May 2012 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

13th Anniversary of our ROM

Hubs and I registered our marriage on 9 September 1999. 8 months later on 27 May 2000 we held the customary Chinese wedding ceremony and dinner. 12 years on, we celebrated our big day with 3 angels. I did not expect this forgetful man of mine to even remember the big day, let alone surprise me with something. But my man likes to do things quietly. On Sunday, 27 May, he brought us to Pavillion after church service. While he watched Men In Black 3 with Alycia,Sherilyn and his mom, I did some retail therapy, from the courtesy of my man 😀 I bought a red handbag that I had been hunting for and another pair of super comfy School wedge sandals.

Our wedding anniversary lunch at Watami Japanese Casual Restaurant @ Pavillion…

After 2 hours of glorious shopping spree with a hyper-active monkey tagging along while they watched MIB in the cinema, we met at Speedo shop to do more shopping. While we adults shopped for goggles and shoes, the 3 girls continued munching on popcorns that daddy bought for the movies…

A celebration is never complete without a cake for our 3 angels to sing song, blow candles, cut cake and attack the cake. And not to mention to capture each celebration in picture and for my blogs.

May we be blessed with many more happy wedding anniversaries 🙂

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Snap Pictures Your Way To Win A Free Swede Cooking Class by IKEA!

I am super duper, uber excited! I have just been invited by Ikea to attend a free cooking class conducted by a Swedish team next week! That will be my very first cooking class and it came timely coz my mil will be leaving us again for Hong Kong for a month very soon. Without the great cook of the house, I am feeling a tad jittery as the 4 fussy eaters in the house are oh so used to being served tastefully cooked dishes everyday. I hope that after attending this Swede cooking class, I will have a rough idea on how to prepare Swede dishes and can whip up a few new dishes to whet the appetite and excite the palate of my 4 fussy pots.

Don’t be envious hor. You too stand a chance to win an invite to attend an exclusive Ikea Swede Cook Class event on 30 JUNE 2012! 10 lucky fans will be picked! And it’s easy peasy to do it too. All you need is a camera or a mobile phone with camera function and begin snapping like mad pictures of food that you cooked, food that you ate, happy moments of you with your loved ones or friends in the kitchen, your best recipe and cooking tips. Then email the picture in jpeg format with your most creative or funny caption with your full name to social@malaysia-ikea.com. You can start to email your application from now until 14 JUNE 2012. Now’s a great time to snap pictures as it’s the school holidays and you have plenty of fun time with your family in the kitchen.

For more details, just click on this link. Have loads of fun snapping food pictures and I hope you’ll win!

In case you have no idea what picture to submit, here’s just an example. But I am sure you can snap much, much better pictures than this 😀

Hurry mummy, our saliva’s dribbling onto mah mah’s hot yoghurt walnut buns! Why let your camera eat first??

Looks good? It tastes even better. This is what my mil whipped up with some overly ripened bananas – a fluffy and cottony soft banana walnut chiffon cake with the ooomph factor!

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Hilarious Kids’ Talk – Plucking Mummy’s Armpit Hair

This morning, my eldest begged me to allow her to help me put on nail polish on my toe nails. It was a bottle of new nail polish in marine aqua color, which I bought from Pavillion yesterday 😀

Alycia – mummy, can you give me RM1 after I have helped you put on the nail polish?

Me – no thank you! I can do it myself. You do your homework before Ms M comes. I do not need your help really. Go do your homework now.

Alycia – no lar, just kidding. I can do it for you, can I pleassssssse? I actually love to do it coz I love painting hehe… ( I was actually very reluctant to allow Alycia to polish my toe nails, lest she paints my skin too! )
But do you know mummy, my friend got RM1 from his mummy after helping his mummy pull off armpit hair!

Me – WHAT? Is your friend a boy or girl?!

Alycia – boy. He told me that his mummy paid him RM1 and he had to help his mummy pull out all the armpit hair for 45 minutes!

ME – oh my God muahahahahahahaha!!! And your friend actually told you that he helped his mummy pluck armpit hair? Not malu ah? And he is a boy.

Alycia – we were actually telling each other how we earn pocket money. Can we not talk about this anymore? This is just so DISGUSTING and I am feeling a bit giddy now!!

And the both of us rolled on the floor laughing our tears out LOL!!

To end the conversation, Alycia asked me why I never pluck my armpit hair to which I said NO, that’s just too painful and tedious, not to mention too time consuming. I’d rather shave it clean everyday during my shower.

And I am just wondering if anyone else pays her kid money to do this sort of vanity jobs like plucking of armpit hair, plucking of eyebrow, body massage (which I used to do until the hubs bought me an OTO portable massage chair), manicure and pedicure, LOL!! Do you?? Come on, spill the beans, just in the name of fun and laughter hahahah!

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Nail Art… Mothers, Do You Have It?

I am so, so, so tempted to have my nails manicured with personalized nail art BUT…

1) I prepare food for my kids everyday, 3x a day. What if the nail paint drops out bit by bit into the food? Imagine peeling an orange, cutting a slice of cake or spreading jam on a slice of bread. The food will have direct contact with the nail polish. That’s toxic and if ingested over a long period of time….I am intoxicating my own kids with nail polish!

2) I wash my youngest kid’s bump and brush her teeth (my fingers get in contact with her mouth) several times in a day and I am sure a teeny weeny bit of paint from the nail would come off over time. That’s toxic!

3) I do house chores. Definitely the paint would be scraped off during the course and if it does, my heart would ache as I see uneven and even peeling paintings on all my finger nails.

SO…. it looks like I have to ditch this vanity idea of mine and have it shelved for the next few years or perhaps forget about the idea as long as my kids live with me? I’m so sad. I envy my friends who can have their nails painted beautifully while mine have been naked for the past 10 years! I am just curious, for those of you who have to care for young kids, how do you still have your finger nails painted and how do you keep them immaculate for just 1 week?

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Our Teachers’ Day Gifts

Years ago, I only needed to buy 1 gift during Teachers’ Day and it was only for Alycia’s teacher. Then when Sherilyn went to pre-school, I had to buy 2. Now that they are in primary school where Teachers’ Day is celebrated on a grander scale with a party and all that jazz, my 2 girls told me that they wanted to give a gift each to all the teachers who teach them * rolling my eyes 360 degrees!! * Alycia has 9 teachers and Sherilyn told me she has 9 teachers too! Are there really so many teachers I wonder?? But they begged and persuaded me and said that they really really wanted to give all their teachers a gift, SO….

So hubs and I brought Alycia to do the shopping last Saturday after dropping Sherilyn for ballet class. Alycia almost wanted to swoop all the boxed and bar chocolates that were on the shelves of the mini market into our shopping cart. But we had a budget. So we got her a total of 10 boxes and bars of chocolates for her teachers, including the Mandarin tutor who comes to our place. Fortunately the mil who has a passion for baking volunteered to bake cup cakes for Sherilyn’s teachers, which costs cheaper than buying chocolates. And so she was in charged of Sherilyn’s teachers’ gifts from the baking of the cuppies to the wrapping to writing notes in Chinese.

This is what Alycia and Sherilyn gave their teachers for Teachers’ Day this year:

Bar and boxed chocolates wrapped using mil’s pretty plastic wrappers and tapes which she bought in Taiwan. The mil did all the wrapping and Alycia wrote the little notes for her teachers.

The mil’s creation… homemade chocolate cuppies with walnuts, wrapped with polka dot plastic bags. Pretty eh?

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Che Che Bit Me!

Just a moment ago I heard a loud yell from Cass and then she started to bawl very loudly. I dashed into the bedroom and Cass was pointing her finger at Alycia.

Cass – che che bit me!!

Me – che che beat you or bit you?

Cass – she bit me on my cheek and I didn’t do anything to her but she bit me, uwawawawawawa!!! (and continued to bawl in pain)

Alycia – no no I didn’t! (with a big streak of guilt shown on her face)

As I was questioning Alycia as to why she bit her baby sister’s cheek, I broke out laughing uncontrollably. After the recent incident where I saw Alycia smelling Cass’ hand, now she’s at it again – she bit her baby sister like a doggie!! The thought of this loving sister who could not contain her love towards her baby sister thus bit her just tickled my funny bone. I know Alycia did all these because she could not contain her ‘geram-ness’ looking at her cute baby sister LOL!!! And err, I must confess that I did bite my 3 girls on their Michellin thighs and arms when they were babies, oops!! And I still do pinch Cass’ fat thighs all the time coz they are just too tempting to be squeezed, muahahahaha!!

Later, Alycia told me that she loves the smell of her baby sister, which smelled like ‘perfume’. But Cass who was still seething with anger and pain told me to confiscate all her che che’s ‘stars’ (which I gave her each time she scored a 100% for her weekly Ejaan, Spelling, Ting Xie and Xiao Khau) for biting her cheek.

After I had left the room, the 2 sisters were chummy with each other all over again. Just had to pen this incident down as I think it is just too funny 😀

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Fetish On Erasers

Guess whose work of art and creativity this was from….

I was fuming mad when I saw the vandalized eraser, with staple bullets all over it. All 3 rascals were highly suspicious but the person who did it was the least in my suspicion list. 2 weeks later, I saw another eraser with the same work of art on it. I was in a rage I tell you, burning angry becoz this rascal had yet to learn how to care for and appreciate her belongings, that were all bought from her parents’ hard-earned money. This rascal seems to have a fetish on erasers…. she keeps buying them yet those erasers seem to have been fully used very quickly or lost all the time! She never fails to persuade me to buy her an eraser each time we are out shopping. She always gives me excuses that her other erasers do not leave a clean surface on the paper after erasing. She also always tells me that her sisters had damaged or lost her erasers. With this repeated ‘vandalism’ on her erasers, I told her that this act of mischief will mark the end of her eraser collection and she will have to use her boxful of erasers and take good care of them before I decide to lift the eraser ‘ban’ from her!

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Our Sunday – 20 May 2012

Though Alycia still has 2 more papers to sit for tomorrow, I nevertheless wanted her to enjoy her weekend after a stressful week-long of exam. We all woke up early and spent over an hour sweating it out at the park while getting our neglected dose of Vitamin D from the glorious morning sun. After an energy zapping session at the park, we headed over to Ficelle Boulangerie And Pattisserie but gosh, the cafe was packed to the brim, so no thanks, we ain’t going to join in the crazy queue. Alycia suggested Antipodean Cafe @ Bangsar as she loves the banana pancakes at this newly opened Aussie cafe. Daddy was beaming to hear her suggestion as he had wanted to bring us to Antipodean since last week but I said no because it was the eve of the girls’ exam.

Smiley and sweaty girls on the way to Antipodean …

I must say that between La Bodega and Antipodean, my hubs and I prefer Antipodean. It is also evidenced that patrons are more gravitated towards this cafe, though La Bodega is situated just next to Antipodean. The waiters and waitresses were friendly and the gwai lo boss himself would be there to attend to customers. Securing a table at peak periods can be a difficult matter, but unquestionably worth a wait. Today we were very lucky as the boss attended to us personally and we got a table within 5 minutes. Though the cafe is packed today (we were there at around 10:30am), waiting time before food is served was amazingly short. Needless to say, breakfast is bang-up. My hubs and I would get really excited checking out the outstanding array of menu written on the blackboard each time we are there. We love their coffee too. They serve Merdeka Coffee, which is a boutique coffee lable that sources beans from various parts of Indonesia. Today we bought a packet of Merdeka coffee beans from Antipodean for my mil who is a gourmet coffee lover.

Not going to post individual pictures of the food that we ate today as I had posted them not too long ago.

The Appogoto @ RM10 (ice cream with rich coffee) was something that we ordered today, for the first time, besides a butter-free chocolate cake (not in pic and tasted mediocre only. I still find that cakes made with butter are tastier, albeit more fattening). Coffee fanatics would love this and there are no doubts that all my 3 girls are coffee lovers as they polished off this cup of decadent caffeine even before I could help myself to a second spoon! I was busy positioning the cup of Appogoto to get a perfect snap shot and after getting a few jittery shots (with their hands attacking the cup and me swatting their hands), the cup of dessert was gone by the time I was done!

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My Little Social Butterfly’s Saturday

As I am typing this, the clock shows 5 minutes to 10pm and my 7-YO daughter is still out having fun without her daddy and mummy. In fact, this girl has been out the whole afternoon and evening. She went for ballet class in the afternoon and now she is having a whale of a time with her best friend, Berlyn and Berlyn’s family. She left the house at 5:30pm for swimming at Berlyn’s place. Now they are at Mid Valley Megamall having Japanese food. The picture below was tagged to my FB page by Berlyn’s mummy, via her mobile phone. My 7-year old social butterfly is having a blast of her life and if I would allow her, I know she would jump at the opportunity to sleep over at Berlyn’s house too! It’s a nice thing to have a best friend and I hope that this friendship of Sherilyn and Berlyn’s will last forever.

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Exam’s Over, Welcome Holiday!

Alycia and Sherilyn’s mid-term exam is finally over today! But for Alycia, she still has to sit for the Science and Math test papers in English language on Monday. I find this a tad ridiculous. The students have to study in dual language for Math and Science and sit for the exam twice (first in Chinese language and then in English) BUT the marks for the 2 test papers in English are not calculated to determine the class and standard positions. So what’s the point? The students know that they do not really have to put in their best effort as it is pointless. Even if they score 100% or flunk the test, that will not affect their class and standard positions. The schools are merely putting up the tests in the spirit of the Government’s call previously for these 2 subjects to be taught in English.

Anyway, a big bag of stress is off both my shoulders and I can now walk with both my shoulders feeling so much lighter 😀 The girls and I are all very excited and looking forward to our trip to Port Dickson. It will be the girls’ first visit to Port Dickson. We will be staying at Thistle Port Dickson, a very nice hotel by the beach. Can’t wait to have this long-awaited break with my girls and hubs!

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Throes of Motherhood… Bad Day (Part 2)

The adage “when it rains it pours” holds so true. Yesterday was indeed bad all the way to way past mid night!! It felt like a big patch of dark cloud was hanging on us, with looming danger inside the patch of dark cloud, waiting to unleash onto us bit by bit. At about 8pm yesterday, while almost finishing her dinner, all of a sudden my baby girl complained of ear pain. We thought that it was just a lame excuse from her so that she could avoid finishing the remaining rice and veggie. But she cried (which is not usual) and kept saying that her right ear was painful. This went on for almost an hour. I immediately google searched ‘symptoms and causes of ear infection in children’. One of the causes is recent flu and upper respiratory throat infection, so bingo! As she is still recovering from a flu and cough, this could be one of the reasons. My hubs sped home and brought his precious to the hospital. Though the MO diagnosed inflamed ear, I do not feel confident with his answer. I have never really trusted the expertise of some of the MOs in that small hospital. I doubt some are qualified doctors. But since it was quite late at night, we brought her to the nearest hospital. She was given an ear drop and Nurofen for the pain. I only gave her the ear drop but skipped the Nurofen since she had stopped complaining about the pain. If the pain still persist today, we will bring Cass to our usual paed today.

The bad day still had not ended. I could not sleep the whole night as a stupid dog was barking incessantly the whole night!! The barks were from one of the houses next to our condo. Actually this has been going on for a week already but the bugger owner did not bother to shut his dog’s mouth up. I am certain I am not the only victim in our condo who has been having interrupted sleep for the past one week. I know my mil could not sleep well too because of the dog’s incessant barks. I am sure other residents were affected too. And just as I was about to fall into a deep sleep, all of a sudden on a very warm and humid night, it became very, very blustery (but no thunderstorm). A long gust of strong wind came. I could hear the howling of the strong wind beating on our windows and the windows were vibrating ferociously. The blinds in our room kept swaying and beating on our windows. This went on for about half an hour. I got up to check the situation and then could not go back to sleep until this morning. A dog howling followed by strong winds howling in the middle of the night. Sounds like a familiar scene from a horror flick? I feel so zonked out now. Just feel like picking up my phone and make a call to complain about this dog right now!

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Throes of Motherhood… Bad Day

First I received an email from my local supplier breaking the most dreaded news to me – that 10 lots of her kids clothes stock are not in the consignment. Either the overseas supplier had left them out or they were stolen. The consignment of stock has been delayed for 3 weeks now due to some picketing at the Customs Dept. Now, I am told that some of the stock are lost! When it rains, it sure pours man!! I am badly affected as I had ordered quite a bit of stock from my supplier. She is now checking her order list and will let me know how seriously I am affected. I’ll bet I will hear such comments as“WHAT, you made me wait so long and now you tell me no stock?? I want a refund?!!!” from some of my difficult customers who have been chasing me daily. What can I say? I have to face the music. It is never easy to be in a business that deals with people. God help me handle these customers professionally.

This morning, I had woken up 15 minutes earlier to ensure that Alycia and Sherilyn wake up earlier. Last night, they had asked me to wake them up earlier this morning so that they could go through their Mandarin subject notes. Today is their Mandarin subject test. Alycia has a phobia of Han Yu Pin Yin and wants to go through her notes this morning. Sherilyn asked me to wake her up earlier so that she could tie a neat bun as her hair is getting long and touching the collar of her shirt. They had gone to the lobby at 6:25am to wait for the transporter but after fifteen minutes, my maid is still not back yet. Twenty minutes on still not back yet. Then Berlyn’s mother called me and asked what happened to the transporter. Bids me I want to know too. The transporter was half an hour late today! Apparently, she had misplaced her mobile phone and was hunting for it, DUH! My poor Alycia will surely have to face the wrath of the teacher in charged of the school prefects. I just have a feeling that Alycia ain’t going to pass her probation as a prefect as she arrived in school late for 2-3 times already ever since she was selected to be a prefect on probation. It is totally of no fault of hers. What can I say? If it’s not hers to hold, then let it be. I do not want the both of us to feel stressed up. Just hope that for the rest of today, everything else will fall into place just like how I want it to be. And I pray that Alycia and Sherilyn will fare well in their Mandarin papers today.

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Our 2012 Mother’s Day

It was yet another simple Mother’s Day celebration for us this year. We could not go to anywhere that’s too far or would take up too much time as both Alycia and Sherilyn will be sitting for their mid-term exam tomorrow. I am not too worried for Alycia but for Sherilyn, I have tried my utmost best to coach her and am hoping for the best for her. There were lots of ‘vomit-blood’ and ‘blood vessels eruption’ moments with Sherilyn, sigh… I hope that on her exam day, she will remember all that I have revised with her for the past few days.

After brunch at our favourite Casa Del Cocco cafe, we went home to have the not-to-be-missed candle-blowing, singing and cake cutting session. Hubs bought a very nice yam cake with agar-agar. The icing and agar-agar were in my favourite color – lilac. The size was just right – not too big and just right for everyone to have a second serving.

The angels showing off their handmade Mother’s Day cards and craft….

After the cake-cutting session, some dilly dallying and a nap, I only had about 3 hours of revision to do with Alycia and Sherilyn. Praying hard that I will not get a hard-attack moment when Sherilyn brings home her test papers. Well, I do not mind having a heart-attack moment seeing a 100% score for her papers though. I have over 3 more weeks to worry as the test papers and class position will normally only be out after the mid-term break.

I hope you’ve had a very happy Mother’s Day celebration with your loved ones and I wish everyone a very fruitful week ahead.

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My First Mother’s Day Card From My Blog Reader!

When I received a pink envelope with my name written on it 3 days ago, I wonder who had sent me a card. It was sent to our old address. I thought it was probably a card from those jewelry shops or from my insurance agent. When the envelope was ripped off, I was pleasantly surprised to see a handmade Mother’s Day card with hand-written words. It was from one of my blog readers, turned customer and cyber-friend. I would never had expected to receive a Mother’s Day card from my blog readers. e-Cards I have received plenty but a card sent by snail mail, that’s a rarity in this day and age!

On the first page of the card was a neatly hand-sewn cross-stitch letter of S, which is the initial of my name Shireen. The rectangular piece of cloth has neatly sewn sequins on the 4 borders.

On the inside of the card was a hand-written note to me. The card was post-dated to 13 May 2012, which is the actual day of Mother’s Day. I cannot tell you how touched I was to have received this hand-made card. Thanks very much ST!

To all mothers out there, here’s wishing you a very happy mother’s day. I wish you’ll have a very joyous time celebrating this special day on Sunday! Let you hair loose, forget about the laundry and dusty floor. Pamper yourself from head to toe or simply have a special meal with the loved ones of your life.

** Happy Mother’s Day to my own mummy and thanks for being a loving and caring mother as well as granny to the girls 🙂

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Happy Friday :)

A customer made my day today! Just a moment ago, she PMed me in FB telling me that she had received her parcel and was very very pleased with the clothes. She told me that I had brightened her day and commented that the ladies clothes and kids clothes were “super duper nice” Such heartwarming words to read! She is my customer turned cyber friend.

2 days ago, I received a Mother’s Day card from my blog reader turned customer turned cyber friend. I was indeed caught by surprise to have received the beautifully crafted hand-made card by snail mail some more! I shall post pix of the card tomorrow.

I hope your Friday is just as pleasant as mine. Happy weekend everyone and Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers out there. Enjoy your very special Sunday. For us, it will be a revision week-end. Stressful for me and for the kids. I am sacrificing my Mother’s Day outing to guide Alycia and Sherilyn in their mid-term exam revision. To be able to see good marks on their test papers will be the best Mother’s Day gift for me!

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A Little Embarrassment Is The Trick!

This was what I had to be forced to do when little Miss Forgetful and Scattered-Brain repeatedly forgot to bring her books back home for revision. The Mandarin tutor had asked her to bring her Science textbook along with all her Mandarin exercise books back for revision. Despite umpteen ~~nagging~~ verbal reminders and also written reminders, she still had the cheek to forget! I took the trouble to write the reminder on a piece of A4 size paper and put it into her school bag. But she protested, bawled and attempted to remove the note but I stuck to my gun. A few days later when she had still forgotten to bring her books back, I stuck a fresh note on the EXTERIOR of her school bag, which she removed and stuck it to her pencil box. OK, I allowed, though very hesitant. I gave in as I wanted to save her from some possible embarrassment from being poked fun at by her friends. But this girl did not make full use of the very last chance that her mummy gave her and in the 2nd week, still no sight of the books that she was supposed to bring home for revision! So this is what I did and voila, it worked!

Sometimes, a little embarrassment to a child is all it needs in order for things to get done and for behaviour to improve. It is through embarrassment that one will forever remember not to make the same mistake. Once bitten twice shy, and I hope I do not have to use the same tactic again on her. No prize for guessing who Miss Forgetful and Scattered-Brain is eh?

No. of times viewed = 293