An Update of Juan Or's Hand-Eye Coordination Development

This is an outdated post dating back to 9th July 2010. Mommy was not able to blog (and even bloghop) regularly due to the MQA documentation thing, but thankfully, as of yesterday afternoon, the document (that gave Mommy mental stress for 7 long months!) is finally submitted to MQA!

This post is merely a record of Juan Or's hand-eye coordination development. Juan Or's version of 'colouring' are still in scribbles, no longer random scribbles, but rather scribbles that go round and round in circles. And this boy likes stickers too. He chose to paste his 'star' stickers into his Mickey Mouse colouring book (which Mommy had downloaded from internet). One thing makes Mommy wonder though is that although he still scribbles, yet somehow he is able to arrange his stickers (or even objects) in a line that makes sense (but he never bothers to clear or tidy his scattered toys on the floor unless Mommy forces him to!).

This was the process.....

.....and this is his resulting handwork!

Review on Medical Uniforms and Lab Coats at Nursing Uniforms.Net

This is a paid review blogpost.


For the past 8 years (since 2002), Mommy has been involved in life science research that mostly involves laboratory work. Mommy's first life science research was on developing a DNA-based technnique for identifying the gender of goats via blood samples. With this technique developed, the next step is to refine the technique to be applied in gender selection of goat embryos. You may then ask what is the big deal about selecting the gender of goats. The reason is that eventually this technique will be applied in assisted reproduction of livestock breeding progrmmes whereby males are valued in meat production and females in milk production and breeding objectives. With doing research in the lab, comes the issue of safety as in putting on a protective covering. The most common protective covering is the laboratory coat, or more commonly known as lab coat. It was Mommy's co-supervisor, Associate Professor Dr. Zulqarnain Mohamed from the University of Malaya, who instilled in his research students the importance of putting the lab coat on for as long as you are doing work in the lab. Now that Mommy is a lecturer for a Chemistry subject in UCSI University, Mommy has been continuously instilling this practice among students - batches after batches. Similarly too, if Mommy happened to be checking on Mommy's final-year project students in the lab, Mommy will be quick to point out if they fail to put the lab coat on!


Because lab coats are subjected to various harsh working conditions (yes, the lab coat tends to get 'wiped' with whatever things in the lab!), after a certain number of years, the lab coat may need changing. So Mommy found this medical uniform online superstore called Nursing Uniforms.Net that supplies not only lab coats, but also offers the largest selection of nursing uniforms. The lab coats offered come in various lengths and styles (or cutting) to suit the various needs and tastes of all types of laboratory-/medica-basedl personnel. Even lab coats or medical attire produced by trusted brands such as Medcouture, Katherine Heigl, Stat Wear, Peaches Uniforms and Izzy Scrubs are offered in by Nursing Uniforms.Net. And mind you, after looking through the laboratory/medical uniforms in the collection, Mommy has to admit they look stylish and trendy yet professional in its own right even though they are merely uniforms! This reminds Mommy that not all people working in the laboratory or medical field are nerds. They, just like other people in other professions such as marketing, sales and the corporate sector, also want to look good and stylish even though what they are wearing are the same on every working day and perhaps surrounded by four walls almost all the time (such that nobody really bother to see what you wear at work!).

Nursing Uniforms.Net pledges her committment to customers by:

• providing the highest quality, durable and comfortable products from trusted brands at affordable prizes.
• providing knnowledgeable and helpful customer sales and service representatives.
• 24 hours a day, 7 days a week online shoping (payment can be made using MasterCard, Visa, Discover and American Express).
• 30-day money back satisfaction guarantee.

Now that Mommy knows that Nursing Uniforms.Net offers trendy, stylish yet professional-looking lab coats, Mommy is very tempted to get Mommy's old lab coat (which was customized for Mommy's size and embroidered with Mommy's name during Mommy's stint at Associate Professor Dr. Zulqarnain Mohamed's lab) to RETIRE!

Mommy's old lab coat with Mommy's name embroidered at the left chest pocket - now waiting to RETIRE!

Hehehe.....merely keep this old lab coat as a sentimental value object and get a new stylish one from Nursing Uniforms.Net! ^_^   Hmmmmm........perhaps if UCSI University would one day like to do an overhaul of lab coats for the lecturers, lab staff, Science students, and nursing uniforms for the Nursing students, then Mommy knows who to contact!

The Awareness

Quite recently, Juan Or has been showing awareness of the.....

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.....existence of the.....

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penis!

(Sorry, no photos to show!)

It first came to Mommy's attention when just recently, while Juan Or was playing with his Buzz Lightyear plush toy, he pointed at the crotch area of Buzz Lightyear and told Mommy,"Buzz Lightyear's ku-ku-chiau (cuckoo bird)!" Mommy's reaction was like "!!!????" As far as Mommy knows, Mommy has never taught him to point at other people's crotch and say the word. At most was "Juan Or! Don't move! Let Mama clean your ku-ku-chiau first!"  when Mommy was changing his diapers.

Not just this incident, Juan Or also went to as far as pointing at the crotch areas of Buzz Lightyear, Woody and Alien when reading his Toy Story storybooks and then telling Mommy,"Buzz Lightyear's ku-ku-chiau! Woody's ku-ku-chiau! Alien's ku-ku-chiau!" and after that pointing to his own as well and then giggle cheekily!

Just last Sunday, Papa and Mommy took Juan Or to Jusco Bukit Tinggi Klang for an outing. We passed by the men's undergarment department where the most prominent landmarks are dummies donning the briefs. Juan Or immediately pointed at the dummies and exclaimed,"Ku-ku-chiau!" *Faint* Luckily, the 'sexy' dummies didn't hold his attention for long  - it was more of a see-and-go thing. Very soon, we arrived at the hardware department where there were many demo tap fittings of various shapes and sizes. Yes, those taps captured his attention for long! So we allowed Juan Or to have a good time turning the taps on and off as he fancied (we won't allow that at home - that's wasting water!).

And of course we bumped into the Thomas and Friends kiddy ride and allowed Juan Or to have a good time too!

Now, back to the awareness issue. One day, Juan Or pointed at Mommy's crotch and said,"Mama's ku-ku-chiau!" Mommy's reaction was like "!!!???" Then Mommy quickly regained composure and answered back to Juan Or,"Oh, Mama don't have ku-ku-chiau. Mama has ham-poi!"   ^_^

Cute Baby Contest

Just recently, Public Bank of Taman Chi Liung (Klang) branch held a community event - Cute Baby Contest. Any parent can submit a photo of his/her baby (below 3 years old) and the photo will be displayed at the bank. The winner is the one with the most number of votes. Mommy didn't know about the existence of this contest. It was Mommy's mum who told Mommy about it. She told Mommy that she will lobby for votes from her friends and Mommy also got to know that even her friends lobbied for more votes for Juan Or from their friends. The voting period started from 1st July and ended on 8th July. At the end of the day, Juan Or, with the support of his maternal grandmother and her friends' friends, got the 3rd prize!

This is the photo that Mommy submitted - not the best eye-capturing one (yes, Mommy admits this photo is still not the best shot of Juan Or), but one which is the most age-appropriate photo (the contest doesn't allow you to send photos that are too young of the current age) and taken with good quality resolution (unlike most cheeky-faced Juan Or captured by merely the handphone camera of low quality) and sharp in image (because many photos Papa took of him showed Juan Or moving, so are blurred).

Mommy's mum, being in frequent and close contact with the Public Bank staff, also mentioned that actually Juan Or got the highest number of votes, but because his photo is not eye-capturing enough, so the organizing committee did not choose him to be the 1st prize winner in case of public dispute. So, Mommy's mum told them to wait and see till the real baby comes to claim his prize - that the actual baby - with big eyes and long, curled eye lashes -  is handsomer than what is in the photo! ^ ^ (Mommy is quoting what Mommy's mum told Mommy!)

So on 19th July (Monday), Mommy drove Juan Or over to the Taman Chi Liung Public Bank to claim his prize in a simple and informal prize-giving ceremony. The ceremony started at 4.30 p.m. Mommy was pleasantly surprised to be introduced to Mommy's mum's close friends who had been instrumental in securing many votes for Juan Or: Uncle Jeyabalan, Uncle Francis Liew, Aunty Chin Hong and Mr. Goh.

Uncle Jeyabalan (left) and Uncle Francis Liew (right).

Aunty Chin Hong (left), who is Mommy's mum's best friend, and Mr. Goh Yeh Ming (right), who is Mommy's mum's unit trust agent.

Here's Juan Or and Mommy, waiting for our turn to be called to receive the prize.

Here's the prize-giving photo session taken together with the Public Bank branch manager. See Juan Or's crying face? When it's time to go out in front of others to receive the prize, turned out Juan Or was the only baby who was crying and fretting! All other babies were happy, calm and docile.

After the prize-giving ceremony ended, Mommy's mum treated Juan Or and Mommy, and her close friends to a dinner in a nearby neighbourhood restaurant. We ate deep-fried fish in sweet and sour sauce, a beancurd-cum0-mixed vegetable dish and kangkung belacan (water convulus in chilli shrimp paste). Turned out, only white rice and the kangkung belacan were Juan Or's favourite there. Juan Or even started standing on his baby high chair and used his fingers to pick up a strand of kangkung - showing everyone his enthusiasm for the dish!

After the dinner, Juan Or and Mommy stopped over at Mommy's mum's house, but Juan Or seems to be crying continuously, probably not used to being there and perhaps sleepy as well. So very soon, Mommy made a move home. After Juan Or drank his milk in the car, he immediately dozed off! So looks like his crying spell at the bank just now was more likely due to tiredness.

This is how the prize looks like. It's a Fiffy baby products hamper.

And here's what Mommy's mum packed for Juan Or: 2 bottles of Champs multi-vitamin tablets and chocolates from Aunty Chin Hong, Public Bank's souvenir thermal mug from Mommy's mum and Rubik's cube from Mommy's dad. Mommy's mum told Mommy that she only told Mommy's dad about Juan Or's winning a day before the prize-giving day. So that night itself, when Mommy's dad came home, he bought the Rubik's cube for her to pass to Juan Or!

As for the Rubik's cube, Mommy may have to keep it first because Juan Or is still too young to appreciate how the Rubik's cube should be played. He may even end up destroying it! But before keeping it, Juan Or can have his playtime first before it goes into storage.....

Feeding Ownself

Today's post is an outdated one and is also a very short one as Mommy is still overloaded with office work.

Mommy captured this video of Juan Or feeding himself with the spoon when we stopped over at his paternal grandparents' house after coming back from watching Toy Story 3 at Bukit Raja Jusco Klang (that was 9th July 2010). His doting grandparents gave him the Calciyum yogurt to eat in the car just before we set off home. This time, his grandparents allowed him to hold the spoon and feed himself - something which they and even Mommy have never attempted to try before because any clumsiness can be very messy to clean (and of course wastage of yogurt!). And much to Mommy's surprise, Juan Or is already able to scoop and aim the spoon with the yogurt into his mouth with no mess or spill! There was only one occasion when there was a small yogurt stain just outside his lips after scooping yogurt into his own mouth and he surprised everyone by using the spoon to scoop the stain and aimed it into his mouth!


Here's a video of Juan Or feeding himself Calciyum using the KFC's little spoon. As he ate, he mentioned his favourite Toy Story character - Buzz Lightyear the astronaut - excitedly to his Grandpa! Looks like he just can't have enough of Buzz Lightyear! ^ ^

Toy Story Goodies with CIMB Junior Account

Actually Mommy had wanted to blog about this since 30th June but was not able to do so due to Mommy's busy work schedule.

It all started during the Toy Story 3 season and Mommy saw the CIMB logo together with the Toy Story picture in a billboard in Subang. First thing in Mommy's mind was that surely there must be some Toy Story merchandize to redeem by opening a children savings account in CIMB. Mommy's thought was indeed confirmed when Mommy surfed CIMB's website here.

The offer goes like this: If you open a Junior Savers Account with an initial deposit of RM300, CIMB will give you a Toy Story Activity Set. And if you maintain a minimum deposit of RM500 in the first month of the account-opening or deposit top-up, you will get a Toy Story coninbox. And not just that, you get to redeem other Toy Story 3 merchandize by earning Junior Points as you continue to top up the deposit (but the parent has to have a CIMB Clicks account first in order to redeem). To earn 1 Junior Point, you need to have an average quarterly balance of RM1500 (for the terms and condition, see here). The Toy Story merchandize that you can redeem ranges from easy-to-acheive to the diffiicult-to acheive: only 1 Junior Point required to redeem items like Toy Story lunch box, water bottle or PVC pencil box to something like the remote-controlled Buzz Lightyear figure that requires 20 Junior Points (for full list of redemption, see here.)

Being a Toy Story fanatic, Mommy immediately opened the CIMB Junior Account for Juan Or on 30th June. So Mommy will wait till 30th July to claim the Toy Story coinbox! Never mind about whether the interest earned from putting in money into the junior account is as profitable as other banks' children accounts or some other money-making products like fixed deposits, but at least Mommy is already happy enough to be able to get some Toy Story items that cannot be obtained elsewhere.


So here's how the Toy Story Activity Set looks like. The set consists of a sticker sheet, an Andy's room picture to stick the stickers according to the child's imagination, word-finder puzzle sheet, colouring sheet and spot-the-difference sheet.
 
 
 

Mommy even asked Juan Or to pose with his Toy Story Activity Set, but it was so difficult to get a good picture because he just couldn't keep still! These are the best Mommy could get so far.....

Anyway, if you would like to know where does CIMB Junior Account stand in terms of interest rate, here's what Mommy has compiled:

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  Ambank's AmGenius: 2.75% p.a. for the first RM50 000, comes with coinbox with minimum RM300 deposit, interest credited monthly.
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  Ambank's Savers' Gang: 0.25% p.a. for the first RM10 000, comes with coinbox with minimum RM300 deposit, plus the kid becomes the Savers' Gang Club member.
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  Maybank's Yippie: 2.76% p.a. for the first RM50 000, comes with coinbox with minimum RM250 deposit, has free personal accident coverage up to RM70 000 for you and your child plus cash reward if excel in PMR, SPM, but you must maintain at least RM1000 at all times to enjoy these benefits, interest credited twice a year only.
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  CIMB's Junior: 0.50% p.a. for up to RM1000, 0.60% p.a. for up to RM5000.
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  Alliance's AllianceSave Manjaku: 0.50% p.a., no coinbox given whatsoever!
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  Alliance's AllianceSave Pendidikan: 0.20% p.a. if below RM1000, 0.50% p.a. if up to RM3000 and 0.70% p.a. if more than RM3000, no coinbox given whatsoever!
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  Public Bank's Wise: 2.25% p.a. for the first RM50 000, interest credited monthly.
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  Public Bank's Bright Star: 1.00% p.a. for the first RM50 000, interest credited monthly, coinbox for minimum RM500 deposit.
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  Public Bank's Young Acheiver: 0.10% p.a. for the first RM2000, interest credited monthly, but no coinbox.

So the first two top places in the list go to Maybank's Yippie (but more terms & conditions) and Ambank's AmGenius (lesser terms & conditions) and the lowest go to Public Bank's Young Acheiver. The conclusion is CIMB's Junior Account does not boast of offering the best interest rate nor is it the worst - just somewhere in the middle, but it is definitely the Toy Story thing that attracts Mommy to open the CIMB Junior Account! ^ ^

On 30th July, Mommy will be racing back to CIMB to claim the Toy Story coinbox! So stay tuned for Mommy to blog about Juan Or and his Toy Story coinbox! ^ ^

Toy Story 3: Juan Or's First Time at the Cinema

During the period of endless paperwork at the office (yes, it's that darn MQA documentation thing!), off and on, Mommy managed to surf Tanjong Golden Village (TGV) and Golden Screen Cinema (GSC) websites to keep track of Toy Story showtimes. Mommy's panic button started sounding when on 8th July, Mommy realized that certain TGV and GSC outlets have stopped showing Toy Story 3 altogether! Only limited outlets are still showing Toy Story 3. So Mommy decided to take Emergency Leave on 9th July to take Juan Or to watch it. And mind you, Mommy even told Mommy's boss about taking Juan Or to catch hold of Toy Story 3 at limited cinema outlets as the reason for taking emergency leave! Luckily, Mommy's boss is a family woman herself, so she understands Mommy's situation and allowed Mommy to take the leave (even though the MQA thing is not fully completed, but almost done!).

Mommy went for morning show at TGV Bukit Raja (Klang) although we are staying in Puchong - few reasons: (1) To allow a longer car ride journey so that Juan Or can sleep in the car for a substantial amount of time before the show to minimize the possibility of fretfulness; (2) certain TGV's nearer to Puchong are no longer showing Toy Story 3, e.g., TGV Mines; (3) Mommy wants to join a Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear Contest organized by TGV which requires 2 Toy Story movie ticket stubs. So Juan Or and Mommy set off at 9am, went through some village road that finally leads us to LDP highway that goes into Shah Alam (this is Mommy's first solo trip using this way!). Then from Shah Alam, Mommy used a portion of the LKSA Highway that leads into Federal Highway and then into Padang Jawa and finally to Jusco Bukit Raja where the TGV is. All in all, the journey took 55 minutes to reach the destination including a 10-minute stop to pump petrol. Good thing too, Juan Or immediately dozed off shortly after we started our journey.

Arriving at Bukit Raja Jusco where it houses TGV.

Shortly after 10am, Juan Or woke up and he was a very good boy - he didn't fret when he woke up suddenly and he obediently drank a bottle of milk in the car (which was his first time drinking milk in the car since he had history of refusing to drink milk in other places other than the babysitter's house).

This is the first time Mommy brought Juan Or's milk supplies along in the car. The infant car seat that Juan Or had 'retired' from now serves as a compartment of sorts to put things securely in the car.

This is Juan Or's first time drinking milk in the car which went on smoothly.

A self-portrait of Juan Or and Mommy in the car while still busy finishing up his milk. See the Buzz Lightyear watch Juan Or is wearing? It's actually a projector watch where you can project an image of Buzz Lightyear by pressing a button (for children's fun!) besides the watch function. Mommy bought it from Tesco during the Toy Story promotion for RM20.++

By 10.15 am, we were already at the ticket counter of TGV. After buying tickets, we had quite some time to spare (the show starts at 11 am). Mommy took some photos of Juan Or with the Toy Story picture in the background and even had time to go to the post office (also in Jusco Bukit Raja) to pay bills. Juan Or also managed to have a quick kiddy ride before we headed to the cinema again.

One pose here and .....

.......another pose there!

Here's our Toy Story 3 movie tickets!

Just before entering the cinema, Mommy bought the combo set (consists of a Coca-cola and popcorn) that comes with Toy Story cup and Toy Story popcorn box) for RM11.90. Mommy finds it costly, but what to do, Mommy is crazy about Toy Story merchandize as well, so Mommy gave in to some indulgence!

The Toy Story 3 cup and popcorn box now sits in the glass cabinet display at home. That's Mommy's collection of Toy Story items! As for the Coke, Juan Or simply loves drinking it (and ended up with gassy stomach and vomit the next day!) but didn't want to eat the popcorns at all.

At the ticket man's place, Mommy asked Juan Or to hand the tickets to the man and so far so good - Juan Or did not show any fretfulness when facing a stranger - not even when the ticket man handed the ticket stubs back. We went into the designated cinema hall and there were already some trailers showing. Juan Or seemed frightened at first when he first entered the hall - dark, big space plus loud sound! He kept on wanting to go out to the corridor which was brightly-lit and making fretful sound. So first thing in Mommy's heart was like "Oh, there goes my RM13 - gone with the wind!" Luckily, Mommy brought along his smelly, security towel and he settled down quickly when Mommy brought him into the hall again. Phew!

In the hall, Mommy could see only 4 other people in the hall as well - 3 adults and 1 child - so altogether was only 6 people watching the show - very spacious and peaceful! ^ ^ Throughout the show, Juan Or was very excited to see and identify the Toy Story characters that he saw at home. At almost every appearance of the main characters, Juan Or would excitedly shout out their names. Probably he was the noisiest kid in the cinema hall! Somewhere in the middle of the show, Juan Or sit up excitedly while calling out a Toy Story character's name, and as result, he went off-balanced and fell forward - his face hitting the seat in front of him and he landed on the floor, flat on the face, crying! At first Mommy thought his face merely hit the cushion of the seat, but when Mommy took him near, Mommy could smell of blood (it was all darkness in the hall so Mommy couldn't see the wound at first)! And oh dear, apparently he cut himself at his left eye-lid. Most likely, he hit the metal stub that bears the seat's numbering. Juan Or cried and cried and cried, but luckily he didn't cry for long and didn't bleed for long too. He appeared very clingy after that and kept on wanting Mommy to sing him "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" while watching the show. In the end, we finished the show amidst the not-so-pleasant experience and Juan Or appeared to have cheered up already.

This was the cut at his left eye-lid as a result of the fall.

This is the security towel that Juan Or finds comfort with, with which Mommy used for wiping the blood on his face. Luckily he didn't bleed for long, otherwise there will be more blood stains on this towel.

After the show, Mommy submitted the contest form to the ticket counter and we had our lunch at McDonald's because Juan Or kept requesting for burger, French fries and 'Coco-lala' (Juan Or's way of saying Coca-Cola). In the end, Juan Or only ate French fries, but refused to eat the burger or even drink the Coca-cola (probably he had enough of Coca-cola already with the popcorn combo set!). After the lunch, Mommy allowed him to ride on the kiddy rides for as long as he wanted to before we set off from Klang. Once back in the car, Juan Or dozed off immediately!

Kiddy rides for Juan Or to cheer him up from the fall and cut.

All in all, Juan Or and Mommy enjoyed ourselves very much. Mommy was very happy to be able to let Juan Or feel the cinema experience. Although we have watched it once before (Papa downloaded a Russian version from the Internet), but Mommy didn't enjoy it because the picture and sound quality was poor so much so Mommy couldn't really follow or appreciate 100 % of the story. In fact, from the download version, Mommy could only spot one touching moment whereas from the cinema version, Mommy could spot and feel more touching moments. Mommy even asked Juan Or whether he would like to go to the cinema again and he immediately answered "Yes!" very enthusiastically!

For readers out there who have already watched Toy Story 3. You may have noticed that there's one scene when the other toys in Sunnyside Daycare Centre digged for a Buzz Lightyear instruction manual to change Buzz away from the original factory setting. Mommy did wonder about this: since Buzz Lightyear is the only space ranger toy there and when Buzz Lightyear and the other Andy's toys were given away to the daycare centre, the toys all arrived without their boxes (and of course without their instruction manuals), right? So where did the Buzz Lightyear instruction manual come from? Surely the manual won't just appear from nowhere in the daycare centre, right? That is the only inconsistency that Disney and Pixar did not attempt to resolve. ^ ^