Mama's a fulltimer now..

I've been lazy these past couple of weeks. Been at home with Nia all day long and super occupied, if you have a toddler, or had one before, I'm sure you know what I mean! So, yes, I've been fulltime mummy these past couple of weeks, since my job was made redundant, and am hoping that will come to an end soon, I mean, the fulltime mummy bit. I really rather be a working mummy who comes back to an excited, loving, manja little girl than staying at home with her 24/7 that I can't even go to bathroom without her in tow! Grrr..

Yes, obviously I've been cooking alot too but have just been too busy to post anything up. The only time I could go online is when Nia's napping, like now. So time's pretty limited and I use it wisely. So to speak. Huh. Been trying to finish reading 'The Queen and I' by Sue Townsend. Hillarious. Can't put it down. But then when Nia's up, can't even pick it up! So, you know, I really got to prioritise, update recipe, or read.. at the end, the latter always win.

Anyways, last weekend, on Friday night, we sent Nia to her grandparents' place, to get her use to staying over there without us, of course. After which hubz and I had a nice dinner in PJ, came home and watched DVD and he was reading till 5am, thinking that he could sleep in till about 10am. But what do you know, at 8am my father called saying Nia hasn't slept the whole night, refusing food & milk and couldn't stop crying. So the two of us rushed off to my folks' place. She was so excited the moment she saw me, rushed to me and kept pointing at my chest. Which means,"milk, mummy, now!"

After the milk session, she was her usual self again, running and dancing, climbing the stairs up & down, and finally ate something. Sigh. How are we going to leave her behind for 10 whole days while we are away?! I'm so worried now. And confused. Ma says maybe I should wean her off breastmilk then it won' t be so difficult on her. But, would that really make a difference? I don't know. I really don't know what I should do. I am not ready to wean her off just yet. I enjoy our private moments of lying together for a feed and playing all the silly games that just mummy and Nia gets to play. Sigh.

Anyways, I'm still going to send her to my folks' this weekend and next and next until she gets used to it. I know we should have done this earlier but then, hey, we enjoy having her around with us on our weekends, it would be so dull without the pitter-pattering of her tiny feet all around the house, excaliming "heyy" when she bumps into you as if she's surprised to see you there, and all the rest of her antics. But still, she needs to get used to staying over my folks otherwise our Canada trip's aint gonna happen, eh?!

We will miss you, Lulu..

I have been putting this off for the past 2 weeks hoping by the time I'd have write this it will be a happy news, but, alas!

Let me start at the beginning..

As you know, our bunnies, Marbles and Lulu do not get along. At all. On a couple of occasions, Marbles chased Lulu around the house and once managed to corner her and was pounding on her until she ran off. The second time this happened, they were both outside the house and hubz interfered and rescued Lulu from Marbles' snarls! I was a bit worried that Lulu might have gotten hurt but hubz checked her for bite marks or bleeding but there were none, so we left it at that.

Two weeks later we noticed she was getting less and less active and was slowing down on her food. We also noticed her left eye was swollen, so we took her to the vet. The vet turned her upside down, pushed her head up and asked us, "Did you notice this?" pointing at a patch of raw skin with puss oozing out of it when he pressed. Imagine our horror??! We obviously didn't. Hubz who grooms her so often has missed it because underneath her chin is not an area he brushes, and bunnies don't usually allow you to touch their face that way.

Apparently there were two nasty bites on her face, one on her neck underneath her chin and another at the side of her face, which has become septic. The one on her neck has become worst causing the hair to fall off as the puss built up underneath her skin. The vet said he'd need to surgically remove the affected skin & tissue and explained we'd have to dilligently clean her wound morning and night if we want to keep her. He also explained in length the limited medications and antibiotic available to treat bunnies, making us realise, how fragile these little creatures really are. (Which also explains why they breed as they do, doesn't it?) He gave us antibiotic to be administered daily and asked us to clean her twice a day with salt water.

I must say that hubz was the one who really took care of her, waking up so early in the morning to clean her before we go to work and cleaning her once more the moment he gets home.

Here's Lulu, healing nicely..

Last Saturday we took her to the vet again to get more antibiotics and get them to clean her wound. We came out of there beaming as the vet said she seem to be holding well, her raw skin does not look so raw anymore, her appetite is insatiable, she eats so much daily! Just like any 6 mth old bunny would, I guess. The vet said since she's a fighter, we should do all we could to help her. We were delighted.

By Monday evening however, we noticed she has not eaten much, so we took her to the vet again to get her cleaned, and this time the vet noticed one of her forelegs was red, apparently septasimia. Yesterday I got home early to take her to the vet again to get them to clean her up and I noticed both her legs were covered in red spots. The vet said to me, "You should just let her go". She has not been eating since Monday and although her neck is getting better the septasimia seems to be spreading. I called hubz asking him to call the vet to make a decision. I can't bring myself to tell the vet to put her to, you know.

So, today is the day Lulu is going.

I do not want to go to the vet to face this, at the same time, I can't let hubz go through this on his own. Me knees go weak when I think about it. But I guess, it's better for her than to continue to suffer.

I hold it true, whate'er befall;

I feel it, when I sorrow most;

'Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all

From Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem In Memoriam:27, 1850

Goodbye Lulu.

My Rat Girl

I finally found some information on Nia's Chinese Zodiac sign just to see if I could make sense of it vis-à-vis Nia's behaviour and personality. This is what I found:

Chinese Zodiac - Rat
Personality
Occupying the 1st and most prominent position on the Chinese Zodiac, the Rat symbolizes such character traits as wit, imagination and curiosity. Rats have keen observation skills and with those skills they’re able to deduce much about other people and other situations. Overall, Rats are full of energy, talkative and charming but they have a tendency to become aggressive.

The Rat Infant
Rat babies love to be loved and cuddled. When they are young, Rat babies tend to depend tremendously on their parents, but later in life they develop natural leadership qualities. During their baby years, Rats mature slowly, but gain momentum as they become toddlers. Eventually, they begin to exhibit active mentalities, so, in the early years, plenty of sleep is necessary. Rat toddlers tend to want to do everything before their time and in the process there will be many a frustrated cry and tantrum. In school, the young Rats are eager to learn. It is then, too, that Rats begin collecting things, and like to fill their bedrooms with pebbles, shells and keepsakes of every kind. Generally, young Rats are smart little people who are artistic and literary students. They are well-rounded and many of them do well in sports, too. Being born in the first sign of the Chinese horoscope motivates these children to be pioneers and gives them a need to be first in line.

Holy cow! The toddler bit is very true! Nia does get frustrated when she's unable to do something that she isn't, shouldn't, be able to do just yet. For example, just yesterday she threw tantrums for not being able to put on her sneakers on her own! I mean, she can't even stand steadily with both feet on the ground and still wobbles when she walks, how in the world is she supposed to put on her shoes by herself? I noticed she does not give up easily as well, for example the shoes incident, first she tried putting them on while standing, then she sat down and tried and tried and tried, then she went on all fours and tried and tried, and finally started crying after a good half an hour of trying! At least she has patience (which I sorely lack), that's a good thing, no?
Hmmm...how interesting.

Music of the year - 2009

Yea, so here we go again.. my favourite singer/band of this year ~ that I cannot get enough of ~ is The Script. If you have been on a different planet or under some tempurung, you are forgiven for not knowing who they are! :oP
I particularly ((HEART)) the lead singer Danny O'Donoghue's voice ~ gosh, how do I explain it, it's so lunak, yes, that's the perfect word for it, I can't think of a suitable one in English, sorry about that. Plus, it also helps that Danny is oh-so-cute! I know, I know I shouldn't still sound like a 15-year-old, but I say it as it is, he is cute, what else can I say? Nah, see for yourself (pix from MTV.com)! Please don't ask which one is Danny, isn't it OBVIOUS? Duh?!

I admit, I've always had a thing for boys who wear their hearts on their sleeves, but ONLY in singers/musicians.. I don't think I could live with such a boy, but I love listening to them croon.. hmmmmm *off to la-la land now*

Meatball Sauce

Almost the same as baby's recipe, just add more tomatoes, hot chili or paprika and some puree for the strong red colour!

Mild Chicken Curry

Here's step by step pix of Chicken Curry I made for Nia last week, before we go on to the pix, Here are the ingredients list:

• 100gm of chicken pieces, preferably filleted and sliced thin
• 1 shallot, sliced thin
• 1 clove garlic, sliced thin
• 1 clove
• 1 star anise
• 1 2" cinnamon stick
• 1 cardamom pod
• 1 tbsp meat curry powder
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 small potato, skinned and diced
• 1 small tomato, diced
• 3 tbsp milk
• coriander leaves for garnish
• butter

Method:

1. Heat a little butter in a small pot, add the spices (clove, star anise, cardamom and cinnamon), then the garlic and onion. When the onion is translucent and the mix is fragrant, it's a good idea to remove all the spices to save the trouble from picking it up from your child's plate later! (I hate accidentally biting into cardamom or cloves - YuCk!)
2. Now add the chicken pieces and potatoes (or any other root vege you are using) then stir in the curry powder, milk, tomato puree and top with some water to cover the ingredients in the pot and let it simmer on moderate heat. Tomato puree helps the curry retain a nice colour while making it so mild and tasty.


3. For more gravy, add more water. Once it comes to a boil, throw in the coriander leaves and remove from heat. Coriander actually adds an exotic aroma and taste that only coriander can, that's why I love coriander in my curries as compared to curry leaves. But then again, there are no hard & fast rules about it, if at all you can't get any, use curry leaves by all means!

One of Nia's favourites so far. I make that judgement on what's her favourite and what's not based on how much she finishes at one sitting and when she doesn't mind having the same thing again for dinner or the next day. My little one is quite the demanding princess when it comes to food, she won't generally eat the same thing for lunch and dinner! I served this with butter rice and steamed carrots & broccoli.

Hush Little Baby

When Nia was younger, actually since she was born, both hubz & I like to sing this particular song as we put her to sleep. Not that it was needed when she was younger, as all she does is wake up drink milk and sleep again, day in day out. But I enjoy singing to her and somehow end up singing this particular one more than the rest. Anyways, some nights, hubz and I will get into silly row over the words. Yes, it's true!

D & M: Hush little baby don't say a word
D: Papa's gonna buy you a teddy bear; If the teddy bear don't sing Papa will buy you a diamond ring
M: It's mocking bird lar.. bear and word don't rhyme..
D: Who cares if they don't rhyme, mocking bird is silly, teddy bear is more like it.. Kan, baby? You don't care, do you?
M: (Rolling her eyes) That's the reason why they are called nursery rhymes - because they are supposed to rhyme!
D in his Malaccan English: Roll your eyes lar.. wait your eyes get stuck up there, baru padan muka!
M: (Still rolling her eyes)

LOL. Most Malaccans I know speak similarly. Their favourite word seems to be 'wait'. It's supposed to the English version of 'nanti', get it? LOL.

Ooops.. side tracked.

Anyways, back to the nursery rhymes, yes, I've been so tired looping the song over and over again that I decided to add on to the song to personalise to Daddy's taste ~ since the song is about Daddy and baby, I thought, why the hell not?! So, here's my version of Hush Little Baby that I've been singing to Nia:

Hush little baby, don't say a word

Daddy's gonna buy you a mocking bird

If the mocking bird don't sing

Daddy's gonna buy you a diamond ring

If the diamond turns to brass

Daddy's gonna buy you a looking glass

If the looking glass gets broke

Daddy's gonna buy you a billy goat

If the billy goat gets sick

Daddy's gonna buy you silver chopstick

If the chopstick gets stolen

Daddy's gonna buy you Fried Chicken

If the Fried Chicken's not nice

Daddy's gonna buy you Cendol Ais

If the Cendol Ais' too cold

Daddy's gonna buy you a pot of gold

If the gold's not what you like

Daddy's gonna buy Chinese Fried Rice

If the Chinese Fried Rice taste funny

Daddy's gonna buy you a real live Bunny!

Which Daddy did, btw.. hehe

Some pix of Nia from last week

Monday - show teeth please

Thursday-rummaging through kitchen cabinet
Thursday afternoon - picking jasmine petals

Thursday evening - cosying up in daddy's arms

Friday noon - posing with messy mouth and no shirt, right after lunch


Friday - ice cream treat after MMR shot

It's really yummy, mummy!

Look at that contented face AND the baju!

Saturday pix, at Angelica's 1st birthday party:

There's Angelica and her mummy, Yvonne

And here's daddy with baby Syasya, "Heyyyy.." said Nia

Easy Peasy Fish Paella

Nia loves her rice but her mummy sometimes run out of ideas for dishes so on Saturday she took a short cut and made paella instead with whatever she could find in the fridge!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup long grain rice, soaked for a bit
• 1/2 a small eggplant, diced
• 1 tbsp frozen mix vege
• 1 small tomato, diced\
• 1/4 of a red capsicum, diced
• 1 large white mushroom, sliced thin
• pieces of deboned fish (any kind, I used Kurau, I think it's threadfin in English - but I stand corrected)
• 1-2 tbsp tomato puree
• 1/3 of a lemon
• 1 clove garlic, chopped fine
• 1 shallot or half a small onion, chopped fine
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• butter
• pinch of pepper
• herbs

Method:

1. Heat butter in a small wok or pan, add the fish pieces and cook through, this will take about 2 minutes. Remove the fish and set aside. In the remaining butter add garlic and onion then add all the veges, mushroom & capsicum.

2. Add in the drained rice, chicken stock, tomato puree, top with enough water to cook the rice and finally squeeze the lemon juice and stir to mix them all up. Reduce fire and let the rice cook for a few minutes

3. Before removing from fire, add the pepper (optional) and throw in some herbs, add the cooked fish and cover the pan/wok. I let it sit until the bottom of layer of the rice is a little burnt - that's the best part of paella!- and it's ready to go!
Believe me, this takes less than 10 minutes to prepare, something I'd usually make when I'm in a hurry or when I can't think of anything else to cook. I served this with some steamed carrots that I could distract her with.

Oh yes, we are now at the stage where feeding time is becoming tricky! Nia insists to feed herself but would end up feeding the carpet, the floor, the tv, her clothes, her daddy and at rare occasions, her mummy. So, instead of creating stress for both of us by denying her the independence that she's trying to exert, which sometimes turn into a crying match - first Nia followed by mummy - I found a way to work around it! I now have steamed vegetables like carrot, potatoes and brocolli ready to keep her busy while I feed her. Problem solved. Nia gets to feed herself, mummy gets to feed her too! No crying, no fighting, best of all no more having to clean the whole house after every lunch and dinner!

Mutton Varuval anyone?!

Oh, I know it sounds so sinful, but I finally got the recipe to make this from a cabbie, last Friday on the way home from work. As we were in Malacca by friday midnight, we went to the market near Melaka Sentral first thing Saturday morning to get some fresh ingredients for an aromatic platterful of high cholesterol dinner to be served that night! MiL was so impressed she asked me to write down the recipe for her! So here are all that you need to know;

Ingredients

• 1 kg of mutton, cut into small pieces (as it will cook faster)
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 tablespoon cumin
• fresh ginger about 4 inches (more if you like)
• 5-6 cloves garlic
• 15-20 dried chilies (15-moderate hot, 20-HOT!)
• about 10 shallots sliced
• 1 star anise
• a few cardamom pods
• 1 cup yogurt (I used the Indian version called Thairu)
• 2 tablespoon thick soya sauce
• curry leaves
• salt

Method:

To make the marinade, first boil the dried chilies in water to soften. Remove as much seeds as you can by draining the chilies in a colander a few times, under running water. Pound 1 cinnamon stick and 1 tablespoon cumin in a mortar & pestle (lesung) until powdery. Don't try to use a food processor unless you have a dry mill small enough!

Meanwhile, peel garlic & ginger, chop coarsely and put in a food processor/blender. Add the drained dried chilies and cinnamon & cumin powder and process for a few minutes into a thick paste, add a little water if necessary. Or, better thing to do is to add some yogurt to get the processor going.

Put the washed and drained mutton pieces in a large bowl, add the spice paste, a bit of salt, and the rest of the yogurt and mix well. Cover with a cling film and leave it to marinate in the fridge for at least 4-5 hours. (I put mine in the fridge at 10.30am and took it out at 5pm).

Meat in marinade

Heat 2 tablespoon of oil in a wok, add shallots, cinnamon, star anise and cardamom seeds (you need to pop the cardamom open to take out the little seeds from them), I also added few pieces of dried chilies just for aesthetic purposes. When the shallots are translucent, add the marinated mutton pieces and cook, uncovered, on moderate fire. Stir at random intervals.

When the meat is almost done (there will be some oil bubbling around the meat and no liquid left), reduce fire to low, sprinkle salt to taste, the rest of cumin and the thick soya sauce. Give it a good stir to mix them all up and finally throw in some curry leaves to finish. It smells just so heavenly.

Honestly, I'm not so much of a mutton person, but this was just fantastic! No, I'm not gloating, all credits to the real nice 'uncle' from Supercab!

I actually took this shot AFTER everyone had dinner as I forgot to do it earlier. Hehe. But don't they look so very good, nevertheless? I just thought they weren't black enough as they are in Indian restaurants, perhaps the next time I should add more soya sauce.

We also got some really nice Gula Melaka from the same market and I intend to use them for Sago Gula Melaka. Need to make it in the next few days for hubz preggie colleague, Kim. Will post immediately after!

Eating issues and Pediasure

The past week or so, Nia has completely slowed down on her eating, taking less & less milk during the day and even lesser solids compared to before. I was alarmed when I noticed she looked and felt like she's lost weight so last Thursday night we hauled her up to a local paed in Taman Tun, a Dr. Altaf who was highly recommended by our friends.

I initially intended to take a cab over from our side of Taman Tun but it started to rain so I waited for hubz to get home first. By the time we got to the clinic it was already past 8pm. He closes at 9.

There were 4 names before Nia's and quite a few kids runnign around the clinic. The staff were so friendly and polite, I was really impressed. It was almost 9 by the time we got to see him. Hubz commented that this doctor was spending a long time with each of his little patients. Then came our turn to find out. Before he even went to our issue of the day, he asked historical data on the child like what was her birth weight, has she had any fever, hospitalisation etc. He carefully wrote down everything before moving to the reason for our visit that day.

After listening to us intently, he checked Nia all over, ears, throat, tummy, lungs, the whole works and declared she seems abolutely fine save for slightly low weight for her age. She was 8.4kg at 13 mths, which, according to him was about 600g short of the ideal weight. She was born at 2.77kg which is also about 600g short of normal weight. It goes to show, he said, that she has not really caught up with the 600g as yet. He suggested we changed her milk to Pediasure complete and start her on MultiVits as supplement.

So last weekend we bought Pediasure and tried feeding her with it. As usual, because I'm there she barely had any, but I managed to coax her by feeding it in her sippy cup instead of bottle and she drank only half of the serving. But she has been taking her multivits every morning.

My aunt says these past two days she only drank 1 serving of the formula the whole day, that is about 220ml (around 7oz) which is too little. My aunt can't seem to get her to drink anymore than that as she prefers drinking water. I tried some of it in my quest to figure out why she does not like it, has anyone tried it before? It is so bloody sweet! It taste just like the vanilla cream drink from Coffee Bean, I'm not kidding. I wonder if I could dilute the formula with water to make it less sweet and try feeding it? Yes, I do know you aren't supposed to do that, but what else?

I notice the past few days since she's been on Pediasure, she wakes up more often in the middle of the night wanting feed, perhaps she's trying to replace the milk she refuses during the day with breast milk? Plausible, no?

Contemplating to try out another brand of formula now.

Nia's Fried Rice

Ingredients:

• 1/2 a cup slightly overcooked rice
• 1 small fillet of chicken, sliced thin into bite size pieces (baby's bite size, not yours!)
• few pieces of ikan bilis soaked in water and chopped up
• 1 tbsp frozen peas, soaked
• 1 small cauliflower, diced
• 1 tablespoon tomato puree
• dash of sweet soya sauce (kicap manis)
• dash of ground white pepper
• 1 shallot sliced
• 1 clove garlic sliced
• sesame oil

Method:

Heat wok, add sesame oil, shallot & garlic and stir for a minute, add pieces of chicken, ikan bilis, peas and cauliflower, reduce fire and cook chicken through. The chicken will turn whitish when its cooked. Add the rice, tomato puree, pepper and soya sauce, mix them well on high heat. There you have it! Fried rice that looks fantastic, smells heavenly, and is ready in no time! For the first time in many weeks, Nia actually cleaned up her plate! I should be making more of this.

You can get creative and replace the veges with your baby's favourites and substitute the chicken with freshly made fishballs cut into small pieces, it will taste just as great.

Photos from Nia's Birthday Party

I don't know why I cant link my shutterfly album to this site, well actually I can, it's just that you can't view the pix, so I deleted the link! Will try to find another way of linking the album here, meanwhile here's some of my fav pix of Nia from the party:

Rice Risotto with Celery and Egg

Ok, this one is on request from a friend who saw Nia eating this for lunch last Saturday. I love making risottos, they are so easy to make and so yummy. Even hubz devoured this! (sorry no pic)

Ingredients:
1/4 cup long grain rice, soaked in water for 10-15 minutes and drain
1 clove garlic, smashed
half a stalk of celery sliced thin
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 egg beaten lightly
1 cup of unsalted chicken stock
bit of butter

Method:
Bring rice, celery, garlic, butter & chicken stock to a boil, reduce fire and let the rice cook. Do add boiled water or stock if the liquid dry up too fast. When rice is almost done to the consistency your child prefers, add tomato puree and stir in the egg. Ensure the egg's cooked through before removing from fire. Cool it a little and it's ready to go!

Note: Feeding babies uncooked egg exposes them to salmonella infection, so do remember that everytime you intend to feed your baby egg.

My baby's walking!

Albeit very cautiously and not often enough! Another milestone caught on video to share with you folks. I'm still a very proud mummy nevertheless!

Introducing Lulu .. and hansaplast

Everyone, meet Lulu, the latest addition to our family. We got her to replace Pepsi who went missing. Lulu is an Angora mix bunny, around 4 months old and very playful. Her favourite thing to do is to slide across the floor from one end to another. She also is a picky eater, as she will pick out only certain type of grains from her bowl and leave the rest scattered! Clever, huh?

You should see her manoeuvres whenever she bumps into Marbles! She's quite afraid of him as he pounced on her with a snarl the first time they met. Since then Lulu's been carefully avoiding Marbles when she's out playing.

Lulu runs real fast as compared to Marbles who waddles along slowly like a pregnant lady. Nia likes the fun of chasing after Lulu; Lulu likes to come close to Nia, sniff at her before running along, somhow Nia finds this fascinating.

So last night was one of those typical nights when hubz will bring Lulu in while he cleans out the enclosure and replace their food & water. I have asked him to hold on to Lulu so Nia can pat her (as you can see from the pix above). Nia has a tendency to touch their faces (both of Marbles and Lulu), which I get totally freaked out about, as they usually start whenever she does that!

Last night, the moment hubz let Lulu go, Nia turned around and tried to pat her on the face and put out her hand to Lulu's mouth! Then, she got up suddenly, hugged her daddy and wailed! I knew immediately, without even looking, that she's got bitten! I checked her left hand (which she has put out to Lulu less than a minute earlier) there was a half circle bite mark on her thumb and it was just beginning to bleed. I hauled her up to the sink and let the blood run under running water, all the while trying to soothe her crying. Then carried her into our bedroom, plonked her on the bed, took out a little first aid box I've got readied a few months ago in anticipation of cuts & scratches she'd be experiencing the moment she starts walking, (never imagined bunny bites, to be honest!) wiped her little thumb with antiseptic wipes and put on a little hansaplast on the wound.

Another milestone in our lives! Nia's first wound, first hansaplast!

She stopped crying after the hansaplast went on and only then I began to panic a little. What if bunny bites are poisonous? Perhaps not as bad as dog's but don't people usually get tetanus shot if they are bitten? Even by another human? Shall we take her to the doctor's? What if she gets sick? To make me feel better, hubz suggested I call Damansara Specialist while he tries the local paed in our area. It was just past nine, obviously the paed's closed, while I got through to the paediatric ward in DSH. I introduced myself as the mother of DSH Paed, Dr. Soh's patient and described the incident. The nice nurse said I seem to have done whatever necessary and asked that I monitor her temperature for the next half hour or so, if there's a sudden spike in her temperature, I should bring her to see a doctor!

So, there I sat next to my sleeping baby, with a book in my hand and the thermometer next to her, every few minutes feeling her forehead for temperature, while in my heart I kept praying that she wouldn't have any temperature, that she'll be just alright. I cannot go through another round in the hospital, I don't want to. I hate being in the hospital, it always gives me a feeling of vulnerability which I dislike the most, and of course, the smell of antiseptic and sterile equipments! I tend to imagine the worst things when I'm confined to a hospital bed, when my baby's confined to a hospital bed, so I will do anything to not get there in the first place!

She will be alright, there won't be any fever, we won't need to get anywhere near the hospital.

Woke up this morning and took her temperature, it was normal. What a relief! Either way, I told my aunt to monitor her nevertheless, just in case.

Oh, btw, here's her first band-aided thumbawww... so kesian, kan?

Post Party Depression

Not quite, really. On one hand, I'm so glad the party has come & gone in a wink, on the other hand, I have no more projects to do!! (Well, actually I do, we need to do up Nia's room already, she can't continue sleeping with us, hubz & I need some time to ourselves too!) *evil laughter*

Here's Nia attacking the balloons first thing Sunday morning.. with morning breath and bedhead hair and all..

Anyways, I personally think the party was a success. Abby has worked especially hard the whole time the party was going on, keeping the children busy with games and prizes and whatnots. I really do not know what I would have done without her. (Thanks B, love ya to bits!) At the end of it, we packed up all the games we bought for them to play and gave them away for the kids to take home. What in the world are we going to do with all those stuff anyway? As you can imagine, most kids went back happier than I expected, which is definitely a good thing!

Nia was oblivious to the whole brouhaha, all she knew was that her Da-Da & Da-Di were there, there were plentiful of balloons which she seemed to love, and she'd been carried and passed around the whole time and there were host of people keep coming up to her saying, "Oh, you are so pretty" which she loves the best! Hahahaha, SO very much like the father - vainpot.

Hubz was complaining the cake wasn't big enough (for him), as he only get to bring back less than a quarter of the cake, which was a 8-lbs cake, fyi! Looks like I'd have to order the same cake for his upcoming birthday so that he could have ALL of it just to himself!

Even after boldly printing on the invite asking our guests NOT to bring Nia any pressies, she still got some from some stubborn but sweet folks. All of them were toys, fortunately toys that she does not have, some of which we were looking to get for her ourselves. So, here's a HUGE thank you for all the cute and very useful pressies that Nia can't seem to keep her hands off from!

This is from hubz friends at work.. No one else is allowed to touch this, she even tries to carry it herself!

Pretty party dress from Auntie Jesse - thank you! Nia's mummy's lovin this dress while daddy's lovin the box it came in! Talk about being superficial :oPP

"Common Religion" for children

That subject up there piqued my interest as I heard it on the radio on the way to work, so the moment I reached my office, first thing I did was to check Star online.

Wow, this right here is an example that there is a bit of common sense somehow seeping into our "leaders". First off, which moron would convert under age children without express consent from BOTH parents? Now that the issue has got blown out of proportion and national coverage, why isn't anyone going after the moron(s) who converted them? I reckon they must have claimed it as their God-given duty to convert someone else's children just because one of the parent suddenly became a Muslim? I'd really like to know which God they are referring to, though.

Whatever happened to the ulama's. It's sad to know that Muslim ulama' (or learned men) were once upon a time considered the few most knowledgeable, intelligent people in the world, but no longer, particularly, not in Malaysia. Not when they fugg things up like this and bend the rules to suit their needs as & when necessary. It is people like this that makes me embarass to admit that I, too, am a Muslim.

I'm quite certain on one thing though, that the Malay's Islam is very different from Islam per the Qur'an. Just take for example names, yes, names. I'm sure all of us have met Muslim Malays with very foreign (or mat salleh) names such as Deidre, Julian, Suzie, Daniel, you name it! But yet, if you ask your Muslim convert friends, they will all carry a 'Muslim' name. What the hell is a Muslim name? Do they mean 'Arabic' name? Since when being Arab is being Muslim? Do they know that there are MANY Arabs who are not Muslim? So Malay = Muslim = Arab? Someone please help me understand this.

I don't get it. Religion is something personal. It is between me and God. You and God. They and God. If you are a Muslim, you'd know that on Judgement Day, the only other person than yourself who could save you, is the prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Why then these religious department officials act like they are the ones who's going to save you? Isn't that kind of thought it self is considered blasphemous already? Oh yes, I forgot, not when it comes from them, after all rules (including the ones from the Holy book) is made to be broken, no?

Whatever.

The end too soon

Marbles on the left and Pepsi on the right

Nia playing with Marbles who is always in the house

*Sigh* I don't even know how to start putting my thoughts on this into words, so I'm gonna keep this short. Remember the bunnies we've just adopted, Pepsi & Marbles? Pepsi is a 3 year old rescued black Anggora while Marbles is a 4 year old male colour rabbit. Well, yesterday, we found Pepsi missing. It's highly unlikely that she might have ventured out on her own because all these while the two of them were with us, the only one who runs out all the time is Marbles.

Whomever it is who took our Pepsi, we just hope they will look after her. She is feisty but good-tempered, minds her own business and likes to hang out near trees or bushy plants.

I felt a pang in my guts when I saw hubz stood staring at Pepsi's favourite spot behind the pillar, next to flowering grass plant, looking at the marks she's left there, as she used to sit there for hours if it doesn't rain. When it rains her favourite spot is in the corner of the outside wall, at the edge of the grille, where she will be joined by Marbles for warmth.

We miss her.

Another Video

Managed to upload a video of Nia doin her thang.. In this one she's getting down to the sound of Usher's In This Club video playing on MTV or Channel V or something. This vid was taken on the 10th of March.

Pay close attention to her different moves AND the feet co-ordination! I'm convinced I've got a little dancer in the family y'all! Which, obviously, is NOT a surprise, I mean, like the Malay saying goes, "kemana tumpahnya kuah kalau tak ke nasi?" Ahaks :oP

Birthday Party Countdown

It's odd but I'm getting butterflies in my tum just thinking of Nia's party this Saturday! I pray please let it not rain, like it was this past weekend, it doesn't matter if it gets boiling hot like this pask weekend so long as it doesn't rain. Abby's been planning all sorts of games for the kids so we need the good weather to let the kids have some fun!

I'm almost done with the deco, just a bit more to go, that is the cut out flowers for the cake table which I haven't even started on yet, yikes! Am actually looking forward to getting those done in the next couple of days, after Nia's gone to sleep.. hmmm.. we'll see

Oh, btw, Nia received a very useful birthday present from Auntie Kim, oh sorry, from her boyfriend, Zach, that we got to use yesterday. Oh my, was she a happy girl in it?! See for yourself!

Nia walked!

Only God knows how much I've been dreading that I might miss my little girl taking her first step! These past week she's been standing no-hands without holding on to anything and refused to be touched or held while she stands (OK, I am the guilty party who usually tries to grab hold of her as she looks as wobbly as a jelly!) and she not only stands like that, she dances! LOL My baby asserting her independence already!

Cut to the chase, since she has been doing this free hand standing, I've been coaxing her to walk towards me by putting out my hand near enough to grab her if she were to fall but far enough from her so that she would have to take a step to reach it. But nothing happened. For days. Hubz keep telling me all in it's own time, I know that but I'm just being impatient as I do not, for whatever reason, miss this particular milestone in her life. It's like turning 18 and leaving home, it's a big deal (to me)!

So on Monday night, we hung out in front of the tv, as usual (which she does not watch unless there was Pocoyo or music video on) and she casually got up, looked at me, took one step forward and lifted her other foot and fell. Ohhhhh... I tried to hold her up again but she refused, so I just let her be.

Tuesday came, it was her 1st birthday, we took her out for birthday-breakfast, (well, everything is going to be tagged birthday this & birthday that just because it's her birthday, regardless of the fact that we do that every single weekend) :oP and later for birthday-lunch and after that for birthday-party shopping and came home tired and worn out. While hubz was in the shower I wanted to keep Nia occupied by playing ball with her, and OMG was that a workout! She was so funny, everytime she gets hold of the ball before she throws it to me or slap it over, she will scream first, which I too did because it was just so much fun playing ball like a girl would, you know, with screams! LOL I tried to video that but ermm I do not want to burden you all with the sight of me running after the ball with Nia. Well Nia is fun to watch, not me! Unless I get to edit myself out, it aint gonna get posted here, alright?

Anyways, after her shower and all that night she put on a new frock her emamma (my aunt) got her. My aunt dressed her in the back room and walked her over towards us seated in the living room, the moment she came into our view she screamed to announce that she was there in her new clothes! LOL Hubz and I burst out laughing! Then we all gathered around admiring her frock while she babbled away. She then got up and started tilting her head to the left and right (erm, this is ONE of the many dance moves, fyi!) and just smiled and giggled looking at me and her daddy. I went near her, put out my hand as I usually do and coaxed her to come to me. She reached out to grab my left hand and put her right foot forward and then reached for my right hand and put her left foot forward and again with both feet! I should've just let her walk but instead, being the freakily proud mummy at that point of time, I screamed and lifted her up and kissed her all over while she was trying to squeal her way out of my hold and screaming at the same time! LOL Can you imagine it?? It was my proud moment ever!

I was more proud than the time I won arts competition in secondary school, even proud-er than the time a girl came up to me in a dance club and asked if I was a dancer?! (hey, I'm entitled to feel proud because I ain't no dancer, I just dance well, it runs in the family!) LOL. Yes, it's suddenly no longer about me, it's about her now. I guess from now onwards my sense of achievement is permanently tied to what my baby achieves, huh? Is that how you graduate from being a girl without a care in this world to a wife thence to a mum? Wow, whatever it is, it doesn't matter, because that feeling you get in your guts watching your child in awe, like the Mastercard ad goes, is "priceless", I wouldn't trade them for anything.

I'm freakin out!

The nearer it gets to the day, the more freaked out I am about it! Nia is turning ONE next Tuesday, isn't that exciting? But everyone keep saying she's so thin, she's so petit etc, and I don't like that one bit although she is in fact a little skinny albeit the tapioca thighs! That's the only part of her body which seem to be so adorably tembam! I bite them almost on a daily basis!

I digress.

No, I'm not at all freaked out about Nia turning one, I'm freaking out thinking of the party that's happening on the 25th! We're two weeks away and we don't even have the invites ready yet!

There were some production delay from the original supplier ;o) we commissioned the cards from (che wah!) so I called up a friend (who was a vendor of mine in my previous capacity, now a friend) to ask for a huge favour to print out the invites instead, in like, 1 day. He said YES! Oh, thank God! So the pretty cards which were originally intended for the invites are now the Thank You cards instead! I couldn't be happier! Saved me from cracking my brains designing them! Thanks Pipah! :oPPP

1. Party space - a
2. F&B - a
3. Birthday Cake - a
4. Canopy - a
5. Balloon - a
6. Nia's party dress - a
7. Weather -r anyone know of witch doctor who could make the rain go away on the day? Not asking for much, just for a couple of hours.. PLEASSSSSSSEEEEEE....

Apart from the weather bit I think I got all of it pretty much covered except:

1. Decorations for the space consisting of Pocoyo cutouts and balloons - I'm still working on it, maybe will get it done by this weekend.. maybe..
2. Party loot bag for the kiddos - bags are here only the loots missing.. :oP
3. Kids game - Abby (my sis) is taking care of this bit but we've got colouring pages ready and some crayons too, the rest is up to Abby..
4. Kites - Abby is also supposed to help buy some colourful ones on her way back from Perhentian ~ I 've not been to a beach in almost TWO bloody years ~I hate u B!~But hurry back :oPP

I went over to Balloon Buzz formerly known as Balloon Bouquets in Sect 14 earlier today to order the balloons for the party. I used to order balloons from them so often while they were still a kuchirat and has not started 'franchising' their business, the lady Colleen is very amiable and helpful. Unfortunately now that they are BIG, things are a little different..

I walked in to their retail outlet and asked about the centerpieces etcetera and showed them my sketch of what I wanted, the girl handed over an album and said "these are all the things that we can do". That means "we don't get creative here, we don't care what our customer wants, these are the things we could do, so choose 1". *Sigh* whatever. So i just placed my order on the colours and number of balloons I wanted and I'll get it done myself on the day. Well, good thing they CAN deliver, imagine if we have to stuff 120 balloons in our little japanese sedan?! *Shudders*

An eventful weekend

Last weekend must've been THE most eventful weekend ever, I must say! Saturday morning we went to Paya Jaras which is way after Sungai Buloh to buy some flowering plants from this place called Yew Garden. We bought several pots of the normal Jasmine, one really funky Jasmine species that had very big flowers almost the size of frangipani, another plant with tiny white flowers which also smell like Jasmine, white bougainvillaes and few other plants. These were add ons to our trip to another nursery the weekend before last, in Sungai Buloh. No wonder everyone goes to Sungai Buloh to look for plants, you would not believe how cheap they are! It's laughable!

Anyways, some of the pix of the flowering plants we bought (pix off their website):

normal jasmine

white bougainvillaesanother type of jasmine that we wanted which was out of stock

this one is called heliconia lady diana also out of stock

I guess I should take photos of the other plants that we bought but on their website and put it up here later. Anyways, our so-called garden ain't that big nor pretty, the only reason why hubz suddenly got into a plant buying spree is because we were getting new family members joining us that weekend. But before that...

Saturday we made two trips to that part of town. Mum called when we were on the way back from Paya Jaras saying there's a "kenduri arwah" (prayers) for my aunt who passed away recently at one of my uncle's place in Bukit Rahman Putra in Sungai Buloh. So we got home, spent a couple of hours, digging and planting everything that we bought earlier and went to my uncle's place. While having dinner, hubz pointed out a stray doggie just outside the house. So we quickly ate and went out looking for it. It was a cute little doggy, so awfully scrawny & dirty and looks like it was probably has not had proper food for a week or so. It has the face of terrier but somehow looked like shih tzu as well, so we assume it's probably a mix between these two breed.

Hubz, the animal lover that he is, got so worked up looking at the poor doggie's condition. I went into my uncle's house, got some chicken bones and a bit of rice in a styrofoam food container and brought it out for the doggie, she ate hungrily, choking a couple of times in her hurry to finish up the food and after that started to tail me around. Oh gosh! What are we gonna do?!

Hubz looked up at me while patting the doggie, with a doggie face, and I immediately said, "You can bring it back tonight but we must send it to SPCA first thing tomorrow morning. The rabbits are arriving tomorrow, we can't have all three of them adjusting to a new environment at the same time!" He was happy enough for the time being and obliged. So we went looking for a big box to put her in and went home. Hubz bathed her, removed some ticks from her ears, (thank God there were only few ticks, they really freak me out) and boiled some chicken with rice and garlic for her. She had some red spot on her body caused by some infection of sort, according to hubs garlic supposed to be antiseptic and has fed it to his previous dogs to treat infection. How cool right, I didn't know that!

Some pix:

bathing session

hubz trimming her clumped hair

nia playing with freshly cleaned happy little doggie

We named her Emma, short for "emaciated". I know, not very nice, but at least Emma sounds better than Kurus! Hahahaha. We put her out at the porch overnight, she was such a good little doggie, did not bark at all from the time we brought her back right up to our bedtime that I actually asked hubz if she could be mute?! I'm not being silly, I have heard about some strange people who get their dog's voice box removed so that they won't make noise! But then finally she barked when my sis came by quite late that night and again a couple more times in the middle of the night, probably because she saw cats. Phew. She's fine, she has her voice box in tact :oP

By the time morning came, hubz was a bit sullen, I know he did not want to send her to SPCA but we've committed to adopting two rabbits already, so there's no way we can have a dog and bunnies too, at least not all of them at the same time. Although I felt for hubz, Emma came at the wrong time, it was just a No-go for the time being. So reluctantly we drove to SPCA and dropped Emma off.

Funny thing is, the lady at the shelter who was manning the office on that Sunday morning had this look on her face that told us what she was thinking - that she did not believe Emma was a rescued stray. Well, if it was upto hubz, we won't even be at SPCA in the first place! Why would we lie about giving up a doggie? Poor poor hubz.. tak ada rezeki sayang, maybe next time.

From SPCA we made a quick stop at Ampang Puteri to see my gf's baby Syasya, sat down and chat with her for a bit and dashed home to pick up our new addition to the family two bunnies named Marbles & Pepsi.

We adopted them from a couple of really lovely people, Aunty Kamala and her hubz, Dr. Mohan. They've been having bunnies around since forever but had to give away a couple of them as they do not get along with their other rabbit, Kutti. We met up with them once to check the bunnies out, then they came by our place to check our small little garden out and agreed to let us have them as pre-birthday pressie for Nia.

We collected pepsi, a a feisty female, that they have recently rescued, while they drove Marbles, a neutered male, to our place. We got home, settled them in while it was pouring outside. They came ready with food & water bowls, some towels that the bunnies have lied in ( to have the familiar smell around until they get used to the new environment) and some food and hay. What a wonderful pair of people! Soon as the bunnies old 'parents' left, we went off to get some bunny stuff. We got back with a dry bunny bath which hubz used to clean them up, brush their hair, set up the enclosure, ready their food & water and let them roam about the house.

While hubz was engrossed with the bunnies, I decide to de-clutter our bedroom by moving Nia's stuff out to her own room (which isn't ready yet, by the way) just to have a bit more space in our room! At the end of it all I was completely drained and my arms were numb (from carrying Nia around not from the de-cluttering).

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend! The bunnies are getting used to us, Nia's in awe of them, I'm also trying to get used to them bunnies while hubz is doing most of the bunny chores.. hehe.. Oh, some pix of the bunnies from last night:

Pepsi, sitting pretty next to the coconut tree

Marbles, looking gallant ..

I never knew how it feels like to have pets.. it's truly a wonderful feeling! All this thanks to Aunty Kamala and Dr. Mohan for their kindness..