silver with gold

today marks Babycakes' 9th month birthday, alhamdulillah. this little pumpkin of mine is very vocal and noisy, she knows what she wants,  she knows how to smile, she knows how to show her excitement, she knows how to clap her hands when we say "clap clap, clap your hands", she knows how to wave goodbye when we say "bye-bye" or "ta-ta-bye" (even though sometimes she gets confused with waving goodbye and clapping her hands where she would wave when we say clap, she would clap when we say bye bye), she can make a lot of sounds with her little mouth, she loves to make "aaaaaah" sound and then cupping her mouth with her hand repeatedly that she made a "ah-bwaaa-aah-bwaaa' kind of sound, she can stand with support, she can scream a loud scream, she can feed herself, she can pull the bib off her chest, she can poke my eyes, peel my lips, pry open my mouth, slap my face and body, squeeze my boob, pinch and bite my nips, pull my hair and the list goes on. if you see a bald spot on my head, it's probably because she pulled my hair.

i've been breastfeeding her for 9 solid months to date, alhamdulillah. this means i now have silver boobies with golden nips! oh yeahhhh!!! i deserve a cupcake! or two!

oh dear three more months until her 1st birthday!! i shall put on my thinking cap and start planning. 

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human obstacle

putting Babycakes to sleep at night is like declaring world war. she would either cry or she would be most active when it comes to bedtime. i know that she was tired and sleepy but she just refused to sleep. when we are on the bed, that is when she wants to practice her skills and show off to Mummy. she would stand, crawl, roll and do every other thing possible. 

seriously, i feel like a human wipeout obstacle.

this would go on for about an hour or more and in the end, i fell asleep myself, only to wake up later and realized that there are 1001 other things to do. therefore i would try to steal some time whenever i can to pack her bag or thawing her milk or cleaning up her dining area etc. on some good nights, she would fall asleep very easily but on most nights, it's mummy the human obstacle.

it's a girl!

duhh it's obvious my Babycakes is a girl, isn't it? having a baby girl brings a whole new meaning of cuteness altogether. everything looks cute on her. no, make that super cute. everything looks adorable. she can never look weird in a mismatched outfit (not that i've ever mismatched her clothes, mind you). what i meant by 'mismatched' is having her wear for example a orange top with a green pants and yellow headband. hmmm to think of it, she doesn't have an orange top, a green pants and a yellow headband. maybe i should get one for her (alasan). anyway you get my point, right? but then again, isn't colour-blocking the current hot fashion trend? or has it passed? i am no fashionista myself and i don't do colour-blocking whatever so i wouldn't know. that being said, it does not mean that you can dress your baby in any way you like. to you, she is the most adorable, cutest looking baby on the block but to others, she may look like a little clown. lol.

anyway, speaking of dressing up a baby, being a girl, Babycakes has tons and tons of clothes. first there are the daily clothes and pants that she wears at the nursery and then there's the weekend clothes where she wears only on weekends. they're too cute to be worn at the nursery (and Mummy might not see her in it) yet they are not really suitable to be worn outside to the malls or majlis and the like. 

i've always loved the colour pink so it is a good thing that my baby is a girl. as much as i try to vary the colours of her clothes, the colour pink dominates her wardrobe i think. on father's day, initially i wanted to treat hubby to a nice dinner somewhere but on saturday evening, hubby suddenly said, "jom pergi Genting!" i was like, huh, genting as in genting highlands? that was at 6pm. he said yes. KL has been so hot and hazy yada3, it's so near yada3 so off we went.

so i put Babycakes in a long sleeved plain dusty pink romper with a plain pink legging with hearts on it. just before we left the front door, her royal highness decided to poop. and she pooped a huge poop while sitting in the bumbo seat thus her poop rides up her back and stained her clothes and legging.
glitter-graphics.com how convenient. i had to clean her and change her altogether. this time i put her in a pink t-shirt with white polka dots and a white legging with pink polka dots and a huge pink flower on her little bum. when we arrived at genting, i put her on her hooded navy blue sweater with red and white soft shoes to cover her tiny toes. as i was pushing her stroller and entered one of the shops, a group of Thai ladies (or shemale- I can't tell for sure because they are so pretty yet the beauty wasn't natural, i don't know. too much make up perhaps?) saw Babycakes and started to admire at her and ogling at her. they were speaking in Thai and they even touched her hands. then one of them said "[Thai words] handsome [Thai words]" i was like, uh huh. i couldn't be bothered to correct them though as i was hungry at that time and kinda malas nak layan.
we then had dinner at Hotel Highlands coffee house (food was so-so) and I opened Babycakes' sweater zip because i wanted to put on her bib to feed her. her pink t-shirt was obviously showing.  a chinese family near our table was admiring Babycakes from afar and saying how cute she was because she was seated beside me, not on the baby chair and she was feeding herself the biscuits. then hubby carried Babycakes and brought her over to the table to say hello to the family. then the chinese lady said "so cute ah...dah besar sure hensem worr." hubby corrected her and said, "ini baby girl lah" to which she replied "ohh girl ah? sure cantik besar nanti"
my question now is, does Babycakes look like a boy? just because she's wearing a navy blue sweater, does that make her a boy or look like a boy? isn't it enough that i've pink stuffs all over her? so much for being non-stereotypical huh?  but if you ask me, i'd chose a girlier sweater for her actually but we bought this particular sweater from Baby Poney last year simply because they were on sale and it was buy 1 free 1 for the price of rm69. rugilah if tak beli. her other sweater is red but it's one size bigger so it's kept for use in the future.  so shall we stick to the blue is for boy whereas pink is for girl then?

matchy matchy

half a year is almost gone OMG. it's June already? tick...tock...tick...tock...

this means raya is about 2 months+ away! oh oh! i haven't ganti last year's puasa. i was pregnant last year and i missed X number of days of puasa last year. Gaaaah!

Speaking of raya, I am sure most people have sent their materials to the tailors by now. I haven't! In fact, I haven't even decided what colour to be this year's theme colour. The other day my mum suggested a aprticular colour. Hubby already has a baju melayu in that colour so he's safe. Pfft. This means I need to find a baju for me and Babycakes. Shopping, yeayyy! This year being the 1st raya as a Mummy, of course I am super excited. Babycakes will be 11months during raya so it'll be fun to dress her up and she may be walking by then. Or at least scrambling. I can imagine her in pretty gowns and cutesy baju kurung. Would you believe me that Babycakes already has not one but TWO pairs of baju kurung already? Yes, I already bought them for her. One was bought in April and another one I bought in May. Crazy huh? Puasa is not even here yet but she already has her baju. And one of the baju kurung has lots and lots of maniks on it, I kid you not. But they're cheap so I HAD to buy it. Come puasa time, the price will surely double, I betcha! Kalah Mummy nanti. But the two baju kurungs are not that particular colour. I want to have a matchy-matchy baju kurung with her to be worn on the 1st day of raya but no tailors are gonna accept it now. *knocks on head* I have a pair of kain which I asked my SIL to buy in Bandung but looks like the kain will have to be kept for raya haji or some other occasion. It's not even that colour anyway. 

The issue now is, where can I find a matching baju kurung for me and Babycakes? I want us to wear the same baju! As for the 2nd and 3rd and subsequent days of raya, we will be wearing matching colours. This means I now need to find another one to match her manik2 baju kurung because I already found (and bought) one to match her other baju kurung so at least I'm safe there. It's better to buy early because prices will soar come puasa time. I even left my card at the boutique so that they can inform me once the mummy & baby baju has arrived. I hope they're pretty and 1st raya-worthy. And I hope the prices are within my budget.

Hmm...it just doesn't sound right, does it? Mummy has to match Babycakes' baju, and not the other way round? It's pretty clear who's the boss now huh?

two for one

we only have one child (for now) yet we have two car seats and two strollers. the car seats are a must as we needed one in each car as hubby would be sending her off in the morning while i would be the one picking her up in the evening. thankfully Babycakes doesn't mind sitting all alone at the back, in her own little seat. if it's a long journey, she can easily doze off.

and then there's the stroller. we recently bought an umbrella stroller for her so that i have one in my car. all along her stroller is in hubby's car so if i were to take her out somewhere, it would be a bit leceh without one. if it's a short trip to the supermarket, i can easily put her in the trolley seat and do my shopping. she really loves trolley rides and she loves 'eating' the trolley even more. so to distract her from 'eating' the trolley and all the germs that come with it, i would push the trolley while running and making funny sounds, much to her delight. she would give me a belly laugh but at the same time, i get weird stares from other shoppers. haha. but they would smile too when they look at how happy Babycakes is.

i have a sling to carry her but since she's becoming more active, she wouldn't sit still. she would arch her back wanting to see the world so it's really difficult at times. last friday i went to Toys R Us with her and saw a few umbrella strollers and they are really cheap. they are lightweight, easy to fold and most importantly, they can fit into my tiny car. so i told hubby to get one and on saturday, we bought Babycakes a brand new stroller, yeay! it's a simple umbrella stroller and it has a special price for starmembers so i told hubby, let's take it! there were two colours-red and navy and of course we chose red. it matches my car and her car seat. awesome. Babycakes loved her new stroller that she fell asleep on it after that. a new stroller requires a hanging toy so we bought her a taggies toy as well just because. haha.
as much as i am tempted to buy the fancier strollers, i refrained myself as the other stroller will still be her main stroller anyway. why should we pay so much for something that we hardly use? the one that we bought fits all the purposes and it is just as good as any other stroller. i don't want to be pushing a huge bulky stroller especially when i'm alone with her and i don't want to spend so much time struggling to fold and keep the stroller in the car especially with so many cases of car park kidnapping recently.

now that we have a stroller in my car, we can go anywhere we want, with or without hubby. :D

Pisang Goreng oh Pisang Goreng

today during lunch i bought pisang goreng from a stall near my office. yes i bought pisang goreng during lunch for tea. i'm 'advanced' like that. anyway, who doesn't like pisang goreng, right? of course pisang goreng is best eaten when it is still hot but I am too lazy to go out in the evening just to get pisang goreng for tea. so i bought them in advance during lunch. by the time i want to eat it, which is now, it will be cold and not nice anymore. this particular pisang goreng from this particular stall is not nice and disgusting. why is it not nice and disgusting? no, i did not drop them on the floor. 1st is because it is already cold. as cold as my room. 2nd is because it is so freaking thin. 3rd is because the batter has become chewy and not crunchy because it's so damn thin. looking at the pisang goreng, i think the person must have sliced one pisang into 5 (if not 10!) very thin slices. and the pisang is just about the length of my middle finger. how ironic. so imagine that 5pieces of pisang goreng costs RM1. that means the cost (or is it profit?) of 1 pisang itself is RM1. but the price of a comb of pisang cannot be more than RM5-RM6, right? not this type of pisang at least. and I am pretty sure this seller bought in bulk so it's definitely much cheaper. i suck at maths therefore I can't count the costs, profits and losses so this is just an agak-agak calculation but I'm pretty sure I am not wrong. If anything, I may be slightly inaccurate. Anyway, my point is, the pisang goreng is freaking expensive. I am not going to buy pisang goreng from the seller ever again. Thankfully their donut is nice so that's a consolation. Yes, I bought a donut too for tea.  I might go for their donuts again but definitely not the pisang goreng. Unless they're thick and hot and crunchy. or maybe not.
who says you can't get rich just by selling pisang goreng, huh? but then how come he's still selling pisang goreng for a living?

Mom Fail Moment

Yesterday was a Mom Fail Moment for me. I was busy preparing for my hearing today when boss called for a meeting at 5pm. He said it will be a short meeting. I went in and it went on and on and on. There is no such thing as a short meeting. I did not wear my watch as I removed it earlier. I also did not bring my bb with me into the meeting room. At one point, I saw boss’s watch and it looked like it was 5.50pm. another time I look, it appears to look like 6.10pm. And then my staff’s hubby came to the office with their baby and my staff asked to leave. I thought it was only 6pm –ish. When the meeting finally ended (with me having to almost burst my bladder), I looked at the office clock and it looks like it was 7.20pm. when I went to the toilet and looked outside, it was a bit dark and I thought it was going to rain. I came back to my room and checked my bb and saw the clock 7.21pm. 

PANIC. OMG BABYCAKES!! It’s almost 7.30pm and I’m still in the office!!! I quickly packed my briefcase and threw whatever’s on my desk into the bag. I hope I brought the right documents and cause papers. I even had a bottle of pumped milk still in the bottle which I’ve yet to put in the storage bag. I did not bring the bottle lid so I had to put it in the storage bag. I quickly did this while trying not to spill any milk. I called hubby but as usual he did not pick up his phone. Grrrrrrrrr. I called again while packing my stuffs and I said to hubby, “I tak amik Babycakes lagi!! I ada meeting tadi and I ingat masih pukul 6! OMG OMG” Hubby then calmed me down but he was in a meeting himself in Kiara. I quickly dashed out of the office only to find my car blocked by another car. Grrrrrrrr again. I then called Babycakes’ nursery and informed her sitter that I am on my way and apologized for not informing earlier. I asked how Babycakes was and her reply was, “Irene OK je ni kak. Dia tengah main ni. Tak nangis tak apa pun.” Phewww. I quickly drove like a mad woman and then informed hubby that I am on my way to pick Babycakes. Every car that was slow in front of me will either get the high beam flash or honk or both. When I see a green light, I secretly wish for it to stay green. When it was red, it felt like the longest red light ever. At one point, I cried. I don’t know why but a sudden wave of emotion crept through and I felt so guilty towards Babycakes. At the same time, I kept chanting, “Mummy’s coming Babycakes” “Wait for Mummy Babycakes”. I looked at the mirror behind me (a mirror which I stick on my car, facing Babycakes and I can see her from my rear view mirror. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check it out here.) I saw her empty car seat and I felt more emotional. I also thought, what if she gets hungry? What if he wants her milk? Will she be angry at me? Will she think that I purposely leave her there to wait? When I was at the traffic light in front of the court complex, it was red but there was no car at all and I was THISCLOSE to jump the red light but I told myself that it is better that I wait rather than hurt myself along the way and not able to pick Babycakes in the end. When I finally reached her nursery, her sitter told me that she pooped so they’re changing her diaper. I couldn’t be more relieved when I heard her voice and when I saw her face and I could not stop kissing and apologizing to her.

You may think I am a drama queen, I am exaggerating but I am not. I have never felt like this before in my life. It was definitely a Mom Fail Moment and I hope I will never ever have to face it again.

NOTE TO SELF:

1. Always wear your watch.

2. Always bring your handphone or blackberry to the meeting room BUT make sure it's on silent mode.
3. There is no such thing as a 'short or quick meeting.'

My first Mother's Day

I celebrated my first ever Mother's Day as a mummy this year and it felt so great. All these years I celebrate Mother's Day with my mummy, to celebrate her as a mummy but this year, I had a little celebration of my own, courtesy of Hubby and Babycakes. Hubby made Babycakes write a card for me and it was so cute! I can imagine the hard time Hubby had when he had to hold Babycakes' hand to hold the pen while recording it on his handphone at the same time. Hubby is a lefty so he made Irene write with her left hand too. The video ended up with shaky images and Hubby's voices in the background saying " Irene, cepat tulis ni untuk Mummy. Jangan makan pen! No Irene! No!" hahaha. All this happened while I was taking my bath on Saturday evening. I came to the living room when Hubby called me and said, "Yang, datang depan! Tengok apa Irene buat!! Cepat!!" Naturally I came rushing only to find Babycakes holding a pink envelope and chewing on it at the same time. It was cute all right but I went "You biar je dia makan envelope tu??" before going all "awww" about it. I then took the card from Babycakes and it was the cutest card ever. I also received a Mother's Day card from Hubby. Then we went out to Jake's at Starhill Gallery and had some really good steak and a rack of lamb. I made an apple puree for Babycakes but she doesn't seem to like it. 

The next day, we went for a buffet hi-tea with my family at Mz. Nina Bakery Cafe at Publika. The foods was simple but nice. We had a good family time and I gave my mummy a Lancome lipstick. I hope she likes the colour! And I hope she wears it as she is known to keep stuffs rather than using it as she sayang to use it. Hehe. 

After that, we went to my sil's house in Kajang and thought of surprising MIL with some KFC but Hubby didn't know that she has gone back on Saturday. So the surprise tak menjadi and we ended up eating the KFC. We will celebrate when she's in KL again.

It does not matter how you celebrate Mother's Day, what you give to your mother or how expensive/big your gift(s) is/are. It's the thought that counts, it's the times spent that count and most importantly, your prayers for your mother. I may not be the best daughter and daughter in law but I am trying. 

I wish each and every mothers out there a very Happy Mother's Day. It is a blessing and a special feeling to be a mother yourself to know how much you can love someone unconditionally. Babycakes is only 7 months young but I have so much love for her that I can't bear the thoughts of not having her. She may cry, she may whine, she may throw tantrums at times that it drives me up the wall sometimes but I will always and forever love her with every breath I take. I hope Babycakes will be a good daughter, a good person, a good citizen and a good Muslimah, insyaallah for one day Babycakes will be a mother herself.

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the voice matters

On Labour Day, we went to Bangsar Village to meet up with a friend and also to bring Babycakes meet baby Noah, my friend’s baby boy. It was like a date for Irene and Noah, but accompanied and chaperoned by the parents. We went to Marmalade and had sandwiches and burgers and a huge slice of delicious red velvet cake. Marmalade is located at Level 1, BVII. Marmalade is a family restaurant and it is a kid and baby friendly place as it has a small play area. We took Babycakes and Noah to the play area and the babies had a great time. We then went around BVII and BVI. There are a number of shops that cater to kids and babies namely Toys R Us, Pumpkin Patch, Bebehaus  among others. There is also Gymboree so it is a family mall, unlike BVII which are mostly fashion and lifestyle boutiques. 

After walking around and made a purchase of a cute white headband at Pumpkin Patch for Babycakes (even though she keeps pulling them off!) and Noah’s mummy bought a Toy Story handphone for him at Toys R Us, we felt that it was time for coffee. We then head back to BVII and decided to have coffee and yummy breads at The Loaf. By this time, Babycakes who had a nap has already woken up and it’s time for milky again. I forgot to bring my shawl that I normally use to cover while nursing in public so I went to look for a nursing room. Meanwhile, Noah’s mummy brought him to the changing room to change his poopie diaper. We went to level 1 and there is a changing table in the toilet but there are neither proper changing rooms nor a nursing room. There was no bench either, unlike in Bangsar Shopping Centre. How am I supposed to nurse Babycakes then? I then took her to level 2 and looked for a nursing room but there was none. There is a changing table but it is in the toilet for the disabled. I went to the surau with the hope that I can nurse in it but there were three ladies praying and there was no room left. The surau is very small anyway. I had no choice but to go in the toilet for the disabled. I pulled down the changing table to put my handbag and Babycakes’ diaper bag because there were no hooks for hanging. I then pulled down the toilet seat cover and sat down and nursed Babycakes in the toilet. -_- Thankfully the toilet is clean and doesn’t smell but it was not a pleasant experience. 

While Babycakes was nursing, I told her to hurry up (with the hope that she understands me) as I don’t feel comfortable nursing in a toilet. I am not comfortable nursing in public either, not without my cover at least. After she was done, I needed to change her diaper so I put her on the changing table but the strap was broken. I had to hold her down to make sure she doesn’t fall while juggling my handbag and the diaper bag. By this time I was already sweating. I did not have the stroller with me as I left it with hubby at The Loaf. I quickly changed her and when I wanted to dispose the diaper in the bin, it did not open when I stepped on it. There is no way I am gonna bend down and lift the lid because it is unhygienic as I was holding Babycakes in one hand and also it was hard having to juggle her and my handbag. I also had a hard time washing my hands as I still had to hold her. I then quickly washed my hands, exited the toilet and threw the used diaper in the waste bin near the escalator. Too bad for them but I wish the diaper was soiled! 

I was so disappointed with BV that I decided to write an email to them, voicing my displeasure and they replied, quite promptly. They informed me that works are undergoing to provide proper baby rooms and they expect to be ready by the end of May or so. They better! They also apologized for the inconvenience that I went through and the best part is, they offered me a complimentary PriVillage card, with preloaded amount for parking in it. Ha! It pays to voice out your concern, doesn’t it? I don’t frequent BV that much but I expect it to be a family & baby friendly mall, especially that it has a number of shops for babies and kids.I have submitted my details for them to prepare my card and I am waiting for their call for me to collect the card soon. i can't wait for the baby room to be ready for I do enjoy going to the lovely cafes and restaurants in BV.

So people, if you are not happy with anything, just voice it out. Who knows that you could end up getting something out of it, huh?

much needed me-time

It has been a while, a long while before I get to spend some 'me time'. Ever since Babycakes came into our lives, everything is about her. I can no longer simply go out with my friend(s) on weekends but last Saturday, I had some girly time with my best friend Sara while Hubby babysit Irene. We did manicure and pedicure because Sara was getting engaged on Sunday and then we head over to BSC for coffee and chocolate hunting. It was only for a short period of time but it was rejuvenating. However, I can't help but think and wonder about my two loves at home. I told Hubby not to burn the house down while I'm away lol.