Tuesday, October 17, 2023
Hello commonplace book, I'm back.
Let's see how long I can be back.
I want to document my making things ideas as they seem to move faster than I can keep up with.
I want to get some patterns printed.
palazzo for Olly.
tshirts for boys
and now I need to go to class.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
This one is about Sam
Sam is awesome and gorgeous.
Things Sam is into this week:
He told me a great story and I wrote it up, I might post it later. It's called 'The Fox, The Squirrel and the Baby Chicken'.
He started to write another story himself on the computer. His typing is much slower than his speaking, as finding the right keys and spelling hold him back. I told him to just write then go back and do the spelling, but he doesn't want to. The new story is called 'The Storm of Heaven'.
Sam is into Jesus, Mummy is not. I think that shows some strength of character, considering how much he cares about my opinion about things. So we agree to disagree. Ditas is into Jesus of the Catholic kind and goes to a great church with high ceilings and 70s arches that even I like. I like the Filipino priests, they try to make the mass entertaining as far as I can tell, and I like the theatricality and historicality (?) of the processions like Flores to de Mayo so I am happy for Sam to get roped into being a little Constanino or an Angel or whatever it required.
Sam's Grandparents and Auntie on Keon's side are into Jesus of the Protestant kind, maybe Presbyterian. That's what Wikipedia says that Koreans like. Their church has freezing air conditioning and low ceilings and the priest looks like a mildly depressed and highly conservative accountant. I find it excruciating. But it's all in Korean and Sam enjoys it. There are songs and stories at the Sunday school and a chance to be admired for his reading and pronunciation. I think he enjoys the look on my face when he says annoying jesus things, too. He's taken to saying grace at dinner. I think that being thankful for things is the least toxic part of religion so I can't argue with that. I don't like the walking on water crap though. Anyway, I don't have to go. Keon drops him off and his grandfather takes him.
I wasn't planning to go on about religion, but this is my blog entry for getting back on track, and it's one element of life that I didn't expect. I thought I could have a relationship of mutual ignorance with religion and church. I ignore you, you ignore me.
Ok, other things Sammy says that I like.
Is our thermometer measuring cold or hot?
What number is infinity?
(T: Infinity is the number that comes after all the other numbers)
What is outside of space?
(T: According to Einstein, whose biography I am reading, there is no outside, it kind of wraps around again. It's all space, and it's expanding, but not into anything, and it wraps back around the way a 2D person on Earth who walking in what they thought was a straight line would eventually get back to the same place).
I am going to be a scientist. A brain scientist.
Do I really have a lizard brain?
(T: Yes, you have three brains according to this diagram in my brain science book. Lizard, Mammal and human. Mammal means animals that drink milk).
This is what Olly is going to wear tomorrow. A onesie, pink and white pants, a red shirt and rocket socks. Ok? I'm putting it in this box.
I have invented a 2012 game to play with Sammy. The aim is for him to be more independent with his sleeping, without causing upset for when he really needs to be with us. To create a payoff for staying in bed that balances the fun of cuddling with us. We really don't have room in the bed and I have to wake up to feed Olly at night. I'm really tired.
He can get points for
a) going to sleep by himself after a story (without needing someone to cuddle him to sleep)
b) staying in bed all night, or going back to bed if he gets up to pee
c) in the case of an afternoon nap being appropriate, managing it by himself.
That means that in one day, he can earn 2 points and maybe three on a weekend.
He can redeem the points by having a 'Sammy Evening', for which he is in control of the events of the evening. What we will eat, what dessert there will be, and what the activity is that everyone will participate in. Games or watching a movie, and which ones.
I had a think about what a good payoff would be. I thought about buying him shows on iTunes that he could play on his iPhone, but that's kind of boring and unsocial. The things that 5 year olds like most, I reckon, are control, being important and having the full attention of his parents. Sam seems pretty keen on the game. Last night he won 2 points.
I have been reading 'Brain Rules' and 'Brain Rules for Baby' which are better than they sound. The baby one is also about pregnancy and toddlers and is full of interesting ideas. But I 'read' it as an audiobook which makes it harder for me to recall. I'm going to buy the paper version. In fact, I'm going to buy it for everyone I know who is pregnant right now.
There's more I want to say about Sam but I can't remember everything now.
He's great at doing his homework. When I do chinese in parallel, I learn it.
He's writing lists for us of 'things that we haven't done yet'. Trying to get us organised. 'Right Mummy, are there any more things not done yet?' It seems to be a thoughtful way of pointing out things we haven't done for him (his curtain, taping his Tagalog songs for youtube).
He loves his sister and is really great with her and she loves him right back. Really.
Things Sam is into this week:
He told me a great story and I wrote it up, I might post it later. It's called 'The Fox, The Squirrel and the Baby Chicken'.
He started to write another story himself on the computer. His typing is much slower than his speaking, as finding the right keys and spelling hold him back. I told him to just write then go back and do the spelling, but he doesn't want to. The new story is called 'The Storm of Heaven'.
I wasn't planning to go on about religion, but this is my blog entry for getting back on track, and it's one element of life that I didn't expect. I thought I could have a relationship of mutual ignorance with religion and church. I ignore you, you ignore me.
Ok, other things Sammy says that I like.
Is our thermometer measuring cold or hot?
What number is infinity?
(T: Infinity is the number that comes after all the other numbers)
What is outside of space?
(T: According to Einstein, whose biography I am reading, there is no outside, it kind of wraps around again. It's all space, and it's expanding, but not into anything, and it wraps back around the way a 2D person on Earth who walking in what they thought was a straight line would eventually get back to the same place).
I am going to be a scientist. A brain scientist.
Do I really have a lizard brain?
(T: Yes, you have three brains according to this diagram in my brain science book. Lizard, Mammal and human. Mammal means animals that drink milk).
This is what Olly is going to wear tomorrow. A onesie, pink and white pants, a red shirt and rocket socks. Ok? I'm putting it in this box.
I have invented a 2012 game to play with Sammy. The aim is for him to be more independent with his sleeping, without causing upset for when he really needs to be with us. To create a payoff for staying in bed that balances the fun of cuddling with us. We really don't have room in the bed and I have to wake up to feed Olly at night. I'm really tired.
He can get points for
a) going to sleep by himself after a story (without needing someone to cuddle him to sleep)
b) staying in bed all night, or going back to bed if he gets up to pee
c) in the case of an afternoon nap being appropriate, managing it by himself.
That means that in one day, he can earn 2 points and maybe three on a weekend.
He can redeem the points by having a 'Sammy Evening', for which he is in control of the events of the evening. What we will eat, what dessert there will be, and what the activity is that everyone will participate in. Games or watching a movie, and which ones.
I had a think about what a good payoff would be. I thought about buying him shows on iTunes that he could play on his iPhone, but that's kind of boring and unsocial. The things that 5 year olds like most, I reckon, are control, being important and having the full attention of his parents. Sam seems pretty keen on the game. Last night he won 2 points.
I have been reading 'Brain Rules' and 'Brain Rules for Baby' which are better than they sound. The baby one is also about pregnancy and toddlers and is full of interesting ideas. But I 'read' it as an audiobook which makes it harder for me to recall. I'm going to buy the paper version. In fact, I'm going to buy it for everyone I know who is pregnant right now.
There's more I want to say about Sam but I can't remember everything now.
He's great at doing his homework. When I do chinese in parallel, I learn it.
He's writing lists for us of 'things that we haven't done yet'. Trying to get us organised. 'Right Mummy, are there any more things not done yet?' It seems to be a thoughtful way of pointing out things we haven't done for him (his curtain, taping his Tagalog songs for youtube).
He loves his sister and is really great with her and she loves him right back. Really.
New Name New Sibling
I think I should change the name of this blog to Sam & Olive TV. Or something better.
I need somewhere to dump ideas longer than a FaceBook post before I forget them. Time to try blogging again.
So, now we have Olive. Olive is three months old. Her 100 days 'birthday' will be the 3rd January. Tanya started work again on 19th December and so far has managed to express milk and breastfeed 100%. I'm not self righteous about that as far as other people are concerned, but it's such an utter pain and so tiring that I have to make it really important so that there is no question for me about just doing it. Did you know babies who breastfeed have measurably higher health and IQ?
Things Olive likes:
Changing her clothes
Being a nudist, especially no nappy
Leaving the house
Looking out at things while being carried around
Taking a bath with splashing
Looking at her brother
Looking at people
Lying in her baby playground and hitting the zebra
Kicking and grabbing krokka the crocodile
Talking like a croaky bird
Putting her feet on her daddy's face
Putting her feet on her mummy's boobs
Sleeping at night (yay!)
Walking through HK at night and watching the lights
Parties
People calling her 'Marite' in Latvian or 'Junyi' in Korean
Listening to Haraboji
Things Olive dislikes:
Loud sneezes
A wet nappy
Speeches, especially the clapping
Tanya drinking red wine or eating bread
Breastmilk coming too slowly
Using the fancy Medela nipple when she's already hungry
Being tired and hungry at the same time
Staying in the same room for too long
Being hungry
Olive likes more things than she dislikes, which makes her a nice person to be around most of the time.
So, now we have Olive. Olive is three months old. Her 100 days 'birthday' will be the 3rd January. Tanya started work again on 19th December and so far has managed to express milk and breastfeed 100%. I'm not self righteous about that as far as other people are concerned, but it's such an utter pain and so tiring that I have to make it really important so that there is no question for me about just doing it. Did you know babies who breastfeed have measurably higher health and IQ?
Changing her clothes
Being a nudist, especially no nappy
Leaving the house
Looking out at things while being carried around
Taking a bath with splashing
Looking at her brother
Looking at people
Lying in her baby playground and hitting the zebra
Kicking and grabbing krokka the crocodile
Talking like a croaky bird
Putting her feet on her daddy's face
Putting her feet on her mummy's boobs
Sleeping at night (yay!)
Walking through HK at night and watching the lights
Parties
People calling her 'Marite' in Latvian or 'Junyi' in Korean
Listening to Haraboji
Things Olive dislikes:
Loud sneezes
A wet nappy
Speeches, especially the clapping
Tanya drinking red wine or eating bread
Breastmilk coming too slowly
Using the fancy Medela nipple when she's already hungry
Being tired and hungry at the same time
Staying in the same room for too long
Being hungry
Olive likes more things than she dislikes, which makes her a nice person to be around most of the time.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
And Manners!
Sammy says
- please
- thankyou
- you're welcome
yesterday he spilled soup on the table and he said 'tissue please' and mopped it up.
and if you say 'goodbye...' a few times, he'll give up whatever he's up to and be willing to do something else without a tanty. (If you yank it away without so much as a polite conversation, you deserve what you get).
Willaby wallaby wanya,
an elephant sat on tanya
- please
- thankyou
- you're welcome
yesterday he spilled soup on the table and he said 'tissue please' and mopped it up.
and if you say 'goodbye...' a few times, he'll give up whatever he's up to and be willing to do something else without a tanty. (If you yank it away without so much as a polite conversation, you deserve what you get).
Willaby wallaby wanya,
an elephant sat on tanya
Friday, April 24, 2009
Other people
Things Sam does and says this month.
He will take something he is looking at (like the monkey game on the iPhone) and turn it around so that the other person can see it. It's the first time i've noticed him noticing another person having a different 'point of view'. He does it very carefully and deliberately.
He is very interested in his reflection and his shadow. He talks to them and keeps an eye on them.
He knows that verbs have different forms. He uses the continuous to describe: 'Daddy sleeping' 'baby crying', and the simple to instruct: 'mummy, sit down, eat'.
He is an increasingly absorbent sponge of new words. Asking and repeating and filing.
He has many lexical phrases. Daddy sleeping inabed. What are you doing?
He has relative concepts. 'to me' and 'you'. 'Mine' and 'mummy phone'.
He has relative locations. Mummy here. Daddy there (upstairs). Daddy gone. (to work, also out of town). But if we are in Central (Dit pointed this out), then Daddy is 'there'. (He's walking distance away).
And he has increasingly sophisticated imagination and play. Like someone hiding rather obviously (with a pillow on their face) and he will look under the sofa, in the wrong places.
He has his own names for his favourite toys and videos. the wiggles are called 'yummy yummy'.
His (Dit's) favourite TV shows are ellen degeneres, kimmel and american idol, and he can ask for them.
He loves his wiggles magazines and he loves spiderman, even though it's scary. I think it gives him nightmares.
He's so cool. Did i mention that?
He will take something he is looking at (like the monkey game on the iPhone) and turn it around so that the other person can see it. It's the first time i've noticed him noticing another person having a different 'point of view'. He does it very carefully and deliberately.
He is very interested in his reflection and his shadow. He talks to them and keeps an eye on them.
He knows that verbs have different forms. He uses the continuous to describe: 'Daddy sleeping' 'baby crying', and the simple to instruct: 'mummy, sit down, eat'.
He is an increasingly absorbent sponge of new words. Asking and repeating and filing.
He has many lexical phrases. Daddy sleeping inabed. What are you doing?
He has relative concepts. 'to me' and 'you'. 'Mine' and 'mummy phone'.
He has relative locations. Mummy here. Daddy there (upstairs). Daddy gone. (to work, also out of town). But if we are in Central (Dit pointed this out), then Daddy is 'there'. (He's walking distance away).
And he has increasingly sophisticated imagination and play. Like someone hiding rather obviously (with a pillow on their face) and he will look under the sofa, in the wrong places.
He has his own names for his favourite toys and videos. the wiggles are called 'yummy yummy'.
His (Dit's) favourite TV shows are ellen degeneres, kimmel and american idol, and he can ask for them.
He loves his wiggles magazines and he loves spiderman, even though it's scary. I think it gives him nightmares.
He's so cool. Did i mention that?
Monday, November 10, 2008
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