My Favourite Baby Stuff (2) - Diaper Bags

I love bags of all kinds - luggage bags, knapsacks, handbags, totes, purses, school bags and of course Diaper Bags. With Jeremy, I didn't select or purchase a diaper bag. All I did was use a company laptop bag to stuff all his essentials i.e thermometers, diapers, medicine, soft toy, sweater and etc. With Alicia, I started seriously looking for one. My personal favourite would still be a bag from the Allerhand series although Skip*Hop comes close in second place. These trendy diaper bags are rather expensive and are often priced above RM200 which begs the question, is a trendy diaper bag necessary or should I just make do with a knapsack or any other existing bags that I have. Then I discovered Gin & Jacqie - a line of bags created by a local designer by the name Jacqueline Ng. Her designs are funky and equally trendy. I went to Isetan to check out their current range and decided to get a Nathalie Baby Bag Set ( see below). Ok so it set me back RM200 but I simply loved the design and the various compartments in the bag.

After Alicia was born, I was also given a Gin & Jacqie diaper photo bag ( The lovable Samantha range) by one of our friends. So now I have 2 diaper bags to use and alternate whenever I want ! Isn't that cool or what?

My Favourite Baby Stuff (1)

In preparation for our latest arrival, I've been stocking up on several useful and handy items which I have found to be a must-have after having tried them on Jeremy ( the human guinea pig). I thought I would share these with mummies out there who could be on the hunt for the perfect cream, lotion or what-nots for their precious bundle of joys...

Esemtan Wash Lotion

When Jeremy was an infant, it was recommended that I use Sebamed baby shampoo and baby cleasing liquid to keep his skin soft and healthy. I was using those products till he turned 3 months old and developed horrible looking rashes around his neck which would not go away. I was then recommended by his paed to use Eucerin Sensitive Skin Wash lotion which did little to improve his condition. He then recommended that I try out Esemtan Wash lotion which I later found out (from its main distributor) , that it was only available in one major hospital in the whole KL (and possibly Malaysia) and retails for RM50 for 180ml - yeah real expensive. Within a week, his rashes disappeared and his baby skin was soft and smooth again. What's great about this wash lotion is that it is very mild, soapless, pleasant smelling and most importantly - there will be no tears, it's non-irritating and safe for babies and even adults! You don't need to use much of it - just a drop or two is required to wash the baby's hair and body and you don't need to rinse his/her hair or body frequently given that it is soapless.. It takes me only a couple of minutes to rinse his hair and body and a bottle can last me around 5 months! Since this product is not available off the shelf at pharmacy outlets in Malaysia, I usually get my supply from Singapore when I'm down there each year. You can find them virtually in every Guardian pharmacy in Singapore and only retails at SGD11 (approximately RM26.95) which is so much cheaper compared to Malaysia. I usually raid the pharmacy shelfs and buy around 5 to 6 bottles to "smuggle" back to Malaysia.

Prolin All-Over Lotion (With Mozshield Complex)

The rise of dengue and Chikungunya rates in Malaysia is becoming rather alarming lately. With radio and TV ads about a mother talking about how she would destroy life to protect her children, you could see and feel how serious the issue has become. In the past, I used mosquito repellant patches to protect him from these potentially deadly creatures but he would tear them off as soon as he sees them. Apart from that he doesn't ( and neither do I) seem to like to lemon balm plant smell (which wards away the mosquitoes) that comes with the patch. The smell and oil extract is common in many insect repellant creams. I was then introduced to the Prolin lotion. It's easy to apply, non-sticky, alchohol free and safe for children. I usually apply this on Jeremy when he is asleep or outdoors to shield his skin from mosquito bites. It worked rather well when we took him to Tanjung Jara Resort this year since the place was located practically near a jungle. Jeremy likes it becos it does not contain the lemon balm plant smell. A 100ml bottle currently retails for RM11 a bottle at Cosway outlets but I understand that it is also made available online on certain web shops.

Power Max Kiddie Wash

I was using Nappikleen Liquid Anti-Bacteria Wash for Jeremy's clothes since the first month of his delivery but found the strong smelling detergent just too harsh on his delicate clothes. I decided to change to Power Max Kiddie Wash (another product from Cosway) an extra gentle wash for children's clothes, which not only remove stains but makes the clothes smells good, clean and fresh whenever he wears them. It retails for approximately RM20 for a 1 liter bottle at Cosway outlets.

First few shots from the new toy - Nikon AF-S Micro Nikkor 60mm lens

As 60mm micros are normally used best for stills, I therefore 'nicked' Pinky's engagement and wedding rings for experiment !





Here are the 'magnified' diamond engagement ring pics. It looks big, but actually it isn't......I remember its only a 0.25 carat thingee. As you can see, there are some 'out of focus' areas when magnified. Indication of the need to hone my micro picture taking skills !





The above two I thought were much better, the wedding date and our initials are fairly clear.

New toy - Nikon AF-S Micro-Nikkor 60mm lens

I could not help it despite the economic downturn. After 8 months of 'think....think and think', decided to plunge part of my December bonus on a Nikon AF-S Micro Nikkor 60mm lens to complement my D80.



Ok, here are some of early shots taken. A couple of comments.

Sharpness - I must say its one of the sharpest primes I have seen. Although its designed to take micro shots, it seems to me it can perform fairly well in terms of colour contrast and sharpness for a normal picture like this. This was taken during the 2008 Christmas season at the Gardens Mid Valley.

Back to the grind....

Yeah ... I finally back at work and of course blogging. As you can see, I've been on a break from blogging since I came back from Shanghai till now.... and you know why... cos the little tyke refuse to sleep on his own in the darkened room while mummy's downstairs...hence the lack of time to blog in the evenings onwards. As you can see, Brain's been filling up the space with his awesome photos. Jeremy's18th month old milestone has certainly brought about a lot of changes and I'm not just talking about his emotional and physical development - other things as well which keeps Brain and me busier than ever.

Updates on Jeremy
As you are well aware, Jeremy has started walking unaided - finally... after waiting endlessly for the defining moment.... it reminded me of the time when Neil Armstrong took his first step on the moon in 1969 and uttered the famous line " "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

His first tenancious steps happened during the weekend in Kuantan. His new found mobility has brought even more headache for the parents who now have to monitor his every step .... being curious, he likes exploring every nook and cranny around the house. Due to his unsteady steps, we have to follow him constantly which can be a tiring affair though one that perhaps could help us to lose that excess poundage that never seem to go away.... As we live in a double storey house, we decided to get a child safety gate for good measure as our bedroom upstairs is close to the staircase and these days, Jeremy has a tendency to dash out from our bedroom when we open the door. I bought a Lindam child safety gate together with the extension as the width of our doorway leading to downstairs is around 37 inches.

Brain had no clue on how to fix it even though the job was really a no-brainer... it took me less than 30 minutes to get the whole thing up and the best thing is you don't need to drill your walls or the staircase in order to install the gate unless you want it to be a permanent fixture in your home. It comes with wall cups which you need to tighten so that the gate fit the doorway. The advantages of the above gate are that it is easy to assemble without the need to drill holes into the wall, looks stylish, reasonably priced and definitely keeps the child safe and at bay. The disadvantages of the gate are that the dual action opening system and secondary locking mechanism for added safety maybe a little bit tricky for adults as well - it's not that easy for an adult to exit the gate unless you know how to unlatch the gate properly. I also discovered to my annoyance thta the bar at the bottom of the gate can be hazardous for adults as there is a tendency to trip over it - hence one must be very careful when one enters or exit the gate. The thing is I can't find any safety gate which does not have a bar at the bottom !

Also, Jeremy now likes to follow me everywhere be it the kitchen, the study room or the verandah outside the house where I hang my daily washing. When I'm in the kitchen he will cling on to my shirt, shorts or my whole leg while I'm washing, cooking or doing some other chore... If I hang around the same spot too long, he will start to fuss.

Another strange thing I notice is that he does not like Brain feeding him during meal times and insist on me feeding him instead .... When Brain takes over the feeding the session, he will fuss and at the same time, take my hand and put it near the bowl which is being held by Brain.

Based on my personal observation, I note that his receptive and spoken language skills have also improved in the last 2 weeks while I was home with him. He appears to understand many of things that I say even if he can't articulate any of them. For eg, I will say that I'm going to the kitchen for a while so I'm leaving him here ( the living room) to watch TV - he knew that I was going to leave him on his own and woul start bawling before I could put him down on the floor.

He can say quite a lot of words now and appears to have a knack of remembering the word after hearing it for the first time. It is also funny to hear him repeating after me the words one, two, three up to the ten even thoughhe can't count yet.

Weight wise, he is now 12kgs. Height wise still around 81cm - it was quite difficult for the nurse to measure his height since he was so fidgety. Speaking of fidgety, it took me, Brain and a nurse to hold him down for the doctor to administer the triple antigen booster jab on his butt cheek last month.

He drinks 7 oz of milk three times a day ( morning, late afternoon and before bedtime). For lunch and dinner, he'll have his oat porridge mashed with assorted vegies, fish, millet and egg. Twice a week, we boil barley water for him to drink and he can consume 3 bottles of barley water in a day! His sleeping pattern has changed as he grew older - he naps for 2-3 hours once a day now. During the holidays, he tends to go to bed later than usual in the evening and sometimes his bedtime can stretch on till 11.30pm and he will sleep round the clock till 10 am the next day. This has been the consistent pattern for the last 14 days while I was on leave but last night I made him go to bed earlier i.e 10 am as we need to get him up at 7 am so that we can drop him off at my parents' place before heading to work. It's funny but he simply got up on his own at 7 am today without the usually nudging or fussiness.

As you can see from the previous posts, Brain's been busy photographing Jeremy with his new toy... during the holidays, Brain discovered that his one true passion was photography and would like to pursue this as a hobby ... hence the expensive toy, the never ending magazines on photography and new lenses. I guess he is leaving the Sony camcorder for me to pursue MY passion of filming Jeremy on the move. So you may ask, what are we going to do with the endless videoing and digital photos? My bet is that we will have to burn all these onto tonnes of discs, place it in some time capsule to be presented to Jeremy when he is an adult *lol*.

Vacation

We went to Kuantan last month for a short break and to visit a friend of ours who had delivered a baby boy in October. Surprisingly, the weather was perfect and sunny. It's hard to believe that it was the monsoon period and only the choppy sea, strong breeze and high tides serve to remind us of this. We put up at Hyatt Kuantan and our room was truly amazing. We booked a normal room and ended up being upgraded to a sea-facingRegency Club room situated on the ground floor without additional cost!

We boooked this:

And got this instead!

The room faced a beautifully manicured garden which roll down to the beach. Jeremy had a fantastic time toddling around the lawns with the cool see breeze blowing into his face. We had an excellent time there despite Jeremy having a constant runny nose which did not subside even after we came back from Penang last week. We went up to Penang to visit my in-laws and had a good break there. I even managed to catch up with some relatives of mine in Kulim during that brief period. After that it was back to our good ole home in KL for an 8 day break before I started work today. It was fun spending time with Jeremy during this time. Getting to know him better each day helps us to understand him better and show him more patience during stressful times.

Digital Picture Frame

I saw this at TBM in Bangsar Village and I'm dying to get one. I mean it beats displaying dozens of photo frames in your living room, as all you need is just 1 or 2 digital photo frames which could store and display 50 or so digital photos each in slide show format. No pc is required, just memory cards. Plus the elegant frame complements your living room decor *lol*. And you can always reload new digital photos from time to time. However, this gizmo doesn't come cheap - It's close to a whopping RM1,000. (RM999 to be exact). I can't wait for the prices to bottom out so that I can get 1 or 2 of these cool display gadgets for my home.