Month: October 2008

Everyone says time flies…Jonathan boy is one year old now. As I was swaddling him one night, I suddenly realized how big he is now. No longer the fragile baby I was holding 12 months ago. No longer can fit into my folded arms. From a 4kg baby to a 10kg boy. From 53cm to a height of 72cm. No longer a baby but toddler.  We are putting more efforts in nurturing him as he is understanding things-you-do and things-you-said. He is getting more demanding and starts to show his temperament so therefore our instructions have to be clear and more stern now. 

He could take one or two quick steps depending on his mood but has yet to walk or I can say refuse to walk. Whenever we hold his hands to guide him to walk, he gets agitated, pull his hands away, sit down and ask us to carry. This is call a “ho mia” (in Hockien) baby, an old aunty was telling me. Few days ago, I noticed that he has started crawling on four instead of combat crawling.

The spoon is his new interest now. There was once I brought him to shopping mall, he sat quietly in the stroller playing with the spoon without disturbing me or asking me to carry. He is most happy when you give him a spoon with a cup/bowl. Once, he refused to eat until I let him conquer the spoon. I only let him practise self-feeding occassionaly as I hate the mess after that.

He is excellent in sipping from straws and also feeding cup. He could now hold his bottle and feeding cup high up. Time to wean him off bottle? Perhaps I should start weaning him off pacifier? Or wean him off my breast? But that’s so convenient…I don’t have to carry milk bottles, milk powders and hot water everywhere I go.

Jonathan boy started to say “ma ma ma ma” or sometimes it sounded like “mum mum mum mum”. He is either referring to food, his pacifier or Mommy. So Mommy is the happy one now. Worth all the effort I’d put in for him. *Big grin*

It was a last minute invitation from eldest sis to join her for an excursion to Kuala Selangor. It was 5 years ago the last time I was there with Darling and two other friends.

First, we stopped by Bukit Melawati since my parents haven’t been there before. I remembered on our previous trip, we boarded a tram to bring us up to the hill.  I don’t see anymore tram now but visitors drove all the way up. Kind of scary because the road is very narrow and parking space is very limited. Up on Bukit Melawati, you can see the Straits of Malacca and all that is left of the forts on Bukit Melawati is a couple of cannons and foundation stones. Jonathan boy was happy camwhoring with Gong Gong and Po Po.

Several families of Silver-Leafed Monkeys and Long-Tailed Macaques hang around here for peanut handouts from visitors.  What fascinated me this time is the Silver-leafed Monkeys which I don’t remember seeing them on my previous trip. The Silver-leafed babies have golden fur as compared with the adults of dull-ashen grey. As the young ones grow older, their hair will slowly changes colour to dull-ashen grey like the adult monkeys. So you will see some young ones having black hair on their head but the body with golden fur. The monkeys roam around freely and looks quite tame. They don’t attack the visitors but graciously waiting for food especially peanuts from the visitors. But we still have to be careful as they are wild and wild animals tend to be erratic sometimes. This was Jonathan’s first time seeing a real monkey from quite a near distance.

We then headed to a seafood restaurant to fill our stomach. Can’t remember the name of the restaurant but all restaurants in Kuala Selangor were full with people due to the public holiday. The waitress warned us that we have to wait for at least 1 – 2 hours for the food. Jonathan boy missed his late afternoon nap so he was quite cranky during dinner time. We finished our dinner at almost 9.00pm.

Lastly, the highlights of the excursion is watching the firefly colonies of Kampung Bukit Belimbing which lived on the berembang trees that grow along Kuala Selangor’s riverbanks. As expected, it was a long queue for tickets. It was a public holiday and the fireflies are best seen on the 1st – 3rd day of the lunar calendar when it is not a full moon. We have put on the safety jacket but there is no baby size.

We get on the boat only at almost 11.00pm.  By then not many fireflies flying around. I guess they are all too tired and has gone to bed.  The best time according to the boatman is around 8.00pm. I was so afraid that Jonathan will make a fuss on the boat but good little boy was behaving well. He did not get too excited over the flickering lights but whenever I asked him where is the light, he will point to the berembang trees which are full of the twinkling fireflies. The fireflies are rarely sighted nowadays. When I was young, we can still see at least one firely flying around our house.

We reached home at 1.00am. It was a good trip. For those you have never been there, you should before the fireflies extinct. But never go when the moon is full and bright and not on a public holiday unless you are the early birds.