Strange Machines

Kitten models a felted flower headband I made for her

It’s been an interesting pregnancy to say the least. And I have not been myself. Much.

Hang upside down and I still upchuck my food, I cry at a drop of a hat, and I wilt under the hot sun. I worry unnecessarily, eat too much junk, and can’t walk round the zoo anymore. Very not me.

Still, my dear friends and family take me and Wolf out and cheer me much. Today my sweet friend Carol buoyed me with a lovely story of how she rescued a turtle from being cooked in a Hong Kong restaurant.

I feel distinctly hippo-like although I have been told I look “compact” (by strangers largely). Friends and family have told me I look much bigger. I’ve gained 16kg and as of 33 weeks, my baby girl is 2.1kg. A good weight, the doctor says. She’s growing well.

After a meal I feel like throwing up. Yes, even in the third trimester. My back hurts constantly. My pelvis feels like an elephant is sitting on it. I move like one too. And that awful insomnia is back. Doesn’t help that Wolf senses baby is coming and has been waking up more often at night for milk.

The thought of an epidural frightens me some still. I’d be lying if I wasn’t feeling a little eww about THAT CUT again. The prospect of a potential C-section is terrifying. The indignity of the enema is well, undignified. Thing about labour is no one can predict what it will be.

Still, I’m looking forward to the birth in 6 weeks (plus, minus). Of meeting this little girl who has been growing inside me and hoping real hard all the stress from the whole pregnancy won’t have affected her, nor the potential poisons – pollution, smoke, pesticides, etc – I have unintentionally exposed her to.

I hope she’ll have the resilience of my mother, the memory (literally – he has a memory like a computer) and reliability of my father, the different smarts of her parents, her Daddy’s charm and steadfastness, my nose, and my mother’s eyes. She has the prettiest eyes in my whole family.

And Wolf? He’s growing like a weed. 1m tall already. A genius with the iTouch. He spies the new games I download for him in a flash. Last night he discovered a yoga app I downloaded for myself and proceeded to copy its moves. His Dad and I had a ball of a time watching and instructing him. He continued his yoga practice this morning. :p

He’s sweet, smart, funny, and a sheer delight to be with. He’s the reason why I decided to have a second. Ready for his sister (somewhat), he is prepared to share only one boob with her and has agreed to allow her to sit on his lap while nursing.

It is going to be an interesting 6 weeks to come.

Yes, I have been spending a LOT of time on my iTouch and really, it is a superb concept. Wolf, meanwhile, has dubbed it HIS computer and much of my time is spent finding really fun apps for him to play on them.

So are the ones I think are best in no particular order:

(Note – fastest way to find these apps – open your iTunes and type the names into the Search field.)

1. Preschool Adventure

This is the one that sealed the deal for me. I looked at it at the Apple Store and thought, this would be a perfect app for Wolf. Aside from being unbelievably cute, it is also very educational. It teaches shapes, colours, body parts, and animals. Must-get for every parent with a child.

2. Peekaboo Barn

Kids love playing peekaboo and this game opens with a red barn where an animal is hidden behind the doors and it makes a sound. Guess what it is. The sweetest part is when the sun sets and everyone goes to sleep. A little girl says, shh…

3. The Little Red Hen

Lovely story book read by a little girl in English, Spanish, and Cantonese. The animated and interactive characters make it a super fun adventure for your child. Wolf adores this app. Looking forward to more from this developer.

4. First Words: Animals (and First Words: Vehicles)

They teach spelling very interactively. Your child can simply pop the letters into the grayed boxes and it is spelt and read out when all are fitted. Cute and fun! Keeps Wolf busy every morning.

5. ABC Animals

This very nice app teaches children how to write the alphabet by tracing it on the iTouch. Both the caps and the small letters. Wolf writes H beautifully now. Working on the rest.

6. Hidden Expedition

Although this game is really more for adults, Wolf took to it like a duck in water. His vocab really increased while playing this find-the-hidden-object game. Worth every penny. I had fun too.

7. Animatch (and every other matching game)

Animatch is special cos the animals are really cute (says Wolf who adores the cat) and make a sound when clicked. But still, all matching games are fun and educational for kids as they train their memory. Good for reminding Mom where she left her keys.

8. ICDL

ICDL, which is lovely and free, has 4 illustrated stories which you can read to your child. The funnest is definitely Waldo at the Zoo. For some arcane reason, Wolf loves The Three Little Pigs. This is the PG version. I have to water it down for him.

9. Ike the Inventor

This app is amazing. Your child can play inventor and put together a tractor, iron, television, video camera, and many more things from the raw materials hung in the workshop from blueprints of that object. It teaches your child how to read a blueprint and also have fun making things and seeing them work!

10.Wild Animals (and Fruits, and now Puppies)

A fun series of jigsaw puzzles for kids. You can choose between 9, 16, or 25 pieces and you get a yay or nay when the piece is wrong or right. Encouraging and fun for all children. Wolf spent hours playing with these.

11. Match Magic

A regular “draw a line to match two similar objects from 2 vertical rows” app but with a cheerleading team. One of the sweetest little girl’s voices encourages and cheers whenever you make a correct match or an encouraging “it’s okay” or “try again” when a wrong match has been made. Lovely for children learning shapes, numbers, pictures, and colours. One of Wolf’s favourites.

12. iTykes FP (Finger Painting)

We have tried a few and found this one the simplest to use. Wolf has made many drawings proudly captured by Mom with a two button click, saved in the Photo album.

It appears that I’ll be shopping even less after my little girl is born. Already Wolf howls for me to carry him after lunch and I get nothing done. Hence, on the nights that I can actually stay up to surf, I do my shopping, surfing, idling online.

Friend of mine pointed me to this site, noting my complaints about my skin (which allegedly looks fine since I’ve been too lazy to moisturise and have been washing with organic soap. She even blasphemed to implicate that I might have acne. Right.

So I headed over to this skiniD site, which is by Neutrogena by the way (so it can’t go that wrong), where they do personal evaluations – a painless 20 step one I must add – and offer an Acne Solution or more aptly named SkinID Acne Treatment, that is, a few products based on your skin type, habits, and lifestyle.

Pretty neat and fun and decently priced at $40 for the 3 products they recommended. Always wanted to try wipes.

I like that they put the ingredient list plain on the round up so you can decide if you want to get them. I’ve always liked Neutrogena stuff and give them huge kudos for offering fragrance-free products. Go check it out. Hayden’s on the landing page.

During this downturn we are looking to buy another home, maybe to rent out, maybe to stay. With two kids it is tempting to move, especially if number 2 is a girl.

Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time in Wolf’s godparents’ homes, both of which are extremely tastefully decorated with contemporary furniture and modern furniture, respectively. They are both designers by trade.

The hubby and I are more fans of European furniture, hence our current home is very Mediterranean in style with cave-like walls and wooden fittings and fixtures. Still, modern design has its pluses. It is bright, clean, and largely cheerful.

On hindsight, I think I’d like my bedroom to be styled Mediterranean while living areas are modern. That will give the best of both worlds.

With the current global economic crisis looming, it is a great time to pick a new home and renovate it at heavily discounted prices. 2009 is it.

My smart hubby (he doesn’t read this blog so I know I’m not just buttering him) said this 2 years ago but no one listened. Not even me when I rushed out to buy Google shares amid promises they’d hit 1000. So he found this for me to watch.

Watch all 5. Ok I confess I made it through 1 and 2 only but I got the idea. The world economy is a pack of dominoes, leveraging on money that doesn’t exist. The dominoes have begun to fall.

Basically, a serious recession is imminent. So keep cash, sit tight and wait for everything to crash. Then buy blue chip stocks and/or well-located properties.

If you have money in funds or worse, structured products, cash out. Those products may go bankrupt like Lehman Bros (et tu Lehman!) and you get nothing, plus don’t forget these guys charge you 2-7% a year service fee for investing your money badly.

5 years of badly managed funds can cost you an average of a 25% loss and that is not compounded, just my guestimate. So the alleged 8% yield (non-guaranteed of course) – in reality, more like 2.5% – is a joke.

2.5% – 5% = -2.5%

No wonder most funds lose their clients’ money. And that is during good times!

So cash out. At least now you get back your 50% (the other 50% lost now), which held and invested in blue chips or property, in 5-10 years, depending on recovery, you’ll make easily 80-90% (that’s a bet 30-40% gain anyhow).

Stocks and property are one-fee transactions (note: properties have annual taxes, and some have maintenance fees but that is worth the rental income plus capital appreciation). Charge when you buy and charge when you sell. No silly annual fees for doing nothing. And the beauty of being able to hold it till you’re ready to sell without worrying about compounding costs of simply holding it.

The market has fallen some 30-60% since last year and there’s still a good way to go. So spend less, save some money, and wait. Patience favours the wise investor.

The moment I read that plants can remove household chemicals from the air, I went and Googled which ones. Turns out the Areca Palm, Lady Palm, Bamboo Palm, Dracaena (“Janet Craig”), and English Ivy are the top rated house plants among 50 that can purify your air. This comes from a scientific source, Dr B.C. Wolverton who published the must-have book How to Grow Fresh Air.

Now, since we are a multi-cat household, I have to make sure that the plants are safe in case the cats decide to chew on them. I Googled and cross-checked the safe plant list from the plant sciences department at UC Davis and printed that out.

Then I acquired a copy of Wolverton’s book and pored through it. It is worth buying as it tells you how to care for the plants too as well as the crucial which plant removes which chemicals better (aha!). Important for well-intentioned brown-thumbed people like myself who can kill cactuses (my 2 are dead) and have a memory made of cheese. Anyway, I got mine off Amazon but Kinokuniya sells it too (they brought it in too late and I got impatient).

Armed with all the information, I consulted my godmother, who can keep bonsais alive without watering them (evidently she got all the gardening talent in the family) and she told me to buy the plants from the nursery or Ikea. Pouncing on the opportunity to spend nagless hours at the nursery, she volunteered to take us to Far East Flora and in a win-win afternoon, we browsed to our hearts’ content while my godpa wheeled a thrilled Wolf around in the plant carts.

That day I picked an Areca Palm, Boston Fern, Basil and Mint (to ward off the flies who love the kids’ poo pans), and a Janet Craig plus 2 cactuses which are dead now. So are my orchids. Okay, that’s another story.

But anyway, not long after, I went to Ikea and picked up another Janet (the one plant that is flourishing), Areca Palm (which Boy and Buffy love to chew), and another Janet-like plant that I still can’t identify but it was $1.50 and is still alive. I got a mini-Boston Fern or Kimberly Fern (they look alike but the Kimberly drops less) and to date it looks like Batman’s nemesis Two-Face (half dead half alive).

My sister donated a large flourishing Boston Fern and that lucky plant showers with me every few days (it loves to shower) and cleans the air in my room very well. Day time I take all the plants out to sun and in the evening I bring them in to clean the air. Incidentally, the plant which is thriving the best is interestingly, the Janet. Lush leaves are sprouting every day and it is growing taller than a weed.

I’m happy to report all the plants, save for those reported dead already, are still alive and seem quite happy living here, despite the occasional rude chomp from a hungry cat. Perhaps even a brown thumb can turn green with enough information, love and care, and the right amounts of sun and water.

Hmm… maybe tomorrow we’ll go to Ikea with my large Reisenthal bag…

Our world is becoming increasingly fractured.

Humans, social animals by nature, are sequestered from the better world by crazy work hours, social obligations (not usually for pleasure, or so it seems), and an idle inquiry in the unimportant (aka TV).

People are turning to counsellors to their problems. Few have time to listen and few feel compelled to open up to their friends, especially if they haven’t spent enough time nurturing their friendships with work hours getting ridiculously longer. And those are the lucky ones. Many turn to drink or worse vices. Heck if you need to find someone to talk to in person, check out a Counseling Services List or a Counseling Services Directory.

A friend of mine once said, if you want a happy life, move to Australia where people finish work at 4 or 5, have time for outdoor activities, their families, have barbecues with friends and overall, lead a more peaceful life. You can actually have a family life.

And it is true. Friends of mine there are happily taking at least a year off to nurture their children. Fathers have time to spend with their children. They live in a nice house with a garden (with actual grass). No one feels hurried or caught in a rat race to compete.

Here, we’re in the thick of it. But it is possible to live in the rat race but not compete. What is a rat race but an unending loop which no one ever wins. Heck even Bill Gates got toppled with Warren Buffett (my idol) this year. It is possible to exist in the system but live out of it. And believe me, we are much happier than when we were both working and getting home at 9-10pm every night.

We don’t go to fancy restaurants, drive a fancy car, buy that spanking new condo, or buy any branded stuff. Everything’s made in China nowadays anyway – what’s the difference but the tag? My $3 Old Navy tee feels more comfortable than the $50 (see I can’t even remember the brand) top I bought years ago on sale. Plus, having modelled before, I am used to people paying me to wear their label, not me pay for their label and wear it for them all the time!

Good quality food and books are what we spend our money on, as well as paying off our home and car. The rest, we spend with family and good friends. Wolf changed it for us. We want a better world for him. A better life. A happy life. Children do that I think. He has changed us for the better.

I try to cook more, to create a sweet family environment for Wolf to grow up in. To remember his Mom in the kitchen cooking for him, Dad coming home to hug and kiss him. Us having dinner and talking together. Mom and Dad reading to him, sharing a cuddle before bedtime. Those are the things I want him to remember. A loving happy home.

I never realised it but I was schooling Wolf about needs vs wants from the day he could say Toys R Us some one year ago.

Before we go into Toys R Us, I’d tell him whether it is a looking trip or a buying trip. He’d nod okay and proceed to thrill himself looking at all the cars. It is roughly one buying trip per 10 looking trips and usually he can choose something small for himself that costs under $10.

Initially he’d buy something cos he can but more recently he would choose something that he really likes. If he doesn’t like anything, he wouldn’t buy anything since I tell him he can carry a buying trip forward to the next trip.

Of course there are the sums too. He’s been more fascinated about bigger cars because the doors can open and close and sometimes he asks if he can buy those. I’d point to the price and say, that costs $49 and it is way more than $10.

My friend Sarah tells of a trip she, her boyfriend, dear hubby, and Wolf had at Toys R Us. Someone asked if Wolf wanted to buy anything and he proclaimed, “no need”. His Dad was so proud, he said, “that’s my boy!” I was so proud too!

On a separate note, I started reading Chinese books to him and he seems to be learning the Chinese characters faster than English words, although he can read most of the alphabets by now. His memory is amazing! He can cite some of the moons in the Solar System, some galaxies, and many nebulas! It is so thrilling to watch.

So the past couple of weeks I have been shopping at Spotlight and buying tons of crafting supplies. All fabric and threads are 100% cotton and ribbons I got for making tags (or there lack of) are washable satin (but still polyester). I’m thinking no tag or cloth tag. My feeble attempts at embroidery got even the cats laughing.

Anyway, out of laziness I picked up a rotary cutter and a cutting mat. It was some Birch combo for $39.95 so I thought why not. Then this evening I opened it and the smell made me sick all night. I have since packed it back into its packaging to be returned to Spotlight tomorrow. If they mention the opened packaging, I’ll ask them to take a whiff. Man, I haven’t felt so nauseous since I ate those 5 bags of chips at one go.

I spent the better part of an hour Googling for an answer: what the heck is causing that godawful smell? Nowhere do they tell what the cutting mats are made of. The closest hint is that some cutting mats are made of PVC. And yeah, we know that smells and is toxic. Apparently, some smell and some don’t. A forum mentions that some mats just smell and it most likely won’t go away or will take 5 weeks.

I don’t think I can wait that long. Already the smell was seeping into the hallway so I quickly put it back into the packaging and double bagged it in an Ikea bag. There is a solution though but I don’t I’ll survive the smell long enough to do it. I still feel horrible sick as it is. So no cutting mat for me. It isn’t very green, being made of plastic anyway – the smell made me think of vinyl. I think I’ll stick to the good old scissors.

After about 10 bags, I think I have one that is in a saleable condition and of a shape women will carry (I am still working on a shape a man will carry but the husband had very politely refused to be seen carrying all the other 10 I have made). It is made out of a lovely black and white cat fabric I got last week (made in Korea) with black threading and handles, which make it quite pretty.

I like the idea of carrying cloth bags. The polyester ones, while strong, feel really plasticky against my skin. I have assigned one small black tote (which rolls up and ties on the side of my larger tote – now the main bag) for bread and those delish Spinelli oatmeal and raisin cookies. I usually carry another organic produce bag inside just in case.

Now the first cat bag I made I decided to keep for myself. The sewing was pretty and all, but I just wanted to keep that first cat bag for myself. And I just repeated myself repeating myself. That contains all the stuff I need when I leave the house. And that sweet tiny bag sits inside the main black tote, which incidentally was just finished today. That one was perfectly sized. Wolf’s car bag (picture forthcoming too) with his diaper, spare clothes, wipes, snacks, and random toy sits beside that.

So when need be, I can whip out both bags, have Wolf carry his cute car bag, I carry my cat bag, and the black tote bag can carry shopping! And won’t we look a hip mom and Wolf pair. I haven’t taken a single plastic bag in 2 weeks! Feels great to refuse all those plastic bags they give at Bread Talk. The girl happily placed all the bread in my cloth bag.

Incidentally, I made a new large blue Biscuit out of lovely 100% cotton fleecy but since Wolf “borrowed” the one we gave Amber, he is happy to give it to Aunty Angie when we meet her on Saturday. I used the Singer this time and the curves took a while to get used to but before long, I was swivelling the fabric like a pro. 3 hours on a machine instead of 8 hours by hand. Definitely a time saver!

Now, if I can only stop the nausea…