Home Improvement

We have engaged in activities aiming at creating a better home for Wen Jia. First of all, study room was set up at the room adjacent to dining area. A book shelf was bought and placed at the study room to ensure books and files are organised. Our study table, however will need some tidy-up as there are lots of loose items that need to be filed and placed in placed in proper order.
Next, we have on last week changed the lighting at our living area and all the rooms. New lights with warm white bulb have been installed to improve the ambiance and comfortablity of the house. At least the baby is now seeing the bright day light all the time, hopefully it is better for her eye and brain development.
Well, in one week or so, we will be organising our store room to have racks in place so that things are more organised and easily acceesible. Next, there are more to come in the pipeline.
The ultimate goal - a better environment for the three of us.

Mutiple faces of Wen Jia

Here is a showcase of how Wen Jia has shown her talent of putting up multiple facial expression within minutes. :)

Hiring a maid

We have filed an application for Indonesian maid recently, finally.
The decision was due to a few reasons:
- Siew Wei is allowed to work from home for her next project.
- We need to spend our quality time with Wen Jia after work.

The first reason will mean Siew Wei can still monitor the maid and how she is taking care of the baby.
The second reason is a bonus that we will be getting by having a maid clear most of the house work for us. This is something that we won't enjoy if Wen Jia would to be taken care by nanny.
Hiring a maid has really got something to do with luck. There are quite some bad experiencer, with a few exceptions. We are hoping that trust can be built over time between us and the maid that she can really be part of the family. Of course, it is easier said than done but we have just need to give it a try.
The keyword: respect. Respect and realise that she is human being and human being are by nature bound to a lot of complicated sentiment. More so if she is away from home for a two years "assignment". So, just need to put ourselves into her shoes and try to treat her base on that understanding, and hope that she can repay us with kindness as well.

Looking for babysitter

After taking care of the baby on her own for about 40 days, it is time for Siew Wei to look for a babysitter for Wen Jia. Time flies and we really need to be quick so that we can still "shop" and change nanny should we fail to find a good suit for Wen Jia.
We went to visit one on last Sunday and have seriously considered to whether give it a try. The woman at her age of 50+ seems to be kind and gentle with a lot of experience taking care of baby. She is indeed not a calculative person with a lot of flexibility given to us in terms of timing and schedule. I know she will treat Wen Jia well as well. But, we still have concern over the environment and house condition of the nanny. While still actively looking for some other options, we have put this lady into our list should we not able to find a better one.
By the way, we have ruled out possiblity of getting an Indon maid for our jewel. We are still not comfortable and not confident with the service that an Indon maid can possibly provide when come to child caring. Quite a sad thing thanks to the wide coverage of negative news so far on this group of people.
Lets see what is coming out from this. We know we have to act fast, but we will certainly be careful in making every single decision, as we want to give Wen Jia the second best that we can (with the best of course to take care of her personally) :)

Baby turns 26 day

Wen Jia is now 26 days old. It is great to learn that she has grown up quite substantially over the 26 days period. I snapped a few pictures of her on day 21 and you can see that she looks quite different from Day 5.
For Siew Wei and I, it was really a tough new start for us. Though there are friends and relatives who are kind enough to share with us their past parenting experience, I must say that the advices and guides do help in certain way but not completely. Nothing wrong with this as each baby born differently in traits and features. My baby is my baby and of course she is unique to us! Well, despite the fact that she did cry unreasonably at night sometimes, she remain the cutest baby in the world in our mind.
I learned that a one-month baby's only expression is crying. That is how she communicates with us. It is of course our job as parents to understand how each message means to us and act accordingly. We just need to be very patience and tolerant. Baby has not been unreasonbly demanding just because she wanted to. So, parent has to be reasonable in responding to her demand as well. We are learning and we are adjusting. Hopefully we will be great parents to the eyes of our little princess.

Malaysia's Birthday

I’ve almost forgotten that 16th Sept is Malaysia’s 44th birthday. We have received so much publicity for our Nation’s 50th Merdeka celebration, but what about 16th Sept, the day when Malaysia was born?
I recalled that I did not learn this in my history education that 16th Sept is an important date too for our nation. I do not know how people of Malaysia will feel about it, but I certainly think that our friends from East Malaysia will have a strong feeling of being left behind.
Happy 44th birthday to Malaysia !

Baby Arrived

Our newborn baby has arrived on 30 Aug 07 at 1347 hr. Both mother and baby are doing well.
The first few days of taking care of bay did not come easily. Me and my wife were having sleepless nights due to baby's crying habit at night.
Well, this has undoubtedly posted a great challenge to us. As a new parents, we realise that there is certainly a long way to go and a steep learning curve for us.
No matter what, the arrival of new member has certainly create a lot of excitement to us. Words just can't say enough on how we feel.

New Member

My wife and I are anxiously waiting for the arrival of our new family member, expected to be in 7 Sept. In anticiption for a breech birth, we might be welcoming our new baby anytime earlier than that.
I won't say that we are well prepared, but we have done all the necessary for her arrival. I would say that we are not giving the best but we are prepared to give her the best that we can.
We have been interacting with her quite frequently for the past few weeks as she "enjoys" the last month in her mum's womb.
Undoubtfully, this is a very exciting moment in our life. We are looking forward for a safe delivery of the baby, and a great parenting experience for me and my wife

临别都柏林

人说：临别才恨相见少。 这用来形容此刻的心情还倒蛮贴切的。 明天就要离开这城市了，突然觉得还没看够她的容颜。

岁月如梭，在这也呆了快四个星期了。初次踏上这片土地的情景好像还历历在目。本该很庆幸能来此一游，奈何寂寞还是掩盖了喜悦。说实在的，四个星期形只影单的日子真还不易过。

在这里，认识的人不多，更甭说肯带你到处走的人了。所以一直以来工余的事间就靠自己打发了。而天似乎不太作美, 几乎每天都下雨。每每去到一个地方，才要欣赏景物，天竟下起雨来了。 真有点无奈啊！
无论如何，还是打从心里喜欢上这城市。她没有贵族般的妖艳，朴实中又不流于俗气。　这里的人，没有我刻板印象中欧州人的傲慢。如果不是寂寞，我还是会很向往这个可爱城市。

照片已上传至 http://s218.photobucket.com/albums/cc215/hlchang99/Dublin/

1 more week to go

Yes! I have been in Dublin for three weeks by now. 1 more week to go!
I will be taking flight back to KL on 3rd Aug. What a thing to looking forward. :)

Life at Dublin has been fine for the initial few days. After that was bored, bored and bored.
The thing that I hate the most is the hotel food. I can't believe that there is no restaurant around the area that I stay. Not at all.. So, without any other choice, I have to try to love the food served by the hotel..
Can you imagine rotating with the 8 fixed menu for 4 weeks? Wanna give a try?

Dublin

I've travelled to Dublin on 7 July 2007 for business purpose.

Total travel time : 18 hours 30 minutes.
Flight detail: KL -> Amsterdam -> Dublin.
The most stupid thing was to wait at Amterdam Shiphol airport for 4 hours.