Appetizing Appetizer

We had this appetizing appetizer on X'mas Eve -


Organic Haute Cuisine crackers with President Petite Brie cheese.


The crackers and cheese are available at Cold Storage.

Snacks And Green Tea From Japan

These are some of the snacks which mah mah bought for us from her recent trip to Japan:



Soya bean, mung beans chips and prawn crackers.



Pumpkin chips.





Thomas and Friends jelly and corn snacks.



And a very fragrant box of Sencha greentea for me. Sencha is the most popular green tea in Japan.

My Saturday

I am feeling a tad sluggish today - having a bad backache, feel nauseous and no appetite, whole body feels battered (overworked myself at the gym yesterday), feel darn sleepy and tired. Nope, I'm not what you are thinking of, definitely a BIG NO! Yesterday, I went to the market at Central to get some fruits, veggie, fish and pork. I carried Baby C for almost 2 hours and when I got home, my back felt like it was about to break into 2. On Christmas Day, I had a very bad tummy ache and since then, I have been feeling bloated, have a gassy tummy and have no appetite. It could be due to stress - stress caused by my 3 kids, no joke!

BTW, I just discovered that I can do my marketing for cheap veggie, pork, fruits, etc at this wet market at Plaza Central at Old Klang Road that is in an air conditioned building. This place is clean and not like the wet and smelly wet market that we used to go to. If you want to do your marketing, do check out Central.

Anyway, today I still made it to Jungle Gym at Bangsar Shopping Center to meet up with this mummy and my childhood friend, Yi Yi of almost 3 decades. Yi Yi and this mummy are sils. We had a great time there but I wasn't feeling well, so I left early.

Have been really busy with my kids and with my home lately. Really no time to blog. The only time is when my 3 monkeys are fast asleep at night but then, I would also be drop dead exhausted myself. Can't wait for the school to re-open in another week's time!

Maybe I Need NLP To Help Me Overcome My Anxiety

Ever since Baby C’s recent hospitalization for her third attack of Urinary Tract Infection (UTI), I have been living each day with fear and anxiety. Each time I sniff her soiled diaper, my heart would skip a beat. A foul smell in her pee / diaper would mean that she most likely has a UTI attack and would require hospitalization with antibiotics drips.

Feeding Baby C her daily antibiotics and health supplements is another stressful battle I have to grapple with everyday. Each time Baby C cries, struggles, spits out or throws up her meds and health supplements, I would be on the verge of crying myself. If this continues, I will surely worry myself to the mad house. I think I really need some counseling like Neuro Linguistic Programming or NLP to help me overcome my anxiety.

NLP was created by Dr Richard Bandler. It is a way of better understanding how people think - and how you can persuade or influence them to think differently. NLP is a set of ideas and techniques that can help people make many changes in their own life or to help others change. NLP looks at behavioral traits and bad habits. The treatment provides the patient with verbal instructions to reverse the trends of their thoughts.

Paul McKenna is the UK's best-selling non-fiction author of all times and his books are all based on NLP, namely I Can Make You Thin, I Can Make You Rich and Change Your Life in 7 days, among others.

If you think NLP can help you change the life that you’ve always wanted to change or help you alter the way you think, go check out nlpconnections.com. The website is free to join and there are currently over 10,000 members, including top NLP trainers and authors. There is a forum at the website for members to interact, a reviews section, articles, MP3 interviews with trainers, an events calendar and much more. The best thing about the website is that the trainers and authors offer help and advice to members absolutely free of charge!

Our X'mas Eve

We had a very simple X'mas Eve dinner at home yesterday. Hubby invited 3 of his aunties home for dinner. We had :

Organic crackers (roasted garlic with sun-dried tomato) with President Petite Brie cheese as appetiser
Lamb chops
Spaghetti with Carborana sauce and chicken ham
Pan-fried salmon fillet
Broiled brocolli
Broiled baby bok choi and baby choi sum
Haegan Dazs ice cream as dessert


After dinner, Alycia and Sherilyn watched TV until midnight. At the stroke of midnight, they opened their X'mas pressies and had a fun-tastic time opening their gifts. We were waiting for some fireworks display at the KL Towers and KLCC but there weren't any. Never mind, New Year's Eve is just days away and we shall stay up again to watch the fireworks display.


Our X'mas tree with lots of pressies under the tree for our 3 angels from the gals' doting aunts, uncle and grand aunts.

Broiled brocolli, baby bok choi and baby choi sum.

Spaghetti with carborana sauce and chicken ham.



Baby C wailing away when she saw hubby's aunties. Baby C tends to cry when she sees unfamiliar faces at home.

2 types of lamb chops.




Pan-fried salmon fillet.

Panettone Loison Bread Cake

My sil sent us a Panettone Loison bread cake (I think it's a cross between bread and cake) all the way from Hong Kong last week. This bread is made in Italy and tastes a tad like fruit cake but the texture is like bread. It is made of butter, flour, eggs, sugar, oranges and has a very appealing and fragrant butterscotch flavor.






The deliciously mouth-watering bread, with one huge chunk gone.... which went into my tummy!

Thank you tai kar cheh for this lovely bread and all the pressies. You're the best!

Living Next To A Limestone Hill

My parents' house in Ipoh is situated next to a limestone hill. The entire neighborhood is surrounded by scenic limestone hills and lush greenery. The view in the morning is pretty breathtaking, especially when the hills are covered by fog and clouds. The morning air is also pretty cool, thus I love jogging round my neighborhood and enjoy the view. It makes me feel as if I am in some holiday resorts overseas.

Over-Ate And Refusing Milk

When Raymond kau foo (my eldest brother) and Marene kam moh came from Singapore last week, we had dinner at the Japanese restaurant at our condo. Alycia ate to her heart's content and walloped California rolls, maki, chawan mushi, prawn tempura, rice, grilled fish, green tea ice cream and jelly. After weeks of pigging out on food, Alycia's body finally surrendered last week whilst we were in Ipoh and she puked. Till today (almost 1 week later), her appetite has still not really returned and she has been refusing milk ever since. I hope she won't lose interest in milk and wean herself from milk. I think it's a tad too early for her to stop drinking milk. She's still a growing toddler and I think milk is still a good source of calcium and protein. Anyway, I am now giving her Marigold HL fresh milk.

Homecooked Creamy And Cheesy Spaghetti

I cooked some creamy and cheesy spaghetti for Alycia and Sherilyn about 2 weeks ago. The ingredients I used for the sauce were :

1 bowl of soup
3-4 tablespoons of milk powder
1-2 tablespoons of butter
3 slices of Krafts Hi-Calcium singles cheese
Some cherry tomatoes and pumpkin seeds for garnishing

Method:
Once the pot of soup is boiling, dump in the milk powder, butter and cheese. Cook for about 1-2 minute and pour the sauce over the cooked spaghetti.

So how did my gals like it? Alycia didn't quite like it coz there were some soya beans in the sauce, which was from the old cucumber soup. Sherilyn loved them to bits and even polished off Alycia's bowl of leftover spaghetti!

New T-shirt Plastic Bibs For Baby C

I use about 4 bibs on Baby each day. One is used when I feed her supplements in the morning, another two when I feed her porridge for lunch and dinner and another bib when I feed her antibiotics at night. Some of the bibs are cloth and some are plastic. Sometimes I run out of bibs when they are not dried, especially during rainy days. The other day, I got her 2 more t-shirt plastic bibs. These bibs are great since she gets all messed up during each feed. One is bought from Mother Care and the other one from Mom's Care.

Baby C looking very blur here as she had just woken up from her nap.

BTW, I hardly put her on this Safe n Sound highchair now (which once belonged to both her cheh chehs) as she just can't sit still and can even wriggle out from the safety belt. I must ask hubby to find the highchair table (which he has kept in his office) and attach it back to the highchair. Maybe with the table for her to put her food and toys, she will sit still during meal times.

Egg Custard

Today I had lunch at a coffee shop at our neighborhood. This coffee shop sells very good roast chicken, roast duck, roast char siew and siew yoke, roast Chinese sausages, tai chow dishes, homemade woo kok (yam puff with char siew), white coffee and egg custard. The owners are from my hometown Ipoh and their family also run a coffee shop in Ipoh selling similar stuff. All their food are really tasty. We go to this coffee shop a few times a week for lunch or dinner.



One bite of this super smooth egg custard could send me half way through to heaven! It ain't too sweet and the caramel tastes soooo good. If I wasn't too concerned about my darn jelly belly, I tell you I can wolf down at least 2 plates of egg custard!

Sentimental Mum

My mum is a very sentimental person. She doesn’t have the heart to discard things and thus keeps things for ages. When I was going through my cabinet during my recent trip back in Ipoh, I found many old things. Some of the things were Alycia’s old baby clothes, some of my old baby clothes which she has kept for over 35 years, a couple of old printers that she’s kept for more than 10 years, a huge collection of story books which once belonged to my brothers and me and much more. It’s a good thing that my parents have a fairly big semi-detached house to store all these old things. I am quite a pack rat too and I think I’ll just be like my mum if we were staying in a large house too.

Baby C Crawling Up The Stairs

When we were back in Ipoh, Baby C had the opportunity to crawl up the stairs. She was just like her 2 cheh chehs when they were about her age but she still can't beat her Alycia cheh cheh. When Alycia was a baby, she was very, very active and agile. She could crawl up the stairs boldly, swiftly and confidently within minutes. She was so active and bursting with energy that I was even worried that she had ADD.


Baby C having a good exercise crawling up the stairs.

We Are Back

We were back from our hometown yesterday evening. My gals had a whale of a time at their grandparents’ and it was a respite for me as I had great help from my parents with my 3 kids. I have been eating lots of good food in Ipoh and thankfully I did not put on any weight as I’ve been working out extra hard. I still believe in exercising and don’t really fancy using fat burners. I was quite worried that the red needle would move to the right when I stepped on my scale this morning but luckily it remained at where it used to be before I went to my hometown.

Baby C Likes Her Cheh Cheh's Milk

Yesterday after fixing a bottle of milk for Sherilyn, I left it on the floor for her as she was too engrossed playing and didn't drink the milk immediately. Baby C who was playing on the floor saw the bottle, quickly crawled towards the bottle and snatched the bottle. She sucked the teat and ho ho ho.... she discovered milk..... and she liked it. My mum then let her suckled the teat for a few seconds and she was obsessed with it. She likes her cheh cheh's Dutch Lady 456 milk! She bawled big time when I took the bottle away from her. I then took her to my room and gave her my teats instead. Mummy's not weaning you off the teat teat just yet dear..... mummy's milkie is still better than moo moo's milkie!

Baby C Understands What I Am Saying

I think Baby C actually understands what I am telling her. Just now, I had left Baby C in her crib and I was in the bathroom having my shower, with the door ajar. When she started to fuss, I tried to distract her and I said this to her :

Cassandra, where is koong koong? Where is Alycia cheh cheh and Sherilyn cheh cheh? Where is granny and kakak? Where? Where are they?

Baby C then stopped fussing and looked at me with her eyes wide opened, as if she understood me. She then turned her head towards the door, put her left arm up and said "aaaaaa"! When I asked her the same question again, she looked at the door again. I was really very amazed that she actually understood me. Aren't babies amazing?

Sherilyn My Clumsy-Pot

Not a day goes by without Sherilyn spilling her drinks or soup or dropping food on the floor. Meal times will be stressful times for me for I will be yelling at her. She will surely walk up and down the house and climb up and down her chair and spilling her soup, water and dropping food everywhere in the house. I have been telling her at every meal that mummy's blood pressure will shoot up and mummy will die faster because of her but she just couldn't be bothered. Sometimes, this manipulative monkey will bawl loudly the minute she spills her soup or drop food on the floor, in the hope of getting my sympathy, so that I won't scold her.

Last week over breakfast, Sherilyn dropped her hard boiled egg on the floor whilst she was watching TV. I was fuming mad coz I was really busy at that time. Morning times are the busiest for me as I will be feeding Baby C all her supplements and fixing breakfast for my 2 older gals. I hardly ever have the time to sit and eat my breakfast in peace during the school holidays.

The hardboiled egg that Sherilyn the Menace dropped on the floor.




... which eventually went to the bin and she had nothing to eat for breakfast afterward.....



Minutes later, she spilled her cup of sticky loh hon koa herbal drink on the floor! You tell me, would you be angry if you were me?

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.