balik kampung part 1

Hallo everybody! Guess where BigB, Peanut and me are at??

In my lil' old hometown. Meow Meow city!! Okay that was lame.

Moving on..

We reached yesterday at around 2 something after a 1 hour delay. Dem tulan with MAS. It seems all my flight delays has always been with MAS. The longest i was ever stranded in KLIA was close to 8 hours. Thank goodness we had The Wangs with who are also going to Catcity for a short holiday, so it wasn't boring at all.

This is my first time I'm bringing Peanut on the plane so naturally I was a bit nervous. And it took me 2 whole nights to finish packing cos I wasn't sure what to pack for Peanut, so in the end I almost brought all her stuff back. Stuff like her blanket, bolster, her many clothes, wet wipes, thermometer, medication, ajjor, macam macam ada lah. Brought her blanket & bolster just in case she can't sleep at my parents' home cos don't have her "smell" here.

So, with a baby, naturally we get to board the plane first. And i was a bit worried of who's gonna sit beside me cos I'm sure you would want a more motherly person to sit beside you right? Someone who can tolerate a crying baby and go awww... So...i was a bit scared when this tall dude wearing all black, like rocker, wearing sunglasses and his sunglasses got a picture of a skull at the rims there some more sat down beside me. Until he took out his Men Are From Mars, Women are from Venus book. Nuff said.

The ride was pretty smooth, cos Peanut fell asleep during takeoff and only woke up when meals are being served. Unfortunately midway, she decided to do her number 2 in her diapers. Die mans. I could smell her and it ain't good. But I also didn't go and change her in the tiny toilet cos..so small leh, how to change?? And i'm scared it'll make me nauseous standing in that small cubicle trying to catch my bearings. and we we were gonna land soon anyway and my parents' house is pretty near the airport, so i thought i can go home to do it. Plane rides alway makes me nauseous, especially its food. Jer...sorry, i'm not a big fan of airplane food, cos it smells funky, and i think Taurus can agree with me on this. Donno how all these stewardesses do it la.

So until we landed, i was quite embarassed, cos donno that emo rocker dude next to me can smell her or not. And i kept asking BigB whether he can smell it. Unfortunately he can, so we had to act bodoh and just pretended nothing happened. but overall, it was a pretty smooth ride cos Peanut was pretty chillax. Thank God. And that was it! Let's hope the ride back to KL is as smooth as this.

stay tuned to part 2. If I got time to blog while here that is :)

xoxo

7 months 3 weeks

For posterity's sake, I need to record down what Peanut can do at the moment. So at 7 months 3 weeks:

• She can crawl.
  
• Still eats a lot.
  
• Still no teeth.
  
• Still bald.
  
• Can kinda respond to her name.
  
• Can sit for a pretty long time.
  
• Sleeps at inordinate times at night.
  
• Sleeps only for an hour at the most during the day.
  
• Likes to scream and pretends to cough for attention.
  
• Can clap her hands and feet.
  
• Difficult to wear clothes on her cos she likes to twist and turn.
  
• Sits at her highchair during meal times with us.
• Uses the potty to do her big business.
  

Ah..I have become one of those mothers who likes to record their babies's milestones on blogs. I shall welcome myself to the club.

Bye bye.

Manuals & stuff

Lately, it seems that I have tons of things to read on, but which I do not have the time to do so. Like for example, my camera which I bought it for like 4 to 5 months ago, but till to date, I have yet to explore its full potential. It takes up a lot of time reading the thick manual, and also to fiddle with it.

Oh well. Played with the camera today.

Pin-hole mode. And a very boh song looking Peanut.

Blanket to cover her botak-ness.

Film grain mode. Em...Ju-On??

Peanut not so likey.

Secondly, the parenting book that I bought. I had to put it in my car to read during the terrible jams back from work. Yeah, sad la, my life; my life is all about jams *sob sob* . But at least I am killing two birds with one stone. And I guess my motion sickness has improved by leaps and bounds becauseI no longer get nauseous that often when i read in the car.

I feel like there's so many out things out there i have to read up on. More homemade recipes for Peanut. Types of activites to start her with. Improve my parenting skills. Macam macam ada out there man. How do parents do it?

Going green?

Reuse & recycle is the way to go la.

These are my favorite bags at the moment. My envirosax. The one on the right is mine. But since BigB refuses to carry it when we're out shopping, i had to buy a more "manly" one just so that he will carry my shopping *haih*




These bags are super convenient as it can be folded and i'll put them into my handbag before I go out. I only take it out when i buy stuff. It helps me to reduce the amount of plastic bags the shops gives me.

Folded

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BigB's family likes to reuse mineral bottles to bring along water to drink when they drive. I don't really like it cos it's hazardous for health to reuse plastics over and over again to store your water and food. Most of these bottles contain bisphenol A (BPA), which leaches from the plastic even at room temperature and has been linked to chromosome damage and hormone disruption. In other words, it can cause cancer.

Plastic is everywhere, we definitely cannot avoid it fully but we can try to use alternatives if there are choices.

So I was damn happy when Bros came out with a stainless steel range. And this one only cost a fraction of SIGG's. Damn value! In my opinion, it's better than the SIGG bottles cos SIGG's mouth opening is so small, you can't even wash it properly. It must be quite difficult to wash since SIGG also sells the bottle brush separately.

SIGG. In case you don't know what i mean.

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For the past two Sundays, we've been bringing Peanut to church. I know we're a bit behind, but better late than never, cos we're more prepared now. When she was younger, i was a bit apprehensive to bring her out, because yeah, useless me is a bit of a kan cheong queen and H1N1 was at its height too.

And so far...it's been good. No outbursts or loud crying. We can sit together with the congregation; and not in the baby room like pariahs hehe. Usually after church, we'll go and have lunch together, just the three of us, have coffee after and just roam around shopping malls after that.

Us at Austin Chase. Pretty good coffee I must say. Thumbs up!

Toffee & Hazelnut Lattes. Yums.

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Peanut also plays her part in reusing and recycling. By ignoring all the toys I bought her and shredding all the magazines into pieces instead for fun. Great stuff though, these magazines. Saves me lots of money lol

Caught in the act.

No idea what this face means.

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It's 9:40pm and I'm dead tired. Is it because of the long commute to work? Stress at work? Or is it because I wake up once or twice each night just to feed her? Or is it a combination of all three. A working mum is a very tiring job, and there's no break at all, but it's all worth it when you come home to this:

xoxo

Peanut's hands and feet sculpture

A month plus ago, we brought Peanut to have her hands and feet to be casted into sculptures. We feel that this is going to be a great keepsake for us. After all, she's at this age only once and babies hands and feet are especially cute at this age and we want to have something to remember by forever.

So we made an appointment with Melissa, the lady who's going to do the sculptures, and went to her home on a Saturday afternoon. She promises us that it's only gonna take 10 minutes, and it's going to be very quick and painless (sounds like the Pedaetrician when she's about to give Peanut her shots). Once we arrived, we waited for a bit while she started making a pot of pink paste.

Waiting to be "casted"

hands first

Melissa started off with Peanut's hands first. Basically, she wrapped a glob of pink paste around her hands and waited for a few seconds before removing it gently. Ditto to her feet as well. I can't remember but she did either the hands or feet twice as standard procedure, just in case the first moulds cannot make it. *pats Melissa's back for good risk management strategy*

feet next!

Once it's done, we chose the frames, the color of the scupltures (either gold or silver), what kind of inscription do we want (we chose to put her name, birth date and her current age) the background color to mount the sculptures, paid the deposit and we're done!!!! Easy peasy! And Melissa was also very easy to work with. She was very gentle with Peanut so she never cried at all. In fact she was quite happy.

*Proof*

We had to wait for a month plus for the whole thing; presumably to wait for the casts to dry properly, to get it colored and to have it mounted and framed. So we finally got it today.

Jeng jeng jeng!!!!


*Satisfied!!!!*

Are studs in fashion or what?

I see clothes with studs almost everywhere, so when i spotted this harem looking tights with studs on it, it was instant love and I had to have it.

Say hello!

It is BigB's first time away from home

since Peanut was born and I'm missing him already!! *sob sob* He has to be away for this training till Friday so which means I have to sleep with Peanut alone in the bed for the first time..

*had to pile up some pillows on BigB's side of the bed so that Peanut won't roll off to the floor*

Peanut has been sleeping with us for quite a while already which makes the crib pretty redundant. I now only use the crib when i need to put her somewhere while I go off to do something. But once she learns how to stand, that option will be out too.

Actually I really like her sleeping with me cos I can attend to her immediately if she cries in the middle of the night. Sometimes when it's 2am in the morning, I really have to struggle to open my eyes to make milk for her. And I super sayang her too; i like to hug and kiss her all the time. even when she's sleeping! hehe

Peanut in her crib. Picture taken at 3 months plus. Have her looks changed?

Just pictures

Peanut now eats two meals a day with a snack in between. Porridge at 11am, Apple puree at 3pm, and porridge again at 6pm. Epitome of a true chinese baby!

And she's getting to be quite a handful, cos she won't sit still and needs constant supervision. She'll practically grab everything in her sight. My hair, my mobile phone, my glasses, my camera strap, the newspaper, everything la!! She's like the tasmanian devil cos she destroys everything in her path haha. But she's still my little sunflower and i love her so much!

Peanut's feedings

I have been making Peanut's food since she turned 6 months. So for the past one month, i've been chopping, peeling, peeling, pureeing. But i'm taking short cuts, cos I don't have that much free time everyday lor!

Every evening, after i come home from work, i'll make her porridge. With my slow cooker. So now my slow cooker is my new best friend!! What i'll do is, i'll put

- a small cup of rice (equivalent to a small jar of Heniz baby food)
- two mini scoops of millet,
- a couple cubes of frozen pumpkin,(or sweet potatos / carrots or all!)
- ikan bilis stock ( boil some ikan bilis and just use the water)

Frozen pumpkins, carrot, and sweet potato on the right.

and throw everything into the slow cooker! This will usually make two servings for lunch and dinner. And she'll finish everything lor!! Godzilla Good appetite definitely but i think she really likes it cos she always opens up her mouth for more.

I'll usually cut up all the vegies and freeze it during the weekend. Quite sien right if i have to do it everyday. I will turn on the slow cooker at 9pm, and let it do its job till the next morning. So by 6am, i'll have this:

Half portion eaten by Peanut de..

By early morning, after being in the slow cooker the whole night, the porridge will have become quite smooth already . No need to puree anymore. I'm gonna try spinach next, and probably fish when she turned 8 months.

To complement her porridge, i have also started making apple purees. So i'll give this to her as and when i want to.

Steamed apples

Apple puree is extremely easy to make. You just need to peel, and chop it into pieces, and steam it for around 15 to 20 mins. By then it should be quite soft and will have quite a bit of water in that bowl of apples. So pour everything into the blender together with the water and blend!!

Pureed apples in ice tray

At first i damn semangat and pour the pureed apple into these ikea ice trays. Which will then be put into the freezer. But then i realised, each cube is pretty small and i need lots of cubes to make one small jar.

So i bought some BPA free plastic containers, and pour it into these instead.

7 apples makes these.

So much easier lor really. Just take out the container that you want and leave it at the lower fridge the night before, and by next morning, it'll have soften already.

Peanut pretending to read

still pretending

you got it dude!!

And there you have it. My "guide" to making solids!