Penang Trip - Day 4

After checking out from the hotel we left Penang Island by taking the ferry ride. We followed the signboard to Ferry Terminal at Butterworth and upon reaching there we queued to get into the ferry which took us about 15 minutes. We went into the 1st section of the ferry, parked our cars there, switched off the car engine and got down from the car to enjoy the warm breezy journey. The ferry ride was short and it took about 15 minutes to reach the mainland.

The kids were excited about the ferry ride especially Sharlene who has never been on a ferry before. It was my first experience taking the ferry as well. During the ride we went up to the top deck of the ferry to view the scenery and took some photographs. And we spotted lots and lots of jelly fish in the sea too. It was really a great experience on board the Penang ferry for those of us who have not been on a ferry before.


During the 3 hours journey back home, Sharlene wasn't sleepy at all. She was very active in the car, she did her reading, counting 123, singing ABCs, happily singing nursery rhymes, writing and scribbling on her doodle board which I bought for her in Gurney Plaza and asked for food all the time. Instead of resting and napping in the car, we have to entertain and accede to her request.

She was eating oranges here, one of her favourite fruits and that's how happy and cheeky she looks when she gets to savour her most wanted food.

Penang Trip - Day 3

We made a trip to Wat Chayamangkalaram situated in Lorong Burmah. It is another Buddhist temple famous for its large reclining Buddha statue. The statue is really huge and magnificent. You have to remove your shoes before entering the temple. Thus, the place is very clean and well kept. There is also a 4 faced Buddha outside. Besides this temple, we also went to the Burmese Buddhist Temple which is just across the road from the Reclining Buddha Temple. It's another interesting temple....there is so much things to see there and we took quite a lot of photos inside and outside of the temple.


Kids being kids, they just adore the pool and beach and can't get enough of swimming and splashing in the beach. Once we went back to the hotel, the kids went down to the beach again. Another fun day for them!

Penang Trip - Day 2

We started our day very early, had dim sum for breakfast and went to a few places which we had planned a day earlier. Here's where we went....

Kek Lok Si Temple, a Buddhist temple located on a hill in Ayer Hitam. Again, we lost our way somewhere and got to stop to ask some locals for direction before we found the temple. While we were there, we walked around the scenic gardens, visited some ponds and shrines and other sculptures of Buddhist origin, made some donations and took some photographs under the blazing sun.

Sharlene posing with her favourite dog sculpture. Guess what she's holding on her hand? A packet of Tiger biscuits that she saw in the store located in the temple. She loves this brand of biscuits and was so happy that I bought it for her.

Do you want some biscuits?


After a good tour of the temple we left the place for lunch. Finally, we found a place for lunch nearby the temple but suddenly, it started to rain heavily and we'd to sit in our cars to wait for the rain to stop before we could get down.

After lunch, we set off to our next destination - Balik Pulau, a place famous for its durian plantations. And of course, our main purpose of going there is to taste durian, the king of fruits. Wow! the textures and flavors of the durian were sooooooo good, very smooth and taste bittersweet. But a bit pricey, at RM12 per kg. Hmmmmm....I really love it and wish I could have more. Are you drooling now looking at the picture of the durian above?...:)



Next, we went to this very famous stall along the busy street of Penang Road.


Although we had our lunch and durian for dessert just a while ago, we still went to Penang Road for the well-known assam laksa, char keow teow, ice kacang and cendol, a must have dessert with green noodles in thick coconut milk, brown sugar, red beans and shaved ice. Another not so famous cendol stall is located just opposite to it. All the food taste so wonderful here especially the cendol. *thumbs-up*



All of us went back to the hotel after the satisfying meal. Upon returning the hotel, it was just rest and relax in the room for everyone. Later in the evening, we went to the beach for some fun and the kids had a great time playing with water and sand. We even attempted the banana boat ride. 7 of us (including hubby and I) went for it. It was a good experience but I was a bit upset that no one was there to snap photographs for us. *Sigh*

Jasmine and Sharlene playing with sand

Daddy and Sharlene having fun together

Family Trip To Penang - Day 1

We went to Penang for holiday over the weekend. It was the first family trip for this year. We travelled in 2 cars, 10 of us. My sil's friend and family, 5 of them were travelling with us as well. So, altogether 15 of us travelling in 3 cars.

I was quite excited about the trip and woke up around 5.30am on Saturday morning to get ready for the journey. Sharlene was looking forward to it too and woke up without crying and fussing. How nice if she can be like this every morning especially during school days.

We left the house around 6.30am and reached Rawang toll to meet up with my sil's friend. After meeting up with them, we started our journey from Rawang toll to Ipoh. We had planned to stop by Ipoh for breakfast. All of us were not familiar with Ipoh but some how we managed to find a coffee shop and decided to have some food there.

Here's what we had for breakfast...

Popiah basah
The surface of the popiah is a bit too wet but the taste is not too bad and they are cheaper than the one here.

Ipoh Sar Hor Fun (Kuey Teow Soup)
Delicious bowl of noodles and it will taste even better with 'taugeh' (bean sprouts). I love taugeh, the more the better.

The gals enjoying their fishballs.

After breakfast in Ipoh, we proceeded with our journey again. This time we stopped over in Taiping, my brother-in-law's hometown. He brought us to Taiping Lake Gardens. Everyone got down from the cars to have a stroll in the gardens. It's quite a nice place for leisure walk. But, we only had a quick look around and took some photographs as the morning sun on that day was too hot to bear.

Scenic view of the gardens

My brother-in-law with the 2 gals

Sharlene having a great time sitting on daddy's shoulder and resting her arms on daddy's head.
This pic looked a bit senget (crooked) as though Sharlene is going to collapse.

Next, we brought the kids to Taiping Zoo, located just beside Taiping Lake Gardens. Luckily, it wasn't too crowded and we took a quick tour of the zoo by taking the open-air mini train. The train took us around the zoo for about 20 minutes. Sharlene was so thrilled as she finally has the chance to watch animals in the zoo. Some of the animals that we saw include elephants, orang utans, tigers, zebras, giraffes, deers, black panthers, snakes, and many many more.

We left Taiping Zoo almost 1pm, had our lunch and continued our journey to Penang. After we entered Penang toll, the traffic was horrendous and the cars were all moving bumper to bumper on Penang bridge. We lost our way a few times before we found the hotel. We stayed in Paradise Sandy Beach Resort located at the heart of Tanjung Bungah, Penang. We took 2 units of the deluxe family suite. Its a 2 bedroom suite with a balcony facing the sea, 2 bathrooms, a separate lounge, dining and kitchenette.

Upon arrival and checking-in, we went straight to the room to rest and the kids went to the pool for fun. After resting and swimming, we had buffet dinner at the hotel as we were too tired to drive out for dinner again.

We're Back Home

We finally came home today after spending 4 days and 3 nights in Penang. It was a fun and exhausting family trip and I shall blog about it very soon. There are so many stuff to unpack now and I better do it before Sharlene wakes up. Just now, she was so active in the car, busy eating, talking, singing and disturbing everyone in the car. We can't even take a nap with her doing all her naughty antics. When we were about to reach home, she dozed off and her nanny had to carry her into the house and put her on the sofa at the living area. After taking her catnap at this time of the day, I'm sure she will be very alert and refuse to sleep early tonight. Mummy is definitely going to suffer tonight. So worn-out but can't sleep early!

Everybody are so busy now unpacking their own things except for the kids...Sharlene is sleeping, my niece is drinking her milk and my nephew is playing his computer games. I really pity the maid as she has so many bags of dirty clothing to wash. Looks like we have to eat out again tonight or maybe just pack some food home. I'm sure everyone are so tired and lazy to go out again after travelling in the car for the whole day, especially our 2 drivers. Actually I'm so fed up of eating outside food which are loaded with MSG, salt and sugar for the past few days. I just can't wait to have nutritious home cooked food again tomorrow.

Award For Excellent Performance

This was what Sharlene received at the prize giving ceremony yesterday morning. A trophy for getting number 3 in the class. Last night, she was so busy showing off and telling everybody that she's got a trophy in school. And of course, she received lots of praises, hugs and kisses from everyone at home.


That's how happy, excited and proud she was for the whole of last night.

Sharlene, Daddy and mummy are so proud of you too!

Oh Dear, She Peed On My Bed!

After Sharlene woke up in the middle of last night, she came up and slept on my bed. I had asked her to wee-wee first before coming to my bed but she said no wee-wee. When I woke up this morning I felt my pants were wet and my mattress was damp too. Oh dear, the girl has peed on my bed and my mattress was soaked with her pee. I quickly changed her pants and transferred her down to her own bed. Now I hope her pee will not leave any bad odour on my mattress as I have no time to wipe and spray the mattress with febreeze this morning.

I started to train her to go diaperless ever since she refused to wear diapers at night. Everyday she will take her last bottle of milk around 9pm, and goes to sleep by 9.30pm. Sometimes she will empty her bladder first before going to bed. Around 11pm, I will bring her potty next to her and wake her up to pee. At first, it was tough because each time I wake her up she will be cranky and crying. I feel really bad to disturb her sleeping but if I don't do that she will definitely wet her pants. If she empties her bladder around 11pm, she will be able to stay dry until the next morning most of the time. She was able to stay dry for the past 2 weeks. But accidents are common and can happen every now and then, just like this morning when she can't control her bladder and peed on my bed. She is already off diapers now and hopefully she can be trained to wake up on her own to pee at night soon. I know I can't rush her into this but I will be more patient and give her more love, support and praises.

Collection Of Report Card

Today hubby went to Sharlene's kindy to collect her report card. They reached the kindy early just like normal school days. After a short discussion with Sharlene's class teacher, hubby brought Sharlene home together with a folder containing her report card, test papers and completed worksheets. Even though she is just 3.5yrs old and doesn't quite like going to school, she did pretty well for her mid-year test and obtained good marks for all her subjects. After perusing all her test papers, I found that the questions set by the teachers were rather difficult and high standard for the young kids. I am sure the teachers have to explain the questions and guide the kids to complete the test. Otherwise, they will have difficulty in answering the questions.

Besides Sharlene's test results, Hubby was told by her class teacher that she got number 3 in her class. Wow! so young also they record the position in the class. Anyway, Hubby and I were very happy and proud of her achievement in her mid-year assessment and hope she will do well in future assessment too.

Why She Likes To Go Poh-Poh's House?

When I asked Sharlene whether she likes going to Poh-poh's house....she nod her head and said yes! When I asked her further whether she wants to go there again....she said yes!. After browsing through the photos we took during our short trip there, I think she enjoys her stay at Poh-poh's house because .......

she doesn't have to go to bed early. We had an early celebration for Mother's Day and my mum's birthday. At about 10pm, she wasn't sleepy at all but was waiting anxiously for her slice of cake here.

she can show-off her skill of holding a chopsticks and was able to pick up a piece of taufu from the plate and put it directly into her mouth. Her skill is not bad-huh for a first-timer.

she can play and chit-chat with her favourite dog. I wonder the dog understands what she's saying.

she can have her all-time favourite drink, Vitagen. The moment she opened her eyes in the morning, she remembers the Vitagen in the fridge and wants to drink it. But I made her do some writing exercise first before drinking. She followed my instructions but the bottle of Vitagen must be in front of her. I must say it's a good way to make her do her work. hahaha!


she can go to restaurant and eat her most wanted food. Wah! she's trying very hard here to bite off the chicken drumstick.

So In Love With Animals

Sharlene loves animals and whenever she sees a kitten or puppy she wants to touch and stroke them. Sometimes, she even wants to carry them but I always turn down her request. To me, it is so unhygienic to touch animals especially the furry and hairy ones. I hardly touch or pat the 3 dogs at my mum's house but Sharlene is so different from me - she likes to be with them so much and even pose with one of the dogs in front of the camera.


My daring girl posing with one of the dogs, Bobby. Bobby is a very tame and obedient dog. When Hubby told him to sit down, he quietly sit beside Sharlene. She would like to stroke and take photos with the other 2 dogs as well but I dare not let her go near them. They are very noisy, like to bark a lot and they are not as tame as Bobby.


The morning sun was so glaring that she can't even open her eyes.

Nice Gifts

Sharlene always get new toys from my relatives whenever we went back to JB. During the recent trip back to JB, she received some nice gifts from my brother who came back from Melbourne and my aunty. Here are some of the items:-

A very lovely pencil case with pencil, pen, ruler, eraser and sharpener and a box of colour pencils from 'kau-fu' (uncle).


Another gift from 'kau-fu' - A Barbie doll.


A colourful and pretty hand-carry doll house from 'yi-poh'.

A very big THANK YOU to 'kau-fu' and 'yi-poh' from Sharlene!!

I Don't Want To Wear Pants!

Of late, Sharlene doesn't want to wear pants during bedtime at night. So weird...right! Sometimes, I just can't comprehend her weird habits especially her refusal of putting on her pants. This habit started when she doesn't want to wear diapers. I have tried to let her sleep without diapers but she wasn't ready for it yet. So, I will put on the diapers for her after she is fast asleep. It sounds so simple but this is really not an easy job for me. She really hates diapers. Although she's sound asleep, she will resist and struggle whenever I try to put on her diapers. And then I have to wait and try again later even though I'm already so sleepy and exhausted after a long day. At times, I get very angry, frustrated and tired after a few unsuccessful attempts on the same night. Since she doesn't want her diapers, I put on the pants for her but she doesn't even want her pants now. As I do not want to disturb her resting and make her cry in the middle of the night, I gave in to her by covering her half-naked body with a blanket. And for the past few days she has been sleeping without her pants until the next morning. I am truly upset and worry about her unusual habit. Nevertheless I will keep trying and be more patient towards her and hope she will understand why she needs to wear pants to bed.

Best Of Friends

This sweet-looking girl next to Sharlene is Jasmine. Both of them are the best of cousins as well as best of friends. As my sil stays next door, this 2 gals get to see each other, play and practically do everything together everyday. Look, they even wear the same pyjamas. These 2 pyjamas were bought by Sharlene's nanny in Singapore. Her nanny will always get them new clothes and pyjamas everytime she visits Singapore. The 2 gals were so excited to see new pyjamas again. When Jasmine saw the pyjamas she put it on right away. And when Sharlene saw what her 'piau-cheh' (cousin sister) does, she also wants to follow and put the pyjamas on as well. This girl of mine likes to follow and mimic what her 'piau-cheh' does. The things her 'piau-cheh' has, she must have it too. If she can't get the things she wants, she will cry and scream until she gets it. So to prevent and avoid all these from happening, we will always buy 2 of the same thing and they will be happy...just liked the pix shown above..:)

Sharlene Is Going To Kindy Today

Finally, Sharlene has no sign of fever and the tiny red spots on her face and body have also subsided and she's off to kindy this morning. She has been sick too frequently nowadays since she started schooling early this year. This time her condition was the worse with high fever and rashes that lasted for 7 days. Hopefully, her immunity will be stronger after all this infection. I hope that she will get use to school life again after being absent for 3 consecutive days. My girl doesn't quite like to go to school and its really difficult to wake her up every morning despite putting her to bed as early as 9pm every night. I called Hubby just now to find out how she's doing this morning. He gave me the same answer again - she was so lazy to wake up and don't want to go to school. She has been attending kindy for more than 5 months now but sad to say that she still couldn't get used to the routine of waking up early and getting ready to go to school. I have been telling her and really don't know for how long more I need to tell her that everyone needs to go to school to learn and mingle with friends. I wonder if other parents are facing this problem of getting their kids to school??

Due to lack of sleep for the past few nights busy taking care and checking Sharlene's body temperature every few hours in the night, today I'm feeling under the weather, having mild headache, body ache and fever. After taking breakfast this morning, I took 2 panadols and hope it won't be my turn now to fall sick. I should really sleep early tonight and let Hubby handles Sharlene.

Enjoying Her Yoghurt

She loves yoghurt very much and would ask for more and more. But I only let her take 1 cup a day. I remembered once she finished up her cousin sister's cup of yoghurt as well - 2 cups of yoghurt at one go. My mum knows that she loves yoghurt and she bought so many of her favourite stuff including yoghurt and stored it in the fridge for her. When my food monster was there last week, she had a great time indulging in all her favourite food that was found in my mum's fridge.

Sitting quietly and enjoying her cup of yoghurt at poh-poh's house. Hmmmmm.....so yummy!

Licking the spoon clean.

We should introduce yoghurt to our children as yoghurt is an excellent food for them and has lots of health benefits too. Even I love to take yoghurt.

What's Wrong With Her?

I really don't know what's wrong with Sharlene. Yesterday she has no fever the whole day. She was back to her usual self, very playful and also has appetite to eat and drink. So, I thought she has almost recovered but just now her fever came back again although it's not as high as 2 days ago. She was very whiny and wants to be carried most of the time. She still has red spots all over her face and body and looks so sickly and weak now. I told her I have to give her suppository but she cried instantly. I talked to her nicely and with the help of daddy, I managed to give her the suppository. I have to check her temperature again later in the night.

She normally gets well very fast, within 3-4 days but today is already the 7th day. She has also completed her antibiotics today but she doesn't seems to get well. Looks like Daddy will bring her to the paed again tomorrow.

Some More Beautiful Flowers

My mom's garden has some new flowers and plants again. Here are some pictures of orchids which I snapped there. For me, I like to look at beautiful flowers but have no interest at all in planting flowers or gardening. Looking after a hyperactive toddler has already occupied most of my time in the house.










I have not seen this purple plant or flower before. Anyone know what type of plant or flower is this?

High Fever With Rashes

Sharlene has been down with fever since Tuesday. We brought her to the paed 2 days later (Thursday) when the fever failed to subside and she vomited after taking her milk on Thursday morning. The paed prescribed antibiotics (Augmentin) of which she has to take for 5 days. If after the 3rd day she still has her fever, then she has to go back for a blood test. While I was checking her temperature yesterday evening, I saw some rashes which looked like tiny red spots on her body, buttocks and legs. I was terrified when I saw all the spots appeared on her body and began to think whether she's having measles, chicken pox, dengue or only a heat rash. And worse of all her fever was as high as 39.8 degrees C. She is also complaining of leg ache. I was so so worried about her.

Hubby and I quickly brought her to the paed again last night. After checking her conditions, the paed advised us to have a blood test done to rule out the possibility of dengue fever. She said dengue fever begins with a sudden high fever. A red rash may appear over most of the body early during the fever. Other symptoms include vomiting, joint aches, muscles aches, etc. Since Sharlene is having the symptoms of dengue fever, a blood test is the only way to diagnose this condition. We agreed to have the test. I carried Sharlene very tightly in my arms while hubby and the nurse held her hand. She cried when the paed poked a needle on her hand and thank god, the test was done very swiftly by the paed. She told us Sharlene's blood samples will be sent to the lab now and the result will be known on the same night. She will call us or send a text messages as soon as she has the results. If the test confirms she has dengue, she has to be warded immediately for observation. My heart sunk after the paed told us that. My poor girl will definitely cry her lungs out if she has to be warded.

Hubby and I kept our handphones on and waited the whole night for the paed to call. Finally, a text message came from my handphone at around 12.45am. Both of us got up from the bed and rushed to take my handphone immediately. In our heart we prayed and hoped for good news. Then I opened up the message and we saw "Good news not dengue. It is a bacterial infection. Plt 324. Must complete abs." We were so happy and glad after seeing the message. What a relieve! I sent a thank you note to the paed and went to sleep with a peace of mind.

I hope the fever will go down and she'll be fine soon.

Happy Mother's Day

I am sure most of you will be celebrating or planning to celebrate Mother's Day with your mum or mother-in-law this Sunday. As for me, I am not able to be with my mum on this special day. Nevertheless, I had an enjoyable time with her during my 4-day stay in JB last week. And in fact, we had an early celebration while we were there. Just a simple dinner at a chinese restaurant with everyone. I even bought a cake that evening for purpose of celebrating Mother's Day and my mum's birthday...but guess what! I kept the cake in the fridge and forgot to bring it to the restaurant. How forgetful I can be sometimes! So, after dinner my aunty and family went to my house for dessert....the cake!



On this special occasion, I wish to say:
"THANK YOU mum for your love and concern and everything that you have done for me all these years. I am really grateful to have you as my mother. Your love will stay with me forever. Here, I wish you good health and happiness always. Happy Mother's Day to you and I love you mum!"

And to all the beautiful mommies out there, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY and have a nice day with your loved ones this weekend!

She Finally Takes Her Medicine

Hooray! Sharlene is finally taking her medicine today. I snapped this pic when she was taking her Paracetamol just now. Even though she still has fever, she looked much better today compared with yesterday.


Look at her sweet smiling face here. She was showing off to me her almost finished medicine. Well done, sweetie and mummy hope you get well soon.

Fever

My handphone rang at about 4.30pm today and when I picked up the phone I looked at the screen... its a call from the house. I have a feeling that it must be some bad news or matters related to Sharlene and true enough! Sharlene's nanny called to say that Sharlene has developed fever of 39 degrees C. According to her, Sharlene was fine in the morning. She went to school as usual and after came back from school in the afternoon she took her lunch and had her shower. When she was half way doing her maths exercise she complained that she was tired and wanted to sleep. After she took her milk she went to sleep and woke up an hour later. That was when her nanny felt that her body was very hot. She proceeded to take her temperature and found that she had a fever.

I rushed home after work and while on the way i called hubby to inform him of Sharlene's condition. He said he will be home early as well. I can sensed that hubby was very worried and 'kan-cheong' (anxious) about her darling gal. When I reached home I saw my poor girl lying motionless on the sofa and she looked so sick and listless. She was so so different from her usual self - refused to talk, inactive and no appetite to eat anything at all. By right I should take her to the paed immediately but I hesitated coz' this girl will refuse to take her medicine no matter how we sweet-talk her or reward her with the food she likes.

She cried miserably when she saw me and obviously she was feeling really unwell. I put a KoolFever strap across her forehead but after a while, she took it out and refused to put it on again. I don't understand why she dislikes the KoolFever?? The cooling effect of the KoolFever should make her more comfortable. But she hates it. And hubby just bought back 1 big pack of KoolFever - luckily, the expiry date is July 2010. Her body, forehead, neck were all so hot and her face went red due to the rising temperature. My heart hurts to see her going through all these. At about 8.30pm, she said she wants to brush her teeth and go to bed. So, I brought her upstairs to her room, brushed her teeth, gave her a light sponge and changed her pyjamas. I made her a bottle of milk but my poor girl has no appetite to drink at all and the bottle of milk was left there untouched. She dozed off very fast. I was waiting for her to sleep so that I can insert a suppository into her rectum. When I check her temperature half an hour later, the temperature went down to 37.5 degrees C. Hubby and I will continue to monitor her temperature closely throughout the night and hopefully her fever will subside by tomorrow morning. Otherwise, hubby has to bring her to the paed and she has to skip school tomorrow.

Fun With Puzzles

Sharlene loves playing with puzzles. When she was younger I used to buy all sorts of puzzles for her. And those days, she played with them everyday and most of the time she can work on the puzzles herself. Since most of the puzzles are too simple for her age now, I have kept it in the cupboard and will only take it out when she requests for it occasionally.



Last week, she asked for her foam puzzles. This foam puzzles was a gift from my aunty. There are altogether 10 pieces of colourful fishes puzzles. She called it 'fish puzzles'.


First of all, she will fix the 10 pieces of puzzles and then join them in a straight line. Next, she will hop and jump on it. When she gets tired of jumping alone, she will ask me to jump and run with her. At times, she will even lie down on the puzzles with her pillow and bolster while drinking her milk. Maybe, she feels more comfortable lying down on her puzzles than her bed.


How nice to see her playing on her own without disturbing me. At least, I can have some rest time during the weekends.