Z is 15 months now!

My last entry was when Z was 10 months old and now he is almost 15 months old. Time passes so fast especially when you're having a good time & busy. Things at work are picking up really fast and am still trying my best to capture Z's growing up moments.

Highlights when Z was 10 months old (June 2013):

Z - He could point with confidence on the items that we named out for him; orange, car, light, fan, air-con, mommy, daddy, grandparents and more. SJ and I were so impressed and surprised one day when Z was about 10 months old; we put him on his play mat and I asked him where is Orange, he crawled to the picture & pointed confidently while looking at me that was Orange. We seldom read the alphabets to him, we're more of the random teaching 'method', where we just mention him the things in front of us and seldom repeat them but we speak to him a lot. Babies are absorbing like sponge everyday! He was so much more fun now that he is older and we have more confidence in managing and knowing what he wants.

Z gave me this cheeky smile when I grabbed him to sit with me & I said 'Smile' to the camera!

We went for our first beach holiday on the 9th to 11th June to the Redang Island. This city boy didn't like the sand at all. He kept brushing the sand away from his hands, legs and refused to sit on the sand. He only wanted to be sitting on the beach towel. It was also Zach's first get-away with his grandparents, (Kung Kung & Po Po) and Yi Yi. We brought so many things for Zach to this trip; his potty, slow cooker for his solids, vegetables, fruits and lots of toys. Zach slept on his flight to Redang & behaved really well on our way back to KL. I was glad that our holiday went so well and Z didn't have any problems adapting :))

Z fell asleep in my carrier before we board the plane & he slept throughout the flight on the way to Redang. Yay! This was Z's 2nd time being on the plane. This first was in December 2011 to Singapore. 

Daddy & Z's bonding time. 

This was taken on the morning of our last day in Redang. Z was such a serious boy. He is more fun now at 15 months. 

Highlights when Z was 11 months old (June/July 2013): 

My friend, R from Hong Kong came to visit & celebrated my birthday with me! :))) We took her to do some touristy stuffs; visit Batu Caves, Petronas Twin Towers, KL tower and had some must-eat Malaysian food.

In front of Batu Caves before we conquer the steps. 

 Inside of the cave, while Daddy & R went up the stairs to explore further, we took this opportunity to take some photos. We saw many monkeys on that day!

Next stop was the Petronas Twin Towers. We couldn't get the tickets to go up the towers because they were completely sold out by 10.30am! We thought getting tickets would not be a problem since it was a weekday but we were wrong! Lesson learnt: To buy the tickets online way ahead of time. 

We couldn't go up but we could still take photos with the towers behind us. It was such a beautiful day!

KL Tower. Getting tickets to go up was easy and zero hassle. It took us less than 10 mins to queue & made our way up to the tower immediately. 

One of the must try food for friends that visit us in KL; Roti Tissue at Original Kayu Nasi Kandar SS2 because this roti tissue is huge! It's about 3 feet tall. I was just impressed that it was so big! If we order one, I'll call it KL Tower and The Twin Towers if we ordered two :P

SJ & I are food lovers. Naturally we would bring our guest to good eating places around KL. Here's the list of food that we've introduced to R:

1. Hokkien noodles at Ah Wa Restaurant, Jalan 222 PJ. We don't think Hong Kong has dark coloured hokkien noodles.

2. Dinner at Dancing Fish, Bangsar Shopping Centre KL for a good ambience and yummy tasting indon-malay food. We ordered fried fish, satay and a huge variety of food. The chilli and sambal sauces were really good!

3. Breakfast at Antipodean, Bangsar KL. Well, this is nothing extraordinary as compared to western food in Hong Kong but the breakfast in this place was voted as one of the top 10 in KL.

4. Roti canai at Raju's Restaurant, Jalan Gasing PJ. SJ thinks the roti canai here is one of the best & most crispy in KL/PJ. They made them fresh immediately. Other than roti canai, the rest was just ok.

5. Nasi Lemak, Village Park, Damansara Uptown, PJ. Our favourite nasi lemak & it's really good! The king of nasi lemak in Klang Valley. Their fried chicken (ayam goreng berempah) is superb. Their other food such as asam laksa & prawn mee were also quite good too. 

6. Mille crepe cake by Nadeja, 3 Two Square PJ. These cakes were made famous by the same name shop in Melaka and many people would buy these cakes and bring back to KL. They have a branch now in PJ! and

7. Huge Roti Tissue at Original Kayu Nasi Kandar SS2 PJ. There have many other things in this restaurant which are also recommended; nasi kandar, other types of roti and of course teh tarik for the tourists. 

From the list above, we really had quite a feast in R's short trip; 4 days in Malaysia. We could have brought her to more places if we had more time and if Z was older. Our schedule was built around Z's routine. I am sure R will plan her next trip soon and I hope we didn't paint the impression that Malaysians are a bunch of gluttons. 

After we sent R to the airport on the 2nd July evening, the three of us went to a neighbourhood cafe to celebrate my birthday. Last year on the same day, I was heavily pregnant and this year I had Z with me! We used to celebrate birthdays in a big way; dress up well in nice restaurants. But things are different nowadays with a baby. My priorities and needs are different now too. As long I am with Z & SJ, I feel I am the luckiest girl in the world because they both make me feel so happy :)

Going to end this long post with a picture we took at my birthday dinner. Next is Z's 1st birthday! Have a great weekend everybody!

I'm craving for cakes, chocolates & ice-cream!! ARRGGHH!!! Help me!! :O

This whole week has been sweet sweet and sweet stuffs!! I had sweet foods almost every day in this past whole week! I had 1.5 slices (I shared half a slice with a friend for lunch so I won't feel so guilty) of chocolate cake on Friday! I tried to make myself feel better and explain to SJ that it's ok for me to crave for sweet things this week because I'm in week 24! And according to updates by babycenter.com.my, 'Taste buds are now forming, and, believe it or not, acquiring a sweet tooth is all part of it.' Haha!

On Saturday, I have decided to challenge myself to NOT have any desserts for ONE WEEK! SJ is like the challenge-master appointed by me and he will try to make sure I stay in this challenge. Yesterday was the first day and I sort of broke my challenge already because I had an 'ice-cream potong' red bean favour (thinking that red-bean is probably the healthier option) when I was with my friends  :( Somehow I had an idea that ice-cream potong has less sugar than other ice-creams because this Malaysian made ice-cream probably had more ice or other ingredients in it than sugar. I know Baskin Robbins and Haagen Diaz are super duper sweet and creamier compared to this.

Plus I am HUNGRY ALL THE TIME for the past whole week!!! :((( I want to eat or munch all the time especially sweet stuffs! I know that I have been having too much sweet stuffs because I could feel itchness in my private area. I had the same problem after chinese new year and the doctor said it could due to eating too much sweet food and with all the hormone changes in my body due to pregnancy, I could have easily contracted fungal infection. After speaking with a few mothers and expectant mothers, I realised almost everyone I spoke to had the same problem in that area! I know that I must must must reduce my sweet foods intake.

A colleague of mine was diagnosed with gestational diabetes at about week 30 and she has only gained 8 kilograms. I have already gained 7 kilograms in week 22. I hope I will not gain more than 2 kilograms in my next antenatal visit. I have sort of like self-diagnosed myself with gestational diabetes yesterday. I wanted to have something sweet after dinner yesterday but kept asking SJ for permission because I was feeling so bad if I had any without his approval. Everytime I wanted to eat something, especially more carbohydrates (such as biscuits) or sweet foods, I would look at him to get his approval but he has been very strict. He wouldn't even want to share a piece of Ferrero Rocher chocolate with me yesterday :( I offered to share a can of Coke or 100 plus with him on Friday night (this is doubly worse because these drinks are chilled and super sweet) and he gave me a box drink (which is still sweet but has lesser sugar content compared to a can of Coke) instead. I guess it's a very good thing that I have such a strict husband because I know he will be a strict parent and our kids will not be able to get their way all the time. I know I can do it, I just need to find substitutes or distract myself from FOODSSS, especially sweet stuffs.

So, I goggled about gestational diabetes yesterday night to find a substitute food that I can take which is healthier and suitable for diabetic patients (I'm not diabetic 'yet' and hope I won't be one). I had this craving feelings that I need to eat something sweet. After a few websites, there was a suggestion that I should take a muesli/cereal bar instead because having carbohydrate is the better option compared to chocolates or cakes. I have a bar of muesli in the house! Told SJ and he said OK, so I happily went to grab it. Was munching happily in front of him and suddenly he commented, 'how come your muesli bar got chocolate one?' because he saw a layer of chocolate around the muesli. The flavour of my Carman's muesli bar wrapper was Dark Chocolate! SJ must be thinking I am such an extreme because the flavour of my muesli bars is also chocolate! But I got these muesli before I got pregnant, so technically, I didn't plan to cheat. I used to be a super crazy chocolate lover before I got pregnant. I can finish a whole chocolate bar at one go.

More info about gestational diabetes: In this website: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001898/

Causes, incidence, and risk factors:
Pregnancy hormones can block insulin from doing its job. When this happens, glucose levels may increase in a pregnant woman's blood. You are at greater risk for gestational diabetes if you:


- Are older than 25 when you are pregnant (I'm above 25, so this is one risk factor)
- Have a family history of diabetes (Good thing all my family members don't have diabetes). 
- Gave birth to a baby that weighed more than 9 pounds or had a birth defect (Not applicable as this is first baby for me)
- High blood pressure (I have low blood pressure)
-  Have too much amniotic fluid (Hmm, this is possible as my bump is so huge. Shall ask dr next time I see him). 
- Have had an unexplained miscarriage or stillbirth (Not applicable)
- Were overweight before your pregnancy (Nope, definitely not overweight before pregnancy).


The biggest concern of gestational diabetes is that the baby may get too big for delivery and may have complications at birth. The mothers that had gestational diabetes during their pregnancy, they will most likely to develpe type 2 diabetes in 5 to 10 years time and the children will likely to be obese and develop type 2 diabetes in the future. So therefore, I must try to prevent this from happening.

Been reading more websites on this subject and many women commented that they do not have any of these risk factors at all but still develop gestational diabetes! The only way to prevent it is to exercise regularly and eat healthily to make sure do not gain too much weight, from the early start of the pregnancy. With more information from the media, I am getting more paranoid and I think this will definitely give me the motivation to eat healthily from now onward!

Cravings..

I am feeling very HAPPY this weekend! Sunday has been the day that fulfilled my food cravings :) I haven't had much cravings in this pregnancy. The foods that I am loving more since I've got pregnant are noodles/ramen soup (YUM!), tempura (YUMMY!) and 'char siew' (barbecued pork) (SUPER YUMMY!!!). On Saturday night, at about midnight, I told SJ that I feel like eating pancakes and 'char siew pau' (chinese barbecued pork steamed buns) & he was really nice to offer to drive out and look for these for me. I think he can get char siew pau along Jalan Ipoh in one of those midnight 'dim sum' places but I don't think he can find pancakes in the middle of the night. Of course I didn't let him go out in the middle of the night.. I told him that the cravings feelings will go away and I didn't want to eat middle of night because I don't want to gain too much weight.

Sunday morning came and we went to one of our favourite brunch cafe, Antipodean Cafe along Jalan Telawi, Bangsar so I can have my pancakes!!! Super yummy banana pancakes with butterscotch sauce. Such a great to start my day! Below is a picture of my breakfast today! Banana pancakes & hot chocolate.. so yummy!!! :)))))))

Later in the evening, SJ asked me what I feel like having for dinner & I said bread. Haha. Sounds quite weird because his reaction was like.. erm bread? Yeah, I said.. toasted garlic bread.. and his face was like clueless.. bread for dinner?! I asked how about him? What he feels like? He said pizza.. so great, we can go eat gourmet pizza :) We drove to Bangsar Village (drove to Bangsar twice on the same day!) and had Ben's for dinner.. pizza (I've suddenly started loving pizza crusts!) & salad.. yummy! :)))

Here's a picture of supposedly tiger prawn (but the prawns were so tiny) pizza and SJ's chunky monkey milkshake at Ben's.

It has been a perfect Sunday! A brand new week tomorrow! :)))