October 2013 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

My Baby Girl

Yesterday evening, Cass insisted on bringing her favorite ‘baby’ with her when I fetched Sherilyn back from the enrichment centre. Her ‘baby’ even shared her safety belt with her in the car.

In another year’s time when Cass will be over 6 years old, I know Cass would have probably outgrown her babyish and childish mannerisms. Since she will be my last child, I know I will definitely miss all these cuteness and will miss carrying a baby. I still carry Cass now. I have 1 more year to enjoy my baby being just like a baby before she goes to Standard 1 and becomes a ‘big girl’.

Tomorrow will be Cass’ yearly ultrasound scan of her kidneys and urinary tract. This time we are not having it done at GMC Penang as the surgeon will be away. We will have it done at UMSC. I pray that all will go well and smoothly and that the scan result will be favorable.

No. of times viewed = 2863

Sherilyn’s French Dessert For Granny

The night before my parents were due to return to Ipoh by train, Sherilyn told me that she would wake up early to make a ‘cake’ for granny. Keeping to her promise, Sherilyn woke up at 7:30am on Saturday and whipped up this “French dessert” for granny, which she named ‘Yateau Lattea’ LOL!

Sherilyn’s healthy French dessert composed of 2 slices of organic wholemeal nutty bread, granny’s homemade pandan kaya, sawdust (crushed Oat Krunch biscuits), 2 pieces of Loaker’s wafer, 2 biscuit sticks, pumpkin seeds and 1 scoop of Haaegan Dazs cookies and cream ice-cream.

So, watcha think? You think this Nigella Lawson hopeful has the potential to be a celebrity chef? Someone is dreeeeeeaming to be a celebrity’s mommy haha!

No. of times viewed = 1428

Monkey See Monkey Do

The big monkey was so excited when he found out that Unilever has finally come up with mini Magnum Almond and has since been stocking up boxes of our favorite ice cream in the freezer. This afternoon after lunch at Ramen Ten, he could not wait to unwrap one mini Magnum Almond the moment he got into the car *roll eyes*

Since the big monkey allowed eating in the car, the side-kicks followed suit and snacked in the car while enjoying their movie – Despicable Me 2 haha!

One of the kids’ simple joys in life – snacking in daddy’s car and enjoying a good movie!

No. of times viewed = 1828

Our Saturday – 26 October 2013

My parents have just returned to Ipoh. I am sure going to miss them a lot after having them with us for almost 2 weeks.

Alycia and Sherilyn’s final exam ended yesterday but Alycia would have to sit for the Science and Math test papers in English on Monday. Cass’ final exam is also starting on Monday. Yep, the pre-school that Alycia and Sherilyn attended and now Cass is attending, has twice-yearly exams for 5-year olds and 6-year olds.

Monkey see monkey do. I am mega proud of Cass. She is doing revision on her own by writing out almost everything from her school books onto her own exercise book. I will then ask her to read to me what she has written. Her reading skill is improving by the day.

After a short revision with Cass, I did some exercises with her on the trampoline, as well as some pelvic floor exercises and gripping exercises to strengthen her sphincters in the hope of countering her bladder issues. I have to do this with her twice a day and I hope that I can steal more time to do more sets with her.

Alycia is in school the whole of today for a camp and Sherilyn is now at the ballet school, after which she will have a birthday party to attend. In about 5 minutes, I will resume my driver duties again.

Have a great weekend friends! 🙂

No. of times viewed = 933

Brunch At Nutmeg

I had brunch with my parents and hubs at Nutmeg @ Bangsar Village yesterday. It was a one-of-a-kind outing for us as it was the first time the four of us had gone out for a meal sans the 3 kids… pretty chillaxing I would say. I cherish such moments with my parents as we do not get to do this as often as we would like to as they are living hundreds of miles away from us.

Whilst waiting for hubs to take-away food for the kids at some nearby restaurants, I ordered a flour-free orange cake to snack on. This is by far one of the tastiest flour-free cake I had tasted. It was so delish that we ordered another slice for take-away for the girls to try. The cake is made from oranges and almond meal and sweetness level is just right for me. I would give it a rating of 10/10 and would definitely be back for this cake!

Egg Benedict with house-cured salmon on toast with salad. The runny yellow egg yolk-like liquid on top of the eggs is not the egg yolk, but Hollandaise sauce.

Nutmeg Breakfast Beef Set and Spinach Fritata…

The picture at the foreground is the Nutmeg Breakfast Beef Set. It comes with a piece of lamb sausage. At a bite, I could tell that the lamb sausage was homemade and I later confirmed it with the owner of the cafe. It was delish, not too salty, full of ‘real lamb meat’, onions and spices, unlike store-bought ones. The beef strip was tender and juicy. Loved the juicy and very flavorful sun-dried cherry tomatoes too. In fact, we loved everything that we ordered.

The three pieces of deep-fried balls in the Nutmeg Breakfast Beef Set are actually deep-fried mac and cheese and it was YUMZ. Thankfully there were only three pieces and shared amongst the four of us, else I would have eaten myself sick with these crispy cheesy balls haha!

Brioche French Toast — this is baked and not fried. It tastes pretty much like bread pudding. The 2 slices of bread were very thick and richly soaked with milk and egg, thus we were already very stuffed after sharing just one slice of bread. The other slice was packed away for breakfast the next day.

Feeling really satisfied with the food and cake, the hubs ordered a slice of OMG choc fudge cake, a slice of carrot cake and another slice of flour-free orange cake for the girls.

We will definitely be back to try other items on Nutmeg’s menu real soon and this time for the kids! They were sulking that we went without them.

Nutmeg Cafe,
UGF-28A, Bangsar Village II, Jalan Telawi 1, Bangsar Baru, Kuala Lumpur.
Beside Haagen-Dazs, below Botanical.
Tel: 03-2201 3663

No. of times viewed = 735

Champion of The Clumsy Club

The clown of the family is coincidentally also the clumsy pot of the house… since young. She had broken far too many things. This year alone, she had broken both her sisters’ mugs, grandma’s teapot cover and a few nights ago, she finally broke my favorite mug cover from Ikea. When I saw the mug cover on the dining table, I had a hunch that she would break it and before I could even keep it, her elbow knocked the ceramic mug cover off the table and CRACK it went into a hundred sharp tiny pieces! *SOBS* That was the cover for my favorite coffee and tea mug. I knew it would not live long enough for me to make my next trip to Ikea.

In the Chinese school that my girls go to, if the kid does something wrong, she/he gets punished by way of being caned. At home, I don’t like to use the whip unnecessarily. Since she broke the mug cover, she had to settle the mess. Instead of hitting the sack by 9pm, she had to sweep away the broken ceramic pieces so that I can mop the entire dining area again… you know those tiny ceramic fragments can fly a few meters away from the accident scene and I’d stepped onto them many times in the past.

When will you ever, ever learn to be more wary of what’s going on, what’s in your surrounding and be more careful my dear? SIGH!!

No. of times viewed = 525

Our Weekend Before The Final Exam

We have had a pretty chillaxing weekend despite it being the weekend before Alycia and Sherilyn’s final exam. My parents are in KL and we have been having outings over the past few days. On Saturday morning, we went to the Bukit Bintang wet market to have breakfast. It has been yonks since I last stepped foot into a wet market to have breakfast. For dinner, we went to Dae Sa Kwan Korean Restaurant @ Sri Hartamas. This morning, we had seafood noodles at Cheras.

Today, I did some revision with Alycia and Sheriyln. I asked Sherilyn to work on a past year BM test paper from an SBT school and when it came to the part on ‘Bina Ayat Berpandukan Gambar’, we all had a good laugh at her quirky and comical creations. Here are some of the ‘ayat’ that she created. If this was her actual test paper, I am not sure if she would get a nay or a yay from her teacher for those questions. Here goes some of her creations.

1) Nenek sedang menoreh pokok getah. (the picture showed a woman rubber tapping. Depending on the mood of the teacher marking the paper, a mark could be deducted for the word ‘Nenek’ being used. The teacher may ask her how an old ‘nenek’ can be tapping rubber trees).

2) Alyzabeth sedang menanak nasi dengan periuk elektrik. (I told her that the spelling of the name was wrong and this joker changed the name to Holly. For Pete’s sake girl, why can’t you use simpler names like Siti, Mary and Fatimah? AIYO!)

3) Ayah memandu kami ke ladang anggur. (The word given in the sentence was ‘memandu’ and showed a picture of a man driving a car. This sentence was wrong as there must be an object after a ‘kata kerja’. And why on earth did she even think of ‘ladang anggur’? LOL!)

I tell you, this girl of mine is comical. While she can make all of us laugh, she may land herself in hot soup! SIGH!

I wish Sherilyn and Alycia loads of luck in their BM test papers tomorrow. And I hope that Sherilyn will keep her ‘Bina Ayat’ with simple words and simple names of people which will not stoke the teacher’s doubt!

Oh yes, this clown whipped up her version of Tiramisu for granny!

Sherilyn’s creation of Joker’s Sawdust Tiramisu composed of strawberry yoghurt, crushed biscuits as sawdust, dark purple grapes and purple dragon fruit. When she is not clowning around, she can whip up really fanciful desserts.

No. of times viewed = 548

Jinxed Day

Yesterday was a jinxed day. Everything seemed to have gone wrong.

When my dad and I went to buy some curry fish for lunch, I ran my new car onto some used tyres that the SOB car workshop owner left outside the shop. Yes, I am sometimes blind. Blinded by issues that clog my mind. The right-side fender of my car was yanked out a little.

When we ate the curry fish much later, the stingray fish tasted like shit! It had a strong odor of ammonia to be exact. I drove back to the shop to get a refund as the fish cost RM10 and we felt cheated, thus we went back to get a refund.

While eating lunch, we got news that my uncle had passed away.

When I was showering Cass, I told her that it had been a very bad day for me. I told her that I was very upset with what had happened to my new car. Then Cass said “mummy, is it because you have a lot of things in your mind?” God bless my sweetie-pie. She seems to know what’s in my mind. And truth is most of the scum that clogs my mind is related to my kids, especially my sweetie-pie. I am still very much bothered with Cass’ bladder issue. We will bring her to see a Professor at UMSC next week to seek a second opinion.

No. of times viewed = 276

Multi-tasking Story Book Worm

For days, I have noticed Alycia’s novels in the bathroom. Once it was in the shower stall – on the ledge. A few days ago, Cass fished out a wet novel from the bathroom floor which was wet! Boy was I enraged!! I think she fibbed about the part-time helper dropping it onto the floor, duh! Yesterday, my whistle blower ratted her che che out and tattletaled to me that her che che was reading story book while in the shower! I went WHAT?? How on earth did she shower and read at the same time? Cass then reenacted what her che che did by showing me how her che che stood with her back facing the shower head, with water hitting her back and she was holding her story book with hands stretched forward! If she could have it her way, this book worm will do nothing but read her novels and comics and draw the whole day, even if she is to sit for an exam the next day. Her final exam will be in a few days’ time and she is still unperturbed and totally cool about it. What’s wrong with this girl? Is she not even worried that she will flop in the papers that she is weakest in? Or is she overly confident since she did pretty well in the previous 2 exams this year?

No. of times viewed = 660

How To Chop Onions Without Tears

When the MIL is around, I never have to peel onions or garlic. I hardly ever have to cook. Now that she is overseas for several months, I am in charged of the kitchen. I so hate to peel and chop garlic and onions. I hate the smell that lingers on my my fingers after the job is done. Now that I have a part-time maid who comes in the evening to help me, I will leave the job of peeling and chopping onions and garlic to her. Bless her for that! In the morning when I have to cook lunch, I will avoid meals that have onions and garlic in them 😀

Yesterday the girls told me that they wanted bread pizza for lunch today. Their wish is my command, so this morning, I had to chop some onions and darn it, those big Bombay onions made me teared really badly! It was so bad that I could barely open my eyes and the tears were dribbling out so generously from my eyes that I was afraid that I would get blinded by the tears and chop off my fingers! Once I was done chopping the onions and meat, I went straight to my PC and googled for tips on how to chop onions without tears haha!

So if you are just like me, here goes the tips…

1) Use a very sharp knife when cutting onions. The enzymes are released when cells are broken or crushed; using a sharp knife slices through the onion rather than crushing and thus, fewer enzymes are released.

2) Chill your onions in the freezer for 10 – 15 minutes before cutting them. This reduces the amount of the acid enzyme released into the air. This was found to be the most effective way to reduce tears by the television program Food Detectives.

3) Wear gas tight goggles or a mask.

4) Wear contact lenses. They create a barrier between the surface of your eyes and the gas.

5) Cut the onion under water.

6) Cut the onion near running water or a cloud of steam. Steam from a kettle or pan of water will do the trick.

7) Breathe through your mouth (to draw the gas over your wet tongue) or stick your tongue out.

8) Put vinegar on the chopping board. The acid denatures the enzyme.

9) Soak the onion in water. The enzyme is denatured by the water-air boundary.

10) Soak the onion in salt water. The ionic solution denatures the enzyme.

11) The candle method. Light a candle and set it near the cutting board before cutting the onion. The gas released by the onion is drawn into the flame of a candle.

12) Point away from the tubes. Because onion “flesh” is tubular in construction, pointing the tubes away from you while cutting will keep the onion from spraying in your eyes. Of course, a breeze of any kind can send the fine, misty spray toward your eyes, so pay attention to air currents too.

13) Whistle while you work. Whistling makes a significant airflow, specifically away from your face, which keeps the onion mist away from your eyes. Just pick a catchy tune that you won’t want to stop whistling and you can cut as many onions as you need.

14) Chew bread or gum. Many people report that chewing, especially gum, helps avoid tears when cutting onions.

Do you have any other method that works pretty well too?

No. of times viewed = 913

Cassandra’s Year-End Kindy Concert

Sherilyn and I attended Cass’ kindy concert yesterday morning. The hubs had to be at his kitchen to prepare for a client’s function and Alycia had to stay home for Mandarin tuition.

I had put on make-up for Cass at home. At the hall, her teacher painted her face. Cass and her classmates donned on jungle attire and the little ones all looked SO adorable especially when they ‘roared’ during the dance.

Cuties all in a row, so so adorable!

Cute kids of the jungle posing for the cameraman…

Jungle kids in action on stage…

This will be Cass’ second last kindy concert. She will be ‘graduating’ from kindy next year and I am getting a bit touchy-feely now *sniffs*

No. of times viewed = 339

Onions Don’t Make Me Cry, They Make Me Laugh LOL!

Yesterday I was peeling and slicing big onions in the kitchen. Cass came into the kitchen to read her story book to me. She’s displayed a great interest in reading lately and has shown a promising improvement 🙂

I told her not to stand too near the chopping board and I said “ONIONS WILL MAKE YOU CRY”, to which this rascal who seems to have a rebellious streak in her retorted “NO, IT WON’T MAKE ME CRY. I DON’T CARE!”. Those words challenged me to make her cry right away with the onions *evil mummy!* So I brought a piece of sliced onion to her nose and asked her to sniff it. Then I sniffed it too. And I said “LET’S SEE WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN NOW!!” And as I felt the sting of the onion cut through my nostril and sailed through to my inner nose right up to my tear ducts and eyes, I saw Cass tearing too. As this moment I burst out LAUGHING LOUDLY and said “SEE!” and then the both of us laughed and laughed and rubbed the tears off our eyes!

No. of times viewed = 316

Hair Accessories Galore

With over 1 year of constant nagging and drumming into her head to get ready her school uniform and to lay out her bunch of hair accessories every night, rascal #2 has finally made this a nightly routine.

She used to dawdle every morning, by dragging her feet to the cupboard to hunt for her panty, shorts and uniform. Then dawdled to search for her hair ties and what nots. Sometimes if she misplaced them, she would whine and blame everyone in the house for ‘misplacing’ her things. That totally set my temper on fire!

One fine day just recently, she just set her school paraphernalia preparation in motion. Every night since then, she would hang her school uniform on a clothes rack in the room and would lay out all the things that she needs to put in her pocket, on herself and on her hair on the dining table, like this…

When I saw the number of hair clips, hair scrunchies and dunno what hair accessories that she needed just to tie ONE bun on her head, I was dismayed! I asked her why she needed SO many items and she just did not know how to answer me. I kid you not, this kid really puts all these hair accessories onto her hair!! If not for her laying out nicely her hair accessories, I would never have known that she requires SO many hair accessories to produce just one bun, gawd LOL! Does this sight look familiar in your household? I thought you just need a hair tie and a hair net to do up a bun, no??

And this is what I found on the TV top when I woke up this morning…

It must have been the job of my pink crazed rascal! Pray tell why she did that. I must ask her when she comes home from kindy later!

No. of times viewed = 446

Morning Routine

This has been my morning routine for the past 4 years.

Waiting with my angels for their transporter to shuttle them to school.

Then, I have my me time. Here’s where I do my morning run when it is still pretty dark outside and I find absolute peace when I am at it. I do all my soul-searching, brainstorming and empty all the negative vibes from my within and fill in positive ones.

Today I have skipped the morning run as I have to follow Cass to a community hall for her school’s rehearsal concert. As usual, I will be one of the two or three moms who decide to tag along. Not complaining, though I’d rather be home to get my work done but what the heck, this will be Cass’ second last year doing this and then she will be off to the big girl’s school in no time. I’ve had an enjoyable time with Cass and her friends in the bus ride last year for the same purpose. Now, all her classmates and kids from other classes know me. When they see me, they will all say “hello Cassandra’s mummy!” 😀

No. of times viewed = 4792

Leech Burger!

The sick pup was up and about again yesterday, after 1.5 days of serious puking, high fever and hallucinating. I told her not to eat any meat yet, to let her internal system take a good rest.

For dinner, she said she wanted to have white bread and I said OK. What do I know? This rascal forked out some lettuce and cloud ear fungus that we were having with rice for dinner to make her vegetarian sandwich, which she aptly called it “my leech burger”

Looks gross as it sounds, but I think this Leech Burger tasted OK, else this fussy pot would not have chomped it down. I did not even want to have a small bite just to test the taste. It looks euuuuuuuwwww to me!

As I have mentioned before, Sherilyn is the clown of the house. Alycia and I always joke that the job of a circus clown and stand-up comedian would aptly suit her in future and then all of us, including the rascal would have a good laugh. When I saw her ‘leech burger’, I broke up laughing with food shooting out from my mouth and I told her to squeeze in some tomato ketchup onto the leech to make her leech burger look more like one muahahahahahahah!!

No. of times viewed = 625

Sick As A Dog

Sherilyn is not as sick as a dog today like she was yesterday. Though her appetite is still somewhat drowned after being attacked by some salmonella (my guess), my consolation is from hearing her tell me “I feel much better today” this morning. She has only eaten 1 piece of cream crackers and 2 glasses of water today. It is 10:30am now. I am not going to rush her to eat as her internal system needs a rest from all the combat with the enemies the past 1.5 days. Hopefully she will be well enough to go to school tomorrow. She’s got 1 more week to go before the final exam.

I’ll bet any mother would be scared the piss out of her when she hears her child telling her in a hallucinated state of feverish mind “mummy, FINAL, it’s FINAL” and smiling like a lunatic. As she said “FINAL mummy”, she kept playing with the bracelet on my hand. I thought she was so sick that her brain was damaged. I kept asking her simple questions, which for a moment she could not answer. “It’s FINAL” – I’ll bet you’d probably also think what I thought of yesterday. That was the scare of the year for me!

No. of times viewed = 458