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Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Clothes for the Whole Family
I love online stores for babies and the whole family and Preggers n Proud is another delightful place for moms to browse and buy neat stuff for the family.
At Preggers n Proud, there are USA-made tees for mom, dad, and baby (no worries about formaldehyde in your clothing). I like the wholesale prices (US$6.50 per tee - minimum 10) since I *might* want to design and sell some. Note to self: must also include shipping in before calculating a sale price.
Meanwhile I am contemplating buying the "Good Daddies are Hot" tee shirt for the hubby. :) He will be tickled.
A portion of each purchase goes to supporting Canines for Disabled Kids, PETA, and Zero to Three. An online company doesn't get cooler than that. Check them out at Preggers n Proud.
And so I spent Saturday and Sunday night finishing the chronicles of Harry Potter. Rowling wastes no time plunging the world into a Voldemort-ruled chaos and no one is spared.
While Harry, Ron, and Hermoine are off on a quest to find the remaining Horcruxes and sidelined by the Deathly Hallows, the rest of the world are devastated by Muggles and Mudbloods being rounded up and executed like Jews in the second world war.
It begins brilliantly. The Durseys are swiftly extracted for their own protection and Dudley makes an unexpected gesture that is really very touching. Harry's own extraction from his home of 17 years, thus breaking its protection both for his family and himself leaves the Order of the Phoenix one short.
Sad and unexpected deaths scatter through the beginning and through dreadfully draggy middle of the book but it is only from Harry, Hermoine, and Ron's brilliant escape from Gringotts when the action really kickstarts. The Battle of Hogwarts brought to mind many a battle from Lord of the Rings, and its final swan song well choreographed.
It was not without flaws though. For many Potter fans who failed to reread the whole series before embarking on the final journey, some parts perplexed me, such as how did Neville draw the sword from the Sorting Hat when it was clearly with the goblin? Also, Harry's resurrection was a tad convoluted although well-explained in its wiki.
Like many other reviewers, I found the epilogue pointless and scant of value. It could have been fuller with more on what happened to everyone else, rather than a focus on the trio's children. It felt rather cliched. At the very least, it could have shed more light on how Harry and the others felt after all those years. As an ending to a monumental series, it fell flat.
Still, the Deathly Hallows answered most of the hanging questions and neatly tied up most of the loose ends. It could have been better organised: less time spent on the trio's search for the Horcruxes, Snape and Dumbledore's tales weaved into the story rather than stuck in as chapters of their own, and a more cohesive ending which told more of what happened 19 years later to everyone, not just the trio and Neville, or perhaps even better, not at all.
Time flies so quickly every day, almost like a book lying on a hilltop, its pages flipping fast in the wind. I try to grasp each moment with Jack, memorising each smile, each quizzical expression and the thing that earned it.
I long to go back in labour, so that I might relive the ecstasy of seeing my own child born from my loins. He has grown up too fast.
He's now running, climbing, saying new words, testing them like ice cream flavours: fssh, up, *growl*, he dances, he laughs, he pulls his own penis in wonder, he pushes people away, he hugs his mom, dad, grandparents, he squeezes a strawberry and amazes at the red juice that smears his leg, he feeds himself strawberries, grapes, vegetables, he chooses his own clothes, he swims and delights in splashing his cousin.
We spend days exploring the parks, gardens, pools, malls, the different machines (read: rides) in shopping centres, music in shops where he runs in and dances much to the delight of the shop girls. He points out bugs, hairs on the grounds, tiny leaves, and marks on the floor. It's sheer delight watching him discover our world.
What a journey it has been these 14 months and the 9 before. These have probably been the best months of my life. Let me press Publish and return to it...
It is a terrible life for them in cages so tiny they cannot stand or turn. In addition, catheters are permanently stuck in their side to drain bile from them.
Help Animals Asia rescue and rehabilitate these bears. Let them live out their lives with dignity and happiness in a sanctuary.
List yourself and your friends you have tagged here and add their permalinks (optional: and pledges):
Now that Jack is 1, I have decided to involve him with saving the world, one animal at a time. Since my nickname for him is Bear and I feel passionately about bears, I have sponsored a bear called Freedom who was rescued by the AnimalsAsia Foundation from a life in a cage, catheter stuck in his side to extract his bile for a Chinese "remedy".
Freedom's Profile Freedom is a female cub. As she stared out of her cage with frightened eyes we were shocked to see that both of her front limbs were missing as a result of traps which had caught her twice.
It took weeks of gentle encouragement before she would come to us from the safety of her new den - but, to see her now as she hops to the front of the queue to lick honey from our fingers, is a wonderful reward. Her den mates seem to sense her disability too and play gently with this sweet, forgiving bear.
Helping others brings a joy that is unparallelled in many other fun but thankless activities like surfing for goss (ahem), clubbing, well... anything hedonistic and temporal. It leaves a glow long after the fire has died. I hope to pass on the love of helping others, in particular animals, to Jack.
If you have a child, consider befriending a bear on his or her behalf. It will be a wonderful feeling for your baby to know he or she is helping an animal in need and better yet, possess ownership of that enduring act of kindness.
DH and I usually have our own nocturnal activities after Jack sleeps: he plays DOTA and I surf or read. Tonight he crashed when Jack did at 1130pm. Since, Jack's only woken up once. Usually in the early night, he wakes up at least twice in 2.5 hours. Must be Daddy's warm body and soft breathing that soothes him. I remember reading something about that somewhere because when I finally go to bed around 3-4am, he only wakes up once before day breaks.
Yup I am a fan, both of the marketing phenomenon and of the wonderful tale of Harry Potter and his friends.
And this time I might just buy the book when it comes out instead of waiting for it to go on sale at Borders a year later - I have great patience.
Some spoilers have surfaced online. Unfortunately the two I found seem to contradict each other. My take is that they're fake.
SPOILERS ALERT! (For those who may be affected, fake or not.)
"Gabriel", a person who claims to have hacked into the publisher's website claims that Snape kills Hagrid and Voldemort kills Hermoine, and finally Harry kills Voldemort on Privet Drive. Read it here and the actual email here.
Meanwhile, Gawker claims that a publisher insider told them that "Harry Potter dies. Ripped to a million tiny fleshy pieces."
Neither sound very promising and both contradict each other. Since both claim to have read the story, one or both of them is lying. Frankly I find Gabriel's story more likely but I doubt JK will kill Hermione and Hagrid, two beloved characters. Then again, who knew she'd kill Dumbledore.
We'll find out in 21 days, won't we?
END SPOILERS
There's a cool fan fic of Deathly Hallows many are mistaking for the real thing which is now floating around the net. Haven't read it yet but heard it isn't bad at all. You can download it here and preview it here.
If I had a middle name, yesterday it would have been Crabby. The reason for it was revealed today at Great World City when I discovered my period had returned (or maybe something more sinister - we'll see tomorrow).
It's been two years almost since I had to deal with a period but it comes back quickly. The need for Ponstan to reduce bleeding and period pain, and lots of rest. Plus the realisation that I missed the first egg. Dang.
Anyhow although it was a relatively chill day, I accomplished a lot. I completed a whole lot of chores, brought Jack to make his rounds on all the kiddie rides (sans money), and bought my very first power drill! It is a Bosch.
Jack accomplished a lot today too. He single-handedly managed to climb up Bob the Builder's tractor. Repeatedly. He even did many a victory dance. :) His Dad and I cheered him on.
I came across Hazel & Melvin's room and literally swooned. In all the rush and madness during my pregnancy being busy with work, constantly tired and then new adventure in motherhood, it never crossed my mind to decorate a room for Jack. It was always assumed that he would be rooming in with us till he was like 6.
Still, images of a baby's room with beautiful paintings on the wall, a wooden crib, and a box full of toys raced through my mind and I sighed with regret that we designed our home for a hip young couple with a cat. Now 5 cats and one baby later, we can't accommodate all without some sacrifice and renovation which we are still pondering.
Nevertheless, I bookmarked the site and now I return to it with great admiration for its 1950s style with something for every mother: nursing pillow covers, changing pads, quilts, elegant crib bedding sets, handmade diaper bags, and even sock monkeys for baby to be enthralled with. There's plenty for every mother to peruse, amaze it, and buy.
So if you're planning a new home with a possible baby in mind, get started now. Or simply visit Hazel & Melvin's Room for a delightful walk back in time.
If you travel in and out of Gatwick and own a car, it makes best sense to pre-book your parking space at the airport. Let Gatwick Parking find you the best parking deal online. It helps you identify secure parking with a Park Mark award where your car is constantly monitored with CCTVs and regular patrols.
Should you need to stay around the hotel overnight whether you're tired or on stopover, do note that a hotel stay plus parking is often cheaper than parking alone with Gatwick Hotel Parking. It's a good excuse to enjoying a relaxing stay at a hotel just to unwind.
As a bonus, try the Parking Game which tests your parking ability.
Overall, Advance Parking's website is very usable with the booking facility upfront and a step-by-step process for booking online securely. It provides the necessary Help and FAQ section and a handy Contact Us in case you need to reach them. For a stress-free parking experience, get it booked at Advance Parking today.
"To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness." -- Bertrand Russell
"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."
-- Thomas Edison (Harper's Magazine, 1890)
A woman's romance with motherhood, green living, finance, and this heady thing called life.
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