Welcoming the New Year

In Decemember, it has been a crazy shopping season for me. The typical me avoids shopping crowd during the Christmas season, but this year, I headed out to purchase baby equipment over four consecutive days, and running to various places. We finally purchased the big items from Takashimaya due to the year-end sale, with about 30%++ discounts after factoring in the Takashimaya credit card and the vouchers etc.

The world of baby & child gadgets is simply mind boggling. We settled on a Maclaren stroller. This company was actually founded in the 60s by the same aeronautical engineer who designed the Spitfire fighter plane (the "hero" of The Battle of Britain in WW2).

Looking forward to January 2010, I checked my calendar of events stored in my cell. I am expecting two more baby purchase deliveries from Takashimaya and Isetan, a gynae check-up in the middle of January, and meet up with three groups of friends who I know would be offering valuable baby advice.

Enough of baby talk, there is also a Fish Liberation event on January 3. Of course, this round I would not be boarding the boat out to the kelong. Mr Gui would be attending. I donated a sum though to purchase the fish from the kelong that was meant to be sent to the restaurants. Fish liberation is a buddhist practice of rescuing the fish that are destined for slaughter. The practice exemplifies the fundamental Buddhist teaching of compassion for all living beings.

In a typical fish liberation, we purchase the fish from the kelong wholesalers, bring them to some appropriate place, and let them go free. By liberating living beings, we nurture compassion in our hearts.

...To a great 2010..!

Hello Baby...

Today Gui and I went for our monthly gynae check-up - our baby is now about 800g, twice the size he was a month ago. Yes, babies are weighed in grams - pretty much like packets of Famous Amos Cookies. According to my sister, thats about four packets ;)

I chose the photo below because Baby_G was pretty much in that position during the scan.

In my earlier scans, the first time Baby_G brought a smile to my face was when he was 11 weeks old. At 3cm in length, he was lying on his back and both arms and legs were cycling in the air quickly like a cyclist. We were wondering then what he was trying to do. Because of his activeness, I think thats why it caused me to have acid reflux from time to time particularly in the first trimester.

After the gynae session, I went home to rest - yeap I have not been sleeping that well. Its either due to Mr Gui returning from work at 2am, and all excited to update me on his happenings; or the baby kicking in the night...Yes I have dark eye circles.

I had a prayer session before dinner just now. According to "The Significance and Benfits of Six-Syllable Mantra Recitation", we should try to make great aspirations during recitation to purify the body, speech and mind. Somehow, for the past few sessions, I have just been very distracted. Thinking about whether I have sort out the documents properly, thinking about the credit card bills, thinking about training programs and staff retention, and I can't believe I turned down an Aston Martin dinner invitation this Thursday since I have an examination this Sat! Well, its all about prioritization isn't it? Especially when I get tired so much easier now. Need to allocate my energy efficiently. Hopefully I get another invitation - in time!

Every Parent's Dream


This was taken during the detailed ultrasound scan. This is basically to check that your baby is developing well. The emphasis of this pic is on the foot as the gynae has printed on the picture.

I remember a conversation with Gui probably a year ago. He told me that he wants to earn well for his children so that in the future, the child would be able to choose whatever career he/ she enjoys and need not be bounded by which career pays the best.

I thought it was an interesting viewpoint as every parent probably wants the best for their kiddos - including to excel in a career and earning well eventually - especially in the context of a practical and rather materialistic society.

I visited Lama Shifu last week. As he said "Nothing in this world is absolutely right or wrong." I believe he is right. Even though Gui's idea might be a little out of the norm... think about how every mum or dad is filled with joy and excitment when they first see their baby through a computer scan... why end up pressurising or stressing them to achieve when they are out of the placenta? I often hear parents say "You will understand once you have children." If parents-to-be can be excited when the baby starts kicking (ouch!) in your stomach, why shouldn't parents continue to love and respect their kiddos development pace as they grow? I hope I would not fall into the loop of pressurising my kids to excel..and would be able to use the appropriate wisdom to guide my child in future.