Birthday Party

Zara attended her first birthday party get-together on Saturday. Daddy went to clean the ancestor’s grave with FIL, so I took Zara to Sandy’s place on my own for lunch. It was Sandy’s daughter, Yen Mae’s 4th birthday.It was a small affair with only 3 kids (including Zara) and one 3 month old baby. Zara was happy playing with Yen Mae’s toys, but she won’t or don’t know how to play with the other 2 kids. I guess at this age, she still doesn’t know how to socialise with younger kids yet, although she likes to hang around bigger kids (because they normally give her lots of attention).

Birthday girl in green. Zara in her ‘sessy’ Aunty Jesslyn’s dress.

Dinner with PIL
Daddy is the type who needs to see his parents at least fortnightly (or he’ll miss them, although he won’t admit). He suggested dinner with them on Sunday.

We had dinner in Bibik Chik, SS2. This is one place which we can have Zara sit through the whole meal because there’s an inhouse entertainer who plays the guitar and sings some oldies.

Zara’s eyes were constantly fixed on the entertainer. Dancing occasionally, swaying her arms, and if it’s the end of a nice catchy song, she would be clapping her hands shouting, “Bah-Voh”. I think it really made made the entertainer’s day having such an ardent fan. In return, he sang Zara the Do-re-mi song which made Zara so happy!

Woot!
And the highlight of the weekend…… Daddy set up the wireless router in the house. So we have gone wireless!

Over the weekend, we drove up to Ipoh for a friend’s wedding. It was a simple affair in a local restaurant. The bride, Liew, did not even wear a gown for her wedding, but just a simple dress. Daddy said, “Which is perfectly fine”. I said, “But you only get to be a bride once in a life time, I would at least want a gown.” But then, Liew is a simple, down to earth person; which is why Daddy is very fond of her, and which is also why he didn’t mind driving all the way up for her wedding.Zara was cranky the whole night. Probably because she only napped for 1hr the whole day. Daddy and I had to take turns to bring her out for walks. Not that there’s much to walk about or see, but she was happier than being seated for a long 4hrs.

Clockwise : The bride and groom; Zara finally fulfilled her wish, sitting on a motorbike; Zara didn’t want to sit on Daddy’s lap (see Daddy’s frown?); Jesse, my friend’s 8mth old, sat through the dinner without a single whine

We spent the night in Ipoh, and the following morning after breakfast in the hotel, we went to town for a walkabout. Both Daddy and I always like visiting local markets, so when we saw a building with a sign reading Pasar Besar Ipoh (Malay: Ipoh Big Market), we quickly parked our car and headed there.

I just love markets, not the filth, but it’s always interesting to look at the local produce. We saw a fish monger selling about 10 different types of prawns (very reasonably priced), we would have bought some if we had a big ice box. We bought a bell shaped pumpkin which we do not get in KL (not the imported butter squash, but locally grown). And then the sight of a lady selling beansprout really caught my interest (I actually walked back to the car to get the camera to take the below shots).
Ipoh is famous for beansprouts, and it’s no wonder you get ‘specialists’ only selling beansprouts in the market. Big plastic barrels used to sprout the beans (they looked like huge alfafa sprouts) were next to the stall. I didn’t see how they were harvested but I saw the stall owner washed the sprout in a cement cylinder (I don’t know what that thing is called) and scooped up the amount customers wanted into bags. She was a good sport, and told me I was welcome to take her photos.

What is a visit to Ipoh without meeting up with the local bloggers? King’s Wife even drove up with Seng Kor for a day trip to join the fun. It was a small and intimate meeting. We had lunch with Helen and Hubby, Samm and Gordon, followed by coffee.

With a smaller crowd, and so much time, you get to have a more decent conversation, and able get to know each other better. I’m not supposed to review too much here, but I must say they do live up to the personalities they portray in their blogs. *grin* (Note : Seng Kor did go to the toilet, but I’m not sure if it was to do what Helen mentioned here)

Again, Zara fussed a lot, while sweet little Gordon, spent the whole time seated and amusing himself with tissues and toothpicks. *Sigh*

Clockwise : Daddy keeping an eye on Zara in a local coffee place while I ran back to the market to photograph the beansprout lady; Walking in the town centre; Zara couldn’t sit still, while Gordon didn’t even fuss throughout.

On Chinese New Year eve, instead of dining at our place (the initial plan), we had it in MIL’s because BIL was bringing 6 of his friends from the Philippines to join the dinner (we only knew later that these ‘friends’ were actually his new girl friend and her family/chaperon).

No pix to show for the dinner since it was quite kelam-kabut (Malay: chaotic) to be having so many people in the house for dinner (normally it’s just 6 of us).

On the first day of Chinese New Year, as usual, we visited MIL early morning, and then it was lunch with my family. Zara did the GONG XI, GONG XI sign while addressing the family, and she also served tea to my side of the family (since this is our tradition).
All I could say is these 2 days were really hot!

Next few days there’ll be no blogging as we’ll be going for a holiday (unless I got so bored and there’s free broad band connection in the hotel).

HERE IS TO WISH EVERY ONE

A HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

GONG XI FA CHAI.

????!

Tasha’s Fullmoon Dinner
It was already a month since Tasha (my eldest sis’ daughter) was born. We had a little family dinner party in a restaurant.

It was a typical Chinese dinner with shark fin soup and suckling pig (both of which we don’t take), and because it was close to CNY, we got to lou-sang (raw fish salad) as well.

A full blown karaoke session was going on in another section of the restaurant (probably a company dinner). This group of people, blasting singing extremely outdated songs in horrendous voices. Tasha slept through, oblivious to the noise. Zara on the other hand was showing lots of interest in what was going on on stage, she kept wanting to get out of the room and when she saw people singing, she started dancing too, never mind if their singing sucked!

Tasha sleeping
Zara dancing

The singing and torturing didn’t end, until our last course was served and when the group has left. What a noisy dinner.

Zoo Visit
Daddy dragged brought us to the zoo again on Sunday. He thought Zara has picked up quite a lot of names for animals, and it should be more fun for her compared to the last time.

The weather was so hot, and Zara so much heavier, it was quite a torture, physically, when I had to carry her in the sling.

Zara was quite excited when we could see the elephants, giraffes and flamingoes up close. We got a chance to feed the camel, but Zara wouldn’t do it as she was afraid. I fed it instead, and Zara just looked on gingerly.

At one resting area, the zoo keeper was handling a tiny green snake. He passed it to me when I showed interest in it. And yes, I had the little fella twirled around my arm (Daddy was so disgusted he just walked away, so no photos of the snake lady). I asked Zara to stroke the snake, but instead, she was squashing the snake with her pincher grip! I had to unclutch her 2 fingers, fearing for the snake’s life. I quickly passed the snake back to the zoo keeper.

We spent almost 2 hours in the zoo and at the end of it, we were all sweaty and smelly, and then, it was to KLCC to enjoy the aircon and to get some retail therapy!

Shopping
This was the only weekend left before CNY (Chinese New Year), so we went to KLCC and did lots of shopping both on Saturday and Sunday. The sales are still on, more reason to grab something.

As usual, we bought the most for Zara. She had to have new top, new bottom, new pajamas, new everything for CNY.

Daddy wanted to get me a good and expensive handbag. One which is big enough to hold some of Zara’s stuff like a water bottle, a few pieces of diaper, a tupperware to hold some biscuits.

We were looking around in Coach, Furla, Burberry (oh, Zara just loves the signature sheep on display) and Ferragamo. I loved this and this (with pix shown), but when I looked at the price tag, I just cringed (although I pretended to look cool and behaved I could afford 10 of those).

In the end, I settled for a LeSportSac which was just 10% of the price of the above items. I am too kiam siap (Chinese: stingy) still can’t bring myself to buy a bag with a 4digit price tag.

So we’re supposed to buy new clothes for ourselves for Chinese New Year.

Since I eat full nothing to do (Chinese: too much time in my hands) the blog template is the ‘clothing’ to our blog, I thought I’ll spruce it up and give it a new look too.

After all, some of these itchy backsides people, like LB (going for the minimalist look, but in the beginning was giving maximum firewalling to his site anxiety among his readers); Ah Pek (now the romantic poet); Seng Kor (his blog now has his portrait, mask removed); have already upgraded theirs.

I made some changes to this template, and Viola! New Year, new clothes!

PS! Do I still need to give this guy credit since the template no longer looks like the original?

(Please do help me with my quizez if you know the answers)

We were very busy with one of Daddy’s best friends’ wedding over the weekend (quiz : Can you still consider someone a best friend if he had been dating a girl for 1 1/2 years, planning his wedding, and you were informed only 1 1/2 months before the wedding about this girl?).The wedding dinner was on Saturday, and the ‘receiving’ of the bride (???, Chip sun liong) was on Sunday.

During the wedding dinner, Zara was a bit clingy because she was abruptly waken from her nap when we arrived at the restaurant. She wasn’t a good sport like the night before.

On Sunday morning we remained behind in the groom’s house when Daddy followed the groom to ‘receive’ the bride. Zara managed to squeeze in half an hour of nap while we were waiting for the bride and groom’s return. It’s amazing what some sleep can do to a toddler. She was in better spirit right after that and for the rest of the event.

Here are some moments captured (Most photos were taken by Daddy, and he has this thing about taking photos in black and white, as you can see) :

She was very scared of the yam seng (Chinese: toasting) session.. way too loud!!.

Paying attention to Aunty Wai Mun talking.

Clinging to mummy most of the time.

Checking out the bride’s bouquet

Mesmerised by the flash from the official photographer’s camera

My best friend (who informed me about all the dates she went on; and told me when she was planning for her wedding, showed me her gown before the wedding, even though we lived few thousands of miles apart. Quiz : Is this the difference between a man’s and a woman’s best friend?) is back from NYC. The next 2 days, we’ll be going to Malacca to visit her. A short holiday for the family.

2005 has been a good year, mainly because of Zara.

Nothing has prepared me for this, but
I started to realise the joy of motherhood
I started understanding the capacity to love, to care for, to nurture another individual

I saw the first smile, the first sit, the first crawl, the first swim, the first step, the first dance
I heard the first laugh, the first word, the first singing, the first phrase
I experienced her first kiss, her first hug, her first snuggle
I nursed her first fever, her first fall

2005 I fell in love all over again, this time more passionate than any other times I’d experienced with a man. I became a mother and fell in love with my daughter

2005 was all about Zara, Zara and Zara, and I know the coming years would be the same too
2005 was a good year, with Zara, everything is good

Thank you all for reading my blog, for sharing the joy and pain with me

Happy New Year to All Of You!

So what did we do on Christmas day and Boxing day?

On Christmas day, we went to visit my sister in the hospital again. She was all ready to leave the hospital for home, was just waiting for BIL to come and pick her up.

After the hospital we went to MIL’s place. Daddy helped to paint the grill there, and I tried to get Zara to nap on the thin and narrow piece of padded cloth MIL provided. When I told Zara to sleep, she just leaned back so suddenly, and the thin material didn’t cushion her head, so she knocked her head and cried. It took me some time to pacify her. For the rest of her nap, I had to stay with her just to make sure she didn’t turn (and move out of the narrow cloth) and knock her head on the floor. I also took a mental note that the next time if we need to let Zara nap in MIL’s place, we have to bring our own little matress.

Because I had stayed up very late the last few nights to blog, when it was time for dinner, I had this massive migraine (it always comes when I don’t have enough sleep). When we arrived at the restaurant, I had no appetite to eat, and after just a few mouth full of rice, I retched. I got MIL and SIL to feed Zara dinner, while I rested in the adjoining furniture shop (which was also part of the restaurant).

It was a very bad night for me, went to the toilet many times to throw up, and the throbbing headache was very unbearable. I had an early night, and reminded myself I should not blog or blog surf till too late.

On Boxing Day, I was feeling better, since I had 1ohours of sleep the night before. We visited my friend, Sandy, who’d given birth almost a month ago, together with another close friend YC and her son Bryan. I have to say new borns do grow very fast, the baby looks very different from the time we visited him in the hospital.

While we did some catching up, the kids had a great time in Sandy’s place, playing with Sandy’s eldest daugther’s toys.

Here’s a shot of them, Kei Kei (Sandy’s niece), Yen Mae (Sandy’s eldest daugther), Bryan and Zara.

In the evening, after a bit of rest at home, Daddy decided to bring Zara to the Shah Alam Lake Garden. Zara again had a good time running and walking about in the park. She was curious about almost everything she saw on the floor, the ice cream wrapper, the fallen leaves, the tall grass. I almost freaked out every time she bent down to touch something (I can’t stand her getting dirty).

We celebrated Christmas Eve in a Chinese Restaurant, then went back to King’s Wife’s place to cut King’s birthday cake; and for the kids, the happiest moment, opening the presents! Too bad my eldest sis is still in the hospital because she’s just given birth, or there’ll be a bigger crowd.

Cool kids in the family

Zara enjoying some of the adults’ food

Zara in good spirit

Zara with the men in the family

Zara helping to distribute presents

Kids opening their presents (Zara with my help, of course)

Zara with her 2 favourite presents, a pair of shoes (from my youngest sis), and a play phone (from King’s Wife).

The trees, ours (top left), King’s wife’s which was chocking with presents, and the empty tree.

Merry Christmas every one!

This the seasons to have babies.. fa lalalala lalala la.

Not me though, although I’m working on it.

My eldest sister has just given birth to a baby girl this morning. She was supposed to go for a scheduled Cesarean on 28th December, because she still wanted to go for our family big Christmas dinner before her slim down 15kg within one month diet confinement. The little baby however, have her own plans.

My sister had a bloody show (this is not swearing, but a pregnancy term) this morning, and so she admitted herself. The Dr confirmed that she was in labour and hence performed a c-sect on her. Baby was two and half weeks early.

King’s Wife and I together with the kids met up to do some very last minute shopping in 1 Utama. We started as early as 10:30am, and thought we’ll go over to visit my sister after lunch. By the time we’re done, it was 4pm, and our shopping filled up 1 supermarket trolley and Zara’s stroller (Zara just had to walk). We even met with the famous blogger, Peter Tan before we left (and I went up to say ‘Hi’ to him, and he looks good in his short crew cut).

By the time we arrived at the hospital, it was about 5:30pm. My sister seemed to be doing very well as she’s still very energetic although she was confined to her bed.

My little niece looks very much like my brother-in-law (actually they are not legally married, but then he’s her lifetime partner, so I guess it’s the same as in-laws?). She has very sharp features, pointed chin, big eyes, prominant double eye lids (actually our family trade mark too, but too bad Zara didn’t inherit this from me, but has Daddy’s eyes), and a perky nose.

Zara was more gentle this time compared to the last time we visited my friend and her new born baby. I told her she’s now a che-che (Chinese: big sister) so she has to ‘sayang’ (Malay: stroke gently and lovingly) the baby; not sure if she understood the che-che part, but she just lightly patted the baby’s body.

My sis’ baby was very alert, the whole time we were there, she was glancing around with her eyes wide opened. She also sneaked her hand out from her tight swaddle, and started putting her fingers in her mouth to suck. She has lots of saliva too for a new born, on a few occasions, she was choking on her own saliva, and even left a wet patch on her basinet. Such a cutie she is! Here are 2 of her photos :

My sister is also trying to breast feed her baby although she’s having some problem (she has inverted nipple which makes suckling very difficult for the baby). The nurses in the hospital are very helpful, and will be helping her nurse using a nipple shield. Hope the little baby will cooperate and suck!

The next few days, besides going for our Christmas Eve family dinner, we’ll also probably spend a lot of time in the hospital visiting my sis and the little one.