yesbashtiahwrites

I finally have something I really want to write about! Been contemplating on some topics I ended up not writing it up. Mostly about MCO and my sudden crazy thought on furthering studies to Masters (what was I thinking?). My mum bought us all the Little Critter series written by Mercer Mayer back in the US. And... It wasn't until years.... That I realized mum actually bought two of the same title. My mum said she accidentally bought two as she found a lot more other titles at a discounted price at another shop. It was Sofia who pointed it out. Damn... Seriously that kid is really something. Or, really all kids are so smart like that. Or, Sofia is just like me - very particular. I didn't remember which title got double, though. I might ask Sofia later ha-ha. Anyway... It was really something to read to your kid the books your mum used to read to you. You know. And seeing some books with doodles... And your kid asking you who did that and it really was you, the kid you. One of...

Hello! It's now Day 02 of the Movement Control Order 3rd phase.... My mum suggested I make a diary of Sofia's activity during this MCO period. But the thing is, it is not always all the time I managed to take a picture. And also, there are days I let her watch tv most of the time... So this one activity I got from @lauraiz (Instagram). I named this activity myself. Aha. Three things needed: cotton buds (as many as you like), paper , watercolour . Just dip the ends of the cotton buds into various colours.  Draw around the cotton buds to make a shape like so. Usually for the first time of doing any activity, I'd do it together with her. So yeah, that's my skinny hand making its' appearance. Also for Sofia to see later who knows when I'm no longer around, and she miss me. That's ma Together we completed them in less than 5 minutes... These pictures are taken on 14th April 2020 (yes I am that detailed). She refused a second round...

Sofia finally said "Uwan"! She has been calling mum "Uwak" confidently all this while... I just finished praying Maghrib when she came to me. She has been playing with my mum while I was praying. Kantoi tak khusyuk solat... Huhu... Anyway, she came to me to report what she has been doing with mum. Pointing to my mum, she said, "Uwan" and I shrieked... "Eh Sofia panggil Uwan!!!" To which she got embarrassed. And went to her favourite mattress, tilam kekabu, to lie down. Of course I just have to go after her and make her say that again. Hahahah. And again. And again... Hehehe. Mum of course is so happy... But I kind of miss her saying, "Uwak" Hm. We all will miss that. Sofia... In just a few days will turn 2 years old. Her vocabs and pronunciation are very much clearer now. Some words she can say clearly are: mama (duh of course), papa , nenen (haha!), apple, ball, deer (seriously while writing this I was thinking of her A...

Ah living with a kid. There really is no one time solution. They will keep on learning and then you have to find new ways on how to solve it. Sofia. Like any other kid, I think, will always make a mess. There was this one time where she love to take out folded clothes. Like, 2 or 3 times per day at least. Take out and toss. Take out and toss. Read about it  here . I found a new solution, peeps. Yea I did. And I don't have to deal with that kind of mess for weeks. Months. Of course she kept on making other messes but that is another story la okay. I got a new drawer. Hehe. A new drawer, a new way to open. Hahaha! Seriously, I could see her frustration when she couldn't open it. Mama won! But such a smart girl. When I slide open the top drawer, she took out clothes from the drawer below from the back. From. The. Back. Such a smart girl... So I make a point to only open the drawer when she wasn't looking. But really, sampai bila?  Like I said, one solution is ...

Salam Ramadan! Like previous yearsss, during the whole month of Ramadan I am off from the pool. No pool session at all. Work still goes on; planning classes, taking registrations, doing promotions, etc... Sofia is definitely the happiest person during this month. Coz I'm home 24/7. And also because her father came home early. Slightly earlier. Sempat lagi examining semut yang menghurung sisa makanan sebelum keluar rumah... Sofia at 1 year 10 months old. When she woke up these days, she would ask... Papa? Papa pergi work. Mama? Mama tak pergi work... Mama cuti harini :) Uwak? Uwan pun tak pergi work. Uwan cuti... And just few days ago, she started to pronounce her name! My husband was pointing to pictures one night, introducing papa, mama, Sofia... And when he pointed to her again, she actually said her name! Oiya... Well, not very complete la and sometimes Eiya or Iyya but girl, no worries, I got what you mean. And when she said her name, da*n I melt. ...

Little that I know, Sofia needs some alone time with me... I thought me being at home with her 24/7, is already enough for her. Well, that's what I thought. For her, 24/7 probably meant TOTALLY 24/7.  Not, "Sekejap dengan Uwan ya, mama pergi kitchen"  Or, leaving her with her father from morning 'til noon... Last week, unlike any other weekend, Sofia went out with her father a bit longer than usual. Usually when I left to the pool for class, her father would take her out to the mall or to the shops around our house for a while and came home around noon. Last week, I came home first and had more than 2 hours to myself. They came home very late... And when they do, she was already asleep. Exhausted, she fell asleep inside the car on the way back home... My in-laws came over and stayed around our house. My husband sent me pictures and videos of her having fun. My two sister-in-laws kept her busy playing. Yes, I was definitely glad she had so much fun....

that I will keep (hopefully) is this, Using watercolours that I bought along with Neslo Ais when I stomped out of the house, leaving her watching YouTube with my mum on my mum's handphone. I was mad at her for wanting to. Also because she was still not tired out after playing in the garden, playing with berudu's (dudu), playing with tanah (nana), gergaji, climbing up the ladder.. I, on the other hand was so exhausted already! Ladies, if you didn't want your kids to be glued to YouTube or the handphone... 1) NEVER introduce it to them. Not even once. 2) NEVER use your handphone in front of them. Those two things are really, the kickstart of it. I rarely let Sofia watch cartoon on my handphone. But my mum did. So whenever my mum's using her handphone, Sofia would come along and ask for it. With her index finger pointing, "tu... tu..." her own way of saying 'satu', for 'one only'. That never ended up only one. More than one. Anyhow, yes...

Sofia has started calling me mama! Actually, it has been about a week ago, but as usual, I couldn't find the time to blog about it.... There was this one time when she suddenly said, "ma-ma". And I immediately shrieked, "Eh Sofia panggil mama!", that made her realized oh I managed to call mama. Heh. And so she said it again. Awh.... My heart just melts I feel like crying ahh... And so everytime I wanted to hear her call me I would say, "Sofia... Panggil mama." Well, it depends on her mood actually. -_-" If she doesn't feel like it she would go "edek" and other un-understandable words... But when she did... Mama. Aih.... I feel loved! There was this one time I came home from the pool (work), opened the door and she came running to me and hugged my legs, AND actually called, "Mama!" PRICELESS weh, PRICELESS... Because I rarely left her for a long period of time (like her father oh I get soooo jealous when she ran to him...

Dia memang betul-betul gunakan kaki tu. Hi! Lama gila tak update blog. Blame it on Lazada. Kept on making Flash Sales, dude I bought a lot of things already from them! The other day got Lipstick Fair, and then Baby Fair, and then the 11.11 sale. Gosh! Dahsyat betul.... Oh, thank you so much blogger friends for still dropping by comments! I read each one of them. I'll try to reply each one and visit your blog okay. Anyhow, back to the main topic. Yeah Sofia dah dapat kaki. In other words, she can walk already. 10th October 2017 to be exact (I actually had to scroll down my Instagram photos to get this date. Ha-Ha.)... Walking completely on her own without assistance. A lot of people I met told me, well, more to warn me about when Sofia 'dapat kaki'. Relatives, strangers, friends... Everyone warned me about it. THANK YOU SO MUCH. Hoi, belecak weh ketiak... Belecak! With her tot tet tot tet shoes... Squeaking here and there. It started as tot.tet.tot.tet... And then it g...

A picture of Sofia 'reading' a book yesterday. The first of another 5 or 6 books (I lost count... Post pregnancy brain...). Sofia is 15 months today! Alhamdulillah! *clapclap* Ah anyhow. I wish I could blog about all her progress but you see, ah you know it is easier said than done. I stayed up late for a few nights to complete the post on Sofia's first group swimming lesson, and I got down with headache after that. I learned a lesson and decided whatever. If I'm healthy, I can care for Sofia better. Health comes first. Okay. So, the book Sofia took was from our small home library upstairs. Had to go up 18 steps. Yes, I counted every time Sofia took a step. 9 steps. Walk a few steps, then another flight of steps. 9 and another 9. I used to not count, just say 'up' and 'good' but I read up an article that it is good to count while your child do something so that they know their progress. I also realized Sofia started to get more excited too...

In reference to my previous post... Now you see it. Now you don't. So not practical. But this will do for now.

Bila Sofia berkemas, dia berkemas betul-betul... She took out all the clothes (and two drawers) and went some place else. There were still two folded napkins on top. Guess what? When she came back to the drawer, saw the two folded napkins, she decided no no no, these two gotta go down too. Heh. People kept telling me,  'Dapat kaki ni habisla...'  Apa dapat kaki? Ni baru nak dapat kaki pun dah macamni... She can now walk about 2 metres far without support. Further than that she would hold my hand and we would walk side by side. Yeah, a very huge mess. But seriously, I feel proud of myself. A verrrrrry huge mess yet I didn't get angry, even for second! I did tried to put her to nap, few times, and failed coz she still wanted to play, and it was already around 3pm?  Gosh, I am a really patient mum today. Haha. See? Nothing inside, nothing on top also.

On baby swimming. First things first, teaching a baby how to swim is wayyyy different than teaching children and adults. The facilities also differ. Because I wanted to expose Sofia more on swimming, when I saw that Hi-5 House of Learning  in Damansara will be conducting a workshop, I immediately signed up. And to make it more fun, I invited two other friends to join. My two friends back in uni. Lifeguard friends.  The  'How to teach your baby to swim' workshop was conducted on 28th August 2017. It consisted of a 30 minutes talk and a 30 minutes session in the pool. Pool session involved one parent per child.  The 30 minutes talk was very useful and I, despite being a swimming instructor myself, learned a lot of new things. The talk was given by Erika Peres, the owner/ founder of EPS Academy. She has a qualification in Children's Physical Development. We were briefed on the do's and don'ts, and also some exercises (in the water) to do with your baby. ...

Dealing with more than one task at the same time. Had to do some work on the phone; replying enquiries, posting updates on the business page, check students' class schedule for the weekend... And with this little girl around, I just had to let her play with hangers and simply make a mess while I steal some time. But of course, once all the hangers were down on the floor... Let's check out what mummy is up to... (Taking this photo while standing on a table... Flat lay habis....) I needed more time...  So... I picked up all the hangers and put them back on the sofa, neatly (made sure it is reachable for her to take)...  Oh well, at least I didn't gave her a handphone or tablet kan. Eyes on the phone, eyes on the hangers... Multitasking la tu kan? While working, jaga anak.

I was told that my hair will start thinning after giving birth. But I wasn't informed that after pantang my hair will get so pretty and healthy! For the whole 44 days of pantang, I tied my hair tight in a bun. I noticed a lot of hair sticking out of my head though. Banyak anak rambut. Habis pantang, cuci rambut, shampoo, oh em gee such a nice hair! Tebal, sihat, cantik! Never had such nice hair before! Bestie said yea you'll have nice hair until Sofia starts blowing bubbles.  When Sofia was about 6 weeks (yes I was still in pantang), she already started to blow bubbles. I panicked and immediately reported to Sofia's personal doctor, Tita. Rest assured, she said her sister had nice hair for quite a long time. No need to panic, she said. And so I chill. Chill chill pun, I went to chop off my hair. Because long hair and Sofia just didn't go well together. Sofia is 3 months now, and bubbles has been coming out like crazy.