Flowers ripping

Last Saturday Ryan and I attended a wedding dinner of a friend. The whole setting was really beautiful, complete with red and white roses everywhere you turn.

Dear Ryan was so caught up with the roses that he decided to rip them apart and scattering them on the floor.

Picture on the side shows his feelings when asked how he felt (which was GOOD!! thus his finger). Notice his fingers are already red as a result of ripping too many red roses. The petals on the floor are testament to his doing.

Wonder if he will rip girls' hearts when he is older??

Off to Penang

I will be off to Penang from tomorrow till Sunday.
This is by far the longest that Ryan is separated from me.

Thank goodness my mum will be taking care of Ryan for me, otherwise, I would have been worried sick. I am not saying that hubby is not good with him, just that there is nothing compared to a female's touch.

So, come tomorrow, I will send Ryan to nanny's together with his clothes and all the necessary items plus car seat. And then my mummy will come fetch him sometime in the afternoon. For the past 2 days, I have been telling Ryan that Poh Poh will come to fetch him and he will stay with her for a few days ... his answer? "Hmm moi!!" translated to be "Don't Want!!!"
I will try again tonight to see if he changes his mind.

Whatever his answer is, I know for sure I will miss him terribly. Call me clingy, but I really cannot be away from him, so you can imagine my torment in Penang!

Settling in

Before joinning the new company, I always wondered if I was going to be able to cope with the work environment changes and the new schedules.

Well, after about 3 weeks, I think I am able to say that I am getting the hang of it.
Although I get off work later than I used to, I am still able to enjoy home cook food, to fetch Ryan at a reasonable hour as well as able to handle the limited housework I do. The only thing now is that I cannot catch a quick nap before I go fetch Ryan.

I also find myself more organized and able to better plan especially dinner and grocery shopping. I now usually cook in the weekends and then reheat when I reach home. Vegetables are pre-washed the night before and stored in a Tupperware so that the washing part is eliminated.

And now that Ryan is a bit older, he is able to let me cook a while before he comes to me for a little cuddle. He is still clingy but he is also more tolerant now. After all the cooking, we will take a shower before settling for some milk milk.

Looking forward to it tonight.

In a galaxy far far away ....

Last night Star Movies showed the final episode of the Star Wars saga. For the past few weeks, I have been getting Ryan to sit down and watch it with me.

I have also been teaching him words like space ship, monster, robots, guns etc. Last night when Jabba the Hut came on TV, he turned and said to me "Big monster bite!"

It was so cute of him to say these things. He also stayed and watched about 30 mins of it before he went off to do his things.

Ah ... a Star Wars fan in the making?

Kiss Kiss

Last night when Ryan woke up for his milk, he smiled at me and then got himself up to hug me and gave me a big fat wet kiss on my cheeks.

Bliss ... Mummy loves you so much!!!

Phew!

I did not realise that I had not blogged in the last 4 days.
How time flies!!
I am so glad that the weekend is here.
At least I do not have to get up early in the morning.

I do not know why in the last few days I keep getting up late and I had to take the train since there is no point going through the jam and not being able to park somewhere decent.
Thankfully I get in on time/ early even though I got up late. LRT seems to be a good alternative now ...

Anyway, the weekend is here. I am leaving as soon as I piece together some numbers and then I'll be off to KLCC for some clothes shopping for Ryan.

Have a great weekend!!

Parking blues

Parking during work has never been a problem for me.

In Mid Valley, parking was easy and cheap.

In my last company, parking was provided.

Now, parking is not provided and some more have to queue to get the season's parking (which can last several months). Not only that, I have to come really early to get a car park at the open space next to the building and it is RM5 per day, not so bad actually.

However, this morning's traffic was bad and I was a little late to the car park. It was full, so I proceeded to the parking area next to the LRT, which is like 50 steps away and was charged bloody RM10!!! Arghh!!!

Another alternative is the LRT, which I am seriously considering since it was not so bad after all.

And oh ya, parking privileges should be a KEY consideration point while switching jobs, they are so often taken for granted.

Thoughts keeping

When Ryan was only an inch long and thriving in me, I used to keep a lovely book about how I feel, almost on a daily basis and it wa nicely decorated with stickers and nice papers.

Shortly after Ryan was born, I started to blog and managed to write down some incidents which marked Ryan's milestones.

Then about a year ago, I discovered that the blog was not proper for me to pen in private thoughts and feelings, so I started a journal again with words which I would like to whisper to Ryan and only for him to know. And so I bought a really nice notebok and started to write, The last time I picked it up again, I was horrified tha the entries have stopped as of April 2006!!

Over the weekend, I went to Border's and saw that they were having 50% off on calendars and diaries for 2007. Stingy me browsed through them and found a befitting caldendar entitled Moms ... wow! how nice. Now I can read something nice and also get to write down my feelings on the paper before I paste it on a notebook.

Now, let's hope that this is something I can sustain.
My fear is that Ryan grows so fast that I missed all his litte little moments.

Maybe this will be one of my resolutions?

Stages of motherhood

Something funny I read ...

First baby - If the pacifier falls on the floor, you boil off the germs.
Second baby - You squirt the dirty pacifier with juice from the baby's bottle.
Third baby - You wipe off the dirty pacifier on your shirt and pop it back into the baby's mouth.

Hmm ... I think this has some truth to it.
As it is now, after Ryan started to crawl, I have already begun to be more relaxed about him catching germs etc.

Lately, Ryan begun to stuff things in his mouth again after stopping that stance of his for some time now. But mummy dearest here didn't even bat an eye lid, believing that he will eventually grow out of it and not harm himself in any way.

Wow, wonder how I would be when I get to Baby No. 3, if it happens.

Clean clean clean

Chinese New Year is coming and my house is in a mess!!!

Every year while I clean, I vowed never to keep unwanted things and always make sure I keep things back from where I took them - never happens my dear, never happens.

So this year, I have started early. I cleaned out the drawers in my bedroom during Christmas and organized them nicely. Now, I have to do occasional tidying, but it is still ok.
I have also threw out some handbags last weekend, it shocked my hubby cause he was wondering how many hands I have!!!

I have also started to clean out the kitchen cabinets and surprised myself cause I never knew I had so much rubbish in them.

So the plan is this weekend, I will work on my shoe cabinet and the Part 1 of the bookshelves.

Now, if only I had stopped buying things .....

To yoga or not to yoga

I must admit, I am a lazy bone when it comes to exercising, I really am.

Last year, I had this grand idea of going to the gym every day, in the end I only went 3 times a week for a month, then every 2 weeks, then monthly, then ... cannot remember when was the last time I went!!! So you see, I am truly a lazy bone. But that was last year and I have stopped my gym membership.

Recently, I have the urge to take up yoga after hearing good responses from friends who have taken it up. I have called up Yogazone and they have annual as well as pass-based kind of membership. I am so tempted, but at the same time I am also afraid if I will burn my money like last year. My company also offers Yoga classes and it is only RM20 per month, it is really cheap! But I do not really want to go after work, so maybe this option is out.

I know I am supposed to get off my butt and just do it, but then hor .... sigh... so the question is - To Yoga or Not To Yoga??

Ryan's story

Sometime middle of last month, Ryan walked up to me in the morning and showed me his Barney.

He said Barney "dancing" and proceeded to put Barney down on the book where he turned to the page where the animals were having a party in the jungle.

And then he turned to me and started to dance too!!

I am so proud of him for being such a creative little guy.

I know I am overly proud of Ryan and I am not ashamed to admit it.
Now tell me which mother would not be beaming with pride if her kid showed this kind of creativity.

Creative Ryan

Ryan shown his creativity last weekend when his balloon got blown by the strong wind at home. This is the white balloon you see here.

After staring at the balloon for a while, Ryan took my Guardian umbrella (the orange one on the floor) and climbed the grilles to hook it down.

Despite being unsuccessful, he still tried several times.

Needless to say, mummy here was extremely impressed with him. In exchange, Ryan got a big fat kiss on his cheek and a great big hug from mummy, telling him how proud I am of him.

Way to go Ryan!!

Thou shall not kill

The above was something which I lived by for the past 8+ years, ever since I became a vegetarian.
I am proud to say that I have not intentionally kill any insect, animals etc. since that time.

However, when I came to my new office, I had to succumb to killing ONE type of insect - roaches! Oh my God, they are everywhere! Thank goodness they are not the mega huge ones which fly too, just tiny little ones.

But the horrifying part is that they crawl out from your keyboard and they leave their empty eggs there too! So it was very disturbing for me in my first few days. I tried to just dust them away, but they kept coming back.

The secretary said that "You must kill them, else they will breed further!" So I had to lor, else they will be all over my desk!

May God forgive me for this sin ....

My train rides

I have been one of those who were fortunate to drive to work and have the pleasure of getting stuck in the jams.

However, in the last 2 weeks, I have taken the train to work on a few occasions.
Surprisingly, it is not as bad as I had thought it to be. Every time someone tells me they take the train, I imagined hot and sweaty places, crammed sardines, rude people pushing, nasty train conditions and above all, delay in schedules.

Well, I am happy to say that I was 90% mistaken with the above perceptions.

Firstly, I must say that the trains are very well ventilated and the air-cond is generally good, so no hot and sweaty places. However, it is still very crammed and packed. I pity people with kids who travels during the peak hours, the kid would have been squashed. This is where being big and tall has its edge over the others!

Now, although Malaysians are generally nice and polite and all that, it is not exactly true when one is rushing to work or when one is rushing home. There are people who show their worst but majority of us are still bearable. One thing though that annoyed me is the way people INSIST on rushing in the train when the people are trying to get out. Needless to say, the transition is not as smooth and thus takes a longer time compared to if everyone was more tolerant.

I had also imagined nasty smells and dirty seats, but thankfully, I experienced nothing of that sort. It was instead quite clean and "smell-free".

Schedule wise, only slight delay was experienced, about 3-5 minutes, which was still quite tolerable although punctuality would have added the "WOW!!" touch to the experience.

Tomorrow would be the day I am taking the train cause the traffic coming out of KL on Friday evenings can be horrible. I am lucky cause the train station is just next to my building. I am also lucky cause I park at Mid Valley, so I get to still shop a bit when I get off work in the evening before I go fetch Ryan.

Here's another reason why Friday is the best day of the week!!

Ryan's funny moments

Recently we have noticed some funny things which Ryan does.

Whenever he can't get his way, he will throw a tantrum and cry. Lately he has taken this a step further and threw himself on the floor and start to cry and cry. His father and I just cannot help but laugh at what he is doing. It is really a fuuny sight and after not getting any response from us, he will usually stop crying and pick himself up.

The other funny thing is that after all the months of shaking his head when he refuses something, he has now learned to say "Ng-moi" and then turn his head away. He also learned to say "No No No No", exactly 4 times - to the tune and way which I usually say to him. It is really funny and we will be amused by him.

From a young age, we have used two things to frightened him - a male cat (said in Hakka) and worms .... I doubt he knows what these looked like, but the very mention of these things is enough to make him obey our instructions. He knows what a cat is like, but when we say "male cat" in Hakka, it is something different altogether!

I am going home now, looking forward to some more funny moments with Ryan.

A typical class

Yesterday I blogged about signing up Ryan at Gymboree.

There are many levels there, depending on the age of the child and there are also many types of classes - Play, Music, Arts and Yoga Fun. Being the kiasu mum that I am, I signed him up for Play, Music and Arts.

We went for 2 Play classes and typically, it will be like this. They sing a welcome song, greeting everyone and then proceed to the activity of the day. The first class was all about climbing and the second one was more of jumping. So the kids will go about the gym equipment there and climb, crawl and jump around.

The first time there, Ryan clung on us and refused to get down. Howevr, when we got to the second class, Ryan warmed up within 5 minutes. Phew! What a relief!!

There are also balls which the kids will play with and practice their ball throwing skills. Each kid will be taught to line up for their turn, so no rough play and cutting cues. Kids are also taught patience as there may be kids before them who are not done with the activity yet, and so they have to wait patiently for their turns.

Then there is a bouncing tube - like the shape of a banana boat where the kids will sing and then pat the tube for a thundering effect. They are also taught to listen to the music and then "do-as-I-do", so when the music stops, all hands on the head!!

The end of the class is usually where the parents and kids will sit on the floor and sing some nursery rhymes while helping the kid act out the songs. Then there is the parachute time where the kids sit in the middle of the parachute and the parents sing songs to them while tugging the parachute. Part of the song also needs the parents to create waves with the parachute. There is also the bubble time on the parachute where the teachers will blow soap bubbles and kids sitting on the parachute will pop the bubbles.

Lastly, there is Gymbo the clown who will make an appearance with well-wishes to the child and hope to see them again soon.

So, this is what a typical Play class is like.
Will update on what goes on in a Music/ Arts class when Ryan attends one.

YIPEE!

I just found out that I am able to access my blog from the office.
Wow! This really made my day.

We always go through life chasing for things that we think will make us happy, never stopped to think about the little things that really really make us happy.

Well, for me, the high of my day is that I am able to blog this.

Happy working!

Gymboree

2 Sundays back, we brought Ryan to Gymboree for a trial class.
It was one of those freebies which you cut out from parenting magazines and somehow, you will end up signing for the full course.

The reasons I had to send him there were two-fold.
One, I would like him to socialize with other kids and learn about social skills e.g. taking tunrs to play, tolerant of each other and also learn about having fun with other people. Of course, they do not actually tell the child these things, but through play, the child will catch on.

Secondly, I am thinking of sending Ryan to pre-school when he is 3 years old and I did not want him to go into school without having a taste of it. While this isn't exactly school, it still has elements of it - like the teacher, the kids, the structure of the session.

I must admit that I surprise myself at being this kiasu. I had been having a lot of conversations with mothers lately and NOT a single one was happy with the progress of their kids and INSISTED that their child could have learned so much more if they had sent them earlier.

So I guess that I am one of them now.
And I am so afraid that Ryan will not be able to catch up and also afraid that we will not have enough money to send him to further studies etc. etc.
Hubby thinks I am nuts, but still ....

Anyway, I will update later on what actually goes on in a typical class. For now, I am happy that Ryan is happy in his little class.

Hectic week

I had a really hectic week and have lots to say.
Unfortunately, my new office did not have access to this website and so, I could not blog as often as I would like.
Therefore, it is likely that I will only blog during the weekends when Ryan is sleeping or at night, if I still have the energy.

I started my new job on 3rd January 2007. It had a different feel to it, unlike my previous place. This felt a little colder, a little distant, maybe because it is new. There was no parking allocated to me, so I left home early in order to park next to my building. I got into the car park at about 8am, and there were still many places. I settled down for some light reading.

After about 30 mins, I got down my car and gathered a few things and there I was, walking towards my new job. I felt a little anxious, a little scared and a little concerned.

I got into the office, greeted a few people, then settled in my desk. It was definitely smaller than my old place. Hmmm .... the people were a lot younger and there was a sense of stressed in the air. It is funny how sometimes we never really think about the plus points of our previous jobs until we go into our new jobs and look back at all the little things which have made a difference to our lives.

I had to attend a HR briefing and then had like an inch of forms to fill and then open a bank account for salary transfer. I was then told that we would have our existing credit card with the bank CANCELED cause it was not allowed by Bank Negara. Silly silly silly, they will cancel your card and transfer your credit balance, but they will not transfer your points. What?! So, I now have to make use of my points, otherwise, they will be forfeited and they are not enough yet to redeem items I like. Arghh!!

The whole day whisked by and by the time I ended, I was dead tired.

The following days flew by and I was already experiencing info overload.
I was looking forward to the weekend. Before I knew it, the weekend is gone again.

How do I feel about my new job? Hmm ... both excited and still a little concern.

Wish me luck!