Sleeping Child

Poor Baby dozed off on her little desk while learning ABCs from the lappie. Alycia and Sherilyn's mandarin tutor will come to our house once or twice a week. When she comes, the only way to distract this rascal from disturbing her 2 sisters and the teacher is to give her the iPad or the lappie. Sometimes, she will be as good as an angel and sit still at the table for an hour, playing with her gadget.... albeit the inviting sounds from the iPad will distract her 2 older sisters. On some days, will climb over her sister's chairs to invite them to play with her or disturb the teacher to no end, just to get attention, where even the whip does not seem to scare this rascal! The same thing will happen whenever I do revision with Alycia and Sherilyn before their exams, sigh...

Big Man With A Soft Spot

This morning, Baby screamed and jumped up from the couch, where she was seated and having oranges, when she saw a bumble bee flying towards her. The baby bee flew away and landed on the curtain. Hubs then called kakak to bring a plastic bag to catch the bee, to which she quickly brought one and managed to catch the baby bee. Just as she was about to squash the baby bee, hubs screamed out "jangan bunuh dia" (don't kill it!). I asked him why and he gave an answer which was very thoughtful and responsible. He said that bees make honey for us, so why kill it? He then released the baby bee from the plastic bag outside the window.

One time, hubs saved a drowning kitty in the half full drain outside our house after a heavy downpour. He brought the kitten out and used a hair dryer to dry the kitten's fur, then let the kitten remain in our porch for a few days. I fed the kitten with milk. But the kitten went away by itself. My hubs can irritate me to the pit of my guts sometimes but he can be a fallen angel in many ways.

Linus For Primary 1 Students

Sherilyn has been accepted into the same Chinese primary school that Alycia is going to now. All primary 1 kids are now compelled to sit for a government LINUS test to gauge the child's efficacy in the national language - Bahasa Malaysia. Kids who are weak in BM will be placed in a special class, where they will be given extra lessons.

Here is just one of the lists given to the kids, which is the same list given to Alycia 2 years ago. All the kids have to know the suku kata and how words are formed using suku kata.

This book is something that's new, which was not given to Alycia 2 years ago. Again, the Primary 1 kids must know how to read all the words in the book, I think, else they will be placed in a special class.

Rascal #2 trying to read all the words. Thank God she's catching up, albeit she needs tons and tons of pushing, threats and bribes.

Just A Dream

Just want to put this on record... in this blog that I have created to chronicle my 3 angels' journey from infant through toddlerhood through childhood.

At about 4am this morning, Baby was sobbing softly in her sleep, while mumbling something like this "I don't want", repeatedly. I hugged her and whispered in her ears, telling her that she's only dreaming. She stopped sobbing.

When she woke up at 8am this morning, the first thing that she said to me was this "mummy, there's a lizard in daddy's car! And the lizard wanted to catch me!" LOL!! I told her that she was only dreaming. And I told her that she cried and sleep talked... to which she gave me a cheeky giggle.

Cassandra at 3Y 4M

Kids Say The Darndest Things

My parents will be coming to KL next week. It's my dad's birthday next week and we are celebrating his birthday in KL. For days, Baby has been telling me that she wants to make a birthday card for koong koong. But no one is free to help her with the card. Today, she tried making a birthday card for koong koong. Shs found an Astro flyer paper on the table and scribbled on the unprinted reverse side of the paper. Then she went to her che che's drawer and 'stole' her che che's glue and started to roll the glue stick on the paper. I was busy on the PC. When I brought her to the bathroom to wee wee,I saw that her hands were black and sticky. Her toes too LOL! The 'birthday card' for koong koong' was errrr completely out of shape and resembled anything but a card. I then threw the paper into the bin as there was glue everywhere... while hoping that she would not noticed that 'koong koong's birthday card' is missing. But she did noticed it right away.

Baby - mummy, where's koong koong's birthday card?

Me - I threw it away. There's glue everywhere. We'll make another card for koong koong ok?

Baby - why did you throw the PaPer away? (emphasizing loudly the P sound in both the P vowels). PaPer is expensive, you must recycle. Why throw away huh?

Me - it's ok. There's glue everywhere and it's very messy.

Baby - but that's PaPer. PaPer is very expensive. You must recycle, you cannot throw away you know.

And she went ranting on and on about me throwing her koong koong's 'birthday card' and emphasizing that I should not have thrown a good PaPer away LOL!!!


Cassandra at 3years 4 months

Gift Of Gab

Baby is getting more and more vocal each day. She can answer me back very, very well and logically too. Many times she out-talks and out-wits me. Her character is becoming more and more like rascal #2. Yesterday, I gave her a ceramic cup with a slice of cheese cake inside. She had just finished drinking fresh orange juice from the cup and I thought just put the cheese in the cup so that I don't have to wash another bowl. But she dropped the cup just when I was handing it to her. As I was cleaning up the absolute mess on the floor (my maid had gone down to pass clothes to my customer), Baby said this in defense "who asked you not to pass the handle of the cup to me? I didn't drop the cup. You didn't give me the handle! See, I am holding a spoon in my hand, how to hold the cup?? It's not my fault!" ..... to which I told myself how true. I admit I was hurrying as I was passing the cup to her and I think I did not pass the side of the cup with the handle to her. And yes, she was holding a spoon too.

I wasn't even scolding her but she was yakking away to defend herself in a real defensive manner, lest I reprimand her and do not give her a good behavior sticker at night. GOSH, this girl has a gift of gab but I really hope that she will put this 'talent' to good use and not use her words to 'kek sei ngor" just like rascal #2!

My Toys Story and Buzz Light Year craze 3YO baby girl, growing up really fast...

Brunch At The Han Room @ The Gardens

We had brunch at The Han Room @ The Gardens Mid Valley Megamall last Saturday. We rarely ever go out for brunch at Mid Valley on a Saturday. We were actually geared to go to Ficelle Patisserie to have breakfast but it was raining pretty heavily. So we changed plan and decided to go to a place with sheltered car park.

The Han Room is under the Oriental Group of Restaurants. This restaurant is pretty classy and the food is good, just like the other restaurants in the Oriental Group.

Apart from the usual har gau, siew mai, char siew pau, fried radish and fish balls, we ordered these too:

Egg tarts...

Deep fried stuffed crab....

This is no ordinary deep fried chicken wing, check out the pic below to find what treasures lie within when the wing was cut up....

Minced meat stuffed nicely inside the wing, beneath the crispy skin....

Cabbage fish balls...

Char siew, braised tofu and siew yoke. The siew yoke was super crispy and tasted top-notch, yums!

Every Minute Counts

Ever since my hubby’s friend got electrocuted and almost died when he touched a lamp post with his sweaty hands, I have always been reminding my girls never ever to touch any lamp post whenever they come across one in the park or roadside. The accident happened in the basketball court in a park. After a game of basketball, that guy with sweaty hands held on to a lamp post and that act caused his body to be flung backwards by the passing electricity. Thank goodness the hospital was near the park and he was rushed there by his friend. No air ambulance service was required. In cases of accidents, every minute counts. If no prompt treatment is given, a life will be gone within minutes.

Sticky Note Pads To Remind My Miss Forgetful

Alycia can be quite forgetful. She is very fond of leaving her books behind in class, inside her desk. And when she cannot find the book back home, she will throw herself into a fit of rage, blaming me and the maid for misplacing it or just blame herself by crying really hard. This week is Alycia's school exam. I was fuming mad on Sunday when she told me that she had forgotten to bring some of her text books back, as I had specifically reminded her last week to bring them home last week. So this is what I did to remind my Miss Forgetful :

A sticky note pad inside her pencil case. This way, there's no way she will miss the note!

I am a very forgetful person too and I have to remind on sticky note pads all over my house and my faithful e-Calendar from my computer all the time, even during my corporate days.

Learning from the iPad2

I have noticed that Baby is more keen to learn Mandarin than English. When she has the iPad with her, she prefers to go to kids learning apps that teach in Mandarin. She will repeat the words after the iPad 'talks' to her. She learns her colors, numbers, body parts and other general things in Mandarin from the iPad, which saves me $$ from sending her for tuition :D

"ar ser san..."

Healthy Wholemeal and Rye Flour Pancakes

I made my girls pancakes for lunch again, backed by popular demand! Pancakes are easy to prepare but it is very time consuming. If I don't have a helper to help me sweat it out for an hour at the hot stove, I would not have prepared them.

This time, my pancakes are pretty healthy. I used wholemeal flour, high protein flour, rye flour, ground almond, milk powder, a pinch of sea salt and 4 eggs.


My girls wanted to have their pancakes eaten with Haagen Dazs green tea ice cream, and I gave in. And so they had a sinful, decadent lunch of yummy pancakes with ice cream!

Can you guess who the impatient rascal holding her cutlery was at the background?

Happy!

My hard work is paying off and I am seeing the results that I want to see. The profit for my online store for the month of July is 3-fold of what I normally get. I could not believe my eyes when I saw the figures today, which is the last day of July. If this can persist every month, very soon I will be able to purchase a credit card swiping machine so that my customers can pay by credit card, a receipt printer and hire a staff or two. Woohoo!! I wonder if I can cope with the added stress if I expand my business.

Rewards To Keep Them Well Behaved

Last week, I found a very effective way of getting my kids to behave and to listen to me, without having to break a sweat! And I have to thank the creators of Angry Birds. My 3 girls are absolutely crazy over them. On Friday, I bought some Angry Birds stickers and I told my girls that each of them will get to choose a sticker that they want at the end of the day if they behave well. This is working pretty well for 2 days now. I wonder how long this excitement and reward will keep them well behaved and obedient. If the novelty wears off, I will have to find other exciting gifts as rewards. I found a website that sells great gifts. Just click here to check them out.

Beef Bolognaise Spaghetti With Spinach

To help Baby overcome her grossly serious constipation problem, I try to include greens in her lunch and dinner. She used to shun away from veggie even after going through painful episodes of constipation. But the latest constipation left her suffering quite a bit. And she knows that if she does not eat enough greens, fruits or drink enough water, she has to suffer the next day. Now, she willingly asks for greens during meal times :D Boy am I glad!!!

Here's Baby's homecooked beef bolognaise spaghetti with spinach. And a bowl of pink bean-red bean soup with pork ribs and red dates, to boost her protein and iron supply.

Tomato Fried Rice

Fried rice is always the easiest to prepare and my girls love them. I normally prepare fried rice for lunch and cook an extra portion for dinner too. So we only need to mess up the kitchen once :)

My fried rice is cooked in a variety of ways. This one is tomato fried rice with cubed tomatoes from 2 large tomatoes. There are also mustard green (sawi), cubed carrots, diced chicken breast, garlic, onions, eggs and cherry tomatoes and not to forget spring onions to add flavor to the rice. It's quite a complete meal isn't it? Tasty and fuss-free meal for my 3 girls.

Champagne Grapes

We were at Cold Storage and saw a rare sight at the fruits section - cute, tiny champagne grapes. We tried the samples and they were sweet. Baby was besotted with those 'baby grapes', as she called them and insisted that we got her some. To placate her, I took 2 small bunches, or should I say 2 handfuls and they cost a whopping RM7! I could pop the 2 handfuls of cute baby grapes in 2 mounthfuls as they are so terribly tiny. Now that I know they are so costly, I don't think I will buy them again. I'd go for regular grapes - more flesh to chew!

Little Dare Devil

My little dare devil found a novel way of eating her rice - by using the rice + dishes as fillings for her butter bun *roll eyes*

But I must give the credit for creativity to the most creative of the 3 - rascal #2.

Anchovies Soup With Pumpkin, Pork and Fish

Here's another favorite of my girls:

Noodles with fish balls and anchovies soup.

The pot of soup is made with anchovies, yellow fish (this fish is normally used to prepare soup), minced garlic, a few slices of ginger, pork slices and pumpkin wedges. Wholesome and tasty eh?

The only stuff that ain't too healthy are the tofu fish cakes and meatballs. They are very tasty but contain MSG. My kids just love these and also those white as powder fish balls. These fish balls are very tasty and salty and most kids love them. They contain other food additives like boric acid or perhaps whitening agent to make the fish balls so white and bouncy. I only allow my kids to eat them once a week.

Do you allow your kids to eat processed fish balls and fish cakes with food additives? It's hard to escape as even pre-schools serve them as snacks during break time.

She Naps The Darndest Ways

Here's another of Sherilyn's trade marks - dozing off on a stool, outside the bathroom. It's a blood-pressure raising matter for me asking her to shower every day. On some days when I am busy, I will forget to nag her to shower and this is what happens at 9pm....

That's when I have to jolt her up from her sleep with her whining, crying and shrieking away... which sends me a migraine right away! Sigh, this girl is really a challenge to me, testing my patience to the max.

One Two Juice!

Baby follows me into the bathroom almost everyday. I don't trust her to be alone outside with my helper when there is no one else in the house. While I was seated on the throne, Baby came to me and requested that I played "Catch My Hands", a game that we normally play when I am on the throne haha! Then I decided to teach her how to play "One Two Juice", a 2-person game that uses your hand to make pretend 'bird', 'water', 'stone' and see who wins. I used to play this hand game with my brothers and friends when I was a kid. Till today, I still play this with my hubby, to see who has to close the door of the bedroom or switch off the TV LOL!! Within 5 minutes of teaching her this game, Baby grasped the game and was enjoying the game with me.

Just now during dinner, she proudly taught kakak how to play "one two juice" with her. She even played it with her favorite Alycia che che and could even point out the mistakes that her che che made.

My model wannabe, with a Top Baby headband from my online store.