Turning 8 months

Jung turned 8 months old last Sunday.

This little boy of ours had a nickname, cili padi. We thought of the name because he is so tiny compared to his brother at birth and even now :)..but not his voice and cries, it is super loud, clear and ALARMING!! So that's why, cili padi.

Being little, this little one is very very agile and fast. He already crawling with his limps and not on tummy any more at about time just pass 7months. He was already learning how to stand 2 weeks ago and already cruising his way about the same too. Now it is his exploration period and he would go round the house checking and biting things. This, of course, includes visiting the toilet if we forget to close the door...

He got this bad running nose germ either from his father or brother a couple of weeks back and with that, with us forcing him to drink his medicine, with the bunch of teeth trying to push their way out of his gum, his voice was at the loudest mode for weeks now and whowww, that was truly something to EXPERIENCE, babe! :P

Oh yes, a bunch of teeth alright! From one tooth, all of the other teeth (5 of them) decided that it is about time and while making their way out, my boy was at his most irritable period; he bites almost anything to ease himself. Toys, papers, plastics and today I just realised that he bit his spoon too and the plastic thingy chipped off and ok, where is that tiny bit now?? Don't ask me.

He loves the outdoor. He loves the playground and we can surely see that he is so different from his brother.

Hair? Still curly and wavy as ever and thicker now. I just gave the brothers a hair cut the other day. One ended up with a mushroom hairstyle and the other gave up the Korean Star quality already.

What a bundle of joy.

Neighbour

The other day, I decided to take the boys down for a walk. On the way out, I saw my neighbour with her grandson both standing outside the house with a guard probing the lock. She, an Iranian, with her very broken English, said that the key was broken and stuck. She said it should be alright, the guard is helping her anyway.

I had not spoken to this very neighbour of mine though they had moved in for maybe 6 months now. Yeah, bad. Real bad of me right, so snobbish and UN-friendly. I know. But apartment living is like this I suppose. You lockthe door and you just don't see anybody else. I can't be knocking their door and say HELLO?? So the most is an occasional HELLO if we bump into each other in the lift. And the worst part is, I go out of the house during the non-peak hours, so to be frank, I hardly know my neighbours - horizontally (same floor ) or vertically (worse still). BUT BUT BUT I do see their maids though. Most maids and old folks bring the kids down to play and I am more 'familiar' with these faces...duh...

So back to my story...

When I got down, it started to drizzle, so I picked up the letters and went up straight. She was still there. Without any hesitant, I invited her in the house. Apparently the guard could not fix it and he had to get a locksmith. I talked to the locksmith over the phone, I knew he must be a Chinese somehow and it would be better if I do the talking. He said the fix would cost RM120 and asked whose house was that. I said my neighbour, an Iranian family. I told the old lady about the price, she said she does not have that much now but her son will be back soon. I told the him to come, I will pay first. He said DON'T. He said his experience with these people are NOT GOOD. They don't pay and asked me not to do this, just forget about it. I steadfastly assured him that I would pay. 'DON'T.WORRY.JUST.COME!' I think I am doing the right thing. Even if the son does not pay me later, I don't want the poor lady to be stranded out with the 2.5 yo and it was near dinner time!

So while waiting, we had a 'conversation' (see, it is quite hard to grab what she meant with her limited vocabs) and the boys were enjoying each other companion and started playing.

Soon after, hubby came back and this handy man of mine took less than 30 seconds to probe open the door. The old lady was so relieved. I called off the locksmith and he was relieved too. :P

ALL SET and the best thing was that sets on our friendships. My Jien happily strut in their house and played with his new friend and refused to come back home until we had to drag him back for his dinner.

The other day, the lady cook us a bowl of yummy Iranian noodle soup. All ingredients flown in from Middle East. It is very rich and delicious.

I am glad that it all turns out so rosy and sweet.

Growing Lettuce

Hmmm..it seems that you girls out there want to try out this greenie lettuce heh??

Step 1 : I got my seed from Ace Hardware shop (or any hardware shop in the mall).. Funny though, for something so soft like this, you find the seeds in a HARDware shop...well, go to the end of the shop, you will find a gardening section. They sell tomato seeds, sun flower seeds, cucumber seeds, choy sum seeds, etc etc in small packet. Cheap. RM2 maybe.

Next -Soil. Good one would be the black organic soil. Next, get some pots suitable for planting vege..it has to be quite deep. I got myself a long small tub-looking plastic thing as I don't have the energy to transport it. I can't recall the exact cost, maybe RM 8. Well, if you have a plot of land to plant, then no need pots ler....

Step 2: Just plonk the seeds into the soil, and water the plants twice a day. They are forever so thirsty!!

Step 3: Sun it. Afternoon sun could be too hot if leave direct.

Step 4: Separate the tiny ones once they started shooting up to about an inch or so. They need space to grow.

Step 5 : Keep watering them twice a day. When you wash your rice, keep the water to water the plant. :P By the way, too much water might rot them, so I prefer them in pots so that I can 'transport' them if need be( if kena too much rain water, they tend to rot)

And by a month plus, you would be able to see the greeny leaves growing nicely and by 2.5 months or so, they should end up on your breakfast table then!

Good luck!

3rd Harvest

Our 3rd harvest is by far the most successful one. I had 2 batches of the seeds planted at 2 weeks intervals and as I had used the previous seeds from my last batch, I have got too much to plant!!

So we ended up eating fresh lettuce (psss..no pesticides!) almost EVERY MORNING!

LOVE IT!

Getting Older

Oh yes! It was my birthday. Last Monday. I had a few days' celebration, as usual. We started warming up the event by celebrating it with my most precious people on earth - Hubby and my 2 beloved boys. Yes, a dinner at Bijou, Mon't Kiara. Lovely. I love the interior decoration. I have no idea how is the food but just looking at the ID in the papers, I said go ahead and try. The result? No regret. :P Best of all, we had the restaurant almost to ourselves as the patrons that came after us went to another section of the restaurant, so yes, ALL to ourselves. So we don't have to worry about our boys annoying the romantic ambiance...hmmm....and ahHHH...ERR...too dark??!! Hello, I cannot read the menu! Gosh!! Am I too old or was it really too dark?! And seeing and pity this ah soh, the waiter then adjusted the dimmer and it was all then COZY and WARMTH. :p

Then, the next day, we had a celebration with my in-law. Yeah, they seemed to remember my birthday WELL. Not my father, not my brothers.......We had Japanese food and then a lovely cake from the kids. I selected the green tea cake from Lavender and it was good!! Not too sweet and the texture is smooth and it just melt in the mouth....Maybe order the same thing for Jien's birthday...keke

Then, it was my REAL b'day on Monday. Hubby gotta leave for Taiwan. WORK. And I have to slog like crazy having fetch Jien to and fro his 'school'. I had decided not to overwork myself and my maid during this testing time of not having hubby to assist, so NO DINNER at home. We went out for dinner! Yes, with baby and all!! And WE.MADE.IT.THROUGH!! It was enjoyable, completely relaxing (for I had expected the worst) but but BUT things turned out rosy. Ahhh.. The boys behaved themselves like angels! :)

This year I received the most birthday wishes I think. Online wishes. Thanks to FB! Geez.....amazing! But it was sweet. :) Thanks to all my frenz out there for the warm wishes (I even received a card from a friend who is actually traveling now in Egypt), thank you all !! muak muak hug hugz!

Yoga

Jung's favourite pose for the past 2 weeks.

Mickey in Jien's Eyes

miska........muska.........

MICKEY MOUSE!


Illustrated by : Jien

Wonderful 7 months- Jung

Jung turned 7 months old last week.

At 7 months, he is now sitting up straight on his own without support, and he is 'crawling' by dragging his lower body, at quite an amazing speed across our stretch of carpet. He must have hit himself a couple of times hard on his head that he rarely venture any further then the carpet - his territory for now. Haha!

He eats 3x cereals a day. 2 BIG spoonful mix. I tried him on pumpkin but he seems to not quite enjoy it. Ahhhh...so the lazy part of me tells me, nevermind la, just feed cereal!! So cereal for the last 1 month! [OK OK, I will prepare something this week....guilty liao] Of late, he loves eating bread and 'rice', I guess it is time to prepare some other solid food to let him try.....[feeling more guilty as I am writing this..]

His favourite person is NOT me, sigh.........but his DAD (well, I should be glad that it is not my maid!!). He wants his dad to carry him down to the park, twice a day!! That smile he gave when he saw his dad back from work is so so so sweet and no wonder hubby is so willingly walking him even if he is so darn tired after a whole day's work. Well, a bit of jealousy yes (*sob sob*)[hey, I am still breasting feeding you little monster at midnight ya know?!] but I am torn apart with so many things to take care, so I am really grateful for hubby helps me A LOT by taking him away from me!!

My baby is still weighing light - only around 8kg now. He got his little TOOTH about 2 weeks ago and last few days, he caught mild fever and we were suspecting of another one springing up soon.

His crowning glory is so thick and wavy - I just love it!! Anyways, it is getting too long in fact and we are thinking of trimming it but I still can't picture him sitting STILL so the idea is shelved for the moment.

It is funny seeing him growing fast. On one hand I feel so glad with the thought that I could go out with 2 running boys - swimming, trekking, diving and having more freedom but at the same time, knowing that this would be my last baby, I just hope that time would go a bit slower for me to savor every bit of it all!

Buzzing bee

Busy busy busy..

Woke up around 7.30am everyday, feed baby, then get myself ready. Have my breakfast then put baby to sleep.

Then sneak a little bit of time to read e-mails/facebook and start work. Pick up Jien in the school around 12pm, bathe him, feed him and myself and spend about half an hour or more with the kids while my helper have her lunch and clean up the mess in the kitchen.

Then work *disturbance* - work - work *baby cry* - work *Jien knocking on the door*........work...break....break...duh..

...then express milk in the evening. Prepare dinner, bathe, eat my dinner with super speed (while feeding Jien) then put my punctual baby (8pm) to sleep.

Only then, I can start to unwind a little. Read a bit of paper or book, chat with hubby a bit (poor him, so little time for him!). By 10pm, prepare to sleep and we sort of 'take turn' reading to Jien and 10.30 - pengsan.

Come weekends, the working part will be replaced by seminars, marketing, taking care of the kids(helper on leave what...) but in a somewhat relaxed manner.

Psss..........actually I enjoyed it when I go out for meeting (that is when my maid is taking care of the 2 monsters). On the journey, I try to relax myself. At least, it is a consolation that I have my 'own' time!

So another baby to come??? Nuhhhhh.......With this kind of schedule? You gotta be kidding me!

Drips

No, my house taps are ok, no drips and no leaking.

It is my milk supply - drips, only.

It is just ONE day out and missing schedule to express and there you go, drips only.

I am SAD!! I want to continue breast feeding my baby - for at least another 6 months from now! But alas so little. It is either I stay at home so that I can boost up the supply again (which is kind of impossible lately, lots of meeting etc!!) or I should just give in to formula...

I try the formula for his cereal and he seems to enjoy it. (unlike his brother who rejected any other drink except mama's milk)

I guess I just have to be contented with mixing both now.

Arrhhhh........I am SAD!

Should I stop??

It was a girl-night-out again with my buddies. As usual, great conversations, good food and great fun.

This time we happened to mention about blogging again. And the girls were a bit worry on security that one may 'mark' you and hence had pulled out all her pictures in the blogs. Wow. Serious. And the other would not even think of starting a blog for the same reason.

Hmmmm.......I felt threaten and being watched and my hands were sweating liao!!!

Hang on la...look at the few little 'cats' that pop into my website, hardly reach 10!! Marked? Popular blogger maybe la!! I don't blog hop and I never did. So people like Karen, Lydia, Mott, Clair, Pu1Pu3 were all blogs that I HAPPEN to read and some have become friends of mine now. Fated? Maybe...;P

Then again, some of the blogs that I read started to 'close shop' or inactive in other words. Maybe blogging is indeed a waste of time?

Well, as for now, I still write. I treat it as a channel to vent my views, my love, my happiness, my mood and to share it with the one I love(hubby of course) and friends who care to read and share some views with me.

I wish that this could be a gift to my sons when they grow up too. They will then probably know more about themselves when they are tiny and of course hopefully, they will learn more about their mother too. As simple as that.

Maybe one day, I will stop posting pictures of mine and both the boys. Y'know, for privacy of us all or perhaps poof........I will disappear without any notice but for now, I enjoy blogging and blog I will.

Popular Student

I think my boy is a popular kid in school. When I fetch him from school, there would be kids running to the door and said 'xx, 你的媽媽來了!!' . Different kids but all seems to know his name pretty well!!

Reasons:

1. He speaks English, whereas the rest are Mandarin spoken kids. Lately, I notice even the teachers sometimes speak to him in English. See how ONE person can influence the rest?? Lets just say that my boy is so hard headed and refuse to learn Mandarin...duh...

2. He hardly eat ANYTHING prepared by the school, I mean his brunch aka tea breaks. His teachers even told me to bring something for him just in case he is starved (for a SINGLE meal??)

Well, he is a growing kid alright, so we always keep things in his bag : biscuits, corn flakes, cakes, muffins, potatoes w fry eggs etc.........Sometimes the food container is emptied - we started wondering if our boy actually eat it or it is his trick to make him 'popular' by distributing the food ?? Hmmmm....looks like a politician in the making yeah??

3. He 'sings' his 三字經、弟子規 already and I really need to buck up a little!! Now for a person know next to zero about Mandarin to memorize breezily on this literature stuff, don't you think he is amazing??

p/s : try it on ANY kids who do nothing but to sing it EVERYDAY, you will have a kid who sings literature in a month's time. As I said before this, to put logic and meaning to kids at this age is like pulling a bull up the tree but memorizing things........you sure lose to them!


4. He is always late for class....(sounds very much like his mother)


5. For quite some time, my boy wee wee in his class. (The situation is better controlled now, no more wee wee thingy for the past 2 weeks already!)


See how popular my boy can be?? For the wrong reasons....of course!

Going Solid

Jung is a week away turning 6 month-old. I can't help but to compare him with his giant brother at 5 months old. Jien is around 9.35 kg and my poor baby is now only 7.35kg!! A good 2kg behind.

He is a small 'drinker'. He would be satisfied by 'clearing' one side of the breasts. When I grab him and force him the other, he would stretch himself, or even CRY to let me know - I AM DONE!! Goodness.

And I blame it on his curiosity and playfulness too. He would rather play than drink!! Imagine!! His drinking time - midnight when mama wants to rest...crazy.

Off late, he had been showing signs, lots of it that he would want to try some other food. So the other day, we gave him a biting biscuit to ease his itchy gum. He enjoyed it so MUCH and actually bit off quite a big chunk of it!! Yesterday, I mixed some rice cereal for him with expressed milk, making sure it is not too thick for the first timer. The result?










































Clean sweep and a happy baby!!


Oh boy...is he underfed before this?? hmmm.........

5.5 mo - Cheeky

@ 5.5mo, my Jung is so cheeky and smiles A LOT!

He behaves so well when we go out so we love going out with him now. He would be so busy watching EVERYTHING!!

He loves hanging out with his brother. He would go near him, touch him, pull his shirt, his hair, his pants, grab his bottle and plunging 'wet' kisses on him and the next thing you know, Jien would be wiping his face and give Jung that 'yucky' look...cute!

Inspired

Being busy can be so numbing at times at you just can't seems to breath properly sometimes. I feel like I am drowning at times!

Coming across some interesting articles could just lift up the spirit and at least, hit my brain with a big signal to ponder and think of what I can do and what should I DO...next..

Weeks ago as I browsed through (note : browse, hardly have time to really enjoy my Sin Chew Daily now) the papers, I came across a short article (note the word short).

It was about a group of Taiwanese who went to Germany for study and training course. They were always in a rush, so the 'leader' ordered a lot of food just in case the group are hungry. Apparently they had ordered too much food. There were about a third of the food left over. After settling the bill, they hurried and left. An old lady who happened to be in the restaurant rushed out to call this young chap

'Young men, there are still so much food left over! Don't you want to finish your food first?'

Annoyed, the leader was wondering why this old lady is so busy body 'I had paid the bill and we are all full already!'

'But you are WASTING food!'

None of your biz??

Well, the old lady must have created some kind of commotion and later she called the public affairs authority and you know what, the Taiwanese kena SAMAN!

This is what I like the most about what the officer said :
'Yes, you have paid for the food, but you are not only wasting YOUR food, you are WASTING the world's and EVERYBODY's rights to RESOURCES!'

Does this strike you some way? It struck me.


x x x x

I had an old pal in Penang, I called him Lolo - in tagalog, it means 'grandpa'.

He had put in a lot of effort in gathering the public to make organic mud ball. And turning the rivers in Penang clear once again...

Amazing.

x x x x

Yesterday in Star papers,a young architect had designed his house to be a growing green house.

He is doing his part as a designer...........

Now, what can I do to offer ?

Hmmmm....