Our Christmas

Gee..it's been a while since i've blogged. With Peanut all healed from the chicken pox, we've been bringing her out and basically just to soak in the Christmas 'feel' in the shopping malls. She's still got a couple of scars on her hands and back. Nothing bad, they've turned slightly pink. Battle scars, these are.

Not to scare you all..but this is a picture of her then with the pox. BigB didn't allow me to put up her pic cos he said her saham will turun. But....we must have the good with the bad hoh? This is a reminder of how her her skin was. :)

hi..iz was me..*waves weakly*

My parents and bro were in town for a couple of days so we've been spending time with them.

Hanging out at the hotel room.

At 9 months 3 weeks, she now goes "eh.....". Eh.... EHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! when she tries to talk to you. I've been trying to "discipline" her by telling her that we all have a name and not to "Eh" us. Cos it's kinda rude when she screams "Ehh!!!!" to your PIL? Lol though I doubt she can pronounce anything else except Dada and Vava at this point of time.

She can now stand up by holding onto ledges so i can no longer put her in the crib when I go and shower. But she can't walk yet and she can't sit still. Oh my. Everytime i have to coax her to "sit like a little girl should" because she's so rowdy. She'll twist and turn, arch her back, legs and arms flailing in the air, wanting to be let off our iron grip. She really can't sit still. Who says little girls are quiet? Not her, madam.

On the home front, the house is 70% done. The floor tiles are up, plaster ceiling is done, we've confirmed our kitchen specialist, wiring is completed and we still have lots more to go. I doubt we can move in by CNY but that's alright. We're not in a rush.

And on her very first Christmas morning...

Posing with Josie's gift for her. Thank you so much!! Peanut has been having wrestling matches with this bear. By holding the bear's paws and flinging it across the bed and screaming at it each time lol

Merry Christmas and a happy new year everyone!!

xoxo

Chicken Pox

Peanut had chicken pox for the past one week, and the poxes (is that how you call it??) are finally clearing up! phew!!

So how did Peanut get chicken pox?? Our only conclusion is that she got it from BigB who had shingles a couple of weeks ago. Shingles is a "sister disease" of chicken pox, so if someone who never had chickenpox in his / her life before is in direct contact with someone who has shingles, that person will get chickenpox. Prime example: Our little Peanut. But if you had chickenpox before, you cannot get shingles from another person.

We knew that BigB's shingles is contagious especially since Peanut has not gotten her chickenpox vaccination yet, so he slept in a separate room for a week and did not hold Peanut. But I guess we miscalculated BigB's recovery period. *_*

It all started with a spot on Peanut's shoulder. I saw the spot last Wednesday when I was putting Peanut to bed, and stupid me, i thought it was a mosquito bite. By Thursday evening, when I came home from work, a few more spots appeared on her head. I was quite concerned by then and suspected that she chickenpox, but decided to wait for one more day before bringing her to a doctor because she had no fever then. By Friday, more spots started to appear on her torso, and we brought her immediately to the doctor.

After the nurse saw Peanut, and we told her that we suspected her to have chickenpox, she straightaway sequestered us in a different room, away from all the other patients..And the doctor confirmed that she has chickenpox. Haih...honestly i was quite upset because i knew we could have prevented it. And we were quite worried as she is only 9 months old. The doctor told us to just put calamine lotion on her, and gave us some anti-itch medicine to be taken at night before she sleeps so she won't scratch herself. And that the chickenpox will reach its peak by the weekend (meaning more spots will come out during the weekend before it starts to subside). Because of this, we had to miss Taurus's wedding in Singapore. By the way I like how the clinic takes infectious diseases and cleanliness seriously. Instead of putting Peanut directly on the clinic's bed, they lay her on this mat. The moment we're done, two nurses came and start spraying and wiping the area down with the dettol spray. The whole time we were talking to the doc, they kept rubbing the whole place down. lol

Anyways, true enough, a hundred more spots appear on her by Saturday. Well it seems like a hundred because there were so many on her back, front, head and face. My poor little Peanut. it was upsetting to see her in such a state, especially when she started to develop fever after that. And she was really listless and not her usual self. Cos when I lift up her arm, it just flops down. And when i try to call her name, she never even looked at me. She basically had no energy to layan me la. *uhuk uhuk*

But all is well now! *pumps fist into the air!* She's back to her normal self, and is crawling all over as usual, and is learning new tricks. She's learned how to say goodbye and can clap when asked to, and is starting to babble "wa..wa..wa...".

So i guess the only good thing that comes out of this episode is that she'll probably develop a lifelong immunity against chickenpox. And because she's a baby, she hardly scratch herself and she'll no longer need a chickenpox vaccination after she reaches a year old. :)

Teeth check

Almost everyday i'll check Peanut's mouth for her teeth to see if a new one is growing. At 8 months 3 weeks, she only has a tooth. Yeah, satu saja and I think another one is growing, but I can't be sure.

So this is what happens:

Coaxing her to open her mouth..

I'll tap her mouth lightly, and say "Eva....please open your mouth"

Usually she'll glady oblige and show me her tounge first. I have been sorta "washing" her tongue since she's a baby so she's very used to it.

Yup, no new teeth. Still one tooth. And the face so boh song.


Yesh! Happy the ordeal is over.

So at almost 9 months, she can now crawl at supersonic speed. Okay, i'm exaggertating but you know what I mean. I cannot take my eyes of her, cos one minute she'll be here, the next minute she'll be at the other side of the room. Or at the edge of the bed. She's given me multiple almost heart attacks.


Most importantly, she's a normal, healthy, happy child. And that's all that matters so cheers everybody!!

Happy.

Baby glass bottles

This post is dedicated to Peichyi wtf.

Peichyi is now 5 months preggers (Eee i'm so excited for her!) so she's been doing loads of research on baby stuff. And this week it's on baby bottles. Every new moms out there will know that there are tons of choices out there for everything: from cloth diapers, to bottles, to strollers to breast pumps. I had a headache last time choosing things for Peanut, cos everything has its pros and cons, no?

Anyway, Peichyi asked me about glass bottles today, and coincidentally I have just started using it. Actually, I bought these glass bottles way before Peanut was born, but since we also bought the Avent sterilliser and it comes with free bottles, we've been using those instead..

So..let me see. As i've said, everything has its pros and cons, so let's start with the pros first.

• It's probably gonna last you a lifetime provided you don't break it.
• Guaranteed no nasty plastic chemicals will leach into the milk. Very safe!
  
• You don't need to change your bottles every few months.
  
• Very easy to clean.
  

and the cons:

• it's breakable.
• Heavy
• Markings on the bottle not tat clear
• Small opening
  

This is how it looks like. It also comes with a silicone sleeve to prevent the bottle from breaking that easily and to help you hold it better. Hm..looks like a sports bra. *_* . Not sure about other glass bottles but the markings on this Evenflo bottle is very faint; so i need to squint each time I need to make milk to make sure I get the amount correctly. And the opening of this bottle is pretty small, so if you're making formula milk, you need to make sure you're very careful when you're scooping milk powder into it. Recipe for disaster if you're doing all these in the middle of the night, half awake. :P

Peanut can hold it...

..but not for long, so need pillows to support it.

This will most likely happen eventually. Too heavy to hold, so need to rest it at the side.

Despite all these, I'm still going continue to use the glass bottles because it's safer lor.. So there you have it, my take on glass bottles! :)

And the wedding season has begun!

Besides overseeing the house renovations together with BigB, we've been busy with weddings. I've been attending wedding dinners every weekend since mid-Nov and this will continue until mid Dec. This weekend alone, we gonna attend two weddings back to back. One in Singapore, one in KL. Wooo....!

I attended Taurus's wedding last Saturday at the Westin and it was really nice! Initially, i was quite scared to bring Peanut along to the dinner, cos I'm not really sure how she'll behave. But Taurus and Peichyi assured me it'll be fine and because we were gonna meet many of our friends who haven't seen Peanut yet and they were requesting to see her, we brought her in the end. Might i say it was quite disastrous?? lol.

The evening began quite well. She was all happy and chummy to those who carried her during cocktail hour. Until we entered the grand ballroom. not sure whether it was the flashing lights, or the speakers, or her tooth is growing hence the bad mood, but she was quite cranky throughout the rest of the night. She cried so loudly during Taurus's and Keattie's speech *damn pai seh* and you know how when someone is giving a speech, it will be silence all around right...so there i was, trying to stop her from crying by giving her the pacifier but she spat it out each time and continued to bawl *uhuk uhuk* and the entrance was so far away, I couldn't bring her out of the ballroom without everyone looking at me. Thank God nobody shot me daggers with their eyes. Our table mates tried to make us feel better by saying they couldn't hear anything. Right. hahahahaha. Anyway, i was quite stressed so i didn't even take any pictures during the dinner. It was only towards the end of the evening, that she managed to fall asleep in her stroller and I could finally eat my desserts in peace. Love the ginger ice cream too :)

This weekend, BigB and me will be off to Singapore for Taurus & Keattie's Singapore wedding and we won't be bringing Peanut. This will be the first time we are going to spend the night without her, and I'm definitely gonna miss her tons. Not sure about her though haha. We're gonna drive to the airport, and leave the car there, cos when we arrived back in KL, we have to zoom to Covershots for another wedding dinner. Hm..I know they do wedding photography, but I didn't know they host dinners as well? it's probably going to be a buffet type of dinner though.

And em..so no pictures again in this post, cos yours truly is stressed with everything that's going on with the house now. Nothing biggie, but i tend to get stressed with big events in my life = worrywart.

Happy Monday!

Busy bee

Our weekends have been spent looking at tiles, toilets, kitchens, sinks etc. I hate having too many choices, cos I tend to want them all.

Renovating a house is no joke. It's not very fun. Only the decorating part is.

Oy vey.

My favorite Christmas movie..

of all times is Home Alone. Yep, that movie about the kid being left home alone after his large group of family and relatives left for the airport in a hurry. :)



I really love this movie to bits.

Random fact : *just asked BigB to calculate how old I was when this movie first came out. I was 11 years old! Which means this movie is 19 years old already.*

Oh man, suddenly I feel so ancient. And has it been really that long ago? Though I can still quote verbatim some of the phrases used in that movie haha. I remember my sis and I were so crazy over this movie that we bought the video tape copy of it and I must have watched it at least 5 to 6 times then. To me, this is the best Christmas movie ever.

That day i went to to Speedy to get another copy of it since Christmas is near and I need to reminisce and I watched it again. After watching it, I now feel like getting Home Alone 2.

It doesn't take much to make me happy :)

Just my luck

Few days ago, i had the unfortunate luck to receive a traffic summon from the PDRM in an official looking mail.

i was very surprised to receive the summon; cos that "traffic violation" happened on a Tuesday morning, at 10am at PJ's Jalan Othman (PJ Old Town). Surprised cos:

a) I never did receive a ticket stuck on my windscreen like how it's supposed to happen. Instead, I received that mail 2 months after the supposed violation.

b) I had no idea where Jalan Othman was and since I'm not from KL, I am not very familiar with KL roads, despite having lived here for around 5 years now. And since I do not know how to get there myself, the only other person who will ever drive my car is BigB and he was in an office training the whole day that day. And he has his own car.

c) Since i have a lousy memory, and i can't remember whether i was on leave that day, I had to go check with my office on my attendance on that said day. Unfortunately, and coincidentally, the door access recording system is down on those dates. Haiz..

d) I then went to check my office emails 'sent items box', to see if I did send out any emails on that day in the office. i did. There were tons of emails sent out.

e) I also checked to see if my car is listed on the traffic summons website. It is, means the traffic summon I received is not fake.

f) Since I parked in my office's building, I then went to check with the management office, to see if they have any records of me and my car entering and exiting the building. They did. I was in the office that day and i was never out of the office at 10am that morning.

So means, I was in the office right? So how did I get a freaking summon when I'm at the office that day with my car?!!

So tulan. Luckily it's only RM30, but still!! I'm paying for something I didn't do. The only scenarios that I can think of is that either someone has the same car plate number as me (fraud la like this), or the traffic police was blurry eyed that morning, and wrote down the wrong car plate number, and that wrong car plate number happened to be mine . And since the traffic summon letter i received did not mentioned the make of the car, or the color, I don't know whether they have made a mistake..or..orr!!!!.....there's really something fishy going on out there...hm.... some syndicate going on ka?

So..should I dispute it or just pay that RM30 and get on with my life? I did get a print out from the management office, but how the hell am I gonna proof that I enter the building with my car with that registration plate number that was recorded in the summon? The print out does not mention my name or car number. it only registers my parking access card's number.

But I'm going to listen to Mrs Wang and at least try to dispute it. At least try la hoh. * ish ish*. Made me so tulan.

Just my luck.

Balik Kampung Part 3

During our 5 days stay in Kuching, we did a lot of stuff. Attended a cousin's wedding, did a family photo shoot with a photographer friend, met up with a couple of longtime friends, ate all the food that I miss, and generally spend more time with my parents.

Peanut, thankfully, was quite a good kiddo. She took long naps during the day (surprisingly) and slept early at night without much fuss. Thank God. But i think because this was also the first time after a long while that i was with her 24/7 for so many days, she became quite clingy to me. Basically she didn't want me to be out of sight and will scream for me if I dare take a step out of her view. But that's cool, after all i'm her mother ya? :)

Hanging out with us for breakfast

It's quite rare I sempat take a picture of her crying hehe

We took some family pictures together with my parents, my bro and my sis and her family on the 3rd day. It was a semi-casual shoot, but oh man, taking pics with an almost 8 month old baby and a 3 year old (my nephew) is so tiring lor!! When one kid is smiling, the other will be sulking. And vice versa. So to have a perfect picture of all of us looking at the camera and smiling at the same time is quite an impossible task. So no choice la, cannot be perfectionist in this matter. We'll just settle with however the pics come out.

One of her outfits for the photoshoot.

The second outfit.

There's a third outfit, but am too "man chang" to take pics by then. It's quite rare I dress her up in frilly clothes so..everybody, take a closer look!! Only on special occassions!! I guess i'm not really a frilly / lots of ribbons & flowers type of person, so I tend to dress Peanut the same way. Maybe that's why I have lost count on the number of people who have asked me whether she's a girl or boy. Even though she was wearing a pink t-shirt or pink socks or pink whathever haha, and the second most favorite question after that is: How many months is she?

The photoshoot took about only an hour, but i think that's good enough. The little ones has lost concentration by then. Talking about my nephew, that little dude is one jealous kiddo! During the few days we were back there, he didn't want to let my mum go literally. Basically he was clinging on to my mum like a koala bear. And when my mum carried Peanut, he'll try to climb all over her. And he didn't want to talk at all to anyone and according to my mum, he was super happy when we left for the airport haha. 3 years old also can get jealous wey. Poor thing. I wonder how my sis is gonna cope if she gonna have a second child.

We left Kuching on Monday morning, this time less apprehensive to get on the plane with Peanut, maybe because I sort of expect how it's gonna be. And after all, it's only less than 2 hours flight. So no problemo!!!

Us at Coffee Bean, Kuching International Airport where i fed Peanut her brunch before takeoff.

The flight back to KL was pretty smooth. Peanut slept most of the time on me. Though we sat at the last row, the stewardess served our meals first so that as she puts it "one of us can take care of the baby while the other eats". Aww...okay my faith in MAS has been restored. ANd during the whole flight, they checked on us once in a while, asking us whether we needed a blanket or pillows. Though I do wonder why we need to pay money for Peanut's ticket, when all she did was to sit on me. She's not taking an extra seat right? Maybe it's for the rental of Peanut's seat belt?? Or maybe it's to pay for this hehe:

Pretty expensive toy then!

And how come I only get it from KL to Kuching but nothing from Kuching to KL?? Maybe pretend to forget la, to cut costs.


So...that about sums up our balik kampung trip!!!

Balik Kampung Part 2

Back in Kuching, life is really much slower and at a slower pace. Everyone seems to be walking slower, cars move at a leisurely pace, everyone eats dinner earlier. Like 5pm to 6pm. I think losing weight in Kuching is easier compared to KL cos I don't have to eat that late. Back in KL, I sometimes eat dinner at 10pm and goes to sleep less than an hour after that. Sei mou? My mum and friend said i'm "meatier" T_T . Yeah, both used that exact same word and in hokkien i.e. "kak oo bak". Haiz..

Us at KLIA

Feeding time while Peichyi took our pic

This is really a whirlwind trip. Every morning I woke up at around 630am, cos we seems to have things to do every morning. And Peanut seems to wake up much earlier as well. Perhaps because it gets brighter here earlier too. I think we had laksa & kolomee every day and I don't think i'll ever get sick of it cos it's too yummilicious!! We also brought the Wangs to eat at one of the more popular spots for laksa.

On our way to one of our many breakfasts. Peanut readily lets my mum carry her when she's in the car or when we're out. But she cries when my mum carries her at home. I still can't figure out why.

She loves to snuggle up to my mum. My mum bought her a pink cap cos it's so, so hot outside!! i think i'll get a heat stroke if i stay out too long.

My sis has also brought her son's walker and bumbo chair to my parents' house so that Peanut can use it while she's here.

She seems to love the bumbo chair now. Kinda regret selling off the one I had.

She doesn't like this walker though.

While here, I discovered that my mum is a huge fan of Hikosen.

She bought this orange mattress thingy just for Peanut so she can lie on it while she's here. I like it cos it's really comfy.

She also bought this bolster...

to this quilt cover for their room..

to this pillows...and many more. Even the pink cap that she bought from Peanut is from there.

Young at heart la, my mum.


Okie, time to log off. GUess there'll be a part 3.

balik kampung part 1

Hallo everybody! Guess where BigB, Peanut and me are at??

In my lil' old hometown. Meow Meow city!! Okay that was lame.

Moving on..

We reached yesterday at around 2 something after a 1 hour delay. Dem tulan with MAS. It seems all my flight delays has always been with MAS. The longest i was ever stranded in KLIA was close to 8 hours. Thank goodness we had The Wangs with who are also going to Catcity for a short holiday, so it wasn't boring at all.

This is my first time I'm bringing Peanut on the plane so naturally I was a bit nervous. And it took me 2 whole nights to finish packing cos I wasn't sure what to pack for Peanut, so in the end I almost brought all her stuff back. Stuff like her blanket, bolster, her many clothes, wet wipes, thermometer, medication, ajjor, macam macam ada lah. Brought her blanket & bolster just in case she can't sleep at my parents' home cos don't have her "smell" here.

So, with a baby, naturally we get to board the plane first. And i was a bit worried of who's gonna sit beside me cos I'm sure you would want a more motherly person to sit beside you right? Someone who can tolerate a crying baby and go awww... So...i was a bit scared when this tall dude wearing all black, like rocker, wearing sunglasses and his sunglasses got a picture of a skull at the rims there some more sat down beside me. Until he took out his Men Are From Mars, Women are from Venus book. Nuff said.

The ride was pretty smooth, cos Peanut fell asleep during takeoff and only woke up when meals are being served. Unfortunately midway, she decided to do her number 2 in her diapers. Die mans. I could smell her and it ain't good. But I also didn't go and change her in the tiny toilet cos..so small leh, how to change?? And i'm scared it'll make me nauseous standing in that small cubicle trying to catch my bearings. and we we were gonna land soon anyway and my parents' house is pretty near the airport, so i thought i can go home to do it. Plane rides alway makes me nauseous, especially its food. Jer...sorry, i'm not a big fan of airplane food, cos it smells funky, and i think Taurus can agree with me on this. Donno how all these stewardesses do it la.

So until we landed, i was quite embarassed, cos donno that emo rocker dude next to me can smell her or not. And i kept asking BigB whether he can smell it. Unfortunately he can, so we had to act bodoh and just pretended nothing happened. but overall, it was a pretty smooth ride cos Peanut was pretty chillax. Thank God. And that was it! Let's hope the ride back to KL is as smooth as this.

stay tuned to part 2. If I got time to blog while here that is :)

xoxo

7 months 3 weeks

For posterity's sake, I need to record down what Peanut can do at the moment. So at 7 months 3 weeks:

• She can crawl.
  
• Still eats a lot.
  
• Still no teeth.
  
• Still bald.
  
• Can kinda respond to her name.
  
• Can sit for a pretty long time.
  
• Sleeps at inordinate times at night.
  
• Sleeps only for an hour at the most during the day.
  
• Likes to scream and pretends to cough for attention.
  
• Can clap her hands and feet.
  
• Difficult to wear clothes on her cos she likes to twist and turn.
  
• Sits at her highchair during meal times with us.
• Uses the potty to do her big business.
  

Ah..I have become one of those mothers who likes to record their babies's milestones on blogs. I shall welcome myself to the club.

Bye bye.

Manuals & stuff

Lately, it seems that I have tons of things to read on, but which I do not have the time to do so. Like for example, my camera which I bought it for like 4 to 5 months ago, but till to date, I have yet to explore its full potential. It takes up a lot of time reading the thick manual, and also to fiddle with it.

Oh well. Played with the camera today.

Pin-hole mode. And a very boh song looking Peanut.

Blanket to cover her botak-ness.

Film grain mode. Em...Ju-On??

Peanut not so likey.

Secondly, the parenting book that I bought. I had to put it in my car to read during the terrible jams back from work. Yeah, sad la, my life; my life is all about jams *sob sob* . But at least I am killing two birds with one stone. And I guess my motion sickness has improved by leaps and bounds becauseI no longer get nauseous that often when i read in the car.

I feel like there's so many out things out there i have to read up on. More homemade recipes for Peanut. Types of activites to start her with. Improve my parenting skills. Macam macam ada out there man. How do parents do it?

Going green?

Reuse & recycle is the way to go la.

These are my favorite bags at the moment. My envirosax. The one on the right is mine. But since BigB refuses to carry it when we're out shopping, i had to buy a more "manly" one just so that he will carry my shopping *haih*




These bags are super convenient as it can be folded and i'll put them into my handbag before I go out. I only take it out when i buy stuff. It helps me to reduce the amount of plastic bags the shops gives me.

Folded

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BigB's family likes to reuse mineral bottles to bring along water to drink when they drive. I don't really like it cos it's hazardous for health to reuse plastics over and over again to store your water and food. Most of these bottles contain bisphenol A (BPA), which leaches from the plastic even at room temperature and has been linked to chromosome damage and hormone disruption. In other words, it can cause cancer.

Plastic is everywhere, we definitely cannot avoid it fully but we can try to use alternatives if there are choices.

So I was damn happy when Bros came out with a stainless steel range. And this one only cost a fraction of SIGG's. Damn value! In my opinion, it's better than the SIGG bottles cos SIGG's mouth opening is so small, you can't even wash it properly. It must be quite difficult to wash since SIGG also sells the bottle brush separately.

SIGG. In case you don't know what i mean.

****************************

For the past two Sundays, we've been bringing Peanut to church. I know we're a bit behind, but better late than never, cos we're more prepared now. When she was younger, i was a bit apprehensive to bring her out, because yeah, useless me is a bit of a kan cheong queen and H1N1 was at its height too.

And so far...it's been good. No outbursts or loud crying. We can sit together with the congregation; and not in the baby room like pariahs hehe. Usually after church, we'll go and have lunch together, just the three of us, have coffee after and just roam around shopping malls after that.

Us at Austin Chase. Pretty good coffee I must say. Thumbs up!

Toffee & Hazelnut Lattes. Yums.

*************************************

Peanut also plays her part in reusing and recycling. By ignoring all the toys I bought her and shredding all the magazines into pieces instead for fun. Great stuff though, these magazines. Saves me lots of money lol

Caught in the act.

No idea what this face means.

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It's 9:40pm and I'm dead tired. Is it because of the long commute to work? Stress at work? Or is it because I wake up once or twice each night just to feed her? Or is it a combination of all three. A working mum is a very tiring job, and there's no break at all, but it's all worth it when you come home to this:

xoxo