7 months and rushing

Dear Amir,

Happy 7th month old dear!

Yes, we're halfway through to your first bday, that fast huh?

This month, we went for your check up (for 2nd round prevenar jab) right on your (7th month) bday. So right on the day you hit 7 months, you weigh 8.3 kg and 69.5 cm tall. Basically you are still in the 'big babies' region.. although physically speaking, you may not look like it. Urat dawai tulang besi kot..

You can sit unsupported now. Actually you only mastered this few days before you turned 7 mths, and the funny thing is you only take around 2 days to figure the trick and eventually become a pro at it. Two days back, you have started to familiarise yourself to the crawling position and start to rock back and forth on all four. Then yesterday both Tok Ma and me saw

your first step crawling (which was followed by a nasty face slam afterwards!). And as though that's not overwhelming enough for me, today, you pulled yourself up by holding on to the cot, my collar (ganas betul), my hair, blanket, my legs.. and you really did stand up! This time I am more worried than amused actually. I dont really know what you are rushing for.. and i sure hope you take it one at a time..

Since you are able to sit on your own now, we have permanently upgraded you to the stroller without the carrier. It's so much better dont you think? You have also recently started to utilise the high chair when we eat out (we still havent bought u any to use at home tho). Last weekend, we strapped you up to the one in chicken rice shop and McD (yes, we eat out a lot lately) and wow, we've instantly got ourselves a happier baby :-) From the look of it, you seems to be very pleased that you are now upgraded to that important seat next to us. Of course, you found the high chair yummy too.. just like any other things that is within your reach.

You babbles a lot too. A lot. But i can definitely confirm now that when you say "Mamma" you are actually calling for me and it was not any random coincidence. Yeay! And you have also recently mastered the art of expressing yourself through screams. This normally happens when we're out in public. Sometimes it's translated into just plain old, "Hey Ma, I'm bored". Sometimes, the scream is directed to someone that u see, who will be rewarded with a cheeky smile, if that person care to look into your direction. Like i said, you, my boy, is a major attention seeker.

Foodwise hasnt been as exciting though. Your diet is still very much dependant on the commercial babyfood. You have basically tried all that Heinz and Gerber have to offer.. and now slowly covering the Nestle range..I shall start to cook your meal next week.. i dont have any reason not to by then anyway. Nonetheless, you are not complaining, and enjoy every meal. On good days, you even make the 'emmmm...' sounds with every spoonful. Good boy, show good appreciation of food. Just like your parents.. haha. Anyhow, you dont really like your milk now and you managed to make it very clear to us, clenching your mouth, pushing away the bottle, shaking your head. I hope this is temporary. Tok Pa suggested that maybe i should bfeed.. I just wonder where he has been all these while..hmmm.. your Tok Pa..

Your likes and dislikes.. Love the sound "Quack!Quack!" (got this from me cos i love ducks!) Love to kick around when held on air. Love it when we wipe your face with damp cloth/babywipes. Love to be surprised still. Hate the new toyphone we bought (but was really into it when we were deciding on the purchase..hmphh). Hate the rocking chair. Hate nappy change. Love licking and sucking on our hphone, remote control, anything with buttons, except for your relatively cleaner toyphone.. hmpphh. Love to snuggle while sleeping(I love it when you do this too!).

Your 7 months old father, Papa, has also made a lot of improvement and advancement in his papahood (and hubbyhood) lately. Thanks to him, I can enjoy undisturbed sleep now since he has taken over all the waking up to prepare your milk. Really, it's quite effortless to put you back to sleep at nite when all I need to do is snuggle up with you with a ready warm bottle of milk (although it would be better for your Papa if the warm milk can be consumed directly from me, but i wont go into that)

I'm definitely anxious to see what you will be up to next month. I can only imagine that it will get busier and busier for us both huh?

Love you dear, take it easy k?

Sad

Dear Amir,

It's my last day of work today. Next week, I'll be finishing off my leaves (or so I hope). May be coming in and out to settle administrative stuff.

It is definitely a busy day but since it's quite a significant day, I think I must blog this down.

This morning, as usual, we had our weekly update meeting. Being in a dept of 8 guys (I'm the only girl, besides the secretary) our dept meeting has always been very 'loud', entertaining and full of exhanges of vulgar words. And as disturbing as it may seems, I actually enjoy it. In fact, I like these ppl a lot. Although the amount of work that we do sometimes is ridiculous (hence the vulgar words), they managed to make work casual and fun. These are the work hard and play hard kinda people and for that i feel that I belong ; )

Sadly, all good things somehow will come to an end and so the meeting this morning will be my last entertaining meeting with them. It feels surreal that I'm finally at this juncture. I wouldnt claim that this is a sacrifice I made to spend more time with you. Cos honestly, that was not the ultimate reason. And this has been something I ALWAYS wanted to do rather than a sacrifice. But of course having you makes this a clearer and more firm decision and by doing this I will definitely get to spend more time with you. But going into own business is not going to be a bed of roses. Hell, i expect it to be very testing indeed.

At this point, all I can say is as confident as I am that I'll embrace my ambition with a stride, I am actually a nervous wreck now. I'm nervous and I'm actually sad that i'm finally leaving this employment (hey, what do you know huh??)

There I said it, I'm sad. Although work has managed to keep me away from the melancholic feeling lately, there's no escaping it today.

But i trust things will eventually be ok. This evening, when I go back and see you greet me at the door, I will feel ok. When I see you smile and smell your hair, I know this decision will make all the difference (for me and you). And like other worries and sadness that you helped erased, this too shall pass.

Good luck me!

The story of b*tts and its hyperactivity

Dear Amir,

Do you know what 'bisul' is in English? It's called 'boil' (thanks Hetz!)

I looked it up google and smsed several people to get that right because I have some explaining to do to my boss. Till yesterday, I've had 3 days of mc and I think I'll be on a couple of days more next week. Thanks to this boil I have on my b*tt.

It started off nastily last weekend. Enough to make me cringe everytime i sit and cry like a baby at nite when it throbs like nobody's business. Then, on that fateful Tuesday morning, the 'huge volcano' erupted... and boy, what a pain in the a** it was.. quite literally. I wont go into detail how it is was/now although I have a day to day photo to capture its progress (haha.. i'm so in love with myself that way!). Suffice to say, it looks like a little meteorite has hit that particular spot and yeah.. little it may be, I now have to endure daily dressing of the wound at the clinic.

So since I cant really sit without cursing.. hehe.. your Papa has taken over all the feeding, cleaning and wateva that is to do with taking care of you. I wont call it karma but the last few days, coincidently you've been doing your No 2 like 4 to 5 times a day, forcing your papa to muster the task he is not keen on participating in all this while for like 4 to 5 time a day. : )

As much as I enjoy seeing you and Papa spend productive time together (evilgrin), I also pity him in many ways. Well, if he's talking about a lil bro/sis for you soon, he better catch up huh? Thank you dear.. you've been such an angel. I owe you one.. big time.

Sugar n spice and everything nice..

Dear Amir,

Contrary to the fact that Mama has 11 solid days of holidays during the CNY break, I didnt managed to squeeze a post of the happenings in between. I was busy holidaying. And no, I dont even celebrate CNY. Nonetheless, happy new year to those who celebrate and hope this Rat year bring lotsa good fortune for all.

Ok, so how what happenedlah?

First off, on Saturday before the CNY, we went to Melaka for my school reunion - it was our 10th anniversary and it was relatively the biggest do ever. I had fun, you had fun, in fact even Papa had fun! The coolness is I got to meet some of my ol, ol frens, juniors, teachers.. who mostly are still the same people as they were 10 years ago, except that some have spouses/baby in tow and gained or lose few kilos ("few" is definitely an understatement for some). The downside is the fact that the school is so run down that it got me feeling very emotional, who would have thought..heh! Anyway, we didnt managed to stay long and we left just before they started to hit the field. Missed the games, missed the dinner, missed the performances. All is not lost though cos we didnt miss the group photo session. Even you joined in, the only baby who managed to steal a spot in the shot.. hehe.. overexposed betul. No pics here tho cos i didnt bring the camera along, but Aunty Hetz got plenty good ones. Anyway, we're going to have another reunion just for our batch soon so you'll get to enjoy being passed from one aunty/uncle to another. Major attention seeker

**************************

On Sunday morning, we made our way to Pangkor for the much anticipated vacation courtesy of Tok Pa. Tok Pa, Tok Ma, Uncle Yeh n Cho, Aunty Zetty, Gja and Farah were the gang for the trip.

Ferryride with the lot

The arrival of trouble in paradise

Happynya everybodee.. checking in

The first day we arrived, the whole gang went for few rounds of complimentary archery session. You were sound asleep in your stroller while we were at it. Right after archery I managed to to steal a quick time for time alone with Papa, sitting on a huge swing under a tree by the beach. How romantic! Naaaaah, not really, it was more childlike than romantic... i know i'm pathetic, but i really2 love that brief moment. It was refreshing.

Soon, we head to the pool for your first dip in the pool. First dip in the pool went grrreat, not at first, but it was great. I think we were all too excited about it that it was too overwhelming for your. So as soon as you hit the water and 'the crowd' surrounded you and cheer hard, you started wailing like it was a torturous thing. Kesian. So I pick you up again, snuggle a bit, let your feet play with the water, cleared away the excited 'fan club' and gave a second try. This time, you liked it and the rest is history.

My poor baby creating a scene at the poolside

Totally different self soon after

Loving it!

Tired, cold and HUNGRY. Alfresco dining by the beach

The rest of the trip was us at the pool/beach, pigging in the hotel room, rounds of hilarious monopoly and foosball sessions. You on the other hand have a ball of time being the center of attention of every single adult on the trip..and there were 9 of us!

The youngest dude sun bathing that day

This was you throughout our time at the beach - love the sun, dont u?

Sleepy beachboy

The mengada boy enjoying the attention - with Aunty Gja

All in all, it was an AWESOME trip. The good thing is you were equally enjoying every moment of it and didnt come out tan/burn after all the exposure to the sun. I dont know when we'll get to enjoy such (free) trip again. But looking at how much you enjoyed these kinda holidays, we'll try to make it as regular as possible (great excuse!). Tok Ma said you took after us very well, really know how to have fun, but she thinks it's too early for u to learn these things. Read : spoil brat alert.

Leaving Pangkor a happier and darker family

"I dont want to go home Mama"

*****************************************

Your fren Yazid turned 1 recently. Aunty Hetz threw him a bday do on CNY. It was your 2nd bday party (I dont intend to keep a count after this). As usual, great and abudant food and great company. What more can I say? I also managed to meet some mummy bloggers, but somehow rasa malu to chat with them. Nonetheless, i found that they are cool people whom I can easily identify with, and the babies, oh so cute in person! It got me thinking, i think i should socialize with other mummies more. It's amazing how I can learn from other mothers simply by comparing stories. Afterall, I need to get you some playmates too since you havent been exposed to mixing with your peers. Anyway, at the bday party, I also learnt that you really hate the "Birthday Song" cos this time it's the third time you cry after we sang it. Which was very different from Yazid who just couldnt stop grinning when we sang him the song. Oh well, he's the bday boy afterall, Happy Bday Yazid! and congrats to the mom too. : )

*************************************

While in Pangkor, we received a couple of good news. Aunty Zetty got accepted to MRSM, Uncle Wan passed all his recent papers, so he'll be graduating soon. When we came back the next day, Uncle Yeh pulak received his results, he too passed his papers hence will be returning to Australia for just a few more before he is finished. So Tok Ma and Tok Pa decided on an impromtu kenduri doa selamat for all the good results and the good things that God has granted us lately. It was a small do, but as usual the food (nasi dagang, nasi kerabu, ayam percik, sate) was glorious. We had very2 close family and neighbours over. That nite, due to popular demand, you don a 'cheetah' suit bought by Tok Ma, complete with a cape and tail. Aunty Gja's nephew, Zinerra instantly called you a 'cat'! Sadly, we didnt capture any photo of you, guess the good food took too much of our attention.

*************************************

Too much of good things and I'm tired of writing. Today is Valentines Day. Your Papa and me does not celebrate Valentines Day cos it is too much a commercialized thing. Anyhow for those who celebrate, Happy Vday to all of you.

My little Valentines

We're going swimming!

Dear Amir

Tok Ma said you have started to pick yourself up to a seating position lately. So yesterday, I let you free on the big duvet spread across the living room and had a great time watching you try different acts to bring your body up by yourself. There was one time that you managed to position yourself on all four for a brief moment. I know it’s kinda normal development for this at your age but that brief moment made me so proud dear. It feels surreal to see you so ‘grown up’ that way. In fact lately, I often find myself saying ‘Besar dah Amir, Pa’, responded by a smile, most of the time a very suggestive one, from your Papa.

Last week, when we were in shopping for your ‘swimming stuff’, the saleslady told us that the infant carrier cum car seat you are sitting in is due for an upgrade to a bigger one. Memang pun, cos your feet are already jutting out of the seat.. hehe. So now, we are on a search. Papa, being the gadget maniac he is, is especially excited about this. Of course his excitement is often spoilt by the reality indicated on the price tags. So, we are now relying on the power of cyber networking, in search for second hands. (Anyone out there interested to let go a car seat for 9kg and above?)

Ok, speaking of ‘swimming stuff’, we’re off to Pangkor this weekend! It’ll be your first time in swimming pool, so am really hoping that the weather will be kind to us. The trip is courtesy of your Tok Pa (and his almost expiring vouchers, as usual) and since all your uncles are around this time, Tok Pa has generously extended the invitation to Aunty Gja and Aunty Farah to join us. (Luxuries that kids enjoy these days kan.. paid vacation with gf courtesy of parents!) Of course, it’s only because we’re around and that they can help to babysit you while mama and papa berhoneymoon.. ahhaha. Papa is going to treat me to a spa session (him included of course), which is something I’m really2 looking forward to.

But just before that, you’ll be joining us to an alumni reunion in my old boarding school in Melaka on Saturday. The last time I was there is actually the day I left school. So having you in tow, back to where I used to study some ten year ago, is going to be nostalgic!

Will be back with pics later.. I’m going to be on leave from Wed till next weekend so I guess I got time..

Happy holidays everyone!