Would You Bring Your Kids For A Holiday Or Shopping At The Mall Now?

569 number of confirmed H1N1 cases in a day ain't no joke. One of the deaths recently involved a pregnant woman who was 34 weeks pregnant. Her fetus did not survive either. Oh my, the number of people infected with A and the number of deaths are really disturbing.

The hubs and I are not taking any chances and we will not be bringing Alycia and Sherilyn along with us to Penang during the school holidays. We will have to cancel the hotel room that we have earlier booked for 2 nights. The gals will still follow us back to Ipoh and will stay at my parents. The hubs and I will travel to Penang with only Baby. Baby is scheduled for an MCUG scan next week at a private hospital in Penang to see if she still has Kidney Reflux after the Ureteral Reimplantation surgery in May this year. I will try to put on a face mask on Baby when we are in the hospital, especially at the pediatric ward. I know she will surely pull the mask off but it's worth a try.

The hubs is so concerned of the A pandemic that he is even reluctant to bring the gals out to the mini market or the pasar malam at our neighborhood. He even suggested that the gals stay home and avoid going to pre-school. We will most likely not even attend church this Sunday since Baby is still having a cough and a slight runny nose. Sherilyn got bitten by the virulent cold bug and she's now having the sniffles too. The hubs is not spared and got bitten as well. He's now sleeping in a separate room.

The holiday in Penang that the gals and I have waited for 3 months will not materialize afterall, sigh.... I am a tad disappointed that our holiday has to be shelved. But the gals ain't really upset as they can stay with koong koong and granny, their ever-indulgent grandparents who spoil them to bits. We were planning to stay at a beach resort at Batu Ferringhi and the gals were so looking forward to it. I hope our holiday at a beach resort in Penang can materialize during the December school holidays. This time, the hubs and I are targetting the new Hard Rock Hotel at Batu Ferringhi. This hotel will only open its doors in September. We passed by this hotel when we were up in Penang recently. It's huge and it's awesome. I heard they are now having a limited-time-only promotion and the room rate for a hillview deluxe room is less than RM400 and this price is really a steal for such a grand hotel at the popular Batu Ferringhi tourist area.

Are you as paranoid as me as well? Have you cancelled any of your holiday or shopping plans? If you were me, would you bring your kids along to Penang during the school holidays?

Kids Sleep The Wierdest Ways

We were out last Saturday afternoon to send Sherilyn to her ballet school and thereafter to the organic shop and lightings shop. It was a hot and sunny afternoon, a weather that would make anyone feel weary and tired. When we reached home, Alycia quietly went into her room without a word, which was very unlike her. I was busy with Baby. When I called out to Alycia later, there was no answer and I knew she must've dozed off. She took me by surprise when I found her lying on the floor face down, hah! I think she was so frazzled that she plopped on the floor in her room and dozed off right away.... and there were 2 surfing boards beneath her!

Homemade Sushi For The Kids

My 2 gals often pester the hubs and their mah mah to bring them to the Japanese restaurant located at our condo for a treat of sushi, California roll or fried udon. So last week, my mil made some sushi and California rolls for them and they were really yummy. My mil even went all out to make her own 'char siew' for the sushi!

Needless to say, Alycia and Sherilyn loved the sushi and California rolls. Even Sherilyn who dislikes rice whacked the sushis in a jiffy!

The homemade char siew that my mil made - very yummy!



First, place the sheet of seaweed on the Japanese bamboo mat. Then lay the cooked Japanese rice, char siew, cucumber and fried egg on the bamboo mat. Also squeeze in some Japanese mayonaise. Actually, you can create your own sushi and whack in anything that your kids love. You can also hide some of the food that your kids dislike inside the sushi. My mil did just that the following day after the success of this batch of sushi.... she put steamed pumpkin (which my kids hate) and my gals whacked the sushi without any complaint!

To make the seaweed crispy, you can heat it up on your gas stove for a short while.... but be careful not to burn the thin seaweed.





My mil rolling up the sushi with the bamboo sheet bought from 100 Yen shop....




Bite-size sushi with homemade char siew, cucumbers, fried egg for my fussy and picky eater, Sherilyn....

Alycia's Spelling List

This is the list of words for spelling given by Alycia's pre-school, until end October 09. From 4 words, they are now given 8-10 words. In October, they will be given dictation too. The pre-school is preparing the kids for Standard 1 next year. Quite tough for 5-6 year olds eh?

Stressful!

Baby is having a quite a bad runny nose and a chesty cough with loads of phlegm. Her appetite is down to zilch and only watery stuff gets to go down her throat - breastmilk and soup. Getting her to drink formula milk powder has never been easy even before she had the flu. With the flu now, oh gawd, I really want to pull my hair and scream each time I spoon feed her formula milk. Barb, you saw how I spoon fed her last week right? It took me a frigging 1 hour just to finish off 2 ounces of Pediasure *long sigh*! My maid and I had to bring her outside to show her the pool, let her ride on her jie jie's tricycle and scooter to distract her so that I can quickly shove the spoonfuls of milk into her mouth. I really want to give up doing that!

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Here Baby is given all the forbidden things to play with - my handphone, the remote controls and the cordless phone. So whilst she was happily playing with them, I had to hurriedly shove the spoonfuls of milk into her mouth! But it ain't easy though coz her nose is blocked and she's breathing through her mouth and feeding her too quickly will only cause her to choke and on a few occasions, she even puked! I tell you, this is driving me up the wall and it's frigging tiring and stressful!




My poor little sick kitten with watery eyes, red lips and watery nose.

I had Visitors

I had some visitors at my place on Saturday. This Miss Congeniality who is ever so hark hei, so nice and such a good buddy, who despite feeling weak from taking her meds, came to visit me and brought along gifts for my gals.

Barb with Baby, the ever cheeky and sociable Ashley and Sherilyn.

As expected, Ashley and Sherilyn, the 2 Social Butterflies hit it off instantly and were playing with each other like long-time buddies while Barb and I yakked and yakked. Baby who initially cried when she saw Barb, got along really well with Barb after she had warmed up to that warm lady, kept tugging at Barb and allowed Barb to carry her.


While we were all busy yakking and the kids playing, Baby was busy looking at the cheese cake, hoping to dig her fingers on it.


Recognize the Bumbo boys? At one glance, they really do look alike but at a closer look, they look different. Thanks once again Chin Nee for baking the chocolate fairy cup cakes. I wonder how you manage with your plate full to the brim! You're a supermom!



And this lovely gift for Baby is from Elaine. Barb passed it to me. Thanks very much for thinking of Baby. Would love to have you coming to my place one day. I'm very sure Amber will enjoy herself playing with her new friends and new toys.

Red Bean Paste Ice-Cubes

My mil made a big pot of red bean-mung bean tong sui the other day. There was so much that we could not finish it. So we poured the tong sui into ice-cube moulds and dumped the moulds into the freezer. Now we are enjoying our homemade sugar-reduced red bean-mung bean ice potong. Alycia who loves eating anything that is chilled and cold has been helping herself to these flavored and chewable ice-cubes almost everyday as dessert after her meals!

Bye-Bye Porridge

For the past one week or so, it's been a torture for Baby each time she's fed with porridge. Though there's a little Bragg's Amino Acid (a sauce that's similar to soy sauce) added to her porridge, she's still not very much interested in her porridge. She has also lost interest in hard boiled eggs or fried eggs, something which she used to like. Several days ago, my mil made some tomato omelette and I gave some to Baby. Gee, she loved it and my oh my was I glad!! I am always glad when Baby loves her food coz I am still a tad obsessed with her weight. The following day, I cooked tomato omelette for her again and she ate it with much enthusiasm too. Yesterday and today, I made her scrambled eggs (with fresh milk and butter) and she loves it too. Yesterday, she even ate the fried vermicelli that my mil cooked.... which I'd rinsed with some hot water to get rid of the excess oil, soy sauce and black sauce. I think I can say bye bye to cooking porridge for Baby and start her on adult food.



The tomato omelette that Baby loves.

On another note, I had some visitors to my home today. Stay tuned to find out who came!

Alycia Lost Her First Baby Tooth

Alycia lost her very first tooth 2 days ago. That tooth had been a little shaky for the past 1 month and what yanked the tooth out was the handmade California roll which mah mah made, that Alycia was eating during lunch. You know how hard it is to eat seaweed at times right? She must've pulled the seaweed hard with her front teeth and the force yanked out the shaky tooth. She didn't cry or scream but nonchalantly walked into the wet kitchen where I was making orange juice for her and said "mummy see" and showed me her bloody mouth. I was the one who reacted loudly as I was shocked to see blood haha!

Anyway, I told her that the Tooth Fairy will give her a coin or a Ringgit note when she's asleep. I wrapped the tooth up in a tissue paper and asked her to put it under her pillow. From that moment up until the next day, she and Sherilyn asked me non-stop about the Tooth Fairy - who she is, when will she come, how much money will she give, why will she come, how many times will the Fairy give me money?, will the Fairy give me money if I purposely pull out my teeth (LOL!), etc, etc, etc.... they asked me these questions over and over again, aargh!!

I put a Ringgit note under Alycia's pillow when she was napping in the afternoon. When she woke up and checked under her pillow, she was overjoyed to see the note there. But I sort of got her into trouble. When Alycia woke up, I was inside my room feeding Baby. Alycia happily went to mah mah and announced that the Fairy gave her a Ringgit. My mil was stunned and said "ser mok Fairy, na ni you Fairy, sui tek chean? Mummy gei nee ar? Nee nar wor tek chean ar?" (what Fairy, where got Fairy, whose money? Mummy gave you the money? You took my money?) My mil was quite furious and thought that Alycia had created the story because lately the gals have always been asking us for money for their piggy banks. After interrogating and reprimanding Alycia for a while, my poor girl cried! I quickly got out of the room to clear the air but Alycia was sobbing uncontrollably. Haih, my fault. I should have also told my mil about the Tooth Fairy thingy!

Dad's Birthday Celebration

We celebrated my dad's birthday in advance at Chong Fatt Chinese Restaurant @ Kuchai Lama last Saturday. Here're what we had:


Cold-Hot Combination Dish

This expensive dish is my all-time favorite Chinese Restaurant dish. Whatever combination goes on the plate, I will surely wallop everything and by the time the next few dishes come, I'll be too stuffed.


Braised fish maw with brocolli and fake abalone

This is another dish that I love as I love fish maw and brocolli.


Steamed prawns in Chinese wine, ginger and wolfberries. Steamed prawns go really well when dipped in chilli sauce.



Steamed hoi pan fish

Everyone commented that the fish meat was a tad tough, so tough that my jaw hurt!


Suckling pig



Sharks' fins soup

I find this soup too starchy and only ate 2 spoonfuls. I don't really fancy eating sharks' fins soup anyway.


Fried rice

Only had a spoonful to try the taste as I eat no rice, especially at night. I try to limit my carbo intake to the minimum in the evening. The fried rice was very tasty and tasted like there were loads of MSG in it!

There was also a fruit platter at the end of the dinner and this set menu cost RM600+.


We got dad a chocolate mudcake from Secret Recipe. I find the cake too creamy and sweet for my liking. The cream was more than the sponge cake, thus made everyone felt really jai after digging in the cake. For those of you who have FB me, you can check out the cake-cutting pic in Facebook.

Handy And Light-Weight Shoe Rack

Do you always run out of space to keep your shoes in the shoe cabinet or storeroom? And how you hate to stack your shoes up on top of another? I've found a cheap solution. Get this handy and cheap shoe rack that's made in Japan from 100 Yen Shop:



Now my storeroom looks so much neater and I can conveniently display more shoes on the shoe rack and not keep them in boxes anymore... and I don't have to waste my time searching for shoes anymore!

Baby C Eating Toast With Black Sesame Seed Bread Spread

My mum was eating toast with black sesame seed bread spread on Sunday. When Baby saw granny eating the toast, she pointed to the toast to tell us that she wanted to eat too. Granny gave her a bite and to my surprise, she liked it, though the black sesame bread spread was sugar-free. The bread was sugar-free too. And she kept asking for more!






Showing the forefinger's up sign (meaning good!)..... and it was tedious cleaning her mouth and teeth after she was done with the toast.

Another Bib

We were at Babyland PJ last week to get Baby a 3-in-1 cup (sippy cup, cup with teat and cup with straw) and then I strayed again and got another bib with food catcher to add into my collection of bibs hehe.

I got this bib coz I liked the colors too much...



Here's how the bib will look like when it's buttoned up. Sher used to have a bib like this too with another motif and it lasted her more than 2 years.

Binge Eating Weekend

It's going to be a binge eating weekend for me. My parents from Ipoh will be arriving soon, my brother and sil from Singapore will be arriving soon too. My parents have bought all our favorite Ipoh hawkers' food and we will be having those for lunch. My mil is now making kau cee (dumplings)again and she has also made a pot of red bean-mung bean tong sui. Thinking of all those yummy food is making my tummy rumble.... haha, see this fei por, thinking about food all the time! Tonight, we will be having a sumptuous dinner at a Chinese restaurant to celebrate my dad's birthday in advance. Then there will be a cake-cutting and candle-blowing session. Tomorrow there's another round of eating. Oh boy, I can't even sleep a little longer on Sunday coz I have to wake up early to jog those extra calories away!

How's your weenkend going? If you're going to binge eat too, remember to EXERCISE too hehe!

Furious!

This is yet another post on my maid. Please don't judge me by passing unkind remarks/comments coz you have not seen what kind of person my maid is and what horrid things she can do and had done to us, especially to my kids. If you do not like to read stories about my maid, you can stop reading now.

Remember my earlier post ranting about the hubs and I facing some problems with our maid agent as the agent's former hubby screwed up our maid's application, lost her passport and did not do a host of other things? Well, I think the agent managed to fix the problem. I also mentioned that for the sake of money, we will just bear with our maid and perhaps renew her contract for another year? Well, everyone in the family have had enough of my maid's nonsense and eccentricity. She is just too stubborn and doesn't want to turn over a new leaf, despite umpteen warnings to her.

This morning just as I was entering the house after my morning jogging session, Sher kept calling me and in her birthday suit, ran out of the bathroom to greet me. The maid ran towards Sher and just when she thought I wasn't looking, she pulled a handful of Sher's hair towards her very roughly, as if she were pulling the wings of a chicken that is running.... and with an evil look on her face (which really sent goosebumps all over my body).... to prevent Sher from running and this made Sher cry out in pain. When I saw that shocking act, I yelled at my maid and guess what? This idiot vehemently and persistently denied pulling Sher's hair! How dare she deny it when I saw it with my own eyes. Our maid has a very terrible and irritating habit of denying all her wrong doings even if we saw her doing them right in front of us. The commotion woke the hubs up from his sleep. He was enraged. He told our maid to get out of the house but I stopped him as there is currently a bunch of Indon workers painting the buidling at our condo. This will only give her the opportunity to elope with one of them. He gave the maid a very good lecture and our maid still mati-mati denied pulling Sher's hair!

Yesterday, the maid almost broke my mil's blood vessel. She has a habit of saying "yah, yah, yah" to all our instructions and most times, doesn't even bother to answer us.... which really infuriates me talking to someone who doesn't respond. After my mil had given her very specific instructions not to wash the peanuts in cold water but to soak them in hot water, to which the maid said "yah, yah, yah", she turned back and washed the peanuts in cold water!

Yesterday, the maid gave me a scare and of course sent my temper hitting the roof when she yanked Baby's bib off her neck causing part of the back of Baby's neck to bleed. The skin at the back of Baby's neck got pinched by the fastener of the hard plastic bib (and the skin came off), and poor Baby wailed out in pain. Until today, Baby is still having phobia of wearing her bib.

We have all had enough of this crazy maid's wierd behaviour and stubborness. I can no longer stand hearing her yell and scold my kids the whole day long as if she were their evil stepmum. I have told her many, many times that if she continues to scold and hit them, the gals will only hate her more but she has turned a deaf ear on my advise. Now we all know why her previous employer's mil hit her. I was on the verge of pulling her hair this morning. We will be sourcing for a replacement though it would mean digging deeper into our pockets.

Homemade Shanghai Dumplings

My mil is a great cook. Lately, she's into making kau cee or Shanghai dumplings and they taste really good.... as good as the ones sold in Chinese restaurants. She's going to make another batch this Saturday coz my parents will be here. If you want to try making them, here are some pix and the recipe (though no specific measurement is used):

Get a packet of wheat cake wrapper. She normally gets this one and it's made in Japan and cost RM6.50 a packet for 24 pieces.




Mix the minced pork with an egg (beaten), some sesame seed oil, pepper, oyster sauce, soy sauce, a dash of brown sugar to taste and some watercress that has been boiled.
To test the taste - steam / microwave a spoonful. Then add further sugar, soy sauce or seasoning to taste before wrapping the meat with the wheat cake wrapper/sheets.

My mil wrapping up the kau cees. She uses a dab of water to seal the sheets.



To cook the kau cees, boil a pot of water and dump the kau cees into the boiling water. When the kau cees float to the surface, they are cooked.

Serve the kau cees hot with finely sliced ginger and black vinegar.

Neroteca Italian Restaurant

We had lunch at Neroteca with hubs' movie star friend last Sunday. Here're what we had:


Grigliata Mista - grilled pork chop, spare ribs, sausages and bacon with rustic potatoes and a green sauce that really tantalized my palate. Very meaty with lots of olive oil and very tasty. Didn't quite like the pork chop as it was a tad tough.




Linguine pesto and prawns - very yummy.


Spaghetti carbonara with bacon, eggs and parmesan cheese - nothing to shout about.


Tiramisu, the authentic with Marsala and Mascarpone - iLike...



Pistachio Gelato but there wasn't a bit of pistachio... tasted like caramel, nice anyway.



The restaurant. Not really the right place to go to with toddlers and babies, great place for love birds though.

Neroteca is located next to Somerset Sri Conlay, KL.

Goodies From My Cousin

My cousin Su Zan (who was my bridesmaid) came to visit me last week. I've not seen her for a very long time and we finally reunited in Facebook several months ago. This generous cousin of mine brought along so many gifts and goodies when she visited:



She got me my favorite super soft Japanese cheesecake from Bangsar Village...

A fresh-from-the-oven banana cake also from Bangsar Village...

She knew I love multi-grain bread and she got me a loaf, also from BV.....

... beautiful cupcakes from Bijoux, a newly opened bakery in Bangsar Village....

... a sweet frock for Baby C and Princess stationery sets for Aly and Sher. Baby kept running and climbing and this is the best shot I could snap, with her in the new frock, with part her head cropped.

Thanks cuz Su Zan for all the gifts. It was really good meeting you, your baby Alicia and to catch up. The next time we meet, no need to bring so much goodies k? I'll get you the UCC coffee k?

Alycia My Best Assistant

I rely on Alycia a lot to help me babysit Baby... coz when Baby has her jie jie inside the playpen with her, she will kuai kuai play with her toys or just let jie jie hug her, kiss her and do silly things with her. This gives me a peace of mind whilst I have my shower or dinner.

Lately, Alycia has volunteered to clear up and wipe the dining table before dinner. It's been almost a week now and she's still loving it. See how earnest Alycia is here and she's quite thorough too, wiping every part of the dining table and rinsing the table cloth several times... though the cloth was a tad too wet and there was water dripping from the floor of the kitchen to the dining area. Yesterday, Sherilyn followed suit and helped to wipe the table but after wiping the table with a wet cloth, this fler used her pants to wipe the table dry by sitting on the dining table and moving her butt on the table muahahahah!

Our Sunday

Everything went quite smoothly this morning and I thought we would arrive in church just on time but when I opened up Baby's diaper to check just before I left the house, dang dang dang.... there was poop in her diaper, aiyah! Then my maid told me there was poop on my clothes, oh shit... poop on my white spaghetti strap top, oh no!! I quickly washed Baby up, dress her up again, removed my top and washed off the poop but the poop stain was still on it, so I soaked it with some detergent, quickly dressed up again and hurried to the church and we were late again *gasp*. No matter how early I wake up, no matter how fast I hurry up, something has to crop up each Sunday. After church, we were supposed to eat in PJ as I had wanted to get something for Baby from Babyland but hubs got a call from his friend who asked us to join him for lunch at an Italian restaurant called Neroteca (located next to Somerset Sri Conlay serviced apartments).... so off we went to join his friend, handsome star of Sepet. Thankfully there was no road block, no traffic congestion and no demo in town. Traffic was really smooth coz everyone shunned away from KL today. Shall post pix in my next post.

How was your Sunday?