Natsume Yuujinchou (Natsume's Book of Friends)

Been wanting to post a review of this anime for quite sometime ever since finished watching both seasons but just preoccupied with so many other things. First to give acknowledgement to this "http://www.minitokyo.net/Natsume+Yuujin-Chou" link for allowing me to get this nice picture (lazy to take a snapshot of the DVD casing that I have). Let's start with the plot summary written at the back of the DVD casing first:

"Natsume Takashi has the ability to see spirits, which he has long kept secret. However, once he inherits a strange book that belonged to his deceased grandmother, Reiko, he discovers the reason why spirits surround him. Containing the names of these spirits, a binding contract was formed between the spirits and the owner of the book. Now, Natsume is determined to free the spirits and dissolve the contracts. With the help of a spirit cat, his days are filled trying to return the names to these spirits."

Though it is something similar with xxxHolic and Mushishi, this is more light weight and extremely funny. The main plot in each episodes are not continuous, but some of the characters are repeated in certain episode, thus you will still need to watch it in sequence to understand why certain characters behaves in that manner. I especially love the spirit cat, which Natsume fondly calls him Nyanko-Sensei. Most of the comic scene comes from the cat *love love*.

The opening and ending theme songs of both seasons is very nice as well, which I planned to get the full version soon. The opening clip of the 2nd season is especially interesting. At first my hubby miss it alot of times, until I told him that it is a repeat clip, but with spirit included at the 2nd part that he realised its specialty. The tune of the song accompanying the clip gives it more depth.

Hooray for Breastfeeding

I've went to the World Breastfeeding Week event at USM last Saturday and I would say it was a very enjoyable moment. Some of the video presentations were an eye-opening to me, especially on Breast Crawl. It is a practise where straight after the baby is born, the baby would put on its mother's chest and the baby will instinctively crawl to the mother's breast to feed itself. Miraculously, the baby will not cry and instead, able to move its body and head slowly and steadily toward its food source and is able to latch on properly to feed without any help. Nature and life itself is really a wonderful thing.

In total, there are 360 mothers all over Malaysia breastfeed at the same time. Unfortunately, my William was too excited to look around his new environment too feed properly at that time. He is more interested to see how other baby feeds even though it is his feeding time. Guess seeing all these makes him not feeling hungry anymore :P. There's a newspaper clip on this as well: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/8/2/nation/4442125&sec=nation

Too bad I need to go back early, else I would have enrolled my William in baby crawling contest. Now.... to check on the photos taken posted in Facebook (that is if they already uploaded it)

Baby Sign Language

Came across this in the Internet, seems to be an upcoming fave in the western countries. The videos available in YouTube also very interesting and funny. Since baby can't really talk yet, usually they will cry to get attention and we need to figure out what is it that they want by trying one thing at a time. Teaching them how to sign is a way for them to communicate what they need or want as it is easier for them to express themselves at this age using this method. I've studied how to sign for mother, father, milk, water, sleep and eat already and has started to teach my William for past 2 nights. No progress so far as he's preoccupied with crawling and standing up at this moment, not to mention little support from the rest of the family. I will persists....

Black Month

This month seems to be a "black" month for me. My baby was hospitalized and even now still have running nose. I had cough myself since early this month and is still coughing even today. I really hope my baby and I can recover soon enough for the World Breastfeeding Week event and photo session this weekend.

William @ 8 Months

Time sure flies very fast, in a blink of an eye, 8 months had passed. In between, he had fever 3 times with him hospitalised during the last fever which he had last week. That fever lasted for 5 days, with a high over 39 degreeC for few days.

His recent medical checkup reveals he's now at 9.1kg and 71cm of length. I still breastfeed him directly, though he will bit me at times when he is cheeky. My tolerance level when babywearing him is not as good compared to few weeks back as he is getting heavier. At times I wish he would grow up slower as I want to wear him longer. I've bought myself a new ring and attached it to a piece of cloth that I bought from Kamdar. Wearing him using that newly DIY sling is much more easier and flexible compared to the baby sling that I bought previously. It does comes handy especially when he was sick and want to be held all the time. He sleeps more easily in the sling too.

Hmm... what else to mention? Oh! He can crawl now and is learning to stand up on his own. Last night he managed to pull himself up standing straight a few times, but still can't figure out very well how to sit back properly. He now have 2 tiny teeth popping out from his lower gum and prefers porridge to cereal and biscuits. Also I'm trying to wean him off from bottle by giving him a sippy cup to drink water from, and hopefully he is able to feed himself next month. There are others that protested not letting him to feed himself yet, but I'll give it a try still. I can see that he is trying to do that when I feed him by grabbing my spoon and shove it into his mouth from his tiny hands, though the coordination is off :P

He also likes to throw things around and teaching him to put back his things now is hopeless. Telling him 'No' is also pointless. He will just look at the thing, look at you, smile, look back at the thing and just do the things he not supposed to do. I'm taking him for a studio photograph session soon and is looking for some cute outfits for him to wear on that session. Just can't wait to see how the phototaking session will be like.

World Breastfeeding Week 2009

Every year the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) and UNICEF hold what’s called the World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) during the first week of August to promote breastfeeding the world over. The Mother-to-Mother Peer Support (MMPS) group in Facebook that I had joined recently will be holding an event as well in view of the world breastfeeding week.

This event will be on 1st August 2009, at Dewan Kuliah A, USM Campus (opposite CIMB bank) from 9.30 a.m. – 1.30 p.m. Itenaries includes interactive talks on breastfeeding during emergencies as the theme this year is “Breastfeeding: A Vital Emergency Response. Are you Ready?” and games for families. The significant event will be “One-Minute Simultaneous Breastfeeding” throughout the ENTIRE MALAYSIA. Breastfeeding mothers that unable to attend to this event venue may join the “One-Minute Simultaneous Breastfeeding” from the comfort of their home as well.

For more information, you may call at 016-4211782, email pgmmps@gmail.com or visit MMPS blog at http://pgmmps.wordpress.com/. As pre-registration is required for this event, you will need to email to pgmmps@gmail.com.

My Mickey Convoy

Hehe... just can't resist to post my new Mickey Convoy here which I got during Transformers Convention in QBM recently. Basically you can see 3 Mickey Mouse here. One as the transformed mouse, one on top of the transformed mouse head and another behind the wheel in truck mode.

Heard rumors that Donald Duck will be next in line, being a bumblebee.