Updated Teething Chart (as of 12 Jul 2012)

Annabelle's 7th and 8th teeth (the 2nd lower lateral incisor) just emerged last week. So far, thank God for his blesssing that Annabelle was not having much problem coping with the teething process. Like what the papa said: "She is a strong girl!". With more teeth coming out, she is now able to eat so much of food from biscuit, fruit, rice and many more. Oh yes, not to mention that she will sometime leave a small bite (mark) on your hand or shoulder when she feel "geram" at you... :P

Aha... It is also time to start the brushing teeth practice. Every morning, (if time permit); I will bring her to the toilet and I will ask her to look into the mirror while I use a handkerchief to clean her mouth, her tongue and also her teeth. I bought for her a mini toothbrush, will slowly use it so that she has an idea about brushing teeth :)

Annabelle girl, you are now a big girl... need to learn to brush teeth ya!!!

Our Princess has grown so much... She is walking now..

This is exactly what I told Ivan recently, "Annabelle has grown up so much. She is walking by the herself." She started taking her 1st few steps on the last week of June (which means at her 10 months, 4 weeks old); it was really nice to see her getting up by herself on her feet slowly and taking the steps forward.

I always doubt when is the right time to let her wear her shoes so that she can walk on a rough surface when we are out. So, last weekend, we bought her her first pair of shoes (it cost us about RM30.00++ though). She looks so cute in that but she has the habit of taking it out when I put it for her. I learnt that if I tell her "Annabelle, we wear shoe shoe and go "kai kai (~going out)". She will quietly let me do it. Then, she had her first outing -- walking (with our assistance) in Subang Parade. She was so excited and screaming away when we walked up the carpeted ramp.

On last Sunday evening, Ivan suggested that we go to the stadium near the Istana Klang. We reach there about 6.15pm. There are many people jogging, walking and playing football. Annabelle was so excited. The moment, we let her down in her new pair of shoes; she seems having difficulty at first and dragging her feet while walking. Then we told her repeatedly:"Baby, take one step at a time, slowly...". Finally she got a hang of it and walk about 1/4 of the stadium. Good achievement, ya!!!

Papa Ivan (Happy Father's Day)

We didn't forget our papa during this day.

Yesterday is Father's Day. After mass and Sunday's school, we head to Tengku Kelana bought some flowers for Ivan's dad and my beloved father in law. I had no chance to meet him in person when he was alive, with some flowers just one way we can celebrate this day with him. If he is here today, I am sure the celebration of father's day will have another feeling.





We had decided to make a small celebration at home instead of going out. We spent real good time together. :)

Initial plan is for me to cook lunch for Ivan, but towards to end; he has to do the cooking as well because Annabelle is seeking attention on the other end. :) Having said that, we make a simple western lunch set (with Burger, Sausages, Bread, Mashed Potatoes, Egg). Oh yes, in the photo; Annabelle is getting fussy and irritated because she was forced to sit on the high hair with the safety belt strap around her. After the cleaning up, we all three head to have a good afternoon nap.

For dinner, we had steamboat. You must be wondering steamboat again??!!! Yea!!! But this time, it is a simple make with just some balance of the ingredients that we had. Ivan had even improvised with new idea of using the hot plate and a small pot as the steamboat rather than the complete set of actual steamboat. At about 8pm, Annabelle was already far asleep when we had our dinner. Both of us had some good time eating, talking, laughing, and talking.

"Annabelle, why your face so sour. Just got up from sleep."

It was nice spending time as a family on the weekend as such! We managed to do lots of catch-up, had lots of laugh, lots of fun seeing our daughter laughing, walking and playing. I thank God for giving me my husband, Ivan, who is always there for me and a good father to Annabelle. May God blessed him abundantly. :)
  

Parenthood and its challenges

This semester, my Master class is on every Wednesday and Thursday. Yesterday, I supposed to attend my Master class in the evening. I supposed I am tired, or you can say lazy. I didn't attend the class and went home with Ivan. On the way back, Ivan suggested that why not you just hide yourself later in the car when he will pretend fetching Annabelle just like the normal Thursday. I was quite reluctant at first to do that but at last I give in.

Just before we reach the daycare centre, I text Auntie Letchumy that I am hiding in the car; ask her to play along. We reach Klang around 6.45pm, while hiding in the car and Ivan was trying to carry Annabelle and strap her to the car seat. The car doors closed. Annabelle starting crying, she cried so loud that I had to call her name. As I did that, she heard that and her cry got louder. I can't help it but carry her. Her face was full of tears. She hug me so tightly and rested on my shoulder. Her tears wet my shoulder...

"This is what I faced every Wednesday and Thursday!" said Ivan.

I was told by Ivan most of the time that Annabelle will cry when he fetches her every Wednesday and Thursday. But neither do I know that she cried so badly as Ivan drove off from the daycare and sometime she will stop after awhile else she will continue crying till they reached either Klang town or Shah Alam (which means the cry will last for 15 minutes). Gosh! My heart sink when I heard that. My heart was so painful and I felt so bad that my eyes are full of tears. I cried in the car. Annabelle was so shock to see me in tears, I quickly wipe away my tears. She was so cute, so took her napkin; covers herself and was playing "chiak... chiak..." with me. I ended up smiling and laughing. I explained to Annabelle that her mummy has to attend classes and she must not cry like that. She must cooperate with his papa and be good so that papa can pick her and fetch mummy in the evening. I make a deal with her if she does as what I said, she will get a good girl each time she does that.

I regretted to have agreed to play along this evening, but now I know that this was what my husband gone through so far. I repeatedly ask Ivan if he can managed. He has say yes to it.

Ai... thinking back on how tightly she hugged me and stop crying when I carried her. My eyes just out of my control and my tears will automatically fill around my eyes (even when this post is written).

Mummy's message to Annabelle:
"Baby, just hang it there. Mummy has to do this for all our good. You need to stay cooperative with papa and be good!"

Mummy's message to Papa:
"Darling, thank you for being there for me!"

Mummy's message to myself:
"Be patient. Finish the remaining subjects quickly. Get through your Master and everything will fall in place!'

First Swimming (a.k.a. Playing Water) Experience

Annabelle always love water. During bath time, I was always being splashed and got wet because she likes to tap on the water.

Group photo.... See how relax Annabelle is!

Last weekend, we celebrated Mum's 56th birthday at Joanne's house. My sister Joanne has offered swimming session with the children. They loved it. 


Ivan and I were very excited for Annabelle.. haha.. funny isn't it.. we are more excited than our daughter!

Annabelle enjoyed herself. Though there were two pools (big and small), she refused to stay in the small pool and wanted to join the kor-kor jie-jie at the bigger pool. We can see her excitement on her face, she try to catch the water even try to drink the water from the pool...

It was a great experience! Thanks so much Joanne yi-yi for organizing it... :)

The art of catching water! Tip: patience

 

Fish, I think I will minced you!! Nyam Nyam!

Papa said I am good in the art of catching water... :>

Cameron Highlands Trip - 25 May --27 May 2012

Mind you... this is a very long post about our trip...  I really love to jot this down as this is a wonderful trip. Enjoy reading it...

It was an awesome, enjoyable, wonderful, peaceful, and blessed trip. Weather was good, hotel was clean and comfortable, places are interesting, journey was good too... all these are really a good memory for me and Ivan and of course baby Annabelle.

DAY 1 (25 May 2012)

This is consider our first family trip together. We started our journey at 6.15am and Ivan was the sole driver along the way to and fro Cameron Highland (CH). Annabelle was told about the trip way ahead of time, she seems to know it and woke up on time for the trip. A night before, we had all things packed and checked. We had a good sleep so that we can have a good journey.

We used Simpang Pulai as an alternative road to Tapah to Cameron Highlands taking consideration of Annabelle and if she can get used to the windy road. Though the journey to Simpang Pulai is 40 minutes further than Tapah to Cameron Highlands, it was worth the time as the road is much better. We reached Kampang Raja town and we had our breakfast. The weather was just nice and cooling.


After breakfast, we continue our journey up the highland to Tanah Rata to check on our Heritage Hotel. We were there earlier (10.30am), but thank God that the reception was good allow us to check in earlier. We got Room 358 (new wing of the hotel). I must say that the hotel and the room was really comfortable. We had all that we need for the room. The hotel has all the amenities included reading library, game room, and playland for children. (No promotion for them but pleased with their services). Annabelle felt very comfortable in the room and crawling all over the place and smiling. :) After settled down, I fed Annabelle with the food that I prepared; she had a nice lunch before we went out for sight seeing and visiting.

1st stop: Cactus Point @ Brinchang. We are not so much a cactus lover, just walk around and look see for some plant and took a shot while baby was sleeping.

2nd stop: Lunch @ one of the Brinchang Chinese Restaurant. We ordered some simple yet delicious Chinese dishes. Had a good feast and head off to the hotel for a nap as Ivan and I were tired as the day started early.


Evening, we were at the Brinchang Pasar Malam. Gosh! It was just about 5pm, the pasar already filled with people. Lots of veges, local food, fruit and also souvenir. We grab some veges and stem sweet potatoes as snack before heading on to the Steamboat Restaurant. Wow... talking about steamboat, we really enjoyed it a lot as it goes down very well with the cooling weather. After dinner, baby was already ZZzzzz, we took a drive back to the hotel, put her to sleep. We had some DVD with us, managed to watch one of them before sleeping... (but according to Ivan, the DVD watches me rather than I watch it... hahahah)

DAY 2 (26 May 2012)
Second day of the trip was a early start as well. At 7.30am, we were down at the Rainforest Restaurant for the Hotel's breakfast. The breakfast served varieties of food from Nasi Lemak, Mee Goreng, Pan Cake, Porridge, Western Food, Meehun Soup and many more. I was so happy with the selection they had. Though Annabelle has her feed of 4oz of milk, she still enjoyed the porridge very much and of course the pancake. We had a good breakfast, took a family picture and started our journey of "Countryside Leisure Tour".

Itinerary:

09:00am - Pick up from hotel (We were in a Hiace Van of 10 people + 1 child, Rajesh our tour guide from Cameron Secret Tour and Travel, was very good, giving us all the necessary tour information and explanation clearly)

09:30am - Visit to the Rose Centre in Kea Farm (took some nice photo of roses and other flowers, failed to climb up the viewpoint but really had some nice photo session at the lower stage of the place)

10:00am - Visit to a Strawberry Farm (Raju's Strawberry Farm, I must mentioned that they have the nicest Strawberry milk shake and Strawberry's Lassi. Ivan loved it so much that we went back on the last day to taste it again before leaving CH)

10:30am - Stop at viewpoint at the Sungai Palas BOH Tea Plantation for photography as well as a commentary by our guide on tea-picking, tea processing, and the variations between the different types of tea found on the open market. (We grab a cup of Teh Tarik from the centre, nice and tasty. Went back to the place we first "pak-tol" and took a snap too...)

11.40am: Visit to the Butterfly and Insect Farm. This is a nice place for Annabelle. She knows what is butterflies from her play mat back home. She was so fascinated with them and probably butterflies like baby, many of them rest on her head, her shoulder but none came to me :(

12.30pm: Visit to Bee's Farm. Original plan was to walk down the valley and have a visit. But when seeing the bees are all flying around, we had cancelled our plan and walk to the nearby Fruit, Vegetable & Flower Market for some shopping.

01:15pm - Visit to the Sam Poh Tong Buddhist Temple. The temple is so quiet and we really feel the peace when we were in there. We met a monk and lighted a lamp for peace of the family and pray in our way for our God's goodness.

01:30pm - Return to hotel

As you can see that our itenerary was just so nicely arranged. Though we need to pay RM25 each for the journey, we prefer this as we do not need to drive through the small and narrow path to the Tea Farm and find for car park at each destination. Our tour guide is also a local who is able to know the best road and best way to drive around. This really save hassle and less stress on us.

We had lunch at one of the Nyonya and Local Restaurant at Tanah Rata. We ordered food that can actually cater for 5 people but we both managed to "habis" them... so "wei sek"....

We went back to the hotel right after that for some moment of hibernation. But our dear baby refuse to sleep, she wants to play. I was so tired, so Ivan was so nice; brought Annabelle down to the Hotel's playland and play and had some bonding time. I had a good 1 hour beauty sleep.

Evening, we decided not to go out as the day was just so tiring. Annabelle was already "battery-kong" then. She was nicely snoring away on the bed. We ordered some hotel food. Who say hotel food not nice! You are wrong! We were enjoying ourselves with another DVD...

The day ended with a smile on our face. We went to bed and looking forward for tomorrow.

DAY 3 (27 May 2012) -- Sunday

Sunday, after breakfast; we took a walk to the nearby church for mass. Who knows that the mass is celebrated at the old chapel. We walked back to the hotel, took the car and drove to the old chapel. We were 15 minutes late from mass. :P.We met Fr. Eugene and managed to have a quick chat with him before leaving back to the hotel.

We packed and get everything ready for checkout. By 11.30am, we had checkout from the hotel and took some last few shot of photos around the hotel before leaving.

As we need to get some stuff before heading home, we did stop at the Kea Farm Market for a quick shop of veges and fruits. (Thanks to the Policeman who walking around to saman cars that were packed on the roadside, else we will have more time to shop around). Ooppps... forgotten to mention that we also stop at the road side for a Durian's Feast as I was craving for it and Ivan has kept his promise to belanja me... Yeah!!!

We had a nice trip driving back. Annabelle was Zzzzz from Brinchang all the down to Gopeng where we stopped for KFC for lunch at 4.30pm.

"As an overall, the journey is really so nice and enjoyable. I do not have much words to describe other than "We had quality time and love time together!" I hope God will bless us with more time as such and we really looking forward for another holiday!...."

Pacifier...Pacifier...

It was a busy Sunday as after church and Ivan's Sunday School classes, we planned to bring Annabelle to the Saloon to trim her hair as her hairs are touching her eyes and caused irritation. After hair cut, went home to bath Annabelle. After bath, received phone call from Amma to join them for lunch at Exotic Restaurant near Tengku Kelana. We 3 got ready and left the house for lunch.

After lunch, as we reached home; Annabelle gets a little cranky as the weather was so hot and really burning. I looked out for her pacifier. Search... Search... can't seem to locate it. I suspected that I left it in the restaurant. We thought that is all right, we shall get to 99 to buy a new one for her; and at the same time we called Amma to check on it at the restaurant.

Annabelle don't seem liking the new pacifier but she still suck on it when she slept that afternoon as probably she is very tired.

That evening, I told Ivan that we need to find the same pacifier as Annabelle is not too happy about the pacifier and refuse to take it as how she used to. We left to AEON Jusco Bukit Tinggi to search for it, no avail; but still bought 2 sort of alike pacifier for Annabelle. That night, she did not sleep well probably of the new pacifier.

The next day, I went online to Mummies Connect to check with the mummies where I can get the same pacifier (based on the cap and the sling I had); thank God that two mummies confirmed that they got theirs from Jusco. We had decided to do a last search at AEON Jusco Bukit Raja. We had said that if we couldn't get it still, we will just wean her off from it. No choice.!

Da... Tha... ta.... We found it at AEON Jusco Bukit Raja. Right away, we bought two for Annabelle. Back home, after the sterilize process, Annabelle took the pacifier and putting in her mouth, chew it and suck it like before. Thank God!

Though, I know that pacifier is not good to an extent; I had no choice for now. When comes the time I need to wean her off, I will think about how to do it... :) Pacifier... Pacifier... Finally you are back!!!



The sling and cap that I had with me after the lost!

7 pacifiers that we bought, none of them is in favour of Annabelle....