Too Tough For 4 Year Olds?

Do you think this exercise is too tough for a 4 year old? Alycia's pre-school teacher has given her this as homework. My mum who is a retired teacher thinks this is a tad too tough for a 4-year old as Alycia seems so clueless when my mum coached her in her homework. In the first place, Alycia does not even know how to read the instructions which is 'colour the biggest numbers'. My mum and I had a tough time explaining this exercise to her. It could be Alycia has missed out too many classes (more than 6 months) last year when I pulled her out from school when she kept falling sick, thus she is very far lagging behind her peers.


On top of homework, her pre-school also gives her tons of flash cards, which mummy is supposed to flash to her. When it comes to Mandarin, mummy is just as clueless though there is 'han yi pin yi' written on the cards.

My Maid Gave Me A Scare

My Cambodian gave me a real scare when I heard something broke upstairs just a moment ago. She has just gone upstairs to clean the rooms and minutes later, I heard something dropped on the floor real loud. I was damn worried that she had broken my expensive Lamp Berger or the photo frames with my engagement photo and my kids' photos. I ran upstairs to check and thank God, she had only dropped an ornament but it did not break. That clumsy lady has given me far too many heart attacks as she had already broken a few bowls, cups and ceramic spoons.

Happy Birthday Sherilyn

Happy birthday Sherilyn. Today you're 3 years old. Time really flies when everyone is having fun. In a little less than 2 months, you will soon be a cheh cheh (big sister) to your baby sister. Mummy and Daddy wish you good health, happiness and long life. May you be obedient to mummy and not so naughty.


If you read this post when you're old enough to know how to read, you will see how naughty you have been. You have always caused mummy heart attacks and heart stopping moments with your stunts and accidents. You never seem to fear pain and danger though you had many minor bloody accidents. 2 days ago, you broke your forehead when you climbed on cheh cheh Alycia's back for a piggy ride, fell and whacked your forehead on the sharp side of the wall. Blood was everywhere on your face and you scared mummy who was 7 months pregnant out of her wits.


Mummy and daddy love you from the bottom of our hearts Sherilyn. May God watch over you always and happy 3rd birthday.

You can read more on Sherilyn's birth here.

Sherilyn's Broken Forehead Day 2

This morning when Sherilyn woke up, I saw that the bandage on her forehead was all red. Blood must have oozed out from her wound. However, this little tough cookie did not complain that it was painful. She was hyper-active and mischievous as usual. She does not seem to have developed a phobia of falling down and has been climbing up and down the sofa and hanging on the wall on the split-level of our living room like a monkey the whole day. I wonder if all kids are as stubborn and as unfazed with danger as my little monkey.

A Black Valentine's Day

Read more about our black Valentine's Day here.

Can Any Employer Tolerate This Species Of Maid?

Other than being plain slow, I discovered that my maid loves to be a nosey parker and phat here and there when she does her work. Yesterday when I asked her to wipe the kids' toys, she sat on the floor playing with the gals' toys and reading their books! To someone from an ulu kampung (remote area with very little civilization), I think she has never seen such high tech toys that emit sounds and voices or interesting books. She was so engrossed reading the books that she did not even notice me staring at her! Yesterday, hubby brought home a liondance head for the girls. This morning, whilst I was busy preparing Alycia for school, she was at the living room playing with the liondance head!!! My mum saw it and asked her what she was doing. She just gave my mum her usual silly smile but I reprimanded her.

There was a pipe burst outside our house yesterday and water supply was cut off the entire day. When the water finally came back, there were lots of things to be washed and done. There were dirty pots and pans in the wet kitchen and loads of laundry to be washed. Water was also not boiled. Thinking that my maid will be very busy doing these chores, I went upstairs to help wash the 2 bathrooms. When I was done and came down, I saw my maid sitting on the floor watching my mum play with the gals. I was fuming mad and could feel my hot blood shoot up to my face and head. I gave her a piece of my mind telling her how could she have just sat there and relax whilst me being heavily pregnant got to wash 2 bathrooms upstairs. I bet no employer could take this kinda nonsense.

Homegrown Starfruits

These are some very juicy and sweet homegrown, pesticide-free starfruits given to me by mamapumpkin all the way from Kota Bahru. They are grown by her parents-in-law in their large 'home orchard'. Yes, her PILs have a garden so large with so many fruit trees and plants that it does look like an orchard. It was so thoughtful of mamapumpkin to think of me and to bring these juicy organic starfruits for me all the way from KB. Thanks Patsy!

Memories Of My Previous Job

It’s really not easy to be a SAHM. It’s a round-the-clock job and I don’t get any annual leave, no rest, no medical leave even when my body is hot enough to make half-boiled egg under my arm pit, no bonus and no salary increment. Having said that, I still have no regrets being a SAHM as this is exactly what I had wanted to do when I was still in the crazy corporate world. Every now and then, I do miss my previous job at my old office. If you’ve been following my blog, I did mention before that the company that I once worked in, the office is facing a beautiful golf course, a huge landscaped lake and some mansions behind some hills. The scenery from the penthouse of my office is almost as beautiful as Branson Missouri and each time I feel stressed out, I would walk to the windows and look down at the lake. That’s my favorite past time each time I was stressed out – to look at the fish swim in the lake and watch golfers play golf at one of the most expensive golf courses in our country. When I am stressed out with my kids now, I just sit in front of my computer and blog my stress away!

New HDMI Splitters

The DVD player and HDMI splitter in my bedroom are spoilt. I just found out that my maid has been using a wet cloth to wipe electrical items everyday despite me telling her not to. Hubby had to bring the DVD player from his office for our bedroom so that the kids can watch their DVDs in our bedroom when I take my shower every night. He also has to buy a couple of new HDMI splitters - one unit to be placed upstairs in our bedroom and one downstairs in the living room. I better make sure I am around to supervise my maid the next time she wipes the electrical items in my house.

Alycia and Sherilyn's New Play Mate

On Monday, Barb (chumsyashley) and her family visited us. The moment Ashley got down from the car, I could already hear her yakking away excitedly. When she saw Alycia and Sherilyn, she got so excited. I was really impressed with this little Miss Social Butterfly. She wasn't shy or scared at all, though she has never met her 2 new found friends. Ashley kept getting near Alycia and Sherilyn and touched them to try to make friends with them. Sherilyn who has just woken up from her nap was a tad shy and didn't want to play with Ashley.




Barb was so thoughtful to have brought gifts for Alycia and Sherilyn and a bag of CNY goodies to 'pai nin' with me. Thanks Barb for all the gifts. You should bring Ashley over more often. I am sure Ashley will love jumping on our huge trampoline and cycling on Aly and Sher's tricycle. We can also go to the nearby playground.

Now You See My TV, Now You Don't

I have a 30-inch TV in my bedroom, right at the foot of our king-size bed. Some of my friends who are into feng shui have advised me not to place a TV in front of a bed but if I really want to have it, then it is good to cover the TV screen with a thick piece of cloth. In feng shui, it is not advisable to place a mirror or any reflective screens in front of the bed. I have seen some really cool foot of bed tv lifts for the bedroom. With a touch of a button, a sleek plasma TV appears and disappears from the foot of the bed into a plug n' play, infra-red control! The TV will be concealed inside the console when not in use. I have never seen anything like this before. You should really check this cool item out!

3D Ultrasound Scan

That's the 3D ultrasound scan of my baby at 29 weeks+. Read more about this here.

More Blood Boiling Moments

This morning, I gave instructions to my maid to boil sweet corn, carrot and chicken soup. I told her to keep an eye on the pot of soup from time to time and to make sure that the flame is not too big, else the soup will seep out from the pot. I was also checking the pot of soup myself for a while. Later I went up to have my shower and to get ready to go to my Ob&G's office for my 30th week check-up. When I came down and checked the pot of soup, I was boiling to see the pot of boiling soup without anymore soup inside. My forgetful maid has forgotten to check the pot of soup and there's no more water inside the pot! What made me really angry was that she was eating her lunch in the wet kitchen next to the boiling pot of soup, yet she can forget all about it.

I have been telling myself to be patient with her but the things that she does, her carelessness and absent-mindedness really wear my patience thin. How can she forget that there's a pot of soup boiling in the wet kitchen? And it's quite an expensive pot of soup as I've put one whole chicken inside with organic sweet corns. I told my maid off and reminded her once again not to be so forgetful. I really felt like a nagging old lady having to say "please don't be so forgetful" throughout the day. I then added some water into the pot and boiled the soup again. The soup is quite tasteless now, what a waste! Tomorrow, I will teach her to boil soup using the crockpot instead.

Cute Disney Trinkets

These are some of the cute and funky trinkets and hair accessories from Hong Kong Disneyland which koo mah bought for the gals recently. Alycia and Sherilyn are really lucky that they have koo mahs who dote on them and pamper them with lovely trinkets, clothes, accessories and biscuits from overseas (Hong Kong and New Zealand) all the time.

Cisco Network Equipment

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Amazing Portable Reading Device

I have just discovered a real cool reading gadget from Amazon called Kindle. It’s a wireless, portable reading device with instant access to more than 100,000 books, blogs, magazines and newspapers. With this cool and handy device, I can now read all the books that I’ve been wanting to read even when I am on the go – in the car, restaurant, shopping or just about anywhere. All I have to do is to shop for books or magazines in the Kindle shop and the book that I want will be auto-delivered wirelessly to me within minutes. Cool isn’t it? If you want to grab this cool gadget, get your Amazon coupon code to enjoy savings when you purchase this cool gadget.

More Bizarre Things That My Cambodian Maid Does

I can't believe what I saw just a moment ago when I went to the wet kitchen. My maid who was eating her lunch at the wet kitchen threw all the pork rib bones on the kitchen floor! I was shocked to see that, she must have treated this place like her own kampung.... gosh! When I asked her why she threw the bones on the floor, she just gave me her usual silly smile and said "later sweep". I told her not just sweep the floor, she has to wash it, otherwise the cockroaches, rats and ants will come. I just can't believe this lady!

Smart Alec

Sherilyn seems to have lots of bright ideas. The other day, she poured all her Lego blocks on her table. Just before nap time, I told her to keep her toys and to put the Lego blocks back into where they should belong. I thought she would bring the Lego blocks one by one or two by two to keep them in the box. I was surprised when she pushed her table to the Lego box and swept all the blocks into the box and within seconds, she finished keeping the blocks. She's a young smart alec, isn't she?

Third Day Of CNY

Today, we spent almost the whole day at Mid Valley Megamall. After lunch at Little Vietnam Restaurant, my maid and hubby accompanied Alycia & Sherilyn at MegaKidz whilst I went for some retail therapy. It felt really good to be able to shop and I bought some clothes for the gals and some for myself. I don't shop for clothes at maternity boutiques anymore. Instead I have been shopping for most of my clothes from this outlet called Harajuku at Jaya Jusco. Most of the clothes from Harajuku are imported from Korea and Japan. They are very stylish and inexpensive too. Luckily the vogue now is loose and long tops, baby doll dresses and tights (with elastic waistbands) and being a size XS, I can easily fit into most of the loose apparel at Harajuku. I can even recycle these clothes after I have given birth as these clothing are free size and I have not really ballooned up, save for my tummy.

Tonight, we will have dinner at a Chinese restaurant near out house with hubby's aunty. How did you spend your Chor Sam (3rd day of CNY)?

Teppanyaki Ice-Cream

Read more about this teppanyaki ice-cream in my other blog.