What has Singapore national day got to do with diapers? Nothing, except that there are dozens of National Day sale going on, so I managed to get diapers at discount.

I started out using pampers for Yauyau right after she was born. Actually, the hospital used it first. Since the hospital choose to use that brand, it should be good. And with so many friends swearing by it, it became my choice too. I tried to change once, switching from pampers premium to pampers baby dry, and I never liked it. That was the time I dilligently changed the baby’s diapers whenever I suspected they were wet, so I could finish up the pack as fast as possible and get it out of my sight.

From then onwards, I decided to be an old faithful. The problem with pampers premium is, it is rather expensive. One packet of 64 pieces cost about 27 dollars, work out to be around 0.43cts each. Looks like I am throwing a few dollars down the rubbish chute everyday. Anyway, NTUC Fairprice somehow knew my plight, and is giving big discount for pampers premium at its National Day Celebration sale (at Suntec City). My brother was there, knowing that I am its loyal fan, called me up to take orders. They sell by cartons, four packets as a unit, for 80 dollars, which is about 25% discount. I would have ordered him to get me a dozen if I have the place to store them! Save money, and save me the trouble of future purchase.

Scanning thru newspaper ad looking for discount seems very much into my daily agenda now. This is begining to frighten me a bit. In the past, I hardly buy in bulk, never compared prices, didn’t care for discount, shunned sales to avoid crowd. The only thing I did was working around my budget. I was teaching, earning a salary, no liabilities, no finacial commitment then. Now, not working, with a baby, house, car, I have become so much more sensitive to prices.Maybe prudent is a better description of what I am now, but fearing it escalating to transform me into a stingy nasty woman in future.

This clear plastic container with a red cap is the latest item that amuses Yauyau. She will hold on to the container for support when she couldn’t balance herself. She can lift the handle and flip it around for fun or have a good time chewing it. When she couldn’t lift the handle, she would hit the container, which becomes her drum that makes noisy sound. Endless enjoyment!

This reminds me of a friend who rarely buy toys for her boy. Whenever her boy visited the school with the mother, she didn’t need to pack any toy to keep him entertained. She just looked around for some containers, boxes, papers or any stuff that was available (and safe), gave it to the boy, and he would be able to keep himself busy for a long long time, never lacking a moment of fun. Once, he was given a box, some marker pen and tap. The next moment, he was “driving” around in his self made “box car”, practising parking, honking at oncoming traffic and engaging in “accidents”.

There is always an urge to get more fanciful toys for the baby, but I wonder if they are neccessary. Isn’t it better if the child can build his own toy and enjoy the process of creation? Furthermore, it could help me save money too!

Please do not be misled by the photo. The baby looked so happy not because of the octopus, but because she always gets excited by the camera.

I had contemplated the idea of getting this octopus some time ago, after seeing a picture of a very happy baby hugging it (the power of advertising!). Moreover, it is supposed to be an award winning developmental toy for babies which encourages “….blah blah blah”. The “award winning” stamp already convinced me it is GOOD. I wonder how they do the judging. Do babies vote? Or they measured the length of laughter it generated from the babies?

Well, that was a stupid question. Of course they have a panel of grown up experts determining every aspects of positive stimulation it is going to benefits the child. Anyway, when we first placed the octopus in front of the kid, she didn’t seem very interested. It wasn’t suppose to be like that, at least not in my imagination. I thought she would waved her hands wildly, kicked her legs excitedly and hugged the sea creature lovingly!

The legs of the octopus plays a note when given a squeeze (one whole octave altogether). I was squeezing the legs randomly, desperately dying to attract her attention, but she was only mildly interested. In the end, I gave up enticing her to play, gave her the noisy rattles, but continue to squeeze the octopus legs. Gosh, I think I enjoyed it tremendously while trying very hard to play “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, “Mary Had a Little Lamb” with the eight tentacles.

I think I have fallen into the trap of choosing toys that entertain me more then the baby. Luckily, she is slowly warming up towards the new toy these few days, thus justifying the purchase.