Gong Xi! Gong Xi!

"Gong Xi! Gong Xi! Gong Xi Fa Cai!"

Little Juan Or just can't wait for Chinese New Year! Christmas is not even here yet and here he is putting his little hands together to do Gong Xi! Gong Xi!

Actually, Juan Or does that gesture when he wants to hear his voice being muffled and unmuffled repeatedly (and as rapidly as possible)...much like how warrior Red Indians do to their voice when facing a battle.

Turning the Page

Just two nights ago, Juan Or was playing by himself (with a squeaky toy) in lying down position on his baby mattress. So Mommy gave him his rattle just for a change. Sure enough, Juan Or dropped his squeaky toy and turned his attention at biting the rattle. A few minutes passed and Mommy decided to read a book (baby boardbook type) with Juan Or. Mommy thought that Mommy might as well start reading with him first before he felt too sleepy and became fretful. So after going through the first two pages, Mommy said,"Juan Or, turn the page now." And much to Mommy's surprise, although Juan Or was using both his hands to hold his rattle to his mouth, his right hand left the rattle (left hand was still holding the rattle) and reached out to turn the page! Wah! Juan Or actually understand what Mommy said!? Mommy was taken in by surprise!


Anyway, below is just a representative photo of Juan Or reading the book with Mommy, but in sitting position:

This photo was taken when Juan Or was between 4 to 5 months old.

Putting Juan Or into Personalized Baby Movies

Mommy checked her Yahoo Mail today and found a mail from www.babyzone.com. The mail was about joining the Huggies Baby Network and getting free goodies. Free goodies!? Sure, why not! So Mommy opened the mail and clicked on to complete the registration process. In the Huggies Baby Network website, Mommy found this interesting page: http://www.huggieshappybaby.com/tools/pm.aspx This page allowed Mommy to create free videos featuring Juan Or as the main star. Oooohh.....this was fun! So Mommy managed to create three movies (actually movie trailers) by making use of some cute Juan Or photos, went through long wait to upload, download and playing the interface despite the slow Internet traffic, sent these movies back to Mommy's Yahoo Mail again so that Mommy can copy and paste the URL links into this blog (right hand panel, scroll downwards, it's just after the Blog Archive, the section called "Juan Or's Baby Movie Trailers"). Enjoy!

A-neh-neh (Part 2)

Remember the posting (http://juanorandmommy.blogspot.com/2008/10/neh-neh-juan-or-in-deepavali-mood.html) on how Juan Or shook his head from side to side just like how Indians do? Well, this time, Juan Or took it one step further by shaking his head from side to side whenever his Grandpa does the chirping bird sound. Watch this video:

Juan Or is Teasing Mommy

It was near midnight and as usual Juan Or refused to go to sleep and wanted to play. Mommy put him into the baby walker so that he can play by himself. In the midst of playing, Juan Or discovered the backrest of the rattan stool to be his best play thing of the day. At first, he pulled the backrest so much so the stool tilted backwards. Then, he bit and sucked the backrest. On seeing that, Mommy quickly intercepted and said,"Eiiiikkk.....dirty! Cannot!" Juan Or immediately let go and laughed heartily. Then he bit and sucked the backrest again and again Mommy reacted in the same manner. Again Juan Or laughed heartily. And again Juan Or repeated the same thing, this time, as he was about to bite and suck the backrest, he cheekily glanced at Mommy, anticipating Mommy to react. Of course Mommy reacted and Juan Or quickly let go off the backrest. Juan Or burst into squeals of laughter to see Mommy reacting like that. Mommy's boy is so cute! Muah! Kisses for Juan Or!

The 'B'

Many things in life come with acronyms. Take the example '4Cs' which stands for car, cash, credit card and condominium. Another example is '3M' for membaca (reading), menulis (writing) and mengira (counting) which was a popular element during the Malaysian education policy of the 1980s. Juan Or has his own acronym too. Juan Or encompasses the 3Bs.

'B' for baby,

'B' for boy and

'B' for buffalo!

Everybody Wants Kung Fu Fighting

Remember that oldies song "Everybody wants kung fu fighting"? Well, looks like Juan Or doesn't want to be left out too. Here's his monkey stance when he was about 1 week old:

Now let's take a closer look.

Here's another pose - after he had done a punch and kick!

And Juan Or indicated he had won. He had victory! Yay!

Now that Juan Or is 6 months old, looks like he has not yet forgotten his kung fu.

And here is a beaming Juan Or for showing off his kung fu to Mommy!

Sometimes, when Juan Or was sleeping, Papa and Mommy swear seeing Juan Or kicking while sleeping. Sometimes, Juan Or would cry (in defeat, perhaps?) or smile (in victory, perhaps?)while sleeping. Is Juan Or dreaming that he fought with other people? His Grandpa says that perhaps Juan Or could be a warrior or fighter in his past life.

Mommy's hands got "itchy" again!

Last Sunday (16th November 08), Papa, Juan Or and Mommy went for shopping in Tesco Extra Cheras. The ground floor of Tesco Extra are all tenants' shops, and one of them is Anakku. So Mommy suggested that Papa go see the Anakku spring cot frame (selling for RM199.90) that is supposedly OEMed from My Dear which we bought for RM130 in the most recent My Dear Warehouse Sale (which we bought on 1st November 08).

Everything else about the Anakku and My Dear spring cot frame is the same, the only difference being My Dear's has 3-level adjustable height whereas Anakku's is not height-adjustable.

Anyway, that has got nothing to do with Mommy's "itchy" hands.......


Mommy's "itchy" hands story actually begins here:


The Anakku outlet also had a Best Value Sale going on for selected baby clothes, and this time was some nice Baby Mickey Mouse set suits (T-shirt and shorts in a set). The Best Value tag said,"2 suits for RM29.90." Meaning, one suit costs only RM14.95. Mommy recalled seeing The Store selling Baby Mickey Mouse set suits for RM18.90 each and that was supposedly offer price! The normal price on the cardboard price tag is RM26.90. So Mommy's hands got "itchy" and decided to buy from Anakku. Luckily, Papa occupied himself by pushing Juan Or on the baby stroller. Otherwise, Papa would have been fuming with impatience while waiting for Mommy to choose which designs to buy. By the way, Mommy bought the two suits at sizes 12-18 months and 1 year, respectively (actually both are of the same size although the size tagging seems different).

Finally, after paying for the Baby Mickey set suits, and stepping out from Anakku, Papa told Mommy that actually this type of sale is to 'cheat' people like Mommy. Yes.....Mommy knows that Juan Or already has sufficient number of clothes for his first toddler year, but most of them are for house wear (including those hand-me-downs from a colleague called Dr. Chan). As far as Mommy remembers (Mommy actually remembers in detail all clothes bought for Juan Or!), his 1-year old toddler clothes for jalan-jalan are:

• one Winnie the Pooh T-shirt (bought for RM5 at Hytex Warehouse Sale),

• one army set suit (Made-in-Thailand-type, bought for RM4.90 at a tenant in Central Supermarket) and

• one Little Koala collared T-shirt (bought for RM5 at a warehouse sale renting in Giant Taman Connought).

• one Kiko short pants (bought for RM10 from Kiko Warehouse Sale early this year)

• one blue colour Chinese New Year long sleeve and long pants suit (bought for RM2.98 at a stock clearance sale in Tesco) - not practical for jalan-jalan because the material cannot absorb sweat. Mommy bought it more for Chinese New Year photography purposes!
  
  
  

(See......Juan Or's neck is already too thick at 3 months old so much so the uppermost button has to be left undone!)

Other clothes that can both be used for jalan-jalan and house wear are:

• 3 singlets (with cute cartoon pictures) obtained as free gifts from the purchase of Hey Baby! disposable diapers and

• one Baby Mickey Mouse T-shirt (exclusively made for Carrefour type, bought for RM1 from Carrefour's stock clearance).
  
  

So Mommy thinks it's justified to buy only two more (no more buying after this!) set suits of the Baby Mickey Mouse type that can be used for jalan-jalan and festive season.

Hehehe....see.....Mommy is making excuses for herself again!

P/S: Hmmmm.......by the way, those clothes for jalan-jalan can also be used for house wear, right? (Of course, the exception would be the CNY suit)

"Look! I'm a big boy now!"

"Look at me! I'm a big boy now! I can hold my own bottle already!"

"I don't wanna go to sleep!"

At around 11 pm, after breastfeeding, Mommy had to take Juan Or downstairs because he was making so much noise and Papa wants to sleep. So upon reaching downstairs, Mommy put Juan Or on the baby walker and he started 'walking' around happily. Then Grandpa asked him,"Juan Or, don't you want to go to sleep?" Immediately Juan Or shook his head from side to side. Eh!!! A 6-month-old baby already can understand spoken words and respond no by shaking the head from side to side!? Great-grandma, Grandpa and Mommy all laughed. So cute! Later, Grandpa asked Juan Or the same question again and again Juan Or gave the same response - shaking his head from side to side as if to say,"No, I don't wanna sleep!"

Yummy-licious!

No teeth also want to eat!? Well....that's Mommy's Juan Or....asking food from Grandpa even though he can't eat adult type of solid food. At the time of blogging this, Juan Or already has an eeny weeny tiny tooth sprouting from his lower jaw's gums.

Juan Or Negotiating His Way Through Tight Corners

Ohhhh.....look at me! I'm walking! I can negotiate my way through tight corners! Let me go for Papa! Then let me go for Mama!

De Quervain's Tenosynovitis Syndrome

On 30th October 2008 (Thursday), Mommy has had this shooting pain felt when moving the right hand thumb. This shooting pain has the feeling like a tendon being pulled to the extreme. That Sunday (2nd November 2008), the right hand thumb felt better already (but a more bearable pain now), and now the left hand thumb has the shooting pain instead. This must be the result of carrying Juan Or when breastfeeding. This baby is getting too heavy already! So Mommy was hesitant whether to bath Juan Or or to leave to the babysitter to bath him on Monday. Then Mommy decided that Juan Or should have his bath, but Mommy will modify the bathing method: Use the changing mat instead of the baby bath tub! In that way, if Mommy's hand could not support baby, at least baby can just lie down or do tummy time on the changing mat while taking bath. Had it been a baby bath tub, there's no way baby can lie down or do tummy time and Mommy's hand will have a painfully hard time supporting him all the time. For my 'lecture' on how to bath the baby when your hands ache like hell, go to this URL: http://alicephua.podomatic.com/

Then on 9th November 2008 (Sunday), Sister-in law bought the November 2008 "Parenthood" magazine. An article that seems to describe my condition is there. So now I know what it's called: De Quervain's Tenosynovitis Syndrome. Web resource regarding this syndrome: http://www.eorthopod.com/public/patient_education/6454/de_quervains_tenosynovitis.html

Anyway, Papa had been massaging the heat type of Axe Brand Oil into the affected areas. And the condition is improving. Mommy also had been taking precautions to carry Juan Or using strength from the elbow or using the edge of the bed to support Juan Or's head when breatfeeding.

Separation anxiety

This morning, as Mommy was reversing the car out of the porch, Mommy saw Grandma carrying Juan Or out of the house and heading to the porch. Once Mommy's car was fully reversed out of the porch, Mommy stepped on the brake to stop the car and waved goodbye to Juan Or who was now at the gate. Grandma took Juan Or's hand to wave back at Mommy. Mommy can see Juan Or's face turning sober. Mommy can see into his eyes that his heart felt heavy to see Mommy going away. Does Juan Or really know Mommy is going away to work? Or does he see it as Mommy going away from him for whatever reasons? Mommy wonders. Juan Or didn't end up in tears, but the soberness was obvious. No smiles whatsoever from him. No twinkle in his eyes. Just the grave look.

Mommy gave Juan Or one last wave and put the car to first gear and started moving. Tears started rolling down Mommy's cheek. Poor baby! Having to experience separation at such young age. But Mommy has no choice. Mommy has to go to work to earn money. In this day and age, it is difficult to survive if only one parent is working. So Mommy has to work too to help Papa and so that baby can have a better life.

Juan Or Chatting with Papa

Last week Friday (31st October 2008), Juan Or had a good chat with his Papa. His chat consisted of only "Ah-pau-pau-pau-pau". Mommy wonders whether he was actually calling his Papa similar to "Ah-pa-pa-pa-pa" or he actually chatting using his baby language?