My Dad's Homecooked Dishes

At home, my dad is always the cook whilst my mum would be the baker. My dad will always kau tim cooking the dinner and my mum would bake bread, pau, cakes, muffins, cookies, pies, kuihs, jam and much more. That's one of the reasons why I love to go back to my hometown. Yesterday my dad cooked my favorite turmeric or kunyit chicken and braised pork ribs. Though Sherilyn had eaten one whole load of junk food when we went shopping at Giant, she couldn't resist the delicious dishes that koong koong cooked and ate 1 bowl of rice and lots of chicken.


The turmeric chicken that my dad cooked.


Sherilyn enjoying the chicken. She prefers to eat the chicken with the bone and doesn't like me to debone it for her.

My 3 Gals

This picture was taken this morning. Baby C wanted to join her cheh chehs reading story books but as expected, the book ended up in her mouth.





Today the gals had good old Ipoh food that koong koong bought from the market. After lunch, we went to Giant shopping as koong koong promised them that he would buy them Kit Kat....again. We wanted to go to Jaya Jusco but the traffic leading to the car park was total madness and we made a detour to Giant. At Giant, Sherilyn was a pro food taster. She took food and drink samples from all the food promoters at the supermarket. Lately, this brat has been a very poor eater when it comes to her proper meals and would take 2-3 hours to finish her lunch or dinner. But at Giant, her appetite suddenly took for the better and she wolfed down :

1) 3 cups of chocolate flavored corn flakes (dunno what that cereal was called but it looked a tad like Koko Crunch)
2) 2 cups of raspberry and strawberry flavored yoghurt drink
3) 2 cups of hot Milo
4) 1 cup of fried meehoon
5) 1 cup of Wong Lo Kat herbal drink
6) 2 cups of Cappucino

My dad, mum and I were laughing at her as she went from stall to stall to get the free samples. She even managed to use her charm to get 2 free gift watches from the woman who was promoting Kellogs corn flakes!

I Am Going Nuts

My brother's dial-up Jaring is driving me nuts. Connection is sooooo darn slow and I am taking ages to connect to a few advertisers' websites and taking forever to upload pix from my camera to my blog.

I was so fuming mad with Sherilyn just now. I had spent almost 40 minutes to upload a few pix into my blog and this brat turned off the switch to my laptop despite me yelling out to her not to. Consequently, I lost those pix that I had uploaded in my blog and a post that I had finished typing but didn't save. This is the second time she did that. The darn battery of my digital camera has now gone flat and I can't upload the pix into my laptop. My darn camera charger is left behind in KL. I now have to use my mum's digital camera to snap pix. But I have many pix in my camera which I want to upload in my blogs and I can't do it now. Oh yeah, I also left my darn handphone charger in KL thinking that I could use my dad's Nokia charger but darn it, his Nokia charger can't fit into my new handphone. Today my dad had to bring my handphone to his office and get his friend's help to charge my handphone. Haiz....

Sherilyn is terribly naughty and disobedient and she has even pissed my parents off with her disobedience. She is a hardcore cili padi.... she is bossy, fierce, vocal, speaks her own mind and not easily swayed by what people tell her, stubborn, bold, daring and is not afraid of anyone. When I reprimand her, she would say "keeeeeep quiiiiiettt" or "don't talk to me, I am drinking my milk" in a pissed off tone. Today when my mum chided her for being naughty, she said "I don't friend you. This is NOT your house, this is my house!" Sometimes she would scold my maid "shhhhhuut UP, don't talk to me". She is really driving everyone nuts. I hope she won't turn into a rebellious teenager and kek sei ngor.

Healthy Chickpeas Dip And Organic Crackers

Do check out my health blog to find out about these healthy dip and organic crackers.

Having Fun In Ipoh

Alycia and Sherilyn have been having lots of fun in Ipoh. They have been playing, eating and shopping from dawn till dusk and don't even have to take their afternoon bath or afternoon nap. And I am having a breather here with my mum and dad helping me.

Yesterday we went shopping at Tesco. Later Alycia and Sherilyn helped my mum make kaya (coconut milk and egg bread spread). Today we were out the whole morning. We went to the bank and later to Pantai Putri Ipoh Medical Center to collect Baby C's antibiotics. When we came home, the gals helped granny make bread. My mum made a loaf of apple bread for Baby C as she simply loves bread.

Alycia and Sherilyn helping granning stir the kaya.

Alycia and Sherilyn watching Granny intently as she squeezed out coconut milk.

My Dad

I feel so relaxed that I don't have to worry about what to cook for lunch and dinner as my parents will kau tim them for me. Whenever I am back in Ipoh, my parents will pamper the kids and me. It feels good sometimes to be treated like a little girl again by my parents. My dad even paid some of my groceries when we went shopping at Tesco today. Not that I want him to pay but he fought to pay them coz he loves us. He also insisted on buying Kit Kat, Loakers wafers and some other goodies for Alycia and Sherilyn. My 2 brats were so happy that they can eat Kit Kat as I don't normally allow them to eat candies and chocolates. With Koong Koong, everything is 'can can can, no problem wan', just like daddy, everything also 'ok, ok, ok'.... Guess men are mostly like that eh?

New Pink Playpen For Baby C

After having a crib in our living room for 8 months, we have finally bought a new playpen for Baby C for our new home coz the crib looked so awful and out of place in the living room. When daddy was setting up the playpen, he accidentally tore the base of the playpen and my maid had to sew it up. Finally the living room looks more like a living room without a large Safe n Sound crib... which was quite an eye sore haha...

Simple And Nutritious Homecooked Dishes

Several days ago, I cooked these simple and nutritious dishes for dinner :

Stir-fried leek flowers with homemade fish paste. I am surprised that both my gals love leek flowers, though they are a tad hard and have quite a strong smell/taste, which is similar to spring onions and garlic.

Since there are some brinjals left in the fridge that my mil had bought before she left for Hong Kong, I stir-fried them with some tau cheong or fermented soy bean paste and garlic. Alycia and Sherilyn don't really fancy brinjals, so do I but rather than give them away or let them rot in the fridge, I cooked them. My maid and I polished off the whole plate.

Steamed fish.

Food For Thought :

The leek is a vegetable belonging with the onion and garlic. Leeks are low in saturated fat, sodium and cholesterol. Leeks are high in vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, folate, manganese, dietary fiber, vitamin B6, iron and magnesium. The nutritional value of leek makes it ideal for maintaining optimum health and weight loss. Easier to digest than standard onions, leeks have laxative, antiseptic, diuretic, and anti-arthritic properties.

Video Of Baby C Laughing Loudly

I took this video of Baby C last night. I was singing Jingle Bells to her, tickling her and blowing raspberry on her little tummy and she was laughing away loudly.


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Alycia's Birth Pix

Check out the story at my other blog.

Lollipop Craze

Find out what Alycia and Sherilyn were doing here.

Can't Wait For The School Holidays To End

... coz my 2 older gals are bored to death at home.... and they are driving me nuts everyday. I find that they are more well behaved when they have to attend school. Not only is Sherilyn throwing temper tantrums everyday, Alycia too. Whilst I have to deal with 2 toddlers throwing tantrums everyday, I have to attend to a high-need, high-maintenance 8-month old baby who is super clingy to me. I have been telling my mum everyday that I am going to turn cuckoo soon and have to be admitted to Tg. Rambutan LOL! Can't wait to go back to Ipoh or for my mum to come to my rescue. I want to stop yelling the whole day coz it's really bad for me and for the kids. I am really drowning here! Just tell me how you mothers with 3 kids and no maid handle so well.

Alycia's Birthday Lunch

Yesterday daddy asked Alycia to pick her choice of venue for lunch to celebrate her birthday. Of all the places, this brat chosed a venue which is one of the most expensive and so we all had buffet lunch at Lemon Garden @ Shangri-La Hotel KL. Luckily daddy is a preferred member of the Shangri-La Hotel and we got a 50% discount off the total bill.

Alycia and Sherilyn were high on sugar as they stuffed themselves full with nothing but desserts, lots of them, bright colorful ones too, my goodness! That's why they were so hyper-active after their sugar laden lunch!

Baby C was chewing on a bread stick from the buffet counter here.

As we had our meals, my maid fed Baby C her lunch consisting of Nutrifresh and Heinz teething rusk.
After our lunch, I bought my maid a chicken curry curry puff from the bakery of the hotel. The curry puff cost a whopping RM9 but it was huge.



2 very happy girls after a sugar laden and chocolate laden lunch.

Check out my other blog to see Alycia's Mickey & Friends birthday cake.

High On Sugar and Chocolate The Whole Day

Alycia and Sherilyn had a time of their lives and stuffed themselves full with sweet desserts ranging from ultra sweet white chocolate with bright blue and green food coloring on it, cakes, pastries, marshmallows, dips on chocolate fondue, ice creams, crackers, lollipops and finally a chocolate birthday cake at night with lots of coloring! Yikes! I was too busy with Baby C to stop them from going wild with their sweet indulgence. Moreover, daddy the 'everything ok' guy did not forbid them and kept acceding to their demands at the coffee house of the hotel. Oh boy, I just hope they would not develop a cough or a sore throat tomorrow coz they are just not used to stuffing themselves with such junk food. They did not even have a proper meal today, save for a hard boiled egg and a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast. Shall post pictures of them tomorrow.

My Precious Baby Turns 5 Years Old Today

Alycia will always be my 'precious baby' - a term used by doctors on hard-to-conceive babies. My precious baby is 5 years old today. From morning through evening, I can't help but reminisce what I went through 5 years ago.... the sheer anxiety and excitement of giving birth to my very first child via a planned c-section.

We had spent the whole afternoon outside - first to Shangri La Hotel for a buffet lunch, then went to collect her Mickey Mouse birthday cake. Later she went for her ballet class without getting a nap. After ballet, we had a very simple and small party at home consisting of pasar malam food (LOL!!) and a cake-cutting ceremony. By 11ish pm, my 3 babies were all super cranky and crying at the same time coz they all did not get enough sleep this afternoon... which drove me nuts. The sound of my kids and baby crying always drives me insane. I was tired myself but I tried so hard to control my anger and not shouting at them. Alycia was so tired and crabby that she did not even allow me to bathe her and she went to bed without a proper bath or hair wash. Her crying and whining woke Baby C up from her sleep 3 times... which drove me nuts again! My 3 monkeys are finally asleep now. Bliss and peace now. Will post pix taken today tomorrow! Nite nite....

Getting A Car Cover For Our Car

My current maid is lucky that she doesn’t need to wash our car. Most maids are required to wash their employer’s cars but not ours as we think it takes up a lot of her time. The hubs sends his car to the car wash center or to those back alley small-time car wash service. I am thinking of getting a car cover for our car so that our car will not get dusty easily, thus we don’t need to send our car for a car wash that frequently.

Keeping Baby C Still During Meal Times And Meds Time

The only way I can keep Baby C still (though not 100% still, well, at least she won't squirm about) during meal times and meds time is to put her in front of the TV. And the only TV program that she really likes and can never get bored with is 'Your Baby Can Read', the educational VCD series by Prof Dr Titzer. It must be Aleka, the Prof's daughter whom she loves to see coz whenever she sees Aleka at the start of the show, she will smile. Aleka has a slight resemblance of her Alycia cheh cheh and she thinks Aleka is her cheh cheh. She also loves to see the kids in the show.

This is Baby C's dinner - steamed 'ma yau toong' fish, mashed up and 'wai san' soup with wolfberries, red dates and pork ribs. I have stopped feeding her with cereal as she keeps coughing whenever she eats cereal. I think the milk in the cereal or the ground rice in the cereal must have irritated her throat as she has a slight cough with phlegm.

Right in front of the TV, with me feeding her dinner. About an hour after dinner, we will be seated right in front of the TV again and the daily battle begins..... as it's antibiotics feeding session :(

Too Much Laundry?

My mum always comments that I have too much laundry to wash everyday. She always says that my house is like a laundrette! We have at least 3 loads of laundry to wash in the washing machine everyday - one load for the kids' clothes, one load for adults clothes and another load for floor mats and dirty cloths used to wipe tables, the kitchen and furniture. I also allow my maid to use the washing machine to wash her clothes and she uses the washing machine every other day. I'll bet no one allows their maid to use the washing machine to wash their clothes but me. But I think my maid has quite a lot of work to do and I think it's perfectly fine for her to use it.

I change the bedsheets every week, towels are washed once every 2-3 days, jammies washed everyday and of course daily wear are washed daily. My maid spends at least an hour folding the clothes and she does not even need to iron my mil and my hubs' clothes. My mil irons her own clothes and my hubs sends his clothes to the laundry to have them ironed. She only needs to iron the kids' clothes and my clothes which are not many, perhaps only 2-3 sets in a week. You think we have too much laundry for the maid to do, looking at the picture here? There is some more laundry (mostly floor mats and maid's clothes) hanging in the balcony in the kitchen.

Alcia Did It Again

She woke up 3 times last night to try to turn on the air cond again after my maid had turned it off. This brat is really spoilt! Our paed had told us time and again each time we bring her to his clinic that one of the culprits to a weakened immune system (in my gals' case, it's frequent colds) is the air cond. But Alycia does not want to listen to us. She thinks since she has her own room now, she can have the liberty to turn on the air cond 24 hours a day. When my maid chided Alycia and threatened her that she will tell mummy about it, Alycia ignored my maid, climbed on a stool and turned on the air cond herself at 5:30am. My maid just let it be as Alycia can be a super stubborn brat (just like her mummy!)and turned it off when Alycia went back to slumberland. I think I should hide the air cond remote control tonight!

The Girls' New Found Freedom

Now that Alycia and Sherilyn have their very own bedroom which is not adjoining to ours, they find it really fun to do everything in their room. Some of the things that they love doing are jumping up and down their bed with dirty feet, sleeping and playing on their bed when they have not taken their bath, putting all sorts of rubbish on their bed, locking themselves in the room and getting up to mischief and they even know how to climb up a stool to turn on the air cond or turn on the fan to full blast all the time! My maid now sleeps with the gals. The gals have their own beds and my maid sleeps on the floor. I have asked my maid to turn off the air cond at 1am everyday. My maid told me that last night, Alycia woke up at 1am to turn on the air cond after my maid had turned it off! I must find out if I can set a password to the air cond remote control to prevent my 2 gals from having a blast of their time enjoying the air cond in their room the whole day!