Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

Those four legs will not dangle off those bus stop seats forever.

And so while they still do … here’s a shot of it for Mommy to get all sentimental later.

I don’t normally write about jewellery. And I guess it’s because I don’t wear much fancy accessories myself these days.

It doesn’t mean I don’t like cute and pretty stuff though. It’s just that I now wear practical ones that don’t require much ‘changing’ (getting my two small kids ready to go out in time generally means minimal time is left for me to get ready. Hmm. A rather lame excuse, you think?).

Anyway. Today I want to introduce you to Lady Nic’s.

It’s an online store selling hand-made jewellery. Necklaces, earrings and bracelets. Pretty stuff!

What I find motivating is how the owner, the jewellery maker, my good old friend Nichol, is driven to pursue her love for crafting though she herself is busy being a mom to her 17-month-old son, Will.

I asked her a few questions to find out more about her crafts and how she struggles to juggle everything.

And here they are.

Leonny: When and why did you start making hand-made jewellery?

Nic: Started making about 6 years ago. Couldn’t find what I like and when I did find, they’re too expensive to buy. So…

Leonny: Now that you’re a busy Mom of one with no helper at home, why do you want to start the business again?

Nic: After 17 months of focusing on how to be a mother and a housewife, I feel it’s time that I can afford to shift a little attention back to ME – to do what I enjoy and to earn my keeps!

Leonny: How do you juggle the time between creating your masterpieces, caring for your son, spending time with hubby, housework and everything else?

Nic: Frankly, my hands are really full juggling so many things! I spend my days with son, playing and doing activities with him. In between his TV and short nap time, I’ll do little chores here and there (they are never-ending anyway!). Near dinner time is my busiest – cooking for the family, feeding and bathing son etc.

Hubby and I will sometimes put son at my mother’s house so that we can catch a movie or just go chill out. On most nights, we’ll have a quick chat to update our days.

When I breastfeed my son, I will think of designs and transform them into creations at night when everybody is asleep. At times I need a few nights to complete a piece as my son may disrupt my work by waking up a few times!

Leonny: Any ‘sacrifices’ you can tell and share?

Nic: Sacrifices? SLEEP, of course! Have been clocking in like 4-5 hours of shut-eye per night…and it’s a cumulative number, for goodness sake!

Leonny: Last one, what makes your jewellery ‘unique’?

Nic: As long as the creator does not copy, her creations are ‘unique’!

My jewellery are essentially inspired by imagination, music, scenery, a novel I had read, my own life experiences…and anything that tugs at my heartstring. Every piece has a theme/tale. And I make them with lots of sincerity!

PS: Nic adds to her collection periodically, so do check her e-store once in a while for great new stuff you may want to bring home and wear! Online payment and orders are available too!

Checking out the road traffic right after their afternoon nap

(just one of the ‘perks’ you get from living in a Singapore flat)

Our little one is now just one month short of being a 1,5 year old kid!

How time flies!

Anyway, here’re a few updates:

Physical activities
When we’re in the playground, he’s one who’ll happily explore the equipments all by himself (read: doesn’t ask for ‘help’ when getting down the slides, etc).

Thus, coupled with his naturally-into-physical-activities character, he now climbs up vertical steps and goes down the slide all by himself. When he reaches the top of the slide, I’d often stand nearby though, to remind him to ‘sit down’ before sliding down, as he always looks as if he’s going to ‘walk down’ the slide instead!

He’s starting to master the art of going up those not-too-steep stairs without holding onto anything.

Toothbrushing
After each shower, he’d ‘insist’ that he goes over to basin and stands on the plastic stool to brush his teeth. Despite his ‘eagerness’ to self-brush, he doesn’t really welcome the idea of me brushing his teeth though (ie. looking away after three seconds or so).

And so while I let him hold a little toothbrush, I use a finger toothbrush to clean his gum, teeth and his tongue (where possible).

Language
Whenever we’re outside, he’d enthusiastically point and call out the objects he recognises.

He understands when we ask him to do stuff (but of course understanding the instructions doesn’t necessarily mean obeying them. Hmm.)

When it comes to talking, he mostly says one-syllable words, eg. ‘dog’, ‘ish’ (fish) ‘duck’, ‘ca’ (car), ‘Tak’ (truck), ‘fy’ (butterfly), ‘get’ (for ‘kaget’, indo for ‘shocked’), ‘dong’ (for ‘gendong’, indo for ‘carry’), ‘da’ (for ‘sepeda’, indo for ‘bike’).

Some of the two-syllable words he can say: mama, mommy, daddy, mum-mum (eat), doggy, ini (indo for ‘this’) or ek-ek (indo for ‘poop’, hehe)

Weight
He’s now 13,2 kg.

I get people asking me about the cameras I use when taking photos of the kids. And so I thought I’ll share a little bit about it today.

>> I (almost always) have my Canon IXUS 850 IS in my bag. And I take most of my photos with this.

And so far I’m very happy with it.

It’s compact enough for me and reasonably light-weight. It comes with wide-angle lens too (which is ‘necessary’ for my case since I take lots of self-portrait of me and the kids, hehe)

Other than its many functions, I’m pretty happy with its video function too!

Really. It lets me keep memorable actions and sounds of the kids that photos alone can never ‘show’.

[This is me in December 2006, holding my one-day old IXUS]

>> When we’re at home, I sometimes use my hubby’s Nikon D200.

Fortunately, since he’s a photographer, I get to enjoy his camera lenses too, hehe.

Shots taken with his camera – like those of the kids above – naturally turn out ‘nicer’, hehe.

[oh btw, that’s still-pregnant-with-Vai me taking a self-portrait in front of a mirror in May 2006]

>> I usually switch off the camera’s built-in flash and take advantage of ‘natural light’.

Colours turn out much more natural this way (when we use built-in flash, generally we get ‘brightly-lit’ objects with dark background).

>> I have certain preferences as to how I’d like my blog photos to look, and so all photos here in my site go through some colour enhancements process in photoshop.

…

Well, after sharing all that, I think I need to let you know too that I’m not a photoshop expert nor a photo expert. Actually, I’m VERY far from it! Most of the time I use the camera’s ‘auto’ settings! And so yes, I’m still learning, testing and fiddling as I go along.

One thing is for sure though, I’m passionate about capturing moments, especially those of the kids, because I feel time flies real fast, moments go unrepeated and kids grow in the blink of an eye.

And with my rusty memory, I would love to look back one day, browse through our photo and video collection (however huge they’ll be), and be reminded again of those moments our loving God has blessed us with through the years.

Everyone has weaknesses and we all make mistakes. But what’s more important is our response afterwards. Whether we move forward and be a better person or dwell in our mistakes.

It’s important that we remember how we should be willing to:

– acknowledge our mistakes and weaknesses
– sincerely ask for God’s forgiveness
– apologise to those we’ve made our wrongs to
– make amends
– constantly learn to do and be better AND leave our sins behind.

Just one of the ‘more physical’ kinds of play this little boy enjoys.

Anya was in the toilet one day when she spotted the printed word on the toilet bowl. She then excitedly spelled out the alphabets really loudly for me:

S … A … N … I … T … O … N! Wow! Look Mommy, it says TOILET!