i shall not stop writing.

A few weeks back I was a little disappointed when told that the class I wanted to enrol for Rohani Jelani cooking was full. But my spirits were lifted somewhat when a publisher I've been working with on some projects extended me 4 free tickets to watch Toy Story 3. It was like a blessing in disguise that the cooking class was full as I was then able to 'treat' my family to a movie session *wink* I was ecstatic even more than my eldest hehe... because I totally love Toy Story and have mentioned to the publisher a month back that I was looking forward to catch the movie when it reaches our shores.

Oh man... I think Toy Story 3 must have been the best of its trilogy. Seriously. You know how it is with movie producers trying to make the most bucks out of movie goers when their first instalment becomes successful... well, I think Toy Story must be one of the most successful animation yet because I totally enjoyed all of its previous 2 movies as they all invoke some real-life emotions even though it is an imaginative tale that you think would relate to a child-audience. Well, then again, everyone has a little child in them, right?

This third instalment was brilliant. I love everything about it... the strong script, hillarious scenes especially those with Barbie and Ken (and oh, that scene where Buzz was in Spanish mode!), the moving moments... and just when you thought things couldn't get any more touchy, you'd be so moved that something in you just want to breakdown into tears. Well, I did... and I cried buckets!

If you googled to find out the storyline (which I wouldn't rant so much in here to not spoil it for those who haven't watched it), every one of them movie reviewers would say the last 15 minutes of the film triggered some waterworks in them. Some were just close to tearing up but I was totally down to tears starting from the scene where the toys started to hold hands at the garbage incinerator. From there on, I just couldn't contain my emotions and I continued to cry til the end because the scenes were just so touching.

But don't let me get you on the emotional part... the movie was brilliant right from the start. It touches you on how amazing the producers were as this movie used up every imagination possible and kind of reminded me of my much younger days when I role play while acting as if I was in another world filled with my toys as life-like characters.

I think the best part about this movie is the attention to details - the clever planning of Andy's toys in order to escape, the beautiful bond they have with each other, their loyalty and how the writers emphasised each of the toys' characteristics that we all have identified with in the previous 2 Toy Story installations, ie. how Rex loves to play video games, and the quirks of Mr & Mrs Potato, etc. Here, their personalities are given an even stronger emphasis that I find myself suddenly becoming their big fan and went totally excited when I saw them being sold in children's departments of major shopping centres ;)

This was little jj's first movie experience. We weren't worried of her being afraid of the darkness of the cinema because I know for a fact that she could just sit inside our room or her abang's room when it's dark. We were only worried that she wouldn't want to sit through the entire movie because she wanted to leave after 45 minutes when we watched Disney On Ice months back. Then, I was also worried that she wouldn't be able to watch the movie properly because I was pretty sure she wouldn't want to put on the 3D glasses. And, since she has been pretty much sensitive to noises, I was afraid that she would find the loud speakers a bit bothersome.

Yup, she hated the 3D glasses but she totally enjoyed the first part of the movie where they screened a short film called, Day & Night. If you're familiar with Pixar's movies, you would expect an interesting short movie just before the actual movie starts.

I think she was the noisiest during this short screening. There were sheep and cows and other farm animals that she started to get excited and shouted out loud the sounds they make, like, "Baaa baaa" for sheep, and "Moo moo" for the cows. She went on and made other sounds like the cat and the dogs, and the audience just laughed listening to the cute sounds she made... out loud! hehe... I was glad though that the cinema was filled with kids and I guess the audience was more tolerant of the noises their kids made and no one expected total silence from this movie session :)

We were surprised though, that little jj fell asleep as soon as Toy Story 3 started haha... I guess the screen was blurry since she refused to let us put on the 3D glasses but I was so glad that she slept through the entire movie because that gave us all a chance to sit through the entire session. She was dead to the world even with the blaring sound of the speakers during some suspense moments nearing the end. In fact, she was sound asleep until the audience left the hall and all through mommy sniffing and snorting from that very emotional experience *blush*

And, I was happy that little jj managed to wear the Audrey-Hepburn-ish fleece jacket that I got from Next Baby when we were in the UK last year. It was only 10 pounds and although I knew that she may only be wearing it during the short trip, I couldn't resist getting it because it was so cute and cheap. I was glad that although the jacket is for a 12-month old baby, it fits a baby that weighs up to 11 kilos thus fitting little jj perfectly!

The little munchkin truly enjoyed this movie too since we allowed him to skip his taekwondo lesson just to take advantage of this session. I mean, if I weren't given free tickets, I wouldn't know when we'd decide to just go and bring little jj along. Furthermore, it was during the school holidays and his taekwondo lesson was somewhat more of a practise session rather than an actual lesson because many students were away during the break. Thus, I thought it was a fantastic opportunity.

If you haven't yet watched Toy Story 3, I do think you wouldn't go wrong with this selection. Even if you do not have kids and not sure if animation suit your soul, I don't think you'll be disappointed with this movie. And if you haven't cried in a long time, catch this movie for that great humour and you'll find yourself crying towards the end... and no one will penalise you for crying because many of them will. I think so la...

my inspiration for this entry ;)

It's 11.15pm when I started typing this and am just dreading the moment, if, in case little jj does a number on me the way she did late last night.

Ok, I must say that she has expanded her vocabulary awfully quick. Although most of the time she would talk gibberish, there would be times when we are all surprised by the words that came out of her without us pushing her to repeat after us.

Like the other day, she held her precious giraffe toy and said, "biraffe"...

Then she pointed out a photo of shoes and boots in her counting & colours book and said, "syuuu"...

And she loves to pick up coins from our room or her brother's room and would hand them over to me. Usually, I would say thank you to her but the other day, she said, "kangkoo" before handing over the coins ;)

Yesterday, she saw the birth of a baby giraffe on Animal Planet and said, "goat!" haha...

And we recently saw her acting on her curiosity at mommy's beloved kitchen. Being a toddler, she's a naturally curious munchkin. But, I had always been able to manage that curiosity because she would hear me say, "No", and be very obedient not to touch stuff in the kitchen. Even when I leave a cupboard open, she would just look at the cookwares and plates and stuff and not touch them... until very recently, though. It helped that our kitchen cabinets do not have knobs on them. As it is pretty difficult to open them, she had only learnt the tricks to that and only recently started to rummage through everything. Yup, that she recently did.

Being her mom and knowing her baby's character to the T, I wondered when she'd start getting sick. You know how it is with some beliefs that when a baby starts to acquire certain skills, she'd be down with fever? I remembered when she started to count 1-10 out loud months ago and said few things like 'abang' and 'atuk' and 'nenek' and 'cupcakes' and 'chicken' and stuff, she fell ill right after :D but that was expected because I did read somewhere on the net that a baby's brain can only absorb an X amount of info and too much info all at once can be pretty overwhelming for them.

So, with this belief and an anticipation to be prepared for another bout of fever especially since she's been sneezing a lot too, I got disturbed when she kept crying at many intervals last night although she has turned in by 10pm. It was after midnight when she cried non-stop and though I would like to just ignore it since daddy can manage, I was worried that she actually had developed a temperature.

I was glad, though, that I checked in on her because the top part of her pyjamas was wet from her tears and I definitely didn't want her to catch cold since she sleeps in an air-conditioned room. Changed her into another pair of pyjamas and held her tight while I lay on my back on the sofa in the living room.

Now, this is another new habit she has... she loves to just lie on her tummy while she's either on her daddy, her abang or moi... only the three of us. It's as if she misses hearing the sound of the heartbeat that when she's cranky, she'd instantly become calm when she lies on us that way.

She held me tight as if not wanting me to leave her (since I don't sleep with her anymore) and I actually thought she would fall asleep soon after. To my surprise, she lifted her head and said, "kih kih kih muahh muaahh" while she kissed my face repeatedly hehe...

So, from around 1 am til probably 4.30am, I was with her (while I fell asleep on and off) watching episodes of Chuggington, and Handy Manny... and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, where by this time, she was already on her feet and jumping to the tunes... and Special Agent OSO, and so on. At one point, I actually thought she went into our room because I could hear her say, "beat beat beat", where she would tap on us if she wants to wake someone up hehe... but I later realised that she actually went to her abang's room to get him to play with her. Abang, of course, was snoring heavily as we all had a looooong day yesterday, walking around in Ikea and then picking up daddy before we headed over to Giant's to get diapers.

Oh ya, the one woke up for awhile to accompany us at the living room during all these. In fact, at first I thought he woke up to switch to the sports channel but I guess he was tired as well and went back into the room soon after.

Around 4.30am when I could see little jj being fidgety, I reckon that I should push her to sleep and the only way to do it (when mommy has to put her to sleep in the room) was to offer her my boobies. Yup, although she has weaned off me completely, she still haven't got the hang of no boobies to sleep when she's laid to sleep in the room.... only with mommy, and only when she's in the room. So, by the time she had totally fell asleep was about an hour later.

Damn it was a truly tiring night for me and I was glad that today was a pretty calm day... The best part of it was that little jj fell asleep very easily for her afternoon nap and that lasted a good 3 hours of peace and serenity ;)

As a mom, I am of course extremely happy to see how cute she's become and how much she has developed so far... we are all adjusting to her new habits and even bought a gate for our kitchen. Yup, my fault that I had asked the contractor to remove the door to our kitchen because I felt that it wasn't necessary but then again, I wouldn't feel safe to not know what's happening inside the house if I were to cook with the door closed. So, we're only starting to install the gate.

Her latest habits make her feel so precious to me and I love that bond of holding her tight and keeping her secure. It can be daunting at times when she needs me to be near her almost all the time and it can be pretty tiring when she starts to get very demanding but most of the time, and hearing her talk, I feel so damn proud of her.

I count my blessings and am truly grateful for everything in my life.

Ok... it is already after midnight and I have a feeling she wouldn't be pulling that same stint tonight *cross my fingers*

Owh, it's a Friday already! Shall I plan for a day out to KLCC tomorrow (I mean, today)?? *wink*

little jj did this with my phone for the first time ever...

Last Sunday we had to force ourselves out of the apartment as TNB was doing some maintenance work at our condo and there would be a power outage from 10am-3pm.

We were pretty lazy to do anything at first since we were already out almost an entire day the day before. But... since both our pwincesh and the little munchkin cannot stand the heat these days, we knew we had to find something to do outside.

At first, we even thought of going for a 'picnic' at our poolside... you know, just to swim all day, have lunch from McD's, bask in the sun, and then swim summore... but it's fine if there were just the one and I... it wouldn't be very comfortable for little jj, though, as she'd need her nap and all.

So, by 10ish, we were out having breakfast at our favourite Restoran Subang, opposite FAM. We took our sweet time, have the car washed just behind the restaurant and just lepak. It has been awhile since we relaxed like this. Usually, we'd always be pressed for time, wanting to rush here and there trying to get as many things done as possible. It was a nice change to be able to sit, read the papers, enjoy the food and not worry about what comes next.

We were still contemplating on 2 things... to head over to my mom's place which was just 10 minutes away or we could either head on to IOI Mall, Puchong (because we've never ever been there!) or Mines Shopping Centre because it was far and little jj could enjoy the view of the water way ala Venice or we could just go 1 Utama again because we know what we could do there. When we got into the car, the one suddenly suggested Sunway Pyramid since it is huge enough to while away time until electricity comes back on at our place and also because it has been such a long time since we went there.

So, Sunway Pyramid it was.

First up, definitely and always, the IT section. Since years back, Sunway Pyramid's IT section has always been said to be comparable to the shops at Low Yat. Thus, most of the gadgets that we own came from here, if not the Digital Mall at Section 14, PJ. The one could spend hours in this section especially if he drops by his favourite gaming shop. Heck, even choosing a suitable mouse for his netbook takes awhile before he settles for something he really likes. As for moi, my opinion doesn't really count since I am not a techie geek and have not much techie knowledge, and that my choices are always based on cosmetic factor hehe... so, yeah.. take that orange mouse because it is tiny and cute or that bright red laptop because red is gorgeous ;P then again, I am biased in some stuff like I only use Nokia phones after a not-that-great experience using the Sony Ericsson's K700i and the Motorola's Motoming, and I only use a Mac computer because I think they are the best in terms of its processing system, gorgeous factor and value for money. So, I am not much help in this department ;P

When it was almost close to lunch time, we decided to grab something for little jj since all of us are still full from the big breakfast we had earlier. I suddenly remembered my best buddy, Ai Mei, whom I met on Friday, mentioning this delectable cheese hot dog pretzel from Auntie Anne's. She said that her Jeremy loved it and I thought of giving it a try.

So, there I went, queueing up for the hot dog when the one then gave me a signal that little jj was fast asleep in her stroller hehe... grabbed an additional lemonade and snack for us all to rest our feet before embarking on our journey to dunno whichothershops.

I think we scoured every single inch of the mall! hehe... oh, and I made sure to drop by one of my latest favourite outlet - Marks & Spencer. See... their clothes have always been too large for me but recently, I just discovered that their clothes sit well on my [slightly] heavier bod and their jeans/pants look so perfect on me. If you've never checked them out, you should... they have improved a lot on their designs and they do not look as boring as they did before. Then again, I think our local distributors were the ones who brought in them boring designs from the UK.

I was looking high and low for some of their collection I saw in their catalogue but was disppointed when I checked out their outlets in 1U and KLCC. What do you know... the one in Sunway Pyramid actually has a better variety in their store! Well, at least in my opinion.

The jeans and pants that I've bought in M&S are really smart for us moms with tummies because the waistband is placed so perfectly on our problem area and your tummy will not look bulgy. You know how it is with those low-waisted pants/jeans which will give you that 'spare tyre' look especially when you sit down???... hah... no more of those when I sit ;) Oh, for those of you with 'thunder-thighs', their pants and jeans will fit you well too :)

I also think that their fitting rooms are roomier here... could it be due to the fact that they are built with the Arabs in mind? I mean, we all know the nearby Sunway Resort Hotel is always a popular hangout for those from the Middle East.

Little jj had a really good sleep and woke up around 2 hours later when we were all trying out some healthy fruit concoction just a floor above the skating rink. They were giving out some free-tasting mixed fruit juice and since we were already pretty tired from walking 20km (kidding!) we decided to give them a try.

While we were there, we even caught a couple who ordered just one drink and played a game on their respective iPhones, with each other... kind of reminded us those days when we were dating where we always played scrabble on our Palm, using the infrared to connect to each other after we've formed our words ;)

When little jj woke up, I fed her the hot dog and boy, did she love it... she ate 3/4 of it. I was surprised that she could really eat that much :D

It was almost 4pm when we decided to make a move. But before we left Sunway Pyramid, we went over to their babies' changing room (I love their baby room, as reviewed here before).

When we got home, the electricity was already back on and instead of continuing work, I decided to join my boys and pwincesh in the pool.

I've always been a person who likes things to be well planned according to time and specific schedules so that I could plan out when (and how long I'd need) for house chores like laundry or even work that needs to be done on the computer. But sometimes, in cases like this, it sure was fun to be able to just relax and not be restricted to time. Of course I can't do that all the time because I'd need to prioritise my tasks as I could never tell what will happen next with the baby and deadlines I've committed but it sure was welcoming to be able to just put any worries aside and deal with things as and when.

As it was just open, parking was still FOC and getting a parking space was a breeze. First impression - the place is so spacious with a unique layout. The open space area is so spacious and although it was a hot hot day, the area was pretty airy with the presence of gigantic fans on their high ceiling.

Further inside, there's a door into the mall area and my eyes instantly caught on two outlets - Baskin Robbins (hehe...) and Village Grocer (I can seriously get lost in this place I call, mommy's haven *grins*).

Now, I hardly frequent the Village Grocer at Bangsar Village because it is just so out of the way for me but I love the variation that's available. Now that there is one in Damansara, I foresee myself checking out this place more often. I think it is probably an even bigger outlet and its selection abundant.