My new SLK

New paint I mean! We do not have the budget to change for a new car and definitely not planning to change for a new one in the next few years. Very unlikely since we always seems to spend whatever exra cash we have on ... .... The money just vanishes everytime the pay check comes in. Whoooshh. Gone. The paint on my SLK  is peeling off and if we do not do anything about it, I will have a rustic car soon.

Ooh, i got it painted at 50% discount. Good deal, maybe?
Well, hopefully it (the paint) will last for another 5 years at least..

Here's my Small Little Kelisa in grey!

Will we survive without helper?

We defnitely will, keeping fingers crossed.  Decision has been made. The maid has really stepped overboard this time. She has tested our patience to the max. Enough is enough. This is final. . 

No doubt she has been a great helper in certain ways. But she has overstepped and been taking things for granted for the past 18 months. Every month, she would complained not feeling well, breaking things at least once on average. She has selective hearing and memory. I have to remind and instruct her DAILY on her tasks. I feel like I am becoming her PA in some ways, cleaning up when she didn't complete her tasks. Oh, and she must have her daily afternoon naps too. Else, we would be seeing a zombie in the house.

Even after making the decision to send her off, both hubby and I were quite hesitant in our ways. She is here to earn a living afterall. Or maybe she has taken lightly to our warnings. scoldings, advises and whatever it is. We have been hard and soft on her. Nothing seems to work. My MiL even allowed her to take a break when my MiL herself does the house chores. She is pampered in my eyes! She is not grateful and even told my relatives that she deserved her naps, gifts and whatever not. We didn't really want to have such an ending.

So, the day has finally come for us to send her to the agency. We didn't tell her much but just instructed her to pack her clothes from my in-law's. I inspected her bag, which is just a day or two days' supply of clothes and drove her there. I believe she knew that she is being sent off. Reach the agency, signed some documents, stated the reasons for terminating the contract and off I went. I believe reality sink in on her when the agent scolded her, interogating her. The agents sure have their way to speak to them. The lies we have been fed. Till now, we are not sure how she got her handphone. I sympathise her for having to pay so much for her flight ticket to work here (7.5 months!!) and the time away from her family. If only she behaved well, attitude right.. if only.

Things I found when I went back home to her room to pack her stuff. Extra handbags, bracelets, trinkets, blings blings.. Come on! You are not going anywhere to see any prince charming. Why do you need them? And who gave these to you? Did you earn them by washing some extra clothes from my relatives??? Oh well, it doesn't really matter now. Jaga diri baik-baik, those were my last words to her. Gave her some extra cash and didn't deduct her salary for breaking our things, I hope we gave her a good working experience as her first working place in Malaysia.

Back into the world of washing toilets, ironing clothes, floors...

Testing my patience

How does one feed a 1yo toddler? It is quite a task to feed her now. With her not sitting still, she is driving me mad everytime. Maybe I should strap her down to the chair and let her bawl. But then, there will be a risk of her throwing up too if she cries too long. I will then be very upset if all my hardwork is vomited out! And the stress of knowing empty tummy in lil' missy petite body. How to grow??!!

I've seen parents used dvd player, tv and now ipad to keep them entertained. I am refraining until, until...

As for now, this is my tactic (Have I shared this before?) Well, I don't remember and if I did, take a look of how she has grown to be a cheeky monyet (monkey). She's 13mo here.


Posing before realizing that she's stuck

With her smiling..

Her legs can't reach the floor and so can't find a footing to get away from the stool..

Crying, the next!

I love this stool. It is very expensive, RM 30 for one but we don't get to see it available anywhere now. It's like a dying art. Got this in Melaka, and will buy a few more if I have the chance to go down.

Sheep :)

There was once we were out and she had not had any nap throughout the day. What do you think we have then? A super cranky with no appetite baby with us! Gosh, it was so hard to feed her then. And I succumbed (which is a good thing) to letting her feed herself. Let not the food go to waste. At least, she gets to practice some eye and hand coordination.

The messiest ever! Wait till we have art session with her..

Do you share the same madness to handle? How do you overcome the challenge? How do you feed an active toddler?.. without the mess. Sorry, still not so ready to clean up the mess. Sigh..

Lil' Missy turns ONE

Lil' missy, the apple of our eyes

We were quite hesitant to host any party for lil' missy. We are L.A.Z.Y. Imagine the amount of time needed to plan, food especially since I don't cook, WHO to invite, BUDGET... but we relented. We are thankful not just for her, but to the people around us, supporting us. Truly, we wouldn't be able to stay sane in this transitional period in our lives if not for the support we have. And, decided to host a small party at our humble abode. We had her fullmoon in a japanese restaurant. So, this time, we wanted to test our place a lil' bit.

Food, a pain! I don't can't cook and definitely not for a big group. I don't like to order from catering either as the menu doesn't look tempting. Besides, we don't meet the minimum headcounts due to limited space, and hence short guests list. I would prefer to cook if I could but I wouldn't want my guests to lose their appetite. Stress, stress! And then, I remember her! Tasted her food from a friend's party and defenitely recommend Azlin! If I ever going to have another party, I do not have to worry anymore except to watch out for Ramadan. I almost change the date to accommodate her since she doesn't cater during fasting month. Understandable. But since she has been so kind to prepare 2 main dish, I quickly accept the offer. I sourced from other places to fill in the rest of the menu. Of course, I also took the chance to introduce my lo-mai-chi. Since carbo and meat are well taken care of, I just need to prepare some salads (vege), fruits and drinks. Dessert, the birthday cake of course! Looks like complete menu. eh? Thank God that the party turned out well.

The post will not be complete without a picture of the cake. Since we didn't spend on a wedding cake during our wedding, I wanted one for lil' missy. So, here it is.

The orange and chocolate cake. Yummy, thanks Shing!

We also dedicated lil' missy on that day too!

Western cuisine for the day

I love mushrooms!! And naturally, it will be one of lil' missy's meal too. And she had an whole egg today too! Something different today unlike the usual porridge. Seriously, I wonder if she's ever bored with fish and porridge. Maybe I shouldn't even need to worry about it so long she's eating. I don't even want to think the time she'll turn to be a fussy eater, with her petite size.

Today, she had egg, potato sandwich for lunch. It would be yummy (for me at least) if there isn't any cheese or butter. I don't like cheese and butter just in case you wonder why. As for dinner, she had creamy mushroom pasta. And I would have walloped all the mushroom soup if there're salt and pepper in it. It tasted soooo bland except for the mushrooms. We, parents prepare the best as we could for them don't we.

And did she like it? Not sure... She didn't take much of the bread, About 1 whole piece. Maybe it is filling as well since there are so much of carbo from the bread and potato. As for the pasta, I can't say either as she was a bit cranky. All because of the 2 hours nap for the whole day and that has been the average hours of naps for the past few days. If you're sleepy, you won't have much appetite too right? And she has finished almost all the pasta except a few spoonful. Will see when I cook her western food again. In case you want to know the recipe of the creamy mushroom soup, here it is.

Damsel in distress!

Lil' missy gained confidence after a few successful attempts getting down from our bed, she was shocked when she slipped (since she still can't stand on her own without aid yet) and fell with a loud THUMP! Maybe it's not loud, but my heart did skip a beat. I saw how she used her hand to lessen the impact of the fall, so, the bump on her head may not be painful. But. no doubt she was shocked!

And from then on, she practiced caution. She will get down and cry for help half way although it is only
few inches more to reach the floor. She learnt from mistakes. It is a cute sight to see her trying to get down on her own, but then cry when she couldn't reach the floor. Yes, I am an evil mom! Hehehe.. but I believe there are times she needs to learn through the hard way. Life is not a bed of roses after all, right? Of course, we do not leave her alone at any times since we have helper to do the house chores, she has our full attention.

My lil' damsel crying for help.. if you look closely, she's only a few inches away..

Sleep, oh sleep..

How I miss thee..

How do you put an active 1 yo to sleep? What do you normally do? Do you go through the same motion every time before bedtime as advised by all the experts? I know we have not been doing right somewhere, but now, we have to resort to this whenever we I want her to sleep. My hubby will play with her until I am done with my tasks and to take over from him. And when I take over...

 

My hand will become her bolster.. And I have to literally pin her head down. Else, she will be moving up, down, up down.. rolling here and there to all the four corners of our bed. 

Lil' missy, mommy and daddy want to sleep too. When you don't, we can't... And you need to sleep more in order to grow well too. You are only 7.3kg at 1yr and 2 week.

Chicken in the menu

Finally, lil’ missy had her first taste of chicken meat. Why such a long delay? Well, I agree with the opinions of my friend. Her son has some indigestion issue (I hope I remember it right) and only gets better when his diet changed.  His diet consists of only these 7 ingredients only – pumpkin, sweet potato, potato, red dates, longan, sweet corn and “lut zhi” (still not sure what that is until now) until more than a year old.  I do agree that babies’ and infants’ digestion and whatever there is in the body are still developing. And that is also the reason we introduce any new food to them in stages. Read here or here if you would like to know more about feeding solids.

Back to my lil’ missy, since she has been passing motion twice a day at least, so I stick to my variety of vege but fish for meat only.  I hope she won’t be sick of fish when she’s grown up.  As to her first chicken menu, it’s dates, gei zhi and .... don’t remember what else in the oats porridge since this blog is supposed to be posted weeks ago! Sigh, if only I had written it down much earlier. Well, just a note to say that she’s having chicken now!

Free from Addiction!

Woohooo.. We managed to wean her off pacifier finally! Not that we failed earlier, but we were having mixed feelings whether to go ahead or not. But the sight of seeing some children still 'sucking' the pacifier at the age of 2, 4 scares me.. There are many pros and cons on this pacifier case. I believe it is harder to wean as they get older. And so, the project kicked off during the Raya holidays. We have a whole week to work it out with her.

We planned to start with her afternoon nap without pacifier. But on day 2, she seemed to be able to fall asleep after a long struggle and so, we decided to go ahead without pacifier at night. And on day 3, she came to realization that there won't be any pacifier and cried a lil' before dozed off. Well, I claim victory on this! Phew, looking forward to better sleeping habit for her. Hope she would naps and sleeps longer. She is still petite for her age. She can wear some of the 3-6mo rompers. 3-6mo!! If 6-9mo, I wouldn't be so stressed, but 3-6mo?? One step at a time. Grow darling, please grow well.

One of her pic with pacifier..

Bye, bye pacifier!!

Day 1: Conked out after a loooonng struggle

It's the day of the year!

Happy Anniversary Mr Hubby

                                  and

                                                       Blessed Birthday Lil' Missy!



Thank You, Heavenly Father for blessing me with two great gifts. And vice-versa (I believe Mr Hubby feels the same way too.. Hehe)

Thank You that Mr Hubby trusts in You, fears You and most importantly, loves You more daily. I pray Lord that as we celebrate our Anniversary together and many more to come, we are always reminded of Your Faithfulness in our lives. You being our Matchmaker, Provider and the Head of this house. May we, Father continue to be grounded in Your Word, a good steward to all the blessings You have showered us thus far and will continue to pour from the heaven unto this family.

And for you, lil' missy, our prayer for you from Ephesians 3:16-19:
"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

Who sleeps first?

My hubby of course! Everytime All the time Most of the time he would be the one who fall asleep before lil' missy or me. We still have a long way to go in sleep train lil' missy. She still can't fall asleep on her own and as always, will look for me.. Of course, my hubby will have to take over when I am busy preparing her stuff ie porridge or house chores. It is no easy task to put her to sleep. Lullaby, carry her and rock her.. these just won't work even for an hour. She will wait till mommy shows up. Lil' missy will smiles and giggles away with those sleepy eyes. These are the moments when my hubby would be the one snoring away while lil' missy entertaining herself waiting for mommy to finish her works.Funny isn't it that my hubby always complain that he is tired but have the energy on news, games.. but when putting lil' missy to sleep, he's the first to zzZZ! Man!

one, two, three, FOUR!

Does teething cause loose stools? Lil' missy has been passing out loose stools, very loose on day one and slightly ok, but still loose on day tow. Could it be because we have been travelling (again) that caused her poo-poo time all mixed up? She can poo two to three times a day! Or could it be hygiene? Or diet? We have not changed her diet much except for pork, which she tried only a day ago. And pearl barley but that was almost a week... hmmm...Or multi-grain porridge is too much for her lil' tummy to handle? Other than worrying us, she is also giving us some 'exercise' by crawling about, climbing up and down. Well, maybe we are too worried. Not? Arrggghhhh, if only she can tell me if she doesn't feel well.

Ooh, almost forgotten about her teething. See? Her loose stools is very worrying! When we all thought she would have all four at the bottom, she surprised us with 4 from the top coming out at the same time. She has been having only her two bottom teeth for a long time. Tunggu punya tunggu, nothing happens except for the swollen gum at the bottom next to the two bottom teeth. That makes us thought she will have four bottom. But when we heard her grinding her teeth, I got a shocked when I realized that there are four lil' whitish teeth popping out! Gee, she's growing!!

I so HATE COCKROACH !!

Arrggghhh!! Can someone please tell me why roaches exist in the first place? Why did God made them? Where does it fit into the food chain?! Nasty pesky pest! We have been having this "visitor" at least once a week since the arrival of our maid.. Hmmm, maybe it's because we started to cook more often now and whatever that is in the kitchen is attracting them.

And yesterday, there's one in the kitchen (expectantly) and I made sure my maid killed it. I stood there to make sure it is killed. If possible, just whack it to death and not by using those aerosol spray. AND then, one in our room. My hubby knew that I will not let it go until I see it with my own eyes, the dead body. No one, maybe except lil' missy who is still oblivous to this creature, will get to go through the night peacefully if it's not found. I will be jumping up and down, searching high and low.. paranoid that it will appear from no where. So, the six-legged creature must be killed! No choice and my hubby has to search high and low for it. Of course, I carry lil' missy into another room and watch from afar the hassle my hubby had to go through just to kill the roach for our peace of mind. 

Yes, I am very much afraid of roaches to the point I think I have katsaridaphobia. I can't even stand to be in the same room with a dead roach. And definitely a big NO if it's the flying type. This flying type will somehow fly to your direction! And stick on you?!! Aarrgghhhh!!  And if I ever encounter a roach, I will be the one 'flying' out of the room.  I get goose bumps at the sight of it's image even. It is the most 'eeewwww' insect!

I pray that there is no nest in my home but I fear the worst. So long hubby or maid is killing it for me, I shall just.. just wait. Unless I call for those pest controller.. Hmmm.. Why did God create them again?

I learnt along the way..

We learnt as we grow. And I definitely learn even much more ever since lil' missy is here. Life has never been the same and I have to read books I never have read or prayers I have never been so diligently prayed over. Well, this post is actually to jot down the day I discovered how to peel avocado! Yes, you read it right. Avocado is alien in chinese cuisine and I never have the chance to try them until I am in my teen. That also from sushi ie dragon roll, spider roll..those with a few thinly sliced avocado, which you can barely get the taste of an avocado. I tried to made a guacamole dip after I heard that it has high nutrition and lil' missy was not even born yet. So, please don't laugh at me *shy*

Anyways, I've been feeding her avocado since she first started solids. Lucky girl, eh? I peeled like how I would a normal fruit. Very messy! I can't remember what exactly happened but on that night, I just cut it into half and scope it out like a kiwi fruit. Voila! So easy and clean and, and ... why didn't I thought of this method earlier? Darn.. Not too late I guess although lil' missy is entering 1yo. Actually, I can't help laughing at myself too. This post is to remind me of some funny moments as I enter into parenting.

Of course, I still have a long way to go to cook up decent meals for guests. But I am still hopeful that I would turn into a chef for my lil' missy, my family. So for now, lil' missy is my guinea pig. Hubby? Nah, let's spare him for a while. To end this post, I am thankful that lil' missy is not choosy over food, hubby who doesn't mind my cooking and cooks too when he is in the mood.

She's a gem

Really! If you had not read about my earlier post on how hard it was to her to sit still in her car seat, well, here it is. But for the past one month, she has been good. REAL GOOD when she would just sit quietly, staring blankly until we reach our destinations. How did it happen? I don't really know. She has been sitting quietly, staring blankly to the sky or whatever view she has from the car seat throughout the journeys. It's such a bliss. More so when she behaved so well during our 2.5-3 hours drive to and fro my hometown. Ah! Could it be the pacifier? It doesn't matter for now.. I am just so glad and thankful that it has been an easy journey. Lil' missy, do you know that you amaze me at times? I wonder what's in your thoughts that kept you occupied throughout the journeys. 2.5 hours is not short at all. And you did it! Well done, lil' missy.

3 a.m.

Not sure what has happened but lil missy woke up at 1.30am. Maybe my cough woke her up. Poor missy. When we couldn't soothe her to sleep, we fed her milk at about 2am. I was coughing so badly that I had to wake my hubby up to fix the milk for her. And she was still AWAKE after that! We thought that she would sleep after her milk. We were so wrong. There she was giggling and laughing and whatever entertainment she has created for herself with the 2 giant panda at both her sides. We were just too sleepy to entertain her. We don't need to at the first place right? We have definitely failed to sleep train her!

Ooh, what happened at 3 a.m? It's the time I woke up, really woke up and couldn't sleep after hearing her voice throughout the night since 1.30a.m. Darn. I used to be a log when I sleep but all changed when I got preggie. I am more alert especially to lil' missy's sound or the tingling sound from the bell on her anklet. At 5a.m, I realized she has pooped! Argh, now I really have to get my butt up from the bed and change her. Cleaned her bum, put her next to us and put the pacifier into her mouth. Finally, she dozed off. Sigh, pacifier really works wonder. Not only it helps to quiet her down, it helps her to sleep too. Bad, bad habit. But, we are both too lazy to wean her off from the pacifier.

At least I am thankful that she has not fallen sick even when both of us were.. thankful that she's beautifully and wonderfully made despite turning her parents into..

THIS!

Panda eyes for both of us.. Hopefully, not for long.

When she starts to walk..

I hope I get the chance to see her walk for the first time, without any aid. Just today or was it yesterday, she let go of her hands from any support for a few seconds before ending up on her bum. It's a sign to me that she is going to walk any time soon. I fear that she won't wait for me and starts to walk at my in-law's place. Sigh, only if I can spend time with her more, even during weekdays.

Lil' Missy poses

Want to show these to lil missy when she's grown up..

This is to give daddy and mommy a 10 min of bliss. This is also the time we I, most of the time, rushed to finish our dinner so that we can get her ready to sleep. I am not sure how long she would be there in such a position, so 'senget'. I adjusted her sitting position to avoid any further spinal injury. The eyes are so glued to the tv.

It is so hard to get her to sleep nowadays. It's not getting any easier. And just a moment ago, she woke up to my cough and been crying for a good 10 mins before we  decided to give her some milk. She finished it and fell asleep shortly after. Was she hungry? She doesn't seem so... more like comfort. Really 'ouch' if it is 'cos both of us took turn to hug, carry and to comfort her. Photos of her taken few weeks back when she's at 9-10mo.

Dozed after after curling, turning around the bed.

Closed up of her hugging the softie worm so tightly.

A lil' bit better

It started  with a sore throat, then cough and then sniffy nose. And ,the whole package came and passed on abit to my hubby too. Since lil' missy sleeps in betwen us, I pray that she won't get it from us. We are getting slightly better and she has developed a slight cough. And when she coughs, we have to watch really intently to know if she is just imitating to get our attention or she is really, really coughing. Yeah, she is getting cheekier by the day. Hoping that we will just get well real soon enough!

Ooh, I am also getting a bit more skillful in my cooking skills. If this is the first post you are reading, I am a young (maybe, not so young anymore) working adult who just became a mommy. Since I am not local, renting a room with no cooking facility does not help much in my culinary skills for the past decade until I have a kitchen of my own. Anyways, my mom came and saw the ABC porridge I made for lil' missy. She commented that it was still too chunky for lil' missy. I chopped the carrot finely and diced the potato and mashed it before feeding her. I thought it's really time for lil' missy to be exposed to more chewy stuff. But lil' missy is just swallowing them in. Gulp. Well, oh well, at least now my cooking skill has improved. I now put a big chunk of the potato, pumpkin and carrot to boil with the pork. Then take them out and mash them before putting it in again. So much lesser work. No need to chop finely or diced. Peel, chop and then mash. Improving, improving.. and please don't laugh at me for my ignorance of these few simple step. I don't cook, remember?

One more month..

My lil' missy is turning 1 in another month's time. Time flies!!!! I am thankful that she is growing well although still below percentile. She has finally increased her milk intake to 5oz except for the night feed. Well, it is still a progress than 3.5-4 oz on each feed. Though it is not a good measurement of her growth, but it is a great relieve than to see her being the same size of a 5.5mo baby. Arrgghhhh, the stress of fearing lil' missy is not catching up as she should be. Or maybe, we as parents have missed out something?

I will remind myself again and again that there is no manual on raising a healthy child. Every individual is different. Our heavenly Father does not copy and paste. Every child of His is unique.. So, trusting Him to take care of her. I'll do my part and He'll do the rest...

Lil' missy at few days' old... on my post delivery tummy ;)

Lil' missy at 10mo

Me 'sucking' lil' missy's brain