'Tumbuk Cili'

Juan Or loves doing the 'tumbuk cili' (pounding the chili in the pestle and mortar) act - lifting his legs up high in the air and then stamping the legs down onto the floor with force, producing a thudding sound. The 'tumbuk cili' phrase was coined by his paternal Grandma and it began like this:

In the wee hours of the morning at about 4.00 am, Mommy had already finished breastfeeding Juan Or but Juan Or refused to go to sleep and wanted to play. So Mummy left him on his mattress to play by himself. So he started pounding the floor repeatedly with his legs. A few days later, his paternal Grandma started mentioning about the pounding sound she heard that day and thought that this must be the work of some crazy neighbour who started pounding chilies (to prepare sambal for nasi lemak, perhaps?) during the wee hours in the morning, only to know later that it was actually her grandson's work!

Rock-a-bye Baby

Juan Or woke up for milk at 1.30 am today. The room was dark and only a little light entered the room. After changing his diaper, breastfeeding him and manually expressing out some more milk for storage, Juan Or was still not anywhere near sleepiness. By the time Mommy went downstairs to store the milk in freezer and went up to the room again, it was already 2.30 am. Juan Or was happily playing by himself. He grabbed a squeeky monkey book and was biting the edge of the book. So cute! But Mommy had to take the book away from him or else the book would be too wet from his saliva.

Juan Or looked on at Mommy - wanting Mommy to play with him. So Mommy put him on the bouncinette and started rocking him. His cute little right hand held on to the side frame of the bouncinette, his face turned to look tenderly at Mommy. Mommy looked into his eyes. Mommy can see that Juan Or felt thankful and happy that Mommy played with and entertained him even in the middle of the dark night and even though Mommy was feeling sleepy. Such loving eyes! Mommy will never forget such tender moments!

After that, Mommy put Juan Or on the bed to lie next to Papa. Shhhhhh.....Papa was sound asleep! Juan Or put out his hand to pat on Papa's rib, chest and upper arm. Papa awakened a little and gave Juan Or a pat on his head and went back to sleep. Zzzzzzzz...........what a Papaboy!

Later on, Juan Or indicated that he wanted to suckle again. So Mommy cradled him in the arms to breastfeed him. Just before starting to suckle, Juan Or paused and looked at Mommy with a smile and then smiled again. How sweet! Mommy will never forget your loving smile. Mommy loves you, Juan Or!

After suckling, Juan Or struggled a little and Mommy quickly put him back to his mattress. Juan Or immediately zzzzzz........

Mommy quietly climbed to the bed, lay next to Papa and zzzzz........

It was 4.00 am.

A-neh-neh: Juan Or in Deepavali mood

On the eve of Deepavali (i.e., 26th October 2008), Mommy started noticing Juan Or shaking his head from side to side....very much like how Indians shake their head when they talk. And it's not only one time that Juan Or did that, but few times in a day, and few times also on Deepavali day! Hehehe....does Baby know when is Deepavali? Does Baby know that some Indians shake their heads as they talk?



Papa jokingly asked Mommy whether Mommy had taken the wrong baby home from the hospital. Mommy laughed and said,"Who knows....we could have taken a Brahmin baby home!"

Juan Or a.k.a. Lok Yuan Xue

Hello! My actual (or official name) is Lok Yuan Xue. "Yuan" as in 'money' and "Xue" as in 'school' or 'study'. I am half-Hainanese and half-Hokkien, but actually I do have some Cantonese blood inherited from my paternal Grandma. My Hainanese name equivalent to Yuan Xue is Juan Or. I think Juan Or is much easier to call, Yuan Xue is not that pronunciation friendly! In fact, everyone at home including the babysitter call me Juan Or. It is only at the clinics that I'm called Yuan Xue. I was born on 12th May 2008 at 4.35 am in Hospital Kebangsaan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (HUKM). It is based on the hour of my birth that my paternal Grandpa suggested that name for me and both my parents agreed to it.

This is how I looked like on the day I was born:

On the day I was born, I had small white spots (looks like white heads) called milia on my nose.

My Papa was wondering whether the milia is OK or not, so Mommy said that's nothing to worry about...it will disappear in no time at all and sure enough it was gone by 2 weeks! Can you see that frown on my eyebrow? I got that from Papa who got it from Grandpa! Hehehe....some more frowny face photo....

But actually I'm now a cute, cute baby! This is me at 4 months plus!

Ah-goo-goo!