The Parklon logo embossed into the mat, seen when folded.

Extremely light (I think less than 1 kg) , I now bring this mat to my in-law's place on weekdays where he gets to roll around the living room safely. On weekends, the mat is positioned in my own living room and Paul will happily bounce along. The cushioning is really quite outstanding, as the designers claim, and Paul can topple over safely without getting hurt.

This photo is a bit blurred because Paul can move really quickly on the mat now and it's really hard to get him to stay still for a proper shot! So far this is my BEST EVER purchase for Paul!! So good that I'm writing this post just to rave about the mat!

The Parklon playmat is distributed by Coby Haus. They also carry a more luxurious version of the mat which weighs from 6.5 kgs to 12 kgs, which is available at all Mothercare stores. That one is really pricey though, about RM399 to RM599! We figured we would get the cheaper version first, and the best thing is, this is PORTABLE!!

Feed the baby, mop the baby's face, put the baby down in his crib, play peekaboo and he seems happy. And then he tumbles over, crawls for his dummy, puts it in his mouth *PEACE*!!! It's a sign he's about to sleep.

And so I walk out, take my computer, turn it on, connect to the net, ready to be good ole' me again while my Paulie boy drifts into his dreamland of marshmallows and cream.

I could live like this…

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*Baby wails*

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Alas.

It's back to playing with the baby.

One of these days.

Now if I can only get him to give people fives on demand. Right now he seems to only respond to me!!!

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Two straws.

Three straws.

OUCH.

Four straws.

Five straws.

Six straws.

Ouch ouch!

Seven straws.

Eight straws.

Nine straws.

…

One last straw.

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Camel breaks his back.

Whiney babies are no fun, especially if it's nearing bedtime and the kid just find its harder to get to bed because of sore gums. And bedtime, is definitely not a time for rusks or biting on teethers, yah? Cos we all need to sleep, and more so, Baby Paul!

Yvonne, who runs FAB Moms 'N' Tots sent me these Hyland Teething Tablets, a homeopathic offering to help relieve teething symptoms.

Okay, while some people say that homeopathic stuff are unsupported by scientific and clinical research, this much I have noticed. A lot of the things we opt for our kids are really based on some 'traditional' hand-me down methodologies, such as 'no cold water when you're coughing', or 'ginger helps to relieve wind' or, 'less sweet potato as they're very windy'. Especially with the Chinese, some of this strange sounding sayings do happen to be true!

Hyland's teething tablets, going for RM32.90 per bottle of 125 tiny tablets that are INSTANTLY DISSOLVABLE, contains the following safe drugs. When baby is whiney and wailey from the teething pains, just pop two pills under the baby's tongue and it will instantly dissolve. I only give Paul these pills once a day, at night, when necessary only, and so far they have been pretty good IMHO.

Please note that I will never ever ever let Paul try anything that's dangerous. And so far these tablets have been really helpful for the late nights when Paul gets grumpy and whiney. Thanks so much Yvonne! They've been a lifesaver!!

And so because I have become such a kiasu and kiasee mommy, when I saw this at the Jaya Grocer yesterday, I fell for the 'overseas imported food, there should be quality food' bait.

Well, the other reason is also because  I'm terrifed of making my own yogurt. Eric thinks I might just poison the whole family with my attempts at home-making my yogurt. However, I've been wanting to introduce Paul to Yogurt for some time, and when I saw this, Yoplait Baby's First Yogurt, the RM12.99 for a pack of six price tag didn't stop me at all.

Upon unpackaging – the six feed-size cartons come in two banana flavored packs, and four vanilla-flavored packs.

Here's what the Vanilla flavored yogurt looks like. It tastes good, after all, baby's yogurt is made from full fat milk over our usuall low-fat, adult variant. ALAS! PAUL didn't like it at all. Took me all of 1/2 hour and Paul would only take five spoonfuls!  

Will try this after a few more days. Fingers crossed, hopefully he will learn to love it, otherwise, I'll have to do the Mommy-DBKL thing again.

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And the criteria for being part of the parenting club was simple: get pregnant, go into labour, bring up your own kid.

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It is now almost one year and four months since I got pregnant, and nearly seven months from the day I went into delivery, and I am still reeling from the experience. Suddenly I have a whole new group of friends (and strangers) who are so eager to share with me their experiences and their learnings from the past.

ENTER THE MOMZILLA. OMG, I didn't think I would EVER come face to face with people like that, but *tiu* , ahem pardon my language, THIS BLOGOSPHERE damn a lot man.

*Disclaimer: henceforth this post is going to be a rant.*

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The thing is, I'm a new mother, I'm fresh to the game, and I'm totally enamoured by the experiences motherhood brings me. I love the breastfeeding journey, the solid-feeding journey, the washing my baby's poop journey and the putting baby to sleep each night journey… all of these and the other minute details that makes up my whole life of being Paul's mother. I'm keen to learn, and like any other intellectually driven working mother of this social media age, the Internet is my best friend. I surf the net on a daily basis to find out what's available, I read famous mothering blogs, and online journals of the mommies who have gone through my experiences before to sort of get an idea of what this whole mothering thing means to them, and about their experiences and learnings in life.

And then I post about my kid a lot. On this blog, it is obvious (I've since graduated into become a MOMMY BLOGGER ahah!), and then on Twitter, on Facebook, I constantly post updates about my feelings about Paul, Eric and what my kid is doing. Sometimes, I also put down a plea for help, but other times you know, an update is just an update.

Apparently being a new mother is also a target for momzillas to show just how clever they are. I don't know if you fit the bill but there are just so many of them, for example, educational comments on 'what cereal is best for my kid'. Or, comments that sound a little like, 'no worries, I did this for my two kids also and this is what you should do yada yada yada…'

The crazy thing is half the time I hardly know these people! Killer kan? There's this person, who happens to be my husband's friend's brother's friend's wife whom I met at a party eons ago, just ONCE, and she's one of those people who does this on a constant basis WTF (if you happen to be that woman and you are reading my blog sorry lah I memang not the type to give face one cos you're damn annoying can?). I've also come across those too-free-nothing-to-do mommies who surf the net for blogs by mothers, and then go around leaving their two cents in every nook and corner that they can. Oh, and usually, they would also own the most awesome mothering blog, which is laden with advice and shopping previews, and organic choices. Moms like this own blogs too, and their blogs follow a certain pattern. First, they would scrimp on themselves but would not hasten to purchase THE BEST OF THE BEST for their kids: total breastfeeding only, BPA free in every darn plastic ware purchase, sterilize sterilize sterilize, organic only, no sugar at all in the food, 100% angmoh diet, die die follow the wholesomebabyfoods website advice and well, regurgitating 'what they've read by the western experts and doctors' advice on newbies like me.

So jia lat right? ARE YOU ONE? OMG I hope I didn't hurt you in that post.

I really don't mind getting advice from people I KNOW personally, but seriously, when I hardly know you, OMG it is really too much to keep getting pointers and updates on what I should do with my kids. It is bad enough that because I have to work all day and leave my kids with either mothers, that I have to contend with them constantly telling me all my mothering mistakes and what I should do to right them! So seriously, I don't need these kay-poh-chis roaming the net for new friends to judge me on my actions and choices for Pauls. You can have your judgements about how teruk I am, and please, feel free to bitch about them in your mother-of-the-year contender's club, but if you're just visiting and being a busybody around my facebook, twitter and blog, keep your opinions to yourself.

I hardly know you you know?

Here's a clue, if I need your help, I WILL ASK YOU. And here's the other thing about me, this blog doesn't exist as a fishing spot with baits for advice givers. If it's a post about my life, a record of what I did with my kid, can you please try very very hard not to give advice, and tell me how I should have done it right?

So hard being a parent these days.

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On that note, this post is also a plea to God and a reminder to myself to not walk the path of the momzilla monster. Scary you know!