Throes Of Motherhood... Raising Kids And Discovering Them!

Cass has just turned 5 years old.  She is slowly metamorphosing into a brat who is really cheeky, mischievous, fearless and rebellious, just like Sherilyn when she was Cass' age.  And she is wearing my patience real thin in each passing day. What is happening to my cute, meek, obedient and adorable Baby C??  She is afraid of no one at home. Though she is afraid of being whipped, yet this will not deter her from doing the things that she is forbidden to do. Oh gosh, she is just exactly like Sherilyn who has tested over 5 years of my patience and worn it so thin till it was torn and almost irreparable. But thank God, Sherilyn is improving in the areas of obedience and sense of importance in punctuality, albeit going at a real SLOW pace. But at least I see improvement in her and I am starting to feel that we can actually get along really well! :)

Now my biggest challenge is Cass, my baby girl who is torturing me mentally, emotionally and physically every day! Day in, day out, I reprimand her and I nag at her till the point that she has developed an immunity towards my reminders and nagging! She is definitely a brat who has been spoilt rotten over the years. Everyone dotted on her and gave in to her whims and fancies because of her medical condition and not to mention her cuteness!  It hurt us deeply to see her on drips and being poked and prodded every month from the time she was just 6 weeks old up until she was 15 months old (post-operation). We just sucked up to all her nonsense all these years. And I am feeling and seeing the consequences now of spoiling my baby girl! Now, this cute baby girl of mine is metamorphosing into a monster eating me up everyday, bit by bit!

Last night, I suddenly remembered what my late aunt had told me about -- never use negative words to scold your child.  During our bedtime ritual last time, after saying a prayer with her and giving her a goodnight kiss and hug, I said this to Cass : "baby, tomorrow, you will be a good girl. You will listen to mummy. You will not talk in class and you will not be punished by your teacher. Tomorrow you will be a good girl and will make mummy happy only, OK?"  She gave me an approving nod and gave me wet pecks all over my face, like a happy puppy.

It is never easy to raise a child. It is even harder to raise a child into a good and useful individual with a wonderful disposition and attitude. But I am learning everyday.  I have just discovered what has been causing my eldest daughter to throw tantrums and sulk whenever she is asked to do her homework. And I told Alycia about my discovery and both of us felt so happy yesterday evening, after we found out what made her edgy with emotional outbursts so frequently lately.   We discovered that no matter what, this girl MUST have at least an hour of nap in the afternoon to recharge her batteries BEFORE she can start doing anything that is academic!   I feel a sense of achievement and victory when I discover hidden answers like this, which is like finding a missing piece of jigsaw puzzle!.  I have also recently discovered that COW'S MILK was the CULPRIT that caused Alycia to be so sick when she was a toddler and she has an ultra sensitive throat with phlegm up until now.  I have now eliminated cow's milk and all products of cow's milk out from her diet and thank God, I am seeing so much improvement in her throat now!   Can you beat it that it took me over 9 years to 'know' my daughter? But at least I did!

Dear God, I ask for guidance and wisdom from you to raise my daughters, everyday. Thank you God, Amen!

Our Saturday - 20 April 2013

The hubs was free to bring us all for breakfast yesterday morning.The girls and I all unanimously voted for Casa Del Coco, our favorite cozy Italian cafe that serves healthy, wholesome and delish food.  We love their healthy omelets, which come in a variety of flavors. Our favorite omelet is fresh mushroom omelet, which composes of generous amount of mushrooms and herbs and it ain't too salty too.



To side track a little... check out hubs' 'flat' abdomen!  He caught on my health and fitness freak regimen and has lost 5kg!  I hope he has the discipline like I do to sustain this healthy lifestyle.


We ordered a Health Freak Omelet, Bacon Omelet, Giant Breakfast, Smoked Salmon Benedict and their award-winning healthy carrot cake with cream cheese and marmalade.





The damage to the hubs' wallet was RM101. Pretty expensive for a breakfast huh? But the up side is that we were all so stuffed that we needn't have to eat lunch, which means that the amount was enough to cover our breakfast and lunch LOL! 

Fruits For Art

Rascal #2's art teacher in school told the class that there will be a session on drawing and painting of fruits.  Every pupil was to bring their own fruits to school. So I drove her to the nearby mini market and asked her to choose the fruits that she'd like to draw. As expected, this rascal who likes to do extraordinary things chose only exotic fruits, not to mention expensive ones!  She wanted to choose a bunch of grapes which cost over RM10 and  mangoes which are expensive too. I said NO! I knew that when the fruits returned home after the painting session, they would surely be inedible anymore with dents and splashes of paints on them.

So I bought her a pineapple (RM5.90) and a red dragon fruit (RM4) as these are not the run-of-the-mill apples and oranges and I think it would be fun to draw them.  She had a great time drawing and painting the exotic fruits in school and thankfully the fruits were still in good shape when she brought them home.  The red dragon fruit had dents every where though, of which I immediately cut it up for her to eat.  And the pineapple had splashes of pink paint on it but thankfully no dents or holes and can still be cut up to be eaten :D

Sherilyn Is Now Bespectacled!

Two weeks ago, Sherilyn was officially a sei ngan mui ('four-eyed' girl)!  After three checks with the optician and ophthalmologist, I was finally convinced that she has Astigmatism. She was actually diagnosed with Astigmatism since early last year but I was not convinced with the tests down by the optician and later the ophthalmologist. After the third test, I was finally convinced. I took the trouble and time to bring her for three tests done by three different doctors as I wanted to be uber sure that her eyes indeed needed corrective glasses. I did not want her to wear glasses because of a wrong diagnosis and prescription. And I had a hunch that this rascal wanted to wear glasses because her good friends are wearing eye glasses too.

I got her a reasonably priced purple colored plastic frame spectacles and I think she looks cute wearing it! And oh yes, the hubs also has to wear glasses now but only when he reads!

Machine test carried out by Dr C from ISEC @ Mid Valley.  This is the ophthalmologist who operated on Cassandra's eye Chalazion  3 years ago. It was after seeking confirmation from him that I was convinced that my rascal has Astigmatism.




And another round of test, before she was given a prescription.
Right eye Astigmatism is 250 and left eye over 100, which is pretty high for an 8-YO girl.





I think she looks prettier and cuter with the eye glasses put on :D




... and has a smart-girl and good-girl look too, when the glasses is put on LOL!!

Snacks box

This is Sherilyn's snacks box for recess today, consisting of 3 slices of Gardenia white bread and a packet of seaweed to go with the bread. Seaweed sandwich is her latest craze and she can chomp down 3 slices within 15 minutes!  When it comes to sandwiches, this bread lover can have it 3 times a day! Serving sandwiches as a meal is a fuss-free, muss-free, win-win situation for rascal #2 and #3 and me. They are both pretty easy-going and not very selective. It is the oldest rascal who is the hardest to please for she is the fussiest of the lot with a very pernickety taste bud!

The Girls' Work Of Art

These are Alycia, Sherilyn and Cassandra's poster painting on canvas at art class on Friday...




 

Left to right :  Cassandra's drawing of 'herself', Alycia's painting of Vincent Van Gouh and Sherilyn's painting of Vincent Van Gouh's Starry Night.


I like Alycia's painting of Vincent Van Gouh the best as I like the artistic painting of the color tones and shading on the face and hair.

Deep-Freezing Kueh Ang Koo

My mil traveled up north last weekend with her daughter from HK and told me that she would make a pit-stop in Ipoh. I jumped at the opportunity and quickly messaged my mum in Facebook for her to get me my favorite black glutinous rice ang koo from Ipoh Garden South. When we went back to Ipoh last month, we stopped at this kueh stall twice but luck was not on our side, the stall was closed. This time, my dad bought 30 pieces of ang koo in a variety of flavors - black glutinous rice skin, red skin and pandan skin.

I was so happy when I saw the boxes of ang koo and gobbled up 3 ang koos immediately.  I may be a health freak but I have my weaknesses to some very fattening stuff like kueh and durians which I can never resist!

There were so many ang koos that I squirred away some and stashed them nicely in an ice-cream container in the freezer.  That can satiate my crave for another month *burp, oops!* LOL!

Cassandra Is 5 Today!

My baby girl, she's 5 years old today! At her request, daddy bought her 2 strawberry cakes -- one Hello Kitty strawberry cake for our celebration at a Japanese restaurant last Saturday (her choice of restaurant) and another strawberry cake for her celebration in school today.
Here is the custom made Hello Kitty strawberry cake for Cass, with layers of strawberry paste between the layers of sponge cake and fresh strawberries as decor on the cake....




And a strawberry white chocolate cake from our favorite bakery for her celebration in school today.




When everyone was singing the "Happy Birthday" song to her, her expression suddenly turned from happy to one that was on the brink of crying! And she covered her mouth with her palm as if to stifle an outburst of emotions, just like how those beauty queens normally react when they are announced the winner. I thought she was really going to tear but thank God, she soon smiled again when daddy asked her to cut the cake LOL! After school, I asked her if she almost wanted to cry during the celebration in school and she said YES! I asked her if she was overcome with emotions and joy and she said YES! I told her that it is normal to feel this way and then I told her about her birth story and that I also teared when I heard her first cries in the OT exactly 5 years ago today!

Tonight, to make this feel like her day, I will be ordering pizzas to be delivered to our place for dinner. I pray to God that He will bestow my baby girl with good health, happiness and wisdom always. Happy birthday baby girl!

Background Checks

One of the tasks that I had to do when I was working as a Human Resources Officer at a bank was to perform background checks on prospective employees. The job entailed calling the prospective employee's former employer to ask about his or her employment track record and to perform a CTC check. The task was time consuming as many of the previous employers needed time to retrieve the personal files (some files would had already been sent to a ‘cold storage’) and some of the employers were not cooperative. If you work in a HR Department, you can check background checks now from the internet at the convenience of your mouse. How very convenient!

One-Pot Easy Peasy Dish

The mil was away for a few days last weekend, so I had to be in action again in the kitchen. As usual, I will only cook dishes that are simple and fast to dish out with minimal splish splash of oil. So here's what I whipped up...

Anchovies soup with baby spinach, carrots and 3 huge chicken drumsticks. Healthy and wholesome, complete with protein, iron and fiber.






Everyone was happy that evening. Whenever there are chicken drumsticks on the dining table, shouts of  "YAY!!" will always echo in the dining area, albeit cooked in the simplest way :)

Our Former Live-In Helper

Cass missed our former live-in helper dearly when she left about 8 months ago and she still misses her ‘kakak’. Occasionally, she would tell me that she still misses ‘kakak’. During Chinese New Year two months ago, we received a surprise long distance call from ‘kakak’. It was good to hear her voice again. If she ever tells us that she wants to return to work for us, I think I would receive her with open arms! Though she had done many things that infuriated us for the past 4.5 years, I have forgiven her. We are all but human beings who are very prone to making mistakes. One time, when Cass was about a year old, ‘kakak’ gave Cass a pencil with sharp pencil lead along with some tiny disc springs to play with when I had gone jogging in the morning. When I came home and saw carbon stains on Cass’ mouth (I reckoned that she had put the pencil into her mouth to chew), I was so furious and almost wanted to strangle her! But I soon cooled down. This was just one of the many blood-boiling incidents that she had done. She had done many foolish things to annoy us but I have forgiven her.

Homecooked Dinner - 1 April 2013

Our heart-warming, tummy-warming and delish homecooked dinner on 1 April 2013...


 

1.  Tomato omelet with Chinese parsley cooked the Fong Lye Taiwanese Restaurant style - this is the kids' top favorite dish at our favorite Taiwanese restaurant.
2.  Pan fried salmon fish
3.  Stir-fried long beans with pork belly slices
4.  Braised pork ribs with fermented soy bean paste

For the next 2 days, the mil will be outstation and the chef job will be passed back to me.  I have already told the girls not to expect fancy dishes like how grandma dishes out everyday but to expect porridge for lunch and a one-pot spinach-chicken drumstick soup cum dish for dinner ≧∇≦

Spin In My New Pink Car!

Last Sunday, the hubs finally had the time to bring me, along with the 3 brats for a spin in my new car, with me driving it for the first time. And it was the first time I drove a car in almost 6 years! Thank God, my driving skill ain't completely lost. The moment I started the engine and hit the wheels, memories of myself being the dare devil on the road 6 years ago took over me instantly! I was really glad that I can still remember how to maneuver a car! Driving a car is like riding a bicycle. You will not lose the skill completely. If you were once good in it, you will always be. And I was equally surprised that I did not lose touch of my parking skill just yet, albeit I admit that I have to improve on my L or side parking.

This morning, hubs brought me for my second refresher course. After dropping Cass in school, we went for breakfast at Ficelle Boulangarie and then went to the mini market. He suggested that we should do this every morning for at least another week until he gives me his stringent 'pass' LOL!

Finally, The Big 40 Rolled In!

My 'big' day came and went like a gust of wind. So....... (loooong sigh), I am officially 40 years old now, boo hoo hooo....
I do miss being in my 20s and 30s and I wonder how the 40s journey is going to turn out. I pray to God that it is going to be a smooth ride with an awesome specatacle and terrain ahead. Most importantly, I pray for good health to be bestowed on my kids, my loved ones and myself.

Hubs has been asking me since yesterday where I'd like to have lunch today but I could not think of a place that I really like.  Being the practical person that I am, I chose Delicious @ Bangsar Village, mainly because I was really craving for the gado-gado (which is a healthy yet delicious dish) from Delicious and later could  could walk across the sky bridge to Cold Storage to get the groceries that I wanted, lol!


While waiting for the food to arrive, the ever I-don't-like-to-do-nothing Cass asked me for Math sums and sukukata. Later, she played one-two-jus with daddy.

 


My favorite gado-gado. Love the sweet and spicy peanut sauce to bits! This is an Indonesian salad dish. The best gado-gado dish has to be from the award-winning Dancing Fish Restaurant @ Bangsar Shopping Centre. I shall blog about our dinner at this restaurant later.



Hubby's sirloin steak...



Mushroom soup and pumpkin soup, which were deliciously thick, rich and lipsmacking!






There was also a green curry set which the mil ordered and 2 kids' meals but darn my mobile phone as I am unable to transfer the pix from my phone to my gmail or Facebook despite umpteen attempts.


My rose shaped green tea pistachio birthday cake from Les Deux Garcons. The 'rose petals' are long wedges of white chocolate wrapped round the cake.




The pet of the family getting a kiss from daddy dearest...




HFM's 3 angels. What could make me happier on my birthday than to celebrate it with my angels and loved ones.

Hawkers' Fare @ Rainbow City Food Lane, Ipoh

During our recent trip back to Ipoh, we brought the girls to savour some street food at 'Tong Sui Kai' (Desserts Street) at Rainbow City Food Lane / Food Court. This is the street that I have been patronizing for the past 25 years whenever we wanted to eat 'tong sui' (desserts) and cheap seafood. It was the girls' first time to this hawkers' street. Well, the food there ain't cheap anymore.

Our first stop was at the first stall that sells seafood and 'tai chau' dishes. We ordered a sweet and sour crab dish, a 'ceong ceng' fish (fish steamed with sweet and sour paste), a pan-fried kampung chicken dish, a stir-fried bean sprouts  and a steamed 3-egg dish. That cost us a whopping RM160+! 




Hubs also ordered piggy spare parts porridge, fish porridge, BBQ sotong (cuttlefish), yau yi ong choy (water spinach with brown cuttlefish in spicy peanut sauce) and rojak from other stalls. The owner of the 'tai chau' stall ain't too happy that we used his bowls and cutlery, HUH!  WTH, we still needed to use his bowl, plates and cutlery when his dishes arrived, right?  This will be our first and probably the last time we patronize this stall as we all think that RM160+ for only 5 dishes is too expensive for Ipoh street food!

The cuttlefish-kangkong and BBQ cuttlefish were very tasty though.

 

For desserts, we walked down to another stall and ordered these:

Ice kacang with atapchi and ice cream, cendol with ice cream, red bean tong sui and a bubur cha cha. As all of us adults are health freaks who have re-trained our palate to eat sugar-reduced food, we all found the desserts too sweet for our liking and only walloped half the bowl for all the desserts.


It was a good experience for the kids to experience Ipoh street food. The next time we go there again, we will sample  food from other stalls. The girls have yet to try Ipoh Hor Hee. I'll bet you have not heard of this too, unless you are from Ipoh :)

Our Sunday - 17 March 2013

On Sunday, I had my first pre-birthday celebration, with a brunch at Han Room @ Gardens Mid Valley.  The reason why we went to Han Room was to utilize the RM50 birthday voucher that the Oriental Group had sent to me.  For your information, membership at the Oriental Group is free and members will get a RM50 birthday voucher which she/he can use in her/his birthday month, on top of getting the usual member's discount of 10%.

We had an assortment of dim sum, baked fried rice in crab shell and this time, we tried a rice dish cooked with tomato sauce, big onions, beef and a fried egg dished out in a claypot. I like this very toothsome dish, which is very suitable for kids. In fact, I like just about any dish cooked with a combination of tomato sauce + big onions + eggs.





After lunch, we did a super quick groceries shopping at Aeon (formerly known as Jaya Jusco) before speeding off to send rascal #2 for ballet class. Sherilyn and her fellow ballerina friends have to attend extra ballet classes (3 times a week) to get themselves really well prepared for their Grade 2 RAD exam next week.

After dropping rascal #2 at the dance centre, the hubs brought us to check out the car that he'd be getting for me.  I told the hubs that  with a 7-year hiatus in driving, I only have the courage to drive a small car with a short butt. I ain't going to drive his 11-seater bulky MPV or the 7-seater MPV that he had originally wanted to get me.  No thanks dear, I do not want to break your heart if I break the car's butt or head. I feel safer driving a small car, which can enable me to weave in and out of the horrendous KL traffic and enables me to park at itty-bitty space at shopping malls. Moreover, I will only be driving the car in our neighborhood to send the kids for classes and to the nearby shops. Anywhere that requires me to brave through traffic jams, I'd still get my Ahmad to drive me around!  Oh, I had mentioned in my earlier posts that the compass in my head is somewhat impaired and my sense of direction sucks BIG TIME!!  Thus, he thinks that the Hyundai i10 would be the ideal vehicle for me, for a silai to drive in the neighborhood.

I was delighted when I saw that the i10 also comes in my favorite color, PINK... in striking PINK somemore, wooohoooo!! I told the hubs that I wanted this color!



But Alycia, my NO-PINK girl gave me a disgusted look when she saw the pink and opted for alpine blue

So which color did you think hubs got for me?

An Extraordinary Man

I never knew what humidors were until I worked for a boss who was a chain cigar smoker. I was marveled when he showed me the humidor with all his collection of luxury cigars. I was even more awestruck when he told me that I had to add water into the humidor to keep the cigars moist. He had opened my eyes to many things and I had learned a lot from this man with an extraordinary mind and intelligence. Unfortunately this great man’s life had to come to an abrupt end when he succumbed to the Big C.

Homecooked Dinner - 18 March 2013

This is our delicious and heartwarming dinner on 14 March 2013...

To all my Muslim blog readers, pardon me ya :P

Pan-fried fish with tomato & onion sauce, braised piggy hands, ladies fingers (blanched with oil), stir-fried young lotus roots and pork slices and multi-grain rice.

 


Closed up pic of the scrumptious braised piggy hands with mushrooms, young ginger and Chinese cooking wine. This is a new dish which the MIL tried and referred from a recipe book.  It tasted very much like pig's trotters in black vinegar.

Cassandra's Second Swimming Lesson

Cass attended her 2nd swimming lesson yesterday.   The first time she attended the lesson was in early February 2013.  Due to the CNY break, rainy season and having to take turns to attend swimming lessons with Sherilyn,  Cass is only attending her 2nd lesson a month later. The teacher can only focus on teaching 2 kids at a time. So Sherilyn and Cass have to take turns attending the once-weekly lesson on an alternate week basis. Alycia who is a much better swimmer and does not need the teacher to focus so much on her can swim on her own and can attend the lesson every week.

She was taught how to breath under the water and the teacher made Cass 'swim' towards him and back to the side of the pool. I think after a few more lessons, my water baby should be able to swim :)

Counting Ang Pow Money

This year, I delegated the task of emptying the ang pow packets collected during CNY and counting the cash to Alycia and Sherilyn. They could not be more excited to be cashiers, handling real cash! Alycia was in charge of emptying the cash from the ang pow packets and counting the cash while Sherilyn was in charge of double checking all the ang pow packets to ensure that no cash was left inside. Both girls did a fairly good job.  Sherilyn found a RM50 note that Alycia had missed out in one of the ang pow packets o_O !!





And half way through the job, it turned rowdy... as usual, sigh....* no eye see to remain sane*  !


In total, the girls received RM2,000 during CNY from friends, relatives and from their daddy and mummy. I topped up the difference and banked in RM1,000 each into their savings account. In 10 years' time, the money in each savings account should be enough for 1 or 2 year's college fees :D