Bonding With Cousins

Photos taken on the 2nd day of Chinese New Year (6 February 2019) in Ipoh:

This doggy photo makes me smile. It looks like Tommy the Golden Retriever is smiling and giving Raelyne a peck on her cheek.   Our trip to Ipoh must be completed with a visit to my friend's house (which is opposite my parents) where we get our dose of pet therapy from four super adorable Golden Retriever doggies.




On the third day of CNY, we planned to leave Ipoh before 8:30 a.m. to avoid getting stuck in the gridlock on the highway. As usual, it's a torture to wake the girls up. Then I had a light bulb moment ~ to put baby Rayzen on the bed to  wake up the 3 sleepy heads! And it worked like a CHARM! In under 5 minutes, the girls sprung out of bed  one by one to cuddle baby Rayzen, who is so cute and charming that we wanna squeeze and bite him.


Love this photo! So heartwarming.



Within 5 minutes, the girls were up, made their beds, gave the twins more hugs and then got themselves ready to leave Ipoh to beat the reverse exodus on the highway. But surprise surprise! Traffic was unbelievable smooth and we reached KL in slightly under 2 hours.

New Niece And Nephew

Here's presenting my super duper cute wonder twins niece and nephew (my elder brother's babies):



They were born on 1 Sept 2017 as preemies. We were all so terribly worried for the babies seeing tubes all over them for over 1 month. But these wonder twins beat all odds and here they are thriving and getting cuter and cuter by the day.

Receiving their pictures and videos from my brother and sil over Whatsapp is something that the girls and I look forward to everyday.

We hope to be able to see them in Singapore soon...

Baby boy:



Baby girl:


Looking at these super adorable babies are making me broody each day... but

NO way am I going to have anymore babies. I'm just going to enjoy cuddling my baby niece and nephew whenever I get a chance to 👶

Cameron Highlands Trip (9-10 June 2014)

For the life of me, I have never ever liked going to Cameron Highlands.  To begin with, I am born a very very poor traveler -- with the most dreaded motion sickness striking me when the road is windy and sea sickness when I am on a boat or ship.  As fate has it, my dad's hometown is Cameron Highlands. Ever since I was a newborn baby, I was destined to travel to the highlands to visit my grandparents. Even as a newborn baby, I would puke in my sleep, in my mom's arms.  I would dread going up to the highlands during CNY each year and during my grandparents' birthday.  I would puke all the way up and puke all the way down *bleh*!  My younger brother, Roy is just as bad a traveler as I am! I remember vividly that my dad would stop his car to let us puke at the waterfalls and sometimes, he would wash the potty filled with stinky vomit at the waterfalls.  I have never hated anything more than going to Cameron Highlands.  I was so glad when I married my husband and do not have to make yearly trips up to Cameron Highlands again  haha!

But after more than 10 years of not visiting Cameron Highlands, I started to miss this place slightly. My girls have been bugging me to bring them there.  No doubt, it is a place with lots of places of interest, breathtaking view and jaw-dropping view of the tea plantations.  So this school holidays, I inally agreed to bring the girls to Cameron Highlands!  We took the new road up, via Simpang Pulai, which is not that windy. I felt only a little nauseous.  However, we had to take the old road down, which is the snaky and windy roads, so that we could exit from Tapah and head back to KL.  And shiats, I was darn nauseous!  And I hated it!!

Thank God, my girls are blessed to be really good travelers. They can read books and watch movies in the car without getting dizzy and nauseous.  And they enjoyed their stay in Cameron Highlands SO much that they are already talking about the next trip.  I told them that in our next visit, I will bring them jungle trekking and also trek up to Robinson Waterfall.

For the love and sake of my girls, I think I will have to endure another nauseous trip up Cameron Highlands.  This time, we will exit from Simpang Pulai and use the new road to get back to the low land and then return to Ipoh for a night before heading back to KL.

Here are some of the pictures taken during our Cameron Highlands trip. Enjoy! :)

Alycia and Sherilyn with my mum at my Aunt Irene's house in Tanah Rata





The girls with their doting grandparents at Aunt Irene's cozy cottage. The girls were amazed to see a fire-place inside the house and a cute little chimney outside the house.









The girls with their Irene koo por, posing in front of the fire-place.


Thank you Aunt Irene for your warm hospitality and for arranging the horse rides for the girls :)


We stayed at Hotel Casa Dela Rosa while my parents stayed at Aunt Irene's house.

 




Cass calls her granny her 'best buddy' and my mum calls her  'honey bunny', LOL!!


Upon arrival, we visited different tea plantations and took loads of pictures. We were all awestruck by the awesome view of the tea plantations.









Aunt Irene arranged a horse-riding session for the girls at the Race Horse Spelling Station.




Sherilyn and Cass enjoying their lavender ice-cream at the House of Lavender.




At the House of Lavender with mummy dearest :)



Enjoying melt-in-the-mouth scones with fresh cream and strawberry jam and teh tarik at the Bharat Tea House.  The tea house overlooks the breathtaking view of the Bharat tea plantation.









Photography time at the Smokehouse Hotel, after a tucking into some really delish scones and tea at the Smokehouse coffee house.








Be warned that if you want to enter the Smokehouse Hotel solely for photography purpose or to enjoy the beauty of the lush greenery and flowers without patronizing the hotel or the coffee house, you will be nicely told off by the hotel staffer to leave.




We had a blast in Cameron Highlands despite the nauseous 1.5 hours journey going downhill.  Seeing how much the girls enjoyed themselves plus the precious bonding with my parents, the nauseousness in the car was all worth it!

Reunion and Bonding

The girls' 2 little uncles (hubby's cousins) from London are here and they are having lots of fun time bonding with each other. The last time they met was 3 years ago. In 2 days, the girls' cousin from Hong Kong will arrive to join in the merriment. The Yaps will be having a mega reunion of sorts in KL, which is quite a rare occasion. Too bad Alycia will be sitting for her exam in a week's time and has to limit her time spent with the 2 boys.


After a day spent with her 2 little uncles, Cass is already starting to speak in British accent when she talks to the 2 boys lol!

Now We See It, Now We Don't :(

We went to the pasar malam on Friday night after collecting my customers' clothes from the warehouse. We bought fruits, veggie, sweet corn in cup, assam laksa, soy bean milk and fishballs. There were so much stuff that our car boot was stuffed to the brim. When we opened the boot upon reaching the car park, crash boom bang... and some of the food fell to the ground. The soy bean milk and assam laksa soup were splattered all over the ground! Luckily we had eaten our dinner earlier, else we would have to go out and take out food again. Haih.... such a waste!!

First Project With Our Oven

After almost one long year, we finally used our new digital oven (which we bought in November last year) last Saturday. What made my mil and I procrastinate using the oven is that we didn't know how to use the android oven, even up to now. Plus, I was too caught up with Baby's health issues the past 1 year that I simply had no time to go through the manual. I hate reading manuals. After getting the technician over and studying the manual, we finally heated up the oven and our first project was a real simple one....




... roasting cashew nuts, muahahahahaha......
The cashew nuts tasted really crunchy and tasty.

The second project was to reheat some curry puffs - just to get a hang of using the oven. The third project, I think my mil would be baking some cup cakes. I am thinking of roasting a chicken and baking lasagne in that oven but I'll have to familiarise myself more with the oven with smaller projects before undertaking bigger projects :D

A Big And Pleasant Surprise For Me

I had one of the biggest surprises of my life yesterday when my mum planned a last minute surprise and turned up right in front of me when I was having lunch at Lemon Garden Coffee House @ Shangri La Hotel. It was also the first time my mum had sprang me a surprise visit. When the hubs kept asking me "Shireen, did you see your 'friend'?", I looked right, left, back and front but failed to see who was seated next to the hubs hahaha... see how blind we can get sometimes. It was a real pleasant surprise for me. And for my mum, brother and dad, they had fun keeping this from me, which was a decision made by my mum at the eleventh hour.

We had yet another pigging session yesterday. How can anyone resist not binging when they are at the Lemon Garden buffet? There's just too much good food. But I didn't really binge coz I felt fat after a buffet lunch on the first day of Hari Raya at PJ Hilton and another day of eating out on the second day of Hari Raya.

Anyway, this was my plate of comfort food....
Carrot cake, a very tasty walnut pie, boysenberry cheesecake, heavenly mango pudding and strawberries on skewer (supposed to be dipped into chocolate and white chocolate at the chocolate fountains but I skipped that sweet stuff).

Our Thursday

Hubby and I had planned to return to KL today BUT as usual, Alycia and Sherilyn have been having so much fun in Ipoh with koong koong and granny that they didn't want to go back to KL. Surely they love being in Ipoh coz koong koong buys them ice-cream everyday. Last Sunday they followed koong koong to Tesco and gosh, they took advantage of koong koong's generosity and leniency towards them (coz koong koong is another yes man to them, next to daddy)... and filled the shopping cart with junk food! Koong Koong was more than happy to see his 2 doting granddaughters being happy and enjoying his company.

Anyway, this morning, we were still planning to go back to KL. While hubby brought Alycia and Sherilyn out for breakfast, I was busy packing our stuff. But when hubby returned home with the gals, he announced that our trip back to KL will be tomorrow morning pulak! So ok, my maid then placed all our belongings (which we have placed all over the floor in our living room) back into the room and then we had lunch..... glorious Ipoh food that hubby tar pau back from Kwong Heng coffee shop in Ipoh old town.

Later, daddy may bring them to Polo Ground to have electronic car rides. I hope I get to jog at Polo Ground. Polo Ground is really a nice place to jog and there's always throngs of people jogging there. But people will shun away from Polo Ground at night coz it's just next to a huge graveyard!

Our X'mas Eve

We had a very simple X'mas Eve dinner at home yesterday. Hubby invited 3 of his aunties home for dinner. We had :

Organic crackers (roasted garlic with sun-dried tomato) with President Petite Brie cheese as appetiser
Lamb chops
Spaghetti with Carborana sauce and chicken ham
Pan-fried salmon fillet
Broiled brocolli
Broiled baby bok choi and baby choi sum
Haegan Dazs ice cream as dessert


After dinner, Alycia and Sherilyn watched TV until midnight. At the stroke of midnight, they opened their X'mas pressies and had a fun-tastic time opening their gifts. We were waiting for some fireworks display at the KL Towers and KLCC but there weren't any. Never mind, New Year's Eve is just days away and we shall stay up again to watch the fireworks display.


Our X'mas tree with lots of pressies under the tree for our 3 angels from the gals' doting aunts, uncle and grand aunts.

Broiled brocolli, baby bok choi and baby choi sum.

Spaghetti with carborana sauce and chicken ham.



Baby C wailing away when she saw hubby's aunties. Baby C tends to cry when she sees unfamiliar faces at home.

2 types of lamb chops.




Pan-fried salmon fillet.

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.

Please Don't Fall Sick

My maid is having the sniffles and I'm so afraid she'll spread the virus to my 2 gals. I've given her Clarinase and Nurofen for the last 2 days and hopefully, she'll recover in no time. If my gals catch my maid's cold bug, I'm pretty sure there'll be a domino effect and everyone in the family will kena too, including me. And who suffers the most? It has to be me coz when the gals and I fall sick, I don't get MC or rest and work continues as usual, with OT round the clock but no OT payment from the big boss. Hubby's pocket would also suffer a big hole when he has to bring everyone to see the doctor. So please God, please don't let anyone of us catch my maid's cold bug.

The Gals Are Sticking To Mah Mah Like Glue

Yes they are. Since my mil came back from Hong Kong last night, the gals have been sticking to her like glue and didn't want to be separated from her. Before bedtime last night, the gals went to mah mah's room and played on her bed and insisted that they wanted to sleep with her but that didn't happen as it was already very late and we didn't want to carry the heavy queen-size mattress from the gals' room to mah mah's room. The gals only slept after midnight and woke up at 8am to stick to mah mah again. They were so happy to have a breakfast of fishballs, noodles and kuih with mah mah as I seldom serve them these food for breakfast.

Mil is Back

My mil is back from Hong Kong last night and will be staying here for a few weeks before she flies to New Zealand to help my sil with her twins toddlers. Now, I have an extra pair of hands and eyes to help me with the gals. The gals are crazy over their mah mah and are sticking to her like ants to honey. Now that's good news to me, at least I can work on my computer in peace.

I shall post pictures of the clothes and goodies that my sils in Hong Kong bought for me and the gals. My sil bought soooooo many beautiful and branded clothes for the gals from Hong Kong that I think I don't have to buy them anymore clothes until next year. There were also lots of Disney and Barney sticker books and colouring books, washable magic colours, a huge bubble-maker gun, ELC educational toys, organic crackers and organic chocolate milk and much more. I also got a trendy Le Sport Sac handbag. The gals are truly blessed to have such a good koo mah and koo koo. Next Monday, this koo mah from HK will come to KL with her 1.5 yo son and maid and stay at our place for a week. It will be the first time Alycia and Sherilyn are meeting their cousin brother and I think they will all have so much fun playing with each other like a house on fire.

Goodies From Hong Kong Again

Organic biscuits from HK for the gals.



Books, stickers and finger paints all from HK.

My SIL no. 2 arrived from HK yesterday and brought with her a big bag of goodies for the gals again. Each time my SILs from overseas visit us, my gals will benefit the most coz they have 4 doting ku mahs and ku cheh who adore them to bits and love pampering them with food, toys, books and branded clothes.

The clothes that my sils normally buy for the gals are all branded stuff and cost way more than my own clothes, like Polo Ralf Lauren and Zara Kids, fuiyoh. How I envy my gals. In a way, I am lucky too coz I rarely ever have to buy my gals clothes, food, toys and books. All these items are being taken care of by my sils, mil and my dear mom. That's a lot of savings here. I am not gloating here but I just feel thankful to God that my gals are so loved by everyone. So to my sils and mom, if you are reading this post, I'd like to say thank you so much for being a caring and generous sil and mom. The gals and I are blessed.

What A Lovely Sunday

Today has been a lovely Sunday. Despite the fact that I feel damn tired and sleepy now as I had worked until 1am on my blog last nite and woke up at 6:30am for my fitball exercise and jog, today is still a great Sunday. We went to the church at 10:30am. Whilst I attended service in the church, the gals and my maid attended Sunday school. The gals look forward to Sunday school every week because of the stickers that the teachers will reward them at the end of the class. After church, we went for a sumptuous buffet lunch at Zipangu Jap Restaurant, Shangri-La Hotel. After gorging on lots of healthy sashimi, raw oysters, shitake mushroom, endamame beans and also on some sinful, mouth-watering grub, the gals went down to the garden to have some pictures taken with the clown and got their balloons. Though Sherilyn has always been terrified of clowns, she still loves to see them to get her balloons. Not a day goes by without Sherilyn drawing her balloons and talking about balloons and clowns. My gals are crazy over balloons, so much so that both of them can draw pictures of balloons pretty well, in all shapes and sizes.

This is how we typically spend our Sundays. How I wish everyday is a Sunday... in my dreams lar.