January 2011 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Our Saturday – A Hectic Morning And Bloggers’ Gathering

Yesterday was a hectic day for me. In the morning, I had called the Pos Laju postman to come and collect my customers’ parcels and the postman turned up really early yesterday. I was busy packing the bag to go out when the intercom phone rang. The guard told me that the postman was downstairs. Holy sh*t, like a headless chicken, I quickly summoned by 3 girls to help me with the big bag of parcels as the parcels were all not ready to be sent out yet.

My 3 girls quickly came to muumy’s rescue, with me shouting away, directing them what to do — Alycia to tear the paper off the stickers and stick the dockets onto the flyer bags. Sherilyn to help me separate the consignment notes and Baby to help me throw the papers away. That’s one of the moments I was thankful to have 3 girls!! I also had to seal a few more parcels — last minute ones as I had to rush out everything so that my customers could get their parcels before CNY. When the postman arrived, we were still busy working. The postman had to stand outside the door for 15 minutes and watched us work like some factory workers rushing to meet an important deadline. Phew, I could feel my migrane knocking on my head as I worked LOL!!

After we were done with the parcels, I quickly prepared my girls for a bloggers’ gathering at Kids’ Zone @ Hartamas Shopping Centre. The main purpose of the gathering was to meet up Chew Lee who had just come back from Germany for a few weeks. Can you recognize who’s who here?

After the gathering, we had lunch at Rakuzen Japanese Restaurant. And then we had Moo Moo Cow natural yoghurt for dessert.

After desserts, we went to Mercato to shop for some groceries. As we were about to leave the mall, we saw the Lion Dance troop outside the mall. There was a spectacular dance by a ‘pien mien’ Chinese dancer. A pien mien dancer can change its face color at lightning speed throughout the dance by tapping on a special device which changes the face mask. It was the first time I saw a life ‘pien mien’ dancer perform. After the pien mien dance, there was a breathtaking lion dance performance where we saw the ‘lion’ jumped up the poles to dance on the poles.

Baby screamed when she saw the pien mien dancer. Behind the ‘pien mien’ hideous looking dunno man / woman, when the multi-tiered mask was removed, everyone’s jaw dropped. She has such a beautiful face, svelte figure, fair skin, perfect pearly whites and long curly hair!

We reached home at about 4ish pm and some close family friends came to visit us. Later, we went out for dinner with our friends. What a tiring day it was for us all yesterday. And while my little ones were in slumberland at night, I still had to slog in front of my PC to clear my work and trying to force my eyes to open up.

No. of times viewed = 5720

2012 End Of The World?

For the past few days, Alycia has been worried sick. One of her classmates told her that there will be a huge earthquake in the year 2012 (next year) that will eat up the world. She asked me if it’s true. She told me that her classmate was told by her mum of this. I told her I’m not sure but it’s indeed written in the Bible that the world will come to an end one day. This will be revealed through natural disasters everywhere. Co-incidentally, my friends in Facebook have also been talking about this early this week. When she heard that, she kept badgering me with questions like “why does God want to take the world back?”, “where can we hide to be saved?”, “what can we do to be saved?” and all the wheres, whys and whens. Truth is, I want to know too and there’s nothing we can do but to pray. Alycia looked really worried over dinner yesterday and she expressed her extreme fear to me. On the other hand, Sherilyn who was also scared tried to put up a brave front. Over dinner last night, she told me this “mummy, God talked to me. Just now I closed my eyes and God told me not to be worried…” I laughed at what she had said and I wondered if it was indeed God who spoke to her or was it all just her self consolation. Now, during our nightly prayers to God, our pleas to God to save this world is included.

No. of times viewed = 337

Bad Case Of Being Stung By Cili Padi

Baby was weaned off my breasts about a month ago. But she had a relapse of the boobies! Though she no longer needed the boobs to help her fall asleep at night, funnily she still needed them to lull her to sleep in the afternoon. Then the addiction started to intensify and she would climb up onto my lap and touch her comfort tools whenever she felt sleepy or bored. When I could no longer tolerate the ‘fondling’, I took out the cili padi again. Though she saw me rubbing the cut cili padi on my boobs, that hardcore boobies addict went ahead and licked them and then the burning sensation began to torture her tongue and her mouth. She did not cry (as she knew she asked for it LOL!!) but she ran to the kitchen, pulled an Ikea stool to the counter top and kept pouring water into her cup to drink… she gulped down cups after cups of water muahahahaha! After that incident, whenever the addiction kicked in, she would run to me, tries to touch my boobs and then she would ask “your breast got cili?” I would give her a resounding YES and show her some dried up cili padi left on my computer top. This has never failed to stop her from laying her mouth on my boobies again LO!!

Caught in action!!

No. of times viewed = 367

Levain Boulangerie and Patisserie, Jalan Delima, KL

Hubs came home on Saturday and gave us 2 boxes of surprises for tea time. He had bought some pastries from the famed Levain Boulangerie and Patisserie at Jalan Delima in KL. The moment the box was opened, my 3 famished pups attacked the pastries. Sherilyn who was still in her ballet costume charged the chocolate coated mini croissant with her dirty hands and Alycia who was in her birthday suit after her shower also stood next to me like a panting puppy with tongue in chin and a wagging tail begging for me to stuff some into her mouth muahahahah!

Calorie laden sweet and lip-smacking, finger licking pastries….

2 famished pups gobbling down the sweet desserts as if they have not eaten for days and saw food on the table…

Hubs liked the pastries so much that on the same night, he brought us all there for supper!!! But the restaurant had already closed when we reached there at 10ish pm. And this crazy man vowed to bring us there again the next morning for breakfast. And so it was set. Levain it was that we charged the next morning. He woke up early and packed everyone into the car and we reached there at 10:30am. We thought we were early BUT oh boy, there were people who were even earlier than us. The restaurant was packed to the brim with hardcore fans of sweet pastries!!

Our brunch….

Tiramisu…

American breakfast and latte…

Hot from the oven pizzas…

I heard that Levain is opened by a Japanese and that’s one of the reasons why you’ll see many Japanese there.

Levain Boulangerie & Patisserie Sdn Bhd.
No. 7, Jalan Delima, 55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel:+603 2142 6611

Check Levain’s website here :

http://www.levain.com.my/

Food rating – 8/10
Price rating – 8/10
(I find that the prices are very reasonable and much cheaper than The Loaf)

No. of times viewed = 447

Magnificent Fish And Chips Bar, Changkat Bukit Bintang, KL

This is a back-dated post. I had forgotten all about this magnificent place that we went to in November last year until today when we were at Levain for breakfast (Levain – this place serves magnificent pastries and I shall blog about this later) and hubs mentioned Magnificent Fish And Chips. I went “oh sh*t, how can I forget to blog about this great place for fish and chips and English food!?” So here you go. This Magnificent Fish And Chips Bar is located at Changkat Bukit Bintang KL and serves traditional English breakfast and English fish and chips. The portion of their food is pretty huge. You’ll see many Caucasion and tourists dining there and for a moment, you’ll feel as if you were overseas. We were the only 2 tables of locals there that afternoon.

The wide choice of dishes on their menu…

Fish and chips…

Cod fish with butter sauce and asparagus…

Oooh, this magnificent breakfast set is really lip smacking man!

Forgot what this is. I think it’s beef with warm English pastry…

Dessert… sorry can’t recall what this is. I think it’s apple crumble with vanilla sauce. We went to this place over 2 months ago!

And ice creams for the girls…

Address:
28, Jalan Changkat Bukit Bintang,
50200 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.

Contact:
Telephone number: 03 2142 7021

Opening Hours:
Monday – Thursday: 8.30am-1am
Friday: 8.30am-3am
Saturday: 10am-3am
Sunday: 10am-1am

Food rating – 8/10

Price rating – a bit pricey but this is expected as the restaurant is located in the heart of KL at the Golden Triangle area.

Would certainly come back to this place to try other English dishes on their Menu.

No. of times viewed = 629

Our First Loh Sang and Pre CNY Dinner

Last night a few friends came and after doing our marketing at the pasar malam, we went to Lap Ming Kuan restaurant to have a pre CNY dinner. This fairly new Chinese restaurant is located at Taman Desa and serves very tasty Chinese food.

Our very first loh sang for CNY 2011…

We had all the supposedly auspicious CNY dishes ranging from a ‘wan choy jue sau’ (braised pig’s trotters with lotus seeds, chestnuts, dried scallops) which was by far the tastiest I have eaten…

Braised sea cucumber with fish paste, dried scallops and broccoli, very tasty too…

Lap mei fan (rice steamed with waxed meat), which was very tasty but darn salty! Not good for my blood pressure and waist line!

Kon cheen har loke (deep fried prawns with sauce)…

For dessert, we had deep fried lin goa (rice flour cake)…

And blended red bean tong sui with colorful tong yuen…

We also ordered a steamed fish and spinach cooked in superior soup (pix not taken as I was too hungry to bother snapping the pix until my hubs reminded me to do so, haha!)

Damage was approximately RM350 but it was worth it as the food was superb. We will definitely have dinner there again with friends and relatives during CNY.

No. of times viewed = 344

I Don’t Want To Get Married When I Grow Up

Yesterday I overhead this conversation between Sherilyn and Alycia. They were watching Gifted Hands on Astro and the series was about a group of surgeons trying to separate a pair of Siamese twins fused at the head.

Sher – I don’t want to get married when I grow up…

Alycia – me too…

Sher – I don’t like kissing, I hate kissing.
Well, there were no kissing scenes. I always make sure that kissing scenes are out of bounds for them.

Alycia – yalor...

Sher – I hate the taste of kissing.…
I was like “huh, how does she know how the taste of kissing is ah??”

Alycia – me too, hate the taste of kissing…

Sher – and I don’t want to have babies, so painful, I don’t want to operate. And later the baby becomes very naughty.
I think she said this as she had seen what pain I had gone through after the birth of Baby, which was delivered by c-section — my 3rd c-section within a span of 4 years 3 months. And oh yes, I always tell her to imagine herself having a daughter as naughty as her haha!

I wonder why Alycia and Sherilyn always tell me that they don’t want to get married when they grow up. They said they hate boys, hate kissing, hate having babies, blah blah blah…. oh well, I shall see lar.

No. of times viewed = 254

Things That Occupy Her

Whenever I am busy with work, Baby will play on her own if her 2 sisters are at school. Some of the things that will keep her occupied are punching papers with a paper puncher, doodling, playing Lego blocks or she will simply climb up to the top of the couch and then slide down as if it were a slide! Sometimes she will bring out the vanity bag and play hairdressing on my hair, at the expense of my precious locks, with gobs of them on the floor after each session! The tellie is another good babysitter but I am not too keen in allowing her to watch the idiot box the whole day. Sometimes she gets so engrossed watching that she will shut her ears to my calls. The same goes with my 2 older girls. I have now set a max of 1-2 hours of TV viewing on school-going days for my girls.

Something that can really hold her attention, for at least half an hour…

Another item that will surely hold this rascal’s attention is the scissors. This fella will climb up on a chair to grab the nail trimming scissors for babies from the top of my shelf, then crawl under the chair or table (when I am busy at work and may not have noticed her) so that no one can spot her. She will then happily cut papers with the pair of scissors!

No. of times viewed = 238

Lil’ Missy Set To Be In The Vanity Industry

Sherilyn my lil’ missy is so determined to be in the beauty line that she has been telling me that she wants to be a hairdresser or a make-up artist in future. Oh, she also told me that she wants to take part in competitions like the American Idol as she loves singing and dancing. She is even teaching her baby sister the art of hair coiffeuring. And I think she had even stolen my lipstick to secretly apply it on her lips because when I used the lipstick, the tip was smashed. I just knew that she was the culprit. Well, if the beauty industry really interests her, I don’t mind sending her to well know schools like the Regency Beauty Institute for her to hone her skills. Regency graduates are reputed to be sought after throughout the United States. Who knows my little vain pot will make it big in the vanity industry one day!

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com or contact Regency Beauty Institute – 10217 North Metro Parkway West – Phoenix, AZ 85051

No. of times viewed = 168

Artsy Crafty Ways To Avoid Doing Homework And Math

When it comes to completing her homework or doing Math that I have set for her, Rascal #2 will find 101 ways to evade doing them. She will say that she’s thirsty and wants a drink, she wants to pee, to poo, say that her eyes are tired, her hands are tired or she will say that she wants to do art and craft. These are just her artsy, crafty ways to run away from it all. Many times, tons and tons of voice raising, whipping, grounding and threats are needed to get her to do her work. I am really worried how she will survive in a Chinese primary school when she goes to P1 next year. She can’t even be punctual to reach her pre-school now, which starts at 8:15am, what more be ready by 6:30am for the transporter to pick her and Alycia up. I can only pray that a miracle will happen and that by Jan 2012, there will be an about turn in her.

My rascal, in full concentration creating a, a, oh well, I don’t know what you call this thingy, made out of toilet roll core, some glittering party pack bags and a broken heaband LOL!!! At home, she will rummage through drawers and fish out stuff to transform them into something else. She makes kites, hand puppets, gloves, CNY lanterns and a whole load of stuff that only she can think of!

No. of times viewed = 395

Sherilyn’s First Spelling, Ejaan And Ting Xie

Last week, Sherilyn got the lists from her teacher in the message book. It’s the lists that I dread doing together with her. I dreaded doing together with Alycia too when she was in pre school and now it’s Sherilyn’s turn. For Alycia, she is pretty disciplined and would dutifully memorize her spelling, ejaan and ting xie every week most of the time. As expected, Sher’s quite the opposite. I need loads of threats and even the whip to get her to memorize her stuff, to complete her homework and Kumon Math that I give her everyday.

Sherilyn’s first spelling list for 6 year olds..

Ejaan list…

Ting Xie…

So whatcha think of the words for final year pre-schoolers (6yo)? Tough? Easy peasy? Average?

And good luck to Sherilyn for her 1st spelling tomorrow!

No. of times viewed = 3973

Our Friday

Friday is Pasar Malam (night market) day for us where we will get our ration of fruits, veggie and eggs for the week. It’s also a junk food day for the gals for daddy will eat loke loke (steamboat) at the van and other roadside food. The girls will follow suit too. I don’t really like the idea of my girls eating loke loke but then again, I can’t be overly protective and clean. An overly clean body system will spell trouble when they are exposed to a little unhygienic food in future. That’s what happened to me when I first left my nest 20 years ago to come to KL. Anyway, yesterday we took away some pasar malam food and then daddy suggested that we all have a picnic by the poolside. The girls were delighted… coz daddy also bought some fire crackers and he said he would let off the firecrackers at the poolside.

The girls having a pasar malam food feast at the pool side. The weather was good… it was chilly as it was drizzling and very breezy…

Alycia playing with Sparklers for the first time in her life…

Future fitness junkie like mummy… and darn the busy body guard who shooed the girls out from the gym coz it’s out of bounds for kids below 12yo. But hey, it’s 9pm what and the mummy is here to supervise mah, eesh!!

Alycia is sure going to be a fitness buff like mummy…

My 2 lovely ‘vainies’ aka vain pot…

No. of times viewed = 231

My Brave Samseng Baby

I have been trying to prepare Baby mentally for the MAG3 scan that she has to go through in April. She had gone through this scan just before her surgeries in April 2009. This procedure looked pretty scary and painful, especially when the doctor inserted the catheter into Baby’s down under and on her hand. Thereafter, she had to lie still on a cold and hard metal bed in the Xray room with a ginormous machine hanging over her. Radioactive dye will be injected on both catheters. This procedure is very, very costly and only available at the Cancer Centre in Sime Darby Medical Centre and a few government hospitals in Malaysia. The activities in her urinary tract system will be shown on a screen. She was sedated last time. She was exactly a year old then. I’m not sure if this time the doctor wants to sedate her. BTW, it feels sick and creepy to be at the Cancer Centre. I saw many cancer patients – young and old and I really feel for them – their emotions, their fears and their pain. I also saw some patients buying special bras at a lingerie shop at the Cancer Centre for their prosthesis breast.

This morning I told Baby this :

Me – Baby, in 3 months’ time, you need to go to the hospital. Dr In. will put a tube down there and on your hand. There’s no need to cry coz there is very, very little pain only. Baby is brave girl right?

Baby – oh ok (and then giggled)

Me – you have to lie still on the bed and cannot move. Then you can see the inside of your stomach, your kidneys and your bladder on the TV. Mummy will be with you in the room. Daddy and kakak will also be there.

Baby – Cheh cheh also go? I like to go hospital…

Me – no cheh cheh cannot go. They have to go to school. After that, mummy will buy you a big big ice cream ok?

Baby – ok… and I will share with mummy, daddy and cheh cheh. (and then seemed very excited about the whole procedure LOL!)

My little samseng girl is one tough cookie, the bravest baby I have ever met!

No. of times viewed = 238

Maggie Mee Craze

Who said instant noodles are only for the under privileged? My privileged kids think maggie mee aka instant noodles are a luxury. That’s because I hardly allow them to eat them. And even if I do, I don’t use the seasoning that comes with the instant noodles. I will either stir fry the noodles or put some sesame seed oil, a little dark soy sauce and some soy sauce to make them look like the real thing- the instant Indo mee goreng.

I whipped up some stir fried maggie mee for dinner last week and boy, I tell yer, they were rejoicing when they saw the noodles on the dining table, as if they were some really good stuff, some really expensive and rare gastronomical dishes muahahahaha…

My stir fried instant noodles. Ingredients used were garlic, shallots, fish paste, lean pork, mustard green and seasoned with a dollop of dark soy sauce, a dash of soy sauce and pepper. I used 2 packets of instant noodles and they were all polished off in a jiffy!

No. of times viewed = 526

Our Sunday

We had lunch at Monte’s @ Bangsar Shopping Centre today. Hubs and I used to love dining at this restaurant before the girls came along. The food there is fantastic. Love their escargot, deep fried spring chicken and tiramisu.

After lunch, we did groceries shopping. I love the range of fresh produce and food stuff at the Cold Storage. They carry stuff that you can’t get from other supermarkets. That’s why many ‘gwai los’ like shopping there.

The world’s best friends, Alycia and her baby sister… Alycia’s2 front teeth are sprouting out. Soon she’ll look pretty again!

That’s what we packed back for dinner – black pepper roast spring chicken. It’s tasty but the girls find it a tad hot and spicy…

Undecided – I didn’t know whether to choose ayam percik or the black pepper chicken. In the end I took the latter and I kind of regretted my decision as the girls found it spicy. Next time, we’ll take the ayam percik.

I also got myself a loaf of French Village bread from O Gourmet, hubs’ favorite bakery at BSC… he loves the Danish pastries to bits.

I wanted to get this Full Grain Bread Loaf but it’s RM14.90 and I find it too expensive.

Hubs’ choice of pastries. We will have these for lunch tomorrow – croissants with eggs and pastries. And me, I’ll have my healthy bread with homemade Pesto sauce and homemade pandan kaya!

No. of times viewed = 252

Did I Let Go Of A Golden Opportunity To Be Famous?

Several days ago, someone from a Singapore newspaper publishing company approached me. She said she is looking for mommy bloggers who write product reviews and had chosen my blog. She wanted to interview me and publish an article on mommy bloggers, with me featured as one of the bloggers. She had only shortlisted 3 bloggers. I thought WOW, this is an opportunity for me to be a famous blogger! I must not let this opportunity slip. But her condition was that she needed a close up and high resolution picture of me with my 3 girls taken in front of my computer with my blog Health Freak Mommy on the screen and shown in the picture. She wanted it urgently. At that time, Alycia was still in school and Baby was napping. I told her that I would email her the pic the next day but the next day, I was too caught up with work that I did not have the time to snap the pic. Tomorrow I should be able to snap the picture just before we go to church. That’s when everyone’s dressed up to the nines and look good. Hmmm, I will email her the pic and I’ll see if she still wants it or she had already chosen another blogger.

No. of times viewed = 198