I Don't Need Sleeping Pills

Never in my life have I tried taking sleeping pills to help me fall asleep. I have never really suffered from insomnia. The only time I had difficulty in falling asleep was when I was pregnant with Alycia. She was my first baby after years of battling with infertility and I was terribly anxious throughout my pregnancy. Ever since my kids came along, I would be so exhausted that I’d go straight into slumberland within minutes my head hits the pillow!

The Winner Of The Biggest Loser Of Asia

If I have the time, I’d really love to watch all the episodes of the Biggest Loser of Asia reality show. I totally could not recognize King David in the newspapers when I read about his win last week. King David is an Indonesian and he emerged as the winner and won USD100,000 as well as a brand new Renaut car. His total weight loss of 83kg is indeed very inspirational to all those who want to lose weight and I think his weight loss success story is one of the best ever

Childhood Memories

My gals love pressing on our house doorbell button. I guess every kid loves pressing on doorbell buttons, me inclusive when I was a kid. I remember very vividly that when I was a kid, I would go round the neighborhood pressing on houses that have a doorbell button. Those days (about 3 decades ago) not many houses have a doorbell button and those that have a doorbell are normally big houses. I really miss those fun filled, stress-free and worry-free childhood days of mine.

Restaurant Xenri @ Wisma Elken, Batu 5, Jalan Klang Lama, Kuala Lumpur

Xenri is one of our favorite Japanese restaurants. The food is fantastic and the ambience is very Japanese-like and classy. I love their interior too. There is a pond inside the restaurant with Japanese carps and patrons can dine in calm surroundings with the serene sound of flowing water.

Here you go, the food that we had.... and I hope you've taken your lunch/dinner, else your tummy will surely rumble and I won't be surprise that you'll make a dash for Japs tonight hehe...

Raw oysters. I skipped all the raw stuff coz I'm still breastfeeding Baby.


Yakitori, grilled salmon, grilled unagi...


Loved their baked oysters with cheese and mayo, so delish!!


Pan fried seabass fish and more baked oysters...


Chewy jellies, fruits and mousse...


My favorite grilled salmon head. The meat was so juicy and tender.


Ice-kacang topped with lots of red bean, peanuts, milk and a scoop of green tea ice-cream, how heavenly!


My favorite Fried Pregnant fish or Shishamo (a type of tiny fish that's filled with roe). The entire fish can be whacked - head, bones, flesh, tail and roe! I can easily chomp down 5-6 tiny fishes in one sitting.

The buffet lunch cost RM50++ (can't remember the exact price but it's in the region of fifty++). The buffet lunch is really value for money and the spread of food / quality of food are above average.

Xenri is located at:
Wisma Elken, Batu 5, Jalan Klang Lama, Kuala Lumpur
No. 20, Wisma Elken,
Jalan 1/147C, Batu 5,
Jalan Kelang Lama,
58200 Kuala Lumpur.
(directly across Pearl Point Shopping Mall)

Random Pix Of Baby

One sure way of getting Baby to drink water without using coercion, bribe or threat is to give her ice cubes. She is another ice cubes lover, just like her 2 jie jies. She can eat 1 whole cup of ice cubes on her own but of course I don't give her that much, lest she gets a cough. Here she's drinking cold water from the melted ice and peeing at the same time :D


The only time Baby gets to wear her 2 jie jies' helmets are when they are at school in the morning. With them around, her 2 jie jies will yell murder if Baby touches their new helmets. The mouse is having a great time here when the 2 cats are away, hehehehe!

I'm Here.... Tadaaa......!

Now that Alycia and Sherilyn each have a new bicycle, their scooter and tricycle are now Baby's and she can have them all to herself. These days Baby loves to practise scooting on the scooter. She can spend at least half an hour trying to figure out by herself how to balance herself on the scooter with 1 leg on the scooter and another leg on the floor pushing her way forward. Sometimes she falls on the floor but she would not cry. I can see that she's a very determined little girl. Oh yes, 2 days ago we could not find Baby inside the house. We all called her name several times and finally she surprised us by saying "I'm here, tadaa......!" And she was quietly at the shoe area where the scooter was kept, playing with the scooter.

My Morning Routine With Alycia

Though I hate the lack of sleep and having to force myself out from bed by 5:45am everyday, I nevertheless enjoy spending the 10-15 minutes one-to-one time with Alycia while we wait for the transporter to pick her up. During the short 10-15 minutes wait, we have 'real conversation'. I say 'real' coz I am actually listening and talking to her. When all 3 monkeys are at home and I am working on the computer, I sort of half-listen to them when they talk and ask me questions. I know it's bad but I just can't help it coz there are just way too many issues on my mind - work, kids, personal, household matters and all that jazz. I tell yer, it's a bag load of stress being a WFHM (work from home mum) with 2 young kids and an under 2 toddler who is as active as a monkey!

During the 10-15 minutes quiet time in the morning, I talk to Alycia about everything - reminding her not to follow strangers home, reminding her not to buy junk food in school, reminding her to memorize her weekly spelling / Ejaan / Ting Xie, among others. Lately, I have been reading the newspapers to her every morning. Our condo Management provides free issues of the Malay Mail and The Sun everyday. For the past one week, I will guide her to read the newspapers and explain meaning of new words to her. Her reading is improving and there is still lots of room for improvement. I think the 5-10 minutes of newspapers reading every morning will definitely help her improve her vocab and reading prowess.

After Alycia gets into the transporter's car, I will then go for my half hour run or swim or work out in the gym. When I'm back home at 7:30am, the real back-breaking, mental and physical tormenting job of a SAHM cum WFHM begins. I don't get to rest until midnight. Sigh.... it's really really tiring and I hope that I'll get to reap the fruits and enjoy them really really soon!

Hello Daddy

Each time the house phone or my mobile phone rings, rascal #1 and #2 will rush to pick up the phone, as if competing with each other to see who gets the phone first. Now the 2 jie jies have a rival and the tiniest rascal always get to answer the phone. This is what Baby normally says when she answers the phone "Halo.... ar ar, halo.... ar ar" Why "ar ar"? That's because we adults always say that whenever we answer the phone, like saying "Hello, yes yes" (in response to saying that it's me on the phone) but we say "Hello ar ar" in Cantonese or Mandarin hahahah!

Yesterday Baby grabbed my mobile phone when I had forgotten to put it up on the shelve and she pretended to key in some numbers and then went "halo daddy, ar ar...." LOL!!

Must Try The 10-Layer New Pizza Flavor

As I was flipping through the newspapers this morning, the advertisement by this pizza chain on their latest product caught my attention. I must say that this pizza chain has successfully marketed its brand and drew in a lot of customers to their chain of pizza restaurants with their constant new products. Every few months, we are surely surprised with unique flavors. This time, the new pizza flavor has 10 layers of yummy ingredients. I am so tempted to try it! Who knows the next time round, there will be tiny gold coins buried inside their pizzas to entice more customers!

Little Social Butterfly

Baby is a little social butterfly. From the moment she gets up from bed in the morning till evening, she is always hopeful to go kai kai. At the mention of "let's go kai kai", she is the first to get ready. She will zoom to her drawer in the bedroom and fish out her kai kai clothes. She even knows which drawer is to store what type of clothes. Then she removes the singlet that she wears at home and puts on the kai kai clothes herself. Next, she would bring out a hair clip and say "mummy, help me clip"! Once she's all leng leng (pretty), she will wear her favorite Hello Kitty crocs and wait at the door for everyone else to get ready (as shown in pic above). Super efficient, definitely not a dilly dallier like #2 jie jie. Well, I hope she stays this way and not slackens and be a slacker when she grows up.

Now We See It, Now We Don't :(

We went to the pasar malam on Friday night after collecting my customers' clothes from the warehouse. We bought fruits, veggie, sweet corn in cup, assam laksa, soy bean milk and fishballs. There were so much stuff that our car boot was stuffed to the brim. When we opened the boot upon reaching the car park, crash boom bang... and some of the food fell to the ground. The soy bean milk and assam laksa soup were splattered all over the ground! Luckily we had eaten our dinner earlier, else we would have to go out and take out food again. Haih.... such a waste!!

Do you hug and kiss your spouse in front of your kids?

Just before hubby left the house for basketball today, he gave me a peck on the cheek. Alycia saw it. In the past when she was little, she would get extremely jealous whenever she sees daddy hugging or kissing mummy. She would push us and separate us and then cry. Now, as she is older and is more mature in her thinking, she would even encourage us to hug!! One time she asked me this "mummy, do you love daddy? Why do you quarel with him?" when she saw us arguing with each other.

When she saw daddy giving mummy a peck just now, she smiled shyly and then walked away. When Sherilyn came out from the bedroom, Alycia announced this loudly "just now I saw daddy kissing mummy, ahahahahah! I am going to tell all my friends in school tomorrow ahahahahah!" My maid and probably my mil heard it. That was really malu I tell yer. I immediately reprimanded her and warned her not to say it. Now, we better be careful of what we do, else our 3 little monkeys will broadcast it to the world!

Do you hug and kiss your spouse in front of your kids?

On a side note, go check out my blogshop, New And Old Stuff For Sale for more trendy ladies clothing at low price. You can now sell your own stuff, new and old at my blogshop too!

Another Sherilyn In The Making

My sweetie-pie is speaking her mind out loud and clear now. Yesterday after feeding her Nutrifresh + Refresh + Scott's Emulsion in front of the TV (she would only obediently open her mouth and swallow her formula milk + supplements if she's put in front of the tellie), I wanted to turn off the VCD player (playing her favorite Barney). She ran to the TV and said this ""I wan see first, go away mummy" and pushed my hands away! At only 22 months+, this litttle rascal is really vocal and I can see that she is another Sherilyn in the making!

No Ordinary Hair Clip

This rainbow hair clip is no ordinary hair clip. Though I no longer wear it, I still feel sentimental when I look at it. I had forgotten all about this hair clip until 3 days ago when I saw it on the dining table, out of the blue. My late grandma bought this hair clip for me when I was about 12 years old. It was my favorite hair clip and I wore it for a few years. And then it was kept in my hair accessories box untouched for over 2 decades... until my vain pot Sherilyn found the hair clip when we were back in Ipoh some time back... and she brought it back to KL. The hair clip still looks good and the fake diamond is still gliterring!

Hate Yellow Lights

Though I hate yellow lights, my hubs had fitted almost the entire house with yellow lights. He should have consulted me first before he bought those lights. With yellow lights, I find that I have to strain my eyes to see clearly. I prefer blue fluorescent lights and only the wet kitchen and area outside our bedroom are fitted with blue fluorescent lights. One of the things that I have to do is to change the 2 yellow lights in my bedroom to blue fluorescent lights with lightings from Dolan Designs lighting. I also have to change the lights in the girls’ bedroom to blue lights as they are brighter and more conducive for reading.

Great Website To Download Free Birthday Cards

Alycia and Sherilyn wanted to make a birthday card for their little aunt's (hubby's cousin) 7th birthday last week. So I googled around for free birthday cards to print and found this website : http://www.greetingsisland.com/Printables/Birthday

They were excited when they saw the colorful cards at the website and they each chose a card to be printed. Once printed, they had a fun time coloring and decorating their cards with nice stickers and ribbons.






You can write whatever text you want in the card and decorate the card with cute stamps / pictures.

Alycia and Sherilyn enjoyed decorating the cards very much. Now I know how to keep them occupied during the school holidays. I'll print cards for all occasions and get them to color and decorate the cards!

2-color Swimming Pool

We got a shock 2 weeks ago when the color of the water in the swimming pool at our condo turned into green - like polluted sea water. Surprisingly, some residents still jumped in to swim, how gross. However, the pool was later cordoned off and closed for swimming for about a week. When the pool specialists came to fix the problem, the water turned blue again.... slowly. Here's a picture of the pool with 2 colors - green is the part that is not cleaned yet and blue is the part that is already cleaned. Amazing!



Picture taken from the 5th floor of our unit.

Tough Cookie

I must say once again that Baby is indeed a tough cookie. All the pain that she had endured the past 14 months of her life had moulded her into one very tough cookie. The other day, her thumb got pinched by the buckle of her booster seat. I know it's darn painful coz my finger got pinched many times by the buckle of the seat. But Baby did not cry a wee bit, though she did flinch and cringe in pain. When I took a look at her hand, I was shocked to see blood everywhere. The skin of her lower thumb was wedged off by the buckle of the booster seat, yet my tough cookie didn't cry!

Another thing I want to put in record is that Baby's speech is developing very well. She is now very chatty and parrots everything that we say. Today, rascal #2 drew a cat on her doodle and Baby said this to her jie jie "good job jie jie!" Good job to you my baby girl!

Sell Any Of Your Old Or New Stuff At My Blogshop!

This invitation is open to everyone! I am pretty sure many of you have stuff that you want to dispose of but don't know where to dispose them or who to give them to. Sometimes, you feel that it would be a tad too 'sayang' to give your stuff away and have thought of selling it. Well, now you can sell your stuff both old and new at my blogshop, Old And New Stuff For Sale!

You can sell just about any stuff - old baby clothes, your old clothes, bags, costume jelweries, accessories, belts, iPod, your old car (!!) and anything under the sky that you have EXCEPT for pornographic stuff, illegal stuff, banned stuff and stuff that I don't support. Listing of your stuff at my blogshop will be subject to my review and approval. You only pay me 20% in handling / listing fee and commission. For eg. if someone buys your old handbag at RM20, you only need to pay me RM2, that's it!

You can also make nice stuff - costume jewelries, crafts, kids' stuff, even cakes, cookies, etc. and sell them at my blogshop.

This is the procedure:

1) Take pix of your stuff
2) Write description of your stuff
3) Set pricing for your stuff
4) Email the pix and description of your stuff to shireenyong@gmail.com
5) I will post your pix and description of your stuff in my blogshop
6) Any enquiries from interested customers, I will direct them to you.
7) Payment will be to my bank account.
8) I will transfer the money to your account less 20% (10% handling / listing fee + 10% commission) to be paid to me.

You like this stuff? If you love my stuff, quick go through your wardrobe and garage/storeroom to look for old stuff now, snap pix and email them to me. Spread this news to your friends and relatives too. You don't have to go to eBay or sweat it out at the weekend bazaar to sell your stuff now! Sell it at Old And New Stuff For Sale.

BTW, I got this idea from self-made millionaire Rob Kalin when I read from last month's Reader's Digest about how he made his millions doing this at his website. He is only 29 years old and he grosses more than USD12 million a year!! Well, I don't dream of making this much, just a million a year will suffice :D

My Choice Of Breastfeeding-Friendly Clothes

When I first started breastfeeding Baby, I bought expensive nursing tops imported from the U.S. and expensive tube bras. Each top cost over a hundred ringgit. After nursing Baby for almost a year, I discovered that I need not buy imported expensive nursing tops. I discovered that cheap dresses and tops (less than a hundred ringgit) can also facilitate breastfeeding very easily and efficiently. Many of my friends and relatives often ask how I let Baby latch on in the car or in a restaurant so easily like I am a pro. Sometimes it's so discreet that no one ever notices. I use a shawl to cover my shoulders and Baby - no need to buy expensive breastfeeding covers. My choice of breastfeeding-friendly clothes are clothes that are:

1) Designed with a deep v-neck collar -- worn with a tube bra (without wire. I hate wired bras!). To breastfeed - just pull the top of the tube bra down. The deep v-neck collar top/dress is low enough to open up one side to facilitate breastfeeding.

2) Low cut dresses or tops -- worn with an inner tube or tube bra.

3) Dresses and tops made from stretchable fabric. My favorite is poly-cotton. They are cheap, does not need any ironing, cooling and stretchable.

4) Dresses and tops that have elastics / garters at the chest area so that it's easily pulled down to facilitate breastfeeding.

5) Get cheap tube bras. I am small size and petite. Scarlet brand from Jusco has very cheap tube bras (comes in many attractive colors) for teenagers. Yes, I can still fit into a teenager bra haha!

6) Buy clothes that come with a built-in bra / padding. Try Elle Sports or even Scarlet brand - at the bra section.

7) Get cheap and funky tube bras from those shops at Times Square KL.

Oh yes, you may also get some dresses I mentioned above from my online blogshop :D Just ask me which one can facilitate breastfeeding and I can recommend a few for you.

Just my 2 cents from a pro-breastfeeding mummy who has been nursing Baby for almost 22 months!