Trip to Pulau Sibu

We actually had quite an adventure in December last year. We don't really like going out, but in December alone, we managed to go to Johor twice and to Aquaria KLCC once. Hehe, every trip with the two little munchkins is considered an adventure and I am sure all parents would attest to that.

One would really need good negotiation skills to deal with Sara and as for Dina, selective hearing is the skill one would have to adopt. Sara talks a lot. No, that's an understatement. Sara talks NON-STOP. Haha. And she expects that we entertain every thought and musing that she has. As for Dina, she whines. A lot. And the cute little whine can turn into full fledged crying if she doesn't get what she wants or if we are unable to distract her fast enough.

So. When hubby said that his company is arranging for a family day in Pulau Sibu in Johor, I hesitated. We just went to Johor the week before and that trip alone is enough to last me for two months. But, being the "good" wife that I am (hehe), I packed our things and make plans to go in the wee hours. You see, my hubby and me, we had a pact: each time we had to travel by car, hubby would sleep early and I will pack all our belongings, arrange them in the car, get the children ready and wake him up around 4am. By the time he's ready, Sara and Dina is safely sleeping in the car and off we go. I might have pulled the shorter stick in our deal, but hey, I get to sleep all the way to whatever place we go, so no complaints there.

We depart from our home at around 4.30am and I was totally exhausted and sleepy and ready to doze off. But, as luck would have it, Dina woke up the moment hubby start the engine. I think at that moment, only my hands are awake, my eyes and all other parts of my body have already fallen asleep. Anyway, we made it safely to Tanjung Leman 5 hours later. I bathed my kids at the yucky public toilet, seriously it was so dirty even Sara refuse to enter the toilet.

Our boat was scheduled to leave at 10am and the ride was super bumpy. I'm soooo lucky my kids didn't get motion sickness. Dina fell asleep moments after we enter the boat and Sara thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

Pulau Sibu welcomed us with a soothing serenade by the hotel staff and refreshing drinks. We had a villa with 1 queen bed to ourselves and is spacious enough to accommodate my small family.

In fact, everything there was really nice. I don't particularly enjoy nature (I've had my touch with nature during DPA course that would last me for my whole lifetime ;p), but it is a good opportunity for Sara and Dina to get up close and personal with nature. There are peacocks, deers and monkeys everywhere and they were very friendly too. But well, erm..due to my aversion to moving animals, lets just say we didn't make the most out of  our so-called interaction with the animals. We'd run instead of walk to get to various places.

There's a really nice swimming pool for kids complete with slide but the pump was broken, so the water was really dirty. And I've discovered that Dina is not only averse to water, she also hates sands. Haha. We played by the pool, by the sea and had dinner in which Sara fell asleep and hubby had to carry her approximately 300 meters to get back to our villa. Hehe, it was "good" for a very much needed workout. I'll let pictures do the talking since I think I rambled too much on this post. Makes up for the long hiatus perhaps? :p

Riddle : How to shut up a whiny kid? Answer: Give her two spoons to play with :)

Its hard to believe that they are only two years apart, isn't it?

I look soooo fat in this picture, but I promise you, I am not this fat in real life. Mode: denial.

Hello Kitty and Little Big Club Johor

Hola,

Wow, the trip has been sooo long, I forgot when it was exactly. Hehe. Wait, let me check.

Yep, we went last year, in December 2012. A tip from me, if you have toddlers, please avoid school holidays. Really not worth the queue and the hassle. And please buy the ticket online beforehand to avoid disappointment as the tickets are limited on daily basis. We saw a little girl crying while her parents are negotiating with the counter because the ticket for that day is already sold out and that was as early as 11am. Or as late as 11am (hehe, late/early is entirely subjective ;p)

Overall, Hello Kitty was "fun", but only to avid fans. If you are like me, who don't give a rat's ass about Hello Kitty's house, Hello Kitty's dresses and what not, just don't go. For the RM55.00 price ticket, its really not worth the money. Will never go there again. Heh.

 

See, even Dina was sleeping out of boredom. Haha.

Little Big Club on the other hand, is a really nice place and suitable for kids. BUT, only for kids from the age group of 2-5 years old. I highly doubt that older kids would enjoy the place as much as the younger kids.

Sara really enjoyed the ballet class by Angelina. She twirled and turned like the graceful ballerina that she is. Not. Haha.

Riddle : What does Pingu, Sara and my husband have in common? Answer : Their bellies. Haha.

Hubby said he had to suck in his stomach to close the safety bar. Time for some exercise perhaps? Haha.

Even though I said that the place would appeal to younger children, most of the rides have minimum height that starts from 100cm, which roughly translates to 4 years old above. Lucky for me, Sara is quite tall for her age, so she is able to go to all the rides. So, therein itself lies a bit of inconvenience, because the rides are not so thrilling, childish (would appeal to kids below five) BUT the regulatory of having to be taller than 100cm would forbade the kids from that age group to enter.

We brought strollers and also baby wrap, but I think that baby wrap is a better option. Dina is able to sleep peacefully and woke up happier. The place is stroller friendly, but getting to the place from the parking spot is a major disaster. The lift was under maintenance and we had to carry our stroller through two flight of stairs.

The place was nice, but would we go again? To Hello Kitty, never. But to Little Big club, perhaps when Dina is a lil bit older.

Sara goes to school....NOT!

So, I decided to send Sara to school, but as you can see from the title above, it is just not working. Heh.

Since we live in Sepang area, I have very limited choices in finding a school for her. Its either Smartreader (Dengkil), Qdees (Dengkil) and CIC (Salak Tinggi). After several discussions and site visit, we chose Smartreader for her. Everything seems to be working out great, the principal there is really nice, Sara likes her, and there's a mini slide (Sara's absolute favourite out of all playground items).

First day, 2nd January 2013. Hubby and me took the day off just to send her and wait for her at school. At night, she was all excited and when morning came, she was a bit moody at first because she had to wake up early. But she was still cheerful and let me braid her hair while she have her breakfast.

We sent her in, make sure she's okay. She asked me to "make friends", so I introduced her to another cute girl there and they seem to have hit it off. Her teacher was also chirpy, and Sara immediately followed her inside, and they seem to be getting along quite fine. In both instances, "seem" is the operative word.

Since she's inside her class and seem to be doing fine, we decided to go for breakfast at the nearby mamak shop. We went back there just to be informed that Sara is doing great. Yeay! We picked her up at 12.00pm, and she looks okay, not really chirpy and cheerful, but just okay. When asked about her day, she'd reply it was okay nonchalantly. Hmm, its not like her to be like this, I mean, she usually talk our ears off especially if its something she's interested in.

Second day, she cried when she woke up, saying she doesn't want to go to school. But, she gives in and I bathe her and send her to school. I ushered her into the main play area where everybody is playing and stayed out in the lobby. To my surprise, she came out crying, and won't let me leave her. So I told her, I'm right here in the lobby but I can't wait for her in her classroom. She wiped her tears and I sent her back to her classroom.

I went to work, and pick her up at 12.30pm. She came out crying, saying that she doesn't want to go to school anymore. My dad was there too, we made arrangement so that I can get back to work and my dad would bring Sara home. I stayed to talk with the teachers, and I asked them what went wrong. The teacher said that Sara looks very sad today, but she didn't cry out loud or throw any sort of tantrum. She'd just sit quietly and do her work, but when she finishes, her tears would drop silently. She even ate her biscuits with tears in her eyes. And I too, almost cried when the teacher told me about this.

My mom called later on, Sara slept on the sofa, and she was having daymares (not nightmares, as she was sleeping during daytime. Haha, lame joke. I know) She'd suddenly screamed "I don't wanna go to school!!!". My mom also told me that she have been crying non stop from the moment we picked her up until she fell asleep, exhausted.

We had a serious discussion that night, Sara and I. I asked her why and she kept repeating that "the school is not nice. The teacher is not nice". She was also a bit feverish, perhaps due to the amount of tears she expressed, so I decided that she doesn't have to go to school the next day. After numerous amount of persuasion, she finally agrees to go to school on Friday, without her uniforms, to explain to the teachers why she doesn't like the school. We had a heart-to-heart talk with all the teachers and principal, and lets just say that perhaps its just not meant to be.

Contrary to popular belief, no Sara is not the one in the red tudung, she's the one at the back, in front of the door. Hehe.

She had fever for almost a week, and cry whenever we mention school. I was also a complete mess that week. In my heart and in my mind, I could only think about her. I mean, I don't want to be such a give-in type of mother who just followed her child's every whim. But, on the other hand, I also don't want to be the type of mother who doesn't care of her children's opinion. I know she's only 4, but if she really doesn't like the school, then I could not force her to go, right?

And, she's telling me her point of view nicely and politely, I couldn't very well ignore that and just push her to go to the place she genuinely dislike, right?

Oy, the predicaments of being a mother. And that's just sending her to pre-school. I can't imagine what I'll be like when it comes to bigger issue. Haha!

One and Thirty-two

October has passed. And along with it, Dina's birthday and mine.

As usual, random busyness in the office happens. Events, meetings, papers, same old...same old.

What's new is that my daughter is ONE!! She walks and can understand simple instructions, but showing no signs of talking just yet.

My lil daughter, (or I call her kenit sometimes), if I have to say one word that describes her, it'd be "feisty". She has no fear at all, I tell you. Once, she fell and hit her head on our coffee table, and blood gushes out from her forehead. We freaked out, of course but luckily she was still breastfeeding then, so I just nursed her to calm her down. We decided not to bring her to the doctor as my motherly instinct told me that it was just a surface cut :)

...

I've written all that back in October 2012. And now its February 2013!! Hehe...better late than never, right? Anyways, I've resolved to just write whatever that has been happening for my own reference later. Things might not be in chronological order though :)

Anyways, feisty lil Dina is now 15 months young and still not talking. Haha. Exact opposite of kakak. She's active and doesn't seem to sit still for more than 5 minutes. And oh, I've stopped breastfeeding. :( I've stopped due to various reasons/excuses namely my milk production has dropped tremendously. Not a moment my breast felt full and I can only express about 1-2 ounces each session.

Lucky for me Dina is able to wean off and take formula milk easily. She's still very petite though. At 1 year+, her weight is only 10kgs and giving her food gets us soooo frustrated at times. To say that she's a picky eater would be an exaggeration, but she just doesn't eat much. She eats almost everything, but in four or five mouthful ONLY. Gahhh! She's lucky she has that cute lil face that can get away with almost anything :)

And oh, Dina has a strong aversion to...swimming pool. Haha, I know, funny right? For all her bravado and feisty-ness, she's scared of puddles of water. Haha. Look what happened when she's near swimming pool.

Yep, she'd cry, feigning tantrum and at last, got tired of her own antics and falls asleep. Haha!

I'm abruptly ending this post here with a promise to post more things that have been happening since I last write. Trip to hello kitty, trip to Pulau Sibu, their birthdays, trip to Aquaria, losing my handphone etc etc...

Kickstart :)

After almost 2 months of blog hiatus, it is somewhat difficult to start writing again ;)

So, to help me kick-start, here's a list of random things I'm thinking about right now:

1. 1. Dina is 10 months old! She has 6 teeth and is able to stand up by herself but haven't begun walking yet.
   
   
2. 2. I went for an interview for something and......I failed, miserably. Pheww, typing that makes me feel relieved. Admitting this openly helps me to move on, I think..
   
   
3. 3. I've been breastfeeding Dina for the past 10 months. And haven't resort to formula milk yet. Yeay! Not an easy feat, but I made it. Will write a looonnnggg winding post on this. Hehe.
   
   
   
4. 4. My youngest sister got engaged and I couldn't be happier. Now, if only I can give out suggestions without sounding like a condescending sister I know she thinks I am, things will be much better :(
   
   
   
5. 5. I really need to send Sara to pre-school/kindy. She's been....well, progressing backwards. Its like she's determined to become the baby of the house, so she'll act more babyish than Dina. Oh, and she's back to wearing diapers now, because she's a BABY, remember? Duhh. Its not like we've been neglecting her or anything but this attitude of hers is starting to frustrate me. Hope she'll love school.
   
   
   
6. 6. I think me and hubby need to work out on our marriage. Or maybe I need to be more flexible. Or maybe he needs to change, or progress into something better. With age and responsibilities, I know I did progress. It just seems like I am already here (at the stage where we should be right now) but he is still stuck being the same man I married seven years ago.
   
   
7. 7. Oh, the floor of the living hall in my house broke. ALL OF IT. And its past the stipulated defect liability period. That's gonna leave a HUUUGGGEEEE hole in my pocket :(
   
   
   
8. 8. Dina is definitely not an easy baby. She makes me exasperated at times, but when she smiles her one-billion-dollar smile, or when her eyes twinkle their magical spark, or when she chuckle her musical baby laugh, I get all mushy inside and hugged her sooo tight until she pushes me away. Hihi.
   
   
9. 9. There are days when Sara is an absolute angel. No rude words, no pooping in the pants, no struggle during bath times that makes me reconsider point no 5.
   
   
   
10. 10. I think I really suck at getting my point across. See point no 2, 4 and 6. Yeah, need to work on that too...
    

Between Dina cutting her first tooth and my sudden drop in milk production :(

I've been having quite a rough couple of weeks. I was often tired, and in a constant bad mood. I felt feverish and had quite a few episode of stomach cramps. And I could only get about 5-6oz per session of pumping. My breastmilk stock is rapidly depleting and yes, I was stressed about it.

And then, I had some spotting, so I thought oh, maybe my milk dropped due to my fever and my first period. But, the pattern continues until yesterday, my period really came and boy oh boy...I've never felt so uncomfortable in my life. After 1 1/2 year of no menses, I was totally unprepared for it. Hello hormones, hello stomach cramps (whoever said that you won't get stomach cramps after giving birth is spewing total b*llsh*t..haha).

Anyways, on a more positive side, my baby has cut her first tooth. Actually it happened a month ago, but as usual, my laziness took the better of me :) She's awfully clingy and whiny but totally cute so that kinda makes up for it.

In a blink of an eye

November 2011...

Seven months later...

Time really does fly huh?