Nothing Like Sisters

Alycia and Sherilyn often fight with each other over toys. Sometimes I let them settle the fight on their own but when it seems to get out of hand, I will step in to mediate. Most times, the one who successfully managed to hoard the toy will release the toy after hoarding it for about 15 minutes. It's really heartwarming to see them reconcile after the fight. They never go to bed being angry with each other and I try to go to bed not being angry with either one of them too though at times they really make my blood boil just before bedtime.

Maid Stories

Just a moment ago, my maid asked my permission to go to the pharmacy to buy lip balm as she told me she has cracked lips. Lately, she's been asking me to allow her to out to buy things and I know she has an ulterior motive, that is to meet her Nepalese boyfriend. I'd always turned her requests down and have always told her that we can go together to buy in the evening. This time, when I turned her request down, she mumbled something to herself and then slammed the kitchen door and stormed upstairs thumping her feet on our wooden stairs! This is the price I have to pay to hire a maid. Paying an average of RM800+ a month to stomach the nonsense and temper of a maid! I can easily send her to the agent for counseling but of what use? She's leaving next month and it's me who needs her more than she needs me. I know the reason she's agreed to extend her service by 1 month is that she misses her Nepalese boyfriend. Thinking of what she did just sends my blood boiling but all I can do now is only tolerate her for another 1.5 months.

Pregnancy at Week 19+

Some updates on my pregnancy at week 19+ :

1) Weight stands at 49kg, i.e. a gain of 5kg from pre-regnancy weight of 44kg. I foresee I will gain a total of 10kg this time and that's a lot to me.

2) Appetite is pretty bad as I feel bloated and full most of the time. Though have not been eating a lot but weight is shooting up really fast, gosh!

3) Baby is quite active and movements can be felt almost throughout the day.

4) Skin is ultra dry and looks withered and peeling. None of the oils seem to be helping in moisturizing my skin. Also have red rough patches that are itchy over my neck and belly.

5) Still feel nauseous after meals, thus, cannot really eat a hearty meal.

6) Baby weighs around 390gm as of last Thursday, 29 November 07.

7) Baby's right kidney is still mildly dilated and both my gynaes expect the dilation to increase as the baby grows bigger. Hopefully this problem is just transient and will resolve by itself in utero soon.

Alycia's 4th Birthday Party

We celebrated Alycia's 4th birthday party at Burger King today. Do hop on to my other blog to read how we celebrated her birthday.

Party packs and Disney stickers for the kids.


Scribbles For My Angels' Erica and Elisa.

The kids playing musical games


Alycia and Sherilyn eyeing the Barney moist chocolate birthday cake.


The kids enjoying the birthday cake.


Montessorimum's cutie pie, baby Jolene.


The bunch of very happy kids at the end of the party.

I Need Some Bling On My Body

The price of gold has been steadily increasing and it’s a good idea to be buying gold as investment now as the price is expected to go up further. As most of the gold jewelry that I received during my wedding more than 7 years ago are out of fashion now, I am considering buying some nice and fashionable gold chains and gold bracelets to wear now. I really need some bling and fashion on my body when I attend my good friend’s grand wedding in 2 weeks’ time. Another reason why I should be buying some gold jewelry is Applesofgold.com are selling their high quality gold jewelry at 40% below standard retail jewelry prices. Now, don’t you think that this reason is good enough to get hubby to buy me some nice gold jewelry as Christmas pressie?

If I Have Loads Of Money

If I have loads of money, one of the things on my wish list that I will purchase is a luxury vacation home facing the ocean in Hawaii. I will then make some good money by renting out the vacation home and spend a few months in a year staying in the vacation home with my family. I will need a good luxury real estate agent to help me look for my dream vacation home and I know GMAC Real Estate can help me with the purchase of my luxury vacation home while giving me the satisfaction I need.

Mental Block

I seem to be suffering from a mental block for the last few days. I feel really sleepy, languid and tired and my mind seems to be empty. I must be suffering from an exhaustion and lack of sleep. During my PR4 heydays, though I feel tired, I still managed to push myself to write up to 25 posts a day! My mind was sharp and I had loads of ideas to write but lately, eversince Google smacked down on us, I just have not much mood to blog. Now, I only manage to force myself to write a max of 6 - 7 posts a day. It also takes me ages to come up with ideas to write. Wonder what happened to my zeal.

We Just Love Cakes

Several days back, daddy brought home 2 mouth-watering cakes - a green tea and red bean sponge cake and a chocolate cake. They were extras from his functions for that day. That's the advantage of having a spouse who is working in the food line coz we get to eat food all the time. As we definitely couldn't finish the 2 cakes, we gave some away to our Sikh neighbor. I have been eating these cakes for 3 days straight and I hope I won't get gestational diabetes.

Colorful Flower-Shaped Organic Pasta

When we were grocery shopping at Village Grocer some time back, Sherilyn saw this packet of cute tiny flower shaped organic pasta and conveniently put it into the shopping cart. I quickly put it back on the shelf when Sherilyn wasn't looking as the gals have not tried it before and I doubt they will like it. Moreover, it is quite costly too. But that observant little rascal realized it was missing from the cart immediately and demanded to have it. So as usual, daddy paid for it.



Last week, I cooked the flower shaped organic pasta with some anchovies soup. Alycia who is not really adventurous when it comes to trying out new food does not want to have anything to do with the flower shaped pasta, so I cooked her some shell pasta instead.





Sherilyn's bowl of flower and shell shaped pasta in anchovies soup with tomatoes and garlic, organic vege and homemade fish paste.
The result - Sherilyn loved her tiny colorful flower shaped pasta. She finished everything and even licked the bowl clean. It was so soft and so easy to swallow that even toothless babies and adults can swallow them. Perfect food for my fussy Miss Spitty Spat.


The anchovies in a muslin cloth, used to make the broth.

Another wholesome dish for toddlers brought to you by Health Freak Mommy.

Miss Pukey Caused A Big Mess

After putting Alycia and Sherilyn to sleep last night, I went downstairs to my computer to have some work done. About half an hour later at around 12:15am, I heard a baby crying but I thought it's my backdoor neighbor's baby crying. The cry certainly did not sound like Sherilyn's cries so I just ignored it but after 10 minutes of incessant crying, I paid more attention to the cries and suddenly, the cries sounded more like Sherilyn's.

I quickly rushed upstairs to the gals' room and saw Sherilyn crying very pathetically with her eyes closed and I think she has had a bad dream. I quickly comforted her and I knew I was in for trouble when she started to cough. At lighting speed, I carried her away from the bed and put her in an upright position as I knew she would surely puke. Seconds later, as expected, the volcano erupted and spewed out stinky semi digested food taken 5 hours earlier and her curdled milk. I was covered in her stinky vomit, so was the floor and the bedding. I quickly shouted to hubby who just came back and he dashed upstairs to my rescue. Hubby then woke our maid up and we spent almost half an hour cleaning up the mess. Whilst hubby showered Sherilyn, I quickly washed off the stinky puke on my arms and legs. I then helped my maid clean up the room and fixed another bottle of milk for Sherilyn. After cleaning up the mess, the odor of vomit in the room was still very strong and I transferred the gals to sleep in our room. I lit up the Lamp Berger to get rid of the vomit stink. Just as I was about to plonk myself onto bed, I still smelled vomit on my arms and legs and for the 4th time, I scrubbed my arms and legs clean with copious amounts of body shampoo. I only managed to go to bed after 1am. What a horrible night I have had. Aargh.... the throes of motherhood and toddlerhood are really no fun!

Pregnancy At Week 19

Finally I can feel my baby's kicks and movements. Though I could feel them from as early as 8 weeks (my gynae said it's impossible but I swear I felt fluttering movements. I know how they feel like as I've gone through 2 pregnancies), but those fluttering movements were far and apart and not frequent.

At 18 weeks, I started to feel stronger movements and now at 19 weeks, the movements are more intense and frequent, more so after my meals and especially so during the ultrasound scans at the gynae's office.

When I was carrying Alycia and was bed-resting, I even charted every single movement and hiccups in a diary from the 18th week through the 38th week. With Sherilyn I was too busy with charting the movements as I was working full-time. With this baby, more reason why I am not charting the movements coz my hands are all tied being a full-time housewife and part-time working mum. I am also too busy to even notice the movements at times.

My 2 gals are also putting me to shame coz they have been talking to the baby more often than me. When I have the time to lie down and feel the baby move, I'm already drop dead exhausted and would normally doze off during my prayers or within 10 minutes of hitting my pillow! Shameful mummy!

True Blue Award

Got this cool award from Jacelyn.

This award is to be given to bloggers who always stand by you, friends who always go all out to help you and friends who comfort you in times when you need them the most. It's difficult for me to pass this award to selected blogging friends coz I have many of them who are really wonderful friends. So I'll just keep this award to myself and would like to take his opportunity to thank all those who have helped me in times when I was really desperate and needed help the most. You know who you are and I really appreciate your unwavering support and help.

Burger King Frenzy

Want to know what we did today? Hop on to my other blog to check it out!

Pregnancy At Week 19 - Detailed Ultrasound Scan

Today we went to see the fetal specialist to do a detailed ultrasound scan and to evaluate the dilated kidney. This was the longest ultrasound scan I have ever done for my 3 pregnancies as it lasted almost 1 hour. My lil’ one did not cooperate as she kept facing down. When she finally flipped over, she played peek-a-boo by covering her face with her hands. She was also having a hiccup. After the first round of scan which lasted almost half an hour, we got out of the scanning room into the dr’s office and he explained the diagnosis and the prognosis. About 15 minutes later, we did another round of scan in the hope of capturing the face and thankfully, we managed to catch a glimpse of the face during a brief peek-a-boo moment. The dr quickly saved that moment and transformed it into a 3D scan.

The gynae who was super patient did a thorough scan of the heart, the brain, the stomach, the hands and legs, the face and finally the kidney. He explained that the dilation is a mild one and looking at other factors like the water and tissues surrounding the kidney, there is good chance that the dilation will resolve by itself either in utero or after birth. Having said that, I am still worried of all the ‘what ifs’ and worst case scenario.

Throughout the scan, Alycia sat quietly and watched the scan intently while Sherilyn asked tons of questions, jumped and hopped about and investigated every nook and corner of the room. She also made everyone at the clinic from the doctor to the nurses and patients laugh with her antics and the things she said.

Early Christmas Pressies

Since there were no pressies under our Christmas, daddy surprised the gals with a pressie each under the tree last Saturday. When they woke up in the morning, my 2 observant gals had already noticed the pressies, something which I did not even notice! I told the gals that they are not supposed to open their pressies now and they have to wait until Christmas but kids being kids, they were shaking the pressies and trying to tear the present paper the whole day. Finally when I went upstairs to have my shower in the afternoon, my maid as usual allowed them to open the pressies (really pissed me off) . So now, there are no more pressies to open on Christmas Eve but I am pretty sure daddy will buy them another pressie each.



Alycia and Sherilyn each got a lunch box. This Pooh Bear one is Sherilyn's.



And the Princess lunch box is Alycia's.

The gals are so in love with their new lunch boxes and they have been carrying it around the house as if it were their suitcase the whole day.

Shell Pasta With Sweet and Sour Minced Chicken

That's Alycia and Sherilyn's lunch today, shell pasta with minced chicken meat cooked in blended tomatoes and onions. This meal only takes 12 minutes to prepare - 10 minutes to boil the pasta till soft and another 2 minutes to reheat the frozen meat sauce in the microwave. I normally make a big batch of meat sauce and store them in tiny Tupperware containers for deep freezing. When I need to fix lunch in a jiffy for the girls, just pop the meat sauce into the microwave and kau tim. Can also eat with spaghetti or make pizza with the meat sauce.

Double Boiled Pear With Snow Fungus

That's my weekly pregnancy 'poa pun' or nourishing stuff - double boiled pears with snow fungus and honey dates. I think this concoction tastes very good - it's naturally sweet, fragrant and soothing for the throat but too bad Alycia and Sherilyn don't like the smell of it. I had this last week and today, I have asked my maid to cook another pot, this time using China Ya pears which are more fragrant and cheaper than the huge brown pear (expensive too) that I used last week.

Pregnancy Problems

My 2 previous pregnancies were not smooth sailing and so is this pregnancy. Apart from the terrible varicose veins sprouting out on my legs which Sherilyn calls them "monster legs", I have itchy, dry and peeling skin. Now, I have gums that bleed easily. When I was pregnant with Alycia, my sensitive and bleeding gums were so bad that I had developed a big lump on my gum called 'pregnancy tumour'. Yes I know it sounds serious, like it's something malignant, but it's just a medical term for it. After delivering Alycia, the lump miraculously subsided. Now, another lump is slowly forming and I have to be really careful and gentle when I brush my teeth, else my gums would bleed easily.

Apart from sensitve gums, I also have nose that bleeds easily during each of my pregnancy. Now, picture how I look and do you not think I really look like a monster? Sherilyn is so right. Mummy indeed looks like a monster - legs with ugly protruding purple veins, a face with zits (oh how I miss my porcelain smooth flawless skin), skin that's dry and peeling, a pregnancy tumour in my gums and a huge belly that Alycia calls "balloon tummy".

I just can't wait for April 08 to arrive. I can't wait to see and cuddle my baby and I just can't wait to get rid of all these pregnancy problems that's plaguing me now. Most of all, I just can't wait to start jogging and exercising on my fitball again. How I miss working out and sweating it out every morning.

Alycia Is Reading!

Alycia can finally read, hooray!! Here's a video of Alycia reading taken today. You know what motivates her to read? It's the TV. Yes, it's the idiot box coz I told her that if she wants to watch TV, she has to read and so whenever she wants to watch TV, she will come to me with a book first and read out loud to me or get me read the book to her.

Going Nuts Over Nuts

Before my parents left for China for a holiday, I told them not to buy the gals and I anything from China. After reading all the controversial reports on China produce and goods, I just have no more confidence in China made things anymore. So when my parents came back from China, they bought no souvenirs for us apart from a big bag of walnuts, peanuts and sunflower seeds!

Since then, we have been eating these nuts everyday. As I could not find my nutcracker, I used a pestle to crack open the walnuts and the gals have so much fun eating the walnuts. And by the way, do you know that walnuts and almonds are the superstars of nuts?

Walnuts contain no cholestrol and they are rich in Vitamin E, antioxidants, high in fibre and even a small serving of walnuts contain more protein than an egg. Have you ever noticed that a walnut looks exactly like our brain? Walnuts are also touted as a brain and heart nourishing food as they are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids. If you're on a high protein low carb diet, do choose walnuts and almonds (raw and unroasted ones. If you buy roasted ones, these nuts would have lost their essential oils during the roasting process). Walnuts and almonds fill you up easily and they're not fattening if you eat them in moderate amounts. When I was on a diet years ago to shed some weight gained as a result of PCOS, I ate loads of almonds, walnuts, seeds and plain sugar-free yoghurt. I successfully shed 5kg on a low carb high protein diet. And oh yes, no diet would work if you don't exercise!