1 year, 10 months old

-belated post-

Elyssa is now 1 year, 10 months old. Gosh, I can't believe that she'll be celebrating her second birthday in 2 months time...


About her:

1. Weight : approx 11.3kg.
Teeth : can't remember. But she has 2 new molars on her bottom jaw.

2. In terms of speech, Elyssa today is totally different from Elyssa 1.5 or 2 months ago. It's like she's going through a massive speech development growth! On an almost daily basis, she surprises us by saying new words or new sentences. Eg:
"(H)ere itchy. Ah Kong Massage"
"Mummy, Nice Dress!"
"Uncle Water Plants"
"Help Daddy Water Plants"
"Eh- Lee-Sa Wash Hand. Eat Rice"
"No Want Sit Stroller"

She's actually a real chatter box. In the car, she can talk or sing to herself for more than 30 minutes. At this stage, we still find this cute, but I'm sure one day we'll want to buy earplugs :)

3. I find it amusing that most of the time, she refers to herself as "Eh-Lee-Sa". This started since I thought her her own name about a month ago.

3. Suddenly, she has taken a strong liking for her Gymboree play class. Like last weekend. Her class was on Sunday morning. A word sounding like Gymbo (which is the clown in her Gymboree class) came up during our Saturday night dinner conversation. During that night and the next morning, she kept on saying "El-Lee-Sa want go Gym-Bo-Ree" and then "Hip Hip Hooray!!" , which is one of the things she learned in class. Ha hah....... Anyway, she enjoyed her Sunday class. Problem was when I wanted to change her out from her Gymboree t-shirt which has the pic of Gymbo the clown. She screamed out "El-Lee-Sa want wear Gymbo" "Eh-Lee-Sa want wear Gymbo" !!!! ;)

4. She can say "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10" now. For a long time, she kept missing out her 3 & 7, and sometimes 6. But she doesn't really what it means. Cos sometimes when we give her 5 items, she happily counts it from 1 to 10 :)

6. Her mouth is still like a leaky tap. I wonder when the drooling will stop!

7. The past 2 weeks or so, when she is not distracted at the shopping centres, she wants me to carry her :( If I don't, then it comes down to crying and rolling on the floor. *sigh*. Shopping centre floors are not too hygienic (tho sometimes I just let her be), so I normally have to give in - either by carrying her, distracting her or asking hubby to help carry.( (if hubby picks her up, she'll normally continue crying for a few minutes, then stop, then eventually she'll want to walk again. So I know she's just "bullying me"). And she's a cheeky kid too - when I ask her why must carry? You have such nice strong legs. Her response ? "No Leg"

7. Her concentration span is much longer now. Hubby and I got her a set of building blocks 2 weeks ago. Ha hah..... good way to keep her busy so she won't disturb us! (RM20 well spent!!)

Bandung Holiday - Day 3 & 4

- continuation of previous post -

I'll start off with Day 4 first. We rented a van since there were 7 adults and 3 kids. Our first stop (and the only non-shopping part of the whole trip !!) was to Tangkuban Perahu, which is an active volcano about one hour away from Bandung town.

Volcano Crater (the smell of sulfer was pretty strong) -


Horse Ride
(I wanted to let Elyssa sit with the cheh-chehs but she kept saying "no want sit horse")

Overall, I found Tangkuban Perahu quite overrated. Nothing much to see and there's also a RM20 admission charge per person. But ok lah for a one-time visit.

We had lunch at Paris Van Java and then it was back to what we did best - SHOPPING !!

Places that we shopped :
Day 4 (after the visit to Tangkuban Perahu) - Jln Setiabudi : Natural, Mode Plus, Rumah Mode
Day 3 - Jeans Street : SuperHero, Catwoman etc ;
Jalan Dago : Rich & Famous, Glamour, Blossom, Jet Set, Raffles City, Victoria, Seximo etc

I actually shopped more on Day 3&4 compared to Day 1&2. Two main reasons :
1) it's more fun to shop with more people (an example was when my SIL found a pair of gorgeous Christian Dior jeans. Ended up she bought one, I bought two, another SIL bought one and my MIL bought one. Yup, all the same design!)

2) I had my personal "helper" to take care of Elyssa. :)

Elyssa with her favourite Chloe cheh-cheh

@ Rumah Mode

During dinner time

@ Paris Van Java

Breakfast time in the hotel

Elyssa also had fun with both Chloe & Charmaine cheh-cheh while we were all busy shopping..



See how much we shopped??? Ha hahh.... luckily we brought Elyssa's stroller along.


Group Photo taken during dinner time (well, except me as I took this photo)


The food that we had during Day 3&4 was pretty forgettable. Nothing awful but nothing great either. Though one of the "memorable" item was the size of our vege dish during dinner on Day 3. Eh, vege so expensive meh????

Pic of our vege dish + my SIL's hand, to show relative size ;)

Our flight on Day 5 was at 12pm so it was basically breakfast in the hotel, some last minute packing and then off to the airport.

All in all, Bandung is definitely a shopping haven. Hubby and I are thinking of going back there in maybe 2 or 3 years time to restock our wardrobe. ;) Where else can we get our lovely Versace and Christian Dior jeans for only about RM 80?? Or Zara tops for about RM35? Or Armani tshirts for about RM35? Or my Espirit 3/4 pants for RM40? Or hubby's Gucci work shirt for RM70?

He hehh..... we bought so much stuff that we have to clear our existing cupboard space to make way for the new clothes :)

Shy lah, to take photo of our loot, but here's a photo of Elyssa's new clothes -

Bandung Holiday - Day 1 & 2

Just came back from a 5D, 4N holiday in Bandung. Day 1 &2 was just us, while Day 3 onwards was with hubby's family - my mum in law, brother in law + wife + 2kids and sis in law + godsis.

Day 1 & 2
We took the 9.40am Air Asia flight to Bandung. Elyssa was very excited indeed - she kept on saying "cit (sit) aeroplane, cit aeroplane". She was pretty well behaved during the 2 hour flight. When we arrived at the Bandung airport, she gave everyone a good laugh when kept on saying "reach already, YEAHHHH", reach already, YEAHHHH" and happily clapped her hands :)
("kept on saying" cos she she said it > 20 times!!)

Happy girl in the plane -


@ Bandung Airport.
(I was surprised when I saw many people taking photos at the airport runway cos usually there is a "no stopping" policy. Then I looked around and understood - our plane was the only plane in the entire airport runway !! Very small airport indeed. An added advantage was that everything was close by. We only had to walk a few steps to the immigration counter and then a few more steps to the baggage collection area. Quick and easy)


After passing through Customs, we took a cab straight to our hotel (Garden Permata Hotel). Freshened up a bit, then we started our main purpose of the holiday - SHOPPING, SHOPPING, SHOPPING !!!

First stop was Rumah Mode -


And basically for the next 2 days, we just went from one factory outlet to another.

Day 1 - Outlets at Setiabudi : Rumah Mode, Mode Plus, Natural, Factory Outlets
Day 2 - Outlets at Jln Riau : Branded Outlet, The Secret, Renarity, The Heritage, Cascade,The Summit, Oasis, Stamp etc

Hubby went absolutely crazy with the good selection of branded work shirts, pants and jeans. For me, day1 and 2 was so-so only. Didn't help that Elyssa kept on saying "Mummy pao pao" (mummy carry). But even though "so-so only" I still managed to buy some tshirts and pants. :)

Elyssa did her own shopping as well -


He he...... she looks like a shopping pro eh?? We got her some dresses and t-shirts.


Some of the food we had during the first 2 days -

Ayam Penyet

Mie Cumie (I think)

Nasi Timbel

- to be continued with Day 3 & 4 -

Chinese New Year

Gong Xi Fa Cai!


What does Chinese New Year mean to little Elyssa?

Let's see:

a) Asking Ah Mah for more food...

b) Asking Ah Ku for more food...

c) Asking Daddy for more food..

d) Asking Ah Kim for more food..

e) Helping self to more food..

Yup, it was all about EATING for Elyssa. Definitely not about the angpow cos whenever someone gives her an angpow, she says "No Want Angpow" then runs away !

Early Morning Call

In the wee hours of this morning, I felt a little hand tap my shoulder -

Elyssa : Mah Mi, Mah Mi
Me : Hmmm???? (still half asleep)
Elyssa : Love Mah Mi
Me : Oh? (awake now) Love Elyssa (smiling now..)

then someone got jealous..
Hubby : say Love Daddy
Elyssa : Dah dee..
Hubby : yes? (expecting to hear the words he wants to hear)
Elyssa : Dah dee love Eh-Lee-Sa
Hubby : say Love Daddy
Elyssa : Love Mah Mi
Hubby : Hmmmmmphhhhh !!!!!

Ha ha hahhhhhh !! 10 minutes later..... all 3 of us : ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz :)

The "Other" Woman

I found hubby with another female calling him "darling".

Luckily, it was Elyssa and not someone else ! She was in the house, hubby was in the garden and she suddenly hollered out "darling, darling, darling, darling" over and over again while walking towards hubby. Ha hahh..... what a copy cat cos that's why I call hubby.

She's going through a "word explosion" phase now and never ceases to amaze me at the words she picks up :

"Eh-Lee-Sa sleep here"

"Give Ah Ee bay bee"

"Want wipe nose"

"Go Ah Kong Ah Mah's house"

"No want car seat"

"Eh-Lee-Sa pom pom Up stairs"

"Pain Pain here. Kiss Kiss"

"Daddy's one. Daddy's bai see keel"

"Keep toys. Kai kai"

I love how she says the words above cos she pronounces each syllable on its own clearly.

But there are also words that are not clear at all - some we can understand, some we just don't. And when we don't, she gets very frustrated ! Like that day when we were singing nursery rhymes in the car - she kept on saying something like "fah len dan" and cried out in frustration when we didn't respond correctly. Ha hahhh..... only figured out later that she wanted me to sing "London Bridge". (London Bridge is Falling Down")

I just love this learning-to-talk phase :)


Pic of the "other" female in hubby's life that calls him "Darling" -