Getting Smart!

Jayden's mummy :- "

24th October 2008 - Tonite was a rainy and cold nite. As usual on tis Friday evening, i went off for aerobics class. Although the weather was cool tonite, i still sweat like crazy and was terribly exhausted. My stamina had worsen so much compared to previously when i was so devoted to modern dance at PowerMoves. Wow... i felt so lack of oxygen during my workout, and after tat i felt terribly sleepy when i climbed in hubby's LandCruiser to drive myself back home. Moreover the weather was rainy and cool and wid the pitter-patter on my windscreen, i felt even drowsier. So on the way home, i took out my handphone and called ngeebang. As usual, ngeebang will make some silly jokes, and wid his laughters accompanying me, i can at least keep myself awake.

When i reached home, i dragged myself to 102. Then i greeted my hubby and my darling son. Jayden was so happy to see me, and as usual he'll crawl over to my legs to greet me. Luckily he didn't insist me to pick him up and give him a hug today, for i was terribly wet from all my sweat. Then i went over to another corner to place my bag and my stuff. When i looked at Jayden, he was standing facing our shelf, and his cute little finger pointing to my bottle of Apple Cider Vinegar while smiling mischieviously at me. Hahahaha... i couldn't help but burst out laughing. I understand immediately wat he was trying to tell me.

I bought this bottle of Apple Cider Vinegar some way back a few months ago to make seakelp pickles. I only needed a little amount of vinegar though, but apple cider are quite expensive and getting the bigger bottle was a better deal. So i bought the bigger bottle of the vinegar and ended up, I have to start drinking it before it's expiry date. I read tat consuming apple cider vinegar can oso help our health in alot of ways such as lowering blood sugar, cholesterol perhaps, maintain weight, and alot more which i couldn't really remember. So I make it a habit to drink a glass of Apple Cider Vinegar mixed with Amway's Acerola Cherry everytime after my workout when i reach home. Moreover, my throat owest feel so dry for i must be quite dehyrdrated from all the exercise, and a glass of tangling and refreshing drink definately helps me to cool down before i go and take my bath.

I guess ahDen must be monitoring me for quite some time now, without me realising. He was pointing to my bottle of Apple Cider Vinegar to ask me to start making my usual drink! He is really so, so, so cute! Somemore he was chuckling and giggling at the same time. When i told hubby wat ahDen was trying to tell me, hubby seemed a little unconvinced. So he asked Jayden, "What is ahDen trying to tell mummy?". In response, Jayden point again to the bottle of vinegar and both hubby and I bursted into laughters. Sigh... he is really starting to understand our speech more & more. Besides tat, he oso starts to pick up our daily practices and beginning to understands more.

Another cute encounter happened yesterday. I washed his shoes on Wed noon for it was very dirty now. Then yesterday morning, i brought them out to dry on our balcony, right under the hot sun. When ahDen saw his shoes outside on the balcony, he seemed confused. He must be wondering wat are his shoes doing out there on the balcony. He must had felt funny at the same time, for he was chuckling to himself while looking wide-eyed at his pair of shoes out there under the sun. After a while he went off to play wid his toys. Then i took the opportunity to ask him, trying to test if he understood wat i was saying, "ahDen, WHERE are your SHOES?"

I observed him for awhile, and then he pointed his little finger in the direction of the balcony and point to his shoes on the ground! Hahaha.... so cute! I told hubby wat ahDen juz did, and again hubby asked him the same thing and again he gave us the same response, pointing to his shoes trying to tell us his shoes were out there on the balcony. =))

Tat time i was beaming all over. Deep in my heart, not only did i feel happy bcox my baby is getting smarter day by day, ironically I oso felt a tiny pang of sadness. Knowing tat my baby is growing up day by day, I kinda miss the time when he was juz a little helpless baby, relying so much on me. Those days are bound to be over pretty soon... as a matter of fact, REAL SOON! ;( But of cuz, i need to view all these from the positive aspect. Jayden is growing up fine day by day and yes, although he's venturing into toddlerhood now, he'll forever be my little baby in my eyes! ;)) "

'monkey' in 102

Jayden's mummy :- "

13th October 2008 - Looking after ah Den is really like looking after a monkey. He never stops moving around, never stops playing, never stops to rest once he is awake and the only time he rests is when he is sleeping. Today tis little monkey even learnt how to climb up the chair. First attempt, he didn't succeed. Tat was around noon time, and i'd bathed him so i juz let him play around before giving him his nap. When i saw tat he tried to climb up the chair, i juz let him be, knowing tat he'll never give up trying unless he realised tat it's impossible for him to achieve.

However, tonite amazingly he succeeded in climbing up the chair by his own. His daddy saw it and tot how clever his son is because he can climb up the chair by himself. I told hubby tat ah Den had been trying to do so the whole day, and he oledi had lots of practices until tonite, he finally got wat he wanted, tat was to stand on top of the chair by himself. Wat really attracted him was this very laptop, seated on top of the table, as well as the mouse and the rest of the stuffs we placed on top of the table. He's bored playing wid the rest of the things in the room and now he's aiming for the stuff on top of the table - his 'unreachable' toys!
Wat a 'monkey' my son is! How come my baby is so naughty and so active? Really becoming more & more like monkey! Enjoy watching him demonstrate his climbing skills. "

1st Clip : Jayden polishing his climbing skills around noon time!

2nd Clip : Approximately 9hrs later, he finally succeeded in climbing up the very same chair!

Oct upDates

Jayden's mummy :- "

3rd October 2008 – Today we’ll be flying bek to Kch again. Tmr wil be CheeYong’s big day and we’d promised to be back for his wedding dinner. I oso lost track of count how many times ah Den had flown by air til now. Today ahDen and mummy have Express Boarding so we are among the first to board the AirAsia plane. Knowing tat it’s festive season ~ Raya ~ and the plane wil definitely be packed, we’d spent additional and paid for express boarding so we can save ahDen from the inconsiderate ppl pushing around even though there’s supposed to be a queue. Sigh!

Every time I know tat it’s time to go bek home using AirAsia, my heart starts to worry. Sigh! I really don’t understand why the airline don’t give priority to pregnant ladies and oso mummies carrying babies or toddlers. Sigh! I wonder if it’d ever come across their mind tat carrying a 10kg++ object, and yet ‘fighting’ wid the crowd to get a place in the queue, is really very tiring. Sigh! Why I say ‘fighting’… educated and civilized ppl are abundant nowadays, but whenever u r in the queue to board an AirAsia plane, u suddenly realized there are no longer any educated and civilized Malaysians! Sigh! Really very pathetic!!

Of cuz we got pretty good seats on board today - cox we paid extra. AhDen is really becoming more n more familiar flying by air. He’ll pull out all the magazines and snack menus from the seat pockets in front of him, and today amazingly he tried to turn the lock tat holds the table in place. Hubby and I both think tat he finally realized there’s a table that can be stored when not in used there. Luckily his fingers are still not tat strong yet, or else there’ll be more jobs for daddy and mummy! We bought a packet of Milo for ahDen - RM6, and daddy keep on 'bising'... hahaha - and I gave him a packet of baby rice crackers. Wow… he was really having a good time flying!


Jayden trying to take out a piece of his Baby Bite!

Hmm... Having a nice slurp of Milo!

Putting a piece of rice cracker into his mouth.

Chomp! Chomp! So Yummy!

Feeling full. Burp!

When we reached Kch tat nite, we had light dinner at home before going out to haf dinner wid my mum and sisters. It’s my mum’s birthday today, and luckily we can still make it in time to celebrate with her. My sis ahFang made reservation at Ah Tou Seafood the day before and after dinner we went back to mum’s place to cut her bday cake. Happy Birthday ‘Nye-Ma’!

ahDen's Nye-Ma's bday cake!

Nye-ma wid her granddaughter and grandson!
Look at cute Esther sticking out her tongue!

My mummy wid all of us!

5th October 2008 – On this Sunday nite hubby came back real late for dinner. He was very, very busy til we had dinner at 8.30pm but of cuz I let ahDen had his dinner first. After dinner, we didn’t plan to go out anymore. In the afternoon around 2.30pm, we went over to my sister’s new house at 8th Mile. AhDen had such an enjoyable time there… me too… sis ahMing purposely kept some mooncakes for me to eat when I come back to Kch. Hee! She oso made fruit salads and a nice pot of hot tea for us tat afternoon. Luckily I had a nice & full meal for teatime tat afternoon, or else I definitely wouldn’t be able to wait til 8.30pm for dinner tonite.

While resting at home tonite, ahDen made some really funny sounds. He kept on saying ‘ka ka ka ka ka… “ continuosly and it sounded really cute. So I quickly took out our camera to record it. So cute! Really wonder wat he’s saying. “Ka ka ka ka …”

Take a look at Jayden's "kakaka" video clip.

7th October 2008 – A normal and real bored Tuesday afternoon. Hubby was terribly busy rushing to get his work done b4 we haf to fly bek to KK again, so ahDen and I had no choice but to stay at home. The best place to put ahDen when babysitting him is in our room. Tis is bcox with the closed door, he’ll have limited accessible space. Sigh! As usual I let him played around before giving him his afternoon nap, and seeing him playing by himself can be pretty amusing. In this first clip, he laughed when he saw me pointing the camera towards him, then he got down on the floor, clapped his hands and moved over to look for new things to play with. Hear how he chuckled… really a naughty boy!

1st Clip - ahDen's Mischievous Laughter

Tis 2nd clip ahDen is even cuter. I was watching my normal afternoon video series on tv, so i let ahDen played around by himself. Suddenly he crawled hastily over to the place where the sunlight shone on the floor. With the curtains tied back, the afternoon sun shone right into our room, and it amazed ahDen to see a big yellow patch of sunlight on the floor! He banged on the floor, and tried catching the yellow patch on the floor. I immediately got our camera to record this but when I got back, he wasn’t playing wid the sunlight anymore but he was trying to catch floating tiny dusts in the air. At first I had no idea wat he was doing, but when I sat down beside him and with the sunlight shining in thru the window, you can actually see tiny particles flying around. Hahaha…. ahDen was trying to catch dust in the air! So funny!"

2nd Clip - ah Den playing dust-catching!

Kids are really kids! So naive lor... 'hen tian chen' lor... ;))

TryinG 2 StanD

Jayden's mummy :- "
1st October 2008 - Today is the first day of Hari Raya. On tis public holiday morning, we went out for breakfast wid hubby's fren, ah Pau & his wife. We planned to go visit another fren after our morning breakfast, ShouMing & his wife. His wife had juz underwent in vitro fertilisation, and she needs plenty of rest and cant move around much yet.

These are the bunch of frens we normally mix around here. Today another couple, Daniel & his wife, and of cuz not forgetting their 3mth old baby boy are unable to join us. Ah Pau & his wife will haf a baby boy son soon early Jan next year. So among all of us, hubby & I are still the youngest but our son is the eldest. Seeing ShouMing's wife having to go thru so much in order to haf their own baby, really makes me feel i'm so much more fortunate, although i feel i really underwent alot of sufferings during my pregnancy.

Today at ShouMing's house, Jayden was so happy. I guess most probably it was because he finally has a much spacier and new place to explore. When we placed him down on uncle ShouMing's wooden floor, he was so happy and started chuckling. I kinda like his living room with wooden floor, because it's really a much better place for babies to crawl around. Tiles will be a much colder surface to crawl on, and it owest makes babies hands and feet so cold and chilly.

Jayden held on to the furnitures there and started going around the living room. Then he'll get down on the floor, and crawled beneath the dining table and chairs. Oh My God... wat a little monster. He'll stayed underneath the dining table once in awhile, and chuckled to himself as he sits there looking at the bottom of the table.

We found tat ah Den tried to stand on his own today. When i sat down on the floor, he stood up while holding on to my shoulders for support. Then he slowly let go his hands, and when he found tat he can stand on his own legs without holding onto anything for a few seconds, he was amazed. You can practically see his eyes lit up and a big smile forming across his face, as he laughed loudly at his achievement. We noticed he tried letting go his hands a few times and trying to stand on his own. Hmm... i guess ah Den most probably will start to walk around pretty soon. I wonder if it'll be before 2009. ;)) "

crawling on 4 limbs!

Jayden's mummy :- "
22nd September 2008 - I hadn't realised cox ah Den had been cruising around lately wid his 2 little legs while holding on furniture for support, and he seldom gets down on the floor to crawl like he used to wid his on his tummy on the floor.

Tonite as usual i went for my aerobics class. When i got home, i straightaway went to shower. Jayden as usual will come looking for me, wanting me to carry and to hug him. I was all wet and sweaty and really don't feel like picking him up. So instead i went straight to take my bath. Tat time, hubby said he saw ah Den crawling really fast, on 4 limbs towards the bathroom door in order to look for me! haha....

Tat nite we had Western meal for dinner. Hubby asked our restaurant chef to prepare lamb chops wid mint sauce, chicken chop wid mushroom sauce, creamy mushroom soup, and we still have half a bottle of red wine which we opened the day before, just perfect to go wid our lovely dinner. How wonderful... the bottle of red wine was a gift from a friend and the wine was really so heavenly... i really enjoy drinking wine so much! Yummy...

I fed ah Den wid his dinner and when he's full, he wanted to get down from his baby chair so tat he can walk around by himself. Since it's our own restaurant at Casuarina, we put him down so tat he can venture around by himself. He was holding onto the chairs there and starts to cruise around. I was enjoying my dinner, and cutting my lamb chops slowly wid my fork & knife, when ah Den suddenly squat down on the floor, and wid his hands and knees on the floor, he crawled as fast as he could, as if making an escape from the restaurant, crawling wid all his might towards the entrance of the restaurant, heading towards our hotel lobby! Tat time it didn't come across my mind tat he was crawling on 4 limbs... no wonder he can crawl so fast in his attempt to escape from us. All i had in my mind then was to chase him back and to finish my lovely dinner. =)

I guess now tat he knows he can crawl faster on 4 limbs, he definately will not crawl wid his tummy on the floor again like previously. Now he can crawls faster than he used to, tat mean i'll haf to chase him faster next time! "

My New Shoes!

18th September 2008 - Yippee! Today i finally got a pair of shoes. Mummy & daddy had been hunting for a suitable pair of shoes for me since a long time ago. I have really BIG feet for my age, and it's tremendously hard to find suitable shoes for me. Since i'm juz learning how to walk, mummy said i should wear shoes with soft soles meant for younger babies. It's because my feet are still growing and if i put on hard soles shoes when i'm still learning to walk, it's not good for my growing bones.

Mummy & daddy really took so much time to find the perfect pairs of shoes for me. However, all the local made shoes are so tiny in size, and those soft soles shoes normally are juz of size 1 or 2. But i need size 3 shoes and most the size 3 shoes are hard-soles! I guess i'm juz way bigger in size than most other babies... haha...

Once mummy & daddy found a pair of shoes of the right size for me at Poppies, The Spring Kuching. But tat shoes costs RM89.90 and it was way too expensive for a pair of baby shoes. The reason it is so expensive was because it was made in New Zealand. Mummy said they'll haf to find shoes made in western countries for me because i'm an 'ang mo' size baby, so i will need to wear 'ang mo' size baby shoes!

Tonite mummy & daddy brought me to City Mall, Kota Kinabalu. It'd been so long since we came shopping at City Mall and also i miss riding in my stroller so much. After mummy & daddy had dinner at KFC, they immediately went to hunt for my shoes at the baby stores there. They found the perfect shoes for me at the first shop we went to - Peekaboo!

I was amazed when i saw the very big teddy bear sitting on the floor of the shop and i kept on chuckling at the big bear. When mummy asked the sales attendant for baby shoes, the 'tau-ke-nio' of the shop immediately brought mummy a pair of 'Next' baby shoes. Daddy says 'Next' is a popular brand in United Kingdom. Haha... 'ang mo' size again. Once i tried it on, it's juz of the right size; not too big and not too small. There's still some room for my growing little feet, so when the lady said the price was RM45.90, mummy & daddy immediately agreed to get it for me.

Daddy said to juz let me wear the shoes immediately, and no need to pack my new shoes back into the box again. So after tat i went shopping around in my stroller, wearing my nice pair of new shoes!

My First Pair of Shoes!

20th September 2008 - Jayden with his new shoes on!
20th September 2008 - Jayden walking around Casuarina's lobby.

Happy 1st Birthday Jayden!

Jayden's mummy :-

"Partly the reason we stayed in Kuching so long tis trip back was to celebrate ah Den's 1st bday. Jayden's bday falls on 7th September 2008 and tis year it falls on a Sunday. We planned to hold a bday party cum dinner for him at The Banquet, and hubby says according to Foochow custom we should at least treat a few tables and invite relatives and close friends.

At first we thought of celebrating his bday on the actual day itself, but when we think over, most of the kids (ah Den's cousins) wil haf to go to school early on Monday morning. Moreover, our relatives from Sibu most likely wont be able to join if it's on Sunday. Likewise, if we celebrate a day earlier, great-grandma and also hubby's brother and his whole family will be able to come. So finally we confirmed wid my sis-in-law (hubby's 2nd sis) tat we'll hold ah Den's bday celebration on the 6th September, Saturday. Hubby's sis works with SanChin Realty - owner of The Banquet - and she really helped us a lot in preparing for ah Den's bday celebration.

Snapshots of The Banquet and MUS Grill & Lounge
Instead of holding the dinner at the main hall, sis said she helped us to book the 1st floor of the lounge cum Western restaurant - better known as MUS Grill & Lounge. It's a smaller hall and definately more private. Besides that, she oso helped to arrange for the 2main tables to seats 15 person, and the 3 other tables to seats 12 guests. She said although we don't haf tat many ppl, don't worry so tat all our guests will haf a much spacier place and needn't squeeze. She purposely ordered another small table to be placed at the end of the room for kids to eat there, or to play there if they want to. On tat day itself, some of ah Den's cousin even bring their colour pencils and do their colouring there! (How thoughtful my sis-in-law is!)

Actually there wasn't really tat much to do, bcoz most of the things were oledi settled before tat day. I ordered ah Den's bday cake from Taka King Centre. The 'taukeh' is my sis's fren so she can get discount for me. I ordered a big cake - 3.5kg - of vanilla fruit cake. All my family members love the vanilla fruit topping cake from Taka because it's not too sweet, and my sis normally request for the 'taukeh' to make the cake on the very day itself, so tat the cake wil be so-very-very soft and FRESH! Another request is to gif us more fruits, but i think wid the design i chose for ah Den's cake tat day, he couldn't put too much fruit on it or else it won't be tat pretty. The 'taukeh' was supposed to send the cake over to Banquet on the day itself, but somehow he forgot, and i was oso careless too cox i din call to remind him, but luckily the cake still reach in time! Phew!!! The 3.5kg cake costs us RM 171.50 wid the wordings "Happy 1st Birthday Jayden" nicely written on it. Tat was the price before discount... hehe... i purposely post it here so tat next time ah Den can pay me back! =))

ah den's 1st bday cake!

Backdrop deco tat nite with the theme colour purple & white!

For the dinner that nite, I went thru the menu months ago and cracked my head to come up with the perfect list of dishes to be served to our guests. Sounded very "kua-cheong" rite, haha.... Actually we always have dinner at The Banquet, so i kinda haf a rough idea wat dishes might be nice. Of cuz besides from the dishes being presentable, the prices of the dishes also haf to be within our budget. Tat nite we had a 10 course meal - and for a total of 5 tables the bill was RM2095 with free flow of soft drinks and chinese tea.

Everyone was so full and it was a relief tat all our guests had more than enough to eat. =)) Besides that, a lot of our guests oso commented tat the dishes were very tasty and unique. There were some very new and unique dishes, like the prawns wid wasabi on the Cold Plate, and oso the Hot & Sour Midin which they only blanched the midin in hot water without 'stir-fry'ing the veggie beforehand. The list of dishes for that nite was :-

1. 5 Variety Dishes Combination
2. Fried Longevity Noodles with Shredded Chicken
3. Braised Shark's Fin with Seafood Soup
4. Hot & Sour Midin
5. Deep Fried Fish Fillet with Butter
6. Braised Mushroom & Vegetable
7. Deep Fried Boneless Chicken with BBQ Sauce
8. Baked Fresh Prawns
9. Crispy Beancurd with Salad Cream
10. Sweetened Yam Paste & Sweet Corn in Coconut Milk

I dressed ah Den up in his new Poney T-shirt & Khakis which all the 'da jie-jie' from KL, namely yunnyi, hiewming, karhooi & seelee got for him. I purposely keep tat set of new clothes for him so tat he can wear it on his 1st bday celebration. There were the lovely gift packets tat we made for all the guests who attended the dinner tat nite, as a token of appreciation.

Another big THANK YOU to my mum and my big sis Ah Ming, for the trouble helping me wrapped all the gift packets. Ah Ming sis even helped me to print 'thank you' cards wid the cute cartoon 'Pocoyo & friends' on it and placed it in each of the gift packets. The contents of the thank you gifts are chocolates and wafers which i asked nb to help me to buy from Labuan, egg muffins or better known as 'kay neng ko' in hokkien which we purposely import from Sibu, and oso red egg. All the children were thrilled with the chocolates, and kids are really so cute... they immediately noticed the different types of chocolates and wafers in each packets. =))

Below are photos of ah Den's gift packets which his auntie ah Ming helped to make:-

Tat nite, ah Den received a lot of gifts and angpows from friends and relatives. When we got home after the dinner, we brought home some of the balloons used for deco. He was thrilled wid the metallic white & purple balloons. Haha... U can actually see how his eyes lit up when he saw the balloons. When we helped him to unwrap his presents, his excitements grew even more. He was busy playing wid everything. =))

Jayden was so happy tat nite and he went to bed really late... almost midnite at 11.30pm. He still wan to play wid all his toys and the new stuffs he got. Great-grandma from Sibu couldn't make it tat day, but she purposely asked hubby's bro to bring along ah Den's gift from Sibu. She bought ah Den a gold necklace - pure 999 gold which costs almost RM700. Sigh... her health wasn't tat good lately and she owest saved up her money and at times even feel heartache to use her own money to pay for her medical bills, but if it's to buy a gift for Jayden, she never hesitated. So hubby & I thought over and we agreed to gif grandma an angpow in return. Hopefully we can find some time to travel back to Sibu to visit her next time. She'll be very happy to see ah Den being a big boy now!

Our family photo on ah Den's 1st Bday!
My baby is finally 1 year old. How fast time seems to zoom past by... previously the tiny & fragile bb lying besides me during my confinement period, is now so big and so active, owest trying to climb here & there & everywhere!"