Ethan @ Pantai Medical Centre

Good morning folks! It's a lovely Tuesday morning. ;) Today, Ethan's due for his second jab and this time we will be going to Doctor Yong Sin Chuen at Pantai Medical Centre. I'm a little jittery about the jab part but in anticipation of a new (and good - he came highly recommended on the expat forum) doctor. I also can't wait to get Ethan measured. It's been a long two months since the last time he was weighed and measured for length. hahaha You know (if you don't already), Moms always measure their success at parenthood of their newborns by their baby's weight and length. ahahhaha. Soon it will be the number of As they are getting in their report cards and the number of instruments they play and have mastered musically etc.. :P *sigh* Hence begins the mindless and completely meaningless race.

I will drop updates later (for the excited grannie to read). Tata for now.

1030pm:

Ethan's fast asleep from all the trauma. He hardly slept the whole day (although he woke up late at 10am this morning). We went to Pantai for our appointment with Dr Yong at 230pm. Unlike the Gleneagles doc, we did not have to wait very long (thank goodness~). After registering for Ethan as a new patient, we waited outside Dr Yong's clinic.

A nurse came to take Ethan's weight (6.02kg) and length (63.5cm) and then we waited outside the clinic again.

Doc Yong stood up to greet both Alan and myself and shook our hands sincerely. Immediately he put us at ease. He was also tremendously gentle with Ethan and very warm and caring. He proceeded to ask us for updates of Ethan's first 4 months on earth and was very detailed in his questioning and note-taking. He asked us developmental milestones of Ethan's, such as grasping of things / putting things into his mouth / flipping over etc etc. He was also concerned when we told him about Ethan's jaundice previously.

Then, he gave Ethan a general look-over and pronounced him healthy and well :) Although Ethan is still on the slightly small side, he reassured us that everything was normal and fine. :) After giving Ethan the oral drops for the Rotarvirus, I braced myself for the jab. It was over in no time. Ethan didn't even have time to react - I think he gave a short 3sec maximum cry and then it was over. hahaha. :) Brave Mummy did not even shed a tear this time~!

The Doc's clinic was plastered with lotsa big wall stickers and Ethan was tremendously entertained by the lion / tiger / elephant, giggling and exclaiming loudly to himself everytime I carried him near the stickers. hahaha Doc Yong was amused as well. hehehe.

Ethan's third vaccination jab is slated for 26th April 2010. :)

The Weekend in Short

Ethan looking at ants scamper by

Ethan watching tv with big bright eyes

Ethan bouncing on Daddy's lap

Last weekend was quite fulfilling. It all started on Friday 12 March 2010 evening when Alan came back home earlier than normal. It's great that he has moved his office. It's much nearer home and to get from Office to Home and vice versa, he can successfully avoid the common jams in KL.

We contemplated going out for the evening but luckily decided against it, even before he got home as a thunderstorm was brewing. We spent our evening indoors and watching a DVD. :)

Saturday 13 March 2010

I was zonked out after waking up as the night had been long and Ethan had been feeding. I've got to ask the doc tomorrow, during Ethan's checkup cum injection, whether or not it's time to start him on solids. I know some docs advocate introducing solids from as young as 4 months but in general, I think the average age to feed babies solid food is around 6 months of age.

Anyway, we had decided long ago to hit town and BUY BUY BUY. KL is having some massive sales and we decided to go to 1-Utama to shop. Parkson, the major departmental store was having a Mad About Kids sale and I wanted to look for a walker n etc for Ethan.

All of us bundled into the car at around 11am and headed for 1-U. ALan was craving for Nonya food so we went to our usual haunt, The Peranakan Place at Level 2. We realised it had been refurbished and it looked much classier and we quite excited to enjoy the good food it served again.

Unfortunately, we were very let down. The standard of their fare had plummeted. We ordered 5 dishes to share - Devil's Curry, Sambal Belachan Kangkong, Lala Egg, a Nonya Braised Toufu and sambal prawns.All the dishes were found wanting. :( I think my hot barley water was the saving grace. ;p

After the gastronomical disappointment, we suffered another disappointment. The baby/kiddo section in Parkson, 1-U was sooooooooo pathetic. :P It did not house many brands, to begin with. And also did not have a baby walker section. *sigh* We browsed and went away with 2 bottles of baby wash and a packet of wet wipes ONLY. My goodness.

MPH was next door and I proceeded to renew my membership for RM20. Alan bought me the book I had been wanting to get (Diary of a TaxiDriver) and I bought Ethan a couple of pop-up books etc more (remember my ambition to fill up his bookshelf??!) Alan also clamoured for molten chocolate cake / muffins and so we bought 500 Cupcakes and Muffins book for their recipes.

By then, my body was aching as the stroller had been empty and my arms laddened with "little" Ethan. We proceeded to the baby nursing / changing room to feed Ethan who was fussing. Wow. Impressive! I didn't take a picture but let me describe...

There is a lcd tv inside the room and a play table and chairs to entertain the toddlers whilst mommy feeds, coupled with a sitting area for the daddies. Inside, there is a line of changing cushions and bins for babies' soiled diapers to be changed. Further in, there are 3 or 4 nursing rooms. Each brightly coloured and decorated with wall stickers. Also, (and I don't know why but it's a nice touch), there is a cradle bouncer in each room. This is so far, the best nursing room in KL! *claps*

After Ethan was satisfied and partially falling asleep, I changed his diaper and then all of us proceeded to the shops to look for MORE CLOTHES for Ethan. hahaha His wardrobe is overflowing with clothes but he is certainly outgrowing more and more.

Finally, in F.O.S. (Alan calls it full of $ht), I found some great deals. I bought altogether 6 rompers for Ethan. 4 at 2 for Rm20 and a pair at 2 for Rm16. Yay. They will last him beyond 6months and are longer than most of his current ones now. Ethan's Baju from F.O.S. (RM56 in all)

Thirsty and exhausted by now, we decided that Juicewerks was a better option than Coffeebean because it was healthier. It was certainly pretty pricey though and 3 drinks (one for the maid too) came up to be RM25+. Wow. Health indeed comes with a price. hahahaha. Resting in Mama's arms in Juicewerks

Home welcomed us with opened arms when we arrived at around 4pm and the two furry ones were extremely relieved to be let out of their cages.

Sunday 14 March 2010

We woke up at around 10am, amazed by how let it was. Quickly, Alan made a phone call to our local butcher to order some pork. We were going to have a home-made steamboat tonite! :D

Ethan was left in the care of En and we headed to the market and the supermarket to pick up the usual and more. Someone Someone had requested for me to bake bake bake so I picked up a few more items in lieu of this. Butter, amazingly had gone up by Rm2/ slab!

Anyway, after we left TMC and dropped the stuff off at home, we headed to (where else but) our usual Sunday brunch place for (what else but) fishhead beehoon soup. The only thing about eating this so regularly, I can say is that at least it's health food! hahaa. Our best friend had not opened to our disgust (it was already 1pm) and we could not do an exchange of our purchases. :(

We went into Desa Sri Kota to buy ladles for the steamboat as well as a few other items then headed home for me to take a quick shower and then feed and be with Ethan. I had a luxurious 1.5hour nap with him - I had been suffering from a sleep deficet and I had needed a power nap desperately. Alan had his "Me Time" and had a good time with his RC cars. After that, he proceeded to prepare the stock etc for our steamboat dinner.

At approximately 630pm, we started on our steamboat and had a tremendously enjoyable and delicious meal. :D

I Deserve IT!

I've a sore throat, entirely by my on doing. Alan brought back 2 mao shang wang a couple of nites ago and we went at it. haha. Apparently, the durians were so filled with seeds that we couldn't finish and had to put the remaining in the fridge. There were so many seeds leftover that until today, there are still a few in the box lying forlornly in the fridge.

Oh, I digressed. My throat's itchy and scratchy entirely due to the above. Sigh. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the weekend. :)

Some rambling

I am FINALLY starting on a book - the modern day classic "The Alchemist", after years of inactivity. Just the other day, I roamed into MPH (because it was having a great sale) and found myself just restricting myself to books for the kiddos. My goodness. Sad, but true! I vow to read more and educate myself more whilst I am still in KL and have the time.

However, admittedly, taking care of Ethan does take up most of my waking (and semi-awake) hours. I try now to develop him in all aspects. Let's see... there's TUMMY time which he is placed on his belly and tries hard to flip frustratedly...there's Reading Storybook time..he is exposed to different types of books - books that have accompanying sounds/ flap-up books/ pull-out books/ touch-touch books etc..All his books are very vibrantly coloured. Then, there is also Music time. Little Ethan does enjoy his musical toolbench (Fisherprice) very much and sings along with the music and kicks his legs. hahaha. Ethan hardly enjoys watching TV though, and is certainly not enthused by his Baby IQ disc. His attention span is still very, very short for now.
Most of the time, it's now Drooling and Biting Time.

Think Ethan's teething and hence the drool. Also, his has cultivated a bad habit of sticking out his tongue. Just discovered this yesterday. :P literally! He also enjoys playing with his saliva and sucking on his digits. Ahhh.. The mountains of used tissue paper we had to throw away!

This weekend, PARKSON is having a kiddo sale. Sad to say, the Lamaze Space Symphony play gym we purchased a couple of weeks ago online is going at a song from 12march till 23 march at a couple of Parkson outlets. *big sigh* Anyway, we will head on down and pick up some necessities and some wants. hahaha.

I love buying clothes for Ethan. I know it's an extravagant hobby because he will outgrow them in no time. But seeing cute lil' baju for kiddos makes me SMILE :D ok he's woken up..tata

I baked a fluffy banana cake today! :D

More of Ethan!

Ethan playing with his Space Symphony Play Gym.

A Special Sunday at Morib Beach

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUMMY DEAR!!sorry we were not able to make a trip back to surprise you this year. The surprise was : THERE WAS NO SURPRISE!!! Hahaha.

Amazing! We have to travel 1.5 hours to get to a beach from KL. hahaha. We had been invited by the Tan family to go to Morib Beach for lunch and a get-together today. I wasn't all for it as the weather had been SO FREAKING HOT recently.

I mean, it's bad enough that I sweat buckets in an airconditioned room let alone under a cloudless sky with no airconditioned shelter. The Tans had repeatedly offered a disclaimer which came with their invitation - that the beach was a muddy expense and so I had already a negative impression of Morib.

I woke up at 745am and quickly took my shower and then roused the husband and the son who were sleeping peacefully. Ethan looked so comfortable in our huge bed that I almost did not hace the heart to wake him up.

Anyway, we were on our way by 920am but the silly GPS brought us round and round and we were unable to locate Pantai Morib. FINALLY, after many wrong twists and turbs, we finally got there in one piece.

Golden Sea Restaurant was not as its name suggests, along the beautiful golden sea. The restaurant consisted of quite a few small pavilions along the beach. Although I had been starving during the journey there, I promptly forgot my hunger when we arrived and went to explore the beach with the rest of them.

Ethan enjoyed the sea breeze caressing his hair and looked about his surroundings with interest. He had been a good boy in the car and had had his Happy Meal during the journey. :D We watched as Uncle Meng Khoo tried to fly his wooden eagle kite from Bali and as Coco tried to play with a group of children. Jay Jay stuck close to us though.. hahaha He is a guniang dog :P

It was finally time for lunch! Uncle Meng Khoo ordered a starchy soup, banana chicken, crabs, toasted bread, vegetables and chilli lala. Unfortunately, after finishing the meal, Alan and I were not satiated at all. *sigh* We have big appetites indeed. ahhahaha.

After lunch, we all headed to the sea. The tide had subsided so much that we could walk for about 500m outwards to sea, on the seabed! That was certainly an interesting expedition! A net had been put up by the fishermen which was a few metres long and after the tide had subsided, many fish and etc were caught inside. The sea creatures had all died though because of the shallow waters and the hot sun.

Ethan saw many different kinds of fish, some prawns, small crabs, etc. We even saw this creature that looked like a stingray but had a hard shell covering. Unfortunately, all the above had died because of the inconsiderate fisherman who had not removed the net after gathering his catch. :(

Jay Jay and Coco had a whale of a time too, with Chloe. Chloe had been to the beach thrice and dispensed with the formalities and happily scampered around. She also barked at Coco to join in the fun and he did not disappoint. Our dear furry son, Jay Jay, though was labeled a 'sissy' but the Tan family. He followed me around under the shade of the umbrella and just looked on as Coco and Chloe enjoyed themselves. Most of the time, he was preoccupied with getting rid of the small ants which were feasting on his legs. Poor thing.

After the educational walk, all of us washed our muddy selves clean and then had a RM4 coconut each to quench our thirst in the shade. What a good way to spend a Sunday. :) I was immensely surprised .:)

That evening, Alan and I made our way to a favourite haunt we had not patronised for a very long time. We had steamed assam fish and bakuteh under the bridge for dinner again. :)