Fish bolognaise pasta

I whipped up this meal for Baby last week – fish bolognaise pasta and she LOVED it.  I had only intended to cook this for Baby but it turned out that my 2 older gals loved them too. Next time, I shall cook this for everyone.  Nothing makes me happier than seeing my kids enjoy my creations.

I chopped up 2 medium sized organic tomatoes and 1 medium sized big onion.  Then brown them in olive oil for about 5 minutes in a non-stick pan.  With the spatula, push them to the side of the pan. Then lightly brown the fish which I had earlier marinated with some sea salt and McCormick mixed herbs for about 5 minutes.  I also added 2 teaspoons of Leggo’s bolognaise sauce.

While I cooked the above, my maid boiled the Heinz ABCs, 123s pasta in another pot.

Here’s Baby’s fish bolognaise with ‘tau kok lup’ — one bowl is for lunch and another for dinner….

While my maid and I cooked inside the dry kitchen, my mil cooked  ‘tau kok lup’ in the kitchen outside.  She also cooked a pot of sweet potato porridge.  The ‘tau kok lup’ is to go with the sweet potato porridge. ‘Tau kok lup’ is made up of chicken breast, long beans, carrots, dried mushrooms, preserved dried radish, shrimps – all cut up into small cubes. My mil also toasted some peanuts in the oven to toss them over the ‘tau kok lup’. This is another hit with the kids, me inclusive!

I cooked extra portions, put them into small containers and deep freeze them.  These will be handy on Sundays when I don’t have the time to cook.

No. of times viewed = 731

New Math Workbooks

These are the Math workbooks that I got the girls from MPH on Friday. Hubs said purchase of books can get rebate from Income Tax, so off we went to a books shopping spree and spent close to RM500.  We received some cash vouchers from MPH and we shall shop for books again soon.


The Kumon workbooks cost RM24.90 each, frigging expensive eh?


The contents of the Kumon Math workbook. Kumon is all about practising and practising till your hands turn numb!

No. of times viewed = 1636

How The Girls Are Spending Their School Holidays

The first week of the school hols have zoomed past us really fast and it was pretty exciting for the girls. The girls’ koong koong and granny were in KL last week for 3 days and there was a lot of bonding time together.

In the morning, the girls are normally up by 7ish am, Baby too. As for me, I am getting up earlier and earlier each day to avoid ‘clashing’ with the gals’ waking up time, coz if it clashes, shiaks, my only me time would be gone. I really need my me time, I need a respite, I need time to run or work out in the gym. I am normally up by 5ish am and would leave the house by 6:45am to exercise. On days when Alycia and Sherilyn are up before I leave the house, they would pester me to bring them along. On Tuesday, all 3 girls woke up at 6:30am. So I strapped Baby in the stroller and brought Alycia along with me when I jogged at the lobby of our condo. Rascal #2 of course protested that she couldn’t go and I told her that she can follow me the next day. On Wednesday, rascal #2 followed me, with me lugging Baby along on her stroller.

On Friday, we went to Mid Valley and Gardens for shopping. I bought a stack of Math workbooks for Alycia and Sherilyn for them to brush up their Math.  With the workbooks, I don’t need to write and set my own questions for them.

After lunch each day, Alycia and Sherilyn will take their shower. After shower, it’s Math and reading time. I will set 20 Math equations each for Alycia and Sherilyn.  During this time, Baby doesn’t want to be left out and would normally latch on my boobies as she listens to me teaching her 2 jie jies. I hope she’s also absorbing everything that I teach her jie jies.

Here’s Alycia, all absorbed in solving her Math questions…

What motivates the girls is a big, big star when they get all correct, hehe. Kids, they are so easily satisfied.

Sherilyn solving her Math addition….


“10+5 is? Hmmmm……10 is bigger than 5, so I put 10 in my head and take out 5 fingers. After 10 is 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. So I write 15!”

No. of times viewed = 233

Good Old Ipoh Food

My parents were in KL over the weekend last week. As usual, each time they make a trip to KL, I will pass a request list of Ipoh food to my parents for them to bring along to KL. These are some of the good ol’ Ipoh grub that I have been eating for over 3 decades and I miss them even more ever since I moved to KL 19 years ago. I would love to have some Ipoh dim sum too and the JJ swiss rolls that many bloggers have been raving about but my dad was busy with work and could not go round Ipoh to shop for the items on my list. The next time they make a trip to KL, I’ll make sure my dad gets me some Ipoh dim sum and the JJ swiss rolls.

Anyway, I think what my dad bought last week was more than enough for all of us. Here you go, a dining table placed with food to the brim… 

Curry mee from Yat Yat Seng coffee shop in Ipoh Garden…

One of the tastiest hum yoke choong and red bean filled kan sui choong I’ve ever tasted.  The choongs are bursting with ‘liu‘.

Yam cakes from Kg. Simee market…

Vegetarian fried goose from a vegetarian restaurant in Ipoh New Town…

Cee Cheong Fun from Kg. Simee Market…

Indian fried chicken from Kg. Simee market…

Famous egg tarts and kaya puffs from Kg. Simee market…

Hakka chau liu from Kg. Simee market…

Bouncy Hakka fish balls from Kg Simee market…

Hakka yong tau foo from Kg. Simee market…

And there were also pomelos, the famous Ipoh yim kook kai (salt baked chicken), 2 raw woo sow kai (which literally means chicken with beard, where the meat tastes better and firmer) and my mum and dad’s homemade pandan kaya, caramel kaya, stawberry jam, pineapple jam and peanut butter.

Are you drooling at the food now 😀 ?

No. of times viewed = 2478

Baby Got Whacked

NO, don’t climb, come down, I’ll cane you, I’ll beat you, I’ll throw you away, don’t jump, don’t touch, come here, etc…” …. These are the words that I say dunno how many umpteen times now each day to stop rascal #3 from performing her daredevil stunts. But nothing seems to be able to stop this brat. Her waking hours are spent climbing, jumping, rummaging drawers, playing with her jie jies’ magic color pencils and scissors and everything that’s she not supposed to do and touch. Standing guard behind her is a full-time job and I can’t do much during her waking hours.

When nothing could stop her from climbing the other day, I whacked her with a cane lightly. Baby who is super sensitive then bawled (anyone who shouts at her or hits her, albeit very lightly, she’ll turn her lips down, tries hard to control crying, then sobs and then gradually waaaaail out loud) ….

She then coughed, choked a little and pretended to puke (puking is her best defense weapon for she knows that the moment she’s about to puke, all and sundry will run to her and pacify her.  See how manipulative she is and she’s just like rascal #2 when she was Baby’s age)….

I tried hard not to fall into her trap and let her cough and choke but rascal #2 ran to her baby sister, gave her a hug and sayang her. This managed to placate her a little and then off she went climbing again….


I whacked her again and she baaaaaawled again…..

The ending?  I lost the battle.  I had to carry her and sayang her again to stop her from crying coz I had just painfully spoon-fed her milk and I didn’t want her to spew the milk out like an angry volcano, sigh…..

No. of times viewed = 497

Another Boo Boo

9 out of 10 times rascal #2 is given a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, she will spill the juice. It’s like jinx I tell ya coz it always has to be orange juice and soy bean milk that she spills. I have been observing her and analyzing why she always spills drinks and I concluded that the problem is that she moves too much. And obviously when she moves around like an octopus, her cup will surely topple over when it gets knocked by her elbow or her feet.

See this mess here? This brat was kneeling on the dining table chair when she ate her lunch several days ago. As she knelt on the chair, her body and hands were gyrating away like an octopus.  And before I could remember to remind her to stand inside the kitchen to finish her cup of juice, I heard SPLASH and then I felt steam spewing out from my head.  She got a good whacking from me. 

I tell ya, I just hate cleaning up messes like this. I need at least 2-3 rounds of mopping to get rid of the stickiness. Whenever my maid is busy with other chores, I’ll be the one who has to break my back to clean up the mess.


After this incident, which was the umpteenth spillage, rascal #2 now has to stand inside the kitchen and gulp down her juice immediately after I had juiced it for her. The same goes for any drinks that are sweet, she MUST stand inside the kitchen and gulp it down IMMEDIATELY!

No. of times viewed = 220

Peek-a-boo In The Closet

These days, this little cili padi loves playing peek-a-boo with us by hiding inside the closet. She is not afraid of being in the dark and will always push the sliding door of the closet to close it when she’s inside. I always drag her out of the closet as I don’t want her to make it a habit of playing inside the closet coz it’s dangerous inside there alone.

Here, she’s pulling Alycia jie jie’s hand and inviting her to hop into the closet with her….


“Come, come, come…!”  This is one of Baby’s favorite words these days….


Closing the closet door all by herself…


Daddy the neat freak always complains that his clothes are disheveled all the time. He thought I did it but I told him that the culprit is his precious little cili padi.

“Peek-a-BOOOOOO mummy!”

No. of times viewed = 367

Lovey-Dovey Sisters

This is what I would normally do when #3 turns crabby when she’s up from her afternoon nap and #1 doesn’t want to get up from her nap:

I’ll carry #3 to her jie jie’s bed and the reaction is almost magical. I would see smiles and hear giggling instantly.  No fussing, no fretting, no temper tantrums, just love to cheer each other and wake each other up.

It’s really heart-warming to see them enjoying each other’s company so much.

No. of times viewed = 388

Bye-Bye Cage

Last week someone bought the playpen that I had earlier advertised in my blog. Before we collapsed the playpen, we told Baby that we will be giving the playpen away. Baby seemed to understand what we were telling her and she was happy!  Hubs then placed her inside the playpen for the last time and this was her reflex action:

She climbed her way out like a tiger cub within seconds while pretending to cry ….

And her doting jie jie hurried to catch her (Alycia can carry Baby pretty well and she loves carrying her baby sister under my watchful eyes. Sometimes she would quietly carry her without letting me know)….

Heart-stirring sight which would flatline any mother’s heart beat…

Bye-bye beloved pink playpen…

I bet Baby was the happiest as she doesn’t have to be caged up all alone in that boring square cage anymore while mummy takes her shower.

No. of times viewed = 278

Last Day Of School

Friday marked the last day of school for most students. Alycia and Sherilyn’s pre-school had a children’s day bash on that day. They didn’t have to wear uniform and were allowed to don on their best party clothes. Sherilyn who had long been yearning to wear her Princess Aurora costume which koo mah bought for her during her trip to Hong Kong Disneyland in March this year, finally got to wear the Princess costume.  It was her second time wearing the costume, the first time being in Hong Kong Disneyland.


A princess is not complete without a princess head gear, right?


Waltzing away to celebrate the start of 1.5 months of freedom…. but it’s the start of a 1.5-month long nightmare for me!


And a princess is not complete without a pair of princess clogs right? She made kakak search for her pair of princess clogs but mah mah said cannot wear!  Why? Because each time she wore the pair of stiff click-clock clogs, painful blisters will sprout out on her toes, OUCH!!


And so Princess-Wannabe wore her Dora Crocs, Alycia too. After all, shoes have to be removed before they enter the door of the school. See the contrast – one loves everything princessy and another a cincai, frumpy dresser who only likes to wear pants and t-shirt. See the denim Power Puff denim skirt on Alycia? I forced her to wear a dress but she refused. So she pleased me and opted for a skirt! Don’t know why she just hates wearing dresses, haiyah….

No. of times viewed = 258

My Little Vain Pot Who Loves To Smell Good

Not only is Sherilyn vain, she even likes to smell good and feel good all over. After her shower each time, she would insist on putting talcum powder all over her body and face, yes face… which makes her look really ridiculous haha!  After applying talcum powder, she slathers lotion all over her body. Remember the talcum powder boo boo caused by Sher recently? Those of you who follow my blog closely would remember that she had poured the entire can of my Crabtree & Evelyn powder all over the bathroom and made hubs, my maid and I clean up the mess the whole night.

Each time this fler applies talcum powder on her face and body after her bath, she leaves traces of powder on the floor and counter top. Each time I see the mess, I feel like strangling her but each time I see this look on her face, my anger dissipates and I burst out in a guffaw….


Wet, ruffled hair with splotches of powder all over her face MUAHAHAHAHA…..

This girl irritates me and gives me migrane to no end but this same girl never fails to give me a hearty laugh too, everyday.

No. of times viewed = 919

My Independent Little Rascal

Alycia and Sherilyn are both pretty independent. They prefer to do things like taking their shower on their own, choosing their clothes themselves, choosing their own plate, bowl, cup and cutlery, washing up after pee and poo on their own, than having kakak or me helping them. As for Sherilyn, she even cuts her finger nails and toe nails on her own lately. I feel bad whenever I see her cutting her nails on her own with my huge nail-clipper. It all started when she kept asking me to trim her finger nails about a month back. She kept complaining that her finger nails were very long and sharp and asked me to help her trim them. I told her ok, ok, ok but as always, I was too caught up with other chores and had soon forgotten to attend to her finger nails. Then one day, I saw her doing this :


I went closer to check how she was doing and was really impressed that she could trim her finger nails really well. She could trim them neatly without cutting her skin. She even knew how to lay a piece of toilet paper on the table to collect the trimmed nail, with a back scratcher on top of the toilet paper to prevent the paper from flying away! But the guilt I felt was pretty corrosive… that I had neglected this rascal #2. But I looked at it on the bright side. She has grown into a very independent girl. She could even administer the Ventolin through the Aero Chamber on her own with me standing next to her when she had a bad bout of cough with lots of phlegm recently.


I think this Princess Wannabe is going to grow up to be someone who is really independent, pig-headed, bossy and pernickety one day. She’s another cili padi!

No. of times viewed = 4593

Shop And Save At Dirt Devil

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Dirt Devil. All opinions are 100% mine.

Today is Alycia and Sherilyn’s last day of school. The last day of school is also one of the happiest days for them. But for me, the last day of school spells the first day of trouble for me for the next 1.5 months! I am quite lost for ideas on what to do with them during the long school holidays. I think I might just bring them all back to my parents in Ipoh and let them spend their holidays and Christmas there. Speaking of the holidays and Christmas, have you done your shopping yet? If you haven’t, you really have to check out the Dirt Devil Holiday Buying Guide.

The Dirt Devil Holiday Buying Guide has over 300 ways to help you save with online shopping. For instance, there is a list of all the shopping websites where you can get promo codes for online shopping. They also provide sites where you can get free shipping and rebates. They even give you tips and tricks on how to find the best promo codes on the Internet!

The DirtDevil.com Holiday Deals come with a wide variety of gifts that would suit just about anyone in the family, which includes Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him and Family Favorites. This is a perfect website for shoppers as they have everything covered. I haven’t done my Christmas shopping yet and Alycia’s birthday is 2 weeks away. I think I might as well just do my shopping at Dirt Devil to avoid the crowded shopping malls and horrendous traffic jam.

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No. of times viewed = 166

I Wan, I Wan…..

Baby’s favorite line these days is “I wan, I wan, I waaaaaaan……”. She says it all the time – when she wants food, when she fights with her jie jies over toys, when she wants to go kai kai and when she wants just about anything. Her latest favorite word is “STOP!” and she says it whenever she’s angry. Just yesterday, she snapped at me and yelled “STOP!” and glared at me fiercely with her eyes wide open when I tried to force her to eat her food during dinner!

See how piteous she looked here.  Daddy was about to leave the house and she ran to the front door bare-footed while holding on to her shoes and said “I wan, I wan, I waaaaan…..”

Daddy’s heart melted…. so he pushed her for a ride on the tricycle….

When her 2 jie jies saw, they too followed suit and joined in the fun.

No. of times viewed = 1914

Monkey See Monkey Do…. Again!

At almost 5 years old, Sherilyn still sucks her thumb! She sucks it when she is bored, when watching the tellie and when she sleeps. Each time we catch her sucking her thumb, we will say “STOP sucking your thumb!”. And each time Baby hears us reprimanding her jie jie, she will deliberately stick her finger / thumb into her mouth too, in a show of defiance.  This little cili padi is now at the stage of showing defiance and testing my patience – you say “don’t do”, she will do it more.  I am going through this phase the third time now and even up until now, my 2 older monkeys are still rebellious at times, especially rascal #2.


See the smug and cheeky look on Baby’s face!  And Sherilyn was so absorbed sucking her thumb while watching tellie that she didn’t even realize I was snapping her malu pix, hahahah!

So song meh suck thumb?    Thank God Baby only does it for fun and not habitually.

No. of times viewed = 325

Another Easy-To-Cook, One Pot Meal

Another easy-to-cook meal that I love to dish out whenever I am in a lazy mood to cook is pork ribs porridge / chicken porridge. The other day I cooked porridge with ‘siu cee kuat’ (roast pork ribs), porks ribs, lin cee (dried lotus seeds) and dried oysters.  When it’s cooked this way, my 3 little fussy eaters will have no problem polishing off their bowl of porridge.  I also added a little sea salt for taste.

Here, Alycia is solving the Math questions which I had set for her. She told me that she did not want to waste time and did her Math over lunch. These days, I have been setting a lot of Math equations for her to solve to brush up her Math. I believe that with lots and lots of practise, one can excel in their Math. Once there is a hiatus, your brain tends to go rusty.


For dessert, I told her no sweet stuff.  So she had a cocktail of pine nuts and roast broad beans. I never like the idea of feeding my gals with too much sweet stuff, especially colorful candies / sweets and junk food.  But it’s difficult to control them when other people keep rewarding them with sweets and junkie. 

No. of times viewed = 159

HEALTH FREAK MOMMY