Everything but the girl

Before the big thing happened, we had a quiet weekend at home where I pulled down a big box of Arissa's baby clothes, ready to hand them down to a 1-month old bub named Aliya Atiqa.


Finally- we have a baby girl in the family..!! And Mummy is so ready to give those baby clothes away to make room for more toddler clothes that Arissa is growing out of at lightning speed.

The Ikea box is simply bursting at its seams with cute baby dresses,


...colourful rompers,


...little pants and mini skirts, (Sorry Sanah about the army skirt- you should have booked earlier lah! But here’s a picture of it *heh*)


...all manner of accessories like head-bands and delicate shoes,


...all waiting to see the light of day once again.

I had such fun dressing Arissa up, who was the ONLY girl born between 2005 and 2007 amongst relatives/friends. It’s strange how when I was pregnant I had convinced myself that I was carrying a boy. For some unknown reason, I’ve always believed that boy firstborns just seemed more ‘natural’. Maybe because everyone around me seemed to be conceiving boys?!

It took a while to come to terms emotionally when Dr Ang told us that Astronaut (which is what we used to call her when she was a weeny little foetus due to her big head and small body) might be a *girl* actually.

As I divided her clothes into piles of Grade A, Grade B and strictly-for-home stashes for Aliya, I offhandedly asked the hubby who was playing 'masak-masak' with the little one "Dear, when should we plan to have our 2nd one?"

His face showed he was calculating how much it takes to raise a child halfway decently in this day and age (daycare $300, piano lessons $190, taekwondo $100, Kumon $120...), whilst I can only remember how tired I am most of the time with just ONE kid to keep in check.

He finally answered “Let’s wait til she’s 4?”

And I said “At least 4!”

*pffft*

That makes me all of 33 in the next pregnancy... I seriously don’t know if I can physically cope with the demands of a pregnant body at such an age- the lethargy, the morning sickness, the emotional roller-coaster, the list goes on... *sigh* On days like this, I kick myself for getting married so late.

And as Hafidz and I reminisced about Arissa's infanthood (“Remember how cute she looked in this pink dress for her cukur rambut?! / “Hey... she wore this ballerina shoes to Sapna’s wedding!” / “Why did you buy so many headbands...she hated them didn’t she?”), she was more interested in parading around in my high heels.


Like my MIL says “Kalau dah pompan, pompan jugak!”

Pimp My Ride

Hafidz has been eyeing this beauty for awhile now... but the Aussie-made TD2000 costs S$160,000 *gulp*.

To rent, however, is S$300 p/d :)

And better still if on company's account :D

~Redang~

Hi, its Icha again.

I’m really getting the hang of writing blogs and Mummy thinks it’s a good way to get me to learn my ABCs. I think maybe I will become travel writer when I grow up, perhaps a female version of C-H-A-R-L-E-Y-B-O-O-R-M-A-N (I can spell his name because Mummy is working on his documentary THE LONG WAY DOWN. She was looking forward to meeting E-W-A-N-M-C-G-R-E-G-O-R but the Producers decided to send him elsewhere and send Charley to Asia instead- too bad...)

So, it’s been an exciting month for me. I wrote about Bali last time and now I will write about our 2nd family holiday to an island in Malaysia called R-E-D-A-N-G (no, aunty Apple it’s not called R-E-N-D-A-N-G, that’s the stuff you love to eat from Hajjah Maimunah when you come visit us from Bangkok).


My Nani was the organiser for this family trip, she loves getting her sibs and their brood together for some frolicking in the sun and this time they decided to revisit R-E-D-A-N-G. It was a tiresome 11h B-U-S ride from Singapore but I don’t remember any of it as I slept the whole way up and the whole way down- hehe. Then it was another 1h journey by ferry from Syahbandar. Abang Haikal and Kakak Seri vomited in the ferry but I was fine, thank goodness.

My Atok booked us into BERJAYA HOTEL and boy, it’s posh. We got great rooms with a HUGE bath tub but Mummy was more excited about the view.


I love sitting in the balcony with her on the deck chairs and sing her a song about boats- like the one Barney sings on my telly. It goes something like..

I LOVE TO SAIL ON MY SAILING BOAT
AND SAIL AWAY TO SEA
SAILING... SAILING... SAILING LIFE FOR ME

Of course I can’t really sing the words, but I hum the tune and Mummy gets it and will sing the words for me.

** Did I mention I went to the Barney show?! I had a great time dancing with Abang Rifqi although he was more fixated with climbing up and down the stairs and giving Aunty Sanah a hard time. But that’s what we kids love to do with our parents anyways...

So, back to R-E-D-A-N-G. I swam everyday- in the tub first thing in the morning..


...then the pool with Aunties Shafiqah and Shakira...


...then on to the beach with all the rest of my cousins...



By the end of the day I am usually ready for a tantrum as I have so much sand in my pants, it’s difficult to be polite.

On 2 occasions we took a B-O-A-T out for a little island hopping. I love getting into the blue seas in my yellow buoy with the little F-I-S-H-E-S and we even saw a few big T-U-R-T-L-E-S underneath our boat. That was awesome.




There isn’t anything much to do at night though so we would all go into the karaoke room but the 3 people in the family who can actually sing are Daddy, Tok Rahman and Nani Chu. The rest are terribly hopeless and Aunty Shakira taught me to cover my ears when it gets really bad. It’s a neat little trick to get the big people to stop assaulting our little eardrums.

Mummy bought all the 10 children activity books and we practised our skills in the karaoke rooms, only Aunty Sheila and Aunty Syazila ended up hijacking our crayons.





One night I heard Aunty Sarimah tell Mummy that they heard bleeting from the nearby forest whilst they were walking back up the hill to their rooms, past midnight. That spooked Abang Rizal who went into a wide-eyed trance and started pointing to some trees and cried. Mummy said it’s probably H-A-N-T-U. I don’t know what that is but I saw something strange too at the BBQ whilst looking at the moon. When I started grappling for Mummy, she took me out of my high chair and held me tight and read the long and soothing Ayat Kursi in my ear. That helped calm me down.

So apart from the swimming til I’m blue and the general mischief I participate in with the rest of my cousins, we had a very relaxing holiday.



Mummy says this will be our last holiday this year but then I hear her planning something with Daddy for December- now what’s that about! :D Perhaps we can go to a farm next???

R-e-s-p-e-c

How do they do it, those single mums?

For the past month, Hafidz is on a project that takes up 20h of his day almost 7 times a week. He basically said "Here're the car keys, can you handle it you think?" and Supermum stepped up to the occasion and replied with nonchalance "Yeah, no problemo".

And for a good 3 days I did manage- I managed to arrive at work on time, get tot to/from babysitters on schedule, get home before 1030pm and still have some leftover energy for a bit of laundry or the late night news before bed. I had the cheek to think "Hey, this isn't THAT bad".

But 3 weeks of this and I'm ready to call it quits- I want my husband back!!! *sob* I am totally sapped of energy I think I lost more weight (disaster!) but realise what an important role the Husband plays in my life (even as I whinge that he does close to naaaaaaaaaaathin').

Bila mau game? I feel like Marge Simpson without her Homer.

In her right mind

The signs were there all along, evident since she was a mere 4 month old baby. But I was in denial, reciting Dr Spock to anyone who dare suggest it "Babies don't develop a dominant hand until they're TWO"!!

My MIL, coming from a family of lefties, commented many times "It does seem like she is a left-hander, look at the way she picks up her toy/food. She even 'salam' (shakes hands) with her left" to which I would roll my eyes to the husband muttering the now-familiar Dr Spock mantra under my breath.

But lately, I'm less convinced by ole Spocko. For me the clincher was seeing her build a tower of 6 blocks with her left hand with ease, but when forced to switch to her right, can barely build a tower of 3 blocks. We've trained her to 'salam' and to pick her food with her right hand but this too, I need to reinforce from time to time- shifting her spoon from the left to the right hand on various occasions.

*Sigh* OK fine, so its high time Mummy accepted the fact that this little one could be a 'southpaw' so I've been reading on ways to deal with a lefty and to understand if they're any different from us the usual righties and came across a very interesting article about letter formation for lefty kids. Righthanders naturally pull the alphabets across a page whereas lefthanders need to push their pens resulting in torn pages, aching wrists and slow penmanship. An alternative method of writing alphabets for lefties where they, too, 'pull' alphabets towards them is as simple as:

So a lefty writes 'J' in this manner:


I think its brilliant! And there is a slew of products for left-handers on the market now, from scissors to pencil sharpeners and what-have-yous. All I can think of was how awkward it was for Dian to use scissors in primary school and yet, she has the most beautiful handwriting. Babe, should I get you one of these left-handed scissors?? :) Or maybe Sanah will need one too??

Since the brain is cross-wired, right handers are controlled by their left brain, whilst left handers are controlled by their right brain. It is not wrong to then say that lefties are in the 'right' frame of mind!

And some well-known lefties are Oprah Winfrey, Angeline Jolie, Marilyn Monroe, Lisa Kudrow, SJP, Julia Roberts... oh and how can I forget the men of substance- novelist Mark Twain, Alexander the Great, painter Michealangelo and presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton *pffft*

Kasi ikan makan pun pakai left-hand

Riding the wave of change

Some say bad things come in pairs.

Last week, my trusty aunt-in-law/babysitter called to say she had placed Arissa with another aunt that day. Of course I went into panic mode asking, "Why? What happened?". I can hear her calm, controlled voice over the line saying the Polyclinic doctors have just informed them that her husband's kidneys are both non-functional and that they needed to immediately seek medical help at a hospital. At this point, she started sobbing softly.

Dear God, I thought, renal failure. It would mean constant rounds of dialysis and expensive medication. My FIL went through this before his death so I (sort of) was clued into her dilemma.

I've visited them twice since then in TTSH, once with Arissa to help ease the bitterness of their reality. I saw how their faces lit up when she saw my little tot and my aunt confessed in a melancholic tone whilst hugging Arissa, "Mak Nor rindu betul la dgn Sha..." I told her not to worry about Arissa as I would find a suitable relief sitter in the meantime but I also fear that she may not be able to commit to babysitting my tot anymore in search for a full-time job or to take proper care of her husband.

We've 2 sitters in mind, both related to either me or the hubby, but Mak Nor has taken such excellent care of Arissa since she was 3 month old that I am loathe to try someone new. But what am I to do? Mum cannot commit to a full 5-day week and a maid is an option I fully refuse to try at this stage. At least, not until Arissa can talk properly. Its back to the phone book, asking family members to recommend a full-fledged, experienced sitter who can cope with a hyperactive tot. Thank goodness I still have 15 leave days this year. I can just see it being depleted faster than the ozone layer.

The 2nd blow came from Mum on Thu morning as I got ready to go over to hers. I had taken an off day to send Dad to the airport for Umrah when the bad news hit me in the gut- "Abah jatuh tersembam tadi pagi depan pintu bilik air. Dia kata dia pening, mama takut stroke aje". When we rushed over, Dad seemed fine- bustling about lugging his bags to the car. I spotted a swollen cheekbone but other than that, he said he felt fine. Hafidz, who is more experienced with these things and hence more cautious than me, openly voiced out "Baba kalau tak sihat, tangguhkan Umrah la. Kita boleh pergi x-ray dulu to make sure tak ada internal injuries". From experience with his father, my husband knew that Dad would only feel the effects of his fall a few days later.

And he was right. Now in Mecca, Dad texted to say he is not feeling too good and will come back earlier than planned. He forbade me to tell Mum about his health but I'm quite sure she knows. She herself seemed stressed lately and the last thing I wish to do is dump Arissa on her. So what do I do- apply 2 days of parental leave next week. Argh.

The bottomline is, nothing should be taken for granted, particularly one's health. I went back to all my insurance documents to make sure Hafidz & I are covered under some sort of policy in case we are suddenly not able to provide for our little brood. Its a scary thought but I would like to know that we're both prepared to ride any wave of change without drowning.

Chaos in a little bundle

...and this is my little munchkin with his Chester Bennington (of Linkin Park) hairstyle...


and his Enrique Iglesias pout...


having a bit of a snooze, oblivious to all the aunties who were going ga-ga over him...


Kanchan says we should try to marry him and Arissa off but I think being a good 18 months apart, they're more likely to be partners in crime. Goodbye civilised conversations, goodbye full, hearty meals where we parents get to chew/swallow properly and welcome chaos!

:)

Anish Neel Perera

A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bank balance smaller, home happier, clothes dirty, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for.

It is with much joy I announce the arrival of Anish Neel Perera, borne out of 40 weeks of gestation, 15h of induced labour and a final C-section.

At 3.30pm today, Anil calls me sounding so mellow, "Na, my son is so handsome!!" Well, that's not hard to imagine, coming from a handsome couple like them, but more importantly, he can now put to good use the romper he proudly bought on the weekend that says

IF YOU THINK I'M HANDSOME, CHECK OUT MY DADDY

To the cheeky monkey whom I've been waiting so long for, Godma will now go over and bite your 3.5kg buns. Ciao!

S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G it out

For the uninitiated MEN out there (single, married, divorced, gay, straight dll.), these points system is EXACTLY right. Print this out, stick it to your fridge door and you'll find that you'll get lucky more often (minimum requirement is a score of >+10 in each aspect).

You get a + if you do something nice, a - if you do something stupid and a 0 for doing something totally expected of you. The more brownie points you get, the better your chances of getting laid.

Capeche?

SIMPLE DUTIES
You make the bed (+1)
You make the bed, but forget the decorative pillow(0)
You throw the bedspread over rumpled sheets (-1)

You check out a suspicious noise at night (0)
You check out a suspicious noise, and it is nothing(0)
You check out a suspicious noise and it is something (+5)
You pummel it with iron rod (+10)
It's her pet (-10)

SOCIAL ENGAGEMENTS
You stay by her side the entire party (0)
You stay by her side for a while, then leave to chat with a collegebuddy(-2)
Named Tina (-4)
Tina is a dancer (-6)
Tina has silicon implants (-80)

A NIGHT OUT
You take her to a movie (+2)
You take her to a movie she likes (+4)
You take her to a movie you hate (+6)
You take her to a movie you like (-2)
It's called 'DeathCop' (-3)
You lied and said it was a foreign film about orphans (-15)

ENJOY THE BIG QUESTION
She asks, "Do I look fat?" (-5) [Yes, you lose points no matter what]
You hesitate in responding (-10)
You reply, "Where?" (-35)
Any other response (-20)

COMMUNICATION
When she wants to talk about a problem , you listen, displaying what looks like a concerned expression (0)
You listen, for over 30 minutes (+50)
You listen for more than 30 minutes without looking at the TV (+500)
She realizes this is because you have fallen asleep (-10000)

Now WHO says women are complicated...

A Special Mother's Day Gift

...Late on Mother's Day, Arissa pronounced the magical words I've been waiting so long to hear...

::B-A-L-I::

Daddy wanted to do something special for Mummy on Mother's Day because she is always grumpy and complaining about being overworked and stressed so he booked us a trip to Bali.

I don't know what a ple-plane is but Atok & Nenek are always telling me to look at the sky from their balcony and I can see a bird thing flying up high in the clouds. I was very excited about getting on one of those bird things...

...but Mummy spiked my milk so I fell asleep halfway on the flight and didn't manage to explore the inside of the ple-plane much.

We stayed at Bali Dynasty Hotel and had connecting rooms so its fun to keep going back and forth to see Nani and Uncle next door. I got to mess up BOTH rooms too and watch Cartoon Network from the big big big bed.


On the 1st night, we went to Discovery Mall where Daddy and Uncle went ape-shit over all the surfer brands like Quiksilver, Stussy, Rusty and Billabong and disappeared for the longest time. Mummy took me to Starbucks so she could sit down on the couch while I ran around barefoot in the empty place. I heard Mummy tell Nani this is so unlike Singapore, where you literally had to fight to get a place on the couch. The nice coffee lady was so taken by my cuteness that she gave Mummy a free lolli for me- yummm!


Early the next day, we went to the Bali Safari but I fell asleep on the way there because it was an hour journey and it was also my naptime. Daddy put Mummy in a wheelchair (because they dumbly left my pram in the van) so he could wheel us around but it made Mummy look a bit stupid, especially with the brolly my Nani insisted she use to protect me from the sun.


Daddy and Uncle took pictures with some scary looking cats that looked like a stockier version of my cat at home, Oren. They were always growling and biting each other that both Daddy and Uncle became too scared to pet them- what a bunch of wusses! *pah*


Daddy and Uncle also took a picture with a small hairy animal... I thought it was a stuffed toy at first but then it reached out and touched me and I screamed and cried. I didn't like the way it smelled and Mummy was so mean to force me to take a picture with it.


For dinner, we took a taxi to Jimbaran Bay Seafood. Everyone was ooh-ing and aah-ing when we got there..check it out:



I ate a lot of crab and fish and prawns by myself because Mummy said I can make as much of a mess as I want because we're on the sands...


... and besides, she was too busy stuffing her face to give a rats ass!


I got to 'swim' a lot in the bath tub.. (here I am happy as pie):


...and in the BIG pool. I am tall enough to stand in the baby pool and I wished Daddy had bought me the proper arm floats instead of the kiddish tube floats. All the ang moh babies were crawling in and out of the pool while I had to stick close to Daddy and try not to swallow too much pool water- yuck.


We went to some temple place called Tanah Lot where Mummy was again doing her ooh-ing and aah-ing



..but I much prefer to look at the big snake that was on the grass. I think Nani said its called a python.


Late one night, Mummy & Daddy thought it would be fun to get on a horse carriage...


...so they dragged me and Nani and Uncle along.


And just as I got very comfortable in Bali, Mummy said "Arissa, let's take a ple-plane today ok?" and I missed Atok & Nenek so much I nodded. So we packed up, took a few last pictures and went to Ngurai Rah Airport.


I think Mummy spiked my milk again because I fell asleep the moment we got on the plane and didn't wake up until we arrived in Singapore.

So that wraps up our first family holiday :) Mummy claims she is more tired looking after me than before the holidays but I know she is happy because she is always singing under her breath.



Talk later!

Luv,
Icha

For all spa junkies

I've been meaning to pop into House of Traditional Javanese Massage @ Arab Street for my fav ginger wrap as the knots and aches in my body are getting really intolerable. Even the ridiculously expensive King Koil pillow I bought for my neck ache didn't help to eleviate the pain. In fact, it went from firm to soft within a span of 1 month. So much for that! Next pillow will be those $20 ones from Aussino...



BUT, one of the locations for yesterday's TVC shoot was The Rainforest Spa @ Safra Yishun. The very friendly, very accommodating frontdesk manager, Steven, and I got to talking and, me being a spa junkie, sussed out their promotions. Apparently they have an ongoing off-peak package tailored for the public. For S$38, members of the public can access a 70 minute treatment which includes:

20m Steam/Sauna

20m Outdoor Jacuzzi

30m Back Massage

Well of course I didn't hesitate!! I booked a package for me and my aching body at 11am this morning! But then little miss scatterbrain forgot to pack her swimwear and had to wear a loose, grubby one provided by the spa (ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww).

Note to self: Next time, pack swim wear, bath salts and toiletries.

The steam was alright (but then I never really enjoyed steam baths anyways), the hot water in the jacuzzi housed in a wooden gazebo overlooking the pool was lots better and the final 30m back massage was exactly what I needed. Boy... do i feel great now!

... if only I can go home for a nap instead of coming into the office to get sucked into a meeting which I really really really did not want to attend (as it entailed watching a grown man weep)....that would've been a perfect day right there. *yawn*

Ma Ma Ma My Leona

So there I was- its 1am on Thursday and I'm not the least bit sleepy. I think its the stress of producing this bloody TVC and also the 3 cups of coffee I had sucked down in the daytime. The hubby's with his best friend somewhere, avoiding me and my foul temper. American Idol is on but I'm not really watching... but then Leona Lewis came onstage and I snapped back to reality. Oh, how I love that husky voice of hers. She made me sit up and forget my worries for all of 2 minutes.

She crooned Bleeding Love live on the Idol stage and it sounded exactly as it did on my CD (courtesy of the hubby), even the falsettos were pitch-perfect! I was a teeny bit disappointed though, expecting her to belt out an equally marvelous variation of the song. Well, at least now I know that voice is an original.. If you're a fan too, checkout the single Homeless on her current release.



Anyway, the husband is not blind after all (!!) to my misery and has booked a trip next week for the whole family- MIL and BIL included. I hope its somewhere remote and secluded where I can effectively de-stress and generate more zen ;}

Antics

By the time we get home, I am usually pooped but Arissa will always find new ways to annoy me with her (funny) antics. This is her, refusing to change into her PJs for the night even when I've got her (a tad too tight) dress over her brow.

"I'm not changing, whaddya talking about! This is my favourite dress!"

"Oh no! Its bedtime?!?!? But I'm not ready to give up entertaining my parents yet!"

Gibberish

People say.... babies who start walking early will start talking late and vice versa.

At 15 months, Arissa talks mostly 'baby' language- most of which are gibberish to our ears- but its encouraging to see she wants to communicate and seems to understand most of what we're telling her. She can point to all the right body parts and make the correct animal sounds for
:: lion (roars)
:: monster (groans)
:: cat (high pitched "yaaaaaah?")
:: dog (grunts "uh uh").

I usually gesture a lot whilst giving instructions to help her comprehend but last week, I only looked her in the eye and said "Arissa, take your choochoo (milk) bottle from the bedroom. Mummy need to wash it". And she understood!!! I was ecstatic when she bounced back into the kitchen, a minute later, with the milk bottle in question (OK, so ideally I shouldn't be using baby words like 'choochoo' but if she can understand the other parts of the instructions, then I can just about substitute everything into adult language pretty soon).

Her first words, as my goldfish brain remembers them were....

MAMAM [pronounced 'mum mum']
She loops them "mamamamamamamaam" and it means "give me some food woman!"

THERE [pronounced 'deh']
as in
Me: "Arissa, where is Mummy?"
A: "Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh!" (then points at me cheekily)

KATAK (frog in Malay) [pronounced 'ke-tah']
My mum taught her this from the Winnie the Pooh books she's been reading.

TOK (grandpa in Malay) [pronounced as is]
My babysitter taught her this one by pointing to her husband and repeating "tok! tok! tok!"

BYE BYE [pronounced 'bah bah']
This comes with the territory of salams and flying kisses.

I think she is doing pretty well in her own pace although a little slower than I'd like. But what the heck am I complaining about, as my MIL says "Once she starts talking, we'd wish she hadn't started so soon!"