Juan Or Definitely Needs Digi's "Pimp My Broadband"!

This is what normally happens at home every night on weekdays:



"Yay! Mommy is back from work already! Now Mommy's laptop is all MINE! Mommy, please switch on the laptop for me. I want to watch the educational slideshows and YouTube videos that you have downloaded from office. In the meantime, I'll play with the computer keyboard first while waiting for Mommy to set up the laptop, ya?"

"Ooohh....Mommy's laptop is on already! Can't help fiddling with Mommy's laptop!"

"Mama, why is your laptop on already but the programmes takes so slow to move?" Mommy says,"Well, Mommy's laptop is old already. It's already 5 years 2 months old, sure to become slow in processing. Some more the RAM is too small by today's standard. See-lah, if Mommy can win Digi's "Pimp My Broadband" Contest and get either the 1st, 2nd or 3rd prize, then Juan Or gets to watch from a brand new laptop or netbook with faster processing speed, OK?"

"Mama, aiyo, your laptop is so slow one...until now I'm still waiting!"

"Yay! Finally I get to watch what I want! Here's my favourite educational slideshow on animals that Mommy downloaded from Brillbaby."

"Hehehe....more animals with the pronunciation as well. This is good to teach me new words and how they are pronounced."

"An animals video that Mama downloaded from YouTube. Hehehe....Mama is always trying to snap photos of me, dunno for what....so I make funny faces for Mama!"

"Mama, you mean that's all the videos you have for me to watch!? Why so little one? I want to watch more videos!" So Mommy says,"Juan Or, Mama has work to do in the office. Mama can't be spending the whole working hours downloading things for you in the office. Some more at home is the dial-up networking type of internet connection, so if Mommy wants to download videos from home, then it's going to take forever to download. Probably if wait until next morning, the download process is still not finished yet. See-lah, if Mama wins something from the Digi's "Pimp My Broadband" Contest, at least if get to win the 4th to 50th prize, then Juan Or will get to enjoy 3 months free subscription to DiGi Broadband plus a free broadband modem! How's that? Then Juan Or gets to watch more funny videos, advertisements, nursery rhymes animation and even Mickey Mouse cartoons from YouTube! Mommy can just straightaway download them from home for Juan Or to watch, no need for Mommy to juggle time with office work to download these for you. How's that, baby? Hope for the best, ya? Tell all Aunties and Uncles reading this blogpost to vote for Mama, OK? And don't forget to thank the Aunties and Uncles who vote for Mama, OK baby?"

"OK, Mama. To all Aunties and Uncles reading this, please vote for my Mama here. And many, many thanks for your support! Alternatively, you can also vote by clicking my photo at the top right hand panel which leads you to Digi's "Pimp My Broadband" voting page. Just look for the 'Thumbs Up" icon and click, ya? One vote per day and everyday until 16th October 2009. Many, many thanks again! OK, in the meantime, since there's no more videos to watch, I might as well play with my good 'ole metal canister."

Joyride Trip to a Grapes Farm in Sendayan, Negeri Sembilan

During the recent Hari Raya holidays, Papa took Juan Or and Mommy for a joyride trip to Sendayan in Negeri Sembilan. Why Sendayan? Because, recently, Mommy read about grapes grown in Sedayan in The Star newspaper. And since Mommy likes gardening, Mommy became very curious to see grape vines growing in the Malaysian hot and humid climate. At the same, Mommy wanted it to be and outing and learning opportunity for Juan Or. So off we went to Sendayan.

Papa used the trunk road from Sri Petaling to Sri Kembangan, Balakong, Semenyih, Broga, Mantin and then veered off to Port Dickson's direction to reach Sendayan (Sendayan is before Port Dickson). Actually, both both Papa and Mommy didn't really know where the grapes farm is in Sendayan, but we merely relied on signboards that mention 'Sendayan'. Papa drove on until Mommy spotted a hilly area with support structures erected in a uniform manner. But of course from far, Mommy wasn't very sure whether those support structures were for grapes or other kinds of plants, but Papa decided to stop-over anyway, and turned out it was the grape farm we were looking for!

Papa drove into the small narrow and gravelled road of the grapes farm, but parked near the exit point. The small road was quite jammed because there were many cars moving and parking there. Probably there were just as many people as curious as Mommy where grapes are concerned! By then, Juan Or almost fell asleep, but luckily when the car stopped, Juan Or woke up without any fuss.

From afar, Mommy thought Mommy saw grapes - dark-looking bundles of something hanging among the vines. However, when Mommy went near, it turned out that the dark-looking bundles were small packets of soil enveloping bare-skin vine branches. Apparently there were no grapes - probably the grapes were harvested already. What's left are just signs of vegetative propagation. So never mind, even if we can't get to see the real grapes itself, at least the grapevine is sufficient!

Here are some snapshots at the grapevine. There were too many people to distract Juan Or's attention from Papa's handphone camera!

By the way, Mommy saw some freshly cut grape branches thrown on the ground - don't know whether these branches were meant to be thrown away or left there on purpose. So Mommy took one of those branches home to try planting them from the stem - don't know whether it will grow or not, but what's the harm of trying? So far so good, after cutting away the leaves, Mommy cut the branch into several segments and planted them onto the soil. As of yesterday, i.e., six days later, the branch segments have not dried and withered amidst the continuous hot and sunny days. So Mommy is keeping fingers crossed and hopes for the best!

Juan Or in the Kiddy Car-cum-Shopping Cart at Ikano Power Centre

This is an outdated post. Mommy was busy with other things for the past few days, so could not post this earlier.

On the last of the Hari Raya holiday, i.e., on Tuesday, Mommy decided to take Juan Or to Ikano Power Centre to try out the kiddy car-cum-shopping cart. What's more, most city folks were not around during Hari Raya, so there shouldn't be too much crowd in shopping complexes (Mommy was thinking about H1N1!). Thinking that the kiddy car-cum-shopping cart was for free to use, Papa and Mommy decided to go there early hoping to get hold of it before others. Upon reaching the customer service counter, turned out that the kiddy car cart was not for free! A refundable deposit of RM20 was required and the rental was RM2 for every 1 hour. Since Mommy wanted Juan Or to experience the kiddy car cart ride, so Mommy paid the necessary. Anyway, RM2 per hour is reasonable considering that those electric kiddy car rides require RM1 for just few minutes' worth of ride.

Juan Or seemed to enjoy every moment of the kiddy car cart ride. Mommy can see Juan Or busy turning the steering in multiple directions as Mommy pushed the cart. There was one moment when Mommy can see so much happiness shone on his face when the cart was moving. When we were going up the escalator, there was one moment when Juan Or turned his head back to look at Mommy, then he gave Mommy a loving smile! How sweet! Here are some snapshots of Juan Or posing in the kiddy car cart.

(This is how the kiddy car-cum-shopping cart looks like.)

(Juan Or giving Mommy the naughty look when posing for Mommy.)

(Papa and Juan Or coming down the escalator.)

When one hour was almost up, Mommy tried coaxing Juan Or to come out from the kiddy car cart, but Juan Or refused. So Mommy tried taking him out from the car to which Juan Or shouted and fretted with his hands holding on tight to the steering! Mommy then pretended to walk away leaving him behind while Papa tried to get him out, This time there was less resistance though the shouting and fretting was still there. Mommy paid for the cart rental and casually asked the customer service lady whether other kids acted like this too when time was up and she said yes...hahaha!





Later on, we walked to section whether there was display of home interior items such as comforters and bed sheet sets. There were two young guys in their late teens manning the section. What surprised Mommy most was when Juan Or went near the two guys who were total strangers to him (Juan Or usually cries when strangers are in close proximity to him!) and smiled and waved at them! And the two guys smiled back at Juan Or. Don't know why, but Juan Or seemed to like them! After that, Mommy walked him away, but later Juan Or forcefully changed his direction and walked back to see the two guys again! And again, Juan Or smiled and waved at them! Hmmmm.....funny boy!

Juan Or and His New Pair of Crocs-look-alike Shoes

Recently, Juan Or's paternal grandparents bought him a pair of Crocs-look-alike shoes from Carrefour. It turned out that the shoes fit just nicely on his little feet (Hint: Very soon, Juan Or's feet won't fit in anymore!). Turned out, the shoes are like 'love at first sight' for Juan Or. The moment the shoes slipped in, Juan Or was so eager to walk - more so than the shoes that Mommy bought for him at the Hytex Warehouse Sale some time back! Here's a video of his Grandpa taking him out for an evening stroll just outside the house minutes after fitting in the shoes for him:

Look at just how excited and eager Juan Or is to walk and walk and walk. Hahaha....just wait till Mommy asks him to walk round the house to do work for Mommy when he is much bigger! ^ ^

Juan Or and the Shape-sorting Toy

Of late, Mommy has noticed that Juan Or's shape recognition skill is starting to pick up. Previously, Juan Or was not able to match the correct shape to the correct hole and was dependent on Mommy to 'show the way'. To date, Juan Or is able to match the shapes to the holes with few mistakes (of course he still makes matching mistakes from time to time!).

Mommy also notices that Juan Or particularly likes shapes that are round or oval only. Whenever Mommy opens the toy cover, Juan Or will peep into the cover opening, then insert his little hand into the opening, and pick out either the round or oval shape ones. Then when Mommy closes the opening, Juan Or will enthusiastically insert the round shape into the round hole and the oval shape into the oval hole. Mommy wonders why Juan Or shows such preference? According to Papa's opinion, probably round and oval shapes are the easiest to insert unlike those star shape, clover-leaf, or triangle ones where you have to turn and turn until the edges fit in. So does that mean next time when Juan Or grows up, Juan Or will always find the easiest way out to accomplish something? Well, Papa and Mommy will wait and see.....

Juan Or and the Electronic Fish Lantern

This is a video of Juan Or playing with the electronic fish lantern. This is a peculiar toy for him - see how the lights, sound, moving fins and rotating wheels at the bottom made him so curious about the fish!






Actually, Mommy didn't buy this lantern for him. How did this lantern come about then? Actually, a few days ago, Juan Or's cousin sister, Juan Juan, came over to Grandpa and Grandma's house to stay during the day. Of course, at that time, Juan Or was already at the babysitter's house. Somewhere along the way, Grandpa and Grandma went out to the nearby supermarket to buy something, so they took Juan Juan along. So Juan Juan saw the colourful lanterns on sale and asked them to buy one for her. So Grandpa and Grandma bought her the electronic fish lantern for RM13.90 and decided that the lantern will stay at the grandparents' house so that any grandchild staying at grandparents' house can play with it.


For this lantern, Mommy has made it a point not to switch it on even if Juan Or asked Mommy to. Mommy will merely tell him that Mommy doesn't know how to operate the lantern. And that if he still wants to turn on the lantern, then he should ask Papa or Jidek (Second Uncle) to help him turn it on. Reason? Because on certain days, Juan Or wouldn't sleep through the night. So what happened was Juan Or would take the lantern and bring to Mommy to ask Mommy to switch it on. So Mommy will pretend not to know how to operate it, and told Juan Or to wait till his Papa or Jidek has awaken from sleep to get it turned on. Otherwise the sound and music is sure to wake everyone up from sleep!

Learning How to Cut Vegetables

Yesterday, Juan Or took his cousin sister's masak-masak (cooking) set (which was left behind in Grandma's and Grandpa's house) to play with. By the way, nowadays masak-masak set is one step more sophisticated than what Mommy played with long time ago. This set has a tomato, lamb chop and tempura that can be cut into two pieces and these pieces can be joined back again into an intact piece via velcro on the cross-section sides. Since this set comes with a toy knife and chopping board as well, so Mommy showed Juan Or how to cut them. After that only did Mommy hold Juan Or's hand to guide him in cutting them apart. Finally, Mommy let Juan Or control the knife himself while Mommy held the 'food' in place and voila, Juan Or managed to cut them! And everytime Juan Or managed to cut them apart, Juan Or would shout and kick in rejoice. Watch this video:

Buffalo Power (Part 2)

(Juan Or the 'B' for Buffalo!)

Remember how Juan Or came up with his buffalo power (kuasa kerbau) to do his hammering? Well, this time, Juan Or's squeaky hammer became a 'victim' of his hammering - the hammer broke into two! Now looks like the hammer cannot even withstand Juan Or's buffalo power and mind you, this is just the power of a 1+ year old toddler!

(The 'victim' of Juan Or's buffalo power!)

Sheer Determination

Remember how in a previous posting Mommy mentioned that Juan Or is addicted to watching the laptop? Because of his better attention span for learning when watching slideshows in the laptop, so Mommy allowed him to watch every night. However, the downside was that eventually as the days went by, Juan Or became 'insomniac' and refused to go to sleep even though it was already time to sleep. Because of this, Mommy decided to stop letting him watch the laptop during night time and so hid the laptop in a dark corner in the storeroom. During the first week, Juan Or couldn't find the laptop, but later on somehow he discovered the hiding place of the laptop!



And when Juan Or found the laptop, he would hug the laptop tightly (which was still in the bag) and then sat there in the dark storeroom waiting earnestly for Mommy to switch it on. If Mommy pretended to ignore his antics, he would briefly come out from the storeroom and called Mommy by making some 'ee-ak-ee-ak' sound, then go back into the dark storeroom and hug the laptop while squatting down! Then when Mommy finally went into the storeroom to check him out, he would grin at Mommy. Then when Mommy started taking the laptop out from the storeroom, Juan Or would start laughing. Smart boy! He sure does know at this tender age that determination will get him what he wants! Mommy managed to snap some photos to show how detemined he was:

(Juan Or approached the laptop.)

(Juan Or settled himself down on the storeroom floor first.)

(Juan Or took hold of the laptop to embrace it.)

Because of his sheer determination, Mommy had no choice but to reward him by allowing him to watch the laptop! Taa-dah!

(Back view)

(Front view. Note Juan Or's Great-Grandmother at the background.)

(See! So much of concentration on the laptop.)

(In this slightly sideways pose, the way Juan Or watches the laptop looks similar to how his TV-addict Great-Grandmother watches the TV!)

(So much of concentration....Juan Or was still undistracted even though Mommy went so near to capture his photo!)

("Mama thought I dunno that Mama is snapping my photos meh?")

And the good news is that Juan Or no longer became 'insomniac' as a result of watching the laptop at night. For the past few days up to today, Juan Or obediently went to sleep without making any fuss. Whew!

Teo Guan Lee Warehouse Sale (25th-31st August 2009)

Last week Friday, Mommy took a day’s leave from work after a very hectic schedule of keeping up with deadline to mark and submit exam marks. Guess where Mommy went to? Mommy went to the Teo Guan Lee Warehouse Sale to see what’s in store for baby and children items. This sale is in Taman Shamelin Perkasa, Cheras and Mommy went there via the Middle Ring Road 2. The sale is supposed to start at 10.30 am, but Mommy reached there at about 10.10 am and it was already opened. Parking-wise was a little difficult, but because Mommy’s car is small and it was still quite early, Mommy managed to get one.

There wasn't many people in the sale, probably because it was still quite early. The sale area was considerably big. Most of the items on sale are children and baby clothes and shoes/slippers and toiletries and other more minor sections are comforters and beddings, children toys, adult clothes and leather belts and wallets/purses.

Of course the section that interests Mommy most is the children and babies section. Some things are cheap, some are not - you have to choose wisely. Mommy also noticed that some really cheap items (for example Kiki Lala infant clothes selling for RM2) are no longer in good condition in that they have stains on them. Also, many items were not well price-tagged. Mommy saw many tags merely written as 'PW 03' with no mention of the price.....now what is that supposed to mean? As for payment, only cash term was accepted. But there's no queue for payment although there were also two cashier counters because not many people were buying anyway! Here are some snapshots of the sale:

Chicco bottle sterilizer - most of the boxes are already opened, but there's not price tag on the box...not even at the rack.




Kiki Lala baby clothes - can't find those at RM1 at all. Those RM2 ones are already in bad condition (stains).



Cuddles baby and toddler clothes - although the lowest price states RM3, however, the cheapest Mommy could find was RM8.


More of Cuddles baby and toddler clothes - again, Mommy can't find those at RM1, instead Mommy found those mostly at RM8.




More of Kiki Lala and Tom & Jerry items.

Pacifiers and pacifier chains selling for RM2 (Mommy can't remember what brand).




Puppy Winks canister wet wipes - RM5 per canister of 200 pieces of wet wipes - cheap!




Baby toiletries (can't remmember what brand) - RM1 for 120 mL bottle and RM2 for bigger bottle (can't remember the volume) - which is still not as cheap as the toiletries sold at Hytex.

Baby pillow and bolster sets and diaper bags.



More baby and toddler clothes. Mostly saw RM8 ones.



Popeye brand of children clothes.



Another Popeye boy's suit of T-shirt and bermuda for RM10 which is cheap, but Mommy dared not buy yet because it is going to be another 9 years before Juan Or can wear them. Maybe by then, the garters would have loosen already.

Kiki Lala pacifiers that come together with covers for RM1 each - cheap!



Kiki Lala toddler shoes selling for RM5 only - cheap! But Mommy didn't buy them because Juan Or already has enough toddler shoes bought at Hytex previously.



Girl slippers and clogs selling for RM5 per pair.



Ladybird brand of baby clothes gift set selling for RM35 but Mommy saw the original price tag was RM37.90. So this is definitely not cheap at all!

Children toys selling from RM3 to RM45. The toys don't look new and some are not in good condition.

Ladies' panty hose selling for RM1 per pack of 5 pairs - cheap! In fact, you get a pack of panty hose free if you purchase RM50 and above in a single receipt.

Comforters - the organizer did not indicate clearly whether the price shown is before or after discount of 80%, but Mommy doubts the price shown is before discount.

So what did Mommy get for Juan Or this time? Nothing much because most things like clothes and toddler shoes are already in sufficient supply for him. This is what Mommy got for Juan Or:

A set of rubbery toys-cum stackable cups that can double as chewy items for Juan Or, RM1 for all three pieces.

Kiki Lala shoes for children about age 5-6 years old for RM5. This pair of shoes has very thick soles and deep markings for good grip.

Popeye shoes for RM10 meant for children of approximately 7-8 years old. Again, the soles look thick and has deep marks for good grip.