Playing with her own shadow

For the past few days, Ashley has been rather cranky during her sleep. Each time when she turns, she would make a crying sound, with her eyes closed. This happens for about 5 seconds and she would go right back to sleep. Two nights ago, she was sobbing. I heard some noise and turn to look at her. I saw tears on her eyes which were closed and then she started crying. I quickly carried her and soothed her. Five minutes later, she went back to sleep. Must be having a bad dream.

When I told my mum about these episodes, she said Ashley must be playing with her shadow. Huh?? Actually, she does play with her shadow. Recently she saw her own shadow on the wall and got very excited. Every night when I take her to the bedroom and switch off the lights, she would play for a while with the night light on. Since she found out about her shadow, she would jump around and wave her hands while looking at the wall. She laughs her head off at her own antics.

So, is it true that children have nightmare after playing with their shadows? I really don’t know. My mother believes in a lot of old wives’ tales that she sometimes turn me into a paranoid mother. I hope Ashley will sleep better tonight (fingers crossed).

Light A Candle

Please go to this website A million candles and light a candle of support. This is a petition against child pornography. There are about 700,000 candles lit so far. Their aim is to light at least One Million Candles by 31st December 2006.

Please lend your support.

Mid Autumn Festival

I know I’m a bit late to post a blog on this but better late than never. We (hubby, ashley and I) spent our Mid-Autumn Festival at my sister’s condo at Menara Duta II. She organised a potluck gathering with some of the residents at her cafe, Le Duta. There were about 10 children and only 3 are around Ashley’s age. The older children did not play with the younger ones, though. Ashley had a wonderful time running everywhere. It was so tiring running after her too :)


Here is a photo of Ashley with her first traditional *tanglung*. I prefer this to the battery-operated ones.

The food was delicious. There were curry chicken, fried beehoon, chee cheong fan, fried wanton, fishball, some other tofu-related fried things, chocolate and butter cakes, agar-agar, red bean dessert and mooncakes, of course.

Forever Friends

I have been thinking about my friends lately. Don’t get me wrong. I think of them all the time but just a bit more lately. I miss seeing them. I miss the time we used to spend together while growing up in Ipoh. The boy-crazy days. The fashion-conscious days when we pored over the dog-eared Seventeen magazines at one of the girls’ house. Never mind that the magazines were old issues. We would snuggle in her air-conditioned bedroom and chat about just anything under the sun. We laughed and cried together. We learned how to put on the makeup, how to do our hair, etc. So much fun.

I also remember cycling all over Ipoh Garden with some girlfriends. Once we were at another girlfriend’s house and peeped at the boys who passed by. The boys threw stink bomb onto the porch and we retaliated by spraying water on them. After that we quickly ran back to the house and collapsed on the floor, laughing so hard at the silly antics.

At one point of my life, I was really sad because my boyfriend (now hubby) had to migrate to Toronto with his family. I was crying every day and had to resort to taking sleeping pills so that I could sleep at night. All my good friends came to comfort and advice me. They let me cried on their shoulders and listened to my sob stories over and over again. Those who could not visit me would call up to comfort me.

The good old days. We still keep in touch with each other eventhough some of us are in different cities and countries. Our friendships go way back to primary school. Eventhough we do not call each every day, every week or even every month, there is no barrier between us. We would still chat like the old days.

There is a friend who would call me once a week or once every two weeks to see how I am doing as she knows that I may be stressed from taking care of my munchkin 24/7. I do feel bad as I don’t call her as much as she calls me. She is the person I would go to for advice when I run out of ideas on what to do when munchkin is sick, what to feed her, etc. Since both of us are shopaholics, she would also inform me of any good bargains and vice versa.

A friend who lives in another city would also call me once in a while to see how I am doing. Always so thoughtful and full of concern.

I am glad to have friends like them. Friends that you can count on, come rain or shine. My life is so much richer because of them.

Fun Day with Cousin

Ashley’s cousin, Kulnita is staying with us for a few days with Mah Mah. Needless to say, Ashley is so happy to have someone to play with. However, her 6 years old cousin is not too thrilled as Ashley kept pinching her and pull her hair. She thinks it’s fun eventhough we kept telling her not to do it. Hope this is just a phase.

Ashley loves to…….

  • look at children and scream with delight when she sees them (she does this at the mall and everyone would turn to look at us)
  • point her finger at things that she finds interesting or to where she wants us to take her
  • suck her thumb when she wants to sleep and at the same time uses her left hand to play with my hair
  • watch Barney and Friends on Playhouse Disney and also the vcds that Mika’s Mummy lent us (sorry BG, I haven’t copied them and return the vcds to you. will do it asap)
  • read the “Baby’s First….” books and point out the things that we ask her
  • push her car around because she doesn’t know how to climb onto the car and sit on it
  • look at motorbikes and make a “grrrr” sound whenever she sees one
  • ask for food whenever she sees us eating
  • bite on the remote controls so we try not to let her see them
  • see her own reflection on the glass door

Happy 1st Birthday, Chumsy!

Today is Ashley 1st Birthday. Can’t imagine that exactly one year ago, I gave birth to my little princess. Still remember every minute of it (including the excruciating pain thereafter). Would I go through this again? At the moment, I’m not sure.

I was really depressed the first two months after delivery as I realised that I didn’t know how to take care of a baby. I began to worry a lot like how to bathe her, feed her, what to do when she cries, etc. I was a nervous wreck eventhough my mum and mum-in-law were around during the confinement period. I remember telling a friend that I wish babies came with a manual. At least we, first-time mommies know what to do whenever they cry, puked, etc…

I still remember the first time we took her out to the mall. We went to Mid Valley when she was about 2.5 months old. Yes, I waited until then to take her out. She didn’t like it when we put her in the stroller so we carried her when she cried a little. Then we put her down again for a while as it was tiring. We continued to do this a few times and in the end, my poor baby threw up all the milk she drank about 2 hours ago. It happened at the Jusco supermarket when I was queing up to pay for the groceries. Hubby was holding her and he had milk all over his hands :) At that time, I really panicked and my mum was nowhere in sight. I didn’t even know what to do so I called my mum on her handphone and asked her to come over right away (mum was at the bakery section). When mum came, we went straight to the changing room and cleaned Ashley. When I think back, I really cannot imagine how silly I was. I just stood there and waited for my mum to take Ashley to the changing room.

Of course, now, 1 year later, I am more experienced but I still have a lot to learn. It’s not easy being a parent. However, I enjoy taking care of Ashley. Seeing her grow every day is such a joy.