Chubby chubby

Some friends and relatives seem to say that Eryn looks chubbier than Brendan. Well, actually, Brendan was a chubbier baby. Brendan was 50cm at birth weighing at 3.4kg while Eryn was 53cm at birth weighing at 53cm and one week overdue. So, Brendan should look even more chubbier coz Eryn seems to be slightly longer/taller.

Well, as long as they're both healthy, it doesn't matter who's chubbier, as long as it's not mummy! :-)

note : Eryn's 6 months weight is not measured as the jab was taken was 5.5 months at the doctor's advice.

No longer a baby

Being the only baby in the house, Brendan used to be showered with tons of attention, buckets of love, millions of hugs, never-ending pampering and always, always at the centre of attration.

When mummy found out she was pregnant by accident, Brendan was only 11 months old. Mummy didn't know whether to cry or to smile, and didn't know if she could love another baby more than Brendan. As the pregnancy advances, Brendan grew bigger.

Brendan is no longer a baby and Mummy has come to love the new baby as much as Brendan, so much so that Brendan gets very jealous, till he screams for attention and smack his little sister on the head.

It's been a lovely (and challenging) motherhood journey, and there'll be a long way to go.

Brendan will always be a baby in mummy's heart...

Naked babe on the loose.

Help! Help! My butt is stuck!
Oh, just my luck!












Mmmmnnnnngggghhhhhh.....
Come on, a bit more....
Mmmmmnnnnggghhhhhh....















Hahaha, the naked babe on the loose
And mummy is so amused!









My poo is just about
going to be out,
Hey, don't you laugh out loud
Or I'm gonna pout!

Daddy-day-care

As a follow-up to my earlier post, it's been 4 days that DH was home alone with little Eryn. I'm even more amazed than before.

He happily claimed that he waited for Eryn to poo in the afternoon, before taking her out to jalan-jalan in Tesco. Eryn is always so happy when she's out to Tesco coz she loves seeing those colourful stuffs on the shelves, happy because she's got new "toys" to grab, even though for a very short moment.

I seriously do wonder who DH can bring Eryn out alone, while pushing the cart and does grocery shopping!! Most of the time, he wouldn't really be bothered with the kids, always busy with his work, coming home just to sit and relax in front of the TV, read his papers, play with the kids for a while and practically do nothing much. These 4 days have really opened my eyes to (what Max calls) the daddy-day-care services.

He happily announces, without a single stress on his face that he cooked, washed, swept and mopped the floor and did what most housewives did without a single problem. I've sometimes seen him to be quite a lazy, messy and "lun-chun" person. Well, he still is sometimes.

He even knows how to carry Eryn in the DIY sling! The one that is used by Indonesians to carry their babies. And the best part is that he does it better than me and he demonstrated it to me.

Somehow, I noticed that my kids are particularly obedient with daddy around. Brendan will eat his food, take his medicine, swallow his vitamins without any fussiness when it comes to daddy feeding him. With me, or his grandparents, he'll run here, run there, whine and ask for nen-nen, etc.. sigh! I'm jealous...

Daddy shopping with Eryn at 5 mths old

My little babies

As Brendan is away in his grandparents place for a week, my time alone with Eryn brought back memories of when Brendan was still a little baby. Everyone has been commenting on how Eryn is a replica of Brendan when he was a baby. They have a differences in personality and milestones development. I've never seen the facial similarity until I made the comparison here :

daddy & baby home alone

DH (hubby) is home alone with baby Eryn. He says that Eryn is an active baby and demands attention most of the time. She does her "business" a couple of times in a day and have a high frequency in her feeding schedule. So, now he knows how it feels to be stuck at home with a baby, and that's without Eryn's naughty kor-kor who's always disturbing his little mei-mei!

Somehow, I'm amazed that DH was able to cope - preparing breakfast for himself, feeding Eryn, carrying her, playing with her, cleaning her poo, putting her to sleep, had lunch, did some washing of the clothes, scrubbed the soiled napkin, feeding again, playing again, cleaning again, prepared food for dinner, etc. Hmm..... not too bad. Don't think I'll do all that. I'd probably chuck everything aside and wait for DH to come back before I do all the cleaning and washing. I also have to schedule my pumping sessions in between, wake up approximately 4 times at night to feed Eryn, sterilise the pumps and bottles and do a few other stuffs too. So, his work is still considered pretty ok.

I had earlier applied for a week's leave to spend some personal time in my hometown together with the kids as I have 25 days leave left for the year, of which only 10 days can be carried forward. We drove back on Sunday but came back again the following day as I have be back to work, thus cancelling 4 days leaves. This means DH has to be on leave to stay home with Eryn in the daytime for these couple of days. It's going to be a busy week for me and this means DH will be the temporary house-husband! ( I think he tak boleh tahan. After I came back from work yesterday, he cooked a simple dinner meal and went out to do some machine troubleshooting for a couple of hours. I think he's just trying to "run" away from responsiblity. haha )

My parents have been very accomodating, wanting to care for the two kids in my hometown but Eryn is still exclusive on breastmilk and she direct-breastfeed at night, waking up 3-5 times for her feed. So, it would be a hassle to my parents.

Meanwhile, Brendan is having lots of fun in my parent's big, double storey house - running and climbing all over the house. There's ample of space there compared to my teeny weeny little apartment here in KL. So much so that he doesn't want to nap or go to bed early. Brendan "called" me twice yesterday, once in the afternoon and once at night, to give me a peck through the phone before continuing to tear the house down.

Eryn with one of her favourite plaything, the Lamaze Puppytune toy - without her kor-kor to take her things away from her and "bullying" her.

Banana man

I find this to be very funny and thought I should include it here.

I know of some friends who are what we call the "xiang-jiao-ren", directly translated as"banana man", literally means a chinese fella who can't speak chinese.

This story was brought up in our steamboat gathering yesterday.

During our school days, we used to have Mandarin classes scheduled for the Chinese while the Malays attend their Islamic classes and the Indians attend their tamil classes.

In one particular class, our skinny Mandarin language teacher (who likes calling people "da-fan-su", or "big potato") called on some of the students to name an animal in Mandarin. One of my classmate, who is, well... was, a definite "xiang-jiao-ren" was called, and it went something like this :

T : (in mandarin) E, please name me an animal.
E : (in mandarin) "Ju-Ba-Jie"

*everyone started laughing*

T : (in mandarin) You think that is funny is it?
E : What's wrong? "Ju-Ba-Jie" is a pig wat..
(innocent looking and totally blur over what the big hoo-haa was all about)
T : (in mandarin) I want you to go to the field and run two rounds.

E went to the field and ran 800 metres in total. Well, E said that he should have answer "Sun-Wu-Kong".

poor thing......

Steamboat gathering

One of my ex-classmates, Louise, is back here in Malaysia for a 2 weeks break from Vienna. She had been working in Germany for a while before moving on to work in Vienna for two years. After this break she's heading to work in Sweden!! She's such an independent person and has dones lots of travelling all by herself.

We took this opportunity to have a steamboat session with some of our primary school classmates last night. Most of us have been friends since Std. 1. There are a few others who are working overseas and outstation while some just simply M.I.A. We normally meet each other once or twice a year. It's always a good time chatting and laughing over the good ol' days whenever we are together.

I've been to Yuen Steamboat in Bandar Sunway twice and suggested that would be a good place to eat and chat at our own sweet time. They have a good variety of seafood, various fish/meat/vegie balls and vegies plus ice-cream and dessert. My goodness! Their super famous teriyaki honey barbequed chicken was always snatched up whenever the waiter brings them out.

Anyway, William (always the top boy in class) was the earliest. We've lost touch with him eversince his family shifted to Kajang when he was in std. 5. So, it was good to have him join us since everyone hasn't seen him for 20 years, except me. It was a surprise when he happened to be flipping through his classmate's (whom I got to know in a teen's camp) address book and came across my name. That was like (ten) years back. We met once and then lost touch again until he IM me sometime last year.

Jac, pregnant with her 2nd child, came with her hubby (happened to be one of our ex-classmate's brother). Ern, newly married, came later with his wife and Wee Chun came after his golf game when some of us were about to leave. Kit came AFTER some of us have left.

The same, old story normally crops up each time we meet, like who is staying where and doing what, and like how Ern broke his third finger (never fails to be one of the topic) while trying to be a hero by penetrating layers of papers held up by Meng (who's now a Dr. in Melbourne. Came back recently to Malaysia but didn't bother to call some of us huh...), and how they would 'pakat' with each other not to tell Ern's parents until Ern decided to let his dad know without telling Wai Meng, who then got scolded by Ern's dad. Then, there's the biology/chemistry "test" where these boys would place a frog under an empty soda can and blast the can off with a firecracker. And speaking of chemistry, our Dr. Wai Meng would do his own mixture of dunno-what-liquid in the sink in the lab and smoke would come out while the class is in progress. Then........ well, I think these childhood days should be another topic by itself.

It's nice seeing all my good old Std. 1 mates again and do hope we can have annual meet-ups. Cheers to everyone... (hope to see more of the missing rest in our next gathering)

Milk supply

For the past 2 weeks, I noticed the sudden ample space in the top part of my freezer. My milk bottles are also getting less. I started to add another pumping session whenever I can.

It's been quite hard to pump in the office with so many unpredictable meetings and work to do. I used to pump in the server room, but have now "migrated" to my own room so I can multi-task at the same time - pumping and doing my work. I brought a long piece of cloth from home to cover the glass partition in my room to avoid having a "free show". So, whenever the cloth and a cardboard box are up against my glass partition with my room door closed, everyone knows that a session is in progress. hehehe.

I've been quite concerned over our dept. shifting to a new location come next month. I wonder if there will be a PLACE for me to pump, and whether there's going to be a fridge for me to STORE my milk.

Now, my concern has shifted to whether I have the TIME to pump and whether I can keep up with the pumping now that the milk supply in my freezer is slowly diminishing. Eryn is drinking more now and I'm NOT prepared to start on formula just yet. The only way to keep up is to pump more, but where am I going to find time to pump?!! Pumping 3X a day is considered part of my daily routine. Adding one more is considered to be quite a burden to my already heavy routine.

sob! sob! no choice but to boost up that supply soon. Those who have gone through this should understand the predicament I'm in. sob! sob!

badminton session

I haven't been exercising for a very looooooooong time and last Sunday, I was invited by a friend to play badminton.

She said, "You should exercise. You should keep yourself healthy. I know you always say you have no time, but if you got no energy, how are you going to take care of your kids?".

Well, that got me going. I waited for my son to take his nap, and got hubby to jaga the kids while I go for a short badminton session at the badminton court near my area.

Oh Boy, my muscles were really kaku and I can't even run properly. And because I've not exercise for a long time, my left shoe's rubber sole came out a little. After the game, I felt good. Went back home, mandi, ate the koawteoy and popiah that me & hubby prepared earlier on and I felt refreshed that I took the kids to a nearby park later on.

Later that night, slightly more than one hour before my usual bedtime, I was at the sofa, eyes half closed and feeling very drowsy. Zzzz.... I fell asleep. Dead tired, man...

Got up late the next morning, and still felt so tired. The next thing I know, I felt muscle spasms in my calf and thigh and as I tried to climb a few steps, *ouch* the pain in my muscles were stretching to the max. Told a colleague about it and he started laughing.

"That's why lah... didn't warm up! Lazy to exercise! Serve you right!"

It's been three days now and my muscles are still aching.... Dang.... I should probably start swimming soon to keep that muscles going.

Aura Cleansing

I happened to chat with a friend on the directions in life when we came to the topic of aura cleansing.

I was then introduced to this person who does aura cleansing as well as healing sessions. I was told that aura cleansing is done to "fine-tune" the energy level in a particular person, getting ride of unwanted negative energy. We contribute to our own happiness and we are to think positive at all times. However, certain circumstances causes the accumulation of negative energy in one's life.

I was told that this aura-cleanser (or whatever you call it) has done healings and cleansing for many people, including cancer patients, sick patients, infertility problems to things like bankrupcy in life and things like that.

Well, I tend to think a lot, and now, I do wonder if I should go for aura cleansing. How it works and why it works, is a mystery to me. Maybe I should just check it out.

D-Paradise Tropical Fruit World & Aboriginal Native Village

I took a drive to Melaka this morning to attend the opening of D-Paradise, a Tropical Fruit World and Aboriginal Native Village which has the World's largest collection of tropical, sub-tropical and continental fruits of over 800 types in a 168 acres of lush, undulating, tropical terrain at Lee Garden with the largest canopy walk in the world at 9km long.

D-Paradise has a diverse range of exotic wildlife, with rare species of flora and fauna. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see much of these attractions. In fact, I was looking forward to see the tribes which seems to be one of the main cultural attraction in that place, specifically the Padaung (Ring People) from the Philippines and the Agta tribe.

The Padaung tribe wear bronze rings around their neck and apparently, the ring makes for a whispery voice and those who wear them cannot yell. The rings are also worn on the arms and legs. The Agta are dark-skinned, kinky-haired pun nosed and thick lipped people who are less than 3 feet tall. They go bare footed. The men used to wear G-strings without shorts.

I would love to be in the presence of a swarm of dragon flies but did get the opportunity to visit the dragon fly sanctuary. There seems to be so many places of interest that I'd like to see such as the world's largest cactus collection, the pangolin sanctuary, mushroom farm, the mesmerizing bamboo garden, man-made bird-nest sanctuary, up close at the Crocodile Park (reminds me of Steve Irwin), the kongkang sanctuary (the so-called Malaysia's koala) and the everything else, but time didn't permit. I learnt that some of the animals will only come sometime next week in time for the launch by our very own PM this coming 15th November.

It wasn't really a fun trip this morning coz I didn't get to see what I was looking for. I got bitten by mosquitoes and the waiting time for the transportation was slow coz' the buggies haven't arrived yet. But was pretty happy to receive a basket of passion fruits which I love very much. (A good friend of mine used to stay in a farm and I love drinking the passion fruit juice which was simply refreshing!) PLUS a 2D 1N stay each at the D-CEO Village Resort which we were told valued at RM1,000!!!

My conclusion : it would be quite an educational trip for children and for those who loves nature, especially non-kampungnites. It's quite an expensive affair too coz the entry fee is RM49.90 for an adult and RM29.90 for kids age 4-11. Rental of a buggy for the whole day is at RM89.90. You definitely need a buggy to go round coz the area is extremely big. Though you can go cycling there, the hilly terrains can be quite a daunting task for some people. Accomodation : I'm not really sure, but at RM1,000 this seems to cost more than some of the 5 star hotels in KL. It's an interesting affair for foreigners though.

I think people like me shouldn't expect too much. My late grandparents used to stay in a kampung house (well, minus the 5 star treatment though) surrounded by lots of wild animals, pets, fruits and vegies. So, I can't comment much.










one of the Aboriginal Village

nicely decorated
wood carvings








The performance
theatre / stage
of the aboriginal tribe.







Bones, skulls
and more...







Entrace to the
gourd and melon
plantation.











Gourds






Monkey Cup
Pitchers
> a rare and exotic
insect-gobbling
carnivorous plant
in this World's Largest
collection of monkey
cup pitchers








Malaysia's very
own red berries..













Passion
Fruits













The pathway..














Some big,
long, red
chilli plant









Lone ranger : a pumpkin!!
D-Paradise has the World's
largest collection of pumpkins
which come in different
shapes and colours.

Genuine or a cheat?

Last night, when I was walking towards my car, there was this Indian lady of about 50 who came rushing towards me. She was holding a plastic bag and one of her hand was in the plastic bag. I was like getting really terperanjat and was ready to put up a kungfu hustle fight when she pulled out what looked like a piece of colourful beaded cloth.

"Excuse miss, I have this piece of cushion cover here which would look nice on your car seat. Would you be interested to buy it?"

"No, (with a hard-to-flash smile) thank you". I said.

"Miss, I need some money" (she started talking very very fast) "I dropped my purse in the taxi just now and need some money to go home"

"Sorry, I'm not interested, Auntie", I replied. I mean, if you dropped your purse, how did you ever pay the taxi driver then??

"Miss, how about you give me RM5 then? I really need some money". She speaks good English!

"Auntie, why don't you go to the shop over there and ask the shopowner?"

"Shopowner? Ok lah"..... and she headed off to another direction.

I kinda pitied her. What if she's really stranded there. Wanted to offer her a lift also I takut. She could be a cheat for all I know. So, how?

Jalan-jalan, cari......

This Raya hol, we took the kids out to 'hang-kai'. It's also meant to be a treat to the maid.Thinking that it would be a good spend some quiet time in KL, we headed to the KLCC Park, with the thought of going to KL Aquaria. Parking was quite easily available and only at RM1 per entry at the carpark beside it.

As we were walking towards the park, I was really surprised to see tons of human beings lepakking around there. Well, we proceeded to walk towards KLCC and boy, for the first time in my life, I felt like a stranger in my very own country. I turn left, I see foreigners. I turn right, I see foreigners. I turn around 360 degrees, I see foreigners!! They are everywhere... Bangladeshis, Indonesians, Myanmar(ians?), Nepalese, Thai. Hehehe, I pulak felt like the tourist now.

The pool was packed with kids and the female guard there was shouting over her speaker over and over and over to tell some (brainless) adults to R.E.M.O.V.E. their shoes before entering the water... Duh! Some nuts these people are! Kids are playing in the water leh.... Hmm..... no wonder our public toilet is pathetically unhygienic.

Well, speaking of toilets, I was scouting around for the toilet in KLCC to wash my kids' milk bottles and the very first toilet I went to was the PREMIUM toilet. Haiyo, pay RM2 just to wash bottles? It was jam packed everywhere, inside KLCC, outside KLCC, inside the LRT, at the LRT station, well... except the car park I suppose. Head also pening already. So, we decided to leave a.s.a.p.

But then, it's a public holiday, so they get a day (or more) off, so it's understandable that they too want to 'hang-kai' like us. Didn't take us long to get out of that crowded place.

It's so nice to stay at home and lepak. Tomorrow, I'm cooking one of my favourite dish, Sayur Lodeh, which I learnt to cook from my hubby's aunt's maid. yummy yummy....

Deeparaya Holidays

It's a long holiday for lots of people this week. For the first time in my life, I'm spending my hols in the city, and for the first time, I'm NOT taking any leaves in-between. It's so nice to work on such days coz it's stress-free and jam-free! I don't even have to rush home like I used to everytime a big festive holiday comes.

Some divisions in my company has been required to take compulsary leaves. Come to think of it, if everyone is away from work, why do I need to go to work? Hmm.... I can make good use of my leaves and take it on any other stressed and jammed up day.

So, these few days I've been taking my kids out to long-kai here and there. As yesterday was the Deepavali hol, hubby & I took Brendan out to my hubby's aunt's place in Saujana. Later at night, we took the kids out to Sunway Pyramid. Was kinda surprised that there are still lots of people jalan-jalan there. I cooked Fish Curry just for the fun.

For tomorrow, we are celebrating (for the very first time as well) Raya at home. Our maid is a muslim, so I shall be cooking nasi beriyani and beef rendang for her and the whole family. hahaha. We may take this opportunity to take the kids and the maid out to long-kai in jam-free K.L.

To everyone out there, Happy (belated) Diwali, Selamat Hari Raya and Happy HOLIDAYS!!! Those travelling out there, happy get stuck in traffic jams!

A surprise SMS

*beep beep*

"Hi, Mei! How hav u been? Long time no share ya? ......... Just to update u, I'll tying the knot 19th Nov. Yup, finally! My fiance's ..........."

I got that message while I was driving to work last Thursday. I knew instantly that it was my Kor from college, and I knew that he's got some pretty good news coz I've not heard from him for months (and according to him, it's actually two years).

I really don't know know how we became Kor and Mei but that had been the way we call each other. My Kor has been someone whom I respect. He gave me the guidance and the confidence in many things in life. We shared lots of laughters during our college days. We used to have jamming sesssions together, and he's one very good singer and a guitarist. I'll be at the piano and together with the other band members, we'll have a good time jamming together.

Somehow, we lost touch when Kor went to UK to further his studies. It came upon by chance that I saw an email which I thought could be his. So, I sent him an email and the reply came to say that he was indeed my long-lost Kor!! He's now at the other end of East Malaysia.

Sometimes, God send us guardian angels without us knowing it. My Kor was my guardian angel in college and he's been a blessing to me in many ways.

Well, Cheers to you, Kor!