Monday, May 4, 2009

A weekend back in papa's kampung

Over the long weekend we decided to bring Hayley back to her papa's kampung (ie village, hometown) for the very first time. We normally would go back to papa's kampung for CNY but since I was about the deliver Hayley in 2008, we didn't make the trip back and in 2009 parents in law decided to visit us in KL instead. Read about it here.

The journey back to papa's kampung will take about 3 hours drive but since it was a long holiday there were more traffic on the highway than usual and the journey took an extra 40 mins :-(. Hayley napped for about 2 hours in the car and for the remaining hours she either stared out the window, played with her dog or played with her Elmo remote control. There were hardly any fuss.

When we got home, grandma greeted us at the door. She was thrilled to see Hayley again and Hayley was thrilled with the new house and environment. She wasn't afraid or shy. The moment she reached the house she started exploring. The first thing we showed her were chickens and rooster! We've got a couple of 'kampung chickens' in the backyard. I've heard of a joke where a mother asked her little boy to draw the picture of a chicken and the little boy drew a drumstick and I didn't want that to happen to Hayley! I guess we can't blame the kids nowadays as they hardly have the chance to see a real chicken. Chickens in the books are either represented with a drumstick or a headless chicken that looks like a turkey. I am glad we managed to expose Hayley with real chickens this time.

Hayley was excited to see them and she will often make her way to the backyard (on her own)whenever the door was left open.

We spent a night in grandma's house and grandpa came back from hunting in the evening to spend sometime with Hayley. Both grandma and grandpa commented that Hayley is very active and playful just like papa when he was a baby. Grandpa also adds that papa likes to pick up rubbish from the floor and put them into his mouth when he was a baby too just like Hayley. I guess I know who to blame yet again.. hehe

Grandma also added that she is not capable to look after such an active baby anymore at her age. I take that as an obvious hint.. haha. As grandma's house is not childproof, we have to pay more attention to Hayley. As grandpa manages plantations and hunts as a hobby, there were lots of dangerous stuff lying around the house which Hayley likes to touch :-(

Ah emr (papa's brother's wife) cooked delicious dinner for us that night. We even have bird's nest for supper :-)

While in grandma's house, Hayley slept with us on the mattress (on the floor) for the 1st time. The night were tough as she woke a couple of times and fell from the mattress once. I had to pat her gently to put her back to sleep each time. I guess we have to wait a few more months before we can transition her from the cot onto her own bed.

We also bathe Hayley for the first time using showers instead of a bath tub. Happy to say that she accepted this transition pretty well. She was fine when we washed her hair and showered the water directly onto her head. She did try to fend off the water running down her face but she didn't make any fuss :-).

We left papa's kampung the following day. We left around 4pm which coincides with Hayley's nap time. Again she napped for about 1.5 hours in the car on the way back. But this time we were not as lucky. Instead of staring out the window or playing with her dog, she demanded to be carried. She kept saying 'pau pau' (carry as in Mandarin). I tried to distract her with toys but failed. Then I ignored her and she cried softly for several minutes. We did not pick her up from the car seat until we got home. We decided to persevere to make sure she knows the rules.

We got home around 7pm and were dead tired. We all slept early that night inlcuding papa (which was rare). We were happy to make the journey back and to meet with grandma, grandpa, aunty, uncle and cousins.

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