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Wednesday, March 26, 2008

I Am Just So Very Tired

Must be the pregnancy hormones... I am feeling really lethargic, sleepy and moody these days. Just don't have the mood to do anything but sleep, though I've been getting 6-8 hours of sleep every night. The moment I am seated in front of my PC, my eyes tend to droop and my mind goes blank! I was reading a story book to Sherilyn a moment ago and less than 2 minutes into reading the book, I could not open my eyes again. I told Sher that mummy needs to nap but she wouldn't allow me and I was forced to finish reading the book to her, with my eyes half closed. My brain can only function after I have taken a 10-15 minute cat nap to have it recharged, once or twice a day.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Sometimes She Can Be As Good As An Angel

On some mornings, Sherilyn will wake up being cranky and cry. Some mornings when she wakes up, she will reject my maid when she tries to bring her to the toilet to have her diaper removed and bum washed up. And on some mornings, she can be really angelic....




Yesterday morning, Sherilyn was really angelic. She had woken up at 7:30am, which was earlier than usual. After drinking her milk and being washed up by my maid, she sat at her desk quietly.


When I came closer to her, I saw her practising her writing skills in her exercise book. I was really touched to see her so kwai, doing writing without being told, and without bothering me. If only she could be so angelic everyday, throughout the day!

Pregnancy Problems

Of my 3 pregnancies, this is the only pregnancy that I have not suffered from constipation and vaginal yeast infection, knock on wood! I suffered from bad constipation and VYI when I was carrying Alycia and Sherilyn. The VYI was so bad that I got it every other month, despite being prescribed oral and topical antibiotics. But for all 3 pregnancies, I tend to have minor piles that don’t cause bleeding, just some discomfort. The piles will go away after delivery of my baby. Did you suffer from piles too during your pregnancy?

Neck Pillow That Stops Stiff Neck



I used to suffer from stiff neck quite frequently but ever since I started to sleep on special concave neck pillows, I rarely have stiff neck anymore. I find that soft pillows are normally the culprit for stiff necks and I have since ditched them or put them downstairs for my cat nap in the afternoon. So if you suffer from neck pain and stiff necks, it's time you swap your pillows with special concave neck pillows. They are not very expensive and you can buy one from as cheap as RM20-30 each. They are really a good investment for a good night's sleep!



Body In Discord

The left side of my body tends to be weaker and more prone to disorders ranging from an outbreak of unsightly Varicose & Spider Veins on my left leg, leg cramps (always happens to my left leg and never the right leg), Sciatica, a pregnancy tumor on my left gum when I was carrying Alycia, short sightedness and carpal tunnel syndrome. I wonder if some of the pains were partly caused by the spinal cord anesthetic administered to me during the c-section for both my kids. Does this sort of thing happen to you too?

Monday, March 24, 2008

Lunch At Delicious

After my 36th week check-up in the hospital today, daddy brought us to Delicious @ Bangsar Village for lunch. Alycia can really eat like an adult. I had already packed some noodles in a lunch box for her to eat in the hospital but she was still hungry. When daddy asked her what she'd like to eat, she chose spaghetti @ Delicious and got her wish granted. So these are what we ate today :


Spaghetti Bolognaise


Creamy spaghetti with bacon and mushrooms.


Gado-Gado with creamy peanut sauce.


Prawn sambal rice

and a slice of mango cheese cake and apple & peach crumble with ice-cream for dessert. We finished lunch at around 3pm and was feeling really full.

The food was really delicious and the restaurant's name Delicious is really apt.

Colorful Personality



These are Alycia's 'art work'. I find that Alycia loves to color her pictures with many colors. Any object that she colors will be multi-colored - a person's face, clothes, an animal, a fruit, etc. She never sticks to just one color or a few colors but she uses a multitude of colors. Does that mean she has a very colorful and vibrant personality and likes to see things colorful?
Sherilyn is quite the opposite of Alycia. There was a period of time when she only likes to use pencil (black), pen or black color pencil to color her drawings. After some time, I think Alycia cheh cheh's colorful style sort of rubbed off on her and now, she too is beginning to color her objects with multi colors.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Our Sunday

Today, Alycia and Sherilyn had a real swell time in Sunday School. They decorated Easter Eggs with stickers and tonight, they even get to eat the Easter Eggs (which are hard boiled eggs). There was a small party in class and the gals had a whale of their time munching on junk food. I had forgotten to tell my new maid that the gals are not supposed to eat junk food given out at parties. Alycia knows that her new kakak will not stop her and quickly gobbled down 3 sausages, 3 jellies, 2 bottles of Vitagen, cookies and some Easter chocolates! Sherilyn also ate a fair share of sausages, fried fish balls and drank a bottle of Vitagen.

During service, there was a very good video presentation on how Jesus had died on the cross to redeem our sins and how Abraham had obeyed God and brought his only precious son Issac to be sacrificed. The video was really very touching and moved many parishioners to tears, including moi. Today, I also met Dato' Ng Yen Yen, our new Deputy Finance Minister face to face in church and I must say that she is indeed very friendly.

After church, we had high tea at PJ Hilton coffee house. Though there was a lot of delicious food on the buffet spread, I could only eat like a cat and did not have much appetite. As my tummy is ballooning, my appetite is being suppressed. I can visualize how my guts are being pushed and squeezed to its limits by the ballooning uterus. Just can't wait for this little one to pop out.

How was your Sunday today?

Shower Time Accident

About 2 years ago when my former maid just started to work with us, she gave me many heart attacks. She was really careless when it came to taking care of the kids. Sherilyn had hurt herself countless times under her care. I remember once, she scalded Alycia’s body with hot water from the shower when she turned on the shower that has a single handle. She had forgotten that if the lever points to red, it means hot and blue means cold and without testing the water first, she turned on the shower with Alycia directly under the shower. Alycia went yelling and yelping in pain. Luckily, her skin was only a little red and she wasn’t seriously hurt in the accident as I put her under running cold water for more than 10 minutes. For our new home, I will be fixing shower faucets with double handles in our bathrooms – one handle for cold water and one for hot water so that my maid will not get confused.

Last Few Weeks Of Pregnancy

I have an appointment with my gynecologist for a check-up tomorrow. I have made a mental note to inform him that I would like to change the c-section day from a Friday to a Wednesday. Since my gynecologist is charging a few hundred bucks extra for c-sections on Fridays, I might as well change it to a Wednesday and save the money. Initially, I chose Friday so that it will be more convenient for hubby and the kids to visit me in the hospital during the weekend. I hope my gynecologist will not perform a cervical check on me tomorrow. I just hate this part of the routine check-up during the last couple of weeks of the pregnancy, where he has to put on a pair of rubber exam gloves and stick his hand into my cervix to check if it has softened. I am sure any woman who had gone through a pregnancy would agree with me how disgusting and uncomfortable this feels.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

How Was Your Saturday?

Mine didn't start off too well. I woke up late today as Alycia didn't have to go to school. Tried to log on to my dot com blog but couldn't. I then called Streamyx and after about 20 mins on the line with the customer service officer, I was informed that the problem could be due to my host's server. I was also told by Montessorimum and Miche that they could not access my blog. I then called my host in Penang and spent more than half an hour on the phone with the technical assistant. I bet the phone bill will cost a bomb. I tried umpteen times trying to ping my blog but all I got was a 'request timed out' reply. Also tried to log in using my IP address and a temp URL but nothing seemed to work. I had also rebooted my PC many times but still couldn't log in to my blog, the cPanel or view the statistics. Geez, I tell you that was really frustrating. I was also told to download the latest Firefox Mozilla as my browser and to log in to my blog using Firefox but that also did not help. Finally, I decided to hang up as I was really worried of the escalating phone bill for the outstation call made to Penang. I then rebooted my PC again and voila, this time I could log in to my blog. Really don't know what exactly happened.

We were supposed to have dinner with my brother and SIL who came from Singapore but was later informed by hubby that the roads in KL will be closed for the F1 GP celebration, so plan cancelled. I have just taught my maid how to make homemade chicken nuggets and lamb chop. My maid has very shallow culinary skills and sometimes I get really pissed off with her when she tries to do things her way without asking me and spoils the entire dish. She also tends to forget what I've asked her to cook and how to cook them. I think Chinese and Western cooking are completely alien to her. I have since taken over cooking from her, which is really time consuming. She's unlike my previous maid who knows exactly what to do after teaching her only once.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Pregnant Belly At 35 Weeks


That's my big baby belly at 35 weeks. Most people have commented that my belly looks small for the gestational age and that I look neat. They think I am having a real smooth pregnancy because of the neat and 'small' belly but they don't know that I am actually having lots of discomforts and pains now. I can't walk or stand too long, otherwise my Braxton Hicks contractions and 'tummy tightenings' will become more intense. When the baby kicks me too hard and hits some of my nerves, I will have Sciatica, which is a sharp pain that attacks my buttocks and legs. I have Sciatica attacks everyday. Sometimes the pain is so bad that I have to sit or squat immediately and wince in pain. I started to have Sciatica when I was carrying Sherilyn during the last trimester. The pain went away after I delivered Sherilyn.

I have 3 more weeks to go before the big day but I am really hoping that the baby will come out a little earlier, naturally and without much labor pains.... to save mummy from having to go through another scary major surgery and to save daddy from having to burn a big hole in his pocket.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Sherilyn Is Finally Eating Meat!

I can't believe that Sherilyn is starting to like to eat meat. Last week I bought a Terriyaki roast chicken for dinner from Jaya Jusco @ Mid Valley. I did not intend to let Sherilyn try the chicken as she has never liked chicken meat. While we were all eating the roast chicken with rice for dinner, Sherilyn who was eating sandwiches asked to try the chicken since she saw her cheh cheh enjoying the chicken. Sherilyn has a tendency to follow her cheh cheh Alycia in everything that she says and does, most of the time. So I gave her a small piece of chicken, but nope, Sherilyn wanted a bigger piece.... and I gave in. I was surprised that she loved the chicken and kept asking for more and more! I found out that Sherilyn actually loves to eat meat that is very well marinated, i.e. salty and sweet and not too tough for her to swallow. Since that day, I have been introducing meat to her every now and then and so far, she's been accepting the meat, provided they are coated with lots of sauce.

Alycia and Sherilyn attacking and savouring the Terriyaki roast chicken.

Alycia Can Button Up

Alycia has finally learnt to button up and unbutton her clothes. She has been trying hard for days and finally, managed to wear her pre-school uniform herself 2 weeks ago.


Look how intent she is here trying her best to put the button through the tiny button hole, with furrowed eyebrows and scrunched up lips.

And how happy she is with her achievement.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

That's How They Sleep Now

After many incidences of Sherilyn puking on the mattress in the middle of the night, I have now taken measures to make future cleaning up of mess as easy as possible. I have put a king size plastic sheet beneath the bedsheet, which will prevent the vomit from seeping into the mattress.


Huge piece of plastic sheet beneath the bedsheet to prevent vomit and pee from seeping into the mattress.




There is another plastic mat on top of the bedsheet, where Sherilyn will sleep on top.




and another plastic mat next to Sherilyn with a bucket next to her on the mattress. Every night before putting the gals to sleep, I will say a prayer together with the gals for God's protection and to ask God to prevent Sherilyn from puking. I will then remind Sherilyn many times that if she wants to puke, she has to puke into the bucket. Sherilyn has not puked for almost 2 weeks and I am keeping my fingers crossed that she will very soon get over this puking phase.

Have You Gotten Your PR Back?

Many blogs got back their PR over the past few days. Most of these blogs have paid posts in them, including 3P posts. I was really upset that despite me removing the 3P badges and links from my dot com blog, the PR is still 0... for both my blogs. I doubt it will ever go up to PR4 again but I am not expecting a PR4, I'll be happy if I can get a PR3 or at worst a PR2. The traffic to both my blogs is still considered good, in fact traffic has increased for both my blogs lately. I really don't know how Google ranks a blog. Have you gotten back a good PR for your blog? This Google PR thingy is really depressing.

Palm Sunday

We celebrated Palm Sunday in church on Sunday last week. All the kids at Sunday School received a palm leave or two each. They were also taught to make a donkey out of paper plate and some present papers. Why donkey? Well, Palm Sunday marks the celebration to welcome Jesus as he rode into the town of Jerusalem on a donkey over two thousand years ago. I hope I got the facts right as I've not been reading the bible for quite some time already *guilty*




Alycia and Sherilyn had a great time making the donkey at Sunday School and goofing around with their favorite teacher.






The donkey made out of paper plate and present papers.

Dato' Ng Yen Yen, the new Deputy Finance Minister was also at our church on Sunday and it was the first time I saw her in person.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

We All Love Cream Puffs



Beard Papa's cream puff or J.Co / Big Apple doughnuts? Which one do we like more? I'll give a resounding vote to Beard Papa's cream puffs. I can't tell you how delicious those cream puffs are - they are not 'jelak' as the cream is fresh and made from fragrant imported vanilla beans and the pastry is oh so puffy and crispy. Though I am so conscious of my weight, I tend to have a weakness for cream puffs and I can even chomp down 2-3 of them at one go. These cream puffs must be eaten on the day you buy them. If you put them in the fridge overnight, the puffs will turn squidgy the following day. The cream will also lose its vanilla fragrance. Hubby normally buys half a dozen and we would normally finish them all in a day.


Luckily Alycia and Sherilyn love the cream puffs too, so I am 'forced' to share the sins with them and don't have to gobble them down all by myself.

Even my fussy Miss Spity Spat loves the cream puffs to bits and as she eats them, she would go "hmmmmm....... very nice......". Mummy would be too busy eating her own cream puffs that she will let Miss Spity Spat eat the cream puff on her own and mess up everywhere - her hair, her face, her clothes, the dining table.....

Monday, March 17, 2008

Computer Class

Today is the first day of school for the second term for all school kids. Today is also the first day of Alycia's computer enrichment class. For this optional subject, parents are charged RM60 per month, which makes Alycia's pre-school fees close to RM400 per month (extra Mandarin and Computer classes). Kids and pre-schools are really competitive these days. Most pre-schools are now having computer classes for their 4-year olds. Some pre-schools even have additional music, cooking and drama & speech classes too. If parents were to send their child to all the additional classes, school fees per month will be really costly. Imagine parents with more than 2 kids..... they would have to fork out close to RM2k or even more per month just on their pre-schoolers' school fees, enrichment classes and other extra curricular activities outside of school. That is going to cause both the parents and the kids lots of stress.... and this seems to be the norm these days.

It Ain't Easy To Own A Nice Home

We will be renovating our new condo as soon as the loan agreement is ready and loan disbursed. We would need to do some refurbishments to the kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms as well as purchase such home furnishing items as kitchen cabinets, tiles, room wardrobes and some furniture. All these will cost us quite a bit. If only there was a directbuy branch here, then we can buy all our home furnishing items and anything that we need for our home at wholesale prices direct from manufacturers, which will bring us huge savings. It's really not easy to own a nice home when everything is costly these days.