Christmas & Beyond

Pic taken on Christmas at home
We attended Christmas service in church. Prior to that we attended 2 Christmas Parties - one organized by the OSH (One Step Higher - Youth Group) & the other by our 13th floor neighbours - Edwin & Priscilla Tan. We also attended DUMC children's church Musical entitled "The King is Coming to Town"






Photo of Marissa riding the Chicco 'car' that my dad bought for Evan when he turned 1. Marissa is only 6 months old. She just sits on it stationary as the wheels are 'clamped' and there is a special device fixed on the car to prevent her from falling off.

















Evan & Marissa posing together for a photo shoot. Marissa's teeth has finally erupted! I guess all she wanted for Christmas was her 2 front teeth!

6 months & 40 months

Marissa turned 6 months old on 16th December 2008. We started her on water, cereal and oats. She's still getting used to it. She also had her pneumococcal vaccination and developed a low-grade fever. She's also teething and I am still patiently awaiting her first tooth to cut through the gums!

She can move about on her own in the walker. It's from Mothercare and belonged to Evan. Marissa can reach for things and grabs them if she can. She can also open and shut the drawers and pull out her toys from ber cot pocket-tidy. We've also opened up the playpen but Marissa is still not so steady yet sitting up.








Marissa is Evan's no.1 fan! She simply adores her brother. Whenever he jumps or runs around or eats his meals, she laughs and giggles. Depending on his mood, he will also smile and say "Marissa laughing at you! (he meant 'me')". Evan is now 40 months old.

Photo Funia

Had some fun at the photo funia website.

Art Attack!

All of us were in 1 Utama on Hari Raya Haji (public hol). We were there to collect the custom-made add-on mattresses for Evan's extendable bed. Yeah - we had to extend the bed already as Evan has grown taller.

We also signed up Evan for an art attack adventure course (RM350) for 10 sessions (valid for one year). He did a trial lesson some time back and absolutely enjoyed it. This time he chose to make this particular art & craft project. There are lots of projects there for kids to choose to do.







The session lasted 1 hour and Evan got to paint, decorate and use a hairdryer to dry the paint. He was supervised by a lady staff who touched up his artwork before completion. Of course la.... Evan is not that gifted!

Evan has completed his last day at Lil Beansprouts Montessori. We managed to enrol him (very last minute decision) at Damansara Utama Methodist Church's Tadika Juara Cerdik next year. Thank God that places are still available!

Gingerbread House

My mom helped me make the Gingerbread House for Evan. Firstly we melted the sugar which is used like glue to assemble the pieces together.

This is the box and the instructions on how to assemble the Gingerbread House.

We didn't decorate it with icing or sweets though.

Evan admiring his sweet treat! He happily munched on Gingerbread the whole day. Whatever leftovers were stored in a tupperware. Really quite a lot of work to do - but was fun!

In Holiday mode

Marissa is Santa's little Helper in this cute bib and hat and booties set. It was Evan's (thanks to Ruby - Larry's cousin who bought it from the UK). Evan is wishing for a Christmas tree for Christmas

Evan's wish list also includes Gingerbread people and Gingerbread house too. I've already bought him a Gingerbread house from IKEA (RM14) but we haven't assembled it yet. He enjoyed eating this Gingerbread man at Fit for 2 (RM5) while we had our dinner.

New outfit from my cousin Wee Keng who was back for awhile from the UK. Very lovely white pointelle butterfly romper with a cool blue jumper dress from Mamas & Papas.

Just some pics

Go to School

Evan on his way to nursery. We walk from Block 1 to Block 2. Then to Block 3's swimming pool. Evan loves to walk on the 'zig-zag'.


















Nowadays he likes to bring along his Gymboree Ladybug Umbrella when he goes to school. He walks to Block 3A and finally to Block 5. Along the way he greets everyone in the lift.











Hello Cat! Bye!
At the Playground which is in Block 5, we usually find snails but today there were none. Other creatures that we have come across include grasshoppers, bees, dragonflies, squirrels & birds.
Then it's off to Lil Beansprouts. After school we use a different way - L3 carpark since it's sheltered/covered.

Marissa having fun!

Marissa at 5 months. She weighed 6.7kg. We were at the Paeds and Dr. Koe says her statistics are all within normal range. Marissa cried as usual during her vaccination that day - she refused to nurse but prefers to look around and she what's happening around her. Evan was the total opposite. As long as he gets to nurse, he is oblivious to his surroundings. He doesn't cry at all whenever he gets his jabs.





Thanks to my cousin Pek Keng & hubby Derrick, who helped lugged this Lindam Door Bouncer all the way from UK... Marissa got to play & bounce gleefully. She can only play for about 5 minutes and after that gets tired and wants out. I bought this brand new from ebay UK. Haven't seen any of these around but saw the other version with Tigger selling at Mothercare for RM308. Got this for about RM100+ when the pound sterling exchange rate was quite low.







Marissa is wearing new cloth diapers! She outgrew the Fuzzi Bunz ones and I promptly bought 5 more from Lil Danzell online store during their sale. This time I am trying out AIO (all-in-one) diapers. I bought 2 itti bitti all in ones, 2 itti bitti snap in ones & 1 itti bitti fitted all in one. Lovely pastel colors and works very well - super absorbant, durable and trim fitting. I also took out a stash of 6 large custom-made diapers pre-owned by Evan and Marissa can fit into them already though bulky.

Dinner at Fit for 2

After the haircut, we proceeded to Fit for 2 which newly opened its doors in Bangsar Village II. They were formerly located in Bangsar. We used to frequent the cafe for their all day breakfast set which is very yummy.

Evan had his porridge already so he just occupied himself with the toys at the kids corner. There are also baby care facilities at the cafe/studio. I breastfed Marissa at the breastfeeding room which features plush sofa chairs and curtains. Marissa also got a fresh diaper change there - free Huggies diapers and Bepanthen diaper cream courtesy of Fit for 2.

Evan - sporting a new look - ate a vanilla butter cupcake for dessert!

Evan's Haircut

It's no easy feat cutting Evan's hair... with Christmas & New Year coming soon - not to mention Evan's school's annual concert on Dec 6th, I've decided to get Evan's hair professionally cut.
He was looking forward to his haircut. We went to A Cut Above at Bangsar Village II.

















This is Evan - all ready for the haircut. The lady is a senior stylist. She used a razor and scissors on Evan's hair. Evan squirmed initially but was ok throughout.
















Final touches..... cost RM35..... but a really nice haircut. Will look for cheaper alternative next time!

Maid

I am sure getting very lazy nowadays to update my blog but at the same time busy with managing my ebay store.

Since Marissa turned one month old - I have had the priviledge of enjoying the luxury of having a helper around the house. That person is none other than my mom's Indonesian maid - Yanty. She's in her mid twenties, married with a 5-yr old boy. She started out at my mom's place and her main job description was to care for my granny. Granny eventually passed away May 2008 so my mom and her sister decided that I should take the maid because Marissa was due in June. After a discussion with Larry, we ok-ed the decision.

Yanty prepares Evan's meals everyday according to my instructions, vacuums/mops/washes the condo almost everyday, prepares ingredients for cooking (if I decide to hone my culinary skills) and helps out with Marissa very well. There's also the laundry and ironing to do as well.

She will be leaving once her contract expires end March 2009. I hope that I can cope well then. In the mean time I am thankful for this arrangement.

Dressed up

Am starting to feel more photogenic nowadays - can fit into old pants already! Hooray! Need to lose somemore if want to fit into university days pants!



















Family pic - just before going out to attend my ex-classmate's wedding dinner in KL. Evan stayed home with my parents. The wedding was lovely and well-planned. Alan from Regal Orchestra was there too - performing on his chinese classical instrument (he played at my wedding too). Managed to meet up with some of my ex-classmates from secondary school.















Marissa all dressed up (Gymboree again!) for a night out at Centro, Klang. This time it's my long-time childhood friend : Chieu Yin's wedding. She slept through the entire dinner and woke up only the next morning!

Just some pics

Rub-a-dub-dub Marissa's in a tub!

Ahoy there matey!

Turn, turn, turn...

Did I scare you? (Evan is wearing a Glow-in-the-dark Gymboree Halloween skeleton double-sleeve tee)

Back again

Back again to blogging after a short hiatus - busy listing items for sale - still got some more to list but will slowly do that since the bulk of it is up on sale already.

Marissa is now over 4 months old. Not sure how much she weighs. She won't be visiting the paed this month because there are no vaccinations to be given.

What can Marissa do nowadays? Besides turning, she can grasp items held in front of her with both hands. She can also zzzzz through the night. I am getting lazy to wake up to dream-feed her. So I sometimes let her sleep till early morning (6:30am) before picking her up and breastfeeding her. Sometimes I dream-feed her at 3am or 4am.

I wonder when she will start crawling...... Personality wise she can get very fussy when she doesn't get what she wants. If she's happy she will be smiling and cooing away.

Evan is over 3 years old already and he's been rather 'clingy' lately - always want to 'manja' with everyone. Here he is photographed in his knight costume from Gymboree's Halloween collection. Sword & shield were bought from ELC. He even has a hobby horse also from ELC.

Evan has been learning to spell / recognizing words. It started with 'HOT' (Sesame Street VCD).... and now it has expanded to include words like 'KNIGHT', 'WINDY', 'SLOW' etc etc etc

Blog Break

Need to go on a blog break - ultra busy with my ebay store re-opening. Lots of new items to relist and only 25% done.... Photo of Marissa with her daddy.

This is how Marissa sleeps sometimes - sucking her thumb! She's quite a pro doing this and also turning

Some more updates

Marissa turned all by herself already - which is pretty fast compared to Evan. She can also grasp items with both hands.

We dropped Evan at Smaland, Ikea when we went there shopping. He thoroughly enjoyed the one hour there - jumping into the ball pit, watching Little Einsteins and playing with all the other kids there. Smaland is only opened to kids 3-10 years and play time is limited to only one hour per day.

Some updates

Marissa is now 3 months (16/9/2008). She weighs approximately 6.15kg. She has started to try turning. She's still very chatty  - she likes to coo & gurgle in her own baby language plus she loves to smile and even laugh too! She can grasp items with her hands and more often than not, her hands can be found in  her mouth!

Marissa doesn't like being fed with a bottle - just like Evan. My mother-in-law feeds her when she's asleep instead, otherwise she'll cry.

"I wonder how my tiny toes taste like?"