When Problems And Challenges Come And Greet Us All At Once

Both Alycia and Sherilyn are down with high fever, runny nose and swollen throat. Alycia's fever was so high that she could not stomach any food this morning (except cream crackers) and puked twice. Sherilyn who is also having high fever has been extra talkative and keeps asking me questions till I feel so pissed off.

I did not have a good night's sleep last night as I was worried about the gals and kept worrying about what had happened to my computer. There was a major thunderstorm in KL yesterday evening. When I heard thunder roaring, I quickly disconnected my modem. However, the lightning struck my surge protector and I could not access internet until 11am today. Luckily I could call this Streamyx technician directly who could come on the same day to fix my problem.

Hubby spent RM180 at the paed's clinic today for both girls. Both gals are required to take antibiotics as they have very swollen throat and high fever. It's really a nightmare for me each time both the gals fall sick together. Not only does hubby have to spend a lot of money on the consultation fees, I will also lose sleep and fall sick myself. But this time, I was the one who spread the virus to my gals.

In times like these, I wished my former efficient maid was here to help me. I need not have to do much and everything will be kau tim by her. Now, I have to supervise my new temp maid and watch her closely . It's easier to correct her mistakes now than to let the mistakes become a habit. Just now, I don't know what she had pressed on the washing machine and now the washing machine is acting strangely and is taking over 1.5 hours to complete the cycle. These maids are always like this. They think they know how to operate your electrical items but often make a mess out of them. I have just reminded her again to inform me the next time she puts in laundry into the machine. This time, I will watch how she operates the machine. Very soon, I will have to teach her how to cook porridge and cook some simple dishes. I just hate to do these. I just wish I can lie on my couch, watch TV or just take a short nap now.

There will be another battle and power struggle tonight if the gals are still having high fever and I need to insert suppository for them. I thought I can rest and relax one month before my delivery but looks like I am stressing myself out even more now. The gals' paed reminded me this morning not to stress myself out too much coz this may cause me to go into preterm labor, especially since this is my 3rd child.

Why Are Your Teeth So BIG?

My new temp Indon maid has very obvious 'sau ngar' (2 very protruding front teeth like Bugs Bunny). When she smiles or laughs, the 2 front teeth jut out very prominently. On the day the maid arrived, her first task was to feed the gals breakfast. The gals were staring at their new kakak and kids being kids, Alycia said something which was quite hilarious but would be hurtful to my maid had she found out what Alycia had said about her.

Alycia : Kakak, why are your teeth so big?

Kakak : Huh? (she does not understand English very well)

Alycia : Kakak, why when you smile your 2 big teeth touch your lips, so funny?

Kakak : smiled, not knowing what Alycia was talking about.

I was observing the conversation and could not help but broke out laughing. I had wanted to stop Alycia from saying those things but it was so funny that I just laughed non-stop. So mean of me eh? But I did tell Alycia later that it's not good to make fun of people and told her not to do that again.

We All Love Indian Cuisine

Last week when my mum was here, we decided to have Indian food for lunch. So we bought these :

Roti canai tisu, which Alycia and Sherilyn called it cone shaped party hat! They loved the 'edible party hat' so much that they chomped down almost the whole thing themselves. Some Indian restaurants also make tosei tisu and it tastes just as good, especially when it is hot from the pan and crispy.

Tosei, roti pisang and roti canai.

We also bought some chicken kurma which was not very spicy

and Alycia loved it so much that she drank the kurma gravy by the spoonfuls. Luckily she did not have a tummy ache after lunch. Even Sherilyn loved the roti canai and chicken kurma gravy.

It's all in the genes - daddy, mummy, koong koong, granny and mah mah all love Indian food, so does Alycia.

Old Maid's Out, New Temp Maid's In

The final straw came today. Despite a counselling session 2 days ago by the maid agent and another counselling session by me yesterday, my Cambodian maid still did not bother to take the effort to change. To read my long story and to find out why I had sent her back impromptu today, click here.

Anyway, my new temp Indon maid appears more efficient, 'seng moke' (alert) and works much faster than the Cambodian maid. Hopefully she will continue to remain good and not just for the first few days to impress me. One downside is that she speaks no English or maybe just a smattering of English which may render it extremely difficult for my 2 gals to communicate with her. My gals were so excited to see the new maid and Sherilyn did not reject her when being fed by her, unlike the Cambodian maid. Alycia who seems to want to take advantage of the maid quickly made friends with the maid and held her hand when they went upstairs. Of course Alycia has an ulterior motive, which is to ask the new kakak to carry her. But I put my foot down and told the maid not to carry her.

I will be really busy training this maid for the next few days and will have very little time to blog. So if I haven't visited your blog yet, my apologies. More stories to come....

Tony Roma's Ribs

We went to Tony Roma's Ribs Restaurant @ Gardens, Mid Valley last week to bring my mum to taste one of the best beef ribs we've ever tasted. I also wanted to redeem this :


an onion loaf. On Alycia's birthday last December, we had lunch at Tony Roma's restaurant at the Pavillion outlet. We were given a voucher to redeem an onion loaf the next time we order a main course. The onion loaf was quite huge and anyone would feel bloated after chowing down the entire loaf. The onion loaf is made of huge onion rings deep fried with batter. Quite tasty but the most I can eat is only several pieces as they fill you up really fast.



The delicious beef ribs.

Hubby ordered a blue cheese burger. For a cheese lover like me, I was surprised that I hated the blue cheese. It really tasted like baby's regurgitated milk.... no joke! One bite of the burger sent nausea down my guts. Hubby asked me to scrape off the cheese which I did but the pungent baby's vomit taste was still lingering on the burger. So if you think you love cheese and want to order a blue cheese burger, think twice. However, some people may love it, just like how some people think 'chow tau fu' (fermented smelly beancurd) taste heavenly.


We ordered a grilled salmon with buttered rice for the gals,


and a ribbon shaped seafood pasta. The portion was so huge that we could not finish and had to pack it back for dinner.



My maid had forgotten to pack the bibs into the bag. Luckily Tony Roma has huge plastic bibs for diners.

Sherilyn enjoying the hot buns with garlic butter. You should try their garlic butter - very tasty.

Final Ultimatum

Bear with me ok, here's another long ranting on my pet peeve....

Yesterday evening, my maid agent dropped by my house to counsel my Cambodian maid. After the counseling session, my maid appeared even more dreamy, forgetful and now she even puts on a 'hak meen sun' face (black face). The whole of this morning, she gave me a blank look as if physically she was here but her mind was somewhere else. When she was feeding Sherilyn breakfast this morning, she fell asleep and I had to wake her up! Minutes later, her eyes were fixated at an object and she was oblivious to the surroundings (fatt ngau tau).

Next, she was keeping the clean laundry from the clothes hanger outside and left the clothes in the living room whilst she hung out the wet laundry. Sherilyn then began to play with the clothes and scattered them on the floor. When I picked the clothes up, I was shocked that most of the clothes were still damp. When I asked her why she had kept the clothes as they were still wet, she gave me a blank look. By then I was really pissed off with her. I had to check the clothes piece by piece to single out the wet ones. When I asked her to touch the clothes herself and asked her to tell me if they were wet or dry, she just shoke her head slowly as if telling me the clothes are dry! She appeared really blur and 'moa sum kei' (lack of enthusiasm and zeal to work) and I really felt like shaking her shoulders to wake her up from her dream. I asked her to be frank with me and to let me know if she wanted to continue working for me and she said yes. I counseled her and told her to buckle up.

Just a moment ago, my maid, Sherilyn and I were upstairs in my room. My maid was changing the bed sheet and I was in the toilet. When I came out from the toilet, I realized that Sherilyn, my Miss Accident Prone had gone out of the room, jumping away and running down the stairs. My blur maid was dreaming away, obviously very oblivious to the surroundings and did not even notice that Sherilyn had opened the door and ran downstairs. I gave her a piece of my mind and told her that if she does not buckle up and keeps dreaming and being forgetful, I will send her back to the agent. I was very frank with her and told her that the agent has offered me a new replacement temp Indon maid but I chose to give her a chance to turn over a new leaf. I will give her one week to change and if she shows no improvement by next Friday, I will send her back to the agent and this time, I really mean it as I can no longer tolerate her.

A Very Constipated Sherilyn

Since birth, Sherilyn has been a very constipated baby. When she was a newborn baby, she would only poo poo once in every 3 - 8 days and when she did her poopie business, it would last between 15 - 30 minutes! Last year, I found out that her constipation was due to the Choline in the formula milk that she drinks (Enfagrow A+). Now she's on Dutch Lady 123 (day time) and Enfagrow A+ with fibre (night time). For a long time, the constipation was kept at bay until recently. She has been suffering from constipation for the last 2 weeks. This could be due to the fact that she's not eating enough and thus, does not have enough bulk to form the stools. Her eating habits have become from bad to worse lately. Whenever we eat rice with dishes, she would pout her lips and give me a 'foo kwa meen' (a face as bitter looking as bitter gourd). My maid and I have to take turns to coax, bribe and threaten her to eat... for almost 1.5-2 hours every meal. When it comes to bread, cookies, crackers, cakes and fish balls, her face would light up and she will have no problems chomping down her food.... bribe-free, cane-free and threat-free. But I can't be feeding her with these everyday, twice a day, can I?

Today is the 3rd day she has not been doing her poopie business. This morning, I made her sit on her throne for almost 2 hours yet it was a fruitless effort. After her nap this afternoon, I made her sit on the toilet for almost 1 hour and voila, the poop finally made its appearance, albeit with much pain and blood. She drinks a lot of water and milk but without sufficient solid food, there is no bulk and thus, suffers from constipation. Do you have a child who's like Sherilyn too?

Go Easy On Your Sugar

When I was carrying Alycia, my gynae ordered me to do a Glucose Tolerance Test (GTT) and I really hated it. First, I had to fast overnight and the next morning, I had to drink a few glasses of yucky ultra sweet glucose solution before my urine was taken and tested over a period of a few hours. I passed the test but when I was 34 weeks pregnant, there were traces of sugar in my urine during one of the routine urine tests. For my subsequent pregnancies, I begged my gynae not to have this test done. The day that my gynae told me I had mild gestational diabetes (luckily only for a short while) till today, I have been really very watchful over what I eat. Since my late maternal grandmother had diabetes, I am also at risk of having diabetes if I don’t watch what goes into my mouth. Diabetes is really a dreaded hard-to-treat disease and if anyone has it, they really need to get a high risk life insurance from wholesaleinsurance.net to safeguard themselves. So the easiest way out is to watch our diet and go easy on sweet stuff.

The Future Ballerina

That's Alycia in the trial baby ballet class yesterday. Read more about her ballet class here.

Alycia Is Learning Ballet

We have just returned from a free trial ballet class at the dance center...... and have signed up Alycia for ballet impromptu! I did not intend to let Alycia learn ballet so soon but she loved it. Maybe it was because her little 5-year old aunty, Wei Wei is also there and she has company. I shall upload the pictures that I have taken at the dance center and post it in my blogs tomorrow. So stay tuned.....

What's She Thinking About?

Just what is Sherilyn thinking about so deeply here... with her arms up behind her head? Sherilyn is always full of funny ideas and poses. Read more about her here.

Fun On The Trampoline

That’s Alycia and Sherilyn jumping on the trampoline. The three of us really enjoy jumping on the trampoline together but we have not been doing this exercise for the last 9 months. I can’t wait to be able to start my exercise regimen again but I would have to wait for at least another 3 to 4 more months. What I would really love to get for the kids is a children-friendly trampoline with enclosure and W-shaped leg bases. The W-shaped leg bases make the trampoline more stable and the kids will not fall off the trampoline with the safety net. I have not seen this type of trampoline here before but have seen them at trampolinepartsandsupply.com. I know my kids will love this new trampoline and I can even allow them to jump on their own with the new safety features.

In A Dilemma

My maid agent has promised to give me a replacement temp maid to exchange with my super slow Cambodian maid by this week. The new replacement temp maid will be another rejected maid, this time an Indonesian maid. Whilst part of me really want to try out another maid, the other part of me is worried that the new temp maid will be worse off than my current Cambodian maid. Besides, I am really very tired of training the new temp maid all over again. Based on my experience with 5 Indon maids, I find Indon maids more cunning than Cambodian maids. Though my current Cambodian maid is super slow, blur and at times appear really dumb, I think I rather keep this type of maid than a cunning maid who has tricks and mischief up their sleeves. On the other hand, my assumption may be wrong. Who knows maybe this new temp Indon maid will turn out well? I'm really in a dilemma now. I have to make a decision by this Friday.

Kids Say The Darnest Things

My 2 brats can really make my day with the things that they say. A couple of mornings ago, I told Alycia and Sherilyn that I have an appointment with the gynae in the afternoon. Alycia who always seems to be on top of things and knows very well what's going on though I never tell her things directly asked me "mummy, are you going to see Dr Jason today?" I wonder how she knows I am going to see Dr Jason coz I have been seeing Dr Chung (my fertility specialist) and Dr Patrick (the fetal specialist) all the while. Alycia knows why I have to see 3 different doctors and she knows where their clinics are too.

Later as I was dressing up to go out, Sherilyn asked me "mummy, are you going to see the doctor to take out baby now?" "Mummy stay in hospital. Daddy bring us to see you in hospital" . When I heard that, I burst out laughing. The gals seem to know that mummy is going to deliver the baby soon. At the hospital, Sherilyn saw a woman on a wheelchair and she kept asking me why the woman was in the wheelchair. I then explained to her that the woman had a surgery on her stomach and now she can't walk. When she came home, she kept saying this to me "after doctor take out baby from your stomach, I will push mummy on the wheelchair, ok?" Sometimes, my gals can really say things that touches my heart.

Disney Swimsuit

Daddy bought us a new Disney swimsuit with a picture of Minnie Mouse together with a pair of goggles and a matching swimming cap with Minnie Mouse on it last week. Mummy said no need to wear swimming cap as it would make us look old but daddy was very insistent in getting us a cap so that the goggles would fit nicely on our heads without our hair everywhere on our face.

Daddy did not like us to wear bikinis when we swim as he said bikinis are cute but not wind-proof and he didn't want us to catch a cold. So he bought us each a Disney swimsuit though they were very costly. We really love daddy as he is always so cool and willing to buy us anything that we want..... but mummy is not too happy as he feels daddy is a tad extravagant and spoiling us rotten.



Mummy thinks the Disney swimsuit with frilly skirt looks like a professional skater's costume. She even feels we can wear the swimsuit to the shopping mall as it looks like a dress. Do you like our Disney swimsuits?


I had a fall and a bandage on my forehead, so mummy said I can't pose with the swimming cap on.

Pregnancy At Week 31+

That's my big baby belly at week 31+. The 2 gals still love to hug and kiss my belly, especially Sherilyn. Baby is very active and is moving, squirming and kicking mummy all the time. She's also very prone to hiccups. The tightenings and Braxton Hicks contractions are very frequent and I get them throughout the day. They are more frequent when I need to pee, when I move too much, when the baby moves and stretches, when my tummy is being touched or pressed (especially during ultrasound scans) and after every meal. That's the reason why I can't eat much these days. My guts are now all squeezed by the enlarging uterus to a point where I hardly feel hungry these days.

Alycia Can Finally Write

Yes she can and I am so proud of her. During my mum's 10-day stay with me, she has been coaching Alycia with her writing for 1-2 hours everyday and now, she can finally write all the numbers from 0 to 10. She can also write her own name, though at times the letter 'c' will be written the other way round. Anyway, it's already a big achievement for her since she had missed attending pre-school for more than half a year last year.



Notice the remarks in red from her class teacher?

More Rantings On My Super Blur Maid

I really need to rant and rave about my super blur and dreamy Cambodian maid again. I don't fancy most of the posts in my blog to focus on my maid but I really need to rant out the silly things that she did that really drive me nuts..... everyday without fail. I really don't understand how her brain functions and just can't believe she is so terribly forgetful. Last night, I had given her specific instructions to remove the pork from the freezer early this morning to prepare soup.
This morning, when she wanted to throw the pork into the basin of hot water to clean them, I just had a guts feeling that she had taken the wrong bag of pork. So I asked her to read out to me the 'identification label' I had pasted on the plastic bag. She then read the label.... "pork for frying".... then gave me her usual silly / guilty smile again and gave me a silly excuse. I was really mad with her coz not only had she taken out the wrong type of pork again but she also took out 2 packets of pork instead of 1 packet. I told her that it would defeat the purpose for me to label the meat if she doesn't read the labels. She has been working for us for more than 1 month and she's been doing this almost everyday yet she can go wrong. I was mad coz now the meat was already half defrost and it is not advisable to re-freeze them again. Also, she had to defrost the correct bag of pork now to make the soup and more time will be wasted.

I wonder why she's so terribly forgetful, careless and blur. When she works, she gives me a blank look, as if her mind is not with her. Sometimes, I feel like giving her a good shake on the shoulders to wake her up.

Kids Need To Exercise

On Friday, my mum and I finally had the time to bring Alycia and Sherilyn to the playground to let them release all their pent up energy. I have not brought the gals to the playground for ages as evenings were normally spent coaching Alycia in her heavy load of homework from pre-school. The gals were really happy the moment they reached the playground, like puppies that have just been released from the cage. I strongly believe that kids should be given more time to play and exercise, preferably everyday. Their little brains need all the oxygen to function optimally too and being cooped up at home and indoors all the time is quite unhealthy for a growing child.



Alycia has piled up some pounds lately resulting from lack of exercise. I used to bring the gals to the park and for evening / morning walks almost everyday last year. I really should start the gals on an exercise regime once agian.

Sweet Potato Omelette

My Cambodian maid's cooking has slightly improved. She used to overcook the food or had them partially burnt. After some guidance from my mum and me, she can now prepare a decent meal of fried rice, fried vermicelli and omelette. She still cannot make a pot of good soup though.

This sweet potato and spring onion omelette was cooked by her, all by herself and it was by far one of the best dishes she has prepared for us in her one month stay with us.