Legoland Malaysia

Hannah finally made the long awaited trip to Legoland Malaysia in Johor. Ever since it opened she had been asking us to take her, so my parents decided to give this trip to her as her belated birthday present :) Hubby stayed at home with Heidi as she is still too young to go on most of the rides, so that Hannah could fully enjoy herself.

I took a day off from work so that we could go there on a non school holiday weekday to avoid the crowds and long queue. So indeed there were hardly any queues and Hannah could go on as many rides as she liked as many times as she liked. In fact on some rides, she was the only one in the ride! The weather was also good, cloudy but no rain.

We took lots of pictures; Hannah obliged the first few but then she grew impatient as she wanted to go on the rides! This was at the entrance of Legoland:

There were a few Lego figures around the park so we stopped to pose with them. The Lego man sitting on the bench was actually "snoring" so we found that quite amusing.

Being quite tall for her age, Hannah just managed to make the height requirement for some of the more "exciting" rides. In fact, she really liked the thrill and adrenaline rush of the roller-coasters. I, on the other hand, was not too keen :p

Here we are on some of the rides:

On some of the "milder" rides, she went by herself.

There was also a boat ride which she went on with my dad and thoroughly enjoyed herself.

And I think the highlight of all the rides was when she got her very own driving license at the driving school. In fact, there were two categories, one for kids aged 3 to 5 and another for kids aged 6 to 13. She insisted that she wanted to "drive on the road" with the bigger kids, so we let her go in. I was a bit worried that even though she looked like she was 6 years old, she would not be able to maneuver the car by herself. I didn't need to worry however, as she handled it like a pro. There was even one time when the boy in the car in front of her got stuck so she was also stuck and couldn't move behind him. After waiting for awhile and he still couldn't move, she neatly overtook him and went on her way ;)

Her very own driving license which cost me RM25.00!

All in all, she had a load of fun and is looking forward to go again! We will probably take her again, as the waterpark opens in October, but maybe wait until Heidi is older so that both of them can enjoy it.

Heidi's first passport

Hannah applied for her Malaysian passport when she was 15 months old back in year 2010. However, the procedure had changed slightly since 3 years ago. I wanted to also apply early for Heidi because there is a special queue given to children below 2 years old so that we do not need to wait that long. Thanks to my friend Shu-Yin who also applied for a passport for her baby, I managed to get all the necessary information from her blog post so I was well prepared with all the required documents.

The special queue only starts giving out numbers at 8.30 am so I was there sharp with Heidi. The officer checked all my documents and gave me a number. Hubby dropped us as he had to go to court so thought that he could come and pick us up after that since he only had a quick matter. Surprisingly, about 5 minutes after dropping us, my number was already called up. I then went to the counter and the man processed my documents. We were done by 9.00 am after I waited to make payment so I had to call my mother in law to come and pick us up.

Anyway, see Heidi's passport picture next to Hannah's passport picture, both taken at 15 months. I think they look the same (except for the hair of course :p)

An evening at Penang Botanic Gardens

After being cooped up so many days in the hospital, the weekend after Heidi was discharged, we decided to take the girls to Penang Botanic Gardens to get some fresh air. I probably needed some fresh air too, after breathing hospital air for the whole week!

This was also Heidi's first time here and she was very excited to see such a big space for her to run around :)

Some kind people also offered us some bread so we could feed the fish.

Family picture - check out Hannah's face!

Daddy and his two princesses:

We went home sweaty but happy. Will be back soon!

Colitis

About two weeks ago, little Heidi had a mild fever and she started having some diarrhea with watery stools. We took her to the pediatrician who prescribed her some Smecta for the diarrhea. It didn't really help and on the next day, there was an appearance of some blood in the stool. We were quite alarmed, so we decided to take her to the hospital even though it was quite late at night. Good thing the pediatrician on call was already there, so he told us that we could either admit her, or he would put her on antibiotics and some other medicines to see if the diarrhea would stop. We decided to try it to prevent her from being admitted and for them to prick her unnecessarily.

The diarrhea somewhat subsided for the next couple of days, even though her stool was still watery, but on the 3rd day, in the evening, there was a lot of blood in the stool. This time, it was off to the emergency room without a second thought. The pediatrician on call (another doctor this time) diagnosed her condition as colitis and said that we had two options, either to change her antibiotics (which may or may not work) or to admit her and administer the antibiotics via IV which will cure her 100%. So after three doctors and three visits, we didn't want to take any more chances, so into the ward she had to go.

As expected, she screamed the place down when they were putting the IV in her hand, but I think it was more of the restraining that she didn't like, rather than the pain. But when it was over, she looked curiously at her hand. Initially she tried to pull and even bite it off, but eventually she got used to it.

They had no single room available for the first night, so we were in a 3-bedded room. The 3rd bed was unoccupied so just us and a little boy next to us. However, we put the request in for a single room and were so glad that there was one available the very next day.

Altogether we stayed 5 days 4 nights in the hospital because the doctor wanted to make sure that there was no more blood before he let her go home. I stayed with her the entire time, with the exception of two mornings whereby Hubby's mother came by to stay with her so I could get some time to go home, bathe, wash my hair etc.

Despite her dislike of taking medicine, Heidi was a happy baby throughout and this is what I got when I asked her to make silly faces. It sure helped cheer up the gloomy days having to stay in the hospital.

She ate, slept, watched TV, played in the pediatric ward playroom and surprisingly enough, the time went by pretty fast. Hubby came in the evening after work and so we also spent the day looking forward to his visits. Our friends and colleagues also dropped by on some evenings and brought nice food and gifts for Heidi.

Once she was all better, her doctor gave the green light to go home and we were so happy to be finally sleeping on our own bed. Bye bye hospital!

Daddy's birthday

This is a long overdue post, but Mummy has been really busy, so not much time to update the blog. Anyway, Daddy's birthday (8 June) this year fell on a Saturday, so we celebrated early in the morning, when we were all still in pyjamas. Myself and Jie Jie don't know how to differentiate between waking up early on weekdays and weekends, so we are up early every day (Mummy and Daddy wish that we would wake up later on weekends though!).

Mummy got Daddy his favourite butter cake from Jan's. Her cakes are really delicious and cheap too! This lovely cake only cost RM27.00.

Last year I was still small when Daddy celebrated his birthday, but this year I could help him to blow the candles (sort of) and cut the cake. Jie Jie Hannah is now a pro at that.

We each got Daddy a present and Jie Jie helped him open them all, even the one from me!

Happy birthday Daddy from your two princesses, we love you!

Heidi @ 14 months

Baby Heidi (no longer a baby actually!) is now 14 months, coming to 15 months. She is a cheerful, happy go lucky baby and all too cute when she flashes her signature grin! Amazingly enough, she has 16 teeth (8 upper and 8 lower) which is way more advanced than Hannah at 14 months. So it's no longer a toothless grin, and she can eat most things, munching away with all those teeth.

Vocabulary and speaking wise, she is still slower than Hannah, but what she cannot say with her mouth, she points with her finger! And she understands everything we say to her, do this, take this etc. She can also make signs for "no" - either shaking her head or wagging her index finger (she knows the difference by the way, shaking her head for something she doesn't want and wagging her finger for something she knows she's not supposed to do) and "shhh" when she's supposed to be quiet, besides the usual "bye bye" and "flying kiss" which she could do much earlier. She can also imitate very well - if I stick out my tongue she will do the same, if i do the sign for "stinky", she will do the same ;) If I say "cold" she will put both her hands on her cheeks. I did that for her one day when she was standing in front of the open refridgerator and she remembered that her hands were cold when she put them on her cheeks. She can also do the sign for "no more" when she has finished her food. Speaking of food, she can now (finally!) hold her own milk bottle. She could actually do it much earlier but she was probably just lazy too laid-back to do so ;) The words that she can say now are "ah-mah", "ah-gong", "deh-deh" (for daddy), "ko-ko", "jie-jie" "mum-mum" "nen-nen".

She can also walk quite steadily now since about 13 months so no more crawling for her. She still falls on her bottom quite a bit, but she picks herself up quickly with no fuss, unless she realises someone is watching her and then she will make her "pitiful" face ;) With all the walking around, she has lost quite a bit of her baby fat and chubby cheeks.

Don't grow up too quickly Heidi - Mummy misses her little baby!

Cameron Highlands trip

During the school holidays, Hubby's family wanted to go for a short vacation and take the kids somewhere, so they decided on Cameron Highlands. It had been ages since Hubby or I were last there, and neither Hannah nor Heidi had been there before, so we decided to go along.

It wasn't that cold when we arrived and the sun was shining, but it was quite chilly when the wind blew. We took a picture in front of our serviced apartment. We rented two apartments (total of 6 rooms) as we had 15 adults and 7 kids with us.

After putting down our stuff, it was time to go out and explore. It was in fact a good thing that our first day there was a Friday, because the jam on Saturday and Sunday was really horrendous. A tip - don't visit Camerons during the weekends and on school holidays. It's possible to get stuck for several hours for a mere 2km road in the jam, in view that there is only one road going up and down to Brinchang from Tanah Rata and vice versa.

So anyway, our first stop was this place that sold vegetables and flowers and little souvenirs. Heidi had her first (and very small) taste of a strawberry ice - very yummy!

Later on, we visited a bee farm and Hannah had a pure honey stick. It was super sweet, and even with her sweet tongue, she couldn't finish the whole thing.

The bee farm was also a strawberry farm, however it was not the strawberry season so many of the strawberries were not yet ripe.

After that, we went to the Cameron Valley Bharat tea plantation to have tea and cakes. The view was really spectacular.

Heidi was more interested in her cake though :p

Later on, we took a walk down to the plantation to take some nice pictures.

Heidi loved running around in the open spaces.

After a day of activity, we headed back to the apartment for a delicious steamboat dinner. We especially liked the sweetcorn bought earlier at the vegetable shop, it was really really sweet and juicy.

Everyone was tired after a long day, so we knocked off quite early for the night. It was quite cold at night so there was no need for any fan or air-con at all.

The next day, we couldn't go to many places as the traffic was very bad so we decided to go and have a look at the Boh tea plantation. The road driving up to the place was very windy but the view from up there was worth it. Compared to Bharat where we had to hike down the plantation, in Boh we had to hike up. I didn't go all the way up so I stayed at the tea house with Heidi, but Hannah and her Daddy and some of her cousins braved the hike.

Little girl managed to climb all the way to the top and I love these pictures of her with her Daddy with the view of the plantation in the background.

There were also some silly pictures with her cousins, like this.

Since there was not much else to do after that, the kids had to amuse themselves at the apartment. We took lots of pictures of the kids smiling and doing silly things ;)

We headed for the night market later that night, but no pictures taken as we walked 1 km to the market and 1 km back again to the car, because of, yes you guessed it, the jam! Hannah walked all the way with us and she beamed with pride when everyone said what a clever girl she was for walking the whole way.

The next day, it was time to go home. We couldn't use the way we came up the hill because of the traffic, so we used the old Tapah road. On the way, we passed a waterfall which was really popular with tourists. So we stopped to have a look.

We were not prepared with towels and extra clothes, or else the kids would have loved to go in. The water was really cold, though.

But in the end we let Hannah dip her legs in the water and she really enjoyed it.

Final family picture with the waterfall in the background before saying goodbye and heading home to Penang: