Grubbs n Critters

July 18, 2012

On the ball

When a few random people once told me that a gym ball can be used to soothe a really fussy baby a couple of years ago, I thought that sounded awfully weird. It went right over my head as I (silently) went, “Yeah. Right.

In my mind, I was certain they were just doing a sales pitch and was trying to impose their holistic nonsense bullshit on me –I was, after all, in some yoga class when that conversation happened. I really thought they had gone over the cuckoo’s nest!

I mean, what do you do with a gym ball? Or a birthing ball, or an exercise ball, a balance ball, or whatever it is that is being called, except using it as a prop when you exercise? You know that big, round of a ball which is about 10x the size of your head and you can use it to bounce your butt around? Yeah, this:

Turned out I was probably the weird, closed-minded one and those people knew what they were talking about. (Duh! I know…I know….)

Why am I even blogging about this? Apart from the fact that I have put myself in shame by exposing my ignorance about the uses of the ball, I also discovered the magic of the ball last week in my “Mommy and Me” Yoga class session with Spud.

Ahh! Now it is making sense, right!

I have always enjoyed the “Mommy and Me” Yoga sessions for moms with new babies (min. 1 month till about crawling stage). I figured, since I did a number of sessionswith Spud when I was on maternity leave, I thought going with Squirt now would be a good way to spend one-on-one time with him before I go back to work; which was what exactly I did last week.

Except that due to his reflux, that poor boy could not stop crying and was inconsolable. Nothing I tried worked, and looking at how helpless I was, the instructor offered to get me a gym ball. While I went “what”, “why” and almost rolling my eyeballs IN MY HEAD when I heard that, I accepted the offer graciously.

When she came back with the ball and suggested that I bounce on the ball while cradling Squirt, I did wonder if it will work. I even felt certain that it was a futile effort, and somewhat ridiculous. But I was too focused on trying to calm Squirt down, and at that time, I was game to try ANYTHING.

What do you know – the moment I sat on it and started bouncing up and down like a clown, Squirt calmed down immediately. I kid you not. He stopped crying in an instant! I even tried it several times during that session for every single time he got inconsolably fussy. I was so amazed that I immediately bought us a 65 cm ball home.

I am now endorsing that it indeed is a fabulous tool for soothing a fussy Squirt. Each time he gets into one of his crying fits, I get on the ball. And it worked every damn time; even putting Silver Bullet in amazement at how Squirt just shuts up!

A very nice Sunday

Category: Random

Although mornings tend to be a little bit more stressful as we try to get everyone in the household ready for the day before we head out to town, it has been a while since we have had a nice weekend. By “nice”, I mean:

No (major) drama
No temper-tantrums
No (major) episodes of rejection
No flying off the handle (i.e. me)
No inconsolable crying

In fact, we had a relatively peaceful Sunday for us as a family in a very long, long, long time!

We kept our day loose, and decided that we’ll head out for brunch at our all-time favourite haunt, Crepes & Co located at Sukhumvit Soi 12. Usually, midway through our breakfast or brunch session at Crepes & Co, we all will be feeling a little frenzied in trying to complete our meals and chasing after a hyper- active toddler.

This time round, our brunch session was actually pleasant. Very pleasant. I could even describe the entire session as being…wait for it… RELAXED!

We all had our meals in peace – Spud was eating really well, mostly feeding herself at the table, and Squirt sat in the stroller quietly (awake!) as BOTH parents enjoyed their meals together at the same time without drawing too much attention to ourselves. Spud, when not eating with us, got busy by helping herself to the small-ish play area near us or, trying to make friends with other diners.

We have always loved the food and atmosphere there, and we have spent many a morning for breakfast or for brunch, but none of our experience has been quite as nice and relaxing as what we had last Sunday. It felt surreal. (Even using the word “relaxing” sounds so surreal to me!)

We all had an unexpectedly nice Sunday.

What makes it even extra monumental for us is, that was likely to be the last time we set foot in there as the restaurant will be moving to a different venue by the end of this month.

It also occurred to me that I have never really taken a picture while we dined in the restaurant. So, here are a few nice parting shot of this place, accompanied with a heart-warming picture of my little family. We’ll miss this place, for sure.

Naming Squirt

Category: Random

One of the more trivial, but important things we struggled with when I was pregnant was choosing and agreeing on a boy’s name for Squirt.

When I was pregnant with Spud (and not knowing her gender then), I remember that we managed to come up with several girl’s name and only a couple of boys name. We actually settled on one name for each gender well within the early 2nd trimester of my pregnancy.

When our dear Dr. Ah-Chai boo-booed it for us by accidentally letting us know Squirt’s gender after my amnio results, technically, that knowledge should have made our lives easier; given that we need to only think of a boy’s name.

Technically, we could also have made our lives simpler by just using the boy’s name which we had picked earlier had Spud turned out to be a boy.

But we didn’t.

Somehow both Silver Bullet and I agreed that the name we had earlier for a boy was just “doable” and not exactly “it”. I don’t know why that was, and with Squirt’s(real) name, it took us months upon months right into the later weeks into my 3^rdtrimester before we finally agreed on one name .

I came to realize that looking for names especially that of a boy, not only is much more difficult to think of (and agree on), it was also one of the most irritating thing I have ever done. I don’t know how many times I have looked through the list of names on several websites and only to come to a conclusion that they are all the same. Even after going through them over and over again, there was no real “Aha! That’s IT!”moment

We wanted simple, we wanted easy and we wanted a name that is neutral enough that has no negative connotation when the name is being translated to Dutch or Malay. Nothing fancy, nothing weird and nothing unique-sounding. Most important of all, it should be easy to spell and pronounce. Given the criteria we had, coming up with a name was not the easiest task – for a boy, it was hideous!

It made the whole process much more challenging than it already was, as what I liked, Silver Bullet (mostly vehemently) didn’t. And what he suggested did not move my mojo. Some of the names we agreed to shortlist were just lukewarm. By the end of a few weeks of rigorous search as I was already nearing the due date, I was getting impatient and slightly more than annoyed because he did not agree to one name which I really, really liked. I don’t think we have more than 3 and we were not even close to come to an agreement of one name which we both like!

But like all other things, it all sorts itself out in the end. I suggested something which Silver Bullet was open to, he suggested a variation of it, and we both decided that we liked the name after mulling over it for a few days.

If it was up to me, it could have been Eddie. But it was not my decision, and that was the one name which Silver Bullet has the most objections to because it reminded him of a boy he really did not like very much. And so, we mutually agreed on Squirt.

Okay. Obviously, that is not his real name, and for the purpose of privacy protection, only pseudonyms will be used in this blog.

What’s funny though, while most people would be aware that Squirt is his nick name or his belly-name, and we use it more as a term of endearment as we do with Spud, there are actually people who actually believed that Squirt is his real name!

In fact, wishes were even addressed with “Squirt” spelt out on a formal-sounding congratulatory notes sent out to me.I literally smacked my forehead when I read the note, thinking that this person could not possibly think that I would name my child “Squirt” in real life. (Turned out he really did!)

How bizarrely funny is that?!