Hayley the Copycat

This is what babycentre have to say about a 20 month and week 2 toddler:

"He may not have the vocabulary to carry on a conversation just yet, but don't be surprised if your toddler starts to mimic your telephone style with his own toy phone. You may also catch him imitating the way you act behind the wheel of the car, preparing meals, or cleaning the house. This copycat behavior can be charming or potentially embarrassing. Pay extra attention to your own language and behavior, so you don't inadvertently teach him something you'd rather not see him do."

Hayley started the above much earlier, if not mistaken at around 18 months so I think it is true that girls do mature faster than boys.

I didn't realise it until one day when she threw her hanky onto the floor. I asked her to pick it up and she used her toes to try and pick up the hanky. She was definitely copying me as I often use my toes to pick up stuff on the floor when I am carrying her in my hand and lazy to bend down.

It is scary how quickly they can copy our actions and words at this stage. I guess as parents we have to be more cautious with our actions and words. We surely do not want to see her doing or saying anything embarassing at home and especially in public.

Aquaria KLCC

We visited Aquaria KLCC on Sunday since we have nothing to do and its been a while since we last took Hayley to somewhere interesting. It was the first visit for all of us.

We reached around 3pm and it was rather crowded, expected since it was a weekend. The queue to the ticket counter was rather long and the lady at the entrance asked if we have a Touch N Go card. We managed to gain entry in less than 2 mins using the TnG lane, hurray :-)

Papa and I have been to the waterworld in Sydney some years back and I would say this one was less interesting if compared to the one in Sydney. We covered the whole place in less than an hour. For RM28 per adult, I would say it is not worth it but for those who have not been to a waterworld before, I would say go for it.

As usual, you will find varieties of fishes, insects, coral reefs and reptiles being displayed. You can even touch some of the little sand tiger sharks and fishes supervised by the Aquaria employees.

You can touch these

Reptiles and butterflies

Piranhas and various fishes. Unfortunately we missed the piranha feeding time which was scheduled for 11.15am and 4pm.

Electric eel, Nemo fish and giant tanks

Some giant fishes and interesting displays. They look small in the photos but they are actually very big. Some of them are bigger than my Hayley :-). And since we can't use flash in there, all the photos appeared very dark. I don't know if it was my camera or my skills.

The main attraction would be the underwater world tunnel. You can opt to use the travelator or walk on the carpet. There were a couple of sharks and stingrays. Still not as good as the Sydney one. Hayley wasn't engrossed with the fishes or the displays, she was more interested in the travellator - wondering why it moved :-)

For those who have not been and are keen to go, go to Aquaria KLCC website for more details.

General Information

Operating hours : Daily from 11am to 8pm

Location: Ground floor, KL Convention Centre

Admission fee: Adult (with Mykad) RM28 and kids below 3 is FOC

Hayley's popo's 58th birthday

Hayley's popo turned 58 on 20th October. We celebrated popo's birthday on 16th October at Tony Romas. This was my 3rd visit to Tony Romas in 2 months, don't ask me why ~ lol ~

Well, we (my sisters and I) chose Tony Romas for various reasons. Firstly, we wanted popo to have a different dining experience. Popo is very old fashioned (she doesnt look old fashioned but thinks old fashionedly) and likes only chinese food in those typical chinese 'tai chau' restaurants. To her, those are good food. Western restaurants only means steaks and beef!

Secondly, my sister, one of them, have not been to Tony Romas before and she too would like to try it. She fancies Chili's.

Anyway, we dragged popo to Tony Romas in Mid Valley and assured her that she can still find fish and chips in Tony Romas :-). She will only order fish and chips each time we go to a western place. Popo brought her elder sister along. Yi Ma as we fondly calls her, was more than welcomed. She was like part of the family. She cooked and took care of popo when we were all busy.

1. Popo cutting her Chocolate Indulgence from Secret Recipe
2. Hayley and Cadence helping her with the 'many' candles
3. Everyone was busy eating while I was busy snapping away
4. My lil missy who was ill on that day, flu and fever
5. Popo and Yi Ma (Hayley calls her Yi Poh)
6. Popo's cake with the candles lit up

As for popo's birthday present, we didn't know what to get her and finally decided on a nice pair of walking shoes and we decided on Crocs. Penny influenced this more or less. Read her post here and I am sure you will get a pair of Crocs too after reading it :-).

This model was all sold out but in the end we managed to find 2 last pairs left (only size 4 and in khakis left) in Sunway Pyramid. It cost us RM169. Khakis wasn't our preferred colour but we didn't have a choice this time so we bought it.

Popo have never owned a pair of shoes that cost above RM100 (yes she was the stingy type) and will normally complain or grumble that we spend money like pouring out water. This time, she didn't say a word. We hope she will like it and we hope the shoes will keep her feet comfortable all day long. If she like it, we don't mind getting her a spare pair!

Happy Birthday again to Hayley's PoPo!!!

In case you wondered what she ordered, you guessed it right 'FISH AND CHIPS' it is! hahahaha

Sometimes she made my day..

Me: What sound does the dog make?
Hayley: woof woof
Me: What sound does the cat make?
Hayley: meow meow
Me: What sound does the cow make?
Hayley: moooooo
Me: What sound does the tiger make?
Hayley: roarrrrr
Me: What sound does the bee make?
Hayley: bbbzzzzzzz
Me: What sound does the duck make?
Hayley: quack quack
Me: What sound does the bird make?
Hayley: tweet tweet
Me: What sound does the mouse make?
Hayley: chit chit chit
Me: What sound does the frog make?
Hayley: [pondered for a while and I think she has forgotten cause I taught her the sound only yesterday] frroooggg... frooooggg...

She brightened my day :-)

Mosquito Repellent - Moz Away

Due to Hayley's flu, I had to sleep with her in our spare room, with windows opened for good circulation and no air conditioning. My first worries: THE MOSQUITOES. Since we stayed in a terrace house, it is unavoidable.

Hayley does not have the best skin and mozzie bites will end up being very big, red and swollen. She will not stop scratching. Some of the old bites looks like they are becoming permanent scars due to her constant scratching :-(. When I was little, we call it 10 cents or 20 cents marks on our feet.

We dropped by at Watson and saw Moz Away. It was at RM20.80 (not sure of the price at Guardian). What caught our attention was the words 'Safe for Children and babies' and it was instantly sold.

We used it for her that very same night and the following night and true enough she didn't get a single mozzie bite. Being the kiasumom I actually woke up twice in the middle of the first night to re-apply just in case. Then I found out that I didn't really have to do that so I didn't get up the 2nd night.

Apart from using Moz Away, we also turned on the mosquito repellent the whole night, for double protection.

If you are keen to find out more about this product, how to use, when to use etc, read this blog for more. The blog provides comprehensive coverage of the product which is great to know.

Terrible 'not even' Two

When Life as a mummy wrote about the Terrible-Twos stage about a month ago, I commented telling her how lucky she was to only start experiencing this stage when her son Ryan turned two.

Hayley started the terrible twos even before she turned two. In fact it started when she was 19 months old! She is now 20 months old and its getting really unbearable. Our babysitter often comments that baby girls are always ahead in everything during the early stages, I guess this is why the nightmare came early.

Here are some of the things that she does which makes us go bananas:

1. pouring water out from her bottle onto everywhere, tables, chairs, sofas, cushions etc
2. spitting water out from her mouth
3. playing with her saliva
4. disobeying instructions on purpose - ie testing the limits, touching things she knows she cannot touch and repeating the same action even after we said no
5. shouting loudly be it in public or at home, especially when she's looking for either one of us
6. the more you call for her, the further she will run from you
7. no longer afraid of getting flicked or caned

Papa was just commenting today that no wonder there are abuse cases. When kids are at their worst, they can be so terrible that parents or caretakers will sometimes loose their senses. A simple advise for parent wannabes, please make sure you are ready for the challenges and responsibilities before starting a family. This is not an easy game and there are no reset or end button. It's a game that you will have to play for at least 25 years!

We wonder how some parents can manage 2, 3 or 4 kids at the same time. We salute them! We are both so tired running after 1.

Apart from the stubborness and terrible behaviours, Hayley was also cutting her molars. My poor girl. She was having flu (since Thurs till today) and fever (on Thurs night) and was really cranky and attached. Her papa can't bathe her, can't take her to the toilet, can't feed her and can't even sleep next to her. Everything has to be MUMMY! Mummy can't even go to the toilet in peace :-(

We hope this stage will pass very very soon. Can Dibo please grant me a wish? :-)

Playing with her genitals

This is what Babycentre have to say about a 20 month old toddler:

"Toddlers have a natural curiosity about everything, including their own bodies. Have you noticed your child playing with her genitals yet? If you have, you can rest easy. It's nothing to worry about — unless it's happening nonstop. To cut down on embarrassing fact-finding missions in public, explain to your child that some things are done only at home in private. If that doesn't dissuade her from her explorations, offer her a toy or something else to keep her hands occupied."

2 weeks ago, Hayley started playing with her 'nen nen' everytime I undress her for a bath. During bath she likes to wash her own 'pet pet' too. I got kind of worried for a while and started checking on her private parts more thoroughly. You know la, we send our kids to babysitters and we don't even know what happened there. I mean we want to trust our babysitters but they are not family so we cannot let our guards down no matter what. Plus, there were so many scary stories out there of kids getting abused by babysitters, maids, relatives of babysitters etc etc. Scary man.

Anyway, after reading the updates above, I am more relaxed ~LOL~. It is nice to get weekly updates like that from Babycentre to warn me what I will be expecting each week :-)

Inspired by a stranger

During lunch yesterday at the foodcourt in Mid Valley, I saw a lady breastfeeding her child. I know there are many mothers out there breastfeeding their child in public places etc. So why is this one so special that I have to mention it in my blog?

She inspired me. I just don't know how to explain the feeling but after seeing her, I suddenly felt that breastfeeding is not that difficult after all.

When I saw her yesterday, she was multitasking and made it look so easy, almost effortless! She was holding her son using her right arm, the boy (probably about 18 - 19 months old) was latching and she was eating with her left arm. While latching and eating, she happily chatted away with her hubby. She used a napkin to cover the breast and her son's face. My buddy who was having lunch with me (she has no experience in breastfeeding) said the same. She too could not help but look over into the lady's direction every few mins to admire her.

Firstly, I didn't know breastfeeding could be this easy. Maybe it was not but she surely made it look very easy. When I was breastfeeding Hayley, I encountered so many problems. I pulled through for 8 months only because I was determined to. If I was weaker, I would have given up after 1 month.

So what are we lack of? I would say INFORMATION, GUIDANCE and SUPPORT. Where can we find lactation consultants here in KL? Do we even have one? The hospital where I delivered Hayley just gave me a piece of paper with instructions on breastfeeding and I was sent to go. I didn't know who to ask or who to get help from. Even my mom told me to stop when I was crying cause my breasts were so engorged and I was in so much pain.

A friend who gave birth in Abu Dhabi told me they have lactation consultants in the government hospitals in Abu Dhabi whom they can walk in or call to get advise when they have breastfeeding issues. Who do we call here in KL?

A couple of months down the road after I started blogging, I bumped into Busybee's blog. Busybee is my idol when it comes to breastfeeding. I truly admire her. She breastfed her son for more than 2 years. Read her blog if you don't believe me :-). She shares tips occasionally on breastfeeding and through her blog I found out about breastfeeding talks etc. Although we have to pay to attend the talks, I wouldn't mind as I know it would be useful.

Anyway, back to this lady. After watching her for a couple of mins, I was all inspired to breastfeed my 2nd child successfully and I can't wait to have a 2nd child actually hahaha. I hope I too can do it as leisurely and stress free like she can.

Sleepless night

Yesterday night was horrible.

At 3.30am, Hayley woke up screaming Papa Papa (calling for her daddy) and then started crying. My guess was she had a nightmare. She wanted to be cuddled and I had to wake up and carry her out of her cot into my arms. She cried for a little while on my chest and then asked to be put back in her bed (her cot).

Then it started to rain and there were thunders. She was terrified of thunders, soft or loud. She kept calling me and saying 'pa pa', scared in Mandarin. I kept reassuring her that it was ok and mummy will be right here. This went on for like 10 mins. I went back to sleep, not sure what time she did.

Then around 5am she suddenly said 'MOOO.... cow' and her eyes were still shut. She must be talking in her sleep.

Then at 5.30am the papa started coughing very loudly.

At 6.30am, my alarm clock goes off. Sigh.... I didn't even get to sleep!

A little brat

Scene 1:
Me: [singing] Row row row your boat, gently down the...
Hayley: STOP! [with her palm in my face]

Me: [singing] ABCDEFG HIJK
Hayley: STOP! [again with her palm in my face]

Me: What do you want me to sing?
Hayley: No

Me: OK then you sing
Hayley: row row row...... merry merry merry....

I almost died.

Scene 2:

Me: whistling to a funky tune we heard over the radio, can't remember the name of the song
Hayley: [while whistling with me] Papa, shuu shuu shuuu... [asking her father to whistle along]
Papa: Papa dunno how to whistle this song la..
Hayley: PAPA [louder this time] shuu shuu shuuuu.....
Papa: OK OK [starts to whistle]
All 3 of us: whistled along to the tune and Hayley nicely swaying her body and her head from left to right

LOL

Photos

Here are the photos as mentioned in my previous post:

My simple birthday at Canton Bay

At cousin's wedding in Ampang. The other 2 are my nieces. The one in green is Caitlin (3 weeks younger than Hayley) and the older one is Cadence (5).

Papa and me at his friend's wedding. Our first night outing alone since having Hayley.

Papa's birthday at Tony Romas, with the complimentary yummilicious dessert.

Us

Papa's birthday at Korean BBQ restaurant courtesy of my sis

At ah tai's birthday in Ampang. I didn't take that many photos cause we have a professional photographer doing the job. So let's wait for those photos instead :-)

On the way to ah tai's birthday party

THE END

We've been busy

Didn't realise that I have not blogged since Sept 20th. Well, we've been really busy with a couple of things in the last couple of weeks ... we've been sick, then there were 2 weddings and 3 birthdays that we had to attend to.

Here comes the full story...

Stomach Flu
The entire family had our share of stomach flu during the mid of Sept. Hayley started it on 16th Sep, me on 18th Sep and papa on 19th Sep. She vomitted after almost every feed (milk or solids) and had watery stools. Thankfully apart from the vomitting and diarrhea she is still an active little one and is very attentive. We monitored her for 2 days and although her condition improved we still brought her to the doctor before the long Raya weekend (just in case). Doctor prescribed some medication and told us there were no need to change her formula to lactose free or soy based as she seems to be improving. However, we were told to give her milk in small quantity every 1.5 hours to give her tummy sometime to digest and to make sure she wasn't dehydrated.

Her condition got worst the following day and I immediately changed her usual formula to lactose free formula. Everytime we give her the usual formula, her stools would become very watery. I gave the doctor a call and she told us to put her on lactose free milk for 2 weeks at least. We gave her Isomil and Nursoy and she didn't like any of those and refused to take her milk. In the end we had no choice but to give her Similar LF (she took this before at 11 months old as she had mild diarrhea back then) and luckily she was ok with it. This formula was meant for babies below 12 months so we were concerned but the doctor assured us that it was ok. The milk is very expensive too, about RM20 for a small tin which will last for 3-4 days. We were also told to give her plain and simple solids for a few days.

As of today Hayley is still on the lactose free formula. We plan to slowly introduce her back to her usual formula starting from today. Hopefully she will be ok [fingers and toes crossed].

As for papa and me, we vomitted as well and had watery stools too during the first couple of days. Mine lasted 4 days but papa's lasted 8 days. Imagine having 3 sick people in the house and we had to look after each other despite being sick. Thankfully my mom came to the rescue over the weekend. She helped cook lunch and dinner for us. It really made a difference to have healthy home cook meal.

As for the stomach flu, doctor said it was infectious. So I am not sure how Hayley caught it but I am sure she must have passed it on to me and then to the papa. She even passed it on to the little boy at the babysitter's. We felt so sorry for him.

My birthday
My birthday was on 22nd Sep and it was nothing to shout about this year. We didn't go for the usual fancy dinner as Hayley and papa were still having stomach flu and I was just recovering. Instead we went for a quick lunch at Canton Bay, plain simple Chinese food which wouldn't upset our tummy. But still it was a happy occassion as I got to enjoy it with the people I loved the most.

As we've been together for 12 years now, we have stopped surprising each other with birthday presents (and possibly end up buying something that our better half doesn't like). Now we just pay for whatever our better half want. Although we won't get the fun of opening a surprise gift, we both agreed that this would be a more practical solution.

So, what did I pick this year? Well, nothing yet.. hahaha. As we're planning a year end trip to Singapore (in conjunction with my company's year end dinner) which will be Hayley's first trip overseas and also her first time on a plane (tickets booked), I plan to redeem my birthday gift there :-)

Weddings
We attended 2 weddings. A cousin's wedding on 19th Sept (all 3 of us were still down with stomach flu then) and papa's friend's wedding on 26th Sep (papa was still having the flu). Hayley tagged along to my cousin's wedding (which was compulsory as it was a family affair) but we left her at home with my mom for the other.

She was such a handsful at my cousin's wedding that we didn't stay long. She was making a lot of noise with the bowl and spoon, running around and banging into the waitresses, demanding for food etc. Papa's frequent need to use the loo didn't help either. We left the wedding early and it was indeed a tiring day for all of us.

As for papa's friend's wedding, we decided not to bring her so we could enjoy the evening to ourselves. Luckily my mom was free to come over to babysit for the night. And luckily Hayley didn't create a havoc when we both left the house.

Mom said she was a darling and very easy to care for. After feeding her dinner (porridge), she gave Hayley some fruits and played with her or watched TV with her. She didn't fuss a bit and entertained herself with her toys and her favourite TV channels. She even asked for milk close to bedtime. After her last feed, she went to bed in less than 30 mins. When we got home around 11pm, she was already in dreamlad :-).

Papa's birthday
Papa's birthday was 1o days after mine, 2nd Oct. I took leave to celebrate it with him, like I do every year. Since it was a Friday, we decided to leave Hayley at the babysitter's to have some private time for ourselves. We both felt very guilty for doing this but since we have 2 other dinner celebrations on Sat and Sun, we decided not to bring her along on Friday. We went to Tony Romas and papa enjoyed his favourite rib eye steak. Tony Romas was kind enough to give the birthday boy a free dessert, delicious vanilla ice cream with hot chocolate cake. It was nice to enjoy our lunch in such a carefree manner. We walked a bit at the mall after lunch and enjoyed some small chats. It was nice.

Saturday night we celebrated papa's birthday again at a Korean BBQ restuarant in Solaris. This time it was my sister's treat. We even bought a cake for papa. Hayley enjoyed singing the birthday song, blowing out the candles and eating the cream on the cake.

Papa too planned to redeem his birthday gift in Singapore :-)

Grandma's Birthday
We celebrated grandma's birthday on 4th Oct in a Chinese restuarant in Ampang. I could still remember the time when the entire family could easily fill 3 tables and yesterday we had 6 tables! How the family has grown. The oldest there of course would be my grandma who is almost 90 and the youngest is a little baby girl who is not even 2 months old. She was the 4th generation.

My grandma enjoyed herself surrounded by family members and loved ones. The kids (too many to count) enjoyed running around the restuarant and making lots of noise.

We kept Hayley occupied in her seat with food but after about an hour, she demanded to get some floor exercise :-). That was it for us. Lots of running around chasing after a 19 month old from there on. We got home around 11pm (thanks to traffic, even on a Sunday night!).

Glad that all the events were behind us now. Although tiring, they were fun and memorable (except for the stomach flu part) and left me poorer :-).

Photos will follow in the next post. As for today, I took leave to enjoy some me time at home and maybe dropping by at Ikea later :-).