PAPA

Americas Octuplet baby dies
January 29, 2009 (Thursday)

The smallest of the United States octuplets has died from heart and lung failure, a week after she was born weighing just 10.3 ounces.

She had been named Chijindu Chidera - a traditional name from south-east Nigeria meaning 'God has my life'. 
 
Doctors at the Texas Children's Hospital had had high hopes the siblings would become the world's first surviving octuplets.

But Chijindu Chidera, nicknamed Odera, was pronounced dead at 0323 local time.

Her mother had only seen her for the first time on Saturday, when Odera was moved from a ventilator to a special machine to try and improve the oxygen supply to her blood. Read more

Happy Prospereous Moo Moo Year 2009!
January 23, 2009 (Friday)

The above 'Tsai Sheng Yeh' paper doll was made by my elder Coo Coo, the little artist yesterday when she attended the art class. She seems to enjoyed so much attending classes as of now. Every morning during weekdays, she attended class at Cosmotots and also the art class once a week near my neighbourhood. These so called early childhood education exposures set me back more than RM500 per month. I've started to imagine my younger Coo Coo about to follow the same path as her elder sis. It will be mind-boggling when the third one follow suit. I wonder how does parents nowadays cope with all these costs? I'm struggling now by cutting back on my 'personal' monthly expenses, phew! Just think about some basic costs like food, insurance, education, nursery, clothes or even the less important thingy like toys bla bla bla. Blow us down!

I can only think of working even smarter for the coming years and hope luck will always on my side. This CNY, let's not think too much $$$ and focus on celebration first. Therefore, I'll be dishing out ang pows to my parents, in-law, relatives, children, maid & friends. After that, I'll be spending the rest at Penang Island. Yup, heeding our Tourism Minister calls on 'Zoom Malaysia' and heading up north this year to embrace our George Town listed as one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites. Wonder how can we not think about $$$ all the while?

Here, wishing everyone a Happy Prospereous Moo Moo Year 2009!      

Half of Australian women drink throughout pregnancy
January 22, 2009 (Thursday)

Almost half of Australia's pregnant women drink alcohol throughout their pregnancy, and some even admit to binge drinking in the final months before giving birth, according to a study issued on Wednesday.

The women who were prepared to drink on were also more likely to smoke during their pregnancy, according to the study of 4,700 mothers in Western Australia.

However, the bad habit put these women at the risk of having their baby prematurely, according to the research which was released on Wednesday by WA's Telethon Institute for Child Health Research.

"Our research shows pregnant women who drink more than one to two standard drinks per occasion - and more than six standard drinks per week - increase their risk of having a premature baby," the institute's researcher Colleen O'Leary said on Wednesday.

This was the case even if the women stopped drinking before their second trimester, O'Leary said.

"The risk of pre-term birth is highest for pregnant women who drink heavily or at binge levels, meaning drinking more than seven standard drinks per week, or more than five drinks on any one occasion," Australian Associated Press quoted her as saying.

The study found a low birth weight was more likely to be caused by a mother's smoking rather than drinking.

"Women should be advised that during pregnancy, drinking alcohol above low levels increases the risk to the baby and that the safest choice is not to drink alcohol," O'Leary said. Source

Scientists Develop Test for Melamine in Milk
January 22, 2009 (Thursday)

U.S. researchers have developed a quick way to test milk for the presence of melamine, an industrial chemical found last year in milk in China that killed at least six children and made thousands sick.

Researchers at Purdue University in Indiana said Wednesday the method can detect tiny traces of the chemical in liquid and powdered milk in about 25 seconds.

The analysis method uses a simplified version of a mass spectrometer, a tool that can be used to separate and identify molecules in compounds.

The team developed the tool specifically to detect melamine, which was also found in contaminated pet food that killed thousands of dogs and cats in the United States in 2007. Source

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last November issued guidelines limiting melamine in dairy products to 1 part per million or less.

"This situation created an immediate need for an analytical method that is highly sensitive, fast, accurate and easy to use," R. Graham Cooks, who led the team, said in statement.

"We took it as a challenge to use simpler instrumentation and to develop a faster method that allows the testing to be done on site," said Cooks, whose findings were published in the journal Chemical Communications.

Melamine, normally used to make plastics, has been found in milk powder, wheat gluten and other Chinese-made ingredients used in products ranging from pet food to candy.

Melamine's ability to make foods appear to have higher amounts of protein during testing has made it a cheap but dangerous substitute that can damage the kidneys. Source

Doctors separate conjoined twins
January 20, 2009 (Tuesday)

Two-month-old twins Preslee and Kylee Wells required surgical separation.

Pickup story from CNN. "Sometimes you can forget about the preciousness of life," hospital spokesman Allen Poston thumbed onto his Blackberry after peering into an operating room where a team of 15 doctors and medical staff separated conjoined twins in six hours in surgery.

"I'm standing here in the operating room looking at the exposed beating heart of Preslee Wells," he wrote as he walked the halls at the Children's Hospital of Oklahoma University Medical Center.

On Monday afternoon, 2-month-old Preslee and her conjoined sister, Kylee, rolled onto their own backs for the first time, he said.

Poston, who updated friends and relatives on the surgery with constant posts from his hospital blog, snapped photos of each girl and showed them to friends and family who had been in the hospital waiting room since early Monday.

The news of the operation's success prompted a gush of emotion, breaking the silence that had once filled the room, Poston said.

After two months of waiting, the two girls were surgically separated.

"We waited because we wanted the organs to get a little bigger, a little stronger," Poston had told CNN over the phone earlier Monday. "The primary concern was cardiac connection."

After cardiac imaging, doctors determined there was "very little [cardiac] connection," but they remained concerned about a "liver bridge" connecting the twins.

That bridge, Poston said, posed the greatest operational risk because of its dual use by the twins.

Born October 25 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to Stevie Stewart and Kylie Wells, the twins are being monitored in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit. They are listed in critical condition.

"Today, they leave the OR in two different cribs, one following the other, still close in proximity, but might as well have been a mile apart," Poston wrote. "And that is exactly what everybody was hoping for."

Christina's 'Wild' First Birthday Party for Max
January 20, 2009 (Tuesday)

Photo by: INF

A "wild" time was had by all when Christina Aguilera and husband Jordan Bratman threw a party Saturday afternoon to celebrate the first birthday of son Max, who turned 1 on Jan. 12.

The bash, whose theme was inspired by the classic children's book Where the Wild Things Are, was held at the singer's Beverly Hills home. Pal Nicole Richie, boyfriend Joel Madden and daughter Harlow, whose big day was on Jan. 11, were among the 40 guests at the casual backyard celebration.

With surrounding trees decorated in festive blue, green and pink balloons, party guests nibbled on kid-friendly food, including mini peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches, catered by Los Angeles-based caterers Along Came Mary. And as a special treat, a source says the party was attended by costumed mythical characters from the book. Source

World's famous dad inauguration in Legoland, California
January 18, 2009 (Sunday)

Pic source

Thousands of tiny people have gathered to witness the historic Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama in Legoland, California.

The most famous daddy in the world
January 15, 2009 (Thursday)

Barack with Malia and Sasha (Polaris)

President elect and the most famous daddy in the world—Barack Obama—has written a heartfelt letter to his little girls, explaining why he had to turn their lives upside down and run for the White House.

In the emotional note, to be published in Parade magazine this Sunday, the Pres-to-be lets us in on his private hopes and dreams for Malia and Sasha, hands down some pearls of wisdom from their grandmother, and dishes out a little fatherly advice of his own.

President Obama explains to the girls that when they were born, it showed him that his own dreams of success weren't the most important thing in the world -- and eventually led him to run for President.

"I soon found that the greatest joy in my life was the joy I saw in yours," he writes in the two-page letter. "And I realized that my own life wouldn’t count for much unless I was able to ensure that you had every opportunity for happiness and fulfillment in yours.

"In the end, girls, that’s why I ran for President: because of what I want for you and for every child in this nation."

Movingly, Obama passes on the lessons that his mother, Anne Dunham, who died in 1995, taught him.

"With the great privilege of being a citizen of this nation comes great responsibility," he says. "That was the lesson your grandmother tried to teach me when I was your age."

And he ends the letter, signed, 'Love Dad', by telling them his take on the real secret to success. "It is only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you will realize your true potential," he imparts.

"I am so proud of both of you. I love you more than you can ever know," he ends.

We can't take it anymore! Someone pass the tissues! 

Time to paint Graceland pink!
January 15, 2009 (Thursday)

Photo by: John Russo

Elvis Presley's only daughter, Lisa Marie, is now a doting mom to 3-month-old girls Finley and Harper – and she is showing off her tiny additions in the new issue of PEOPLE.

"I really wanted these babies," says Presley, 40, who tried for two years to get pregnant before conceiving the twins.

"My blood was too thick and would clot, which caused several miscarriages," she tells PEOPLE. "The moment I took blood thinners, I got pregnant."

Presley and her guitarist husband Michael Lockwood, 47, also share their L.A. home with Presley's children from a previous marriage: daughter Riley, 19, and son Benjamin, 16.

Life as a bustling family of six is "chaotic bliss," says Presley. Read more

Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough to Be a Dad
January 14, 2009 (Wednesday)

Photo by: Damon Tucci

Backstreet Howie Dorough and his wife Leigh, a real estate broker, are expecting their first child in June, they tell PEOPLE exclusively.

"I know she's going to be a great mother," says Howie. "If she can take care of me, the biggest baby in the entire world, I think she's going to be okay with the little one coming along."

Adds Leigh: "I think he's going to be more hands-on than anyone expects. He's someone who will get up in the night and change diapers. He's such a partner of mine." Read more

Papa & Mama expecting their third child
January 13, 2009 (Tuesday)

This time round, I'm not annoucing it for celebrities but myself. Well, the news is nothing new here as I did mentioned about Mama's pregnancy way back in October last year. In that posting, I've posted a 3D image when Mama was around 12 weeks.

According to the ancient Chinese birth chart, it has predicted the sex of my baby is female and it's has been said to be 99% accurate. Today ultrasound shown the 1% of inaccuracy of that prediction and yes, visually the doc said it's a baby boy.

Forget about the 1% thingy. I wonder why people tend to say boy is always better than girl? This is more evident whenever myself & Mama happen to bump into someone and the conversation always started about the gender of our baby. You can hear "Oh, if it's a boy, then good lar", "Since both of you got girls, then boy will be a very plus point" bla bla bla...

Is it just because boys can carry the family surname to prevent it from extinction of the family line?? Nevermind, I'm tiring of debating this issue. Whatever it is, whenever you've found out that you're expecting, just cherish it! So long as the baby is healthy and the rest are really not important anymore.  

Enchanting Europe (Part 2)
January 04, 2009 (Sunday)

Tower Bridge image captured from inside a moving vehicle about to cross over the River Thames.

 

Enchanting Europe
January 01, 2009 (Thursday)

In my Dec 15 posting where I've posted an early season's greetings, I did mentioned about my longing for a long and lovely holiday with Mama. Well, we're back now after spending our holiday traveling to Europe. I must say part of our hard earn Ringgit is well-spent for this trip. Why we've chosen Europe as our holiday destination in the first place? Well, kiasu people like us wanted to visit and associate ourselves with something famous lah. Haha!! It's also for variety reason as we can enjoy a diversity of culture, climate and lifestyle over a short period of time.

The biggest disappointment was Mama's ankle got sprained when she disembarked from a canal cruise in Amsterdam. After a scan, doctor said her Fibula is broken and will require at least 3 months nursing her sprained ankle. Must thanks god as her pregnancy are not affected after the unfortunate incident.

Well, here is some of the photographs to share with you all...

The Arc de Triomphe at the western end of the Champs-Élysées, Paris, France.

Stunning neo-Byzantine stained glass dome interior of Galeries Lafayette, an upscale French department store in Paris.

Alternative view of the Eiffel Tower built on the Champ de Mars (large public green-space in Paris).

Aah, these people inside the cruise must be enjoying their lunch very much cruising along the romantic Seine River, Paris.

The western facade view from the Seine River of Notre Dame de Paris. 

More than a hundred year building, opened by Carl-Friedrich Bucherer in 1888, Lucerne, Switzerland. Bought our swiss watches here. ;-)

Spotted the Snow Beast at 10,000 feet! Well, it's actually a snow blower machine on its way back to the garage at the snow park in Mount Titlis, Switzerland. 

Magnificent view of a truly glacier paradise! Urner Alps of Switzerland.

Breathtaking view of the mountain monestry village doting Alps mountain range.

The Rhine Falls in northern Switzerland close to the German border, are the widest plain waterfalls in Europe. 

Black Forest (located in the southwestern Germany) trees in the snow.

Cologne Cathedral (Koelner Dom) in Germany is a world heritage site being the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe. The cathedral suffered fourteen hits by aerial bombs during World War II and it did not collapse, but stood tall in an otherwise flattened city. Divine intervention?

Stained glass window inside the Dom.

The nave, Cologne Cathedral.

The Shrine of the Three Kings in Cologne Cathedral.

The Crucifix of Bishop Gero, a famous 10th century sculpture.

Out of Malaysia, everything is cheap by their standard.

Caught this chick (Merc CL 63 AMG) infront of the LV store right by the gorgeous almost 760 year-old Koelner Dom. Envy lar!

To be continued...

Happy New Year 2009!
January 01, 2009 (Thursday)

Pic Source

Papa wishes everyone a Fabulous Year 2009!