Z is 21 months old!

Here are two latest pictures of Z taken last weekend. My baby is growing so fast!

5 months just went past so quickly; not easy to juggle a full time work, family and 'ME' time.

I was just looking back at Z's older pictures, selecting them to be posted in this journal. Am amazed how different Z is now compared to just few months ago and how much he has grown (physically, mentally and emotionally). 

November 2013:

We went to Langkawi for a short family holiday and the weather there was awesome! Z's favourite thing to do was going to the pool. He would point to the door the first thing he woke up; in the morning & from his naps. I think he likes the idea of staying near the pool because we visited the pool up to three times in a day.

                                       

We stayed at The Westin Langkawi as we wanted to pick a hotel that is baby friendly and could order Z's food separately. Z was 16 months old then and we were trying to delay in introducing salt and sugar to him until maybe about 2 years old. I was nursing Z by the pool with a fantastic weather and the feeling was so special :) 

We went up to the Langkawi Cable Car, a must go when you're in Langkawi. The queue management was horrible as we had to queue by standing in a line for almost 2 hours even though we were given numbers. The ride up was quite scary as it was really high up. The views were breath-taking even though the sky bridge was closed for maintenance. Heard that it was closed for quite a long time; almost two years. I would recommend every visitor to Langkawi to go up the cable car but try to avoid public holidays or weekends and try to go in the afternoon, at about 2pm. We were surprised to see there were no queue when we were leaving the cable car centre at about 2pm. 

December 2013:

Christmas 2013. Z's 2nd Christmas :)

We were at Jungle Gym, Bangsar Shopping Centre on the last day of 2013

January 2014:

Z's Calendars 2014!!!!! 

Z's first Chinese New Year shoes!

The moment Z saw these shoes, he was pointing & touching them while saying 'ar! ar!', that's his version of 'car'. His not-so-nice haircut was by his mommy :( I think I got better in cutting his hair after this haircut.

February 2014:

Z started imitating the adults by holding a phone to his year by saying 'arloo' and 'bye'. He would also use both hands to pretend to press on the phone as if he was texting. 

Chinese New Year 2014

Z the drummer boy!

Z simply loved the lion dance performances. He liked the drummer boys and would stared at them the whole performance but not at the lions. He would prefer to approach & try to hit the drums than reaching to touch the lions. Z never cease to amaze us on the things and details that he would get fixated on. He is so sharp that he would notice almost everything and would quickly point out on things that he likes.

March 2014:

We celebrated Z's Suk Suk (Uncle in Chinese) birthday!

April 2014: 

It was Grandpa Yong & Gandpa Chong's birthday month!

April was a very special month because two of Z's favourite persons had their birthday celebrations! Z was the centre of attention because he got to sit on the birthday boys' lap to sing the birthday song and blow the candles. He could hum many songs and sometimes would sing to himself. He has his daddy's trait because SJ would do that sometimes in the car when the radio was not turned on. It was quite fun to watch ;) 

Compared to 5 months ago, my baby:

Has more hair now.

He could run very fast now.

He could reach the door knob and turns it.

He could reach many things on the table.

He understands very well what we were saying.

He could follow instructions.

He could imitate the words that we speak and the words that he uttered would surprised us.

He can negotiates.

He knows what is a quiet corner. I introduced the quiet corner to him sometime in April after I realised that hitting his hands and legs did not make good sense. I would usually threaten to hit his hands if he did something that we didn't approve. There was once he was jokingly hitting his great-grandmother (Tai Poh) and I told him that he shouldn't hit Tai Poh because it hurts and wasn't nice. The moment I said: 'If you hit Tai Poh again, I am going to hit you', this entire sentence felt so wrong. How could I possibly educate my child not to hit anyone if I continuously hit him? It was there and then that I have decided to stop hitting him because he understands what I am saying now. 

He could hums the entire song of a few nursery rhymes. His favourites are Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and London Bridge is Falling Down.

He could recite A, B, C, maybe for the first 5 to 6 alphabets and hum the rest of the ABC song. 

He could count 1, 2, 3 and to 10 but missed a few numbers in between.

My baby is growing so fast and looking more like the man that I fell in love with, his daddy. I love my little family :)

Now I need to make it a point to update this journal at least once a month! 

New haircut for a new stage in life!

Just had a new hair cut last Friday and I'm feeling so happy with my new hair now ;)))

I had long hair for about 12 years after I left secondary school. I have kept it straight all those years and gave it a perm for the first time in 2006 because I kept getting comments from clients that I was looking too young. A perm instantly added 5 more years to my looks, which was quite helpful at that time.My hair was most beautiful; straight smooth, long and silky during my wedding in 2009 because I put in so much effort by going to regular hair treatments in the saloon. 2010 was the bad hair year. Soon after my wedding I did more things to my hair and it took a toll and went completely damaged, especially after SJ & I went to Phuket in August 2010. It got worse after my hairstylist suggested I permed it again (after my Phuket trip!) to give it more volume which was a super bad idea! I'd never get his advice to perm or colour again.

Finally cut my hair after trying and trying for 6 months to revive my beautiful locks. I was spending so much money going to the saloon to get treatments but my hair just couldn't absorb any moisture. It was like dry grass :(( So, I had this hair cut; removing all the curls and colours in June 2011. I was super happy!

Picture taken on 17th June 2011

It was the best decision that I've got for my hair for the past 2 years. I felt so light, I spent so much lesser time to care for my hair; shampoo, conditioning and blow-drying. It was wonderful. The last time I had short hair was in school.. I was looking so much younger. 

Then, this short hair thing got quite addictive and I went back to have a shorter but more matured cut the very next month!

Picture taken on 26th July 2011

I was very tempted to have a super short hair cut but was afraid that I might not look good in it. I have a round shaped face and I was afraid that I would look chubby. I have told SJ that I will cut my hair super short when there is a life changing event happening; the next stage in our relationship, that is when we're going to have a baby! We were sort of like planning to have a baby in that year.

A few months later, we found out the good news but did not share it with our friends yet. I was so excited that I have decided to cut my hair super short! This hair cut was after much discussion with my hairstylist; that is to continue to keep it long or have it really short for confinement period.

Picture taken on 1st December 2011

My hairstylist thinks that it's better to have really short hair during the confinement period because in the Chinese belief, the new mother is usually not allowed to wash her hair to prevent rheumatism. The hairstylist's theory was shorter hair will produce less oil, which would not clog the hair pores so much and this will prevent lesser hair fall and balding. I agreed with him and I was so thankful to have my hair short during my first trimester. It was so much easier to manage with the nausea and giddiness in the first trimester. I could wash my hair in less than 3 minutes and I didn't even have to conditioned and blow dry it. It was fantastic. 

Maintaining and making sure my hair was in place was the last thing on my priority list in my first trimester. I was more concerned making sure I was feeling ok and trying not to vomit. Having short hair is also so much easier to travel. I used to travel with many many bottles consist of conditioners, serum, hair mask, hair tonic and the hair dryer because I had such thick long hair that I needed a strong powerful hair dryer or I would take literally forever to dry my hair. With my new short hair now, I just needed a small bottle of shampoo and a comb!

But recently, I have been growing so much, putting so much weight on my face, I think this super short hair is not suitable as it doesn't hide my chubby cheeks. My mom suggested that I should have longer hair so that I would look more balance and more feminine. That's what I told my hairstylist and he suggested a bob; short behind with long fringe. That what I had last Friday! ;)

Picture taken on 18th March 2012. 

Here's a picture taken with a friend's 3 months baby, little Ethan. He is such a handsome boy!

My plan is to try to keep my hair as long as possible for the next 3-4 months, trying to achieve the 2nd picture length in this post and I shall make a decision in July on whether to have it long or have it super duper short before baby comes along. I guess from this post, my friends who are reading probably are surprised that I have put so much thoughts on my hair because this is quite a long post on HAIR! Haha! It's Tuesday! HAPPY TUESDAY!