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.

Practise makes perfect.....NOT!

Practise makes perfect.

In most cases, this popular saying is true but does being a mother for 1.5 years make me a better mum? Nope. And here is a whole long list to prove that:

- I have gone out and forgot to pack Josiah's bottle!!!! I panicked but it was too late. Tears flowing, Josiah was getting angry - can you believe I had to borrow a bottle from my friend.
Bad Mummy.

- I still have got days when his pants gets all wet because I did not put the diaper on properly. Sheesh, you'd think that with all that practise day in and day out, leaking nappy should be a thing of the past....

- I have also on different occasions forgotten to pack.....bibs, spoons, baby food, hat, hot water, drinking water, clean clothes, even forgot to put on his shoes....my goodness, you are expecting me to forget to pack Josiah too....huh? Snifff.....

Bad Mummy.

That's not all, on the good days when I actually remember to do all the above for Josiah, I would often forget to bring my own jacket / keys/ handbag / watch / handphone...

- I still sometimes make his milk too hot or too cold

- I once put on his shoes on wrongly and did not even notice it until we came home from running around the park!

- I have accidentally let him run around with his pants on wrongly

- I have fed him expired food because I got my calender dates wrong!!!

- I even forgot to feed him his evening milk a couple of time. He was busy playing and I was busy surfing.... very bad Mummy!

But you know what, despite all my shortcomings in mothering Josiah - he has no other choice cos he ain't got another bad Mummy like me. Hehehe....so to all those thinking hard about trying to be a super perfect Mum and failed, don't worry, your little one loves you just the way you are.

Well, they don't know any better at this point so don't worry too much about all your little (or big) mistakes.

See, Josiah still loves me........and I love him too!!!!

He also loves his cars, monkey, cow, chow-chow(smelly blanky).... HEY, not fair, I clean up all his poop everyday...!!

Verona, Italy April 2008

My favourite Italian moments :

- Josiah saying "Daddeee" in his sweet 'manja' voice. It was his latest word and ohhh....I was so jealous of S. I have spent 100% of my time with him but still "Daddeee" is all he would say in that one week. Hrrrmmph.

- Eating gelato everyday (I did share with S and Josiah...). Must also mention that Josiah refused to try gelato because I ordered it in a cup and not in a cone. To him, ice cream = cone, but when I finally forced him to taste some off my spoon - there was no turning back. Mention ice cream, his mouth opens wide. This is from the boy who guards his mouth like gold!

- Fresh pasta in abundance. They have specialty shops that sells all sorts of fresh pasta. Spinach flavoured, tomato flavoured, black squid ink, ...etc

Amazingly yummy. Don't even need sauce, just pour simple mushroom, olive oil & basil sauce over it. Delicious.

- Josiah walking EVERYWHERE, EVERYDAY - wow, his walking improved so much during this one week. People on the streets cannot believe he had only just started walking.

- Siesta time concept: These Italians really know how to enjoy life to the max. Shops were usually closed from 2-4pm for lunch and naptime! And they partied on till late. Which is bad for us as we often only managed to get out of the apartment at 11am and have to be home at 7pm for Josiah to have dinner and sleep.

- Discovering the adult channel on their TV.....alamak, these Italians are quite "ham sap" - plenty of free channels to choose from after 11pm!! Even UK telly is not as bold as Italy.

- Italian coffee....mmmm......even for a non coffee person, I am in love with their coffee. There are bars, coffee bars everywhere. Men come in, stand at the counter and order a shot of their coffee which is an espresso normally, gulp it and leave! Would definately recommend coffee lovers to retire here, cheap and fantastic coffee.

- Venice is over rated, I mean it is lovely city but sooo commercialised. Instead, I loved Lake Garda, it is scenic, beautiful and not so congested. Check out the pics of Lake Garda at my picasa link.

- I still prefer my "American" type pizza with pineapple and chicken! Italian pizzas are so complex, too high class to me - for eg sword fish, fennel & anchovy pizza....gimme my Hawaiian Pizza from Domino anytime :)

- After 4 days of Italian, I had craving for McDonald! Pathetic but true. McChicken never tasted so good and there was no queue too....Italy is one place McDonalds cannot survive.

- One word: TIRAMISU. Every shop had their own version but all were top class and delicious

- Two words: GETTING FAT. Need I say more.......

Josiah is very possesive of his stroller and makes sure it is by his side when he is walking

Josiah enjoying his gelato

Wanted to upload a video of Josiah entertaining us in the bus to Lake Garda, but the file is too big - so just click on the link below

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=mum2josiah

Krakow, Poland, May 2008

Krakow?? Where is that? That's the typical respond when I mentioned that I will be going there for a short 4 day break. Strange place to go for a holiday but this is a subsidised company holiday, which we signed up for months earlier. I was not quite keen to go because the main "attraction" there was the concentration camp called 'Austwitchz' - where millions of Jews were gassed to death. Hmm, definately not a place I want to bring Josiah. Another one of their attraction was the Salt Mines which involves a 2-3 hour walk underground and in part, in darkness!! Also not somewhere to bring my scaredy cat boy! I thought the whole holiday was going to be quite boring but as you can see, Krakow has more to offer than just that. We loved the city center. There was plenty of horse carriages, pigeons, open spaces, parks and cheap food! Our hotel also overlooks one of their national treasure - Wawel Castle which was beautiful. To top it off, there is a cool toy shop here and we used up all our Zloty (Polish currency) as no point in keeping it. So Josiah is one happy boy in this trip.

Weather was good too with temperatures reaching 29C compared to the miserable rainy day in London!

Wawel Castle in the background

Polish people love the Pope and has many Catholic churches

Josiah trying out at being a construction worker in Krakow

Josiah terrorising birds in Krakow

Josiah loves to pose with a post (don't ask me why...)

Happy Birthday to me...

Aaaahhh, the big "three oh" has come to get me. Started my birthday weekend with a load of junk - literally. See, S bought some stuff from his boss who is leaving for US. We thought is was quite a bargain but after seeing all the stuff in our little flat. It was mayhem, there were boxes and wiring of all sorts, kitchen stuff, lamps, TV, XBox (old version)...and Josiah was just happy picking up anything to stuff in his mouth. I had no choice but to prop him in the highchair and let him watch 2 Brainy Baby DVD which last about 80 minutes. He did not even bat an eyelid when I disappeared downstairs to help S carry stuff up. With the house in a mess, my old schoolmate arrived with her fashionable red bag for a sleepover. We quickly bundled Josiah up and went for a well deserved Vietnamese lunch. Then the girls went for a Spa and left the boys to clean up the house. Amazing - both the spa and the house!! S was super fantastic at clearing everything up that we even managed to invite Josiah's girl friend over to eat my birthday cake.

I cringe at the thought that a few years ago I would secretly think that anyone above 30 is OLD. Now that I am there, I understand why people like my Dad, nearing the big "six oh" (wow!) still think they are young....I will be like that too when I am his age, I'm sure of it.

Aside from my life book filling up with memories, experience, happiness, sadness, ...etc I still honestly FEEL the same as I did in the 20s. I don't think I have changed or matured mentally. I don't think I am wiser or more abled. Still the same. Same old, same old....

Yes, I am a Mum now but as I sit in front of the laptop, blogging...I feel like how I did rushing my assignment in Uni. Words and nonsense pouring out of my mind into my fingers and onto the screen. Just fill up the word quota and press print...hahahaha....I am glad those days were over. I prefer to fill up as much or as little as I want.

Anyway, thank you all for all the birthday wishes and for remembering me far, far away.

Thank you S for the lovely present delivered one week later! A portable grand piano. Oh, it really made my day and will continue to make my day every day here in London. Knowing that I have means to escape reality even for a bit means so much. For all those who is now thinking, "Oh, didn't know she played the piano". I don't - just like to bang around and make somewhat of a noise, some may call it music or some just plain noise. Who cares...important thing is I get instant stress relieve when I bang on it. I don't have to resort to smoking.drinking or drugs for that so I think it is a real livesaver. Love you S, love you.....

Did I mention that it snowed on my birthday. I got to see it lay beautifully as I walked to church and even throw a few snow balls at S. Everyone was excited because it was in the middle of spring and it also hardly ever snows in London. Josiah was not impressed at all, he just looked at it glumly.

Has it been 15 months?

Josiah turns 15 months today...and his mummy will turn the big "three oh" this Sunday!!

Definately don't feel 30...and don't think I look 30...but then again maybe my tiredness has made my brain go mush as well.

Anyhow, a busy, busy weekend coming and I started it by scheduling a root canal treatment today - DUH... meaning that I would be eating porridge for my birthday. Not nice. So it was a sweet surprise this morning when the dentist said I could still try on permanent filling and see if I could manage. Yippee...thanks Doctor!

First Easter weekend in UK was spent in Bath. We rented a cottage, rented a car and together with Emma's parents off we went. But not before S was given a parking ticket for staying 3 minutes in the Residential Parking lot!!! Cost: GBP120 with a 50% discount is paid within 14 days. Sigh, an expensive start to the holidays. This is Josiah's first trip using the car seat so I was quite ready to face some resistance but he was just grand - all quiet for the first 45 minutes and then had a bottle which energized him for a bit before sleeping till we reached Bath. Emma's mum on the other hand got car sick entertaining her! We had a nice lunch at a deli before heading to the cottage. The cottage was lovely as with the owner, Angela. Apparently, we were the second family there so everything was still nice and new. She even had a highchair, stairgate and cot which served us very well with two babies walking about. Aahh...walking?? Yes, just overnight, on March 17th, my little man decided that he can take a few steps after all. Although he still cannot get up to standing position from sitting, once propped up, off he goes and he is quite steady too!

Basically had a relaxing time in Bath with the day out walking and exploring and coming home for dinner and wind down time for the babies. Except that my little man decided he did not like the accomodations for whatever reason. He was up crying for 2-3 hours every night - nothing could calm him. We gave him medicine but it only kept him for 1-2 hours before he is at it again. I was so traumatised that I said I'd never bring him for a holiday again! I was so physically drained after that weekend and did not look forward to Italy in April!.

Here he is playing with snow.

Every mum I know brushes their babies teeth....gosh, he only has 4 teeth and I am way too lazy to add another routine into his already loooong list of routines. But still, we did get him his own toothbrush to play around with.

His latest cutie trick - ask him to give you a "happy face" and the result.... aaaawwww....too cute!