khongfamily

Fed up with Blogger!

2006-07-20T15:19:00.000+08:00

Arrrgghhh...Don't know what is wrong with the Blogger site nowadays. First, I couldn't upload some of my photos. It took me few days just to get them uploaded. The silly message 'Document contains no data' always pops up. So frustrating!!! Secondly, all the formatting in the khongfamily site went haywire. The paragraphs in the editor window look fine but after publishing, they disappear. If it goes on like this, people will think I don't know how to use paragraphing. I am so fed up!!! Hubby is fed up as well. He kept on pestering me to switch over to Wordpress to give it a try. Always reminds me to switch each time I complain. He probably wants me to shut up. I've tried everything; seaching Google for solutions, removing cookies, etc....everything except ask God for help. Seeing my fine lines becoming a permanent fixture on my face, my grey hairs outgrowing my black ones, and the loud cracking noise everything I whack the keyboard silly, hubby took some time off to create a WP account for me. Not too bad since he doesn't even blog. I signed up for WP a long time ago but never had the time to try it out. My khongfamily name is gone since I did not activate it so hubby chose a new name. So, dear mummies and those who stumble across my blog, my new blog will be in Wordpress from now on. Please drop by at babykhong.wordpress.com. Hopefully, there will be no problems in WP.

7 months milestones

2006-07-13T14:02:00.000+08:00

Weight : 9.5 kg

Height : ? cm Teeth : 2 lower teeth

Physical Development

Still hasn't crawled yet. When we try to put his toys further away to tempt him to crawl, he ends up struggling with his head down or rolls over to get them. *rolling eyes*
He prefers to stand or sit.
He can sit unsupported most of the time.
He doesn't like to lie down flat.

Language

He babbles a lot.
Usually says "wa..wa..wa...wa......".

Food

Eats 2 meals + 2 serves of fruit and a snack in a day (refer to Brae's food) with 3 milk feeds.
He is not a fussy eater. He will eat whatever food we give him.
He is now starting to eat fruits without steaming.

Brae's new development

He has just started his new Kindermusik Village and Sign & Sing classes. We find that the Kindermusik class is quite useful for Brae and informative for first-time parents like ourselves. Brae is more sociable and friendly towards people now. He used to cry when people carry him, but not anymore. He always tries to give his winning smile when people play with him. As for Sign & Sing classes, we have learnt some signs to communicate with Brae. Brae has not started signing back yet. However, I find that when we sing a song together with the action of signs, Brae is more receptive to the song.
When we say, "Braedyn, bao-bao?" or "Braedyn, you want daddy to carry you?", he will get excited, extend both his hands and try to lift himself out of the car seat to be carried.
He still doesn't like to drink plain water. I have tried using the teats and soft spout, but to no avail. His intake of plain water per day is only 30 ml.
It is easier now when we eat dinner outside because he can sit on his own in the highchair. No more taking turns eating while the other carries Brae. Brae has his own rattles to play with (strung to a lanyard) when we eat outside.
He is sleeping through the night now after I give him a milk feed just before he sleeps.
When he wakes up in the morning, he will turn and toss around the bed, babbling and playing on his own until I pick him up.
He likes to blow air through his lips, mimicking my attempts to cool his food down.
Whenever I carry him, he will use his left hand to stroke my hair. My hair is short and he never does that to daddy.
He likes to scratch his head nowadays. He looks so cute when he scratches his head. I am trying to get a snapshot of that action but no success so far,

Brae's first fall from the bed

2006-07-13T13:33:00.000+08:00

Brae had his first fall from the bed yesterday night. I was in the bathroom and hubby was downstairs cleaning the house. Before that, I placed Brae in the middle of our bed surrounded by pillows (what we usually do when we leave him on the bed alone) and gave him some toys to play with. As it is with him these days, he started crying the instant I walked into the bathroom. Cry, cry, cry, followed by a loud "Thuudd", then cry, cry cry. I quickly rushed out of the bathroom and saw Brae lying prone on the floor crying his lungs out. "Oh sh*t!!!", was the first phrase that came out of my mouth. I nearly cried when I lifted him up from the floor. By that time, hubby also made it to the room (didn't know he could move so fast). I carried Brae and comforted him. "It's okay...it's okay", I whispered to Brae but he still kept crying. Oh no, deep trouble this time. Hubby took over to try to calm Brae down and after a short while, Brae stopped crying. We checked him over and fortunately, no blood, no blue black marks and no cracked bones. Brae seemed fine. Hubby played with Brae and he laughed. Ahhhh....we felt very relieved when we heard him laugh. I was wondering how he fell off the bed. He must have toppled down the sideof the bed after pushing his "pillow wall" out of the way with his famous rolling action. I'm a BAD mummy.....!!!! Makes me feel so BAD....!!!! So sorry, Braedyn!

MV Doulos

2006-07-10T19:59:00.000+08:00

Hubby waved a newspaper cutting at me a couple of days back and asked if I read about the MV Doulos arriving in Port Klang for a month. Huh!! Had no clue and he gave me his famous blank look (the "how could you miss an article on a floating book fair that takes up an entire page" look) Anyway, we decided to drive to Port Klang on Saturday to look for the ship. We knew there are 3 ports at Port Klang and it should be relatively easy to locate a ship the size of the Titanic. Mistake No. 1 - Although the Doulos is almost as old as the Titanic, it is not the same size. Took us an hour and a half from KL to actually locating the ship. Mistake No. 2 - South Port, West Port, and North Port are very different entities, are not located very close to each other and are manned by people who know nuts about the MV Doulos. We arrived at South Port first and were greeted by lots of fishing boats. Nope, definitely not here. North Port was our next stop and the officer there told us that the Doulos is at West Port. He spoke with such authority that we were sure he was right. Drove all the way to West Port (20 minutes away) and was told that the Doulos is at the Star Cruises terminal. Bravo......Malaysia Boleh! Anyway, after the very taxing long drive, we trudged our way to the pier where the Doulos was berthed. "Er.....kinda small-ish", hubby commented. "Nevermind, still a ship nonetheless". Crowds were minimal with queues only at the on-board canteen and cashiers. Lots of books everywhere but it was very stuffy in the book area. Hubby decided to take Brae for a spot of ship exploration while I looked for books to buy. We spent about an hour on the ship and another half hour at the Star Cruises terminal. Well, it is not often that we have family excursions (this is probably the 1st one) so I thoroughly enjoyed it. We must do this more often instead of the usual shopping centre visits. It was just the lack of directions that spoiled the day. The very next day, an article on the Doulos was published in The Star which stated clearly that it was berthed at the Star Cruises terminal. Urrrggghhhh, the early bird gets the free Port Klang tour.

Brae's food

2006-07-07T20:04:00.000+08:00

Food : He has been transitioning from having rice cereal with fruits or vegetables to chicken or fish porridge with three types of vegetables. Types of vegetables he has eaten : pumpkin, carrots, sweet potatoes, radish, cauliflower, broccoli, potatoes, french beans, long beans, asparagus, spinach, choy sum and siu bak choy. Fruits : After his meal, he will have fruits. He has eaten red apples & bananas (his favourites), mangoes, papayas and pears. Time : 1st meal at 11:00 am & 2nd meal at 6:00 pm Snack : Snack at 3:00 pm. He will have biscuits with milk or cheese cubes or yoghurt with raisins/fruits. After the snack, he will drink 4 oz of milk. Preparation of Brae's food Porridge is prepared the night before. 2 tbsp of Japanese rice grains with 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock. Cook the porridge in a slow cooker for 3 hours in low setting ( I use a timer so that the porridge will be ready the next morning at 9:00 am). I steam the fish with ginger (to remove the fishy smell). After steaming, I remove the ginger, flake the fish and stir it into the cooked porridge. Chicken stock ingredients:- 3 pieces of chicken drumstick (remove the skin and chop the meat finely) 1 cup of anchovies (blended with water) 20 pieces of red dates (remove the seed) 9 cups of water Method:- Pour all the ingredients in the slow cooker. Boil the stock in low setting for six hours. After boiling, divide the chicken stock into 6 containers (1 1/2 cups each) to freeze for later use. I will buy three types of vegetables, cut them into pieces and store them in containers. Fish or chicken will be taken out from the freezer the night before to defrost. Few pieces of pumpkin, broccoli and choy sum were taken out from the containers to Chicco (steamer cum blender) for steaming. After steaming, I blend the vegetables into a puree. Photo of DSC01749 (food ready) *Problems uploading photo. Will upload soon...* I divide the vegetables into two portions (1st meal & 2nd meal) and combined them with the cooked porridge. 2nd meal is kept in the fridge which is taken out for reheating at 6:00 pm. Braedyn with his 1st meal and he finished his food. Photo of DSC01753 (apple) *Problems uploading photo. Will upload soon...* Dessert time! Apple was on the menu of the day. An apple was cut into pieces and blended. Braedyn finished his favourite dessert as well. p/s : I'm out of recipes for Braedyn. If anyone of you has any yummylicious food for babies, please do let me know. Thanks.

New shoes

2006-06-30T17:31:00.000+08:00

Braedyn is wearing a set of new shoes, a full-moon gift from my ex-colleagues. I just took them out recently for Brae to try on. The shoes are actually meant for 12-18 months old toddler and to our surprise, the shoes were a bit tight for Brae already! Looks like this will be the one and only time he will be wearing this pair of cute shoes! No point buying shoes before he starts walking because he will outgrow them very fast.

My first card creation

2006-06-30T17:18:00.000+08:00

Hubby has a friend whose wife delivered a baby girl last week. Hurray! I now have a reason to try out my card-making skills. I told hubby that I was going to make a personalised card for them. Popped into the bookshop to look for a card-making magazine. I found one which I liked and headed to Papier to buy the necessary papers to make the card. To my dismay, I couldn't get the exact cards, which were green pearl and green glitter cards, shown in the magazine so I ended up creating the card design on my own. This is the end result of my first card creation:-

Tag of 4

2006-06-29T19:53:00.000+08:00

Tagged by Vien Four jobs I would stink at:

Navigator - My hubby would always go ballistic when I have to play navigator. Fortunately for all, he is very good at directions and can remember places after having been there just once. Myself, I just let the driver take me places. Just like a "tai-tai" (Cantonese for rich man's wife)

Chef - Since my mother passed on when I was a little girl, there has been no female influence on my life. Dad couldn't cook for nuts and I guess ditto for me too. Hey....at least I have a good reason. Just the other day, hubby was showing me how to use the end of a spoon handle to remove skin from young ginger. He had a good laugh when he caught me using the peeler to get the job done.

Teacher - Though I quite fancy teaching, I have ZERO patience. Unless all my students are bright ones (and let's face it, if they were so smart, I wouldn't have to teach them), I'd rather not have them test me.

Proof reader - Can't write well. Have trouble constructing long sentences. This post, got hubby to type while I ramble on. Bad English, my fault. Good English, then forward your compliments to hubby. Four pretend nicknames I make up for myself:

Amy - My 1st English name but stopped using it after some Malay rock group had a lead singer by the same name. He looked weird.

Lulu - What my hubby calls me. According to him "Lulu" conveys the impression of someone extremely blur. Apt description for me.

Yuen Wong - Cantonese for "implicated" or something along those lines. My Chinese name has a similar ring to it.

No 4th one, sorry! Four movies I have watched over and over:

Don't really watch movies over and over. Well, I did watch many versions of Harry Potter, LOTRs, and Star Wars. Do they count? These days, if I can watch 1 movie in its entirety in 1 sitting, I will be thrilled. We (hubby & I) have Memoirs of a Geisha in the DVD player for the past month. We watch 10 minutes at the first attempt before Braedyn woke up. Haven't continued since. Four places I have lived:

Tapah - Where I was born

Chenderiang - Lived there with grandparents for a while after mum passed on

KL - Moved here after my SPM to work and study part-time. Met hubby here too.

No 4th place, poor me. Four things I love to do on my weekends:

Sleep - Actually, I like to sleep more on weekdays too. Very sleep-deprived these days

Baking - Heard that under-utilised ovens can bring disharmony to the household. However, must find a way to relocate the family of spiders who have made a corner of my oven their home

A spot of gardening - My garden can now be best described as a "jungle" Imagine.....grass at certain areas can reach your knee. Hubby refuses to let the grass cutters come in to mow HIS lawn. Loves to say, "If I can afford a house with a garden, then I better find the time to mow it myself." Yes, that is why I guess we will never engage a maid.

Spending more quality time with hubby - I know we need more time together. Four TV shows I geek out to, or used to geek out to:

Anything-Idol - I just "love" William Hung wannabes

Fear Factor - Love to see the Caucasians roll their eyes over durians

Friends - Complete with Malaysian censorship cuts. Don't we all love our Malaysian censors?

CSI Four alcoholic beverages I've enjoyed on offshore vacations:

Firstly, no vacations. Secondly, husband does not fancy people who drown themselves in alcohol. Lastly, can't afford it :) Four things I could NOT live without (besides oxygen, H2O, and miscellaneous life-sustaining substances, included our kids and hubby and family member):

PDA - My entire life is dictated by it.

Mobile phone

Internet access - I hate Telekom Malaysia's monopoly. Hubby refuses to give them our business

No 4th item

Four of my favorite foods, partnered with people with whom I enjoy eating said foods:

Japanese food

Roti Canai

Indomie Goreng

Italian food

All enjoyed with my hubby

Four places I would rather be right now:

Melbourne - Hubby studied there for a while and he brought me there for a friend's wedding. Lovely place

At a restaurant - It's close to 9pm and we have to eat dinner

At home in bed - Need more sleep

In the cinema - Need some popcorn and big-screen action. The man in the red cape and underwear is premiering today.

4 people I mercilessly tagged:

Ashley

Sue

Magictree

Zara's Mama

First swim

2006-06-29T15:59:00.000+08:00

We brought Braedyn for a swim at Ma-Ma's condo last Sunday. For the big day we had everything packed in a bag; a small towel (for Brae's head), a big towel (for Brae's body), hubby's towel (unfortunately no towel for me because....I CAN"T SWIM!!), two arm floats, and a set of clean clothes for Brae. Midwife told us that we could let Brae swim after all his jabs. Brae is allowed to swim or play in the water for not more than 15 minutes. Most importantly, after he gets out of the water, we have to dry his hair quickly, provide him a warm drink and cover him up. This will prevent him from catching a cold. We did exactly what the midwife told us and we are happy to report that Brae did not fall sick. Brae's swimming experience Brae appeared apprehensive when hubby put him at the edge of the pool. Hubby then patted some water on Brae's chest before placing him in the water slowly. As soon as he was in the water, Brae's expression changed to one of shock. He started to whine and cry. Hubby quickly tried to distract him by bringing him for a spin round the baby pool. After which, Brae stopped crying and started enjoying himself.

Stretching

2006-06-29T15:20:00.000+08:00

My guiding light

2006-06-16T19:50:00.000+08:00

· From the time Brae was 3 days old till he was a month old, she would come every week to check on my wound and Brae’s condition. When my wound was not healing well, she would make the extra effort to drop by our house to check on me.

· Without her I would have given up hope on breastfeeding Brae. Her unfailing support and guidance has helped me reduce Brae’s intake of formula milk to full breastfeeding.

· As first-time parents, we are very grateful and honoured to have her share her experience on how to take care of, bathe, and feed the baby.

· With all the conflicting comments on what to do or what to buy from relatives and friends, we are thankful that she cleared all our doubts and set our minds at ease.

· We are glad that she was there to advise and guide us on how to handle Brae when he was down with fever a few weeks ago.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our midwife for all her support and guidance.

Thank you so much, Ai Ling. You have been a great source of inspiration.

*For those who want to know some of Ai Ling’s tips, she has recently co-authored a parenting book with her colleagues on Asian parenting.*

Gotcha!

2006-06-16T15:10:00.000+08:00

Brae's teeth

2006-06-12T15:07:00.000+08:00

Finally, I manage to capture Brae's teeth. His teeth are showing at the lower jaw.

Hubby is so excited over Brae's new teeth. He quickly bought a toothbrush and toothpaste for Brae to start him off early brushing teeth. Brae was so eager to start brushing his teeth. He reached for the toothbrush, stuck it in his mouth and started chewing on the bristles! LOL

Brae is teething

2006-06-09T16:46:00.000+08:00

Braedyn's first tooth is starting to show on the lower jaw. I am not sure whether the whining with no apparent reason these few days is due to the reason above. I am trying to snap a shot of his first tooth but the picture is not clear enough to see the tooth. Both of us are quite excited and eagerly waiting for his first tooth to emerge. I find it fascinating and cute to see baby with a few teeth on their lower jaw. Now, I can experience that with my own baby boy! I hope Brae won't bite me during nursing when he experiences itchy gums! Happy teething, baby !

I wish I have more free time...

2006-06-08T17:47:00.000+08:00

I wish I have more free time to blog. My free time to blog is when I go to hubby's office to use the internet line there. Hubby is still waiting for an alternative broadband line to be available at our house area. Of course I have to bring Brae along and coax him to sleep so that I have the precious time to blog. I wish I have more free time for blog hopping. I have to fully utilise the time available in hubby's office to read and drop some comments to all my frequently visited blogs. I wish I have more free time to learn more Photoshop tecniques for my digital scrapbooking. I wish I have more free time to do exercises. I used to exercise at home by walking up and down the stairs for 10 minutes, doing bum and tum three times a week and yoga twice a week. No more exercises nowadays since I start to blog. Hahaha...excuses. LOL. I wish I have more free time to indulge in my new hobby - scrapbooking. Whenever I am free, I will try to read or browse through the scrapbooking magazines that I bought to get some ideas on the layout design for Braedyn's scrapbook. By the time I'm ready to design, cut and paste the papers, Brae is awake from his nap. I need a few days to finish off a page of Braedyn's scrapbook. *sigh* I wish I have more free time to learn more recipes for cooking and baking. I bought a lot of recipe books but seldom try the recipes out. I just thought of buying the recipe books first, in case I may need it next time. After Brae was born, I thought I can cook since I'm staying home most of the time, I was wrong. I have to keep an eye on him most of the time. I wish I have more free time to catch up on my reading. I bought a lot of fiction books during MPH Warehouse Sale 1 1/2 years ago. Luckily all were wrapped else I have to find time to wrap them up. I even have a section on the bookshelf allocated to books which have yet to be read. I wish I have more free time to watch DVDs. After the King Kong show at Imax, we never been to the cinema anymore. We used to go for movies evey Wednesday before Brae was born. Now, we have to settle for a 29" TV at home to watch DVDs. However, it is a luxury if we can find a peaceful time to watch DVDs together. (*Note. I leave it to you to conclude whether the pictured DVDs are legal. Hint, times are quite bad these days though! Also Brokeback Mountain gives it away.) I wish I have more free time to do gardening. My plants in the garden turn out to be in a mess, with leaves withering and turning yellow. I'm happy if I manage to water the plants everyday. No time for pruning the plants though. I wish I have more free time to wrap and sort Brae's books that we bought during the MPH Warehouse Sale early this year. The books are still unwrapped in the same box that we used during the sale. Last but not least, I wish I have more time to help hubby when he goes about his household chores. He is losing weight by the month.

Down with fever

2006-06-02T17:40:00.000+08:00

Brae had a slight fever last weekend which started after his Kindermusik trial class last Saturday. The fever would come and go.

On Tuesday, I had the feeling that something was not quite right with Brae when he started to cry and ‘teh pau’ (‘manja’) the whole day. While preparing his food, he wouldn’t sit still in his highchair and whined until I finished preparing his food. The funny thing was he did not lose his appetite at all.

After his nap, I noticed that Brae’s head was a bit hot when I nursed him. Feeling worried, I took his temperature. To my surprise, the reading was 38.6 Celsius. I quickly rang my hubby in the office and told him to come back to bring Brae to see the doctor. I tried to call Brae’s paed in SJMC but they were already closed. Therefore, I called our midwife to recommend paeds around the Subang area. She recommended us to a clinic in USJ 9.

While waiting for my hubby, I switched on the air-conditioner and patted a wet cloth all over Brae’s head and body to reduce the heat. Then I measured his temperature again. It was 37.9 Celcius.

By the time we reached Klinik Pakar Kanak-Kanak Little Ones, it was already 7 pm. Dr. Ling told us that most of the children there were down with fever today. He checked Brae thoroughly, fearing that Brae might have other illnesses beside fever. In the end, he concluded that Brae was down with a mild fever caused by a viral infection since Brae didn’t show any sign of lethargy (Brae was quite active at that time, playing with the rattle given by the doctor).

We decided to see this doctor, in addition to our usual paed in SJMC. We find Dr. Ling very thorough in his diagnosis before making a conclusion.

It was so difficult to feed Brae his medicine. Brae HATED the medicine. When we fed him using the spoon, he would spit it out or closed his mouth shut! I thought I was clever enough to pour half of the medicine in his milk, how wrong I was. He rather forego the milk! Adoiii!!!

The next day, his fever was gone but he caught a flu. He had a running nose and kept on coughing. Aiyaa…he just recovered from the fever, and now flu. Therefore, we went to the clinic again and got medicine for flu and cough. Now, two more medicines to feed Brae, how to coax him to drink lehh? I let hubby do it, he is very good at it.

At this point of time, Brae is recovering very well. He is his usual self again, playing alone happily without making a fuss. Hooray…the ‘sickness’ is finally over.

This is the first time Brae falls sick. So ‘ke lian’.

Hand & Feet Inspiration

2006-06-01T14:25:00.000+08:00

Inspired by the nice black-and-white baby photos (with hand, feet and naked body) when I walked past one of the digital photography shops at The Forum shopping mall in Singapore.

Again...inspired by the black-and-white baby hand and feet photos when we walked around Ikea last week.

Inspired by Ashley's blog featuring Ashley's cute gestures through digital scrapbooking done by her mummy.

Inspired by the comment made by Allyfeel saying that digital scrapbooking is more cost effective.

Inspired by the Adobe Photoshop CS software that I bought long time ago, reminded me to install in my laptop and try my luck in digital scrapbooking.

Some people are just plain MEAN

2006-05-26T19:48:00.000+08:00

Last night, my 14-year old Pomeranian "Crystal" took a short walk outside the house on her own. As she is so old, she can't go far, so we let her be for a short while before calling her back in. She was out longer than usual and refused to return when hubby called her. As he walked out to bring her back, the neighbour living opposite our house threw a shoe at Crystal just because she was outside his gate. Sad, isn't it, especially when he has 2 dogs of his own. My husband said, "Do you mind, that's my dog?" and all the neighbour could muster was "Oh is that so, I thought it was a stray dog". Come on lah, even though it was close to midnight, any fool worth half his weight in salt would know that there is no such thing as a stray Pomeranian. Mongrels yes but any purebreds left on the streets would have been picked up immediately. He did come out and apologise profusely, both to hubby and Crystal. Sheesh, some people are just so sick!

Does your other half read your blog?

2006-05-26T19:45:00.000+08:00

Don't know about everyone else but my other half religiously reads my posts. If you have noticed, my original post is usually poorly composed and after a couple of days (or weeks if hubby is busy), it gets spruced up with the i's dotted and the t's crossed. Does that make me lucky?

He likes...

2006-05-22T19:16:00.000+08:00

He likes to play “wa-wa” which basically involved tapping the palm of our hand gently against his mouth. This trick is very useful because Brae will immediately stop crying and say “waa..waa..wa..wa..waa….”

He likes to put everything he can grab into his mouth.

He likes to poo during his meals.

He likes to watch TV. His head will automatically turn towards the direction of the closest TV when we have dinner outside.

He likes car rides, especially when the car is moving. He will doze off when the car moves and start to wake up and cry when the car stops.

He likes to cry for attention (most of the time with no tears) when no one is around him.

He likes to be carried or seated in the forward-facing carrier so that he can look around.

He likes to rub his feet. According to the old folks, babies who like to rub their feet are stubborn and naughty.

He likes to grab and pull mummy’s hair when he sleeps at night.

He likes to beat his hands against the table when he is seated.

Videos - Cute gestures

2006-05-19T19:10:00.000+08:00

Brae loves car ride. The funny thing is that he will doze off only when the car moves faster. When the car stops, he will start to cry. Just like daddy, he likes fast ride! Brae is starting to roll over now. However, he can only roll over from front to back. Whenever he starts his meal, he will poo. This video shows his funny faces that he makes when he poos!

Six-month milestones

2006-05-19T16:41:00.000+08:00

Six months…..time flies so fast. I can't believe that our little boy is now half way through toddlerhood. Brae has been growing very well indeed, although his weight gain fluctuated throughout the six months. Nevertheless, we are glad that he gained 1kg since he started semi-solid food. He has turned out to be a gorgeous, chubby, little handsome boy, using his *winning smile* to charm all the people he sees. I am blessed that he has never fallen ill, not even the slightest cold or flu (touch wood) in the past months. I hope it is partly due to breastfeeding.

I want to highlight some of Brae's achievements and milestones during the 1st six months. Better get it written down before we forget.

Weight: 8.8 kg

Height: 70 cm

According to the midwife, Brae will turn out to be a tall boy, just like his daddy. His height and weight are balanced well.

Photos - Brae’s *cute* moments (from birth – 6 months)

1^st Month

2^nd Month

3^rd Month

4^th Month

5^th Month

6^th Month

Scrapbook - 1st Month

2006-05-19T16:19:00.000+08:00

Hubby gave his comments for the first page – newborn scrapbook that I did a few weeks ago. He said, “Too many stickers lahh”, “Too cluttered”, “You should separate the photos to highlight the main photo”. Whatever I do, like blogging, cooking, baking, projects (when I was studying part-time) and shopping for clothes, I will ask my dear hubby for his opinion. Boosts his ego tremendously!

From the comments he made, I tried to improve my scrapbook layout design. He likes something to be simple and nice. I agree. The first time, I was too excited and just had to use all the stickers available in the scrapbook kit thinking that it would be a waste not to use them all. The other problem that I faced was the lack of resources (paper / cardstock) mainly. I found it difficult to match the papers available in the kit.

Therefore, I went to P apier to buy my own papers to match for the second page – 1^st month scrapbook.

And here is the result:-

Mr. Osteo

2006-05-15T17:31:00.000+08:00

We always buy our health supplements at Guardian, when there are on sale. But this time, we were recommended a new place to buy our supplements. Many thanks to BIL-2’s girlfriend, SL. According to her, its a typical Chinese herbal shop which also sells a lot of ang-moh health supplements. What makes it special is its mandatory 15% discount, even for newbies.

Last week, we paid a visit to this shop ( I think it's called Tung Poh) located at PJ State, to source for glucosamine for Brae's ma-ma. Old folks swear by it. The pharmacy is located on the 1st floor of a corner lot. Ignoring the persistent promoters (there were about 5 of them), we walked around looking for glucosamine.

Just right next to the stairs, there was a Bio-Life counter offering FOC Bone Density Tests. Hubby asked me to try it out since it was free. (Yes folks, we are seriously broke with the baby in the family.) Inside, I was very sure that I will ace the test with flying colours. After all, I take calcium supplements daily and am young-ish (though hubby may disagree on the latter bit, he likes to remind me that he is almost a year younger than myself and that I will be "sam-cheong" on my next birthday).

My turn came and my foot was placed on a machine which apparently uses ultrasound waves to gauge the density of my heel bone. The operator told me the machine is 98% accurate. My score is as follows:

Score	Bone Status
>-1.0	Normal
-1.0 to -1.5	Risk for fracture is increased
-1.5 to -2.5	Osteoporosis treatment should be considered
<-2.5	Osteoporosis

My result was -2.13. When I first saw the results, my eyes literally popped out of their sockets and I swear I could hear my hubby snigger behind me. First thing I did was to ask the operator if age is taken into account when tabulating the score because it does affect the results. I was quietly hoping she would say no but to my great dismay, results take into account my age.

Shock horror, not even 30 yet and I am considered almost inflicted with osteoporosis. Hey, even Anlene Gold states very clearly that it is meant for seniors 50 years old and above. Something must be wrong somewhere and I hope it is not with me.

Fortunately the operator informed me that a portion of my body's calcium would have passed over to Brae which could explain the low score. With that I felt a wee bit better but I still hear my hubby trying very hard to suppress his urge to laugh.

Still not quite convinced, I forced hubby to take the scan as well so I can have a benchmark. He's very health conscious so I expected him to score well.

Ah, life has a wicked way of coming one full circle and when my hubby scored -3.10, it was my turn to snigger. -3.10 = OSTEOPOROSIS. The look on his face was priceless. He desperately needed to save his face so he asked the operator whether his score was the lowest (probably hoping that the answer is in the negative) and she told him it was the 2nd lowest, lowest coming from a 70 year-old man.

Usually with these free tests, one must expect to be bombarded with sales talk after the test but with our results shocking everyone into silence, we walked blissfully away.

Now, hubby is taking a glass of milk and a piece of cheese daily (even though he’s slightly allergic to milk products). Paranoia at its best.

Should we see a specialist to get further checkup? Maybe we will get it done when we have our medical checkup at the end of this year.

I now call him Mr. Osteo.

My new hobby

2006-05-11T16:18:00.000+08:00

Well, my new hobby...SCRAPBOOKING. I always wanted to create a baby scrapbook for my little boy showing all the photos of his milestones. Inspiration came when I saw the nice and colourful page of a baby scrap book shown in a shop in The Curve. We were there to buy a scrapbook kit as a wedding gift for the bride of hubby's cousin. Unfortunately, they didn't have the wedding scrapbook kit so we settled for the baby scrapbook kit for them instead. The second time we went, I saw a new baby scrapbook kit on the shelf. The kit came with a few pieces of patterned papers and stickers. Hubby knew I liked scrapbooking because whenever we visit bookshops, I always search for scrapbooking magazines instead of my usual pregnancy, motherhood and women magazines to read. Coincidentally, the owner of the shop is also our wedding card designer. We took the opportunity to have a chat with her as well. Some of the advice she gave me:-

As a beginner, start off with a scrapbook kit.
Get ideas on the design and layout from magazines.

At the end, I bought a baby scrapbook kit, mounting squares for photos, and a trimmer. Come to think of it, it's good to spend the time doing something useful at home when Brae is sleeping. Normally, I glue myself to the idiot box whenever I'm free...hehehe. So, after a few days of sorting, cropping, adding effects to the photos and figuring out the layout, this is the result of my first page - newborn scrapbook:- Tadaaaa.....

Sleeping routine

2006-05-08T17:05:00.000+08:00

Finally, Brae is sleeping on his own now. No more carrying, craddling and rocking to sleep anymore. Yehhh..!!! The method that I use is working very well. As usual, I would put him in the middle of our bed, nurse him, sing the nursery rhymes while patting him. After nursing him, I pass him his bolster and place his favourite Baby Tad on his left while I sleep on his right. Then, I put the pacifier in his mouth and squeeze Baby Tad's right finger six times for six minutes night-night soothing lullaby. Brae will try to reach for Baby Tad's hand when he turns to his left. When he turns to his right, he will grab my hair and pull. The funny thing is that he prefers to play with the human face, pulling my hair, punching my face, squeezing my nose and tapping my eyes. There was this time when he scratched me, leaving behind a thin scratch mark across my nose. Occasionally, he will pull out his pacifier from his mouth, turn it around and sticking the plastic bit back in. After the playing session, he will doze off after a short while. I will then transfer him to his cot before retiring to the family room to read newspapers or chat with hubby. Ahhhh...what a relief now that I don't have to stay in the room anymore to lull Brae to sleep.

What's in my bag?

2006-05-08T15:53:00.000+08:00

Tagged by Elaine. After I read some of the bloggers' memes, I find myself as a 'ku lou' conservative mummy whereby there's no makeup accessories at all, not even lipstick or lipbalm. Sad case, huh? In fact, most of the things in my handbag are Brae's stuff because he is always with me when I'm out. 1. What's the regular handbag you carry? Even though I have quite a lot of various sizes of bags, I always use the same bag to go out. It is a beige handbag which I bought with hubby at Sunday, One Utama. 1. What's inside? Mummy's stuff:-

Purse
Handphone (still using the outdated no-colour-screen phone Ericsson T39)
Spectacles (only use when necessary even though I'm shortsighted...hehe)
Handspring Palm (My 2nd outdated PDA. My 1st PDA (the same model without colour screen) had 'kong' out, this one was given to me by my BIL-2)
Tissue
A pen

Brae's stuff:-

Water bottle
Handkerchief
Pacifier
Rattle (to keep Brae occupied when we have dinner)

Hahah..that's all in my handbag. So boring, hor? I won't tag anyone else as I have a very small circle of friends too. And most of them have been tagged, anyway. Those who would like me to know you more, feel free to do this tag.

Our LOVE Month - May

2006-05-05T16:34:00.000+08:00

Hubby: Happy LOVE month, dear.

Me: (Being unromantic) Huh?!?

Hubby: You forgotten already…this month is our LOVE month.

Me: (Still a bit blur…the only occasion that I know this month is Mother’s Day as I am officially joining the “Mothers in the club”)

Ohhh..yaa.. (expecting hubby to tell me further…)

Hubby: Remember…you agreed to be my girlfriend in May 2001, registered our marriage in May 2003 and had our wedding reception in May 2004. This year is our 5^th year anniversary.

Me: Ya hor… (I never good at remembering dates)

To my dear hubby, “Happy LOVE month” & “Happy Anniversary”.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Happy Mother’s Day

This month is also a ‘pokai’ month for my hubby. He had to fork out money to buy gifts as Brae’s ‘tai poh’ (great-grandmother)’s birthday dinner was held this month, as well as buying something for Brae’s ‘ma-ma’ (grandmother) for Mother’s Day. In the end, we decided to buy birds' nests for both of them. There was a promotion going on at Lo Hong Ka, therefore, we went to pay a visit to their outlet in SS2 to buy the birds' nests. Our first visit to the outlet gave us the impression of ‘direct-selling’. Not knowing what to buy, we asked the salesperson to tell us the difference between the six types of birds' nests shown in the Chinese newspapers. I didn’t know there are so many types of birds' nests. To my surprise, the weird reddish birds' nests were the ones which fetched the highest price. In the end, hubby paid RM500++ for the birds' nests for ‘tai poh’ and RM200++ birds' nest concentrate for ‘ma-ma’.

When he took out his credit card to pay, I told hubby jokingly, “You have forgotten, there is another mummy over here”. Hubby was looking at me and said, “Ohh..ya hor.”

Happy Mother’s Day to myself and all mothers!!!

Sayang

2006-05-02T18:26:00.000+08:00

As usual, I was feeding Brae steamed potato with milk today while he was sitting in his Bumbo seat in the living room. Normally, he will behave very well and leaves no mess on his bib. Don't know why, instead of using his concentration to eat the food, he went on grabbing his bib to put in his mouth to suck. And I was getting 'mang jang' because of the mess he made all over his bib and face. Mummy: Braedyn..!!! No..no..no..!!! (I was pulling Brae's hand and bib out from his mouth) Mummy: Braedyn...!!! (Aiyoo..he did it again right after I put the food in his mouth) Mummy: NO!!! (Raising my voice) Brae was looking at me and starting to 'bin jui' (flatten his mouth). Brae: Eeeeaaaakkkk.... (Oooppss...he's starting to scream...) Mummy: Ok..ok...saayaanngg (sayang his cheek with my hand) Brae: (Stopped screaming immediately and gave me his cheeky smile :) ) When I saw Brae's smile, I wasn't angry anymore. Aiiyaaa....this guy really know how to 'tam' mummy.

A trip to Singapore - Part II

2006-05-01T17:05:00.000+08:00

Finally I’ve decided to go ahead for the trip. I am so glad that three of us, besides 2 BILs and one of their girlfriend went for the trip. We had so much fun despite having to carry Brae around. We are more familiar with the places in Singapore now compared to the first time that we went together as a couple few years back. Whenever we (hubby and I) went for holiday abroad, he would comment on the country either “I love this place” or “This place sucks”. Among the places that we have been to, Singapore, Melbourne and Shanghai (except that we couldn’t speak the language) fall under the former category while Bangkok is the latter.

Malaysia has so much to learn from Singapore. Their public transport system is superb! With one EzyLink card, I could hop into MRT and bus and the wait was no longer than 20 minutes unlike Malaysia, the bus wait was killing! Not sure why, I feel secured walking alone in Singapore compared to my own country. Amazingly, the place is so clean and there are trees everywhere not like Malaysia with rubbish everywhere and shady trees chopped down for no reason *sigh*. There are malls in every part of the town, surprisingly there are quite crowded with people in all the malls. Some of the malls in Malaysia are really quiet. I never dare to take a cab in Malaysia because they never use meter and charge you ridiculous fair for a short trip. Singapore’s cab drivers are polite and most importantly they use meter.

Haha..I should stop praising Singapore and complaining about Malaysia, after all I am still a Malaysian!

Chronology of events in Singapore:-

25 April 2006 (Tuesday)

5:30 am

Hubby and I woke up and showered while Brae was still sleeping soundly. Had to wake Brae up and changed his clothes. After fed Crystal and Chloe (our doggies) full of two days worth of dog food together with two bowls of water, we left the house at 6:20 am. Hopefully by the time we comes back, the house and the doggies are still in one piece.

6:45 am

Drove to BIL-3 (youngest brother-in-law) condo. Hubby left his car there and BIL-3 drove us to fetch BIL-2 (second youngest brother-in-law) and SL (BIL-2’s girlfriend).

7:15 am

Reached BIL-2’s girlfriend’s house. We left from there to Menara Axis to catch Aeroline bus to Singapore.

8:00 am

Bus was leaving Menara Axis. This was the first time we took Aeroline bus to Singapore. Breakfast, tea and dessert were served in the bus. Felt like in an aeroplane with captain and crew on board. There was a lounge below the bus deck with soft sofas, table and TV. The only downside was the toilet. Initially, there was an announcement saying “There is a toilet downstair for light use only” and we didn’t figure out why they stressed on “light usage toilet” until hubby went for loo. When he came out of the toilet, he quickly told me not to use the toilet unless really cannot tahan. The toilet was ngam-ngam fit for only one person and he couldn’t even turn around in the toilet. Luckily my hubby is quite thin, I wondered how a bigger size person could get in the toilet.

11:30 am

Throughout the journey, Brae behaved very well. He did whine a bit and dozed off after nursing him. I took the opportunity to take a nap while Brae was sleeping. The bus was in Pagoh rest area when I heard the bus engine stopped. However I was too tired to open my eyes until I heard someone shouted “Fire! “. I thought I was dreaming until I opened my eyes and saw the back of the bus parked next to ours was engulfed with thick smoke. The thick air of smoke was getting worse until I couldn’t see anything through the window. I was getting panicked when I saw fire burning from the back of the bus. “Take the baby out first”, hubby told me. He quickly grabbed Brae from my lap and dashed out of the the bus (luckily Brae didn’t cry seeing the situation kelam-kabut). I almost forgot to fasten my seat belt to go out of the bus! We walked as fast as we could further away from the burning bus. After everyone was out from the bus, the captain was driving the bus away from the blazing bus. After a while, everyone was called to get on board and continued on our journey. Phewww…what an experience!

The whole incident was featured in The Star.

1:30 pm

Finally, we reached the drop-off point at Waterfront Copthorne Hotel. Took cabs to our hotel, Grand Central Hotel near Orchard Road. Hubby, Brae, BIL-3 and me in one cab and BIL-2 and SL in the other cab. 2:00 pm

Checked into the hotel rooms. Quickly fed Brae before we went for lunch. Brae had sweet potatoes baby jar food mixed with formula milk. We scared that it might dirty the clothes, we fed Brae without the clothes on even though the hotel room was a bit cold.

3:00 pm

Went to Takashimaya for lunch. Recommended by SL, we ate at Pepper Lunch. I had a Beef Pepper Rice. The food came in a hot sizzling plate with rice in the middle, slices of uncooked beef and corns were around the rice. There were instructions to follow on how to “cook yourself”. Aiya..I should have taken down the instruction given in a small leaflet. If I remembered correctly, first stir everything evenly with butter at the bottom of the plate. Then add the sauce; honey or garlic or both to the rice. Finally, stir again and voila…it’s done. Hmmm..I was wondering whether this food chain can be brought over to Malaysia.

4:15 pm

BIL-3 wanted to go to Sentosa so all of us tagged along. Hubby always wanted to bring Brae to see the fishes at the Underwater World (UW). Unfortunately, Brae was sleeping in the sling throughout the whole tour of the UW. In fact, I was the one who was fascinated by the fishes available at the UW. Some of the fishes available here were not seen before in Aquaria KLCC Convention Centre. Aiyo…Brae woke up once we stepped out of the UW. What a waste! Anyway, we brought him to watch dolphin show which started at 5:30 pm. The show wasn’t that interesting and Brae kept on looking elsewhere rather than the dolphins. We headed back to town after the show.

8:00 pm

BIL-3 had dinner appointment with friends. Therefore, we had dinner with BIL-2 and SL at Tony Roma’s which apparently famous for their ribs. The yummy part was that they served pork! However, the famous baby ribs were out of order. I wasn’t fancy of meat so I ordered Caesar Salad for myself. We also ordered one of their signature dish Onion Loaf for sharing. While we were having dinner, Brae was starting to get cranky. Hubby and I took turn to bring him for walk outside of the restaurant. 10:00 pm

Back to the hotel. We discovered this hotel was quite crappy for the price that we’ve paid. The hot water dispenser for the bath tub was faulty. Worst still, there was no control for the temperature of the air-conditioning. Not to mention no basic essential items such as laundry bag, conditioner, comb, toothbrush. Luckily I bought few sweaters for Brae back in Malaysia. We sponge-bath Brae at the sink. Going to request for a room change tomorrow.

11:00 pm

Nursed Brae to sleep. Three of us ended up hugging each other to warm up. We were freezing cold…!!!

26 April 2006 (Wednesday)

8:45 am

Woke Brae up.

9:10 am

Met BILs and SL at the lobby. Went to have breakfast at kopitiam nearby. I had mee hoon with few pieces of fish cakes and sambal. Sambal was hot and spicy! 10:30 am

Went back to the hotel and fed Brae. After that, we went down to the lobby. I paid $1 for 15 minutes of surfing net, checking emails and blog. Hubby was carrying Brae while waiting for his business associate to pick him up for meeting. After hubby left, I surfed for ½ hour before sending Brae back to the hotel room for his napping.

2:30 pm

Brae woke up. Wanted to go out and get food to eat but raining so we stayed in the room.

3:00 pm

I was getting bored. I thought of buying instant noodles at the convenient store at the lobby. But I ended up going out alone with Brae. I put Brae in the front-carrier, back packed Brae’s bag and took a cab to The Forum shopping mall. I saw Toys R Us there when we walked past yesterday.

3:40 pm

I walked around the mall and discovered an interesting shop called ‘Crosscom’. They sell ergonomic workstation, Moll™ made in Germany which can be used from a child till adulthood. The other interesting thing that I saw was a highchair. The highchair Tripp Trapp^®made in Norway has a wooden seat and a foot plate which can be adjusted in both depth and height as the child grows. Woww…I like but it comes with a hefty price of $500++ after discount.

4:10 pm

When I walked out of the shop, I saw hubby was walking towards my direction. I sms-ed him earlier telling him I was in The Forum and he with 2 BILs came to look for us after the business meeting. We went to Toys R Us to look for LeapPad Little Touch for Brae. We bought as it was slightly cheaper compared to the one in Malaysia.

5:00 pm

We walked to The Republic foodcourt in Wisma Atria to have my late lunch.I had a Hakka Yong Tow Fee Mee.

5:40 pm

We took MRT from Orchard to Somerset and walked back to the hotel.

6:30 pm

Hubby went to complain about the hot water. A man came to fix. Apparently the hot water knob was loose. After that, hubby went to shower while mummy was nursing Brae.

7:30 pm

We had dinner with Singaporean friends (Donald & Michele) at Imperial Treasure La Mian Xiao Long Bao at Marina Square. We tried Hokkaido (Japanese brand ice-cream) ice-cream after the dinner. Their green tea ice-cream was nice.

9:30 pm

We took bus to Orchard Road and walked to Gelatosismo at Lido to try their gelato ice-cream. According to Donald & Michele, their gelatos are the best in Singapore. I had a hazelnut choc gelato.

10:30 pm

Took bus back to the hotel. Hubby discussed with BILs about the check-out procedure for the next day because they had to attend Food & Hotel Asia 2006 fair at 10:30 am leaving mummy, Brae and SL in the hotel.

27 April 2006 (Thursday)

9:30 am

Had breakfast at Meridien Plaza. I had Fish Ball Noodle with mee poh. According to BIL-2, mee poh is a famous mee in Singapore. The noodle was nothing special except it had vinegar in it.

10:30 am

Hubby sent me and Brae back to the hotel room before he went to the fair with his brothers. Brae took his nap while I was packing the bags before we checked out before 1 pm.

12:45 pm

SL helped me to put the luggage in the hotel’s lobby. Hubby and BILs would meet us at Wisma Atria at 2:30 pm. So we walked to Plaza Singapura to shop around before we took the MRT from Dhoby Ghaut to Orchard Road. I bought 2 nursing tops.

2:15 pm

SL and I reached Wisma Atria. Brae was a bit cranky so I went to look for breastfeeding room to nurse him. To my surprise, the breastfeeding room (more like a baby changing room) in this mall was located inside the female toilets with no door to separate between them! Arrrghhh..all the smell!

3:00 pm

Hubby and BILs arrived. We went to Takashimaya foodcourt to have lunch. Had to feed Brae. Hubby went to ask for hot water at the food stall and was told that there was a hot water dispenser at the female toilet. Therefore, I went to the female toilet to get the hot water. The nappy changing room was nicer compared to the one that I went earlier but it was still inside the female toilet. After feeding Brae, we had Breadpappa, Yakitori and ice-cream toasts. 4:50 pm

We went back to the hotel to take the luggages. Took cabs to Waterfront Copthorne Hotel to catch the 5:30 pm Aeroline bus back to KL.

Hahaaa…this journal is so long-winded. Since I am quite an absent-minded person, this journal is good for me to refer next time we go to Singapore. We definitely will pay a visit to Singapore again before second kid comes!!!

Fun ‘n Go Tag

2006-04-24T20:00:00.000+08:00

Actually, I have nothing on my mind to blog until Elaine tagged me. Wow...this is the first time I kena tag by someone. I feel so honoured. 1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn on page 18 and find line 4. ...least one marketing expense that you have strong suspicion isn't... (Streetwise Complete Business Plan - hubby's book) 2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. Hole puncher 3. What is the last thing you watched on TV? CSI:Supreme Sunday (didn't finish the whole show, my boy woke up from his nap) 4.Without looking, guess what time it is? 3 pm 5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time? 3:16 pm 6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear? Air-conditioning 7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing? Few minutes ago. Putting Brae in the car seat to sleep after nursing. 8. Before you started this survey, what did you look at? Elaine Lee's blog 9. What are you wearing? Nursing top with a skirt 10. Did you dream last night? Couldn't remember. There were so many dreams last night. 11. When did you last laugh? This morning. Tickled Brae and I laughed as well. 12. What is on the walls of the room you are in? Brother-in-law's framed up certificates 13. Seen anything weird lately? I don't think so 14. What do you think of this quiz? Fun 15. What is the last film you saw? King Kong (watched with hubby at Imax - leaving Brae with his brothers...no more cinema after that) 16. If you became a multimillionaire overnight, what would you buy? More insurance and education policies for the kid(s) 17. Tell me something about you that I dunno. A good listener but not a good talker 18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do? No war, please 19. Do you like to dance? Nope 20. George Bush. Talk a lot 21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her? Myra or Mya (maybe change when the time comes) 22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him? First child is a boy and he is called Braedyn 23. Would you ever consider living abroad? Thought about it. If possible, we would like to stay in Melbourne, Australia 24.What do you want GOD to say to you when you reach the pearly gates? Don't know 25. Five (5) people who must also do this meme in their journal. Lyon & Wien All About Zara a s h l e y These two have been tagged though:- Mumsgather Elaine Lee

A trip to Singapore - Part I

2006-04-21T18:22:00.000+08:00

My husband once mentioned that we must bring our kids (currently only 1 kid) on holidays whenever possible, if overseas even better. Cameron Highlands was the furthest place that we have been to this year and this was during Chinese New Year 2006. Brae wasn’t bothered by the cold weather and he loved looking around. My uncle, who lives in Cameron Highlands, was surprised that we brought our 2 month-old baby along.

However, it freaked me out when hubby asked me to follow him (bringing Brae along, of course) to Singapore next week for a business trip for three days. One half of me said “Go” but the other half said “Don’t go”. After much thought, I decided to go since hubby was scared that I couldn’t cope alone with Brae in the house.

Things that Mummy worries about:-

Bus. All this while, we travel by car so I’m not so worried because Brae has his own car seat. Furthermore, it is convenient for me to nurse Brae in the car with a comfortabe bolster supporting my arm. Brae can have his toys to play with when he is cranky. But this time, we are hopping onto the Aeroline bus to Singapore. Definitely no car seat, Brae will have to be carried on the lap for a long 4-5 hour trip. Definitely tiring! Then there’s the extra luggage which includes the bolster and toys.
Food. Brae has just started on semi-solids. I feel hesitant in changing to baby jar food after having fed Brae freshly-made food at home. I’m thinking of bringing ‘Babypappa’ along but that’s another add-on baggage to worry about.
Hotel. Worried that the hotel room’s air-conditioning would be too cold for Brae. I will need to buy a sweater for him, just in case. I’m scared that Brae is not used to sleeping on the hotel bed.
Sight-seeing. I will have to use a sling (for mummy) and a carrier (for daddy) to carry our boy.
Nursing. I’m worried that, being unfamiliar with the shopping malls there, I won’t be able to locate breastfeeding areas quickly.

“Go” reasons:-

Baby stuff. Heard that the baby stuff in Singapore is cheaper. Hope to get more nursing wear and more stuff for baby there.
Loneliness. I don’t think that I can stay alone with baby in the house as I am not used to sleeping alone.
Food. I may end up not eating proper meals because I rely on my hubby to “ta pau” food for me.

Nursery rhymes

2006-04-20T19:08:00.000+08:00

Nursery rhymes are meant for kids but it turns out that mummy has to learn them first before she can sign them to the baby. When I first started singing to Brae, the only song that I recalled from my younger days was ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’. I kept repeating the song over and over again. I’m not sure whether Brae was getting bored with the song but I sure was!

Therefore, I decided to brush up my nursery rhymes but I either found CDs with no lyrics included or nursery rhyme books without the tunes. I always have the problem of never locating the things I want. Perhaps I am not the observant type. My hubby went to search and he found a CD with a nice lyric board book board by ‘Ladybird’ at the ‘Tape Video’ section. It’s so embarrassing because I went to look for it a few times but I never thought of rummaging around that section. In the end, we ended up buying the locally produced nursery rhymes book with VCD (my hubby found this at the ‘Poetry’ section) at RM10 each for 10 songs compared to the ‘Ladybird’ which cost RM32.

So now, I play the VCD daily for the baby to listen and for mummy to learn to sing the songs.

Inculcate the reading habit

2006-04-19T15:27:00.000+08:00

Every weekend, we would bring Brae to the bookshop and pick some books to read to him. Each and every time, Brae would make a fuss and we do not know if it’s due to the fact that he’s sleepy or the air-conditioning is too cold. He usually prefers to look elsewhere or simply just grab the book in front of him to put in his mouth.

As a first-time parent, we thought we were ‘kiasu’ by reading to a 5 month old but to our surprise, there were others in the children section with children as young as Brae! At least we didn’t feel so out of place! Among all the bookshops, we prefer Borders in The Curve because their books are neatly arranged.

Whenever there is an MPH Warehouse Sale, we always end up spending a lot of money on books mainly; fiction, cooking books, health and fitness books for myself, and non-fiction for hubby. This year, we bought a lot of books too but mainly for Brae. When my hubby saw the Roald Dahl and Dr. Seuss books, he recalled his younger days reading those books so he bought the whole collection for Brae’s library. We originally thought of getting Brae to choose his own books when he is older but we couldn’t help it and ended up buying them for him. Hopefully he will read the books that we’ve bought!

Things that Daddy does for Mummy and baby...

2006-04-18T15:21:00.000+08:00

For baby

During my confinement without a confinement lady, he would bathe our newborn baby while I was recuperating from the delivery. Even though he didn’t know how to bathe the baby, he tried his best to learn from our midwife. He would not hesitate to bathe baby during weekends or after late outings while I prepared baby’s clothes.
During our outings at shopping malls, he would change diapers for our baby on his own.
He would carry the baby when we were outside having meals, cradle and rock the baby when the baby was cranky and sleepy.
He would scan the floor or road for coins (even the 1 cents) for the baby’s piggy bank.
He was the first one who fed baby semi-solid food the next day after our midwife taught us.

For mummy

He would never grumble when he had to rush back everyday to ‘ta pau’ lunch and snacks for me. His main concern was to keep me well-fed so that the baby will have sufficient nutrients from my breastmilk.
He would cook dinner and do the dishes even though he had a long day at work.
He would help me carry all the stuff (my handbag, baby’s bag or groceries) so that I can focus on carrying the baby.
He would do all the housework while I attended to the baby in the house.
He would feed me when I was nursing or carrying the baby in the sling.

Breastfeeding obstacles

2006-04-13T19:29:00.001+08:00

While I was pregnant, I had already decided to breastfeed my baby even though I have heard a lot of negative comments about breastfeeding from my family members. None of my family members breasfed their children. Therefore, I was a bit skeptical and discouraged by the remarks made by them. Here are some of the comments that I have heard:-

1) You got milk meh? (assuming that small breasts will not produce much milk)

2) Breastmilk alone not enough wan…

3) Just breastfeed for the first month larr, just get the colostrum enough lorr...

4) Your breasts will sag worrr….

5) What for you susah-susah yourself? Just give them formula milk larr…

6) Baby is not full larr… (when they see the baby crying after nursing)

In order to equip myself to breastfeed my baby, I searched through the internet for more information and went to bookshops to read more about breastfeeding. I read the breastfeeding book by Johnson & Johnson over and over again to get myself prepared. I also downloaded breastfeeding videos to learn about latching on and different positions for breastfeeding.

When Brae was born, I immediately put him to my breast. I had the nurse to help me on latching Brae correctly. I suffered the pain from breast engorgement, sore nipples and milk-blocked ducts. The breastfeeding journey for the first month was dreadful when I had to nurse Brae every half an hour, with his weight dropping , and to top it off, he was slightly jaundiced. My concern over Brae’s weight prompted me to top up breastmilk with formula milk which eventually led to him depending fully on formula milk. Then we noticed that Brae suffered constipation from taking in too much formula milk. From that moment, with the advice from the midwife, I slowly decreased the formula milk to fully breastfeeding by the time Brae was 2 months old.

I admitted there were some times I would feel so frustrated especially when Brae encountered difficulty in sucking the milk out from my breasts because of the slow milk flow. If not because of the support from my hubby and our midwife, I wouldn’t be able to breastfeed our baby till now. As for my family’s comments, I just shrugged them off and continue to do what I think is best for my baby.

Keywords to successful breastfeeding : perseverance, determination, patience, and passion.

First taste of semi solid food...yummy!

2006-04-10T20:07:00.001+08:00

Brae, who is now 5 months old, had his first day of tasting semi-solid food. I know that it is recommended to introduce semi-solid food to the baby at 6 months but Brae has been showing all the signs of wanting more food. He has been waking up more frequently at night (3-4 times) for his night feeds, having previously slept the whole night through. He keeps drooling when he sees us having our meals and trying to reach for the food.

Our midwife came to our house and taught us how to prepare the food and feed Brae. She put 1 teaspoon of Heinz baby rice cereal into the bowl, poured the formula milk bit by bit and slowly stirred the mixture. The mixture must not be too watery or too lumpy. She suggested using EBM for the mixture but I was having difficulty pumping breast milk. Therefore the arrangement now will be rice cereal mixed with formula milk and I continue nursing Brae direct.

Our midwife gave us instructions for the whole 1^st month’s menu:-

Baby rice cereal for the first three days (1 tsp of baby rice cereal with EBM or formula milk and gradually increase the amount of baby rice cereal if baby wants more).
Introduce one new type of food such as carrot, pear, banana, sweet potato, pumpkin and broccoli with baby rice cereal every three days (1 tsp of baby rice cereal with EBM or formula milk + 1 tbsp of new food).
By the end of the 1^st month, the baby should be taking in 8 tsps of food.

Brae’s first experience of semi-solid food

Brae spat out the food when the midwife fed him the first time. The reaction from Brae was so cute. He was trying to suck the food when the spoon was inside his mouth. After a while he realised that it was not milk then he just spat out everything and began to ‘bin jui’ (flatten his mouth). After we manage to get the 1^st spoonful in, Brae started to explore the food in his mouth and he began to like it . The second spoon was a bit easier, he gulped down everything so fast. He would try to reach for the spoon, grab it, put it inside his mouth and chew the spoon! When we were slow in feeding him, he would become so annoyed and ‘mang jang’ as if he was trying to tell us,”I want my food now !!!”. After the whole feeding saga ended, Brae ended up with food all over his face, hands and his Bumbo seat. The whole session was really an experience for us (hubby and I) and it was so exciting and enjoyable, especially for first-time parents like us. It was so fun that my hubby wanted to feed Brae the next day!

Full moon gift

2006-04-07T17:33:00.000+08:00

Normally, there will be a full moon party when a new born baby reaches one month old. It is either having a buffet at home (with food provided by a caterer or cooked at home) or booking a few tables at a Chinese restaurant for the relatives and friends to look at the new-born baby. For couples who are busy, they will go for the pre-packed full moon gifts and deliver the gifts to their relatives and friends.

We decided on the third option since we did not want any mess in the house if we celebrated at home and I thought it would be difficult for me to breastfeed our new-born if we were to choose the Chinese restaurant option.

Most of the pre-packed full moon gifts that we saw were pretty standard. The traditional packages mainly include red eggs, ‘kuih ang ku’, chicken, pickled ginger, and ‘nasi kunyit’. The better one comes with cakes or tarts. We were thinking of Ayamas until we came across a unique full moon package in a parenting magazine.

Therefore, we went to the OneJoy website to take a look at their packages. The package comes with a nice box pre-filled with certain items such as two red eggs, chocolates, candies, lollipops, biscuits or even a cute teddy bear. There were five box designs to choose from. It is also comes with a personalised card where we can provide the baby’s information such as baby photo, name, date of birth, length, weight and other personalised messages. Surprisingly, the cost of the package is more or less the same as other traditional packages. Another good thing about this package is that we don’t have to rush to deliver all the boxes to our relatives and friends because the contents are non-perishable, unlike the food in traditional packages which must be delivered fresh.

Our relatives and friends loved the full moon gift. At least the gift is different from the norm, making it a talking point and the box can be used as storage.

Lulling baby to sleep

2006-04-05T19:33:00.000+08:00

I am trying a new method to train Brae to sleep on his own after his night feed. Usually, I will lie down sideways on the bed facing Brae and nurse him until he falls asleep. However, he was wide awake after nursing for the past few nights. Neither patting and singing to him helps nor giving him his favourite bolster and pacifier.

Brae has a new soft toy called ‘Baby Tad’. Yesterday, I placed the ‘Baby Tad’ next to him and pressed the toy’s hand for soothing nightime music. Brae was fascinated by the colourful lights blinking on the ‘Baby Tad’’s bib. He stayed still and kept looking at his toy. His hand was trying to reach for the ‘Baby Tad’’s hand when he saw me pressing it for the next song.

After more than 20 times of repeating songs, Brae started to rub his eyes (a sign that he is sleepy). But he just wouldn’t sleep and started to make noises. Feeling frustrated, I nursed him again. Within 5 minutes, he fell asleep. Now I know that he uses my breast as a soother.

I will continue to use this method until he can fall asleep on his own without me nursing him.

No internet line to blog

2006-04-04T17:11:00.000+08:00

When ideas pop up in my mind, I will use Brae’s nap time to rush to the laptop and type them out. However, I have to put the words down using Microsoft Word instead of my blog site. Why? Because my house doesn’t have any telephone lines to hook up to the internet.

I go to my hubby’s office once or twice a week bringing Brae along to help out on his paperwork. I grab this chance to transfer all my blogs in Microsoft Word to my blog site and read all the mummies’ blogs as well, if Brae behaves/sleeps. I always hope that he will sleep in the office (in the car seat/sling) so that mummy has some time for herself to surf net.

Why is there no internet line in my house? My hubby encountered terrible service from Telekom when he went to apply for telephone lines. We were the first to move to our new neighbourhood three years ago. We went to Telekom in Damansara Utama to apply telephone lines. As expected, they said there was no line at our place yet. Since we were there, we just filled in the application form and paid RM10 stamping fees. We also called them once in a while to check the lines availability.

We were so happy when we received a Telekom leaflet two years ago telling us that there were lines and requested us to apply. Since we already had our application form filled (we kept the reference no), we went to Telekom DU to ask them to activate the lines.

They could trace our application form but surprisingly the form had been cancelled by them. According to them, there is a certain timeframe for activation once there is line. We didn’t know that and my hubby was so pissed when they asked for another RM10 stamping fee for a new application. They didn’t want to reactivate the line.

Since then, our house has been without phone lines. If not because of the internet, he won’t even want to install a fix line since both of us have handphones.

No more Telekom…we are patiently waiting for alternative broadband providers such as Jaring and Maxis to provide broadband or wireless service in our area.

Spring cot a.k.a 'Sarong'

2006-04-03T16:18:00.000+08:00

I always have difficulty putting Brae to sleep for his naps (normally twice a day). He always cries his lungs out when I put him flat on his back.

I normally put him on his tummy for his napping. If he is sleepy, he won’t cry but he will struggle on the bed as he falls asleep. Otherwise, he will just cry the instant I put him in the cot. I have tried giving him a bolster and pat him to sleep on his side but to no avail.

Once I brought Brae along to visit my cousin. There was a ‘sarong’ there meant for my nephew. My cousin asked me to try it out since Brae was crying his lungs out when I put him on the bed to sleep. I found that he liked to sleep in the ‘sarong’, stayed quietly inside with a bolster and slept longer.

Now, I’m thinking of getting one for backup purposes (when Brae ‘lau kai’ a lot). My hubby is afraid that Brae will be too used to the ‘sarong’ and we will have difficulty later to have him sleep in his cot. My intention is to prevent him from struggling so much before he sleeps.

To buy or not to buy? Hopefully, by the time we really decide to buy one, Brae will learn to sleep by himself…calmly.

Breastfeeding in public

2006-04-02T13:01:00.000+08:00

I always like the baby changing room in Ikano Power Centre because it is cosy and comfortable. As there are baby changing facilities on each floor of the centre, it is easy to find one that is not used. One complaint that I have with the rooms is that there is no way for me to turn down the volume of the PA system and the default volume is way too loud for a sleeping baby. I always thought the room was meant for public use till my dreadful encounter below.

During one of my visits to the Ikano baby change rooms, I was surprised to find the door locked. So, being polite, I knocked on the door. No one replied. Then I told my hubby that some of the shoppers who bought clothes from the kiosks nearby would use the room as a changing room. So we waited.

After a while, we heard a baby crying. Then a woman opened the door, wedged herself into the gap, and looked at us as if we were bothering her. She said, “I’m breastfeeding”. My initial response was, “Sorry”. Then we walked off.

We walked to the 1^st Floor baby changing room. My hubby asked why I said sorry. We did nothing wrong. I was thinking, “Ya hor”.

Come to think of it, I am also a mommy who breastfeeds my boy in public. I close, but never lock, the door of any changing room in a shopping complex. Sometimes I am glad that other mums ‘teman’ me in the same room to nurse our babies. I think she should have been more considerate and at the very least, ask why I wanted to use the changing room. For all you know, it could be for an urgent matter.

Perhaps she is a new mommy, but I am also a new mommy too.

To pick him up or otherwise?

2006-04-01T10:11:00.000+08:00

Brae likes to be carried and walked. He prefers the human face rather than his toys. It is very rare to have him playing in his play gym for a few minutes without him crying. Usually, he will just cry or call out for someone to pick him up and I always pick him up to stop him from crying.

So I asked one of my friends for advice since she has three children. She told me that she just lets her children cry till they stop. “Just let them cry for an hour and only then do you pick them up”, she said. I realised that she doesn’t really care much for her children and she has a maid to take care of them.

I can’t really stand it when Brae cries. So ‘ke lian’. Imagine being advised to let him cry for one hour. No way!

I remember there was once when Brae was 2 months old and we tried my friend’s advice. We placed Brae in his cot and we went downstairs to have lunch. Within a few minutes, he started to cry and scream loudly. After our meal, we went to take a look at him. He immediately stopped crying, his eyes were filled with tears and his face had the ‘ke lian’ look. I felt so ‘sam tong’.

Nowadays, we don’t leave him alone for too long.

Inconsiderate neighbour

2006-03-31T12:50:00.000+08:00

At 6:50am this morning, my hubby woke me up and told me to look out of the window. We saw the neighbour opposite our house (who apparently just returned home in his Gen2) horning and shouting angrily at his left neighbour who left a Mercedes parked right in front of the Gen2 neighbour’s gate. The Merc was positioned in such a way that even the Gen2 owners couldn’t open his gate. Gen2 tried ringing Merc’s doorbell to wake him up to move the car but to no avail.

Meanwhile, Gen2’s other neighbour came out of his house and asked him what the matter was. After relating the issue to him, both of them decided to teach Merc a lesson. Gen2 started his car and, with directions from the neighbour, proceeded to position his car so that it blocked the Merc.

Gen2 even wrote a note to place on the Merc windscreen. We were very tempted to see what he wrote. Since Brae was already awake, we had an early breakfast at Section 14. When we returned, we saw the Merc owner leaving his house in his other car with the Merc still in the same position. He didn’t even bother to reposition his car and apologise to Gen2.

At this point in time, the Merc and Gen2 are still in their same positions. What an inconsiderate neighbour.

First child

2006-03-28T14:45:00.001+08:00

Being the first child in the family always get the attention of great-grandparents, grandparents, daddy and mummy themselves. Brae is the first great-grandchild and grandchild from my hubby side of family.

I still remember when I came back from hospital with Brae, he had a lot of visitors every day. We never had any visitor to our house since we moved in two years ago. So they grabbed this chance to see our house.

Since Brae was born, we spent a lot and bought the best for our boy. There is one thing that I think we can keep soon in the storage for the next kid.

Bumbo seat - It was actually me who asked my hubby to buy this seat for Brae. When Brae reached 2 months, I found that he likes to sit in the upright position. He doesn’t like to lie down flat.

When we came across a Bumbo seat at Anakku, The Curve, we let Brae sit on it. And he didn’t cry and sat there quietly. So we bought it.

Now, when I put him in the seat, he will stay there for a while, not for long until he starts to cry and tries so hard to get out of the seat.

I’m starting to regret it but at least Brae can stay for a while……..

The Astro curse

2006-03-27T19:03:00.000+08:00

You know, we are the last house in our neighbourhood to subscribe to Astro (cable for the rest of the world). Friends and family finally had to stop their snide remarks about how "backward" we were. My other half sneakily had Astro installed a couple of days before my birthday in 2006 and guess what.....it isn't as fun as we had thought. Well, actually the operative word is "I" and not "we" as my hubby never thought very highly of Astro. He goes on and on about how we have entire Chinese families (and probably the Malay ones as well since they love Chinese serials too), setting up camp in front of the TV, soaking up Hong Kong gangster violence and sappy Korean love dramas. The entire family revolving around the thin magazine called "Astro Guide". Might as well have named it "Waste of Time".

Vacuum the house with a robot ?

2006-03-27T17:05:00.000+08:00

A friend of my hubby told us about a robot which can vacuum the house all by itself. He saw it in a foreign website. So my hubby went to the website to check it out since he’s doing the vacuuming at home now.

It was not sold in Malaysia at that time. And the price after conversion is quite reasonable compared to the one which is available in Malaysia (other brand). However, my hubby was afraid of the lack of support and parts availability if he bought the thing.

When I came across the same thing in the newspaper ad few days ago, I was so happy that they were having a booth in Ikano Power Centre and quickly told my hubby about it. So we went there to check it out.

It is actually a small round robot called ‘iRobot’s Roomba’. If not because of the installment plan, my hubby would think twice to get it.

I’m a happier woman now….and hubby doesn’t need to vacuum the floor anymore!

All rounder husband...

2006-03-27T17:00:00.000+08:00

The thought of being a homemaker, taking care of our new baby and the whole house is not as easy as I thought. After I gave birth to our adorable baby boy early November 2005, I thought I could handle everything by myself…taking care of the baby, vacuuming and mopping the floor in our double storey house, cooking lunch and dinner, watering and pruning the garden.

I was wrong!!! I couldn’t even do anything else mentioned above except taking care full-time of my baby. I can’t leave him out of sight even for a few minutes just to bring in our laundry.

Lucky for me, I have a very supportive hubby…he does the housework now. He is the one who vacuums and mops the floor every three weeks (I know, we live in a house of dust & grime), ‘ta pau’ lunch for me and cooks dinner at night when he is back from work, mows the lawn every now and then, washes the mats every week, etc. He is never the type who would sit down and laze around. Perhaps it is some personality disorder (of the good type!)

I do feel bad especially when I’m nursing Brae while watching TV or reading papers/magazines and he’s doing all the work in the house.

Pity my dear !

Semi solid food - when to start...?

2006-03-26T14:41:00.000+08:00

Brae is going to explore his new food next month when he hits 5 ½ months. Our midwife, who came to our house monthly to check on the Brae’s progress and development, briefed us on preparing Brae into semi solids food.

My parents and relatives always asked us whether Brae had started to eat porridge or baby rice when he was 3 month old. Since we are new mommy and daddy, we do not know the actual time to start semi solid. So we asked our midwife on this matter.

She advised us not to start semi solid until Brae is 6 months, which recommended by WHO, according to her. From what I’ve read in the magazines and baby books, it’s true that semi solid foods preferably to be introduced at around 6 months because baby’s kidney and digestive system is not fully developed yet.

She was telling us what to buy such as steamer, blender and baby slow cooker for cooking porridge at a later stage. Since I am coping alone with Brae at home, she told me to get a ‘steamer cum blender’ to save some time of washing so many things when preparing the food. She said “Just press a button and it will do everything for you”. We were like “Wowww!!!”.

So there we went all around Subang Parade (according to her, one of her client bought the thing there) to look for it. We were nearly give up searching for it because what we saw mainly typical blender or steamer or food processor.

Then our midwife told us the brand is ‘Combi’ so we headed to 1U Toycity (a lot of Combi range there). We searched the whole ‘Combi’ catalogue, there was no such thing…..huh…again….to no avail. However, I didn’t know that ‘Combi’ has a lot of baby stuff which some of them is quite nice but too pricey.

No more intention to look for it, we just walked around the mall. Then we reached ‘Chicco’ and I decided to scan through the shop to see whether they sell this machine, even though I doubt it. To my surprise, we found the similar thing in the shop. Hoorrayyy !!!

It is called ‘Babypappa’. It is not really simply pressing a button and it will do everything. I just put the food in to steam then pour the food in again to blend. According to the sales person, they don’t stock up many of the product since there is not much demand. I guess not many mommies as lazy as I am…hehheh. Luckily, there was sale…if not my hubby has to think twice.

I will use it next month and see whether it is really worth the money…..on saving my plain laziness and precious time…….

Inspiration

2006-03-24T16:40:00.000+08:00

I actually created this blog in June 2005 when I was pregnant with my first baby. That time I was 4 months pregnant. Before that, I never have the urge to surf net because there was nothing for me to do except check my email. Once I was pregnant, I went to all the baby and pregnancy sites to learn more on parenting stuff. Then I came across Jenntai's column in Sunsurf which lead me to her blog and eventually to all the mommies' blog. I was so impressed with all the mummy bloggers where they can find the time to blog and taking care of their children at the same time. There it goes....my inspiration to blog.

Khong Family

2006-03-24T16:39:00.000+08:00

khongfamily

Fed up with Blogger!

7 months milestones

Brae's first fall from the bed

MV Doulos

Brae's food

New shoes

My first card creation

Tag of 4

First swim

Stretching

My guiding light

Gotcha!

Brae's teeth

Brae is teething

I wish I have more free time...

Down with fever

Hand & Feet Inspiration

Some people are just plain MEAN

Does your other half read your blog?

He likes...

Videos - *Cute* gestures

Six-month milestones

Scrapbook - 1st Month

Mr. Osteo

My new hobby

Sleeping routine

What's in my bag?

Our LOVE Month - May

Sayang

A trip to Singapore - Part II

Fun ‘n Go Tag

A trip to Singapore - Part I

Nursery rhymes

Inculcate the reading habit

Things that Daddy does for Mummy and baby...

Breastfeeding obstacles

First taste of semi solid food...yummy!

Full moon gift

Lulling baby to sleep

No internet line to blog

Spring cot a.k.a 'Sarong'

Breastfeeding in public

To pick him up or otherwise?

Inconsiderate neighbour

First child

The Astro curse

Vacuum the house with a robot ?

All rounder husband...

Semi solid food - when to start...?

Inspiration

Khong Family

Videos - Cute gestures