PonyTales

July has arrived and I realised I have not written anything yet. There are quite a few things happening in our household for this month alone…

• Zoe turn 18 months as of 1st July (1.5 years old already!). She is getting more and more cheeky by the day. I often wonder what tricks is up her sleeve next…sigh!
• Daddy and Zoe flew back to Kota Bharu without me today - to visit great Grandma as she has not been feeling well. Their first solo flight together - Father and Daughter…just got a call they have touch down safely. Today I felt the type of anxiousness seeing my loved one fly in a plane without me - such a mixture of feelings.
• Daddy will be leaving us for a business trip to US - next week…We will not be seeing him till early August…feels so looooooooooong….
• I hope my parents will come over to stay with me while Daddy is away - I really need someone to literally watch at Zoe while I am taking bath - at least! She can do quite a bit of damage if no one is watching her…even if someone is watching her!
• About a week before she turns 18 mths, Zoe discovered the fun of unscrewing caps from bottles or tubes (her nappy cream, toothpaste or anything she can get her hand on). One evening, she climbed up to the dining table, grab her unattended bottle of antibiotic (my fault!), unscrew the cap and pour the contents into her sippy cup…
• Zoe insists on putting the nappy cream by herself now after bath - she will take the nappy cream from me, unscrew it and dab little by little with her chubby fingers on her buttock. I wonder whether any other kids her age doing this!?
• I have just recovered from a major migrain that lasted 3 days - and I am still feeling the after effect now, numb all over and not functioning as well as I could…sigh…I really need my Excedrin soon….
• Got a notice that the unit 2 doors away from our condo is up for auction, the price is very attractive at more than 40k below developer price…tempting!

Well…I hope I sailed thru July and somehow…I am still hoping for a breakthru in certain part of my life…need to pray harder!

Early morning breakfast time…

Zoe: Daddy! Daddy…ehhh…..amm! (asking for pao)

Me: Zoe, say please…

Zoe: (quiet and look blur)

Me: You must say please when asking for pao…say please!

Zoe: (still looking blur…)

Daddy: (gave her a small piece of pao…)

Zoe: (chuckles and happily stuff the pao into her mouth…)

Me: Zoe…say Thank you!

Zoe: (resume looking blur…munching away)

Zoe: Mum mum!…ehhh

Me: Say Please…..

Zoe: (Look at me and kept quiet…)

Me: Apa la!

Zoe: Apa ar!!!…..

Me: (pengsan!)

I have many such lessons with Zoe. I am hoping she will pick up more words…polite ones. We are really still working on this….expect more such conversations to come….sigh….

Busy…busy…

I took leave to take care of Zoe yesterday as my babysitter took leave from me. She wants to take her children somewhere since its the school holiday.

I was planning for 101 things to do yesterday and most failed miserably. Next time, I must be more moderate and plan only to spend time with Zoe, no house chores. Zoe wants to play with me so much and keeps coming to the kitchen to push me out, mumbling to me asking me to play with her. Poor baby, I should have just focus to spend time with her rather than doing kitchen work.

She amuse herself by holding my leg and wanted to lift it up, just like how I hold her leg to wear pants for her…hahaha…very funny when she does that to me. She will laugh when she manage to hold my leg up. She even attempt to carry me while hugging both my legs…hahaha

Next time, I must make it a point to spend more time with her when I took off to stay with her at home

Alphabets pasta cooked with milk, carrots and broccoli

Since Zoe started solid, I have found good use of my kitchen. Before she was born, our cooking condiments, gas tank and even dish washer can last a year and still more than half available even after a year. Yeah, I wasn’t really into cooking when there were just the 2 of us. Eating out was much more nicer, cleaner (no mess in kitchen) and conveniently easier for us.

When Zoe was about to start solid feeding at 5 months, I knew then I have to feed her well, no matter how lazy I am. I started doing lots of research online, at the book store and asking some experience mothers on how to prepare meals for babies? how much to eat? what to eat?

The information was overwhelming and I foresee busy weekends preparing meals. It was then that I decided I will prepare Zoe’s food daily, thou the Nanny already said she is going to do it without extra charges. When I relate this to some other working moms like me, it sounded silly to them. But I have made up my mind. I want Zoe to eat healthy food and food she recognise is prepared by me. I don’t think that is a really silly thing to do…I think it will made a difference in the years to come…

The initial stage of feeding Zoe is challenging (puking after feed, the distorted face when the food/taste is new) but with my Nanny’s help, it wasn’t very long till I see her excitement when she see food. I think every babies need time to adapt to solid food. It is also a very rewarding experience to see Zoe enjoying the food I prepared. Now, she tails me to kitchen daily and have this longing eyes looking at me, sometimes uttering a word or two and opening her palm to me as if she is asking me, "What is cooking!? I wanna eat!…" I love these moments! (knowing all the efforts of preparing food daily, woke up 5am to cook and weekends marketing, washing, storing, packing are not wasted). I am still doing the same today, althou Nanny have taken over the cooking but all ingredients still comes from me - washed, cut, packed and just need to be cooked.

Some of the food that Zoe is taking and lovin’ it!

Porridge with:

• Cod fish/deep sea ma yau (also know as sun fung yue) or chicken (these have to be bought weekly at the wet market so its fresh - washed, cut into serving sizes and freeze in individual sealable portion bags. It is better to store all the sealed bags into plastic containers - cleaner and easier to take out.
• Dry scallops and ikan bilis (only given after 1 year old).
• Carrots (washed and chopped), broccoli (washed, soaked and cut), spinach (washed, soaked and take only the leavy part).
• French beans or long beans (washed and cut), corn, sweet peas, holland peas, tomato

Other foods she take:

• Sweet potatoes, potatoes, pumpkin (washed, cut and steamed before being cooked with other ingredients)
• Apple, pear, banana, papaya, mango, orange (these gotta be cooked and puree when she is 6 months till about 8 months) Previously, one portion is a meal add into rice cereals, now is more like a snack to her and no need to be cooked after 1 year old. When I was working in KLCC, there is this fruit shop nearby the LRT that sells really juicy and yummy fruits. I usually bought the fruits there.
• Oats with milk, cheese (given her Baby Bel, Krafts and Laughing Cows cheese - she loves it!), yogurt (I let her eat on her own, thou messy but she enjoy it a lot!), tofu, egg yolks, baby biscuits (her all time favourite snacks)
• Pasta, spaghetti, rice with soups, bread and toasts.

Before I started cooking for Zoe, I do not experiment with cooking much. I never knew that chicken, corn and carrots rice porridge is really yummy and fragrant without any seasonings! It really open up my imagination a lot to cook nice tasting stuff without seasonings as it is not good to feed baby with salt or seasoning before 1. I think I learned a lot about the basic taste of food and about blending the taste together to get a meal that is yummy (or edible!) - another valuable lesson in the journey of motherhood.

Nowadays, I do add a few drops of soya sauce to her porridge. I guess its alright to slowly introduce some salty stuff to her now that she is 14 mths. I can see that she is very delighted with the new taste of her porridge with a little soya sauce. She seems to want more even after a full bowl! Ahhh….the power of soya sauce…hahaha!

I am today more "market-wise!" (new word! hahaha!) What I am trying to say is I am more experienced shopping at the wet market than before. I used to get very lost in the wet market..shame!!
I knew the name to some of the veges I used to eat but have never bother to know its name! I knew that a kilo of deep sea ma yau at RM55 is too expensive (RM45 is about ok). I knew that a kg of cod fish can fetch up to RM70, a slice which is 1 week supply for Zoe is about RM25. I knew that Australian carrots are juicier, bigger and sweater compared to those sold in hypermarket in packets (mainly from China and sometimes from Australia). Generally, the food in wet market are fresher and of a higher quality compared to hypermarket, thou it is slightly more expensive. Being a frequent customer now (every Sat morning), I am beginning to enjoy discounts from the folks in the wet market. This is good as they usually round down the figure I need to pay or gave me some free stuff (extra tomato or vege) or some extra meats at no charge!

Yet another life lesson being a Mom and not that boring as I would have imagined 5 years ago

These are some of the photos taken during CNY eve and 1st day of CNY in Kota Bharu. We only manage a few pics as we were too busy eating or feeding Zoe…hehehe

OK, this shot is not in KB but I just wanna put it here as Zoe is so cheeky running around the house while we do our final packing on CNY eve. Notice the bouncing hair!

Like Father, Like Daughter - Zoe taking a nap just like Daddy at the living room. Manage to have a power nap right before we leave for Tumpat.

Reunion Dinner in Tumpat. I bought along a pre-packed ‘yee sang’ just to add a little fun to the reunion.

This four season dish was prepared by Zoe’s Grand Aunt.

Great Grandma’s house is half wooden and half brick. A traditional kampung house built on stilt. We are at the dining and kitchen area, which is built on the ground. This might be the last shot of us in the house as there are plans to replace the kampung house with a commercial building.

Zoe with Daddy at the front of Great Grandma’s house - 1st day of CNY. The front of the house is a big wooden platform with 3 wooden day beds for family and friends to sit around and chat or have tea time. Great Grandma usually sits at this area and there will always be friends/neighbours who pass by and stop for a quick chat - that is the way of the kampung life.

Zoe having a feel of the wooden floor…hahaha!

SIL’s Birthday Cake!

We bought a Birthday cake to celebrate SIL’s Birthday which falls on January. SIL insist to celebrate all our Birthdays together since there are 4 of us in the family who are born in January…hahaha! The kids have the most fun!!!

On the 1st day of CNY, I was surprised by Zoe as she climb the staircase by herself at MIL’s house (double storey). Toddlers really learn at lightning speed! I literally spend the next few days (while at home) sitting by the staircase supervising her climbing addiction…

As usual, we went house visiting on the 1st day of CNY and we we served the usual spread of nasi dagang, nasi kerabu and laksam (my favourite!). I can never get bored with this stuff! The home made satay at the 2nd house was to die for. I have never tasted such a delicious and aromatic satay before - can beat Satay Kajang anytime!!! (Sorry, Kajang folks…ehehehe).

Oh, I must also mention that MIL purposely ordered a big pot of home cooked laksam for me!!! Wooohoooo!!!! It tasted heavenly and I ate 2 big bowls within a day (I can eat this stuff 3 meals a day). MIL and SIL woke up early and went to the market to get the raw herbs and veges to garnish the laksam. She also bought the rice noodles for the laksam. I learned that the rolled up flat large noodles (something like chee cheong fun but bigger size) are called Lakso and the thin noodles are called Lakse. Again, I totally forgotten to take photos of this favourite food - simply too greedy and start eating at the first sight of it. Thanks MIL for this unforgettable Laksam!!!

We did not manage to hunt down the Royal Murtabak but since MIL has been cooking so much, the whole house literally smells like tomyam! I would rather stayed at home for all the home cooked meals. I especially love the stir fried pork slices with fried lemongrass and chilli. Yummy yummy!

We did not manage to go to the duty free zone this time as Daddy suggested that we go the next round, as we plan to drive home. That way, we can buy more stuff and not worry about luggage weight too much.

So, in order to ease my shopaholic addiction, we went to Bazaar Buluh Kubu and Pasar Siti Katijah to look for some batik dress for my mom. There were lots ready made baju kurung moden this time around and I was so tempted to get one for myself. The designs are really nice and sexy too (see thru materials in layers) but they were too pricey and I dare not bargain too much. One set starting price is at RM350! I must prepare more cash and go with MIL next round. MIL told me that they are prepared to bargain usually and it will not be so expensive if the locals buy it - I definitely failed miserably trying to look like a local there

Anyway, I’ll be back!!! Hahahaha…

On another happy note! Zoe started calling me "Mameee!" since this CNY . I realised that when she really wanted my attention , she will call me "Mameeee!" but being the cheeky Zoe, she will only call me when she likes it! Anyhow, I am happy la….hehehehe

I was feeling quite excited about going back for CNY in KB this year, at the last minute . We picked up SIL from her house and off we went to LCCT in an Airport Limo. I must comment that the Airport Limo (Waja) was quite a decent ride for a reasonable price (RM51.3). Thanks to Jon Jon for tipping us this at the last minute as we were contemplating to drive and park at the LCCT this year.

The plane took off on time and as usual, hubby met some school friends at the airport going back for CNY as well. I noticed that this has been a usual trend with hubby, there are always friends that end up queing together with us when we go back KB. He really got lots of friends from the same hometown, no doubt as his school is huge and one of the only 2 famous Chinese school in KB. He chatted with his friends while I took Zoe for a tour in LCCT after we check-in. Zoe was having so much fun running around the LCCT departure hall, checking everything on her sight. When we were at the airport shop selling chocolates/sweets, she keep pointing to the chocolates indicating she wants it. She almost climb up to the plastic container to grab those chocolates wrapped like sweets! I was wondering how she know those stuff nicely wrapped were edible…sigh! My Zoe! She simply wants everything! Hubby came to the rescue shortly, and I am glad hubby’s presence can distract Zoe instantly. Sigh…Daddy’s daughter!

The flight was pleasant and Zoe did not make much fuss, just every bit the curious baby she is and exploring all the books and pamplets available. There was a little boy seated behind us so Zoe had fun climbing unto the chair and shaking hands with him. When Zoe babbles non stop, the boy leans over and ’shhh…’ at Zoe. Zoe just looked puzzled and resume back her activities…hahaha!

Before we got bored, it was already time to land as the captain announced it. We landed in KB at around 2:35pm and reached home at 3pm++. At the arrival hall, again Zoe was running happily checking out everything, while Daddy and SIL wait to collect our luggages. There was a custom officer there that was amused by her as she seems quite tiny (in her new dress) to be so mobile and chatty and asked me how old is she? Opps!

This year, I noticed that MIL is extra extra very happy to have all of us at home. The house felt really lively as it is the first time of the year we have 8 adults and 3 toddlers/baby at home. I can see that MIL and FIL are very delighted, regardless the chaos and noise level. This year, MIL has been doing quite some shopping to prep the house and we went home and found a new big fridge, air conditioned room, king size bed and water heater in our room’s toilets. Whao! for a city girl like me, these are necessities for survival, in hot and humid KB! :p

We rested for a while and drove to Tumpat for CNY reunion at Grandma’s house. We went along with FIL’s car and the air cond was not working, it is a 20+ years old car. I was expecting Zoe to get very cranky as it will be so hot and sweaty in the 40 mins drive to Tumpat. We wind down all the windows and as the car goes, it was very windy and quite bearable. Instead of being cranky, Zoe actually hug me so tight like fearing for her dear life as she is not used to the wind blowing at her from a moving car…hahaha! She fell asleep moments later and the journey was actually quite pleasant. Thank God!

We had reunion dinner at Grandma’s kampung house - kampung style. It was very simple home cooked dishes, unlike the gastronomic stuffs we have in KL. Food in Kelantan (even Chinese) are usually made from simple ingredients and some are eaten raw but it tasted really awesome, with some Thai and Nyonya influence. We went home at almost 9pm and hubby’s uncle suggested that we drive his Vios home since FIL’s car has no air condition. I was so glad for the offer and once we were in the car, we cannot stop comparing the car with our own car since they are a generation apart…hahaha!! Suprisingly, Zoe did not climb about but sat at my lap and slept thru the journey home. I think she is just so tired from all the travelling.

More about our 1st day of CNY on the next post with some pictures

Yippeee! We just drove back our new car yesterday nite!

I was quite surprise at how quick the salesman got the car for us. We packed our dinner and was at the Toyota showroom to check on our family’s new addition.

When we arrive there (all excited!), there was a happy Malay family already checking their car. I can see how happy and proud the mother was…checking and at the same time posing and taking photo with her son’s brand new car. They also choose the black coal colour but E model.

We waited for a while for the happy family to inspect their car before our turn.

Our new baby "Nemo" was parked outside the showroom - looking as good as we have imagined it. The Toyota sales people set up a tent outside their showroom and parked the new cars there, rather than let the car parked under the hot sun - quite toughtful!

Initially, we were told that we could not get the number plate we wanted. At the last minute, the salesman managed to get it! and was laughing away when he spoke to me on the phone. I was thinking either he gets so happy cause he manage to fulfill our wish or he is actually very happy cause he manage to make some $$ out of the chosen number. We paid RM450 for this number and I felt that it is expensive. Hubby wanted the number and so I obliged lor…

I drove my faithful litte Kelisa home with Zoe, while hubby drove the new ride home. I gave Zoe some Gardenia bread to keep her entertained while on the short journey home. Thank God she was ok with me alone in the car. I was praying that she will not make a big fuss as it was already almost her sleeping time. With all the excitement, I managed to say a little prayer of journey mercy and thank God for his provision for all of us before we got home. Hubby commented that the car seems bigger than the time we test drive it and he is still trying to get used to maneuvering this new baby.

After we have settled, we drove the car out to the petrol station to fill up. The salesman fill up only a quarter tank earlier. I fed Zoe her milk and she drift into lalaland in the comfort and tranquility of the new car. I thought to myself at that moment that it has been quite a while since we felt such comfort in a car. It has been quite a journey and days of admiring the bigger/better sedan cars that pass us everytime we go out. Hubby said now we are driving one and the feeling is just surreal…Memories of all the remarks we got about our mini Kelisa just vanish into thin air. We have resisted so far and this moment of savouring the comfort and peacefulness in this new car is worth all the wait

Still on cloud nine this morning, we drove Zoe to the babysitter in the new car this morning. Zoe being wide awake early in the morning, was a bit confuse with the new car, new smell and new atmosphere. It did not take her long before she was climbing all over the car and feeling and knocking everywhere. I let her roam freely this time so that she can have some time to get used to the new car. She seems to enjoy the stability of the car and was calling out to Daddy all the time…hahaha…maybe asking Daddy whether she can test drive it.

Well, pray and hope that this new ride will serve us well and keep us all safe and comfortable for many journeys ahead