transposable element

and so the -ber months have started. brace yourselves folks; for some reason, the last third of the year always goes so fast for us, what with all the holidays and school breaks in between. jan’s got a week of school break this month, and then his birthday is coming up. once he returns to school, his schedule is somewhat all over the place - shortened classes, off-schedule school hours due to PSLE, and barely two monts into the last term, the year-end exams. as for mia- she’ll be starting her ballet classes this month!

the next several months will be a flurry of activities, we’ll be sending out personal and business holiday cards before we know it. i hope this year i manage to actually send snail mail ones, at least to close friends and family. yeah, call me old-fashioned, but i proudly belong to the diminishing species that keep the postman going. to colleagues and work contacts, electronic greetings are good enough, but if if could spare the time, i’d rather make the personal effort to send real cards to friends and family, handwritten text and all. kinda makes it more personal, especially nowadays when most of the writing people do are done by tapping on keyboards and touch screens.

my first ever profile pic when i started my foray into the blogworld in 2004. jan in 2006, and now, mia.

what do they say about being chips off the old block?

name that song! hehe…

mia got this t-shirt from a friend who just got back from paris and it does look chic, but paired with a baseball cap worn backwards (mia’s preference) and a crummy look? mia looks like a gangsta in the making! or a trailer park girl? let it be a modern motorhome at least, haha!

i think we need one of those plasma mounts to set out tv on the wall. mia has figured out the power button on our tv and she’s getting on jan’s nerves as she seems to have the knack of turning the tv off at the most exciting scenes. it would have been ok if she was playing with the remote, which has a lock, but the main buttons? no other way but to get the tv out of her little hands’ reach!

during jan’s toddler years, we were very strict his with tv exposure. he virtually never watched tv before he was two and even at nearly three, his consumption was kept to about half an hour before bedtime.

with mia, though, it’s more challenging to keep her unexposed. having an older sibling who watches makes it close to impossible for her not to. if we had a large house, it would probably be possible to whisk her away to some other room while jan watches his programs, but as it is, it’s just not possible. even more now that we’ve decided to finally to get a bigger screen plasma tv (there goes my Sony Vaio budget!). she watches in passing, especially when she hears a catchy tune, but unlike some of her friends of the same age, she hasn’t displayed any real interest in tv so far.

oh well, let’s see how long it takes before she catches the bug and get addicted to the purple dinosaur.

i think baby gap has the most gorgeous pieces especially for toddler girls, but frankly, i’m too much of a cheapskate to shop at gap. old navy, yes, but gap is just a tad bit over my price range. fortunately, mia has a constant supplier of gap baby clothes: my sister, hehe.

this is one of my latest favorites. the outfit c/o my sister, the photo c/o my brother.

ain’t mia the sweetest?

but then, pictures don’t tell the whole story, bwahaha.

i can hardly believe it’s been a year. i haven’t even written her birth story; i wonder if i still can. the scenes from that day when mia was born are all hazy now. and though i have pictures and videos on digital file to tell the story of the year that was, i have the feeling everything happened in a blitz.

now she’s walking, talking… and twirling.

on the morning of her birthday, we celebrated as is the norm for our family: a birthday cake, ribbons, balloons, and gifts of all shapes and sizes greeted the mia on the table as she woke up (ok, we woke her up as jan had to leave for school). she was fascinated, confused, and well, sleepy, but that didn’t keep her from enjoying her first car, the bobby car. she may never have stepped foot on germ’s land yet, but ain’t no reason why she shouldn’t enjoy something all kiddie germs do. i would have preferred to get the princess model, but unfortunately, only the classic and the benz were available here.

from jan, mia got a bead necklace, a labour of love the young man created the weekend before, while everyone else were taking an afternoon nap. sweet, eh?

last friday, i prepared a simple lunch for the rest of the clan and saturday was mia’s party with friends. her party, her friends. we hosted a gymboree party for the six other babies of mia’s age who we regularly meet with for playdates. an hour of baby gym followed by snacks and, of course, yet another birthday cake made for a tired but happy little princess. i was surprised that she held through it all affably, grinning and playful the whole time, but i think by keeping it short and simple, and with people mia already knew, she really had a great time!

needless to say, the past week has been quite hectic than usual, but quite a lot of fun!

mia, now you’re one, that adventure has just begun!

forget barney, forget amadeus. mia’s favorite melody? the background music to western union’s “yes!” commercial.

i’ve googled til i found the title and artist of the song, and from there it was easy to find an audio file. apparently it is a remix of a song by morrocan artist hindi zahra. here’s the original:

the song has been playing on repeat mode on my pc, hehe.

speaking of music, i’ve been missing sarah g on asap, but i’ve discovererd a new favourite (hey, i now spell in british english!): i love, love, love sitti! i was especially awed by her bossa nova version of lanca perfume she performed on asap a few weeks ago. i found an audio file online, but the quality doesn’t do justice to sitti’s voice. i find her smooth operator really smooth and groovy too. heck , i love all of them. i’ll be downloading ‘em all onto my mobile phone’s micro-sd card. um, well, as soon as i figure out how to do it, hehe.

or i can borrow jan’s mp3 player. but i’ll need to use my own memory card, though; his is full of german audiobooks, chinese recordings from his tutor, and c’mon barbie, let’s go party, hehe. the last has already been there when we bought the mp3 player and he loves it so much he has even transcribed the song. but his favourite music? eddie, aka iron maiden. it’s on his y-chromosome, i suppose.