My trick: How to put an energizer bunny to sleep

OK I have tested this trick 4 days in a row and it seems to work (hopefully I won't jinx it by mentioning it here).

The trick to put an energizer bunny to sleep at night is to

1. switch off the light, total darkness except for lights from outside
2. put the bunny next to me or in a place she's comfortable with, ie not afraid or far from me
3. put bunny in a lying down position, ie ready to close her eyes to lala land
4. start telling stories... yes this is the magical trick

When I tell her stories, be it something that happened in the day or stories from story books, and they must be stories that interests her, she will lie down and stare at me and will listen until I finished the story or until she is bored. By then she would have started yawning and her eyes are already half closed. Only when I tell her stories, she will stay in one position, won't jump up and down or move about and that will guarantee her to fall asleep in 30 mins. So far it has worked for 4 days. The only headache is I have to come up with different stories or change the stories to keep her interested so I have to do my so called 'homework' every night. I am quite keen to see how long this trick will last me :-)

Me? The Versatile Blogger?

This is the 2nd time I've been tagged since I started blogging. I didn't respond to the 1st one (can't remember what it was about anymore) cause I was pretty new back then and didn't really pay much attention to my blog. This time, I am going to put an effort and am going to accept the award gracefully.. hehe

Firstly, thanks to Leona for tagging me....

Here are the rules to accept the award:

1. List 7 random things about myself
2. Share the award with up to 15 other bloggers
3. Link to each of the recipients to let them know they've won via comments on their blog
4. Thank and bring the love back to the person you won the award from by linking back to them.

7 random things about me:

1. I love dancing. It was my No 1 passion. I used to work part time as a dancer before I had Hayley. Those were the best few years of my life. Even though I don't dance anymore, I still love to watch dancing shows on TV.
2. I am not a sports person, other than dancing and some Taekwondo lessons back in school, I am not into any sports. I don't play badminton, I don't know how to swim, I don't know how to play volleyball... I sucks at sports!
3. I am Ms Perfectionist. I am a Virgo so you can imagine. I used to struggle having to deal with messy people, messy house etc. After having a husband and kid, I have learnt to let go... still a perfectionist but definitely not as bad as I used to be. My husband always say I have OCD.
4. I am very stingy when it comes to spending on myself. I hardly go for spa or manicure or pedicure or massage or even buying stuff for myself. But when it comes to spending for my husband or my kid, any amount is not an issue. I just want to see the smile on their faces.
5. I am not a technology person either. I don't have the latest laptop or the latest camera or the latest mobile phone or an Ipod or a PS3. I don't believe in spending unnecessarily on those things. I will get it if I need it, if not then I'd rather save the cash into the bank.
6. I am a planner. I like to plan far ahead, sometimes too far that it stresses me out. I don't like feeling helpless so I always plan for our future, to be sure we have enough for the kids, for retirement and for emergencies.
7. Everyone will judge me by my looks that I am a very fierce person. Well, I can be very fierce when I didn't get what I was promised or I was not treated respectfully at a restaurant or I was being rude to. I am just standing up for myself. Other than that, I am a very nice person :-)

As I do not have many blogger friends (some have already been awarded), I have decided not to award this to anyone else.

Wo Bu Yao Sui Jiau

Ok, that is what my little monster is saying whenever we ask her to nap. My little monster aka energizer bunny is always so energized that I am a little worried. I always wonder if she is one of those hyperactive kids? I heard that is actually a disease and needs to be checked and treated. My mom, the babysitter, my friends and colleagues who met her will ask me the same thing 'where did she get all those energy from?'.

My little monster only sleeps about 9 hours each night (once a blue moon 8 hours). On top of that she naps for about 1.5 - 2 hrs daily (sometimes 1 hour). So all in she only takes about 9 - 11 hours a day which I think is not sufficient for a kid her age. But then again, I know some report will say that every kid will have different sleep requirements so we should not fret especially if they are growing up healthily.

However I do have a big problem. It is very hard to get her to nap in the day or sleep at night. Napping is slightly easier as we just put her into the cradle and since she has nothing to do and nowhere to go (she won't dare to jump out from the cradle on her own, at least not yet), she will eventually nap. We'll have to worry when we're not at home and there is no cradle. Getting her to nap is like a battle. Once she was at my mom's and it took my mom 2 hours to coax her to nap.

As for night time, we normally bring her to bed at 9pm. She'll finish her last bottle of milk, brushes her teeth and will be ready for bed by 9.30pm. However, it will take her at least 1 - 1.5 hours to fall asleep. On a few occasions 2! We tried various methods ie switching on the night light and that didn't help. She will run around the room or jump from our bed to her bed or simply play by herself. We also tried switching off all the lights and she will insist that we turn the night light on as she is afraid of monsters. If we refused to switch it on, she will switch it on herself. We asked her numerous times about the monster and she will point to the door, to the clock to the curtain and we ALWAYS assure her that there are no monsters. But every night she will say the same thing over and over. Sometimes we allow her to sleep in our bed or we'll sleep with her in her bed. Even that she will still say she's afraid. And one of us will sleep with her every night and she is not even sleeping alone!

Is this what a 2 year 4 months old kid will normally do or do any mummies out there have any better ideas on how to put a 2 year old to sleep without us losing our patience?

Detailed Scan - DONE

This afternoon we completed Bun's detailed scan which cost us RM220. Happy to record that everything was well and in order. Another hurdle passed!

The sonographer scanned the toes, fingers, brain, face especially lips (for cleft lips), back bone, blood flow to the brain, kidney, heart, lungs, the long bones to the arms and legs, cord insertion, placenta, amniotic fluid (to ensure its sufficient), bladder, stomach, diaphragm etc

The scan was quite fun as we were able to see Bun in more detail, unlike the usual ultrasound. We could even see Bun's face like a 3D/4D image. Papa claimed Bun had a flat nose like me :-(. Looking at the scan, Bun didn't look at all like Hayley when she was born. It was a nice feeling seeing Bun although in black and white.

Bun at 24 weeks is 842 grams and I have gained 2.4kg since my last check up around 3+ weeks ago. I am now at 53.2kg, 8.2kg gained since I got pregnant. I hope to be able to maintain the same weight gain as previous pregnancy which was 13kg in total. Looking at the rate I am going, with 14 - 16 more weeks to go, I think it is going to be mission impossible.

The sonographer gave us a copy of the scan (we haven't seen it yet so not sure whether it was a recording of the entire scan from start to finish or it was just copy of the images she took down during the scan) in a CD. Whatever it is, it is nice to have something for memory sake :-)

Looking forward to our short holiday getaway

Ever since I was pregnant with Bun I have been telling papa that we have to go somewhere, anywhere. I want it to be our last holiday as a family before Bun's arrival cause by then we might not get to go anywhere until Bun reaches 2. We were initially thinking of Hong Kong (so Hayley can enjoy Disneyland) or Bali (so we can enjoy some nice views). Unfortunately, due to the 'pain' I was having and am still having now, we had to make some changes. No more travelling far away from my gynae and definitely not to places where we have to walk a lot.

So we compromised and booked a local holiday instead. Can la, it's better than not going anywhere :-).

After a lot of pondering and asking around where would be nice, we decided on Swiss Garden Kuantan and took up this promotional offer. I know there is nothing much there but with our limited choices, I guess we just have to make do. We're going next week and hopefully it will be a nice relaxing holiday. Hopefully Hayley will enjoy the beach or the pool (my poor girl doesn't get to swim a lot you know, the mini pool we bought for her at home doesn't count :P ) and papa will enjoy some pampering at the spa. As for me, I hope to be able to get away from work for a couple of days, just sitting by the pool side and enjoy doing nothing...

Will share more when we are back.. will let you know if this was a good deal :-)

To whack or not to whack?

I was introduced to Domestic Goddess's blog by Alice sometime ago and will occasionally drop in when I spotted some interesting posts. I love her posts and the ideas she has on bringing up her 2 boys. She's a very dedicated mom and I salute her! Today she wrote about whether as parents we should or should not whack our child. Read the full post here.

Like most parents, having a rotan at home is a necessity. I have a few. 1 in the car, 1 in the room, a few in the living room. They keep me sane when she misbehaved at the restaurant or at the mall or even in the car.

Anyway back to the topic, Domestic Goddess made me realise that whacking my child is not the right way to bring up a good kid. Many a times I would lose my patience and in order to get what I want out of her, I just take out the magic sword either to intimidate (mostly this) or whack and it often works. That was clearly the quickest and easiest way. But I failed to ask myself 'for how long?' and 'what would the consequences be?' and 'when do I draw the line?'. I only see the current and didn't really think about the future.

Today, after reading the post I had a short discussion with papa and agreed that we will TRY not to use the rotan from now on. Not to intimidate or whack. We will talk to her and explain to her as patiently as we can (those who know my monster will know how tough this would be and how much effort we need to put in to achieve this). We know it will be hard, it will be VERY hard and papa almost gave up a couple of times in the last 3 hours but I encouraged him to hang in there. I too almost gave up when she refused to eat the kiwi fruit or put on her pyjamas or keep her toys back in the toy box and papa simply laughed at me.

Well, glad to say that we didn't need the rotan's help today today which was rare, most probably because of the short hours we have with her, but considered a good start for us. Let's see how it will be come the weekend when we have to babysit her for 24 hours!

PATIENCE PATIENCE PATIENCE aaaummmmmmm ..............

When lightning strike.....

We lost our DVD player, Astro satellite dish, thermopot, WIFI router and possibly more gadgets/appliances which we have yet to thoroughly assess.

The rain and lightning were so ferocious yesterday afternoon. This was the first time we've experienced such a mishap. Luckily some of our other more expensive electrical appliances seems to be working fine.

This gets me thinking. Should we start considering getting one of those lightning rods for the roof or should we start buying insurance for losses caused by lightning - is there such an insurance to begin with?

Give credit where credit is due

Over the last few weeks I have been complaining about the 2 year 4 months old monster at home. I forgot to realise that despite her growing up, becoming rebellious and testing my limits every single minute, like most toddlers would at her age, she has actually done many nice and becautiful things to make my day.

So this post is dedicated to my sweet little monster. Hopefully one day when she is old enough to read and understand this, she will appreciate everything we have done for her and work harder to give us more money so both me and papa can retire and shake legs at home [hahahaha].

Here are those sweet moments :-)

1. when I sneezed she will offer to get me a tissue
2. when I coughed she will ask me if I am ok and will want to pat my chest or my back - papa's cough doesn't have such an effect
3. when she spotted a scar or a bruise on me she will say this "oh pain pain, don't touch ok, later put cream, don't touch, good girl'
4. when she is in a good mood during bed time, she will kiss me on the lips and say good night automatically, when she is not in a good mood, I will have to request for it
5. she is my little helper at home. She wants to help with everything like bringing her own high chair to the dining table, carrying her own bowl of rice to the table, putting laundry into the washing machine, folding laundry etc
6. she will pluck flowers from the road side and give them to me
7. she will ask for my baby bump (ie wants me to lift up my shirt) and said she wanted to sayang baby
8. when I am seated on the floor and can't get up, she will help by pulling me up
9. she will out of a sudden say she love me, this can happen anytime, anywhere. It has never happened to papa though
10. she willingly shares her goodies with me, ie ice cream, sweets, chocolates etc
11. when she is sleeping, she sometimes wants me to pat her on the back. I always complain that it makes me tired patting her and she will say this 'never mind, pat slowly ok, no need hard hard'.

How can I not love her? :-)

Pain pain go away...

Today I was on MC as I woke up and couldn't get out of bed without being in pain. In fact the unbearable pain started around evening yesterday and this morning it still didn't go away.

It was the same pain I mentioned in my blog here just that this time it was unbearable and I didn't want to take chances. Immediately I called Dr Lee and made an appointment to see him. Unfortunately, there were no words of comfort from him despite me paying for consultation. In fact he told me that the pain might go away on its own in a few weeks or I may have to live with it until Bun was born... oh great, 4 more months to go!

The nurse who assisted Dr Lee told me she had the same problem as me and hers lasted until the baby was born - how comforting :-(.

Dr Lee said my placenta wasn't low anymore, it was normal but the pain could be caused by some joints and bones that are touching each other as my body continues to adapt to the growth of Bun. He said some unfortunate women will experience this and it is quite common especially for those who've had the first child.

The pain could go away in a few weeks but only to return towards the last trimester with a vengeance or the pain would linger on and becomes more and more painful towards the last trimester. Some women couldn't even walk when that happens and had to be on a wheelchair. Either one doesn't sound like sweet melodies to my ears.

Since he's got no remedies or medicine for me, I was advised to live with it, bear with it and make the best out of it. Find ways to walk, sleep or sit that won't hurt so much and try not to strain it by lifting heavy stuff or walk too much to make the 'so called injury' worsen.

The only comforting words I have from him today would be that everything was fine with Bun. That was the most important to me. As for the pain, I am sure I can bear with it, I just have to as I don't have a choice. I sometimes just wonder why I cannot have a problem free pregnancy like most people do. I truly envy them. I know I shouldn't compare but sometimes I just can't help it.

On the other hand, I do sincerely thank God for giving me my babies whenever I want them as I know some people have been through even more (physically, emotionally and financially) and yet still couldn't becomes mommies. For that I am truly truly thankful.

I kept telling papa that this will be the last. No more and I hope I don't get tempted 2 or 3 years down the road to have the 3rd! If that happens, please remind me! :-)

By the way, for the record, I gained 600 grams in 12 days, my dieting seems to have worked :-)

Terrible 2 Version 2.1

I think we finally understood what Terrible 2 meant in the last couple of days. We thought she was at the Terrible 2 stage much earlier but boy we were wrong. That was just a sneak peak. Now we are finally experiencing the real Terrible 2, the newest updated version, just released, Version 2.1!

Version 2.1 resulted in so much more spanking, more in the last few days than she ever endured in the last 2 years and 4 months of her life combined. Version 2.1 is so much more exciting, blood boiling, stressful and nerve wrecking. Here are some features:

1. today she likes corns and suddenly tomorrow she doesn't like it anymore and said it was 'not nice' and refused to eat it or worst chew on it and then spit it out on the floor, on the table or anywhere she wants
2. will touch and play with everything we forbid her to despite us threathening her with the rotan... there is no fear, not until you spank her
3. after showering, refused to put on her clothes and will run around the house naked... you can scream and shout all you want, she is not listening.
4. drink water from the cup and then pour the water onto the floor
5. enter the house, run around with her shoes on and when you ask her to take it off and put it on the rack, she showed no reaction
6. inform you that she wanted to pee but she had already peed slightly into her pants...happening almost everyday.. wasn't like that before
7. shouts NO to you very loudly and sternly whenever she dislike something
8. if she wants something, she has to get it... else will cry or beat you
9. if she chooses to ignore you, you can call until you lose your voice and still she won't respond
10. refuses to brush her teeth and prefers to play with my listerine or floss or toilet flush instead

We hope version 3.1 will be released soon and we can't wait to buy it from the store! We hope Version 3.1 will be less rebellious and less frustrating to deal with.

For the time being, we constantly remind each other to be patient... and just hope we don't end up with more white hair or wrinkles along the way..