my lil'Chomel

My colleague was such a sweetie (and always is one) when she bought Jon a kangaroo soft toy during her recent visit to Australia. It is such a softy. When I brought it home, Jon was having fever and we decided to bring him to the doc. But he manage to play with it on the way to the clinic.

Remember the time when I was so worried sick about Jon not talking? The sleepless nights...

Well, I can't get him to keep quiet nowadays. With his high pitch voice and loves to scream (just like the mummy)... he will sing, talk, sing and talk most of the time. Demanding for this and that.. toys, colour pencils, lollipops, balls, bicycle, etc. Voicing his refusal to do things we want him to do like drinking milk and getting out of the bathroom. But no worries, Mr Cane always gets the job done. hehehehe.

Oh ya, we weaned him off diapers at night now. Of course there are accidents if we forgot to make him pee before he sleep. Other than that, he has been a good boy. He no longer wear diapers when we go out. But we have a spare diaper pants in case he needs to pee and we don't have access to any clean toilets. Just wear the diaper on him and kow tim! Sometimes, he'll ask for the diaper (cos he is lazy to go to the toilet...hahahaha). He can roughly tell time now. It started when he refuses to sleep at night and I will tell him that it is 10 or 12 o'clock now... we have to sleep. So, after a few times, he begins to check on the time when I asked him to sleep.

Here's some picture updates:

(big boy liau)

(see my Pooh watch)

(Peace!!!)

Woah... 1 mth++ of no posts.
So many things happening in between. Work was one of them. Everyone was so stressed up and tired (mentally) after using the brain for the whole day, I was just too happy to see the couch upon reaching home.

My office had a bowling competition day some time in May. At first, I was kinda sceptical cos I've not bowled for years.. I think before I had Jon. But I joined in anyways just to have fun and we get to bring our kids! Jon has never been to a bowling arena. He was bowled over with so many bowling balls and alleys. As we were walking into the arena, he jump/ bounce/ pounce around knowing what it was at first sight. He saw many times how bowling alley looks like in Handy Mandy... but this is real life.

It was so much fun. Not because I get to play (and better than I've expected) but to see the kids having fun. Everyone brought their kids. My team mates brought theirs too. The organiser was very thoughtful for preparing door gifts and kids lane for them but the lane was too far away from ours. Trying to play (it's a competition, remember) and entertain the kids at the same time, we had to rent a lane next to ours so that we can keep an eye on the kids (4 to 9 yrs old) too. It was not that expensive after all. We paid about RM38+ for 5 players, 1 game. The kids was just taking their own sweet time to play, run around, play and run around. They can't really move that fast after carrying 6 lbs or 9 lbs ball all the way to the lane, drop it and hope that the ball would roll to the pins. Of course most of the time with help from the adults.

It was tiring but fun. Hope to arrange a simple get-together with some old friends for a mother-and-kids bowling event. More like, mummies get to chat and chat and chat away, while the kids play bowling!

I am beginning to find myself buying things for Jon whenever we bring him out just to pacify him. Or he is at the age of being demanding, stubborn and impossible? Oh help me please. But the fact is I do 'spoil' him a bit... in Hubby's term, I've spoilt him rotten! But his is my Darling, my life, my everything... apart from Hubby teehehe.

This weekend alone, I bought him 1 sheet of Strawberry Shortcake stickers, Winny The Pooh's party bags (even though he doesn't want it), 1 big workbook from Borders (thank God for value buys), 1 Dora VCD (which he almost has the whole collection of it) and a tub of a cheaper version of playdoh.

On the other hand, I try to choose things that will be educate him rather than giving him ultraman, spiderman and Ben 10. He still have no idea what those characters are and I don't plan to introduce them to him. So, apart from the stickers and party bags.... I am comfortable in buying 'educational' stuffs like:
Workbooks - he can do numbers exercises
Dora VCD - he loves the adventures
Playdoh - he was having a fun time making shapes and molding into objects. He requested his poh-poh to make him a bird! Now that is very challenging.

Must try to stop this habit of giving him everything the moment he whines. But, how to make him more understanding and patient when we go out?

I think all mothers feel the same way (especially when you have only 1 kid). I find myself missing Jon mid-day onwards. Gosh, I am missing him when separated from him even for awhile. Unless I have tons of work till my brain is toasted with all the thinking that I have to do, then I might not notice. Yeah, of late, a lot of brain toasting going on. Just hope that my colleagues are not thinking that I'm losing it. Hehehe. They are in the same boat too :)

We've been doing some weird routine for the past few nights. Lulling him to sleep in my arms (as he refers himself as baby... a very big baby indeed), kissing him non-stop, playing cat and mouse (catching and pouncing on the bed), playing hide and seek (with the TV remote control cos we will be fighting over his Dora VCD and my Chinese drama). As for tonight, I was simply hugging him for quite a awhile and he seems to be enjoying it very much. Keep it that way Son cos you will always be my baby! Better enjoy it now before he starts feeling that he is too old to follow mummy around. Which is like another 7 years to go? Am I over-pampering him till I spoilt him rotten? Hehehe.. I still got the secret weapon when he throws his tantrums or disobey my orders. So, nah... I don't think I've come to the stage of spoiling him rotten yet.

I think every parents would go through this stage. Its a stage of wetting babies. A few weeks ago, Jon wet our bed and his almost every night regardless with diapers or not. Crazy me, of course he will wet the bed without diapers. But with diapers too? Thank God that my mom is around, so I can wash the bedsheets everyday.

We tried using another brand of diapers and wah-la! No leaking or wetting anymore. Its slightly more expensive but I can see that it is more comfortable. Like my dad said, cheap thing no good, good things no cheap.

Woke up early so that I can prepare myself for a brand new day. I find myself (seems like a lot of self reflection lately) missing Jon almost everyday. This is because he is beginning to understand what we say and able to respond back. The fun moments I can remember:

- I sometimes "complain" or "whine" to him. Like the other day, I was looking for a brush to wash his water bottle. I was nagging and complaining , "where did your daddy keep the brush?", while looking high and low for it. Jon went on with, "Oh brush... where are you? Is it here?".

- Last week, he sang a birthday song for me even though its not my birthday. He was so cute.

- Countless ...

And the not so fun moments that I want to remember too:

- dragging him away from the toys sections in the mall.

- pacifying his tantrums in a restaurant

- dragging him away from the books section. Oh ya, he will negotiate with me on how many books he wants me to buy. When I said "one", he will want about "three"!

- negotiating how many minutes he can play with his fishes in the bathroom. Usually its about 3 to 5 minutes. I will have the warm water showering on him so that the pool of water is always warm and he won't catch a cold.

Oh I must list it down every now and then lest I forget.

Wonder why I am experiencing exhaustion faster than before. Its either:
1. driving through the traffic that never moves in the morning so that I can get to work on time or
2. waking up very early so that I can get out of the house earlier to avoid the "traffic that never moves" or
3. workload is getting heavier especially when all companies are trimming their operating expenses inclusive of hiring or
4. I am getting older... but still young at heart :)

the list is endless. I guess that is life in the city now. Sometimes we end up with little quality time and so many things to do. Gosh, I think I need a good massage.

On another note, Jon has been very helpful with house work. At least he will sometimes try to help whenever I asked him to do something. Some update on my little boy. He is now 3' 3" tall and I still cuts his hair. Mentioning this cos I just cut his hair 1 week ago. He refuse to let me use the hair crimper so its back to basics - scissors. I find that using scissors makes his hair softer and accentuates his natural wave. When I use the crimper, his hair tends to be punky looking and rough. Shida said the same thing when Rayyan had his hair cut with crimpers years ago. But of course, it takes double the time and the effort to do it.

I'm forcing myself to update this blog more often now cos when I try to put things aside, I feel that I get lazier and uninspired. Till next time folks...

Kids can get all excited about the things that are happening around them... playground, malls, friends. But at the end of the day, they know whom to run to for TLCs.

FIL, MIL and SIL are here for Christmas and Jon got all excited having other people to play with him (other than his parents... hehehe). Last night, on the way back from dinner, he was getting sleepy and all, slowly crawled to me calling "mummy, mummy" and fell asleep in my arms. At the end of the day, they know....

After everyone went to sleep, I watched a movie on tv (yup, alone on Christmas nite. Hubby is pooped out running around to settle my car~got into a small accident... hehehe). Its a warm story about a mother and her relationships with her children paticularly with her partially deaf gay son and his partner. And because of his minor disability, the family members converse with him using sign language. So, there was this scene where another son's gf started a converstaion about no mother would want to complicate her life with a gay son (something like that). Of course that go the whole family angry/ upset and at the end of the argumant, the mother signed to this son saying that she will always love him and he is better than most ppl.
Simply put, it's about a mother's love and how ppl are quick to judge.

As a mother, oh don't mess with me when it comes to my son. A mother's love knows no bound. In this story, the mother's love is unconditional and in abundance (remind me of someone... hint: look above)

And I trully agree, We are fast to judge other people. Self centered. Everything is about me me me. What's in it for me (happening in my work place... arghhh!!)

About not judging other ppl, so happened that I sat beside a young south african man in church during Christmas service. Hubby asked me softly if I need to exchange place him but I decline. He knows that it does not bothers me. But becos I was carrying Jon, it might be a bit squeezy for me. I wonder if many ppl would find it uncomfortable with situations like that?

Guess I would have something in mind for my new year resolutions soon, huh.

I find myself constantly describing Jon's level of energy as "bursting with energy" or "energy ball that always bounce around". He manage keeps his energy level till midnight or even 1am most of the time! And he still takes his afternoon nap (that is why!). I know of kids who skips their afternoon nap at this age. Oh well, I'll just let it be cos when he takes his afternoon nap in the day care, less attention required (in case he drives the teachers up the wall). In my unqualified opinion, he is not hyper active. This is how I come up with this conclusion:

A year ago, I was so worried about his activeness because the teachers started complaining that he couldn't sit still in school (means limited concentration and short attention span). He was 2+ and he just started school. So, I started making him sit down as long as he can to write or draw. It was tough at first. But my "best friend", the cane comes in handy sometimes. Then I moved all his fridge magnets to the lower part of the fridge so that he have to sit down to play with them. From then on, anything that he wanted to do, he has to sit down. This may sound harsh, but its for his own good and it works.... read on.

.....this year....

During last month's school assessment, the teacher told me that Jon has improved tremendously and she enjoyed teaching him. And most of all, he can sit still and do his school work. She remembered how anxious I was in handling that problem (ya, read the paragraph above).

Yup, Jon can really sit down and concentrate on his work. His current tools are color pencils (I lost track how many boxes we bought for him) and magic pen (how come we call it magic?). Give him a computer and Disney-playhouse website, he can play on the computer for at least an hour, sometimes for hours (plus having the patience to sit there and stare at the status bar to wait for a page to load and you know how slow streamyx can get sometimes). Computer geek in the making. I aim to make him a cool looking and "happening" computer geek, ok. Ear stud? but the gay this, ok. Like the mother! Hahahaha.

A little update on Jon's speech progress. He is talking a lot more now and sometimes in complete sentences. Way way lots of improvements in that area (compared to his quiet self a year ago). I am glad because he progressing on track as recommended by a speech therapist friend. She told me to give till end of this year to see how he progress before sending him for evaluation.

This year has been quite an eventful year in terms of Jon's development. I guess every year will be for awhile. Heck, these are they years that most of their skills and abilities develop. What is in store for next year, not sure yet. Will take things one step at a time.

Christmas season is here. So was thinking what I would wish for this year. Here goes....

1. A pda phone. I've always wanted one and my bro gave me one a number of years ago. BUT I lost it. Was I pregnant that time? Blame it on the hormones. Nice. Not that I'm superbly organised. The itch to have one started when we just bought the house and there was 1001 things to remember, to do. The measurements for curtains, floor layout (and measurements) for the contractor, tiles codes, colour codes, phone numbers, payments, what to buy, what not to buy.

2. A bigger car. The mpv models look cuter each time a new one comes out. Yeah, we need one eventually when we have our 2nd or 3rd kid??!??
Hubby: Sorry, it stops at 2!

3. Christmas in Spore. We get decorated malls here. They have decorated streets. It adds up to the holiday mood... dun'cha think?

4. A maid. To wash, clean, iron and all the household chores. But can't imagine having to deal with their behaviour and stupidity... again!

My weekends plans have evolved from just spending time and hanging out in the malls with my family to staying at home so that the house chores can be done before the week starts again. Not that I'm complaining. We used to be able to spend the whole weekend out of the house because the maid will do all the house chores and cooking. Now, we have to spend most of the time at home to do some house chores else I'll have tons of laundry to do during the weekdays. But we don't really mind. We have decided not have any maid (as long as I can tahan) right now. Here's the reason why (trying to pyshco myself ya):
- Getting one is so darn expensive nowadays. From my calculation, we need to spend about RM900 per month to maintain 1 maid.
- Hubby don't trust them with Jon. What are they good for then? Cleaning? Nah, my weekend cleaner does cleaning so much better
- I am way too lazy to train another one. Oh, I miss my old maid even though she drives me up the wall at times and during her final month, she practically don't want to do anything
- I can stay slightly slimmer (hahaha..meaning I am still fat,ok) cos I get to do all the WORKOUT by doing house chores
- I don't have to worry about making sure there is food for the maid (sometimes I fast for diet purpose)
- I don't have to arrange for additional accommodation for "the other person"
- We all can it into our small car without "the other person". Esp. with the new seat belt ruling. whew!

See see so many advantages. I can freely say all this cos Jon is big enough to go to day cares. Forget about my wish list. They will remain as a wish list. Given our "not-so-bright" economic outlook, money is better to stay elsewhere.

Over here it is a norm almost compulsory for every nursery or kindergarden to put up a school concert where all the kids (our beloved children) sing, dance, recite poetry, act and etc for their proud parents. Me inclusive.

On the "big" day, I cooked and fed Jon earlier because he has to be at the hall by 10.30 am (the concert starts at 12.30pm). Pack some food for him in case he is hungry and off he goes. Settled things at home, have lunch and rush to the hall. Phew, we were just in time for the first opening performance.

When we got into the hall, the principle told me that Jon cried earlier and that they will send the kids to the hall after the performance. My heart sank a bit. I was preapring myself mentally that I might not even see Jon on the stage (if he is still crying and try to be difficult). So when the youngest group went up... one by one lined up... hmmm.. where is Jon.

There he is almost at the end of the line. He was smiling and chatting with his friends. Phew. The kids looked so cute! They presented a poem "Mummy, Daddy, I love You" and sang 2 songs with actions. No acting what-so-ever. I don't think anyone in their sane mind would want to train a bunch of 2+ to 3+ year-old kids to act. I can see a lot of effort has been put in just to remember the words and actions.

(sorry the pictures are a bit blur. Daddy wanted to use the camera too)

(Happy mummy and Jon having his sausage bun after the preformance)

I was just so happy and proud to watch him perform (and not scared of the audience). He remembered all the actions. Muah muah...

Sorry guys for being MIA for so long. Long story.
I started work “again” right after Raya. So, first week of Oct was all about adjusting to work environment, sending Jon off early in the morning, preparing food for Jon’s dinner and completing house chores. Coincidentally, Jon was not feeling well due to mild food poisoning (my fault). But he was such an angel for not throwing tantrums even though he suffered from having a bloated tummy and frequent toilet visits. First weekend was spent visiting the doc. After he got well, I gave him ice cream cake which didn’t go well with his just recovered stomach. He vomited but thank God he didn’t make a fuss though. Looking back now, I felt so stupid for not taking extra care about his food. We tried everything that we can think of. One thing is for sure, when the child is sick, the parents are worried sick. That is 2 weeks of chaos in the house.

We are quite settled with the routine now. The teachers at Jon’s school were really nice to accommodate us cos we really need to send Jon early to school. Day care business is really long hours and without them working mothers are at a lost.

Jon has always shown his musical side... by humming a tune he heard somewhere, banging on his xylophone (haha... not very musical), playing (and not banging) on his aunt's piano, pretend to play the violin and lately dancing. He has no qualms if I play classical music whole day cos we "fed" him a lot of that with Baby Einstein's VCDs when he was a baby. Maybe this signs of musical inclination is just a phase. I think he is too young to seriously nurture his "interest" ie. sending him for music/ ballet classes. Hubby is against Jon learning ballet. Boys can learn ballet without making them look sissy, right?

They were showing a Korean dance competition program on TV just now and Jon was trying to imitate some of the dance moves. Head stand, hip hop, street dance... I dunno. There are so many types now and I only understand a very small portion of them. Hubby surely won't entertain the crazy idea of Jon dancing. So, I'm the next best thing he has as his dance partner. I just pretend to swing his hands and all... then ask him to do the hip hop/ street jam/ shuffle/ watever moves that was showing on TV. He had fun dancing (or rather pouncing around) and trying to do the head stand. Of course I stop him from doing the head stand cos he might hurt himself.

We'll let him grow up a bit more before deciding to send him for music/ ballet class. But if I can find a home-based piano teacher who teaches simple piano lesson and is able to handle a toddler at the same time, why not huh? But sorry darling, no dancing classes for now.

Jon is having a fever now. It started yesterday. It wasn't easy for me. I was tired from our trip back to Hubby's hometown. With lotsa work waiting for me to complete and tons of cleaning to do when we got back, Jon's whines was a pain to my ears. I know that he must have felt really bad to wanting me hold him and sit beside him all the time. But darling, I have to figure out what to cook for you since I did not prepare anything for lunch (he was suppose to be at the nursery). I suspect that he might have a throat infection. Maybe he was kinda tired after all the fun he has with his aunts and the journey too during last weekend.

(Steam chicken and lap cheong rice with some blanched french beans)

The taste was... yum yum.

Jon didn't go to school for 2 days. I thought I'm cutting him some slack by allowing him to skip school cos I'm going to start work soon. Very very soon. By then, he has very little chance to skip school. Actually, I didn't send him to school cos he couldn't wake up.

I prepared some breakfast for him. His favourite cut out pooh head bread with turkey ham. Yup, he has this thing about turkey. Chicken - no, beef - dunno, turkey - yes! Be it turkey ham, smoked turkey, turkey sausage, he loves it. Coincidentally, it's my favourite too. Oh I miss those visits to JJ Sandwiches with Shida where we'll have sandwiches for lunch. On diet mah! And the toasted wholemeal smoked turkey sandwich with generous amount of green salad and apple juice.

But last night, out of the blue, he was crying and his father carried him to me cos he doesn't know what was wrong. Apparently, he was playing in his poh poh's (maternal grandmother) room and suddenly he remembered his poh poh. Adoi. Jon has never remembered anybody when any of us go on holidays/ outstation duty. He was crying and whining for a good half an hour untill none of us can pacify him, I decided to call my mom. But my bro said she has gone out for coffee with her friends. Aiya... this boy is still crying and refuse to stop. So, we got changed and took him out... for coffee at one of the popular kopitiam joint in town.

He came back feeling a bit better but started to toss, turn and cry very early in the morning. This is the first time I see him like this. Poh poh is like his insurance. I scold him, he'll run to her. He wants to sleep, he'll look for her. He is bored, he'll go to his poh poh's room to play or lepak with her. He wants to go outside and play, he'll drag her along. But so far so good. No separation anxiety or anything. I guess its a sign of him growing up and remembering his emotions/ feelings very well.

Early in the morning, got an sms from Jon's principal on this. Shida alerted me as well as soon as I got online.

See, I told you so.

In today's news:

China goods ban widens
Reports by ROYCE CHEAH, LESTER KONG and CHEOK LI PENG
PETALING JAYA: The Government has widened its ban on dairy products imported from China to include confectionery which contain milk, chocolate (including white chocolate) and other food which contain milk.
The decision was based on the latest information received from Singapore’s Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) which found melamine in “White Rabbit Creamy Candy”, the Health Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry’s food quality and safety department director Noraini Mohd Othman said the widened ban would include “White Rabbit Creamy Candy” and flour-based confections like biscuits.
..
..
Consumers can contact the ministry at 03-8883-3503 for more information.

On Friday, Singapore’s AVA suspended the import of all milk and milk products from China and instructed retailers and importers to recall such products.
Three products were found to contain melamine - “White Rabbit Creamy Candy”, “Yili Brand Choice Dairy Fruit Bar Yogurt” and “Dutch Lady” strawberry-flavoured milk.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/9/23/nation/2094296&sec=nation

... and about social responsibilities...

Supermarts to start clearing shelves
PETALING JAYA: Major supermarket chains are in the midst of checking their inventories to remove products which may contain milk ingredients from China.
However, they have not received any instruction from the Health Ministry regarding the widened ban on confectionery with milk, chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate which contain milk from China.
Tesco’s corporate and legal affairs director Azlam Shah Alias said: “Our technical team is checking our inventory now. If a product is found to have any of the banned ingredient, we will take it off the shelves.”
..
..
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/9/23/nation/2093375&sec=nation

Do I need to say much. I really appreciate the presence of companies that display their social responsibilities way above our benchmark. And act upon it immediately because this relates to public health. No need to tell la... or to instruct la. Orang yang buat instructions pon tak la efficient sangat. But a bit sad that this attitude is mostly found in foreign-based (partially I think) companies.

So, check and check and check...