New Kid On The Blog

29-Sep-2010:

Many weeks ago (longer than I can remember), we had a picnic breakfast at the playground near our house with a couple of friends and their kids. I put Emily on the swing and she enjoyed herself soooo much!

After that, when I told Saimun that it was her first time on the swing and she already enjoyed it so much, he said, no, it wasn't her first time. He had taken her on the swing many times before this. Huh??? Why didn't I know about it.

Apparently, the first time Emily went on the swing, she was sitting on Saimun's lap. As such, Saimun was unable to see her expression as he swung happily away, but Dominic, who was facing the both of them said, "Daddy, I think Emily is scared!". Haha!

Anyway, I think it's time for some updates about my little girl again.

Sigh, first of all, I think at her age, I find her very small and lightweight. Plus, we went to Singapore for a holiday and she didn't eat much during the trip and became even skinnier. Then, a few weeks after that, she had diarrhoea and it seems like she lost more weight there. In terms of food intake, I find that she's beginning to dislike porridge and prefers rice instead, therefore I've stopped cooking porridge for a while and feeding her rice instead. I think it's more work for me since I need to think about what to go with the rice as well, instead of dumping in whatever I have for porridge.

Physically, she is very mobile now. She is able to walk about 4-5 steps at a time, unaided, and she can normally walk further if she's holding something in her hands. She can also climb up and down the stairs. At her grandparents' house, she can climb up the couch, which is about the height of an Ikea kiddie chair.

Intellectually, I find that she is "smarter" than Dom used to be at this age. She seems more aware of her surroundings, and able to communicate better, in her own ways. For example, she is able to tell me she wants a drink by putting her water bottle in my hand and opening her mouth. She can tell from my tone of voice that I'm not happy with her and she would lean her head against my tummy, lap or shoulder, as if to say "I'm sorry". During meals, she is also trying to feed herself using a spoon, although not very successful. She also has quite a good memory. She recognizes the vaccum cleaner and knows that it makes a loud sound (will quickly crawl away when the thing comes). Plus, one day she was playing with her grandma's radio and turned the volume so loud that it scared her. From then on, she has never touched the radio again.

In terms of speech, she makes a lot of noise, as usual, mostly "AAAA" or "Ehhhh". But every morning, when Dom gets into the car to go to school, she would wave her hand and say "Bah bah bah bah", which means "bye bye". In fact, she would do that even when we're still in the house and I say, "Let's go out and say bye-bye to gor-gor", which shows that she already understands a lot that I say.

To the grandparents, she is really the most difficult baby they have ever taken care of. She refused to be left alone, even for a few seconds, which means that her grandpa has to be with her all the time. She needs to hold her grandpa's hand tightly during afternoon naps and will wake up shortly, find that her grandpa is no longer around and scream at the top of her lungs. The only way to make her sleep is that he sleeps together with her. Basically, it is impossible for him to get anything done. During weekends, when she is with us, she plays around the house by herself as long as we're within her sight. She takes very short naps during the day and doesn't really sleep much.

Emily has never used a potty since birth. Ever since we moved into our current house, she did her poo directly into the toilet, using Dom's trainer toilet seat, whenever I manage to catch her before she poo-ed into her nappy. Recently, I had finally understood her language and know that she wants to poo (most of the time). She would crawl to me with an "eh-eh-eh" and will keep trying to stand on my lap. Nobody understands what she wants except me.

Emily has also stopped using a bath tub ever since she could sit unsupported. Instead we shower her while she sits on a stool. Nowadays, she can also stand while we shower her. During her early baby days, she would cry everytime we shower over her head. But now, she makes a face but doesn't cry anymore. She loves to play with water and she loves swimming. When I am mopping the floor, she can spend the whole time following me (or more like the bucket) and playing with the water in the bucket. I know it's dirty water but I wash her after that anyway, so it should be alright.

She likes to point with her index finger. If she likes you, she will point at you with her index finger and will even try to touch your nose or face or hand with it. She reminds me of ET.

# posted by Skye @ 2:04 am 0 comments

22-Sep-2010:

One evening, after I've bathed and everything and went to Dom's room to check on him, I saw this on his room door and the words written on the paper.

# posted by Skye @ 12:53 am 0 comments

21-Sep-2010:

Dom has a new pet. Several new pets actually. :-) He was pretty excited about it at first but not anymore. He still feeds them everyday though.

One day, one of the fish died. He wasn't too upset about it but over the past few weeks, we've been having talks about death. It came about when he overheard Saimun and I talking and he caught me saying "your mother" (refering to Saimun's mum). After that, he came about asking me where my mother was and I told him that she's dead. I think he must have been quite confused because he then proceeded to ask me where my grandfather was and I said he's dead too. Over the next few days, he would bring up the topic whenever he felt like it and asked why my grandfather died. How? Did he die in Ipoh? Is he still in Ipoh? The moment he asked that last question, I knew that he didn't fully understand the meaning of death. We had several conversations where I told him that yes, my grandfather is in a graveyard in Ipoh, and then had to explain what's a graveyard. He asked all sorts of questions. How did he breathe in there? Is there a house in there where he lives? But where does he live? So I had to explain that he doesn't live because he's dead, yadda, yadda, he's turned to dust and all that. He asked if he will wake up? How about bringing him to the doctor. I said when you're dead, even the doctors can help. To my surprise, he insisted that yes, can! If he goes to the hospital the doctor can make him wake up!

Well, that was many weeks ago and we had those conversations before the fish died. When the fish died, he witnessed death the first time and saw his daddy throw the fish away. I told him, that is death. The fish has died, it won't move anymore and you won't see it anymore, forever. "Can we go buy another fish?", he asked.

At night, he told me that he wanted to pray to Jesus so that daddy and mummy don't die. Incidentally, during one of our conversations, I also told him that he is very lucky because he has daddy and mummy and a sister and a nice house to live in. (The topic of luck came into play while we were driving and we hit green light after green light at the traffic lights without having to stop). I told him that some children do not have daddies and mummies and have no one to love them. He instinctively told me that it's because those children didn't pray to God and didn't go to church!

Well, well, well ... this son of mine is growing up quickly and is very amusing, and also very, very naive too. He has got so much more to learn.

# posted by Skye @ 1:28 am 0 comments

17-Sept-2010:

It started with Dom asking, "Daddy, are you a rich man?" Daddy: We have enough. Why? Dom: Can you please buy a bigger TV? This one is too small!

As a result, his daddy bought a 42-inch plasma TV. He said it was "value for money" (costs only RM2k). The reason it's so cheap is because, like I said before, technology moves very quickly, especially when it comes to TV. Plasma is an old technology. Now, we have LCD, LED and even 3D TVs. I still remember probably about 5 years ago, a large screen plasma TV was probably about RM10k. Well, he said he doesn't mind old technology because what is "new" now will become "old" in just a few months time. Besides the format of the content hasn't caught up with the new technology yet.

So here's our big screen. We recently subscribed to IP TV (i.e. TV via Internet). So far the only channel that we watch is CBeebies.

# posted by Skye @ 1:49 am 0 comments

14-Sept-2010:

As you may already know, I went to Kuching for a weekend break with my colleagues in early August and here's what we did.

Actually I can't quite remember what we did but overall, it was a nice a trip. We took a plane from LCCT to Kuching. It was my first time in LCCT and my first time on Air Asia. Was surprised that the airport was so happening. There were plenty of people and plenty of food outlets. The last time we flew from Subang airport to Redang, there was nothing at all to eat at the airport and I was expecting the same at LCCT, hence had packed my own breakfast and snacks. Turned out, we had McDonald's instead.

The moment the plane started moving, I almost regretted choosing this trip. All sorts of terrible thoughts went through my mind. What if the plane crash and I never see my children again? I should've taken a bus instead. Thank God, thank God, thank God, I am still here and alive. :-) I don't know when I started to get so paranoid and worried about everything.

We arrived at Kuching airport and it was bigger and nicer than I had expected too. We headed straight to the hotel, checked in and then took a taxi to the "Main Bazaar", i.e. a shopping area. The shopping wasn't that much fun, especially since I really dislike shopping. Besides, all the shops were selling the same stuffs. It was interesting to note that the exact same thing can differ by quite a lot in price in different shops. Since we were there almost the whole afternoon (accompanying colleagues), I bought some pepper and small souvenirs for the kids.

The next day, we visited the Cultural Village - basically a display of all of the pre-bumi's houses - Kadazan, Bidayuh, Melanau, etc, etc. I actually had quite a lot of fun here although it was scorching hot. In the afternoon, after lunch, we visited the Orang Utan sanctuary.

On Sunday morning, the gang went to the market (to shop again but I didn't go. I went to church instead. Very impressed that the service started and ended right on time as per what was written on the bulletin. Took a cab there, but after the service was unable to find cab back! Thank God again for very friendly church fellows who sent us back to the hotel in their car. Promised to keep in touch via Facebook but now have forgotten their names. :p

# posted by Skye @ 3:20 am 0 comments

6-Sep-2010:

Emily is one week short of turning 11 months old and she already took her first step! :-) She is now able to stand unsupported for longer and managed to walk 3 steps (at most) without falling or squatting down.

Other than that, she was repeated saying "bah-bah" or "buh-buh" a few weeks ago and now has started to say "la-la" instead. She has also started addressing people, for example when we came downstairs from the room and she saw her daddy (who just came home), she waved her arms at his direction and said "eh! eh!" as if to say "Hey, you're back!". She also waves "bye-bye" to Dominic when he goes to school.

Since birth, many have asked me if Dominic is jealous of his sister. The answer has always been "no". Rather, I have noticed that Emily is jealous of his brother. Once, when I came home and hugged Dom instead of her, she started crying. Sometimes, when I played with Dom she would make a noise and tried to push him away and then promptly climb on my lap instead. If I was playing with her and Dom tried to participate, she would lift her face to Dom and "waaa-aaahh-ahhhh!" into his face and flap her arms, shoo-ing him away.

Dom on the other hand is a loving brother and he likes to play peekaboo with Em, i.e. hiding behind the curtains or behind the bean bag and then ... "boo!". Em will laugh hysterically at this.

Once Dom was building his Lego following the instruction booklet and he needed a piece of small yellow Lego but couldn't find it and he turned to Em and said "Where's my yellow Lego? You swallowed it, is it? Is it? Is it? Ha? Ha? Ha?", putting his face very near her and dauntingly said this. It was very, very cute.

Sometimes Em felt left out when she was downstairs and she heard Dom and daddy upstairs. She would stand at the foot of the staircase but would only dare to climb the first step. Somehow, compared to Dom I feel like she grows much faster. Or it could be because I spent day and night with Dom before he turned 1 whereas only see Em for a few hours each day.

# posted by Skye @ 1:21 am 0 comments