The lil’ dude and his family…

Irwan and I grew up without having to suck on ‘em binkies - I sucked my thumb and Irwan was just pretty much content without the thumb nor the binky. Fast forward to 2006 - our lil’ one was always biting his mittens and putting his whole hand into his mouth - so we asked for some advice from his paed and she said that since he doesn’t want to suck his thumb or fingers, we should try giving him the orthodontic pacifier and see how it goes.

Verdict: He only needed the pacifier to go to sleep.

So, since then on, he’d only use the pacifier when he’s with us (sometimes we try not to give it to him) or with my in-laws. My mom doesn’t like him using the pacifier (very the pantang!) and he is okay with that. He’d nap the same amount of time - 4 to 5 hours a day - with or without the pacifier.

For the past few months, I’ve been trying to wean him off the pacifier. On some days he was fine, but on some he wasn’t. He’d get restless in the middle of the night and toss and turn and usually that would mean that he needs the binky to pacify himself to sleep. Basically, that’s the binky’s only job - to put him to sleep. Other than that, the binky’s pretty much non-existent!

Aaaaanyyyyway, 3 nights ago, I thought that we’d give this weaning off business a try again. I went into his room and took the giraffe I bought for him from IKEA many, many moons ago and told him that instead of going to sleep with Mr. Puting, he now goes to sleep with Mr. Giraff. He readily accepted the toy and hugged the thingie all the way to our room.

First night - checked!

Second night - checked!

Third night - checked!

And since he’s with my mom in-law today, I brought along the giraffe for him and told mom in-law that she should put him to sleep with the giraffe instead of the pacifier. We’ll see how it goes. :)

By the way, the reason I got him to hug the giraffe is because I thought that he needs a “security blanket” when he goes to sleep. Y’know - to ward off ‘em evil whatevers. Hopefully the giraffe will keep him safe and sound in dreamland. Haha!

Ack!

Mr. Giraff.

Irfan & Mr. Puting.

After what seemed like forever of not meeting familiar faces, we finally met Zehan and Alia - my bestest friends and two of Irfan’s godmas - at their parents’ place last night for a potluck dinner. I made some dried chicken curry and the rest brought fish curry, satay, chocolate cake and ice-cream. Yummeh! ;)

Initially I referred the twins’ dad as “Uncle” to Irfan, but Uncle OTT thought that he was a tad too old to be called “Uncle” by Irfan - hence Irfan needs to call him Tok. Irfan got confused for a while because to him Tok means Atuk - which is my dad - so we told him that that’s Tok Oh (Uncle OTT’s Chinese surname) and not my dad - his Atuk. Confused yet? Haha! Poor boy was a bit confused, but waddaheck - he had fun being carried on the shoulders by Uncle OTT. :)

Irfan behaved rather well - minus a few screaming, punching and biting here and there. He warmed up pretty fast with everyone whom he hardly saw - since everyone’s in different continents and Justin (Zehan’s bf) pretty much baby-sat him while us girls did our catching up. Thanks Jus! Irwan being the techie dude had to fix some minor glitches on Uncle OTT’s lappie and Irfan too wanted to menyibuk. Ho-well!

Alia and I brought Irfan downstairs to meet 6 kittens and their mom (kittens’ mom) and at the first sight of them, Irfan literally froze - he was more scared of the kittens than them of him! Haha! But when I said that it’s okay to touch them and I made the first move to carry one of ‘em kittens, he relaxed a little and started to pat the kitten’s head. Then suddenly, he wanted to wring the fler’s neck! Aiyooooo… hahaha! After that, he wanted to pull one of the kittens’ leg like how Attila the Hun would pull his victims’ limbs. Hahahaha… Suffice to say, we headed back upstairs shortly after - before he decides to pull more stunts! :P

We would have stayed longer to chat, but since it was a Sunday night and everyone has to work today and Irfan was already taking the keys out from my handbag and going “Car. Car. Car” every two seconds or so - we decided to call it a night and bade farewell to our hosts and our other friends. I hope I’ll get to meet Yannie again before she flies back to the land Down Under.

Have fun in Penang you guys!!!!! :))

Irfan with Godma Yannie and Godma Alie’s 2 fingers. Hah!

Funky Alia. ;)

Irfan chatting with Grandma via the bluetooth.

Where are you kitty??

Enjoying his “drive”! Haha!

Giving me “The Look”.

New habit - biting his finger(s).

Since yesterday was a holiday (I think that MIC fler is trying to garner votes after the boo incident) for Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, we brought Irfan to Lake Garden (Taman Tasik Perdana) after having lunch with my parents. Although it was around 4.30 p.m. by the time we arrived, the weather was thankfully permitting enough - the sky looked a tad gloomy, hence giving us enough shade. :)

We let the lil’ dude play at the playground (huge one, I must say!) and he had fun on the slide (no bullies - thank god!), swing and see-saw. I, on the other hand, had fun with the cameralah. Haha. Apa lagi?? :P

After we (read: Irfan) were done with the playground, we saw the train arriving at the stop and we boarded it for a 50 sen - per passenger - ride. :) It was a good and enjoyable ride for all of us and Irfan was trying his damnest to not fall asleep as he was quite tired and sleepy. :) He slept in the car while on the way to the in-laws’ though. Heh!

Photos from Lake Garden can be seen here.

Updates

• He’d say “sh*t” whenever he drops something because he overheard a lady at Carrefour saying “sh*t” when she dropped something. Sigh.

• New words for now are Un-ker (with a certain twang to accentuate the end part - you’ve just gotta listen to it yourself!), Iz (my younger bro in-law - Izwan), foowah, moon (more like mooooo - with his lips all curled like a ping pong ball.. haha!) and a few more that I can’t seem to remember. Sigh. Getting old already. :P

• When he’s upset - he’d plop himself on the floor, faces his back against ours, stare at whatever that’s in front of him for as long as he likes and when he’s okay and calmer, would turn to us and hug us. Haha. The first time he did that, he was sort of waiting to see if we’d pujuk him or anything like that and since we didn’t, he sort of felt dejected and had no choice BUT to run to us and hug us. Irwan and I were trying our best to stifle our laughter - to no avail! Haha!

• He’d trick us by saying “shee-shee” and pointing to the toilet/bathroom with the pretext of wanting to pee - but in actual fact - he just wants to play with water! Panjang akal lah! :P

• Whenever he poos, he’d say “yak” and point to his bum-bum indicating us that he’s done and he needs cleaning up. Yesterday, while dining at this quiet restaurant, he loudly said “Atuk, YAK!” and all the other diners looked and giggled. Aiyooo… malunya!

Cheeky dude. :)

Enjoying the swing.

Climbing up the stairs to head to the slide.

to Nana (my sis in-law - 15th January), myself (20th January), Yan (21st January) and Ali (24th January)! That’s quite a long list actually.. but HAPPY BIRTHDAY nevertheless! ;)

It was a quiet affair for me - had dinner with the in-laws on Friday and my parents on Saturday. After dinner with my parents, we went to Yan’s parents’ place for his birthday BBQ party and Irwan got my sis in-law and bro in-law to sneak in a cake for me. Heh. I knew something was happening because Irwan was all hush-hush on the phone and glancing my way and being all secretive - but I just played alonglah. For his sake! ;) Thanks dude! Really appreciate the effort. Bukan selalu, kan? :P

So 10 minutes before midnight, Nana was asking out loud what time it was - and I innocently answered. Then a few minutes after that, Azlin (Yan’s wife) started sms-ing I don’t-know-who and shortly after, the cake arrived - 3 floors above the living area. Now it all makes sense! Hahaha! Komplot ah korang! But thanks everyone; my husband - for the effort and the birthday songs from NKOTB (I used to droooooolll over Joey McIntyre), Barney (haha!), Stevie Wonder and Flipsyde, my bro in-law and sis in-law - for the cake, Yan and Azlin - for Yan’s room. Cake was delish!

To all of you who wished me via calls, sms-es, emails and Facebook - THANK YOU very much, yeah? :)

Aaaaanyways, on Saturday, we brought Irfan to the McDonalds at Kota Kemuning - as we were looking at some houses in Kemuning Utama - and he had lots of fun there, except for when he was playing at the kiddies’ area. See, there were a few kids playing there and as always - kids can be rough. While Irfan was about to go down the slide, one 5-7 year old boy pushed him away and Irfan knocked his head against the arch. My lil’ dude fussed for a bit, and let the older boy go down and when he felt it was safe, he went down the slide on his own. I let it be (boy was playing kejar-kejar with his other friends) and watched from nearby.

A few minutes later, while Irfan was walking towards the slide, the same said boy pushed him again - knocking his head against Irfan’s head and at the same time Irfan tergolek at the side - and that made him cry! Irwan took Irfan to one side and asked the boy why he pushed Irfan. And the boy’s answer - he yang push me worrr! WTF? I then told the boy that Irfan’s so small - how can he push him? Doesn’t make sense at all. The boy then ran and joined his friends. It was so obvious that we caught him red-handed and he still had the blardy cheek to lie to us! I was looking around for his parents, but no one looked like they were about to come to us and say something about the incident. *shrugs shoulders*

Dah jatuh pun, Irfan still wanted to go down the slide - and again that idiotic kid pushed Irfan but I managed to catch my son and we left the place. I wasn’t going to declare a war with a kid, but I also wasn’t about to see my son being pushed around. While in the car, Irwan told Irfan that he needed to be street smart. Heh!

We’ll see lah… ;)

Happily eating his fries and nuggets.

Silly boy pushing Irfan away - when he should have waited for his turn!

Cheeky smile. :)

My birthday cake.

Picture taken by Azlin - Irfan was sleeping with his new bride. Haha!

Sipping water on a hot day.

:)

Waiting for Irwan.

Watching the chip-chips flying.

Eeeeeee… jijik!

Here are some pictures taken over the week - at our Putrajaya house and my parents’ place. :) The ones with him wearing his PJs were taken with the flash on. I don’t quite like using the flash as it washes out everything, but I didn’t have a choice that night - since the room didn’t have enough lighting. Haha. Oh well…

My baby. :)

Smiley dude.

Getting sleepy.

A pose for me.

Cry baby! :P

I *heart* him very mush!

Ack!

Mom’s dry kitchen.

I got my layout published (again!) in the January edition of the Digital Artist Magazine. And just like the last time, I can only show you guys a print screen of my page. Heh. :) Never thought that I’d get my work published. It’s good to have some recognition some where - at least I know that people do appreciate my work. :) My dream next is to make awesome pics like my sifu, Aaron does. Think it’s achievable? I blardy hope so! :P

Anyways, pardon me for the lack of blogging these past few weeks - but it seems that I’ve lost my mojo back there somewhere. And until I’ve found it back, I’ll only blog on Irfan’s monthly updates, my knack for photography and some scraps here and there.

Cheers!

Having a swell of a time! :)

Hitting the mok (nyamuk)!

Sleepy and manja. :P

We brought Irfan to the park at Precinct 2 (opposite PICC) on Sunday morning. Sundays are usually days spent doing his activities since Saturdays are usually spent with my parents or in-laws.

Managed to snap lotsa photos under the blistering sun and as usual, Irfan refused to stop playing and head home. Oh well, in the end we let him run around the area and thankfully there was a shaded area - or else we’d have been charcoaled! Haha!

It gives me a lot of joy seeing my son play happily with himself or with Irwan. He’s just a very happy and bubbly kid. The only times that he’d get upset and cranky is when he’s hungry and/or sleepy or when we’ve left him at my parents’ or in-laws’ for far too long. I got a huge bite on my shoulder because of that - but that’s another story for another day. ;)

Pictures from the park can be seen here.

My favourite shot! :)

My lalat son  - courtesy of Aaron.

Suicidal kids - according to Emily. Haha. Picture courtesy of her husband. :)

WOW! 21 months already? And I have about 2 months odd to whip something up for his birthday party? Eerrrr… *scratch head* Any ideas, people?

Anyhow, I’ve lost track of his new words already. It seems that he’s adding his vocabulary on a day-to-day basis. And he’s quite the chatterbox too. Ada-ada aje all the time. Sometimes, I just am too tired to layan dah and he’d persist with his “Ma! Ma! Mama!!!” like as though telling me “Listen to me, woman!” Haha! Oh well, he makes my day… :)

Oh, before I forget, more pictures from our Penang trip can be seen here. Enjoy!

Irwan and his monkey face. Heh!

Watcha lookin’ at?

Happy New Year everyone! :) I hope you all have had a great holiday because we surely did - minus some bruises here and there (for me) - all of us are still tired from the fabulous lil’ getaway. Special thanks to Aaron, Emily, Naomi, Danny and Kathey! ;)

And of course, I had a fab time playing with my new toy, and Aaron has taught me a few tricks here and there, but I definitely couldn’t keep up with him, which means one thing - that I still have lots to learnlah. Haha!

On Sunday, we managed to meet Nunu, Anne and Mr. Anne at Queensbay Mall. Such a hugeeeee place and thank god there was Aaron’s GPS - so we didn’t get lost. Heh. But we didn’t get to ronda-ronda the mall as both Irfan and Naomi were not in such good moods. We went to Jusco instead where they have this kiddie playground thingiemajigie and the three kids enjoyed themselves while the parents chatted for a bit. It was nice meeting you guys and thanks for treating Irfan to the playground. ;)

Naomi while on the ferry to Pulau Payar.

The boys giving me a pose while watching the sharks being fed underneath the bridge.

Irfan wearing Emily’s shades. He looks like a lalat.

Playing with the basket on the upper deck.

Wearing my shades pulak.

Family shot. Thanks Danny! :)

I think he has he talent to be a model. Hahaha! Sheaaaahhh right! :P

Don’t know what it was he was trying to tell me.

Doing Spock’s Vulcan salute.

Such a big boy.

Our ride.

Kapitan Keling/Kling Mosque.

Shot was taken from Queensbay Mall’s parking lot.

Lil’ dude’s new hair. :)