Mind your language

Just a little update on Arissa's academic progress..

I love the fact that she is loving school these days. True she wakes up in the morning usually grumpy, stating matter-of-factly "I dowan to go khool, I tired" but when we get there, she waves me goodbye and rushes off to see her friends.

I think her best friend is an Egyptian girl, part of an identical triplet, named Amira as her name keeps coming up in our conversations. When I ask Arissa how her day went she will reply in part-gibberish, part-broken English, part-Malay about how Amira was naughty today or how Amira was crying today or how Amira and her played "colour colour" today. I do wonder how she manages to pick out Amira from the other two as they all look exactly alike with big solemn eyes and soft wispy light brown curls.

She has learnt to recognise an alphabet. I say AN alphabet as she is still unable to distinguish As from Bs from Cs, in spite of the flashcards (ok, ok I just started them)- but she always always would pick out an X triumphantly and proclaim loudly "Aksh!". I'm spending more time with her at the magnetic board in the hope of moulding a future Little Einstein ("This is big A, this is little a") but all she wants to do is to arrange the alphabets so it looks like a long train "See? Dis Thomas and flens..." she would then proudly say.

The great thing about daycare, I must admit despite my initial reservations about letting her spend so much time away from grandparents in the daytime, is that the kids are so independant at such an early age. I no longer need to feed Arissa, I just give her a spoon and bowl and she feeds herself (up to a point where she gets half-full that is, then I have to continue feeding her). I'm also only needed to put on her diapers, after which she demands I allow her to dress herself. Its a real blessing especially now that my belly is huge, rendering me a tad immobile. The only thing left to do is to fully toilet train her.. but I will leave that to after giving birth. Just the thought of having to mop up those accident spots induces braxton-hicks contractions.

The only annoying thing about school is her adoption of Singlish... phrases like "Finish oleady" or "Mummy aaaah" just annoys me to no end. Izzah says I'm acting all ya-ya papaya as Singlish is after all part of the Singaporean culture as much as NTUC Childcare is.... haiyah I know that la but there's the 'correct' Singlish and then there's simply the pasar-malam annoying version. Sure sure, Hafidz and I are just as guilty for regularly using suffices like 'lah' and 'isit' when we speak to her, or using mixed languages to communicate our point e.g. "Let's mandi".

Maybe its better we start minding our language first?

Arissa's first haircut @ the hairdressers with Abam Kiki

Road rage

Ever woken up on the wrong side of bed and feel like bashing someone's head in? Someone.. anyone will do...? Well, think twice cos it may end up being a police case especially if you cross the wrong person.

I was happily enjoying my Mozart on the drive to work when this impatient Camry behind me kept honking for me to make a U-turn when there is fast-moving oncoming traffic. Sorry buddy, I thought, I'm in front and if I get into an accident it isn't on your insurance so just bloody wait. But wait this fella could not and he overtook me at the U-turn junction and made a hasty (and dangerous) turn, despite being honked and high-beamed by oncoming traffic. He's still stuck in the yellow box anyway and threw me dirty looks for a full minute to which I raised my hand to signal What is your problem?

Mr I-didn't-get-it-last-night opened his door and started banging on my car window, yelling vulgarities at my mockery of him. He then went back into his car, cussing along the way, and pulled over on the left to wait for me to pass so he can follow me into my building. He waited until I had parked the car, continued to give me dirty looks over his wife's shoulder, before driving away.

He may be having a bad day but I'm in no mood to let his road rage pass, so I called building security as well as the police. And now this is a police case on his head, serves him well and right. I hope he gets slapped with a big fat fine.

Strangely enough I cannot find any useful article on the issue from SPF or the Driving Centres although there are many on individual's experiences with them. How is the line drawn between road bullies and uncouth drivers? When is it appropriate to get the police involved?

Lady drivers, know your rights (thanks Zack, the ex-policeman, who gave me a rundown of what constitutes a road bully, I was paying half attention that day over prata but it came in useful today!

1) Most importantly is that the driver a) gets out of his car, b) comes over and c) threatens you physically or verbally, that makes him a road bully in the eye of the law.

2) Do not get out of your car, lock your doors and windows but turn on your phone camera and film him threatening you. This serves as evidence to the cops if you've no eye witness (which usually is the case as no one else is arsed to get involved and your passenger may be viewed as biased) but bullies usually back off from fear of being implicated (or get even more violent).

3) Take down his license plate and report immediately to the police.

4) If the going gets rough and you're alone and/or being followed, get help from a nearby police post or building security.

Stay safe ladies and give those bullies what they deserve- a bad driving record.

Last lap

Whoa, 28 weeks and counting down!

The usual round of 3rd trimester ailments have surfaced- breathlessness, general fatigue, short-temper (from the lethargy?), needing to pee every 2 minutes, feeling like a hungry hungry hippo always, waddling, back pain... but because this is my 2nd pregnancy there is also this pressure 'there' as though the baby could pop out with the teeniest push. My gynae convinced me that its normal with the 2nd pregnancy as the muscles down south were not as hydraulic as once before (incontinence here I come!). The 20th week fetal scan revealed that my placenta is 'slightly low lying' but after an ultrasound, we realise that there is no risk of placenta preavia and I can do the deed normally. Thank god!

This month's checkup was to discuss my birthplan- as mentioned before Lawrence Ang is a natural delivery advocator so the word epidural is frowned upon. "You did it before, the pain is still the same unfortunately but you're well prepared to face it", he campaigns on.

He did say though that 2nd babies come out faster than the 1st and prepared me mentally to expect a fast and furious labour (hell, I'm not complaining! That 7 hour active labour where I bled all the way through is still fresh in my mind). Key word here, much like the Singapore Army motto, is Be Prepared.

Bub is weighing all of 1.3kg, quite a shocker as she was only 700g last month. This put her a good 200g above the average 28 week old bubs. I put on a measly 1.4kg even with all that milk and durians and dessert! How bloody pathetic.. I'm 4kg behind in my 28th week (compared to the 1st pregnancy where I was 48.5kg at this stage). BTW I love this development chart: http://www.babycenter.com/average-fetal-length-weight-chart

She's almost in an engaged position- head down with legs right under my right ribs which takes the blow for most of her tickles and kicks. She's just as active as Arissa, just the other day I went to bed in spite of her kicks and was again awoken by it at 3am! Hafidz & I have yet to name our little friend here, we can't find a name we can both agree on- typical eh!

And to add on to the list of new friends for our little nameless bub, congratulations to these new parents:

Yani & Amzhar
3.2kg Aqil Armani

Nana & Ogy
2.8kg Adrianny


Yani's take on labour pains was "I could only stand it for an hour!! Then I was begging for epidural.. hehehehe" Will have pictures of my little nephew uploaded soon..

xx