Before I Forget...

Oh wow. It is my first post for the year. And it's already February. Gosh... time past by so fast.. i wish my bank loans can finish as fast... it seems to be neverending...

What's up with me since my last post? Well.. some is good, but for the most part of it, not really.

In between mid-December to mid February, my baby-sitter stop looking after Marion to take care of his husband fulltime just after Christmas. We lost an aunty to cancer on 2nd Jan, my youngest brother was admitted to SGH for burn-accident at his workplace on 4th February which involved mostly on his face and right hand, and now Marion is in Kuching and not with us cos we still couldn't find a babysitter. How I miss her so badly. It is not that we haven't tried to consider the option of sending her to nursery, but when I see the condition of other kids at the nursery that we checked out, I just couldn't bring myself to leave my baby there. I am not saying that they don't take good care of children under their care, but ... there were so many kids compare to the minders ratio.. and they can't possibly be able to focus on my daughter's wellbeing.. my heart goes out to the little babies who cried and nobody picked them up to sooth them soon enough. At least my daughter can play by herself and quite socialized in a way and does not need to be attended all the time, but still....

Other than that, despite our hectic life with works and our travelling back and forth to Kuching, we have a good health, there is a new prospect for Momo on the way (cross finger) and I am able to reduce my weight with 4kg more to go to my pre-pregnancy weight. Now I really understand what it truly means to be able to wear your old jeans post pregnancy :D I would love to make domestic travel plans, and fulfill our promise to bring Marion to Universal Studio in Singapore by her 2nd birthday, but things are quite uncertain when we still could not find a babysitter, better still a full-time maid. But if there is an irresistable travel offer by our company to oversea destination esp Europe, I will definitely considered it. Marion's development progress has gone very well and we are so proud of her. She could point out her body parts and her vocabulary improved day by day. My struggle with teaching her to drink from the straw was over after I stopped trying for about a couple of weeks, then suddenly I managed to show her the trick and it was smooth sailing once she figured it out. And now there's no more spill *happy*

I would like to take this chance to congratulate a blogger friend, Coffee Girl whom I've met and I personally adore. Her post was featured in Sarawak mainstream local newspaper and to be honest, I seriously think that her writing is more interesting than some of the feature writers in the The Star. She will do very well indeed, and I really hope she get to publish her own books one day, if only she get to be kicked at the bum real hard and start getting serious in her writing. Her writer's block excuses is getting lame. I know she'll be reading this, but anyway, congrates girl!

So far I have not tracked Marion's progress on paper, and when I looked back, somehow I have forgotten even her major milestones.. I regretted not doing it. The milestone that I put in facebook was not detail enough as I only update once a month cos I feel lazy to choose a suitable photo and upload it to keep up with her progress. Maybe not an interesting thing for other reader to read, but this is merely for my own tracking..

These are Marion's progress as of today at 1 year 1mth.

Physical Development:
1. Have 2 lower teeth, 4 upper teeth.
2. Already started to run.
3. Weight 8.25kg...
4. Is going through Roseola (a type of chicken pox) since the past 2 days. Tomorrow should be cleared already.

Social development:
1. Can pronounce (and recoqnize) : Daddey (daddy), Dodo (a BabyTv channel character), nenen (milk), mam (eat), star, red, bluh (blue), yes
2. Smiled/excited when hearing the word: Circle, triangle, square
3. Loves : Babytv channel (esp Oliver the Monkey), the cuddlies esp Dodo, Hi Five ntv7, nursery rhymes, her Baby Bright CDs
4. Favourite nursery ryhmes : Twinkle Little Star, If You Happy, BINGO
5. Can dance following the music tune
6. Can sing "dah, dah... da, da,dah" (to B.I.N.GO tune)
7. Can wave and say "bye-bye" since 10mth old,
8. Dislike sad songs by "crying without any reason"
9. Start sharing her food with us
10. Sudah pandai main kejar2 with my babysitter's grandson (last time main kejar2 pakai walker)

We have just started to let her feed herself using her finger, but she can drink from a trainee cup since 10mth old. I've also started to get her to drink from a straw and subsequently using a bottle with straw, but that has not been an easy thing to do though. Will try harder.

Eventhough I consider myself to be slightly introverted, one thing I actually love to do is having guest at home. When having guest around and sharing our food, I honestly belief that it is the act of kindness, and by doing that, I will actually have more 'rezeki' come to our home.

For a small gathering, I very much love to prepare my own cooking compare to catering, if time permit it. I know I am not that much of a cook, eventhough I never poisoned my hubby with my cooking. But still, I noticed that guest (including myself) are more drawn to home-cooked food prepared by the host themselves, somehow we can tell the difference. We understand the effort taken by the host to prepare the food with their bare hands, and food well cooked shows the sincerity of the host.

So far that I have organized a small makan-makan, some food that I cooked will vanished very quickly, and some will slowly diminished towards the end, and some of it took us a few days to finish the leftover. Having the same familiar guests over the years, I have roughly know their individual preference and taken a mental note whenever they mentioned about it, but of course I can't produce a single food that will suit every individual guest, so I make varieties. I sometimes ended-up handling too many types of cooking, and found myself still in the kitchen by the time my firs guest arrived.

I do not expect any compliments from anyone in regards to what I made. I just hope that everyone will enjoy themselves. On the other hand, some guest do make a constructive critism and gave me some plus point or some tips for me to try, which I'll be gladly happy to hear.

Among all the guests I have had, there is this one guest that we have been having over very frequently. On at least 3 occasions, the husband has commented on my cooking. The words chosen was upfront, and the first time it happened, I was taken aback and speechless. I do not know him that well for him to be able to say that to me (he is a friend of hubby's). I tried to brush it off, although I felt a bit hurt and could not forget about it until this day. The second time he commented, I just laughed and smiled, I thought maybe he or his wife is a very good cook, and knows about food very well. But somehow after being to his place many times, I did not really find his wife cooking to be that great, but I always made sure to say something nice to show my appreciation, or if the food wasn't that great at all, I just pass it and there is no need for me to say anything. There were plenty of other food for me to eat anyway.

Recently, we have had them again, and in one night he commented negatively about the food I prepared twice. And on the second instances, he had compared my food with the one he had eaten in the restaurant before. And of course he said the restaurant food is better. I mean, if I can cooked that well, I won't be doing what I am doing right now, I should be opening a restaurant right? Those are home-cooked food, don't they realized how much love, care and effort has been taken to create the food? And if my cooking is not spicy enough for his taste, what about the rest of the guests and small kids who have lower heat tolerance?

After that incidence, I am considering very heavily either just cater everything the next time around, or not organizing any gathering alltogether. Just because of this one person who gave negative comment, and never said anything about the rest of the food that he piled on his plate, it made all my effort to be unworthy, and I started to ask myself why would I bother to do what I did.

P/S : I am sorry for those who have came to our gathering before, I really hope that I do not offend anyone. It's just because of one person, this post come about, I couldn't let it go since it keep on bugging me. Please don't shy away from our invitation next time. For a well-meaning critism, of course I could take it very well, but as the saying goes, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything OR just say something nice anyway!

It maybe a bit too early to say this, but I really glad that I made the decision to take up the job that I am currently into. It has been two weeks now since I joined. The first day was a full-day orientation program, and the rest of the week I was sent for a software training. Last Monday was the first time I saw my workstation, and shortly after warming up my seat, I was called and immediately being briefed by the technical director. And after that, nobody really bothered me so far, I was being left alone to go through their system in the server, which actually had help me a lot in figuring out the overall picture of the department I am currently in.

After going through all the correspondence, what I found out was that the department I was in right now was just initiated in 2009, and the system that we do is a pilot test project not just in the company, but also in Malaysia. My particular field was just being started by mid of this year though, and I am very honoured to be chosen to fill up the gap in the department as it is becoming one of the 'elite' arms among the group of companies. The top management are visionaries and are very supportive of us in terms of investing in the training, hardwares, softwares, marketing strategies etc as we will going to change how construction will be done in Malaysia in the future.

This Monday we will move from Level 9 to Level 1, to our very own brand new office solely for our department. On Friday, I will be going for a managers conference with a very well known key speaker, which was organized by our Group. I will be rushing out to go back immediately after that to catch flight to Kuching as we gonna be celebrating Marion's pre- 1st birthday together with families, relatives and friends.

Dear readers (yes the two of you..) what do you think about letting strangers playing with your baby while you were outdoor?

I personally dislike it when some strangers come up and pulled my daughter's hand and touched her cheek without even asking for permission... I am not being stuck up whatsoever, but you can't imagine what that person has touched before they touched your baby. I don't mind they playing with her or be near her, as long as there is no physical contact. So far most of the rude strangers I encountered are the middle eastern tourist, somehow my daughter has attracted their attention everywhere we go. They will just come up, raving and cooing at her, touched her hands and hair with total disregard of whether we like it or not.

I am still not sure how to prevent strangers from touching her while at the same time being tactful about it. If you have any suggestion on how to do this subtlely, let me know.

Watching my daughter, Marion, waving her hand while saying 'baa baai' at the cartoon character in the tv just a moment ago. I still couldn't accept the fact that she doesn't need me to carry her around tightly in my arms anymore... my little baby is a big girl already.. am dreading the day that I have to stop her from going out dating with a guy when we're she's not ready.

Well, about the good news. Heh. It is still a good news, but it has a bit of a twist to it. Okay, I got a new job actually. The day that I resign after I could not cope with the mountain of workload, another company was trying to reach me via email and phone but to no avail. I was truly busy I did not have time at all to open up my personal email, and my phone was on silent mode on that very day. I saw a few missed call from the same number, I tried to call back but it was a hunting line. Had discussion with my boss regarding my workload and proposed some solution, and let me think about it over the weekend.

The next Monday at 9am, I finally picked up the call. I could not hear clearly the first time and I thought it was another ambitious tele-marketer, but when she mentioned, "bla bla job offer... would you like to join us?", I sat up on my chair and asked her to repeat from where she is calling.

It was actually the company that I had went for an interview, just a few days after I went for an interview with the current (former now) company. I was not really sure I would be able to secure that job, but at the same time I know their hiring process will take longer so in the meantime I'll take whatever comes my way. At least if I did not get it, I already have a job in hand.

To cut it short, I did secure the job with the company, but it was NOT the one I applied for (oh ow..) I only figure it out after I went to take the offer letter.

At the moment since I had only a two weeks notice, my last day was last week's Friday. I am supposed to start on the 3rd October, but have to join another intake's batch cos I have already registered for an induction course conducted by ACEM which I do not want to miss.

Ok will update again soon as I needed to answer my daughter's nature call.

Uhmmm aaaa... ehehehe...

I need to pinch myself again and again. The news that I was waiting for almost 2 months, has finally came through. If not because I was at my workstation, I would have screamt my hearts out, and leaped in joy as high as I could.....

I really hope that either this would be the last one, or it will be a platform for me for something much much better in the future!