Last Few Days of 2012

It's still a working day for me on Boxing day and Christmas this year was different compared to last year and other previous years as I did not get to celebrate it with my mom anymore, including my birthday which she never failed to celebrate with me. 

2012 has been a fruitful year for us, but with my mother's passing on, it was also a very sad one. She suffered almost 2 months in the hospital and it was so heart breaking to see her condition at that time. However, I'm very glad in a way that she no longer had to suffer after being wheelchair bound for 3 years. 

Moving forward, I'm seriously excited about the year to come. 2013 will be exciting for us because a new adventure is going to begin next year and I hope it'll turn out well. Fingers crossed. 

Oh, there will be a little getaway for us this coming weekend. Looking forward to it!!! 

Happy Holiday peeps!

Things that Ziyi says

We were at a shopping mall one day and as usual, I always carry a bottle of water for Ziyi and sometimes some snacks for her too (eg: banana, biscuits, etc). Throughout the day I kept on asking her to drink her water. There was once she answered me when I gave her the water bottle: "Mummy, why you always ask me to drink water, drink water, drink water??!" with the kind of tone I did not expect of her! LOL... My 4.5 years old girl never fail to amaze me with the things she says.

Disturbing Video Clip

I viewed a video that someone posted on FB. It showed how a man scolded and hit the helpless boy, who is only about 5 or 6 years old I guess. I couldn't bring myself to watch it any further after viewing it for the first 1-2 minutes. It was extremely disturbing and it broke my heart seeing the poor helpless boy who could do nothing except cried! I seriously cannot understand how one can be so merciless and cruel at treating their own kids with such abuse.

Honestly, I'm not the kind of person who likes children very much. But I absolutely do not agree with child abuse like the one shown in the video clip. For a tiger mummy (with not much patience) like myself, I do reprimand and take disciplinary action against my own daughter whenever the need arises. At times I felt bad and regret for blowing my top. I pity her when she kena from me but this stubborn and mischievous child needs to be disciplined.

The monkey got so interested in this tu-tu car on display outside a Thai Restaurant and refused to leave until we had to drag her out of the car. LOL

A sleeping child is so angelic :)

Challenges in Disciplining my 4yo

We attended the Parent Teacher meeting 2 Saturdays ago. As expected, Ziyi received lots of compliments from her class & daycare teachers on her academic performance. One new thing to note this round is that Ziyi is the only one in her class who can read her Bahasa books and she can read each and every word that was taught in her class. Well done Ziyi! Mummy and daddy are proud of you. 

Well, then we moved on to her character and behavior in school. This is the part that got me really worried. Her class teacher noticed some changes in her recently. She is so stubborn that she is always keeping quiet whenever someone is talking or questioning her, especially so when she's not in the mood. Sort of like having mood swing. Refusing to apologize to anyone even when the other party said sorry to her first. 

She is only afraid of me thus far. No one else can reprimand her except this tiger mummy. I hate to shout at her but she really leaves me no choice. My lil Ziyi, when will you change? I seriously do not know how to discipline you :(

Of Will & Loose Ends

My mom left us unexpectedly, she left without telling us her last wish nor anything at all. We took the situation for granted, thinking she would be discharged from the hospital soon and hence I did not ask her anything about her belongings, insurance & her personal finances matter. 

I was totally clueless about her personal stuff. Lucky she had her will written and told me to contact her lawyer should any unfortunate happened to her. It was a very simple will, so I had to search high and low in her room and the house for all her stuff. It took up few of my weekends to compile and did a spring clean to donate whatever can still be used to the nursing home. 

Throughout the period of difficult times, I am very grateful for her church Pastor Paul and other church members who guided me through the funeral processes. They are really wonderful people. God is great! 

With this experience, I told hubs that we have to sort out our insurance and banking matters and most importantly get a will written. Almost all the banks and government department that I went to asked for the  copy of grant of probate from me.

I hope to be able to get all my mom's things settled by mid of 2013, before I make my move to another country. As for Ziyi, I've been telling her that her grandma is now in heaven, I do not know how to explain death to her. She will be able to understand it better when she is a lil older. 

Physical Development

Ziyi was at the pediatrician last week and the nurse took her measurement. At 4 years 4 months old, her weight is 16 kg and 105 cm in height. My skinny monkey is always so skinny, even when she was a baby, there's not much chubbiness in her. 

I googled and found a chart suggested as below for a 4 year old:

4 years

Boys Girls Weight 33.3 - 39.1 pounds 32.2 - 38.5 pounds Height 39.2 - 41.5 inches 38.6 - 41.0 inches

After conversion, she's at 35.2 pounds and 41.3 inches. Average for her weight and tall for her height at her age. Now I just wish she'd grow a lil bit more fats in her body. So much cuter with those baby fats!!

Flaxseed oil for children

Recently Ziyi has started to like oatmilk more than her milk. When I was shopping for her oatmilk at BMS Organic shop, the shop assistant recommended me flaxseed oil for children. The kid's version is flavored with natural lemon. I ended up buying the package containing 1 tin of O'kid Oatmilk + 1 bottle of Flaxseed oil + 1 tumbler shaker. 

I don't quite like the idea of Ziyi consuming too much sugar as the oatmilk is sweetened naturally, so I'm giving her oatmilk + flaxseed oil in the morning, dutch lady school  packet milk in the evening (snacks at daycare) and Anmum formula milk at night.  

I did some research on flaxseed oil on the web. Adding Flaxseed oil to your child’s diet will:

· Enhance brain development.

· Increase learning.

· Increase reading shills.

· Enhance nerve development.

· Help prevent asthma.

· Reduce muscle inflammation.

· Reduce joint inflammation.

ADD/ADHD Child:

· Improve attention span.

· Increase calm behavior

· Enhance memory.

4 years on..

My little girl is now 4 years 3 months old and I still miss her when I'm at work. I miss her scent, her laughter, her cries (though at times can be very irritating), her hugs and especially her wet kisses. I admit I can be very protective of her most of the time. I still remember her first year of life, I couldn't bear staying away from her. The very first time I had to be away for a business trip to Johor for a night was when she was around 3+ years old.

If I were to have a 2nd baby, I think I will have to be a stay at home mum and look after the lil one myself. I know of some parents who even leave their young babies to their carer (like parents in law or own parents) in their hometown and only visit once a week. I can't imagine myself seeing my baby only on weekends and not watching him/her growing up progress! 

My Little Vain Pot

For someone who likes Thomas & Friends and favorite color is BLUE, how vain can that person be? I was so wrong. Ziyi was once a big fan of the boyish Thomas & Friends toys, books & cartoon and likes everything in blue color. I was a little worried that she might grew up into a tomboy, but I can now leave all those worries behind.

She is so into PINK now, likes Dora The Explorer and Disney Princess too. She has yet to like Barbie Dolls. Sometimes when I dress her up, she will even choose her own clothes. She will tell me she wants to wear watch, necklace, hair clips, and bracelets because she wants to be so pretty. Whenever she sees me with my makeup brush, she will sweep that brush across her cheeks too.

I hope she will grow up into a fine young lady, and not be an Ah Lian....muahahahhaha!!!!

In loving memory of my beloved mom

Wednesday 10th Oct 2012 was the day my mom left us. 10 days before her 59th birthday she decided to leave us to be with Almighty God.

I could feel as if my heart stopped beating when I received the call from the hospital on Mon 8th Oct. I was told my mom was unconscious and might leave anytime. 

We know this could be a better way for her that she did not have to suffer anymore and be relieved of all her sufferings to be with God. 

I will miss her very much and she will always be in our memories, forever and ever. I love you mom. 

Gangnam Style Girl?

The latest craze over the Korean Pop Song is now happening at our home. I have absolutely no idea what it was until the hubs showed the video clip to Ziyi. Since then, Ziyi was hooked on it and I found out why she liked it. It was because there were horses in the music video. She likes horses very much, that's why she kept repeating watching it until she can even sing some part of the song. She sounded so cute whenever she sings it.. op, op, oppa gangnam style! LOL

At the Zoo recently, with a pony at the background. 

She commented the pony has the same hairstyle like her. :)

Long Awaited Trip to JB & Singapore

During the past Merdeka Holiday weekend, we took a short trip down south. Stayed overnight at my cousin's house in JB before heading over the sea to Singapore for 1 night stay at V Hotel. 

We drove in to Singapore on Friday morning, left the house at about 10+ am and reached V Hotel (at Lavender Station) at 12pm. The traffic at the custom and causeway was very slow. After getting our passports stamped at JB Custom, we crawled over the causeway to Sg Custom and took us a while to fill up all the dis/embarkation forms. After clearance, we were supposed to follow the RED Lane in order to get down to the VEP office to get the AUTOPASS card. There was no proper signage directing us to the VEP office, and we went to the GREEN Lane instead. The officer was very kind enough to let us make a sort-of U-turn to park our car and get our Autopass card done at the motorcycles only VEP office. It was a very quick process: filled up a form, presented the white slip of your road tax, paid S$10 for the card with a pre-loaded S$4.00 value. For more information about this, I found some info here.

The hotel room was small, but we were happy with it because it was clean and presentable. Left for USS on the MRT. Stopped at Harbourfront for a quick lunch and went to USS on a monorail. 

Reached USS at 2pm, it was drizzling but we didn't mind because it was not too crowded. Paid for 2 adults ticket, and Ziyi entered for free :)

The rest shall be presented in pictures:

Those above were taken at USS, while this was on the following day, at Garden By The Bay. We forgotten to bring our camera with us on the 2nd day in SG. Sucha waste! We went to the city garden and also Marina Bay Sands. Ziyi was very fussy as the weather was so hot and we were quite tired from all the walking. The city garden consist of 2 domes, but we only made it to 1 of them. Very interesting. A must visit attraction.

We hailed a cab to get back to the hotel. Slightly more expensive than the train but it's definitely a faster way especially when everyone of us were so tired. Headed back to JB in the evening, got stucked in the heavy traffic near the SG customs again.

Spent another day in JB, visited the Premium Outlet, nothing fantastic though. We left for home on the next morning. Spent a total of 2 days in SG and 2 days in JB. Need to make another trip down south for the Legoland and Hello Kitty Themepark. Must plan it on a non school holidays, non public holidays, and non weekends too!!

Off the bottles

At 4 years 1 month old, Ziyi is completely off the bottles. I started weaning her when she turned 4, but I was not doing it consistently though. During one of the long weekend holiday last month, I decided to hide her bottles away and told her I've thrown them away *evil grin*

As of now, she has been drinking her milk from a grown up cup for 1 month. She sometimes drink Anmum formula milk, fresh milk or Oatmilk, depending on her mood. However, getting her to down her milk quickly in the morning is still pretty difficult as she can be quite fussy early in the morning and wants me to feed her instead. 

I'm glad I've successfully weaned her and not having to go through the hassle of washing her bottles and teats and not forgetting changing the teats every 6 months. She was using Cherub's baby glass bottles though and it is quite a waste to keep them away as they are still pretty new. Perhaps these bottles can be passed down to her future sibling?? 

Merdeka Holiday

YES! This will be the last public holiday of the month and we will have to wait till December (me think) for more holidays. I can't wait for our long awaited trip this weekend, departing tonight by car. When was my last holiday trip? Hmm, can't really recall. 

Shall update on our trip after we are back and keeping my fingers crossed that the lil monster won't give us a hard time. Phobia :(

Happy holiday & Happy Independence Day to all.

Shoes for problematic feet

We were at Clarks shoe store yesterday and I tried on a few pairs of their closed toes shoes. To my surprise, they were incredibly comfy. But I did not buy any yesterday, as I was still skeptical given the fact that I was born with a bunion on both side of my feet. I have always had problem getting myself a pair of comfy closed toe shoes. I even bought myself a pair of Ferragamo court shoes years ago and it went into the bin after wearing it less than 3 times! There goes my few hundred bucks. 

I knew I definitely need to get at least a pair of shoes else how am I going to survive the cold with strappy sandals/heels when we move to Oz next year? I wonder how comfy Clarks shoes are or if there are other brands around that cater for bunions feet? I need one that has enough rooms for my wide feet but at the same time it has to look at least fashionably enough for me :)

Long Raya Break 2012

Our 4 days holiday break came to an end, now back to work. blehhhh!!

Anyway, a quick update of what we did during the 4 days break:

Saturday: 

Went for late breakkie around the neighbourhood and just hang around Carrefour for the lil one to have some fun playing at the kiddie arcade. Dinner at home as usual, with the rest of the Loh's family.

Sunday:

I cooked pasta with bacon and carrots + lettuces for lunch. I'm a green freak. Must have loads of vegetables in my meal, especially if it's home cooked meals. 

Went out to 1 Utama, reached there around 3pm, carpark and mall was super crowded! I thought most people would have gone out of town, looked like I was so wrong. We passed by Sticky the customised candy shop and showed Ziyi how they make their candies. I was surprised to find out they give out samplings pretty generously, they just left a square bowl on the counter and let you take as many as you want. We like it, because the candy was not too sweet and there were quite a lot of flavors to choose from. 

Then we dropped by Candylicious, another pretty candy store. Needless to say, Ziyi bugged us to buy her lollipops! I was not keen to get her those artificially colored lolly at all. We tried persuading her to go for Gelato instead but she refused. In the end I managed to convinced her to go for a Chocolate lolly, which cost us RM9! But I didn't mind because I think chocs are much better those colored lolly. I made her promised me to not ask for any lollipops or chocs or ice-cream anymore, but do you a 4 year old can keep her promise? Of course not! She went crazy when she saw another ice-cream kiosk later. I was very firmed with her this time, it took us a while to distract her and brought her to Toys 'r us and took her some time to finally "forget" about the ice-cream. We went to Uptown for the famous hokkien mee and roast duck. Ziyi had a small plate of mee + some duck meat and we headed home after that. 

The expensive lolly

Monday:

Left home in the morning to Morib for a short day trip. The sun was hot, we came back with a burnt back. They played kite and sand at the beach. when it was low tide. Headed to Tanjung Sepat for seafood, at the Ocean Seafood restaurant. Gosh, the crowd and traffic was crazy. Reached the restaurant at about 3pm and only managed to have our meal at 5pm. The kids were hungry. The food was not fantastic and price was not attractive either. Don't think we will be back. 

The famous Lover's Bridge

Reached home at almost 8pm, bathed and the kids continued playing at home when the "men" went out drinking, I had to babysit 3 kids and Ziyi was the happiest kid, having company to play with her. She knocked out at almost 12am. 

Tuesday:

Ziyi must be extremely tired from yesterday, she woke up at 9+ am, and this rarely happened as she is an early person. While she was still sleeping, I prepared the ingredients for making beef stew. My first attempt at beef, besides minced beef. Dumped everything into the slow cooker. Easy peasy. Will post the recipe later. 

Hubs and I went out for a movie while Ziyi was out with her grandparents. We went for lunch, a quick shopping and we watched The Expandables 2. Great movie and it was only RM8 per tix for Citibank card holder.

That was it, our long (or short?) holiday break. Time past so fast and before I knew it, I'm now back at work...yawwnn :O

Mandarin tuition classes

Ziyi is finally enrolled in a Mandarin class tuition early this August. We were contemplating between home tuition vs tuition centers and we ended up with the latter. I was not able to send her to the center on her 1st day, in fact I won't be sending her but can only pick her up when it's over, she was behaving extremely well! Surprisingly, no crying or looking for mama when there were no familiar faces at the center at all. Everything went well for the 1.5 hours class and she did not mind going again, so yesterday was her 3rd class. She attends the class twice a week, 1.5 hours each time.

Her books ain't easy man...I can't read most of the words myself. She was reading the words to me last night, though with wrong intonation but later I realised she could read because she was reading the Hanyu PinYin and not because she can recognize the Chinese words!

I wonder if it's good to teach them with PinYin for a start. I can't wait for the day she can converse with us in Mandarin as she still doesn't allow us speaking to her in Chinese.

My child is sucking me dry :O

I cannot imagine how other families manage it financially when they have 2 or more children, especially for those middle to lower income group earners. 

Ziyi likes to eat her honey neat, so I've been giving her Manuka honey with UMF28+ when she was down with fever. Now she's all healthy and active, she wants her honey every night too. It's going to be very costly if she were to take UMF28+ Manuka every night! So today I went to buy a jar of 500gm UMF 15+ for her (for general maintenance purpose) which cost me RM118 + a tube of PawPaw ointment (for standby) at RM22.90. Geez, things are getting really expensive nowadays. 

I will have to enroll her for Chinese tuition class this evening and that will cost us another RM530 + RM180 every month in addition to her monthly daycare fees. This Saturday is her 2nd appointment with the ENT Specialist, which will easily cost us RM180 + a scooter as a pressie for rewarding her if she lets the ENT clean her right ear, estimated to be around RM130. I'm going to be very broke this week!

Goods & services are so expensive in Malaysia! How to afford a 2nd or even a 3rd child??!! Unless we need to change our spending habit and change our lifestyle too, and I am not sure if I'm ready for that. And not to mention sacrificing holidays abroad too :(

A visit to the ENT Specialist

After weeks and months of complaining ear itchiness, we brought Ziyi to the ENT Specialist (Dr. Lim Wye Keat) on Saturday morning at Assunta Hospital. The queue was long, from registration to collecting medicine at the pharmacy. While waiting for our turn to see the doctor (almost 1.5 hours for 8 patients before us), we went for a quick bite at the cafe inside the hospital. The cafeteria food don't look appetizing to us, and Ziyi was asking to eat croissant, for the first time! So we settled for a clean and healthy looking cafe, ordered a large croissant for her and she ate 3/4 of it, she absolutely likes it.

When waiting for our turn at the waiting room, she happily sang all her favorite children songs and I had to keep reminding her to lower down her voice. LOL!

What surprised us further was her calmness and she was a brave kid when the doctor examined her. She even lifted up her dress to show the doctor her eczema patch on her thigh when she heard the doctor mentioned "eczema". Doc's diagnosis: Very dry ear wax, and this is mainly so if she has eczema. Her ear canal is dry and itchy, thus she is always bugging us to use the cotton bud on her. 

Doc has to clean her ear and don't recommend sedation as opposed to the other ENT at Columbia Asia (we totally had no faith in that doc and glad we went for this doc now). She lied down on my chest and I held her tight to assure her everything is going to be fine. Doc's procedure: Dropped ear drops (hydrogen peroxide), sucked using a long tool that acts like a vacuum cleaner, and remove the wax! 
Took about few minutes and my brave girl did not even move a wee bit. I'm so proud of her.

We were shocked to see that big piece of wax, which is dark brown and greyish in color. eeewww..

However, when we turned her for the other (right) ear, she started to refuse. I guess she was really tensed and scared during the procedure because her heart beats really fast. So doc gave me the ear drop, to be used for 2 weeks, and to come back in a month's time for her right ear. Although we were a bit disappointed that we couldn't continue with her right ear, but we were very glad at least one ear was solved. Total damage: RM179. Pretty alright, given the professionalism and expertise of Dr Lim, and not to mention our confidence in him handling our precious one.

I must say I'm actually a little upset that her eczema is affecting both her ear canals and it must be very uncomfortable for her. Must source for something to apply / drop in order to relieve her.

No pics were taken at the hospital. 

This picture here was taken on her 4th Birthdate together with one of her good friends. 

An Update from Ziyi's Class Teacher

When we met up with Ziyi's class teacher, Teacher Kim, last month, she commented that Ziyi is a very obedient girl. I'm very surprised that she's labelled as an obedient child. However, I'm pretty sure she is much much more obedient in school than at home, gosh, she drives me up the wall almost everyday. 

Academic wise, she is doing very well in her class. I did not even  know that she has been appointed as the class monitor since beginning of the year. She has to help teacher to distribute books to the children according to their names, carry out whatever duties assigned to her and also to assist Teacher Kim to guide the other children to read (Bahasa and English). She is a precocious child when it comes to languages. I'm pretty impressed with her reading skills.

In short, Teacher Kim likes Ziyi very much and is satisfied with her performance in class. How I wish she is just as obedient whenever she's with me.

In search of enrichment centres / tuition centres, whatever you call it..

I went through the hassle of searching a kindy cum daycare for Ziyi when she 2 yo and 2.5 yo (after her first kindy closed down). It was not an easy process at that time but we finally settled her with one very near to my house. There were some dissatisfaction with the kindy but I can still close one eye and not be too fussy about it, since Ziyi is happy going to the kindy.

Now at 4 yo, I strongly feel that it's time for her to attend some classes besides her usual kindy hours. There are so many so-called enrichment centres mushrooming near my neighbourhood but I have not taken the initiative to visit / survey any of them yet. There are academic ones, dance classes, arts & crafts, etc etc. But I can't afford to send Ziyi to all of them though I wish I could. It would be too taxing on her and also on our pockets!

I'm going to start her off with only 1 for now. But what? Should I send her to Mandarin classes, or Robotix, or Enopi Maths or...? I seriously have no clue. >_<

War between Ziyi & me!!

Yes, you heard me right! It ain't easy disciplining kids nowadays. I always tell myself to keep cool and not raise my hands on her, but all I can say is that it is easier said than done. 

Last night Ziyi refused to keep her toys away after playing with them and as usual, she gave plenty of excuses for not doing it. As stubborn as she is (wonder whose gene she inherited), she did not want to move her butt nor lift her finger even after a few threats from me for throwing them away into the bin. 

War begun when I started picking them up and dump into a plastic bag, she snatched the plastic from me, and me snatching it back from her. She wouldn't let me throw it nor would she want to pick them up! She screamed and wailed and me shouting back at her. The whole village of people in my house thought I was abusing and beating her up. 

Toys were flung everywhere in the room and it was really like a kiddy fight between me and her. LOL.

Finally she agreed to pick them up and apologized to me, and promised to clean up her toys in the future. Obviously, mummy always win when it comes to war like this. At least for now. 

She definitely is one fierce, stubborn and never say die girl. It's gonna be hard disciplining her. All the best to me!

At 4 years old

It's been very long since my last update. I have been so busy with my new job now, and I have neglected my blog. I shall just keep to my objective of updating Ziyi's progress, lest all these precious memories will be forgotten few years down the road.

She has just celebrated her 4 years birthday bash at KizSports & Gym, Empire Subang. She had a great time and I have no regrets for celebrating this for her at 4 and not when she was 3! She has grown up so much and appreciate it better. 

At 4, she can now dress herself up, including her own t-shirts/blouses. She was only capable of wearing her bottoms previously, but now she is so proud of showing off her skill at wearing her own tops!

She is so much more obedient now, compared to...hmm, when she was around 1+ to 3+ years old. Gosh, those days were terrible!

Every morning, she will pee, brush her teeth, gargle, wash her face and dress up all by herself! I only need to ensure she does it in a faster manner, else I will be late for work! 

Food wise, she is still a lil' bit fussy but overall, she eats almost everything, including vegetables and meat. Spaghetti has became her favorite food now, just like me! My Cinaman daughter is slowly becoming more angmoh. LOL! One not so good change about her is that she dislikes most fruits served to her, unlike her younger days. She doesn't mind banana, papaya, pineapple, watermelon and yellow kiwifruit. The rest will have to force-feed. 

My once clingy daughter is not so clingy anymore. With my hectic schedule, I don't have the luxury of picking her up from school in the evening anymore. She would play and eat her snacks at home without me around in the evening, and once in a while she would still bug me to bring her out to the park before dinner. Her dinner is served later in the evening after I reach home from work.

I shall update her performance in school in the next post. Stay tuned!

Natural skincare for sensitive and irritated skin

I've been doing lots of research on skincare products for Ziyi. I bought these recently:

MooGoo: Udder Cream (as moisturizer) and Irritable Skin Balm 

(this helps in soothing her irritated skin)

Sukin: Gentle Shampoo and Botanical Body Wash

These products are free from SLS and Paraben which is considered safe for her to use. I have also brought her to Ranjit Skin Specialist to check on her eczema, and was prescribed with some antibiotic cream. After applying for a week, I can see improvements but not completely healed yet.  Hope these stuff that I bought for her helps in maintaining her skin condition better.

Cleaning Herself Up

Just 2 months shy from her 4th birthday, Ziyi has started to clean herself up after her pee pee. I have no confidence in her initially, thinking how would she be able to reach for the toilet paper, as one has to twist and turn to the back to reach for it, thanks to the developer who installed the toilet roll holder at such an inconvenient place. However this lil cili padi of mine convinced me when I saw her doing it on her own few weeks back. Guess it's time for her to be independent and less work for us, the parents.

Ziyi even tried washing her hair, bathing and brushing teeth all by herself, but of course, I would freak out if I were to let her do it on her own. One step at a time, I told her, cleaning up after her pee pee is a good start. The rest shall wait. 

Fried Nien Gao

One of my all time favorite snacks...Fried Nien Gao! My grandma always remember to make this for me whenever she has nien gao at home, especially during CNY. 

Sliced nien gao

Sliced sweet potatoes

Chef at work :)

The batter

Sliced yam

And the end product... love it! I tried making them myself too but it didn't turn out as good. 

Nasi Lemak Craving

I was making Sambal Tumis the other day and since the hubs loves my Nasi Lemak so much (I've only cooked for him once many years ago), I decided to make him happy again with my homemade Nasi Lemak. 

This little rascal was having cereal for her brekkie. 

Coconut to make santan and pandan leaves to be used for cooking the rice

Nasi Lemak with fried eggs, stir fried kangkung, ikan bilis and Turmeric fried chicken! Approved by both my bosses.....Ziyi had the same thing too, minus the sambal. 

Taman Botani, Putrajaya

On one of the Sundays in March, yes, this post has been drafted weeks ago, hubs suggested visiting Taman Botani Putrajaya. We brought Ziyi's bicycle along just in case we couldn't rent a kiddie bike there. We reached there around 10+ in the morning but the bicycles were all rented out and we were told to wait for another hour to get a bike. Nah...1 hour is too long of a wait, we decided to just let Ziyi ride her bicycle and us walked along with her. We munched on a few buns as our breakfast and bottles of mineral water to hydrate ourselves. 

No entrance fee needed, unless you are renting their bicycles. 

While waiting for hubs to off load her bicycle.

Cycling happily...initially........but.............

Few minutes later, she was screaming and crying the whole time when her dad told her not cycle too fast at a slope downhill. She wanted to go real fast, but when she couldn't she screamed on top of her lung "FAST FAST, I WANT FAST!!!" 

I got real mad at her unacceptable behavior and gave her a good lecture when we reached the lakeside, with other parents and children looking on. We had no idea what was wrong with her that morning, it was not her nap time nor her meal time but she was just so cranky! She kept crying for at least another 10 mins and after she settled down, her behavior was back to normal and she transformed into a lovable princess. Weird 'lil girl we have here. 

This is the happy and lovable face we would like to see everyday! 

My Little Reader @ 3yr 9mo

Ziyi's definitely a person who memorizes well and learns everything by the book. She has been reading pretty well lately. Throw her a simple story book and she could read almost every word all by herself. I'm definitely proud of her but at the same time I'm worried too. She might not be very good at using her creativity mind.
Hmm, let's see how she will perform when she has to start anew in the land down under in 2013. Their education system is totally different from ours!

Learning New Words

Mixing and playing with other children has its pros and cons. They sometimes picked up good and bad habit along the way. As for Ziyi, she learns new words almost everyday. She sometimes surprised me with her new vocabulary.

Lately she learned to say "Alamak" whenever she trips and fall. She could say it very naturally too! She amused me more when she said "No, thanks" whenever I offered her something that she doesn't fancy.

She would also say "Ai yo yo" if she thinks it's troublesome to do certain things.

Up to date, she has been learning mandarin for about 4 months. She is still struggling with her mandarin but her teacher mentioned that she's a quick learner and I shouldn't worry too much. I sometimes regret for not speaking to her in mandarin from young. Learning English language is much easier than Mandarin language. The only Mandarin words she has mastered is "Bu Yao" means don't want. I will try harder to speak to her in mandarin more often, though it can be very tiring sometimes, because I feel like I'm talking to the wall. LOL

You scratch my back, I scratch yours

One night Ziyi saw me scratching daddy's back, she immediately ran to me and lift up her shirt and asked me to scratch hers too! She was so cute. I remember there was once I asked her to help scratched mine and she answered me: Mummy, why you are the same like daddy. Always scratch one.....

I couldn't help laughing at her statement.

A Trip to the National Science Center

We are so bored with trips to the shopping malls on weekends, especially the crowds that really puts me off, and I think Ziyi is bored staying home too much also..LOL.

I suggested a trip to the National Science Center a few weekends back. I thought it would be fun for the lil one and it's cheap too! 

We left the house at about 10am for our brekkie at K3K Benta Kaya. To my surprise, this kopitiam was packed with people but their service was darn slow. We waited for more than an hour for our drinks and food to be served. 

While waiting for the food to be served....

Hubs' Assam Laksa. Quite good I would say, but I'm not a big fan of Assam Laksa.

My Steamed Lotus Rice. So, so..

Ziyi's kids meal

By the time we reached NSC, it was past noon. I think hubs paid RM12 for the tickets. 

I was quite impressed with the entrance!

Ziyi was extremely afraid of this skeleton model!

It was a fun trip for all of us, err, maybe not so much for me. I got bored with this place after 1/2 hour or so..muahahhhahaha...

Hubs' verdict of this place: Lousy...... but it's ok to cheat young kids, hehe.