Maid's Birthday

We celebrated our maid's 27th birthday last week with a Strawberry Tiramasu cake, complimentary from Shangri-La Hotel. Both my mil and I gave her an ang pow each. As I don't really fancy cakes, I just ate a tiny slice of the cake whilst Alycia and Sherilyn relished every single bite of the cake, especially the chocolate slices on top of the cake. My maid ate the remaining of the cake all by herself, for days.

Quality Time

With Alycia attending pre-school in the morning now, I have more quality time spent with Sherilyn. After Alycia leaves the house, I sometimes have a short morning stroll with Sherilyn before having breakfast together. Instead of my maid feeding her, I now feed her breakfast myself. After breakfast, Sherilyn will demand to be read to. I will either read story books to her or read to her from the computer. She has even learnt to press on the page down button on the computer to change pages each time I read to her. After reading, I will have a 10-minute power nap on the couch with Sherilyn lying next to me. She just loves this special 'mummy-all-to-myself' time. In the afternoons after the gals have their nap, I will be coaching Alycia in her homework whilst Sherilyn will be drawing. I now have less time to blog but it's fine as there's nothing more important than spending quality time with the gals.

Alycia Is A Meat Lover

Alycia my discerning eater loves food. From young, she has always been an easy feeder and has no problem or fuss whenever we fed her porridge. The one food that she hated was cereal (which is the exact opposite of her sister), otherwise, she eats almost everything and has a distinct love for meat of all kinds, especially chicken drumsticks. Several days ago, my mil cooked stewed chicken drumsticks and Alycia was happily savouring the drumsticks. She sucked and licked the bone clean and didn't seem to get enough of the drumsticks. If only Sherilyn could eat like Alycia, I can then sit peacefully and enjoy my meals.

Now You See It.... Then It's Gone

Every Tuesday is 3P's $1k opp day. Yesterday, I'd seen more than 10 USD50 opps and one USD500 opp but as usual, they were perpetually shaded grey. At around 11pm yesterday, I saw a couple of USD50 opps in white. Woohoo.... I was really excited and quickly clicked on the reserve tab and typed in the irritating codes and as expected.... one minute of hope was fast transformed into dissapointment.... the dreaded red words appeared "sorry, the opportunity link has been reserved." Damn it! Why must someone always be quicker than me? The opps were there, I saw them appear right in front of my eyes and the next second, they're gone! I think Tuesdays are more of heart attack days for most bloggers.

Stewed Chicken

This is another simple yet very tasty chicken dish which requires no frying, another of my mil's recipe. Even Miss Spity Spat Sherilyn who hates meat loved the chicken! My mil doesn't have any fixed measurement for the ingredients, she just estimates the ingredients and tastes the sauce as she cooks them.

Ingredients :

Chicken drumsticks (5)

Soya sauce ( I suppose you need around 1 soup bowl. We use organic soya sauce)

Dark sauce (around 1-2 tablespoons)

1 whole garlic

Spring onions

1-2 tablespoons of Rose wine (this makes the sauce fragrant)

Water, enough to cover the drumsticks in the pot

A few pieces of star anise

1-2 tablespoons of 'far ciu' (that's in Cantonese. I don't know what it's called in English but it kind of smells and looks like black peppercorns)

A few cubes of brown rock sugar.

Method :

Pour water and all the sauce ingredients into the pot and let them boil in slow fire for 20 minutes. Then, put the chicken drumsticks into the pot of sauce and let them stew for another 20 minutes in slow fire.

Dish out the chicken drumsticks with a little sauce and serve.

Let the remaining sauce cool down and store it in a covered glass ware or ceramic ware. Keep the sauce in the freezer and the next time when you're busy, you can reheat the sauce and stew another batch of chicken drumsticks or chicken wings in a jiffy.

Sherilyn's Milestone

Sherilyn can now hold a pencil fairly well and today, she wrote the letters 'E' and 'F' without much difficulties. I was really surprised this morning that she could still remember the order of the strokes, though she had only practised writing the letter 'E' once a few days ago. Today is the second time she is given the chance to do letter tracing. I also discovered that she can point to a group of similar objects and count each of the object out loud simultaneously perfectly well. She is very keen to show off her 'talent' to me and each night in our bedroom, she would count the number of buttons on my comforter cover as she points to each of the button. She can count from 1 through 11. Today, she could also count the number of objects in the 'count and match' exercise in her Math workbook without any mistakes. Sherilyn can also sing most of the songs that she has heard from DVDs or from the radio and at home, she's heard singing on top of her voice all the time! I'm not sure if this is considered a big achievement for my baby but I'm really proud of her.

Tag : Genie is here to grant you a wish!

The Genie King and Genie Princess from the magical land of Faraway is flying round the world on their magic carpets, dropping by the homes of lucky bloggers. When they drop by your blog, you will be granted a wish. Here's how it works :


Genie King

Genie Princess


***Start Copying Here***
Rules:
1. Write a short paragraph about your visit by the two Genies and include a link to the blog that passed on the Genie Symbol to you.
2. COPY the Rules and ENTIRE List below and post it on your blog.
3. List down your wish.
4. Place your name below the last name on the list and pass on the Genie Symbol to at least 5 other bloggers.
5. Please put up either one (or both) of the Symbols of the Genies on your blog to show that the Genies have visited your blog:



The Genie King, the Genie Princess and their trusty Genie Buddy have visited:

Mariuca would like to wish for happiness and success.

Adrian would like to wish for good health and happiness.

Emila would like to wish for happiness and success.

Trinity would like to wish good health for Jan’s brother

Yah and Wan and successMPG would like to wish for love and peace

Jean would like to wish for stress free work environment and happiness

Cbenc12 would like to wish for health, happiness and luck for my family and friends and me too!

Paris Beaverbanks would like to wish for more publicity! Hooyah! (taps swollen head)

Giddy Tiger would like to wish for longer weekends and never-ending holidays!

Chinnee would like to wish for happiness and good health forever!

Shireen would like to wish for good health, longevity and happiness for all her loved ones!

Welcome aboard the Magical Flying Carpet for the Ride of your Life!
Alakazam!

***End Copying Here***

I hope the genies grant you your wish too :

1) Immomsdaughter

2) Mummy In Vain

3) Angeleyes

4) Lovely Mummy

5) Vien

Lost Water Tumbler

Yesterday for the first time, Alycia left her water tumbler behind in school. When she got home, I checked her bag and asked her where her tumbler is. Alycia then said "in my bag." But when she checked the school bag herself and couldn't find her tumbler, she burst out crying. She was very upset that she had left her tumbler behind. She cried really pitifully, as if guilty of having done something really wrong. I consoled her and told her that we could get it back from her school tomorrow but no, she was still very upset and continued to bawl. When I couldn't subdue her, I called her school and asked the principal to look for the tumbler but she said it was no where to be found. She heard the telephone conversation and continued to bawl even harder. I then called daddy and asked him to go to Alycia's school to search for it, which he did much later but still couldn't locate it. Long story cut short, Alycia was very upset the whole afternoon and was very edgy. When bed time came at night, she again asked in a cracking voice and teary eyed where her tumbler is. I had to tell a white lie and said that the teachers are still looking for it but if it cannot be found, daddy will buy her a new water tumbler of her choice. That managed to comfort her a tad bit.

This morning as I sent her to school, the teacher happily brought out her lost and found water tumbler. Alycia's eyes were beeming with joy. I hope she has learnt a lesson and will learn to be responsible of her belongings.

Tough Rules

It's final. This morning, I read from 3P's announcement that it had rolled out the new ruling on the posting of paid posts. All 3P paid posts must be sandwiched by 2 non-paid posts, i.e. - one before and one after the 3P post. As well, all paid posts by other sponsors must also be followed by a non-paid interim post.

As if this is not enough, this morning one of my favorite advertisers tightened their policy too. Previously posties are free to accept offers from all the categories but effective today, we are only entitled to a miserable 5 categories and are only allowed to change the category once every 30 days. So eventhough I am entitled to a max of 4o ops per month, with this new ruling, I guess I won't even have 10 per month.

Earning money through sponsored posts ain't easy now.

Monetize Your Blog With Advertlets

Calling out to all Malaysian and Singaporean bloggers. Here's a chance for you to earn more money from blogging. Advertlets.com is now offering 100 bloggers (Malaysian and Singaporean)a RM20 (for Malaysians) or SGD10 (for Singaporeans) sponsored post opportunity. I have signed up with Advertlets for almost 3 months and so far I have RM50+ in my account. With this blogvertorial, I would have earned another RM20 in my Advertlets account. Also, with each advertisement placed in my blog by advertisers, I get to earn too. When the amount in my account reaches RM100, I can request for my earnings to paid to me via a cheque - no need to go through Paypal - yipee!

So hurry up, quick sign up with “Advertlets.com - Blog Advertising in Asia!”. Though they are new, but they are surely progressing very well. I really look forward to seeing more sponsored post opportunities in Advertlets.

Homemade Maki

My mil made Maki 2 weeks ago. It's actually quite simple and all the ingredients used are healthy and wholesome stuff. This is also a suitable food for toddlers.

This is what you'll need :

Japanese rice
Chicken breast - cut them into cubes
Carrots - cut them into cubes
3 eggs
Japanese mayonaise (you can omit this if you're feeding a toddler)
Japanese cucumber
Seaweed - use good quality ones so that they are crispy and crunchy and easy to bite on when the Maki is ready.
Japanese bamboo mat for making sushi
Crab sticks, Japanese pickles, Unagi (eel), Fish roe (all optional)
Salt

Method :

First, cook some Japanese rice. Then,

Pan-fry the eggs and cut the Japanese cucumbers into strips.


Steam the chicken and carrot cubes with a little salt and pepper. Once ready, add them into the cooked rice and mix well.

Place the mixture of rice, chicken and carrots, together with the strips of eggs and cucumber onto the seaweed on top of the Jap bamboo mat. Squeeze in some Japanese mayonaise.


Using Japanese mayonaise gives the Maki a better taste, as compared to using regular mayo as Jap mayo is creamier and tastier.

Rolling the Maki must be done right, otherwise the fillings will be loose and slip out from the seaweed.


Once the Maki is rolled up, cut it into bite sizes.



The bite size Maki ready to be served.

They Love Swimming

Alycia and Sherilyn love swimming very much. They have had so much fun playing in the oversize swimming pool with daddy at Hilton Sentral when we stayed there 2 weeks back. When my sil returned to Hong Kong, she had left behind the ELC kids' float for the gals. They didn't seem to get bored playing with the float the whole day and imagined they were swimming in the pool like this :

Homemade Chicken Balls

I made chicken balls for dinner yesterday. As Alycia and Sherilyn love meehoon very much, we had meehoon with ABC soup, chicken balls and vegetables for dinner yesterday. It's another very simple and nutritious meal which kids will love.

Method of making the chicken balls :

Blend chicken breast

Add a dash of sesame seed oil, a little corn flour, salt and pepper to the blended chicken meat and mix well.

Form chicken meat into balls and boil in water. Remove and strain the balls when you see the balls floating in the water.

Make more so that you can deep freeze the balls for future use.

Alycia Wants Her Diaper!

For the past 2 days, Alycia demanded to have her diapers worn during the afternoon naptime. Since the 'accident' a few days ago where she wet the mattress, she seems to have a phobia of not wearing diapers, especially now that we have a brand new mattress as she's concerned that she might accidentally pee on the new mattress. I tried to convince her that it's ok to be diaper-free as mummy will be waking her up to bring her to the potty but she insisted on wearing her diaper. This afternoon, she brought her diaper out from the drawer, removed her shorts and begged me to put it on for her! Oh dear, why is she regressing? Is it because of the new mattress or she hates to be woken up to pee on the potty? Maybe tomorrow I should try to stealthily remove the diapers after she has drifted to sleep and then wake her up to pee. Good idea?

Sherilyn Longs To Go To Pre-School

Poor Sherilyn. She really longs to go to pre-school. This morning as I was preparing Alycia for school, Sherilyn who was seated on her potty kept saying "i want to go to school". The moment daddy opened the door to bring Alycia out, she sprang up from her potty and said "FINISH" (meaning finished her business) and ran to the bathroom to be washed up. She wanted to follow Alycia to school! As my maid was washing her up and putting her clothes on, she kept repeating "i want to go to school" and was on the verge of crying. So we all waited for her and daddy brought her along to the car for the short 1 minute's drive to the school. When she came home, she repeated non-stop "i want to go to school, where is Alycia mummy? I don't want Alycia to go to school. Go with me". Poor girl. I think she misses her sister terribly and wants to follow her che che to school too. She then threw herself on the cold hard floor, sucked her thumb and her eyes were wet. She looked so terribly pathetic and my heart was wrenched. Now, I'm really considering sending Sherilyn to pre-school next year.

Monday Morning

It's 6:55am now and the rain is still tick tick tock tock pattering outside, since 4am. I wonder if it's going to stop so that I can go for my morning stroll and get my breakfast and newspapers. I hope Alycia will have no problem waking up later for school as she had slept late last night. I actually got the gals ready for bed by 10pm but when daddy came back, as usual, the gals started to act up, especially Alycia and demanded that daddy does 'bom bom cha', a.k.a. walt dancing with them. Since daddy was stinky and sweaty as he had returned from a basketball game, he had to take his shower but Alycia was whining, crying and knocking on the bathroom door away. I hate such moments before bedtime. I was too sleepy and just couldn't force my eyes to open and went to sleep whilst daddy had to placate Alycia from inside the bathroom. Sherilyn was quite good and slept with me but later when daddy got out from the bathroom, she was distracted and jumped out from bed and joined in the craze with Alycia to bom bom cha with daddy. I think they slept at 11ish pm. Hopefully Alycia will not act up later when I drag her out from bed.

Really Nice Invites

Alycia’s 4th birthday is a few months away but I’m already planning ahead her birthday celebration. What I have in mind is to throw her a birthday party and invite all her pre-school classmates to our house. I saw some very lovely birthday invites at Invitations By You and Alycia immediately fell in love with the one below though all the cards are very well designed. You really should check out this website at iby.com. Here, you can custom make your invitations for all occasions from birthdays to housewarming, graduation announcements, baby and birth announcements, wedding and engagement to just about any occasions that you are going to have at very affordable prices too.


Personal custom birthday invite.

Personal custom graduation announcement.

How We Spent Our Sunday

Today, my mil returned to Hong Kong. Hubby spent the whole morning helping her pack her things and plastic seal some of the local food that she had bought this morning to bring back to Hong Kong. All of us had wantan noodles with roasted char siew and roasted chicken for brunch. After my hubby left the house with mil to the airport, I was so sleepy that I slept on the couch. My 2 gals followed suit with Alycia sleeping on the cold hard floor and Sherilyn sharing the couch with me. We only napped for around 20 minutes. As the gals were hungry, we ate some crackers whilst waiting for daddy to come home to bring us out to Babyland to get some baby stuff. After shopping at Babyland, Alycia wanted to pee, so daddy brought us to Secret Recipe just so she can use the loo. We bought 2 slices of cakes, one healthy High Fibre Cheese Cake and one Classic Cheese Cake. I then wanted to get some buns for Alycia to bring to school tomorrow, so we stopped at Breads 2 Brag at Sri Hartamas but most of the buns were sold off. So I just bought 3 mini hotdog buns and ate in the car. As daddy was feeling hungry, we went to Brian's Pizza at Sri Hartamas and ordered a thin crust pizza, an Oleo Spaghetti, a beef Bolognaise Spaghetti, a chicken chop and a cup of strawberry yoghurt ice-cream for dessert. Before we headed home, I dropped by the bakery near our house and bought a loaf of walnut bread and 2 croissants for Alycia to bring to school tomorrow. As we are all still feeling full, I shall be making something light for dinner - fried egg with cheese sandwich. What a day of non-stop eating we've had.

Catering and Restaurant Supplies

In case some of you do not know yet, my hubby is a caterer. Apart from catering food of all varieties for functions of all kinds from private to corporate, he also provides rental services of catering and banquet equipment. Business lately has been pretty good and he has to purchase more catering supplies to meet the demand of his clients from tablecloth to table skirting, stainless steel flatware, glassware to chinaware. If you are also in the food catering or restaurant business, you really have to check out this great website called Maine Supply Company that supplies an extensive range of supplies ranging from Chinaware to flatware, glassware, melamine dishes, chafers, tablecloth, napkins and much more at the link provided. And oh yes, if you or your company have an upcoming function and need catering or rental of catering equipment, please do let me know and I'll inform my hubby.

Test From God

I had a real test from God recently. There are certain ads that I will not accept to write no matter the amount offered. Over the last 2 weeks, 2 ads on the subject matter that I will not encourage people to get involved in were persistenly being offered to me. The ads first appeared in my account of the first advertiser for almost 1 week at a price that's slightly higher than the usual amount. Everday as I checked for offers, this particular adv kept staring at me, as if inviting me to accept it. 2 days ago, it appeared again in another advertiser's account of mine at an even higher amount. Both times, I didn't accept the offer. This morning, it appeared again in the third advertiser's account of mine at a price that's even much higher at USD12 for only 50 words. I was so tempted to accept the offer. I clicked on the opp to have a look at the description and wanted to click on the reserve tab but my strong mind and spirit stopped me from doing so. The opp was later taken up. And I think God rewarded me for passing his test with a long list of assignments from my favorite advertiser.