What Cassandra Has Been Up To Lately

I love to go a-wandering around my home sweet home
and as I go I love to sing a knapsack on my back...
Mama meee.... mama meee, a knapsack on my back.



and I love my ABCs flash cards too....

Surprises From Baby C

Surprisingly, Baby C seems to have a liking for this hard cover book with pictures of real animals.... coz her 2 jie jies did not display any interest in this book when they were younger. Baby C can now recognize a handful of animals and she never fails to make me laugh each time she says "aaaaa....fen" (elephant) when she sees the picture of the elephant. She will also say "bear bear" whenever she sees any type of bears.


Baby C all soaked up in this book of animals.

Today, Baby C surprised me further when she immitated me by saying 'taaa kiu' (thank you). She also said "daiii.......be" (diaper) when I gave her a diaper. She even understands Cantonese, Mandarin and Malay. When my maid asks her things in malay, she will point out to those things. Her latest buzzword is 'pain', 'thoong' (pain in Cantonese) and 'sakit' (pain in Malay). She will point to her hand with her forefinger each time we mention the word pain, thoong or sakit... coz her hand was where the IV line was inserted during her 3-week long stay in the hospital.

These surprises from my sweetiepie are never enough and I can't wait for her to spew out more words each day.

Half A Year Has Gone

Can you believe it? Today is 1st July... which means that half a year has flown past us so quickly. I can't believe that it's almost 2 months since Baby C's first surgery in Penang and in another 2 months' time, I will have to bring her back to the hospital in Penang for the MCUG scan to see if she still has kidney reflux. I absolutely can't wait for time to pass and for her to grow up. Our doctors have told us that many kids with kidney reflux will most likely outgrow the condition as they grow.

So what have I accomplished during the first half of this year? Nothing much but I managed to jump one very big hurdle and that is to see my baby go through 2 major surgeries. Before her surgeries, I often worried and wondered how life would be during my stay in the hospital watching my baby suffer. Well, I'd soldiered on and survived the ordeal, so did my very brave and tough little cookie. I can only pray now that the days ahead of her would be brighter and that she can now lead a normal life. Life for a toddler should be fun... there should be plenty of fun time, plenty of time spent in the park, shopping trips and holidays, right? But for Cassandra, her days revolved around eating supplements, antibiotics, hospital trips and pain. Well, I hope these are all over now.

As for me, the past 1 year or so has been extremely tumultous and I have been so engrossed and obsessed with Cassandra's health issue that I feel my life only revolved around her. I have neglected my 2 older kids, other people whom I love and other things that I love to do. I want to be an all-rounder again from now onwards. I pray that the second half of this year will be a better year for me, my kids, my hubs, my parents and everyone else whom I care for.

So how did the first half of this year go for you?

How Do You Eat Mangosteens?

That's how Alycia savors her mangosteens. As for me, I will break the mangosteen into half with the both of my palm, then use a fork to poke the flesh out. That's the easiest way to eat mangosteens. How do you eat your mangosteen?

Maid Woes, Part II

Yesterday morning, I called up my maid agent again… just to remind her to look into our case and to let her know how pressing this matter is. I was so cheesed off when she informed me that she’s still locating my maid’s file and from the way she sounded, it looks as though her ex-hubby had lost my maid’s file! Not only had he lost my maid’s passport, the file is even lost. So how now brown cow? I almost wanted to utter out the words that I will report this matter to the police but then again, I seem to have a bleeding heart for single mums like her whose useless hubby had cabut and left her in a lurch. She said she will get the help of someone from the Immigration Dept to locate my maid’s passport. But a few other issues are still screwed up, thanks to her crook ex. If those issues are not sorted out, my maid would have to be deported right away. Because of that crook, my hubby and I have to suffer so much inconvenience, loss of a lot of money and loss of our precious time. Life will be really miserable for me without anyone helping me out. I really need someone who can spend several hours a day to help me to spoon-feed Baby C her formula milk and her 3 meals, to watch over her like a hawk as she is now super mobile (walking and climbing on everything and anything) and minding Baby C while I attend to my 2 older gals and coach them in their homework.

I seem like a whiner here, don’t I? I really wonder how some mums can raise their kids without a maid and not whine a bit.

to be continued....

Maid Woes

We are in deep trouble. We have a big issue with our maid agency who has most likely lost our maid's passport and with some other issues. Our maid agency was owned by a husband-wife team but the hubby cabut (they divorced and I don't know if he absconded, jailed or was a womanizer) and my maid's case was handled by the hubby. Now the wife is telling me that her ex could have lost our maid's passport as he had also lost a handful of other people's maids' passports.

Anyway, long story cut short, we would have to be forced to send our maid back to Indon if our problem is not remediable. And we would be maid-less. And no, hubby doesn't want Cambodian maids since we had very bad experience with them. And yes, we can't afford a Filipina maid as we still have to settle our huge medical/hospitalization bill incurred by Baby C recently. So yes, I will go bonkers soon without a maid. I'll know what's happening by next week. Wish me luck that I can retain my existing maid. Though she has attitude problem, I still can live with that vs. living without a maid.

H1N1 Precautionary Measure By The Gals' Pre-school

Aly and Sher's pre-school has taken precautionary measures in view of the Influenza A virus. But what if your child has only slight cough or runny nose? Would you still keep your child at home? What would you do? Would love to read your views.

Sher had a mild runny nose and nose blocked early this week. I still sent her to pre-school and that was before I received the notice from her pre-school. What about parents who are working and have to send their kids to daycare? Who will look after their kids if they can't go to pre-school/daycare? Does that mean that the parents have to take leave for as long as the child has runny nose/cough? Some kids seem to have slight runny nose / cough for prolonged periods.

What Is A Netbook

Today I discovered a new word and something new - netbook. Well, netbooks are not new in the market but they are something new to me. I found out that a netbook is a ‘mini laptop’. It is small, light weight, low cost, highly portable and is an alternative to a full sized laptop computer. Netbooks are good for people who are always on the go and are primarily used for web browsing, email and instant messaging. Priced at a range between $200 to $400+, anyone can afford a netbook. I want one too!

Health Freak Baby

Not only does baby likes cucumbers, lemons, raw carrots, beans and veggie, she even likes beet roots (both raw and cooked ones)!



Right hand holding a wedge of raw beet root and left hand a piece of vitamins-enriched baby biscuit. She sure knows good and healthy stuff!



Whilst baby had raw beet root to nibble on for breakfast, she had porridge with beet root and salmon. Yesterday she had double boiled beet root soup with lean pork. Our surgeon told us that beet roots are good stuff and good for Baby C, that's why I'm stuffing her with beet roots now :)

Healthy Sandwiches For My Brats

For days, Alycia had been requesting to eat tuna sandwich. So tuna sandwich it was that she ate yesterday and this is what I prepared for her:


A thick slice of multi-grain-seeded bread with tuna in olive oil, a squeeze of Japanese mayo, chicken ham, a slice of high-calcium Kraft cheese and some sliced cucumbers.

For Sher who always wants things done her way, she refused to eat tuna sandwich. This fler then came up with some quirky ideas and this is her sandwich:

A slice of multi-grain-seeded bread with kaya, a slice of high-calcium Kraft cheese, a wedge of mashed avocado and topped with lots of sliced cucumbers, her favorite.

My Little Trooper Is Walking

Baby C has been taking a few steps on the floor unaided for the past few days and boy is she proud of her achievement! I just love the smug look on her cute face each time she walks and then turns back to give me a wide toothless grin! Opps, she's not exactly toothless coz a tooth is finally sprouting out and it now looks like a grain of white rice on her gums. Baby now does not want to put in her cage (her playpen) and would always scream her way out. She is now crawling, cruising and walking round the house and she's just so happy that she has found her new freedom and a new feat.



Baby playing with a sculptured balloon for the first time and she's no different with her 2 jie jies as she's another balloon lover. She's not even bothered when the balloon burst right in front of her, keng hor?

Qwest High-Speed Internet

There I was yesterday all wrapped up typing my blog post away for 15 minutes, hoping to finish off a post before my baby woke up from her nap and then when I clicked on the ‘Save’ button, holy moly, my PC gave me the ‘hang’. I waited for another 5 minutes and still there was no response. I checked my internet connection and it said internet connection is disconnected. Aargh….. I got so pissed off that I could almost pull a gob of my hair off my scalp! Everything that I had typed was gone and unsaved. This happens all the time. Even as I am typing this post, the internet connection is at a snail’s pace and I am now waiting for several websites to load. At times, it would take 10-15 minutes to load a page. The internet connection at my home is pretty slow and unstable and this is driving me nuts as it would be really difficult to work when things are moving so slow.

Now if only we had Qwest high speed Internet available here, life for bloggers like me who blog for money and the like would be more peaceful. Qwest High-Speed Internet allows you to download videos, music, images and other large files at lightning-fast speeds. No extra phone line is necessary and the DSL does not tie up your existing line, thus enabling you to talk on the phone and surf the web simultaneously. And because Qwest High-Speed Internet is always connected, you won't waste time worrying about busy signals and waiting for your modem to connect. Qwest is also staffed with quality telephone technical support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And oh yes, you can also get Qwest phone service, a phone service plan that can be customized to meet your unique needs. Getting lightning-speed internet and a low-price phone service plan are now just a click or a call away. Go check out Qwest today at the links provided above.

Alycia And Sherilyn Are Learning Swimming

Aly and Sher are finally learning swimming....TODAY! And they are really excited and happy about it. Sher is so excited that she would not even want to take her nap.... and this is ticking mah mah off coz we all know that she will be really crabby by dinner time and wouldn't want to eat her dinner if she skips her nap. She's walking round the house now and has been asking me what time it is now for the umpteenth time. For the past 7 months since we moved here, Aly and Sher could only watch with envy from the 5th floor of our condo whenever the instructor teaches the Japanese kids swimming. Now, they are one of his students. This man gives private swimming lessons to kids at condos and schools. And the good thing is he doesn't charge exorbitantly. He is charging us RM25 per child for half an hour once a week. Today the instructor wants to try Aly and Sher out to see how well or poorly they fare in the water. I better wake Aly up from her nap now and get the gals ready. The instructor is already at the pool teaching the Japanese kids swimming now.

Our Father's Day

We had a pretty simple Father's Day celebration yesterday. The gals made Father's Day card in Sunday School and after church, we had dim sum for lunch at Prince Hotel with hubby's relatives. Thereafter, daddy went to RT Pastry, our favorite bakery and bought himself a chocolate cake. We wanted to get our favorite green tea red bean cake but was sold out. The bakery was bursting with customers! Back home, my 3 angels had a great time (as usual) blowing the one and only candle on the cake and then proceeded to help themselves to the cake. I let baby put her fingers into the cake to dig on the cake and cream and then to lick it and boy did she love it. But of course I dared not let her eat too much of the cake. All she ate was a teeny wee bit, which was not enough to satiate her.




Alycia and Sherilyn fighting to hold the cake knife while baby was really fascinated with the cake and all the hoo ha her jie jies created.

Baby C Is Cutting Her First Tooth

Baby C is finally cutting her very first tooth at 14 months, at exactly the same age that Sherilyn jie jie cut her first tooth. I first noticed that her lower and upper gums were hard when I was wiping her gums after her meals about 3 weeks ago. I knew instantly that her teeth were going to sprout. Today, I saw a tiny wee bit of the one and only pearly white in her lower gums, which looks like a grain of rice stuck to her gums. Woohoo, finally she will be able to eat more food!

Here's a pic of Baby C taken with the Sister at GMC, who was very caring and compassionate. The Sister gave her a Popeye soft toy on the day she was discharged from the hospital on 15 May 09. I guess baby missed this Sister a lot coz the next day, we had to make a mad dash from Ipoh back to Penang when baby kept puking.... and she was re-admitted and stayed there for another 2 weeks.

Finally... I Received My Reader's Digest

For the past 3 months, I've not been receiving my Reader's Digest. I had notified them of my new address when I moved to my new condo last year and I had received their monthly issues after moving to my new place but all of a sudden, I stopped receiving them. I wonder what had happened to them... but I was too busy with my 3 kids, especially with Baby C that I had totally forgotten to find out what happened to our RD. Several days ago, I saw my RD on the dining table, woohoo! Finally, I got my 3 issues - April, May and June 2009. They were sent to our old address, sh*t! Thankfully the new tenant kept them and did not dump them into the bin conveniently and pretended he didn't receive them. He passed them all to the hubs when he went to our old house to check on our mail. Now, how am I going to find the time to read them all? I hardly have the time to finish reading the entire newspapers these days.

Glorious Ipoh Food

On the second last day of our stay in Ipoh, hubby tar paued back all my favorite Ipoh hawkers' food from the well-known Kwong Heng coffee shop and Tien Chun coffee shop in Old Town. Also tar paued my favorite dim sum from the popular decades-old Foh San Restaurant (located opposite Funny Mountain tau fu fah and soy bean milk)



Popiah...


Dim sum from Foh San. I love the malai koa to bits. Also love their huge fried fishballs. I used to eat these yonks ago when I was just a few years old.


Kai see sar hor fun with prawns...


Lobak. I think this lobak tasted better than the one that hubby bought in Penang, during our stay in the hospital.

Ngau lam and ngau chap (beef brisket and beef spare parts). I love the beef brisket as the meat is really tender. I don't eat spare parts of any animal!

and also char koay teow (not in picture).

Ipoh Funny Mountain Tau Fu Fah

This bowl of tau fu fah (豆腐花), or soybean curd looks pretty run-of-the-mill right? But the moment this super smooth tau fu fah touches your tongue and goes down your throat, you will feel the difference. It's by far the smoothest and freshest tau fu fah I've ever tasted. When I was in Ipoh recently, I finally got to eat the super smooth and fresh tau fu fah from the well-kwown Funny Mountain not once but twice :D It is served steaming hot with pandan syrup but I always eat my tau fu fah without any sugar.

Funny Mountain is located at Osbourne Street (Jalan Tahwil Azar), near Restaurant Foh San. Talk about Foh San, it is a popular place for dim sum in Ipoh and this restaurant has been around for many decades. I shall blog about the Foh San dim sum that I ate next.

Funny Mountain has a drive-in delivery service. If you are at Funny Mountain, you should also try the following delicious varieties:
o soymilk only (with plain sugar or gula melaka)
o soymilk mixed with cincau or leong fun
o soybean curd with soymilk.

Also be prepared to be caught in a long queue when you are at Funny Mountain.

Father's Day Celebration At Moven Peak, Ipoh

On Wednesday, we had an advanced Father's Day celebration for my dad at the Moven Peak Steamboat Restaurant in Greentown, Ipoh. Check out my other blog to read more about our Father's Day celebration.

The price per adult is RM26.80, if I'm not mistaken. Kids are charged according to their height. Thus, the moment we stepped into the restaurant, Alycia's and Sherilyn's height was taken! So anyone who is short would gain! Alycia was charged RM16 and Sherilyn RM8. Senior citizens get a rebate and only need to pay RM20 per person for a really, really wide selection of food ranging from fresh seafood to fishballs, meatballs, pomfret fish, thinly sliced beef, chicken, green veggie, mushrooms, seaweed, noodles, fried chicken, beef steak, lamb chop, fried noodles, tempura, sushi, a salad bar, 6 types of ice-creams, tong sui and much, much more.

These are some of the food from the buffet counter:

Shellfish, crabstick, lala, etc.

Crabs, prawns, fish...


The restaurant...

There is even a machine to dispense mashed potato and the sauce! There were also chilled juices and hot tea making facility. There were also tong sui and ice-creams that came in 6 delicious flavors (cookies and cream, coconut, mango, strawberry, chocolate, vanilla) which was a great hit with kids and adults too.



Everyone will be given 2 choices of soup. We chose superior herbal soup (extra RM5 for superior herbal soup but FOC for regular soup). This was our hotpot in superior herbal soup:



Porridge soup base
We also chose porridge soup base. It tasted bland (like rice water) before the ingredients were added into the soup but tasted kinda thick, like Campbell's chicken soup after all the rich seafood, chicken, beef, etc were dumped into the broth.


The Otak-Otak fishball was something that I had never tasted before. There was otak-otak wrapped inside the fishball. My mum liked it.



Salad bar and desserts ranging from kuih, biscuits, jellies, apples....


An assortment of fishballs, meatballs, foo pei, tofu balls, etc....


Fish maw, jelly fish, squids, prawns, cuttlefish, etc....





An assortment of fried stuff ranging from fried mini chicken drummets, beef steak, lamb chop, fried wantan, french fries, etc.

Moven Peak steamboat will be really worth every sen spent for those with an insatiable appetite and tummy large enough to store the wide range of fresh seafood and delicious grub. We will definitely patronize Moven Peak again when we next go back to Ipoh.

The crowd was really huge on Wednesday, which is a weekday. I can't imagine how crowded it would be on weekends. I think it's advisable to go there on a weekday.

Moven Peak is located at :
12A Jalan Chin Choon Sam
Greentown
30450 Ipoh
Tel : 05-2532218 / 2533218
www.movenpeak.com.my

Our Thursday

Hubby and I had planned to return to KL today BUT as usual, Alycia and Sherilyn have been having so much fun in Ipoh with koong koong and granny that they didn't want to go back to KL. Surely they love being in Ipoh coz koong koong buys them ice-cream everyday. Last Sunday they followed koong koong to Tesco and gosh, they took advantage of koong koong's generosity and leniency towards them (coz koong koong is another yes man to them, next to daddy)... and filled the shopping cart with junk food! Koong Koong was more than happy to see his 2 doting granddaughters being happy and enjoying his company.

Anyway, this morning, we were still planning to go back to KL. While hubby brought Alycia and Sherilyn out for breakfast, I was busy packing our stuff. But when hubby returned home with the gals, he announced that our trip back to KL will be tomorrow morning pulak! So ok, my maid then placed all our belongings (which we have placed all over the floor in our living room) back into the room and then we had lunch..... glorious Ipoh food that hubby tar pau back from Kwong Heng coffee shop in Ipoh old town.

Later, daddy may bring them to Polo Ground to have electronic car rides. I hope I get to jog at Polo Ground. Polo Ground is really a nice place to jog and there's always throngs of people jogging there. But people will shun away from Polo Ground at night coz it's just next to a huge graveyard!