Black Dessert

Sofia had black sesame paste for dessert the first time today.

She looks like a dirty mouse who had just eaten some stolen cream.

A Taste of KL Life

My parents-in-law are here to visit and Daddy and I felt happy to have a long weekend to spend time with them here. We decided to bring everyone out to have a taste of KL wanton mee at Jalan Ipoh. Daddy and I happened to find this coffeeshop by chance and we found the wanton mee very tasty, of course, a generous dose of lard works wonders as a tast enhancer.

Sofia enjoyed the noodles very much too, other than having fun playing with it.

Sofia looks so ungraceful here, eating with her leg propped up on the chair.

After lunch, we had a rare opportunity to be invited to a friend's house in Saujana Golf course. It was a really a big and beautiful house. The house was sitting on 2 acres of land right in the golf course and it was surrounded by greenery. Beautiful. Our friend had a cosy private swimming pool, unfortunately we did not have our swim gear with us.

The house was too big to be captured in a single shot.

Sofia took about half an hour to warm up, fortunately there were three rabbits kept as pets and they helped broke the ice. She was so fascinated and was going ga-ga over them. The next thing I knew, she was zooming around the house like a little rat, sniffing out all the decorative stuff in the house. Then I started to have cold feet. Those crystals and ornaments looked like they worth an arm and a leg. What if Sofia breaks one of those? That would blow my bank account and cost me a couple of fingers as well?

So I quickly bring Sofia outdoors. There was a small field within the house and soon, Sofia was having a good time running and playing around the field. For the first time, I felt safe for Sofia to run barefooted on the grass. I can almost be sure that there is no broken glass or cigarette stubs to hurt her. It felt really good to have our feet rested on the carpet grass instead of shoes. Sofia was not very used to the crispy grass and soon switched to the pebble stone pavement instead.

She felt a lot more at ease on the pebblestome pavement.

A tired girl after running round and round and round the field.

Sofia doing the "freeze" sign, so that I can take a photo of her.

It was a really good workout for both of us, we ended up sweaty and smelly but i enjoyed myself very very much.

I heard there is a botanical gardens somewhere in KL, think I have to bring Sofia there one of these weekends.

My Eighth Day in School - w/o Mummy

"Sofia is adapting well to school and we are seeing improvement everyday.", the principal told me when I picked Sofia up today.

I checked my measuring tools and they tell the same story.

Water - Not finished.
Milk - Untouched.

No more crying when we met at 1130pm, Sofia even went to play again and relunctantly left me when I asked her to.

Verdict : Occasional shower

My Seventh Day in School - w/o Mummy

School was better today, though Sofia still cried when we parted.

The water and milk were only half consumed when I pick her up and no more bawling when she saw me, which was a great consolation.

Verdict : Thunderstorm

My Sixth Day in School - w/o Mummy

Sofia is back in school today after a week's break. I think she forgot all about it after one week.

Thus this morning was extremely messy, tears were everywhere and she was crying and screaming when I left. What a bad start.

I packed a full bottle of water and a full bottle of milk (180ml) for her in the bag. These are my tools for measuring how much comfort she needs in school. When I picked her up today, she has already finished all the water and milk. She cried again when she saw me.

Verdict : Catastrophe

My New Friend - Barney

Daddy and I were at The Curve for our weekly date late last night and there was some book sales going on there. Daddy, being a bookworm, of course would not give it a miss. I love to read too, but it is just so hard to squeeze time for myself nowadays. It would take me ages to finish a book.

Instead, I was attracted to a cart full of DVDs at one end. There were some DVDs on 30-50% discounts and guess what, I found many Barney DVDs in the pile. They were going at RM15 a piece after discount and I thought that was a good price, as compared to the Signing Time DVDs. I felt almost compiled to get some because Sofia was getting sneak previews of Barney on TV3 and she was hooked. In the end, I chose two which she would most likely be interested in.

She was fast alseep when we got home last night, so I tried it out this morning and she enjoyed it very much, especially "Let's Go To The Zoo". Phew!

But I think she could not make out a single word what this pink dinosaur was talking about. He does not speak in a clear clean tone like Auntie Rachel, neither does BJ or Baby Bob. Even Dadddy and I, as adults, had difficulty in catching the words, if not for the subtitles. The real animals shown in the DVD was good though, we all enjoyed that.

One thing I still do not understand though - why are all kids attracted to this weird looking pink dinosaur with fake white sparkling teeth? Beats me.

New Pearlies!

Sofia's top two canines are out, finally!

Immunisation

I was not aware babies nowadays got to have some many jabs from the time they are born till about 1.5 yo. It was like a monthly affair for the first year and bi-monthly affair during the second year. Did I have so many jabs when I was a baby? I doubt so. But I guess most parents are very kiasu nowadays (including me) and would also line up those optional jabs, eg. pneumococcal, alongside the compulsory ones.

Sofia has just completed all the compulsory jabs about a week ago with a new PD recommended by my neighbour. Sofia seems to feel very comfortable at his clinic and was happily playing with the toys. At least she did not cry until the PD did a check on her before the jab. Sofia's weight was 10.5kg and standing at 81cm. The doc commented she is of good weight and that really made me a happy mum.

Just as I thought it would be a while before she has to be jabbed again, the doc recommended giving her Hep A jab when Sofia turns two. The doc reasons that usually after the age of two, toddlers would start eating food cooked outside the house and it would be good to give her the Hep A jab. It makes sense to me.

When we stepped out of the clinic, I asked Sofia on the way home:

Me : Sofia, we have to come back when you turn two yo and have the Hep A jab, okay?

Sofia : -silence-

Me : We had an injection just now, let's come back and have one more when you turn two yo okay?

Sofia : Dak! Dak!

Sporty Family Day

Today was Sofia's school's "Sporty Family Day" where parent and the kid would team up and play telematches with others. It was an event for the whole school, meaning we would get to meet up and interact with the kids from the other branch at Damansara Utama. I was kind of excited and wanted to sign up with Sofia, we probably cannot participate well but it was a good opportunity for us to widen our social circle.

Unfortunately, Daddy is coming home today after spending a good two weeks in Phoenix and timing clashes. If we go to the event, Sofia would not be home to welcome Daddy when he returns. In the end, we decided to stay home to welcome the "lao" baby back.

Close Your Eyes

This is what Sofia does when you tell her,"close your eyes please".

I love this expression.

My Fifth Day in School - w/o Mummy

Our conversation this morning ...

Me : Sofia, shall we go to school today to play?
Sofia nodded her head.
Me : Good girl, let's go to school and play with all the gor-gor (boys) and jie-jie (girls) ok?
Sofia nodded her head.
Me : Sofia, when you go to school, mummy needs to go the market for a while to buy fish and vegetables for dinner tonite, ok?
Sofia : -silence-
Me : Mummy will just go for a while and will come back and pick you up from school, ok?
Sofia nodded her head.

I wondered if she understood what I said? I think she did cos she clung onto me the moment we reached school and whenever Auntie Tan came close to play with her or carry her, she clung onto me even harder. I reminded her again about our conversation this morning and I need to go to market. This time round, she replied ,"Tak tak!" which means "no" in Malay. Oh no.

In the end, I got away today at double the speed and this time round she was already wailing before I passed the door. Bleh. I went home and got some work done. Somehow I think she will do better today.

I went back at 1130am to find her teary face and when I hugged her, she started complaining! I thought she was crying but no, she was whining as if crying, but not a single drop of tear she shed. I wanted to laugh at her but I could not. So I gave her praises and told her that she did well. Auntie Tan told me she cried and slept for about half an hour, then in between play, she also cried a bit, but generally ok. I guess Sofia is on track then? The principal told me there were kids who would cry continuously and were impossible to soothe and calm. For those kids, they have no choice but to send them back and the parents would have to look for alternative caregivers.

It looks like Sofia is going in the right direction but would still take a bit of time to adjust. Well, I certainly do hope so too.

My Fourth Day in School - w/o Mummy

Today marks the fourth day in school for Sofia and I have to start my disappearing act today. Sounds easy rite? Certainly not!

We went to school as usual, Sofia still refuses to go into the sand pit, using all her abdominal muscles to pull her legs up whenever I try. Never mind, we went around the garden, had some fun with the bicycles, etc. Then it was indoor time. This was probably the best opportunity for me to disappear cos she would start exploring herself. So everyone went in after washing their sandy hands and feet. Sofia followed the crowd in and the teachers were ready.

I made a quick scramble for the gate and drove off. In my mind, I can imagine her wailing already. I felt so bad but there is no turning back. This is the first time I am leaving her all alone to face her fears and insecurities, how could I do that? But I know this is something every kid and parent got to go through, just got to face it someday.

I drove around the neighbourhood absent-mindedly, peering into some of the houses under construction to see if I can steal some ideas from them. Went to the market to get some parsley and spring onions, look at my watch for the hundredth time ... time seems to pass so slowly. I wanted to go home but what if she needs me, like within 5 mins cos she vomitted after crying? It was so tough to "kill" that one and half hour.

Finally I went back to school at 1120am to see my baby asleep in Auntie Tan's arms. My heart was broken, this is the first time Sofia has ever slept in a stranger's arms. She must have been so tired from crying that she asked for milk (for comfort) and fell asleep after drinking. I scoped up the sleeping girl, put her in the car seat and drove her home.

At the back of my mind, the principal's warning was running through my mind again,"Are you ready for this? If you are ready, you must harden your heart when she cries for you ..."

Bae-bi & Dog

Sofia started babbling these two words very clearly all of a sudden two days ago.

"Baebiiiiiiiiish! Baebbbble. Baish. Baeeeeee ....." Then all of a sudden, loud and clear "BABY!"

So I gave her an applause and encourage to repeat "BAby! BAEby!". But sometimes she would play a fool and jumble up all the words. This is the second two syllabus word she can know speak. First was "bubble" and now "baby".

She managed to get "dog" right the first time and we can see she is very pleased with herself when we shower her with praises and claps.

I just can't seems to succeed in getting her to say "cat" instead of "mao mao". In fact Daddy only teached her "mao", how did "mao mao" come about?

Never mind, since I am her English teacher and Daddy is her Mandarin teacher, and Sofia speaks more English than Mandarin, I win!! Haha.

My Third Day in School

Friday is "water play" day in school and I dressed Sofia up for the occasion. She was also anticipating the water session in school cos I have been telling her about it since the night before. This morning, she happily got into the pool and she was all alone cos many of the kids have either fallen sick or just recovered so the pool was out of bounds for them. They could only play outside the pool. I kept my fingers crossed that she will not fall sick too.

After the pool session, it was indoor play and she immediately went for her favourite - the stacking wheels.

It was Oliver's birthday today and his parents brought a pretty chocolate cake to school during lunch time, to celebrate his birthday with all the kids. We had all the kids crowded around the table, eyes glued to the cake, including Sofia. The next thing I knew, she stretched out her hand and grabbed the cake. I tried to save the cake but it was too late. Part of the cake was bald with the chocolate cream scrapped off. I was super embarassed and apologized to the parents. Arrrghhh ... that little troublemaker ...

We went on to light the candles and sang "Happy Birthday" Song to Oliver. I took my camera and left Sofia alone to take some photos. It was a rare chance to have this bunch of kids standing together with minimal fidgeting for two minutes.

Halfway through the song, the birthday boy blew out two candles.

Then disaster no. 2 struck - little troublemaker stretched out her hand and grabbed one of the candles on the cake.

I was too far away to do anything.

A teacher nearby quickly took the candle from her hand and put it back in the cake before the song ended.

I don't know what the birthday boy's wish was but I wished there was a hole somewhere for me to hide.

My Day in Kuching

I went to Kuching for work again today, had to make it a day trip cos my big baby is out of town and the small baby is alone with the maid. It was tiring, no doubt. But today they MAS stewardess served me something HOT. It was nice and warm, as if it was cooked 5 mins ago, not refrigerated overnite. Finally. These two pieces of bread was called "crispy bread", though neither crispy nor crunchy, it is okay. The bread was warm and the sauce was a little hot and spicy but it really tasted good! It has been a while since I last enjoyed MAS inflight food.

It was a hot and humid day in Kuching when I arrived. The first drink that came to my mind is the three-layered teh-ci-peng in a coffeeshop in Greenheights. The bottom layer is the gula melaka, middle portion is evaporated milk and top it off with tea. Somehow I like this coffeeshop's combination best among those that I have tried in Kuching. Even my mum is a big fan of this drink! I hope to find a coffeshop in KL that serves this drink with the same standard some day then I can have it whenever the craving strucks!

My Second Day in School

Today is Tuesday and it is "Sand Pit" day in school, meaning the kids will spend about half an hour in the morning, playing in the sand pit. While I was driving to school in the morning, I wondered if Sofia would like sand? We have not brought her to any beaches so far because we fear the sand flies would attack her. Also, she likes to put her hands in her mouth, what if she swallow a mouthful of sand? How to ask her to spit them out?

I soon found out, this girl do not like sand AT ALL. As soon as I put her into the sand pit, she did all she could to get out and stared hard at her sandy feet. After that, she refused to walk/run/play and clung onto me like a koala. So I washed her feet clean to make her feel better and she came down to walk. I guess the sandy feeling needs some time to get used to, afterall, this is her first encounter with sand.

Sofia spent the rest of the time OUTSIDE the sand pit, refused to let me put her in again. It was really funny cos as I lower her further into the sand pit, she pulled up her feet against her tummy. You would have thought I was lowering her into a pot of soup brewing on the fire.

I am quite sure, after a few more sessions of sand play, she will have fun building sandcastles and burying herself into the sand.

Drinking using Straw

Sofia can finally drink using the straw today! Finally.
It all started when we were at Charlotte's 1yo birthday party just this afternoon. Daddy and I were sharing a packet of Yeo's winter melon tea and Sofia was curious about it too. So I offered her the packet drink and as usual, she will just chew and bite the straw. She still could not figure out how to close her mouth around the straw and suck. I have also given up trying to teach her and am just waiting till she is older, perhaps she will then know how to.

"Squeeze the packet." Daddy prompted.

So I squeeze the packet drink and the Sofia had a taste of sweet drink and her eyes SPARKLED. She started gnawing at the straw again, trying to get more of the drink. Then suddenly, she closed her lips around the straw and suck, just like that. Happily she drank and drank. Daddy and I hastily finished up the packet drink as we do not want her to have too much of the sweet drink.

And from that day onwards, Sofia started drinking from straw and was so happy with her newfound skills that she finished two MagMag cups in the afternoon!

My First Day at School

Today was Sofia's first day at school. Well, to be exact, it is more like a childcare place than a school. The school's name is Pat's Schoolhouse, located in TTDI where our future house would be. This was the most important factor to consider while we were school hunting. With all the horrible traffic jams during peak hours, we certainly don't want to be caught in anyone of them with Sofia struggling to get out from the car seat. Also, the fuel price is set to rise in Malaysia so it does not make sense to spend more time on the road rite? Pat's Schoolhouse is only a stone's throw away from our new house and we can actually choose to walk her to school if needed.

Many friends have asked why are we sending her to school so early? Well, the first big reason is, our domestic helper, Nur, is going home for good in Oct. She has done a fantastic job in taking care of Sofia since birth and they are really close.

We hope to achieve the following by sending Sofia to school:
1. Make Sofia less close to Nur by introducing more people into her life.
2. Make Sofia more independent by taking away her "personal maid".
3. Improve Sofia's social skills (right now she would cry whenever we bring her to somewhere new and cling onto us like a koala).

So you can imagine during the drive to school this morning, my mind almost exploded with so many worries, all the "what ifs' was just zooming across my mind one after the other. Of course I did the preconditioning thing by telling Sofia the night before that we were going to school the next day and she SHOULD NOT CRY in school. I went through this with her again in the morning.

Off we went. They had water play on Friday mornings, using a plastic pool filled with about 5 inches of water in the garden and all the kids were just enjoying it and basking in the morning sun. It was a PERFECT start. Sofia loves water and seeing so many kids playing together happily simply knock down all her defences. She was a bit skeptical during the first 5 minutes but no crying, brawling, clinging onto my leg or trying to "disappear" into me. I was so so happy, almost tempted to join her in the pool and splash around with her!

We had story time after that but she was more keen to explore the reading room and spent time checking out the toys, books, etc. After that, they had a small tea break where each kid was given a slice of bread and a bit of jam to eat. Sofia happily fooled around with the plastic knife and jam, something we would not allow at home. So school is fun eh? Music class followed after the break and they joined the older kids to sing English and Mandarin songs with many funny actions. At this point, Sofia was already so comfortable with the place that she started exploring the ground floor - the admin office, the room at the back ... I just stood there observing her, smiling from ear to ear.

We called it a day for her at about 1130am, though the half-day session we enrolled her for ends at 1230pm. Sofia was tired and it was close to her naptime so I packed her into the car with me with her milk bottle. Guess what? She fell asleep within 3 mins! It must have been an exciting and tiring day for her.

As for me, I felt pretty good with the school cos her class is small, only four toddlers with two teachers and the other three kids do not look like potential bullies or hooligans. I will be able to sit in with her for another week, after that, she will be on her own, well, wish us luck!