Korean Babe

Daddy and I are wood lovers, no, we are not termites, we do not eat wood. We love wooden furnitures, carvings and specially solid hardwood flooring. We are exploring the options we have here for our new house interior so decided to visit some of the woody people here. Our first stop as Mori, engineered hardwood specialist. These guys use Japan wood processing technology to make their floorboards and top it off with a super thin layer of real wood. It would be really clean and fast to use this material as these are finished products, no sanding or further work is required after installation. The downside is if you ever drop something heavy and make a dent on the floor, it is not going to be pretty cos the top layer would be scrapped off, exposing the floorboard underneath.

The next stop was Lumbermart, who offers beautiful solid hardood flooring. We were both drooling over the Burmese teak which had beautiful grains and of course Belian which is so scarce nowadays. The beautiful thing about wood is every piece is unique and they are just so full on life when you look at it. The wood is actually still "alive" even after the tree is harvested and if not installed properly, you will encounter problems like "swollen floor" or gaps between the wood strips. We have not exactly made up our mind yet so the information we gathered was purely for our reference only.

After we left Lumbermart, Sofia fell asleep in the car as it was close to her nap time. We planned to drop her home as Daddy wanted to go for some property talk. Unfortunately, we were caught in a traffic jam just 5 mins away from home. The jam was so bad that it made all of us so hungry, we decided to head off for lunch straight away. It so happen we were just right outside a small Korean restaurant we have never tried before and we decided to try it today. Fortunately, they have a non-spicy fish soup which is suitable for Sofia and of course, she loves their soft and sticky rice!

They were also very considerate to have Ikea utensils for kids and Sofia had such great fun with the cup.

Hey look! I know how to drink from the cup!

And the wheat tea here is so delicious!

Can you see my mouth?

See, I can even cover my nose!

And squash the cup against my chubby cheeks!

I drank all the wheat tea, right to the very last drop!

No more!

Give you the cup? NO WAY!

I did not bring any of Sofia's books or toys to keep her entertained and was worried she would make it difficult for us. Luckily she amused herself with the cup and plate and a small pinch of sticky rice in her hands. Of course she ended with a sticky hand after we were all done but the small pinch of rice was really all she need to be occupied.

Haha, this shall be my secret weapon the next time we are "toyless"!

My New Furniture

I am a big fan of Ikea and one of the things I like from their shop is the reasonably priced storage solution they offer. I had a big mess of Sofia's stuff all over the living room and there is no more storage space available around the house. So I went to Ikea today to look for a solution.

Here is the "before" photo:

This is the "after" photo:

Isn't it cool??

Coveted Toy

I was down with a headache this evening, could not even bring myself to sit up and play with Sofia.

While I was resting on my bed, she wandered into my bedroom and went to her favourite corner where my latop and handbags were. Luckily my laptop was closed, so she happily helped herself to my handbags and stuff, ripping apart whatever she can find.

Usually I will stop her by zipping up my bags to prevent any damage to my belongings but I was too tired to interfere today. Sofia managed to get hold of one of the most coveted toy today - my wallet.

Look at my poor wallet - it was cut opened with all its "internal organs" dug out and splattered all over the floor.

Feed the Cat

Sofia is really into FeFe these days. We had made the balcony in our living room FeFe's room, where her water, food and potty are, and Sofia loves to walk around the balcony. Sometimes she would be looking out for the golfers and their buggy or neighbours taking a walk on the steep slope leading to the top of the Bukit Utama. But these days, she is into FeFe's water and crackers.

Initially, Sofia started showing interest in FeFe's water and food bowl by pointing to them earnestly. Then one fine day, I caught her squatting down, peering into the food bowl, reachout and took one of FeFe's cracker between her fingers and poped it into her mouth!! Fortunately, I managed to stop her JUST IN TIME. Sweat.

The next day, I was tearing up some raw vege for FeFe into her food bowl and Sofia came around again. I showed her the vege and told her FeFe eats vege and greens are good for health so she should also eat vege. The next thing I know, Sofia squat down, picked up some vege from the bowl and was going to pop them into her mouth again! Horror. So I got to take the vege away and explain to her why she cannot eat these ...

Today, Sofia is into feeding FeFe.

She has been fiddling with the cat food bottle and spoon the whole morning, trying to get FeFe to eat from her hands. I wonder what would be next?

Red Cliff

For our weekly date this week, Daddy and I decided to catch the latest movie in town - Red Cliff, directed by John Woo. Daddy was very keen to catch this one and had very high expectations of the movie. I am not so much into history but since the cast had pretty experienced actors, I am quite sure I would enjoy the show.
Here are some background on the show : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Cliff_(film)

I was given free narration throughout the show cos my handsome date could not wait to show how knowledgble he was impart his knowledge to me and had to tell me the poor lady in the show was going to jump into the well before she did.
Overall, I found the show quite enjoyable and some how the characters in the movie reminds me of some of the birds we saw at the birdpark yesterday:

Zhuge Liang?

Zhou Yu?

Guan Yu?

Zhang Fei?

Not sure if you would agree with me?

Let's go see birds!

The weather these days have been fantastic and I have been itching to bring Sofia out for some fun this weekend. During one of our leisure drive around KL, we came to know of KL Bird Park located in a very scenic park called the Kuala Lumpur Lake Gardens. We are not very much of a bird lover but the weather was just perfect for an outdoor excursion and we just do not want to waste it. So it was decided - the Bird Park we shall go today!

We started off with breakfast at McDonald's near our house, wanted to introduce the delicious pancakes to Sofia but she was much more interested in the new place and Ronald McDonald than the pancakes. In the end, we packed a pancake with us and fed her in the car.

We arrived at 1030am and there was already quite a crowd in the park. Daddy and I were pleasantly surprised, the park was huge, clean, very shady and cool and most importantly, it is home to more than 2,000 birds of approximately 200 species of local and foreign birds.

More details can be found on their website: http://www.klbirdpark.com/

Here are some photos of the beautiful birds we saw.

An unusual peacock specie we have not seen before.

This hornbill originates from the same land as Daddy and Sofia!

A very pretty peacock wearing a beautiful and striking coat.

A flamingo deep in thoughts.

A bright red flamingo that was too hard to miss.

A Toucan which we thought bears some resemblance of the Hornbill.

A baby flamingo i think?

My baby at the fish pond wanting to go in for a dip.

We ended the trip at about 1205pm cos it was Sofia's naptime and we could see her exhausted from running around the park. We packed everyone into the car again and true enough, Sofia was sound asleep within 5 mins!

Daddy drove around a bit and we found an old coffeeshop along one of the old streets in KL city and had very good wanton mee for lunch. We were so hungry and gobbled down the mee in minutes. Unfortunately I was not carrying Sofia in a very comfortable position and she woke up just as we were almost done. She also had some wanton mee and enjoyed it very much!

We headed straight to Bangsar after lunch for her arts and play class at Gymboree. Sofia did not quite enjoy the art class though, perhaps it is too early for her? But she did enjoy the play class though, and was lost in her "bubble" world again.

We finally headed home after the class and this was how Sofia look like after a long day out with us.

Gymboree @ Bangsar

We finally found the time to bring Sofia to Gymboree today. We know Sofia enjoys the classes at Gymboree vey much and it was our intention to let her continue the classes once we move to PJ but it was not untill today, 3 months since we moved, that we found the time to bring her there today. We forgot the camera in a hurry. As usual.
Our girl felt SO at home at Gymboree, though it was the first time, she did not shed a single tear or even enter the crying mode! She was rather shy initially but 5-10 mins into the class, everyone was her friend and Sofia was making herself comfortable with all the setups there.
I can only kick myself in the foot for leaving the camera at home, I could have capture so many priceless photos today.

Sofia the Doodle

Recently, Sofia likes to grab hold of any stray pen lying around the house and start doodling on her feeding time record book or her high chair. I was scratching my head over where to find the appropriate materials for her newfound habit. My friend in Kuching, Mummy Doraemon, had the perfect answer for me! She bought a pack of these non-toxic Faber-Castell crayons and a few pieces of white mahjong paper for Moh-Moh to doodle and it was more than enough to make a toddler happy!

I did not even know such things exist! All I can remember of my crayon days were the sticky-waxy feelings on my fingers, not the mention the stains on my clothes, hand and everywhere. I am so glad such good stuff are available for kids now and for mothers too, we can now save time on cleaning!

On my way to TTDI to pick up FeFe from her "hotel" yesterday afternoon, we happen to park right in front of a stationary shop and I went in with much glee to get some crayons and paper for Sofia too.

Hope to post up some of her artwork soon!

Vitamin C

I have been recommended to give Sofia a daily dose of Vitamin C to build up her immune system against flu bugs. Great idea! The doc always prescribe some Vitamin C for me too whenever I am down with flu. So I went to arm myself with a bottle of Vitamin C from the pharmacy today and this shall be part of Sofia's daily booster from now - 2 tablets of milk colostrum + 2 tablets of vitamin C. Let's hope this helps!

Flu Again!

While Daddy and I had a great weekend in Kuching, going to our fav Nasi Briyani joint and having Sarawak Laksa for breakfast, Sofia fell sick on Sunday. We guess it must be due to the long hours we spent at LCCT on Thursday.

She was running around like a wild horse set free! With the huge crowd at LCCT, it meant plenty of virus in the air and Sofia must have caught some of it too.

So I brought her to Dr Lim this afternoon to get some help. As usual, she started crying the moment we step into the clinic. Even refused to let us put her on the weighing scale! Clung onto my maid like a koala bear. Imagine the scene she made when we went into the consultation room? The poor doctor was trying to appease her so that he can listen to her lungs properly but I am not sure how successful he was. The funny part was, in the midst of her fountain display, Sofia could still shake hands and "high 5!" with the doctor! So was she really scared or upset??

To Kuching We GO!

I need to go back to Kuching again, one of the reasons to is renew my work permit and this has to be done in Kuching since the original was issued there. This calls for a longer stay in Kuching as the processing will take more than a day. So I decided to pack Sofia and my maid with me and we will take Airasia this time round!

This is the first time we are at LCCT and the full glass panels at the waiting area gave Sofia a good view of the planes. My in-laws condo in Kuching faces the airport runway so she enjoyed watching planes taking off since young. She stood there at the glass window with her new friend watching the planes passing by and signing at the same time. "VVVROOOOOMMMM!!!!!" I wonder what goes on in her little head while watching the planes? I started tell her about this trip a few days back and how we are going to fly in the aeroplane and she should not cry and behave herself onboard, etc..

And yes, she did not fuss and cry this time round but she also did NOT sleep throughout the 1hr 45min flight! She was having fun on flight by walking between me and my maid, pulling the uncle's hair who was sitting in front, peeping over her seat to look at the baby behind. Sofia is kind of like our inflight entertainment set?

I actually planned to take the flight at 1155hrs which coincide with her nap time so that she can nap on the plane, unfortunately Airasia cancelled the flight and put us on the 1525hrs flight which was also delayed. In the end, we reach Kuching at 7pm and we were all so tired. Sofia was tired too, she spent 1hr+ running around LCCT, watching planes and disturbing other people. I hope our return trip next Tuesday would be smoother.

My Signing Time! DVDs

The Signing Time DVDs we ordered for Sofia finally arrived at the Post Office today! It took a grand total of 27 days to arrive from the US after it was shipped on 05 June. Or perhaps I had the wrong expectations? When I ordered their DVDs, it says all orders will be shipped via UPS. I thought "UPS" was United Parcel Service, a courier service company which I believe is reliable enough to bring my parcel to Malaysia safely.

But NO. "UPS" is actually "United States Postal Service" which is SingPost equivalent in Singapore. O.o. What a wrong assumption I made! I have nothing against United States Postal Service, just that it means my parcel is going to go through POS Malaysia! They would probably ask me what are the DVDs for, tax me heavily ... I got really worried after that. We actually considered for some time being ordering the Series Two DVDs cos the products are not cheap. So we tried watching Sesame Street and Baby Einstein with Sofia but she show no interest in both, in fact, she cried when we watched Sesame Street. Guess the furry monsters do not appeal to her.

I spent about 25 days waiting nervously at home, peering into the mailbox every now and then, hoping to receive some news on the DVDs. Finally on 26 Jun, I received a letter from POS Malaysia asking me to decide and appoint a clearing agent for my parcel. Of course I appoint them, don't know of anyone else who can help me on this. And the parcel finally reached Kelana Jaya Post Office on 01 July, ready for collection, yeah!

Of course it told me quite a while to figure out the way to Kelana Jaya Post Office and true enough, the taxes and custom clearance fee I had to pay came up more than RM300! Now I know. We really have to make these DVDs worth their while and generate better returns - by having more kids!