Our Saturday

We were out hanging with our friends almost the whole of today. First we went to Jaya 33, PJ to have lunch. We had dim sum at Oriental Pavillion Chinese Restaurant. After lunch, we went grocery shopping at Jaya Grocer. This supermarket has a wide array of imported food stuff and if you're into baking, Jaya Grocer is a good place to shop for your baking supplies as there's a good selection of imported baking ingredients. After shopping for groceries, we went to Starbucks at Damansara Uptown for coffee and another chit chat session. Poor Baby C had to be woken up twice from her nap. When we reached home, my 3 gals took their nap at around 5pm and only got up at 7pm. I made them green tea noodles with homemade fish paste, baby bak choi, shredded Japanese seaweed and winter melon soup with pork ribs.

I am still not feeling 100% well. After drinking some winter melon soup this evening, I felt like puking and am still feeling nauseous.... and my tummy felt and still feels like a balloon that's being deflated. I have been having a very gassy tummy lately and would get tummy ache whenever I am angry or get stressed up with my kids. I hope things get better when school reopens next week, otherwise, I may have to send both my older gals to the daycare center at their preschool. I hardly have time for them lately coz most of my time has been spent with Baby C. You know how much time is needed to care for a baby, what more a high-maintenance and high-demand baby. From morning till night, my day is spent feeding her and she clings on to me like a leech! Ok, nuf said. I better shut down my PC and go to bed now. Got to wake up early for church tomorrow.

Baby C Loves Shaking Her Head

...and it's so cute. Whenever we sing to her, say "no" to her, when she's happy, she will shake her head. She even shakes her head when she doesn't want to eat her meds or health supplements. She's such a cute baby.

The other day, Baby C was licking the railing of her cot away. When I shoke my head and told her "no, no, no, don't lick the cot baby", she also immitated me and shoke her head. Alycia and Sher also shoke their heads and Baby C shoke her head even more.... and all 3 of them giggled away.





My 3 angels shaking their heads away....

Grilled Salmon Fillet

The other day, hubby bought some salmon fillet. As we didn't have much time to pan-fry it, I grilled it in my oven toaster.



First I slit the salmon fillet and stuffed it with some chopped garlic.



Then I wrapped it in an aluminium foil and put it into the toaster oven. 20 minutes later, I opened up the aluminium foil and toast the fish for another 10 minutes.



Just before serving, I squeezed some lemon juice on the salmon. The result - a succulent grilled salmon fillet with garlic.

Plantar Fasciitis Pain Relief

Lately I have been feeling pain on my feet, especially on the heel whenever I get up from my bed to walk in the wee hours of the morning. Sometimes I feel like an old woman because I will stagger and can’t walk at my normal pace. Nonetheless, the pain, known as Plantar Fasciitis is only momentarily and will subside after I have warmed up my feet. I heard that a night splint can gently flex the foot and toes overnight to provide pain relief in the mornings. I think the pain that I am suffering on my feet is caused by too much running.

Happy 2009 To All

Check out my other blog to see how we ushered in the new year.



On the right - roast turkey, roast beef and garlic buns...


Salads...



Chicken chop, mushroom sauce, spaghetti bolognaise, mixed veggie, roast beef and lamb...



Just before midnight, there was a cake cutting ceremony for the kids and we sang "Happy New Year To Us" (to the tune of Happy Birthday). That was a green tea red bean cake from RT Pastry House, my all-time favorite bakery.

Cheque From Nuffnang Finally!

After having placed the Nuffnang banner in my blogspot blog for more than a year, I finally cashed out the money recently. 2 weeks ago, I got a surprise when I opened an envelope and saw a cheque from Nuffnang. Though it's only for a meagre amount of RM62.36, well at least I still earned some money without having to do anything. This money is enough for me to buy myself a nice pair of sandals for the New Year!

Outing At Jungle Gym @ BSC

We had an enjoyable outing at Jungle Gym @ Bangsar Shopping Centre on Saturday last week. Check out my other blog to read on.

My Creative Foodie

We were at Canton I @ Gardens last week for dinner. Daddy ordered a peanut tong sui and a mango pudding for dessert. Sherilyn my little brat with lots of tricks and ideas up her sleeves scooped out the 2 desserts into her bowl and mixed them all up.






After a few spoonfuls, she abandoned the peanut-mango dessert, for reasons quite obvious....



Top bowl - the peanuts tong sui all stirred and mixed with the mango pudding, untouched and all wasted!

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.