Birthday Card from Dutch Lady

Yesterday, Mommy received a card-like thingy in an attractive blue colour Dutch Lady envelope. It turns out that Dutch Lady sent a Happy-1-year-old birthday card to Juan Or. By the way, Juan Or's first birthday will be on 12th May (coming soon!).

(Front cover of the birthday card)

Upon opening the birthday card, Mommy saw two major sections. On the right side is a birthday greeting to the child that goes:

Someone's turning one - what a celebration,

Cake, balloons and lovely decorations.

Clapping, singing, laughing, having fun,

Have a Hapy, Happy Birthday, Little One.

On the left side is a message to "Dear dedicated mom". In the message, Dutch Lady 'reminded' Mommy to include Dutch Lady 123 Growing Up Milk to Juan Or's daily diet, and that the milk contains a special formula (Dutch Lady's trademark TT-Ratio formula).

(How the birthday card looks from the inside)

Actually, way before Dutch Lady sent these marketing items to Mommy (Dutch Lady even sent a sachet of the 123 Growing Up Milk honey flavour sometime before this birthday card), Mommy had already stocked up this brand of milk powder for Juan Or. Currently, Mommy has 4 packs of 1.1 kg of this milk powder in stock. The 1st pack was purchased from Central Supermarket (Old Klang Road) for RM21.49 (for plain and honey flavours only) to which Mommy thought that was cheap enough. Much, much later on, Tesco held a 3-day weekend promotion selling it (all flavours including Chocolate) for RM18.45 per pack of 1.1kg! So Mommy bought 3 packs.

Upon Mommy's reflection of the contents of the Dutch Lady birthday card, Mommy realizes that Dutch Lady's marketing strategy aims to target at mothers who have yet to feed their babies with toddler formula milk. The rationale is that it is easier to influence someone who has never used a generic item before to start using their brand, compared to getting parents who have already been using a generic item to want to change brand. After all, the general trend by parents is that they will only start buying toddler milk powder when the child is very near 1 year old and that once a certain milk powder brand suits the child, the parent will stick to that brand no matter what. That also explains why Dutch Lady sent the birthday card to Juan Or something like 2-and-a-half weeks in advance of Juan Or's actual birthdate. Most probably, Dutch Lady hopes to capture Mommy's purchasing choice before Mommy sets out to buy toddler milk powder for Juan Or. Pretty smart and aggressive marketing by Dutch Lady, huh?

Anyway, regardless of whatever marketing strategies by whatever milk companies, Mommy has always personally liked Dutch Lady milk products. An example is the Dutch Lady Full Cream milk powder that Mommy consumes on a daily basis. What Mommy likes about Dutch Lady is that, let's say you use lukewarm water, the milk powder is so much more easily dissolved compared to Fernleaf's (Mommy used to drink Fernleaf during the unmarried days back then!). Taste-wise too, Mommy prefers Dutch Lady to Fernleaf. And because of that, Mommy believes that Dutch Lady's infant formula milk powder will taste better too compared to other brands. Probably this holds true because the babysitter says that Juan Or is already able to willingly drink 7 oz. of infant formula at one go, unlike last time when he drank Lactogen (Nestle) and Similac (Abbott Laboratories) whereby he had to be 'forced' to drink.

So there you go, probably other mommies out there who have submitted their details to Dutch Lady previously have received the same thing as Mommy.

Modified Toddler Car Seat

On Sunday, after several nights of burning the midnight oil marking exam papers, Mommy was finally 'free' to go for Sunday just-the-three-of-us outing. Papa drove Mommy's small Kancil car while Mommy and Juan Or sat at the back seat. Because Papa has long legs, so the driver's seat had to be adjusted quite far behind, thus forcing the infant car seat to be in a somewhat upright position.

Anyway, Juan Or likes to be held by Mommy while the car is on the move. So during the beginning part of the outing, Juan Or sat quietly like a good boy, but later became restless and started moving around, climbing on Mommy. So Mommy had sort of a difficult time getting Juan Or to sit quietly on Mommy's lap again. After some time tolerating Juan Or's restlessness, finally Mommy decided to strap Juan Or into the infant car seat. Since the infant car seat's position was somewhat upright in position, so Juan Or also appeared to be strapped upright in it. At a glance, the infant car seat looked like a toddler car seat! The only thing is that when the car turns, the seat will sway to the side where Mommy was sitting, so Mommy merely made do by sitting just next to Juan Or's car seat to prevent the seat from swaying. And there you have it - a modified toddler car seat! The only setback is that an adult has to be sitting next to it when the seat is 'modified'.

Here's how it looked like:

By the way, Mommy bought this infant car seat from a baby fair promotion in Tesco for RM89.90.

New Hair Style for Juan Or

These past few days have been very hot and humid. Mommy has been sweating buckets even during the night. Juan Or is no exception too. Juan Or was seen pulling his hair - seems like his crowning glory is a layer of heat insulator! So Mommy decided that his hair should be trimmed to as short as possible, but of course not to the point of being bald!

Thus, yesterday, Papa cut Juan Or's hair, while Mommy held his hands and body so that he cannot move. Otherwise Mommy can't imagine if Juan Or's facial skin, ears or fingers got snipped by the scissors! Of course Juan Or hates to be held on tightly and so began to struggle. By then, Papa managed to snip some hair and the snipped hair fell into Juan Or's hands. Juan Or appeared intrigued by his hair and started playing with it, so he stopped struggling. Due to his short attention span, Juan Or became restless again but Papa was not done yet with trimming. So Mommy took another bunch of hair and put into Juan Or's hands for him to play with. And sure enough, this trick worked beautifully to keep Juan Or occupied again so that he remained still - at least until Papa was done with the trimming!

(An earlier picture when Juan Or's hair was quite long - makes him look like a big boy!)

(Another earlier picture of Juan Or with the hair slightly shorter than the picture before, nevertheless still gives him the big-boy-look.)

(A sideways view of Juan Or before the haircut. This photo was taken when Papa and Mommy took Juan Or for Kentucky Fried Chicken.)

(After the hair cut, now Juan Or looks like a very young baby!)

("Come! Come!" Wah.....Juan Or wants to challenge people like Bruce Lee!?)

Crawling on All Fours

Remember how Mommy was wondering whether Juan Or will ever crawl in the normal sense, i.e., crawl on all fours? At that time, Juan Or's crawl seemed to be more like dragging his body with his arms - the commando style or Mommy's term is 'primitive crawling'. And an Internet article also mentioned before that some babies actually crawl the unconventional way (never crawl on all fours) before they learn to stand. However, Mommy's perspective of Juan Or's crawling changed two weeks ago.

Two weeks ago, Juan Or's legs seemed to have gained enough strength to bear his body weight. Juan Or is able to crawl on all fours already! Even then, sometimes, Mommy still sees Juan Or crawling the commando style, though, lesser seen already at this of writing. Here'a a short video of Jua Or crawling on all fours:

Mommy wonders whether there are any parents out there whose Little Ones crawl the unconventional way before learning how to stand?

Playing with Saliva

Everyone else has already gone up to sleep, except for Juan Or and Mommy. Mommy had to be around to watch out for Juan Or. Juan Or did not at all look sleepy. Mommy was wondering whether Juan Or is an insomniac baby? Juan Or is so full of energy - touching here and there, climbing here and there, crawling here and there, moving here and there, fiddling here and there - the list goes on and Mommy has to keep up with Juan Or in case he hurts himself or touches something dirty and then puts the dirty finger into his mouth or rubs his eyes.

Mommy managed to catch this video of Juan Or splitter-splattering his saliva during his midnight wakefulness. On top of it all, as if knowing that Mommy wanted to film him, he clapped his hands in victory as if to show off he is a multiple-skilled baby!

The Teasing Baby

Look at this baby with the teasing face - the face with a sly, cunning smile!

(Teasing face with the sly, cunning smile!)

It was already past midnight, Juan Or still wasn't feeling sleepy and so wanted to play. So happen, Grandpa wanted to catch the midnight news on television and Mommy also had to be up to entertain Juan Or. Shown here in the photo above was Juan Or trying to get hold of forbidden things, in this case was a loose wire attached to a treadmill (of course the wire was not connected to any electrical outlet!). Juan Or loves to play at the treadmill, and Grandpa and Mommy kept on reminding Juan Or not to play with the wire - any other objects placed on the treadmill can be touched but not the wire! However, Juan Or seemed to ignore the countless reminders and enjoyed doing it on purpose. Just before holding the wire, Juan Or would glance at Grandpa and Mommy, giving that sly and cunning smile. Ooohhh, Mommy's baby is a good teaser!

Here are more snapshots of Juan Or's don't-want-to-sleep rendezvous after he was satisfied with teasing Grandpa and Mommy at the treadmill.

("OOhhh....I want my Mickey Mouse!")

("Hahaha....soooo funny!")

("What a good laugh!")

Of Depleting Breastmilk Supply and Auto-weaning

(Mommy's frozen breastmilk supply)

Of late, Mommy's breastmilk supply has gone down again! How sad!

Below is a quick timeline of Mommy's breastmilk supply history. The number of months indicated refers to the age of Juan Or.

1 month: Quantity was uncertain because Juan Or fed directly from the breast, so Mommy can't see how much breastmilk had been drunk.



2 months: 10-12 oz. within approximately 8 hours.



3-6 months: 12-16 oz. within approximately 8 hours.



7-9 months: 10-13 oz. within approximately 8 hours.



9-10 months: averaging 10.5 oz within approximately 8 hours.



11 months: averaging 7.5 oz within approximately 8 hours.





To date, Mommy's breastmilk supply has further gone down to 7.5 oz which Mommy thinks is attributed to Juan Or's auto-weaning. For all that Mommy knows, Mommy has never tried to wean Juan Or, but somehow Juan Or seems to want to wean himself. On many occasions, when Mommy offered Juan Or the breast, he merely turned his head away. And if Mommy continued to offer him the breast, Juan Or started protesting and fretting. So nowadays, Juan Or has not suckled on Mommy's breast for as long as 17 hours in a row. Obviously, lesser suckling stimulation also means lesser milk supply. Juan Or will only suckle on the breast when he is half asleep and that's during the midnight till the wee hours in the morning.





Anyway, Mommy does not intend to wean Juan Or off totally yet because breastfeeding is so convenient. Breastfeeding can be easily done when the baby wakes up in the middle of the night to feed and you are forced to wake up. So you end up breastfeeding the baby but your eyes are shut because you are still very sleepy. Breastfeeding is also convenient when in the middle of a long car ride, baby goes hungry or thirsty, and all you have to do is just put the baby at the breast and voila, baby gets fed! No pouring, scooping or mixing required! And no mess too in case your hubby makes an emergency brake!

Help Thien Nhan

Yesterday, Mommy chanced upon a link from BabyandPapa.com that led Mommy to Thien Nhan's blog. Upon reading Thien Nhan's blog, Mommy's heart ached to know how some parents can be so irresponsible in abandoning their newborn baby. Even more heartbreaking is how the poor innocent baby has to suffer the consequences for the rest of his life because of his parents' irresponsible action in abandoning him.



So what sets Thien Nhan apart from other abandoned babies?




Thien Nhan was found abandoned at birth on 15th July 2006. By the time he was found in the yard of a dilapidated wooden house in a remote village of a hilly area of Central Vietnam, he had been mauled by a wild animal which results in the loss of his right leg and genitals, and his wounds were covered with insects. This baby miraculously survived the severe attack and so the local monks named him 'Thien Nhan' which means 'Good Person'.

(Poor Thien Nhan was barely alive when he was found.)

In mid-March 2008, Thien Nhan is adopted by a Vietnamese family in Hanoi and so is seeking for donations to help pay for his medical care, rehabilitation and education. Medical care, rehabilitation and hormone replacement therapy are what he needs for most parts of his life. Thien Nhan's medical care involves urethral dilation to make urination easier for him and thereafter, genital reconstructive surgeries over a course of 10 to 15 years. As for hormone replacement therapy, because Thien Nhan has lost all testicular tissue, he will need hormone replacement therapy for the rest of his life. Otherwise, Thien Nhan can never turn into a man, but of course he will not be able to father children anymore.












Various organizations and individuals have helped Thien Nhan in one way or another, including a major fundraising effort by Singapore's cartoonist in The Sunday Times, Lee Chee Chew, in his blog "Chew On It!".




Mommy must commend Thien Nhan’s adoptive parents for their courageous effort in adopting him. His adoptive parents are the actual unsung angels. Mommy knows it is a difficult decision to want to adopt a child that comes with hugh medical bills. Not many parents will want to adopt a child like that. Adopting a child is one thing, but adopting a child that comes together with hugh medical bills plus time taken off from work and household routine is a different thing altogether that calls for a lot of sacrifices.

(Thien Nhan with his adoptive mother, Tran Mai Anh.)

(Thien Nhan finding comfort with his adoptive mother.)

So Mommy feels compelled to do Mommy's part in publicizing Thien Nhan's plight - hopefully more donations can come pouring in into Thien Nhan's fund! Therefore, Mommy got in touch with Thien Nhan's adoptive mother's good friend, Elka Ray, to obtain photos of Thien Nhan to be included in this posting. As for methods in making the donations, please refer to Thien Nhan's blog which is written by his adoptive mother, a Vietnamese journalist Tran Mai Anh, and her good friend Elka Ray who is a Canadian writer and editor who has lived in Vietnam for 12 years.



By the way, Mommy has included a link on 'Help Thien Nhan' at the sidebar of this blog so that visitors can still continue to see it (and be reminded of it!) even though this posting will come to pass eventually.



After reading about Thien Nhan's plight, now Mommy knows just how lucky Juan Or is!




An online magazine (Darmouth Medicine) article of Thien Nhan can be found here.

("Bye, bye, and see you again soon!")

Juan Or the 'B' for.....BOOKWORM!

Remember how Juan Or encompasses the 7Bs - 'B' for baby, boy, buffalo (for his big size), bite (he's a good biter!), bising (for being noisy when fretful), busybody (likes to turn his head to see what others are doing when Mommy is breastfeeding him), and bulldog (for pulling his mouth downwards from end to end to make the bulldog face).

Yesterday, Juan Or earned another 'B' title - 'B' for BOOKWORM!

("I love books.....")

("......for a reason!")

No, no, he's not the bookworm that you think! Of course, looks can be deceiving with him holding the book. Instead, you know, it's that silvery-looking worm that feeds on books? Yes, that's right, Juan Or is feeding on books too! Juan Or bites books, just like how bookworms bite books!

This was what happened: It was 6.30 am when Juan Or woke up from sleep. So Mommy had to get up from sleep too to breastfeed him. And Mommy was still feeling very sleepy as a result of interupted sleep throughout the night because of Juan Or's constant waking up. Mommy offered him the breast, but Juan Or turned his head away (Juan Or seems to be auto-weaning himself from breastfeeding for the past few days). So Mommy decided to read a book with him instead. It was a board book with a monkey squeezy toy attached to it. After reading, Mommy left Juan Or to play with the book (he loves flipping and turning the pages more than reading the book!) while Mommy quickly catched some light sleep. Of course, from time to time, Mommy secretly opened the eyes just to make sure Juan Or did not put the book to his mouth, to which he didn't. After the light sleep of about 20 minutes, Mommy got up to take the book from Juan Or for keeping. Lo and behold, the book cover's corner was biten off!

(The bottom corner was biten off!)

(When the book is opened, part of the word 'give' is missing!)

Immediately, Mommy, with the voice raised a little, asked Juan Or,"Who bite this book? Why did you bite this book?" Juan Or merely stared at the book. Mommy looked around for scraps of the biten off portion and it was nowhere to be seen. "You swallowed it! Open your mouth! SEE!" And Juan Or obediently opened his mouth, much to Mommy's surprise because Juan Or will shut his mouth tightly whenever Mommy wants to clean his mouth. Mommy couldn't see any trace of book material in his mouth. Then Juan Or looked back at Mommy as if to say,"Where got!?"

("Where got, Mama!?")

Sometimes, Mommy doesn't know whether to laugh or to be angry.....

Snapshots of Juan Or Playing with Mosquito Net

Yesterday, Mommy caught Juan Or playing with the mosquito net of his spring cot. Juan Or seems to be having a jolly good time putting sheets over his head, just like how he enjoyed it when Mommy put the foldable mattress over his head, much like having a roof over the head.

See what I'm gonna do next!

Hehehehe......

Mosquito net or bridal veil?

'Roof' over the head!

SMILE!

Juan Or's New Car

Yesterday night, Mommy decided that it was time to take out the baby car from the box for Juan Or to ride on. Actually Mommy bought this baby car when Mommy was still pregnant with Juan Or. The baby car was bought from Tesco Extra Cheras during one of those Tesco Baby Fairs in 2008. And Mommy managed to buy it at the lowest price offered ever in all Tesco Baby Fairs so far - RM24.90! In later Tesco Baby Fairs, Mommy noticed the price had gone up to RM28.90 and higher, never at RM24.90 anymore. So Mommy considers the RM24.90 price to be a good buy! Elsewhere (e.g. The Store, Hong Kong Express), Mommy saw it selling for RM35.90.

When Mommy first took out the box of baby car, Juan Or looked like he knew this is for him. From a fretful baby, he immediately turned into a quiet one, looking curiously at the colourful box. Along the way when Papa was assembling the baby car, Juan Or quietly looked on, with short sessions of impatient frets. Huh....baby also know how to be impatient!?

Finally, the baby car was assembled, with decorative stickers pasted on it. This is how the baby car looks like.

Here is Juan Or posing in his new car.

And here is a video of Juan Or riding his new car. Be sure to pay attention to what happened at the end of the video!

Perhaps if there is such thing as Malaysia's Funniest Videos, then Mommy will definitely consider submitting this!

Humpty Dumpty Sat on the Wall OR New Kid on the Block?

Look at Juan Or sitting on the sofa cushion! And he seems to be enjoying sitting up there! And sitting on a high plane is likened to what? You can either see it as Humpty Dumpty or the ninties boy band New Kids on the Block (of course now is only One Kid on the Block!).

Moments later, Juan Or got bored sitting up there and insisted to be brought down. Watch this video:

The Adventurous 'B'

Ever since Juan Or the 'B' was able to shift his weight from one leg to another while holding on to a furniture and lifting himself up after a fall (see previous posting), Juan Or has become more and more adventurous, or as what Hokkiens call it, bo kia si, meaning 'not afraid to die'. If Mommy is to stop him from pursuing his daring acts any further, Juan Or will fret. And if Mommy continues to stop him, his fret turns into an angry cry. If finally Mommy decides to let him resume the position of his daring acts, his cry will immediately stop and his face goes back to normal composure. Another thing about the Adventurous 'B' is that between choosing to crawl to a clean or dusty spot in the house, Juan Or would rather choose the dusty one. Watch this video on how Juan Or's Grandpa had to pull his T-shirt to restrain him from endangering himself:

Freebies Giveaway - Just What Mommy Loves!

Mommy received an update email from TheMomBlogs.com informing Mommy about blogs that hold Spring or Easter Giveaways. So Mommy browsed the webpage and decided to click a blog called Singapore Kid's Place in which the giveaway is a children's book called "Monkey Magic" signed by the author, Grant S. Clark and published by Monsoon Books. What's more, the participation is opened to anyone in the world (unlike some which are opened to US and Canada residents only).

Hurry, the giveaway contest ends on 9th April 2009 at 12.00 pm Singapore time (Heck! Why does Mommy only get to read about offers at the very last minute!?). Just do as what the blog author instructs and you stand a chance to win the book.

Anyway, if Mommy wins the book, Mommy will be keeping the book for Juan Or till he is old enough to read it!

Developing Juan Or Photos at Tesco Photo Centre

Somewhere in early March 2009 when shopping in Tesco Extra Cheras, Mommy received a leaflet advertising some photo promotions in conjunction with the newly-launched Tesco Photo Centre. The leaflet states that Tesco Photo Centre is only available in Tesco Extra Cheras, Tesco Mutiara Damansara and Tesco Puchong outlets. The photo printing is powered by Hewlett-Packard (HP). What about the promotional prices? The leaflet quoted a special offer of RM0.35 per 4R photo in which the price is valid from 5th March to 2nd April 2009. Other items mentioned in the leaflet are greeting cards RM5.90, 4R photo RM0.50, photo book RM39.00 (can be discounted RM15.00 some more during promotional period), poster RM39.00 and calendar RM59.00 where you are allowed to customize them by inserting photos of your choice.

(The promotional leaflet)

Regrettably, Mommy was too busy to start selecting photos to print until the last minute on 31st March when finally Mommy got to selecting the photo and went to Tesco Extra Cheras to print them (otherwise Mommy would have put this posting much, much earlier for everyone's benefit to take advantage of the limited time offer!). At the same time, Mommy received Tesco discount coupon (for Tesco Clubcard members only) which gave RM0.05 discount per photo for 30 4R photos printed, which means Mommy gets to have RM0.30 only per 4R photo printed.

Apparently, the photo centre is a self-service kiosk with 6 (if Mommy didn't remember wrongly!) touch-screen computers. Of course, there will be the photo centre staff available to assist customers if they have problems with the touch-screen computers. The computers were easy to maneuver, except for the sidebar scroll which required quite a lot of touch-pressure to get the scroll moving. At the computer, customers were given the option to edit their photos in terms of colour intensity, crop, adding decorative borders, collage several photos together into one page, etc. However, Mommy didn't do any of those fanciful editings - merely go for conventional gloss photo printing. The message on the computer screen also mentioned that the photo products can be obtained in about one hour's time. However, the staff there told Mommy that the cartridge had run out of ink, and was still waiting for the cartridges to arrive! What!? Anyway, Mommy decided to bear with it and collect the photos on other day instead.

So, today Mommy went there to collect the photos. The result of print quality? Well, it's good, the colours are very true to life, however, certain colours tend to be too saturated and the pictures appear to be somewhat a bit darker than what you see in your own computer screen. Also, the photo envelope mentioned that HP photos are fade resistant for 200 years (based on display-permanence rating by Wilhelm Imaging Research Inc. or HP Image Performance Lab). Another thing is that the photo paper used is HP Vivid Photo Paper, and the glossiness is not as glossy as those in conventionally developed digital photos nowadays (Mommy prefers it to be less glossy!).

Shown here is a sample picture (scanned) printed from the photo centre and followed by the actual digital copy of the photo. This one is not so good.

(Scanned from the printed photo)

(The original digital copy)

But this is a good one.

(Scanned from the printed photo.)

(The original digital copy)

Sitting on the Motorbike - Like Father, Like Son!

Just before going to work, Mommy managed to capture photos of Juan Or on his Grandpa's motorbike. Of course, his Grandpa has to hold him while on the motorbike. According to his Grandpa, when Juan Or sees his own mirror image at the wing mirror, Juan Or will put his hand behind the mirror as if to catch hold of the 'other person', only to find no one there!

Then, Mommy recalled seeing an old photo of Juan Or's Papa sitting on the motorbike too. So here's for you to compare Father and Son:

Then, the typical shape of Papa's mouth during excitement and laughter triggered Mommy's memory of Juan Or having exactly the same kind of look (in Mommy's eyes!) which compelled Mommy to retrieve this photo from the Chinese New Year 2009 photos:

It's that unmistakable kind of Father-and-Son look, right?

Searching for Mickey Mouse

On a late night of last week's Saturday, everyone else in the family was already asleep upstairs, except for Juan Or and Mommy. Mommy had to be up to entertain Juan Or who was in the mood for playing. Mommy put Juan Or in the baby walker and then handed him a Mickey Mouse figurine (which came from the stacking cups toy Mommy bought from Litt Tak Warehouse Sale recently) to play with.

As usual, Juan Or would bite Mickey Mouse.

Then, Juan Or would twist and turn Mickey Mouse round his little fingers and finally threw Mickey Mouse onto the floor (and expected Mommy to pick it up for him!).

However, Mommy could not see the Mickey Mouse anywhere on the floor - at least not at where Mommy was squating. So Mommy asked Juan Or,"Juan Or, where is the Mickey Mouse? Where did you throw the Mickey Mouse?" Juan Or looked at Mommy and suddenly, at the time when Mommy least expected, Juan Or moved backwards with the baby walker and with his forefinger held in a pointing position, quickly pointed at the Mickey Mouse on the floor, and then stomped his legs with delight! Oh, Mommy was surprised and impressed! Mommy actually didn't expect Juan Or to understand and respond to what Mommy was asking him, but he did! And never before had Mommy ever seen Juan Or point his forefinger at something, but he was doing it just now! So Mommy patted his head and showered him with kisses on the cheek. Mommy's Juan Or is a big boy already!

Then in another occasion (which happened tonight), Juan Or was on the floor playing with his basket of toys. Juan Or's typical habit is to take out each toy, one by one, from the basket by throwing. Finally, the basket was emptied and all the toys were scattered on the floor. So Mommy asked Juan Or,"Juan Or, where's the Mickey Mouse? Mama wants to have the Mickey Mouse. Give Mama the Mickey Mouse."Juan Or responded by crawling forward a little and putting his arm out to sweep at the clutter of toys and then picked out the Mickey Mouse figurine. Wow, Mommy's Juan Or is a big boy already and is already able to understand some spoken language!

Juan Or's First Mail

Last week Friday was the day Juan Or received his first mail. The mail is the MPH Kidz Club newsletter sent by MPH Bookstores. Since Mommy is constantly buying books for Juan Or from MPH, Mommy might as well enrol Juan Or in MPH Kidz Club to enjoy 10% discount on children book purchases. The annual fee is RM12.

So what does Juan Or do with his mail? Does Juan Or read his mail? Of course not! Instead, Juan Or BITES his mail! Chew! Chew! Chomph! Chomph! Mmmmmm.....delicious mail (meal)!

(Juan Or BITES his mail!)

(What, Mommy? Watching what I was doing just now?)

Buying Crayons for Juan Or at the Pelikan Warehouse Sale

Last Saturday (28th March 2009), Mommy went to the Pelikan Warehouse Sale (27th -29th March) to see what good deal stationery items Mommy can get for Juan Or. This Pelikan office is located at Jalan Puchong and is next to one DHL building. Mommy reached there at 10am and customers were allowed to park in their office's parking lots (no fuss from the guards also - Pelikan's Open Day sort of!). Crowd-wise? Not too bad, i.e., quite a lot of people but not too many, probably because it was still early.

In the sale area (which only occupies a large room), there were basically 3 sections: office stationery (pens, glue sticks, highlighters, marker pens, correction liquids, etc.), toner of various laser printers (mostly HP and Lexmark printers), and children stationery (colour pencils, oil pastel crayons, watercolour paints, PLAKA). The moment you enter the sale area, a Pelikan personnel will provide you a box for you to carry things.

However, Mommy was not too happy with Pelikan's payment system. Customers were required to go to the office stationery section's counter to sort out office-stationery-only purchases for the Pelikan personnel to issue an invoice. Then, if the customer also wants to purchase children stationery, then the customer has to make another queue at the children stationery section's counter for the Pelikan personnel to issue another invoice! After that only the customer can go to another payment counter to pay for the goods. Why can't Pelikan make everyone's life easier by merely letting customer grab whatever he/she wants and then just go to one counter only to get the invoice issued and then go to the payment counter? Or better still, upon issuing the invoice, the customer immediately pays for the goods there and then. That will save a lot of trouble and queues! Because of this troublesome system, Mommy decided not to buy the glue sticks (which was sold for RM1 each at the office stationery section). Instead, Mommy just settle for buying children stationery. Here are Mommy's yield:

(Pelikan's oil pastel crayons, 36 jumbo sticks, sold for RM7 each, which is cheap!)

(Pelikan's oil pastel crayons, 24 sticks, sold at 2 boxes for RM5, which is a very, very good buy!)

(Pelikan's colour pencils, 36 colour pencils, sold at RM10 per box, which is only considerably cheap. It comes with a free sharpener.)

All in all, Mommy spent RM29 for all the items above. Upon Mommy's inspection of the Pelikan products purchased, Mommy concluded that these colour pencils and oil pastel crayons are made in Germany! Unlike Staedtler's Luna Classic colour pencils (24 colour pencils) which are manufactured in Malaysia and sold in Tesco for RM21.90 (but Mommy bought it before at RM14.90 in a past promotion). So far Mommy has only gone to Tesco to survey the original price of the above items, but found that Tesco does not carry the Pelikan brand of colour pencils and oil pestel crayons. Also, the Pelikan's stocks in this sale are still new and the packagings are still in good condition.

Other things that Mommy saw in the sale (not a complete list, though): laser printer toner (RM99) which doesn't carry the Konica Minolta brand is the printer that Mommy has, gel pen (RM1), 12 short colour pencils (RM5 for 2 boxes).

Yes! Mommy knows that Mommy is buying children stationery way too ahead in time for Juan Or. And Juan Or can't even hold a pencil properly yet! Yes, blame it on Mommy's anxiety to buy things for Juan Or. Mommy views things too far ahead already! Here's what Mommy has prepared for Juan Or many, many months before this blog came into existence:

[Staedtler's Luna Classic colour pencils of 24 pieces bought for RM14.90 in Tesco; Staedtler's Noris Club of 24 colour pencils bought for RM7.49 (comes with free 4 writing pencils, a sharpener, an eraser and a ruler, all Staedtler brand) from The Store; Justice League 24 colour pencils for RM6.50 (comes free with Justice League 12 colour pencils, an eraser, a mechanical pencil and leads) bought from The Store; and Dexter's Laboratory pencil bags which Mommy got free from Dutch Lady's redemption. Pencils, ball-point pens (which Mommy got from attending various scientific seminars) , an eraser and ruler are already in the pencil bag.]

(Colouring books and activity books of Mickey Mouse and Friends, Winnie the Pooh and Sesame Street characters. You can download these colouring pages from the sidebar links of this blog.)