My 1st Chinese New Year Journal!

2010 is my first celebration of Chinese New Year (aka CNY) as a new parent. I was so excited that I started counting down days ahead! And then as CNY gets nearer, I blogged about CNY stuff, like CNY Tradition & Customs, CNY Paper Art, the Do's & Don'ts of CNY, and my last minute rush in DIY CNY Lantern!

In case you don't know, CNY is celebrated for 15 days and 28th February is the last day of CNY! Now let me flash back the previous 14 days that goes by superbly fast!

CNY Day 1:
* Stayed at home didn't go anywhere... Practically became couch potato, hogging the TV, digging up the CNY foods and crackers.. Hahahah... Oh, btw, Ben received red packets from his beloved grandma (aka MIL)
(Image taken from http://www.synergizedsolutions.com/simpsons/homer.shtml)

CNY Day 2:
* Visited hubby's grandma and aunt. Spent almost the whole day there, just chatting, snacking and enjoying the CNY mood. Ben received more red packets from hubby's grandma (aka MIL's mother), hubby's aunt and hubby's aunt's DIL (this is getting confusing! :P)

CNY Day 3:
* Visited my brother (they just moved into a new house) - had a very bad experience while traveling - kinda spoiled our mood. All sorts of bad things just keep getting worse... our toll pre-paid card is not working, then our car air conditioning is not working, then we're stuck in the middle of a loonnggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg highway with absolutely no way to U-turn and you can practically see miles and miles of cars stuck in a massive slow moving jam, and then you're slowly being cooked in the car at 5pm and your baby starts fussing.

Anyway, once we reached my brother's place, we hang around until 9pm and head home... hubby sort of did a McGyver thing by bypassing the wires from the air-cond to the car battery (his dad used to open a car workshop long ago so he knows his stuff) but the bypass failed half hour into our journey home.

There's absolutely no way to salvage the air-cond and for the next 1 hour, we continued our journey with Ben wailing and crying (hot and sweaty and he's hungry) By the time we managed to stop the car at the roadside (previous roads does not have lamp post so we did not stop the car), I quickly breastfeed Ben at the backseat and he continued sleeping until we reached home... and I cleaned up Ben and changed his diaper and all and he's still asleep until the next morning at 10am... Poor boy!

(Images taken from: http://waynefontes.com/2009-articles/november/twfe-presents-the-detroit-lions-facepalm-awards-for-week-9.html & https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKX4LmRw8TFlqXTkyll4yuPKpQWGomN4OSP_LaVRpZ0Laok3PHURO-fUmV2Nh2h4OEWsb7ZUhv8lAGfgOklx-9pUc1c6H7xjf4KaqI0QjTs_6j53KCuHO_rqbmnea6KSo1PZMQZZRXuIM/s1600-h/scream.gif)

CNY Day 4 to 6
* Ben and I stayed at home - no point going out in a car without the air-cond. Don't want to risk another episode of baby crying and daddy's flipping out cos he can't concentrate on the road with the baby wailing next to him... :P

CNY Day 7 (Everyone's Birthday!)
* Hubby's aunt lend us her car so that we can go for a family dinner at hubby's brother's house. Ben was so curious cos he's never sat inside the car before, and everything looks so different! Had a small family dinner with brother in law and sister in law, aunt, MIL, hubby's granma, hubby's cousin, niece and nephew.

Btw, we suspected this is the day when I got infected with the flu virus... :( Read on...
(Image taken from http://www.comments.zingerbugimages.com/glitter_graphics/birthday_candles.gif)

CNY Day 8
* Nothing much to report as we're still at home...

CNY Day 9 (The day I finally found it!)
* Hubby and I went out for an hour, leaving Ben under the care of MIL, we braved through the hot car (well, we went out at night so it's not that hot actually, just a bit stuffy) to look for presents and party stuff for Ben's upcoming 1 year old birthday party.

We went to this small shopping mall about 10 minutes from our house and look around this shop which is selling stuff quite cheaply (most of which are made from China) and I finally found (well, ok, ok, hubby found it! :P) the wall stickers I've been looking for ages! And I got a pretty good deal from it! Very cheap and I absolutely love it!

CNY Day 10
* Hubby's car air-cond got fixed! Finally! After days of him going to and fro the workshop only to find out they are still not open (still celebrating CNY) it is finally fixed! Hooray!

CNY Day 11
* Start having sore throat, runny nose & nose block at night. Couldn't sleep until 5.30am cos I can't breathe comfortably while lying down flat on the bed, so had to sit up and rest... This is not a good sign... :(

CNY Day 12 (aka The day I ate turtle jelly)
* Hubby left for an appointment with a client. I started having chills and feeling feverish. Told hubby to come home as soon as he can as I'm feeling feverish. He got home 2 hours later with turtle jelly for me to eat. Said it can soothe my sore throat. Went to clinic and took the medicines diligently. Well, the turtle jelly did work and my throat doesn't feel sore anymore after eating the jelly!
(Image taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Guilinggao.jpg)

CNY Day 13 (Sucking Ben's Snot with My MOUTH)
* Ben started coughing and having runny nose - but it's not that serious. It's kinda like a one two time thing, once in morning, once at night. So far, he has not been coughing since morning. He did have some runny nose in the afternoon... which I had to suck his snot out with my mouth, using a nasal aspirator.

Yes... I sucked Ben's snot with my mouth. As gross as it may sound (please skip this part if you feel gross about it), it is actually very effective! Beats having MIL suggesting that I should use a Q-tip and poked Ben's nostril and dug out the snot!

There's actually 2 tubes, one where you put in your mouth, the other into baby's nostril. You mouth one tube, then aim the other tube into baby's nostril and suck in air - the snot will NOT go into your mouth!

But sadly is, Ben does not like the nasal aspirator. He wriggles and pushes the tube away... so much that he started crying and more snot coming out, and I felt more urge to suck it all up. At night, I told hubby about the snot-fighting-wriggling episode... I told him it made me feel like I'm snot-raping my son... Gross.... :P
(Image taken from http://www.taime.com/taime/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=1141)

CNY Day 14 (Was supposed to visit my eldest aunt)
* I was supposed to visit my eldest aunt since I missed the family gathering they held last Saturday (CNY Day 7). She stayed quite a distance from my house and the thought of borrowing someone's car did not even cross our minds! Dumb-dumb full time mummy!! :(

The day before, I called up my eldest aunt asking her whether she'll be at home cos I planned to visit them and she told me her family will be going outstation for a family trip and will only be back on Sunday afternoon (time not definite). Then she said there's no need to rush to visit and since I'm still sick, don't just rush because of CNY, I can drop by anytime. Oh-kayyyy then... just as well, don't want to be scolded for spreading my illness around... :P
(Image taken from http://helloform.com/blog/page/3/)

CNY Day 15 (also known as Chinese Valentines' Day)
* Do not foresee any activities other than slight chance of going out for window shopping (if Ben and I are up to it) cos don't feel comfy going out while we're still recovering from our illness. But have to think of replenishing our grocery stuff as it has been almost 3 weeks since we last went grocery shopping... Hmm....

Acording to Wikipedia:
The fifteenth day of the new year is celebrated as yuán xiāo jié (元宵节), otherwise known as Chap Goh Mei in Fujian dialect. Rice dumplings tangyuan (simplified Chinese: 汤圆; traditional Chinese: 湯圓; pinyin: tāngyuán), a sweet glutinous rice ball brewed in a soup, is eaten this day. Candles are lit outside houses as a way to guide wayward spirits home. This day is celebrated as the Lantern Festival (read another site here for more details), and families walk the street carrying lighted lanterns. This day often marks the end of the Chinese New Year festivities.
(Image taken from http://myzest2.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_archive.html)

So there you have it... my 15 days journal of my 1st CNY celebration as a new parent! Btw, Ben received quite a good sum of red packets this year. We will be depositing it into his own savings account after this.

Hope to have a better (and healthier) CNY next year! :D