Zac's update: 12+ months

At 12+ months, I:

• occasionally can stand unsupported, if I am forced to walk or stand, I will do it on tip-toe,
  
• can finally crawl on 4, can crawl pretty fast too
  
• have 6 teeth, 4 lower, 2 upper
• can say a couple of words: papa, mum mum, tar tar
  
• am very expressive, will show different facial expressions for different situations - when mummy scold me I will pretend to cry (tearless), when ceh ceh snatch my toys I will wail and yell, when I want to be carried I will make a lot of noise until someone come to my rescue (mummy said I am very predictable)
  
• still have the swelling on my left cheek, same old same old

Had my 1 year old jab on 2nd Nov. Met with Dr Choy who has been my paeditrician since I was born. This is the first time Dr Choy has seen my swelling (mummy did not consult him in the past because mummy thought he won't know) and Dr Choy gave mummy a pretty interesting diagnostic. Dr Choy said what I have looks like a type of 'Infantile Hemangioma' - swelling with slight bluish discoloration on the skin and warm to touch. He said he has seen several cases like these before and so far he is the only doctor who was able to give mummy a name of the condition I am having.

Dr Choy said what I have looks pretty mild and hopefully it remains at this size if it won't go away on its own (still too early to tell). He said there are several types of treatment:

1. Laser which he does not encourage based on the size of the growth as well as my age
2. Taking a type of high blood pressure medication in a controlled manner to thin the blood and hopefully unclog the blood veins. This I can try if mummy wants to. It is quite safe.
   
3. An operation which he strongly discourage as he said what I have is actually swelling at the blood veins and any surgery might cause heavy blood loss.
   

He advised mummy and papa to monitor for a few more months or maybe a year as he said some will will go away on its own in a few years. Some might remain but looking at the size of my growth, he said it looks pretty ok, not that disfiguring. He did however advised us to be cautious as not to cut my cheek and injure the blood veins.

As the swelling is not as obvious as it used to be, mummy and papa decided to let it be and continue to monitor.

More on Reni

Over the last few days, more requests and comments from Reni...

• Asked me to buy her skin lotion. I told her sure, but I will deduct from her paycheck because I do not supply anything else other than the daily essential items. Then she said no need. Will she use the lotion in my room when I am not around, I am not sure.
• Even before I said anything (my washing machine broke recently) she told me she cannot wash the big items like bedsheets and curtains using hands.
• Asked me and hubby if we have Facebook account. Are you scared yet? I am. I did a quick search but could not find her name in Facebook.
• Told me she doesn't want to bath or feed Zac as he is too young, she is scared. Said she fed her boy twice and the boy choked and end up hospitalised. Why do I have this feeling that she is just giving excuses so she won't have to do so much?
• Got my washing machine fixed today and she asked me what time she should wash the clothes? Told her no washing clothes using machine. Machine is only for 'big items'. Serve her right for making demands even before I said anything. Now she has to wash the clothes using hands!
• She napped on the floor yesterday (she naps daily) so she can watch over Hayley who is also napping downstairs. She coughed slightly at night and told me it was because she slept on the floor in the afternoon.
• Told me Hayley took 1 hr to finish lunch yesterday but a check with papa confirmed she took less than 30 mins. She lied. Probably trying to sound to me how difficult it is to watch my girl.
• Asked me for some notepads. Said she would like to write down the recipes papa taught her so she can go back and open a restaurant.
• Went to Hayley's basket (where I store her stuff like powder, lotion, hair bands etc) and asked if I can give her a hair band (while holding one of it). I asked her why she needs it, she said her hair is getting long. I gave her one. My friend told me I should not have given her, if she wants, tell her not to touch anything that belongs to the family, but instead I will buy her one. This will train her NOT TO simply take things from the house. Sigh.. I really need more training to become an efficient employer.

As for other housework I have no complaints. She will wake up at 6am (sleeps at 9.30pm) and get all the sweeping, mopping, wiping, clothes and car washing done. She still needs a lot of training and reminding on cooking and general house cleaning. She will not automatically wipe dirty areas etc unless told to.

The funniest thing is, she told me she is scared to wipe my girl's bum after she has done her business. Oh boy....

I am sure there will be more to come. So stay tuned.......

Next we are going to get CCTV installed all around the house just to be sure!

Maid, got also susah, don't have also susah. How la like that???

Reni the maid

Reni is my Indon maid, she started with us yesterday. After months of waiting, from Filipino to Cambodian and in the end it was an Indon maid. Will tell you more about the journey of how I ended up with an Indon maid later (long story :-))

Today's post is about Reni. My first impression is "yier... why so black and so plump one". She has very dark skin, like Indian and is very plump. All sorts of questions came through my mind, what if she climb the chair to wipe the fan and the chair could not hold her weight? can she fit into my tiny toilet? will she eat a lot?

Reni is not one of those typical maid which I usually hear a lot about. This is her first time to Malaysia and her first job as a maid. She attends school up to 18 years old (she claimed). She can read and write in Bahasa Indonesia (I gave her a few Bahasa words to read and she managed to read them correctly). She has 6 siblings and she is the eldest. She is separated from her husband and has a 2.5 year old son. She said she is 25. I got all these infor from her, whether they are true or not I cannot verify. When I checked her passport, she is actually 24 so it's ok, she didn't lie too much about her age.

I think she didn't come from a very poor family. She knows how to use rice cooker, iron and said her father owns a handphone. I am nervous when I found out about all these. This means that my maid is pretty smart, don't need me to teach her step by step on how to do the housework or use most of the electrical appliances but it also means that she's pretty exposed and would probably be cunning and cheeky. Sigh... pros and cons.

Anyway, she is supposed to help me with the housework, cook and watch over the kids when I am not around. I am still uncomfortable leaving her with the kids alone for now. Motherly instinct so I am going to trust it. She does things pretty quickly, she woke up at 6am this morning and when I got up at 7.30am she is almost done with the house work; sweep, mop, wipe etc and even wipe clean both the cars. A closer inspection revealed that her work is pretty sloppy, there are still dirt marks on the cars, the toilet is not brush clean properly etc. She is also the type who needs people to constantly remind her to do this and that. Once she is done with what we've asked her, she will sit there and do nothing. She's not the auto type who will go around the house to look for things to wipe/clean. She also does not look like one who adores kids.

On her first day, she even asked me if I would allow her to watch TV if she is done with her work and I am not at home. And today, she asked me if she can go for an hour nap (she's napping now). She dare to ask these when I am home, what would she do if I am not home?

I am also beginning to feel uncomfortable having a stranger around. I hope this feeling would go away after a few days, after I got accustomed to it.

Sigh.. got maid also got issues, no maid also got issues.. how la like that???

Concert & Graduation 2011

Saturday, 19th November 2011 marks another milestone in Hayley's life. She successfully completed her 1st year in kindie and performed in a mini concert. We've never been more proud of her.

She and all her classmates, the 3 year olds, did a dance to the 'We go Together' song, sang the 'Negaraku' and '1 Malaysia' and teamed up with the 4 year olds to sing the 'It's a Small World' song.

My talkative 3 year old was also given the honour to introduce their class performance where she and another classmate (boy) was given the mic, stood in the middle of the stage (just the 2 of them) and had to say their name, their class and the song they will be dancing to. She was brave and had no stage fright whatsoever, so so proud of her!!

The theme was 'Disney World' and this cheapskate mummy did a DIY Mickey Mouse headband instead (in less than 10 mins :-)).

Ceh ceh's supporters

Putting on ICIs. I actually prefer her to be without makeup (how to remove make up for kids and make them wash their face properly after that???).

The teachers also used some gold dust on their hair, SUPER HATE!!

Still ICI-ing

More supporters

Waiting.....

Teachers and students singing the '1 Malaysia' song. There is something which I just have to mention here. Half way through the song, the little boy in orange (the 1st one in the queue) sat down on the floor trying to fix his broken '1 Malaysia' thingy. When he failed to fix it, he started crying while everyone else was still singing. The teacher quickly gave him a new one and he immediately stopped crying. It was really cute ;). And btw, he was the boy that bit my girl here, NOT CUTE! :(

The super cute 3 year olds doing their dance to the song 'We Go Together'. Look at how my girl was trying to 'fix' her partner...

The 3 and 4 year olds singing 'It's a Small World'

Everyone receive a little gift from Teacher Joanne for all the hardwork.

It was a nice hardcover Barney book :)

Zac's 1st Birthday

We celebrated Zac's 1 year old with 2 small parties with only close family. The 1st party was a couple of days prior to his actual birthday at Paya Serai, PJ Hilton. We then celebrated his actual day with a cake, just the 4 of us.

The big man

The children's area

The naughty girls

Taken on the morning of his actual birthday

The gift mummy redeemed from Enfamama for ceh ceh

The gift mummy redeemed for the birthday boy

Very engrossed in opening the present

I am finally '1' today :-)

Can I have more chocolate cake please????

Happy 1st birthday Zac. May you grow up to be happy and healthy always!!!!

Peer pressure

I am feeling the pressure.

Most of my friends have started sending their kids who are about the same age as Hayley to piano classes, ballet classes, music classes, arts classes, swimming lessons and whatever classes you can find out there and they asked me if I have or if I am going to send my girl to any.

My girl is turning 4 in Feb and the pressure is intensifying. One part of me wanted to send her to these classes so she's on par with the other kids her age, spend less time in front of the TV and teaches her about discipline and responsibilities but the other part of me is asking ME a lot of questions. Does she really need these classes at such young age? Why do I want to give in to these peer pressures and get my already hectic weekend even more hectic having to chauffeur her between classes? Will she be less smart, less cool or less intelligent if she is not attending any of these classes? I don't have the answers.

I guess there is no harm in keeping her occupied with something she is keen on rather than have her at home with her eyes glued to the tv all the time. But at 3+, what would suit her? I've tried to observe her to see if she's good at anything specific so I can continue to hone those skills but the only thing she is good at from my observation is 'talking'! She can really talk and makes you shake your head in disbelief all the time!

I asked her a couple of times if she wants to learn piano, she said yes. Then I asked her if she wants to learn dancing and she said yes. I asked her again if she wants swimming, she said she can swim. I asked her again to pick a favourite and she said 'mmm... I want dancing, I want piano, I want swimming'. How la like that?! Oh her teachers did say she love to dance. Of course she love to dance, she's my kid, got my genes la! :-)

So I tried to list down a couple of the most common ones:-

1. Ballet? Nah, she's too boyish for that. Ballet needs poise and discipline and she's got none of those.
2. Piano? This is a maybe but definitely not now. We are hoping to bring papa's piano out from hometown and when the piano is here (whenever that will be), then we can consider this.
3. Arts? She's still too playful for things that requires focus and attention. The teacher mentioned to me during the report card day that she has improved a lot overall but it is still quite tough to get her to finish something that requires concentration and focus. She gets distracted easily as always and you really need to sit next to her and instruct her to finish what she started.
4. Dancing? Hip hop or breakdance might suit her but what's the benefit? She often dances in front of the TV at home anyway.
5. Swimming? That's an idea but where can I find swimming schools? Both papa and I can't swim so we need her to know how to swim :-)

What did you all plan out for your kids? What would you recommend for a an active talkative kid like mine? Care to share with me?

Bite marks

Both kids got bitten today :(

My boy got bitten by mozzies and it usually will end up like these and they will usually last for 3 - 4 days. Now he still doesn't know how to scratch and I don't dare to imagine how many 5 cents or 10 cents marks he will end up having when he does know how to scratch later.

And my girl got bitten by her classmate. This photo was taken at 9pm, about 10 hours after the incident. When the teacher first told me over the phone, I was so angry I wanted to find the boy and pull out all his teeth. But then I calmed down and reminded myself that they are just kids. It could happen the other way around and if that really did happen I am sure I would feel very sorry for the other kid as well.