Happy 1st birthday to our little darling!

We have been so blessed that the little one was relatively problem-free, health-wise, for the past year. He coped with the various vaccinations well, and did not develop a fever for any of them (if I recall correctly).

As such, it was really worrying when he developed a fever on the night before his birthday party (!) and was even vomiting. We ended up searching for a 24-hr clinic in the middle of the night; where he was given a suppository to bring down his temperature. Even then, he was still in relatively good spirits, and did not seem too unwell, save for his elevated temperature.

The next morning, he didn’t really seem to be getting better, hence we decided to make a trip to the hospital to consult his paediatrician where he was diagnosed with gastroentitis. Sigh. Poor little fellow. It was scary to see him vomiting after only a small meal, and also when he was given medication; in fact, I recall I could feel and hear his stomach rumbling before the contents were emptied. :(

With all that going on, we weren’t really in a mood for a party, but everything was good to go so we decided to go ahead. Thank God the little darling managed relatively well, and did not really make too much of a fuss. It was stressful for us though; getting ready for the party and taking care of him as well. The scariest point for me was when I gave him a quick bath before the party and he suddenly started shivering and his lips turned blue! Yikes. I really freaked out. Fortunately my sister (who is a doctor) and my mum were around to help. We quickly dried and dressed him, and wrapped him tightly to keep him warm. We really thank God nothing serious happened…

So what about the party? It went quite ok, all things considering, although a few guests could not make it at the last minute because their kids were ill. We had HEAPS of food left over as a result!

We opted for a jungle safari theme; and I spent so much effort fashioning vines, branches and leaves out of brown paper, green construction paper and green ribbons. Took me a few late nights, phew. I also gathered as many animal soft toys I could find; even picking up some at the flea market organised at the office. Hubby and my brother helped to put up the decorations, and I thought it was really cool that they hung some of the toys from a line stretched across the function hall! A whole lot of dark green, light green and yellow balloons completed the jungle look. Admittedly, we could have done more with the decorations, since the hall still looked rather bare; but it really costs so much time and money! Ah well. Truth be told, it all started with the idea for the birthday cake.. and somehow it morphed into an entire jungle safari theme for the party! (I actually tried to make coconut trees but we abandoned that idea after giving it a try... :p)

The birthday cake from Just Heavenly was a huge hit- complete with a monkey climbing a tree, an elephant and a hippo swimming in a lake! We chose them since the little one has a particular liking for his ‘Monkey See, Monkey Zoo’ soft cloth book, which has various cute animals featured inside. The cake looked fabulous and was really delicious too! It did not come cheap; but we wanted to have something special for the little darling’s very first birthday! :)

It was nice to be able to celebrate with a small group of family and friends; wished he was feeling 100% though... We do thank God that he was at least able to attend the party, and was not THAT unwell he had to be stuck in bed.

Lovely gifts from family and friends :)

On the actual day of his birthday- 28th April, we rounded up a couple of cute cupcakes and a candle just for him...

Happy Birthday my dear little sweetheart! Mummy and Daddy are so blessed to have you!

Bedtime stories

For some reason, at about the 1-year mark, the little one started to kick up a big fuss whenever we put him into this cot. He absolutely refuses to sleep in it and would cry most awfully when he put him down after his last feed, which is something that we’ve been doing for the longest time. As a result, we’ve had to make do with settling him in our bed, and transferring him to his cot after he falls asleep. In fact, sometimes even that has not been successful- i.e. he wakes up and starts screaming his head off; so we had to let him sleep in bed with us for the entire night. Guess he considers his cot as some kind of prison- he really hates it that much.

Getting him to sleep in his own room has always been all the cards; guess all the signs were already pointing in the right direction. And so, we took the plunge and began to settle him into another bedroom, and took turns accompanying him throughout the night.

We’ve moved on to buy a guardrail for the mattress so that he doesn’t roll off it, baby-proof the room as much as possible (it’s amazing how much padding one has to prepare, considering how babies can get themselves into the most awkward of situations/positions and hurt themselves), as well as invest in a baby monitor with video function. This was put in place to get him to eventually sleep by himself.

We're pleased to say that he seems to be settling quite well in his own room. Praise God! Although it has only been a few days, we certainly hope he's gotten used to the idea. Of course, one of us still has to accompany him until he falls asleep, and we still have to do a fair amount of shuttling to and fro in the middle of the night (at least twice a night), but hopefully we persevere through all of it. It was been really tiring and rather stressful; but we will commit this to the Lord.

He's unwell as I type this; so one of us will have to sleep in the same room with him until he gets better. Hope he doesn't backtrack; otherwise it's back to square one again for all of us. Yikes. Keep us in prayer!

Long overdue update on the little one

It’s been ages since I last posted an update on the little one. So much has happened in the last few months! He celebrated his 1st birthday (more about that in a separate post); and he has really grown and changed a great deal. It is simply amazing to be part of this.

Some random bits of information:

• Sometimes he likes to sit on the floor and pivot himself on his bum. Round and round he goes- so funny!
• Over the last few months he's learnt to do things like wave bye-bye (although he doesn’t seem to be so keen on that nowadays), clap hands, and do ‘dim chong chong’ (say that in Cantonese). Cool.
• He can crawl amazingly fast now.
• He also has quite an innovative way of playing his toys- in particular things that can roll- e.g. balls, bottles, etc. He throws them and then crawls to chase after the rolling object. This can go on for a while; so we're not complaining!
• On the downside though, he simply enjoys chucking everything around.. But apparently this is normal; ah well..
• From about 11 months or so, he’s learnt to ‘cruise’- i.e. walking as he holds on to furniture. He doesn’t quite have the confidence to let go and walk on his own yet, although there have been a few times where he did let go as he moves from one place to another (e.g. from the nearest sofa into someone’s arms; the distance of 1 step or so, haha).
• My mum's house has a staircase; ever since he could crawl quite steadily, he made it all the way up to the top of the staircase, and recently he's learnt to come down as well. His favourite thing to do now is to climb the staircase and bring along a toy with him as he goes.
• We finally managed to buy a suitable pair of shoes- he hated them at first but now he's finally gotten used to the idea of wearing shoes.
• He’s finally at 5 teeth, after being stuck at 4 for the longest time. And it looks like 2 more are on their way!
• When it comes to sleep, he has to have his bolster. He sniffs one end, sucks on his lower lip and mumbles ‘mmmmmmmm’ in a sing-song manner. So much so that his bolster looks and smells kind of gross and we've started to refer to it as his 'yucky-yucky'. We really should post a video of him and his bolster on Facebook at some point. =)
• Some time ago we discovered he could identify things like the fan, aircon, mirror, etc. We asked him where it was, and he would like in the direction of the item. Cool! He then progressed to pointing at the item; and over the months he's learnt to identify a whole lot of other things- cupboard, bolster, pillow, mummy's handbag, clock, his toys (e.g. ball, bear, star, bus, etc), piano, and so many others. This has since progressed to him signalling to us when he wants to be picked up, and then he would point where he wants us to go! His favourite spots are the fridge (to see the magnets) and Grandma's keychain collection. Absolutely hilarious. Hubby likens him to a compass! Hahaha =) Oh, and he can also pick out specific items- e.g. Grandma's pitcher plant keychain, Turkish eye key chain, etc.
• He's also quite a 'talkative' baby; not that we understand him of course, but it sometimes seems like he has a LOT to say. For now at least he can say 'star' (although it comes in variations of 'ar' and 'tar' at times). We've also heard 'da-da', 'ma-ma', 'mam-mam', 'ba-ba', 'deh-dee' so it's been quite fun to watch.
• Food-wise, I've started being less paranoid and let him try different stuff that we adults eat- e.g. small bits of mango, banana, kiwi fruit, apple, pear, orange, watermelon, ice-cream, cake, chocolate, etc. I remember the look on his face when he first tasted ice-cream; oh, how it screwed up! Hahaha. Now whenever he sees me eating, he'll come right over, hoping to get a taste.
• My mum had a decent amount of success trying to start potty-training him; in the sense of encouraging him to poo when she made him sit on the potty. However, over the last few days, he's been rather naughty and insisting that he didn't want to poo (by vigorously shaking his head or refusing to sit on the potty), but would then progress to do his business a mere 10 minutes later! Standing up quietly in a corner, no less. Suffice to say, my mum has been exasperated over this. :p

He's now about 13+ months old; and it's amazing to see how much he has developed over a short 4 months! I guess in baby terms, 4 months is really quite a long time. I really ought to blog more consistently; I'm pretty sure I'm missing out a whole lot of stuff...

Praise God for our little darling! :)

Leaving Langkawi

We spent the morning enjoying a leisurely breakfast and caught bits of the Academy Awards on TV.

We left Langkawi with a heavy heart, but we certainly looked forward to seeing the little one again. Nothing really exciting happened on the way back- except that the guy sitting next to us on the plane threw up! He tried to make his way to the toilet, but couldn't get there on time, so he threw up all over the cabin floor! Can you imagine that? Don't know why he didn't grab one of the barf bags on time. GROSS.

We watched the poor air stewardesses grit their teeth and got down to the job of cleaning up the mess. Not an easy job since the cabin floors are carpeted. O_o

Luckily no one was seated in the area where he did the deed; still, I was close enough to see that he had udon for his last meal! Yuck yuck yuck.

Langkawi- Day 3

We went sailing on our 3rd day in Langkawi. I was really looking forward to it, after reading heaps of glowing reviews on TripAdvisor. We were supposed to go sailing on the Damai Indah- a lovely wooden boat captained by a German lady named Eva, but unfortunately, some emergency repair work had to be done, so the boat was stuck in Bangkok.

As an alternative, Eva arranged for us to sail on the Wilmi instead- owned by a French couple who has lived on their boat for 25 years. Even their daughter was born on the boat, and she speaks English with a Malaysian accent. How fascinating, eh?

It was a rather small group- about 10 of us, so it was just nice. Quite a few Germans, and an Australian couple on their honeymoon.

Top left: Getting to the Wilmi in a rubber dinghy

Top right: Eva showing us the sailing route

The interior of the boat.. they sure know how to maximise space!

It was a really hot day, but once we sat in the shade and started sailing, it was really nice... with the smell of the sea and the wind in our hair. Hmmm. We sailed past the little islands with their limestone cliffs, and even saw a dolphin or two.

We anchored near a secluded beach and took some time to relax. It was a really small area so there wasn't much to see, so we just spent the hour or so soaking in the sea and looking for seashells.

Meals were served on the boat, and we had a really yummy chicken and seafood paella for dinner. Drinks were free flowing as well throughout the sailing trip, so that was nice.

We sailed to a nice spot to watch the sunset; and it was amazing to watch the sun go down as if it was melting into the horizon. How beautiful.

The sailing trip cost us a small fortune, but it was a really unique experience indeed! Plus, since we didn't get to sail on the Damai Indah as promised, Eva offered us a free trip on her boat the next time we're in Langkawi! :)

Langkawi- Day 2

We started the day with a lovely buffet breakfast, which offered free-flowing sparkling wine! Cool, huh? :)

We wandered around the hotel grounds after breakfast, taking some photographs along the way.

Can you see the rainbow?

Underwater World Langkawi was our next destination. It was actually quite a nice place to visit, and we spent almost 2 hours there. The penguins were so fun to watch!

African penguins

Rockhopper penguins

We had lunch at this Indian Restaurant next to Underwater World- called Pappadam Ria. The food was quite nice but I thought it was waaaay too pricey. About Rm120 for the two of us!

Our next stop was Galeria Perdana, a museum which houses an impressive collection of over 2,500 state gifts and awards presented to Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his wife. It was an interesting museum, but there was something wrong with the air-conditioning that day- so it was really stuffy, warm and uncomfortable inside, which made the visit rather unpleasant. What a shame... :(

Sunset at the Westin..

A fruitful but tiring second day in Langkawi!

Langkawi- Day 1

Hubby and I had the opportunity to head off to Langkawi for a short break early this month. We didn't bring the little one; my mum kindly agreed to babysit him overnight for a few days, so we could have a less stressful holiday.

I spent a lot of time planning the trip (it's an obsession of mine), to make the most of the time we had. We were there for 4 days and 3 nights- all in all, it was a rather nice break- except for the weather, which was waaaaay too hot!

The flight to Langkawi was a slightly delayed, but that was ok. I bumped into a colleague who was also going to Langkawi- with twin babies in tow! 3 adults with 2 babies- wow. For a moment there I really felt bad about leaving the baby at home. Yikes.

Anyway, we touched down and proceeded to rent a car to get around Langkawi. Driving around Langkawi is really easy actually, except that one needs to watch out for the animals that might be crossing the road, heh. We drove to Langkawi Fair Mall, which apparently is the biggest mall on the island.. which turned out to be really really small. Okay- guess we have to cut them some slack and not compare the malls there with the ones in KL.

We had lunch at a quaint little cafe filled with paintings, which were also for sale, incidentally.

Lunch at Arts Cafe

After lunch, we drove to Dataran Lang, which was on the way to our hotel- The Westin Langkawi Resort & Spa. I rarely go outdoors, so this trip really reminded me of how hot and humid Malaysia is. Gosh. Walking around under the scorching sun is seriously uncomfortable. No wonder I tend to stick to cooler destinations for holidays!

Did you know? The name Langkawi is a combination of “Lang” and “Kawi”. “Lang” comes from the Malay word helang meaning eagle and Kawi means red or brown. Hence, the gigantic statue of a brown eagle at Dataran Lang.. =)

We headed for the hotel after taking a few photos at Dataran Lang; it was just too hot to hang around outdoors. We arrived early, but they managed to sort out our check-in so we could get some rest. Service was great- we were given cold face towels and refreshing drinks to cool off while we waited to be checked-in. Nice.

We were so warm and tired that we seriously considered staying in for the rest of the day- haha. Still, we managed to drag ourselves out of bed after a short nap, although it wasn't easy! We then drove all the way to the Oriental Village to take the cable car up Gunung Machincang. It was almost closing time so there wasn't a queue, which was nice. The ride up was s-c-a-r-y! The cable car swayed so much in the wind, and it was unnerving seeing the cables swing up and down with the attached cable cars bobbing along with them.

There is also a cool-looking suspension bridge that one can check out, but we decided it was too far a walk to get to, plus it was getting late and we had dinner reservations elsewhere.

We had dinner at La Sal, a restaurant at Casa Del Mar, a pretty little hotel situated on Pantai Cenang. Our table was on the beach, with a lovely view of the sunset. The ambience was really nice and romantic.. until the sun disappeared in the horizon.

After that, we were attacked by mosquitoes (although the restaurant did provide repellant) and the night turned warm and muggy. And there was no longer any breeze! Darn. Should have remembered my Geography lessons on 'bayu laut' and 'bayu darat' ... :p

Ah well. And how was the food?

The appetizer we ordered was really yummy- Deep Fried Kataifi Prawns on Avocado, Grapefruit, Mango Salsa with Curry Lime Mayo. Too bad there were only 2 prawns though- and this cost RM39!

Hubby's Australian Beef Fillet with Chive Mash, Beans, Watercress, Hollandaise & Shallot Jus was wonderful. The beef was tender and just right. An excellent choice indeed!

I ordered the Seared Sesame Tuna with Edamame Potato, Asparagus & Bean Salad & Wasabi Aioli. I made the mistake of ordering it 'well-done' (didn't want to risk eating anything raw-ish while on holiday, given my sensitive tummy), which meant it turned out like a thick slab of tuna instead- way too 'dense' for my liking. Sigh, what a waste. I can imagine how wonderful it would have tasted just seared. Arrrghh!

On the upside- the Edamame Potato was delicious...

Ushering in the Year of the Tiger

It's baby's first Chinese New Year, and we had the opportunity to travel back to Ipoh this time. So exciting! It's been a while since I've joined my family for the reunion dinner (mum-in-law decided she didn't want to cook this year hence the chance to go back to Ipoh earlier), and I was really looking forward to it. Plus it was a chance to introduce our little darling to the clan.. what fun!

We were a tad worried that the little one fuss or freak out at meeting so many strangers, but he was really really well behaved. He enjoyed playing with the children, ate and slept well, so that was a real blessing. My only gripe with the whole trip really was that it was just waaaaay too hot! The heat was simply unbearable. Gosh.

After a couple of days away, we were so glad to be heading for home. The trip turned out great- with good traffic and good food, but home is still the best, eh? :)

Our little tiger :)

Happy Chinese New Year!

9+ months on...

So much has happened over the last few months!

• First tooth made an appearance in December. Up till now, he still only has one tooth. The other one can't seem to break through the gums! Hmm.
• As a prelude to crawling, he learnt to 'swim' on his tummy to propel himself forwards. Hilarious!
• After a bout of 'swimming', he's finally learnt how to crawl, and since then, he's been going places! He now realises he's a lot more mobile and is always trying to wriggle about and climb over all kinds of stuff. It's getting a lot more tiring to watch him these days. Changing his diaper can be a workout in itself! Wow, wonder what it would be like when he learns to walk and run...
• Oh, and he can pull himself up to a standing position too!
• Strangely, he likes to burrow the back of his head into the pillow and mumbles 'mmmm' when he's about to sleep. He also likes to place something soft against his lips (e.g. pajama sleeve, bolster, etc) as he drifts off to sleep- just like his mummy!
• We're trying to teach him to feed himself with a spoon. You can imagine the mess he makes! But I guess we should not stop trying, eh?
• For some reason he's started to dislike drinking water. Not even from a bottle. We've tried various different cups, but to no avail. Sigh. The best way appears to be feeding him with a spoon, but I think he spits out more than he takes. He likes to go 'boooo' and 'phhpppt', and loves seeing the water spray all over the place! Naughty fella :p
• We've taken him swimming a couple of times- he seems to enjoy it. Nice :)
• He's quite fascinated with little things like labels, strings, ribbons, wheels, screws, etc. Give him a toy and he'll play with the label. Haha.
• Loves tugging his own socks off. Absolutely hilarious to watch.
• He's learnt to play with his tongue- stick it out and roll it about in his mouth. And he can 'flip' it too! Just like mummy :p

Ever since he started crawling, things seem to move along much faster- his development I mean :)

Latest Recipe at Le Meridien KL

We recently took a day off from work to spend some time together. My mum kindly agreed to babysit while we had fun, so that was really nice.

We watched 2 movies- 'Legion' (which was errrr... rather strange) and 'Sherlock Holmes' (which was absolutely great). That was followed by a Thai massage, which was not too bad, but not relaxing enough. Think I should just stick to aromatherapy massages.

Anyway, we capped the day off with a fantastic buffet dinner at Latest Recipe, Le Meridien KL. A special seafood buffet was featured for the month of January, and we had a marvellous time tucking into the prawns, scallops, abalone, oysters, and so much more!

The fresh oysters were plump and juicy; I should have eaten more at the beginning of the meal because it's just impossible to enjoy something as raw and slimy as oysters on a full-ish stomach. Made me gag when I had some more later in the meal. I loved the tapas- not many choices, but there was one featuring a whole scallop coated with sesame seeds which was really nice.

The seafood teppanyaki was a little bit on the salty side (too much sauce I suppose); could have been much nicer if we ate it with the garlic fried rice.. but hey, eating too much carbo is a waste at buffets!

I was sold the minute I saw the 3 chocolate fountains- check out the plump strawberries!

Yummy!

I didn't fancy having salad (what a waste of stomach space) even though the dressings were creatively presented and looked oh-so-yummy. Talk about trying to get diners to eat their vegetables. Haha!

Test tubes?

Hand lotion, anyone? (The orange liquid is actually thousand island dressing..)

Although I didn't have rice, I succumbed to the call of the pasta station. A few strands of squid ink fettucine, with small chunks of all things seafood, served in a creamy pesto sauce. Nice. So much for the no-carbo rule at buffets. Sigh.

I loved the desserts at Latest Recipe as well. Having 3 chocolate fountains certainly caters to everyone (unless you don't like chocolate of course); after all most people usually prefer one type of chocolate to another. And the strawberries were large and juicy so that was a huge plus.

Also, the teppanyaki ice-cream counter was so much fun! You can choose all the different stuff you want to mix in with your choice of ice-cream flavours. There were all kinds of nuts, dried apricots, dried apple slices, raisins, wafers (remember those shaped like a fan?), M&Ms, marshmallows, chocolate balls, chocolate chips, sprinkles.... the list goes on. The teppanyaki ice-cream turns out a bit like 'rojak' but it's really quite nice tasting the creamy ice-cream with bits to nibble inside.

Spoilt for choice!

While waiting for the teppanyaki ice-cream I saw this.. so cute isn't it?

But should one just take the chocolate, or the whole spoon? Haha :)

We used the complimentary dining voucher from my Starwood Privilege Card so it was really worth it. Otherwise it would have cost us RM118++ per person!

We really really enjoyed ourselves at dinner. I was still thinking about the yummy seafood for days afterwards!