What Simply Works!

My daughter is turning three in a few months’ time.  It is just amazing to see her grow right before my eyes.  She’s fast becoming her own person, with likes and dislikes and her own quirkiness.

Soon, she’ll be asking me to take her out for shopping, she will soon ask me about clothes, shoes, jewelry and all things girly.  I hope she’d grow up to be confident though and not self-conscious.  The last thing I’d want is for her to be curious about diet pills or nuphedra, for example.  Sigh.  Time flies so fast.

I like dressing up my little girl. Save for winter season when she’s usually donned in jackets and sweaters, I like dressing her up in girly-girl clothes like blouses, skirts and dresses in cute prints.

I also like it if she wears any of the trinket-like jewelry given to her by her two grandmas. She’s definitely all girl! Ha ha. When she gets a wee bit older, I would like to get her a heart pendant necklace. I love simple jewelry designs and I’m sure a heart pendant will look good on her.

I remember feeling so excited for my daughter when she became a flower girl for the first time.  The excitement was mainly on seeing her wear a tiny and fluffy gown adorned with flowers.  She looked like a princess, if I may say so.

Now that our second child is a boy, I’m equally excited and looking forward to the day that he’ll be wearing a nice tux, complete with tuxedo shirt, a tie and shiny black shoes and become a part of a wedding entourage, too.  Too cute!

Too bad that we can no longer plan weekend activities like we used to.  With the current back pain I’m dealing with, the husband decided that it’s best to minimize activities that entail long walks or long drives.  Sob.

I wanted to bring my daughter to the zoo but we never managed to because of the errands that occupied our past weekends.  She’s learning animals from books and DVDs and it would be nice if she’d see them all in person.  She knows a fair bit of zoo animals and for sure she’ll squeal in delight if she sees a real life giraffe, zebra, turtle or horse (complete with horse supplies).  Aah, maybe someday.

This coming July and August, my mother, mother-in-law and husband will be celebrating their birthdays.  Because of that, I’ve been practicing my little girl to sing the Happy Birthday song for each of them.  What amuses me though is the part where she will pretend to blow candles, too.  Right at the end of the song, she’ll say “Okay, blow. 1, 2, 3″.  So cute!

As soon as I have recovered from my delivery, I would like to engage in an exercise regimen.  I know it will be difficult to add exercise in an otherwise busy schedule, looking after a toddler and a newborn.  But I know I need to keep fit in order for me to do my duties, pain free.  Right now, I feel like my body will give up on me anytime.  My back feels so heavy regardless if I get a good night sleep or not, although my chiropractor says it is pregnancy-related.  Also, aside from keeping fit, I may also need to shed off the pregnancy poundage I am gaining right now.  There is no way that I will resort to the best diet pills around.  It is still exercise and a healthy diet that will do for me.

I was shocked one morning to see our TV screen with swipes of crayola on it.  Yes, that was our little girl’s cue for us to get her her own easel board.  I’m glad that the crayola marks didn’t leave scratches and that they were easily removed with a moist cloth.  If not, we will for sure regret not getting the plasma TV mount that was offered at a cheap price when we bought the TV in Singapore.

As much as we are trying to avoid crowding our little apartment with tons of furniture and what-nots, having a child/children will totally change that.  Just today we got our little girl her very own chalk & white board that is now sitting in our living room area.  Well, much as it is called living room, the husband and I call it “play area”.  Apart from the sofa and TV set, everything else in there pretty much belongs to our kid.  So, imagine 2-3 years from now, with our new baby coming this year, the whole apartment might turn into a playhouse instead!

One of our immediate concerns when we moved from the apartment unit we rented last year to the landed property we are renting now is lack of security system.  We got used to the good home security system that was built in the apartment building that the absence of it became almost a show stopper when we were scouting for a house to rent.

But our need for bigger space and our desire to experience living in a landed property were greater than our security concern that we are now planning to buy a landed property when the right time comes.  It will also be easier to install an ADT if we own the property.

I know some people who love collecting stuff.  They have shelves upon shelves of mugs, albums of stamps or gold coins or even boxes of stationery pads.  But for some reason, I don’t have an inkling of interest in collecting any of those.  Save for the travel magnets on our fridge door, which (I defend) serve a purpose (because they hold important notes/receipts in the interim), I don’t want to have additional things around the house to dust, clean or maintain.  That’s the OCD tendency in me talking.

But if ever I become interested in collecting things, I would probably buy gold jewelry or gold bullion (I wish! Ha ha), which for sure have increasing value as time pass by.  Then I will sell them someday and make tons of money. Yey!

We’re still a few days short of June and it feels like the winter season has begun!  It’s so chilly in the morning, so imagine how it is towards night time.  That’s why people here say, you can survive without airconditioning units but not without heaters!  That is so true.

At best, ceiling fans or stand fans are enough to survive the heat during summer.  Although last January, when temperatures hit low 40s C, we thought of getting a portable aircondition unit but the extreme heat passed by quickly, it wasn’t long before we started putting on light jackets.  At home, we don’t have modern ceiling fans or craftmade fans but I think it will be a good idea to have one especially in the living room and dining area.  But that’s wishful thinking since the last thing that the landlord will consider is to upgrade this apartment and fit it with ceiling fans.

From my doctor’s visit yesterday, I was told that the least of my worries should be my pregnancy weight. See, I ‘confessed’ to my O&G that I’ve been giving in to sweets lately (the craving is just too much!) and that I was worried about two things, my weight and a potential development of gestational diabetes. She smiled and told me to continue controlling my sweets intake and that I shouldn’t worry about anything at this point. I hope gestational diabetes will not be seen on my radar in my next check-up and that the husband won’t have to invest on any exercise equipment to help me with pregnancy weight loss.

I’m eyeing a Canon point and shoot camera to buy this weekend.  Reviews are not really great but with my simple requirements and limited budget, I’m thinking of getting a Canon Ixus 95.  Tempting as it is to get a P&S with manual setting features, I’m setting my eyes on something that is simple to use.  Although there is not a lot of huge electronics store here (like Circuit City), I’m hoping to get a good deal with either Ted’s Camera store or JB Hi-Fi.

With the government’s generous stimulus package, which included a first-home buyer’s grant, many qualified residents found the grant too enticing to pass up.  The property market got the boost in sales it badly needed.  What is scary though is not being fully aware and prepared with everything that entails buying your own property.  The article in yahoo.com pretty much details practical tips that’s worth a look-see.  Click here.

What’s worse than going through the pains of buying a property only to end up sinking in debt and later on needing credit repair.  That’s why some of our friends decided to hold-off buying and preferred to wait until the economy picks up to ensure a more stable credit interest and property market prices.  So many people are doing it tough these days, losing their homes and finding ways to repair credit standing, it might be better to take the ’safer route’ and not make hasty decisions.  Let’s be cautious and avoid the trouble of having to fix credit in the long run.

There’s a new networking site that also acts like an online album of sorts, it’s called Acobay.  Apart from the purely social networking function, Acobay lets its registered users share photos and details of items they own.  Like pets, cars, or any gadgets which they can share and compare with what the users in their network have.

Those who love to collect movie or concert DVDs can join the movie network, of course there’s a pet network and book worms would love to join the book network.  Having these groups will make it easy for those who area seeking to meet new friends or make acquaintances over the world wide web.

There’s never having enough when it comes to social networking sites.  Well, it’s like saying we’ll never have enough of developing new friendships and sharing interests.  As Acobay aims to be 2009’s hottest social site, let’s give it a boost by signing up.  It’s quick and easy, try it!

When I watch documentaries or reports on television about nature, places or the galaxies, I usually ignore where and how video clips shown were gathered.  When I read about absolutelywildvisuals.com, I learned that if there is a huge market for stock photos, surely there is as much need for stock videos.

For a unique collection of stock footage online or animal stock footage, Absolutely Wild Visuals have a library of video clips made by filmmakers and wild life specialists.  Video quality is assured and their popular clients (that include Apple and Nickelodeon) already speak of the company’s integrity and popularity in the business.

So, hop over to their website and a user friendly navigation will let you browse footages and their clips library.  Enjoy!

It’s getting colder and colder by the day.  And despite Sydney’s winter being ‘milder’ than in the U.S. East Coast or Canada, I.still.don’t.like.it.  The Autumn cold leaves me wanting to use the heater round the clock, so, imagine how it will be like when it’s officially winter season next month?  I don’t even get to check our mailbox anymore and let the husband do it so I don’t have to walk out the road where the rest of the residential mailboxes are.

Well, whether its mailboxes or the laundry, I still gear up just go out these days.  Funny no?  While my husband loves the colder, chillier months, I prefer just the right blend of the summer heat and cool wind.  I can live in Hawaii!

My daughter and I were walking back to the car park yesterday when she saw two puppies tied to a post at a restaurant.  The puppies were so playful, no doubt passersby took notice of them. Then a thought came to mind.  Assuming that the owners work full days during the week, do they have someone come over to their house to baby sit their pets?  Or do they enrol the puppies to something like Doggy Day Care Rozelle?

Australians no doubt love animals.  And aside from pet care shops, pet stores (e.g. pugaliers for sale sydney) there are a lot of other business I’m sure that exist to better the lives of house pets, just like the doggy day care mentioned.

It is part of our evening routine for me or my husband to check the locks, lights and power switches before we hit the sack.  These days, you can’t be complacent when it comes to securing that all the locks and bolts are set at night or when you leave the house.  And in those days when we’re both too tired and sleepy, we wish we have something like a *KVM switch to do all those checks in just a flick of a finger.

*A KVM switch is a hardware device that allows a user to control multiple computers from a single keyboard, video monitor and mouse. [Wikipedia]

A major house clean-up is in order.  Now that we now the baby’s gender and my tummy’s officially on its 5th month on Wednesday, we have decided to start cleaning up the house to make space for the new baby’s things.  We’re not looking forward to the cleaning bit, especially the carpet cleaning and steaming but ha! we can’t escape it.  We will purchase area rugs too for the living room.  We didn’t realize that the rugs will keep the floor carpet a lot cleaner if we used them from the day we moved to the apartment.