bits and pieces from the life of a lazy blogger...who sometimes hoped to be abducted by alien before the go-live of a difficult project and safely return to Earth in time for the closing celebration
Note: Kids Diary @ Keat-In-Space is a private blog. Please contact keatinspace@gmail.com to access. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bay @ 2 years and 2 months
Birthday cupcake for the boy who stole my heart 10 years ago
His name is Kippy, the puppy who came into our family 10 years ago and the one whom I missed most when I was stationed in Beijing. He's the sweetest and most affectionate doggie who is also a gentle giant with the kids. (well, he is a giant in his miniature schnauzer world, ok!)
Bay bullies Kippy all the time...
洁语录之:
Dont get a pet on impulse, remember, they are for life. You will always be the whole world to them, till the last day of their lives. I used to think and I still do... a dog won't abandon you but no one can say for sure that your children won't.
Stop animal abuse! Do not support illegal animals trading. If the buying stops, the killing can too!
If you are a blogger parent like me, please do be very selective on the pictures or videos of your child that you post on the web. I know... we can get carried away at times, recording their every moment... of them laughing, running, eating, singing, crying or even bathing! Arhhh... my point is, please do remember to protect your child's modesty and cover up their critical parts. See, what if 60 years down the road, the child become one of the president candidate? They will hate us for posting naked pictures or videos of them!
With photo editing tools now so readily available, it is easy to blur up or overlap the critical parts but I did have some problems when it comes to videos. I spent some time researching and found some ways to overlay an image on to a video. These might not be the best way to do it, so please share with me if there is a better method to do this.
I'm using Windows 7 and the methods provided below are based on the available freeware.
Original Video: Pooh strolling without pants. (Geez! Help him cover up please)
Method 1: Microsoft Expression Encoder 4
If needed, click here to download the software.
This is quite easy to use, however I could only overlay 1 image on to the video. Perhaps more overlays could be added but I have not explored enough with this software yet. The output file format is .wmv whereas the original file format is .mov, somehow it had been converted and the HD was lost. See this tutorial for more guidance.
You can find "Visual Overlay" under the "Enhance" tab (Different from the tutorial)
From File menu, select "Encode" to save the video
System didnt let me specify where to save the output file and it took me a while to figure out where it was saved in...
Effect: Can only cover once...
Method 2: Windows Live Movie Maker
If needed, click here to download the software and find out more about this software.
This is also quite easy to use, however it has it's limitation. Strictly speaking, what I did was not overlaying image, I simply made used of the "add caption" function to achieve the effect that I wanted. I don't think this software can overlay a real image, at least I dont know how to do that. The + point about Windows Live Movie Maker is that you can upload to youtube directly.
Use the "add Caption" function
Edit the text using using some "symbol" type of fonts, big font size and colours
Proceed to add as many "captions" as needed. I created 8 so that the "image" can "move" too as Pooh turned his body
For the font type that I used:
Star = shift + 8
Bell = shift + "
Shopping bag = b
Effect: All covered up! I'm happy with the end results
Method 3: Windows Movie Maker 2.6
If needed, click here to download the software and find out more about this software.
You will also need the AddOn .xml file from PapaJohn here.
This is the most complex method of the three and some amount of initial setup is needed to get the AddOn .xml file. The AddOn .xml enabled the "Make titles or credits" function to have the custom overlay. Windows Movie Maker 2.6 cannot read the original file format .mov and I had to convert it first. It is also a lot of trial and error artworking to create the overlay image files in order to place the rubber duckie exactly where it was needed. (I used SnagIt 10 Editor to create the image with transparent background).
Overlay image file: Need to create a transparent image with the rubber duckie placed exactly at the right spot.
(a lot of trial and error needed!) I created 3 files as Pooh turned around 3 times.
Follow the steps...
Effect: All Covered up! But it is quite time consuming to get the rubber duckie to appear at the exact spot. As you can see at the last turn, it was kind of out of place (and I was too lazy to shift it already)
Summary
I think I will stick with Windows Live Movie Maker most of the time, due to it's ease of use and the video quality is best preserved. Though the overlay "images" are very limited but they are quick to create and the end results are satisfactory enough for me.
Blogging had become my way of life, in fact it had replaced the habit of writing diary. I would murder anyone who read my diary without my permission but now I dont even know who read my blog. Such irony right? I'm lazy and will only write what I want and when I feel like it, that's why my blog is still in bits and pieces. The major reason why I choose to blog about my life is so that I can keep a chronological record of things that happened. Right, like I'm in constant worry that I'm going to forget about these stuff when I grow old. Viewership is definitely the last thing on my mind. Blogging is an excellent way to put photos and videos together with some words of how I felt at the point in time. Some people like facebook or other social networks but I thought those are even more fragmented than the bit and pieces on my blog!
A few months back there were some technical issues with Blogger and some of my updates were lost. Luckily the damage is not huge for me but this reminded me on how important it is to backup my life. I had "dump" all my memories here and I thought I dont have to remember them anymore since they are here for me to read. But what if the system crashed and everything is lost?
Still, being the biggest procrastinator on Earth, I finally got down to doing this work today! I had to transfer all my documents to the new laptop and return the old one, might as well backup my blog at the same time.
I found that backup can be done this way with the new Blogger interface:
From your Blogger homepage, click on "Go to post list" for the blog that you want to backup.
Under Settings > Other, you will find Blog Tools. Click on "Export blog". You will be asked to save your blog as a .xml file in your hard drive. Follow the prompt to save.
20 August 2011 - 28 August 2011
Bay is 25 months old
We managed to catch the super sweet SQ promotion. Return air tickets to Shanghai was only S$488 per person, taxes inclusive! The only thing though was that Bay is more than 2 years old now and I had to pay for his ticket which is almost S$488. This was the first trip which he was officially entitled to his own seat.
Day 1 (Travelling day)
As usual, we took the mid afternoon flight and reached Shanghai in the evening. Although Bay's got his own seat but it was difficult to keep him seated in it, what he wanted to do was either to stand on it or to sit on my lap. In the end, the crew got to give me the infant seat belt and he sat with me during take off. The good thing was he fell asleep at the moment when the airplane wheels left the ground.
Before take-off... windows of the plane goes up and down, up and down, up and down
K.O.
Hoot! Meal time... My oriental chicken rice set and they gave me one with the breast meat (I hate it!)... but I still finish everything. "Give face" to the chilly sause and I was really hungry!
Kids' meal - Chicken spaghetti, he finished half of it
After meal entertainment... It's like watching with the sound turned off. So cute!
Half way through the flight, Bay took his trolley bag, dragged it to the front of the plane and said to me, "Mama, let's go. I dont want aeroplane already!" Haiz... Ok, nap - checked, meals - checked, ice-cream checked, in-flight entertainment - checked... what else can we do? It's going to be a long remaining 3 hours...
When we reached our destination, I'm totally beaten by an hyper-active toddler on board who only wants to climb up and down, left and right the seat instead of sitting on it. So tired that I couldnt take anymore photos.
Day 2 (玉佛寺)
We will visit this temple quite often per mum's request as it was where she went for the 水陆法会. We had vegetarian noodle lunch at the temple cafeteria. The taste is pretty ok but it is oily like the usual normal chinese food. For 10 RMB per bowl, I am not complaining.
Bonding with papa
young devotee
feeding the kois
On our way home
Day 3 - Day 7
I should amend this post title to "August 2011 - 病猫之旅" but it was so awful and unauspicious!
All of us fell sick with different degree of seriousness. Mark was on MC for a day for gastric pain (He hardly take MC one!). Kiiron and me were having tummy upset. Mum's case of stomach flu was the worst. She puked and had stomach cramps which were so bad that she could not even get up the bed. So we stayed home for almost the whole week. Other than that, our days were quite uneventful... lazing at home or walking around supermarkets & Decathlon. I even bought a new Dino Baby stroller for S$40. Hahaha! cheap cheap!
Nevertheless, I kept to my "A Pot of Curry" date... a few days later. Better late than never right! My mum did the cooking, not me! hahaha!
Our pot of curry from Shanghai
Bay must be so bored at home that he helped to clean the house by mimicking the cleaning 阿姨. It was more like a game.
Day 8 (Presidential Election Day)
Mark had to go do his duty as a Singapore today. The plan is to go fo lunch with his colleagues first before heading to the embassy. Mum was still too sick to go out with us.
Lunch was arranged at 吉士酒家, a small restaurant serving really good chinese food. Apparently, we had to make reservations 2 weeks before in order to get a table.
葱烤鸦片鱼头 (Baked Cod Fish Head with Spring Onion)... a must order dish.
Have to preorder when making reservation
Other must order dishes...
spicy chicken & prawn, 蟹粉粉皮, 红烧肉
(Bay took the right most pic!)
Voted!
Day 9 (Home Sweet Home)
Time to pack... 姨妈's loot from taobao
We took the evening flight back and will reach Singapore almost midnight. Not very good timing for a toddler.
A little accident happened just before take-off! Our plane has just began to taxi and I was trying to get Bay who again was standing on the seat, to settle down. Then there was a sudden jerk and Bay fall backwards and hit the back of his head on the turn-knob of the tray table! I felt a soft lump on his head and immediately took a clean wet tissue to compress it. He stopped crying rather quickly and the plane took-off. To my horror, I found that he was actually bleeding. A small area of the skin was scraped off. Luckily it stopped bleeding after a while and he didnt show any signs concussion. I have to insisted that he must be seated in future!
We had been discussing for a while on how to spend this National Day Holiday. Leela suggested on going for a potluck picnic at Pasir Ris Park but somehow not many of the targeted participants are keen, so it was cancelled the night before.
What shall we do then? How about spending the day at the museums? After all, there are free adminssions for Singaporeans for the month of August! I was playing with my phone and found the MySentosa App which I installed sometime back and decided to give it a try. Checked out the Family Fun recommendation in the app and there it was... "Skyline Luge Sentosa". We decided to give it a try and fortunately Bay just made it for the min height requirement of 85cm.
Skyride - Not for the faint hearted!
In order to enjoy the leisure downhill ride, one will have to climb uphill first! Fortunately, there is the skyride to bring us up so we don't have to do much of the physical work. This is similar to those ski lifts in winter wonderland... cannot imagine we have these in sunny Singapore too right!
I'm not afraid of heights, but it was pretty nerve-wracking as there was no safety belt for kids on the skyride. Yah, Bay was sitting openly high up in the air. Good thing that he was very occupied with new the experience and remained seated throughout the 5 mins ride.
Kiiron: apprehensive of what is coming... Mama: nerve-wracked!
Two of us... (photo coutesy of 二姨妈)
Geez! see how tightly I grabbed his pants!
Dont forget to enjoy the view...
Hello! Tham brothers at the front...
Luge - Once is not enough
Told you the leisure downhill ride will be fun! There was a 1 min training for 1st timers and then we were ready to rock n roll! It was not difficult to control the luge, even 7-year-old J1 could ride it on his own. Bay rided with me and I must say that was the coolest bonding time!
Gear up, Get set, Go!
Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!
2nd skyride with J2
Rating (5/5)
We had a blast! The boys totally enjoyed themselves. Highly recommended for a fun outdoor day! If your kiddo can't sit still for 5 mins or you are very concerned about their safety on the skyride, then perhaps it's better to wait until they are older. We definitely will be back for more...
9th of August is Singapore's National Day but school usually will have a celebration a day before.
This is Bay's 3rd National Day and his 1st celebration in school. He had to wear the "national day outfit" to school and bring some snacks/desserts for the little party.
His class is performing " The Singapore Cheer" and I've been practising with him at home by watching the youtube video as instructed by his teacher. Usually he loved to watch youtube videos, but when I turned on "The Singapore Cheer", he kept saying "No" and "I dont want". Haiz... he just doesnt like anything that got to do with school.
I decided to make some Singapore version of the strawberry hearts for him to bring to the party... our very own little strawberry stars! Red top with stars and white bottom... dont they just fit totally into the National Day theme? keke!
Little boy in national day outfit (coutesy of 二姨妈) and not so happy about going to school
It happened when I was in primary 2 or 3... One day, Bini's little Bee plushy, 甜蜜 dropped on the floor while mum was mopping the floor. Guess what? My mum actually ripped out both 甜蜜's hands and 1 leg... right in front of us! She is such a toy bully! Luckily it didnt do any lasting damange to our mental development.
Anyway the point is, although I was rather young myself, I actually helped my sister to mend her toy while she sob and sob and sob (yes, she's a cry baby). Since then, whenever any toy is broken, I'm the 专用 toy doctor.
I specialised in aesthetics too. My recent work... to repair ET's lip
Today is the 10th day in childcare for Bay and he went for his 1st field trip. Since he started childcare, there were already 1 planned field trip but we didn't allow him to go for the earlier one to Botanic Garden (for a picnic) as we felt that he is not ready for field trip yet. He is always fooling around when he is out with us, what if his teachers could not control him and what if he run onto the roads?
His 1st field trip was to the Tampines Regional Library. It was his 1st time in any library. Err... I had never stepped into a library since I finished school and it is an unlikely place for our weekly outings. Poor Bay does not even have a library card, so I had to rush to the library last night to make the card for him.
They walked to the library from their school, which is usually a 10 mins walk for adults, but it seems like a long walk for toddlers. With their legs so short, our 1 step is like their 3 steps!
It took a lot of courage for me to finally signed on the consent form... to let him go out on his own... without his mother hen watching his every move... (well at least not openly). I know I had to let him take his baby steps towards independence. My little guy is preparing to leave the nest! (ok, I'm over-reacting)
Well, the sneaky and concerned mama made plans to spy on her baby and watch him from far. I roped Grandma in and she volunteered to be stationed under his childcare centre. I was waiting in my car near the library. The plan was that when Grandma spotted him moving towards the library, she will alert me and follow behind them. I will drive nearer to watch him. Perfect plan! But there was a small glitch though... Grandma spotted a group of LSH kids walking towards the library and she immediately called me while she secretly followed them. But when I finally saw the group near the library, Bay was not in that group! I supposed all the kids looked the same in their uniform. So poor Grandma got to run back to the school and wait for the 2nd group.
姨姨 was also very concerned about him and decided to take a cab down from her office to join in the "Operation Library". She was stationed at the Bus interchange.
Positions of the 3 agents along the 650m route
About 9:45 am
Bay's group started to walk towards the library.
About 10:00 am
Bay spotted at Tampines Bus Interchange. These are the pics taken from Agent 姨姨 cam. She was hiding behind a pillar but Agent 姨姨 claimed that Bay saw her handphone cover and recognised it! It appeared that he was looking at the cam in both the pics.
Can you see him? Holding onto teacher's hand like a good boy!
About 10:15 am
They were walking so slowly! Finally reached the road crossing where Agent Mama was stationed. Pics taken from Agent Mama's cam...
Agent Mama took videos too.
To the library...
About 11:15 am
From the Library...
Operation Library was a success with online updates to everyone in our Family Group chat on Whatsapp! (Even papa got all the live updates in Shanghai!) Thank you to all agents. It's a "创举" on my part too, in the library 2 days in a row!
How time flies... exactly 2 years ago, I was waiting in the delivery room, praying for a smooth delivery and a healthy baby and now that baby is a toddler... well into the terrible two stage.
Papa Lim had an important meeting in office today and had to rush back to Shanghai yesterday night. I wasn't feeling very well and didn't prepare anything for Bay's party in school. Actually I thought that I will keep him at home for today but when I asked him in the morning if he wants to go to school? He didn't refuse! So at the last minute, I had to rush to send him to school and then dashed to the stores to get all the party stuffs and a cake for his party!
Birthday boy... on the way to school
Fortunately I already got Mark to bring some stationary sets back in anticipation that we will need them sooner or later... so I only need to buy some snacks from NTUC and some gift bags and party hats from SKP. Then I packed the gift bags on the top of my car boot. That was how last minute the preparation was!
Stationary set from taobao: RMB 7, Milk Pocky from NTUC: $1, Gift bag from SKP: $0.10
A mother's love and dedication: Priceless!
Animals party hats for the class mates
Singing birthday song and cake cutting (bought a fruit top cake from trusty Bengawan solo)
Two of us with the cake
Happy birthday, my little boy!
P.S. I should have another MUCH nicer video of us singing the birthday song to post here BUT I thought the transfer from the SD card to my laptop was completed and deleted it from the card and then I cant retrieve it anymore! I was so devastated! That was probably the nicest video I had ever recorded.
We didnt plan for any major birthday party for Bay this year, just a quiet family dinner.
The Venue
The initial plan was to book a hotel room where we can see the National Day Rehearsal aircraft flypass and fireworks so that the boys can have fun while we have dinner in the room, "picnic" style. But after some serious consideration, it would be so awkward to ask my in-laws to go for a picnic in a hotel room with us. Thus the next better plan was to go for dinner somewhere in the area where we can still see the flypass. After some research, I found that from the rooftop of Marina Barrage we should be able to see the flypass and fireworks and yet away from the messy traffic. There is only 1 decent dinner place there, The 7th Story Live Seafood Restaurant.
We went to Marina Barrage earlier to run around a bit and to catch the flypass before dinner.
Playing with his new present while enjoying the flypass
The Food
Our dinner for the night... Can't believe that I forgot to the take a pic of the chilly crab!
Mark ordered the food while I was watching the flypass with Bay. He need
to polish up his dishes ordering skills as there were some "similiar"
type of dishes. Why order crayfish and prawns? No veg? At least he
remembered the "no shark's fin" rule.
The Cake
Emicakes Pure Addiction with Thomas the Train Mega Bloks as a topper.
Bought the cream from The Icing Room so that I can draw some tracks.
The Theme
Can you tell? The theme of the day is Thomas the Train
We were all in Thomas colours
The Presents
Playing with the new y-bike in the restaurant
All his presents from aunties, uncles and grandparents
