Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Month 23: Khayla

Si kecik ni, walaupun dah nak masuk umur 23 bulan masih amat manja.

Tidur, mau dalam dakapan emak. Kalau tak dapat, mulalah tayangan drama. Cebik2 bibir, lalu berguguran air mata dari mata buntangnya.

Lalu sang emak tak sampai hati. Diangkat dan diletakkan di perut yang sudah sarat. Si adik menggeliat dan menendang tanda protes. Apa dia peduli? Asal dapat tidur dalam dakapan emak. Walaupun posisi tak seselesa tidur di atas tilam sendiri.

Hakikat nya sang emak tak sampai hati sebab lepas ni si adik bakal keluar dan perlu perhatian. Lalu si kecik ni akan dipaksa membesar lebih awal dari usianya. Dia kan masih bayi, bayi berusia 24 bulan. Nanti dipaksa berkongsi perhatian dan kasih sayang dengan si adik. Tiada lagi 100% perhatian untuk dia seorang.

Lantaran itu sang emak sedaya-upaya memenuhi permintaan si kecik. Biar perut sudah membesar - jika dia mau didukung, mau tidur di lengan atau di perut, mau cebik2 bibir lalu mengamuk, mau sekotak kismis - sang emak tetap akan melayan kehendaknya.

Kerana dia masih lagi satu2nya buah hati pengarang jantung walaupun untuk sebulan lebih ni sahaja.

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Sunday, November 04, 2012

Mothercare sale and another gadget welcomed in the family

Help - the baby is coming and we haven't bought anything for the her!

I feel pretty sorry for the little one - if I don't do anything about it, she'll most probably end up with the Middle Child Syndrome (eh, already I'm planning to have more babies after her!). Even my parents bought new clothes for me instead of giving me hand-me-downs when I was a baby.

Then one fine day, I got a text message from Mothercare - they are having a sale and VIP members get additional 10% discount from 2-4 November only:

I must grab some bodysuits for my baby because I had given away Khayla's to my friends before I found out I was pregnant. They are not just cute, but also made of quality material so the clothes don't stretch even when machine-washed. I also want to get a new raincoat for Khayla coz it's rainy season now.

On Friday, I joined throngs of working ladies buying stuff for their children at Mothercare. The queue was so long that I gave up because I had a meeting at 2.30pm. So after my appointment at the hospital yesterday, I asked Suami Terchenta to make a stop at KLCC to continue where I left off the day before.

I grabbed the clothes and stuffed them in the net bag, and after that we calculated the overall cost and started eliminating the unnecessary ones. In the end, we only bought bodysuits for the baby, new pajamas for Khayla who is fast outgrowing her clothes, nipple shield and milk collector from Avent, and maternity pad to use after delivery. I didn't get the raincoat because it's still too expensive even after the discount. Maybe after this rainy season, the price will be slashed further (crossing my fingers).

After getting something for the kids and me, we decided to go to Best Denki. Why? Jeng, jeng, jeng!

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the latest addition to our gadgets:

Samsung Galaxy SIII

Ok peeps, this one is Suami Terchenta's latest love - Samsung Galaxy SIII. He lost his Android phone a few months back and had to use his durable Nokia phone. Only problem is, he's into developing apps for Android and thinks he must have an Android phone for that purpose.

This time I agree with him. It doesn't feel fair that I own a smartphone and he doesn't. He's been postponing to buy this phone because he has to settle his study fees this semester and other family commitments but out of the blue last week he mentioned it again - 'I wish I can buy that phone'.

I suggested that he used my credit card to buy it using instalment plan. He was not so keen at first because normally when you buy electronics using instalment plans, banks normally charge a nominal interest on top of the retail price.

I took the time during Friday long lunch break to visit some stores selling handphones and gadgets to check out the price and the payment method - even Samsung outlet did not offer 0% interest for instalment plans.

Then I went to the last shop in KLCC - Best Denki. From afar, I saw the banner '0% interest with selected credit cards'. Apa lagi, I fast-fast waddled to the shop and to my joy found that they have the model that my Suami Terchenta wants - hooray!

The sweet thing is, they offer 0% interest not just for 12-month instalment plan, but also for 6-month instalment plan. The price is standard - RM1999. So, for 6-month instalment plan, Suami Terchenta will have to pay RM300+ a month for the phone he much desired.

He wanted the blue model but they only have stock for the maroon and white versions - so he settled for the white version. On top of that, he got 8GB SD memory card for free.

Right now, he's still smitten with the phone (who wouldn't, with a brand new gadget?). I wished he had gone for iPhone as well, but apa nak buat, hatinya lebih kepada Samsung...

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Saturday, November 03, 2012

8th month checkup - the dreaded glucose test!

I was dreading my checkup today. Seriously.

The last time I went for my checkup, my doctor told me that I have to go through the glucose tolerance test - in short OGTT. This is the test that all expectant mothers are terrified of. We have to fast overnight, have our blood drawn before the test, gulp down a glass of overly-sweetened glucose drink, wait for an hour and then have blood drawn again after the test. Lucky I'm not squirmish about the whole blood-drawing thing or I would have another thing to be terrified of this visit.

To tell you the truth, I am not really happy about having to do this test. I was close to rolling on the floor in despair when I was told that I had to do it - c'on! With my history of having PCOS, what other results can I expect??? Plus, my baby's size is right for her age (33 weeks, fyi), Khayla was born at 2.81kg (a.k.a. normal size) and I declared that none of my family members have diabetes. So what's the point of going through this torture? So, pfft. Welcome to the world of being pregnant in Malaysia where doctors insist that we go through the whole process regardless of my previously healthy state of pregnancy.

No chocie, but to prepare for it - The day before I went for the test I drank a lot of water. Waaaayyyyy a lot more than I used to drink. You see, I am not much a fan of H2O. This week when I keep a food journal of my food and drink intake, I discovered that on average I only drink 3 glasses of plain water per day and another 2-3 glasses of flavoured drinks (Horlicks, Milo, coffee, milk, etc.). In total, it's probably just 1L of drinks per day.WOAH! My doctor would certainly raised the roof if she knows that!

Anyway, back to my efforts to err, dilute my blood sugar level I guess, I drank bottles of mineral water one after another. Being in a meeting where the toilet is just across the meeting room helped a lot. By evening, I started to feel unwell. My head felt dizzy, my body felt achy all over and I felt terrible - like I was about to come down with cold / flu / fever.

It was strange because in the morning I was perfectly fine but after gulping down 2L+ plain water (the only time I took flavoured drink was the during lunch - I had Juiceworks banana+chocolate blended juice), I started to feel unwell. I googled my symptoms and guess what, I had accidentally detoxed my body!

According to this site, these are some of the detox symptoms (I highlighted the symptoms that I had T_T ):

headaches 

lethargy 

temporary muscle aches 

mucus or other discharge 

a coated, pasty tongue

flu-like symptoms 

irritability

difficulty sleeping 

weakness

cravings

nausea

constipation

diarrhoea

gas

Read more: http://www.naturaltherapypages.com.au/article/Detox_Symptoms#ixzz2B9s40ucE

Tu lah, pandai sangat kan. Dah menyusahkan diri-sendiri...

After a really bad sleep of tossing and turning (and suffering from extremely parched throat), I woke up feeling like I didn't want to go to the hospital to do the test. While downing another half litre of water after waking up, I changed my mind though. Might as well get it over and done with...

So as early as 8.30am, we were at the hospital. Suami Terchenta had to leave to go for his mid-term so I had to look after Khayla myself. Luckily she was in a good mood today - she woke up without a fuss and was really thrilled that she didn't have to take bath as we were already late. At the hospital, she enjoyed herself playing slides in the playroom and hide-n-seek in the playhouse. But when other kids came, she got all shy and stuck by me watching them play.

Playing slide at the playroom

Back to the test. I was so desperate to skip the test to the point that I decided to cheat - I sneaked a packet of M&Ms in my bag and was thinking to surreptitiously swapped the drink with a lot of M&Ms. Both are sweet and made of sugar, right? BUT.... this time around, a nurse lingered around to make sure that sneaky Moms like me finish those drinks without any hanky-panky tricks.

Sigh. What to do? I contemplated my unlucky situation sadly, took a deep breath and chugged down the drink while pinching my nose desperately trying to ignore the sickly sweet flavour.

Based on my experience, o expectant ladies out there, bring your own water bottle with a slice of lemon to give it a tinge of sour-ish flavour to counter the over-sweetness of the glucose drink. The hospital may provide plain water as well, but my lemon-infused water helped A LOT. Secondly, when you are about to finish the drink, drain the remaining into the plain water glass instead of chucking the drink from its own glass - that way it's less sweet because the non-dissolved glucose remains at the bottom of the first glass. And of course, chug it down the back of your throat where the sweet tastebuds are less - you do know the anatomy of your tongue right?

The test result will only be made known in two weeks' time, but my doctor told me that I had already almost flunked my baseline test (the blood test before the OGTT) - my reading was 5.8, whereby a 6 means that I am for sure having GDM (gestational diabetes mellitus). She warned me that my post-test will surely show that a higher reading, but I shrugged it off as 'one of those PCOS-thing'. Like I said, I knew it already.

Note: The baby is doing fine, growing at the right pace and still very active alhamdulillah. I can't wait - 7 more weeks or less to go!

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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Cleaning Tips #101

Hello peeps!

It's middle of the week and yet I'm blogging about cleaning already? Can it be true? LOL!

Usually I reserve cleaning activities during the weekend but somehow I was extra rajin plus I don't want to let a good lemon go to waste... Eh, how does a lemon gets into the picture ya?

Well, let me start from the beginning. The beginning is a description of my now renovated bathroom which includes having glass shower screen installed.

While I love the elegance of glass shower screen, the problem is after a while, hard water (chlorinated water) and splashes of soap suds left stuck on the glass after shower (admit it, who rinses and squeegees off the shower screen each time after bath?) eventually created this stubborn smudge called soap film.

Suddenly, my crystal-clear shower screen is no longer clear. Smudges of white films that are hard to get rid of no matter how much and how long I scrub and no matter how strong is the glass cleaner that I used.

I began to get worried that if left unattended, the stains will be permanent and I will no longer have that new and glossy glass screen anymore! :(

In times like this, where do I turn to but the biggest database on the Internet - Google. Of course I also checked out Martha Stewart's website (www.marthastewart.com) for tips to rid off this problem.

Then I stumbled upon eHow.com and this brilliant video:

Well people, of course I have to try it out! Not only because chemistry-wise it makes sense (soap = alkali. Vinegar & lemon = acid), but also because it is all natural and not hard to find.

So when I reached for lemons while on a shopping trip, and Suami Terchenta casually asked whether I had mistakenly taken it for oranges, I replied, 'No. I really want lemons!' Curious, he asked what for and he was left shocked to know that I intend to use it to clean the bathroom instead of for my cooking or to make lemonade! LOL.

Back to using lemon as a cleaning agent. I decided to try it on the shower screen in the master bathroom first in case it does not really work. Tak de aku end up sakit pinggang, tapi hasil tak seberapa...

What I used is:

1. A lemon (make sure it's ripe enough so it will have plenty of juice)
2. Not-so-rough scrubber
3. Soda bicarbonate or baking soda, mixed with vinegar to form toothpaste-like urm, paste
4. A squeegee

I followed exactly like how the video instructed - squeeze the lemon juice on the scrubber or directly wipe it across the glass, scrub in circle motions all over, then rub in the baking soda+vinegar paste. Then I left it for 2 hours for the magic the chemicals to work. After 2 hours, I use a glass cleaner and the squeegee to wipe off the substance. I then rinse it with water and squeegee off the water.

What do you know? It works! Although, it's not 100% clean and clear as I hoped (maybe because I have left it a tad too long to clean, like, 5 months?) but most of the film has gone. Only the edges remain and the bottom part (where I don't scrub so hard).

Maybe over the weekend, I'll repeat the process again if I feel like it. Hehe. Hopefully my glass screen will be as clean as how they maintain it in 5-star hotels! Haha!

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Sunday, October 28, 2012

Our experience of getting a MacBook Air

As some of you may know, this year we got ourselves a 15" MacBook Air to replace my broken Samsung netbook. Why we decided to get MacBook instead of another Windows OS laptop?

1. It's our dream notebook ever since we laid eyes on it 6 years ago
2. It has bigger screen than a netbook but lighter than a netbook
3. Suami Terchenta wants to try developing apps for iPhone - therefore he needs a Mac
4. It has become much more affordable with Maybank 0% interest installment plan

But a word of advice to those who are also salivating to lay their hands on a Macbook - you have to be prepared to fork out more money for something that Windows user don't even have to fret about.

Truth is, getting an Apple product comes with hidden cost - some of their peripherals are simply different from Windows products. Why, Apple, why???

So these are among the normal, every day things that we have to buy separately in order to be productive with our MacBook Air:

1. MS Office Professional 2010

Normal price: RM199

We managed to buy at: USD19.99 (RM60+)

If you walk into a shop and buy a Windows notebook, you can expect that it comes bundled with MS Office. After all, Microsoft owns Windows and MS Office. BUT when you buy a Mac, you have to buy MS Office separately. At the point of purchasing the notebook the salesman did ask whether we want to buy the original Office for Mac at RM199. Yes, it's cheaper compared to the time I bought original MS Office Home Edition 2008 for Windows lappy 2 years back (close to RM300).

BUT after forking out a lot of money on the notebook we just can't afford it. So we didn't buy it.

Not long after that, my manager forwarded an email to everyone that our IT partner has gotten a good deal from another vendor which to cut the story short, means we can get original MS Office Professional 2010 including for Mac for only USD19.99 (or below RM100)!

So MS Office - checked.

2. VGA Adaptor

Original Apple adaptor: RM99

I bought: RM99

Let's face it - sooner or later you will need to flash the presentation, your work, or whatever on a projector during office / class presentation. The thing is, you cannot simply plug in the VGA connector from the projector - be it Sony, Samsung, Philips, NEC or whatnots - to a MacBook. Why? The VGA port does not match! It's only built for Windows VGA port :(

A marketing strategy to enrich Apple and its shareholders? Maybe.

VGA adaptor - checked.

3. MacBook Air casing

Normal price: RM148

I bought: RM0 - using my Maybank Treatspoint :)

Yesterday, we were at Bangsar Village and decided to drop by at Epicentre - Mac premium reseller to check out if the new mini iPad is already on display.

It's not - but we left the shop with Speck MacBook Air casing :)

The best thing about the casing is strangely not because it's purple in colour (I'm a diehard fan of anything purple!), but because at RM148, I actually got it for nothing!

How's that so? Since the shop displayed a bunting that says 'Redeem Maybank Treatspoint Here', I checked and found that my Treatspoint balance is enough to get me a brand new casing :)

After buying such an expensive notebook with aluminium casing, the last thing you want is your MacBook to end up with scratches after toting it around. So, an external casing is a must. 

Well, you must think that if it involves so much investment, why do we continue ahead with getting a MacBook Air?

You see, I am an iPhone user and  I love to take lots of photos of my daughter for memory's sake. When you have a Mac, you don't need cables to transfer your photos to your laptop. In fact, you don't have to do anything to transfer your photos in your phone to a laptop - it's all done automatically via iCloud. Same thing goes to my music collection, etc.

There are a various other plus points of having MacBook - read here.

It also comes with the world's most advanced OS - Mountain Lion. This is more Suami Terchenta's thang - he wrote a lot about it on his blog. As for me? Like using my iPhone, I love exploring the Apps Store - it's like going for window shopping or shopping for free apps now and then!

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