Senget, Totoro, Sophia and Me

This is what happens when Sophia gets hold of a pen and before I can get it and the Polaroid away from her on time. The scribbles, not the grimace.

Going in for the kiss.

Senget's trying to escape. It's futile; Sophie's got a death grip on him. And yes, that's how she smiles for the camera; she's not trying to escape.

Note: see how sunken the couch is (it's not because of my weight)? Some thing don't improve with age, and that couch is one of it. I hate that couch. I. HATE. IT.

My Friend Barney

She loves posing. Alone. With her toy friends. With her books. With mommy and daddy. She loves being recorded. On print and on video. And she loves looking at herself.

Attention Seeker

He would love to sleep on the bed with us if he could. So he takes whatever liberties he can. If the door is open and we are on the bed, then we'll eventually find him curled up at our feet.

One Of His Favourites

I received my Polaroid SLR680 last week. Alas, my hoard of 600 film had already expired for more than a year. So here's what the photos sorta look like after auto-adjustment with the Epson CX3800 scanner. No adjustments = yellowy pix. Sigh.

Elsewhere, we celebrated Singapore's national day by viewing the fireworks display from daddy's office. Great view. Due to some unforseen circumstances, my settings on the camera went astray (on their own!) and I only got TWO fairly good shots of the fireworks.

The long weekend was spent trying to entertain and keep the little one busy. Sunday morning we spent at Fidgets where she could rumble and roll to her heart's content and Monday we went to Paragon for the rides and the little indoor play area. She was happy just walking around inside the mall (mall rat!) and found, to her delight, a florist with loads of little water features on sale. "Fountain, fountain! Fountain, mummy!"

Ah, the little pleasures in life.

Bodyguard

Not much of a bodyguard if he's sleeping on the job though. I always said and still firmly believe that Pixel is a dog in a cat's body. How else can I explain his affinity and utmost patience with Sophie a.k.a. the little monster?

This whole week she's grabbed fistfuls of his fur and yanked on them, pulled his ear, kicked him (although I think she could be thinking she's stroking him with her foot, the way I do), stepped on him in her bid to climb onto the couch, smacked him with his brush (again, maybe she thinks she's combing him?), grabbed at his belly...and the assault list goes on and on. She has, in a nutshell, literally pushed him around within an inch of every one of his nine lives. And yet, there he is, still offering himself up for more abuse everyday, not complaining one bit nor sticking out a paw to swipe at her nor clawing her. Not yet anyway. Sure, he puts on this really annoyed face when she yanks a bit too hard but the most he will do is slink away.

The Furry Siblings

Trying to escape from Sophia's grubby, painful clutches. There's no hope for the damned.

Mom, Spend Some Time With Me?

Poor dear. She had to contend with playing on her own for most of the day as I had too many rewrites to do. That's what happens when you take on a writing job: the writing ceases to be your own. Well, in this case anyway. It sort of sprouted a really ugly pair of wings and threatened to drag me off the cliff.

So my poor little angel/rascal/monster had no choice but to keep herself amused. She did pretty good actually. She harassed the cat, pushed all the dining chairs, save for the one my butt was plonked on, to all four corners of the walls, watched TV, and came over to bit me on the knees and thighs when she needed attention.

It got to the point where she would look distressed and cry for me the moment she saw me sit down at my laptop at the dining table. Sigh...

Only a few more days of this and hopefully after, I'll be free to cater to her every whim.

Little Artist

...Not. Sad to say, it's only her mother's definition of a joke. What's actually on her head is her pants. But it does look adorable... .

This Little Piggy

Her default expression these days. The little piggy is deciding to live up to her animal sign. Most days there's the sound effect to boot. I haven't the experience to know what a pig rooting around for truffles sounds like but I'm thinking that her version of snuffling almost equals that of the real thing.

The Girl In White

Even with the muted effect of the polaroid, you can still clearly see that one small eye. Oh well....

This was taken several weeks back, a month almost and is one of my favourites. I'd just gotten my 680SLR then and was having a field day, trying to limit myself to just one polaroid a day. For the most part, I succeeded.

The girl has a thing for cameras; the moment I pick up the 680 or the D80, she'll make a beeline for either. With the D80, she'll fiddle with the lens cap and try to put it back onto the lens, a few times she succeeded. She even knows how to get her fingers around the cap mechanism and fit it back onto the lens with a teeny little bit of help. One day I found her on the floor with the D80, cap off, trying to fit the cap back on with a little too much gusto. I just about had heart palpitations. Thank goodness we'd gotten the Hoya filter to fit onto the lens proper.

In the meantime, am looking forward to a weekend away in Bali. Other than being away on holiday, the best part of the trip is we get to have fun with the rest of the Ng family too. I don't think we've EVER gone away on a family holiday before. The last time I remember when we were actually on a family holiday was in Langkawi waaaay back when and that doesn't count because sis was only a tot just a little older than Sophia and the reason I remember it is because we have pictures of her naked on the beach (no one will ever find them as she's snitched these off the photo album and taken them into her safekeeping).

Nope, no other family holidays when we turned into teenagers and then blossomed into full grown adults. Damn, I have never taken a proper family holiday with my parents and sis before! Let's hope we don't get on each others' nerves too much. But then again, there's always the grandchild to deflect any family tensions/crises.

Oh, and there's always the private pool at the villa that we'll be staying in.

Bib And A Smile

Before I confined her to her high chair for meals, she used to play with her toys and was generally free to move around. That was too much running around after her and to cultivate the habit of sitting in one spot to eat and to instill some discipline in her, she's now relegated to her high chair for mealtimes, sans TV.

Entertainment is by way of her wooden bead toy, her favourite photo album or her favourite story book right now: Slinky Malinki.

She Smiles With Her Eyes

"She smiles with her eyes," a very nice mom said to me when she waved to Sophia and she smiled back with her pacifier in her mouth.

It just about made my day. That, and the fact that Sophie got to 'play' with the nice lady's 7-month old daughter at the diaper change station, rather the naughty rascal played with her very colourful backpack and attempted to engage the 7-month old in an embrace.

At least she attempted to make nice and not be a bully like her mom was.

Belated Mother's Day (Also In Preparation For Father's Day)

So that's how I found father and daughter on Mother's Day morning. The scenario is actually quite common whenever Dad puts Sophia to bed; he puts himself to bed too.

(Insert collective sigh from mothers all over the world and fervent nodding of heads.)