HEALTH FREAK MOMMY – Page 160 – The joys and throes of motherhood…

My Environment-Conscious 3-YO Girl

Baby is by far the most environment-conscious 3-YO girl I have ever met. She reminds her 2 sisters, kakak and me each time we forget to put empty bottles and boxes into the bags meant for recyclable items, in our wet kitchen. After drinking her packet milk and Vitagen, she will bring the empty box and bottles to the wet kitchen and place them into the bag meant for recyclable items. She is the only one who takes the trouble to remember to turn off the tower fan when no one is in the living room. When she sees flyers with an empty page at the reverse side, she will say “this one can use”. When I throw unwanted papers away, she will say “don’t throw, can recycle” I am really proud of this cili padi and am amazed with her civic-mindedness at such a tender age. Way to go baby girl!

Whenever we see this clown trying to ‘wear’ my bag (which I use to put my customers’ parcels), everyone will burst out in a guffaw. She looks really hilarious and ridiculous and toooooo funny to be angry with.

No. of times viewed = 2136

Monster Is Here!

I am so excited! Tomorrow I can plug in the coolest in-ear Lady Gaga earphones by Monster into my Blackberry and enjoy my favorite songs when I work out in the gym. I have always found it a tad boring to work out in our gym that has no piped in music or radio. Now, I can make my work-out sessions even more enjoyable with Monster! When I tried the earphones just now, the sound effect was crystal clear. Alan Yun, my good friend told me about Monster over lunch the other day. He has a Monster ear phone too. In case you wondering who Alan Yun is, he is the lead actor from the movie Sepet. He is also a model, restaurateur, entrepreneur and of course a celebrity! If you are a music junkie, I’m pretty sure you would have heard that Monster has finally arrived in Malaysia.

Monster®, the global leader in the development and manufacturing of high-performance connectivity solutions, headphones and A/V accessories, is officially launched in Malaysia. As part of its debut in the country, Monster® is introducing the latest range of stylish and high-performance headphones and earphones.

Here are just some of the cool and superbly stylish Monster earphones and headphones. They look just like accessories for my ears and head, unlike the conventional black ones.

Beats™ Solo™ has three versions with Solo™ High Performance (Black), Solo™ High Definition (White) and Solo™ Special Edition HD (Red)

Monster® iSport Immersion: In Tune with an Active Lifestyle

Monster® Game T1 Championship: Take the Game to a New Level

Harajuku Lovers In-Ear Headphones. I think these are too cute to not own a pair.

And here’s presenting my elegant and stylo Lady Gaga in-ear earphones! They look like pink saffire earrings when I plug them in. Nice leh!!

Alan Yun – in green sweater in the middle, together with other celebs during the launch of Monster recently.

No. of times viewed = 1204

Hilarious Conversation… and Our Sunday

I just have to put this on record as this is too cute.

Over dinner just now:

Alycia – I don’t want to get married when I grow up. Cassandra, you don’t get married too ok?

Me – Baby, you told mummy you want to get married when you grow up right? You told me you want to have your own babies, then mummy will be a granny and granny will be a great-granny right?

Baby then nods her head approvingly and giggles…

Later at the dining table, Alycia was trying very hard to influence Cassandra to change her mind, so that she will join her as spinsters LOL!

Alycia – Cassandra, you don’t get married ok? We use our money to buy a big bungalow and stay together ok? We go to the cinema together, go watch movies, buy pop corns, go swimming, go Gentings and go shopping ok?

Baby – what if we get lost?

Alycia – haiyoh, we will be adults that time, we won’t get lost, crazy you!

Sherilyn – hey, I want to join you shopping too. I want to get married. Berlyn (Sherilyn’s best friend) also wants to get married. We will bring our babies and go shopping with you ok?

… and the funny conversation on getting married vs remaining single continues until now, as I am typing this entry LOL!!

Here are some pix taken at Bangsar Village today. We had lunch at Buffalo Kitchen (runs by Buffalo – the stainless steel and pressure cook pot specialist) and then had dessert at Haagan Dazs.

Our plate of sinful indulgence, which was a good deal at only RM29 – 6 scoops of ice cream of different flavors (including 2 sorbet flavors).

Baby’s appetite is always ravenous when it comes to desserts. She gobbled down the ice cream like she had never eaten ice cream in her life and the consequences was disastrous. She spewed out the regurgitated ice cream and pasta like lava onto the ice cream plate when everything was polished off !

And I could afford a nice indulgence as I had burned over 300 calories this morning on the road and in the gym

No. of times viewed = 270

Carb Filled Saturday

That’s our bowl of ice kacang from Kopitiam this afternoon. After dropping off Sherilyn for ballet, we killed the time at Kopitiam and did some groceries shopping. We also ordered a bowl of curry noodles and fish head noodles, which we all shared. Besides, I chomped down a ham and cheese bun bought from my favorite bakery before I gulped down the ice- kacang. This morning I had kuih for breakfast, a delight that I will indulge in once a week, on a Saturday. What a carb and junk filled day I’ve had today and I am corroded with guilt now as I was too lazy to hit the gym this morning! Tomorrow will be another day of eating. I must hit the sack now so that I can pull my butt out from bed to work out tomorrow morning!

Have a great Sunday peeps!

As usual, my food always gets ‘taxed’ and pecked on before I can dig on it.

No. of times viewed = 179

Cassandra Says The Darndest Things

At 3years 4months, Baby is one very chatty toddler, who likes to speak with pun and sarcasm too. She is really good with her words. I guess this is contributed by the fact that she’s got 2 siblings as role models to her. She has the ability to tickle my funny bone all the time and gives me a good hearty laugh all the time. God is fair. Baby was born with quite a bit of problems (which is now almost completely solved) but her wittiness and sense of humor are now negating all the frustration and hardship I had to struggle with.

This morning, she said something that sent my helper and I chortling. My helper was carrying a tray of bowls and plates and wanted to enter the dry kitchen from the wet kitchen, which is separated by a sliding mozzie netting door. As both her hands are tied, she called out to Baby to help her open the mozzie netting.

Kakak – Cassandra, help me open the net please.

Baby – NO! Use your leg to open it yourself!

My helper and I laughed our hearts out hearing such sarcasm coming out from a 3yo girl. That fella knew that her kakak could still open the net with one of her toes, like she always does, thus refused to help. But the manner in which she replied, in a as a matter of fact mockery tone, tickled our funny bones.

No. of times viewed = 170

Chatime @ The Gardens, Mid Valley KL

If you walk from Mid Valley Megamall to The Gardens, there is something that will surely catch your eyes and that is the looooooooong beeline at the Chatime Pearl Milk kiosk. I am not a big fan of sweet tea, but was very very tempted to try a cup of those chewy pearl milk tea, that so many have been raving about. And so was the hubs. So we joined in the looooong bee line and while waiting, had to make up our minds on which one to choose. Chatime boasts over 120 flavors of drinks from coffee to tea to juices and smoothies and other unique drinks made up of a concoction of interesting ingredients. Chatime has recently landed its feet in Malaysia. It is one of the most well-known brands of bubble tea and has over 300 outlets worldwide.

These are our selection, which was really really hard to make as there were just too many to choose from!

For those with a sweet tooth, they will love Chatime’s flavored drinks with something oh so chewy in their drinks. For me, I find that Chatime’s level of sweetness has surpassed my sweetness acceptance level. Perhaps they should come up with a range of pearl milk flavors with reduced sugar. This way, diabetics, health freaks and the like can enjoy their drinks too. Or maybe I should open a kiosk in Gardens too, selling less-sugar pearl milk tea for diabetics, health freaks and those on diet

Have you tried Chatime’s flavored pearl milk? And how do you like them?

No. of times viewed = 666

Accident Prone Dare-Devil

Rascal #2 is very prone to accidents since young. Her thumb was squashed by a steel door when she was 1.5yo (and the bone of her thumb was chipped), she was hit by a swing in the playground and got thrown on the ground when she was 1yo, her forehead has a cut resulting from a piggy-back ride fall (from Alycia) when she was 3yo and countless numbers of falls. Sigh… this rascal is truly a dare-devil. All the falls, bone breaking, pain and threats from mummy are still not deterring her from being mischievous.

The other day, the skin of her palm almost came off when her palm was pinched by a door. God knows what she did in the walk-in wardrobe and I suspect that her hand must have been caught in the pull-open door. When I asked her how she hurt her hand, she vehemently refused to tell me, coz she knew that I will scold her. Anyway, on the day of the minor accident, she ran out from the room screaming and crying. I was shocked to see her very bruised palm which was starting to bleed. I quickly took an ice cube, wrapped it in a hanky and applied on her palm. Both her sisters ran to her aid. Baby gave her che che lots of pat on her back to ‘sayang’ her. Alycia dashed to the first aid cupboard to bring out a plaster and a tube of Dettol cream. Though the girls fight and bicker all the time, in times like these, they still care for each other very much. What a heart warming scene, albeit the gory sight of the bloody palm!

No. of times viewed = 233

Simple And Nutritious Homecooked Dishes… By Moi

These are some of the dishes that I whipped up last week. You may be wondering why all so porky?? I had used minced pork in most of my dishes. That’s because the pork seller (don’t know whether he deliberately or accidentally) put 2 packets of minced pork into my bag instead of 1 and charged me for 2 packets! So with so much minced pork, I had to add minced pork in most of my dishes and also whipped up a minced pork pattie dish. The results were all good. My 3 fussy eaters loved all the dishes that I cooked… and I am beginning to feel that I am a better cook each passing day *gloats and floats in air* hehehehe….

Stir fried purple cabbage with lots of garlic and minced pork…

Pan fried prawns with soy sauce and wine aka kon cheen har loke…

Pink beans + red beans + pork ribs soup….

Stir fried young lotus roots with minced porky again…

Stir fried leek with minced pork yet again…

And minced pork pattie. It was my first time making pork pattie and it turned out fantastico, very delicious! The only ingredient that I had forgotten to add in was chopped onions. Anyhow, the pattie was still very tasty. I added these ingredients to the minced pork mixture before pan frying them : 1 tbs sesame seed oil, 1 tbs of corn flour, ground mixed pepper, a dash of brown sugar, sea salt, soy sauce, spring onions, an egg and about 1 teaspoon of rye flour. The texture was just right and not coarse or dry at all.

No. of times viewed = 216

American Breakfast By Daddy Dear

The hubs was in a mood to whip up an American breakfast for us on Sunday. After having brunch of dim sum at Han Room @ Gardens on Saturday, we went to Cold Storage to get some cheese-filled jumbo sausages, bacon, fresh mushrooms and salad. True to his promise, he got up really early on Sunday while I was still in the gym and starting ‘woking’ in the kitchen. When I entered the house, the wafting aroma of fried bacon and sausages filled the house

The girls were truly delighted to have daddy fixing such a sumptuous breakfast for them, which only happens like what, 3-4 times in a year? We were all so full that we only had our lunch at 3pm.

3 little hungry girls waiting impatiently for mummy to snap pix, which is a NORM before any out-of-ordinary meals haha!

Jumbo cheese-filled sausages…

Cheese omelette… and Miss Impatient’s hand at the back. She was trying to peck on the sausages…

Stir fried fresh button mushrooms with olive oil and garlic. There were also bacon strips, which I specifically told hubs to buy non-smoked and non-salty ones. The ones he bought were not salty.

No. of times viewed = 234

Not So Unhealthy Chips

Remember my earlier post on Food For Friends organic tortilla chips? I got another pack and this time, I got the multi-colored veggie flavored one. The red chips are made from beet root powder, green ones from spinach powder and yellow ones from organic corns. Yums, feel so good when I munch on them. Can feel the chips lift my mood up as the stress melts away hehehe….

These are the only chips that I do not mind my girls to snack on as I find that they are not that salty. But I do limit their intake to no more than 3 chips a day. The chips are free from MSG and the flavorings come from sea salt, parsley flakes, carrot powder, tomato powder, lime and garlic powder.

No. of times viewed = 234

Clandestine Snacking!

For weeks, I had been eyeing the last stick of Mini Magnum that had been sitting in the freezer. Each time I opened the freezer door to take bread and frozen dish, the Mini Magnum seduced me invitingly. But my girls were always around. Today, my cough is better. I was itching to rip apart the Mini Magnum wrapper and sink my teeth into the crispy chocolate coating and cold luscious, creamy milk. I had an opportunity finally. Baby was playing. Rascal #2 was playing too. The maid had gone done to wait for Alycia. But I had to do it quick. Alycia would be back anytime. Baby would notice me missing from my work area. I covertly went to the fridge, opened the freezer done and quietly removed the Mini Magnum very carefully so that the sound of the aluminium wrapper will not rouse suspicion. Kids are ultra sensitive to the sounds of ice cream wrappers or sounds of the junk food bag. You yell at them and they seem deaf but the sounds of junk food shaking in the bag would raise their ears up instantly!

I made a quick dash to the wet kitchen, quickly ripped the wrapper apart and then sank my teeth on that sinful carb. Woohoo, very nice feeling and I could feel some of my stress melting away. I quickly chewed and swallowed. I heard Baby calling out for me. Then I heard Alycia and the maid’s voice at the door. They had returned!! OH NO!! Baby then yelled out “mummy, I want to wee wee!!!” 4-5 times. I ignored her and tried to gobble the whole damn ice cream down my throat but darn it, it was too cold and my mouth and forehead got numb!!! I quickly put the remaining 1/4 of the ice cream in a bowl and quickly sneaked it back to the freezer. Alycia greeted me and I attended to Baby’s needs. No one suspected and noticed that mummy had chomped down the last Mini Magnum hahahah! After washing Baby up and fixed Alycia’s lunch of homemade fried noodles, I discreetly took the remaining quarter Mini Magnum out from the freezer and with one mouthful, finished off the decadent sin. You may ask why I have to do it so discreetly? That’s because the kids have a slight cough too and I don’t want them to eat ice cream. Phew, what a life having to eat like a thief! I will miss the suspense of clandestine snacking when my brood leave the nest 12 years down the road.

No. of times viewed = 266

My Precious Baby… and An Unforgettable Journey

Before my girls came along, I told God that I would do anything for Him if only He could grant me a child. I was desperately longing for a baby but faced so much problems trying to conceive and sustain a pregnancy. I was often on the verge of crying after attending full-moon parties thrown by my friends. The hubs and I spent over a year in full-swing on our ‘baby project’. On our very first visit to the fertility specialist’s office, the doctor did a scan of my ovaries. We did not plan to perform an IUI so soon. It was supposedly a mere consultation and to seek advice. But after the first scan, our doctor was very excited and told us that he saw a nice round egg sitting in my ovary. Woohoo, so he did what was necessary – hormone jabs, hormone suppositories and hormone oral tabs were prescribed. I dutifully took all those and I think about a week later, went to the gynae’s office to have the procedure done. But all was not rosy on the day of the IUI procedure. Our doctor shook his head in disappointment after analyzing the hubs’ little swimmers. I will never forget his words when he walked into the Procedures Room. He said this solemnly to me :“only 3% are good”. I was lying on the bed, getting ready for the procedure but his words dashed my hopes. Nevertheless, I prayed fervently that lots of miracles would happen. Only a miracle could make the 3% good little swimmers find their ways and embrace the one precious little egg, that was about to make its descend in the next few hours or so.

Long, long story cut short. Miracles did happen to me. God answered my prayers. Alycia my first miracle was born 8 months later. She was an extremely precious baby to all of us. Though we could not afford an expensive baby nursery for her, she was nonetheless given the best of every other thing in her life, up until today. Alycia will always have a very special place in my heart and I am forever thankful to Him for giving her and my 2 other angels to me.

No. of times viewed = 420

Business Minded!

Yesterday Alycia came home from school grinning away. Half way through lunch, she went to her school bag and dug out something and happily told me that her friend gave her an Angry Bird plastic zip-type pencil case. This girl of mine has been absolutely crazy over Angry Birds lately. She sleeps with her Angry Bird cushion and has Angry Bird pencils, erasers and pencil case. She plays Angry Bird on the iPad2 when she has completed her homework. She draws Angry Birds everyday during her free time. Oh coming back to the Angry Bird pencil that her friend gave her. I wasn’t too happy that her friend had given her things again. This girl always comes home telling me that her friends had given her this and that (stationery items all the time) to reward her for helping them do their homework!

After much probing, Alycia finally told me the truth why her friend (a boy) gave her the pencil case. Her friend had asked her to help him complete his homework. This girl always helps her classmates with their homework and then receive benefits in kind! While I am rather happy that this girl has an entrepreneurial mind, just like her mummy (I made my first few Ringgit when I was in Standard 2, by making bookmarks and sold them to my classmates), I am not too happy that she is doing this in class. What if her classmates’ mummies come after me and question why my daughter is ‘extorting’ their child!! I told Alycia to return the Angry Bird pencil case to her friend. I doubt she will do it but I will follow through today. I just bought her an Angry Birds pencil case on Friday last week.

Would you allow your child to receive benefit like this from his/her classmates?

No. of times viewed = 270

Good Question

It was raining just now and still is. While having lunch of mushroom soup pasta, rascal #2 asked me this question while staring at the top of the huge rainforest trees that can be seen from the 5th floor of our unit. Very often huge bee hives and perhaps bird’s nests on the trees can be seen from our unit.

Sherilyn – mummy, is bird’s nest sticky?

Me – huh? what do you mean? No, I think they are not sticky. (I thought she meant the edible bird’s nest).

Sherilyn – then how come birds’ nests stay on the tree during heavy rain? They must be sticky and stick to the tree.

Me – errr, good question. I am not too sure too.

How do birds’ nests stay on trees even after a heavy downpour? Rascal #2 had just asked a very good question which I need an answer too. LOL!! Anyone?

No. of times viewed = 259

Healthy Chips Made From Soy, Flaxseed, Organic Corns and Sea Salt

Here’s my latest stress buster –

When I am stressed out to the max by the girls and with work, I munch on feel-good comfort food like this. This Food For Friends tortilla chips are made from organic soy grits, organic stone ground yellow corns, lots of organic brown flaxseeds, lime and sea salt. Not very salty and taste good to me. I am going to grab another bag of these chips from the mini market tomorrow when I drop rascal #2 for ballet

Good source of DHA and fibre from the flaxseeds. But quite costly at RM12.90 a bag…. well actually it’s only half bag full!

No. of times viewed = 4597

Learning From Their New iPad2

Rascal #2 learns very well in an environment that has elements of fun peppered with lots of visual and audio enhancement. She likes sounds and colors, not the boring black and white words and numbers. So our new iPad2 is now her best tutor. I love Apple for creating such wonderful apps for kids in their iPads. There are thousands of free apps for kids Math, kids flash cards, spelling, kids eBooks, kids songs, free online Mandarin help and awesome flash cards and loads more. The only apps that I purchased is nciku.com which only cost USD7.99, which is still way cheaper than getting a Besta.

Solving Math equations…

Learning Mandarin…

Free Mandarin apps…

Learning the flags of the countries of the world through game. This game is really ‘shiok’, even I find it thrilling as the brick letters will fall off if you don’t stick them hard and fast enough to the squares and there is a time limit for it…

Rascal #3 multi-tasking… drinking water and learning spelling…

With all these fantastic kids apps, Apple has been pocketing loads of money from parents like myself. I think my girls are learning loads from the free iPad2 educational apps as well as paid ones like nciku.com and other e-books websites.

No. of times viewed = 469