Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Birthday Celebrations
The year is coming to an end! Everyone exclaims how fast the year has gone by and it's true to some extent. However we had three really enjoyable parties recently that linger in my mind, and do not seem rushed at all. All three were for baby Akshaya's 1st birthday celebrations and all three were great fun for me and for her... I hope they were fun for the guests too!
Monday, November 2, 2009
One of THOSE days
I backed into a car as I was on the phone with a friend.
I walked to the coffee shop (twice - coz once I had to come back to speak with the owner whose car I backed into) ordered a fish soup and then realized I hadn't brought my wallet down.
So ... today after work, I will walk down and pay that shop lady my dues. I'll probably pay a bit more, to make up for having made her wait for 5 hours before being paid. and I'll probably get a call sometime later today or tomorrow about the damages I have to pay for that car.
Both incidents / accidents were due to my lack of attention.
Maybe there's a message in all this - pay attention or pay some more.
By god's grace, these were not so bad in the scheme of things.
PAY ATTENTION.
It pays.
I walked to the coffee shop (twice - coz once I had to come back to speak with the owner whose car I backed into) ordered a fish soup and then realized I hadn't brought my wallet down.
So ... today after work, I will walk down and pay that shop lady my dues. I'll probably pay a bit more, to make up for having made her wait for 5 hours before being paid. and I'll probably get a call sometime later today or tomorrow about the damages I have to pay for that car.
Both incidents / accidents were due to my lack of attention.
Maybe there's a message in all this - pay attention or pay some more.
By god's grace, these were not so bad in the scheme of things.
PAY ATTENTION.
It pays.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Sleep Training in Progress
Sleep Training in Progress
4 a.m.
You cry
Gently first
tremulously
then louder
and louder
She walks in
Speaks soothing words
No pick-up
though
and she leaves
You wail!
and continue
crying crying crying
Tears of anguish
Tears of anger
and she caves
Pick up!
You smile and cuddle and
coo into an imaginary phone
plant bite kisses on her cheeks
All is well with the world!
What a blessing to be like you
A heart that
bears no grudges,
that is filled only with
Love, Love and
More Love
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
The Value of Literature
The Value of Literature
Professor Cherian George recently spoke at the National Schools Literature Festival 2009 about the value of Literature, and what he said really struck a chord with me.
He spoke of a conversation he had once, with a former student of a school in another country, which was later found to be grooming terrorists. One of the subjects not taught was Literature. When asked why not, the student asked, why would the school want to teach Literature? This is a subject that teaches you to think, to question, to not accept things at face value, to analyze the motivations of characters and make up one's own mind about things - this is not a good subject when you want to brainwash people into accepting only one way of doing things!
WOW. How true. Literature equips one with questioning skills - it is THE subject for rebels, for those who do not wish to merely accept things but for those who wish to question and understand things before embarking upon anything - it's a subject for the bold, the ones who can handle the fact that there are no right answers in life sometimes.
Prof George also spoke of how one could have child prodigies for other subjects, but not for Literature. One never hears of a five year old Literature Whizz, a 10 year Harvard graduate of Literature, or a 15 year old with a doctrate in Literature. The reason? Literature is one subject where experience is critical to its appreciation. One needs to live life and have a myriad of experiences both with texts and outside of texts, before one can be any kind of 'expert' in Literature.
Finally, he talked of how Literature texts are the one set of texts that are complete in themselves, and never become outdated. I couldn't agree more. In fact, it is the one subject where the text you read at age 14 comes to mean something different when you come back to it at age 25 and then something else again when you return to read it at age 40 and beyond. Literature texts grow with us, we never outgrow them.
I was really inspired by Prof George at the National Schools Literature Festival and I'm sure many other teachers and students were too. Kudos to the team for having invited him!
Professor Cherian George recently spoke at the National Schools Literature Festival 2009 about the value of Literature, and what he said really struck a chord with me.
He spoke of a conversation he had once, with a former student of a school in another country, which was later found to be grooming terrorists. One of the subjects not taught was Literature. When asked why not, the student asked, why would the school want to teach Literature? This is a subject that teaches you to think, to question, to not accept things at face value, to analyze the motivations of characters and make up one's own mind about things - this is not a good subject when you want to brainwash people into accepting only one way of doing things!
WOW. How true. Literature equips one with questioning skills - it is THE subject for rebels, for those who do not wish to merely accept things but for those who wish to question and understand things before embarking upon anything - it's a subject for the bold, the ones who can handle the fact that there are no right answers in life sometimes.
Prof George also spoke of how one could have child prodigies for other subjects, but not for Literature. One never hears of a five year old Literature Whizz, a 10 year Harvard graduate of Literature, or a 15 year old with a doctrate in Literature. The reason? Literature is one subject where experience is critical to its appreciation. One needs to live life and have a myriad of experiences both with texts and outside of texts, before one can be any kind of 'expert' in Literature.
Finally, he talked of how Literature texts are the one set of texts that are complete in themselves, and never become outdated. I couldn't agree more. In fact, it is the one subject where the text you read at age 14 comes to mean something different when you come back to it at age 25 and then something else again when you return to read it at age 40 and beyond. Literature texts grow with us, we never outgrow them.
I was really inspired by Prof George at the National Schools Literature Festival and I'm sure many other teachers and students were too. Kudos to the team for having invited him!
Sleepless in Singapore
My baby is not sleeping enough, nor is she sleeping through the night, she hasn't slept more than 3 hours in a stretch since she was born, 9 months ago. That is .... terrible. For her.
Babies need lots of sleep for brain development, and my husband and I have been taking the easy way out by not teaching her to fall asleep on her own. WE are the culprits. This is a terrible weight to bear you know. and we MUST do something about it.
Absolutely must.
This is an important lesson for us in bringing up baby. sometimes we need to be firm and we need to do difficult things for her own good.
God please give me the courage to do this and to do it well.
Babies need lots of sleep for brain development, and my husband and I have been taking the easy way out by not teaching her to fall asleep on her own. WE are the culprits. This is a terrible weight to bear you know. and we MUST do something about it.
Absolutely must.
This is an important lesson for us in bringing up baby. sometimes we need to be firm and we need to do difficult things for her own good.
God please give me the courage to do this and to do it well.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
6 Months Forever
My baby is six months old now, and a part of me is so anxious that this stage is passing by so quickly, I want to hold on to every minute and savour it. She'll only be 6 months once!
and every day, I see something new she learns. It's amazing.
one day she's getting her first teeth.
the next she's learnt to turn over both sides
the next she knows how to keep rolling in one direction!
the next she's turned 360 degrees in her cot
the next she's moving backwards using her legs to propel her
the next she's learnt to wave bye bye
the next she's trying to feed herself
the next she's crying to be picked up
it's unstoppable! not that I want to of course, but I want to capture every single minute of this miracle unfolding before my eyes.
and every day, I see something new she learns. It's amazing.
one day she's getting her first teeth.
the next she's learnt to turn over both sides
the next she knows how to keep rolling in one direction!
the next she's turned 360 degrees in her cot
the next she's moving backwards using her legs to propel her
the next she's learnt to wave bye bye
the next she's trying to feed herself
the next she's crying to be picked up
it's unstoppable! not that I want to of course, but I want to capture every single minute of this miracle unfolding before my eyes.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Where is the Milk?
This is mildly depressing. I'm getting less and less milk as each day goes by, while pumping for longer and longer.
Why am I doing this anyway? This feeling is compounded by guilt at whiling away 1 hour of office time on pumping, while also using my lunch time to do this. that's 2 hrs of good time being used to get much too little milk!
and I can't and don't want to leave work late because I have a baby I want to get back to to feed.
so
life is reduced to a cycle of feeding, desire to feed, longing to feed, necessity to feed and pumping to feed later
and the pumping ain't going too well
not in a good mood here, as one can tell
Why am I doing this anyway? This feeling is compounded by guilt at whiling away 1 hour of office time on pumping, while also using my lunch time to do this. that's 2 hrs of good time being used to get much too little milk!
and I can't and don't want to leave work late because I have a baby I want to get back to to feed.
so
life is reduced to a cycle of feeding, desire to feed, longing to feed, necessity to feed and pumping to feed later
and the pumping ain't going too well
not in a good mood here, as one can tell
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Money Matters
Just realized that I have spent about $60 unnecessarily, buying things I could bought cheaper elsewhere or things which I had easy access to for free. SIGH.
Like...
Marley and Me - bought it for myself as a treat to watch on my day off, only to find out my brother already had the dvd
Children are from Heaven - had it flown down via Amazon.com, only to find it's easily available in Kinokuniya
Baby Blues Comics #15 - bought it from a small book store, only to find I could have got it from Kinokuniya at a 10% discount
Baby Einstein dvd - only to find my mother has three of these, given to her free of charge from a happy salesman in Bali!
So what does one do? One does not 'cry over spilt milk' {what would one do without cliches?} one moves on, resolves to be smarter with money, and never tell the hubby these minor details!
Like...
Marley and Me - bought it for myself as a treat to watch on my day off, only to find out my brother already had the dvd
Children are from Heaven - had it flown down via Amazon.com, only to find it's easily available in Kinokuniya
Baby Blues Comics #15 - bought it from a small book store, only to find I could have got it from Kinokuniya at a 10% discount
Baby Einstein dvd - only to find my mother has three of these, given to her free of charge from a happy salesman in Bali!
So what does one do? One does not 'cry over spilt milk' {what would one do without cliches?} one moves on, resolves to be smarter with money, and never tell the hubby these minor details!
Metaphors and their Meanings
Certain metaphors just mean so much more to me these days on a very literal level... like:
"Milking it for all it's worth" &
"Crying over spilt milk"
"Squeezing it dry"
If you spent two or more hours a day in a nursing room you'd know what I mean too!
"Milking it for all it's worth" &
"Crying over spilt milk"
"Squeezing it dry"
If you spent two or more hours a day in a nursing room you'd know what I mean too!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Love, Shakespeare
From Sonnet # 17 (addressed to an unidentified young man)
If I could write the beauty of your eyes
...
The age to come would say 'This poet lies:
...
But were some child of yours alive that time,
......You should live twice; in it and in my rhyme.
Who says it better than the bard?
If I could write the beauty of your eyes
...
The age to come would say 'This poet lies:
...
But were some child of yours alive that time,
......You should live twice; in it and in my rhyme.
Who says it better than the bard?
Mini Me
Had a look at my own baby photo yesterday... my daughter does indeed look almost exactly like I did when I was a baby! It was almost disconcerting, to tell the truth. I had produced my very own 'mini me'! The resemblence is uncanny if I may say so myself.
Where will the similarities end though? I was kind of hoping my daughter would turn out far prettier than me! If she looks like me when I was a baby, will she look like me as she grows up too?
One of Shakespeare's sonnets come to mind here :
Sonnet #3 (addressed to an unidentified young man)
"Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime"
Where will the similarities end though? I was kind of hoping my daughter would turn out far prettier than me! If she looks like me when I was a baby, will she look like me as she grows up too?
One of Shakespeare's sonnets come to mind here :
Sonnet #3 (addressed to an unidentified young man)
"Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime"
Amazing, Shakespeare's lines, written 600 years ago, still as relevant today as ever, holding resonance for us in the different stages of our lives!
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