Going Wild in Cyberjaya

As I mentioned earlier, Daddy and I took the boys for a little holiday at Cyberjaya last week.

It was our first time there, and we really did not know what to expect. So imagine our surprise when we got upgraded (for free!) to a junior suite which had 2 bedrooms with an attached bathroom, a lounge and a kitchenette; there was even a live fish in a little fishbowl on the bedside table. The lounge opened up to the swimming pool which made it very convenient. (A little too convenient, until one time we left the key card in the room, which meant Daddy had to go to the lobby in the swimming robe to get a spare key, which didn't work, which meant he had to go back and get someone to help us out... but I digress.)

We arrived a little after lunch, so we spent some time settling in, going out for a walk (and discovering a hammock!), checking what the rooms had, setting up various electronic devices (Abang's FAQ - "is my notebook set up yet?"), breaking up little sibling spats ... the usual stuff. We found out that everyday between 4-5:30pm, there is an activity for children and that day it was batik painting.

So Daddy and I decided to experiment - let's see if the boys would be amenable to doing batik painting while we sneak off for a massage at the spa. As soon as the staff set up the table with the painting kits, colouring pages and colour pencils, Adik was good to go! He made himself comfortable and without waiting for anyone or anything, sat himself down and started colouring. Abang followed suit. We informed the staff that we would be at the spa, so "in case of anything please contact us there". We ran off before they boys - or the staff - could change their minds.

A relaxing one and a half hours later, we went to the lobby and there they were: 2 boys sitting quietly, clutching their respective colouring pages and batik painting, waiting for their Mummy and Daddy! Abang ran to us to give us a big hug before asking, "Why so laaaaate?"

We were so pleased and impressed that we rewarded the boys with a long splash in the pool.

Although it was cold, it didn't take the boys long to warm up. It was a very enlightening experience for Daddy and me as we sat by the pool, in the shade, while watching the boys play in the pool. It hit us that we're becoming like a 'normal' family, almost - when we don't have to be with the kids a hundred percent of the time! Gasp! Actually, I mean, hooray!

When we got back to the room, Daddy gave the boys a shower while I got their clothes ready. Then Daddy got ready. Then Mummy got ready. Soon, we were all ready to go for dinner. Hey! We're getting pretty good at this!

Dinner was rather funny. Before the food arrived, the waitress put out some warm bread buns and Abang literally attacked them, "Ooooo! Roti!" and devoured it like a caveman. It was one of those embarrassing yet funny moments. Even the waitress laughed. (Yes, I know, we have to get Abang eating with his right hand. It's not from lack of trying, it's just that he's left handed so his left hand is his dominant hand.)

Both boys ate very well for dinner. I told Daddy it's because they didn't have anything to eat between lunch and then. After all, there wasn't any grandparent (whose name starts with 'W' and ends with 'an') around to constantly stuff snacks in their faces.

The next morning, they ate very well again for breakfast after which we had another splash in the pool. Before you know it, it's time to check out. Poor Adik was enjoying himself too much and almost threw a tantrum while I was checking out because he didn't want to go home. The check-out staff whipped out a lollipop right at the precise moment it was needed. So I told Adik if he wanted it he'd have to stop whining and ask for the lollipop nicely.

"Abaaaang, please, I need the lollipop, please?" was Adik's version of 'asking nicely'.

I'm not fussy, so that'll do.

All in all, a relatively low-stress holiday!

Definition of Success

Success means different things to different people. In fact, it may mean different things to the same person at different times.

For me, I'd say that success can be defined as having 3 boys (that would be Abang, Adik and Cuz) with me at Bangsar Village and being able to:

a) purchase some groceries at the supermarket,
b) feed all 3 dinner,
c) go next door to the pharmacy to purchase a toothbrush for the biggest of the 3 boys, and
d) buy myself some nice toilettries at L'Occitane.

Although we did have a rather hairy moment at the supermarket when Adik was a little cranky and ran out with his unpaid roti, which made me then run out after him with my unpaid roti.

But other than that, I'd say I succeeded yesterday.

School Holidays are Here!

And thank goodness for just one week.


So, I have lined up the whole week as follows:

Monday (today) - chill out in the morning and then head to Camp 5 at 1Utama when they open at 2pm. The boys got some computer/ Nintendo time, after which Abang did some homework and then we played what Abang calls "real life games". That basically covers anything and everything that's non-electronic. Abang was a Knight, while Adik and I were left to become his pet wolf and pet dragon, respectively.



After lunch we drove out to 1Utama and signed up for the 1-hour First Timers course. Besides the 3 of us, there was another pair of siblings with their dad, and another pair of brothers (although their mom didn't join in but just watched).

Surprisingly, Abang did very well while Adik kinda freaked out as he got to the top, saying "I dowan, I dowan.." On the 12-metre high wall, Abang went about probably as high as 8 metres, but at one point he was struggling a little so the instructor went up to help guide him. When he came down (and Abang continued going up!), I commented that I'm surprised Abang didn't want to come down already. The instructor told me Abang looked absolutely determined to go up, plus he reckons going up is a better option than coming down. Excluding Adik, he was definitely the youngest among the other children yet I think he climbed the highest. Adik went up about 2+ metres and was ready to come down. I think I did about 10 metres.

Of course, the whole time Wan is freaking out (yes, she came along) saying, "Tak payahlah, Adik naik, tinggi tu.... Jatuh nanti tu kang... Tinggi tu..." I had to pretend that I didn't hear all that! The reason I didn't take any good photos of the boys climbing is because I left my phone with her and I'd have no choice but to listen to her objections.

The last wall was an 8-metre high wall and Abang - a champion by now - made it all the way to the top! Yea! So did Mummy, and Adik managed to climb about 2+ metres again.

Moving on:

Tuesday - send Wan to kampung.

Wednesday to Thursday - Daddy and I are taking the boys on holiday, nope this time not to Marriott Putrajaya. We decided to go really wild - for we are just such wild creatures - and head nextdoor to Cyberjaya instead. I'm sure the boys will be making mental notes on swimming pool comparisons.

Friday - Abang has been scheduled for a one-day camp while Adik chills out at Atok's house. Of course, by this time Mummy needs a break so I've scheduled myself to go in to the office! Ha!

Staying one step ahead. All planned out, I am.

Like Yoda, I must be.

Roll Call

For those who are wondering who actually resides at our house, I've decided to do a roll call, from eldest to youngest, excluding the adult humans.

Abang (looking more like a teenager than a 6 year-old), seen here in his favourite position:

Adik, seen here also in his favourite position:

Harun, seen here in a rather strange position:

Thomas, seen here looking like he'd rather be in another position:

And .... our newest addition, who has been named Hiro (as in Hero, as in Wira, geddit? Geddit?), seen here in whatever position I can capture on film as he is a little too quick for my shutter speed:

And now for those that are no longer with us. First up,Spencer. If you recall, he was very cute and very friendly. So when he didn't come home, we assumed that another family found him so cute and so friendly that they decided to adopt him (too). In fact, about a month or so ago we saw him walking around our area and it looked like he was following a couple of teenage girls. And he looked relatively healthy, so we decided to assume the best for him.

Percy, the semi-stray that we managed to capture and neuter a couple of years ago, has not been at our house for over 2 months. The last few times he came over for meals he looked quite poorly so unfortunately for him, we think he has gone to the big PAWS in the sky. Even though we never really thought of him as "our" cat, at least for the last couple of years he did get shelter and plenty of good food.

And, of course, my Little BB, who fought bravely to survive but in the end was just too frail to do so.

I'm sure we'll have many more cat stories to come.

Update

The newborn kitten died last night.

Although it was just a little "black blob", nevertheless it was still a living, breathing (albeit struggling) little black blob which we had tried to save. But failed.

I called him my "Little BB".

A Wash Out

I'm taking a short break from talking about our cats and kittens.

Today we took the boys to the KL Bird Park. It was Abang's idea and since Daddy had never been to it, we thought it would be a great idea!

It was drizzling when we left the house at around 10am (with a quick detour en route to get a 'kitten nursing kit' from the animal hospital - hey, I said short break, right). By the time we got to KL it had become a rather heavy drizzle and we took an umbrella with us into the Park.

I thought it was rather interesting that the 'official' price listed at the ticket counter is the price for foreigners. However, if you cakap Melayu with them they'll give you the 'local' ticket price, although I was asked for my IC. It does say on their website that locals with MyKad get cheaper admissions than foreigners, so we were fully expecting this. It was not too bad, for the 4 of us it cost RM42 (RM15/ adult, RM6/ child), although I think if we had gone during the school holidays they may have had some promotios for families. I'm pretty sure Petrosains and Butterfly Park have those promotions.

As we were walking around, the drizzle got heavier! Even though the entire Park is covered with a huge black net to avoid the birds from flying away, nevertheless we still got drizzled on. Daddy went back to the car to get our other umbrella.

The boys enjoyed watching the peacocks wander around although they were a little freaked out when they aproached us. There were some monkeys on top of the netting (on the outside) and one of them kept shaking one of the towers, making an absolute racket!

Unfortunately, we didn't manage to capture any good pictures. Erm, actually, we didn't take any photos at all. That's because we had one hand holding a boy and one hand holding an umbrella!

Ah well, never mind. Despite the wash out, it was a good day out and about in KL on a public holiday.

It's Confirmed

Yep, it's official. We're "That Crazy Family With All Those Cats".

It's been 6 days since we rescued the kitten from our neighbour's Wira. We're still looking for a new home for him but in the meantime we've managed to put together a little home for him in our garage.

No, I haven't put him upright on my shoulder and pat him on the back to burp him. I just rub his tummy after a feed and he goes "burp, buuuuuurrrrrp". A shallow used ice-cream tub has been converted into his litter box and he instinctively started to use it, woo-hoo. Then Daddy tied some paper at the end of a piece of string and let Adik play with the kitten using that toy. When Adik was done we just tied it in its cage and the kitten goes nuts batting it, gnawing it, swiping at it. He's also started to lap up water from a water bowl and was very interested in eating the dry kitten food so I think I can stop with syringe-feeding the kitten milk to him.

That's not to say syringe- or eyedropper-feeding is over for me.

Because this morning, Daddy found a newborn kitten in the drain right outside our kitchen, its umbilical cord still attached to it and the mother nowhere to be found. Yes, I know. I hear you saying, "WHAT?!?"

See, this is what Daddy refers to as 'cat teenage pregnancy'. The (real) momcat is one of the stray cats that tumpang makan at our house. She, along with 2 of her male siblings, generally get their food from us and even hang out in our garage and garden sometimes (I may have mentioned this before). We were hoping to get friendly enough with her and have her spayed before she got pregnant but obviously we were too late. We still haven't got friendly enough with her brothers to get them neutered.

So when Daddy foud it, he immediately cleaned it up and cut the cord. The problem with that, though, is that the newborn kitten now 'smells' of Daddy and could also be why the mummy cat isn't looking after it - it doesn't smell like her kitten!

We heard another incessant newborn mewing coming from our neighbour's house two doors down. We can't get to it, so we'll just have to hope for the best for that little guy.

I thought I heard a third mewing (in addition to the 2 distinct mews) but it was already almost dark at that time and we had a gazillion other things to do - feed and layan the 2-legged kittens, clean out the newkitten's cage, feed the big orange cat (Harun) not to mention various other household chores! Poor Thomas has definitely merajuk. Today he ate and then stalked off.

Thomas merajuk

When I went to feed the newborn kitten and clean its butt I got peed on. Funny, I'd forgotten about that stage of cleaning a newborn! Suddenly, looking after a one-month old kitten seems like an easy job.

Let's see what tomorrow holds for us.

To the Rescue!

We rescued yet *another* kitten today.

Early this morning, when we were all downstairs preparing for breakfast, there was a very distressed mew coming from around the vicinity. A quick check showed our neighbour, who parks her car at the side of the road next to our house, was about to go to work when she discovered a little kitten somewhere under her car.

She tried coaxing it out but to no avail. After awhile, the mewing got louder and louder and she was still not very successful so I asked Daddy to offer some help getting the kitten out. He did, and I think she was quite grateful to be able to go to work!

The poor little thing was mewing away still and we just put him (I checked, it's another boy, ho hum) in the carrier while we figured out what to do. We thought that his mummy would hear his mews and come for him but no sign at all. And he was the only kitten around.

He's very young, looks to be around 3-4 weeks old, and quite healthy but just a little grubby from spending a night in the engine compartment of a Wira. We decided to take him to the animal hospital nearby as soon as it opened to find out if they can put him up for adoption. But first, Daddy wanted to give him a bath. (See post-bath picture above.)

"He's so cold, he's shivering. Quick, bring down your hair dryer."

I just said, "Ha? Hair dryer? Won't that scare the daylights out of him?" (I was imagining a Tom and Jerry episode when Tom was so scared until his skeletal frame jumped out of his skin.)

But, hey, I'm no cat expert so I duly went to get the hair dryer. (See hair drying picture below.)


At 10am sharp we were at the animal hospital. The vet explained that their boarding-to-put-up-for-adoption slots were rather full so we had to take him home. But only after a brief physical check up and a dose of deworming.

The most amusing part was when the vet explained how to feed the kitten. Would you believe we are supposed to dissolve the kitten milk powder in "boiled, lukewarm water" and feed it "every 3-4 hours, but if you see that he is ok to stretch the feeding times then go ahead".

What?! I thought I was waaaaay past that stage of 3-hourly feeds and mixing milk powder "with lukewarm water". Sigh.

Actually, I was in for more amusement. Daddy sent me this paragraph from http://www.kittenrescue.org/. It says:

'By nature, momcats lick the "back end" of their babies to stimulate the bowels and bladder on a regular basis. If you are the babies' new momcat, guess who gets this duty! After each feeding, gently rub the kitten on its low abdomen, as well as the genitals and rectum, with a cotton ball, cotton pad, or tissues moistened with warm water.'

There's that warm water thing again! Luckily it didn't say "you have to wash their butts with *boiled* lukewarm water" or I would definitely be going on strike. Oh ya, it also says we're supposed to burp the kitten "like you would a human baby, by holding it upright against your shoulder and patting it on the back".

I don't think so!!