transposable element

booking travel accommodations has become a tad bit more complicated now that we’re four. if we are to have a fairly good night’s sleep, we now need to order an extra bed for jan. most hotels now provide baby cribs free of charge, but after seeing the (dubious) state of the baby cot and beddings we were offered during our last trip, i’ve been considering getting a travel cot for mia. i was considering something like the tent-like kindercot, until i came across the baby bjorn travel cot light. this has got to be the coolest travel gear for babies ever. it’s the size of a normal luggage, so you can easily check it in as such, weighs only 5kg, and yet transforms into a sturdy 1-meter bed, in less than 10 seconds. coolness! watch this video:

if you know someone who is expecting a child and loves to travel (even if it’s just to the in-laws), this is the perfect baby shower gift!

i should be taking it all in stride. after all, jan did it before, too. but mia’s semi hunger strike is on its second week now and i’m running out of ideas what to offer her. during the first week, i’ve found out the the magic food was bread. wholegrain, mind you. she’ll refuse everything except crusty, dark, wholegrain bread. this week, she’s refusing that as well, arrrgh! trying to convince her to eat some solids is like selling bikinis to eskimos. at this rate, i should probably do sales job search with the skills i’m acquiring.

i’m not bothered with her food intake (or the lack thereof). but it’s making her hungrier and thus wakes up more often in the night for milk. as if i haven’t got raccoon eyes as it is. arrrrgh (again)!

it feels like jan just started school last week and yet, there’s just three weeks left to the first term! the slow pace at the beginning gathered speed phenomenally over the last few weeks. the list of words for their weekly spelling tests are getting more challenging, and this week’s now include words such as frightened, favourite, and February. to think it wasn’t so long ago that he learned to read phonetically! they also now conjugating simple sentences, and solving one-step math problems with addition and subtraction. so far, jan’s coping well, enjoying maths even, but often needs to be nudged to do homework (well, would be strange if he didn’t). the one area he needs help, though, is with chinese. ack! i think we need to really find a tutor, fast!

with a one-week holiday looming, i’m scouring the web for short weekend getaways. while there are many possibilities, i personally don’t want to travel far with mia in tow. she’s starting to get mobile now, and a long travel time would just be a pain. we’ve done desaru over chinese new year and the it was fab arriving at the hotel within an hour or so of leaving singapore. so where to this time? abangan.

now that mia can crawl, keeping an eye on her has become a notch more difficult. mobility, combined with the fact that she still inspects everything by putting them in her mouth, makes me sometimes think we should get one of those “baby cages” that the more politically correct call play yards, hehe.

but nah, somehow play yards or play pens don’t feel right to me. no offense to parents who use them and find them great, but personally, i put them in a similar category as child leashes. i know that in many ways, taking care of pets is similar to taking care of children. but when people start taking care of children the way they take care of pets, i find it just a tad bit disturbing.

i think we’ll settle for safety gates, drawer/cupboard locks, corner protectors and the likes instead. and soon!

mia’s nearly 10 months old, and my tummy doesn’t look much different from the way it was when she was born, ack! i’ve put off buying bottoms, especially jeans, because i thought i wouldn’t get much mileage from them, assuming i would shrink to my pre-pregnancy waistline (which wasn’t small to begin with) within a few months. fat chance. the jelly belly doesn’t seem to have any intent of going away on its own like it did when i gave birth to jan.

would corsets solve the problem? when you pull it tight, where will all the flab go?!? gosh, i can’t breath just thinking about it.

you don’t know what tired means until you get really truly body-and-soul tired. the kind that knocks the lights out of you short after your head sinks into your pillows.

what keeps me going? i look at my beautiful family and draw strength from them.

my son, full of zest for life. my daughter, growing so fast right before my very eyes. my husband, his kind soul, my pillar of strength.

what do other things matter when i have them?

p.s. missA, thanks for the “lifesaver”.

jan’s room got a bit of rearrangement today. not that there’s a lot of options given its shoebox size, but the point is, it’s a different look, hence a different feel. his study table is now separated from the play space; hopefully the segregation also happens mentally. now that he’s a schoolboy he needs to slowly transition into distinguishing work from play, without taking away the fun in working.

truth be told, our spare room that serves as my working room also needs a bit of pepping up. i’m thinking of doing away with computer desks altogether and just use a long plank running along the entire width of the room as working table. i’m not sure where to get such planks though. in my 1.5 years here in singapore, i can’t remember having seen a real hardware store (like obi in germany), except from homefix and little stores selling bits and bobs for repair jobs. shouldn’t be surprising, i suppose, as it seems there really isn’t a culture of doing/constructing stuff on your own here. even ikea here assembles furniture for a small fee. painting, hanging pictures, housekeeping… heck, even child-rearing is outsourced!

can’t believe it’s been more than a week since my last entry! gawd, i need 40 hours a day (and while i’m at it, could i spend about 30% of that on uninterrupted sleep, please? and a couple, vegging out on home theater chairs?)!!! i’ve got projects that are still fermenting in my head for the longest time and hasn’t seen fruition, and i can’t blog them yet. need to ward off jinx (yeah, i’m superstitious like that). besides i’ve about 371 blog entries i’ve been wanting to write, so those first, eh? i hope i get to write them before i completely forget about them!