Maids

The unfortunate incident of the maid running away happened again. The 2nd maid is not good, very slow and lack of intelligence. However as we pity her we decided to keep her instead of sending her back to the maid agency. After working for us for 4 months she ran off in early April, 2006. This time it happened during the day and at my house! My daughter was busy teaching her students at my house. The granny was feeding Kay Lyn and my own maid was busy collecting clothes which was hanged outside the house. I was taking my afternoon nap. The maid was supposed to look after Kay Li as she was not asleep. Suddenly my daughter burst into my room and told me that her maid had ran away. I was shocked. We discovered that she opened the back door and ran off through the back lane. We searched around but could not find her.

This incident got me rattled. The thought that the maid could run away under several noses is unnerving. I must say I am very thankful that she did not take Kay Li with her. It would be a big nightmare for all of us.

When my daughter went home, she checked the maid's room and found that several of her personal items were missing. Hence it must have been planned. Someone must have contacted her and entice her to run away, perhaps with promise of higher wages.

Looking at it from the positive side, I must say it was a good thing she ran away as we do not have the heart to send her back to the maid agency. Secondly since she ran away less than 6 months after working with us, we do not have to pay the full agency fee for the next maid.

On the other hand we have to pay a fine of RM250 to the immigration. Though we do not have to pay the full agency fees, it still will cost us about RM2000 for a replacement.

Kay Li

Kay Li is now 17 months old. She is able to speak a few words like ball, there and flower. Lately she started saying the word no. However she can understand whatever we say to her judging by her response. She says "mom mom" when she wants to eat and "minum" (a malay word) when she wants to drink.

Her keenness of observation is very good. She is very sharp and observant. She watches whatever we do and from there she learns for example like switching on/off the table fan.

I look after her on and off during the day. She is very close to me and together we have build a very close rapport and understanding. Therefore we share many happy moments together. We play together with the toys she has and there is so much joy and laughter.

One thing I cherish is sitting together and watching the Barney show. She enjoy the show very much and sometimes will get me to clap hands with her or dance. Also hearing many of the nursery rhymes and songs bring floods of memories to me. I recalled many of my childhood days where I used to read the nursery rhymes from the books that my parents bought for me.

Kay Lyn

Kay Lyn is a much easier girl to look after at this stage. She is just over 10 weeks old and like normal babies at this age, she drinks milk and then goes to sleep most of the time. The grand-mother is looking after her during the day. At night she goes back to her parent's house.

One character about her which captivates our hearts is her big smile. She smiles when we talk to her especially after she has drank her milk. Sometimes when she does not fall asleep after her feed, the granny will put her on her lap and talk to her. She responds by giving that big captivating smile.

She is fed with breast milk and supplemented with powdered goat's milk. Her mother tries to feed her with breast milk but unfortunately the milk production is low. In order to try to increase the milk supply, the mother took Domperidone which is supposed to induce milk production but there was not much response and it also affected her hearing. She said the sound is amplified. Currently she is trying the herbal supplement called Fenugreek. The production improved slightly but the supply is not enough for the baby.

Grand daughters' names

Now that I have two grand-daughters I would like to refer to them by their names. Hence I am introducing them. The elder one is named Kay Li and the younger one is Kay Lyn. It is easier for me to write using their names instead of saying my elder grand-daughter or my younger grand-daughter.