First Christmas with Grandma

Dear Princess,

Yayy, its Christmas again but this year you get to spend it with Grandma & Grandpa. So technically its your first christmas. As usual you woke up early and in the process you woke daddy up too. We showered and changed and went downstairs. We allowed you to open one present. You seemed to enjoy tearing off the wrapping paper. Daddy opened his present from you. We bought him a nice Nike t-shirt. His other gift was at Grandma's house which he had no idea about. You and I then made our way to Grandma's for an hour to help a little. Then went back home to change.

By Half past three, everyone gathered at Grandma's house to enjoy her spread of food. Turkey, Lamb, roast potatoes, carrot & turnip and apple crumble. Your first taste of Grandma's "special menu". You seemed to have enjoyed the opening of gifts session. You got a cool Elmo guitar from Grandma, some big lego blocks from Uncle Azim & Auntie Sue and your Ball Popper from Mummy & Daddy. It was nice to have everyone together for a change.

When we got home, we were in for another surprise, more christmas gifts from Auntie Sarinah. She gave you her adorable kiddie sofa set which is just perfect for you.

I think all in all, you had a great day which really tired you out as you fell asleep as soon as we got home.

Our early Christmas Gift

Dear Mia,

Santa came early and gave us a Christmas Eve Baby. Alhamdullillah Auntie Ayu gave birth to another cousin who decided finally he will grace us with his presence. Both Uncle Rahman & Auntie Ayu have been blessed with Baby Adam Azhari, born 24th December at 4.50am, weighing 3.2kg.

Baby Adam Azhari Bin Abdul Rahman

Grand Wedding & Snow Village at Empire

Mia attended her second wedding last weekend. Her first was Filya's wedding at the Polo Club last year and this one was Carrie's sisters wedding at the Grand Ballroom. This time round, Mia can walk so she was happy to just strut around the ballroom. She really didn't want to be carried nor did she want to sit in her stroller. We saw a couple of familiar faces and new faces too. And as usual Mia was just too friendly and didn't mind being held by anyone.

The following night we made a date with Gailee to meet up at Empire to see the Christmas decor. At exactly 8o'clock, fake snow came falling from the upper level. Maybe one day, Mia will get to feel real snow. The atmosphere was very christmassy though. We stayed for a while before heading over to see Mia's cousins in Jerudong.

Memories

9th December 2009

Dear Mia,

This time last year, mummy was enjoying her confinement time with you. I can't believe a year has passed and you will be celebrating your 2nd Christmas. This year you'll be celebrating with two more new cousins, Baby Hapidz and Baby Adam, who is yet to grace us with his arrival. I ordered some wall stickers for your room recently and they have arrived so I will be doing some sticking tonight. Slowly slowly your nursery is getting there. I think its time to move out your crib and turn your nursery into a toy room you can actually chill in and watch your latest favourite cartoon, Toy Story.

Recently I felt for you as a 2 year old boy pushed you. You did not cry but you just stood still, stunned and looked very confused. Never again will I let that boy ever go near you. It breaks my heart to see someone hurt you. I hope you know that its wrong to push or hit someone, even if you are angry. But if bullies start doing that to you then I'll definitely be enrolling you in self defence classes. No one bullies my baby.

16th December 2009

Dear Mia,

You are growing up quickly my love. This christmas you'll be 13 months. Lately I've realized, whenever I scold you by saying "No Mia", you will look away and walk off only to start scolding your toys or the bookcase or any other item lying around. Its quite hilarious actually but I always refrain myself from laughing.

You are definitely a smart egg who loves books. The bookworm in you comes from mummy most definitely. I will occasionally ask you where your book is and you'll immediately go to your toy box and search for it. Once you have found it, you'd take it out and say "Boook" which is so cute. When you are in the mood, you'll automatically by yourself sit down and flip the cardboard pages of your animal book. You would point to the picture of the duck and say "duckiee", point to the picture of the monkey and say "Keyyyy", point to the picture of the dog and say "arf arf", point to the picture of the bird and say "Shoo shoo" then point to the picture of the cat and say "meow". Pandai kan my pumpkin!

Learn away my love~

First Swim

Last week I finally pushed myself to buy Mia a paddling pool. So on Thursday night, me and the handsome hubby spared about two hours of our time taking turns pumping up the pool. We only had the manual foot pump hence why it took so long but we didn't mind as initially we were planning to blow using our own lung power. I don't think that would of been a good idea. And so the following day, after work, I told Mia she could have a quick play in her pool. I accompanied her while she splashed about in the pool. I could see she really enjoyed it. About half an hour later, maghrib was approaching so I told her it was time to get out. I was not surprised at all to get that "No" attitude from her. She was absolutely enjoying it. So I let her play for another 10 minutes then grabbed her and wrapped her in her towel. When she was done, her eyes were red, and her toes were wrinkly...hehe...

Mummy's Little cupcake

Since Mia is now one years old, I gave her a little treat to indulge in, a mini oreo cupcake from her birthday party. I watched her sit quietly in her high chair and enjoy every bite she took from her cupcake. In a matter of minutes, it was all gone, well, most of it. The mess she made was a beautiful one but it was something I truly did enjoy watching. How could one resist smiling watching this lil' pumpkin feed herself a mini cupcake..hehe...

Party Time

Last week was definitely a busy week for my little Princess. She was lucky enough to celebrate her first birthday three times. She had a small dinner party at home with my family on her actual birthday, then she had cake with her cousins the next day when her Auntie Sarinah moved into her new house and finally she had a little hi-tea do with her mummy's closest friends.

Dinner on 25th November 2009 @ Menglait Manor

Gathering on 26th November 2009 @ Corner House Tanjong Nangka




Hi-Tea on the 29th November 2009 @ Menglait Manor

Happy Birthday to my Little Princess

"Happy 1st Birthday to our darling Daughter"

Amellia Anddy @ Baby Mia

Love always Mummy & Daddy

"Then"

"Now"

Today is a very auspicious day for us, my little princess.
A year ago today, you came into our lives.
You were finally here after 9 months of waiting
and mummy & daddy became parents for the first time.
Mummy & Daddy must of done something good along our journey of life
to be blessed with such an amazing little girl.
Alhamdullillah.
You are our beautiful gift from heaven,
a special reminder from Allah that He loves us enough, to give us You.

A year has passed, my little angel and there has never been a dull moment since.
You are the one that puts a smile on our faces when we come home from
an exhausting day at work.
You are the one that lights up our days when we are down.
You are the one that fills the house with more love and laughter.
You are truly our little angel.

I have watched you grow from a little chubby-chinese looking baby into a beautiful little girl.
I will always remember how you looked like as a baby.
You had chubby cheeks, thunder-thighs, chinese-looking eyes, a cute button nose, fair skin and light brown 'static' hair.
You definitely looked like a little Chinese Empress.

You posses some characteristics from your daddy but
I'm sure your "manja-ness" comes from me.
You never cease to amaze me lil'one.
When you were a week old, you showed us how strong you were by lifting up your
neck to have a quick nose around.
At one month old, you smiled and giggled for the first time
and since then your giggles are what I crave to hear when I come home from work everyday. By the third month, we learned that you are our "Puteri Lilin" (i.e. our Candle Princess)
who cannot stand the heat and constantly needs air-conditioner to stay cool
and not sweat, hence why daddy often calls you his "Sweaty Pie"...haha.

By five months, you were able to sit and do your rolly pollies
then crawling followed suit a couple of weeks after.
Seven months marked a great milestone for you.
After trying for many many months, you finally mastered clapping your hands.
Then the following month, waving bye-bye became your newest thing.
At nine months, you cut your first tooth and said your first word.
At 10 and a half months, you became our little walking penguin.
Your chubby thunder thighs are probably the reason why
you could easily balance and start walking at such an early age.
At 11 months, you learned how to count.
And today my love, at 12 months, I can proudly say
you know how to "salam" your elders. Alhamdullillah.

So, my little baby Mia,
mummy & daddy hope you will celebrate more birthdays with us.
This is only one of many.
I hope over this next year you will learn new things
and grow up to be a smart little toddler.
I also hope you know how much you mean to us
and how much we love you.

"Happy Birthday Little Pumpkin"


xoxo
Mummy & Daddy

One Year Old

Dearest Birthday Girl,

Happy Birthday my sweet little angel!!! Today you turn one years old! Mummy can't believe how time has flown by so fast. Nevertheless, it has been a great year. Over this last month you have amazed me some more with the new things you have learnt.

Just after you turned 11 months, your vocabulary started to increase. Of course now you know how to say Daddy properly. You started saying and pointing to your "Shoos". You also started using the words "Neish" (nice) and "abis". Pintar anak mummy. Over the next few weeks, you learned to say "Peeash" (please) and "Tan Chu" (Thank you). Now you are smart as well as well-mannered. Alhamdullillah. You seem to like singing and during this time you started singing your "Papapapapa papapa" song. Its just too cute, especially when you are trying to entertain yourself in the car when its just the two of us. hehe.

Now, you automatically count by yourself, especially when we are in the car; "onnn", teewww" then the rest are just muffled numbers. But you end up clapping ur hands when your are finished. A couple of weeks ago you were quietly sitting in your playpen playing with your teddy and you started playing pretend and feeding teddy with your shaped blocks. I guess that just goes to show that you have a great imagination. We have also come to realize that when you wake up in the morning in our bed, you will start whispering to yourself. Daddy thinks its because you don't want to wake us up just yet. After a while then you start talking loudly and pestering us to wake up. Daddy is now a proud man. He has thought you to salam daddy & mummy when we come home and when we leave and you do it so perfectly now. I love how you smell our hands...hehe...

Last week though, when I came home from work, your nanny informed me you had taken the Astro card and hid it somewhere. We spent an hour searching high and low for it. I asked you where you had hidden it while taking out all the DVD's and putting them in the laundry basket so I wouldn't make a mess. Of course you couldn't answer me but what you did afterwards made me think that you were telling me where it was. You started taking out the DVDs I had put in the basket. Apparently you had slotted the cardin between the plastic cover and casing of your Barney CD. It just makes me wonder what was going through your mind when you did that. Were you thinking that by doing so, Barney would come on TV? hehe..

Two weeks ago you had the pleasure of spending the night at Grandma's. I think it was the first time for you to sleep elsewhere. Grandma set up the mattress on the floor and you slept well only waking up once for a quick feed. Last week, you were a good girl when daddy brought you out for the first time. Just you and him. Daddy and Daughter day out. Daddy said you were well-behaved and did not cry at all.

Mummy hopes you will enjoy the next few days as I have a few things lined up for you. Till then, lots of love, hugs and kisses, Mummy!

Hapidz Big Day

An Exhausted-looking Baby Mia

Beautiful Auntie Mama & Baby Hapidz

Dear Mia,

Yesterday was Auntie Mamah and Hapidz's big day. They had their Majlis Mandi belawat. Since you have been very stable on your legs, you had no intentions of being held. Mummy had to chase after you all day yesterday. In the morning, we dropped by Grandma's & Grandpa's house to welcome them home. They had just arrived the previous night from Qatar. Again, I wanted to see your expression when you saw your Grandma. At first your face was just serious then you walked over to your Grandma and gave her a big hug. It actually looked like you were hanging on with your dear life and weren't going to let her go. During our short visit you were showing off to your Grandma how you have mastered walking (with shoes on) and you were walking round the house like it was no ones business. You must of been exhausted from all that walking as you fell asleep on the ride home. I did not want to wake you but we had to get ready for Auntie Mamah's function.

At your Auntie Mamah's house, you tired me out. Walking here and walking there, chasing you here and chasing you there. Obviously you did not want me to carry you as you started to cry everytime I picked you up. I love knowing that you are an independant little princess but my love, I also hope you learn that sometimes at functions you have stay still and sit down. Luckily, your daddy's friend, Uncle Alai, who is also Uncle Razak's cousin, has an adorable sister. She was entertaining you and walking with you to where ever you wanted to go.

Auntie Mamah looked absolutely beautiful yesterday, unfortunately, I think you weren't able to take a photo with her. Not to worry, we'll be sure to take a picture of you with her before she leaves.

Love,
mummy.

Wedding

Uncle Didih & Auntie Lina

Dear Mia,

This weekend was one busy weekend for us. Your uncle Didih finally tied the knot to your new auntie Lina. We attended all three functions and by last night, we were exhausted. You sleep right through the night. It all started on Friday afternoon where we attended the Nikah Ceremony, then on Sunday morning we went to the Bersanding then in the evening just you and me went to the Ambil-ambilan function. I made a dress especially for your uncle didih's wedding and was happy that many loved it. I'm sure to be designing more dresses for you.

On the Pelamin

"Mia's signature dress"

In the afternoon while having a rest, I left you in your playpen to amuse yourself while I did a little bit of tidying up around the TV room. Then, I saw the most adorable thing. You were holding your teddy bear, talking to him then you started putting one of your shape blocks to his mouth. Only then did I realize you were playing pretend. You have such a great imagination. You were actually using the shape block as a glass and were feeding teddy. I couldn't help but smile. It was just too cute.


Love,
Mummy
xoxo

11 Months Old

Our Sunday Ritual
(Breakfast at Countrypatch)

My dearest Pumpkin,

Happy 11 months my sweetiepie!!! Alhamdullillah, you have reached another month. Mummy cannot believe in another months time, you'll be 1 years old. Time certainly does fly my dearest one. I have truly enjoyed watching you grow from a cheerful baby into a little 'soon-to-be' toddler.

Your main achievement this month that you can now actually walk. Everyone is amazed that you can walk already and at a young age too. I would like to break it down to the fact that I did not get you a baby walker so soon. I only bought your baby walker when you were 9 months and since then you have only used it a couple of times. We decided to leave it at Grandma's house so you could use it there and its safer than at home. Though you knew how to balance by yourself already, i think the walker gave you a little more confidence to take those first few steps by yourself.

A few of the new things you have been doing lately is opening your mouth wide when we ask where's your gigi. Its just hilarious coz when you do open your mouth, you actually cover all your teeth and we can't see any. haha. You also know how to count one to ten. Well, okay okay, you are not that much of a genius yet but when you do count, although it isn't clear, the sounds are there. I normally start off by saying "Oneee" and you would continue by saying "Teeww" which is the only number you kind of get right. The sounds to the rest of the numbers are all muffled!..haha. The latest word you like to say is "Nice", though it only comes out as "Nai". I'm sure by next week, you'll be able to say the "sss" part. You have also mastered finger-feeding yourself. On weekends when mummy goes out to buy fastfood and its just you and I in the car, you normally get restless, so a couple of weeks ago, I tried giving you a french fry which kept you quiet for sometime. At first you had difficulty with the last little piece of the french fry but now you're a master at it.

It puts a smile on my face when you see the dogs and you bark then when you see the cats you meow. You a like this mini-sound-machine..haha. Grandpa always brings you to see his collection of wooden ducks and always says "tsk tsk tsk"....so now when you see ducks on the TV, you do the same. I'm sure you know ducks are not called tsk tsk tsk as when i say duck you seem to understand.

Now, since you are big enough, during bathtime, i allow you to play in the tub for a good 15-20 minutes. I fill up the tub, shampoo your hair then let you play in the water. I always leave the door open so you can see me walking in and out of the TV room. I normally use this time on weekends to clear up my bedroom and your nursery as well as the TV room.

Everyday at 6.30pm, mummy likes to book the TV so I can watch 'Jon & Kate plus eight'. As that is usually your "nenen" time, we usually sit on the sofa and watch it together. Everytime you see the sextuplets, you always say "Baby". I think now you associate the word baby to children as well as babies...hehe...you are, my love, the sweetest thing I have ever laid my eyes on. I love you!

xoxo

Girls Night Out

Tonight we had a great dinner, courtesy of your Auntie Gail at Villa Mauri. Of course you were the guest of honour since almost all the pictures we took that night were of you. I was happy to see that you behaved well. We had a little bit of Auntie Sue's french fries and mummy's shepards pie. As usual you turned many heads that night. After dinner we droppped by Hua Ho to get your monthly birthday present then we sent Auntie Sue before heading back home. It was nice to be out with your Aunties....but unfortunately, it felt incomplete...we were missing your Auntie Mamah :(