Eat The Seed

One of XY's favourite fruits is peach. When we had fruits for teatime the other day, I asked Kakak to keep the peach for PaPa as he hadn't eaten any. XY immediately protested and said she wanted to eat it. Kakak usually cuts out the flesh and there'll be 4 pieces. So XY will have 2 and I'll have 2. The seed goes to me too, of coz. And this was XY's allocation.

XY : I eat 2, you eat 2.
Me : Then PaPa leh?
XY : Give him the seed.
(I burst out laughing... thinking how kind she is to her father.)
Me : You're so kind to PaPa ah? Let him eat the seed?
XY : Ok loh. I eat 2, leave 2 for PaPa then you eat the seed.
Me : Uh... ok loh. (She's so 'kind' to me now.)

She can really eat a lot of fruits. We normally have 3 to 4 kinds of fruits. And she gets half of the portion. Didi and I will share the other half. Well, didi doesn't take a lot - maximum 2 pieces of fruits (that's like half a fruit). That means, I eat less than her! Hey I'm not complaining. I'm fine with her being 'greedy' with healthy food.

Awards Time!

Last week, I was given 4 awards. Yeah... FOUR! I'm truly honoured and happy.
You Cheer Me Up Award comes from Jo-N.


Room In My Heart Award comes from Jo-N and Hazel.


Hazel also gave me You Make My Day Award and Break Out Blogger Award.

Thank you so much girls. And what should I do with all these awards? Share with all of you, of course!

Let's Play Domino

Got this from Lovelymummy.

Rule: Copy the entire list and add your name at the bottom. And tag at least 5 friends. (But you can tag as many as you like.)

Thea is {bloggerhappy.com}, Childstar, Mike, My Scrappy side, AbieAggie, Alpha, Apple, Apols, Jacqui. Jane, Jody, Joy,Kelly, Mich, Peachy, Jenny, Nyumix, Rose, Agnes, Hazel, Lovelymummy, Slavemom

You're next: Jacelyn, Sharine, Bryan's Mama, Ling & Anggie
(pretty pleeeease and thank you!)

New Interest

CE has developed a new interest the last few days. He'd ransack jie jie's new shoes (take out from the box) and walk around in them. He usually won't be able to wear them himself so he'd come to me or Kakak. He'd shove the shoes to us and expect us to wear them for him. Then he'd parade around the house in the over-sized shoes. We'd have to follow him closely to make sure he doesn't walk too fast or jump. Coz very easy to fall down. So far, he's not 'played' with my shoes. Probably coz it's beyond his reach. Funny that he's not too interested in the shoes outside the house. Maybe he only fancies new ones.

* small feet + big shoes = funny boy *

Pass It To The Front

Thank you for this simple tag, Judy.

Here are the rules:
* First copy and paste it.
* Do not remove any content.
* Just add One word related to your blogs.
* If you don’t like the concept Pls! say no?
* Our main goal is we are going to circulate our number of friends.
* The more people join the “pass it to the front” the more links we generate.
* Lastly write only one word “short” for your blogs.
* Keep it simple and short, I know some of you have more than one blogs.
* The color is only black, gray, or white plssss avoid using any color okies.

Let me show you:
1.Filipina, 2.Darling allen, 3.Abroad, 4.Halfway, 5.life, 6.culture, 7.interracial, 8.pinaystories, 9.pinaysinglelooking, 10.health 11.Miscellaneous 12. Children13. my experience 14.family 15. milestones 16. Home 17. shopping18. wonderland 19. memories 20. bliss

Let's pass it on :
Wen
Health Freak Mommy
SueSue

50 Questions

A very long tag but luckily an easy one from Wen. Eh, how come some of the numbers are missing? Good also... coz it'll be less than 50 questions. :D

Now it’s time we get to know one another a bit better and these 50 questions will help!

Just copy the questions and put in your answers and tag some blogging friends. Let’s see how well we can get to know each other. Here I go!

1. Last person you had a deep and meaningful convo with? hubby
2. Where was the last place you went? organic shop
3. If you could be with your first love, would you? at a different time, different space, maybe
5. Who was your first crush???? a guy from badminton tournament in secondary school (as far as I can remember)
6. What was the last thing you highlighted? definitely not my hair
7. Who is the last baby that you held? my boy
8. Do you know of any twins with rhyming names? no
9. Are you ticklish? not really
10. Have you ever worn a crown? nope
11. Last time you saw fireworks? yesterday night (although CNY's over already)
12. Who is the last person you hugged? CE
13. Do you have a black dog? no
14. Do you have a little black dress? no
15. What are you wearing right now? t-shirt and short pants
16. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? hubby
17. Do you like coffee? no
18. Are you missing someone? no
19. Reason behind why you last cried? watched some soap opera
20. How much cash do you have on you? less than RM50 (quite broke hor)
25. How many rolls of film do you need to get developed? only using digital camera now
26. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to change a regret? a million bucks, anytime :D
27. What’s on your mind right now? crabs (slurp! slurp!)
28. Do you have a deep dark secret? shhhh...
29. Do you wish you were with someone right now? more ME time would be nice
30. Who was the hottest teacher you ever had? don't think there was any
31. What was the last thing you ever got grounded for? don't recall I got grounded for anything (good girl leh?)
32. What was your childhood nickname? don't have
33. Do you have any strange phobias? fear of falling into a big pail of shit
34. Have you ever played naked twister? never
36. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child? ghosts or monsters, I suppose
38. Is there anybody you just wish would fall off the planet? none
39. Do you crack your knuckles? no
40. What’s one thing that can always be found in your refrigerator? chocolates
41. What color are your bed sheets? brownish
42. How many kids do you plan on having? 2 is enough for the moment
43. What did you do today? watched tv serials
44. How would you like to die? peacefully
45. Have you ever been in love? of coz
46. When is the last time you went out of the state (province)? during CNY
49. Do you judge people? seldom
50. Generally, in life, what makes you happy? when my loved ones are in good health

Would like to know you better Dora, Sting and Jacelyn.

21 Months Old

Statistics
Weight - about 12 kg
Height - didn't measure since last month

Diet
Still the same (3 x 8 ozs of milk, 2 meals of rice, fruits for teatime, and he's snacking on biscuits more).
He's really determined to feed himself. If we don't allow him, he'd rather not eat. Or he'll make a lot of noise and cry.
He can be very particular on certain things. For example, when eating fruits, he must poke the fruit with the fork himself. If we did it for him, he'd cry and make a big fuss. :-|

Sleep
Naps once a day. But he takes them quite early sometimes. He'd wake up from a nap at 2+pm and only knock off at about 10pm. Isn't that a rather long stretch?

Verbal
He's shown a big improvement this month. At least he's willing to follow or repeat the words when we teach him. Here are some of his vocabulary :
hoe = hold
bore = ball
hak = hug
keee = key, hanky
tay = okay
tense = thanks
pooo = pooh
hot = hot
lou = hello
hiyee = hi! (greets people while waving his hands)

He can also call most of the close family members like :
jeh jeh = jie jie
pa pa = PaPa
ta ta = Kakak
deee deee = didi (referring to himself)
ye ye = Ye Ye (my FIL)
po po = Po Po
jig jig = chik chik (my BIL)
hg hg = sen sen (my SIL)
chu chu = chiu chiu (my brothers)

And how about me? He calls me paaaa (dragging the a) or maa. I don't know why he's having difficulty in calling me. He can pronounce 'm' already but when asked, he'd still refer to me as paaaa sometimes. After he called me correctly and I asked him to repeat, he'd go paaaa. Hmm... is he doing it on purpose? Well, never mind, as long as he knows who Mummy is. :D

He's quite fast at responding when asked about his body parts. He's very familiar with eye, ear, nose, mouth, teeth (showing the brushing teeth action), tongue (poke his finger into his mouth), hair, head, face (pinching both cheeks), stomach (pulls up his shirt to show his tummy), hand, fingers and leg. When he's in the mood, he'll try to pronounce these words.

He likes to say pu zhi tao which sounds like 'I don't know' in Mandarin. I doubt he knows the meaning but he'll say it as and when he feels like it, which is quite frequent.

Others
He likes to choose what to wear. He prefers his newer clothes (going-out clothes) than those worn-out home clothes. Sometimes, he'll take the clothes out from the drawer himself. If I'd taken another one which he didn't like, he'd refuse to let me wear it for him.
Likes to bully Kakak (well, more like bullying me). Sometimes he doesn't want Kakak to accompany him or feed him. When he's doing his big business in the toilet, he'd cry his lungs out wanting me to sit in front of him, instead of Kakak. When we're out in a restaurant, suddenly he'd refuse to eat while Kakak's feeding him. But if I feed him, he'd continue to eat again. Now I can't eat in peace anymore. So he's actually bullying me, not Kakak, right?
When he's unhappy, he'd slap his face and head with his two hands. And he's developed a bad temper too. He'd shout "Ei!" when he disapproves of someone or something. Yup... he's just imitating us. :(
He's very interested in what others are eating (in other words, greedy LOL). When he sees us eating something, he'll come near and give us the sweetest smile. And if we ignore him, he'll shout and point at the food, indicating that he wants his share. Too bad he's prone to allergy, so most of the time, he doesn't get to taste whatever we're eating. I know it's very normal for him to be curious (even for food). Hopefully he'd have some food freedom after reaching 2 years old.
He used to like us to cover his eyes with his hanky (folded into triangle shape) when we put him to sleep. But now he likes it under his chin, just like when he's having his milk. He'll give us his hanky and expect us to know what to do. This li'l boss just wouldn't do it himself. Weirdo.

Chap Goh Meh '08

Yesterday was the last day of CNY (also called Chap Goh Meh in Hokkien). PaPa bought some fireworks and Pop Pop the day before from the Chinese medical hall. We wanted to let the kids play with it before CNY is over. And we invited BIL and family over so CH can join them too. As we wanted something different for dinner (quite bored with home-cooked meals everyday), I asked PaPa to buy pizza and KFC on the way home.

After dinner, we let the kids play with the fireworks. CH and CE were not afraid at all. They can hold the stick but the adults have to hold on to their other hands coz they like to grab the sparks. The kept saying "stars" coz the sparks were in the shape of stars. It was quite a fun way to end the CNY.

Extra Large Ang Pows

On CNY eve, XY got a deep cut on her left knee at PIL's house. We were inside the house and suddenly I heard XY crying loudly outside. I knew something terrible must have happened. Rushed out and found her sitting on the floor with a bleeding knee. There was quite a lot of blood as it was dripping when she stood up. Brought her inside and stopped the bleeding before cleaning it with dettol. Then MIL gave me some aloe vera cream to apply. She was sobbing all the while. I'm not sure if it's out of pain or fear (seeing so much blood or getting scolded).

Later we found out how she fell. BIL just got back and XY saw him downstairs (garage is at the basement). She ran down the stairs to the grille door to greet him. She must have slipped and fell forward. Then knocked her knee at the grille door. That was how she got the cut. So she got her first ang pow in The Year of The Rat and she ushered in the new year with a bandage on her knee. Tsk tsk tsk... Hope it wouldn't leave a very big scar.

~ XY's almost-healed knee ~

As for CE, he's got two bumps on his head. Yup, you read it right. He's got TWO now. Here's what happened. We went to BIL's house for dinner on Sunday. They've also invited some friends over, who used to be PaPa and BIL's housemates. Finally, I got to 'lou sang' that night. I think that'll be the first and last time to 'lou' for this CNY.

Ok, back to the story. Before I went upstairs to bathe XY, I told PaPa to look after CE. When I was in the bathroom, I heard a loud thud, followed by CE's wails. My heart almost stopped coz he sounded quite near, which meant he wasn't downstairs anymore. I ran out of the room and saw him at the top of the stairs. PaPa also ran up. CE was still crying and we could see a bump on the right side of his forehead. Sigh... he bumped the left side on Friday. So now he looked like a li'l devil with 2 horns. hahaha.

We don't know how he knocked his head but we're very relieved he didn't fall off the stairs. That's a real scary thought. We need to be more careful next time. PaPa thought I brought CE upstairs with me while I thought he was being looked after downstairs. Thank god nothing serious happened.

Traditional Costumes

CE finally agreed to wear the traditional Chinese costume PaPa bought for him from Vietnam. I wanted to let him wear it when we went visiting on the first day of CNY but he kept pulling the shirt after I buttoned it up. He almost tore off the buttons!

Since I foresee that we won't be visiting anyone else this CNY, I tried to coax him again last Sunday (dinner at BIL's). If he doesn't wear it now, he won't be able to fit into them next year. After his bath, I tried to bribe him with Honeystars. I managed to wear and button for him but within 1 minute, he was trying to rip off the shirt again. Ok, maybe it wasn't comfortable for him. Too tight at the neck area? Never mind, no need to force him. So I changed him into normal clothes.

Then I went to take my bath. When I came down, I saw that he was in the Chinese costume. Kakak managed to wear it for him. And he was fine with it. Didn't look uncomfortable or anything. I asked her how many Honeystars she fed him with. She said none, she just bribed him but didn't give him any. Hmmm... my precious boy, so obedient to Kakak (well, sometimes he does bully her too). But hats off to her, she does have a way with kids.

XY wore her áo dài (traditional Vietnamese costume). And I managed to take a picture of them together. XY had to hold CE's hand. If not, he'd be running to me, want to kepoh and see what's in the camera.

~ Master & Missy ~

When we went over to BIL's house, upon seeing that XY and CE were in traditional costumes, SIL tried to put on the Chinese costume for CH too. He's also refused to wear it all these while. But he allowed SIL to wear for him that night. Must be because he saw that CE was in a similar costume. Kids are such funny creatures. At 2+, he's already aware of fashion? Interesting... *scratch head* Too bad we don't celebrate Halloween here. I'm sure they'll look super cute in pirate costumes or medieval costumes.

Many hours later, CE decided he's had enough of that costume. He started to rip off his shirt again. I had no choice but to take off his shirt and pants, although we were in the living room. So he was only clad in his diaper. Guess he doesn't know the meaning of embarrassment. Had to borrow a pair of CH's pajamas. They're just 5 months apart and are almost of the same size.

Well, mission accomplished. They have both worn their traditional costumes.

CNY Visiting

~ wearing a dress but stand so unladylike ~

On Friday, we went to visit my aunt in Bukit Jelutong. When I came to work in KL, I stayed at her house till I got married. Wanted to get a hamper, so we went to Jusco at Equine Park first. Had our lunch there as well.

XY had a great time at my aunt's place coz they kept offering her their home-made cookies. Since she's no longer coughing, I let her indulge a bit. She hasn't been eating much cookies (or junk food) this CNY.

After that, we went to Sunway Pyramid. CE had a little accident. He was running around at a small exhibition area. I was following behind but definitely not close enough to catch him if he were to fall. And he really fell and bumped his forehead. Wailed his lungs out for quite awhile. Pity him or serves him right? Who asked him not to hold hands and go run around himself?

We bought a magnetic drawing board for XY. She saw one at BIL's house and she really liked it. But her li'l cousin brother didn't want to share with her. When we were at the shop, both XY and CE were busy 'testing' the drawing boards. PaPa asked if we should get 2 coz both of them also very interested in it. I thought we should just get one and teach them to share and take turns. At home, both of them wanted to play with it at the same time. But the situation's still manageable. Most of the time, jie jie will give in to didi. Sometimes, no one wants to play with it. But when one starts to touch it, the other also wants to play. So actually, fighting for the toy is more fun than playing with it. :-|

Then we had dinner at Ying Ker Lou, a Hakka restaurant. I saw this in the menu, "No MSG was added in our food preparation as we would like to preserve the original taste of the food." Well, something to that effect. No wonder the food's quite bland. But it's alright with me as I feel it's healthier this way. These are the dishes we ordered. I didn't take the picture of siewbakchoy in abalone sauce. For someone who doesn't fancy green leafy vegetables, XY ate quite a lot of that. I wondered why.

~ hakka yam abacus ~

~ braised lamb with fermented bean curd in hot pot ~

~ braised sliced pork belly with preserved mustard vegetable ~

Link Love

I got this from Jacelyn and due to the CNY break, I only managed to do this now. Sorry for taking so long ya. But better late than never hor. :p

I have randomly selected 5 of you below to be tagged and I hope that you will similarly publish this post in your blog. You will have to tag 5 other bloggers and just keep adding on to the list. (Do not replace, just keep on adding! Yes we hope it will be a long list!)

It’s real easy! Tag others and see your Technorati Authority increase exponentially!

The benefits of Viral Linking:
- One of the fastest ways to see your technorati authority explode!
- Increase your Google PageRank fast
- Attract large volume of new traffic to your site
- Build your community
- Make new friends!

Add your blog url here…
The Strategist Notebook Link Addiction Ardour of the Heart When Life Becomes a Book The Malaysian Life Yogatta.com What goes under the sun Roshidan’s Cyber Station Sasha says Arts of Physics And the legend lives My View, My Life A Simple Life What Women REALLY Think Not Much More Than This Jayedee Jenn Beth Christie Marla Cailin Simone FlipFlopMom Katrina Gill’s Jottings Work of the Poet Wakela Modern Day Goddess Livin With Me Writing in Faith Maiylah’s Snippets GreenBucks Its Not a Weekend;Its a Lifestyle Everyday Healy Mum&Kids In Wonderland Slavery Bliss

Sending some love over to :
Anggie
Mummy to QiQi
Sasha
SueSue
Hui Sia

Happy Valentine's Day

Is today a special day or just an ordinary day for you? Is it filled with flowers, gifts and candle-light dinner? For me, it's just an ordinary day (a sign that age is catching up? hmmm...). Hubby do surprise me with presents and flowers sometimes. But we hardly go out for dinner on special occasion nowadays. I don't see the point of paying extra for the same food and eat in a crowded restaurant. No matter how romantic the restaurant is, the atmosphere will not be the same with two noisy kids and a maid tagging along.

Yesterday, hubby told me that he couldn't get any flowers for me as the shop has closed. I told him it doesn't matter as flowers are extra expensive on such occasions. If he wants to surprise me with flowers, he can do it on my birthday. I don't fancy them on Mother's Day too. Just not worth the price.

I thought there isn't going to be a card nor present nor flowers from him this year. I'm not complaining as I didn't get him anything either. I'll usually make him a card but I just didn't have the mood to be creative (still haven't fully recovered yet mah).

When he fetched XY back from kindy just now, she presented me with a stalk of rose and said, "Happy Ventine's Day, Mummy. I love you." (cannot pronounce properly LOL)

Dearest hubby, here's wishing you a very Happy Valentine's Day! Love you with all my heart.


And to all of you, wishing you a wonderful and lovely Valentine's Day!

Back In Headquarters

We're back in home sweet home. Got back yesterday evening. Aaaahh... It feels so good to be back home. Phew... that's the end of our 'CNY Tour de Malaysia' (from centre to down south, then up north, and back to centre again). The kids were also very tired from all the traveling. They slept early yesterday and woke up later than usual this morning.

It's another everyone-got-sick CNY. We still couldn't avoid getting sick. This is one the worst CNY for me, especially when I was back in Penang. I was supposed to meet up with my ex-schoolmates. I couldn't make it. I was supposed to meet up with some blogger mummies, I had to cancel. I didn't visit any relatives or friends. I didn't go anywhere. Well, it's not good to go around spreading germs. LOL

Here's our health status :
XY ~ Got fever the week before CNY. Mild flu and cough. Still coughing a little, but getting much better by the day.
CE ~ Fever started in the wee hours of the morning on the first day of CNY. Went to see doctor in Penang on Saturday - throat infection. Was given antibiotics. His fever subsided the next day. Now he's still having runny nose and started to cough. :(
Mummy ~ Fever started in the wee hours of the morning on the third day of CNY morning. Also got antibiotics (for red throat) from doctor on Saturday. Now slowly clearing the thick phlegms.
PaPa ~ The last one standing but started to feel unwell on Monday. Now full of thick phlegms too.

There you go. A whole house full of sick people. Sigh... So how was your CNY holidays? Hope it was much healthier than mine.

Now that I've settled down at home, I'll have to get back on track with "work". I don't dare to open my google reader, I'm sure I've got hundreds of unread posts. Ok, slow and steady ya. I'll be there... I'll definitely be there. Wait for me ya. See you real soon!

My First Manicure

I went for a manicure and pedicure last Sunday. It was the first time I got my nails painted by a "professional". I got a tip about caring for the heels from the friendly lady. When you have hard skin at your heels, you need to get rid of those dead skin. You can scrub your heels at a rough surface after you've cleaned your feet. If you don't get rid of the hard skin, it'll become harder and harder and will crack if it's dry. So when you have cracked heels, you know your feet are in critical condition.

There were so many colours and patterns to choose from. So I let her suggest what’s suitable for me. For the toes, she did a 2-tone colour (diagonally) and put glitters on the separator. I actually wanted to do the French manicure (with white colour at the tips of the nails) for my fingers. But she said it'll chip off very easily. So I decided on a simple pattern, a plain colour with glitters at the edge. I chose a light colour coz if it chipped off, it wouldn't look so obvious. There're still so many days before CNY and I'm sure they wouldn't look as perfect as when it was first done. I'm hoping they'll still look good for the first few days of CNY.

~ manicure ~

~ pedicure ~

Greetings From Johor

I'm now in hubby's hometown. Once we reached the town, we went to buy fish ball noodles and kuih to eat. We had a late breakfast, so we didn't have lunch before starting our journey. We were very hungry. Once reached PIL's home, didn't even unload our stuff, we ate first. Obviously, those noodles wouldn't wait for their pictures to be taken. :)

I may not have the time to update my blog during this period. And I'll try to visit you whenever I can ya.

Here's wishing you and your family
abundance of good health, wealth and
happiness in The Year of The Rat.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Picture courtesy of BBC News