Our first overseas trip - Day 4 - 20 Dec

It was the last day of the trip, hubby and I rushed to Isetan at Lot 10 to buy some last minute stuff which I wanted... After our "brunch" and little girl's lunch at the food court, we returned to the hotel for check out... Little girl was so tired that she fell asleep...

I was so bored that I took a photo of little girl in the pram at the hotel lobby... Eh, angle is wrong, so cannot see little girl... :p

 

Anyway, we decided to make a trip to Malacca without a map!!! So little girl slept all the way to Malacca... Malacca's traffic was really bad and we were stuck there for close to 2 to 3 hours. All for the sake of buying some nice Malacca goodies... We made a pit stop at the MacDonalds near the Malacca zoo to feed little girl.

This is a photo taken on the way out of Meleka... :p Hubby saw the nice landscaping but we could not stop for pictures, so I took a picture from the car!

Little girl in the car seat... :)

In the end, hubby and I were late for the wedding because of the bad traffic in Malacca. During the end of the trip, hubby promised me that he will bring me to Malaysia again...

Afterthoughts: 
It was a good trip despite little girl's solid food strike... This is our first experiment bringing her for an overseas trip when she is 1 year old... Hopefully there will be more of such trips for hubby and I. :)

Our first overseas trip - Day 3 - 19 Dec

It's a day of shopping... shopping and MORE shopping... :) Hubby and I walked down from The Federal to Lot 10. The shops were not opened yet so we just took photos...

Little girl is walking walking and walking... 

  

For girls who want to look thin... remember the angle of photo taking eh? :p

A photo at the Pavillion... The Pavillion is a very nice shopping centre! I feel it's nicer than KLCC. If you do visit, do apply for the trourist privilege card... And if you go early enough, you can see the security guards marching outside the Pavillion just before the shopping centre opens...

  

Another photo with daddy n the little one smiling... :)

 

Beautiful christmas trees!!! :) Such a Royale Christmas!

  

Little one having her lunch happily after a nap at Pavillion. PS: We had our lunch at pepper lunch!

  

Little girl's favourite distraction... "Hmm... mummy can i use this credit card?"

   

It's another one of daddy's creations... Mag Mag is darling's favourite item for drinking water from...

   

After lunch, little girl is happy and moving around... There are little seats around the area, so she's walking around those seats...

  

 

Here are more pictures... :)

  

After Pavillion, we took a cab down to Chinatown... It rained heavily so we were stuck at Popular book store. So after walking around Chinatown, we took a small walk down to Central Market! :)

   

Dinner was at Jalan Alor! So far the best KL Hokkien Mee I have had for the entire trip at KL! So we decided to have a photo taken.   

Afterthought: 
The last day in KL was the one which I enjoyed the most... Little girl was eating well and we had a very good dinner at Jalan Alor. We also had foot reflexology at about 9plus at night. Little girl went along and she SO refused to fall asleep! We were done by 10plus and by then little girl was beyond sleepiness. She fell asleep immediately after her head hit the pillows... :p Hubby had a good sleep after the foot reflexlogy too!  

Our first overseas trip - Day 2 - 18 Dec

After some good rest at the hotel, we decided to set out to the tallest twin tower in Asia - Petronas Tower. Although the guide books did rate KLCC and Petronas Tower lowly, nevertheless we decided to take a look. A taxi sent us there (no meter but the fare was reasonable - RM 10 from Bukit Bintang).

The taxi driver told us to quickly queue up as there was a limit of 300 visitors to the skybridge... Well, expectedly, there were no more tickets left!

So... instead of taking pictures from the inside of the skybridge, we took some photos outside instead.

The sky was downcast and it did rain heavily that afternoon...

  

Mummy got into a photo snapping mood. So the different poses... And finally mummy caught one with dad and little girl staring at the camera! :)

  

Our breakfast at KFC so took the opportunity to feed little girl. As I mentioned in the previous entry, little girl was not in the mood to eat because.... SHE DID NOT POO!!! (so no out means nothing goes in...) As you can see she is struggling to get out of the seat while I was trying to get her to finish her food. Anyway, mummy lost cos she fed her food to her dress... *SIGH...*

  

In KLCC... Daddy laughing at little girl's eagerness to have a taste of Gingerbread Man and the houses that are made of sweets... Luckily she's not named Gretel. 

 

Done with the milk feed, little girl at the diaper changing room in KLCC Isetan... The rain kept us in KLCC longer than we wanted. KLCC was not such a nice shopping centre to spend the entire day. Once the rain stopped, we made a dash for the hotel... 

Little girl had a swim at the hotel. After the swim, it was bathe time... 

 

Caught on camera! :p

After the bathe and her dinner (which she ate with lots of noise - cos she hasn't poo-ed yet), we went out for our nice stir fry at Jalan Alor. We had very nice grilled stingray! 

Afterthought:

Seriously, no one would have thought that not poo-ing for a day or two would affect the little one's appetite. She refused her own solids and yet she was willing to take adult food like A&W waffle, etc. What sort of rationale was that? Hubby and I could not understand. The decision to buy a pack of blue berries from the supermarket (it was almost SGD 5!) was surely wise. Expensive but worth every cent!

Our first overseas trip - Day 1 - 17 Dec 09

The day started at ICA. We collected little girl's passport, fed her lunch at Macdonalds and made our way to KL via the Tuas Checkpoint. Traffic was smooth, the weather was great (a little downcast but not rainy...).


We decided to risk it all and drive up to KL on our own. Hubby was armed with maps printed from the internet because we did not have GPS (Should have gotten one since that would have made things easier for us).

Lucky for us, little gal slept about 2 hrs (equals to half of the trip)... 

  

She however... Decided to stay awake during the next half... And this means TROUBLE! for mummy and daddy... So we had no choice but to make a pit stop near KL (this is the stop over place after the one with A&W and KFC)... :) Me and hubby decided to have our late lunch there while little one gets her chance to STREEECCCCHHHH...

  

Left: "Papa, I take the spoon and feed myself okay?" Right: "Papa since u dun let me take the spoon, I point to you what I wan from your plate? Can I have the errm..."

  

Hubby had yummy nasi lemak (do not look down on the chilli paste, it didn't look good but tasted damn nice!). I had laksa (Penang style) - slight tinge of spiciness with sourness. It was so refreshing I felt like having another bowl. I did not even stop to take a photo until I was almost done with the entire bowl...

   

As you can see, how gleeful little girl is after the small streching session at the canteen. We were on our way to the diaper changing room... :) 

 

Little girl after she was done changing diapers and I sat her there to wash her hands. 

PS: I was really impressed, even in this little stop over on the highway, there is a diaper changing room! It seems most places in Malaysia (or KL) has a diaper changing room with a small chair for breastfeeding mothers! I really hope to see this change in Singapore too!

3.30PM - WE FINALLY REACH THE FEDERAL IN KL!

We finally checked in! Featuring little girl as...

  

The Crawler...

 

The Happy Explorer...

  

The receptionist... 

And so... All was well and good until dinner time...

 

Either she hated my porridge or she hated this high chair. A combination of both = two adults trying to have a peaceful dinner with a wailing baby trying to climb onto the dinner table and grab whatever utensils she could reach... 

And so this scene repeated itself the next day (and mummy realised why during dinner the next day - check out for the next post). 

Afterthoughts: 

I was stressed about leaving a place where I was comfortable to have her (i.e. at home). The stress of travelling with a baby for the first time overwhelmed me as I recollected the many horrer stories of how babies acted up when they travelled. 

When she refused her dinner, all I could think of was how terrible I would be feeling (knowing that my girl is not feeding well because this mother for her own selfish reasons wanted to go travelling). I could tell that hubby was worried that I would not be enjoying this highly anticipated trip and tried his best to placate my daughter at the eatery. 

Thinking back now, I would like to apologise to my hubby and little girl for blowing my top. Stress is no excuse... And hubby is right, this is a trip, we should 

ALL BE HAPPY!

Our first overseas trip - Random Ramblings

Yes, this mother has been dying to go on a trip and has been lamenting how she has not travelled since she was pregnant and is "Singapore"-bounded for close to 2 years... :p There were lots of discussions about where to go - would it be Taiwan (a country mummy wans to go so badly), Hong Kong, someplace in Malaysia or Bangkok?

TADAR! One week before the trip, it was decided - KUALA LUMPUR! We decided to skip Genting since it would be too cold and I did not want to risk the little one catching a cold while up there. Before I continue, let me say 3 things I cannot stand during the trip:

1. KL TAXIS DO NOT RUN ON METERS!
We booked The Federal which was located at Bukit Bintang (the shopping strech of KL - and seriously, taxi drivers there chopped us like carrots because they would say "Sir/Mam, there jam lar... I need to do detour..." And yes, I am disgusted because they will charge us 2 to 3 times more (imagine the trip there is 7 dollars and they charge us $25 just to get back to hotel!

2. THINGS CAN GET REALLY SLOW!
And having stayed in a fast paced country, it is a torture to stand in line and watch the service staff give you quality service... Haiz, the bane of staying in a country where efficiency is equivalent to the snap of your fingers...

3. THE FEDERAL IS LESS THAN THE 4 STARS IT CLAIMS!
a) The shower sucks - Yes, I had a terrible time trying to wash little girl after she poos (if she so happen to be in the hotel). The water that comes out from the shower is miserable. It's like a "trickle"... Maybe it's a tatic to save water?
b) The sound proofing is horrid - I could hear the traffic going on the road. I could hear kids 2 rooms down screaming at the top of the voices. I could hear people talk as they walk down the corridor. AND YES! I could hear my neighbouring room occupants draining water after taking a soak in the bath tub and then taking a shower (I could hear the water hitting the bath tub!).
c) The mini bar was pathetic (was there even one in the first place?) - There were only 2 packs of Lipton tea in the bar... No coffee and anything else. Not even soft drinks or others in the fridge! *GOSH!*
d) Complimentary bottled water was only given during the last night - It seemed to me like an afterthought. "I better give them complimentary water so that they will write good comments about us."

With the above, I swear I will be more careful in future about the hotel I book. Hubby felt it was not worth the price to stay in such a hotel. I could only agree that the only saving grace that it was along Bukit Bintang (situated extremely near Sungei Wang - the shopping centre which has Giant supermarket and Jalan Alor - where you can get cheap and great assortment of non-halal stir fry food).

Okay enough of the ramblings... check out Part 2 - the trip itself...

More photos from my sister's camera! :)

My sister uploaded some of the pictures in her facebook. These are clearer pictures of the birthday cake (from Pine Garden at Ang Mo Kio Ave 10).

My colleague jokingly quoted me saying "I want bees and ladybugs on the cake!"

The top view...

Here are more photos of my little girl: 

The happy birthday girl. :) Who was she laughing at?

"Eh what is that glowing thing? Can it be eaten?"

In picture: Daddy, Baby, Mummy! Baby Nic is cutting the cake!

A picture of the super-sized ANG KU KUEH!

The 1st Birthday Party!!!

6th December (Sunday) was little girl's 1st year birthday party. We had to celebrate it one week early as my parents were going overseas and hubby and I each have a function to attend on the following Saturday and Sunday.

The Invitations...
The invitations were sent out to close friends (esp those with kids) and relatives (most of them were hubby's relatives from Malaysia). Hubby made an invitation card for me to give out. It was sized on 4R photo paper and folded into half. The invitations sent out via facebook and emails was an adpatation of hubby's card (see below). Thanks hubby for coming up with such a nice concept for the card! : )

The food...
We catered our buffet from DeliHub and it was a good deal as we got the 20% discount for booking a month early. Thanks to Jowinbaby for telling me. :) Good thing is no food was wasted, left overs were packed up and taken back by hubby's relatives...

The cake figurines...
Hubby suggested that we use the Slyvannian Family. It was something special other than the usual Pooh or Mickey/Minnie theme ( I wanted those usual theme, because it's easier to get party supplies). Originally, we wanted to get the mouse family. But we couldn't find a nice one, so we chose another rodent - the Walnut Squirrel. :)  We bought the outdoor table set and hence the concept of "Garden party with flowers" was born.

The cake...
This was my greatest worry because 1 week before 5 Dec, I was still in the midst of confirming the design with Pine Garden. Luckily for me, Shi Hui was helpful and we manage to confirm the cake's flavours, size and design.

The design was adapted from one of those in their catalogue. As I was crazy about bees and ladybugs, I requested for them to be placed on the cake... This is the best photo I could find of the cake... Until I get a better one, this is how the cake looks like...

The cake is 3.5kg (1kg on top, 2.5kg below). The top tier is Moutain Cat Durian flavour while the bottom is Chocolate Hazelnut crunch. No doubt that the cake did burn quite a hole in the pocket! But! All was worth it when the kids and adults Oooohed and Ahhhhed about how beautiful the cake was... And of course, the adults who LOVE durians raved about how fantastic the Cat Moutain Durian (or is it Moutain Cat Durian?) cake was! The adults who didn't like durian and kids loved the Chocolate Hazelnut crunch and even the icing (yes, they asked for 2nd serving. And they even asked me "Auntie, can I have the (alphabet) please?"). The kids also did not forget about those chocolate bees and lady bugs and the icing that were in cubes!

As you can see, the little one just recieved 2 angpows from Ah Tai and she's not letting go! I guess she must be wondering why everyone is "crowding" around her.

The door gifts...
Hubby and I spent an entire afternoon hunting for special door gifts. I had already planned to give the kids things that can be eaten. While walking around Bugis, we came across these nice little Disney Pooh PVC jars (there was Pooh - purple, Piglet -pink, Tigger -yellow and Eyeore - blue). There were those strips of paper inside for folding stars. And since it was within our budget, we bought 16 of them (luckily, we bought extra because we realised that it was just enough for the kids). See this was when I told hubby that if we chose the "Pooh" theme, then the PVC jars will gell nicely (oh well too late to change anyway...).

3 days before the party, I sat in the living room packing in the goodies which included : 1 mini lollipop, 1 Ferror Rocher,  1 pack of Neon Gummy Worms (hey it's a garden party lor...), 1 small pack of Healthy Times Organic teddy Puff and 3 pcs of Healthy Times  Organic Arrowroot Cookies (It's flower shaped! Maple or Vanilla Flavour packed in a small zip lock bag.)

The kids were excited! Especially the older ones who were in kindergarten because the strips of paper provided entertainment and they started to fold "stars". Even the parents join in the fun. Too bad I did not take a photo of the kids and parents folding "stars"...

PS: The kids also got to choose water-on-tattoos! :) Bee or lady bug. Hubby found them at the party store while we were getting the birthday candle and banner. These were originally for the kids but the adults wanted too! Too bad the some of the lady bugs got wet and there were only a few left. (You can see the photo below, the kid on the right side of the photo has a "bee" tattoo on her right arm... the gal on the left had one too but hers was covered by her shirt...) :P

The main part of the party ended and the tradition begins... Little girl ate her chicken drum stick with one leg stepping out of the door. It signifies 出外不愁吃.

And of course the "Dah Ku" ceremony where she steps on the super sized ang ku kueh. To me it signifies a life with progress while my hubby's grandma says it's a ceremony to ensure that she grows well and safe. I can't seem to find photos of this part... After the ceremony, little girl gets to wear her first pair of shoes. The "old people" believe that babies should not wear shoes too early (i.e. before 1 year old) else they will "run away". I do not know how true. But hubby and I picked out a new pair for her and it's cute pink Disney Baby shoes!

Photos (posed) with the birthday girl
PS: The balloon deco was proudly put up by hubby and I the night before. Thanks hubby for blowing every single one of them and of course a pat on my own back for tying them together into flowers. :)

A BIG THANK YOU! 

Sadly, I missed taking photos with many of the guests and not to mention my own family (sobs...). I was too tired and the whole party was too big for me to handle. Perhaps if I ever have such a huge party, I will call for a professional photographer to take photos of the entire event...

I have to say a BIG thank you to:

Hubby - for being the only photographer (and entertainer to the kids - teaching them how to fold stars). And putting up with my naggings on invitation cards, invitation list, etc. And of course, the brain child for the cake figurines which I love too (since I was looking for something special too... although it's difficult to pull it off).

My parents - who came super early with our breakfast and helping me get the "chicken drumstick" and prayer items for the day. And of course sponsoring little girl's Ralph Lauren red dress (which I got from the US store when they had sale) and the pair of shoes...

My sister's boyfriend Jeff - who came with the much needed stools and of course a video camera. ;)

My grandma + aunt - Who also came with the much needed stools too and entertained Xi En when all the guests have left.

AND ALL THE GUESTS!!!
Who came despite busy schedules (like going for another party and rushing to mine, coming to my party although brother was getting married, coming all the way from Malaysia, dropping by despite busy wedding celebrations - you know who you are!) to celebrate with us this special occassion.

And on behalf of little Nicole - THANK YOU for the generous gifts and ang pows!!!

Coming to 12 months old...

The little girl is going to be 12 months old really soon... A year just flashed by and for me it's interesting to see how much she has grown and progressed. :)

Here is a photo which we took at Pasta Mania today. Hubby was pretty amused by how determined she was! I took a slice of the Banana Dessert Pizza to eat. When she saw it, her whole face lit up and she reached for my wrist! Guided the slice towards herself and started to "chew" off the edge of it. When she got some of the pizza, she would soften her grip on my wrist. When she wanted more she repeated again. I proclaim: "Never underestimate the "power" of her 2 bottom tooth!" :p

PS: Her 8th tooth has emerged on 27 Nov 2009!

And this is my new method of bathing the little girl. Hmmm, it saves water!!! :p

 Look at how delighted she is when it's "pong-pong" time! :)

My little "Astro-Girl"...

 

Ahhh... nothing beats sitting in the tub! *Bliss*

Okay, hubby finally caught her on camera. It's her "inside" the coffee table. When she sees something she's interested in, she'll not hesisate to crawl inside to get it! There's no stopping her... :p

 *opps... caught by daddy!*

"Hmm... let me mark my territory!" (using her drool which is still at it's peak...)

 

"To mark my territory, I have to spread it thinly on the surface..."