Monday Craft update

Yes, it's Sunday, but I'm doing the craft update today, as I have another blog topic for tomorrow.

A very good week.

Cross-stitch
Making excellent progress on the snow family cross-stitch. I ended up ripping out one piece of stitching 3 times, so I've dug out my Ott-light, but I haven't tried it yet.

Here is a picture, but the colours are a bit hard to see. I've done tons more since then, but it still looks like nothing, but at least you can see the colours. The linen is shaded in blues and greens, that's why it looks so funny, with silver threads running through (looking like falling snow). Don't mind the big string, it's just the thread I'm working on.

And I ordered another project. Yes, I know I know. It's of Lightning McQueen (from the Cars movie). I hope it arrives at Joe's parents' house before they leave. I hope to do it for Oliver's birthday.

Knitting
Finished knitting all the block sides for Martin's blocks, and have stitched on 2 letters and 1 shape. There will be 6 letters and 6 shapes in all.

I also got another 2 stripes done on a ball and will be taking that on vacation this week.

Foiled Again

Sigh. We are having a hard time getting out of Singapore for a mini vacation.

On Thursday, we were supposed to go to Bintan with Jose and his family. Bintan is a beach resort and would have been a lot of fun. The men were going to golf, we were bringing the maids so they could watch the kids in the evening and just generally relax (not that I'm stressed right now). Well, Jose's kids unfortunately got sick. Actually quite sick, but they are doing better now, thank goodness.

We decided not to go to Bintan by ourselves, as it would be more fun with a group.

So then we started thinking, let's drive to Malaysia and go from Monday to Friday. We could stay overnight in Malacca/Melaka (same place - different spelling) and then go to Kuala Lumpur for a couple of nights. We haven't done a road trip in forever, and it would be something different.

We were sitting down to book the hotels tonight, after a stressful day for Joe of running around, and we hear Oliver coughing. Oliver's been coughing at night for a while, but it's now sounding worse. And his nose has started running a bit again. And my throat is at the verge of scratchy - you know, that feeling you have before you get sick? So we decided to not book anything and wait until tomorrow to make a final decision.

The thing is, this is probably the last week to do this. The next week, Joe's parents are here. The week after is Oliver's school picture (yes, we did order 3 sets, so the grandparents will get a set also - Merry Christmas Mom & Dad! I guess it will still be a surprize for Joe's parents as I know they don't read the blog - so Paulina - no telling!). The week after may be free, and then it's Martin's doctor appointment, and then I'm pretty much back to work.

Travel used to be a lot easier than this.

Oliver as a big brother

Oliver is starting to pay more attention to Martin these days. When he was first born and I would be asked what Oliver thought of Martin, I would say "indifferent". He hasn't moved too far from there, but he is noticing him a lot more.

This past weekend was pretty sweet. Martin was crying in the basinette, and I was in the bathroom. Oliver came in and said "Why you crying Martin?" and then Oliver asked me if he could read Martin a story, to make him feel better.

He likes to give Martin a blanket.

He also gave Martin a big kiss on the cheek one day before going to school, and if we pick up Oliver without Martin he does ask where he is.

Oliver also has been pretty accepting when I'm nursing Martin that I'm busy. I do try and still do things with Oliver at the same time, but I'm not always able to.

Stuff

When we moved from Nassau, we swung through Toronto and picked up all our goods from storage. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to sort through items and brought everything. We also wanted to leave some of our items from Nassau in Toronto, but that didn't happen, so we now have everything.

As anyone who has been to visit us, you know we are a bit of packrats. Plus when you are packing you try and purge, but after a while you feel like you are throwing / giving away everything you own, so you stop after a while.

Well, to prevent those feelings, we are now trying to do a bit of purging at a time. We have found a Salvation Army to give items aways to.

But there have been some funny items that we have found in our unpacking:

• My wedding dress. Now, I'd be okay giving it away, as it's not like I'd wear it again (except maybe for Halloween), but Joe is a sentimental guy, so it's stored under the stairs right now.
• My green leather university jacket. It said 94 on one arm and "Act Sci" on the other arm in yellow letters. Remember that one? Oh, how I loved that jacket. But it went to Salvation Army yesterday. It's not like I don't still have the memories, I just now have the closet space. It still fits, but I would be a very sad looking character to still wear it. In my opinion, you only can wear university clothing in public, for up to one year after you graduate. Especially if the year is written on it.
  
• And the funniest item - we found some spare bathroom tiles from when we renovated the condo in Toronto! Yes, we have been paying for storage and paid for them to get moved to Singapore. They are now in the garbage.

I think I'll use the tiles as inspiration to keep on doing a bit of purging each week. I'll let you know of more odd items that we find.

Traditional attire (of all races)

How would you interpret the phrase "traditional attire (of all races)" on a note sent home with Oliver from his daycare? It was in reference of what to wear for the Lantern Festival yesterday.

We discussed it, and couldn't figure out what Oliver's traditional attire would be. He's Canadian - so what is traditional Canadian attire? He's not Native American, he's not a Mounty, maybe pioneer garb, but then he's half Chinese. So a Chinese outfit? But he's half white - which is a mixture of Scottish, Austrian, and Swedish. Send him in a kilt, with leather suspenders, holding a meatball with a Foo Man Chu beard?

So in the end, we gave up and sent him in his uniform.

Turns out all the kids were in their normal after school clothes. You know, what you TRADITIONALLY wear.


P.S. Imagine if we HAD sent him in a costume. The poor kid.

Autumn Moon Festival

or the Lantern Festival as it is sometimes known in Singapore is being celebrated at Oliver's school today. We had to make a lantern for Oliver to bring in. Here is my feeble attempt, which I didn't think was that bad looking until I saw the other children's lanterns.The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, is a popular Asian celebration of abundance and togetherness, dating back over 3,000 years to China's Zhou Dynasty. In Malaysia and Singapore, it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival, similar in name to a different festival which falls on the fifteenth day of the Chinese New Year).

The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar (usually around mid- or late-September in the Gregorian calendar), a date that parallels the Autumn Equinox of the solar calendar. This is the ideal time, when the moon is at its fullest and brightest, to celebrate the abundance of the summer's harvest. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the two most important holidays in the Chinese calendar (the other being the Chinese Lunar New Year), and is a legal holiday in several countries (not in Singapore though). Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date. Traditionally, on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomeloes together. Accompanying the celebration, there are additional cultural or regional customs, such as:

* Eating moon cakes outside under the moon
* Putting pomelo rinds on one's head
* Carrying brightly lit lanterns
* Burning incense in reverence to deities including Chang'e
* Planting Mid-Autumn trees
* Lighting lanterns on towers
* Fire Dragon Dances

Shops selling mooncakes, before the festival, often display pictures of Chang'e floating to the moon.

While Westerners may talk about the "man in the moon", the Chinese talk about the "woman in the moon". The story of Chang'e and her flight to the moon, is familiar to every Chinese citizen, and a favourite subject of poets. Unlike many lunar deities in other cultures who personify the moon, Chang'e lives in the moon. Tradition places Houyi and Chang'e around 2170 BC, in the reign of the legendary Emperor Yao, shortly after that of Huang Di.

There are so many variations and adaptations of the Chang'e legend that one can become overwhelmed and utterly confused. However, most legends about Chang'e in Chinese mythology involve some variation of the following elements: Houyi, the Archer; Chang'e, the mythical Moon Goddess of Immortality; an emperor, either benevolent or malevolent; an elixir of life; and the Moon.

See Wikipedia for the legends.

Monday Craft Update

Ahhh! computer glitch, I accidentally erased my entire post when I selected it to format it.

Pretty good week, I started tracking my hours after I read Paulina's blog. That is turning out to be pretty interesting.

Cross-stitch

Made good progress on the snowman family. I only work on it during the weekday, as at night the light isn't good enough. So therefore, I need to try and finish it up in the next 6 weeks. That will be pretty tight, but I'll try. I'll take a picture next week, though it won't look like anything, as I'm stitching in the middle of the picture, but you can then see the colours.

I'm pretty happy with it so far, and I love the look of the stitches on the linen. I just hope they will stand out enough. I'm also getting the hang of counting on linen.

Knitting

I finished 8 sides of the knit blocks, so I only have 5 more to go. Provided we don't go away this week, I should finish the knitting. I knit them 2 at a time in different colours. Mom suggested that to me last time I made the blocks. Of course, you don't go any faster, but you feel like you.

I also did some on the knit blanket, maybe about an inch.

I have started another baby ball. I did 1/12 of the knitting (i.e. one stripe) in the car. I need to have it finished by next Sunday for a baby shower, but I'm not too worried.

Crochet

No projects on the go.

Photography / Videography

I've been reading a new book "Digital Video Handbook" as I want to get more into the video making. I've been taking videos and have been thinking of video ideas. I think I'll do a tour of our house so that you can see what it is like. There are some interesting little oddities.

Of course, I'm doing tons of taping of the kids, but I can't figure out how to make that interesting to watch yet. Not everyone is fascinated watching Oliver play with his trains.

Movie Review: Dreamgirls

Since TV is lacking a bit here, even though we have 3 HBO channels, Joe and I bought some movies on Friday. I bought Dreamgirls and Walk the Line and Joe bought Hannibal and The Omen. If we put the movies together we'd have a very scary musical.

Movies are pretty cheap here as you can buy VCDs which are video CDs. They don't have the features of the DVD, but really, are you going to play a game with The Omen (hmm, maybe that's not a bad idea)? The advantage is they are cheaper (usually around $15 for a new movie) and you can easily copy it onto a computer (great for our media computer / TV).

Dreamgirls was pretty good. The music is fun. It was a Broadway play they adapted for the movies. I find that doesn't always translate well, and there were times when I was watching that I was thinking, this would work better on stage. Particularly when the characters are talking and then start singing. It always reminds me of the time I saw Miss Saigon with Lana and she was making fun of the musical (I think that one had no talking, so they would sing "hello").

The storyline is interesting and it is definitely well acted and well sung. However, it was kind of odd to hear at the beginning of the movie them refer to the Beyonce character as "not that strong of a singer".

I'd recommend it, but only for those that like musicals. If not, stay far far away.

Happy Anniversay to us!!

Today is our 5th year anniversary!! Where does the time go? I have to say married life is great.

The highlights:

• Oliver and Martin (obviously). Joe is an amazing father and stayed home full-time with Oliver his first year. He is staying home now with Martin, but with help. He is very hands-on and does all of Martin's nighttime diaper changes.
  
• Paulina, Todd, Julia, Kate, Joe's parents and rest of Joe's family. They have been so welcoming and loving, and I'm very lucky to have them as in laws. Especially one that taught me how to knit and crochet! Imagine having a sister-in-law that cross-stitches!
• The travel - Portugal for the honeymoon - this one day in Evora where we just hung out in the park really stands out, France (getting lost but having the most amazing drive through fall foliage in the wine country), China, Miami, DisneyWorld, Canada, etc, etc.
• The living abroad - I couldn't have done it without the support of Joe. We have decided as a family to "back" my career which has allowed us to live in The Bahamas and Singapore and has meant that Joe can't really pursue a traditional career path.
• Joe working from home - this may seem like an odd highlight, but Joe takes care of the household and hence the family by working from home. He does all the heavy lifting of the day to day of running the household, like paying the bills, calling for repairmen, taking care of the moves, etc. Joe also takes very good care of me.
• The cooking - remember in TO when we ate out 5 nights a week. That all stopped in Nassau. Turns out that Joe is an amazing cook (which anyone who has stayed with us can attest to). Some of my favorite dishes: boiled chicken, noodles with garlic and oil, breaded chicken, BBQ steak, creme brule, etc. Hmm, we need some fancier names for his dishes.
  

It's been a wonderful 5 years and can't wait to see what we do and where we do it next!

I love you Joe.

Happy Anniversary!!!

P.S. Happy Birthday Todd!

Robert Jordan died

Robert Jordan is the author of the Wheel of Time fantasy series. Unfortunately, he passed away before finishing book 12 of the series, which was to be the final one.

Mom bought me the paperback book of the first novel, "Wheel of Time" one year for Christmas. I'm a hard person to buy books for (or at least I used to be), as I was quite the prolific reader, plus I'm pretty picky about my fantasy books.

But I enjoyed this book right away. She made a great choice. The series follows 5 main characters, all from the same small town. There are 3 men - Rand, Matt and Perrin and 2 women, Elaine and Neayve (hmm, is that her name, it's been a while since I read book 11). More characters were added as they went on their adventures, making the novels more complex, with many many sub-plots.

I'll admit some novels dragged as there were so many sub-plots, the story would only be advanced about a week. It's also difficult in fantasy to be unique, as Tolkien really defined the genre and writers tend to follow his template. i.e. Fantasy is almost always set with Middle Ages technology, magic, devil/evil is locked in the mountain but is slowly escaping, elves, dwarves, etc. But this series had some real plot twists that I enjoyed. I think my favorite book was when Elaine was held captive with the collar around her neck, so that she could not control her own magic, and was a slave to her master.

Mr. Jordan, I really enjoyed your series. Thank you.

Martin's one month visit

Martin had his one month visit and he's doing great (which I already knew). He's 5.05 kg or 11.1 pounds and 55.5 cm or 21.9 in. He's the 90th percentile - but that is the Singapore charts.

He still has the baby acne, but that should clear up on his own. He's quite the good baby, and actually didn't mind the car seat today!!

Golf

Further to Joe's blog about Martin's birth, we decided to get an early start on producing our golf foursome. We bought Oliver (which will be handed down to Martin) a little mini-set of golf clubs. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any used, but they are pretty cute. It comes with a putter, a 7/8 iron and a wood. It even came with it's own little golf bag.

Joe dug out his indoor putting green to teach Oliver how to putt (talk about the blind leading the blind). Oliver loved the putting green, and immediately set up his trucks on it. He did try putting, he likes to stand behind the ball (as opposed to beside it) and hit it that way. I actually think billiards might be his game.
We also all went to the driving range yesterday, as school was closed. Perhaps not our most thought out plan, as we showed up with a toddler and a baby. I'm sure we were quite the site. Martin was quiet though as he nursed. Oliver did show interest in hitting the ball, and used the same form as when putting (i.e. standing behind the ball).

There are Kindergolf lessons here, but we are going to wait until he is 3 before starting him in them. And for future practice, we are just going to go to a park and hack around.

Joe went golfing today, but I'll let him tell you all about it (since I don't know yet!).

Monday Craft Update

Another excellent week. Mat leave is agreeing with my crafting so far.

I did about an inch on the blanket and I washed the cross-stitch baby samplers.

I also started the Snowman family cross-stitch and am making good progress. I'm a bit worried that the fabric might be a bit dark, but once I get more white stitched, plus the outlining (i.e. backstitch) it should look good. I have to say though, that I'm slow on linen and with the fabric being dark, I need really good light. I'm going to see if I can find an ott-light here.

I also determined what colours I need to do the knit blocks in, to see if I need to order yarn. I don't, so that's good. I have 3 letters to do, so that's 18 sides. I have done 5 already.

I loaded up pictures of Martin and from the summer in Singapore on our website (www.joeandjill.ca) and bought a book on digital video - I want to get back into that. It's my version of scrapbooking, without actually having to cut anything.

Happy One Month Birthday Martin!!

Today is Martin's one month birthday. In the Singapore Chinese community that is cause for celebration. It is the end of the mother's confinement period (which I did NOT do) and is usually celebrated by giving out cakes. We will be giving cake gift certificates to my work colleagues and Oliver's teachers.

Martin is over 10 pounds now by my estimation (i.e weigh myself holding Martin then not holding him). He loves nursing, the sling, a clean diaper and lying down. He hates the car seat, stroller, sitting and sleeping straight from 3am to 7am. He's pretty sweet tempered and doesn't cry without reason.We decided to do a nice dinner and have a cake for dessert, too bad Martin couldn't have any. Here we all are. Don't mind me, my hair is wet from swimming.

The lovely card at the beginning of this post was made by my cousin Tracy. She also married a man of Chinese descent and has 2 little boys. I probably haven't seen her in over 20 years, but she sent Martin a lovely gift and card. Tracy, you always have a place to stay in Singapore.

Pictures

No, not the digital kind. I'm taking the old fashioned, framed, and hang on a wall kind. We obviously didn't take all our pictures down to Nassau, but with all our items coming from Toronto we now have tons of pictures.

Now, we do have a lot of wall space, but they are concrete walls, so you need to drill to hang pictures.

Some are no longer our style and some are very outdated (I have a great little picture of Mom and Dad that is probably 20 years old).

So what do you do with them? You can't really donate them - especially the cross-stitch ones that I did that are no longer our style and you can't throw them away. But if you just keep them, then it becomes clutter, and it's not like we have a basement to store these items.

What to do?

Thian Hock Keng Temple

As part of our goal to explore the city during my mat leave, Joe, Martin and I went to Thian Hock Keng Temple last Friday. It's name translates to Temple of Hevely Bliss and is the holdest and most importent Hokkien temple in Singapore. It was built on the shrine to Ma-Chu-Po, the goddess of the sea, which was once the favorite landing point of Chinese sailors. The temple was built in the 1840's and restored in 2000.

It is quite nice, but deserted on a Friday afternoon.

We also walked around Chinatown, and discovered there is a night market. Wonder if it is like Taipei's night market, where they eat snakes!

Pasir Ris Park

On Sunday, we went to Pasir Ris park. It is the third largest park in Singapore. Within the park is a Mangrove forest (which we didn't go to), a garden maze and the most awesome playground I have ever seen.

We had fun in the garden maze, Martin and I went on ahead and Joe and Oliver had to find us. We then went to the playground area. It is 5-6 seperate playground structures, including zip lines, a suspension bridge and a big climbing tower.

And being a national park, the parking is free as well as entry into the park. We will definitely be going back.

What Joe has been up to

In case you haven't read Joe's blog, he's been busy creating websites.

The one nearest and dearest to my heart is the Joe and Jill website. Unfortunately, it is not at it's former glory, but it is a place for me to upload pictures, without having to get Joe to do too much work on it.

The other one, is ExpatExpense. This is a website created by Joe to help people determine their expenses when moving abroad. He only has Singapore and Nassau in right now, but hopes to add a city about every 6 weeks. Any suggestions for places (and help with the cost of living) is appreciated. It is still in testing mode, if you wish to check it out early though, the user name / password is oliver / martin. Joe hopes to generate revenue off the website from the Google Ads.

He's done a nice job with the expense website, and if you like it, please recommend it to your friends!

Website is up!

I've only loaded up pictures of Martin so far.

www.joeandjill.ca

Monday Craft Update

I'm happy to report this week as it was very productive. I finished Martin's cross-stitch samplers! I got an email from Dad prompting me and I got them done on Friday.

Here is the one Grandpa made:

Here is the one I made:

I finished stuffing two knit balls and actually have them gift wrapped. I gave one away and she seemed suitably impressed.

I also did a bit of knitting on the blanket, but I'm losing a bit of steam. I still like doing the cables, but the heat here is not inspiring me. It would be a good blanket for lying on the floor though.

I did a bit of shopping. I bought the cross-stitch threads for making the snowman family. I went digging around today, and was choosing between two cloths. One linen in blue and white, but it is pretty much exactly the right size, and I'm not sure if there would be for framing. So, I've decided to use one that Paulina bought me. It is a hand-dyed linen in blues and greens with silver running through it (so I think it will look like it is snowing). The cloth is really pretty and I almost decided not to use it, but then I thought - what am I saving it for? Plus I have 3 more.

I also bought some yarn - blue, yellow and red, in primary bright colours to make a ball for Martin. I'm bored of the colours I've been making lately (I think I made about 10 balls in the colours I have).

I've dug out the yarn for the blocks and need to do a colour chart to decide what colours to do the blocks.

So a good week, and I'm hoping to start the new cross-stitch this afternoon. And I also hope to get back to the sea animal number cross-stitch and work on it once a week. Yes, I still have the Dragon to pull out, but one thing at a time (ha!). I used to do one project at a time, but Paulina has corrupted me.

And for Joe's craft update - he's found a solution for the website, so I'll work on getting some pictures up.

Friends

I'm happy to say we've started making friends here in Singapore and had a pretty social week.

On Wednesday, I went to lunch with M and her son William. I met M at lunch one day at work. We were both eating at the same restaurant, and she was visibly pregnant (as was I) and I decided to start talking to her. We hit it off, and we had her and her husband over for dinner the next weekend. Her son is about one month older than Martin and is a cutie with a big head of hair.

On Thursday, we had J over. We met her at the Mt. Elizabeth hospital orientation a couple of months ago. I kept in touch with her and C (another pregnant lady I met there - who is friends with J) and did lunch with them several times as we all work downtown. She's due in November.

But we've also made non-pregnant friends. Yesterday we had Sam over to play with Oliver in the morning. He lives in our townhouse complex and came over with his mother. It was really nice.

But the highlight was having Oliver's friend Ashton over. He goes to Oliver's school and is Oliver's best friend. Okay, Oliver will say that Mack the Truck from the movie Cars is his best friend, but Ashton will say that Oliver is his best friend. It is the most social play that I've seen Oliver engage in. Normally, with friends, it's more parallel play, but this was actual playing together. At the end of the night, when it was time for Oliver's bath, Oliver kept saying that "Ashton had to have a bath too", so I let Ashton come in the bath, and Oliver washed Ashton's hair for him. It was really sweet.

And on the existing friends front, we have some friends of ours moving to Singapore in a couple of weeks, they arrive the beginning of October. G will be working at the same place as me. We are very excited about that.

Now if Joe could find a golfing buddy for during the week, all would be good.

Boat Quay & the Merlion

Since I'm on mat leave, Joe and I have decided to take advantage of this time and do some sightseeing when Oliver is in school. Last week we went for lunch down at Boat Quay and went to see the Merlion. This is actually very close to work (we parked at my office building), so Boat Quay isn't new to me, but I hadn't had a good look at the Merlion.

Boat Quay is along the Singapore River and features touristy overpriced restuarants. The food is okay, but certainly not a bargain. But it has a nice air of being on holiday while you are there.

The Merlion is the symbol of Singapore. It is a statue with the head of a lion and the body of a fish and was designed in 1964 for the Singapore Tourist Board. There is also a larger replica on Sentosa Island.

You can see the financial district in the background, I work in the building beside the HSBC building, I'm not sure if you can see the details.

Singapore Sling

Unfortunately, I'm not talking about the drink. Though I'll have to go to the Raffles Hotel one day to have one. I'm talking about a baby sling.

Here I am with Martin in the sling in front of Boat Quay. Joe and I went there for lunch last week. I didn't have a sling for Oliver, as I didn't really need one. However, for Martin it has been working really well.

I bought it, as I don't find Singapore that stroller friendly, and it is difficult in the malls (or at least inconvenient) to use the stroller. Elevators are hard to find, they are often crowded with people that don't really appear to need to use the elevator, and the stoller is bulky to use in crowds.

The sling is surprizingly comfortable, isn't too hot, and when nursing in public, provides some extra privacy.

But I would still like to have the drink the Singapore sling.

Traditional Javenese Post-natal massage

A couple of friends recommended post-natal massage, offered by the Bodywork Clinic. I picked up a brochure at the hospital and about a week after being home gave them a call.

I purchased the basic package which was 8 sessions of 75 minutes of head to toe massage followed by a binding of the Javanese wrap. The masseuse came to my home, and the massage was wonderful. It was a back massage, arm massage, leg massage, and even a head massage! The oils they used were quite strong smelling, and Joe didn't like them so much, but they didn't seem to bother Martin.

The Javanese wrap consisted of a grainy potion rubbed on my belly, and then wrapping it in a long cloth. You leave it on for 4-8 hours. It is supposed to shrink your stomach size, tone up your belly and help you lose weight. The masseuse kept asking me if I thought it was working. Well, I already had lost all the baby weight. Plus I lost quickly with Oliver, so I can't say if the wrap helped or not.

But the massage was wonderful, and I'm going to miss it. I felt so "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" with her coming to my house every day for a massage.

And if you are wondering what Martin did during the massage. He slept.

Further to Moday's post

Last night I sneaked into Oliver's room and took the blocks. It turns out I only need to knit three blocks to spell out Martin's name, I'm only missing the T, R and I. I will then be able to spell Oliver and Martin (well, not the "and").

I was feeling all ambitious this morning, and was going to work on the cross-stitch baby samplers and graph out the letters. For mine, I think I'll do it in metric and for the one Grandpa did, I think I'll do it in Imperial. I also want to stuff the baby balls, as I finished knitting the one last night. And I wanted to pack away all my maternity clothes, as on Oprah last night it was all about decluttering (and if anyone has clutter it is us).

But, I've been lying on the sofa all morning flipping channels. If you have any questions about Elizabeth Hurley, I can answer them, as I just watched "True Hollywood Story" on E!

Monday Craft Update

Well, I actually did some knitting this week. About 4-5 rows on Martin's blanket (which is about an hour of work) and I did 9 out of 12 stripes on a knit ball. I've decided that I don't need naps anymore and instead am going to do crafts.

Now, here are the questions:

1. Should I make Martin knit blocks? If so, I need to order the yarn soon. I'm going to ship it to Joe's parents so they can bring it next month.
2. I have this Christmas cross-stitch, which is a snowman family, with a little snowchild and a snowbaby. I'm seriously considering making it, as it would be our family this year. But would I finish it in time? I would have to drop all other cross-stitch projects (except finishing the baby samplers) and most likely not to do much knitting, including the blocks. Should I do it?

Opinions welcome. I hope Paulina has time to read the blog this week.

Book Review: The Speed of Trust

I bought this book thinking it was written by Stephen Covey of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" fame. It's not, it's written by his son (which if you read the cover carefully, you'll see).

The book is not that great. Trust is defined as character and competence. And then he manages to write 300 pages about it. You just really need to read the first chapter to get the point and then the rest is common sense.

As per the Covey style, it is a lot of leadership quotes, personal stories (which he even borrowed one from his Dad's book and did retell one story a couple of times). It is easy to read, but it is a bit much when he comes up with 13 different elements of trust. But I guess brevity does not sell business books.

I've worked in organizations and with people with high trust and low trust. Obviously, high trust is a much more enjoyable experience. Low trust does breed almost game playing, which unless you are on Survivor, isn't that much fun. Luckily, my close personal relationships (i.e. my family) are extremely high trust relationships, which I guess has made me to be higher on the trust side, as opposed to on the lower side.

What I'd really like to know is why the author isn't running Franklin Covey anymore. That book would be an interesting read.

Go Diego Go!

Last night was probably the best night with Martin since the hospital (the hospital was really easy, as they just brought him to me for nursing and then I pressed a button, and they came and took him back to the nursery). He fell asleep around 10:30, woke at 1:30, 4:30 and 8:00, and was only awake for about 20 minutes each time.

Oliver woke around 8:00 also, calling out, as he usually does "Daytime Mommy! DAYTIME!". I couldn't go as I was nursing Martin, so Joe went. Oliver kept insisting for me, so Martin and I went, where Oliver said "Give Daddy the baby", but I couldn't, so Oliver had a nice big meltdown. But Martin stopped nursing and Oliver stopped crying.

We had a nice morning, watching "Cars" and Joe made crepes. We then headed out to the zoo, as Diego (of Go Diego Go!) fame was supposed to be there. We met up with Jose, Chantal, Alex and Marie for lunch first, at which everyone was well behaved and then went to see Diego. Poor Diego, his head looked really heavy, and he had a very hard time walking. Oliver wouldn't pose for pictures, so we don't really have any. After we watched a Diego episode with crocodiles.

We then went to the water splash pad at the zoo, where Oliver had a great time, until the wind picked up, and the sky turned black. We got Oliver quickly dressed and got us all under shelter as the rain came down. Luckily it didn't last too long (10-15 minutes) and then we headed home.

Oliver then played with his toys, in which he informed me that he wanted to buy Sheriff (from Cars) as he's a "good guy" and he would "like to live with Oliver and all the cars and trucks" as he gestured to all his toys.

Basil made us Hungarian Goulash and coconut bread for dinner which was really nice. Oliver ate like we hadn't fed him in 2 days. Joe gave him his bath, but not before he went pee in the potty standing up like a big boy. He was very pleased with himself, and as he was running around he said "I love you Mommy, I want to kiss you" and he came over to give me a kiss and then said "I want to kiss the baby on the mouth" which he did. So sweet.

He's now in bed reading stories to himself and Martin is asleep downstairs. Once he wakes he'll get his bath and we'll start his nighttime routine.

This is our life. It's pretty nice.

The Culture of the Mall

In Singapore, the shopping mall rules supreme. It is where everything is. Besides the regular stores, the grocery stores are located in the mall. Restaurants are located in the mall. And not just food court restaurants, the nice 5 star restaurants are in the mall.

The malls are also organized by type. For example, Paragon is the high end mall, with Versace, Gucci, etc. United Square is the children's mall, with many children's clothing stores. Sim Lin Square is the IT mall. Or if they carry diverse lines of products, the mall will be organized by floor. For example, at Paragon, the fifth floor has the children's clothing stores as well as Toys R Us. Of course, there are common stores among the malls, the most notable being Cold Storage, which is the grocery store.

The other interesting thing is that nearly all malls have a playground in it. This is great for rainy days. The city of Singapore actually has quite a few public playgrounds, in good shape (there is no graffiti), but since you spend so much time at the mall, or as a way to lure people to your mall, there are playgrounds there. Vivo City actually has a water play area in their playground (it is outdoor).

The malls are quite competitive in terms of trying to get people to come, with many promotions of "spend $50, get a free gift" but we have found that in terms of prices of the actual goods they are pretty much the same wherever you go, so comparison shopping is not needed.

Prices are not as great as we had thought, and there is 7% GST (I think it's 7% maybe 6%), but selection and sheer volume certainly beats Nassau.

Oliver & Martin

Do you think they look alike?

Oliver:
Martin:
Well, all newborns look alike.

Martin has grey eyes for now, Oliver's were always brown. I'm sure Martin's will darken with time though. But would it be striking if they didn't? Oliver has dimples, Martin doesn't.

But they are both the sweetest babies. We are so blessed.

Some pictures

I've emailed some pictures to family, but here are some for the rest of you.

The men in my life:
And here is Martin hanging out in the play gym Auntie Lana bought Oliver. Poor Martin, it's a lot of hand-me downs he'll be getting. Ah well, such is life.

Here Comes the Rain again

falling on my head like a memory....

It rains in Singapore A LOT. Like almost every day a lot. Usually in the morning. Right now (it's about 1:00pm - messing up my theory) it is pouring rain. Underwear soaking if outside for 0.05 seconds, pouring. Thunder and lightening. Now, this kind of weather is nice once in a while, but almost every day, gets a bit old. Plus it is cloudy here a lot.

There are advantages to living in the tropics (besides dengue fever). We never have to deal with jackets, sweaters, pants or frankly socks. Joe keeps saying that he likes wearing his slip on sandals all the time (apparently tying up shoes is a hardship for him).

But I miss the sunshine and blue sky. Though when it comes out, it is freakin' hot. Although its freakin' hot when the sun isn't out.

In fact, the other day, Oliver said he could not go swimming because it was not cloudy. Apparently he can only swim on cloudy days.

Sigh, I miss Nassau weather. It was really ideal. Joe and I have agreed that we will retire in the tropics - either the Tropic of Cancer or the Tropic of Capricorn. Not the equator.

But don't worry, I won't post complaining about the heat in January and February. I know that would just be cruel.

Monday Craft Update

Well, there is no craft update, as I did nothing this week, so I thought I'd post a list of the 2007 and beyond projects.

Projects to be completed before September (ha ha!):

• Cross Stitch Baby Sampler for Martin

• Just need to fill in the name and details
• Need to do name on Grandpa's also
  

• Knit baby blanket for Martin
• About 50% done
  

• Knit balls (various people)
• One done knitting, just needs stuffing.
  

• Website - label all Oliver pictures

Projects to be completed in 2007:

• Cross Stitch Christmas ornament for Paulina
• Knit Toy
• Videos - bring all videos up to date
  

Ongoing projects:

• Teresa Wetzler Dragon
• Cross-stitch ocean numbers
• Crochet Pooh Bear
  

2007 Completed Projects

• Knit hat for Brent
• Knit baby blanket for Lianne
• At least one knit ball
  

Book Review: I'll Love You Forever

This is a children's book. I don't know where we got it from, but we recently discovered it with our move. Unfortunately Oliver really likes it. I say unfortunately as I'm a blubbering mess when I read it. I have yet to make it through the book without crying.

And frankly, the book turns creepy in the middle of it, making it that much more embarrassing. The main refrain of the book is "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be" and the mother says this to her child. She sneaks into his room at night and picks him up. Cute when he is a baby, and a toddler. Okay when he's nine. Getting a bit odd that she picks him up when he is a teenager. Down right creepy when she drives across town with a ladder on her car and breaks into his house at night (plus she's super strong as she can lift her grown son in her lap while he is asleep).

But I am still a blubbering mess reading it.

Today when changing Oliver's diaper, he said "thank you Mommy" for changing him. I said "you are welcome", Joe piped up that Oliver will have to do it for us when we are old. Oliver responded "When Mommy old, I change Mommy's underwear when it is poopy". Where is the video camera when you need it?

Quick update

Sorry I haven't responded to any emails. My goal is to start next week. This week has been crazy, with being Martin's first week home, plus Oliver has had a touch of the stomach flu, so he was home from school 3 out of 5 days. So I never get any time to sit down and type.

I also apologize about pictures. We do have some pretty nice ones, and Joe now has found a hosting solution so hopefully the website will be back up soon. In the meantime, I'll get Joe to download some pictures and I'll email some.

Martin is an excellent baby, he nurses well and quickly, and falls asleep pretty well on his own. He has a couple of wakeful periods in the day, during which time I try and do some tummy time as well as playing (i.e. staring) at toys. We also try and get him outside once a day.

Oliver is in excellent spirits despite having a bit of the stomach flu. He is the best sick person I know. He's adjusting to Martin, but there have been some meltdowns. We are learning as we go.

All About How it's going

Hmm, I think I'm going to have to stop my "All About" titles, I'm having a hard time coming up with them.

Martin is settling into a routine of sorts. He sleeps about 2 hours at a time, sometimes only 90 minutes at night. Luckily he nurses quite fast, and he's only up for about 20 minutes, time for a change and a nurse. We didn't swaddle him last night, and he slept the exact same pattern, so I think no swaddling for him. We are terrible at it, and it just causes everyone frustration.

Oliver was a bit under the weather yesterday, so he stayed home. He's quite clingy to me, and last night and this morning I think he started suffering from "Martin in here to stay" syndrome. But Joe was able to feed him breakfast as I had a shower.

We are off today for mine and Martin's checkup. And get this, I'm not wearing mat clothes!! I'm wearing my jean skirt (which is normally big in the waist as all skirts are) and a normal tshirt. I'm looking good in fact (I got to do my hair - what a difference in mood to have your hair look good). Well, I just heard Joe and Oliver go off to school, so I'm going down to eat breakfast!!

I'll update later with Martin's doc appointment.

UPDATE:

Doc appointment was good, even though it was 45 minutes late. She kept saying Martin is a beautiful baby, so we have it as medical fact! I can't recall his weight, but it's above his birth weight. But the odd thing is, they measured him with his clothes and diaper on. Martin is thriving, input and output are really good, and she said she doesn't need to see him until his one month appointment.

Once I get the weight from Joe, I'll update it here.

Monday Craft Update - August 20

Well, not too much to report. Did about 8 rows on Martin's blanket before his arrival. Including the night I was in labour and didn't know it! At hospital knit one stripe of a baby ball.

Probably won't do much this week as every free minute will be taken up by sleep!

Paulina's update much better, with a very beautiful page.

Movie Review: Finding Nemo

I realize this isn't a "new" movie, but we recently introduced it to Oliver. He likes it quite a bit, not as much as Cars, but frankly, nothing would. I was worried he would be scared by the barracuda at the beginning and Bruce the Shark, but he wasn't.

As I'm sure you have all seen the movie, I won't go into what it is about. I find the colours in the movie just beautiful.

So I recommend it to your 2.5 year old (if you have one!).

All about Hormones

Last night was a bit rough. Multiple wakings, lots of nursing. I've since read that his nursing level is quite normal. As Oliver didn't nurse at first, and frankly I had to wake him for feedings, this was a change.

Today was better though, until about 5:00. I just started crying and I didn't know why. I didn't stop crying until around 7:00.

My milk is in, and apparently flushing out the hormones at the same time. Again, I remember being a bit teary with Oliver, mostly from frustration over nursing, but nothing like his. Hmm, maybe I had quick baby blues to go with my quick labour.

All About the First Day Home

We (Martin & I) signed out of the hospital today. He's been doing pretty well at home. He is nursing like a champ - maybe too much of a champ, he seems to do little feeds of about 10 minutes (of good solid nursing) then falls asleep and awakes around 90 minutes later for more. Or else I'm misinterpreting signs (which is entirely possible). But he's been asleep since about 6:00 now (it is now 8:00) but he has been constantly held. Oh well, they say you can't spoil a newborn.

I'm a bit confused how to dress him. It's quite warm here. In the hospital, they only had him in a diaper shirt and swaddled him. No hat. So I've been doing the same. Martin seems to enjoy being swaddled, though he is loose right now.

Oliver was really good today. He was happy to see me (I was a bit worried about that), and I played with him some. He didn't get jealous when I nursed Martin, and luckily Martin slept right through Oliver's bedtime routine so I got to do that. Martin is sleeping on Joe right now, and I think Joe is asleep also!! Once Martin awakes, we'll give him his bath and then try to get him settled for the night.

Wish us luck.

All About Martin Daniel

Had the baby. Super fast labour. Started at 4am, delivered at 5:43am.
Martin Daniel
8.0 lb, 3.63 kg
52 cm
Singapore, August 15, 2007

This blog may not be for the faint of heart. Its Martin's birth story. If not for you just scroll past the text to the picture.

I lost my mucous plug around 8pm on Tuesday night. I decided that this would be a good time to get caught up on Y&R. In preparation, I put a shower curtain under my sheets.

I awoke around 1:00 for the usual pee break. I awoke again around 3:45 with a mild contraction. I've been having those for a while, Braxton-Hicks is what they are called. The next contraction was at 4:00, stronger but not bad. Then I just felt like I had to be on the toilet the entire time. I kept waiting for my water to break but it didn't happen.

At 430ish I decided we should go to the hospital as I wanted drugs. We arrived 15 min later, I was in total pain starting to panic. They checked me out, I was already 8-9 cm dilated!! No epidural for me.

They did give me gas, which helped. It was probably the concentrating on breathing that really did it.

Doctor came, and I really wanted to push. Water broke. 2 pushes later out came the head, one more for the body and Martin Daniel was born. Joe said he was quite blue but he pinked up nicely and looks quite good for a newborn.

He was born at 5:43, so you can see how fast that was.

He has already nursed and did it like a champ. He's sleeping right now and so should I.

Here are some pictures of the little guy. Handsome isn't he?

All about Nothing

Still here. Still gestating.

Monday Craft update - August 13

Victory is mine! I beat Baby ToBe.

I found the thread to be very knotty. I almost had a knot in every single thread, so I was forever undoing knots, or I just left them in. I don't know if it is my technique or poor thread.

Back to knitting the baby blanket. I did about 4 rows. Its been a while since I worked on it, so I have to re-memorize the pattern.

Course, Paulina had to upstage me this week and finish a sweater, but I'm very pleased with myself for beating the baby for this project at least.

All about Knitting Needles

So, I'm back to knitting a baby blanket, that the baby will have no use for. Oh well, it has cables, and I always wanted to learn how to do cables. I really like them, pretty fun. However, they work better when you "throw" the yarn instead of "pick" the yarn for your knitting style.

The blanket is on circular needles, as most blankets are. I'm using Addi Turbo which are supposed to be quite good. Honestly I don't really like circular needles, I don't think it's anything against the brand, as I don't like other brands of circular needles. I find that you are constantly pulling the knitting along, it invariably doesn't slide that well, plus I don't like the way that the loops are so big compared to the string (or whatever the wire is called that makes knitting needles circular). But you gotta do what you gotta do.

I'll use straight whenever I can.

And yes, my next post (which will be the Monday craft one, will be the "Victory is Mine" post).

Movie Review: Cars

Joe bought Oliver the Disney/Pixar movie Cars. Well, as one could expect with my little future gearhead, Oliver just loves the movie.

But actually, it is a pretty good movie. I'm sure the jokes would be even funnier if you followed Nascar, and knew some of the in jokes.

It is a very good preschooler movie, in that there are no scary scenes, lots of jokes for the kids, and well, it's about CARS. I think the first time we watched it, he sat through the entire movie without moving. Now, he'll get up after a bit and go play, but he likes having it on in the background.

As Joe says, the movie has it all, a hero, who needs to reform his ways, a love story and beautiful scenery. If you watch it, make sure to watch the credits also, they are pretty funny.

All About Baby ToBe

Had another doctor's appointment today. Apparently the baby's head has dropped. It's funny, with Oliver, he was sitting a lot more on my pelvis that this one. I could barely turn over in bed. This baby likes to kick me in the rib cage, but I do think it is a bit lower now.

Doctor doesn't understand why I want to work at home from now on. She said, if you go into labour at work, you'll have 20 people to help you get to the hospital. Umm, thanks but no thanks. She did say if I wanted to try and get labour started she'd do a sweep for me, but I hear they hurt. To which she replied "not as much as labour". I asked for an epidural right now, but she said no.

Oliver was one week early, and she said I could expect the same, so that would make this baby's due date on Wednesday. But just you watch, I'll be late with this one!!

Today, Oliver was saying "When the baby get bigger, I share my toys with the baby.". Isn't he sweet. And I'm writing it down, to show him, when he won't share. ;)

Some information on the baby at 38 weeks (ignore gender references):
Your baby has really plumped up. She weighs between 6 and 7 1/2 pounds (boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls), and she's nearly 20 inches long. She has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold her hand for the first time! Her organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.

Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? (No, they will be brown. The only thing is will they be black like Joe's and Kate's or brown like Oliver's.) You may not be able to tell right away. If she's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If she's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time she's 9 months old. That's because a child's irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after she's born, but they won't get "lighter" or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.)

Happy 42nd Birthday Singapore!!

Today is the 42nd birthday of Singapore. We did nothing special for it (except stay home from work and school).

This year, the National Day Parade (NDP) is being held on the water. I believe it's because the old stadium was torn down. The view actually would be perfect from my office, but we didn't go.

Here is some information from Wikipedia, copied without permission.

The National Day Parade (Abbreviation: NDP, Simplified Chinese: 国庆庆典, Malay: Perbarisan Hari Kebangsaan) is a national ceremony in Singapore that, as its name implies, includes a parade on Singapore's national day on August 9, in commemoration of Singapore's independence that is usually held in the Singapore National Stadium, Padang. For the first time in 2007, it will be held in Marina Bay and future NDP will be held here until the new sports hub is completed around 2011.

• The 1968 parade was held during the monsoon season. Some participants and spectators in this parade discussed this issue after the National Day Rally Speech in 2005.
• Princess Alexandra was the special guest of the 1969 parade, which not only celebrated Singapore's 4th birthday, but also celebrated the 150th anniversary of the founding of Singapore.
• Songs for Singapore were first commissioned in 1984, beginning with "Stand Up for Singapore".
• A major change in concept to the NDP was made in 1986. Celebrating Singapore's 21 years of independence, the parade was held in the evening for the first time at the National Stadium. That year also saw the debut of flashlights for audience participation, and grand finale fireworks, following the theme song for that year, "Count On Me Singapore". A large national flag was formed by 7,000 students at the National Stadium, dressed in red and white. Since then, all parades were held from dusk to night, in exception to the parades in 1989 and 1990.
• The Presidential Gun Salute was fired inside the National Stadium in 1994 & 1997.
• The music video of the theme song for the 1999 parade, "Together", was shot by Hong Kong director Tsui Hark, who captured Singapore's multi-racial harmony.
• Flashlights were designed like mobile phones for the first time in the 2004 parade.
• The funpacks in 2005 and 2006 were designed by students from Temasek Polytechnic.
• The National Stadium hosted the NDP for the very last time in 2006. To pay its tribute, the giant cauldron was lit up in the stadium.
• Four guns were used for the Presidential Gun Salute in 2006, instead of the traditional six, due to space constraints as a part of the stadium site had been converted to a car park.
• Apache attack helicopters made a debut in the 2006 parade.
• SAR 21 was being used by the Guard-of-Honour Contigents for the first time in the 2006 parade.
• The 2007 parade will be held for the first time at Marina Bay.
• The 2007 parade will see the largest orchestra ever put together. Made up of 240 musicians from the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra,Malay and Indian Ensembles and the SAF Central Band.

Actually, I just heard the fireworks, but couldn't see them. We did hear the jet fighters go overhead.

Two weeks ago, Joe and I were out for dinner, we saw a firework display, which I think was practice for the NDP.

For all the details on the celebration, click here.

All About Hooky

So on Tuesday I decided to play hooky. Well, not really, as I did tell the boss and took a vacation day. Oliver had a birthday party at 3:00, so I decided I would take a day off work so I could attend.

It was a pretty busy day though, Joe and I went shopping to two different malls (missing our exit to one mall, which involved some sniping in the car at each other). We ate lunch at Din Tai ?? something. It's a Taiwanese chain and has really good wonton soup.

The birthday party was good, but Oliver is like his mommy, and is sometimes intimidated by the big kids. There was a bouncy castle, and I really had to convince Oliver to go in it. Like the birthday party the other week, he didn't really want to go in because there were "too many kids". I was the only parent/adult who sat at the edge of the bouncy castle and Oliver would keep running to me.

The kids went swimming. I was the only adult that went in the pool (and hence, didn't really talk to any adults). But I'm big and hot all the time, and frankly, I have a fun time with kids. Even when there are "too many kids".

Back to my theme of hooky, Friday will be my last day in the office. I'm going to start working from home next week.

Movie Review: Sicko

We watched Sicko the other night. I do enjoy the Michael Moore films, but I knew this one would be slamming the insurance industry, so I went in a bit more cautiously.

I thought the movie was good. I had to laugh a little bit about the line about insurance companies profiting off of people's health, and how that wasn't right. Just so you know, insurance companies can profit off of people's death's as well. For life insurance, we want you to live forever (vampires would be the perfect insured). For annuities, we want the payments to stop as soon as possible (fruit flies would be the perfect the annuitants).

Back on point, the US is the only G8 country with a privatized medical system. There is of course, a lot of resistance to moving to "socialized" medicine within the US, particularly by those who would lose out financially (i.e. insurers, medical providers, etc.).

We have lived now in both public (Canada) and private (Bahamas, Singapore) health care systems. Honestly, if something were to happen to us, we would most likely move back to Canada, so that your tax dollars could take care of us.

The movie was good, not a balanced point of view, as the movie kept referring to health care as "free". Which it is not, it is paid for by tax dollars. But health care costs as a percentage of GDP are the highest in the US. That mostly is due to the inefficiency caused by administration of all the insurance companies. In the public system, one payer (the government), one form.

Monday Craft update

Did tons of cross-stitching this week. I completed the crab square, so all the sea animals are stitched. I've brought the border around, so I only have 1/4 of the border left, plus the order that goes around the name. Maybe if the baby holds out for another week, I might have it all done except the name and details.

All About Oliver

I was thinking, I don't want to post, as I sound like I'm bragging, but then I thought, it's my blog, I'll post what I want. Besides, it's mostly family that reads anyway.

Oliver was so good this weekend. On Saturday night, we had friends over for dinner. They brought their children, who are 4 and 2 1/2 (i.e. same age as Oliver). During dinner, the kids ate at the small kids table. Oliver sat and ate and ate. He didn't ask to be fed, he didn't get up once, nothing, he just sat and ate. The kids had so much fun together playing too. Oliver didn't get mad about anyone touching his toys, nothing.

Tonight we went out for an adult dinner with another couple. He was so well behaved at the restaurant. He played quietly until the food came. He ate all his food (he was like an eating machine) and after dinner, even though it was already 8:00, he sat quietly (and watched the Cars movie Joe put on his Palm). You seriously could not ask for a better behaved child at the dinner.

All about Stemcord blood

Eew, that's kind of an icky heading. Anyways, we have signed up to have Baby ToBe's cord blood banked. After the initial fee, it's only $200 a year, so not very much. Of course, like insurance, you hope you never ever have to use it.

We decided to do it, even though we didn't do it for Oliver. For Oliver, it was never mentioned, and we would have had the blood banked in Florida. If you gave birth on a weekend, you couldn't even do it as FedEx doesn't pick up on the weekend. So we never really explored the possibility.

Here, when we attended the hospital tour, there was a talk on it. While the technology for using the cord blood is really still in it's infancy, there is a lot of potential. In addition, finding matching cord blood for mixed racial couples is difficult. There is also a good chance, that Oliver could use the blood. Again, we hope that will never happen.

What's interesting is that there are stem cells in other parts of the body, your bone marrow and your actual blood have it too. But cord blood is considered the best, as it is the richest in nutrients (or something) and hasn't been exposed to chemo, etc.

We are pretty happy with our decision to bank the blood. Let's hope it's one of our biggest waste of money.

All About Baby ToBe

Well, had my weekly visit today. I asked for an u/s picture, as I was thinking I could scan it for you, but the baby is really to big for that now. The doctor thinks anytime in the next 10 days. Just watch, I'll be late with this one.

She didn't really give me any stats on the baby this time. Still doing well. Lots of movement. In the proper place (head down and dropped). The baby doesn't feel as low as Oliver did, as I had a lot of pressure on my pelvis with him. This one likes to kick me in the rib cage. I actually think I have a bruise inside!

We are going tomorrow to learn about the storage of the cord blood, so no baby tonight please!! Guess what tomorrow's blog will be about?

All about August 2, 1969

On August 2, 1969:

• President Nixon visited Romania
• Bob Dylan makes surprise appearance at Hibbing HS Minnesota 10th reunion
• The Grateful Dead play live at Family Dog at the Great Highway (whatever that means)

but I know two people who weren't able to make it to the concerts, or to Romania with President Nixon.

Garry and Sandra were too busy tying the knot in Williamstown, Ontario.

Garry, a tall lanky fellow from Saskatchewan, with Buddy Holly glasses, but none of the coolness, met Sandra, a pretty nurse in training in Ontario, when he was in Ontario as part of belonging to the Armed Forces. I don't know much about their dating history, except their first double date wasn't with each other!

Both are from farming families. Garry's family were prairie farmers, and Sandra's family were more dairy farmers. Apparently when Garry's dad saw Sandra's family farm, he exclaimed "I couldn't even turn my tractor around on it!". Ahh, but Sandra's family farm had something that Garry's didn't. Maple sugar trees. Mmmm, maple syrup.

For their honeymoon, they took a cruise down the St. Lawrence. Ahh, young romance, what could be better. I know - staying married for (wait, I need the calculator) 38 years!!! That's almost as long as Paulina's been alive (tee hee!). And thanks to their positive role model of a marriage (as well as Joe's parents for being married over 40 years), the chance of me getting a divorce is statistically decreased. Thanks!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!

Book Review: Phantom

Phantom is book 10 of the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. I have the complete series in paperback (and I wonder why we have so much junk!).

I have enjoyed this series quite a bit, but this book isn't the greatest. The big finale war is coming, so it was a lot of war, torture, etc type of action in this book. I prefer when things are a bit more lighthearted. But the book promises that the next one is the last one, and I see that hardcover is to come out in November, so probably another year for paperback. My favorite books from this series was probably the first one, "Wizard's First Rule" and one mid series "Faith of the Fallen".

But that said, I read the entire book in under a week, and it was nice to read something that wasn't a parenting book, a business book or something related to work. It was a page turner.

I've read fantasy (not science fiction) for a long time now. I started with Anne McCaffrey and the Dragonriders of Pern. In fact, in grade six or seven we had to do a book report, I asked the teacher if I could do mine on a trilogy! Gee, I wonder why I wasn't popular.

Most fantasy novels share several themes, all going back to Toilken:

• There must be magic.
• Low technology (usually around the middle ages)
• There is a build up to an epic battle.
• Usually the "Keeper", which is basically the devil, is holed up in the mountain.
• The hero (almost always male - hmm, maybe I should write one with the female hero) falls into the role and is reluctant to do it.
• The hero will fall in love.
• There are wizards and witches, usually both evil and good ones.

Another series that I'm reading (which it feels like it will never end) is the Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time series. It is starting to drag. I think one 800 page book only advanced the plot on week, as there are 5 main characters he follows. But I'll stick with it (even though I'm pretty sure the good guys will win).

Book Review: Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child

I bought this book probably about 6-8 months ago, when I was having problems getting Oliver to go to sleep on his own. I had previously nursed him to sleep and then when we stopped nursing, I would lie with him until he fell asleep. Once asleep, Oliver would stay asleep, so luckily we never had any problems that way.

But my laying with him was keeping him awake, but yet if I tried to go, he would want me to stay. So I bought this book, and skipped ahead to the 2 year old section. Basically, he advocates "cry it out" or as I sometimes call it the "Nanny 911" technique. For the first night, Oliver would get out of bed. I would put him back in with no commentary, no hugs, not even really looking at him. This went on for about 30 minutes, including him saying at one point "Oliver needs a mommy!" (can you tell it still scars to this day?). The next night, he didn't get out of bed as much, and in fact cried for Daddy. The night after, he went to sleep right away, on his own. Just like the book and Nanny 911 said, it took 3 nights.

His sleeping was really good for a long time, even during our trip to Canada it was good. But it fell apart a bit in Singapore, so I had to do the training again. But this time I knew it would only take 3 nights. And it did.

I read more of the book recently to prepare for the baby. I found the opening chapters of the book, to be frankly, a bit preachy. Every problem your child has is related to a lack of sleep (I'm sure if I was reading Healthy Eating Habits, every problem would be due to lack of nutrition). For the 1-4 month stage, he basically says, do whatever you have to do to get the baby to sleep. You can let them fall asleep nursing if that is what works.

It will be interesting to see how Baby ToBe will be compared to Oliver. I know, I know, you aren't supposed to compare. Oliver is a pretty good sleeper, once asleep. I hope this next child will be too.

Monday Craft update

Pretty good week. Did probably an hour every day.

For cross-stitch, I completed the crab, the green border around the crab, and approximately 50% of the crab background.

For knitting, I completed stitching the pink and gold ball but I need to stuff it and sew it together.

I did give the other ball I finished this weekend to the parents, and they seemed suitably impressed. To which I go all "oh shucks, it was nothing", but on the inside I'm loving it.

All about Silliness

Oliver is a pretty silly guy.

Here are some funny pictures of him.This one, he put the diaper on his head himself, I had nothing to do with it, except yelling for Joe to come and take a picture.Here he is trying out his new snorkeling equipment.Here he is in front of his train table (he actually is there right now too!).Thanks for looking!!

All About Baby ToBe

I had another doctor's appointment today. The baby is measuring 2.7 kg (almost 6 lbs!) and is doing well. I'm weighing in at 155 lbs, which I think is probably around a 20 lb weight gain, so I'm pretty pleased about that. I'm pretty much all belly.

Joe's been trying to convince me to leave work before going into labour. I spoke to the doctor about it, but she looked at me like I had two heads, and said "what would you do if you left work early?", to which I replied "knit". Which I think shocked her, as I don't think she's met a knitter yet. Oh well, wait until I show up knitting at the hospital!!

I've registered at the hospital, and we've bought some baby supplies (diapers, wipes, an adapter for my pump, freezer bags for milk, diaper cream) and we have set up the bassinet in our room. The crib still needs to be set up, and the room organized, but Basilia has washed all the clothes and toys.

Here is a picture, probably about 2 weeks old. I don't know why it is sideways. It looks fine in the saved file. Yes, that's Oliver's head right there.
And here is one with my favorite toddler (again - if you know how to turn the picture in blog, let me know!)


Here is some information about pregnancy at 36 weeks. Ignore all the references to "she", we don't know the gender.

Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds and is a little under 19 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement.

At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely she's in a head-down position.

All about the Jurong Bird Park

Several weeks ago we went to the Jurong Bird Park. We had heard a lot of good things about it. While it was good, it perhaps didn't live up to the hype, but it was terribly hot the day we went.

There is a large variety of birds, and the park is very nicely laid out.

The main attraction is the 2-hectare waterfall aviary, with the highest man made waterfall at 30 meters. The funny thing is that they even have fog machines to make it more like a tropical jungle (as if Singapore needs help - the place is a tropical jungle). Here is a picture of the fake fog, just so you can see it. I can't get Google to load up any other pictures. Sorry.