Moos & muses ... everythin' in life!

My Entry For Blog It @ Le Meridien Kuala Lumpur

2010-05-04T23:11:00.003+08:00

My sisters are my best friends.

I know some are nodding your head and definitely agree with me. No friends are truer than my sisters, who shares my joys and sorrows, 24/7, with no fee or commitment attached.

In fact, I am one of the lucky one, I am blessed with 3 sisters. I came from a family of 4 girls. We are the 4 angels for Mommy and Daddy dearest (or so we think!). At times, we are also the "devils" that drive Mommy and Daddy dearest up the wall with our loud musics or late night partying!

Being in a family of 4 girls is so cool. We share clothes, shoes, bags, make-up and all the others girlly stuffs. Sharing almost the same shoe size and dress size, we basically get to have a wardrobe x 4!!! My sisters love to borrow my executive work wear and high heels and I love to borrow their funky clothing and accessories for weekend outings. Of course, we do have our ups and downs where we would fight over the most trivia thing like who get to use the bathroom first. Thank God, none of these fights involves any punching or kicking but more sisterly laughs that warm the house.

Being married now and all my sisters are already grown up (my youngest sister has just completed her final year at University), I do missed all those special bonding moments with my sisters. Where we use to have our holiday together has become an affair of “once in the blue moon” due to our busy work and personal schedules. Even family dinners are limited to Chinese New Year or birthdays gathering.

It would really be great if we could have a chance to dine at the fabulous Favola Italian restaurant @ Le Meridien Kuala Lumpur to catch up for old times and for a sisterly get-together where we can “camwhore” and stuff ourselves with all the yummy and delicious Italian antipasti and pasta without the rolling eyes of hubby or boyfriend. Well, not forgetting the cuppa of expresso and Tiramisu dessert too!

And oops, to complete the quota (me and 4 friends), of course I would like to invite Mommy dearest to join us for the delicious Italian fare too! After all, it is Mother's Day this month! Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

Keeping my finger crossed, I hope to be the lucky one to be selected to dine at Favola!! And yes, for those reading this blog post, Le Meridien is organizing a contest to reward you and 4 best friends to dine at Favola @ Le Meridien Kuala Lumpur. More information on the contest, please click here. Contest deadline 7 May 2010.

Favola, mean fable in Italian is well known for its delicious yet bold and simple flavors Italian cuisines. It is also the PERFECT place to share the spirit of an Italian family meal and many great stories.

Favola is located at Level 8, Le Meridien Kuala Lumpur and is open for lunch and dinner daily (except for Saturday lunch) and seats 75 persons. The restaurant also has a private dining room which can accommodate up to 20 persons.

Violet from the Incredible Family costume

2009-12-21T07:23:00.000+08:00

I dressed Werney as Violet from The Incredible Family for the recent Disney costume contest organised by PR Worldwide Live at One Utama Shopping Complex on 12 & 13 December 2009.

It was difficult to find any Incredible costume in Malaysia except for those in pasar malam and the quality is not that great. I have to search high and low and contacted many local costume shops, and unfortunately I couldn'd find any Incredible costume for Werney. Finally, I decided to create the costume from bit and pieces.

I bought a long red sleeve T-shirt (tight fitting one), red tights/stocking, black underwear, black gloove, black socks and shoes. For the Incredible logo, I put a huge sticker and sticked it to the chest area. I also sewed a bright orange ribbon as belt for the costume. For the mask, I pasted black coloured paper onto a party mask. It wasn't too difficult after all!

Werney did a dance on the stage for 2 minutes and was shortlisted for the final. However, she wasn't feeling too well on the second day and we couldn't attend the final. Anyway, see the full story featured in The Star paper dated 18 December 2009.

It was a great exposure for Werney as this is the first public contest she participated in. Being just 5 year old, she has to perform in front of hundred of shoppers. Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you!

Friday December 18, 2009

Disney characters come alive

By JADE CHAN
Photos by BRIAN MOH

ADORABLE Miyumi Teng, five, stole the spotlight with her colourful rendition of Under the Sea from Disney’s The Little Mermaid at the Disney Costume Parade at 1 Utama Shopping Centre in Petaling Jaya last Saturday.

Miyumi’s routine included dancing in a sparkly blue mermaid’s costume and an underwater setting, complete with a shell as her mermaid home and a couple of aquatic friends.

Her performance earned her a spot in the finals, and eventually won her the grand prize in her age category.

Hero in disguise: Jian Sue Wern, five, acting out her performance as Violet from ‘The Incredibles’.

Alicia Poh, nine, was awarded the other grand prize for her ballet routine as Belle dancing to the theme song from Beauty and the Beast.

The Disney Costume Parade was held in conjunction with Disney on Ice presents Disneyland Adventure in Kuala Lumpur, which will be held in March next year.

The parade was part of a three-day event during which families stood a chance of winning show tickets by taking part in fun activities and enjoying special ticket offers.

“The children have to dress up like their favourite Disney character and are given two minutes each to portray the character in the most creative manner, whether by singing, dancing or playing a music instrument.

“Those who buy tickets at the roadshow are also entitled to a 25% discount,” said B. Kavita, manager of PR Worldwide, which is the Disney on Ice show promoter.

Exotic princess: Miyaki’s performance as Princess Jasmine from ‘Aladdin’ included her singing to ‘A Whole New World’ and dancing to ‘Arabian Nights’.

The children were divided into two age categories: ages four to eight (Category One) and ages nine to 12 (Category Two).

Sixteen competed in Category One, and 15 in Category Two during the contest’s initial stage.

Twelve finalists from each category were then selected to parade in the finals for a chance to win the grand prize of an opportunity to meet a surprise Disney Character during the show.

Other prizes included four VIP tickets to Disney on Ice Kuala Lumpur 2010 worth RM228 each and Disney merchandise for each grand prize winner.

Cute mermaid: Miyumi, five, clad in a sparkly mermaid costume as she plays Ariel while dancing to ‘Under the Sea’ from Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’.

All the other finalists received two show tickets worth RM128 each and Disney merchandise.

Yuki Wan, 30, said her daughters Miyumi and six-year-old Miyaki Teng had personally requested to play their favourite Disney princesses — Ariel and Princess Jasmine respectively — in the parade.

“The costumes were custom-made, but I helped them with their make-up and props. It was a very time-consuming project but well worth the effort because they both enjoy performing,” said the beautician.

“While this is their first time acting as Disney characters, they both actively participate in shows in their kindergarten and school.

“They’ve been watching Disney cartoons so many times, they knew immediately who they wanted to play in the contest.”

Wan said because her daughters enjoyed singing and dancing, she tried to encourage their passion whenever she could by supervising their practice sessions.

“My husband supports us by chauffeuring us around and giving us encouragement.

“My four-year-old son is a budding Michael Jackson impersonator, but I haven’t had time to practise with him because I’m so busy with his sisters,” she said.

Two other sisters who also took part in the parade were Jynn Kok, eight, and Jyllian Kok, six, who played Mulan and Pocahontas respectively.

Their outfits were a family affair, as their grandmother Nancy Tan sewed the costumes, and mother Juliet Tan did the trimmings and hair accessories.

“Because the girls were busy with their activities and a TV shoot, we had little time to make their costumes. Mulan’s was more difficult and required about five days, while Pocahontas’ outfit took a day.

“Both Jynn and Jyllian are Disney princess fans and love performing on stage,” said Juliet, a legal executive in her mid-30s.

“They started showing an interest when they were four, and have participated in various talent competitions and musicals. I’ve seen their confidence grow since they started performing.”

Juliet added that her daughters were also part of the KL Children’s Choir, wherein they had learnt to nurture their talent.

For ticketing and details of Disney on Ice presents Disneyland Adventure in Kuala Lumpur, visit www.axcess.com.my.

Disney costume contest

2009-12-11T16:33:00.002+08:00

Sorry for the lack of posts recently as I was pretty busy with work and both princesses were down with fever, flu & cough again. It seems that every time one fell sick, another one will follow. Thanks God, both has recovered now.

Do you remember the yearly Disney on Ice show? It is usually organised by PR Worldwide. This year, they have a Disney costume contest and I have signed Werney up for that. Tomorrow will be the qualifying round.

If you have time to drop by, do come to One-Utama at 2pm to support Werney.

Will not reveal what she will be wearing yet but it is not one of those princess!

I have created her costume from bit and pieces and hopefully I have got it right. The only headache I have now is whether Werney will change her mind and refuse to go on stage! Let keep my finger crossed.

Should You Start An Online Home Business?

2009-11-19T06:33:00.000+08:00

The thought of working at home can be filled with both excitement and anxiety. While it may be exhilarating to think that you can say "goodbye" to your boss, the day-to-day expenses such as petrol and school fees can be scary to think about giving up a steady paycheck.

In the past, women did not have many options when it came to starting their own business. The most popular choices were direct sales, home daycare, and so forth. If a woman took specialised classes, she would be able to do medical transcription from home, but the training did take time and money to complete. If a woman wanted to earn money fast, she was out of luck on that choice.

Thankfully, times have changed. New advances in technology have enabled people to quickly and easily start businesses from home. By using the internet to receive and turn in work, find clients and advertise their services, women can truly work from the comfort of their own homes.

Click here to find out how my friend, a work at home mom earns SGD3,000 during her confinement:

In today's world, women have many, many choices available to them when it comes to choosing a home business. The following guide will go over several of the most popular.

In the past, women only dreamed of finding ways to start their own home based business. Thanks to the internet, women really can accomplish this dream.

Starting a home based business not only brings in extra money, it can help you feel good about yourself, as well as set a positive example for your children.

They will see you as a successful "mini mogul", even if your income is a far cry from Bill Gates' or Donald Trump's.

A home based business can also help alleviate the boredom and depression that being cooped up inside the house brings on.

There are so many benefits to starting a home based business, the question isn't "should you start one"? it's "which one should you start"?

It will take some hard work and determination, but if you set your mind to it, you will be able to reach your goals.

Start your own Online Business today.

Homemade gingerbread man cookies recipe

2009-11-18T07:51:00.001+08:00

As promised, please find the recipe below. Got the recipe from internet but I have modified it slightly and personally tested it!

Ingredients

125g unsalted butter (slightly thawed at room temperature)
60g brown sugar
90 g unsulfured mollasses or golden syrup (can get from certain supermarket or baking shop)
1 egg
300 g all purpose flour + 2 tbsp ground ginger powder + 1 tbsp ground cinnamon powder + 1 tsp soda bicarbonate (mix together & sifted) (A)

Preheat oven at 180 degree celsius
Beat butter, sugar and syrup till light and creamy
Add egg
Add (A) into the butter mixture and knead 2 minutes
Take out and shape into a flat dough
Cling wrap the dough / put the dough in a zipper bag and refrigerate for 1 hour/overnight
Take out and put dough in between 2 pieces of greaseproof paper and roll into desired thickness
Cut into gingerbread man shape and transfer onto baking tray
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until slightly brown

Icing

1 big egg (white only)
280g icing sugar (sifted)
Assorted food colouring

Beat egg white with a fork until foamy
Add icing sugar in gradually
Beat till icing stand in soft peaks
Divide into bowls and mix with food colouring
Pipe using disposable paper piping bags or made the piping bag from greaseproof paper

The above recipe made about 24 cookies (depending on cookies cutter size). Mine is about 8cm.

Happy baking!

Gingerbread man cookies

2009-11-15T22:07:00.001+08:00

Christmas is approaching soon and we "experiment" baking our first batch our gingerbread man cookies last weekend.

Both girls had a ball of time playing with the flour and dough and messing up my whole kitchen. Time to make the dough was 30 minutes (excluding the baking time & time to decorate the cookies) and I took one hour to clean up both girls and the kitchen!!! Flour were stuck to their hair, face and hand and everywhere too! Eeew.....

Anyway, we had a great time and the cookies turned out to be quite nice and yummy! Love it. Will share the recipe in another post.

Both girls playing with the flour and dough

Star shape cookies cutter from Ikea

Anney holding the mini rolling pin

Werney "massaging" the dough

Before baking the cookies

Decorated the cookies with icing, jelly bean and smarties

Werney's heart shape cookie for mommy

Another batch of cookies

Colourful rice on gingerbread man

Hand-in-hand gingerbread man

Flower cookies made by Werney

We also packed the cookies into individual plastic bag and tied with ribbon. Look nice right?

Gave the first batch of our cookies to my family members and in-laws too!

Werney's 5th Birthday Party

2009-11-12T21:41:00.002+08:00

We celebrated Werney's 5th Birthday at McDonalds @ Bandar Utama Drive Thru' early this month. It was a belated birthday party due to Werney and Anney's hospitalisation in mid-October 2009. The doctor has advised that both need to stay away from crowd for at least 10 days post-hospitalisation to avoid a recurrence or transmitting the virus to others.

Well, I was too busy (or maybe to lazy?) to plan any party and took the easy way out of calling McDonalds. McDonalds BU has a dedicated personnel in charge of planning and organising birthday party for kids. It fact, it was quite interesting as the theme is Arty & Crafty Birthday Party. I ordered the Happy Meals for the kids and the McValue Meal for adults. We have about 30 adults and 15 kids in total, comprising mainly family members and some closed friends. Werney also invited a few of her school mates for the party.

The birthday cake was from Tracey at www.specialcakes.net. This year, I got Werney a Barbie Mermaid cake and she was crazy over it. I also ordered some helium balloons for the kids and a big princess balloon for Werney.

Everyone at the party had a great time and the best part was - no cleaning work for mommy after the party! Anney was crazy over the slides at McDonalds and had easily done 40 rounds of going up and down the slides! Yeah, this is my super active baby.

Werney also received a princess pencil case from Barbara & Ashley earlier during our weekly Yamaha JMC class. What a small world right? I got to know Barbara from the Yamaha class and she was the one that told me she recognised Werney from our first lesson at Yamaha. Thanks Barbara & Ashley for the lovely pencil case. Werney loves all things princess and Barbie now.

Maclaren stroller recall

2009-11-11T22:53:00.005+08:00

Do you own one of the highly popular Maclaren stroller?

The US Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued a statement to recall 1,000,000 of Maclaren strollers sold in US between 1999 to November 2009 due to report of cases where fingertips were amputated as the stroller poses laceration hazards to children when unfolding/folding the stroller. According to CPSC & Maclaren, the faults were due to the stroller's hinge mechanism. Consumer are advised to stop using the strollers immediately and to contact Maclaren to receive a free repair kit.

There were at least 12 cases of such accidents reported to date. The affected models include Volo, Triumph, Quest Sport, Quest Mod, Techno XT, Techno XLR, Twin Triumph, Twin Techno and Easy Traveller. Most of these models are available in Malaysia and currently being sold in major baby stores and online stores.

From the CPSC website, the above Maclaren strollers were made in China. I am not sure where the MacLaren strollers sold in Malaysia were made but probably from China too.

If you own one of this Maclaren stroller, quickly contact the local store or the Maclaren distributor to check whether the repair kit is available in Malaysia before any untoward incident happen to you or your child!

The Sun Motor Hunt 2009 - did we had fun?

2009-11-10T22:30:00.001+08:00

Of course the answer is YES plus a few "arguments" of whether to turn left or turn right. There were also a few incidents where the driver asked the navigator what is the next tulip, after that, then.....asking like 5 tulips ahead! *Scratch head*!

Overall, it was a tiring day (have to wake up at 5 am on a Sunday morning) but a fruitful & fun day. We secured a place at 91th (with a score of 72 points), over a total of 292 cars! Phew....it was that many cars for this year hunt! This is our first public hunt and I think we did okay for a first timer. What did we got from the hunt?............. 4 Samsung DVD players!!! Thank you Samsung! Well, the sponsors were really generous and each winning team walked home with 4 items - no need to share and each participant got one prize!

The hunt was dividend into the following:-

Leg 1 - Part 1 (10 questions)
Leg 1 - Part 2 (10 questions)
Leg 2 - 16 questions
4 treasures questions

We did not do well in Leg 1 & 2 but we managed to get 3 out of the 4 treasures requested by the organiser. We didn't manage to get the last treasure, which is a Milo canned drink with the word Grab & Go printed on the can. When I told Werney about it, her reply was "Milo only, so easy, I know the answer?!" (I bet she was also thinking why mommy so silly one, so easy also don't know).

Anyway, this round we managed to keep our time within the stipulated 6 hours, with 3 extra minutes to spare! We also managed to squeeze in 10 minutes for McDonalds' lunch to charge our laptop battery! Well, lunch is provided free by McDonalds as one of the main sponsor!

Just hope we could do better next year - the prizes for the top ten team ranges from 40' LCD TV, home theatre system to digital cameras! So attractive, right?

Some pictures from the hunt to share......

Cars being flag off by Organisers & Sponsors

Our team number

Sis busy looking through the questions

Our answer sheets - all scribbled up!

Prizes for the winners

Prize no. 91

Our prizes

What does FAMILY stands for?

2009-11-10T07:46:00.000+08:00

I received a pop quiz in an e-mail recently asking the following question.

What does FAMILY stands for?

A. Unity
B. Love
C. Caring
D. None of the above

Guess what is the answer?

?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?

Answer is D - None of the above.

FAMILY stands for...............

Father And Mother I Love You

Have a good day everyone!

The Sun Motor Treasure Hunt 2009

2009-11-07T21:55:00.001+08:00

Sis#2, BIL, DH and myself will be on the road again this Sunday for The Sun Motor Hunt 2009. Known to be the mother of all hunts (in Malaysia), the treasure hunt has proven its popularity again. There are a total of 250 cars for the treasure hunt and it is our first time joining the Sun Motor Treasure Hunt.

I doubt we will win anything this round cause there are really a lot of professional treasure hunters out there. Luckily they have two categories - Master and Open category. For amateurs like us, of course we will be placed in the Open Category.

What attracted us to the Sun Motor Treasure Hunt? The fee for the hunt is definitely not cheap, it is RM400 per car for a day hunt. Well, to be honest, we are hoping to win some of the lucky draw prizes sponsored by Samsung (shh....Samsung has sponsored prizes worth RM200,000 for this year hunt!). Isn't that attractive?

In addition to that, we also received 4 goodies bag containing goodies from various sponsors (from Nescafe to cloth softener) and RM50 petrol voucher from Petronas.

Just hope we will not turn up to be the last car for the hunt!!

Barbie and the three musketeers book

2009-11-06T13:59:00.004+08:00

I blogged earlier that Werney is crazy about the new Barbie and the three musketeers show on DVD.

Yesterday, I saw this book at the book store and couldn't resist to get her a copy of the book. They have a few variation and I got her the one for early reader.

She told me she is the one in pink gown and I just found out the girl's name is Corrinne. Well, Corrinne is the musketeer that uses a sword but Werney uses a golf club (for sword)!

Guess what is Werney's favourite phrase from the show/book?

"All of one and one for all!"

She has been repeating that phrase at home.

Personal tax reliefs

2009-11-02T18:30:00.002+08:00

It's already November now and in another month or two, we'll be bidding farewell to year 2009. Well, what could you do before the end of year 2009? We always start the year with a resolution (or more) but for year end, I thought a little tax planning would helps to save some $$$.

The individual resident tax rate in Malaysia ranges from 0-27% (for year of assessment 2009). The tax rate will be reduced to 0%-26% from the year of assessment 2010 but it is still pretty high if we compare it to Singapore (20%) and Hong Kong (15%).

Some of the personal tax reliefs available in Malaysia are:-

1) Self - RM8,000

2) Medical expenses for parents - RM5,000

3) Wife / Husband relief - RM3,000

4) Child relief - RM1,000/child (below 18 years old)

5) Child relief - RM4,000 / child (above 18 years old and pursuing full time education in universities, colleges or similar)

6) Life insurance premium & EPF - RM6,000

7) Insurance premium for education or medical benefits - RM3,000

8) Further education in selected post graduate courses- RM5,000

9) Reading materials, both printed and electronic version (except newspaper or banned materials) - RM1,000

10) Purchase of computer - up to RM3,000 (given once in every 3 years)

11) Amount deposited into Skim Simpanan Pendidikan Nasional - RM3,000

12) Purchase of sports equipment - RM300 (but this does not includes purchase of sport attires or shoes!)

13) Complete medical examination for self/spouse/child - RM500

* Please note that the above list is not exhaustive. I've only listed out the most common tax reliefs claimed by individual tax payer!

There will also be a tax relief on broadband subscription from next year until year 2012....so remember to keep all your broadband bills next year.

Hope the above list would helps you to maximise some tax savings!

Exam, exam & exam

2009-10-29T19:35:00.001+08:00

It is the final term exam for Werney this week and the word EXAM seemed to stress her out! Both DH and myself are definitely not kiasu parents and we have never demanded that she must score all As or 100%!

Werney has been stressed out coz' after the first day of the exam (which is Number), she came back home, thoughts hard and long and during bed time, she told me she can't do this question 18-4=?. Well, it is definitely easy for an adult but this simple subtraction exercise could be difficult for a 5 year old! I've reassured her that it is okay if she doesn't know how to attempt the question and we could always do correction once the teacher returns the exam paper. She was so worried and terrified of exam now!

Gosh, it is our education system or what? Even a 5 year old can get so stressed up for exam? I don't remember that I had fear of exam or anything during my kindergarten years and it was so much fun back then! I am not sure whether Werney is just taking things too seriously or is this phenomenon affecting other kids too?

Werney is currently enrolled in a Fungates system kindy. Although the teaching methods and systems are quite good, I find it too "academic". There are homeworks almost every other day and kids have to sit for formal written assessment twice a year. Werney has been complaining that there is very little "play time" at kindy, it is usually study, study and study! I am just wondering whether I should let her continue in the same kindy next year.

Mommy and daddy bloggers, please share your thoughts on this? Anyone else have kids facing the same issue?

I just do not want Werney to grow up thinking life is just about study & exam!

Baby's taste buds

2009-10-27T13:22:00.000+08:00

Just last week, I blogged about how Anney hated the new lactose-free formula milk that our
paediatrician has prescribed for her and prefers to go on a hunger-strike! Well, that didn't last very long and my milk queen is back to her 5-6 bottles of milk + 2 solid meals a day.

After our last visit to the paediatrician on Thursday, the paed has given Anney the green light to resume her regular formula milk. However, as I didn't want to waste the unfinished can of formula milk, I decided to let her continue with the lactose-free formula.

Yesterday, my mom switched baby back to her regular formula milk and she refused to drink it. See how picky is this baby! She just knew it is not the same milk with one sip! My mom has to try persuading her and finally added some chocolate flavour Pediasure from Werney into Anney's milk before she finally polished off her bottle of milk.

I wondered whether all babies are so fussy with their taste buds! Now I have problem switching Anney back to her regular milk, which we have stocked up previously.

Dressing up as Barbie & the three musketeers

2009-10-25T22:20:00.007+08:00

Werney has been watching the new Barbie and the three musketeers video that Sis#3 downloaded for her. She really loves this show and has been quite crazy about it.

Just last evening, she asked me for a towel and requested me to clip the towel to her back (to work like a cape) and rushed down stair.

When I came down, this is what I saw......

Look like the Barbie from the show or not? As we don't have any toy sword at home, Werney uses a toy golf club instead!

Homemade yogurt

2009-10-24T08:03:00.002+08:00

Do you know you can actually make your own yogurt at home?

Yogurt has been known to contains many beneficial bacteria to keep our digestive system healthy. However, the lifespan of these good bacterias is short and at many times, the good bacteria would have diminished in quantity and quality by the time we bought home the commercially made yogurt from the store.

I have just learned 3 easy steps to make this homemade yogurt. You can make this yogurt in 5 minutes (great for super busy mommy!) and no electricity is required. The yogurt is so fresh, preservative-free and taste better than the one we bought from supermarket!

Verdict: Both Werney & Anney love it!

I am using the EasiYo Yogurt Maker. EasiYo is a product from New Zealand and you can get it from local pharmacy (like Caring), major supermarket or organic store. Some online stores also sell EasiYo products.

Ways to make the yogurt:

1) Fill the yogurt jar with 500ml room temperature drinking water
2) Pour the whole packet of yogurt mix into the yogurt jar, give it a good shake to ensure all the yogurt mix has been fully dissolved
3) Fill the yogurt jar with more water until it reach 1,000ml. Shake the jar again
4) Fill the yogurt maker with hot water until the indicator line
5) Put the yogurt jar into the yogurt maker and leave it for 12-24 hours undisturbed (no opening and closing the yogurt maker to check whether the yogurt has set!)
6) Once ready, the yogurt would have set (thicken) and you can transfer the yogurt jar into the fridge. Serve cold
7) If you wish to add fresh fruit, add it into the yogurt mix after the yogurt has set. For sweeter taste, add some honey before serving

Enjoy your freshly homemade and healthy yogurt!

The yogurt maker is sold for RM79.00 and each sachet of the yogurt mix cost about RM15.00. The yogurt mix comes in many flavors like strawberry, peach, boysenberry, mango, vanilla or the plain natural flavor. Each sachet if good to make 1 kg of yogurt and you can keep it up to 2 weeks in the fridge. Of course, it is better to consume the yogurt as soon as possible to reap the health benefits.

Influenza vaccination

2009-10-23T07:05:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I brought my two girls to the hospital for a follow-up review with the appointed paediatrician on the recent acute gastroenteritis (AGE) attack. The good news is both girls have been declared healthy now though Werney needs to put on more weight as she is considered too petite for her age. Werney is only 100cm and weights 14.5kg. My 5 year old is really petite, huh?

During our visit, the paed actually suggested that I should vaccinate my girls with the influenza (flu) vaccination. This is the seasonal flu jab and does not protect against H1N1 or SARS, but it is recommended as the next phase of influenza attack is likely to happen around year end (normally it is around winter time).

The seasonal flu jab is not a compulsory vaccination in Malaysia and the vaccination need to be admitted annually due to the highly variable flu virus. Each flu jab contains three influenza viruses: one A (H3N2) virus, one regular seasonal A (H1N1) virus (not the 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus), and one B virus. Children (between 6 months to 18 years) and elderly people (above aged 65 years old) and certain high risk groups are recommended to be vaccinated against the seasonal flu. Potential side effects from the jab are aches, fever and running nose.

According to the paed, the flu jab costs about RM60+ per shot at the hospital. I've also checked with my regular paed near our residential area and they are charging RM85 (yet the waiting list is so long as they have got limited stock)! I guessed the price varies from clinic to clinic.

I will bring my girls for the jab in another 1-2 weeks times as they have just recovered from AGE. Do you vaccine your child against the seasonal flu?

Happy 5th Birthday Werney

2009-10-21T07:18:00.007+08:00

Today is Werney's 5th birthday.

Initially, we have planned a birthday party at McD for her over the weekend. However, as she has just recovered from acute gastroenteritis, the doctor has advised her to avoid crowded places (where possible) and also monitor her food diet. Hence, we have to postpone her birthday party. Invitations for the birthday party were sent out earlier and we have to call and sms all the parents to inform of the last minute postponement. The parents were very understanding but most of Werney's friends were upset!

October doesn't seem to be a good month for Werney. She was also warded last October while we were holidaying at Gold Coast, Australia. At that time, she was diagnosed with intususseption. Another tongue twisted word, huh? Well, this is again no joke as she had intense stomach cramp for more 24 hours and finally admitted to the hospital where the doctors have to order for numerous tests, x-ray, blood test, urine test, ultrasound etc before finally diagnosed the illness. Thanks God that it was over now as it has been quite dramatic for all of us as we were in a foreign land!

As for today, mommy wish Werney a Happy Birthday and hope she will grow up to have good health! By the way, Werney has resumed school and seemed to have overcame her school phobia after 6 weeks of drama! Am praying hard that it will not occur again.

Tonight, we will have dinner with family members and I've also prepared some party packs for Werney to bring to school today.

What is acute gastroenteritis?

2009-10-20T19:15:00.001+08:00

After what Werney & Anney have gone through for the last week, I am determined to find out more on what exactly is acute gastroenteritis ("AGE"). Learning more about this illness would hopefully helps to prevent and manage a relapse in future.

Gastroenteritis (also known as gastro, gastric flu, tummy bug in the United Kingdom, and stomach flu) is generally an inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract involving both the stomach and small intestine.

In fact, this is a very common illness in infant and young children below 5. The main causes of gastroenteritis are virus and bacteria. For children, the majority of the severe cases are due to rotavirus (Anney has been vaccinated against rotavirus!). Unfortunately, no test was done at the hospital to identify the exact type of virus or bacteria that causes the AGE in Werney and Anney.

Symptoms and signs

Gastroenteritis often involves stomach pain or cramp, diarrhea, vomiting, fever, headache and weakness.

More serious symptom includes dehydration - weakness, light headedness, decreased urination, dry skin, dry mouth, lack of sweat or tears, sunken eyeballs etc

Treatment

There is generally no medication to treat gastroenteritis. However, doctor may give medication to stop the vomiting (antiemetic). For fever, it is usually treated with paracetamol or ibuprofen.

Antibiotic is usually not given unless the bacteria has been properly identified through laboratory testing as using a wrong antibiotic may prolong the infection.

Offer frequent small amount of fluid or re-hydration solution to the child. If you are breastfeeding, you may continue to do so. However, if you are bottle-feeding your baby with formula milk, formula should be stopped and offer clear fluid. You may resume formula after 12 - 24 hours or until the vomiting / diarrhea improves but should give lactose-free milk or maybe soybean milk.

How can I prevent AGE?

Frequent hand washing with soap after nappy change, before preparing for foods
Keep your child who has AGE away from other children
Sterilise and wash nappies of children with AGE separately
Teach your child the proper hand washing technique
Cook all meat thoroughly before serving to children

When should you seek medical help?

Your baby is <>
Your child keeps vomiting, (especially if bright green or brown) and cannot keep fluids
down
Your child continues to have many watery motions a day
Your child's motion contains blood
Your child has on-going tummy pains
Your child has a persistent high fever (above 38ºC)
You are concerned that your child is not getting better
Your child is passing less urine than normally

We are finally home

2009-10-18T00:34:00.005+08:00

I am saying "we" coz' after my last post, Werney also got admitted to the hospital for gastroenteritis infection on Wednesday evening. Instead of one sick little kitten at the ward, I have to care for two. Mom who is supposed to help out at the hospital suddenly developed the same symptoms while I was with Werney at the ER. Mom started to feel giddy, tummy upset and puking too. Immediately, we have to send Mom to ER as well. As Mom conditions improved after the anti-vomit jab admitted by the doc, she was allowed to go home. However, as Werney is still quite young and the dehydration risk is high, doc has requested Werney to be admitted immediately. My poor girl has vomited like 6 times in 2 hours and could not keep anything down in her tummy - not even water.

Anney was ordered to stay for an extra night too as she had diarrhea after the vomiting stopped. Anney was super bored in the hospital ward and always shouting "out", "out" & "out" to get out from the ward. I even have to take the IV stand and follow Anney around the hospital corridor as nothing could not my super active baby!

Now, although both girls have been discharged, the doc has ordered lactose-free milk and no fruits or vegetables for the next 10 days. Anney, my "milk queen" also refused to drink the lactose-free formula milk prescribed by the doc! Poor baby, prefer to go on hunger strike!

My two princesses in the ward

Anney entertaining herself with the DVD (played in the laptop)

Both Anney hands needs to be bandaged to prevent her from pulling out the IV line

Werney showing her right hand with the IV line

Anney is hospitalised

2009-10-14T13:47:00.004+08:00

Anney is currently being hospitalised.

It all started on Monday midnight when Anney started puking out all her milk, all over herself and the bed. Then the vomiting continued every hour or so. She can't keep anything down, whether milk or water!

Then at around 4am, DH drove Anney to the ER and Anney was given an anti-vomit jab. The vomiting did stopped for 8 hours or so and it all started again after that. Although Anney was still quite active, the constant vomiting worried me sick. She was hungry but just could not keep anything down in her tummy.

We sent her back to ER in the evening and luckily, there was a paediatrician on duty that evening. She diagnosed that Anney to have acute gastroenteritis and the possible cause is viral. Apparently, there is a gastroenteritis outbreak in town and it started before Hari Raya. The paed immediately requested Anney to be admitted to the hospital for IV drip as one of the main concern for gastroenteritis is dehydration. Dehydration can happen very quickly in young children!

Poor Anney cried big time when the doctor and nurses inserted the IV line on her left hand. They also have to bandaged her right hand to prevent her from pulling the IV line.

The paed has just instructed to stop the IV drip now(after 22 hours) and luckily, the vomiting has also stopped. They has also given anti-vomit drug in the IV drip earlier. If Anney could resumes drinking and eating normally, then Anney probably could be discharged tomorrow.

Am praying hard Anney will be well soon!

Magic sponge

2009-10-11T01:07:00.003+08:00

Anney has officially turned 19 months two days ago.

Besides being a super duper active, Anney is quite a stubborn baby! Mommy has been reminding her that pencil, crayon or colour pencil should be used on paper but this little baby just love to scribbles our wall and furniture!

See the latest "artistic" act of Anney, scribbling all over our Ikea table & chair with her pencil.

Luckily, I remember reading a post from HealthFreakMommy about using Melamine Foam to clean stubborn stains and I quickly rushed out to get one. The one I got was from Cosway and it cost RM7.90 for a bar!

This Magic Sponge really does wonder and work better than my Jif or Axion. The melamine foam is compact and light-weight and magically eases cleaning chores. It cleans superbly without detergents nor chemicals. You can use the sponge either wet or dry but I find it works best if I slightly wet the sponge.

Magic sponge is recommended for most surfaces except for paintings, lacquered surfaces or car paintwork.

If you have kids at home, you will definitely find this magic sponge a life saver!

MomBloggersPlanet Cutest Baby in Stroller Contest

2009-10-09T23:16:00.006+08:00

Baby photo contest again? Yes, mommy here really wish to win those attractive prizes from PhotoBook Malaysia and Alicewonders.com , organised by M om Blogg ers Planet, where Malaysian Moms Unite! Photobook Malaysia prints those quality photos and present it in a book format for their client and Alicewonders, the online store that sell all those gorgeous bags!

The theme for October is Baby In Stroller! That's easy as I have not one, but two strollers now! Please note the deadline for submission is 15 October 2009. For more information, please click here.

The 2 things that I never leave home whenever I am out-and-about with my kids are the strollers and my sling. In fact, the strollers have been the permanent fixed assets in my car now. Stroller is great to ease the tired arm of parents (from carrying baby) or for baby to nap and sling is great whenever we are at crowded area or not so baby stroller friendly path!

We actually have two Mothercare Jive Strollers - that showed how much we love this stroller. We purchased our first one when Werney was about 1 year old as our previous stroller was too bulky for traveling. Since then, this trustworthy stroller has followed us to many places, both locally and abroad. After 4 good years, the stroller is still in great condition. This is one of my best investment in baby stuff so far!

A great value stroller that's perfect for holidays....but of course, we also uses it everywhere we go - zoo, mall, park, airport, ferry etc. We invested a second Mothercare Jive Stroller when we had Anney last year.

This is Anney in our Mothercare Jive Stroller.
DOB: 9 March 2008 (yes, she turns 19 months today!)

Mothercare Jive Stroller Retail price - RM279
Product specifications

Suitable from 6 months up to a maximum weight of 15kg
Multi-position seat adjusts to suit your baby (uses belt system)
Lightweight aluminium frame
5-point harness
Comfy-grip handles
All-round suspension
Shopping basket
Handle height: 98.5cm
Weight of stroller: 6kg
Folded: 102x30x18 cm

Tips for choosing a stroller

Stroller can be a parent's best friend but choosing the wrong stroller could spell trouble and inconvenience. If you are a first time parent, you would probably be overwhelmed by all the term used by manufacturers such as umbrella-fold, 3-wheelers, drink holder, rain hood or harness.

I personally think that the right stroller should match your lifestyle. Will this be your primary stroller or one that you will use for traveling?

Some of the concerns that your might have when choosing a stroller are:-

Safety is be your priority. Make sure the stroller is tested for stability and come with 3 or 5 harness (5 is best!)
Age of your baby? If you are buying a stroller for newborn, then get one that can recline flat
Stroller weight? If you travel a lot on public transport, ensure you get one that is lightweight
Folding mechanism? Umbrella fold would be more compact and great for traveling
Where would you be using your stroller? If you intend to bring your baby for jogging at the park, then consider getting a three-wheelers as it is more stable and work better at terrain paths
Do you need those extra such as storage basket, sun shades, rain hood, cup holder? All this will add to the cost of the stroller
Lastly, the price of the stroller...ranging from RM100 to RM3,000+ depending on the brand. Buy one that meet your basic need and something that you can comfortably afford! I secretly wish to own one of those McLaren stroller that cost 4 digit sum but knowing how impractical that would be....I settled with my Mothercare Jive Stroller, which has served it purpose so far!

Stroller is a must-have for any new parents who love to bring their baby out and about.

What is wrong with me?

2009-10-08T08:11:00.000+08:00

I have been having this bad flu and cough for more than 2 weeks and I am still coughing badly now. Been to 5 GPs and even Chinese sinseh but this bad cough doesn't seems to go away..sigh..know of any formula I could use?

As a result of the regular doses of flu & cough syrup and tablet, I also have this lingering headache for the last few days. According to the GP, it could be due to too much medications and yet, after the last visit yesterday, I still ended up with 5 different type of medications!

Another problem is most of this medication will cause drowsiness and I can't take it during the day time as I got to work!

On a lighter note, Werney has resumed her kindy this week. The crying is still there but more manageable. Mommy is praying hard everything will be back to normal soon!

International Babywearing Week

2009-10-02T06:22:00.001+08:00

The International Babywearing Week was held from from September 21 to 28 this year. The tag line for this year - Close Enough To Kiss....such sweet tag line and I couldn't agree more.

In Malaysia, due to the Hari Raya holidays, the launching of the event was only kicked off on 27 September 2009 in Penang. I think the Malaysian Babywearers (MBW) group is also planning a walk sometimes in KL in month but the date is still not firmed up yet.

However, MBW has launched 5 contests in conjuction with the International Babywearing Week in Malaysia and there are so many prizes to be won! If you like more information on the contest, jump over to official website of the Malaysian Babywearers.

By the way, I have just bought the Littlepods Soft Structured Carrier and hope to write a review on it soon once I have a chance to test it out!

Happy Babywearing!

How to teach a child to hold a pencil correctly

2009-09-28T20:43:00.001+08:00

I never knew there is a correct way to hold a pencil until I brought Werney to consult the psychiatrist recently on her school phobia and separation anxiety.

At the psychiatrist clinic, the Dr. pointed out that Werney is not holding the pencil the correct way. Werney uses four fingers to hold a pencil where the pencil will be resting on her ring finger, leaving only her little finger free. I have always thought that every child is different and didn't try to correct Werney on her pencil holding method. I am also surprised that such important skill is not taught in our preschool, where a child first learns to hold a pencil.

The Dr. pointed out that by holding a pencil the wrong way, it will slow down the handwriting skill of a child and making the hand tired easily. According to the Dr. it is like using a "parang" to cut an apple! Furthermore, a correct pencil grip will reduce future health risk associated to the hand and wrist, such as carpal tunnel syndrome!

Th Dr. demonstrated the right way to hold a pencil is to have all three fingers (thumb, index and middle finger) to be placed on each side each of a triangle-shaped pencil. No wonder some colour pencils or crayons available in the market are shaped in triangle and not round or square! I never knew there is a reason for it.

Triangular shaped pencil to assist young children to learn the pencil grip

I did googled and found that the right way to hold a pencil is called a Tripod Grip. The pencil should be placed so that there is equal pressure between thumb, the side of the middle finger and the tip of the index finger. All finger are bent slightly. See picture below for illustration:-

Picture from www.drawyourworld.com

Other method to encourage your child to have a correct pencil grip is get a triangular shaped pencil, paint each side with a different colour (e.g blue, red and green) and place one colour sticker (blue, red and green) each on the thumb, index and middle finger or nail. This will helps the child to remember the correct grip by matching the colour of the sticker on each finger (thumb, index and middle finger) to the side of the pencil.

I also found another article from Rocks In My Dryer - Works For Me: Teaching a Child To Hold a Pencil and the tip is great. For more information, please click here.

The Dr. has suggested that I bring Werney to consult an occupational therapist to correct her pencil grip. The Dr. assured this is something that could be corrected easily. I will try out the above methods with Werney first and if it doesn't work, then I will arrange an appointment with the occupational therapist.

Raya break getaway @ 21 - 22 September 2009

2009-09-25T19:25:00.000+08:00

Despite the drama at home, we took a short break during the recent Raya break with my family members. Sis#2 suggested that we drive up to Genting Highland and did a last minute booking for 3 rooms at Awana Genting Highland Golf & Country Resort. It was super peak and everywhere was crowded. Luckily we left our house early and were not caught in the Karak highway jam!

We reached Genting Highlands at about 10.30am and the indoor theme park was already quite packed. The queue at the ticket counter were like "ular" (snake) already. I have booked the ticket online a day before and it was easy for us. We just have to collect our tickets at the tagging counter instead of queuing at the ticket counter. Otherwise, probably poor DH have to queue for an hour or so before we can get the tickets.

As this was not the first time we bought our girls to the Indoor Theme Park, Werney got tired of the rides easily and we only managed to catch 2 rides before we break for lunch. After lunch, both Werney and Anney were sleepy and it was still way too early for us to check in at Awana. So, we decided to let them nap in their strollers while we sip a cuppa at Starbuck.....well....it is the least crowded place! DH also decided to try his luck at the First World casino and I wanted to do some shopping. So we took turns to look after our two sleeping kittens!

We left the Indoor Theme Park shortly after 2pm and proceeded to Awana for check-in. Sis was already there queuing for us and it took us about 1.5 hours to check-in. The queue was very very loooong and yet there were only 2 counters for check-in. I was so mad as Anney got really restless and parents were tired as there were not enough chair/sofa for the waiting guests and the lobby was totally crowded. When I complaint to the Front Desk Manager, they just said "sorry" with the couldn't careless attitude. We have always love to stay at Awana as the air was fresher and we love the view of the golf course. However, after this experience, we will probably have to think twice before making another booking here.

For dinner, we had our buffet at the Coffee Terrace @ Genting Hotel. For RM69 nett/pax, there have good selection of main course (Asian and Western) and many yummy desserts. The food was quite good. After dinner, we visited the theme park again and this time, the girls decided to go for the merry-go-round.

We left Awana before noon the next day and visited the new Strawberry Park. It is located at the Goh Tong Jaya area, just 5-10 minutes drive from Awana. The place is exactly like Cameron Highlands and you can self-picked the strawberries. For self-picked, they will charge RM8/100g. Quite pricey but we have never picked any strawberries and Werney really wanted to try. In the end, we ended buying 800g (me - 200g, Mom - 400g and Sis#2 - 200g). Mom and Werney got so shiok picking the strawberries!

This place also have nice collection of cactus, orchid and mushroom. Worth a visit since it is only 45 minutes drive from KL.

Check out the wonderful pictures below.....

A beautiful poem to share....

2009-09-23T08:40:00.000+08:00

Something light and beautiful to share with all of you.....

When you feel
by Caramel Bliss

When you feel you're alone in a bad world
When all you once had is gone
Remember that life has taught us
That the darkest night precedes the dawn

When you feel you are out of hope
Remember that God is there
Keep your faith strong
Soon, he will answer your prayers

When you feel you have no friend left
And only enemies are near
Worry not, my love
For I'll always be here for you, dear

Fear not, you are safe in my arms
You will always find a home in my heart
And I shall forever be your loyal one
'Till death do us part

*My heart is ever at your service. ~William Shakespeare

Sleepy head

2009-09-23T08:39:00.001+08:00

Today, Wednesday is the start of the working week after the Raya break.

Instead of having a good start, I only managed to catch a 2-3 hours sleeps last night. First, was trying to solve Sue Wern's mission of not wanting to go to school....chatted and chatted with her and trying to find out why she refuses school etc. Yes, we have called it a mission like the Little Einsteins series. Yet, after many small talks, she told me she still doesn't want to go to school because she misses us, afraid of all her teachers etc and I still didn't manage to find out the real reason. We went to the paed last week and was told it could be due to severe school phobia and separation anxiety. Hmm.... sounded really serious right? Anyway, I have made a appointment to consult a child psychiatrist today and hopefully the Dr. could shred us some lights.

Second, Anney has been really cranky last night, crying for 1-2 hours before finally dozed off in the car at around 1.30am. Yes, I have to drive her around the neighborhood before she finally settled down....the security guard must be thinking what is this mad woman doing with a baby in car driving at 1+ am. Anney also refused to let my hubby drive her around....she only wanted mommy to cradle her and drive her around. She woke up again at 5am...wanted to watch TV and crying again. We thought it could be due to the blocked nose she has that made her cranky and switched off the air-cond in the room.......however she seemed okay in the car with the air-cond??? I drove her around our neighborhood again at 6am and after that managed to catch 30 minutes of eye shut before Anney started crying again!

Now I am feeling really sleepy and walking like a zombie...yawn....yawn...

Stress? Separation anxiety disorder?

2009-09-16T07:33:00.000+08:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately as I was worried sick of Werney.

Remember, I blogged about her refusing to go to school after the August school break and I thought she just need a little more time to get thing moving again (Werney was okay for the last 8 months). Well, it has been more than 2 weeks now and her condition has not improved. In fact, I think it is getting worst.

Werney would cries before bedtime telling us she doesn't want to go to school and I will have a hard time trying to console her and telling us how wonderful the school is etc, before she eventually drift off to slumberland . She keeps on telling us she is scared to go to school but can't tell me the exact reason for her fear. She usually wakes up around 9.30am in the morning and for the past weeks, she was up and awake at 8am and started crying again till time for school at around noon.... imagine, that is like 4 hours daily! It is really a mental torture for everyone at home especially my mom and dad. No matter what we said or do, she just can't stop crying and doesn't want to go to school. Once she is at school, she seems to be fine and stop crying after we left her. It is the drama before school and during bedtime that stressed everyone up at home.

I've also spoken to her teachers and principal - we have ruled out any school bully etc. Her teachers are really loving and caring and even offer to visit us at home during weekend. Werney was really excited that her teacher would be coming to our house to play Barbie doll with her.....but the mere thoughts of going to school would freaked her out! Werney's principal said she is stressed and maybe separation anxiety too. What puzzled us is why now after 8 months of school? In fact, Werney started school when she was 4!

I have stopped Werney from school this week and told her she will only resumes school after the Raya break, which is next Wednesday. She was okay on Monday and yesterday, again started to cry telling us she doesn't want to go to school next Wednesday....well, that is like another week away! Werney is really very stressed and I think this is not just the normal whining from a kid. She seems to have the fear about going to school because when I touches her hand, they are really cold and she would also be silently weeping from time to time.

We are already at our wits end on what to do? Wondering whether anyone else have the same problem and how to overcome this? Maybe I should bring her to seek for professional help.

Mommy and Daddy just wish our little Werney will be back to her usual chatter box and bubbly self soon.

MomBloggersPlanet Cutest baby with Bottle Contest

2009-09-10T08:42:00.000+08:00

Mom Bloggers Planet is currently running the Cutest Baby Photo Contest and for the month of September 2009, the theme is Cutest Baby with Bottle!

Yeah, it is easy to win some prizes sponsored by PhotoBook Malaysia and Alicewonders. Contest details can be found here. Please note that the deadline for submission is 15 September 2009.

Anney
Date of birth: 9 March 2008

Cheeky Anney with her Avent milk bottle

Breast milk is the most suitable food for any newborns to 6 months old and the World Health Organisation ("WHO") has recommend to continue breastfeeding your baby up till 2 years old. If you are a working mom like me, you could still continue breastfeeding your baby by giving expressed breastmilk in a baby bottle.

Although Anney has started solid at around 6 months, she is still very much into milk and can takes up to 6-7 bottles (about 6 oz each) a day. Sometimes, I think it is more for the comfort of sucking as she will asks for her milk right after dinner!

Choosing the right baby bottle is important to ensure your child safety. I have started Anney with Phillips Avent bottle and have switched to the Phillips Avent BPA-free range a few months back when the BPA-free bottles arrived on our shore. If you would like to know what is BPA, please read my earlier blog post here.

Why I go for Phillips Avent:

The simple reason is my baby loves Avent
Clinically proven to reduce colic in baby
I loves the wide neck bottle design and it is simple to use. No complicated parts to assemble and dismantle. Just great for dad, grandparents and nanny!
Avent bottles are very versatile - pump, store & feed!
Easy to read measurement - you would be wondering why this matter? It made a great different for sleep-deprived parents, trying to guess the measurement on the bottle!
Stain-free
I also used my 4oz bottle to store pureed fruits & vegetables when Anney first started weaning

If you decide to bottle feed your baby, there are certain steps to ensure safe bottle-feeding:

For first time use, wash and rinse all bottles, teats & parts in warm soapy water
Wash with warm soapy water and sterile all bottles, teats and parts after every use. I find using a soft bristle brush (the 2-in-1 brush with big and small bristles) is great to remove any milk stains
For sterilisation, you can either use electric steam steriliser, boil the bottles & parts in hot water for 10 minutes or use cold water with sterilisation tablet method
It is recommended to have at least 4-6 bottles, to save time from constantly sterilising the bottles
Frequently check for wear and tear on the bottles, teat and parts
For teat, ensure you get the right size & flow for your baby. For breastfed baby, choosing the right teat (usually wider base and softer texture) would encourage an easier switch for baby between breast and bottle
Do not let your baby sleep with the bottle as this will cause tooth decay and also middle-ear infection
Always have an adult to watch your baby while bottle feeding to avoid chocking
Always test the milk temperature before feeding your baby

How do you bottle feed safely while you are out & about?

For expressed breast milk

Store the expressed breast milk in cooler bag with ice brick
During feeding time, warm the expressed breast milk using a bowl of hot water (if you are at the restaurant) or use an electric bottle warmer (if you are at any baby friendly outlet like Ikea or major shopping complexes)
Do not warm the expressed breast milk using microwave due to uneven warming and may scale the baby tongue

For formula milk

Do not prepare the formula milk in advanced as our warm and humid environment will encourage the bacteria to grow easily
Have the following handy - Sterilised milk bottle, a bottle of cooled boiled water, formula milk powder in a dispenser and a bottle of hot water in a baby safe thermos
Prepare the milk when baby is ready to feed
Discard any unconsumed milk

Happy bottle-feeding!

My messy little eater

2009-09-09T07:45:00.000+08:00

Anney loves to be independent and is currently in the self-feeding stage.

She could spooned some foods into her mouth using her baby spoon although still not very good at it yet. She hates me feeding her or holding her cup while she drinks her juice or water. She would push my hand away whenever she sees me doing that (holding her cup)....but the problem is my little Anney is a messy eater.

After every meal time, it is like I just had a "party" at home. I will have food everywhere on her face, her hair, her mouth, the table, high chair and floor. Imagine the mess! And mommy have to sweep and mop the floor after every meals.

At times, Anney also refuses to sit at her high chair....it can get really messy whenever we are at the restaurant. She prefers to roam around the restaurant or running or climbing everywhere!

Some of Anney's pictures taken during meal times.....

Anney having a bowl of cereal with banana

Mom, it is tastier this way!

Finger licking good!

See how messy Anney could be?

New Ipoh Salt-Baked Chicken Restaurant

2009-09-08T22:13:00.002+08:00

I love the all-time favourite Ipoh Salt-Baked Chicken.

Whenever DH goes to Ipoh for business, I will ask him to pack a few of the Ipoh famous salt-baked chicken home. I will keep the chickens in freezer and steam it or cook with porridge whenever I have the craving. Don't ask me which shop in Ipoh as all the shops have the same red packaging box.

Anyway, I found a new Ipoh Salt-Baked Chicken Restaurant at Kuchai Lama. Yes, the chicken is as yummy & juicy as the ones from Ipoh although it is definitely more expensive. They are selling at RM22 per bird and additional RM1 for delivery. The funny part is they used McD driver for delivery!

If you love Ipoh salt-baked chicken, do check them out at:-

Ipoh Salt-Baked Chicken Restaurant
B-0-5, Kuchai Business Park
Off Jalan Kuchai Lama
Kuala Lumpur

Call 03-7987 3377 for enquiries, take-away and delivery.

MOBS & HKS Little Bookworm Contest

2009-09-07T22:05:00.002+08:00

If your child loves books and you would like to win some freebies, do join the Malaysian Online Baby Shops ("MOBS") & HuiWearn Kids Store ("HK S") Little Bookworm Contest. Contest details and prizes can be found here. Contest ends on 1 October 2009.

I love to shop for fabulous deals at Ebay and have been a regular customer of HuiWearn Kids Store. Hui Wearn offers many fabulous books, toys and Gymboree attires for boys and girls at great bargains.

Some of the fabulous titles that I have bought from Hui Wearn include Dora the Explorer collections, Sesame Street, Disney Princesses and lately, the Charlie & Lola series. Why am I crazy about all these children books? The answer is my two little angels - Werney & Anney, of course! Our children book collections have filled up 2 bookshelves now. In fact, DH is also another bookworm and he has his study room cabinets filled up with his books, which he has collected for the last 20 years??

Werney, 5 years old

Werney has started showing interest in books since baby. Initially, I started reading to Werney to distract her while I feed her as she is quite a fussy eater. Since then, it has became our daily routine. In fact, every night before bedtime now, Werney will request for me to read her at least 2 books. Some of Werney's classic favourite during her baby days were Goodnight Moon, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? I think I have read the Goodnight Moon book for more than a 100 times and even have to bring the book along during our holiday aboard.

Now at 5, Werney loves Dora the Explorer and many others. I have also started Werney with the Ladybird Key Words with Peter and Jane series. One of her current favourite is Charlie & Lola, I Will Never Not Ever Eat A Tomato by Lauren Child. This book features the popular Charlie & Lola of the TV cartoon series.

Being a fussy eater, I bought this book with the aim to encourage Werney to try out more foods, other than her usual french fries and sausages. It is really a funny book and Werney loves how Charlie convinced her little sister, Lola, a picky eater to try out the varieties of foods. Lola won't eat her carrots until big brother Charlie reveals that they are really orange twiglets from Jupiter. She won't eat her mashed potatoes until Charlie explains they are cloud fluff from Mount Fuji. What about eating Ocean Nibbles (for fish sticks), the food of Mermaids?

There are many, many other things that Lola absolutely will not eat, including and especially tomatoes. And yes, Werney doesn't like tomatoes too but I have convinced her that she should try everything, just like Lola.

A really well written story and the book is alive with lots of colors and imagination. Werney really enjoys this book and we read it at least a few times a week.

If you would like to get your copy of Charlie & Lola, I Will Never Not Ever Eat A Tomato book too, hop over to Ebay now. Hui Wearn has just stocked up on this book again.

Anney, 18 months

As for Anney, she loves books too but her attention span is short and I usually read her picture board books. One of her favourite is Baby Einstein Language Nursery book.

I bought this book from Pay Less Books shop for just RM9, a few years ago. It still looks great after many years with frequent stains from milk, fruit juice and what's not!

What is so special about this book? This is a board board that is suitable for baby from ages 1 months to 4 years old. It has a collection of bright and bold pictures of simple words like Star, Duck, Bear, Flower, Train, My name is.........etc in English and also 4 other different languages - French, Spanish, Japanese, Hebrew. The last page of the book comes with a non-breakable mirror and this has never failed to leave a smile on Anney's face. It is such a joy to see her laugh whenever she looks at her own reflection in the mirror. Anney's favourite word is "Baby", pointing at herself in the mirror.

Anney has learned many words from this Baby Einstein book and she is like a parrot now, repeating all the words after me. For words that she can't pronounced, she would just said "gaga" and smiled at me!

Homemade mango cheese cake

2009-09-07T19:07:00.001+08:00

Some of you have seen my pictures of the homemade mango cheese cake in Facebook and wanted to know the recipe? So, here is it. It is quite easy and no baking is required.

Ingredients:-

250g of Digestive biscuits
60g butter
250g of Cream Cheese (thawed at room temperature)
125g castor sugar or superfine sugar (not icing sugar!)
125ml whipping cream
1 canned mango and chopped into smaller pieces (you can also use fresh mango puree)
1 sachet of gelatine powder or about 1.5 tablespoon
4 tablespoon of water or as per the gelatine instruction
10 fresh strawberries for decoration

You will also need:

A 20cm round baking pan with removable base
Aluminium foil to cover the base of the baking pan
Cake mixer or hand mixer

Instructions:-

Melt the butter in a small bowl (place the bowl of butter over a pan of hot water)
Crush the Digestive biscuit in a ziplock bag
Mix the crushed Digestive biscuits with the melted butter in a large bowl
Pour the Digestive biscuits into the baking pan and press it firmly using the back of a metal spoon. Once done, place the baking pan in the fridge
Gently sprinkle the gelatine powder into the small bowl containing water
Mix the gelatine powder until completely dissolved (it will become spongy now) and place the bowl over a pan of hot water until the gelatine mixture turns clear and runny. Set aside now
Beat the thawed cream cream until smooth. Slowly add in the castor sugar and beat the mixture until light and fluffy
Mix the dissolved gelatine to the canned mango
Whip up the whipping cream and add the canned mango to the whipping cream
Final step, combine the cream cheese with step 10 above
Pour the mixture into the baking pan now
Chill for at least 5 hours or overnight till firm
Add the fresh strawberries on top for decoration

Serve chilled!

Werney who doesn't like cheese also love the mango cheese cake.

Anney's new hair style

2009-09-05T19:01:00.003+08:00

Po Po has been complaining about how long Anney's hair was. We have been keeping her curly lock since 1 months old till now.

Unfortunately, Po Po and Gong Gong really cannot tahan her messy hair and Po Po decided to chop off her curly locks yesterday.

See Anney's new hair style....

DH said her new hair style looked like "Lam Ah Jane"....if you know who la!

Bei Zhan Restaurant (Non-halal) @ Malacca

2009-09-05T18:52:00.002+08:00

If you happen to be at Malacca, do check this restaurant out. While I was in Malacca last week, I had my dinner there for 2 consecutive nights.

They have just moved to this new location and the restaurant is a lot bigger. While I was there for 2 nights, the place was crowded to the brim for both nights....weekday nights!

Front entrance

Business card

Nice decoration

Beautiful interior of the restaurant

Some of the other specialties of the restaurants are:-

Pattaya Chicken
Deep fried soft shell crab with chicken floss
Apple with potato juice
and lots more!

Sorry no pictures for the above dishes.

School refusal

2009-09-04T07:30:00.001+08:00

School re-opened this week after a 10-days mid-term break.

One of my mom's biggest concern is Werney refusing school. Yes, this has happen many a times before and when she first started kindergarten at 4, my mom basically have to go to the school with her and sat there throughout her 3 hours class for at least a month (luckily I have a very patient mom!).

True enough, Werney's old habit surfaces again on Tuesday. As usual, she will tell my mom that she didn't want to go to school, giving excuses that she has sore throat etc. My mom insisted that she must go to school and sent her to school. Of course, she cried when my mom left and it was only for a short while. It didn't help that one of the teacher joked that she will bring diaper and bottle for her the next day if she cries again! Werney is a very sensitive child and any such "joke" would be taken seriously! The principal is well aware of this and unfortunately, the teacher on duty that day to bring the children up the school was not aware.

The same night (Tuesday), Werney cried (quite badly before bedtime!) and whined that she doesn't want to go to school anymore. Knowing her, I knew something must have happen in school and she told me about the diaper & bottle story. I reassured her that the teacher was just joking etc and finally she settled now and slept.

On Wednesday, she cried big time again before school time and vomitted her lunch all over the floor. My mom was furious and Werney didn't go to school that day.

Hubby kindly send Werney to school yesterday (Thursday) and spoke to the principal and teachers. Luckily Werney told me she likes her class teacher a lot and her class teacher was quite accommodating. She sat with Werney and talked to her before the class start just to make sure she is okay!

Today is already Friday....I hope Werney would have adjusted to the school re-open thingy. Really pening with this missy....sometimes she would tell me she loves her school and all her teachers and the next time, I don't want to go to school etc......

Do you have this problem with your child?

Malacca @ 24 to 26 August 2009

2009-08-31T15:39:00.011+08:00

As we didn't manage to go to Phuket during the school holiday, we drove to Malacca to utilise our free night stay at Holiday Inn Malacca.

As usual, we left our house early at 8am while the girls are still sleeping. Reached Malacca at around 9.30am and woke the girls for breakfast at McDonalds. McDonalds is right opposite the Malacca Zoo where we wanted to visit. Changed the girls and we had our hot breakfast - hotcakes with butter and maple syrup.

The Malacca Zoo was quite a disappointment this time. We were there 2 years ago and the place is a little run down now. However, it is still slightly better than our National Zoo. The girls didn't really like the place as it was hot and humid and Werney got bored with the same hippo, giraffe and zebra again (it seems like we have been visiting quite a lot of zoos!). It was Anney's first trip to the zoo.

We didn't stayed very long and left after about 1.5 hours. Just managed to catch the bird shows and animals show before leaving.

We reached the hotel, Holiday Inn Malacca at around noon and luckily the room was ready. Holiday Inn Malacca is quite a new hotel, situated in the center of town. Although it was school holiday, the hotel occupancy rate was low and we got upgraded to a Straits View Deluxe Club Room. Maybe people were worried about H1N1 and defer their travelling plans. It was good for us that the hotel was quite empty and Malacca was not crowded. No worry about traffic jam.....

Views from the hotel room

The girls monkeying around the hotel room, playing hide and seek around the curtain

Anney playing peek-a-boo with mom

Swimming pool with palm trees, it was really breezing

Infinity pool at the hotel

Werney posing at hotel lobby

Anney posing at hotel lobby

We didn't do a lot of sightseeing as Werney's ideal holiday is to enjoy the hotel, hotel and hotel. She loves to go for a swim, order room service, play at the kid's area and perfectly okay not to go out from the hotel. This is one of the reason why I would normally booked a 4 or 5 stars hotel as I know I would be spending a lot of time in the hotel room!

Anyway, I "forced" Werney to visit the Eye on Malaysia (yes, it is in Malacca now) coz' I didn't manage to ride it in KL the last time and drove around Jonker Street & the Dutch Square.

Eye on Malaysia (night view)

Eye on Malaysia (day view)

Anney with Daddy

Anney and Werney enjoying the Eye on Malaysia ride

Jonker Street

Werney and Anney with Daddy at The Stadhuys (Dutch Square) & Christ Church

Malacca famous clock tower

Menara Taming Sari (far view)

Menara Taming Sari (view from bottom)

Werney posing with the hop on bus

Overall, it was a good break for everyone.

Healthy organic noodles

2009-08-29T16:51:00.008+08:00

Running out of ideas on what to cook for your toddler and kid?

I have recently bought these healthy organic noodles from Country Farm Organic - Beetroot curly noodle and Carrot Hi-Protein Noodle. Didn't know noodles also have so many flavours now.

Anney is already quite tired of porridge and I thought I will cook her some noodle for lunch today. The carrot noodle can be used for frying, dry style or soup. As both my daughters love soupy stuff, I made the carrot noodle with my own soup stock.

First, I boiled the soup stock using sweet corns, carrot, red dates, half a chicken without skin and anchovies for 3 hours. Just dump everything into the pot and set the timer for 3 hours.

To cook the noodle, add the noodle into hot boiling water (with little salt) for 5 minutes. Care should be taken that the noodle is not overcooked. After that, rinse the noodle in cold water to avoid the noodle sticking together.

After that, I took the soup stock that I have made earlier and bring to boil in a small pot. I have also added homemade fish ball, pork fillet, sweet pea and baby corn. Lastly, add in the noodle and serve hot.

Yummy bowl of carrot noodle

Anney enjoying the noodle

Werney sipping the long carrot noodle. Slurrppp....

Mom, I almost finish my noodle

Yummy!

And the above is a result of little Anney ransacking my cabinet again when I was busy cooking in the kitchen

Both Werney and Anney loves the noodle. I think I will cook it again next week.

Another giveaway from A Pregnant Pause...hurry...hurry

2009-08-29T16:07:00.003+08:00

Don't we love giveaways?

The good news is KittyCat from A Pregnant Pause is having another giveaway....this time, there are 3 cloth menstrual pads from Fussybutt's Moonbow to be given away to 3 lucky ladies or men (for their lovely wife or girlfriend or daughter) (KittyCat - man can join the giveaway or not?). To find out more on what is a cloth menstrual pad, please refer here. I have just started out on cloth menstrual pad and will blog about my experience in my blog later.

What can you win?

a) A regular sized cloth menstrual pad in tie-dye orange (worth RM43); or
b) A regular sized cloth menstrual pad in bright blue (worth RM43); or
c) A petite sized cloth menstrual pad in pretty pink (worth RM39).

One prize for each winner.

To win the giveaway, it is as easy as ABC. It is open for both blogger or non-blogger. The first step to win this wonderful cloth menstrual pad is of course, to visit A Pregnant Pause's blog.

For 1 ENTRY,

a) visit Fussybutt.com and drool over the colourful collection of cloth menstrual pads, cloth wipes and even nursing pads!
b) choose a favourite item OR an item you’d love to try and
c) state why for item (b) above in the comment box here.

For 3 ENTRIES,
a) Subscribe to A Pregnant Pause's e-mail updates here; and
b) Blog about the giveaway or why you’re going for cloth and leave a link in her blog entry; or
c) Shout out (non-bloggers) why you think all girls / women should go for cloth! (short and sweet one, please!).

Good luck everyone. I'm already drooling over the rainbow colour cloth menstrual pads in Fussybutt.com. Don't you agree they are so sweet and nice?

Little ransacker

2009-08-28T18:02:00.004+08:00

Little ransacker....that is the current title for my missy Anney.

As you would have probably know, this little missy is super duper active, can't sit still and now, can even open all the cabinets and drawers in my kitchen. Well, surprisingly, she is quite good at closing these drawers by just pushing the front panel and have never hurt her little fingers.

Whenever I am busy in the kitchen either fixing meals for my 2 missies or doing some laundry or house chores, this is what would happen to all my tupperwares, containers, plates and whatever my little missy could fished out from the cabinets.

I am just worried that she would also explores the detergent and soap cabinet. Maybe need to get DH to fix the child-proof cabinet/drawer lock? But I have got so many cabinets....how many locks do I needs?

I wondered what are so special about all these cups and containers? Put these in the toy box and nobody would touch at all. Have these in the cabinets and it became their toys!!!! Haiz.........

Sweetest tutu ever

2009-08-25T16:30:00.003+08:00

It's every girl dream to be a princess and Werney's wishes has came true with this wonderful tutu from Tutu Workshop.

When I told Werney that I have won a tutu skirt for her in the recent MOBS-Tutu Workshop contest, she was so so happy! Yes, this lil' girl of mine is quite a vain pot. The prize for the contest is:

2nd Prize
A Basic Classic Tutu + magic wand (worth RM100)

The chosen slogan was:

My princess will look great in a tutu because delicately crafted with love, simply pretty and alluring with the power of transporting the girls to the fairyland!

I e-mailed the Tutu Workshop owner, Joanne and she gladly replied that she could make me a customised tutu....I get to choose the colour and size of the tutu! And of course, the colour is pink - Werney's favourite colour.

We have just received the custom made tutu on Sunday. Joanne personally delivered the tutu to us. The tutu is nicely handmade by Joanne herself, such a talented lady. The tutu is indeed very lovely and beautiful. Thanks very much!

Werney has been asking me when she could wears this tutu for our outings. In the meantime, these are some of the shots I took at home.

And of course, lil' Anney wanted to try out the tutu skirt too.....

Who is your child's favourite character?

2009-08-21T07:59:00.000+08:00

Uno, Dos, Tres, Cuatro, Cinco, Sies, Siete, Ocho, Nueve, Diez.....

That's counting from 1 to 10 in Spanish. Both Werney and Anney love this character - Dora, the explorer and that's how my 2 little girls have picked up their Spanish.

If you are wondering who is Dora the explorer....here is Dora and her friend, Boots the Monkey. Named as Boots coz' this funny monkey wears a pair of red boot!

Dora the explorer and her friends enthrall all young children with their adventures and problem solving skills. Quite a entertaining and educational program!

When Werney was younger, her favourite character is Barney, the purple dinosaur. She loves all the Barney's songs and learn her ABCs from Barney too! After she turns 2, I started to introduce her to Dora the explorer and she loves it. And from then on, it has always been Dora VCDs or Channel 613 Playhouse Disney. Maybe that's the reason why Anney is addicted to Dora show too!

Some Spanish for you to learn today....

Uno (One)
Dos (Two)
Tres (Three)
Cuatro (Four)
Cinco (Five)
Sies (Six)
Siete (Seven)
Ocho (Eight)
Nueve (Nine)
Diez (Ten)
Abre (Open)
Gracias (Thank you)
Si (Yes)
iHola (Hello)
iVamonos (Let's go)
cuidado (Watch out)
Estrella (Star)
Abuela (Grandma)
lo hicimos (We did it)

Werney's latest craze is this Special Agent Oso and also the Disney princesses. Do you know you can sms Special Agent Oso and he will returns call via a recorded message? Cool right?

Who is your child's favourite character?

Astro Ready to Fly Show

2009-08-20T19:54:00.000+08:00

Are you Ready to Fly? What am I talking about? It is the game show in Astro Channel 311.

DH got a call from Astro to inform him that he has been shortlisted to participate in the new season of Astro Ready To Fly show. Well....Sis#2, who is a contest crazy girl, registered herself & DH for the show. She also wanted to register me but since I can't read mandarin or converse well in mandarin, I have promptly declined her offer. Didn't want to malu myself on stage la, just in case I got selected to participate.

My BIL (Sis#2's hub) also participated in the same show last year...not sure which season or episod as I have never watch this show before coz' we never subscribe to Astro Wah Lai Toi Channel 311. Apparently Astro received thousands of entries and DH and Sis#2 are the lucky fews who got selected to participate.

The show is hosted by Hui Min and participants will need to earn mileage (point) to win the trip to their favourite destinations. The briefing and audition is this Sunday and hopefully DH and Sis#2 will be lucky enough to win some travel packages or goodies!

I saw in the Facebook Astro Ready to Fly fan page that past participants have traveled to Japan, Paris, Bangkok etc....wow...isn't that great?

A Nissan Cra2y weekend

2009-08-18T20:42:00.003+08:00

We participated in the I'M Nissan Cra2y motor treasure hunt over the weekend. The hunt was flagged off from Tan Chong Motors service centre at PJ and ended at Swiss Garden Resort Kuantan.

Our car - Nissan Grand Livina

The team members consisted of 4 of us - DH, Sis #2, BIL and yours truly. DH was the driver and me, the navigator. We woke up at 5am on Saturday to get ready and also to send the girls to my mom's house. We couldn't bring the girls along as the treasure hunt journey was 8 hours in total.

The Nissan treasure hunt is a yearly event organised by Tan Chong Motors to value their customer since 1998. This is our 2nd time participating in the Nissan treasure hunt. It was really a fun event and all 50 cars walked off with prizes!!!! We got the 7th placing this year, a slight improvement from last year at 9th placing.

The questions were much tougher than last year and they even included a Sudoku puzzle that we needed to solve as part of the treasure hunt questions. Both hubby and myself are clueless about Sudoku and Sis #2 and BIL volunteered to complete the Sudoku! However, both got car sick and couldn't complete the twin Sudoku in a moving car!

The event ended with a prize presentation dinner with the theme I'M Nissan Cra2y. Our team was also awarded the Best Dressed Team....being the Nissan craziest team!!! See the pictures and you can judge it yourself! Besides that we also won an early bird prize and a lucky draw prize. There were really lots of prizes given out by the Tan Chong Motors people.

In fact, one of the family got involved in an accident during the hunt and the car was quite badly damaged (almost total lost) but everyone in the car walked away okay. The MD of Tan Chong Motors promised the owner that Tan Chong Motors will replace the car. Wow...that was really the most generous car distributor around.

The resort we stayed, Swiss Garden Kuantan is a beautiful resort with nice sandy beach. If you are thinking about bringing your kids for a beach holiday, I would recommend Swiss Garden Kuantan. The beach is at least 10 times nicer than Batu Ferrighi Penang!

Swiss Garden Resort Kuantan

Beach at Swiss Garden Resort Kuantan

The Nissan Cra2y Girls

The Nissan Cra2y team

The Best Dressed Team for the night

Our prizes

It was a tiring and cra2y weekend but we had so much fun! Hope to be able to participate in the hunt again next year.

It's official, our Phuket trip is cancelled

2009-08-14T07:49:00.000+08:00

With the death toll for H1N1 victims climbing steadily (last count today is 51 in Malaysia!) and probably faster than the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Index, we have finally decided to cancel our forthcoming Phuket trip. Yes, it is a hole in the pocket but definitely not taking any chance especially with my 2 girls below 5. I read that children below 5 years old are considered to be in the high risk group, mainly due to the low immunity system.

I have also called up AirAsia to enquire whether we could postponed our trip (but to when right?). Though AirAsia allowed us to postpone our travel date, we will have to pay additional RM80/way for each passenger as administration fee and on top of that, we also have to top up the price difference between the old fares and the new ones! Well, after some calculation, it is just not worth it and I might as well book a new set of tickets. Furthermore, I wonder how long will this H1N1 last? The vaccine is expected to reach our Malaysian shore only by end of this year and by then, how many more deaths will occur?

Werney is upset of course. I am disappointed too....have been looking forward to the white sandy beach and blue blue sea. Oh, not forgetting the spa too! Will task DH to look for a local trip, that don't require us to travel in flight to compensate for the cancelled trip.

Ring sling

2009-08-12T21:15:00.004+08:00

At 17 months now, Anney is as clingy as a koala bear...or sometimes, I think she is like a velcro tape.....sticking to me everywhere I go and wanted to be carried all the times. During day time, when I was away at work, she would also stick to my mom like that too! Why is my baby like that?

Mind you, this little baby is already 11kgs and it can be quite challenging carrying her around! Luckily, I have my faithful ring sling and Anney loves to be in the sling too. At times, when I refused to carry her as I was busy washing and cleaning up etc, she would brings the sling and asks me to carry her in the sling. Smart baby, right?

The sling that I have is from The Baby Loft. The material used is really luscious and soft as it is made from silk and I really love the olive colour. This colour has been discontinued now. However, I find the nylon ring used in The Baby Loft's ring sling doesn't hold the silk material very well and it can be quite slippery with a heavier baby. Besides, the sling is a little too long for me as I normally used my sling for hip carry. A longer sling would be useful for piggy-back carry style or for discreet breastfeeding, which I no longer need now.

I read from some of the babywearing websites and forums that aluminium ring in smaller size would be perfect for silk material. Not wanting to spend more money to invest into another ring sling (as I was thinking of getting a 2 shoulders carrier like a Mei-Tai or a Soft Structured Carrier later), I found this talented mommy who could helps me to "modify" my ring sling.

Before

After

* Picture courtesy of Snuggbaby.com

Liza of Snuggbaby helped to change the nylon ring to medium size aluminium ring, shorten the length of the sling by removing the zipper pocket and added a designer fabric as open pocket. I really love the new look of my sling! Thanks very much Liza!

Well, the new aluminium ring does hold the silk material better! Love it! Love it!

My handy helpers

2009-08-10T22:00:00.001+08:00

Daddy was busy trimming the grass at our backyard yesterday and our two handy helpers had lots of fun "helping out" a.k.a. giving daddy and mommy more work!

This is the first time both my girls were doing "gardening" and they sure do have fun with the grass. Both really sweat out after the 1 hour gardening! Not forgetting to mention both daddy and mommy have tired arms too from manually trimming the grass!

Johnson's Baby of the Year contest

2009-08-10T12:53:00.000+08:00

Got a cute baby to show off?

Why not participate in the yearly Johnson's Baby of the Year contest. The contest is held yearly to search for the brightest, healthiest and most charming baby in Malaysia....and this contest attracts thousands of entries each year. What is so special about the baby contest? Besides having a chance to appear in the cover page of a parenting magazine, the grand prize winner will walks away with a cash prize is RM15,000!

It is only open for baby below the age of 24 months as at 31 August 2009. Contest ends 31 August 2009. You can submit your entry via post, in-store photo shoot or online here with every purchase of any Johnson's baby products.

I've already submitted some entries for Anney and now tell me what am I going to do with these?

Luckily our whole family loves the Johnson's baby products!

Yamaha Junior Music Course (JMC)

2009-08-08T12:13:00.002+08:00

Yesterday, I brought Werney to attend her first Yamaha Junior Music Course (JMC)'s trial class. Werney loves to sing and dance and I thought starting her with a music program would be great. JMC is for children between the age of 4 and 5 years old and it is a 2 years program.

For very young kids, JMC would stimulate a more conducive learning environment as compared to a one-to-one piano lesson as a child can get bored easily. JMC is different from the conventional piano lesson as this is a group lesson with about 8-10 parents & children in the class.

The parents & kids will learn the course together. Yes, this mean you will have to sit in with your child during the 60 minutes class. I know some parents love to drop their kids off for the class so that they could run some errands or shopping but I really like the idea that parents get to participate in the course. It helps to take the lesson home and parents could guide the kids with the knowledge learned during the class. Besides that, it is also bonding time for the parents and the child.

JMC emphasizes learning the music via play by ear method. There are lots of interactions during the class with singing, playing the keyboard, theory and etc. The teacher is very experienced and has a nice voice too! Both Werney and myself have enjoyed the class and I have decided to enroll Werney for the 2 years journey.

Am currently sourcing for second hand materials for the JMC. Anyone keen to sell off?

Update @ 12 August 2009

Found the JMC materials from a Penang mommy. Bought the CD & DVD 1, 2 & 3 from her!

Canvas printing

2009-08-07T18:31:00.002+08:00

As parents, we tend to take a lot (and I mean really a lot) of our kids' pictures, right? How do you display this wonderful collections or do you just keep these pictures in your PC or laptop? I love taking my kids' pictures as they grow really fast. However, till now, I still didn't manage to master my photo taking skills, which I hope to improve one day.

I have recently printed some of our photos taken by Jazz onto canvas. What is a canvas printing? A canvas print is basically to professionally print an image onto canvas, instead of paper. With the modern technology, you can have your photos into canvas art - no need to waste hundred of dollars to buy expensive art pieces for your home.....just print your photo into canvas art! No more heavy photo frame or worry about when the glass frame will break (especially with my super duper active baby), just get canvas printing!

Surprisingly, canvas printing is quite affordable in Malaysia and it could last you a lifetime. Canvas photo is light-weight, water resistant and comes with additional coating against UV, scratches and finger prints.

I got mine printed at My Canvas Prints. I would highly recommend My Canvas Prints- the price is reasonable, the printing is great and most important of all, the excellent customer service from the owner, Mr. Yap. Prices for the canvas printing start from RM49 (for a 12" x 12" print) and delivery is free for any purchase above RM299. Besides printing, they also offer free advice on custom printing and display idea with mock-up picture that looks like this. It is easier for someone (like me) who is not so artistic to visualize!

This is the final output and I am taking it from the side due to the reflection from my ceiling fan and light. It looks exactly like the mock-up given!

Get a canvas print today!

By the way, this is not a sponsored post okay!

New baby and mommy checklist

2009-08-06T21:02:00.003+08:00

As a mother of 2 and being one of the earlier who got married and have baby within my group of friends, I always get this question on what to buy or prepare for new baby and mommy. I thought I might as well share this in my blog. The recommended brands are based on my own experiences and preferences....

Checklist for new baby and mommy

Breastfeeding

Nursing bras x 3
Breast pads - to avoid those embarrasing moments from milk leakage during final months of pregnancy or post-natal
Nipple cream for sore nipple or cracked nipple (I love Earth Mama Angel Baby's Natural Nipple Butter)
Breast pump - I would recommend to get an electric pump if your budget permit. I personally love the Medela Pump-In-Style Advanced or Medela Swing because of the stimulation of let-down of milk during pumping
Breast milk storage container or bag
Electric bottle & food warmer
Cooler bag and ice bricks

If you are a stay-at-home-mom and will not need to express your breast milk , then omit item 4 to 7 above!

Bottle feeding

Steriliser (I like the Pigeon electric bottle steriliser)
BPA-free feeding bottles and teats x 6 (many brands like MAM, Avent, Dr Brown have BPA-free range). If you want to know what is BPA, refer to my previous post here.
Bottle and teat brush
Bottle drying racks
Bottle washing liquid (Pigeon or Pureen)
Pacifier (optional)

Nursery

Baby cot
Baby cot mattress - the mattress must be firm to support the baby's back. Latex material is great as it is breathable and anti-bacterial.
Crib set - fitted sheet, cot bumper etc
Baby blanket
Baby monitor

Apparel

Short sleeves T-shirt or bodysuits x 5
Long sleeves T-shirt or bodysuits x 3
Mitten and booties x 5 pairs
Receiving blanket to swaddle the baby
Wash cloths x 1 dozen
Bib x 3
Diapers (cloth or disposable)
Diaper rash cream

Bathing and grooming

Baby bath tub with non-slip mat
Bath towel
Wash cloth or sponge
Baby comb or brush
Baby nail clipper or scissor
Digital ear or forehead thermometer

Travel

Diaper changing bag and changing mat
Stroller - Umbrella folding (more compact and great for traveling) and those stroller that can be reclined fully (work best for newborn baby)
Infant carrier (great for newborn baby till 9 kgs)
Car seat - Convertible car seat can be used from newborn till 18 kgs (around 4 year old)

How to make your child passport?

2009-08-04T20:04:00.002+08:00

Gone were the days where my mom used to stick my picture and my sibling pictures to her passport as "tag-on". Nowadays, the Malaysian Immigration Department required all children, irregardless of age, to have individual passport.

Making a passport has also been a breeze now! I still remember my dad and mom used to drag my sis and myself up at 6 am to queue up at the Immigration Department to make or renew our passport. In the past, the Immigration Department will give out number and once the number are all snapped up, you will have to come back another day.

Now, our Immigration Department work 7 days a week, even on Sunday for certain branches! I've just applied a passport for Anney and here are some of the details to share with you:-

1. Go to the Immigration Website to download the latest Form IM.42 (for Malaysian Citizen) for international travel. Remember to print the form on front and back of an A4 paper by setting your printer to duplex mode. The Immigration Department will not accept your form if you print it on two separate pieces of A4 paper. Alternatively, you can buy the form at the Immigration Department for a small fee;

2. Documents required:-

2 recent passport size photo of your child with blue background. The size of the photo should follow the new measurement of 3.5cm x 5cm;
Original copy of birth certificate and 1 photocopy of the birth certificate
Original copy of father/mother/approved guardian's NRIC and 1 photocopy of the NRIC (to support the child application)

3. Complete the form and bring all the documents before going to the Number Issuing Counter. A number will be issued only if all the documents are complete;

4. For child below 2 years old, there will be a special counter (I think it is Counter 25 & 26 @ Damansara Branch). If you do go on a Sunday at the Damansara Branch, once you get the number, you could go to any empty counter, no need to wait for your number to be called;

5. At the Submission Counter, the officer will check and ensure all documents are complete, both original and photocopy plus the photos. The father/mother/approved guardian who gave the consent will be asked to do the thumbprint and sign next to the thumbprint; and

6. After that, wait for your number to be called (or shown on the screen) at the Cashier Counter. Pay the fee and a receipt will be issued. All the original documents will be return to you for safekeeping. Wait for 2 hours (after payment) before going to the Collection Counter to submit your receipt before collecting the passport.

Validity of the passport:

5 years from date of issue

Fees:

32 pages @ RM300.00

64 pages @ RM600.00

Half-priced for child below 12 years old or below 21 years old (with proof of higher education overseas) at date of application

Mode of payment - Cash, Bank draft or Credit card (for weekday only)

Operation hours:-

Monday to Friday: 7.30am to 1.00pm and 2.00pm to 5.30pm
(KL, Labuan, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, Johor, Perak, Penang, Perlis, Sabah & Sarawak

Saturday and Sunday: 8.00am to 1.00pm
Melaka, Pahang (Kuantan), Perak (Ipoh), Selangor (Shah Alam), Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur (Damansara), Johor (Wisma Persekutuan), Penang (Seberang Jaya), Sawarak (Kuching) and Sabah (Kota Kinabalu)

Operation hours may changed without further notice. Please consult the website here.

You will need to bring your child along to make / renew the passport as well as to collect the passport!

Why weekend is always so short?

2009-08-03T08:39:00.003+08:00

It is Monday again. My last post, I've listed 6 things that I wanted to accomplish over the weekend and ......

Facial for mommy - Not done! Postponed to next weekend as Anney was not feeling too well on Saturday again!
Warehouse sale - Pureen warehouse sale to stock up on my Pureen HAD liquid detergent (for all my cloth diaper) and baby wet wipes - Check! Managed to sneak sometimes to go but the jam was terrible!
Visit my friend newborn baby @ PJ - Check!
Service my car - Not done!
Bring Anney to make her passport - Check!
Blogging and update my blog. So many thing to write but haven't been able to update my blog since Monday! - Not done!

Only 50% done and my list is accumulating! *Sweat*

Have a productive week ahead everyone.

Busy busy weekend

2009-07-31T13:49:00.005+08:00

Weekend is always so short.....and this weekend, I have so many things that I want to do:-

Facial for mommy
Warehouse sale - Pureen warehouse sale to stock up on my Pureen HAD liquid detergent (for all my cloth diaper) and baby wet wipes
Visit my friend newborn baby @ PJ
Service my car
Bring Anney to make her passport
Blogging and update my blog. So many thing to write but haven't been able to update my blog since Monday!

Aiyo.....tell me where to find all the time! I really wish I could take some time off from work just to do my own things!

My powerful antioxidant lunch

2009-07-27T13:41:00.005+08:00

Being home alone and without voice (yes, not sure why I lost my voice today!) could still be a good thing. At least I don't have to shout after my 2 "samseng" girl and also the daddy (sometimes!) and I have some hours for myself to surf the net and make myself a powerful antioxidant lunch. Not to mention, I could also have my lunch in *peace* too!

See, this is my powerful antioxidant lunch with a mug of green tea with honey (not in picture) *burp*.....

Wolfberry ("Qi Zi") with multigrain bread, one slice of turkey ham, blueberries, strawberries and one kiwi

All the above are known to have powerful antioxidant impact and vitamin C to fight off my current bug. Besides popping the medications prescribed by the doc, I also popped a tablet of probiotics as a precautionary measure for stomach upset whenever I am on antibiotic.

I bought this small loaf of wolfberry with multigrain bread from my neighbourhood bakery. Wolfberry is known to have many health benefits and is rich in Lycium barbarum polysaccharides (LBP) (good for the immune system and is a powerful antioxidant), beta-carotene (good for the eyes), 19 amino acids and vitamin A, B & C. I used to add wolfberries to Chinese soup or into any hot tea and the soup or tea will taste very sweet. Great that they have it in bread now too!

Yummy wolfberry with multigrain bread

Happy Birthday Hubby!

2009-07-27T12:13:00.004+08:00

Today's DH's birthday. I am not working today, not because I am taking leave but because I've lost my voice today and having a bad cough, so now on medical leave. Went to the doctor in the morning and doc said the virus have infected my vocal cord, which is why I have lost my voice. Guess I can't sing the birthday song to DH today and will the job to his 2 princesses.

Thanks God have created computer and internet....no need to work today so can surf the internet!

Happy Birthday Hubby and many happy returns!

Living green - reusable shopping bag

2009-07-26T23:17:00.000+08:00

I have started bringing my own bags when I go shopping nowadays, whether it is for groceries or a trip to the toy store. Do you do the same?

Why I love these reusable bags?

Better for the environment and our mother earth.
Plastic bag aren't biodegradable. Many plastic bags ended up in the sea which causes pollution and hundreds of thousands of whales, dolphins, sea turtles die every year after eating discarded plastic bags they mistake for food. Soon, our children will only see these animals in the books.
Save money $$$ in the long run as more and more retails are charging for plastic bag e.g. Ikea etc.
These reusable bag are usually roomy, waterproof and very durable. I just need one or two bags to carry my groceries and not like 10 plastic bags from the hypermarket. I am not sure why these cashiers at the hypermarket love to give out so many plastic bags. They tend to put only like 5 items or so in every bags!
It is so convenient, these reusable bag are so compact and light, I could just fold them and pop a few into my handbag or car dashboard. Just fish one out whenever I need it.
A good way to teach my kids about going green, I guess it is best to start them young.
Lastly, of course the GLAM factor lol....imagine carrying the stylish reusable bag to the wet market, surely I can't be another one of those "Ah Soh" (aunty), right? Many times at the malls, I overheard some mothers asking their kids what free gift (the reusable bag) is this, ah? Well, of course, they are too shy to ask me!

I have just purchased a few more Envirosax from TinyTapir to give to my sisters and family.

Envirosax is made from lightweight polyester, portable, waterproof, and weighing just 1.4 oz each. The bag is quite roomy and can take weight up to 20 kgs.

Bag dimensions (unrolled) approximately 19.5" x 16.5"
Bag dimensions (rolled-up) approximately 4" x 1.5"

Currently, Tiny Tapir is clearing their old stock of Envirosax due to some drama they had with the manufacturer. They are selling each bag at RM20 (the normal retail price is about RM25 each). Of course, Tiny Tapir have other range of reusable bag in their store.

Envirosax (rolled-up) from Tiny Tapir

Envirosax, it is quite roomy and great for groceries. Can takes weight up to 20 kgs

Other than Envirosax, I also love the Village Grocer (at Bangsar Village) 's chiller reusable bag. Got this for RM7 for every purchase above RM100. This is great for storing milk, juice or ice-cream!

This is one of my baby step to live greener and little thing I hope I could do for our children. Please say NO to plastic whenever you can!

Sports Day 2009

2009-07-24T01:25:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday morning, we attended Werney's kindergarten sports day @ Indoor Stadium, Taman Titiwangsa. Grandma, my sis#3, DH, Anney and myself were up and early, all excited about the sports day.

This year, Werney participated in a game where she was required to flips through 4 hula hoops, then takes a bean bag & climbs up a low bench, walks across the bench, aims & throws the bean bag into a pail and then repeat the above again before giving a high-5 to her friend. It may sounds easy for an adult but I could see some of the kids struggling with the hula hoops.

The sports day was really well-organised. All the kids get to participate in the games and win a medal - "gold", "silver" or "bronze". No one go home empty handed! There are also march pass, performances by the age 4 & 6 groups, games for the parents and also lucky draws.

Werney's team won a gold medal this year and my little girl was all smiling for the whole day!

Students getting ready for the march pass

Some parents even come with banner to cheer their little girl/boy!

Performance by 4 year olds

Werney posing for a shot before the game

Werney in action

All smiling after the game

Performance by 6 years old

Lucky draws presents for parents

More presents for the lucky draws

Werney with her "gold" medal

My "samseng" girl

2009-07-22T18:18:00.001+08:00

Anney has always been a super-duper active baby.

She started crawling at 7 months, standing at 9 months, cruising at 10 months and walking before she turns 1 year old. She just loves the freedom of her mobility but poor mommy and daddy, always have to keep an eye on this active baby who refuses to sit still!

Her latest "love" is to climb up the family sofa, slide down from the arm rest and climb up again. At times, she would also stand on the arm rest and pretends to be like a super girl and this really sweat mommy out!

Check out some of her photos "monkeying" around.....for a good 30 minutes or more.

Dear baby, dear baby, I think mommy must take more essence of chicken to keep up with your energy level.

My cloth diaper story

2009-07-20T22:18:00.004+08:00

Why cloth diaper?

With the modern age of disposable diaper, you must be wondering why anyone would go back to cloth diaper?

It all started with my mom. She was the advocate of cloth diaper for the family - for all her 4 daughters and now her grand-daughters too. In my mom's view, she always thinks disposables are so stuffy, hot, no air circulation for baby's bum and causes diaper rash. And true enough, both Werney and Anney have sensitive skin. If I put them in disposables for a day i.e. 24 hours, I will immediately see the diaper rash attacking the nappy area and it takes ages for this nasty rash to go away.

Werney was a cloth diaper baby. We started her with the traditional cloth diaper (white muslin square type) because back in year 2004, I didn't know that they were such thing as modern cloth diaper. These white muslins square type were easy to maintain, airy, but were not good for holding pee as it get really soaked up after just one pee.

I discovered the modern cloth diaper when I was preggy with Anney in 2007. It was still pretty new in Malaysia then and all the canggih and confusing terminologies like fitted, pocket diaper, one-size, microfiber, hemp, bamboo soaker etc were really confusing for any mommies. I started reading more on cloth diapers over the internet and bought a few diapers from Mia Bambina to understand more on cloth diapers. Werney was already toilet-trained then and I couldn't try these diapers on her! Yes, mommy was too eager to try these out!

Anney was born in March 2008 and I started with prefold / traditional muslin square and combined with the modern cloth diaper cover. My diaper stash was really limited then and I find that this is the best option for a newborn as Anney is a breastfed baby and she poo poo like 8-10 times a day! I just have to change the prefold and alternate the cloth diaper cover. Sometimes, I do put her in pocket cloth diaper and I find that Bumwear petite works best for newborn than any other size or one-size diaper. Even my confinement lady commented how great were these modern cloth diapers.

When Anney was 3 months old, I started getting more diaper stash as I will need to keep sufficient stash at my mom's house during day time and at my house for night time and also weekend. I started getting more one-size diaper as Anney was growing really fast and all my S and M sizes diapers look tiny on her. At that time, the one-size diaper seems to fit her better too as you know, sometimes, it is difficult to find the best fit with one-size diaper. You will have to adjust the snaps etc to find the best fit!

Why I love cloth diaper?

No nappy rash attack (yes, this was my main reason to use cloth diaper)
Better for baby as it is soft and cloth-like. Who likes to wear paper and plastic, right?
Better air-circulation for baby's bum
No chemical on cloth diaper
Better for our mother earth
Cost less in the long term
Encourages early potty training (Werney was potty trained for both day and night @ 2.5 years old)
It's so cute on baby

Well, cloth diaper is really simple and works as great as disposable. With simple instructions, daddy, granddad, maid, nanny or babysitter could also use cloth diaper with ease. It is as simple as wear and go! For laundry, I will just put everything into the washing machine and wash them together with baby clothes.

Looking back, I have traveled far with my cloth diaper journey, trying out many types and brands and introducing cloth diapers to friends and relatives. I'm sure Anney loves the cloth diaper too as it is definitely more comfortable for her nappy area!

At 16 months, Anney is already showing some signs that she is ready for potty training now (one of the benefit of cloth diaper!). She would tell us "mm mm" after she has poo-poo in her diaper and would regular sit on the potty to tell us "mm mm" but nothing comes out!

At one hand, I am happy that she would be potty trained soon and on another hand, I know I would miss all the wonderful cloth diapers!

Should we cancel our Phuket trip?

2009-07-17T13:49:00.001+08:00

We have been looking forward to the coming August 2009 school holiday as this will be our first overseas holiday with both Werney and Anney. Werney have been really excited about our Phuket trip and regularly asked when are we going to Phuket, how many days and how many nights are we going to be there, have we made Anney's passport and etc.....

However, with the increasing number of H1N1 cases being reported daily, death toll climbing in Thailand and university in Phuket closed for "disinfectant", we are really thinking whether we should just cancel our trip. Yes, I know we also have H1N1 in Malaysia and life still goes on as usual here but my main concern is while travelling in the plane! The seats are so near one and another and also the air-circulation!

Hubby said to keep an eye and ear on this first and we will evaluate the situation when it is closer to the travel date. I know sooner or later this H1N1 will be another common flu but as at now, there is still no vaccination for this H1N1 virus. I really hope the vaccination will be out soon and ease the current pandemic situation.

Check out Anney's picture in Bumwear.com

2009-07-16T18:36:00.005+08:00

I've recently sent one of Anney picture to Bumwear.com for the Baby of the Month Contest and guess what, she has been chosen to be Baby of the month for June 2009. For winning the Baby of the Month contest, we will get a Bumwear gift package consisting of a Bumwear diaper or one swim diaper and one wetbag of our choice. Total value is S$44.90!! Many thanks to Bumwear.com for choosing Anney!

Little Anney in Bumwear cloth diaper

I've tried out many many brands of cloth diapers in the market and I really like Bumwear diaper. This made in Singapore diaper is so cute and is definitely compatible to other US/Australian brands. Bumwear is more affordable too! If you have always wanted to try out Bumwear cloth diaper for your baby, please go for it!

I have been using cloth diaper since Werney's time (from year 2004) but that time, the cloth diapers were those white square muslin. When I was preggy with Anney in 2007, I was so glad that the modern cloth diaper has evolved so much! I will blog another time why I am totally in love with cloth diaper!

Another weekend activity

2009-07-15T19:02:00.000+08:00

Since the H1N1 scare, we have been visiting less shopping malls and crowded areas to avoid catching the flu bug. So what have we been doing with the girls at home lately?

Cycling, water play, sand-art, painting and lately baking too!

I bought this Green's fairy cupcakes mix from Cold Storage recently and baked these lovely cupcakes with Werney last Sunday.

Although the instruction indicated that I should use an electric mixer to mix the cupcake mix but I haven't got any, so just use hand to mix the batter. The result is still the same and I gave some cupcakes to Sis#3 and she said they are yummy. The mixing, baking and decorating all done in 40 minutes!

Werney helping me to mix the cupcakes batter

Cupcakes batter with egg, water & oil

As my cupcake baking tray is rather big, managed to bake 9 cupcakes only

Final product and added with edible icing and glitter. The princess sticker idea is from Chin Nee.

Closed up of fairy cupcake with Snow White sticker

Werney posing with her Ariel (Little Mermaid) cupcake

Bento-ing

2009-07-13T08:25:00.000+08:00

Bento-ing has been a craze in the blogging world for the last 1 or 2 years, particularly in many mommies' blogs. I have also caught the bento-ing bug but for me, it is mainly to pack simple and healthy breakfast for DH and myself to bring to work.

I have started packing breakfast to work about 2 weeks ago. Reasons?

Morning is a crazy rush for all of us as I need to feed Anney, change & boil the water, wash and clean the bottles & then drop both my angels at my mom's house before heading for work......and the morning traffic could be quite stressful at times! Where got time to sip a cuppa of coffee at home?

The recent medical screening that DH & I did indicated that both DH and my cholesterol levels are at the high risk group! This could be due to all the nasi lemak, roti canai, fried meehoon, fried rice etc and whatever unhealthy foods we have been eating for breakfast.

My company has imposed a new policy and punctualiy at work is a MUST now. Do or die.....we need to clock in by 8.45am! No more traffic jam excuse lol!

Packing my breakfast to work would also ensures that I have a good start for the day and I definitely need all these energies! After all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right?

Anyway, this is my first attempt of bento-ing

Vegetable buns with avocado, ham and lettuce

Kiwi fruit and strawberry

Cherry tomatoes

Quick Mac n Cheese recipe!

2009-07-11T17:48:00.001+08:00

I found a quick and easy homemade mac n cheese recipe over the internet. I have tried it and the result is simply delicious!

Ingredients:

150g macaroni elbow
1 can Campbell mushroom soup
1 can milk (use the mushroom soup can for measuring the milk)
1 medium size yellow onion (mince this!)
10 pieces of button mushroom (mince this!)
2 sausages or 100 g of ham (mince this!)
3 slices of Cheddar cheese (more if you like it cheesier)

How to make this delicious mac n cheese?

1. Cook the macaroni elbow till the texture is just right. Drain the macaroni and set aside
2. Fry the onion, button mushroom, sausages or ham with olive oil till fragrant
3. Add the mushroom soup, milk and simmer for 5 minutes
4. Add in the macaroni elbow and Cheddar cheese
5. Once cooked, transfer into stainless tray
6. Bake in oven at 150 degree Celcius for 8 to 10 minutes

Try it and any extra could be stored in freezer for a quick weekday dinner.

H1N1 home quarantine

2009-07-09T13:49:00.003+08:00

You've read about H1N1 everyday and everywhere and have taken steps to protect your families by visiting less malls or go anti-social for crowded events. Yet, it can still strike you.

I just got a call from hubby that he will be on home quarantined from today till next Monday as one of his colleague, who has returned from Jakarta has been confirmed to have H1N1 virus. His colleague returned from Jakarta last Friday and was at work on Saturday and also the following Monday. Then on Tuesday, he did not turn up for work and just yesterday, confirmed to have H1N1. Everyone in the company with close contact with this guy has been given the flu vaccination (not sure how effective this will be!) and will be home quarantined from today. The people from Ministry of Health (MOH) even sanitized the whole office floor to contain the spread of the H1N1 virus.

I am getting a little panic now....what should we do since we got two young kids at home? It would be difficult not to have close contact with hubby since we all stayed under the same roof! The door knob, door, remote control, kitchen utensils etc? Can you imagine how difficult that would be? Also I don't think my two young kids would understand not to go near daddy? Maybe should restrict hubby to a room and toilet only!

Anyway, in order to take precaution, family members of those quarantined have been asked to practice extra hygiene

Avoid close contact with hubby
Cover our nose and mouth with disposable tissues when coughing or sneezing, and dispose of them in the waste bin
Wash hands regularly with soap and running water, especially after coughing or sneezing. Alcohol-based hand cleansers are also effective
We should also avoid touching our eyes, nose or mouth (Germs are often spread when a person touches something that is contaminated with germs and then touches his or her eyes, nose, or mouth)

So far, household members have not been directed to be quarantined by MOH but if hubby develops any H1N1 symptoms, then we will also be quarantined. Just prayed that hubby will be fine!

Update @ 12 July 2009

Hubby got a call from his HR that the home quarantined has abolished by MOH so hubby is free now! Luckily, hubby still didn't develops any H1N1 symptoms which is good news for all of us.

Should you clean your child's ear?

2009-07-08T21:14:00.002+08:00

We were at the Paed again yesterday and this time, Werney has complaint about minor ear discomfort and Anney has developed some kind of rash. Anney's fever has subsided but now it is the rash on her body and nappy area (will blog about this later).

Our Paed told us that he could see quite a fair bit of ear wax inside Werney's ears and the ear wax is blocking her ear drum. He told us he will try to remove the ear wax, provided Werney could sits very still as the Paed needs to use a sharp ear forceps to remove the ear wax.

The forcep look like this....

Of course, my little girl was terrified and I have to try to distract Werney by asking her to look at my face and counting the number of moles on my face and also playing the statute game with both her hands touching her own knees to stop her from moving her hands and arms.

The Paed was quite skilled and all this was done within 5 minutes and Werney doesn't feel any pains. I counted and there are about 8 pieces of ear wax measuring 3-5 mm each. Sorry for being so grossed or if you just had your meal!

Now, Werney could hears us clearly and no wonder, she has been talking so loud at this while! Anyway, our Paed told us her ear drum is okay and there is no sign of infection. The Paed said it could be just the ear wax causing the discomfort and we were told not to use any metal ear cleaner or cotton bud to clean the inside part of the ear (Po Po who was with us yesterday strongly disagree with that idea! According to her, we have to remove the ear wax or otherwise, it will grows more and more.)

Although cleanliness is important for good health, parents should never clean their child's ear canals. According to our Paed, cleaning the ear canals will increases the chance of developing ear infection or inflammation.

Although cotton buds are the most common, bobby pins, toothpicks, and many other objects are also used to remove wax. These misguided attempts at cleanliness scratch the thin lining of the ear canal and could even cause the ear wax to go further inside the ear canal. Nothing, not even cotton buds should be inserted into a child's ear canal. If there is really a need to remove the ear wax, this should only be done by a health care professional lol.

For daily cleaning, our Paed advises us to remove what we can see only at the outside of the ear canal using a moist face cloth!

Baby loves to chew her finger

2009-07-07T22:34:00.001+08:00

Anney's Chinese zodiac sign is a RAT and true to say, this little Minnie Mouse loves to chew anything and everything!

We gave her a pacifier when she was a baby as she loves to stuffed all her fingers into her mouth and cause the choking and vomiting sensation. She still does it every now and then, especially when we tried to put her into her playpen or baby cot whenever we were busy and doesn't have time to supervise her. She uses this trick to threaten daddy and mommy!

Recently, we discover that she loves to chew and bite her index finger. As a result of this, her index finger (at times) becomes red and raw and mind you, this Minnie Mouse already has 14 teeth! I even noticed that there are teeth biting marks on her index finger. This poor baby who doesn't seems to feel the pain?

I was also going through some of my picture collections and noticed that there are quite a few shots of Anney chewing her finger.

What could I do to stop this habit? I am already trying to limit her time with pacifier and could this be the reason she is chewing her finger now?

Mama

2009-07-05T18:46:00.005+08:00

Today is one of my happiest day.

My little girl said Mama. Yes, Anney could finally said Mama. I thought I heard it wrongly the first time and asked her to repeat a few times. Ha, even asked DH to listen and confirmed that. Then, DH asked Anney to say Papa and she smilingly shake her head to indicate NO. This little girl is quite a cheeky mouse.

Anney's speech is picking up real fast and she can repeats quite a few words after us like hello, bear, cow, duck etc. I think she would probably be another chatter box like her sister soon.

By the way, Anney is down with fever and acute tonsillitis. Our paed has to gave her antibiotic, throat infection syrup and ibuprofen because her temperature was 39 degree celcius. Although she has fever and don't really have appetite but this cheeky mouse is still active as usual. She still climbs everywhere and mess up the house with her toys and books. And poor Mama has to be the "kakak" to clean up the house when all of them go to bed!

Anney is napping now and I really hope her fever will subsides soon.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

2009-07-01T07:51:00.002+08:00

It's my mom and the girls' grandma birthday today. Mom will be turning 57 today. Happy Birthday Mom! We love you.

Most of my family members & in-laws' birthday fall in the second half of the year except Sis#3. So from now onwards....there will be many dinners and cakes to savour!

I bought mom an Esprit convertible bag where you can hang over your shoulder or sling it. I think it is great for travelling or even a trip to the shopping mall with my girls to leave my mom's hands free. Will put up some photos later.

As it is a weekday today, I will only take mom out for dinner after work and follow by cake cutting. Werney get overly excited today coz' it grandma's birthday and she already told my mom that she will blow the candle and cut the cake together with my mom (as though it is her birthday!). Well, Werney really adores my mom.

Hope to be able to leave office early today.

Babysitter for a day

2009-06-30T22:21:00.001+08:00

Last Sunday evening, BIL & SIL sent Ven-Hynn ("VH") (the name is quite special hor?) over to my house as they were invited for a garden wedding reception at Carcosa Seri Negara by one of their closed friend. Since the H1N1 scare and VH's immune system is still immature, they prefer not to bring him out and exposed him to all the germs etc.

So DH, Werney and me play "babysitter" for a day (or should I said a few hours). Anney also quite "kepoh chi" and whenever the VH cries, she would run over and try to stroke VH or pat him. We were more worried that Anney may accidentally pat him too hard or sit on VH, so we try to make sure Anney stays far from VH.

Well, it is definitely not so easy to care for 3 kids!

Yes, I still need to make sure Werney have her dinner or sometimes, still have to feed her as she has the tendency to tell me half way through the meal, that she doesn't want to eat anymore or she is full. Werney still needs me to bath her.

As for Anney, she will acts a little manja and wanted to be carry too when I carry VH. When I feed VH milk, Anney also wanted to drink her milk too although she just had her porridge like 10 minutes ago. I think babies also can feel the competition!

For VH (currently @ about 6 weeks old) .....according to SIL, he doesn't like to sleep and true enough, he doesn't sleep well. Aren't all babies are supposed to sleep most of the time? Well, I'm totally wrong! VH loves to be carry around and would nap like 10-15 minutes before he cries again. I even try to put him in the baby sling but I am not very used to carry a small baby in the sling and definitely not confident enough to walk about with VH. I'm still very used to carry baby in hip position and not the cradle position.

Anyway, we managed to steal a few shots at our backyard........

Baby Ven-Hynn

Closed up on Baby Ven-Hynn

Both Werney and Anney also wanted to lie down next to Baby Ven-Hynn for a shot

My 2 girls

Weekend activity

2009-06-28T16:26:00.004+08:00

I blogged earlier that both my girls are water babies.....they just love splashing and dipping their feet in the pool. Since we move out from our condominium early this year, there wasn't much opportunity for us to bring both Werney and Anney for a swim.

We dug this inflatable pool out from our storeroom on Saturday and set it up at our backyard. It is way too small for Werney but nevertheless, she still loves it. Although it may look small, this mini pool took a long while for the water to fill up. As the water was also a little cold, I even had to boil 2 kettles of hot water to make the water warmer.

Really wish we could have a "real" pool at our backyard but thinking about the maintenance cost etc, don't think it is feasible for us to do it. Anyway, we probably wouldn't have the time to use it during weekday as most of the time, my girls will be at grandma's house.

Also see the mini grass garden behind? DH spent some a lot of time to make it look like this. It was once a "junkyard" with overgrown lalang and it took quite a lot of efforts to clear the concretes, woods, stones and whatever left from our renovation works and filled it up with proper soils. It was hard work but now it is great for DH to practice his golf and for my girls to have a mini picnic outdoor!

Both my girls enjoying a dip in the mini pool....

Student wannabe

2009-06-26T21:07:00.000+08:00

Although Werney and Anney's age gap is about 3.5 years, Anney really adores her Cheh Cheh. She would follow everything her Cheh Cheh does, love to hug each others (and of course fight too!) and recently, she also wanted to follow her Cheh Cheh to school and insisted to wear the uniform too.

Everyday, Anney would follow my mom and dad to send Werney to kindy and now, Anney wanted to wear the uniform too! A car ride to kindy is not enough to satisfy my curious toddler. My mom also said she would cry if she doesn't get to wear the uniform.

See this is my student wannabe...sorry mommy think you are too young for pre-school at 15 months!

Anney in Werney's kindy uniform

See got school bag too!

More pose in kindy uniform....it's like a maxi dress lol!

Birthday's celebration

2009-06-22T10:56:00.000+08:00

Yours trully here celebrated the 30+ birthday two Fridays ago with my family members.

We decided try out the new Shabu Shabu restaurant at Kuchai Lama. The price per pax is RM28.80 nett/adult which is inclusive of buffet style steamboat and free flow of green tea and soft drinks. Kid below 5 is eat for free.

Shabu Shabu @ Kuchai Lama

It was my first time dining at a Shabu Shabu restaurant and I find it is quite interesting. Everyone has a mini bowl of soup of our choice - plain, miso or tom yam. The foods are available on the sushi bar and they have a variety of seafoods like crab , prawn and even scallop on shell. I didn't manage to snap any food pictures as I was too busy eating and entertaining my little active missy here. She just refused to sit still in her highchair until we gave her this.......

Anney got excited that she can have the egg all by herself

See how cheeky my baby look!

After the dinner, everyone decided to pop by my house for red wine and cake cutting. Yes, birthday's celebration must have cake la! I really like this rasberry cheesecake from Secret Recipe....the cake is not too cheesy and it is made from soft cheese. We managed to finish 80% of the cake even after the delicious shabu shabu buffet dinner.

Yummy rasberry cheese cake from Secret Recipe

DH bought this beautiful bouquet of roses for me. Although it is really impractical but I am a sucker for all things nice and romantic! Thanks DH for the roses.

Roses from hubby

Parents-Teacher Day

2009-06-22T10:17:00.006+08:00

Last Saturday, both DH and me met up with Werney's teacher. It was the Parents-Teacher Day. Our appointment was 6.10pm and it was over within 5 minutes! Werney's teacher is the "quiet" type and I certainly hope she is not like that in front of the kids!

Anyway, she passed us Werney's mid-term exam papers and asked us whether these were what we expected from Werney?

Werney did really well with score of 98% to 100% for all her 5 papers and when we told her, result is not everything, the teacher looked a little shock! I was expecting her teacher to go through Werney's progress like reading etc and how she behave in school but all these were not told to the parents until we prompted her. Anyway, conclusion, my little girl here is also a chatter box in school! The teacher also mentioned that there was once Werney's classmate asked her why she has so many things to talk (slapped my forehead)!

My miss chatter box!

Vicks VapoRub - don't use on a child below 2!

2009-06-19T21:28:00.005+08:00

Just thought of sharing this information with any parents who regularly slather Vicks VapoRub on their children and even babies. After all, this is what our older generation did to us, right?

Early this year, there was a report in CHEST Journal, January 2009 issue that indicates Vicks VapoRub may stimulate mucus production and airway inflammation, causing serious negative effects on infants and young children. The study was conducted after a few cases of children being brought to ER after their parents / grandparents applied Vicks VapoRub on their nose.

The ingredients in Vicks can be irritants which cause the body to produce more mucus in order to protect the airway. In children, whose airways are much more narrower than adults, any increase in mucus or swelling can narrow them severely and could lead to severe respiratory distress.

If you read the label on Vicks VapoRub, it clearly indicated not to be used for child below 2! For older children or even adults, you should never apply the Vicks VapoRub directly in the nose or under the nose because of the potential danger above.

If your little one is really suffering from cold and blocked nose, maybe you could try humidifier or saline nasal spray or even sitting in the bathroom with running hot shower! The mist from the hot shower would help to clear the congestion.

Pass this message around to your hubby, wife, grandparent, nanny or any caretakers. I think better to take precaution before anything untoward happen to our loved one.

White pearly

2009-06-17T13:29:00.004+08:00

Anney loves getting her teeth brushed. I started cleaning her teeth when she was a few months old. Initially, I started with a finger-type washcloth from MAM and then, I changed it to the traditional toothbrush when she was a year old. However, as I uses a battery-operated toothbrush to clean Werney Cheh Cheh's teeth, she wanted to try that too.

So yesterday, I bought the same one like Cheh Cheh but in different colour. See, how cute is this Colgate SpongeBob SquarePants's battery operated toothbrush?

Colgate battery-operated toothbrush for kid

Although the recommended age for the battery-operated toothbrush is for 3 and above, Anney seems to be able to use it well with our supervision, of course. She can even press the on/off button with her little finger. The toothbrush is not cheap....it is RM23.90 for one and the bristle head is not changeable. Nevertheless, it can last more than 6 months.

Little Anney enjoying her new toothbrush

I think it is important to start brushing your child's teeth as soon as the first tooth appears as tooth decay occurs faster in children than in adults. By introducing teeth brushing to our child, it also help our child to develop a crucial habit which will last a lifetime.

The key to getting your child to brush is to make it fun!

Penang getaways @ 6 to 8 June 2009

2009-06-14T23:54:00.001+08:00

We went to Penang during the recent school holidays. We were there for 3 days and coincidently, it was the weekend of Agong's birthday. So, you can imagine the traffic going up north and down south of the North-South Highway.

The drive from KL to Penang was quite smooth (we left house at about 7 am) except for the occasional heavy volume of cars near Jelapang toll (Ipoh exit), along the North-South highway. The traffic within Penang was chaotic though. It took us more than an hour to drive from Penang bridge to our hotel at Batu Feringghi. Once we reached our hotel, we didn't feel like driving anywhere else on Penang Island. Luckily, our hotel has everything that we need from the daily pasar malam (night market) to plentiful of makan places.

We didn't do much sightseeing and spent most of our time lazing around the hotel and also Batu Feringghi area.

We did drive to the Tropical Spice Garden and realised that we can't push our stroller there as the path are all pebbles and steps. So decided to abandon the visit there. Luckily we haven't paid the entrance ticket!

We also visited the Toys Museum @ Tanjong Bunga. It was supposed to be the largest in the world and first in Asia. The Toys Museum is actually a collections of all toys, life-size models of super heroes to tiny action figures. Although it is one of the top 10 must go according to the Penang Guide, go only if you have nothing else to do in Penang lor.

Entrance at the Toy Museum

Life-size ninja turtle

Beautiful Barbie

My favourite cartoon character, The Beauty & The Beast

The Incredibles

Mr. Bean

Werney posing with Kung Fu Panda

Barbie with baby in sling. Cute!

Tinkerbell and other dolls

The highlight of our trip was actually the visit to the Adventure Fun Zone at Golden Sands Resort. We paid RM31.50 for the whole family for 2 hours of fun and adrenalin-draining slides. Both my girls really enjoy themselves and I think daddy too! For the brave ones, there is also a Demon Drop slide, which is like a 24 ft. vertical drop! Of course, we were too chicken to try that out.

Anney with DH at the giant slide

Werney at the giant slide. After one try, she insisted that she will only slides with daddy!

Werney doing upside down monkey bar

Anney going solo at the giant red slide

More monkey bar antics

Other than that, we spent a lots of time at our hotel. The hotel we stayed was really kids' friendly. They have a supervised Kids' Club, children pool, games room with Nintendo Wii and Children eat-for-free. The hotel also have other activities like horse-riding, parasailing, jet ski, jungle trekking etc. The hotel has direct access to the beach but unfortunately, the beach was kind of polluted and the waves too rough for a swim.

Overall, our short vacation has been great other than......

Our "Siu Jei" (Werney) who refuses to eat at hawker stalls (complaining it is hot because there is no air-cond & fan). DH & me have to rush through our Char Keoy Teow, Assam Laksa, Muar Chee and Wan Tan Mee

Our "Siu Jei" also refuses to walk on the sandy beach and screamed "Somebody have to carry me!" when we were at the beach. She just doesn't like the feeling of sand on her feet

Our super active toddler who almost turns the car upside down with toys and foods everywhere and refuses to sit still in her car seat when she is not sleeping

Me having to squeeze my butt between the two car seats for our 4 hours journey up to Penang and back to KL

Anyway, we still have lots of fun and looking forward for our next vacation.

By the way, school resumes tomorrow.

Book Buffet

2009-06-12T22:45:00.001+08:00

I just got back from a book buffet. You might be asking book also got buffet, meh? Yes, Scholastic is currently having a book buffet promotion at MegaKidz Midvalley, from 12 to 14 June 2009. You pay RM49.90 to buy a bag and you can stuff all you can (as long as can fit into the bag). They have about 20,000 titles on promotion. Isn't that great? The catch is that the bag is only approximately 25cm x 25cm x 1 cm in size. It looks really tiny.

The bag look like this.....

Guess how many books I managed to fit into this tiny wonder?

I managed to stuff a total of 16 books. On average, the price per book is about RM3.10 only. This is even cheaper than 2nd hand book shop. While I was walking out, the organiser told me I could actually stuff in more books but since I couldn't find any other suitable books for my girls, I declined the offer.

The place was not too crowded but the selection of books for younger children (like below 5 years) are quite limited. What was more disappointing was there were a group of kiasu mommies who just took all the books and then slowly sorting what they want and what they do not want on the floor, while trying to stuff the books into the tiny bag! The rest of the parents basically have to stand there and wait! The organiser told me that they will replenish the stock tomorrow and I hope they will have more selections for younger children.

Anyway, these are what I managed to grab.

Swine flu...it is a world pandemic now

2009-06-12T13:24:00.003+08:00

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that the current swine flu (influenza A) with H1N1 strain is a world pandemic now (the last was in 1968!).

It is really worrying as we hear more and more new cases being reported each days and worldwide, there are about 30,000 confirmed cases. Hong Kong has ordered the closure of all schools for 2 weeks. In Malaysia, over the last few days, the number of confirmed cases has also increased and the country's total is now 11 cases. The last I heard was the New Zealander tourist staying at Holiday Inn Penang (well, my family was also staying at the same hotel over last weekend and luckily, we didn't have any close contact with any Ang Moh there!).

School will resumes next week. I am quite worry as the according to WHO, the virus normally attacks younger people below 25 years. Furthermore, you know how children like to share foods or share everything and touches everything, because they are simply curious. If our kids are not by our sides 24/7, it is just not possible for us to monitor them all the times. I hope the kindy would do all the necessary to monitor the situation.

In the meantime, I just hope WHO could come up with some vaccines to curb the spread of this pandemic fast.

Side track a little bit, the haze is back in Malaysia again. While driving to work this morning, the visibility in KL is quite poor, it is like being masked with some thick fog, only these are "bad air"! Hope the haze situation would not be as bad as in year 2005.

So people, please stop the open burning, you are just killing yourself!

Anney @ 15 months old

2009-06-11T19:40:00.002+08:00

My cheeky little baby is already 15 months. She is definitely very mobile now.....

Can walk and run really fast
Can walk a few steps backward
Can do tippy toes like her ballerina cheh cheh
Love to climb anything
Love to eat anything we eat
Blah & blah a lots and pretty loud too....a few new words to her vocabulary are Up, There, Abre (In Spanish, it means Open. This is the effect of too much Dora show lor!)
Can imitates some of the words we said
Have about 12 teeth
Weights about 11 kg

Top 5 things to pack for vacation with kids

2009-06-10T21:09:00.002+08:00

I love travelling with my kids but packing for vacation can be a little tricky when I have a baby (now toddler) and a preschooler. Unlike the times when there were just DH and me, we could just pack and go!

Now, I have to start planning and packing days earlier before our vacation.

Besides the usual stuffs like clothing, favourite toys, favourite books, pillow, bolster, blanky, wet wipes, diapers, baby's toiletries, bottle steriliser, milk and snacks (I know it sound like I am packing the whole house which DH occasionally joke about), these are my top 5 "must have" when travelling with my kids:

1. Travel size first aid kit

You will never know when you need this and certainly I do not appreciate running to the hospital in the middle of the night, in an unfamiliar place unless it is really an emergency. Items normally included in my first aid kit are:-

Plaster
Antiseptic cream
Tweezer & scissor
Cotton
Glove
Alcohol swap
Sting bite medication like Zambuk etc
Neurofen for pain relief or fever
Anti-histamine and decongestant for allergies & flu
Eu Yan Sang Bo Ying Compound
Digital thermometer

2. Electric insect repellent

This gadget doubled up as a night light. A great invention to keep the mossies away and the night light leave a soothing blue light for bed time. The insect repellent uses some ultrasonic sound technology to drive away the mossies and it is chemical free! Great to be used in hotel room. Just plug into any AC outlet.

3. Thermos Bottle & Food Jar

This wide neck thermos food jar can be used to store both liquid and solid food. It is spill-proof. I used this to "tau pau" porridge or any hot food just in case any of the 2 girls are napping during meals time. The thermos bottle can store water for hot drink or to make milk.

4. Nail clipper
Broken nail really irritate me and it is dangerous too if you are carrying your child with broken nail as you may accidentally hurt him or her. This tiny tool also serves many other functions like cutting the loose tread on your cloth, price tag, open a snack etc. Just make sure you check this in with your luggage as this is no no for your hand carry.

5. Digital Camera
Last but not least, my digital camera to capture all the happy moments or actions.

Well, I suppose "travelling light" does not exist when travelling with kids and good planning on what to pack would make or break a vacation!

Thousand Birdie Giveaway, win a blog revamp

2009-06-07T08:55:00.000+08:00

Do you like my blog design?

I fell in love with Gisele Jaquenod 's templates the first time I visited her site. Gis is born in Argentina and dedicated her free time to design blog themes. Her blog templates are all so sweet, so cheerful and definitely different from the many blog templates I have seen.

I'm currently using Birdie's Sweet Blog template. Other wonderful templates from Gis are...

Birdie's Good Life

Birdie's Bloggin' Out Loud

Birdie's Secret Garden

Being new to the blogging world (yes, my blog is less than 2 months old) and a self-confessed IT-hopeless mommy, Gis' site offers wonderful resources for bloggers. Besides that, Gis' site also offers free beautiful templates (like those above) for bloggers. Most of the templates available are suitable for both Blogger or Wordpress users.

Gis is currently giving away a blog revamp for one lucky winner. I hope to be the lucky one! What I would love from the blog revamp is the design of a 125 x 125 px banner for my blog. How wonderful would that be right coz' I have been wanting to have both my princess pictures on the blog banner or title, yet I haven't found the time to do it yet.

If you would like to win yourself a free blog "make over" by expert like Gis, do hope over to her site and join this contest! Deadline is June 15, 2009.

Serena? Who?

2009-06-06T08:47:00.002+08:00

I am used to hearing Werney talks about her friend Serena. She will goes Serena this, Serena that..... Serena doesn't wants to do her colouring today or Serena got star student today .... blah .... blah ... blah.

Then one day, I asked her how old is Serena? I know all her 5 years old classmates' name by heart now (as my lil' girl here is a chatter box) and I have always thought Serena is one of her kindy mate in other age groups. Then she told me, Serena is my imaginary friend lah. I had a shock!

Is it normal for kids to have imaginary friends? I quickly googled on this and found that many young children develop imaginary friends. It is most common for firstborns and also for children between the ages of three and six. For some children, their imaginary friend could be a toy or a doll and for some others, it is completely invisible to the rest of the world (like Serena here).

Imaginary friend serves as a playmate to the child. To young children, these imaginary friends are quite real. I read that some children used the imaginary friend as their alter-ego, taking the blame for naughty behaviours like not picking up the toys etc. So far, Serena has just been a wonderful playmate for Werney.

Studies have indicated that children who have imaginary friends tend to be "brighter" and certainly more creative than others. In fact, according to Australian and British research, children with imaginary friend are better communicators and become more creative, achievement-oriented adults!

After reading all this, I felt a sense of relief :-)

In the meantime, I will just let Werney enjoys the company of her imaginary friend, Serena. I am sure she will soon grow out of this common childhood phase.

Penang, here I come!

2009-06-05T21:40:00.000+08:00

I blogged earlier about going for a short vacation with Werney and Anney. Finally, DH decided we should head up north to Penang, although DH has been travelling to Bentong, Kuantan, Lukut, Batu Pahat and Johor Bahru this whole week for business. Yes, so many places in one week! Thanks DH for taking time off to take us to Penang.

Penang bridge

I love all the Penang foods and also the beautiful beaches. This will be the first visit for my 2 girls. I just hope that my 2 girls will behave well and don't turn the car upside town for our 4 hours road journey up to Penang. So far, Werney is quite okay to travel long distance (both by car or flight) and I hope Anney will be too.

I can't wait to taste the Penang Assam Laksa, Char Kuey Teow, Fried Omelette with Fresh Oysters ("Oh Chien"), Lor Bak, Popiah, and Ice-Kacang (already drooling now)! And well, not forgetting the beautiful white sand beach too!

Penang, here I come!

Yeah, I won, I won!

2009-06-05T18:29:00.008+08:00

I got a Facebook message from Chin Nee that I have been selected as the Grand Prize winner for the recent Mother's Day Contest organised by Fa bulousmom.com. Gee, what a great surprise! I have only submitted one entry for the contest and wasn't having too much expectation on winning. Anyway, I can hear myself singing "Jump for joy, Jump for joy!" now......what song is that already, ah?

For the grand prize, I get to take home a complete SK-II skin care set.

The set includes:-

SK-II Facial Treatment Cleansing Gel 15g x 1pc
SK-II Facial Treatment Cleanser 20g x 1pc
SK-II Facial Treatment Clear lotion 20ml x 1pc
SK-II Facial Treatment Essence 30ml x 1pcs
SK-II Facial Sign Treatment Totality 15g x 1pcs
SK-II Facial Treatment Mask x 1pc

What a perfect gift to pamper myself!

If you want to see all the winning entries, do hope over to Fabulousmom's blog here (me too "pai sei" to publish my winning entry here).

Photo that I have submitted for the contest

By the way, the wonderful photo above was taken by Jazz of Two Pixels Photography. I have named this photo Bubbly L.O.V.E.

Thanks to Vivian of Fabulousmom.com for selecting me. You really make my day!

A day at KLCC

2009-06-04T19:07:00.004+08:00

Since it is school holiday and I still have a few days of annual leave to clear before end of this month, I decided to take a day off yesterday & spend some motherly time with my 2 princesses. As both my princesses are late sleeper and could only wake up around 9-ish in the morning, we have to forgo our trip to any outdoor parks coz' it will be scorching hot by the time we get ready to leave the house!

I decided to take both of them together with my mom to KLCC instead. We reached KLCC around 11 am and had a early lunch at Spring Garden. Yes, we usually go for Chinese foods coz' Werney is quite a fuzzy eater. She doesn't take cheese, spaghetti, sandwiches, pizza or burger. On the other hand, Anney love whatever we eat!
Though it was a midweek day, KLCC was crowded as KLCC is having a Lego fair in conjunction with the school holiday. Kids can participate in the Lego building or even treasure hunt activities from 2 to 7 June 2009.

KLCC Lego Fair

Werney & Anney trying their hands with the Lego

Look at all the Lego! Kids can spend hours on this

After that we went to KLCC Aquaria and also the Aquazone Fish Spa. Mom had fun trying out the Fish Spa. We paid RM20 per person and get RM5 rebate for the Aquaria ticket. Werney refuses to try this whilst Anney was asleep at her stroller.

The experience at the Fish Spa was quite fun but it can get quite geli when the Garra Rufa fishes nimbled our feet! After the 30 minutes fish therapy, our feet were really smooth and all the dead skin gone. I must bring Dad to try this one day coz' his feet are really dry!

Mom enjoying the Fish Spa

Werney trying out the Spider hat at the Aquaria gift shop

All the pictures taken at the Aquaria turned out to be quite poor due to my old old Canon camera. I didn't want to lug along my digital SLR coz' it is kind of bulky and difficult for me to handle 2 active kids.

We had a great day at KLCC yesterday except that my parking fee cost me RM15.50!

Fully booked?

2009-06-01T21:24:00.000+08:00

It is school holiday time again and Werney has been asking me to bring her for holiday. I asked her where she would like to go and she screamed with excitement and blurted "Hong Kong"??

Aiyoh, my lil' girl sure know how to enjoy, huh? Not sure where she learned about Hong Kong (coz' we have never brought her to Hong Kong before!).....maybe she heard it from Sis#4 that just got back from her Hong Kong Disneyland trip. Well, I don't think we could make a short trip to Hong Kong due to DH's busy schedules and furthermore, I think Anney is too young for Disneyland.

So, after some procrastinations, I finally surf the net today to look for the best hotel deals for our coming short trip. Well, not Hong Kong but Cuti-Cuti Malaysia only. To my disappointment, most of the hotels that I have in mind are fully booked for this coming week due to school holidays & public holiday. Talking about recession and economy downturn, I guess our local hotels are not that badly affected after all!

Some of the kids friendly hotels I have in mind are:-

Palmy coconut trees & pool @ Parkroyal Penang

Amazing pool @ Swiss Garden Kuantan

Sunset @ Holiday Inn Malacca

All the above hotels are fully booked for the date I wanted! I'm still trying my luck and hopefully can find other comparative hotels!

Do you want to win a cloth diaper?

2009-05-27T22:23:00.000+08:00

Do you want to win yourself (or to be exact, your baby) a cloth diaper? Kitty Cat from A Pregnant Pause is having another giveaway. This time, Kitty Cat, together with Sandra from MiaBambina are giving away 2 Pocket Change Cloth Diapers to 2 lucky winners.

Sizing guide and available colours for Pocket Change Cloth Diaper

I absolutely loves the Pocket Change cloth diaper. Currently priced at RM70 and inclusive of 2 inserts (one trifold hemp & one 4-layer microterry booster), it is one of the most economical pocket diaper available in Malaysia. Pocket Change cloth diaper is available in 3 sizes - small, medium and large. I personally feel the sizes are smaller as compared to other diaper in the market but it fits Anney really well. Anney is currently 14 months, weighing 10.6 kg and has quite chubby thighs (Anney is wearing L size).

One of the unique feature of this diaper is the "easy pass through" pocket that allows the inserts to agitate out in the wash. So, if taking out the messy insert from soiled diaper is something that put you off, this is really a great saver.

The outer layer of Pocket Change is made from soft PUL and is water resistant. The colour hardly fade / bleed as compared to some of my other well known brand diapers. Although I have used my Pocket Change diaper for at least 10 months, it still look absolutely new! The inner layer is made from soft fleece and it helps keep the wetness away from baby's skin.

My 10 months old Pocket Change diaper - it still looks brand new even though I used it almost daily. This is a work horse!

Pocket Change cloth diaper comes with snap adjustments and is great at keeping my curious baby's hand away. Anney is great at opening all the diapers with velcro tape and so far, still can't open the snap button diaper yet.

Pocket Change is also one of the trimmest pocket diaper available in town.

I would definitely love to own another piece of this fabulous cloth diaper from MiaBambina.

If you would like to win this too, hope over to A Pregnant Pause and leave your comment in the post. It is that easy! Deadline is 1 June 2009 (2pm, local time).

My new babies

2009-05-26T21:00:00.003+08:00

Well, not having baby #3. Phew!

Please welcome the new additions to our family......my new LeRun Bonus mountain bike and Cat Bike for Werney.

Our new bicycles

Striking pink Cat Bike with 16" wheels for Werney

Child carrier from WeeRide for Anney

I've also got a child carrier installed on my mountain bike for Anney so that she will not be left out from the fun. Got this child carrier from WeeRide, For The Family On The Go! It is so cool, right?

One of my resolution for 2009 is to live healthier....hope it is not too late (I know it is almost the end of May now!). I'm one of those who hardly exercise and hopefully with my new mountain bike, I could at least try to exercise twice a week and live healthier.

There are many benefits of cycling and among those are:-

Promotes a healthy heart
Improves blood chemistry, including good cholesterol
Lowers blood pressure
Decrease the risk of cancer
Build stronger bones
Reduce stress
Promote greater muscle strength and many more