Too Little For Chicken Little

look ma, no pants

"You've never brought Jesse to the cinema?" my sis Sue asked, her eyes opened wide, almost pulsating out of her sockets. "Not even once?"

Indeed we had not. We just never felt ready to bring Jesse to a cinema. What if he cried? What if he whinged and whined out loud bugging all the nice folks at the auditorium? What if the other patrons started throwing popcorn and Coke at us?

"Why don't we go for a matinee show at GSC's Gold Class?" Ah Fook, the ever-inspired brother-law-asked. "If all of us went," he reasoned pointing to my other siblings and our parents, "we'd pratically take up the whole auditorium." In principal, it was a good concept. There'd be no one outside our family for Jesse to annoy. And so, at 11:50am on Sunday last week, we saw Chicken Little at One Utama. There were two other couples there. And they brought their toddlers too.

For some reason, everytime the trailer came on TV, the little fowl reminded us of our own little guy. Besides, Jesse always perked up when they played that Chicken Little teaser with the strangely infectious Numa-Numa song. So we thought he might enjoy the show. Unfortunately, our boy just wasn't ready for such an outing. He got disinterested quickly enough and just started messing around with the popcorn and coke. Thankfully, though, he didn't kick up too much of a fuss.

And so at RM35 a pop, it cost us RM105 for Mae, Roma and me. Plus refreshments and lunch, we spent a small fortune for last Sunday's outing, only to learn that our son isn't gonna be ready for another cinema outing for another year. *sigh*

You know what they say - a fool and his money are soon parted. Yes, an idiot and his wife are RM170 poorer.

Sick Help

For as long as we've had Jesse, he's never gotten really sick before. Maybe a little flu here and there, and a bit of cough once in awhile; but never really sick. Until yesterday.

Poor kid got the sniffles on Sunday night. That rapidly developed into a cough and a little fever. As if that wasn't bad enough, he had diarrhea too yesterday. It broke my heart into little pieces seeing the little guy suffer like that. And suffer, he did. Mae and I had to take turns watching him all night. Here's what we learnt, courtesy of our Pediatrician, Baby Center and good old fashion Momma's Advice:

1. A little Vicks Vaporub on the chest can help with the nasal congestion and apparently, cough too. Jesse couldn't sleep cos he had trouble breathing. A little Vicks and shortly after, he was out like a light.
2. Diarrhea will leave the kid dehydrated. Your doctor can prescribe an electrolyte solution. Otherwise, 100 Plus works too. Open the can, allow it to sit till it gets flat (no more gas), and serve. Jesse prefers 100 Plus.
3. Yoghurt also works for kids with Diarrhea. Some live cultures can help the kid get better quicker. Our doc gave us some in granule form. Otherwise, try Yakult.
4. A cold compress on the forehead can help rid the fever. Kool Fever strips help too. Just make sure you're not too sleepy to read the instructions. Mae and I spend a good half hour wondering why the damn thing didn't stay on Jesse's forehead. Peeling off the back sheet helps. *ahaks*

Anyway Jesse's fever has subsided. And the diarrhea is gone too. So far, the boy seems to be holding up well. Ah, perhaps we'll get some sleep tonight.

Mixed Festivities

dei thambi!

For the recent holidays, we decided to give Jesse a little Indian Kurta. He looks like a tiny little Amitabh Bachan minus the facial hair and macho wrinkles.

We would have gotten him a Baju Melayu as well, if he didn't keep tripping over the sampin. So that wouldn't have worked too well. Besides, these days he seemed adversed to having anything placed atop his head and a songkok would have been a problem as well. And so we took the boy visiting in his new outfit. Unfortunately, however, we didn't know anybody who celebrated Deepavali in KL. So he wore a Indian costume for Hari Raya instead.

And then there was Roma. Mae and I had decided it would be a nice gesture to give her a new outfit for the Hari Raya and so we brought her Baju Kurung shopping around town. Unfortunately, the picky girl couldn't decide on an outfit and instead settled for a Chinese number. So there we were at Elin's house during Raya lending a very muhibbah flavour to the event.

It looked more like we had our festivals mixed up. Perhaps we'll dress the boy up in Iban gear next year. :)

Some Announcements

For some reason, I have so much to say that I'm almost bursting at the seams. So expect a barrage of posting in the next couple of days. First up, here are some announcements:

PROJECT PRIVILEGE
Brownie the Colleague from Hell, who now owes me a PaanMein, made me plug this so here it is. Project Privilege is a blog that aims to help the victims of the South Asian-Pakistan/India Quakes. They are holding a charity event to help buy tents for the victims there.

Disclaimer: I do not know the owners of the Project Privilege personally and therefore cannot vouch for their credibility. If you're donating, do take special care to ask all the relevant questions.

HAIR FOR HOSPICE
Peter Tan, in case you didn't know, shaved of his locks to raise RM 5000 for the Penang Hospice-at-Home Programme. He has since raised RM 5170 for the programme and is now a shoo-in for the role of Professor Xavier in the next installment of X-Men. If you missed the boat, do not despair. You can still donate and who knows, perhaps Peter might shave other parts of his body. Heh! I think I just grossed myself out.

PANDAN CHICKEN
Some weeks back, I urged you to buy Pandan Chicken to help this little family have a good Raya. And buy, you did! In all, Elin managed to sell a whopping 70 boxes of Pandan Chicken. Special thanks to the folks who purchased over 60 boxes!! Special thanks also to the wonderful lady who texted Elin to tell her she loved the Pandan Chicken. Bless your kind hearts. The family had a better Raya this year because of you. I had a pretty good Raya too since I had my fill of Pandan Chickens when we visited the family.

Okay, I'm done. Move along now, nothing more to see here.

Practical Skills

At fourteen months, some kids can do plenty. Wave bye-bye. Blow kisses. Point out their eyes, nose, mouths or whatever. And then there is Jesse.

"Look at that Baby Jubbs - pointing out his eyes and mouth and nose. Our son can't do any of these," Mae gestures with her thumb to the boy sitting quietly in the back seat with his Kakak Roma. Jesse doesn't make a peep. It's almost as if he agrees.

"Yes, but our boy has practical skills," I protested, pointing out that despite Baby Jubbs ability to blindly follow the instructions of silly adults he has yet to learn to walk. Mae makes a monkey face at me.

"It's true," I explained, "Imagine if Jesse got lost in a jungle with Baby Jubbs and a tiger shows up. Our son will be able to run away while Baby Jubbs will be busy pointing at his eyes, nose, mouth and his pee-pee."

"Awww... you're jealous," Mae give me another monkey face, this time more condescending than the first. For some reason, it comes easy to her - the monkey face, I mean. Anyway, when we got home, Mae proceeded to educate Jesse on the aspects of his anatomy. Me, I think I'll teach him something more practical. Like grabbing a smart-aleck kid by the nuts or something.

Okay, okay, I'm jealous! Sue me.

Swede Nothings

the best thing since Abba

If you've ever bought anything at Ikea Kota Damansara, you would have noticed an eatery right after the check-out counters. It's a small cafe at the exit area named, quite aptly so, the Exit Cafe. Heh!

Yesterday, having run out of places to entertain Jesse, I brought him in to the section where they sell Swedish goodies. In fact, if you like any of the Swedish stuff you eat at any one of Ikea's 3 restaurants, chances are you'll find them here. Yes, even the meatballs and the brown sauce mix, and the little berries on top!

But what caught my attention was the squeeze-tube shrimp cream cheese! It's cream cheese with little bits of shrimp in it and it comes in a metal tube, just like toothpaste. (Actually it's more like tile-grout since toothpastes no longer use metal tubes.) I bought a tube of the stuff along with a pack of Swedish crispbreads.

I love it. The crunchy healthy-tasting crispbread! The creamy cream cheese. And the little bits of shrimp. Plus the convenience of getting in a tube. I'm half tempted to brush my teeth with the stuff. Or squeeze the whole tube in my mouth when no one's watching. Whoa! I bet Jesse would love it too, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to share yet. Heh!

Ahhhh... I love Ikea!

More Milestones

October has been a pretty eventful month for Jesse. Ok. Maybe not for Jesse, but we're pretty excited with Jesse's developments.

TEETHING
As of last week, he's got 8 little incisors. And he knows how to use them. Usually, he puts them to good use - to chomp off Daddy's pizza, or to crush Pringles chips. Occasionally, however, whenever I roughhouse with the little fella he'd take a bite out of me in his excitement. Note to self: Wear a shirt at all times. A stray nipple is a nice target for a little bite-test.

CLAPPING
We've been teaching Jesse to clap forever. Somehow it never quite sunk in. But we'd usually clap at him in encouragement of any little clever thing he does. Two weeks back, the boy suddenly decided to clap. Now he claps at every little clever thing he does. Heh. How's that for narcissism? He also claps along with music from his toys.

WALKING
This is by far our most exciting milestone. Yesterday, the boy upped and took five steps all on his own. It was intriguing to watch him manoeuvre himself on his little legs. Standing in a mid-crouch position he negotiated his first walk one step at a time, each time looking at us for signs of approval. Oh boy, did we cheer! He was a little shaky but it looks like he'll be doing it a lot from now own. *ulp*

DRINKING
Just a few days after I blogged about his refusal to hold his own bottle, Jesse decided to show me a thing or two. Not only is he holding his own bottle now, he's holding it in one hand. The other hand is usually on a remote control, or scratching his balls. Hehh. Typical male!

FEEDING
Jesse had decided that he would feed us every time we fed him his meals. As you can imagine, it's a messy affair. He'd grab his spoon, poke it into his porridge or whatever it was we're feeing him and stuff the spoon into our mouths. It's as though he's telling us that he'd only eat it if we'd eat it ourselves. The boy would even say, "Ummm!" just to encourage us. Note to self: Pumpkin is messy.

He's growing up pretty fast. Before you know it, he'll be borrowing the car, or getting married or something. *sniff* I think I'm having a bout of premature Mid-Life Crisis!