A for APPLE

Guess what?! Rianne spoke her first word 2 days back!! Yes, Rianne, my princess Rianne! =)

There's this alphabet poster in my room, which was on the wall in my room months back. Since then, my mum & I have been reading the A-Z to Rianne everyday. Until whenever she hear us sing the alphabet song, Rianne will automatically look at the poster.

It didn't occur to me that she will hold a strong memory of any word, especially when the words are more than 3 letters long. So, when Rianne said 'APPLE' in front of me; I was stunned.. in a good way! Who wouldn't?!

At first, I thought the word came out coincidentally; and was not expecting to hear it for a 2nd time. But there was more to come.. Rianne practically said 'APPLE' everytime she tries to talk! I'm surprised the pronounication of the word was quite accurate, for a 10 month old infant; that is way too brilliant!

My mum thinks that the credit goes to us always showing Rianne the fruit at the supermarket, and telling her it's an apple. She even knows to sniff at it the minute we placed the fruit in front of her nose. So far, Rianne has smelled an apple, an orange, a grapefruit, a mango, a lemon, and even a dragonfruit before. This girl will be good in the fruits section when she grows up!

Rianne now also recognizes words of objects in the house, like our X'mas tree in the living room, her bathing toys (the duckie and the alligator), and us. She will look around for those items when we say them. We are trying to teach her to point at them, which is probably harder as Rianne hate people pulling her hands.

Well, I hope to be able to video her saying 'APPLE', but most of the time; she caught me off guard. So, pls watch out for the possible video of my little girl saying her first word - APPLE. =)

Get inked!

I know I have been talking about this for some time, and there's no better time to do it than now.. especially when this new tattoo is all about me and my princess.

The concept is to have our initials, the letter "R" facing each other, or back touching each other. Then cherry blossoms will surround.. The significance - Mama R will protect baby Rianne with all her might, and with that it means, Mama R has blossomed from a bud into a beautiful cherry flower; from a girl to a woman.

The tattoo artist my colleague's boyfriend strongly recommend, runs its operations in-house, at his own house. Looks professional, and his works are mostly portraits and horror pieces. My first consultation with him reveal the kind of font the two letters "R" are supposed to be; and also the position of the tattoo. I would want to have it on my inner calf (left inner), with the cherry flowers contouring down to my ankle.

Like any other soon-to-be-tattooed person, I did my research and found several fonts online. On my first consultation with Elvin, the tattoo artist, he told me about the impossibility of having my desired design on my calf as my legs are too small. Unless I am willing to alter the design to have only one R, then that would be fine on the small area I have. However, that is not what I want.

We further explored areas which I could have my ideal tattoo, and have it tastefully done. Elvin suggested my abdomen to hip area (for the flowers to appear like floating in the air). I thought that would be quite nice, and also a very concealed spot. At least I don't have to worry about cover-ups if I were to change jobs and have to dress formally.

The consultation ended with an appointment fixed, and the price agreed on..

So, while waiting for me to show off my new tattoo, check out the works of Elvin here on his website - http://www.elvintattoo.com/