Do Not Assume

Last week when we're at the cinema, I discovered something in the toilet. No, nothing yucky. But something concerning my maid.

While PaPa was buying the tickets, I was taking care of CE (chasing after him). So I asked Kakak to bring XY to the toilet. When PaPa's done, I went into the toilet to look for them. I found XY standing near the basins alone. Kakak was inside the toilet stall. When she came out, I told her it's not safe to leave XY waiting alone outside. What happens if some bad people take her away? Gosh... that's a scary thought. Told her if she needs to use the toilet, ask XY to stand inside, facing the door. Or bring her out to me first.

I always remind her to keep an eye on the kids when we're out. And never to follow any strangers anywhere, even if they said we asked them to. But I've assumed she knew how to handle XY in the toilet coz the previous Kakak wouldn't leave XY standing alone outside.

I'll usually bring XY to the toilet in shopping malls when we go out with PaPa. If PaPa's not with us, Kakak will be the one to do that coz I'll be taking care of CE. But I've always stayed somewhere outside or near the toilet waiting for them. Luckily nothing has happened. It's so scary, thinking about all those sick and crazy people out there.

Lesson learnt : Never assume your maid knows what to do, even when you think it's common sense.

2 Blog Awards

Doreen gave me 2 fantastic awards. She loves SLAVERY BLISS and thinks it's awesome. Woohoo! That really made my day. Thank you so muchie! By the way, I feel the same way about your blogs too. ;-)

The rules of the award are:

1. The winner puts logo on her/his blog.

2. Link the person you received your award from.

3. Nominate 7 other blogs.

4. Put links of those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs of those you’ve chosen.

I'd definitely like to nominate more, but I always go by the rules. hehehe So here are the 7 nominated blogs for now :
(1) Jazz
(2) Juana
(3) Jacss
(4) Jo-N
(5) Unc Lee
(6) Anggie
(7) Ling

Blog Love

Love is in the air... let's spread it all around! Thanks Alicia, for this lovely tag.

Credits: Elements/Paper by Dani Mogstad/ Layout by JennyL (Pls. don’t remove)

Rules
1. Don’t remove the credits when you post the image.
2. Please link back to the person who tagged you and pass this tag to many of your friends.
3. If you have more than one blog, please post this to all of your blogs so your other blogs can be listed to the master list too.
4. Remember to come back here at A SLICE OF LIFE (pls. don’t change this link) and leave the exact post url so I can add you to the master list to help increase our rankings and improve our Technorati Authority.
5. Spread the BLOG LOVE FEVER!!

BLOGGERS
1.Jenny Said So 2.Simply Jen 3.This and That 4.Bargain.Sales.Deals 5.A Slice of Life 6.Aussie Talks 7. When Mom Talks 8. Me and Mine< 9. Creative in Me 10. For the LOVE of Food 11. Little Peanut 12. Pea in a Pod 13. It’s Where the HEART Is 14. Around the World 15.SugarMagnolias 16.kathycot 17. buhay misis 18. when mom speaks 19. walk on red 20. kathycot cooks 21.quicker8 22. Eds Mommy Life 23. My Precious Niche 24. Just Me.. Eds 25. Can of Thoughts 26. Designs By Vhiel 27. Vhiel’s Corner 28. Anything and Everything in Between 29. Good things in life… 30. Precious Moments.. 31.Beachlover 32.CookingMomster 33. AnythingLah! 34. Chen Xi & Mama's Blog 35. The 4 Thoo 36. Slavery Bliss 37. Your blog is the next

Spreading lots of love over to :
Wen (especially for Ian, Happy 5th Birthday!)
Linda (for your wonderful loving family)
bp (for li'l princess Kaitlyn)
Shireen (for your li'l tough cookie)

28 Months Old

22nd September, 2008
CE turned 28 months old. Some of his updates here :

Alphabets & Numbers
He's recently shown some interests in learning ABCs. And he's picking them up very fast. The new educational series on PHDC, WordWorld, started just at the right time early this month. I think it helps a lot in his learning process. Now he knows about 75% of the alphabets. He likes to pick out the alphabets from the ABC mats and show them to me, saying the alphabet out loud. What a show-off. :D

He can count from 1 to 10. As for recognising numbers, he's still a little confused with 6 and 9. But he knows if it's not 6, it's 9 and vice versa. He can also countdown from 5. "Fais, four, three, two, one!"

Singing
He's starting to sing some songs, either when he hears it being played on tv or when we (me and jie jie) are singing. Those are not nursery rhymes but songs or theme songs from his favourite PlayHouse Disney programmes (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Tiny Planets, Little Einsteins, Dibo the Gift Dragon). Usually he only sings the last word of each sentence.

Wash Hands
I try to make it a habit for the kids to wash their hands before and after eating. When he's in a good (and cooperative) mood, he'll go to the bathroom, switch on the tap and wash his hands when I ask him to "wash your hands". By the time he's at the basin, I'd be there beside him, to wash his hands. Can't expect a 2 year-old to wash his hands properly on his own, right? Sometimes he'll try to be difficult and insist that I bring him to the basin instead of Kakak. Other times, I'll have to drag or carry him (by force) to the basin. :-|

From Mie to Bamee
Out of a sudden, he starts calling me "Bamee" (Mummy). He's been calling me "Mie"/"Ah Mie"/"Mie ya" all this while. Have to keep correcting him, "I'm not Bamee, I'm Maaa... Mami". But I'm sure he'll get it right in no time. Just like when he suddenly said "seven" instead of "nyeyen". :-)

Bossy
He doesn't allow me to tie my hair or put on a headband. The weather's so hot lately so I tied my hair up (the back is a bit long already). He'll quickly come and pull off the rubber band. And if I put a headband (fringe too long), he'll remove it too. High time for my visit to the salon.

Good Food & Movie Day

Hubby has some Tai Thong vouchers which are expiring end of this month. As this is a popular month for weddings, we knew the place would be packed during dinner. So we decided to go for lunch yesterday at the Cheras outlet. While waiting for the food, we ordered some dim sum as starters. :-)


The verdict : a very satisfactory meal. We were too full by the time the noodles were served. We (3 adults and 1 child) couldn't finish all the food so we packed back the remaining noodles and peking duck roll.

Since we didn't manage to catch a movie the day before, we were determined to try again. We've checked the screening time before leaving the house. Looked like the timing's good this time so we walked opposite to Leisure Mall's GSC cinema. We watched MONEY NO ENOUGH 2. Quite an entertaining show, with some really sad parts. It was not as hilarious as the 1st movie. It's about the common man's problems in this materialistic society.

Again, didi gave me a false alarm. After the show started for awhile, he wanted to go to the toilet. It was much easier this time, with a potty seat which was clean enough for him to sit on. Moreover Kakak was with me so I had an extra pair of helping hands. His diaper was quite dry but I changed him into diaper pants (easier mah). Although I missed some of the show, I wasn't that angry this time.

Back in the cinema, he refused to sit down. I had to carry him and rock him, standing behind the cinema. Luckily he didn't take too long to fall asleep. Went back to my seat and enjoyed the rest of the show. He woke up after we got out.

XY, as usual, was busy eating her fresh corns and popcorns (feeding me as well coz she didn't want me to take the whole box :-|). I did hear her laughing at some hilarious scenes.

This is my second movie in the cinema after XY was born. But it was hubby's first. Asked him how it was, he said he has a backache. :p Guess the seat wasn't too comfortable for him. That's the disadvantage for having long legs. hahaha Overall, it was quite a relaxing outing.

False Alarm

Just got back from wasting some time in the shopping mall. The pest control people came at 12+. So we had to find a place to 'hide' (get out of the house for a few hours for the smell to dissipate). We initially planned to catch a movie at the cinema, if the timing's right. But after lunch, it was almost 3pm. There was no movies showing till 4+. As hubby has a wedding dinner to attend tonight, we just walked around and shopped at Jusco (bought the kids' things and food stuff).

When PaPa was buying lunch at KFC, CE told me he wanted to "sai sai". I asked him again and he said "yes". Sigh... I've to bring both the kids (XY wanted to pass urine as well) to the toilet myself (we left Kakak at BIL's house). So while PaPa was lining up to buy food, I brought them to the toilet. Had to walk rather fast and kept telling CE to wait.

It was very difficult to take off CE's shoes, pants and diaper when there's nowhere clean for him to stand. I didn't go to Jusco's child-friendly toilet. And when I took off his diaper, he only passed urine. Carried him for awhile, making the nggg... nggg... sound. Nothing. I was really angry coz this isn't the first time he said "sai sai" in the shopping mall but nothing came out when we were in the toilet. Grrr...

Next difficult task was to wear his diaper. Since there's nowhere to lie down, I wore his diaper while he was standing up. Yes, that is possible! There was no leakage. ;) Luckily he didn't request to go to the toilet for the 2nd time. If it's a false alarm again, he'll definitely get a good smack.

On the way home, both of them konked out in the car, as expected. When we reached home, XY was able to get down from the car herself but CE didn't even stir when I changed his diaper and pants on the bed. They get very cranky and tired if they skipped or delayed their nap time. They are still napping now. Looks like they won't be sleeping early tonight.

Mooncake Festival 2008

We went back to PIL's house (in Johor) for Mooncake Festival. It was a merry celebration (similar to CNY) as BIL and family and SIL (who's working in Singapore) went back too. We don't normally go back during Mooncake Festival but since it fell on a Sunday this year, we all planned a trip back.

Our last trip home was during CNY. High time to make a trip home as we miss the local food very much. Well, not that we don't miss the elders. Of coz we want to visit them too. We do see them quite often though (once every 1 to 2 months) as they come to visit us. Back to food, the must-haves are 'koay chap' (a variety of dishes, usually braised, served with flat rice noodles or rice), fish ball noodles, duck meat noodles and fried radish cake, to name a few. *slurp slurp* (Sorry, no photos of these food. Obviously, this is the work of a non-professional blogger. :p)

When we reached the town, we wanted to eat 'koay chap' but the shop was not open. Had fish ball noodles instead. We figured it won't be open the next day too as it was the Mooncake Festival. So we planned to have it for lunch on Monday. Unfortunately, we didn't get to eat it coz we went a little early (11+) and they weren't open yet (so we thought they were closed again for the day). Surprisingly, most of our frequently visited shops were closed. Must be because everyone was very tired after the festival and took the opportunity to rest for a day. So we drove around town, 'hunting' for food. In the end, we settled for fish ball noodles again. But after we had eaten, we went to that area and saw that it was open. Grrr...

Mooncake Festival
We invited some relatives over for dinner. Most of the food was bought. MIL prepared some dishes - fried noodles, fried bihun and vegetarian curry. XY and CE loved the fried noodles very much. They've had that for breakfast. CE can't seem to get enough of it. He's taken his dinner (rice) and he had 2 plates of the noodles (equivalent to a serving for a small-eater adult). He sure loved them coz it was very tasty adult food (it was not 'processed' - I usually rinse adult food with water before feeding him :p).

~ or chean (oyster omelette), satay, fried noodles, otak-otak,
fried bihun, grilled fish, ketupat, vegetarian curry ~

After a yummilicious dinner, we had mooncakes and Chinese tea. The adults were chit-chatting, some watching tv. XY and CH were playing with computer games (playhousedisney) while CE played alone coz no one wanted to play with him. Poor fella. Luckily he kept himself occupied with the Barney puzzle, which didn't last too long.

PIL bought 3 Garfield balloon lanterns for the kids. Purposely bought the same type so they won't snatch from one another (last year was 1 Hello Kitty and 2 Doraemon - the boys wanted Hello Kitty too :-|). But they didn't play with any lanterns that night. In fact, nobody played with lanterns. It was purely an eating festival, with no lanterns. hahaha