We have moved!

The last 4 months brought a huge, no, HUGE wave of change into our lives. Sometime in September something BIG was cooking. We waited and waited, and upon many many days of hoping and planning, it happened. Mr Hubby revealed the answer, which involved a big shift, literally, in locations, plans and possibly everything.

For the two months that we started planning, it was tough and I felt very torn. We lived in Klang for almost 8 years and it was not easy wondering how are we going to leave our comfort place, and comfort people behind. The whole process, was exciting, the same time very disheartening knowing we are living our home behind. All the more I was determined to settle in and make our new home at the new place once again, with the hope that this change will be seamless for all of us, especially the comfort of our own home.

And move we did. For a new beginning, new era, new life and new present future. And possibly for a better future future. 

In case you are wondering further, ok so Mr Hubby got this once in a lifetime offer in Penang, which involved us coming out of our comfort zone, moving to Penang Mainland. Sure, it sounded very hard in the beginning, in fact it sounded impossible! However with each other's support, we took it to task, planned and executed it to the tee! 

And yes, this is a blatant promotion for the Happy Movers who helped us make this process so smooth and well, just pleasant! Their services is highly recommended from our personal experience. They packed our kitchen items, furniture and all the electrical items very carefully, so to avoid any kind of scratches or mishaps.

Here we managed to capture a little moment of some of our plants. All of these plants are something I have acquired from my friends that I made over the years in Klang, and also some from my mother. The very fact of keeping and growing them holds special memories, and it was pleasant to be able to bring some of them over with us. However some we left behind in a very good home in Klang Vallet, hope they continue to flourish and be green ever after.

During the whole of December we were practically travelling between states for the move, the same time trying to catch a short getaway as it was school holidays for the kids. We had the opportunity to stay in G Hotel during this time, and managed to catch scenic view of Butterworth and Georgetown complimenting each other from each side. How pretty is that?

And with this change, there were a few more changes waiting to come in effect. Sanju was finishing his kindy and joined Primary One this year, like, can you believe it? It's like just yesterday he was born! All those sleepless nights trying to catch with the first time as parents, just precious thinking how he has grown up to be fine young primary school goer!

And the same time, I put on my Stay At Home Mother hat once again, now that we are in a new city (rather a small town), and with Sanju in Primary One, he needs me more than ever. Right now my days are all about school runs and cooking and baking, oh yeay!!

Soon enough it was the anniversary of his born-day, yes, Sanju turned 7 years old!

This is a sight not to be missed at our new place. Chinese New Year is held in such grand way, performances till late night, and awesome bak kwa everywhere, and oh, did I mention, my town (small town, rather) is heaven for Chinese delicacy! And we are still not done tasting every shop yet!

Here I am signing off for this time, hopefully it won't be too long before I start posting more, as I am back to experimenting with more cooks and bakes! Till then, toodles!

Lost & Found

Last month my phone had temporarily shut down. After a few minutes of resuscitation, it finally turned back on. I was so relieved and eagerly wiped the sweat off my forehead. A few days later I realise that my ringtone had changed. At first I thought it could just be that restarting the phone had reset my ringtone, but later I found out that my SD card is no where to be seen (detected).

I tried and tried. SD card was non existent. I tried on another phone, I got the message that the SD card was corrupted. It took a while to kick in that 'gosh I had so many photos in that!'

After some research I got the glimmer of hope that the SD card can be reformatted and data salvaged. As I Google-ed I found EaseUS Free Data Recovery solution. After doing the scan I could see all the files being detected, got me so excited until I found out that the 'Free' part was only the scanning. To restore or recover, we needed to pay.

Just before I could swear out loud my colleague gave me the crack for the software. So much for swearing, these days almost everything (yes, almost, not all) has a crack that you swear less over the software issues, swear more over customer service woes.

So data was all recovered, SD card reformatted. The rest, I should say, is a happy ending. I would never wish anyone to suffer the same situation as me, but if you do, please find the software, and the crack. But oh, before that, perhaps you may want to consider doing regular backups. And me? Not yet, not really LOL!

While going through the gems I restored from my previously corrupt SD card, I found so many cutesy-shutesy  pictures of my previously toddlers, now pre-schoolers! 

One very very cute & funny is a picture my brother in law took during his Instagram rage days. It was taken when Jeev was barely 2yo and was still very very clingy with  me. A little disappearance of me to grab some food, and his face changes. This is captured with multi burst within milliseconds.

Errr.. my mommy?!

Yea yea my mommy, is moving away!

Come back, turn back mommy!

Someone, get my mommy to turn back! Come back!

Uwahhh!!!! My mommy!!!

When he is not crying, he is adorable like this.

And look... the boys on Diwali eve wearing their matching jammies @ 1.5 years old and almost 3 years old!

Pre-schoolers simply have different charm!

They are stylish, so what if it's just bedtime?

And very filmi, die-hard PK fans!

Busy Busy House

A lot has been happening in the last 3 months. We have had very little weekend to ourselves, as it is the weekdays are all about work, kindy and catching up with family. Times have got so busy my health has not been so good, and my lack of immune is showing with constant throat infections, cold and flu.

I did sit several times wondering why did we have to be so busy? Why are we chasing so much in life? Are we not just happy with what we already have? Then, I think again, it is not exactly materialism that is keeping us busy, but it is life in general. 

Recapping back to what has been keeping us busy, there has been a chain of events related to work and family. There has been a birth, a very major project for the hubby, a prayers event for the newborn, then it is the kids' school concert, later VIP guest at home, Diwali and some more VIP guests, wedding prep and naturally a wedding followed, and then back again to some important guests, and finally last weekend was kids' mini sports at their school.

Took a week off to see the baby, give a short vacation for the kids. One day I am busy cooking a feast, another day flying to and fro JB, and then the next few days cooking and cooking major feast for Diwali, and another we are rushing about making a wedding work. In between attending several school events for the little boys. Phew!

The new arrival little fella. A little shy at first.

Playing SRK here.

Hubby at work, kinda like the Neil Armstrong's US flag on the moon, this is hubby at the highest floor of his project, with Malaysian flag in the background. See, I told you he does not work diverting traffic with his reflector jacket!

School Concert.

Diwali, tired parents and kid, the other kid was away enjoying someone's phone or tablet.

The wedding of the year.

Playing tourists with the guests.

School mini sports.

Looking deeper, the event of miracle of birth, and then the holy union of two people in an amazing wedding is sign of prosperity. And given the amount of families and friends we have, feasts are natural, and hey thanks to our little fellas, we have the opportunity to attend and enjoy their  year of kindy with events like concert and sports. On top of all, hubby's project is the reason that makes everything in our life possible, which brings home the bacon, our bread and butter, thosai capati and dhal, and most importantly, the bak kut teh and char siew.

And yes, some of our weekends were also eaten up by trip to Legoland and Kidzania. A lot more photos to share later!

Something tells me I gotta stop complaining, and pause a while, and smell the baby, the wedding flowers, savour the feasts, enjoy the VIP companies and listen/watch my kids do their best performance at the age of 4 and 3 year old. Here's to life, CHEERS!

And CHEERS, again!

Liberation And Prom Dresses

The moment I decided to quit my job, is a moment of confusion for me. Suddenly I was relieved that I did not have to deal with my job together with my household role as a wife and a mother. No more traffic to endure daily. At the same time I felt upset for having to leave something that I enjoyed doing, and the nice people I met while working. 

It was a disappointing moment when I had to make the decision, and I am most thankful to hubby for helping me go through it. Without his assurance, it would have been just impossible. What now, you may ask? Lets see, as I take a break, I try to find what I want to do. Maybe part time, maybe freelance, maybe nothing at all. I always believe that everything happens for a reason. And when one door closes, another door is waiting for us to open and find the surprise!

At the same time I felt liberated that I could go back to doing those extra things I did at home, learning to cook and bake new things. You cannot imagine how much I missed having my time to get my hands dirty, and later seeing the boys (including the old boy) enjoying my sweat and hard work.

Truth is, ever since I took up the job, I did not have any moment for myself. When I started attending office, I started sending Jeev to the kindy with Sanju, hence I never enjoyed any moment of peace at home without the kids. At the same time I had finally got a car of my mine own, yet I did not have the chance to enjoy the time on my own.

Right now I am like having my cake and eating it. And I do eat a lot. It is liberation of the highest order having the kids attending half day kindy without fail, and enjoying it too. I get to run errands, catch up with some online work (like this) or just bum around on my facebook social life. This also means I will get to catch up with more like-minded friends as well! And hey, all those warehouse sales, Big Bad Wolf and such, I am coming!

And you know what else is liberating? Shopping online for gorgeous dresses! Check out JenJenHouse and get evening dresses for this Valentine's day, or just to celebrate your coming wedding anniversary. And since it is the prom season, you could get a gorgeous prom dresses to flaunt it this year! Little black dresses work for every occasion, or top it with a lovely cardigan for the chic look for work.

It is a shame that just when I had gotten into the mood for shopping for work clothes it did not last long. However holiday dresses never miss the season! This particular LBD is absolutely stunnng and would flatter women of any body type.

Life, Smell The Roses

Entering motherhood I made many friends through forums and groups. Most of them, if not all, gave me opportunity to continuously learn and share about parenthood and life in general. One such person that has touched me at personal level with her sharing is Claire Khoo. She was diagnosed with Stage 3 Triple Negative Breast Cancer end of last year and is now undergoing treatments.

She founded The Breast Cancer Survivors & Warriors Group in Facebook and shares her experience on her Claire Khoo blog. Her article was recently featured on MSN Lifestyle Malaysia. Her writings are a delight to read, more so with her personality reflecting through it. She is indeed celebrating the odds, celebrating life like none of us ever can.

Her experience has taught me to appreciate my life and health in particular. Her positive outlook to everything from the beginning of her journey is simply astounding. The very first time that I was chatting with her about her treatment I was shocked beyond words, but she warmed me up, and humbled me with her strength shining through her words. It was one of kind of experience which I will never forget. Reading her blog posts from time to time reminds me how life indeed needs our good spirits to hurdle through every thing, anything!

In the spirit of life and living, this brings me to the good cause of this post.

AXA AFFIN, in collaboration with National Cancer Society Malaysia (NCSM), are supporting cancer patients currently undergoing chemotherapy in a cancer outreach campaign. AXA AFFIN will fund the chemotherapy daycare usage to one cancer patients for every blogger that links back to AXA AFFIN 110CancerCare website in their effort to care for cancer patients. 

In essence, this one post gets a cancer patient one-day funding for their daycare usage at NCSM Treatment Centre. This is my humble contribution for those who need the support as well as the good spirits!

Baking Sweet Baking Savoury

We had a little gathering at our place for my sister in law's birthday, and as a money-can't-buy gift I baked, and baked and baked. Yeah so I baked two things, one sweet and one savoury.

Remember the house elves? Yes, my two superhero boys who never fail to surprise me with new antiques everyday. They were busy helping me beat the batter, turn the bowl for me, and even washing the dishes. The most important and favourite task of all, is cleaning the whisk (yet again), which used to be my duty but now I have graciously passed it on to my eldest son.

It is such a tough job. I kid you not. Because once the whisk is clean, you gotta lick and clean your fingers next.

 

Once the cake is in the oven, they are rewarded with vitagen drinks for their cooperation for keeping the level of mischief at a low level (I am just being realistic, because you can never achieve zero mischief)

I bet the cake batter washes down very well with the cultured drinks.

For now I shall keep you salivating with the pictures only, and shall share the recipes soonest possible (in kiddy household terms, it might take forever, hence your patience is greatly appreciated).

I present to you walnut coffee cake with chocolate cream cheese topping.

I changed the recipe a little bit as it asked for cream sherry and walnut liquer. If I had those items in the house I would be celebrating over a happy hour instead of baking.

The savoury bake is chicken pot pie, with lots of vegetables. The below picture is the filling and cooked view of the top pastry. Sorry about the shoddy work, I need more practice.

Both the bakes got good raves from everyone. Another feather on my SAHM hat!

Happy Diwali!

Happy Diwali folks! Yes I have been away from blogging for a while now, but not really away away, just been busy being so busy with the kids and family and yea, Diwali too!

What has Diwali been about this year? For one thing, it was the first Diwali at our new house. And the rest is as special as Diwali always gets, 3Fs, that is Family, Food and Fun!

I was totally into baking this year with our new oven and all. I made Chocolatey orange chocolate chip cookies. This turned out totally good, but too huge. I gotta make them smaller scoops next time.

And some butter cookies, just for the sake of having cut-out cookies to use the gingerbread man cutter that I bought. The moment I showed 'Gingi' to Sanju he shrieked out of excitement, took it out of my hands, and then instead of savouring the melting cookies, he crushed him into crumbs. Ah, boys!

Something I have been itching to bake in a long long time, cinnamon rolls! They turned out so good that I am gung-ho into baking buns and breads next.

The kids Diwali pajamas was Spiderman themed, and they slept in it so that they would wake up in new clothes.

On the eve, after the kids sleep, and once we are done making laddus, as per tradition I spend the night drawing henna for us. I use my ambidextrous skills to draw henna on both my hands, one a time, of course.

 

After hours of Diwali eating session was celebrated with good sips of wine. Don't ask me the names, I only know how to drink and enjoy them.

Diwali this year was somewhat more relaxed for me as the kids are older and can entertain themselves, giving me more time to cook, bake and do other stuff. Baby Jeev too sleeps better now, which means I can tuck him in bed with Sanju and be AWOL for a few hours to catch supper like those good old days with the hubby and all. There is an additional F to the 3Fs here, which is the Film of my favourite actor, Shah Rukh Khan! This will be elaborated in another blog, of course! Till then, Happy Holidays once again!

Of iPhone, iPad and The Euro Cup

The soccer fever is on, yet again, with Euro Cup being in progress for the past 2 weeks plus. Hubby is full involved in the game and his schedules revolves around it. I still can't imagine how important can this once in 4 years event be. Late nights, erratic sleeping hours, missed alarm and countless snoozes is the side effects of this event. Conversations are now about the matches, the goals, and the anticipation of the coming final match.

This is also the time of the year that I get to brush up my soccer knowledge, not that I am interested, but he makes sure I fully support his favorite team, the Germans, and makes sure I understand why they deserve to be the winners. I do not dispute, support them with open arms, and just hope we get over the soccer fever real soon, because I am getting tired of watching the reruns of the best goals on sports channel.

With all this craze, Hubby upgraded himself to the device in craze, the iPhone, to replace his Nokia that served him for slightly more than a year. My android talks on him did not work at all. I have always maintained to be an android supporter due to the open source nature, but with a thick face I have to admit that I too gave in to the pressure of the i-device and got the iPad to replace my ailing laptop.

What is so great about the iPhone and the iPad compared to their competitive contemporaries anyway? Now that I have tried both, I must say, a great deal! The I-devices are all about speed, convenience and technology with grace. And at this moment it feels great to have apple products on my finger tips, literally!

Hello World!

Hello World! This is exactly what I typed when attending my first C++ programming class, like 12 years ago. Gosh, I feel old, but that's another matter.

I have been totally MIA from the internet world for the last 3 weeks in the midst of moving to our new home, and the ordeal with a certain semi-private telco provider that has left me furious and dissatisfied in every aspect. We finally decided to opt for the 4G provider and here I am, back in action, back with my words, and my favourite column, opss... I mean blog... for a while I really felt like Carrie Bradshaw typing away for my famous column.

The biggest news is I survived 3 weeks without internet. When we think we are too dependent on technology, we can actually make it without it, just give it a try and you will find it as normal as normal can be.

Had an awesomely hectic day having house warming prayers, and moving in on the same day, thanks to the project manager, my organizing half.

With a 2 year old toddler and a 7 month old baby its a huge task to pack, move and unpack. Thankfully my mom and sister came over a week before the moving date so I had plenty of time to pack, and run chores here and there. And later on moving/prayers day, we had our relatives helping to move. Someone commented if I was a supermom moving into a new house with 2 kids on my own. I know I have previously been pretty modest in claiming to be pretty superhuman myself, but in this case I am just lucky to have such set of relatives with generous helping hands. It all went so well that it passed without us realizing it.

As for the kids, for days we were worried how my clingy baby, and daddy-obssessed toddler were going to behave on the moving day, but amazingly all went on fine. On the night before moving, Sanju was having loose stools and did poo for 4-5 times, hence he was tired and slept throughout the moving period. He even slept through the drilling the air con installation was causing and guess what, he recovered after his nice sleep. And my Jeev was such an angel and played with everyone while I was busy moving... so much that now we call him 'angel' at home! Oh yea, now he is back to his clingy and naughty nature, in case mummy missed the original rascal!

Sanju And The Newborn

Ever since Jeev (Sanju V2.0) was born, I am often asked 'How is Sanju taking it?'.

On the day I got admitted, that night was the first night Sanju slept without me beside him, but his father was there for a nice lullaby session than his mom who can't sing for nuts (his father can't sing either, in fact enjoys singing out of tune most). By next morning, Jeev was born, and overnight Sanju grew up from being a baby, toddler, into a kid, at least in my eyes.

Once Jeev got home, I was busy having him latch most of the time. Thankfully, hubby was around for a week to help out, and keep Sanju accompanied. In fact, Sanju does not recognise any of his lovely grandma, grandpa, uncles and aunties as long as his father is around.

The real challenge began once hubby left back to Klang Valley. I tried to manage my time with both of them, but with a newborn, he wants to be constantly latching, and during this time I can see the pissed off look in Sanju's eyes.

Sanju and Jeev were made to sleep in different rooms because I did not want either one's crying to affect the other. Every night after settling Jeev down (as a newborn he did not sleep on time, so I got my mom or sister to babysit him ) I spend time with Sanju and make him sleep. After that my dad would sleep with Sanju through the night. Next morning, again after settling the non-sleeping Jeev I would go lie down beside Sanju so that he would wake up with my presence. I did not want him to feel left out, plus I wanted to be with him like how we used to back at our place.

Sanju's reaction to newborn Jeev was pretty normal in the beginning, he would smile and be excited with the newborn in the room. He acknowledged the presence of a new baby, always eager to touch him, which we were very careful about. However, at one occasion, he wailed out loudly when he saw hubby carrying Jeev, he even left the room!

Now after 2 months, things are better. Sanju loves to kiss his baby brother at any time possible, he even asks to hold him, we let him hold Jeev and 'sayang' (while us doing the real holding of course). Sanju even helps in handing me towel and hanky for his baby brother. And now that Sanju is even self-feeding, he sometimes wants to help by feeding Jeev.

As for the sleeping part, hubby and I co-sleep with the 2 kids in the same room, neither of their cries interrupts the other's sleep, it is amazing how the 2 brothers have started tolerating each other now itself.

Thinking back, I can laugh about it now, but the first 1 month of being a mother of two, it was really tough for me, I even wondered if I would ever pull through. The saying is really true, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going!

How is really Sanju taking it? Only Sanju knows, while Sanju's mother misses Sanju's baby days and wishes to re-live it with Jeev, while watch Sanju grow up smarter and more handsome by the day.

Here's some brotherly love for you:

The Comeback

So you ask... Do I work? Uh yes, I work 24 hours a day. Why? Because I am a Mum! That makes me an alarm clock, a cook, a maid, a waitress, a teacher, a nanny, a nurse, a handyman, a security officer, a photographer, a counselor, a chauffeur, a lifelong student, an event planner, a personal assistant, an ATM, & a comforter. I don't get holidays, sick pay or days off. I work through the DAY & NIGHT. I am on call at ALL hours for the rest of my life. Post if you are a PROUD MOM!!!

Yes, I am still here, still hanging out, still blog hopping, still a mom, but now mom of 2 cheeky boys! Finally decided to get back on blogging after the long long silence of the lambchops. I seriously hope I did not lose my writing skills while being away due to work, pregnancy, delivery and now a newborn!

Coincidentally as I was about to start blogging I saw the above quote in a friend's Facebook status. Heck, I had to share it on my own, and also here in the blog, because it is how motherhood really is. It also goes out to my mother, who has been strong by my side in this motherhood journey, second time round.

I have been meaning to blog, to write, and to share my latest thoughts, happenings, and online buys (you knew this was coming), but working from home with a fussy toddler ain't no easy task. Although I have been at my parents place for over a month now, the toddler had increased his demands by two folds, probably realising the arrival of a sibling for him to rival on.

And oh, did I mention that I delivered my newborn? Sanju v2.0 arrived on 2nd August, 4 weeks before his estimated due date, no wonder those premature contraction and false alarms. Not that I am complaining, thank god for those, I had limited number of MCs and worked from home for like the whole of last 3 months.

Gosh, checking the date of my last post, its almost 2 months since I blogged. I even prepared a draft on second time parenting experience and expectations, but it never made it out cos my work laptop has been shutdown (gladly so) since I have been on MC for the 2 weeks before I delivered. Now since Sanju v1.0 slept after his lunch, and Sanju v2.0 has been sleeping peacefully after giving me sleepless nights for the past 3 days, I could finally come back and make a comeback to the blogworld. HELLO blog-WORLD!

The Joys And Woes of Working From Home

Thanks to the nature of my job and my kind boss, I was able to coax him into allowing me to work from home for the last one month. And oh, did I mention that I am 31 weeks pregnant with massive backpain and dizzy spells? Being IT geeks, our team makes full use of virtual and online meeting facilities that our company provides, this makes attending meetings and discussions a breeze from home, and Sanju gets to attend it with me as well, making his presence felt with occasional inaudible words.

Working from home is almost like a bed of roses, that comes with its fair share of thorns. For one thing, I stopped putting alarm for waking up. My kid's wake up time before 8am is enough to get us up and get ready for the day. As for hubby, his working timing is pretty flexible, we even get time to go out for breakfast before start my day at work (at home). On certain days, I cook up a nice breakfast meal for hubby and us that gets him charged for his work day. He could not believe his taste buds when my pancakes tasted 10 times better than McDonalds Big Breakfast! Damn, I have lots of hidden talent to be discovered, all the more excuse to continue staying at home.

I have ample of time to spend with Sanju while I stay standby with my laptop over the virtual network. But the tiring part is I have to plan my work tasks, house chores and Sanju bath/meal times alongside with each other.

I also get to plan and deploy (ok not intentional to sound so technical here) some new and improved recipes and meal plans for Sanju. There is nothing better than taking care of your own kid, I must admit. I have the convenience of feeding him different types of food and fruits throughout the day, which I must say, he seems to enjoy a lot.

However, emergency work issues become extremely difficult to handle if I have a similar emergency at home with Sanju, that requires an immediate diaper change, delaying which might bring unimaginable consequences of terrible smell and mess, and a mess of management emails on the other side.

For those demanding projects or issues requiring more effort and time, I end up burning midnight oil after I get Sanju off to bed with his daddy. It is seriously not easy trying to debug a script with a toddler climbing all over you for attention. Speaking of which, I now have a loose J and M keys, thanks to Sanju who did not have enough of pressing random keys and moving the mouse around, he decided picking out the keys was more fun. And yea, the space bar nearly came out too, but since its pretty wide, the other side is holding it in place. I tried to mend the J & M (I am having a hard time pressing these keys right this moment) keys with the trusted Uhu gum, but apparently, it does not work, as the plastic support is too small to get a grip. Remember, you heard it here first, Uhu gum does not work in fixing loose keys. If you know a method that does, do drop a comment.

At one time, Sanju singlehandedly changed the laptop display to a vertical mode. It took me good ten minutes to google the solution and fix it back. Apparently the mouse navigation do not work the same when your display is vertical instead of horizontal. I had to turn the laptop standing on its side to get this done. As they say, you learn something new every day, and with a toddler, it is not always about baby/child care.

Right now, being back in office sucks big time. I had a hard time leaving my toddler back at home with my mother in law. I know he will be fine, its me who is suffering from withdrawal symptoms. I am spending my free time wondering how to get off office next. I am addicted to being at home with my kid, and working on my flexible terms. Suggestions and ideas are welcome. I miss sipping on my morning ginger tea whilst checking my inbox!

The Laundry Ball Revolution

Its been a month since I have been using the latest (well, at least for me) revolution in laundry, The Green Pocket Laundry Balls I won at the GCDC event.

The result? Clothes, cloth diapers, beddings and even comforters come out clean, smelling so fresh, while being free of harmful chemicals. I am kind of a clean freak, I take a sniff at most of my laundry while hanging them to dry, and seeing my laundry come out with great results gives me the high of junkie on drugs.



Here's the product description from the Baby-Mel website:

A REVOLUTIONARY NEW WAY TO CLEAN YOUR CLOTHES

That is Environmentally Safe and will Save You Water & Contains No...... !!

No Sodium Lauryl Sulphate
No Petrochemicals
No Harsh Detergents
No Toxic Chemicals
No Animal Testing

At Last! The Quickest, Easiest Way To Do Your Washing
That Will SAVE You 'Loads' of WATER, MONEY, TIME
and ... Contains NO Harsh Chemicals!

BENEFIT :-

- Wash Clothes without using detergent
- Green product (Environment Friendly)
- Neutral pH 6.8 (Normal Detergent pH13 - Harmful to body)
- Save washing detergent cost
- Last for 3 years, with usage once a day
- Comes with 2 laundry balls

HOW IT WORKS :-

The Green Pocket Laundry Ball generates strong infrared rays wavelength to break the bond between molecules, enabling the individual water molecules to penetrate into the fabric. The water is also highly charged with negative ions. The dirt, which is positively charged, is attracted to the individual water molecules and is flushed out with the water during the rinse cycle.

The good thing about this laundry ball is that since it requires no detergent at all, there are less (almost no) chances of detergent build-up on cloth diapers. As I have toddler clothes, cloth diapers and adult clothes to manage daily, with the laundry ball I just dump everything together in the washing machine and let the laundry ball do the magic! No more worrying over cloth diaper or baby laundry care. My laundry hours are now half of what I used to spend, and imagine the electricity and water saved!

It really works like a miracle, and the skeptic me does not believe in miracles, so I usually put in one third of a cap of Cosway Kiddiwash for luck. I'm still trying to gather the courage to one day go completely detergentless.

It retails at RM189, which may seem a little steep, but like cloth diapers, it is an investment as it lasts for 3 years, about 1000 wash cycles. Definitely would be buying another one after this completes its service in 3 years time.

Raising a Toddler

It is like almost yesterday I was in labour and Sanju was born 13 painful hours later. It is like yesterday that they showed me his little manhood right after he was born and took him away to clean him up. It is like yesterday the nurses passed Sanju into my arms minutes after delivery.

I can't believe how time flied, and Sanju has grown from a newborn, into a baby and now a toddler. And this toddler is very much into his Obnoxious One (a term I created for him) before he enters the Terrible Two.

I used to think taking care of a newborn and later a baby was the biggest challenge. Boy, was I wrong. Everyday is a revelation to how and what more can I expect from this tiny toddler who looks as innocent as an angel while he is sleeping. In Sanju's point of view, Obnoxious One means redefining pretty much everything in daily routines and challenging parents to come out with ways to work it out. Here is some of my experience:

• Diaper & outfit change is war time. He sometimes refuses to get any piece of clothes off or on him, and just walks away or shouts loudly like he is being kidnapped by mean villains. I counter this by playing 'here comes ma-monster to attack!' and he gives in by laughing
• Makan time means he needs to hold the spoon and play with his food, no cooperation in eating whatsoever. A dummy bowl of food with a spoon is needed to distract him while feeding him. Mind you, the end product gets pretty messy when he decides to swing the spoon around
• He can be on unexpected eating strikes on one day, and eat so well on another that i have to pinch myself. We just have to be patient and keep on feeding different types of food throughout the day hoping that this would click and make him eat more
• Taking medicine is fine as long as it is a game where ma and papa taste it as well
• While I am so concerned on him taking a warm shower, it is ok for him to play with the spray hose and wet himself throughout bath time.
• Toys are a thing of the past, household items rock his boat. He only plays and explores with the household item which can be fun to watch especially when he puts things apart and tries to fix them back together
• Any handheld item can be used as a phone, and even have a long conversation on it
• The OO is adorable beyond words, and I thought baby is the cutest stage!
  

So You Think You Can Eat?

The title is inspired from this morning's discussion on FlyFM and FOOD... yes, I think I can eat and be legally fat and bloated! In fact I have a lot of people always commenting I am looking thin (despite the 10kg I put on in the last 6 months) and telling me to eat more and more. Why not, I don't mind even a drop. It is another thing that you will catch me complaining on not losing the baby fat later *touchwood*.

Like my first pregnancy, I don't really have any particular cravings but I am just enjoying all my favourite foods a little more. Hubby makes sure I get my weekly dose of Roti Bom from our favourite restaurant, and lets me have most of the sweet and yummy desserts. Thanks to mom, I have like 'a laddu a day' stock in the fridge for 1 week too!

Now the weird part about this pregnancy is my preference and love in smelling. Imagine getting into the car in the evening, and turning on the aircon. There is the heat smell that I love to savour for the few seconds before the air con starts coming in. And how about the smell of burnt or short circuit, I get it quite often along the corridor of my plant daily and I simple love taking the walk slowly to have the smell linger longer. Petrol and wet paint smell is something I never minded before, but now I love it even more. Also, I love to smell the after wash smell of laundry, it has this slight detergent sting that I enjoy even for a few seconds. Don't call me weird... I am legally weird.

Going back to something more normal, here is something that greeted me at the mail (reception) this morning. My winning Spiceberry Snuggbaby cloth diaper that I won during the recent mini giveaway. Right now I am loving the colour, its my favourite purple, and it comes with 1 microfiber & 1 hemp insert! I shall review it soon once I get it tested on Sanju's cute bum-bum.

Around The World and About

Its been a week since I blogged and it feels like ages to me. Partly because I have been so held up with work, home and baby that somehow the (internet) world around me has just frozen momentarily. It is not fun when you are back at your hometown to spend some nice family time and you end up being stuck in some ad-hoc urgent production requests and a misbehaving server. Things we have to do for our career (and monthly salary). The so-called holiday turned out to be a super busy working week trying to figure out how to get the server working.

So many things happened in the past one week.

Prince William and Kate Middleton got married. Prince William, who used to be the better looking brother in the 90s, is now well overshadowed by his brother Harry's good looks. How times have changed. Kate Middleton, the middle-class girl, looks nothing short of a stunning lady, no matter at which age. None of the paparazzi pictures of hers on the channel E! shows have any flaw, natural born princess perhaps?

Datuk Shazryl Eskay swore over the holy Quran on the controversial video. And now Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is much challenged to do the same. How easy if everything in life could be resolved by just swearing over holy books. The police and court system would lose their jobs. And I swear I am gonna get mental if my server does not decide to behave itself over the duplex network very soon!

Another highlight of the week is definitely how the Obama administration finally nailed Osama Bin Laden down. The guy who was thought to be in hiding, somewhere in a cave in the Afghan deserts, happened to be living quite happily somewhere else. Alas, the end had to come, and together with this, there was some spam in the facebook apparently showing horrifying pictures of Osama's body, even though the Obama administration never did reveal any. Come to think of it, without any proof, how is the public supposed to believe that Osama is indeed dead? It is ironic how lengthy of a speech President Obama had given over the news of the demise of the notorious terrorist. It almost made Osama sound like an important figure, in a positive way.

Over here at home, the baby inside me is getting very active, perhaps warming up to join forces with my obnoxious 1 year old. Speaking of which, Sanju is so pleasant at times, I can't imagine where did the angel come from, and at other times, I wonder why are there so many tantrums and demands from a little angelish looking devil. Right now, I am just enjoying the quiet moment while he gets his beauty sleep with violent movements.

Excuse me while I get back to my work, weekly reports and resolving tickets. Ah, life!

We did it! GCDC Kuala Lumpur!

Last weekend was perhaps the biggest event in a cloth diaper mother's life. With the Earth Day on 22nd April, a world recording breaking event in cloth diaper changing was held worldwide, at the same time. It may sound simple, but to coincide with the main event in the United States, the event was held about 12.30am local time to do the 'cloth diaper change'. Which means that mothers and babies had to brave our bedtimes, get together at one venue, equipped with commercially available CDs and other environmentally friendly items to participate. I am proud to say that I was one of the 39 other mothers in Scriptory Box Puchong who attended and participated the record breaking challenge.

It was a sisterhood meeting of sorts. Cloth diapering mothers from all parts of Klang Valley and also other parts of Malaysia (yes, one particular mama travelled down all the way from Gurun, Kedah, salute!) gathered together to be a part of this historical and world record event. Most of us from the Malaysian Cloth Diapering Parents group in facebook were already pretty familiar with each other from the group from months back. And it was a nice way to meet, greet and build the bonds stronger.

Sadly, I could not make it for the daytime bazaar and talks sessions. I heard there were a lot of great deals on natural parenting, and of course, lucky draws!! *envious of the pretty diapers given out in the lucky draws*

All participants received a goodie bag consisting of gifts from sponsoring parties. Here is my goodie bag as a participant & committee member for the GCDC KL. There are too many nice items to list, in short, they are environmentally friendly products for both baby and mother. One express facial session for the mother and a few shopping vouchers too! Sanju also received a certificate of participation for the event! I am so proud of my little boy!

Right before the main event, there was a cake cutting ceremony by our celebrity guest, Dynas Mokhtar, witness Pn Zatul and Event Moderator, Farhana from Cloth Diaper Malaysia. Don't you think the cake is too pretty & adorable to be eaten? I can't believe someone can actually create a cake that looks so real.

And oh, speaking of cakes, thats not just it. We also had another sponsor providing us with a cake of the exact GCDC logo. It just does not look like a cake! And surrounded by the cake are zallions of cupcakes, which were just too yummy for my tummy!

Enough about food now. My record-creating-toddler was sleeping from 830pm with his father in the car all the while. I had to wake him up right before registration to get his height measurements done, as a part of the condition for this event. Needless to say, he was pretty fussy after that because he was so sleepy and i guess being with so many babies and mother's around is not something that he expected in the middle of his bedtime. Anyway, a baby's gotta do what he's gotta do. Get his diaper changed and create a world record. It is amazing how it sounds like such a serious business, but truth is, baby diaper changing is no small business especially when you have a fussy and sleepy toddler who not just wriggles around while changing, but also disturbs babies next to him by grabbing their pillows and stuff. Don't get what I mean? This picture says it all:


There were a number of lucky draws done, and many gifts given out. There was also a quiz session on cloth diapering (what else?), and guess what, I scored myself a nice hamper of mother and baby goodies. There's the laundry ball, 2 cloth diapers (Envipink from Sentuhan Bayu & Wahmies from Mia Bambina), ahmies wetbag (contains the wahmies CD & a cloth wipe), Gin & Jacqui multipurpose bag, another wetbag, and Mia Bambina's aroma soap. If previously I did not own any wetbag, well now, I have 2! Double happiness for that!

At sharp 12.30am, the bells were rung as a sign to mothers to start changing the diaper. Just imagine, at that particular moment, thousands of mothers worldwide were doing the same. And just within seconds, we are done participating and creating a world record. Here's a group picture of all participating parents (yes, there was one proud daddy doing the diaper change!).

The best thing about this event is that it not just creates mass awareness on environmental friendly cloth diapers, it also puts Malaysia in the map with the record. Here's wishing to have more parents jump into the cloth diapering bandwagon!