Juan Or Behaves Like a Big Boy!

Mommy noticed that lately Juan Or has the desire to act 'adult'. This is the first example:

One morning when the family was having breakfast, Juan Or approached Grandma, tugged at her lap and pointed at her mug. Of course, when Juan Or points at something, it means he wants that thing. So Grandma took the mug near Juan Or and let him take a sip. Grandma said it was tea in the mug. Imediately after sipping the tea, Juan Or let out the "Aaaah" sound as if to show that the tea was tasty and that he enjoyed it. Then, Grandma put the mug back on the coffee table. Again, Juan Or pointed at the mug and so Grandma put the mug at his lips for him to take a sip and again Juan Or let out the "Aaaah" sound. This repeated sequence went on for four or five times! Finally, Mommy decided to take out the handphone to videotape this, but unfortunately, Juan Or felt conscious of himself and so didn't let out the "Aaaah" sound. Instead, he smiled at Mommy! Watch this video:

This is another example:

Last Sunday, Papa, Mommy and Juan Or were eating in a Chinese restaurant in Telok Gong. Mommy knows that Juan Or loves drinking Chinese tea. So Mommy used the spoon to scoop a little Chinese tea and let Juan Or sip from the spoon. Then later on, Papa tried letting Juan Or sip tea directly from his glass and boy, how Juan Or enjoyed it! After Papa put the glass back onto the table, Juan Or would point at the glass to indicate that he wanted another sip, to which Papa gave. After that, Papa tested Juan Or by using the spoon again for Juan Or to sip. This time, Juan Or refused to sip from the spoon, instead he pointed prominently at the glass indicating that he wanted to drink from the glass and not from the spoon! Haha...Mommy's Juan Or is a big boy already and he seems to know which item makes him look more 'adult'!

Juan Or is 'Driving' Already!

On the night of last week Friday, Juan Or and Mommy followed Papa to go pump petrol for Papa's car. After pumping, we headed over to Sri Petaling's The Store just for a quick window shopping and at the same time to take Juan Or out for a simple outing. In The Store, Mommy saw a number of children fun 'vehicle' machines where you insert coins and the 'vehicle' machine (where the child is riding on) will start moving. So Mommy asked Papa to wait for a while to let Juan Or ride on it. However, Papa warned that there is a possibility that Juan Or may get too 'addicted' to the ride such that he may protest when lifted out from the 'vehicle'. Anyway, Mommy took the risk and lifted Juan Or in (but no coins were put in anyway!).

Here are snapshots of Juan Or driving his newfound 'vehicle' and a video of it too.

("Welcome aboard! I'm your driver of the day!")

("Vroom! Vroom!")

("Always look first before you go!")

(Juan Or happily 'driving' away.)

So in the end, did Juan Or protest when Mommy decided that the ride was over? Well, sure enough, Juan Or struggled to resist being carried out of the 'vehicle' and almost cried in protest, but Mommy managed to distract him by asking him to see another nearby children game paraphernalia. And we walked off and left for home.

Juan Or's 1st Chinese Birthday

On 2nd May 2009, Juan Or celebrated his first Chinese birthday. His Chinese birthdate is on the 8th day of the 4th lunar month.

On that morning, Grandma boiled a whole chicken, cooked some dishes, hard-boiled some chicken eggs and bought ang koo kueh and roasted pork from a nearby morning market to celebrate Juan Or's Chinese birthday. Some of the food were used as offering at the ancestral altar to 'inform' the late Greatgrandpa that this was the day of his eldest greatgrandson's 1st birthday.

Meanwhile, Grandpa lit some candle joss sticks, then prepared a big tray and picked small objects to be placed in it. These small objects are symbolic of occupations or destinies that the baby has a tendency for in the future. These are the objects that Grandpa (and Mommy) put:

• RM10 bank note - to represent a future plenty of money or high-earning power (Oh, yes, Chinese loves money!)
  
• hard-boiled chicken egg - to represent someone who loves to eat


• pen - to represent office jobs


• book - to represent academic or scholarly jobs


• toothbrush - to represent dentistry


• abacus (or calculator) - to represent jobs that require counting such as accountant
  
• toy aeroplane - to represent pilot


• comb - to represent barber or hair-stylist

After Mommy helped Juan Or wear a new set of clothes and baby shoes, Mommy took Juan Or downstairs and placed him on the floor, near to the tray of small objects where he was supposed to pick two objects. Immediately, Juan Or crawled towards the tray and started hesitating what to take (Ha, ha...too many objects to choose from!). At first, his little hands merely touched and held the toy aeroplane and the chicken egg, and then finally his right hand gripped the pen and lift it out of the tray! So Mommy took the pen away from Juan Or so that he could choose and grab the second object. Again, Juan Or hesitated, but finally his little hand grabbed the RM10 bank note and took it out of the tray! So looks like Juan Or has the tendency to hold an office job and at the same time earn lots of money! And then when Mommy gave both the bank note and pen for Juan Or to hold so that Mommy could snap some photos, Juan Or seemed to show more interest for the bank note. He would drop the pen so that he could hold the bank note in both his hands. When Mommy wanted to take the bank note away from him, he would hold on tighter to it and refused to let go.

(Juan Or was holding the pen in his left hand.)

("I want money!")




(Money, money, money, in the rich man's world!)

Later on, Mommy took out Juan Or's birthday for the cake-cutting ceremony. The cake was white chocolate with roasted macademia nuts which Mommy bought from Secret Recipe. Mommy also bought a baby sugar doll to decorate the cake. The cake was RM70 and sugar doll RM2. After adding government tax, the total came to RM75.60.

(Juan Or's birthday cake)

("Ready for the cake, Juan Or?")

After Mommy came back from teaching piano in the late evening, Papa told Mommy that the babysitter gave Juan Or a birthday present and an ang pau (red packet containing some money). The present is an analogue of Mickey Mouse riding on a bicycle. When you switch on the toy, there will be lights flickering from the Mouse's tail and ears, the legs cycling, and an amusing music sounded. Watch this video of Juan Or enjoying his birthday present.

Tips on Feeding Baby If Baby Rejects Drinking Milk from Baby Bottle

Just the other day, Mommy was having baby chats during lunchtime with a colleague of Mommy's who also has a baby to care for. Her baby is about 6 months younger than Juan Or.

She mentioned that although her baby is able to drink milk from the bottle when being cared for by her mother-in-law, however, her baby seems to prefer suckling from her breasts when she's the caretaker. Therefore, there were times when the infant formula she prepared just went down the sink wastefully simply because her baby refused to suck milk from the bottle! "Ah, mommy's breast is the best!" the baby must be thinking. Well, Juan Or is no exception too in showing this kind of preference!

So how do you get baby not to waste the infant formula milk that you have just prepared? Even Juan Or had rejected drinking Mommy's expressed breastmilk from the bottle before - simply because Juan Or prefers sucking directly from the breast!

This is what Mommy learnt from Mommy's babysitter: Use the spoon! Drip milk into the baby's mouth using a spoon. Of course the best position to put baby into while spoonfeeding is to let baby lie on his/her back. Then, put the spoonful of milk near the baby's mouth and wait till baby opens the mouth! Then drip it in! Voila! And this position also ensures that spoonfeeding mess is kept to the minimum. A reminder: it is not advisable to put baby in upright position while spoonfeeding liquids, especially when baby is still below 12 months old because baby has not yet developed the skill to suck from the spoon. Doing it in the upright position may just lead to having more mess for you to clean up on both the baby and the floor!

(Mommy spoonfeeding Juan Or in lying down position.)

But, you may ask, what if baby keeps on biting the spoon as you spoonfeed milk? This is also what Mommy learnt from Mommy's babysitter: Simply drip or pour some milk from the baby bottle into the bottle's cap. Then tilt the cap to slowly pour or drip milk into the baby's mouth. And voila, the baby is fed!

Buying Books for Juan Or at the MPH Distributor Warehouse Sale (28th April - 3rd May 2009)

On 30th April 2009, Mommy purposely took leave from work to go for the MPH Distributor Warehouse Sale which was held from 28th April to the 3rd May at Jalan Bersatu, Section 13/4, Petaling Jaya (same road as Colgate-Palmolive Malaysia). Actually, Mommy went to this sale previously which was held some time around October 2008 and found this sale worthwhile going if you are looking for children books. Unfortunately, Mommy didn’t blog about Mommy’s purchases in the previous sale because Mommy hadn’t started blogging yet.


Anyway, never mind about the past and let’s get on with current times. Mommy arrived there around 9.16 a.m., found a small ‘parking opportunity’ just right in front of MPH’s main gate. Mommy called it ‘parking opportunity’ because that spot was not meant to be an official parking lot. All parking lots at the side of the road were full. It’s just so happen Mommy’s car was small enough to be able to fit in there. So Mommy quickly got out of the car and headed straight to the Customer Service Counter because Mommy had an article write-up (from The Sun newspaper on 27th April) about this sale which can be exchanged for a free book. No purchase required but only limited to the first 15 people per day. Upon reaching there, there was already a couple asking for the free gift to which Mommy overheard the counter personnel telling them that the 15th person had just claimed the gift! Wow, looks like it was an average of 1 minute per free book given away! So Mommy didn’t bother asking anymore, left the counter and started browsing the books on sale.


There were many varieties of books, especially children books, and ranged from books published some 40 years ago (yes, Mommy bought one book published in 1970!) up to the present. Crowd-wise – it was not crowded and there were ample space for customers to browse the books. Most of the newer books were placed on make-shift tables or shelves whereas the older stock of books were in boxes placed on the floor. And it was in those boxes on the floor where you would find good deals – nevertheless the books were older (and dusty), but still presentable and usable. Those books placed on make-shift tables and shelves were more expensive in which the discount rate given didn’t quite befit warehouse sale prices. An example was a children hardcover book which Mommy saw sold in MPH Bookstores for RM6.90, but the price in the warehouse sale was RM6. Also, most books in this warehouse sale had gone up in prices compared to the previous one in October 2008. Examples were ‘Adventures of Tintin’ series sold at RM18 in previous sale, but now sold for RM20; a Collins English Language dictionary sold for RM8 previously now sold for RM10. Also, a number of books sold in this sale turned out to be more expensive than that sold in the MPH Stock Clearance Sale (held in March 2009 recently). Examples were a magnet hardcover children book sold at RM24 in this warehouse sale compared to the stock clearance one at RM20.90; a reusable sticker book sold for RM16 in this warehouse sale whereas the stock clearance one at RM13.95. Mommy wonders whether MPH Distributor and MPH Bookstores actually had an MoU between them to minimize their conflict of interest? However, the Usborne Young Reader books sold here were cheaper (RM7 each) than that in the MPH Stock Clearance (RM9+). Anyway, Mommy already bought the Usborne books for Juan Or in the last MPH Distributor warehouse sale for the same RM7.


These are the books that Mommy bought:


Dr. Spock’s parenting books – Dr. Spock’s The First Two Years (RM10), Dr. Spock on Parenting (RM15), and Dr. Spock’s the School Years (RM15).

Guarantee the Sex of Your Baby (RM15) – Mommy bought this book because sexing is Mommy’s research interest during Mommy’s postgraduate days.

Usborne Music Series: Learn to Play Guitar (RM21) – This book is written for older children and has concise explanations and nice illustrations on all-rounded aspects of guitar playing such as classical guitar, blues, folk guitar, rock, etc. To put it simply, this book has a little out of everything about guitar playing. That is why Mommy bought this book even though Mommy feels RM21 is quite expensive!

Cat in the Hat Early Reader Series (The Berenstain Bears) (RM10 each, hardcover) – Mommy found these ‘antique’ children books in one of the boxes on the floor. There were all that you see here in the photo and Mommy bought them all! The books were dusty and the hardcover looked dirty, but after wiping them with wet cloth, the books look new! Hooray! These books were published as old as 40 years ago. Mommy clearly remembered reading them during Mommy’s childhood days. By the way, in this sale, other newer Cat in the Hat books were sold for RM10 (soft cover) and RM21 (hardcover). So Mommy considers this purchase a more-or-less good deal.

Brother Bear, Home on the Range, Calling All Engines (Thomas and Friends), Lion King, Charlotte’s Web and Cat in the Hat’s Fish’s Tales (RM3 each) – Again, these nicely illustrated children’s book were found in some boxes on the floor. The Home on the Range has stickers included. Mommy considers this purchase as good deal!

Star Wars:Return of the Sith, Sesame Street: B is for Books!, Brother Bear (simpler version), Shrek the Third, Hiccup!, Monster Eyeballs (RM3 each), Time Magazine for Children:Bats! (RM5) – Mommy considers this purchase as good deal also! Sesame Street, Brother Bear, and Hiccup! are for very young readers while the rest are for ages 8-12. The Bats book is a little more expensive, but never mind considering the bat photos inside are very sharp, vivid and attractive.

Winnie the Pooh Collection of Stories (RM20 for the entire folder which contains 4 board storybooks) – This is also considered good deal because other much simpler baby board books were much more expensive than each board book here which costs RM5.

Disney’s School and Beyond (RM20), Disney’s Read-to-me Treasury (RM30), and Ready to Read Amusing Stories (RM18) – all these books are thick, in hardcover, price-wise is not very cheap, but Mommy still buys them anyway because of the large, attractive and colourful illustrations, plus large-print text which is good for young children. Mommy got these books from those make-shift tables.

(The Disney books have large, attractive and colourful illustrations with large-print text - good for young children!)





(Ready to Read Amusing Stories not only has large-print text and colourful illustrations, but also has 2 pages dedicated per story to emphasize new words learnt from each story.)



Jungle Book 2, Rugrats Go Wild and Cat in the Hat colouring books (RM2 each), and Robots: Ratchet Attacks reusable sticker book with scenary (RM1). Again, these are good buys. Mommy found these books from the boxes on the floor. As for the Robots sticker book, Mommy found another one which was exactly the same, but the price tag showed RM5! So of course, Mommy grabbed the RM1 one!

(3 colouring books at RM2 each and a reusable sticker book at RM1)

All in all, Mommy spent RM254 that day. Also, everyday, MPH gave out free goodie bags to the first 200 customers who spent at least RM200. So this is what the goodie bag contains: Mr. Midnight Notebook, Charlie and Lola Animal Set (What is that? Looks like some origami paper thingy plus 3 pieces of crayons and a marker pen to Mommy!), 3 bookmarks (one rectangle shape and 2 panda bear shape), a pair of sunglasses, some shiny-looking stickers bundled together with a compass, and a cartoony post-it notes.

(Goodie bag items)