My class buddy

I have a buddy in my music class whom I got to know several months back and came to like as well. Her name is Christie. We grew fond of each other and we both look forward to seeing each other in class each week.

As shy as she may seems, she only comes and play with me, not to the other children in class. Christie will be going back to Singapore real soon and last week would be the last time for her to attend my class. I am going to miss her for sure as I always ask Mummy where's Christie when I'm in class. She is also the only Singaporean friend I know so far so looks like I got a friend to meet up when I do go there next time.

Take care Christie...please ask your Mummy to keep in touch with us or better still, start a blog as well so that we know what's happening at your end! ;)

Our Christmas Tree

This is our Christmas Tree. It has been around even way before I was born. The pooh bear decors were bought since then and were saved for me for the time when I'm old enough to put it up on the Christmas tree myself.

Looks kind of grand eh?! and that present by its side (thank you Aunty Reena!) looks so big eh?!But how exactly big is the tree? well.....

Mummy actually planned to buy a bigger one this year since I'm old enough to help her decorate but since she spent so much already on our US trip among other things, she thought we will just postponed this idea to next year. But after realizing how small it is now, papa suggested that we go buy a bigger one. We shall see....

Feeling better now

Just an update on my fever. Sunday night was the last of the fever. It is the first time for me to have a fever that lasted 6 days but according to one of Mummy's cousins, her kids also have this now and then.

Anyhow, I'm still coughing although not that bad and have a little runny nose now and then. At least, I don't have to see any doctors for now although I do ask for "Dr Poo" (Dr. Foo) when Mummy mentioned doctors to me. I think she's reserving my usual Dr. Lee to be the bad guy for jabs and Dr. Foo for the "emergencies".

I'm extra clingy these days, actually I have been throughout our US trip and even more so when we came back home after that. Mummy claims I'm more naughty now and Papa will defend me by saying that I'm not well which explains it but Mummy is not convinced. Will post on this another time.

Mummy's entry - Monterey Bay

We left LA around 11am to head to Monterey Bay. The journey took us about 8 hours, including stops in between. We took the scenic route, Highway 1, which was very beautiful indeed and certain parts of the oceanic view reminded me of the Great Ocean Road in Australia.

Our first stop (other than pee and food stops) was at this place where we could see some elephant seals. It was interesting to see how lazy these seals were, well...lying there under the sun.

Halfway through the journey, the road was very winding and it didn't occur to us that the girl may get car sick. We put the car seat in between so that her papa and I can both attend to her throughout the journey. I guess that made it worst for her as towards the end of our journey as we're about half an hour away from Monterey Bay, the poor girl threw up. This was the first time ever that she had motion sickness. She didn't get this at all when we went up Genting Highlands or Cameron Highlands. I guess BIL (brother-in-law) was also driving kind of fast as we were trying to reach our destination before it gets dark which didn't help the poor girl.

After we arrived at the hotel, we settled down for a bit before heading out for dinner. We drove around trying to see what to eat and after a while, we decided to eat at Denny's which was very near to our hotel. I've been hearing about this restaurant (a common chain in US) for a long time now and so, it was good for me to try it out. Unfortunately for us, the service wasn't that good though and the waiter messed up our orders.

a post with BIL, her "unca j-chern" (uncle jason)

posing with her rocket cup that we got for her from the restaurant

Since it was getting late and the girl was eating so slowly (her usual bad habit), we told SIL and BIL to drive back as we can walk back to the hotel. And what a bad idea that was. Throughout our whole US trip, this night was the coldest ever and I was shivering all the way back. Hubby was carrying the girl while I ran like mad to the hotel. I think it was partly due to this (and the lack of sleep) that lead to my sore throat the next day.

The next day, we headed to Monterey Bay's Aquarium. According to SIL, this aquarium is one of the best in US and she was right, we enjoyed it alot! We saw so many marine lives that we won't see in a life time diving (well, for me anyway as I'm not into deep sea diving and i've not been diving since I was pregnant with the girl!)

feeding time


The different types of jelly fishes.....

doesn't this reminds you of "finding nemo"?

And the best part of the aquarium was the deep sea aquarium inside whereby you get to see a Great White Shark as well as the mola-mola (ocean sunfish) among other fishes. Hubby and I nearly had the chance to see the sunfish when we were in Bali for diving 4 years back but when we heard the current was pretty strong out there in the deep sea, we both decided to skip it and only saw the photos taken by hubby's brother. So when we both saw the sunfishes (they had two) at this aquarium, we were stunned and spent a fair bit at that section! It was hard to take pictures of them as we were not allowed to have flashes so the following are the best we got. Don't you think they look so pre-historic? Ugly for sure and yet so beautiful at the same time...hehe!

The girl was pretty well behaved throughout the time we were at the aquarium. Of course, she was running here and there and we had to take turns to keep our eyes on her especially when we were looking at the sunfishes. That aquarium was so huge, like a showcase! She was very keen with the marine lives too, repeating the names of them after we have told her. But she wasn't so keen in touching what we could at the "touching zone" areas. She would only play with the water while the rest of us would touch the kelp, star fishes, etc. This was the same at the other aquarium at Las Vegas as well as the little aquarium they had at the pier at Manhattan Beach in LA. She don't really like animals, afraid of touching them (this is why I delay in taking her to the zoo) and if any one comes near her like cats or dogs, she will start crying in fear. Definitely not my genes! ;)

After the aquarium, we had lunch and then headed off to 17 mile drive and also to Pebble Beach. When I heard of this, I didn't know what it was and why was it a tourist attraction. We had to pay to enter this 17 mile drive if you're visiting (they have loads of very nice houses in that area), I was just curious as to how would they know whether you're a visitor or not. Anyway, it was a beautiful drive and I didn't exactly read the leaflet they passed out at the entrance of the drive so I'm not in a good position to explain the history of this place. But I know for sure that Tiger Wood got famous when he won the championship here in 2000! And after we left that drive, I'm also dead curious as to who own those beautiful houses in that area. ;)

both of them konked out in the car on the way to 17 drive mile, had to force hubby to wake up when we were at the starting point of the drive

I think this was at the highest peak of the drive

This is their signature tree...I forgot why is it so important but I think it has got something to do with it being isolated on that piece of rock!

We stopped by Pebble Beach and while we, SIL, BIL and I wandered off on our own on the beach, the girl woke up and Hubby brought her down to join us...

her papa taking her for a walk among the dead kelp (would you believe that these kelp has a lot of uses in our products we used daily like yoghurt, toothpaste, etc)

a family pic

We stopped by later at one of the famous and most expensive golf course in the world, sorry, I forgot the actual name but I know it has got to do with Pebble Beach! ;)

Waiting for me as I was wandering around the place by myself!

Later that night, we went to the pier but couldn't find any restaurants that was of interest to us so we hung around for a bit before deciding to eat at Carrows (another common chain in US, similar to Denny's).

taking a spin on the car at the pier

Rye Li giving us that "see-how-strong-my-uncle-jason-is" look

this was where the girl slept at our room, kidding! we had a baby cot for her but she found it amusing that she can fit in the drawer.

The next morning, after breakfast, we headed off to San Francisco. On the way there, we stopped by a fruit farm to buy some fruits....

we never knew that brussel sprouts grew like this! hehe...interesting.

the girl enjoying the strawberries we got, they were really huge and mostly very sweet!

look at how big the strawberry farm is and it was like this for a long stretch of our drive!

Next to the fruit shop, there was a pumpkin patch and we decided to get some pictures as we don't get this at all back home.

This was also when the girl started her runny nose and cough, no thanks to me. Will post on San Francisco next....stay tuned!

Haven't recovered!

I’m still not well since our US trip more than 2 weeks back. It was like a roller-coaster ride, when we thought that my cough was just about to get better, I somehow caught some germs and it became worst again. The medicine was not helping either (mummy actually stopped giving it to me, thinking I can recover on my own). So when I started coughing in the night and vomited again on Monday night, Mummy decided to take me to the doctor the next day.

Again, my doctor was not in (he’s on leave), so we saw Dr. Foo (the one we saw when we landed to KL). After checking me, (I let him checked me hesitantly this time without making such a big fuss like I always do when I see doctors), he claimed again that it is the common flu and the reason why I wasn’t recovering fast was that I’d probably got some other germs that started the whole cycle again. Mummy told him that at least I’ve not gotten any fever since falling sick 3 weeks back.

She spoke too soon! That night itself, when I came back from the nursery, my fever started, it was at around 38 degrees. So I was given the fever medicine before my bed time and another one in the middle of the night when my fever came back. I didn’t have any fever while at the nursery the next day but it came back again that evening when I came home. And this time it went up to 39 degrees.

Since papa was so worried that I may have dengue, I was brought back to the doctor the next day. This time, even though my usual doctor was in, we still went and see Dr. Foo as I requested for him. Mummy asked me if I want to see Dr Lee (my regular doctor) or Dr Foo and I replied “Doctor Poo”. I really like him and I will tell you why later.

Dr. Foo checked me again and (I only made a little fuss) he confirmed that I do not have any infection from what he could observe physically. He said that it is common to have fever with the flu and that it should go away after a few days. To keep Mummy’s and Papa’s worries to rest, he said that if my fever doesn’t go away by Saturday morning, they should bring me in to do a blood test.

That night itself, my fever came back and the same on Friday night. And off we went to the hospital again on Saturday morning. Mummy asked me whether I want to see Dr. Lee or Dr. Foo and I replied “Doctor Poo”. I think she wanted to go back to my original doctor but she gave me the benefit of the doubt. And when I saw Dr. Foo, I didn’t make any fuss at all when he checked me this time. Again, he said all was alright, no infection from the physical check but said to test my blood instead.

So we went to the lab and were greeted by this friendly uncle but I wasn’t that fooled easily. He tried to take my attention away with a toy while another uncle was playing with my right hand, concentrating on my third finger. But I wasn’t fooled easily and kept looking at what the other uncle was trying to do with my finger. Next thing I knew, Mummy covered my eyes and I felt such pain on my finger that I screamed in pain and cried. I tried pulling my hand away but I couldn’t and kept crying. The pain went on for several minutes as the uncle kept pressing on my finger so hard. The friendlier uncle tried to calm me down by saying “Uncle give you a lollipop okay?” and I nodded my head yes while crying so hard! Finally, the task was over but they left a plaster on my finger which I wanted it out but Mummy said later. The friendlier uncle gave me a lollipop which I willingly took.

We had to wait for nearly an hour for the results and when the results came, we had to see Dr. Foo again. He confirmed that I have a viral infection and not any bacteria infection. So he said that there is no medication (antibiotics) that can help my viral thingy and that my body need to heal by itself. I just need medication to ease my cough, phlegm and fever. He also said that the blood test doesn’t show any dengue nor urinary tract infection. And to put Mummy’s and Papa’s worries to rest again after they had so many questions to ask, he said that if my fever don’t go away in 4-5 days time, to bring me back again to do another blood test.

As to why I like this doctor…he actually took the time to bond with me. On my very first visit there, he tried to but I didn’t allow him and cried throughout the check. On my second visit there, I also cried once I entered his room (this is what I always do immediately when I enter the doctor’s room). Since mummy couldn’t talk to the doctor in between my shouts of “I wan go owchide” (I want to go outside), she took advantage of Dr. Foo’s toy corner which had a little table full of toys with little chairs around it. It worked as I stopped crying and played by myself there while she talked to Dr. Foo. And while I played, Dr. Foo joined me to play with me. Then he distracted me with his toys on his desk which worked as I got up to go there. I told him “I wan dat one!” (I want that one) pointing to another toy on his desk. Then he asked me to sit on Mummy’s lap which I didn’t want to but Mummy took me anyway. I didn’t cry though coz I got to be closer to his toys on his desk. And while I played there, he took me by head and put his forehead against mine as if he wants to play with me. Then he asked my permission whether he can check me which I said no while I shook my head. Then he brought out his stethoscope and said he will check on Mummy instead and showed me. Then he said he will now check me and I let him since it’s over my shirt. When he put the stethoscope under my shirt, I made some my fuss but he managed to distract my attention to his toys. Then when he wanted to check my ears, I also made some fuss but both Mummy and him managed to distract me by saying there’s Mickey mouse in my ears. Next, when he wanted to check my mouth, after coaxing me several times, I opened my mouth to let him see. In between checking me, I kept saying “I wan go deh, I wan chor-chor (Cantonese: sit) deh” (I want to go there, I want to chor-chor there), indicating that I want to go to his toy corner and sit there. But Mummy said later and when Dr. Foo was done with me, Mummy let him down to play.

On my third visit there, I was happy going in to see him although I made a fuss once I saw the hospital. I recognize the hospital already and I associate it with the doctors. Mummy reminded me that I can go play with Dr. Foo toys and I was alright after that. This time we saw Shireen, Dr. Lee’s nurse and Mummy told her that I asked for Dr. Foo since I get to play with his toys. Think mummy felt guilty so she took the time to explain to her why we ended up at Dr. Foo’s instead. But Mummy like Shireen as she is really a nice lady, she always remember who we are and she is really friendly too. We can’t say the same for Dr. Foo’s nurses though. Anyway, after I was done with Dr. Foo, I refused to leave his room. I wanted to stay at his toy corner but Mummy forced me to leave the room.

On my forth visit to Dr. Foo, I didn’t even make any fuss at all. I let him checked me willingly which surprised both Mummy and Papa. I even told Dr. Foo that I wanted to play at his toy corner which I didn’t get to. As the next thing I knew I had to go to do the blood test which was no fun at all although I got a lollipop out of it.

It’s Sunday night now and I’m still having fever, my sixth night of fever. Funny though that it only comes at night. If the fever doesn’t go away by next Tuesday night, I will be brought in again to see the doctor for sure. I hope that it goes away!

Another thing why I don’t mind seeing Dr. Foo, Mummy promised me sweets when I’m done seeing him. So when I hear Dr. Foo, I asked for sweets! :)

Our updates on the rest of our US trip is still not up yet…please be patient yea. Mummy has been busy with work and when she’s not at work, she’s busy with me.

Mummy's entry - Disneyland

We arrived Disneyland about noon. It would have been earlier if we didn't have to wait through the traffic at the parking lot. Think we were stuck about half an hour or so at the entrance and SIL (sister-in-law) said that the amount of cars then were considered mild already! We were there on a Saturday. We were supposed be there the day before but SIL had to work and luckily too that we didn't as the weather was pretty hot as was mentioned by another mommy blogger, Anna (we were supposed to meet up but didn't get to in the end). The weather while we were there was perfect although you can get burnt standing under the sun.

We parked at Goofy parking lot, hehe...they named their parking area according to the main Disney characters. It's a pity though that they didn't dress the parking attendants accordingly. I guess if they did, alot of people would be hanging out at the car park just to take pictures with them.

Luckily we parked near the walkway towards the area where we had to take the tram (not sure what they're really called) so we didn't exactly walked that far.

A point to note, when we were at the parking lot, I couldn't tell exactly where Disneyland was or how big it was. Once, we were brought in to the entrance of Disneyland, I thought that was it but I was wrong. There were two theme parks, one Disneyland and the other was California Adventure Ride. Since time is of essence, we only bought tickets for Disneyland. If I stay in LA, I would definitely bought the annual pass....this is really worth it! But we only got the day pass and luckily, the girl enters for free.

Once we entered, there were already heaps of people everywhere. Being first timers, we didn't know where to go or what to do first. So, we listened to SIL and took the train ride first to get an overview of Disneyland. This also we had to queue! Every ride at Disneyland, you definitely have to queue. Most of the rides have what they call a fast pass whereby you get the tickets for an allocated time so you don't have to queue that long. We only did this for the Buzz Lightyear ride.

Before we went on the train ride, we noticed Mickey and Minnie Mouse were out to take pictures with their fans. I was told before this by hubby that it is not easy to take pictures with these Disney characters, we have to go searching for them. So once we saw Mickey and Minnie Mouse together and also Donald duck on the other side, we chose the former and wanted to line up as well but was told that they will be going off soon and to catch them later. So we went to Donald Duck instead. While lining up, I heard the ushers saying that Donald Duck has only got several minutes left before his show so they stopped new comers from lining up. We were already part of the line so we were safe, or so I thought. Next thing I knew, the usher told us that Donald Duck had to go soon and said don't worry, he will come by to say goodbye real quick. So hubby was preparing to take our pictures while I was carrying the girl waiting for Donald Duck to come to us.

I'm not here to stereotype us Asians (especially when I'm one!) but really, what happened next is really something questionable about the well-known kiasu-ism (hokkien: selfish) Asians are known for. This guy with his girl came out of no where and he wasn't even in the line and cut ours and greeted Donald Duck! Hubby wanted to knock his senses out but hey, we're in happy land so we just gave him the stare but it didn't work. And what's worst, after he had his share of Donald Duck, he didn't leave and was part of our photo too....I'll show you who this a**-h*** is below (the one at the other side of Donald Duck)....not that I want to but he became part of our photo! sigh! And just our luck that we kept bumping into them throughout Disneyland.

After this, we went for the train ride....

a view once you enter after the main entrance of Disneyland, you will only see the pumpkin Mickey now since it's Halloween time!

an overview, we took this while we waited for the train

After the train ride, we stopped at where we started as we left the stroller there. One thing I noticed too, there are strollers parking area throughout Disneyland, something you don't see here in Malaysia. And even if there is in Malaysia, I don't think you would want to. ;) ... Some people even leave their stuff behind on the strollers! I was joking with hubby that even if we were to take a stroller home, no one would noticed! ;)

There is a new ride at Disneyland called the Finding Nemo ride. Too bad that there wasn't any fast pass to this and the queue was so long! We wanted to go for this first since it's new but the long queue put us off and we decided to skip this till later. So we went for the Dumbo one instead. Yes, it's more for the girl....we queued up like 45 mins just for the less than 2 minutes ride! Oh well, at least she enjoyed it....she didn't understand initially why we had to line up and kept fussing and whining that she wants to sit on the dumbo ride. When I explained to her that the people before us have to go first, she didn't like the idea and gave me her sulky face.

entertaining herself while we queued under the hot sun for the Dumbo ride

taking a picture on the stand-alone dumbo, the pics while we were on the ride were in SIL's camera so we don't have any yet

After the Dumbo ride, we went on the carousel. This girl loves the carousel and luckily, the queue wasn't that long. We only waited less than 10 mins.

We had lunch after this and went for our Buzz Lightyear ride with the fast pass that we got. It's so cool that we didn't have to queue!

The girl didn't want to use the gun to shoot so I just let her be and I shot as much as I could! :D

On our way to catch the parade, luckily this girl allowed us to wear the "dog strap" on her but she wasn't use to the "tail" so she would want to hold on to it too!

We managed to catch the parade show after this and boy was it hot standing under the sun. They had two parades that day, one during the day and one during the night and we managed to catch both. The night one was better coz you get to see more lights and also, it was way cooler!

After this, we decided to go for the Nemo ride and it was good timing too coz the girl was very tired by now and she fell asleep while we queued! We queued for 1 hour and 15 minutes!

the submarines of the Nemo ride

Rye Li got up after an hour of zzz, just in time for our ride.

this is what you'll see in the Nemo ride...well one the things anyway!

The Nemo ride is for about 15 minutes and yes, it was worth the wait for us first timers. If you ask me to line up again in the future, no thank you! :D

By the time we got out of the Nemo ride, it was getting dark and we decided to see a few more things before we go home. We went to Pinacchio's house and sat for that ride. After that, we happened to pass by the Small World ride and since it looks good, and the queue wasn't long, we went for that too. This is really a kids' ride as they had displays of little figurines representing most countries of the world while the song "It's a small world" keeps repeating and repeating. While you line up outside, you can already hear the song, so you can imagine by the time halfway through the ride, the song just gets to you or on your nerves! ;)

The girl with her Ah Mai (sil) in the cup of Alice in Wonderland

We happened to come across a stall selling Turkey leg which hubby was dying to have before we headed to Disneyland. And he got one....it was so huge, all 4 of us couldn't even finish it!

We rushed through Toon Town and saw all the main characters' houses. We didn't bother going in nor took any pictures (shows how tired we were already!). On our way out of Disneyland, we stopped by the stores to get some souvenirs. I wanted to get a personalized Mickey Mouse caps for the girl and my niece and nephew too. And luckily I did as while they were waiting for me outside, Mickey Mouse came out to take pictures again. When I came out from the store, I couldn't find them and found them to be lining up at the side, second in tow. I quickly rushed to them, gave Rye Li her cap and she willingly put it on and we took a family picture with Mickey Mouse! This ended the day very nicely indeed.

And when we exited Disneyland to the carpark, the fireworks went off and we got to view them at the carpark. I wish we had more time to cover the rest of Disneyland but this is sufficient for the time-being. Somehow, I got this feeling that the next time Rye Li will be there, it won't be with us, probably with her boyfriend! Hehe!