A Year to Remember

As I count down towards the last few hours of 2008, I asked myself what is there to remember about this year. If there was one month that will forever be etched in my memory, it would be the month of July.

On the 5th, Bryan was admitted into DSH for this terrible, terrible accident. His scars serve as a daily reminder for me to be a better and more vigilant mother. It also reminds me (more like kick myself in the b*tt) to be grateful for the lovely children that I have. Yes, even when they cry for hours with no apparent reason or when they drive me up the wall with their antics. And yes, even when the older one still wakes up countless times at night. I shall be grateful, for it can be taken away from you with a snap of the finger.

And then on the 19th, I was back at the same hospital. This time was for a joyous ocassion. I told myself not to cry like I did with Bryan when the baby was delivered, but it was just overwhelming when the ob-gyn placed lil' Brandon on my chest with his umbilical cord still uncut. I stared hard at his face, trying to remember every single detail and the flood gates opened.

Two incidences this year within a span of two weeks from each other - one sad, one happy. But both relates to my being a mother. So, if you were to ask me whether 2008 had been a good year, I would reply, "Most definitely! Any year is a good year when you have beautiful and healthy children!".

With that, I bid 2008 goodbye and say hello to 2009. Bring it on!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone!

A Long Weekend That Was

We just had a long weekend over Saturday to Monday (being the Islamic new year). So what were we up to?

Saturday, the 20th

Do you recognise these beautiful girls?

Yes - that's me with Baby C and Sherilyn - the cutiepies belonging to HealthFreakMommy. Alycia is like the mummy, very photo-shy! I'd finally met up with the pretty, young-looking mother of 3. Shireen is also my SIL's pal from schooling days as the both of them are from Ipoh. Very small world! We met up at the Jungle Gym located on the top-most floor of Bangsar Shopping Centre. The concept is liks KidzSport I've been told. Per entry cost is RM28 per child, which was quite hefty to my mind. The good thing was that Bryan had his nap on the way to BSC so his energy level was tanked up to play. Lunch was at the cafe just outside the gym - food is great although we had to be seated outside which was kinda warm.

I like the gym because security is rather tight. The guardian's thumbprint is taken when we "check" the child in, and only the same person can "check" the child out by scanning the thumb again. And then there is a TV screen just outside which has CCTV covering the gym so that parents can watch over them. For good measure, I took turns with my maid to watch over Bryan while my Mum watched over Brandon. Poor VT was working on Saturday so he couldn't join us. We arrived home past 5pm and I hurriedly whipped up a quick meal of steamed fish and taufu with minced chicken for our dinner. Thank goodness VT was home by 6pm to take over Brandon.

Sunday, the 21st
Sundays are our usual mall-visiting days. Right after his bath, Bryan will proclaim "Sup(er)market" very loudly. We arrived at 1U and to our dismay, could not find a parking spot. So after searching for 20mins and paying RM1 to exit, we headed towards Hartamas Shopping Centre inside. In the process of car park hunting, Bryan fell asleep and I had to feed Brandon. There was a new TGIF which opened there so we decided to check it out. Again to our disappointment, this outlet doesn't have a "Kids Eat for Free" promo. When I asked the manager, he said that it was different for every outlet but I was never theless shocked because I thought it was one of their selling point. Then the Chicken Fingers that VT had was so small that we enquired whether they wrongly delivered the kiddies portion instead (which they say the did not)! VT and I have decided to boycott this TGIF outlet from there on.

After lunch, we headed to "Toys-R-Us Express" - it is just a smaller version of the normal & larger Toys-R-Us stores. Just as we went in, Bryan squatted down at the main aisle, in full view of other shoppers to perform his "big biz"! VT whisked him away to clean him up. Then 2 minutes later, I saw Brandon straining and making grunting sounds. So I wheeled him and passed him to VT to change, just as Bryan was wearing his shorts. Must had been the "umm umm" sounds that I was making when Bryan was doing his!

Monday, the 22nd
A few of us gathered at this mummy's house for a small makan-makan gathering. I met Michele for the first time. This wonderful mummy learnt balloon-sculpting from YouTube and made a dog for Bryan! Isn't she amazing? Then this mummy brought her giant swimming pool and all the kids had a whale of a time. I had to leave early as both the Bs were getting grumpy. I would have loved to stay and chit-chat with all the mummies. We cannot seemed to stop talking!!

For dinner, I made Seafood Tom Yum meehoon and had my PILs over. It was so easy, thanks to the ready-made paste. I think I shall make this more often. After putting Bryan to sleep, I had wanted to potter around the house a bit and spend some alone time with VT. But mana tau, I must had fallen asleep as when I woke up, it was 3:40am!

That was my weekend. How was yours?

The Bumbo Seat

Bryan has been copying everything that Brandon does. For instance, drinking milk 8 times a day at the same intervals, making coo-ing sounds, sometimes wanting to be carried when drinking milk, holding his chin to burp him (!) and sitting on the Fisher-Price rocker.
So it was not surprising that when I brought home the Bumbo seat, on loan from Bridget, Bryan wanted to have a go at it after didi.

Brandon trying out the new furniture. And Bryan too.........

Funny thing is that Bryan hated to sit in the Bumbo seat when he was a baby! Here's one of Bryan below as a baby.

Looking at it, the two brothers look alike!

New Year Resolution......Maybe

The unit I work in had a little Xmas dinner last week, which I went. It was held at The Social near Changkat Bukit Bintang. This photo with my colleagues was taken:

Looks like I'm the fattest amongst everyone in that photo, including the lady in red who is 4 months preggers. I felt very sad because I used to look like this:
Shocking eh? Oklah, I think my new year resolution would be to lose at least 8kgs and to be able to complete the Stanchart KL 10km run in June 2009 in 1 hour (my best time is 52mins). But of course, I'll start only after Xmas :)

If I start straying from this resolution, please knock me on my head. Better still, show me the first photo!

Free Isomil SOYA Formula

I have lots of Isomil SOYA formula to give away - free of charge! Bryan is no longer cow's milk protein allergy (hooray!) so I've switched him over to normal cow's milk. I could continue with the soya formula, no doubt, but I'd thought I can "strengthen" his tummy by moving him to "normal" milk. As a result, I have un-opened packets of his old formula.

If you know anyone drinking this brand, do let me know or ask him/her to contact me.

Japan, Anyone?

My mum has always longed to visit Japan for the longest time. It is funny because up to 5 years ago, she didn't go within 5-feet of sashimi but after some persuasion, she is a convert now. Anyway, I'd promised to take her see the cherry blossom next year. At the same time, I'd invited my Dad - thought it would be nice as a 40th wedding anniversary present. And then VT said that he hasn't been before so I'd invited him also. With the 4 of us going, what I am to do with my 2 Bs? Surely we will be gone for at least one week - I don't think it is fair for me to dump both my kids with my MIL for such a long period. We'll most likely end up taking Bryan for two reasons:

(1) He is old enough to enjoy it, not necessarily remember it
(2) He can eat whatever we eat so I don't need to worry about his meals, as long as they are cooked

So with those decisions in hand, now I need to look for a reliable tour company. I didn't think going on a Free-and-Easy tour would be a good idea although it would be cheaper. Afterall, I have two elderly parents to look after plus a hyper-active toddler. So, if you have any recommendations, I would be grateful for some advice.

P/S: If you're wondering whether I had a huge bonus pay-out, or if I striked lottery, it's negative to both. I think I'd just realised that there are somethings in life that I needed to do sooner rather than later, before it's too late and I end up regreting.

Musical Tong Yuen Weekend

There was nothing musical about the tong yuen balls that my mum rolled up on Saturday night. I was, though, happily singing as I was home for dinner with my brothers and the whole jing-gang last night to celebrate this auspicious ocassion. This me, this is even more memorable than Chinese New Year because I get to eat with everyone in my family. My mum cooked her shark's fin soup, prawns and claypot seafood pot while my dad whipped up his ever-superb "8-treasures" duck. Sorry, no photos as I had forgotten to bring my camera. There were 8 adults, 3 toddlers and 2 babies. Needless to say, it was a NOISY affair. I was stuffed to the brim with all the yummy food and it wasn't surprising that I dozed off soon after dinner.

The musical part of this weekend was treating my mum and MIL to watch Mamma Mia - the musical, which is currently showing at Istana Budaya. I had purchased the tickets on the first day they were sold just to ensure that we got good seats. And good seats we got. The distance from the stage was not too near so that we were only staring at the actors feet, but near enough to watch their facial expressions clearly.

Backtracking, I picked both the mums up for lunch. Initially, I'd planned to take them to San Francisco Steakhouse but I think it has gone bankrupt! To think that I pass by that row of shophouses every day without noticing that the shop is no longer there. We then decided to proceed to the Eurodeli shop at Damansara Kim to savour their pork chops. Both the mums were very anxious to get to the theather early so right after lunch, we set off to KL. We arrived very early (read: 1:40pm and the show starts at 3:00pm) so we browsed around at the merchanises. I bought the programme, which is a must for me each time I watch a musical, and a latte mug for VT the caffeine-addict.

The musical is one of the most entertaining ever, I must say. The scenes are almost identical to the ones from the movie, so no surprises there. What was a really nice touch was the end where all the actors continued to sing and dance, drawing huge crowds to their feet - all clapping and dancing along. Thankfully (?) my mums weren't one of them. By the time the show ended, it was close to 6pm and we headed home - back to reality but with a spring in our step.

Brandon @ 5 Months

And..........whoosh! Another month has gone by. Brandon turns 5 months officially tomorrow.

This little smiley, cutie-pie...

... weighed 8.6kg when we last went to the paed 2 weeks ago
... drinks 6-7 ozs of milk every 4 hours
... sleeps from 9pm through to 8am about 75% of the time, without waking up to feed
... is going through a growth spurt at the moment hence waking up 2-hourly at night to satisfy his hunger
... is happy whenever his kor kor kisses him or talks to him

... calls out to people who walks by him else he's quite happy to entertain himself with toys if he doesn't see anyone around. Mummy sometimes ducks while walking by so that he cannot spot me!

... is a rather predictable baby - he cries only when hungry or tired
... still does not know how to flip as yet but attempting

... mouths everything but favourite objects remain his thumb, pointer finger & a cloth nappy

And finally, this cutie-pie...

... melts Mummy and Papa's hearts each time he smiles!

The Chatter Box

As the saying goes, "Once they start, they can't stop". Bryan didn't speak much before he turned 2 years old. He could say many words but only the first syllable and he couldn't string words together either. But right after we celebrated his second birthday, his speech development went through a quantum leap. Over a few days, he could say not just two, but three syllable words ("straw-ber-ry") and could string words up to form sentences. Looks like he has picked up his mummy's jabbering skills. On top of that, Bryan is now calling me "Mummy" instead of "Mama". Sweet, isn't it? Of course sometimes his incessant "Mummy, Mummy, Mummy" when you're trying to sleep, gets a bit annoying. Never theless, him calling me is the sweetest thing I've ever heard.

Some of his favourite words:

- No way (mind you, he does this while wagging his forefinger at me! Usually said in response to sleeping)
- Many toys

- Mummy buy toys (even though he previously exclaimed that he has "many toys")

- Bryan wear nice shirt go party (we did have 2 birthday parties this weekend alone)

- Mummy make more nen-nen (this boy can drink milk the whole day)

- Mummy go (to) work

- Papa fix (whenever his toy is malfunctioning)

- Papa carry di di (whenever he doesn't want Me to carry Brandon)

- Mummy find tape (referring to his misplaced "Finding Nemo", "Madagascar", "Shark Tale" DVDs)

- Mummy build house (with his Megablocks)

- Bryan go su(per)mark(et) mum mum, go toy shop (refering to Toys'R Us)

Such innocence - I love it!

Malacca & PD in 14 hours

Warning: Long post ahead

My PILs wanted to take Bryan for a short get-away in PD during the Hari Raya Haji long weekend. I couldn't take leave as my boss is away and it is also too troublesome to pack all of Brandon's stuff, like bottle steriliser and his bath tub. So VT and I decided to make a day trip instead. As it is, I packed 3 bags just for Bryan - one for clothes, one for diapers (swimming ones too), and the final one for snacks & milk (and milk bottles). I can't imagine what it would be like if I had to pack for Brandon too.

We chose a bad day for travel - it rained the entire day. Our initial plan was to leave by 8am so that we can get to the Malacca Zoo before 10am. Oh yes, we did get there before 10am, only to be greeted by more rain. We decided to hang out in Mahkota Parade for a while, hoping that rain would subside. But alas, it was still raining rather heavily by lunchtime. We then decided to find a place for lunch in Melaka Raya. All the restaurants were packed - not surprisingly since it was a public holiday (yes, for the Singaporeans as well whose cars out-numbered the KL-ites). We waited at Restaurant #1 for 45 minutes for our food, and when it didn't looked like it was coming (plus the waitresses were rude), we got up and left after paying for our chinese teas. Restaurant #2 was the same but by then, we just ordered whatever was available immediately as Bryan was hungry and figgeting. Food was sub-standard, and price was high standard.

After lunch, Bryan followed by MIL in their car, which ended up to be a good thing. We had to stop at two different petrol stations. Once because Brandon was fussing and we only then realised he was probably uncomfortable in his PJs (long-john style) when it was already 3pm!! So we changed him into a T and he was much happier. Silly parents, eh? Shortly after, I could hear him grunting away in the backseat hence it was time for another stop to change his soiled diaper. By the time we hit the highway towards PD it was 3:50pm and thanks to an accident, we arrived at Avillion at 5:15pm. Bryan was already eagerly waiting for VT to take him to the pool.

VT and I had a quick dinner at the resort and after packing Bryan off to bed, we started our journey home at 9:30pm. True to our "good" luck that day, we were stuck at the Senawang-Nilao stretch for more than an hour. When we arrived home, I almost cried because I was so tired and sleepy yet I stayed awake to keep VT awake while driving too. VT crashed out that night, while I took over the night shift. Luck turned after the stroke of 12 as Brandon gave his mummy a good night rest by not waking up till 9 the following morning.

It was an enjoyable trip but I'll think twice about long day trips again next time. Getting too old!

The EL and the VEE

Due to popular request, I had to surf the net for a good photo of the bag. So here it is.

The one which I got for my mum is in plum and not red. I personally liked the red one better but I had already bought her a bright red bag from Coach 2 years ago.


Here's a shot taken (with the bag!) when we went out for her birthday lunch at our family's favourite chinese restaurant - Overseas.