Tag

I have been tagged by Jesslyn and Geetha. Only for you ladies..


1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn on page 18 and find line 4.
"..sash of scarlet and gold across the right shoulder and a grey.."

- The Drink and Dream Teahouse by Justin Hill (reading current book esp during pumping sessions)

2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can.
Zara's photo pinned up at my cubicle.

3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
Kind of glance at American Idol, while at King's Wife's place. Don't really watch TV (oh, not counting those VCD, DVD that Zara watches).

4.Without looking, guess what time it is?
6:30pm

5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
6:30pm

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
People talking on the phone to families.. it's passed office hours, everybody is calling their girl friends/boy friends or family.

7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
Stepped out of the office to return stroller to Jasmine.

8. Before you started this survey, what did you look at?
My blog, Yahoo messanger screen (having a conference with Seng Kor, May, Lin Peh, Lil Patchi, Jomel).

9. What are you wearing?
A shirt and a skirt.

10. Did you dream last night?
I didn't.

11. When did you last laugh?
Yesterday, when Zara did her counting in One Utama.

12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?
Company promotional and motivational posters.

13. Seen anything weird lately?
Hmm.. don't believe there's any.

14. What do you think of this quiz?
Just another tag I'm obligatedto do for those who tagged me.

15. What is the last film you saw?
The Down Fall (of Hitler)

16. If you became a multimillionaire overnight, what would you buy?
Buy a property in a nice gated community and move there!

17. Tell me something about you that I dunno.
Loads..

18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
Stop children from dying or being abused or being sick.

19. Do you like to dance?
Yes. Did ballet for a few years.. but now only dance jigs for Zara.

20. George Bush.
He ah..? Lousy gaomen.

21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
Zara

22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
Alessandro (but when I talked with Daddy about this when I was pregnant and didn't know the sex of our child, he was strongly against this name.. sooo...)

23. Would you ever consider living abroad?
Yes! Definitely! Don't mind Australia, England, America, Canada.

24.What do you want GOD to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?
"Ahh.. you.."

25. Five (5) people who must also do this meme in their journal.
- anybody
- somebody
- busybody
- everybody
- or just nobody
You like it, you do it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok. Am done with this.. Have been very busy at work, so the lack of response to some of the comments I recieved, and the delay in me visiting your blog, but I still try to catch up, sometimes reading a few posts at one go.

Tomorrow, I'll be off to Bali, back next Tues! Woot!

Bits & Pieces

I was changing her diaper. She suddenly blurted : "Fish Ball!".
I was curious why she said that, I just guessed and said, "Zara thinks Zara's toes look like fish ball is it?". I pointed to her toes.
Zara looked at me (as though I was stupid), then started pointing her finger at her mouth while saying, "Mum mum *point point* (Chinese: eat), Fish ball."
(Tuyam said she does that very often, when she asked for something to eat, and Tuyam couldn't understand her, she'll point to her mouth and sign to us, like we're some bozos)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This morning, while at play, she shouted, "Mita Boo (Mr Blue), where are you? Want suck tum (thumb)!"
(She has the habit of sucking her thumb while holding her soft toy Mr Blue)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While pushing her in the stroller yesterday, Zara counted, "For, fai, sik, sehwen, egg" And repeated. Asked her to do from One, it will go something like "One, Egg, Ten." (She knows they are numbers but doesn't know the sequence).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zara's reciting the nursery rhyme Hey Diddle Diddle sounds like this:

Diddle Diddle, Cat the fiddle, Cow oh the moon, spot, away spoon

(Actual, Hey Diddle Diddle, The Cat and the fiddle, The Cow Jumped over the moon, The Dog laughed to see such sport, And the dish ran away with the spoon)

Mini Me

While playing, Zara lets me see a side of me from her angle. The way she handles her doll, the way she role play is a reflection of how I handle her.

While playing with her doll (She calls it Baby Doll)
Zara : *took a small bottle of lotion* Drink milk ha. *Put bottle near the doll's mouth*
After a while
Zara : *smacked the doll* Beat!
Me : Zara, why you beat baby doll?
Zara : *poked the doll's chest* naughty! Baby Doll!
Me : Baby doll naughty meh?
Zara : Naughty!
(That's how I behaved when she's naughty I guess. Yikes!)
A moment later,
Zara : *stroke the doll* ayang (Sayang. Malay : stroke tenderly). *Bent down and kissed the doll's face* Muak! *carried and gave the doll a cuddle*
(I normally feel so guilty after smacking her, I kiss and 'sayang' her right after that)

Later, she was playing with her masak-masak (Malay : Cooking set), she 'made' soup and fed me.
Zara : bow first ah (Blow first huh?) *blew the spoon* fu.. fu.. *then put the spoon near my mouth*
Me : Mummy don't want.
Zara : *she stared at me with very fierce looking eyes* Must Drink!
(Yikes! Sounds like me forcing her to eat something)

She's 17th Month!

I have been busy, but it's no excuse not to post Zara's 17th month (which she turned on Friday) progress just like I always did in previous months.

~ Weight should be around 8.5kg to 9K
~ Height : ??
~ All four 1st molars are out, sprouting her 4 Cuspids (canines)

Dexterity :
Started jumping up and down, climbing up dining chairs or anything she thinks she can climb on (like a monkey), .

Trying to drink from a cup, but still needs us to control the tilt of the cup.

Language :
Developing really well in this area.

New popular phrases :
Cannot
Sked sked(Scared)
Not nice

Can tell us her experiences and feelings better :
About the park : "Ship Park. Turn turn wheels! Sit sides (Slides). Sit See Saw"
About Kidzsports : "Many balls. Tow away (Throw away). Big sides (Slides). Tuh-ner (tunnel), sked (scared)."
About a video she watched (Oliver): "Korkor (Chinese : Elder brother) so sad. No mummy. No Daddy. No kakak. Cry."

Able to say things in different intonation depending on the purpose:
If it's a request, she goes very sweet and nice.
If it's asking me where I am, she shouts real loud, "MUMMY, WHERE ARE YOU?"

Started using words with four syllables :
- kat-ter-eh-yer (caterpillar)
- eh-mot-on-toh (remote control)

Able to indicate sizes, quantity, ownership and use of other adjectives :
- many baju (Malay : clothes), many toys, many books, so many pebbles
- big snake, small stones, big bus
- mummy's one, Zara's one, ah-tie's (Auntie's) one
- sessy tothes (sexy clothes), dirty baju (Malay : clothes), wet for (floor), pretty bracelet, bitter cho-tet (chocolate)

Able to say the names of the people closest to her :
- my name, Daddy's name, Maid's name, King's Wife's name and King's name

Feeding / Food :
Fish is her favourite food, followed by bread and cheese; loves vegetables which are not too fibrous (asparagus, cabbage, spinach); likes fish balls very much.

Still, taking 3 solids meals (it may sound a lot, but the quantity she's taking is very little). Typically :
breakfast : one pot of petite miam yogurt, or half a bowl of oat porridge
lunch : one slice of bread with cheese, half a bowl of baby cereal, or half a hard boil egg
dinner : 1 small slice of steam fish fillet or 1 small whole steam fish (pomphret is her favourite) with half a bowl of porridge or rice with soup

3 to 4 (depending if she woke up early in the morning for some sip of milk) breast milk feed (3~4oz) + 1 formula feed (~5oz) a day.

In between she snacks on biscuits and fruits.

Emotions :
Very good in exerting her rights, but sometimes still confused about what she wants.

Very emotional, sometimes when we ask her to pretend to cry, she'll act out but then suddenly it becomes real tears flowing down her cheeks.

Very loving, gives kisses (especially for me) and hugs very frequently,

Nap, Jump, Request

Nap

She's at this stage where 2 naps are too many, and 1 nap is not enough.

With 2 naps, it's very difficult for me to get her to sleep in the night, and I really want her to sleep by 10pm, so that I'll at least have some time to do my own things before going to bed.

With 1 nap, she gets sleepy around 8:30pm. It's fine if I worked from home, but if I was at King's Wife's place, she falls asleep in the car on our way home, and then wakes up and becomes very fretful when I have to change her to pajamas; which means I'll need to spend lots of time calming her.

I try to get Tuyam to let her take 2 naps in King's Wife's place (but it's tough because she gets easily distracted by my nieces) and then take only 1 on days when I work from home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jump

She started jumping 2 weeks ago. On her first attempt, she fell backwards and landed on her buttocks. On her 2nd attempt (few minutes later), she landed on her buttocks, then lost her balance and knocked her head. After that, she's very careful, she held on to something (the chair, a pair of hands) when she jumped.

These few days, she just jumps! Happy to have her feet lifted off the ground. Naggy mummy is always saying, "Be carefully, after fall down" when she starts her jumping spree.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Request

She had been shouting for things she wanted. E.g. "KAKAK, VA-TER-JEN" (Vitergen). "MUMMY, PUT BARNEY!"

Tuyam taught her to 'speak nicely' when she wants something. So now, she request for things nicely, even the way she calls Kakak or Mummy is different. I added and told her she must say "please" for things she wants.

Sometimes she still shouts out her request, but most time, she remembers and speak nicely with a please.

Naughty Daddy & Cheeky Zara

Last weekend, when it was bed time, Zara as usual asked for, "milk milk". Daddy and I were both on the bed playing with Zara just a while back. Daddy decided to be naughty. He lifted up his t-shirt, exposing his chest, and said, "Nah, Zara, drink milk milk."

Zara had this very amused smile on her face. She shook her head vigorously and said, "Don't want." Then turned to look at me, "Mummy, milk milk."

Daddy moved his chest closer to Zara, told her, "Daddy also got milk milk. Come and have milk milk."

Zara still smiling, looked at Daddy's chest, shook her head and retreated a few pace, "Don't want." Looked at me, and said in a louder tone, "MUMMY, milk milk!"

Seeing the two of them like that, I actually had tears in my eyes, trying to stifle a laugh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(This happened a month back)

Zara was playing in the room, and then Daddy came out from the shower butt naked. Zara spotted something she didn't have.

She stood up, went closer to look at IT. Then decided to touch IT. Instead of using her hand, she went to her toiletry box, took out a tube of diaper cream, walked back to daddy, and use the tube of cream to lift IT up and then had a closer examination of IT. She then giggled out loud.

I was rolling on my bed laughing. Funny why she went to search for a tool to flick IT instead of using her hands.

Bloggers Unite

Some of you would have known by now that a blogger SCB (Lisa) went into coma since 8th April.

A few of us visited her today in Gleneagles Hospital. She's breathing on her own and her heart rate is normal, but the cause of her collapse is still unknown. She seems to be responding to voices, as when Seng Kor called out to her, she heaved a big sigh (just like yesterday with Jomel's visit).

Linpeh is collecting well wishes and voices of bloggers, and will be compiling them into a CD. We hope it will get played to SCB (Lisa) and will rouse her from her deep sleep. For those of you who are interested, please record your voices, and send them to xymalaysia@yahoo.com.

Most of my readers I believe are parents, voices of your kids singing, or talking would be good too, especially since SCB (Lisa) has a daugther. I will be sending Zara's singing and well wishes.

Please remember her in your prayers.

About the Linpeh's project, please click here.

Note : Mamabok is calling bloggers all over the world to say a silent prayer for SCB (Lisa) tomorrow. 19th April 2006 - 1pm (M'sia time); 19th April 2006 - 2am (Canada Time).

Weekend indoor fun

It has been raining almost daily over the weekend. We couldn't bring Zara to the park and was too lazy to go out. We stayed at home most of the time, and this is what we did while at home.

Painting

On Friday, I stripped her down to her diaper, because she's going to get dirty (which she did), and let her do some painting on the floor so we can mop up the mess later. She was happy, and kept asking for "Per-per" (purple, Barney's colour) paint.

Drawing
She spotted a box of markers the day before, and when I asked her what she wanted to do on Saturday, she said, "daw daw" (draw draw). I asked her what she's drawing and she said, "Snake, many snake!" Well, they did look like a bunch of very tangled up snakes.

Playing with her toys
She likes masak-masak (Malay: cooking) the most. She said it was "soop" she was cooking and when I asked what soup, she said, "fis ball". She pretended to blow the soup cold to feed herself and me. After that, she put on her hat, and turned on the music on her electronic keyboard, and started dancing. Then, it was playing with the xylophone. She got tired later, and started whining.

The middle photo shows the mess hurricane Zara creates every time she sweeps through plays in the living room.

Pie baking

I baked some chicken pies for lunch on Saturday. (After making the filling, I went to Giant to hunt for Pampas Frozen Pie Crust, and guess what? None available in Giant. No puff pastry, no pie crust, NOTHING, not even local brands. Luckily, spotted a shop selling baking supplies on our way home and managed to get some puff pastry.)

Daddy and Zara both didn't like it. Daddy said he's not a chicken person, esp if they are soaked in gravy but he took 2 anyway. Zara said "Don't want" because she's "Sked" (Scared). *slap head*. Guess who took the most?

On Sunday, I cooked some simple fish porridge, Daddy gobbled up loads, and so did Zara. Both of them are such fish lovers, and sooo Chinese!

我是一只小小鸟 - I'm a little bird

(I have lots to update, but I'll just do a short post because I have lots to do at work)

Zara doesn't speak Chinese, or rather nobody speaks to Zara in Chinese so she has not picked up any Chinese. I tried to do what Shiaulin has taught me, to repeat each English phrase I say to her in chinese so she learns to associate the two. However, after a few attempts, I got lazy. It's tiring when you have to talk to the kid and repeating everything (already, lots of repetition in English to get a massage across).

Then I tried speaking to her just in Chinese, but she'll say, "Don't Want" when she hear non-English words coming out from me.
Me : Mummy 跟你讲华语要不要 (Mummy speaks to you in Chinese ok?)
Zara : Don't want
Sometimes she even says : 不要 (Chinese: Don't want). Don't know if she really know what it means.

However, she likes this particular Chinese song which I sing (only the chorus) to her quite frequently. Here is her singing this together with me (I must say for someone who doesn't speak Chinese, her pronunciation is quite good).



我是一只小小小小鸟 - Translated based on my best knowledge
我是一只小小小小鸟
Wo shi yi zhi xiao xiao xiao xiao niao (I'm just a little bird)
想要飞呀飞却飞也飞不高
Xiang yao fei ya fei que fei ye fei bu gao (Even when I attempt to fly, I can never fly too high)
我寻寻觅觅寻寻觅觅一个温暖的怀抱
Wo xun xun mi mi xun xun mi mi yi ge wen nuan de huai bao (I'd been searching for a warm embrace)
这样的要求算不算太高
Zhe yang de yao qiu suan bu suan tai gao (Is this a very difficult request?)

(The song sung by the original singer can be found here)

Zara Reading - Video

Zara was flipping one of her favourite books, Maisy's Bath Time (it's about Maisy's friend coming to visit Maisy when she's just about to take her bath), and trying to read it.

This is what she said :
She said the book was Maisy's, then Mummy's then eventually said, Zara's.
She said "Going Upstairs, ya" when she came to the page where Maisy's friend went upstairs.
... (don't know what she said in between)
She said, "Floor, Put on the floor" where she got to the page with the picture of the racquet.
On the last page, where the text was, "Splash Splash, Maisy and Tallulah play in the bath, Hooray!" She read, "Splash Splash, Maisy bath, Hooray"

Zara This and That

Me : *talking to Daddy* Eh, I go for my shower, you look after Zara huh?
Zara : *looked up from what she was doing* Sar-wer. Don't want.
Me : *turned my attention to her* Huh? Mummy need to shower. Daddy looks after Zara ok?
Zara : *fake crying sound, held my hand* Don't want!
Me : Daddy look after Zara cannot huh? Why don't want?
Zara : Don't want. *Patted her chest* Sked Sked!
(Now when she cannot find a reason for not wanting something, she just says she's scared. Don't want to eat fish, because she's scared. Don't want to brush teeth, because she's scared. Don't want Daddy to look after, because she's scared)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just got into the car.
Zara : Chih-den! Chih-den (Children)! On.
Me : Ok.. Mummy turn on the Children's song for you.
She listened happily. After a song she likes finished playing, she'll say, "More more!" (and doing her hand sign by pointing to her palm)
At the start of a song she doesn't like, "Don't want! Don't yike (like)!"
Or she'll just say, "Off. Don't want."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While waiting for the car after lunch, Zara was admiring the 2 stone lions at the entrance of Federal Hotel.
Me : Let's go home.
Zara : *waved* Bye bye Nai-yen (Lion). Go hom dee (Go home already). See yoo Monday.
(Every time we leave King's Wife place in the evening before the weekend, we make her say good bye to everybody, and we say "See you on Monday" to every one, she must have picked that up).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After changing her to a nice blouse and a denim skirt :
Zara : *put her palms on her cheeks* So tute (cute).
Me : *can't help but smile* Yeah, Zara so cute.
Zara : *pulled my hand* Hold hand.
Me : *followed her* Where Zara wants to go?
Zara : *point to the door* Show Daddy. Show Kakak.
(Oh, my. She's really getting vain.)

Old Newspaper

On Saturday, while feeding Zara lunch, the old newspaper man (a man who goes from housing estate to housing estate collecting old newspaper, magazines, car batteries for recycling; and we get paid a small fee for letting him have these old items) passed by our house.

Like all old newspaper men, to announce his presence, he blasted his recorded 'advertisement' repeatedly while driving through the residential area. It was something like this :
"Paper Lama (Malay: Old newspaper). Siu Gu Poh Jua (Hokkien: Collecting old newspaper). Sao Gao Poh-Ji (Cantonese : Collecting old newspaper). Old newspaper. Bateri Lama (Malay: Old batteries)"

Zara very quickly learnt up the 'chanting'. And here's a recording of her chanting, with me prompting.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For those who are interested in the scones recipe, I'd posted it here.

Blogging resumes : Busy Weekend

I had finally settled the hotel reservations in Bali; being such a cheap skate after lots (and I mean LOTS) of hunting around, comparing locations, prices, checking out reviews, we'd finally settled for 2 small properties, Ellie's in Nusa Dua and Barong Resort & Spa in Ubud. Not sure if it's such a good idea not staying in those big reputable resorts, especially with Zara, but I like smaller places (not having to compete with big tour groups), we shall see.

(Thanks to those who had suggested places to stay in my last post)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yesterday, I invited my side of the family over for tea and dinner. We ate out for dinner but for tea, I baked some scones.

Simple recipe of mixing everything in the food processor, cutting the dough up, and then baking it.

Nothing beats fresh from the oven scones with a dollop of whipped cream and strawberry jam.

I baked about 30, and at the end of it, we have about 6 left for today's breakfast. 9 of us took 24 scones!! But they are pretty small though.

As for Zara, since her 1st birthday, she'd never seen so many people in our house before. She had fun, playing with her cousins, going to the park with them, and best of all, getting to see her youngest cousin, baby Tasha (her inspiration to become a baby) again!

Playing with Norman Ko-ko; getting ready to go out for dinner; giving Tasha a big hug (almost suffocating her in the process); Tasha giving us a rare smile (she's grown so much, compared to older photos).

In the car, while on our way to home after dinner, I asked her, "Zara happy or not? So many people came to Zara's house to play with Zara?" She said, "Happy! *pointed to her chest* Zara."

Mummy is Busy

These few days have been busy with some issues at work, and then all my spare time I'd spent on looking for cheap deals suitable hotels in Bali (on the net) for our upcoming holiday.

Will not be updating my blog until the above 2 are settled.

I'd been to Bali twice, once a company trip and the other joining a tour, and everything had been organised so I didn't have to plan for anything. This time, we are going on our own, and it's Zara's first trip overseas so I'll have to plan well. If you have recently been to Bali and have some hotels, restaurants or locations to recommend for a visit, please drop me a comment.

Hope blogging will resume next week.

Paink Paink

Zara sometimes gets a bit manja (Malay : need affections), and she will start complaining she has pain every where so that I'll kiss the pain away. Yesterday night was one of those times.

While in bed, waiting for her to fall asleep.
Zara : *turned to me* Mummy
Me : *grogilly* Yes, Zara
Zara : Eyes. Paink paink
Me : *turned to look at her, in the dark trying to check her eyes* Zara's eyes pain pain?
Zara : *whined and rub her eyes* eyes, paink paink.
Me : *took her hands away* You don't rub your eyes! Let mummy check. *Checked and found nothing wrong* Never mind, Zara don't rub your eyes any more. Mummy kiss kiss. Muak *then turned the other to try to sleep*
Zara : Mummy. Boh-dee paink paink.
Me : *turned to her* Body pain pain now?
Zara : *smiled and pointed ot her body* Paink paink.
Me : (realised she's playing her 'manja' game) *kissed her tummy* Ok, mummy kiss kiss. Muak.
Zara : *pointed to her elbow* Eh-boh paink paink
Me : *kissed her elbow* Muak. Where else pain pain?
Zara : *pointed to her knee* Knee paink paink
Me : *kissed her knee* Muak. How come every where pain pain?
Zara : *pointed to her bum* Beh-sike, bum bum paink paink
Me : (never mind, this is a good time for her to name the body parts) *kissed her bum* Muak. Your armpit pain pain or not?
Zara : *pointed to armpit* Ah-Pit paink paink *grinning*
Me : *kissed her armpit* Muak. Your belly button pain pain?
Zara : *stuck her finger into her belly button* Buh-ton paink paink
Me : *kissed her belly button*. Muak. Some more?
Zara : *pointed to her private part* Petpet paink paink *cheeky grin*
Me : Eee. Petpet also pain pain? Ok ok, mummykiss. Muak. *Kiss her diaper*
Zara : *pointed to her ear* Eeyer paink paink
Me : *kissed her ear* Muak. Wah, every where pain pain huh?
...
And it continued, kissed her chin, her mouth, her feet, her hands, her nose, her head, her hair... It's a bit like doing a revision on all the body parts she knows how to name. I have yet to teach her forehead, eye brow, shin, shoulder, but I guess we'll soon get there, if she has this 'pain attack' often enough.

April Fools' Weekend

Birthday Party

Zara attended her first birthday party get-together on Saturday. Daddy went to clean the ancestor's grave with FIL, so I took Zara to Sandy's place on my own for lunch. It was Sandy's daughter, Yen Mae's 4th birthday.

It was a small affair with only 3 kids (including Zara) and one 3 month old baby. Zara was happy playing with Yen Mae's toys, but she won't or don't know how to play with the other 2 kids. I guess at this age, she still doesn't know how to socialise with younger kids yet, although she likes to hang around bigger kids (because they normally give her lots of attention).

Birthday girl in green. Zara in her 'sessy' Aunty Jesslyn's dress.

Dinner with PIL
Daddy is the type who needs to see his parents at least fortnightly (or he'll miss them, although he won't admit). He suggested dinner with them on Sunday.

We had dinner in Bibik Chik, SS2. This is one place which we can have Zara sit through the whole meal because there's an inhouse entertainer who plays the guitar and sings some oldies.

Zara's eyes were constantly fixed on the entertainer. Dancing occasionally, swaying her arms, and if it's the end of a nice catchy song, she would be clapping her hands shouting, "Bah-Voh". I think it really made made the entertainer's day having such an ardent fan. In return, he sang Zara the Do-re-mi song which made Zara so happy!

Woot!
And the highlight of the weekend...... Daddy set up the wireless router in the house. So we have gone wireless!

Pumping Days are Numbered

I'm into my 17th month of breastfeeding now, I wonder how long more I'll go on, but it seems the days are numbered because my supply is getting low.

One of the reason why I could continue for so long is due to the facilities we have in our company (some credits have to be given to my understanding male bosses too). Some pro-breast feeding mums have persuaded the company and 2 rooms have been allocated for nursing mums, with a fridge too to store our supplies, long before Zara was born.

I have used these rooms for 14months now (1st 3 months at home enjoying my maternity leave). This is where I met Two Little Fellas, and some other nursing mothers; separated by a thin wall, we exchanged breastfeeding and parenting tips

On months when we have lots of new mummies who'd just returned from maternity leave, the rooms are occupied most of the times (sometimes a queue is formed). After a while, a new 'user' settles into a pattern, and chooses a time she prefers, or to meet up with a particular mum so that she has someone to chat to while 'doing her business'.

I'm currently the mum with the oldest kid still using the room (too bad there's no trophies for this one). One by one I see mummies dropping off, and they asked me when it will be my turn to stop (oh, Daddy asked me the same question too). I don't know, maybe when Zara is 18 months or 2yrs old? Or when I get pregnant again? Or I have so little supply it's not worth expressing anymore?? Which ever comes first.


From 3 times a day in the beginning, I now settle with once a day starting of this year. At 4pm, with a good pump, a good book, 30minutes later, I emerge with 1 of Zara's feed for the following day.