Ravenous Appetite

My almost 4-YO baby girl has an appetite as ravenous as an elephant! She eats more than me and I kid you not, really she does! She even eats more than her 8YO+ sister. When my mil eats her breakfast in the morning, this little rat will gnaw on her food from oats with milk to sandwiches, breakfast cereal and just about whatever that she eats. When I eat my breakfast, same goes. Half the portion of my breakfast gets robbed the moment I place it on the dining table. My mil and I have been pretty concerned that her insatiable appetite will gradually make her really fat with a perpetually insatiable appetite! So we now control her food portions and we have to be cruel to turn her pleas down for more food.

My baby girl even eats pig's trotters cooked with black vinegar (jue goek choa) and she loves this sourish dish to bits... and had to pay a price for overeating it when she purged and puked (only once) the next day!!








Jue Geok Choa polished off by my almost 4YO baby girl!

Street Named After My Hubs!

There is now a street in KL 'named' after my hubs, here goes:


My hubs whose English name is Alan with Tun as the second word of his Chinese name now has a street named after him, ain't he well known now? And this street is in the prominent China Town in KL. And oh by the way, my hubs also has the title 'Tun' to his moniker. Geng eh? Muahahahahahaha!!!

Happy Weekend Peeps!

Today is just one of those days where I have nothing much to update in my blogs. Well there are some stuff on my mind but I do not wish to let the whole world know. So I'll just post a picture of Alan's Angels.

Happy weekend peeps and I wish you'll have a great time with your loved ones.

Little Vain Pot

Check out my vain pot! She's not even 4 years old yet but is as vain as a teenager. We were getting ready to have brunch with my parents, brother and sil from Singapore on Sunday when she happily helped herself to wearing a total of 5 bracelets and bangles on her hands. After I had commented on how she looked, she added "I do look like a Christmas tree right?" Such a witty comment, LOL!!

MIL's Bakes and Makes

Whenever my mil is around, we hardly ever step foot into a bakery for she will bake cakes, bread, buns and tarts several times in a week! Yep, she bakes very regularly and we will never go hungry when she's around. Last week, she baked 2 trays of Madeline, 10-grain bread, chocolate brownie, pizza, blueberry tarts and orange cake! I wonder what she's planning to bake this week. I know she's definitely going to make pizza again as we bought pizza cheese, bacon and mushrooms from Jaya Grocer yesterday, for another round of pizza! I saw some Facebookers who baked pandan chiffon cake last week and heck, I am craving for it too. Since the organic veggie seller gave me a big bunch of screwpine leaves this morning, I am going to place my order for pandan chiffon cake later. Hopefully my order gets 'processed' * grins *



Bakes and makes from the mil's kitchen...

10-grain bread and buns...





Blueberry tarts, which is the best in the world! This is something which I doubt I will ever dare to try to bake as the steps seem so tedious and laborious.

Happy Girls

The girls with their favorite koo por (grand aunt) who lives just a few floors below our unit. We have dinner together almost everyday and the girls dot on her. Koo Por is such a sport to have worn this bright green clown's wig with a matching pair of ginormous clown's spectacles and even sportier to have agreed to have this pic published in my blog.








Here's wishing everyone a very good week ahead. The 1-week school holiday has ended today. It's back to the grind for everyone starting tomorrow. And it's back to waking up at 5:30am for me again.

Just Because of A Darn Teeny Weeny Misplacement

Nothing can be more frustrating than having to do something that you are not hands-on with. I started this blog, which is my maiden blog 5 years ago. I was just a si-lai then. Yes I have knowledge on how to operate the PC and know Excel, Words, Power Point and surf the net but totally zilch knowledge on computer codes. But I was very determined to create a blog for dual purposes. First as an eDiary to pen down my journey with my girls and secondly to earn some moolah from it. After many, many late nights, I finally learned a great deal on computer codes, how to upload pictures into my blogs, learned that pictures are made up of nothing but a huge chunk of codes which the computer recognizes and all that jazz.

Anyway, the purpose of this blog post is to rant that I had spent almost half the afternoon on my other blog trying to add in a link to my side bar in return for some moolah in USD. I just didn't understand why my entire blog layout would go distorted the moment I added the text with link to the widget for my side bar. Then I copied the whole damn link and compared it with the codes from other links and bingo! I found where the error was that caused the distortion. It was just one very minor misplacement of the code as below...

Instead of ending one of the codes contained within the link with
/a
I ended it like this
a/

The problem was with a mere misplacement of the / which had caused me so much misery for months!

Actually this problem persisted for many months and I just did not have the time to do a post mortem on it, until today where I had no choice coz of the USD100 haha! Damn frustrating but very satisfied with my little 'achievement'!

Breakfast At Magnificent Fish And Chips, Changkat Bukit Bintang KL

On Sunday, hubs wanted to bring us to Lai Foong coffee shop located opposite Petaling Street to eat some popular delish hawker food. But we detoured when we passed by the coffee shop and saw that it was bursting with patrons. Next in this foodie's mind was Magnificent Fish and Chips located at Changkat Bukit Bintang.

So here's what we stuffed ourselves full. The portion was pretty big for most of us who are tiny eaters, especially moi who eat like a cat.

Egg Benedict - consists of smoked salmon and poached eggs on a bun, on a bed of greens. In the background is Bangers and Mash - consists of super long and thin sausage twirled on a bed of mashed potatoes with mushroom sauce. Looked kinda gross, errr like what you'd normally find in your throne, as we were all joking when we saw that plate of food LOL!





Fat Boys CBB. This plate of breakfast looks humongous but when we flipped the eggs and mushrooms away, beneath were 3 over-sized slices of toasted white bread, which made the portion look huge. Very yummy but I really think that it is over priced.



Coffee fix for the caffeine addict - Latte and Cappuccino which are part of the breakfast set...



3 happy girls with their camera and blog-shy leng jai daddy, leng lui mah mah, koo por and yours truly haha! Did you notice that Alycia and I are wearing the same top here? It's our mother-daughter Mickey Mouse singlet hehe...



A hefty breakfast bill for 5 adults and 3 kiddos. But well justified as the food was too much that we took away and ate them for lunch cum tea at 3pm. And lastly, we do not have such lavish breakfast all the time. I think we should pamper ourselves to something really nice once in a while :)

Organic Valley Organic Fresh Milk

I was shopping for fresh milk at Village Grocer at Bangsar Village and spotted a new brand of organic milk called Organic Valley being sold. It costs RM23.49 for a 1 litre box. For us, the 1 litre box of milk will last us for 3 days as only Baby and my mil drink fresh milk. If Alycia and Sherilyn were to drink fresh milk too, the 1-litre box will only last us for 1 day. This means that I would have to fork out a minimum of RM704.70 just on fresh milk for 1 month!! This amount is equivalent to the take-home salary of some lesser fortunate people.

Would you spend this much on organic fresh milk? Gee, it looks like only very wealthy people can afford to go fully organic or half organic!

Throes of Motherhood ... Struggling With A Very Difficult Child

Sherilyn is driving me NUTS! She has been really stretching my patience till the threshold level is now breached. I feel like strangling her!! Each time I do revision with her, I wonder if she is dyslexic. It seems as if nothing goes into her head. Before each revision session begins, I can be sure to get the usual load of excuses from her to stall time! First, she will say I want to pee, then I want to drink water, I want to pack my bag first, I want this particular pencil, I want to sharpen my pencil first, I want this and that... and when the actual revision begins, she will yawn and doze off mid way!

Today is bad. She shocked me with her output. After explaining common nouns, proper nouns, punctuation marks and countable nouns to her since yesterday (actually it was since her pre school days), she gave me all crap in the English Grammar workbook that I had asked her to do. Next, she whined, cried and screamed over every little issue at home. She fights with Alycia all the time. Alycia is a neat and clean freak while Sherilyn is the exact opposite, so Sherilyn's slapdash attitude irates Alycia all the time when she causes haphazard in the bedroom and around the house. Alycia is always the one who would volunteer to clean up and clear up her 2 sisters' things and mess. When Sherilyn took Alycia's Geronimo Stilton book to read just before bedtime just now, there was a big war. Now they are sleeping in separate bedrooms!! Alycia refused to lend Sherilyn the book as she said that her sister will throw the book on the floor after reading and scribble the book with a pen... which is true. I am really at lost on how to manage Sherilyn. Her lackadaisical attitude towards life and studies and her daily screams, whines and cries are driving me insane!! Does anyone have a child who is like this?

Throes of Motherhood... of Kids' Exams

Alycia came home today and told me that her Science in Mandarin test paper today was very difficult. She is the type who is always tight-lipped about how she had fared in her test papers and does not like to talk much about her test papers. In fact, she does not like being asked and will get very agitated if my concern is overly shown. But thank God, she has been doing pretty well in all her exams thus far. Today, she told me that her Science test paper is so hard that she thinks she is going to fail! Sei lor, I hope she ain't going to fail!! She has never failed in any of her test papers since her pre-school days. Is it that difficult in Standard 3? I am one very anxious mommy now. I hope that my worries will be unfounded. I hope that her teachers will distribute the test papers back by this week before the start of the 1-week school term break, else I will have over 1 week to worry about her marks. And she is only in Standard 3. I will have a long, long time to worry myself old lidat!

Big Juicy Apples From Japan

Can you take a wild guess on how much these apples from Hokkaido, Japan cost each? We got them from a Japan food fair held at Isetan @ KLCC last week. It is usually priced at over RM10 each but during the promotion, it was 4 apples for RM27. Still very costly but I could not resist sinking my teeth into the juicy apple after tasting the free samples at the booth. And oh yes, at least I will have something to blog about to add a touch of sweetness to my 5-year old blog :) The apples are very sweet, juicy and crunchy. But I think it will be the last time I am going to splurge so much on apples, of all things!

Flavours Food LIfestyle Magazine

My foodie and food caterer hubs spends quite a bit regularly on cook books for ideas and recipes and these books ain't cheap. I never had the time to read them until recently when I was coaxing Baby to drink her milk. While waiting for her to gulp down her milk, I sat next to her and glanced the newest Flavours mag that my hubs had bought. And that's when I got hooked on this Flavours Food Lifesytle mag. It now sits in the bathroom, where I will go through it when I am seated on the throne haha!






Here are 2 recipes which had caught my eyes and I will certainly try them when my MIL is away again...

Minced Meat with mashed potatoes...


Sesame Udon... easy and quick to whip up and my girls are big time fan-see of Udon noodles.

Cassandra Says The Darndest Things

Baby is getting better and better with her words. She talks like an adult at times. She out-talks me many times and I now have to be very careful with my answers to her as she will query me to the root of the basis of my answers!

Conversation this afternoon:

Baby - mummy, I love you very, very much!

Me - me too, I love you very, very much too!

Baby - mummy, do you love kakak?

Me - errr..... I love your 2 che ches...

Baby - do you love daddy?

And before I could answer....

Baby - you must love daddy you know, he is your husband!

Me - of course I love daddy! What makes you think I don't love daddy?

Baby - no, just asking hehe...


And moments later, she asked me this :
Baby - mummy, if I eat a lot of bananas, will I turn all yellow like the shining sun?

My little drama queen is so dramatic. She must have associated this with what I had told her about eating food with lots of coloring. I always scare the girls by telling them that cakes, jellies and snacks with lots of bright colors are very bad for health. Last night, to discourage them from eating the blue, red and green icing on some Wondermilk Elmo & Cookie Monster cup cakes that daddy had bought, I told them that their pee will turn blue, red and green too. This really scared the pee out of them and it worked!

It's A Torture When You Can't Sleep When You're Sleepy!

I am actually farking tired and sleepy today. I was about to doze off on my massage chair while doing some work but darn, each time I tried to get my forty winks, someone just had to startle me up! Sometimes I wished I live alone and can sleep, eat, watch the TV and do anything however I like and whenever I fancy! Oh well, anyway... but I didn't get to take a cat nap, not at all. Was really jonked out with my online store, having to supervise the renovation in the wet kitchen, manage 3 kids who seem to be 'deaf', amend an advertorial for the umpteen times (gosh, this client is SUPER fussy but I have to stoop lowly coz they are paying me pretty well!) and supervise #1 and #2 in their homework. During dinner at the Chinese restaurant just now, I had drank some Chinese tea and now, fark, I can't sleep though my head is throbbing. Darn the caffeine flowing in my blood now. I am jinxed. Oh fark! So that's why I am here typing this post at this ungodly hour where I am supposed to be in bed as I have to wake up by 5:45am tomorrow.

Food Fair at Isetan @ KLCC - 25 February 2012

We were at the Japanese food fair at Isetan @ KLCC yesterday. For those of you who are fans of Japanese food, you will love this fair and get 'drown' there. I say drown coz you'll bound to pull out a few big notes from your wallet after sampling the food at the fair, hehe.... I'll bet no one can resist the wide array of seafood cooked in a few varieties of style, ala Japanese.

An assortment of seafood cooked in a variety of Japanese styles

Wide array of deep fried seafood and fish

Baby and Alycia ate cups after cups of handmade Udon... but we did not eat for free. We bought 3 packs of handmade Udon and green tea noodles, costing over RM20 for a packet.

Just one of the delicacies which we 'succumbed' to - fresh scallops cooked in Terriyaki sauce, YUMS!

Kids Ask The Darndest Questions

During shower time last night, Baby saw a mozzie flying past her, right in front of her eyes and she wanted to smash it with her hands but as elusive as they may be, the mozzie vanished into the thin air.

Baby - mummy, why did God create mosquitoes?

I paused for a moment, thinking of an appropriate answer to give this inquisitive toddler.

Baby - mummy, I asked you, why did God create mosquitoes??

Me - God created many animals and insects when he created the world.

Baby - but why did he create mosquitoes and tigers to bite us? Why did he create animals that can bite us?

I could not give my baby girl an answer and just told her that I wanted to know the answer too! This rascal always asks me questions which I am lost for answers. Anyone can give a proper answer to this question?

Dining Trays To Minimize Cleaning Up

Do you know what's indispensable at our dining table when #2 and #3 have their meals? A dining tray!

If only I could have it my way, I would want rascal #2 to wear a bib with a food catcher but nope, she wouldn't wear it. NO WAY! After all, she's already 7 years old but a very clumsy and messy 7-year old. Whenever she has her meals, I can be rest assured to see bread crumbs, rice, bones and food scattered on the table and on the floor around where she sits. That's why each time she eats, I will place her bowl, plate and cup on a huge dining tray so that food and spillage of drinks will drop on the tray. Even Baby is not as messy as she wears an Ikea bib with a food catcher, which is her faithful and cute pink froggy bib. Speaking of the Ikea bib, I hope Ikea has replenished their stock for the pink and green froggy bib set that comes with a sippy cup and cute froggy bowl. Last month when I was there, I could not find the bib set. I hope Ikea has restocked this bib set and if they do, I'll make sure I get 3 sets when I make my monthly trip to Ikea next week! They are really affordable, durable, dries up so quickly after washing and damn cute!

And I want to get this cute and colorful Barbar tray with colorful birds too. Planning to get 2 units of this tray - one for Miss Clumsy and one for rascal #3! I'll bet they will love this birdie tray to bits!

Still Very Much A Dilly Dallier After 1.5 Months

After 1.5 months into her first primary school year, Sherilyn is still pretty much the same in terms of her sense of urgency. She still day dreams every morning at the dining table, struggling to finish her mug of milk . She still sits on the throne in a daze and moves about looking zonked out. Each morning, I need to rush her like mad, with Alycia and my mil nagging her along side me.

Every morning, I still need to dress Sherilyn up hurriedly - put on the white shirt for her, help her button up, put on the pinafore for her, comb her hair, feed her Scotts Emulsion, put on socks for her and put on shoes for her at times! If I don't do that, she will be gravely late. She does not have the least bit of panicky feeling even when it is already time to go to the lobby to wait for the transporter and she is totally not ready yet. She was late several times and I felt so bad that the entire van load of kids plus the van driver had to wait for her.

I send Alycia and Sherilyn to bed by 9pm every night but on some days, they will only fall asleep by 10pm, which is on the day that Sherilyn has ballet class in the evening or when the hubs watches TV and they are too distracted by the TV. On most days, they will have at least 8 hours of sleep.

Poor Baby is the victim as she will often be jolted up from her sleep from the commotion every morning. On some mornings, she will wake up at 6am and not go back to sleep at all. This means, I will not get to go to the gym as she will insist in following me. Not liking this at all. Hopefully things will get better over time.

Throes of Motherhood... Of Checking School Bags, Tuition Bags and Homework

During the CNY holidays, I had the time to go through the pile of books and 'rubbish' in the girls' room. During the spring cleaning, I 'unearthed' one of Alycia's Mandarin tuition Math book. After checking the book, I discovered that the last homework that the tuition teacher gave to Alycia was in Nov 2011 and that the homework was never done and the book went MIA! The tuition teacher had kept quiet and so did Alycia. It then dawned on me that this could be just one of the MIA homework books. There could be more in the past. In the past, I was too busy to ever go through the girls' school bags and tuition bags. My new year resolution this year is that I must be more involved in the girls' academic side. I must know what's going on everyday. I hate to have bits and pieces of tiny rubbish swept under the carpet, which are only discovered many months later. As I went through Alycia's school bag the other day, I also discovered some of the things that she did not show me like her weekly Ejaan, Spelling, Ting Xie and Xiao Kau marks. Not that she failed or did not do very well but did not score a 100%. Anyway, I am glad that I realized where my mistake was in the past.

I must now take an effort to check their school bags at least 2 - 3 times a week. And ensuring that their tuition homework is completed and whether the tutor had marked the homework is very important. My mum used to sent me to the supposedly best BM tutor in Ipoh but this VIP and famous tutor was so popular and busy that she never marked our homework! I scored a C6 for my BM in my SPM. My mum never checked my tuition homework back then. Hence, I must ensure that this mistake must NOT repeat itself on my girls, ever!

So coming back to the Mandarin Math workbook that was MIA. I spoke to the tuition teacher when she came and highlighted this matter to her. I then suggested to her that there must be a 'Homework Message Book' for Alycia and Sherilyn each. Each time she comes to our house to tutor the girls, she has to write down the details of the homework in the Homework Message Book. This way, she and I can monitor the girls' homework and ensure that homework given is not missed out for marking / correction during the next tuition lesson. I find this very effective. I have just checked Sherilyn's Homework Message Book and found out that she had 'forgotten' to do a Math tuition homework -- 5 pages some more! She bawled when I reprimanded her. I was very firm with her and told her " finish everything or NO DINNER!" Yes, I am quite a tiger mum and I think this is more effective on my girls.

I wonder, for you working mothers with 3 kids and more, how do you find the time to go through your kids' school bags,tuition bags and homework everyday? Do you ever do it and if yes, how often? It's pretty tough to be a good mom, isn't it?