Mission 'No Boobies'

I've been trying to access the 'New Post' page on blogger but it takes ages to load properly. Something about 'error on page'. So, I have resorted to post this entry via email. Last Sunday, I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to wean Maisarah from breastmilk and freeing my boobies from becoming her pacifier. This has been long overdue. We have exceeded the two-years-breastfeeding goal by 12 months. I didn't have a proper plan. That morning, at 7 am, when she asked for milk, I told her that she is now a big girl and that she should drink milk from the bottle. She retaliated and cried, screamed for breastmilk. Shah was comforting her but she continued to cry. At this time, I went out and mixed coffee with a little water and placed some on my nipples. I was in a hurry and quickly pulled my shirt close. It caused a stain. When I got back to the room, Shah was telling Maisarah to stop crying before she can see me.

Finally, after 10 minutes, she stopped crying and came out. I'm not sure if this is the best way of weaning but I resorted to trickery. I saw her and said to her that my boobies were sore and bleeding. Showed her the 'blood stains' which were really coffee stains and she believed me. From that moment onwards she was off the boobies. Throughout the day I kept reminding her that she is a big girl and she should drink from her bottle like her friends. Also, I kept on cuddling, kissing her and telling her I loved her every now and then. When she asked for milk, I reminded her that my boobies were sore.

Towards noon, I was apprehensive about nap time. I made a bottle of milk, closed the drapes, and told her to cuddle me, shut her eyes and keep quiet. After a few times of reminding her to keep quiet, she fell asleep. Unfortunately, mommy slept too. At night, I did the same tactic but it took slightly longer before she slept. But I knew one more challenge awaited, night-time feeds. She awoke at around 2 am, looking for boobies in her sleep. I reminded her that they were sore and she screamed. I forgot to prepare milk in advance so had to run out. Shah had to handle her. Poor hubby had a disrupted sleep on the night before the first day of class. When I got back, she drank a little milk. Then, after cuddling and series of of soft cries and whimpers, she slept again till morning.

Alhamdulillah, last (Monday) night was much better. She awoke at 1 am for milk but didn't scream. Whimpered a bit, drank a little milk and went back to sleep. She now knows that she must drink from the bottle and no more breastmilk. I am very grateful to Allah for the past three years of breastfeeding which I will cherish. So, for now I can safely say that Mission 'No Boobies' has been successful, although the execution could be better. To remember our breastfeeding journey, I'm going to post Maisarah's breastfeeding ticker here for safe keeping.

And a special note to Shah: 

I am very very thankful for your help throughout the three years of breasfeeding and weaning process. Maisarah and I love you with all our hearts and we are grateful for all that you have one for us.

P.S: Here are some tips for weaning from mom's who've been there taken from BabyCentre. There are lots of tips, but I'm pasting here tips for toddlers above 20 months like what I faced.

Change bedtime routines

My then 26-month-old daughter Elise's favorite time to nurse was at night, right before bed. Instead of nursing, I read to her from her favorite books. She would then drink her milk, and snuggle into the pillows ready for sleep. It took a few weeks to get her used to the routine — and some crying — but we learned to bond in a different way.
—Jackie

Introduce the cup

A few months before my son's second birthday, he and I shopped for a special cup. He picked out a red one with a built-in straw. I began to substitute a cup of warm water for the breast and let him choose the times to give up nursing. He still uses his special red cup for his bedside water and we still cuddle in my bed every morning.
—Jill

Tricks for the family bed

I weaned my daughter just shy of her second birthday. When she woke in the middle of the night, I would just hold her until she drifted back to sleep when she realized there would be no "nursy." I kept a cup of milk ready for her when she woke up in the morning, then we read, read, read until she got used to this pattern and not nursing. Bedtime was tough. I would just say no, Mommy has no more milk or I'd let her dad take her to bed and I stayed away until she drifted off.
—Cindy

A recipe for weaning

Here's a gentle weaning method to try: Finely chop a clove of garlic. Put chopped garlic and a tablespoon of olive oil in a small bowl. Let this sit for a few hours. Strain out the garlic. The oil should have a strong garlic odor. Put the oil on nipples. (You may want to protect your bra with a nursing pad.) My 2-year-old would ask to nurse and then tell me I was stinky and refuse. She'd check a few times a day, and lo and behold I was still smelly. I reapplied twice a day for about four days and then she stopped asking. We cuddled and read a lot of books during the transition time. There were no tears. I'm happy I nursed her as long as I did, but I was ready to wean!
— Anonymous

To Class We Go

One more day before classes resume again tomorrow. Luckily my class schedule is only in the morning this semester and I'm teaching the same subject like the last. So I am well versed with the syllabus. But these days that is not enough. Gone are the days of the lecturer speaking in front and the students taking notes, or instructor-centered learning. We are required to get the students involved in the lecture, what is now called student-centered learning. Now we need to get the students to do activities while learning the topic, let them discover the main ideas and continue to teach them until they get it. This is well proven because when we do it ourselves, we learn faster don't we?

So, last week I have been researching active learning methods like asking the students to argue on a certain topic, or asking them to read up on a topic and then give the lecture on it and then I correct them if they are wrong. But the thing I'm having trouble with is getting the students to respond. Do you have any ideas? Or was there any particular type pf lecture which you remember the most that helped you to learn?

P.S: the picture is of Maisarah when she followed me to work. If only working as a lecturer was as easy as watching Barney.

Camping at Home

For the last two nights Shah, Maisarah and I have been sleeping in my sister's room. This is because the air conditioning unit in our room has caused the main circuit breaker to trip each time it is turned on causing the whole house to be in total darkness. The first time it happend was at 12 am on Tuesday when everyone was snuggled up in bed. Since my sister and her hubby are away, we decided to sleep in her room. However, the bed is queen sized so Shah has to sleep on the floor. Hence, it feels like we are camping. But the good thing is that the wi-fi reception here is excellent. So Shah gets to surf the net on his laptop while I get to blog using the iPad. After this I'm going to search for more games and applications to download. But this won't last for long 'cause we miss our bed and my sis will be back on Monday. So, I've got to call the electrician tomorrow and get him to come as soon as possible.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Favourite Games on iPad

I just wanted to share with you the games that Shah and I spend hours playing on the iPad. I usually play them at night when Maisarah and Shah are asleep. The games are very addictive that sometimes I don't even realise that the time it is already 1 am and I should sleep.

1. Scrabble

This game has been our all time favourtie since we were in the UK. But when Maisarah is asleep and the room is dark we can't play the boardgame. But now with the iPad version, we can play any time, any where. Also, we can practise by playing against the computer. Whenever Shah is bored, he will play Scrabble.

2. Flight Control HD

This game requires you to safely land airplanes and helicopters. It starts of pretty easy but after a few minutes the planes come flying in from all directions and you will have to work fast to prevent them from colliding. This is Shah's second favourite and he is getting good at it. Maybe he was born to become an air traffic controller. Me on the other hand can only safely land 10 planes before they crash. I need more practise.

3. Diner Dash

Now this is my favourite. It involves Flo, who had quit her daytime job to open a restaurant. You will have to help Flo to take orders, serve food and drinks to the customers, then give them the bill and clean up the table. There is a certain goal to achieve during each level and after 10 levels, a new restaurant is unlocked. Very addictive and Maisarah loves to see me play this game.

4. Stand O' Food

Another favourtie of mine. This time serving burgers to customers. Haha, you must think that I am born to be a waitress. There are different burger combinations and you can add condiments to get more money. Again very addictive.

5. Plants vs Zombies

This is another favourtie of mine. You have to plant pea-shooting plants in your garden to kill zombies before they evade your house and eat your brains. To get a plant you must first collect the falling sun to achieve the points trequired. As you advance, you will start collecting many plants to help you fight the zombies such as frozen-pea-shooting plants, cherry-bombs and zombie-eating plants. And there is a stage where you have to fight the zombies at night. Again, very addictive and very entertaining. Especially when the zombies come in a big group.

Next time I'll review the toddler learning applications that Maisarah loves to play with.

Note: All pictures were googled.

Simple Celebration

Thank you for the birthday wishes. Maisarah requested for lasagna so I made that for dinner. Then we got her a chocolate cake to cut for dessert. Maisarah was very happy today because she received lots of phone calls to wish her a happy day. My mom, sister and brother called 3 times separately even though they are all together in UK. And just before Maisarah slept, she got a call from her cousin who sang a birthday song just her. Tomorrow we'll be going out to get her present. . I bet she slept with happy thoughts tonight.

You're Three!

Dear Maisarah,

By the time I post this entry, it will be 12 am on 19th November and you will officially turn three. You are now a big girl and no longer a baby. These days you call yourself 'mommy' and every one else is your 'baby'. We all play along but it becomes funny because your 'babies' will have to do most things for you, quite the contrary to your title as 'mommy'. Like when you want to pee, then you will say to me 'Baby, tolong bawak Mommy pergi toilet'. Anyway 'mommy', this year your biggest accomplishment is potty training. You are now completely off the diaper during the day. At night, you still have the diaper on but most days you will wake up without even dirtying the diaper. The only thing you haven't mastered is the ability to poop on the potty. But that is ok. You just take your time.

As a three year old, we hope you will leave behind the 'terrible two' stage of throwing tantrums. Some times you will act out but we now know it happens when you are very very sleepy. So we will make sure that you mustn't skip your nap at 10 am. Apart from that you are very articulate in your conversations, you observe everything that happens and you love to repeat what people say. So we are now very careful of what we say. We tend to spell things we don't want you to know but then you will spell it back to us and ask what it means. Then we have no choice but to tell you what it is because we don't want to lie.

There are so many good things we want to remember of your childhood and we hope you will remember them too. Like the latest trip we had to Penang when you went to look at butterflies and insects at the Butterfly Farm. Or when you played with us by the beach. I'll be sure to put those pictures in your third photobook so that we can always looks back at them.

Your Abah and I love you with all our hearts and we will do anything for you. We pray that you will grow up to be a kind, loving and clever girl who always remembers Allah and your parents.

Love always,
Mommy

Sun, Sea and Sand... (Almost)

Hola from Penang!

We're halfway through our holiday and enjoying ourselves. The little princess has been to the pool every day since we arrived. But we have only been to the beach once. It rained at 5pm today so we had to forgo the beach. Alhamdulillah, the weather during day time is fantastic. However, once the sun sets, the clouds come rolling in bearing heavy rain. So, I haven't had the chance to visit the famous Feringghi night market cum bazaar. I'm hoping tomorrow night will be clear so that I can see what's on offer there. Till then we'll just continue to have fun in the pool and beach.

Signing off after a tiring day.

To Penang We Go

My mom, brother and sister are now flying somewhere over the Indian Ocean on their way to the UK for my sister's graduation. So Shah and I are also taking this time to take Maisarah on a holiday to Penang. We have also invited my parents-in-law to come with us since the trip coincides with Eid-ul-Adha. We'll leave tomorrow morning and we'll spend four days there. It'll be a leisurely trip with the main intention to rest and also taste all the lovely food on offer.

The last time I went to Penang was more than 10 years ago, so I also want to visit all the tourist places. We plan to take Maisarah to the Butterfly Farm and up Bukit Bendera. I also saw on TV that there is a turtle conservation centre so I want to bring Maisarah there too. In preparation for the trip, Shah has bought a map of Penang to make sure we don't get lost there. I, on the other hand, have been busy downloading iPad games and storybook apps to keep Maisarah entertained along the trip.

If you have any tips on places to eat or to visit in Penang then do share with me ok? I'll try and update this blog when we are there.

Project "Our Hive": Living + Dining Room Colour Scheme

The first item we bought for our living room was a leather sofa in dark brown followed by a black TV cabinet. With those items, it was pretty much a done deal that the furniture in the living and dining rooms were mostly going to be dark pieces. To suit the dark pieces, a neutral colour scheme was chosen for the living and dining area with the main colour being tones of brown and beige or cream with accents of red. I added the red into the mix in order to bring continuity to the kitchen cabinets. The inspiration for the colour scheme actually came from the first Ariani headscarf I bought. The colours on the scarf are very much similar to the group of colours shown in the second picture (obtained from google). After having set the colours to be used, I googled for living room ideas and I was ecstatic to have found the picture above. The colours and dark furniture totally represents what I was imagining in my head down to the red accents on the curtain and cushions. I even imagined having a lamp with a red base in the room. So, I'm working my way to get a room that looks something like this.

Currently our living-dining area is already painted in the same cream colour and we've already got the sofa, albeit both are in a slightly darker tone to that in the googled picture. Our curtain is different though. I was gutted that we couldn't find a fabric with red accents when we shopped at Baagus. So I settled for fabric in a lighter shade of brown with gold undertones and a dark brown border and embroidery. What we need to get next are the dining table and a light-coloured floor rug. Then we're just left with getting cushions in cream with red highlights and wall hangings. I also need to brighten the room more so I'll add a huge mirror in the dining area to reflect the light.

I so can't wait to get the living and dining rooms done. I wish I could just concentrate on furnishing the house and not have to work. But that will not happen unless money grew on trees. So, I'll update more when I'm finally done.

Project "Our Hive": The Kitchen

It's been too long since I updated this blog on our home. The last time I wrote about the house was on the day our kitchen cabinets were being installed which was last July. The designer from Kian Classic told me that the installation would take one day but it turned out that they had to continue the next day. Unfortunately, after two days, the cabinets were only 85% completed because the following were yet to be installed:

1. One of the doors above the cooker hood.
   It had some defect and they had to take it back to the factory.
2. The solid surface countertop.
   As I was told by the designer, the actual measurements for the countertop can only be taken after the cabinets are installed. This is to make sure that the top perfectly fits on top of the cabinets. So the countertop was only installed a week after the cabinets were fixed.
3. The kitchen sink.
   The cabinet installers were not plumbers so they could not fix the free sink and tap given. So, we had to arrange for the Kian Classic plumber to come another time.

During this time we were constantly coming to the house and waiting for these people to turn up. Mind you these contractors are not really punctual. We sometimes had to wait more than an hour for them to arrive. So, Shah was already getting annoyed with me for not arranging everything to be installed at the same time. To appease Shah, I arranged for the cabinet door replacement to be fixed on the same day the kitchen appliances were to be installed which was in August. That way we could have everything fixed at the same time.  We also had another hiccup related to the kitchen. The designer made some wrong calculations on the side where the fridge was to be placed. The divider for the fridge was placed exactly where the socket points were. So, we had to get an electrician to shift the sockets to accomodate the divider.

Anyway, these are some points you should do when designing and installing your kitchen cabinets so that you won't have to put up with all the hassle like I did.

1. Make sure the designer takes proper measurements of your kitchen and takes extra measurements on the position of the kitchen sink inlet, outlet and all socket points.
2. Arrange for the contrators to come on the same day and remind them to be on time.
3. Be sure to have the cooker hood contractor come over to assess your kitchen before finalising the cabinet design.

So, before I leave you, below is the drawing of the designed kitchen cabinet before we finalised the countertop to be in white.

Now, these are pictures  of our completed kitchen withn appliances. The only aplliances left to put in is the fridge and microwave oven. Our ducting was supposed to be hidden inside the top wall cabinets but due to the presence of a beam at the corner where the cabinet ended, the ducting had to be exposed. My mistake since I didn't get the contractors to come survey the kitchen before the design cabinet was finalised. Even with all the hiccups, I am very much satisfied with the workmanship and I can't wait to use the kitchen.

iPad for Toddler Learning

Since we bought the iPad we have been downloading a few games and applications for Maisarah to play. Her favourite applications are the 'Talking Pals'. We have the usual Talking Tom cat, his firend Harry the hedgehog, the Baby Hippo and Larry the bird. She will play with all off them every day and they in return will repeat every thing that Maisarah says. She particularly loves to cause Larry the bird to get striked by lightning. Another app she loves is the 'Baby Piano'. She can randomly play music or press the highlighted key to play a popular nursery rhime.

We got some learning apps too. Her favourite is the 'Fish School' where she learns numbers by counting the fishes, learn colours by choosing the correctly coloured fish and matching by choosing the selecting fishes from a bunch of them. She also loves the '5-in-1 Kids Pack' where she is asked to recognise certain animals, shapes and letters. For drawing we got her the 'Color & Draw' which has lots of pictured pages to colour and 'Drawing Pad' which has lots of stickers for her to play with.

I think the iPad is a great learning tool for children. Both of us are always on the lookout for more apps to get for Maisarah. The next ones we want to get her are some books to read. Even so, we still think that the iPad is not a substitute to the traditional way of colouring, drawing and reading. I think we must still get her pens, papers and books for her to sharpen her writing and colouring skills cause we don't want her to think that colours can actually come out from her fingers when you tap them on paper.

Mission Potty: Days 2 and 3

Alhamdulillah, I think Maisarah has got the hang of going to the toilet to pee. She only had 1 accident on Day 2 and Day 3 was accident free. My mom and I even took Maisarah out to a birthday party and she managed to let us know when she had to pee. She could even hold it in until we got to the toilet and I took off her panties. So, I think it is safe to say that we have managed to potty train her to pee successfully. However, she still refuses to do Number 2 on the potty. She will wait until we put on her diaper at night (around 7.30 pm) before she does her business.

I googled on this and found this thread from babycentre.com forum. Well, it seems that many mommies face the problem of their toddler not wanting to poop in the potty. Some suggestions which I will try on Maisarah are:

1. Explain to her that poop is left over food from our bodies which must be thrown out.
2. Take her diapered poop and dump it into the toilet and flush away and reiterate item 1 above.
3. Show her that even us adults have poop and it goes into the toilet.

Now, I will certainly will try number 1 and 2 from the list above but number 3 would be a bit disgusting. But if push comes to shove and she still doesn;t get it then I will have to ask her to see me or Shah flush away our own poop (sorry to have made you imagine yucky stuff). However, one of the mommies in the forum mentioned that she tried all the above but her son still refused to poop but one day he did it by himself. So, if all fails, I guess it will come naturally to her one of these days.

London Cheesecake

Another baking escapade. This time no icing involved. My sister helped me make a cheesecake yesterday. It's been more than 5 years since the last time I made the cake. This time around I added strawberries at the top as requested by the little princess.

Shah doesn't like cheesecakes, but when I make it he will be the first to eat it. So I guess it tastes good.

Padding Along

Last week on Saturday, Shah and I headed to Digital Mall PJ with one goal in mind, to get us an iPad. Suffice to say that we accomplished our mission. We are now proud owners of a 16GB iPad with 3G capabilities. Well, we decided that the smallest disk space was sufficient for us since we or rather I'll be using it mostly to replace my office diary, i.e. to take notes of meetings, keep track of deadlines and things to do. It will also be handy when I need to go to meetings out of the office because with the iPad I won't have to lug my heavy laptop with me. I can use it to access and edit documents (word, excel, power point), read and reply emails, as well as surf the internet. At home, it will be used to play games which will mostly be for Maisarah.

What I've noticed is with the iPad one has to be constantly connected to the internet via Wi Fi. At home I am good to go with the iPad. It's a different story at the office due to the firewalls that have been put up. You see, to transfer files to and from the iPad you will have either connect it to your PC/laptop and transfer using iTunes which sometimes can be a hassle. Or you can transfer files directly to document processing applications (like QuickOffice or Pages say) via the internet. And I've noticed that some applications require internet access to work. So, in order to use the iPad to the fullest at work, I will have to find a way to bypass the firewall or get myself a 3G data plan.

Anyway, I am very happy with it and it is safe to say that Shah and Maisarah loves it too. Maisarah more than Shah since we have installed lots of games for her to play with. I'll write more on the games she loves next time.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Mission Potty: Day 1

Alhamdulillah we managed to get through the first day of potty training Maisarah. We didn't go totally bottomless. Maisarah was off the diaper and wore panties from 7 am till 7.30 pm. Throughout the day she peed 9 times, 6 times were successfully done in the potty. The remaining 3 were accidents. First accident was expected as she didn't quite recognise the feeling yet. Second accident was my fault as she just awoke from sleep and sleepily asked for breastmilk. I gave it to her whilst lying down, before bringing her to the toilet. End result, both mommy and daughter got wet. Final accident was after her bath.

Things to improve:
1. Get her to the toilet immediately after waking up from nap.
2. Maisarah doesn't feel comfortable making Number 2 on her potty. She only did it after she was on the diaper again at night. So Mommies, how did you encourage your lil ones to do Number 2 on the potty?

All in all 67% achievement which is a grade B+ for Day 1. (an engineer cum lecturer will always have statistics in their report) We're off to a good start so I pray that it will continue and improve on Day 2. Stay tuned for the next update!

My Daughter the Singing Star

My Daughter the Singing Star
Originally uploaded by ABumbleBee.

Long Weekend Mission

It has been awhile since we had a long weekend. Normally, we would be out of the house either going window shopping or settling errands. This time around we're just going to stay home and focus on the mission at hand. We're going to potty train the little princess. I remember Maryam tweeting to Nannoor that three days straight of potty training would be just enough.

Our mission is kind of abrupt because I didn't buy any training pants. I'm just going to let her wear panties and keep asking her if she needs to go to the toilet as well as reminding her to tell us when she wants to pee. I'm not too worried about the Number 2 because she always tells us if she wants to 'b3rak'. I think we'll just have to go with the flow. I'm only worried about one thing though. When taking daytime naps during potty training, do you put the diaper back on? Hope some one can share the answer with me.

So, let's start with the mission. I'll report on the progress as we go along. I'm going to praying that there won't be too many accidents. Please pray for our success too ok?

Baking with Love

When it comes to cooking, I love making desserts more than anything else. But most of the desserts I make do not involve much baking. I only bake cookies during fasting month in preparation for eid and cakes are very rarely made. When I was in the UK, the only cake I made was a cheesecake. Last year however, my sister and I tried our hand at baking cupcakes. We followed a recipe from a book I bought. The cakes were delicious if I might say, but unfortunately, the buttercream frosting was a bit soft and it didn't look nice when piped out. I was determined to try again but the second time around the frosting came out to be even worst.

Anyway, I was not going to be defeated so with the hope that third time is the charm, my sister and I had another go on Sunday. This time we must not fail as it was being baked for my mother's birthday. So, instead of making cupcakes, we made a whole cake. To ensure that the frosting won't be soft, I reduced the amount of boiling water but I guess it was still too much. The piped frosting didn't come out nicely but it seemed better than before. My sister said that with practice it would be better. I hope so too.

I find that baking is quite fun, thus, I'm thinking of taking a cake decorating class. Who knows I might be good at it and can then make some money from baking cakes.