Her Own Bed

Elyssa has passed another milestone - sleeping on her own bed! (or more like we have been successful in kicking her out of our bed. ha hahh)

I started my "mini-project" about 2 weeks ago and it went smoother than expected.

First Night
She was pretty excited when she saw hubby converting her baby cot into her bed. That same night, I placed her milk & water bottle on her own bed and she happily climbed up and drank her milk& water there. But after she finished, she climbed down and proceeded to climb up to our bed as usual. Since she always wants me to pat her to sleep, I just told her : "If you want mummy to pat pat you, you go and sleep on your own special bed". "You want mummy to pat pat you"? She said "yes" and then went back to her bed. Ha hahh..... I was pretty shocked and pleased that it was so easy !!!

But it was not an easy night though. Don't know whether she wanted the thrill of it of what, she ended up demanding me to pat her like every 45 minutes throughout the night !!! It felt as if just minutes after I get back to my bed, I hear a little voice saying "pat pat". Aaaargh !!! I ended up sleeping on the hard floor next to her bed so I didn't have to keep getting up. (I asked hubby to help but she screamed when her daddy touched her, so poor mummy had to do the job)

2nd Night & rest of first week
I told hubby that I couldn't stand walking to her bed to keep patting her. We ended up rearranging the room so that her bed is right next to ours. So, if she ask me to pat her, I can just reach out from my own bed and pat her her royal highness :)

Anyway for Day 2 onwards, she didn't wake up as often. Don't know how though, but she somehow always ended up in our bed in the mornings!

Week 2 till now
Yay...... she sleeps through (most of the time) and wakes up in her own bed !!!!!


Although I am happy that she has "graduated" to her own bed, a part of me misses her being on my bed - smelling her sweet smell and also waking up in the middle of the night with a hand/leg/head/butt smack in the middle of my face :)

I can't help thinking of the first year of her life where she practically slept under my armpit and how I dared not move an inch so as not to wake up my super-light sleeper. I used to wake up in the morning with muscle ache due to my "frozen" position. Ha hahh....

Anyway, found an old photo of her in her baby cot. -

Phuket - Part 2

*long overdue post on what we did in Phuket*

Well actually, we didn't do a lot of things during the recent Phuket trip. With such a nice villa, mostly we just stayed in and enjoyed the villa :)

Anyway, just wanted to recap it here for remembrance.

Day 1

- had lunch on the Air Asia flight.

- arrived at Villa - ooh'ed, aah'ed and happily took photos.

- walked to the nearby Turtle Village and I managed to get an Esprit top.

- luckily Elyssa was tired out and took her afternoon nap without much fuss.

- lazed around, jumped into plunge pool.

- had dinner at the "The Club" restaurant at the Turtle Village followed by ice-cream at Swensons.

- watched dvds (borrowed from the club), lazed around, then zzzzzz.

@ Swensons

"Ah Kong/ Ah Mah, which ice-cream should I choose?"

Day 2

-rented a car for the day.

- My mum and I had a quick swim in the morning. While waiting for the rented car, she joined one of the free exercise class. (stretching class)

- First stop was at a factory outlet. I was so excited as it looked like the factory outlets in US. Arranged a meeting place with my parents for 3 hours later. But we were done in 1/2 hour. Things were not cheap at all. Disappointing :(

- Drove around and had lunch at a small Thai restaurant. Had tomyam, lemon chicken, green curry, thai salad and coconut. Tasted Fabulous. Cheap too !!!

- Evening - drove around Phuket. Got pretty hot around 5+ so we were happy to shop at a big shopping centre (Jungceylon) mainly cos of the aircon.

- Night : walked along Patong streets then brought groceries at Carrefour.

- Went back to the villa. Lazed around then zzzzz.

Our Rented Car -

@ Patong Beach -

Walking along street @ Patong-

Day 3

- had a quick swim in the morning.
- let Elyssa play in the playroom.
- listened to the talk. and yes, we loved the Vacation Club !!!
- ate lunch cooked by my mum (since kitchen was fully equipped)
- Elyssa was too excited to sleep so we went for a walk to the beach. Luckily she dozed off while hubby and I chatted on a swing by the beach.
- Went back to our villa and plonked sleeping girl to our bed.
- Hubby and I jumped into the plunge pool (again!). This time, ready with hot coffee at the side (for me) and ice-cold coke (for hubby). Nice !!!
- lazed around, then had dinner cooked by my mum. (ha hah..... big advantage of bringing my mum)
- Took buggy to "kaypoh" nearby hotel.
- Watched DVD then zzzzzzzz.

Happily playing in the Playroom

Nice quiet beach

Elyssa @ the Outdoor Bar (probably hoping she can order her nen-nen here ;) )

Day 4

- Hubby took Elyssa for a walk while I went for my morning swim.

- Enjoyed buffet breakfast as we wanted to utilise the THB2000 voucher that we got during the talk.

- Lazed around somemore.

- Time to go home !!!!!!! Boo hooo hooooooo........Why must great times just fly by?????

Morning Walk with Daddy

Breakfast Place

Fantastic holiday...... we'll definitely be back for more !!! :)

"Ah Pek" Walk

Sometimes when we go out shopping, Elyssa gets a lot of attention due to her "ah pek" walking style. Hah hahhhhhhh........... it's exactly the walking style of her grandpa :)

1 Year, 9 Months Old

About Elyssa:

1. Weight : approx 11.4 kg

No. of teeth : 8 (4 down, 4 up), with 2 peeking out at the top.

2. She's going through an independant phase. Like recently when she was trying to wear her shoes and her cousin Charmaine helped her - she cried, kicked off the shoes then wore the shoes again on her own.

3. Some of her frequently used words - "No Want!" (this is used WAYYY to frequently), "Psss" (for please), "Tek Kiu" (for thank you), "More", "Eat", "Mummy", "Daddy", "Kong" , "Mah", "Ko ko", "Ta tak" (for kakak), "Koo", "Kim", "To Away"(for throw away), "Go Away", "Kai Kai", "Draw Draw", "Toup" (for soup), "Walk Walk" , "Yes"
She also has a tendency to only use the last syllable of a word eg "Pen" for Open. "Gurt" for yogurt. "Ter" for water.

4. Most of the time, she uses single words. The item closest to a sentence was "koko"... "go away"... "room". Ha hahh.... that's the bossy girl asking cousin Justin to go into the room when they were fighting over a toy.

5. One of her favourite activities is to "draw" or asking us to draw. She'll say "draw draw" and say (ask for) "paper" and "pen".
6. She's been off diapers for the past 2 months during day time at my parents place. But of course "accidents" are common. Probably about twice on a normal day but certain "off" days, it can be a lot more.

7. Every night before she sleeps, she gives me a wet sloppy kiss on the mouth and then says "night night". I just love it !! When she's in a good mood, she'll give her daddy a kiss as well.

8. She's getting more choosy with food. Last time, she'll be happy with whatever food she gets. But now if there are 2 food items and one is tastier than the other, she'll insist on having the tastier one.

9. She loves to go to her grandparent's house. Every weekday morning when I ask her - "Do you want to go to Ah Kong, Ah Mah's house?" It's always a "YES" followed by a big grin :)

Marriott Vacation Club, Phuket

When a friend offered to recommend us for a FREE 4 days, 3 nights stay at the Marriott Vacation Club in Phuket, hubby and I said "yes" immediately. After all, we have previously heard some nice stories about the resort. Only thing was that we had to listen to a 90 minute sales presentation there. 90 minutes out of 4 days? OK what....

Arrangements were quickly made and we got our 2-bedroom villa booked for 18 Dec. Yipeee! I asked my parents to come along too since there were 2 rooms.

We were all pretty excited on the day of the vacation. It was Elyssa's first plane flight and luckily she did really well -didn't cry or fuss at all during the short 1 hour, 15 minutes flight. A sign that we are ready for for more vacations after this :)

When we reached Phuket airport, there was a pre-arranged van to send us to the villa. And after we checked in to the villa, we all kept exclaiming "Wow", "SOOOOOO Nice" "Wow" !!!!!
Why? Will let the pics do the talking...

My happy mum in the living room

Our private plunge pool !!!
(we just LOVED, LOVED this !!! This was an upgrade and not part of the standard villa)

Master Bedroom
(can jump into the plunge pool from here)


2nd Bedroom


Dining and Living Room


Fully Equipped Kitchen
(comes with plates, cutlery, pots, toaster, oven etc. And yes, even rice cooker!)


Backyard of the Villa

Laundry Room
(complete with washing machine, dryer and soap powder. We utilised this on our last day so we don't have to deal with dirty laundry when we go home)


Turtle Village
(mini shopping area with supermarket, cafes and ice-cream parlour very near our villa)


View of the Resort

Super nice eh?? Especially since it was FREE :) Before this, I would only stay in these sort of villas...... in my dreams! And yes, after careful consideration we signed up for the Vacation Club in the end. So, if anyone is interested for a similar free holiday, just let me know (via comments or my email : adrineong@yahoo.co.uk) and I will send you the referral email. No obligations.

Will write more about what we did in Phuket in the next post. But would just like to end this post with a pic of a happy Elyssa enjoying her "nen-nen" by the swimming pool :)

Food Ordering

When the waiter came to take our orders at the mamak shop last weekend :

Me : "Kopi C, Thosai"
Hubby : "Teh C, Thosai"

Then out-of-the-blue (while looking straight at the waiter) :

Elyssa : "Nen Nen !"


Ha ha hahhh...... my dear Elyssa, unfortunately you can't order milk in a milk bottle at the mamak shop ;)

2010 New Years Day

Happy Year 2010 !!

We celebrated 2010 with a bbq party at a friend's place. Or more like a 20% bbq party only..... since most of the food (mashed potatoes, satay, fried noodles, achar, tiramisu, nuggets, salad etc) didn't require any cooking :) But we did put the satay on the bbq pit so that it looked more like a "real" bbq !! ha hahh.

Elyssa was the only kid among 20+ of us 30-somethings, so naturally she got loads of attention ;) She had a blast with all the kor-kors and cheh-chehs stuffing her with food and playing with her.

Some pictures of the happy girl -

"Down"

"and UP. hooray !!!!"

"Must run before this crazy uncle catches me again !!"

When it was almost midnight, I started yawning and the uncles & aunties who played with Elyssa were tired out. But she was like an Energizer bunny still running around and laughing away! We left shortly after midnight as we knew that Elyssa would not stop playing with so many people around. Sure enough, she fell asleep soon after we got into the car.

After we got home, one of the things I did was to look up my old blog entry which I made one year ago for 2009 Countdown. When I looked at her photos, I couldn't help thinking how much my little princess has grown. Then I wondered whether I have grown as much, as a person. Hmm.... in some aspects yes, in some aspects not as much as I had hoped.

Ah well, it's a brand new year and a the chance for a new beginning and yes, for new resolutions too.

Happy 2010! Here's to a fantastic year ahead. Cheers !!!