An update on my son

He is now 23 months old. His size is not too fat and not too thin either. He weighs less than 10.5kg and stands approximately 80cm plus. His does not have much hair and we kept it short most of the time.

Sometimes he wants to be independent but sometimes he likes to rely on me. He likes to be independent when it comes to food. He likes to feed himself most of the time. I like this type of independence. Whenever he sees somebody is eating, he will likely go into the kitchen and get himself a small plate and fork or spoon hoping to share the food with you. But I do not like this type of independence. To me, it is greedy. But this is one bad habit kids in my MIL’s house practice. I could not stop him as he sees others do it everyday.

He is also potty trained during the day which he is able to tell if he wants ‘she she’ (pee) or ‘mmm mmm’ (poo). Even nowadays when I bring him out to shopping, he will be diaperless. But during his night sleep, he still need a diaper as sometimes he peed but sometimes he does not. I planned to train him in this coming months if possible.

He is able to put on his pants on his own but he likes to rely on me to help him. I should have insist he put on himself but each time he will make funny faces when he is asked to put it on himself.

His vocabulary is expanding each day. But his sentences only consist of 2-3 words. He is not a chatty kind of guy just like daddy, so probably it is the reason why he is slow in this area. He talks mostly mandarin and English as everyone except me converse in mandarin while I speaks English to him. When we go back to my dad’s house, they will talk to him in Cantonese instead. Hopefully he will be multilingual.

He likes watching TV very much. His eyes are glued to the TV most of the time. Even when I am dressing him after a bath or change him into his pajamas, his eyes are fixed to the TV.

He likes to see animals and insects such as dogs, cats, birds, lizards, butterfly, worms and etc. He is very affectionate to them too. But he is shy and timid too as he does not dare to touch them nor go near to them. He likes to see from a far.

He likes to be carried around especially by me. He always says: love mommy, love daddy and love baby. He would always lavish me with hugs and kisses too. ZM, mommy love you too!

Haze

These days, the sky looks gloomy. Sometimes, i thought it was going to rain, but it never did. Tall buildings sometimes dissapear or look so blur.

My sister-in-law advised us that don't bring our children to the park due to haze. She says let them stay indoor would be better. Better be safe than sorry. I bet clinics are reporting higher cases of asthma and breathing problem kids. Since now it is also the school holiday, i bet many kids tend to go to their nearby playground and park for some good fun. Unfortunately this is not a good activity for this holiday.

I wonder why we Malaysians always have haze problem. Everyone should do their part in not practising open burning. Plantation owners should not take the easy way out to burn those crops. It is worse when the weather is hot and humid and the wind bring on those dirty air. All these leads to global warming and affects our lovely earth. Why no body cares?

Since all of us are sharing the earth and most of us have young offspring, i think we all should have some responsibility in keeping our earth healthy.

Moon cake festival

Moon cake festival will fall on early October this year. But if you frequent shopping complexes, you can see various restaurant and bakeries have started to set up promotional booths selling moon cakes few weeks back.

I remember when I was small, moon cakes are very cheap and they don’t come in many varieties to choose from. But nowadays, the price of just one piece of moon cake could cost you RM10.00 for those special types and new flavour! The normal ones like red bean paste will cost you at least RM5.00. Isn’t that expensive? Some who prefers the double yolk will have to pay double the price which is approximately RM10.00! Well, at least for comfort, we know that these companies are coming up with new ideas to sell these moon cake with adding more varieties. Now, you can easily find flovours such as chocolate, tiramisu, strawberries, yam, pineapple, berries, cheese and many more. The prices of these new flavours do not come cheap!

I like to eat moon cake although sometimes I find it too sweet. My mom knows how to make jelly moon cake which is quite different from the normal conventional type. This year again, I will not be able to celebrate the moon cake festival as I will be under confinement (did not celebrate 2 years ago as I was also under confinement). Too bad…… how I wish I can eat as much as I can as usually my MIL will prepare a feast during that day. And after dinner, family members will gather and eat moon cakes, fruits and some snacks on our porch. Children will get to play with lanterns and adults will help to light up some candles.

Since moon cakes are sold abundantly now, I think I will grab some and stuff myself now before I deliver. At least it will satisfy my disappointment latter and my baby in my tummy can taste it too! Happy Moon Cake Festival to everyone! :)

Approaches parent made when it comes to a sick child

Whenever my son is sick, I would tend to bring him to see a doctor immediately. The reason? Definitely to cure his ailment and also not to spread to other children at home. I thought this is the reaction each parents will take when they face this problem. But recently I found out that other parents have different approaches than what I practice.

I know of one parent that would bring her kid to see a doctor. That’s good, right? But the funny thing is that after visiting the doctor and gets the necessary medicine, she does not feed her child the medicine! My question is why in the world would you visit the doctor and later don’t feed your child the medicine? Then, when the ailment does not go away after a few days, she sees the doctor again. And again, the medicine is not taken. Later, if the ailment still persists, she change doctor and again the medicine is not taken! doctor is the point? After such action and her child is not cured, she will resort to give her child some traditional medicine. I really do not understand what is the rational behind such action.

There is another couple who strongly believe in organic food. They mostly try to consume more organic food including vegetables, rice, fruits and daily supplements. Whenever their child is sick, they will not go to see a doctor. Their reason? Human body will build a defense system and fight the disease on its own and should not rely on medicine to cure. So, whenever their child is sick, they will not bring their child to see a doctor and let it be. The parent will then give some organic supplements to the child to fend off their child’s problem. Is this approach right? If it is, why do so many people is taking up medicine course? Do you know, sometimes a simple cough and cold could spread to other children that are playing with the child? I think this couple is very selfish.

Why on earth these parents practice such methods? Aren’t doctors trained to help sick people? They are the professional in this area right? I do not know about these parents. But when it comes to my child, I would want the best for them. That is why I find a good doctor and trust her when she prescribes medicine for my child. What do you think?

Numbers…..numbers, 123

Recently I have started to introduce numbers to my son. Whenever we go up the stairs, I count the steps; when we have few objects such as toys in our hand, I count to him; during bath time, I count how many bubbles we have and so on…… At first, when he hears me count, he does not reply nor have any reaction. Lately, he knows the number 2 as he has 2 bubbles on both his hands and I taught him he is 2 years old.

These few days, I have heard him mumbling something new that I have not heard before. I tried to listen more carefully as I need to understand what he said. The more I listen, the clearer it becomes! He has started to count! He can count up to 10 although all the numbers are not in sequence. Sometimes he counts the even numbers and sometimes he counts from one but skips a few numbers in between.

I think besides me that introduce these numbers, it was also partly due to the CDs that he watch during the day. He watches a lot of CDs during the day as he has nothing to do and MIL is occupied. I realized he is a TV addict as he likes to watch TV a lot. Surprisingly he likes adult movies rather than children CDs. That is why, after dinner, I usually bring him up to our room to avoid the TV and try to spend more quality time with him.

Back to numbers, I have also bought him books on numbers but he has yet to find the correlation between written numbers and spoken numbers. I point to him this is number 1 or 2 or 3 but he has no interest. But if I were to count to him from 1 to 10, he likes to follow me. I think it is just a matter of time he will learn all these and how to truly count.

I will cherish my son more

Yesterday, we brought our son to see his doctor as he has been coughing for the past one week and it has gotten from bad to worse. As usual, we have to wait for at least 1 hour as there are many patients. Daddy helped to supervise my son while I read magazine to pass time.

Then it was my son’s turn to go into the doctor’s room. This time round, luckily he did not cry as he used to cry each time the doctor check his chest and body. But his face was sulking away as if he does not like what the doctor is doing to him. After completing her check, she asked hubby to play with my son on the bed while she chat with me a while as there are not many patients left outside. She asked where I will be delivering and hopes that I will breastfeed my next child which I definitely will. She is one strong factor that makes me determine to breastfeed my son in the first place. Without her, I don’t think I could manage to breastfeed my son for 17 months.

Then I told her that my son is very attached to me. I was hoping that I could get some advice on how to deal with my son. She told me that this is very normal as he was a breastfed baby and the bonding that we share kept us close together. At this time, it really snapped me in my brain why I was asking such a stupid question! I should cherish this relationship instead of complaining! When my son gets older, I am sure he will not want to be seen snuggling up to his mommy always!. I think I should appreciate my son more and enjoy his closeness with me. I promise myself that I will give him more hugs and kisses and time to him. I think I complained because there are so many people around me that think this attitude of my son is bad. He clings on to me although my MIL spends more time with him than me during the day. Many people were wondering why he behaves this way and blames negatively on breastfeeding but they did not know that this is a very special bond that is positive instead of negative.

Now, from today onwards, I will have a daily mantra of ‘cherish your son’ in my head to remind me that my son is growing up fast. If I don’t cherish these moments, he will slowly drift apart from me and I will regret it for the rest of my life.

Birthday Celebration

Yesterday was a day to remember for my son. My MIL has decided to celebrate his Chinese birthday earlier by a few days as it also coincides on a Sunday whereby everyone is at home. Although it is just a small affair with only our family members were present, it made the birthday boy a happy one.

The Sunday started as usual where the whole family goes for breakfast. After breakfast, all went home and relax. Later, my son takes his usual afternoon nap while the rest of the family goes out shopping for his birthday present. Hubby then goes out to Taman Megah in PJ just to buy a Chocolate Cake from La Manila and got a bucket of KFC before heading home. My son woke up as his father comes home as if he knew his daddy is bringing back goodies for him. Moreover, the rest of the family members are also back from their shopping spree.

When he woke up, I told him that today it is his birthday and he will be getting lots of surprises and gets to blow up candles on a big birthday cake. I can see his eyes are sparkling with excitement unlike his usual daze look after waking up. Quickly MIL gave him a new shirt and pants to put on. Then, everyone started to help out to prepare the celebration: put out the table, bring out the cake and KFC, snap pictures of the cake and children, presents came from everyone (MIL, SILs, nephews ,nieces and of course daddy and mommy). Balloons are blown up and party hats are distributed among the kids to liven the atmosphere and birthday song is sung to the birthday boy while everyone is clapping their hand. The birthday boy is sure a happy boy!

After the song, candles are blown and cake cutting ceremony takes center stage. The birthday boy had the honour to do the cutting and I think he felt proud and a sense of achievement of getting to cut the cake. His face was beaming with proudness. Then all the kids (3 of them) got to eat their KFC drumstick which is their favourite during such occasion while adults also indulge in their KFC too. After the chicken meal, paper plates area distributed to enjoy the cake. Mmmm………. Yum, yum, the cake was good. Birthday boy was enjoying the cake by helping himself to the cake.

After having a satisfying meal, its time for presents! His ‘che-che’ (SIL’s daughter) was the one who took charge of ripping off the presents on behalf of the birthday boy. Although his mother disapproves, she happily tore away the wrappers as if it is her birthday. Among the birthday presents are 2 toy cars, a book, a ABC and 123 puzzle, Mega Blocks and Thomas and Friends train set. The kids then started to play with the new toys as soon it is out of the box.

That’s how the whole party is and it ended with adults cleaning up while the kids have fun with the toys. How nice it is to be a child. They can have all the fun and no worries. Birthdays are celebrated by so many people with presents and food. Now, how I wish I can be a child again…….. :)

Last trimester of pregnancy

As I am now in my 8th month of my pregnancy, my movements have been slower and slower. My tummy is so big and bulging that I had to always cover it with my hands when my son come running to me. If not, sure he will hit my tummy first with me shouting Ouch!

Sleeping is a problem to me. At night, I could not sleep comfortably. One, it’s because of the pregnancy thingy when my tummy is so big, it is so difficult to fall asleep. Whenever I sleep, I find that my stomach juice likes to come up to my mouth and I just feel nausea. So, I had to sit up quickly. Sleeping too long on my left side (as advised by many people), will leave me so achy all over. So, sometimes I turn to my right and sleep on my back. But I feel so guilty so I have to quickly switch back to sleeping on my left. The weather nowadays is also so hot and warm that makes me sweat whenever I sleep. I have already turned on the air-con and fan to cool the room but I still sweat.

Secondly, my son always calls me when he sleeps. I don’t know if he is dreaming but he always say ‘mommy lai, lai (mommy come, come) in his sleep. If I ignore him, he will even cry louder. So I had to go to his bed lie down besides him. He will then touches and smell me without opening his eyes. If he is confirms it’s me that is beside him, then he will go back to sleep, but if finds out that it is his dad, he will wail as loud as possible to get me to sleep with him. He does this a few times a night.

My hospital beg is 80% ready with few more items that I have yet to buy. By this weekend, I think I can complete packing and but it into my hubby’s car. Better pack early than late as I am a very careless person.

Doctor’s visit has been more frequent with a consultation once every 2 weeks. So far, doctor said everything should be going smoothly and a normal delivery can be anticipated. I hope everything will go fine.

Last indulgence before delivery

Yesterday I had a facial which I think will be the last before I deliver. How nice it felt when you get to pamper yourself once in a while especially during pregnancy when hormones run haywire. But sometimes it is so uncomfortable to lay motionless for 3 hours while having the facial. Nonetheless, I still like to go for facials during pregnancy.

After the facial, I went for shopping spree for my newborn. There are still some small necessary items that I have yet to buy. So, it was another ‘feel good’ activity that I enjoy if I have things to buy. Alone and with ample time, I like to browse around for the best bargain to my liking. I was also able to pick some clothes for my son. Shopping is an activity that I like to do it alone. I do not know about others, but shopping with someone else makes me uncomfortable as I do not like to others to wait for me. I rather take my own time choosing what I like without having the guilt of thinking some people are bored of waiting for me. My hubby is the type that does not mind accompanying me for shopping. But it is me that do not encourage him to shop with me unless my son tags along. Before having my son, I used to shop alone and spare him the agony. If I do not have anything to buy, I don’t usually go window shopping nowadays, I think is so tiring and a waste of time. I would rather stay at home and play with my son.

I think most mothers would agree that having facial and shopping are stress relievers and are activities that everyone enjoy not only for pregnant mothers. Once the baby is born, there are so many other things to do before considering facial and shopping and most of the time, we have to get someone to look after the baby while we indulge in pampering our self. Don’t you agree?

Discrimination

It is very heart warming to see kids that are unknown to each other play together. I remember once when we were on a trip to Pulau Pangkor few months back, my son was in such situation. We brought him to the beach side to have some water fun and brought along his water toys (spade, bucket, shovel, etc….). After playing for a while, he got bored and walks away and found 3 Malay siblings playing together. My son did not say a word and played along with them. The siblings also did not utter a word and accepted my son to play along with them. All of them just share the toys and since the siblings are older, my son mostly watches and hand over toys to them.

Sometimes when we bring our son to playground during the evenings, you can see the same situation. Kids play together and share the equipments easily make friends. Although they do not talk to each other, but their action shows that they accept new friends without discriminating their race or their age.

But when kids grow up into adulthood, we can see so much discrimination. Some people discriminate the poor, people from another race, disable people and many more. This is a sad fact. I hope I can raise my child to grow up and not to discriminate people. Each individual should be respected and treat with dignity without being discriminated. Then only this world would be a better place to live.

Money Lessons

Recently we have decided that our son is old enough to be taught money lessons. We wanted our son to be prudent in spending and will not waste money unnecessarily. We notice kids nowadays always pester their parents in buying them toys or things that they want without thinking how hard their parents worked for it. We do not want our kids later to take things for granted.

So, we have converted an old plastic ice cream box into a simple coin box. We use adhesive tape to tape the opening of the box and cut a small rectangular hole for the coin to be inserted. Since daddy does not like to keep coins in his wallet, he always has loose coins at the end of the day. So, we just give him these loose coins and request him to save it in his coin box. His coin box is kept in the drawer under our bed. Each time when we ask him to get his coin box, he will go to the drawer and take out the coin box and insert all those coins that we give him.

Whenever we go out, I will try to explain to him that each item that we need, we need to buy them and not simply take it. We also teach him that when we reach the toll plaza, we need to pay money in order to use the road. We also teach him that when we go to a shopping complex, we need to get a parking ticket before parking our car. When we collect our car, we need to pay the parking ticket with money at the parking machine.

Hopefully when he grows older, he will be able to grasp the concept of money and do not behave like a spoilt brat. Money does not come easy and daddy is working hard for a living. We do not live a luxury life; hence, we think that by starting money lesson early will benefit him.

Haircut

My son has very little hair. His hair does not grow very long and fast. He’s got ‘girl’s hair’ as his hair is not thick and pointy but instead soft. SO, he seldom goes to barber to cut his hair. Normally my mother-in-law (MIL) would bring him to the barber (a Chinese old man) to get his haircut which started when he was 1 month old. Until now, his visits to his barber does not exceeds 5 times! This shows how slow his hair grows!

My MIL likes his boys to have near clean shaven hair which is the almost botak (bald) look. She does not like those hair style which leaves a tail where else the rest of the hair is short. She has expressed this since before my son was born. I am not particular about hair style, so I let it be and just follow what she says.

But my son does not like it. Each time he has to go for a haircut, he would cry. I don’t know the reason why he cried. So, one day, my hubby and I have decided to bring my son to the barber to have his haircut to comfort him. I thought that with me around, he would be more comfortable. But even when he sees the shop and not even step into the shop, he shook his head to disapprove of us going inside. Hubby had to hold on to him while the barber cut my son’s hair. He was crying throughout the whole cutting process. Even with a candy given by the barber could not stop him from crying! It was so sad and I still do not know why he cried. Probably he is scared of the barber or he is scared of the shaver and scissors.

Then, this time round, he needs another cut. My hubby suggested that he too, cut his hair there together with my son. What a good idea! So, prior to going to the barber, I had told him that he will have his hair cut. Firstly he shook his head. Then, I told him that the barber will cut his daddy’s hair first then only cut his. He said ok. So after dinner the other day, we bundled him into our car and visit the barber. As usual, when he saw the barber shop, he shook his head. I ignore him and brought him inside. There, the barber started to work on his daddy’s hair. My son sat hugging me tight next to daddy. His eyes kept looking at his daddy while I try to explain and coax him to have his hair cut like daddy. He kept shaking his head. When daddy is done, I pass him to daddy. My son started to protest. The barber quickly gave him a candy to console him. He quiets down. We begin cheering him by saying how fast and clever he is by not crying. He actually did not cry throughout the whole process but we can see that he is fighting hard holding back his tears. He looked so brave doing so. The process was fast and soon it was over. We cheered him and applaud him and boy, does he look glad it was all over!

We went home and everyone was surprised that he did not cry. I think the next time its best to get daddy to trim his hair together with my son. This trick works!

Boaster Seat

At last, we bought a boaster seat for my son! We bought it last weekend at The First Few Years store at The Curve, the shop that I mentioned before in my previous entry. Luckily it was still there. The shop was having their sale and their infant car seats and boaster seats are at offered at 20-50% discount.

We eyed a specific seat from Britax which was retailed at RM499.00 before discount. So, after the 50% discount, we got it at RM249.50. So far, this is the cheapest boaster seat that can recline its chair, separate into 2 parts later when the child is older, remove the cushion cover for washing and can withstand a child’s weight up to 36kg (approximately 11 years old).

Now the seat is still nicely wrapped up in the manufacturing box as hubby is yet to dismantle the current seat is still in his car. I intend to start using this new seat for my son so he can get accustoms to he. Even before we buy this new boaster seat, I have told him that the current seat is for our new baby and we will get him a new seat. He seems to understand what I told him as whenever he gets into our car and sees the current seat; he pointed to the seat and said ‘baby’ meaning that the seat is for our baby.

Buffet Dinner at Eastin Hotel PJ

I had another chance to savour another buffet dinner in a hotel again. This time it is at Eastin Hotel in PJ. It was my sister-in-law’s idea, so she booked a table for all of us (8 adults and 3 toddlers) at 6.30pm on Sunday night. When we reached there, many patrons were already ahead of us eager to tuck into their dinner.

The spread of food is definitely more than what we had in Nikko Hotel. As I was still not feeling that well after the food poisoning on Saturday, I did not take in much. In fact, I think I tried only 20% of their food. What I liked best was the mushroom soup whereby it is very thick and full with mushroom instead of those watery and no mushroom that you get when you eat at normal restaurant or fast food chain. As my son’s appetite is still not good, he also did not take in much. So, most of the time, both of us went out for a stroll while waiting for the rest to finish their meal.

All seats were fully taken up and there are few more tables were set up outside the dining area as there is just no more space to squeeze in. That shows how popular buffet dinner is to Malaysian be it to serve as a gathering or a celebration of birthday or just a date. Malaysian just like to eat, especially me. I would not turn down an offer to eat, unless I am sick! Hehehehe…….