second to last of soho progress

i've finally hauled the carpet to the unit to flatten out the edges  because they start to curl upwards after being rolled up for a long time.
and what's left to do before i lose my sanity completely:

in the bathroom:
- install water heater
- install bathroom mirror
- install towel hanger
- install toiletries stand
- replace bathroom light
- install door stopper

in the kitchen:
- add another light point
- install cabinet lights * 3
- install fridge
- plaster brackets to conceal wiring
- cabinet bracket missing

in the main hall:
- install washing machine
- figure out a way to cover up washing machine outlet
- install fan with 3 feet extender
- replace living room lights with drop down ones
- *KIV* add 4 light points (recycle original bedroom n living room lights)
- add 4 power points
- replace switch initially installed for main hall
- double check main door (not closing on itself properly)
- install door stopper

outside:
- install outdoor ceiling light
- install doorbell

upstairs:
- add 2 power points
- replace bedroom lights with LED lights
- touch up plastering around LED lights
- install tv
- polish stairs
- polish flooring
- touch up area around switch/plug points
- replace side table's broken wheels

curtains

doorgrill

things to add on:
- dresser
- bed headboard
- dustbin
- floor mats
- microwave
- cleaning utils

ganbatte kudasai... chaiyyokkkk

36 weeks

i'm now 36 weeks fat!

had my 35th-36th week checkup on Monday. after friday would be the 'anytime now' waiting game, which annoys me because you have no idea when that will be. today? tomorrow? lusa? tulat? next week? after voting day? especially when you have so many things left to do before delivering a baby leaves you temporarily immobile. sighhhh. am so not looking forward to a surprise delivery. baby has grown from 1.7kg to 2.2kg injust 2 weeks. i'm tired of taking so many toilet breaks, and turning from one side to another is like torture to some of the organs in my body, haha.

last Sunday i somehow lost my appetite, what a mistake that was. i ended up experiencing my first round of Braxton hicks this third pregnancy. sakittttt ok. Significant Other asked me if i wanted to head to the hospital. i merely said that i wanted to eat =P. today is probably his last week before he finishes for good at flying school. am gonna miss Langkawi, but i'm definitely not gonna miss the sun's scorching heat which rather nastily made my skin turn dull.

am in the midst of packing my hospital bag. i can't remember if the hospital provided me towels or not during my last delivery. during my first delivery at the old building at section 9 they never provided me with anything except for a small bag of toiletries. i've cleared out the kids' wardrobe and found a whole bunch of junk - unused 9oz bottles since Dinara prefers drinking from the 4oz bottles, menstrual pads people kept giving out for free at expos and fairs, a whole lot of baby wipes i totally forgot about, some blankies that i got during hospital checkups (and would like to give away or donate, anyone interested?), to name a few of many. anyone wants obimin plus? i have an unused box too. i've just completed a round of clothes washing for the baby, and still have a few more rounds to do, including washing the new towels that i've gotten for the little miss sunshine (about the only new item of clothing for the baby, the rest is 100% reuse recycle). the cot is still untouched, and the car seat is still stored on top of the cabinet in the guest room.

next week my gynae has set an appointment with me for a ctg scan, i don't think i've ever done one before save for a few hours before i delivered Dayana, and not even once during my second pregnancy because i kept delaying appointments as my due date got closer. on the day i delivered Dinara pun tak sempat nak do any kind of check up, i kinda admitted myself into hospital at the last minute, hebat sangat konon (actually i was waiting for Significant Other to finish bathing T_T).

i gave up looking for my nursing cover. i reckon i'd come across it when i'm not even looking for it. i've already overhauled the kids room and my closets, still no nursing cover T_T (but i found my dot's training pants which i misplaced, hahah). i'm tired of running out of storage space in my room. as the years go by, total number of accumulated stuff pun increase. i'm slowly learning how to throw stuff away without mercy, no kidding. i recently threw out a 6-year old bottle of expired perfume, sayang konon. but the smell absolutely gives me a headache. the only setback of recycling clothing from one baby to the next is those yellowish spots they tend to get over time. but the baby won't mind. wait for another 2 years or so for her to start having fashion sense, like how Dinara is at the moment. hari2 dia boleh pakai baju yang sama, if she doesn't get what she wants, mengamuklah cik kiah tu takmo pakai baju. tsk.

btw, LTE is now available for iPhone5 users (and other selected mobile devices) at certain locations only. download speeds up to more than 40Mbps, kalah unifi Significant Other says. mana aci iPhone4s tak dapat ok. in fact, i keep getting E these days, which doesn't justify the price i'm paying to maxis for my data plan.

both kids are having fever right now. mommy yang penat. at least the eldest takes her meds. the youngest one puts up a fight like we're trying to poison her, sigh. hope you're having a jolly good weekend. all i wanna do right now is put up a fight with the dust in SOHO. haha. nesting, much?

curtain affairs in soho

well, at least the curtains are up. if you ignore all the dust and comotness, the unit might actually be livable by now.

it's like putting on a show pulak

this is Significant Other's big idea in lieu of a sliding glass door. and i must admit, zaira's workmanship wasn't too bad either.

the view from downstairs

all the curtains in the unit were of the same design, only different color. we chose off white/beige as the room divider, and chose golden-brown for the main windows because i can just imagine the curtains 'changing color' after a year of being rented out, it goes without saying that if it's not yours, why bother taking care of it, right? huhu.i wonder how efficient the curtain divider will be able to act as a way to trap the cold air from the upstairs aircond.

but in terms of display, Macy did a better job i guess for my SR unit. they hung the curtains in such a lovely way that it felt almost sacrilege to ruin their presentation, or even to undo the drapes to close the windows, haha. ini zaira? this was how they left the window curtains at:

ta-da, upstairs windows. simple pimple

they did the same for the downstairs windows, so i tried to connect the two edges to get that drapey effect. as nice as it looked, i think it kind of limits the amount of sunlight that enters through the windows. heck natural lighting within the whole unit became limited once the curtains were up that you had to turn on the lights.

pretty presentation

how the curtains look drawn

now i feel like ordering curtains for my own room, haha. last time i was a total noob, back when there were limited curtain shops in the area we bought material and had them sewn into curtains, all from Ikea. material pun bodo-bodo je, haha.

House of Zaira
No. 51, Jalan Plumbum P7/P, Pusat Komersial Seksyen 7,
40000 Shah Alam, Selangor.
+603-55233090 
Operating Hours Daily: 11am - 8pm

what's left, for mister contractor to complete finishing touches to his workmanship, acquiring a dresser + sidetable for upstairs, and clean-up then i hope we're good to go. oh and there's two defects that managed to spring up only after renovation was completed:
- all four of the upstairs side table's wheels were damaged, as if someone deliberately stood on top of the side table T__T
- the stupid connector for the bottom of the kitchen cabinet went missing, as if someone deliberately stole it, initial defects included this as well so that's why i'm pissed

and by mid of next week i HOPE i can finally show the unit to an agent. i can't remember already when i first got the keys to the unit, defect-fixing and renovation took so long i'm sick of the place already, haha.

oblivious

i'm not really a fan of Tom Cruise really, despite him acting in all those awesome action movies (and despite having a drop dead gorgeous daughter). but this recent movie of his ain't too bad. the storyline that is. it beats G.I. Joe: Retaliation any day. i thought the movie would be sucky since it's sci-fi based (and my initial reaction at watching the trailer was 'ugh'), but seriously, it makes a good watch. these days it's difficult to find movies you can truly be satisfied with (or perhaps people are more harder to please as they grow older hoho).

Oblivion, currently in cinemas

the heroine look familiar? she's a Bond girl. Russian. there ain't many main actors in the movie, the other two being Morgan Freeman and some girl that i am not familiar of. the rest of them consists of a bunch of extras supposedly being the 'aliens'. hmmmm.

the drones are scary imo. i wouldn't go out fixing them on my own, for you can never predict the behaviour of machines, they might be your friend one moment, the enemy the next. the movie's setting kinda reminds me of some sort of video game, like a cross between Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy hahahah.

but the aliens could be a bit more... aggressive?

anyhoo, Iron Man 3 will be out next week. mau tengok!

tony stark. eep!

i'm also looking forward to Despicable Me 2. i can never ge enough of this funny-looking blown up fat yellow pills... the minions! or the 'cousins of Gru'. Dinara absolutely loves them. i know i can bring Dayana to the cinema because she knows how to behave, but Dinara? -____-

coming in July?

soho photos wip

some photos from the last visit. curtain oh curtain, when you wanna come do installation???

SOHO

the staircase

the washing machine

the bathroom

the kitchen

cabinet lights

upstairs

extended fan and lightings

the bedroom

i need to get a simple dresser and side tables for the bedroom. then the rest is minor touch ups. i do hope the contractor finishes the tasks i've asked him to do. 35 weeks and being stressed out will do nothing for the little one @_@

pampering hair wash

two days ago i tried out aida's natural hair care regime:
- deep conditioning with vco,
- shampoo with aida's rosemary lavender shampoo bar,
- ac vinegar rinse

finally got around to opening that gigantic vco bottle i bought at Jusco last month (have to postpone trying to make my own lotion bars since i don't have all the ingredients ready - broke!). the smell that greeted me as i pried the stopper open - not bad really. it smelled of... well, coconut. haha. i also planned to take vco orally because of all the good benefits vco can offer (and also since i can't afford bird's nest @_@) so i swallowed a tablespoonful - the taste wasn't bad. tasted like bland oil, if there ever is such a thing.

then i put a tablespoon of vco into a small container to slather all over my hair - deep conditioning, step 1. you would think that one tablespoon wouldn't be enough coverage for long hair, think again. i think i ended up with more than enough oil on my hair. in fact, i only realized aida wrote 'teaspoon' and not 'tablespoon' in her email, no wonder i felt like there was so much excess oil haha, i ended up running my fingers through both of my daughter's hairs too. i ended up looking like a greasy monkey hihi (ok not really la. it kinda feels like my uni days when Sarah used to massage baby oil in my hair after a good hair wash ;D). however it eventually started to smell a bit off imo, unlike the first time when i opened the vco bottle - i was reminded more of coconut basi, if there ever is such thing. hahahhaha.

so the next morning i used aida's shampoo bar to rinse the oil out of my hair. i asked her what was the difference if i just used a normal soap bar instead of a shampoo bar on my hair. she said shampoo bars offered more lather - which i like. so lather lather lather lather - shampoo with aida's rosemary lavender shampoo bar, step 2 (ahhhhh so niceeeeeeeeee).

the last step involves rinsing your hair with vinegar to get your hair feeling nice and soft. it even helps with dandruff i hear, but don't take it from me, try it for yourself. she recommended combining 1 tablespoon of apple cider vineger + 1 cup water + essential oils. i absolutely hated the smell of the vineger, i think the one i found in the storeroom was nearing expiry, it smelled awful @_@. the only essential oil i had with me was tea tree oil, so i added a few drops of that. so after rinsing off the shampoo, i poured the whole concoction onto my hair - vinegar rinse, step 3. don't forget to rinse your hair again with water, unless you want to smell like a walking salad bowl.

i only air dried my hair, no heat involved. am going to try this once a week for a month to see if there's any difference to my hair. so far, i'm liking the feel, it's not as frizzy as it usually is after a wash, but the smell is abit unsettling, probably something to get used to. two days in and although i haven't gotten back my natural hair oils, it hasn't gone all frizzy on me. and that awful salad bowl smell seems to have dissipated too =D.

liz asked me, since when did i go for natural stuff, i simply replied since i don't have money to buy wraps anymore, which could be partially true bwahahahah. the wrap i'm still eyeing for is on auction and the current price is 550+ usd, with 4 days to go T__T. crazy much?

nina dropped by during lunch hour yesterday to send me a mini rv cake. oooh i've forgotten how much i love her creamcheese frosting. she posted up a random photo of some machine spare part and asked people to guess what it was. as baby luck would have it, my bantai of a guess was the closest answer. yayyyyyyyyy!!! mv does not have any cakes worthy of my stomach, seriously. my colleague yani can do a mean chocolate cake. nina too, her rvs are marvelous.

thanks nina, you made me a happy pregnant lady =)

CDs for sale

prices inclusive postage. been clearing out the drawers for the arrival of #3 and um, somehow i don't see myself CD-ing. eep. been hanging on to them mainly because of the prints @_@ velcro still super strong.

microfibre inserts available too. get one each for rm8 + postage, take all three for rm27 postage inclusive =D.

drop me a comment if you're interested. all like-new condition since i rarely used them. thanks~!

D3's checklist

so i had a baby#1 and baby#2 checklist before.
you wanna see what's in baby#3's checklist?

apparel: basically nothing bought new, 100% hand-me-downs for the pretty lady. thing is, i need to dig into my storage boxes for them, which i haven't even started doing.

..6-8 long sleeves/short sleeves
..onesies + pants
..5 stretchy sleepsuits
..1-2 hats..mittens and booties
..socks
..1-2 receiving blankets
..dress-up outfits
..muslin squares

nursery: again, nothing bought new here, the amount of junk i've accumulated for D1 and D2 combined would be sufficient for D3.

..baby crib and mattress - to reassemble
..cot bumpers, fitted sheet, comforter
..mattress (latex or foam)
..waterproof bedpads
..blankets - Mothercare (i'm going to use Dinara's, since she got attached to her 'Bear' rather than her blankie like Dayana did)
..pillow and bolster
..dresser bin
..baby bouncer - to assemble
..baby mobile - to assemble

bathing: aiya, what to buy, what to buy...

..bath tub - to reassemble the baby hammock
..bath seat for mommy
..6-8 wash cloths
..baby body wash and shampoo
..hooded bathtowels - 3
..baby powder and baby lotion/oil
..EMAB
..vicks, yuyi oil
..gripe water
..soft bristle hair brush
..medicine dropper / syringe
..nasal aspirator
..nail clipper
..baby thermometer
.. changing mat
..a container to hold all these bath items - Mothercare (the one i bought for Dinara is at my mom's)

diapering: erm, no CD-ing for me this time round. huhu.

..baby wipes
..disposable diapers
..drapolene baby rash cream + EMAB
..cotton balls + container

feeding essentials: still have a bunch of bottles left right center. restock for EBM utensils i guess.

..milk storage containers n liners
..bottles and teats - avent bpa
..bottle brush - avent
..sterilizer - tommee tippee
..breast pump..breast pads
..pacifier
..bottle/food warmer
..bibs
..burp cloths
..bottle drying rack
..ice packs
..breast pump bag

travel: still is the most expensive in my opinion.

..moses basket
..car seat - to install
..baby carrier or sling
..travel changing mat + meg original
..diaper bag (er, what is my diaper bag this time round?)
..mattress - snugglenest?
..playmat
..car seat head support

for mom: ahhhh.... just for meeeeeeee!

..maternity or nursing bras
..maternity pads (sudah banyak cloth pads. but i guess i should buy some dispo just in case)
..sarong
..nursing tops
..socks
..disposable breast pads

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
so when will i have time to double check my inventory? i dropped by the baby expo in MV last Friday, which was a bit of a disappointment for they only occupied two halls and the things that were for sale weren't what i was looking for. i only ended up getting two Avent bottles, a couple of pacifiers, and hooded towels for the newborn. and i've decided to get all the toiletries from Tesco, haha.

my gynae estimated that i'd be due by the end of the month judging from my track record. i hope it would be sometime within the first week of May because April seems too early. my edd is mid-May. i already got no mood to do work, pregnancy brain and eye vision sucks big time.

i visited my gynae last Monday morning, and for the first time in a long time, i got to be the first patient of the day to see my gynae, haha. of course i still had to wait awhile, but that's expected. i brought Dinara with me since i abandoned her during my LIMA trip, but she didn't seem remotely interested in the 2d scans showing up on the new Samsung monitor which my gynae had just acquired. her ultrasound machine broke down recently and she just got a new replacement. better technology apparently, because even my gynae seemed a little jakun while she was scanning D3, haha.

my ribcage aches more often than not (at first i thought it's because of my bra's underwire). i can't even find a comfortable position to sleep each night - if i sleep on my right, baby will kick like crazy because apparently that's where her head resides, if i sleep on my left, i feel like gravity is descending on me double the weight. sometimes you can just feel the baby stretching in the womb, imagine a cat on all fours stretching its body after a long nap. whenever she does that you can feel so much pressure on your bladder and intestines and you start to wonder if the baby wants to come out now T_T (oi, i still got 5 weeks+ to go ok, i haven't even prepared my hospital bag yet!). going up the stairs leave me breathless more often than not (and yet i'm amazed at myself for braving the crazy number of stairs during the F1 pit walk visit a couple of weeks ago @_@).

ooh this arrived for the baby and me. so eksaited to go home and wash my hair now. haha. got this from my friend Aida's cozy online store, drop by if you're into natural.

we haven't decided on a name yet for this little bub. might get started on reorganizing the kids closet later tonight to see what else i can recycle or give away. toodles~

funny gadget

i've heard of people conspicuously sleeping in the office, or in class.
(my friend Iin was an expert at looking like she was studying her notes when in actual fact she was busy drooling on them).
but this? wouldn't alarm bells go off at the sight of this one?

introducing the ostrich pillow, of which i'm not sure where you'd be getting your oxygen supply from.
kekekeke.

if anyone is interested in getting one or find out more about this interesting gadget you might want to click here on milkadeal. get it before the deal ends.

the things people come up with these days.

soho progress take 2

what we have so far after a sabbatical disappearance to LIMA last week:

in the bathroom:
- install water heater
- install bathroom mirror
- install towel hanger
- install toiletries stand
- replace bathroom light
- conceal/waterproof water heater wiring

in the kitchen:
- add another light point
- install cabinet lights * 3
- install fridge
- plaster brackets to conceal wiring
- cabinet bracket missing

in the main hall:
- install washing machine
- install fan with 3 feet extender
- replace living room lights with drop down ones
- *KIV* add 4 light points (recycle original bedroom n living room lights)
- add 4 power points

- double check main door (not closing on itself properly)

outside:
- install outdoor ceiling light
- install doorbell

upstairs:
- add 2 power points
- replace bedroom lights with LED lights
- touch up plastering around LED lights
- install tv
- polish stairs and flooring
- touch up area around switch/plug points

curtains - awaiting installation

doorgrill

progress much? alhamdulillah.