What We Speak

A lot of my friends asked me if we speak dutch to our son. and the answer to that is, een beetje. een beetje means a little bit.

I read some dutch books to him (he'd probably pick up faster than me). i have some alphabets flashcards in dutch. i know my animals, numbers, colours in dutch. but to compose a whole sentence in dutch, nope. not yet.

Simplest words like:
Goeden Morgen - Good morning - Selamat pagi
How are you - Hoe Gaat Het - Apa khabar
Nee - No - Jangan
Kijk! - Look! - Tengok!
Schatje - My little darling - Sayang kenit ku
Lekker slaapen - Good sleep - Sedap tido/tido sedap
Welterusten - Good night - Selamat malam
Lekker! - Delicious! - Sedap!

That, yes! i use those words everyday to him, as well as a few others. and i make sure i teach him to spell his name in dutch too (alphabets sounds different than ours).

But apart from that, we speak english and of course malay to him. and thanks to his leapfrog pal TAD, we learn een beetje of french.

This is what you might hear from me:

"Aidan lapo?"
"Aidan dah bangon tido?"
"Look! the sun's out, meh kita keluo dok kat luor"
"Aidan sejuk mama gebo kan aidan eh... so that you wont catch a cold..."
"Meh aidan dok atas kosi aidan meh.."
"Apasal kaki aidan tak boleh tegak?"

And this is what you might hear from his papa:

"Awat kaki hang tak boleih luruih?"
"Banyaq nya aiaq lioq!"
"Mai kita pi naik bouncer hang"
"Aidan nak keluaq?"
"Hang dah ngantoq? mai kita tidoq"

Guess who's from the south and who's from the north?!

Hope our son will pick up dutch soon, hope WE can speak dutch soon!

Z

Aidan's Eerste Broccoli

Weaning is a term used when you're introducing your baby to solid food, or semi solid food.

Aidan had his 'rijstebloem' (powdered baby rice mixed with milk) and loved it.

Now, we're introducing him to new tastes, and new textures. we've been advised by the dietician to start off with groente (vegetables) first, and later introduce him to fruits. if we do it the other way round, he might not want to take the greens and would probably favour the sugary fruits, and might be a problem to us later.

There are 3 ways to puree food for your baby: mash, mouli and blend. what you do will depend on the food you want to give. i intend to give our son homemade food. it's obviously cheaper and i'll know exactly what i'm giving him. but of course, we cant help it to get some of them off the shelves when time does not permit.

Last weekend we introduced him to broccoli. blended broccoli.

Did he like it? have a look at these:

"aaaa... i'm having some green sloppy thing..."


"ermmmm.. tastes kindda weird..."


"euiiighh.. its definitely weird..."


"bluueekk.. what is this thing?!?!"


"PAPA, WHAT IS THIS THING YOU'RE GIVING ME?!"


"oh no.. not again..."

Reminds me of myself, some 25 years back, eating that scott's white cod liver oil emultion every single day!


Z

Here Comes The Sun

(and from the look of it, it'll stay!)

Its spring and everything's blooming marvelously, people are more cheerful, the air smells with wonderful scents from the flowers, the birds chirps livelier, the streets are filled with colourful people (by this i mean they wear colourful clothes - and the Dutch really wear bold colours, orange trousers with dark blue shirts for example! but they look good in them!)

Our house is very near to a big park with a lake and a little stream with plenty of ducks.... and now that it's spring, this:

Cherry blossoms! they however will not last long, they bloom only for a couple of weeks, and later the grounds will be pink.

And look what we have in our garaden, next to our driveway!! kijk!!!

I would love for it to be lily of the valley but i believe it's called forget-me-not?!

So in celebration of spring, i feel that the house should be filled with colours, especially our garden. but since it still needs a lot of work, i decided to have a tiny potted garden instead. a lazy affair, yes. wish me luck in growing them, hope i inherit mum and dad's green hands and the love for gardening. (p.s: please come here quick, our garden needs you!)



Lately, Aidan and I dance every morning to michael buble's everything and we find ourselves in a rather bouncy mood after that!

Anyway, we've been enjoying our sun, and our activities, outings in this beautiful weather. and hopefully you too, wherever you are!

Z

Simply a Housewife?

Oprah would describe being a housewife and a mother simply as the "most toughest job in the world". i wouldnt actually agree to that (yet) as i'm just entering my 7th month old of motherhood, and just a little over a year of married life.

But lately, i found myself being in a rather housewife-ish feeling. not that i'm not enjoying it, i am. but somehow, you'd loose your identity in just being a 'housewife'. i'm H's wife, and Aidan's mum. i have yet to discover myself and my capabilities, away from what i do at home (cook, clean, wash, dry, burp Aidan, love, care and now attempting to grow plants). I am really thankful with what i have. do not get me wrong. watching my son grow is simply the best thing to do, being able to witness his first few milestones, play with him and hearing him laugh and watching him smile. those are just priceless. and not to mention looking forward to every evening when my husband comes home from work. i enjoy cooking for him, us, i love doing the washing up (thus why we, or i decided not to have a dishwasher). i love doing all those. LOVE it. but somehow, i need to find myself, doing the things that i love doing. making my own money with probably selling the things i love and made, just like before, i dont know...(used to have a little tiny business of my own back home prior moving here). i miss all that. going out with my good friend yoyo, going makans (out eating) with our friends, watch a movie, sitting down with mum and talk for hours. i really miss all those. i have yet to discover myself here, my own self.

After our dinner last night, i was sorting out the food stuff H brought back from kakak's house. i knew H would want to laze in front of the telly and get into control of the remote, but i asked him to help me out with the labelling. there was simply too many rempahs (spices). i would have love to do it on my own but i wanted the company. he, happily, though half heartedly (i could sense) did it with no questions asked. but i was annoyed. why? coz i was in a housewife-ish feeling and i didnt want anything to add to it. it was half heartedly! doing it all alone simply adds more to it!! thus, resulting to me being a little bit unhappy thus quiet and turned into little miss grumpy(and some of you would say ungrateful).

I had a good friend told me of her situation with her husband where she had to do everything in the house, including driving her husband back and forth. i sympethize with her and her situation. i hope all will work out soon and all will be happy again.

I had another good friend who told me how she envys me and wishes she could be a stay at home mum and enjoy her children grow.

Some people would do anything to be a housewife, to be here away from home. i know.

After thinking more and more of them and their sutiations, i am even more grateful with what i have, i love being a housewife, but i want to be a housewife with a difference! (is that possible?)

It shouldnt be simply a housewife for me.

Till i find that something 'else' to do alongside being a stay-at-home mum, and something with a 'difference' to add to my 'housewife' occupation title/job description, i shall continue loving every moment of this.

To my dear husband, i'm sorry i made you label those spices with proper labels and proper spelling. it's friday! lets have some fun!! ;)

Z

To be or not to be...

Well, it's not a question, considering it doesn't have the 5W or the H (I think it's definitely a choice). After a full day travelling on Wednesday, I only got home at half past midnight. With Aidan getting up quite early some 5 hours later, I 'entered' a "tepu"-zone, a zone I would typically describe as when the world is going along faster than you can react to....It's definitely the sign of aging (haha..). Coupled with early meetings and further discussions throughout Thursday, I later joined Z/A in Sittard for a quick stroll, and by the time we got home, my movement was somewhat slower than usual. Poor Z, she was sorting up the 10 kg herb & spices (Adabi, Baba, Cap Burung etc) into bottles and containers, and I was half heartedly helping with the labelling - somewhat me being slow and a bit malas. In the end, using a green permanent marker, I wrote "koooooooorma" and "kuuuuuu nyit nyit nyit" on the corresponding caps, much to my own amusement (which was lacking throughout the two days) but unfortunately to her little annoyance...(sowwy love..)

Well, it's one of those days...And to the irony of many, who says biz trip travelling is fun...?

H

Home Coming

I find myself eating frozen pizza or maggi mee (instant noodles) everytime when my husband's away on work. eventhough we like that favourite 99euro cents pizza of ours, and our maggis, somehow or rather, i didnt quite like them when i'm eating them all by myself for dinner. it tastes different, and there's always something not right with them when i'm having it alone - either pizza was bunt and maggi's too kembang.. *sigh*

When he's away, i can have the remote control all to myself! i find all men like to hold the remote control and what they do is they switch the channels every second! it'll get worse as they age! (is that true mum? hehe sorry dad!) but last night, strangely enough, i didnt want the remote to myself. i wanted the channels to change every second without me changing it, i wanted him to slouch on our 'poang' ikea chair... and as a result to that, i left our remote in peace, and went straight upstairs, to bed, early. (well, ok, i did write on another dish i cooked lately - click here if interested)

As usual, when he's away, i make sure i have his tshirt he wore to bed the night before, so that, like frankensteina said, i can smell his "masamness".

I'm getting used to him travelling and being alone with aidan. absence makes the heart grows fonder, and i agree to that. i try not to focus on the fact that he's away but more on he's coming back and things to look forward to - the journey, the customer visits, the meetings, the comparison of cultures, and of course, his face when he walks through our front door, seeing me, and when he sees aidan.

Tonight, there will be loads to talk about when he's back, cause this trip, he went for a 'pit stop' at kakak's and redza's. and his luggage will be FULL of stuff!!! hope he doesnt forget my pau kacang merah! (tar sau pau with red bean filling)

I miss my husband. We both do.

Z & Aidan

Going on a jet plane

As my work brings me to various western europe cities, of late, I find it more and more that I'm missing home - Z and A. Well, a trip to Bristol today, and tomorrow I shall be home again....This morning, with him smiling on seeing me from a distance, my feet almost glued to the ground, not wanting to leave. As such I ended up kissing him all over his head, cheek, ears and nose - with hope that it will last till tomorrow even though I doubt it - it's already running low!

Today's journey : an hour to Zaventem luchthaven near Brussels, a drive to Fifi's in Warwick and another 90 mins to Bristol. I've not yet started but I'm already missing home...

H

lucht = air, haven = port
aeroporto = airport (Spanish)

Bloemen!

The best time to visit Holland is definitely during March-May. why? coz its spring! there's so so much to do and visit when the weather's good!

The main attraction during spring is definitely KEUKENHOF!

Last easter, on the 8th of april to be precise, we witness the ever so popular Keukenhof. we missed last year's as we were too busy with the house hunting, and besides, last year's spring was very short and surprisingly cold. but this year..... was such a contrast.



Keukenhof is situated in Lisse, south of Haarlem in Zuid Holland. very close to the Amsterdam Schipol Airport. it opens 8 weeks a year and attracts almost 7 million people, all around the world (we now know why!).

I was overly excited during our 2 hour drive to the gardens, and as we reached our afrit (exit) to Lisse, we noticed there was a long traffic. "no! it cant be!!" to which my husband replied "yep!! all these people are going where we're going". the traffic stretched at least 8miles from our destination!

After consulting our 'miss navigatie' (navigation system) in the car, H decided to take a detour and use an alternative route. a route with NO signboards to keukenhof. a route where there are NO cars, a route where i do not think it'd lead us there, therefore to me it is a NOT a good idea! "no! dont! follow those cars, at least we know we're heading the right way, who knows they might block the other routes due to lack of parking!?" the not-so-adventurous me was so wrong! thank god we took the other route cause, this was what we witnessed on our way to the real keukenhof gardens, fields and fields of hyacinths and fields and fields of tulips! trust me, the smell was just as good as the view!





Thank H for not following the traffic! (silly me!)

We bought the tickets online and could enter the gardens without having to queue. this would be a good idea if you're visiting during public holidays and weekends. the Keukenhof gardens are much larger than i expected. they seem to go on forever and everywhere you turn there's always a good sight to snap a photo! you could easily spend more than a day, especially if you are mad about flowers, like moi. in addition to the outdoor gardens, there are numerous greenhouses. in there, you might find orchids, hortensia (hydrangeas) and azaleas. and if you're tired of walking, or if your baby's hungry and needs his bottle, you can always sit back at the cafes, snack bars or even the benches, and watch other flower fanatics!





Tulips are not the only spring flower blooming at keukenhof. daffodils, hyacinths, and narcissi, are also all flowering simultaneously. there were also amarylis, magnolias, cherry blossoms, plum blossoms, bleeding hearts - those were just a few of them that i know of. so many types of daffodils and soso many types of tulips! we were overwhelmed by the colour, sights, shapes and their smells!



We had a beautiful easter, a beautiful sunday, a lovely stroll, a good time. we shall bring our tikar mengkuang (mengkuang mat), nasi lemak (coconut rice), karipap (currypuff) and sirap bandung (rose syrup with milk) next year!! hehe!

I then drove my boys back home (first time driving our estate! feels like i have a very long tail driving it!)

Z

Sittard

Well, probably many might not know where exactly in Holland we reside. On the bigger picture, we live here (green arrow) in Sittard within the Limburg province, which is the most southern part of The Netherlands (Holland is actually one of the region in The Netherlands)

Limburg's capital is Maastricht (many probably heard of Maastricht Treaty in 1992 - a famous European treaty that led to the creation of European Union and the Euro currency). Sittard is some 20km north of Maastricht. We would have like to live in Maastricht but the price of the houses there are 30% more expensive. Having said that, it does not mean that Sittard is not that kampung (haha..). Currently, there are about 50,000 inhabitants and historically it was first mentioned in the year 1157. Great part of Sittard was destroyed during the Franco-Dutch war in 1677 but has been part of the Netherlands since 1814, except 1830-1839 when it joined the Belgian Revolution (well, geographically, it is near both Belgium and Germany, so Sittard was the likely target for strongholds during those years).

Geographically, we are actually closer to Brussels (Belgium), Dusseldorf & Cologne (Germany) and Eindhoven (The Netherlands) - all within 1 hr drive compared to Amsterdam, which is 2.5 hrs drive away to the north. Luxembourg is 2 hrs away south, Paris is 3.5 hours south east, Berlin 6 hours, Zurich 8 hours, Copenhagen 9 hours and even Milan is about 10 hours drive. It is quite strategically located at the central of Europe. We are planning to drive to the UK in the summer, which will take about 7 hours to Birmingham. The Channel Tunnel is about 35 mins crossing by Eurotunnel train.

So, basically we could actually be in 3 countries within 20 mins. And no, there are no immigration check points between these countries which are part of EU (you normally enter Belgium or Germany at 120km/hr...). UK still do though....

H

autobahn = motorway (and that's German!)
(in Germany, you can drive as fast as you want at certain part of the autobahn, yes, there are no speed limit. And on average, the ones that go very fast (above 160km/hr) are typically NOT Mercedes nor BMW but the cool Audi and VW.....I however, was warned by my wife not to exceed 130km/hr with our big-long-family-stationwagon Opel.....hmmm....)

No More A Bowling Alley!

It is important for me (and i'm sure my husband would agree to me as well) to have a dining table in our new home. it is one of the places where you actually sit down (away from distractons like a TV) and talk, start your day with a good healthy breakfast, end your day with a good meal, having a weekend brunch, an afternoon tea..

The dining area in my opinion, is where family values are taught, shared, where learning table manners starts, doing family things together and of course, entertaining.

I remembered mum and dad used to 'lecture' us, reminding us, teaching us a lot of things when we were having our meals. they'd take that opportunity where we'd have no where to run, we'd have to face them, and listen. it's also important to be thankful to God, for the food infront of us, our rezeki, on the table.

Now that our son is beginning to start his mealtimes, i'd want to start him off properly. jangan makan sambil jalan (not that he can walk yet), i'm scared that he'd take after me, doing things whilst walking, eating especially!

And after almost 7 months eating on our island in the kitchen with our high chairs, we finally bought our dining table!! (we still love our island!).



We searched quite a number of places to find the ideal one. by this i mean ideally affordable (if aidan'd scratches or paint, colours it with crayons etc, we'd be able to get another one), ideally good and practical (it can expand longer just in case there'd be a kenduri or aidan gets married for us to jemput orang makan), ideally solid (just in case we have too much food on it), and ideally nice (for sedap mata memandang).

We love it! even with the temporary chairs (need to get more as there's only 3, 3 different ones, one of which is aidan's).

I remember fondly of my times, with my parents and kakak on our dining tables. and i'd want aidan to remember his too!



It sure feels like a family once you have one! really really feels like a family! (and i sure hell feel like a housewife and a mother, serving!)

No more stroller in the house, pushing aidan in the dining room.. space's been taken by a very important furniture! our house is no longer a bowling alley! ;)

Z

Appointments

One of the thing I miss about Malaysia is the flexibility of appointments, or rather not required to have one. Over here, almost every single thing has to be pre-book via appointment....Doctors, tax office, dietician, fixing the roof, change car tyres, house viewing and even dinner with friends. If my frequently-visited clinic in Damansara would accept me whenever I go there when I was sick, we simply can't do it here. And I could only change my winter tyres to summer tyres only in 4 weeks, as the workshop is busy. I think almost all workshops along Jalan Pudu would be able to change your tyres almost immediately. Even my office asked me to plan for my 2007 holidays last year....

Despite that, the good side is, I can plan well beforehand. Now, being procastinator and a Malaysian (!) we tend to do things at the very last minute (or maybe we work best under pressure....). Here, we definitely have to adjust. Over the past 14 months, we learned that if you want service, make appointments. Otherwise, you don't get one at all....

I remembered when Ez and me were waiting for Kyrz (usually the case whenever he's late), he would call and say, I'll be fashionably late....hmmm....

H

appointment = afspraak

Smokin'....or not?

I do smoke, of late, very very, very seldom (that could explain my increase apetite and weight gain!) I've known, and always aware that I'm more of a social smoker than a habitual ones (some might say yeah, right...I know Kyrz & Ez would!). Sometimes I can go without one for a week. One might say, why not quit? Well, as Chandler would put it, it's just feel right...haha. I guess, with Aidan's around, the urge is suppressed, probably in view of his and my own family's health.

And to make it even more obvious, when we were on our way to Keukenhof in Lisse on Easter Sunday, even Z was asking me if I've quit...haha. Well, not that she doesn't know me that well, it's amazing that she probably noticed that I haven't puff any for some time already.....

Statiscally, out of 4 cartons I brought over last year, I still have slightly more than 3 cartons left.....that's about 160 in 360 days, which is about one in 3 days....that is definitely in line with my 1999 resolution of reducing and well on the way to, perhaps, quit?

H

[in a word a day series, I'll start with roken = to smoke (almost sounded like rokok...)

Mijn Verjaardag

I am now 30, and what a journey it has been!



I am not a birthday person for i think it's simply just another day. i'm thankful to God for giving me good health, happiness yet another year. i feel that all the credits and wishes should go to the person who gave birth to us, the person responsible for bringing us out to this world. but dont get me wrong, i love receiving cards, presents and wishes!!!

This year, yet another surprise from my husband. i woke him up for work and he handed me a post-it note saying good morning, he cant say a word, just follow this instructions. oh, and he took the whole day off.



Got up, carried our son to the first clue (which was in our cloakroom on the ground floor), got something like a hawaian lais to put around my neck. found another clue and had to go upstairs, the attic. and the next one had to go to the toilet, by then, i was too tired to carry my now 9kg son up and down the stairs whilst bending down to get the clues. so i left him with his dad on our bed. the clues were EVERYWHERE! the fridge, our postbox outside, under aidan's changing table.. everywhere! there were at least 20 clues so just imagine i had to REALLY work for my presents (which was absolutely worth it!). this must be some sort of a hint to let me know that i'm overweight and i should go do some excercise!



Yes, he missed a few clues, but i wasnt bothered! coz i had so so much fun running up and down the stairs, wanting to get the next clue and see what my presents were. half way through it, i was crying! why? it was all just too much (no i wasnt tired, but the effort he had put into it!). i was touched.

Dit was mijn eerste verjaardag met mijn familie.

A family of my own.

To my dear husband, thank you for all the presents, thank you for going through such lengths, thank you for a wicked day (a wicked week in fact!), now i'm gonna look forward to every 4th of april!

Thank you to all who remembered, who have wished, msged, texted.

I have a roof over my head, a loving husband, a beautiful son, amazing parents, wonderful sister and brother in law, good family members (ok, some, some not so good but they're still family and nothing much i can do about it), meaningful friends - ALL in good health. i'm enjoying life, appreciating and treassuring every moment of it.

What more could i possibly ask for?

Syukur alhamdulillah.

Thank you mum, for giving birth to me 30 years ago, and thank you dad, for being there with mum throughout the whole time. thank you both, for your upbringing, your love, support and teaching me the lessons of life.

Z

Amiens Cathedral

On our way to Etreta few weeks ago, John and I stopped at the city of Amiens for lunch, guided by my Tomtom and John's Rouge Book (for listed recommended restaurants). Unfortunately, the restaurant we wanted to go to, moved! (well, the guide was published in 2002....) We ended up in one of the establishment near Amiens Cathedral, one of the famous four in France. It is in the UNESCO World Heritage Centre list since 1981. I've seen Notre Dame in Paris but this one is even more impressive with huge doors and more sculptures and statues. The most noticeable part about the cathedral is the different heights of the two front towers (my photography skill is not that good...I missed the top of the towers!), as one was completed 40 years later with no direct connection to the former design. We didn't go in as we had another 2 hours of driving towards Normandy.

Close to home, Malaysia has 2 site under WHC - Mulu & Kinabalu National Park. Netherlands has 7, including the Kinderdijk-Elshout mill network - the outstanding Dutch contribution to water handling technology.

More about the cathedral here. And more about UNESCO WHC here.

H

Hartelijk Gefeliciteerd

Yup, my wife entered the-next-phase 30's, which mentally made me feel less older between us(haha..). I planned a treasure hunt in the morning around the house with relatively easy questions, owing to the fact that I scribbled all those clues within 20 mins the afternoon before. I made her work hard up and down the stairs (sorry love!). When she got to the last treasure, I realised that she missed some others. I got confused with the sequence, well, planting the clues at 11pm can be quite tricky to ensure the link is correct. I think Eju and Mus would sue me if they take part in my self-set up treasure hunt! (those two are experts!). Nevertheless, she got them all - including an ashtray (which would be useful to me, of course!)

Aidan also took part, handing some clues along the way, which I tried very hard to prevent those sticky notes from being crumpled or ending up with his saliva. I think we he did quite ok.

As previously quoted by my super wifey, a birthday should be also dedicated to the mother. And MOM, thank you so much for bringing up a wonderful daughter, full of love, care and empathy...and excellent self-taught cook too! My horizontal expansion is very worrying!

And of course, to my super-worried-at-times-but-that's-cute wife, it will be an honour for me to join you thru our 30's journey together. kiss kiss muah muah muah.... :)

H

The Shopping

My purpose for our UK trip was basically to visit my sister and my brother in law, and to shop (for aidan),hardy's trip was a business one. aidan? well.. he's just tagging along! :)


With my sister and brother in law's tight work schedules, they still took a couple of days off work to be with us. bringing us round, shopping. the first day we went to WING YIP in birmingham. we met up with ez, adam & family, and headed off to the biggest asian/chinese supermarket/wholesaler. (note: the hardys and adams shamelessly took a photo below the pintu gerbang, i couldnt care less since i dont live in the UK, who'd recognise me? where was kakak? hahaha.. she headed straight to the entrance! cabut lari malu!) since lately i'm really into cooking, well, i felt like jumping up and down!! sadly, the flight allowance only permit us to carry such a number of kilos. what amazes me there was the number of malaysian products on their shelves! first on my list was pau kacang merah! lekker!

I certainly did shop, for aidan. mothercare was irresistible and so was NEXT. early learning centre was alluring, and so was M&S. i just couldnt help it! but i am very selective in buying things.

Books was our no. 1 on our list. i would want our son to learn as many languages as possible, taking advantage of the location of the country he was born in. and of course i'd want him to learn some arabic. who knows he'll take over the company his papa works for?! and so we bought these for a start. apart from these, the usual nursery rhymes, bedtime books, as well as mister men books! there's a few good collection at my fav bookshop called THE WORKS. cheap and good. but if you're after recent published books, go to WATERSTONES. i even tried OXFAM BOOKSHOP to get some second hand books (some dont look like they're second hand!)


Next up, TOYS! the stuff that we have here in holland are fairly ok. not much choices. there might be some good ones in bigger towns, but where we are, there's not much of educational toys, good ones. there's just too many choices in UK, be really careful in choosing which one you get for your kids. some are unnecessary ones, you can make do without, some are just brilliant, some, no purpose whatsoever! We bought LEEAPFROG's catterpiller conting pal and a frog named TAD. catterpillar will introduce numbers 1-5, colours and classical music. this is so far, our best buy! aidan loves it! i bought TAD coz it's in english and french. besides, they were on sale at mothercare, buy 1 get 2nd 1/2 price!

CLOTHES! you just cant have enough of them! baby clothes are so adorable. best material! and value for our money was of mothercare's and NEXT. i've spent 90% of my money there, on clothes and shoes. (picture: one of the tshirts i bought for aidan).

Last but not least, yes, the polyurethane bumbo and the bouncer. get the bumbo early! we got this too late, aidan's now 6+ months. aidan had to squeeze his butt in it! its good as it helps and teaches the child to sit in his/her upright, safe, natural position and your hands will be free to do whatever you please, that is if he/she stays put in the chair! it's basically like a potty. it states on the box: for babies from 3 to 12 months, but i think they should change it and make sizes S,M and L. L for bigger babies, at 6 months weighs 9kgs, like aidan.

The bouncer is for sure, by far, the best present for aidan! he's been jumping in it, loving it! sampai tercungap cungap (till he ran out of breath!). i'd say to most parents, get it! good excercise! and yes, it IS safe!


Anyway, we had a good time, great in fact. thank you papa, for taking us along. thank you tante fifi and om redza, for cooking, putting up with us. we had so much fun, a really good time!

Hartelijk Bedankt!!!!

Z

Polyurethane seat & bouncer

We bought this at Mothercare but returned it the next day when we observed that Aidan almost fill up the gap with no space left! We exchanged it for the baby bouncer.....and he's been happily jumping in it......perfect.

H

Welkom

After much consultation from our dearest friends (we will link soon!), we decided to get indulge with the whole idea of proper blogging. I'm sure throughout the coming months and years, Aidantje or our little Aidan will aspire us to jot a few things about his journey in the land where Tante Noreen would eat her nasi lemak in her clogs (!)

I'm a bit rusty now but Z is full of enthusiasm all set to go....

H


I've finally decided to move all my writings from my friendster blog Handling Holland to blogger. i'm a little bit sentimentalish kind of person but i reckon a change would be good! i've had many people telling me how they wish to leave a word or two commenting on what i write, but not able to do so due to the fact that they're simply lazy to log in, or they're not a member. my parents amongst a few. so here you go! here, both aidan's mama and papa gets to write under one blog!

We hope you'll enjoy our writings and our photos!

Z