Month: February 2017

Go Natural With Baby Mantra

When I had my first baby, me being the first time new mom didn’t know that shampoos meant for babies and young kids may contain harsh chemicals that may be toxic. I bought a very well known brand of baby shampoo and thought that it was the best since my mother bathed me with this brand of shampoo too. In fact, many mothers still use this brand of baby products as it has grown to be a household name for baby bath products.  And like how many mothers used to bathe their babies in the  1970s and 80s by  putting a few drops of baby body shampoo into a tub of water and then washing the baby inside the tub of soap water without rinsing afterwards, I naturally did the same with my  first born.  She developed bad rashes on her skin, especially on her cheeks and scalp.

Two babies later, I was a smarter and more well-informed mother.  I found out later that the brand of baby bath products that I had been using on my girls contains sulfates and paraben.

Studies have shown that some parabens can mimic the activity of the hormone estrogen in the body’s cells, and while estrogenic activity is associated with certain forms of breast cancer, parabens have been found present in breast tumors. Sulfates are concerning because they were found to break down proteins, which can lead to a degenerative effect on the cell membranes. Sulfates were also found to leave residue in the heart, lungs, and brain.

With my third baby, I bought only baby bath products that are free from sulfates and paraben.

Many beauty companies have swapped out sulfates for other chemicals, which can sometimes even be worse. To ensure that sulfate-free products won’t further damage your skin and hair, look for products that use fruit or vegetable-based cleansing ingredients.

One such brand of baby toiletries that uses natural and organic ingredients is Baby Mantra.

Baby Mantra is a natural, organic, gluten-free, vegan, PETA, EWG verified and NPA certified skincare line for moms, babies, kids and sensitive adults!

Every Baby Mantra product is:

  • EWG VERIFIED TM
  • Rated “1” on EWG’s Skin Deep
  • Certified by the Natural Products Association
  • PETA Certified – Cruelty Free
  • NO Sulfates
  • NO Parabens
  • NO Phthalates
  • NO Parabens
  • NO Dyes
  • NO Artificial Fragrances
  • Gluten Free
  • Allergy Tested

Baby Mantra natural baby body wash has such natural ingredients as lavender and coconut oil. The calming lotion has shea butter and soothing lavender and the baby rash ointment has nourishing sunflower seed oil.

Made in the U.S.A from only top quality all-natural and organic ingredients, www.babymantra.com hosts an entire product line of baby lotions, baby oils, Mommy Body butter, shampoo & body wash all tested and approved by the founder and her beautiful baby girls. Do check them out and I am sure you will fall in love with Baby Mantra’s range of soothing and natural toiletries.

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Book Worm

Cass is a book worm. She reads ALL sorts of novels and magazines, even Reader’s Digest.

During spring cleaning of the house just before CNY, the hubs fished out a drawer full of books. They were mostly my old novels. I left the pile of books in a box  to be given away.  And the little worm inched her way to the box, ransacked it and fished out a collection of novels from Reader’s Digest. It is a 4-in-1  Select Editions by Reader’s Digest. I had received the book as complimentary gift when I renewed my Reader’s Digest subscription many, many moons back.

I was not even aware that the little book worm singled out this book until I saw her all wrapped up in this book for days. I took a closer look at the book and I could not believe that she was actually reading my novel, which is meant for young adults!  And she actually got so obsessed with the book that she read it for hours on end during the CNY holiday.

 

Cass reading the novel during lunch at home…

She brought it along with her when we went out for breakfast…

And she even stashed the book in her backpack and read it on the train during our ride back to Ipoh over CNY.

I can’t believe this girl has such strong interest in war stories dated way back to 1941 as she bombarded me incessantly with questions regarding the war.  And Nicholas Sparks’s romance stories too. Oh my oh my!!  She’s such a voracious reader, she’s definitely stacking up to her 2 older sisters and even her mum!

 

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2017 CNY Eve & “Chor Yat”

Hello peeps!!!  Koong hei fatt choy to everyone!  Sorry for the lack of update for a week. Whenever there is a school break, it will be really hard for me to steal even 5 minutes to warm the chair at my work desk. With relatives in and out of the house for a week, no helper, cooking and traveling, not only have I not had the time to do anything online, I have even developed a backache, OUCH!  Thank goodness no. 2 and no. 3 are back to school today and this gives me the reason to start my morning exercise regimen again. I am so glad to tell you that I have started running again. When the iron level goes up, so does my stamina! I am so happy that I am slowly but surely starting to run again without gasping for air.  I am still popping Sangobion iron tabs twice a day, on top of filling my tummy with foods rich in iron.

So what have we been doing this Chinese New Year?

On the eve of CNY, I brought the girls and the MIL to Mid Valley Megamall to do some last minute shopping. The hubs was and still has been busy with work.  I took the girls to shop for clothes at the eleventh hour.  Traffic leading to the mall was really smooth and getting a spot to park my car had never been this fast and easy!  While the girls were shopping for their clothes, I spotted a bright chili red mini skirt and bought it on impulse. OUCH to my wallet!!  But retail therapy is the best way to de-stress and buying stuff really does make me a very happy mommy 😍

After breaking my wallet just on clothes, the mil treated us to lunch at Upeh @ Gardens. We ordered  Nasi Dagang and Nasi Kerabu. Both the items were super yums.

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We had  dinner at the hubs’ uncle’s house where all the Yaps gathered for the first time in KL for the CNY reunion dinner. In previous years, some of them would celebrate in Ipoh and the rest in KL.  We had a pretty late night and only went to bed at close to 2am.

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On the first day of the year of the Rooster, I dragged myself out from bed to help out as a ‘dutiful’ daughter in law, though I had less than 6 hours of sleep.  We were expecting the hubs’ relatives for brunch of customary vegetarian food at our house.  This year, Cass helped to tie knots on dried daylily buds for the vegetarian dish.

Below – The vegetarian dish that the mil wokked up early in the morning of the first day of CNY. It totally slipped my mind that I had to snap a nice picture of the vegetarian dish before it was dug into. I only remembered to take a picture when we were eating this dish for dinner that night, ha!

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Below – The Yaps tossing the vegetarian ‘lou sang‘…

Below – tofu and vegetarian roast ‘duck’ that the hubs bought from a vegetarian restaurant. He waited for over 1 hour just for these 2 dishes.

After our customary vegetarian lunch at home, we went to Pavillion to do some red red CNY camwhoring 😍   Sorry, no pictures of our Pavillion photography will be posted here as a show of respect and privacy to my relatives who do not wish to be featured in my blog. I have instead taken pictures of Pavillion CNY 2017 from dunialifestyle.com to show you just how pretty and red the decor is this year.

Below – our tea and snacks at one of the newly opened cafes in Pavillion…

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Below – the nga ku (arrow root) plant that sprouted out from the arrow roots. The mil germinated the arrow roots in water 2 weeks before CNY and the green shoots shot up to this height on the first day of CNY.

 

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HEALTH FREAK MOMMY