The 'B' Credit Card (Part 2)

Remember about the the 'B' credit card that Mommy applied from Alliance Bank - the You:nique credit card? Remember how Mommy found that the card looked nice on the preview, but when the real card came, it didn't look as nice anymore?

Well, Mommy wants to commend Alliance Bank's Card Marketing Dept. for taking the initiative to make ammendments. Mr. Edmund Yong, the Head of Card Marketing contacted Mommy via email to apologize about the distorted picture of Juan Or and offered to replace the credit card picture free-of-charge. So Mommy accepted the apology and took the offer. The good thing also is that Mommy didn't have to re-upload the picture again. However, Mommy was told to temporarily refrain from using the card until the new card comes. And as a token of the inconvenience caused, Mommy was given a small gift - an RS Nano Bear! The product description on the box says that this bear is meant to be hung in the car because of its anti-bacterial and air-purifying characteristics (the manfacturer claims that the bear is impregnanted with Nano Silver and Nano Titanium Dioxide). Anyway, Mommy didn't want to hang the bear in the car because Mommy's car is often exposed to intense sunlight, so is afraid that the bear's and the bear's clothes' colour will fade. So Mommy put the Nano Bear together with Mommy's other soft toys in the display cabinet.

(Bear in the box.)

(Bear out of the box.)

Anyway, back to the credit card - Juan Or's picture looks better now, lips are not too red already.

(The replaced You:nique credit card.)

And here is the original picture of Juan Or the 'B' uploaded into the card's website.

(Juan Or the 'B'.)

In case you are wondering why Juan Or is called the 'B', here's the list.

'B' for:

• boy,
• baby,
• buffalo (for Juan Or's relatively big size),
• bite (for his itchy mouth),
• bising (for being a noisy and demanding baby)
• bulldog (for liking to pull his lips end to end downwards to look like a bulldog), and
• busybody (likes to turn his head to see what others are doing even when breastfeeding).

Trying out Dutch Lady Infant Milk Powder for the First Time

Last week Friday, Mommy went to a Chinese medicine hall by the name Kedai Ubat dan Pasaraya Mega Grade Sdn. Bhd. (Jalan Sepadu, off Old Klang Road) to survey the price of infant milk powder. Mommy has heard of many feedbacks from other mummies that milk powder is cheaper if bought from Chinese medicine hall rather than hypermarkets and supermarkets. And yes, indeed it's true! The brand Mommy had in mind was Dutch Lady Step 2 and Mommy was very keen to try this brand firstly, because of the relatively low price and secondly, because this variant still has the same amount of common nutrients, except for DHA content which is roughly half of that found in Dutch Lady's more expensive infant milk powder, Frisolac. Mommy reckons that probably it is the high content of DHA in those expensive brands of infant milk powder that contributes to the 'smelly' smell and taste which is what fish oil supplements also smell like. So, probably if the DHA content is not so high, maybe Juan Or will like the taste better. (Anyway, Mommy has already been taking fish oil supplements since pregnancy till now just to make sure Mommy's breastmilk has enough DHA or Omega 3 or Omega 6 in it!) In Tesco, the price was RM15.99, whereas in The Store was RM15.90. In Mega Grade, the price tag showed RM15.50 which was even cheaper. So Mommy bought it from Mega Grade.

Then Mommy left the shop and drove home. Upon reaching home, Mommy realized that Mommy had forgotten to check whether the scoop was attached to the packaging or not. And much to Mommy's frusfration, the scoop was not there! So Mommy drove back to Mega Grade and told the shopkeeper that Mommy wanted to change to the one in which the scoop was still attached.

So Mommy went to the shelf to choose the packet with the scoop attached and went back to show the shopkeeper. Guess what! The shopkeeper laughed at why Mommy took so much trouble to change the pack just because it lacks a scoop. Mommy felt like slapping the shopkeeper! Hello, this is a medicine hall! You as someone with some knowledge about traditional Chinese medicine and perhaps some Western health knowledge SHOULD KNOW that milk powder measurement is VERY IMPORTANT if preparing milk for INFANTS! And you can't just simply use any scoop of other brands as substitute! What's more Juan Or has dilated kidneys, so Mommy has to make sure his kidneys are not put to unnecessary strain.

(Dutch Lady's scoop [pink colour] is so much smaller than Similac's scoop [blue colour]. Can't just simply substitute the scoop!)

Not wanting to waste time with the shopkeeper (Mommy needed to pump breastmilk already), Mommy left the shop and vowed never to ever buy from Mega Grade anymore. As Mommy was walking back to the car, Mommy saw another Chinese medicine hall (Kedai Ubat Wah Seng) further up and so decided to drop in to check out the price. The price tag showed RM15 only. Dammit!

Anyway, about suitability of Dutch Lady Step 2, Mommy got the feedback from the babysitter that this brand is suitable for Juan Or because he still has daily bowel movements and the bowels are of the normal type. So Mommy will stick to this brand until Juan Or is ready to drink growing up milk (for ages 1 to 3 years) which Mommy has already stocked up (Dutch Lady 123 at RM18.45 per pack of 1.1 kg bought during a 3-day sale in Tesco).

Calling Mommy

Last week Friday (27th March 2009) was the first time Juan Or was able to call Mommy. Juan Or pronounced it as "MAM-MAH". All the while before this (from about 5 months old), Juan Or was only able to call his father as "BA-BA".




Later on, Mommy asked Juan Or to call Mama and his Father asked him to call Papa. Instead, Juan Or called,"MA-BA" - a hybrid of Papa and Mama!

Juan Or's Don't-Want-to-Sleep Rendezvous

During weekdays, after taking Juan Or back from the babysitter at 6 pm, Juan Or's typical timetable is like this:

• 6+ pm - Mommy breastfeeds Juan Or, Juan Or's playtime.
• 7+ pm - Juan Or sleeps.
• 8.30 pm - Mommy feeds Juan Or with medicine for his mild bilateral hydronephrosis. Juan Or's playtime.
• 10.30 pm - Juan Or sleeps.
• 12.30 am - Juan Or wakes up for another breastfeeding session, and goes back to sleep.
• 2.30 am - Juan Or wakes up again for another breastfeeding session. After that, he appears to be sleeping and with a lot of tossing and turning, then wakes up and starts crawling. Refuse to go back to sleep (which means playtime and Mommy has to be up to 'entertain' him as well!). Usually this is the time for Juan Or's don't-want-to-sleep rendezvous. Shown here are two video clips of Juan Or's rendezvous:

• 4.30 am - Juan Or sleeps again. So Mommy sleeps too.
• 6+ or 7+ am - Juan Or wakes up for breastfeeding session, followed by morning stroll with Grandma
• 8 am - Juan Or is send to babysitter's place by Grandma. Mommy goes to work.

Buying Books for Juan Or at MPH Stock Clearance Sale

On 19th March (Thursday), Mommy took leave from work to go shop for a piano and then veered off to go for this book sale, partiularly to see what baby or children books Mommy can buy for Juan Or (Mommy has already stocked up quite a lot of baby and children books for him since Mommy was still pregnant with him!).

This book sale was held from 14th to 22nd March 2009 in Mayang Plaza (SS26, Petaling Jaya). By the time Mommy went for this sale, it was already the 6th day, so Mommy didn't expect a lot of crowd by then, and it indeed was not crowded! Anyway, Mommy reached there at about 1.50 pm.

So, what did Mommy see there? Lots of children books, and many of the books had 30% off the price tags. Some had 50% discount (those books on the tall book shelves), but you have to search the books one by one which was rather tedious if you are rushing for time. The Disney and Sesame Street books were still quite expensive at RM28 (price cannot be discounted anymore!). The New McDonald's Farm children educational VCDs were cheap, sold at RM3 only (but Mommy bought one before this at RM5 in the most recent MPH book fair in One Utama!). The Usborne Young Reader Series sold here at RM11 or RM11++ (Mommy can't remember!) was more expensive and lesser choices than during the MPH Distributor Warehouse Sale (held somewhere around October 2008) which sold each for RM7 only and has the whole lot of collection for you to choose from. However, take note that this current sale is held by MPH retailer section and not MPH Distributor. So do expect some differences in the discounts they give and the variety of books for sale.

Here's what Mommy bought for Juan Or:

1. My Peekaboo Fun - lift-the-flap type of board book, with 30% discount, originally sold for RM15.90.

(Front view)

(A bull hiding behind the flap.)

2. Who Goes Moo? - another board book with colourful illustrations with farm theme, so you can expect farm type of noises from farm objects for baby to learn. Sold with 30% discount, originally sold for RM4.90.

(Front view)

(Mommy loves the colourful illustrations and Juan Or seems to love this book the most because of the funny sound Mommy has to make when reading this book with him.)

3. Magnetic Counting Fun - this book has magnets for children to place according to their imagination and according to the story in each page. This book also has very colourful illustrations, but is suitable for children above 3 years old - when they no longer put things into their mouth! So, Juan Or cannot use this book yet. This book's original price is RM29.90 and sold with 30% discount.

(Front view)

(Mostly background scenary pictures for children to place magnets according to how the story goes.)

4. The Illustrated Musical Instruments Handbook - Mommy bought this book, partly because of Mommy's own interest since Mommy is also a piano teacher, and partly for Juan Or's future music education (but that's still a very long way to go!). This book's original price is RM39.90 and sold with 30% discount.

(Front view)

(This book has interesting stories, facts and history of almost all kinds of musical instruments - a good read for serious music students.)

So, all in all, Mommy spent RM63.40 in this sale.

The week before, Mommy saw a short article write-up about this sale in The Star newspaper. The article mentioned that MPH is giving out a free book to each of the first 10 customers on each day of the sale. The conditions were that the customer must produce the entire page of the newspaper article and the customer must purchase at least RM50 there. So since Mommy only reached there at 1.50 pm, Mommy did not hope too much to be the first 10 customers of the day to fulfill those conditions, but it turned out that Mommy did! And Mommy had indirectly learnt the trick on how to get free book: Go only on those days when the sale has started for quite a lot of days already, then you'll stand a bigger chance. Chances are that most people who want to claim for the free books will go on the first few days of the sale. After that, things will somehow 'cool down' - so that's when you 'attack'! Simple, right? Here's how the free gift book looks like (believe me, the book was even wrapped in gift wrapping paper!):

(A recipe book of quick and delicious creative cooking - all are Western style cooking which is not quite Mommy's taste, but Mommy will keep it anyway, just in case Mommy wants to venture into Western cooking in the future!)