Who said money can’t buy happiness? It clearly does buy happiness, along with many other expensive goodies. (It’s only a bit difficult to digest the whole truth that money can buy happiness and beyond, if you keep money under control and not vice versa.)
We’d been too busy the past few months that we couldn’t find time to shop. As a result, I was repeating my clothes all the time and the other day Hubby wore tennis shoes to beach coz his sandals were worn out.
We spent the past 2 weeks shopping for them all. It was totally fun. I didn’t have time to blog, cook, eat and sleep. So I post photos here and try to convince you that it is of course a valid blog post!
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We started with this for pappu after we lost his squeaky snoopy shoes. (Now I’m going to all the places we had been to during the past few weeks in an attempt to find them. Somebody will return it to me)
One of these days we went out to buy Hubby’s sandals but came back home carrying enough clothes for all of us and shoes for me and Pappu.
Oh please don’t ask me. I don’t moisturise my skin, alright.
And then we bought a denim overalls for Pappu. I’d been planning this one for so long. I was right. Denim overalls are the cutest things on earth.
We did finally find the sandals Hubby wanted in one of the shops (Only one shop in all of singapore? Hubby sure is a man of unique taste).
You spend a whole long day of shopping and you will still feel energetic. And you spend more money filling up your tummy and then you ask your Hubby to get some pictures and tell him to ignore your belly. He does, but the poor camera, it doesn’t know how to ignore the 2 kilos of extra fat hanging on to your tummy.
And not to mention, the joy of spending money even gets to the face of your one year old.
(For concerned souls, we did not buy these glasses for him.)
Toddlish: The essential toddler behavioral language
“Gym”my: Baby’s best friend, the play gym.
___ (Dash): It means “bite”. We don’t use the word “bite” in our house anymore, for it only increases my toddler’s curiosity. So whereever applicable, we just say “He did the dash word”
The Dee Uhh See Kay (D-U-C-K): That’s how we mention his favourite duckie when the duckie is really not around and when there is a high danger of the duckie being ‘wanted’.
Mombabydia: My essential mom-baby dictionary, which I lost and then found it after a long quest only to found that they aren’t required anymore.
ParentsConnect.com and Twittermoms are conducting a Momfinitions contest. Why, yes we all have our own set of words that really do deserve to be placed in the dictionary. I thought it would be fun to write my list.
Here’s are some of the words we use in our household.
1. Mombabydia [mom-bay-be-dia]: noun The Mom-Baby dictionary, and viceversa.
Usage: “Where the heck is my Mombabydia?”
I lost it several months back when my baby was born. I got it back after my months-long quest only to find that it isn’t required now. Looks like the baby language is not in use anymore.
2. Toddlish [Tawd-lish]: noun The essential toddler behavioral language.
Usage: “And so we were on the way to the airport and my son behaved in a toddlish way that only a toddler can justify.”
It is the latest trend in any house with a toddler. Synonyms of ‘toddlish’ are “Unreasonable”, “Should I really have a second child?”, “Terrible twos”, “Tantrums”, “I certainly don’t understand what I’m doing”, “Where, oh, where did I lose my happy, easy and charming baby”, “I thought I was almost proud of my baby” and many more….
3. “Gym”my [jim-ee]: noun Baby’s best friend, the play gym.
Usage: “The baby is busy with his friend, Gymmy”
One of the most used toys in our house. During the initial days, I could just spend hours of ‘me’ time, eating bonbons and watching Oprah while the baby plays happily under the play gym.
4. “Dash” [___]: noun “bite”, verb “to bite”.
Usage: “OUCH!”. “What is it?”. “The baby just did the ‘dash word’ on my shoulder”.
We don’t use the word “bite” in our house anymore. Because if the toddler hears this word, his ever growing curiosity would make him ‘want’ to test the word’s meaning. So whereever applicable, we just replace it with “dash”.
5. The D.U.C.K [the-dee-you-see-kay]: noun The yellow and red rubber duckling.
Usage: “I don’t believe I forgot to pack the D.U.C.K yet another time!!!”
That’s how we mention our son’s favourite duckie when the duckie is not around. Essentially to avoid any nightmare from happening. You know, the nightmare when the unavailable duckie is ‘wanted’.
So that was my list. Feel free to add yours in the comments section or to enter the contest yourself by clicking the links provided in the beginning of the post.
Dear son,
Time flies. Yes dear, time is gone before even I realise it. At every stage of yours, I’ve been saying the same thing but now I really can’t tell if life were any faster than it is now. You are so full of activities and energy that I find it extremely challenging to monitor it all. When you were born, I started writing letters to you in an attempt to keep a journal of your development. Somewhere in between, you were growing too fast for me to write. There’s so many to say, where will I start?
On your birthday this month, you started to walk. I mean, we all knew that you already knew to walk but just hadn’t made that decision. Even then, your walking came as a surprise because you started your first independent steps just like a pro, not 2-3 steps at a time, like babies are supposed to do. You continued to do it because we cheered when you walked all the way to touch the wall on the other side. It was your granny’s training that when we said ‘walk and touch the wall’ , you were able to follow it perfectly.
We don’t see you much on all fours these days. Here’s are some of the last pictures taken after you’ve started walking.
That was very exciting. But what’s not so exciting is, you refuse to sit in your pram when we are outside and much worse, refuse to even be carried. You want to walk, just explore the world all by yourself. I’d love that too. Except when there comes a factor called ‘time’ which I need to keep. You want to spend 5 minutes each at every atm, every fountain, every staircase, every lift lobby, every shop, and… Oh wait who designed all these stuff all over the city?
I strongly believe in newton’s third law these days (yes honey, your mom did learn her science. Don’t ever believe if your grand parents commented about what an average student your mom was). For every exciting action you do, there’s always a good and bad side. You can entertain yourself for longer periods of time. Good news is, I can use the restrooms and take a shower without having to hurry or without having to hear a screaming toddler. Not so good news is, I often have to run around the house looking for you only to find you like “this“.
Now that you can walk, you can hold more than 1 thing in your hand as you move from room to room. You have also found out that throwing things out of the front door is exciting. And whatever is the link between these 2 sentences, I leave it to your conclusion.
If something goes missing from the house, I know exactly where to look for. It’s either the basket of your trike, your stroller or out of the front door. It’s that easy!
Yesterday I took you to playground after a long time and you amazed me by climbing the three very high step stools and up into the play tunnel and I found it very hard to keep up with your speed. You also climbed the play ladder meant for bigger kids with very little support from me. The only place in the play park that I didn’t allow you to venture yourself is the big slide, from which I had to struggle hard to keep you away!
The other day, when we were in front of the computer, you found a loose USB cable and tried to plugin to the computer, exactly where it is supposed to be. You understand almost everything that I tell you, sometimes even beyong what I actually tell. One day, I handed you your dirty shirt and told you to leave it in the kitchen. You took the shirt, walked to the kitchen, found the laundry basket and left it there.
You are very outgoing and you make friends easily. You classify people according to age and treat them differently. You smile, shake hands with adults and you say bye-bye when we leave. On the other hand you want to hug and interact with kids of your age. I should say that you are slowly learning to play with others. Only thing bothering me is, when it comes to women, you prefer the ones with fair skin, especially the chinese women and you refuse to take your eyes off them. Not so early, honey! I thought I had enough time before dealing with this kind of issues!
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Things you like:
Bicycles (I recently found out that trikes are not considered as bicycles by toddlers who have barely learnt to walk)
Watching photos
Any electronic things
Water and sand
Bicycles (Have I mentioned this already? Never mind, it IS worth listing once more, because you like it that much.)
Meddling with cabinets which are filled with books, cds and kitchen vessels
Colour pencils and note books
Bicycles (yes, you read it right, bicycles, because you are just crazy about bicycles)
‘Foot’ ball
CD of nursery rhymes (You follow many of the rhymes and songs and respond to it. On listening to “hickory dickory dock”, you say Ka Ka Ka and you point to the clock. When the song “clap your hands” start, you start clapping. And you do actions for some of the songs.)
I dentifying and pointing to various pictures from your picture book. Also, pointing to them with others’ fingers.
Words you speak:
Ka (Clock)
Kaa(Car)
Theeeei (Lift)
Thaaaain (Train)
Thei (Light)
Va va (Vaa, which means come in tamil)
Ba ba (Cat, as an attempt to say meow meow)
Ba ba (Dog, this time it’s bow wow)
Ba ba (Bye Bye)
Ba ba (Papa, sometimes)
Ma ma (Anything else you want to say, which doesn’t necessarily mean ‘mom’)
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I still breastfeed you and I still enjoy it. You always go to sleep while nursing. One of these days, you fell asleep in my hands without nursing. It came as a surprise but still I was happy that you are growing up. You still don’t drink any other sources of milk so I’m trying harder to get you into a proper diet before you stop nursing, or before I stop nursing you when you are 1 and a half years old, as planned.
A few weeks back, I was busy packing things in your stroller for our daily outing. I didn’t realise that you were behind me and I accidentally bumped my elbow on your head. I was shocked to find you there and even though I was sure that I didn’t hurt you, I saw that you were upset. I said “Oh baby, I’m sorry if I hurt you”. And that was all. You pursed your lips in anger and looked down. I picked you up and tried to change your mood. But you were strong and refused to even look at me. I tried to kiss you and you turned your head away. You granny came from the other room and she asked you what had happened. By now, your lips were still pursed and you laid on my shoulder without responding to either of us. After a long persuasion from both of us, with a still sad face, you pointed to your head where I had bumped. I was torn apart, my dear.
Last monday was our wedding anniversary. Like everybody says, I do not believe that it is 3 years already. But what everybody doesn’t say is, this was the first time we celebrated our anniversary. Because we had planned to celebrate the day we met instead. And I never remembered to celebrate the day we met. And my mother reminds me every anniversary day in the morning. So we decided to celebrate wedding anniversaries starting this year. I made a great lunch complete with payasam (a famous dessert in India). Hubby worked from home, by which I mean, he stayed home with me and played with pappu.
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But celebrations was not over yet. Friday was my birthday, and this time hubby took leave to really stay home with me and play with pappu without guilt.
This is what I got as a gift. Especially after last year’s gift from Hubby, this birthday had sure raised my expectation.
The white baby bear opened and I found this inside…
And the surprises were not over. There.. oh.. something was written on the inside.
Ah! The fun of receiving. All our names were inscribed on the inside of the ring. Oh dear, my darling Hubby has mastered the art of gifting…….
This is my fourth birthday since my wedding and my parents were with us for 2 of the birthdays before this. 2 years back on my birthday we went to a good restaurant and had a romantic and expensive dinner. Finding us by ourselves this time, we decided to do the same, a romantic and expensive dinner. Only to do it for lunch because we had some appointments at dinner time. By the time we got ready and brought our clan to the restaurant, it was 4 o clock and they told us that we reached too early, for dinner, period. We filled our stomach with starters and patiently waited for dinner. It was romantic enough, alright, in a dim, candle lit room with soft music where we found it extremely challenging to chase the running toddler and to keep him from bumping against people and things. It was an exciting time anyway, and expensive. That I understood by looking at the bill.
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After that we went to a business gathering and I received this. I never knew I had so many friends in singapore. I’m really thankful for the crowd.
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And last night we invited some friends over for dinner and I cooked. All by myself. Anyway it was a success and we all had fun.
My mom left 2 weeks back and I still find myself in hibernation. For inquiring minds, I actually proved to be a great home maker. My mother was impressed by the way I handled things when they were really necessary. Especially when I had a surprise guest around lunch time (when our vegetable shopping was due) and I invited her to lunch and fixed up a great lunch with left over vegetables all in less than half an hour! Later my mom told me that I am a great home maker. Oh so I wondered if it takes just 30 minutes to fix up things around the house to win people’s hearts. I decided to try it and now, hubby is convinced that I am a great home maker. Just 30 minutes!!! Imagine that!!!
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