Family Outing to FRIM

This is about our family outing to FRIM (Forest Reserve Institute of Malaysia) during the last school holidays. We wanted to go somewhere near and cheap - so FRIM was the right choice for us. The day was really quite interesting and at the end, there were a lot of "thank you"s to say to Heavenly Father.

First of all, the car tyre was flat even before we left the house. DH managed to replace it. About 10 minutes into our journey, there was a weird sound from under the car. It was getting louder and clearly, something was wrong. DH said maybe it was the car's arm coz' the mechanic did say it needed changing. We turned around to go home. Poor KokoD was really disappointed. He was looking forward to playing at the waterfalls.

The car was getting difficult to maneuver but we managed to get home all right. The moment DH got down from the car, he figured out what was wrong -- he hadn't tightened the nuts on the wheel when he changed it. He couldn't tighten the nuts when the car was jacked up. He was going to do it after he lowered the car down. But the kids were being noisy (as usual) and he claimed to be distracted (as usual), and so forgot to proceed with the tightening. Soooo, we got those nuts tightened and off we went again.

First stop at FRIM was to go look at the huge Toman fish they were rearing at a pond. DH said there was an 8 feet Toman but we didn't see it. I think the biggest we spotted was about a 4 footer.

On the bridge looking for the elusive "monster" Toman.

Then off we went to the waterfalls. We picked a spot towards the bottom of the falls because K had scrapped her knee earlier in the week and couldn't walk properly. (In fact, she was hopping on 1 leg the whole week, like she was suffering from a broken leg. But that is another "dramatic" story). So, there was no way we could climb higher.

This looks like a nice place but it's too high for K to climb.

Here we are at the lowest part of the falls.

BabyD at first complained that the water was too cold. He chose instead to help himself to the goody bag. This boy just loves to eat. Throughout the day, his hobby is looking for things to eat.

But eventually, he found his way into the water and enjoyed himself thoroughly. They splashed around for about an hour or so. When they declared they were ready to call it quits, DH made a surprising discovery as he was helping them get out -- SNAKE!


Yes, lurking nearby under the rocks was a black and yellow snake. That just made getting out of the water a speedier process. No one got hurt (including the snake). We cleaned up at the public toilet nearby and headed to look for a place to eat lunch. KokoD was a bit traumatized... actually not really traumatized but quite disturbed. He kept saying "stupid snake, stupid snake." In the end we had to tell him we were kidding just so he would stop saying "stupid snake."

GRATITUDE LIST FOR THE DAY

• DH didn't give up on the idea of going to FRIM even when he saw the flat tyre (and that his mood didn't turn black as thunder.)
• We didn't get into an accident because of the loose tyre that was wobbling all over the place as we drove.
• That the snake didn't decide my kids look like yummy lunch or decide to join in the fun.
• I didn't get morning sickness while we were out (but crashed on the bed when we got home).
  

London Bridge Is Falling Down - New Version

This is KokoD's version of the nursery rhyme London Bridge is Falling Down:

London bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down,
London bridge is falling down,
My fat lady.

Build it up with iron balls, iron balls, iron balls,
Build it up with iron balls,
My fat lady.

3rd Month of Pregnancy

I'm already a little past the 3rd month of pregnancy but the morning sickness is still around. It's not too bad during the day time but I really get uncomfortable in the evenings. At least I'm hardly puking anymore. Energy level is still down. Doing a little bit of work still exhausts me. If I need to do anything, it has to be in the morning. That's when I feel the most normal.

Eating is still a big problem. Gone is my appetite for noodles like "Chee Cheong Fun". Now, the only thing that strikes my fancy are sandwiches: chicken ham- a slice of cheese- pieces of apple, tuna in mayo-scrambled eggs-pieces of apple.

I was eating a lot of oranges last month. This month, the fruits of choice are watermelon, plums and apple. The mango tree at the back of my house started fruiting. What good timing. I managed to pull some down (while getting bitten by some angry red ants) to make 3 jars of pickled mangoes. Aaaah, a pregnant women's dream food.

I don't know what kind of mangoes they are but they are not that sweet. Anyway, I pluck them green so I have sour mangoes -- just nice to be pickled or to eat with rojak sauce. To pickle it is very easy. After cutting it up, I just rub them with salt. Leave it on for a while. Then I add on lots of sugar and put them into jars. After 1-3 days, you will see the mangoes give off some juice. So, don't need to add water or anything. This is how my FIL did it, so I just follow his method. I'm sure there are other ways to pickle mangoes.

Last checkup at the clinic, I lost 2kg. I'm now 64.2kg. I've not been below 65 kg for a looooong time. I'm sure I will start piling up the weight once I get my appetite back. I'm soooo looking forward to eating curry mee.

The tummy seems to be getting a little bigger. I haven't felt baby's movement yet. Hmmm... when do you start feeling the baby move? Pregnant for the 4th time and I still don't know this fact. Hahahah.

Baby Milestones: 27 Months Old

I guess I shouldn't call these posts "baby milestones" anymore coz' BabyD is really more of a toddler now. It's been a while since I've done an update on him so I'm sure I'm going to leave something out. Well, these are some of his latest developments:

• He still isn't speaking very clearly, so he still gets a lot of puzzled faces from us. Most of the time we only hear the vowels in the words. For example, "orange" becomes "o-in". But the important thing is that he is trying to speak and is now able to string 2-3 words together. You just need to have a mother's ears to interpret what he is saying. Actually... let me rephrase that... you need to have MY ears coz' I think other mother's won't get what he is saying either:)
  
  
• He likes to count. I'm surprised that he can count from 1-12 and not miss a single number.
  
  
• He still loves to read books. I now leave out the last words to the sentences in the book and let him fill in the blank.
  
  
• He is pretty good in playing matching games. He can identify which pictures are the same. I will sometimes do activities with him to match shapes, colors and alphabets. I played a memory game with him -- you know, picture cards that are laid face down and you try to pick 2 that look the same. I was surprised that he could remember where some of the pictures were.
  
  
• He is now a computer addict! I introduced him to starfall.com a few weeks ago and now he is hooked on it. After 1 week, he learned how to navigate the mouse. He now will move the mouse and click the images on his own. His favorite alphabets would be "T" (that's where the choo-choo train is), "A" (coz' he loves the dancing astronaut), and "Z" (coz' it's got that catchy "zig-zag" song).
  He can even do some of the activities on the website. For example, there's one where he has to put the capital A in one basket and the smallcaps A in another. He gets it done with 100% accuracy. And for the letter T, he has to identify which of the 3 letters don't make the /t/ sound. He gets that right too. Okay, I'm sorry if I sound like I'm bragging. Really, that is not my intention. I'm just always amazed when they learn things so fast.
  
  
  Even though engrossed with the computer, he still can take a break and give mommy a pose for the camera. Now a pose means saying "cheese" and making the peace sign.
  
  
  
• He is totally weaned off breastmilk. I decided to do it 1 week before Chinese New Year. I tried using the chilli sauce trick but it wasn't very successful. I also tried the "nen-nen is injured and have to put a bandaid" trick (which worked for KokoD) but that failed too. So, I had to use the cruel method - just refuse to give in. Sigh! Stressful I tell you. Sometimes I would be able to distract him with other goodies like juice or biscuits. If he was sleepy, I would bargain and say I would sing him to sleep instead. I must say, he is really a good little boy and give in to some of my bargains. Unfortunately, bargains don't work at 4am. Mommy and daddy just have to endure the angry screaming. Poor neighbours too. Thank goodness we didn't receive any complains. I would say his early morning protests lasted for about 2 weeks? Or maybe it was 1 week but felt like more. Hahahah. Anyway, it just goes to show that there is no one way to wean a child. I had to do it differently for all 3 of mine. You just need to find a way that is suitable for the child.
  
  
• We are still working on the potty training. There are still plenty of accidents. A successful day depends heavily on our memory to remind him to go. And though he will tell you that the toilet is the place to poo-poo, I still need to catch the little grunts that indicate there is some "big business" going on.
  
  
• He is very thoughtful and quite well mannered. If you do something for him, he will immediately say "ta-too" -- that means "thank you." One night, he laid his head on my tummy. After a few seconds, he got up and looked at me. Pointing to my tummy, he said "ba-bee? Uack, uack?" He was concerned if he slept on baby, I would feel like vomiting. Hahahah. Now that is consideration I wish my other 2 kids would practice a little.