1 Year, 11 Months Old

- belated post. One week late! -


About Elyssa:

1. Weight :xx (must remember to weigh her tomorrow)

2. She still surprises me daily with new words - like today, she said "So Windy" and "Thunder! Too Loud". This morning, as she climbed up the car, she said "Elyssa... so clever!! " Ha hahhhh...... must tell her that self praise is no praise.

3. She still mixes up her colours. When I asked her the colour of the black t-shirt I was wearing, she happily said "Pink Colour". She gets her blue, green and red mixed up too. For this, I think hubby is to be blamed - for teaching her the 6 colours of her ball all at the same time! Must teach her one or two colours at a time mah......

4. She is a creature of habit and thrives on routine. She has her fixed daily routine at my parent's place which works well for her. Will write about that soon. On weekends, we sometimes end up with a cranky girl cos her sleep/play/eat routine gets mixed up.

5. She has a mind of her own and once she decides on something, it's really hard to change her mind. Stubborn as a mule! And very fierce when she doesn't get her way.

6. She is as greedy as ever. It's very easy to convince her to do or say something if the reward for her is food! Hubby takes advantage of this by making her say/do three things nightly before handing over her milk bottle : 1) "Thank You Daddy" 2) "Love Daddy" 3) A kiss on the lips. :)

7. It still takes an average time of 45 minutes (on bad days - 1 hour+) to make her sleep each night. Sometimes I pat her until my whole arm gets sore. And only mummy can accompany her to sleep so I can't "delegate" to hubby. :)

8. Her current favourite songs : "Burung Kakak Tua" (she loves the "Letrum, Letrum, Letrum Oo La Laa" part) and the "Bangun Pagi, Gosok Gigi" song.
Both taught by Justin koko who learnt from his kindy. She can sing almost the whole of both songs but only when she feels like it. This girl doesn't entertain song requests!

Jealous !!

Saw the green-eyed monster in Elyssa last week. During a family event last weekend, I carried my niece (who's 2 months younger than Elyssa) on my lap. Immediately, Elyssa came running to me and cried. I carried her on my lap as well, while telling her that mummy carry "mei mei" little while.

Didn't work cos she cried even louder and.............shocked us all by pushing away her little cousin. Naughty! Naughty! She told me: "Mah Mi carry Elyssa only. Carry mei mei no want" then proceeded to wail loudly.

After that incident, hubby and I did some "testing". I don't know whether the jealousy thing just started or we became more aware of it, but she failed the tests :(
Eg : When hubby came to hug me on my side of the bed - she said "No want. Dah Di oi oi there"(while pointing to the other side of the bed). When hubby kissed me lightly on the lips, she came to kiss me on the lips as well. (super kiasu!)

*Sigh*, she thinks that mummy belongs to her !!! Even daddy can't "steal" away mummy from her.....

So for the past few days, I have been trying to brainwash her. I tell her : Mummy carry mei-mei, but mummy still love Elyssa very much. Mummy hug Daddy, but mummy still love Elyssa very much. Then I ask : So, can Mummy carry mei-mei? Initially, the response was always "Mah Mi carry Elyssa" but lately, she sometimes says "Yes", tho a bit reluctantly.

Let's just hope my approach works !!!

Supposed to Sit !

Elyssa, Elyssa........ you're supposed to SIT in the trolley/stroller, not PUSH them...




Looks so uncomfortable for her eh?? With the shopping trolley (pic 1), she had to really stretch out her hands all the way. With the stroller (pic 2), she can't even see anything in front!

But each time, she will say "Elyssa Push". And every time we try to guide the shopping trolley/stroller, she will push our hands away so that she can push it on her own.

*Sigh*, sometimes this "independent" phase just goes too far!

Tomorrow...

How to explain the concept of "tomorrow" to someone who is not yet 2 years old?

The whole of today, Elyssa has been asking to go for her Gymboree class. I kept telling her that she has to wait until tomorrow. She accepted my answers but then will ask again after another hour or so.

So this evening, I tried a simple explanation. Something along the lines of : "Your class is tomorrow. Tonight, after you drink your milk and then you sleep, and then when you wake up in the morning, it will be tomorrow and then you can go for your Gymboree"

The outcome??? What she immediately did was to climb on her bed, loudly declaring "Eh-lee-sa sleep now", then closed her eyes for 2 seconds, then happily announced "Wake up already. Go Gymboree", with a big grin on her face.

oKAYYYYY......... I definitely need to improve my explanation skills !!!

1 year, 10 months old

-belated post-

Elyssa is now 1 year, 10 months old. Gosh, I can't believe that she'll be celebrating her second birthday in 2 months time...


About her:

1. Weight : approx 11.3kg.
Teeth : can't remember. But she has 2 new molars on her bottom jaw.

2. In terms of speech, Elyssa today is totally different from Elyssa 1.5 or 2 months ago. It's like she's going through a massive speech development growth! On an almost daily basis, she surprises us by saying new words or new sentences. Eg:
"(H)ere itchy. Ah Kong Massage"
"Mummy, Nice Dress!"
"Uncle Water Plants"
"Help Daddy Water Plants"
"Eh- Lee-Sa Wash Hand. Eat Rice"
"No Want Sit Stroller"

She's actually a real chatter box. In the car, she can talk or sing to herself for more than 30 minutes. At this stage, we still find this cute, but I'm sure one day we'll want to buy earplugs :)

3. I find it amusing that most of the time, she refers to herself as "Eh-Lee-Sa". This started since I thought her her own name about a month ago.

3. Suddenly, she has taken a strong liking for her Gymboree play class. Like last weekend. Her class was on Sunday morning. A word sounding like Gymbo (which is the clown in her Gymboree class) came up during our Saturday night dinner conversation. During that night and the next morning, she kept on saying "El-Lee-Sa want go Gym-Bo-Ree" and then "Hip Hip Hooray!!" , which is one of the things she learned in class. Ha hah....... Anyway, she enjoyed her Sunday class. Problem was when I wanted to change her out from her Gymboree t-shirt which has the pic of Gymbo the clown. She screamed out "El-Lee-Sa want wear Gymbo" "Eh-Lee-Sa want wear Gymbo" !!!! ;)

4. She can say "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10" now. For a long time, she kept missing out her 3 & 7, and sometimes 6. But she doesn't really what it means. Cos sometimes when we give her 5 items, she happily counts it from 1 to 10 :)

6. Her mouth is still like a leaky tap. I wonder when the drooling will stop!

7. The past 2 weeks or so, when she is not distracted at the shopping centres, she wants me to carry her :( If I don't, then it comes down to crying and rolling on the floor. *sigh*. Shopping centre floors are not too hygienic (tho sometimes I just let her be), so I normally have to give in - either by carrying her, distracting her or asking hubby to help carry.( (if hubby picks her up, she'll normally continue crying for a few minutes, then stop, then eventually she'll want to walk again. So I know she's just "bullying me"). And she's a cheeky kid too - when I ask her why must carry? You have such nice strong legs. Her response ? "No Leg"

7. Her concentration span is much longer now. Hubby and I got her a set of building blocks 2 weeks ago. Ha hah..... good way to keep her busy so she won't disturb us! (RM20 well spent!!)

Bandung Holiday - Day 3 & 4

- continuation of previous post -

I'll start off with Day 4 first. We rented a van since there were 7 adults and 3 kids. Our first stop (and the only non-shopping part of the whole trip !!) was to Tangkuban Perahu, which is an active volcano about one hour away from Bandung town.

Volcano Crater (the smell of sulfer was pretty strong) -


Horse Ride
(I wanted to let Elyssa sit with the cheh-chehs but she kept saying "no want sit horse")

Overall, I found Tangkuban Perahu quite overrated. Nothing much to see and there's also a RM20 admission charge per person. But ok lah for a one-time visit.

We had lunch at Paris Van Java and then it was back to what we did best - SHOPPING !!

Places that we shopped :
Day 4 (after the visit to Tangkuban Perahu) - Jln Setiabudi : Natural, Mode Plus, Rumah Mode
Day 3 - Jeans Street : SuperHero, Catwoman etc ;
Jalan Dago : Rich & Famous, Glamour, Blossom, Jet Set, Raffles City, Victoria, Seximo etc

I actually shopped more on Day 3&4 compared to Day 1&2. Two main reasons :
1) it's more fun to shop with more people (an example was when my SIL found a pair of gorgeous Christian Dior jeans. Ended up she bought one, I bought two, another SIL bought one and my MIL bought one. Yup, all the same design!)

2) I had my personal "helper" to take care of Elyssa. :)

Elyssa with her favourite Chloe cheh-cheh

@ Rumah Mode

During dinner time

@ Paris Van Java

Breakfast time in the hotel

Elyssa also had fun with both Chloe & Charmaine cheh-cheh while we were all busy shopping..



See how much we shopped??? Ha hahh.... luckily we brought Elyssa's stroller along.


Group Photo taken during dinner time (well, except me as I took this photo)


The food that we had during Day 3&4 was pretty forgettable. Nothing awful but nothing great either. Though one of the "memorable" item was the size of our vege dish during dinner on Day 3. Eh, vege so expensive meh????

Pic of our vege dish + my SIL's hand, to show relative size ;)

Our flight on Day 5 was at 12pm so it was basically breakfast in the hotel, some last minute packing and then off to the airport.

All in all, Bandung is definitely a shopping haven. Hubby and I are thinking of going back there in maybe 2 or 3 years time to restock our wardrobe. ;) Where else can we get our lovely Versace and Christian Dior jeans for only about RM 80?? Or Zara tops for about RM35? Or Armani tshirts for about RM35? Or my Espirit 3/4 pants for RM40? Or hubby's Gucci work shirt for RM70?

He hehh..... we bought so much stuff that we have to clear our existing cupboard space to make way for the new clothes :)

Shy lah, to take photo of our loot, but here's a photo of Elyssa's new clothes -

Bandung Holiday - Day 1 & 2

Just came back from a 5D, 4N holiday in Bandung. Day 1 &2 was just us, while Day 3 onwards was with hubby's family - my mum in law, brother in law + wife + 2kids and sis in law + godsis.

Day 1 & 2
We took the 9.40am Air Asia flight to Bandung. Elyssa was very excited indeed - she kept on saying "cit (sit) aeroplane, cit aeroplane". She was pretty well behaved during the 2 hour flight. When we arrived at the Bandung airport, she gave everyone a good laugh when kept on saying "reach already, YEAHHHH", reach already, YEAHHHH" and happily clapped her hands :)
("kept on saying" cos she she said it > 20 times!!)

Happy girl in the plane -


@ Bandung Airport.
(I was surprised when I saw many people taking photos at the airport runway cos usually there is a "no stopping" policy. Then I looked around and understood - our plane was the only plane in the entire airport runway !! Very small airport indeed. An added advantage was that everything was close by. We only had to walk a few steps to the immigration counter and then a few more steps to the baggage collection area. Quick and easy)


After passing through Customs, we took a cab straight to our hotel (Garden Permata Hotel). Freshened up a bit, then we started our main purpose of the holiday - SHOPPING, SHOPPING, SHOPPING !!!

First stop was Rumah Mode -


And basically for the next 2 days, we just went from one factory outlet to another.

Day 1 - Outlets at Setiabudi : Rumah Mode, Mode Plus, Natural, Factory Outlets
Day 2 - Outlets at Jln Riau : Branded Outlet, The Secret, Renarity, The Heritage, Cascade,The Summit, Oasis, Stamp etc

Hubby went absolutely crazy with the good selection of branded work shirts, pants and jeans. For me, day1 and 2 was so-so only. Didn't help that Elyssa kept on saying "Mummy pao pao" (mummy carry). But even though "so-so only" I still managed to buy some tshirts and pants. :)

Elyssa did her own shopping as well -


He he...... she looks like a shopping pro eh?? We got her some dresses and t-shirts.


Some of the food we had during the first 2 days -

Ayam Penyet

Mie Cumie (I think)

Nasi Timbel

- to be continued with Day 3 & 4 -