We Got Mail

I was pleasantly surprised when I opened our mailbox this morning.

We got our 1st Christmas card... a real Christmas card. From our dearest friends Janet & Magdy.
Our Mia was really happy that I let her take the card out of the envelope. Thanks Janet & Magdy!

There were 2 more cards in there for Rosie, and Teresa & her mum. I'll be handing them over to the ladies when we meet for our pre-Christmas breakfast. I told them about their cards already.

These days I rarely receive actual cards... it's all e-cards, sms greetings and now "tag"s in Facebook! The times I do receive any greeting card would be from companies that I've been buying goods from, and even then, its quite rare.

Don't get me wrong, not that I don't appreciate the e-cards, sms greetings and tags in FB. I do, I really do. But I miss the days of sending and receiving actual cards. Speaking of which, today I finally did it. I sent out my very first Christmas card in over a decade!

The card is for Janet and her husband Magdy who are in Canada now. This card has been sitting round our house for 2 weeks and I keep on forgetting to post it. When I received Janet & Magdy's card this morning I was overcome with guilt! I packed our Mia into the car (she wants to hold on to the card) and off we went to the post office. Done!

Christmas Shopping

In the past, I'd normally leave my Christmas shopping to the very last minute. Since last year I decided to make a change and start shopping in November. Not that I had a choice then cos I was due to give birth on 23rd November and knowing that I won't be able to go shopping during the confinement period of 1 month, I had to get everything done by 22nd November.

So this year, I started early. In November too. Usually I'd shop alone, but this year, I have a shopping buddy. My Mia! The 2of us went shopping at 1Borneo last Saturday while her Papa was away on his company trip. We completed everything in 5 hours... all 12 gifts. Other gifts were bought during earlier shopping sprees.

Mia is a real mummy's helper.... She insist on helping me to carry this HUGE box on our way to our car so I could get it and other goodies out of our way and return to the mall to continue shopping.

See that ball hanging on the stroller? That's hers to play with at home. I let her choose 1 ball and she chose this one, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I think she chose it because it was the only pink ball in the pile. I bought it for around RM5! The pink backpack hanging at the back... that is another gift for someone with gifts for others inside it. I try as much as I can not to ask for plastic bags.

The thing with shopping with our toddler is that she's gotta have something to hold on to while I'm browsing. So, the first thing I'd do whenever we walk into a shop knowing that we'd be there for a while, is to look for a soft toy for her to just play with while I look around. After which I'd conveniently return the toy upon check-out.

Upon reaching home, I fed Mia, got her changed into her pajamas, put her to bed and finally wrapped up all the presents. All 20 of them. I'm happy, hope the receivers will be too!

Here are just some of the prezzies sitting under our Christmas tree... just waiting for Christmas morning. The other gifts couldn't fit and so I had to put them in a bag to be delivered straight to the recipients earlier this week.

Yo... Wake UP!

My love affair with the black out curtains started on the day I discovered black out curtains (while staying in a hotel). I've been wanting black out curtains for my bedroom ever since. Even before moving into this first home of ours, I've insisted on black out curtains for all the bedrooms. I don't think that my husband quite get why I put my foot down on this.

Anyway, I managed to convince him and I'm pretty sure he's happy with our decision because otherwise, we'd have the morning sun shine into the bedroom. And when you really need to sleep in after an exhausting day (before), it would not be so grand.

When our daughter wakes up in the morning (which is at most times, really early), she'll stand in her crib and make her announcement that she's awake. I would normally respond with, "Hi darling, good morning". Because it'll still be "dark" in the room, she'll then sit in her crib and continue to play with her toys, and I can continue to catch a bit more shut eyes before getting up.

Lately, our daughter has also caught on the purpose of our black out curtains. When I don't get up when she wants me to take her downstairs, she'll do this:Arrrrggggghhhhhh! The sun.... the sun! She'll then stare at me and give me a look that says, "Yo, get UP already!"

Vampire me would be forced to get up and bring her downstairs for play, change diaper and breakfast time.

Popular Book Fair

Once again, Popular Bookstore is holding their book fair (2 - 12 December 2010). Up to 70% off on selected books. This time its held at the Lower Ground floor of 1Borneo Shopping complex (in between McDonalds and KFC) and we were there last Saturday. Some of the books on sale are really good with just some minor defects (easily fixable with some cleaning or a bit of strong glue at home).

They also have some stationery on sale too, good for "back to school shopping" or even as Christmas gifts. But beware, some items are only discounted with purchase of other items.

If you were to apply for or renew your Popular Membership Card, you'd get free gifts too.

I wanted to get some books for myself and had set aside a RM150 budget. But once I got browsing, I bought these instead:

All hard cover books. The one on the top right had 6 mini books inside. A bargain!

Beware of the look

When your normally active child suddenly stops what she/he was doing and gives this kind of look:
you'd better be prepared for what may come.... check out what's swimming with her toys in the tub.Mia handed me a "sausage" of her own making (and she looked really proud of it too). I shrieked, grabbed the poop out of her fingers, threw it into the tub and cleaned our hands in the sink.

I guess the "relaxing bath" was a really relaxing experience for her.

The Birthday Party at the beach

Our family have not been to a picnic in such a long time. When we were kids, I remember our dad used to organise picnics a lot... at the beach, the island, by the river at our "kebun". It was great fun hanging out with the cousins, the aunties, uncles and grandmas. Mum would get up early in the morning to prepare the picnic food, and at times dad used to pack the barbeque set into the back of the landcruiser while the rest of us pack our change of clothes and towels. I miss those days.

For Mia's 1st birthday party, we decided to have it at the beach: Tg Aru 1st Beach on the morning of 27th November 2010. Here are just some of the pictures of the day.
This is my nephew Benjie's 1st time to a beach! He was so excited. I guess the air at the beach made him really thirsty and hungry. While waiting for the soft drinks to chill, he decided to grab some ice cubes to drink!

Aunt Allison also came with fried noodles and mixed vege which were really yummy. Thanks Allison!!! Unfortunately my camera went missing and I didn't manage to take pictures.... :(

My aunt Bertha and bro-in-law Nelson in action.That's my late dad's custom made bbq set. It has and continues to serve us well.

Ha, this is Abel, another nephew of mine. The naughty one. At first he was with his older brother on the beach offering his "special touch" to their sandcastle. Soon enough, the older brother carried him back to to the picnic area under the tree. Kesian, kena buang negeri. He then grabbed Mia's birthday gift... sandcastle building set and got started on digging sand and make his own sand sculpure.
Asked later what he was building, and he replied "Ultraman mati". Huh?! Oh yes, Ultraman is his idol.

The bigger kids divided into 2 groups for the sandcastle building competition. Total failure. They can't work in a team and were too busy arguing with each other to come up with anything acceptable. So no prizes were given for this competition.



While the kids were building (or shall I say, fighting over) the sandcastles, our birthday girl cuddle up on grandma (my mum) and have her nap.

My cousin's son came to join the picnic after work and showed the kids how to make a dragon sculpture.

We did have more exciting games for the kids later:



A cousin wanted to have a drinking competition, but I told him not this time. Maybe next year we'll do it!

Finally, Mia's cake:

I guess she's saying, "Noooooooooo! You spoilt my cake mummy! It's my cake. Let me do it myself!!!!"

More pictures and coverage here!

Her 1st Birthday Cake

Our Mia put on a brave smile for her 1st birthday cake. Mummy was crying taking this picture. I was one part happy, one part a little sad... so emotional! Mia's been throwing up all day and refused milk. The little milk that she did consume came out soon after. Poor baby.

I gave her "vomit" medicine later this evening and that helped a bit for her to hold her milk in. You see, she's been chewing on all sorts of things this past few days. She's teething (finally). Two teeth at the bottom have cut through her gum.]]
Here's wishing for a better tomorrow.

1 Today!

YES! Our Mia is 1 year old today. It was a rough start to her day though.... she woke up vomiting, then as I was giving her a wash in the bath tub, she poo poo-ed... in the bath water!

There's no big celebration today because her Papa is not with us... he's out of town for his company's bi-annual meeting :( It'll be just herself, me and errrr..... we'll see who's available later! Her real celebration has been planned for later this week.

I was looking at her photos and felt a little nostalgic. Yes, I became a bit teary eyed as I looked at how she's grown... hair and all! Here's Mia through her first 12 months:

Oh Christmas Tree.... Oh Christmas Tree

I started our Christmas deco project last Thursday.... with a little "help" from my elf Mia. It was quite frustrating thinking of a corner for the tree which is not within reach of my elf's curious little hands. In the end, I decided to put it up on our corner table.

All we need to add now is more presents. We've started on the presents. So far it's 3 down, and many, many more to go!

Meanwhile, someone's mighty happy with the tree!

My Crybaby

That's Mia just last night.

Our DVD player is not working and she was trying to get her Tinker Bell DVD in the DVD player. I took it away from her because:

1. the DVD is quite sharp and I wouldn't want her to to hurt herself
2. she might break the DVD
3. she might do further damage to the player

It'll be her 1st year birthday soon.... Hmmmm

Seems like only yesterday I was presented with a crying (or should I say, "screaming") baby in the delivery room! That's her right then and there with that same pitiful cry.