January 2012 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Chinese New Year 2012

It was yet another simple, uneventful yet happy CNY for us. Thankful for that. I have been reading a lot about freak accidents that happened during the CNY. It’s pretty depressing to read such news on a happy occasion. As long as my family is safe and everyone does not have any major health issues, I am already very thankful to God.

Besides the usual pai lin (house visiting), there were lots of pigging out on the usual CNY dishes and snacks. Have also been weighing myself on the scale every morning and thank God, no dreaded weight pile up, phew! I have learned to manage my weight pretty well now. I still eat everything that I like (including high carb food) but in reduced portions, eat all the sinful grub and junk food in the morning, keep dinner the lightest meal of the day (this is pretty hard as dinners during CNY are always lavish and very meaty) and EXERCISE every morning!! Whether I feel like it or not, I force myself out from bed and out of the house to exercise for at least half an hour every morning. The result is amazing… I can indulge without the torment in my mind that I will be fat kekeke…

Our dinner on the 2nd day of CNY, all whipped up by the mil…

The steamed chicken dish is no ordinary chicken. It is castrated chicken (yim gai) and cost close to RM200 for a bird!! And the medium sized pomfret fish cost over a hundred Ringgit. Crazy right?

Reunion lunch with the hubster’s relatives at Oriental Chinese Restaurant @ Jaya 33 PJ yesterday. We waited for over an hour before the yee sang came…. and then waited for another half an hour before the 2nd dish came. By the time we finished our lunch, it was already 3ish pm. We arrived at the restaurant at about 12pm. This is one of the crazy things that I dread during CNY – long waits at restaurants for all our restaurant meals.

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Don’t Be A Lazy Bum!

On normal days, I hardly have the time to sit in front of the TV or have the time to eat leisurely or do I have the time to do the things that I really like to do. Life for me is extremely hectic on normal days. My day starts at 5:45am and I can only hit the sack just before midnight. There is no such thing as MC or annual leave for me! I do sound like a maid, don’t I? Are all work-from-home mums as pathetic as me I wonder!? Therefore, I have to take very good care of my health, lest I fall really ill and I dare not imagine how chaotic the house would be if I have to spend a night or two in the hospital, choi, touch wood!! Anyway, during this CNY holiday, I have been enjoying my short respite, where I can snack as I wish, have my breakfast and lunch eaten leisurely, have the time to clear my drawers and wardrobe, fold paper stars with Baby and watch TV. And not to mention going out almost everyday.

When I sat down to watch TV just now, my baby girl asked me why I was so free and why I did not have any work to do. That’s because she has hardly seen me sitting on the couch to watch TV. After I told her the reason why I had the time to watch TV, my baby girl retorted “you have to do your work, DON’T be a LAZY BUM!” In fact, my 3 girls have been asking me why I am so free and have the time to watch TV. Yea yea, talk about teaching my girls well. Now I have my little one to give me back a lecture!

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My January Shopping Spree at Ikea

My driver finally had the time to bring me to Ikea to claim my January cash reward last week, just 2 days before it expired. Making a trip to Ikea will now be a monthly affair for the next 11 months and I am loving it as I will get to add a new piece of furniture or accessory to my home or simply accumulate the cash reward and use the bigger amount to buy something costlier. This time, only Baby had the privilege to follow us while her 2 sisters had to stay behind as they had to wake up early for school the next day.

By the time we reached Ikea, it was already 9ish pm. With such limited time left before the store closed, we hurriedly hunted for the first thing that we had in mind, which was another piece of wooden clothes hanger for our bedroom door. Living in a condo where space is limited in our bedroom, we do not have the luxury of space to buy another cupboard, so we have to take full advantage of existing space, which was the lower part of our bedroom door. The upper part of our bedroom door has a wooden Ikea clothes hanger and I love that design, which is very Victorian and it is sturdy. So we decided to get another piece of the same wooden clothes hanger to affix it to the bottom half of the door so that we could hang more clothes on the door. Locating that particular piece of clothes hanger was no easy task as we were shopping against time. But I finally found it and was so happy!

Baby set her eyes on this chair. I would have bought it for her if we still lived in a landed house, so we had to shake our heads and pull her away.

In the end, we settled for another Mammut children stool and chose a bright lemon yellow one this time. We also bought another Mammut children chair and chose pink. With these 2 new collection of chair and stool, the girls now have 3 Mammut stools and 3 Mammut chairs. Hopefully this will end the tug of war between #2 and #3 over the existing blue and red chairs. These Mammut stools are lightweight yet sturdy and everyone loves to use them for an assortment of purposes.

The hubs also bought this stylo multi-lamp for his catering business use. The lamp cost over RM300 but it certainly adds a classy touch to the buffet table for high-end client’s functions.

A trip to Ikea will never be complete without a treat of the RM1 ice-cream for the girls. Baby had the whole ice-cream to herself. Her 2 che ches only found out just a moment ago as I was typing this and they were green with envy while Baby let out a smug giggle tee hee heee…

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Our Eve of The New Water Dragon Year

It was a breeze driving into Mid Valley City and it only took us under 5 minutes to get a nice parking space yesterday… for once! Many KL-ites had already left the city for their hometowns to celebrate CNY. This year we are staying put in KL again. We waited for almost 40 minutes just to get a table for lunch at the Han Room @ Gardens. I was already getting really impatient and found it ridiculous having to wait so long for a table but my foodie hubs, a fan of the Han Room was for once very, very patient waiting outside the Han Room. When my impatience got the better of me, I told the hubs that we should just eat in another restaurant. As I was walking to Hokkaido Japanese restaurant to check out the crowd, the hubs called me on my mobile phone, telling me that our table was finally ready but when I walked back to Han Room, the staff were still setting the table and there was another 15-minute wait. All in, I think we wasted an hour of our time just for a table to have our reunion lunch! Though the food is pretty pricey, this restaurant seems to be perpetually crowded and a long bee line is forever seen at the entrance of the restaurant.

Sorry, no pix of food taken as I was in no mood to snap pix. The long wait had dampened my mood and my tummy was rumbling. After satisfying my growling tummy, I was in a mood again to ‘start work’ and fished out my camera to snap a pic of the bill haha!

Here’s what we had and the price breakdown…

There were 2 portions of yee sang as the bigger portion was for our reunion dinner at a relative’s house that night. I really think that the yee sang was way over-priced and the portion was pathetically meagre. A few fistfuls of julliened carrots, radish, turnip, pomelo, crackers, sesame seeds, thick syrup and a handful of jelly fish need to cost RM68 meh? Next year, I will make my own yee sang!

Very pricey for a lunch eh? And I wasn’t really satisfactorily full. Oh well, that’s what I had expected from this restaurant on the busiest day of the year.

After lunch, it was Borders again!! Daddy and I think that books are one of the best investments for the girls so buying them books is like a monthly routine now rather than a reward.

When my Geronimo Stilton craze girl read that free Geronimo Stilton ang pow packets will be given free for every purchase of 2 books, she begged me to get her 2 books instead of 1.

So this is Alycia’s CNY pressie…

Here’s wishing everyone a very, very prosperous, healthy and smooth sailing year of the water dragon!

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Throes of Motherhood…and stumped!

A few days ago, I was stumped when Alycia said this to me the moment she sat down at the dining table to start eating her lunch.
“mummy, can you please not say anything and let me eat in peace? Don’t say anything from now until after my nap ok?“ I asked her if I was “destroying her peace” when I talk to her and she felt bad and smiled. I was really disappointed. I know she does not like me to ask her what she did in school for I will always advice her not to buy unnecessary things from the book shop and junk food from the canteen. I know that she also does not like me to ask her how she fared in her spelling, ejaan and ting xie. She has always been doing pretty well academically but at times, she will show me some shocking marks when she had forgotten to practice her weekly language tests. In another scenario last week, she said the same heart-wrenching words to me. That night, Alycia, Sherilyn and daddy went to Tony Roma’s to have supper while Baby, the helper and I went groceries shopping at Jusco. When I joined them at Tony Roma’s after shopping, Alycia said this to me “mummy, we were all enjoying ourselves until you came!”. I had to ask her again what she had said as I just did not believe what I had heard. I felt like I had been slapped and jilted by someone I love very much. I know that she does not like me to ask her if she has drank enough water, if she has eaten any deep fried food, if she has asked her daddy (the ever yes man who would rarely say NO to his angels’ whims and fancies) to buy them everything under the sky, etc. Alycia just does not like her mummy to ‘rob’ a piece of her happiness and time of her life just when she is enjoying them. But being a mother, of course I am concerned. If I do not care and allowed her to do as she wishes and eat as she wishes, she may land herself in some trouble and fall ill frequently. She was once the weakest 3YO and 4YO I had ever seen. Perhaps she treats those advices as nags. If so, then she is so going to hate me infinitely as she is so going to get a piece of my mind to ‘destroy her peace’ as she goes through each different phase of her life. Perhaps this is pay-back time for me?

Ironically, rascal #2 who often clashes with me will always give me a warm and tight hug and scream “MUMMY” to welcome me each time we meet after a period of ‘separation’ or say good-bye. Alycia hardly does that to me, though I don’t scold her as much as Sherilyn. Last night, the hubs and I brought only Baby to Ikea as I had to claim my RM150 cash voucher before it expires in a day. Alycia and Sherilyn could not follow us as they have to get up very early for school today. When we were leaving the house, Sherilyn gave me a big hug and said some sweet nice things to me, which always melts my heart. But Alycia never does that to me. I am really dumb-founded by these opposite reactions I get from Alycia and Sherilyn. Does anyone have kids who stump you like this too? I feel lost now. Do I remain quiet and don’t say anything negative to my super sensitive Alycia to gain her ‘likes’ ? This girl can get teary-eyed very easily and I don’t even have to raise my voice to make her eyes teary! With Sherilyn, she is the exact opposite. Even with whips that leave marks on her hands, she would not cry at times but she forgets and forgives very easily and is more generous with her hugs with me. She is more open and the least sensitive to comments and critics about her.

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Mad Rush Over :)

The past 1 month high business volume and mad rush to send out my customers’ orders have ended today eeeeeyay!! Today I finally have the time to sit with my baby girl and teach her how to make paper stars origami. You see, I have a glass jar of colorful paper stars origami which I made for my hubs (then boyfriend) 22 years ago! There are over 100 pieces of stars inside the jar but now, I think half the number of stars are gone, no thanks to the 3 curious rascals. They are always very curious to know how those stars are made and often when I am busy with work on my computer, the rascals will pinch a star or two away, unfold the stars and try folding the stars again. Today Baby bugged me to teach her how to make those paper stars but I have totally zilch recollection on how they are made. So I went straight to You Tube, which now loads at lightning speed, thanks to Unify…. and searched how to make paper stars. I spent the entire morning making them for Baby, who put them into her little box. I still have some backlog of personal errands to complete before CNY. First thing first, I must cash out my money from Western Union, courtesy of payment from Google Adsense. Next, I must go to Ikea to claim my monthly RM150 cash voucher by this Friday… and then submit my January e-job to Ikea. Today also we finally dismantled the X’mas tree, which should have been kept away since 2 weeks ago. Next, I have to clear the girls’ wardrobe as well as mine to make space for new ones, lots of them 😀

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Without Solid Food For Over 17 Hours!

On the 2nd day of school last week, I gave Alycia a few Ringgit for her to buy food from the canteen. But she left her purse in her bag inside the classroom after she left the classroom during recess. Her teacher had warned the pupils not to enter the classroom during recess time, so this obedient girl of mine did not eat anything (except for a few pinches of crackers from her classmate). Her last meal was at 7pm during dinner the day before. Before going to school in the morning, she only had a mug of milk at 6am. By the time she reached home and had her lunch, it was already 2:30pm! Imagine going without any solid food for over 17 hours and she’s only 8 years old! When she told me this, I was so heart-broken and worried sick about the repercussion. Her case was worse than someone who is fasting for the person who fasts would not have a gap of more than 12 hours without food. Alycia went without any food for over 17 hours!! I gave her a long lecture and explained to her the serious consequences of not eating any food early in the morning or during recess time. I told her that she could have fainted as a result of being too weak and during the fall when she faints, she could have hit her head or face on the road and that would be really really serious.

The next day, true to my expectation, Alycia developed gastric and a very colicky tummy. After dinner the next day, she told me that she had stomachache but she could not poo. The pain was on the upper and middle abdomen, which suggested wind. She curled herself up on the couch and cried in pain. I then explained to her that the pain was a result of the gastric juice and lots of wind being formed in her tummy as a result of going hungry for over 17 hours. She was scared I could see.

Also, the next day after the incident, Alycia was unusually hungry. She ate a slice of Gardenia white bread the moment she reached home from school. After lunch, she whacked another slice of bread. Just before dinner – another slice of bread and after dinner yet another slice of bread with some yoghurt drink. It was pay back time for her body.

After my mum read about this from my blog, she made a Skype video call to us and wrote this on the paper for Alycia to read:

and also gave her yet another advice on the dangers of not eating. Did I tell you that this girl has recently become a health and weight freak? She has become very concerned of getting fat and would weigh herself on the scale! Errr, don’t get me wrong, I may be a weight freak too but no, I will never tell my own daughters not to eat to remain slim. I suspect some boys may be calling some girls fat and she just does not want to be teased?

I have been encouraging Alycia to eat at least a slice of bread, have some breakfast cereals or put a spoon of Nestum in her milk in the morning but this girl will adamantly tell me NO! She kept telling me that she does not have the time or appetite to eat in the morning.

Does your child eat anything before going to school?

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The ‘Dilly Dalliest’ Girl Ever!

And the award has to go to my #2. I thought she would turn over a new leaf once she starts P1 this year but NO NO NO! On day 1 – 4 Jan 2012 she was fast. She jumped out from bed and finished everything quickly and was ready by 6:30am. After a few days in school and eating salty + heaty school catered food (she told me that she was served very very salty french fries and her teacher forced the students to finish all the food), this girl who has a very sensitive throat fell ill – had throat infection, cough and slight runny nose. That’s when she started to look tired in the morning and just won’t move her butt in the morning. On Monday, she skipped school for 1 day. On Tuesday up until today, it has been torturous getting her to prepare for school. She would stare blankly and seems to be in a daze. Sometimes she would put her head on the dining table and refused to drink her milk. In the bathroom, she would sit on the throne and day dream again. Inside the shower area, she would stand there holding the toothbrush and toothpaste but not brushing her teeth and not moving at all …. while the shower water hits her body. After a quick shower with my help, my helper and I have to dress her up like an empress. I dry her body, button up her shirt and pinafore, while my helper feeds her with Scotts Emulsion and I will put on her socks and comb her hair hurriedly like we are contestants in Amazing Race, rushing to complete every stage! While doing all these, I will be barking away with Alycia who is already ready and waiting impatiently, would stand alongside me to rush and scold her sister. For 3 days straight, she was late and the van driver was already here when we reached the lobby of our condo. SIGH!!! What am I going to do with this girl?? I hope this is not going to drag for another 11 years until she finishes Form 5!! I will surely suffer a stroke if this goes on every morning to no end. Maybe I should wake her up 15 mins earlier starting from tomorrow, which means that she has to be up by 5:45am everyday!

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Ochada @ Tokyo Street, Pavillion KL

I love milk tea, minus the pearls. Well actually I like to chew on the pearls, which are made of tapioca powder, which is nothing but carbs, which means it is a no-no for my waist line. I still go swimming with the girls in my tight fitting 2-pc swim wear so starchy pearls are a bane! My first try of Cha Time was at Mid Valley last year, where my dear hubs took the trouble to form the already long bee line and waited for 20 minutes or more to get me a cup of tea. I didn’t like the tea as my hubs did not give instruction to the Cha Time staff to have the sugar reduced. So I was gulping down nothing but empty calories from the sugar and starch, which ain’t cheap. Next, I tried Gong Cha @ Gardens, which was a few months later. This time, I had the sugar level reduced to only 25%. Frankly, I really can’t tell if there was any difference between Cha Time and Gong Cha if you hand me 2 cups of tea and don’t tell me which brand they are. Both tasted the same to me.

Last week when we were at Tokyo Street, I tried Ochada, which is another trendy milk tea with pearls in town. I liked the delightful green tea with milk instantly. I guess that’s because I am a great fan of green tea – just love the refreshing fragrance of green tea. With just 1 cup of roasted green tea with milk and starchy balls shared with my 3 angels, every single drop of tea and pearl was sucked out delightfully from the fat straw in a jiffy. The cup of tea even caused a ruckus as #2 and #3 were fighting to hold the cup and daddy had to settle the tug of war by getting them each a cup of Kindori fresh milk ice cream, which is our favorite too. Oh yea, Kindori ice cream is not sweet and I love it to bits too.

Too bad there is no Ochada outlet in Mid Valley as that is the place that we frequent the most. As I am writing this post, I am already craving for my sugar-reduced roasted green tea milk from Ochada. Hopefully the hubs is free to bring us to Pavillion to admire the CNY deco and to grab some Japanese snacks and my Ochada next week. This time I will make sure that I order another cup, lest another hoo ha breaks out over the cuppa tea.

At RM5.90 a cup, I think that the tea is over-priced but what the heck, people are still crazy over them. Whether it is Cha Time, Gong Cha or Ochada, people don’t mind wasting 15-20 minutes of their time queuing up to get one of the latest craze in town.

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Kids Say The Darndest Things

This is a long overdue post as this hilarious incident happened about 3 weeks ago when we were in Ipoh.

I had given Cass a piece of paper and a pencil so that she could draw while I took my shower. When I came out from the bathroom and asked her what she was drawing, she told me that she was drawing a girl with very, very long hair. But later, she erased the bottom of the hair, so that the girl’s hair would be shorted and said this “I think better not have long hair, otherwise she will have a lot of kutu (head lice) on her hair!” My baby girl gives me the most tears and fears but also the most laughter.

Cassandra at 3 years 8 months

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Our 2nd Day of 2012

We spent our second day of the new year at Pavillion today. After lunch at a Japanese fast food restaurant (can’t recall the name), we lingered around at Tokyo Street before shopping at Daiso. The hubs who likes Japanese food and snacks patronized many of the shops selling Japanese snacks from Kindori ice cream to the Japanese buns, Hokkaido Mille Crepe Cake, Ochado (same concept as Cha Time and Long Cha) and our last stop was at the Japanese Ginza Cafe at Tokyo Street where we ate seafood spaghetti, a very tasty beef burger with green tea bun and had tea. A Japanese fair is on-going in Tokyo Street and at that time we were there, there was a demo on how Japanese Mochi is made. When the Japanese hosts asked for volunteers to ‘hammer’ the Mochi dough with a gigantic wooden hammer, no one dared to volunteer but Sherilyn instantaneously raised her hand and said “I want!!”

There she is, my very bold and daring 6.5yo girl who will enter P1 in less than 2 days hammering the Mochi dough.

Seeing how fun it was, my 3.5yo Baby girl was the next to volunteer to ‘hammer’ the Mochi dough

…. followed by moi! It’s an opportunity of a life time to be able to try my hand in making Japanese Mochi, so what the heck, just hack only la!

While we were eating at Ginza Cafe, something really tall caught our attention. See this whim and noticed his stilt like errr shoes or what do you call that? Clogs? He was sashaying his way down Tokyo Street, while trying hard to balance his gait on that super high clogs in his stick-thin waif body and I just had to flag him down to capture a pic for this blog haha!

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Tons of Patience

Of my 3 girls, I think Cassandra has the most patience or should I say, she has the longest attention span in whatever she does. She also has nimble fingers and likes fixing things like jig saw puzzles, building stuff with Lego blocks and today I found out that she is also a handy-girl! Just now a knob dislodged from its position on one of the drawers of our 5-drawer cupboard. With her bare hands, she screwed the knob back. Then excitement kicked in when she discovered that she can fix a knob back onto the drawer… and she deliberately yanked off the other 3 knobs off the drawers! With her bare hands, she managed to screw back all the knobs back into their positions TIGHTLY on the respective drawer in under half an hour, after which she was sweaty all over, just like any handy-man would and she gave me a very satisfied grin, as if telling me how clever she was! Indeed she is. I for one is not the type of person who would have the patience to do such a tedious job and would tai chi this sort of job to my hubs, who is a very adept handy-man. Good job my baby girl and mummy hopes that you can build BIG things in future and make mummy proud of you hehe.

Here’s wishing all my friends and blog readers a very happy new year. May this year be a better and happier year for all!

Here are some snap shots of our New Year’s Eve dinner at home with some close friends and relatives yesterday..

Delish food which the hubs and his chef whipped up…. oh yea if you need catering service, you can call my hubs Alan at 019-266 4297. He has been in the catering biz for over 10 years.

Perfect view of KLCC and KL Tower with the fireworks in the middle…

Kids scrambling to get a nice spot to watch the fireworks display at the KLCC, Dataran Merdeka and other areas around KL at the stroke of 12 midnight

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