Thursday, May 29, 2008

 

Perhaps Better

29-MAY-2008:

I suppose yesterday was a better day than the day before. Dominic was already whining and crying before dinner. He kept telling me he was hungry and that he wanted corn flakes, milk, cookies, etc, but I didn't want to give him anything before dinner. Finally, when I had the first dish prepared (i.e. brocolli), he picked on it at the kitchen counter again and again. He was really hungry! At dinner, he finished 1.5 bowls of rice, had a very small bowl of soup, two Oreos, two crackers, 1.5 cup of chocolate milk and a quarter of a banana. And then, he had milk before bed.

There was no drama during bath time, bed time, etc. He went to bed early.

On the other hand, we haven't had any luck with finding a nursery. SIGH! Well ... do you know of any aunties who would like to be my babysitter for 2-3 months?


Wednesday, May 28, 2008

 

Not a Very Nice Day

28-MAY-2008:

Three weeks away from London and so much has changed. For starters, we now have a new Mayor. A new shop is opening at the building we're living in - perhaps a take-away restaurant. At work, the stuffs that I was working on previously were all done by my colleagues and now there's a new bunch of cases to attend to. Worst of all, when daddy sent Dominic to the nursery yesterday, he was told that it will be closed down on the 13th of June this year. That gives us only 3 weeks to look for another nursery.

I've called 5 nurseries, out of which 4 were fully-booked until August or September. The remaining one couldn't guarantee a place but will "try" to find a place for me. I haven't got many choices - the nursery has to be near a Tube station AND on the way to work. I have arranged a visit to the Happy Child Nursery at Ealing Broadway tomorrow morning. Even if this nursery has a place for Dominic, there are 3 flights of stairs to conquer in order to get to the street level from the Tube station (yes ... there are many super old Tube stations in London that don't even have escalators, not to mention lifts). I cannot imagine how I'll be able to cope with both Dominic and his buggy.

This morning, the mother of Dominic's "classmate" informed me that a new nursery is opening near our place but it will only be opened on 1st September. Maybe we can endure the hardship for a couple of months.

Anyway, I have decided yesterday that having a car will solve most (if not all) of the problems. So I have paid £50 last night to apply for a provisional driving license (which is like our Malaysian L license). We need that in order to learn to drive or before we can take a driving test. After I get my provisional license, I will need to take the theory test, then probably attend a couple of driving lessons and take the driving test. And finally, we will get a car. To be honest, I don't like driving at all and I'm always afraid of losing my way or having an accident. But I can cope with just driving from point A to point B on a familiar route.

Dominic is not used to going back to the nursery after such a long break. He cried a little when daddy dropped him off yesterday and today. I think it was worse than when he first attended the nursery. This morning, he told us that he "dun want go school".

Yesterday, when I picked him up, I was greeted by a slightly clingy but happy Dominic. However, the drama started when we got home. First, he didn't want his dinner and insisted on having corn flakes. I didn't give in, he cried a lot, but in the end he finished his dinner. Then the drama continued during bath. He refused to get out of the bath tub, refused to put on his clothes. When we were in KL, he wore this shirt (that belonged to his cousin) which had a picture of a handphone on it. Yesterday, he insisted to put on that shirt, but we left that shirt back in KL. In the end, I had to draw a handphone on a piece of paper and stick it on his shirt. And then, he fell asleep on the floor before I had the chance to brush his teeth and read him his bedtime stories. He slept on the floor throughout the whole night. Let's see if today is a better one.


Monday, May 26, 2008

 

KL Diary - Final Episode

26-MAY-2008:

The last week of our holiday in KL went by very quickly without me realizing what we were doing and now we are back in London. We spent the first half of the week meeting up with friends and relatives for a final catch up and later in the week, Dominic started to feel unwell. He vomited a couple of times or so and everytime after he took his milk. We were not sure if the milk was the culprit since he has been drinking the same milk for more than 2 weeks, but we stopped it and he didn't throw up anymore. He kept asking me to "chung nan nan" and I explained why he couldn't have it. He replied by asking me to "buy chung nan nan". Obviously, he didn't understand what I was saying and it was the first time I realized he has never understood the meaning of "chung" and "buy". Ever since then he has been using the word "buy" incorrectly - such as when I told him I've got no money, he told me to "buy money". And when he asked me to cut his nails and I said his nails were already short and there was nothing to cut, he told me to "buy nails"! And there are so many more examples that he asked me to buy something that can't be bought. Daddy thinks that his concept of "buy" means to get back something that has been lost.

One afternoon, I was having lunch in the kitchen while Dominic was watching TV in the living room. When I finished my lunch I didn't see Dominic in the living room. I asked my nephew and he told me that Dominic was in the room. Since daddy was no where in sight, I assumed that daddy has taken Dominic into the room for his afternoon nap. After about 10 minutes, I found daddy at the porch reading newspapers and I asked him where Dominic was. He replied "I don't know, I thought he was with you." I went into the room and saw him fast asleep in his cot. Daddy and I sneaked out for some couple time and only returned 4 hours later to find Dominic still asleep!

The next day, we took the kids to Sunway Pyramid but Dominic was feeling rather miserable. He threw up in the morning after taking his milk and he refused to get out of bed. He loved swimming and stayed in the waters most of the time but we didn't see his usual excited self. He didn't laugh, didn't yell, didn't jump, didn't smile. He kept asking us to go home. When we finally left, he fell asleep in daddy's arms at the souvenir store.

This time round, the journey was a lot better. Dominic slept quite a bit and I even managed to watch 2 movies AND get some sleep. The 13 hours actually passed by rather quickly. We arrived home at about 6pm. Dominic went to bed at 9+pm and slept through the night. Somehow the jet lag is a lot milder compared traveling east.


Sunday, May 18, 2008

 

Redang Diary

18-MAY-2008:

Redang was wonderful.  I'm so glad that we arranged this trip with my family.  Everyone enjoyed him/herself - although it was a bit stressful to organize a trip for a group as big as 9 people.  We took a cab to the airport, a plane to Kuala Trengganu, a van to the Merang jetty, a ferry to Redang island and finally a tram to the Laguna Redang resort.  It was about 2pm by the time we reached the resort.  We had lunch (all meals were included) and then headed straight to the beach.  The beach was so beautiful with fine white sand and crystal clear water.  There were colourful fishes swimming close to the shore.  Dominic had his first experience of swimming with the fish.   After we were done swimming with the fish, we spent some time playing with sand on the beach.  Then we headed for the swimming pool.  

The next morning, Dominic woke up and couldn't stop yelling "Let's go swimming!".  We went on 2 snorkeling trips - at the Marine Park in the morning and deep open sea in the afternoon.  Dominic and brother's 3-year-old son, Sebastian went along too.  Both of them had a fabulous time feeding the fishes with bread.  The fish were quite "ganas" when it comes to food.  


After we came back from the 2nd snorkeling trip, we headed straight for the beach again to feed the fish there since we had some left-over bread.  Then brother and I spent time on the beach with the kids while the others went shark hunting.  Yes, they really went shark hunting and Saimun actually saw a baby shark - it was swimming in front of him.  

After that, we went to the pool again.  Dominic refused to go back to the room.  He fell in love with the water-slide and kept wanting to go on it again and again.  

The next day, we checked out and went to the airport only to find out that our flight has been cancelled.  We had to catch another plane at 6:30pm (originally our flight was at 4:40pm).  Fortunately, brother had his laptop with him and we watched VCDs and browse photos, and time passed by pretty quickly.  Instead of flying back to the Subang airport, we touched down at KLIA instead and had to spend an extra RM140 for the cab.  Brother vowed never to fly Firefly again.  Actually, I've never even heard of Firefly until then.  

Below - my family - from left: Mum, dad, Sebastian, brother, his gf, sister, Dominic, myself and Saimun.


Friday, May 09, 2008

 

KL Diary at Day 5

8-MAY-2008:

Dominic is still having mild fever but he is lively and playful. Daddy is still having mild diarrhoea and eating only plain Gardenia bread - poor thing. I met up with ex-colleagues for seafood dinner tonite but Dominic and daddy weren't able to make it. It was the best dinner I've had since I came back.

Yesterday, my MIL finally got me alone and started a conversation about my recent miscarriage. I only roughly told her what happened. And then, the "words" that I've been anticipating came out of her mouth - maybe I walked too much, maybe I didn't eat right, maybe I lifted something heavy, etc, etc. They were all maybe things that I did. I just listened and nodded. MAYBE. Anyway, she meant well and only wanted to advise me to be careful next time. Well, I will be more careful next time, although there is no medical proof that suggest my lifestyle caused the miscarriage. I haven't had such a long chat with my MIL in a very long time.

I went shopping again today and spent quite a lot of money. Haha! I kept telling myself that I only shop once a year - but that's not exactly true. :p It was all daddy's fault. He told me to go out and take a break while Dominic was taking his nap, so I drove myself to Mid Valley.


Wednesday, May 07, 2008

 

KL Diary at Day 4

7-MAY-2008:

Late last night, Dominic developed a temperature. It was another tough night, needless to say. This morning, I weighed myself and I was only 44kg. I am now officially underweight according to my BMI - but I'm not complaining. :p

Dominic was fine during the day and he had a good time playing with slides together with his two "gor-gor". But when evening came, his temperature got higher and higher despite after taking medication. I got a shock when his temperature reached 40.3 degree celcius - he had never had such a high temperature before. It's 10:30pm now and he's fine for the moment. I think it will be another tough night.

Daddy is still having stomach discomfort. My whole family is sick! No wonder I am losing weight. I wanted to eat satay, chicken rice, nasi lemak, rendang, pan mee, sushi, and many more but that will have to wait.

Next year, I need to keep a few things in mind, one of which is not to commit to any outstation excursions - such as the Redang trip. I have a feeling that I'm not going to enjoy it very much given the current circumstances.


Tuesday, May 06, 2008

 

KL Diary at Day 3

7-MAY-2008:

Each time we came back to Malaysia, we had to visit Dominic's best friend - the doctor. Last year, it was for diarrhoea. This year ... well this year he was bitten on the eye-lid by a mosquito (or some other insects - we're not entirely sure) two days ago and this morning, he woke up looking like this.

This time, we took him to a GP instead of a paediatrician because we were lazy to queue up and didn't want to wait all day. The visit to the GP took only 10 minutes. The doctor was more concerned about whether Dominic had fever, flu or cough (so that he can force us to "buy" medicine) than his swollen eye. For the eye, he only prescribed normal eye drops for lubrication. What a total waste of 30 ringgit. Fortunately, daddy reminded me that it was only 5 pounds.

Last night was a terrible night. Dominic went to bed at 10pm while we continued watching TV. By the time we were ready to goto bed at 12am, Dominic was ready to wake up and play! First, he requested to watch TV, we said no. Then he requested for his bottle and we gave it to him. Then he requested to read books but we didn't want to turn on the lights, so instead we counted fingers and toes again. It took him 3 hours to get back to sleep! This morning, he woke up at 9:15am.

Today, daddy went to the dentist to fix his rotten tooth. He tooth had been rotten for 2 months. He went to dentist in the UK and was told that he would need to pay GBP500 to fix it. He told the dentist, no thank you very much and was charged GBP35 for consultation fees! The dentist at SS2 charged him only RM500 today.

I, on the other hand, went to fix my hair. I now have a new hairstyle. Photos will come later.

I couldn't believe that today, Dominic shoo-ed be out of the room during his bed time. I thought since he has a swollen eye, I would stay by his side until he fell asleep, but he asked me to "go outside and wash my bottle"!


Monday, May 05, 2008

 

KL Diary at Day 2

5-MAY-2008:

I might have been wrong about Dominic being less jet-lagged than last year. Last night, he woke up at 3:30am and asked for his bottle. After that, he couldn't fall asleep for a long time. We spent at least 30 minutes counting fingers and toes in bed. After that, I got too sleepy and dozed off while he made animal sounds on his own. I'm not sure what time he fell back asleep. At 10:30am I opened my eyes and saw him reading a book in his cot (he always goes to bed hugging a book). I have no idea when he woke up.

Today he took 3 hours nap in the afternoon and went to bed at 10pm.

We took Dominic for his first hair cut today (normally, daddy cut his hair). We took him to one of those RM15-for-10-minutes booth. You have to buy a ticket from a vending machine before getting your hair cut. Because it is ticketed, it costs the same for both adults and children. Dominic was alright and he didn't cry. But we had to bribe him with sweets. The hairdresser took a long time to cut his hair and he got a bit impatient towards the end. Dominic got a terrible shock when the hairdresser used a vacuum to suck away hair from his body after the hair cut.

Daddy has almost recovered from diarrhoea. Dominic and I are both slightly constipated. Today, Dominic kept saying he wanted to "mm-mm" but nothing ever came out. Finally, after trying 3 or 4 times, he managed to do his business.

We took Dominic to a Pasar Malam for the first time today. It was so full of people and so many new things to see. Dominic has asked so many "What's that?" that sometimes I don't know how to answer him anymore. Security in KL has become worse than ever. We were warned not to carry handbags and leave the Pasar Malam early. In a place like this, you have to act poor even though you're rich.

My appetite is getting better and looking forward to Malaysian cuisine. So far, I've had Bak Kut Teh, durians and "tai kau mien", and looking forward to more. We were looking for "ciku" the whole day but didn't find any - very disappointed.


Sunday, May 04, 2008

 

KL Diary on Day 1

4-MAY-2008:

Our flight from London to KL was scheduled for 10pm on Friday night. We took a cab to the airport and left early at 6pm just in case of traffic jam. I fetched Dominic home from the nursery at 1pm and put him down for a nap. He slept for 3 hours and thank goodness for that. By the time we finally took off, it was already 10:30pm. Geez ... 3 and a half hours spent in the airport and waiting in the plane was more than anyone could bear. Fortunately, Dominic behaved well. He didn't cry or scream during the 13 hours flight (not including the 4 hours of travelling to the airport and waiting for take-off). But he also didn't sleep. He only fell asleep at 1:30am (London time) when the lights were finally off. At 4am London time, he woke up briefly and fell asleep again at 5am. At 7am London time, he rolled off the seat (but he didn't cry) and that was it. He didn't sleep at all after that until we arrived. It was 11am London time (and 6pm KL time) by then. I don't know about him but I was exhausted. I had to read to him, play with him, talk to him ... boy! However, he slept the whole way in the car from KLIA back home.

When the plane touched down, Dominic was extremely excited. He put on his shoes (with a little help) and asked for his jacket! We told him this is a hot country. I think he looked a bit confused.

When we arrived home, the first thing Dominic noticed was the automatic gate. He hasn't seen one before in London. Then he noticed the power / telephone cables that run from post to post by the road side. This time round, he is more adaptable to the new surrounding and less clingy. The jet lag is not so bad as well.

Dominic slept at 12am yesterday and woke up at 9:30 this morning. This house is full of "sounds". Dominic was very observant of the sounds around him - sounds that we took no notice of - since in London we don't hear anything from the neighbours at all. There were no dogs barking next door, no birds chirping, no ice-cream van passing the front of the house, no car alarm going off every 5 minutes. Sounds that he could recognize, he pointed them out to me. Those that he couldn't recognize, he asked his favourite question - what's that?

He took naps in the late afternoon and evening and had just gone to bed at 11pm today. His appetite wasn't very good due to the hot weather. His face flushed red from the heat and he was sweating even though the room was air-conditioned.

Daddy is having diarrhoea at the moment. Thank goodness Dominic is fine. As for me, I don't seem to suffer any jet lag at all.


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