25 August 2007

Jia Wen's new friend - Joel



(pics taken at a friend's place in Klang)

24 August 2007

Jia Xiang and his grandma

Fatty Crab

I told you this weekend was a seafood weekend! How else to end it but with Fatty Crab?! Shien Wei and I have been coming to Fatty Crab in Taman Megah for many years and have never had any other crabs like theirs! Its the best! They have never failed our stomachs and we always come out happy. Of course opportunities to have crabs doesn't quite come as easily as years back (kids) but we will try to whenever we can.

There's always poeple waiting outside to get a place to sit

Need I say more?


Almost done

Done - satisfied

Flower Coconut

This weekend was a seafood galore for us. We started out with driving all the way to Teluk Gong (after Klang, near Port Klang) to this supposedly famous place called Flower Coconut. This restaurant is situated in the middle of no where, literally! It is in the middle of some industrial factories and sandwiched between a few other seafood restaurants! If you do not know of this place, you will never find it! We found it because we are simply brilliant! Of course we've heard of this place from many people but never tempted to drive all the way until this week when we bravely took the highway and made our way there. Surprisingly, it was very easy to find!

This Flower Coconut Restaurant is really really huge! I think it can easily sit about 1500 people in there! There are private huts, there are somewhat private rooms and seriously - huge! We arrived there early with not many other customers but just as we were enjoying the food, flows of people started to come in and it almost filled the main area. This was a Friday!

I wouldn't brag too much about the food or maybe it was the choices we made wasn't very good but it was cheap. It is a place to recommend if you have a big group of people to feed seafood and you can sit there for hours! This restaurant is also famous for its toddy! Yes toddy - homemade. They made their own toddy and we got a taste of it. Not my kind of alcohol.

Fancy eh?


Mantis Prawn

This is not barley water

Ratatouille

Saw this with Jia Wen yesterday. Great animation, great movie! Very entertaining!

Gwen Stefani

Obviously I went for Gwen Stefani's concert and it was AWESOME! I've got a new idol now - Gwen Stefani!!

The concert was superb and she was fantastic! She's beautiful and never knew she was that tall. To those who protested on her performing - go kiss her ass man!

My friend managed to get fantastic seats for us at the concert (Thanks KG!). We were seated right next to the stage and near enough to see her very clearly! We were also next to a big screen which of course helped. Luckily we didn't go for the most expensive ticket which was of course right in front of the stage but it was on a level ground (no slope) and so everyone was on the same level as everyone else.

Gwen, you rock!

<

(montage by KG)

Royal London Circus

Jia Wen in A Bowl

This picture was taken when Jia Wen was about 4 months.

18 August 2007

Jia Xiang with his grandpa who loves him to bits!


OK, these bowl pictures may not look as authentic as the ones we took for Jia Wen when she was about this age but we just had to do it for fun. Plus we couldn't leave him inside there for too long fearing that he might just break the bowl!

Lazagna

I made lazagna last weekend! This is the pre baked beef lazagna (forgot to take photos after it came out of the oven). It didn't turn out too bad!

11 August 2007

These pictures were taken at Zena's new house. Jia Wen absolutely enjoyed the jacuzzi and have asked for one to be fixed in our car porch.

Thanks Zena Ee, Uncle Mark, Gaia & Saloma. Wish you were here to enjoy it with. Thanks Number 5 Ee Poh for making the bubbles!

Red Dot

Put The Big Red Button on your site

Jia Wen

I think it is about time that I write about my Jia Wen. It has been quite a while since I have said anything much about her and not that I have been neglecting her or put her away somewhere but its just that so much have been going on with her, with her and us, with her and Jia Xiang, with her and me. Not that it is all bad but I won’t say that I’ve had the easiest time with her either.

It has been a limbo with her for a while – for more than a year actually. Ever since I got pregnant with Jia Xiang – she started behaving different and she can be very difficult at times to the extent of intolerable sometimes. People kept telling me that it was a phase that she was going through and it was sibling rivalry, terrible two phase, blah blah. As difficult as it must have been for her, it was doubly hard for Shien Wei and I to cope with especially the first few months of my pregnancy. And because of that, we gave in to her quite a lot and with that, she did sort of climbed on top of our heads. I don’t know whether she realized what she was going through and what she is doing but I was surely like – “gosh, when is this phase going to end”?! I am sure for those who have been following my blog, you’ll know what I’ve been through with her and how difficult she could be and to what length she went to get her point through. I often wish I never got pregnant. There were times where I thought I don’t have the energy to keep up with her tantrums, with her attitude change, with her “terrible two” phase, and wanted to give up. She made it her life mission to give me hell and she did it! Many times I tried to understand what she was going through and be cool and calm about the situation but she can make it so difficult that all you can feel is disappointment and frustration.

Anyway, after so many months of tolerating her problematic attitude, I think things have changed (for the better of course) lately. I don’t normally like to tell people about such things in fear of jinxing the whole thing but I think I should say something nice about her for a change. She’s getting better (sounds like she’s been sick uh?) and I think I am slowly able to control her better now. OK, I think that just made me sound like a mean mum but trust me, I am pretty sure it is a two-way thing. She’s improving. She doesn’t shout at us as much, doesn’t misbehave like she used to do and generally is better these days. I hope I am not too early at being to proud about this but I surely hope and pray that this is a beginning of a new and better Jia Wen. Of course there are areas that need more attention and fine-tuning like her night sleeping habits. She still wakes up several times at night, every night. I have been taking her back and forth her room every night, several times for the longest time. It has become a nightly routine for her and me. Nights are the hardest for me with her.

Jia Wen is now 3 years and 7 months old. She’ll be 4 soon! She’s an intelligent little girl. Many times I think she is too intelligent and outsmarts us all the time. Her remarks can be so above her age that puzzles us sometimes. She learns so quickly and is very sharp and very observant. I can’t list it all out but if you do spend a day or two with her, you’ll notice it all and see how her remarks, what she says can dumbfound you. There were many moments where she comes up with something so smart and so sensible that all we can do is burst out laughing. Of course she’ll think we are laughing at her and she’ll start to cry. Like the incident about Jia Wen and her teacher was just such a golden moment and really put her teacher in a fix.

Remember I told you all that she wasn’t into TV too much? But she’s slowly learning to like it. Not too sure whether that’s a good thing or not but at least I know her attention span is getting better and she’s got a little more focus now. She’s beginning to watch some Disney cartoons and so far she has watched Finding Nemo and A Bug’s Life. She absolutely enjoys them and watch it almost everyday. She also watches Hi5, a few Mandarin CDs I bought for her and she religiously watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse everyday. Of course I limit her time on the TV. She’s been to a few movies already – Fantastic Four, Shrek 3 and Transformers. She wasn’t very still in the cinema but I think she’ll slowly get there. Next movie would be Ratatouille.

I don’t know how many times I have said this before but if there’s an award for a mimicking, my daughter would have won the title over and over again. She can really mimic. You should now see how she talks to her brother. She speaks exactly like me and Shien Wei of course. She would say “Jia Xiang, time to sleep means its time to sleep, no playing!”. “Jia Xiang I told you to behave. Right or not, right or not?”, Jia Xiang, Che che said no crying”, all in the exact tone and manner. Whenever she makes such remarks, Shien Wei and I will just look at each other and smile and not sure how and what to feel.

She’s also begin to want things. She has learnt what she likes, loves and wants. She recently told me that she wants to have a swimming pool in the house. She wants it put the swimming pool in the porch. I asked her then where would we put the cars? She said put it next outside lah. Then she said she wanted to have a playground too. I said how to fit the playground and the swimming pool in the porch. She said no need so big pool. I just said ok. A few days ago, after spending some time at my cousin Zena’s house and playing in the Jacuzzi, she said she wanted one too. I asked her how would we fit everything into the porch. She said move the playground a little to the outside so that the pool and the Jacuzzi can be next to each other. So I asked where would we then park the cars. She said “can park behind the house lah”! She has also asked for an escalator in the house to go upstairs. She also asked her dad to put wooden floor in the house. She loves wooden flooring. Everytime she goes somewhere with wooden floor, she will tell us to get it for her.

Its been nearly 2 years that she’s been in Vital years and she’s now in Stage 4 of the programme. Don’t ask me what Stage 4 means but I do know that she’s able to read very well. I know that she doesn’t memorize the words she learn because she would try to read a word that she hasn’t seen before. She’s got the concept of letters forming into words which is good. She enjoys school very much but wants to go to a school with a playground. She’s been asking me to look for a school with a playground for her and preferably that speaks “Chinese”. She seems quite eager to learn Mandarin which I think we have agreed to send her to a Chinese school when she turns 4 next year. Haha.. wait till she sees the amount of homework she’ll be having – and if she’s like me, she’ll drop out after 1 year! Haha.. of course she isn’t like me (at least I hope). For now, she thinks that she can speak Mandarin and would go “ching chong ching chong,” to me!

I really hope I won’t be jinxed!

Good morning from Starbucks

9 August 2007

I told you I was on a shooting spree. Took about 150 pictures of Jia Xiang today.

9 August 2007

Was on a shooting spree this afternoon. Enjoy.

He loves to make his lips like this

His hair like got static all the time



Bath time with sis

Why Oh Why!?

I find this absurd and unforgivable!!

I was almost in tears when I read about this poor baby and when I saw her picture, OMG! Just because some people are careless and obviously not well trained, this baby will lose her arm and maybe her life! Unforgivable - no amount of sorry will ever justify such carelessness. Ministry of Health must investigate this case thoroughly and suspend those who cared for this baby.

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/8/9/nation/18539356&sec=nation

Jia Xiang is 8 Months

I ought to be punished. Why? In case anyone hadn’t noticed, I DID NOT, I repeat – DID NOT make an entry for Jia Xiang when he turned 7 months old! I usually do in my kids’ first year of their lives, a monthly bulletin slash report slash update in the blog but I failed to do so last month. OMG, you may think that I am slacking and becoming lazy (or maybe I am?) with my blog but I assure you I have no intention of abandoning “A Mum’s Hideout”. I love my blog too much to just leave it. Plus if I do that, I think my dad will be lost without being able to go to my blog everyday for updates.

Anyways people, I am here now and I hope to be able to make this entry worth it for those who have missed reading about my kids.

Jia Xiang will be 8 months old in about 3 days (12 August 2007)! Time flies doesn’t it? I can’t believe it myself. It was like just yesterday when I was wishing that Jia Xiang would be 6 months old, and now he’s 8 months! To many of you, this may be a wake up call – we are into August of 2007 – 3 quarters through the year already! Soon we’ll be ushering in a new year and in exactly 12 months, it’ll be 08/08/08!

Jia Xiang is such a happy baby. He is always in smiles. I remember the first few months of his life was spent mostly in my arms. I was literally carrying him 23/6. I mean I remember times where I had to carry him while hanging out laundry or cooking or using the computer!! But now I don’t carry him as much anymore. This is because he is now able to play on his own on the floor and so now he spends most of his time playing.

I had started him on cereal for breakfast when he turned 6 months and now taking porridge for lunch. I had only started him on porridge just very recently because that past month have been very hectic for me and he has been doing quite a lot of traveling so I delayed it for a while. Now he has 2 solid meals a day complimented with his regular milk feeds. He doesn’t seem to eat as well as Jia Wen did when she was 6 months. Jia Xiang doesn’t really voluntarily open his mouth and so sometimes I have to like pry his mouth open so that food would go in. He is a messy eater too. But I think he is slowly getting the hang of eating and is eating better now. I must admit that I am not as hardworking as I used to with Jia Wen when it comes to what foods he has tried but can you blame me? I now have to cook 2 different meals for the kids.

He started crawling about 1+ month ago. He started with a commando crawl and he would speed up whenever he sees a remote control in front of him! What is kids and remote controls? Its like a sucking lil objects that silently calls to them – “come here, come here, I have something for you”. What did I crawl to when I was a baby? I am pretty sure there were no remote controls then, right? And Jia Xiang is one baby that cannot have in his hands any electronic items – he will put it into his mouth and is saliva would just pzzzt (electrocute) it. He is now crawling on all fours. So far, he hasn’t found the kitchen or anywhere I don’t want him to go – wonders of having a slightly bigger house. I remember when Jia Wen first learnt to crawl, I had to cordon so many places in that already small Puchong house. I know I will soon have to take out the safety gate to block the kitchen.

Jia Xiang first learnt how to sit up on his own when he spent his almost 2 weeks in Labuan with my mum while Shien Wei, Jia Wen and I were in Singapore. Now he can sit on baby chairs and enjoys sitting on stroller much more than he used to. He used to HATE sitting in the stroller which was why I resorted to the sarong / sling when I go shopping. Hey, carrying Jia Xiang in the sling isn’t easy on my back but I had no choice – he would just scream the store down the moment I put him into the stroller. Thank goodness, he is better now. As long I have something for him to play with while he sits in the stroller, he is fine. Now he sits down on the floor most of the time playing with whatever we put in front of him.

Again, during our trip back to Labuan recently, Jia Xiang again achieved another milestone. He learnt to pull himself up to standing position from crawling or sitting. He loves hanging to the couch and his sister’s little desk. He enjoys playing with the knobs of the tv cabinet. He puts everything and anything into his mouth. This again is something very different from Jia Wen. Jia Wen never put things into her mouth. I never had to worry about what’s on the floor but now, I am constantly picking up things from the floor and cleaning after Jia Wen. Although Jia Wen is aware of what her brother can and cannot play with but sometimes she is careless with her toys – hey, she’s just a kid.

Since Jia Xiang now knows how to pull himself up to a standing position, he likes to go to his baby gym and pull himself up with the poles and sometimes use it like a monkey bar. Quite cute actually. He hasn’t quite mastered the art of sitting down after standing just yet but he is slowly learning. He is learning the art by putting one of his hands down first. I know soon he will be cruising (walking while holding on to furnitures). I know it may be a bit too early for him to start walking – I fear bow legs but I can’t stop him from standing up or walking. I just hope that his bones are strong. Jia Wen has slightly bowed legs.

Jia Xiang is now sleeping in his room on his own. I separated the both of them a few months back and it is working out just fine. He normally sleeps through the nights and wake up at about 7 ish for milk. Sometimes he wakes up earlier and I don’t really mind feeding him because he usually goes back to sleep without much fuss. Both Jia Wen and Jia Xiang go to bed by 8 pm. I bring them upstairs at 7.30 pm and they are usually sleeping by 8 pm.

Jia Xiang is a very ticklish baby. He is almost ticklish every inch of his body and when you get the right spot, he’ll laugh so cute that you just want to eat him!! He is such a cute baby that sometimes I just want to squeeze him as hard as I can and never let go.

Today, we took out Jia Wen’s old baby chair so that Jia Xiang can join us on the dining table. He is usually most fussy during our dinner time because he is usually very sleepy by this time. So if he is sitting with us, he should be less moody.

At this point, I am enjoying this phase of Jia Xiang’s life. He is simply adorable, the cutest, the best looking (I have bragging rights ok) and the happiest baby. So far, Jia Wen and Jia Xiang both get along very well. Jia Wen loves her brother dearly and never harms him. She may be a little rough with him but she has no intentions of hurting him. Its very nice to see how Jia Wen talks to her brother sometimes and how she would hug and kiss him from time to time. But there are times where she exerts her big sister position by telling him “don’t play Jia Xiang, its time to sleep”, “time to sleep is time to sleep Jia Xiang, no playing”, “Jia Xiang, do you hear me? I said time to sleep, no playing”, “Who said you can put that in your mouth Jia Xiang”, etc. Although it is cute when she does it but it is a scary image of how we speak to her. I told you she mimics us so well to a point that it is scary. I don’t know of any other kid who mimics their parents as well as Jia Wen does. Well “Jia Wen” is a whole new topic on its own and I hope to soon make an entry on her.

For now, just remember this – Jia Xiang is 8 months old and is thriving.

31 July 2007

Some delayed photos:

Jia Xiang was trying to disturb his sister who was sound asleep

Both Jia Wen and Jia Xiang were sleeping one afternoon when Jia Xiang woke up first. He quietly crept and climbed up and started fiddling with Jia Wen's face and hair. Jia Wen slept through it.

29 July 2007

Check out my mohawk hair

St Anne Labuan Reunion (Part 2)

More pics of my reunion
(pics taken by Ang)

couples

Ang and the girls!
(he is single by the way)

Shien Wei and I at my school reunion.
(pics taken by Ang)


Dewi and I have been good friends since we were 8 years old.

Jia Wen & Banana Leaf

We brought Jia Wen to have a taste of Banana Leaf at an Indian restaurant. We just wanted her to experience eating with her hands. She didn't quite like using her hands though. She loves eating curry chicken rice.

3 August 2007

Prison Break

Last night, I just finished season 2 of Prison Break!! Now my nights won't be the same without getting to watch Wentworth Miller. Yes I know I can just come to the computer and turn the show on or just google "Wentworth Miller" and get a whole lot of delicious pictures of him but I am so into Prison Break (and Michael Scofield of course) and now I don't know how long will I have to wait to get to watch season 3!?!? It isn't even showing in the States yet!

Argh!

so hot

Need I say more?

...

Ok, I am zoning in....

... look at previous entries below