LIFE AS A MUMMY

Final Post For The Year

2009-12-30T23:50:00.000-08:00

How time flies! 2009 is zooming past us and very soon it is the time of the year again to celebrate as we usher in the New Year. Have you already decided where to go for countdown celebration tomorrow night? No matter where you go or even if you had planned to spend the last evening at home, I hope you will have a wonderful time with your family.

Before I end this post, I leave you with some of the photos taken during our trip to China last month.

Have a Happy New Year, everyone!!

Moments before boarding the plane. The 2 girls had fun running back and forth the travelator. I've lost count the number of times they went on the travelator.

The girls were seated together and I was just next to Jasmine. Sharlene was rather excited after boarding the plane. She kept turning to the back and chat with daddy who was sitting behind her. They even brought their old maid and donkey cards along and insisted that I play with them. We played a few rounds and stopped just before their dinner sets arrive. Sharlene didn't like the food, she only took the snack.

It was pretty chill during the first 2 nights. I’d to constantly remind Sharlene to zip up her coat and put on her gloves. This gal liked to remove her coat and kept saying she's not feeling cold.

The different night scenes in Guilin.

Mountains and river in Yangshuo.

My first time seeing a real panda. The one and only panda there. Ohh, she was really huge. Hmm, I didn't know that panda likes to munch on carrots too...

The gals with their new friend, Ivy. She is a year older than Jasmine.
3 of them were seen together most of the time.

Once again, wishing all of you a Happy and Prosperous 2010!!

We're Back

2009-12-09T21:12:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!! It has been almost a month since my last post here. Hope you guys have not forgotten about me and my little girl ;) Thanks to those of you who dropped by and left your comments while I was away.

Here's a short update on us...
=> After much thought, we finally decided to visit China together with sil and family, hubs’ aunty who’s 75 years old and her eldest daughter. We visited Nanning, Guilin and Yangshuo during the first week of school holidays (22 – 29 November 2009). The trip was so-so only, very hectic and tiring especially for young kids and the elderly, not much time for shopping and the food…. hmm, quite okay although it was a tad oily. We were served with almost the same food everyday...fed up or not, you say? Sharlene didn't consume much, she survived mainly on her milk! She was downed with fever on the 5th day and vomited twice. Once in the bus and the other time in a room whilst we were listening to someone yakking about certain product. Thank god, she was back to normal after 2 days.

=> The week after we came back, all of us (the 8 adults) fell ill with bouts of diarrhoea, vomiting and runny nose. Both hubs and I only had diarrhoea which lasted for a couple of days. The 3 kids were spared.

=> I started playing various FB games a few months back and it has becomes my addiction ever since. I’m sure to log on to FB to check on my farm, restaurant, café and fish tanks the moment I’m in front of the pc. This addiction of mine has left me with very little time to update my blog. As a result, I’m beginning to lose momentum in blogging. Nevertheless, I will still update my blog from time to time.

Next week, we will be going to Penang for a short holiday. This time around, my sis is coming with us. Sharlene can't wait to play by the beach and to wear her new bikini. Heheh, as for me...I simply can't wait to sink my teeth on the hawkers' food again. :)

She Wants To Look Pretty Now

2009-11-12T14:20:00.000-08:00

Yes, she’s into this stage now and really likes to put on hairclips and hair band everyday, without fail :D She would stand in front of the mirror, comb her hair, put on her fanciful hair accessories which majority of it belong to her piao cheh and smile at her own creation after that. Her nanny said nowadays she would do this routine everyday before she goes to school! So vain hor?? But I think its okay lah...after all she’s a girl, right? ;P

At one time she disliked all these hair accessories and refused to let me put on for her but she's so different these days.

See, she even wants to look pretty in her pyjamas and right before her bedtime. *shake head*

A closer look at her creation. I will surely freak out if she wants to go out like this.

Side view

Experience with Water Colour

2009-11-06T23:40:00.000-08:00

Sharlene had her first experience with water colour about 2 months ago. Bought her the necessary stuff i.e. a box of watercolour, an art block and a palette to get our project started. I found some old paint brushes at home, so she just used that to paint.

We have done quite a few paintings together for the past few weekends and here are some of them:

Straw painting, which was pretty easy for kids. Just get them to aim the straw at the paint and blow! However, Sharlene still needs my assistance from time to time and usually when she’s out of breath. Hmm...not that simple after all.

I gave her the idea and with my help she completed this under the sea theme. The little fishes were done via finger painting. But it doesn't look quite like fish though.

And here's her creation of an orange tree with some black birds on top of it.

Cooling Cucumber

2009-11-02T11:25:00.000-08:00

Sharlene loves to eat fresh cucumber. Give her a plate of sliced cucumber, she would happily munch down all of them. But recently, she has found a new way of eating her cucumber. That is to add some salad dressing on top of it. Ever since she saw us dipping our vegetables on thousand island dressing, she has been requesting for this sauce to be added on her cucumber.

She's no longer interested in this plate of 'bland' sliced cucumber.

Now she likes it this way i.e. drizzle with lots and lots of thousand island dressing.

Enjoying her cooling cucumber

Our very own 'Little Red Riding Hood'

2009-10-26T12:30:00.000-07:00

She still loves to play the role of Little Red Riding Hood from time to time. That’s why I am still keeping her jacket, which she can hardly squeeze in now. The jacket is meant for a 2-year old. So you can imagine how small it is for her to wear but this girl really like it so much. She thinks she looks really like Little Red Riding Hood after donning it :D

Whenever she wants to be ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ (usually after reading to her the story before bedtime), she would fish out her jacket from the cabinet, put it on and after that carry my bag and walk into the bathroom. At the same time, she would tell me to lie down on the bed and pretend to be her unwell grandmother whom she’s suppose to visit. She would start her play when I’m ready on the bed by walking out from the bathroom and then pretend feeding me with 'food' that she has in her bag.

I do enjoy the fun moments with her but sometimes she would go on and on with it until I have to say ENOUGH, LET’S GO TO BED NOW!! Kids, they just don’t get bored doing the same thing over and over again.

She Is 5

2009-10-21T00:15:00.000-07:00

Sweetie, today is your 5 T H B I R T H D A Y ! !

Here’s wishing you happiness and good health always…

Daddy & mummy LOVE you very, very much!!

Lollipop Treat

2009-10-13T16:44:00.000-07:00

Daddy came home one day and surprised her with a lollipop. It’s her favourite orange flavour Chupa Chups. Her attention was diverted to the lollipop straight away.

That’s how happy she looks when she’s given a sweet treat. Daddy surely knows how to pamper his little girl :D But I always remind him to do it sparingly...not very healthy to eat so much sweet stuff, right?

She was hooked on the TV in this ‘siew cheh’ position while sucking on her lollipop. She normally doesn’t sit like this. It’s only when I tell her to sit properly and to sit like a young lady, her legs will automatically cross over….haha.

And here’s what she’s supposed to do after her lollipop session.

My Helpful Girl

2009-10-09T15:15:00.000-07:00

My little girl is very helpful at times. She will gladly do the things that we ask her to do. For example, to take something for us from the room or kitchen, to throw unused papers or wrappers into the waste paper basket, to switch on and off the TV, etc.

Of course, there are times when she’s not so co-operative. Sometimes, we have to repeat our requests many times and if this fails, we have to do it ourselves. Now I know...never get her to help when she’s in the midst of doing something, e.g. watching TV or playing toys. Chances of getting her to budge are very slim.

Sometime ago I taught her how to set the dining table. Now she can do the job very well. Whenever I ask her to help me to set the table, she will eagerly run to the kitchen drawer and slowly fish out the chopsticks and spoon. She will then take the cutlery to the dining table and arrange them neatly.

Here's my little helper, helping me to set the table for dinner.

She also helped to pour the soya sauce onto the sauce plate.

A Slice Of Cheese And Some Crackers

2009-10-06T11:58:00.000-07:00

Sharlene loves cheese. One day while she was having her slice of cheese, I gave her a cookie cutter and some crackers. Ever since then she loves to take her cheese with crackers :)

Firstly, I showed her the way to use the cookie cutter. She was thrilled and wanted to play with the cutter straight away.

Needless to say, she did the rest of the work!

After that, she placed the cut cheese onto the crackers.

Yums! she loved it and even chomped down the odds and ends of the cheese.

Hari Raya Holidays (Part 2)

2009-10-02T12:10:00.000-07:00

There is a slight delay in putting up Part 2 (the continuation of previous post) due to my computer problem. I’ve not been able to access to Internet since Monday. How frustrating! The problem was attributed to a faulty splitter and we finally got the connection back last night after changing a new splitter.

So now back to Part 2.

We proceeded to walk around the mall after our sumptuous lunch at Kinsahi Restaurant. We ended up at Jusco, as we didn’t want to miss out on the last day of sale on that day (2nd day of Raya) . My parents and I went separate ways to shop while Sharlene enjoyed herself at the game arcade inside the children department of Jusco. Got my sis to accompany her and that allows me to shop freely…heheh. Grabbed a few stuff (blouses for myself, socks, pajamas and some cute flowery panties for Sharlene). She is obsessed with dress type of pajamas lately so I got her 2 and 1 for her piao cheh.

Sharlene was halfway doing her sand art when I went over to look for them. Ah Yee helped by peeling off stickers and suggesting what colours to put.

Then she wanted to try her hands on basketball. Daddy carried her up and she happily threw the ball a few rounds until she got tired.

She went to this machine later and dunno what she did?....she spoilt the handle *shake head*
Here she’s trying to fix it back.

We left the mall and drove over to a nearby hypermarket, as my mum needs to get some fruits for juicing. During our stay there, my mum made everyone a glass of fresh fruit juice every morning.

We had dinner before we headed home. We were exhausted after a day out but this girl of mine is definitely not feeling weary at all. She was playing and eating the whole night!

Look! She was having a whale of a time with Ah Yee who was watching TV at the same time. Guess Ah Yee wasn't having fun at all with Sharlene disturbing her, climbing and rolling on top of her :D

Next, she played with koong koong’s rocking chair.

Then she ran to the kitchen (my aunt was cutting fruits) and she got herself a slice of pineapple. Her first time trying this fruit and she liked it. Probably, it was sweet. She wanted another slice but I said no...heheh. Offered her papaya but she refused.

She chose bananas instead, one of her all-time favourite! See how she enjoyed her fruit.

Aunty Jane (my mum’s younger sister) and her younger daughter came by later. As usual, she bought some toys for Sharlene, one of which is hula-hoop. While I chat with aunty, she had fun with her new toy.

The whole family went out again the next day, this time to 2 shopping malls. Shopping and eating again…haha. Well, what else to do in JB besides heading to the malls! Oh, we went hunting for ice-kacang and rojak too! Found one recommended by my sis but unfortunately the shop was closed. We then went to another one. We ordered so many items there until we were so stuffed. But we still went out for dinner later :D

After a good lunch prepared by my aunt the next day, we loaded our stuff into the car and said bye-bye to everyone.

As usual, our car boot was stuffed to the brim

In the car she fooled around with my shawl. She asked me to decorate her head with the shawl and here’s what I did. How’s that? She’s satisfied and gave me a big smile. Oh, I so love her smile!! :D

We truly enjoyed our stay and look forward to the next trip, hopefully before the end of this year.

Hari Raya Holidays (Part 1)

2009-09-26T19:30:00.000-07:00

The week long holidays for us are coming to an end soon. Sharlene will be back to school and I will be back to work again next Monday. I think after this festival holiday, we won’t be having such a lengthy break again this year. So, where we went this time around? Hmmm, no where in particular, just took this opportunity to visit my parents again :)

We travelled back to my hometown last Sunday, leaving the house as early as 6.45am. Driving from KL to JB was a breeze...guess we made the right choice by travelling on the first day of Hari Raya. Sharlene slept through almost the entire journey there. I did wake her up earlier but she dozed off to la la land again when she’s in the car. Good for me as I got to rest too.

Sharlene was very well rested when she reached por por’s house. We then went out for an early lunch together with my parents, sis and aunty. Here’s Sharlene enjoying her chicken rice.

My aunt’s simple home-cooked food which we had for dinner on the same day. Fried fish in soya sauce, stir fried kai lan with fishcake, seaweed soup and yong tau foo, which were simply delicious!

The next day, we were out shopping the whole day. Sharlene enjoying her dose of computer games while waiting for us to get ready.

We reached Jusco Tebrau City at about noon time. After a brief walk at the mall, we decided to go for Japanese food at Kinsahi Restaurant. Here's what we had:

Udon for hubby

My set of udon that comes with a variety of sushi

Udon and sushi set for my mum ; and

My sis's Tom Yam Ramen

Once again, thanks sis for the fabulous lunch! :D

~ to be continued ~

Food From Bazaar Ramadan

2009-09-18T17:00:00.000-07:00

~ Backdated post ~

We have been patronizing the bazaar Ramadan nearby our house for the past few weekends. We were already there to survey the stalls on the first weekend of Ramadan. Didn’t get much stuff on that day, only some malay kuih, roti john, murtabak, etc for tea time.

Murtabak which was so so only.

A mixture of malay kuih. All were delicious, not too sweet. And my favourite is seri muka!!

A few more types of kuih

My niece ordered this, it's called roti john and she didn't even finish half of it.

We did the same thing again last weekend. Aunty YK wasn’t at home and both SIL and I were too lazy to cook. So, we declared kitchen close and went to tapau some food from the bazaar for dinner. We had nasi lemak kukus last Saturday and on Sunday, we tapau-ed nasi briyani .

Colourful Lanterns

2009-09-16T12:40:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, SIL bought lanterns for the gals at Jaya Jusco. They chose the one they like and here’s their pick...

Battery-operated plastic lanterns that come with music and colourful blinking lights. Nice, eh? :)

They happily came home with their lanterns and thereafter, they were seen playing and lugging their toys around the house the whole night.

This ‘fish’ lantern belongs to Sharlene. It can even 'swim' once you place it on the floor!

Low grade batteries were included. They only played with it for about one or two days and the batteries already gone flat. So for the time being, the 2 colourful lanterns are lying somewhere in the house waiting for the arrival of Mid Autumn Festival, which is just around the corner. The gals are looking forward to carry their ‘beetle’ and ‘fish’ around the neighbourhood again. Looks like I need to get them some new batteries soon.

She Picked Her Own Dress!

2009-09-14T12:48:00.000-07:00

She has her own preference when it comes to clothes now. I used to dictate what she wears when she’s about 2 – 3 years old. But not anymore now as she will be the one who tells me what she wants to wear! Most of the time, my choice will get rejected. So nowadays I will just ask her to get her own attire from her closet. She fancies dresses especially those few that were ‘hand-me-down’. Even at home, she prefers dresses to T-shirt and short pants.

One day she went shopping with sil and while Jasmine was trying on a dress, she also went to pick one for herself *shake head* Sil said she likes the dress very much, so she bought it for her.

Here’s Sharlene donning her new dress

How do I look in my new dress?

As you can see, she's monkeying around and she even had her socks and shoes on! That’s a pair of new shoes which was a tad oversized for her.

"Come And Catch Me If You Can"

2009-09-10T12:55:00.000-07:00

- This is a backdated post - It has been a while since the last time I brought Sharlene to the park. At one time, we used to go every evening, that’s the first thing both of us do when I reach home from work.

Lately or rather for the past few weeks, we have been avoiding the wet and soggy park. I notice the weather is slightly better these few days, at least no heavy rain in my area. So we may start frequenting the park again :) but provided I reach home before 7pm on working days.

*** On one of our usual visits to the park ***
Since it's weekend, Jasmine tagged along with us. Jasmine and Sharlene were going up and down the see-saw. And I was on the other end, trying my best to capture their sweetest moments. Too bad, Jasmine was almost blocked by Sharlene.

Sharlene met one of her classmates there, a Malay boy who stays nearby. Both of them were having so much fun chasing and running around the park. Kids just love playing and running around the playground, don’t they? The following pix will show how much enjoyment they had on that evening.

It’s such a joy to see my girl enjoying herself.

The little boy enjoyed chasing Sharlene whilst Sharlene enjoyed being chased by him. I tell you, these 2 kids really have abundance of energy.

"Come and catch me if you can"

A Few Of Sharlene's Colouring Worksheets

2009-09-08T10:01:00.000-07:00

My girl loves to colour. She can produce very nice and neat pieces but when she’s lazy or simply not in a right mood to colour, the end result would be disastrous. Sometimes, she will even abandon her work halfway. But I always insist she finishes her incomplete work later. So, sometimes her colouring work (those that are more complex) takes a few days to complete.

This piece of colouring was done during the mid term school holiday in March. Uneven colouring and her strokes are all over the place...haha.

This one she took a few days to finish.

Here’s a better looking piece of work, which she did in school about 2 months ago.

Malaysia flag – this was done in school last month.

Writing Her Chinese Name

2009-09-05T00:53:00.000-07:00

Sharlene was taught how to write her Chinese name early this year. It wasn’t easy at first but after practising for sometime, she finally knows how to write her own Chinese name. I was proud of her! From then on, she’s able to write it down independently whenever we ask her to.

After awhile I was quite assured that she knows her Chinese name well. Hence, I have cease getting her to practise.

The other day (during the last school holidays), when I asked her to write the characters for me, she gave me a blank stare. Ooppss...I knew she must have forgotten some of the strokes. True enough, she needed my assistance in order to complete the strokes below.

Time to practise again, Sharlene! :)

What We Have Been Up To Over The Weekend

2009-09-02T22:55:00.000-07:00

It was a long and boring weekend for us as we were stuck at home. SIL and family went to a relative house at Batu Pahat last Friday and they stayed there for 2 days. Poor Sharlene, she has no companion to play with for 2 full days. In the absence of her piao cheh, I became her playmate for the whole of Saturday. We read, did some colouring worksheets, played computer games, and in between all these she also got scolding from me for misbehaving. Time passed by really fast on that day, it’s bedtime again before we knew it!

On Sunday, we were out to Capitol Hotel for buffet lunch in conjunction with hubby’s cousin son’s 8th birthday celebration. The hotel served quite a good spread of food and there were many choices of desserts too. No photos of the food though as I was too busy gorging on them and entertaining my lil’ missy :P She kept running to the food counters and what attracted her the most were desserts like ice-creams and cakes. Whilst we were still at the hotel, SIL and family were travelling back from Batu Pahat and they managed to drop by before the function ended. Before heading home, we walked across to Sg. Wang for window-shopping but we didn’t stayed there for long, just want to jalan-jalan since we have not been there for ages. Moreover, the place was really jam-packed with shoppers. Back home, we had hawker’s food for dinner.

We again have nowhere to go on Monday. So we just ‘lepak’ at home. I wasn’t feeling too good on the later part of the day. I had a bloating feeling, gassy stomach and felt like vomiting. After a few rounds to the bathroom, I finally vomited. It was such a relief but the feeling didn’t last long as later, I had pain in the upper stomach again. Haih, I really hated that awful feeling. So off I went to the clinic. Doctor said it was a case of indigestion, gave me some medicines and a mc for the next day. Guess, I ate too much at the hotel the day before and also the spicy hawker’ food which I took at night.

Although I’m back to work today, I have yet to fully regain my appetite. I can’t even finish a bowl of fish ball noodles for lunch this afternoon and I only took about 2 tablespoonful of rice and some vege for dinner :(

I haven't been frequenting and leaving comments on your blogs these few days. As I'm feeling better today, I’m going to start blog hopping again :D

Some photos taken on Sunday....
Sharlene kept talking and disturbing her piao cheh. Jasmine just arrived from Batu Pahat and was about to indulge in her lamb chop but poor gal, she can't even eat in peace...haha.

Mummy, this jelly is no good. I don't want....you eat ok.

This photo was taken in the toys department of Parkson @ Sg. Wang. Sharlene was deeply attached to the mini cat plush toy. So, we ended up buying it for her.

I Like Ballet

2009-08-27T16:20:00.000-07:00

Sharlene has been telling me that she likes her ballet class. I’m so glad and happy that she is showing interest in ballet, learning and enjoying her lesson at the same time. I never thought she would be interested as all along she is a shy, quiet and reserved girl who doesn’t mingle and play with her friends in school. She prefers to stand and observe them from far. According to Aunty YK, she has improved lately and has started to play along with her friends. I guess she just needs a longer time to warm up. However, she has a total opposite character at home and during her ballet lessons!

Every Tuesday she has an early dinner, then gets dressed in her costume and waits for me to reach home. She would eagerly get into my car and upon reaching the school, she would open up her little bag and fish out her ballet socks and shoes and put them on herself. I must say she truly enjoys her 45 minutes ballet lesson that focus on having fun. Not much is expected from them at this age, only a few ballet moves.

The other day, my little girl was demonstrating to me some ballet moves ...

I think she's showing me a ballet warm-up exercise here...

See mummy, I can touch my toes..

Growing Spring Onions And Germinating Green Beans

2009-08-24T22:41:00.000-07:00

The above are two simple projects for kids to experiment at home. Of course, they need adults to help them with the preparation. A few weeks ago, Aunty YK demonstrated to Sharlene the ways to grow spring onions and to germinate green beans. The steps are pretty simple. Just get an empty container and fill it halfway with soil, put in onion bulbs (do not cover the bulbs completely), water well and expose it to sufficient sunlight. Nowadays, we don’t have to buy spring onions from the wet market as we grow our own spring onions :)

And here is Sharlene’s little tub of spring onions. She loves to water the plants, watch it grow and was very thrilled when the onions started to sprout.

As for the germination of green beans, I’m sure all of you are familiar with the steps, right? Sharlene was first taught how to germinate green beans at her pre-school last year. Back home, she has done it a few times too. And her latest one looks like this...

Now she knows that plants need soil, water, air and sunlight to grow properly :)

Watching A Drama Online And Internet Connection Fails

2009-08-19T15:36:00.000-07:00

I’ve stopped watching Korean dramas for a while and I’m now into Singapore drama instead :D I grew up watching Singapore dramas but ever since I shifted to KL many years ago, I have not been following any of their series. A few blogger mummies have already watched this well-known drama and after reading reviews about this drama in their blogs, I’m so tempted to watch it as well.

You could have guessed the name of the drama by now. Yes, it’s Little Nyonya and I’m currently catching it via youtube. Every night, after Sharlene has gone to bed, I’ll glue myself in front of the PC to watch it. However, I'm rather slow and the most I could watch is only 2 episodes per night. Although I wish to know the outcome of the story fast, I try not to continue watching. Otherwise, I’ll surely have a tough time waking up the next morning.

Last night, I followed the same routine and was really disappointed that the Internet Explorer wasn't responding. Really wonders why the Internet connection suddenly stops working? I tried to switch off and restart the computer but after doing so, the condition was still the same. I finally gave up and went to bed after repeating the same process for a few times.

I am hoping the computer won’t give me the same problem tonight so that I can continue watching the drama again. Still have many more episodes to catch!

Photos Of My Ballerina

2009-08-17T12:24:00.000-07:00

Due to the mad rush on last Tuesday, I wasn’t able to snap photos of Sharlene prior to her ballet class and I'd also forgotten to remind hubby to bring along the camera when he went home to pick her up.

While we were in the car on the way home after her class, I told her that once we get home mummy is going to take photos of her in her costumes. She nodded her head and said ok. But as soon as we stepped into the house, she rushed to the toilet to relieve herself first :D That was when she took off her set of ballet clothes. At the same time, I scurried to the room to get my camera. I was determined to snap photos of Sharlene and luckily, my little ballerina was really nice to oblige mummy’s request to put on her ballet costumes again :D I thought she would be too lazy or refuses to have it put on again.

So I went snap, snap, snap.....but before I could take more photos, she said with annoyance enough, enough, I want to change my clothes now.

So, here are a few of the better-looking photos. The rest were not very well taken either with her not facing the camera or with her not-smiling face.

1st pix of my ballerina. She looks a bit skinny here? I topped up an additional RM8 for her sleeved top as opposed to the sleeveless one. Guess she would look even skinnier with a sleeveless top.

Told her to look at the camera but she was eyeing the idiot box instead.

Taken while she was putting coins given by daddy into the gold piggybank.

A Rush Tuesday

2009-08-12T17:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Sharlene’s ballet class and I was supposed to fetch her to the center. As I need to catch the commuter early, I left my office at 5.30 pm sharp and rushed to the station. The moment I reached the platform I saw the train but it was already too late. The door was shut and I saw it passed by before me. Argghh...frustrating or not you tell me! What's more, an announcement came almost instantly to inform that the next scheduled train has been cancelled and the next train will be arriving in 25 minutes later.(This problem occurs quite frequently). I immediately looked at my watch and knew for sure that I won’t be in time to fetch Sharlene to her class. Without further delay, I called hubby, hoping he’s able to fetch Sharlene. Thank god, he’s on his way home but due to traffic jam, he wasn’t able to bring her there punctually. She was late by 15 minutes. Hope next Tuesday would be a better day and she doesn’t have to be late again.

By the way, I have taken some photos of Sharlene in her ballet costume and will be posting it up soon.

The Things That Daddy Does

2009-08-10T11:55:00.000-07:00

While I was busy changing bed sheet on one Sunday, hubby came in to offer his assistance. After a while, Sharlene also came in to the room to check out what both of us were doing. Unavoidably, my chore got abandoned halfway once the little girl stepped in.

And here's what happened next...hubby found a new way to ‘entertain’ his princess instead of helping me to change bed sheet.

Wrapping her up in a quilt cover...

Lifting her high up...and sway her like a baby.

Here’s another stunt by the ever-obliging daddy :D
Ok, ready and gooooooooo...

Yayy!! This's really fun! I like it....again, I want it again please....

Sharlene's Progress In Learning Mandarin

2009-08-05T15:50:00.000-07:00

Sharlene’s ability to read and write Chinese characters has improved a lot this year. Her words recognition is even better than her daddy now :) She wasn't able to converse in Mandarin when she first started pre-school last year but now, after 1.5 years in school, she can understand and speak Mandarin rather well although English is still her preferred spoken language.

On her writing skill, she finally mastered writing her Chinese name at the beginning of this year. She learned how to write the characters in school. One day, she proudly showed me her Chinese writing book that has 3 stars stamped on the page where she writes her Chinese name. It was great effort on her part as her Chinese name isn’t easy to write especially the last name which has 16 strokes altogether. Can you believe it that I never knew how to write her Chinese name? So ashamed of myself...but of course, now I’m an expert after seeing her writes it every other day :D

The school uses a few series of Chinese books (very similar to the English version of Peter and Jane) to teach them Chinese. I find the books are really useful in helping Sharlene to recognize and improve her words recognition. Now, she’s able to read the first 100 words of the series, which contain 8 books. By coaching her at home, I’m also learning and improving my vocabulary at the same time :P

She’s having a reading session with her piao cheh on one of the weekends.

She's reading the book by pointing to the words with a bamboo stick! See, how naughty she was....haih! I have no idea how she got hold of the stick.

She's Learning Ballet

2009-07-31T10:20:00.000-07:00

Sharlene has been badgering me to let her learn ballet. Whenever she sees her piao cheh goes for ballet class, she'll start pestering me again. Mummy, can I go ballet? Please mummy, I want to go....and she can go on and on until I say, ok, ok we shall go next time. Just to placate her...heheh. Sometimes, she would even cry and ask why I didn't want to let her go.

Her wish of wanting to learn ballet finally came true last Tuesday. I brought her to the center for a trial class before enrolling her. We waited for a while before the teacher brought her to the dancing room. Both hubby and I stayed outside the room but we secretly watched her from a glass window. At the beginning, I noticed she was a tad shy and reserve but after a while, she began to follow what the teacher does and I can see she’s really happy and enjoying her lesson very much. 45 minutes later, she walked out from the room smiling from ear to ear. At that moment, I was quite certain that she likes ballet. We'd wanted to enrol her on that day but the teacher told us to do it next week as she's going to have her next class soon.

So, we went there again this week, which was 3 days ago to enroll her in the class. She should be getting her ballet leotard, tutu, shoes and other stuff next week. Wahh, all these really cost quite a lot leh. I really hope she will not come and tell me one day that she doesn't wish to learn ballet anymore. Anyway, I can’t wait to see my little ballerina and the way she looks in her ballet costume :D Now I begin to ponder whether should I keep her hair long as I notice most of the students there have long hair?? Hrmmm...perhaps I should let her decide.

Cantonese Style Noodles

2009-07-29T10:15:00.000-07:00

This is one of my all-time-favourite noodles. I cooked this for lunch one Saturday. Instead of flat rice noodles (kuey teow), I used yee mein (a type of dried noodles). I prefer to buy those thinner kind of yee mein (have no idea what noodle they call it though?). It’s pretty easy, all that need to be done is to cook the gravy which consists of the following ingredients:-

Chicken meat, sliced (lightly season with a pinch of salt, pepper, corn flour and oil)
Prawns, shelled
Fish cake, sliced
Crabsticks
Choy sum (sawi)
Wong ngah pak (Chinese cabbage)
Chopped garlic
Eggs, lightly beaten
Seasoning – oyster sauce, light soya sauce, sugar, salt, fresh chicken stock.

1. Heat oil in a wok and fry garlic until lightly golden.

2. Add in marinated chicken meat and prawns. Fry well then add in fish cake, crabsticks and seasoning and bring to a boil. Put in sawi and cabbage. Then add thickening (corn flour + water). Turn off the heat and stir in eggs.

3. Give it a quick stir and pour the gravy onto the noodles.

New Story Books

2009-07-25T00:10:00.000-07:00

The other day I went to the bookstore nearby my house to get a roll of plastic wrapper. As I was searching for the wrapper, I saw a few racks of books on sale. So I went over to check out those books. It’s Ladybird range of story books going for RM5.90 each. The usual price is RM9.90 per book.

I can’t resist the markdown and grabbed 6 of Ladybird fairytales books for Sharlene.

~ Classic fairytales books ~

She’s attracted to her new books as soon as I shown it to her. I guess it’s the illustrations that captivate her. After reading to her a few times, she began to show interest in the stories as well. At the moment, her favorites are Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood :D She always requests these 2 books to be read first, and then follow by the rest.

She’s very into pretend play (or role-playing) these days. Sometimes during the reading session, she acts as Sleeping Beauty, pretending to fall into a deep slumber and waiting for the prince to give her a kiss :D Then she said mummy will pretend to be the prince and give her a muakss on the cheeks. That makes her giggles and opens her eyes. At one time, she wore her red jacket with a hood and pretends to be Little Red Riding Hood and haih…she asked me to be the crafty wolf! ! But she got scared when I act like a wicked wolf wor....hehe. So, we didn’t proceed further after that. Really not easy huh, have to read and act some more.

It’s the weekend again. I wonder which character she wants me to act when I read to her tomorrow? :)

My First No Bake Cheesecake

2009-07-22T12:25:00.000-07:00

2 weeks ago I made a chilled cheesecake for hubby’s birthday. It was also my first time baking him a birthday cake. Without much thought, Oreo chilled cheesecake came to my mind....I started to search for recipes online and also flipped through my collection of cookbooks. As I was searching online one day, I stumbled upon Doreen’s blog. Her Irresistible Oreo Cheese Cake caught my attention and I decided to use the recipe posted by her.

I bought all the necessary ingredients including a 20cm springform cake pan and started my project on Thursday night after Sharlene has gone to bed at around 9.45pm. The steps are really simple and I only modified slightly by reducing sugar to 70gm and adding 10ml of lemon juice. The whole thing was done in less than an hour. After that, I just left the cake in the fridge to chill overnight. The next day, we were all ready to celebrate hubby’s birthday. Initially, I wanted to give him a surprise but naughty Sharlene spoiled my plan….haha. She opened the fridge, saw the cake and announced to everyone that there is a cake in the fridge! Hubby was standing nearby so he heard what the little girl said.

~ My 1st cheesecake ~

I’m glad that my 1st attempt was a success. The cake turned out really good and tasted very nice. Everyone liked it and gave a thumbs-up for this cheesecake :) However, the appearance wasn’t up to the standard. It would look nicer if I had used an 18cm cake pan. I’m planning to make another type of cheesecake soon and hope it will turn out well.

Father's Day Card And Chocolate Marble Cupcakes

2009-07-20T11:15:00.000-07:00

Quite a number of photos were uploaded last night by hubby including the ones taken on Father’s Day. As mentioned in my earlier post that was exactly one month ago, Sharlene did a card for her dearest daddy and in place of a cake from the bakery, I baked some cupcakes on the eve of Father’s Day.

Here's pix of the Father’s Day card by Sharlene...
She loves to draw stars….lots of them! That’s the first thing she thought of when I told her to decorate her card :-)

I wrote down the message on a piece of paper for her to copy it on the card.

And last but not least, the simple yet delicious chocolate marble cupcakes.

From Tiny Red Spots To Painful Ulcers

2009-07-16T15:15:00.000-07:00

I checked her throat last night and saw a few ulcers sitting inside her throat. The tiny red spots that she got 2 days ago have now turned into painful ulcers. I noticed there’s another tiny blister on her lower lips. Gosh, don’t tell me it’s really HFM!! But there aren’t any blisters on other parts of her body yet, in particular the palms and soles of the feet.

She’s still on Augmentin and her fever hasn’t fully subsided yet, obviously due to the ulcers in her throat. Even drinking water and eating porridge are causing her excruciating pain. Looking back, she has never had any mouth ulcers before. Last night, I found out from one of the health websites that there’s no specific treatment for HFM disease, and antibiotics aren’t effective as it’s a viral infection. The infection simply must run its course. The only help is to lessen the discomfort by taking plenty of fluids and rest more. The signs and symptoms usually clear up in 7 to 10 days.

Looking at her present condition, I will continue to keep her out of school until her fever is gone and mouth ulcers have healed. I am thinking of getting her a tub of vanilla ice cream to soothe her aching throat later. Her face will definitely light up upon seeing her favorite ice cream :D

All 3 Down With Fever

2009-07-15T00:22:00.000-07:00

Sharlene’s piao cheh was not well last Saturday and her fever bug passed on to her brother last night. He was still running high temperature this afternoon, so sis-in-law rushed back from office to take him to the doctor. This afternoon just before lunch time, Aunty YK called to inform me that Sharlene was not feeling too good since she got back from school. Oh dear, now it’s her turn to catch the bug :( Her temperature was at 38 degree Celsius this afternoon. I told Aunty YK to give her paracetamol syrup in the fridge and to monitor her temperature from time to time. I called home a few times to check on her condition. She’s feeling better after the medicines but her temperature was up again when I got home around 6.30pm. Immediately took her to the paed’s office. She looked so sickly and was whining away in the car. The paed took her temperature and it was 39.5 degree Celsius. She gave her a suppository on the spot. She also checked her throat and noticed there were 3 tiny red spots inside there. She told me to watch out for signs and symptoms of HFM disease like red blisters or lesions on the tongue, mouth, palms and soles of her feet.

I will quarantine her for the next few days. Hopefully her fever will soon subside and there will be no symptoms of HFM disease on her. Ok, got to go and check on her now. She’s due for another insertion of suppository at about 1 am. Will hit the sack only after putting the suppository for her. Goodnite, everyone!

Ice-Cream Treat

2009-07-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

Whenever we make a trip to shopping mall, Sharlene will definitely request for ice-cream when we walk pass McD or any ice-cream outlets. She loves ice-cream to bits. Well, who doesn’t like ice-cream rite, especially kids? I’m an ice-cream lover myself...haha.

My sis-in-law gave us a treat of gelato fruity ice cream when we brought the kids to Mid Valley Megamall during the last school holidays.

Here’s our selection of ice-cream - Strawberry yogurt for Sharlene, chocolate flavor for Jasmine, Soursop for Simon and Rum and raisin for me!

We were so tired of walking and decided to just sit down and enjoy our delightful treat :D

Finally, I've Acquired The Skill Of....

2009-07-10T13:05:00.000-07:00

...wrapping bak chang (chinese glutinous dumplings) after numerous attempts of getting it right :D I was just so happy and satisfied that my dumplings look like this...

Thanks to my mum who patiently taught me the proper way to fold and wrap the bamboo leaves when I was in JB last month. Both my sis and I learn from her the same time but my sis mastered the skill way faster than me. At first, I was really lousy at it and I thought I would never have got it right. But with a never want to give up attitude, I finally succeeded!, a skill that I wish to learn for a long time. Hopefully, my memory won’t fail me when it comes to wrapping dumplings next year since we only do it once in a year.

Filling up the leaves with good stuff – the easiest part of all.

As to the fillings of the dumplings, here’s what we’d put in. This pix was taken by hubby when we were about to finish our wrapping session, hence he gathered all the individual ingredients into a bowl and snapped a photo of it.

My Girl Wants To Get Married?!!

2009-07-06T11:47:00.000-07:00

One night just before bedtime, Sharlene was standing on our bed, she's admiring our wedding portrait hung on the wall and she told me that when she gets married next time, she wants to hang her wedding portrait next to ours (as she said that her finger was pointing to the empty space beside the portrait). Gosh, I burst into laughter straight away...muahahahah...

Who do you want to get married to? I asked
Sharlene: Piao ker loh…(referring to her cousin brother)

A few days after our conversation, I caught her playing dress-up and role playing with her piao cheh. She put on an oversized dress, which she took from her piao cheh’s wardrobe and guess what... she turned a towel into a bridal veil! :D

Here's her beautician helping her to doll up

And ta daaa.....

She's all ready for the role of a bride.

Fully dressed up with a white bouquet on her hands and a ring on her petite finger :D

Hahah...I like this pix of my little girl. So solemn looking.

Will you marry me, piao ker?

No, no, no yelled piao ker and he ran away.

Her 1st Time Attending Birthday Party

2009-06-30T11:20:00.000-07:00

Jasmine was invited to her friend’s birthday party during the last school holidays. Didn’t want to be left behind, Sharlene went along with her piao cheh too. It was her 1st time going for kids' party without me. So Jasmine was given a task to ‘take care’ of her little cousin on that day :)

Sharlene wants to be included in just about anything her piao cheh does. No wonder her piao cheh says she’s very ‘mah fan’ sometimes...haha. Most of the time she even wants to follow her to tuition and ballet classes. [Oh my darling girl, at the moment you are just too young to go for tuition.] While tuition is not necessary for her now, I thought of enrolling her for ballet but not sure if she’s really interested to learn or she just want to go because of her piao cheh. Anyway, the other day I went up to the centre to find out about the class. Unfortunately, the time isn’t suitable for me as I'm unable to rush home and fetch her there by 6.45pm every Tuesday and the centre does not have weekend classes for her age group. Haih...will have to put this on hold for the moment.

Ok, back to the topic on birthday party. I will just leave you with some pix of the 2 gals taken on that day.

At the car porch with their respective presents for the birthday girl.

Getting into the car. She wants to be the first to get in. Yah...she always fight to be the FIRST *rolled eyes* but she won’t get her way all the time.

Walking eagerly into the birthday girl’s house.

Fun With Jenga Block Game

2009-06-26T16:15:00.000-07:00

My brother got us a box of JENGA, a wooden block game. This game is really simple to learn and fun to play with. Even Sharlene enjoyed it tremendously! She is able to remove blocks from a tower and put them on top effortlessly. It’s pretty easy to play but the game gets tougher and more exciting when the tower goes higher.

Our first Jenga game was at my mum’s house. It was nerve-racking and we almost tear the house down with our laughter and screams :D

Sharlene's turn. Being a first timer, she’s taking out the block carefully...

...and placing it on top of the tower.

Not sure of what she’s doing here when it's my turn to stack the block. I guess she’s attempting to shield the tower from falling...haha.

Naughty girl in action :D She’s definitely giving her Ah Yee a tough time.

Looking out for a block to pull. Check out her 'style'...

We truly enjoy this game! Thanks again bro for this wonderful gift!

Clowning Around

2009-06-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

She’s at her playful self again – meddling and decorating herself with her piao cheh’s hair accessories, belts, etc.

I wonder what are the next things she’ll mess about with??

Our Father's Day

2009-06-22T14:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning, Sharlene wished daddy Happy Father’s Day and handed to him a card which both of us did for him on Saturday evening. Instead of buying a cake, I just baked a batch of chocolate marble cupcakes for that occasion. Shall post pix of the card and cupcakes another time.

We made a trip to our paed office yesterday morning. My 8-year old niece has been complaining of soreness in one of her breasts. Upon checking, my sil discovered a lump in her nipple area. When the paed examined her yesterday, she said it’s only a ‘breast bud’, usually occurring at the beginning of puberty in girls and it’s perfectly normal. Since Sharlene was there too, she’d her Hepatitis A jab. The jab was administered by the paed in a second… and she didn’t even know what’s happening…haha. Another dose will be in 6 months’ time.

I’d earlier on promised Sharlene that I will bring her to McDonald’s. Her special treat from me for being good…hehe. So after the paed visit, we brought along the 2 fathers (hubby and brother-in-law) to McD for lunch :D We spent almost 2 hours there and both Sharlene and her piao cheh had an enjoyable time playing at the play land. Yesterday was the first time Sharlene had a fillet-o-fish burger and she finished the whole burger by herself. Normally she only fancies french fries and sundaes.

For dinner, we had fast food again. My sil ordered KFC! I’m feeling really guilty after consuming all these high in calories food. But I tell you, the kids enjoyed them tremendously. There shall be no fast food for the next few months, I hope!

Our Trip To JB

2009-06-17T23:52:00.000-07:00

We started our journey on a Saturday morning. Had planned to leave home earlier to avoid being caught in a traffic jam during school holidays...but it didn't materialize as our 'driver' woke up late. After breakfast and transporting our stuff into the car, we only left home around 9.30am. As expected, we were caught in a crawl midway but after that it was a breeze and we reached JB in time to join my parents for lunch.

So, what was my gal up to in the car for so many hours? Since it was early in the morning and she’s so alert, we started off with simple reading. It’s one of those short interesting stories that she likes. Finished reading to her the whole series of 6 books in a short time. Then her mind began to wander to something else...FOOD!! We always get ready snacks for her to munch in the car. Ok, let me recall what she ate on that day. Hmm... 2 slices of peanut butter sandwich, some crackers and boiled chickpeas.

After satisfying her desire for food, I was hoping and hoping she will close her eyes and sleeps for a while, at least, .....but this girl, she just didn’t want to! Hence, I didn’t get to rest my eyes too. Throughout our journey, she entertained herself and us by talking non-stop and singing her favourite tunes. That certainly kept our 'driver' alert :D We enjoyed every moments of her cute antics and our little conversations. Soon she got restless in the car and kept asking me 'Are we reaching popo’s house yet?' 'Why take so long?, 'Daddy, why you drive so slow, ah?' and so on...

I’d wanted to snap a photo of her but she purposely flashed out her rabbit when I clicked on the camera. She announced in the car that her rabbit is now called Floss. Previously she just called it rabbit. (Floss is the name of a rabbit in one of the books that I read to her titled The Missing Rabbit).

Sharlene took this pic of chickpeas. I was kind of surprise as that was the first time she took pix of food. Guess she saw me doing it sometimes :P

**************************************************
The next morning, my dad brought us out for breakfast at Restaurant Ah Koong at Taman Sentosa. Here’s my bowl of delicious fish-ball noodles. Yums!

She enjoyed her noodles as much as we do...

More pix of Sharlene having fun here.......

Back home, colouring again...

Fooling around with Ah Yee. We were at a lighting shop to view some lights with my mum.

My bro was having fun with her and she's trying to bite his hand instead. Ouch!

Extremely hyper on that night…

Ooooo….I so love my chupa chups lolly.

Inside Toy r Us @ Jusco Tebrau City - Hey mummy, do I look like a superstar?

Enjoying durians which I’d bought from Jusco supermarket.

We're Back In KL

2009-06-11T20:02:00.001-07:00

Thank you for visiting me while I was away. We got home on Tuesday evening after spending 4 days at my hometown. Even though it was only a short trip, we nevertheless had a good time there. I intend to blog about our days in JB BUT, but...I have been busy ever since I came back and besides working in the office, I hardly have the time now to sit in front of the computer.

We are without a maid now. Sigh!! A couple of days before we left for JB, she has gone back to Indonesia after working for us for 2 years. Due to this, there have been some changes in my routine. Everyday there are quite a bit of housework to do but I would say it’s still manageable. Of course, the weekends will not be as relax and carefree as before.

So most likely from now onwards, I will update my blog at a snail's pace. But whenever I can I will visit your blogs, ok. :)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Looking Forward To The Weekend

2009-06-04T11:38:00.000-07:00

On this coming Saturday we will be traveling to JB. Yippee! 2 more days to go. Our last trip there was during the CNY. This time around, my brother who’s residing and working in Australia will be back together with his girlfriend on the same day as us before they travel to Sabah next week. Their main intention of going there is to climb Mount Kinabalu, the highest peak in South East Asia. Hmmm...I don’t think I would be able to climb that mountain, too scary to even think about it!

So this coming weekend JB house will be a lot merrier than usual. As always, I love the special feeling of going back to my hometown and spending time with my loved ones there is wonderful :) I feel that time goes by very quickly when we are there and before I realize it we have to come back to KL again. Sometimes I wish I could be there longer...

Poor hubby, he has been working extremely hard for the past few days. Coming back home only after we have Zzzzzzzz. Despite his busy workload, he still wants to go back with us this weekend. That’s why before he goes on leave next week, he has to ensure his office work is done up to the maximum. Sigh! Both Sharlene and I have barely seen him for days. Hope we can spend some “catch up” time with each other during our stay in JB... that’s also one of the reasons why I’m so looking forward to the weekend :D

Coconut Candy

2009-06-02T11:25:00.000-07:00

Coconut candy is popular in Malaysia and now it is found only in home during festive occasions. I can hardly ever see it these days except for several restaurants that sell Indian sweets.

I'd made this delicious candy a few times based on a recipe from Her World Cookbook – Potpourri of Malaysian Flavours. The last time I did was 2 months ago for sale at a food carnival. The ingredients required are really simple but one downside of making coconut candy is the tedious and non-stop stirring of the mixture. No joke...you really have to stand in front of the stove, and stir and stir...until the candy is ready to be transferred to a tray.

If anyone of you hasn’t had this candy for a long time and wishes to try making it yourself at home, here's the recipe that’s worth trying...

Ingredients
3 cups finely grated coconut
3 cups sugar (I only used 2 cups)
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp butter
Few drops red colouring
Few drops vanilla essence

Method
1. In a wide saucepan put the grated coconut, sugar, milk and salt. Mix well with a wooden spoon.

2. Place pan on low heat and allow to cook without stirring. When the sugar has dissolved, add the butter, red colouring and vanilla essence. Stir gently, occasionally.

3. When the mixture thickens, increase heat a little and stir continuously to prevent burning. When the mixture forms a mass and the candy begins to crystalise on the sides of the pan, take the pan off the heat.

4. Transfer the candy into a greased plate/tray. Press the candy down gently and when it cools slightly, cut into diamond or any other shape, but do not separate until the candy has hardened properly.

Tips: I read it somewhere that the coconut you choose is important. Use old coconuts rather than young ones, as the taste is better. To test if the candy is ready, put about half a teaspoon of candy into a glass of water. If it remains firm and doesn’t break, then the candy is done.

Coconut candy was for sale for 3 tokens each packet along with other foods during the food carnival.

Last Day of 1st Semester

2009-05-29T13:23:00.000-07:00

Sharlene is having class party today before the school closes for 2 weeks. It will be a fun day for all the kids today. No lessons in school, no need to bring school bag, no need to wear school uniform, plenty of food to eat, lots of snacks to bring home and most of all, get to go home early.

Hubby said she woke up this morning feeling very excited about going to school. She quickly got herself ready with the help of Aunty YK and together with her friend, Choi Sin, both of them walked to school eagerly. This friend of Sharlene stays nearby our house. Every morning her mum walks her to school and on the way to school, both of them walk pass our house. Sometimes Sharlene will join her friend and both of them will walk to school together. Likewise, the 2 girls will walk home together after school.

Today she will surely come home with loads of junkies. I’ve told her last night that she’s not supposed to eat so much of it and she has to share it with everyone. Hope she remembers that and keeps them until I get home later.

On another note, Sharlene has got back her mid-term test results in a folder 3 days ago. I think she did pretty well and I was pleased with her results. Her best was 100% for Mathematics and as expected, her Chinese was the lowest at 83%. On the folder I noticed the teacher wrote 15/26. I reckoned #15 is the position she obtained in her class of 26 students. At that moment, I admit that I was slightly intimidated by the number I saw on the folder. Really bad huh, me? But overall, I am proud of my little girl whom I know has done her best.

Mother’s Day Card and A Little Gift

2009-05-26T12:25:00.000-07:00

Two days before Mother’s Day Sharlene gave me a lovely card and a handmade gift, which she did at her pre-school with the help of her class teacher. She wished me "Happy Mother’s Day" at the same time. That was so sweet of her and it really brightens up my day instantly :)

~ This is the pink heart shaped card (front view) ~
I guess she did the final touching up by colouring the alphabets and filling up the card with her ABCs, 123s and other stuff.

~ Back view of the card ~
Again she filled the card to the brim with plenty of colourful flowers, stars, birds, trees, houses, etc. Can you spot her tiny xmas trees with baubles and a star somewhere in the card? That's how her xmas tree looks like :)

And finally... here’s the little gift that came along with the card. Very sure Sharlene’s teachers did this. It’s a miniature bonnet and once I flipped it over...

I saw this....

~ A jelly ~
Am I supposed to eat this or what? :D

I’m Addicted to Korean Drama!

2009-05-20T13:15:00.000-07:00

I’m presently watching my very first Korean drama. Seriously, I have never thought of watching any Korean drama before. I remember I used to tease my 2nd sis-in-law who loves to watch Korean dramas. One drama after another and she will glue herself on the couch for hours just to watch it. I guess it’s an addiction…once you’ve started, it will be difficult to stop. So now it’s my turn :D

One night, I happened to take a quick look at the drama they are watching. And ever since then I am hooked to this drama, Mr. Goodbye currently showing at Astro channel 303 (KBS World). I love the touching story line, the leading actor (so leng chai :P) and actress and the soundtracks too. The following is the synopsis I’ve got from the website :

“Mr. Goodbye” is a story about the last love of a dying man, Hyeon-seo, who had to live in loneliness after losing his both foster parents but eventually succeeded as a hotelier. He finally finds happiness when he returns to Korea, where he learns that he has a son from a woman who loves him and finally meets his biological mother. The series also sarcastically portrays good and evil of the human world with a hotel as the background. The series also depicts how hotel concierges help hotel customers heal their spiritual wounds. The upbeat and outgoing Young-in, one of the concierges, teaches Hyeon-seo the meaning of love and fights for his love with Su-jin, a doctor.

As I didn’t follow this drama from the beginning, I am now busy catching it online with English subtitle. As you can see, I am really slow in updating my blog lately. I guess my current addiction has taken up my time for blogging. Will be back with more posts after this drama, ok ;)

Spiderman Stickers

2009-05-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

My girl has developed a liking for Spiderman after watching the movie (starring Tobey Maguire as Spidey) at home. Since then, she has been playing Spiderman dvd over and over again.

I also notice she likes Spiderman stickers. Every time we ask her to pick her favourite stickers, she would definitely choose her superhero. At one time, she even requested for a Spiderman lunchbox when she saw it over the shelves at Jusco. But I didn’t get it for her. Hopefully next time she won’t demand for a Spiderman outfits to wear...lol!

We were at PKIK food carnival a few Sundays ago. While I was busy looking after the stall, brother-in-law brought Sharlene and her cousin for a quick tour of the place. They happily came back to the stall with stickers. My niece chose a lovely Barbie doll stickers whereas my girl….her superhero AGAIN!

She looked really cheerful here…. and guess where she'd put her stickers on?

.....

.....

.....

Gosh..on her forehead and cheek!

So so naughty....some more give me that kind of cheeky grin :D
Later on, she even used up the balance of her stickers and placed it all over her face.

About Her Friends

2009-05-12T12:33:00.000-07:00

Sharlene knows most of her friends’ names. Whenever I ask about her day in school, she normally tells me about her friends, what they bring to school, how they play, bully and make each other cry, and a lot more interesting stuff. Really entertaining to hear all these from her.

One night just before going to bed, she told me that her friend, Hannah brought her pillow to school and she cried when she’s in school. She even went on to mimic her friend by hugging her pillow and pretending to weep...

Both her nanny and I had a good laugh at her cute antics. :D

Pun Choy

2009-05-08T09:11:00.000-07:00

I’ve heard so much from my sis-in-law about Pun Choy and how various types of ingredients are cooked individually before being neatly arranged or layered in a big metal bowl. At that time I was really eager to try out Pun Choy.

Finally I had a chance to savor this dish 2 months ago, during my nephew’s birthday party. You may be wondering why we’d Pun Choy for kids’ party? Well, my sis-in-law ordered this dish especially for her friends, as most of them have not seen or eaten this before. She has to place her order a few days earlier from a well-known restaurant at Sg. Buloh.

Here’s the pot of Pun Choy ordered by her. We had it brought home and kept warm on a portable stove.

This dish can serve between 10 to 12 people and if I’m not mistaken, the price was RM238 for this platter. I heard there is another more expensive platter, which has abalones, shark’s fin and scallops as the main ingredients. I was really amazed by the neat arrangement of the various ingredients. At first, I thought everything all mix up together….haha. As you can see, the top layer consists of poached chicken, roast duck, fish, prawns and vegetables. And the bottom layer consists of braised pork belly, braised trotter, shitake mushroom, abalone mushroom, beancurd sheets, etc. All these were put at the bottom so that they could absorb all the flavours from the ingredients placed on top. Really amazing, huh? So many types of dishes into 1 big tray. Overall, it was tasty (thumbs up) but too much meat already. We were all stuffed!!

Besides Pun Choy, here’s some of the food we’d on that day –

Stir-fry vegetables from the same restaurant and a bowl of mixed fruit salad (by me).

An assortment of pizzas from Dominos, steamed siew mai and fishballs.

Bread For Lunch

2009-05-06T16:54:00.000-07:00

I can never get bored with bread. I have it for breakfast and lunch almost every weekday and sometimes during weekends too. The other day in the office, I had banana cheese toast for lunch. Have you tried this toast before? Well, my colleague introduced this to me. And I fell in love with this toast the moment I’d it for the first time. So now whenever I’ve bananas at home, I will surely go for banana cheese toast :D

I didn’t take any pix of my toast that day as I was in the office. But it looks very much like the pix below. However, if you toast it in a sandwich maker, the bread will be much flatter. And you actually can’t see the melted cheese oozing out.

(Picture taken from the web)

If you are getting bored with your usual kaya and butter toast or peanut butter toast, do give this a try for something different!

Sharlene Has Fully Recovered From Chicken Pox And Is Going Back To School Today

2009-05-04T12:15:00.000-07:00

Thank you everyone for your get-well wishes. After being confined at home for 9 long days, Sharlene’s finally going back to school this morning. Her mild chicken pox has all dried up, however there are some tiny scars on her body and one prominent mark next to her lips. Hopefully, all of them will go off in time to come.

She will be having test for the whole of this week, starting from today with B.M subject. I did revision (based on the lists of test contents given by her school) with her over the weekend. She was quite co-operative and didn’t fuss or complain much whenever I teach her. This year the school is going to set some really tough questions for their 5-year old preschoolers. I don’t think at such a young age they will know how to ‘re-construct a mix-up sentence’. For example, from ‘sedang Saya menulis.’ to 'Saya sedang menulis.'??? I had a tough time trying to teach her this and she didn’t seem to get it right...Arghhh :( After a few attempts, I finally gave up cos I didn’t want her to get stress up with something that are beyond her comprehension. Furthermore, I was stressed too...haha. Anyway, I just hope she will try her best to complete the test.

She should reach home by now. I am going to call home shortly to ask her about her day in school and also whether she can answer her B.M test paper :D Have a great week ahead, everyone!

Someone In The House Has Got Chicken Pox...

2009-04-29T23:13:00.000-07:00

...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

2009-04-28T12:40:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-21T14:27:00.000-07:00

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?

...

...

...

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"

2009-04-15T12:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-12T17:26:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-08T23:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-03T17:45:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-01T23:24:00.000-07:00

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.

100 Truths Tag

2009-03-31T12:43:00.000-07:00

Got tagged by 2 lovely ladies - Mummy Gwen and Slavemom (Ginie). Thanks mommies and here are some facts about me...

001. Name → Ivy
002. Nickname(s)→ None
004. Zodiac sign → Scorpio
005. Male or female → Female
006. Elementary → 1 year
007. Middle School → SRK Convent, JB
008. High School → Convent, JB
009. College School → Cambridge College, JB
009b. University → None
010. Hair color → Black
011. Long or short → Long
012. Loud or Quiet → Quiet but can be loud with my group of high school buddies :D
013. Jumpers or Jeans → Jeans
014. Phone or Camera → Phone
015. Health freak → At times
016. Drink or Smoke? → Neither
017. Do you have a crush on someone? → Yes, long time ago.
018. Eat or Drink → Eat
019. Piercings → Ears
020. Tattoos → Don't have

FIRSTS:
023. First piercing → When I was in secondary school
024. First best friend → When I was in primary school
025. First award → In secondary school but can't recall what award.
026. First crush → During secondary school
027. First pet → A puppy
028. First big vacation → New Zealand
030. First big birthday → None

CURRENTLY:
049. Eating → Nothing
050. Drinking → Plain water
052. I'm about to → go for lunch
053. Listening to → my colleague talking to me
054. Plans for today → Go home and spend the rest of the day with my 2 darlings
055. Waiting for → the clock to hit 1.00pm so that I could go for lunch...hehe

YOUR FUTURE:
058. Want kids? → Already have a daughter, Sharlene
059. Want to get married? → Happily married
060. Careers in mind → Very comfortable with my current job.

WHICH IS BETTER IN THE BOY/GIRL YOU LIKE?
068. Lips or eyes → Eyes
070. Shorter or taller - Taller
072. Romantic or spontaneous → Romantic
073. Nice stomach or nice arms → Nice arms
074. Sensitive or loud→ Sensitive
075. Hook-up or relationship → Relationship
076. Trouble maker or hesitant → Neither

HAVE YOU EVER:
080. Lost glasses/contacts → Yes, contact lenses
081. Ran away from home → Never
082. Held a gun/knife for self defense → No
083. Killed somebody → No
084. Broke someone's heart → Yes
085. Been arrested → No
087. Cried when someone died → Yes

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:
089. Yourself → Yes
090. Miracles → Yes
091. Love at first sight → No
092. Heaven → Yes
093. Santa Claus → No
094. Tooth Fairy → No
095. Kiss on the first date → No

ANSWER TRUTHFULLY:
097. Is there one person you want to be with right now → No, I'm only thinking of banana leaf rice that I'm going to take for lunch later :D
098. Are you seriously happy with where you are in life → Yes, very happy and contented with what I have now.
099. Do you believe in God → Yes
100. Post as 100 truths and tag 20 people → Oh, I don't have so many people to tag.

Therefore, I'm only tagging the following mommies. Enjoy!
Doreen, Irene, Ling, Adrine, Leona, and Mummy Moon

A Perfect Blend of Friendship Award

2009-03-30T17:12:00.000-07:00

A blogging friend of mine gave this award to me.

Thank you so much, Joanne for this special award and for your lovely friendship .

This is a meaningful award to me, which I would like to pass it on to all my blogging friends whom I have made ever since I started blogging in April last year.

Oh No, Not Again!

2009-03-25T23:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon I received a phone call from home that Sharlene’s down with fever when she came back from school. Her body temperature was at 39 degrees Celsius. Oh dear...just when she’s about to recover from her prolonged cough, she’s hit by the fever bug at this time! Her immune system seems to be weak ever since she attended pre-school last year. As her fever was at a high side, I told her nanny to insert a Voltaren suppository into her anus right away. She was so tired and slept on the couch the whole afternoon. When I called back to check on her at about 3pm she’s still asleep. Hubby brought her to the paed’s office in the evening and that was her 3rd visit to the paed in the span of 2 weeks. Sigh! my poor gal has been prescribed with 2 bags of new meds including a course of antibiotics for her fever from the doc yesterday. She absolutely hates to take her meds.

That was how she looks like last night – so sickly and listless

An Incident In The Commuter This Morning

2009-03-23T11:26:00.000-07:00

As usual I was in a commuter heading to office this morning. The commuter was crowded and I only managed to grab a seat 2 station before my destination. Was kind of lucky this morning as I hardly get a place to sit. I closed my eyes to relax for a second...and guess what, when I opened my eyes I noticed that..I’D MISSED MY STATION THAT I’M SUPPOSE TO GET DOWN!! Oh my goodness, it has never happened to me before. Can’t imagine that I actually fell asleep during that short time in the commuter. Thank god, I only missed 1 station and not anywhere further.

Due to this, I was half an hours late to office just now. When I told my colleagues about the incident, they’d a good laugh. Oh, what an embarrassing moment on a Monday morning! Guess it’s better to remain standing until I get down the next time. :|

Update On Sharlene's Cough

2009-03-21T17:48:00.000-07:00

After taking the medicines prescribed by the paed on Thursday, Sharlene is feeling much better today. Whilst I am typing this post, she is singing karaoke with her piao cheh at the living hall downstairs. These 2 gals have been creating so much racket since they woke up this morning. They really have so much energy to turn the house upside down….haha.

Even though Sharlene’s cough has lessened, she still has lots of phlegm when she coughs and her nose is slightly runny today. I can still hear her coughing on and off today. However, I am glad that her night cough hasn’t re-occurred for the past 2 nights and I am keeping my fingers crossed here that it won’t ever come back again. It looks like the meds managed to control her condition and she’s slowly recovering from it. I’ve been controlling her diet for the past few weeks. Thank god, she’s fully aware that she can’t take cold drinks, ice-cream, certain fruits and other cooling stuff because of her cough. Just now when she saw her cousins drinking cold milo, she asked me to make her a cup of hot milo instead. Didn’t want to disappoint her, I made her half a cup of diluted hot milo and she happily gulped down the whole cup. :)

I brought Sharlene to the hair saloon this morning for a haircut. Her new haircut is pretty short this time. At first I thought she would protest as she has been telling me the other day that she wants to keep her hair long, just like mummy. Somehow I was surprised that she didn’t and followed me to the saloon willingly. When she was there, she even chose the hairdresser that she likes by telling me that, “Mummy, I don’t want this cheh cheh to cut hair for me, I want the other aunty to cut.” Actually I also prefer the hairdresser aunty to trim Sharlene’s hair as she has better skill than the younger one…. I quite like her new boyish look but my poor gal looks a tad skinny now especially her face. She has lost a bit of weight :( Just hope that she will make a full recovery soon.

Down With Cough Again

2009-03-19T15:35:00.000-07:00

Sharlene seems to have a lingering cough that won’t go away. She has been getting cough very often ever since she started pre-school last year. Usually her cough will slowly improve and she’ll be fully recovered after visits to paediatrician and doses of medicines. But this time around, it takes so long for her to recover. She’s not getting any better despite numerous visits to the pediatrician office and loads of meds. She didn’t cough very much during daytime, able to go to school as normal and has no problem in her daily activities. The cough seems to show aggression during the night, when she lies down and in the morning when she wakes up. Her paed said her cough is due to allergies. She could be allergic to many things, for example, dust mites, animals, flowers, mold, food, etc. And I really do not know what are the things she’s allergic to. *Scratch head*

Her condition deteriorated when we were in Penang for holidays over the weekend. Lots of coughing especially at night and bouts of vomiting from time to time. She wasn’t feeling well during dinner on Monday evening and has no appetite to take in any food. We decided to bring her to a nearby clinic after dinner. My sil’s friend, who’s a local, directed us to the clinic. Apart from coughing she also had mild fever, slight wheezing, runny nose and lots of stomach wind. So you can imagine the amount of meds the doc prescribed, 5 types altogether. We are hoping that the meds work on her this time.

We came back from Penang on Tuesday evening. Her fever has subsided and she has regained her appetite for food. I thought she’s getting better but just last night, her cough got worse AGAIN and she coughed and coughed for almost an hour. She fell asleep then she coughed yet again. I was so worried until I couldn’t sleep last night. I kept rubbing baby vicks on her chest, back and soles of feet and put on socks for her. I even switched off the air-con and patted her back until she fell asleep. Just when I was about to doze off, she coughed again. This went on a few times. It really breaks my heart to see her suffering this way.

So without further delay, hubby brought her to the paed as soon as she wakes up this morning. According to the doctor, it’s the same allergy cough and he said she has no wheezing and her lungs are perfectly cleared. Hopefully, the new meds prescribed by the dr. this time could fix her chronic cough problem and she will be well and fine to go to school when it reopens next week.

Karaoke Kids

2009-03-12T23:15:00.000-07:00

While we were enjoying our steamboat dinner on one of the weekends, the 2 girls were busy singing away. They were so into the mood and sang most of the Chinese children songs quite well especially Jasmine.

Here’s one of the songs they sang...

I’ve no clue as to the title of this song, anyone knows?

Anyway, it was really entertaining to have them singing while we, the adults enjoying our food on the dining table. Both of them were thrilled when they saw hubby took out 2 sets of microphone and fixed it up for them, (as if they were not loud enough!). They can’t wait to show off their talents with the mic and oh boy, their voices were thunderous and I tell you, it certainly can be heard a few houses away :D

Our 2 young 'entertainers' singing their favorite chinese songs.

Surveys...And More Surveys...

2009-03-10T23:29:00.000-07:00

Wow, this is really a lengthy survey tag! Hopefully I won't take too long to complete it. Thanks Mummy Gwen and I shall start now...

Starting time: 10.15 pm

Name: Ivy

Sisters: 1 younger sister

Brothers: 1 younger brother

Shoe size: 6

Height: 162 cm

Where do you live: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Home sweet home: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Favourite drinks: Ice Lemon Tea, Fresh fruit juice

Favourite breakfast: Bread, bread and lots of bread.

Have you ever...

Been on a plane: Yes.

Swam in the ocean: No because I can't swim :(

Fallen asleep in school: No.

Broken someone's heart: Yes.

Fell off your chair: Not that clumsy lah..

Sat by the phone all night waiting for someone to call: Waited for calls before but I don't sit by the phone to wait.

Saved e-mails: Only important ones.

What is your room like: Full of things at every corner...hehe, but it's definitely neat and tidy.

What's right beside you: An empty chair.

What is the last thing you ate: Pear

Ever had...

Chicken pox: Yes, if I'm not mistaken...when I was in Std 6.

Sore throat: Yes and I really hate it.

Stitches: Yes.

Do you...

Believe in love at first sight: Not really.

Like picnics: Yes. We'd one at FRIM last year and it was really fun.

Who was the last person

You danced with: Sharlene.

Last made you smile: Sharlene.

You last yelled at: Also Sharlene.

Best feeling in the world: A good massage.

Do you sleep with stuffed animals: Yes, when I was a kid.

What's under your bed: Nothing.

Who do you really hate: Arrogant and rude people.

RANDOM

Q: Is there a person who is on your mind right now: No..coz I'm busy doing this tag.

Q: Do you want children: I have a lovely girl.

Q: Do you smile often: Yes.

Q: Do you like your hand-writing: Yes.

Q: Are your toenails painted: No.

Q: Whose bed other than yours would you rather sleep in: Nobody.

Q: What colour shirt are you wearing: White and pink strips.

Q: What were you doing at 7:00pm yesterday: Having dinner at home with my family.

Q: I can't wait till: Our trip to Penang this coming weekend. Yay!!

Q: When did you cry last: Yesterday.

Q: Are you a friendly person: Yes, I am.

Q: Do you have any pets: No.

Do you sleep with the TV on?
No, I've no TV in the room.

What are you doing right now?
Answering this super long survey.

Have you ever crawled through a window?
No, why should I do that wor??

Can you handle the truth?
I don't think I can handle it well.

Are you too forgiving?
Quite.

Are you closer to your mother or father?
Both of them.

Who was the last person you cried in front of?
Hubby.

How many people can you say you've really loved?
My family.

Do you eat healthy?
I'm trying to.

Do you still have pictures of you & your ex?
No, not here...hehe.

Have you ever cried because of something someone said to you?
Yes, if it's a sad piece of news.

If you're having a bad day, who are you most likely to go to?
My hubby.

Are you loud or quiet most of the time?
Quiet.

Are you confident?
Sometimes.

5 things I was doing 10 years ago...
1 - I got married.
2 - Shifted from JB to KL.
3 - Baking and cooking.
4 - Shopping from 10am till 10 pm :P
5 - Looking forward to the days I could visit my parents in JB.

5 things on my to-do list today...
1 - Sleep.
2 - Lots of work to do in the office tomorrow.
3 - Check Sharlene's homework.
4 - Teach Sharlene her spelling.
5 - Start packing for the weekend trip to Penang.

5 snacks I enjoy...
1 - Pringles/chips
2 - Chocolate chip cookies
3 - French fries
4 - Ondeh ondeh
5 - Ice cream

5 things I would do if I were a billionaire...
1 - Resign from my current work.
2 - Travel around the world.
3 - Buy properties.
4 - Pamper myself with the things I like.
5 - Do some donation.

5 places I have lived in...
1 - Kuala Lumpur
2 - Johor Bahru

5 jobs I've had...
1 - Conveyancing clerk in a legal firm (in JB)
2 - Secretary in a legal firm (in KL)
3 - Nil
4 - Nil
5 - Nil

Finally, I've finished this survey. Phew!! And now I would like to pass this tag to: Kristie, Irene, Leona and Mummy Moon.

Playing With Playdough

2009-03-06T23:25:00.000-08:00

Sharlene has a playdough set which was given to her by my sis. Last weekend she was playing with it together with her piao cheh.

I sat there for a moment to watch them play. It was rather funny to look at how the kids handle the dough. Instead of using the various molds to shape the dough and be creative with it, the 2 girls prefer to just play their own ways. Sharlene was basically rolling, squeezing and cutting up the dough into bits and pieces with a plastic knife. Her piao cheh did almost the same thing too.

There are 3 tubs of playdough in the set – green, yellow and blue colors. After playing with it numerous times, the colors got mixed together and everything now looked green.

They spent more than half an hour meddling with the green dough. It was a huge mess at the end of the play with tiny crumbs of dough dropped all over the floor, on the carpet and with some of it sticking on their legs and hands. They happily left the scene whilst I had to clear up the big mess! The next time when they play with this, I better place some papers on the floor to catch the bits and pieces.

Registration For Primary 1

2009-03-04T23:52:00.000-08:00

Today hubby went to register a school for Sharlene. It's a chinese school. Hubby and I have decided to register her in this school some time ago and are awaiting the actual date of registration in the beginning of this year. The date of registration starts from 2.3.2009 and we came to know about it from a parent in Sharlene’s kindy two days ago.

The documents required for the registration are:-
1. a copy of birth certificate and the original cert for verification purposes;
2. a copy of utility bill; and
3. a self-addressed envelope with a RM0.50 stamp affixed on it, for purpose of sending to us the confirmation letter.

According to hubby, the process was pretty fast as he only needs to fill in 2 forms and submits the above documents. After everything was confirmed in order, a verification chop was then stamped onto the back of the original birth cert with a registration number 61/2011. And that's about all!

Sharlene didn’t really know what’s going on when I told her just now that she’s going to a ‘big’ school when she’s 7 yo. But once I said that she’ll be going to the same school as her beloved piao cheh, her reaction was totally different. Very happy, of course!

I can't wait for the day she enters the 'big' school but on the other hand, I really couldn’t believe it that my little girl is going to enter primary 1 in another 2 years time.

Coloring Is Fun

2009-03-02T22:12:00.000-08:00

Coloring is one of the activities Sharlene does at home. She loves to color since young and whenever a coloring sheet was given to her, she would willingly and happily complete it. Those days I used to search for free printable coloring pages from kids websites and I used that to let her have fun with colors. And that was how she learnt her colors too. I find that using easy and attractive pictures often helps her with coloring.

She did some coloring activity over the weekend. Upon her request, I gave her the Copy and Color book which I bought sometime ago. She randomly picked a page and colored it.

This one was another masterpiece by Sharlene on the same day. Both hubby and I like it a lot. I told hubby that I was really pleased with her piece of work, although her coloring strokes aren't good yet; at least she’s able to color within the lines.

She's Sick

2009-02-28T23:55:00.000-08:00

Sharlene has developed cough a few weeks back. We got her some cough syrup and medicines to reduce her phlegm from a pharmacy. She got slightly better and didn’t cough that much after taking those meds. However, she didn’t recover completely and her cough got worse a few days ago. Last Thursday night she coughed so badly until she vomited and luckily hubby managed to lug her to the bathroom in time before she pukes on the bed. She vomited twice on that night. Poor girl, she must be so exhausted after that. But I guess she felt much better after throwing up the phlegm. After I had cleaned her up she went back to sleep again. The next day we brought her to the dr. and here’s what the dr. prescribed for her:

Mucolix elixir to liquefy the phlegm, cough syrup and antibiotics to be taken for 4 days.

Today her cough has lessened and the phelgm has also reduced.

Eat, Play And Learn

2009-02-25T12:31:00.000-08:00

That's what Sharlene did over the weekend and she enjoyed every bit of it. At times we are just too lazy to go out be it shopping or visiting and prefer to laze around at home.

Nevertheless, last Saturday my sil and I went to Tesco for our groceries shopping. The 2 girls tagged along with us. At first when I asked Sharlene whether she wants to go with me, she said no. But upon knowing that her Jasmine piao cheh is going, she immediately changed her mind and said yes. That’s my girl, always wants to follow her piao cheh wherever she goes and whatever she does. Lately both of them even want to bathe together. Ok, back to our shopping...We bought quite a lot of stuff at Tesco – 2 big and 2 small trolleys full of foodstuff, household items, etc. Hopefully those items could last us for 2 months. The 2 mini trolleys were actually for the girls to keep them occupied while we were shopping. Sharlene wanted her items to be put into her mini trolley. So I transferred her things, which were mainly her snacks (biscuits, honey stars, cheese, etc) from my trolley into her mini trolley. She was happy to see her favorite snacks and dutifully pushed it until the time we decided to go. It was time for lunch when we left Tesco. Had no idea of what to eat, so we just went home with 2 large pizzas for lunch. Buy 1 free 1 from Pizza Hut...haha.

As for last Sunday, we didn’t go anywhere. Just stayed at home and rest and also to keep my girl occupied. I love to spend as much time as I can with Sharlene during the weekends as I can hardly spend a good 3 hours with her during weekdays.

Here are some of the activities she did on that day...

Playing with her toys. Suddenly she decided to play with the box of toys that was put away in the storeroom. I guess she got bored with her usual toys and wanted to play with her old toys instead.

Enjoying her favorite beverage - Milo. She wanted some oats to be added in her milo for the first time. She liked it and gulped down the whole cup of Milo. Her piao cheh was having the same drink but without the oats.

Looking at her school books. I took the opportunity to teach her to spell the words ‘Jelly’ and ‘Knife’ which are scheduled for spelling this Friday.

Pregnancy And Delivery Story Tag

2009-02-24T00:01:00.000-08:00

I have been tagged by Mummy Gwen on this interesting tag about pregnancy and delivery. So here goes my story:

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? No.
2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? Yes.
3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? I was so happy and no words could describe my wonderful feeling at that instant.
4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU? Never.
5. HOW OLD WERE YOU? I was 29.
6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? By using the pregnancy test kit to confirm.
7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? My hubby.
8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? Yes.
9. DUE DATE? 30 October 2004
10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? Not really, only a very mild one at the initial stage.
11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? I have no special craving.
12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? I think it has to be my gastric problem during the 1st trimester. Apart from that, my pregnancy was quite a smooth one.
13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD SEX? A girl.
14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? No.
15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? Can't really recall this. Hmm, I think I gained about 8kg - 10kg (16 - 20 pounds).
16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? No. Just a simple fullmoon celebration with close family members and friends.
17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? No surprise.
18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? Thank god, there wasn't any complications during my pregnancy.
19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Subang Jaya Medical Centre.
20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? I was induced in the morning and 5 hours later I gave birth to my precious girl.
21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? My hubby.
22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? My hubby.
23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? Natural birth.
24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? No epidural. Just painkillers via injection.
27. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 2.95kg
28. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ? 21 October 2004
30. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Sharlene
31. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? She is 4 years and 4 months old today.

Share with me your delivery and pregnancy story please dear friends: Irene, Kristie, Doreen and Leona

Cute Blogger Award

2009-02-19T12:55:00.000-08:00

Received this cute blogger award from Kristie. Thank you my friend, I appreciate it very much.

Rules:

1. Copy Badge “2008 Cute’s Blogger Award” and put it on your blog

2. Link or tell a bit about the person who gave you the award...

Ok Kristie, here I go... Although I’ve not met Kristie in person before, I’ve got to know her better through her blog. She’s young, pretty, and of course most of you would agree, a sexy mommy! On top of all these, she’s also a loving mommy who loves her son, Jayden dearly and unconditionally. This friendly mommy has always dropped by my blog with her sweet and lovely comments. I am truly blessed to have her support all this while. Thanks once again, Kristie! :)

3. Each one of you who receive this award must list down 10 facts / hobbies about yourself...

Well, here's mine:-

=> I love to eat spicy food
=> I love chilli padi
=> I love cooking and baking
=> I love to hug and kiss Sharlene
=> I am a very emotional person
=> I can’t operate a manual car
=> I eat bread almost every other day
=> I can be stubborn at times
=> I am not interested in gardening
=> I wear contact lenses to work

4. Pass this award to 10 bloggers and link them in your blog.

Mummy Gwen, Leona, Adrine, Irene, Mummy Moon, Olive, Slavemom, Doreen, Suesue, ContentedMom

My JB House

2009-02-17T12:50:00.000-08:00

My parents' house in JB was demolished a few weeks ago. The piling and foundation works of the new house is expected to commence soon. The other day I was a little upset when I saw some of the pix posted by my sis in Facebook :( :( The house that I’ve stayed in since I was a few months old baby has turned into this condition...

My sis had also taken quite a number of pix before the demolition of the house. After browsing through the rest of the pix I’ve found one photo of my room. I used to occupy this room previously and we still stay in this room whenever we go back to my parents’ house in the past.

Can you spot the blue study table on the left? Well, my parents bought that for me about 2 decades ago and later on it was handed down to my sis. It’s still in a good condition and now this study table has been given to my cousin.

We went back to have a look at the house when we were in JB during CNY. The house wasn’t demolished yet at that time but it was in a mess and most of the things were already removed. We brought Sharlene along. She was also sadden by the state of the house and had asked me tons of questions such as - what happened to po-po’s house? Why are all the rooms empty? where are the sofa, table, chairs, bed, etc...

She’s rather emotional on that day too and the pixs below will show how sad she was. No kidding, these were really her expressions when she went inside the almost empty house.

The Odd One

2009-02-14T23:30:00.000-08:00

I’m sure at first glance of this pic you would have spotted the ‘odd one’ amongst the lot. That’s right, the one with her pyjamas on looked really odd, eh?. Wonder why Sharlene’s in her cute Winnie the Pooh pyjamas? Well, this picture was taken at around 11.30pm on the 13th day of CNY. My sil had an open house on that day. Sharlene was very prettily dressed too, just like the rest of them. The taller girl next to Sharlene is her piao cheh and the other 3 are her piao cheh’s friends.

She started to feel restless and wanted to go home. So, I brought her back to our house which is just next to my sil’s. She told me that she wanted to sleep. Back home I got her all ready for bedtime but suddenly she changed her mind and wanted to go over to my sil’s place again. I guess she still miss all the fun there. Anyway, that's also the time she joined in the photo session with her piao cheh and friends before they went home.

I Was So Mad Today

2009-02-11T23:54:00.000-08:00

It was a fine day for me. However my mood changed once I reached the train station this evening. It was crowded as usual but the crowd got extremely large when the train didn’t arrive on time. Ever since my office shifted to the present location 1.5 years ago, my mode of transport to the office everyday is the KTM commuter. The train was delayed and when it finally came, all commuters rushed frantically to the door obstructing those who are getting out from the train. It was madness I tell you!! I don’t even need to walk by myself as I was being pushed into the train by those people behind and next to me who CAN’T WAIT to get into the train :( I was sandwiched (just like sardine) and could hardly breathe when I was inside there. I can smell all kinds of odour too…eeeyucks. The train was already filled to the brim and yet people are still squeezing their way in. Haizz, I really don’t understand…..take the next train lah please! I know everyone is in a hurry to go home but they just have to patiently wait for the next train to come, as the train was already chock-a-block FULL!! Some of my colleagues who take the Putra LRT never have such problem before.

Then I got mad again at home. This time was because of Sharlene.

When I was about to reach home I saw Sharlene and her nanny from far. She’s riding her tricycle outside the house. After I’d parked my car I accompanied her outside so that her nanny could go in and take her bath. I was happily playing with her but seconds later this girl of mine made me fuming mad by refusing to take in her tricycle after riding it. Usually she will keep it but I don’t know what’s wrong with her just now. She just left it next to the gate and gave me all kinds of excuses when I told her to put it back. She just refused to obey my instructions and began to squat down on the floor with both her hands on the ground as though she’s tired. I insisted that she takes in her tricycle or else she will not be allowed to get into the house. She did pull back her tricycle minutes later, but very reluctantly. Then we went into the house together and I told her to wash her hands and feet. She said NO again this time. So angry I was at that instant, I lugged her to the washroom and washed her up. As a result, she slipped in the washroom. She cried profusely and said that I’d pushed her down. She wanted my attention and over acted a bit there. I left her crying there although I was feeling really bad about it.

After I came down from my room ½ hour later she was all smiling again but she didn’t forget about the earlier incident at all. She told everyone including her daddy who came back much later that I’d pushed her down just now. I wonder since when she has become a ‘complain queen’....hehe. Anyway, I did apologized to her over the incident when both of us were in the room and at the same time told her to be responsible for her actions and the things she owns.

Hopefully, today she will not abandon her tricycle like the way she did yesterday. I will give her a warning first before she plays with it. If she repeats her irresponsible behaviour again, then she will not get to play with her tricycle for at least a few days.

Sharlene Is Obsessed with Fairy Wings

2009-02-10T11:56:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful dinner at a Chinese restaurant with my aunty and family on the day we reached JB i.e. 2nd day of CNY.

Halfway through the dinner Sharlene’s yi poh gave her a pair of pink fairy wings and a pink lattice tutu. She was fascinated with her new pressie and started to run around the restaurant once I put it on for her. She thought she could fly with her fairy wings...lol

My little fairy in action.

She was still obsessed with the wings the next day and she wore it just about everywhere in my mom’s house...

even when she was doing her coloring. Luckily she didn’t wear the wings to bed. Lol!

1st & 2nd Day Of CNY

2009-02-06T11:50:00.000-08:00

The way we spent our first 2 days of CNY was very much the same as previous years. It has been a tradition of hubby's family to observe a ‘vegetarian’ diet on the 1st day of CNY. All of us have no problem at all in following this healthful diet especially after a heavy dinner loaded with meat and seafood on the night before. Moreover, it's only for 1 day.

Well, before I went to sleep on the eve I’ve thrown in some dessert ingredients into the crock-pot. The next morning everyone had a bowl of sweet ‘tong sui’ before leaving the house. We headed to hubby’s aunty’s house in Ampang to ‘pai nin’. It was so nice of them to prepare some vegetarian dishes for us. So we took our lunch and continued to hang around there, doing nothing but eat, eat, and eat….and of course, yak a lot too....hahah! I just love to binge on cookies and other CNY stuff there. Hmm, we didn’t take any pix there as both hubby and I were too busy eating and chit chatting away with our cousins. It was fun for Sharlene too as she got all the freedom to munch on the goodies placed on the table. Back home my sil cooked a few simple vegetarian dishes for dinner. We had our dinner and the rest of the time just went by so quickly. But overall, it was an enjoyable 1st day.

I woke up very early on the 2nd day of CNY. I was really worn out due to lack of sleep, but what to do...i need to get ready for prayers and then cook again for lunch before we travel down to JB. Both hubby and Sharlene slept so soundly when I left the bedroom. I had already started the prayers by the time hubby came downstairs at around 8.30 am. He took over the praying task from me whilst I hurriedly went to the kitchen to cook again. After an early lunch we left for JB (my parents’ house) and we stayed there for 5 days.

I shall tell more about our stay in JB next. In the meantime, let me just show you some pix of the 2 kiddos....

Sharlene enjoying her ‘pak cham kei peh’ (chicken drumstick). She’s removing the chicken skin and shoving it into her mouth! Gosh! She must have learnt this from Jasmine (her cousin sister) who loves chicken skin to bits. For me, I wouldn’t dare to eat it at all. Darn fattening!!

The 2 sweeties having their own dining area here. Due to lack of space, we have to separate them from the adult dining table. They were more than happy to have their own territory...haha. Btw, look how pretty Jasmine looks with her flowery cheongsam. I should have gotten Sharlene a cheongsam as well. Perhaps, next year :)

Last but not least, allow me to parade the CNY dishes we had on the 2nd day....

'Hoe Si Fatt Choy' which consists of dried mushrooms, dried oysters, dried black sea moss (fatt choy) and boiled broccoli. Hah, you can’t see the broccoli, right? Cos it was buried under the mushrooms.

Five-spice pork rolls ('bak kien') made by bil's sister served with chilli sauce and mayonnaise.

Buttered prawns with oats.

Steamed chicken

and Hong Kong Kai Lan with mushroom sauce.

Well, that’s about all. Have a nice weekend everyone!

CNY - Reunion Dinner

2009-02-04T12:05:00.000-08:00

We had a simple reunion dinner at home on the eve of CNY. The menu for that day was planned a few weeks before CNY which consists of ‘yee sang’ (Chinese style raw fish salad), 2-variety of chicken, steamed fish, prawns with XO sauce, stir fried sugar snap peas and baby corns with prawns and lotus root soup. This year I started preparing and cooking the above dishes very early and hence, we finished our reunion dinner as early as 6 pm.

We started tossing the ‘yee sang’ before we went on with other food on the table. The whole idea of having this dish during CNY is for everyone to get together and toss the ingredients (as high as possible) while saying auspicious phrases. Let’s hope everyone in the family will have better luck this year after tossing the 'yee sang' :)

Here’s the plate of colorful ‘yee sang’ that we bought from Tesco. The only stuff we added in was shredded carrot and radish. We even sprinkled some of our own ground peanuts and sesame seeds as the one provided in the package weren't fresh anymore.

Sharlene in her new moo moo T-shirt didn’t want to miss out the fun too. She stood up on the chair with a pair of chopsticks and started to toss and mix the ‘yee sang’ together with all of us. While tossing, all of us said out loud ‘lou hei lou hei’, which means prosperity and longevity followed by an auspicious phrase by each one of us.

If you take a closer look at this pix you will notice that someone is trying to pick up the cracker bits on the ‘yee sang’. Guess who?? ............... ??

Of course, it was my little girl, the most mischievous one at home lor…hahah :D Sharlene didn’t fancy the ‘yee sang’...she only likes to nibble on the cracker bits.

Well, here are the rest of the dishes we had on that day which I mentioned above. No pix of the steamed fish as it was still in the process of steaming when hubby took this pix.

Stay tuned for more CNY pix in my next post!

School Starts Today

2009-02-02T11:00:00.000-08:00

The Chinese New Year long break has finally come to an end. Hubby has gone to work this morning. As for me, I will be back to office tomorrow. Ohh, I am lazy...so very lazy to wake up at 6 am again. Surely going to miss the fun time I had with my family in JB. We were there on the 2nd day of CNY. After spending 5 days in my parents' house, we came back last Saturday evening.

School starts again today. I woke up early this morning to get Sharlene ready for school. Poor girl...she was lazy and could hardly open her eyes. She was so used to sleeping late and as a result waking up late as well for the past one week. Nevertheless she was ready before 8 am, so I told her to play with her toys first before I walk her to school. Her school starts at 8.15 am and it only takes me 5 minutes to walk her from our house to the school. I brought her to her classroom to put her bag and to pass up her homework. I left shortly after the school bell rang. Whilst I was there I heard quite a few coughing children. Sharlene has also developed cough last week and she’s still on medication now. I have restricted her from eating ‘kum’ (mandarin oranges) and fried stuff especially ngaku, her favourite chips. Hopefully she will get well soon. I guess most children are more vulnerable during festive seasons as they tend to overindulge on lots of unhealthy food and drinks.

Ok, I gotta go now to fetch my darling back from school. Shall post some of our CNY pix soon. :)

A Great GONG XI FA CAI To All!

2009-01-23T10:40:00.000-08:00

Wishing all a Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year.

May you be blessed with HEALTH, WEALTH & HAPPINESS all through the Ox year!

Cheers :)

Fussy Mum & Family

Our Precious Girl

2009-01-21T22:15:00.000-08:00

Our precious girl is 4 years and 3 months old today. I just realized this when I looked at the calendar this morning. Hence, I wish to write this post to jot down her development so far. Sharlene has grown up tremendously over the years. I must say our life is so complete with her around. *smile* She brings so much joy and happiness into our daily life and most importantly, the valuable experience that we gained in the course of our duty as parents. Of course we also have to deal with her difficult attitude and other typical problems from time to time. Honestly, at one time I thought I would never experience this wonderful feeling in my life.

I have so much to write about my precious darling but don’t really know where to begin. Don't worry, it will not be a long-winded post (I hope). I shall make it as short and sweet as possible :)

At her age now, our girl is more understanding. She knows she has to sleep early during school days and will not kick up a big fuss when I say it’s time to go up to her room. Occasionally, she will attempt to delay her bedtime especially when she's in the midst of playing with her cousin sister. Nowadays she wants daddy to sleep with her too. Being hyperactive and playful, she loves to play hide and seek in the room before she let me brush her teeth and change her clothes. She still cannot sit unmoving when I read to her.

She likes to share her food but definitely not her toys. Whenever I give her some snacks like honey stars or peanuts (she’s crazy over all kind of nuts), I will prompt her to share with her cousin sister. At first, she did not want to oblige but now she will go around the house and offer everyone her food. Sometimes she even put it directly into my mouth. So sweet~~

It’s really sad and unbelievable to say that Sharlene still doesn’t like to go to school even though she’s in K2 this year. Every time I mention about school her response would be “Mummy, I don’t want to go to school, I don’t like school”. She won't cry or protest in the morning but when she reaches school, she just refuses to mix with other children. She won't smile also :( She prefers to stay at one corner or sit in the classroom when other kids are running and screaming outside. I’m really worried about her aloof behavior and what will happen if she goes on behaving this way.?? Hopefully this is only a fleeting phase and she will soon get out of this.

Although she dislikes going to school, she still looks at her school books, completes her daily homework without much fuss (she has 3-4 books of homework [writing and colouring] everyday now) and willing to share with me the things she did in school. Sometimes, she even sings for me. It's really hilarious when she sings. :)

Lately she likes to say this to me - Mummy, I love you very much. At times she would surprise me with a hug too. Her action really melts my heart. I don't know where she learnt this from. Perhaps from us as hubby and I love to hug and kiss her everyday without fail.

Hmmm...there are so much more to write about my girl but guess I got to stop now before it turns into a lengthy post. Thanks for reading peeps :)

Some Of My CNY Cookies

2009-01-20T23:20:00.000-08:00

I've finished baking my CNY cookies a week ago. I am glad that this year Sharlene’s nanny was around to help me out. With her assistance I managed to make 4 types of cookies in 2 days. Apart from that I also have 2 little helpers in the kitchen and they were none other than Sharlene and her piao cheh.

I gave them the easiest task i.e. to sift the flour. They did pretty well with one holding the sieve and the other one scooping and scraping the flour into the sieve. But obviously crumbs of flour were scattered everywhere by them. I think my flour weighs a little lesser at the end of the sifting process. *frown* My 2 keen helpers weren’t so eager after all. They didn’t stay in the kitchen for long.

Here are the first 2 types of cookies which I baked on a Saturday –

My all-time favorite, Choc-chips Hazelnut cookies. This cookies are very crunchy, nutty and full of hazelnut flavor. Simply yummy!!

My very first attempt in baking traditional peanut cookies. For this, all you need to have are peanut, sugar, salt, flour and peanut oil. It’s simple and the ingredients were cheap too. I was satisfied with the outcome but maybe lack of appearance, as I was too lazy to decorate it with half a peanut on top of each cookie.

Cornflakes and Mixed Fruits cookies which were baked on the next day. For this, I reduced the sugar too much and hence, the cookies taste a bit plain. Sigh! my oversight. :(

Nevertheless, I was very contented with the overall result. I actually produced quite a few containers of cookies this year – the above 3 varieties plus ‘kok chai’, ngaku and seaweed crisps. I’ve since kept my baking utensils in the storeroom and will not be baking any more cookies until the next CNY.

Walking On The Foot Reflexology Path

2009-01-16T22:05:00.000-08:00

There is a foot reflexology path situated in the playground nearby my house. Besides this facility, there is also a jogging track that hubby and I go for our morning jog every weekend. One fine evening, we brought Sharlene and her cousin sister to this playground. As usual they enjoyed so much of running around, chasing after each other and playing with the facilities in the park while hubby and I watched over them. Occasionally, I play along with them too. Hubby will usually be the photographer.

Before we left the playground, I took off my sandals and went on the foot reflexology path. This path consists of stones of varying shapes and sizes. Some of them are rather thick, flat and rounded and others are thin and sharp to give a stronger stimulation to the feet. I quite like the massaging sensation on the sole of my feet but at times it can be painful as well.

After seeing me walking on the path and out of curiosity, the 2 girls also tried to step their feet on the stones. They walked so slowly and carefully with their eyes fixated on the stones to avoid those sharp-edged pebbles. They whined, laughed and giggled along the way. I just can’t help but laughed at their funny expression and the way Sharlene said, Ouch, ouch, my leg...ouch, so pain! Despite the pain she still continues walking with her cousin sister.

Kids being kids, they just love to have fun and follow what the adults do. :D

Winnie The Pooh Coin Box

2009-01-15T12:10:00.000-08:00

Sharlene received her first coin box during a barbecue party held at our friend’s house last year. She loves to receive presents and as usual she can’t wait to unwrap her little pressie given by our friend. Once the wrapper was removed, she quickly pulled out the contents and was fascinated with the cute Winnie The Pooh coin box (a.k.a. piggy bank). She didn’t want to part with her new piggy bank for the whole night. Whilst she was holding her piggy bank, one uncle was so kind to bring out some coins from his pocket and drop it into her piggy bank. Her face lighted up immediately! Guess what she did next? She then went around the house asking for coins to be put into her piggy bank. *pengsan* Some guests even obliged her request. Later I managed to stop her from doing it.

Being very persistent in collecting coins to fill up her piggy bank, she took out my wallet from my handbag and started to search for coins.

She poured out all the coins in my wallet and needless to say, the whole load of it ended up in her box. Hopefully when she’s older she can be a thrifty spender and learn to save up her money like the way she’s doing now. :)

She started to feel bored and gloomy after she had finished putting all the coins in. Look at her pitiful expression here.

Haizz, no more coins already.

"Your Blog Is Fabulous!" Award

2009-01-14T09:25:00.000-08:00

Thank you so much Ling for passing this award to me. I feel really honored to receive it. Hopefully one day, my blog will be as fabulous as yours.

As part of this award, I must now list 5 addictions and then pass on to 5 more fabulous blogs.

My addictions:

1. chocolate chip cookies
2. chilli padi
3. hugging and kissing my daughter
4. ice-cream
5. surfing the net

I'm passing this award to:

All my blogging friends out there - Every one of you has fabulous blogs!

Jumbo Inflatable

2009-01-13T12:13:00.000-08:00

~This is a backdated post~

Hubby and I brought the 2 girls out during one of the school holidays weekends. On our way to the shopping mall car park we saw a colorful jumbo inflatable placed outside Ikano. The 2 girls were thrilled by the look of it instantly and pestered us to bring them there. So instead of heading to the shopping complex first, we went to check out the play land. We paid an entrance fee for the 2 girls (can’t recall the amount but it was definitely less than RM10 per kid).

They had so much fun playing on the giant slide and they don’t seem to get bored of climbing and gliding down the inflatable over and over again. Hubby took the opportunity to snap some of their happy moments with his Samsung handphone.

Here are a few pixs of the 2 happy girls :)

Triple Awards!

2009-01-12T22:35:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to Kristie for these lovely awards. I'm so happy to receive them all in a row ;)

Here are the rules for the recipients:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

I would like to share the above awards with the following bloggers:

1. Mummy Moon
2. Irene
3. Doreen
4. Suesue
5. Olive
6. Leona
7. Adrine
8. Slavemom
9. Rachel
10. Mummy Gwen

Sharlene And Her Interest In Learning Mandarin

2009-01-09T23:50:00.000-08:00

Sharlene has very little interest in learning Mandarin. I realized this sometime last year when she chooses to read only the English and Bahasa school books most of the time. Her Chinese school book is always left behind and she will only look at it when I told her to do so. I am starting to worry as this year she has more Chinese books. Needless to say, there will be more mandarin homework as well. I’m just so afraid she can’t pick up this language if she doesn’t show much interest in learning now. Sharlene’s nanny is currently coaching her in her Mandarin homework and hopefully under her guidance she’s able to improve.

Just before the school closes for holidays last year, Sharlene’s class teacher told me that whenever she speaks to her or asks her question in Mandarin, she would reply and answer her in English. I suppose she understood the question at that time otherwise she would not have answered her teacher. Looks like I really have to 'zhiang hua yue' (speak mandarin) with her more often.

The pre-school that she is attending focuses mainly in Chinese, even the Principal and teachers speak to the students in Mandarin. I even noticed that majority of Sharlene’s peers speak good Mandarin. Hubby and I intend to enroll her in a Chinese primary school, as we really want her to learn and be able to speak Mandarin. It’s always good to know an extra language, don’t you agree with me? At the moment she can only speak a smattering of Mandarin. I am trying my best to speak more Mandarin with her nowadays. Sometimes when she doesn’t understand what I’m saying she would show me her blurry stare or totally ignore my existence. But apart from that it’s quite fun to converse with her in Mandarin.

Yesterday she gave me a pleasant surprise. She was riding her tricycle in front of the house when I arrived home. I got down from my car to open the gate. At that time she was pointing her finger at something on the ground and said Mummy, ‘ni kan che li’ (look at here). I was elated that she uttered those words and I quickly walked towards her direction to see what she's trying to show me. Guess what she’s pointing at? Hah…it’s a pile of dog droppings!! Yucks, and luckily she didn’t run over it with her tricycle.

Anyway, that's surely a good start and I hope she uses more of this language everyday. :)

Scott's Vitamin C Pastilles

2009-01-08T10:35:00.000-08:00

I bought a bottle of Scott's Vitamin C Pastilles from Guardian Pharmacy for Sharlene a few months ago. She already finished the first bottle and this is actually her 2nd bottle, which I purchased from the pharmacy last week. I’m not too sure of the retail price but I got it for RM9+. The bottle contains 50 pastilles of mixed berries (blackcurrants, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries) flavour. Everyday after dinner I will give her 2 pastilles of this to chew. She loved this tasty and healthy snack very much and would always ask for more. However, I can’t accede to her request, as the recommended dosage is 2-3 pastilles per day only. Apart from vitamin C Sharlene is also taking Scott's Emulsion cod liver oil. She has been taking cod liver oil since she was 1 year plus. While everyone at home hates the smell of this stinking fish oil, Sharlene enjoyed taking it so much that she would slowly savor and lick the cod liver oil from her spoon. Sometimes she even spilled and stained her clothes with a few drops of fish oil. After that, she really smells 'fishy'...haha! :D

Anyway, I really hope that these 2 supplements can help Sharlene to build up her body's natural resistance against infection and also help her body maintain good health.

1st Weekend Of 2009

2009-01-05T23:05:00.000-08:00

It was another busy weekend for me where I had spent most of my time in the kitchen. I have started baking my first batch of cookies for Chinese New Year. It’s the right timing to start now as CNY is approaching very soon, in about 3 weeks’ time only. As I am working the only time I can bake is during the weekends. I normally prefer to bake my own cookies for CNY, as they are cheaper, tastier and not too sweet. If I am following a particular recipe I always reduce the amount of sugar by 20gm – 30gm. In times like now, I am sure a lot more people will home baked their own cookies. It really saves you a great deal than buying them from shops. But the only thing is that you need to spend a lot of time doing it.

I already planned to bake 5 types of cookies this year. Hopefully, I will have enough time to bake all of them. During the weekends, I managed to do ‘kok chai’ (mini peanut puffs) and fry approximately 7kg of ‘ngaku’ (arrowhead chips) with the help of Sharlene's nanny.

I love to eat ‘kok chai’ make by Sharlene’s nanny. Every CNY I would look forward to her tasty and crusty 'kok chai'. I wanted so much to learn the way of doing it and finally I’ve got her to teach me how to do it last Saturday :)

Here's the mini peanut puffs ready for deep-frying. The pastry dough consists of plain flour, peanut oil and water only. It took me one whole hour to master the skill of pinching the sides (which resembles flower plait) to enclose the filling. Phew! really not an easy job but so glad I was able to acquire the technique and I am an expert now...haha. Besides doing this way, you can get a mould to save the hassle of pinching with hands.

And here is the filling for the puffs - combination of ground roasted peanuts, toasted sesame seeds and castor sugar.

All you need to do is to deep-fry the puffs in hot oil until the pastry turns golden in colour (like the pix above).

Dish out the puffs and drain them well on kitchen paper. Once they are completely cool store them in air-tight containers.

While we were busy making 'kok chai', hubby and sil went to Tesco for grocery shopping and they bought about 7kg of 'ngaku' (arrowhead) back. So on Sunday, we spent most of our time in the kitchen again to fry the 'ngaku'. Everyone in the house loves this snack to bits!

Rolling Good Time

2009-01-02T14:10:00.000-08:00

After we had our lunch on Dongzhi day I made some ‘tang yuen’ (glutinous rice balls) for everyone. I followed this recipe which I saw it in The Star newspaper a few days earlier. The picture of ‘tang yuen’ looked so colourful and appetizing, so that prompted me to try out the recipe which requires orange and purple coloured sweet potatoes. Further, instead of using the usual sugar syrup, this recipe calls for coconut milk and sago. Although it’s very unhealthy to use coconut milk but the taste of the syrup with coconut milk is just so sweet and creamy. Everyone seemed to like the syrup better than the ‘tang yuen’….haha, so at the end of the day, lots of leftover rice balls with no more syrup.

Well, before I cook the ‘tang yuen’ I let Sharlene and her piao cheh have some fun rolling the dough into balls. It was pretty tough to roll the dough with sweet potatoes as it was really wet and sticky. So I just let the girls roll the one without sweet potatoes.

It was easy and look how they enjoyed rolling, pressing and shaping the pink dough into balls.

My little helper was really good at shaping the dough and Jasmine was busy counting her rice balls. Both of them were competing as to who can roll more 'tang yuen'. lol! Like most children, they don't fancy the taste of the rice balls at all.

Mummy, you see my 'tang yuen' is so round.

And here’s the bowl of colourful ‘tang yuen’ but the appearance of it was nothing close to the one in the picture.

Happy New Year 2009!

2008-12-31T13:53:00.000-08:00

Time really flies. Today is already the last day of 2008 and very soon we will be welcoming the New Year at the stroke of midnight. Well, the meeting that started off this morning is still ongoing, so looks like my wish of getting 1/2 a day off today will not materialize. :( So sad but it’s okay la. Anyway, we have no plans for tonight so basically we will just stay at home and glue ourselves in front of the TV with lots of snacks...haha. I’m sure the kids will have some fun and enjoy themselves tonight.

What about you? Any plans for tonight?

Before I finish with my final post for this year, I wish all of you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2009! Let’s hope 2009 will be a better year for everyone. :D

Back To Office

2008-12-30T16:50:00.000-08:00

I am back to work today after spending 5 consecutive days at home. It was a long stretch of holiday for me and during these few days I managed to get some shopping done. At least now I don’t have to worry about Sharlene’s CNY clothing. I’ve got her enough outfits and also a pair of shoes when we went to 1Utama, our favorite shopping mall again the other day. As usual I didn’t get myself anything. Tomorrow is New Year eve and in the event my bosses declare 1/2 day off tomorrow, I might just drop by the nearest shopping mall to get myself some new clothes. Yesterday we stayed at home the whole day and since CNY is just around the corner, we started spring-cleaning the house. Everyone in the house helped to clean up including Sharlene. I gave her a piece of cloth and she went around the house, wiped the table, chair, the wall and even her toys.

On the day after Christmas we made a day trip to Malacca. We reached there around noon, walked along the busy Jonker Street and stopped over at one of the less crowded restaurants for lunch. I bet you know what we had for lunch there. Yeah, you’re right...it’s the famous chicken rice balls.

Here's some of the dishes that we had on that day :

The Chicken Rice Balls - instead of serving the rice in its natural form, the rice is made into balls by hand.

A plate of roasted chicken and steamed chicken that was quite tasteless.

Steamed Otak-otak which was the most delicious dish amongst the lot.

Fish Balls and Wanton Soup. Sharlene didn't like the rice balls so she just filled her tummy with 4 of this huge fishballs.

Season's Greetings!!

2008-12-24T10:25:00.000-08:00

I would like to wish all my blogger friends and blog visitors

A very Merry
Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Enjoy this festive season with your loved ones and Happy Holidays!!!

Cheers! :)

Fussy Mum & Family

She Is Eating Chicken Again

2008-12-23T12:55:00.000-08:00

Sharlene started to eat chicken meat when she was 1 yr plus and she could really polished off a whole chicken drumstick, leaving only the bone. Further, she will not get down from her highchair unless she had finished sucking the bones. Everyone at home truly enjoyed looking at how she savors the chicken drumstick. So from that day onwards, whenever we have a chicken dish at home, we will definitely reserve a drumstick for her. I could still remember the way she pleaded my late mil to let her eat the chicken that was placed on top of the praying altar. She really looked like a ‘wai shek mau’ (glutton) at that time. Lol!

However, her passion for chicken has somehow declined sometime early this year and she has stopped eating it since then. Every time we offer her drumsticks or other parts of the poultry, she will either reject or spit out the meat after chewing it. Luckily, she's still eating fish. Perhaps, nowadays she’s lazy to chew her meat, as said by her nanny.

Last Saturday we attended a barbecue party at a friend’s house and that was when Sharlene surprised me by eating chicken again. The barbecued chicken wings prepared by the host were well marinated and very tasty. Sharlene took some ‘chu cheong fan’ (flat rice noodles), garlic bread and 2 chicken wings. After about 1 hour later, she asked for another chicken wing. So altogether she had 3 of them. Hopefully she is back to eating meat again after this occasion.

While she was busy eating, hubby snapped the following pix:

Look at how she relished the barbecued chicken wings with her hands. This was the 3rd piece of chicken wing she had on that night. She wanted more but I stopped her lah....so oily and fattening, plus the chicken wing was quite big you know.

omg, look at how she sits with one of her legs up like this.

I didn't even know that hubby had taken this pix until the next day. She looked really comfortable in this position.

Winter Solstice Festival

2008-12-21T00:55:00.000-08:00

Today is the annual Dongzhi or Winter Solstice Festival. Yeah, it is the time of the year to indulge in glutinous rice balls or 'Tang Yuen' again. I love those with peanuts and black sesame fillings and also the ones made by my aunt which are coated with thick sugar syrup and chopped peanuts....Oooo, so yummy and I really miss them now! I will be making some later and lets hope my first attempt in making 'tang yuen' will be a successful one. ;) Hopefully I can get Sharlene to help me roll the 'tang yuen' and I am sure my little helper will enjoy playing with them...haha.

Here I wish everyone a very Happy Dongzhi. :)

A Fun Day At FRIM

2008-12-19T15:17:00.000-08:00

We decided to join my sil and friends for jungle trekking at FRIM (Forest Research Institute Malaysia) last Saturday (13/12). Woke up early on that day and got all the necessary stuff ready i.e. insects repellent (*very important*), a change of new clothes for all of us, face towels, camera, bottles of drinking water and foodstuff as we intend to have our breakfast there before we start our walk in the tropical forest.

We reached FRIM around 8am, searched a while for carpark and finally found a place to park our car at Zone B. Surprisingly, there were a lot of people at FRIM on that morning and most of them are joggers. There are a few sitting areas with tables and benches around this spot and this was the place we had our breakfast together with my sil’s friends.

The weather was extremely fine on that morning. Sharlene and her piao cheh had so much fun running around the place, posed for the camera and I love this picture of them hugging each other. So sweet and loving!

After stuffing ourselves with food, we went to purchase our tickets to the canopy walk (you must not miss this activity if you are going to FRIM) from the souvenir counter (located in the same building as the information counter). The fee is RM5 per adult and RM1 per child. A guide can be requested for a fee however we did not request for one. After all it was easy to follow the trail and we took about 1 hour from the information counter to reach the canopy walkway. If you are fit, you will probably reach there in 30 minutes time.

At first, Sharlene fussed big time about the surrounding and then she refused to walk on her own. Look at her pitiful face. :( No choice daddy got to give her piggyback ride almost half the way up. It was only at one point that she started to come down and walked on her own. *Phew* what a relief for daddy!

After a long walk we finally reached the entrance of the canopy walkway. We were amongst the few who reached there first, waited some time for the rest of them to arrive. And here’s the entrance to the canopy walkway...

The hanging canopy is suspended 30m from the ground and spans over 200m. We went on the walkway one by one. I was a bit worried when it was my turn to step on the walkway as you can see from the pix here, Sharlene was following right behind of me and the walkway is 'moving'! She held my right hand whilst I balanced myself by holding the rope with my left hand.

My niece was so brave to walk on her own, albeit a little panic at the start. For your info, we have to maintain this distance when we are on the walkway.

The 2 kids were standing on the platform (on top of big trees) after completing the first walkway. They were calmer when they went on the 2nd walkway. :)

The photo below shows a view of the platform (it is high...so if you are afraid of height, don’t ever look down otherwise you might not be able to move on...haha.

We had another round of fun at the waterfall before we left the place about 1pm. It was really nice to see the children enjoy themselves, especially Sharlene for I didn’t expect her to like this outing and have the courage to go on the canopy.

Sharlene, you did very well and mummy is so proud of you!