Maid Stories Again

My maid is another fler in the house making me blow my top everyday. Seeing how late she sleeps each night, I try to help her out in some of the chores like boiling water, washing the bathrooms, wash Baby C's utensils and I even mop the kitchen floor after I cook. Talking about cooking, she botches up a dish 9 out of 10 times, though I kept reminding her what to do and what not to do. So now I take over the cooking, everything. Today she sent me raving mad again. Seeing how slow she works, I told her that she doesn't even need to wash the laundry or fold them. She also doesn't need to iron the adults' clothes. She only needs to iron my kids' school uniform. Most of the laundry will be sent to the laundry or my hubby's staff will do it. She only needs to do baby and some of the kids' laundry. I made this decision coz last night, I caught her keeping half dried laundry and trying to fold the damp clothes. Today, again I caught her washing dirty wash cloth together with my baby's clothes, though I had reprimanded her many times never to do it.

Also, I've caught her many times putting food that I'd just cooked or just packed back into her mouth with the same spoon that she's scooping them into a bowl when she thought I wasn't looking... when everyone else hadn't eaten yet. I told her she can eat all that she wants but she has to eat properly and not eat so sneakily. Besides, it's so unhygienic to eat from the same spoon that she's using to scoop the food out into our bowls. And it's grossly bad manners too. Today she did it again when she was pouring out the fish head noodles that hubby bought.... and she kept denying it. I wanted to say "hello, what's the strand of noodles doing at the corner of your mouth?" But my throat hurt badly and I didn't want to make an issue out of this small thing. You tell me, would you be mad? I've told her umpteem times never to wash dirty wash cloth with the kids' clothes, yet she deliberatly did it and vehemently denied doing it. She thought I was born only yesterday. All these are still bearable. What I can't stand most is that she often shouts at my kids and scolds them in the exact same manner that I do to them. She even handles them very roughly to vent out her frustration. For the past 1 week, I also caught her dozing off while feeding Baby C.... with Baby C sitting on her lap! OMG... that's frigging dangerous. I had reprimanded her many times and now, no more putting Baby C on her lap when she feeds her. She even had the cheek to ask Sherilyn to 'jaga baby' and left Baby C on the room floor... and with a bath tub filled with water in the attached bathroom, while she stepped out of the room. Thank God, I saw it and reprimanded her.

If I had the money, I would have opted for another maid. I've given this maid far too many chances to change over a new leaf.

Sherilyn's Extra Curricular Activities

I got a phone call from the gals' principal this morning which gave me a scare and got my heart thumping away as I rushed to pick up the phone. I hate receiving phone calls from the gals' pre-school. Usually, any call from the school shouldn't be something pleasant right? The principal wouldn't call me to tell me how clever or how good my girl is right? Anyway, she called to inform me that Sherilyn's Mandarin enrichment class will begin next month, which is just next week. Her Mandarin enrichment class will be every Friday from 12 - 1:30pm and Alycia's Mandarin enrichment class will be every Tuesday from 12 - 1:30pm.

Sherilyn also has ballet class on Friday from 7-8pm. By the time Sherilyn's back from school, it would be almost 2pm. Knowing how slow this fler eats her food and knowing how much she likes to dilly dally when it comes to taking her shower, by the time all the dilly dallying and temper tantrums are over, it would be almost 5ish pm. So no need to take afternoon nap lar. I have to get Alycia and Sherilyn ready for ballet at 6:15pm - dress them up and tie up their hair. Maybe it's also a good thing coz Sherilyn has boundless energy. She rarely falls sleepy. Everyday, she would avoid taking her afternoon nap and at night when everyone else has gone to bed, she would also walk round the house and dilly dally again... until close to midnight. I wonder where she gets all the energy from.

Anyway, back to her Mandarin enrichment class. Perhaps it's not too bad an idea that she has a tightly packed schedule so that all the activities will burn her energy away and hopefully she will have no problem falling asleep when night comes. Hooray!

My Girls And Their Lego Blocks

One of the toys that Alycia and Sherilyn don’t seem to get bored with is their Lego blocks. Granny bought the Lego blocks for Alycia for her 3rd birthday and the gals have been playing with them for over 2 years. Lego blocks is one toy that can really stimulate the imagination of kids. Some of the objects that Alycia and Sherilyn had built with their Lego blocks were KLCC Twin Towers, dinosaur, boat, robot, house and even a cell tower. Well, some of the things that they told me they had built didn’t really resemble the actual object but in their eyes, their creation is always the best and they are always proud of it.

That's All I Can Eat For Lunch Today

My throat still hurts today and I am coughing like someone who has TB. I don't have much appetite to eat, so I just drank some snow fungus pork ribs soup and ate half a cup of rich premium organic yoghurt.






Check out my health blog to find out more about this absolutely tasty organic yoghurt.

Funny Video Of Baby C

Baby C seems to be afraid of the sound of the hair dryer. Each time I dry her hair after her bath, she would run round and round the playpen to avoid the hair dryer. Yesterday, she did something really really hilarious. She kept shaking her head, like a model who has just gotten out from the swimming pool.... shaking her head to shake off water from her hair....

Have a laugh too...

">

An All-In-One Financial Solution For My Family

When I made up my mind to quit the job that I loved to be a SAHM 3 years ago, I was plagued with worries and anxieties that my hubby would not be able to feed 3 mouths (now, it’s 4 mouths!) with just one income. It wasn’t an easy decision for me to throw in my resignation letter but to me, my kids always come first. During the initial months of relying on just one income, it was a tad difficult to adjust our lifestyles, especially in the way we spent our money. We had to cut down on many luxuries so that at the end of the month, there’s still money left to go into our savings account or fixed deposit account.

It’s never easy to have just a sole breadwinner in a family. The standard of living in the city where we live is high. Month in, month out, there are endless bills to settle, hire purchase and mortgage to pay, the kids’ school fees and extra curricular fees, insurances for the kids and for ourselves, car maintenance, medical and hospitalization bills (hubby’s self-employed), food and household expenditure, amongst others. I am pretty sure many of us with kids have almost the same commitment as us and we all struggle to squeeze out a portion of our salary to go into savings. Wouldn’t it be good if we have a personal financial planner who can help us chart out a budget planner, manage our day-to-day finances and savings goal so that we can invest in our future and that of our kids?

I found out today that AmBank has a perfect all-in-one solution called Family First that caters to my family’s financial needs. The Family First solution is perfect for families with kids as it is designed with a complete suite of products and services that cater to every aspect of your financial needs. It helps me plan and manage my expenses and save for specific goals.

Amongst the benefits that I will enjoy as a Family First member include an Everyday Account which is a current account and checking facility, up to 10 Special Savings Accounts linked to my Everyday Account, an awesome online Budgeting and Savings Tools that can help me design a budget to meet my family’s needs so that at the end of the day, I still have enough money to go into savings. I will also have access to family bankers who will guide me in managing my accounts with their financial tools, fund transfer and standing instructions facility within AmBank at no cost, access to an informative Family First Website with tips and ideas on how to plan each stage of my life and much more. Now, aren’t these benefits awesome? Well, I am pretty impressed and I am planning on getting myself a Family First account soon. It’s pretty simple to be a member. As long as you are at least 18 years of age, you can go to any of the AmBank branches with your IC to open a Family First Everyday Account.

Fruitful Morning

I had quite a fruitful morning today. After a good half-hour jog round the neighborhood and inhaling the crisp, after-rain morning breeze, I felt much better. The pain in my throat and head subsided a little and I didn’t feel cold anymore, though I’ve lost my voice! That’s the wonders of exercising. The feel good hormones, endorphins can really make you feel damn good! When I came back, I got Aly and Sher ready for school. Then, I fed Baby C antibiotics and then took a shower. Next I nursed Baby C and she dozed off. While she was asleep, I hurriedly worked my brain and hands at full steam (before baby wakes up and I can't do anything) and managed to dish out 4 paid posts and 1 non-paid post in less than an hour, phew! These days, I hardly have the time to sit on my computer to blog. The most I can spend on my computer now is 1-2 hours, compared to 5-8 hours before Baby C came along! See the vast difference! But it’s ok, in fact I think lesser time on the PC is a blessing in disguise coz I can spend more time to coach Alycia in her homework and because of this, she’s progressing really well in her studies now.

Baby C's Progress At 10 Months

I’ve not written Baby C’s progress for a very long very time and it’s time I did one now. Here’s Baby C’s progress at 10 months :

1. Can say “bear bear” when she sees the picture of Pooh Bear on her cup.
2. Can say “ball ball” when she sees my fitball.
3. Can call “cheh cheh” and “dada”. Sometimes calls “daddy” and sometimes calls “papa”. Sometimes calls “mama” too.
4. Can walk a few steps unaided when she’s in her playpen. However, when she’s put on the floor, she will cruise and crawl.
5. When asked “where’s the fan baby?”, she will point to our discount ceiling fans. Can also point to the lights, air-cond and clock when asked where they are.
6. When asked “baby, make funny face”, she will put on a funny face by twitching her lips into an ‘o’ shape.
7. Can fly kiss by putting her hand on her lips when asked.
8. Can wave her hand when we say “bye bye” to her. Can also clasp her hands and do the 'gong xi' thing.
9. Knows some of her body parts, namely ear, nose, fingers, head, toes and will point to them when asked where they are.
10. Still loves her “Your Baby Can Read” VCD series after watching them for half a year and can sit for at least half an hour watching the VCD intently….yay! Hopefully she will be able to recognize some words soon.
11. Will tap on her diaper when asked where her diaper is.
12. Still hates her antibiotics and health supplements which she has to take daily.
13. Loves soup, porridge and bread with butter and granny’s homemade pineapple jam..
14. Loves to drink from a cup.
15. Can remove her pants and unbutton her jammies.
16. Can pull off the sticker on the packet of wet wipes and knows that she has to lift the sticker to pull the wet wipes out.
17. Will pretend to cry when I give her a stern looking face when she throws her toys out from her playpen.

That’s all I can remember for now but I know there’s definitely more.

Baby C’s weight is still below average at a disappointing 7.5kg. Her below average weight is contributed by the monthly UTI attacks that she gets and the purging that comes along with the UTI. I pray that she will have no more UTI and will gain weight at a more rapid rate after her surgery.

Baby C Removing Her Pants

Baby C caught in action removing her pants 2 days ago....






When we were all laughing at her antics, she said "aah" and passed me her pants!

Mah Mah Coming Back... And Alycia Is One Happy Girl Again

Alycia is really happy today. That's because her beloved mah mah will be coming back from Hong Kong next week. My mil is making her trip back earlier to help me out with the 2 older gals when Baby C goes for her surgery in 2 weeks' time. My initial plan was to send Alycia and Sherilyn to daycare at their pre-school for a week when Baby C goes for the surgery. When Alycia heard me discussing this with a relative, she bawled big time for over 2 hours... non stop and kept repeating "I don't want to go to daycare"! Over and over and over again, though I told her later that I will not send her to daycare anymore. That night, for the first time since we moved to our new condo, she knocked on our room door at 3am (which scared the hell outa hubby and I), requested to sleep in with us and climbed onto our bed. Poor baby, she must have been really traumatized.

Green Tea Noodles With Terriyaki Chicken

Here's another quick fix meal which Alycia and Sherilyn can never seem to get fed up with - green tea noodles. Sherilyn would be beaming if I would cook her green tea noodles twice a day, everyday! If there's a bowl of green tea noodles on the dining table at every meal, she doesn't need 2-3 hours to painstakingly chew and swallow her food. She can gobble down the bowl of noodles in less than an hour.


We had green tea noodles with cold soba sauce and toasted sesame seeds the other day. Daddy bought some terriyaki chicken from a Japanese restaurant and with that, Alycia and Sherilyn had quite a balanced meal for lunch.

Video Of Alycia Playing With Baby C

Video taken 2 days ago.


">

Mac N Cheese Again

If I would just allow, Alycia and Sherilyn would be too happy to eat mac n cheese everyday. But mac n cheese per se is an incomplete meal, without much protein and protein is just what growing kids need. So to make their mac n cheese meal complete, I normally fry them each an egg or omelette with french beans. This way, it's quite a wholesome meal with a combo of carbo, protein and fibre.



Mac n cheese with french beans omelette, chicken meat (from the soup) and soup of the day.

Video of Sherilyn Dozing Off At Dining Table

Here's a video of Sherilyn dozing off at the dining table taken 2 days ago. She had again refused to take her nap in the afternoon and when it was dinner time, she had exhausted all her battery and had no strength even to eat or drink. After more than an hour painstakingly chewing and swallowing her food, she finally konked out.

Here you go, have a good laugh....

">

9 Questions Tag

Lian wants to see some fun injected in my blog, so she passed this fun tag to me. I've not done a tag for aeon but since I'm quite opp-less now, I have a little more time to do tags, though I must admit I don't really fancy tags :S

So here goes:

1. Have you ever been on TV?
Yes. When our house was badly flooded in 2006, some reporters from NTV7 came to interview the flood victims. One lady reported saw me carrying Sherilyn (she was only 1 yo then) and lugging my paraphernalia and she stopped me to ask for an interview. I tell you, I look so horrible on TV!! So 'chan', so haggard, hair so messy and I look like an ah soh, my gawd!!

2. Have you ever sung in public?
Does karaoke count? I've sang in karaokes many times but there was once when I was touring in Australia with my mum, there was a karaoke session one evening. I sang in front of all the tourists in our group... and the song was That's What Friends Are For.

3. Have you ever dyed your hair blond?
Nope coz my hair is naturally blond... eerrr, nolah, it's kinda brown.

4. Have you ever eaten frogs' legs?
Yup, why not? It's wholesome and good for your skin. If you have eczema, eat more frogs!!

5. Have you ever received a present that you really hated?
Of course...and I recycled it, haha! Better than letting it go to waste right?

6. Have you ever walked into a lamp post?
Not really lamp post but on a pillar and on doors. It happened when I was deep in my thoughts or had a troubled mind.

7. Have you ever cooked a meal by yourself for more than 15 people?
Nope but I am capable of doing that coz I kinda love cooking.

8. Have you ever fallen or stumbled in front of others?
Thank God no! But when I was in Standard 6, I always had a phobia of stumbling and falling in front of a group of boys from ACS school. Each morning in that year, I had to walk across a lane to get to my class and there would be a group of boys waiting at the lane for the school bus to come to pick them up from MGS (my school) to ACS. I remember very vividly that I was terribly self conscious and would walk so carefully just so I would not trip or stumble in front of those rowdy boys (and I had my eyes on a few handsome ones too hah!

9. Have you ever done volunteer work?
Yes, when I was a girl guide. If I had the time, I would really LOVE to do more by contributing my time and money. That's one of the things that I will do when I have the time and I'd encourage my kids to do them too.

Not tagging anyone but if you would like some fun injected into your blog, you're most welcome to do this tag.

Jogging With Baby C

Baby C seems to have the ability to 'sense' that I am leaving her each morning before I leave the house to go jogging / gym. Many times, she would wake up just before I leave the house.... and she wouldn't want to be left with daddy or kakak. So I normally lug her along, in the stroller. After the stroller mishap 3 months ago, I now have a phobia of pushing her on the stroller on the road. So if she wakes up before I leave the house, I'll bring her along to the gym. However, my little Energizer bunny can't sit on her stroller for long if she's not pushed. Yesterday Baby C woke up again just as I was about to step out of the house.... and I lug her along again. This time, I didn't bring her to the gym. Instead, I went jogging at the lobby of our condo. I pushed her on the stroller and jogged up and down the corridoor of the lobby .... and Baby C loved it. Not only did she not crack any noise or fuss, she was so 'high' being pushed and enjoyed the cool morning breeze so much that she almost dozed off in her stroller.

Disney Digital Camera Selling At Only $19.99!

Did I tell you that Alycia has pretty good hand control and photography skill? She is normally my photographer whenever daddy is not around to help me snap pictures. But I am still paranoid that she will drop my digital camera because I can’t survive without my camera! My blog is dead without my camera! I am pretty sure she will be in cloud nine if I bought her a Disney 3MP digital camera. This Disney digital camera is the perfect digital camera for kids of all ages and is now on sale at buy.com. Normal price is $79.99 and it’s now selling at only $19.99. The digital camera has many cool functions and one of it is that it comes with a Disney Pix photo editing software so that the pictures can be customized with Disney characters, stamps, frames and more! I think it’s a pretty cool and affordable ‘toy’ for Alycia. I’m sure her photography skill will soar if she keeps snapping away on the camera.

Sherilyn's 4th Birthday Celebration

Last night, we had dinner at my favorite Seoul Korea Korean restaurant. We invited a few close relatives to the restaurant to celebrate my princess wannabe's 4th birthday.

The appetizers were so much (replenishable too) that we couldn't finish the main course and had to pack the unfinished food home. Click HERE to view pix of my princess wannabe's Princess birthday cake.


Baby C wearing her favorite sunnies.... which belongs to Sherilyn cheh cheh. Baby C seems to know that she looks darn cute and hillarious in the sunnies and would give us the cutest and sweetest smile whenever we put the sunnies on her. Oh btw, Sherilyn actually brought the sunnies along to the restaurant and wanted to put it on her head as if it was a head band. This vain pot also wore a toy watch, her angel wings and put on lots of accessories on her hair.

An Act Of Kindness From Friends And Stranger

Money aside, another priceless gift that I've gained out of blogging is friendship. I've made new friends with many great mothers in the blogosphere ever since I started blogging almost 2 years ago. When one blogger mum read that Baby C has to undergo a surgery, she emailed me and offered financial assistance to pay part of the hospitalization bill. She said she really wanted to see Baby C get well once and for all. Since her company pays the medical expenses for her and her kids in full, she felt really thankful. In return, she wanted to do something to help me and Baby C. I told her that though the hospitalization is not covered by our insurers, my hubs will nonetheless find the means to pay the bill, which is expected to be over RM10k. I then told her to donate the amount of money that she intends to help me to other people who are in a similar situation as Baby C but need the money much more than me. This will definitely help save someone's life.

Another mummy (who is not a blogger but a frequent reader of my blogs) from Australia offered to help me buy cranberry capsules and mail them to me after reading from my blog that I was looking for them. I turned her offer down but this kind lady took the trouble to get the details of the cranberry capsules from the local pharmacy and emailed the details to me. I finally got the cranberry capsules when another reader of my blogs told me that I could get them from GNC in KL.

Then there is another blogger who sent a gift to Baby C when she read that she was hospitalized for another UTI attack. And there is another good blogging pal of mine who visited Baby C and me when baby was hospitalized the first time. Am I blessed to have so many people who are so concerned for me and Baby C?

I'm really grateful and thankful to everyone who had offered their help, gifts and comforting words to me in times when I really need them. Thanks to YOU... you know who you are :)

Another Eventful Valentine's Day This Year

Exactly a year ago on Valentine's Day, daddy and I spent our evening at the ER of the hospital. Sherilyn fell and hit her forehead at the sharp corner of a wall. Blood was oozing out from the cut on her forehead. She took a piggy back ride on Alycia's back whilst I wasn't looking and when Alycia got up, she fell. I was 7 months pregnant with Baby C then. We only managed to cut the Valentine's Day cake at 10:30pm when we got back from the hospital.

2 days ago this year, the exact thing happened to Sherilyn. According to Alycia, Sherilyn tried to sit on her shoulders and fell and almost hit the sharp corner of the wall again but thank God, her forehead was spared from cracking again... phew! She only hurt her leg. Spooky eh? Lightning does strike twice at the same place, at the same person.

On Valentine's Day yesterday, Sherilyn the menace created trouble again. She had a fight with Alycia and cried till she puked.... on the bed!! All the dinner that she had spent 2 painstaking hours to eat (and fell asleep on the dining table too) came pouring out on the mattress and on daddy's pouch! My maid and I spent our night cleaning up the mess. I was really fuming mad with her. We couldn't cut the Valentine's Day cake early because we had to wait for 2 hours for her to finish her dinner and when she finally finished her dinner, all came out again! Again this year, we only managed to cut the Valentine's Day cake at 10:30pm. So we have had 2 eventful Valentine's Day in a row.

Click HERE to see Sherilyn dozing off at the dining table with a mouth full of food.