Our 1 min Earth Hour

It was not that we didn't want to join with the rest of the world during the 1 hour of darkness on Saturday...we tried and we did but merely for a minute if not more ...here how the story went...

Before the actual event, my conversation with hubby:

Me: Darling, should we join in the Earth Hour fun?
Hub: Can we?
Me: Maybe we should just try and see if Ethan allows us ...
Hub: Ok

On the actual evening:
Hub: It's almost time...6 more minutes! (in the living room with Ethan watching the telly)
Me: Ok coming (shouting from the kitchen)

8.30pm on the dot:
Light off, but we thought we'll let the fans and telly on so that Ethan will not grumble so soon. So light off and Ethan was still unaware or didn't notice as his favourite Mickey Mouse Clubhouse programme was still on the telly.

Then our conversation went:
Me: Okay...let's try to switch off the tv
Hub: Ok (and hubby switched off the tv)

Silence filled the room for merely a minute before Ethan started to make noise and kept repeating "isis, isis" (his lingo in calling Mickey which till today we still don't know how he came to such name calling for Mickey Mouse...), "on, on" and started to make more noise. So our attempt to join the Earth Hour failed ;p How did yours went? I hope it went smoothly or at least much better than ours hee...

Chop chop chop...

...was the sound of the scissors as we finally brought Ethan to the hair saloon to have his hair cut after 1 year 9 months and 3 weeks ;p Yup, that was how long we kept his hair except for two trims on his fringe and his side burns when he was a baby... We actually wanted to wait till he is 2 years old for a new look. But since he has been complaining "itchy..itchy" and will ask us to scratch the nape of his neck and sometimes his scalp, we've decided it's time to give the hair saloon a visit.

As it was going to be his first real hair cut, I brought along some toys and his current favourite brochure (he has a thing about brochure ..he will look at it for a long time as if he was reading it hee...) to distract him if he gets restless during the hair cut. Have a look how it went ;p

There goes his long curls...

Ethan with his questioning look : "what is this uncle doing to my hair mummy??" ;p

Since he didn't want to wear the cover to keep the hair away from him, we took off his shirt, put on some talcum powder on him and started giving him one of his toys...and from sitting down...

...to standing up...and to a different toy.....and then his current favourite brochure (which btw was a sales promotion from Chan furniture hehe..)

Ethan looking bored and giving me the "are you finished with your stint as paparazzi mummy??!" ;p
another changed of toy ;p

..and from sitting down to asking hubby to carry him and here Ethan giving hubby a peck hehe...so sweet of him hee...And finally...from this look...
Ethan now looks like this :)
So what say you? More boyish looking? ;p

Overall, it only took the hair stylist about 10-15 mins. Ethan was great with just a little bit of moving around. I would rate him 8/10 ;p I guess the toys and brochure were good companions too hehe...it took me and hubby a while to get use to his new look but I think am beginning to like it though I do still miss his curly hair ;p

Oh mind you, the hair stylist thought he was a girl when he first saw him! hahaha...poor Ethan...not your fault baby...its all mummy's and daddy's fault coz your curls were just too adorable to be cut ;p

I love his laughter

Ethan is not only a curious and active boy but he is also a very playful boy...he loves playing with hubby...You can tell he misses playing with hubby as whenever we come and fetch him after work, he will always go to hubby first...hubby is after all Ethan's favourite playmate :) Have a look at one of their play time sessions. I just love listening to his contagious laughter :)

Vicks Vaporub could be dangerous

I thought I should post this info after reading it from a blog and also getting it in my inbox from StoryMory today. If you have been applying Vicks Vaporub on your child/children below the age of 2 especially under the nose please stop. This ointment though has been around for donkey years may not be as safe as you think it is. Recent research shows that it could lead to severe breathing problem. Do read the articles below (click on the image for better view).

As for Ethan, I've stopped using Vicks Vaporub on him after I bought the Northern Essence All Natural Vapor Rub from MiaBambina last July. It is stated that this product is safe to use even on baby from 3 months old onwards.



Here's another article from cbcnews.ca about it.

Ethan in his pyjamas

This picture was taken this morning showing Ethan in his pj which was sewn by Janneth's mum. Special thanks to your mum again Neth!! :)

Playing with the cuzzies

This is a continuation story from the Ling San Pagoda in Tuaran. On our way back that late afternoon, hubby decided to drop by at one of his cousins' place. Since we've missed Zach's (hubby's nephew) 2nd birthday party, hubby thought we should drop by to pass the birthday gift to Zach. It was raining cats and dogs on the way there and Ethan was taking his nap from Tuaran to Likas. Nevertheless, Ethan, Zach and Ish seemed to have enjoyed each other company except for a brief moment where Zach was annoyed with Ethan for taking his toys and wanting to take his combat hat away from him heee....

Sweet lil' Ish happily playing with Ethan

Ethan inside Zach's & Ish's special playing place - Thomas the Train tent ;)

The two who are only about 4 months apart getting to know each other better...
Excited with the hiding place with so many toys inside it...

Ethan trying to get hold of Zach's fav hat....

and when he finally succeeded with the help of Uncle Y...

Ethan seemed satisfied while Zach was pretty annoyed at this moment...tsk tsk tsk... poor Zach...

Pagoda Ling San Tuaran

As mentioned, I'll be putting up old stories that have been missing for the past few weeks or maybe months hehe...Here's one of them.

About a month ago, we went for a long drive to Tuaran. While looking for a place to have Tuaran mee for lunch, we came across this Pagoda and thought we should give it a visit after lunch. We didn't stay long as it started to drizzle as we entered the main building. Ethan however enjoyed looking at the colorful statues and decorated walls as well as walking up the staircase and a short walk around the place. He was tired after the walk thus the Kenny G impersonation ;p

Ethan all geared up for the long drive :)
Ethan, myself and my mum share the same Chinese Zodiac - the boar :)

Ethan walking up the staircase right from the bottom to the top and refused to be carried by hubby ;p
Enjoying himself :)

Photo of the day

Enjoying his milk after a tiring walk - don't you think he looked like he was playing a saxaphone whole heartedly? Our cute lil' Kenny E' ;p

Wriggly worm

Here's Ethan moving like a wriggly worm ;p

It's almost over

Tomorrow will be the last day that Ethan will be on antibiotic. Overall, he seems to be back to normal except his appetite in the evening is not so good yet. No more fever and his nappy rash is almost gone. He is still experiencing loose bowel but not as bad... Apparently Augmentin antibiotic will cause nappy rash as well as loose bowel movement. But those are insignificant as compared to the very high fever that he had to endure recently. For his nappy rash we wash him with water and put on the Drapolene nappy barrier to prevent further rash and this seems to work pretty well. Both me and hubby are very happy to see his progress and hope that his cough and mucus will disappear very soon. Yes, he has been coughing with mucus on and off and still is on medications for that. His paed told us that as his fever subsides, his cough and mucus will come back again. But thank goodness it is not too bad and he seems to be recovering pretty fast from both too. We asked his paed what would be the cause to his throat infection. He told us that it is most likely from outside source (not because of his cough as we initially suspected) i.e. people who are sick came close to him or he got it from the crowded areas e.g. shopping malls. So now, no more public places for Ethan for at least a month...

Here we wish to extend our sincere thanks to my SIL, Lisa for being our walking medicine/ health encyclopedia during those challenging time...I think after 3 kids, she could consider taking up another degree and probably switch her career from an engineer to a pharmacist in the future hehehe...

And for my own reference, here am listing the types of fever medicines that can be used together when fever doesn't subside (information given by Dr. June of RMC ):
1. Ibuphoren & Uphamol
2. Ibuphoren & Voren (must be 6 hours gap/apart)
3. Uphamol & Voren (if fever doesn't subside after 45min-1 hr of Uphamol, insert Voren - this was the combination we used on Ethan recently)

Note: This general list is for my own future reference, you should refer to your own doctor for your own case.

Lil' E on the way to PIL's yesterday morning...he was still asleep when we had to carry him to the car...heee..

Oh btw, do share with me if you had experienced similar case and how did you handled your precious okay :)

p/s As I'm blogging away, my lil' precious is still fast asleep next to me at this moment ;p

What a relief!!

We had a scary and worrisome weekend recently as Ethan was down with a very high fever due to a throat infection...his temperature shoot up to 40.7 C the highest on Monday and 40.5C on Tuesday!! It was such a heart wrenching and tension moments for both me and hubby especially seeing our precious Ethan shivering and crying when his body temperature went very high...it was even scary when we felt and saw his feet and hands turned cold and blueish...we worked like mad sponge bathing him and kept hugging and consoling my poor baby :( The shivering moments started on Sunday so we brought him to SMC as his paed was on holiday. But since he had only been feverish for a day, no antibiotic was prescribed. But I was pissed off because when my mum asked me if the doctor checked his throat, I realised he didn't do so. I almost kick myself for not realising it but I was worry about him at that moment that I forgotten all about that..was busy describing his conditions to the doctor and the type of medicines he is already on etc...probably the doctor forgotten to do so as I was busy talking to him... though I remembered he did used the stethoscope to check Ethan's chest...it made me think perhaps if he did check his throat he may have detected the throat infection earlier and given him the proper medicines..sigh...my bad for not noticing it...

Anyway, as his conditions did not improve much, I called RMC for advice that evening as Ethan's fever did not get better even with the fever meds...the nurse told me the same thing i.e. keep sponge bathing him and told me even if we bring him to RMC they will give the same meds as what the SMC' doctor gave...the nurse told me that we should wait till the next day to see the Paed...we did and the Doctor told us that Ethan's throat was red and throat infection was the culprit for his very high fever. Antibiotic was given but the only thing was that it takes about 2-3 days for it to take effect!!. So you can imagine how the conditions were like in between then!! Ethan of coz still had high fever even when the fever medicine was not due yet...that was when his feet and palms will turn cold and pale and we had to work really fast to keep his body temperature down! At one point, I just don't know what to do seeing the temperature reaching 40.7C that I quickly brought him to the bathroom and showered him with luke warm water as I remembered one of my ex-colleague did with her son. But last night I got a lecture from my mum. She reminded me that never ever shower a child with very high fever coz even if the temperature did go down, it will back fire and the fever will get even worst! This was told to her by our paed when we were still kiddos. I've totally forgotten about that as I was panicking then. Instead I should keep sponge bathing him with tepid water. Wipe him with wet towel especially his head, neck, behind his knees, armpits etc...As the water evaporates it will give a cooling effect to the body thus keep the temperature down...but as his fever still didn't really go down, we've decided to soak his feet in luke warm water as advised by SIL. As the temperature went down below 40C, and he stopped shivering and his feet and hands turned pinkish again and he seems better, we filled his bath tub with some water, sat him down and sponge bath him while he watch tv or rather the Mickey Mouse DVD which we borrowed from my big bro. He was happy watching the DVD while we both still working hard to keep him body temperature back to normal. At times it took about 45 minutes but the longest we had was around 5 hours on Tuesday evening. It was from around 4pm till almost 10pm. The worst was when his temperature went down but lingered around 38.5C for a while and then shoot up again to 40.5C!! We were like holly cow what's going on!! And we had to wait till the time is right to insert the Voren suppository in his annus and that was like another 2 hours more!! Called SIL again and she said we can give him earlier which we did in no time!! Even so we still had to work hard as the medicine will only kicks in after 45min - 1 hr!! So again you can imagine the madness we had to go through...Ethan was a bit weak then....but thank goodness he still has appetite for milk and asked for it...he felt asleep while taking his milk while we continue to sponge bath...I even called the RMC doctor to tell her the situation and she also said we need to keep his temperature low by sponge bathing till the next medicine dose is due and his temperature goes down. I was thinking isn't there anything else we could do for goodness sake cause it was really heart breaking to see Ethan like that!! But of cause that is the only thing we can do...we kept sponge bath him and kept praying at the same time and thank God the temperature did go down after an hour and Ethan woke up and started baby talking to us again. We were so happy but we had to continue sponge bathing him as his temperature was still high...thank goodness also that was the last time Ethan shivered due to the high fever as the Augmentin antibiotic took effect...his temperature was ok and only had mild fever that night till this morning...we were so thankful and relief that the worst is over...although he had a few shivering moments, in between he was still as cheeky and active as usual...well, that's our cheeky boy hehehe....his appetite was good till yesterday till today...but at least his appetite for his milk is very good. In fact, he asks for more milk then the normal days now...This morning although he seemed a bit less active probably because he was still asleep when we carried him to the car...but he seemed better as he reached my PIL's home. So after waiting for a while just to see his condition, we went back to work after 3 days of emergency leave. When I called MIL just now, Ethan was active though he still have mild fever now and then...but it is much better than the past 3 days...thank God for that...ok time to make a move..will continue later...

KL trip

As mentioned earlier me and hubby went to KL for a short break. So what was our itinerary like you may ask? Well, nothing much just shopping (for us, Ethan and family), spending time with hubby's siblings and their family and of coz to relax and to spend some quality time with each other. Here are a few pictures for the sharing :)

Us or rather me feeling full and satisfied with the yummy BBQ chicken rice we had near Sg. Wang :)

Hubby's 2nd bro, Bryan and his beautiful family :)

Their two adorable children - Farah and Adam

Here they are again posing with me and hubby at their home..

And oh..here are some of the things I bought for Ethan...there are some other items I bought for him but I'm too lazy to take pictures besides some of them are on the clothes line or kept in his drawers already hehe...

As for me, I bought a few pairs of shoes, some tops/blouses, belts and accessories..sorry as I am too lazy to snap pictures of them hehe...all cheap stuff nothing grand anyway heee...hubby bought quite a few polo shirts which were marked down by 70% , a couple of belts and shoes. Hubby even bought a nice wall frame for my wall feature project hehe...However, in spite of all the items we've bought, much to my surprise our luggage didn't go overweight. Probably I've packed all the used clothes/towels and toileteries into our handcarry bag otherwise we would have to pay quite a bit :)

Real Vs Fake

This video really tickled me pink just now (thanks to StoryMory)and I thought I should share it with you too...enjoy! ;p

Even a toddler can differentiate between fake and real ones!! hahaha ;p

Crocs that can be bitten

During our recent trip to KL, besides shopping (can't blame me as it seemed like the whole of KL was on sales!!), I've learnt a couple of new things... and one of them was about how hazardous the famous Crocs sandals or clogs that I've been wanting to get a pair for Ethan. However, upon hearing what it may cause especially to children as young as Ethan's age made me changed my mind...It started as I was admiring the Clark sandals that hubby's nephew had on and thought I should get a similar pair for Ethan since he is outgrowing his current sandal...it was then that SIL told me to be careful on the type of sandals to buy as some may cause unwanted accidents especially on the escalator...this was when the Crocs subject came about...BIL who works for a lift/escalator company told us not to buy Crocs sandals for Ethan as there have been many cases where accidents involving children have occurred on the escalator ...and most of the time the culprit is the super light and flexible Crocs sandals...he even told us that in JB, one of the shopping malls actually displayed a warning sign that shows no Crocs shoes allowed on the escalator (talking about being direct..) as apparently there have already been a few serious injuries ...Nonetheless, being the curious person that I am and wanting to know more I did a google on Crocs and escalators and true enough there are many articles on this subject...some incidents sounded really gruesome that you just don't want to continue reading the articles!! So Crocs sandals/ clogs (original or imitation) are out of the question and the only Crocs we have in our home is Mr. Croc ;p

Ohh...I however managed to do a last minute shopping at Isetan for Ethan b4 we left for the airport and bought him OshKosh: flip flop, sandal and a pair of shoes all for RM113 only...it was a buy 3 and you get 50% discount heee...I didn't really know what his exact size was as I've forgotten to take his measurements but nevertheless I bought bigger sizes instead...kiasu or not??!! So there you are, the confession of a shopaholic!!! hahaha...

Photo of the day

Ethan with his "Mama" (MIL) :)

Home sweet home

We've been back since Sunday evening and .....

...aren't we happy to see our lil' precious Ethan who on the other hand doesn't seem to have missed us at all ;p

More updates inlcuding outdated ones after this hee...

All packed!

We're going off for a short vacation...I'll be back in a jiffy with more updates. Till then have a great long weekend folks! ;p

He is into cat

Yup, our Ethan is into cat ever since his brief encounter with a fat "miaw miaw" at Langkah Syabas last December...since then he always say "miaw miaw" when he sees a cat in real life or on a book or even on his bedsheet. He will start with "miawing" and proceed to kiss the cat's pictures hee...here are some shots of him with "pungut" (an adopted cat) at my parents' last Sunday :)

Cat, I like...says Ethan ;)

Fashion & technology are a perfect match!

A few weeks back, I made an entry about me being so much head over heel in love with the limited edition of Vivien Tam's netbook. Well, today it came back to haunt me especially after I've got to know that it has been launched in Malaysia about 2 months ago! Yeah, I know, am a bit outdated but hey I don't have the time nor the luxury to actually find out more especially after the "regret to inform..." reply I received from HP people that said the super duper stylish with a good enough specs (at least for me who don't need it for some powerful applications..) was not available in Malaysia then. Yes, you read it, I was sooo in love with it that I actually wrote to HP to simply enquire where can I purchase it in Malaysia and even went around Karamunsing shopping complex to scout ard for that red hot chilli and sexy gadget! I must confess, I was unable to wait for the reply via email on that very same day that I actually clicked and asked their Live Online Customer Service for the availability and pricing in Malaysia (email seemed like snail mail to me at that very moment!! hehehe...) Sadly of course, the answer was "Not available in Malaysia" :( But surely they would have known if it will be coming to Malaysia in the near future then and delight the excited customer that I was...it doen't come with an external cd drive though but I found out from ebay that you could order one that is compatible with the VT netbook with a year's waranty...

Oh well, anyway, I found out from here that the selling price is RM1999. But I saw from here and here that the actual cover and the red tone was not as what I have visualized in my head...hmmm...never mind, I'm still reading reviews about it and so far the specs reviews are a-okay except negative vibes those who are not into girly designs...I think I will have to meet my potential "new love/ new toy" face to face (hopefully this weekend hee..) before I will decide if I am willing to part with my moolah and pay additional RM300 for a sleek looking "digital clutch" ;)

Have a look at the ebrochure...Now who says techy gadgets can't be sexy and stylish ;p As Vivien Tam put it “The fashion-forward woman no longer has to sacrifice glamour when staying in touch with all her favorite digital content. And the flower and vibrant colors suggest good fortune, happiness and prosperity in the Chinese culture.” I likey though I still have to see the actual look in real life first -yeah I know, you can call me a fussy pot but it has to fulfill my criteria before I will take it home right ;p