I am attending a baby shower being held for a friend of a friend this Saturday. A small one as the mummy-to-be has had 3 other showers and has recieved enough gifts to clothe/lug about 8 babies. I have been racking my brain trying to figure out what to buy for her and came up with these two gifts:



Child-Rearing Roulette
"PARENTAL POINTERS" GIFT SET

Have fun and help new parents stay un-divorced with these whimsical gifts. No need to bicker about whose turn it is to change that messy diaper or do the 2 am feeding -just spin the "Wheel of Responsibility" and accept your fate! And the book on safe baby handling tips provides just that - and a lot of laughs in the process. Not just baby shower gifts - they're important tools for expecting parents! Imported.


and



Straightlaced
JOHNNY'S SOCKS - SET OF 6

A boy's never too young for sneakers - especially when they're this comfy. Cotton baby socks are printed to look like those classic kicks every guy lives in, complete with real shoelace ties. A selection of 6 pairs - in a range of colors packaged in a gift-ready box - promises an early start to the "dirty socks on the floor" phenomenon.


Figured I would balance the silly with practicality. The Johnny socks are sneaker versions of some Mary Jane socks we bought for Sasha when she was a wee 8 weeks.


It has been surreal living in the house this past week. It is semi-sterile and has to be kept so in case we need to show the house with short notice. I always keep fresh flowers about so that is not difficult to do. I dont usually keep the toilets/kitchen free of clutter so that has been a chore. I also now make the bed every day. It is just walking around the house knowing that we have had 4 other couples (one an FBI agent..) traipsing around the house criticizing it for all its worth, looking through our closets. We live here but it no longer feels like home.

Anyone want a house in Upstate NY?

Staging a home for sale is an absolute b*%$h. Previously, when we moved from our apartments, all we had to do was let the movers in and pack up everything (and I mean everything..down to the many ketchup and mustard sachets we don't bother to throw away). It is a whole new ballgame now. Cleaning the house is one thing, staging it is another. As you may know from my entries, keeping house is not my forte. I rarely vacuum and I only ever dust/clean/wipe down anything when we have people over and this only happens in rooms to be made accessible to the masses. In addition to cleaning, we now have to stage the rooms to make them palatable to the masses. The rule is, you live one way, you stage another. So all clutter has to be removed. No personal pictures, no little quirky souvenirs scattered about. Kitchen counters have to be totally cleared. This is not easy to do especially when we still LIVE here. Toys have to be put away, out of sight. Our ironing room has been turned into the nursery, so Sasha's clothes are in our dressing room (her little dresser/closet is too heavy to move) while her crib and changing table are in the new nursery (which was previously the ironing room). The larger room on the third floor has been turned into another bedroom, with the bed all made up like it is actually used (since we moved in we have only used the room once and I think I have entered the room maybe all of five times). Our little computer/printer table which was previously in our second study has been moved upstairs to the smaller third floor room so that now looks like a little study. Our closets have to be show worthy so that means we actually have to hang our clothes. I have been going around the house with a can of white paint touching up any little nick I see. The mold and mildew from the windows have to be cleaned and or painter over. No dust balls about. This house had better sell soon or I will go crazy maintaining it like this...aaaarghh!!

Any-who...if you are interested in moving upstate, I am posting some pics which our agent (who gets a whopping 6% of the sale price, and does not have to deal with a sigle dust ball!!) is using:


Our soon to be ex-home

Our soon to be ex-dining room

Our soon to be ex-living room

I very rarely have any regrets, but if asked what my most recent regret is it would be my failure to get a baby book to record Sasha's milestones. I suppose not having one myself, I assumed that Sasha would not be too bothered with her lack of one. (with all my moving about I hardly have any childhood souvenirs such as pictures etc...heck, I can't even find my academic certificates) My neighbour jots everything down and when I ask her things like "What were Ally's first words?", she will produce the book and say "Dada, 3 March, 9.18am..".

So, assuming that one day Sasha will be reading this (Although with my recent troubles teaching her to eat table food, I can't imagine teaching her something as difficult as reading. I am resigned to the fact that at the age of 21, she may still be eating strained sweet potatoes), I am going to add little bits of Sasha trivia in this blog.

For example:

She was born on 3 April 2006 at 4.12pm (although D insists he saw her hair peek out at 4.11pm).
She weighed in at 7 pounds 9 ounces 3438 grams, and she was 2 weeks early.
She was 21 inches long.
Her apgar was 9/9.

On 30 May (2 month checkup), she was 11 pounds 4 ounces and 23 inches long.
On 24 July (4 month checkup), she was 13 pounds 8 ounces and 25 inches long.
On 33 October(6 month checkup) , she was 16 pounds and 26 1/4 inches long.

Her last check-up was on 3 February 2007. She is now 17 pounds 12 ounces and is 29 1/2 inches long.

She said her first word, Dada, on 23 November 2006.
She giggled for the first time ever as I was tickling her Daddy. We were in the TV room hanging out.
Her little toes first touched the Ocean on 16 May 2006 in Martha's Vineyard.
She learned to crawl while her Daddy and I were away in India. Her Nenek trained her while we were away. We first saw her crawl in her Nenek and Tok's TV room when we arrived back in KL on the morning of 11 December 2006.
Last night, on 7 February 2007, we caught her trying to sneak up the stairs from the first floor to the second. She had climbed 7 stairs before her Mummy caught her. Her Mummy let her climb down by herself.
As of 10 months of age, Sasha has visited Saratoga Springs, Martha's Vineyard, Provincetown, Stockholm, Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi, Singapore, Amsterdam airport, Madrid, Seville, Granada (Al Hambra), Winnipeg, Toronto, Minaki, Penang, Kuching, Seattle, Boston, and NYC. She has been on 38 flights.
To take her first passport picture at the age of 2 weeks, we had to strip her naked, place her on the floor in the middle of a busy pharmacy and spray water on her face so she would open her eyes. Suffice it to say we got some nasty looks.

So Sash, if you do read this one day, we apologise for not being overly diligent in keeping records of your milestones. We were too busy enjoying and basking in your cheery disposition to take precious time away to take notes. We do love you though.

On the road again...

You may know we live in Upstate New York. Well, not for long. D has accepted a job offer in Canada. So, by 1 July 2007, I have to:

1) Sell a house
2) Look for another house to move into
3) Move house contents across the border
4) Unpack house contents
5) Defend Ph.D thesis in NL
6) Apply for Canadian PR (involves getting police clearance from 3 bloody different countries)
7) Get Canadian citizenship for offspring
8) Make new friends...sigh

Suffice it to say I have just finished a bottle of vino tinto. Will get started on to do list tommorrow...fanfuckintistic.