June 2007 – Page 4 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Sherilyn’s Favourite Pyjamas

Of the 10 sets of pjs that Sherilyn has in her closet, she only likes to wear the oldest and most worn out pink pjs that has a picture of a bear sitting on a big crescent moon, the pjs that her cheh cheh once wore. I hope I don’t have to snip off the sleeves and bottom parts of the pants to make way for her to fit into this pjs when she finally outgrows this pink pjs, just like what I did to Alycia’s tight Mothercare pjs.

Well, I should be happy that my persistent training and teaching to my gals to be frugal has paid off, shouldn’t I?

No. of times viewed = 264

Never Leave Your Toddler Unattended!

This is a back-dated post and the incident happened a few weeks back.

I had just taken my bath and didn’t shut the bathroom door tightly when I went down to the kitchen to get some salt water to gargle for my strep throat. My maid was having her bath downstairs and DH wasn’t home yet. I had told myself I’d only be in the kitchen for less than a minute and the gals seemed happily playing in my room, they wouldn’t even notice that mummy had sneaked downstairs.

Boy was I wrong, so wrong to think of that. When I got back to my room, Alycia was screaming away… “mummy, Kay Yi went inside the bathroom, she play with water”. I looked at Sherilyn and I was horrified to see my baby girl all drenced with water and water was dripping down her body and the floor in my room was wet. I tell you, I felt numb as I was guilt stricken yet felt terribly thankful to God that He had prevented a fatal accident from happening. I felt as if I was almost hit by a fast moving truck along the highway. My baby could have fallen into the big pail of water and drown instantly. I then yelled at Sherilyn and told her never ever to go into the bathroom again to play with water. I know it was all my fault, lack of foresight, naiveness, everything, you name it, all my fault but I had to channel my shock and guilt to somewhere, so I just shouted and berated at poor Sherilyn. That night, I couldn’t sleep, I kept thinking of all the ‘what ifs’. I had imagined if luck wasn’t on Sherilyn’s side, I would have instead found my poor baby, head down in the pail, motionless with her legs sticking up as I discovered her, and then my DH and all my relatives would be blaming me for causing the death of my baby and then I had gone cuckoo from depression. Aiyoh… i tell you till today, i have a phobia of big pails of water.

So the moral of my story is NEVER EVER leave your toddler(s) unattended, not even for a few seconds coz all it takes is just a few seconds for an accident to happen and that could cost you your lil’ one’s precious life.

The uncovered pail of water in my bathroom that Sherilyn played with.

Always lock/close the lid of the pail tightly to prevent your toddler from opening it.

No. of times viewed = 257

I Only Want To Learn Drum and Guitar

Often times, I’d ask Alycia what sort of extra curricular activities she wants to learn. Piano, ballet, swimming, gymnastics, art? Her answer is always “i only want to learn drum and guitar”. Aiyoh…. goodness girl, why drum and guitar of all musical instrument? Learning piano and ballet are fun, mummy also learnt piano and ballet when she was a little girl, now she can play nice music on the piano and dance like a ballerina, why not? Granny has even promised to buy you a real piano if you agree to learn piano. The answer is still a big NO. Ain’t drums and guitars only for boys? I don’t know, really. Today, Alycia told me she wants to learn trumpet as she saw Nathan from High 5 blowing a trumpet and it looked so fun!

Alycia loves drums and guitars so much that she always pretends to strum her bolsters and books and hit on boxes and tupperware containers with Sherilyn to create ‘music’ as they rock their bodies and shake their heads whilst doing their performance. Ooouch…. those deafening fortissimo can really drive me insane. I sure hope Alycia changes her mind next year.

No. of times viewed = 243

Wholesome Breakfast

This is what the gals had for breakfast today :

Steamed Japanese sweet potato, Alycia’s favourite. Good source of fibre, complex carbohydrate, anti-oxidant, Vit A.

Organic wholewheat bread with red bean paste filling. Good source of fibre, iron and protein (red bean), complex carbo and calcium.

Hard-boiled Omega eggs with organic soya sauce. Rich in protein, iron and iodin.

No. of times viewed = 226

Tom Tom The Piper’s Son

Today just before lunch time, I read and sang some nursery rhymes to Sherilyn, my 2.5 yo toddler who LOVES singing and loves me reading through singing to her. I sang her a few nursery rhymes like Baa Baa Black Sheep, Rock A Bye Baby, Little Bo Beep Has Lost Her Sheep, Hey Diddle Diddle and Tom Tom The Piper’s Son. She loved the Tom Tom song so much that she wanted me to sing and point out each word to her as I sang to her over and over and over again and she didn’t want me to stop. I swear I sang like around 50 times. When I stopped, she cried. I had spent close to 1/2 hr singing to her till my voice ran hoarse. As I wanted to do some work on the computer, I put Sherilyn on my lap as I did my typing with 1 hand and I continued singing and singing till I told her mummy got to stop to go wee wee. Wah… the moment I put her down on the floor, she wailed and her tantrum flared.

My maid and I spent another 15 mintues trying to placate her. She didn’t even want to watch Thomas & Friends when the tv was turned on. So my maid placed Sherilyn on her lap and fed her her cereal for lunch. After a while, she stopped whining and began to settle down, enjoying her meal of cereal and organic green tea noodles with fish paste in winter melon soup.

No. of times viewed = 278

Hubby’s Car Got Hit

2 nights ago after a game of basketball, DH went for supper with his basketball mates. After supper, as DH was about to make a right turn at a corner, a drunkard hit his new car and the bugger wanted to escape. There were dents and scratches across the left doors. Fortunately DH’s basketball mates are all lanky and muscular and they jumped out from DH’s car and tried to prevent the drunkard from escaping. The drunkard whose breath smelled heavily of alcohol got intimated by the group of muscular guys and without any coercion admitted his fault, gave his identity card and business card to DH and agreed to pay the repair cost and end of story. Now, DH got to get his car fixed. Sigh, DH seems to be unlucky driving MPVs… his first MPV was submerged in flood water last year, then when the MPV was fixed, it got stolen and now the 2nd MPV got hit pulak. Really freaky!

No. of times viewed = 260

Hawkers Food

My all-time favourite hawkers food, bought from the pasar malam (night market) a few nights ago:

Stuffed fish paste in puffed tofu. This delicacy is high in protein and low in carb, just the perfect food for the Atkin’s Diet follower.

Popiah. Not quite an Atkin’s food but I love it anyway. I just eat the stuffings of turnip, eggs, bean sprouts, fried shallots minus the skin.

No. of times viewed = 174

Fun At Westin Hotel

These pictures were taken at the Westin Hotel today where we had buffet lunch.

That’s me with Alycia and Sherilyn at the dessert counter. Alycia’s eyes were fixated at the pralines and when I was busy carrying Sherilyn, she managed to stealthily popped a few into her mouth without me noticing. Daddy saw but kept quiet but told me later when we were at the car. Great…. when she complains of sore throat later, you go kau tim her.

Ooohh…. look at the mouth-watering tempting strawberries on the cheesecake.

Alycia and Sherilyn went crazy over the bread sticks and that was the only food apart from her good ol’ cereal that Sherilyn ate though there was so much delicious food on the buffet counter.

Yuuuuuuummmmm….. sennnnnnng……Alycia and Sherilyn love to toast with daddy.

Sherilyn was very tired but very happy that alas, she got her flower shaped balloon from Mr Clown.

On our way home.

No. of times viewed = 247

The Great Flood… part 2 (Back-dated post)

This pic was taken 2 hours after the flood water came gushing to our neighbourhood from a river. A few hours later, the water level was up to my car window.

Neighbours’ cars all submerged in muddy water.

This is a back-dated post. When our house was almost destroyed by the great flood last year, both DH’s and my car were almost destroyed. As our cars were not insured against flood, DH had spent close to RM20k on repair bills on his new MPV and close to RM10k on my not-too-old Proton Wira. DH’s car was stuck in the workshop for close to half a year while awaiting computerized parts to arrive from Japan. When DH finally got his car back all repaired, his car was stolen 4 months later. It’s freaky and uncanny isn’t it? It’s like this car was just not meant to be his.

No. of times viewed = 249

Cool Gadget For Babies And Adults

My sil recently got a cool gadget for the gals from Hong Kong, but mummy and daddy can also use it. It’s a anti-mosquito device, specially designed for babies. The device operates by emitting ultrasounds within a range of 3 metres which annoy mosquitoes without causing any undesired effect to people or animals. It operates on batteries with an average useful life of approximately 100 hours. This gadget is so small that you can fasten it to your clothes, babies’ strollers, planpen, just on anything. Cool or not?

No. of times viewed = 413

Alycia My Young Reader

Every morning as the gals have their breakfast, I will be seated at the dining table reading the newspapers as I sip my cup of green tea. Most times, Alycia will climb onto my chair and ask me to read the newspapers to her. I will then quiz her by pointing out familiar words to her. Yesterday, as I walked into the kitchen to get a bowl, Alycia quickly climbed onto my chair and began to ‘read’ the papers, flipping the pages like a pro reader and pointing to the words as if she knows how to read. I think I will be the happiest mommy around if Alycia can finally read a book or the newspapers on her own.

No. of times viewed = 283

Chinese Dumpling

Chinese dumpling bought from the pasar malam (night market).

My mil makes one of the tastiest ‘hum yoke choong’ or chinese dumpling. Her dumplings are bursting with ‘hum’ or fillings inside the glutinous rice. She stuffs her dumplings with generous amount of pork meat, chinese chestnuts, beans, salted egg yolks, mushrooms and a special dried shrimps paste which she grinds and fries before stuffing them into the choong and wrapping the choong with leaves. Everyone adores her dumplings but she has not made them for 2 years now as last year she was in New Zealand and now, she’s in Hong Kong.

As DH was craving to eat choong, he bought 6 of them from the pasar malam yesterday and his favourite style of eating the hum yoke choong is with castor sugar… yikes, how unhealthy. As for me… being a low-carb dieter, I only eat all the stuffings, minus the glutinous rice and pass all the rice to DH, the trash eater!

No. of times viewed = 241

Sherilyn and Her Nappy… part 2

Earlier, I had written about how obsessed Sherilyn was with her nappy. It’s been more than 2 weeks now and Sherilyn’s obsession with her nappies is becoming more intense now and she has even rubbed off the obsession to her cheh cheh. This morning, both gals wore a nappy cape round their shoulders and ran round the house and pretended to be flying as they shouted “i am supergirl, yay”.

Sherilyn’s obsession was far worse off than Alycia’s as she insisted to wear it all the time, from pooping time, to meal time, to napping time. Siau or not you say?

No. of times viewed = 378

What Keeps Me Going?

Many of my friends have been asking me what motivates me to rise so early every morning to work-out. For those who have missed reading my previous posts, I wake up at 6:45am every morning to work-out. When I was still working, I used to rise at 5:45am to jog. Well, here are my top 10 reasons :

1) So that I can remain a size 0 and get to wear nice, appealing clothes instead of dressing up frumpily like an ah soh or see lai (albeit I am already in the see lai category in the sense that I am a mother, an aun-tee and a SAHM). Sorry, no offense to larger size women, don’t mean to imply you in any way 🙂

2) So that I can still wear my pre-pregnancy clothes. My clothes are all expensive, so instead of giving them away, I’d rather stay slim so that I can recycle my old clothes.

3) So that I still look young, vibrant, healthy & fit and energetic. Often times, I get compliments from strangers saying that I don’t look at all like a mother of 2. They’d thought I was still a student! Oh puh leeze… but that did make me walk on airs for a moment.

4) So that my complexion is porcelain smooth and blemish-free coz exercising eliminates toxins from the body through sweat.

5) So that I can still indulge in my favourite sinful desserts everyday like Papa Beard’s cream puffs, cakes, Paramount chicken pie, cakes, Haegan Dazz ice-cream, the list goes on.

6) So that my backache is kept at bay. Exercising on my fitball every morning has helped tremendously in keeping my backache from coming back.

7) I love to smell the crisp, fresh and cool morning air every morning as I jog and listen to birds chirping happily away as if to greet me good morning.

8) I love the absolute peace and tranquility in the house every morning, without 2 brats driving me up the wall and I don’t have to holler like a deranged woman at 2 lil’ brats who seem deaf at times.

9) So that I can buy the newspapers and read first hand news while there is still peace and quiet time.

10) So that I can buy some groceries without having to worry about my 2 lil’ brats running about in the mini market, touching breakable items and squashing up vegetables or eggs.

I believe anyone can also do it if they have the absolute will-power and discipline for it.

No. of times viewed = 255

Healthy Snacks

Pine nuts and pumpkin seeds.

Sherilyn counting her pine nuts away as she pops each nut into her mouth.

I always stock up boxes of healthy snacks in my house for the gals to munch on when their little tummies rumble or simply to use as baits to stop a toddler’s meltdown.
Alycia and Sherilyn’s favourite snacks are seeds and nuts of all kinds, especially pine nuts and pumpkin seeds. Seeds and nuts are the healthiest choice of snacks I can think of coz seeds and nuts are loaded with protein, calcium, fibre and good oils. The gals love peanuts too but I try not to give them too much coz peanuts can be heaty. So if I want to eat peanuts, I only eat when my brats are asleep!

No. of times viewed = 259

Our Lunch

This is what we have for lunch today :

A lung-nourishing soup…. ‘loh hon koa’ (a brown black dried fruit with seeds inside) boiled with snow fungus, ‘mutt zhoa’ (dried honey dates), some red dates, ‘kei chee’ (wolfberries) and kampung chicken (free range).

Stir-fried yee meen with diced chicken breast, tofu pok (tofu puff), vegetables, bean sprouts, 2 eggs and msg-free soya sauce. This is Alycia’s favourite dish. She loves yee meen and calls it ‘magger mee’. Whenever she sees her kakak eating instant noodles, she will drool and swallow her saliva as she stands next to her kakak and stare at her as she puts each spoonful into her mouth, with eyes fixated on the noodles. So hor lin, as though she is so famished and starved. Then she will say “kakak, tomorrow you must cook magger mee for me to eat”.
Each time we go to the sundry shop, she will beg me to buy yee meen for her. But I don’t really fancy buying yee meen too often coz it’s not that healthy.

No. of times viewed = 201