Blessed To Have 3 Angels

People always tell me that I am blessed to have 3 daughters and I think so too. Tell me, would your son brush your hair and give you a good head and body massage? Most likely no, right? You're lucky if your son doesn't mind massaging mummy from head to toe muahahaha!

I mentioned in my earlier post in my other blog that I am wiped out each day having to walk behind Baby C and be her bodyguard. This fler is now super active and mobile and her energy level is also at an all-time high... and I'm really glad. Anyone who sees her wouldn't believe that this cili padi had undergone 2 major surgeries exactly 2 months ago.

Today I felt tired and sleepy doing nothing but following baby round the house. So I brought baby to her 2 jie jies' room (her 2 jie jies followed suit) and locked the room door. I then lay on the bed and told my 2 older brats to play with baby. When my 2 brats saw me lying on the bed, they happily volunteered to give me a good massage. Alycia quickly dashed to my room to bring my jar of Rosken cream and Sherilyn quickly fetched the hair brush muahahaha. Alycia then started to apply the Rosken cream all over my hands and legs and begun massaging me. Sherilyn who is obsessed with her hair and her Barbie dolls' hair had a swell time brushing my hair... and pulling gobs of hair off my scalp too! As for Baby, she was happily playing with her jie jies' toys and I need not worry much as she was confined to a small room and had no chairs to climb on. After a good 15-minute massage, I felt recharged!

And just for laughs....

Baby still finds thrills playing with my undies. She loves opening my drawer and fish out my undies... and then put the undies over her head, as if she was wearing a tudung (head scarf) or a shawl , muahahaha....



And she loves my grandma's panties best muahahaha.... I used to wear them when I was preggers with Baby.

My Nosy Parker

My naughty KPC (nosy parker) ransacking the kitchen drawer....


... first she brought a pack of crackers to the living room and crawled back to the kitchen for more...


... Alycia jie jie said that baby probably wanted to have a picnic on the floor muahahah..... and Alycia jie jie had to close the kitchen door to prevent baby from bringing more junk food to the living room.

This is our typical afternoon at home. Baby will be busy ransacking our things, pressing on our Astro decoder and switching channels (and enraging her 2 jie jies), climbing on chairs, sofa and beds, opening doors and playing with her 2 jie jies' toys. She is now a big distraction to her 2 jie jies coz it's really hard for them to concentrate in their homework and hard for me to coach them as well. But I'm not complaining, I would rather she be a distracter than to lie in bed in the hospital.

Maid Woes - Part III

Called up my maid agent yesterday. Well it seems that my maid's passport that has been sitting at the Immigration Dept has now been located and brought back to her. When I spoke to my maid agent at 6pm yesterday, she has yet to see the passport yet. Now I just hope that the big issue that is screwed up can now be un-screwed and remedied. We have no extra cash for hiring a new maid all over again, which would cost up to RM10k. Even if we have, is it worth the risk taking? It's just too costly and there's no absolute guarantee that the new maid is going to be better than my existing maid. Moreover, changing maids until I finally get a satisfactory one is going to involve way too much money. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed that I can keep my existing maid.

What Did She Draw?

One afternoon early this week, Sherilyn was supposed to be doing her homework but as usual, this brat was doodling and scribbling on every book that was on the table. I was nagging and nagging at her and then when my eyes caught a glimpse of what she was drawing, I was amazed.









Can anyone guess what my brat had drawn here?

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I think you would have guessed it right looking at the cross and the red color on 'Jesus' hands and feet right? When I asked her why she colored the hands and feet red, she told me it's blood. I think our recent visit to St. Anne's church in Bukit Mertajam must have inspired her to draw this picture of Jesus on the cross. I am really amazed that my brat drew this... of all things.

Being A Mother Is Tough Job!

I used to look forward to the weekend but not anymore now... for weekends mean that I have to be a slave to my 3 gals from the time they rise to the time they retire to bed at night. On weekends, I hardly have the time to sit to have my breakfast. It's worse on Sundays as I will be rushing like a mad lady.... fixing my 3 gals breakfast, painstakingly spoon-feeding baby and coaxing her to drink her formula milk, bathing baby and the 2 older gals... all these to be completed before we make a mad dash to the church. On weekends, my 2 older brats usually refuse to nap in the afternoon though I force and threaten them. By dinner time, they will be so worn out that they could barely open their eyes when seated at the dining table. And Sher would nomally be sitting at the dining table for 2-3 hours, dazed and with food stored in her mouth. Most times, almost everything on her plate that had turned cold and gross looking will end up in the bin.

Now that baby is walking everywhere unaided, I can never leave her alone, not even for a few seconds. Accidents usually happen in a split second just when you are caught unaware. Yesterday she followed me to the toilet and just when I wasn't looking for a second, this brat put her hand into the toilet bowl that was filled with her jie jie's pee (her 2 jie jies have a bad habit of not flushing the toilet), eewwww! I was horrified!

I had just spent an hour doing nothing but followed baby everywhere that she went. My maid is now spoon-feeding her formula milk. These days, I pass this chore to my maid coz baby knows how to bully me. When I'm the one feeding her formula milk, she will struggle and make life difficult for me for she only wants mummy's boops. It usually takes an hour for my maid or me to finish spoon-feeding her ONLY 2 ounces of formula. How terribly pathetic hor? With much difficulties, I can only force feed her 4-5 ounces of formula milk a day. I really want to wean her off my boops but how to when she absolutely hates formula milk?

I'd really appreciate tried and tested effective tips on how I can successfully wean my baby off my boops and get her interested in formula milk.

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.