9 months

Our girl is 9 months today and weighs 9kg. Yeah! or in her own word(s) "aiiiiiiiiiiii".

That's right, she cheers herself by saying "aiiiiiii" every time she accomplishes something eg:

• standing up
• landing on her bum
• walking round the coffee table while holding on to its edges
• finishing her meal

She hasn't grown any teeth yet. We'll have to make do with her toothless grin for now.

She likes to meet people and isn't afraid of to greet, smile, 'chat', and eherm.... showoff her skills.

She babbles a lot. With the exception of 'bah-bye'; and 'papa', I really can't understand anything she's saying but I pretend to be able to, just to encourage her. She doesn't say 'mama', or 'mummy' at all. Just 'papa'.

She doesn't like to sit in her walker for too long and when she's had enough, she'll literally dive out of the walker and start crawling to the nearest edge of a furniture that she can get hold on to support her in her walk.

She loves to smile for the camera and when others are laughing (be it people, the tv or the radio), she'll laugh as well.

She opens drawers. Those set of steps you see there, she's climbed to the top much to my shock. I thank our lucky stars that she didn't fall. It's time that we buy some safety gadgets.

She likes to do what we do, eg read the mail.

And when she sleeps, she has to be surrounded by her 'friends' to watch over her.

I love gifts. It doesn't matter whether they're expensive or otherwise. What matters most is that the gift comes from the heart of the giver. I do admit though, there are times when have to think "WHAT?!", only to break out in laughter later.

Thankfully, our little Mia has inherited this appreciation for gifts received. Well, anything new that she can get her hands on is considered a gift for her!

Last week she got some gifts from Auntie Takako sent all the way from Tokyo. Here's one of them:

Thank you Auntie Takako... baby is loving the feeding bib! Just what we need for a messy eater like her. Lets hope she'll take up diving like you and her papa when she's a little older so she'll get to see real fishes in the sea.

More on the other gifts from Auntie Takako soon.

Time to cut the painful silence

12 August 2010

Its been 12 weeks, 4 days since I felt my world collapse and my heart torn to pieces. My dad passed away on the day that our Mia turned 6 months, and my best friend got engaged.

I still remember the night clearly. I was updating my blog, saving it as "draft" when I got the call from my brother around 11pm to tell me that our daddy was in hospital. I immediately called on my husband, carried our sleeping Mia and rushed to the hospital.

When we got to the hospital, the doctors were still trying to revive my dad. I managed to go in the emergency room and felt his ice cold feet as they were trying to save my dad. Words cannot describe the agony my sister, brothers and I felt as we knew in our hearts that there was nothing that can be done anymore and our daddy is no longer with us. He was only 60 years old.

Since that moment, it was the support and help of our relatives and friends that helped us get by the difficult times as we made preparations for our daddy's funeral which was held on 26th May 2010 at St Aloysius Church, near our family home before laying our dad in his final resting place, at our family burial ground. It was the kind words and encouragement following the funeral that also reminded us that daddy is in a much better place now.

Thank you all for all your condolences, flowers, donations, visit to our family home, attendance at our daddy's funeral, and messages sent via SMS, Facebook, emails etc. May God bless you all.

I've tried over the past weeks to bring myself together to update my blog, but each time I log in, I freeze. Last Sunday, I tried again, only to find myself crying uncontrollably because all those emotions of the night my father passed away overwhelmed me.

So today, I made a decision. Cry as I am while I'm doing this, I am going to update my blog starting with publishing the blog entry I had saved that night, before the call came.



6 months today!

Weight: 7.8kg

She can't crawl yet, still trying to drag her body on the bed and on the floor. Most times, she'll roll and roll to try and get to where she wants to get.

She's a champ at maneuvering her baby walker and can "glide" really fast. She'll find every opportunity to get out of the house.

A lot of things need to be changed on this day:

Pacifier (chu-chut) upgrade. She's got 2 new Avent pacifiers... it'll take a while for her to "break into" these, so we'll still KIV the old one, just in case we need it.

Change in diet: I've changed her rice cereal to that of organic. She gets rashes all over when I fed her with Cerelac from Nestle. A messy eater she may be but she can finish more than half a bowl each feeding.

She loves her feet... loves teddy bears, especially the giant type.... LOL! That's Uncle Magdy (her giant teddy from Canada)

Sleeping like a baby

One of the many things that Mia loves to do first thing in the morning is to be placed in her walker, prance around the living room in it and watch her Chinese cartoon "see yang yang" followed by Bananas in Pajamas.

Well, early this morning I had to go out for an appointment and asked my husband to keep an eye on her. I left her on the bed with him and told him that if she's not going back to sleep, then bring her downstairs and put her in her walker.

That he did. She went about her normal routine making a lot of noise at the same time. My husband then noticed that her head was bobbing as if fishing, and then she became quieter and quieter. Next thing he saw was:

Is she staring at something, or simply resting?

She fell asleep. In her walker. Chubby cheek resting on the little ball. Poor girl must have been so exhausted! My husband didn't realise her "lots of noise" was her telling him she wants her mid morning nap.

Hangin' out with her papa

One of the things she looks forward to ... everyday.

Getting ahead of the footie fever

And its not the World Cup.

The past few weeks, Mia has been taking every opportunity to reach for her feet and put her tiny toes into her mouth:

She'll grab hold of both feet then switch from 1 foot to the other to lick

Just look at that, she's toe-tally enjoying it!

See?! She doesn't even respond to me calling her. She doesn't care that I'm taking her picture.

And even in the bath!

It's disgusting and I have no idea how to stop her from doing this.

A note for my daughter

To my dear Mia,

Today is the first time I get to celebrate mother's day. You've grown up so much from the day I you entered this world. Your grand entrance was an indication of what you're to become - strong lungs,cheerful, love to smile, fast learner, curious, and most of all, given the time and support, you're able to overcome life's little challenges. Yes, you can be quite demanding at times but that makes me feel even more needed and appreciated by you.

Your smile each morning when you wake up is the best start of the day for me. We spend most of the days together. We have fun playing, kissing, hugging, cleaning, changing, feeding... the list goes on and on. Although at the end of the day, I sometimes get tired juggling work, and attending to your needs but seeing how peaceful you sleep at night makes me feel fulfilled.

In years to come there will be times when we'll have disagreements and exchanges of hurtful and harsh words. I hope that when those days do come, we'll be able to set aside of differences and work things out. I pray that I may be granted the patience and wisdom to be able to show you how precious you are to me. I want you to remember that whatever may be, I only wish and pray for your well being and happiness.

In the meantime, I want you to know that I love you dearly, I will always keep in my heart the ways you let me know that you love me too, and most of all - how happy you've made me.

Love always,
Mummy

It's Mother's Day

To all the mums out there:

Doing the Michael Jackson

This morning Mia was sucking away on her right hand. When she touched my cheeks with her saliva coated fingers I noticed something weird... her hand was bright pink, and swollen. I wanted to take a picture of it but.... it did not come out very clear:
She got insect bite... most probably a mosquito. Of all places! I didn't want to put any cream on it because Mia likes to lick ans suck her hands. She might end up licking the cream and we'll have a bigger problem in our hands.

Seeing as how that bite must be so itchy, I did the next best thing... put insect bite cream on it and then cover it with her mittens.

This look is dedicated to the late Michael Jackson, the King of Pop. Yes, she moonwalks too.

I wonder if Michael Jackson read with his one glove on too?

Oh What a Night!

Tonight, Janet and I attended this:


The Convention Hall is big (by KK standard ya), and was nicely decorated for the event. We walked on a red carpet fenced by traditional Kadazan "backpacks" ie Sinaging, leading into the hall.

It took us a while to find Table No 49 because there were like 80 tables in the hall.

The view from Table 49... hujung dunia lah ba kan! Janet and I love the ceiling deco... somehow we felt like we're in Egypt.

We were entertained by Stacy - the Akademi Fantasia sensation. She's got good voice, stamina, dance moves and very edgy. I like her. Where a lot of local artists here are good singers they're not necessarily good entertainers. Stacy is great - as a singer, performer and entertainer. She reminds me of Anita Sarawak.

We ate:
LOL! Greedy me was too busy and enjoying the food so much that I forgot to take pictures. So, next best thing is the menu la!

The main purpose of the Gala Nite is to let the public have a preview of the contestants for the Unduk Ngadau organised by DBKK. It is also on this night that the top 15 who'll get to compete in the actual competition on 13 May 2010 when the KK representative for the State Unduk Ngadau will be crowned.

The ladies wore evening gowns by their own design which must be inspired by the traditional costumes of the Kadazandusun group. Some of the contestants had help from other designers, some got their mothers to design, and some designed themselves. It was like watching Project Runway.

Here are the subsidiary title winners for tonight (photo taken off the big screen, our table was just too far from the stage):

Miss Catwalk: Jaslinder Kaur a/p Harjit Singh (She has a very "calm & collected" walk. She's got a sweet smile too. One of the obvious favourites of the night, aside from another contestant but I think THAT other contestant's supporters were family and colleagues)

Miss Personality: Kok Yee Lu @Lyora Kok. She's 5 feet 8 inches tall! Janet & I nicknamed her the Naomi Campbell of Sabah (Hmmmm, judges ni usually give scores according to height. The higher the contestant, the higher the score. Ni pun ada harapan mau memang)

I think it was Miss Best Dressed I think, or was it Miss Gala Nite: Crystel Eve Huminodun William Majimbon. (Na, nama pun sudah Huminodun... tatap ada spot lah tu nanti)

All the subsidiary title winners managed to get a spot in the Top 15.

And.... there's more:

Tadaa! My cousin Steffiana Jipanin is also in the Top 15!