He finally quit smoking and I hope its for good

I just have to say that I am so proud of papa. Papa has been a smoker since he was a teenager. When we started dating, he promised me that he would reduce his ciggy intake and being the naive me, I believed every word. I know quitting is impossible for someone his age (with all the peer pressure) and therefore I didn't ask for the sky. I requested for him to cut down and I think the request is fair. I am a non smoker and I don't want to cut short my life because of 2nd hand smoke.

During the many years we were together, almost 13 years, papa's consumption of ciggy has been up and down. On days where I nagged constantly, he would reduce it to a few sticks but when I forgot to nag or got tired of nagging, he would increase it to 1 box a day or possibly more which I wouldn't know.

Although he is a smoker, he is responsible. He doesn't smoke in the house and he will smoke away from us. I warned him that he can never smoke in my face or near our baby and he obliged.

Papa has been very sick last week (he rarely fall sick and even if he did, it normally wouldn't be that bad) and finally took the determination to quit smoking. He hasn't smoked a stick (he told me so and I believed him) since last Friday. So he's been nicotine free for 6 days now. 21st May will be a memorable day. I am so so so proud of him. Nothing he do would make me happier, not even a diamond ring, than his decision to quit smoking. It's like the best gift he can give to me.

You see, I am quite sensitive towards cigarettes as I lost my dad to stroke. My dad smoked since he was a teenager too and he passed on at age 55. A very young age. He had heart and cholesterol problems since he was 40. The doctor warned him to stop smoking as they would make the condition worst but he wouldn't listen. Like most typical stubborn old man, everytime we nagged he would say that he knew a lot of people who didn't smoke or drink but yet died at a young age. He didn't quit and continued smoking until the day he went into coma and he finally couldn't smoke anymore.

I didn't want the same to happen to my own husband. He's like a reflection of my dad. Smoking since his teenage years. I am so worried for him and for us. But now I can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel. All I am hoping for is that this will be permanent.

Go Papa Go!

When our tolerance level dropped to ZERO

Yesterday night we went to see a house nearby at an area that we've been eyeing at for a while. We went after dinner and had to bring the girl along.

As soon as we reached the house, the agent was already there waiting with the door wide open. We got down and immediately she made herself at home in that bare house. She started running from the front to the back to the front again and demanded to see the toilets, the yard behind, wanted to see upstairs, wanted to see everything. She wasn't at all scared of the strange place or the stranger and we were surprised. Everywhere we go she will follow and she will want to lead the way. She'll run and bang into the agent or bang into us. Everytime we talk to the agent, she will want to have her say as well (to the agent that is) and will interrupt our conversation with her own questions. Papa tried to control her by carrying her but she refused and struggled to be let down. The moment she was down, she will again make herself at home, got all excited (like she's the one buying the house) and will make lots of noise. We are not sure if she really liked the house or she was just being inquisitive. We controlled ourselves but didn't enjoy the viewing as we didn't really manage to discuss about the house or think about the possibility of renovation (it was a second hand house) because of the rascal.

On our way out from the house (while still standing at the porch), rascal saw the moon and started pointing at the moon and said very loudly 'I see moon, I see moon' and in a very excited manner. We were talking to the agent at that time and she will do everything - using hand gestures, facial emotions etc to attract our attention while continuing to say 'I see moon'. We felt so embarass at that time as she behaved like a spoilt brat.

As soon as we got into the car, papa's tolerance level dropped to zero. He took out the rotan (we kept one in the car) and smacked her a couple of times. She cried, didn't want to look at us, and when I passed her a tissue to wipe the tears, she used the tissue to cover her face, minimising contact with us. We then explained to her that she cannot be so rude and interrupt our conversation, she cannot run around the house when we asked her not to, and she cannot talk so loudly. She said ok to all 3, appeared to understand what we're trying to convey but a few mins later when she got home, she started interrupting our conversations again. Sigh...

I hope this is just another one of those phases that will pass by quickly as she grows. Else I really don't know how to teach this girl of mine and I know constant caning is not a permanent solution.

Clocking the miles for charity

My company came up with a challenge for charity. Everyone in the company is supposed to clock 80 miles in 80 days. We can run, walk, cycle or swim. Whatever we achieve, the company will match and donate it to a charity in South Africa. I am still not 100% sure how it works. All I know is we can either achieve the 80 miles ourselves or buy miles from other colleagues if we can't achieve our own. Anyway, I will know more about it come end July when the challenge ends. The challenge started 1st May and todate I have only clocked 2 miles which is about 3km.

I have tried to walk (can't run, can't cycle and can't swim) 3km (1.5 mile) once every weekend at least but the weather has been either too hot or too wet. I am quite sure I will not be able to cover 80 miles in the remaining weeks but I do hope to do the best I can.

I am just wondering how other working mothers out there find time to exercise? I consider myself working 7 days a week. Mon to Fri for my employer, Sat and Sun for my husband and child. In fact, I am even more tired on weekends doing the house chores and looking after an active 2 year old.

When I was carrying Hayley, I was religiously walking 3x a week covering at least 3km each time. But with bun, I have not been able to exercise and am feeling really bad and guilty.

Attending Juno's 1st birthday party

On Saturday, we attended Juno's 1st birthday party. It was held at the Kechara Oasis New Age vegetarian restaurant in Jaya One. Juno's mummy ie my best friend and her hubby is curently into vegetarianism. I would have to say that I too am impressed with the food and its varieties. The 'fake' fish and the 'fake' crab does look very much like real and the food taste really good too. It was really an eye opening experience for papa and me as we hardly dine at vegetarian restuarants like these eventhough we sometimes eat vegetarian food at food courts :-)

The theme for the day was pink and white and everyone had loads of fun and left home with a full and very satisfied tummy :-)

Most of Juno's papa's and mummy's friends are pro photographers with big and fancy cameras and here I am embarassing myself with my 3 Megapixel Canon digital camera from the dinasour era. I can't wait to see the photos from the pro.

Anyway, here are some photos for my own rememberance :-)

A photo of us, papa is not into pink so he wore white instead

Little Ms Mischievious, so hard to snap a photo of her standing properly in her cheongsam

Juno's birthday cake, gorgeous.

Kids at the party

Little Juno

Little missy and her papa, she look so grown up in this photo....

sigh... grow up slowly my dear

Thanks again to Jessie and Dino for hosting such a fabulous birthday lunch and HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY to Little Juno...

Hot Hot Hot

The weather is just too hot. I wish the hot spell would come to an end soon. It's so difficult having to deal with the hot weather especially when pregnant. We feel twice the hotness...!

Walking out of the house to hang some clothes or to bring in some clothes can kill me. I don't even want to go out for lunch and will normally ask papa to pack back. Yes that bad. Sometimes I will even sweat when sitting in front of the TV with the fan switched on.

I am so terrified that Hayley would get sick because of the heat and make sure I boil something 'cooling' for her to drink at least once a week. The easiest for me would either be barley or the big pear with brown skin. My sister told me the big pear with brown skin (sorry don't know what it is called) is good to bring down the heat in the body. All I need is just to wash it up, cut it into small pieces and put it to boil for several hours. Add some rock sugar to make it sweet. Thankfully Hayley enjoyed drinking it.

As for myself, I don't usually drink ice water or anything with ice in it when I am pregnant. I am not sure what the logic is but my mom and sis will ask me not so I just listen and follow their advise. But these few days I couldn't resist the temptation. It is so hot that I have to drink ice water almost everytime, ice coke is even better.... so sorry Bun, I hope it won't cause you harm in anyway cause I just have to drink it. If I ask my gynae whether it's ok to drink ice water, he will surely scold me. He will ask me if I did go to school cause the books would have taught me that cold water will turn to body temperature as soon as it enters the body. Therefore, there is no scientific proof that drinking ice water will cause any harm... haha

Some random photos from my sis's birthday

Photo taken by Hayley of her popo with her eyes closed, her yi yi and Ivan kor kor

Photo taken by Hayley again of big yi yi (the birthday girl), lil C and kakak Maria

Big yi yi's birthday was celebrated at Jarrod & Rawlins at Damansara Height. The food was great, so we were so busy eating we didn't manage to capture any photos.

It was definitely highly recommended for meat lovers but please bring along Mozzie sprays if you are going with small kids as there were lots of mozzies.

Busy month of May

Popo with her 2 youngest grandchild


May is always a busy month for me. Both my sisters are born in May, youngest on 1st and the eldest on 7th. Mother's Day also falls in May.

Last weekend we were out celebrating youngest sis's birthday and this weekend we will be out again celebrating elder sis's birthday and Mother's Day. The restaurants out there must be laughing :-)

Next weekend we will be out again to celebrate my best friend's daughter's 1st birthday. Busy busy month indeed and lots of good food :-)

Bun in the oven

We're happy to announce that Bun is officially in the oven :-). Bun will turn 13 weeks old tomorrow. Today we did the Nuchal Translucency Test which is an ultrasound test that measures a small fluid collection within the skin at the back of the baby's neck. The larger the nuchal measurement, the higher the chances of the baby having Downs syndrome. The test is 70 - 80% accurate and is recommended for mother's below the age of 35 and should be done between 11 - 14 weeks. Our test result today came back normal and we're thankful and glad.

We have always discussed about having the 2nd and our last child when our first turned 2 in February and lucky for us Bun was conceived in February. Talk about hitting the jackpot :-)

I was initially terrified to go through pregnancy again due to the complications I had with Hayley but everyone assured me that no 2 pregnancies would be alike and I shouldn't assume or worry too much. Heeding their advice, we went for it. And guess what? Both my pregnancies were indeed alike :-(, how unlucky of me.

During the 5 - 10 weeks of Bun's life, I had the same condition called 'threaten miscarriage' where I will constantly have spotting or bleeding that could cause a miscarriage. The only difference this time is I didn't experience blood clots coming out of me (thank God) but I did have spotting for 5 long weeks and bled fresh red blood twice during those weeks. Again, they scared the hell out of me and I rushed to the nearest clinic (I was at work during the 1st ordeal) with an ultrasound machine everytime it happens to make sure Bun is still intact. Thankfully Bun is but the GP was concerned.

When I missed my period, I knew I was pregnant. We bought the the home pregnancy test kit and did the test sometime around the 5th week. It was positive. And you know what, again we have the same mixed reactions. I thought I would be happy but I wasn't. I suddenly felt that I was being unfair to Hayley. She's not going to be my bao bei anymore and a sibling will be joining us soon and we'll have to divide our love. I suddenly felt sad for her and wanted to just hug and kiss her all the time. I felt that I was taking away something that is solely hers, our undivided love. I wasn't sure if I could handle it.

Again after a few weeks the reality sank in and my love for Bun slowly developed. It was a strange feeling, not feeling the love, feeling unsure and lost at the initial stage, don't know if this happened to all the mothers out there or maybe it was just me. Maybe I am strange.

During the difficult weeks, I was again given MC to rest at home. This time I was given 3 days of MC which could be prolonged if the spotting or bleeding continues but I didn't want to sit at home. Instead I requested from my boss to work half days from home for a week to see if my body could cope. I was not allowed to walk unless necessary, lift heavy stuff, exercise, go shopping etc. Despite being very tired and lethargic (I swear don't remember being this tired carrying Hayley), thankfully we sailed through yet again.

This time, we've also changed to a new gynae due to the bad experience. And this time we didn't take the progesterone pills which some gynaes claimed could help strengthen the womb like we did with Hayley. When I was carrying Hayley and dealing with the bleeding, the gynae suggested progesterone. I woved to do everything I could to make sure the baby would be safe and so I took it. For my curent pregnancy, my new gynae said there were no scientific proof that progesterone would help strengthen the womb and I should just let nature do it's own thing. If the baby is meant to stay, it will stay. This time his words made perfect sense and we decided to listen to him and let God decide.

Going through 2nd pregnancy with a toddler at home is no easy thing let alone a complicated pregnancy. Again papa stepped in during those difficult weeks. I didn't carry Hayley for weeks but I tried to hug her as much as I can to compensate. Papa had to attend to her most of the time while I just sat on the couch and supervised. Papa had to send her to the babysitter in the morning, pick her up in the evening, bath her, feed her, carry her, take her to the playground, play with her, entertain her as well as cook healthy and delicious meal for us. I was all the while the spectator and only helped out if the tasks could be done with me sitting down. It felt horrible but I was thankful for having such a reliable and loving pillar!

The other surprise with this pregnancy is that the gynae found an additional sac in my uterus at around 8 weeks. He could not determine if it was a fibroid or it was an undeveloped twin. And since I did an ultrasound and pap smear in January before conceiving, he said most likely it wasn't fibroid but he still could not rule it out. He said we'll need to monitor it for a while but judging from the colour as seen on the ultrasound, it does look more like a sac than a fibroid. It was 3.1cm and it was separated from Bun. We also did a vagina scan just to make sure there isn't a foetus in the sac. I had to go back for a check up every 2 weeks. 2 weeks later (10 weeks) we did another scan and the sac shrunk to 2.5cm. Dr said it was a good sign. This could also be one of the reasons why I was spotting/bleeding.

With the 2nd pregnancy, I also felt nauseated more often and for a longer period. With Hayley, I remember experiencing it for 1.5 - 2 weeks. With Bun, it lasted more than a month and sometimes I could feel it the entire day. Thankfully I didn't really throw up. I just need to make sure I eat when I am hungry (I'll have the nauseated feeling when I am hungry) and eat in moderation. I am also more picky in terms of food. I prefer spicy and tasty stuff whereas with Hayley, I could eat anything and everything.

My little bump was also more obvious this time. Those who know me personally could guess that I was pregnant as early as 8 weeks cause the bump was already visible. Whereas with Hayley, the bump only appeared around 4 months. Bun is also more active compared to Hayley, everytime we check Bun out on the ultrasound, Bun will either be stretching, waving hi, sucking fingers or doing kicks and punches.

With Bun, I have to admit that I am doing less than what I used to do for Hayley. Probably because it's Bun No 2 and like most mothers who've experienced first pregnancy, we'll slack a little when it comes to the 2nd :-). I didn't drink red dates or birds nest as frequent as I used to, I also eat a lot of fast food and unhealthy stuff, something I didn't do when I was carrying Hayley. Once I saw someone eating Twisties BBQ flavour and I wanted to eat it straight away and so I did [guilty]. But, no matter what I do, I will religiously take my folic acid and drink my Enfamama :-)

We are eager to know Bun's gender and not planning to keep it as a surprise until Nov. Bun is expected to arrive 10.11.10. Hopefully it will be a boy so we will have the perfect combo but even if it's a girl, we'll be happy and thankful. Nothing is more important to us than having a healthy perfect little baby to complete the family.

With all the complications and issues I've had with both pregnancies, I told papa that this will be the last. I am not physcially and mentally strong enough to go through another one. Moreover, age is catching up and I would love to end the sleepless nights, breastfeeding and terrible twos drama as soon as I can :-)

Our next check up will be end of May. Hopefully everything goes well from now on and I can finally enjoy my pregnancy.

Feeding time nightmare is over, I hope

I wrote a couple of weeks ago, here, that I was having a hard time feeding my fussy little 2 year old. I am happy to say that I think it is over, at least for now, or until she gets bored of this arrangement and start misbehaving again at the dining table.

How did we solve it? Soup + rice combo. It worked like magic. I simply gave her some rice with soup and cut up all the veges or carrots or meat or whatever we cooked that day and mixed it all up in the soup for her. She will finish it by herself and will lick the bowl clean. It normally takes less than 20 mins, sometimes as fast as 10 mins.

Hopefully this will stay on for a while until we figure out how else to spice up her meals. Alice suggested bento-ing. With my limited cooking and creativity skill, I really dare not think about being that adventurous but hopefully will have the determination to give it a try one day.

So, for now, I just need to worry about the weekly soup list so that she will have different soup everyday and enjoy the different nutritions.