My darling daughter...

new blog

2010-03-05T10:37:00.000+08:00

http://www.my2cheekybubs.blogspot.com/

Missing in Action....

2010-02-17T15:11:00.001+08:00

I've been very very lazy to update the blog.
I plan to combined Isaac and Naomi's blog into one page
So many back dated posts to share and upload.
Where to begin?
Pls stay tune for new page.

Happy Chinese New Year y'all!!

Mummy you go work...i go to school ok?

2009-11-05T11:10:00.003+08:00

2nd November marks another new chapter for Naomi which is her first day at school. Tjun Aun and myself took 3 days leave and accompany Naomi to her new nursery. The principle advise us to take 3days off and follow her to school so that she won't get a 'culture shock' or feel that we abandoned her etc.

She woke up early and then I just gave her a quick wipe and brush her teeth and change her to her PE uniform. I can't really tell how's her actual feeling as she didn't really show it. I'm worried and quickly say a prayer in my heart.

We went to school together and she was quite out of place and I heard that she's one of the youngest girl in her class. There are about 10children in her class. She was more fascinated with the toys than her class and follow instructions. The principle said for her class (2-3yrs) the teachers will not force them to do anything (Which is why I choose this nursery). Cause if you force them too much, they won't feel happy and they won't be able to express themselves and learn anything in the future. The principle's daughter is in the 5 year old class and she has a lot of experience in child care and education.

When we arrived, it was the children's playtime and they went outside to play at the playground.

There were slides, see saw, toy cars and etc. Naomi was too careful towards her surroundings and she even close the gate for safety reason. Sometimes I really cannot believe she's only 2 plus??!

After that it was breakfast time and everyone was given a cucur udang and Naomi only ate half of the cucur and gave the rest to me. She was too excited with the new toys so she ran over and play with the toys instead of enjoying her breakfast. After breakfast was their singing session, the children sang "Twinkle Twinkle little star" This is one of Naomi's fav songs of course and she did sing a long with other children but the funny thing was everyone sang in normal tone but she alone sang so loud and i can hear her voice and the principle commented that "wow....she can sing yea?"

The principle advise us not to leave her and we took her back after her lunch and bath. 2nd day was way better than I expected. She reached her school, had breakfast and then she wants to poo-poo. She ran to the bathroom and told one of the teacher (yes, she didn't even come to me). Teacher praised her and kept saying she's a clever girl etc. The funny thing is when she was doing her 'business' in the toilet and one of the teacher came near her, Naomi shouted at the teacher "Go away, here smelly" "When I'm done, I call you" The teacher was laughing so hard.

Tjun aun and myself are confident to let her go for full day so we said good bye and let her nap in the school. I called at 2pm to check on her and one of the staff told me she look sleepy and going to sleep already. We went to pick her up at 5pm and the teacher told me she slept in school but with persuasion from the teacher of course. The third day, we just drop her off and then me and tjun aun went for breakfast, shop around at Gurney plaza and just laze around the house.

When we went to pick Naomi up from school, she was hanging out with her friends screaming and shouting at the spinning windmill outside the nursery. I talked to her teacher for a while asking for feedback and how is she etc. The teacher asked me this "Are you sure Naomi haven't been to school before?" I told her yes, this is her first. The teacher was surprised and told me she is coping very well and no problem at all. I'm very proud of my little girl! And the teacher add on "Whatever we tell her or ask her to do something, she sure answer back one, this girl surely will answer you something back...always" I just laughed. Teacher told me she can make friends easily and when we left, all her classmates was saying Bye, Naomi! So, it was not that hard after all?

This morning when I was getting ready for work, she ask me mummy, you go work ? I said yes and she adds on "Then I go to school lo.." I laughed and told her yes dear.

Starting all over again?

2009-10-06T18:07:00.001+08:00

2 months back, I received a very bad news from Alice, my babysitter. She was not able to care for my 2 kids anymore. This happened when her mother in law passed away suddenly in her sleep about few months back. Her mother in law normally will help her in taking care of my kids too and doing their house chores too. So, losing her means a lot to their family and mine too.
After her mother in law’s passing, I actually prep myself mentally to be prepared for the worst but to my surprised she told me she still wants to take care of my kids because she and her whole family really love them very much and treat them as their own children. She hired a lady who happens to be her close friend to help around and she pays the lady about 70% of what I’m paying her. I paid her about 1.1K every month and she paid the lady RM700 and she only takes RM400.
I was grateful but guilty at the same time. Few months past by and about 2 months ago, she told me that her friend manage to get another job and didn’t want to work with her anymore and she can’t manage 5kids (she has 3 kids on her own) alone. I understand her feelings as I know babysitting is definitely not an easy task especially you need to take care of the house, chores to do, cooking and fetching the kids to school etc.
So, I need to look for a new babysitter. But I got a surprised from my mother because she volunteered herself as my new babysitter. I was of course very grateful for this favour. My mother is a career woman and I know she sacrifice a lot by giving up her job to do babysitting. Who doesn’t want a family member to help take care of your own kids’ right?
I started to bring the kids to my mom’s place every weekend and let them bond with her and to familiarize the house and what not. 1 month passed by and my mom told me another bad news. She wasn’t able to cope with the 2 kids alone and she was having backache and etc. Another thing is her bosses actually gave her salary increment and ask her to stay in her current job. I was of course devastated and nearly went crazy as it was barely a month away before I can find a new babysitter. I was very upset and down and thought of resigning my current job too.
My mother finally manage to find me a babysitter just staying opposite of her house. We plan to send Isaac to the babysitter and Naomi to full day nursery cum day care centre.
Hopefully this new babysitter will love and care for Isaac like their own child. Finger crossed!
As for Naomi, this is definitely a new chapter for her. I have so many things on my mind like will she cry when we send her there? Will she able to cope? Will the kids bully her? Is it too much for her (As we will be sending her for full day). Can she eat well? Sleep well? Will she fall sick often? I also need to prepare myself mentally and physically as well.
We’re still deciding on which nursery to send her to yet. Hopefully, we can finalize everything by mid of this month. We already have few options but we’ll see how it goes.

What a night!

2009-07-14T17:48:00.003+08:00

Last Thursday, we went to pick up the kids as usual. That night, Naomi complained that she’s having head pain. When I saw her, she look quite pale but I just thought maybe she look fairer and fresher after her bath so I ignore the first sign. Alice told me she slept early that day around 12+ and woke up around 3pm and maybe she’s tired. She went to bed at 8:30pm which is very early as she normally will go to sleep around 10-11pm.

She woke up at 12+ and she said "stomach pain". Suddenly, she vomited…..a lot of vomit and the smell was terrible. I recognize that smell immediately. Durian! and I can see bits and pieces of durian fleshes on my pillow and bed sheets as she co-sleep with us that night. She felt one kind as this is the first time she vomited ( I think). She looked scared and I was so scared also. Tjun Aun was telling me horror story that she might hit her head at baby sitter’s house and has internal injuries and that cause the vomiting etc etc. Alice told me she didn’t fell down and etc. Well, I trust her as she was taking care of my kids for more than 2 years and would she lie now?

Well, to be on the safe sides, we decided to consult specialist. I call up Dr Tan Eng Guan’s cell phone immediately. That time was about 12:30-1am and he picked up the phone and told thim he situation and he asked me to go to the hospital emergency. Naomi’s body started to feel warm. It was not very ‘hot’ but definitely has fever.

When we reached the hospital, the staff wanted to take Naomi’s body temperature but she was using both her hands to cover both her ears. Minutes later, she vomited again. I’ve never seen her so weak before. She held on to me the whole night and was lying on my chest the hold time (manja-la). Finally, Dr Tan came in about 20minutes later. Again, she did not want the doctor to check her body temperature. Dr said her fever might not be very high as her body was not very ‘hot’ and just warm. Of course, Tjun Aun’s concern was “Did she fell down and knock her head?” and “Got internal injuries or not?” Doctor said due to the fever, she might have slight headache and normally internal injuries won’t cause fever and vomiting. We were quite relieved to hear that. Then I asked him, is it cause of the durian? He also mention not because of that. He diagnosed her with viral infections.

Dr asked the nurse to insert 2 soft medications to her buttocks (to relieve her fever). She already started to cry when I brought her to the side bed. She kept screaming and crying and we need 3 people to hold her. Luckily the nurse is quite experience and it was done within seconds. She stops crying after that and Naomi was still weak. We went back home and we let her watch cartoon on TV. She didn’t feel sleepy and that time was about 3am already. I need to feed her the vomiting medicine and I pray quietly that no drama and she will take it. Well, true enough, no problem when taking medication. Proud of my girl! I can see she began to become more active and was playing with her toys already.

Before I took her to sleep she told me she’s hungry and want something to eat and she wants biscuits. I gave her 3 Jacob’s oatmeals biscuits and she ate all of them! After that, she was Zzzzz. I did not send her to babysitter’s place the next day as I was on leave. Actually I wanted to rest and relax but in the end I want to take care of her. I only send Isaac’s to babysitter’s house that day.

The next morning, she still complain about head pain. I still continue feeding her PCM. Doctor said if her vomiting stops, means it’s a good sign but if she continues to vomit we need to admit her right away. Thank God, her vomiting stop that night itself. Dr Tan gave me a call on Friday afternoon to check on her. He is good right ?

He asked me what is her temperature and I told him through the phone, she won’t let me take her temperature as usual but I can feel she’s still warm. I just update the doctor on her progress and doctor said nothing to worry about and just continue with the medication. After I hung up the phone, Naomi took the ear thermometer from my drawer and gave it to me. This is what she said to me “Mummy, faster faster do” “Naomi stand still still” I was shocked….and funny ok? She’s letting me to put the thermometer into her ear! I quickly took her temperature. It was 37.3

She knows I was talking about her on the phone with Dr Tan. :)

I stop giving her the medication on Saturday as she has fully recovered. :)

Sharing & Giving....It goes both ways?

2009-06-16T12:09:00.004+08:00

Naomi has been giving in to Isaac most of the time and I'm not having any hard time making sure they both get along well. Surprisingly, she's doing okay and able to help me to take care of Isaac for few minutes. Sometimes she will request from me to help take care of Isaac. Most of the time when I'm not free. I will put Isaac inside the cot or play pen and Naomi will ask me whether she can help to look after him or not. I'll be glad to and will carry Isaac to our bed so that Naomi can play with him. Isaac, being the youngest sibling still doesn't know how to play and control his hand movement very well yet and he will try to snatch toys from his sister. Naomi usually will give the toys to him. I actually took this picture when I saw both of them playing together. Naomi was talking to Isaac and telling him "Wait ya, Naomi "on" the music for you" "Wait ya" "Ok, on already" "Here you go". But when I click the button Naomi realize I was taking their picture and she said "Chi Chak" and do her finger pose. Haihh.....

There's another incident when Naomi was having her afternoon nap on our bed and I was breastfeeding Isaac but Isaac saw his sister sleeping on the bed and decided to call her instead of concentrating on his feeding session. He turn to the other side and use his hand and touch Naomi's back (Very rough) and keep on disturbing her. Naomi turn (very sleepily) and pat his head and told him "Che Che sleeping" then turn back and continue sleeping.....cute or not? hehe

Naomi @27months

2009-06-16T09:58:00.004+08:00

This pic was taken b4 the movie start.

We took Naomi for her 1st movie experience in the cinema last week!

Are we crazy or what?! hahaha.....It was not my idea actually (It was daddy's idea) as I feel she's way too young to enjoy or sit still in the cinema for 1 1/2 hours show.

We went to see Monster vs Alien (3D) show at GSC Gurney Plaza. We book the tickets via e-payment so that we are able to secure good seats and it was quite pack as it was still school holidays. True enough, when we reach GSC it was so packed! Unfortunately, we couldn't bring Isaac along and Alice (my babysitter) was kind enough to take care of him while 3 of us went for the movie.

Each of us are given a 3D goggle so that we can enjoy the 3D effects from the movie. The goggle is too big for Naomi and daddy has to hold for her. We have to buy 3 tickets so that we can get 3 goggles but Naomi share the seat with her daddy cause the seat is also too big for her...hehehe..

Well....she manage to sit still for 1hour only. I can see she did enjoy herself and she strecth her hands out to touch the objects when the 3D effects were shown at the screen. It was kinda cute...

But after that 1 hour os sitting still, the drama started-lah..she began to crawl from daddy's seat to my seat. She was talking in the cinema as well and she wants to go to the toilet so I took her to the toilet. After another 10more minutes, she said she wants her milk. I didn't bring hot water with me but I have the normal lukewarm drinking water with me so I just mix her milk using that water for her but she told me. "Mummy, please put hot hot water" Another headache for me. So what I did was I took her with me (and the milk bottle) and we went to the cinema's cafe and ask for hot water. The waiter is kind enough to give me some hot water. After that, brought her back to the cinema and we continue watching the movie until the end.

Luckily the show was not that long and we did wait till the movie ended :)

After the movie, I took her to the toilet again. After that we walk around the mall for a while before heading back home. Isaac was home already as my mother in law went to pick him up from Alice's house after she finishes her work.

Belated Mother's Day Post

2009-05-21T13:27:00.002+08:00

This post is dedicated to all mothers out there.

Without our mothers, we would not be here today. My mom has taught me well and i'm grateful for that. :)

I would also like to say a special thank you to my babysitter - Alice who is taking care of my 2 kids (Naomi & Isaac). She is only 37 years old and has 3 kids (age 13,10 & 8). I'm thankful for her as she's like the 2nd mother to my 2 kids. Naomi & Isaac spend most of their time at their house as I'm a full time working mother. I'm still taking care of them on weeknights & full day during the weekends. I thank God that he has bless me with a good babysitter. They (including her husband Leslie) really love and care for Naomi & Isaac like their own children. Naomi even calls them 'mama' & 'papa'. Many people ask me if I'm okay with this like feel jealous or etc. At first, I do feel a bit uncomfortable but after a while I realize they really love her so much and didn't mean any harm and I should be glad they treat her good.

Besides taking care of her they taught her many things as well. Naomi wished me "Happy Mother's Day" during mother's day and she gave me a hug and a hand made purple carnation too (she did it with the help of my babysitter). Isn't that sweet? I was very touched as I didn't expected that from a 2 year old.

I try my best to be a good role mother for my children. Before I'm a mother, I always take things for granted and cannot imagine what my mother has to go through. Now I'm a mother myself I really feel her and it definately has it's ups & downs. I would like to wish all moms out there

a very Happy Belated Mother's Day...=)

Naomi @26months

2009-05-07T17:37:00.002+08:00

Last Saturday we took Naomi for her Pneumococcal jab. This is the first time we took Isaac & Naomi together to the hospital. Both of them behave rather well actually. I actually prepare myself for the worst cause Naomi hasn't see her paediatrician or visit to the hospital in a loooooong time. Her last visit was when she's 18months old and also for a jab and it has not been a good one. She cried so loud and everyone was looking at us. *shy*

But to my surprise, she was behaving rather well and when the nurse wants to take her height and weight she's so co-operative and still no crying. When we go inside the paediatrician's room, he ask Naomi to open her mouth and say 'Aaaa' she follows without hesitation. I was so proud of her! *yay*

But when the nurse was preparing the injection stuff, the drama started la......she started crying already even before the doctor touch her. Doctor was on the phone with someone and she was crying and struggling at the high bed already. I need to hold both her hands and 2 nurses was holding her legs and then the doctor came and quickly gave the shot. I saw her holding the doctor's hand and told him "pain! pain!pain!" I had to calm her down and she was alright after that. Next was Isaac's turn, he just cried like less than 10 seconds when the needle touch his leg after that he's like normal self. So, that's the difference between my drama queen and mr. cool :)

We were told that after this Pneumococcal jab, she will develop slight fever so we need to feed her PCM. I was thinking in my head...."Oh no! Another difficult task!" So in the evening, I took out the PCM and I try to talk and explain to her that she need to take her medicine so that her leg no more pain she cried a little whenever i remind her of her jab. lolz then she nod her head so I put the PCM on a spoon and ask her to open her mouth and she did! She took the medicine like a matured girl...no crying! I was like "Wow...this is easy....too easy for me!"

The next day, as I was preparing lunch for her and she was playing by herself downstairs. Daddy was looking after Isaac and when I walk out from the kitchen I got a shocked of my life! I saw Naomi's face was swollen. There were red bumps on her forehead & under her eyes. I quickly called Tjun Aun and he said we need to send her to see the doctor immediately and since it was Sunday our regular paediatrician was not working that day so I called up another Dr's handphone. Yes, my friend gave me his handphone number and thank God he is still in the hospital so we quickly took Naomi there. While waiting for our turn, Naomi's redness has subsides so we thought maybe it was nothing serious. I did ask her what bite her and she told me mosquito but nobody knows whether she's telling the truth or not.

After checking with Dr Tan, he told us that she has develop an allergy reaction towards something (either insect bite or food allergy). He prescribes piriton and another type of medicine for my girl. The redness actually subsides even before we feed Naomi her medication. But I still feed her anyway for just in case. Anyway, I'm glad she's alright and nothing serious happen to her.

Cloth Diaper.....anyone?

2009-04-20T09:58:00.005+08:00

I know it's quite late to invest in cloth diaper now. I'm not talking about the traditional cloth diaper but actually referring to the cloth diaper (the latest trend in the market). They are a bit pricey (that is why I use the term 'invest'). Since Naomi has been fully potty train but at night I still let her sleep with her diaper on. For the past few weeks, she has been inconsistent. Sometimes 1 or 2 days she will wet her disposable. For example, 2 weeks ago, she did not wet her disposable for 4nights in a row and imagine this 'kiam siap' or 'kiasu' mummy re-use the disposable up to 4 nights! So I only use the same and only 1 disposable diaper up to 4nights. I know this is unhealthy for her bottom so I finally decided to invest in cloth diaper.

At first, I only buy 2 cloth diapers from Happy Heiny's http://www.happyheinys.com/( to test first) Then last week I bought 2 more. I never regret buying them :) Let me tell you why.

First, Naomi and Isaac can share the cloth diaper as it is a one size diaper (the buttons are adjustable). The diaper is suitable for baby from newborn till L size. Below are the sample, note: this is the same diaper but with different settings. I plan to put Isaac on cloth diaper when he is 6months old onwards.

Second, the absorbency is very good. No leaking when toddler (a heavy wetter like Naomi) accidentally take a leak or especially during the night where they can't really hold their bladder for that long period of time. So, this is diff compare to the traditional cloth diaper.

Third, no more disposable diaper and definately more environmental friendly :)

Fourth, Disposable diapers contain chemicals, paper, and plastic, and have been reported to cause allergic reactions among other serious health problems. Cloth diapers are a more natural choice and are available in organic fabrics that are either untreated, or minimumally treated with chemicals.

Fifth, will save you money in the long run. Depending on the cloth diapering system you choose, you can save from RM 1,000 - RM 2,000 from birth to potty learning by choosing to use cloth instead of disposable diapers.

Last but not least, the designs are irresistable and nice :) I'm in love with them!!

PS: Some people might find this troublesome as we still need to wash the cloth diaper BUT you can just throw them in the washine machine and you don't have to change the diaper often (like the traditional) cause the level of absorbency is good. You can read the website for more info on how to clean and care for the diapers if you guys are interested.

"Happy Cloth Diapering!"

aikssss.....i'm doing my 'business'

2009-04-20T09:47:00.003+08:00

About 1 month ago, Naomi already started to use to toilet bowl to do her business. I need to train her cause when we need to go outside (especially during her class or short trip to shopping mall)she need to use the toilet bowl instead of her usual potty.
This is the pic I took using my camera phone (sorry for the bad quality pic) last Saturday morning.
My little girl has definately grown up a lot and more independent now :)

Chop, Chop? Anyone?

2009-04-02T13:59:00.003+08:00

This is another activity that I introduce to Naomi. We called it "chop, chop"

Normally I will let her play with this when we're dining out so that she'll sit on her high chair for at least 20minutes and let me have quiet dinner.

Before that, I will just let her simply chop in the paper. Just 2 months ago, I started to draw simple lines that look like small boxes and ask her to chop inside the box instead. She's able to listen to my simple instructions. Look at the pictures below:

Imaginative Play...

2009-03-27T14:32:00.003+08:00

Naomi has shown interest in acting out various roles with her toys and I find them interesting to blog about. We encourage her to explore as well. Here are some of the examples on her imaginative play.

Play 1:

She has 2 Barbie Dolls (Gifts from her grandma) for christmas and Naomi will talk to the dolls and ask them to sleep, eat and read book. She sounded like me especially when she ask the dolls to do something. She will comb their hair and help them to wear shoes and etc.

Play 2:

She has a doctor set toys which includes all the doctor's accessories such as plastic thermometer, stetoscope, stringe, scissors, plasters and etc. She will pretend she's the doctor and me or daddy is the patient. Sometimes Isaac will be the patient as well. She will use her stetoscope to hear our heartbeat or take the stringe and pretend to give us injections. It has been ages since Naomi went to visit the doctor and her last visit was when she was 18months and it was not a good experience as she screams and wails like mad girl and everyone was looking at her! I read from book that by introducing kids/toddlers with this imaginative play (doctor set) it will help the child to be more open when going for a jab or visit the doctor. Well....hope it works as we're planning to take Naomi for the Pneumococcal jab in May together with Isaac's check up. Then I will update in this blog and let you guys know.

Play 3:

We bought for her another cooking playset ("masak-masak" set) from Jusco for RM10 only and the set has all the accessories for cooking like stove, bowl, plate, spoon, cup, fork, knife and etc.

She will pretend to cook for us or cut the meat or vegetables as well. She will ask her dolls to eat her food too....haha

Play 4:

Another pretend play is her music set that has drum, guitar and microphone. Her favourite are the guitar and microphone. She will use her microphone to sing songs and jam with her guitar. The funny thing is when she plays with her guitar, she will do like the rockstar type, with her 2 legs open wide and then strum her guitar. She sometimes will shake her hair as well (especially when she saw the A-Mei concert advertisement last time).

I've read in books that imaginative play is extremely important for young children as this is where they begin the very tricky lesson of working out ‘life situations’ – learning by replaying the situations they’ve seen other children and adults dealing with. It’s an essential ‘game’ – if you like – that involves the stimulation and rehearsal of communication, social and language skills.

Another milestone achieved....

2009-03-27T14:18:00.002+08:00

Naomi has been fully potty-train for both morning and night. She's able to hold her bladder better now even at night when she's sleeping. I actually never expect that to be so fast as I've bought a waterproof bedpad for her but I haven't got the chance to use it yet.

I still put her on diaper during night time but her diaper remains dry the next day and it has been about more than 1 week already.

Every night before her bedtime, she will tell me "Mummy, I want to shee shee" so I will let her sit on her potty and she will do her business every night without fail. After a bottle of milk she will straight away go to bed and normally I will wake her up around 7am (even though she's still sleeping) and ask her to do her business. She will sit on her potty no matter how sleepy she is and empty her bladder. She still can went back to sleep after her business. During that time, I will remove her diaper already and then will send her to baby sitter's house without her diaper on.

If we're going out for a while or short distant trip, normally I will let her be diaper-free as well. I will only use diaper when we go out shopping (long hours) or those places that won't have toilets or dirty toilets only. Seriously, I have save a lot on disposable diapers now. Good Job Naomi!

Foodies' Choice....

2009-03-16T09:37:00.003+08:00

Since 4-5months ago, Naomi has been very picky about what she eats. I'm not sure whether is this one of the stages that every parent and child need to go through and it was tough! Before that, she's very open to what she eats and I don't or NEVER have any problem feeding her food.

So every Friday I need to think of what type of foods to cook for Naomi cause I'm taking care of her during the weekends. Before this, she will just eat the food cook by my MIL (rice with vege or meat and soup). As Asian, we need to have rice in our meal be it lunch or dinner. Naomi doesn't want to eat rice anymore. She will say "dun-wan" "dun-wan" when we ask her to eat rice.

So, I have to be creative with my food choices. I introduced her to pasta instead (for carbo) so I will cook spaghetti bolognese, macaroni and cheese and what she love most is the plain boil spiral pasta (without any sauce). I've also tried pancake with maple syrup and she love it as well. Sometimes when I'm lazy I will just prepare ham and cheese sandwich for her for lunch.

She still takes her fruits so not a problem for me. As for snacks, she still will eat her crackers, cereals, oats, yogurts, energy bars, jell-0, raisins, steam sweet potatoes and chocolate.

My parents kept telling me, she must eat rice cannot eat all this. But I have no choice and some even commented that she is so western style and not 'chinaman' style at all. It's a plus for me at least she eat something right? Oh yea...she loves milk very much and will drink milk at least 4-5times(8oz) daily.

But last 2 weeks, she surprised all of us again. She asked for rice! She told her grandma last week before her class "Eat Rice" "Eat Rice" and she finishes all her rice and ask for more! I'm so happy when she did that and last week she did the same thing again. I realize that she cannot take fish/meat together with her rice as she will push the food out from her mouth and make a mess. If I give her separately she will eat them. I know her pattern but I'm not complaining since at the end of the day her bowl is squeaky clean!

How Is Naomi coping so far with baby Isaac around...

2009-03-10T16:42:00.002+08:00

I've decided to blog about this topic today since many people ask me these questions:

How is Naomi coping? Jealous or not? Can sayang baby or not? or bully baby? and the etc etc

Well...surprisingly she's doing okay cause I expected the worst and I didn't get her any 'gifts' or 'presents' to present to her when we came back from the hospital (Cause I heard from some friends that this can prevent jealousy by presenting the big sister a gift and says that it's from the younger siblings). Seriously I've no time to go and buy the gift so I didn't get her the gifts.

When Naomi visited me in the hospital, she was rather reserved and didn't want me to carry her at first. She did glance at Isaac but I think she's too young to understand what or who he is. To her, it's just another baby I think. She was okay during the 2 nights (without me) as I was staying in the hospital after my delivery. Tjun Aun tucked her to bed and she didn't miss me as well.

When we came home with the baby, she felt weird and kept saying "Baby", "Baby" and just look at Isaac only and she will come and give him a kiss once in a while. So, it was still too early to judge whether she's jealous or not during that time.

But as days, weeks and months passed by, she seems fine and helpful with chores like helping me to throw Isaac's diapers, take Isaac's handkerchief to wipe his mouth, sing to him and even share her toys with him. Sometimes she will rock his bouncer when Isaac cry or ask/push me and say "Go!" (Cause Isaac is crying). She's not jealous when I breastfeed Isaac as well and when she saw the milk bottle she will say "Baby's one" and she didn't throw any tantrum or show any sign of jealousy cause we put Isaac on her baby cot(used to be her sleeping place). So I think she's pretty alright as I've heard stories that the older siblings will get jealous if the mother breastfeed the younger child or use the cot etc.

I send both of them to the same babysitter as well and alice's feedback was Naomi has been very helpful just that she's a bit "cho lor" towards her brother sometimes as I think she's geram with the baby and she will poke his head or kiss his head too hard. As a toddler she's still learning and just need to keep close eye on her at times.

I will say so far so good :)

Learning through Playing

2009-03-10T16:40:00.001+08:00

Naomi has been attending weekly classes at Tumble Tots (http://www.tumbletots.com.my/) since last month and she’s loving it. I called up the centre one day (while I was still on my 2nd month maternity leaves :) ) and the teacher (Madeline) ask me to come over for a free trial lesson. Madeline told me since Naomi is going to be 2 years old only she’s somewhere in the ‘middle’. I didn’t get what she meant at first and ask her to elaborate more and she told me that they have 2 classes for Tumble Tots. The first class was a free flow type (a more relax type) and it’s for kids 2 years and below and the other one is for kids to follow simple instructions and a more structured class (for children 2-3 years old). She said she needs to see what category Naomi falls under. So, I took her to the free trial. It’s a total new thing for Naomi as she never attends any playgroup before.

When we reach the place, Naomi was so so so shy….hahaha…and she dare not go near the other children and just sat on my lap and stick to me like ‘super glue’. As a parent, I need to encourage her to join in the group and not stray away from the group. First few minutes were word play and I know Naomi is very good at it but she didn’t want to participate at all. So, I try to encourage her some more but to no avail.

Next activity was climbing and they need to climb up quite high (for my standard it was considered high and I doubt Naomi will climb as well!) True enough, she didn’t climb but she did follow the simple climbing where the place was setup like a mini gym with obstacles for children to explore. Slowly, I can see she’s beginning to open up. After the climbing activity, the next was ‘agility’. Naomi was very good at this and she’s able to do all the ‘agility’ activity with no problem at all. The last one was ‘balancing’ and I was surprised she’s so good at this! There’s one activity where they need to walk on a narrow wooden plank (form into a small circle) where require you to balance on the plank without touching floor. Naomi was able to walk 2-3 rounds without touching the floor at all ! I saw her nearly fell down a couple of times but she surprised me with her balancing skill and able to prevent herself from touching the ground. Oh yeah….She didn’t even hold my hand at all when she’s doing that.

After the gym activities, they have music and dancing activities. After the class Madeline talked to me about Naomi and she said she is able to fit in and follow the class and the only problem is that I need to encourage her to join in the group and slowly she will be able to follow the simple instructions. So I enroll her for the class for 2-3 years old children. Although she is the youngest in the class and the others were like 2.5-3 years old but I think she should be alright.
Every week she’s looking forward to the class and she’s now able to join the climbing activity as well. The only problem is that, she’s still stubborn and sometimes don’t want to listen to the teacher. But then again, most of the kids there are the same as well especially the boys. Patience- there’s what both of us need. :)

Since, Naomi already been potty trained, I let her be diaper-free when attending the class as well and so far so good…no accidents so far…hehe
Our plan is to let Naomi explore herself with other children and listen to simple instructions from a stranger (the teacher) and then maybe after 3-4 months in tumble tots I plan to send her to learning gardens (for weekly classes first). When she’s 2.5 years I might send her to half day day-care centre. I believe slowly she will able to adapt the idea of going to school. We’ll see what goes in the future. Will definitely keep you guys posted!

I wish to post up some pictures here but the teacher doesn’t allow me. I will try to sneak my phone camera when I have the opportunity :)

Last week, I curi-curi took these 3 pictures. The quality is very bad cause I was using my camera phone and I did not focus at all as I might get caught!

peek-a-boo..i see you!

She's the 1st in line - excited as usual, balancing very well huh?

Jumping up and down on the trampoline

Naomi: I'm 2 years old...

2009-03-10T13:45:00.007+08:00

Naomi celebrated her 2nd birthday last week and this time we only invited family members for this 'mini celebration'. 1st is always special that's why last year we had a birthday bash for her..;)

This time she's more familliar with birthday cake, candle blowing and cake cutting and she did blow her candles this time round. When we ask Naomi this "How old are you?" She's able to reply 2 years old! Time flies...and my baby girl is already 2!

In pictures, she look a bit blur as she just woke up from her nap! Timing wasn't right...hehe. Here are some of the pix taken during her weekend birthday celebration at our house.

Her chocolate moist cake from Jenni Cake House

Scary huh? The way she hold the knife and with the look on her face

Yippee.....i get to cut my own cake!!

She's only interested in the toy balloon in stead of the cake

We had another cake cutting on her real day(5th March 2009) at babysitter's house and that time she was excited and know what to expect. Alice bought for her Maxim's ice cream cake and it was delicious! We didn't bring our camera so sorry, no pictures.

God Is so good...

2008-12-05T09:38:00.002+08:00

Besides children’s songs and nursery rhymes, I also introduce Naomi to Sunday School church songs. She enjoys singing a lot and we always sing together every night before her bedtime. She knows all the words to this simple Sunday school song. "God Is So Good" (with actions).

Naomi: God (pointing up) is so good (she still uses her index finger to show the good sign), God is so good……God is so good…..he’s so good to me (using both hands pointing to her chest).

I hope one day she will understand who God is and will accept Jesus as her personal savior. I’ve even started telling her stories from the bible and she loves it! Parents out there, you can try to get those simple bible stories picture books from Evangel or Salvation bookstore in 1-stop or Baptist Bookstore (Pulau Tikus area - next to Maxim Cake house) :)

Potty Training (Updates)

2008-11-21T15:25:00.000+08:00

I will say I’m one lazy mummy (very guilty) and Naomi’s progress has been inconsistent for the past few months. But, she shows a lot of improvements for the past 2 weeks. Now, I really save a lot of money on disposable diapers. Before I started potty training, Naomi will use about 4-5 disposable diapers per day. After that, the numbers went down to 3 pieces and sometimes 2 pieces only.
Last week, she used 1 piece of diaper only (during night time only) and this is a major accomplishment for Naomi. She is able to “shee shee”(urinate) in the potty with no problem at all but she still can’t do her “big business” in the potty yet. Normally she will do it in her pants then only say “Oh-oh” “poot-poot”.
During weekdays, when I pick Naomi up from babysitter’s she’s all dress up in her pajamas. Normally, before her bedtime she will “shee shee” in the potty. The next morning when she wakes up from her sleep, I will ask her to “shee shee” in the potty again. I will make sure this is the standard routine she needs to follow daily.
For weekends, after she passed urines, I will change her into her training pants (diaper free) until her bath at around 10plus. After her bath, she will still not be wearing any diapers as well and only the training pants. I still will ask her every hour to make sure no accidents happen during day time.
After her lunch and milk, she will “shee shee” and then it’s time for her afternoon nap. Previously, I will let her wear the disposable diaper and then I realize that now her disposable diaper stays dry when she wakes up after her 2- hours nap. So, now I gave her the cloth diaper instead (for just in case). I want to make sure and be confident enough to let her be diaper-free during nap as well. I will try this for at least 2-3weeks and see how it goes. I heard night time is the most difficult to train. She still wakes up with heavy diaper so I will take my time to train this. She still hasn’t graduate from potty training but its okay and force her as well until she’s 100% ready.

Hanging out with the birds…

2008-11-12T10:19:00.010+08:00

Last Sunday, we took Naomi to Penang Bird Park www.penangbirdpark.com.my/ for a visit. If you ask Naomi “Can you make the sound of a bird?” She will replied “Kruku, kruku, kruku” That’s the exact sound that came out from the birds beak at my babysitter’s house. She has 4 birds at her house. So, when we reached the entrance of Penang Bird Park, there were 2 birds outside (1 owl and 1 hornbill) greeting us. Immediately, Naomi went near the birds and said “Kruku, kruku”
I need to control her as she move too near to the birds and scared that the birds might peck her as there’s no cage and only a long string on the bird’s leg.
We can see lots of birds’ species there and being Naomi she likes to explore and go near the birds all be herself. I need to hold hands and walk together with her. Sometimes, she will let go of my hand and walk on her own. Luckily, Siew Lean was there with us and she helped to take care of Naomi while I capture the birds in “action” with my video camera. As usual the guys will be snapping their cameras away and the birds was the model of the day.
The highlight of the day was feeding the bird session. There’s a few feeding machines install at the park and it costs us RM1 for 1 pack of worms (very few worms only, I think about 10-12worms) and Jason said it was not worth it for RM1!! Since, we were all there already, no harm buying a few. It was an experience for all of us as when we open the ball (the worms are all inside the tiny ball thing). The birds flew and stand on our hands ( It was quite painful as their claw was rather sharp). The worms are still alive and moving when we open the ball packaging and the birds will fly and then eat the worms and then fly away and soon many birds came and surround us. Camera need to be in high speed if not the pics will be blur….After the feeding session, we went to see the Bird show. Bird show was boring for me and they did showcase some birds that can perform tricks and listen to simple instructions and etc. We left the place at 12:30pm and adjourn to Chai Leng Park for lunch. This trip was not as tiring as the Taiping Zoo and it was quite an experience for all of us especially for my girl, Naomi.

Taking picture with eagle. Naomi was staring at the eagle and again I'm so scared the eagle will peck her on the face! haha....

2 Birds.....trying to eat the worms....

Owl Pic...

Naomi is up to 'something'.....look at her face and action....

yellow parrot....

Yay....Naomi feeding the birds....

Kiss From Tortoise.....

2008-11-07T09:47:00.004+08:00

Alice's house has this small baby tortoise that they bought from pet shop and Naomi was very fascinated with the baby tortoise from day 1 and of course she's not afraid to touch and pat the tortoise. I always warn her that the tortoise will bite her as she always like to open the tank and touch the tortoise. If we don't let her she will cry and wail loudly.

Then yesterday afternoon she went to 'disturb' the baby tortoise again and she took the tortoise close to her face and then it happened! The tortoise bite her! Right next to her lips! There's a tiny "look-a-like" lip mark on her left lips. According to Alice, she didn't really cry that loud she just said "pain, pain, pain" Alice put some antibiotic cream on the wound and after a while she totally forgot about the incident and went to disturb the tortoise again.....I thought she will learn her lesson but still she's so stubborn to do so. This is the picture of her after the incident.

Learning Simple Opposites...

2008-11-03T10:33:00.000+08:00

Naomi can identify simple opposites and know what they actually mean.

Big & Small
She was playing with coins that day (yeah…I know…dirty but we wash her hands after that :) )
She picked up the 50sen coin and said big and she picked up the 10sen coin and said small.

Hot &. Cold
Naomi likes cold drinks a lot and she will always ask me to go to the fridge and pour cold drinks for her and she will say “Cold, Cold” Sometimes I will use my cold Tupperware and press it against her cheek and she will make her face first before my Tupperware reaches her cheek (like getting ready for the cold feeling).
Whenever I drink my soup, I will tell her “Hot, hot” and she won’t come near me as she know it’s hot and doesn’t like the “Hot” feeling. Even when I prepare her bath, she will test the water first and let me know whether it is hot or cold. If it’s too hot, she will tell me “Hot, Hot” then if it’s not that hot and just nice she will say “Cold, Cold and jump in the water.

Up & Down
Naomi will said up and use her index finger to point up especially when she wants to go to her room upstairs and down when she wants to go downstairs. Actually She can said upstairs and downstairs clearly now.

Open & Close
She will say “open” whenever she wants us to open something for her like cereal pack in the box for example and sometimes when she is done playing with her toys and wants to put in the box she will say “close” and put the lid on the box.

1-2-3....what's my name?

2008-10-28T15:31:00.002+08:00

My little girl is learning extremely fast and I'm trying my best to catch up with her and make sure she's not bored and I'm always on the lookout for new things for her to explore and discover.

She is now learning numbers and can count from 1-6. I think it's too early for her to say words with 2 Syllabus? I'm not sure cause she stops at six and when I ask her to say seven, she will only said "ven" but it's okay I won't pressure her and let her pick up by herself.

We taught her on saying her own name as well. I will ask her What is your name?

Sometimes she will said "Neh.....Mi" with the missing O in the middle.

Then I will correct her and said look at mummy's mouth and follow what mummy said ok?

Mummy: Neh

Naomi: Neh (follow along)

Mummy: O

Naomi O! (very semangat and loud!)

Mummy: Mi

Naomi: Mi! (very semangat and loud!)

Then she clapped her hands together! hahahaha

Sing-a-long....

2008-10-28T15:21:00.002+08:00

Naomi enjoys music a lot and she will dance and hum along whenever she hears music.
Actually this happened last month when she's 18months old:
I started singing Twinkle, Twinkle little star (she even knows all the actions esp "How I wonder what you are?" And act out the "diamond shape" using both her hands).
Mummy: Twinkle, twinkle little ....
Naomi: star!
Mummy: How I wonder what you ....
Naomi: are!
Mummy: Up above the sky so ....
Naomi: high!
Mummy: Like a diamond in the ...
Naomi: sky!
Mummy: Twinkle, twinkle little ....
Naomi: star!
Mummy: How I wonder what you ....
Naomi: are!

Being Choosy....

2008-10-22T09:48:00.004+08:00

I know one day, this will happen but I didn’t expect it to be so soon. My little girl is being choosy on what we put on her now. This morning while I was getting ready for work, she asked me to put on her socks for her. She will say “Socks, Socks, Socks” I took out the purple colour socks with flowers and started to wear on her right foot. She said “No!”…..and pointed at the white colour socks with lace. She wanted that socks instead of the one I choose for her.
Normally she won’t wear socks to Alice’s house but today (I know) she’s just playing with me and I know she’s going to ask me to take off the socks before we go out from the house. I didn’t want her to wear the white socks as she will walk all over the room and being white (and freshly washed) will turn brown or black in no time. Since, she insists on wearing the white socks, I gave up and let her wear them for a while. Then she said “Shoes, Shoes?” I pretend not to hear and kept talking (to distract her) I was telling her about bears and cars and she totally forgot about the socks but she said she wants to watch “Cars” DVD http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/cars/ and then she said “Eyes” cause in the cartoon all the cars got eyes. Then she will say “Go, Go, Go” “Fast, Fast, Fast” (cause racing ma…..and she’s lighting McQueen supporter) I said no, since we are going out soon and then she went to play with her soft toys. Then I told her I’m going to take off her socks now….then she finally said “Take out, take out”
Another incident was we were getting ready to my friend’s son’s birthday party last week and I took out her pants and blouse for her and some dresses and put on the bed. At first I wanted her to wear pants (as it’s more convenient if she wants to run around and play). But she kept pointing at one the dresses (sleeveless dress with colourful flowers on them). She said “mei, mei” (pretty in mandarin).
This is the dress she wore to the party.

New Baby Blog....

2008-10-15T09:02:00.002+08:00

Hi!
I created a new blog for my 2nd baby and this is the link to the blog. Still in 'WIP'
http://www.cheeky-baby.blogspot.com/
I will try my best to update these 2 blogs :)
Enjoy!

Old Wives' Tales...

2008-10-03T14:56:00.004+08:00

I wanted to blog about this looooooong time ago just that i always forget to take pics of Naomi's head. I'm not sure what is it call in english but i know in hokkien it's called "Chuin" and If I'm not mistaken, English it's called crown of the head? Please correct me if I'm wrong :P

Well....Naomi was born with 2 "chuin" and according to old wives' tales, those who have 2 "chuin"are bad tempered but highly intelligent people. Just interesting thing to share although I don't believe in it.

Another friend asked me to check the patterns of those "chuin" and if both are opposite swirl, I might have a baby boy and if the patterns are exactly the same I'm expecting a baby girl (She told me before but I didn't keep track so I need to check with her again). Looks like the pattern are totally opposite swirls-eh? (This only applies if your only child has 2 "chuin"). I found this when I was surfing the net. Just for fun: http://www.childbirth.org/articles/boyorgirl.html

Anyway, the most accurate way to check whether you are expecting a baby boy or girl is by ultrasound or you won't know if your baby is playing peek-a-boo until you deliver!

A Visit to the Zoo...

2008-10-03T09:38:00.004+08:00

We finally took Naomi to Taiping Zoo! She knows most of the animal names by now and she’s very excited when she sees them. Before the trip, I’ve already told her that mummy & daddy will be taking her to see animals in the zoo….not sure whether she understand or not….hehe.
We woke up at 6:30am on Saturday morning and quickly bath and change cause we’re meeting Sharon and Jason at Jason’s house. Naomi was still sleeping and since it’s too early for her bath, I just changed her clothes and this young lady can’t wake up even I’m being rough with her! She really can sleep all the way….finally we left the house at 7 and reached Jason’s house around 7:15am. We had breakfast (BTW: Naomi is still sleeping) and finally start our journey from Penang at 8am. I bought 3 pandan cakes from the market for Naomi’s breakfast and lunch. Naomi finally wakes up at 8am and she sat at her car seat until we reached Taiping Zoo. I gave her some milk and she ate 1 whole pandan cake.
After about 1 hour drive, we finally made it to Taping Zoo. We started walking slowly and introduce Naomi to all the animals one by one. We saw monkeys, otters, birds, owls, tigers, lions, zebras, giraffe, bear, elephants, parrots, ostriches and many others. As usual Naomi will repeat after me when I introduce the animals to her….but only the last word…haha….
Mummy: Monkey
Naomi: Key!
Mummy: Elephant
Naomi: Phant!
She’s very observant…sometimes better than me! Actually I was pointing the giraffe to her and she saw a turtle swimming in the lake and shouted “tease” (referring to Tortoise). She’s more interested to see the fishes swimming in the sea rather than the big animals walking around!
It was very hot and humid and all of us was sweating and was very tired halfway! I guess being 61/2 mths pregnant and walking around was quite tiring for me. I didn’t expect the zoo was quite big and had to walk so much. Sharon, Jason and Tjun Aun was busy taking photographs with their DSLR cameras and Sharon said she didn’t like taking animals pictures and ended up taking Naomi’s pictures. She told me that day she took more than 200shots of Naomi’s pictures! LOL
Before we headed home we took Naomi to the children’s playground and let her play with the slides and see-saw. She loves the slides so much and kept saying “Zoom!” “Zoom!”Daddy was playing see-saw with her, she was sitting at one end and daddy had to move up and down so she can play with the see-saw. Daddy wanted to take pictures of Naomi so he stood up and Naomi said to daddy “Sit!” I was laughing so hard cause she’s so demanding!
We call it a day and left the zoo at 12:30pm and everyone was so tired and hungry. I can see Naomi is about to Zzzz and she haven’t taken her milk or eat anything and I’m worried she might be hungry. I know she drink a lot of water when we were walking around. So I gave her another pandan cake inside the car while Tjun Aun was driving to the nearby coffee shop for lunch. I was feeding Naomi and talking to Sharon and I told Sharon I’m very hungry la….what about you? She said yeah…hungry la…..then Naomi suddenly took my hand with the cake and put inside my mouth!!! Instead of me feeding her she’s asking me to feed myself! I don’t know whether is it coincident or she just heard me talking to Sharon and she heard that I was telling her how hungry I was! Naomi was half asleep when we reach the nearby coffee shop and we took out the stroller so she can sleep in it while we all eat. Tjun Aun help to feed her 8oz of milk and she finished all of the milk (with her eyes closed) while I had my lunch. I guess she must be very tired and sleepy already! Here are some of the pictures taken during the trip. Enjoy!

The elephant

The cool looking tiger...

It was so hot and humid!

The one and only family pic

Mid Autumn Festival

2008-09-18T14:24:00.009+08:00

This is the 1st time Naomi celebrated the mid autumn festival. Last year she was just 6months old and too young to understand and play with lanterns.
At first, we plan to take her to Gurney Drive and participate in the walk but it has been raining non-stop for the past couple of weeks and we decided to let her play around the shaded house porch.
To our pleasant surprised, Alice (Naomi’s babysitter) invited us to her house for a mini mid autumn celebration with her kids and neighbours. I dressed Naomi up in long sleeve blouse and pants (I know it’s a bit warm and if I don’t the mosquitoes will bite her again!)
We reached Alice’s house at 7:30pm and had fried noodles, lor bak, French fries, chicken balls, fish fingers, “ang tao ‘thng” (dessert made from red beans) and “lek tao thng”(dessert made from green beans)! I bought some ice creams for the kids.
Naomi was very excited to see so many beautiful paper lanterns all lighted up. She’s also very happy to have so many friends around and you know all that while she didn’t even come near me at all! She just walked pass me as if I’m a ‘nobody’ or ‘stranger’ to her. She can mix with all types of people and I can see she will turn out to be one social butterfly….hahahaha
We even saw her distributing ice creams to her friends. Can you believe it? Of course she’s the youngest one of the lot but the way she act and all you’ll be surprised she’s only 18mths old!
It started to rain outside and so the kids can’t walk with the lanterns so we just hang out inside the house and outside the shaded area. About an hour after that, the rain stops so we decided to go outside with the lanterns. We managed to capture a few shots of Naomi with the lanterns but she was not really fascinated about the lantern. It started to drizzle again after half and hour later but all of us were still playing outside. I was a bit worried that she might catch a cold or fall sick actually but since she’s enjoying herself so much I decided to let her play for a while. Check out this pic where she saw the rain coming down from the sky under the lamp post light.
After about 20minutes we decided to call it a day and I was quite sleepy already :)
Naomi was all sweaty and dirty with all the playing, food, ice-cream etc. and Alice decided to give her a warm bath and changed her clothes to her PJ before we headed back home to sleep. We reached home about 11pm and Naomi was quite sleepy that time and she sleeps till 9:30am (the next day!)

Observing 'kor-kor' lighting up the lantern....

holding hands with the pretty che che. She's half Siamese

Naomi with Alice. Look at her hand...so feminine..hehe

all by herself.....

no lantern spotted this time....

beautiful lanterns at the garden....and the bamboo trees..love it!

the stuff....

Eating snacks...

with the babysitter's neighbours...

eating on her own...

Perfect!

2008-09-18T14:24:00.002+08:00

Perfect circles...check out her drawing....this was taken few weeks ago!

Perfect pose.....so cheeky!

Perfect smile....ever-so-ready to smile for the camera but not so perfect face (mosquito bites!)

Terrible 2 - on the way….?

2008-09-08T16:37:00.002+08:00

Less than 6 months Naomi is going to be 2 years old and some days her attitude is too much for all of us. She’s normally an angel but sometimes she will be like “a little monster!” I think I need to prepare myself for the terrible 2! I don’t believe they exist but I think they do!
If we don’t give her whatever she wants….she will start with
“Waaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” (it’s definitely crocodile tears,ok… more like screaming and wailing loudly) and her voice is very loud and high pitch sometimes I can’t stand the sound of it. I try not to give in as much as possible cause sometimes her requests seems ridiculous. She likes to draw a lot and would like to use a pen instead of her crayon and magic ink. I don’t want her to use the pen cause of safety reasons but she cannot understand. She likes to play with many sharp objects which I always will put somewhere she’s out of reach. She will cry and wail like there’s no tomorrow. Sometimes we will distract her with other things but she will always remember back and then continue crying again. I have tried so many ways to discipline her. I’ve tried scolding her, talk to her nicely and explain to her but all didn’t seems to work. I’ve yet to try “caning” her. My friend asked me to buy several “rotan” and keep just in case….but I didn’t try this method yet.
Nowadays she likes to bring all her soft toys(big ones until there's no place for me to lie down) and put on our bed and play and normally I won’t let her do that as she even want to ride her “pony” on our bed. Then yesterday I decided to give in and let her play for a while. Then she turned to me and said “mu-mmy, Good!” (pointing at me) I was shocked cause she’s saying I’m good cause I let her play on the bed ma as normally I will scold her and say NO to her. How can I stay mad at her for long?
I did some research from the internet and it says that some terrible 2 can start as early as 18months….but I hope it will end early for her…..sigh
Now everything to her is “NO!”. Whenever I ask her do you want milk? Her answer is No (even though it’s time for milk time). I ask her do want to shee-shee (pee or go toilet). Answer is also No! Ask her anything her answer is No! Even I ask her want to go kai-kai(shopping mall)? Her answer is also No! Helllppp!!!

Naomi (The Big Sister)

2008-09-04T14:21:00.000+08:00

Since we found out we were expecting a second baby, I’ve been trying to break the news to Naomi, however gently as possible. I’ve reached the 21weeks mark and 19more weeks to go before my due date (12th Jan 2009). But so far her response was okay and happy?
Every night before she goes to sleep she will kiss my belly and use her hand and said “sayas” “sayas” (Sayang-sayang) to my big belly. Sometimes she will look at my belly and call out “ba-bey” “ba-bey”
I feel she’s not the “jealous” type…which is good for us cause we’re very worried on how she will cope with another baby at home, attentions or siblings rivalry and etc. She has shown her caring and loving characters to all family members as for now. Even my babysitter said she so “pandai ambil hati” of her whole family which makes everyone love her lots!
I wanted to test her and confirm she’s not the’ jealous’ kind so I carry one of my friend’s 7months old baby boy that day during wedding. Tjun Aun was carrying Naomi that time and I was carrying the baby boy and just standing next to Tjun Aun. Naomi’s reaction?
She was smiling at me and the baby and her hand was caressing the baby’s arm. I thought she will wail and cry for me (which I’ve seen my friend’s daughter did that to her whenever she carries another baby). The baby boy was very active and I was wearing those big funky earrings that night and he kept pulling (playing) with one of my earrings. Naomi started to said “No-No-No” to the baby. I think she’s trying to protect me from getting hurt? Clever Girl.
I already imagine both of my kids getting along and playing together. Naomi will be a good big sister.

win, lose or draw....

2008-08-27T19:09:00.003+08:00

If you guys are familiar with the game show Win, Lose or Draw, this is what we as a family are playing right now. Naomi will ask me or daddy to draw and then she will guess what we draw. Sometimes, I ran out of idea on what to draw and will pass to daddy to take over the drawing.

Most of the time we will repeat whatever we have drawn before. She can guess almost all of our drawings. I would say I'm a pretty good artist myself...haha...but something funny happened yesterday night. I was drawing baby. She said babey! I said yeah...correct! Next, I draw star, she said Star ! Correct! Then I was planning to draw a moon but if i draw just circle she might not know so i drew a Crescent Moon. Then she said 'na-na' (banana). Then I looked at my drawing again...oookkkkayyy...my drawing is not that bad and it did look like banana....hmmmm...then i said yeah! u r correct!! Take a look at all the pics and you tell me...

Baby

Star

Crescent (Moon) or Banana?

Art Time....

2008-08-27T18:58:00.003+08:00

Naomi has shown interest in drawing and she can sit on her high chair and draw for hours.

Naomi's hand co-ordination has improve tremendously and I observe her drawing skill and just less than 2 weeks she is able to draw in circles. Before that, she just simply scribble lines.

Take a look at her before and after pictures!

This was taken 2 weeks ago...

This was taken today (27th Aug 2008)

Although not a perfect circle or round shape, she has indeed able to swirl her hand round and round to achieve that. :)

Practice makes perfect

Some tips....

2008-08-25T11:17:00.002+08:00

Parents...

If you are planning to potty train your baby/toddler at an early age. I discover these few tips that might be helpful although I still haven't 100% successful in training Naomi but this is what I discover along my potty training journey:

You can start anytime and when you know your baby/toddler is ready esp she starts to communicate with you more.

1. Start with no diapers/cloth diapers during daytime

2. Be very proactive in bringing the potty (Esp. after her milk, meal, water)

3. Normally they won't tell you so I need to ask her "Do you want to 'shee shee'? (Up until today Naomi still can't tell me she wants to do business so I have to ask her often-normally abt 1 hour after her milk/water, she will do her business) cause by asking her often it's something like remind her and hopefully this will be register to her brain that she's doing the right thing by doing business in the potty instead of her pants.

P/S: If I forgot to ask her she will do her business in her pants !

Same = Shame ??!

2008-08-25T11:06:00.002+08:00

Naomi is confused with these 2 words but she's not aware of them. I caught her few times making these mistakes but not sure how to correct her or explain to her.

First incident:

1) There's a picture of a frog inside her book and she said 'frog' and i have a tupperware which has a 'frog' cartoon on it and she pointed that tupperware and said 'frog' same, same (but while saying the word 'same', 'same' she's doing the action of 'shame', 'shame' (using her index finger and caressing her cheek). Then I told her same means similar, shame means 'liu','liu' (tak malu) but she didn't get me. I totally forgot about it until yesterday and it happen again.

Yesterday:

2) She saw a 'balloon' picture in her book and there's another picture on the box itself and she told me 'same','same' (and doing the 'shame', 'shame' action at the same time). This time I told her SAME is not the SAME as SHAME. I think this sentence will make her more confused! hahaha...i think i will let her discover this when she grows older while i try to think of a way to explain to her the diff.

wish me luck!

Words...a major development in her milestones

2008-08-22T10:11:00.002+08:00

At 17 months, Naomi can say more than 50words already and she's learning new words everyday! So we need to be careful on the words we use at home as she's a fast learner and tend to pick on stuff faster than we expected. If I'm not mistaken her 1st word was 'ma' which of course refers to me - her mummy!

These are the words she use to communicate to us:

Family Members/People
Ah Ma (Grandma) - she calls MIL Ah Ma & my mom Ah Ma too, not sure she knows the diff...haha
Ah Kong (Grandpa) - same thing, calls my dad & FIL Ah Kong
Khor Khor (Sis in law)
Ah Chek (bro in law)
Ah Gu (my bro)
Ta Che (big sis) - Babysitter's eldest daughter
Er Che (2nd sis) - Babysitter's 2nd daughter
Kor Kor (big brother) - Babysitter's son
Baby (anyone smaller than her she will call baby)
Auntie -Babysitter or stranger
Unker - Babysitter's hubby
Da-day (Daddy)
ma-ma (Mummy)
mi (Mummy)
mu-mmy (which is very rare)

Che Che (big sister)

Pets
Chet-er (Chester) - our golden retriever at home
Mi-mi - Babysitter's pincher (dog)
Fi-Fi - Babysitter's pincher (dog)

Animals
Dog
Cat or Mau (in mandarin)
Cak (Cicak in Malay) - Lizard
Bird
phant (Elephant)
Tease (Tortoise)
Snake
bugs (pick up from watching Bugs Life)
frog
shark (pick up from watching Finding Nemo & Shark Tales)
da (Panda) - Pick up from watching Kung Fun Panda
horse
bear
fis (Fish)

Body Parts
Head
Der (Shoulder)
Nose
Mou (Mouth)
Ear
Eyes
Hand
Leg
hair

Objects
kar (Car)
phone
lights
book
pen
milk
ball
bag
shoes
comb
star
cuit (ket) - Biscuit
cake
watch
cup
spoon
apple
chair

Actions
Daw (Draw)
Sma (Smile)
walk
run
lai (Come in Hokkien)
po (Carry in Hokkien)
sit
wait
hai (Hi, usually in dragging tone)
bye
hlo (Hello)
do-doi (I can't think of english word for this!)
hot
cold
come
in
out

kiss

hug

Random pics I took last week..

2008-08-18T14:47:00.003+08:00

So far this is the latest pics...see the new haircut? LOL

She wants to pose with her bear but when I ask her to look at the camera, she look elsewhere...

I showed her this pic and said Next time you must look at the camera and pose like this ok? She ignore me and kept saying "Bear, Bear, Bear" while pointing at her Bear in the picture...*pengsan*

Hanging out with Charlotte che che...

2008-08-18T14:41:00.005+08:00

Saturday evening we went to visit my friend Hooi Ling and her daughter Charlotte who is turning 3 this Nov. She gave me 3 bags full of Charlotte’s old clothes (I don’t consider them old and they are all very nice and still new looking just that they are too small for Charlotte already, even all the PJs and house clothes are all nice looking! Her mummy has great taste!) Most of Naomi’s clothes are pass down from Charlotte.

They have a golden retriever at their house too. His name is Simba and he’s a very good dog. Simba was staying in the cage and Naomi was so excited when she saw Simba and kept saying “Woo-woo” “Woo-woo” (imitating dog barking sound). Then daddy asked Naomi to give Simba a pet. She put her hand inside the cage and petted Simba on the nose and head. Hooi Ling commented that Naomi is very brave cause Charlotte dare not touch Simba at all! Simba is really cute and nice dog and not aggressive like Chester (our golden retriever at home). When Naomi pet Simba, his reaction was like so cool and ‘manja’ but for Chester, it’s totally the opposite. Chester is a jealous dog and somehow will react in more aggressive way.

Naomi and Charlotte clicked immediately and Charlotte has a lot of toys at home and she shared them with Naomi. Naomi was especially attracted to the slide and she can climb up the stairs and then slide down. I did not expect her to be able to climb up the stairs so I kept asking Tjun Aun to put her at the edge and push her down the slides but she surprised me by climbing up the stairs and then slide down and when she slide down she said “Swooosh”.

After the warm up, we went to Queensbay mall for dinner and window shopping. When we reached there we asked Naomi to hold Charlotte’s hand and walked.
The girls look so cute holding hands and walking together. We had dinner and then went our separate ways for a while as I need to get some groceries and we met up with them again after 15minutes and when Naomi saw Charlotte she shouted so loud “Che, che, che” (Big sister in Hokkien) and Charlotte also shouted back “mei-mei, mei-mei” (younger sister in mandarin). They were like so happy to see each other even just 15mins of not seeing each other…..then they hugged each other….hahaha (Hug as in really use their arms and wrap around each other!).

We left Queensbay mall at around 9pm and in the car Charlotte started to whine “I want to go Queensbay mall” over and over again. She didn’t want to go home yet. Hooi Ling tried to distract her and after 5 minutes she started all over again and she started crying (I feel more like a crocodiles tear) Then Naomi try to console her (as if asking her not to cry) She use her hand and touch Charlotte’s arm and brushing her hands up and down on her arms. When we reached home, Charlotte again complain to the maid “I want to go Queensbay mall” the maid laughed and said “Ok, Ok” “We will go” Then Naomi again rushed to “sayang” Charlotte again and the maid was saying “Wow, this little girl some more can console big sister” Then Hooi Ling said “Ya, shame, shame, mei-mei some more need to 'sayang' big sister” .

Naomi is going to be 1 ½ years next month and 2years in another 6 months time. Naomi is really growing up fast and I can see she’s ready for a sibling as I can see she likes companion to play with.

Careful vs Careless....

2008-08-18T10:22:00.006+08:00

This incident happened on Sunday morning when everyone was preparing to go to church. My in laws (mom, dad & sis) was all at the hall having breakfast and watching the Olympics and I went downstairs to prepare Naomi’s lunch as well as breakfast for myself and Tjun Aun. When I went down, I saw Naomi was sleeping soundly. I moved her to sleep with Daddy on our bed before I went downstairs. Daddy of course was still sleeping. I did not wake him up to inform him I was going downstairs (I normally will but I see both of them sleeping so nice so i decided not to wake him up as it was still quite early).

I was in the kitchen for about 10minutes and about 5minutes after that, my father in law wanted to go upstairs and change and then he shouted “Hey, Naomi what are you doing here on the stairs – ALONE?!!” I got a shocked of my life and quickly went to the stairs and I saw her standing on the stairs (looked a bit scared..) and holding on the side of the stairs so father in law quickly carried her down and you know what Naomi did? She was scared and kept saying “Pah, pah, pah” (mandarin of saying scared, scared, scared) and beating her chest gently. Everyone was laughing and also WORRIED cause how on earth did she came out from the room and then walked down to the dangerous staircase??! I was careless cause I did not close the gate upstairs as I thought I’ll be in the kitchen for like 5-10mins and Naomi is still sleeping ma. That’s why she can walk down the stairs! But, what about our bedroom door? I did close the door before I went downstairs as we had the air-conditioned on in the room so I will close the door…this is still a big '??' to all of us. Did she open the door by tip toe-ing? Our door is quite easy to open (just by turning the door knob) but then again by a 17mths old?

Thank God she didn’t slip or roll down the stairs and I guess she must be very careful when she walk down the stairs (esp need to go through the gate and then taking one step at a time) But then again IF I had close the gate, I think she will climb over the gate (like what she did inside the cot) and that will be worst!! So I guess leaving the gate open that day was actually a good thing? I don’t know….I just know that I have to be extra careful in the future and wake daddy up the next time when I need to leave the room (even for 1 minute!) as daddy also woke up only when he heard father in law shouted! God is watching over her and she’s a very careful girl, I know!

Take a look at the pic. She climbed till the 5th steps when father in law saw her!

Potty Training – Updates

2008-08-18T08:54:00.002+08:00

Updates > Last Saturday, Naomi was very well behaved and she did all her business into the potty!
She didn’t wet or ‘shee shee’ in her panties at all and I let her wear her diaper during her afternoon nap. She even ‘shee shee’ without my help! I was busy preparing stuff for her bath so she’s half naked already then she went to her potty and sat down by herself ( I wasn’t aware!) cause when I wanted to ask her to go to the bathroom with me then I saw there’s urine inside her potty!! I’m very proud of her!! She’s so independent! When I praise her she will respond happily and clapped her hands and said ‘yeahhh’…so cute right?

But Sunday she wet 2 of her panties and all happened within 1 hour…hahaha
She was standing and drawing at our hall then suddenly she ‘shee shee’! I scolded her and she did feel guilty. So I changed her pants and then remind her again and again. After about 45mins after her lunch and her milk, I brought out the potty again and let her sit on it (She was watching Kung Fu Panda- again!) she did ‘shee shee’ inside the potty but I think she missed the potty at first and her urines was all over the floor then I saw her taking her hanky and wipe the floor! *pengsan* and I told her no need, go and sit over there and I quickly took out the mop and wipe the floor….I know she’s trying to help but….using her clean hanky?! *double pengsan*

Potty train (Part II)

2008-08-15T08:46:00.004+08:00

Since Monday, Naomi is not wearing cloth diapers during daytime. I asked my babysitter to let her wear panty with her normal shorts, skirts, dresses and be very proactive in bringing the potty for her (especially 1hour after her milk or water, during her bath time and before & after her afternoon nap etc.) Alice told me it worked! She might not able to tell us yet that she's going to do her 'business' but at least she knows that she need to 'shee shee' in the potty.

Last night, I went to brush my teeth and I demonstrate to her how mummy brush teeth and she took her tooth brush too and started brushing her teeth (without the toothpaste) and I wanted to showed her how to rinse my mouth so I put water into my mouth and said "Pui" (then the water came out from my mouth) she was laughing so hard I tell you as if something funny cause i guess this is the way to get her to rinse her mouth and I let her try. I put a bit of water into her mouth but she swallow them immediately then i told her "No, you don't swallow, if you swallow no water will come out when you "pui" then she tried again...again she swallow the water...then again and again until finally she "pui" out a bit of water....including her saliva....hahaha (she's trying so hard) then in the end i said tomorrow night only we brush teeth again. Then I asked her do you want to 'shee shee'? Then she nod her head so I quickly took off her pants and diaper and I saw her urine trickling down and I asked her to squat down quickly...then she squat down and 'shee shee' !! Way to go girl! I'm very proud of her accomplishment ! Hopefully tomorrow she's not going to wet any panty cause as I heard from Alice she only wet 2 panties so far and other times she manage to 'shee shee' in her potty.

Kung Fu Panda wannabe...

2008-08-15T08:18:00.003+08:00

Tjun Aun bought Kung Fu panda DVD yesterday so we played the DVD for Naomi. She did pay attention to some parts of the movie and most of the time she will just wander around the room and play with her other toys. Surprisingly, she watched the whole movie. I was about to send her downstairs to play with her grandaprents then this happened!! She went to the back of the bedroom door and imitate the Kung Fu panda “kick”.
Look at the pictures and see how cheeky she looked!
She really made me laugh so hard and Daddy quickly took out the camera and snapped her in ‘action’!

Potential karate kid? go figure...

The funny thing is she finds it funny too and cute i guess....

"Smaa"...... = SMILE....

2008-08-14T16:04:00.006+08:00

These 2 pictures are taken by my friend, Sharon and I especially love these 2 shots cause I’m surprised to see Naomi actually pose(getting ready) and smile (oh so sweet) at the camera. I was just sitting beside her while she looked directly at my friend’s camera….and she hold her smile for quite some time like we adults do when we want to get ready to take pictures….hahaha

Naomi can say smile as in “Smaaaa” without the “L” when Daddy bring out the camera!
Nowadays she will use her 2 index fingers and point her cheek when she poses for the camera….trying to be extra “cute” I think….hahaha

Not ready yet!

Posing and holding Mcdy's french fries on the other hand!

Naomi loves to "DAW" (DRAW!)

2008-08-14T15:48:00.004+08:00

Naomi likes drawing a lot and i bought her some colour pencils, magic inks and non-toxic crayons for her to experiments...She will said "Daw", "Daw" (Draw) without the 'R'! I'm thinking of getting her a proper set of table and chair for her drawing, writing, reading and colouring sessions.

She's actually holding her crayon on her left hand...getting ready for colouring...

serious at work.....

Potty training for my girl...

2008-08-11T09:56:00.001+08:00

This is tough….potty train…mom & dad out there? Any advises and tips?

Naomi knows what is the potty used for cause every time she will sit on it and said “Ngggggg…..ngggggg” as if doing big business. She’s too playful and I’m scared that she will not able to learn and cope when she goes to school. Ok..back to her potty training. She is good at “acting” so when she takes her potty and sat on it and make the “sound”..it’s actually nothing…..sometimes she will hold her stomach…and make her face one kind….also nothing…so it’s very difficult for me to know when it’s the right timing to train her.

Even Alice (my babysitter said she’s having tough time training her!) One of my friends also a mummy asked me not to let her wear diapers during morning so I tried last Saturday. Then she wet her jumper. She did feel uncomfortable and “guilty” then she said to me “wet,wet” and point her jumper. Then I talked to her nicely and remind her to tell mommy, when you want to wee wee ok? She nod her head as if saying yes and understand.

Then in the evening, I took out her potty again and ask her to “wee, wee” (pass urine) she sat on her potty for a while and finally got up and walk few steps and then she did it on the carpet upstairs! *alamak* *headache* then she use her fingers and do “hor, hor” as if blaming me for the mess but actually was herself! Then I scolded her but she didn’t feel anything at all.
I’m going to try again this coming weekend and wish me luck!

MIA

2008-08-11T09:50:00.002+08:00

Hello….I’m back…I’ve been ‘Missing in Action’ for quite some time and now I’m back in Action…I got an announcement to make….Naomi is going to be a big sister :)
Yep…I’m 18 weeks pregnant now and 2 more weeks to go I’m half way through my pregnancy cycle…..yippee…I really can’t wait the day I deliver!
Naomi is 17months old now and she is doing very well. Her vocabulary has improved a lot and she can communicate with me and the family more now.

updates...more updates about my little ones....

2008-06-12T17:10:00.004+08:00

Yes.....Naomi can now point correctly at all her major body parts as I always sing for her the song

"Head & Shoulder, Knees & Toes, Knees & Toes,

Head & Shoulder, Knees & Toes, Knees & Toes,

Eyes, Ears, Mouth & Nose"

She will follow me as I do the action and when I test her again by asking her where's your nose? She will point at her nose and sometimes she will point my nose!

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star is one of her favourite songs too.

When I sing the song for her, she will said 'star'. She even can use both her hands to do Diamond shape when I sang "Like a Diamond in the sky" She even can recognize 'Star' in pictures from books, magazines and T.V!

Every night, I need to read a book for her before her bed time. Sometimes I'm very tired so I will turn on the TV for her instead but she will demand for her bedtime story! She will said 'book', 'book', 'book' and kept pointing at her books! Very demanding indeed!

Naomi @15months

2008-06-11T10:22:00.001+08:00

She’s definitely more aware of her surroundings now.
Last week we took Naomi for her chicken pox jab.
At first she was okay, when the nurse tried to weigh her in the weighing machine, she started crying hysterically. When she saw the doctor she cried louder and louder ( I think she knows what she’s getting into) cause normally when she visit Dr.Chua she will be meeting her good friend ‘the needle’ already. 2 people need to hold her during the jab, I need to hold both her hands tightly and the nurse was holding her legs and Dr Chua quickly took the needle and injects her buttock. It was very fast but little girl still crying even after the injection. She only stops crying when we were out from the room!

Besides her awareness towards the surroundings, she’s now expert in imitating people and ‘acting’. When I asked her to do any actions she will perform it to me.
These are some of my recent conversations with her.
#1:
Me: Naomi, can you please show mummy how you sleep? Can you do the ‘sleeping’ action?
Naomi: (Act out the action: 2 hands flat together and put at one side of her ear with snoring sound) Yes, got sound effect some more!

#2:
Me: Naomi, show Mummy how you cry?
Naomi: (Act out the action: hands covering her face and said Oooo…Oooo…Ooooo)
One funny incident was I was watching Jerry Mcguire on TV that day and there’s one part in the movie where Cuba Gooding Jr (as Rod in the movie) was interviewed in the famous talk show after his ‘success’ in the sports world he was telling the host “No, I’m not going to CRY” cause normally all celebrities in the talk show will cry.
So when Naomi heard the word CRY from TV she acted out the action! It makes me realize that her listening skill is actually quite good…hmmm

#3
She was playing with one of her toys….
Me: Naomi, put the toy on mummy’s head
Naomi: Quickly took the toy and put on my head!

That night I asked her to close the bedroom door and she’s a good girl, went to the door and close the door shut. Sometimes after I change her diaper I will ask her to throw inside the dustbin. She will happily take the diaper and throw it inside the bin.

Weaning From Breast....

2008-05-27T10:07:00.003+08:00

I have stop breastfeeding period…I was having a tough time when trying to wean Naomi from the breast as she was so attached to them!
She is actually sucking for comfort most of the time so I decided to wean her before she grows older.
First attempt = ‘50% success’
As usual, we will pick Naomi up from Alice’s house after work around 6pm and then went back home. Usually I will feed her and she will doze off for like 1 hour. Around 9pm before her bedtime, I will feed her again. She will doze off until 1am. So, I will feed her again at 1am and she will sleep until 7am. Sometimes I will fee her and sometimes I don’t, depending on my time. Normally I will quickly send her off to Alice’s house cause I need to get ready for work. This is basically my weekday routine when I was still bf.

So, I decided to change her pattern one day. I still feed her at 6pm and then before her bedtime around 9pm I feed her formula milk. She pushed the bottle away….so I had to be strong, I tried again but she still doesn’t want the bottle. She’s very determined a.k.a ‘stubborn’. We were both playing ‘tug of war’ until 11pm!! I nearly gave up and decided to bf her but I need to be stronger than her…..so in the end she pointed at her milk bottle and said ‘nen nen’…..i took the bottle and fed her…she finished the 7oz milk at one go….after about 5 minutes, she’s too tired she fell asleep on her own. She woke up at 4am and I have no choice but bf her as I was so tired to be playing ‘tug-of-war’ with her again.

Second attempt = ‘100% success’
I did not feed her at 6pm and let her play with her toys, read her books, watch TV until she’s tired and finally feed her formula milk at 9pm. She finished the milk alright but she still wants to suck. She kept crying and asking for the real ‘nen nen’ I said no, no more finish already. She kept using her hands and beat my chest but I told her no. She keeps on going and going until 11pm until she finally gave up and Zzzzzz
She woke up at 3am and I again did not bf her. I just carry her for a while and she went back to sleep.

Third and finally attempt = ‘Mission Accomplished’
I follow exactly what I did the day before and it worked. She did not cry or ask to bf anymore. She’s like totally forgotten about them…I thought she will get use to it only after 1 week but it only took her 2 days to really get over it.

One thing good is she can sleep through the night now and I can sleep longer…..
I still miss bf her though cause the feeling is undescribable…most nursing mothers will understand this tingling ‘feeling’ =)

Anyway, it has now been a week that Naomi has been completely off the breast. What started out as my labor of love became a loving wondrous journey that lasted approximately 1 year and 2 months. I thought I would feel a sense of relief because the weaning was now over and done with. But what I felt was a tinge of emptiness…as if something I had grown to love dearly is now missing from my life. It is a sign that my Naomi, my darling girl, has grown up somewhat, and I am just grateful that I was able to give him the best nourishment a mother can offer.
She now sleeps lesser during daytime esp on weekends compare to bf time….but I’m okay with it as long as she can sleep through the night ; )

Water Baby....

2008-05-26T14:33:00.003+08:00

Last Sunday, Patrick & Hooi Ling asked us to join them for a swim at Equatorial Hotel. They brought along their little girl Charlotte too.
This is actually Naomi’s 1st experience to swim in the swimming pool. I was quite worried as this is her 1st time and not sure how she will react to it. I was right; she was very scared of the water. I should have introduce her to swimming pool when she’s younger so that she can get used to it but I didn’t. As she’s now 14 months old and more aware of her surroundings…she gets chicken out easily I tell you……..She didn’t want to go in to the pool at first. I had to carry her and went in to the water with her. She was screaming so loud when her legs touch the water…the water was quite cold actually….she held on to me tightly…..and didn’t want to let go. We brought along a baby's float for her so that she can sit on it in the swimming pool. She didn’t want to ok? She was struggling so much and didn’t enjoy at all. She will scream hysterically every now and then. After about 10-15mins, I forced her to sit on her float….hahaha….ya, ‘force’ and she screamed again…..but I kept pushing her further and further until we reached the middle of the pool…and she finally keep her cool….she was smiling and enjoying herself ….She was kicking the water and use her hand to splash the water. She was so excited so I kept pushing her float further until we reached to the other end of the pool. She was waving at her daddy at the other end and smiling all the way.
We’re quite surprised to see how quickly she gets used to it. Patrick pointed out that we should bring her more often, maybe after 1-2 times she will get used to it…but after 15mins she’s enjoying herself so much. We were swimming around for quite a while until her fingers all wrinkled but I still continue and let her swim as I, myself was enjoying the water too! I haven’t been swimming for years so I did a bit of swimming too that day. After for about 45mins I wanted to carry Naomi up. She didn’t want to!! Can you believe it? Earlier, she didn’t want to go in to the pool and now she didn’t want to get out of the pool?!
She was crying when I told her it’s time to go…so Daddy took her 1 more round without the float…and she’s so natural…daddy was carrying her in freestyle position and she was floating by herself…..and she kicked the water a bit….meaning she’s relaxing herself that’s why she can float….she’s a water baby….but the bad thing was she swallow too much chlorine water when she’s in that position. I carried her out of the water after another 3mins and took her to shower. It was a very nice and enjoyable experience for all of us. We’re thinking of going swimming again this week.

Yeah......i'm cool!!

Too scared to sit on her float....

I'm asking her to sit on her float...so i can push her around in the swimming pool....

Still can pose for the camera?

Clapping her hand...

Happy Mother's Day!!

2008-05-13T14:43:00.003+08:00

This is the 2nd time I’m celebrating Mother’s Day as a “MOM” :)
Last year, Naomi was 2 months old when I first became a MOM :)
This year, she’s 14 months old and celebrating with me but I guess she’s still too young to understand what Mother’s Day is all about…
We brought her to church on Sunday morning and Pastor Alex preached about parents becoming a role model for children. Someone they look up to and as Christian parents we need to build Godly home for our children and family. All begins with parents. I know I still have a lot to learn and always pray to God to guide me and lead me to the right paths and directions.
This year, to show my appreciation to my mom and mother in law, we took the family for a steamboat buffet lunch at Flame Steamboat Restaurant at Crystal Point after church. Our whole family attended the same church service so it’s very convenient.
Here's some of the pics taken on Sunday.
With 11-month-old cousin Jenelle in church playroom

I gave Jenelle the same biscuit as Naomi...look at Naomi's face!!

look at the way they sit....really samseng....haha

busy eating....

@Flame Restaurant....Naomi loves the ice-cream!!

hello, hello ?

2008-05-13T14:34:00.002+08:00

Naomi picked up the house phone and simply presses the digits and said “hello!” “hello!”
The funny thing was how she learn/imitate this action? We were still wondering….as we seldom use the house phone cause we all use our handphone most of the time. This picture was taken by Tjun and the phone belongs to Jyun Imm (my sis in law).
My babysitter’s place does not have a house phone as well. Alice also suspect she pick this action by watching TV :D ???
She will do the same thing with our handphone as well….

PS: Thanks Aunty Joanne for getting Naomi a cute Minnie mouse handphone J I should take the pic and post in the blog as well…will do that tonight….

New Hairstlye...

2008-04-28T21:13:00.004+08:00

Naomi got a new hairstyle!! Finally, I cut her fringe…:)
> She now look like a china doll OR in Malaysia most commonly known as “tempurung head” (“tempurung” = coconut shell).

I haven't cut her hair before cause I love styling her hair with all sorts of girly accessories like cute pins and clips….and she don't have much hair to begin with (although she’s already past 1 year old).

There were several occasions when nobody was looking at her, she will grasp her pin from her hair and quickly put it inside her mouth and chew (as if she’s eating something). First incident, Alice(babysitter) went to the kitchen to cook and when she came out she saw Naomi was chewing - something inside her mouth so she asked her children whether did they gave any food to Naomi. They all said no so Alice quickly open Naomi's mouth to inspect and she found Naomi's hairpin inside her mouth. From then onwards, no more pin for her. So Alice used black rubber band to tie her hair. But she was still able to pull the rubber band.

2nd incident, quite similar to the above but it happened at our house. Normally I will put her pin beside our bed's table and one afternoon she took it and put inside her mouth and play with it (chewing motion).
I saw her chewing something & I quickly force open her mouth and took out the a pin at that instance from her mouth!! Luckily she didn’t swallow the pin cause this will cause choking and extremely dangerous!!! So last Sunday, I took out the scissors (from my mother-in law who use to cut the family’s hair) and snipped her fringe…it’s a bit crooked though but will try snip again when she’s sleeping… I can’t get her to sit still while I cut her hair….need to think of new tricks…when she saw the scissors she will run away….here’s her pictures before and after the hair cut….

-Before-

-After-

Weekend @Penang Butterfly Farm

2008-04-28T13:22:00.009+08:00

Last Saturday, we went to the Penang Butterfly Farm with Jason & his gf and of course we took Naomi along. Butterfly Farm is located in Teluk Bahang near to Batu Feringhi.
Penang Butterfly Farm is named the World's First Tropical Live Butterfly Sanctuary, which I think the name is cool even though I don't get the whole meaning of it.
Entrance fee is RM10 for Malaysian adult and RM20 for none Malaysian. This is a good place for photographer or you’d like to try out your camera quality.
We were so excited to bring Naomi along because we wanted Naomi to explore the nature surroundings there. OK, back to the journey, Naomi slept in the car and right before we reach the entrance so we had to wake her up. She’s so cranky and didn’t smile for photos. The weather was not really that 'hot' but the place was covered with this see through net which make the whole place warm and the air ventilation was very bad so little Naomi and I was sweating profusely….
Little Naomi was jumping up and down when she saw the butterfly and kept chasing them. She wanted to touch the butterfly but I did not allow her as I’m scared she’ll harm the butterfly as they’re very fragile creatures. After about 1 hour, Naomi began to feel restless and sleepy. She’s very dehydrated I can see and she kept asking for more H20!!
Even though the place it’s called Butterfly Farm, you can see other reptiles, insects, birds and flowers esp orchids.
Anyway, we really enjoy ourselves there and it was a great experience for little Naomi !!
Here are some of the pictures from the trip. Enjoy..

Naomi...

Some of the butterflies there....

very beautiful mandarin duck..

Naomi trying to catch the butterfly.....

Look at the big fishes inside the pond....

Looking at the tiny waterfall....

I can't remember what we're looking at??

There's a butterfly at Tjun's shirt....

feeling restless....

Taken at the entrance....

This is the only 'smiling' picture we manage to captured...

Outdoor with Naomi...

2008-04-14T15:33:00.002+08:00

Naomi loves the outdoors very much…She loves to run around our house porch and garden. She likes to see what is going on outside the house (E.g: traffic – when she sees a car passing in front of our house, she will says “kar”, clouds moving, trees and birds) and experience the infinite and diverse sensory qualities of the world (the smells – chester’s output for example, the feels – fresh air? , the sounds) and experiment with the “big behaviors” such as shouting, running and jumping!

Jump for Joy....

Running towards Ah Kong....

Strolling...

After that, I had to bathe her as she was sweating all over!!

@The Curves

2008-03-31T16:44:00.003+08:00

I wanted to do some shopping at IKEA before heading back to Penang so we went to have our lunch at IKEA café (yum, yum I miss the swedish meatballs already!!) Anyway, after lunch we went to the Curve to shop. On the way we saw a few of these gigantic animals strolling around the mall and decided to let Naomi ride on them. The good thing (or bad?) was an adult can sit too. We paid RM5 for this (it was like less than 5 min ride around the mall).
Naomi’s reaction?? She was so frightened of the huge Giraffe toy that she kept holding my hands throughout the ride. I thought after a while, she will get use to the ride but I was wrong…She totally didn’t enjoy the ride at all!! I can see other kids were enjoying themselves and some even went for more than 1 round.
I wanted to hold Naomi’s hand to the steering wheel so we can both move it together as to which directions we want to go but I was wrong…in the end I’m the only one driving that toy!! I felt ridiculous riding the big giraffe….Look at the pictures and you will get what I mean…haha

As you can see..it's open air and everyone can see US!!

Naomi- Stealing a look at the steering wheel....

Still holding on to mummy....

Pose for the camera...

Naomi’s Day Out @Mid Valley Megamall

2008-03-31T15:12:00.004+08:00

We took Naomi to Mid Valley megamall on Friday and I saw there were a few “Little Tikes” outdoor toys like slides, play house outside Toys “R” Us. Immediately I took my little girl to play with the toys…
Below are some of the pictures taken by daddy:

Naomi- on top of the slide

bottom of the slide...

At the playhouse...

playing peek-a-boo with mummy...

Dinner at Tony Roma's: Ribs - Seafood - Steaks

Weekend in KL

2008-03-31T14:52:00.004+08:00

We took Naomi to KL last weekend for a 3-days & 2 nights short family vacation. We drove down on Thursday morning at around 8-ish and reached KL at 11:30am.We requested for early check in to the Le Meridien Hotel @KL Sentral and then went to the KL Sentral for a quick lunch before heading back to the hotel for a short afternoon nap.

This is Naomi – Walking around in the hotel room

This is Naomi - Inspecting the hotel room (look at her tip-toe-ing)

Naomi walking towards the bathroom

Inspecting the toilet bowl?

Getting ready to go out~playing peek-a-boo

Famous "Home Alone" imitation by Macaulay Culkin

I'm ready now...let's go!!

Left or Right - Which is Right?

2008-03-23T08:54:00.003+08:00

When will I know whether Naomi is a righty or a lefty?

Well....that's the big question for me....cause during the past few months...I noticed that Naomi beggining to favor one hand over another for things like eating and reaching. I tested her many times, for example: when I gave her biscuit she will use her left hand to grab on the biscuit and then will eat using her left hand....so instead of letting her to reach out for the biscuit, I put the biscuit in her right hand. She changed the biscuit to her left hand before putting the biscuit into her mouth.....haihhz....BUT, BUT sometimes she do eat with her right hand....so there's still hope for her to change....i hope...

I read somewhere that a minority of kids remain ambidextrous, meaning they use both hands equally, until kindergarten. Some children use a dominant hand for eating and writing but the other hand for throwing a ball. Handedness is largely genetic. Only about one in 10 people are left-handed, but if both parents are lefties there's a 50 percent chance their child will be, too. Tjun and me are both right-handed....

Many people advised me "Don't try to change her inborn preference, Forcing her to use the non-dominant hand can create a lot of frustration and expend energy that could be going toward improving skills and learning" I'll keep that in mind...

Some pictures to share....

more independent now.....when drinking milk

using her left hand to hold the bottle...and right hand to support the base

using both hands....

:)

Talking Baby

2008-03-23T08:52:00.001+08:00

Naomi has been doing a lot of “baby talk” and I could not really catch what she’s saying sometimes. I wish they invent a tool (like the one in “Honey, I blew up the kid” movie) where he invented a machine that can translate his baby’s babbling for him to understand what his baby is saying…..*wishful thinking*
Anyway, Naomi has been picking up a lot of words now. Here are some of the examples: She can say “No more” when we turn off the T.V and when she finishes her food. She can play with sign language too...she will turn her hand left and right indicating “No more” as well.
Another word that she always use is “Bye” and “ta-ta” The funny thing about this is, when she says “Bye” she will said it with an English accent like “Buy-eee” (dragging some more) and wave.
She can ask us to carry her now by saying “pao, pao” (in mandarin means carry). Besides this she likes to play with sounds & effects like when she plays with her balloons, she will said “ka-boom” or “boom”.
When people make the sound “tlak-tlak-tlak” (need to curl up the tongue to produce this sound) she will imitate as well.
It’s amazing how quickly she pick up words…..like yesterday his daddy was reading a car magazine and she said “Kar” referring to the cars pictures on the magazine cover. She likes to watch Banana in Pajamas now…and she can say “nana” referring to the B1 & B2 characters….at least she’s not watching only Barneys now =)
She can also call babysitter’s children “kor-kor” & “cheh-cheh” now too!!
Day by day she’s learning something new and I’m very happy with her progress so far…

Mummy’s Birthday…

2008-03-11T10:28:00.007+08:00

It was my birthday yesterday and Tjun took me to Eden Seafood @Batu Feringghi to have a mini birthday celebration. I was craving for Lobster Thermidor (dish consisting of a creamy, cheesy mixture of cooked lobster meat, egg yolks, and brandy or sherry, stuffed into a lobster) so bad and so we had this as one of the main dish – yummy, yum, yum~
We brought our little angel along too as I know she likes to see fishes and I know there are many types of live fishes swimming in the restaurant’s tank. True enough, when we reached the entrance, there’s so many types of fishes, small ones and mostly big ones! Naomi was so fascinated by the fishes and she startled when she saw the big fish. Daddy was carrying her that time and one of her hand grip daddy’s shoulder tightly when she went near to the fishes.
Since we were seated next to the beach, we decided to bring Naomi down to the beach. Since it’s her first time at the beach, she was so excited to see the sunset, sea water and sandy beaches.
We saw 1 horse and 1 pony there and I quickly pointed them out to Naomi and this is the first time she saw real horses as she only sees them on T.V and books. It’s quite an experience for her.
We put her down to walk on the sand too……and she did not move a bit..she just stand there like a statue and didn’t know what to do……it was quite funny…I explained to her it’s just sand and she can walk freely on the sand…I guess she’s not ready as the sand has the sinking feeling and she’s scared she might fall down…
We forgot to bring our camera so we had to take pics using Tjun’s camera phone and the quality was quite bad.
Surprisingly, there were quite a number of people at the beach and restaurant and I guess it’s because of the school holidays and there were many children around that night. Naomi was making new friend that night too. She was playing with one girl there. They were running around (yes, running) trying to catch up with one another. The girl was 7 years old and Naomi was like the little big bully and kept hitting the chi chi and said “tah, tah, tah” gently on her lap. The chi chi was so scared of her and kept running away from Naomi. Hahaha….and Naomi kept walking to her table wanting to play with her. Both me and Tjun was quite tired on catching up with Naomi. She was running all over the places and she doesn’t want us to carry her at all!! I can see she’s more stable now and she can pull herself up and walk on her own. Even when she falls down, she knows how to use both hands to refrain herself from falling down flat on the floor!! I try to relax a bit and let her play freely but I’m always paranoid that she will fall down on the floor and hit her chin or jaw (and they are both very painful & dangerous situation).
Cultural show started at 8:30pm so we decided to stay for a while to let Naomi experience the show. Her eyes glued to the stage as the dancers danced away with ribbons and colourful fans. She clapped her hands when they dance and was very happy and excited during the show. We left the restaurant around 9pm and Naomi was already Zzzzzz on the way back to the house. It was indeed a memorable birthday as I could share this wonderful experience with my hubby and little girl.

View of the beach...taken from the camera phone..

Help...I'm stuck!

The place and the Food....

Enjoying the seaview.... with daddy....

Ooooo.....look at the water & Wow horsey....

Horsey.....

Naomi @Toys R Us - Gurney Plaza

2008-03-06T16:51:00.003+08:00

We took Naomi to Gurney Plaza yesterday for a mini birthday celebration. We went to Kim Gary for dinner and then took her to Toys 'R Us. It was quite nice as the mall was not crowded and we let Naomi walked around the complex most of the time. We didn’t bring her stroller this time too.
Instead of us taking her for a stroll, Naomi was the one taking us for a stroll. She stopped at almost every shop to see the window display and we sort of need to drag her to move forward.

Take a look at this video taken at Toys 'R Us. There are some balloons at the back of the jeep, that’s why she was squatting down to look at the balloon!! Then she said “boh” “boh” – referring to the balloon as “ball”…haha

Sugar & Spice and everything nice…?

2008-03-05T10:27:00.003+08:00

One of my friends told me this story and it happened during her birthday party…. Naomi was busy playing with other children there. The truth is she was busy keeping all her toys back into the basket and box as she doesn’t want to share her toys with other children…haihh….
First incident:
The kids were actually playing with her toys and Naomi went to grab the toys from their hands and put the toys back to the basket. She managed to retrieve all the toys except for one giraffe toy. One “kor-kor” was holding the giraffe and did not want to let go of the toy so Naomi used her index finger and point to the giraffe and then point at the basket, several times (as if instructing the little boy to put back her toy into the basket). Here are some pics of her playing....

Second incident:
She’s very fond of cartoon characters especially Mickey Mouse. Many children were wearing Disney’s cartoon characters Shirt or blouse during her party. So when she saw the t-shirt with the cartoon characters on it, she will use her fingers to point and poke at the shirt/blouse.

Third incident:
After putting all her toys back inside the box, she tried to close the box with the lid. She put the lid on top (although the lid did not close properly), then she clapped her hands together.

Fourth incident:
Auntie Evelyn was wearing this beautiful pink dangling earrings on that day and Naomi accidentally or purposely (I’m not too sure) went to pull her earrings…luckily grandma was just sitting near by and quickly pulled Naomi away. Naomi is very cheeky and naughty.

Latest incident:
I asked Tjun Aun whether Naomi understand what we are saying cause when I asked her not to do certain things like putting her fingers inside her mouth, throwing my stuff around or climbing up and down the couch or etc. she will keep on doing again and again.
Then Tjun turned and look at Naomi (She was riding her new bike that time). She said to Naomi “Naomi, press the button” and immediately, she use her index finger and press the one of the buttons on her bike. Then Tjun turned to me and said “See, see….she understand-lar”

Naomi’s First Birthday Party...

2008-03-05T10:12:00.005+08:00

We actually had a birthday party for Naomi last Saturday (1st March 2008). Since it’s her 1st birthday and 1st is always a special moment we decided to have an extravagant party for our little angel....:)
I actually did pray for good weather but I decided not to take any risk so went to google and checked the weather forecast. Thunderstorm was expected on the day of the party so we had to put up extra canopy. The buffet started at 7pm and the weather was still good…not a single drop of rain. Most of the guests turned up at around 8-ish. (I only invited my relatives & close friends and about 70 people turned up that day.)
At around 9pm, it started to rain so we asked everyone to go inside the house for the cake cutting session. It’s a bit too crowded inside the house but we manage to sing the Birthday Song and then cut the cake and distribute them to all the guests.
Naomi was very excited when everyone sang the birthday song. She was like looking at them and must be wondering why are all these people singing and clapping their hands? She can’t take her eyes off her cake as well and wanted to touch the cake. I had to struggle with her during that session because I’m so afraid that she will ruin the cake before we blow the candle and cut the cake.

1, 2, 3 Blow the candle....

Expert trying to hold the plastic knife....

The party sort of ended around 10pm that day. My close friends and some of my relatives was still there chatting and catching up with one another. At about 10pm Naomi started to feel cranky so I took her upstairs and clean+feed her and change her into her PJ. Since she’s still awake that time I took her downstairs to play with my friends. We put the Bee Movie for her and she sat on the couch quietly with Auntie Joanne and watched the DVD. After that, my friends ask me to unwrap the presents (on behalf of Naomi J of course).
Hubby, Uncle Alvin and Auntie Joanne was assembling the playhouse for Naomi that night. The picture says it all….

Naomi's new crib.....

My friends left around 11pm and Naomi went to bed at 11:25pm. Thanks so much you guys! (It means a lot to us!) Thanks for the presents and gifts and thank you all for coming. Appreciate you guys for being here to celebrate Naomi’s 1st milestone.

Latest Update: Friends request me to post up some pictures of her birthday presents....Enjoy:

Happy 1st Birthday, my little angel...

2008-03-05T09:41:00.005+08:00

MARCH is an eventful month for us…here’s why….
1) 5th March 2008 – Naomi’s 1st Birthday
2) 10th March 2008– My Birthday!! =)
3) 25th March 2008 – our 2nd wedding anniversary…

Naomi is 1 TODAY!!
I can’t believe it. My toothless wonder is no longer toothless….and no longer naught years old!!
She’s walking like a pro, she can pull herself up and walk and no more holding on to furniture when she wants to stand up….throwing toys everywhere…and learning to climb up and down the stairs!! Waiting for me to come and get her with a huge grin and a loud cheeky laugh….
She is loving, funny, friendly and smart. She always has a cuddle ready and hugs so nicely and also likes to pat people on the back. She wants to do what everyone else is doing. She wants to eat what everyone else is eating. She’s a music lover and bops away to the music. I can’t believe she is a year old but I also can’t believe she has only been here a year! I can’t imagine like without her now… She really is out little sunshine. Happy Birthday Naomi. You make us so happy and we all love you so much!!
It only seems like yesterday she was born to this earth. Can’t believe she’s already a year old…hehe….Take a look at these pictures:

Present

1 year ago - 5th March 2007

Somersault…

2008-02-27T15:34:00.006+08:00

We took Naomi back from Alice’s place yesterday evening and then I put her inside her baby cot cause I need to express my milk after so many hours and the feeling of engorge was unbearable.
She was playing by herself inside her cot and as usual she will stand up and walk around that tiny space in her cot. I was just a few inches away from her cot as I adjust the cot to the front a bit so she can get the fan as well. Suddenly….I heard Tjun Aun shout…I was shocked and I saw Naomi already fell to the floor!!!! How on earth did she managed to climb out from her cot???!!! I immediately drop my pump (some of the milk did spill on the floor…) cause I was so panick that time I just drop everything that I was doing….
I quickly carried her and she was crying non-stop. She did a back flip and fell I think…imagine she was in standing position inside her cot. I didn’t even see her climbing out from there!!!! It happened so FAST!!!! Serious…..I know she likes to use her two toes and cling on the cot’s bar but never thought her legs/toes were that strong!!!
But thank God she fell on her big teddy bear then only landed on the floor. Another thing is that our bedroom floor is the timber wood floor so that impact is not that bad…BUT STILL this is a very DANGEROUS situation as the fall might break her bones or neck and (I dare not imagine the worst).
She held on to me tightly when she cried….I was trying my best to console her and her daddy was panicked and kept checking her head and body to see any injuries.
We checked and thank God no broken bones found and not even a scratch on her.
After about 5 minutes she stopped crying and then I fed her milk and she went to sleep.
She woke up after 1 ½ hours later, took her downstairs and she watched Bee Movie with grandma & grandpa. She was so excited and kept imitating the Bees from the movies.
The bear was the angel that indirectly “prevent” her from getting serious injuries…cause she landed on the bear first before hitting on the floor so I asked her to give the bear a hug….then she went and hugged the bear….not sure she understand and know what had happened earlier…
Anyway, this is the lesson I learnt…the hard way….never ever put her inside her cot as she’s now very curious and active and will do all the un-thinkable stuff…need to keep an eye or both eyes on her every single move …it is better to be safe then to be sorry.

Play-Time with Naomi....

2008-02-25T20:28:00.006+08:00

OK...Byeeeee....I'm going out for a while yea....

Tata....I'm going "kai kai" by myself.....

so cheeky...i know what you guys are thinking *hint* *hint*....

"Chak".....

Playing with big bear bear....

Look at my teeth ----> "mommy adores me" bodysuit

If you're happy and you know it....

2008-02-20T21:38:00.005+08:00

move your arms?....

shake your hands?...

dance?....

what else?....

Just stand still?....

We took Naomi to my ex-boss's house last Saturday and this was taken before we leave the house. She was watching the music and dance show on T.V and was imitating the people on the screen. She can walked quite well now but sometimes she gets too excited and she will walk too fast (this is when she will fall down on the floor). She fell a few times before and I'm kind of scared to let her walk all over alone. Sometimes I will kneel down with her and hold her hand to assist her. She will pushed me aside or use her hand to brush my hand away....as if telling me that "I can walk by myself, mummy...."

Took her to ex-boss's house. Naomi immediately went to play with the Peek-A-Boo Elmo's gym toy. Kids love this kind of toy as there's musics when you pressed the buttons. Naomi was playing with all the buttons and then one boy (about 3-4 years old) came rushing to the toy and pushed Naomi aside and was pressing the buttons and did not give Naomi a chance to play....and Naomi pushed the boy's hand away so that she can press the buttons as well....I had to carry her to sit with me as I did not want her to in jured herself and let her give in to the "kor-kor" to play cause she has been playing the toys since she reached there.

Another drama was, she was walking at the living hall and then suddenly she fell down and hurt her jaw. The floor was marble floor!! I carried her up quickly and she has started crying non-stop already. The whole house was filled her "lovely sound"....Luckily she did not cry for long.....just for a while...quick recovery......she's then back to her normal self again....

Super-Model?

2008-02-20T21:21:00.004+08:00

This picture was taken last weekend before we took Naomi out to order her birthday cake.......look at the pic.....She's a natural poser eh? I took a couple of shots but then when I review them back, I saw this particular pose. Look at her front leg, slightly bend and her butt slightly lift up (thanks to the diaper!) and her hands & expressions was just so model-like...hehehe...

The funny thing is I didn't even ask her to pose or teach her how to pose....

Crying Baby....

2008-02-15T15:26:00.003+08:00

It's so frustrating when Naomi wants everything "HER WAY"....she's very naughty and has very bad temper. Yesterday evening, I picked her up from Alice's place and was trying to buckle her in her car seat and she refused to sit in her car seat!!! Her daddy was not around and I was alone. Normally, i will sit at the back with her. Actually this is not the first time she's behaving like this...she's very unpredictable and I really don't know what to do sometimes....

Yesterday was the worst...i gave her all kinds of toys and tried to distract her and all did not worked!! She cried hysterically and i just ignore her...just let her cry and cry and cry and cry.....in the end she stopped crying...when i turned to look at her...she will start again...she cried for like full 10mins i think....then i took out my sunglasses and put them on and turn and looked at her again...then she was laughing...then cried again....until we reached home. Her face was all red & swollen and her saliva was all over her face and her tears was everywhere!! Seeing her like this really broke my heart...but I have no choice as i need to train her not to be so overly-pampered (if this kind of word exist?)

Then when she saw her daddy she smiled at her daddy then daddy carried her inside and "entertained" with her. I was still angry that time and i need to get ready for dinner as yesterday was Valentine's Day and Tjun Aun already make reservations for dinner. So i went to take my bath and when i came out Naomi was playing with her lotion bottle. I quickly took away the stuff from her as she was sucking on them and then she started again....crying uncrontrollably again!! When she cried, she will put her face on my knees....then cry louder and louder....i didn't even scold her or said anything to her. Then I picked her up and said..."OK...sayang la...sayang la" she cried louder and louder. Haihh...

After few minutes, she stopped crying...and i let her watch her own show on TV while i get ready for dinner....

I tried many ways to trained her to be more "understanding" and listen to mummy sometimes. I have tried talking to her nicely, beat her, "tiak" her & scold her!! nothing seems to work. When I beat her, she will beat me back....*pengsan*

Do you guys have similar problem like I'm having? Please, advise me on what should I do??

At home, nobody beats her except ME! She's like the "little princess" at home and everybody give in to her needs...could this be the main reason she's acting up like this??

No more Barney & Friends pleaseeee.....

2008-02-13T09:58:00.000+08:00

This is Naomi's current obsession. She wants to watch Barney & Friends everyday now. Previously, she only watch Barney during her mealtime. I only will feed her during weekends as weekdays Alice will settle everything for me and I'll just pick her up after she has change to her PJ.

Whenever we played the VCD, and the intro of the show appears in TV. She will clapped her hands happily and laugh.

Now, she wants to watch Barney & Friends when she comes back to the house at night. Everyone in the house has had enough of Barney I tell you.............. We can memorized all the songs by hard now.......... Even when I'm doing the dishes or bathing, I find myself humming to one of the songs!! Imagine that....not only me, this morning i heard my mother in law was humming one of the songs in the kitchen too!! Lolzzz.....

Few nights ago, Tjun Aun woke up at 3am and sang to me "When you have a ball" (It's one of Barney's song) and i said Shhh....then he continued "Help...the song is playing in my head and i can't get it out of my mind....and the worst thing is when I tried to dream of something else the song is the background music in my dream!!"

I will try to introduce Naomi some other VCDs like Baby Einsteins or Little Einsteins now. She likes watching Mickey Mouse Club, Thomas & Friends, Bananas in Pjyamas, Pocoyo and mostly puppet-like shows! Sometimes I will on the Playhouse Disney Channel for her and if the shows suit her taste she will sit down quietly and watch and if not then she will walk here and there, touch my things etc.

What about your child/chilrdren? Are they into Barney as well?? Or other cartoon characters?

Feel free to share with me your experience.

Way to go, girl....

2008-02-12T21:03:00.000+08:00

Latest update....Naomi is able to walk unaided *beams proudly*....but she can't go very far yet.....finally, she's able to walk independently but only a short distant. She's able to walk about 6-7 steps without holding on to anything and will let out a happy scream whenever she tried walking towards mummy or daddy. Even Alice encouraged her a lot especially during day time.

She still needs time to perfect her walk as she's walking like a drunkard....
I'm having a hard time to keep up with her as she walk quite fast some times and it's quite tiring also as we need to bend down often to guide her...will try to capture her in video and attached to the blog soon...=)

"Daddy Loves Me" bodysuit...

2008-02-11T19:57:00.000+08:00

This is not the remote control, sweetie....

Check out my sexy hairdo!!

Hey, how come there's no buttons to press on the remote...

2nd Day of CNY...

2008-02-11T13:55:00.000+08:00

We took Naomi to Alice's house on the 2nd day of CNY and over there she met a new friend...
Naomi patted his hand as if "sayang-ing" the baby boy. So sweet of her....=)

But after she has warm up...she has became very naughty as she snatch a ball from another 2-year-old boy at Alice's house. The boy just give in and gave the ball to Ms Naomi....haihh...

Flashback Part II - 10months old...

2008-02-11T13:42:00.000+08:00

Naomi still can't really walk independently at 10months. Maybe I'm expecting too much as I've seen her effort and progress since 6 months. She begin to walk at 8 months so I thought she will walk unaided during this time...

I've introduced her to beef, crab meat and add some bovril to her porridge this month onwards.

Since's she's eating a lot of stuff like meats and she can't wash her teeth or gargle her mouth makes it difficult. I only will use wet soft towels to wash her tongue and she did not like it very much. Sometimes she has slight bad breath...esp after eating cod fish...haha
I still breastfeed her but not exclusive now as I do mix with formula at least once per day for her.
Her weight @10months: 10kg

Flashback...

2008-02-11T09:57:00.001+08:00

I would like to do something different today...."FLASHBACK"...am trying to recall what was it like 11 months ago in Naomi's life and development...

1-month old Naomi...

Naomi can focus on an object a few inches away, but does not see detail. I gave her toys with mostly Red, White & Black colours to play with.
She will react to noises and sounds.
She watches intently when someone talks to her and imitates their facial expressions.
She will follow an object slowly with his eyes, but may often lose it.

She enjoys her bathtime.
Her weight @1month: 4.4kg

2 months old Naomi...

She smiles directly at people and expects to be given her turn in "conversations."
She can locate a sound in front of her, but not one behind.
She kicks and waves her arms when she is excited.
She learns to make things happen.
She still enjoys her bath time.

Her weight @2months: 5.6kg

Tiny Feets & Hands....Taken during 3months old....

3 months old Naomi...

When lying on her stomach, she can lift her head up and prop herself up on her elbows.
She is interested in faces and recognizes mummy!!
She can hold onto objects and wave them around.
She does not deliberately reach, but may swipe at objects and if they move, will swipe again.
She can laugh out loud and scream on top of her lungs!!

4 months old Naomi...

This is Naomi's first solid encounter. I gave her rice cereal when she's 4 months old. Actually I was still exclusive breastfeed her during that time and was reluctant to feed her solid yet....but the paediatrician advised me to try rice cereal so i tried since this is doctor's advise =)

I still remember, the first time when I tried feeding her, i just put a bit of rice cereal only and then mix with 3oz of breastmilk...it was too watery and it's difficult to feed her. She's struggling to eat the cereal as well..I was planning to give up on solid and wanted to put on hold till she's six months old...then my father in law asked me to put more cereal instead and try to make it richer instead of too watery then i told him but doctor said let her try watery first...hmmm...then i thought to myself why not try and see.

2nd attempt on rice cereal: Put more cereal, still 3oz of breastmilk and then mix. Naomi loves it and she finished the whole bowl of cereal. Feeding her was no problem at all...Slowly, I introduce her to fruits puree. She can take them very well and she seems to eat everything that I put in her mouth. She's not choosy when it comes to food.

Another progress she made during her 4th month is she's able to roll to one side and then back again.

Punk Hairstyle @4months...

Look, ma I can reach my toes.....

Naomi's co-ordination skills has also began to develop during this time. She's very hyper and playful most of the time.

Weight @4months: 6.8kg

Slurrrrrrrp.........toe sucking in "action"....@5months old...

She smiles at other babies, especially the one in the mirror.
Her hands are open and he reaches out to touch and grasp.

She can also sit outside support for a short while....

She's teething during this time....I can see 2 tiny white dots on her lower gums....and she's drooling a lot...

Surprisingly....she began to show sign of crawling position during this month.

First few weeks, she began to crawl, she crawls backwards...then slowly she learn to crawl forward....I've capture in vide and will download soon after i crop some of it as the file is so big!!

It's like she's so determine to learn to crawl as I can still remember her face and body trying so hard to move...with all her strength....arrrgh...arrghh....

Comando Crawl....@5months...

She's crawling, she's crawling forward @6months!!

Naomi can crawl from one end to the end (short distance) and reach for an object. I will try my best to give her "floor time" as much as possible as this encourage her to crawl faster. She can sit on her own without support now.

She has grown 2 teeth on her lower gums. She likes to make funny faces a lot too now.

Since she's doing very well in eating her solid. I started to give her "porridge" at 6 months as per my paediatrician's advise. I will cook the porridge in slow cooker with carrots & potatoes and only will feed her plain porridge with "ikan bilis" powder. First attempt: Successful!! =))

She finished her porridge in less than 30mins!!

Her weight @6months: 8kg

As white as snow...

Naomi @7months....

She's pulling herself up to standing position at 7months old. Everytime when I put her inside her play pen she will use her 2 legs to fight with me (I wanted her to sit inside and she wanted to stand, so imagine her leg will be like jelly (gobble, gobble - trying to stand while i try to bend her knees to sit down...she's trying to stand again....and i try to bend again.....lolz) I was worried that she wants to stand at this stage so i checked with the doctor is it ok cause I'm worried that her legs are not strong enough and etc. Doctor said it's fine.

See the mobile at the back of her?? I have removed the mobile totally as she's grabbing on to the mobile everytime she stand up on her cot. Havoc...

Since her appetite has changed, she no longer wants to eat her plain porridge so @7months old, I mix in fish for her. I will shred the fish meat to small pieces and then mix to the porridge. Sometimes, I will shred some chicken or prawn meat to the porridge. I rarely use pork as I'm lazy to wake up and go to the market and buy...=(

I gave her some bananas, sweet potatoes and papaya during tea time.

Messing around @8months...

I still remember when I went to pick her up at Alice's house. She was crawling to the coffee table and then pull herself up and hold on to the coffee table and started walking a bit a bit. She's trying to walk!! My baby is trying to walk at amazing 8 months!! wow....I'm excited!! We need to keep an eye on her every move as she's very active and can easily move from one place to another place easily.

This is the month I introduce to her more variety of food such as natural yogurt. Look at her face when she eat them. But she still will eat the yogurt when I feed her although it's sour. She will open her mouth wide and eat when I offered the yogurt to her, and another one and another one until she finish the whole bowl. She's teething again and this time she has 2 more teeth growing on her upper gums.

Yii.....so sour......but i like.....

3 of US @Naomi's 9 months....

Naomi cruising @9months....

Grandma gave her this toy for Christmas and Naomi has been holding to this toy to walk around the house. At first she's not really good at it but after some practice she's an expert!!

She practically run when playing the walker....hehe

Naomi's First Christmas!!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

2008-02-07T21:38:00.000+08:00

Here are some pictures of me & Naomi taken during the first day of CNY.
We were on our way to grandma's house for another steamboat dinner....

Today is the first day of CNY. This year it is the "Rat" year according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar. I received this cute SMS from a friend with the message "May Stuart Little brings you comfort; Mickey Mouse brings you JOY; Ratatouie brings you abundance of good food & most importantly Minnie Mouse brings you ultimate beauty & pleasure...Year of Rat with lots of laughter, love & optimism. Happy Lunar New Year...

New Year's Eve

2008-02-06T23:16:00.000+08:00

I still manage to blog during Chinese New Year's eve....hehe

Naomi's sleeping so I still have time to do my own stuff....She went to bed at 9:00pm and I watched a bit of T.V just now and then switch on my laptop and start to surf net so here I am blogging away....but she will wakes up at around 2:30a.m and then i need to breastfeed her...

Earlier, we had steamboat for our reunion dinner and Naomi was very restless when we put her on her high chair to sit with us at the dining table. Then, Tjun suggested to put her inside her play pen with her toys inside it. So Naomi played inside her play pen + watch Barney & Friends (Again!) and we manage to eat our dinner without worrying about "entertaining" Naomi...

Then I took her for a quick bath as she's all sweaty with all the walking around the house/playing with her toys (she has soooo much energy, man....). After her bath, I fed her breastmilk again. I went downstairs to get some water and when I came back to the room...I saw my little princess already dozed off to dreamland......with daddy by her side.....=)

Peek-a-boo!!

2008-02-06T23:09:00.000+08:00

I just need to post up these pics cause they are so cuteee......Naomi was having her afternoon nap and saw one of her leg hung out from her cot....so i quickly grab the camera & took the pics =)

Books, Books, Glorious Books...

2008-02-06T22:43:00.000+08:00

“Tong Tong Chiang”

2008-02-05T14:50:00.000+08:00

Chinese New Year is just around the corner and we’re really looking forward to celebrating it as this will be Naomi’s first CNY celebration. She’s looking forward to getting plenty of “ang pow” too!!
Ah Ma taught her how to wish “Gong Xi Fa Cai” by holding both hands together and move up and down. She managed to do that and said “Gong”, “Gong”, “Gong” at the same time.

Here's wishing everyone a very Happy Chinese New Year!!

Step by Step...

2008-02-05T14:23:00.000+08:00

Naomi is exactly 11 months old today!! 1 more month before she turns the big “1”…For the past few weeks Tjun & I were discussing on how to celebrate this special occasion. I will try to update the plan…errr….when we have them…..so stay tune for that :)

As for her development, she’s doing pretty well for an 11-months old baby. She managed to do a lot of “Actions” using her two hands. Actually she started to do all these when she’s about 8-9 months old. She can wave “bye bye”, clap her hand together, do “cha chi kok” and she’s good at using her index finger and point out to us on what she wants or which directions she wants to go. When you tell her “shake hand, shake hand”, she will hold your hand, and shake it gently..like we always shakes people’s hand when we greet them. If you ask her “ Who is Naomi?” She will point to her own chest referring to herself. Even when she coughs, she will beat her own chest, gently….this is so cute as she likes to imitate what other people is doing…Example: I have a habit on saying “aiya, aiya, ya, ” when I accidentally drop something. Last night, Naomi was walking around in our bedroom (by holding on our bed of course...) and she NEARLY slips and fell….and Tjun heard her saying “aiya, aiya, ya” and she quickly holds on to the bed to support herself.

She’s learning to walk by herself now and she still doesn’t have the confident to do so yet. She managed to walk for 2-3 steps unaided and then quickly held on to furniture. She will laugh excitedly whenever she does that. Even Alice said she has been doing the same thing at her house during day time. I tried not to force her to walk independently that much and would like her to develop them naturally :)

Verbal development, she is now able to say a few words like mama – referring to yours truly, papa – referring to daddy, ah ma – referring to grandma, kong – referring to grandpa, she can understand khor khor (auntie) & gu gu (uncle). She tends to pick up words faster than I expected. I only need to tell her once or twice and she’s able to remember them pretty well. Up to today, she can say quite a number of words like duck, fish, bear bear, mum mum (eating time), bye bye, hi and kang ( I'm still trying to figure out what this means :P).

She’s so into Barney & Friends now and she will purposely go and pick up the VCD and bring the VCD for us and ask us to play the VCD for her or like last Saturday she woke up at 8:30am and she pointed at the T.V because it’s not “ON”. She’s too demanding sometimes!! I wonder where she got this from..hmmm

~Teething Tot~

2008-02-04T21:13:00.000+08:00

Naomi’s appetite has changed according to Alice (my babysitter). Last week, Naomi refused to eat her solid esp. porridge and my breast milk! Alice had to feed her formula milk. Naomi drank all 7oz. of formula milk at one go!! Hmmm…I still prefer her to take breast milk but then I try not to stress myself too much when she refused to drink….I still breastfeed her during night time and 100% during weekends.

Last weekend, I cooked porridge for Naomi. I chopped some carrots to small bits; add in potatoes & chopped scallops and 3 tablespoon of rice + water to slow cooker. After about 2 hours, I scooped the porridge out to a small bowl and add in abt ¼ teaspoon of “ikan bilis” powder & 1 tiny dot of Bovril to the porridge and mix everything together. She finished the whole bowl in less than ½ hour!! Her appetite is back to normal….=)
For tea time, I steamed some sweet potatoes for her, she loves it and finished everything!! Squeaky clean I’ll say….

Why the sudden change? She is teething again. Naomi’s got her first 2 teeth when she’s 6 months old. Another 2 more teeth when she’s 8 months old. Few days ago, I checked and saw 5 more teeth already starting to grow!!!

Hello hardworking MOMs & DADs out there!!!

2008-02-04T14:56:00.000+08:00

I became a mom on the 5th of March 2007 and I’ve always wanted to blog about my precious little girl, Naomi all this while… you see she’s turning 1 this coming March ’08. Time flies…
Doing today on What I Should Have Done Yesterday…..Could of, should of……Procrastinate….very bad… Try to think on the positive side…. it’s better late than NEVER to blog right?
I’m going to try to update this blog as much as possible as we go along the journey of joy, challenges & changes (coz I’m a new mom *wink*) with my little princess…