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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Keeping Baby C Still On Her Chair During Meal Times

Before feeding Baby each of her meal, I need to crack my head to find novel entertainment and toys that will attract her so that she will sit still on her high-chair. She has now gotten bored of most of her toys, as well as her jie jies', so I have to give her OUR toys LOL.... things from the kitchen, remote controls (my mil will freak out when Baby throws the remote controls on the floor lol!), mobile phones (I will freak out if she throws my mobile phone!), the house phone, etc.

Baby is now really cheeky and active and can hardly sit still on her high-chair. When she gets bored during a meal, she will try to remove her bib (telling us that she doesn't want to eat anymore). She will then stand on her chair and try to climb out of the chair.

Baby is still very much fascinated with Alycia jie jie's Marie The Cat multi-button with multi compartments pencil box. But I will only let her play with it during real stressful times like when I spoon-feed her formula. Other meal times, she can remain still for at least 10 minutes coz she still loves her porridge... provided there are toys for her to play on the table.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Random Pix Of My 3 Angels

Baby joining in the fun and ruckus that her 2 rambunctious jie jies are into....






Baby now knows how to pull the sliding mozzie net to get into the wet kitchen, pull a stool to the window, sit down or stand on the stool and watch kids swimming in the pool below.


And mummy has burnt quite a bit of fat chasing her around all day... that's the plus point of having a hyper-active toddler :)

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Our Sunday

After church yesterday, we went to Equatorial Hotel KL to attend my former Ipoh school classmate's baby's fullmoon party. It was good catching up with my former classmates and the gals had a swell time watching the clown sculpture balloons for them and there was also had an entertaining magic show by the clown. My 2 gals had so much fun watching the clown that they did not even feel shy volunteering to be the clown's assistant and went out to participate in the balloon competition and other activities.

The clown was too much of a distraction to the kids and they did not eat much, especially Sherilyn who only ate 3 fishballs and a small scoop of ice-cream. As for me, I ate quite a bit, hehe... afterall, how often do I get to eat in such peace... my maid was feeding Baby C and my gals were having so much fun they did not bother me much.


My first plate of grub, which I shared with my maid. The food and desserts were really good and I gorged on quite a bit of cakes. I'm all set to jog an extra mile today to burn off those piled up calories.


Saturday, July 11, 2009

Sausages Are A Kid's Best Friend

Whenever I run out of ideas on what to prepare for the gals for lunch, I'll always fix them sandwiches. It could be a simple peanut butter or kaya + cheese sandwich or sandwiches with fried eggs, tuna, ham or sausages. Yes sausages, they are Alycia's and Sherilyn's favorite food and they can never ever get enough of them. But no, they ain't healthy and are loaded with sodium, preservative and food additives. And yes, they can really make my kids shout hooray whenever they come back from school and see sausages on the dining table.

This is what I prepared for Alycia and Sherilyn yesterday.... homemade fast-food... haha coz I only needed 10 minutes to prepare them.

Multi-grain bread with fried egg, hi-calcium cheese and chicken frankfurters.

Since I don't have a Wiener sausage cutter, I cut the sausages with a pair of scissors. I wanted to cut a sheet of seaweed to make eyes and mouth for the octopus' face but my 2 brats were so excited and famished that they could not wait to lay their hands on the sausages the minute they saw the octopus / banana shaped sausages.


Friday, July 10, 2009

Do This Or Else.....

Every single morning, I am bound to have a stressful and blood-boiling time coaxing and hurrying my #2 to finish drinking her cup of milk. She would just be seated on the chair on the dining table or on the couch, staring into space and in a daydreaming mode. Sometimes, she would make me blow my top when she spills all her Milo+milk on the table, on our chair, on our newspapers and everywhere on the floor, aargh! No amount of coercion will make her drink her milk. Most times, I will threaten her with the cane. Let me tell you, I hate to resort to the cane all the time but it looks like that’s the only way to move my #2’s butt. Today, I found a solution haha! I threatened her that if she did not finish her milk by the time I step into the living room (I was inside the kitchen then), she would not be allowed to go swimming or play her tricycle today. Dang, dang, dang… voila, it worked like a charm coz I think it hit her on the right nerve woohoohoohoo! Bingo, bull's eyes! Before I could step inside the living room, she had already gulped down her cup of milk and had hurried to the bathroom to wash up. So I learnt a lesson today. Threaten my #2 to have her favorite activities removed and she’ll obediently toe the line, muahahaha!!

Can't Get The Best Of Both Worlds

After living in a condo for 8 months, I must say that I prefer condo living than living in a double storey house. Apart from the cool condo facilities that we get to enjoy, I think it is also easier to maintain the cleanliness of a condo as the built-up space is smaller. However, there are certain things that I miss about living in a house. I do miss jumping on my trampoline at the porch and sitting at our outdoor chaise lounges while watching my 2 gals play with their tricycle and scooter. Oh well, one can hardly get the best of both worlds, right?

Something Fun In The Bathroom Discovered

Alycia and Sherilyn had just discovered something fun in the bathroom! They discovered that they can twist the shower faucet to change it to ‘water massage’ mode, which in this case, the water will shoot out real fast and hard like some kind of pressure washers muahahaha! And it’s a good thing because now they look forward to taking their shower and I’ve even taught them to shower on their own. This relieves me of at least half an hour a day :)

I Had Supper Last Night

I have not had supper for aeons but last night, I put aside my health freak regimen and had supper consisting of durians and fried noodles (albeit only 1 tablespoon hehe!). In fact, I have been feasting on the king of fruits – Musang King variety for the past few weeks. After all, how often can you indulge in durians right? It’s seasonal and you only get to indulge in them several times a year. I think very soon, I will need to get some Kettlebell workouts to help me rid my jelly belly! Jogging alone can’t do the job effectively. Durians are the king of fatty fruits too and are really high in sugar and calories, I better have some self control or my diet plan will be thrown out of the window.

Sacrifice Of A Mother

I was up at 1:30am again early today. These days, I will doze off at 10ish pm when I put Baby C to sleep. Hours later, I will wake up to get some work done on the computer for half an hour to an hour. This morning, my mind was totally blank and I had absolutely no idea on what to write about cattle supplies, bleh! Instead, I was reading up a lot on UTI prevention for Baby C. Baby, you better be good to mummy when you grow up. Mummy has sacrificed everything just so you will have no more UTI attacks and no more hospitalization stays.

Up Again At Ungodly Hours

It's now almost 2am and I'm up again, hoping to complete some of my online assignments. These days, I can hardly do anything during Baby's waking time. Baby is at a very mobile stage now and is happily roaming the house with her new found feat - walking! She can hardly remain in her playpen these days.

When Alycia and Sherilyn are away in school in the morning, my time is normally spent feeding Baby breakfast, spoon-feeding her formula milk (which takes ages!), bathing her and by the time she is taking her first nap, her 2 jie jies are back from school. When they are back from school, my hands will be tied fixing them lunch, bathing them and coaching them in their homework. If only Sherilyn will just obediently listen to me without whining, complaining and irritating me with her endless whims and fancies and unreasonable demands every single day. My temper will sure hit the roof whenever I hear her whine and her turning a deaf ear on all my instructions, aargh!

My days pass by really quickly these days without me realizing it. When your plate is full to the brim, you won't even realize time ticking away at a frightening speed. Well, it's good isn't it? When you have 3 demanding toddlers, life is never a dull. Ok, back to work.... better stop crapping now.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Crazy Over The King Of Fruits

Everyone in our family loves durian, the king of fruits. Even Baby C likes it! Several days ago, we bought some durians from a nearby mini mart. The durian store was located next to the retail POS systems, right at the entrance of the mini mart. As the guy manning the store priced opened the durian shells, the sweet and tempting aroma of the durian wafted through air and into our noses, exciting our palate. All of us could not wait to get home to lay our hands on the durians and sank our teeth into the durians at the entrance of the mini mart… standing there walloping the durian and oblivious to the by-standers who gave us stares! Before we could pay them, we had already polished off more than half of the durians that we bought.

Darn The Thunder

It’s raining cats and dogs now and there’s also continuous roaring thunder. My 3 kids are napping now and it’s the only time I can sit down in front of my PC to do some blogging, some online shopping or get some online term life insurance quotes but darn it, I have to quickly hurry up and publish this post before my modem or my PC gets zapped by the thunder. What a bummer, it’s my only free time now and I have to shut down the PC, aargh! It looks like I have to pull myself up from bed in the wee hours of the morning again to work on my PC.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

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.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

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.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

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.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

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.

Friday, July 3, 2009

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....

Thursday, July 2, 2009

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.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

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?