Short Holiday - JB & Singapore, Melaka

Everyday, hubby has been bugging me - "eh, why never update your blog??"
It's just that these days, I have even less time for myself (since Elyssa is at home with me) and when I have the time, I don't seem to have the mood to blog.

But here's a post before I have to blow off the cobwebs ;)

Recently, we went for 2 short holidays -
1st short holiday - JB & Singapore. Hubby had a biz trip to JB on Thurs and Fri, so we tagged along then hopped over to S'pore for the weekend.

Stayed at Thistle Hotel, JB for 2 nights. I loved the spacious room!

Elyssa exploring the hotel room

Elyssa and I enjoyed plenty of time just lying in bed and watching tv, while daddy went to work :)

On Saturday morning, we took the shuttle bus from the hotel to Marina Sands in SG. Elyssa really enjoyed the bus ride!

Christmas lights @ Orchard Road. Decorations were lovely but as usual, the place was just so crowded.

2nd Short Holiday - Holiday in Melaka with hubby's side of the family. 9 adults and 5 kids altogether. Elyssa is now old enough to play with her 4 cousins and she had an absolute blast! In fact, every time we drove out (including a one hour journey to the Tangkak waterfall) she chose to sit with the jie-jie's rather than with hubby and I. He heh.... we had no complaints. Peace for us at last :) She was pretty well behaved the entire holiday except for the last evening when she got re-a-lly cranky due to insufficient sleep.

Some photos -

Our Japanese dinner on Christmas day

Yummy sushi platter

Cousins fooling around

Fun time at the Tangkak waterfall

Change

There's a big change going on in my life right now. Emotionally, I am thrilled, sad, excited, terrified, happy and I honestly don't know what else. Some days I feel on top of the world, some days I literally hide under the duvet and cry.

The big change is actually made up of 2 significant changes -
Change 1 : I'm pregnant! About 13 weeks+ now.
I think the hormones are making an absolute wreck of my emotions. I am happy (this is something I really wanted) but at the same time I am worried about so many things. Will baby be healthy? How will Elyssa react when the baby comes? Will I love the baby? Will I love Elyssa less? etc etc.

Change 2 : I'm leaving my current company
My role has been de-established in my company. After looking internally for jobs for a while, I am now taking the package. 7 years in the company, so I get almost 11 months salary as compensation.


Both changes are pretty big on their own, but taken together it has an even bigger impact - I have decided not to hop on to another job for now. After all, I am not really keen about showing up for a new job say being 4 or 5 months pregnant then going for maternity leave shortly after.

So, the BIG decision is to stop work until the baby comes. If I give myself about 2 months+ maternity leave, that means not working for at least 9 months. Or the right phrase is "leaving the corporate world" for at least 9 months. "Not work" is not quite right since I already have a few projects in hand. (more on that later).

I know I have so many reasons to be thrilled. As a working mum, I have said so many times "how nice if I don't have to work". And now I'm even being paid in advance! But somehow.......I don't know. I mean I've been in this rat race for 11 years now and somehow a part of me doesn't know how to stop. After all, the race has its benefits - mainly, I am so used to having money coming in at the end of each month. Plus all the other fringe benefits I enjoyed - such as unlimited medical care (including maternity), interest free car loan and the little stuff like free monthly internet and Elyssa's gymboree classes.

I worry whether how I view my self worth will be affected. I know it should not but I sometimes can't shake it off. I worry about financials. I worry about hubby. I worry about what happens after my break. I worry about a thousand things......then I think of the possibilities. My current projects. The additional free time that I will have to do the things I never had time for......... then I start worrying again. Up and down. Up and down. Yup, that's the emotional roller coaster I have been on recently. Depression, denial, happiness. Depression, denial, happiness. Depression, denial, happiness. Yea, blame the pregnancy hormones.

Ah well, good that I wrote all this down. Writing down my emotions (usually in my manual journal, first time in my blog) always helps me emotionally :)

This is how I should view this current big change in my life -

2 years, 8 months old

Elyssa is now 2 years, 8 months old. Pretty soon, I have to tell her to say "I am 3 years old" instead of "2 and a half years old"!


About Her:

1. Weight - approx 13.6kg
Height -

2. She has been completely off diapers at home for about 2 months now. When she wants to pee, she goes to the potty and takes off her own pants. She still needs help pulling up her pants though. But definitely a big improvement from the early days of potty training when the words "I want to pee pee" had us jumping off our butts as if there's a fire ;)

3. Unfortunately, she is going through a "I don't like daddy" phase. *Sigh*. She likes it when daddy carries her, or tells her a story or when daddy has food (well, she sticks to anyone who has food!), but at other times, she often ignores him or screams when daddy tries to hug her/ change her clothes/ tries to bathe her etc. I'm pretty sure the root cause is that I'm spending more time with her since I've been clearing my annual leave. Given the current change in situation (will be explained later), I will be spending even more time with her, so I'm not sure how to deal with this.

4. She just loves to dance. I must take a video recording of her soon! Her dance steps can be pretty hilarious.

5. I am more "liberal" these days when it comes to not-so-healthy food. This month, she had her first lolipop (given by Body Shop sales girl), first cup of Baskin Robbins chocolate ice-cream all to herself (bought by her pak-pak) and first McDonalds Chicken Burger Happy Meal (I'm solely guilty for this!).
Not sure whether this is connected, but she doesn't seem too keen on her plain milk these days. Maybe she has developed a tastebud for sweeter and tastier things??? Oh no.... I think I'll go back to my "not-so-liberal" mode after all.

1st lollipop
(oh yeah, she always gives me this fake smile when I ask her to smile for the camera)

1st McD Happy Meal

5. She loves pretending to cook. She can spend countless hours pretending to buy food, then cut up food, cook food then feed either us or her soft toys.

6. She still surprises me with new words now and then. Like yesterday in the hospital when I tried to explain to her who are the doctors and who are the nurses. I started with "doctors wear white coats..." and then she interrupted and said "yes, and doctors wear stethoscope around their necks".
Looks like she has been absorbing plenty of new things at my parents house :)

7. She likes to "help" me with the household chores. I guess it makes her feel important! I use inverted commas for the "help" cos it usually means that my chores take a lot longer to complete.

Like the scenario below when she insisted she wanted to help me put the clothes in the washing machine. Looks "helpful" but it involves me : 1) waiting for her to get her little blue stool from the bathroom 2) waiting for her to put the clothes in ONE-BY-ONE. ;)

Fun Time with Justin koko

Every weekday, Elyssa and cousin Justin koko have a good time enjoying each others company. It's really nice to watch them play together :)

I took the photos below last Friday -

Playing Ball together

Watching fish together

Play time at the nearby playground

Dancing together after dinner

Yes, plenty of fun!
But every SINGLE day, this happens too (not just once, but MULTIPLE times) -

Koko - don't touch my toy. Wahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Best friends one moment, worst enemies the next...... and then best friends again. I guess that's part and parcel of childhood :)

Bicycle Ride with Ah Koo

My brother took Elyssa on a bicycle ride this evening.

Must adjust seat belt first

Yay..... all ready to go

And we are off!

Elyssa and her Ah Koo
Alamak.... mummy didn't see earlier. Safety aspect- FAIL! Helmet and seatbelt strap not adjusted properly.

Ah Kong helping to remove helmet

This is actually Elyssa's second ride on the bicycle with her Ah Koo. The first time (few weeks back), she was so scared that she didn't utter a single word during the entire journey! Ha ha.. not easy for this girl to be speechless.

So I was surprised when she wanted to try again today. Still scared but at least she could answer some basic questions that my brother asked her during the journey. I think with a few more tries, she will start enjoying these rides :)

Sick

My poor princess is sick :(
Down with mild fever, flu and cough. Had to skip her Gymboree class and a swimming session planned with her cousins.

She has been AWFULLY cranky today. When she's upstairs, she wants to go downstairs. When I accompany her down, she wants to go upstairs. She bawls at every little thing eg when I want to clean goo from her nose or when she knocks herself slightly on the sofa or when she doesn't get what she wants. *Sigh*. I hope she recovers soon!

But at times she was still her normal cheeky self. She gave me a good laugh this morning - She asked me where daddy was so I told her daddy was taking a shower in the bathroom. She went to the room, knocked on the bathroom door and hollered out loud :
"Daddy, Are you washing your BACKSIDE?????"

Daddy couldn't hear her in the bathroom so she shouted out loud the same question at least 8 times. Ha hahhhh!!!!! I hope the neighbours didn't hear that. ;)

Visit to the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary

A few weeks back, my SIL suggested a trip to the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary for her 3 nieces. We finally made it yesterday during the Hari Raya Haji public holiday. I told Elyssa about the elephant trip early this week and she seemed excited enough. But the night before the trip, she quietly told me she didn't want to go as she was scared. Aiyo! My seemingly tough little girl is such a softie inside ;) She only agreed to go when I reassured her that daddy will carry her if she gets scared.

We went in 2 cars for the approx 2 hour journey to the Temerloh district. Stopped by at Bentong town for the famous wan tan mee and home made ice-cream.

The famous Kow Po ice-cream shop
I've never seen a local ice-cream shop before!

The ice-cream platter (RM10) hubby and I shared
We chose peanut, sweet corn, pandan and chocolate ice-cream. Nice and creamy. I didn't like the peanut flavour cos it was a tad salty but it was hubby's favourite.

After filling up our tummies, we headed straight to the elephant sanctuary.

We already pre-booked the free tickets for the entrance and rides. Wanted to watch the video presentation scheduled for 1.30pm but the viewing room was packed so we had to skip it. Just before 2pm, we walked over to the elephant site.

Big crowd waiting for the elephants

A not too happy Elyssa in her classic "nervous, so must play with belly button" position

Finally! The crowd was so excited when the elephants appeared.

Elephant Parade
I was expecting some kind of show, but there was none

Elephants taken for a quick dip in the river

After the quick dip in the river, the next activities were :

1) Elephant feeding - boxes of food (slightly rotten papaya, watermelon and cucumber cut into big chunks) were brought out so that visitors could feed the elephants.

2) Elephant riding - 2 sections : 1 for adults (on adult elephants) and 1 for kids (on baby elephants). No seats, just bareback on the elephant with the handler.

3) Water activity in the river - those with tickets could sit on the elephant backs then get dunked into the water.


Activity 1 - Feeding

Yup, that's MY hand feeding the elephant!
Elyssa (who was in daddy's arms) refused to go near the elephant so I had to resort to self photography. Quite scary when the huge elephant trunk got so close to me!

Elyssa with daddy

Ha ha.... see the scared look on her face?

Activity 2 - Riding

My 2 nieces - Chloe and Charmaine riding a baby elephant

Elyssa watching the elephant rides from afar

Elyssa and I

Activity 3 - Water activity

Watching from a distance

We had 4 tickets among us, but skipped it since we were too lazy to go through the hassle of washing up if we were to get dunked. (just look at the colour of the water!)

Other photos -

Poor baby elephant with a stump for one of the legs.

Me touching the baby elephant.
Very hairy!

After the elephant sanctuary, we went back to KL for an early dinner back. Took this simple but sweet photo of Elyssa and her Chloe jie jie. Elyssa absolutely adores this jie jie!

2 years, 7 months old

My little Elyssa is now 2 years, 7 months old.



About her:

1. Weight : 13.6kg

2. Sometimes a good jie-jie, sometimes a bad jie-jie to her two baby cousins. When she's good, she plays with them and loves to "help" them by propping up their milk bottles, fetching stuff etc. When she's bad, she takes away whatever toys they are playing even if it results in crying babies :( I think it's a way for her to seek attention.

3. When she poos in her potty at home, she must take a small book to "read". Why? So she can be just like mummy. Ha ha!

4. Her mouth is still like a leaky tap. She has never stopped drooling since she was a baby.

5. She enjoys pushing her little stroller around when we go out to shopping centres.
What amuses me most is that she likes to imitate what we do. I've heard her say to her little Miss Sunshine toy : "Must be good girl ok? Sit in stroller. Cannot pao-pao." Sometimes, she stops to carry her toy - "Aiyo, you naughty girl. Why you cry? Elyssa pao-pao leeetle while only. Cannot too long. Afterwards Elyssa hands tired. Little while only ok? Later you must sit down". or sometimes : "Little Miss Sunshine - you see the cat there? So cute hor?"

Ha haa....... very similar to what we have told her last time.

6. She's very much at a Miss Copy Cat stage. Many times, we ponder about her behaviour before realising that's exactly what we do sub-consciously. I guess she's silently observing us all the time!

7. My mum has started to teach her Mandarin. She now knows basic Mandarin phrases like "I want to drink milk", " go wash hand" , "I want to poo poo", body parts in Mandarin and counting from 1 to 10. Pretty soon, she'll be better than her daddy :)