Pictures... pictures...

As promise, these are the photos of En En during the weekend. She's just too energetic and perhaps Mummy needs to learn up how to do photo collage to apture all her photos in one...


I want Menu!


I love cold... cold is nice... Uhmm...


Open it! Open it!


Yummy, yummy... but I don't want!


Get me out of here before I start to shout!


You can't get me, Aunt Jess... I'm a fast-moving baby!

TV for young children?

I'm not so sure about what other parents think about TV. Personally, as I grow older and older, I realized besides providing information through news, documentary films, entertainment shows,... this is one media that does nothing good to young children.

My major concern is not on the child's capability to absorb what's display out from the box, oh and now we got flatter box, but the child's eyesight. Being a specky myself and daddy also a specky since 6 years old, and still stick to TV even nowadays, I really worry about our child's eyesight since she loves to stand in front of the TV. I heard that this "defect" can be inherited. Not sure how true it is but prevention is better than cure. So, having parent who wear glasses means En En has higher chance to wear spectacles/glasses if we don't really take good care of her eyesight.

Today I receive one interesting link from a friend and it's prove that infant or toddler who watch TV/DVD too often in fact does't help much on the IQ thing.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1650352,00.html

Even myself, I found out lately I refuse TV compare to before and occasionally just go for movie. I personally do not encourage young children to watch TV but then again, it's our society that promote the TV sessions (think about the HK, Jap and Korean drama and seriously I hardly can sit down to watch even one series) in each and every family. Don't you think so?

Eventful weekend

Sad to say, mummy was unable to blog as soon as possible since it was such an eventful happening, the time that mummy think about blogging was bedtime. Being so tired and lack of sleep for 1 week, mummy decided not to destroy the immune system of the body. Meaning, blogging has to get aside for our weekend.

*** Friday (24 AUG 07)***

Ah Yee (Aunt Jess) & Xiao Yee (Aunt Mendy, both mummy's younger sisters) visited En En last Friday together with Gong Gong & Po Po. They even spent a night in Penang just to bring En En out and our little one enjoy being surrounded by so many of us (mummy & daddy joined in after work), she is truely a princess and everyone was busy serving & entertaining her. Mummy heard Aunt Jess still call En En as girl, girl (with cuter tone), which last heard when En En was 6 months old. Aunt Jess still doing her degree in KL, seldom back to hometown and surprisingly En En get along well with her though they meet occasionally. We had dinner at Gurney Plaza's Nando's and as usual En En only will be sitting and eating for the most 30 minutes then she will request to go somewhere else by making noises, grumbling by herself, attempt standing up from the highchair, doing stunts... So, everyone had to took turn in order to fullfil her wish.

We brought En En to the G hotel lobby and she was excited by showing off her walking skill, up and down from mini stairs (3-steps height)... guess what? She walked non-stop and we were running behind her to get close-up shoot of her but unfortunately, not really successful. En En moves very fast and within seconds, she already walked from one end to the other. Mummy also gave up chasing her. En En never get tired and when it's time for bed, she simply feel unhappy for the separation.

Photos will be posted in my next blog.

*** Saturday (25 Aug 07)***

2.00pm
This was the hottest day in a week, En En was having difficulty to play and stay in the living hall which she usually did. She became cranky and asking us to bring her go kai kai, even daddy also agreed to bring her out to shopping complex. At the end, we were unable to go and trapped in traffic jam, the heat in the car get even hotter and mummy can feel that En En's body was hot. She started to get cranky again in the car because it's almost her nap time too. We decided to go home & switched on the air-con in the living hall.

3.15pm
En En's cousins came that day and the moment she saw them, Jia Yin & Xin Yin jie jie (by the way, En En calls every older sister or brother as "Kor Kor"... weird!) she forgot all her pain and sorrow... or whatever. You will see a lively and cheerful little girl again. All she wanted to do is playing with them. Mummy gave En En a bath and made her milk after she had her playing time with the cousins. Then, En En went for her late afternoon nap. Mummy was having a short nap too after watching the "Inconveninet Truth" with Daddy and FIL. My dear readers, if you are reading my blog now, I highly reommend that you watch this documentary film presented by US Vice President Al Gore. Understand why our globe is getting hotter and hotter everyday... it's really sad knowing the earth is sick.

6.45pm
Back to En En, we found out that she had running nose shortly after she woke up for dinner. Maybe she caught flu from the hot-cold-hot environment. After dinner, she started to get even crankier and bad temper at the moment right after mummy wear her a short! She thought we were going to bring her out kai-kai again. We tried to persuade and play with her, hoping that she will forget. Unfortunately, for almost 1 hour, she's nagging and throwing tantrum so badly. Later, we found out her body temperature was so high and tested with the thermoscan, 101.9F - prove that En En got fever.

9.05pm
Rushed her to the clinic, she was crying non-stop while waiting for her turn and daddy got pissed off by the nurse, nearly scold the doctor. Wow! Daddy was so anxious that night, surprisingly Mummy still very calm. Mummy became worry and panic when En En refuse to let doctor have a look at her throat. At the end, a loud srceam can be heard in the clinic as we had to force En En to open her mouth. Without any surprise, her throat was all red. Before this, she already started to refuse water and keep on screaming when she was in bad mood. En En was nearly peeing on doctor when she's been giving medication at the bottom due to the feeling of insecurity being examined by the doc. The medicine act to quickly bring down her temperature. So pitiful to see her cried and the bad feeling in mummy just started as Mummy realized En En definitely will refuse to take oral medicine, this is another big problem for us. Especially antibiotic with stinky smell. Arrgh....

10.15pm
En En was very tired after all the incidents for today. Doctor advised to give her the medicine after 2 hours from the first dose inserted from bottom. We didn't manage to wait till 11.30pm since little one already in low-batt mode. Her temperature dropped and it's a relieve for everyone. Mummy hope En En will recover very soon. Tomorrow will be the start of the medicine war.

Tag: The 10 Stuff I Hated Most

Received this tag from this mommy, thank you anyway coz this tag really made me think harder. I guess I never keep track on what I hate and finally manage to come out with the following. So, here it goes:

1)People who do not bother about what is going on in the country or worldwide and still think that they are cool - in other words, people who is selfish and self-center for own good.

2)Ironing clothes.

3)Being asked to do something else when I'm busy in brainstorming as I cannot blame them since they can't see I brainstorm.

4)Raise about old time stories during arguments.

5)Eating tofu with no sauce; pretending I'm enjoying delicious food even it's not my favourite but mostly those are healthy food. Trust me!

6)Empty promises.

7)Wearing clothes or shoes in a very "out-of-the-pic" combination as I'm very particular about color matching.

8)Stuck in traffic jam = wasting time.

9)Owing money either to a person or bank.

10)Meaningless entertainment shows whereby you get to see celebrities play games or do cooking. Arrgh... most stupid show I would sit down & watch!

So, I'm going to give this tag to:

Christene
Jazzmint
Angie
Malaika's Mummy

Trial Knitting

Started to learn knitting, well actually I shall say to have a feel of knitting yesterday. Able to took out some yarn last purchased for crochet project (but never really try any ~bleh~) and knitting needles from MIL's sewing supplies box.

Observed and tried for so many times and I'm still holding the two needles at the same place even I tried to knit and purl. There is no picture to show in this blog beause if have I have the pictures, it is also unable to tell which one is before and after. As to me before and after knit and purl, the yarn still stayed at the same place! Ha! Who says knitting is an easy work?? MIL asked me to learn on how to hold the knitting needle correctly first. In fact, I'm still unsure what is knit and what is purl. Saw MIL doing quite fast and even she slowed down to demonstrate, I also can't get any idea yet. I'm confuse when the yarn hook over the needle and was wonder where the yarn tied up at the end??

Need to get the illustrated pictures to have a close look on the basic knit and purl though. I did and downloaded a few knitting step-by-step as reference. Browsed through a few free patterns and they just look simply nice. Hmm... I'm thinking if I can master this skill and crocheting too, am I doing any good towards a frugal living??

Unexpected from local store

A few days back while I was doing some window shopping at a newspaper/magazines shop, those located in the shopping mall and found a very cute stamping wheel for kids and it is very attractive. There are some colorful stickers too. Just in time for me to add on some kits for my scrapbooking supplies.

There are 5 wheels from the stamping kit, each with a different colors. All you need to do is open the lid, press the stamp on paper and drag it over the page, see?? So easy and it only cost RM3.90.


Also found a few pretty ribbons and sequins from the local sewing supply shop. I was there to look for wool yarn but at the end I got material for my scrapbooking. So, here are the embellishements for my scrapbook!

Dreaming about cloth diaper

Oh my goodness! I was awake at 3.45am this morning, realizing my daughter was turning while sleeping. Guess she must be hungry since the last feed was 9.30pm last night. Made her the milk, yes in bottle as I do not have supply anymore and she finished in her dream.

While I was about to sleep at 4.30am, couldn't so. Unconciously, cloth nappy suddenly filled up my mind. Fitted diaper, I'm going to get Baby Beehind and Tot-Bot bamboo.... maybe get another one from Bambineo? Or Happy Hempy? Hmm.... Motherease Sandy's also a nice one for heavy wetter. Nappy cover should try wool or fleece? Shall I pick Lovelybum or Stacinator? Tot-Bot fleece in Stripe is cute for its colours...want to know where I can get all this? Order from overseas, but I never do so but locally we have Mia Bambina.

Within seconds, I already doozed off and guess what! I was dreaming already started off to knit the soaker! OMG! Can't imagine how I knit since I never knit and never know how to knit I day dream too much and really can't get my head off about being crazy with cloth diaper/nappy.... whatever you name it.

Yes, since July I started to study and research about fabric and yarn for knitting too. Pulled out MIL's 70s book about needlework (published in Australia) and there are so many types of cloths that use in today cloth diaper/nappy were never exist in the 1970s. No wonder the older generation has no idea about what I'm talking about the modern cloth diaper. You can see a few that I tested on En En from my link here:
http://awakenspring.blogspot.com/2007/06/en-en-in-cloth-diaper.html

Isn't they looks cute and nice on little bum? They are washable, reusable, gentle to baby skin and there are so many types out there. Read up at Diaperpin if want to know more. Well, can't really describe my feeling but I'm simply in love with Cloth Diapering!

Charity Tag

Okay, sorry to chinneeq for delaying this post. I read through again, oh still got time to do some charity then quickly start now.

With the completion of this tag, RM127 will be contributed to the Darul Izzah Orphanage. The meme is about completing at least seventeen out of the following twenty seven sentences…Once you’ve done, just drop Idham a comment over at the tag’s original page.

1. A person is only as good as ………
2. Friendship is always ……evergreen.
3. To love is to……….. sacrifice and care for others
4. Money makes me…….. spend more
5. I miss …………… my athlete life in national wushu team
6. My way of saying I care is by …………I'll always be your listener
7. I try to spread love and happiness by…………… involve & share with everyone in whatever I enjoy
8. Pick the flowers when…….
9. To love someone is to………….
10. Beauty is ………….. about ones inner self
11. When I was thirteen, what I remember….. study hard
12. When I was twenty one, I remember…….. take nice photos in the same year next during my wedding
13. I am most happy when …………
14. Nothing makes me happier than ………….having all family members around
15. If I can change one thing, I will change………..
16. If smiles were banned……. the world will be cold
17. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could…… support recycle and save the earth?
18. If you want to ask me to smile while taking my picture…..
19. Money is not everything but……. powerful
20. The most touching moments I have experienced is…... realizing how much my parent cares for me when I saw they grow old
21. I smile when…….my baby smiles at me
22. When I am happy, I…... share the moment with the one I love
23. If only I don’t have to…. , then….
24. The best thing I did yesterday was…..
25. If I ever write a book, I will give it this title…….
26. One thing I must do before I die is…… complete the family scrapbook
27. Doing this meme, I feel like …

The rule is to complete only 17 out of the 27 sentences. Would the following bloggers like to contribute RM127 to charity too? Idham pledges to contribute RM127 on your behalf if you do this tag before the August 26 deadline.

I'll pass this tag to the following mommies:
1)Michelle
2)Malaika's Mummy
3)WenLim

15 Months - Random Things about En En

Okay, Mummy is almost 2 days behind to update En En's latest progress. She is 15 months now and we miss her because she's in mummy's hometown. Basically, mummy is going to blog about random things about En En that come across the mind.



FAVOURITE
1) Food - still no particular but no sweets food. Love crackers, ice-cream and some noodles.
2) Drinks - pear juice, all time favourite.
3) Animals - dogs
4) Toy - magnetic alphabets, Fisher Price Nursery Rhyme CD player and her Pooh bear!
5) Family member - Ah Kong for going out as Ah Kong never say no; Po Po for taking care of her and always bring her out since En En will push mummy and Ah Mah away when she sees Po Po is around.
6) Things to do when bath - drink tap water from the shower head or water from her bath tub after sucessfully snapped the cup or small pail we use to bath her *roll eyes*
7) Things to do in kitchen - open the lower cabinet and take out all the plastic containers, then leave. - admire the magnets insects and animals stick on the fridge
8) Things to do before bed - take out all her books from the drawer and read by herself

FEARS
1) Food - sticky and thick texture
2) Drinks - H2O and sourly type
3) Animals - lizard
4) Toy - furry soft toy, she loves to see but not touching
5) Family member - Daddy because daddy sometimes can be fierce and serious with her; Po po too even En En still glue to her but En En will listen to po po when get scolded.
6) When bath - water runs down from her head
7) When in the kitchen - to sit in her highchair
8) Before bed - go to sleep!

LATEST TACTICS
1) Throw her bolster & pillow out from the bouncer, thinking to get out from her bouncer when refuse to sleep - En En wants to crawl down to collect her bolster (this is an exuse!)
2) En En always opt for cooler place to sleep. Instead on the bed she will throw her bolster to the bouncer and get up there by herself.
3) Po Po trained En En who always refuse to sit on the potty. She shouted for help calling "Kakak! Ah Mah! Pa Pa! Bee-bee (Poppy, po po's dog)..." anyone she can think of. Isn't she's cheeky?

Ratatouille

Managed to watch Ratatouille (rat-a-too-ee) last night with Daddy. A great movie for the whole family. It's about a rat who dreams big to become a chef, funny, touching and inspiring. Not to mention, cute too.

Ratatouille is a type of French cuisine - only know this almost at the end of the movie. Dah... I'm slow.

It is a traditional French stewed vegetable dish with olive oil. The key ingredients are tomatoes, zuccihini, garlic, onions, eggplant, bell peppers and basil. Looks delicious though never try one. Not sure how is it with olive oil and I realized most Asian can't tolerate with olive oil in their cooking. Maybe it's the herb and spices combination which is quite different between the East and the West.

So, bring your kids to the cinema to wacth this cute little rat, Remy and its adventures! Even daddy and I love this movie.

Tag: SAHM vs FTWM vs PTWM

This is a truely easy tag for me. After been working for almost 5 years now, having dilemma after married, follow by the arrival of En En, I really think twice and thrice or I shall say endless time thinking whether to be SAHM or FTWM.

I was a very energectic young lady when I just newly graduated, looking forward to join corporate world as soon as possible. The idea to become SAHM never exist and I think that's not what my parent and myself expected. After so many dissapointments in real working life, I review back what's important in my life and another 30 years ahead. So, if possible, I would prefer to be PTWM.

Reasons:

1. I believe in early childhood education for my children and parent plays a very important role in framing the attitude & behaviour of the child when they are young. So, I will get more time spending with my child and the feeling that en en is so clingy to me make me feel great!

2. I can be a big spender at times. So, if I don't work I won't have money and can't buy things that I like. Therefore, I still need a flexible job which is able to pump in some cash into my account.

3. With so many hobbies that I have, inluding piano playing, scrapbooking and coming soon - knitting (OMG!) it's a very difficult time for me to make them good if I work full time.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

~~~Instructions~~~

Here’s how it works:

1. So easy peasy, if you were given a choice, would you be a SAHM or FTWM? Just provide 3 darn good reasons.
2. Include your post link to the list below and finally,
3. Tag another three mommies

List:
1. Immomsdaughter prefers to be a SAHM
2. Miche prefers to be a SAHM too.
3. SYH prefers to be a PTWM.
4. Shoppingmum is definitely a SAHM material.
5. WMD definitely prefers FTWM
6. Milkmaid prefers to be a FTWM
7. Shannon can’t decide, and want the best of both
8. Malaika's mummy prefers to be a PTWM.
9. Sharine prefers to be PTWM.

Now, I would like to know your choice:
1. Miranda - I think your reasons must be interesting
2. Bryan's Mama - need to see some update at your blog
3. Angeleyes - not sure whetehr you did this?
4. Sandra - Tag will always for you as you are bz but I know you are very multitasking
5. WenLim - hope to know you more

En En's Name

Mummy never thought of looking up meaning of En En's name, until today. Suddenly felt like want to do a google search for the name. Guess what.... all the while Mummy was thinking the pronunciation of Rou En is quite similar to Roanne if really want to squeeze one Christian name for En En.

Mummy & Daddy never really give christian name for En En as we are not Christian. But since Rou En is quite unique, some people said it's like Korean name but we never think hard for the rest.

So, to mummy surprise, Rouen or Roanne in fact is a French name! These are the meaning:

Rouen - historical capital city of Normandy, in northwestern France. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe.

Roanne - is a town and commune in mid-eastern France.

Basically, they are name of France's city.

Dilemma...

Hmm.... my leaves eventually end. Went back to office, everything still the same I took back my tasks, sitting in front of the PC, started off my routine. I think I miss those days spent with En En eventhough it's tiring, but enjoyable... as a mother!

En En is now in my hometown, po po miss her so much so we let En En has her holiday with my parent. En En was so excited on the day we brought her back Alor Setar, she giggled, shouted with her smiley face when she heard the dog - Poppy was barking when our car arrived. I can't tell why En En loves dogs so much though she dare not go near them. Whether she is happy, angry or sad just mention dog dog will be coming, she will stop crying and nagging. Then, quickly she will go to the front door to wait for any dogs that may pass by.

So, everyone in Penang miss En En. But we do need a break... haha! I regret one thing that I never do throughout my stay at home and that is cooking. I admire very much each time I read other moms' cooking blog. Feel like trying but ended up none. Feel sorry to my food lover hubby as I seldom cook but I'll try to do it since everything is reachable at home. Even ingredient also half can be found at home, PIL always restock fresh groceries. Well, will try to make this happen one day. Hubby, I'm not just talking here, I really mean it!

Luckily I manage to do a few scrapbooking layouts when I was home but never snap down any yet. Will do in these few days. The other thing that I do most is browsing and gather information about cloth diapers online, I guess I'm seriously addicted. And even thinking to do crochet or knitting for wool soaker! Hi hi.... this one (addicted to cloth diaper) really no cure.

Conversation with En En

Since En En loves to go kai-kai (out from the house for a ride or a walk), mummy will ensure that En En will agree to go home after that. She did protested not to get out from the car when we arrived home. So, mummy doesn't let En En bring our her favourite Pooh bear and will ask her a few questions before we reach home for every outing activity.

Mummy: En En, do you want milk milk?
En En: *Nod head*
Mummy: Want to sleep?
En En: *Nod head*
Mummy: Want Pooh Pooh?
En En: *Nod head*
Mummy: So, we go home and En En take milk milk then get Pooh Pooh and go to sleep, ok?
En En: Ou-Kay!

En En is so cute and you will always be mummy's sweetheart!