"Come And Catch Me If You Can"

- 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"

What We Have Been Up To Over The Weekend

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.

My Girl Wants To Get Married?!!

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

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.

The Things They Play With

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

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

...

...

...


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.

Karaoke Kids

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.

Playing With Playdough

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.

Eat, Play And Learn

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.

The Odd One

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.

1st & 2nd Day Of CNY

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!

Walking On The Foot Reflexology Path

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

Jumbo Inflatable

~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 :)

Rolling Good Time

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.

The Two Girls

I’m glad Sharlene, being my only child has her cousin sister to spend time with. Although Jasmine stays in a different house, which is just next-door, she does practically everything in my house except for sleeping where she goes back to her own comfy home. Having 2 boisterous gals playing, screaming, fighting and crying under one roof, my house is really in chaos all the time. They can drive all of us bonkers with their thunderous voice and mischievous actions, especially Sharlene. But hubby seems able to tolerate their playfulness. That’s how patient he can be. Sometimes, their loud voices can even be heard upstairs when I’m having my shower in my bathroom. So, you can imagine the kind of commotion they cause.


Apart from making the house upside down, the 2 playful girls can even create a scene in the car. Both of them were singing, dancing and giggling away in hubby's car. We were in the car one night waiting for my sil, bil and nephew who were busy choosing a digital camera in the shopping complex. As the 2 gals were so engrossed in singing - from English songs to mandarin songs, and a Korean tune from the Korean drama Full House, they didn’t realized we were in the car waiting for more than half an hour. Poor hubby and I had a tough time waiting with 2 hyperactive kids in the car. Conversely, the gals are not allowed to behave the way you see them in the pix when we are traveling on the road.

Take a look here at some of the activities the gals love doing together –


READING - Both Sharlene and Jasmine have shown great interest in books since young. Sharlene can be naughty at times when she refused to lend her books to her piao cheh.


EATING and SHARING - In terms of food, the 2 girls have no problem in sharing with each other.


PLAYING - Sharlene and Jasmine having great fun together.

Inseparable

Sharlene and her cousin sister are always together. Sharlene likes to follow her piao cheh everywhere in the house, play with her, kiss, hug and disturb her. My house is always very noisy when these 2 girls are together. Here you see them talking and playing with each other, the next minute you will see them fighting and scolding each other, and one of them will sure end up crying. Then, I will have to intercept and comfort the one who is howling. This happens almost everyday. How I wish they could play peacefully with each other. At least, I can have some quiet moments at home. Nowadays, Sharlene doesn’t quite like to part with her belongings such as her toys and books and sometimes refuse to share these things with her piao cheh.

Last Saturday, we went to IUtama for shopping. Before leaving the complex, we went to Canton-i Restaurant for dinner. Sharlene insisted on sitting next to her piao cheh again. So, while waiting for our food to arrive, we were being entertained by these 2 gals with their mischievous antics....

the boring look....she's so naughty and playful here and poor piao cheh kena cekik by her.

and the next moment, they were pretending to sleep.