Category Archives: Parenthood

Last year was the first time we brought dear Son to Zoo Negara in an attempt to introduce him to wild animals.

So this year, being a year older, he requested to see those animals like giraffe, elephant, hippo and so many others he saw on Ipod apps..err we don’t really have yak and jaguar in Malaysian zoo, my son..heh!

Finally we managed to make it to the zoo on Saturday. The crowd was not so many since most people went away from KL (it’s the long holiday for Chinese New Year)

We took the tram this time as per request by dear son. It costs RM3 per adult and RM2 for children above 2 years old. You can take the tram ride near the entrance A, stop at tiger/lion enclosure and take it back again to the front.

My son’s favourite animal..the hippo. When the driver of the tram called out the name of the animals as we take one round trip, he kept on asking for hippo. So after we stopped at the animal show, we walked to the hippo enclosure and saw one hippo enjoying his meal. Another 2 were having good soak in the water.

As we were walking to the savannah area, we passed by the giant tortoise.

The last time when we went to the zoo, we didn’t come to savannah area. I was glad that we took the tram ride because at least I have a clear idea on what kind of animals they have in the zoo. Here you can see many giraffes compared to the one near the entrance. They were walking freely from one end to the other of the savannah area. There was supposed to be zebra at the savannah, but we couldn’t see any.

We also checked out the ape centre. See the orang utan? I think he must be so broken hearted for not being able to go back home during this long holiday..haha!

Overall it was a much better experience going to the zoo this time. Dear son insisted on walking on his own most of the time. Only towards the end, he asked to be carried because he was so tired from all the running..hehe! He even refused to go and say good bye to the giraffes and elephants near the entrance. However he did say that he wants to come back again.

Till next year, good bye animals!

I have been having a massive internal conflicts for the last few days..(or was it weeks?..huhu!)

You know how sometimes even in your daily life, you feel like..man, this sucks..like you hate your job, but you need the salary, you hate your daily routine..or whatever you have to get through each single day, same old, same old..or how you have to think what to eat after work, or what to do on weekend..I’m sure you get what I mean..

Well, that’s how motherhood could be after a while. Although not many moms are brave to admit that. It’s like hey, you are a mom, you should be proud of your noble task of being a mom, why whine..why complain..well, moms are human too!

I have been reading thehappiestmom blog to get back my mojo on being a happy mom..so this is what I’m quoting from one of her posts – Motherhood can be boring.

“It’s not hard. It’s just not very exciting, and sometimes a life full of “not very exciting” can start to feel suffocatingly hard.”

“No, it’s not the mindless tasks I find myself dreading; it’s the idea that there’s all there is.”

Yup, you know it. The same old routine in a daily life of a mom, except on days that suddenly your child throws tantrum and in doing so has managed to create havoc in your sanity cycle..haha!

I know I must do something to fight this every-now-and-then-occuring-boredom disease. Even when I was not yet a mother a few years ago I always complained to my husband that I was bored at home..sigh! Maybe this is why people keep on getting pregnant years after years and have more babies so that their mind are forever occupied with more boring stuffs of being a mom..haha!

Well, for a start tomorrow I think I will have to do some gardening in the yard, just to get my ass outside of the confined and comfy zone of my bedroom and my laptop..and then perhaps I have to do some dramatic changes in the daily routine..err like go for a jog with my son in the rain? Maybe I should paint the floor and play hopscotch instead..what say you?

At least it feels good to read that there are other moms out there who feel bored and stuck in their roles as I do.

After researching about theme party, I noticed most will have candy buffet. My initial plan was to get the big lollipop but since I couldn’t get the supply, we have to make do with whatever available in the market.

It was also a good excuse the get the 3-tier serving tray from IKEA..hehe! Niece #1 brought some colorful apam and I bought fruit tarts…so that’s where those desserts turned up for the party.

The big wall poster of Cars 2 which I bought from ebay safely arrived the week before party so Hubby put them up on the wall the night before the event.

I blew a few balloons and pasted them on the wall along side the red banners. I tied those balloons with yarn and then later used cellophane tape to stick the yarn onto the wall. The rest of the balloons on the stick was blown by Niece #1 while her daughter took a nap. Thanks Niece!!

The best part was when SIL and Niece came the afternoon of the party and helped me cooking the food, thank God! It took 3 batches of a big frying pan to fry all the chicken for nasi ayam. Of course the big frying pan was brought along by SIL since my small frying pan won’t do the job as fast as I planned. Even then we only finished cooking the food around 7pm when the party has to start around 8pm..huhu!

I didn’t manage to make mac n cheese or caramel popcorn as planned for the kids but Hubby said the spaghetti bolognaise will do. It turned out that most parents ate spaghetti after they ate nasi ayam…and I thought the menu was for the kids..hehe! Not sure what the kids ate (maybe those nuggets with Cars stickers stuck to the toothpicks) as I was either too busy entertaining and later coaxing my son to blow the birthday candle..huhu!

Well, that’s basically how our first birthday party experience as parents. Could do better next year, if there’s one..huhu!

This week my son will turn 3 years old. Well, time does fly even though I wouldn’t say it was a breeze for us in bringing up a child. Since he has asked for a birthday party, we thought we will do a small one for him, inviting just a few neighbors and their kids.

Anyway, I still have some pending tasks to do for the birthday preparation.

I need to go to pasar borong and buy at least 3 chickens and prep them for the birthday dinner. Since it will be night time and weekday, I thought making nasi ayam is more appropriate to feed all the attending adults.

I need to blend garlic and ginger to marinate the chicken pieces. I also need the blended ingredients to make nasi ayam itself and make soup. I could cut down the time to peel the garlic by buying the peeled garlic at pasar borong…(easy way out..haha!)

I need to fill up all the birthday goodie bags by Tuesday’s night. But actually I only have to decide on what to put in one goodie bag then delegate the rest of the task to Hubby..hehe!

I need to blow all the balloons and put up all the decorations. Balloons should only be blown the night before. I have tested letting the blown balloon out for 2 days and sigh, they deflated. Err..Hubby can put up all the decorations..after all he’s taller than me when it comes to putting up the banner and all, right?

On the afternoon of the birthday, I will fry some nuggets and make mac n cheese for the children apart from cooking the main meal nasi ayam.

Hubby is in charged of taking the Secret Recipe cake to the person who will put the CARS edible image in the morning of the birthday and later in the afternoon take the fruit tarts which I have ordered earlier for dessert.

He will prepare drinks for the birthday party.

Oh, I have to make sure I buy birthday candles..but I hope Secret Recipe will give some..I already bought the number 3 candle at the party shop but maybe it won’t look very grand on the cake without all the other single pieces.

I hope to make home made caramel pop corn as part of the candy buffet. Will have to buy corn kernel tomorrow and test it first.

Well, I still have to print some CARS stickers to decorate the party table. That can be done the day before the birthday, I think..if I have done all the cleaning up and prepping the ingredients by Monday, then my mind will be less worried about the food.

I really prefer cooking on my own for event like this rather than order food from others, unless it’s something I am really bad at, like baking..haha! But of course, the hassle will be on the buying the ingredients at wet market and prepping them later at home. Worst case, Hubby can always help me to basuh ayam even if it will take him longer than what I usually do..

I really hope things will go smoothly as planned, Insya-Allah. Will share some pictures once the birthday party is over.

Sometimes when I was out of patience and energy to wait for my son to fall asleep, I made promises. Like last weekend, I told him if he sleeps, we can go out and buy Hot Wheels.

So on Saturday we went out. Told him that he can choose Hot Wheels that he likes. So he did choose 2 and near the counter where we were supposed to pay there was a display of Cars 2 merchandise. So he looked here and there while Hubby went away to get something else (the reason why we went to the shopping complex in the first place).

Now he wanted to buy two Cars merchandise which costs RM35.90 each. So thinking that I know better since I’m the Mama, I told him why don’t we go and check out more choices in Toys R Us and see whether they have wider choices there. So I left the 2 Hot Wheels behind.

He checked out most of the Cars merchandise in Toys R Us but he was not interested to buy anything. In the end we chose for him a set of 7 Cars 2 character die casts which cost a lot more than what we initially planned to spend. But I thought he might enjoy it more, after all he’s all into Cars these days.

He kept on saying Hot Wheels as we walked to the parking lot. We thought he mistakenly thinks that all small cars or die casts as Hot Wheels. In the car, he kept on asking about Hot Wheels. Even when we reached home he kept on saying Hot Wheels.

Then it hit us that maybe what he really wants are those 2 Hot Wheels that he has carefully chose. Those two that will only cost us RM15 instead of RM200++ No wonder he was not interested to buy anything when I asked him to choose because in his mind, he thought I already paid for those 2 Hot Wheels.

Later that night when I have some time alone, I can’t help to think that here I am thinking since I’m the Mom, that I should know better and decide for my son what’s the best for him yet I want him to have his own opinion and make his own decision in life. I have been so caught up in my ego as a parent thinking that what I chose for him is what could bring him real happiness. I should have known better.

I hope I will not make the same mistake again. This time it might just be some toys, but later as he grows up, I don’t want my decision and my choice to be the cause of his unhappiness in life.