EmmaGoodEgg

Daddy's Little Girl

It makes my knees weak when I hear you say, "Mimi is so cute, its ridiculous".

Welcome To The World

Dear Mimi,

After what felt like a pregnancy reminiscent of a pachyderm, we finally welcomed you into the world with the minimum of fuss except that Mama could not feel her legs. Suddenly there you are, a wrinkly little girl whose testament to the science of genetics is obvious as I gazed at you for the first time and exclaimed, “Oh my goodness you look exactly like your father!”

I carried you for nine months my darling (at times it felt like two years) and as far as I can see, God wasn’t paying much attention when he was doling out the genes for Mama’s side of the family. But I am hopeful that some of my latent characteristics will rub off. Why just the other day you slept in during a public holiday! Also, you may have Mama’s unruly eyebrows that would need shaping and filling in with a skilled hand in your later years. Be thankful that you will have a Mama that will teach you this important skill.

Since we left the hospital, you and I have been spending all our waking hours together. We are trying to get into this rhythm of eating and feeding, which according to Gina Ford, is good for you and helps maintain our sanity. So its poo, pee, change, feed, sleep, play and walkabout, bathe…although not necessarily in that order. You have been a good little girl, sleeping through the nights and keeping to your schedule on most days. Your Mama on the other hand, has developed a nervous tick, as motherhood this time around at this God-forsaken age, is not easy. To your Papa’s credit, he has been a great help. He’s been put on Dirty-Diaper-Duty. Apart from making an initial mess at the hospital on his first time, he now does so with great aplomb and your tiny bottom gets really cleaned. He also reads Dr Spock for us (that's Dr Spock of the baby and childcare books and not so much Star Trek's "Live Long and Prosper") so that we're on the ball with all necessary baby facts.

A week after you were born, we had an “aqiqah” for you. Your father completed another right of passage and slaughtered a lamb in your name! The meat was then gifted to relatives. Your father came home with his tale of butchery and showed me a picture he took of your lamb. Poor lamb.

The lamb, sure it was cute, but you my darling girl, are way cuter.

As my side of the family would say “Sebiji muka bapa dia” (loosely translated as “she's the spitting image of her father”).

Something new you learnt this week? You sure can show your Nana a big SMILE!

Love,

Your Mama xx

Ps/ Incidentally, you like it when I hum New York New York or Light My Fire (by The Doors and not Take That), that my darling is a good mix of your father and I.

PPs/ Willow was feeling a bit out of sorts when we first brought you home. She's now gotten used to you being around and is in fact quite protective, although she wants to come and lay with the three of us in bed!

Rice Water + Soya Bean = A Lily White Miracle (Yeah Right)

Dear Mimi,

Being a pregnant old bird this time around is not as easy as being pregnant at 22. There are many physical discomforts Mama is experiencing with you that Mama did not go through with your Abang. Like feeling the weight of the belly, especially when getting in and out of bed like a beached whale. Or the nausea. Or the headaches. Or the anxiety/paranoia.

There are 2 things that seem to be constant though. One is the urge to pee every few minutes at night. And the other are the old-wives' tales a pregnant mother gets from well-meaning folks.

Well, sometimes its well-meaning with a bit of barb snucked in for good measure. Mama received one a few days ago and it went something like this:

Well Meaning Woman (WMW): Let me give you some advice.

Mama: Right on.

WMW: You should be drinking a lot of rice water and also soya bean.

Mama: Really?? Why?

WMW: So that the Bun will be fair-skinned. You know, because you and Bobby are not the fairest ones around.

Mama: Ouch.

I don't think it matters if Mama guzzles gallons of rice water and soya bean because there is a high probability that you will be a brown little girl. Whilst we apologise for your genetic composition, that really is good enough for your Papa and me.

Love, Mama xx

Everyday People Cartoon by the uber talented Cathy Thorne snagged from here.

An Eggy Return Of The Fifth Estate

Dear Mimi,

Its been ages I know, but Mama’s been quite the busy, and sometimes unwell, pregnant GoodEgg. Your Papa has been nagging me about posting but pheeEeew, when one is growing a human being in one’s womb, one can be excused. Surely.

Well, I feel like posting today. Especially since your Auntie DeeT sent a text suggesting that I rename the blog to EmmaBoringDisappearedEgg. Which has a ring to it, but perhaps not quite.

Anyway, since I last updated, there are many things to tell the world about and if Mama can be arsed to put thoughts on Microsoft Word, the list of possible posts goes as thus:

1. Jing Chew's Hot Buns At Tea Time: Getting With The Programme
2. Our First Foray Into The Inner Workings Of “Malam BerJaga Jaga”
3. The Quest For A Stroller: The Bugaboo, The Quinny Buzz or The Stokke Xplory
4. Aoki – A Modern Day Samurai
5. Bed Resting Do’s & Don’ts

I will try. And if I can't, I'll dig deep for a celeb-bashing post.

Love, Your Mama xx

ps/ Incidentally, you are doing very well in there, my darling girl. And considering the amount of kicks you inflict, I think you might have a career as a football star.

pps/ Mama of course pretty much looks like Mama SWALLOWED the football.

Little Miss Bad

One of the cons of baking a bun is that you are vying for the Most-Scatterbrained-AND-Clumsy-Person-Around medal of honour. I have walked into rooms and not remember why I walked into the room in the first place. I often accidentally nudge my bump around the edge of tables. The bun is fudging my center of gravity and wolfing down my brain cells. It is very disconcerting and freaky.

You know what else is disconcerting? Wanton dreams at dawn, which is quite rightly one of the pros.

Introducing MimiGoodEgg

Cartoon snagged from here.

Dear Mimi,

I am getting used to the idea that you are a girl. Just yesterday Mama was surfing the newborn baby girl section at www.gap.com. It is a little bit scary to think about just how many things you can buy a little girl. Bows and Hand Bags and Hair Bands and Ribbons and Socks and Clothes and SHOES! Boys are admittedly easier in the younger years when it comes to clothing expenses, but not necessarily so in the fashionable sense. When your Abang Azim was around 5 or 6 years old, there was a time he went around in a Stone Cold Steve Austin Black Tee-Shirt for about 3 months just about every single day. Just to add salt to the wound, he wore them in a large size because there were no kid sizes. But did that stop him? Nope. He is a little vain pot now, so I am saving the pictures of him in that awful Tee just in case I need some leverage when it comes to choosing daughter-in-laws.

Mama admits to being a wee bit nervous at the thought of having another female in the house. Firstly there is the resignation that I will be Number 3 in your Papa’s heart. [Incidentally, we both have to deal with Willow being Numero Uno.] Secondly, your Papa is already considering whether our garden is big enough for a pony. For you. And to this I say to him, “Where’s MY pony??”

But your Papa always reminds me that I must have a good relationship with my daughter and not have one of those complex Mother and Daughter relationships. I really hope we will become BFFs (Best Friends Forever), not drive each other too crazy but learn from each other.

Anyway, I wanted to reassure you that I am getting all the information/training I can on How To Be A Good Mother To My Daughter. To wit: A few days ago I watched the movie “Because I Said So.” starring Diane Keaton just because the title is one of the mantras governing the relationship between Mother and Daughter.

The other mantra is of course, “But Mooooooom!!”

Love, Your Mama xx

ps/ I am making a list on useful things a mother can impart to her daughter. Just to prove how on the ball I am about things like these, I already have two on my list: 1) How to 'anyam' a Ketupat and 2) How to draw perfect eyebrows.

Exposed To The Media In All Its Glory

Cartoon snagged from here.

Dear Bun,

Last Sunday you and I were sitting on a set in a television studio, talking cock about the cyber world all the while being recorded for posterity. I honestly didn't know what I was getting us into when a man rang me in the middle of the night and asked whether I wanted to be on TV. The man said he got my number from RA (thanks RA). You'll meet RA one of these days. You would like him, everyone does, even his or her grandmothers. If you're good, you might even get on his site! Seriously. Everyone does.

Anyway, the last time I was on TV on purpose was oh...never. So it was strange why I finally said yes when there are so many reasons to say no. One reason is that the TV puts on pounds (like we need the extra pounds). Another is I always feel the urge to laugh maniacally/hysterically when attention (read: camera) is focused on a point on my face. Thankfully this did not happen, although it almost did. If you see the tape of the show later in your formative years, you will see the pain evident on Mama's face from the struggle of keeping an intelligent, if not straight, face.

The main reason that we went was because your Papa convinced me to. He said it would be a good new experience for me/us. Something I can say I have done. Which is being on TV and try to enlighten the masses. So I said yes. By the time we arrived at the studios and sat on a make-up chair with the make-up artist sculpting a bridge on my button nose using some brownish eye shadow, I was mentally sending your Papa brainwaves that said, "This. Is. A. Bloody. Stupid. Idea".

But thankfully we were not alone. We had The BFG and Clyde for company, and because they went on TV with a considerable amount of pancake powder on their faces, I didn't feel so bad with my sculpted nose.

So as your Papa puts it - Got On TV: Tick!

Love, Mama The TV Star (no not really) xx

ps/ Another form of media you have been exposed to in the womb recently is Mozart and other classical tunes. Apparently this will lead you to have a peaceful and fulfilled life. I have to confess that this kind of music makes your Mama look towards a distant horizon and makes her bum itch, so as a counter-point I always make the both of us listen to The Cure/Matchbox 20/Third Eye Blind/Dave Matthews Band (so that you will lead a peaceful, fulfilled AND quirky life). Your Aunt Babs have sent us the URL to a great site www.babyrockrecords.com that sells CDs that combines the two kind of genres. I shall buy us some of the CDs so that I don't feel guilty because I am exposing my unborn child to Public School Boy and/or Alternative Angst American music. Although could exposing an unborn child to glockenspiel music lead to problematic teenage years? I don't know man, www.babycenter.com has no answers for this type of question.

pps/ You are also exposed to your Papa's singing. For this Mama is so very sorry, but he tries you know, he tries, and he'll always make us laugh.

Say Cheeeese!

Cartoon snagged from here

Dear Bun,

We had a visit to the good doctor yesterday and Mama saw you again. Jumping about like a mexican jumping bean (ole!). I always breathe a sigh of relief when I see you on the small screen. Even though its black and white, and the resolution could be better. And sometimes I don't know where your head or bum is and the good doctor has to move the pointer on the screen to show me which is which. I wish the hospital has a colour 3D/4D ultrasound scanner machine so I can REALLY see you. In a few weeks we get to use the scanner at Radiology and apparently it will be 3D and recordable(!), although still in black and white. Papa and I will have to seek out a VHS cassette in order to tape a few minutes of you doing the gymnastics in there. I hope you will be as active you can be and won't be sound asleep then. Not because watching 15 minutes of you on the big screen is better than watching Sleepless in Seattle/You've Got Mail, but because VHS cassettes are near damn impossible to find these days.

Love, Mama xx

ps/ We are traveling this Saturday with Papa, Grandma and Grandpa. I hope you appreciate that Mama will have to wear ugly knee high travel socks in order to improve leg circulation in-flight just so you can say you have visited Central Java when you were in the womb.

In Search Of Slippery Little Suckers

Dear Bun,

It must be your tiny wishes and dreams that makes your Papa have a real hankering for oysters. So in true spirit of those who are "panas bontot" (that's Mama's lingo for those who cannot sit still), your parents are heading off to Singapore today for a quick jaunt in search of the freshest oysters. But don't worry, I won't devour too many of them delicious little suckers all fresh with lemon (but oh yum!), for apparently its not so good for you my little one. Maybe au gratin then?

I also think its time to buy new clothes, for fat times are a-comin'. I refuse to be seen in a muu-muu, smock-like tents or dungarees. And I wouldn't mind some Louboutins because the red soles are soooo pretty. Even though I may be judged for wearing sky-high heels with bloated ankles.

Love, Mama xx

ps/ I hope you do not mind your interim name, your Papa and I will make the proper choice when you have revealed yourself. We promise. And it won't be Alfred, or Mildred. Although it might be Genghis or Mimi. Your Abang Azim has his own thoughts on the matter, I'm just hoping its not the name of some dead rock legend.