Archives for January 2009
Obsessions and distractions
January 7, 2009 · By ·
One of K’s major obsessions is my digital camera. He can spend a long time taking photos of things around him and then view the pictures repeatedly. These pics below were taken when I told him to, “Why do you take some pictures of your room.” 
After a while I notice him giving his ‘smile’ while holding onto the camera…
Upon a closer look, I discovered he was in fact smiling into the camera and attempting to take his own picture. Somehow, someone managed to figure out a way to snap his own pictures.
When I went through the pictures in the camera, this was what K took of himself;
Not really a flattering pic. But that did not seem to bother him at all. After hogging the camera for the next 5 minutes, exposing his eyes to countless number of flashes, I told him it was quite enough and had to stop. I had to pry his fingers off the camera one by one and braced myself for some toddler tantrum antics.
That was when I had to think of other distractions…Painting on the wall seem to work for the next 15 mins,
Thereafter, he wanted to do everything else except paint. He much preferred emptying all the paints onto the palette and pouring the water on the newspapers. A big hint to let me know that he was not really in an artistic mood.
The next distraction had to be introduced: the water table
Which kept him happily occupied for the next 1 hour, until the next obsession…
Gogglebox entertainment during lunch; his Little Einsteins DVD, which has been showing its reruns this week for the 20th time. I can almost memorise all the songs and the lines in the 3 episodes featured in the DVD. It is interesting how he seems to enjoy familiarity.
As for my distractions? Which include these books I am reading the past 2 days.
This is an attempt to get myself motivated to spend some time in front of the stove/oven and maybe discover my dormant cooking talents. Which somehow does not seem to be working too well because of these other distractions…
The Canon EOS 450D digital SLR camera
I am spending time in online forums hoping to snag myself a good second hand 450D kit. Which I have then managed to convinced myself to master my manual settings on my Canon Ixus 75 and practice basic photographic composition techniques first, before getting a SLR. Besides, this toddler here is not going to leave me alone without hogging the SLR, so 450D can wait.
The other major distraction; my business. Planning and preparation is taking quite a bit of effort, with some hiccups along the way, but it is coming along quite well. I am looking forward to it going live in end January.
So look out in this space for something exciting that will be revealed soon!
Related posts:
Fear not?
January 4, 2009 · By ·
Fear is a learnt emotion.
My earliest memories of irrational fear was when I was a pre-schooler. My mom used to be terrified of cats and she will scream, cling onto my dad, jump onto a chair whenever a feline was within sight. Without understanding why there was the need to be afraid, I learnt to emulate that fear. That fear of cats did not ease till my aunt brought her dog to my place to visit when I was about 5. That was the turning point when I started to like pets and got my first dog when I was 7 years old.
Dh and I have came to realised that K learns fear by observing how we act or react. We have been extremely conscious of our behaviour, especially when we come face to face with some of our phobias. Specifically, for dh and I, we similarly have a certain level of Herpetophobia, i.e., fear of reptiles. I am extremely freaked out by lizards as I had countless bad experiences with them; lizards have dropped on me a couple of times and I have stepped on at least 3 lizards in my life. Eeew…I get goosebumps just thinking about those tragic lizards that were crashed by my feet.
So now, I tried not to show any sort of emotion when I see any lizards (which is painfully difficult). The last time we saw a bunch of lizards, dh gritted his teeth and went, ‘Look K, so many lizards..” and then chickened out when he spotted a couple of big ones on the wall.
So kudos to dh today, for overcoming his fear of reptiles and taking this pic holding a snake. Due to dh’s bravery, K was encouraged to touch the snake as well 
Dh then threw me a challenge to take a picture K and a lizard perched on my shoulder. No way, call me whatever you want, this will not happen in a million years…
In retrospect, the knowledge of fear in moderation is not at all a bad thing for a child. Although I don’t even want for K to live in fear, he still needs to learn that our world, despite it being God’s beautiful creation, has its good and bad. A child may be naturally fearful of some things, however they need to be taught to be fearful of certain other things to be sensible about their actions. This is the paradox of life as we know it.
I have been experiencing many more fears ever since I have become a parent. I worry about every single thing about K; whether he sleeps/eat/rest/developing well etc. I will learn to take things in stride and take it one day at a time. Afterall, there will be more good days and some bad days.
“The source of anxiety lies in the future. If you can keep the future out of mind, you can forget your worries.”
~ Milan Kundera
