Sarah's first Deepavali

I bought Sarah her first Indian dress for Deepavali 2011.  It was kinda unplanned.  We were buying something else when we passed by these cute Indian dresses for kids.  I figured she's half Indian so she better have some Indian dresses too.

Forgive a biased mother but she looked so cute and charming!

Sarah's Indian dress for Deepavali 

Our little bundle of joy!

Here's my gums mom!

Sweet November

Time flies...
Here's what happened this November 2011.

November 12.  Pinoy Christmas Party @ Gold Coast Resort.
Lots of new faces, the Penang Pinoy community is growing!  Loads of fun, as expected from a typical pinoy gathering.  Daming pagkain, tingin pa lang busog na ko!  For food, we contributed 2 pandan layer cakes and a brocolli/carrots/shrimp dish.

         
                              Ravi joined a game, their team lost though :)

Reena almost won one of the kiddie games.  She had fun playing pinoy games.

 Sarah met Raine again, she wanted to play with her.

Group picture with the Intel Q&R group.

November 18.  Avago's Masquerade Ball @ Trader's Hotel
It was the company's annual dinner.  Good jazz band.  Chinese food. Had drinks with Ravi afterwards.

With Yuki, Mi Mi, Hong Choon and Boon Hong

My only solo shot of the night :)

November 27.  Visit to Straits Quay.
Enjoyed the Christmas decors at Straits Quay. Strolled along the marina. Bought homemade nougat at the bazaar (yummy!) Had dinner at Blue Chips.

At the Christmas tree

Walking along the marina

My babies

Georgetown view

Blue Chips dinner - Threadfin fish

Sarah and mommy

Flat tire on a Monday morning

Coming out of the parking lot, I felt the car was moving kinda funny.  I parked on the side and checked the tires.  My dreaded suspicion was confirmed, I got a flat tire!  Left rear to be exact.

We got the Toyota Estima last February but never got around to finding where the spare tire was.  So a couple weeks ago, Ravi looked for it.  To our disappointment, there was no spare tire!   We knew we have to get back with the Naza car shop at Autocity Penang and claim the spare tire, most likely on a weekend when we have to go to Nibong Tebal.  (Autocity will be on the way to Nibong Tebal).

Then this flat tire happened. On a Monday morning. When Ravi is in Vietnam until Friday. 

Panic mode galore for me!  I.have.never.changed.a.tire.

Called Ravi up and asked what to do.  He told me to go to a tire shop near the house and get the guys there to replace the tire.  So I walked back to the house, waited for an hour as the shop opens only around 10am, and got a cab to the tire shop.

Ravi and the shop guy talked for a while (over international call!) and agreed on what tire to put in.   The shop fellas did everything for me, thank goodness.  They found a nail pierced way deep into the tire, about 1/4 inch thick nail.

All in all, it cost us RM350 to replace the tire.  What a way to start the week!   :S

September visit # 2 (Donald's family)

Donald, Lhet and baby Raine visited us one rainy Saturday afternoon.  It was like a play date between Raine and Sarah.  Raine was a shy and quiet most of the time, Sarah as usual have no problem being noisy!

Mommy Lhet, Raine, me and Sarah

On the banig play area

Baby swap! 

September visit # 1 (Suresh's family)

I know, I know.  I've been negligent with this blog. Tsk, tsk, tsk!  Need a lot of catching up to do...


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Ravi's friend at Intel Penang Design Center, Suresh, came with his family for a visit last September 10.  They have a baby girl named Anya who's 3 weeks younger than Sarah.  It was supposed to be a playdate for the babies but it turned out to be more of the parents' chika time!

Sarah was very comfortable with the baby guest, not shy at all in trying to gorge Anya's eyes out or pull her hair!  Anya took a long time to get used to the new surrounding but later was also crawling all over the place and playing with Sarah's toys.  Sarah was very protective of her toys, grabbing them away from Anya each and every time! 

The husbands had their man-talk at the kitchen drinking whisky while the ladies chit chatted at the living area.  Suresh then made a joke that it used to be the women who would stay in the kitchen to talk and gossip and not the other way around!  We committed to hold the next get-together at their place.

w r i t i n g

I miss writing.  I used to do a lot of writing on notebooks for lessons, different sized pad papers for quizzes, manila papers and cartolinas for projects, and of course doodles on any writing space during boring class lectures! :)

My cursive handwriting used to be pretty good, if I may say so myself.  It's not so nice anymore because nowadays, all writing I get done are mostly a few notes here and there. 

I’m embarking on another(!) project - to write more often on paper.  Let's see how well I'll do by the end of the year.

***

I’ll let you in a secret.  I still send out greetings cards for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, Valentines, and all other occasions.  I like writing personal messages (sometime with some artwork on the side!) on the cards.  Of course I love receiving greeting cards too! 

Sadly the greeting card collection here in Penang is very limited.  I'm guessing though that it's the same for most bookstores anywhere else. 

I miss the good old times when people take time to carefully read through many greeting cards in the bookstore, searching for that perfect card to give to a friend, a family member or to someone special.  Now, it just takes a few minutes (even seconds) to write in a facebook message, send email or an e-card, and twit (for those who are into twitter) to greet people.  Tsk, tsk, tsk!

How Sarah was during the trips...

Sarah was a very easy baby during our trips to Singapore and Manila.  I didn't have a hard time with her, even with 25kg of luggage, a baby bag and her stroller in tow!  She was behaved during immigration queues, flight connections, even during Mommy's toilet breaks!  Only one time she cried, which was before our Manila-KL departure flight.  She was sleepy and was in a cranky mood.  By boarding time though, she was fast asleep. 

For the both trips, I brought along a pacifier (which my husband and I don't advocate) to help with the pressure.  It ended up not being used as Sarah slept through during take offs and touch downs.  She's such a darling 'no? =)

Travel anxiety

The next two weekends Sarah and I will be traveling on our own. This weekend it's at Singapore to meet with Juliet and other ex-Intel folks.  Next week is at the Philippines to celebrate Mama's 60th birthday. 

Exciting yep but a bit worrisome as I have to take care of everything myself - getting through immigration, pushing our luggage and her stroller!  I've been prepping her up lately, talking to her and asking her to be a good girl during the journey to not make it difficult for mommy.  Will blog about how things went after we come back.

Never too old...

I never had proper swimming lessons, I just 'learned' on my own.  I thought that as long as I can 'swim' from point A to point B, I'm good.  But since moving on our own place at Parkview Towers, where there is a common pool, I decided to cross out 'learn how to swim properly' from my 'things to do before I die' list.  Which will be another post soon.
 
Mr. Loo, a swim coach in Penang I googled, was agreeable to come to our apartment for a 10-session swim lesson. My colleague at work, Mi Mi, was also interested to get her two kids learn together with me and Reena, my 6 year old stepdaughter.  We made arrangements and last Sunday, the first session started.

Mr. Loo started by teaching us how to breathe properly - breathe in through the mouth and breathe out through the nose.  Being the oldest in the  group, of course I got it quickly. While the three kids were practicing breathing, Mr. Loo asked me to swim. After a short swim, he said everything I just did was wrong!  Which was not a surprise, after all I was there to be corrected.  He then proceeded to demonstrate the proper way of using the arms and legs.  From there, I practiced until the session was over.

It felt good to start learning something new again. At first I was a bit embarrassed being in the company of kids but like they say, one's never too old!   Older people shouldn't limit themselves in learning new things, it spices up life and makes one feel good.

Lost my phone...

I lost my iphone last night.  It fell off my (new) shorts pocket while in a cab going home.  (Apparently the new shorts pocket is not deep enough to hold my knick knacks.)   When we reached the apartment not even 5 minutes later after leaving the cab, I felt for the phone in my pocket and it was not there!  We double checked the baby bag and the rooms looking for the phone but it was not in the house. I ran to the landline to ring my phone but it was already turned off.  Several more calls yielded the same message saying the phone cannot be reached.  I know for sure the phone is switched on and on loud ringer as well since I talked to Ravi 10 minutes earlier before we boarded the cab.

I went downstairs to the apartment security post to check if they had noted the cab's plate number. Unfortunately though they didn't notice.  There are video cameras throughout the apartment area but first I have to get approval from the management office tomorrow to get the clips at the entry/exit points where we can hopefully freeze the screen when the cab's plates is shown.  From there, we can go back to the taxi terminal and ask the cab driver if he found anything.

The thing is, as Ravi has pointed out,  the fact that the guy turned off the phone already meant he has no intention of returning it back.  Otherwise, he would have kept it turned on and waited for any calls from the owner.  And my husband is most likely right.  The prospect of getting back the phone is really dim.

I called up the service provider (Maxis) and got the line suspended.  Ravi and I still have to report to the nearest Maxis office to get another sim card as the line is still in contract for another 10 months.

I have to credit my husband Ravi for not scolding me for losing the phone.  When things like this happens, his typical reaction is  'These are just things, that can be replaced.  The good thing is that no physical harm came upon you."  

Of course, the thought that I should have been more careful with my things still comes to mind.  But what to do?  It would never change the fact that it was lost, most likely never to be returned.  I just have to move on and learn the lesson from the incident.  A very expensive lesson at that.

Daddy's girl

She likes staring at her dad.  Loves taking off his glasses and pulling his chest hairs.  Follows his voice whenever she hears it.  Loves exploring his face (especially the stubble!).  Her dad is likewise enamored with her.  These pictures capture some of their special moments.

Sleeping (beauty) baby

Daddy the biter

sleepyhead girl

...about to wake up...

...and she's awake!

Visit to Saanen Goat Farm

June 19, 2011

We took a leisurely drive to idyllic Balik Pulau town to visit a goat farm and a durian farm.  The directions to the goat farm were not too specific, we took a couple of wrong turns before we found it.

The farm houses Saanen type of goats, all for milk production and some goat meat here and there.

With the goats!

We were initially scared the goats will bite if we pet them, but they turned out very friendly!  Although they did try to bite our shirts from time to time!

Brave Reena

We bought 10 bottles of pastuerized goat's milk and a couple of durians that they were selling as well.  We decided to skip the durian farm, most of us were already quite sticky and hot.

A bit scared touching one of the goats

Mom and Sarah

Color book

June 26, 2011

Here's Sarah enjoying her color book...she dwells mostly on the red/blue page.

Sarah meets Raine

June 17, 2011

Met Donald's family (wife Lhet and 9month old Raine) for dinner at Canton-I, Queensbay Mall.  Donald was a fellow FA engineer at Intel Cavite, who's working for Intel Malaysia now.

Raine and Sarah busy doing what babies do best - putting things in their mouth!

Sarah's birth story

Dear Sarah,

Mommy's last day at work was Jan. 14, 2011 (Friday).  Your expected due date was Jan. 19 (Wednesday).  I've been asking you months in advance if you can hold off coming out in this world until Mommy's support group arrives.  Mom's kinda afraid you know.

Jan. 15 (Saturday), my support group (Lola Merly, Lola Tiya, Tita Abet and Tito Rap) finally arrived, yey!

Jan. 16 (Sunday), I drove your lolas to the wet market.  I felt fine the whole day.  Most of the day was spent talking and laughing.

Jan. 17 (Monday).  About 3am, I woke up with tummy pains.  I wasn't too sure if it's labor time as my water has not broken, but the tummy contractions were slowly building pace.  Mom googled labors signs just to double check :)  


When I was finally convinced, I took my bath at 5am, got ready, double checked the hospital bag, then woke up your dad and your lolas.  Daddy drove me and your lola Merly to Island hospital at Georgetown, Penang.  Daddy was teasing me to get you out soon so his emergency leave would not be wasted :)

By 8:30am, the nurse/midwife burst my water bag.  The (painful) wait has begun!  It was relatively tolerable for the first hour, then the contractions and its twin pain eventually increased.  I was pretty quiet throughout the birth labor, trying very hard to imagine the sunny beaches of Bohol and Palawan to get my mind off the pain.  No screaming mama this one, just very controlled breathing and holding on tightly onto the bed rails.  Took several exhausting attempts to push you out, and then finally, you came out at 12:54pm!

You're my angel sweet Sarah, mommy loves you!

Here we go...

Finally, after several days of procrastination, I'm officially starting this.  

Sarah girl, this is your mom's way of documenting snippets of our family life (and random stuff of your mom's interests) as you grow.

I'll hold your little finger in my hand, come let's see where this road leads to.