What's Inside The Packet?

Yesterday morning as I was having my morning stroll, I suddenly had the urge to eat something that I've not eaten for quite some time. So I went to the van selling breakfast and packed that food. I couldn't wait to reach home to feast on the food. Want to know what's inside the packet? Scroll up and read.

How We Spent Our Merdeka Day

We went to Mid Valley Megamall at around 11am today and as it was a public holiday, the traffic was pretty horrendous. There were oceans of people and a human traffic jam at Mid Valley. We wanted to have lunch at Dragon-I but the queue was crazy. We then retreated and went to American Chillis instead. We ordered 2 mugs of brocolli & cheese soup, an Oldtimer's burger, a spaghetti and a Fajitas combo comprising chicken and beef. With 2 main meals, we got 2 kids' meal FOC. After lunch, we went windown shopping and I went into a newly opened Crocs boutique. I saw the Crocs shoes that my sil bought Alycia and Sherilyn from Hong Kong and they cost RM129 each. I saw a Crocs sandals that I really love that came in 3 colors, i.e. lime green & white, pink & white and baby blue & white. I looked great on them but when I saw the price tag, I put the sandals back. At RM169 for a pair of plastic sandals, I can get almost 4 pairs of cheaper shoes from Vincci. Well, if I were still working, I'd have bought the Crocs sandals without any second thoughts. After that, we headed to Jaya Jusco supermarket and bought a trolley load of groceries. The human traffic jam was a real turn off and we left Mid Valley in no time. I tend to have a phobia shopping with my 2 beautiful gals at a crowded place, for fear of my gals being kidnapped.

Back home, after putting the gals to nap, my mil and hubby went to the pasar malam and bought our weekly supply of vegetables, fish and fruits. My mil also bought our favorite 'lok lok' (steamboat) and of course durians! I ate so much lok lok that I am now so bloated. Luckily we are having something light for dinner - porridge. And guess what porridge we are having? It's porridge with dried scallops, dried oysters, chicken and a can of Australian abalones. Sounds yummy eh?

Merdeka!

Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! These were the words I heard from a group of primary school kids chanting outside my house whilst we were having breakfast at around 9am yesterday morning. The troop of students, all dressed up in national costumes together with their teachers from a nearby school were marching round the neighbourhood holding flags and banners. There was even a police car accompanying the troop. What a thoughtful act of patriotism shown by the school.

To all Malaysians out there, happy 50th hari kemerdekaan (independence day) to us!

Blog Approved

I am just so happy that this particuar advertiser has approved my blog several days ago. I was 5th time lucky this time. I'd submitted and re-submitted my blog as well as written to them a couple of times in the past few months but I kept getting the same message "your blog will only be approved if you host your blog in your own domain or at least have a PR in your blog". Since my blog is still relatively new and I hardly have time to migrate my blog to my own domain, I decided to give myself another try by writting to them again and this time, I prayed hard for a favorable reply and thank God, my prayer was answered. My blog was approved and I was given 2 assignments!

Muddy Mess

The water finally flowed back into our taps at around 11am today and as expected after every pipe burst, the water would be murky and dirty. After the water flowed out from the taps for about 1 minute, it stopped again as the mud and dirt had clogged up the tap. My maid then removed the tap and tried to unclog it but the moment she removed the tap, the teh tarik colored water suddenly shot out like a fountain and dirtied the entire kitchen - my maid, the sink, counter tops, the floor and the dishes near the sink were covered with teh tarik water. My gals thought it was very amusing and squealed in excitement seeing the commotion.

Porridge For 3 Days

Since hubby had a bad bout of food poisoning as a result of eating sushi at the hotel that we stayed at last weekend, we have been eating chicken and dried scallop porridge for 3 days straight. My maid would cook one big pot of porridge and everyone in the family including my maid would eat the porridge for dinner. My hubby even ate the leftover porridge for breakfast the following morning as that's the only food his tummy could stomach without making him purge.

Snacks Everyday

Each time my mil is back, Alycia and Sherilyn are the happiest. Not only will their mah mah pamper them with gifts, she will also be their life saviour when I scold or cane them. Whenever I cane them, they will act up and cry louder and harder and then run to mah mah for 'protection' and solace. Also, mah mah will spoil them with tidbits and snacks everyday. It's only when their mah mah is here that they get to eat forbidden food like kuih, hawkers' food, biscuits and cakes. Each day, mah mah will buy them different food to eat. Yesterday, they got a soft cheese cake from mah mah. As for me, each time my mil is back, I will also gain some weight as I will also indulge in the food that she buys. I've been indulging in fried koay teow for my mid-afternoon snack with my mil for a few days already. There goes my diet plan!

What A Bummer

One of the things that upset me a lot is when the water supply to my house is cut off. This week itself, the underground water pipes near our house burst twice, once 2 days ago and this morning, they burst again. This happens very frequently at our housing estate as it is an old housing estate. Each time it happens, the water supply to our house will be cut off for at least half a day and we will not be able to do anything - from taking our baths to cooking, washing the clothes, washing the dishes, cleaning the house, flushing the toilets, etc. I just hate this situation when we are all left dry and dirty. When the water is finally back, needless to say, the water will be murky like teh tarik (pulled tea with milk) and this will last for at least 3 days though we have a huge water filter in our garden. Our clothes will be stained when they are washed in the washing machine and I dare not even wash my face or rinse my mouth with the teh tarik colored water.

I'll be going out now to the RO water-dispenser across my house to buy some water. I just hope there is still some water left for us to buy. What a bummer!

Baseball Memorabilia

My friend is a die-hard baseball fan. We used to play baseball together whilst in secondary school but she played better than me and was a state player. Up until today, being a mother of two kids, she is still very much baseball crazed and so are her hubby and kids. If I told her that she can now purchase baseball memorabilia from BaseballJump.com, I think she and her hubby will definitely jump at the opportunity to purchase several autographed baseball memorabilia there. From autographed bat to autographed jersey, autographed photo to autographed baseball, BaseballJump.com is truly the one-stop shopping source for the baseball fan like my friend.

David Ortiz Autographed 2004 World Series Baseball

Pete Rose Autographed Bat

My Neighbour Is Driving Me Crazy With....

.... her curries. Every morning at around 10ish am, my Sikh neighbour will start to cook her curry. First I hear her blending the onions and stuff in the blender and in less than an hour's time, I smell her heavenly curry. I tell you, the mouth watering aroma of the curries that wafted from her kitchen to our kitchen each morning can really make my tummy rumble and growl. I love curries, especially the authentic Indian or Sikh curries. And my neighbour is such a good cook. Not only do her curries whet my appetite, even the aroma of her fried chicken and fried stuff are driving me hungry every morning. Yesterday, I met my neighbour at the van selling vegetables outside our house and I told her that her curries smell damn good and hinted to her that one day, I have to sample them. She just smiled proudly. I hope she got the hint and will one day, ring on my door bell and present me with a bowl of her delicious curry! I'm gluttonous, ain't I?

Sorry For Not Replying Your Comments

To all my blogging pals and fan-sees, sorry if I've not replied to the comments you had left in my posts yesterday and today. My blog is acting up big time and causing me headache since yesterday. I've lost count on the number of times I had to log out of Blogger and log in again for each task that I had to perform. I wasted many hours logging in and out of Blogger and shutting down my PC today. I just hope my PC is not infested by a serious bug or virus. My hub's computer wiz friend will come over tonight to investigate the problem. I'm praying that my PC will be A-ok.

Cherry --- thanks for advising me to delete some files from my C-drive. I did that but that does not seem to help.

Beautiful Vacation Rental Homes

I really need a good vacation. I have not had an overseas vacation ever since Alycia and Sherilyn came along and I told my hubs that he ought to give me a good break for working so hard taking care of his 2 princesses. I’d written so many sponsored posts on vacation rentals recently and I am really, really tempted to stay at one of the Outer Banks vacation rental homes in Southern Shores. Wait till you check out the rental homes yourself and I bet you will also be longing to spend your vacation there.

Collaboration software

My aunty who works as a principal at a large private college in KL is looking for a collaboration software that can enhance the business of the college. She is looking for a powerful software that can help to improve workflow, provide a one-point secured access for the college’s online services to students and visitors, ability to create virtual communities for enhanced communication amongst staff members, business email solution, powerful collaboration and a software that provides seamless integration to all of the college’s back-end systems. She has been hunting high and low for this powerful tool and finally found it at epazz.com. If you think your company might be interested in this software too, contact epazz to get the software set up and if you’re not completely satisfied with the software, your company does not have to pay for it as there is a 30-day FREE trial of the software.

Driving Me Bonkers

My blog is driving me nuts. There is something seriously wrong with either Blogspot or my computer. Each time I try to perform a task like edit a post, click on a link, click on the permanent link, etc. my computer will 'hang' and I have to log out from Blogger and log in again. Then an error message will appear. It is slowing down everything and wasting so much of my time. I hate this downtime. I am already so pressed for time everyday and with a technical glitch like this, I can really go bonkers. I bet myself when I publish this post, my computer will 'hang' again. Aarrgghhh.......

Looking For A New Maid

For the last few weeks, I've been browsing through the website of my maid agency looking at the resumes of new maids. None of them look pleasant or suitable. Most of them are either too young or too old. If I get one who is too young, I run an extremely high risk of her running away with her boyfriend. I've had bad experiences with this group of maids. If they are too old, they may be good with my kids but then, they may lack the stamina or initiative or they may not like being told off by a younger employer. My parents have an old maid of 50+ yo now and she's such a pain in the neck (can't seem to follow instructions, stubborn, super slow in her work, cannot do chores that are too tough due to her age, extremely fussy with her food and doesn't look pleasant at all) but my parents are keeping her as my grandma of 90 y.o. adores her. She had lied about her age in her resume. She declared that she's only 40+ but alas, she herself spilled the beans when she accidentally blurted out her age.

Those who look pretty are also a no-no coz they are most likely to attract men to my house as there are many male foreign workers at my housing estate, thus also risking my safety as well as my 2 gals'. I just need someone who is obedient, initiative, hardworking, trustworthy, good and patient with my 2 naughty gals and one who looks fairly pleasant. I wonder why I am never lucky with getting good maids who are willing to work for me for 10 years or more though I treat my maids so well. I pay for all their toiletries, buy them clothes, pay their phone bills when they call back to Indon without deducting from their salaries, treat them to meals in hotels and restaurants, eat whatever good food we eat yet I am never lucky enough to get one good and loyal maid. I'm just praying that I'll be 5th time lucky this time round.

Tag : 8 Random Facts About My Mom

Got thig tag from Cute Ashley's mom and this Lovely Mummy. I wonder why it has to be 8 facts again and not other numbers. All the recent tags seem to be phat (8) related, you realize? Anyway, here it goes :

1) My mom is 61 years old but she certainly looks way younger. She and my dad have young-looking genes, which make me look young too :)
2) My mom has 3 children (2 boys and 1 girl) and I'm in the middle.
3) My mom is super slim and doesn't seem to gain any weight though she is a carbo-addict. So unfair!
4) My mom was a teacher in MGS Ipoh.
5) My mom attends line-dancing classes every week.
6) My mom loves her 2 grand daughters very much and loves to pamper them with gifts.
7) My mom and I used to travel overseas for vacation before I got married.
8) My mom is super health-conscious and eats very bland food as she has some health conditions.

I'm curious to know the following bloggers' mommies 'phats' too :

1) Sasha
2) Princess Mom
3) Hui Sia

Wolfberry Bread

No, that's not a pomelo, it looks like a pomelo skin but it's actually a 'kei zhi' or wolfberry bread that my mil bought from the bakery. Very unique eh, bakeries these days are mushrooming everywhere and in my housing estate alone, there are more than 5 bakeries, so these bakeries are whipping up extraordinary products to entice customers. No more run-of-the-mill kaya buns, coconut buns or cheese buns but you see new items like wolfberry bread, sotong ink bread (which is black in color but taste really yummy as it is slightly saltish), yam custard buns, black sesame seed bread and the list goes.

So how does this bread taste? Well, not really to my liking as it feels like biting onto a herbal bread. I love herbal soups but not herbal bread (the smell of herbal is a little too strong), though there are many sunflower seeds inside the bread but the smell of the wolfberry in the bread just couldn't agree with my tastebud.

Problem With Blogger

Is anyone experiencing problem with Blogger (Blogspot) for the last 2 days? I am experiencing extremely slow downloading time of my blog, editing and creating my posts and a host of other problems. Each time I attempted to edit my post, I get a message stating "Out of memory at line : 56". That's the reason why I hadn't written many posts or visited many blogs for the last 2 days. I hope my computer is not infested with some bugs or virus. I think I'd better ask my hubby to get his computer buff friend to check out my computer before it conks out.

Mooncakes Galore

Mooncake with nuts, seeds and bacon strips.


Disney Winnie The Pooh mooncake.


These are the mooncakes that my sil brought back from Hong Kong. My favorite are the ones with lots of seeds, nuts and strips of roasted bacon. The ain't too sweet and are loaded with seeds and nuts and are very tasty too. There are even Pooh Bear mooncakes from Disney Land. There goes my diet plan..... my calories have far exceeded my output. I guess I have to increase the intensity and duration of my jogging sessions before my pouch becomes a permanent feature!

Tag : Nice Matters Award

I must thank QiQi's mom for honouring me with this award. According to the originator of the Nice Matters award it is intended for “those that are just nice people, good blog friends, and those that inspire good feelings and inspiration! Those that care about others, that are there to lend support, or those that are just a positive influence in our blogging world!” For those receiving the award, you may like to pass on the award to 7 whom you think deserves it.

And I now bestow upon this award to the following wonderful bloggers :

1. Chumsy's Mummy

2. Hip n Cool Momma

3. Malaika's Mum

4. Erica and Ellisa's Mummy

5. Shern's Mummy

6. Chloe's Mummy

7. Mamajo

Short Holiday at Hilton Sentral KL

We checked into Hilton Sentral Hotel in the afternoon last Saturday for a one-night stay. Shortly after checking into the Executive Floor, we went to the lounge for light snacks. All food and beverages as well as usage of the gym and wireless broadband internet are free for guests on the Executive Floor. After tea, we went down to the 8th floor for swimming. The gals and daddy had a very enjoyable time in the water and the weather was perfect, though a tad windy as it had just drizzled. After swimming, we had our shower and then proceeded to the Executive Lounge again for dinner and enjoyed the beautiful night view of KL and lights from the 33rd floor. As the gals didn't have their nap, they went to bed at 10pm and me.... I slept at 10pm too, the first time in dont know how many umpteen years that I could sleep that early. And for once, I didn't have to bother waking up early and slept until 7am the following morning.

After American buffet breakfast at the Exec Lounge, the gals went to the pool again. After swimming, we all had our shower and then I took a mid-morning nap whilst the gals watched cartoon. Just before we checked out, we went to Chyna Chinese Restaurant for Dim Sum.

It was 1.5 days of pure bliss, fun, eating and sleeping for everyone. The gals even had a beautiful tan on their bodies. Whilst the gals, my maid and I enjoyed ourselves, poor hubby had a terrible bout of food poisoning. He purged and vomited the whole night and even had to drive himself to the clinic whilst we had fun in the hotel.

We are planning the next hotel stay at Shangri-La Hotel.

Alycia and Sherilyn enjoying their sandwiches.



Sherilyn admiring the view of KL from the Executive Lounge on the 33rd floor of the hotel.


Alycia and Sherilyn all set and raring to go swimming.










After 1.5 days of continuous fun and excitement, the gals were so tired that they were completely knocked off within minutes of getting into the car on the way home.

Jealous Streak

Sherilyn is super jealous of cousin brother Ernest. Whenever I play, talk or smile to Ernest, she would go "mar... mee..." in a pathetic tone with drooping lips and teary eyes as she touches my hand. She got even more jealous and was so distressed whenever Ernest uses her things like her favorite bowl, her highchair, her cup, her pillow, etc. I just can't believe she would get jealous so easily as she has never displayed any signs of jealousy whenever she sees me showing my affection towards Alycia. What's going to happen if I have a third child? I bet she will go crazily jealous of her new sister or brother.

Short Holiday

Tomorrow, we will be checking into Hilton Sentral Hotel for a night's stay. My sil and her son from HK had already checked into the same hotel today and tomorrow we will be joining them. We will be staying at the Executive Floor again, which means that we will get free flow of good food and drinks the whole day, yay!!! But no yay to my diet plan. Last year we also stayed at Hilton Sentral Executive Floor to celebrate my mom's birthday and we really had a swell time, especially with the good food. The state-of-the-art hotel rooms are all fitted with canggih electrical gadgets and even the shower heads are unique, like the one that I wrote about in one of my recent paid posts. For me, what I liked best is their gym and swimming pool with cascading waterfalls. So I will have a day or two of blog break.

Souvenirs and Goodies From Hong Kong

Magnetic photo frames from Disney Land HK


Minnie Mouse water tumbler from Disney Land HK


Organic yoghurt bars, crackers, biscuits and chocolates

These are some of the Disney souvenirs and organic goodies that sil#1 bought from Hong Kong for the gals. There were also bars of Whittaker's Almond Gold chocolate which is my favorite - a chocolate filled with generous chunks of roasted almonds. There goes my diet plan - flying off the window with sooooo much good food, chocolates, mooncakes, dinner in restaurants and of course durians!

Hide and Seek With Daddy

Alycia and Sherilyn LOVE playing hide-and-seek with daddy. Every night they would wait for daddy to return so that they can play hide-and-seek with him. Daddy would hide behind the curtains, under the comforter, inside the closet and inside the bathroom. As they count 1 through 10, daddy would hurriedly dash from the gals' room to our room to hide. It's so nice seeing the girls squeal in excitement and suspense as they search for daddy. This is a picture of daddy playing hide-and-seek with his 2 princesses.

Braised Noodles with Pumpkin

This is the braised meehoon with shredded pumpkin that my mil cooked for lunch several days ago. Everyone loved the noodles.

Ingredients :
Meehon
Shredded pumpkin
Chicken meat cut into strips
Bean sprouts
Dried shrimps
Shredded fresh mushrooms
Chopped garlic and onions



Shredded pumpkin and bean sprouts.


Dried shrimps

One Word / Sentence Meme

Got this fairly easy meme from Qiqi's mum. Here it goes :

Where is your cell phone? On my computer table.
Relationship? Married with 2 beautiful gals.
Your hair? Baby soft, very fine, dark brown and very long.
Work? WFHM.
Your sister? I have no sister.
Your favorite thing? Blogging
Your dream last night? Can't recall.
Your favorite drink? Green tea.
Your dream car? Lexus
The room you’re in? Living Room
Your shoes? Outside our house.
Your fears? Loosing my loved ones.
What do you want to be in 10 years? Happier than now.
Who did you hang out with this weekend? Relatives and in-laws.
What are you not good at? Sales - I hate asking ppl to buy things.
Muffin? I love them.
One of your wish list items? Millions of ringgit in my bank account.
Where you grew up? Ipoh
Last thing you did? Scolded Alycia for climbing on the couch and stepping on Sherilyn's head.
What are you wearing? T shirt & shorts
What aren’t you wearing? Make up
Your pet? My 2 gals
Your computer? Dell
Your life? Severely deprieved of sleep
Your mood? I just want to sleep now
Missing? Sleep and my close walk with God
What are you thinking about right now? Complete all my outstanding assignments.
Your car? None. I prefer to walk :D
Your kitchen? Clean
Your summer? It's summer all year round here.
Your favorite color? Pink.
Last time you laughed? Last night, at a dinner with relatives, over Sherilyn's antics.
Last time you cried? Can't recall
School? Was from MGS.
Love? My family.

Now, I'm going to pass the baton to :

Scibbles For My Angels
Hui Sia
Malaika's mum

Stewed Pork Ribs

My mil cooked this very tasty and simple-to-cook pork ribs dish the other day. No garlic or onions or frying are needed.

All you need are :
Pork ribs
2 tablespoons Lee Kum Kee 'hoisin' sauce (seafood sauce)
2 tablespoons tau cheong (fermented soya bean paste)
1 tablespoon Oyster sauce
1 teaspoon black sauce
A dash of sugar or half slice of brown sugar in strips (as they come in strips / slices)

Method :
Put pork ribs into a pot and pour water into the pot enough to just cover the pork ribs. Bring water to a boil. When water is boiling, pour all the sauces into the pot and let the pork ribs stew in the sauces in very slow fire for about 1/2 hour. Be sure to toss and turn the pork ribs consistently. When the sauce turns thick and pork ribs turn tender, turn off fire and serve.

Alycia Loves Spicy Food

Alycia my discerning eater loves to eat spicy food. Yesterday, my mil bought a packet of fried koay teow, extra spicy and the three of us (mil, Alycia and I) gobbled down the plate of spicy koay teow in just minutes. Though Alycia's mouth was burning and stinging, she kept asking for more and more and there was no end to her requests. This is not the first time she had shown her ability in eating spicy food. Several times when I had bought chicken curry or chicken rendang, she too demanded to eat the chicken and the spicy gravy despite her mouth stinging with the fiery chilli.

The experience to help your company grow

For years, consulting firms like BNC have been helping companies like yours grow in Colorado and Texas. Computer Networking is quickly becoming key to any business' growth as information has to be shared amongst a growing number of employees. Why print out all the paper when you can simply share the information over the network?

Unfortunately, few companies can afford to hire a full-time IT department to help them with their networking needs. That's why you'll like BNC. BNC is a Dallas Computer Service consulting firm that can help your company with issues ranging from SPAM filtering to planning for and testing a disaster recover plan, in case somebody accidentally deletes everything on your computers. I know you'll be happy you let a qualified consulting firm help take your company to the next level with improved computer networking.

It's So Easy

It's not always easy to transport and construct your trade show display, which is why ExhibitDEAL is offering Entasi Tension Fabric Displays with an easy to assemble, sturdy aluminum frame. Not only do these tension fabric displays have the best graphics around, but they're so easy to put together that you'll be set up and surrounded by impressed customers in no time. Check out the Entasi Tension Fabric Displays that ExhibitDEAL is offering and you'll see what I'm talking about.

*sponsored post*

New Crocs

These are the original Crocs that my sil bought the gals from Hong Kong. I think I like them more than my gals. Have a look at the Disney characters accessories for the Crocs, they look so cute and cool on the Crocs. For me, I don't think I'd buy originals as they are so costly. I'll most likely buy the RM8.99 ones from Giant or Tesco, haha.

Having Fun With Cousin

My eldest sil, her son and maid arrived from Hong Kong last night. The gals were excited and delighted to meet their little cousin brother, Ernest for the first time. Just before bedtime, the gals and Ernest were playing on the bed in the gals' room when suddenly Ernest hugged Alycia very tightly and tried to kiss her. He looked so 'chee kek' and geram. As he couldn't control the intensity of the kiss, he accidentally bit Alycia on the chest. Alycia wailed and screamed out in pain. Poor girl. Now, she has a bite mark on her chest but that did not stop her from playing with Ernest today.

This is a pic of my sil (the one holding up the t-shirt) the generous santarina distributing gifts to everyone. The gals got a pair of the latest original Crocs in pretty pink with Disney accessories for the Crocs, lots of organic crackers and goodies, more Disney souvenirs, a kids' walkman and much more. I got the latest Agnis b. t-shirt.

A Day of Eating Junkies and Outside Food

Today is a day of eating junkies and outside food for Alycia and Sherilyn. At sunday school this morning, there was a birthday party and the gals feasted on birthday cake laced with rich chocolate cream. There were also biscuits, chocolate and M&Ms. As I wasn't around to supervise the gals (I was attending service inside the church), my maid allowed the gals to gorge on so much biscuits, especially Sherilyn who munched and munched on her favorite Tiger Susu biscuits till her hair, hands and clothes had biscuit crumbs and chocolate cream stains. When we got home, we had bah kut teh from Klang, 'yau char kwai', 'hum cheem peng' and fishhead noodles for lunch. The gals also feasted on them. Later, we will be going out for dinner and again, the gals will be feasting on MSG loaded food. I just hope they won't fall sick tomorrow as they are not used to eating so much outside food and junkies in one day.

Yummy Pasar Malam Food

Yesterday, we feasted on pasar malam food for dinner. Alycia and Sherilyn got their first taste of 'look look' (fish balls on satay stick) and were hooked to them. Hubby bought popiah, 'look look', chicken and beef satay, deef fried boneless chicken chop, nyonya kuih and of course durians - everyone's all-time favorite.

Deep-fried boneless chicken chop.


Nyonya kuih


Durian

Sherilyn enjoying the 'look look'.
Word of caution : kids are to eat this under close adult supervision as the satay stick is very sharp.


Chicken and beef satay


' Look Look'

Lanterns

It's another one more month to the Mooncake festival but daddy has already bought Alycia and Sherilyn lanterns and candles to play. Daddy also bought one lantern for little aunty Wei Wei (hubby's cousin sister who's 4 yo), cousin Ernest (hubby's 1.5yo nephew) and little uncle Conor (hubby's baby cousin who's 6 mo) who will be arriving KL from Hong Kong and London next week.

Last night, for the first time in their lives, Alycia and Sherilyn played with lanterns and lit up candles outside our porch.





Alycia with her beloved mah mah.

Breakfast With Mah Mah

Being a health freak, I hardly ever serve my gals kuih or hawkers' food for breakfast. Their breakfast normally consist of fruits or orange juice, an egg or Edamame beans or steamed sweet potatoes or steamed sweet corns, cereal, biscuits or plain chiffon cake. But since their mah mah is here, the gals had kuih and packed porridge for breakfast yesterday. Today they had fishball noodles. It's ok to relax the rigid rules sometimes and let them enjoy some nice food with their beloved mah mah.

I Am A Pack Rat

I admit that sometimes I am quite a pack rat. Whenever I see empty bottles, tins, containers and paper bags that are cute, colourful and stylish, I don't have the heart to chuck them away. Instead, I will keep them for months or sometimes even years and when I finally run out of space to store them or when I am finally satisfied of keeping them long enough, I give or throw them away. One of the items that has been sitting on my toilet cistern for months is this empty Cicco baby bath bottle. I find the teddy bear bottle too cute to discard and thus, it is now a decor item in my bathroom.

Soooo Sleepy

Several days ago when my mil came back from Hong Kong, the gals stuck to their mah mah like glue and only went to bed way past 12 midnight. The following morning, they woke up early to stick to mah mah again. As they didn't get enough sleep, they were naturally very sleepy towards the afternoon. Sherilyn was so sleepy that she even dozed off whilst drinking her milk from the bottle. My maid had to feed her the remaining milk from the bottle by removing the teat as she just wasn't sucking the milk from the teat, like this:




But she was sooooo sleepy that she just couldn't move her body or swallow her milk and she just lay asleep on the couch like a log like this :

New Hairstyle

I am not too pleased with Alycia's and Sherilyn's new hairstyle. The hairstylist didn't do a good job. Though I had specifically given instructions to my maid and mil to tell the hairstylist not to cut too short, it still turned out pretty short and way above their chin level. They look so funny and matured in the new hairstyle and especially Sherilyn, she doesn't look babyish and cute in this hairstyle. I am quite disappointed. Another lesson learnt for me - I'll make sure I am at the hair salon the next time the gals go for their haircut.

Fun With Bubbles

My gals are balloon and bubble crazed. Recently, the gals' koo koo (youngest sil) bought them an ELC battery-operated bubble maker from Hong Kong and they had so much fun playing with it. Even I find the bubble maker amusing. I normally bring them to the park to blow bubbles so that they will not dirty the floor of our porch but yesterday, I was too lazy to bring them to the park, so they played at the porch and dirtied the floor with soap. But it's ok, we parents cannot make rules so rigid at times, else our kids will not have an enjoyable childhood. It's really nice to see Alycia so happy shooting bubbles from the gun whilst Sherilyn chasing after them.

The Gals Have Gone For A Haircut

My mil and my maid have just left the house to bring Alycia and Sherilyn for a haircut. The gals have not had a haircut for months already and their hair is becoming long and messy. My mil cannot stand the sight of their long and messy hair, especially during meal times coz the gals don't like their hair tied up and their hair keep touching the food. I'm actually quite worried that the hair-dresser will cut their hair too short and make them look like tomboys so I kept reminding Alycia, my mil and my maid to tell the hair-dresser to keep their hair a chin level and to have a concave hairstyle as the gals have always looked pretty in concave hairstyle. I hope they will come back looking pretty and girlish.

Educational Toys and Books

These are the ELC educational toys and goodies that koo mah bought Alycia and Sherilyn from Hong Kong recently. I have not let the gals play with them yet as they still have a few batches of new toys to play with and new books to read. I now have a closet full of the gals' new toys, books and stickers given to them by their aunties and grandparents and I will only release them in small spurts or when I've run out of ideas to prevent a meltdown.