End of 2011

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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.