Goodbye Old, Welcome New

Yesterday, we sent Kakak off at the airport. We were supposed to have breakfast before going to the airport (her flight's at 1:15pm). But on the way to the shop, we had to turn back home to take the flight confirmation print-out. The 'big head prawn' me forgot to take it but I have the details in my handphone. Apparently they'd need the print-out for check-in but if we don't have it, we can print it from Air Asia's sales office at the terminal.

After going home to get the document, we don't have time for breakfast anymore. So we headed straight for LCCT. When we were approaching the Nilai Memorial Park, there was a 1km jam. A lot of cars just parked by the road side. I think there aren't enough parking space inside. Luckily it cleared after the entrance to the Memorial Park. It's always like that, when you're rushing for time, there's bound to be bad traffic. Grrrr...

When we're at the airport, CE got so cranky (don't know for what reason). He insisted on pushing the trolley and he doesn't want us to help him. But he can't do it himself as you'll need to push the handle down to move it. Moreover we were rushing for time, so Kakak and I pushed the trolley with him holding the handle and crying his lungs out. At some point of time, he was being dragged while hanging on to the handle coz he refused to walk. :-| And when I tried to carry him, he struggled and sat on the floor. He has never misbehaved like that. I wondered if he really knew that Kakak was going away and never coming back. That or he's really crazy over trolleys. Even at the check-in counter, he was still wailing coz he couldn't move the trolley. And it was quite embarrassing as people were staring at us.

After checking-in, we went to Asian Kitchen for a drink. Bought sausage buns for Kakak and XY. Those buns are really expensive (RM4.90 each, which we could get for RM1.60, max, at bakery shops). We took some photos there (with Kakak's camera) and CE was still cranky. Didn't manage to take a smiling photo of him. And he didn't want anyone else to carry him except me. Kakak must be quite heart-broken coz she adores him a whole lot. When we were at the International Departure gate, we hugged and bid our farewells. Looking at her crying, I had teary eyes too. XY cried when we were waiting for Kakak to go through Immigration (we could still see her from the gate). But when we told her we'll get her a new Kakak, she's alright again.

We were maidless for about 24 hours as the new one arrived this afternoon. My BIL's maid also came together. The taxi driver left them both at my place. When both of them were inside the house, CE went and hugged one of them and let her carry him. I was very pleased to see that coz he had an instant liking to his new Kakak. Unfortunately, he didn't want her to feed him. He still prefers me over anyone else. It'll take some time for them to get used to each other. Then she'd be able to handle him better.

As for XY, she's very friendly with Kakak. She has just come back from kindy and when I asked to bathe, she quickly asked Kakak to bathe her. When I went upstairs to check on them, she was playing with the rubber ducks. No wonder she's so eager to ask Kakak to bathe her. It's been quite awhile that she gets to play with toys in the bathroom. With a new Kakak, she thinks she gets to do things her way.

What's my first impression of Kakak? Well, she's quite pleasant looking. She says "ya" to everything, although sometimes she doesn't understand completely. I must remember to give very specific instructions as she's new with us. I mustn't assume she knows what I want. She's worked in Malaysia before, so she's not so 'suaku' (ignorant). She can cook and she even knows how to switch on the kitchen hood without me teaching or telling her. There are a lot of things to teach her and hopefully she'll get used to our way of living soon. I really hope I'm lucky enough to get a good maid for the second time. Wish me luck!

Toilet Training In Progress

And it's going quite well. Since last week, I tried on and off (usually in the evening, after his afternoon nap) to see if he's ready to be diaperless when he's not sleeping. At the beginning, it seemed that he wasn't quite ready.

He likes to flush the toilet so every time he pees into the toilet bowl or potty, I'll let him flush it himself. And if he's wet his pants, then only continue to pee in the toilet, he doesn't get to flush. Errr... flushing as rewards? Well, as long as it works! LOL

Yesterday, I tried since morning (after his bath), except when he's napping of coz. I'll bring him to the toilet or let him pee into the potty every 15 to 30 minutes, depending on how much water he's taken. Surprisingly, he didn't wet himself the whole day. And he did something which made me very proud. (hehehe... it's very normal that mothers are proud of their kids' tiniest achievements, right?) This was what happened. SIL and CH came over for lunch so I left CE and Kakak at home while I went out to fetch XY back from kindy. While I was out, CE went to take the potty. And when Kakak asked him if he wants to 'shee shee', he tugged at his pants. So he peed successfully into the potty. Well, not sure if it was just coincidence coz I didn't witness him taking the potty himself again after that.

But before I could jump for joy, he wet the sofa just now after dinner. And less than 15 minutes later, he wet the floor. :-| And he almost wet the floor again and made it 3 accidents in a row. He was squatting down playing with something when he noticed that he's started to pee. (hehehe... he was half naked coz I was too lazy to get a clean pants for him.) He made some noise and pointed to the two drops of urine on the floor. I quickly asked him to stop, brought him to the potty and he continued to pee there. Does that mean he's able to control his bladder? Anyway, I'll continue and see his progress for the next few days. This weekend's mission (if we go out) - shop for training pants.

New Toys

Last week, I bought the 80-piece Mega Bloks for the kids and a small Barney puzzle for XY when we brought Kakak to Jusco Cheras Selatan to do some shopping before she goes back to her country. XY has a set of Lego at home but they're very small. She cannot play with them when didi's around coz I'm afraid he'll swallow the small items. But with this huge ones, they can play together. Well, didi doesn't know how to play with them. All he does is pour everything out and mess up the floor. :-|

~ huge blocks for the kids ~

Although the bag says there are 10 play ideas inside, there are only 2 diagrams that we can follow. Unlike the Lego set which comes with a book with many things to build. So I guess I'll just leave it to whatever creativity my girl has. Surprise me, please!

Last Thursday (a public holiday), I brought XY with me to Parkson to get a gift for a friend's second son's fullmoon celebration. I wanted to get a Lamaze toy (which I surveyed through the online baby stores) but Parkson doesn't carry that brand. So I got him a Fisher-Price toy and an Anakku RBW set. I also bought the Fisher-Price Doodle Pro for XY. Have been eyeing on that set for quite awhile already. And I saw that it's on offer and comes with free stencils (animal shapes). We bought a cheapo magnetic board earlier but the pen's tip broke within a week. It's true sometimes that it's worth to pay a little more for the quality.

CE likes the Doodle Pro too. So they will start snatching when one starts to play with it. But he's not that interested to draw with the pen. He likes to play with the storage drawer that's used to keep the shape stampers. Open it to take out the stampers, close it. Then open it to put back the stampers and close it again. He can do that over and over again.

~ more interested in the storage drawer ~

22 Months Old

How time flies! CE will be celebrating his second birthday in 2 months' time. I've not measured his weight and height recently. Here are some updates on his behaviour and antics.

Speech Development
There's more improvement in his speech development. He's more willing to imitate what we say when we try to teach him a word. Previously, there're certain words which he doesn't say out, and he just use his hand gestures. For example, he'll put out his palm for 'please' but now he says "chees". And instead of nodding his head, now he says "yes".

Possessive
He's very possessive towards me. I cannot hug anyone else except him. If I hug hubby or XY, he'll come and push the person away. So we like to use this to disturb him. During bedtime, if he still walk around the room playing with other things, hubby and I will hug each other. Then he'll quickly climb up the bed to separate us. After a few rounds of that, he gets the idea that he has to stay put on the bed. :)

Violent
He likes to hit people with his bare hands or holding an object. We are all his victims, except PaPa. I pity jie jie coz sometimes he does hit very hard (can hear a very loud thud sound). Other times, he'll chase jie jie while holding his hand high up with a toy, wanting to hit her. He thinks it's a game and he kept laughing while jie jie runs away from him. I've to always stop him when he gets too excited... or too violent. And he likes to hit my hand/palm, probably because I smack his when he touches things that he shouldn't.

Eating Preference
He's more interested in what others are eating compared to his meal. Well, his food is still quite bland - no oil and no salt. At home, after he's finished his meal, he'll come and disturb us (asking for our food) when we're eating. He's happy even if we just give him a few grains of rice. When we're eating out, he'll be eyeing on our food and refuse to eat his. So when we are at restaurants, he normally won't finish his food. We'll have to give him snacks and biscuits for the rest of our meal, if we want to eat in peace.

Sneeze
He's been having runny nose since last Sunday. And he's still got some mucus. Now he's able to blow his nose when I ask him to. It's really good that he can blow out the mucus. I feel so satisfied when I press one side of his nose and he blows out a lot of mucus. LOL

Toilet Training
Yesterday evening, I tried to let him go diaperless for awhile, before taking his bath. I brought him to the toilet every 30 minutes and he's able to pee when I go "shhhh... shhhh...". But after dinner, he peed in the living room floor (luckily not on the sofa). It was not even 30 minutes after his last toilet visit. Probably coz he drank a lot of water during dinner. Looks like he's not ready yet as he doesn't know how to tell us. I think I'll need to let him wear training pants and not just go diaperless if I want to start toilet training. But for passing motion, he can tell us 90% of the time.

Motor Skills
He's getting better at sorting shapes. He's able to fit in the shapes (flower, star triangle, square and circle) into the right slots.
He can now kick a ball. Last time when he tried to kick a ball, he tend to step on it, then fall down.

Free Gifts

After reading about the free gifts for Enfagrow/Enfakid in the latest Mama to Mama Newsletter, I asked hubby to buy Enfagrow from the chinese medical hall. Now I've collected four music sets. There're two themes - Friends of the Garden and Friends of the Ocean. But hubby said he only saw the garden theme. The ocean theme is quite cute too - a fish-shaped xylophone, jellyfish guiro, starfish handbells and clam castanets. Maybe I'll get them later. Have you collected these cute music sets for your kids?

~ clockwise from the top: handbells, guiro, castanets, xylophone ~

Orange Poppy Seed Muffins

This morning, we (Kakak and I) made muffins. The ready-mix flour has been sitting in the cabinet for quite some time already. We've made a few batches of blueberry muffins before. This is the first time we're trying this flavour. It's actually very easy to make. So I asked Kakak to mix the flour, while I arranged the paper cups (yeah... I forgot about the aluminium cups. Supposed to put the paper cups into the aluminium ones... duh!) and pre-heated the oven. I was the one taking care of the oven - baking and checking the muffins. And made sure they don't get burnt!

~ the ingredients : ready-mix flour, corn oil, eggs, water ~

The outcome...

~ 500g of ready-mix flour made 37 of these little muffins ~

While The Husbands Were Working

Last Wednesday, we went to 1-Utama with my SIL. Our entourage consisted of 3 adults and 3 children. The basic going out rule (for us, that is): The number of kids (especially kids below 5 years of age) cannot be more than the adults. That's how incompetent we are. hahaha Well, that's normal, right?

We had an early lunch at Sushi Groove. The food's quite alright, except for the sushi set which has too much creamy dressings. As for the price, a bit on the expensive side. After lunch, we went to Parkson. Bought XY a pair of sunglasses. She wanted one for a very long time already. Finally decided to get one for her.

~ ada gaya or not? ~

Next destination, Kizsport, which was of coz the highlight of the day. XY didn't need much supervision. She climbed high and low, played with the swings and slides. As for the 2 younger boys, they stayed mainly in the pool of balls (near the entrance). When XY joined them in the pool, she rolled about and 'swam' in it. Naturally, the two li'l copycats followed suit. The boys also spent some time at the playground for children under 3 years old. But they didn't seem too interested in the push-cars and rocking toys.

I brought CE to the long slide for a try. The last time we were there, he didn't play that. So I was climbing the steps with all the little kids (well, there were adults too, especially Kakaks). When we were sliding down, my heart nearly popped out. It was quite steep actually. But he didn't seem to feel anything. So we had a few rounds of that (not upon his request though... Mommy's the one who wanted to have some fun). LOL

We spent almost 2 hours in Kizsport. The kids were reluctant to leave so we told them we're going to buy 'mam mam' (food). We weren't lying... we went to get Big Apple Donuts. As compared to J.Co, I think Big Apple's a little less sweet (influenced by bloggers' reviews, maybe? hehehe), but the texture's not as fine as J.Co's. And hubby commented that Big Apple's doughnuts are not so 'round' (a bit out of shape hahaha). The verdict... we prefer J.Co.

~ Big Apple doughnuts ~

When we passed by a kiosk that sells toys, I bought a magic sphere for the kids. It's like magic coz when you kick it (not too hard ya, coz it'll hurt your feet... very spiky hehehe), it rolls and will open up and become a big round ball. And when it stops, it'll collapse and become small again. I personally think it's quite fun. LOL

~ magic sphere ~

Then we went to the event hall which was decorated with balloons (Wonderful World of Balloons). They made giant displays out of balloons (what else?). There were stalls selling 'sinful' food for kids - candies, chocolates, jellies, popcorns. How can we leave that place without buying anything? So we got some colourful jellies for the kids and a packet of popcorn coz it came with a free balloon. And SIL managed to ask for two (XY and CE can share mah). Saved me from buying another packet. hehehe

~ colourful and pretty jelly ~

We had a fun day with the kids. And what did our hardworking husbands get? Doughnuts as rewards! :D