The Royal Caribbean - Legend of the Seas

We celebrated Christmas and new year on Royal Caribbean. It was amazing! The trip was extremely relaxing, great for bringing babies and the elderlies! There are lots of activities onboard from Bingo to Casinos to fine-dining to Jewellery making to line dancing to indoor swimming to gymming to professional photo-taking! You'll find that the days went by quickly before you know it! We spent 5 nights on the Royal Caribbean and it still felt short!

In fact, we had not been overseas since I was pregnant with Nat and this trip meant alot to the family not just because this is our first family trip with Nat at 10 months, we had 4 generations of women travelling together. Both her grandma and great grandma came along as well!

I would strongly recommend Royal Caribbean as 'the' cruise to go on. Their superb service started even from loading of luggage, quick efficient processing by friendly crew members who greets you with smiles. The concept of collating passports for mass stamping at the beginning of the cruise or prior to arriving at major port of call saves you the hassle and fear of losing the passports on foreign land made travelling real easy for the family. We are able to get on/off board the ship with a seapass card which is effectively our photo id cards with our pictures taken at point of departure. There is little or no queuing as passengers leisurely got onboard the ship. Unlike boarding a plane you often find yourself rushing to the boarding gate despite the fact that you were made to arrive 3 hours earlier for security checks.

The cruise started as soon as we passed through immigration, Royal Caribbean own drawbridge was decorated with posters for picture moments and their own professional photographers ensured that you don't miss out on the opportunity to take a group shot. You would also find yourselves welcomed by the head waiter who helps with your reservation for dinner as you move along. Impressive service huh? That's not all.

As we reached our stateroom ( 6098 & 6570), we were welcomed by the service attendant dedicated to our area. One could tell that he really went all the way to ensure that we were well looked after. Chris ( the attendant's name) helped setup Nat's playpen, and even got her a down feather blanket to line her sleeping area without me asking and best of all, found us a bath tub which saves us the hassle of inflating a makeshift tub. Each time we left and returned, we would find the room tidied and cleaned. He went even further by surprising us with a different towel animal origami each night. We know he really did a great job as compared to the attendant looking after my mum's stateroom and he certainly stood out.

Dinner is served at various restaurants- Windjammer( casual dining), Romeo & Juliet ( fine-dining) or the Solarium, which is the indoor pool area which serves pizzas and other finger food. 2 of the nights were formal and diners appeared in beautiful evening wear and gentlemen in suits or tuxedos. At the tables,you are greeted by your designated waiter and his assistant. We were so well looked after by Sashko and Jane as they dished out special Asian dishes on top of the Western menu to make us feel at home. Simple dish of the usual greens cooked in oyster sauce made grandma real pleased that she tipped him heavily on the last day. New Year's dinner was exceptionally fabulous as we wined on champagne and attempt to finish the sinful desserts with the accompaniment of the life band to play your favourite tunes. Having said this we had diffculty losing the kilos gained over these 5 days. But I must say we really enjoyed the dining experience!

To be continued....

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/multimedia/virtualTour/ship.do;jsessionid=0000UXDvjTJuEiDiALuUK-CEkHh:12hdhu6tq?shipClassCode=VI

United airline flight accident

It saddens me to hear that a breast-feeding mother accidentally smothered her 4-week old child on board a United Airlines flight from Washington, D.C., to Kuwait.

The mother must have been devastated! This had been my biggest fear as well when Nat was a newborn. One way to prevent the accident from happening is to use your finger to indent the side of the breast near baby's nose. It would help your baby suckle properly and prevent you from falling asleep fully.

Constipation

Nat has become a bad drinker ever since she was introduced to solids.

She doesn't like to take her H2O and this resulted in her developing really hard stools. It made our hearts ache as she wrenched, cried and tried with all her might to expel the stools! When she turn to us for help, we just can't do anything else except cheer her on and hug her as she poops.

Never thought constipation could be so traumatic and it made us feel so helpless. If only she heeds our advice and not refuse the water that was given to her! If only it's that easy and a matter of persuasion? Nat is simply too young to decipher what's good for her and the helper who fails to act on instructions on some occasions is not 100% reliant either. We could only count on her grandparents to coax her into drinking the much needed fluids. Grandma suggests that we give her some glucose to entice her taste bud, something which I really didn't want to introduce as I didn't want to cultivate her dependency on sugared drinks. Why can't she develop to like water in it's original taste? Sigh.. must have taken on Chris's genes.. choosy eater, picky drinker. We had to use the suppository on her to expel the stools. Poor girl her stools were the size of adult's. Hopefully this would be the last time we used the suppository..

"BB Nat please listen to your mummy and daddy.. we may not always be right but we definitely always does things at your best interest!"


By the way, googled the below and it kind of worked. Parents could try the BRAT diet to treat diarrhea in infants and cut out BRAT foods to alleviate constipation.

BRAT stands for Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast.

To prevent constipation, you could also try giving your baby apple juice and some barley water and introduce lots of fibre in her diet.

The fall

Nat had a fall on Thurs,19 Nov 2009. A result of negligence by Surnati.

Below is a chronological account of what happened.

At 10:20 - Grandma left home and reminded Sunarti to ensure that the child gate near platform entrance was locked before placing baby on the walker.

At 10:30 Grandpa prepared to leave. Sunarti was feeding Nat before Grandpa left the house. She went to the kitchen to grab food as soon as grandpa leaves. Continued to feed Nat 5 minutes later and proceeded to complete the chores.

At 1042- Placed baby in the walker and entered the master toilet.

At 1043 - Baby happily emerged into the living room, and went towards the door.

Seconds later- Baby, together with the walker, fell down the flight of steps. Cries and screams followed. Sunarti came running out from the room. Picked baby up and went into the kitchen.

At 1045- Tried to stop her from crying and attempted to feed her water by the glass. Baby won't drink and continued crying.

At 1100 - Sunarti called Madam. Phone was engaged. Called Grandma, baby still crying.

At 1110- Grandma returned home. Baby was coaxed by then.

Grandma inspected the bruises located at left corner of the forehead. No visible bleeding. Nat's chest at left corner was slightly bruised, which we suspect was caused by impact when knocked against the walker.

At 1200 - Mummy and daddy rushed home. Darling was smiling by then, no signs of trauma.

We were so pissed with Sunarti for not following our instructions and always making assumptions! I somehow had the premonition that the accident along the stairs was just waiting to happen as soon as Nat was placed on the walker. We reminded Sunarti time and again to be careful and ensure that she is in the same room as baby if she was to place her on the walker. She never listened! I had really wanted to terminate her employment and send her packing! Bits of me wanted to quit immediately to be with Nat. But we are just not convinced that we could do without help at this point in time and a replacement does not automatically mean that she would have the same dedication as Sunarti who knows and understands Nat since birth?

After weighing the pros and Cons, we've decided not to sack her but played the guilty cards instead. Chris played the devil who shelled at her whilst I played the role of the 'understanding employer' who pulled at her heartstrings and made her feel extremely guilty, making sure that she would remember the incident for the rest of her life.

Message reinforced include :- (1) Do not make assumptions, always physically check that the environment is safe (2) To be in the same room as baby, whether she's on the walker or placed in the playpen. (3) Do not feed baby with water whilst she is crying ( prevent choking) (4) To call Sir, madam and grandma and grandpa immediately should anything happen to the baby. (5) Do not lie or think that she could cover up an accident with a lie.

Fortunately we had the circuit cameras installed, which helped get the facts right and ensured that she didn't lie. We've decided to give her a second chance since she didn't attempt to hide the facts and at least she had the wit to call her employers when accidents happen. I could only hope she learnt her mistakes!! Her punishment? To write a letter of confession to document the full account of what happened.

Ikan Bilis

I've introduced ikan bilis to her diet over the weekend and suppose it's quite well received ie no allergic reactions, no 'I don't like it' expression and lots of 'I want more' table banging.

So how is this prepared?

Steps

(1) Buy the dried anchovies.

My experience with anchovies would tell you how lousy a cook I am.. If I were to purchase this on my own, I would have chosen the bigger sized anchovies which is more value for money. Make sense right? But hey, that's not true. According to Chris the smaller the better. The tiny ones are apparently tastier or sweeter. Guess if you were to grade them similar to coffee, the tiny ones have a more robust / bold flavour.

(2) Clean the inerts. Get rid of the blackish parts at the stomach area, but keep the head. Cause the skull contains calcium, which you would want to keep for baby.

(3) Soak for up to 3 hours, change the water at least 4 times to get rid of whatever sodium or dirt. Majority of the ikan bilis sold in Singapore are imported from Indonesia, so would suggest you clean them before grinding.

(4) Your ikan bilis would look really pale by now. Dry it over low heat. I used a wok to heat up the ikan bilis till they start to curl. To ensure that they are 100% dried, I place them in the microwave for 3 minutes of intense 'roasting'.

(5) Use a miller, grind it till powder like.

(6) Store and keep in a cool place.

You could add 1-2 spoonful of powdered ikan bilis and cook it together with the porridge. Unlike cod, ikan bilis has less of a fishy aroma, so baby would be more receptive and takes the porridge more eagerly.

Fish to avoid feeding your baby are shark, marlin and swordfish and try not to eat large amounts of tuna.

Family vs work

Been a long while since I logged in. Am close to not remembering the p/w! Took me 2 tries to get it right! Goodness!

So how has life been? Hectic I must say. The extent and level of details at work is forcing me to even log in at 10ish whilst I express after her last feed. Been having only 5 hours of sleep on average for the past 1 - 2 weeks which no amount of ginseng chicken could help deal with the exhaustion. It was a relieve when I finally touched the bed each day!

Unfortunately, sleep is always 'short-lived'... I would be woken up by little natalie for her early morn feeds at 5ish. Honestly now that she's on solids, life has been slightly better for me. At the very least I don't have to wake up every 2 hours for night feeds.

At the rate baby is growing, I felt I've missed a stage of her development which was made worse when I received phone calls in the afternoon telling me about the amazing stunts that baby could now do. The most recent update was nat waving and saying bye bye to granddad as he leaves home. So jealous, darling doesn't even do that to daddy and mummy. She only cries for attention whenever mummy leaves the room.

Pics

Jalan Jalan

We took Nat out for a quick shopping spree at the expo today. Instead of buying my own stuff, we ended up getting more toys and clothes for Natalie each weekend. Her collection of fisher price and playskool toys are now in abundance! Which reminds me I better remind Sunarti not to throw away the packaging, so we could resell them on ebay once Nat has grown tired of it.

Anyways here are some recent pics of us...

Of Nat and her shoes

Parents love to accessorise their little girls!

As you can tell from all the pics which I've uploaded, I am one of those who loves dolling up our little girl with pretty headbands, hairclips, shoes, hats, caps, stockings, sunglasses etc.

In fact, I must say Nat is quite a cooperative baby as she allows me to don on pretty accessories on her head. Occasionally she'll grab and throw her hat away, but most of the time her accessories stays on.


However she dislikes wearing shoes! Perhaps it's the gravitational pull which makes it easier for her to kick them off... or maybe it's just too uncomfortable for her?... or maybe she treats it like a game that she plays with her dad?

The below were taken after she had kicked off her shoe the 10th time and Chris gave up chiding and wearing it again and again for her..

Excursions

Nat had her fair share of excursions last month.


Week 1 - Attended julia gabriel's orientation at evans rd and their carnival at forum. Compared to the other playmates, she is the youngest and could only watch on as the kids displayed their crawling and walking talents. However she doesnt seem to mind and took on an observer role, listened attentively to the teachers but made loud yawns whenever she felt like it =p. The carnival was an eye-opener for her as all that loud music made her cry. Guess this must had been her first experience with 'heavy metal'.


Week 2 - Spent the weekend shopping at vivo with her yiyi who carried her majority of the time. Mummy and daddy had a wonderful time as we were finally able to shop using both hands!


Week 3 - Picked daddy up at the airport. Daddy's been away at Laos to conduct his recce trip for his cross border vision screening project. Here are some pics taken whilst waiting at the airport.





Week 4 - Sat : Joined Daniel and Sarah for a lunch buffet at Azur. Great ambience, good food, but spread could have been wider. Auntie Sarah helped attend to you whilst mummy had her meal. And of course uncle daniel helped too. ( Hi dan, we should provide you with more opportunities to interact with babies =D so when are we meeting again?)

Sunday: Spent time with yeye and nai nai at their organic farm. She was thrilled to see various 'pockets' of greenhouses with healthy, pretty plants! We took home a large amount of harvest and there is still more to come =). More savings translated for daddy then!