It's Monday and I'm obviously drowning in the endless ocean of Monday blues, so let's be random for a bit.

Managed to get myself a spa-time to loosen up the tensed muscles for a bit on Saturday, like finally! Had a nice sauna, aromatherapy massage (tho the masseuse was sometimes too caught up in her kneading-happy mode, that she forgot that I'm a human, not a dough), a good sea-salt scrubbing (gotta love this one), a facial treatment(which lasted like forever) and hand-wax  treatment.

 I came out from the spa almost 4 hours later, feeling lightheaded and happy. Haih, what's not to love bout having someone to squeeze the stress out of you and scrub you clean as if you're the laziest person on earth ey? Can't wait for another trip next month. Well, after all the countless spa trips, I've learned that to enjoy those massaging, scrubbing and whatnot, malu sila lah tolak tepi.  :P

I'm currently drafting a meal plan for the little one  - as I think that I need to bring along some prepared-ready-to-eat food during our Kuching trip. Am planning to bring some frozen food which I'll stuff into a cooler-box which will also be used to carry the EBM later.

I also need to stock up on her Mamy Poko soft fit pants. It's impossible to use the normal diaper during diaper change when we're on the run - as more often than not, the little one refuse to lie down on the changing table in the baby room, due to some mysterious reasons which obviously I also don't know lah. So yea, a diaper pant is the way to go.

Our Kuching trip gonna be Myra's very 1st flight. I'm praying with every fiber of my being for the little one to behave else musnah lah harapan mak to pester the daddy to bring us jalan-jalan somewhere further.

We gonna turn 2 next month! Time flies, yes? So yea, we're going for somewhere for a short weekend getaway for our 2nd anniversary - nothing super fancy, but I think it's going to be fun and yes, Myra's included. he he. I need to get her a cute decent swimsuit( pardon me, but I'm sorta disturbed with the image of a  little girl wearing two-piece swimsuit that looks like it once belonged to a baywatch actress or something, no matter if she doesn't have any hump or lump or whatsoever to show yet. Parents please, she's just a baby, a Winnie the Pooh swimsuit will do.) and a nice float.:P

Got myself another bag, when am I going to learn to berjimat? Haih.

My dad was in KL for one of his countless seminars last week. He stayed in Seri Pacific since it's merely sekangkang kera away from PWTC where the seminar was being held. So yea, days before, he already called me up, informing (or more like commanding. he he) us that he wished to see the little one. Yea, we're not longer the favourite, now it's all about the baby and it's not like we mind. Initially thought that we just gonna have our dinner at the hotel like we usually do but we ended up in KLCC instead. We reached there when it's already 9PM, so we just settled with a simple dinner at Dome. Myra was being her little nice-self which was great since we got to catch up on some family stuff and enjoyed our food. I even managed to drop by at Sephora for a quick shopping spree tho their shop was already half-closed. :P

We went to somewhere near Batu Kikir, but further in (which is in N9) yesterday for a friend of C***'s wedding. It felt like forever before we finally reached the groom's place. Sungguh lah jauhnya macam the end of the world (I had to resist from asking "Are we there yet?" sebanyak 400 kali), it didn't help when C*** himself had no idea of the place whereabout since we're basically tailing one of his friends' ride. So yea, it took us almost 3 hours to get there T_T, but the food was the savior as it was awesome. he he. :P

We finally bought the fabrics for our baju raya, ya, we're the late bloomers in the excited-nak-raya department. I'm just lucky that I still have a seamstress willing to sew the fabrics into a nice baju kurung for me, else, maybe kena pakai kain tu macam sari.

That's about it. Randomness at its best.

Have a great week.

Myra's turning 13 month in 6 days and I'm yet to update on her current milestones, yea, I should learn to be more punctual.

So yea, at 12 month and 24 days

o1. She's now equipped with with 6 little gigi, the latest being her upper left and right lateral incisor. Like wow, 6 gigi in less than 2 months, once the central incisor sprouted a wee bit more than a month back, the others just seem to follow suit. Sungguh pantas! I'm just thankful that she's not down with fever or all those usual teething stuff. Yes, she bites - tho fortunately not frequent. Last few days, she actually bit me on the knee, tempat lain, I rather not say. ha ha.

o2. She could walk in a rather fast pace if ya hold on to both of her hand and if ya just hold to one of em, she'll be minding her steps for a bit, walking slowly like a little penguin. ha ha. She could 'walk' for a step or two without support - as when you're about to count her 3rd step she'll get down and crawl at a lightning speed to you instead. :P

o3. Still a bf baby with her usual 3oz x 4 bottles of ebm from 8am-7pm, together with her breakfast, morning snack, lunch and early dinner at 5pm. She rarely eats at night as she's usually sleepy by 9pm -  most of the time, she'll just stick to me for milk.

o4. She's still a great drama queen (with the separation anxiety intact). I wonder where she got the talent from? :P She'd fake a cry whenever ya try to stop her from doing something, or when you refuse to give her the cellphone for her to chew on, but fret not, the remedy is sorta simple, as we'd usually try to imitate her fake cry (the facial expression, the pouting, voice and all) and she'll ended up laughing - as if knowing that what she's been doing. :P

o5.If ya give her a phone, she'll put it against her ear and mumble something that sounds like "hello" which amuses us to no end. he he. Few days back, she did it with C*** phone which surprised us for a bit since C***'s mobile phone is enclosed within its leather casing, but somehow she knew that it's a phone! I know lah for adult,we could just glance and tell that it's a phone, but for a 12 month to do that, I think she's a genius.

o6.She obviously don't know how to ask for something yet, but she does know how to get someone to 'walk' her - as she'll come to ya, grab both of your hands with hers and pull at em. Previously C*** even sat on his hands so that the little precious won't be able to grab em,but she just tugged at em relentlessly and C*** just gave in to his little daughter. So off he went jalan-jalan pusing satu rumah until his back ached.

o7. During the last checkup, she weighed 8kg. A chubby looking but slim baby. he he. Already done with the pneumococcal vaccination which is great (she had 3 doses altogether) and due for her MMR shot next month. I hafta say that I'm grateful that she's blessed with good health - in a span of 12 months, she had been down with fever only twice - once out of nothing and the 2nd time,due to teething. So far, no cough, flu whatsoever. Alhamdulillah.

There are like tonnes of other stuff which I can't really recall right now, but I'll write it up when I do later.

How much do I adore the little one? I really can't say. :)

Since I'm well into my 1st year of parenthood, I think I'm finally sorta qualified to come up with the baby-good-to-have-stuff list together with the approximate pricing.

These items are not compulsory- as parents before us were fine without em - but I think most of em are useful in their very own way and has been a great help in the baby department.

Let's start, shall we?

o1. A sterilizer & warmer set.
Since I'm sorta ocd in my very own way, I've been using the sterilizer to sterilize the storage and feeding bottles everyday since Myra was born. If you're familiar with ebm, you'll come to notice that they are very very oily (hence the fattygoodness for the baby), so I'll usually double wash the bottles. 1st round using hot water and bottle cleanser, 2nd round with another batch of hot water before finally dumping em in the sterilizer for a good steaming. Within few minutes, you'll have a sparkling clean sterilized bottles, ready to be used. he he. Tak payah nak risau of over boiling the bottles on the stove top sampai bottles cair whatsoever. Yea, stuff like that happened to people I know. he he.

As for the warmer, we've been using it daily to warm up the ebm(whilst I'm at work) and the baby food that I've prepared in the morning. Easy peasy, hassle free. :) Owh, ours is the elcheapo Little Beans and I'm not recommending it since the sterilizer already died on me few weeks back, it probably cannot stand the daily use and I'm still searching high and low for my new sterilizer. So yea, feel free to explore others since most of the stuff that you'll find in the market, basically gonna serve it purpose - we got ours for less than RM200. Ya just hafta find one that fits your tight or extremely loose budget. We're just a bunch of cheapskate. :P

o2. Fisher Price Newborn-to-Toddler Portable Rocker

We got our hand on this one when Myra was around 2 months old since I'm forever determine not to use any sort of swing for our baby tho I was a swing-baby myself and I could recall rather vividly on how mum used to tell me that moi parents hafta drag along the swing(the tiang besi and all) whenever they go else I won't sleep! Yikes, absolutely the trouble that I don't wanna get myself into plus I have my own safety concern when it comes to swing, but that's more of personal thing, so yea, feel free to use whichever best for you.

 So yea,moving on, this rocker allows the baby to be rocked gently to sleep (if she ever feels like it) when you're down with severe kesakitan pinggang and later be used as a portable chair when she's bigger.

These days, Myra has been using it as her very own version of lounge chair as more often than not, she'll be sitting on in whilst watching her favourite shows (Read: baby cartoons & upin n ipin) on tv and we'd sometimes use the rocker during mealtimes when Myra's too active for her highchair.

You could easily get it for less than RM300 when it's on sale - which is sorta often if ya ask me. Few days back, I think I saw it's selling on groupon or something for RM230 which is the cheapest price I've seen so far - tho it's of the old blue model not like the one we had, but whaddaheck, it's still the same stuff.

o3. A reliable thermometer
This is a must. I don't know how some could live without em. hi hi. I'm no doctor, but thermometer helps to rule out some unwanted possibilities when the baby's cranky.

Cranky baby + thermometer = normal temp = baby's not having fever so let's figure out something else to soothe the baby (which in my case, the boob always work.haha).

Owh, still on the thermometer, it's great to have a good-reliable-takes-temperature-within-seconds thermometer as one of the hardest thing to do is to take the body temperature of a wiggling baby. So buying one of those stuff where you hafta wait foreveeerr before getting the reading,adelah meaningless beyond words (like the 1st thermometer that we bought, to my defense it's super cute tapi gagal T_T). The one that we've been using now is the Microlife ear-thermometer (which comes with a handy bag), it takes less than 10 secs to get the reading( & we'd usually do the reading thrice) and it has been great so far. I think we got it for less than RM150 when it was on sale last year.

o4. Baby carrier.
Our one and only baby carrier is a red BabyBjorn. Bought it together with the carseat and stroller way before the baby was born. he he. I'd say that it's a good buy since Myra loves to be strapped to us when she gets too restless for the stroller and having a carrier is awesome since you'd have two free hands to do something else, say, shopping. he he.

Some say that crotch carrier is bad for a long run, and I'm not saying otherwise, to my defense, we just use it for less than an hour each time(which is not regular at all,most probably once/week or less) and I blame it to our lack of research-time. he he. We're too excited about baby stuff, so we just hauled everything that grabbed our fancy. Our bad. So yea, I'd probably get another baby-safe carrier for our next baby(whenever that will be). he he. Perhaps one of those custom-made SSC (soft structured carrier) or another version of BabyBjorn. This carrier cost less than RM300 kot, I can't really recall the exact price as it has been more than a year and a year is pretty long. :P


o5. Stroller & car seat.


Car seat is important.Safety 1st. Period. I'm an ocd mum so my mind goes wild on the unwanted possibilities sometimes, I cringed whenever I read the news bout babies being thrown out of the car, yada yada. So yea, get a car seat - tho I know strapping your child onto the seat does not guarantee that everything gonna be merry, but well, at least we try kan? The rest, leave it to Allah lah to protect us.

Anyway, we got our Ferari car seat for less than RM700 after discount and it's supposed to last from newborn until the little precious is 18kg which I don't know when lah.

Whilst car seat is a must for me, can't say the same bout stroller as sometimes adelah malas(& Myra tends to hate the stroller sometimes much to her daddy's annoyance, "Dah beli mahai-mahai apsai tamau duduk?". Macam la si kecik tu paham.ha ha. She wants what she wants okeh?) and some places are not stroller-friendly. Anyhow, a stroller is quite handy for long shopping spree, eating out (when the kedai doesn't seems to have a baby-safe highchair,we strapped the baby in her stroller instead.Apekah highchair tanpa safety harness?) and whatnot, so when we were stroller hunting, we made it a point to choose one that could be compact-folded and could be handled(fold and unfold) and steered with one hand.

Yea, we can do that with our PregPreego. We initially thought that we'd go for something lightweight, but most of lightweight strollers come with lousy padding so that's why we ended up with ours - tho at 10kg it's not exactly light for me. :P

We bought ours during the year-end sale for a little less than RM1.2k tho you'd probably get it for less during baby expo and whatnot - my parents bought me a Combi stroller 27 years ago and it cost them RM100++, tu pon they claimed that it has been overpriced, imagine their shock when we told bout ours, he he. Depa lum tengok lagi the prices of other expensive strollers in the market.he he.Ours adelah versi separa budget.  Maybe 2nd stroller boleh beli black-red Recaro stroller(idaman hati daddy) or a purple McLaren!(idaman hati mummy coz she digs purple) . :D

o6. Breastpump.
This is not for the baby, but for the mummy so she could efficiently provide the best milk for the baby tho she's away at work. he he. :P

So yea, my 1st bp is a Medela Swing (which has been sold months back since I couldn't bear looking at it collecting dust), bought it a month before the delivery, used it for probably 2 months before getting my hands on the Medela Freestyle(FS) which is loveeee. :P I love the fact that it's a double pump, the battery is rechargeable just like ones in the mobile phones and it's owh so light and handy - tho I'm a little bit sad to admit that I'm yet to use its handfree accessories. My bad.

The freestyle is double the price of Swing. I got Swing for RM600 whilst FS for RM1.5k, but to watch your little one growing up all healthy and owh so clever make it worth every penny.

So now with the Swing gone, I've been rotating between the FS at work and Avent manual( which I bagged for only RM144, super cheap!) for home use.

o7. Food storage.

Myra started on solids when she was 6mth old, but I've been scouting around for the equipments, storage and whatnot probably a month or two earlier.

So far I've got my hands on 3 types of storage solutions for baby food.


a. MAM storage solution - RM 45.00 for 5 pcs
It's BPA free, comes with a twist lock lid. Suitable for freezing, sterilization and could be used in microwave(tho it's not that I do). It could store up to 4oz of food which is perfect for a single meal. :)

b.Tomme Tippee food pot - bought it during baby expo, can't recall the price - probably less than RM30 for 3pcs.
It's pretty much the same with MAM pots(mine is in blue), but you hafta be careful with the lid as it leaks sometimes and a bit on the smaller side and so I'd usually use it to store Myra's snack - homemade mango yogurt , mashed potato and stuff.

c. Baby cubes - RM 29.90 for 8pcs (35 ml / 1oz)
I'd usually use this to freeze the puree, be it fruit puree, vege puree or even meat and fish. It's pretty neat as you could just dump the cubed puree into the porridge and within minutes, food is served. Now that Myra's a bit over 1 year old, I hardly make any fruit or vege puree anymore as I'll just chop em to smaller bits before dumping em in the porridge, but as for the poultry and fish, I still make fresh batch of em every weekend as Myra new sprouted teeth can't really handle the fibrous texture yet, so I'd usually steam the chicken/meat/fish with some herbs and puree them for later use.

Still on food storage, I also got my hands on a couple of thermal food containers so that I could keep the baby food warm whilst we're out jalan-jalan.  The 1st one is similar to a mangkuk-tingkat, tho I hafta say that it's of the cute version but the keep-warm power is rather lacking (tho it's a Thermos) so I went ahead and got myself this

Yea, fashion food jar (tak bleh blah betul, feeding the baby whilst looking pretty? he he), but yea, it's cute and it does the job to keep the food both hot and cold pretty long so I'm sold. I got both the food jar and the bottle for a little less than RM120 online which is cheap, so these days, when we're out jalan-jalan, I always have a jar of hot porridge, ready to be fed to the baby whenever she's hungry - as she's on the no junk-food policy except the occasional baby biscuit. he he. :)

 That's about it, it's not a complete list but it's all I could think of right now.

To future mummies, happy shopping and the already-mummies, happy shopping lah jugak - shopping, like parenting, is a never ending job. he he. :P

Have a good week.

I don't know what kind of world we're living in right now. It make me sick to watch video after video of kids being abused. How could a woman(who by nature supposed to be all kind, motherly and all) had the heart to torture a baby, a freaking human baby? Arghhh..tension mak.

I don't wanna call her stupid as it's obvious and she doesn't even deserve to be called stupid as she's far worse than that. Whatever she has against the baby, there's no valid reason to do what she did. I mean, even if the baby poop on you - or your face even, he didn't deserve any beating, he's just a baby. A babyyyyy.

If I could have it my way, she'll be dragged on the streets for a nice grating and for everyone to spit on and later be dumped into a pool loaded with lemon juice and get kicks where it hurts - together with the stupid one behind the camera. Apehal dok eh eh jer? Why can't you just put down your goddam camera and stop the crazy one from hitting the baby?

Kot nak buat proof ke apa, cukup la sikit-sikit - if people could only watch a mere minute of the video,they surely got the point already. Bukannya nak kena tengok an hour long of video of a baby being abused baru lah the people gonna go "AHA!I got it, the baby kena abuse izzit?".

 Sick sick people.

Kid abusers,may Allah have mercy on you.

There's nothing more ridiculous than having to wake up  for work whilst it's raining outside and later stuck in the horrible horrible KL's Monday morning traffic.

Haih, the agony.

Please don't mind my Monday blues, let's be random for a bit.

I managed to keep Myra mosquito bites-free for the past 2 days. Mothercare was having its anniversary sale during the weekend, so besides a couple of cute tops, the ocd mummy actually bought all the mosquito-related lotions available on the shelf. Mozzie free lah, soothing balm segala to add up to her existing war-against-nyamok 'equipments'.

 We brought Myra to the Paed  for the 3rd dose of pneumoccocal shot. At one year and 4 days, she weighed 8kg. Sorta slim, yes, but nothing to be worried about since breastfeed babies tend to be leaner plus she's hitting all the expected milestones, so yea, she's doing fine.

Bought myself another bag, tho I've promised myself earlier that I won't as I already ran out of bag quota of the year but ones could use another crossbody bag right? Now with a baby and whatnot, a crossbody is a must.

I submitted an inquiry to Umobile a week back, asking bout my broadband issues - only to be answered a week later - & it's not helping that you hafta wait for ageeees when ya calls up the customer service hotline. Like yea, awesome customer service Umobile, am sure glad that those people don't work for the 999 hotline. *roll eyes*

I've been wanting to drag C*** to Kampachi for the weekend buffet dinner, I just don't know when, what with our restrictions and all. Haih.

Instead of fisher price's Stride to ride lion, I actually got my hand on a Vtech Push and Ride alphabet train (more on it later). I reckon that it's better compared to the boring lion as the 'roaring' gets pretty annoying and it's pretty much what it could do.

Our trip back to Kedah 2 weeks back was fun, managed to stuff my face with loads of crabs (my favourite!) that dad bought at the kuala(together with 20kg of fishes, guess who hafta gut em?Not me.) which were so fresh that they were still jiggling when I put em in the steamer. Also had the fabulous koewteaw kerang that was fried on the top of the good old charcoal stove. It's something ya hafta try to appreciate, small stuff, big different.

I think I need another weekend getaway somewhere, probably would badger C***  to take me somewhere for a short trip sometime soon. A short relaxing break, just the three of us, is basically all that I need.

That's about it, have a good week.

Our little precious turned one year young last Monday!(Mummy luv ya darling!) It feels like yesterday, the day I squeezed a tiny human outta me. Alhamdulillah. Times flies, faster than the speed of light sometimes.

So the little precious 1st birthday marked our 1st year into parenthood which had been an awesome roller-coaster ride, bumpy, yes, but fuuuuun.Seriously.

Yea, we jumped into the pre-parenthood wagon pretty quick, just a couple of months after we were married in June 2010 (We didn't get to experience the whole macik kepoh asking ya when ya wanna multiply the number of human in the family and the sort,ya it was that quick). We were ecstatic, yes , but truth to be told, the whole thing came like a big tsunami. Fast and surely. Honestly, I was not quite sure that I'm ready for the whole mother thing yet. I mean,I just got promoted from a fiancee to a wife, I'm still getting used to the whole wife thing and I'm sort of a baby myself but somehow in time, everything started to fall into pieces (cliche I know,but it's true) and next thing ya know, out came the baby. he he.

Personally I think the 1st three months of parenthood is the hardest. Juggling between taking care of yourself during the confinement and a tiny (more often than not) screaming little baby adelah susah. So much so that sometimes I felt like crying myself. he he. I still remember how the little one hafta be rocked to sleep every night, which mind you not a 5 minutes business, as most of the time it lasted more than 40 minutes, so imagine my kesakitan pinggang.


Kesakitan pinggang aside, parenthood adelah awesome. I mean, what's better than having a mini-us to amuse us to no end which is something I wouldn't trade for the world. It's amazing that you could somehow love a tiny person so much. I'm forever thankful to be blessed with the gift. :)

On a lighter note,Myra's 1st birthday also marked our 1st year of breastfeeding. Alhamdulillah.

To come this far without much support is exhilarating, satisfying. I mean C***'s not against it, he gave in to every single request when it comes to bf but honestly, I can't say that he's the super supportive kind either (it's probably a guy thing, ya know, I care but I rather not show it, owh mother) - tho he's a  wonderful doting father to our baby, I wish he had been more interested and supportive to what I'm doing when it comes to bf.

It's a bit sad to admit this, but I'm basically on my own in this from the very 1st day (& it's just my luck that my mum is supportive about it when I was at home during my confinement period otherwise tatau la ape jadi.)

Most of everything I've gained, is from my own doing (besides the obvious rezeki from Allah lah kan?) as nobody else seems to be that interested in em . Manusia-manusia skeptical yang suruh stop, ada lah kot, bila nak beli susu? Sampai bila nak bf? Sampai bila pon ada susu? Dia laparr tu tak cukup susu, tu pasal nangis je. Blehh, if ya can't appreciate what I'm doing,just shut the f up boleh?.Excuse my french.

Not that I can blame em for their ignorance, since some of em think it's ridiculous since I'm getting myself into all the troubles of preparing the EBM(that's expressed breastmilk to you) whilst I'm at work and whatnot and about the money, which obviously not lah kan? If I could spend my money on benda lagha, or thousands for breastfeeding stuff, what make em think that I'm that bad of a cheapskate sampai tamau beli susu anak? Do they seriously think that I'd let my baby starve? Apekah? I didn't suffer for months during pregnancy only to torture the baby when she finally comes okeh? *roll eyes*

Well, not like it matters anymore. Err..teremosi pulak, so yea, my point is, I have every single right to brag bout my success and no, I have nothing against mummies with formula-fed babies. I mean, everyone would strive to give the best to their little ones, and if that's their best choice, then be it. The one simple rule is, if ya can't help em, don't judge and bug em.

So yea, 1 year down, 1 year more to go. InsyaAllah.

Owh, I'm yet to get anything for the little one tho we already got a list of to-buy-stuff. We were too busy going up North and down South balik kampung. We also didn't have any sort of birthday party or the sort (we just let her enjoy her pool time every morning and evening throughout the long weekend, just keep swimming, just keep swimming). I just think that she's too small to appreciate the cake, party hat and the sort ( & it's not like I'll let her eat her cake.he he.), so we'll probably have it next year :). This year, let's just badger C*** to take the three of us jalan-jalan, get our hands on some nice stuff and the sort.

That's about it, will update her 12 month milestones later. :)