Norelle is 14 Months!!

Hiya everyone, the cheeky girl is 14 months today. We had a great day as we brought Norelle to TTDI Park in the evening. The weather was cooling and the wind was very breezy. What a nice day to stroll on the park. HY slowed down the car when we were approaching to the park so that Norelle was able to see the monkeys roaming around the area. Those monkeys were quite tame and they wont disturb people. Norelle was taken in at awe by the sight of those monkeys. She always has this 'blur but serious' look on her face when she is concentrating on something.

When we arrived, we let her walk on her own since she's able to walk now. And I want her to walk instead of sitting on the stroller. I showed her the flowers alongside of the sidewalk and she recognized it and said ' Fwa wer’ while pointing at them. Then we spotted a monkey sitting on the fence and she got so excited and gave out a loud shriek! The monkey was disturbed by her loud voice and started to climb up a tree nearby. Norelle still kept her sight at the monkey while kept pointing and shrieking at the same time.

Next, we let her walk on the grass bed towards the children play area. I let her touched the grass and felt it on her tiny hands. She was enjoying the new sensation and when she spotted the 'view' (play area) in front of her, she quickened her pace and tripped. Luckily just a small fall and it did not hurt her knees. She was beyond excited when she saw the slides. She wasted no time in getting up to the slide (with the help from daddy) and happily slid down. This continued for a while and then we moved on to the next spot – man-made stream. TTDI Park has a nice man-made stream where little children (or adults) can have a lil’ dip or catch some tadpoles. There were also some banks of sand where kids can built ‘sand castle’. Families can even have their own picnic literally by the stream! How wonderful is that?

We were eager to see Norelle’s reaction towards the stream and decided to let her have a dip in it. HY held on to her while trying to dip her little feet into the cold water (as the weather was quite chilly), she was taken aback due to the coldness of the water and she doesn’t seem to like the sand either. Hmmm…must be the weather. We continued our ‘journey’ to the man-made waterfall. But was disappointed as the waterfall was ‘turn off’ when we reached that place. So, no waterfall only rocks formation lor…

It was getting late so we decided to walk out of the park, and then we spotted some turtles and fish in the pond. Norelle was delighted to see them swimming in the pond. Then her attention shifted to some birds on the ground and she was ‘trying’ to chase the birds. It was such a nice sight looking at how happy she was just by seeing those birds. That reminds me to always ‘take some time out and smell the flowers’.

All in all, it was a nice outing whereby Norelle learned a lot about nature and we were happy that she got to see, smells, taste, touch and feel the things that GOD created.

'hmmm...where should I go first?'

'I want to do this on and on and on and...'

'daddy, have you check the pH level of the water? I dont want it to damage my delicate skin'

'daddy, can you please make sure my feet are completely dry before putting on the shoes?'

'bird, bird..wait for me...'

Isabelle's Birthday

We were invited to Baby Isabelle's 1st birthday yesterday at her house. The party was in the evening and we were late as we were stucked in traffic due to heavy rain (which has been going on since the afternoon). When we got there, we already missed the cake cutting ceremony. There were a lot of people as there were 2 birthdays being celebrated together (Isabelle and her cousin were born on the same date, month and year) thus explained the crowd.

There were so much food and the deco for Isabelle's party was so pretty and so PINK! There were ballooons everywhere. We met up with June and hb together with Baby Zhun Yin and Sze Lynn, hb and Baby Andrea. Baby Isabelle was so pretty and all dressed up like a princess - complete with a tutu and tiara. She's such a lady and so demure. We had a great time there and thanks to Renelle for the invitation.

The birthday girl, Baby Isabelle and mummy Renelle with us

Baby Zhun Yin and mummy June with us at the party

H.A.L.F. Time

Norelle has the tendency to break her milk feed for every single feed. She can never / will not finish her milk in one go. She will 'pause' after awhile drinking half way to roll around or to get up, look for her tutu (pacifier) or something else. Then I have to make her lie down again and continue to drink her milk. But she will again 'pause' for the 2nd time, roll a bit and started making noise, 'negk ngek ngek'...and I have to repeat the procedure again and again until finally she has finish the milk and falls asleep. PHEW! It has been going on since she started on formula milk (about 7 month old) and bottle-feed full time. It such a tedious process and sometimes I get very frustrated.

I wonder why she has to/wants to/likes to do this. She will at least 'pause' for 2-3 times before I can make her finishes the milk. Why??? Is anyone out there having the same situation as Norelle or is this normal??

I am back!

Hello..it's been a while since the last post. It is certainly a busy month for all of us as my best friend, Crystal, got hitched on the 1 of March. And I brought Norelle to her first wedding dinner. I had to bring her along as my MIL was attending a wedding dinner as well. I was not too keen on the idea as she was still having a bit of loose stool. And you know how grouchy a baby gets during such event. But then, she was quite ok throughout the night but did passed some loose stool and my mom and I have to cleaned her twice. She had lost so much weight and she felt so light when I was carrying her. Poor baby :(

Finally the whole purging episode was over and guess what??? She started waking up in the middle of the night and cried (for no apparent reason). We thought she was teething as she was (still is) drooling a lot more and kept biting/chewing on things. I applied some teething gel, it did not helped...I was so shacked as I didnt have proper sleep for 2 weeks!

When I thought that I couldn't take it anymore and would just collapse there and then, she decided to let me have a rest and stopped waking up! Babies...they are SO unpredictable. And she is NOT teething. Ha!

Now things seem to well again and she has been eating well. She eats rice more often and she eats like a pirahna (with 2 teeth). She can finish 3/4 of a bowl of rice with an hard boiled egg, sometimes with some fish, tofu, pumpkin, etc.

Guess she is trying to catch up on those times when she was ill.

Norelle is 13 months!!

Well, since there's no 30th in the month of February, Norelle is 13 months today and she is ill. She was hit by the stomach flu bug and has been vomiting and purging for several days. The vomiting has then subsided but the purging persists. Then came along the fever. This week is a hectic week for me as I developed hives on Monday night and HY was in JB. So I was all alone with Norelle cleaning up her sick, changing bed sheets, her clothes and mine as well for the umpteenth times.

Right now, her fever has subsided (fingers crossed) and just hope that the purging will follow suit. It is so heart wrenching looking at her shrinking frame. She hardly eat anything besides medicines and gallons of ORS (oral rehydration salt). Thank goodness she is willing to drink.

I didn't take any of her picture on this day, the picture below was taken shortly before she fell ill.

Happy Birthday Mah-mah

Last Saturday was Norelle's paternal grandmother's (mah-mah) birthday. All of us went to Chilli's at Bangsar Shopping Center to celebrate the event. HY and I always enjoy going to Chilli's for their good food, not forget to mention their HUGE serving, cheap beer (happy hour) for HY, and great atmosphere (for family). And the best part, kids get to eat free! That day was truly a 'makan' day for HY and I as just before that we went to HY's colleague's house for CNY open-house event where we 'lined' our stomach with some food as we were hungry already :) and then prior to that, we were treated by HY's client to a seafood lunch consist of abalone, lobster, prawns, fish etc. CNY period does give us the license to indulge in food - plenty of food! And I am not complaining :)

wah...so many fish in the pond

hmmm...nobody is looking, I can go in and take a quick dip in the pond

Mah-mah, do I get to eat the cake as well?

Precious moments...

We received the photo album from Izad and I was truly amaze with the end product. It came in a nice black box case where the front was a close-up picture of the cake-topper. Inside the box nestled the abum and also another smaller box case contained the master copy of all (800+) photos taken that day. The photos were nicely done and the quality is really good. Am glad that we are able to keep this precious moments of ours in such a lovely album.

Let those little fingers do the talking...

I am sure that the title of this post sounds familiar. It is the slogan of Baby Signs Malaysia and to those who have read my previous entries, know that I do sign to Norelle. Got to know about it when I was still carrying Norelle and I bought some books on it and I started signing to Norelle when she was 4 months old. It takes time and perseverence when you are signing to your baby and that's what I did. I waited and waited and one fine day, Norelle started signing. Her first sign was 'fan' and few more months down the road, she started doing more signs.

And I am grateful to Jamie as she brought in the program into Malaysia and now we all can benefit from it. To those who have never heard of this program before, it is a good way for you to communicate with your baby before they can talk. And you will be amaze with what those little fingers can do or tell you.

To help you with all the signing, Baby Signs Malaysia have many wonderful products which are very user friendly and they conduct classes as well for you and your baby which are fun and educational. Recently, they have launched some new products (which I am very excited about, because I just ordered from Jamie). Since Norelle is starting to get more vocal, these books are great for her:

My First Spoken Words books complement signing and make it easy for babies to learn to speak their first words. When babies open each page, they will hear words and sounds that help them learn to say their very own first words. My First Spoken Words books compliment signing and make it easy for babies to learn to speak their first words. There are 2 titles:


My First Spoken Words: Animals

My First Spoken Words: Babies

Next in line they have I Can Sign!. It is an interactive lift-the-flap book and DVD work together to provide your baby with multiple examples of each sign for faster learning. It consists of 2 titles:





I Can Sign! Animals

I Can Sign! Playtime

They are running an introductory offer price for these products, great for those of you who would like to give the program a try. And see those little fingers work their way....

I will review the products once I have gotten them from Jamie (I mean, Norelle will 'review' on them, and I will post the result up)

And I learned that they are looking for a Baby Signs Instructor through their Independent Certified Instructor (ICI) Program. I am so interested because I love the program so much BUT I can't afford to give up my full-time job :( For those who are seeking a new challenge, do give it a try. Read on to find out more....


(disclaimer - this is NOT a paid post. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely based on my own experience, observations and beliefs)

Gong Hei Fatt Choy!

I know, I know, I am late...but not too late yet. And probably you all notice that I am catching up with my posts as my PC has finally decided to called off the strike and back to become the submissive type :)

Nevertheless, Happy Chinese New Year. This is Norelle's 2nd CNY and she has much more fun this year as compared to last year, she was barely a month old. And I had more fun too - I got to eat all the goodies which I was prohibited to touch last year. And more importantly, I got to dress Norelle up and myself too of course. I love festives period, they are the perfect excuse to buy things - especially for CNY, where everything have to be 'NEW' :)

We here at the Chew family would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy new year.

"Health makes all things possible,

Wealth makes all things work,

Love makes all things beautiful.

May you and your family are blessed with all 3 this year."

Unwrapping ceremony

Right after Norelle's birthday party on 27 January, that night itself we had the pressies unwrapping ceremony. I dressed Norelle up in a sweet polka dots dress from Oobi with a matching bloomer (hahaha...I was very into the theme of her birthday) This dress I bought yet again from an online shop in Singapore. Online shopping has been my best friend lately :)

There were so many toys given to her for her birthday. And she also received many dresses and tops. Enough to last her for another year!!! Hahahhaa....that save me lots of money :P But knowing myself, I know I will continue to buy more clothes for her lah. If not, I have no more excuse to go out.

So there you go, all the pictures of Norelle and her pressies. Once again, thanks everyone for all the lovely pressies.

Norelle posing with her birthday pressies

Let the work begins - unwrapping the pressies

Ta dah!!! The pressies unweiled