Month: January 2010

Math Is All About Practice

The more you do it, the better you are at it, that’s Math! Once you stop, your brain tends to get dense and you need lots of practise to start the momentum again. I get Alycia and Sherilyn to do Math equations everyday or at least every other day.


4+2 is ….. four is bigger than two, so put four in your head. Take out 2 fingers, after four is five, six. So four plus two is six.

Here, Sherilyn is solving some Kumon Math additions, which is all about repetition and lots of practising.  I don’t send my gals to Kumon class (too expensive). I bought Alycia and Sherilyn some Kumon Math workbooks from MPH, which are not cheap either.

Do you send your kids to Math enrichment classes? 

CNY is less than a month away. If you still have not bought any clothes yet, do check out my online store.  I’ve uploaded pix of some new arrivals – both free size and larger size trendy clothes that you’ll love! 

No. of times viewed = 847

DIY Sandwiches

Alycia and Sherilyn are pretty independant girls. They can now do almost everything themselves – taking their bath, wash up after poopie business, make their own bed, tidy up their drawers, dress up, getting ready to go to school (Sher needs lots and lots of improvement on this though. She is the world’s no. 1 ‘lau hei por’ or Miss Dilly Dally and this is absolutely driving me bonkers!) and they even know how to make their own sandwiches.

This is a bowl of tuna fish with Japanese mayo and lots of fresh cut shallots.  I was too busy to help them fix their sandwiches and they were more than happy to help themselves.  It was like a real life masak-masak for them preparing their own sandwiches!
 

I also cut up some tomatoes and Japanese cucumbers to go with the sandwiches.

Alycia’s creation – homemade blue cheese bread with lots of tuna mayo, tomatoes and cucumbers.  She also made a ‘smiley face’ with the tuna and mayo on her bread!

Eating the sandwiches that they prepared themselves tasted so much more yummy and they of course polished off their own creations!

No. of times viewed = 552

Homemade Strawberry Jam

My mum, the great jam maker makes all types of jams and bread spreads. Some of her specialties are peanut butter, caramel kaya, pandan kaya, marmalade, mandarin orange jam, red dragon fruit jam, durian jam and pineapple jam. My favorite is her kaya and strawberry jam.

It’s SO easy peasy to make strawberry jam and other jams made from fruits. She just dumps all the strawberries into her Kenwood bread maker and let the maker take care of the stirring and boiling.

This is what she gets after a couple of hours:

Delectable, mouth-watering, sugar-reduced, preservative-free, color-free and food conditioner-free strawberry jam!  iLike!

No. of times viewed = 873

One-Stop Shop For All Your Health Needs

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

I am a pro-vitamins and supplements person. My kitchen cabinets are filled with vitamins and supplements for me, my hubs and kids. My hubs always complains that I spend too much on vitamins and supplements but I always tell him that these supplements are investment for good health.

My mum who has goiter has been popping kelp pills for several years now. Thank God, with the kelp pills, the goiter situation is under control and no surgical intervention is required. The kelp pill that my mum has been taking is no longer available for sale at the organic shop that I used to buy it from. I have gone to many organic shops to enquire but none of them carry kelp pills. My mum’s kelp pills supply is coming to an end and this morning while surfing the internet for kelp pills, I stumbled on VitaDigest.com, an online pharmacy. The kelp pills that my mum has been taking is available at VitaDigest. What surprised me is that a bottle of 300 Norwegian Kelp tablets only cost $4.50, which is way cheaper than what the organic shop here sold to me. Of course the price is not inclusive of shipping fees and even with the inclusion of shipping fees, it is still priced reasonably. I will be placing my order on the kelp pills soon after getting confirmation from my mum.

VitaDigest offers over 13,000 vitamins, supplements and other health products. It is a one-stop shop for your health needs. If you are skeptical about online shopping for vitamins, maybe this will quell your qualms. VitaDigest was awarded INC5000 for 2009 as top 5000 fastest growing company recently.

From now through end February 2010, VitaDigest is offering an exclusive 10% off Coupon with coupon code “izb10jan”. There is also free shipping on all orders over $100, for ground shipping (US only). Do check out VitaDigest if you need to buy any vitamins, supplements, organic formula or other health enhancement products. You’ll be amazed with the range of products they carry!

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No. of times viewed = 190

Random Pix

Alycia and Sherilyn goofing around after swimming. Swimming is now Alycia’s favorite past time. After several months of lessons, she can now swim from one end of the pool to another with a swimming board.  She has now overcome her phobia of water.  She is absolutely hooked on swimming now and always tells me that she wants to be a swimmer when she grows up! I’ll see…

Alycia and Sherilyn being reprimanded for strewing bits and pieces of papers on the floor.   I think it’s only fair that they clean up the mess and not tai chi every single chore to the maid. I always tell them “if you want to play, you tidy up. If you want to do craft, you clean up the mess. If you want to eat biscuits, you pick up the crumbs from the floor.  If you spill water, you wipe the floor yourself, we don’t have 10 maids at home!”  
 

My favorite pandan layered cake and blueberry cheesecake from my favorite bakery – RT Pastry House. This bakery has the widest variety of and mouth-watering cakes, breads, buns and pastries. 

And you know why Sherilyn loves attending ballet lessons? That’s because after her ballet class, daddy will bring her across the dance centre to our favorite bakery to get cakes and buns.

No. of times viewed = 468

Baby Flosses Her Teeth

Food always gets lodged between Baby’s 2 bottom front incisors (she only has 2 teeth at the bottom) and it always has to be there and no more where else. Removing the food from between the teeth is a tall order. I normally use a wet hanky but at times, I would accidentally hurt her gums too coz she would keep closing her mouth. So I have resorted to using dental floss to remove the lodged food! Thankfully Baby did not resist when I flossed her teeth. I guess she’s used to watching me and her Alycia jie jie flossing our teeth.

Me helping her floss her teeth.

And she wanted to be independent and tried flossing herself. Of course she couldn’t, how could she, she’s only 21 months old, but with her determination, I’m sure she’ll soon succeed.

Btw, I’ve uploaded pix of some new and modish new arrivals in my online store. Do check out my online store.  More new arrivals are on the way!

No. of times viewed = 303

Baby’s Appetite Has Returned, YAY!

After a bout of super low appetite during her recent UTI attack, Baby’s appetite has made a come back, at an all-time high since Saturday. On Saturday, she ate 1 full bowl of chicken-pork ribs-abalone porridge. Porridge was something that she never really fancied but that night, she gobbled down the porridge.

Yesterday night over dinner, she ate 1/2 a bowl of buckwheat noodles seasoned with Bragg’s liquid amino acid, some toasted organic sesame seeds, ground almond (both for added calcium), onion omelette, mustard green veggie and barley water with Nutrifresh. This morning, she gulped down her soy bean milk mixed with 1 scoop of Pediasure vanilla and antibiotics. When she saw me eating hard boiled egg, for once she asked for the egg. I gave her about  1/4 of the free-range chicken egg and she polished off the egg. Now she’s nibbling on rice bubbles and has already asked me for 6 helpings!  I think she will ask for more after she has whacked the current bowl of rice bubble. It’s ok Baby, eat all you want to your heart’s content, the more and better!

I am going to cook fish bolognaise pasta with shiitake mushrooms, celery, onions, tomatoes and carrots for lunch today for Baby and my 2 older gals. Whoa, I am SO happy to see Baby eat like a glutton and I hope that she will be this ravenous every SINGLE DAY! 

In these pix, Baby was eating wan tan meen the very first time in her life. After her antibiotics jab at the hospital last week, we went to a nearby coffee shop for brunch. When she saw me eating the noodles, she went gaa gaa. After just 1 try, she wanted more and more and it was never ending. She’s another Sherilyn in the making, another noodles crazed toddler who dislikes rice and meat, unless they are seasoned with loads of soy sauce and sweet sauce (VERY BAD!) :S


The wan tan meen was immersed in some warm barley water to remove the excess oil and seasoning before I gave it to Baby.

No. of times viewed = 170

Baby ‘Discharged’ From Hospital

Yesteray I tried using the potty method to collect Baby’s pee.  I used 2 sterilizing tablets to sterilize the potty prior to getting Baby to pee inside. After she had peed, I poured the pee into the sterile specimen bottle.

The results still showed some WBC, though reduced significantly. When I told the paed about my method of collecting the pee, he straight away wrote on the report “Urine contaminated” coz this method is not a ‘clean catch’ method and in the medical term, the urine will be deemed as contaminated.

Long story cut short (rushing to go to church now), Baby has been ‘discharged’ (no more antibiotics thru IV) and is now on oral antibiotics for 2 weeks. A repeat urine culture is to be done next week. Though we were supposed to be hospitalized, we were home most of the time as we were on home leave.

I’ll leave you here with some pix taken at the hospital yesterday:


Rascal #2 thinks it’s so fun eating at the hospital and polished off the lunch provided by the hospital.


Alycia goofing around in the room.


The nurse removing the IV catheter from Baby’s hand.  Check out Baby’s expression here but this little trooper didn’t fuss or whine a wee bit.  She’s really the bravest baby I have ever met.

The IV catheter being removed.

Happy Sunday everyone and check out my online store for some new and trendy arrivals!

No. of times viewed = 359

Fruitless And Stressful Day

It was a fruitless, stressful and super frustrating day for me yesterday. My maid and I had spent the whole day coaxing Baby to pee into the specimen bottle but she just would not cooperate. I kid you not, we really spent the whole day from 9:30am through 5ish pm with lunch break and short breaks in between, saying “shee shee, shee shee, quick shee shee, don’t waste time, if you don’t shee shee we can’t go home….” again and again and again.  I was so frustrated that I even said many hurtful things to her.  She peed everywhere but just not into the bottle or the urine bag. I wanted to pull my hair, tear my skin out and cry. It was so, so, so frustrating. I knew she wanted to pee but she just held her urine and resisted peeing into the bottle when I carried her.  She struggled, pulled my white gold necklace and it snapped!  Boy was I enraged.  At home, she struggled again and cried till she puked with vomit dropping into the specimen bottle!

Today, we have to try collecting the pee again. The thought of collecting pee now makes me sick. I hope we don’t have to wait the whole day again today. My maid and I wasted all our time yesterday at the hospital and at home waiting for Her Royal Highness to pee, aargh!!


From morning……


… we waited through evening, yet My Royal Highness just wouldn’t wanna pee into the bottle!

No. of times viewed = 320

Baby C, The Bravest Baby Ever

Baby’s fever has subsided since yesterday. I will be bringing her to the hospital again soon. Our paed said that if she is fever-free for more than 24 hours, the antibiotics jabs can be stopped. My next hurdle is to feed her with oral antibiotics for the next 1-2 weeks. Today, we are to collect another urine specimen for culture, which means more stress for me. It ain’t easy collecting urine from a baby or a toddler. Those of you who had gone through this would know what I mean.

Baby has been very, very, very brave and tough the past few days. Though she has a big bandage on her hand, with a needle poked into her hand with the IV catheter, she hasn’t complained of pain or fussed a wee bit. She even allowed the doctor to carry her… and she even said bye bye to me when I pretended to leave the hospital with the maid. When the nurse injected the antibiotics into her hand through the IV catheter, she did not budge or whine a wee bit. She just sat on the bed obediently and quietly while observing the nurse.


Baby who had no appetite for food or milk kept stuffing corn flakes into her mouth when she saw the box of cornflakes in the hospital room when we went to the hospital yesterday morning. I’m glad that her appetite is slowly returning. I was a tad shocked when the nurse told me that there is Ketone detected in her urine. Ketone will be present when a person is malnourished or has not been eating. Baby hadn’t eaten much solids or drank milk for 2 days.


Baby obediently sat still whilst watching the nurse inject the antibiotics into her hand through the IV catheter.


Baby with the paed. She seems to have a liking for this doctor!


Baby feeding her favorite jie jie. Her hand is covered with a clean plastic bag during bath times and meal times. She would scream if anyone tries to remove the plastic bag from her hand. It’s as if she knows that the bandaged cannot be wet or dirtied and the needle cannot be removed, else she has to go through pain again.

Stay tuned for more updates….

On a side note, the sale at my online store has ended. Business has been good during the sale period.  I’ve uploaded pix of some new arrivals and there will be more arriving.  Just hop over to my online store to see if you can find anything that you like! 

No. of times viewed = 357

Alycia, The Best Jie Jie Ever

These pix were taken 2 days ago when Baby was down with high fever and was feeling under the weather. She was terribly crabby and edgy and would cry over the slightest things.

After I had dressed Baby up to get her ready to go to the hospital, Alycia zoomed into the room and comforted her baby sister. First she put a nappy over Baby’s body.  Then, she pulled a piece of tissue paper and wiped off the streaming tears on her face.  Baby was beaming and could not contain her joy, that her beloved jie jie was showering her with so much TLC, so much so that she gave me a wide grin a few times amidst her discomfort from the burning fever.

Then, Alycia talked really, really very lovingly to Baby as she stroke her face. Next she got a hair brush and brushed her hair gently… then put on a hair clip for her.  Oh, do check out Alycia’s new short hairstyle.  Her teacher kept reminding her to trim her hair on the second day of school!

Baby wailing away in the hospital. But she has been really, really brave and tough. See the heart shaped blouse on Baby? That’s Baby’s favorite. She always pulls this blouse out from the drawer whenever we tell her that we’re going gai gai. I got this blouse for her from Mothercare for her 1st birthday last year.

Get well soon Baby Girl.  I pray to God that this will be your last UTI attack.

No. of times viewed = 346

A Brand New Way Of Shopping For Your Household Essentials

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

When I was still employed, I hardly stop to think twice whether I really needed an item before I bought it. I was earning a comfortable salary and I could afford to buy almost anything that I fancied. Ever since I joined the SAHMs club, it’s an entirely different story altogether. I now write a list of what my kids and I really need before I go shopping and ensure that my shopping list is within the budget, lest I get chided by the Boss for over-spending. His budget to me is pretty tight, thus I am constantly on the look-out for sales and discounts at supermarkets.

If I am given a budget of a hundred bucks to spend per week on household essentials, it’s almost quite impossible to keep it within the budget at our regular supermarket and mini mart. However, I think I would be able to spend the hundred bucks quite comfortably at Alice.com, an online store that carries a wide range of household essentials at low prices. What I like about Alice is that it helps you to manage all of your household essentials in a cost effective way. Just tell Alice what you want to buy (you can choose from great deals on thousands of products!) and Alice does all the work for you.
Alice organizes all of your products, find coupons and deals for you, reminds you when you might be running low on items and helps you order just the items you need. Wait, there’s more. On top of all this convenience, your groceries are delivered direct to your doorstep with FREE shipping!

At Alice.com, you will find Automatic Coupons, a service which automatically applies coupons for you on thousands of products. This service will help a typical user save over $100 in annual coupons without he/she having to clip the newspapers or go searching for the coupons. In addition, Alice has a ‘Refer A Friend’ program (located under the “My Account” section of Alice.com). This great affiliate program helps users to give their readers $10 off once $50 is spent on the site, and then they get 3% back of the purchases for a year!
One of the items that I will stock up on if I shop at Alice.com is their Pampers baby wipes. A box of 77 wipes only costs $1.96. Another item that I will stock up is the Orajel Thomas And Friends Training toothpaste which only costs $2.97 per tube. Hey, why don’t you check out Alice.com too and sign up as a member for FREE!

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No. of times viewed = 118

Baby C Is Hospitalized For UTI

…but she’s on home leave, which means the doctor has given us consent to go home.  However, I have to bring Baby to the hospital 3x a day for antibiotics jabs.  This is Baby’s first UTI since her Ureteral Reimplantation surgery more than 6 months ago.  Both the surgeon and I are perplexed as to why Baby would get a UTI since the post-surgery MCUG scan in August 2009 showed that she has no more Kidney Reflux.   I am suspecting that the UTI is caused by her swimming in the pool at Hard Rock Hotel Penang 2 weeks ago.  Our paed told us that public pools during public holidays / school holidays are the dirtiest as they are flooded with people and the hotel maintenance staffers may not have ample time to clean the pool.

Long story cut short, Baby was braver this time.  She screamed and bawled for a short while when the paed inserted the IV line on her left hand.  It was quite a fast one and took under 15 minutes for everything to be completed – finding the vein, IV line inserted and hand bandaged. In the past, her doctors needed at least half an hour to over an hour to fix the line.  Baby even allowed the doctor to carry her after the procedure, which was very, very uncommon of her to allow a doctor / nurse to carry her, what more the doctor who had just poked her, swaddled her so tightly with a cloth and caused her so much pain.  I guess preparing her mentally before the procedure helped.

Before she went into the procedures room, while we were waiting in our room for the doctor to arrive, I told her this “Baby, the doctor will give you an injection on your hand.  There will be very little pain, please don’t cry ok?  Mummy will wait for you outside the room.  Mummy can’t go in. You don’t cry ok?  Mummy loves you”  Baby nodded her head and smiled!

Here are some pix of Baby feeding daddy.  She, like her 2 jie jies love feeding daddy with fruits in the morning.  After feeding daddy with fruits, the 3 of them will each take turns to pop vitamin tabs into daddy’s mouth. 

Tomorrow I shall post pix of Baby with her bandaged hand and how Alycia jie jie comforted her. I gotta run now.  Baby has to be in the hospital again for her 2nd antibiotics jab for today.  She needs another jab at 10:30pm tonight.

No. of times viewed = 468

Designer Jewelries For My Online Store Perhaps?

My online store turned 1 month old several days ago. Business has been really promising and I have to thank readers of my blogs for their patronage. The majority of my customers are actually readers of my blogs. I am thankful to God that I have been able to meet my supplier’s target and have in fact exceeded their target set for me. But I cannot rest on my laurels. I am constantly trying to find new products for my online store. I plan to sell fashionable handbags, shoes and even designer jewelry very soon. I am sure my customers would love to see elegant and affordable sapphire earrings, hoop earrings, drop and dangle earrings and other pretty designer jewelries like those from holstedjewelers.com for sale in my online store.

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No. of times viewed = 136

Blue Cheese Bread

This is a backdated post. My mil made a few loaves of blue cheese wheat bran bread about a month ago. It was her first try baking blue cheese bread.

Hubs giving his mum a helping hand in plaiting the dough.

The dough has to be placed in this special wooden bowl sprinkled with flour so that the bread has nice stripes on the body.

The loaves of bread, just out from the oven.

The blue cheese. On its own, no one could stomach the pungent smell, not even for a cheese lover like me or my gals. It tastes very much like vomit and even after rinsing my mouth with water, the aftertaste was still lingering inside, eeeeeesh!! Alycia kept saying she wanted to vomit each time she passed by the kitchen! But the bread did not taste as bad and pungent after being baked in the oven. They tasted very cheesy and quite delish.

While the adults were busy in the kitchen, my 2 older brats helped themselves to ice-creams. As usual, brat #2 had ice-cream drippings everywhere on her body.

No. of times viewed = 289

HEALTH FREAK MOMMY