Cheeks to Cheeks

Kittycat really got my arm twisted ‘cos I didn’t do the first tag. *sorry!*

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? I believe it is Vivien Leigh from Gone with the Wind. My mom will have to correct it if I’m wrong.
2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? I almost did last week when I thought I’d lost my blog’s database.
3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Used to, not anymore ‘cos nowadays I tend to scribble messily on postit notes.
4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Don’t have a particular favorite.
5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? Two girls.
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I don’t hate me, so I’ll say YES.
7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? LOL! Need you ask? I believe the hubby is bobbing his head in agreement.
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes.
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? I would if I didn’t have kids.
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Post Selects Banana Nut Crunch.
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Nope.
12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? I’m getting stronger each day as the girl grows. Have you ever tried carrying a 30 lbs toddler?
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Vanilla; especially those with vanilla bean specks in ‘em.
14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Their smile.
15. RED OR PINK? Red
16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF? My mid-drift spare tyre.
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My parents and sister. They are equally important in my life.
18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? It will be nice.
19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Dark blue jeans and brown slip-ons.
20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? Spicy pork with rice and vermicelli (Korean food).
21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Co-workers’ conversation; an ex-colleague is in town visiting us.
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Purple. I really dunno but that’s the first color that popped into my mind.
23. FAVORITE SMELLS? My babies’ hair after a shower/bath.
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My sister.
25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Haha! That’s a silly question. Yes, I do like you, Christine.
26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? Gymnastic (hey, we have something in common, KC!), pretty much everything except baseball, tennis, soccer and wrestling.
27. HAIR COLOR? Black with brown hues (all natural).
28. EYE COLOR? Dark brown.
29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Used to, now I’m too lazy to wear ‘em.
30. FAVORITE FOOD? Noodles: Be it Italian pasta, Vietnamese Pho, Prawn Mee, etc.
31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy endings…I’m too chicken to watch Scary Movies. If I do, I need someone to accompany me to watch it.
32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? The Spiderwick Chronicles (on TV).
33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Cream colored shirt with Beige floral prints.
34. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer!
35. HUGS OR KISSES? I’m greedy, I want both!
36. FAVORITE DESSERT? Cold durian. Anything cold can be dessert, can’t it?
37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? “Mom? Mommy?”; in which my response will be, “Yes, baby?”
38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? LOL! The husband will know this. I’ll keep this tag PG.
39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Nana Star by Elizabeth Sills and Elena Patrice.
40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Haven’t used a mouse pad in years!
41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT? 29th Olympic closing ceremony.
42. FAVORITE SOUND? Belle’s snores. They are the cutest little snores.
43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles: Grew up with Beatles ‘cos Dad is a Beatles fan.
44. WHAT IS THE FURTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? It’s either Montreal, Canada or Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Does pumping milk under 15 minutes count? LOL!
46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Kuala Lumpur
47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK? My lunch buddy, Vickie. Do hop over her new cute site.

Summer is almost over and I’ve only been to the pool once. Yes, you heard me right; it’s just one pathetic ONCE. We had plans to teach Belle swimming but decided not to ‘cos swimming hours (the public pool we go to) interfere with gymnastic classes.

If only my work ends at 3pm, then Belle would have more after school activities during weekdays. We would like her to learn swimming but from the look of it she will probably have to wait till next summer. Looks like the Disney Princess swimwear I got for her will have to wait. I hope she will still fit in it next year.

Last weekend I’ve stayed away from my blog and got the needed rest. If only Cassie would coorperate, it would’ve been a pleasant weekend. Poor baby is teething and her second tooth (bottom) sprouted on Saturday. She even had a slight fever due to her teething but all’s well now.We’re also very happy that her bowel movement has resume to normal. She has gone from doing it once a week to 2-3 times a day. I suppose the solids we’ve been feeding her helps.

Nai Nai has been feeding her prunes mixture and prune/apple juice diligently. We got so used to her once a week poop and we find the 2-3 times a day poop schedule a bit of a nuisance now. Don’t poop, worry…poop a wee bit too much also worry.

Last night little girl wanted to be nursed whenever she’s awake. Mind you, everytime she turned she would wake up crying. To pacify her, I just gave her the teat. Now I’m seriously considering giving her the pacifier. Jon is against it but I don’t think I can last throughout the night pacifying her. This morning I could hardly wake up. If it wasn’t for Belle (who walked into the room), I wouldn’t get up from the bed. I gave the pacifier to my MIL and told her to try giving it to Cassie during nap time. I hope it works. If it doesn’t, I guess this set of boobs have to do overtime work.

Last night I went to bed early with the girls and I had probably TKO’ed before 10pm. When I woke up this morning I could barely pry my eyelids open. I’m just extremely tired today. Then Cassie laid a big one and I had no choice but to climb out of the bed and clean her up.

Right now I’m at work and I just don’t feel like doing anything. I am THAT tired. Am I pregnant? I don’t think so. Yeah, I’m definitely not pregnant. Anyway, I’m not sure what is draining my energy. My hunch is my website. I was so stressed out about it for the past few days. I’m still kinda stressful now ‘cos whatever I’m doing isn’t complete.

I’ve also noticed that the stress I’m going through has taken a toll on my BM. For the past two days I could not pump more than 5 oz per session. The worse was 2 days ago where I had a pathetic 2.5oz during one of the pump sessions. This isn’t good at all. I’m trying to down at least 1.5 liters of water each day now in hope to get my 6oz of BM.

Boy, do I need a time off badly. I just want to play with my babies and nap with them.

Has it been a year already? I remember blogging about the Alzheimer’s Memory Walk last year and encouraged people from all walks in life to participate. This annual event has received many attentions and the Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk® still and always need such exposure. Do you know the Memory Walk raises awareness and funds for Alzheimer care, support and research? They need YOU to volunteer.

How are YOU going to help?

1) Become a Team Captain. A Team Captain organizes Memory Walks in his/her community. A Memory Walks is a 2-3 miles walk, typically held on a weekend morning in fall. He/She recruits and encourages his/her walkers while chairing the fundraising for the team. If you think you have the Leadership quality in you, you should go for it!

2) Participate in a Memory Walk. Anyone (young and old) can participate in this 2-3 mile walk.

3) Do not feel like doing physical workout? Donate to this charity.

What are you waiting for now? Fall is coming soon and Alzheimer Association Memory Walk® needs you! Go to their site by click on the hyperlinks above/below to get details. Together we can help redicate Alzheimer’s disease.

One word of advice for all bloggers who have their own domain(s): ALWAYS & FREQUENTLY BACKUP YOUR DATABASE. After what I had been through I have developed a phobia. I wonder if Webster dictionary will come up with a new phobia name for the fear of losing a blog’s database.

I’m going crazy now, as in doing daily backup of my WP blog and saving it in my host database. On top of that, I have a backup in an online site (will blog about it later). I’m contemplating in printing each post and have the papers binded like a book. I’m also thinking of copy & paste into my previous (free) WP blog that currently isn’t open for public viewing.

So, yeah, I’ve became quite anal retentive when comes to saving a backup of my WP database.

I am mentally worn out by the recent experience. I thought everything was fine and dandy, and easily fixable when I transferred from one web hosting to another. I was so wrong. I didn’t sleep well for the past few nights due to fear. Fear of losing all my posts that I had put sweat and time into it. Fear that my children will not be able to view the journal I’ve documented for them. I’m just glad I was able to retrieve this blog but I still need to figure out one more thing to make this domain transfer 100% successful.

I still have a few days to figure this out. Just thinking about it has already exhausted me. Jon will probably have to go to massage therapy schools to learn some massage techniques ‘cos I really need a good rub now.

We’re up and running…for now. Many of you have left IM messages, email, even phone calls (you know who you are..hehe) about my site being down. This shows I actually have readers. Anyway, it has been a heart-breaking, stressful week (from last Friday till today).

I’m still tweaking my site. So, let’s pray everything will run smoothly soon. It’s good to be back!

Daddy had a time-off from the kids last Sunday. He went out with another Daddy, Uncle Ernest, to watch Batman. Being alone with the kids ain’t that bad. Belle helped me feed Cassie. After our brunch, I put Cassie into the exersaucer while Belle was busy watching her cartoons. I decided to wash the dishes. I thought Belle was engrossed with her cartoon, I turned around and saw this…

Instead of helping the younger one, this Mom took the camera and snapped away…

I stopped when I saw this…

This Belle is really a monkey! Cassie now knows she can use crying as her defense.

When Belle was little (less than 5 month old) I used to bathe her in the baby tub. It was tedious. We had put a piece of towel under the tub to catch excess water ‘cos we bathe her in the kitchen. Our kitchen is the warmest place in the house, whereas our bathroom is the coldest. We had to collect water from the kitchen sink with a wash basin and pour the water into the tub. I had to bathe her while sitting on a low stool. It was quite a back breaking experience. All that changed after I had a chat with one of the neighbors. She told me she bathes her babies in the kitchen sink.

We gave that a try and it was so much easier to bathe a baby in the sink. Most importantly, no more back pain. We would put a wash basin on the sink and fill it up with water. Belle had her baths in the sink till she was a year old. We transition her to our standing shower stall after our trip back from Malaysia.

Cassie has been taking her baths in the kitchen sink since Day 1 (well, since she had her 1st bathing experience). She is a little different from Belle. In the past, whenever I try to put her into the wash basin, she would lengthen her body and refused to sit. Most of the time she preferred to stand. She was quite a difficult girl until she started to sit well. Now I have to distract her by turning on the water spout and she will sit contently and plays with the water. Most of the time she tries to grasp the water with her hands. It’s so much fun watching her do that.

I wonder if people who own a farm bathe their baby in farmhouse sinks. How do you bathe you baby?