Gong Xi Fa Cai

Madison's first Chinese New Year...

As you can imagine, I'd been thinking and sort of dreading this occasion for awhile, mainly because of the bad first trip that we had to Melbourne when she was 1 month old and EVERYONE fell sick.

We were booked to fly to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia via Silkair to visit relatives, both on Chris' and my side. After much discussion, we had decided to stay at a serviced apartment, rather than a hotel, for more space. Chris had spent some time online and finally the Ascott apartments, close to KLCC were picked. We chose the largest 3 room apartment to fit my parents, Chai, Geok and the 3 of us.

After much planning, we finally got onto the plane and I managed to latch her on while taking off quite successfully. I was quite surprised that Madison stayed on my lap the entire trip. Thankfully it was rather short and in a blink of an eye ( 40 minutes or so) it was time to land. We got her sucking on her favourite ice cubes coming down. The 6 of us spent the trip entertaining her.

The rest of the day was spent in settling in. Madison had a field day crawling and cruising around the entire large carpeted apartment(3101) , with many adult playmates to keep her occupied. Dinner was at KLCC, where we met Jeremy and ate at Bong Seng, a fusion Vietnamese restaurant. Madison was quite well behaved, and ate her dinner like a champ! Chris and I were exhausted after dinner and we settled her down for bed at around 9Pm. The first night was quite nerve wrecking for me though, not having slept in the same room as her since she was ill, and not since she was 1 month old! And of course she woke at 2 AM and seeing us in the same room, refused to sleep for another hour afterward!Finally after much rocking and walking she crashed... in our bed, nonetheless! Needless to say, none of us got much sleep that night.

Day 2 started early and Madison soon woke everyone up in the apartment. We all marched down to the 22nd floor for breakfast at the sky lounge, where a sumptous Continental buffet was served. I had brought some yoghurt from the supermarket the night before, just in case Madison had nothing to eat. It was an unfounded fear of course and Madison was well served by the breakfast buffet. She made a royal mess of our table at the cafe, but still managed to charm the entire staff at the cafe!

After brekky we visited 7th Aunt at home. An uncle was visiting from Toronto as well. Pa and Ma went out for lunch with the relatives while Madison napped at home. We had Korean takeaway courtesy of Wei Yee, who'd been volunteered to pick 8th Aunt up from the bus station. She and Kay Shin were arriving in the afternoon from Johor Bahru. Madison had quite a stranger shock when she woke and met everybody, who of course all wanted a piece of her! Quite a few tears were shed. After a while though she got used to everyone and was soon up to her usual walkabout in the house.

Prior to dinner, Chris and I checked in at the Boulevard hotel at Mid Valley. We were supposed to meet his relatives for dinner at Amarin Thai and thinking that dinner would end late, I didn't want to have to make the journey back to KLCC afterwards with a cranky baby. It turned out to be the best decision ever, as Madison was exhausted from an early day spent running around, meeting so many new people and multiple long car rides. By 830PM she was fussy and difficult to control, so I called it quits and went back to our room first while Chris finished dinner with his relatives. They were in the midst of making speeches in turn so I was glad to escape as well.

The second night was strange. Madison was tired so she was difficult to settle, crying and refusing the breast as well. After a little while of holding and hugging she finally settled and we put her cot in the corridor where she could not see us. She slept pretty well during the night, and even though she woke a few times in the wee hours, it was strange she didn't cry but just settled after some time of rattling the cot rails and standing( I could hear her! ). I slept better not seeing her directly in front of me too.

The next day we went down to the poolside and took a dip after breakfast. Breakfast was even better at the Boulevard Hotel and an even larger spread was served. Madison shared an omelette with us, followed by some fruit. Chris tried a jar of applesauce but our little gourmand refused any after a taste! I have never been able to get her to take either jar foods or any baby cereal that came in a box! Personally I am still amazed when I see babies taking food from jars or rice cereals. I don't know how the parents actually convince them to take it so well!

Later that morning, we went over to Uncle Cheng Wui's home to visit, where she met the entire Pui family. We spent the entire afternoon there, treated to a Malaysian lunch, after which Madison was entertaining Chris' relatives in turn. She had so many photographs taken I started to worry what the flash would do to her eyesight!

By late afternoon we were just waiting for Aunt Saw Kian and Boon Pin to arrive so that we could take a family photograph. I was terribly bored but it was the right thing to do, as Chris' mum really wanted that photograph to be taken. Honestly I would have rather been shopping at Mid Valley, Malaysia's largest mall ( apparently!) as it was recently completed and the shops were all ON SALE!

By the evening I was exhausted but we still had one last dinner appointment with my relatives at the Gardens Hotel restaurant buffet. By the time we got there Madison was starving so I got started on dinner for her, even though no one else was there yet. Turned out to be the right decision! The other people were lost just trying to get to and park at Mid Valley Shopping Centre! Everyone was late and I was glad that we had fed Madison by the time dinner actually started.

Of course dinner didn't end before my poor girl became tired and since I didn't want a repeat of the night before I just threw the towel in and put her to sleep in the sarong at the hotel. Turned out to be a good idea anyway.. by the time we were ready to go, got the car and said goodbye to the relatives it was way past her bedtime. Then we still had the drive back to the Ascott apartments in town. And of course after I had settled her in bed she was up and sobbing again. This time we kind of let her CIO and she settled after a good 30 minutes or so. Chris and I decided to camp on the living room floor so that we could at least sleep!

Daylight came none the quicker and it was the end of the trip. The flight back was not too bad, although the entire plane seemed to be filled with kids! Sounded like a nursery class all the way home. I pitied the other people who were on the plane without kids!

I think the entire trip was quite an experience, never had nothing to do, unlike most of our past CNY trips where we were bored stiff sitting in relatives homess. Although we could have done with more sleep. And I learned that we need to get bigger hotel rooms from now on if we wanted to sleep. Or put her in the kitchen!

Happy new year to all!