Singapore 2011 part 1

In May 2011, both Peanut and me went to Singapore to join DH who was there for a week for work. The only -ve point was that I had to bring Peanut alone to Singapore.. I was a bit worried, as I don't know whether i could cope. Even though the flight is just around 1 hour, I was kinda stressed as I am pregnant, had to bring a toddler who can't sit still, and a stroller, plus a handbag on the plane. Boleh kah??

Okay lah, actually can. Thanks to Firefly. hahaha I'm glad we used Firefly, because checking in at Subang airport is such a breeze, there's no crowd to fight with, the airport is pretty much empty, and everything is so clean and orderly. I can't imagine the horror of the crowd if we were to take AirAsia. Actually I didn't really plan much for our Singapore trip this time round. Lately, i don't really like to plan for things. Planning is a bit difficult especially when you have kids. What if Peanut gets sick at the last minute *touch wood*?? So it's just "go to Singapore and we'll see what to do there lah!"



Eating raisins while waiting to board the plane. Plane is half hour late!! The last time we went to SG via Firefly it was half an hour late too! But it's okay lah..the waiting area was comfy.


Before the trip, we were flip flopping on whether we should bring a stroller. We have 2 strollers. One is a big Peg Perego can-load-tons-of-shopping-bag-with-Peanut-still-inside-and-it-won't-fall-apart, and another is a Mothercare, super-basic stroller. Peg Perego is a no no because it's actually quite heavy and I dun think i can handle Peanut and a heavy stroller and a handbag by myself to the plane. Granted we can leave the stroller at the stairs at the foot of the plane but since it's Firefly, we definitely need to do a bit of walking in the outdoors to the plane. And Peanut is unpredictable lately. She either will sit or refuse to get on it...so imagine if she refuse to sit on it..one hand need to push stroller, another need to hold Peanut's hands and she has the tendency to run here and there...brrr...scary thought..

So yeah, ended up we decided to just wing it and just bring the smaller stroller and hopefully i won't struggle when i push it to the plane. Good news is, some kind hearted Firefly dude saw me, and probably kesian me cos he promptly took the stroller away from me and helped me push it right to the door of the plane. Score! Plane ride was uneventful..Peanut was really excited that the stewardesses was giving out apple juices and scones. From the way she was drinking..you would think she was deprived of apple juices..hahah ok ok seriously, actually she is deprived lah :P

We stayed at the Swissotel at Clark Quay. Great location..actually everything is so near in Singapore, so to me, nowhere's too far so long there's cabs and MRTs nearby. We arrived on a Friday lunchtime. DH met up with us at the hotel for lunch before he headed back to work. Peanut and me just spent the whole day in the hotel room just chillaxing..

As if. Chillaxing is difficult when your toddler loves to touch everything!! I ate quite a bit of crabs when i was carrying her..and old wives tales claims that if you eat crabs while you're pregnant, your kid will have busy hands i.e. wanna touch and hold everything. Don't know where there's any truth to it, but in my case, seems to be quite accurate lol.

One thing that she likes to do when we stay in hotels. Play with the phones. This drives me bonkers. I gotta unplug it each time we're in the room. And here she is, pretending to call everyone she knows in the world.

Like real only..lol

We scratched our heads on where to bring Peanut for "sight seeing". We've gotta do everything through our child's eyes lol. We didn't really wanna bring Peanut to shopping malls since we do that every weekend in KL, sp we decided to bring her to the zoo!! Now, if it weren't for Peanut, there's no way i will step into a zoo. That's the last place I wanna be..as i'm not really an outdoorsy kind of person..and looking at animals is just not my thang. But yes, when you're a mum, you gotta sacrifice, and that's where we were headed the next day.

In my opinion, Singapore Zoo was really really nice. I love it. Everything is so clean and well maintained, everyone from the Zoo is so friendly and helpful, i can see why Singaporeans go there every weekend. Well DH told me his friends will go there every fortnight with their kids. Siao boh? I dun think I can do that every 2 weeks lor no matter how nice it is! haha

Can't really remember how much was the entrance fees but it wasn't that expensive. And one smart thing that we did, or ahem, DH did, was to also buy tram tickets. There's tram stops around the zoo, so if you're too lazy to walk, like us, you can just hop onto the trams and reach various stops.

Peanut on tram

Tram prices. You can buy it at the entrance or at the tram stops

Believe it or not..this is only one of the few pics i took at the zoo. A lion wtf. We were on the tram and we were whizzing past.

Honestly, i don't think i make a good blogger. I hardly whip out my camera when we're out and about, because there's too many things to look after. Hence, that's why there's very little pics.. Actually i did take a pic of this orang utan. But it was in a cage, and it looks so sad and forlorn, that i didn't have the heart to put it on my blog. And opposite the cage was this zoo lady displaying a few orang utan skulls wtf. Wonder how the live orang utan feel...seeing his friends' skull on display...eee...maybe that's why he looked so depressed :(

We had our lunch Ah Meng Restaurant. Food was yummy..or maybe i was starving. But i'll definitely eat there again if i have the chance.. haha

forced smile

We also caught a couple of shows. I think the above is the Seals show and there were sooo many people! and it was pretty hot as well. I can see Peanut wasn't that comfy in the heat..so we had to supply her with ice-cream to cool her down hehe. She didn't really pay much attention or wasn't too excited about the seals either..maybe she's still too young to appreciate those animals or the heat was really getting to her.

Just waiting for it to be over..

Overall, the Zoo visit was good, we spent half a day there and was really pooped by the time we were done. There was this part of the Zoo where there was a huge waterpark. We didn't know about it, but there were tons of kids just playing there with water slides, things that spout out water and stuff. Kids were in swim suits running around. Peanut was definitely fascinated as she was rooted at the spot watching all this going on..poor thing. She didn't get to enjoy it cos Mama didn't know this existed. We had to drag her away screaming lol.

Peanut konked out in her stroller on our way to the cab. Oh..rite, I forgot to mentioned that she puked on the way to the Zoo. We just had a heavy breakfast at the hotel, and she mostly had yoghurt. In the cab..she was pretty quiet, very unlike her and wasn't talking much. 10 minutes before reaching the zoo..out spewed her breakfast and got it all over the cab. Before she could puked a second time, our cab driver, an elderly uncle, quickly passed a plastic bag and we managed to contain most of it inside. But alas..the cab now smells of vomit. We were so paisehhhhh and kept apologizing. The cab driver kept saying never mind never mind, kids are like that, and passed us this wet cloth. And we quickly wiped the seats with it. When we reached the zoo, I offered to run to the toilet to rinse the towel before passing it back to him..but he said no need. Aiya..the uncle is really nice and he wasn't angry at all. We were probably his first fare of the day and this had to happened to him..he probably had to go do another round of wiping after dropping us off.

And that was that...our day at the Zoo!

Pregnancy update: 26 weeks

Went to the Doctor's over the weekend. Smooth sailing even though we were there at 12pm. We no longer wake up early on Saturdays just to be the first in line to visit the Doctor. We have boycotted this kiasu-sm of ours and we've decided to take it easy and just stroll in when we want to lah! Woke up late, and reached the hospital just slightly before 12pm. Great timing. Short waiting time; no long queues at the counter, Doctor's, or when we submit our urine test for analysis.

Did the usual, pregnancy weigh in: 62kg. I managed to get down to my pre-pregnancy weight right before I got pregnant, so now it's slowly climbing back up. Doctor asked me whether I want any of the milk samples that he got cos nobody seems to want it as they all feared putting on weight. Actually I'm also afraid of putting on lots of weight. In fact, I vowed that I will not eat as much as my first pregnancy becos trying to lose the excess weight after that was hell! But when I got pregnant with number two, all my resolve went out the window. Don't care anymore lah, i'll just worry about it later. I mean, when again can you have the license to eat as much as you want without feeling guilty? There's no better time than now! hehe And if i feel even a tad guilty, i'll just tell myself "the baby needs to grow!!"

But truthfully, this time round, my appetite isn't as good, and I feel nauseous if i ate too much. So even now that i'm in my 2nd trimester and nearing the end of it, i still get bouts of nausea when i eat too much..and I hate it, cos it makes me really uncomfortable. And just to compare my weight, I asked the Doctor to do a comparison of my weight with my first and second pregnancy. Let me see, in my first pregnancy i was 68kg at 28 weeks, as compared to the current 62kg at 26 weeks. Oh and I also gained a total of 18kg in the first one. Crazy.. I remembered the Doctor telling me to eat less then haha. Baby currently is of average size, but DH reckoned I should eat more, and I seconded that. i guess I didn't put on weight as fast as the first time round because I have to run after Peanut. I tell you, being pregnant and having to run after the little one is super duper tiring.. but it's a blessing, but still, very tiring. Like for example, just when I've given a drink of water to Peanut, and just when I thought she can finally settle down and wouldn't ask me for anything anymore and I l FINALLY have the chance to lay my big butt down the chair, in comes a flurry of demands from the lil fella. It's either to help her find her bolster, or to change the dvd, or that she needs me by her side when she does her big business. I tell you, i need to be ON 24/7 all the time!

I now delegate most of the tasks to DH when it comes to layaning Peanut but there's still instances where she only wants ME to do it. arghhh..Daddy cannot, only MUMMY!! Tiring anot! And just yesterday, when I was cleaning up something off the floor, the effort for just getting up from the floor to a standing up position is damn difficult and I'm not even that big yet!

And have i mentioned my breathing is really shallow now? I find myself breathing so heavily nowadays i sound like a killer on the run from cops. Very very un-sexy. Feet and hands are still of normal size, no swelling and i hope it stays that way. Updates will be in the next 3 weeks when i see the Doctor again at 29 weeks. :)

Peanut's birthday

2 years 3 months old!!

Super backdated..

We celebrated Peanut's birthday amongst family in March. Got her a Minnie Mouse cake, since she's the biggest fan of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She even requests for me to download it on YouTube so she can watch the same episode over and over again. Thank God for the Playhouse Disney Channel; I don't think I can live without it now! It acts as my babysitter when i got things to do around the house :) .

yes yes, i'm aware she still has little hair but it's growing!! *defensive

Celebrated her birthday over the weekend as her birthday falls on a Wednesday. Ordered and cooked some stuff..

Star of the evening

The cake was delish by the way..Though the food coloring made her lips a bit black. Blame it on Minnie's skin color.

Her Gong Gong and Po Po got her a Chuggington train set, complete with train tracks lol! For a period of time, she was Chuggington's biggest fan. I can't keep track who she likes now. One minute it's Special Agent Oso, then Handy Manny.. Luckily she's not into Thomas & Friends. They look a bit creepy..

On her birthday itself, both DH and me took the day off from work so we can celebrate together, just the three of us. Great day, i love it we should do this more often! We woke up late, and went for an early lunch at Bangsar Village. Then off we went off to Kidz Sport, where she can create havoc and play all she wants inside. Best thing about this gym is that it only cost RM10 per entrance, there's no one around except for maybe another kid or two, very clean and there's a toddler area which means older kids won't be bumping into your teeny kid at all. She loves the slides and the mini see saw..And oh, you need to make sure both you and your kid has a pair of socks. Good idea, i hate the smell of smelly feet!



After we were done, went off to a cafe for some tea time. Ordered some cakes and a babycino for her, which she loves. It's essentially just steamed milk with chocolate powder on top but she enjoyed it thoroughly. I guess it made her feel like a grown up haha I don't allow her to hold the cup though. Her hands are still not steady enough. Confirm will spill!


We finished off the day with a buffet dinner at a hotel. Splendid day..just the way we liked it. Easy, simple, and we get to spend lots of time with one another.

Lost...and found!

So...something really really stupid happened to me on the eve of Mother's Day. I remembered it was the eve because DH and Peanut were supposed to celebrate the occasion that evening with me, but it was somehow dampened by this incident.

On that fateful day...we went to One Utama and I hung my handbag on the stroller. My handbag do not have a zip, so basically everything is exposed..so as we were walking to the shops, i remembered DH clearly putting my wallet deep into my bag so it can't be seen clearly. Stopped at Topshop and Dorothy Perkins and I made the unfortunate decision to go in. I asked DH to wait outside the shops with Peanut as it was too crowded to maneuver the stroller inside..then i carried my handbag over the shoulder and walked into the shops. I was probably inside for less than 10 minutes. I then went and sit beside DH on the bench outside the store and that's when I discovered that my wallet was stolen wtf!!

And in my opinion, it's a really stupid thing to happen because I did not realised i was pick pocketed at all!!! I felt so dumb. I always wonder how those people can get pick pocketed so easily without realizing it and now I'm a victim of it. Geez..It was pretty crowded in the shops and there were a few people pushing me, so i supposed that's when it happened?

Immediately i started calling all my credit cards' banks and cancel my ATM and credit cards. HSBC was efficient, can't say the same for another local bank pfft..i had to repeat myself a couple of times, and when your wallet is stolen and you're in a state of "emergency", repeating yourself countless of times is the last thing you wanna do. We also went to One U's info counter to lodge a report, just in case someone dump my wallet somewhere and they can track it back to me. I knew it will be pretty hard to locate me if someone found my wallet because i do not have any contact details in my wallet at all. Lesson learned here: Please keep your business card in your wallet at all times! Even my IC is outdated. It still has my Kch home address wtf.

I also asked to see the cctv from the shops though in hindsight I have no idea why I did that because even I know who stole it, not as if i can find the person.. I guess I probably want some sort of action taken. A guard came and escorted me to both the shops. However, i wasn't allowed to view the cctv as I need a police report for that...

After that we decided to leave One U, cos no mood already, how to shop?! Credit cards also don't have. Went to TTDI police station, cos that's the nearest police station available. In and out in less than 10 minutes, cos it was so empty. Reporting to the police was pretty painless and i just had to state what was lost inside the wallet. oh ya, I lost around RM200, and various cards. My heart was more in pain for losing all the documents and wallet, not the money. That evening, DH still brought me out for a Mother's Day dinner, but alas..everything taste like cardboard. No mood at all for it!The next day we made a trip down to JPN in Shah Alam to do a new IC. How cool is that they open on Sundays..i do not need to take leave at all! Everything was done in an efficient manner, and i was pretty pleased with the service at JPN. No fine to pay at all too because i had my police report with me.

And i thought all is lost...

A week after the incident, we were in Singapore for a short holiday. Actually Peanut and me made a trip down to Singapore to visit DH who was there for work for a few days, so we thought we'll make a long weekend out of it. :) Great vacation by the way, and it was made even greater, when I received a phone call from CIMB through DH's phone. The lady on the phone told me that somebody found my wallet!! Wah I was in disbelief really. My prayers actually came true, thank you God. A shop assistant in Pull & Bear in One Utama had actually found my wallet in the changing room, and knowing there's no way that they could contact me (cos no contact details at all in my wallet) the next thing they did was to call CIMB because I had a CIMB atm card inside my wallet. And CIMB contacted me via DH's phone cos so happened i didn't switch on my phone in SG and DH was listed under my emergency contact. Well, everybody made an effort to get in touch with me and for that i'm extremely grateful to all parties. They could have given up halfway, right?

I called Pull & Bear after that and they confirmed they had my wallet, and the next day, i made a trip down to the shop hehe i was literally floating on air. I was so happy i bought them a dozen doughnuts to show my gratitude. Checked my wallet, and everything was intact, right down to my credit cards. The money was gone of course, and I wasn't surprised. I deduce the thief stole my wallet in either Topshop or Dorothy Perkins, walked to Pull & Bear's changing room, took the money out of my wallet and dumped my wallet there. It was another customer that actually handed my wallet to the cashier.. Got honest people out there after all. There's hope in mankind lor. :)

And that's how I lost my wallet and found it again!

Updates

Gee, after being MIA for so long I really don't know where to start. DH will occasionally ask me when i will start blogging again, but i'm just too lazy to get my ass moving. Each day at work, i'll tell myself I'll write something at the end of the day, but truthfully, i'm just so brain dead on some days that I just can't bring myself to log on.

Peanut is now, let me see, around 27 months, or to non-parents, that's 2 years and 3 months old. And she's finally potty trained haha. We decided to potty trained her the moment she reached 2 years old, perhaps very late by some people's standards but to us, it's just the right age to start. The credit has to go to my MIL really, for she managed to trained Peanut in less than 2 weeks. What she did was to just let Peanut go diaperless during the day and let her wet herself. The first few times, she was reluctant to use the potty but after wetting herself a couple of times, and finding that she hates it, she started using the potty and it went on from there. My MIL was so successful in her training, that Peanut refused to wear a diaper at night and when we go out!!

I'm definitely not ready for her to use the public toilets when we go out because I'm pregnant (and that's another news :)). And you might wonder how being pregnant has got to do with bringing Peanut to the toilets, but let me tell you, i have my reasons. For one, i'm getting heavier by the day, and there's no way i'm gonna carry Peanut onto the toilet seat each time. I don't plan to let her pee on the toilet floor because the thought of the pee seeping onto her shoes is icky..
Also now that i'm tired more frequently, and need maximum hours of sleep when I'm already getting so little, I'm not going to get up every few hours at night to make sure Peanut does not pee in her bed. So yes, i'll leave that till I give birth. So we had to psycho Peanut and tell her that she needs to wear a diaper when she goes out and when she sleeps at night, and after a few drama episodes on that, she finally relented.

As for myself, i'm now 24 weeks pregnant, and it's not been easy. Well, definitely not easier compared to the first time, as i feel more sickly this time round. First trimester was difficult because I felt quite nauseous all the time and could hardly keep any food down. I can't swallow plain water either so it's been horrible because i need to drink water but I can't. So i usually drink ribena or honeyed-water but sometimes i still gagged from it. And instead of getting morning sickness, i get night sickness. I will puke my dinner out if i ate too full so my appetite wasn't really that good in the first three months. And yes, i've got constipation in the first trimester..what lah. People get severe constipation in the 3rd trimester, I GOT it instead in the first few weeks.

there's one episode which will forever be etched in my mind. You can skip this part because it's gonna be quite gross. That time, i had not been able to pass motion for 3 days. In the 4th day, I knew I had to go and i had the urge for it anyway. So i sat on the toilet for 15 minutes. Nothing came out though i felt "something" is on the way. So i got up walked around and returned to the toilet and sat down for another half hour. Still nothing came out even though i still felt something was stuck there. This went on for the next 3 hours. Nothing came out! By that time, i was feeling really stressed and uncomfortable because i knew the motion is on the way out, but it just couldn't come out. Can't describe the feeling but it's darn uncomfortable. I can't even sit down normally because i felt something down there, but when i go and sit on the toilet, nothing's happening. By 3am, i was really desperate and I woke up DH. And he asked me to try again..after another hour passed by i finally gave up and told DH to bring me to the emergency ward as i felt i need an enema. So we had to bring Peanut, my poor little darling, who was still in a deep sleep and drove to SDMC.

Grateful for the staff there, who gave me an enema. Worse part is, they gave me the enema, and I went to the toilet straightaway, and only water came out wtf. The shit is still stuck! I was on the verge of tears by then because i was so desperate for it to come out then i felt like digging the shit out. Damn gross i know but at that time, i was willing to do anything to end my misery.. Doctor suggested i get another enema, and this time he asked me to wait longer before going to the toilet. I agreed...and waited slightly longer. And this time i was successful! Phew omggggg i was so relieved. Instantly, i felt such a wave of relief that I could kiss the ground. I could see DH was relieved as well, as that means we could finally go home. By that time, Peanut was awake and nurses was giving her stickers to keep her busy.

We drove to to my in-laws after the hospital visit so that we could leave Peanut there and we could go home and take a rest, since none of us had enough sleep. You know, the moment we reached my in laws and I stood up from the car, I had to rush to the toilet again. Sigh..oh well, beggars can't be choosers. I rather have everything come out than it being plugged inside me. We still had time to go for a canai breakfast after that before going home for a deep sleep lol...Drama or what!! And since that episode, i have learned my lesson and have totally changed my diet. For the first few weeks after that i had loads of fruits and vegies everyday, supplemented by prune juice and lemon juice twice a day. I guess it works because up till today, i no longer have any constipation problem. *touch wood* I had severe constipation in first pregnancy which warranted an enema and a hospital visit too, and it happened again this time round. Scary shit. I'm officially traumatised.

More updates next time!