Mah-mee and Pa-pa!

At almost 17 months, Heidi can finally call me "mah-mee". She could say "ma-ma" but when I asked her to say "mummy", it would come out as gibberish. We discovered it last week only. Usually when I come home after work, Hannah will run and greet me, calling "mummy, mummy". So last Thursday it was the same routine, I came home and Hannah was calling me loudly like she always does. Suddenly a little voice piped up and joined in "mah-mee", "mah-mee" and she went on and on like a broken record. My mother-in-law and I were quite surprised because we had been trying to get her to say it for the past few weeks without success, and suddenly it came out loud and clear. So now she says it non-stop :)

Heidi is definitely one cheeky baby, way more cheeky than Hannah at her age. She will laugh and chuckle at anything she finds funny, and she does it so cheekily! She can call "papa" very well so we are trying to get her to say "daddy".

Me: Heidi, say "Daddy"
Heidi: Da-pa-pa
Me: "Daddy", Heidi
Heidi: Papa!
Me: No, no, say "Daddy"
Heidi: PAPA!

I suppose she knows that it means the same thing :)

Some pictures of our cheeky baby:

As for our big girl, she is growing up to be a little lady. She's now into hairdo, makeup, dressing up and all those girly things.

Dressing up in her cousin's dress which is too big for her:

She also has a very quick mind and sometimes floors us with the things she says. For example, we were driving in the car the other day when Hubby was singing along to Christina Perri's "Jar of Hearts". For those who are not familiar with the song, it's basically the usual boy cheats on girl and girl feels betrayed story etc etc. We didn't know that Hannah could actually listen and understand so I think it's probably time that we review the type of music we listen to in the car! So anyway, being a curious little girl, she asked her daddy what was the meaning of the song. Trying to put it as simply as possible, the conversation went like this:

Hubby: It's about a boy who cheated on a girl.
Hannah: What does "cheat" mean?
Hubby: The boy was naughty; he promised to love the girl only, but then he also loves other girls. That's why the girl asked him to leave and don't come back.
Hannah (after a solemn pause): The girl is also naughty.
Hubby: Why?
Hannah: Because she doesn't want to share!

We both sure had a good laugh 

Also, another conversation went something like this:

Hannah and Hubby were discussing her science lesson which she learnt in school. The lesson was on which objects sink and which objects float. So they were giving examples of objects that sink and float (mostly her toys).

Hannah: So how about a duck? Does it sink or float? 
Hubby: It floats (thinking she was talking about her rubber duck)
Hannah (without a second thought): Nolah, the duck can swim by itself!

I do want to make sure I document all this down and maybe in future when she is grown up, I can show her this and we can laugh together. Out of the mouths of babes... ;)

Taiping Zoo revisited

It had been sometime since we visited the zoo, the last time being Zoo Negara last November. This was also Heidi's first visit to Taiping Zoo. Hubby's 2 cousins also came with us, as apparently they also had never been to Taiping Zoo. The zoo has undergone some changes since we were last here. There are all these animal statues at the entrance of the zoo now.

Hannah was still quite mesmerised by the animals, even though this was her 4th time at Taiping Zoo.

Heidi was also very excited to see all the animals, and kept pointing to and looking at the different animals she saw.

She wasn't much different from Hannah when she first visited Taiping Zoo. She was only 10 months old then.

We forgot to bring the stroller, so we had to take turns carrying Heidi because we didn't want her running around. Good thing there were 4 of us to share the job out :)

And on the way home, we stopped for a yummy seafood dinner at Tambun.

Hannah enjoying her meal:

Tired and sweaty, but extremely happy! Both kids had a good sleep that night :)

Hannah's first dentist appointment

Every time, my dad is around, he will check Hannah's teeth. So this time he noticed that there are little holes on her front teeth, and being a dentist, he wanted to treat her before the holes got any bigger. So he arranged an appointment for her to go to the Perak Road dental clinic this morning.

Hannah had never been to a dentist before so it was expected that she was a bit apprehensive at first but we talked to her about it for a few days prior to today so she was quite prepared by the time today came. Of course we also promised her that there would be no pain, so she was quite willing to sit in the chair and start the procedure. It was also good that her first trip to the dentist was with someone familiar so that she was more comfortable and at ease in letting him do her teeth.

When we arrived at the clinic, she settled herself comfortably into the chair and opened her mouth wide. No fuss and no tears, I was definitely proud of my little girl ;)

My dad then proceeded to do some minor filling for her - no drilling or any scary stuff.

It was a very simple and quick procedure. Half an hour it was all done! I think Hannah was also glad that it was over so fast - painless and fuss-free. Now she has to look after her teeth properly so that the holes don't come back or get any bigger!

Hello Kitty Town & Little Big Club

Another theme park attraction which opened in Johor is the Hello Kitty Town & Little Big Club. This is a 3 floor indoor park which I felt was more suitable for younger children, perhaps between the ages of 2 and 6. But it's worth checking out if you happen to be in Johor, and have young kids :)

On the first floor was Hello Kitty Town.

Even though it was a Saturday, we were there quite early, so the queues were still manageable. We queued to take a photo with Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel at the gazebo.

There was also the usual spinning teacup ride. Quite mild though, after some of the more "exciting rides" the day before at Legoland.

This was inside Hello Kitty's house.

And there was also a song and dance show.

At the Hello Kitty nail salon, Hannah got her nails done.

After that, we headed up to the 2nd floor and 3rd floor which was the Little Big Club. This place has a collection of Barney, Angelina Ballerina, Bob the Builder, Pingu and Thomas the Train. 

The whole 3rd floor was dedicated to Thomas, so there were quite a lot of rides up there. We went on all of them, some Hannah even went twice :)

You could ride on Thomas himself :)

Hannah liked this ride the best, knowing her liking for the adrenaline rush :)

There were also shows for Barney, Angelina and Thomas. Barney was literally the kids' celebrity. All of them were so excited to see him and they could even sing along to all the songs.

My verdict - go if you have small kids who love Barney and Hello Kitty! Air conditioning was definitely a plus point as well. We will definitely go again as Heidi loves Barney and will surely enjoy the Barney show :)

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.