Heidi in hospital

Little Heidi has been admitted to hospital for Influenza A but thankfully it's not H1N1. She has been having fever on and off since Monday, runny nose and a very chesty cough with lots of phlegm so her paed thought it best to admit her so they can monitor and keep an eye on her. They are also giving her the nebulizer every 4 hours.

Despite all that, she can still smile even though it's considerably less these few days with all the medicines and procedures.

She is also enjoying the playroom in the paediatric ward so at least it's something to do to pass the time. Hopefully we can both go home very soon!

A morning at the park

On Saturday morning, the weather was nice and sunny, but not too hot. As the girls woke up early, we decided to take them to Youth Park since the last time we were there it was raining.

Hannah enjoyed the swings as usual, and she also liked the see saw.

We put Heidi in the little bucket swings for babies, but she was not too sure and didn't seem to like it that much. Probably still a bit young. She enjoyed the slide though! :)

I asked Hannah to give me a nice pose, and I got this:

Picture of my two little girls, and also another one of my 3 favourite people :)

Hannah also brought her ball, so they had a good time kicking it around in the field. Even Heidi wanted to get in on the action!

Heidi was also very curious about the grass as she had never felt or stepped on grass before. Even when I wanted to take another picture of the 3 of them, she couldn't stop looking at the grass.

So it was fun morning out and I also had my exercise - brisk walking around the field whilst carrying Heidi. Try brisk walking, carrying about 9 kg and singing lullabies at the same time! (It was her nap time and she was getting cranky cos she wanted to sleep). Definitely a calorie burning routine :)

Updates on Hannah and Heidi

The first month of 2013 has gone by really quickly, and it is already February - which means Chinese New Year is coming soon! :) Heidi will be 10 months old in another week and Hannah just turned 3 years and 8 months.

Heidi can now babble away in baby talk, and it's quite amusing at times! She can also now crawl on her knees instead of wriggling on her tummy and pull herself up on furniture. She loves to stand and "cruise" around, and is happiest when she is holding on and walking around our round coffee table at home. She will take the TV remote controls and aim it at the TV, imitating what she has seen her jie-jie and other people do :)

She is still a pretty routine baby, eating and sleeping times are a must, otherwise she will get cranky. Other than that, she is a happy little baby, never running out of smiles.

She can also recognise people and will look at the person when we ask her "Where is Ah Mah/Ah Gong/Hannah/Mummy/Daddy" She can also point to where she wants to go when we are carrying her and despite her smiles, she can also throw quite a tantrum when she doesn't get what she wants! I suppose she can express herself better now that she is bigger.

Hannah and Heidi can now also play together (sort of), but I guess it's what we call "parallel play", playing side by side but not really together.

Hannah generally gives in to her little sister, but not when it comes to her favourite toys or when Heidi is pulling her hair - something she likes to do very often! But of course, Heidi's (and Hannah's!) favourite play time is with Daddy! He never fails to make them laugh :)

Hannah is adjusting well to kindy, and she enjoys going every morning with no fuss or tears, except when it comes to choosing her clothes! This morning in the car she told me "Mummy, 'ular' is snake, elephant is 'gajah' and 'zirafah' is giraffe!" So at least I know she's learning something ;) Also when I pick her up from school on most days, she will give a daily report on what she ate, who cried in school that day etc.

We took her the other day to Gurney Paragon because she really likes to look at the dancing water fountain there and also the small fountains surrounding it. She even posed and asked her Daddy to take pictures of her :)

Our little princesses are sure growing up!

Ais krim potong

Yesterday I had my first taste of "ais krim potong". As can be expected, I really liked it as I have a sweet tooth just like my Jie Jie Hannah.

I kept making "chupping" noises and was flashing big grins at Mummy and Daddy. Mummy got out her camera phone a bit too late, but she managed to get one funny grin from me.

Mummy and Daddy say once in a while is okay, not to be repeated too often! :)

Another new hairstyle

Over the weekend, we took Hannah to cut her hair since the last time her hair was cut was in March last year. Now that she has started school, it is quite a battle early in the morning to tie her hair as she dislikes tying it up, so Hubby said might as well cut it short and save the hassle.

So anyway, we happened to be at Queensbay Mall so we decided to cut her hair at one of the salons there. The first one that we asked said that the price to cut her hair would be RM48.00. That was way too much money to pay for a little girl's hair cut so we declined politely and walked away.

We asked at another shop and they told us RM15.00 only. That was pretty reasonable so we sat her down and the hair stylist put the cloth over her. She seemed to enjoy it and the stylist gave her a nice modern cut and even blow dryed her hair (why is it at home she doesn't want to let me blow dry her hair I wonder :p)

This was her first time cutting her hair at a professional hair salon. Usually her Ah Mah will DIY at home or take her to her own hairdresser.

He did a pretty good job with her hair and this is the finished look:

New look for the new year :)

Studio photos

When my parents and sister were back in December, we decided to take some family photos at the studio. I bought a voucher from Living Social for RM68.00 for four 4R photos, one 8R and one 11R. The four photos would also be saved in a CD and then we pay for anything extra. They also offered one free hairdo and makeup so my mum used that. It was quite a good deal but the bridal house which offered the package was incredibly slow in their service! We had to wait to take the photos and then when we came to collect the photos, we had to wait again!

Heidi was exceptionally well behaved considering that it was her nap time and also feeding time. As usual, she was full of smiles. Hannah was less smiley and more "posey" :) Here are the photos which we took.

Heidi was going "Yay! This is the last photo and I can have my milk now!" :)

New year, new beginnings

2012 was an eventful year for us with the arrival of little Heidi and amidst all the busyness, the year has just whizzed by. It's already 2013 and Hannah has started kindy! I never thought this day would come and it has indeed. Yesterday was her first day and we had started prepping her for it months in advance so that she would not be afraid. The night before, I packed her little backpack and water bottle all ready for the next morning.

The backpack was a gift for her birthday this year from Sue and I actually got the water bottle almost two years ago in Singapore. I thought it was pretty cute and there was no need to stick her name anywhere on the bottle since it already has her name on it :) Recently I saw that they were also selling it in Borders bookshop at Queensbay Mall, and it can be custom made in the event that they did not have your name.

The next morning, I was awake at 6 am (I think I was more excited than Hannah) and I made her favourite cheese toast for her breakfast. Both Hubby and me had the day off, so after dropping Heidi at my in-law's place, we headed to school. Hannah adapted very well as soon as she entered the classroom and we did not see any signs of teary eyes, so after a while, we told her we were leaving but would be back to pick her up when school ended. She waved goodbye to us and continued with whatever she was doing.

After running some errands, we were back to pick her and she seemed quite happy. She did not tell us much about what happened in school, but after some prompting (I had a lot of questions!), she started telling us about her morning.

Yesterday night, however, I was quite surprised to see her keeping away her own toys after playing. Usually I have to pick up after her, but she kept them away herself yesterday with no fuss. She even asked me politely, "Mummy, can you help me keep the toys?" and thereafter she also asked me to sing the "keeping toys" song. I realised that it was her teacher who had taught them that, so I must say it was quite a successful first day. Hopefully she keeps it up!

Wishing everyone a very happy and blessed 2013 from all 4 of us!

Christmas celebrations

Since my parents and my sister are around for Christmas this year, we have had quite a lot of different celebrations, starting and ending with plenty of delicious food! Plenty of photos taken, so I will just let the photos do the talking :)

Hannah followed my parents and sister to Suffolk House for lunch one day. It was her first "fine-dining" experience :)

As can be expected, the highlight of her meal was the dessert!

My aunt (my mother's sister) and her husband who live in the Philippines joined us for early Christmas lunch on one of the days.

Look at the amount of presents they brought!

My mother really outdid herself in the lunch we had. Lots of yummy food on the table, and we managed to finish almost all of it!

Hannah with all her presents!

On another night, my father's sisters and their children/grandchildren came over to my parents' place for dinner. Hannah found some friends to play with.

Heidi also had a really good time. Look at how excited she was, taking pictures with her 3 grandaunts.

The kids had a ball doing the craziest things :p

On Sunday (the day before Christmas eve), after church we had lunch at our favourite restaurant, Mario's at Batu Ferringhi. It was Heidi's first time there and she was her happy usual self after a nice long nap all the way up to Batu Ferringhi.

Christmas decorations were everywhere so we took the opportunity for a nice family photo.

I love this one of my father and Heidi - pure joy in her face.

The highlight of our meal was the lobster thermidor - my sister was waiting to eat this for the longest time as it is so very expensive in Australia. It definitely did not disappoint and was worth every cent!

I seldom get to take pictures with my big girl so this is one of me and her.

We also had their specialty dessert which is not on the menu - crepes suzette. The waiter prepared it right by our table.

On Christmas eve, after work, we had a small dinner at home together with Hubby's family. We did a gift exchange, and even little Heidi got a gift too!

The girls loved opening their gifts.

And the rest of the evening was spent wearing party hats and silly "ears" :)

On Christmas morning, we had breakfast at my parents' place. Look how nicely my mother decorated the table.

And then took more family photos beside the Christmas tree (which Hannah helped to decorate).

After that, we headed for a fun day out at Queensbay Mall :) Hannah now zooms down the big slides like a pro and we don't have to accompany her inside anymore. They charge now per adult RM6.00 - it used to be free of charge for one adult with one paying child.

Lunch at TGIF - this was the cajun chicken salad and it was very good.

Lunch was followed by ice cream at Haagen-Dazs. We had this creation called "Seventh Heaven" which was "smoking" due to the liquid nitrogen in the centre of the plate. Hannah was quite amazed when she saw it.

Thereafter, there was a show in the concourse area - Garfield and friends! For days, Hannah had been telling us that she wanted a Garfield something for Christmas, but we never caught on exactly what she wanted. We  managed to get her everything else but not that Garfield something. So on Christmas day, her wish came true!

After dinner that night, it was time to open the rest of the presents! Heidi wore a new bib which said "My first Christmas" given by my mother. Hannah had a similar one which she wore during her first Christmas. In fact she was wearing it also in the picture below (can see in the background).

After so many Christmas lunch/dinner with presents, Heidi is quite a expert when it comes to opening presents!

Hannah got her long awaited water gun :)

Full of concentration when opening presents :p

From our home to yours, have a blessed Christmas and a happy 2013!