Calling Mommy

Last week Friday (27th March 2009) was the first time Juan Or was able to call Mommy. Juan Or pronounced it as "MAM-MAH". All the while before this (from about 5 months old), Juan Or was only able to call his father as "BA-BA".




Later on, Mommy asked Juan Or to call Mama and his Father asked him to call Papa. Instead, Juan Or called,"MA-BA" - a hybrid of Papa and Mama!

Juan Or's Don't-Want-to-Sleep Rendezvous

During weekdays, after taking Juan Or back from the babysitter at 6 pm, Juan Or's typical timetable is like this:

• 6+ pm - Mommy breastfeeds Juan Or, Juan Or's playtime.
• 7+ pm - Juan Or sleeps.
• 8.30 pm - Mommy feeds Juan Or with medicine for his mild bilateral hydronephrosis. Juan Or's playtime.
• 10.30 pm - Juan Or sleeps.
• 12.30 am - Juan Or wakes up for another breastfeeding session, and goes back to sleep.
• 2.30 am - Juan Or wakes up again for another breastfeeding session. After that, he appears to be sleeping and with a lot of tossing and turning, then wakes up and starts crawling. Refuse to go back to sleep (which means playtime and Mommy has to be up to 'entertain' him as well!). Usually this is the time for Juan Or's don't-want-to-sleep rendezvous. Shown here are two video clips of Juan Or's rendezvous:

• 4.30 am - Juan Or sleeps again. So Mommy sleeps too.
• 6+ or 7+ am - Juan Or wakes up for breastfeeding session, followed by morning stroll with Grandma
• 8 am - Juan Or is send to babysitter's place by Grandma. Mommy goes to work.

Buying Books for Juan Or at MPH Stock Clearance Sale

On 19th March (Thursday), Mommy took leave from work to go shop for a piano and then veered off to go for this book sale, partiularly to see what baby or children books Mommy can buy for Juan Or (Mommy has already stocked up quite a lot of baby and children books for him since Mommy was still pregnant with him!).

This book sale was held from 14th to 22nd March 2009 in Mayang Plaza (SS26, Petaling Jaya). By the time Mommy went for this sale, it was already the 6th day, so Mommy didn't expect a lot of crowd by then, and it indeed was not crowded! Anyway, Mommy reached there at about 1.50 pm.

So, what did Mommy see there? Lots of children books, and many of the books had 30% off the price tags. Some had 50% discount (those books on the tall book shelves), but you have to search the books one by one which was rather tedious if you are rushing for time. The Disney and Sesame Street books were still quite expensive at RM28 (price cannot be discounted anymore!). The New McDonald's Farm children educational VCDs were cheap, sold at RM3 only (but Mommy bought one before this at RM5 in the most recent MPH book fair in One Utama!). The Usborne Young Reader Series sold here at RM11 or RM11++ (Mommy can't remember!) was more expensive and lesser choices than during the MPH Distributor Warehouse Sale (held somewhere around October 2008) which sold each for RM7 only and has the whole lot of collection for you to choose from. However, take note that this current sale is held by MPH retailer section and not MPH Distributor. So do expect some differences in the discounts they give and the variety of books for sale.

Here's what Mommy bought for Juan Or:

1. My Peekaboo Fun - lift-the-flap type of board book, with 30% discount, originally sold for RM15.90.

(Front view)

(A bull hiding behind the flap.)

2. Who Goes Moo? - another board book with colourful illustrations with farm theme, so you can expect farm type of noises from farm objects for baby to learn. Sold with 30% discount, originally sold for RM4.90.

(Front view)

(Mommy loves the colourful illustrations and Juan Or seems to love this book the most because of the funny sound Mommy has to make when reading this book with him.)

3. Magnetic Counting Fun - this book has magnets for children to place according to their imagination and according to the story in each page. This book also has very colourful illustrations, but is suitable for children above 3 years old - when they no longer put things into their mouth! So, Juan Or cannot use this book yet. This book's original price is RM29.90 and sold with 30% discount.

(Front view)

(Mostly background scenary pictures for children to place magnets according to how the story goes.)

4. The Illustrated Musical Instruments Handbook - Mommy bought this book, partly because of Mommy's own interest since Mommy is also a piano teacher, and partly for Juan Or's future music education (but that's still a very long way to go!). This book's original price is RM39.90 and sold with 30% discount.

(Front view)

(This book has interesting stories, facts and history of almost all kinds of musical instruments - a good read for serious music students.)

So, all in all, Mommy spent RM63.40 in this sale.

The week before, Mommy saw a short article write-up about this sale in The Star newspaper. The article mentioned that MPH is giving out a free book to each of the first 10 customers on each day of the sale. The conditions were that the customer must produce the entire page of the newspaper article and the customer must purchase at least RM50 there. So since Mommy only reached there at 1.50 pm, Mommy did not hope too much to be the first 10 customers of the day to fulfill those conditions, but it turned out that Mommy did! And Mommy had indirectly learnt the trick on how to get free book: Go only on those days when the sale has started for quite a lot of days already, then you'll stand a bigger chance. Chances are that most people who want to claim for the free books will go on the first few days of the sale. After that, things will somehow 'cool down' - so that's when you 'attack'! Simple, right? Here's how the free gift book looks like (believe me, the book was even wrapped in gift wrapping paper!):

(A recipe book of quick and delicious creative cooking - all are Western style cooking which is not quite Mommy's taste, but Mommy will keep it anyway, just in case Mommy wants to venture into Western cooking in the future!)

Mamil Mama Gold Club Membership - Free!

In early March 2009, Mommy visited the websites of all milk powder companies in Malaysia to see whether there's any link that allows Mommy to request for free samples of infant milk powder. At that time, Mommy seriously needed to start supplementing infant milk formula to Mommy's breastmilk because recently, Juan Or has been constantly comsuming more breastmilk than what Mommy could produce. And obviously, Mommy doesn't know which brand will have a more acceptable taste to Juan Or considering that Juan Or rejected drinking Lactogen (Nestle) when he was one month plus old. Finally, in the end, after much surfing, there appeared to be no links to request for free sample. So Mommy decided to click the "Contact Us" link, type in the request and leave Mommy's contact details.

The next day, Mommy got a reply from Danone Dumex saying that it is the Malaysian government's Ministry Of Health regulation that milk companies are not allowed to supply free samples of milk for babies under 1 year old. Then Dumex offered Mommy a free membership to join their Mamil Mama Gold Club merely by leaving down some personal particulars and the brand(s) of milk that the child is drinking. So Mommy took the offer.

Just last week Thursday, Mommy received in the mail (via Pos Laju) a cover letter welcoming Mommy to the club, a 'Nurture & You' magazine and a cute plush dolphin toy wearing a jacket. Wow! Mommy loves toys! Here's what the package looks like:

(The whole package)

(A closer view of the plush dolphin toy. The dolphin is wearing a jacket and the fur feels very soft!)

(The dolphin is hugging a heart-shaped cushion with Dumex's careline number printed on it so that you are less likely to lose their contact number for future communications!)

Upon checking the Danone Dumex website, Mommy found that apparently you can also register for membership online, but only for Malaysia and Brunei residents only. No proof of purchase is required, unlike Abbot Laboratories' (1 scoop) and Wyeth's (3 scoops) mummy clubs. And the cute plush dolphin toy is while stocks last only! So hurry!

Baby Games

Mommy likes to play this game with Juan Or and Juan Or enjoys it too. Mommy will take a hand towel or baby blanket and put it over Juan Or's head such that his face is covered. Then Mommy will ask Juan Or,"Where is Juan Or? Mama cannot see where is Juan Or! Where are you, Juan Or?" Then Juan Or will respond by pulling the towel or blanket away till his face is revealed and Juan Or will give a sweet and cheeky smile for that! To make it a little more challenging, Mommy will put the towel or blanket in such a way that Juan Or has to pull it away with several strokes of the hand. Watch this video:

His Boys Can Swim Prize Giveaway Received!

Yesterday, Mommy received a cushioned type of big envelope in the mail from USA. And Mommy knew instantly what's inside the envelope. It's none other than a handbook on baby emergency situations entitled "Baby Medbasics: Your Essential What To Do Guide to Infant Emergencies" published by Medbasics! What Mommy got is the blue colour Home Pack type worth USD35. And Mommy is pretty sure you can't find this item selling in Malaysian stores. Wow! Mommy finds this exciting!

Here's the story how Mommy earned this prize:

Mommy found this pregnancy blog His Boys Can Swim in BlogCatalog and found this blog to be a very interesting read about an anonymous couple called Tarzan and Jane going through their first pregnancy journey. Then finally, on 21st February 2009, Tarzan and Jane launched their first official His Boys Can Swim Contest which ended on 28th February 2009. This contest was opened to anyone for free and each participant allowed a maximum of three entries.

What do you have to do in the contest? Pretty simple, though a little time consuming. Tarzan and Jane listed 31 websites, all of which are the websites of the sponsors of the contest giveaway prizes. Participants were required to visit all 31 websites and state what other item(s)/picture(s) the participant likes as well, and then list them by posting in the comments section - that's 1st entry.

For the 2nd entry, participants are required to go to their Twitter account and tweet this message: "I entered the @hisboyscanswim Contest for Moms and Moms-to-be! Over $1,594 in prizes: http://tinyurl.com/c4n9q2" and then come back to the comments section of the contest page to post that the message was tweeted and also state the participant's Twitter ID.

For the 3rd entry, participants were required to blog about any one of their postings in the His Boys Can Swim (HBCS) blog and include two links, i.e., one link to HBCS and another link to the chosen posting in HBCS blog. So Mommy's blog post can be found here. After that, participants were required to come back to the comments section of the contest page to post that this is the 3rd entry and to include the URL of the participant's blog post. For those who do not have a blog or website, they can merely include their email to subcribe for HBCS blog newsletter....something like that (Mommy doesn't quite remember the details!).

So, finally, Tarzan and Jane did lucky draws using Random.org and Mommy is one of the winners (Winner #6)! After that, Mommy was required to contact Tarzan and Jane within 48 hours from the result announcement to tell them which is the preferred prize and Mommy's mailing address. So, after waiting for about almost a month, finally the prize is here!

Here's how the prize looks like:

(The entire package from the cushioned envelope.)

(A closer view of the prize.)

(A congratulatory note from Medbasics.)

(A peek into the contents of the book.)

(The book's outer cover can be folded into a small bag for you to hang at visible and convenient places in case of baby emergencies.)

Born in Selangor? Then RM1500 Could be in Your Baby's Hands!

Mommy saw this news in The Star newspaper dated 22nd March 2009. What interests Mommy is the possibility of Juan Or receiving RM1500 from the Selangor state government when he reaches 18 years old.






Then, Mommy wanted to know more information as to whether Juan Or qualifies to apply or not considering that the news says "born in Selangor" whereas Juan Or is born in Kuala Lumpur. So Mommy went into Google search engine and typed "Selangor Born Heritage Fund" and checked for websites in Malaysia. No result. Mommy then went on to type "Kumpulan Semesta" and there is result, but there seems to be no link to Selangor Born Heritage Fund. So Mommy searched for the 'Contact Us' link in Kumpulan Semesta's website and wrote an enquiry email. Sure enough, the reply came in the afternoon with a link to Tabung Warisan Anak Selangor (TAWAS). Mommy read on the procedures and requirements of the applicants and found these below.

Requirements

• Child must be born in Selangor or outside of Selangor from 1st January 2008 onwards; AND
• Child must be a Malaysian citizen; AND
• The father or mother of the child must be Selangor-born OR born in Kuala Lumpur before 1st February 1974.

OR

• Child is born in Selangor from 1st January 2008 onwards; AND
• Child must be a Malaysian citizen; AND
• The father or mother of the child is not Selangor-born but has been staying legally in Selangor for at least 10 years (you will need to get your Dewan Undangan Negeri Service Centre to certify this).

Procedures

Must include a photostated copy of the following documents (no need to certify true copy):

• The child's birth certificate and MyKid
• Both parents or guardians' identity cards

The place of registration is:

Pusat Pendaftaran (Projek TAWAS)

Tabung Warisan Anak Selangor (TAWAS)

Tingkat (LG), Bangunan Darul Ehsan

No. 3, Jalan Indah, Seksyen 14

40000 Shah Alam

Selangor Darul Ehsan

So Mommy called up the TAWAS office and found these extra information:

• For those born in 2008, all applications received after 31st March 2009 will not be considered.
• Applications through the post are also accepted.
• Internet-download forms are also acceptable. Submit in only one copy (although the foot note of the form says about white, blue and yellow colour forms).
• When your application is approved, TAWAS will issue a certificate which you will use later to claim the RM1500 when your child is 18 years old. You can either come to the TAWAS office to claim the certificate or TAWAS will send you a letter to tell you which Ambank branch to collect the cert from.
• This fund has been in existence since the previous Selangor state government's time (i.e., Barisan Nasional, BN), so don't worry about this fund being non-existent even if the current Selangor state government (Parti Keadilan Rakyat, PKR) is no longer there by the time your child reaches 18 years old! By the way, previously, BN charged a RM10 processing fee, but now it's free under the PKR! Yay!

So, what now? Mommy has to hurry up then! The application form can be downloaded here.

Learning to Stand on Own Two Feet (Part 2)

Remember the day Juan Or was just learning to hold on to a furniture to steady himself while standing still? Well, this time, Juan Or has gone one step (or perhaps two steps!) further in that he is able to shift his weigh from one leg to the other (sideways walking) while his hands hold on and shift accordingly to a furniture for support. Why Mommy says two steps further is that Juan Or is also already able to use his legs to lift himself up after a fall. Watch this video:

Toys for Juan Or at Litt Tak Warehouse Sale

In the most recent Litt Tak Toy Warehouse Sale (13th-15th March 2009) at Desa Tun Razak Industrial Area of Cheras (somewhere near Puspakom and behind Giant Taman Connought), Mommy found a number of infant toys selling at very cheap and attractive prices. Just in case you don't know about this, Litt Tak is a toy importer and distributor for these brands of toys: Bandai, Gundam, Takara Tomy, Thomas and Friends, Power Rangers, Disney, Hello Kitty and a host of other brands (can't remember) and Made-in-China toys.

Mommy reached there the moment the sale opens at 9 am on the first day of the sale. These are the results:

1. Winnie the Pooh and Friends Mobile Hanglet

This is a soft toy hanglet thingy and there was only one unit left when Mommy saw it. Rattles are embedded into the bodies of Tigger and Piglet whereas a squeezy sounding thingy is embedded into the Pooh's body. The hanglet is hung via velcro strap. The brand is Playgro (Australia). Price? RM2 only! Very cheap and worth buying!

(Three plush toys in a hanglet, all for only RM2! What a bargain!)

(Juan Or playing with the hanglet which is attached to the frame of the spring cot via velcro strap.)

2. Winnie the Pooh Security Blanket


This blanket is made of fleece material and has nice satin cloth wrapping the fleece at the border. There's also the Winnie the Pooh head sticking out of the blanket which acts as a rattle - makes sound when you shake the Pooh head. The blanket is packed in a box with a see-through cover and the box has many cellophane tape marks on it. Price? RM5 only. Very cheap and good! Mommy also bought one piece for Ms. Stephenie's baby as a token of appreciation for giving Juan Or the Similac infant milk powder.

(Full layout of the Winnie the Pooh Security Blanket.)

(A closer view of the Pooh head which has a rattle embedded in it.)

(Juan Or sleeping with his Pooh security blanket.)

3. Teether cum Rattle

Only two designs were available: Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh. However, the Mickey Mouse only had two units left whereas the Pooh was in abundance. Mommy grabbed both the Mickey Mouses (where one is for Juan Or and another for Ms. Stephenie's baby) and one piece of the Pooh. The teether part is actually the handle at the sideways of the rattle, though the teether is not as soft as those proper type of teether. The Disney figurines, however, are made of hard plastic, so is not meant to be the teether part. Price? RM1 per rattle! Very cheap and good for Disney toys!

(Each costs only RM1!)

4. Winnie the Pooh Plush Toy cum Rattle

There was only one unit available and Mommy quickly grabbed it. Brand is Playgro (Australia). Price? RM2 only! Also very cheap and good!

(A close-up view of the Pooh plush toy cum rattle.)

(Juan Or enjoying his Pooh toy.)

(Another photo of Juan Or playing with his Pooh toy.)

5. Wiggling Eeyore, Tigger and Piglet


These are plush toys with strings attached where you pull out the string and the toy will wiggle until the pulled out string fully goes back into the toy. The size of the animals are also quite small. Price? RM2 each, not very cheap compared to the other RM2 toys that Mommy bought, but can-lah....for variety and fun. However, Winnie the Pooh cannot be found. By the way, the brand is Playgro (Australia).

(Wiggling toys, each at RM2.)

6. Soft Rattles of Eeyore, Tigger and Piglet

These are rattles that also serve as plush toys. Winnie the Pooh, again, was not available. Price? RM2 each! Very cheap and good! Mommy saw a baby stock clearance sale in Leisure Mall Cheras selling similar types of soft rattles (but not Disney characters) for RM6.90 each. So what Mommy got here in Litt Tak is really, really good buy! The brand is also Playgro (Australia).

(Each priced at only RM2! Cheap and good!)

7. Multiple Texture Plush Toy

This plush toy has many protrusions and projections and different parts of it are made of different cloth materials to serve as a variety of textures for babies to touch or rub their fingers on. It even as a short, thick string with a knot tied at the end, hanging down the toy - again it's for babies to rub their fingers on it. Even Mommy likes to rub fingers against the knot! The brand is Takara Tomy and price? RM2 only. Cheap and good!

(Still in the packaging.)

(Front view)



(Back view)

8. Mickey Mouse Stacking Cups Toy

There's only one unit of Mickey Mouse left (Mommy quickly grabbed it!) and the rest are Winnie the Pooh. Price? RM10. Mommy's not very sure whether it's really cheap or not, but should be cheap-lah, considering it's Disney type of toys.

(Mickey Mouse stacking cup toy)

9. Gun with Felt Bullets

Mommy saw this toy together with the Pooh plush toys and rattles that Mommy mentioned just now. Price? RM2. This toy is meant for Juan Or to play when he is much bigger and older.

(Gun with felt bullets for only RM10.)

10. Robot Transformable Train

Mommy bought this, again, in view of Juan Or reaching a much older age. The brand is Takara Tomy and costs RM5. Obviously, Mommy doesn't know whether there's any "Hikarian Railroad" cartoon on the TV screen or not, but anyway, just buy-lah since it's selling for a cheap price!

(Still in the packaging)

(The two parts join together to form a train.)

(The two parts detached and opened up.)

(A closer view of the robot portion.)

All in all, Mommy spent only RM48 for all these toys! Good bargain! Ooohhh, Mommy loves buying things at a bargain! By the way, this time, Litt Tak stocked up a lot of Thomas and Friends sets at a reasonably cheap price (compared to Jusco), but not as cheap as a mere RM10 or so. These sets cost RM45, RM55, RM60, RM70, RM80, RM150 up to RM300 in the Litt Tak sale. But this time, Mommy is not giving in to the temptation of buying Thomas and Friends because Mommy already bought a Thomas and Friends Starter Set (RM55) for Juan Or in the previous Litt Tak sale in December 2008.

How about the crowd and the queue? The answer is good - no crowd and the queue at most is only 3 to 5 customers long (so much unlike Mattel Warehouse Sale with its horrendous crowd and queue)! However, the place is quite crammed with toys with only small passageways for people to walk and browse the toys. Mommy reckons that probably because Litt Tak sounds chinaman, so most people think they can't find good toys there. Anyway, Mommy doesn't care about Fischer-Price toys (found in Mattel Warehouse Sale). The hell with Fischer-Price toys! It's not worth it to go brave against the wave of horrendous crowd just to grab Fischer-Price toys (which are not that cheap also in the warehouse sale) and then queue for something like 3 hours just to pay for the toys!

By the way, just a sidetrack, although Mommy knows that this is none of Mommy's business, but Mommy can't help mentioning what Mommy observed at Litt Tak. When Mommy was done with the purchases and walked out from the building, Mommy noticed that there were no more Winnie the Pooh Security Blanket left (the blanket was placed just outside the building entrance). Mommy clearly remembered that after choosing the Pooh blankets (Mommy bought two pieces of it, remember?), there were three more left. Now it looked like all were sold out. But on a closer look, Mommy saw one empty blanket box and the see-through cover already detached from the box and the blanket was gone! What do you think happened? Go figure out yourself!

The Story of Disposable Diapers that Juan Or Used Before

Mommy's story of disposable diapers is arranged according to brands and of course, Mommy will review on the age and stage when Juan Or used the brands and also the price of the diapers.

Hey Baby! - This is the first brand that Juan Or used since the day he was born. Mommy bought S86 and M74 packs from a sale in The Store at RM23.90 per pack (member price; non-member is RM24.90). For your note, this packaging size is no longer available - what's available now are smaller packs of about slightly more than half the old packaging size. At the time of purchase (Mommy was in 2nd trimester of pregnancy), every pack came with a free baby sleeveless T-shirt which can be worn when baby is about 9 months of age onwards. However, Mommy was lucky in that one of the pack that Mommy bought, the manufacturer accidentally put in 2 T-shirts! So in the end, Juan Or gets to have 3 T-shirts for buying only 2 packs. As for the diapers, quality-wise is good (meaning absorbent) (Hey! It's the same manufacturer as Drypers!), the only difference is that Hey Baby! doesn't come with gartered waist unlike Drypers, that's why the price is cheaper than Drypers. The outermost layer is made of breathable paper material which claims a cloth-like feel. The M size comes with a blue colour absorbent core area on the padding of the diaper, but not for size S. Later on when Juan Or was around 1+ month old, Hey Baby! is sold in the new packaging size. By then, Juan Or was already using size M. So Mommy bought 2 packs of M48 for RM15.99 per pack from Carrefour. Then about one or so months later, Carrefour advertised Hey Baby! again as buy 2 packs for RM30.99 to which Mommy bought 2 packs (M48 and L40, because Mommy thought Juan Or's body weight was gaining rapidly!). However, along the way, Juan Or's weight gain started to slow down at about 4 months onwards, so in the end, the L40 pack remains unopen till now. Nowadays, prices of things has gone up and this brand is no exception. Since the end of year 2008, the normal price has gone up to RM18.90 (Tesco) and even more recently, to RM19.90 (Tesco). During normal Tesco promotions, the price was RM17.90 which is still not cheap enough. Just last week, Mommy saw this brand sold in Tesco's Baby Fair Promotion for the good ole' price of RM15.90 again. Mommy's verdict: Good quality and recommended for daily economical wearing especially when baby needs 4-5 times of diaper changing per day.

(This is the Hey Baby! free sleeveless T-shirt.)

Pampers Comfort (orange pack) - Mommy bought one pack of M84 shortly after the 1-month confinement period. Mommy bought it from Tesco at the offer price of RM27.90. Actually, Mommy didn't really know whether this price is cheap or not, but anyway, just buy-lah to try out this brand because Pampers is the pioneer brand of disposable diapers, so must be of good quality (that's what Mommy thought at first!). Later checks in the Internet about consumer goods pricing (PriceChat) revealed that RM26.90 was the lowest price ever. After using, Mommy found that the quality is not as good as Hey Baby! because Pampers can't absorp as much urine. Not just that, the diaper is easy to leak once saturated with urine - poor holding power. For that matter, Juan Or had quite frequent occurence of wet pants (urine leaked from the side of Pampers diaper). A feature that Pampers boasts of is the holes on the back waistband part - Pampers says that the holes are for ventilation, but Mommy thinks the holes are not practical at all. On top of that, Pampers go on to decrease the height of the padded material on the buttocks part so that there's more area for the holes waistband, presumably for more ventilation. You see, when the baby defecates, the faeces flows way behind and usually flows beyond the end of the padded material of the buttocks part. Once the faeces flows beyond that, it will leak out from the so-called ventilation holes! Because of this poor design, Juan Or frequently had incidences where his faeces leaked out and stained his pants, lower part of his shirt and on the bouncinette cloth. So Mommy had a lot of 'shit washing' to do during that time until all the Pampers diapers were used up. Mommy's verdict: No good! Not recommended!

Pampers All Night: Mommy bought this when Mommy was still in the 2nd trimester of pregnancy, sometime shortly after buying the Hey Baby! diapers from The Store. Mommy bought 3 packs of M40 at RM15 per pack from a stock clearance section in Carrefour Sri Petaling. At that time, the normal price was RM29.90 or RM30+ per pack. This type is able to absorb more urine than Pampers Comfort and has a blue colour core area that is supposedly more absorbent. However, Juan Or still experienced wet patches on his pants as a result of urine leaking out from the sides of the diaper. Also, the faeces leaking out from the holes waistband (supposedly for more ventilation) is still persistent. Mommy's verdict: No good! Not recommended!

Baby Like Economy Plus: Mommy first tried this brand because Carrefour was selling it as a 2-day sale for RM19.90 per pack. So Mommy bought one pack (M72) first to try because the outermost layer is plastic material. Mommy wasn't so sure whether this type of material is suitable for Juan Or's skin or not. After trying, it turned out to be OK for Juan Or's skin. Then, about one month later, Carrefour had a 2-day sale again, but this time was RM21.89 per pack, but Mommy bought it anyway because it was the cheapest diaper available considering that Hey Baby! had gone up in price. Some more later, Tesco also sold this brand for RM21.90 to which Mommy bought another M72 pack. So all in all, Juan Or has used 3 packs of this brand (he has another 17 more pieces to go before Mommy puts him to size L diapers!). This brand is good (if you don't mind the plastic material which feels hotter to the skin) and economical. The padding material is also a bit longer than Hey Baby!'s. The good thing about the slightly longer padding material is that the faeces doesn't leak out from behind. So far, Juan Or has never experienced any urine nor faeces leaks using this brand. The only thing is that the top edges of the diaper don't look that neat when the diaper is worn onto the baby, but that's not an issue for Mommy. Mommy's verdict: Good (if you don't mind the plastic material) and very economical and reliable.

Drypers Drypantz: Mommy first bought it (M44) to try from The Store Member's Day for RM29.90 per pack. Normal price is about RM35 to RM37 per pack. Then, recently, Mommy saw it sold in Tesco Extra Cheras for RM28.90, but there was no size L in stock. Then, even later, Tesco lowered the price even more in conjunction with the Baby Fair Promotion, now at RM26.90 per pack, so Mommy grabbed 2 packs. This diaper pants has a neat fit when worn and is capable of absorbing a lot of urine. So Mommy will wear it on Juan Or for 12 hours or more (if he doesn't defecate) especially if bringing Juan Or for outings the next day. So far, there are no leaks encountered even when it is very saturated with urine. Also, the manufacturer claims it to be 100% breathable. Mommy's verdict: Very good and reliable! Mommy's favourite!

Huggies Dry (the all-blue packet): Mommy first bought one pack (L72) because of three reasons: (i) Tesco was selling it for RM31+ and if Mommy used the CIMB credit card, there's an extra 5% rebate which ends up with a price of RM30+; (ii) at that time, Mommy thought Juan Or was gaining weight very rapidly, so Mommy bought size L to stand by (but it turned out that Juan Or's weight gain decreased tremendously); and (iii) Mommy heard many good comments about Huggies, so was eager to try it out. Just yesterday, Mommy opened the packaging for the first time after buying it some 5-6 months ago and tried it on Juan Or. From Mommy's inspection, the padding material is very thin at the buttocks side, but thicker at the front part (but only slightly thicker than Baby Like's). The fastener is of velcro material, rather than adhesive tape. The length of the padding material (size L) is the same length as Baby Like's size M, meaning to say Huggies' cutting is a bit smaller than other brands. However, when worn, the padding material looks longer at the front side than the back side as opposed to Baby Like's where it looks shorter from the front side and longer on the back. Juan Or wore it overnight and it was saturated with urine the next morning. However, Juan Or's hand clawed the front part of the diaper causing a small hole and some urine-soaked gel material oozed out from the hole. But Mommy still has to try it more times with Juan Or to see whether by default the outer layer of the diaper is easy to tear/break. (By the way, Drypers Drypantz doesn't break or tear when Juan Or clawed it). Also, when worn, the bottom part tends to bulge, making the diaper looks kind of baggy. And Mommy thinks that it is not good design if the bottom bulges because Juan Or's urine actually leaked out (as in real urine droplets!) when Juan Or was in lying down position. When the diaper bottom bulges, the padding material is not in contact with the genitals, so urine cannot be absorbed effectively. Mommy's verdict: Lousy! Has design flaw!

Tesco Choice: Mommy bought one pack (L72) to try (but haven't opened the packaging yet) because the price was cheap at RM27.90 per pack. Over time, the price has increased to RM31.90 and during baby fair promotions, it only went down as far as RM28.90 only. On physical observation, this diaper looks not bad for its price because it has breathable cloth-like outer layer and also gartered waistband. Quality-wise, Mommy can't comment yet because Juan Or has not yet started using it.

Huggies Dry Comfort (the red-blue packet): Can't comment yet because Juan Or has not yet used them. Mommy bought one L60 from Tesco Extra Cheras during 3-day sales for RM34.98 minus approx. 10% discount by using the Tesco Clubcard discount coupon, then later bought another one pack of L60 for RM34.99 in another Tesco 3-day sale. Last week Friday, Mommy bought another 2 packs of L60 from Giant Taman Connought which was selling for RM33.49 per pack in their 3-day sale. Mommy hopes that Juan Or will not encounter the same kind of urine-leaking problem due to design flaw as encountered in the Huggies Dry (the all-blue packet).

To date, Mommy has spent RM 492.43 on disposable diapers. And that's with the babysitter using the cloth diapers on Juan Or during normal days. If not, Mommy would have to spend even more....

Sticking the Tongue Out

Recently, Juan Or discovered the existence of his tongue. How does Mommy know that? Mommy caught Juan Or sticking his tongue out repeatedly and in a playful manner. And Mommy knows Juan Or has never done that before this, but now is sticking his tongue out as and when he likes as if his tongue is a play thing. Shown here is Juan Or sticking his tongue out when lying in the spring cot.

Mommy also managed to capture a video of Juan Or with his tonguing acts.

Diaper Sickness

DIAPERS......


Babies get diaper rashes, Mommies get diaper sickness!


Yes, that's right! Mommy is pretty sure this is a common ‘sickness’ among Mommies. Even Mommy's office room mate who has a 4 month old baby has had diaper sickness before. What are the symptoms? For mild case, it is an irresistable feeling of wanting to buy and stock up on baby diapers. For the real case, it is not only that irresistable feeling, but the determined action of actually rushing to buy the diapers, usually in more than just one pack of diapers. So far, Mommy is not aware whether there are other Mommies out there who are stricken with a serious case of diaper sickness. What marks the onset of diaper sickness? It's usually the act of spotting advertisements of typical hypermarket weekend-, or 3-day, or 2-day or even 1-day sales. And these advertisements usually appear in The Star newspaper on Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays advertised by either Tesco, Giant or Carrefour.


Last week Friday, Mommy saw Giant advertising Huggies Dry Comfort at RM33.49 per pack (Mommy wants to stock up on L60) and this price was valid for 3 days only. Lo and behold! Mommy has never seen it sold this cheap before! Just about 2 weeks ago, Mommy bought Huggies Dry Comfort L60 from Tesco for RM34.98 which Mommy thought was already cheap enough. Now Giant was even cheaper! Mommy just have to have her hands on it! So Mommy went to Giant Taman Connought which is nearest to Mommy's workplace and bought 2 packs. Mommy was in euphoria!


Then, Mommy’s next stop was at Tesco Extra Cheras because Tesco’s Baby Fair Promotion has just started. Mommy had already checked Tesco’s recent catalogue and found that A5-sized flash cards are on sale at RM7.95 each and on top of that, it’s buy one, free one! So Mommy’s going for that flash card! Mommy was also eyeing to buy Tesco Choice’s refill pack of baby wipes sold at RM7.99 for 300 pieces. Also, Mommy saw that the price of Drypers Drypantz was sold at RM26.90 per pack (cheapest price ever for this brand!) even though the catalogue stated the price as RM28.90. Last week, what Mommy saw was that at the promotion price of RM26.90, only M44 and XL sizes were available. L36 was not in stock. So now that L36 was in stock, Mommy grabbed 2 packs! Later, after some thoughts, Mommy grabbed another one pack of Drypers Drypantz M44 to be given as baby gift for Sister-in-law’s coming 2nd baby in August 2009. Ooohhhh……Mommy was stricken with diaper sickness!


When Mommy was back home again, Mommy arranged the 5 packs of baby diapers (2 Huggies Dry Comfort L60 + 2 Drypers Drypantz L36 + 1 Drypers Drypantz M44) in a stack nearby to an existing stack of disposable baby diapers which Mommy bought some time back (all are size L). Gosh, what high stacks!

(This is the old stack.)

(Here's the new stack!)

By the way, Juan Or only has some 17 pieces of size M diapers to finish up, then Mommy will put him on size L already. Mommy will review about the brands of diapers that Juan Or used before in one of the future postings.

The 'B' Credit Card

Last week, Mommy received the new You:nique credit card by Alliance Bank. Actually, Mommy already has an existing Alliance credit card which Mommy applied when Mommy first started working. But now, applying for this You:nique credit card is just an extra thing for Mommy not for the extra credit facility, but rather for its personalizing feature. So what's in Mommy's mind is nothing more than to be able to add Juan Or's photo into Mommy's credit card! The only comment Mommy has about this personalizing thing is that when you insert the photo (through the website) and do whatever necessary alterations, it looks nice on the preview, but when the real photo credit card appears, it doesn't look as nice anymore. In this case, Juan Or's photo appears to be stretched too much to the sideways such that his head looks rather like alien baby!

And the colour of his lips is too red like having the lipstick on!

So for those who are interested to add their favourite picture onto the credit card, here's your chance to do it for free until 31st March 2009 only. After this deadline, you'll be charged RM38 for personalizing your credit card. Also, in this card, you can choose to either have rebates option (rebates in tiers: 0.50% for monthly spending of RM0-500, 0.70% for RM501-1350, 0.90% for RM1351-2550, and 2.00% for RM2551-5000, and anything more than RM5000 will have no rebates at all) or flat finance charge rate (9% p.a.) or 2X rewards points. Of course, Mommy goes for the rebates option (Mommy likes things to be discounted!) and you still get to earn reward points (1 point for every RM1 spent) unlike the Petronas-CIMB credit card where you no longer earn reward points for getting 2% rebate when pumping petrol.

Anyway, Mommy has plans to cancel the previous Alliance credit card because the only feature it has is earning 1 point for every RM1 spent (all other credit cards from other banks also have this feature, right?). No point carrying so many credit cards in the purse!

In Transition to Infant Milk Powder

Mommy has been exclusively breastfeeding Juan Or for about 9 months 3 weeks. Recently, Mommy started Juan Or on drinking partly breastmilk and partly infant milk powder because Mommy's current milk production ranges from 10 to 12 oz from 8 am to 6 pm per day which is far less than Juan Or's consumption of 18 to 22 oz. Previously, Mommy was able to produce 12 to 15 oz of breastmilk within that time period.

Mommy's colleague, Dr. Renee, offered to get a scoop of Enfalac from her sister-in-law who still has an infant to care for. There's also Ms. Stephenie, also Mommy's colleague and office room mate, who gave away the remaining quarter tin of a 900-g Similac (from Abbott Laboratories). Apparently, Ms. Stephenie wants to change brand to Mamex because she wants her baby to have more frequent bowel movements than currently is.

So Mommy handed the milk powder to the babysitter to try on Juan Or. The result? According to the babysitter, by drinking the infant milk powder itself, Juan Or retches or acts like he is about to vomit. So the babysitter fed him via the spoon. The next day, the babysitter mixed about two-third of Mommy's breastmilk and one-third of infant milk powder (with water), and Juan Or seems to accept it better. Of course, this time Juan Or won't drink from the baby bottle anymore. If fed by spoon, he will bite it. So the babysitter resorted to pouring a small amount of the milk mixture into the baby bottle's cap and slowly poured into his mouth. What a tedious baby! But luckily, the babysitter doesn't find too much of a trouble feeding him that way. How about Juan Or's bowel movements ever since consuming Similac? According to the babysitter, his bowel movements are daily and of the normal type - not too dry and not too wet, just nice.

Mommy is relieved that Similac goes well with Juan Or and that he accepts drinking it when mixed with breastmilk. Mommy is also relieved that Mommy doesn't have to succumb to the daily pressure of meeting the daily milk production target of about 20 oz. per day. Prior to this, Mommy's daily milk production falls short of Juan Or's daily consumption by as much as 6 to 10 oz. per day. For this reason, the buffer period of frozen breastmilk supply in the freezer has dwindled from a good 14-day buffer period (when Mommy went back to work after maternity leave) to a mere and miserable 5-day buffer period. According to the babysitter, everyday, Juan Or drinks 12 to 14 oz. of breastmilk and 6 to 8 oz of infant milk powder (with water). Mommy heaves a sigh of relief!

Juan Or in Cute Baby Overall Onesie

This early morning, Mommy felt a bit cold. Considering that Mommy's body has always been feeling hot (and most of the time sweaty!) ever since giving birth to Juan Or, so Mommy reckoned that anybody who have not gone through any major bodily changes must be feeling even colder - and that Juan Or is no exception. So Mommy changed Juan Or's T-shirt (Juan Or had no shorts on, only diapers) into a new overall onesie (size: 9 months) which Mommy bought long before Juan Or was born. This onesie was bought for only RM7.90 from Tesco Extra Cheras during one of those baby promotion. The cloth is of good quality, 100% cotton, though on the thick side, is collared, and has a cute football-cum-sports design that says,"No. 1 Player". Here is a grinning Juan Or posing in his new overall onesie (carried by his Jidek, the Second Uncle).

Watch out! He's going for Mommy's handphone camera!

Bulldog! Bulldawg!

Look at this bulldog's photo:

(Many, many thanks to Red Zena for allowing Mommy to use this handsome bulldog photo!)

And no one does the bulldog face better than Juan Or! (Yes, Mommy has tried pulling the bulldog mouth before but it looks horrible!)

Mommy recalled seeing one bulldog in Facebook's virtual pet by the name "Bulldawg". So don't say CHEESE, say BULLDAWG!