleep but evidentally highly amused but not wanting to show it): Why you want to bully Mommy? You bully Mommy you bully yourself you know. You already got a sore throat. Your voice already so low.
J (after a short pause): I want to disturb Mommy, Papa. Please. I want to disturb.
KY: ...
The truth is out, people! Looks like we've been taken on a ride all this while!
Dunno whether to reprimand or laugh at her.
Well, before I left the house for good today I snuggled her and gave her a big kiss, along with the promise to be back early to play with her (which she returned with a forlorn look and a small whimper).
My early morning entertainment. The sun is shining a bit brighter today and the monday not so blue ^^
