A Traumatic And Painful Day For Baby C

I had a very stressful day in the hospital today. Today is the day that baby had been scheduled to do the IVP and MCUG procedures on her. Check out my health blog to continue reading.

Floor Time Fun

What makes Baby C happiest is when she's placed on the floor, freely gallivanting everywhere and playing with her 2 doting cheh chehs as shown in the pix here:





Her favorite spots are under the chairs and tables and her eyes are as sharp as an eagle's eyes for she could spot even a speck of dirt or a drop of white rice on the floor within one to two metres away from her vision.




But poor mummy would have to sacrifice her time to do the things that she loves to do to watch over her like a hawk, for fear that she would fall and smack the back of her head (like what happened 3 months ago), her chin, her cheeks or her forehead. I can't even keep my eyes away from her for just a few seconds for she will be out of my sight in just a flash.

Stress In Pre-School

I have been drilling Alycia with spelling for the past 1 week and it's paying off. She now knows how to spell the words Deepavali and Christmas. Today, I'm drilling her with the word Chinese (for Chinese New Year). She's going to have her first spelling on Friday next week for the above 3 words and thereafter every Friday. There is also Ejaan and Ting Xie (spelling in Mandarin) every week. Oh my, both Alycia and I are going to be all stressed up everyday practising spelling from now onwards for years to come. Her pre-school is preparing the 6 year olds in her class (Alycia is the youngest in the class being a December child) for primary school and this year, there will be more tests and the syllabus is getting tougher too.

Braised Pork Ribs With Ginger And Garlic

I cooked this dish the other day... it was my first time trying out this self-invented recipe and it turned out really well. Even my fussy-food-critique-foodie hubby said it's nice!

Here goes the self-created recipe (no specific measurement though) :

Pork ribs
Ginger wine / Hsiao Hing wine
Oyster sauce
Soy sauce
Brown sugar
Sliced garlic
Sliced ginger
Sesame seed oil

1. Marinate pork ribs with ginger wine / Hsiao Hing wine, oyster sauce, soy sauce and dash of pepper for several hours.
2. Heat up wok with sesame seed oil and saute sliced garlic and ginger until fragrant.
3. Throw in the pork ribs and stir fry for about 15 minutes. Add brown sugar.
4. Add water, enough to cover all the pork ribs and close the wok with a cover.
5. Let the pork ribs simmer in the water for 1.5 hours.... that's when the water dries up, the sauce thickens and the meat becomes tender.
Be sure to toss and turn the pork ribs intermittently, other wise they may get burnt. It happened to me twice when I was busy with Baby C and forgot to toss and turn the ribs! Anyhow, the partially slightly burnt pork ribs still tasted very good and there weren't any complaints from my fussy hubby!

Tempting Baby C With A Fruit

The other day, daddy tempted baby with a slice of pear.... but won't let her eat it. We used to do that to Alycia and Sherilyn too when they were babies and we just loved seeing them go crazy over the fruit. Alycia, who was the greediest amongst our 3 babies was so funny when we tempted her with a piece of pear when she was about 9 months. She was so geram and wanted the pear so much that her body turned stiff from all the screaming and drooling.... and she clenched her fists hard in frustration, hahaha... see how evil we were! We have that scene captured on camcorder and whenever we watch it, all of us will have a real good laugh.


Here baby, come and get the pear.....


Daddy letting baby lick on the pear....





...and she wanted more.... and crawled down to grab the pear.

Our CNY Reunion Dinner

We had our Chinese New Year reunion dinner at the Overseas Restaurant @ Armada PJ today. We had jelly fish loh sang (ate 1 plate and took away another set), sharks fins soup, half a roast suckling pig, roasted char siu, a huge steamed cod fish, steamed prawns, braised mushrooms with sea cucumber and dessert were fruits (watermelon, honey dew, papaya, pineapple) and a chilled sea coconut with longan and lemon. There were 5 adults and 2 kids (baby excluded). The price? Cut throat! Take a guess how much our damage was....


















a whopping RM700! That's the price we have to pay for eating out during CNY. Tomorrow, we'll stay home to eat. I'm going to cook braised pork ribs with pumpkin, steam a huge tau tai chong fish (pomfret), stir fry brocolli with sea asparagus and boil a good pot of soup. The price? Not even RM150!

Koong Hei Fatt Choy everyone!

Organic Cold Soba Sauce

Check out my health blog to find out how this cold soba sauce can be eaten with.

Hot And Humid Weather

The weather has been freaking hot and humid for the past 1 week. Well, hot weather is synonymous to Chinese New Year. It's rarely breezy, rainy and windy during CNY. That's what I hate most during CNY... the hot and dry weather, especially in the afternoon when I go pai nin (visiting). Plus all the cookies, ngar koo (arrow root) chips, dried meat and other heaty tid bits that go into your body, one will even feel hotter.... not to mention the lack of sleep from the late nights... hanging out with friends and gambling. It's going to be a quiet CNY for us this year as I won't be going back to Ipoh. Since baby has just recovered from a UTI, we better stay put in KL. Moreover, we may not be able to get the best treatment for her should she have another UTI attack. Her case is a tad complicated and I don't think other paeds will know how to treat her.

Lots Of Fish And Prawns For CNY

Hubby brought home a huge ice box last night. I was surprised when I opened it.... and these are what I found inside:

A box filled with frozen tau tai chong fish (pomfret), hoong pan fish (orange trout?) and big prawns.

There were 2 huge orange trout fish ..... My maid spent the whole morning deboning one of the fish into small pieces, for baby's porridge. Baby eats fish porridge almost everyday now.... to increase her protein intake and in the hope that she will gain some weight.... coz she's quite underweight and only weighs 7.2kg.

5 huge pomfret and 2 bags of large prawns.

He had spent quite a bit on these seafood for CNY. Since we're not going back to Ipoh this year, he has asked his aunt who's going back to pass some of the fish and prawns to my parents. Buying huge pomfret fish and huge prawns is a must for my hubby every year.... hoe yee tau mah!

Rediscovering Her Freedom

Yesterday was the first day baby's right hand was freed from bandage and the needle. When the bandage was removed from her right hand on Wednesday, she kept looking at her hand.... and I guess she felt really relief that there's no more pain on the hand. Poor baby, there's now another hole on her hand and a slight bruise caused by the friction of the board on her delicate skin. I'd feel uncomfortable too with a needle poked in my hand and having to straighten my fingers and have the hand bandaged for 5 days. I really hope this will be her last... I know, it's hard, at least give her hand some time to heal first... and get over the phobia and trauma before being poked again.



Baby grabbed my camera pouch and having a whale of her time zipping up and down the pouch.

New Crocs Shoes

Check out my other blog to find out whose Crocs these belong to.

Opp-Less

Times are really bad. Opps from advertisers are really, really scarce these days. I hardly have any opps to write these days but know what, I'm not disappointed at all. I feel it's a blessing in disguise coz these days, I'm really busy with the kids, especially with baby. I hardly have the time to blog, what more blog for money. These days, I don't even have the time to read the newspapers.

For those who blog for money, you'd have realized how bad the situation is in the U.S. My favorite advertising network has not released a single opp since the beginning of this month. I used to write between 20-50 opps a month for this advertiser. One advertising network has slashed down the payout amount for each opp from USD5 to only USD0.50! Now, that's a dramatic slash down but there are people who still grab the 50 cents opp! I would too if I have the time to write them.

Pix Of Baby C's Bandaged Hands

When Baby C's hands were bandaged, I had to wrap a plastic bag round the bandage on each of her hands during her meal times, bath times and time spent on the floor. Other than that, I will put my socks over the right hand bandage (the one with the IV line) to prevent her from sucking and licking the bandage. As for the bandage on the other hand, I removed the bandage coz my little trooper kept sucking on the bandage and the paper that's wrapped round the board. She could also wriggle her little fingers out from the surgical tapes. She was also very, very frustrated that she couldn't do anything with both her hands bandaged... poor poor baby. After the left hand bandage was removed, she was happier as she could play with one hand.

Paik Ling commented that Baby C will live to tell her story to her grand children and when she reads all these posts in future, she will appreciate mummy more. How true Paik Ling. Your comments always make me feel better. Thanks for all the consolation!

Toys, Toys And More Toys

Alycia and Sherilyn have a room filled with toys, but still, they never seem to get enough of them. Daddy, their aunts, grandparents and god father always shower them with toys but after getting a new toy, they would be thinking of getting another new toy. Alycia’s latest craze is a toy binoculars and she’s been talking about it for over a month. I’m not getting her the toy binoculars just yet and I’m going to make sure that daddy doesn’t get it for her so soon and so easily. I have to teach her to work hard for it in order for her to appreciate the value of the toy. She’s going to have her first spelling test on Friday next week. If she gets all correct, then she shall have the toy binoculars.

Baby C Doodling

My childhood friend of 30 years told me today that she looks forward to seeing Baby C's pix everyday. She asked me why there ain't any of Baby C's pix yesterday. Well, I have been really busy Steph. I can only steal half an hour to an hour at night when my 3 monkeys are fast asleep to blog.... with my eyes half closed and my head almost hitting the keyboard. Well, no pun intended and I ain't joking. That was what happened last night. I pulled myself up from bed at 11:45pm to sit on the PC but my eyes just weren't cooperating and my head almost touched the keyboard LOL!

Well, here's a pic of Baby C doodling on her cheh cheh's FP Magna Doodle:



I hope we can meet up when you're back in KL from Ipoh during CNY, Steph!

New Toys From Kai Yeh

Alycia's kai yeh (god father) bought her and Sherilyn some toys from a nearby mini mart on Saturday.

Want to know who chose which toy? Check out my other blog to read on.

Braised Minced Pork With Potatoes And Tomatoes

This used to be one of my favorite dishes. My late maternal grandma used to cook this dish for us more than 2 decades ago. My brothers and I would devour on this dish when we're back from school each time she cooked it for lunch. I have not eaten this dish for aeons and the other day, I cooked it for the first time. It turned out very well and the gals loved it.

Ingredients
Minced pork
Sliced potatoes
1 tomatoes, cut into wedges
Oyster sauce to taste
Soya sauce to taste
Pepper to taste
Sugar to taste
A dollop of black sauce for coloring (optional)
Chopped garlic

Method
Pan fry the sliced potatoes until both sides turn brown. Scoop out the potatoes.
Saute garlic. Once fragrant and brown, stir fry the minced pork.
Add all the sauces, pepper and sugar and continue frying.
Add in the potatoes.
Add in some water and cook for another 5 minutes.
Serve hot with rice... this dish whets the appetite and perfect for kids!

What A Night We've Had

We spent the whole night yesterday at the hospital, 2 hospitals that is. First, we went to the hospital near our house and waited for more than an hour before being seen by a grouchy, lcly MO. When she saw the photocopy of the antibiotics jab prescription form from SJMC, this lcly MO with a face as black as charcoal told me rudely that she can't administer the jab on my baby since there is no proper authorization letter from the doctor at SJMC. She also gave me some other lame excuses bluntly, to which I told her to call our regular paed who works at the hospital to reconfirm my baby's medical history, which she did. This lcly Miss Charcoal Face MO must have miscommunicated the message to our paed coz our paed told her over the phone that the antibiotics meds must be administered via infusion drips. Hello, my baby already has an IV line on her hand, what the fun does she need to have the meds administered via infusion and why can't the meds be injected through the IV line? But the MO was very adamant and did not even feel any compassion for us but just gave me a pissed off and cold look. I was so angry that I stormed out of the clinic without a word and headed straight to SJMC. I was really frigging mad coz I had waited for almost 1.5 hours for nothing!

When I reached SJMC, I told the staff nurse who attended to us the night before what happened. She then called our pediatric nephrologist to reconfirm whether the antibiotics needed to be administered via infusion drips or can just be injected through the IV line. Our pediatric nephrologist confirmed that it can be administerd through the IV line coz the dosage was only 250mg. The one to be administered via infusion is 1gram. I'm pretty sure that the lcly Miss Charcoal Face MO did not inform my paed the dosage of the vial of antibiotics coz if she did, my paed at the hospital near my house would have agreed for the antibiotics to be administered via the IV line.

When we asked the staff nurse at SJMC to get the MO to prepare an authorization letter for us, we were told to wait for another 45 minutes. As it was already drawing close to midnight and baby was fussing away, we didn't want to wait and left the hospital. The next day, the hubs collected the letter from SJMC.

By the time we reached home, it was already way past 12 midnight. What a night we've had... spending 1.5 hours at a hospital for nothing and having to witness quite a gory scene of 2 accident victims and having to spend another half an hour at another hospital.

Check out my other blog to see what Baby C's doing here.

Crabby Baby

My poor baby has been really crabby and whiny since the traumatic ordeal in the ER of SJMC last night. Last night, she still woke up at 3am as usual but instead of being bubbly and playful, she was really crabby and kept whining, as if she was very uncomfortable. She crawled round my bed and was trying to find a comfortable position to sleep. Even nursing her did not make her feel better. I had to cradle her and pat her back to sleep. She's also a tad quiet today and has been confined to her playpen, aka her cage.... the place that she hates the most. Since there's nothing much she can do with both her hands bandaged, she has been licking the bandage on both her hands, till they are wet.... and the paper that wraps round the board has becomes soft and slimy..... eeuuuuuu! I better get the bandage changed with a new one tonight when we bring her to the hospital near our house for the second dose of Rocephin antibiotics jab to be administered via the IV line.

Poor Poor Baby C

Check out my health blog to find out what happened to Baby C.

Trimming Bangs

Alycia's bangs had been touching her eyes for the past 2 weeks but I just couldn't find the time to trim them. When I had some time, I had forgotten all about it. When Alycia kept telling me that her eyes were itchy 2 days ago, I finally decided to trim them. When I got ready my scissors and comb, this fussy pot quickly took out her mah mah's face shield and placed it on her face, so that the hair would not touch her eyes and face.

That's how I trim her fringes... on the bathroom floor with a dustbin beneath to catch the hair...

Alycia posing with her new look....

Cranberry Powder and Leptovox

Did you know that there’s such a thing as cranberry extract in tablet and capsule form? I found out from a mom in the U.S. whose baby has kidney reflux and she’s been feeding the cranberry powder to her baby. I’ve been asking several organic shops and pharmacies here but none of them sell this product. I will most likely order the cranberry capsules from online stores from the U.S.. I think it would be easier to feed Baby C cranberry powder than cranberry juice. Baby C just hates the sour cranberry juice and she'd fuss, struggle and cry each time I feed her with it.

When I was combing through the internet, I also found out about Leptovox, a weight-loss product that’s formulated based on the weight-loss research of Oprah Winfrey’s nutritionist. Leptovox contains 10 superfoods recommended by Oprah’s nutritionist, namely :

• Alfalfa
• Barley
• Brazilian Acai
• Buckwheat
• Cayenne Pepper Fruit
• Flaxseed
• Garlic
• Kefir
• Soybeans
• Wheatgrass

Sounds impressive eh? Well, I’m in no hurry to lose my last 3 stubborn kilos but if ever I have the desire to lose it fast, I may try Leptovox.

My 2 Lil' Ballerinas

With Sherilyn now learning ballet too, I will have 2 ballerinas girls soon. Read the rest of the story here.

Busy And Stressful Life

I've been really busy ever since school re-opened last week. The mere 3 hours that Alycia and Sherilyn are at pre-school from 8:30-11:45am is barely enough for me to do my own things. During the 3 hours they are away, I would be feeding Baby C her milkie, breakfast and bunch of health supplements, which normally takes around an hour. Then, it's her bath time and before I realize it, Alycia and Sherilyn are back home. Then, it's time for me to cook lunch and soon, Baby C would wake up from her nap and then it's time for me to feed her lunch. After everyone has taken their lunch, it's Alycia and Sherilyn's bath time. Getting Alycia to take her bath has been pretty stressful for me lately. She would always give me tons of excuses to avoid taking her bath. On most days, she will also bicker with my maid and throw tantrums before her bath which would make me EXPLODE!

Next battle is to get my 2 older gals to take their afternoon nap... which also takes a great amount of coaxing and threats on some days. When they are up from their nap, it's time for their homework. Whenever I coach Alycia in her homework, Sherilyn would keep interrupting by asking me loads of questions. She would also take out her school books and though she doesn't have much homework, she would scribble and doodle on her books. It's really difficult to control her when I am in the midst of coaching Alycia... with Baby C on my lap!

In between all these, I still have to nurse Baby C and try putting her to nap. These days, this Energizer Bunny doesn't nap for long. Can you believe that today she only napped for an hour? She doesn't even want to take her mid-morning nap and only napped an hour at 2pm today. Whenever she doesn't nap, it spells trouble for me as I won't be able to do anything, except entertain her and watch over her like a hawk if she's put on the floor to crawl. I even have to hold a spatula with one hand to cook and carry her with another hand on some days.

After all the morning and afternoon chaos ends, it's time for me to supervise my maid to cook dinner. I have to stand next to her each time she cooks. Though she has worked for us for 10 months, she still fails in her cooking.

Dinner time spells stress for me again. I can't even have a decent meal as I will be feeding Baby C her dinner and eating my dinner simultaneously. Baby C wouldn't sit still in her high chair and I need to distract her with a host of activities. Next, I have to keep reminding Sherilyn to chew and swallow her food, chase her round the house with a cane as she would be running about with her mouth full of food and dropping food everywhere on the floor.

After dinner time, it's bath time again for my 3 monkeys and the whole process as described above repeats. And after bath time, it's bed time. By the time my 3 monkeys are fast asleep, I am drop dead exhausted but I still pull myself up from bed to get some work done on the computer. After getting my work done on the computer for about an hour or lesser, I can't even have a good night's sleep as I will be waking up every 2 hours to change Baby C's diaper and sniff her soiled diaper to see if her pee smells foul or not. If it smells foul and looks yellowish, it spells trouble and stress for me again for it means she has gotten attacked by bacteria again. Sigh..... ain't my life stressful? No fun being a mother right? I just CAN'T WAIT for my 3 girls to GROW UP!

Baby C's Another 'Terrorizer'

It's barely a month after Christmas and Baby C's Christmas pressie from daddy is already broken... and she bit it to bits! Whenever I wasn't looking, her 2 cheh chehs would give the clip fan to her and of course this little terrorizer put it into her mouth to chew.... in fact she puts everything into her mouth these days, just like a puppy who loves chewing and tearing things!

Healthy Lunch Box

This is what I prepared for Alycia's lunch box yesterday:


Purple seedless grapes, sweet navel oranges, My Melody shaped and Pooh Bear shaped sandwiches with organic black sesame bread spread and kaya. Though the food was very little, Alycia my slow eater could only finish the sandwiches during her recess. She finished the fruits in the hospital. We had to bring Baby C to SJMC yesterday and Aly and Sher had to tag along.



Since Sherilyn was still having high fever, she skipped school again. I prepared some sandwiches for her too but the cute shaped sandwiches did not whet her appetite at all. These 3 cutie sandwiches went into my tummy.



What a waste if I were to throw the odds and ends and skin into the bin right? So I wiped off the plate of leftover bread. I don't normally eat white bread coz they are fattening but I'm the type who hates to see food go to waste. So you see, that's why I'm still carrying my jelly belly though Baby C is already 9 months, haiz....

Baby C With Leng Jai Kor Kor

Check out my other blog who this leng jai kor kor is, carrying my sweetie pie.

Asparagus Beans

I was at the organic veggie section of Jaya Grocers at Jaya 33, PJ the other day and a lady who was promoting organic veggie recommended me to buy a pack of asparagus beans, which I did. The next day, I stir-fried the beans with some minced pork and garlic. It tasted really good - very crunchy, sweet and fresh. The asparagus beans look very much like french beans, but they are fatter and the color is greener than french beans. I shall buy them again the next time I shop for organic veggies.