June 2009 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

How Sweet It Is To Be Walking

… and that’s exactly how Baby C is feeling now. She can now walk, albeit like a drunkard and she looks like she doesn’t know how to ‘brake’ when she walks. Well she looks like she’s half running all the time and she always makes everyone laugh when she walks like a drunkard muahahaha!

I can remember both Alycia and Sherilyn were walking very stably at her age and they were even running in the park and playing with tricycles. Had Baby C been well and wasn’t hospitalized for 3 weeks (which slowed down all her developmental milestones), I’m pretty sure she would have been running stably by now. But I’m not complaining at all and am very pleased with her developmental milestones. Despite all the torment and trauma that she gone through recently, my baby is still a very happy, cheeky, active and mischievous toddler now and I pray that she will grow up normally and happily without anymore issues with her urinary tract.

Baby C looking like a clown in Sherilyn jie jie’s swimming suit and cap.

No. of times viewed = 380

Lots Of Salmon

Everyone in our family loves salmon fish. We love it eaten in any form – raw (we have never let our gals try it though), steamed, pan fried, grilled, toasted (wrapped in aluminium foil and toasted in the oven) and BBQed. We normally pan fry the salmon head and then boil it to make a pot of nutritious and yummy soup. Even Baby C loves salmon.

Hubby bought one whole salmon fish from Lee’s Frozen last week and had it cut into slices and put into take-away plastic boxes:

I love the deep orangy color of the salmon… which means that the fish is fresh.

We had so much salmon fish that Baby C has been eating salmon porridge for the past 1 week. This is Baby C’s bowl of salmon-beet root-pork-veggie porridge and she loved it.

I know salmon fish is full of goodness, Omega Fatty Acids and nutrients, but I still feel wary each time I eat it. In fact I feel wary each time I eat big, deep sea fish as I wouldn’t know if I’m reaping the benefits of the fish or slowly poisoning my body with the consumption of these fish as big, deep sea fish have been notorious for being tainted with mercury.

No. of times viewed = 5234

I’m Learning Too

The good side about coaching my 2 older gals in their homework is that I’m also learning. Being a yellow banana who only had a couple of years of tuition for Mandarin (when I was 7 and 8 years old), I’m now learning new Mandarin words everyday!

When I was doing revision on English with Alycia yesterday, I learned 2 things : a drake is a male duck and a sow is a female boar. I may have come across these 2 words in the past but it’s only yesterday that I finally knew what they were hahaha! Shame on mummy!

No. of times viewed = 353

The Magic Bullet

Ever since I found out about psyllium husk and have been consuming it, I hardly suffer from constipation (knock on wood!). Before psyllium husks came into my life, I had tried several products to stimulate my bowel movements, including using laxatives which caused terrible tummy aches. I now gulp down a tablespoon of psyllium husk together with a glass of water and apple cider vinegar the first thing in the morning and it’s really effective in keeping the constipation at bay. However, on rare occasions, I still suffer from constipation, especially when under stress or when there’s a disruption in my usual daily routine. That’s when my body system is ‘confused’ when there’s a change in the regime. In times like these, even psyllium husks would not work. Today I discovered the magic bullet suppository which helps to stimulate bowel movements gently. If ever I suffer from constipation again, I think I would not mind giving this magic bullet a try.

No. of times viewed = 282

Way Too Difficult For Pre-Schoolers?

In my opinion, I think these Math equations are way too difficult for 5 and 6-year old pre-schoolers :

Take a look at the boxes on the questions. They are everywhere…. some in front and some behind, first set and second set. I think even some adults would need some time to ponder how to solve the equations.

Alycia didn’t understand the concept and I had a very tough time explaining the rules to her and making her remember them. She still doesn’t know how to do the questions on her own…. but has no problem with straight forward additions and deductions.

I then set some questions for her to practise to get a hang of it but had to guide her to solve them.

Check out Baby C under the table LOL! That’s my typical afternoon – coaching the 2 older brats in their homework while Baby C would be crawling and walking everywhere. Sometimes baby would make me search frantically for her and then I would find her happily picking up dirt from the floor, under the table … and almost putting them into her mouth!

No. of times viewed = 422

Baby C Wants To Swim Too

Alycia and Sherilyn had their first swimming lesson on Tuesday. Just before they took their nap, I dug out their swimming suits, caps and goggles and laid them on Aly’s bed so that when they got up from their nap, they can hop right into their swimming suits. Baby who was gallivanting from room to room spotted the bright red Minnie Mouse cap and tried putting it on her head. We then helped her put the cap on her head and oh my, she looked so hilarious and too cute… and everyone had a real good rib-aching laugh.

Baby now knows how to say pool whenever she hears kids laughing and jumping into the pool, from our room on the 5th floor of the condo. She will also point at the window as she says ‘pool’.

Baby’s speech is progressing well and she will try to say new words each day. I was really shocked when I heard her say ‘tumbler’ as she pointed to her 2 jie jies’ water tumbler in the kitchen yesterday. She could also say ‘tan’ (thanks) whenever she receives something from us. She could also say ‘nana’ (banana), papa (papaya), bear, ball, chair, brer (breast), milk, tub, ‘ket’ (biscuit) and much more. I can’t wait for her to call me mummy (though she can call me mummy when she cries and desperately wants me to carry her) and to speak in sentences 🙂

No. of times viewed = 247

Our 10th Wedding Anniversary

This year marks hubby and my 10th wedding anniversary. We were registered in the year 1999 and our wedding ceremony was held the following year. How time flies. Hubby once told me that on our 10th wedding anniversary, we would go to the bridal studio to get some nice shots of us and our kids together but that has not materialized yet. Well, I haven’t given this much thought as my mind has been too occupied with other more important and urgent matters. Our wedding wasn’t a dream wedding for me. If I could have it done all over again, I would focus less on the bridal studio wedding pictures (we had spent more than RM10k on that alone!) and spend the money on something else, like getting nice bridesmaid gifts for my bridesmaids and getting nice wedding favors that can be keep-sakes for our guests. We would also use a bigger portion of our budget on our honeymoon, rather than spend it on our hefty wedding dinner.

No. of times viewed = 191

Alycia And Sherilyn’s First Swimming Lesson

Alycia and Sherilyn had their first swimming lesson on Tuesday. The gals were really excited and enjoyed themselves. I had wanted to follow them to the pool but baby was still napping, so I stayed home and watched them at the pool with their instructor from the 5th floor of our condo.

All set to go down to the pool…

These pix were snapped from my kitchen… on the 5th floor. Standing in my kitchen and carefully watching my 2 gals, I felt like a sleuth… and I zoomed my camera to the max to snap these pix muahahaha…. not bad eh?

That’s the instructor teaching Alycia how to hold her breath when her head is inside the water, whilst Sher (in blue) looked on ….

And when it’s finally Sher’s turn, my scardy cat clung on to the instructor like a koala bear and chickened out. During the half an hour lesson, this fler asked mah mah to bring her to the loo twice and went up once to wipe her body and complained of being cold. This fler who always wants things done her way did not do as being told by the instructor. At the end of the trial lesson, the instructor told my mil that Sher is a tad too young to follow instructions and didn’t want to teach her. Haih…. that was exactly what happened when we brought her to the trial ballet class last year. The teacher didn’t want to accept her to the class and she had to wait for a year before she was accepted.

And btw, Alycia has told us that she wants to stop her ballet lessons 🙁 What a waste eh…. after all that she had gone through and daddy had to spend a fortune on her costume. Alycia’s more of an outdoor person who prefers sweating it out. She even said she wants to learn tennis and karate. Well, tennis and karate will have to come next year. I’ve found a tennis instructor who is a resident at our condo and he teaches kids tennis at our condo. The karate lessons are also conducted at our condo.

No. of times viewed = 369

Like Real Only

Saturdays are the only days that Aly and Sher can have prolonged breakfast and watch TV for hours. Last Saturday, I saw Sher sitting on the couch eating her egg for breakfast, not watching TV but ‘reading’ her Ladybird story book… like real only, as if she could read hahaha! She was so wrapped up in the book that she didn’t even noticing me snapping her pix. I think she was only busy stuying the pictures in her Cinderella story book…. coz this princess-wannabe is obsessed with Cinderella. I’m hoping that Sher can read soon but she’s kind of stubborn and can’t pay attention to me when I read to her. She just wouldn’t look at the words and her eyes would stray to the pictures. That’s why I still prefer story books with words on one page and pictures on the other page, so that it’s easier for me to point out the words to her.

No. of times viewed = 399

The Indulgent Grandparents

Would you agree with me that most grandparents are indulgent grandparents and would spoil their grand children rotten? My parents are and so is my mil. And my 3 gals are darn lucky. When we were back in Ipoh recently, my dad (whom we feared the most when we were young as he’s fierce!) was the yes-man to my gals’ commands. Almost each day he would pamper Alycia and Sher with ice-creams. My gals would take advantage of koong koong’s generosity and indulgence and would fill the shopping cart with chocolates and junk food each time we went shopping together. One time, we were having lunch at a coffee shop at Sunway Ipoh. Whilst my mum, my maid and I were still eating our lunch, my dad quietly brought Aly and Sher for a walk to the nearby shops to look for ice-creams to buy…. but none of the shops there sold ice-cream. Guess what? He then drove Aly and Sher to the nearby Giant and bought them a bag full of ice-creams. My dad and mum even had to sacrifice their favorite TV programs and were forced to sit down with Aly and Sher to watch cartoons with them!

Back in KL, Aly and Sher are spoilt rotten by mah mah. Mah Mah would never fail to surprise them with their favorite snacks each time she goes shopping. Now that we live in a condo and there is a store at the basement of our condo that sells lots of Japanese snacks and ice-creams, Aly and Sher would badger mah mah to bring them down to the basement to play scooter and tricycle and thereafter have a junk food shopping spree at the store. And mah mah would almost always obligingly buy them whatever that they desire at the store. Here’s what mah mah bought the gals last week :

A galore of ice-creams…

and biscuits.

Let’s see what the gals will pester mah mah to buy this week…

No. of times viewed = 415

‘Healthy’ Instant Noodles

When I was shopping for groceries at Tesco the other day, I came upon instant noodles that are supposedly healthy. Since my 2 older gals have been pestering me all the time to allow them to eat instant noodles, I bought a pack of Cintan brand MSG-free instant noodles to try.

The noodles are made from wholemeal flour and is supposedly high in protein, high in calcium, has dried carrots and spinach, is cholesterol free, has vitamins and minerals but still high in carbo…. so I am still staving off instant noodles though I quite like them. I love my instant noodles cooked with some sausages or spam meat (damn nice but damn unhealthy), an egg and some shredded cabbage…. wuah, really yummy… and I’ve not eaten this ever since I went on a low-carbo diet 8 years ago.

My 2 monkeys polished off their bowl of maggie mee (that’s what they call instant noodles) in a jiffy. Sherilyn who always takes hours to eat her meals walloped her bowl of maggie mee, together with all the eggs and veggie without any problems… without any nagging and threats from me. How I wish she could eat other food like how she eats instant noodles.

No. of times viewed = 3337

Not Quite A Princess

See how samseng my princess wannabe is here :

Sher is doing her pre-school homework here but as usual, she must move her body and fidget every single part of her body… coz that’s Sherilyn! I can never ever get her to sit still for just about anything (except when she’s seated right in front of the telly) and she is just so so so so mischievous and fearless.

Yesterday, we received yet another complaint from her teacher, who complaint that she kept scribbling on her workbooks… again… despite being reprimanded by me and by her teachers countless times!

It’s also very, very stressful and difficult for my mil and me to get her to pay attention whenever we coach her in her homework. Her mind and eyes would always wander far away and we would have to repeat everything that we had said like 10-20 times. Angry or not you say? Would your blood boil too? After each homework coaching session, I would need a shower as I would be soaking in my own sweat. In between coaching Sher, I also have Alycia to coach and a hyperactive 14-mo toddler who is cruising and crawling everywhere to watch closely at. And at times when I wasn’t looking, she would put broken pencil lead, pencil sharpener dirt, eraser dirt that her 2 jie jies threw on the floor or other dirt and food crumbs she picked up from the floor into her mouth! This often gives me a heart attack and would send me yelling away like a mad woman.

This afternoon, I blew my top and caned Sher when she just wouldn’t pay attention despite me explaining her work to her. I was holding her hand and showing her the correct order of writing Chinese characters but this fler’s eyes were wandering somewhere else. Each time I asked her to write on her own, she would write nonsense. She also drew heart shapes and flowers all over her Mandarin exercise book! Really kek sei ngor! I also threatened her that she will have no access to all her favorite snacks if she misbehaves in school again.

No. of times viewed = 358

Self Entertainment

Sometimes, I am really amazed to see how my 2 older brats can find activities to entertain themselves when I’m too busy to entertain them. This is one of the silly but fun and hilarious activities that they came out with by themselves, which made me made burst out in a guffaw when I saw it:

Geddiyap donkey, move, move, move…. that’s what Sherilyn said to Alycia who was supposed to be doing the donkey job.

The hand cane on Sher’s hand is to ‘whip’ the donkey… and that was the only time Aly allowed her sis to bully her, MUAHAHAHA……

No. of times viewed = 297

Dinosaur Aged Shape Sorter

My mum gets very sentimental with the toys that her kids once played with and clothes that we once wore. She keeps everything from our first blanky to our first Peter & Jane book to just about everything. Oh, she even keeps her maternity clothes which she wore 38+ years ago… which I wore when I was carrying Alycia hehe…. coz some of them still looked very fashionable and new (the micro mini baby doll dresses).

Anyway, here’s a shape sorter that’s even older than I am. My mum bought it for my elder brother when he was a baby. Alycia and Sherilyn onced played with it and now, Baby C’s playing with it…. and it still looks good, though the plastic has started to peel off on some of the shapes. Keng leh my mum!

No. of times viewed = 236

Gold Is So Valuable Now

When I was back in my hometown recently, I removed some of my gold jewelries from the bank and brought them to the goldsmith, just for the fun of checking how much they cost now. I was astounded when the goldsmith told me that they are now worth almost three times that of the original price! I initially wanted to trade off the gold to buy a new white gold or diamond bracelet but after finding out how much my gold jewelries are worth now, I decided to keep them and invest in them. Gold has always been thought of as a form of insurance policy against economic uncertainty. If you have the money, you should store some of your wealth in gold. If you are interested in buying gold coins or gold bullion, you can go to Monex to find out all about them.

No. of times viewed = 194

Fond Childhood Memories

Hubby bought a bunch of lin thoong (fresh lotus seeds in pod) when we were in Ipoh last week. Gosh, it has been yonks since I last ate or saw fresh lotus seeds in pod. It sure brought me back many fond childhood memories when I saw this bunch of lin thoong :

The white seed on the left is the freshly peeled lotus seed and the green one on the right is the lotus seed still in its skin, which is hard and rubbery like. Removing the lotus seeds from the pod is quite a feat too. Removing the tiny green core in the middle of the lotus seed is another tedious chore… and popping the fresh sweet seed into the mouth is like a reward!

I’ve never seen these in markets in KL. Fresh lotus seeds in pod are normally sold in wet markets in Ipoh… coz in Ipoh, there are still many farmers growing lotus roots in ponds.

My late maternal grandma used to buy us lin thoong when we were little. She, my 2 brothers and I would have loads of fun peeling and munching those lin thoong at night to while away our time. During those donkey years, there were no Astro, no computer games, no fanciful shopping malls and our entertainment was normally outdoor activities and simple pleasure like eating lin thoong and groundnuts.

These are some pix taken at my parents’ in Ipoh recently :

Sherilyn cheh cheh giving baby a ride on the tricycle.

My 3 angels spending their last evening in Ipoh with koong koong and granny.

No. of times viewed = 260