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Thursday, July 31, 2008

Herbal Remedy For Relief Of Cold



Everyone in the house has been down with the cold but we did not go to the doctor this time. I prefer to let my gals recover on their own and fed them with Millennium cactus juice. The other day, the hubs also bought a pack of Esberitox N from the pharmacy for us. It is a concoction of herbs consisting echinacea and other herbs and can be taken by both adults and children. It is chewable and Alycia who is very sensitive to the taste of meds and chewable vitamins turned out to love this tabs! She thinks they are candies and kept asking me for the tabs the whole day. After 2 days chewing on the tabs (I did not give her full dosage but just gave her 3 tabs a day), her nose stopped being watery. This herbal remedy is made in Germany and costs RM75 per pack.






Disclaimer : This is not intended to be a medical advice. Please consult your doctor for proper diagnosis and medical treatment.

Healthy Lunch Box



Alycia requested to bring Edamame beans to school yesterday and I microwaved a handful for her. She also requested for oranges, so I gave her half a small orange, peeled. However, she brought home the lunch box with her food almost untouched. I guess she must have spent too much time peeling the soya beans and the 10 mins of recess was just too short for her to finish her food. I am really amazed with how some pre-schoolers can polish off a bento box filled with a hearty meal.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Baby C Wants To Be Carried The Whole Day

for the past few days and my hands hurt so much from carrying a 6kg living dumb bell! Yesterday, my mil and I had to take turns to carry her during lunch and dinner at home. She did not even want to be placed on the mattress on the floor, placed next to the dining table. At one point, I took out my sling and put her in the sling. That little brat gave me a big grin the moment she was inside the sling, snuggled up comfortably with mummy and stared at me with the happiest and sweetest face! Just tell me how to be angry with this cutie pie with that sweet grin of hers? Minutes later, when the both of us were sweating profusely (the weather has been really sweltering lately!), she cried, kicked up a fuss and kicked my tummy in defiance, telling me she wants to be out from the sling. I had to remove her from the sling and carried her with my left hand and ate with my right hand. When my mil finished her dinner, she took over and I quickly ate, then quickly went up to have a quick shower and came down to bring her up to my room. That's motherhood..... with a young baby, you don't enjoy your meals anymore and you can't even scrub your body the way you want anymore during your showers.


Baby C loves to be on her tummy now. She now HATES to be placed on her back! She wants to see the world too!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Sherilyn's Quirky Taste



Yes, Sher does have quirky taste buds. From chicken feet to sandwiches with 5 types of jams and paste, now, she likes her fried eggs with chunks of butter and kaya on them!

Fried eggs with slabs of rich President butter and kaya!

Hearty Dinner

That's what we had for dinner 2 nights ago :



Zucchini omelette. You should try this dish. It's simple and wholesome and your kids will surely love it. My kids and I love Zucchini.


Stir-fried petai (stinky beans) with prawns and shallots.



Hoi Sum
(sea cucumber) braised with pork, dried flower mushrooms and dried 'wong kai lon' (a type of dried cuttlefish).


That's one of the advantages I get when my mil is back. I don't have to worry about what to cook for she will kau tim the cooking and marketing part.

I never knew cooking sea cucumber could be so tedious until I saw what my mil did. It took her almost a week to prepare the sea cucumber dish. First she soaked the sea cucumbers for more than 5 days or until the sea cucumbers turned soft. Everyday, she would change the pot of water used to soak the sea cucumbers. On the 3rd and 4th day (I think), she would boil the sea cucumbers. After boiling, she cleaned the sea cucumbers carefully, which was a very onerous task. Then, in went the sea cucumbers into the pot again to be soaked in cold water for a couple more days. Finally when the sea cucumbers were soft and clean, she cooked them. I would NEVER cook this dish myself! No wonder this dish is so expensive in restaurants. And people love eating sea cucumbers as they are free of cholestrol and high in protein and other nutrients.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Sherilyn's Chicken Pox-Infested Body







Click here to read.

A Fishy Sunday

Hubby and I were supposed to bring Baby C and Sherilyn to the pediatrician yesterday morning but on our way to the clinic, we were informed by the medical assistant that the doctor will be 2 hours late. So hubby sent us home and brought the 2 older gals and mil to tar pau (pack) fish balls and noodles from Ah Koong fishball and seafood restaurant at Jalan Pudu, our favorite place to eat fish balls and fresh seafood noodles.

It was a blessing in disguise that the doctor was late and we did not bring Baby C to see him coz Baby C was feeling much better since last night. She could sleep through the night without coughing and no stuffy nose as well. That's the power of mama's TLC (tender loving care) and power-boosting and immunity-boosting milkie.... and perhaps the Millennium cactus infection-fighting juice. I gave her 3/4 teaspoon of the cactus juice, diluted with water since Baby C hates this juice and would almost puke each time I feed her the sweet juice.



Alycia and Sherilyn's favorite fishballs. They can never ever get fed-up of eating fishballs.

Fish paste stuffed brinjals, ladies' fingers, cillies, tofu and bitter gourds.


My favorite - deep fried crispy fish cakes.


Sooo much fishy food on the dining table.

Deep fried beancurd sheets wrapped with fishpaste and 'siew tai cheong' (deep fried pigs' big intestines) -- eerrmm..... I don't take this stuff, hubby does.

MIL also opened a canned of abalone to eat with the noodles. Yums.... so much fishy stuff!

Tag : Friendship Award



I'd like to say a big thank you to my good blogging buddy, Elaine for giving me this friendship award. Just want to let you know that I really appreciate your friendship and all the help that you had rendered to me.

Lightning Does Strike The Same Person Twice!

I cannot tell you how important it is to have an insurance for yourself, whether it is an auto insurance for your vehicle or a life insurance. They say that lightning never strikes the same person twice but I beg to differ. My friend is one unlucky guy. Last year, his expensive brand new Toyota MPV was stolen, around the same time that hubby’s MPV was stolen. After the car insurer had compensated him, he bought a brand new MPV, of the same brand. Yesterday, my friend told me that his 1-year old MPV was stolen again!! The daring and professional car thieves cut up the padlock to open the gate at the porch of his house, skillfully opened the MPV door without triggering the car alarm and drove the MPV away without anyone noticing them. The next morning, my friend woke up to a rude surprise when he was about to go to work and found the gate wide opened and his MPV missing. Oh yeah, when it rains, it pours heavily too. This guy was recently hospitalized for 2 weeks for Salmonella poisoning.

Fortunately my friend has purchased a comprehensive car insurance for his MPV and was compensated, albeit not 100%. His hospitalization bill was also taken care of by his insurers. Can you imagine how much my friend would have to cough out if he did not have an auto insurance or a medical insurance for himself?

If you are looking for an auto insurance or a life insurance, you can obtain up to 4 different auto insurance quotes and life insurance quotes from insurance1.com by filling out just one easy form online.



Sunday, July 27, 2008

Early Literacy Program For Toddlers




Both my older girls have always liked reading as I’ve inculcated the habit of reading in them since they were very young. Alycia and Sherilyn are very attracted to books that are colorful, filled with pictures and they especially like books that have activities. Though Alycia and Sherilyn love reading, they still cannot read a book on their own yet. While searching the internet for a reading program for toddlers today, I found out about Funetics, a literacy program developed by top educators, incorporating research-proven instruction based on phonics teaching and theory.

Funetics is an early literacy program that parents can use to teach their pre-school children (for ages 3 - 7 years old) to read through engaging games, activities, songs and fun. Funetics cover pre-reading skills such as color recognition, spatial relationships, shapes, cardinal and ordinal number concepts, identification and printing of letters, consonant and vowel sounds, word families and sight word recognition. Several concepts are usually combined in each lesson and concepts are repeated and reviewed frequently. Each lesson comes with a set of colorful, engaging worksheets that are used in the games and activities.

I am very impressed with the learning program and have requested for a free trial. Hopefully, Funetics will ship the products to countries outside the U.S.



Her Smile Lights Up My Day

I love to see Baby C smile. She's a good smiler, especially when she's in a good mood, i.e. when she's fully fed, fully pooped, fully napped and fully loved. Each time I see her smile, I thank God for the smile.




My Maid's Passport

We were supposed to bring Baby C and Sherilyn to the pediatrician this morning. As soon as we had gone into the car and started off the journey, hubby called the clinic again and was told that the doctor will be 2 hours late. So we made a detour and went to the noodles and fishballs restaurant to pack some food home for lunch. Hubby and I then decided that we should only bring Baby C to the clinic tomorrow instead. Hopefully by tomorrow, she would be feeling better and does not need to see the doctor anymore. Afterall, we know that the doctor would not prescribe her with any meds for cough and runny nose since it’s not advisable for toddlers to take cold meds. On our way to the restaurant, I suddenly remembered that my maid's passport is still with the maid agency after more than 3 months of hiring her. I have to remember to call the agent on Monday to get the passport back from him.

New Clothes Again

We received another box of goodies from Koo Mah in HK yesterday. There were several boxes of Organix organic baby cereal for Baby C, some Disney stickers and activity books, some ELC magnetic board and clothes again! Alycia and Sherilyn received some very nice Zara Kids apparel and Alycia who loves wearing jeans was smiling from cheek to cheek when she saw that she's got a few new pairs of jeans again. Now, she's got more than 4 new pairs of Zara Kids jeans and more than 3 pairs of denim jeans skirt.




This hip denim skirt from Zara Kids even comes with a cute chicken key chain.


This is for 7-8 year olds, so I will have to keep this first.


Even I like this pair of Zara Kids pedal pusher jeans.

Aly and Sher also received some Zara Kids t-shirts and Baby C also got a very cute Disney Baby dress. Thank you koo mah once again for all the clothes.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Mobile Homes

I have always loved the neighborhood that I am currently staying in. This housing estate is serene, is situated at a very strategic location and the amenities are complete. I don’t even need a car as my house is within walking distance to all the shops, restaurants, clinics, schools and hospital. Most of the houses in this housing estate are over 20 years of age. Despite the fact that these houses are old, the prices of these houses remain exorbitant ranging from a minimum of half a million ringgit to a few million ringgit each. That’s expected in view of the reasons that I had stated above. Many of my friends who have been to my house tell me that they like this housing estate very much as well but they cannot afford to purchase a house from this neighborhood. If only there were mobile homes for sale in our country, I am sure many people would opt to purchase new mobile homes and erect these mobile homes in this housing estate as mobile homes are less expensive per square foot than site-built homes.

Mobile homes or static caravans are prefabricated homes built in factories, rather than on site, and then transported to the site where they will be occupied. They are usually transported by tractor-trailers over public road to sites which are often in rural areas or high-density developments.

In some countries like the U.S., mobile homes are very popular. Many people who cannot afford a traditional site-built home or do not desire to spend a large sum of money on housing buy mobile homes as a viable alternative for long-term housing needs. If you are looking for a mobile home, you can check out themobilehomestore.com.

Baby C Finally Had An Explosive Poo Poo!

After 3 days of not being able to poo poo, Baby C had an 'explosive' poo poo last night. It was so explosive that her diaper was flooded with her mud-like poop and it even seeped out and stained her bouncinet.

After the big time relief, Baby C was obviously very happy and smiling away as she felt so comfortable.


The bag of poop!


Can you tell me if these dots look like chicken pox? I saw these dots on Sher's body today. Check out my other blog to read on...

Alycia Can Shower On Her Own!

Ever since Alycia turned 3 years old, she has been quite independant and obedient, unlike Sherilyn who is the polar opposite of her sister. Seeing that Alycia can take instructions fairly well, I taught her to shower herself today. I told her her to scrub her hair, armpits, feet, in between of all her toes and other parts of her body and she did quite well. She can also brush her teeth on her own, wash her face and wipe herself dry all on her own. Very soon, she will be able to shower herself, with me supervising her outside the bathroom. It will definitely be slower if she showers herself and I won't be able to allow her to shower on her own if we are in a hurry to go out.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Alycia Hogs The TV



Recently, Alycia discovered her new feat, that is to switch channels with the Astro remote control. Now, she knows what numbers to press to switch to her favorite channels and does not need to ask me anymore. She dominates the TV most of the time and sometimes, her mah mah is even forced to accompany her watch cartoons! She even hogs mah mah's lazy chair... but mah mah loves her too much to say no to her. She's really spoilt!

Everyone Loves Baby C



I am really thankful that both Alycia and Sherilyn love Baby C very much and have never once shown any jealousy or resentment towards their little sister. Many times after I had scolded them for being naughty and they got angry with me, they said this to me "I don't love you mummy but I love baby". That shows they really love their baby sister very much. Sometimes, Sherilyn would say this to me when I'm angry with her as she knows that this would melt my heart : "mummy, I love baby", and then she would hug my leg. How can I still be angry with her, right?

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Baby C Is Super Cranky

Baby C is super cranky today and that's because she has not been able to poo poo for the second day today. Since a newborn, she's never had problem with constipation and I am really worried for her. If she still can't poo poo by tomorrow, I'll bring her to the pediatrician. Hopefully this will not aggravate her kidney reflux.

Worried....

I am really worried coz Baby C can't poo poo for 2 days. I've been massaging her tummy continuously today and making "hmmmm hmmmm" sounds to stimulate her senses to poo poo but nothing seemed to work. Now I am beginning to suspect if her constipation is caused by the double dosage of Millennium Cactus juice that I've been feeding her over the past 2 days. She also has a rash breakout on her cheeks.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Tomboy Alycia

Alycia has got tomboy taste when it comes to her selection of clothes. Whilst I love her to be in pretty frocks and dresses, she prefers jeans and t-shirts. I prefer her to be in dresses coz it's easier to bring her to public toilets to pee and she looks more feminine.

Alycia posing in her new Zara Kids jeans and t-shirt which koo mar and Wendy koo por bought for her from Hong Kong. Most of my kids' clothes are from Hong Kong and I am really thankful that my kids are blessed with generous aunties and grand aunties.


Mini Bento Lunch Box

I prepared a mini bento lunch box for Alycia and Sherilyn today. Well, I think it's more of a pre-schooler lunch box than a bento lunch box as I only prepared something light and easy to eat, so that my slowcoach Sherilyn can finish her food within 10-15 minutes during recess.




Star-shaped fried egg and longan (seeds removed). Whilst Alycia came home with an empty lunch box, Sherilyn my slowcoach eater only ate the longans and left the egg untouched and only ate it during lunch at home. She must have spent all her time chewing on the longan flesh and didn't have time to wallop the egg.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Cassandra At 3 Months 1 Week

These days, Cassandra does not like to be placed in a supine position (on her back) anymore. When she's placed on her back, she will either turn to her side and tries to flip over or she will scream to be picked up. The other day, she was screaming away when I put her on my bed. When I placed her on my pillow, so that she's in a sitting position, her face lit up and she smiled and kicked her legs gleefully.

Baby C being dotted on by her 2 cheh chehs.




Baby C's favorite pass time is to suck her fist. I just can't resist squeezing her hands when I see her chubby piglet-like hands.

Baby C has also discovered that she can put her hands together and now likes to clasp them, as if she's praying.


Sunday, July 20, 2008

How I Spent My Sunday

I had a sumptuous Japanese buffet lunch at Zipangu Japanese Restaurant, Shangri La today.

Check out how I spent my Sunday today here.







Saturday, July 19, 2008

Baby C Wants To Flip



For the past one week, Baby C has shown interest in flipping over. She manages to turn half way and then gets stuck there. And when she's stuck on her side, she cries and screams away like an angry cat, on the verge of fighting with its enemy. When I go to her rescue by pushing her gently, she will succeed in turning over. I then helped her by putting her hands forward and then she pushed her arms up and raised her head proudly, like she's achieved a great milestone. I am so happy of her milestone.

Check out my other blog to see Baby C on her tummy with her head raised up in victory.

Faulty Computer

Remember I wrote earlier that there is something wrong with my PC, where it would take 2 hours for my PC to start up? For 3 days, I had to wake up at 5am to turn on my PC so that I can start using my PC at 7am. I thought there was something wrong with the connection of the CAT5e cable or the CPU but on the 4th day, the problem was resolved by itself. However, the monitor would be shaky and vibrate once in a while. I better get the computer guy to bring my CPU to his shop to have it investigated before something really major happens.

Arla Kids' Cheese Sticks





My mil bought this pack of cheese sticks for the gals last week. Looking at the nutritional information, I see that this brand of cheese does not contain coloring and preservative. Almost all brands of cheese that I know of have coloring and preservative in them, except Babybel cheese. My 2 older gals absolutely love these sticks and the sticks were all snapped up within a few days.