Hairdresser Wannabe

Rascal #2 always tells me that she wants to be a hairdresser when she grows up. Whenever my hair is untied, her hands will twitch with itch and she will start to practise her hairstyling prowess on my hair. Poor me, I don't have thick luscious hair in the first place and with all the rough pulling and tugging from her, my precious locks are shedding even more. After being kicked away by mummy, she would target Baby who would after some time get agitated by all the rough handling too. Sometimes she attacks Alycia and on one night, she targeted Dolly the singing doll :

She spent a good half an hour tying Dolly's hair. Once, she experimented her hairstyling skill on Barbie but got reprimanded by me when she pulled out almost half of Barbie's long locks, which flew everywhere in the house!

Get Pretty Backgrounds And Headers For Your Blogspot Blog For Free

I was at this mummy's blog and noticed that she had added a very pretty backdrop and header to her blog. I had long wanted to accessories my blogspot blog with a pretty backdrop and quickly asked her where she got the codes for the backdrop from. She got it from Simply Blog It Backgrounds. There are tons of beautiful backgrounds to choose from and it is SO, SO easy to add the codes in as the owner of the blog had given very easy step-by-step instructions. Initially, I wanted a pink background as pink is my favorite color but after trying a few pink backgrounds, I found that the pink color was dwarfing and drowning the words and pictures in my blog. I figured that a white background is still more pleasant and not so strenuous on the eyes.

If a HTML idiot and IT-challenged mum like me can add the codes to the template, so can you. If you've always wanted to accessories your plain blog, check out Simply Blog It Backgrounds. It's so easy you can have a new header and background everyday!

First Project With Our Oven

After almost one long year, we finally used our new digital oven (which we bought in November last year) last Saturday. What made my mil and I procrastinate using the oven is that we didn't know how to use the android oven, even up to now. Plus, I was too caught up with Baby's health issues the past 1 year that I simply had no time to go through the manual. I hate reading manuals. After getting the technician over and studying the manual, we finally heated up the oven and our first project was a real simple one....




... roasting cashew nuts, muahahahahaha......
The cashew nuts tasted really crunchy and tasty.

The second project was to reheat some curry puffs - just to get a hang of using the oven. The third project, I think my mil would be baking some cup cakes. I am thinking of roasting a chicken and baking lasagne in that oven but I'll have to familiarise myself more with the oven with smaller projects before undertaking bigger projects :D

Lunch At PappaRich

We had lunch at PappaRich last Sunday. PappaRich has a few outlets in the Klang Valley (similar concept with Ipoh Old Kopitiam) and they serve a wide variety of hawker's food. Here's what we had:

Ipoh kai see hor fun - good



My soy bean milk cendol with red beans - refreshing and not too sweet.


Char koay teow - good.


White toast with butter and kaya - run-of-the-mill, nothing spectacular. I prefer my own wholemeal toasts with kaya and cheese spread.


Baby had almost one half-boiled kampung chicken (free-range chicken) egg.


Kon loh kai see hor fun with prawns - good.
The bill came up to RM56.

The PappaRich that we went to is located at :
Unit 20 & 21 (GF)
3rd Mile Square
No. 151 Old Klang Road, 3 1/2 Mile
58100 KL

Tel : 03-7987 1128

No Urgency And Cool As Cucumber

When it comes to doing her homework, rascal #2 has totally no urgency. She is always so cool and even with threats and intimidation from me, she appears nonchalent. She is the polar opposite of Alycia, who is always very kan cheong and eager to complete her homework.

This pic was taken on one Saturday night. Rascal #2 only did her homework which her teacher gave her on Friday. She dilly-dallied the entire Friday and Saturday. On Saturday night, we had gone out for dinner. When we reached home, she took her bath and just when I thought she was retiring for bed (coz she didn't want to take her afternoon nap and I thought she would be sleepy), she coolly took out her homework and kuai kuai sat at the dining table to complete her homework!


Check out the time on the clock! She managed to complete her homework before it turned midnight. Cinderella quickly finished her homework coz the following day, we had to go to church, then lunch at a hotel, which means another day would have been wasted.


I was really amazed that she could write really fast and well at that hour of the night! I think she's the type who would only have the urgency to do her revision for exams at the 11th hour.

Alycia's First Dictation

Alycia had her first dictation 2 weeks ago and her second dictation last week. There were around 40 words in each of the dictation. She fared quite well in both the dictations and had several careless mistakes. She has to learn not to be so excited and jump the gun and learn to think before she writes or do anything. That's how her careless mistakes always happen.




Do you think this dictation is too difficult for 5 and 6 year olds?

Cool Website For Parents

I have long been wondering if it is necessary to feed my 3 girls with supplements and vitamins. So I did a google search today, got my answer and also stumbled upon this website by Neslac EXCELLA Gold. This website by Neslac is called Excellence Begins Young (EBY) and is a very useful site for mothers with young kids. One of the sections that I find very useful is the expert’s corner, a place where mums can get answers with regard to their child’s nutrition, development and everyday growing up activities. Another section that mummies would love is the flash cards section. Here, there are colorful flash cards of simple words that come with audio in 2 languages – English and Mandarin in easy to digest and fun method for mums to teach their babies simple categories like shapes, colors, fruits, etc. I tried it on Baby C and she loved them.




For first time mums especially, they will find the Child Development Tracker at the EBY site very useful. This section allows you to see your child’s milestones at the different stages of their growing life. There are also useful tips on how to help nurture your child’s milestone, eg. activate your baby’s mind with nursery rhymes and much more.

For Facebook fans (which I am beginning to get hooked on!), there will be a link for users to go to Excellence Begins Young Facebook Page. Here, there is an application for them to create Fun Photos for their kids. The first 1,000 to create the photo for their child will get the photo printed, framed and delivered to them. I’ve just created Baby C’s photo and will accessories it soon! Wait there’s more. Another interesting Facebook application is a fun quiz called “Is My Child An Abraham Lincoln Or Gandhi?” I tried the quiz on Sherilyn and the results showed that she is emotionally adventurous like Christopher Columbus and an intellectually decisive leader like Abraham Lincoln, LOL!

Other interesting sections at EBY include a section on informative articles (nutrition, child development, etc) and a recipe section with healthy recipes for toddlers. Go check out this website and bookmark it. It’s free to use this site!

Fun Ways Of Learning To Tell The Time From The Internet

Alycia is still not very good in telling the time, especially when the long hand points to other numbers other than 12 and six. It's partly my fault. I haven't been teaching her how to. I have been too Baby C-centered for the past 18 months.

Anyway, I did a google search on websites that provide games to teach kids how to tell the time and found a few websites with very interesting ways of teaching time-telling:

http://www.teachingtime.co.uk/clock/clockres.html

http://www.teachingtime.co.uk/draggames/sthec1.html


http://www.apples4theteacher.com/clocks.html








But Alycia wasn't very interested in this game. She prefers other educational games from Starfall.

My mil recently bought Alycia and Sherilyn each a very nice watch from Hong Kong. I think the watch would be a good motivation for them to learn how to tell the time. I'll just have to make them go to these interactive time-telling websites more often to get themselves familiarize with the clock. Learn to tell the time or no Starfall for them both!

Pediasure Liquid

This nice mummy sent me 2 bottles of strawberry-flavored Pediasure liquid which she bought when she was in Singapore recently. She said it was for Baby to try since Baby is currently drinking Pediasure powder. This is currently not available in Malaysia.





I gave some to Baby to try and diluted it with some water as it was a little too sweet but she hated it! It was torturous both for her and me during feeding time. My maid and I had to crack our heads to find things to amuse and distract her while we shoved the spoonfuls of milk into her mouth.

When nothing worked, we brought Alycia's scooter into the house and let her ride on it. That was the best 'distracter' and she finished all her strawberry flavored Pediasure, which was only 2 ounces... and it took us almost an hour to spoon-feed her, looooooooooong sigh!








After that, I didn't want to put Baby and I through another torture chamber session. I gave Alycia the remaining milk, which I had mixed with some chilled Marigold HL fresh milk.

Once again Rachel, thanks very much for the 2 bottles of milk. That was so thoughtful of you to send the milk to Baby C.

Gosh, it's terribly stressful to feed Baby formula each day - 3 times a day. I can't wait for her to grow up so that I can be relieved from this torturous back-breaking, hair-tearing, nerve wrecking, skin-pulling chore!!

Animal-Shaped French Toast

Feeling lost on lunch ideas, I made french toasts for the girls with wholemeal walnut bread and eggs. Then cut them up into bear shape with my cookie cutters.



That's how Sherilyn ate them - with kaya slathered on the toasts, topped with cheese.
She loved them.


Baby didn't quite like the french toasts and would only swallow them when fed together with soup. She prefered to eat the carrots from the soup.

Random Pix

Baby's first party at Sunday School. She gobbled down a serving of cheese sandwich on her own and wanted to eat the junk food that her jie jies were eating but of course junk food would have to wait. She has years ahead of her to feast on junk food!



Alycia helping me distract Baby by reading to her while I hurriedly shoved the spoonfuls of Pediasure milk into her mouth.

I freaked out when Baby squashed the flash cards!

Everybody Loves Apam

.... including Baby!

Baby's appetite has not been very good lately. I think her body has been trying hard to fight off some pesky bugs - bugs that had bitten everyone in the family and made everyone cough with phlegm. She did cough a little but isn't really bad... like a few coughs in a day without any phlegm.

When hubs bought some apam from the pasar malam, I let Baby try a small pinch of the apam. To my surprise, she loved it. She kept screeeeeeeaming for more. But of course I did not accede to her demand. If I would allow it, I think she could have chomped down 1 or 2 whole apams!




Did you know that any unfinished apam bought from the pasar malam can be kept in the fridge and the following day, reheated in the toaster oven? They would taste as good as fresh! I tried that for the first time and the apam tasted really good and really crispy too. They didn't turn squishy or mouldy. I'm going to do that again.

Lunch At Decanter

We had lunch at Decanter after church 2 Sundays ago as hubs had a craving for American breakfast. Here's what we had:

Pan-fried mackerel fish for me...


Spaghetti Carbonara for Alycia and kakak...


Fried Hokkien Vermicelli for Sherilyn, the mai fun lover.... (shared with kakak)


Decanter breakfast set for hubs (which everyone had a share too)...


Another Decanter breakfast set for hubs (which everyone had a share too)...



Citrus cheese cake with passion fruit seeds and strawberry.


That was our second time to Decanter. The food there is good and priced reasonably too.

For 3 adults and 2 kids, the bill came up to RM92.70.

Decanter is located at :
67M Jalan Setiabakti
Bukit Damansara
50490 KL
Tel : 03-20950 3919

Hairdresser In The Making

Sherilyn my little vain pot loves experimenting with hair styles, both with her own precious locks and our hair. Whenever she sees us seated, her hands will start to itch and twitch and off she'll go to fetch a bunch of combs, hair clips, hair scrunchies and hair bands to practise her coiffuring prowess!

Here she is in action:

First she combed jie jie's hair, then attacked Baby's!


Check out her pockets...



... and I was the next target! Like real only.... coiffuring my hair! She wanted to do something more elaborate with my hair but I ran for my dear life as she was pulling my precious locks off my scalp. Not that I have thick luscious hair, my hair is shedding so much I am going half bald!

Why, What, Where and How

Sherilyn is one very inquisitive girl. She’s now at a stage where she will ask all the ‘where’, ‘why’, ‘what’ and ‘how’. She loves asking me where the food she eats come from, where people come from, what is this and what is that and even asked what a shrink tube is. Well, I’m not complaining as I know only smart kids ask these questions. But sometimes when she asks too much and talks too much when all I want is just peace and silence, I get really pissed off and just feel like asking her to shut up haha!

Baby Drinks Soy Bean Milk With Beancurd

Sick of it and never really liked it before, Baby is hating her Pediasure more and more each day. She kind of likes Marigold HL fresh milk but she is slightly lactose intolerant, so she will have loose bowel and purge after drinking cow's milk. So I bought soy bean milk and beancurd for her. She loved them. She has always liked tofu, even if it's eaten plain, without any soy sauce or seasoning.


Baby enjoying her soy bean milk + beancurd while watching tellie.



The beancurd that I buy is free from 'sek koa' (the coagulant used in the beancurd). The beancurd is coagulated using fruit pectin. The beancurd is super smooth and I normally buy sugar-free ones.

Funny Faces

Just say "Baby, make funny face" and Baby will obligingly and happily display some funny expressions:








Say "show me funny lips Baby" and she'll do this:

These funny faces expressions are priceless, as with her smiles, giggles and laughters. I yearned so much to see these faces when Baby was lying helplessly, in pain and in severe discomfort for 3 weeks in the hospital 5 months ago.

Meals, Utensils And Cutlery For My Kids

This is one of the easiest to cook lunches for my kids and they love it. I would stir-fry a big pot of minced meat or fish paste with veggie and add 2-3 eggs beaten eggs into the mixture, so that the sauce becomes thick egg sauce like the sauce for Cantonese style fried noodles. I omit the corn flour as thickener and use more eggs instead. I then deep freeze a portion for future quicky meals.

With the meat sauce, my kids can choose if they would like to have yee meen, green tea noodles, buckwheat noodles or other types of noodles. Just pour the hot sauce over the noodles and a meal is served.



This time, it's with green tea noodles. I also reheated some stir-fried chives with minced pork which I had cooked the night before and tossed in some toasted sesame seeds.


And this small bowl is for Baby. I normally give her Heinz ABCs, 123s iron-enriched pasta or green tea noodles and 1 tablespoon of the meat sauce. Baby eats very little, like a little kitten. Feed her too much or I'll see her regurgitated food shooting out after her meal, eeeekkksssss!


And I don't like to use melamine or plastic bowls / plates to put hot food for my kids. Don't like the idea of my kids ingesting toxic chemicals leached out. No melamine or plastic cutlery too. They use ceramic / China ware and stainless steel cutlery.

Seng Kee Kitchen

Seng Kee Kitchen is one restaurant (coffee shop style) that we patronize very regularly. The hubs has his lunch there almost everyday and yet doesn't seem to get fed up with that place coz their roast meat (chicken, duck, pork, intestines) are one of the best in town and they have really tasty choy keuk and economy rice dishes too. Apart from these, you can order ala carte dishes.

We had dinner at Seng Kee the other day and here's what we had:

A very tasty plate of pork chop...

Tofu with seafood in claypot...




Fried noodles, specially ordered for Sher who loves noodles...


Stir-fried baby french beans and steamed eggs...


Steamed fish...


And of course their famous char siew...



And I had my favorite 'tun tan' (egg custard) with caramel which is not too sweet. This tastes just as good as the ones from Ipoh Old Town.

For 5 adults and 2 kids, the bill came up to RM100, which is pretty reasonable.

Seng Kee Kitchen is located at :

61A Jalan Desa Bakti
Taman Desa
Old Klang Road, KL
Tel : 7981 6136
This coffee shop is run by a couple from the Foodie Land Ipoh. That's why their food taste so good!