Goodbye 2007 & Happy New Year 2008!

Would love to take this opportunity to wish everyone and your family a very happy and prosperous new year with lots of love and joy!

Happy New Year 2008!

Sleep in Stroller!

For the FIRST TIME!!!

Mummy didn't know why but was thrill to know that finally my little princess is able to sleep (give up to be wide awake even she's super tired!) in spite of being a baby who lack of sleep... in the stroller ever since we introduced stroller to her at the age of 5 months old.

Serious Constipation!

En En's constipation is very serious and paed told us that she has swollen anus and she will be having very difficult time for her bowel movement. It may take 6 months for a full heal... poor girl...

This condition is a result from probably a few months constipated issues whereby En En already developed the fear when it's time to pass motion. Once she feels that it hurts during the big business, she would rather keep the stool in her stomach and wait for the next day and the next day... no wonder she has bloated tummy and that's how she has stool as hard as a stone!

We tried to give her more fluid and fiber diet but still not enough to overcome her constipation problem. The main reason is she purposely refuse to finish her big business due to pain.

We have to give her oral laxative-like medicine and apply vaseline at her bottom to prevent the tear and pain when she's doing her business. Awww... mummy know this is a terrible experience. En En now has phobia and fear whenever we tried to wear her a diaper as she thought she will be having some poke at her bottom. But what to do? Mummy is so sad to hear En En's crying and moaning... and hardly can imagine if this is going to be repeated in the worst case... for the next following 6 months?

From my wardrobe

Went back home from half day work yesterday and guess what? Daddy was busy doing spring clean for the house. Salvation Army was the place for us to deliver the used clothes and material for recycle. Therefore, Mummy quickly joined in and it's the perfect time for reorganising the wardrobe as mentioned in the previous post!

Found them and couldn't imagine mummy fit in them some times ago...

Spaghetti tops!!! Was a sucker to all sort of spaghetti tops before and that was ... *Sigh* not so long-time history. Packed half of them and gave away already.

The next obssession - Bags!

Sporty, sexy, casual, dinner, multipurpose, office, ... till lately diaper bag... you name it and mummy probably have them all. The diaper bag also originally not for baby use, ok? It's converted from the multifunctional bag. Well... at least I think it's multifunctional. There are still 10 or 12 bags not inside the photo. They are in use downstairs or somewhere else in the house though...

No, mummy never give them away as they are still new and practical to use in different occassions. 1/4 of the bags are handmade and definitely not giving away! But can pass down to family members or close friends...

They said I'm too free...

To do KNITTING!!!

I shall:
- Reorganise my wardrobe
- Pack those unwanted clothes (in fact are those unfittable one as I never shrink back to my pre-pregnancy size *Sigh*)& send them to recycle center
- Wash all my handbags and shoes
- Collect those spoiled high-heels which already been repaired for a few times and dump them in the dustbin
- Finish off my music thoery exercises
- Practise the piano
- Complete En En's mini scrapbook album (just a few pages...)
- Try out the ink with calligraphy pen which MIL just passed to me
- Start to bake cookies for CNY

I can't get my head off knitting patterns and the hands off casting on... till 2am! The knitting momentum is back and I just couldn't waste even a minute not having the needle in my hands.

I'll bring them out to places without En En following... which is rare, as you will never know whether you will have waiting session in between. I knit in the car while waiting for the traffic light to turn green... yeah... I know, I'm crazy these days.

I think I need a break. En En doesn't want a crazy mama... :) But I think I shall bring my knitting project with me for the ride back to Alor Setar later... DUH!

Seafood Feast

This is a backdated post.

Daddy and mummy went to Bali Hai at Gurney Drive with friends (daddy's colleagues) for a feast on seafood! Mummy never post anything on food before and this is the first time because it could be a memorable experience. As you can see from the board of the restaurant, it's written "If it swims, we have it!" You got to believe them.


Look at the crab... very yummylicious but we couldn't finish it with 11 persons and have to take away.


This is the local big prawn (large shrimp) and they are really giant in size. All the fish, crabs, lobsters,... in Bali Hai are alive in the chill water when you make your order. Mostly are imported species from US, Norway, Australia, Taiwan, and so on...

This is the shrimp cook with "tang hun" in hokkien (vermicelli?)


this is the sea cucumber cooked with mushrooms, brocolli and sea scallop in slices. A very authentic Chinese style dish.


The sweet and mildly fragant meat of the King's crab. It is very huge and enough to be prepared and cooked in two different styles from one crab.



Hot and spicy version of Alaska King Crab! Too hot till we couldn't taste the meat... what a put off!







This is the up close look of Alaska King Crab. We need to place order to have this dish... it's cost almost 700 bucks for one crab... depends on the size & weight!

Not in the list is the steam grouper, more than RM30 per 100g. Everyone was very satisfy with the meal and this could be the first or maybe the last time mummy having such a splendid meal. It cost, well... as expected:

Total for RM1672.66

Wool Soaker for Newborn

It's so small but CUTE!!! I wonder whether I knitted the correct size... looks like I have to get more practise... Ah Mah said it's more suitable for En En's pooh bear to wear.... haha...LOL!



En En was interrupting when mummy was discussing with Ah Mah on the knitting problems and En En can't help to entertain herself with the yarn while talking loudly by herself.

Lovely December

Mummy was overjoy with freebies received during this month. Mummy got surprises from winning a RAK from a scrapbooking challenge of the month...



12 pattern papers, 1 set of rubber stamp and a handmade card from Wati! Surprise! Thank you very much... Just in time for my ATC Swap.

This is the Layout that I submitted for the scrapbooking challenge:-



Next,


Trial kit of Scarlet Secret (detergent with natural ingredients for cloth menstrual pad) from Sandra. Thank you and I shall provide my report soon... :)




A free complimentary gift from femchoices... another surprise of mine as I never know by providing a link I wil get surprise too!

E-store for me?

Well, I did have the idea of having my own e-store BUT definitely not selling modern cloth diapers even I'm addicted to them. I'm addicted to scrapbooking too and since scrapbooking is still new in Malaysia, we don't have that much of choices compare to US for the supplies in local stores. Hence, they are scrappers who buy online from overseas as well. I feel great whenever I see I have items in my shopping cart, that's the satisfaction if you are a shopaholics.

I browsed alot on cloth diapers and scrapbooking e-stores and was wondering who is behind the scene? Could they hired software developers to developed such a fantastic e-bussiness software with shopping cart for the business operation? I was wrong! Those are services from Shopping cart software.



If I am going to have my own e-store one day, I just need to select one ecommerce software with build in shopping cart and voila! I can start my business in no time. Technology today creates wonders, don't you agree?

Amusement

Mummy learnt this from po po - a technique that always turn en en from crankiness to laughter... in fact, everyone laugh too. She was stunned for a while to figure out how the thing got inside her shirt and next how to take it out? Did this to her since she's 8 months old when we temporarily run out of ideas to calm her down...



It's en en's beloved poor bear which made up the big tummy... haha! LOL!


So, what do you do to turn a cranky baby into a cheerful baby?

I've Been Tagged

I've been tagged by Ginie. It's fun to do tag even sometimes... no most of the time I will forgot to do. So, once I knew I've been tag it better for me to complete it asap.

1. Do the following without complains.
2. Choose 5 people to do this quiz after you've done yours.
3. Tag the chosen one.
4. Start your post with "I've been tagged"

Favourites
Colour: anything pastel
Food: fried rice, noddles,...
Movie: beauty and the beast
Sport: yoga
Day: off day
Season: spring
Ice cream: vanilla

First
Best friend: Christina (from primary school but now lost contact *Sigh*)
Crush: cannot reveal here, DH will be reading...
Movie: forgot
Music: Hot cross bun (when I attended the piano lesson at the age of 6!)

Last
Drink: cappucino
Car ride: just now back from Queensbay for lunch
Crush: Jet Li (oh... that's the effect of too much wushu)
Phone call: my mother
CD played: Keiko Matsui
Gone out with good friends: just now for lunch
Broken a law: parking at yellow line?
Been arrested: never, I'm a good citizen

I'm going to pass this tag to:

miranda

chanel

giddy tiger

denna

jess

The many first time

First time addicted to sip cup... hmm... time for a change?


First attempt to brush teeth on her own...



First time meeting baby Bunny and friends... and since then En En will bugs daddy to show her pictures of bunny bunny from the laptop. Anyone knows where to get Baby bunny's cartoon?

The joy as an educator

Guess what it is? I'm glad and happy... it's an achievement of satisfaction! You can't measure it with any material stuff including money!

It's SEEING YOUR STUDENTS IMPROVE in their learning everyday!

I just found out I connected well with those music students whom I nearly gave up on them! They were not bright student and they didn't pay much attention during the lesson or never practise the piano even I persuaded and buy them sweets to encourage them moving on. I didn't like when it's their lesson slot (yes, I got to be frank to you all that teacher do have preferred students, OK?) and hope the time passed faster. LOL! I was a terrible teacher.

But lately seeing that they really pour hard work and effort at last makes me feel joyful. Be it for the concert or the coming exam... I know they are serious this time as I can see they are improving. My students are like my children, no matter how bad they are, as long as I don't give up on them... they are the hope of the future.

Moral of the story: It's tough to become an educator. Same goes to parenting too!

The art of communication

I spoke something which is not supposed to speak out that will affect the impression from both families. I'm really bad at delivering the good ones instead of bad ones and I did it without my concious. Realized I told the wrong person which I shouldn't but the damage already done. Therefore, more misunderstanding here and there... arrghh!

When you are in anger, in stress and pressure you will need someone to talk to. In this case not husband or wife nor immediate family members even you know that's the comfort that you can find but it's not helping in solving the problem. Probably the problem comes from my own as I have to admit my weakness - I'm easily to disclose every bad feelings or negatives thoughts that I have from other's family with my family. Yeah... the long and old stories of the in laws. I know I shouldn't but... I think I still fail as a person especially in communicating without hurting others' feeling. I never know that there are things that I can't simply points out even I dislike as being a straight forward individual at all times. To me, I still need to learn alot. Then again, I keep on bumping my head to the walls. Am I stubborn?

This is not something that you can read from books... it's a daily life practise. I realized it and still struggling to overcome this weakness eventhough I knew what I shall do. DH said that's why I fail in workplace and always hurt people without caring for other's feeling about what I said. (sounds so cruel?) Perhaps I shall learn to tell lie? DH also said that's because I have the pure heart, I can't compete in corporate world. I sure lose and die very fast... even my mum said I am a looser to do sales. I regretted I never become a lawyer, at least this profession will force me to learn the art and skill of communication. True?

I'm hopeless in teaching my kids on this matter coz I know I need to brush up on my own too. Therefore cannot complain much if the elders are going to deliver the positive teaching to the young ones. I believe one saying, the child is the reflection of his or her parent. Knowing my own weakness, I don't want my children to pick up negative values from me.

My problem is why I always disclose in stress even I knew I'm talking to the wrong listener? I just can't help and I really need help! Not from others but help from myself to outgrown it... Yes, no one is perfect. Even as a parent there are thoughts or values that we shall outgrow which we carry from young. Agree?

19 Months Old

Today marks that En En reached 19 months old. She's picking up vocab and words very fast now. She mimics our pronunciation very much regardless it's in Mandarin, English or Malay. She gets almost 70-90% accurate.

Vital:

Height : almost the same as previous month
Weight : 11kg (no increment)
Teeth : 16 with some still sprouting halfway

Bowel movement issues:
Serious constipation everyday. We are giving her oral solution to ease her bowel movement as the solution will help to soften and retain moisture of the stool. as long as we skip one day without solution she won't have the urge to do her big business. Temporarily have to use this solution besides looking for anymore ideas to encourage her to take more fluid!

Diet:
Basically the same and she started to take cauliflower, bayam, bak choy,... more fiber to help her bowel movement.

She still have night feeding depending on her sleep time interval. Mummy has to calulate after 6 hours after she doozed off, it's time to feed her 4 oz milk. If En En doesn't make noise or sleep like a log then no need.

Words that she can speak and able to identify (the item):

van - van

air-plane - aeroplane

boat - boat

shhee - ship

ehh-con - air conditioner

ku4 - pants iin mandarin

yi1 - shirts or blouse in mandarin

shui3 - water in mandarin

"pot-pot" - girl's private part

i-ta - guitar

bib - bib

ba-tup - bathtub

egg - egg

o-ttie - potty

che-air - chair

hw-ing - swing

tree - tree

hua - flower in mandarin

mamiee is mummy and papa now becomes papi!!!

En En tries to mimic what we tell her again when we ask her to say it out loud. words that consists of 2 to 3 parts of different vowel is still difficult for her to say one shot. For example when we said flower, she only manage to said "-Wer".



Overall Development:

1) able to push the little stool to the door, snapped or bugged us to get the door key, climb up the stool and use to key for attempting to escape from the house.

2) no more bathtub for her bath since she will lay egg in the bathtub not willing to get up till she or us empty the water in the bathtub. There was one day she asked Ah Mah "ba-tup bu4 yao4 ah?" (No need to use bathtub in mandarin)
She misses the baby bathtub.

3) able to drink from cup very steady now provided the water in the cup is not full.

4) knows to feel shame and get angry if we tease her when she's wihout a diaper or clothes.

5) understand that when going out from the house need to wear shoes. She will quickly take her shoes and ask us to wear for her after she fails to wear on her own.

6) if she doesn't want to drink water or read that particular book she will place back to their original place. Book in bookshelf and bottle goes back to table.

7) mummy only brought en en to the pool once and she remembers it until today. Whenever she see the sea or a pool she will shout:"Miee... pom pom (means swimimng for baby talk)!" She is waiting for a day that I will bring her to the pool again.

Can you resist?

Finally I'm in the group! What group? The group of bloggers that blog for money.

Today is the lucky day for me once I realised my blog was approved by Smorty! I can't wait to get the feeling as a blogger who get paid for blogging. I can't believe blog can make money when I was a new blogger. Blog advertising is becoming very popular and common nowadays. Smorty is the service provider that connecting advertisers with bloggers.

Here's how it works. Advertisers wish to advertise their products or services online. Advertisers pay bloggers to write reviews on their products and services to advertise on blogs. There you go, the demand and supply cycle starts going on. Simple, isn't it?

So, what are you waiting for? I'm getting excited with this new role in blogging and I get paid to blog! I'm sure I will remember today's date as it's the day that I start to blog for money.

Do you shop more than most women?

I saw this quiz at KakiShopping and would like to know what category I'm in. So, here's the answer:

You're a Window Shopper!

You know that shopping's a blast, but you prefer to save your money You hardly ever give into an impulse buy, unless it's a total steal You've always got the most money of your friends - and you never have to borrow And you've got a nice wardrobe too ... of classic pieces that last years!

Do You Shop More Than Most Women?

Dear Hubby, do you still think that I'm that bad in spending?

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Clingy and always on the go baby!

En En clings to mummy more now... maybe mummy return home from work earlier and always bring her out for kai-kai more often now. Mummy can hear she murmurs "kai-kai" & "ma~miee" in her dream too!

Mummy think this is a good sign (cling to mummy more) because En En was more close to her Ah Kong & Ah Mah since they look after her during daytime and she didn't even bother when I was back from work.... *sob, sob* so sad... Yes, lesson learnt - spend more time with your child. Mummy does, especially in sharing good food to eat, time to play and get crazy together, involve in her activities and story telling helps too. Mummy loves to play flash cards and peek-a-boo with her. Trust me, En En still love this by saying "a-cha..." ( in a longer and sweet pitch) and chasing her on all four like a monster... LOL! Mummy can play almost any games she is interested... but looks like mummy need to get more flexible & durable by practise back Tai-Chi (opps... almost forgot I know TaiChi) & yoga.

We brought En En to Tesco last night for shopping. Everything was new for her as we seldom bring her there. She was very well behave and never ask to get down from the shopping trolley. She is in love with cold~ hmm... how shall I describe? Mummy bought her the Yoghurt drinks in bottle and she seems like enjoying the coldness by holding it tightly against her body... throughout our shopping and in the car when we were riding back home. Weird baby...

En En will be so contented after every outing regardless where we go. She even protests to sleep if we never bring her out when she's expecting to be out from the house! There are times when she was sleeping or after just woke up from a nap straight away you will hear she shouted:"kai-kai!!!"

some thought: Is there any relation that Mummy was outgoing during the pregnancy cause the baby prefer to go out from the house often in later life?

Celebrating Po Po's birthday

Gong Gong and Po Po will be coming to visit us again this Thursday and it's Po po's birthday too. Aunt Jess (yi yee) will be in Penang tomorrow with her college mates & friends from KL. Then Yi Yee will join us on Thursday for the birthday dinner. Nothing special it will be another family gathering occassion.

En En is such a lucky baby, she has everyone coming from Alor Setar and KL to visit her often and even any celebrations, everyone will think of her and plan for her to join in. So, Mummy's to do list is to book accomodation and then find a yummy place for the upcoming event.

Because it's Christmas

I went to post office today to get my mail weight and intended to buy stamps. I made a few christmas cards for a few friends. It's time to post out. My handmade cards and my envelope from recycle papers weight heavier than normal one. I was preparing to pay maybe RM1 or 2 for the stamps even it's just post within the country.

To my surprise, the clerk from Pos Malaysia told me 30 cents for all christmas cards nationwide! What are you waiting for... send out now regardless of the weight as long as you stated it's a Christmas card! Bravo to pos malaysia.

Vocab Power

En En picks up new word very fast nowadays. So, we have to mind our speech daily! She is able to follow or mimic our pronunciation either in Mandarin or English. Most of the time it is almost 80-90% accurate.

Don't know why recently she prefers to sleep back in bouncer at night and commanded us to swing her. She will says: "Ah mie... yao2 (means swing in mandarin)!" Last night she saw daddy went in bedroom earlier and straight away told us: "Papa... yao2!" I guess she's enjoying to be threated like a princess and poor mummy and daddy become her slave. Guess that's why daddy always will remain downstairs till late night. LOL...

Next when we are riding in the car, she's now very interested in different types of vehicles, particularly bus. She will point and says out loud "Ba..." whenever a bus passes by. She even can differentiate and tell us "loli" (lorry). She's learning van now but still not yet spoken out.

We are amazed when she's able to follow us to do counting 1,2,3... in mandarin. It starts like this:

Mummy: yi (1)...
En En : (follow) yi... or sometimes er (2)... immediately
Mummy: san (3)
En En : san...
Mummy: si (4)
En En : wu (5) *surprise!*
Mummy: liu (6)
En En : yuik...
Mummy: qi (7)
En En : ba (8) *surprise!*
Mummy: jiu (9)
En En : yoo...
Mummy: shi (10)
En En : shi - 100% accurate pronunciation for shi, especially the sh- part

Sing song time...

Papa : "Old Mcdonald had a farm, ee yah ee yah..."
En En: "Ohhhh...." (the loudest)

En En understand Malay language too. My maid speak Malay with her and even En En can't speak back but she really understand. We tested her a few words:

Ah Mah : pointing to her muslin (cloth nappy) "Apa ini?" what is this
En En : "pinn... (lampin/muslin)"
Ah Mah : "Mana hidung?" where is your nose?
En En : pointing her nose
Ah Mah : "Nak makan?" want to eat?
En En : shake head
Ah Mah : "Mau susu?" do you want milk?
En En : nodded her head then happily sucking her bottle later

Then mummy teach her a few simple english word like sit, walk, open door, close door, take, put down, clap you hands... and her favourite is "tap-tap" (actually it's "step step"). She loves to sit at the staircase and ask us to step our feet with her. It started from the children song:

If you happy and you know it step your feet ~ Step, step x2

If you happy and you know it and you really want to show it

If you happy and you know it step your feet ~ Step, step

Not-so-good characters

En En show her possessive character in so many ways. She is the only baby at home even she's a big baby now. When she wants us to pay attention to her, she will come to you and screams! Or sometimes not coming to you and scream from where she is. Recently, she likes to scream so much... it is very noisy at home.

Ah Mah was having painful arm as a result of carrying En En as this little girl already grown alot compare to when she's just a baby. Ah Kong will help to massage Ah Mah's arm with counterpain cream or oilment. Whenever En En see this, she will scream and show us her unpleasant look as if she refuses Ah Kong to "hurt" Ah Mah. If Ah Kong continues, En En will go for "rescue" and pull Ah Kong's hand away from Ah Mah's arm! But En En never knows when she's cuddling and rolling over Ah Mah's body when she's lying for rest, En En in fact hits Ah Mah countless time accidentally and that hurts too!

En En doesn't allow daddy to hug mummy or mummy to hug daddy. She will give us the long face (jealous??!!) But she wants us to hug her! *roll eyes* Even we ask her to kiss Ah Kong & Ah Mah or anyone that's not following everytime she go kai-kai (outing), she will go to you and let you kiss her but not she kisses you.

The part that everyone enjoy most is teaching En En to ask permission and say "please" whenever she needs our help to get her something. She will goes like: "Mieee.... (in a VeRy HiGh & LoNg PiTcH!!!), pled!" or "papa-pled!" or "papa-pi" especially when she's asking us to take her out kai-kai.

The little fella won't let anyone take her stuff and share her toys even with us. So, I guess we will have disciplin class often at home and daddy even suggested to buy cane too.

Tag: Seven Facts About Myself

Healy passed me this tag for quite some times already and I nearly forgot to do! I think I got to finish it by hook or by crook...

1. I met my hubby online and since then we have never ending conversations. We click so well and we share alot of interests... read me? A lot of different interests! So, it's not neessary to have things in common to start a topic.

2. I have 3 blogs. One for parenting life (you are here!!!), one for my passion about cloth diapering and another one is addicted to scrapbooking (yes, paper scrapbooking!)

3. Learning about the chemical terms and ingredients for skin care produts and cosmetics is another hobby of mine. We have the choice to be a knowledgeable and wiser consumer. Read up ladies!

4. I pick up crochet because I wish to make my own pretty crocheted dinner bag and learn to knit because I need to use wool cover for the modern fitted nappy. It's another way to save up money if you are able to make you own! Maybe will try sewing in another years to come.

5. I work fulltime but I don't have a career, I just have a job to sustain myself financially. Just feel wasted for what I had learned from uni life and I strongly believe it is not necessary to have a degree or master cert to be a sucessful person in life. Hubby is my proud real life example.

6. I am trying to recycle more from house. I wish to bring the awareness and educate my family members no matter they will practise or not. Everyone deserve to be aware about the latest issues about our planet.

7. I like animals particularly dogs and cats but cannot have my own since hubby is against the idea. Perhaps one day after I retire I could help in WWF! Note: Not World Wrestling Federation, this time is World Wildlife Federation!

I am passing this tag to:

Angeleyes

Bryan's Mama

Chinnee

Ginie

Lian

Butterfly

We teach En En about butterfly when she's still a crawling baby. Right now, she loves butterfly. When mummy was doing scrapbooking one day and thought of using butterfly in the layout. En En was sleeping but woke up when mummy was working halfway for the layout.

As usual, this little one is curious about what mummy is doing with all her pretty photos and she always asked me to carry her up and see what's mummy's creation (not really la... to disturb me actually). Mummy realised En En loves colourful papers and stuffs so mummy use the craft knife and cut out 2 paper butterflies shape and asked En En what is it? Without hesitation En En replied: " Fly, fly!"

Then mummy asked En En to show everyone what she had in her hand so that she can get busy for a while while mummy able to quickly finished off the layout before she came and disturb next round.

En En saw real butterflies before in mummy's hometown and we plan to bring her visit the Butterfly Farm in Penang. Anyway, the entrance fee at the moment is RM10 per person (maybe higher in future, who knows?) and daddy said wait till En En abit older then we can go together.