my thoughts & ramblings corner

Cuti Cuti Klang Valley

2012-01-19T11:29:00.000+08:00

We spent a few days holidaying in Klang Valley during the final week of 2011. That was because my cousin's family came up to KL for a short holiday. It was a 3 days 2 nights stay at Royale Bintang KD. But hubby didn't join as he was unable to take leave. It was just me and Ziyi, and my cousin's family.

We were supposed to bring the kids to Sunway Lagoon but too bad, the crowd and the queue at the ticketing counter put us off totally. So it turned out to be a shopping trip for us. However, we managed to bring the kids to play at the hotel's swimming pool though.

The entrance of the suite.

Room with a double bed

The other room with a twin bed

Actually the so-called rooms were just separated by a partitioned door at the centre of the room.

The kids were the happiest in the room. Hopping, jumping, running and screaming in the room. Thank God we did not receive any complaints from other hotel guests. Can't wait to see them again during this coming CNY.

Amongst all Ziyi's friends, she likes Nathan the most. Funny, she likes to play with boys! They played, laughed, fight and cried each time they see each other. Chaotic but happy to see them together :)

My 33rd Birthday Dinner

2012-01-19T11:14:00.003+08:00

I still have many posts sitting in my draft folder. This post is way overdue. Supposed to post this in Dec 2011 but I have forgotten about it.

Anyway, hubby brought me for a nice dinner to celebrate my 33rd Birthday. It was supposed to be just the 2 of us but he suggested bringing Ziyi along, there goes my romantic dinner. LOL!

We went to Maria's Cafe & Restaurant at Damansara Perdana. I read a few good reviews on their food so I thought of trying it out and the price was pretty reasonable too.

We started off with the Caesar Salad and Mushroom Soup. I wanted to try their Oxtail Soup but it was not available on that day. So sad. Nevertheless, the mushroom soup was pretty good too.

My main course - Braised Leg of Lamb. This was quite disappointing. The meat was not tender enough.

Hubby ordered Australian Ribeye Steak, medium well done. It was well-marinated and the meat was juicy too.

My pot of Camomile Tea and a cup of coffee for him (not in the picture).

My Tiramisu. This is oh-so-heavenly. One of the best I've tried so far. We requested for a candle so that Ziyi could blow it with me.

Another sinful dessert. Moist Chocolate Cake with Movenpick ice-cream to share. Yummylicious!

A family picture finally. Love this pic so much! Especially when Ziyi could sit still and smiled for the camera.

The ambience and deco are pretty simple and nice. We will definitely be coming back again, especially for their Tiramisu.

Salad with Homemade Dressing

2012-01-10T11:47:00.001+08:00

I tried making citrus salad dressing last night. The taste was nice, but I could taste the oil in it, hence I didn't quite like it. Probably I have put in too much oil. The hubs was ok with it. I used a jam jar to store it. Very convenient. Just pour in a little grapeseed/olive oil, mustard, orange juice, lime juice, lemon juice, 2 teaspoons of honey, a dash of salt and apple cider vinegar.

Shake it well, and taste it before serving to ensure you get the taste you like. I prefer it sweet but the hubs prefers it sour. Drizzle the dressing into a tub of salad leaves, cherry tomatoes and cubed pineapples. A very refreshing salad for brekkie.

2012 Resolution

2012-01-06T16:24:00.000+08:00

I'm never the kind who will make new year resolutions, and even if I do, I may not take it seriously or fulfill them. However this year I'm making 1 and only 1 resolution for myself, that is to LOSE WEIGHT or more of shaving off the inches!!!!

I'm getting sick of my own shape and size. I was never this FAT and this irritates me whenever I wear my favorite dresses, tees or pants! I'm going to cut down on my food intake and eat healthier meals from now onwards. Please do not tempt me with all the sinful yummy food!

New Bicycle

2012-01-03T16:48:00.004+08:00

Ziyi's first bike was given to her by her paternal grandpa on her 2nd birthday. She has outgrown it and we reckon it's time to get her a new bike. The hubs has been telling her that he'd buy her a new bike since months ago, but never really make the effort until a day before Christmas. We finally ended buying her an 16 inch bike for her 2011 Christmas present. This bike cost us RM180, which is the cheapest we could find. No point spending so much on a bicycle that she would use for only a year or so and we wouldn't be shipping this bike over to Oz when we make the big move next year.

She was so excited and she goes cycling every evening without fail. It took her 3 days to learn how to cycle the proper way and she's doing fine with it. Can't believe my girl is growing up fast.

Stride Rite

2012-01-03T16:45:00.001+08:00

New shoes for the lil one. I bought this from Stride Rite KLCC. Ziyi was still sleeping in her stroller when I measured her feet (size 8) but I bought size 9.5.... I did not want to wake her because I knew she would choose a blue shoes instead. This pair of shoes caught my attention. It is very comfy and nice, and girlish at least.

When I showed her the shoes later, she refused to wear because she saw pink color. I had to coax her and kept telling her this is a grey shoes, not pink. LOL.. and she bought the idea though. Kids are so naive.

Love seeing her in this pair of shoes :)

Just The Two of Us @ The Curve

2012-01-03T16:40:00.000+08:00

During the Christmas and school holidays season we tried to avoid shopping malls on weekends. I chose one of the weekdays after work to bring Ziyi to the mall for her to see the Christmas decos and we went to The Curve @ Kota Damansara.

This was taken at Ikano Power Centre

We went for dinner at Paddington's House of Pancakes. It was 7pm and there were no one patronising this restaurant, except us. I think their food don't taste as good like before and their service standard has dropped too.

She made silly face when I tried to take her photo

Ziyi asked for fries, sausages and pancakes. I saw this perfect combination on the kid's menu.

I had Pasta

Complimentary scoop of ice-cream for ordering savoury pancake from the kid's menu

The deco at The Curve concourse area.

Fun time for the lil girl before heading home.

Outgrowing Her Separation Anxiety

2011-12-19T16:18:00.001+08:00

At 3.5 years old, my little Ziyi is slowly outgrowing her separation anxiety. She has followed my PIL out on 2 different occasions lately, without asking for mummy to follow. I also realized she is starting to get close and attach to daddy more as compared to her younger days, where she never really liked daddy to touch her, carry her, feed her, bathe her, etc..

Yesterday she allowed daddy to bring her out to the playground too, unlike few months ago, where she would cry murder when I didn't follow, or she'd rather stayed home than to go to the playground with daddy!

I feel more relief now that she's giving me a little space to breathe and not clinging onto me too much like before.

Cutting her hair short, again

2011-12-16T12:27:00.001+08:00

It wasn't easy coaxing this little girl to cut her hair. She never allowed anyone to cut her hair since she was a baby. She had phobia seeing hairs dropped on the floor or on her body. As she grows, she outgrew her phobia too. Her very first hair cut at a salon was when she turned 4 months old where we shaved her hair off. Second time was somewhere mid this year and now this is the 3rd time. In between I tried trimming her hair at home every now and then but it was a really tough job to perform.

I was glad this time she allowed the stylist to cut her hair without making a fuss! She got a little impatient towards the end, kept asking me if it's done. I like her in short hair, she looks so much cuter now!

Reading skills

2011-12-09T15:52:00.001+08:00

Ziyi's reading skills has improved tremendously. She can now reads most of the words in her simple story books and activity books.

She is always reading from her Dora The Explorer and Thomas & Friends story books.

She can even read the instructions on all her activity books, like "Add up all the lambs on this page" and "Count the number of flowers and place the missing stickers" etc, etc. That's truly amazing for a soon to be 3.5 year old kid. Another plus point is that mummy gets a break while she does her reading all by herself.

That being said, she may be the studious type but not the creative one. Maybe we should engage her into more art & craft activities and imaginative play to bring out her creativity rather than being a book worm all the time. I definitely don't want a nerdy daughter. >.<

Boosting my immune system!

2011-12-09T14:28:00.001+08:00

Dang! I've been down with cold pretty often ever since I had Ziyi. Pregnancy and parenting has taken its toll on my health! I realized I hardly fell sick before my pregnancy until I had Ziyi 3+ years ago.

What has caused my weaken immune system? Late nights and interrupted sleeps? I've become a light sleeper ever since this baby was born. My motherly instinct keeps me awake few times in the middle of the night to check on her, to see if she is warm enough, to check if she wets her bed, etc etc. Worse when she is ill.

I'm now having cough and blocked nose, which is causing my extreme headache too! Breathing through my mouth is making me burping all the time due to gassy stomach. Totally irritating. I'm going to stock up on immune system boosting supplements. I've read so much about Esberitox N and I'm going to give that a shot. 3 times a day, plus my Blackmores Vitamin C. It's high time to do something about it before the big move to migrate to Australia, I am pretty sure I will be even more prone to cold and cough with the crazy weather there.

As for Ziyi, she is supplemented with Seven Seas Multivitamin and Probiotics. That should work well with her.

Ziyi is down with fever

2011-12-06T13:00:00.001+08:00

Viral attack! The hubs got it first, then Ziyi's turn now. She had mild fever on Sunday and a full blown fever attack on Monday morning.

Her temperature was hovering between 37.5 - 39.4 on Monday & Tuesday.
Didn't bring her to the doctor, self treating her for at least 3 days, and if fever is still high, then only decide to bring her to the doctor's clinic.
I administered her with Paracetamol & Nurofen, alternating them at 3 hourly interval.
Fed her with meehoon soup with fishball, plain porridge and plain bread. Lots of fluids - plain water, barley water and coconut water.
Sponge her with wet towel whenever her temp shoots up.
She was bored with her choices of food, and asking for bananas on Tuesday! I had to go all over our neighborhood in the morning to look for banana. After a few rounds & stops, finally found a shop selling decent looking bananas! Why can't they open a decent fruits shop in this area???
Her temperature went down on Tuesday night, but decided to let her rest another day before sending her to kindy on Thursday.
Today (3rd day), she stayed home and ate bread with butter and plain porridge.

This is the first time I didn't rush her to the doc's clinic for falling sick with high temperature. She's very prone to throat infection which leads to high fever. I'm glad this time I was able to control her temperature well and hope to send her to kindy tomorrow again.

Dinner at Yin Her Restaurant Sg Buloh

2011-12-01T14:11:00.001+08:00

It was PIL's 35th anniversary 2 weeks ago, we had a dinner gathering at Yin Her Restaurant in Sg Buloh. It was my 2nd time to this place and I like their food which is good and reasonably priced too.

The fishing pond behind the restaurant

I like this picture

Mantis prawn fried in butter sauce

Stir fried deer meat in black pepper sauce

Curry fish head

Our food just before whacking them!

The total bill came up to about RM170+. Very cheap eh for KL standard and environment was ok too especially for a fussy person like me.

Off diapers at 3y 4mths

2011-11-29T17:47:00.001+08:00

I almost forgot to note this down. Ziyi was completely off the diapers at 3y 4mo, day and night. She has been off diapers during the day when she was almost 3yo. At times I wish she would wear her diapers when we are out and about especially at places where toilets are not easily available and as we know Malaysian toilets can be wet and foul smelling too.

For the past 1 month (she is now 3y 5mo when I typed this post), there was only 1 accident at night, which I think she was too tired to wake up to relieve herself. But I was glad she woke me up and told me she wet her pants!

I save a lot of $$ now that she doesn't use diapers and I still have 1 big unopened pack of diaper lying in my room. I shall keep it for another 6 months or so before giving it away.

Our weekly visit to Kheng's Kopitiam

2011-11-29T17:02:00.001+08:00

Ever since the hubs discovered this kopitiam in Kota Kemuning, we have been visiting Kheng's every weekend, without fail. He likes the coffee and Mee Siam there, whereas I like their nyonya kuih. Their choice of kuih varies daily. Ziyi will definitely help herself with 2 servings of the kuih and she likes ang ku kueh the most. We like most of the food and drinks served at Kheng's Kopitiam and most importantly the place is clean and comfy too.

Last weekend we went there for afternoon tea without Ziyi. We sneaked out of the house when she was at home taking her nap. The hubs had Nasi Lemak Biasa and his usual coffee fix.

Peanut butter toast

Drinks and bread counter

My ice cendol

French toast

Our weekend

2011-11-21T12:59:00.001+08:00

Weekends are quality family time for us, but it can also be stressful for me, even more than working days. I need to plan outings and activities to keep my hyperactive 3 year old occupied. I don't quite like the idea of keeping her still in front of the TV or iPad unless really necessary.

We try to avoid the malls as they can be over crowded due to the long school holiday now. We brought her to the neighborhood park in the morning before heading off for breakfast. I shall try to make this our weekly routine, at least once a week :)

Graduation Concert 2011

2011-11-21T12:41:00.001+08:00

Ziyi's school graduation concert was held on the 16th Nov this year. It was also her very first performance on stage. The hubs and I were very excited and just could't wait to watch her performance. He took the day off as he needed to renew his passport in the morning. Apparently the renewing process was a speedy one, everything done through a machine kiosk and you get to collect your renewed passport 1 hour later.

We fetched Ziyi from her school at 2pm and I got her prepared for her afternoon nap at home. It took her almost 2 hours to fall asleep, and by that time it was almost 3.30pm and I had to wake her at 4.30pm as we had to leave our home at 5pm. With just 1 hour of nap, she appeared cranky and restless. I made her some pancakes with cheese and cherry tomatoes, drizzled with honey. No time to feed her at home, lucky she liked it and whacked everything in the car.

Bad day to leave the house at 5pm, it started raining and the traffic was really bad. Took us slightly more than an hour to reach Summit (only 15km from our place) and we were late. We had a hard time looking for the auditorium too and once we found the place, we realized there were many parents who were going to reach even later, no thanks to the massive traffic out there!

She was very happy when waiting inside the changing room. Running and playing with her friends. I sneaked in and took a few shots of her with her friends too. She kept telling me that she's going to dance and mummy & daddy must see her performing later.

She has a bare back costume, she looks so cute in them.

her best friend in school

When it was her turn to perform, we waited anxiously and both hubs and I were ready with our cameras. We were shocked to see her crying when walking up the stage! My poor little girl had a stage fright I guess. This is her first performance in front of a big group of audiences after all. No rehearsal was done at the actual venue thus she did not know what to expect, I supposed. Ziyi was asking for mummy and I had to sit on the floor, near to the stage so that she could see me there.

The 3 & 4 years old performed a simple chinese dance.

They sang Krista and Rasa Sayang song for the closing of the concert.

Overall, we were happy with her performances though she was lost for a little while when she first got onto the stage. A very good exposure and experience for her. Hope she would perform better in the future and not be like mummy....I have stage fright too!!

Home-cooked Food

2011-11-14T11:12:00.001+08:00

As usual, I will cook healthy meals for Ziyi every weekend, and at times when I have the mood to cook, I would cook for us too. Last weekend I cooked a big pot of porridge for the 3 of us. I've always like pork ribs porridge. But not so much for the hubs as he's not a big fan of anything porky.

Par boiled ribs, peanuts & ginger (to expel wind)

I boiled these ingredients in the slow cooker for almost 2 hours before adding in the rice. Ribs & peanuts usually take longer time to cook.

Added pumpkin, potatoes & purple cabbage

Washed & soaked organic 5 grains & red rice for 2 hours before cooking

The porridge was sweet and fragrant with minimal seasoning used. I like it garnished with fried shallots. I forgot to take a pic of the final product though :)

The Way She Speaks

2011-11-03T12:22:00.002+08:00

I'd better jot this down now before I forget. Last night when I was cleaning Ziyi up and changing her into her pyjamas, I realized she needs a few new sets of pj's as she's slowly outgrowing her current ones.

Me: mummy is going to buy you new pyjamas, ok?

Ziyi: i want Thomas pyjamas

Me: no Thomas

Ziyi: then i want Dora pyjamas

Me: no Dora too

Ziyi: why everything don't have one??? (with a sulky face)

Hubs and I burst out laughing! Do 3 year olds speak like this nowadays?? We probably did not during our time.

Pretending to smile when told to smile for the camera

Home-cooked Food

2011-11-01T16:34:00.004+08:00

Some pics on what I cooked for Ziyi and us too......

I fried wholewheat noodle with minced meat, vegetable and lots of garlic for her lunch & dinner. She has stopped using bibs for the longest time and when I put this bib on for her the other day, she kept laughing and said she's a baby :)

She only gets to use my iPad on weekends, here she was learning to write and enjoying her meal at the same time. Bad idea, I know, but this keeps her still at the dining table though.

Fried fish with oyster sauce, stir fried french beans with roasted pork and sambal tumis with prawns and lady fingers.

Ziyi's food...stir fried broccoli + capsicum + chicken fillet + mushroom with rice.. yummy

oh yeah, this picture is just to tell you that I'm currently hooked on passion fruit! I like it better this way than to mix with honey drink. Even Ziyi likes it but I only give her the juice coz I think the flesh and seeds are too harsh on her digestive system.

Coloring competition

2011-11-01T16:22:00.000+08:00

What do you think of the pic above? Nice work? I think so too, at least for a 3 year old girl.

Ziyi's school organized a coloring competition recently and she won a prize for her piece of art!

My lil sweetie pie, we are so proud of you!!

The Sterimar Ordeal

2011-11-01T15:52:00.000+08:00

Ziyi's pediatrician swears by it! Each time we go to him for minor cough & cold, he will advise us to use the Sterimar nasal spray for Ziyi.

My first attempt with this on Ziyi was in Feb '11. I gave up after that very first attempt! She screamed, ran, shouted and wailed! I gave the Sterimar to my mom instead and she said it was very effective on clearing her stuffy nose.

This time around, Ziyi was dragged to the Doc's office again when she had a cough for almost 2 weeks, from dry to wet cough. Doc diagnosed her and commented that her case was post nasal drip, thus causing the phlegm. Funny though, she did not have any flu or cold, just coughing at night. But anyhow, the doctor is still the expert in this and I'll just have to trust him and followed his instructions.

We were told to administer her with Zyrtec and spray her nose with the Sterimar twice a day. I had a hard time explaining, bribing & threatening her but she still refused to let me use the spray. I still managed to do it once a day before her bedtime with some force and threats though. After doing it forcefully for 4 days, when I thought of giving up, she willingly allowed me to spray her nose instead! She was even very proud of herself and announced to everyone that she was a brave girl.

I think one has to get used to it and it caused just a slight discomfort to your nose......I actually haven't used this before and dare not try it on my own too..........hehehe.

This pic was taken when she was still having her cough, but I allowed her to have her occasional indulgence.... marshmallow dipped with melted choc, choc cakes, fruits, buns, crackers, and the most forbidden of all, 1 scoop of ice cream! She was a happy child that night!

Big hug & big kiss

2011-10-21T12:33:00.002+08:00

I saved our family photo as my laptop's desktop background. Last night when Ziyi saw the photo, she exclaimed loudly "MY FAMILY!"

She even said to me: "Mummy, give me a big hug and a big kiss...I Love You mummy!!!"

aaawwww........that's sooo sweet and lovely of her.

my cutie monkey enjoying her time at the playground

The Big Bad Wolf Sale 2011

2011-10-19T13:28:00.001+08:00

This is what I got from the sale. 12 books altogether, only 1 for myself :)

Total damage: RM83 (that's cheap! must go for their sale again next time)

Ziyi loves all of them and she was busy flipping her books the minute she saw them. I hope she will remain to be a book lover in the future.

Angry Ziyi..

2011-10-19T13:25:00.000+08:00

Strong willed girl with attitude, that is how I would brand my 3yo girl.

She got reprimanded by me one morning for spitting out her chewable vitamin in the car while I was driving her to the kindy despite me warning her not to spit it out. I got mad at her and threaten to throw her out of the car. She cried a little and apologize after that.

When we reached her kindy, me being a "long-winded" person, reminded her again on what happened in the car earlier, stressing that the vitamin helps to prevent her from falling sick so that she could have her ice-cream again. She told me off by saying "NO ICE-CREAM, I DON'T WANT ICE-CREAM"....

and off she went into the kindy.

I called her to say goodbye and she refused to respond. Despite me calling her numerous times, she still refused to turn around and just walked straight into the kindy! My girl was mad at me for scolding her earlier.

Later when I fetched her in the evening, she told her caretaker that she doesn't want mummy, just want daddy. Gosh, my little 3yo girl was holding grudges against me!

She is glued to the TV most of the time, another TV addict in the making.

Organic Oatmilk from BMS

2011-10-18T11:15:00.001+08:00

We went to BMS near my house last Friday to get my mom her sugar-free oatmilk. As usual, I was browsing for other stuffs and I spotted their organic 5 grain rice. I bought that to cook for Ziyi's weekend meals. She eats regular white rice in her school on weekdays, so I thought she should eat better quality food whenever I cook for her.

The friendly staff there let her try a glass of their children range of oatmilk too. It's slightly sweetened with corn syrup and oligosaccharide. Ziyi likes it very much and she asked for more. So she was given a 2nd glass, but this time is kid's unsweetened soymilk. Tasted just as good.

I bought her the O'Kid Oatmilk to try. The staff told me to switch her formula milk to this oatmilk but I don't quite like the idea of giving Ziyi sweetened drinks 3 times a day religiously. She's going to drink this on weekends only, as her snacks.

From a fussy eater to an adventurous one

2011-10-17T15:57:00.000+08:00

Ziyi started solids at 5mo and later progressed to eating porridge at 8mo. At around 10mo, she started to show no interest in food at all. I thought she's bored with porridge and so I introduced rice to her. She was quite reluctant to eat too. Generally, she was a very fussy eater and hardly ate anything during her younger days until lately, when she was 3 yo. It was my most torturous and stressful time with her.

In the recent months, she has turned into a very adventurous person in trying out new food. She has become a better eater, means less stress for me too. Even when I cooked weird looking porridge (yes, I like to put stuff like beetroot, purple cabbage, leek, etc etc that no one else would eat them) with no seasoning at all, she still finish her bowl of porridge. Oh well, that's of course, with the help from my good ol' assistant, the TV!!

She is also a "fan thong" (rice lover). She's happy with just plain white rice on her plate. If I attempt to cook something fancy like western food, it will be more difficult to feed her. Yes, I still have to feed her, and sometimes force feed her. She will try everything, but she won't finish up her meal on her own, voluntarily. Feeding is still mandatory.

Although she may not be a very good eater, but I'm glad she is willing to try almost everything.

Here, she ate 2 slices of cucumber, few bites of bread, some nasi lemak rice with sausage and tomato sauce and few mouth of steamed glutinous rice.

Caffeine addiction?

2011-10-17T15:29:00.002+08:00

Whenever we eat out, hubby will definitely order his all time favorite, kopi-ping (iced coffee). My little one has turned out to be like her daddy too, she likes caffeinated drinks with ice!!

Each time she sees that big glass of kopi-ping or kopi O-ping on the table, she couldn't resist to have a sip or two. Knowing I won't allow her to drink it, she would always negotiate with me, asking for only 1 sip, but 1 sip will always leads to a 2nd sip.

I've let her tried my barley ice, herbal tea (she even spitted this lo hon kuo drink), honey lemon tea, etc etc, but she still likes her daddy's drink better.

I always blame hubs for seducing her with the caffeinated drinks, he could have ordered other healthier options instead but he refuse as he is also another crazy caffeine lover.

Learning to write chinese character stroke

2011-10-17T15:22:00.000+08:00

A week after attending her chinese lessons, she came home with a workbook on writing chinese character strokes. She was so engrossed with it and she insisted on doing her "homework" everyday, even though there were actually no homework for her!

When I looked at her workbook, I knew I am going to have a hard time coaching her on her chinese homework in future. I can only recognize 1 word out of the many words written by her teacher!

The flu bug was here and still not leaving us alone!

2011-10-04T12:36:00.003+08:00

Yes, me and Ziyi. She was down with cough and cold for the past 1 week, not too serious I'd say. I gave her Zyrtec for a few days and she recovered. Too bad, 2 days later her cough and cold took revenge and this time her cough is disrupting her sleep. She has finished her medicine earlier, so no medication this round. I was hoping to let her immune system fights itself. I can see improvement in her condition, lesser cough during the day and hardly any coughs when she's sleeping too.

This morning it was my turn to be bitten by the flu bug! Started off with sore throat and I did a quick home remedy.

I gargled with sea salt, took a teaspoon of Manuka Honey neat, drank a cup of honey lemon (juiced a whole lemon) and popped vit C too. I am feeling slightly better now but can feel the flu is coming and I've been sneezing the whole morning....

Hope all of us will recover soon!

Random... @ 3yo 3mo

2011-10-04T12:09:00.002+08:00

Some random pics on what we did over the last 2 weekends....

Went to MV and she is still obsessed with fountains and balls.. stayed at this area for quite a while, refusing to leave

The little samseng not afraid of height, will climb and jump all the time

Playtime on the bed with daddy and mummy just before bedtime, love the laughing & cuddling moments.. psst...this don't happen often, coz mummy gotta attend to other house chores, this is usually leave to daddy (hubs is better at playing with her)

I brought her to the playground and she likes playing hide and seek

Happy girl

Having our brunch at a Makan Makan cafe. Ziyi tried everything served on the table, she likes the steamed glutinous rice and nasi lemak rice.

I was surprised to see her chowing down 2 slices of cucumber!

Her current favourite, tomato sauce...

At 3yo 3mo, she has evolved from a fussy easter to a "wai sek" little girl... she is quite adventurous on food but won't eat much though. I still have to rely on the idiot box to distract her during her mealtime.

However, I'm pretty happy with her eating habit now, as compared to her younger days where I had to throw most of her food away coz this girl was not interested in eating anything at all! Hope this adventurous part of her will continue and not just a phase...

1st day in her chinese class

2011-10-04T11:56:00.002+08:00

Ziyi has never attended any Chinese classes in her kindy. It is a separate class with additional fees to be paid for a 35mins session daily.

We reckon this is the right time to start her as she likes to sing chinese songs, but of course, she can't understand what she was singing though!

Yesterday (Oct 3rd) was her first day in Chinese class and she already learned a few words from her teacher. The minute she saw me at the entrance of her kindy, she was shouting and saying "ma ma hao mei li" (mummy is pretty) and "pa pa zhu zhuo gong" (daddy goes to work).

She was darn proud about it and telling everyone at home too!

I hope she will be able to catch up with the rest of her classmates and master this language in no time.

my cheeky girl with her new toy bought from Daiso

Bro in law's Wedding Dinner cum party

2011-09-27T16:46:00.003+08:00

It was an eventful yet tiring weekend for all of us. Apparently this past weekend was considered "good day", many couples tied their knots on this day and many like us who received "summons" too!

It was my bro in law's wedding dinner on Sunday night, but there was already a buffet session on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon (after the tea ceremony session). Ziyi kept asking me what's going on at home, why they set up a tent, etc etc.... I told her there will be a party held at home and she thought it was her birthday party! LOL

On a side note, Ziyi's been very cheeky lately. The other day when I asked her to help me put her own dirty clothes into the laundry basket, she took her clothes, walked and stopped half way, then she looked at me:

Ziyi: "I cannot, it's too heavy"

Me: No, it's not heavy and see, you are holding it.

Without thinking, she immediately dropped her clothes on the floor and repeated her statement
"It's too heavy".

I was speechless and shocked with her action and replies!

Ziyi at the entrance of the restaurant. She insisted on bringing her own handbag too, filled with her toy lipstick, mirror, bangle and dollar note!

Enjoying her milkie while waiting for the dinner to start

An evening at the park

2011-09-23T11:09:00.001+08:00

My girl is an hyperactive child, at least she is to me, since baby. She could never stop except when she's sleeping. She needs lots of outdoor activity to help drain her energy, lest she'll be draining mine if I were to entertain her at home.

She loves the park and playground too, which kid doesn't anyway. But I dreaded it because she never want to leave the place even after spending more than an hour there. I always try to find excuses not to bring her out to the park whenever I can (bad mummy).

One evening, I felt guilty for not bringing her out for quite some time. So I brought her out to the park and seeing the expression on her face was priceless! She was so happy running and jumping around the park, climbing up and down those exercise bars/equipments provided at the park.

We went to see others feeding the fishes at the lake too. And she said this to me: "Remember? Ziyi and Kayla feed the fishes at the shake shake bridge?" LOL... She was trying to recall what she did with her friend last week at a park in Bandar Botanic. And why shake shake bridge you may ask.. that's because she watched her Thomas & Friends CD, Wobbly Shaking Bridge!

Ziyi on a breakfast protest

2011-09-21T17:46:00.000+08:00

Yesterday when I picked her up from her kindy, the caretaker told me that Ziyi refused to eat her breakfast provided by the kindy. They served crackers to everyone yesterday.

I later found out that's because her best friend Su Jien (a boy 1 yr older than her) brought his own breakfast (cake) and Ziyi wants her own food in her own container too! I just bought her a new Thomas container and she wanted to use it. This hard-headed girl just refused to eat anything no matter how much the teachers tried to persuade her.

Right after fetching her from kindy I had to detour to the bakery shop to buy her a cake for her to bring to kindy today. She was so happy when I reminded her that she has her Thomas container in her school bag this morning. She even told her father that she wants to show her Thomas to her friends!

Improvement in reading @ 3+ yrs old

2011-09-19T11:43:00.002+08:00

Ziyi started her reading from the Peter & Jane series. They are easy with few repetitions of the same word in a page. Recently when I tested her on her Dora's book like the picture here, she impressed us further with her improved reading skills. She could read almost 70% of the words in most of her Dora books. I should give credit to her kindy on her improvement as well.

Threats & Rewards

2011-09-15T17:09:00.003+08:00

Disciplining my little rascal ain't easy. She is one hard-headed person with very strong will. Got character eh... but real difficult dealing with her especially when she has an impatient mother like me!

Lately I have been threatening her quite a bit and that really works on her. For instance, I'd tell her she's not supposed to touch any power plugs/sockets else she'll turn into a skeleton, just like the Korean Cartoon character, Nado (she saw Nado turning into skeleton on the iPad game).

I sometimes tell her that if she runs around in the mall without holding my hand, the bad guys will catch her, chop off her limbs and let the stray dogs eat her up. And if she doesn't finish up her milk/food, she will be punished by Jesus for wasting food.

She will be very scared when I make up stories like this to threaten her!

After using threats on her for a few times, I began to realize that I might be overdoing it. Will she think the world is such a scary place to live in? Will she become a bully herself by threatening the weak when she grew up? I seriously have to stop using all these threats and be more patience in dealing with her..

On the other hand, I try to praise and reward her with lots of kisses and hugs and her favorite food whenever she's obedient and responds to my request promptly.

My daughter's favorites @ 3.2 yrs old

2011-09-13T12:12:00.000+08:00

Food/Fruits:

She loves chocolates....milo drink, chocolate milk, chocolate flavored buns/cakes/pastries, all things chocs!

Fish/meatballs, sausages, hokkien mee, fried rice, fries, nuggets, ice-cream...

Berries, papaya, banana, mangoes, grapes...

Cartoon character:

No longer likes Dora, she's now into Thomas & Friends and occasionally Moya, one of the characters from Hutos Animation. And that obviously explains her love for anything in BLUE color too! She told everyone that only girls like Blue and the boys like Red, because her favorite color is BLUE!

BB Leanne's birthday party

2011-09-07T11:13:00.001+08:00

Continuation from our long Raya break. My cousin came visiting from JB with his 3yo son, Nathan. This time they stayed at my place as my in laws were away for the week (yay yay yay!!!)

We went shopping for BB Leanne's birthday presents at The Gardens. Had tea break at Alexis, their Tiramisu was so good!

BB Leanne's birthday party was held on the 1st Sept, at Fullhouse Sunway Giza. That's her 1st birthday celebration and the venue was nicely decorated. The kids were having so much fun running and jumping around.

ziyi was happy smiling here because she got her favorite blue color balloon

Her current craze over boy's toys...fav blue color, fav Thomas & Friends character. This bottle was a gift from my cousin and she initially chose a red one for Ziyi and a blue for her son Nate. Ziyi was screaming on top of her lung when she saw her red bottle, she obviously wanted a blue, and must be dark blue, not even light sweet blue tone. sigh....

The birthday girl......cutie pie Leanne!

Another cutie here....BB Elise, a month younger than Leanne, do they lookalike? they are cousin sis!

Ziyi and her new found friend, Summer Jean...her name is sophisticated eh? can you believe it that her lil bro's name is Tyler Winter? :D

Nate and Ziyi, lovely don't they?

hubby's car broke down

2011-09-02T15:31:00.001+08:00

Unfortunately, hubby's car broke down on Monday evening when he was about to leave his office. But, we were lucky because it happened on the eve of Raya so the traffic condition was still acceptable. I had to drive down to KL to rescue him. While waiting for the tow truck to arrive, hubs showed her around his office building and Ziyi thought it was a fun outing for her. She was busy going up and down the staircase and ramp and going in and out of the building using the 2 different entrances.

I took the opportunity to capture a few shots of her since we could view the KLCC tower beautifully lit up from this location.

Her sharp eyes spotted a fountain across the road

Finally reached the car workshop after a long wait and hubs was reversing his car into the workshop.

our weekend

2011-09-02T15:21:00.000+08:00

With the long Raya cum Merdeka holidays, we had some plans to keep my little monster occupied. On Saturday morning, we brought Ziyi to the park at TTDI together with my friend and her daughter Kayla. We were glad the weather was really good. That was my 1st visit to this park and I learnt that this place is popular amongst family with young kids. We spent almost 2 hours at the park.

We left for lunch at Greenview SS2 and headed home thereafter. On Sunday I decided to stay home and cooked a simple lunch for us. I tried a new recipe - Soy Sauce Chicken. My auntie used to cook this dish when I was living with them and I never had a chance to savor it ever since I left for my studies in KL. I chose to cook this dish because it's a simple recipe and also because I miss my auntie's cooking.

Original recipe did not call for sesame seeds but since I have a packet of it in the fridge, I just sprinkled it on top before serving. Everyone gave this a thumbs up, especially my food critic hubby and he had 2 bowls of rice!

Organic tofu with mushroom sauce

Stir-fry organic choy tam with garlic & I boiled a pot of chicken herbal soup too.

Notice her t-shirt? It's a boy's sleeveless top because she is currently crazy over Thomas & His Friends and her favorite color is BLUE. She kept telling me she doesn't like Dora & Boots anymore. :S

Ear infection

2011-08-25T17:00:00.000+08:00

I had a shock this morning when Ziyi fussed over her itchy left ear the minute she woke up. I used a cotton bud to clean her outer ear and there was a small amount of pus on the cotton bud. Her ear smelled horrible too. I knew I had to bring her to the pediatrician first thing in the morning.

She was diagnosed with otitis media, a middle ear infection. Her doctor couldn't tell what caused the infection, but suspected the post-nasal drip that caused the infection because she's been having cough with phlegm since last week. She was prescribed with Sofradex antibiotic ear drops for her left ear, and Cerumol drop for her right ear (to soften hard wax).

Doctor doesn't recommend her taking any cough mixture as he thinks that cough mixture will only suppresses her cough but not treating her problem. Since Ziyi's cough is not so serious, I was told to leave her alone and if need be, a dose of Zyrtec at night will be good enough.

If her ear does not recover in 5 days, I will need to bring her back to either the pediatrician or ENT doctor to flush her ear wax and to examine her ear membrane. I need to monitor her closely and also to be more sensitive to her coughs in order to find out what actually trigger her cough. However doctor suspected the culprit could be house dust mites because Ziyi tends to develop rashes due to external contacts.

of Manglish...etc

2011-08-18T13:11:00.000+08:00

I have been speaking Manglish to Ziyi all this while, subconsciously of course. I never notice them until she repeats after what I said.

She has added the word "lor" at the end of her sentences. She sounds so cute but I am trying to correct her and keep reminding myself not to speak Manglish!

Each time I tuck her to bed at night, I would greet her Goodnight & I love you, and I will tell her to close her eyes & no talking too. Once, I caught her singing silently to herself, with some hand actions too. When she realised I was looking at her, this cheeky girl immediately hide herself underneath her blanket and smiled cheekily.

The other day hubs was telling me about Amy Chua’s new book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”. Has any of you read this book yet? I'm supposed to buy it but haven't done so. I read from The Star that there are few types of parenting styles, The Authoritarian, The Authoritative, The Permissive, The Indulgent, & The Neglectful. I'm starting to think that I may fall into The Authoritarian category! Oh no! I'm slowly trailing my mother's footsteps as she was very strict and fierce to me when I was young. And now with my own daughter, I'm pretty strict with her too. Children of The Authoritarian parents may end up with low self-esteem and confidence in life. I will have to seriously re-look into my parenting style and buy some parenting books to read too. Gotta keep reminding myself to not be the control freak, lest Ziyi may start to dislike her own mother when she grew up.

DSLR... Should I??

2011-08-09T16:35:00.000+08:00

I've been eyeing on a DSLR camera lately. It seems like everyone around me are using a DSLR camera. So I told hubs I wanted one too and we started surveying through the web and checking them out at the malls. A slightly upper-entry-level DSLR would easily cost us ~RM2,600 with just a kit lens.

I am still contemplating on getting one...considering the size and weight, would I be complaining when I had to carry yet another small bag whenever going out on weekends. Should I or should I not???

1st School Sports Day - 24/7/11

2011-08-04T11:58:00.001+08:00

We were all excited with Ziyi's School's Sports Day. The school has taken almost 3 weeks to prepare the kids for this 'big' day. When Ziyi was first trained for the sports, she was so tanned that I had to apply sunscreen lotion for her every morning. She is the youngest amongst the rest and I was pretty worried that she couldn't play or follow instructions accordingly. However her teachers assured me that she was doing fine and enjoyed herself very much.

When the day finally arrived, I was more excited than her..LOL! I sent her to school at 7.45am for them to get ready and then hubs and I returned to her school again at 8.30am.

They started with marching, singing the National Anthem & School Song, followed by an entertaining cheerleading performance by the older kids.

Ziyi participated in 3 events. She was in the Purple team and she played "Fill me up", "Pass the baton" & "Duck Ring".

Kids queuing up for the marching event

Ziyi was led the her teacher

Did you notice the boy behind her? He is a few months older than Ziyi but he was crying the whole time because his parents were around. I was worried too but glad that Ziyi was doing fine.

She was the first to go in her team. Looking really blur here..

She had to hop from ring to ring

Picked the sponge filled water to another station

Squatting down after finishing her turn, while waiting for the rest to finish.

2nd game. Ran back to pass the baton to another participant.

She was really enjoying herself with all the jumping and running.

This little cili padi cried upon finishing her 3 games! She wanted mummy and so I took her with me and gave her a doughnut.

She did very well at all the 3 events. Mummy & daddy were beaming with pride. :D

She took home 1 gold medal, 1 silver medal & 1 trophy.

We are now looking forward to her year-end concert performance.

A little update on Ziyi

2011-07-25T22:03:00.000+08:00

if you have been reading my blog, you will know that ziyi is such a clumsy little girl. i always wonder if she has abnormal bone structure that cause her to fall all the time or she's just mere clumsy.

the other day she was walking up and down at the pathway outside our house. minutes later, she fell flat on the rough cement floor when she tried to run towards our neighbour's gate to see the dogs. when i picked her up i saw her right knee was bleeding and she told me it was painful. but she's such a brave girl, she did not even shed a tear. i rushed her into the house and quickly washed and cleaned her up, applied burnol antiseptic cream + cartoon images bandage. she walked really slow with the bandage on her knee and she said "i walk like a tortoise, mummy"... hahaha...still can joke about it.

the next morning when i dropped her off at her school, she ran to her group of friends at the field and i saw her lifting her skirt high to show off her cute bandage while telling everyone about her knee!

Usually when I want to do some work on my laptop, I will have to keep her busy for that little while. Few days ago, I gave her an old diary book to scribble. I was surprised when I saw her writing these numbers on her own! She normally would ask us to draw dotted lines for her as a guide to write her numbers or ABCs but this time she wrote these 4 numbers on a piece of blank paper. Not bad for a 3yr 1 month old girl.

She likes Starfall website but I will have to do the clicking for her all the time. For a person without much patience like me, I hate doing this for her. I tried very hard to teach her to use the mouse on her own instead. It took weeks for her to master this skill. But I can now leave the laptop and mouse to her though at times she still needs my help when she starts to loose concentration and becomes really impatient with it.

Ziyi's 3rd Birthday

2011-07-18T13:22:00.000+08:00

ziyi celebrated her 3rd birthday last month end. this year we did not throw a big party for Ziyi. mummy is too lazy to plan anything. we went back to Seremban for a small celebration with my mom and grandma. we had high tea at The Royale Bintang Hotel but to be honest, the food there is not up to my expectation. well, we didn't have much choices as this is the "best" hotel available in Seremban.

durian feast on the day of our arrival...yums!

ziyi likes them too

she has always been very obsessed with horses since young. so she specifically asked for a horse cake and so i ordered this jelly cake from the lady in Tmn Desa. RM60 for this jelly cake.

the excited birthday girl. we did the cake cutting at home.

she proudly asked for 3 candles and announced that she's 3 years old!

at the coffee house, she was busy running around, hugging pillars (another weird obsession) and kept saying she wanted to swim in the pool.

when we came back to KL, she had another round of candle blowing session, together with her dad. that's because their birthdays are only 2 days apart. this time i baked some chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache, topped with Dora edible images.

Happy happy birthday to my darlings......Ziyi and Hubby!

Channel 618 on Astro

2011-07-15T15:38:00.000+08:00

Eversince there's a new FOC baby program on channel 618 on Astro lately, ziyi has been watching it everyday. We did not subscribe to any paid cartoon channels for her so she can only watch NTV7 on weekends and also 618 daily.

my FIL has taught her to change the channel herself. the number 618 is the last 3-digit of his car plate number. so whenever Ziyi wants to change the channel, she will take a peek at his car number and press the numbers on the remote control herself.

the tantrum of a 3 yrs old girl

2011-07-13T11:26:00.000+08:00

i've been wanting to trim ziyi's hair lately and been telling her often about cutting her hair. till now she still refuse to get her hair trimmed. i don't know why she is so afraid of seeing hair all over her or the floor!

last night when i mentioned about cutting her hair again, she threw a tantrum! she cried, screamed and pushed me non-stop. i tried to keep my cool and left her alone but she wanted the attention and kept following me with her screams and cries. after few minutes, i carried her and she stopped crying. i talked some sense into her head about her nasty behaviour and she immediately apologized to me.

this morning when she gave me the same treatment again when i changed her into her uniform. she refused to remove her pyjamas and making all sorts of excuses. that got me very mad because i have to go through this ordeal every morning since months ago! i always have to coax her to change her pyjamas, drink her water after milk, take her vitamin and make her walk to the car. aaargghh.......i'm already so mad just by writing these down.

is she trying to challenge my limit for a girl at her age? i really hope she will outgrow this nonsense soon!!!!

my very first pair of ballerina flats

2011-06-28T23:14:00.001+08:00

i was born with ugly looking feet. i have bunions on my feet since i was 5/6 years old, inherited from my mother's gene. i'm now so afraid ziyi would inherit this gene of mine!!

i totally hate them as i can't wear closed toes shoes/heels. i had to giveaway my Ferragamo court shoes, Nine West boots, and many other closed toes heels i bought during my flying days. i always envy others who can wear pointed heels and ballerina flats.

however, the other day when i went shopping in Mid Valley, i came across a pair of flats at Nose boutique and tried them. though i find it rather pricey, i nevertheless gave it a shot. in order to minimize the risk, i took 1 size bigger than my usual size.

to my surprise, i could wear them for at least 4 hours without any pain. quite comfy in fact. i need to hunt for more flats of this kind but it ain't easy to get one that suits my odd and ugly looking feet :(

reading her colors!

2011-06-28T23:01:00.000+08:00

at almost 3 yrs old, ziyi can read all the basic colors. she must have learned this from her kindy. she could read:

red
orange
white
brown
black
green
blue
pink
purple
yellow

i am so proud of her!

snow ice @ 100 yen shop

2011-06-28T22:59:00.001+08:00

i brought ziyi to the 100 yen shop in our neighbourhood after picking her up from kindy as i needed to buy a few bottles of sesame dressing for our salads. when i stepped in, i saw quite a number of people enjoying their snow ice in this tiny shop. since i have not tried their snow ice before, i thought why not. so i ordered a mango flavored snow ice for us to share.

she posed for mummy while waiting for her snow ice

peace!!

melt in the mouth mango flavored snow ice

parent-teacher conference day

2011-06-24T10:50:00.000+08:00

we attended ziyi's parent-teacher meet on a Saturday, 18/6/2011. this was our 1st parent-teacher meeting. it was kinda casual and a brief session. we reached her school at about 9.40pm and ziyi was quite unwilling to go to her school, thinking that she had to attend school on a Saturday! i told her that i was going to just talk to her teacher. she even reminded me again when she stepped down from the car.

we waited for about 20mins for our turn. her class teacher, Sara, showed us her workbooks. for her age, she does mainly coloring and tracing the dotted lines. then i was shown her 'report card'. she had both As and Bs, her Bs are mostly for creativity and arts skills. i noticed ziyi is not a person with much creativity though.

her teacher said ziyi knows her alphabets and numbers pretty well. she participates in the class activities, and she even likes singing and dancing. however, her teacher said ziyi can be quite stubborn at times. for instance, she wouldn't want to stand corner when she misbehaves and she sometimes refuse to apologize when she did something wrong. teacher also mentioned that ziyi is very talkative for her age. she talks to almost everyone, even to some of the 6 years old kids.

her 'report card'

father's day 2011

2011-06-24T10:31:00.000+08:00

we did not celebrate father's day for the hubs this time. but we went for a family dinner with the inlaws on Saturday night. it was a nice dinner at Restaurant Yin Her @ Kg Baru Sg. Buloh.

ziyi made a nice gift for daddy in school. it was a pen holder with a smiley face.

i brought her to Sunday School in the morning. i helped her with making a heart shape father's day card for daddy too. after Sunday School we went for our breakfast at a nearby coffee shop. she had 2 fishballs, 1/2 a slice of toasted bread and we shared a cup of hot milo. she gave a thumbs up for the milo.

after brekkie, we went to Maxvalue for some grocery items and headed home right after that. for ziyi's lunch, i cooked her Kraft's Macaroni & Cheese. i added some chopped vegetable and a sausage too. she didn't quite like it though, i had to force feed her. sigh... she is a real "fan thong". i shall just stick to either rice or porridge in the future.

then i made a potato salad for us. yummy!

hubs had chicken rice, McDonald's and potato salad for his Father's Day lunch. :)

daddy is being punished!

2011-06-24T10:08:00.000+08:00

i overheard ziyi punishing her daddy one day...it was soooo funny! of late ziyi likes to pretend and act like a teacher, teaching us to read from her books and giving instructions too. when daddy pretended to read wrongly from her book, she punished daddy by saying: "you don't listen to me, i don't give you sticker book. daddy, you stand corner and put your hands up!"

daddy played along and he was quite obedient and did what she said.. lol..

Pets

2011-06-17T11:53:00.000+08:00

this week ziyi's school is teaching the kids all about pet animals like puppies, rabbits, tortoise, fishes, etc. Yesterday when i picked her up from school, i saw a rabbit in a cage outside her school. the principal has loaned her daughter's rabbit for the school in kids to touch & feel the real thing.

ziyi was so excited to show me the rabbit and she was so brave! she touched and sayang the rabbit while her mummy just looked on and stood few feet away from the furry thing. i don't like animals and anything furry, except for soft toys!

rash and allergy

2011-06-04T22:52:00.000+08:00

ziyi has been developing rashes on her arms and body. i was not too sure what caused the rash but she's been scratching them like crazy everyday. i brought her to the paediatrician and her doc couldn't tell the exact cause of her rashes too.

so she was prescribed with Ezerra cream and also Bactroban (antibiotic ointment) for those spots which are red. besides that i asked the doc to check on her earwaxes too. i dare not clean her ears myself so i guess using ear drops is the best option thus far.

btw, she weighs 14kg & her height is 95cm when she was measured somewhere in May 2011.

manglish

2011-06-04T22:31:00.001+08:00

we can't escape the fact that we speak Manglish (Malaysian English) in our daily conversation. now my little ziyi has made herself comfortable with using words like 'LAHs' and 'WANs'.

her favourite lines are :

Why like this wan lah?

Don't want lah!

My one

Your one

i'm trying my very best to speak proper English with her but i realised she learned most of her Manglish from others especially in school & other family members. i have even heard from a relative saying that she purposely send her kids to Cambridge English learning center to learn proper English to avoid her kids speaking with all the 'lahs and wans'.

i hope ziyi would outgrow her Manglish once we make the big move to overseas one day.

of garlic, onions and ginger

2011-06-02T22:47:00.000+08:00

i'm a big fan of garlic, be it raw or fried, and also fried shallots. i use plenty of these in my cooking and ziyi's food is not exempted too.

whenever i cook for her, i will chop lots of garlics to stir fry with her vegetables and i will cut up few slices of ginger and an onion to cook with her porridge. i love the aroma of the ginger and onions lingering in my kitchen. i've also tried "double-boiled free range chicken with lots of shallots" soup and it turned out really good.

i found some interesting facts from the www:

Garlic and onions are among the oldest cultivated food plants. Their culinary, medicinal and religious use dates back more than 6,000 years
Crushed garlic can be used as a dressing for external wounds. It was used extensively in the Second World War for its antibiotic and antiseptic qualities.
To freshen garlic breath: Swish mouth with lemon juice and then chew fresh parsley
There is an all-garlic restaurant in Stockholm where they offer a garlic cheesecake.
All varieties of garlic--there are more than 450 --are members of the Lily family.

short vacation to Pangkor Laut Resort

2011-05-31T22:50:00.000+08:00

when my cousin came back from the US last month, we planned for a short trip to a beach resort. our initial plans were to Phuket, Krabi or Pangkor Laut Resort. since our kids had to tag along and our husbands were unavailable during this period, we chose PLR for convenience & safety reasons. we booked for a 3 days 2 nights stay at PLR @ RM799 per adult and kids @ RM499, from 18-20 May. there were altogether 4 adults & 4 kids, including my cousin's sis-in-law family.

we hired a 9-seater van with driver to drive us from KL - Lumut jetty - KL. the journey took us 3 hour 30mins single way + 30 mins boat ride.

we arrived Lumut jetty at noon and were asked to wait in PLR's waiting room while waiting for our boat.

all our belongings are being taken care of. we had to take a short walk across the road to board the boat.

ziyi's first boat ride experience. the life jacket reminded her of Dora's cartoon

lobby area

our room, both ziyi & nathan (my cousin's son) were busy playing with the stones available in the room near the bath tub.

we added extra day bed (the one on the right in this pic) @ RM180 per day but it was not used at all.

the kids need to be entertained with iPad 2 and cartoons on the portable DVD player so that we adults could have a peaceful meal.

the koi pond near to the coffee house

2nd day - went to the beach after breakfast. scenic view at the beach

we were one of the firsts to arrive at the beach. we need to take a 15mins ride on the resort's shuttle van

ziyi tried to build sandcastle here

need to refill her watering can

the kids were busy running around and doing their own version of chicken dance

the 3 days trip were too short for us. didn't really get to enjoy much, we should have extended an extra night!

my review for this resort:

a very nice resort indeed, with 5 star service from all their staffs. food was average, we had 2 buffet breakfasts, 2 lunches (ala carte) and 2 dinners (ala carte). not a very child-friendly resort and we realized we were the only family bringing kids!

must bring lots of mozzie repellents. we used cream, roll-on, band & ultrasound type. kiasu hor? there were also a lot of flies everywhere at all their restaurants. very irritating during our mealtimes.

compared to Tanjong Jara Resort in Terengganu, i still prefer TJR. however most people will say PLR is a nicer resort. individual preference i suppose.

ziyi trapped in the toilet?

2011-05-26T22:35:00.000+08:00

there were times when ziyi is not listening or obeying my instructions and i would usually give her time-out. she won't sit/stand still at a spot so i will have to lock her in a room, so to speak.

every evening after picking her up from school, i will send her up to my room to bath her. however, she is always very demanding and make unreasonable requests which i do not have the time and patience to attend to her. but this little monster wouldn't listen and she'd end up crying and crying in the bathroom. when my patience level exceeded my limit, i will let her cry in the bathroom and close the door for about 2 mins and she'd be yelling "mummy help me, help me!!!"

the other day when hubby was at the car porch, our neighbour asked if ziyi was trapped in toilet! hahaha.... the hubs didn't know about the "trapping in the bathroom" incidents but he guessed it could be me disciplining the little monster. he explained to our neighbour that the "monster mummy" was trying to discipline the little monster by giving her time-out in the bathroom!

i must now be very careful with what we do / talk when we are in the bathroom because the sound proofing is so bad that we can even hear them flushing the toilet!

brushing with toothpaste

2011-05-26T22:19:00.000+08:00

i have never trained ziyi to brush her teeth using toothpaste until recently when someone mentioned to me that she should be ready for brushing with toothpaste. can you imagine a 2 yr 11 months old child has not used toothpaste before? i am glad her teeth are not rotten yet!

to start with, i bought her an "edible toothpaste". First Teeth Baby Toothpaste from Guardian Pharmacy recently. this 40g tube of toothpaste cost me a whopping RM25.90, the most expensive toothpaste i've ever bought!

ziyi hated it when she first used it and swallowed it down too! lucky this has no fluoride and safe to swallow. after a few tries, she finally mastered the skill to hold it in her mouth and gargle with water before spitting them out.

winter melon with coix seeds soup

2011-05-23T00:06:00.001+08:00

ziyi's weekend meals are mainly home-cooked food. i always make sure she eats her lunch and dinner at home before leaving the house. she either eats porridge or rice with soup. i came across a blog that recommended winter melon soup with coix seeds (china barley). both ziyi and i love this soup very much and i'll definitely boil this soup again and again.

my first mother's day gifts from ziyi - 2011

2011-05-16T13:05:00.002+08:00

i've decided to bake some cupcakes for mother's day this year. it was also an opportunity for me to try out the chocolate cupcakes that i've been planning to bake for ziyi's birthday next month. after researching for few recipes online, i finally ended up with a moist chocolate cake premix. chanced upon the premix when doing my baking ingredients shopping recently. so i gave it a try. i turned them into cupcakes with ganache topping. ziyi was so excited and she joined me in the kitchen throughout the cake making process. surprisingly the cakes turned out yummylicious. even ziyi approved it!

this is the photo frame she made for mother's day with the help of her kindy's teacher.

a swiss roll that we made together at Sunday School

and a bookmark too

we had a simple steamboat dinner at home with the in-laws and ended with moist choc cupcakes as dessert.

i am glad everyone enjoyed the cake!

Aquaria - father and daughter trip (2nd May 2011)

2011-05-09T17:48:00.000+08:00

i had to work during the labour day weekend at KLCC Exhibition Center. i made hubby brought ziyi to Aquaria on monday. the entrance fee is only RM35 for adults and kids below 3 years old are free. so we only needed 1 ticket, too bad i had to be on duty and couldn't join them.

hubby said he had a hard time snapping ziyi's pictures as she didn't want to stay still for the camera. i have no pictures of them when they were inside the center. we made the right choice to bring her to see fishes rather than animals, otherwise she would freak out when she sees huge and tall animals.

entrance of Aquaria and ticketing counter

i managed to snap few pics at the entrance

they spent about 1.5 hours in Aquaria and then came looking for me to join them for lunch. we walked over to KLCC mall for Japanese food. i was not so keen on Japanese food as i am not sure they are safe to be consumed. but hubby insisted on trying out Umai-ya when we walked pass the restaurant. they were having 20% opening promotion and i saw the restaurant was packed! i thought what the heck...let's give it a try. but i dare not order my favorite food - unagi (eel) and salmon sashimi.

luckily i fed ziyi porridge at home before leaving for work. so i only ordered a garlic fried rice and chocolate ice-cream for her. nevertheless, our lunch at Umai-ya was good.

after lunch at about 3+ pm, hubby sent ziyi home as it was time for her nap, while i had to continue working :(

i took a train ride home in the evening and was quite impressed with our own LRT train. when was your last ride on Malaysia's public transport?

watercress with honey dates to nourish your lung

2011-05-08T22:13:00.000+08:00

my auntie mentioned to me the other day to boil this drink to help nourish our lung. apparently it is also good for heavy smokers, body heatiness and bad breath. more info can be read from this site.

this is the sweet version of watercress soup. my beloved grandma made this for us, upon request. she used 2kg of watercress (cleaned thoroughly) + 15 pcs of honey dates, boiled for 4 hours using charcoal fire.

hubs and i love it so much that we finish drinking this big pot of concoction in 1 day!

approaching 3 years old and getting very mischievous

2011-04-23T16:22:00.001+08:00

when i thought ziyi is "outgrowing" her terrible two, i could at least breathe a sigh of relief. boy, i was so wrong. she's just 2 months shy from her 3rd birthday and i can already see her horrible 3 now!

there were a number of times when i reprimanded her and she would scold me in return. for instance, there was once when she made me really angry and i yelled at her "don't make mummy angry!".... she yelled back at me "don't make ziyi angry!" along with the same expression and gesture as mine. she was not scared of me at all!

one more classic example. last night i told her to wash her hands after playing with her play-doh. i was trying to help her get rid of the dough from underneath her fingernails and she refused to let me do it. this little rascal was mad at me and she splashed water on my face. i beat her on the palm a few times but she ignored me and continued with her nasty behaviour. she even beat my hand! that made me so so mad and i scolded her. her expression changed but she controlled her tears and did not cry at all.

finally i made her apologize and this time she did, willingly somemore. she's a very stubborn person, she normally refuse to apologize and i have to explain, coax and persuade her to say sorry! i hope she'll outgrow her nasty behavior fast.

we were having our evening stroll in the neighbourhood and

here she was staring at the fierce and barking dog

she can be very adorable and lovable when she's in her best behavior.

but when her bad mood strikes, she can be a pain in........*speechless*

i want to go to the zoo

2011-04-14T23:08:00.001+08:00

i bought ziyi a new puzzle 2 weeks ago. it was a puzzle of various animals in the jungle. she's never good at fixing puzzle as she is one impatient kid who just can't sit still for more than a minute, unless her fav cartoon is on the TV. however, she's quite good at fixing this particular puzzle, as compared to her other cartoon puzzles. i guess she really likes this one.

when ziyi saw the elephant in the puzzle, she said she wants to sit on the elephant. she was so excited when i told her we can see elephants and many other animals in the zoo. she immediately told me she wants to go to the zoo with mummy and daddy. this long winded girl has been repeating the same request over and over again for the past 1 week.

daddy has promised to bring ziyi to the zoo and i just have to make sure daddy keeps his promise.

psst... actually i'm not too keen coz i hate the hot hot hot weather...:(

drinks to bring down heatiness

2011-04-14T22:59:00.002+08:00

ziyi is very prone to throat infection and that will lead her to have high fever. after going through the pain and agony of dealing with a sick and cranky child, which also means having hard time administering antibiotics and fever medicine, i am now taking precaution steps. although antibiotics are effective in treating her but i really hate the idea of my baby taking so much of antibiotics.

ziyi is not allowed to take so much fried and heaty food. i try to boil barley for her once a week and in order to make her drink them i will have to add some Ribena into her barley drink. coconut water is another drink which i like to give it to her because it helps to keep the body cool and at the proper temperature.

coconut water is incredibly healthy and one of the best drinks to hydrate the body. besides helping to remove toxins from the body and aiding digestion, coconuts have amazing anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-microbial properties that help to cure diseases.

i always try to drop by the Malay stall in my neighbourhood every other day to buy few packets of coconut water for the family. i will choose only the young and unsweetened ones. ziyi doesn't really like it as it's a tad sourish but i try to negotiate with her and make her drink at least 1/4 cup.

i hope with the barley and coconut water, it helps to lessen the frequency of her contracting bacterial infection and high fever again.

potty training - update 2

2011-04-11T14:52:00.000+08:00

i finally managed to train ziyi to poo poo in the toilet bowl. she achieved this at the age of 2y 9mo. she has thus far been doing pretty well but i realized she only tells me whenever she needs to do her big business. if i'm not around, she would either do it in her diaper if she's wearing one or she would do it in her pants!! yes! that's what she did the other night. poo poo in her pants when i was busy in the kitchen, gosh! i didn't bother to clean or wash her pants, just chucked it in the rubbish bin. hah...problem solved!

when we are downstairs at the living hall, i would leave the old-fashioned red potty in the kitchen for her to pee. i tried asking her to poo in the red potty before but she refused. she will only poo in the adult toilet bowl in my room. she is just plain choosy i guess.

our weekend - just the TWO of us

2011-04-11T14:49:00.000+08:00

hubby went back to Johor with his parents 2 weekends ago for "ching ming". i refused to follow as i dislike travelling long distance and me being a fussy mummy would be complaining all day long if i couldn't have a proper and clean bathroom to bath my girl, clean sheets to sleep on, the trouble to cook for her in an unfamiliar kitchen and the hot hot weather was extremely unbearable for me!

i opted to stay back in KL with my sweetie-pie though i knew it would be very tiring for me to handle everything on my own but i reckoned it would be much better than to join them in Johor.

on Saturday morning, i cooked porridge for her, fed her at 10+am, cleaned the house and we bathed together before leaving for my lunch with my cousin's family. we had a quick lunch at a restaurant nearby which serve very good charsiew. the best-est charsiew i've ever tasted.

after her usual afternoon nap, i brought her to the playground behind our house and later left for dinner at Klafz in the neighborhood.

she was at her best behavior that night and did not come down from her seat throughout the dinner.

she was enjoying the sate but didn't eat much of the rice as she already had a big bowl of porridge at home earlier.

my plate of fried rice

my set came with a scoop of ice cream

on Sunday, i decided to bring her out for a shopping trip. as usual, i had to cook and feed her before going out. we went to Subang Parade because i wanted to bring her to MPH bookstore. we stopped at Manhattan Fish Market for my lunch break. after lunch we spent some reading time at the bookstore and i bought her a Dora book. the selections at this outlet are not so great, i will have to bring her to the bigger ones like mid valley.

this girl indulge in the french fries and i taught her to dip the fries in tartar sauce. she likes it!

Mediterranean baked fish, delish!

later in the evening, her friend Kayla came visiting with her mummy. here they were in the backseat as we were leaving for dinner nearby my house. they look and talked so cutely, copycat each other words. ziyi tends to be more of a parrot, repeating after what kayla said.

ziyi and i had a great bonding time together. she is starting to outgrow her terrible two and getting slightly easier for me to handle her. she is still very clingy as she refused to follow anyone else (daddy included) unless mummy is going with her. hopefully there will be more opportunities for me to spend time with her alone again. i really enjoyed it and so did she!

food ziyi eats

2011-04-08T13:50:00.000+08:00

now that ziyi eats her lunch and dinner in school, i try to give her variety of food and fruits when she's eating at home. i will cook for her on weekends too to ensure she's getting all the nutrients she needs.

on weekdays after fetching her from school, i will prepare fruits and snacks for her in the evening as she usually finished her dinner by 5.30pm.

here, she's getting her protein intake from a hard-boiled kampung egg (free range)

her potassium fix...banana!! her all time favourite

one of her meals on weekends - brown rice porridge with beetroot, fish, tomatoes and green veg.

her fiber & vit c intake from dragonfruit & grapes.

ahhh....this reminds me of what happened on the day she ate these fruits. i told her that we must share share when i passed her this plate of fruits. she started off with grapes (she loves grapes more than dragonfruit) and after few mouths she insisted to share her fruits with me.

ziyi: mummy share share... (pointing at the dragonfruit) mummy eat dragonfruit!

i pretended to eat her dragonfruit and passed her back her fork. she ended up polishing the whole plate of fruits and passed me the empty plate saying: i finished already, mummy eat something else!

i was speechless..

cheese with bread presented in bite size with these cute animal pickers i got from Daiso

eating her apples while watching tv.

don't disturb ziyi...

2011-04-02T16:04:00.000+08:00

last night i tucked her to bed at 9+ pm. she asked me to off all the lights so that she could sleep and i usually stays in the room to accompany her till she falls asleep. as usual, i would use the laptop to check my emails and FB. after about 10mins, she called me.

ziyi: mummy, pull sleeves up. itchy (showing me her arms)

me: ok

(and i stayed next to her)

ziyi: mummy don't disturb ziyi. mummy see computer

(pointing at the computer and repeating her commands till i moved i butt!!)

she's so vocal now and likes giving commands to everyone at home. daddy said she can be a teacher/lecturer next time. haha.

however my baby girl likes to give me hugs and kisses all the time. hubby is a bit unlucky coz she sometimes refuse to kiss him no matter how her daddy pleads. poor daddy.

ziyi, must remember your daddy loves you very much too!

toys for ziyi

2011-04-02T16:01:00.000+08:00

the popular Mattel warehouse sale was here last week. my friend tempted me again. we went to the crazy warehouse sale 2 years back when ziyi was just few months old and i spent close to a thousand on her toys alone. this year we went early, as early as 9.30am and waited at the entrance of Wisma Atria.

the crowd was not that bad but they were very aggressive. people just grabbed everything they could and then re-select what they want later. that's what we did too.

i was a bit more discipline this time, ended up with a gift for my nephew and a few Barbie dolls for ziyi. no more Fisherprice stuffs for her (that's what i bought mostly for her 2 years ago). the damage: RM190 only. phew...

cakes for ziyi

2011-03-29T13:07:00.001+08:00

ziyi is not a cake person. she doesn't really like eating cakes. but she wouldn't mind eating chocolate cake because she likes chocolates. fyi, i am quite strict with her food intake so i always forbid her from eating junk food, candies and chocolates. however, i believe that we still have to let them try a bit of everything so i still let her try all the forbidden food in small amount once in a blue moon. so far she has eaten chocolates but not candies so that's how she was introduced to chocolates and that was where her interest for chocolate cake started.

last night i was browsing the internet for novelty/children cakes. i showed her some of the pictures and she would tell me which design she likes.

me: do you like the horse cake? (she's crazy over horses)

ziyi: yes (nodding)

i kept on showing her a few other designs and she just nodded or shook her head. she likes those with number designs too. so i told her she has to choose the #3 cake coz she's turning 3 yrs old soon. later when i showed her Barney designs...

ziyi: Barney!! i want Barney cake!!!

me: ok.

knowing she is a big Dora fan, i clicked on Dora's designs and....

ziyi: Dora, Dora, Dora!!!! i want Dora and Boots and Swiper!!!!! i want!!

me: so you prefer Dora or Barney?

ziyi: i want Dora!

hahaha, she's one crazy fan of Dora The Explorer. so now mummy is busy sourcing for a baker who is good at making those figurines. it would be perfect if the cake can be in the design of a number 3, with Dora, Boots, Swiper and a horse too. i think the cake has to be in chocolate flavor too. i just can't wait for ziyi to turn 3 years old in 3 months time.

my grandma's birthday

2011-03-29T12:38:00.000+08:00

it was grandma's birthday last week but we organised a simple family dinner for her a couple of weeks back. the dinner was held in The Regent Restaurant, Seremban.

this is baby Leanne, my cousin's daughter, enjoying her cereal

cutie pie leanne sucking her thumb

my girl playing with leanne

grandma's birthday cake

being officiated by my cilipadi

at the restaurant, everyone loves the food here including ziyi. she especially likes eating prawn!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU GRANDMA! STAY HEALTHY AND HAPPY ALWAYS!!!!

being a full-time working mother

2011-03-24T22:03:00.000+08:00

i do not have the luxury to be a stay at home mum, or rather a work at home mum. if given a choice, i would choose the latter. i don't think i can keep my sanity if i were to take care of a hyperactive child day and night.

since i do not have the luxury to choose my own working hour, i therefore had to adhere to my company's strict working hour. my current working hour starts from 8.30am - 5.30pm and it takes me 1 hour to travel from my house - office and vice versa. however, ziyi's school hour starts from 7.45am - 6.00pm, meaning i can't reach my office on time and would have to leave the office earlier in order to fetch her by 6pm.

juggling between work and family is not an easy task. waking up early in the morning to prepare breakfast for hubby and myself, getting ziyi ready for school and what makes things worse is her drinking habit. she always takes a good 20mins to finish her 7oz milk. every morning i will be yelling at her "drink faster, drink faster, mummy is late, faster faster!!"

after fetching her from school, i have to bathe her, fix her some fruits and snacks (thank God she eats her dinner in school at 5pm) and spend some time reading and playing with her. by the time she's asleep, i would be dead tired too. not forgetting there are still housework for me to do since we do not have a maid to help me out.

of late, i don't look forward to public holidays and weekends so much compared to last time. holidays like these means more work for me. cooking, household chores and entertaining her really exhaust me. i can't wait for ziyi to grow up and hopefully she would become my great helper.

super unlucky day for me

2011-03-21T15:38:00.001+08:00

this past Sunday was a very unlucky day for me. 3 unlucky incidents happened to me on the same day! so "suay".

first, we went for breakfast at McD and when hubby was reversing my car into the carpark space, he stepped on the accelerator a tad too much and couldn't brake on time, resulting to a minor dent and scratches on the car bumper. sigh!

then i had to rush out to Sunway Pyramid to meet my school friends for lunch at 1pm. after our lunch gathering, i spent some time at the IT Centre to search for a casing for hubby's Iphone4 and later went to buy some hair accessories for ziyi on my own. when i wanted to pay at the cashier counter, i realised i only had RM11 left in my wallet. where's the rest of my money? i remembered having few hundred bucks in my wallet. so i thought maybe i could have left the money at home. later i walked to my car at the basement level and drove to a nearby autopay station. after paying for the ticket, i drove to the exit but unfortunately there was a traffic diversion and we had to use the Sunway Hotel exit instead. traffic was at a standstill and it took me almost 20 mins to reach the exit point. at this point of time, i realised i have no parking ticket with me! gosh!! i looked for the carpark help desk and showed them my receipt to prove i have paid my parking ticket but the guy insisted to charge me RM20 for lost ticket. i was unwilling to pay him of course. first it was because i don't have enough money and secondly, i thought i might have left the parking ticket at the autopay machine. after almost an hour of searching for my ticket (i had to go to various levels to search for "the" autopay machine), i finally found it and managed to exit after wasting 1 whole hour at the basement carpark.

when i reached home at 6pm, i tried searching for my money frantically. no luck at all! later that night i checked my wallet again and i realised my IC and driving license were gone too!! i knew at that instance that my money was stolen at Sunway Pyramid. i usually have this bad habit of keeping my receipts and credit card slip together with my money. i realised one of my credit card slips was missing too. when i called the banks to block and cancel my cards, one of them told me there was an online transaction done about an hour ago. these crime syndicates were fast! they are definitely highly trained for pick-pocketing. they took my wallet out from my unzipped handbag (and mind you, my wallet is the longish type), removed my money, IC and driving license only. my credit cards and ATM card were untouched. and then put my wallet back into my handbag without me realising at all. so skillful!!

all these 3 bad things happened to me on the same day. i hope all the bad things are gone and good luck will come soon!

ziyi sleeps exactly like her daddy

2011-03-16T13:23:00.000+08:00

this is my cili padi sleeping on our bed. she sleeps like her father, with her arm covering her eyes!

like father like daughter.

fell sick 3 days after her HepA jab

2011-03-16T13:17:00.001+08:00

Ziyi was due for her hepA jab and we sent her for the jab on the 19 Feb. Her usual peadiatrician was closed (again), so we went to Columbia Asia Hospital for her jab by Dr. Yong. She had her weight and height measured. To my pleasant surprise, ziyi’s weight was above average, nearing to 80% mark on the chart. I was on cloud nine. I never expect this cili padi of mine to achieve this weight as she has always been a fussy eater.

This time she had her jab on her buttock as opposed to all her previous jabs, which were on her thigh. she refused to lie on the doctor’s examination bed, so Dr. Yong suggested me to carry her, with her legs wraparound my waist. I find this way better and easier to manage her.

3 days later ziyi fell sick, with temperature so high that it got me worried and we sent her back to Columbia Asia and this time it was Dr. Cheah. as predicted, she was diagnosed with throat infection...AGAIN :(

i was glad when her doctor said ziyi did not need antibiotic as she did not fit the criteria to be prescribed with antibiotic yet. we were instructed to administer her with Nurofen & Paracetamol, 3 hourly gap, alternating the medicine. apparently Nurofen has an added benefit: anti-inflammatory.

we were told to send her back if her fever did not subside after 4 days. true enough, i had to send her to the doctor on Friday night when her fever shot up to 39c. the MO at the hospital suggested for a blood test. my poor little girl was wrapped up with a huge blanket with 2 staff nurse holding on to her while another nurse pricked her finger. it was so heartbreaking to see her crying in pain.

we collected the report an hour later and we were so glad it was not dengue fever but her bacteria infection reading was quite high. the MO prescribed her with Augmentin. 2 days after administering her with the antibiotic, she could attend school after being absence from school for almost a week.

i'm making sure she drinks barley water once a week and coconut juice too. right now i am diligently feeding her with probiotics and multivitamins to boost her immune system.

your eyes gonna fall out!!

2011-03-16T10:30:00.000+08:00

ziyi is a late sleeper and she wakes up very early every morning too. this hyperactive child just dislikes sleeping. 2 nights ago, she was still wide awake at 10pm and insisted to read her ABCs from Starfall.com website. 10 mins later i saw her rubbing her right eye vigorously and she complained her eye was painful. i knew she must be tired and sleepy.

me: is your eye itchy?

ziyi: no. pain-pain

me: if you don't sleep now and keep looking at the computer, your eyes will fall out (i made the sound effect too, DOOM)! if your eyes fell, you cannot watch cartoon anymore.

at this point, she looked at me with a serious expression and i knew she believed what i said....LOL

me: do you want to sleep now?

ziyi: yes (extending her arms out for me to carry her).

she lied down on the bed, forcing her eyes closed.

me: open your eyes. mummy wants to see your eyes.

ziyi: (shaking her head) i want to sleep.

i find it so funny and i told hubs about it and we burst out laughing!

sending lil monster to Sunday School

2011-03-01T13:02:00.000+08:00

3 Sundays ago, we sent ziyi to Sunday School in USJ. hubs made arrangement with his colleague, who is also a member of the church. the session starts from 10am to 12pm. she was very clingy and refused to join other kids, throwing her tantrums by lying on the floor, etc etc...

we knew we have to leave the place in order for her to behave and listen to instructions. so we decided to leave her there at 11am so that she could join the class. we informed the "teachers" that she would cry for a while and i assured them she will be fine as she has been attending kindy since she was 2 years old.

true enough, she cried twice, for a very brief moment but she sat in the class and listen to "teachers" telling stories and singing. we will continue sending her so that she'll get used to it and, and, and, a break for mummy!!!

she received this as a welcome gift!

my new workstation

2011-03-01T12:53:00.000+08:00

after contemplating for so long, i finally decided to get myself a workstation, to be placed in my room. i went into Ikea's website and found this table. it's white in color and i like it. we went to Ikea the next day to get the table and i commanded hubs to fix it immediately once we reached home!

lil monster kaypoh-ing

no easy task, it took him almost 3 hours!

she too wanted to help

tadaa... we even bought a white chair to complement it.

our free stay at Resort Suites, Sunway

2011-03-01T12:48:00.000+08:00

we got a free night stay at Resort Suites, Sunway after attending some talks at Sunway Healthy Lifestyle. spent slightly more than an hour for the talk and we were presented with a voucher at a destination of our choice (under Sunway Group). we chose this hotel as we didn't want to travel far and it was meant for ziyi to play and have fun at the swimming pool. we checked in on the 5th day of CNY.

lil monster officiated the bed

getting ready for a wet experience!

cheerios for her while waiting for daddy to get changed and go for dinner.

we went to canton-i for dinner. i was quite disappointed as i wanted to eat their dimsum dishes but it was not available during dinner hour. after dinner, we bought 2 slices of cakes from Secret Recipe, 1 cheesecake and another chocolate cake (specially requested by lil missy)

we had a pleasant surprise when baby leanne came visiting too.

overall, we had a pleasant stay and i like it for its convenience as the shopping mall is just next to the hotel. hubs was commenting that we could go for a late night movie if ziyi wasn't with us...muahahhahaahah

bad parents!

ziyi at 2 year 7 months old

2011-02-20T20:26:00.000+08:00

my little monster's hep A 2nd dose jab was due yesterday. we brought her to the paedic at Columbia Asia Hospital as her regular paedic clinic was closed.

she weighed 13.5kg and her height was 91cm. i think it was not very accurate as ziyi refused to stand still when her measurement was being taken by the nurse. however, doc said her weight is now at the 80% on the graph, which means she has put on a lot of weight since her last check up at 2 years old. i'm very pleased to hear that :)
i had to carry her when she was given the jab on her buttock and my tough cookie did not cry a wee bit. i immediately promised her a sundae cone from McD.

she's doing very well in kindy now and does not cry in the morning when i send her to the kindy. she can speak very well and likes to give commands too. for instance when daddy is using the phone while lying down on the bed: "daddy, don't lie down, eyes will spoil. must sit up". she has become our little mama now!

our little mama feeding her dolly milk-milk

CNY 2011

2011-02-19T16:53:00.001+08:00

2011 - Year of the Rabbit. ziyi is 2 years 7 months old this Chinese New Year. she played with pop pop for the very first time this year. i'm not too keen on her playing with these things but since almost every children her age and even some younger ones are also playing with it, i guess it's safe and alright for her to play with it once a year.

we did not do anything much this year. we were in KL for our reunion dinner and only went back to Seremban on the 2nd day of CNY then back to KL on 4th day.

ziyi's playing pop pop on CNY day 1.

she's wearing her 1st cheongsam, her grandmother Loh bought for her.

ziyi's great grandma treated us to a sumptuous dinner at The Regent Restaurant in Seremban.

our lou sang toss on CNY day 3

my bowl of sharks fin soup

our "lang pun" - chinese cold platter

steamed "long dan" fish - estuary grouper

roasted duck meat

pan fried prawn in superior soy sauce

a thumbs up from ziyi!!

home-cooked food

2011-02-19T16:40:00.001+08:00

i will try to cook for ziyi every weekend ever since she started having her lunch and dinner at her kindy. she usually eats rice with chicken soup and vegetables, mostly carrots and potatoes at school. so most weekends i would cook fish and other greens for her.

steamed brown rice

stir-fried spinach

scrambled egg with tomatoes

steamed fish

her portion for lunch

beetroot and abc soup

a new paediatrician

2011-02-12T15:37:00.001+08:00

there's a new Columbia Asia Hospital in our neighbourhood, Kota Kemuning. a friend recommended the paediatrician from this hospital to me lately and since ziyi was having fever so i thought of giving this doc a try. what i like about this hospital is the ample parking space and since it's new, everything is so clean and new.

we were greeted by the friendly reception staff and i immediately registered ziyi to see Dr. Yong. actually i wanted her to see Dr. Cheah instead but it so happen that Dr. Cheah was not on duty at that time and i couldn't wait coz ziyi's fever was pretty high, at 39c.

she's forever active, climbing up and down!

the waiting area

Dr. Yong gave her some stickers as she was unusually well-behaved and listened to doc's instructions! i was amazed as she used to cry whenever she saw her previous paediatrician, Dr. Vino.

waiting to collect the medicine at the pharmacy

reception counter

ziyi was prescribed with Augmentin (antibiotic) and Zyrtec for her runny nose. she was diagnosed with inflamed throat and enlarged tonsils, thus causing her to have high fever.

fruits for ziyi

2011-02-12T15:24:00.000+08:00

ziyi's on strawberries craze lately. when i saw the korean strawberry at my regular fruits store, i knew i must get it for her. the korean strawberry is very sweet and juicy. i always make sure that i either soak them in salt water or vinegar water to get rid of any pesticides. i'm not sure if it works but at least i feel it's safer to eat after soaking them.

she pushed daddy's hand away when daddy's pretending to take the fruits from her

i added some blueberries too, they are very sweet and nice

a non-related pic:

i bought this packet of sesame stick crackers from Empire Subang and this tastes great.

it's good for me to snack on when i'm driving.

potty training - update

2011-02-02T09:53:00.000+08:00

i only started training ziyi when she was 2 yr 3 mo. it was not easy at all! she'd only sit on the potty for a few seconds and refused to pee in it. besides, i was not consistent in training her too, she only goes diaperless on weekends for about 2-3 hours each day. initially she'd wet her pants and cried!

lately i tried to be more consistent, like letting her wearing only her panties in the evening after i picked her up from her kindy and also on weekends when we are not going out. here's a summary on her potty training timeline:

2 yr 3 mo:

mummy started potty training but was doing it inconsistently.

2 yr 6 mo:

mummy getting a bit more serious on this and there's a little improvement. ziyi's willing to tell that she needs to go but still cry and refuse to pee in the potty. so mummy had to tell her to squat down and splash her down under with water, pretending to wash her up. this worked well with her so far.

another worry cropped up in my head: will i be having problem in getting her to sit on the potty since she is now used to squatting down??!!

2 yr 7 mo:
when she started her new kindy, i told the teachers that ziyi would be diaperless from the 2nd week onwards, and surprisingly, i received good feedbacks from the teachers. she pee-d on the adult potty and she has only wet her pants once! that's a big improvement for ziyi. i do not have any problems getting her to sit on the adult potty to pee (with the kiddy potty cover on top), and she will tell me each time she needs to go. hooray!

next challenge: getting ziyi to poo poo on the potty... *scratch head*

another injury!!

2011-01-25T21:36:00.000+08:00

it was almost lunch hour when my phone rang. the caller ID showed it was Ziyi's school principal, Jeslyn. i am always very afraid of receiving calls from her caretaker/teacher, worrying if something might have happened to her.

i got a rude shock when i answered the call. Jeslyn told me ziyi had an injury in school! she was walking from her seat to the front of the class and suddenly she lost balance and fell! she knocked herself on the edge of the table and she got a cut on her eyelid. obviously, along with the cut was a bruised eye too! she did cry for a while but was back to her active self again.

i immediately called my father in law to go to the kindy to check on her. ziyi was alright at that time and they took her home to rest. thank God the inside of her eyes was not injured. to play safe, i brought her to the paediatrician the next morning and she was prescribed with an antibiotic ointment to prevent further infection. her doctor wanted to prescribe her with oral antibiotic too but i declined. i don't think she needed it since it was just external injury and i am not too keen on her taking so much oral antibiotics.

ziyi has always been very clumsy. what's more with her hyperactive character and behavior. she hurt herself always everyday eversince she was a baby when she first learned to crawl and sit.

on a side note, i caught her reading her book this way! so "tahn"!!

oh my....i wonder where did she learn this from. sucha bad bad habit.

my metabolic age & fatty me!

2011-01-24T15:39:00.000+08:00

i have high metabolism rate as i feel hungry after 1-2 hours after a full meal. 3 weeks ago, i went to check my BMI and found out that i am underweight (my ideal weight would be 53 kg for my height of 157cm). bummer! i would be so fat if i were at that weight!

my metabolic age is 23 yrs old! hah..that explains why i am always feeling hungry. when i was breastfeeding ziyi, my weight dropped to 42 kg when she was 4 months old, compared to my pre-pregnancy weight at 45 kg. sadly, after i stopped breastfeeding when she was 8.5 months old and once she turned 1 yr old, my weight shot up to my current weight at 46.3 kg. gosh, i blamed this on hub, since he is a food lover (so am i) and we really love to indulge in all our favorite food without thinking twice on the calories and fats!

i am trying to control my diet once in a while, hoping to lose 2 kgs. fingers and toes crossed!

no more home-cooked dinner

2011-01-20T15:04:00.000+08:00

few weeks ago my mil told us that she's not going to cook dinner anymore and will cater for food instead. sigh, headache for me now. i tried the catered food and honestly, the food is not very nice tasting. although it's less in salt, msg and oil but the way they cooked the food was really not nice.

i have to start browsing the web for simple home-cooked food recipes or even buy some recipe books from the bookstores. i think food that can be roasted or baked would be ideal. i'm so glad that ziyi is now eating her dinner in the kindy, otherwise more headache for me especially for a fussy eater like her.

my little vain pot

2011-01-10T12:43:00.000+08:00

ziyi saw me trying out my 2 pairs of new heels few weeks back and she immediately grabbed them from me, claiming it's hers!! "mommy, it's mine! no, it's mine!!"

she wore the heels and tried to walk in them!

let's meet Dora The Explorer with other little fans!

2011-01-04T14:52:00.000+08:00

ziyi has been a Dora The Explorer's fan ever since i bought her Dora's DVD to watch. when i saw the advert on the newspapers stating that Dora will be making an appearance at Metrojaya, i knew i had to bring her to meet her idol.

we braved through the massive traffic jam near Mid Valley and headed right to the Premier carpark at The Gardens without a second thought.

still very very fascinated with water fountains!

and horses too!! she MUST sit on the horse whenever she sees one. but this is just a decoration my dear ziyi, but she didn't care and insisted on sitting on it!!

haha, surprisingly she was not afraid of this.

kayla and ziyi at metrojaya, while waiting for Dora to arrive. look-alike?

she kept standing next to Dora and the personnel there had to chase her away...muahahahaaa!!!

apparently you will have to purchase RM50 worth of Dora's merchandise in order to be entitled for a photo taking session with Dora!

kena chased again

'hug Dora'... i thought she'd freaked out when she saw the giant version of Dora, hahahhaa!!

both the girls really heart Dora and they did not cry at all! good girls!

Boxing Day 2010 cum recce trip to Thistle, Port Dickson

2011-01-04T14:33:00.001+08:00

i have not been to PD for ages! we decided to make a day trip down to PD the day after Christmas together with my mom and her maid. we drove to the town area for a quick breakfast before heading to Thistle PD Resort.

the main pool area

children pool with a slide. ziyi's favorite spot!

she ran towards the beach

strolling with their shoes on

she freaked out when daddy first put her near the sea water with her shoes off!

after warming up, she refused to leave

oh, since my birthday is 3 days after X'mas, we had an early celebration at the coffee house, my mom's treat.. by the way, the service at the coffee house was very poor for a 5-star resort standard and the cakes we ordered were not nice at all :(

we quite like this resort and we have decided to plan for a short holiday trip at Thistle PD. oh, try not to go during public holidays or festive seasons as we were stucked in the traffic for more than 1 hour and it took us almost 2 hours to reach Seremban!

Thistle PD Resort!!! we will be back!

kindy scouting....AGAIN

2010-12-27T10:50:00.000+08:00

yes, i was scouting for a kindy for ziyi exactly 6 months ago and now here i am, on a hunting mission again. that's because her current kindy is closing down, the owner is having some financial problem, so i heard.

it's really difficult to decide on which kindy to send her as there are not many options available in the area that we live in. there are a few good ones but they are not too willing to accept her as she's not potty-trained! mean eh...

hmm, i found one near to my house but the owner wants to confirm with the teachers if they are willing to wash and change ziyi's diapers as they do not have any maids/helpers around. i kind of like this kindy as it's new and reputable and most of all, it's the nearest to my house.

well, i still have 1 week to go before enrolling her into a new kindy. i really pity ziyi, she has to adjust and fit into a new environment and start making new friends again. hope it will not be difficult this time.

every parents nightmare: a DIFFICULT CHILD

2010-12-15T23:31:00.001+08:00

here's a little run through on why i'd label my daughter a difficult child...

when i was pregnant with ziyi in 2008, i had to suffer for 1 whole month during the 1st trimester. people will usually say about morning / evening sickness, but in my case, it was a whole day sickness! i'd vomit after each meal. even when i was driving, i had to get ready a plastic bag with me. so it was considered a bad pregnancy experience for me. later when it was almost time for labour, my gynae found out that ziyi was still in breach position. i had no choice but to schedule for a cesarean section.

i had a confinement lady to help me out during the first month after my delivery. ziyi was a 80% breastfed baby at that time and as far as i can recall, she was doing pretty well in the 1st month of her life. when the confinement aunty left after ziyi's fullmoon, my nightmare begun. ziyi had been crying everyday, during bath time, naptime, sleeptime, almost everytime! old folks used to say some babies would cry for the 1st 100 days of their life. very true indeed, but she extended hers to almost 4 months! she was slightly easier at about 5 months old.

ziyi @ 2 months old

i even had to become a full-time cow supplying her with milk as she refused to drink from the bottle when she was 1.5 months old. it was until later at about 8.5 months old that i found out that she didn't like the Avent's teat. i bought her Dr. Browns bottle and she was more receptive to it since the teat is so much softer compared to Avent *fussy little ziyi*

next on the list was her solid food problem. ziyi never like eating her food until this day! i had to resort to using my laptop (for youtube) or the TV for her cartoons in order to coax her into eating her meals (at 8 months old). meal time has always been stressful for me.

ziyi @ 6 months old

ziyi, being a girl by gender, has a very boyish character and behaviour. she's very hyperactive, doesn't really like to sleep and very temperamental. i will be using the cane almost everyday in order to tame and discipline her. oh, did i mention she is also very demanding? she sticks to me like a super glue and wants my attention all the time. i must do everything for her, she doesn't want her father, grandparents, or anyone else except me!

how to have a 2nd child when 1 child is already enough to exhaust me???

ziyi @ 2.4 years old... naughty girl

ziyi's bath time

2010-12-11T00:36:00.000+08:00

when ziyi was a baby, she hated bath time. she would bawl through the entire bathing to dressing session. it was always very stressful for me at each bathing time. now that she's a little more grown up (2.5 years old), she loves playing with water. she used to bath inside her bath tub and i would have to hold her (lying position) in order to wash and rinse her hair. she didn't like me rinsing her hair and she would wail each time i do it.

however, about 2 months back (2.3 years old), i started to bath her using the handheld shower. it is quicker and hassle free. i'll tell her to cover her eyes with a hanky while i rinse her hair. she would still cry but she was not afraid of the water coming down from her head. now she's doing even better, no more crying when i rinse her hair. phew! i never thought it'd be this easy! i am going to ditch her bathtub which is occupying the space in my lil bathroom.