Sara : 11 months

Okay, this is an overdue post, Sara is almost 1 year old. Yikes. How time flies!!! Actually, she can walk on her own already. BUT, I still say that she can't because she can't seem to stand up on her own. We need to prop her into standing position and there she goes, walking like nobody's business. Heh, lazyBUM. After we came back from Melbourne, she has developed some kind of attitude change AND IT WAS NOT GOOD. It feels like the terrible two phase has arrived early. She wanted to be held ALL THE TIME, she cried for no reason, she refuses to eat, she doesn't finish her milk, her toilet training has gone haywire and OH MY GOD, she consumes soooo much energy from me and my mum.

When she recovered her health, she still have the mood swing attitude where everything is wrong to her. Until one day (last Saturday, I think), she had food poisoning. Again. Gahhh!!! Bad Mommy!!! But, the silver lining this time is she's back to her normal happy self. Yeay!!! She eats as usual, loves playing peek-a-boo and finishes her 200ml milk. Double yeay!!!

She's quite her daddy's daughter and her Nenek's grandchild. Reason : she can said Nenek and Babah perfectly. For some reason, she also can said Kakak perfectly.

She has four teeth now, two upper teeth and two bottom teeth. However, we constantly have to remind her to chew on her food because she'll just swallow everything without chewing.

She still hasn't reach 10kgs yet and she's getting thinner, no thanks to the flu. But, she got so tall, I have buy pants and skirts for size 3 years old. Ha!

Oh, and she is such a scaredy cat, she's afraid of almost everything. Haha! Okay, fine, she got that from me. ;p Our usual dialog will go something like this:

Mummy : Sara, see that cat? Bad cat. Mummy is scared. Are you scared?
Sara : (with big round eyes clasping her hand to her chest) SCAREDDDDDD.....

Oh, she can "salam" people now. And, if u ask real nice, she might give you a peck in the cheek as well ;)

Trip to down under Part 2

So, there goes two days of our holiday thanks to the malicious Melbourne weather. We didn't even get to see Che Su's graduation day :(

It seems such a waste traveling all this way just to fall sick. So, we braced ourselves and went shopping. The night before, me and my mum stayed awake (well, my mum mostly) taking care of Sara. On Thursday, we went to DFO (Direct Factory Outlet) in Essendon. The prices are quite reasonable, although lots of clothing are cheaper in Malaysia during sale. My mom initially wanted to buy Corelle or Corningware sets but forgo that intention seeing the prices. She said its cheaper in Langkawi. Heh.
On Friday, since both of us are feeling better, so we went to Victoria market to get some souvenirs. This time, although the weather was quite warm, I layered Sara with three layers of clothing. I bought Sara and Babah matching sweaters so that they can jog together. Haha! As if that's going to happen ;p

gambar selingan : doing the "Yana" smile ;p

I'm also very impressed with Melbourne's map. The streets, although rather complicated, are easy to navigate. (TIP for using a map - I will tilt the map according to the road I am on, so that there will be no confusion when turning left or right. Works everytime. Haha)

On Saturday, we decided to have a picnic in a park nearby. Initially, we wanted to go see some kangaroos or any other animal but we weren't feeling up to it. We took lots of photos and this is my favourite photo of Sara.
All in all, the trip to Melbourne was not all fun because we were sick and we didn't even get to see Che Su's graduation. To Yana, congratulations!! I hereby consent you taking 1 month off doing nothing. You know you EARNED it. Love you to bits!!!
Nota kaki : Setibanya kami di Malaysia, mata Sara yang layu dan kuyu terus menjadi segar diiringi senyuman yang memekar di bibirnya yang mungil. Saya dan adik saya serta-merta berkata "Hujan emas di negeri orang, hujan batu di negeri sendiri, lebih baik di negeri sendiri". Saya sayang Malaysia. ;)

Trip to down under Part 1

The plan was to see Che Su's big day. No, not her wedding...her graduation day ;) We flew to Melbourne on Sunday afternoon. I made sure Sara had her lunch before boarding the flight and we tire her with some serious playtime in the airport to get her sleeping when we took off. The plan worked ;)

I booked the seat online to make sure I can use the baby bassinet. Little did I know my baby was actually a tad too big for the bassinet. Well, she did sleep soundly in it though.In terms of flying with AirAsia, they certainly have leaps and bounds to improve especially on the customer relation part. Even the basic rule such as smiling to your customers was not obeyed by the stewardess. I'd definitely travel with MAS from now on.

Sara was such a good baby in the plane. She even looked at a toddler who is crying and gave him a look that says "This is how you should behave in a flight. Stop torturing others with your endless crying" Okay, fine, Mummy said that, not her innocent little angel. ;p

We arrived in Melbourne at 1am and was greeted by the breezing cold weather. We passed through immigration and custom with no problem (I anticipated one as I had to bring along Sara's fm).

Believe it or not, first thing we did when we arrive was...cooking! None of us had dinner yet, so we were kind of famished. We had a hot dinner (I meant that literally because dear Nenek put too much chilli in the nasi goreng) and fell asleep minutes later.

We woke up around 10am Australian time which is 3 hours earlier than our time which makes me a morning person. Yeay!!

The agenda today was to take graduation photos at RMIT studios. Basically, a very relaxed and non stressful activity. Che Su said that its going to be a hot day, only her HOT means COLD TO THE BONES in Malaysian language. I guess she did live here too long. We were gritting our teeth throughout the day.

We had lunch at an Indonesian restaurant, then head home. During the night, Sara felt a little feverish. I felt fine, so I thought it was just the body trying to adjust. HOWEVER, when both of us woke up in the morning, everyone was sick, except for Nenek and Cik Ngah.

Day 2 : Mummy and Sara is down with fever in the down under. Pardon the pun ;p. Will be continued in Part 2.

The Amazing Race Season 15

I am an avid watcher of The Amazing Race. I have been watching it since season 1 and it is my most favourite reality tv series. Usually, my favourite team are family team (Nancy & Emily, Lena & Kristy) or couples with functional relationship (Rob & Amber, Kris & Jon).

This season which ended last Monday was a bit of a let down to me. None of the teams were memorable, and Sam and Dan are the worst stupid jerk on the show. And Meghan and Cheyne winning? No surprises there. However, watching the season finale makes me wonder how wil I be like if I were to join The Amazing Race. More importantly, who would I choose for a partner? Hee, God knows I'm not such an easy person to get along with, especially under stressful environment.

I will definitely not enter this kind of competition with dear hubby. I do love him dearly, BUT we will butt head over the slightest thing. Me + Hubby = combustible arguments. Heh. My list of choices includes:

1) My sister Yanie for her sense of direction
2) My sister Yana for her compatibility with me in MOST aspects
3) Mama Idraki for her mad driving skills ;)
4) Mummy Allysha for her problem solving skills
5) Ikmal for his ability to comprehend and assess a situation ;p
6) Kak El for her dependability and TOUGHness
7) Abg Mi for his dare devil and athleticity
8) En Pian for his uncanny ability of thinking WAYYYY outside the box
9) Cik Piza for her analytical thinking
10) Combination of Haris (for his level headedness) and Aril (for his funny bone..hihi)

Now, if only I can find such a person that has all the above attribute and who is willing to travel with a big headed-always need to be right-egotistical-will get angry if not fed properly woman, please call. We can go for The Amazing Race Asia together!!! Ha..ha..ha

LIGHT packing for a BIG trip

Seriously, how do you travel light with a baby? We will be going to Melbourne for Che Su's graduation this Sunday. THIS SUNDAY. Yikes. I know it is not such a big deal, but I am a bit worried because this will be the very first time Sara on a flight.

I've made a checklist *clap clap* of all the things to bring which can be categorized into this:

1) FEEDING - bib, spoon, hands&mouth wipes, foods (oats with prunes, rusks biscuits and heinz jar), milk bottle, flask, formula milk, milk container
2) CLOTHING - at least 8 pants, 12 tops, sweater, cardigan among other things.
3) DIAPERING - baby wipes, 10 pcs of napkin, 2 pcs of CDs, disposable diapers.
4) TOILETRIES - minyak telon, sebamed, aiken powder, johnsons powder
5) MEDICINE - antiseptic cream, tystatin
6) OTHERS - pacifier, toys, her favourite bunny pillow, blanket, small towel, rubber mat, detergen.

I know some of the things can be bought there but WHAT IF the taste is different, or she doesn't like it or she wants to eat it on the plane? (I am OVERthinking it, I know ;p)

Okay. Here's to hoping that I will not forget anything important. Hee...

Toilet training

All of my siblings are toilet trained quite early. We haven't even reach two years old when we are fully toilet trained. My dad always insisted for us to start toilet train Sara, so when she develops this, we figured we might as well toilet train her.

It is extremely hard to toilet train your child when she cannot speak yet. Lucky for me that Sara doesn't pee when she sleeps. We put her on the old-fashioned napkins when she's awake and nothing on when she sleeps. Her butt looked so cute by the way. Hihi.

She wakes up around 6am (with dry nappy), we took her to the toilet and she pees. Yeay!! We put nappy on, let her play, then she'll take a short morning nap. We open her nappy when she took her nap, brought her to the toilet when she wakes up and she pees. Double yeay!! During the evening nap, we took her nappy off, then when she wakes up around 5pm, again we took her to the toilet and she pees. Triple yeay!!!

All day on nappy cost us about 15 nappy changes. Whew!! I'm so lucky Sara is under Nenek's care. I don't know anybody aside from the parents that are willing to toilet train this early. So, here's to hoping this journey will come to an end quickly. *winks*

Rashes and yeast infection on my baby :(

My Sara have sensitive skin, so she has been using Sebamed since day 1. She has had rashes here and there, but nothing unusual. Until she began to develop this nasty little flaring red rashes on her neck.

To top that off, she also began to develop white thingy ulser like blotches in her mouth. I brought her to the clinic and the doctor prescribed OralAid (some kind of oral thrush medication). Apparently, if not curbed early, these white thingy can turn into red patches that will hurt her during feeding. So, we applied the creams that the doctor prescribed us religiously.

The doctor also told us that Sara's hair is too long at the back of the neck, so we'll need to cut it off as it accumulates sweat. Oh well, off we go to Sara's first hair cut.

notice the shortER hair?

But, it has been almost two weeks. The nasty red rashes begin to appear on her butt, and also on the labia. We went to two clinics on Putrajaya, but none of them offer any credible explanation. They just pass the thing off as something normal that will occur to the baby. Gahhh!! We were sooo frustrated. And guilty because Sara was such a good baby, she never scratch her neck, she never cries and she always finishes her milk (she drank 200ml 4-5 times a day)

Anyway, last weekend we went to a wedding in Kuantan and my dad suggested we go to this clinic where he used to take us when we were sick. It has been almost 30 years (the kind doctor has been treating me since I'm still inside my mum's tummy) and the clinic still haven't changed. The doctor has aged gracefully, still kind and offers a complete and thorough explanation about what Sara has. Now that is what I call a doctor. Someone who explain the sickness we have, how it started, how it can be treated and most importantly, how to avoid it in the future.

It appears that my little angel has a fungal/yeast infection called candida. Anybody interested can google it up. In my case, since Sara is hyperhidrosis (extreme sweating), she is easily exposed to this kind of infection. It is best for her not to wear any type of diaper, even cloth diaper as her sweat plus urine can be a perfect place for the fungus to grow. The doctor gave us an antiseptic cream for her rashes and "Tystatin" for her mouth.

AND THEY WORK WONDERS!!! The rashes didn't magically disappear but there has been radical changes. The doctor also advised us to avoid wearing diapers, if possible, so we are now on another journey, the toilet training journey. Yeay!! *rolls eyes*

Welcome...

Hi peeps,

Nice to see u here. Have a lot of things to tell, will must find time to update. *wink*

p/s Thanks for coming to my new "home"

Maternity

I was driving when I heard the hot chat segment on hot fm regarding English misinterpretation. And this brought to mind, one particular incident involving The Lovely Person (TLP) and The Other Lovely Person (TOLP). Names are not revealed to protect their interest. Heh.

This incident happened in SOGO. As usual, during sale, we were frantically shopping when I come across a lovely blouse.

Me : Cantiknya blouse ni...(and come closer to have a look. TLP and TOLP is right by my side)
Me : Ala, baju maternity la pulak...
TLP and TOLP : Oh...

(and we walk away)

Me : (suddenly remebers that TLP often misinterpret meaning of words)
Me : TLP tau ke baju maternity tu apa?
TLP : (in all honesty) I know...I know....tu brand baju yang mahal tu kan
Me and TOLP : stood motionless for 5 seconds than burst out laughing like hyenas. I think our peal of laughter could be heard all the way to Pertama Complex.

Sara : 10 months

Its been a while since Sara went to the clinic (2 months to be exact), so we have no idea how much she weigh. Last week, she went to the clinic with Nenek (Mommy has a meeting) and guess what? She weigh 9.2 kgs and only 74cm in lenght (I guess she's gonna be petite, like her Mak Tok ;p)

She can crawl for almost two weeks, so now she has moved in to another phase, the trying-to-stand-up phase. If she get a hold on something i.e sofa, chair or even Atuk, she can stand up on her own. Her struggling face to stand up (complete with sound effect) is too cute to watch ;)

Her favourite TV commercial is everyone connects by TM. She'll drop whatever she's doing upon hearing the Bunkface's song in that commercial. That one time, she was already asleep when the commercial aired. She opened her eyes, watched the commercial and rolls to her side and falls asleep the moment the commercial ended. Cuteness overload.

She knows a lot of things now. She can point to flower, butterfly, cat and she even knows how to differentiate between the TV remote and the fan remote. She'll hold the remote in her hand, point upwards for the fan remote, and point to the TV for the TV remote. My baby is a genius. Haha!

What else...Hmm, at 10 months, she knows her nose, her head, she can crawl and get her comb and proceed to comb her own hair. She seems to know a lot of things, and I'm pretty sure she understands us most of the time. She knows how to reason and can be patient if we talk nicely to her. For example, when I put her in the high chair and she's all excited to eat, but her porridge is still too hot for her. She'll start to scream and sort of get mad like"I want food now!!!" (so like Mommy, always impatient when it comes to food). I'll just say, "Sara, be patient. It's too hot for you. Wait, okay" and she'll calm down. Gotta love her for that. :)

And last but not least, her physical aspect. Her hair got soooooo long, we have to tie it "pokok kelapa". With her big round eyes, she looks just like a samurai. Heh.

Sexy Baby

I have a list of things that I want my kid to learn. One of it is swimming. Since I can't swim (don't know why, but my body just refuse to float. Heh), I am adamant about the fact that all my child have to know how to swim. So, to kickstart this ambition, I bought Sara her first swimsuit.

Hah! Too cute, I know :) Here's to hoping Sara and Mommy will finally go on the swimming lesson I always wanted. It's kinda hard to find a place for swimming lesson for mothers with babies in this area. Suggestion, anyone?

Smoke gets in your eyes - in my case, they went straight to my lung...uhuk!!uhuk!!

You'll never guess what tempted me to write this post. Well, this post is written to rant about my beloved b*ss who smokes cigars (cheap ones, and they smell like trash!) in the office. Personally I do, sincerely, I do understand the need to smoke, the addiction to it. I'm not complaining about smoking per se, I'm simply mad to those who smokes in public places, to those who smokes in air-conditioned, confined spaces.

I don't hate smokers, majority of smokers I know are very good people with pleasant personality. What I hate about smokers is when they have utter disregard for other's health. Don't you guys know that the smokes you emit can do harm to us, the non-smokers?? Have you no brain inside that big head of yours? Or have your brain gone poofed, along with the smokes you puff everyday??

I still remember this one incident (please keep in mind that this happened when I was only fourteen, hence the language. Heh)

This incident happened in a bus full of passengers. My friend and I were lucky enough to have a seat. All was good, until suddenly, one teenage boy in his school outfit (SMK Teknik Kulim..haha) started to lit his cigarrette and proceed to pour the ashes on top of my friend's head. The hell???

Me : I thought this is a non-smoking bus
Him : Kecoh aa lu minah. Lu ape hal??
Me : Hmm, tak sangka babi pandai berkata-kata
Him and all the other passenger on the bus : ..........
Him and all his friends after 10 seconds : Macamla bagus sangat!!! Blah la lu!! (and all other sentence in that form) Me : *Whatever. I feel victorious. Bluekkkk!!!*

KATAKAN TAKNAK PADA MEROKOK!!

Bad Mommy!!!!

I am known for my complacent attitude, my wait-n-see outlook in life. For example, I know that Sara can crawl and we've taken safety measures by sleeping on a mattress without bed (on the floor).

However, silly me left her upstairs WITHOUT closing the room door which is just adjacent with the stairs. What if she got up and crawl to the stairs and fall down 20 steps??!!! I'll kill myself if I let that happen. Gahhhh!!! Bad Mommy!!!

Must.Never.Let.That.Happen.Again.

Baby Food : Congee with Soup

Since earlier this week, Sara seems a little bit bored of her usual meal. So, I decided to introduce her to congee with soup. Yum!!

My recipe is quite simple, really.

1 small shallot
1 small garlic
2 cups of water
2 large pieces of poultry (chicken/meat/fish)
Approximately 2 tablespoon of veggies (carrots/potatos/spinach)
Approximately 1 tablespoon of celery
1 tablespoon of oil
A teenie weenie bit of salt

Heat the oil. Add the shallot and garlic and fry. Add water, wait to boil then add poultry and celery. I usually add the veggies when the soup is almost cooked to retain the nutrients. Since Sara isn't teething yet, sometimes I'll blend the poultry and veggies with her congee.

My current addiction ;)

I feel somewhat ashamed admitting this, but I am now officially an addict to this :

It has been a long time dream for me to own a cute little cafe (because I like cooking cafe meals). Tak dapat own yang real pun, virtual pun jadilah ;)

Papadom rocks!!

Last Wednesday night, my sister, hubby and I went to watch the much talked about Papadom. And I have to say that it does live up to its reputation.
Personally, I think it is Afdlin's best movie yet. The father-daughter relationship is so heartwarming to see. The comedy scenes were also refreshing to watch, there were no slapstick jokes thrown around. Even Harun Salim Bachik who is known for his somewhat slapstick jokes manage to tone down his usual spirit to more suit the humour in this movie.

Norkhiriah, as always was wonderful. Vanida looks sooooo beautiful and I think no other actress could have played the character Miasara better than Liyana Jasmay. Sure, she can seem precocious and a bit pretentious at times but hey, it works with the character.

I also love Que Haidar in this movie and I think he has potential to become a very good comedy actor. One more thing worth mentioning is Mia's bestfriend, Yvonne. I think Chelsia Ng is a great actress who is greatly under-estimated by lots of people. Farid Kamil and Scha were good, but that is to be expected.

I would have like to see more of their relationship while Mia is growing up. For example, the first time Mia got her period. That would have add more depth to their relationship, I think. I would also like to see more of Mia's friendship with Yvonne and maybe more information on Saadom's and Mia's extended family. A Nenek or Opah would be nice to see ;)

I was switching from laughing and crying throughout the movie. Overall, I think this movie is on a different league than all movies in Malaysia, no wonder they bagged all the major awards in FFM. Papadom rocks!! and as he said, Power to the people ;)

She Crawls!!!!!!

Yeay!!

Bibik - extra help or extra work?

I have heard soooo many talks about having a bibik (maid) in the house. Some agrees that its good having an extra set of hands around, some argues that teaching the maid to be competent is a hard task on its own. Honestly, if it was up to me, I am somewhat reluctant to have a maid living in the house (macamla rajin sangat ;p). But, one look at my mom's exhausted face every time we reach home after work convinced me that we do need a maid to help her around the house.

We have gotten our maid for two weeks now, and she's like God's gift from heaven. The first day she came, we gave her some time to adjust but already she insisted on cleaning every room. Heh! The next day, she vacuum and mop the entire house. Then, she clean every room and she does all the cleaning with an enthusiastic spirit, and the best thing is, we don't even have to ask!

Of course, we paid quite a hefty sum to get her, but I'm glad to say that each cent is well spent. Even Sara can get along with her (and we all know that Sara hates strangers!). She's also a fast learner, for example, she caught us ALWAYS talking to Sara in simple English instead of Malay, so the first time I left Sara and bibik alone (I was actually spying from upstairs), I caught her playing with Sara and singing twinkle-twinkle, brother john and when Sara started crying, she would soothe her and say, "Sara, don't cry...come, we see bird" and carry Sara to the backyard to hear the birds chirping.

Okay, I know it has only been two weeks and she is still on her best behaviour but I believe she is sincere and again, thank God we have her. Having said that, until now, we haven't left her alone with Sara in the house. I guess I'm not ready to do that just yet.

Happy Birthday to me!!

PhatMoMMy has turned 29. One more year to the dreaded three-oh. Overall, I think I am where I want to be in life, hmmm, lets see...on my checklist:

a husband (checked!)
at least one baby (checked!)
a stable job (checked!)
a house (checked!)
a car of my own (checked!)
a whole lot of money to spend - this, I'll have to postpone until I'm forty :(

My mom told me that out of us three siblings, I was the only one who never missed out on a birthday celebration from I was one year old until I finished primary school. After that, since I was in boarding school, we only celebrate my birthday if I'm back at home. Back then, each and every celebration was special. A must. But now, as I grew older (erk!) there are more important things in life than having a big party for my birthday.

This year's birthday is extra special for me because I am now a mommy. I don't care about presents anymore, I have the greatest gift in the world :)

Happy Birthday Mommy - she says with fingers crossed...
Hmm...now what does that suppose to mean?? :)

My Idea of a perfect Friday's long lunch break

Hanging out with two of my most wonderful girlfriends. We usually go out in quartet (me, Mama Idraki and mummy-to-be), but Mummy Allysha is still in confinement.

On Friday, we will have 2 1/2 hour lunch break (one of the beauty working for the Government). We will spend our time with window shopping, catching up on gossips, eating good food but mostly just talk. Girl talk. A pouring-your-heart-out *read : whining* session (mostly done by yours truly ;p)

I don't know about them, but I treasure our Friday getaway and I look forward to next Friday and the next one after that. Girls, you bring spice to my mundane life and thank you for lending your ears to my emotional outbursts every now and then.

Sara's update

Sara is now 9 months! She can now officially sit unassisted. So much so, the first thing she did when she wakes up is sit down and slap the wall, that gave us the fright of the day ;p

We haven't been to the clinic for check-up so I don't know her current weight, but I think she's around 9ish kgs. Maybe she dropped a few pounds due to the food poisoning. All in all, she remains a happy baby. She's showing signs of crawling. She can get down to all fours but haven't quite grasp the moving concept yet. She'll remain on her hand and knees for 5 minutes than back to sitting down.

Her hair got sooooo long, I've had people suggested that we cut 'em short. It hasn't reach the masuk mata stage yet, so I guess I'll leave it at that for the time being.

She has learned lots of other things such as:

"flying kiss" - she'll pucker her mouth (kiss) and put her hand on her mouth but haven't quite got the concept of "flying" yet.
"clean yourself" - she'll rub her hands all over her body as if she's soaping herself ;p
"who's the champion??" - she'll raise her hand (sometimes right hand, sometimes left)

Now, we're teaching her twinkle-twinkle-little-star. I'll try to capture her video once she can do that. I know I always said this, but that little bum is growing up sooo rapidly. I'm so gonna miss cradling her like a baby.

The chronicle of food poisoning

Thursday (15 October 2009) - Hubby text me saying that he has severe diarrhea coupled with nausea and light-headedness. I was worried, but he's a big boy, I'm sure he can take care of himself.

Friday (16 October 2009) - My little angel began to develop such symptoms. Her body felt warm, I thought she was feverish due to a little tooth that is beginning to show. However, during midnight, she began to puke her milk. Twice. I'm beginning to worry.

Saturday (17 October 2009) - I brought Sara to the clinic and it's confirmed that she also has food poisoning. On top of that, she also has a fever and a very bloated tummy. She pukes during breakfast, lunch and dinner. Her big round eyes lost their usual sparkle and I felt soooo powerless, I couldn't make her feel better.

Sunday (18 October 2009) - Hubby is better. Sara is still puking, we've tried every remedy to help alleviate her bloating tummy but nothing gives. But, she begins to feel better as evening comes. HOWEVER, my dad and I begin to develop severe stomach ache. I feel like the pain is worse than contraction. Ha! We had diarrhea all night long and the pain was excruciating.

Monday (19 October 2009) - Despite the pain, I still have to go to work since I have a few pending task. Tsk. Sara is getting better. Alhamdulillah.

The doctor at the clinic told us that this food poisoning does not necessary means that the source is from the food Sara consume. It may also come from her bathe water (I suspect this is true, last week the water quality in Selangor was sooooo bad), her contact with person with same symptom (in my case, most probably from hubby ;p) or the toys and other things that she puts in her mouth (I very much doubt this, she seldom put things in her mouth).

It's really heartbreaking to see my lil angel who loves to eat becomes somewhat afraid to eat, because if she eats, she'll just puke it back out. We really hope that this episode will never happen again in the future.

Baby Food Intake Guide

Disclaimer : The below post is excerpt from "Panduan Pemakanan Sihat Untuk Bayi" prepared by Unit Pemakanan, Bahagian Kesihatan Awam, Jabatan Kesihatan Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur. I'm merely putting it in my blog for mu future reference. God knows I'm a complete mess when it comes to keeping and organizing hard copies ;)

As a reminder, the guide also states that if you are breastfeeding, BM should be given first before each meal to encourange prolong breastfeeding. Other important facts in the guide are:

1. A balance meal for babies should include four categories of food :- CARBS (cereal, rice), PROTEIN (fish, meat, chicken), FIBER (veggies, fruits) and FAT (butter, oil)

2. You have to add oil, butter or any form of fat in your babies' food to increase the energy content in each food intake.

3. Food texture has to be prepared according to the baby growth :- 6 months (blended food), 7-9 months (mashed food), 10-12 months (finely chopped food)

4. The most important advice is "Make meal time = fun time for your baby". Do not force the baby to eat if he/she is not ready and doesn't want to.

Our Open House

First of all, thank you to those who came to our open house last week. Second of all, sorry for those who came late and only have mee goreng and nasi himpit to eat. Third of all, sorry for those who didn't receive my invitation. Honestly, I'm quite forgetful these days and I forgot to post the invite on my facebook. Sorry guys.

Anyways, our open house was a blast. I mean, what's not to love? Good food + good company is always welcomed in my book. This year, we serve nasi minyak with ayam masak merah, acar and kuah dhal, nasi himpit with kuah kacang, konnyaku jelly, cupcakes (as picture above - made these myself), fruits and Grenadine Neanderthal (sirap la!)

This year is also the first time our main dish is finished (tak cukup!) and not enough for all the guests. Just for my own personal record, there were 8X4 (32 cups) of rice, 7X14 (98 pieces) of chicken, 7 cucumber and 2 pineapple for the acar, 4X5 (20 packs of nasi himpit), 2 kgs of sugar (for the sirap), 150 cupcakes and konnyaku jellies. So, next year, if we plan to do the same, we should add at least for another 20 guests or so.

It was d*mn tiring not only because of all the home made cooking but because my beloved dad has this so-called policy regarding open house.

1. "Kalau nak buat open house, masak sendiri. Kalau nak panggil katering, baik ajak kawan pegi makan kat kedai"
2. "Jangan nak guna pinggan polisterin. Buat apa beli pinggan mahal-mahal, banyak-banyak tu kalau tak nak guna"

Since we don't have any helpers (maid/bibik) to clean the dishes, we end up doing everything ourselves. Which is why my little angel and dear hubby slept like a log ;)

Penat gile, okeh...

Still standing

See Mommy, I can stand...bluekkk

I can even let go of my hands...

Okay, my legs are getting wobbly now...

Mommy, I'm falling...catch me!!

Yeah, she STILL can't stand on her own ;)