Before Alycia and Sherilyn Came Along...

Before Alycia and Sherilyn came along, daddy would sometimes carry mummy to the bed like a white knight sweeping his princess off her feet. After the both of you came along, daddy complains of backache to mummy all the time but the pain seems to have miraculously vanished when you both asked to be carried.


Before Alycia and Sherilyn came along, daddy would caringly wear socks for mummy when she had the sniffles. Now that daddy has you 2 darlings, he would obligingly wear socks for his 2 princesses no matter how busy or tired he may be. As for mummy? She knows how to wear the socks herself mah.


Before Alycia and Sherilyn came along, daddy would always lovingly help get mummy some food when they have meals together. Now that he has 2 beautiful princesses, he'd rather be feeding them. Mummy leh? Aiyah... no need to eat so much wan, eat less is good.


Before Alycia and Sherilyn came along, Daddy and Mummy enjoy sharing their desserts together and they can peacefully take their own sweet time to savour every spoonful. Eversince you both came along, daddy prefers to share his dessert with his 2 princesses, though most of the time, he ends up having none.



Before Alycia and Sherilyn came along, daddy and mummy would always have a beautiful couple snapshot together when it's our birthdays. Now that you both are here, mummy is always the cameraman and no where to be seen in pictures.



So is mummy still happy now that she has you both? The answer is a resounding YES, absolutely no regrets and no, mummy is not jealous. Alycia and Sherilyn, when you both read this post a few years down the road, you will know how much your daddy and mummy love you.

Wholesome lunch

My lunch menu for my maid to cook yesterday was a wholesome one. This is what the gals had for lunch yesterday:

Oat meal cooked in ABC & sweet corn soup. I added some homemade chicken nuggets (leftover from the previous night's dinner), chopped french beans, cheese and sprinkled with some pine nuts. I use pine nuts as the 'bait' and incentive for Alycia to eat the oats coz lately, Alycia just hates to eat oats and porridge. Perhaps she has been eating these stuff almost everyday the moment she turned 6 months for the next 2 years till she got really sick of them. But sometimes when I run out of ideas for lunch, I just cook them something really nutritious and quick like oat meal.


ABC and sweet corn soup boiled with kampung (free-range) chicken.

Toys Rationing

I recently wrote about my gals' habit of not picking up their toys after they are done with them. Some mummies suggested that I ration their toys and only have limited toys for them to play and to train the gals to keep their toys.

Today, I finally made the move and my maid and I sorted out their toys and kept one big bag of toys in the storeroom. I told the gals that they have not been behaving well, always strewing their toys all over the house, stepping and jumping on them and eventually spoiling them, ripping them apart, chewing on them and mummy is not happy, so mummy is going to keep some of the toys and if they prove to be good girls later, mummy will bring the toys out again.

I was surprised they didn't protest my bold move. My 2 brats even helped me put their not-so-wanted toys into a big garbage bag.

The gals helping to sort out their toys.


The big bag of toys to be kept in the storeroom.

Kids Say The Darnest Things

At times my gals say the darnest things that make me laugh really hard. Here are some of the funny things that they had said:

Scene 1
Before I go to the bathroom to have a quick scrub every night, I will put on a VCD for my gals to watch and I'd tell them before I turn on the tv that they have to promise not to cry when I turn off the tv when I am out from the bathroom.

Last night, Alycia said this to me as I entered the bathroom "mummy, you bathe slowly ar, very very slowly ar, don't come out so fast k?"

Scene 2
A few days ago as I was shopping at the frozen food section of a mini market, Sherilyn poked her finger on a raw chicken on display. I then reprimanded her by saying "cannot touch Sherilyn, it's dirty"
Minutes later, a boy of around 5-6 years of age came to the frozen food section and also tried to touch the raw chicken.
Sherilyn who saw the boy touching the raw chicken then wagged her left fore finger at the boy whilst resting another hand on her waist, scolded the boy by saying "hannot touch".
The boy quickly retreated his hand from the raw chicken but minutes later tried to touch the raw chicken again. Sherilyn who had her eyes fixated on the boy again warned the boy "i said hannot touch, itsh dirty" as she wagged her little forefinger.
I couldn't help bursting into laughter. My little baby can really immitate me so well.

Scene 3
Alycia's new favourite sentence when she's upset with me : "I just cannot believe it, I just cannot believe you are doing this to me mummy"

Scene 4
Whenever I whack Sherilyn for being naughty, Alycia would say "you cannot beat Kay Yi mummy. She will be sad. Don't beat her, stop it"

Scene 5
Daddy put on a video of Alycia when she was a baby for the gals to watch. Alycia got so emotional and sentimental that she cried and said "I want to go inside the tv and be a baby again". This went on for days until one morning, her sister Sherilyn said this to her "dun cry A-lisha, hannot go inshide tv, jood jirl (good girl) k. Sayang A-lisha" and then hugged her cheh cheh.

Young Artist At Work

Alycia drawing a birthday cake, balloons and popsicles.


Eversince Alycia attended pre-school early this year, the artistic sense in her has been uncovered. She loves writing, colouring and drawing.

I guess daddy's artistic genes have rubbed off on her coz daddy can draw pretty well, really damn chun wan.

That was one of the reasons why a naive silly 17-year old school girl 17 years ago fell for her older brother's best friend who was head over heels over her and hand-made her 'lum sei ngor lor' Valentine's Day cards and greeting cards.

Promise... will try to dig out those cards that DH made me close to 2 decades ago, get them scanned and post them in my blog.

Young Artist At Work

Alycia drawing a birthday cake, balloons and popsicles.


Eversince Alycia attended pre-school early this year, the artistic sense in her has been uncovered. She loves writing, colouring and drawing.

I guess daddy's artistic genes have rubbed off on her coz daddy can draw pretty well, really damn chun wan.

That was one of the reasons why a naive silly 17-year old school girl 17 years ago fell for her older brother's best friend who was head over heels over her and hand-made her 'lum sei ngor lor' Valentine's Day cards and greeting cards.

Promise... will try to dig out those cards that DH made me close to 2 decades ago, get them scanned and post them in my blog.

Feeding Toddlers Medicine

Alycia and Sherilyn have never been easy feeders when it comes to medicine.
Thankfully, they rarely fell sick when they were younger, maybe once or twice a year.

When they were younger, there must be at least 3 people around in order to get them to swallow their medicine and those sick days were full of drama and emotions, and the air in the house was filled with wafts of vomit.

As I was still working then, I had 2 maids at home to help with the chores and to help my mil with the gals. One maid would be holding back Alycia's struggling hands, the other maid would be holding back her forcefully kicking legs whilst my mil would force open Alycia's mouth and squirt the syringe of syrup medicine into her mouth, only to be thrown up within seconds. If my youngest sil or I were around, we would be the entertainers, acting out anything we could think of under the sun from singing to acting silly to using a toy to distract, you name it. The house was like a battle ground each time the gals fell sick.

Eversince Alycia attended pre-school early this year and fell sick so frequently (and then spreading the illness to Sherilyn), both gals have kinda got immuned to the taste of medicines or maybe I finally found them a paed who prescribes them with sweet nice smelling and tasty medicine.

As for me, I am now a pro-medicine-feeder to toddlers and can sup sup sui feed both the gals their medicine all by myself even with my eyes closed and don't even need to use a syringe anymore.... but on one condition set by the gals... there must be SWEET TREATS for them to go with their medicine. No problem lah so long as they willingly swallow their medicine.

So each time the gals are prescribed with medicine, DH and I would stock up the house with cakes, organic buns and biscuits. Alycia actually loves falling sick coz that's the only time mummy is so lenient and generous with sweet stuff with her. Sometimes she even pretends to be sick for she thinks she can fool us into bringing her to the doctor but she doesn't know that her mummy is fool-proof.


All set ready to feed the gals medicine.... plain chiffon cake, organic bread, their medicine and measuring cup. Oh, forgot to put the cup of water in.

Learning Through Singing

Sherilyn has always loved music, singing and dancing. When she was a baby and cried each time, singing and playing soft music had always comforted her and lulled her to sleep.

I have recently discovered a new way of teaching my 2 gals. Since it's really difficult to make them sit still classroom style with eyes focused on whatever I am teaching them, I discovered by chance some time back that by singing out the word as I read out each flash card to them really helps and they kept asking for more and more and more till I have to say STOP, ha ha..

This is how I sing out my teaching lessons:

Let's say I am showing them a flash card with the word 'happy'. I'll sing out the song "I am h-a-p-p-y, I am h-a-p-p-y" and modify the song a tad bit. They find it so entertaining and now both Alycia and Sherilyn recognize the sight word happy and if I ask Alycia what h-a-p-p-y is (without showing her the flash card) she could tell me the word correctly.

The same goes for many other words. I will try to match the individual word that I am about to teach / sing to them to a rhyming nursery rhyme tune. Eg. singing out the word 'strawberry' to the tune of 'If You Happy And You Know It Clap Your Hands'. After a few times singing out the word, both my gals started to recognize the sight word 'strawberry' as well as the spelling of the word orally (without being shown the flash card).

When we go for walks and see a coconut tree for instance, I'll point to the coconut and tell them that they've just seen a coconut and then I'll sing out the song "c-o-c-o-n-u-t".

This is such a fun way of teaching my gals and all 3 of us enjoy it so much.

Blogger

Blogger has recently added a word verification protection thing to prevent spam as some bloggers had complaint of their blogs being locked out but this word verfication thing is really driving me nuts and I've been wasting so much time meddling with it.

Don't know if other bloggers on Blogger are also facing this problem or just me, the IT retard. You see, it doesn't allow me to save the document without having to publish the post first. So even if my post is not complete, I have to publish it first to get it saved and then only edit the post to continue with composing my post. What irritates me is that the half-written truncated post is still published in my blog (as can be seen from my side, not sure about other readers) and even if i've completed the post later, saved it and click publish, the old truncated post is still seen in my blog and not the new completed post. Aarrgghh..... someone please help me!

Don't ask me to post my complain or query with Blogger Helpdesk coz so far, they have never replied me and they have been sooooo many complaints about the Blogger team.

My Favourite Hawkers' Food

As I was craving for hawkers' food yesterday, DH went to pack some of my favourites from a famous corner coffee shop in Paramount, PJ.

My all-time favourite... fish paste stuffed in bitter gourd, ladies' fingers, tofu, brinjal, fried wanton skin and fried tofu skin with sweet bean paste sauce.


Another sinful favourite... chee cheong fun (flat rice noodles) with har koa sauce (thick prawn paste sauce). Damn tasty but not that healthy lar.


DH's favourite... spicy fried koay teow with cockles.


Egg tart and chicken pie... this chinese style chicken pie has a special sweet brown crunchy crust on top (don't quite know what stuff that is) which makes the pie distinctively different from the rest. I once can scoff down 3 at one go but now I try really hard to limit the portion. When I was pregnant, my mil used to buy this pie for me every week when she went to the market.


So do these sinful grub make you slobber as well? They still do, as I am typing this post now :)

Alycia Can Tell The Time

Remember I wrote about Bedtime stories where DH taught the gals to read the clock? Well, I have been teaching Alycia how to read the clock for the last 1 week, though not consistently and last nite when I asked her to tell me the time looking at the 'Tell The Time' flashcards, she managed to tell me the time, though she only knows how to tell the time when the minute hand points to 12, ie. she has to say o'clock.

Today, I brought out a book on telling the time which my sil had bought the gals a few months back and tested Alycia and she managed to tell me all the basic 'o'clock' time.

Tonight, I shall progress to the next step of teaching Alycia how to tell the time when the minute hand points to 6. I promised her that if she knows how to tell the time, I shall buy her a Princess watch and this has motivated her to pay attention when I read to her. Hopefully she can independently tell the time very soon and be my walking clock.

Mailing Lists Company

One of my former colleagues e-mailed me a couple of days ago to inform me that he is very keen to set up his own business but he has no clue on how to get his business started. As I was searching for info on the net, I chanced upon Martin Worldwide, one of the largest and most successful mailing lists company with over 10 years of experience that provide marketing services and such products as customized mailing lists, business lists, fax lists and mortgage lists to its clients to ensure success in its clients’ direct marketing efforts. Too bad my former colleague is not residing in the US, otherwise I will surely recommend Martin Worldwide to him.

Sherilyn Has Swollen Lymph Nodes

We just came back from the paed's clinic. My poor baby Sherilyn's lymph nodes on her right neck, just below her jaw are swollen and infected. She has also been having gluey yellowish-greenish goo on her right eye for the last 3 days and I thought she was just plain 'yeet hei' as the chinese say it or heatiness in her body coz she had been eating quite a bit of durian, biscuits, corn flakes and pan-fried tempeh lately. I am also having a strep throat and slight runny nose with phlegm and I guess Sherilyn must have gotten the bug from me.

Careless mummy me didn't even notice the swell in her glands near her neck until daddy felt it last night as he was cuddling her while reading to her. When I touched it and felt a lump there, I really felt a big lump in my throat, so did DH. Being the wimp in us whenever health issues affect our 2 precious daughters, we were actually quite worried, more so as the swell is on the lymph nodes in her neck. All sorts of morbid thoughts came flashing through my mind and I am sure DH's too, coz I could see he was just as worried but just put on a "nah.... nothing to worry wan" look on his face.

The paed said Sherilyn's lymph nodes are infected and if we brought her to the clinic a few days later, the lymph nodes could get inflamed and then more invasive medical treatment is necessary. The lymph nodes got infected as they were trying to fight off virus from invading the body. She also has URTI (upper respiratory throat infection) and antibiotics (Augmentin) is needed to treat it. She was also given an ointment for her eye and allergy medicine for her nose.

As Alycia has also developed a slight cough this morning, she was also given an allergy medicine for her nose. Both the gals have sensitive nose and get nose allergies easily, or so said the paed. The total bill came up to RM140. Cost aside, DH and I are both relieved that Sherilyn's swollen glands are nothing serious.

To Go or Not To Go To School?

I can't believe that it is already June, which means it has been slightly more than 3 months since I had stopped sending Alycia to pre-school as she has been falling sick continuously eversince attending pre-school in January 07.

As the school term will reopen in a week's time, I have been asking myself this question... should Alycia go back to school? While the health freak mummy and wimp in me keep telling me NO, since her paed said her immune system is not fully developed yet and that it's best to send her to school when she turns 4, the kiasu mummy in me keeps telling me aiyah, just go lah. If she doesn't go, she will be so far lagging behind her peers and how long can you keep her at home? She needs exposure to germs and virus to get immuned to them.

So how? I am really in a dilemma. To go or not to go to school? What if Alycia goes and then the whole sickening cycle of her falling sick repeats itself? This will even weaken her immune system further and may later lead her into developing asthma. That will be big time headache for me and big hole in pocket for DH.

Some friends have asked me to homeschool Alycia and Sherilyn. I seriously don't mind homeschooling my gals as when it comes to teaching them, my enthusiasm is always unbounded but my gals just won't reciprocate the way I want them to. Alycia is for one who learns better when she is with peers. I was surprised that she had learnt so much in school in a period of less than 2 months and loved going to school so much and she is actually raring to go back to school.

So what say everyone? To go or not to go to school for Alycia?

Please Help Locate Madeleine McCann

Folks... please help Madeleine's parents reunite with her little girl. For God's sake, she's only 4 years old. Whoever abducted Madeleine for whatever reasons, please spare her and end her parents' and loved ones' misery.

Fellow bloggers can also help by putting this banner in their blog. Please click here to obtain the codes :

http://www.bringmadeleinehome.com/news/

Cool learning method... strewing

A few days ago, The New Parent wrote an interesting article on strewing up.... a method of introducing new things to his little girl through discovery. I thought what a cool fun way of teaching Alycia and Sherilyn to read through discovery.

Yesterday when the gals were having their afternoon nap, I strewed flash cards around their room... one card in their mega blocks tub, two cards in their toys closet and one more card on their bed for them to discover.

Later that night, as they got into their room, they were so thrilled and surprised to see flash cards strewn everywhere. They thought mummy had forgotten to keep the flash cards back into the drawer. As they returned the cards to me, I read out the words and number on the flash cards to them. What fun way of teaching them to read. No coercion on them and they actually looked at the cards. Tonight, I shall strew a few more cards at different places in their rooms for them to discover.

These are some of the pix I managed to snapped candidly of Alycia and Sherilyn when they discovered the cards.








Mummy, the word "fun". Sherilyn always recognizes this word.


"How come there's a card here too mummy?"

Miss Pukey Sherilyn

Sherilyn is nicknamed Ms Pukey coz she throws up very easily from the time she was a baby right through now. She pukes when she cries, when she eats food that she doesn't like, particularly meat, when I brush her teeth, when she gets choked on food or when she's over-eaten and simply when she wants sympathy and attention. She even knew how to gagged her throat with her fingers till she puked just to get our attention whenever she was locked up in the playpen when she was barely a year old. She knew mummy would not easily succumb to her crying and pull her out from the playpen but if she pukes in the playpen, mummy would rush to her aid and bring her out from her little prison. See how cunning and manupulative my brat can be.

Sherilyn has been rather whiny, cranky and cries easily for no real reasons for the last few days till she really gets on my nerves. Yesterday, she woke up from her nap bawling away as if she had had a bad dream. Nothing seemed to subdue her. I then fixed her a bottle of milk and she drank it with her head lying on my lap like a baby.

When I went into the kitchen to wash the bottle, she was still bawling and rolling on the floor. I was already very pissed off with her as there was no apparent reason for her bawling and I've exhausted all my means of trying to placate her from distraction to laughter and my patience was really wearing thin.

As I had expected, Ms Pukey then choked, coughed a tad bit and I knew she was about to puke. This happens most of the time when Sherilyn has a bawling session. I dashed right into the storeroom and fished out a huge garbage bag (that's all I could see in the storeroom) and headed back to retrieve Sherilyn's vomit. The milk that had formed into fresh curd spewed out from Sherilyn's throat right into the garbage bag. After she was done, she pushed the bag away and said "finish already".

Afterthat, I brought Sherilyn to the loo to have her washed up. As she sat on the toilet, she was still whining and sobbing for no apparent reasons. I was even more pissed off with her now and as I looked her straight into her face, I told her this, "Sherilyn what's the matter with you? Why are you crying non-stop for no reason? You're not in pain, you're not hungry, cheh cheh didn't bully you and you're not a baby. Only babies cry like this because they don't know how to talk. Can you tell me what you want instead of cry? If you want to be a baby, fine.... I'll put you into the playpen and you stay in there". Without any second thoughts, Sherilyn blurted out "i don't want playpen". For a moment, I could feel something magical had happened. Sherilyn stopped bawling, then the bawl gradually dwindled into a faint whimpering and then as I dried her body and put on her clothes, she transformed into an angel.... singing and giggling as she tried to start a conversation with me. Hiyah... kids are just so unpredictable and sometimes you just don't know whether to get mad or laugh at their quirks and idiosyncrasies.

Maui Vacation Rental

DH and I recently celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. DH being the not-so-romantic hubby only gave me an ang pow. I told him that next year, he has to bring me for a romantic getaway to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary.

One of the many places that I’ve long wanted to visit is Maui in Hawaii. As I was surfing the net looking for nice places to stay in Hawaii, I came across Gebhart Properties, a realtor that owns and manages custom homes in exclusive resort locations in Hawaii. From their website, I saw beautiful Maui Vacation Rental homes located parallel to the white pristine ocean with breathtaking sea views.

Now, I just can’t wait to book one of these Maui Vacation Rental homes for our 8th wedding anniversary getaway.

*sponsored post*

Maui Vacation Rental

DH and I recently celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. DH being the not-so-romantic hubby only gave me an ang pow. I told him that next year, he has to bring me for a romantic getaway to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary.

One of the many places that I’ve long wanted to visit is Maui in Hawaii. As I was surfing the net looking for nice places to stay in Hawaii, I came across Gebhart Properties, a realtor that owns and manages custom homes in exclusive resort locations in Hawaii. From their website, I saw beautiful Maui Vacation Rental homes located parallel to the white pristine ocean with breathtaking sea views.

Now, I just can’t wait to book one of these Maui Vacation Rental homes for our 8th wedding anniversary getaway.

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How Do You Back-Up Your Blog?

Fellow bloggers, how do you back-up your blog? I've read it before, somewhere in my Google Blogger's instructions but can't seem to locate the info now.

Anything can happen and I've read that some poor bloggers' blogs had been deleted or unblocked by unscrupulous parties and blogger rivals. That's really scary.

Would someone please enlighten this IT / blogging idiot here?

Thanks thanks!