10 Baby Essentials

After hearing some good new of my friends joining the Mummy Club. Was kinda inspired to give my top 10 baby essentials and 10 baby money-waster (oh, my England is so bad these days)

1. Baby wipes - dunno how my mum did without it. I use it for everything from cleaning baby to cleaning his highchair, clothes, floor, stroller....cannot emphasise how useful it is. I use Pamper Sensitive as the wipes are as soft as tissue but strong enough to serve it's purpose




2. Baby changing bag - this is a no brainer cos as a parent, this is one item you cannot leave home without. Since Josiah is still drinking milk, our bag still contains the usual hot water flask, milk container, bottle, and cool water. In addition, his bag also has snack container, wipes (told you I cannot live without it), nappies, change of clothes, extra bibs, spoon, cars, trucks, moisturiser (winter time) and sunscreen (summer time)




3. Baby Bumbo chair - he loved being able to see what was happening. Wherever I went, I took the Bumbo and propped him up so I could get on with showering, cooking, pooping, ironing....etc. A real live saver. Note that some babies just hate it and struggle to get out of it in which case, never put it up on high places. I used to put him on top of the table and kitchen counter but once he started struggling, then only on the floor.




4. Baby rocker - when he was younger, you could rock him to sleep in it. Or use it like the Bumbo so he can see what you were up to and entertain himself with those silly toys hanging on it. He has the Fisher Price one with the built in buzzing/massaging thingy which he hates. I only bought it because it will convert to a toddler rocking chair for when he is older.




5. Highchair. I only got him a basic Ikea one but it is well worth every penny because as baby gets older, it is easier to put him in a highchair whilst you go about daily chores. Also it is good habit to feed baby on it. Good for baby to learn to sit and eat. Good for Mummy because baby is at eye level to you so you can sit beside baby to feed and to eat too.




6. Push-along toy. Great at helping baby start walking and saves your back from having to bend over to support baby to "walk". Josiah uses his even until today - kids loves pushing things all over. We got ours as a gift but I would not hesitate to buy one otherwise




7. Baby monitor. These expensive gadgets are your key to freedom. We used ours everyday, even on holidays. It allows you to do whatever you want whilst baby is sleeping without worrying about waking baby up with noise or not hearing baby wake up. On holidays, we do the same so we can watch a movie in another room whilst Josiah is sleeping.




8. Changing mat. I got one of those plastic foam ones. Great to use because you can change baby anywhere in the house without dirtying the floor/bed.




9. Plastic bib - once you start weaning baby, oh, the mess.... Invest in a nice, easy to clean plastic bib and you never have to worry about stains on clothes.




10. Hand soap dispenser. I may not be the cleanest mum around but I always make sure to wash my hands before making milk/changing baby/after changing baby/before feeding him...etc. S thinks I am OCD but this nothing compared to most other mothers I know.

Top 10 money wasters!

1. Baby hats. Well, I guess this is open for debate but Josiah hated hats of any sort from day one. He will only tolerate hats during winter when it is zero degrees! I had tons of baby hats for him (following advice to make sure his head is not exposed to wind) but he just won't leave it on.



2. Cloth nappies. Tried it. Suffered for it. Ditched it. Newborns, especially those who are breastfed pee and poo almost instantly after every feed. On some bad days, I had to change his nappy 5 times and it was not even 10am yet! Runny poo and cloth....ooh, la, la....no thanks, I will stick with my cheap Drypers for day use and longer lasting Pampers/Mamy Poko for night. Baby is happy and so am I. Sorry Mother Nature, but I don't see you around to do my laundry for me.



3. Small baby bottles. Just buy the big ones from start. Most babies I know can drink more than 4 oz of milk by the time they are 3 months old. Josiah is the exception and I am still using my small Avent bottles on a daily basis.



4. Steriliser. Mainly put off by the cost to purchase one - it is super expensive and in my experience, highly over-rated. My confinement lady started with soaking his bottles in hot boiling water daily. Once a day only. I continued with this regime until he was 6 months old, then I started sterilising every other day - and he is fine. By his first birthday, I completely stopped sterilising, of course, continue washing it with soap and warm water after every use (I am not THAT dirty!) Babies are really adaptable so the earlier you start to introduce some dirt into their lives the better for all. They get stronger. You have less to do and less to pack/ worry when travelling.



5. Pacifiers. Unless you want to start something that might be tough to undo. Do not bother with the pacifiers.



6. Baby talcum powder. Once a must after a bath but I have read that the powder goes into baby's delicate nostrils and later causes problems. Anyway, I think babies smell great on their own - no need to make them smell like Johnson&Johnson powder!



7. Hair brush. I kinda like the natural look - after all, they have years of styling/perming/gelling...etc For now, just dry with towel and use fingers to smoothen out.



8. Bottle warmer. It is really nice to have in the early days especially when you want to warm up some breast milk from the fridge. The cheaper version is to use a stainless steel cup (those free mugs comes in handy) filled with boiling water and sit bottle in for a few minutes. Works just as well and cost nothing. Better yet, train your baby to take luke warm milk and you will reap the rewards when you are out with baby. Josiah got used to drinking his milk super hot - half hot water, half cold water and we have trouble getting his milk his desired temperature when we are out. So he would drink less and we still have to lug about his big hot water flask everywhere we go. My 'ang moh' friends here even feed their babies with milk straight from the fridge when they are past 12 months!!



9. Baby mat. To be more specific, those cute ones with hanging rattles...etc. It is good only before baby starts to turn. I went and bought a proper foldable mattress. You can use it as a changing area, nap time, play area, take it travelling or parent's sleep area (when Josiah is still running around at 10pm)! It is probably cheaper than the baby mat but can be used for years to come.



10. Baby lotion. Like I mentioned earlier, I like babies to smell natural and most baby lotions are frangranced. I use olive oil which is natural and frangrance-free. It is easy to apply and can be used as massage oil too. Also, apparently good for the scalp by enhancing hair growth.

Daddy is back! Hooray...

S came back from his trip to Jakarta and Malaysia with 40 kilos of luggage. And mind you, he travelled quite light as he was going back home to stay with his parents for 3 nights so he has his clothes there. Here's a peek at the goodies he brought back.

• 3 packets of diapers - I use these for daily wear as they are sooo much cheaper in Msia


• 3 plastic bags of rambutans - complete with ants and funky bugs from his backyard! Delicious....the rambutans...we drowned the ants and bugs in our sink


• Bak Chang or Chung - lovingly made by my mother-in-law. Delish...


• 3 small containers of home-made kaya from S mom - half gone already


• 2 packets of "yee meen" from our favourite shop. I know it sounds crazy but I have not eaten "yee meen" for over a year so it was worth risking spillage for it.


• chopped garlic - fantastic for cooking.


• zip loc bags


• toys for Josiah from S parents - train set, books, DVDs


• mahjong paper - for Josiah to scribble on and keep my floors safe from his "art"


• clothes & shoes from my sister-in-law's son - thanks! put to use already


• new plate and cup from my parents for Josiah


• a packet of 100 balloons from Grandpa - Josiah loves balloons and says, 'Blow' when he sees the packet. Poor guy, after many failed attempts with saliva spray all over him and no balloon in sight, he finally got it that Mummy suck at blowing balloons.

Was it worth it? Of course. *Rubbing my round belly*

Just look at how alike my two men are. S got new glasses too - groovy.

Putting those mahjong paper to good use. Josiah has just put crayons in his mouth for a taste-looks like it doesn't taste so good

Why I love summer

I cannot believe that this is our second summer here in London already! Last year, my mom and sister were here and Josiah was just a wee baby. We went to the park to take him for walks and now he runs around on his own!

This week temperature has reached about 29C and without air cond in the house. We are melting. Even Josiah who hardly drinks water can now take gulps of water. We sleep in T-shirts without a blanket and fan turned on to the max. Really reminds me of Malaysia! We make the most of summer by going out to the park every day, sometimes even twice a day. Home is hot, so we only come home for food, bath and bed. Aside from that, we are out. Josiah has gotten so used to this that he will whine and act miserable if I am slow in getting ready to go 'kai kai'. I should be buying him a pair of sandals since wearing shoes these days makes his feet sweat but knowing the weather here. This good weather would not last long and soon all the jackets and long-sleeved clothes would be in use again. So here's a few reasons to love summer....

...you can step out of the house in ONE layer of clothings.

...you can forget to bring your jacket and still be okay.

...you can do the laundry twice a week and not every other day! YAY!!!

...you don't have to struggle with your son to put on his thermal, a long sleeved top, two pants and a bulky jacket. Then put on hat, gloves, socks and shoes, by then, Mummy is already tired but have to do the same for myself.

...you can wear a short skirt (Mummy) / short pants (Josiah)!! Hooray for legs to see daylight after so long!

...your laundry dries instantly and no musty-smelling clothes.

...you can play in the park until 9pm if you wished. Josiah's latest time out is 7.45pm. The sun only sets at about 9.30pm.

...you forget how miserable winter is and actually enjoy London!


On the downside,

...you get sunburned because you spend so much time outside. Ouch!

...you don't feel like cooking because the whole house feels even hotter after that (or is that just an excuse...)

...you wake up thinking it is 8am when it is only 5am - sun rises at about 4am. So some mornings, Josiah and I struggle to get back to sleep because it is too bright.

...hot, hot hot....without air conditioning, sweating like pigs here.

...you throw out more food as they spoil more easily in the heat. I frequently forget to put the leftover food in the ridge before I go to bed!

...you need ice but your freezer is too small to put the ice box in.

...you put on your old slippers only to have it snap whilst I go for a walk and have to walk back bare foot. Sheesh.

Bye-bye slippers - it is the only one I have and since summer is ending, it will be a year before I buy another one.

Josiah having a ball at the park...

Please help....boy and car down!

I wonder what is on his mind when he does this....sniff....looks all grown up now

Got to go now - have to soak up more of those precious sun.....

See you in the park!

Josiah's Day

Remember when we used to be young and carefree. I don't. Am too busy keeping Josiah happy and carefree. Josiah leads the kind of life many adults would be envious of. Here's a peek at his daily routine.

Let's start the day with a nice yummy bottle of milk followed by full breakfast of cereal, yogurt and fruit (when he is in his eating mode) or just a couple of Cheerios in milk (when he is not)

Next, a little creative art on paper and ends with an original "art" on the floor and crayons thrown everywhere especially under sofa so Mummy cannot find it.

Moving on to balls - this one was on offer and is too girly but he loves it.

Then to his favourite cars!! Check out that happy face.

Help Mummy out with the house chores. Josiah loves Mr Vacuum since young. He used to crawl after it and now he can actually use it. Brilliant!

Before lunch, Josiah get to go to the park or go shopping. He obviously prefers the park except when I take him to drive the 'real' car at the shopping centre.

After all that fun, back home for a nice LONG bath, lunch and long afternoon nap. Mummy meanwhile is busy with a short shower, cooking dinner, cleaning up and definately no naps!

With all that energy after my nap, Mummy needs to take me to the park again to run around or go to the playground or the sand play area

Zoning out after dinner but before bedtime

Sweet dreams, finally at 10pm. I had so much fun, Mummy. Let's do this again tomorrow.

Sigh. Sure, sweetie....now where are my Brand's Essence?

Daddy, where are thou?

It has been four days since S left for Jakarta and KL. It is always tough when S is away because I hate eating alone. Josiah's company during dinner time don't count since he (1) does not really eat and (2) does not really talk. I miss our usual dinner banter and idle talk.

Tonight was particularly difficult because my sister is also leaving to further her studies in Perth. With Skype being quite useless in Australia, I doubt we would be Skype-ing as much as we do now. And seeing that she is taking the house laptop with her also means that I would not be able to talk to my parents until they get a another laptop.

On the upside, Josiah's vocabulary is slowly increasing - he can say, 'No more', 'Bye-bye', 'bear', 'up' and his all time favourite word now - 'NO'

He says it with gusto, shaking his head vigorously and does this even when I am not asking or talking to him. Imagine this, pushing his cars on the floor, suddenly, "NO", no, no, no, no...???

Or walking around the house, then a sudden burst of no, no, no.... ???

Really wish I could read his mind. Talking about his mind, his imagination is also picking up. Have caught him a few times giving "food" to his teddy bear. He also picks up empty cup/bowls and pretends to have a big gulp of water.

His latest trick, throwing anything he can find into the bath tub whilst it is filling up before his bath time. He will then point and say "Uh, oh.." Today's damage include Daddy's umbrella, mineral water and some hangers. Past victim include his teddy, laundry and small stool!!

Here he is trying to show me how strong he is.

I made him some star-shaped pancakes for breakfast

To my dearest hubby, 'Come back soon!!!!'

To my darling sister, 'Take care and keep in touch. Hugs & kisses'

To my parents and brother, 'Hurry up with the new laptop'

To my in-laws, 'Thanks for always being online - it is nice to know someone is just a click away'

To my Josiah, 'Please start talking soon' and 'Please potty-train yourself' and 'Please eat more' and 'Please stop leaving your cars/balls/balloons everywhere in the house' and....... :)

Wheels galore...

Josiah loves anything with wheels - cars, trucks, bikes, fire engines... and spends a lot of time playing with his vehicles. I try to use this interest of his to teach him stuff about vehicles. It is amazing that he can now point out wheels, windscreen, radiator, side mirror in any type of vehicle. He can even point out where engines are located (normally up front) and where the boot is (normally at the back).

Funny, how I spent countless hours trying to show him the difference between a cow and sheep yet till this day, he still gets confused. Sigh. A real boy, this one! Now he can even say, "Mini" - his favourite car when he sees one on the road. Since both of us are not car lovers, our knowledge of car types are pretty basic. Thanks to Josiah, I have now have to learn more about cars.

His love for cars can be used to our advantage especially when we are at the restaurant. My bag always has at least 3 different cars to entertain him. On good days, we can actually sit and eat a whole 3 course dinner together. Of course, we have to clear the table for him to push his cars but it is a small price to pay for some peace and quiet. Every time we bring him to a toy store, all he ever look at are cars even though there are tons of other toys around. Now that he is older, he asks me to open the box for him to play with the car and so our stash of cars comes in handy again to divert his attention when we don't want to buy him another toy.

Josiah and his new Hess fire engine - Hess is the company S works for and they hand out cool toys to all their staff for Christmas. Lucky for Josiah then!

Here he is at Yakitoria when Daddy and Mummy were having dinner with Daddy's colleague.

Holland Park - 12th July 2008

Summer sales is here and we have done enough damage to our bank account so we decided to take Josiah to a children's fair in Hammersmith which is free. On the way there, we had to pass by Kensington High St - and we got caught again! Ended up with more toys and books for him. And nothing for us as usual...worse is we did not even make it to Hammersmith with all our side tracking. Instead we pop into Holland Park - said to be the most romantic park in London.

It is beautiful and romantic indeed.

We told Josiah to say,"Hello" to the man and he did!

I tried to do some fancy photography but turned out like crap - but don't the boys look sweet together

Our happy little boy

Science Museum - 5th July 2008

It was a beautiful sunny day - Kensington Garden

It was one of those weekends - we had grand plans on taking Josiah to the zoo or to Richmond where deers roam about. As it turns out, he slept at midnight on Friday as we had some friends over with their 2 year old daughter so only woke up at 9.30am on Saturday. We had the usual Skype call to grandparent's and by the time we were ready it was already near noon. Seeing that we would have to pay nearly 20 pounds per person to the zoo - out of the question with half the day gone. Richmond sounded good until S told me it would take about 2 hours to get there!! Sigh, do wish we have a car at times like this. So as a last minute plan, we decided to go to the Science Museum located just across Kensington Gardens. I decided that we should "tapao" some food from Malaysian Hall as I also had craving for some 'teh tarik'. Mmmmm......the teh tarik was gooood.

Entrance to the science museum is free and it was not too packed despite the weekend. Aaahhh, that's because the Wimbleton is on and the rest of the hip crowd are at the O2 concert in Hyde Park. So we must be to remaining cheapo people hanging out at a free museum.

There was plenty to see but I won't bore you with the details (which I cannot remember anyway!). Josiah was caught up with a touch screen computer and made S carry him to touch the screen for a good 20 minutes! I was so bored and so was S but what to do.....such are parent's sacrifices.... :)

S was unusually hungry so we went to the Basement where seats were available to have our Malaysian curry rice. I had the Lamb rendang and Shaun had the Beef Rendang. Both only so-so and Josiah had some 'happy face' biscuits and a piece of broccoli. Yup, Josiah is on his hunger strike mode again and he is fine not eating anything! But I am not fine...one can only be a parent to understand the feeling when you see you little one refusing to eat or drink milk. Awful. Back to the museum story, we then took Josiah to the kid's corner and he had a blast. Stacking giant blocks, checking out lights and sound, playing with water. Children here are so fortunate to be able to learn science in such a hands-on manner. Josiah enjoyed himself so much and I said to myself I would bring him again when my parent's are here just so I can have a chance to explore the place and not get stuck at the kids corner only!

Here are a few pics of our light and easy Saturday.

Josiah making a happy face whilst eating his 'happy face' biscuits

They have animal hats for you to make stories with your kids - of course, I chose the cow!

He loved the giant kaleidoscope

This cool water contraption shows kids on movement of water and how irrigation works (super fun way to learn)

Josiah konked out after a tiring afternoon

Josiah is 18 months old

Here's a collection of photos to mark his latest achievements.

Also, I am too lazy to blog today.....

Josiah can drool, make a happy face and play with his car at the same time

Josiah can suck his dummy, remove items from cupboard to wagon and push wagon

Josiah can feed himself

Cheeky monkey with his monkey

Run around on his own

He has 4 teeth on top and 2 at the bottom - notice his large front teeth!! I have to start saving money for braces already.