1st Halloween

We decided to take Olivia trick-a-treating just on our block, visiting only people we know. Fortunately the weather is pretty nice, not too cold. Here is Olivia in her butterfly costume, sitting in her little car.

It was actually quite fun because there are a few babies on our block around Olivia's age and we visited each other. This year, there were more trick-a-treaters compared to last year.

There is one house we visited where the lady said she does not give out candy but instead she gives out pennies. Well, those will go towards Olivia's college fund.

Check out Olivia's loot.

Mommy and daddy are going to have a feast! Muah ha ha......

Who ate my Halloween decorations??

I caught the suspect in action.

My neighbors' pumpkins are still intact. Why aren't theirs being eaten? Maybe mine is small and juicy. :-)

I sign up for PPP!

Recently, my friends and I were talking about blogging and how you can make money through your blog. Initially, my thought is to start blogging so that my family who lives are the other side of the world can keep up with what’s happening with my life here in the US of A.

Making money was not the main objective when I started blogging. Then my friends told me about payperpost and I decided to check them out. It is one of the leading site that brings advertisers and bloggers together. Advertisers pay you to write about their products and services on your blog.

First you have to sign up and get your blog approved. One of the condition to get your blog approved is that it must at least be 90 days old. Once your blog is approved, you can browsed through available to you and start writing to make money.

One of the reasons I like Pay Per Post is that they have a lot of opportunities for you to take. You can pick and choose products and services that are relevant to the content of your blog.

I am beginning to fantasize about what I am going to do with the money earned from blogging. I think I will save it and use it to treat my family when they visit me.

If you have not yet sign up with Pay Per Post, check them out, you won’t be disappointed.

Halloween

Halloween is just around the corner and it is usually celebrated in the Western world. It is not celebrated in Malaysia when I was growing up, I'm not sure about now.

Halloween's origins dates back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celts who lived in the now Ireland and Northen France celebrate their new year on November 1. The day marked the end of summer and harvest and the beginning of winter. The Celts believed that on October 31, the boundary between the living and the dead became blurred and the ghost of the dead returned to earth. This is quite similar to the Hungry Ghost Festival in Asia.

Some people think that Halloween is a religious in nature and it is celebrating the devil. They don't allow their children to go trick-a-treating. Most people in this country celebrate Halloween for fun. I might be wrong, that is my perception, being in the country for 6 years.

This would be Olivia's first Halloween and we are not sure if we will be taking her trick-a-treating. It's kinda like showing off you kid since she is too young to know what's happening. Anyway, if we do take her, she will be dressed up as a butterfly. Stay tuned to see her in the costume.

Many houses in the neighborhood are already decked out with Halloween decorations. I'm not big into decorating, my only decorations are 2 PUNY pumpkins!! LOL

Getting ready for the party

It is 10 days before Olivia's 1st birthday party. We have the guest list down and we know where to cater the food from. This weekend, we are going to order her cake.

So, last weekend, we went to Party City to get the party supplies. I'm so glad that we have a Party City right in our town and it is within walking distance from our house.

I can't believe how much party supplies costs. The items we bought were not pricey, between $1.99 - 4.99 each but they all add up to almost $50!!

Geez...kids are expensive...eeerr...maybe it's the parents who go overboard. Hehe......

Shopping cart

As a new mother, I have always wished that I could stay home with my baby or maybe have my own web based business so that I can spend more time with Olivia.

For people with web based business, you should check out shopping cart software from Ashop Commerce. It is an ecommerce solution that managed your online business from one complete software.

With this software, you will be able to accept major credit cards and Paypal, and it comes with built in SSL protection so that your buyers pay with confidence. They also have a team of experts to provide advice on how to start or improve your online business.

One of the reason to choose them is that they have a search engine optimization structure and you know how important it is for your product to rank the highest on major search engines.

So, why not check them out.

Finding the time to read

I love to read. When I was a little girl, I read a lot of books by Enid Blyton. Then I moved on to Famous Five, Secret Seven, Nancy Drew. As I got older, I began reading Sidney Sheldon, Jeffrey Archer etc. I love mystery and investigative novels. Readers Digest is also one of my favourite magazine.

However, after having the baby, it's hard for me to find time to read for leisure. Morever, I keep getting free monthly subscriptions to baby magazines, which I try to read because they do have some good tips in there for new parents.

This is what I used to read.


This is what I read now. :-)

October 13

6 years ago on this date, I arrived at JFK Airport after a 24 hour flight to start my new life, in a new country with my new husband.

The first 2 years was difficult for me, I cried a lot. I missed my family and my friends, and of course, Malaysian food. Luckily in New York, I can get pretty authentic Malaysian food.

I hate to admit it but the initial 3 months, I experienced culture shock. I was thinking, I'm an educated person, I speak good english and I live in a faily modern country before this, how could it be culture shock? But it is because things are done differently here. Even shopping for winter clothing overhelmed me. Of course la....it's 90F the whole year round in Malaysia!

Fast forward to 6 years later, I am thankful of how far I have come along. There are of course ups and downs through those years but this is what I am thankful for:

1. We bought our first home.

2. We became parents.

3. My parents were finally able to visit me after 6 long years and be here for the birth of their first grandchild.

4. As for my professional life, I have achieve far more than I have expected. I never imagine I could be at this level and I doubt that I can accomplished this if I were still in Malaysia.

One area that I am lacking is friends. It has been very very difficult to make friends here, perhaps due to the lifestyle in a metroplitan city. However, I am working towards that. Luckily, we do have great neighbors.

Food and allergy

When Olivia was ready to start solid food, her pediatrician gave me a piece of literature outlining what food to give at what age. It also states certain food that should be avoided until at least 1 year old which include fish, shellfish, nuts, honey, chocolate, fresh berries and eggs. This is because these foods are considered highly allergenic.

In Malaysia, you seldom hear that people are allegic to peanuts or shellfish. In fact, when a baby is ready to eat solid food, around 5-6 months, we would cook porridge with fish for the baby. There are no dietery restrictions.

However, when I move here, I found out that a lot of people are allergic to peanuts and shrimps. Hence, the advice to avoid certain foods until you're older. The logic is that the younger you are exposed to these allergenic foods, the higher the risk that you will develop an intolerance.

But it got me wondering, since very few people in Malaysia are allergic to food, maybe the younger you consumed these foods, the less likely you will develop an allergy??

Sick as a dog

Source: Clipart

My poor baby had a very bad cold & cough last week. She was coughing and had a lot of mucus. Then, towards the end of the week, she seems better. However on Sat, she got worse and I took her to the pediatrician.

Luckily she does not have an ear infection. Her doctor is anti-medication because he does not think that giving cold medicine to a child under 2 is effective. Besides, certain over-the-counter infant cold and cough medicine has been pulled of the shelves, due the overdose deaths of 2 children. I have never given her any medicine when she had a cold.

She has been in daycare since she was 3 months old and almost every month she has some kind of sniffle or congestion. A friend of hubby's told him that when a child starts daycare or school, everyone in the household will be sick for 2 years! Hubby got the cold a few days ago and now I have it. I guess Olivia likes to share.

People also say that if a child stay at home, then when he/she starts school, he/she will get sick more than a child who has been in daycare. Is there any truth to that?

Baby jail got bigger

In Aug, we bought the Superyard for Olivia so that I have someplace secure to put her. However, at that time, I mentioned that it feels contricting.

This weekend, we added a 2 panel extention to the yard and it got bigger that I can actually go in there and feel comfortable.

Now, Olivia can crawl around and I can be in there to play with her without feeling boxed in. I'm quite happy with it but I don't think Olivia noticed that her square footage got bigger....hehe.

There's something about Olivia

LOL!! I'm such a bad mother, I make fun of my baby all the time....

Blog Advertising

I wrote a post about blog advertising about a month ago and just yesterday, an opportunity came up for me at Smorty. Smorty is a service where advertisers and bloggers come together at a common place. Advertisers will pay bloggers to write about their product or service in their blogs.

It is easy to get started at Smorty. First, you have to create a blog and submit a membership with Smorty. Wait for your blog to be approved and then find suitable offers. One important condition is that your blog has to be active for 90 days before it can be approved.

One of the things I like about Smorty is the payment terms, you get paid weekly once your post is approved! I am in the accounting field and let me tell you, weekly payment terms is unheard of.

So, if you are interested in getting paid for blogging, check out Smorty. You would be surprised.

Too early to discipline

Source: Clipart

Hubby and I were catching up while having dinner last week and he was saying we have to start “disciplining” Olivia. What??!!

Olivia is at that age where she would continuously throw things (including food) on the floor while sitting in the high chair. We would pick it up, she would throw it again. It’s like she is playing the game "Let’s see how many times mommy will pick it up".

I don’t mean the type of discipline like time out or punishment but something like not picking up the toys or not giving her back the toys to throw again.

I think she is too young to comprehend, but then again maybe not. She watched me put the cap on her sippy cup a few times and now she is doing it herself. So, if we keep repeating the action, she might get it. What do you think?