Harness for kids...

I spent my Saturday afternoon playing 'Little Big Planet' on PS3 while hubby web surfing beside me.

During the surfing, he read an article from Kosmo, about usage of harness in young children. In the article, most experts asked rejects the use of harness in children as they damper their growth.

I started using harness on Eya since she started walking, which is almost 3 years ago. I knew about harness while I was staying in the UK. Most parents there will strap their young children with harness when they go out in public. At first, it was quite a shock to me but I thought the idea was great as you can easily know your children whereabouts compared to releasing them, and when they are not in your sight, you call out for them. 

So, when Eya started walking, I searched high and low for the harness. It was not available in any children store, so I had to search for it quite some time before I managed to find it. It was from Taiwan and it cost around RM30-40, I really forgot the price of it.

As Eya was quite young at that time, it was not that hard to strap her with the harness. I still remember using it on her during our trip to Ipoh Parade. Almost everyone keep saying bad words to us, and looked to us like we are harming our little girl. Even a young kid (I still remember until today what she said) said to me, 'Macam bawak anjing' (like taking a dog). Not just her, a few aunts and people around my age stop and giving rude comments to us. For me, I didn't give a damn on what people think as long as I know my baby was safe with me.

Just imagine if I let her loose, without any strap. She will wander aimlessly on her own and if I couldn't keep up with her, she will be lost, just like that kid that got lost in Sogo. With that strap on her, I had a feeling of relief that she is with me all the time. Eya loves to hide behind clothes rack and wander into shops, so sometimes its hard for us to find her. So, using the harness, we knew she is just beside us.

Using the harness, you could not simply pull her anyway that you like. She may fall down, so the harness is just a tool that keep your child with you.

When she almost 3 years old, I bought another type of harness, more suitable for her age, which was a wrist harness. Instead of strapping the harness at her back, the wrist harness, was strapped at her wrist. It still has the same concept, but it was less restraining to her.

Until now, I don't think people still accept the usage of harness as they equate it to restraining an animal. As for me and hubby, we like to know that our daughter is with us safely, so we don't really care what the public thinks when we put the harness on her.

Now, just a few days before Eya turns 4, we had stop using the harness. Now, for every visit to the mall, we will put her in shopping trolley (if available) and sometimes, hold her hand. But without the harness, we still worry about losing her in the crowd of people.

Puzzle n more of it....

Our neighbor gave Eya a small puzzle, a 9-pieces for her to play with. It turned out that she really loves doing it.

She is very good with it. It only takes her a few hours to learn the puzzle and later she will know how to place all the pieces at the right place. Maybe she memorize the piece placement or she remember the whole puzzle. It still puzzled us on how quick she learn to do a new puzzle.

Everytime she finishes doing one and bored with it, we need to buy her a new one. We only buy her the cheap one, which is around RM 4-7. She only plays puzzle with the cardboard at the back of it.

Her strategy is she will turn the puzzle down. Then, she will put the puzzle piece one by one. With this way, she can remember the placement. Once the puzzle is finish, she will try it the second time by doing the side pieces first. Thats why she need the cardboard puzzle as it has the side to guide her. The third time, she already know all the pieces by heart.

Sometimes when we stuck doing her puzzle, she will say, "Mama, that puzzle is here". She know the exact placement.

So, up until today she has about 7 puzzles. Oops, no! We just buy her a new one at IOI Mall today, so the official count will be 9 puzzles.

Eya has passed the night-train test....

Yayyyy....We can save a lot now. Thats not quite a true statement. It just cut some of our major expenses in a month. So, now, I can use the money to spend on something else. Hehehe...

As in previous entry, she is diaperless in the day and only wear it during her sleep. After a few days the entry being wrote, she is now TOTALLY DIAPERLESS. Hooraayy for the three of us.

The chronology on how we started night-training her.

1st Day:

We asked her to wee-wee before she went to sleep. Later, we woke her up at 6 a.m., after the Subuh prayer. So, day 1 went smoothly.

2nd Day:

It was an accident. Hubby forgot to put the huggies on. He realised that she was diaperless in the morning. Pure luck.

3rd Day:

Again, asked her to wee-wee before sleep and again success.

So, the 4th day and counting, we did the same steps and she managed to be dry until morning.

We are a very proud parents of her. She is fully-trained at 3 years and 2 months old. Way to go, Eya!!!

No more pampers, mama....

Eya has been successfully potty-trained a few months ago. No more diapers during the day, just for her sleep at night.

Her teachers at nursery also informed us that she doesn't want to wear the pampers I provide for her. When her teacher want to put it on, she told them that she doesn't want it. So, when she takes her nap, her teacher will wake her up so that she could go pee. Hearing that, we were quite shocked as it is impossible for us to wake her up from her sleep without she being grumpy and cranky. Maybe she obey her teacher more than us.

She also has outgrow all the Huggies size. Currently, she is wearing XXL, the largest you could find among all the dispo brand. Only Huggies and Drypers have XXL, but we stick with Huggies as Drypers is more expensive and it leak at the back. You could get Huggies for 44 for average of RM33.90 but for Drypers, yout get 32 pieces for the same price.

Now, she doesn't want to wear her Huggies at all during the day or even at night. We have to wait for her to be soundly sleep before we put her dispo on. The XXL Huggies is small for her that the side strap is hurting her. So, we only strap the Huggies as further as we can.

Now, I think we have to buy her only pull-up pant as the side is larger and maybe could not hurt her.

She also like to hold her pee for quite some time. I think she still does not understand when is the correct time for her to pee. Only after she really feels like it, she will go pee. We have taught her about this for quite some time but she still doesn't get it.

Now, she also does her 'big business' in the toilet. We bought her the potty seat few months ago but initially, she refused to use it. Only a few weeks back, she agreed to use it and now, she does all her business using it. Everytime she does it, we have to praise her, clap our hands, anything that shows that she is a good girl. Now, we only have to flush her 'thing', no more dispo. She will do it and we have to wait outside. After she finishes, she will call me or her ayah, and clean her up.

As for going diaperless in the night, we are still wondering and searching how to teach her on that. I asked my mom and even my maid, how did they teach their children, but it seem that they all forgot about the tips and tricks for teaching your children to go diaperless during their sleep.

I searched from the net and found out that you could set a schedule for your child to go pee in the night. As for me, I don't think its quite right to wake her in the middle of the night just to go potty. It may disturb her sleep and causing her to be moody in the morning when she wakes up for school. Some parents also said that you may successfully potty-train your child during the day but it may takes some time before they are ready for night-trained.

I think I can wait for that. She just turn 3 years old and we can train her slowly. Good luck to me and hubby.

Mama-Eya Outing...

It was an impulse decision. We went to had a nice breakfast with hubby at first. Then, hubby went to work and the both of us had nothing to do.

So, I decided to bring Eya to watch movie or just doing window shopping. The nearest place to go was Jusco Cheras Selatan. I browsed around Jusco to shop for my home knick-knack for a while before Eya pestered me to bring her to watch 'wayang'. So, I bought 2 tickets for Cloudy Chance of Meatballs.

She really enjoyed the movie and later told me that she wanted to watch another movie with her ayah. After the movie ended, we went back to Jusco to continue our window shopping before we went for lunch.

She ordered chocolate pearl bubble tea for lunch and fries. She was quite exhausted after lunch and wanted to go home but I need to do my grocery shopping. So, I found the trolley for her and continued with my shopping.

We spent almost 4 hours together and it was so fun. She went to bed early that day and I bet she know that going window shopping with her mum is a tiring task.

Eya turns 3...

Eya, 3 years old with her birthday cake...

Eya, Ayah and mama...

This signified that my little angel just turn 3 on 24th September.

Again, I did not plan anything big as her birthday fall on a long holiday. The birthday celebration was just between the family. Initially, hubby planned to celebrate it at Taiping with all her cousins but something came up so plan was changed.

She knows how a birthday should be celebrated as every week her friends from the nursery will have a birthday bash. She kept asking us to have Happy birthday for her. Everytime she sees a big cake, she will sing the birthday song.

So, this year we plan to have a small celebration with cake at her favourite fast food restaurant, KFC. Kaklong volunteered to buy her a birthday cake.

We put the candles on and asked her to blow the candles. And she knew how to do it. Maybe from her observation at the nursery.

Me and hubby is happy to see her growing up so well but at the same time quite sad as she is no longer our small baby. I hope time will slow down as we don't want her to grow up so fast.

I can still remember the moments I held her in my arms 3 years ago. It was the best feeling in the world to have your own flesh and blood.

To Eya, mama and ayah will always love you. You are our little angel.