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..

A quick one

Last Tuesday, sometimes around lunch time, I was engrossed in some stuff at work when reception buzzed me saying that there's something I need to pick up from out front. While I was walking out I was just trying to figure out what could it be? Could hubz have sent me flowers? Because I just mentioned to him the week before last that it has been ages since he last sent me flowers for no reason. He used to do that ALL the time. When I was pregnant, he even special ordered flowers that doesn't smell cause I couldn't smell any sweet smelling flowers throughout my pregnancy, so much so that we completely stopped buying fresh flowers for the house altogether!

So I walked very slowly to the reception and when I saw the huge basket I couldn't stop smiling. OMG, my sweet sweet hubz. And then of course, the accompanying card.. to quote a friend from work, "he must be the last romantic chinaman alive"! Hahahahahaha.

I know, you must be thinking what a load of bulls that I need to even post flowers my hubz sent me, well, there's another reason for that. Hubz sort of saw this blog and made a passing remark that now it's all about baby, baby, baby when it used to be all about him, all the time. Hehe. My poor little thing. What he did not realise is that I do talk about him although yes, it's true that I write mostly about Nia. So now there's something nice to write about him, I'm doing so.

If you see this post babe, know that I love you so very much!