Monday, November 09, 2009

Heart Space #39: If the foundation is crooked, how could one expect a straight house?

I have observed a few things in the preschools or enrichment classes I have attended with Faith. Although generally, the parents and kids are well behaved and good mannered, there are some that are simply obnoxious.,

1. Allowing their kids to jump queue to wash up.
- There's this time when a parent simply shove his boy up to the front of the queue, blatantly ignoring the 2 queues that were already formed. Faith wanted to move up front too, the lady behind said "It's okay". I told the lady, that it is not okay, and wanted Faith to queue up. Faith immediately got back to me, and join the queue. I figured, if you do not even teach your kids the basic ethics of life, what is the point of enriching other areas?

2. Playing games and ignoring rules.
- There are ground rules in the class, ie. no phone, no phone conversations. This parent simply go on and on with his phone conversation, while his kids are running amok in the class during a story telling session. When he finally finished his conversation, he turned on his games on the phone and play away.

3. Apologising.
- I mean, your kid has already hit someone's else kids on the head and the kid is obviously in pain. What is the least you can do? He chose to ignore and pretend nothing has happened.

All these points, is about 1 parent.. and I observed these in 1 lesson...

Maybe I am too harsh on myself, or my kids. But I believe that if we do not coach them well, who else will?
Heart Space #38: It has been a while.

Woah, time flies when you least expected it.

- Faith is coming to 2. She can say she's 2 years when you ask how old is she.
- Still wondering if I should organise a party for her
- She has about 12 teeth now, she won't let us put our fingers in. :P
- She knows so many words now...
- Words she knows (Bus, Train, Apple, Banana, Sleep, Milk, Boat, Sit There, Pour Inside, Put there, Don't want this, Want this etc)
- Can really run...

That's about it for now about her. Will post something else later.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Heart Space #37: Faith's Update.

I must say, it must have been ages since I last provided an update about Faith, so here goes.

- Faith finally turns 1.
- Had her own party, it was too messy to manage.
- She has 6 teeth now.
- Finally brought her to the beach.
- Found out that she looks really cute in jeans.
- Even more so in traditional chinese dress
- She knows so many words now. eg. if you say "Ah...", she will say "Pa"
- She points to a picture of a Panda, then hands the book to me. :S
- Words she knows (Pineapple, milk, apple, book, car, panda "pan", ong lai (pineapple), ball, biscuits, sorry, upstairs, downstairs, bus, outside, carry)
- Still cannot walk by herself, nor saying any of the words she knows.
- Of course, she knows who are her parents, her grandparents and Jie jie, babies...etc

I will post the pictures to FB once I have time.. :)

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Heart Space #36: Christmas

They say XMAS is the time for giving and be joyful. At this present time, how many of us are doing both, or any one of them for the matter. As I say, XMAS is fictitious.

*disclaimer : This is my personal view, and I know it does not apply to all of us.., but I am pretty sure a lot of us needs to read on and reflect.

First of all, I have read in the news that parents in US are appealing to toy makers not to advertise their toys anymore on media. This is because when their kids see the ads, they would want to buy, and the parents cannot afford them anymore. As parents, I do know how that feels. How you ever look in the eyes of a child who can not have the things they deserve so dearly, the disappointment, the helplessness look hurt the parents more than anything on earth. My wife bought Faith a 3-in-1 toy, that can last Faith till she is 3 years old, for about SGD$160, and I was thinking Faith does not know how lucky she is... and this will be the first lesson I will (try to) teach her this Christmas.

Secondly, what is with the decorations and the music of Christmas? Don't they ever change? It's always the same old carols, and these songs (with all artiste doing covers) are played on high intensity from a week before Christmas. And suddenly on Boxing Day, they are gone, as if Christmas never came. So much work and money went into decorations, gifts and feasting and at the blink of an eye, all the festivity didn't seem to exist. Malls are eager to take down the decorations as quickly as they were put up, to make way for the Lunar Chinese New Year... When is the time for us to soak in the spirit of Christmas? I guess in seasonal countries, one could feel that Christmas spirit a little better.

I have decided not to say anymore lest I sound like the Grinch. To end it all, I believe the giving spirit should not be restricted to just Christmas and should not just be to your family, friends and colleagues. There is a great deal of people far less fortunate than us, and we should all work together to make this world a better place for all to live in.

Blessed be.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Heart Space #35: Life is like a Lopsided GPS

Life is like a lopsided GPS. The world is our map, and we are free to roam wherever we desire. However, in life, the start and end points have been predetermined for us.

For starters, a lot of us used the "Where am I" function to find oneself, whereas there is the other group who do not worry about where they start, but more excited of the journey ahead. Eventually, everyone moves, no one stays where they are. Making that first step without knowing how long the journey or what it brings required some leap of faith, but it was not that difficult.

We set our waypoints, stops and detours. All these merely alter the route and distance to our final destination. Some are happy with the straight and fast highway; whereas some prefer the longer and more scenic route. Whichever way you take, no two routes yield the same result. The bumps you hit, the stops and the tolls you have to pay vary from person to person. With the knowledge that whatever decisions we make, will have an impact on our future path, we learnt to plan ahead. We carefully take up insurance, more calculated risks, safer short cuts and so on, so that we can avoid the pitfalls that other people had failed.

Along the way, regardless of how carefully we plan our route; there are times when we are unexpectedly bumped off the road. Or we complain that the route suggested (by circumstances) is not the one we intended. Little did we know that this new path has its very own sights and experience that life determines we should experience. Do we count our blessing that things have gone this way? Or do we keep harping on the mindset that things would have been better if it has gone the way you intended?

End of the day, how much control do we really have? I believe the only control we have, is how we deal with each bumps, stops and detour along our route, for that is the one thing that makes the journey bearable

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Heart Space #34: Bottled Up.

Today, I feel just so saddened. It's one of those days, where something (or a lot of things) bothered you, yet you cannot single out any of these things.

However, I am just wondering sometimes is it better to bottle things up, since saying them out will only make things worse than it already is? A few possible outcomes if my grievances are poured out; 1. things get better for a day or two, 2. have a long debate, 3. More feelings get bottled.

It's not as if I did not say out in a subtle way, in fact, I was pretty outright about it. I simply do not feel loved. It is doubly hard, trying to be joyful/loving on the outside, hoping it be reciprocated and yet at the same time deep inside, the yearning for love is eating you from within. All these are made worse with the sadness and darkness that constantly looms around.

Yes, it worries me somehow. When all you can do (like most people would) is to accept and not talk about it, then just how much can you bury? Are we wired to have the depth of acceptance, or are we simply overly cautious of the repercussions of events should we not hold our mouths shut? I believe that we all have our fair share of hitting our limits; or encountered times when we just could not hold the raging emotions. Did these flares of emotions resolve the conflict, or bring about the change? No... at least to me.

This is not me... and I am unwilling to be depressed for the remaining of my life. Yet, I will find new ways to accept, and be amazed by my new found depth.

Friday, November 07, 2008

Heart Space #33: IPL-ed

If you do a reference back to HeartSpace #33, you should see what this topic is about.

I finally got around doing something to beautify my face. There are spots, scars and simply 'things' I want removed from my otherwise handsome face. :)

Today marked the first step. I saw a consultant, via an appointment booked by a cousin. When I reached medical centre, it was pretty deserted with a handful of service staff. I was asked to fill up a registration form and waited for my turn. The nurse came and ushered my wife and myself into the consultation room. She was trying to make small talk, and asked me what my problem was. I couldn’t get what she was asking, and I replied “There’s no problem.” She must have thought then why the hell I am doing there?

The doctor came, and I explained to her what I roughly want done, and the nurse came back, and gave me a flexible quotation. First time I had the encounter of the shop asking if they can charge me at $x amount.

The sequence of the treatment is as follows;
- Wash face
- Put numbing cream
- Wait 30 minutes (waited for 40)
- Put cooling cream (numbed, and thought it was actually warm gel)
- Gets laser-ed
- Cleaned up
- Do mask
- Put all kinds of sprays and moisturizer
- End of treatment.

In short, I am supposed to wait for my spots to become dark, till black when it’s ripe enough to peel off by itself. Then, my skin will be left with those big ones that IPL could not resuce. I am supposed to return 2 weeks later, and this time, she will bring out the bigger laser…
PS: Did ask about the chickenpox scars and my dark cycles. It would take Skin Roller, xxxxx (can’t remember the name), and 2 units of botox to fix these all. Not forgetting a bulging wallet.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Heart Space #32: Faith's pictures

Yes. You should see a video... but you might have guessed that I have not put it up. Meanwhile, these are recent photos that I simply could not resist putting up first. Enjoy her teeth.. :)

Yep.. damn mosquito bite. :(