Journal for Jo Ern

Jo Ern goes shopping

2012-03-05T18:00:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was my birthday and we loitered at Cold Storage. :) I seriously prefer being at a supermarket than shopping for clothing/shoes/accessories etc! Well hubby also took me for a good breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper so I have nothing to complain about. Also had dinner with my whole family on Saturday.

Back to Cold Storage. Halfway round, Jo Ern saw a shopping basket on the floor. She placed the ball and balloon she was holding into that basket. To my amusement she started to drag the basket along by one handle. She then stopped at random places along the aisles, taking down items for a closer look and either putting it into her basket or back onto the shelf. Like she was doing shopping for real! Photos would have looked better if I'd left all her chosen items in the basket... but good citizen that I was, I wanted to put stuff back on the correct shelf. :)

Now shall I get this brand of 'bak kut teh'?

Definitely need a loaf of bread

When she got to some strawberry Hello Panda biscuits, she muttered "More! More!" and piled loads of boxes into her basket. I was laughing away so hard. I haven't given her any Hello Panda to eat yet so probably she just liked the packaging.

We went to Daiso after that and when next thing I knew, she was walking around with a box of clingfilm under her armpit. I removed that and next, she had a box of sauce bottles cradled in the crook of her arm. These items were obviously selected for size rather than nature! Aiyo this little one. She's good at observing and copying what people do.

JE @ 1y11m

Little girl

2012-03-01T01:05:00.000-08:00

Funny how thinking of Jo Ern lifts up my mood. I go through life at the office focused on colleagues/clients, work demands and deadlines, moving from consulting office to project room to boardroom to user departments. Then at some random point, I'd suddenly remember I have this little daughter and immediately, I am happy.

Tadpole-shaped eyes (like mine, but luckily bigger hehe) and rosebud mouth... this is MY little girl!

Who, although my cutie pie, err... sometimes demands extra attention

Don't like.... Waaaaaaa!!

WAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

I kinda like how she just lets loose. No holding back, heh.

No little girls were harmed in the making of this post... no matter how pitiful this one looks. :) If I remember correctly, she wanted to look at pictures in the camera instead of taking new ones. Bawling is her weapon of choice if she doesn't get what she wants!

Bed-time

2012-02-27T19:28:00.001-08:00

Play with Mummy's phone then only oi-oi

I'm glad Jo Ern actually LIKES bedtime. She has her routine starting 10pm - drink 3oz milk, happily show off empty bottle to me and hubby, walk to kitchen sink to plonk empty bottle in, brush teeth and then announce "Oi-oi time!" before climbing the stairs. Hubby would typically still be watching TV (the man stares at the screen for HOURS!). Previously I'd take Jo Ern upstairs while he continues with the TV. Now that Jo Ern talks, she'd go and tell him, "Papa!! Oi-oi time! Papa oi-oi time!!" until hubby actually moves his butt to bed. Heh.

What she likes isn't actually the sleeping part. I'd switch the bedside lamp on and the main room light off. While the bed is bathed in the glow of the lamp, we read her books and do the 6-pc jigsaw puzzle that sit on the bedside table. She hands her toy octopus over to hubby and her toy dog to me. If hubby tries to nap the dog instead, she would cry. She takes back both animals when she wants to sleep. Sometimes she grabs my phone to play with and then it might be a short battle getting it away from her. My policy is to hold off giving her gadgets as long as possible, seeing the affinity she has to phones/ipad/computer!

Eventually we turn the light off. Sometimes it's another battle as she wants to play some more. But this won't be long and soon she goes quiet. She sleeps through the night, this one. :)

Climb kid

2012-02-23T20:36:00.001-08:00

A ladder, WOW!

I wanna climb too! Papa go away k?

Hubby: JoJo shoo! Chor teng sai!

Yayy I am climbing up and UP!

Jo Ern loves to climb! She has always been pretty agile and would try to climb things much taller than she is. She'll have a huge grin once she succeeds. She climbs up the piano stool at my parents', hubby's Lazyboy chair, my kitchen drawers using the handles as a ladder, our door grills etc. My dad warns that she's heading for a big fall one of these days...

When hubby took out this ladder to change some light bulbs, it was fun-time for Jo Ern! She doesn't always know how to climb down again though. :)

Compromises

2012-02-21T19:41:00.000-08:00

Yes... this is a very good vintage

Pic shows Jo Ern inhaling alcohol from hubby's glass. Future wine connoisseur or alcohol junkie? Hmm... I personally wouldn't encourage this at all. Told hubby that addicts get high from sniffing glue just like this. But hubby decided that's a completely different thing. And will offer Jo Ern his glass to smell. She on her part already knows that she won't get to actually drink, and will still happily stick her little nose in the glass and breathe in deeply. Sigh. I shall compromise and take a step backwards. Maybe it's good to have a counter-point to my overprotectiveness.

Since I'm on the topic... couple of other points on which hubby and I think differently:

1. I am following my mum's rule of no snacks right before meals. Hubby on the other hand believes in having many small meals and thus snacks whenever he likes. Only last weekend, with lunch to be served at 12.30pm, he made himself instant noodles with an egg around noon. On the bright side, this is someone who will never complain that meals are late! I have basically come to terms with this. Well sort of, I do get annoyed when he doesn't do justice to a meal I've painstakingly cooked because he just had a big snack of roast pork washed down with Guinness Stout.

Jo Ern is showing the same preference for snacks vs meals. Hubby says might as well let her eat what she wants rather than force her to eat what she doesn't. He will give her the biscuits, bread and whatnot she asks for while I am cooking dinner. I do intend to fight this battle, to get proper meals into the kid! (Hubby says biscuits and bread are also nutritious what... grrr)

2. Hubby recently decided that a 2am curfew was right for an 18-year old girl. I would freak out if 16 years in the future, my precious Jo Ern wasn't home by, oh, 11pm! Heh. But I am aware also that setting unreasonable rules will mainly result in broken rules. Oh well, I still have time to enjoy her childhood innocence and will cross this bridge when it comes.

Results of photoshoot

2012-02-16T19:40:00.000-08:00

I have yet to collect the actual photos from our photoshoot. At first it was a misunderstanding - I was waiting for the draft photos which the studio thought they'd already sent and was waiting for my approval. After we got over that, the place was closed for CNY. Right, NEXT week I'm going over to that area again and shall collect. In the meantime, here are 3 of the 5 photos we picked.

The only one with a smiling Jo Ern

Strong pose this one

Portrait with fruit

For the last photo, there was a better photo in the series where she was 'eating' a fruit. Too bad that was a POTATO. *Smacks head*... why studio put potatoes in the basket la??! Put all fruit cannot meh?? I'd have picked that other photo if the fruit had been a strawberry or apple!

These photos were taken 2 months ago and she already looks different! Overall, while the photos are not terribly nice, I guess they're decent enough.

I want...

2012-02-13T19:05:00.000-08:00

She knows what she wants... the terrible two's are coming! I guess it has to be this way. Before this she was barely aware of anything outside herself. It is now that she has made enough sense of the world to know what she likes and that she has some influence.

I want to ride the escalator again! And I WILL sit right here until that happens!

I'm glad she's small enough to just pick up, even while kicking and screaming! And she's still easily distracted. Like with a box of raisins. Preferably don't plan on removing the box before it's empty.

Hm? It's my box. What is it you want with my box?

Luckily for me, she is overall a sweet child. When she's in a normal mood, she keeps her toys, takes out diaper and mat in preparation for being changed, regularly brings water-bottles to respective owners. And she likes to share her food. :)

"Ern give Mummy" - she says this whenever she sees this photo!

Chit car

2012-02-09T22:30:00.000-08:00

See this happy little girl? She loves sitting in these things and turning the steering wheel or pressing buttons or whatever is available. Whenever she spots one of these contraptions, she'll point excitedly and ask to 'chit car/cat/horse/duck etc'. I am sooo NOT gonna put any money in them, for as long as possible!

I took these photos which she loves to look at... sometimes going 'Pwog! Pog!'. Which I didn't decipher for some time.

Chit car! Pwog pwog!

Translation: Sit car with frog (actually dinosaur)

Water play, part 2

2012-02-05T00:53:00.000-08:00

It's proving to be the usual hot CNY weather. Jo Ern has been keeping cool in her turtle pond. But there is now another part to the experience...

First part - chillaxing in the turtle

This is nice!

First part lasts a max of half an hour. On to the usual cleaning up (and the usual cries of "noo! NOO!!!!"). Then it's time for the second part.

Second part - playing with the leftover water!

Scoop water

Pour!

Heh, the second part keeps her busy for ages! She'd scoop water into the cup, run over to the chosen plant and pour the water on it. Sometimes a small potted plant gets lucky many times while a big plant gets only one cupworth. All up to the whims of a 1y 10m-old 'water-goddess'! I'm quite pleased with the discovery of this extended water-play. She is soo happy running back and forth with her little cup. She does get a bit wet but not enough for me to worry about her catching a chill. And I'm off the hook, for a while, of thinking how to keep her entertained!

Walking in other shoes

2012-01-31T19:41:00.000-08:00

Jo Ern loves to drink water from other people's containers. People at my parents' place, both big and small, use water-bottles. Jo Ern knows exactly which ones belong to whom and will frequently bring the correct bottle to its owner. Just as frequently she will open the bottle and drink from it herself.

She also loves to wear shoes belonging to other people. Here are some photos of this hobby...

Do you like my outfit?

(dress, pants retained from CNY outfit in case of mosquitos and not-her-sneakers)

Just whistle while you work...

Rest a while then walk some more

Which pair will suit me better?

Wait wait, I put on some more shoes first

The funny thing is, she has no problem walking in the shoes whatever the style or size. Even while wearing BOTH her own and not-her-own shoes at the same time!

CNY 2012

2012-01-29T19:02:00.000-08:00

CNY for me started with preparing the reunion dinner for 10 big people and 1 little one. Food turned out ok, phew! Fish turned out good and there were compliments for the prawn+mince combo and ginger-scallion sauce.

Menu for future reference:

1. Steamed tau-tai fish in soy sauce (fish cost a bomb! forgot to take pic)
2. Roast chinese-style chicken with ginger-scallion dip
3. Prawns wrapped with minced pork
4. Stirfried assorted veg with meatballs
5. Roast pork
6. Lotus root-pork ribs soup, done by hubby
7. Lap mei farn, contributed by guest
8. Steamed big prawns, contributed by guest
9. Home-fried prawn crackers as an additional snack

Prawns with mince, roast chicken, lap mei farn, veg with meatballs

I was tired upon sitting down to dinner. Hubby too, actually. He was busy cleaning the house earlier. Guess we're just too 'kancheong' as hosts! I noticed that my SIL can prepare food to sit down to, with more later to accompany alcohol (hubby's family are big drinkers) and she's still fine to chat and enjoy the session.

Hubby was suggesting taking away a 'poon choy' instead of cooking. Maybe next year when there are more little ones around, heh.

Some pictures of Jo Ern in CNY clothes... there is still one more outfit that I can't seem to find any time for!

Wear nice-nice and eat sweet. Hair wet coz just pom-pom

Wear nice-nice and play with tongue

Wear nice-nice and play with cigar

Err and no, she can't wear nice-nice and just STAND nice-nice for photos!

Happy CNY!

2012-01-26T01:45:00.000-08:00

Jo Ern would like to wish everyone a happy new y...

Don't wanna wear this! Take it off!

Err I mean, Jo Ern would like to...

Take it off!

Jo Ern would really like to wish Gong Xi Fa Cai to every...

Off! Off!

Jo Ern! Come here and wish everyone! And Tai ma's policy is CNY must wear red, the redder the better!
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Gongxifacai! Wish everyone very hua-hee! Hehhehe...

Overheard at breakfast

2012-01-16T18:49:00.000-08:00

Set out a small container of cheese for Jo Ern's breakfast and made sure she was seated properly. Told hubby, "Eat breakfast with Jo Ern ok? Chat with her ok?" and went to roast peanuts for CNY cookies.

Participants: Jo Ern and Hubby with grumpy early-morning look

Jo Ern: Papaaaaa (1 point)

Hubby: ----

Jo Ern: Cheese! (1 point)

Hubby: -----

Jo Ern: Ahmm (1 point)

Hubby: JoJo eat cheese ah (1 point)

Jo Ern: DOG (1 point)

Hehe can change topic some more. I stopped keeping count and focussed on my peanuts. Jo Ern wins!

Did I win something?

Filler post: Snowy

2012-01-12T20:38:00.000-08:00

Went to Midvalley to drop off my phone for service. Jo Ern discovered escalators, pointing excitedly to every one she saw and walking by herself towards it. So we rode escalators up all the floors and then down. Simple pleasures! The mall quickly got super-packed and off home we went. No point fighting the CNY crowd.

Oh a dog! I will call you Snowy

Take picture with my new dog

*pat pat* Good boy, Snowy! I go off now, bye.

(Ya ya that's actually a wolf. Don't want to get technical and confuse her!)

Genting trip 11

2012-01-09T22:00:00.000-08:00

We almost didn't go on this trip, hubby wasn't keen as he had dinner appointments on Fri and Mon. I was though, since it's been a while since our last trip and Genting doesn't give many free stays now that hubby doesn't visit the casino much. It was only after checking in that I found out (hubby knew all along) the free room offered was a suite! Hello we almost threw away a stay in a suite?!

Jo Ern wasn't walking yet the last time we stayed at Maxims. Now, she absolutely enjoyed going in one door and coming out of another, raiding the complimentary fruit basket, climbing up the steps to the jacuzzi and generally messing about with everything. Which means I was absolutely happy as well, heh.

This room got plum for me to eat and book to read. I like!

And a big tub to pom-pom in!

We walked around the theme park as usual. Got balloon animals from clowns. She still doesn't like them.

Nope, dowan to smile with clown here. Nope.

Went on a few rides.

This is me riding a big camel

But what Jo Ern liked best was the playground - no music, no motors, nothing fancy.

But this horse is way cooler!

Slides are also very fun things

Back to my horsey

Papa, wanna go play some more!

The indoor theme park was closed but Jo Ern was happy just pressing buttons on the inactive machines and moving the joystick. She was at it for ages and kept wanting to climb up to a machine whenever we passed by.

Look, Mummy! *press press* Look!! *press press press*

I wish we could have stayed 2 nights!

An eventful morning

2012-01-04T21:05:00.000-08:00

Just had to blog about this morning. Left Jo Ern asleep in the bedroom while we had breakfast downstairs. Our main concern was the dog who hadn't poopoo-ed for 5 days now. Hubby decided to try the enema again and headed for the bedroom first... only to find Jo Ern had woken up and somehow locked the door from the inside! We didn't even know she could REACH the lock! And it's a not-easy-to-turn type, not the usual press-the-knob type. Our keys were inside, as were the phones etc.

Hubby tried to drill open the lock. But it was the heavy-duty type (trust hubby to be kiasu in these things, heh) and the drill bit wasn't good enough. Luckily my spare car key is kept downstairs and hubby could drive out to buy more tools. In the meantime, tried to get Jo Ern to unlock it, but as expected she didn't know what we wanted her to do. She kept calling out "Mummy! Mummyyy! Pao-pao!'', "Kakak, kakaaak! Open!", Papa! Papaaaaa!" then started crying when nobody came to her. Oh, my poor baby!

Hubby came back with serious tools and worked on the lock. Metal shards flew everywhere. But even after breaking apart the outside parts completely, the bolt remained stubbornly in the door frame! Poor hubby was drenched in sweat, grappling with various tools as Jo Ern bawled away inside. I was also worried she would get hurt by a flying piece of metal.

Finally, hubby did it. We rushed in. Found Jo Ern had gone to her bed to cry! Well it was better that she wasn't at the door. Quickly hugged and manja-ed her and soon she was fine. The little one spent a good half hour in there calling and crying.

My sweaty hero and my rescued baby (who is eating something)

OK now back to the problem of the dog... haha. Shadow is a huge German Shepherd and it isn't easy inserting enemas, getting medicine into him or even transporting him to to the vet. Hubby gets to do all that while I thankfully take myself off to the office. Phew.

Now can somebody attend to me please

Pom-pom outside

2012-01-04T00:13:00.000-08:00

I left the office early last Friday since the system was down. Went over to my parents' place where I found Jo Ern happily sitting in the 'pool' with Justin and Elyssa. Really wished I'd brought my camera!

Taking the cue, I filled her inflatable turtle with water last weekend. She loved it! (Added more water after these pics were taken)

Kakak! More balls!

Hehe a pear sneaked in! Hello pear!

The only problem was getting her OUT! She absolutely refused, kicked and screamed all the way back inside, screamed while being changed and for quite some time after. Then she kept pointing outside to where the things were drying and saying 'ball'. I know one tip is to agree with the kid first that she needs to stop when told to etc, but Jo Ern is still too young to understand. Guess I will just have to expect THIS for now!

Noo! Nooooo!

Next day she pointed outside and asked to 'pom-pom'. Heh.

End of 2011

2011-12-31T20:43:00.000-08:00

Wishing everyone lots to eat for 2012... and lots to wear

Wow, another year drawing to a close. It really doesn't seem long at all that I was summing up 2010 and saying that for me, it was all about Jo Ern. Well 2011 would have been similar if my company didn't go bust on me. It's the first time I've been jobless since entering the working world. Luckily the job market was good and I managed to find employment within a month. One month out of work, two months without a paycheque. I was down to my final RM50! Foremost lesson learnt is... from a financial standpoint I need to work quite a few more years before even thinking of retiring. Heh.

Besides that personal blip, the year was focused on Jo Ern again! I need new hobbies perhaps? But I don't WANT any... hehe. A quick recap: I breastfed her exclusively till 13+ months, freezer stocks were enough to last her till about 15 months and thereafter formula was slowly introduced. Stopped pumping at 17 months in September and direct feeding at 19 months. Over-achieved on my initial goal of 1 year... it just happened that the environment was conducive and people around already knew what I was doing, so might as well go on a little more. When I finally stopped, ahhh what freedom! The best was freedom from the stress of being stuck in KL city traffic jams when I'm desperately overdue for the next pumping session! What I really question is if I can do this again for another baby...

No new resolutions or goals for 2012, I do feel that having Jo Ern is completely and exactly what I want, at least for now. I shall sit back and enjoy my little girl. She always has new tricks up her sleeve so it's not same old, same old at all. What remains constant is, this cutie-pie is my pride and joy. Happy new year 2012, everyone!

Right, now it's time to oi-oi

New smile

2011-12-27T23:08:00.000-08:00

So she was smiling like this for the camera last month. Now she's smiling like this instead:

Wait, I smile nicely first

Smile nicely again

Guess it's an improvement! I suppose before I know it, she'll have her own Facebook page with pictures in poses that seem strange to me...

Appetite improving!

2011-12-21T22:51:00.000-08:00

Ahm this big piece of chick-chick

Jo Ern is getting a little greedy these days, yay! Take out biscuits, fruit and snacks and she's there demanding 'MUM MUM!'. If you ignore her she goes 'ARK ARK!' (her first word for 'eat') to reinforce her point. The other night I was eating some dried preserved fruit when she came and demanded some. I'm not letting her have such non-nutritious stuff yet so quickly kept it away. Later I wondered how come she was so quiet - turned out she'd knocked over the container, spilling its contents on the floor and there she was busy stuffing the preserved fruit into her mouth!

She still needs lots of distractions to eat her breakfast oats, lunch/dinner rice and to drink her twice-daily milk. But she does ask for food even so - usually 'gee' for veggie and 'chick-chick' for chicken or anything resembling chicken.

Her recent visit to the paed showed her weight climbing towards average. Hope she gets to average soon! Lalalala.....

Ipoh trip Days 2&3

2011-12-16T01:53:00.000-08:00

Woke up and had a BIG breakfast. :) The provided (for 10pax) buffet breakfast was surprisingly good, almost at 5-star hotel standard.

We headed off to Seenivasagam park. No particular reason for choosing this park, it's just somewhere we used to go as kids and it's somewhere our kids can play in now. It was rather hot, as open-air parks are. It didn't quite live up to our memories haha. My camera battery died so no more photos after this park.

Rock rock rock...

This one also can rock rock

The next day it was off to the caves. I was keen on the tortoise pond. We got there and.... hey where are all the giant tortoises?? The pond used to be full of tortoises from giant to tiny! While there are still quite a number, it's way fewer and the largest are only large-sized not giant-sized.

Wow got so many turtle

We were entertained by a psycho tortoise that chased other tortoises and very aggressively bit them on the leg and even head. Who says tortoises are mild creatures?! (OK I keep wanting to type 'turtle' coz that's what Jo Ern calls them! But the signboard at the temple does say 'Tortoise Pond'.)

I am psycho, yes I am

Smile!

OK guess Ipoh doesn't have all that much to offer! We did eat A LOT and enjoyed spending time together. Which is what's important. :)

Ipoh trip Day 1

2011-12-15T01:32:00.000-08:00

So we went to Ipoh for a family holiday last weekend. Well why not? Hehe. Ipoh fulfils our basic criteria - not too far, not on a hill in case got landslide, it had things to see and eat, and we found an apartment with 5 rooms.

Before Ipoh though, the Sungkai hot springs! With hubby's driving, reached there in less than 1.5 hours. Now this wasn't bad at all. There are multiple pools for various purposes, ranging from swimming to a nice warm dip to hot enough for serious boiling action! The landscaping was nicely done and amenities were pretty decent. Prices of food sold were reasonable. It's best not to set expectations too high though... hubby's verdict of the place was 'nothing special' (I shall ask him to take me to a 'special' place one day!).

Hello from the hot springs!

Make my egg well done, Papa

Go walk-walk a bit while kakak waits for the eggs

Whoaa the water in the fountain behind me is super-hot!

Ahhh finally... the eggs are ready! *poke poke*

Oh the eggs. Strangely they were very hot and remained so for a VERY long time! They were sold at RM2.50 for 5 and came with a packet of soy sauce, in a styrofoam bowl with a plastic fork. The basket to boil them in is provided.

And everyone thought I couldn't walk on this path!

The reflexology path had some hot water piped in, not too much, just enough to heat the stones up a little. I thought that was perfect.

Mummy... I also want to dip my feet in the water

I dipped my feet in various pools. The water was way too hot for a little girl though! I couldn't keep my feet in for more than a few seconds although some people did soak for quite some time. There were a couple of pools where people went whole-body in - would have liked to try but they were rather crowded when I noticed them. Each pool isn't big at all.

Yayy I get some dipping action at last!

I liked this big hot-water pool best. Big enough to swim in, not too hot to stay in. Wouldn't have minded staying longer but we did have to get out for lunch. One feature we didn't try was the private jacuzzi at RM75 per hour. Entrance to the hot springs is RM12 per adult and RM10 for kids above 3. Of course, would have been more worth the money to stay the whole day!

Went to Sungkai town for lunch at Choy Kee (good food, good price) and went on to Ipoh. Apartment was nice at Ritz Garden, RM630 per night (recording this for myself hehe).

Mess monster

2011-12-11T20:12:00.000-08:00

Mess monster? Nope, that's not ME

I did throw all these bricks onto the floor... but I help clean up k?

Don't worry, I will keep ALL the bricks using my brick tube

Well... since they are already on the floor... might as well kick them around a bit

Jo Ern is actually rather tidy. I can't put something in the middle of the floor coz she will put that object back into its place. While packing for our recent family holiday I purposely left my specs case out so that I'd remember to pack my specs the next morning. Next thing I knew, she had tucked the specs case neatly in my bag pocket! Then while on holiday some of us kicked off our shoes round the shoe rack. She picked them all up and piled them ON the rack. I pulled over some stools from the dining table to the living room, she pushed them back to the dining table.

My mom calls this one a 'kay poh chi'. Good thing she got more of Papa's tidy genes than Mummy's UNtidy ones!

First formal photoshoot

2011-12-05T00:21:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went for a photoshoot session with my online coupon. Thought it was a good deal at RM160 for a 2-hour session, but there were better ones appearing later. So how was it? Argghhh not so good! I'd hoped for a nice family shot or one with Jo Ern and me. And I'd EXPECTED nice ones of Jo Ern by herself, maybe a nice one with hubby (well that's coz I'm the least photogenic hehe).

What's this? Why do we have sit here so long?

The problem was, Jo Ern refused to smile! She had the same deer-in-the-headlights look for 90% of the session. Different dresses, different props but the same facial expression on the model! Either she was staring serious-faced at the photographer or totally engrossed in the prop and not looking up. This was despite me, the maid and hubby calling out to her from behind the photographer. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the photos taken during the two brief times she did smile would come out nicely. She bawled at one time - who knows we might pick one of those too.

Can we go home now?

We didn't stay for the full 2 hours since all of us were getting tired. After we got home, Jo Ern was playing and laughing the rest of the day!! *arrrgggh*

In hindsight, I should have brought out my handphone or the iPad for her to play. She has such a cheeky grin upon sighting these 'forbidden' items. Ah well, at the very least it was an interesting experience.

Eating out with Jo Ern

2011-11-29T19:37:00.000-08:00

We had dinner at The Ship with Jo Ern recently. From the moment we sat down, she got busy. First she rearranged the salt and pepper pots, the plates, the cutlery. She moved on to the vase, plucked pieces off the leaf and orchids and stuffed some into her mouth. Then she wanted to climb onto the table and tried to climb onto the top of the seat. All this activity before even the bread rolls arrived!

A short pause to share my bread roll. Then she started removing her shoes, throwing them onto the floor, climbing down to the floor to retrieve them, throwing them onto the seat, climbing back onto the seat herself and putting the shoes back on. And repeat, repeat, repeat. Hubby asked, a little triumphantly (I've always maintained kids are not naughty until they know they're not supposed to do something and still do it. Hubby had thought kids are naughty if they cry a lot or didn't want to do what you want them to do...), "Now tell me if she is being naughty or what?!" I said,"At least she's entertaining herself and not disturbing our meal!" Jo Ern isn't too interested in eating and we can't expect her to sit quietly with her hands in her lap.

Erm but I agreed with hubby we should ban her from eating out with us heh. She eventually got bored of playing with her shoes and started crawling around under the table. Then she demanded to go walk-walk. Luckily we'd about finished eating by then!

I shall dismantle this leaf and put the bits in my mouth

Can reach more things if I climb up onto the table

Couple of weeks later, we headed to Avanti for dinner, conveniently forgetting that Jo Ern was supposed to be banned from such trips. :) I'd called beforehand for a table and there were baby chair and kiddy setting ready. Jo Ern was delighted to have her personal plate and cutlery, arranging them and putting cutlery into her mouth. The bread basket arrived almost immediately. She had fun eating the long breadsticks and later with the various dips (I'd first placed them out of her reach or she'd have messed things up). Ahh what a difference in behaviour from that at The Ship! I do think the reason is she was kept busy with this time. We finished the meal in peace, what bliss.

Now, must think of other eating places we can take her to! We try not to bring the maid when food is on the pricy side heh. For now I can only think of other places with bread baskets...

Oh what's that the waiter is bringing?

3 different breads with 3 different dips. Wow!

Take 'to-to'

2011-11-24T23:25:00.000-08:00

I do hope she outgrows this soon! When she sees the camera, she gets all excited and says 'to-to'. She sits on my lap a while to view the photos already taken. But when I ask her to take some photos, she goes and smiles like this:

I smile nicely already, take photo!

Oh dear, what a dreadful smile! We try again ok?

Wait wait I'm not ready yet

OK ready! Take photo now!

*faint*

Want carryyyyy....

2011-11-21T19:03:00.000-08:00

The last day at Hanoi didn't really count. Our flight was at 9am so we woke up early, collected our packed breakfast and headed for the airport. Just a few more pictures of our trip. Throughout, this Jo Ern didn't want to walk and wanted to be carried. Especially by me. Even when hubby was carrying her, she would stretch out her arms to me and call 'Mum-meee!' Then when I got tired, put her down and sat on the ground myself, she would be CLIMBING onto me!

In the cave with nice formations:

Mum-meee, want carryyyy....

While waiting for the small boat to take us on the Halong bay cruise:

Mummyy, carryyyy....

At the oyster farm gift shop:

Mummy carry...

Want carryyy!

OK I definitely need a rest from going on holiday!

Hanoi Day 3

2011-11-18T01:46:00.000-08:00

Woke up and without getting out of bed, pulled back the curtains and had a lovely view of sky, sea and islands. Ahhhh. Climbed on the top deck for a short stroll before sitting down to breakfast. One couple was late, we didn't notice and thought there were 2 extra fried eggs, and calmly helped ourselves to 1 extra for Jo Ern. Hehee. Well we didn't know they'd fried exactly 1 egg per paying passenger! Luckily when the couple finally emerged, they didn't make a fuss and just helped themselves to more bread.

After breakfast was a visit to a pearl farm. Quite informative and seeing the end-to-end process was interesting. Of course it as pretty much an excuse to try to get some sales. I noticed NOBODY bought anything! And was thinking that if this was a group of Asians, sure people would be buying this and that! The mother-of-pearl deco and pearl jewellery didn't seem too expensive, just that I'm not really into pearls.

Are we buying this thing?

Wow these are big plates. Must be for big eaters

Back to the ship for the cruise back to the mainland. Pity we had to check out soon after the pearl farm visit, or it'd have been really nice lying in bed and enjoying the scenery. Anyway, enjoyed the same scenery from the top deck. Reached the mainland in time for lunch - overall the food on this trip wasn't great. Jo Ern accepted a few spoonfuls. Hubby said she'd be a few pounds lighter after this holiday!

Reached the hotel after 4 hours... a quick shower and then out to the streets for our last night in Hanoi. We had seafood at a roadside hawker again. This time we were more aware of what we were ordering so didn't get a surprise when the bill came! Jo Ern... aiyo this kid. There was a small boy (belonging to the hawker) sitting on a step behind us eating some bread from a bag. He left for a while and Jo Ern swooped in on that bag. Hubby managed to stop her but she kept going at that bag. Luckily a relative of that boy noticed and pinched off some bread for her.

These were plain boiled, but the chilli dip was good

Jo Ern with her ill-gotten bread...

This bread is nice. Want some?

We walked around after the seafood, had some more street food and shopped a bit. Noticed that Vietnamese seem to love children. Various vendors were interested in playing with Jo Ern! They happily posed with her, wanted to carry her, handed her assorted things to play with.

Yay Mummy is buying me this cute baby turtle

Hey, who's this person...

Went to bed early again. Haha what to do, Jo Ern K.O.-ed in hubby's arms already. This little one fusses about eating but she's hardly any trouble when it comes to sleeping.

Hanoi Day 2

2011-11-16T20:31:00.000-08:00

Off to Halong Bay! We had time for the included breakfast. (What a steal, RM80+ a night for a nice room and breakfast!) Hmm most of the food items were Vietnamese and a bit strange. But ok la, there was more than enough to eat. Jo Ern didn't eat much, the trend for the whole duration of this trip.

It was a 3-hour bus journey to Halong bay excluding the 20-min stop. Jo Ern got a bit restless, started arching her back and demanding to 'walk-walk'. Luckily this didn't escalate into a tantrum! The snacks I brought helped to distract her.

Don't wanna sit here. Wanna go walk-walk

The 20-min stop was at a souvenir place. Of course things were overpriced and I didn't bother buying any. But there were some nice things here, like cushion covers, that I wished I could have gotten at decent prices! Didn't see them at normal shops later.

Oo what's this?

This one I know! Kish! Ish!

Finally, Halong bay! Was it nice? Well, yes. It's a little like island hopping in Krabi which we did recently, but better. There are way more islands and it is a much larger area. Pictures don't do the place justice coz it's a different feeling when you're SURROUNDED by beautiful scenery.

Our ship looked like this at Halong Bay

Room and bathroom size were quite decent. We got a triple room for the price of a double. Heh, travelling with a little child has its benefits!

I claim this bed for tonight

One problem was, it was hot as normal for sun-kissed sea outings. The other guests had brought sunblock and beach stuff. We, we'd planned for cooler weather and brought sweaters, jeans and long-sleeved shirts! Haha. Well I did have ONE pair of shorts, boxers for sleeping in. No choice but to wear it out hehe.

Why Mummy wearing pyjamas outside?

The cruise included a trip to Sung Sot, a cave with nicely-lit stalactites/stalagmites and other interesting structures inside. Quite good. But there were 50 steps to climb to get in! Good for me that hubby carried Jo Ern all the way phew. I got myself up with quite a bit of huffing, puffing and rest stops. :) There were lots of other groups there but Jo Ern was the only small child there. So she got lots of attention. From one lady who went 'Ola! ola baby!' behind us for quite some time, to another who passed by and then did a double-take when she saw Jo Ern. Then she waved and made funny faces for quite some time too, heh.

This cave is interesting. But must carry me, don't wanna walk

Hubby: My gym sessions are paying off! But legs quite tired also...

After the cave visit was kayaking. Now this was fun! We should have gotten someone to take pictures. Jo Ern absolutely refused to wear a life jacket though I let her take it off as it was probably too big to be of any use anyway. Hubby rowed from the back seat, I sat in front with Jo Ern and rowed and steered a bit. Jo Ern got over her crying fit over the life jacket once we started rowing. She likes water and enjoyed dabbling her hands into the water. Again we attracted attention - cries of 'Ooo! Look at the baby!!'. Heh.

This life jacket is ugly and it's cramping my style. Take it off!

We didn't dare stay out long as it wasn't too safe for Jo Ern. Especially when this little one was busy 'helping' to row, taking off her shoes and dipping them into the water, climbing up to dip her FEET into the water. We sat back on the boat to wait for the others. One of the vendors gave Jo Ern a chocolate wafer (a cheapo Cloud9, but still it was a nice unexpected gift) which she put into her mouth immediately, wrapper included. I unwrapped it for her and she just ate and ate. Hmm the junkier the food, the more the kid likes it!

This is good food!

Coz later when we returned to the boat for a buffet dinner, she reverted to her usual 'don't-want-to-eat' self. She kicked up a fuss in the dining room and we had to take our food outside to avoid disturbing the others. It was nice eating out there though, to the sound of water gently lapping the boat.

I'm all full now, thank you!

Spent some time on the top deck since it as still early. There was a karaoke session on. The other guests were all Caucasions except for 2 locals - from US, Peru, different countries in Europe. Tourism is definitely thriving here.

Hmm sumbathe? But it's all dark

We couldn't keep our eyes open too long and retired to bed about 9pm. Zzzzzz....

Hanoi Day 1

2011-11-15T01:03:00.000-08:00

I wasn't really looking forward to this trip. Firstly I'd planned the trip too short, 4d3n but in reality only about 3 days. The flight to Hanoi at 6am - the only flight for the day - meant waking up in the middle of the night. I was nursing a stuffy nose and cough, hubby was having toothache and Jo Ern still had a runny nose. But tickets and hotel had been paid for so wasn't going to waste those! In total it was RM1055 for airtickets and RM245 for 3 nights hotel.

Now having survived the trip, overall it was quite good. :)

Okee... arrived at Hanoi airport after a 3-hour flight. Then it was a 1-hour wait for Jo Ern's stroller on the baggage carousel! We had almost given it up for lost since we didn't get it tagged at KL. Jo Ern entertained herself by climbing all over the luggage trolleys.

Climbing on trolleys is fun!

Hotel was Thaison Grand located in the Old Quarter. The room was really good, especially at that price! There were two queen-sized beds and a fancy shower. Well except that hubby decided to forgo one night at the hotel and plonked down USD260 (the most expensive option!) for the 2d1n cruise to Halong Bay instead. *smacks head* Anyway ok la, we're probably not coming back so might as well enjoy. We did get back USD21 rebate for that night so loss is only about RM20.

I claim this bed for tonight. Mummy can sleep with me

The Old Quarter was full of character and noise - shops, hotels, food vendors everywhere. One interesting thing was that type of shops were arranged by streets! There was a street for buttons and zips, one for toys, one for silver cookware, a few for shoes etc. Unfortunately the street nearest our hotel housed shops selling funeral memorial plaques hehe. Another thing was, you had to be on the right street to buy things - I never did find the dresses for Jo Ern that were on my shopping list.

Greetings from the button street in Hanoi

The streets were narrow and we couldn't use Jo Ern's stroller. In fact, we couldn't even walk in a straight line ourselves - had to curve around street vendors, parked motorcycles, motorcycles turning onto the sidewalk to park, motorcycles backing OUT of the sidewalk to the street. Hubby carried Jo Ern most of the time. Partly because of that, we hardly shopped - hubby wasn't in the mood to dally much while lugging almost 10kg around! Ermm more so when the aforementioned 10kg kept going K.O. on us:

But I am soooo tired.... zzzzzzz

Heh, the challenges of travelling with a 1.5 year-old! The places we've been before with her - Genting, Singapore, Phuket - didn't offer much to see. I did want to explore Hanoi and waited impatiently while Jo Ern napped for hours! Eventually woke her up so we could continue exploring. Shared a bowl of sticky rice with various condiments - lapcheong, squid floss, poached chicken slices, chicken sausage, mince - which came with a bowl of pickled cucumber. It was good but hubby's temporary tooth crowns came off with the rice. Luckily someone directed us to a dentist.... haha now THIS visit was not on my Hanoi itinerary!

Dentist chairs all in a row

Problem finally fixed and we continued our exploration of the Old Quarter. We went to Hoan Kiem lake and the water puppet theatre (didn't want to risk bringing the toddler for an actual show though). We stopped at roadside stalls for noodles and hubby's favourite, seafood. This meal turned out pretty expensive at RM120. And little Miss Jo Ern had no patience with people digging into over a hundred assorted shellfish - conch, lala, cockles, one crab. She was playing with the condiments on tables, the stools, her shoes... sigh. Hubby grabbed her to keep her still and she bawled her lungs out in outrage. Guess she was cranky from insufficient sleep.

Wanna go play! Don't wanna sit here! Wanna go play!!!

Phew. Maybe we should wait for Jo Ern to be older before we go anywhere again! After the early start and activities for the day, we turned in early to bed. Had to be up nice and early for our trip to Halong bay the next day!

Visit to the doctor

2011-11-06T20:14:00.000-08:00

Last week Jo Ern caught a bug, probably from cousin Jensen who caught it a few days before. Illnesses spread so easily between little kids. I sure hope her immunity system is stronger by the time she attends school!

This time she had fever, diarrhoea cough and vomitted too. As usual I was debating whether to take her to the paedi. She might overcome the bug with the aid of Panadol. That would be better than taking antibiotics... I follow my mum's policy to avoid these if possible. Hubby's policy on the other hand is, "why spend days being sick and suffering? Take antibiotics la!". Heh. Finally I decided on the paedi since she did have diarrhoea 8 times that day.

Oops I ngg-ngggh again

Paedi said to give antibiotics only if the fever remains high another day. Left with:
1. Smecta for the intestines
2. Kaopec for the diarrhoea
3. Medicof for cough
4. Zithromax (antibiotics) on kiasu hubby's request

plus the Panadol suspension I already had at home. Peace of mind for a RM102 bill, hehe. Now I have added stomach medicine to my arsenal. Only problem was, how to feed all these meds to a little kid who didn't want any?? In total it was over 30ml of meds! (Smecta itself is 20ml water added to the powder). Sigh... slowly and painfully loh. Jo Ern was crying pitifully and shaking, shaking her head. Every time she opened her mouth to cry I squirted some medicine in. Eventually she was crying with her mouth pursed shut. But she had to open her mouth for air and that's when she got more medicine in. What torture for the poor child.

The next day she had diarhoea 7 times but fever was spiking far less often. Now, she's almost recovered. The antibiotics weren't needed after all. She's still off her food and milk though. Hopefully she's all well by our Hanoi trip this Thursday!

I'm all better now! No, I don't need any food thank you

The magic word!

2011-10-31T19:50:00.000-07:00

She is saying 'Mummy'!!! *yipppeeeee!* I'd expected this word only later, judging from what I have heard and from when she started talking. Then last week she started saying 'Mum-meee'!

When I go down, I say 'Dowwwnnnn'

Let me just document briefly her verbal progress.

Stage 1: All animals are 'Dog' and all humans are 'Ah maaaaa'. The only other word she said is 'eck eck' for dirty. This stage lasted for months.
Stage 2: 'Papa' emerged for hubby, and then 'koko' for big brother and 'kak kak' for the maid.
Stage 3: All insects are 'Ant' and all other animals remain 'Dog'. 'Nana' is for all fruits. It's now 'Jie jie' for big sis and 'kong' for grandfather. If she sounds like she's about to sneeze and goes 'Ahhhhh AHHHH', she's probably calling Mummy!
Stage 4: All insects with wings are 'Bee', insects without wings remain 'Ant'. 'Cat' appeared for cats.

And now.... Mum-meeee! Heh heh. The stages besides stage 1 didn't last long. Other words she picked up along the way, from stage 2 onwards:

Book, up, down, corn, tuu (shoe), pen (open), toto (take photo/camera and also turtle), out, ta (water), baby, kish (fish), chick, cut-cut, drop, throw, war (wash), bra (brush).

She is by no means an early talker but she is picking up speed! Some words aren't clearly pronounced at all but I am so amused at her baby voice saying the words. And I melt in the mornings when she brings me my water bottle while calling softly 'Mum-meee'. :)

Mum-meee...

Daily Weekday Routine

2011-10-27T00:22:00.000-07:00

Jo Ern has a pretty structured daily routine. This girl definitely likes law and order in her life. And within these main activities, she has her sub-routines. Like if she goes outside to the garden, she MUST go to a particular wall, stand with her back to it and give a cheeky smile. Slightly OCD, my little girl. :)

Must stand right here for a while

This is currently her typical weekday routine. On weekends she doesn't go over to her grandparents' place so the routine will be slightly different. Also we sometimes go out to the mall or for meals. These aren't too good for her coz she will then skip naps or meals/milk feeds.

8.00+ Wake up. If Mummy is around, play a bit. Bring waterbottle to Mummy to drink and then drink from her own waterbottle. Then grab doggie and pet octopus in each hand and come for milk (yes I still breastfeed a bit... plan to stop soon!). If see only Papa, cry or play a bit depending on mood.

8.30 Have a walk outside. Breakfast of oats with Marmite. Get bath from Papa.

9-10 Go over to Ah Mah and Ah Kong's house. Spend some time messing around in the garden.

10.30 Milk and morning nap. After her milk, she will toddle to the kitchen with the bottle and place the bottle at the sink. Then she will toddle over to the mattress. :) Naps can be long, up to 2 hours.

12.30 Lunch, normally rice with dishes

3.30 Milk and afternoon nap. Naps can again be up to 2 hours. Sometimes she is not able to sleep. Then will get cranky before bedtime at night.

6+ Quick shower

7-7.30 Come back to own house.

8.00 Dinner. After dinner, have fruits.

10.00 Go up to bedroom. Come over to Mummy with doggie and pet octopus in each hand, and demand milk. Use Papa's backscratcher as a 'tongkat' and drag it around the room.

10.30 Bedtime. Yes, she sleeps through the night.

And in between all these activities, PLAY. Such is the life of a busy toddler. Heh.

I play with my car first, then read this book, then play with my caterpillar, then read the other book...

Ah Mah's birthday

2011-10-24T02:54:00.000-07:00

Everybody sing...Happy birthday to Ah Mah.

Time flies and it's Ah Mah's birthday again! As usual it is pretty impossible to get a nice photo of everyone. Either someone is moving, someone has his//her eyes closed or someone looks funny. Baby Erin also started crying halfway through.

We seem to have a new criteria for choosing a makan place now. That is, having enough space for the kids to run/toddle around in. This is a bit of a nuisance... half-full restaurants normally either have lousy food, are too expensive or both! Luckily for this round, my bro did manage to find a good place - Crocodile Farm. Food was nice enough and it wasn't TOO expensive. Since it was barely half-full, it also fulfilled our new criteria. The kids sat together with the maids at the next table and we adults had peace and quiet to enjoy our meal. I liked the chilli crab with fried mantao, the egg/fake sharksfin appetiser and black pepper ostrich best.

Anyway the best thing is having a family gathering. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older, but I'm starting to like these a lot. Happy birthday to my beloved mother!

Food intake

2011-10-20T01:28:00.000-07:00

I caught a big prawn!

Hehe got prawn to eat

Jo Ern still doesn't eat a whole lot. She likes biscuits but takes VERY long to finish. Fruits are about the only thing she eats reasonably fast... but I can't fatten her up on fruits. :) Overall food intake has definitely improved though. In hindsight, it was a wrong diagnosis that period when she started rejecting her solids. I'd been graduating her to chunkier foods at the time, and my maid said her food should be pureed again. I think that was when she'd wanted to eat 'real' food, food that other people were eating instead of her porridge. Hmmm then again, at that time she hardly have any teeth so how was she to eat rice and meat??

But she must have books and toys to entertain her at mealtimes. I think she knows that while eating, she is the Queen! For me the ends still justify the means.

Beginning of independence

2011-10-12T20:31:00.000-07:00

Jo Ern is asserting her preferences these days. If she wants something, she'd cry until she gets it (or is distracted). If she doesn't want something, she'd scream and scream. The other day she saw a piece of ginger during dinner and wanted it. Had to distract her with a toy. After a while she remembered that piece of ginger and continued to cry for it. Had to distract her some more. Hubby said should just give it to her, heh.

Cutting her nails is a minor ordeal now. She would scream loudly and wriggle throughout. When I'm finally done, she'd grab the nailclipper and try to do it herself...

I can do this myself, Mummy no need to do

Maybe the other leg would be easier. Mummy still no need to do

I almost miss the days when she'd lie/sit/stand there while having things done for her!

First maid

2011-10-10T20:25:00.000-07:00

My maid Lina is working out very well indeed, call it first time lucky! She cooks well, has her own routine of doing housework, does additional tasks without complaining and has genuine affection for Jo Ern. The last means she takes care of Jo Ern as best as she can and even seeks her out to play when she finishes her chores.

The other day I had to nip out right after lunch. Lina was feeding Jo Ern her rice (this takes about an hour, no kidding!). When I came back shortly after, Lina had:

1. Finished feeding Jo Ern
2. Finished her own lunch
3. Cleaned and changed Jo Ern
4. Wiped the mess Jo Ern made on the high chair and floor
5. ... and was washing the dishes after setting Jo Ern comfortably up like this:

I have a mat to sit on, a book to read and some toys to play with

Not bad at all! Having said that, I try NOT to leave Jo Ern alone in the house with the maid. Hubby says you never know. He previously had a maid who was good for a year and then disappeared one day. If I have to be out, hubby tries to be in. If both of us have to be out, we don't give advance notice to avoid giving Lina a chance to 'arrange' anything... And when we come back, we only relax upon seeing Jo Ern safe and sound. Hehe. Paranoid we are when it comes to our precious little girl!

Updates

2011-10-05T20:04:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update on what I have been up to. I had two offers after a week of interviews - a large global company and a small local one. The former comes with a better package but involves regular concalls with Europe/US, thus the flexi working hours of 7am to 10pm. Some travel throughout the year would also be necessary to Switzerland and India. The latter offer has the benefit of the usual 9am to 6pm. After agonising over the choices, I decided that what I want is going home at the usual time, EVERY day. And if asked to leave home for a week or two, all I would be thinking would be getting it over and done with. Decided that at this stage in my life, I should do more of the things I like and avoid those I don't.

So I was to start work 3 Oct at the small local company. Then last minute the boss called me and said that since the project only starts later, why not I stay home with my baby an additional week and join later? Grrr so he's already thinking of saving HIMSELF one week of my salary! Not a good sign at all! Some more use Jo Ern as an excuse?! I am not happy!

Anyway I have committed to this path so I might as well walk it a bit and see how it goes. I have already declined further calls from headhunters and for other interviews.

And what have I been doing besides attending interviews? I've been taking the chance to try out some of the long list of recipes on my to-do list, baked a cake and 2 types of cookies, made various types of jelly. My parents happened to be on holiday in Turkey so I had 1.5 weeks with Jo Ern at home. With this little one at home, I'm definitely not too free! She demands to be carrried a lot, she pats the floor asking me to sit and play with her, she plays by herself but messes things up, drops things on herself or falls down hence crying loudly and requiring consoling. Of course with the maid and her around, I also had to take care of lunch and dinner as well as supervise them. While it's been nice, the first day my parents are back, I'm packing her off for some 'me' time. Heheheeee.

I help to rearrange this cupboard ok?

One, two...

Phuket Days 3&4

2011-10-02T20:03:00.000-07:00

Day 3

Attended the sales presentation in the morning. Since I wasn’t THAT impressed with Phuket and Mariott in general, decided not to sign up. Had some trouble getting away from the salesguy though as he piled on the pressure. Finally extricated ourselves and the rest of the day was ours to enjoy. First item on the agenda was the swimming pool. Put Jo Ern in her first swimsuit… now, a sexy bikini is totally not my preferred choice of clothing for my little girl (now or in 18 years time!!). It was the only thing in her size and that's the only reason I bought it.

Hmm do I look nice in this?

Water is fun to play with. I wanna stay here and splash!
Mummy: Note parent-approved swimsuit on me

I like Dickson kor-kor coz he plays with me and gives me food!

Lunch was at the club coffee house – nothing great. Jo Ern hardly touched my fried rice nor hubby’s stir-fried soft shell crab.

For dinner SIL wanted a good meal, so we went over to the Mariott hotel. Hmm there was Japanese, Italian, Western… what about Thai food?? Settled for Andaman Grill which was pricy and not great. This is our first time bringing Jo Ern for fine dining. It was NOT a good idea. She was famished and ate lots of the complimentary bread. The main course took time to arrive. She was cranky before half the meal was over. Luckily our waitress was quite taken with her, gave her crayons, coloured something for her and carried her off a while. Later she told me, ‘she’s so lovely!’. I absolutely agree, heh.

Day 4

Enjoyed our complimentary buffet breakfast, then it was back to the villa to pack up. We left our luggage at the storage room and took the shuttle bus to the beach. Gosh it was super windy and the waves were the highest I’ve ever seen on a beach. Suffice to say Jo Ern didn’t enjoy her first visit to a beach at all. I put her down to walk on the sand and she just wanted to be carried.

Hello from a very wind-blown family

Don’t like this wind, don’t like!

After a short time at the beach, went over to the hotel. Now I actually preferred this over the vacation club. That is, judging from the pools and landscaping since I didn’t have access to an actual hotel room. Put Jo Ern down to play with water and she didn’t want to leave.

Playing with water is fun!

Want to go back and play with water, wahhh!

Hehe I get to play with water again

Went to the Coffee Club again for lunch. Oh Jo Ern had such a screaming fit. The other patrons were staring but I couldn’t do anything to stop the screaming. After a while sis-in-law took her for a walk. Luckily she came back in a better mood and had some of my (yummy) pesto chicken pasta.

After lunch it was back to the vacation club for a shower and airport transfer. This time, the flight attendant asked whether I needed an infant seat belt. Well I managed once without, declined this time. Jo Ern had an even worse screaming fit during this flight, sigh. She wanted to wear her shoes herself, screamed when I corrected the sides, screamed when I forcibly put on the shoes, screamed when I took the shoes away, screamed and screamed. Sigh. I guess she was just very tired this day as she missed both her morning and afternoon naps. It’s part and parcel of travelling as it isn’t always possible to stick to routines.

Good thing was the LCCT parking wasn’t too expensive. I think we’ll drive next time too – now that taxi rates have gone up, the cost of driving is actually comparable and it’s so much more convenient. We have parked illegally before at the road side, but that was my old Wira. Don't want to risk my new car getting stolen or towed away!

Phew, rather tired after this trip. Sis-in-law Winnie and nephew Dickson were good to have along as additional babysitters for Jo Ern! We have another trip to Hanoi soon, just the three of us. Hope that goes ok!

Phuket Days 1&2

2011-09-29T05:47:00.000-07:00

We’re back from Phuket! Accommodation was at the vacation club purpose-built to attract members into the Mariott programme. Overall it was a good holiday though not 100% a relaxing one.

Day 1

We drove and parked at the LCCT. This was Jo Ern’s first flight and she was as good as gold! She ‘read’ the magazines provided for ages, ate some snacks and played a bit. I expected to get an infant seat belt but nobody offered me any. Heh. The seat beside me was empty and I plonked Jo Ern there and fastened the normal seat-belt for her.

Mummy, can I order something from here?

Arriving at Phuket airport, we were met by the Mariott people. I was pleasantly surprised to see a child car-seat in the van provided. At check-in, we had a welcome drink and the one for Jo Ern was in a plastic mug. She was given a balloon flower to play with too. Small touches but very nice indeed.

Hello from our family!

The villa was big and luxuriously furnished. We didn’t do much on the first day, just walked to Turtle Village for dinner at the Coffee Club. The Turtle mart was ridiculously expensive, which was too bad as we would have bought lots of stuff otherwise. Haribo sweets cost B130 here – the next day we found it at just B76 at a local supermarket.

Yay koo-koo giving me Milo. Can I have this instead of my normal milk?

Day 2

Rented a car for B1200 and off to Phuket proper! Mariott is pretty far from civilisation, about an hour away. It was too hot for walking around so we spent time at the Jungceylon shopping mall. Jo Ern was in her stroller and surprised us by pointing to the floor and saying “walk-walk!” Well it sounds more like ‘Wo-walk! Wo-walk!’… but it’s clear enough. Loved hearing her say that!

Strollers are for babies! I want to go and check out whatever I like

Had McDonalds for lunch. Later we saw a signboard for a food court at the basement. Ah well, pork burgers were on my to-do list (they weren’t too impressive actually).

Drove around a bit more and then spent time locating the weekend market. Now, this was worth the hunt. It’s no way as large as Bangkok’s Chatuchak market but there were plenty of stalls and what I liked best - street food! We sat down for porkball soup, and again for grilled squid, pork knuckles, steamed crab and beer. Then tapau-ed various items for dinner and were almost done when heavy rain pelted down. That was it, called it a day with our loot of mainly food and a few non-food items.

Next up, Jo Ern's first swimsuit!

Genting trip 10

2011-09-19T02:39:00.000-07:00

Went for a short trip to Genting last weekend. There was supposed to be a Korean concert which got cancelled, so only took advantage of the free room (how pampered we are is, sometimes we don't even utilise free rooms and just let them lapse heh). This time I finally succumbed to the inviting freshly-fried banana fritters at First World! I have always gazed longingly at these every time I passed by. These were GOOD... which is unfortunate coz how am I going to resist them next time?? Haha. Worse, they're sold in a bag of 5... bad, bad! Hubby doesn't care for them and Jo Ern eats very little.

Yummy fried bananas!

That night, Jo Ern walked up and down the hotel spaces for ages. Even hubby and I were rather tired. Funny Jo Ern was fine - her little legs move so fast that she's practically half-running.

Once Papa puts me down, I shall walk some more

Noticed Jo Ern knows how to use lifts! When the doors open, she would toddle-run in, go to the side and then stay motionless. When the doors re-open, off she'd toddle-run out again! Of course she'd have no idea if that was the correct floor, heh. At least she has the concept correct.

Must stay here until the doors open again

We had a breakfast buffet on Sunday. Unexpectedly, SIL later called to invite us for high tea buffet at the Legend hotel. Two buffets in one day - strongly not recommended! I couldn't do the high tea one enough justice. Hubby didn't eat much which I think defeats the purpose of going for a buffet. :p

On a personal side, I have 4 interviews scheduled for this week at last count. Being on best behaviour, fielding tough questions, listing out strengths and weaknesses... so stressful, sigh. Luckily things are happening fast. Finding another job should still take time since most companies have at least two rounds of interviews. Ah well, gotta soldier on.

Sept 2011 - Lost my job

2011-09-13T00:52:00.000-07:00

I have been going through a dramatic couple of days which I might as well document here.

Sunday evening:  My managing director emailed all staff that the company is ceasing operations with immediate effect and we needn't report for work on Monday. Apparently the company had insufficient cash to continue. We were told to request building management to enter the office to clear our personal belongings.

Monday: All staff made their way to the office only to find it sealed. Entry was strictly prohibited. We learnt that the MD had already fled the country.

The managers had contacted a potential investor the night before and we all waited for them to fly over. Eventually they arrived and talked about their offer and conditions. Basically the deal hinges on whether our clients are willing to go with the new company.  The decision should be coming in today, Tuesday.

Meanwhile, headhunters and potential employers have been calling non-stop. This is very exciting yet tiring. As a group we have been contacting the labour department, police, lawyers.

For now I'm jobless and still in shock over what has happened. I've been with this company for over 5 years and didn't see this coming. My biggest regret is accumulating 18 days of annual leave. I'd planned to use those later this year but now they're gone with the wind. My biggest relief is, I happened to have brought home the laptop containing photos of Jo Ern! YAY! I had been transferring them directly from the camera and have NOT made any backups.  Would have been inconsolable if I'd lost photos of the first 1.5 years of my little one. Phewww. Life is.... not so bad lah.

Mummy seems fine...

Not toys

2011-09-09T02:35:00.000-07:00

I received a shipment of toys and shall perform the opening ceremony this weekend. Hopefully Jo Ern likes them better than her recent 'toys':

1. Pot to cook for the dog - take out cover and place here and there, then put back on the pot. Repeat.

This cover must be put here

2. Basket - sit inside. With a biscuit is a nice option. Otherwise, just sitting will do while fending off other small people who also want to sit inside.

This is a good place to sit! Who says it's not?

3. Hubby's underwear - attempt to wear it. Or carry and wave it around.

Wait ah, I almost have the hang of this...

4. This one is a perennial favourite: Cupboards with lots of things inside - take something out, examine it and put it on the floor. Repeat with a random other thing until an adult comes to stop play. If no adult comes after some time, move on to another cupboard and repeat the process.

Don't disturb me ok, I'm a bit busy

Raya break

2011-09-07T01:18:00.000-07:00

We escaped the traffic jams by not venturing out of town. :) And capitalised on the relatively-empty streets and shopping malls! Some activities we did:

1) Went to Midvalley Megamall, which we seldom do coz the crowds are a bit too much. This trip didn't start off well. We forgot Jo Ern's stroller and Megamall surprisingly didn't have any strollers or stroller-like vehicles for rent or FOC. I've seen a car-like thing at 1U and expected something like that here. Then Jusco and other shops were closed for Raya. Luckily most did open at mid-day, just nice after our yummy early lunch at Fong Lye. Overall a fruitful visit: Swim goggles for me, L'occitane mosquito repellant for Jo Ern, slippers for hubby, Rex curry chicken from Carrefour (this brand is v hard to find).

Jo Ern was ok with the combination of walking and being carried around.

Vitagen for me! Grape flavour is still the best though

I love you, you love me...

2) Had a Raya lunch at the factory of hubby's friend. It's our third year there, becoming a tradition already! His Bangladeshi employees cook up beef and lamb curry with a Briyani-like rice, yummy. Jo Ern surprisingly liked everything. She also had a blast sitting and walking on the chair samples in the office. It was rather dark outside the office itself so didn't take many pics.

I tested lots of Uncle Michi's stock today

3) Used my coupon for the Eyuzu Japanese buffet at Eastin. I love bringing Jo Ern for buffets coz she likes variety and I don't have to pay for her, heh heh. First pic, under Mummy's care: Sitting on the high chair with a comb as a toy. She's into 'combing' hair at the moment - for herself and for others, using the correct end of the comb or otherwise.

First pic, under Mummy's care

So eventually Mummy goes off to collect more food and queue for fresh tempura prawn. Came back and found hubby comfortably reading the newspaper. Whilst Jo Ern had climbed onto the high-chair tray and was happily sitting there eating from the main table. *faint* Luckily that high-chair was a sturdy one!

Second pic, under Papa's care

Side view

Papa's lil helper

2011-09-02T01:30:00.000-07:00

I help Papa carry this big bag of roast pork

When we go to the nearby small market, hubby would let Jo Ern carry something. Hmm if your kid helps you carry things but you have to carry her, does that actually help at all? Hehe. I thought Jo Ern looked cute swinging a plastic bag around and managed to snap a photo last weekend.

My first attempt the previous week was met with an irritated face from hubby who doesn't like going to the market, what more have people snapping photo of him having to go to the market...

I help Papa carry these DVDs

Hubby: Shoo! Go away!

Our Saturday

2011-08-29T02:44:00.000-07:00

Hubby wasn't working, so I thought it would be a good day to check out the newly-opened Jusco at 1U. And also the Secret Garden. We got there nice and early. Then I realised I'd forgotten to bring Jo Ern's shoes. *smacks head* Well it's just a visit to a mall, no point wasting money buying yet another pair of shoes right? Then Jo Ern wanted to get down to walk and cried so pitifully that... oh well, what's a few ringgit for a smile on the little one's face eh? (Note to self: Must stop forgetting to bring her shoes!!)

Wow new shoes for me AGAIN?

Turns out the old wing of 1U isn't completely done, although Jusco is. Hmm... doesn't seem to be all that many changes for the RM55million spent! Still, nice to have it open again. We adjourned to BBQ Plaza, our usual lunch venue, where hubby had a new note to self: Don't bring Jo Ern to places where eating takes a long time. The little one was sleepy and thus super-cranky. Grilling/boiling our food does take a while.

Thankfully Jo Ern fell asleep after lunch and we could walk around in peace. And finally, we found the Secret Garden! It's pretty nice, and free. :) I'd definitely be returning!

Can we pluck these long beans?

Walk-a-walk-a-walk

Went home after 1U, hubby was dead tired from our hours at the mall. And he's the one who's a gym regular while I haven't even gone swimming since Jo Ern was born. How come I felt perfectly fine? Hehe.

Hubby dragged himself up to drive us for dinner at The Ship. Good thing Jo Ern was fed beforehand coz she only wanted the small corn on the cob that came with my chicken. Err... actually she wouldn't let go of this corn at all. When hubby took it from her by force, she screamed and cried half the way back home.

Haha... all in all, it was a good day! I do love having a little girl. Lalalaalaaaaa.

I like like like this corn!

Ah Kong's Birthday

2011-08-22T02:53:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to Ah Kong

Happy birthday to Ah Kong again

We celebrated my father's birthday last weekend. He had two cakes - the first on the actual day and the second on the next. Somehow my sis was not invited for the first cake, heh. It was tiramisu and none of the kids liked it.

Birthday dinner was at Nonya Imperial in Puchong. Food was all right and the price was reasonable. The main reason we went was to have a look at my SIL's new Math Monkey centre. Now THAT was nice. We could take off our shoes and the kids had fun messing around with the learning equipment. We adjourned there for cake after dinner. Post another pic from there since my bro keeps asking us to promote the centre:

Looking back at my father's birthday last year, the kiddies have grown a lot and there's a new addition. And hopefully the adults haven't aged at all! Here's to many, many more happy birthdays to my father!

Climbing pays

2011-08-19T01:18:00.000-07:00

I shall climb this chair

Huff huff. Wonder what I'd find at the top

Huff puff. This is hard work for a little girl like me

Oh what have we here?

Apples, mummy, APPLES!

Hard work pays... you climb more you get more!

Enough of philosophy... *Grab*

Hehe... no reason for this post except an excuse to showcase photos. My intention for this blog is primarily as a record of my precious girl growing up. As long as I keep posting with photos and some commentary, it would already be better than a traditional photo album. I already enjoy looking back at old entries and seeing a younger Jo Ern!

Genting trip 9 - durians

2011-08-16T20:32:00.000-07:00

It's been 2 months since our last trip to Genting... quite long by our standards! We had two attractions this time: a durian buffet and a concert. I only realised halfway that I'd had left Jo Ern's shoes at home. Resolved to buy a pair at Genting, never mind if a bit expensive. Checked in first, freshened up, came out of the bathroom to see this:

My shoes are not here! Maybe I can borrow Mummy's shoes?

Ok ok MUST go and buy shoes for this new toddler! (BTW my sandals are not dirty, they're naturally beige-coloured ahem). It was surprisingly difficult to find a pair. There weren't many kiddy shops. Not all had shoes. Then found kiddy-sized shoes were too big. Finally found The One amongst baby shoes. It was the one and only of its size and luckily it wasn't ugly, phew. Mission accomplished, on to the durian buffet!

Ahh I ate durian to my heart's content. That was only me though. Jo Ern refused durian and only wanted mangosteen. Hubby got into a huff when the quality and quantity of durian to our table were restricted due to insufficient supply. He saw a few groups having more and were told they were guests from overseas. I tried to pacify him since we already got enough and might as well enjoy the lot on the table. But he was hopping mad, kept grumbling and eventually went off to officially complain. Sigh. So I sat there with Jo Ern slowly savouring the durian. It was pretty good, really, there was Raja Kunyit too.

Blekk! This stuff is yucky. Phbth! Phbbbthh!

The result of hubby's complaining was... an invitation to come again the next day! With a promise of 2 good durians for us. Ahahaha! Sometimes it pays NOT to be too accepting!

The next day, off we went to the theme park. Genting was relatively quiet that weekend and we took a few rides without having to queue. And this is the first time Jo Ern could walk by herself in Genting.

Walk walk. This is nice!

Walk walk walk. I like!

That night we went for the Hokkien concert. I joked with hubby that I was leaving if they sang the 'Sky Black Black' song. I only planned to stay a while. Once Jo Ern fussed I'd take her out since I'm not keen on Hokkien songs anyway. To our surprise, Jo Ern behaved perfectly! She sat there eating her snacks and drinking her water, occasionally pointing to the stage or lights. She babbled to herself, clapped sometimes and even stood up and swayed a bit. We were able to stay till the end. Well, almost the end... hubby thought the show was finished at 10pm when there was actually one more singer to go. Hehe. The show wasn't too bad - with 5 singers (we watched 4) and dancers for each song, it was quite entertaining. We were lucky to get end seats and placed Jo Ern's stroller beside. Hmm if we could get the same arrangement next time, we could attend more such concerts. It was only the next day that I noticed the printing on the tickets - separate tickets are needed for children of all ages including infants!

This singer has a good voice. The dancers are not bad either.

Well done! Bravo!

Final morning, headed to the pool after many trips of planning to go. Hubby was always afraid Jo Ern would catch a chill. Or else there'd be no time or Jo Ern would be sleepy/hungry. This time, had a soak in the hot jacuzzi pool. Overall, this was a good trip. :)

This hot water is lovely. But they put too many bubbles

One milk feed

2011-08-11T20:02:00.000-07:00

Just how tough is it to feed Jo Ern? Let me present photos from ONE milk feed. Total in milk bottle, 4.5oz.

Read book ok? Drink milk and read book

Book dowan already... ok press buttons and listen to radio

Radio dowan already... here, pull apart this ball and put back together

Ball dowan already... ok play with this pen. Can click up and down

*Faint* At least the toys I buy do have some use!

Yes yes I know kids are supposed to eat when hungry. But Jo Ern is underweight and if she inherited hubby's genes, well if he's engrossed in something, he can go a whole day without eating. Our paedi says this is a critical growth stage so I dare not let Jo Ern dictate her own diet. There are very few foods she likes enough to eat without prompting, and she is quickly bored. She wolves down sweet potato, Mummy gets excited and goes out to buy more, and next day she doesn't like sweet potato any more. Sigh. My mission remains to get as much food into her as I can! Then hopefully the paedi won't shake her head during our next visit...

Verbal skills

2011-08-09T00:08:00.000-07:00

The correct question is... WHAT verbal skills?! Heh. People ask if Jo Ern can say Papa or Mummy. Actually, about the only word she says is 'Dog'. So the family pet takes precedence over all humans! She isn't very discriminating though. Although our real dog is always correctly called 'Dog', almost everything else can be 'Dog' too.

Dog! Dog!

Like she had a fun time playing with a friend's cat recently... and repeatedly calling the poor creature 'Dog!' Recently she does seem to be trying out other sounds. When I said 'bear', she said a short 'berk'. When I said 'cat', I thought she said a short 'kerk'. But it could be purely my imagination. At 16 months it's still too early to worry... fingers crossed though!

Well, I can always point to what I want

Toddler at the mall

2011-08-05T00:35:00.000-07:00

I love how Jo Ern is making experiences better for me. When we do something that is a first for her, I am always slightly excited in anticipation of her reaction. Like a simple outing to a shopping mall - when it's with a toddler who is walking on her own for the first time, it feels super special! I kept reminiscing how she had always been in a stroller before this - at first only lying down, then sitting up and later even standing. I marvelled at having MY little daughter toddling alongside. I delighted at the fun she was having. And of course I whipped out the camera and snapped.

Front display is fine. Check and see what's behind...

Wait Papa, I pick a nice shirt for you

Rest a bit first. I've walked a lot, you know

Expensive?

2011-08-01T20:04:00.000-07:00

These are Papa's expensive chocolates imported from Japan?

Nah, they look ordinary. I will throw them around and play with them

What expensive camera? This thing on a string?

One fine day she will learn the value of money. Until that day, just have to keep expensive items out of reach. Which explains why the higher horizontal surfaces in my house are chock-full of unrelated stuff! It can be rather difficult locating something these days.

And Sunday

2011-07-28T20:29:00.000-07:00

Will I be pretty like Alicia che-che one day?

How fast time flies if you think there is plenty of it, heh. Posting this mainly coz I have rare clear photos of Jo Ern. :) It's not easy capturing clear photos of her as she is either moving or engrossed in something. Shots in the latter category are clear but she then looks pretty much the same when engrossed. These days she often comes over to grab the camera too.

So Sunday, we had a post-wedding lunch hosted by Kingsley and Alicia. Jo Ern had a grand time walking all over the restaurant. As the lunch crowd thinned, the staff gave her plenty of attention. When one person put her down, there was someone waiting to carry her. The 'captain' gave her a walkie-talkie, she carried it around giggling away as the captain talked to her from the other set. Then another staff gave her a biscuit. Not a bad outing for the little girl!

Mummy says, Que sera sera, what will be will be

Hmm Jo Ern has rather big ears...

After lunch, back home for some rest before heading out for dinner. This was the full-moon for baby Erin. Lots of food again when I was still full from lunch. Aiks why do makan sessions all come at the same time! Erin looks soooo tiny but she is bigger than Jo Ern was at birth. How fast babies grow, sigh. (Didn't get any good pictures so subbing with an earlier one.)

Don't cry, baby Erin, che-che is here

Last Saturday

2011-07-25T01:49:00.000-07:00

Ahh a nice Saturday. Hmm how shall I entertain Mummy today?

I unveiled more toys for Jo Ern last weekend. But she had more fun playing with normal household things. I really should stop myself from buying toys... I can't tell beforehand which will hold her interest. By the time I know, the thing is already sitting in my house and left its mark on my pocket! Blame it on being too free at work haha. I am shaking legs being in between assignments and it's all too easy to surf and buy stuff online.

I know! I do the Double-foodcover Dance

I also do the Big-hat Dance

Mummy, help! Cannot see!

I couldn't stop laughing when she walked out from the back with this paddy-field hat on! She has been playing with it recently and my maid must have put it on her head.

Little... climber?

2011-07-20T01:21:00.000-07:00

Just must blog about what Jo Ern did last night. We were watching TV while Jo Ern moved around the living room playing with this and that. I heard music from her activity table and assumed she was in her toy corner located behind us. After a while hubby walked over to check and found this:

Clever me climbed up all by myself... now how do I open the door?

She'd pushed her toy table to our entrance door, climbed up and was busy fiddling with the door handle and lock! This at just 15 months old, what will she get up to next time?? The table is quite high for someone her height. And she was using her feet to move the smiley ball on the table, which results in music and flashing lights.

Guess these were merely practice sessions:

Up! (She succeeds most of the time)

Up!

On the bright side, as my mum would put it, at least Jo Ern is 'not a dumb-dumb'! So she can figure out how to use something as a tool to reach her goal. But maybe I should prepare myself for more heart-stopping moments...

Little walker

2011-07-18T01:22:00.000-07:00

Pretty dress, check. Pretty shoes, check.

Get ready, world, here I come!

Wasn't it only yesterday when she was struggling to lift her head, then to push herself forward, to stand? Sigh. How fast they grow. At the year-old mark which is the official end of babyhood, she didn't seem to be anywhere near the next classification, that of a toddler. A few months on and she's toddling upright all over the place. Way to go, my baby girl!

Took these pictures last night before dinner. The only downside, she was having so much fun she didn't want to sit and eat. Arched her back and screamed when we wanted to put her in the highchair. Hmm looks like there will be new challenges with every milestone...

Ipad

2011-07-13T23:09:00.000-07:00

What are you doing Mummy?

Mummy: Playing the Ipad. We play together ok?

I want to hold the Ipad! Wanna hold! Want!

Mine, all mine. Lala la laaaa...

It sure looks like many people own an Ipad these days. My hubby couldn't resist being one of the first to get the Ipad2. Which is good, coz by now he's gotten over the obssession and I get some time with it!

Jo Ern? Let's just say she's NOT a good companion to play with. At first I thought poking at the screen should be within her ability. But all she wants to do is to press the 'Home' button which cancels out everything. And grab the whole Ipad for herself. So either I go off by myself to play, leaving her crying angrily, or she gets what she wants (for a while).

Eating strike

2011-07-11T02:22:00.000-07:00

About the hardest part of taking care of Jo Ern is feeding her. She is on ANOTHER eating strike after a short bout of fever. The fever has gone but she continued to refuse food. Well that is, the nutritious and yummy food painstakingly planned and prepared by Mummy. *roll eyes* I HAVE given up forgoing seasoning on her food and have been using salt, soy sauce, ikan bilis, marmite. So last week I didn't send any more cooked food after the predecessors all ended up in the bin. She has been surviving on milk, fruit, cheese, yogurt, cereal and biscuits.

Ah ok, still nice and slim.

Mummy: Oi, you're supposed to GROW!

Aiks this little kid of mine. She had just reached the 9kg mark and now she's gone below, this at 15 months. I am hoping she doesn't take after hubby, who also prefers snacks and junk food to real food! (And is always worrying about being underweight, heh)

Bath time

2011-07-06T20:37:00.000-07:00

Water's getting into my eyes! Stop, Papa, stop! Waaaaa!

Now THIS is a better way of getting clean

Jo Ern gets a bath from hubby in the mornings and a refresher sponging from our maid Lina in the evenings. Since the baby bath-tub was returned for my sister's new baby, hubby has been using the shower. Actually Jo Ern does NOT like any of these methods much.

1. With bath-tub: OK when being soaped, cry when being rinsed. Probably didn't like water getting into her eyes.
2. With shower: Grab onto Papa's legs and wail pitifully. Probably scared of water in her eyes again.
3. Sponge bath: Cry at being restrained to one place, want to go and play instead

Poor kiddo, heh. She does seem to be adapting to the shower. She still clings on to hubby's legs, but he pats her head down before the rinsing part so there will be less water on her face.

(Ahem... notice that I am not involved in cleaning her? Heheh. I will also look for hubby or Lina to change diapers too! Well my excuse is I'm already in charge of Jo Ern's food preparation, all supplies planning/purchasing and basically overall supervision. Division of duties mah... heheh)

Walking already

2011-07-01T02:33:00.000-07:00

Look, I have SHOES! Hehehe...

Coz I can walk already!

Now no need Justin koko to carry

Jo Ern walks now! I don't quite know how to put the age when she started. Can't count the initial stage of taking steps with support right? Or the rushing-towards-someone-before-falling-down stage. Or the always-sitting-down-suddenly stage. Well can safely say she's walking quite well at 14.5 months. She is walking wherever she pleases now, and goes all over the house! Better than being transported by Justin koko, definitely!

Weekday mornings

2011-06-24T01:14:00.000-07:00

I check and see if everything is in order, ok?

My weekday breakfasts typically comprise a hot drink with bread and something savoury - eggs, bacon, tuna, ham, luncheon meat, sardines, meat floss, BBQ meat or canned curry chicken. No sweet stuff when I'm hungry, please. :) When I'm preparing breakfast, hubby would be in the washroom and the maid occupied in the garden. Luckily it's relatively easy to keep Jo Ern occupied. Put her down in the kitchen and she heads for one of her favourite cupboards - all those with lots of things inside. She will be busy for quite a while taking things out and playing with them. If I take longer, she'll move on to another cupboard. The only downside is keeping the things after she's done! I've tried to steer her towards cupboards with fewer contents, but those are obviously not so interesting. Heh.

This kid basically loves anything containing multiple objects to mess around with. Sometimes I put her on the counter top (under supervision) and she'll check everything she's allowed to lay her hands on. Quite often she'll put things into her mouth though...

Oh we have a bottle of honey here

Check and see if nice or not

14 months

2011-06-20T22:42:00.000-07:00

Hehehee... playing peek-a-boo with Mummy

I'm watching you... must behave ok?

And she's 14 months! Jo Ern is looking more like a little girl, less like a baby. I do miss the cute baby year, but she's definitely easier to take care of now. Comparing little Jo Ern and baby Jo Ern:

Less attention-hungry
She is mobile and doesn't cry to be carried so often. Of course she does need to be monitored like a hawk. Or else she'd be very happy tearing up tissue, playing with the phone/ipad, turning the knobs on the DVD player etc.

Less AM feeds
She wakes up only once in the night for milk vs 2-3 times. This one time ranges from 4.30am to 7am. The latter is already my wake-up time and not considered middle of the night.

Solids vs Milk
Definitely easier now compared to when she was fully on breastmilk. Hoo hoo I was super stressed as I don't have much. I devoted a whole weekend once to resting and pumping, getting 5-10ml each time, and was pleased with the resulting ONE extra milk portion of 100ml. Then I discovered my brother's new maid had taken TWO of my milk portions to feed baby Jensen instead. What's more, I had already counted in these two portions so Jo Ern didn't have enough that day. I was so upset I could have cried... only I was too angry.

And of course she is bigger and not so fragile! And therefore can wear pretty dresses. Hehe.

Bathroom pest

2011-06-16T20:11:00.000-07:00

How come people stay inside here so long?

Huh? What do you do here?

How do I keep Jo Ern from following me into the bathroom?? If I close the door, she will sit right outside and cry pitifully. If I leave the door open, she'll be happy as a lark crawling in after me. Then she'll mess around with the dustbin... lick it or take the contents out. Yucks.

She generally loves making her way into bathrooms - it's probably the novelty since she only comes here for her bath. I have scooped her up from various bathrooms countless times already!

Toys

2011-06-12T20:45:00.000-07:00

Wow so many toys. Which one shall I play with?

OK I climb on THIS one first.

Mummy: Oi! Get down from there!!

Jo Ern's toy collection is growing! Some play music, some have lights, some are educational, some just have various nooks to place things. They're all colourful and generally nice to look at. I am quite impressed by how some are designed to work and teach - obviously big toy companies do have child experts in the R&D department.

I had thought to trot out regular household items for Jo Ern to play with rather than buy toys that will only be used a while. While she does like to mess around with our stuff, no harm having real toys to play with!

My buying spree isn't over! I'm aiming for toys of different categories and hopefully those with longer entertainment value. At least now I don't feel bored heading for the same few items hehe. I just got a box to put her toys in and Jo Ern would chortle with delight when opening this box. To me, that's priceless. :)

Jottings 9 June

2011-06-09T04:22:00.000-07:00

Wait ah, my batteries are charging. Ready in 100, 99, 98...

While Jo Ern is sleeping, some jottings about happenings to myself.

I finished my half-year assignment in the heart of KL and was sad to go. Funny, coz I absolutely hated it at first. Traffic was still awful. But people there were friendly and helpful, traits not too common in my profession. My two immediate neighbours noticed early on that I eat all the time and generously plied me with food. So many attended my farewell lunch and 3 separate people wanted to buy me coffee that afternoon!

Had a run of bad luck. Soon after hubby's disastrous casino outing (well, his money is also my money hehe), I came home one day to find the house flooded. The water tank at the roof had overflowed, flooded the upper story and waterfalled its way to flood part of the lower story too. Sigh. Quite a lot of damage done considering the short time - veneers on various cupboards peeled off, soaked mattress and boxes in the storeroom, parquet tiles swelling and causing the floor to be uneven, water marks on the wallpaper and ceiling boards. It isn't easy or would cost a lot to rectify these... leaving them alone for now.

Then I had a toothache which turned out to be due to a wisdom tooth embedded DEEP. Just had it out yesterday and am nursing a swollen jaw right now. I'm glad my brother told me about Ng Oral though - op took less than 20mins when my regular dentist had estimated over 2 hours (and warned that she might close up and refer me elsewhere if the tooth proved recalcitrant). I did have to fork out RM1000 for this specialist vs RM800 for the normal dentist, but in this case it's worth the money! The x-ray did show ANOTHER wisdom tooth which is likely to cause problems... think I'll wait a bit while me and my pocket recover!

On the bright side, I get 3 days of MC. Heh. Last night I was in some pain - good thing hubby helped to watch Jo Ern and I just played with bubbles, hit rats, shot zombies, fed frogs and whatnot on the Ipad. That me-time was really nice! Today my face is still swollen but the pain is less and I think the worst is over. I am on a liquid diet - my maid was so amused to see me pureeing porridge for myself! Well, pureeing food is something I am very used to doing by now. :)

Up!

2011-06-06T02:08:00.000-07:00

Look, look at me! Clever or not?

This kid is practicing standing all the time. Even on the bed... the good thing is the mattress cushions her when she eventually drops, bad thing is it's pretty difficult to stand/walk on mattresses. You can see the process unfold - little legs bend, little butt stick out and then push, she's up. Last night while I was drifting off to sleep, something made me open my eyes to see her standing up beside me! Had to postpone sleep while I caught her and made her lie down, heh.

Hee-ahhh!

She can walk when holding on to someone's hands or when pushing somethiing. That something can be a light chair, a walker, her toy table. And she can take a few steps independently. Won't be long before I have to chase her around!

Genting trip 8... ouch

2011-06-03T03:31:00.000-07:00

Room was free again.... but ouch for the heaps of money hubby generously donated at the casino! We could have gone for a luxurious overseas holiday instead. Sigh.

Got a balloon animal from Mr Clown. But I cried coz clowns are very scary

Went to the theme park again. It was the school holidays and the place was packed. We didn't bother queueing for rides since we can always go another time.

While hubby was being the casino Santa Claus, I enjoyed spending time with Jo Ern in the room. She was in a happy mood and laughed a lot, bounced on the bed, played with things and was overall a great companion. We shared the food we brought - a 'meekoo'/red tortoise bun, popcorn, biscuits, fruit. We had a new game: She'd throw her doggie to the floor, I'd make it complain "doggie don't want to be the floor, doggie want to go oi-oi" and make it walk under the sheet, blanket or pillows. She loved looking for it and would giggle when she found it. Then she'd throw it again. Heh.

Comfy pillows, eating 'meekoo' with my doggie... ahhh this is the life

Where did mummy hide my doggie this time??

I make coffee for myself. Next time I will make for people

Maybe we should hold off going to Genting for a while though. With the casino lurking in wait, trips there have the potential of turning out VERY expensive.

No no no

2011-05-31T22:54:00.000-07:00

No no! Don't want to wear this hat!

Pick some nice hats, Mummy

No no! Don't want to wear hat!

Jo Ern doesn't talk yet but she does indicate 'No' clearly these days. She shakes her head, waves her arms, screams or all of the above! What she says no to mostly are:

1. Her food. Her food strike is ending and she does eventually finish her solids now. But she will shake her head before that.

2. For hubby to carry her. Hubby does like to annoy her so my theory is that's why she doesn't want him to carry her. But she will laugh happily once he plays with her.

3. Having anything extra on. Hats or hankies on her head get torn off immediately. If I put socks on her, she will keep trying to pull them off. She refused blankets as a newborn and still doesn't like anything covering her. Good thing she doesn't try to take her clothes off, hehe.

4. People trying to remove what she is playing with. I put a pack of Vitagen on her stroller in a supermarket, she grabbed tightly onto it and screamed whenever I tried to take it from her. Had to forcibly take it away and endure her loud screeches when it came time to pay!

Universal Studios

2011-05-30T01:22:00.000-07:00

Sure got a lot of people walking around this place
.

Woke up bright and early. But by the time all of us got cleaned and fed, it was after 11am when we entered Universal Studios! That turned out to be fine as there was enough time to see everything. So... how was it? Overall aiyo it was scorching HOT! Genting has the advantage in its cool weather. Not easy to enjoy yourself when you're melting from the heat!

OK the park now... it was pretty small and there weren't all that many attractions. My personal opinion is the props looked a bit cheap - expected more since Universal Studios is a known brand. Of course we have to skip most rides (which is fine by this scaredy-cat mummy). Hubby went for one while I waited with Jo Ern. I looked at the after-ride photo and had to laugh at his extremely-tense face! He tried to persuade me to ride as well but no way I was going to torture myself hehehe.

Everyone took picture with this yellow car so we also take

Mummy! There's a funny-looking person up there!!

Hey, there a funny-looking person here too!

No, this wasn't the ride Papa went on. His wasn't so scary

Since the day pass wasn't cheap at SGD66, I was determined to go on all possible attractions. But by 2pm I couldn't take the heat anymore and gave up. We had lunch and went back to the hotel room for a shower and snooze.

This place, I tell you, is full of strange people

Strange animals too. And their eggs

We resurfaced at 5pm and ahhh it was MUCH cooler. Should have gone into hiding earlier and come out earlier! We enjoyed the shows at Shrek and walked around until the park closed at 7pm.

Some things here are quite cute

OK took a lot of pictures already. Can we go back now?

Trip to Singapore

2011-05-25T21:28:00.000-07:00

Jo Ern had her first overseas trip last weekend. :) It was quite a breeze, really. First I had wondered how on earth she was going to get her photo taken for the passport. She doesn't sit still on command and how to get her to tilt/straighten her head as required? But she was so good during the photo shoot that it took no time at all! Then hubby took her to the immigration office and managed to get her passport done very quickly. He thinks he fluffed up part of the procedure but luckily they give priority to small children.
.

So it was all systems go! I brought along 5 portions of Jo Ern's food in a Coleman insulated box - 2 for the day and 3 taken directly from the freezer. The 6th was Cerelac which can be just mixed with water. Also brought cheese, a portion of oats for breakfast and sticks of celery for her to munch in the car. I had actually planned more food, but ditched some in view of her recent poor appetite.

With hubby's driving, we reached the Johore checkpoint in 2h 45mins. Then we stopped for lunch at the Plus highway stop. Jo Ern surprised me by eating her food without fuss. Wow, first time in WEEKS! From the Tuas causeway, getting to Sentosa was fast and easy. We stayed at Festive hotel... hmm I'd expected a bigger room from the photos on the net. Ah well, it was still a nice room. There was a king-sized bed, a sofa bed and a cozy single bed up a ladder. I'd have happily slept on this bed if I'd come alone!

Hello hello! I am way up here

Can I climb up myself? OK must wait until I'm bigger

Pom-pom in the sink

Hotel guests get a complimentary monorail pass. Just nice as we'd arranged to meet hubby's relatives at Vivo City. We had a nice duck dinner (forgot name of shop) and Jo Ern ate up her meal without fuss again. She was probably hungry - it's hard to keep to her normal meal-times when travelling. Maybe that's the secret to getting her to eat her food! She had her first bottle of Vitagen which she loved and sucked up in double-quick time.

So this is what an MRT is. Not bad, not bad

At the harbour. Pardon my grumpy face, I was a bit hungry

Mummy said, if I were bigger I could go play in this fountain

There was a sounds/light/water show at the 'Lake of dreams' that night. Quite good especially since it was free. Jo Ern was tired out and KO-ed already in her stroller. Oh the day wasn't yet over for hubby. He visited the casino where he won some S$. Next day, Universal Studios!

Creative feeding

2011-05-18T23:49:00.000-07:00

Got bit of oats everywhere. Never mind, papa is bathing me soon

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Of course not a really 'tough' approach or Jo Ern would just start crying and there goes any chance of slipping anything down the hatch. Currently relying on the following tactics:

1. Letting her dip another spoon (plus her hands too!) into the food. Might as well let her play with the food since otherwise it would go into the bin. Managed to feed her quite a bit in the meantime. :) It gets pretty messy though! Sometimes she runs her food-covered fingers through her hair too.

2. Bringing different containers for her to dip her hands in, fill some with water. While she's busy playing, slip food into her mouth.

3. Using chopsticks instead of a spoon for noodles. She waved the spoon away but accepted feeding from chopsticks.

4. Feeding her with various spoons. Each spoon only 'works' a few times. This tactic doesn't work anymore

What? Little bit messy only

Hubby thinks I'm spoiling her and making things difficult for later. But my priority is to get food into the kid. And these tactics do work, sort of. She's eating SOME (maybe half to 3/4 of her usual portion) food compared to NONE. Teaching of good habits can wait till when she's eating normally! *fingers crossed that happens soon*

No food, please

2011-05-15T02:39:00.000-07:00

Jo Ern... don't keep making up new challenges for Mummy, can or not? I actually woke up thinking longingly of the days when I sent 2 portions of food with her every morning! These days it's VERY difficult getting her to eat anything. She shakes her head even before tasting the first spoonful. Do some skillful spoon piloting and sneak the food into her mouth, she spits it immediately.

What is THIS? Well whatever it is, I don't want any

I thought tangy tomatoes might tempt her, but no, bolognaise sauce was rejected. Likewise cheesy pasta, and steamed silky eggs. All my painstakingly-planned-n-prepared food... straight from her plate to the dustbin. Sighhh.

Luckily she is fine with milk so she gets 1 extra milk portion a day. And she still likes cheese. Looks like I just have to wait out this phase. My no salt/no sugar/no seasoning food policy? Out the window already. As long as she eats SOMETHING, I'm fine with it.

(The photo? Actually she's not looking in the bowl. She's thowing a little tantrum not wanting to eat her food. Therefore CRYING into that bowl)

Trip to Tanjung Sepat

2011-05-09T23:53:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen, behind me you can see some of the famous 'pow's

Finally Jo Ern gets to go somewhere besides Genting. :-) This trip almost didn't happen as she developed fever the day before. And my bro had already decided not to go since Jensen was sick. At least one person couldn't make it on all subsequent weekends until my sister's due date. Eventually we decided to go since Jo Ern's temperature wasn't too high and as hubby said, we could easily drive back to KL if necessary.

I didn't set expectations too high and had a good time. We were typical tourists and visited the famous 'pow' shop, mushroom farm, birdsnest place, Lover's bridge, chips factory, longan farm, small fish stall, dragon fruit farm. It was funny... we would drive all the way to some stop, go in, comment that the things weren't that cheap/nice/special/fresh, yet happily come out with bulging shopping bags! I'm quite sure the owners make a killing since there were busloads of tourists who buy-buy-buy. But it was good that salespeople were welcoming and were generous with samples. My favourite place was the chips (keropok) factory where products were fresh and cheap.

Photo only for illustration...you don't get to pick the passionfruit

Jo Ern had mild fever on and off, which wasn't too bad. Her 'food strike' is continuing though. Sigh. She only had half a portion of solids a day when she used to have two.

It's been a while since we had a family holiday and oh, actually it's the first for Jo Ern. We stayed in a bungalow which was great as a base to chat, eat some of our loot, drink wine, smoke cigars etc.

Chilling out with Ah Kong on the patio

Pom-pom in a pail since my bath-tub didn't come along

I am looking forward to the next family holiday, though that will have to wait quite some time. Then we will have two additions to the family, a new baby and maid. Logistics would be a nightmare! Hoo-hoo.

Picky picky

2011-05-04T02:08:00.000-07:00

Bring on my meal-time entertainment!

(Sigh) Meal-times with Jo Ern is getting challenging. She has always disliked fish, fine. Then she decided to dislike millet too. And then banana. And bread. And last week she rejected practically all her tried-and-tested food. She would stick out her tongue to push food out. Luckily she likes cheese and one trick is to sneak spoonfuls of food into her while giving her her Edam cubes. The maid is also pretty patient and brings her toys to play, puts her on her car etc to distract her.

I have been busy trying out new food to make her eat.

1. Red bean soup – I agonised over whether the sugar would be bad and decided it should be fine. Soaked the beans overnight, cooked them, added sago, let the whole thing cool and then pureed some for her. Gave her a spoonful and received her answer within one second…. BLEKK tongue out, food out. FAIL

2. Made her cheese pancakes. BLEKK tongue out. FAIL.

3. Added Marmite to her porridge. Shake head, tongue out. FAIL.

4. Added ikan bilis. Tongue out. FAIL

5. Pureed her food (she’d been fine with coarser textures for a while). Limited success… she still shakes her head and waves her hands to block the spoon, but at least she doesn’t go BLEKK once the food is in her mouth.

6. Fed her all kinds of food. Butter cake, durian, bread with jam, BLEKK. Ice-cream and biscuits OK.

I sure hope this is only a phase. Paed measured her at the bottom 10% weight percentile (dropped since the last visit) during her MMR vaccination so I'm anxious that she doesn't drop even more.

Self entertainment

2011-04-27T02:19:00.000-07:00

Throwing water everywhere and all over myself is really fun!

All things with a lot of buttons to press MUST be played with by me

Woo hoo! Climbed up here all by myself!

I have just ordered a few toys online. In the meantime Jo Ern is quite happily entertaining herself. My house is so NOT baby-friendly. We have multiple staircases, lots of glass objects, exposed electrical equipment, a cream-coloured sofa, a big German Shepherd outside... heh. Of course, Jo Ern has no problem with any of these!

First car

2011-04-25T02:22:00.000-07:00

I have a car! Got this for my birthday

Oops just now was sitting backwards. Heh. Now sit properly already.

I scratch my head sometimes how to occupy Jo Ern. After subtracting slots for sleeping, eating, bathing, carrying her around etc, there're still quite some hours for playing. I let her roam around and climb the stairs under supervision. Eventually I find myself heading for the same toys and wonder if it's boring to a small child. Luckily she got new toys for her birthday. Maybe I should buy a few more. What she definitely likes are to mess around with things like the dustbin, the broom, the drain cover, the insect spray... haha. Dunno why the little one is especially attracted to things she SHOULDN'T be playing with!

Little inspector

2011-04-21T02:02:00.000-07:00

Ho, this one is reaching expiry date

Must check inside the big packets also

Sometimes, I just need to keep Jo Ern occupied so that I can get things done. I figured the Maggi Mee cupboard was a relatively safe play-place. :) Diligently, packet by packet, she took them out and put them on the floor. The 'assam laksa'-flavoured ones were still in their outer packaging. So she got to work on them, took out each packet and put it on the floor. Hmm looks like this little one can be quite meticulous! Next I must teach her how to put things BACK. Hehe.

Four already

2011-04-18T00:10:00.000-07:00

My new teeth are at the top. Now I can BITE... arhmm!

Four TEETH already, I mean. But the new top teeth are much bigger than the two bottom ones. And there's quite a large gap in between. Hope this doesn't mean orthodontic braces in the future!

Goodbye to Tai-ma

2011-04-14T01:20:00.000-07:00

So many people here. Tai-ma must have had a lot of friends

Yesterday was the funeral of my grandmother, or Jo Ern's Tai-ma (great-grandmother) in Taiping. There goes the last of my grandparents. I find her passing a sobering reminder that death is inevitable. But she lived till 96, a good long life. She was reasonably healthy until almost the very end and I'm glad she didn't suffer long then.

We were exempted from many of the rituals since we had a baby with us. Jo Ern behaved very well though and actually sat through one of the prayer sessions. Well ok, I was prepared with a celery stick for her and she just sat there without a peep chewing on it! No pictures since whipping out a camera didn't seem appropriate.

It's time for my lunch but this bread will do since Mummy is busy

For the wake that night, attendees were served peanuts, red bean soup, barley-gingko and vegetarian curry mee. Hmm rather sumptuous food, no? But an uncle told me this is quite common these days. I guess people needed more sustenance since prayers went on till midnight. Goodbye and RIP, grandmother.

Nobody brought my bath-tub... lucky got this pail to pom-pom in

Gentle, but not all the time

2011-04-11T02:31:00.000-07:00

I climb up the stairs, wheee

Jo Ern has been branded the 'good' kid, which is mainly in comparison with her 2-weeks-older cousin Jensen. At her birthday celebration recently, my aunt said she was really 'gentle' and feminine. Well that's coz Jensen was screeching away at the time while Jo Ern was going 'ai yaaa' softly. But I find she can be quite a handful too. Especially now when she can move, stand and climb. And she will cry loudly when prevented from doing what she wants.

Don't wanna SIT in this chair... wanna STAND!

Don't wanna SIT, don't WAAAANT!!

Of course, she got her way eventually... as usual. Err when should discipline for babies start??

One year old today!

2011-04-06T01:15:00.000-07:00

I get new toys today coz it's my birthday!

Has it been a whole year with little Jo Ern?? My precious girl turns one today! It feels like a blink of an eye. Other times I think, all this time and Jo Ern is still only a baby. I'm happy with that though. Here's to many more happy years together!

No offence to those who send baby to a full-time babysitter, but I wouldn't have missed Jo Ern's first year for the world. Hubby had suggested that option which is common practice on his side of the family. Then there would have been no disruption to our schedules, no crazy daily commuting between our house and my parents' at different ends of the city, no need for a maid, no sleepless nights tending to a bawling sick baby. But there would also have been less time with our cutie-pie, less bonding, less joy. I wouldn't be able to look over any time of the night and see my little daughter. For me personally, it's no contest.

On to the birthday girl:

Skills
New skills seem to come all at once to Jo Ern. One day she can't do something and the next day, she's doing it fine. She can drink from a sippy cup after weeks of coughing on the water flow. Last night she suddenly could climb DOWN the stairs (*faint*). She has been happily wobbling her way up for quite some time now. She also extends her arms to be carried, which makes people melt and carry her more!

Speech
She 'talks' a lot! Her favourite words are 'ai yakk, ah WAKK, ah BEHH, ah DEHH, ah VEHH'. Seems to be practising her consonents, heh. She loves holding objects to her ear and going 'Ai YAKK!! Ai YAKK!!'. Funny, we don't use the phone THAT much... (or do we? :) ) Ah Mah says she's 'calling her friend'.

Character
Not so scaredy-cat already! She allows more people to carry her. Good thing she does get over her fears eventually. Like she used to be terrified of the green rocking horse at my parents' place, now she rocks on it like a pro.

Weight
Just over 8kg. A full kilo away from the 'standard' of doubling birth weight by the first birthday. The paedi recommended to add butter, cheese and oils to her diet. I am, sparingly and slowly... don't want her to develop a taste for fatty stuff and having a weight problem later.

Food
I started preparing a 'breakfast' of veg soup or oats+fruit, but she got sick shortly after and breakfast mostly ended up in the bin. She's back to two solids a day. But she has bread, sometimes with cheese, in the morning. She gets some food at dinner time too. I'm not up to speed on that yet though - it's ideally something she can eat by herself. Baby biscuits are too sweet and I hesitate to give her bread too often. Sometimes she has oats but then the maid would have to feed her in between her own meal.

She looks up in anticipation whenever she sees others eating. Then she comes over and loudly insists on having some!

Milk
Still being breastfed. I'm thinking of what formula to start her on. Maybe soy milk or Pediasure because of the stories surrounding cow's milk. Then again, cow's milk is supposed to result in bigger bones and Jo Ern has a small frame, so maybe a round or two of cow's milk might do good.

What else...
After a rest at two, finally the third tooth is peeking out. Probably THAT was why she was waking up so many times at night.

She is playful and giggles a lot when she's happy

Gurgles with laughter when chased

Prefers Mummy over Papa at the moment :)

Almost one!

2011-04-03T22:33:00.000-07:00

CAKE! Want some, want some now!

For Jo Ern's first birthday, we had the celebration with family at home. Home is still best for babies since they can move around and do their thing. The plan was to take-away 'poon choy' and buy the cake. I only need to cook rice and veg, make fruit tea and jelly, and open some munchies. Good plan, right? Nice and stress-free.

Too bad my guests started arriving at 5 o'clock!! We had gone to Tesco and tired-out hubby was having a nap, I was sweaty from sorting out the chicken and squid, the maid was cleaning the fish, Jo Ern hadn't been fed nor changed, the fruit tea hadn't been popped into the fridge... And the people arriving straight from Taiping needed the toilet, some food, drink and a shower. It was a hot day and there was a total of 11 people in the house who needed showers! Suddenly I was flooded with queries on which bathroom to use, how to switch on the water, where to get some drinking water, whether the mugs can be used... and requests for towels, hanky, comb, biscuits, a spoon, tissue, cotton wool/wet wipes etc. Haha so much for stress-free! What happened was my grandmother wasn't well and everyone went to visit her in Taiping. My mother decided last-minute to stay on there too.

After the glitches, things went on well. Chek chek (my uncle)'s gang arrived at a more decent time and hubby went off with my father to collect the 'poon choy'. There was a moment of worry when the thing looked too small to feed everyone. Looks deceive... the basin was packed. Pretty fun searching and digging for stuff!

The basin with all kinds of good stuff

Wanted some pictures of Jo Ern with the cake but she was busy trying to grab it. She did succeed when I was distracted for a while. But as everyone said, it's HER cake so it's ok! Happy birthday, my little one! I plan to have another small celebration for her actual birthday on Wednesday. :)

Not sleepy yet

2011-03-31T19:31:00.000-07:00

Mummy... I'm not sleepy yet. See, I can still do funny things

See? Can do funny face

Oh fine, I'll just stand up and nibble away at this bar

It isn't an easy task getting Jo Ern to sleep. She will pick play over sleep almost any time. Luckily my maid Lina has the patience to pat and pat her until she falls asleep. That can sometimes takes 20mins or so. If it were me, I start getting leg cramp or back itch after 5 mins hehe. I do succeed sometimes... then I pray she sleeps longer than the time I took to pat her!

Speaking of sleep, she wasn't sleeping well when she had a blocked nose and I had to nurse her to sleep. Unfortunately that pattern seems to be staying. Last night she woke at 12, 2 and 5am. I had tried to just pat her but she wasn't having any of that. Couple of nights ago, she screamed blue murder for an hour until she got her milk! For now I'm taking the easy way out and just giving her milk when she wakes. No energy to fight with this little one in the middle of the night...

Eating out

2011-03-28T01:43:00.000-07:00

Hey what's this food on our table?

I want some, I want some

Jo Ern used to have to just wait when we ate out. Lately she's been getting some food as well, which definitely suits her better. That does mean I have to order something suitable - soupy noodles instead of those tossed in salty sauce, Big Breakfast at McD so she can have the scrambled eggs , pau at dim sum so she can have the skin. I try not to give her highly-seasoned food lest she expects 'tasty' food for her meals.

The first time we went for buffet and she could actually have something from, I was just snickering away at the additional value for money we were getting. And that time she could only have watermelon and boiled egg yolks from the nasi lemak. I guess it would be worth taking Jo Ern to buffets for quite a few more years! Heheh.

Antibiotics 3

2011-03-20T22:18:00.000-07:00

While chalking up Genting trips is fine, chalking up doses of antibiotics is not. :( This time it was Cefdiel as paed said better avoid too much Augmentin. Jo Ern tends to have high fevers when she is sick. For a breastfed baby, isn't she supposed to be tougher??

Oh yeah, I was sick last week

But I'm ok already now. SEE?

It was nights of limited sleep for me while I kept checking her temperature. Then it was off to the paed. At least I could rest easier once she was on antibiotics. BUT... after that she developed a blocked nose, couldn't sleep at night and screamed a lot. And I thought I was already sleep-deprived! Please don't get sick too often, ok Jo Ern? Mummy needs her sleep.

Good thing she's recovered now. It was exhausting at the time, but recalling now the image of her sitting up in the dark screaming at the top of her little lungs... I actually think that was cute and feel a rush of affection for my baby. Hehe I must still not be thinking too clearly!

Genting trip 7

2011-03-17T01:05:00.000-07:00

A rare family photo!

So off we went to Genting AGAIN for hubby's birthday. We stayed the first night by ourselves. Hubby's guests arrived the second afternoon for whisky, snacks and chat in our suite and balcony. Dinner was at Ming Ren, then back to the suite for more drinks and the badminton finals. The ladies went off for some shopping and returned with 'yau char kwai' for supper. Overall, a nice program indeed.

Well I didn't go shopping since I was trying to feed Jo Ern who was having a screaming fit for some reason. This one can be pretty fierce! She also 'insisted' on having some of the tapioca chips we were munching on. Actually she had quite a few new foods this trip. I figured the 1-year salt/sugar ban is almost over. She tried cheese, yogurt, noodles, raw capsicum, grapes, aforementioned tapioca chips, vinegared potato strips. Oh, and some 'soon hock' at dinner - not bad eh, having this expensive fish when she's not even one? :)

Grapes taste better if you pick your own

We managed to get some rides at the theme park. But gave up shortly since it was the school holidays and queues were long. It was nice just walking around in the cool weather.

This bear is a few times bigger than me!

We didn't walk around all that long. But when I had a peek at the stroller, Jo Ern was completely KO already. Haha the poor baby!

K.O. baby

With babies, it's such a short period before the next meal or nap time. We always plan to do this and that after a leisurely breakfast and have to re-plan when we find Jo Ern looking real sleepy.

Genting trip 6

2011-03-11T15:00:00.000-08:00

I'd better just post this entry before our NEXT trip. Jo Ern is actually sick right now but hopefully the antibiotics will work soon.

An apple? I only have two teeth but I will try my best to eat it

So off we went to Genting again last weekend. A quick overnight trip this time. There wasn't much time to do anything so as usual we ate a lot and went to the theme park. Confirmed Jo Ern is afraid of clowns.

We aren't the best hotel guests with Jo Ern around. I normally feed her her solids on the bed. She will crawl around halfway through so the bedsheets end up with mashed peas and whatnot all over. Then I use the towels to wipe her so towels also end up with mashed peas and whatnot all over. Then we leave the mess for housekeeping. :)

Papa made this fortress just for me!

Oh wait, is he trapping me so I cannot climb everywhere?

Got milk?

2011-03-09T03:33:00.000-08:00

Got my spoon ready. Wonder what I will get to eat?

So let me jot down how the sizeable stash of breastmilk in my freezer came about. Might come in handy to jog my memory should I have another baby heh. The main secret is... plenty of hard work and determination! My natural supply isn't bountiful by any means and I would regularly panic about not having enough. :) Upon returning to work, I had stock of 20 portions of frozen milk. This dropped to a low of 11 before rising again to a more comfortable level.

On to the to-dos:

1. Time control. Yield is disproportionate to time - if 3 hours yield 3oz, 5 hours may only yield 4oz. So no dilly-dallying when it's time to pump! I would pump at 11.30am and 3pm in the office. Then I rush back home to pump at 6.30pm. The other feeds are direct.

2. Extension of point 1... waking up in the middle of the night to pump. Jo Ern was sleeping 5-6 hours at a stretch so I figured I could squeeze one portion out in the middle of that period. Only worry was that she would wake unusually early wanting milk! It did happen a couple of times.

3. Pump after baby has finished direct feed. This tells the body that more milk is needed, produce more next time please. Each pumping only produced 5-10ml, but it adds up when supply is at critical level.

4. No 'supplementing' with formula allowed. That tells the body that less milk is needed and it will produce less accordingly.

5. Milkmaid tea, warm drinks and fenugreek didn't seem to make any difference.

6. After baby has graduated to solids, pump when baby is eating solids.

That breastpump was practically my bosom buddy at one stage! I would remove the motor and store the rest in the fridge so it'd be available all the time. Luckily Jo Ern appreciated my efforts, right? Err, right?

Actually... I don't like milk THAT much. Like this corn, it's nicer than milk.

Sighhhh.. :) Jo Ern does prefer food to milk. Especially food that is NOT baby food!

Jo Ern and the Watermelon

2011-03-03T19:30:00.000-08:00

Nowadays I cry when put down, so Mummy gave me this watermelon to play with

But I still want to be carried.... (This watermelon is nice and big)

Somebody carry me please... (this watermelon is quite fun to hold)

Carry me carry meeeee..... (I do like this watermelon)

While she didn't let go of that watermelon, it didn't distract her at all! This Jo Ern now cries the moment she is put down by herself. I think she is afraid of being abandoned. The other day she was sitting at the front door watching Ah Kong and Justin koko get into the car to go out. She was happily watching until the car backed away. Then she started crying away. Aiyo.

Genting trip 5

2011-02-26T03:08:00.000-08:00

I'm beginning to like holidays!

So off we went to Genting again since they called hubby to collect a gift before end-Feb. It's all a conspiracy to get customers up there, of course! Anyway since I happened to be on leave, we got a room on Sunday when rates are much lower.

Jo Ern was a happy baby this time. The moment we arrived at the room, she was just chuckling away and playing around on the bed. I think she's getting the hang of this thing called 'holiday'! Hubby put her in the jacuzzi again. (I am too lazy to fill it up!) She warmed up to it eventually and even sat by herself a while.

Lots of bubbling water but I am not scared

We went to the theme park again with our annual pass. Where Jo Ern decided to be scared of clowns. Previously she had waited patiently for balloon animals from them but this time, she was crying for such a long time. We tested her with a second clown and same reaction. Poor girl seemed so traumatised!
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Hmm what is this person doing?

Oh no it's a... a monster!

Waaaaa! Sscared! Mummyyyyyy!

New skillz

2011-02-24T22:14:00.000-08:00

See Mummy, I can stand!

Baby Jo Ern is well on the way to becoming a toddler. She is crawling about now (though I think it's cuter when she's zipping around flat on her tummy!). The other day, I left her in the living room while I went to wash her Avent cup. Came back to see her head coming up over the 5th step leading to the dining area. Almost gave me a heart attack - I didn't even know she could climb stairs and there she was at the top!

She can pull herself up to stand. Her favourite place to check out is our coffee table where hubby typically has placed some snack.

Then she can open cupboards and drawers too. She loves to rummage around and helps herself to whatever she finds interesting. Found her at my kitchen drawer happily taking out my beehoon.

What are these things mummy keeps in here?

What I really like though, is when she comes over and leans her body or head on me. Can't get enough of this display of affection at the moment!

Feeding Jo Ern

2011-02-18T22:26:00.000-08:00

Mum-mum time... what is everyone else eating?

A post now on a topic dear to me... food. :) Jo Ern's approximate feeding schedule after waking up is milk, milk, food, milk, food, milk. Timing is about 2-3 hours apart, more if she has a nap. That takes her to evening, then it's milk and usually some fruit before bedtime. She wakes up once (ok sometimes twice) in the night for milk.

She doesn't quite like milk now but luckily we can just add unfinished milk into the next solids feed. Not going to waste any breastmilk! (Unfinished formula milk must be thrown away)

Food-wise now. I started with steaming baby-friendly food, puree-ing and freezing into cubes. Then I mix and match the protein, carbo and veggie cubes for the day. Now that she eats more, the required cubes don't fit into my Avent cups, what with all the spaces in between the cubes. So I cook porridge and freeze directly in the Avent cups. Porridge would be rice or millet, with minced pork and assorted veggies. But wait... very few meals are identical. Books say variety aren't important to a baby but who says variety is bad? :) I still do the cubes so a meal would be basic porridge plus salmon and spinach cubes, or chicken and sweetcorn cubes, or sweet potato cubes, etc. And her two daily meals would be different - if one is green, the other would be yellow/orange/white.

One thing though, all this baby food processing does take time. I used to try new recipes or bake on weekends, now that time is taken up by baby food. I don't make fixed quantities and some weekends we have places to go, so sometimes there is a glut of food and sometimes a shortage!

Protein - chicken, pork, fish, egg yolk and most recently, beef

Carbo - brown rice, potato, millet, oats, lentils, barley

Veggie - anything goes! Most recently, onion and tomato

Frozen food - seen here are millet, brown rice, broccoli and pumpkin cubes

Frozen milk in one-portion servings

Ang pows

2011-02-12T01:11:00.000-08:00

Look, I got all these angpows!

Let's see how much this che-che gave me...

Jo Ern is very good with angpows - she has been taking all that are offered! I know many young kids don't accept a proffered angpow or some even run off. Jo Ern looks at the sender a few seconds, looks down and takes the angpow, and eventually will put it into her mouth. Hehe.

Erm her dress is on backwards. Hubby put it on while I nipped out to the market. I thought it looked a bit funny and later found the label was in front! Hubby thinks buttons shouldn't be at the back...

CNY 2011

2011-02-06T04:44:00.000-08:00

Do I look nice in red?

This CNY I'm more excited than usual since it's Jo Ern's very first. Bought a few dresses for her. But a week or so before, she started having red spots on her face - rashes and mosquito bites. And there were new bites every day. Aiya, like that how to look pretty in all her new clothes? Luckily Papa bought a mosquito repellant, no new bites after that and my little model looked decent enough!

I have an orange! But Mummy didn't let me eat coz it has chemicals

For the first time, I was cooking reunion dinner. The menu for 10:

1. Appetiser: Pai tee top-hats (my mum made the hats and the chilli sauce)

2. Steamed fish with choy poh and garlic

3. Prawns with wine in claypot
4. Roast chicken with dipping sauce
5 Stir-fried mixed veg - broccoli, cauliflower, pumpkin, carrot and sweetpeas with razor clams

(Prepared by hubby)
6. Lotus root-peanut-pork ribs soup

(Contributed by guests)
7. Yee sang from Eu Yan Sang
8. Waxed meat rice

9. Roast pork

10. Lettuce wrap

Plenty of food! As usual, quality was lower than normal with bulk cooking heh. The fish tipped over in the kuali and lost some of its topping, I completely forgot the garnishing, the veg was slightly undercooked, the prawn was slightly overcooked by the time the fish was cooked... but overall, everything was edible, phew.

Some of the food
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Jo Ern can creep fast already and was happily zipping about. She enjoyed the extra attention from Koo-koo, Alicia che-che and Kingsley kor-kor. And although she must cry at the sight of Dickson kor-kor, she just loves to look at him anyway. Err... and then cry some more.

I zip here, zip there in my little red dress

New camera, Take Two

2011-01-30T01:53:00.000-08:00

This new camera can take nicer pictures of me?

So hubby told me the day before he left for his Myanmar trip that he'd bought a new camera. As usual the purchase was in my absence coz otherwise I'd be nagging that my Sony Cybershot is still good, heh. Ah well, I'm rather fed-up that so many of my photos of Jo Ern turn out blur, especially the indoor shots. Got new camera also good la.

Then the day he returned, he called to say the camera had been stolen in KLIA. Aiyo I hadn't even seen it! Apparently his friends wanted to take a picture with the air stewardesses after the plane landed. Someone obviously noticed his spanking new camera then. He'd been so careful with it all over Myanmar too. There went the hundreds of shots taken on his holiday, just like that!

Now if it were MY camera that'd been stolen, I'd have sulked and refused to look at cameras for a while. Hubby leh, IMMEDIATELY went back to buy another one. Of the exact same model. This Canon is in between an auto and a DSLR in terms of functions and appearance. Must go play with it a bit...

Another haircut??

2011-01-25T06:13:00.000-08:00

Just take a little bit off the top

I was commenting to hubby last night that Jo Ern's hair is flat now, totally doesn't stand up any more. Then only he said he took her for a haircut that morning. Aiks she had a haircut barely two weeks ago! Hubby really wants her porcupine hair back. He actually asked the hairdresser to make it stand... luckily she refused to cut it that short haha. A crew cut definitely wouldn't look nice with the dresses I bought for her first CNY!

I'd better make sure hubby doesn't make these ad-hoc visits too often or my little girl will soon get mistaken for a little boy...