All Work And Little Play

Alycia has Ting Xie, Spelling and Ejaan every single week, for the past 5 months. Each day, she has to memorize different words. The number of words for her spelling have increased from a handful to 12 now. On most mornings before she leaves for pre-school, I will go through the Ting Xie / Spelling / Ejaan with her. What boring life for a 5.5-year old kid eh? All work and very little play.... and I even hardly have time to read story books with her now coz the homework load from her pre-school is already taking up all her time.

Here she is practising her Ting Xie just before leaving for school..... with 2 swollen eye lids. Don't know what bit her.... they didn't seem like mozzie bites, maybe some insects or dust mite, I don't know. Her eye lids were swollen for almost a week and now recovering.

Tis The Season To Indulge

What I like about the months of July and August is that it's the durian season, also mangosteen, rambutan and langsat. These are all my favorite fruits and for as long as these fruits are in season, there will always be these fruits in our house, more so if my mil is around coz she loves them too and would buy them whenever she sees them selling by the road.



The end result? A pound or two gained and extra minutes clocked in jogging every morning. What to do, I so love durians and I feel so sorry for myself if I see a packet of musang king sitting in the fridge each time I open the fridge door.... so I will not torture myself but will indulge in it and work on the flab the next morning haha!

Punished Again

Sherilyn was punished again. This time round, she spilled her cup of orange juice which I had juiced for her.... AGAIN, yup again! I tell ya, this fler spills drinks 9 out of 10 times. I knew she would spill her juice and I kept reminding her to drink her cup of juice but as usual, I think she wasn't listening. She was just being too playful and doing some monkey business and then dang, dang, dang, dang, SPLASSSSSSHHHHHH!!!! I was enraggggggedd! How I hate to clean up messes caused by sticky juices, milk and soy bean milk. You need a few rounds of moping to remove the stickiness completely. I punished her and asked her to stand in the bathroom with another cup of water and made her finish the cup of water in the bathroom.


I don't think this would deter Sher the menace from spilling drinks in future. I now stand next to her with a cane in hand and make sure she finishes her juice immediately haha!

She Thinks It's The Right Thing To Do

Baby C thinks that sniffing a diaper is the right thing to do hahaha..... coz she's been seeing mummy doing it since she was 7 weeks old. If you are a follower of my blog, you will know why I sniff Baby's soiled diapers.... and I am still doing it... like 15-20 times a day! Don't you say it's disgusting coz it's life-saving !


Baby C would sniff a diaper each time she gets hold of one. I better stop smelling her soiled diapers in front of her, otherwise she would continue to follow suit, LOL!

A Gift For Baby C

I received a parcel of surprise last week. This lovely mummy sent some very pretty hair clips for Baby C and a get well soon card. How very thoughtful of her. Thanks very much Chanel!


The hair clips did not manage to stay long on Baby C's hair... in fact nothing stays on her head or hair for she will be pulling off every single hair accessory that's put on her head.

Guess who got really excited to see the hair clips and can't wait to put them on her hair? I think you would have guessed it right if you've been following my blog.

Easy DIY Ice Popsicles

I used to DIY my own ice popsicles when I was little. My brothers and I would pour in some Sunquick orange or Ribena into a cup, dilute it with some water, put in a spoon and dump the cup into the freezer. Several hours later, we would be enjoying our homemade ice popsicles. It was cheap, easy to do and we had so much fun licking the ice popsicle. Now, I'm making those ice popsicles for my gals and they love them just as much as I did. And it's really a good way to make them drink water this way... without reminders, sweat and threats!


Alycia licking her Ribena ice popsicle made using her Tupperware plastic cup and a stainless steel spoon.

Kuihs From Bangsawan

The hubs bought a box of kuih-muih from Bangsawan @ Pavillion KL last week.



When I saw the box on the dining table, I thought it was yet another layer cake coz hubs have a liking for layer cake but when I opened the box, here's what I saw:


An assortment of very colorful kuih-muihs, each individually wrapped in plastic. I was really tempted to try the kuihs but I did not eat them as it was already way past 9pm. This health, fitness and vain freak doesn't eat anything after 9pm. Anything (especially carbo) eaten in the evening will only promote your jelly belly. I only ate them the next morning. What you see in this pic is only part of the kuihs.

Verdict : At RM1.20 per piece, I would not buy them again. I find that all the kuih tasted almost the same, which is really sweet and has santan or grated coconut in it. What I do not like is the bright food coloring used in most of the kuihs. I still prefer those homemade kuihs and kuihs with natural coloring from pandan leaves, beet root or blue flowers sold at the pasar malam or market. They are way cheaper and taste better.

Baby Loves Her BumbleBee Educational VCDs

I bought a set of BumbleBee educational VCDs for my 2 older gals 4 years ago. 2 years ago when my 2 older gals got bored of the VCDs, I had wanted to give those VCDs away as I did not plan to have #3 but as fate has it, God had blessed me with my sweetie-pie... and now, I am recycling these VCDs and find them so useful.

Here is part of the set of BumbleBee Bee Smart Baby Vocabulary Builder:

... which Baby absolutely loves. These days, she can sit still on her highchair and get really, really engrossed and focused on the TV for at least half an hour and sometimes even an hour whilst I spoon-feed her formula milk. Whilst she's all soaked up in the program, I'll quickly shove the spoonfuls of milk into her mouth lol! She has learnt quite a number of new vocab and can say out a handful of words whenever she sees the picture of the object shown on TV.

Apart from this series, BumbleBee ABCs and 123s are also in my stash of educational VCDs collection. My 2 older gals learnt their ABCs and 123s from these BumbleBee VCDs, as well as from Barney's. If you want your toddler to learn their ABCs and 123s in a fun way, I'll recommend BumbleBee and Barney. Well, they worked pretty well on my gals.

Oval Shaped Mangosteens

I never knew that mangosteens have two (or maybe more than two, I don't know) varieties. One is the round type and another is the oblong/oval shape type. The oval shaped variety of mangosteen is slightly smaller in size than the round ones. The flesh is also firmer and sweeter. The hubs bought a packet of oval shaped mangosteens the other day and I personally prefer the oval shaped ones.

Snacking After Meals

Whenever my gals have their meals, they must always end them with a dessert, not just one but several types. After their lunch or dinner, they will ransack the fridge and kitchen drawers for desserts and snacks - from ice-creams to biscuits, chips, cakes, yoghurt drinks and what nots. Can't blame them coz everyone in the family likes snacking, including moi, haha!


Sherilyn enjoying her ice-cream that mah mah bought for her. At least there is something to motivate my Miss Dilly Dally to hurry up and finish her meals but this does not work all the time. Sometimes, she would just sit on the chair at the dining table with food stored in her mouth and daydream till the cows come home for 2-3 hours!

Remembering Things With My E-Calendar

When I was working as a PA to a Dato’, I had to remember to do 101 things every day. Not that I have a good memory, in fact my memory sucks, especially after child birth. I relied a lot on my e-calendar and carried a HP Palm organizer everywhere that I went as my former boss would call me and ask me things round the clock. After I quit work, I stopped using my e-calendar. Hah, that’s when I started to forget about events and important things again. Lately, I started to use my e-calendar again as I have been forgetting to do too many important matters, including reminding hubs to renew his rv warranty. With an e-calendar, I don’t have to forget about anything anymore.

Gorging On Fattening Snacks

Each time I see a street vendor selling vada or vadai at the pasar malam or at Indian eateries, I will surely indulge in them. I like both the varieties of vada – the ones with lots of dhall beans and the flour ones shaped like a doughnut. I got these from Raju’s last Sunday and bought 4 – gobbled down 3 and gave 1 to my maid. Also bought a packet of muruku and a packet of Indian fried crisps. Sigh, I hope I don’t need weight loss pills to help me burn the excess fat I gained from gorging on so much oily food and food high in carbs.

KPC Baby

Baby C is just like her 2 jie jies when they were her age - being an avid checker of our things and just KPCing around each time we bring home our groceries and food from the market or supermarket.


What is this hairy fruit?


Eewww....I better throw it away.... the hair is stuck to my hands!

Kids Sit The Funniest Ways

See how 'tharn sai kai' Baby is here... with one leg up and foot resting on the table of her highchair... and hand holding on to her biscuit, seated right in front of the TV watching her favorite 'Your Baby Can Read' VCD.


Note that Baby was even pointing to her nose with her right hand as the word "nose" was shown on TV. It's almost a year Baby has been watching these educational VCDs and she is still very much interested in the set of VCDs, unlike her 2 older jie jies who did not have much interest in them.

Sweating It Out At Raju's

I've always been a great fan of Indian food. After church yesterday, I told hubs that I wanted to try the Indian food at Raju Indian Restaurant at Jalan Gasing as he has been telling me how popular and tasty the food there is. Well, no regrets eating at Raju's as the food is delicious but I regretted eating there and not packing the food back coz it was frigging HOT, smoky (we sat next to the deep frying counter where the hot woks were and the oily smoke was too much to bear) and windy (the wind 'kar liu' leaves and dirt into our food!).

Here's what we had:


I had tosei and paper tosei. Shared them with my kids and maid. All the food there is served in banana leaves. Cooled my body down by gulping down water from a whole coconut.

Deep fried chicken marinated in turmeric and a little curry powder - this is my favorite.



Deep fried fish, squids, chicken curry and lamb curry.


Alycia and Sherilyn did not quite enjoy their food coz it was really frigging hot and they were complaining of being hot and sweaty.

I also ordered vadae which iLike.


There wasn't even a highchair for Baby and my maid had to carry her whilst I fed her. We were seated under a big tree and there were leaves dropping on our food as we ate. Even baby's porridge had leaves and twigs, eeesh! It was really uncomfortable as the restaurant was bursting with patrons - too many customers and not too satisfactory customer service. Many of the customers were kwai lohs.
Here, Baby is trying to bite coconut flesh from the cap of the coconut shell. I had to pacify her with the coconut cap as she was restless, hot and sweaty.


The bundle of fresh banana leaves, replacing plates.



The deep fried food counter. Can you see Alycia behind? We were seated just metres away from the counter, so can you imagine how 'yau' (oily) it was. The aroma and the hot smoke wafted to where we were seated and we were choking in the smoke as we ate. At the end of the meal, all of us smelled like fried chicken, fried fish and curry, eewww!

When we reached home, the first thing I did was bathed Baby again.... and all of us showered again - from head to toe!

The next time I want to eat Indian food from Raju's, I'll make sure hubs tar pau and we will eat at the comforts of our own home.

Settling A Tug-Of-War

What would you do if your kids fight over a toy or just about anything? I normally take the item away so that no one has the item but more often than not, both will put up a sulky face for hours. And #2 will give me more than a sulky face. She will whimper non-stop (which would surely send a migrane to my head!) until she gets the item or until I give her a spank!

The other day, #1 and #2 were fighting over a pink China bowl over dinner. I didn't want a headache, so I told #1 to give #2 the pink bowl and then dug out a Mickey & Friends compartmentalized plate which was new and never used before... and gave it to #1. She was placated instantly... and I whispered this to her "your sister will surely want your plate when she sees it" and true enough, when #2 saw the new plate, she abandoned her pink bowl and wanted the new plate... that's very common of #2 to do that.... she wants what her jie jie has, even if she does not like the item as she just wants equality.


Alycia's new Mickey & Friends compartmentalized plate which koo mar bought from HK.



To placate #2, I dug out another compartmentalized plate (which was not new but hardly ever used) and gave it to her. She whined a little coz she only wanted her jie jie's plate... which was very common of her but when she saw her dishes nicely arranged in her 'new' plate, she mellowed down and then slowly settled down, looooooong sigh.... talk about middle child syndrome.... you really need loads of patience and ideas to placate the difficult middle child.

And here's what we had for dinner that night:



Stir-fried veggie, steamed eggs with minced pork, steamed salmon fish, stir-fried french beans with homemade fish balls, steamed brown rice and chicken curry.

Our Saturday

Today the hubs and mil went to the wet market to shop for our weekly perishables - veggie, meat and fruits. Whenever they go to the wet market, they will also pack back hawkers food for brunch... and also kuih-muih, egg tarts, chicken pies, coconut tarts and all the fattening stuff lar...which iLike but iScared. Anyway, I quickly walloped a slice of my favorite swiss roll with kaya the moment I saw it on the dining table. See how impatient this fei por was. I haven't been eating that for almost a year and it's only available at the SS2 wet market. I so missed it and I finally had it today, hah!



Whenever my mil goes to the SS2 wet market, she would always buy homemade kuih-muih from this lady who claims that her kuih-muihs are free from coloring and are only made from good and natural ingredients. Her kuihs are all slightly more expensive but really nice and very rich in santan. If only I don't have to worry about my darn waist line, I can really polish off everything here. The hello kitty, flower and shell shaped santan jellies are also very tasty - my gals love them. The slice of cake inside the plastic bag at the top left is blueberry yoghurt chiffon cake - it's really fluffly, soft and tasty. In fact, all her kuihs and cakes are really tasty. The maroon color ang koo on the right is made of beet root and has red bean filling - very tasty, iLike!


Egg tarts and coconut tarts...


... and my favorite swiss roll with kaya and chicken pies.

So here goes my diet *shake head*. Better wake up early tomorrow to jog jog jog! Sunday is another eating day, haih....

Baby C Loves Beet Root Soup

My sweetie-pie is a soup lover so I make it a point to prepare a pot of soup everyday. She does not fancy plain water much, so one good way of making her drink enough fluids is through soups. Drinking enough fluids is very important for her (or for anyone with frequent UTIs) as it can flush out those pesky bacteria out from her urinary tract. The more she pees, the better, as there are more chances of the bacteria being flushed out through the pee. Of all the soups, her favorite is beet root. Yup, the bright red soup that resembles blood haha! I guess it's because beet root is naturally very sweet and that makes the soup really tasty and sweet. Even my 2 older fussy pots love beet root soup with sweet corns.



Double boiled beet root soup with lean pork, carrots and sweet corns.





Baby loves beet root soup so much that whenever I feed her, it has to be continuously... spoonful after spoonful without any pause, other wise she would scream! If only she would drink her formula milk with such enthusiasm, life would be so much more easier for me.

Can Never Get Sick Of Durians

I have been feasting on these every single week for almost a month and I am still not sick of them yet. In fact, I yearn for them very much. Though high in sugar, carbo and calories, I for one can immediately forgo my diet regimen and gorge on them. There is always an exception when it comes to the king of fruits!




Musang King variety... notice how yellow and thick the flesh are. Yums, simply irresistible... even to a health and fitness freak!

For my readers who cannot buy fresh durians in your country, sorry, this post is not meant to tempt you :D

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.