Turn & turn

I manage to saw Erin turned for the first time on 17th Dec, barely few days before reaching 4 months old. Now that she's getting used to turning herself, she'll do that every chance she got, even while trying to sleep!. We need to hold her still while patting her to sleep, else she'll turn again and cry cos she won't be able sleep in that position!

Angry Bird Craze

A year ago, I bought an iPad as a birthday present for my hubby. That iPad ended up being hogged by William instead, and thus he was introduced to Angry Bird. William did not even care how to play the game properly or its objective then. He just like the sound of the birds made as they were thrown out, plus saying the numbers of the levels bring played. He can even mimic the sound for each of the birds.

Now he slowly trying to play the game properly as more and more people went into the AB craze. This year alone, he receives many AB gifts from his friends at the nursery during each of their birthday celebration. My niece & nephews can be seen wearing AB t-shirt almost every day. My niece even requested for an AB cake to celebrate William's birthday which is coming in few days time. At work or visiting customers, you'll surely hear people using AB background theme/tracks as their ring tone.

When we went shopping, you'll see many kids and even adults wearing AB t-shirts as well. There was one day where my son went right in front of a guy with a big tummy wearing the AB t-shirt, point his finger at him, smile and said "Angry bird!". My hubby and myself laughed and at the same time apologized to the guy for William's action. Even the guy's wife which was standing next to him laughed out loud!.

Luckily when I asked William what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, he just replied "red" instead of AB. Now I wonder what kind of cake that I can get which is red!

Making Penang Breastfeeding Friendly Part 2

The event is finally over, and there are total of 652 mothers all over Malaysia breastfeed their babies at 4pm! Woohoo!

The preparation was fun, many mothers volunteered to help out on the event. For myself including circulating flyers to my son's kindy, calling hospitals all over Malaysia to participate in the events and assist in sending streamers to Straits Quay management few days before the event. I was not much of a help on the day of the event though as William was getting hard to handle following the 1-minute simultaneous breastfeeding session. A total of 33 mothers breastfeed their baby at the event site, including myself with Erin :) Not forgetting that I also spoke to YB Betty Chew (Penang CM's wife) plus our photos being taken as well.

Making Penang Breastfeeding Friendly

There's an event organized by a non-profit group that I'm associated with, Mother to Mother Peer Support Group (MMPS) at Straits Quay on 9th October 2011 from 3pm to 5pm. This event is also supported by Penang state government which will launch the beginning of Making Penang Breastfeeding Friendly (MPBF) campaign there as well. Another agenda includes simultaneous 1 minute breastfeeding at exactly 4pm in celebration (late actually) of World Breastfeeding week. Fun games and prizes to be won at the event as well. For those who can make it, do bring your family along to the event.

Erin's Journey

Little sweet Erin was born on 20th August, after a two weeks alarm (red spotting) earlier that causes me to take leave from work in anticipating the birth anytime. There were frequent contractions especially late at night, but then it just stop the next morning. This just going on for 2 weeks and my hubby kept on asking "it is time, is it time".

Her birth was initiated due to sudden lack of movement in the womb. When I go for checkup, the doctor scanned everything, assuring everything was normal and suggested to go for CGT just to be sure. The first CGT result was not favorable, showing low heartbeat most of the time. I need to go for second CGT again as they suspect that it could be my stomach was empty. Though the second CGT was normal, the doctor advises to induce the labor due to the signs that I had earlier on, including the earlier CGT result. Furthermore the cervix is already at 2cm and can already feel the baby's head.

I was warded the next morning for the induction. A tablet was inserted to start the labour around 11am, but only manage to get few mild contractions and that's it. While waiting, CGT scan was done and again the result was not favorable. The nurse face was abit panicky and quickly redo the scan after asking me to move my body abit. There onward the baby was very active and everybody was relieved. There was no signs of labor whatsoever and doctor suggested to insert another tablet, which was done around 7pm. By then the contractions become stronger and more consistent. Around 9.20pm, there's already heavy bleeding and I called my husband telling that its time to come to the hospital.

By the time I was in the delivery room, it is already around 6cm. My hubby arrives few minutes later and the doctor broke the water to speed up the labour process. He then says should be in another 2 hours before the last phase of the labor comes in. But minutes later after the doctor went out, the contractions was so bad that I told the nurses that the baby is on the way out. The nurse quickly called the doctor back and by the time they get ready, the baby's head can already be seen. In just 3 pushes, little Erin was born into this world at 10.32pm. My hubby told me the doctor and nurses were having difficulty catching the baby because everything just happened so fast. I was relieved that everything was over. Erin was crying very loud. After quick cleaning, the nurse passed Erin back to me and she nursed for the first time.

Now I'm staying in a confinement centre, with Erin sleeping beside me. Even at night she's with me the whole time to establish easier breastfeeding journey. I'm happy to say that she's been breastfed exclusively and there are excess milk as well, which I'm planning to pass to William instead.

Platinum!

When I got back home yesterday, I noticed a letter from RHB bank. Now we had never associated with RHB bank before, so it is quite weird to get this letter as it was address to my son as well.

When I opened up and read the contents, I just can't help but to laugh. It seems that my son (currently not even 3 yrs old yet) qualifies for platinum credit card as a principal holder, with credit limit of 500K. Even my husband and myself are not qualify after working hard and saving for so many years but my son was offered such privilege.

The letter comes with forms for us to fill in, and is requesting for a copy of my son's IC to proceed with the processing. Now it will be interesting to know what will happen if we do submit with our son's particulars. Will the Bank Negara accept it or did the banking institute change the minimum qualifications for platinum card?

I'll keep the letter for many years to come. Just priceless....

Finally a "mommy"!

After a long wait of many months, William finally called "mommy" when addressing me. It first started with just a "mi" few weeks back, then evolved to "mimi", and now finally "mommy". He still uses "mimi" most of the time though, and we need to correct him once in awhile.

William is able to call "daddy" perfectly though. Funny thing is when he tried to say dolphin, it sounded a bit like "daddy". Now his daddy has become "daddy dolphin"!

Nursery Schedule

Ever wonder what they teach in nursery? Well, here's the schedule of what they taught my little boy. But this makes me even more curious of what do they teach in each subject, especially moral.

Valentine Celebration 2011@The View

This Valentine we've decided to celebrate it as lunch since both of us were on leave on that day as well. Reasons so that we can spend time with William after nursery plus there's no need to deal with the crowds celebrating at night.

I've been wanting to try on The View restaurant at Equatorial Hotel, but most of the time ended up in Kampachi instead since we loves japanese food so much. This year being very persistent and "demanding" from my end, we finally step into The View.

The restaurant had already make preparations and decorations for Valentine celebration, with 2 cupids by the doorway and many lovely hearts hanging down from the ceiling inside the restaurant. They were serving semi-buffet lunch then, where the appetizers and desert are buffet style and we just need to select the main course from the menu provided. The prices varies from the main course selection.

Our waiter introduces to us the promotion of the month, which are dover sole at RM118 and duck trilogy at RM128. My hubby opted for dover sole, a type of freshwater fish reportedly imported from Australia, while I ordered the duck trilogy, which consists of duck confit, smoked duck breast and foie gras.

While waiting for the main course to arrive, we helped ourselves to the appetizer first. It has many choices of salads and cold cuts, plus fresh oyster as well. My hubby is not a fan for those but I enjoyed the fresh salad and oyster a lot. When we are done, the waiter brought us our minestrone soup. Again the soup is not to my hubby's liking as he's very much a meat-lover.

Next is the main course. With my duck trilogy, I first tasted the smoked breast, it was superbly juicy and tender. In fact it was the best duck breast I ever had in my record. The duck confit was well seasoned, crispy on the outside but soft on the inside. Nicely done as well. Foie gras was very soft and smooth, but I eat it heavy heartedly with the images of the fattened goose in my mind. As for the dover sole, it was so juicy and fresh. Each bite of the meat was a heaven. But since the whole fish itself was so big, plus there's 2 side of meat to be consumed, my hubby was having quite a hard time finishing it. In fact he do not have room for desert afterward. I was also quite full and only manage to eat some light desert.

Overall the food, environment and service was really worth the money. Will definately be persistent and demanding again in the future to try out other courses as well.

Onde-onde

I was talking to my mom the other day, when we chance upon an article in The Star newspaper about kuih making trades in Penang. There onward my mom was reminiscing the time when she was small and helping my grandma in making nyonya kuih. From there on only I knew that my mom knows a trick or two into making these wonderful treats.

I quickly make a date with my mom since I'm taking long leaves for CNY, asking her to teach me how to make onde-onde, one of my favorite kuih. She told me of the ingredients and off I went to Tesco to purchase the basic ingredients. I only manage to purchase brown sugar there. I was looking high and low for the glutinous rice flour but don't see any. My mom was a life saver when she said that she had plenty of those at home when I called her.

After I dropped William at the nursery, I went to meet my mom at the wet market to purchase coconut flakes. But the seller must still be in holiday mood since the stall did not open. We then had to improvise and make the flakes ourselves using electric blender with the matured coconut from my dad's coconut tree. With some screwpine leaves for its natural green coloring, and we are ready to go.

The method is exactly the same as making tang yuan ball, with addition of brown sugar as its fillings. In total we made 45 of them and I am quite happy with the results. Here's the photo that I've taken...

A True Legend

On the first day of CNY morning, as I was browsing thru the channels in Astro, I stumbled a documentary shown in History Channel about our legendary P. Ramlee. The show itself was already aired half-way but the title and the narration was really catching that I glued on to the tv.

It was a very heart-wrenching documentary, and it made me cry so badly. A legend known to all Malaysian, regardless of races, was rejected by the society and died in poverty. Regardless of so many amazing contributions he had given to the entertainment industry, nobody cared to support in his times of needs. In fact he was criticized and even booed at. He was very successful during his times in Singapore, winning numerous awards time over time. Returning to Malaysia to continue on his career was the beginning of his downfall due to lack of resources, technology and inexperienced people in Malaysia. Many can talk big but unable to act when need to. I guess some can relate to this even now.

Nowadays our government in trying to retain its talents within Malaysian shores, encouraging those overseas to come back. With P. Ramlee case as history to tell, it is hoped that it will not happen to those who came back in view of contributing back to the country.

P. Ramlee, you will always be remembered. A true legend to all Malaysians...

Hello 2011

This was supposed to be an early entry for this month, but with so many things going on here & there, it ended up being such a late entry :(

We did ended up 2010 with a new tradition introduced since 2009, a family karaoke gathering! Well, it was coincident with X'mas celebration as well. This round we went to Neway at QBM and booked a VIP room. The room itself can fit more than 20 people, and with attached toilet! A special thanks to my brother-in-law for organising and sponsoring this event.

William already started nursery school at since 3rd January this year. My mother-in-law was objecting this decision initially, saying that he's too young at only 26 months. But seeing how much improvement he had gained for the past weeks, she finally accepted it. However, William did cause a havoc on his first day. Running here & there, making things up-side-down. The first 3 days he was clingy but thereafter, he seems to be looking forward to go. The teacher there is doing very well compared to us in teaching him to speak new words. Even my hubby was tempted to sneak in the nursery to see how they do it.