Juan Or on Day 1 of Chinese New Year 2010

This was what transpired on the 1st day of Chinese New Year 2010 (14th February 2010).

First, Juan Or woke up late that morning. See the red mark on Juan Or's forehead? He slept so soundly that he didn't realize the mosquito biting him! By the way, Juan Or's paternal Grandpa handed ang pows (red packets containing money) to him and since he was still sleeping, Mommy slipped the ang pows between his thumb and forefinger, and then took a photo of him!

Finally when Juan Or woke up, Mommy took him to the babysitter's house to drink milk. And since it was New Year, so Mommy spend some time in babysitter's house as part of new year visit before the babysitter was scheduled to leave for Thailand at noon.

After that, Mommy brought Juan Or back and tried putting on a Chinese New Year boy suit on him. Mommy bought this suit from Giant Desa Petaling for RM9.99 and it comes together with a Chinese hat. Alas, Juan Or hated the suit that Mommy had bought with all good intention!

He fretted, screamed, struggled and cried when Papa tried wearing the top part on him so much so Papa was not able to button up let alone wear the pants on him (Mommy was busy snapping photos.....hehehehe!). In the end, Papa gave up. So Mommy tried but failed too, so Mommy gave up too. Don't know what was so scary about that Chinese New Year suit. Cheh....there goes Mommy's money for buying something that Juan Or refused to wear!

So Mommy wore Juan Or a new set of normal T-shirt and shorts type of clothing and he immediately stopped crying! Look at how happy he was wearing only 'normal clothes'!

And here's Juan Or looking outside the house. Must be eagerly waiting for guests to come, perhaps? Since Juan Or's Grandpa is the eldest son in the Lok family with a stay-in Great-grandma being the matriarch, so the house is expected to be filled relatives soon.

During the waiting process, Grandpa entertained Juan Or by bringing him out to the porch to look around. Here, you can see Juan Or holding an ang pow that Mommy gave to Juan Or.

Then, went up sitting on Mommy's car.....

.....and out in the hot Chinese New Year sun!

And finally it's Mommy's turn to take over Juan Or from Grandpa. So Mommy took the opportunity to snap a self-portrait - just the two of us! By the way, you may notice that both Juan Or and Mommy wore red that day. Pure coincidence? No, actually Mommy did it for two reasons: because it was Chinese New Year and also because Mommy was about to ask Papa to take photos on his DSLR camera to join a Huggies Hug Me in Red Contest! Just trying Mommy's luck since Mommy had recently purchased Huggies diapers for Juan Or.

After having vegetarian noodles for lunch (cooked by Juan Or's Grandma), Papa and Mommy took Juan Or to 1 Utama Shopping Centre to watch acrobatic lion dance performance. The lion dance was supposed to start at 2pm, but we already reached there about an hour ahead of time. When the time was nearing 2pm, Juan Or became restless and fretful due to sleepiness, but luckily with the mere thumping of the Chinese drum, gong and cymbals, Juan Or immediately stopped fretting and watched intently instead! However, too bad, Mommy left the handphone at home, so couldn't take any snapshots or videos, and turned out Papa forgot to bring his handphone as well! Now, that's real coincidence!

Juan Or's First Time Record

Juan Or posing with the baby bottle that he had just drank finish in the new house.

Today is a historical day for both Juan Or and Mommy. Today's the day Juan Or has successfully drank his bottle of milk in the new house without any crying or fretting nor any nagging or coercion on Mommy's part. Perhaps readers out there may be wondering what's the big deal about Juan Or being able to finish his milk. This was what happened:

1. When Juan Or was a newborn (0-2 months old)

Juan Or started as a breastfed baby. When he was just a few days old, Mommy breastfed him till it's time for Mommy to sleep through the night. So Mommy fed him infant formula which can last him for 3 hours, otherwise with breastmilk it could only keep him for at most an hour to an hour-plus only before Mommy had to wake up to breastfeed him again. This went on for 1 month and a few weeks before Juan Or starting rejecting the formula milk. He even refused sucking from the bottle. He only wanted Mommy's breast. So from that day onwards, Mommy only fed him from the breast because Mommy didn't have any patience to see him reject sucking the bottle nipple.

2. When Juan Or was 2-12 months old

When Juan Or was 2 months old, Mommy's maternity leave ended, so Juan Or was send to the babysitter during the day. At the babysitter's house, Juan Or obediently drank Mommy's expressed breastmilk from the baby bottle. But once back home, Mommy breastfed fully and didn't at all try to bottlefeed him because Mommy wanted the continuous natural stimulation to produce milk which Mommy had been missing the whole day due to work. According to the babysitter, once in a while, Juan Or rejected drinking Mommy's thawed breastmilk. So to counter this, she either used spoon to scoop milk into his mouth or poured milk directly into his mouth using the baby bottle's cover, to which Juan Or obediently drank.

3. When Juan Or was 12-14+ months old

At this stage, Mommy was still pumping out breastmilk for Juan Or, but had to supplement the supply with toddler's milk. At that time, Mommy's pumped breastmilk yield had dropped drastically to a mere 5-7 oz. per day (last time's yield was 13-16 oz per day). So during weekends, when the babysitter was not around, Mommy merely latched Juan Or to Mommy's breast for his milkfeed.

4. When Juan Or was 14-plus months to 21 months 1 week 1 day old

Juan Or started to reject breastfeeding at 14-plus months old. So Mommy stopped breastfeeding and Juan Or was fully on toddler milk by then. When it was the babysitter's off-day, Mommy had to bottlefeed him at home (that time still staying with the in-laws) and he rejected bottlefeeding. So Mommy had to send him to babysitter's house for her to bottlefeed him (to which he drank obediently!) and then brought him back. Sometimes, the babysitter was not around during the weekend but her other family members are, Mommy still brought him to drink milk in the babysitter's home environment (to which sometimes he rejected, sometimes not). Off and on when Mommy tried bottlefeeding him in in-laws' house again, he rejected. This routine went on till he was 21 months 1 week 1 day old. Because of Juan Or's milk-feeding eccentricity, Papa and Mommy dared not moved out of the in-laws' house. Moving out would cause a lot of travelling and waiting inconvenience for Mommy as our newly-bought house is faraway from both the in-laws' house and the babysitter's house, whereas the babysitter's house is just few houses away from the in-laws'.

5. When Juan Or was 21 months 1 week 2 days old up to today

This was when Juan Or started to show his readiness to drink milk from the bottle without having to be forced. This time also coincided with Chinese New Year (CNY) 2010, the 7th day. The babysitter was not around since the first day of CNY to the 9th day. So before the 7th day, Mommy still brought him to the babysitter's house to feed him milk. Then suddenly, on the 7th day, Grandma tried giving him milk at home and he drank magically! On the 8th day, again he drank at home without any fuss. On the 9th day, Mommy brought Juan Or to our new house in the afternoon and he drank there without making any fuss! Hooray! Papa, Mommy and Juan Or will be moving out from in-laws' house very, very soon already.

Hooray, also no more having to bicker, quarrel or argue with the in-laws about how to raise or discipline Juan Or! Mommy is really tired of having childcare issues with the in-laws. Mommy is glad that Juan Or's milk-rejection phase has ended. Then Papa and Mommy can move out with more peace in mind about Juan Or's well-being.

Why Juan Or Likes It Longer!

Hey, hey, hey, what is 'It' that Juan Or likes!? Hehehe.....nothing dirty, ya! 'It's' none other than the LG's new Chocolate BL40 handphone! Yes, that's right, the LG Chocolate series makes a comeback with their new BL40 member - this time longer in many ways!

Why Juan Or likes it longer? Here's Juan Or to tell you why:

1. No need to squint my eyes anymore to see small-sized icons, pictures and videos! It's longer to house a 4-inch widescreen that has crystal clear HD resolution (800 x 345 resolution) and a 21:9 ratio HD cinematic display. So, longer viewing area means easier, nicer and more comfortable viewing!

"See! I have to squint my eyes like this if the screen gets any smaller!" By the way, Juan Or is holding a chocolate bar in his right hand, and by this, Mommy really means REAL CHOCOLATE (not the BL40 Chocolate though because he's waiting to win one mah!).

2. Mommy can take more quality snapshots of me! That simply means longer photography fun for Mommy anytime and anywhere! This handphone comes with a 5.0 Megapixel camera with Schneider Kreuznach lens and LED flash. So if the place is shady and dark, never mind, Mommy can still take good quality snapshots of me! The digital zoom is said to even rival that of an Olympus SP565-UZ 10MP prosumer camera (see here).

"I wish Mommy's handphone camera can always take quality snapshots of me anytime, anywhere." This photo was taken using Mommy's old handphone (not a BL40 Chocolate) and under a shady tree but because the sun was very bright and hot that day, the photo turned out well, otherwise it would have been a disaster! Had it been a BL40 Chocolate, taking photos even under insufficient light will not be a problem anymore.

3. Mommy can do more things faster at the handphone already! No need for me to wait and wait and wait till Mommy's done because by then, I would have started fretting already! I'm sure you must have heard of the saying that babies can't wait, right? Well, that's exactly what I am! This handphone comes with superb touchscreen that has multi-touch function, intuitive responsiveness and finger-friendly 3-D graphics, thus easily accessible and easy to 'play around' with just a sweep of the finger! And that translates to faster responsiveness, less waiting time and most of all, longer quality time with Mommy! Yay!

"Mommy's old handphone is rather slow to respond, that's why Mommy takes so long to do even the simplest things on her handphone. See, I'm fretting already! Had it been the BL40 Chocolate, then I don't have to wait so long before Mommy can attend to me."

4. Longer body simply means better call quality! I don't have to speak so loud anymore so that Papa or Mommy can hear me on the other side. You know I'm a soft-spoken boy, right? (Big, innocent eyes....... ^ ^)

"I'm using Mommy's optical mouse to mimick the length of most handphones in the market. See, wouldn't it be better to be longer? Then I don't have to speak that loud for the other side to hear me clearly."

5. Longer digital fun and experience! I can occupy myself even better now when on the move with Papa and Mommy because with the stretched 21:9 ratio HD cinematic display, Mommy gets to browse webpages, check emails and view funny video clips more comfortably. The handphone even comes embedded with special content from James Cameron's epic movie 'Avatar'. So when Mommy gets to see those things, I will get too! Won't that cure me from boredom and fretfulness when going for outings with Papa and Mommy?

"What you see is utter boredom on my part, that's why I zzzzzzzz already. If I get to win this, then I won't sleep at all nor fret in the car because Mommy will have occupied me with watching nursery rhyme video clips on the BL40 Chocolate."

6. This handphone's made for the fashionista like me (a wannabe!) and I like looking at it as much as fiddling with it! Even this handphone is longer than other handphones in the market! Just like the supermodel who is taller than the average people I see in my daily life. Even fashion experts from Vogue, GQ, Elle and Esquire have proclaimed it as the 'Supermodel of Phones! Glossy, sleek, thin, elegant, with the chassis made of metal and tempered glass, and comes with a free stylish Twenty8Twelve’s limited-edition designer case (designed by Sienna Miller and her sister, Savanna) - what more can you ask for?

This is one little boy aspiring to be a fashionista. The look would have been complete with Juan Or holding and posing with the BL40 Chocolate.

Well, so much has been said about why Juan Or likes it longer, but what exactly does it look like? Here it is.......ta-dah!

This is the LG Chocolate BL40 handphone that Juan Or is referring to.

Well, life's good, but longer's good too!

P/S: This is Mommy's blog entry for a contest organized by Nuffnang and LG. The top three most creative blogposts will win the LG Chocolate handphone (BL40) worth RM2,199 each. More details of the contest can be found here. Hurry! The contest ends on 14th February 2010.

Juan Or and Mommy Appearing in ParenThots Online

The short gist of the article that appeared in Section Two, The Star newspaper on 10th February 2010. However, Mommy's photo is not there because Red Mummy's blog is the most popular of them all.

An article featuring Juan Or and Mommy (as well as three other mummy bloggers) appeared in ParenThots yesterday! And the short gist of the article appeared in Section Two of The Star newspaper on Wednesday 10th February 2010.

This was how it all began:

On 12th January 2010, Brigitte Rozario, the Portal Head of ParenThots section in The Star newspaper, came to interview Mommy for a feature article on mummy bloggers. At that time, Brigitte was not sure yet when the feature article would be put up in ParenThots website, but assured Mommy that she would keep Mommy updated.

On that morning, Brigitte, clad in plain white long-sleeved blouse and a pair of jeans, came to Mommy's office room. After the usual exchange of self-introduction, we settled down. Just before the interview began, Brigitte gave Mommy a stack of ParenThots 2010 calendar bookmarks. There were 12 pieces in all. After that, the interview began and as usual, like you would expect any journalist to be equipped with, she had a voice recorder in front of her, a notepad full of jottings and an SLR camera. She asked Mommy questions like 'Why do you blog?', 'What's the monthly average pageview of your blog?', 'How long ago did you start blogging?','Do you earn anything from your blog(s)?', and 'Do you have other blog(s) and if yes, what is it about?' Along the way, Mommy recalled Brigitte snapping a photo of Mommy as Mommy was answering her questions. The whole interview lasted for about 20 minutes.

These are the ParenThots 2010 calendar bookmarks given to Mommy to which Mommy had already distributed to colleagues and students. The other side of the calendar bookmark has spaces for you to fill in important numbers of your paediatrician, gynaecologist, schools, school bus, babysitter and teachers.

A few days later, Brigitte emailed Mommy asking whether Mommy would like to send her a photo of Juan Or and Mommy to be included in the article to which Mommy gladly sent one! This photo was taken at Hai Ung Restaurant in Kuala Selangor during one of our family trips in December 2009.

This is the photo that Mommy sent to Brigitte to be put in the feature article.

Trip to the Heart of Kuala Lumpur (Part 2)

This is a continuation of the previous post.

We reached Dewan Merak Kayangan FELDA at about 11.50am. It is a big building but we couldn't see any sign of the hall. Instead we were greeted by fishes in aquarium! Turned out that's the concourse area of the building.

We were greeted by fishes in aquarium!

The aquariums (right) decorating the concourse area.

And since we didn't see any crowd within the vicinity, we felt we were a tad too early, so we loitered at the concourse area first - let Juan Or have some freedom walking around without us holding on to his little hands.

Juan Or can't help fiddling with the barrier stand.

Climbed up a bench.....

.....and sat down to pose for Mommy!

Finally when the clock striked 12.00pm, Papa said,"Come, let's go look for the hall now." So we went just out of the concourse area to the other side of the building and voila - that was the red carpet! So the hall must be somewhere round the corner!

Where there's red carpet, there's a hall!

Indeed it was. And just to be sure that we went to the correct wedding, there was a board indicating the function. Mommy checked the name - yes, correct! Turned out too that apparently Mommy's ex-supervisor's daughter is getting married to a Chinese man!

Papa and Juan Or posing next to the function board.

Mommy was greeted by Mommy's ex-supervisor (Prof. Dr. Ramli Abdullah), his wife and all other ex-laboratory mates (plus the new faces ones which Mommy never knew but somehow they knew Mommy!). It was something like a get-together of sorts. Mommy took the opportunity to photograph together with Prof. Ramli and Juan Or. Juan Or is something like a 'grandchild' to Prof. Ramli, so Mommy taught Juan Or to call him 'a-tuk' to which Prof. Ramli was very happy to hear that!

Mommy posing with Prof. Dr. Ramli Abdullah with Juan Or looking intently at him.

We got ourselves seated. The hall was beautifully decorated in shades of white and light blue, and Mommy even noticed that the colour of the attire worn by Prof. Ramli, his wife and his postgraduate students (who were the usherers) were also in different shades of blue! There must be some colour scheme involved!

The decorated tables and chairs, and most of all the 'throne' for the wedded couple.

As for food, it was buffet style for those seated at the non-VIP tables whereas those at VIP tables were served the 'muhibbah' dish set. The dishes were dry beef rendang (very tasty!), nasi minyak (too dry!), white rice (too dry also!), sweet and sour garoupa fish (very tasty!), vegetable curry (not tasty!), raw mixed vege/fruit (so-so only) and papadam. How well did Juan Or eat? Well, Mommy tried feeding him rice to which he ate only very little (too dry, perhaps?), he didn't know how to eat the rendang and sweet and sour fish, but he definitely loved eating papadam (minus the gravy).

How about Juan Or's reaction towards the Malay wedding? Well, this time Juan Or behaved well and didn't act anti-social. Only thing was that when Mommy's ex-laboratory mate carried Juan Or, he started calling out "Mama! Mama!" in a panicky state so much so she had to quickly pass him back to Mommy! Hehehehe......

The bersanding ceremony was scheduled at 1.30pm, but too bad, by almost 1pm, Juan Or became fretful due to sleepiness. No choice, we have to leave the wedding already. Mommy was given a Toblerone as token for attending (Wah, no more bunga telur anymore for modern day Malay wedding!).

The token of Toblerone wrapped in blue-themed "Rina & Adrian" wrapping paper.

As we walked back to the car, Mommy noticed that the roadside parking near the building was still not fully parked. In Mommy's opinion, that's the good thing about Malay weddings. Most Malay weddings start at 12pm and ends at 4pm. And nobody is expected to arrive at the same time. As guests come, they eat and then go. So continuously, there are vacant places for other guests who come later to park. Malay weddings are good for guests who have babies/toddlers to bring too. Whenever the baby/toddler becomes restless, the parents can merely eat faster and then leave. Unlike Chinese weddings, everyone is expected to come at the same time, so parking can be a big problem and babies/toddlers usually cannnot last that long, yet the parents cannot leave the wedding yet. So looks like Malay weddings are more practical and baby-/toddler-friendly. ^ ^

Anyway, here's wishing Rina Ramli and Adrian Lee a happy and loving marriage!

And here's Juan Or putting on his 'devilish' face while holding the chocolate. Afraid someone will steal your Toblerone, izzit? :D

Trip to the Heart of Kuala Lumpur (Part 1)

Yesterday, Mommy got a phone call from Mommy's ex-supervisor (during Mommy's university days when doing Life Science research project), Prof. Dr. Ramli Abdullah. He invited Mommy to attend his eldest daughter's wedding ceremony. Wow! Mommy was thrilled. The last time Mommy saw of his daughter was when she had just finished her pre-university studies, but now she's 24 and is getting married already!? Wow, how time flies!

So today was the wedding day and Mommy decided to bring Juan Or along as well. At first, Papa was hesitant in bringing Juan Or along because Juan Or was anti-social when we brought him to a colleagues's wedding last time. That time, Juan Or cried whenever Mommy's colleagues approached him. However, Mommy was adamant in bringing Juan Or along just to 'test the ground'.

The wedding lunch was held in Dewan Merak Kayangan FELDA at Jalan Gurney 1 off Jalan Semarak in Kuala Lumpur. The luncheon was supposed to start at 12pm, but by 9.30am, we already set off to KL. Reason? Because both Papa and Mommy were not very sure where exactly was this place. What we had was only a rough and hazy idea. So by about 10am, we already reached the Jalan Semarak area and after twisting and turning here and there (and got lost too!), we finally found the place. After we were done with surveying the place and because it was still early, so Papa decided to bring us to Bukit Bintang Plaza. This would be Juan Or's first time to the heart of KL. Previously, bringing Juan Or to the heart of KL would be the last thing in our mind because of the crowd and expensive parking. Yet, if we want free parking, we will have to walk very far which is not a good idea if you have a baby or toddler tagging along. But today is an exception - we parked at the roof top of Bukit Bintang Plaza, paid RM3 for 2 hours' parking (which is quite expensive!) because we were here for a wedding!

Here are some snapshots of Juan Or (and some Chinese New Year deco) at Bukit Bintang Plaza:

"Yay! Yay! Here we are at Bukit Bintang Plaza!"




"Juan Or, why are you starring at Mama like that? So angry-looking one! Why? Becos Mama doesn't want to carry you - too busy taking photos, izzit?"

CNY deco at the concourse area of Bukit Bintang Plaza.

More CNY deco.

CNY deco from the inside part of the main entrance of Bukit Bintang Plaza.

Here's Papa and Juan Or posing somewhere in front of Bukit Bintang Plaza.

Papa said,"It's the Chinese New Year season. Come, let's see what the chinaman shops have to offer for CNY!" So we walked out of Bukit Bintang Plaza and headed to Changkat Bukit Bintang and then turned to Jalan Alor to have a look at shops selling dried meat ham.

We were done looking at Loong Kee....




.....and now heading to Syarikat Kiew Brothers.





"And hey, we are back here in Bukit Bintang Plaza again."



More CNY deco.

Browsing through some shops.

Here we are at Daiso (still in Bukit Bintang Plaza), the Japanese shop selling things for RM5 per item.





"Juan Or, be careful not to spoil the things when fiddling, ya? Papa and Mama cannnot afford to pay for damaged goods, ya?" Hehehehe.....

At about 11.30am, we left Bukit Bintang Plaza and headed back to Jalan Semarak for the wedding. And this would also be Juan Or's first time to attend a Malay wedding.

(Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow!)

For the Love of Bags

Hey, that's Mommy handbag!

Fun with the Mickey Mouse tuition bag.

Mommy noticed Juan Or seems to have a liking for bags or anything that can be carried. All sorts of bags or baskets he has carried and dragged on the floor - you name it - Mommy's handbag (even ransacked it!), his Mickey Mouse tuition bag (contains a Mickey Mouse stationery set as well) which Mommy can't resist buying from Tesco (priced at RM14.37 compared to other places at RM24.90), a thick cardboard type of 'briefcase' for containing his set of Winnie the Pooh board books and even a plastic basket that Mommy used for containing his odds and end loose toys (but with the basket empty of course!). Well, Mommy often teased Juan Or,"Juan Or, can't wait to go to school, izzit?" Hehehehe......let's see if he is really eager to go to school when the time comes, ya? ^ ^

Juan Or and the Shape-sorting Toy (Part 3)

Last time, Mommy blogged before about how Juan Or was already able to fit the right shapes into the right holes with very little mistakes. As of yesterday, Mommy noticed that Juan Or is already able to match the shapes to their holes correctly at any one time, only thing is that he still can't comprehend how to orientate the shape so that it slides into the hole. His orientation of the shapes into the holes is more of luck - if he happens to orientate it correctly, then it goes in, if not, he keeps on struggling with the task until he becomes so impatient, annoyed and frustrated! He even ended up shouting and crying just because he can't get it in!