What if...

I must admit I have started to feel the pinch when credit crunch first started probably around 7 or 8 months ago. Higher energy bills, rising groceries bills and in general increased cost of living.

And this current economic recession is really taking its toll with higher unemployment statistics, mortgage repossession, big banks collapsed, business closing down and so on so forth. On Radio 1 today, it was also mentioned that there has been a sharp increase of people under 25 out of work. People are made redundant everyday and for the past few months I have been hearing the same headlines in the news where many companies are making job cuts in order to cope with the current economic turmoil.

Very recently, in fact only yesterday, I found out a good friend has just been made redundant.

And today, I could not help myself from thinking what if it happens to me. The first and obvious implication will be the devastating effect on the financial aspect and I could not even dare to write further on the rest.

Save save save....spend wisely, and cut down any unnecessary spending, this is what I am trying to practise. Or perhaps be an utter cheapskate if I have to. Because we never know what will happen.

But my mind is still dreaming of owning this gorgeous long Zara winter coat that I tried on last 2 weeks.

On the same main issue, I am still trying to finish off reading this long and extensive piece of article from The Independent.

Little Diva

She loves to sing even when she was still a lot younger than now. Whenever she sees a sheep in the telly or from the book she would sing 'ba ba black sheep' though it much sound like 'baabaa baap beeeep'. Few months ago she could sing to Old Macdonald but only the E I E I O bit. But now somehow she doesn't remember how to sing that E I E I O anymore. But it still amazes me how quickly she can recognize any melody, I once hummed the song ‘In the Night Garden’ for the first time to her during bed time she quickly opened up the palm of her hand asking me to do my ‘round and round’ little finger on her palm. She still does it now.

In the morning, sometime I could hear her singing nananana and all sorts of sounds from the bed. Though I could not make out what song does she sing to.

When it comes to You Tube, she is the boss. Well, almost. Whenever she sees the laptop being switched on, she would say ‘appyyy…apppyyy’. Which refers to the nursery song ‘If you are happy’, as she really likes to watch this clip below and always demands to watch it before anything else. Thanks to her Usu who introduced this.

And she really loves to dance too. Always has. Every time there’s an upbeat music she would move her body sideway and sometime wave her hands. She could even shake her wee little booty to the beat. So cute….!

This little tiny diva always brings a song of joy to my heart.

Upsy Daisy

She somehow managed to persuade her daddy to buy her first Upsy Daisy today.

If I were a boy

Currently loving listening to this song.

Winter Wonderland

I love it when it snows. Everything is white and winterly and I feel like I'm living in a fairytale land.

The only downside is it makes driving very dangerous and on Wednesday my normal 30 minutes drive to work took more than 2 hours. The heavy snowfall overnight has led to hazardous driving condition and on my route some roads were absolutely gridlock.

The snow has all cleared up now anyway. I am hoping for a white Christmas this year. I can just hope.

Before setting off to work and droping her off to her childminder..Mya didn't look as excited (read: 'jakun') as her mommy..

Very very slow moving traffic...the bus in front of me stopped few times whenever there was another bus from the other direction to ask what was the traffic like ahead

Snow still falling...

First Conversation

My very first proper and short conversation with Mya took place this very morning.

Whist changing her nappy, I asked "Mya, who are we going to see today"? Now I was not expecting any perfect answer from her as she always babbles and I thought she would not understand my question, not yet anyway.

And to my surprise, she quickly answered "kakak".

Her daddy was just around the corner and we both looked at each other with awe. We could not believe our ears….hehe.

I guess this is the joy of being first time parent…every little discovery is priceless.

Christmas Window Shopping

Its the time of the year again.

We went out last Sunday and Leeds was full of Christmas shoppers. Mya was very well behaved, she sat quietly in her push chair, looking content as I pushed her along. She must be quite excited watching the christmas light sparkling around the city and observing everything arounds her. Sometime I always wonder whats on her young mind....maybe she was thinking about In the Night Garden....her current favourite.

Doesn't look excited though...

with Mommy

Ruth is out...undeservedly.

She's out, she is one of the biggest vocal in X factor but apparently vocal, talent and personality have not managed to pull out much vote from the British public. I still love her though... X factor will not be the same without her.

X factor has now become a joke but I guess I still will be glued to the screen next week watching it simply because all other programmes are really crap....

Sweetest Sound

She says the sweetest sound I've ever heard. She now can say it perfectly...'Bye-bye Daddy'.... She has been saying that this week every morning whenever she sees her daddy out at the door about to leave for work. And I am so impressed with her accent....very British...hehe...

She's got my vote!

This is why I stuck in front of the telly every Saturday. Love her!

Mariah Carey live on X factor

If only she can loosen up a bit. She was all rigid and stiff all the time during the show it looked like she's having a stick up her butt...nevertheless she was very very good. Her boobs were about to fall out but who cares. She still is beautiful. Initially I thought the song itself was a bit plain, boring and monotonous melodically but when it reached towards the end with the high notes and she pulled it off quite amazingly, I quickly changed my mind.

No wonder she's a diva. I think she really earns and deserves the title.

Why do we fall..

so that we might learn to pick ourselves up.

MMR jab

Poor Mya... 
This morning she woke up all cranky with flushed cheeks and her body temperature was slightly higher. She had her MMR jab last Thursday and now, three days later it finally kicking in. Normally she was doing very well on all her previous immunisation jabs with no post-injection fever but not this time. When I picked her up early this morning her body was weak and floppy. Hopefully the Calprofen will ease the pain a bit. When I left for work she was back in bed, sleeping in her daddy’s arm. Bless my child…

She now has also started to call me mommieeee (but she pronounced it mieeee...mieee....) and to hear that every time makes my heart melts.

Be strong my darling…this will pass and soon we can dance again.

My baby..

What are you doing honey?

Trying to call pui doh...?

hmm...i need to figure it out how to use this phone or shall i call for mommy for help??

hmm..i just picit2x lah



hmm what is this??

another nice toy...i better play with it before my mommy notice...

South Stack Lighthouse

South Stack Lighthouse. Picture courtesy of the other half.

Bangor

Bangor drop by.

Usu in action..

Pak ayeng & Mak ayeng

Mya & Usu

Bangor marina

Mya & daddy

Mya Ku...

the 'expanding' mommy..

Mya & Pak ayeng..

City of Bangor

Much needed holiday

Anglesey..here we come!

Body Issue

I lost count on how many times have I purchased a piece of clothing and then have it returned to store shortly after either for a size changed or refund. The common and obvious reasons are 'sorry...its not the right size', 'too small for my bumps' etc...

As much I am so in denial that I am now a lot heavier and much bigger than I used to be I realise I have to wake up to this reality. Hanging on to my old clothes is no good so I have now packed up most of my size 8/10 tops and blouses, petite work trousers and jeans and have made arrangement to hand them over to my two much slender sisters. Which means I now would have to completely overhaul my wardrobe but then again I do not want to stay in this size forever so I guess I will still keep that pair of a size 8 skinny jeans as an incentive to get back to my glorious days.

The total culprit behind all this is me, myself and me again. Having family around really does something to the appetite but this is not an excuse to over eat. The merrier the dining table is, the lesser is the care about how much food you gobble. Since May this year I have been eating like a pig at every opportunity, so go figure…

I have also stopped breastfeeding completely so I guess that has also contributed to my high and alarming rate of weight gaining and waist expanding.

The in-laws will be leaving soon, I will surely miss the home cooked food. But above all, it’s their company that will be missed most….

1st Birthday recall...17th August 2008

It all went all right last Sunday. Tiring but was all worth it. Mya was so happy though she was a bit shy and scared at first not being used to larger crowds but soon after she was all running around and playing with the other kids.

Main menus were Sarawak laksa for adults and fried rice for the kids. Usu made roasted chicken wings as well as some fried hot dogs wrapped with kulit popiah....yummyyy. We also served a special Melanau delicacy ‘Umai’, thanks to my father in-law who was working very hard preparing it. We were a bit apprehensive at first due to its nature (raw fish – just like sushi) but apparently it was the most popular dish that day with almost zero leftover.

The birthday cake was a joint effort. It was a carrot cake which I baked the night before and Ween was in charged of decorating it. It was a success because the cake looked so pretty and it tasted good too. Well I kind of took the short cut by using the ready mixed cake mixture and all I did was whisking it with some eggs, oil and water and then straight into the oven. Then 1 ½ hour later…voila!

The only thing was...I was (and still) gutted because there were no descent photos of Mya….lots were taken but they were all blurry and fuzzy…damned the camera, apparently it was the wrong setting and because I was so busy preparing food and stuff etc I’ve forgotten to check it before hand.

Looking back the past 12 months, it has been an incredible journey for both Mya and me. I am still learning to be the best mommy to my baby and I know there is so much fun and discoveries on the road ahead and I look forward to unraveling them with my gorgeous one…Happy 1st Birthday again my little cup cake…you made mommy so proud...mommy loves you so so much …muaaahhsssss!

Happy 1st Birthday Mya Ku Sayang

Wow....it has been a year. Mommy so so very proud of you Mya!

You are simply my world and my joy. Happy 1st Birthday my darling....muahhhhh!!!

Ps.I wanted to write more but am so bloddy knackered..

My darling...

Shibden Park, Halifax

Copycat

She likes to hold her daddy’s hand phone and put it around her ear pretending to speak to somebody on the other side.

Her usu once callout ‘Aaapak…..!’ and then she said exactly the same word with the right intonation.

Now that she can walk on her own she likes to follow me around the house and babbling gibberish.

She likes to read and when ever she sees her book lying around, she would pick it up, hand it to me and demand me to read it for her. Sometime she pretends to read them out loud.

She now sleeps in between me and her daddy and sometimes in the morning when she first wakes up before anyone else she would give us both a kiss in the hope that it would wake us up. So charming…

When we ask “sai good girl sai?” which means who is the good girl? She would put her hands up and shout ‘ yaa yaaaa…!”...

She is now officially a copycat. She can be so entertaining sometime and it is such a good fun watching her…

Wonderful..annoying

Somebody 'wonderful' sneakily managed to get into my blogspot account and cheekily changed my layout and profile...it is slightly 'annoying' but I guess this is what I have to live with for the rest of my life...*sigh*.

I so love you!

These photos were actually when she was 10 months plus. I just simply like them.

She now has her own dancing move, am hoping to be able to capture it in video soon..

Excited

11 months +

with daddy

It is just amazing watching her growing up right in front of my eyes….from a little helpless crying bundle to an active joyful tot she is today.  
Soon she will be one year old and I am now making plan to mark her 1st birthday. Nothing lavish of any sort but just a simple party would be fine. With now being summer a simple do at the park would be great but thinking about it outdoor venue might not be very practical unless we have proper tent and seatings for other kids. I guess our house would be the obvious choice the only hindrance is its small and limited space. Hmmm like I say, I am now making plan of this little project….what to cook, what cake to bake or rather to experiment as this mommy is not that good in kitchen department. Only two weeks to go and I couldn’t help feeling excited……

Update, not really.

I have always been terribly terrible at sticking with things that I do, this blog for example. I have a million and one things to blog about but somehow I just could not find the time to materialize them. The truth is…I’m not good with words, I hate writing up and always I ended up hating what I wrote. But I do need to keep this blog alive because I would love to keep records, progresses and moments of my darling Mya as she grows up as well as recording this new phase of my life as a mommy. It would be good to be able to look back in many years to come and to see what kind of journey it has been.

My baby is now 11 months plus and she is such a lovely happy baby. She never fails to smile whenever she sees me back from work. She likes to sing her baby song ‘nananaa nana papaaaa taaa’ and sometimes she sings herself to sleep. She has not make a full use of her legs yet though she has now started to take few small steps aided by the sofas, furniture and anything in between cruising around our living room and sometime moving straight to our dining lounge assisted by the walls.

I found myself missing her so so so much during the day when I’m at works. And by 5pm sharp I would be dashing straight home and to see her beaming smile would just take all the tiredness away.

And I am now moving slowly to becoming a size 12/14 from an 8/small 10. My protruding tummy and my already huge shapeless butt are making me feeling disgusted with myself and I rarely enjoy what I see in the mirror these days. Disgusted because all my tops are tight and this is making me feeling so uncomfortable and body conscious all the time. And NO it was not the post baby bulge but thanks to my unscrupulous eating habit since I started work (and since I have my sister in-law around as she is such a great cook!). I must write more about this body issue next time…

Mommy's precious gem

Gorgeous little gem! At 8 1/2 month..showing off her teeth.

If I can't have you

 ..during the day, I must have you during the night.

That is what I think in her mind-set is.

She is no longer following her usual routine. In fact she now has her own new bed time routine for the past 1 month or so...she must have somebody next to her, sleeping together with her otherwise she would wake up and cry. She would not sleep in her own cot, as soon as she was put inside right after she doze off she would wake up again and start crying, standing right up and looking for her mommy. She would not want anybody else to comfort her....degil nih..

Its gonna be tough to break this habit....*sigh*...

On my feet...

Major 8 month milestone..well done my love!

Mapun gan ka'au Mya...?

Mya with her 'bayut' given by her puidoh...all the way from Miri...TQ puidoh.

Back to work

Been back to work since the last four weeks and I am loving it. Loving the buzz....Though it breaks my heart leaving Mya behind but in reality this mommy needs to work and earn a living. At least I know she's in a safe group of hands with her mak ayang, her pak ayang and her usu.

It was hard for the first few days plus the fact that she was full of cold and fever but again I have no other feasible choice. She is all well now apart from slight cough but nothing to worry about according to the GP.

And she is just getting more adorable each day...aaahh....my sweet sweetie pie.

Mommy, look i can sit longer now..

Yeahhh..i now know how to balance myself on my bump for more than 10 seconds...