Good Old Ipoh Food

Soooo much good food…. and they are all from Ipoh. My parents form Ipoh came to visit me last week and they bought all my favorite food from Ipoh – famous curry noodles from Yat Yat Seng coffee shop in Ipoh Garden, famous Hakka fish balls and noodles from Kg Simee market, famous egg tarts and ‘kayang kok’ (kaya puff) from Kg Simee market, deep fried turmeric chicken drumstick, roast chicken, ‘siew yoke’ (crispy roast pork), ‘char siew’ (roast pork), roast duck, yam cake, ‘cee cheong fun’, pomeloes and famous ‘heong peng’ (baked fragrant biscuits with molasses and onions). There was so much food that there were so much leftovers, that left us eating the leftovers for the next 3 days.

Kai Jau

That's my all-time favorite confinement food - 'kai jau' or chicken cooked in ginger wine and rice wine. I ate this dish almost every other day during my confinement and know what? I just can't get enough of eating it. Now that my confinement is over, I am still craving for it. I think I'll ask my mil to cook another big pot of it next week. Anyone cares to join me for lunch? You're cordially invited to my house to taste the 'kai jau'!

Laughing Cow = Laughing Kids

Alycia and Sherilyn are crazy over Laughing Cow cheese. I hardly buy them this brand of cheese as it is very expensive. But daddy and especially mah mah are the ones who always spoil them rotten and would always get them the triangle wedges or Party Cubes or Cheeze Dippers each time they go shopping. Alycia and Sherilyn are so crazy over the cheese that they will do anything to lay their hands on the cheese. Sometimes after I have gone upstairs for my shower, they will go to the kitchen, ransack the fridge for Laughing Cow and eat them without my knowledge. But kids being kids, I always found out as they do not know how to eliminate all evidence. I always found the wrappers and box in the dustbin or bits of cheese at the corner of their mouth! Once, Alycia refused to eat her lunch and demanded for Cheeze Dippers. I refused to give in to her whims and she cried and cried. I ignored her but when I went upstairs to have my shower, mah mah secretly gave her the box of Cheeze Dippers! Grandparents tend to have such a weak spot when it comes to seeing their grand children cry. They always give in to their whims and fancies. You agree?

Bottle Feeding Exclusively Breastfed Babies

One of these days, I really have to try bottle feeding Baby C to get her used to the bottle. Now, she only wants my teats and nothing else. If she continues to be so hooked on my teats, there are not many places that I can go to, apart from shopping malls that are baby-friendly that have special rooms for mummies like Jaya Jusco. I will even have a hard time going to the church as there is no special room for nursing mums in my church. The only way I can try making her drink from the bottle is to only feed her when she’s really hungry. But then again, I fear she will get choked when I bottle feed her when she’s really hungry. She will definitely suck too hard from the bottle like she used to when she nurses directly from my breast…. and then get traumatized.

For those of you who have successfully breastfed your baby exclusively, did you also bottle feed your baby? For those who did not bottle feed your baby, how did you manage when you go to places without special rooms for nursing mums or changing rooms for babies?

True Friends

True friends are really God-sent. They are willing to offer you help in times when you are desperate. I have discovered another true friend yesterday when she offered me something that even money can't buy (well, maybe money can buy, but she did not ask me for money). Thanks Miche for everything! I truly appreciate all that you have done for me.

Blogging Marathon

I have not worked up my brain at full steam for quite some time. Guess how many assignments I managed to complete yesterday and today? 18 paid posts! And more than 20 personal posts as interim posts. All I need is 2 hours yesterday and 3 hours today. It really ain't easy to steal a few hours a day, away from my house, away from Alycia and Sherilyn... but not away from Baby C as I need to nurse her every 1.5 - 2 hours. That's why Baby C is with me here, at hubby's office on her pink bouncinet, with my worked up left leg bouncing her net and my worked up fingers tapping on the computer keyboard.

Impeccable Timing

Baby C's internal clock is impeccable. Know why? At precisely 10:30am - 11am everyday, she will whine to signal to us that she wants her bath. After her bath, she will whine again to signal to me that she wants mummy's teat teat and milkie. At precisely 6ish pm, she will whine again to tell me that she wants her bath again.... and after her bath, whine again to tell me she wants mummy's teat teat and milkie again. Then at 8ish pm, she will whine again... to be brought up to her air conditioned room, and she wants her jammies put on, lights turned off and only wants mummy's teat teat and milkie again. Impeccable sense of timing for a 1 month old eh? Easy for me coz I don't need to guess what she wants!

Is your 1 month old baby like this too?

Duck King Restaurant

My hubby is crazy over this newly opened Duck King Restaurant at the newly opened Jaya 1 in PJ. He has been patronizing this restaurant every week without fail for the past 1 month with Alycia and Sherilyn and my mil (whilst I stayed at home during my confinement). Today I finally went to this much talked about restaurant and boy, I tell you, the queue was loooong. The restaurant even had to put chairs outside the restaurant for patrons to sit whilst they queue up! Know what? Hubby is so obssessed with this restaurant that he plans on taking us there for dinner tonight! That's because my parents from Ipoh, brother and sil from Singapore are in KL. Looks like my hands will hurt further tonight as I will have to carry Baby C for at least 1-2 hours during the dinner.

Leg and Hand Ache

I am surely going to get an ache on my left leg and an ache on my leg hand tomorrow. Today is the first time we brought Baby C out to the restaurant. As we could not find the old stroller, hubby and I had to take turns carrying Baby C throughout our lunch. I tried to put her into my Baby Loft sling but I found that Baby C's body looked curled up in the sling and I felt stiff putting her into the sling. In the end, I took her out from the sling and carried her till my left hand ached.

As I am typing this post, my left leg is also moving the bouncinet with Baby C sleeping on it. I really need a good urut from my urut lady next week to get rid of all the aches from my body.

Another Bottle Of Perfume To My Collection

My Santarina eldest sil got this bottle of Dior limited edition perfume for me when she went overseas. Now, I have another bottle of perfume to add to my collection of perfume. I just love perfume but I guess I have to stop putting them on until I wean Baby C off breastfeeding.

Thanks tai kar cheh for the perfume!

Maid Stories ..... Part 2

....continuation

I was so pissed off with the things my maid did that I gave her a piece of my mind several days ago. She lied to me over several things, i.e. work that she did not do but said she did and things that she did but said she did not do. I told her that if she wants to continue working for me for 2 years, she has to buckle up, else I would send her back to the agent. I also lied to her that there are hidden cameras fixed everywhere in the house, so she better not lie to me. Remember the case where she ‘stole’ an egg to eat and threw the egg away when I walked into the kitchen? I dug up this matter and lied to her that I saw her doing it from the CCTV. Many things that she did wrongly in the past which I had just kept quiet and tried to tolerate, I also dug up and told her that I saw them all from the camera! I have no other choice but to threaten her this way so that she will buckle up and not deteriorate further. It’s always good to nip something bad at the bud before it blooms.

Given a choice, I would send her back to the agent and get a new maid. Because she is already a rejected maid and I have used her before I hired her as a permanent maid, I am thus not entitled to another replacement. Getting a fresh maid would mean incurring another RM8k+. Also, I am not guaranteed that a new maid would be better than her, she could be worse off. Hopefully after all the pep talk from me, my maid would change over a new leaf. If she continues to slack in her performance, I will most likely call the maid agent over to my house to give her another session of counseling.

Disney Seaweed from Japan

This is another pretty and cute edible stuff that my mil bought during her recent trip to Japan. It’s a packet of seaweed with pictures of Disney characters imprinted on each piece of seaweed. It goes well in a kid’s Bento lunch box. This reminds me that I have to get 2 Bento lunch boxes for Alycia and Sherilyn.

Maid Stories

During the past 1 month when I was in my confinement, I hardly checked my maid’s work. I used to wake up early in the morning to work on my computer whilst I supervised her when she did her work before I delivered Baby C. Because of this, her performance has slacked. She doesn’t follow the daily work roster anymore and she did many things that really pissed me off. I have also caught her a few times handling Alycia and Sherilyn very roughly. Last week, I caught her raising her hand on the pretext of hitting Sherilyn to frighten her as Sherilyn did not listen to her. Whilst I can’t blame her to lose her cool with Sherilyn (coz even I can’t handle Sherilyn myself and always lose my patience with her), she still can’t threaten to hit Sherilyn. Now, both Alycia and Sherilyn hate my maid and don’t want my maid to handle them anymore. Consequently, I have to handle all 3 kids myself. What I do now is while my maid bathes the 2 older kids, I wait outside the bathroom and watch them. After she is done bathing them, I take over and dress them up, blow dry their hair and clean their ears.

to be continued.....

Super Multi-Tasker

I can now declare that I am a super multi-tasker. As I am typing this post from my hubby's office, I am cradling Cassandra with my left hand and nursing her. The internet connection to my house has been disconnected 4 days ago and it is only expected to be up again earliest on Tuesday next week. I am not going to talk about how inefficient Telekom is now, I am super pissed off with them now.

I haven't taken my dinner yet and I have to rush home now to bathe my baby.

.....to be continued

Low Carb High Protein Diet

Ever since my 1 month confinement was over on Friday last week, I have stopped eating rice and noodles. During my confinement, I only ate a couple spoonfulls of rice but ate lots of chicken, vegetables and sometimes fish and pork. My weight shot up by another 1kg during my confinement. Now, I am trying to shed off some pounds as my tummy is still bulging, as if I am 3 months pregnant. This is what I ate for lunch yesterday :

I ate the entire chunk of this 'siew yoke' (roast pork). Gotcha, just kidding! Though I am supposed to be on a high protein diet, I still can't be eating fatty stuff like this. I only ate a quarter of it for lunch and another quarter for dinner.

I drank the entire pot of papaya soup with fried fish and pork ribs which my mil boiled.... of course not in one meal but for lunch and dinner.

Also drank a big bowl of sweet corn soup at 10pm when there was still some left in the pot. My mil boiled this for Alycia and Sherilyn as sweet corn soup is their favorite soup.

That's my lunch - all protein and fibre. The vege is just blanched and not stir-fried. I also indulged in a wedge of sweet corn, which is a no-no for dieters. Sweet corns have high GI and are supposed to be fattening.

3 more weeks to go and I can resume my running sessions in the morning. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I can find the time to jog and not have to push Baby C in a jogger, coz that will be so troublesome and burdensome.

Baby C Has Eczema

Look at my poor baby's once fair and flawless face... it is now lobster red with the eczema flare up. Every part of her skin on the face is covered with rashes. The worst parts that are affected are her cheeks, which feel like hard scum. Thank God her body is spared from the eczema. Continue reading the story here.

More Of Sherilyn's Terrible Threes

Of late, Sherilyn has a habit of folding her arms to vent out her anger whilst she pouts her lips and puts on a disgruntled expression on her face each time her whims and fancies are not met. She even scolds me back with hurtful words.

In this pic, Sherilyn got angry when my mil and I did not allow her to change her pants. She was wearing a pair of shorts the whole morning. After a while, she decided that she wanted to wear long pants. Lately, she has a liking to wear long pants at home..... and she likes to change her pants and clothes a few times in a day. It is really hot to wear long pants at home as the weather has been terribly hot and humid lately. She also had yeast infection recently so we discouraged her from wearing long pants which would make her sweat, but she wouldn't listen. She would pull a chair to the cabinet, climb on the chair and unlock the cabinet (she now knows how to unlock all our cabinets and child safety gates) and fish her long pants out. She does that 2-3 times in a day. When her demands are not met, she would wail and roll on the floor. Looks like her Terrible Threes behavior is far worse than her Terrible Twos as she now knows how to verbally and mentally challenge me. Is your child like this too? I really hope I can find a good way of tackling Sherilyn who is really driving me bonkers.

Being A Mother Is The Toughest Job

Life as a mum to 2 toddlers and a newborn baby is crazy. I salute SAHMs who have more than 2 kids and without a maid to help them. I still find it very difficult to organize my time and I always find that I don’t have enough time in a day to accomplish all that I want to do. I have been sleeping at 1am+ everyday ever since my confinement lady left on Saturday. Since my mil is unwell and can’t help me much with the kids, I have to handle all 3 of my kids by myself. Last night I went to bed at 1am and woke up at 7am today to prepare Alycia for school. I also don’t get uninterrupted sleep as Baby C wakes up every 1-2 hours for milk and to suckle my teats for comfort. I feel so exhausted and sleepy all the time. I even fell asleep when the urut lady (Malay masseuse) came to massage me today. I think I really need to read some books on parenting advise such as the Mom's Ultimate Family Organizer: A One-Stop Planner for Busy Moms or the Supernanny to guide me to be a better mum and to better manage my time.

Multi-Tasker

Do you know how long I took to complete and submit a review to the advertiser today? I spent almost the whole afternoon trying to type the post and 1 hour to submit the post at night. There were interruptions, mostly from Baby C after almost every line that I had typed. Just when I thought that Baby C was fast asleep after I had nursed her at 11pm, I switched on the baby monitor and quietly crept downstairs to work. Before I could even warm my seat, I heard her 'eeeee eeeee aaaaar aaaaar' on the baby monitor. I rushed up and nursed her again for 15 minutes. Then came downstairs again. This went on 3 times - I went upstairs, nursed her, pat her bum (but she wouldn't want to sleep, only wanted my teats!) came downstairs and heard her cries. Finally, I realized that this will not stop, so I carried her downstairs and placed her on the bouncinet on the floor, next to my PC. With both my hands typing, I stretched out my left leg and moved the bouncinet with it. That naughty brat slept soundly without a sound!

Peace At Last

Today, hubby brought Alycia and Sherilyn to the biggest theme park in Malaysia at Times Square. There is finally peace at home.... for me. I've wanted some quietness and some me time for a long time and finally I have it today. For the past 1 month, there were so many people in the house - friends, relatives and my house was really noisy.... with people coming in and out of my house the whole day, people chatting from morning to midnight, screaming and wailing toddlers and the cries of a hungry newborn baby. I hardly had the time to rest my mind and body. I wanted to follow the gals to Times Square too but the thought of having to find a place to nurse Baby C and having to find a baby-friendly toilet to clean her poopie business every 1-2 hours turned me off. I still need some time to get used to my new routine before I have confidence to bring Baby C out for a shopping trip.

Though it is supposed to be a day for mothers today, I rather spend my quiet time at home..... get some peace of mind, rest my throat for at least half a day (I yell a lot when Aly and Sher are at home), complete my outstanding assignments (Streamyx will be cut for a max of 3 days from tomorrow for change of name in our fixed phone line) and to catch up on my sleep!

Guess what time I normally have my breakfast ever since my confinement lady left? Earliest is 10:30am and today, I only had the time to eat my breakfast at 11am. I woke up at 9am, nursed Baby C, cleaned up her bum after her poopie business, fed Sherilyn breakfast (she just won't chew and swallow her food) and got the 2 older gals ready to go out with daddy and mah mah. Just as I was about to sit down to eat my breakfast, Baby C pooped again and I have to clean her up again. My maid who is still single has no experience in handling babies and I can't ask her to help me with Baby C.

Despite such a crazy life as a mum to 3 kids, if you ask me if I had a chance to start all over again, would I still want to have Baby C, my answer is a resounding, YES. I wouldn't trade anything for my Cassandra. She has brought a lot of joy to my life, despite all the difficulties I have gone through and am going through now.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL THE MOTHERS READING THIS POST! BEING A MOTHER IS THE TOUGHEST JOB AVAILABLE, KUDOS TO YOU ALL!