Someone In The House Has Got Chicken Pox...

...and we are keeping our fingers crossed that none of us will be the next to get this highly contagious viral infection. I wonder can anyone still get it even after they have been exposed to chickenpox before? I got infected when I was in secondary school and almost everyone in the house has it during his or her childhood. The only person who hasn’t is my niece.

So, who has got chicken pox?? Because of this infection she couldn’t go to school and to her favorite playground in the evening. She has to stay home so that she doesn’t expose others. She doesn’t understand that she cannot go near to other people during this time and has been badgering me to let her go to the playground every evening. So, I suppose by now you would have guessed the one who's down with chicken pox is my poor little girl :(

When I was preparing Sharlene for school on last Friday morning, I noticed some red rashes which look like pimples on her chest and some of it on her back. Thought it was some insect bites or something, so I didn’t bother much. Off she went to school. I saw more rashes appearing on her body, back and some on her face, hands and legs when I took off her school uniform after she came back from school. There weren’t any other symptoms besides the rashes and she was as active as ever on that day. I also don’t see her scratching those infected areas. We eventually brought her to the doctor later in the evening and she confirmed that those red blisters on Sharlene’s body are chicken pox. The doctor prescribed calamine lotion to relieve itching and irritation and a bottle of medicines that help the itching.

She started to scratch those blisters from time to time and for this the calamine lotion really helps. Luckily her condition was pretty mild with fewer blisters, no fever and malaise. Come to think of it luckily she'd received her chicken pox vaccine when she was around 18 months old otherwise she could have a full blown chicken pox with a few hundreds of lesions on her body.

At Home With Sharlene

Last Wednesday, Sharlene's nanny requested for a few days' leave from me, as she needs to rush back to her hometown for some urgent family matters. Hence I took 2 days leave to stay at home while she was away.

During my 2 off days I was extremely busy and with so many things to do at home, time just flew by so quickly. I woke up early on Thursday morning, got Sharlene ready for school, prepared her snack box and water, sent her to school at 8am, came back for breakfast and then drove to the market. After came back from the market, I prepared a quick lunch for my niece and nephew before they go to school in the afternoon, fetched Sharlene back from school at 12 noon, prepared her lunch and in the meantime I'd my lunch too. It has become a habit for Sharlene to watch TV after she comes home from school and while she’s having her lunch everyday. She usually has a very good appetite after school and won’t take long to finish her meal. Shortly after her lunch and 1 good hour in front of the screen, I bathed her and then sat down to coach her in her homework. After her homework and whilst I was in the kitchen again preparing for dinner, she ransacked her toy box and played with the toys.

After I’d finished cooking in the evening, I brought her to the playground. We spent about 15 - 20 mins there. Then we went home where I bathed her again, she took her dinner and played with her piao cheh. By around 9pm I fixed her a bottle of milk and prepared her for bedtime. I did the same tasks on Friday save for going to the market.

So that’s basically how I had spent my 2 non working days at home with Sharlene – very hectic and tiring but I certainly enjoyed every moment of my time with her :-)

The Things They Play With

Kids love to have fun playing and they always know how to and what to do for fun. Being active and playful most of the time, Sharlene never fails to amuse me with the things she does. But it often upset me when she gets too extreme playing with her piao cheh and refuses to stop when I told her to.

Guess what the 2 girls play with when they get bored with their toys, books, TV, etc or when they simply have nothing to do at home?

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Not able to guess??
Well, it’s Sharlene’s bulky Anakku pram...


Even though we have kept this pram away, Sharlene still request to play with it every now and then in the HOUSE! She will sit on it and request her piao cheh to push her around. Sometimes her toys will join in the fun too...hehe. It’s a pleasant sight to look at when both of them have so much fun giggling and chuckling away while playing with the pram. On some occasion she even behaves like a baby and requests to drink her milk in the pram.


Besides pushing the pram at home, the girls like to mess up my kitchen too especially my girl who is very fond of playing with things that are not meant for playing!

Have a look at the pic below (taken a few months ago) and you will know how playful they were...



Yeah, for sure they were having great fun with the ladle, plates, bowls and wooden spatula. Thank god, they only did that a few times and they have ceased playing with it now. Otherwise the clatter they create with those kitchen utensils will surely drive me bonkers.

"Mummy, I Want To Carry The Baby"

After rejecting Sharlene’s numerous requests to carry my brother-in-law’s sister’s baby, I finally let her hold the baby in her arms when they came over for a visit some time ago. My girl was extremely happy and proud that she’s able to perform the task of carrying a baby for the first time.

That's Sharlene carrying baby Su Yi with Jasmine by her side.


Baby Su Yi's trying to reach for the telephone toy. She loves to play with this toy and since Sharlene hardly play with it now, she’d graciously agreed to give it to Baby Su Yi.


Lately, Sharlene constantly tell us that she’s a cheh cheh now and not a mei mei anymore. I suppose she feels and acts like a big sister to Su Yi. Well, I hope my girl will be a loving and caring cheh cheh to Su Yi.

Hubby And Sharlene Went Shopping Without Me

After lunch both hubby and Sharlene went to Midvalley together with sister-in-law and family and until now they are still not home. The house is so quiet now without the 2 girls. You may be wondering as to why I didn’t tag along. Well, I wish I could. Moreover I’ve not been to Midvalley for ages and I seriously need to shop for some personal stuff. If only I wasn’t in the midst of cooking a wok of coconut candy just now, I would have gone with them. Started cooking 2kg of coconut since yesterday evening and this morning continued again with 4kg. Finally, mission accomplished at around 2pm just now. Sharlene’s nanny really helped me a great deal otherwise it will take me forever to cook the candy. It's just impossible for me to cook 6kg of coconut alone! The candy is not for own consumption, of course. We will be selling this together with other foodstuff at a food carnival next Sunday. The proceeds on that day will go to the association of special children with learning disability. So come next Saturday will be another busy and hectic cooking day for all of us. But it's all worthwhile for the cause of charity. Furthermore, you don't get a chance to do this often.

Again, no time for shopping next week. Luckily when I went to Tesco yesterday, I managed to purchase 1 box of disposable contact lenses (Soflens 38), which I’ve been trying to find for the past 1 week. As for other necessities, guess I can only shop for it when I next step into a shopping mall.

Our Trip To Penang

Although the kids had a short school break last month, we managed to take them to Penang for a holiday. Even before the trip they were so thrilled about it as they always associate Penang with sandy beaches and lovely swimming pools. As for the adults, we always love the wide array of hawker food there. Yum, Yum!!

As usual, we traveled in 2 cars – altogether 10 of us including the kids and sister-in-law’s maid. It was raining cats and dogs on that morning. Sharlene was a little upset, as we didn’t allow her to be in the same car as her piao cheh. When 2 of them get together in a car, all hell will break loose...hahaha. So normally for long distance trips, we will just separate both of them to avoid us shouting and screaming at them. However, when we were roaming around Penang town, Sharlene sat with her beloved piao cheh in my sister-in-law’s car most of the time.

Before our main destination, we followed sil and family to Taiping and spent a night there. Didn’t do much in Taiping as we’d already been to Taiping Zoo and Taiping Lake Garden whereas my sil and family went to temple and cemetery to offer prayers to their ancestors in association with Qing Ming Festival (Chinese All Soul’s Day).

After breakfast the next morning we headed to Penang to meet up with hubby’s cousin and family. We stayed in the same hotel again this time for 2 nights. This time around we went to Penang Hill (my 1st visit) and Mini Genting (my 1st visit too). I've not heard about this place before. Didn’t really have a good view at this place as it was raining when we reached there. There's a seafood restaurant inside there, so we just settled at the restaurant for dinner on that day . The food was quite alright...but I didn’t really enjoy it, as Sharlene wasn’t feeling well during that time and she even vomited on the wooden platform of the restaurant. That’s the time (after we left Mini Genting) we brought her to a nearby clinic.

Here's some photos taken during our trip -

~ On our journey to Taiping ~
Sharlene with her pink sunnies. Check out her favorite pink bunny lying next to her. Luckily, that’s the only one she’d brought along. Btw, everyone looked 'so pinkish', eh?

~ Port Weld ~
Went on this boat to go across the fishing village. RM1 per pax for river crossing. Brother-in-law’s sister stays there.

~ While waiting to get into the car ~
Hi, everyone! This's my little pink bunny. She's adorable, isn't she?

~ At the beach ~
Searching for sea shells

Picking up sea shells

~ Daddy and his little angel ~
Sharlene proudly showing off her half bucket full of seashells

~Banana boat ride ~
Not exciting at all as compared to the jet ski

~ Penang Hill Railway ~
Cable train ride. I didn't know that this train will not take us straight to the top, we actually have to change trains halfway.

The train was crowded with passengers and we'd to stand all the way up (about 30 minutes ride)

~ A playground located at Penang Hill ~
Sharlene got so excited when she saw a slide there and she played on it non stop.

~ Yours truly cycling with her nephew ~
Check out Sharlene and her nanny at the side of the road. She was yelling out for me. Mummy, mummy wait for me, I want to go cycling too....huhuhu

~ The kiddos at the hotel lobby ~
Bye, bye, Penang....we're going home today.

Chicken Wings

I love chicken wings especially fried chicken wings. Oooo, the thought of those tasty chicken wings is enough to make me salivate now…hehe. The kids at home also love this very, very much and often one wing is not enough to satisfy their cravings.

At one time we used to have fried chicken wings quite often. Sometimes we even get it from the hawker stall nearby our house...the grilled ones! So very delicious but terribly pricey. However, we had stopped sinking our teeth on those juicy wings a few months ago - right after my sister-in-law told us about an email received by her on the consumption of chicken wings and its drastic effect. Just last week I received a similar email on this from a friend of mine. According to the email, chickens are injected with steroids to accelerate their growth and usually the shot is given at the neck or the wings. Therefore, it’s in these places that the highest concentration of steroids exists. Steroids have terrifying effects on the body as it accelerates growth. It has an even more dangerous effect in the presence of female hormones. It leads to women being more prone to the growth of a cyst in the womb.

We were rather paranoid with the contents of the email. Not possible to stop eating chicken wings forever, right? For sure I can’t….hehe. So, will just limit the consumption of it.


Lip-smacking: Simply too yummy to resist :)

Her Favourite Pillow And Bolster

Sharlene is still using her little baby pillow and clamping her little baby bolster to sleep every night and even when she drinks her milk during the day time. If she happens to wake up in the middle of the night and find that her favourite baby bolster isn't by her side, she would rummage through the blanket to look for it.

A few months ago, hubby got her a new set of pillow and bolster that are much bigger than her existing ones. We thought she would love them but we were so wrong for she’s still very attach to her old pillow and bolster. We'd tried putting the new set on the bed and from time to time persuade her to use it...but until now she still refuses to. We've since kept the new set in the cupboard.

I know for the time being, there is no way we can convince her to give up her old set....
...and that's how comfortable she's when she rests on her small pillow and puts her little baby bolster in between her legs.