Just the Two of Us

Yesterday was Federal Territory Day. So it was an off-day for Mommy since Mommy's workplace is in Cheras, but not for Papa whose workplace is under Selangor state. By the way, it was an off-day for the babysitter too since we all stay in Kuala Lumpur. Originally, Mommy had planned to take Juan Or to the National Zoo but later decided against it because Papa had just discovered that his driving license has expired for almost 2 months! So by hook or by crook, Mommy had to go to any post office in Selangor to renew Papa's driving license. So that early morning (about 6.10 am), Mommy fetched Papa to work, then Mommy came back to continue sleeping. Then by around 9.30am, with Juan Or strapped to his baby car seat, Mommy drove to the post office in Tesco Puchong.

We reached Tesco Puchong's post office at around 10.05 am and from the number slip that Mommy got, there were 84 more customers before it's Mommy's turn to be served! Mommy was very tempted to go shopping in Tesco during the waiting time, but decided against it as Mommy did not want to risk missing Mommy's turn. So what was Mommy to do with so much waiting time and with a toddler tagging along? Luckily there is a McDonald's restaurant and the McDonald's playground facility is really, really a godsend! And since there were not many kids playing (only about 1 or 2 at any one time), so Mommy allowed Juan Or to play there. So off and on, after a while of playing, Mommy 'dragged' Juan Or along to go check the current turn number at the post office. Whenever Mommy wanted to do that, Juan Or would protest and act uncooperative! So Mommy would 'intimidate' him by pretending to walk off. Then Juan Or would call out to Mommy (scared of Mommy leaving him! Hehehe!) and Mommy would turn back to take him and he would act uncooperative again! But finally Juan Or would give in after several times of 'leaving' him. Here are snapshots of Juan Or enjoying himself at the McDonald's playground.

"Here I am at the McDonald's playground!"

"Who wants to come and play with me? Anyone?"

"Well, if nobody wants to play with me, then I shall play by myself! Yippy, I love playing at the stairs! Climb up!"

"Climb down!"

"Then make funny faces for Mama to see!"

"And another funny face for Mama! Oh, look at my think, sexy lips! Muahhh!"
















"See this little girl? Hahaha....finally found myself a playmate!" Mommy's note: This little girl had actually entrusted Mommy to help her take care of a pair of children sunglasses that her Daddy had just bought for her so that she could go play at the playground with Juan Or. By the way, where's her Daddy then? Apparently he was busy choosing himself a pair of sunglasses to buy too at a nearby booth! Juan Or, on the other hand, was very happy to be in the presence of other children (Mommy can see him shouting happily!) although the other children (not this little girl) were not really playing with him.

Finally, at about 11.15 am, Mommy's turn came. However, shortly before Mommy's turn, Mommy managed to put Juan Or to sit on a shopping cart that someone had abandoned at the post office. Since the post office was very small and crammed, Mommy was not able to push the shopping cart in, but Mommy was in luck. There's this gentleman, Mr. Tiew, who is the father of two of Mommy's piano students who was also waiting for his turn. So Mommy asked him to help keep an eye on Juan Or while Mommy did the transaction. After it was done, Mommy had a short chat with Mr. Tiew and thanked him as well. Mr. Tiew particularly mentioned that when he came over, Juan Or actually told him "Mama, mama!" while pointing at Mommy's direction! Oh, how sweet of Juan Or! Actually Mommy was surprised too why Juan Or didn't cry when Mr. Tiew approached him (it's common for Juan Or to cry whenever a stranger approaches him and sees him straight in the eyes!). Or perhaps Mr. Tiew has this baby-friendly aura considering that he still has a 3-month old infant at home (his 3rd child)?

After the post office, Mommy took Juan Or for a quick shopping in Tesco. Mommy bought 2 pairs of Mickey and Minnie Mouse in Chinese New Year attire (12 " tall plush toys), each for RM17.95 (which is considered cheap because the cheapest ever was RM19.90 for 8" ones) as part of Mommy's collection and also for Juan Or to play with. By then, it was something like 12.30pm and Juan Or was fretful already due to sleepiness.

Shortly after leaving Tesco, Juan Or dozed off in his baby carseat while Mommy drove to the new house's garden area to buy fried rice with crab meat for lunch. It cost RM6. Halfway through when waiting for the food to be ready, Juan Or started fretting and cried again, but luckily as Mommy rocked him on the lap and sang softly to him, he calmed down.

After buying lunch, we headed to our new house. That's when Mommy ate while feeding Juan Or as well. Then Mommy tried rocking Juan Or to sleep, but he refused, instead wanted to play. After playing and sweating, Mommy took bath of Juan Or and then, Mommy took bath too while Juan Or played by himself. Actually Mommy was doing a trial-run of handling Juan Or single-handedly without anyone's assistance and so far, so good! ^ ^

All doing all that, it was already 4.30 pm and almost time to get ready to fetch Papa back from work. So by 5 pm, Mommy and Juan Or left the new house and headed for Papa's workplace, during which Juan Or immediately dozed off in the baby carseat again. Finally, by 6 pm, we reached Sri Petaling (in-laws' house) and Juan Or was still asleep. Guess he must be very, very tired after an entire day of outing and playing.

Sleepy 'B' with his plush Mickey Mouse in Chinese New Year attire.

Juan Or's Reaction Towards Lion Dance

Chinese New Year is coming soon! Yesterday, Papa and Mommy decided to take Juan Or to watch lion dance performance. This would be Juan Or's first time then. So we headed to Giant Bandar Puteri Puchong. The area where Giant's management wanted to hold the lion dance performance was rather crammed but since we were there early, we managed to get quite a good viewing spot. Another good thing was that since the area was crammed with spectators, more in-coming customers plus the lion dance troupe itself, Giant's management decided to start the performance 10 minutes earlier than the scheduled time. So, yippy, we didn't have to wait too long for it to start!

So how was Juan Or's reaction towards the lion dance performance? With the first loud clang of the cymbals and Chinese drum, Mommy expected Juan Or to be shocked, but no, he was cool all the way! Papa carried Juan Or so that Mommy could capture the lion dance and Juan Or's facial expression on the handphone videocam. At the same time, Papa closed Juan Or's ears in case the loud clangs damaged his hearing. After Mommy was done with filming (Mommy didn't film right to the end of the performance), off and on, Mommy would glance at Juan Or to which Juan Or nodded his head as if to say he enjoyed watching it! However, about 5 to 8 minutes into the performance, Juan Or started shaking his head while saying "Bo-ai, bo-ai!" (don't want, don't want!). Looks like Juan Or found it too noisy, so we left the place.

Anyway, with Juan Or's cool reaction, Papa and Mommy now feel more confident to bring Juan Or for acrobatic lion dance performance in the future. So from now on, Mommy will be on the lookout for acrobatic lion dance performance schedules in major shopping complexes......but that's only if we are able to catch it at the right time when Juan Or is not sleepy and fretful!

Taking Mickey Mouse for a Ride

Yesterday, Juan Or had just discovered that he can put Mickey Mouse behind as the pillion rider on his baby car. Now Juan Or has a 'companion' whenever he takes a ride!

Longer Legs Now

Last time in April 2009, Mommy blogged about how Juan Or tried riding on his new baby car for the first time. Juan Or was almost 11 months old then (how time flies!) and his legs were still not long enough to reach the floor so much so when the car made a bend, ........(see this old video for yourself!)........

Notice his chubby arms and legs, and the babyish face and head back then?

Now Juan Or's legs are so much longer already, so reaching for the floor while riding on the baby car is not a problem anymore. But what does he do with his legs? He uses his legs as substitute for the steering instead! Watch this!

Now his limbs don't have the chubby baby look anymore. The face is also more like a little boy already, although the babyish-ness is still there. This video was taken in mid-December 2009 when he was 1 year 7 months old.

Big Boy Already

Today, Juan Or surprised Mommy with his requests and actions. All Mommy can conclude is that Juan Or is becoming a big boy already - no longer the babyish traits that Mommy is so used to. Here are the three situations that happened all within one night:

Situation 1:

Juan Or requested to eat Coco Balls cereal, so Mommy gave him some by pouring into his cup. He finished all and then asked for some more, so Mommy poured some more. This time, he merely stuffed the cereal into his mouth but without biting. Later he sort of left his mouth open so that the already-damp cereal flowed out of his mouth and onto his T-shirt! So his T-shirt now had chocolate stains. Mommy merely wiped the stain dry but of course the stain still remained there. Mommy had no intention of changing his T-shirt because it was only a small stain - no big deal. However, along the way, Juan Or, off and on, kept looking at the stained area and pointing his fingers at it while looking at Mommy. At first, Mommy paid no heed, but after it went on several times, finally Mommy asked him whether he wanted his T-shirt changed to which he nodded. Hahahaha.....so conclusion is Juan Or already has some sense of what is clean and what is dirty and is not comfortable about feeling dirty (although he is still quite dirty and messy in other aspects)!

Situation 2:

Following Situation 1 just now, so Mommy changed Juan Or's T-shirt. Mommy digged out a clean sleeved T-shirt to put on him (he has not been wearing it for a long time), but he refused. So Mommy thought perhaps he didn't favour wearing sleeved T-shirt, instead preferred the singlet type, to which Mommy took out one plain white singlet. Upon seeing the plain white one, again Juan Or refused, instead he pointed at another singlet T-shirt which had cartoon bear design on it! This time, he gladly wore it without making any fuss. So conclusion is Juan Or already has preference for nicer-looking items!

This is the cartoon bear singlet T-shirt that Juan Or likes as opposed to.....

.......this plain white one!

Situation 3:

Shortly after changing his T-shirt, Juan Or went to the book shelf to take a book to 'read'. And he settled himself down on the floor to do his 'reading'. However, very soon after that, his Great-grandmother got up from her sitting position to walk to the bathroom and that Juan Or happened to be sitting somewhere in her pathway. So Grandpa asked Juan Or to get up and make way for Great-grandmother, to which Juan Or complied. The cute part was that Juan Or, with the book in his hand, stood up to make way and after waiting patiently for Great-grandmother to pass, he sat back at the same position where he left to continue his 'reading'. So conclusion is Juan Or is starting to show some maturity of thought already. Actually, Mommy expected that he would fret and refuse to budge once he had settled himself to do something, but Juan Or has proven Mommy wrong!

Ha, big boy already, right? Well, however, when Mommy asked Juan Or whether he is still 'baby-baby', Juan Or nodded. ^ ^