New Kid On The Blog

27-Feb-2010:

Scene 1:
He woke up on the morning. We were still in bed.

Him: Mummy it's morning. Can I go outside and watch tv?
Me: Yes, after you bathe and brushed your teeth.

And so he watched tv. After a while ...

Me: How many shows are you going to watch?
Him: I'm going to watch ... Ermm ... I'm going to watch ... (pause) ... Is 5 shows a lot?

Scene 2 - Telling Lies:
After dinner ...
Him: Mummy can I drink this Vitagen?
Me: Whose Vitagen is it? Please ask mama first.

He went and came back ...
Him: Mama said yes!

Later I asked his mama if he asked her. She said no.

Scene 3 - Reading the Bible
Me (reading from book): Jesus travelled from Bethlehem to Jerusalem ...
Him: Where is Bethlehem?
Me: Its the place where baby Jesus was born.
Him: Oh. Yes.

After a while ...
Me (still reading): Jesus asked John to baptize him ...
Him: Last time when the man pour water on my head and I'm baptized?
Me: Yes.
Him: And mummy too?
Me: Yes.
Him: Is my daddy baptized?
Me: Err ... No.
Him: Why?
Me: Because he didn't want to.
Him: Why?
Me: You ask him later.

Scene 4 - Talking on the phone with Daddy:
Him: Daddy, last time I went to Ipoh. You know, Ipoh is veeery veeery small one! You go round and round and round and round ...

Hahaha!

Scene 5:
Him: Last time when I'm taking bath mama said pandai! You know what is pandai? Pandai means good!

25-FEB-2010:

The past two weeks came and went without any effort at all. Has Saimun been away for 3 weeks already? I forgot to count down. :p The secret is to keep myself busy and occupied. So when someone suggested a CNY reunion gathering, I organized one at Loo Yin's brand new house (because I didn't have a house myself).

It was on a Sunday lunch. I took the kids to church in the morning. On the way back, we stopped by to 'ta-pau' KFC for our pot luck lunch, then picked up Grace and her daughter Esther before heading off to the party!

Guess who is pregnant above?

25-FEB-2010:

This year's CNY is a little bit more exciting than usual, first being the only CNY we have celebrated without Saimun and secondly the first time with both my kids.

Before I got married, CNY was mostly fun and merry. There would be a reunion dinner on the eve at my grandmother's house where I would get to meet my cousins, uncles and aunts. On the 1st day of CNY, there would be an open house with lots of guests, mostly distant relatives that I saw only once a year, catered lunch, lion dance, fireworks, beer and a private "lok-lok" (steamboat) stall at the house (we used to have satay instead of lok-lok for many years until someone decided that satay was too boring). After I got married, there wasn't much of a celebration at my in-law's. With the exception of this year and last, we had a reunion dinner at home where I would cook a few dishes from my own home and SIL would cook a few from hers and we got together to eat. The 1st day of CNY was just an ang-pow exchange session and a few family photos. That was it. Last year we made it more interesting by traveling to Penang.

This year, however was different. We had a combined reunion dinner with my FIL's sisters (and brothers?). There were lots of people. Mainly I was popular because of Emily (hehe). They couldn't stay away from her (because you know she was so lovely, obviously!). And Dom had a lot of fun playing with the other kids. There was also an open house on the 1st day of CNY, so we actually DIDN'T spend CNY taking afternoon naps this year! :-)

On the 2nd day, we travelled back to Ipoh with my brother and his family - altogether 3 adults and 3 kids in one sedan - pretty cramp actually but I didn't want to drive on my own. Our luggage was aplenty too. For a one night's stay, it looked as though we were going away for one whole week. You know, with kids, there were toys and snacks as well as the other essential stuffs. I let Dominic bring his Trunki and asked him to pack his own suitcase. He packed his Lego's and a few books. "How about clothes?", I asked. "Don't you need to change?". "Oh ... sorry", he replied.

Dom made his first trip to Ipoh when he was about 3 months old (the same age Emily made her first trip to Ipoh). Both of them made the first trip without their daddy. I felt a strong sense of deja-vu. Both times, my brother drove us, although back then he didn't have a family yet so there was plenty of space in the car for "non-essential" stuffs. He asked if I was moving house when he saw what I brought including a moses basket for Dom to sleep in (which we didn't use). This time round with Emily, I went through the same thought process. Should I pack along her travel cot? Should I bring the bath tub along, otherwise how would she bathe? In the end, I did without any of them, since there won't be any space in the car for them even if I had wanted to.

Traditionally, there would be lion dance at my grandparents' shop on the 2nd day of CNY, so we went there straight. There, Dom was treated like a VIP customer where he was asked by my grandma to choose anything ... anything at all from the shop. :-D

We had dinner at Royal China (I think) that night and we had our own private room with 2 tables and an attached private loo. I think it was really fun, especially for the first time I had a maid to take care of my kids while I enjoyed dinner! There was an almighty traffic jam on the PLUS highway the next day and it took us 4-5 hours to reach home.

Here are some photos. More to come when I've collected the rest of the photos from the other cameras.

24-FEB-2010:

Emily is 4 months+ now. During her visit to the paediatrician last Saturday, she weighed 4.7kg and her "height" was 62cm. Behavioural wise, she is still the same as one month ago. There is no change in her feeding pattern. She still feeds the same amount, at the same interval and same time of day, EXCEPT for one very important point, i.e. she has stopped waking up at 2:30am for her night feed. Instead, she awakes at around 5am.

For the past 2 days, I have been home due to an allergy to the eyes and have witnessed her normal routine on a weekday. It is as what my MIL has told me and as I've described in one of my previous posts. She sleeps through the morning and doesn't wake up until 11am. She "plays" quietly in her cot for about 5-10 minutes and smiles and anyone who pokes his/her head in. And then, my FIL feeds her water. There is a time for drinking water and this is it. My in-laws are very methodical and they carry out the same tasks everyday. After drinking water, MIL bathes her. Meanwhile, the breast milk is heating up in a bowl of hot water and by the time she is done bathing, the milk will be warm and ready. She falls asleep again shortly after feeding, and she remains asleep until about 3pm. In fact, I noticed the past 2 days that my MIL is actually quite free between 12pm and 3pm. She has time to take a short nap and read the newspapers, or just generally rest without doing anything in particular. Dom, Sern and Joe are in school. Em is napping. The only one needs watching is Shaynne.

Yesterday, Dom came back at 3pm and woke Em up. She has her milk and then she just watches and listens to the others play and talk. Eventually, the four of them all fell asleep. One by one, they start to wake up from their nap at around 5pm. Em only wakes up at 6pm. She drinks her milk, and then she basically does nothing much. Sometimes she falls asleep again. At around 8pm, she starts to fuss - we normally just shut her up with the pacifier or hold her up in a sitting position in front of the TV. After a while, she falls asleep.

Four-month-old Emily is very expressive. She must be the happiest baby I've ever seen because she's always smiling when she sees me or her brother or her grandma. She smiles when I look her in the eye. She smiles when I kiss her feet. She laughs when I kiss her cheek. She laughs even louder when I tickle her tummy. She laughed hysterically when Dom and Sern talked to her. I wish I had captured it on video. She shows fear when she's held up high in the air. She shows anger when I put her down while she expects to be fed. She shows excitement when she knows that I'm about to pick her up.

19-FEB-2010:

Dominic made these in school and he insisted that the fish be given to daddy. Since daddy is miles away, I told him that I'll snap a photo of it and show it to daddy. "But how do you show it to daddy?", he asked. Obviously, he didn't fully understand the power of the Internet yet. I explained it to him. He repeated what I just said, as though trying to get a confirmation, "Now you put it in the laptop and then daddy can see?".

We went back to Ipoh for CNY. On the way back to KL, there was a jam on the highway and Dom asked why there were so many cars. Distractedly, I said, "Because everybody is going to ma-ma's house". It took us about 4 hours to reach home. Just before going to bed that night Dom said, "Mummy ... my daddy said you cannot bluff. You bluff me". I told him to explain. He said, "You said everybody is coming to ma-ma's house!".

His Manglish is atrocious now. He's using expressions like "Where got?" and "It's not like this ONE".

The past few days were holidays and I suspected he watched a lot of TV at home. When I came home, he asked me questions. What's a sunken ship? Why is there no monster in our closet? Soya sauce comes from beans? I asked where he heard these things from. From the TV, he said.

Yesterday, we called his daddy to say good night as usual. He is slowly getting used to talking on the phone now. Previously, I guess he found it awkward and he spoke veeerry softly into the phone. It's because both Saimun and I seldom use the phone, you see. Yesterday, he yelled into the phone, "Daddy, what time is it?". "It's 3 o' clock", said his daddy. He turned to me. "And it's 3 o 'clock also in Malaysia?". "No", I said, "It's 11 o ' clock here". (He slept late last night because he took a long afternoon nap and it's still school holidays). He yelled into the phone again, "Is it morning time at London?" "Yes, it's afternoon", said his daddy. "Oh ... why is it night time in Malaysia and it's afternoon at London? Is it magic?" I said I'll explain it to him tomorrow. He yelled into the phone again, "Daddy ... yesterday it was raining at Malaysia. Soooo heavy ONE! Is it rain so heavy at London too yesterday?". Daddy said, "It was snowing in London yesterday!". He turned to me and said, "Is it because I shake the snowing thing and now it is snowing at London?". You see, when we spent the night at my uncle's place during CNY, there was a crystal ball-like thing in my cousin's room. When you shake it, the crystal ball fills up with "snow". The silly boy thought that when he shakes the thing, snow will fall in London!

When we first arrived at my uncle's house in Ipoh, Dom exclaimed, "Wah ... your house is so nice one!". Notice that he likes to add "ONE" behind every sentence? This is an influence from his cousins. They have great influences on him. When I told him that he is 4 years old, not 5 yet, he said, "But Wing Sern said I'm 5 years old", and he insisted that he's 5 already. Anyway, back to the incident in Ipoh. After he complimented the house (while we were still outside), we stepped into the house. He looked around and then he said, "Hmm ... this is a small house!". To be fair, it wasn't a small house. It was regular size for a double-storey house. Thing was, we just came from my grandmother's house which was a semi-D and much more spacious so it was no wonder that Dom found it small compared to that.

We had many, many heart-warming and laugh-inducing conversations lately but I just can't recall all of them at the moment.

10-Feb-2010:

I feel that I must give credit to my MIL who has been really superb all this time. She started taking care of my nephew (her first grandchild) when my SIL gave birth. Then, 3 years later, my SIL gave birth to another son and my MIL started taking care of him too. After a while, she told us that she was tired and hopefully she won't have to take care of yet another grandchild. She helped out with Dominic for a couple of months before we went to the UK.

Few years later, my SIL got pregnant again and this time a girl, and my MIL took on the responsibility yet another time. And now, she has Dominic and Emily too. Here's how she manages her day.

At 6:30am when I awake to feed Emily, I could hear that my MIL is already awake and busying about the house. She waits at the front porch for my nephews and niece to arrive, and I know that while she's waiting, she mops the front porch as well. When they arrive, she gets Sern ready for school. She doesn't need to do that with Dom because I'm still around. After Dom and Sern have gone off for school, she clears their breakfast dishes/bowls and gives Shaynne (the baby) a towel bath. Usually, she also goes to the coffee shop across the road for breakfast and to "catch-up" with her aunty friends.

When she comes home from breakfast, she will start preparing lunch. Previously, she would cook about 4-5 dishes but since Dom and Sern started attending after school programme, they don't eat lunch at home, so my MIL now cooks only simple dishes such as oven-baked salmon and a vegetable. By the time she's done with lunch (and she also washes the kitchen floor after cooking), Emily will be awake. She gives her a bath and then hands her over to my FIL who then feeds her milk. Then she bathes Joe, gives him lunch and gets him ready for school. If anyone asks my opinion (which no one did), I think Joe is old enough to bathe himself. She then sends Joe to school together with my FIL - she walks Joe into the school compound while FIL waits in the car. Previously, they will have to bring all the kids with them because they can't leave them alone in the house. Come to think of it, I forgot to find out if they bring Emily along as well? � suppose they do.

When she comes home from sending Joe, she will have to give Shaynne a bath, gives her milk and put her down for afternoon nap. Of course, she needs to eat lunch as well - squeezed in between her busy schedule. She then has to collect the dry laundry. While Shaynne and Emily are sleeping, she mops the floor and every other day, cleans the bathroom as well. I don't think she has anytime to rest before Dom and Sern come back from school around 3:30pm.

She will then need to give both of them a bath. By the time she's done, it must be at least 4pm. If Dom and Sern are good, she might get a chance to nap as well, otherwise she will spend the entire afternoon fulfilling their requests, such as, "Mama, can I eat apples?" or "Mama, I want Ribena". And there's Emily to attend to as well, but I think she probably just sleeps most of the time. There will be nothing much unless she does a poo. At 5pm, Shaynne will wake from her nap.

MIL also cooks soup for dinner every evening. Somewhere in the afternoon, she prepares the ingredients.

At around 6:30pm, she gives Dom and Sern their dinner. At around 7pm, she waits at the front porch for Joe to come home from school (his dad drops him off and then leaves - to go home probably). Then, MIL bathes Joe (again I think he's old enough to bathe himself) and gives him dinner. She sits down to eat dinner as well. She doesn't need to worry about Shaynne's lunch and dinner because my FIL is the one who feeds her.

For the rest of the evening, there's nothing much to do but you still have to endure the chaos of having 5 kids in the house. The kids leave at around 9pm. My MIL will then sit down to watch TV while preparing some of the stuffs for next day's lunch or dinner, such as plucking the vegetables. At 10:30pm, when I go to bed, she mops the floor. I wonder what time she goes to bed. Probably not until close to 12am. Sometimes I forget to bring Dom's potty or Em's mosquito net into the room, and when I come out to get them I will find them placed right outside our bedroom door. How thoughtful is that?

I must also mention that previously when Saimun was working in this excruciating Telekom project and used to come home around 11pm every night, my MIL waited for him. At around 10:45pm, when she knew that he was about to come home, she heated up the dinner and soup for him. She waited for him to finish his dinner and then take out the garbage (otherwise rats will come). FIL waited up as well since he fetched Saimun from the LRT station every night. Why is it that I don't have parents like that?

sda

8-FEB-2010:

It's been one week since Saimun was away. He left for the airport last Sunday morning - before Dom even woke up. That Sunday, I stayed home with the kids the whole day. When everyone was asleep in the afternoon and the house was quiet, I thought about the same situation more than 4 years ago. Remembering what it felt like made me feel like crying.

After I got through Sunday, the week days were a breeze. This is how I spent my week days the last week:

6:30am - I wake up to feed Emily. I feed her at the same time every morning regardless of whether she's still asleep.

7:00am - I asked Dominic to wake up. After that, we both snooze for 10 mins. Then I ask him to wake up again.

7:15am - I bathe Dom and get him ready for school. He eats breakfast.

7:40am - He goes to school. My FIL sends him.

7:40 - 8:30am - I change Em's nappy. I need to change her so that I can put her nappy into the washing machine (she uses cloth nappies). She remains asleep throughout the whole process. I then load the washing machine and set it running. I brush my teeth, get dressed and pack my home-made lunch.

8:30am - The laundry is done. I hang them out to sun dry and leave the house.

8:45am - 6pm - Office work. I express breast milk 3 times a day, have lunch in the pantry (or at my desk) and Saimun calls once a day, usually in the afternoon.

11:00am - Em wakes up (according to MIL, she wakes up the same time everyday). She drinks some water, plays on her own for a while, then MIL bathes her. FIL gives her her milk after bath. She sleeps, eats and stares at the ceiling the whole day long. She has her milk again at 2pm.

3:30pm - Dom comes home from school. His grandma bathes him. Then he either plays or sleeps.

6:00pm - I leave the office on the dot.

6:30pm - I reach home. Em will be either having her milk or has just finished it. Dom will be half-way through dinner. I put the breast milk in the fridge, change and have dinner with Dom.

7:00 - 8:00pm - I wash and sterilize all of Em's bottles, wash Dom's tupperware and re-fill his water bottle for the next day and checked his homework, hoping he doesn't have any homework. I then take a shower and fold the dried laundry that MIL left on the bed. Meanwhile, Dom will be either playing or watching the TV. Em will be asleep mostly.

8:00pm - I towel bathe Em. Her face lights up when she sees me. She tries to talk. A lot. And she laughs happily. We spend a bit of time chit-chatting. Then she falls asleep.

8:30pm - Dom drinks his milk and has some snacks. Then he brushes his teeth and we go into the room. We read a couple of books, gives daddy a call to say good night and then it is lights off.

9:00pm - I pump milk (otherwise won't be enough for next day).

9:30 - 10:30pm - Me time. I watch the TV or surf the Internet using iPhone or flip through interior design magazines / brochures. Em wakes up occassionally when her thumb or the pacifier slips out of her mouth.

10:30pm - I change Em into her PJs and I breastfeed her. We both fall asleep in the process.

12:00am - The alarm rings. I wake up, put Em back into her own cot and wake Dom up to pee. Then I go back to sleep.

2:00am - The alarm rings again. Dom pees again (I snooze for 30 mins and he wets his bed).

2:00 - 5:00am - Em wakes up once for feed. Sometimes she doesn't wake up.

6:30am - The cycle repeats.

Weekend - We stayed home the whole day on Saturday. I did the laundry, ironed the clothes and cooked dinner. Dom and I both washed the car. There was nothing to do.

On Sunday, I drove both the kids out all by myself for the first time. We went to the 9am church service. After that, we stopped by to grab some lunch and then headed off to see Loo Yin's new house. Old house but fully refurbished with everything brand new including doors and windows. You can buy a double-storey house with the money she spent on renovations (not in PJ though), but it was really very nice. Not that child-friendly though, I have to say. We went out for lunch and spent the whole afternoon in her daughter's playroom (Dom cooking up a dinner party with the masak-masak set). Em couldn't fall asleep with all the commotion. We left at 5pm, and I had to cook dinner when I got home. :-(

We got home at 5:30pm and I gave Em a bath and she fell asleep straight away after that and woke up only once at around 9pm for milk. After that she fell asleep again till the next morning. Dom watched TV while I cooked dinner. He went to bed at 8:30pm and me at 9:30pm.

Today is Monday again and I'm counting down the 2nd week.

3-FEB-2010:

A couple of weeks ago, Saimun was telling me that one of his friends is actively seeking a girl friend. He's 33 years old this year and Head of the IT Department (or something like that) with Tesco. He was Saimun's school mate, which means they have known each other for ages. Their mums know each other too and he has a good track record, i.e. loves his family, honors his mum and dad, etc, etc. We also used to work together in Accenture. He's currently earning a good salary (I presume), drives a Camry and owns 2 properties. He's also not bad looking. I dug up the following photo from my wedding. He's the one seated, 2nd from the right, next to the girl in maroon.

Anyone interested? Or anyone you know who might be interested?

PS: Saimun said he wouldn't mind me doing this because he seriously is looking. :-)

3-FEB-2010:

Shortly before we left London, Dominic was called for his booster DTP, Polio and MMR vaccinations. Since Saimun was "on the bench" back then, he took Dom to the surgery. I made an appointment for him at 11:30am. Saimun was supposed to collect Dom from the nursery, take him for the injections (that's 2 injections at one go) and then return him to the nursery for lunch. It was the first time Saimun ever took Dom for an injection.

Does everyone know that when you give a child an injection, you're supposed to hold him tight and steady so that he doesn't struggle? I thought it was common sense but apparently Saimun didn't have that common sense, and so Dom ended up bleeding on BOTH arms. The poor thing ... his carer at the nursery told me that he couldn't even lift up his arm to feed himself. So anyway, that was his first injection as a toddler (not a baby) and the one that he remembered.

When Emily was 6 weeks old, we took her for her vaccination and at the same time we gave Dominic his Hepatitis B vaccination as well since he wasn't given it in the UK (it is not part of the routine). We told him the night before what we were going to do and he repeated "I don't want" quite a few times. Fortunately, he didn't cry or refuse to go. The doctor was extremely quick and Dom only managed a gasp before it was all over. No tears this time.

The night before yesterday, I told him that he needed to see the doctor because of his high temperature. His face became worried and he asked, "Is there injection or not?" "No", I said, "There will be no injection". He didn't look convinced so I added, "The doctor is just going to check your ears, check your throat and listen to your body using a stethoscope. That's all." He looked relieved then and said "Oh".

In the doctor's office, he let the doctor check him up and then as I was saying thank you to the doctor, Dom said "Let's get out of here quickly!". Everyone in the room burst out laughing.

2-Feb-2010:

You know, whenever we had snacks such as cookies, crackers, ice-cream, rojak or even chicken nuggets, my MIL would tell my nephews not to eat (so much), otherwise they will get sick. She would say the same thing to Dom as well, except when we, the parents were there. I wanted to tell her, nonsense, a few cookies won't make them sick. Except very often, they DID fall sick, for example after coming back from McDonald's. I was tempted to be smug about it because Dom had never fallen sick since we got back from the UK, but then I was afraid that I'll jinx it. Finally one day, we were having left-over Pringles from my office pot-luck lunch when Joe said "He eats so much, he will fall sick", and I replied "He won't, only you will". And guess what, one or two days later, Dom developed a fever! That ought to teach me a lesson!

Whenever Dom had a fever, it usually subsides within one day but this time he's been having fever, cough, sore throat and blocked nose for 3 days now. Matters made worse when Saimun kept telling me to make sure it wasn't dengue. Although I was 90% sure it wasn't dengue but a mother can never be too careful. Besides, the MIL kept nagging me to bring Dom to the doctor. All these years when we were in London, we never took Dom to the doctor because he had a fever. Not even when he had a full blown flu and was terribly ill when we were in Germany. All the time, he recovered on his own without any treatment and it's not like a common cold or flu can be treated, am I right?

Anyway, with much nagging (well intended ones, by the way) and a lot of concerns, I finally took Dom to the clinic this morning (after 3 days of fever). The doctor said it looks like just a normal cold and he prescribed neurofen, cough mixture and decongestant for his blocked nose. He said that "it's only been 3 days", but just in case there is bacteria infection, he prescribed anti-biotics as well but advised me to only give it to him if his fever doesn't go away in the next 2 days.

Dom has been absent from school for 2 days now and according to Sern, he will have A LOT of homework when he goes back. Hah! A LOT of homework means work for me. Last Friday, when I checked Dom's school bag, his "homework pouch" was full, but fortunately there was no homework for me because he had already finished them all. Now, I finally understand why during the orientation, some parents requested for "no homework".

After about 1 month in this new school, I think Dom has learnt a great deal. He told us that he learnt Chinese in school and that "Chinese is very, very hard, you know!". He drew an 'l' in the air and said "shu". "Do you know what is shu?", he asked. His daddy said, "Err ... book?" Hahaha! He also learns Malay in school. So far, he only knows "besar"and "kecil", but he could have learnt more words that we're not aware of. Now that I'm thinking about this multi-lingual thing in Malaysia, I think it is all wrong. I was talking to a friend recently. She was Chinese educated but she doesn't understand a lot of Chinese words and can't converse in Chinese business terms, which is very different from normal day-to-day conversation, according to her. And she certainly can't write any professional or business documents in Chinese. Further to that, her English is full of grammatical errors (no offense) and she admitted herself that she will never in a million years write an article in Malay. I think all Malaysians should just pick one language and be really good in that language. Unfortunately, no matter which language you choose to master, you're still required to pass Malay. It's good to know more than one language but I think one should really work to master one of them.

Dom's drawing and writing have improved a lot too. He now draws stuffs that I actually think are nice. His colouring finally makes sense too. However, Saimun mentioned that every kid can learn writing, drawing, reading and maths. It just takes practice. He would rather Dom engage in more fun activities that build his confidence and other non-academic skills.

Also, before I forget, he has finally stopped putting on his shirt front to back.