A Saturday Afternoon Without #2

Saturday afternoons are now pretty quiet without #2 as she would be off attending her ballet lesson. This is what we did on one Saturday afternoon without #2. I could spend some time reading all the books that Alycia had wanted to read without distraction from #2. Alycia fished out all the story books that she had longed to read and made me read with her the entire book of about 5 books. Whilst I read to her, Baby played inside the room which I had had the door locked and the bathroom door closed. The moment #2 returned home, the house was abuzz again with this chatterbox talking nineteen to the dozen, singing, screaming, whining and complaining lol! Listening to #2 whine can really cause wrinkles on my eyes and face and I think soon, I will need to apply eye wrinkle cream to get rid of those crow's feet lines at the corner of my eyes lol!

What Water Do You Feed Your Kids With When You Travel?

Though most hotels provide a small kettle in the room to facilitate you to boil water for tea and coffee making, I am not sure if the water that flows out of the tap in the bathroom is filtered. I wonder if these hotels install water filters in their buildings. Even if they do install a huge water filter at the main water source, I am not sure if there is another smaller water filter installed inside the kitchens of the restaurants. When I was in Penang with the kids recently, I had reservations giving my gals water that I boiled using the kettle from our room.

During breakfast each morning, I politely asked the waitress at the coffee house to fill up my gals’ water tumblers and milk bottle with warm water. I suppose drinking water from the restaurants in the hotel is filtered and boiled. For those of you with babies and toddlers, when you travel with them on vacations, what drinking water do you feed them with? Do you feed them with bottled mineral water directly from the bottle (unboiled), or do you boil water in your hotel room using the water from the bathroom or do you boil bottled mineral water? The next time I go on vacation with my kids, I think I’ll buy bottled drinking water and boil them using the kettle provided by the hotel in our room, just to be safe.

Glorious Ipoh Food

Before we headed back to KL on Saturday, the hubs received a list of food orders from his mum and relatives. Here they are:

Dim sum from the new Foh San in Ipoh...



My favorite 'Ma Lai Koa' from Foh San...


Char Siew Pau from Foh San....



Curry noodles from the coffee shop opposite the police station in Ipoh town - the famous
Ma Ta Liu (Police station in Cantonese) Curry Noodles @ Xin Quan Fang...

The hubs who is really pernickety when it comes to food and the way food is presented/stored, went to buy a stack of transparent plastic take-away boxes to store all the food that he had bought, to bring back to KL.

The curry broth for the curry noodles, stored inside the take-away boxes to prevent spillages, which would be really very very messy if they are spilled out and stained his car boot.....



The most delicious and soft hoong koo with mung bean filling from a stall inside a coffee shop in Ipoh Garden South. The skin of the hoong koo is made from rice flour and black glutinous rice. Damn syiok and nice and damn fattening too!


20 packets of Menglembu groundnuts...




Also bought a lots of Hakka fishballs, stuffed tofu with fish paste and 'chau liu' from the famous noodles and fishball stall in town.... but no pix taken coz we were in a hurry to leave for KL.

DIY See-Saw

This is one of Baby's favorite activity with mah mah...


... she lays with her back on mah mah's legs and then mah mah moves her legs up and down making Baby feel like she's on a see-saw haha! I wish I could do that too, so syiok!

More Mouth-Watering Food From Penang

This is by far the 'bestest' apam I've ever eaten :

Coconut-Banana-Sweet Corn Apam. It's super soft and fluffy, has generous amounts of eggs (which makes the apam soft and fragrant), santan, grated coconut, bananas and sweet corn. I can easily tuck into 5 apams at one go and yet not feel jelak or full. I'm already missing the apam and craving for them now!





... and this old man makes them and sells them on his cart along Jalan Burmah. There are 2 carts selling apam along Jalan Burmah and both tastes just as good. I really wonder how this man makes profits when the apam he sells only costs 30 sen each. And yes, he uses his bare hands to make the apam and packs them for you, if you don't mind. And Lord knows what he did before he touches the apam and packs them lol! But hey, what the heck, that's one of the reasons why hawkers' food always taste so good because of all the 'kar liu' (added ingredients) muahahahah!




And this delicious pandan kaya from Rainforest Bakery & Pastry at Chulia Lane is one of the best I've ever tasted. The kaya is really rich in eggs and so tasty that I always eat it on its own, the way I would eat ice-cream. Hubby bought the kaya for me during my 3-week stay in the hospital with Baby in May. When we were in Penang last week, I asked him to get me another tub. I had wanted to get 3-4 more tubs before we left for Ipoh/KL but we forgot all about it.






The bread and buns at Rainforest are also tasty and free from preservatives, so said the person who sold them to hubby. This bakery makes marvelous artisan breads and the first thing you see on entering is the shelves stacked with loaves of all shapes and sizes, offering Baguette, Ciabatta, English Blommers, Farmhouse, Mixed Grains, Rye, Wholemeal and pastries.

Lunch At Shing Kheang Aun Restaurant @ Chulia Lane, Penang

The first place that the hubs targetted the moment we arrived in Penang last week was his favorite Shing Kheang Aun Restaurant at Chulia Lane, which he has been patronizing since he was a small kid. Established in 1941 just before the Japanese Occupation, this very old Hainanese restaurant is now stepping into its second half of a century, and is now run by the second generation. This restaurant offers a collective variety of food ranging from Straits Chinese and Hainanese cuisine to Baba Nyonya delicacies.

Here are the dishes that we ordered (for you to salivate hehe...):


Stewed pork with salted fish and chillies



Fried chicken with black sauce


Deep fried Lobak


Fried prawns with assam and chicken feet kerabu


Assam 'tau tai chong' (pomfret) fish
This is by far the 'bestest' assam fish I've ever tasted. The fish is really fresh and has not the slightest taste of fishy odor... and the serving is huge and enough to satiate everyone.

We also ordered a stir-fried kailan veggie with chicken breast.

Food for customers seated upstairs are still being brought up using the pulley system in this pre-war shop. If you are seated upstairs, please mind the stairs as the pre-war wooden stairs are really steep and narrow.


All the food was polished off in no time as everyone was feeling really peckish after travelling in the car for about 2 hours. For 5 adults and 2 kids eating, the bill was only RM140, inclusive of drinks and rice. We would definitely head back to this restaurant in December when we make our next trip to Penang.

Shing Kheang Aun Restaurant is situated at 2,Chulia Lane 10200 Penang, Malaysia.
Telephone Number : 04-2614786
Business Hours : 10 am to 2pm, 5pm to 8pm.
Resting Day : Alternate Monday
Payment : Cash
Come early to get a parking lot.

This unassuming pre-war restaurant even has a website at http://shingkheangaun.wordpress.com/!

Baby Loves Feeding Herself

For the past few days, Baby has been very demanding during meal times. She would only eat if she's given the freedom to feed herself.... and she's really enjoying her new found feat, freedom and independance. She does not only want to hold the spoon herself, she does not even want me to hold the bowl for her. She wants to eat like an adult!

Sweet taste of freedom and independance....



But half the food goes into her mouth and half is splattered everywhere. Post meal-times are really, really messy, everywhere.

What We Have Been Up To

We are now back in Ipoh at my parents'. We were on the road for almost the entire afternoon yesterday. The hubs, a foodie, drove round Penang to get the 'bestest' Penang food - to Lorong Selamat to get a few packets of 'kar liu' (extra ingredients) char koay teow, to Air Itam to get a few packets of assam laksa, to Macalister Street to get the famous yam cake with dried shrimp floss, to Jalan Burmah to get a few boxes of Him Heang tambun biscuits and I got to gorge on my favorite sweet corn-banana-coconut apam from the man who sold them on his tricycle cart at Jalan Burmah.

After we checked out from the hotel, we took the gals on a ferry ride to cross over from Penang to Butterworth. It was their first ever ride on a ferry and boat. Then we stopped at the Auto City @ Juru and had a very late lunch at around 3pm. After lunch, we drove to St. Anne's Church at Bukit Mertajam again. This time, it was to offer thanks to St. Anne. 3 months ago when Baby was just discharged from the hospital after undergoing 2 major surgeries, we were there to seek help from St. Anne for Baby to be healed from kidney reflux. This time, we were there to offer thanks as Baby has been confirmed free from kidney reflux after the MCUG scan on Thursday! Praise the Lord!

We reached Ipoh at 6:30pm and after settling down, we reheated all the food that we had packed from Penang and had a very satisfying dinner of good old Penang hawkers' food at the comforts of our own home, minus the sweat, dust, fumes and stench from the drains and bustling roads.

The hubs has now gone out to town to pack a long list of Ipoh hawkers' food for his mum and relatives back in KL. There's going to be another binging session today! Thank God I haven't gained a pound though I've been gorging on quite a bit of carbs for the past few days and have not got the time to exercise for 2 days. I finally managed to run for 35 minutes today and I better work-out longer tomorrow to run away the calories that I've piled up.

Enough Is Enough

I have had enough of my maid. Throughout our time together in Ipoh and Penang for the past 3 days, she's been getting on my nerves. I can still tolerate it each time she disobeys me and does things however way she wants, despite me telling her not to.

Yesterday, Sherilyn was happily watching TV in the hotel room when she came and sat next to her, snatched the remote control that she was holding and switched channels. Did I tell you she's hooked on the TV? Another long story to tell on that. She got reprimanded. Next, we had bought a packet of peanuts for the gals to feed monkeys at Botanical Garden. Instead, this control freak clung on to the peanuts and fed monkeys herself. When the gals asked for peanuts, she refused to give. Next, in the car when Alycia wanted to look at a brochure on the Toys Museum, she also refused to give Alycia and was happily looking at the brochure herself. She even had the cheek to chide off Alycia and created a stupid excuse so that Alycia didn't get to see the brochure. The hubs and I were really pissed off with her. All these I can still close one eye and forgive her.

I got so steaming mad with her just now when she hit Baby's hand. She thought I was in the toilet and she gave Baby a monstrous expression on her face, snatched the plastic bag that Baby grabbed and hit her hand. That, I cannot accept. Who is she to hit my Baby? That was not the first time. I had caught her many times giving Baby a hideous and spiteful expression on her face and tried to hit Baby on the hand. But when she realized that I was standing behind her, she turned 360 degrees and pretended to play with Baby.

I now feel like I am keeping a time bomb waiting to explode in my house. I no longer trust her and she gets on everyone's nerves all the time, including my 2 older gals. This is really straining my relationship with her and it's really bad for me as well as for her. If I send her back to the agent, I'm not sure if I can cope without a maid. Moreover, my mil will be away overseas for more than a month soon. Her contract will only expire in April next year. If we decide to get another maid, it would probably take another half a year for the new maid to arrive. Long sigh..... should I keep her or send her back?

Anxious

I am now all alone in the hotel with Baby, sitting at the hotel office furniture blogging and surfing the net. My parents and hubby have brought Alycia and Sherilyn to Kek Lok Si in Penang for sight-seeing and shopping. Also for them to indulge in the famous Assam Laksa. I decided to stay back in the room as Baby had dozed off. She skipped her nap yesterday and woke up pretty early this morning. I am also a tad worried that she would give me a big unwanted surprise later when we are out shopping as she has not pooped for 2 days. If she still does not poo poo later, I will get our surgeon to give her an enema when we see him in the afternoon. I am feeling really anxious now. Anxious of the whole traumatic procedure that Baby would be going through again later and most of all, anxious of the results of the scan.

Outgrowing Her Shoes Real Fast

Alycia is outgrowing her shoes at an unbelievable rapid rate. Apart from her Crocs which she wears to pre-school everyday, all her shoes are worn less than 20 times, some are even never worn. She is lucky that she has aunts and grandparents who keep buying her shoes but the problem with her is that she is quite picky on her choice of shoes. My mil bought her a pair of white Zara Kids shoes that look like ballerina shoes last year. The shoes were a tad oversized for her then. Recently when I dug out the pair of shoes and asked her to wear them, she refused to. She not only dislikes ballet, she even dislikes shoes that look like her old ballet shoes! It looks as if I have to bring her shopping to get her a new pair of shoes. There ain't many brands of kids' shoes that are nice and priced affordably here. Perhaps I should ask my friend from the U.S. to help me get Alycia a nice pair of MBT shoes when she visits me.

If Only She Would Drink From A Cup

I was at Babyland the other day to get Baby a 3-in-1 cup, i.e. a cup that comes with a spout, a straw and a teat. There were so many brands of 3-in-1 cup that I didn't know which one to buy. Initially I chose a Tommy Tippee cup and that cup was almost RM40. When I was about to pay, I changed my mind and got a Pureen cup instead, which cost way cheaper. I just had a hunch that Baby would resist using the teat, spout and straw (as I had tried in vain to feed her with those countless times) and I didn't want the expensive cup to go to waste.

I was right. When I let Baby use the cup with the straw, teat and spout, all she did was played with the cup, shoke the cup as if it was her new toy and spilled water everywhere. It was back to square one and I ended up spoon feeding her again, looooooong sigh......

Our Delicious Lunch At Delicous @ Bangsar Village

We had lunch at Delicious @ Bangsar Village today. Here're what we had:

Beef lasagne - tasty but the portion is a tad too big. A small eater like me will surely get jai (stuffed) easily after digging on only half of this rich and cheesy delight.


Salmon quiche - also too big a portion for a small eater. Though tasty, this is another creamy, eggy and cheesy dish that would make you go real jai very easily.



Seafood linguine for the gals.


Hubby's breakfast set


Spaghetti Carbonara for the gals.


My warm Mediterranean chicken salad with avocado.



Flour-free orange cake with coconut - very delicious and not too sweet, just perfect for a health freak cake lover like me. I ditched the fattening cream.


Chocolate brioche - I find it too starchy, too chocolaty, sweet and creamy.... an empty calorie dessert that is really fei sei lor (darn fattening)!



Hubby also ordered 2 scones with cream and strawberry jam, a tray of warm and delicious croissants with yummy marmalade jam which were polished off in a flash and 2 scoops of vanilla ice-creams.

Terrified Of Green Ant

Baby is absolutely terrified of a remote-controlled green ant that can move forward and backward like a robot and emit robotic sounds. Daddy bought it for her about a year ago thinking that she would like a toy that can move and emit sounds. But she was petrified of the green ant, so much so that we kept it inside the highest cupboard. Recently we fished it out and showed it to her and she's still terrified of it. If she's left on the floor and sees the green ant walking, she would scream and run like a headless chicken... which would send all of us in a loud guffaw! How cruel hor? But it's really, really funny. I should video it one day.


Baby loves banging on my computer keyboard. Though warned dunno how many umpteen times not to touch my keyboard, she would still hit it. Oh well, toddlers her age are all defiant and they love to test our patience, don't they? Aly and Sher were like that too and still are now!

Anyway, to prevent Baby from going near my computer, all I have to do is to place the green ant near my computer table muahahahahaha! And these days, to stop her from going into our rooms when we are outside, all we have to say is "Baby, don't go there. Green ant is there! Green ant, green ant there ooooor...." and she'll run out like a headless chicken, muahahahah!

Yet Another Doodle Pro

I bought Baby a travel-size Fisher-Price Doodle Pro last week. That was the 4th time I bought a Doodle Pro for my gals and I find that the Doodle is one of the best toys for a toddler. Your toddler can practise her writing and drawing skills while her imagination is being stoked. Plus the Doodle is totally mess and stain free. We used to have 2 huge Magna Doodles with magnetic shapes, stencils and colorful washable markers but they were all spoilt. No prize for guessing who spoilt them, I'm sure you know who spoilt them right?

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.