I'm a full-time mummy

15 months ago, we were so excited with Ben's milestone on solids and Ben has been the perfect child for us, no fussing on the choice of food given.

From rice cereal mixed with breastmilk for the first few weeks, to pureed vegetables and fruits mixed with breastmilk to pureed veggie and fruits without my breastmilk to mashed vegetables and fruits, to oats and rice and even now, Ben is still taking oats for his breakfast and sometimes for his dinner as well (depending on my laziness hahaha..)

Back when I started Ben on solids when he turned 6 months old, we put him into this small pink walker. Yes, girly choice of a color you may say, but it's a hand-me down and have served us REALLY REALLY well!

This was Ben the first time we gave him a few teaspoons of rice cereal mixed with my breastmilk. Noticed how eager he was, leaning forward to taste it?

And this was Ben a couple of months back when we first started to bring him along when we eat outside. We gave him some food to try with and he was so fascinated with the chopsticks and bigger spoon, bowl and/or plate. Kinda like a big boy feeling I guess...

Few days ago, I made oats again for Ben's cereal and instead of having the meal at kitchen, I decided to feed Ben in our room. Without any instructions, Ben immediately walked over to the pink walker and started dragging it out and get ready for me to feed him in it.

We've earlier bid farewell to the pink walker in February this year and did not use it anymore but it's still in our bedroom (lazy to put in storeroom hahahah) so it was a nice sight to see my little boy dragging the walker from the corner of the room out and even tried climbing into it so he could sit in it.

I was surprised as I totally forgotten that we used to use the walker as a feeding chair for Ben and to think he still remembers it! I carried him up and put him into the walker, and proceeded to feed him his oatmeal, while snapping this shot as well...

Hmmm... what a nice sight which brings back lots of good memories on Ben's solids journey..

Hubby's aunt from Sydney came back for a week holiday and few days ago, we went out with her to have brunch at the banana leaf rice restaurant near our house. Ben had his oatmeal breakfast already, so was pretty much just sitting there watching us eat (of course, he entertained himself by oogling at some stray cats around the restaurant).

Some of the Indian waiters can't resist and went ahead to play with Ben. One of them even gave Ben a smaller size of banana leave for him to use with. And when Ben realised he's suddenly treated like an adult (cos the rest of us were eating our rice on the banana leaves), we went along and placed some smaller chunks of food  (like fish, cucumber and the lentil crackers) and rice for Ben to nibble with.

Ben: "You sure I could eat on this leaf?!!"

Ben flashing more cutesy looks to the waiters nearby, probably trying to get more goodies? Hehehehe...

Ben: "Yumyumyum... gobble gobble gobble..."

It was a nice and filling meal and we enjoyed the brunch outing as well. I'm just so proud that Ben's so well behaved with his first experience with banana leaf rice!

To: The Management Office of One Utama Shopping Centre,

I would like to express my dissatisfaction over the customer service we received while we attempted to rent the toddler’s ride on car (kiddie ride) at your mall recently.

We were told by one of your customer service staff to wait for 4 more months in order to be able to use the ride-on car and were then reminded about the requirements in order to rent the ride-on car. Did I mentioned that your staff said it sarcastically to us? Oh nevermind, we as parents generally have higher tolerance level for things like this...

Yes, it was then that I saw your notice board stating that the kiddie ride is fit for 2-5 years old and height below 90cm. FYI, my child is 20 months old and his height is 89cm.(Btw, a quick search on Google will get you to a mummy blogger who proudly mentioned that she lied when asked whether her child is 2 years old as "not that they even bother to check".)

We then mentioned that we have no problems using the similar ride-on car at Ikano shopping mall, to which a reply of “That is Ikano, this is One Utama” with an arrogant look shot back at us. Oh wow... first came the sarcastic comment, now we get an attitude as well?!!

Is that how your customer service staff is trained to communicate with your mall customers? I’m sure there are plenty of other ways to politely inform us about the reasons and such of your ride-on cars requirements.

We then asked for the baby stroller instead, and were told there’s none available. So what do you expect your mall customers to do? Wait until there’s one available? Or perhaps your customer service staff should have taken the initiatives to offer other alternatives to us? We get NONE. We were just left standing there figuring out by ourselves.

As we were about to walk off, one family returned a baby stroller and we rented that unit. After all, there’s not much choice we can take anyway… I mean, we already get the 'complimentary' sarcasm plus an attitude, what else can any parents (not to mention, PAYING CUSTOMERS) ask for?

You really have to look into how your customer service staff communicates to your mall customers. After all, if we have been treated politely, we would’ve enjoyed our shopping experience and spend more.

Really unhappy customer,