Thoughts Galore

Finally the recipe!

2011-04-10T00:37:00.000-07:00

Chicken Posole
This Mexican soup can be an entire meal by itself. I had bowls of it when my friend, Carmen aka Siti Khatijah served it when we went to her house for a Mary Kay party. It was muy delicioso that when I had some friends coming over, I practically begged her for the recipe and it's really easy to make. The recipe below has been slightly adapted from the original recipe but it still tastes similar to the original. Have fun making it!

1 whole chicken put in pot, put in water enough to cover all the chicken. Boil with one whole clove
garlic. Take chicken out once it’s cooked. Shred the meat when cooled and return bones to the stock.

In a frying pan, put in 1 tbsp olive oil and fry one medium sized big onion, thinly sliced until golden brown with some salt and black pepper. Once the onion is done, pour into your soup stock.

Put in one chicken cube, 1 can of stewed tomato (you can use Del Monte) pulped, 1 box of tomato puree, 1 tin of Leggo's tomato puree, 2 tins of Kimball chickpeas, 1 bottle of mixed vegetables (I normally get this from Carrefour and it costs around 7.90-9.90 (or you can substitute with cubed carrots, green peas, French beans, radish). Add 1 ½ tbsp coarse chilli powder to the stock. Put in some of your shredded chicken.

If you have the powdered version, you don't need to grind jintan manis/ cumin , and ketumbar/ coriander, add to paprika powder and black pepper. (1tbsp of each to 3 bowls of water). Season with salt and sugar.

Garnish with grated cheddar cheese, shredded chicken, lettuce sliced thinly, cucumber julienned, onion sliced thinly, mint, tomato deseeded and cubed. Serve with tobasco sauce and lime wedges for extra heat and sourness.

Chicken Posole

2010-12-10T20:05:00.000-08:00

Haha, thanks Lin, for taking such a nice pix of my favourite soup in the world. Leave it to me, there won't be a picture at all; just the recipe. Now we have the pix, no recipe. Will do that in due time.

Burmese Briyani or Danpauk

2010-11-25T07:58:00.000-08:00

This was a recipe I stumbled upon. I had one and a half big tubs of yogurt and went into Jamie Oliver's website. I found this: Cucumber yogurt. I had cucumber, I had yogurt, I had cilantro. But no salmon for the tikka recipe. It didn't matter coz I was only interested in the cucumber salad recipe. Here goes:

Peel and halve your cucumber lengthways, then use a spoon to scoop out and discard the seeds
• Roughly chop the cucumber and put most of it into a bowl
• Halve your lemon and squeeze the juice from one half into the bowl
• Add the yoghurt, a pinch of salt and pepper and half the chopped chilli
• Pick the coriander leaves and put to one side

Then I googled for Burmese Briyani. I thought the cucumber salad would be a nice accompaniment for that. So why Burmese Briyani? When my Burmese friend got married many many years ago, we had a very memorable briyani but it was different from the usual kind we eat at weddings. It had loads of caramelized onions that gave the rice an extra but natural sweetness. And it was so nice that even though I wasn't a big fan of briyani that I had two helpings and resisted a third helping. Here's the recipe: Danpauk
Ingredients:
300g Basmati rice (2 cups Ecobrown brown rice/ Jati Basmati brown rice)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
4 tbsp margarine (1 tbsp and 2 tbsp canola/ sunflower/ vege oil)
250ml plain yogurt
1 tsp salt
900g chicken, chopped into large pieces (1 whole chicken, a bit larger than bite sized pieces, marinated with salt, paprika powder, a bit of pepper, a bit of oil)
80ml cooking oil (canola oil)
2 tbsp ghee (1 tbsp margarine/ butter)
5cm cinnamon stick, lightly smashed to break up

(A)
4 slices ginger
10 shallots, thinly sliced
3/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder

(B)
5 cloves garlic
1 star anise
5 cardamoms, lightly smashed
1 tsp ground fennel
1 tsp poppy seeds

Garnishing
10–15 cashew nuts, deep-fried
50g raisins
1–2 tbsp shallots crisps

Method:

1. Wash and soak Basmati rice in water mixed with turmeric powder for 30–35 minutes. Drain rice in a colander. (yup, I did this first too. How much water to cook? At the bag of the rice packet, it says for every one cup add two cups water. So it should be 4 cups water, except some I substituted with the "gravy?" from the chicken and also added a chicken cube. Anyway, while the rice is soaking, I'd prepare the chicken coz I wanted to use the excess gravy as stock to cook the rice. So if I had 1 1/2 cup of chicken gravy, I'd top up with 2 1/12 cup of water, so it becomes 4 cups water.)
2. Heat margarine and fry ingredients (A) until fragrant. Add 2 tablespoons yogurt and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Mix in (B) and chicken. Fry well, then add in another 2 tablespoons yogurt and remaining salt. Continue to fry until chicken is tender. (You will realise at this point that you have loads of gravy from the chicken, later you'd only be putting the chicken in, so the gravy seems wasted, so I decided to pour out the excess gravy and use it as stock. Continue to fry chicken till the chicken browns.) Leave aside till it's time to put it into the about-to-cook rice.

To cook rice:
3. Heat oil and ghee (I use margarine) in a clean wok. Put in cinnamon stick and fry until fragrant. Add the remaining yogurt to mix. Toss in rice to mix, then transfer the well-mixed ingredients into a rice cooker.
4. Add sufficient water to a level that is 2cm above the rice (As mentioned, I substituted some water with the chicken gravy and added a chicken cube, add salt and a bit of sugar to taste). Cook rice for 20 minutes.
5. Open the rice cooker and add in the precooked chicken and continue to cook until rice is done.
Remember I said the wedding briyani I ate had caramelised big onions? Anyway, I browned some thinly sliced onions and put them in when i put in the chicken. I fried this separately.)
Add garnishing before serving.

I have made this 3 times now. It's nice...Really!

Corn Muffins Update!

2010-11-25T07:53:00.000-08:00

They were so delicious! Not exactly like Kenny Rogers but much better than the 1st recipe I shared. I think I should delete that now that I have found something better. Will put a note there or something or try to improve it. So if you come across corn meal, go buy it so that you can make these lovely muffins. I reduced the sugar content to 1/3 cup but not the honey. If you still think that's still a little too sweet for your liking, I'd suggest you reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup.

Found another Corn Muffin Recipe

2010-11-22T00:07:00.000-08:00

This time I went for the obvious. Who knows, Kenny Rogers might share his recipe on the world wide web. I searched for "Kenny Rogers Muffins recipe" and lo and behold, stumbled upon this site where the top secret recipe is shared. It really does use cornmeal. Will try this tonight with Inez. She'll be pleased.

Ingredients [ View Metric ]
1/2 c Butter
2/3 c Sugar
1/4 c Honey
2 Eggs
1/2 ts Salt
1 1/2 c All-purpose flour
3/4 c Yellow cornmeal
1/2 ts Baking powder
1/2 c Milk
3/4 c Frozen yellow corn
Preparation

He knows when to hold em, and he knows when to fold em. He also knows how to make awesome corn muffins that come with the meals served at his chain of fire-roasted chicken restaurants. When Kenny Rogers isnt singing "Ruby," hes out promoting his fast-growing chicken chain. And its working out pretty good. Already there are 203 stores in the chain, and when Kenny cant do the promotion himself, the chaps over at the TV show Seinfeld help out by featuring the restaurant in one of their popular episodes. Now, with the help of this Top Secret Recipe, you can make some sweet corn muffins of your own that taste just like Kennys. 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 2. Cream together butter, sugar, honey, eggs and salt in a large bowl. 3. Add flour, cornmeal and baking powder and blend thoroughly. Add milk while mixing. 4. Add corn to mixture and combine by hand until corn is worked in. 5. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan and fill each cup with batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until muffins begin to turn brown on top. Makes 12 muffins. (http://www.topsecretrecipes.com) Posted to recipelu-digest Volume 01 Number 438 by eyesopen@ix.netcom.com (linda /tennessee) on Jan 03, 1998

Am planning to reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup. And put in the same amount of honey required. Let's see how it goes.

Corn Muffins-One thumb Up

2010-11-18T05:45:00.000-08:00

It's nearing the school holidays and Inez has been pestering me to make cookies or cake. Of course, cake! Cookies are much more work. The kids are on holiday. I am not. Anyway, out shopping one day, I found a packet of cornmeal and bought it. RM13.50 a pack. I was thinking cornbread but a friend said Kenny Roger's muffins were made from cornmeal. Really? That'd be cool!

I went on the net and googled "cornmeal muffins easy". And below is the recipe I tried. Normally the first time I make something, I'd reduce the sugar but this recipe didn't use much sugar. Only a quarter cup for 3/4 cup cornmeal and 1 cup flour. The only ingredient I doubted was the baking powder. Cautiously I used 3 tsp but not exactly level teaspoons. I made 12 tiny muffins and a loaf. The tin was kinda big, plus I'd use some batter for the muffins, so it didn't really rise that high. The result was okay, definitely not too sweet, the way I like it but not as soft as Kenny Roger's, which would have been better. Maybe those weren't made from cornmeal. I have some more cornmeal. Will experiment some more. In the meantime, try these. They are really quick to make.

Corn Muffins

3/4 cup cornmeal
1 1/4 cups milk
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil (used canola oil)
1 cup flour
3 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup corn kernels (Didn't use this)

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Let cornmeal and milk stand while you get the other ingredients together. Add the egg and oil to the cornmeal mixture.

Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and corn kernels. Stir to mix. Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and combine just enough to incorporate.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full (do not use paper). Bake for approximately 10 to 12 minutes.

Recipe taken from http://www.cookingnook.com/corn-muffins.html

This is such an old song but still beautiful!

2010-11-16T04:44:00.000-08:00

Lyrics to A Is For Allah :
A is for Allah, nothing but Allah;
Ba is the beginning of Bismillah;
Ta is for Taqwa, bewaring of Allah;and Tha is for Thawab, a reward;
Ja is for Janna, the Garden of Paradise;
Ha is for Hajj, the blessed pilgrimage;
Kha is for Khaatem, the seal of the prophethood given to the Prophet, Muhammed (SAW);
Da is for Deen, Al-Islam, religion with Allah since time began;
Dha is for dhikr, remembering Allah;
And Ra is for the month of Ramadhan, ohh Ramadhan;
Za is for Zakat to pure our greed, when we give our money to those in need;
Sa is for Salamu alaikum, peace be with you wa'alaikum assalam;
Sha is for shams, the shining sun, which Allah placed for everyone;
And Sua is for salat, for when we pray facing him, everyday, facing him, till we meet our lord;

Allah there's only one God and Muhammed is his Messenger.
Allah, La ilaha illa'allah;

Dua is for duha, the morning light, the sun has turned from red to white;
Tua is for tareeq, the path to walk upon;
And Dhua is for dhil, a shadow;
And Aa is for ilm, the thing to know, to make our knowledge grow, in Islam;
Gha is for ghaib, a world unseen and that we know is not a dream;
Fa is for, the Opening, Al-Fatiha;
And Qua for the Qur'an, the book of God;
And Ka is for kalima, a word we're taught to teach us what is good and what is not;a
Nd La is for the beginning of La ilaha illa'allah;
Ma is for the Messenger Muhammed-ur-Rasoolillah.

La ilaha illa'allah, Muhammed-ur-Rasulilllah;
Allah, there's only one God and Muhammed is his Messenger.
Allah, la ilaha illa'allah;

Na is for nawm, the sleep God gave to give us rest after the day;
Ha is for the Hijra, the journey that, the Prophet made;
And Wa for wudu before we pray to help us wash our sins away;
And Ya for Yawm-mid-Deen;

Allah, there's only one God and Muhammed is his Messenger.
Allah, La ilaha illa'allah;
Allah, there's only one God and Jesus was his Messenger.
Allah, La ilaha illa'allah;
Allah, there's only one God and Moses was his Messenger.
Allah, La ilaha illa'allah;
Allah, there's only one God and Abraham was his Messenger.
Allah, La ilaha illa'allah;
Allah, there's only one God and Noah was his Messenger.
Allah, La ilaha illa'allah;
Allah, there's only one God and he created Adam, and we are the children of Adam.
Allah,La ilaha illa'allah;
Allah, there's only one God and Muhammed is his Messenger.
Allah, La ilaha illa'allah.
[ A Is For Allah Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]

Blogging again...but for how long?

2010-11-16T04:16:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't been blogging. And what I've posted is mainly just sharing. We really should be careful. People are getting more creative when they want to get their hands on your money, and property OR people can just do things behind your back.

Anyway, it's been a really hectic year. So much so, as I was updating my resume, I didn't have much recollection of the things I did. I was like, was that this year or was it last year? But despite the ups and downs, it's been a great year! I hope once I'm done with everything on my plate, I get to sit down and start writing again and sharing recipes. I'm really excited about brown rice at the moment. I've been experimenting. It's so euwwww cooked the normal way but as risotto or briyani, it can actually taste quite good. In fact, it's so good you want to eat a second helping.

Well, gtg. Will blog again soon, I hope. Ta ta!

Shocking video footage: Maid abusing child

2010-11-16T03:54:00.000-08:00

The video makes me so sad to see a child picking herself in pain only to be kicked at, stepped and stomped on by a crazy maid who seemed possesed. Apparently parents put in a hidden camera when child kept crying when they got home, complaining of stomach pains. So now we can see the shocking truth. The maid was sentenced to two years' jail for assaulting the child.

I shudder at the thought of having my children abused like that. God forbid! Working Mom's maid used to hit on the head so there wouldn't be any apparent bruises. It's no wonder the child refused to follow the maid whenever the parents were around, even to get water. So beware, if you leave your maid unsupervised, read all the signs. Don't ignore them.

Here's link you can go to for more info about the above video.
http://forums.cozycot.com/cafe-talks/28577-maid-abuse-baby-video.html

Something Worth Passing On In My Mailbox

2010-11-10T22:09:00.000-08:00

Subject: BEWARE - Police warning when driving.!!

This is happening now!
Sad, especially if you are inclined to 'help' people...

While driving on a rural end of the roadway on Thursday morning, I saw an infant car seat on the side of the road with a blanket draped over it. For whatever reason, I did not stop, even though I had all kinds of thoughts running through my head. But when I got to my destination, I called the Police and they were going to check it out. But, this is what the Police advised even before they went out there to check....

"There are several things to be aware of ... gangs and thieves are now plotting different ways to get a person (mostly women)to stop their vehicle and get out of the car.

"There is a gang initiation reported by the local Police where gangs are placing a car seat by the road...with a fake baby in
it...waiting for a woman, of course, to stop and check on the abandoned baby.

"Note that the location of this car seat is usually beside a wooded or grassy (field) area and the person -- woman -- will be dragged into the woods, beaten and raped, and usually left for dead. If it's a man, they're usually beaten and robbed and maybe left for dead, too.

DO NOT STOP FOR ANY REASON!!!

DIAL 999
AND REPORT WHAT YOU SAW, BUT DON'T EVEN SLOW DOWN.

"IF YOU ARE DRIVING AT NIGHT AND EGGS ARE THROWN AT YOUR WINDSCREEN, DO NOT STOP TO CHECK THE CAR, DO NOT OPERATE THE WIPER AND DO NOT SPRAY ANY WATER BECAUSE EGGS MIXED
WITH WATER BECOME MILKY AND BLOCK YOUR VISION UP TO 92.5%, AND YOU ARE THEN FORCED TO STOP BESIDE THE ROAD AND BECOME A VICTIM OF THESE CRIMINALS.

THIS IS A NEW TECHNIQUE USED BY GANGS, SO PLEASE INFORM YOUR FRIENDS AND RELATIVES.

THESE ARE DESPERATE TIMES AND THESE ARE UNSAVOURY INDIVIDUALS WHO WILL TAKE DESPERATE MEASURES TO GET WHAT THEY WANT."

Please talk to your loved ones about this. This is a new tactic used. Please be safe.

Get started NOW -- SEND THIS MESSAGE TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND LOVED ONES TO BE CAREFUL AND AWARE OF EVERYTHING AROUND THEM SO AS NOT TO BECOME A VICTIM.

Bandung's Kebun Binatang

2010-01-30T15:40:00.000-08:00

This is the thing about leaving blogging sooooo long. I don't remember anymore my Bandung stories except that it's really not a good idea to bring kids unless you bring along someone who's totally not into shopping so that that person can keep an eye on the kids.

Anyway, since I've forgotten nearly everything, here's the other cool thing about Bandung besides shopping: its KEBUN BINATANG! Yea, it had the usual standard stuff but it had something else that other zoos I've come across don't have. Here goes:

Day 2 Bandung, very early in the morning, we went to the kebun binatang literally translated as animal garden a.k.a the zoo. It was something for the kids, who I think I mentioned got very excited when we passed the zoo in our van when we arrived to get to our hotel on the first day.

It was about 9 a.m. when we got there if memory serves me correctly, it was already bustling at the zoo. Peddlars were selling nuts to feed the elephants and some were selling balloons and some were selling food and there were already quite a number of people. Apparently, it was school holidays for the kids there. And we can see kids from different schools in their uniforms walking around with notebooks and pencils in their hands and busy jotting down things they see. Some were from kindergartens.

More interesting for me though was that people could have picnics in the zoo amidst the animals and the dust that hovered in the air. We were about to go back when we chanced upon a clearing in the zoo area and we saw that there was flying fox going on there but guess who were the participants? Children, younger than my kids!

What impressed me what not so much the animals in the zoo, but children, kindergarteners, were climbing up a bamboo ladder to a platform near the top of a coconut tree so that they can do the flying fox. Wow, why don't we have this in Malaysia?

At first, I thought, it’s okay, our kids are not missing out anything, after all we have roller coasters and all these extreme rides in theme parks like Sunway Lagoon and Genting Highlands but on second thought, kindergarteners are only allowed safe rides like the merry go round/ carousel and for some more slightly dangerous rides, they require parental supervision and accompaniment.

So, when I saw it I was excited. I wanted very much to get my kids on the flying fox. But my mom, who came along for the trip, said I was crazy to risk the children’s lives. Looking at the setup, I told my mom, it looked safe (there were about 6 to 7 people involved from wearing the safety harness to the one removing the safety gear) and watching the kids being harnessed up and hooked up, I was confident it was safe but only Mika was game. Inez didn’t want to climb up not even after a lot of persuasion. Only after seeing Mika do it, and that he wanted to go up again, then only she decided that she too wanted to give it a try. So we gave in to Mika's request and this time both Inez and Mika did the flying fox. It was really nice watch Inez who climbed like a monkey. Who would have thought? Just before, she was so scared, she didn't want to go up.

Among the Indonesian children, I didn’t see hesitation, I saw bravery and anticipation. There was one boy who was very young, 4 years old maybe, and kind of very plump and had rather short legs that he couldn’t climb up the rungs of the ladder that the guy who wore him the harness had to carry him up the ladder to the platform above.

Anyway, after Inez came down, she wanted to do it again. Zul was already gearing to go but we decided that since Mika did it twice, Inez should also go twice.

I was very proud of them because it is not easy for even adults to do this and again I wondered why we don’t have this in Malaysia. Why wait until we are quite old to do this (like during BTN) when this can be done when we are young, as seen here in Bandung. If you are not afraid to do this, then, you are not afraid of many things. I think if we have this for the young 'uns, they will benefit greatly as it will give them confidence, teach them not to be afraid and the importance of safety, and have fun, and not to be ‘chicken shit’.

And as much as I think it’s a lesson for the kids, I think it’s also a lesson for parents because it teaches parents to encourage their children to be brave. The same way it teaches parents not to transfer their own fears onto their children or stifle children’s curiosity but stopping them from asking questions just because they don’t have the answers or are too busy to answer the questions.

Children are simple. Seriously, they don’t see the benefits that we see for them. When I asked Mika why he liked it so much, he said, “I love it Mom because I can fly even though I had to hold that thing very hard and it’s fun!”

Here's the video of the the kids doing the flying fox. It's soooooo cooool! And the kids want to go back to Bandung to do it again. Maybe when they can behave themselves when the adults are shopping.

Notice the queue. Inez is in front, it's her turn next, and mika's behind her. Inez is 7 going on 8 in the video. She's very small for her age, and so is Mika. Look at the kindy kids behind them, nearly the same height and on the right hand corner you can see kids queing to put on the harness. It's about RM5 if I'm not mistaken per attempt. The guy at the ladder hooks them up and the guy on the platform monitors them and if a kid gets stuck, the guy putting on the harness will just carry the kid all the way up. But it's sooooo coool right?

On the beach again

2009-09-05T11:57:00.001-07:00

Here, just want to have a little breather from Bandung stories. It's been ages since we went to the beach despite staying near the beach and all. One day I realised that if we were tourists, we'd be snapping photos like trigger happy Rambos, but just because the beach's so near, I've never really taken photos of the kids on the beach. So here I am sharing my poor attempts and believe me, they are mostly candid (and potentially blurry) because no yelling of mine to my kids to cooperate and look at me and smile worked.

There I was calling out, "Look at Mommy!" repeatedly and all I got was either frozen poses or the tops of their heads.

These are not recent, they are probably taken a month ago or even earlier.

Bandung Family Trip Day 1 - cont'd

2009-09-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

So, yea, we played Stepmania. If you don't know what it is, and you've watched Transformers (the first one), you know the part when the SWAT team enters the house of the computer hacker kid, one of the characters was doing Stepmania. It's really cool and the one I have connects to the laptop, and I have 2 dancemats so that both the kids can play at the same time and challenge each other. Hana likes to join in too and it's the one game I allow my kids to play any time of the week 'coz they can only jump so much and they get tired out sooner or later, and they sleep early which leaves me to do work I bring home. Haha, yea, that's my little secret out in the open. It keeps the kids healthy, burns off their excess energy and gets them to bed early. It's also good incentive for them to get their homework done first. Though nowadays Mika's more into Hotwheels car games. And thanks to Lexi who bloghopped recently, we also discovered another cool game site called http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/. We particularly liked game called Boomshine among other games.

And now, days later, I'd like to continue where I left off...so I was saying we passed by the zoo which was one crazy busy place and there were really many people there and you can see horses and their handlers, horses and carriages, people on horse rides on the main road. I thought of getting the kids to ride the horsesor the carriages but my mom didn't think it'd be a novel experience for them coz they've been on horse rides before. Plus coz we shared the road, she felt it was a little dangerous. Anyway, half an hour later, we finally arrived at the nearby FO that would have taken us 5 to 10 minutes to walk to. I think we went to Episode first. Then Jetset. I think Jetset had better stuff the first time I was there. My mom who has also been to Bandung before, stayed at Grand Serela Hotel, somewhere near Jl Riau, have not really explored the FOs in the area we were now staying at. Anyway, we realised after going into several shops that stuff in the shops were 'seasonal'. Hmm how do I say this? For example, bags, this time we went there, there were a lot of Samsonite bags on sale, whereas during our previous visit, we didn't come across Samsonite bags. I bought Burberry stuff at Jetset and this time round, no more Burberry T-shirts. But this trip, it wasn't really for us. We've been saving up so we can get stuff for the kids especially Inez, and Mika whose clothes were getting smaller. Zul bought them all Sports shoes like Nike, and Adidas for RM60 each. That's half the price of what it costs here. Anyway, that jumping the story a bit. So after some looking and seeing, and since these shops were near the hotel, we didn't do any serious purchasing. We figured we could always go back the next day.

So we got back to the hotel and Zul checked us in already. Two rooms, two different buildings. We (and Baby Hana included) took the one that required some climbing while Mom and the bigger kids took the room at the back.

Then we went to Pasar Baru after that. Zul got bored and took Mika with him to get him out of our hair and we went cloth shopping. Hehe cloth was the only thing I wanted to get for myself this time and they all had to be the non wrinkle type coz God only knows how much I hate ironing. Which is why I don't like wearing batik sometimes, but the satin silk type is not that wrinkly. As usual I digress.

After spending like 3 hours there, Zul started reminding us that we haven't done shopping for the kids yet. Okay, okay! So we left for Sogo Paris Van Java for early dinner and hopefully some mindless shopping. Hehe (Read here for more info on PVJ and see the cool pictures of PVJ; I didn't really take many pictures this time coz we were busy chasing after the kids.)

I've been wanting to go there but didn't get to the first time. We did go to Paris Van Java FO though. Hehe. My mom also hasn't been there before; so we got the driver to take us there and it's really a huge mall. Sorta remind me of when I went shopping in Maidstone and when you walk out of the main mall, there are smaller boutiques on the outside that lined the street, both left and right. And the brand Charles and Keith was there. That's like a present fave. They do have some interesting designs and they are affordable and they were having a sale! I already bought my bag (no sale though) in KL. Other brands include Billabong, Roxy. Really, the blog I linked above got everything there is to know on PVJ.

The first half of the evening was cool but around 8pm local time, and 7 pm,their time, as my mom was searching her handbag to take out her wallet to purchase something, she realised her wallet was not in her handbag. She started to panic as she realised that she has been a victim of some pickpocket. Thankfully her handphone was still in her bag and her passport was in my safekeeping. If not we would have to go to the embassy. So as it turned out, we spent our first night out at the PVJ Security Guard Post. Thankfully, all the guards muda2 and tegap2. Hahaha. Seriously, it was like nearly 12 when we got back to our hotel. Again, I digressed.

Back to when my mom discovered her missing purse, we went separate ways searching for the wallet just in case Mom dropped it somewhere, or left it at the payment counter at some shop. Thankfully, Zul was sooo nice and understanding about it and kept the kids busy while we sat down somewhere to cancel Mom's cards; and blocked her ATM card too just in case. You never know. Poor Mom, dahlah sakit belakang, the reason why she was somewhat careless in the first place. The backache was so painful she thought of cancelling at first, but we persuaded her to come anyway.

And then this happened, Mom was sooo not in the mood but Bandung anymore. We told her maybe she'd helped some really poor people. Yea, she was okay till we came back and my dad's credit card statement came and those poor pickpockets went shopping like crazy in TWO boutiques to buy stuff amounting to about 2 million rups. That's like nearly 1k our money and that got my mom soooo upset. She already lost like also 2 million rups in her wallet coz we've just arrived, we've not spent and whenever my mom wanted to spend her money to buy lunch or dinner, we told her to keep for shopping. Moral of the story, if people want to treat you, let them. Hahaha then if something like this happens, they'd lose less.

So after that, we reported it to the guard of PVJ and that was when we had to hang out in the security post. First we waited for one of the guards to go get a form because they seemed to have run out of them. That took some time. Imagine if the guards were gendut2 macam some guards in Malaysia, that'd take even longer. After some time, the guard came back, and the one who sent him out discovered that the guard took the wrong form. So he himself went off the get the right one. Tunggu lagi. So we waited and finally he came back, and he took down our details and account of what happened. Which was not easy, coz seriously, BM and Indonesian language aren't exactly the same , you know.

Some time during the report, Mika already fell asleep in the pram, followed by Inez and then Hana. Then we were advised to go the the police station to report the theft. And so we did and that really took less time than the guards and the police didn't really refer to the guard's report which made us feel that if something similar happens to anyone, just go to the police station immediately. Anyway, they were helpful.

So there ends Day 1. Later I will write about the subsequent days.

Bandung Family Trip Day 1

2009-08-30T19:13:00.000-07:00

As mentioned, we went to Bandung again. People did ask me why we are going there again since we have been there before. I answered that this time we are bringing the kids, it's always better to bring kids to places you are familiar with. At least you already know how to go about in that place and where to go to eat and shop and so on. Hence Bandung! Plus the shopping there is great!

So okay, we got the passports ready and off we went. This was the second trip for my mom as well. This time we stayed at the Patra Jasa Hotel. We were lucky to have booked the hotel rooms two months prior to our trip, because I did recommend this hotel to my friend who went earlier and she couldn't get rooms anymore.

We arrived at 10 a.m. and it was a Sunday. Since we brought the kids, Zul thought we had better hire a van and driver, and the driver was recommended by his nephew who was just there the week before. The driver was really nice, very punctual and helpful but he doesn't really talk much. I'll update this post later and include his name and number just in case anyone is interested in using his services.

So when we arrived, the driver was already waiting for us, and he took us to the hotel, surprisingly the roads were busy and congested and we were caught in a jam. We were not, the first time we were there. But it was the school holidays and so people, including the locals flocked to Bandung. We arrived at the hotel earlier than we were supposed to, coz we were too early to check in. Anyway, we decided to have our lunch first and then go back to the hotel. We went to Simpang Raya, a restaurant we went to during our first visit. After that we went back to the hotel but the rooms weren't ready yet. So Zul said he'd wait at the hotel when my mom and I decided to check out the nearby shops but instead of walking, we took the van since it's paid by the day. Oh boy, we got caught in the jam and it took us half an hour to get to a shop which would have taken us 5 minutes walking. but we saw there was a kebun binatang. That means zoo and the kids got excited. So first thing the next day was to go to the zoo. It was holidays after all for the kids.

Kids want to play STEPMANIA. To be continued....

Soooo lazy!

2009-08-30T09:37:00.000-07:00

Guess what I'm doing? This is me rebelling against work. I'd thought, 'hmm since I want to put work out of my mind, why not blog?' I've been staring at this box for a good few minutes and I'm thinking, where do I start? It's been ages since I have really written. I mean , a recipe or two was fine, as that didn't require much thinking.

Soooo much has happened. At work, I've been promoted. That happenerd in April. I don't like to tell people about it. I dunno why. In fact, my mom just found out. So much to do, it's just crazy. I'm still trying to fit it all in.

Then, I had a miscarriage. That was in early May. I was 8 weeks pregnant, and I lost my baby. I had just returnbed from a teambuilding course and before that, I was traveling as well. It's easy to blame the trips I've been making but at the end of the day, I guess, it was just not meant to be. The doctor just a couple of days earlier couldn't detect the heartbeat and told us as long as I didn't bleed I was fine. But on the 3rd day, I did. I was on MC for a week, and bleeding that whole week until on Sunday, I felt this funny sensation that compelled me to go to the toilet and it just came out. So tiny that if you held it and clenched your fist, you wouldn't even be able to see it in your hand. Not that I wanted to. Whatever I did see, it was because I had to wash the hand that was holding it. It was so tiny but it had eyes and nose and everything and attached to a transparent plastic bag like thing. Allah is so great. I saved it and took it with me to the doctor's. The doctor looked at it and said that it's all out. I was like, "Really, so I don't need to do the D&C?" Thankfully, no, but that was upon the condition that she doesn't detect any blood clots in the womb during my next visit.

The ironic thing was that I had just come to terms with the fact that I was pregnant. Anyone watched Marley and Me? I was exactly like Jennifer Aniston's character when she got pregnant the second time and was sooooo totally not ready for it. I did 3 pregnancy tests. The first one had a faint line, so I had thought, nope, couldn't be. It's too faint, it can't be, so I did another one, showed hubby and he said, "Yup, you're pregnant!" but me, I was in denial. "No way, I can't be! You can hardly see that second line! Tomorrow, we've got to go to the pharmacy and get those pregnancy kits without these damn lines."

So, my hubby, God bless his heart took me to the pharmacy the next day and hah, nah engkau, i bought like 2 more kits! Puas hati, but guess what? There are no kits that show that you're positive without those darn lines.

Took them home and well, whaddayaknow? I was pregnant...still that faint line. I guess that was when I finally accepted it. I think I had felt it was too soon and that I wasn't ready for another. Hana was just a year plus. Anyway, that weekend, we went to the doctor's, who did a scan and confirmed it.

So, I accepted that I was pregnant, and since this was not my 1st pregnancy, I basically knew what I needed and began shopping for stuff. Though not that much. I figured since we were supposed to go to Bandung again at the end of May, this time with the kids and my mom too, I'd do my shopping there. I had already imagined myself tired from waddling from one outlet to another. Hehe.

I remembered thinking when I miscarried that I would be walking normally in Bandung. Haha, really, and a part of me wondered whether my initial denial phase was the reason why I didn't get my baby. Another part of me wondered if it had anything to do with work and the trips and courses I had to attend. At last, I just felt that it just wasn't meant to happen, the baby had no heartbeat.

For that I had another 2 weeks of sick leave and it was really difficult to be on leave coz it was so totally unplanned. I was still sending memos to tie whatever loose ends I'd left hanging. I had to find people to replace me for this and that meeting on short notice. I am really thankful to all my colleagues who stood in for me. Haha, but by the time it was the 3rd week, I wasn't ready for work anymore. Dah malas dah...

But I swear the 3 weeks that I was on leave was the first rest I had in a long time and I do mean, real rest coz there were so many restrictions. My parents just wanted me to stay in bed, especially the first week of MC. There was still hope. Friends of mine and friends of Jaja's had the same experience before that the doctor didn't detect heartbeat but the pregnancy came through. My friend just gave birth recently to a baby girl and at first her doctor told her that there was no heartbeat too. But after it came out, then it's like confinement all over again. Some say, you go to take extra care coz miscarriage is like plucking a fruit that's not ripe yet. Oh yea, the first week after the miscarriage was painful. You could feel the contractions and the medication made me drowsy.

But, it was during that 3 weeks, I bonded back with Hana and my Inez and Mika. Maybe, that was why it was fated. Hana was at that time, so close with my mom, that my mom was like her birthmom and I was like the grandma. As I said, I was just real busy at work and was away a lot. It was just nice to be spending a lot of time with them.

And where was Zul all this time? In the US, for some factory visit, and the H1N1 had just started. Thankfully, he returned home safely and H1N1 free.

Bread and Butter Pudding

2009-07-07T07:02:00.000-07:00

This recipe is actually a combination of two different recipes. The original bread and butter pudding recipe is from Halwafy and the crust comes from an apricot cobbler recipe taken from a magazine. The recipe below is basically adapted for those who like sweet stuff but don't want it too sweet.

INGREDIENTS:

6 slices day-old bread

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup raisins/ mixed fruit

4 eggs, beaten

2 cups milk

1/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C.Cut bread into triangles and arrange first layer of bread in an 8 inch square baking pan. Drizzle melted butter or margarine over bread. Sprinkle half the raisins. Then arrange 2nd layer of bread and drizzle butter over the bread. Sprinkle the rest of the raisins.In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Pour over bread, and lightly push down with a fork until bread is covered and soaking up the egg mixture. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly tapped.

Above is the basic recipe for bread pudding. If you want a cake crust on top, before baking, mix the following ingredients:
TOPPING
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar (I usually reduce this to 1/4 cup.)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 tablespoons butter, softened

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add egg and butter; mix well. spoon over pudding and put in oven.

Good luck baking. I've had it from friends that the added crust on the bread pudding gives it extra oomph. Also I'd like to say thanks to Tricia for dropping me a line. I hadn't realised. Well, I'd just like to say that where credit is due, credit should be given. Thank you to your mom for spreading so much joy through her cooking and Apricot Cobbler.

Run! Run! Run to the SALE!

2009-07-01T05:55:00.000-07:00

This morning, with my dad in KL, I was the designated chauffeur. So since I was sending Mika to school, I left with Mika 15 minutes before school started. Inez, unfortunately had to forego her Agama school 'cause I'd have to be on leave to be a full time chauffeur.

So there I was, leaving a bit later than usual; and there was Inez, not rushing to get ready for school and there was Hana, ever ready to play. I saw Inez giving Hana a small paper bag and some pieces of scrap paper. I heard her say,"Here's some money Hana. Run! Run! Run to the sale! and my crazy little one ran to the front door like her pants were on fire. It was hilarious!

Omigod! Do I have shopaholics in the making?

Mika going Wild at the International X-treme Autoshow

2008-12-29T08:36:00.000-08:00

It's been ages since we went on holiday with the kids. Inez went to my mom and said that her school holidays were nearly over and yet she hadn't even been anywhere with us. My fault, mostly - been so busy and hubby is also usually traveling - and weekends are supposed to be lazy.

Anyway, we had two wedding invites, both at the end of the spectrum: KB and KL. My hubby actually wanted to go to both; but since my Dad cancelled the plan of going to KB for my cousin's grandson's wedding, we decided to go to KL for Zul's niece's wedding. It's that time of the year when people take advantage of the long weekend hols to get married.

So we decided why not kill two birds with one stone and take our young ones for a holiday while we're at it. Melaka, here we come! But Melaka was fully booked. Never knew Melaka was such a hot holiday destination. It was crazy, every hotel we called up was fully booked. So, we went to our wedding, helped out with it, even Inez and Mika played a small but significant role in opening up the petals of the bunga telur. The solemnization of vows were to take place that night after the Isyak prayers, so we took time off from the wedding preparation to go to Bukit Jalil for the International X-treme Autoshow. Tickets were priced at RM28 for adults and RM8 for children, if I remember correctly. It was the first day. It was like seeing all the cars on MTV's Pimp My Ride in one place. Mika was just so excited and checked one one car after another and wanted to have his photos taken here and there at one car or another.

Unfortunately for him, his mommy had forgotten to charge her camera battery and the camera sort of died out on us during one of his poses. Poor boy!
Anyway here are some of the shots:
Really can't believe how boys just instinctively grow an attitude when they are snapping photos in front of cars. See Mika's cool poses. Normally, he'd just make a monkey face whenever the camera's on him.

Compare that face to Inez's face in the pix below.

Here's Inez in front of a car she can tolerate. Haha!
And here's Mika with all the cars in the background (well, most!)
Mika didn't want to leave but we did have a wedding to attend, so we left around 6:30. Inez said it just wasn't her day. :)

The Hunt for SOMETHING FOR ME: Day 3 Bandung Shopping

2008-09-24T22:47:00.000-07:00

Day 3! We're going home and my bag's empty? How can that be?
Hubby felt sorry for me and we went out again to JL Dago and stumbled into LEVEL. Struck gold! Finally, a shop that I found something I liked. Bought myself some Jockey Yoga Pants (not that I do Yoga, but Yoga pants are extremely comfy to wear around the house) and bought Yoga pants for my mom, and my sisters, and I also found Isaac Mizrahi's T-shirts for Target which cost around I don't remember anymore. So I got one for myself and one for my mom. One satisfied customer. :D
Then , we came to a little factory outlet called Jetset, there I found Burberry T-shirts. Nice! Now I was happy to go home.
Anyway, here's a picture of an affordable hotel we came across called Patra Jasa. We figured if there's a next time in Bandung, we'd bring the kids and stay here coz it's on JL Juanda, and you just have to walk left or right or just cross the road to get some crazy shopping experience. You don't even need the Angkut.
Anyway, we left Bandung before noon on the TransX coz Zul didn't want to get stuck in any unpredictable jam in Jakarta going to the airport. Well, that's it, our bandung holidays!

Day 2 Bandung

2008-09-24T20:00:00.001-07:00

Day 2 was a Sunday and due to their Independence Day Celebration, it was a long weekend, as Monday was also a Hari Libur/ holiday for the locals. After a long hard shopping day the day before, we were kind of undecided what we wanted to do. More shopping or some sightseeing. Anyway, as we were crossing the road near the hotel, an Angkot going to Lembang honked at us. Since we were without any real plans, we hopped into the Angkot. If you want to go to Tangkuban Perahu, you will pass Lembang. Here's the view from inside an Angkot:
It's kinda low, so you really need to bend your head when you are getting in. The boy in the picture is a fellow tourist. He's from Jakarta and also heading for Tangkuban Perahu. You can see a musician/busker at the door. We stopped at a traffic light. Street musicians take this opportunity to earn a quick buck.
Here's a random pix of Lembang.
It's like a cowboy town. For me, Lembang wasn't exactly that impressive but the way up to Lembang totally was. You can see all the Dutch influence in the buildings and so on. Apparently in Lembang, you have to take another Angkot, or car or whatever to Tangkuban Perahu. We never found out coz we turned back. We didn't even get down in Lembang town but got the Angkot to put us at the Strawberry Park that we saw as we were going into Lembang.
There, we bought some strawberries and blackberries. My first taste of Blackberries! Definitely, if I come across them again, I'd buy more this time. Nice!
But the park itself was kinda sad looking. We have better looking and better maintained parks in Cameron Highlands, I think. We couldn't wait to get on another Angkot and go shopping instead. As we were going down, we saw that cars were really piling up to go to Lembang/Tangkuban. We thanked God that we decided to follow our feet. Had we decided to go later we'd be wasting time, being stuck in a jam.
From the strawberry place, we took another Angkot back to Bandung town. I saw a kids' boutique (Yen's Baby Shop) and we got down. There was another outlet for kids (Happy Kids) next to it and between the two outlets was a steakhouse. We went from one shop to another. I saw a Baby Phat dress here but Zul didn't want his kids wearing any of those. I don't think he's too impressed by what he saw on Entertainment channel 712. But we bought Ben 1o T-shirts here, 1 from each shop. One for Mika and another for Naqib. Mika loves Ben 10. His fave alien is the one that can roll himself into ball, like an armadillo. Ah, what am I saying? He likes 'em all.
We had lunch at the steakhouse. It was okay. I've tasted better. Price? Not too cheap and not too expensive. More like the price of Western food at the food courts in KL malls.
From there, we took another Angkot to go to FOs in Jl Dago that we didn't enter the day before. I had not done my shopping yet. I can't remember where exactly we stopped at first. It could be Zenith FO (pix below) but I don't know. I know I didn't buy anything from here. After a while, all the FOs began to look alike to me. Especially when I kept seeing the same fashion for women and they don't stock many in 1 shop.
Here's the inside of Zenith. They had some interesting kids' stuff but I've been buying and so I tried really hard to stop myself from looking at more kids' stuff.
My hand must have been shaking. Kinda blurry but you get the picture, right? After that, we went to Level FO. (sorry not Jetset as mentioned earlier. We went to Jetset on Day 3.)Finally, something for me! But it's something to wear at home. I think Zul bought himself a Giorgio Armani suit here. I guess in all the excitement, I forgot to snap a photo of the FO. Bought this horribly cute dress for Hana and surfer shorts for Mika. I know, I know, I just couldn't resist buying stuff for the kids. I think all together I spent too much on the kids. No more birthday presents, I say!
Then, we walked to Rumah Mode (see pix above). Rumah Mode is supposed to be the biggest and most popular FO in Bandung. You feel the difference just getting towards the building. So many people! Cars coming in and out of the parking lots! Tourists and locals! and I really didn't see what the hype was about when I walked around inside. Plus I was feeling a bit dizzy because of all the people inside. I got out. I didn't buy anything. Outside there was a live show. Interesting, the singer was singing Rihanna's Take a Bow. I must say she sang better than the original singer. Sorry, Rihanna. Haha.

These are people leaving Rumah Mode.

We then left Rumah Mode and I think we boarded another Angkot. We stopped the Angkot at the sight of Paris Van Java (pix below). I got in, got out. Nothing! However, what was interesting is the signboard near it advertising X-Trans. We haven't figured out how we were going to get back to Jakarta; so we decided to check out. This brought us to Cihampelas-where FOs were named after superheroes.
This is the view from the X-Trans office. Below is the X-Trans office building. Anyway, Zul booked us seats to go back to Jakarta on Tuesday at 11 a.m.

Then, we went back to our hotel. Went out again for dinner at a nearby restaurant just outside the hotel gate. Zul thinks the restaurant served the best rendang he's ever tasted. Then we explored the shops nearby. Apparently there's a Carrefour and one of the shops was selling Pumpkin Patch clothes and Batman 3/4 shorts on discount. Beli lagi baju untuk budak2. Sigh!

Then I tried the roadside fried tofu. Yummy for Rp3K.

Then we went back to our hotel and crashed out.

More Bandung Shopping! Still Day 1

2008-09-24T06:24:00.000-07:00

After lunch at Dapurku, we decided that the day was still young, and why not head for our first Factory Outlet or FO of the day. On my list was Jl Dago. And next to it was a recommended FO called Uptown. At the restaurant, we asked how to get to Dago (which apparently is the oldest and most famous street in Bandung). We saw many Angkutan Kota or Angkots on the road.

We also noticed that the locals were using them. They must be affordable; and they were! It costs about Rp1000 to Rp5000 per pax depending on the distance.So we asked how do we get one that goes to Dago. Did I mention that when we were there, people were celebrating their Independence Day on Sunday? You could actually hear people practising for the parade especially early in the morning.

Anyway, the lady manning the kerepek counter gave us some directions and we found ourselves outside these gates (see pix below).
Across the street was like an Angkot stop. These Angkots can actually pretty much stop wherever and anywhere they like. If the drivers spot anyone they think need their service, they'd stop or honk. If the targets do need an angkot, other angkots won't stop for them anymore. It's almost as if the code among Angkot drivers is Finders keepers, losers weepers. Anyway, if you want to stop the Angkot, you say KIRI (left) and the driver will stop for you.
So we took one that says Dago on it. Be careful which Dago Angkot you take. We learnt the hard way that there are many Dago angkots and there are several combinations like Kelapa-Dago and so on. Kelapa is actually a name of a place. From the Angkot, we kept our eyes peeled and found Uptown! (Refer to earlier Bandung post for pix.) So cool! And we weren't disappointed.
Here's what Uptown FO looks like inside. This is the kids' section. We bought clothes for the kids.
Here is another FO we saw across the street.
And here's what it looks up close:
We didn't buy anything from here. Then we walked to Kartikasari (also within walking distance).
This is the place famous for its brownies. See pix below. We just bought a slice of this and that to try. On the last day, we stopped at a branch of Kartika Sari near the hotel to get some cakes and brownies to bring back. Zul went designers' here. He bought himself a Just Cavalli jeans and D&G shoes. They were very affordable. And absolutely gorgeous on him. Perfect fit.
Then we walked to the next FO and the next.
From here I think I bought some pants for Mika and Naqib. So far nothing for myself yet.
The building above is DSE. Here Zul bought a bag to bring our shopping home (he foresaw our bags wouldn't be enough), and some Old Navy pants. So many shops, yet, I hadn't found anything for me yet. Zul seemed to have struck gold at nearly every shop.
Anyway, we took a cab from DSE and I wanted to go to BEC. Somehow, in my mind, BEC changed to BTC (Bandung Trade Centre, and this was some distance away). Taxi wasn't a Bluebird. At first we thought he was using his meter but he said it didn't work. This was the taxi that fleeced us. Everywhere we wanted to go was 'lumayan jauhnya'/ reasonably far, even our hotel. Since he told us that BTC was lumayan jauhnya and cost RP35K, we decided to go back to the hotel. But on the way, I spotted the BEC building and realised that it was BEC that I wanted to go to and not BTC. We stopped the taxi and even though we didn't stop at our hotel, he wanted RP35K. Of all the nerve! We protested a little and I think we paid him RP30K.
Here, it was nearly 9 p.m. and most shops were closing. In that short window of time, I checked out the camera shops and knew that cameras were more expensive in Bandung. I gave up my quest for buying a camera, but Zul bought himself a laptop bag, which was really impressive coz it could be a backpack and a shoulder bag as well. It cost RM120 ++ if I'm not mistaken. Then we went back to our hotel. The champion shopper for the day was Zul. I was kinda depressed I couldn't find anything for me. Nothing appealed to me. It's just like that Samuel Coleridge poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner that goes, "Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink."
Shedih gitu...but who knows what tomorrow brings, and let's keep that till the next post. Ngantuk dah nie.

Wordworld on Astro now ; Simply Cool!

2008-09-24T06:07:00.000-07:00

This is such a cool cartoon airing on Playhouse Disney Channel 613 on ASTRO. Especially SUPER COOL if your kids are learning to read and spell.

PEN INK ON WALL

2008-09-24T05:52:00.000-07:00

I don't know if anyone remembers this but once upon a time, Mika scribbled on the wall between our rooms with black ball point ink. At first I thought they were pencil marks and so as punishment, I got Mika to rub it off with his eraser but to no avail. After trying everything I had, my paint began to thin. So I simply rectified it by taking out the chest of drawers from the kids' room and put that against the wall. At that time, even the internet couldn't help me.

Anyway, now guess what? There's finally a way to get rid of the pen marks. Apparently pantene pro-v hairspray works like a charm. :) Definitely will be trying that once I get myself that hairspray.

Read more about the tip from the link below:
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf865567.tip.html

MORE YOUTUBE FAVES

2008-09-24T05:19:00.000-07:00

HAMSTER DANCE

DANCING SLUGS

BEBE LILLY DANS L'ESPACE

ARABIC ALPHABET NASYID

ARABIC 1,2,3
Hana will yell out 'asyra' when it's number 10! Well, it sure sounds like it! Haha!

Mika's Faves.
WE WILL ROCK YOU! by WATER BOYS

ALIEN SONG

GUMMY BEAR

CRAZY FROG

INEZ'S FAVES.
Inez is like a teenager in a 7 yr old frame, sometimes methinks. Luckily she also likes the ones that Mika likes. :)
7 THINGS

THIS IS ME (FROM CAMP ROCK)

FROM HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 1

BARBIE IN DIAMOND CASTLE

BEN 10

UPSY DAISY LYRICS

2008-09-24T05:13:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Ja, my baby Hana totally loves this song. Below is the Upsy Daisy Lyrics.

START

'I look, I see 2. (专辑名)

Upsy Daisy, now don't be lazy,
it's time to go to the Masjid.
Wash your face up, and pick the pace up,
it's time to go the Masjid.

Help your mother to get your brother,
it's time to go to the Masjid.
It's a wonderful place to go,
as a family.

We'll be standing,
all together in prayer.
We'll meet all our friends
when we are there.

We'll be standing,
all together in prayer.
We'll meet all our friends
when we are there.

So, upsy daisy, now don't be lazy,
its time to go to the Masjid.
We'll greet everyone with Salaam
when we're at the Masjid.

Listen carefully to the Imam,
when we're at the Masjid.
It's a wonderful place to go,
made for you and me.

We'll be standing,
all together in prayer.
We'll meet all our friends
when we are there.

We'll be standing,
all together in prayer.
We'll meet all our friends
when we are there.

So, upsy daisy, now don't be lazy,
it's time to go to the Masijd.
First we'll sit and read Qur'an,
when we're at the Masijd.

Next we pray with everyone,
when we're at the Masjid.
It's a wonderful place to go,
a wonderful place to be.

We'll be standing,
all together in prayer.
We'll meet all our friends
when we are there.

We'll be standing,
all together in prayer.
We'll meet all our friends
when we are there.'

END

People fall from the sky

2008-09-22T07:07:00.000-07:00

The next day I asked Inez the same question. And I was expecting an answer like 'rain'. I know, when will I ever learn? To my surprise, Inez answered aeroplane crash, helicopter crash and people!
People?! What!
It's okay, Mommy, I mean people in parachutes. And people skydiving.
The things these kids know nowadays are pretty impressive I guess. 8)

Learning FUNdamentals is a cool book!

2008-09-20T07:09:00.000-07:00

Last month, I went to Popular to hunt down some activity books for Inez and Mika. Mika especially loves mazes and every now and again tirelessly dogs me to draw him custom mazes with specific specifications, such as, "Draw me 3 firetrucks, Mummy" or "Can we have 5 monkeys?" or "4 houses on fire". It's not that easy to draw mazes, so I'd really rather spend some money than draw my own.
While I was there, I came across the book Learning FUNdamentals; and it's just great! I have to admit that I'm really not the type who keeps their children's drawings or artwork. I try but sometimes I just throw them away. I opened the book at a random page and the first article I saw was called 'Photographing Artwork' under the Self Esteem heading. This can be done when the fridge or wall becomes too crowded and there's no more space to put up new artwork. Should this happen, just photograph your child in front of the fridge or wall that's displaying all the artwork. The picture should then go to the child's own portfolio or The Book of Me. This will record the child's artistic progress. So for me, the advice was really impressive. The next page shows an article called Quiz Time, a game to play to keep children preoccupied. Some questions are Name 3 things that fall from the sky, Name three ways to travel. In the car, normally we'd play Eye-Spy but this was quite interesting too coz the answers are always unusual.
I asked Mika: Name 3 things that fall from the sky.
I was so totally expecting the answer rain and stuff but no, the answer was bird ("Bird?" i said, and he said, "yeah if people shot a bullet in the wings") and crashing airplanes and a helicopter that's broken. Totally unexpected!
I bought the book and it's well worth RM35.

My fave. Hana photo

2008-09-19T16:48:00.000-07:00

Shopping in Bandung...woo hoo!

2008-09-04T06:28:00.000-07:00

Bandung is basically all about shopping. Coz there, you are a millionaire (literally!), and you can afford Dolce and Gabbana underwear, Aigner bags, Giorgio Armani suits, Just Cavalli T-shirts decorated with in-your-face studded bling-blings, Burberry tops, and Kimora's Baby Phat clothes for your kids! Designer stuff everywhere! We were there 3 days and we hardly exhausted all the Factory Outlets there! Here are some we didn't even enter (see pix below).

BLOSSOM Factory Outlet (Look behind the Angkot)
RAFFLES CITY Boutique Outlet

Before going to Bandung, I did some last minute research, where to go and where to eat in Bandung, and here are some good blogs I found on Bandung:
Bandung: Shopping Paradise
(I didn't go to all the places she went to though, and I have to say if you wanna go shopping, Dago's the best. So many factory outlets within walking distance. She went to Cihampelas, that's where the shops are named after Rambo, and Spiderman and loads of other superheroes. That's where we took our X-Trans back to Jakarta.)
Place to eat at Bandung (A Malaysian perspective)
(I went to Simpang Raya. Mmmm, the moment you enter and sit at a table, plates and plates of food are set before you. Whatever you want to eat, you touch and if you don't wanna, you don't touch. Some are charged by the plate and some dishes are charged by the pieces. E.g. if there are 2 pieces of chicken on a plate, and you only take one. you are charged just one. We sorta misunderstood and ate by the plate. So guess what, we were charged for 4 pieces of chicken, 2 pieces of meat, and can't remember what else. Still, the price was quite reasonable.
I also went to Kartikasari for the brownies and kek lapis. Maybe i tried the wrong brownie coz the brownie was alright but the kek lapis was buttery and moist and simply gorgeous for a whopping Rp109K. When my dad was there, he bought another brand and it was okay, a bit on the dry side but this one....just lovely. mmmmmmmmmm)
I always go check out Trip Advisor if I plan to go anywhere. Click here for Bandung Forum page.

So having done my research, I wrote on a piece of paper I'd like to check out BEC. That's short for Bandung Electric Centre coz I wanted to check out the price of a camera. A Nikon is after all made in Indonesia. I wanted to go to Natural on JL Setiabudi, Uptown on JL Dago, Pasar Baru which opens from 9 - 5, and Renaritti on JL Martadinata. Other FOs of interest mentioned were Grande, Rumah Mode, Cargo and Rich & Famous. I also wanted to check out Distros which were supposedly cooler than FOs.

So did everything go as planned?

Here's what happened:
So we went to Bandung the night before the day we were supposed to go. Arrived there at nearly 10 p.m. Checked in and called it a night. Next morning, we got up, got dressed and breakfast was tasty. The selection was small but boy, was it tasty! It was made up of fried mee-hoon (vermicelli noodles), porridge, fried rice, fruits, and bubur pulut hitam. Yummy!

We asked the bellboy the whereabouts of Pasar Baru and apparently it was like a 10 to 15 minute walk away. Cool! No need to get a cab. So we walked in the direction pointed to us and we could see banks and lots of hardware stores. Kedaton Hotel is really like in the old part of town. You also see push carts laden with car parts:
I wanted to take some photos but we've ran out of batteries. (The pix above was taken the next day.) So, first thing on the agenda was to go get some batteries. Here's the electrical shop we bought it from.
Just a door away was a stationery shop which sold batteries for much cheaper. Dang! Anyway, Zul asked the seller what road were we on? She said / ʌ be t∫eɪ/ . We did a double take. What!? She pointed at the signboard across the road.

Oh, Jl. ABC.

Okay then we walked straight up the opposite direction of Pasar Baru and guess what, electrical shops lined both sides of the road!
Apa lagi, I went in and out asking about cameras. Alas, nothing beat the price of a Canon in Mangga Dua. As we walked the road back to where Pasar Baru was, we came across a wool shop. 1 big roll costs about Rp5000.00 so I bought 4 different coloured wools for Fatemah, who crochets well.
I also bought a cake tin in shape of a teddy bear.
Hahaha, I am not your regular shopper. In Jakarta, I bought a cake tin in shape of a car. There you go, that should make both Inez and Mika happy. To date, I have not made any cakes yet though. 8)
Anyway, sorry, silau laa this pix. Haha if you want a headache, just stare at this picture for 15 seconds. The car cake tin pix is slightly better. Forgive me for being an amateur photographer.

So we then made our way to Pasar Baru, wading our way through a crowd of people. I think we spent like 4 to 5 hours there. My friends wanted me to get for them some Kebaya material and so here's one of 'em. This one costs Rp150K. Or Rp 130K. Gosh, how quickly I forget. You can get a whole 'pasang' i.e., that is cloth for both top and bottom for Rp100 the cheapest I've come across. But, the quality is different. I have also come across really exclusive looking kebaya tops that cost millions of Rupiahs. So it really depends on how much you are willing to spend.
So, anyway, I bought everything on the first day. No intention of going back to Pasar Baru, unless really necessary. And we did return, coz Zul wanted to get belakon for his friends. The same belakon costs Rp80K at the Jakarta airport. If you buy enough, you get discount up to Rp15K per belakon. It's this traditional batik jawa type Songkok. Sorry no pix.

Then it was back to the hotel. We asked the hotel people again where to go if we wanted to have a good lunch. They recommended a place called Dapurku. We kinda lost our way on our way there but came across other interesting finds like this antique store.
We actually wanted to ask for directions to dapurku but got sidetracked. I ended up buying a Russian doll-like Indonesian doll. It actually doubles up as a container of sorts, and you can actually store your rings or brooches in there, but it's not that cheap. I haggled until I got it for Rp100K.
It's much bigger than the Russian dolls I got. I love Russian dolls. I have 2. And sometimes I let the kids play with them coz it teaches them the concept of size and allows them to create stories. They weren't cheap either. I bought them for like 30 Euros. Oh dear my memory is going. But that was years ago, 2002.

We finally found Dapurku. We were so hungry. Here's what it looks like from the outside.

The first thing we saw from the entrance was the food counter.

From the entrance, to the right is like a tuck shop selling all the traditional kerepek:
What it looks like inside the restaurant (pix below):
What we ate:
When you go to the counter, you point at stuff, and they will cook or heat up the food you ordered and bring to your table. The fish really tasted like otak2 if you are from Johor, or Sata if you are from Trengganu but spicier. Price: Rp51 920 for two.
Food: Yummy. Me, I love the sambal. I take the opportunity to eat their chilli sambal wherever I eat. Mmmmmmm.

Next stop, Dago street. First FO, was Uptown.
Will blog later.

Jakarta - Day 2

2008-08-27T06:28:00.000-07:00

We were supposed to stay in Jakarta for 2 nights and leave for Bandung on Day 3. After the first expensive dining experience, as well as being stuck in a jam on the way back, we decided that we should be spending more time in Bandung. So, the next day, hubby made some arrangements and we thought to leave Jakarta right after checking out. In the meantime, we decided to do some Jakarta sightseeing. We got into a Blue Bird cab and made our way to Mangga Dua. We were supposed to take the overhead bridge to cross over to the market there but somehow we stumbled onto the Low Yat of Jakarta. There were floors and floors of electronic gadgets, and computers. My husband was astounded that there were so many shops selling Thinkpads, which was so difficult for him to get in Malaysia. I can't remember which model exactly he was thinking of getting. He was feeling a twinge of regret as he'd just bought himself a HP laptop at the recent Pikom fair in KL. When we finally crossed to the other side, where they were selling clothes and stuff, we discovered that the Mangga Dua Plaza was much more interesting. I wanted to get a Canon Ixus 80IS and we found 2 shops that could sell it for just below RM900. However since we were coming back to Jakarta as our flight back was from Jakarta, I decided not to get it yet. And who knows, the Canon might be cheaper in Bandung? To this day, I still regret not buying it in Jakarta. In Bandung, the cheapest price of the Canon was Rp75K more expensive, which amounted to RM952 inclusive of the 3% for credit card. For that price, I was just getting the camera without the casing, and a 4 gig memory card.

Anyway, it turned out that the cabby couldn't make it at the check out time and was arriving at 6 p.m. Do you know their 6 p.m. is really dark already and their 7 p.m. looks more like Malaysian 9 p.m.? So we decided to go to Tanah Baru, is it called? (It's Tanah Abang lah, sorry)I'm not so sure coz we ended up not going, thanks to the taxi driver who recommended we go to Melawai instead and it turned out he brought us to a huge mall (Pasaraya Grande) with really high-end but exquisite looking batik (the kind you wished someone got you coz you're too cheap to buy it yourself). I'm talking about millions of rups for a piece of kebaya material.
What I can say about the some of the batik clothes and dresses in that mall is that they don't look like batik or kain sarong anymore. The clothes look designers' and some are really chic looking and you can see the ladies of Jakarta wearing batik as casual and daily wear.
So, did I buy batik? Nope, instead I bought a car shaped cake tin for RM13 on one of the floors. Haha who would have thought I'd come out of a major batik store with a cake tin? Zul bought himself some biskut bangkit.
We were kinda irritated with the cab driver who assumed he knew what we were looking for. And too chatty too, he was. Ohh, we were glad to be rid of him when we arrived at that Melawai place. He told us it was easy to get a cab back and we waited for a good five to ten minutes before we decided to venture out to the main road to get a cab. We really needed to get back to the hotel coz the driver taking us to Bandung was almost there. Finally, a cabbie came and what a dirty fellow he was. Zul noticed him rolling up a piece of 10K rups and digging his ear with it. And guess what? Since the fare was Rp40K, and we only had a 50K piece, the Rp10k that he'd used to dig his ear was the change we got from him! Aaaaaaahhhhhhh. Thank God Zul caught him in the act. Now, I am suspicious of any notes I receive.

Going to Bandung

At that time we didn't know the existence of X-Trans (pix of X-Trans vans below), so what we did was pay Rp600K for a Kijang and another Rp310K for toll, petrol and the driver to take us there. Since we left at peak hours, we were lucky that our driver knew what roads to take and what roads to avoid. I really salute Jakarta drivers because it's really stressful to drive on their roads.

Jakarta Roads
First of all, you have to put up with traffic jams. Next, you have to put up with traffic jam vendors (see pix below, guy's selling feather dusters) who set up shop on road dividers or just walk around with their wares, which could range from mineral water, to newspapers and magazines (locally called koran) and wood carvings of horses! I must say that I admire their resourcefulness and willingness to work. Better selling stuff like this than being a robber or pickpocket. At least this is halal work.

Another interesting thing you could see on the roads are people putting up their index finger like they're trying to hitch a ride. And they are! For a sum, apparently, if there are three in a car, there's no need to pay toll. So you pay these willing passengers a small sum to avoid paying a bigger sum. There are also many traffic police on the road to ensure that everybody is driving in the right lanes. Apparently, there's a special one lane road for a certain number of people in a vehicle, if I am not mistaken, it's for 3 people. There are also bus lanes for buses.

Anyway, what I noticed is that Indonesian drivers are very cool. They zip in and out of lanes, and surprisingly they don't get angry even when an accident nearly happened. We didn't see any of the taxi drivers display any mannerisms of road bullies. There were no cabbies yelling strings of expletives like some do here in Malaysia. I was once in a cab to PJ whose driver kept saying "Niamah this and niamah that". On Jakarta roads, I guess it's because everyone is doing it and there's no point calling the kettle black, and getting mad about it. Methinks Jakarta drivers could set up an international driving school coz if you can drive there, you can drive anywhere. I swear the traffic is positively scary.

Bandung

The journey to Bandung was thankfully uneventful, thanks to our knowledgable driver. The only major traffic jam we encountered was at the R&R of all places. Zul thinks we were fleeced coz we paid quite an exhorbitant price for a Nasi Bebek (bebek actually means duck, haha, thought it meant goat, hahahaha) and a plate of rice with one fried fish and some vegetables. Zul said he'd eaten so much more before with his Indonesian colleague and had paid less. I guess the moment we opened our mouth to order we were screwed.

So a word of advice would be to eat at an eatery that has all the price stated on the wall or something so that it's not up to the shop seller to charge you.

We arrived in Bandung around 10 p.m. One half hour to get to the toll out of Jakarta, half hour or so at the R&R, and two hours on the highway to Bandung. It was really dark, and we fell asleep during the drive there but we found out later that the bridge to Bandung is kinda the highest. (Just look at the pix below. Read more on http://www.geocities.com/bandungcity/bdg.htm.)

We stayed at Kedaton Hotel (below is a pix of the hotel from the outside and below it is how the room looks - they only had twin sharing). For about Rp488K on weekdays and Rp512K on weekends, you get breakfast and free internet access. They also come get you from the airport and send you to the airport for free! And it's a walking distance to Pasar Baru (last pix) where you can get kain batik, kebaya material, balakon (is this the right spelling? You know the songkok like thingy that's made from batik jawa or sarong) and kain sembahyang, sarong, etc. It opens from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. I'll be putting more on Bandung in my next post.

This is Pasar Baru. As you can see, packed with people.

Haha here's a better view of the sea of people in Pasar Baru.

Air Asia's ONE MILLION FREE SEATS! Go have a holiday if you haven't already.

2008-08-26T07:46:00.000-07:00

It's that time of the year again and Air Asia is offering A MILLION FREE SEATS! Go people, go travel! It's true, everyone can fly; so fly! I myself have just got back from a well deserved holiday in Bandung. Okay, I didn't fly that far and I actually flew MAS (which by the way, is having its own MERDEKA SALE) to Jakarta and went to Bandung from there; but I swear, it's the MOST restful and relaxed holiday I've had in 3 years. I left work behind completely, and my adorable kids too. :(

It was just my hubby and me. Jakarta is really too crowded to bring 2 restless kids and a baby. I mean every time I looked out my hotel room, I see cars on the road stuck in one traffic jam or another. So imagine, taking the kids out in a cab and being stuck in there (shudder). Even the thought of it is scary. See photos below: (Photos aren't that clear but that's what the roads look like outside our hotel room on the 8th floor-Ibis Slipi Hotel - and it's not even peak hour! The topmost one was taken at 10 a.m. the next day and the one below was taken the day we arrived, some time in the evening around 6 p.m.)

Anyway, hubby says we can actually bring the kids to Bandung after experiencing Bandung ourselves. Initially, it was my parents who went first in the May school holidays this year and they went on about how beautiful it was and that the trip was too short...it wasn't enough...it was shopping galore. Dad had bought himself a leather jacket, a batik shirt, had custom made jeans...heck, I'd be smiling too! Mom said men had more choices and having gone there myself, I see her point. There were loads of stuff for women but they just didn't appeal to my sense of style, or lack of style. Haha! And I suppose, hers as well. :) Well, hubby told Mom if she came across surfer shorts, he'd like one. Mom found them alright and bought 3! Billabongs for a mere Rp 109 000 each. That's like 30 something our money. The ones in the stores costs triple and quad that. Crazy! The funny thing was my folks didn't even know the brand they'd bought was so expensive here. We were super impressed and that was how it started. You see, before that, I didn't even think of going to Bandung. Didn't really understand what all the hype was about. So now we know....
Anyway, Mom didn't think it was a good idea to bring kids coz crossing the roads in Bandung was scary for her. "So much traffic," she said. Then again, Mom hates crossing any road. That's why we didn't bring Inez and Mika.

We left for Jakarta on 14 August 2008 on a 13:55 flight. It was a Thursday. It's like a 2 hour trip and I can't for life remember the time we got there. Zul made me wait at KFC while he changed some money for Rupiahs, basically for food and transportation. Apparently, it's cheaper to exchange over there. However, don't make our mistake of taking money directly from the ATM using your ATM card. We didn't have enough cash, we didn't see any money changers around, so ATM, it was. I think, you get charged some processing fees or commission on both sides: our bank and their bank. (This was in Bandung, at Pasar Baru. They don't accept cards at Pasar Baru - see pix below - it's the tall pink building).

Anyway, after he got some cash, he came to get me and we walked towards the taxi area, and he warned me not to act touristsy and even to not talk to him. What!? Apparently, he wanted us to look as unapproachable as possible. If we looked like tourists, cabbies would be all over us and it'd be difficult to shake them off. I was like, "How hard could it be? Just say 'No.'" So he actually challenged me to walk a yard or two with my bag so that I could prove my point. So, okay, it's true that the cabbies were like vultures but they didn't come in droves. Some can be persistent (like one cabbie at our hotel) but it was quite easy to say 'No'. Zul said that's because I wasn't trying to get a cab. (We already got ourselves a BLUE BIRD. Please remember this name coz apparently, this is the most trustworthy cab company to use. We have tried another company in Bandung but we got fleeced by Rp15 - 20K coz the driver told us his taxi meter was broken. So take BLUE BIRDs coz they charge according to taxi meters.) Here's how to recognise one. You can see the words BLUE BIRD GROUP on the windscreen as can be seen in the pix below:
There are BLUE BIRDs (that are not allowed to go outside the area, e.g Jakarta BLUE BIRDs aren't allowed to travel outside Jakarta coz that'd be like they'd be infringing on the other area BLUE BIRDs. Do correct me if I'm wrong.), SILVER BIRDs can travel anywhere and everywhere from town to town and BIG BIRDs are basically big blue vans. The BLUE BIRD is usually a Toyota Vios. Cool huh?So anyway, you can see that people who are in know will take BLUE BIRD coz people were queueing for BLUE BIRDs. From the airport, it was about an hour ride to the hotel. It's not near any shopping area, so you need to get a cab to go to Senayang Plaza. If you think KLCC and Pavillion is unaffordable. Just go to Senayang Mall and you'll see brands like Jimmy Choo, and Hermes, and Just Cavalli, just to name a few. We just went there for dinner there at its food court. Rp57K just for a plate of rice, a piece of meat, one fried sambal brinjal, a piece of fried tofu and a corn cucur. Perhaps it's because we bought the rice from Sari Ratu, which I heard is kinda pricey over in KL too. A soto is about Rp26K and I can't remember how much the kebab cost. We were famished in an expensive place.
Also, don't be surprised to see, is it army dudes or police guys, basically men in uniform checking out the cars for bombs. I was like Whoa, BOMBS! That's scary. I did try to take a picture of them doing a vehicle check but it didn't turn out so well. I think I'll stop here first and post more stuff later. There's just so much to write about.

Nearly a year old....

2008-08-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

I can't believe just how fast time flies. Next month Hana will be 1 year old. She barely looks her age. She's so tiny but people tell me as long as she's healthy, it's okay. That's the thing. She hasn't been healthy. My kids have been passing each other the flu bug, the cough bug, the fever bug, and what have you, it's crazy! We've been to the doctor's almost every week. Thank God, not this week. Finally, the kids are getting better and Hana was put on some appetite booster which works only when she takes it. Duh, of course! She's also on Appeton for infants. She went from 6.2kg to 6 kg to 5.8kg when she was sick. At that time Nuha, who's also staying with us was a whopping 8.5 kg. The last time we checked she's back to 6.2 kg. That was last week. Nuha also went up - to 9 kg. A friend told me to get one of the Enfa milk and she seems to like it. Sigh, what expensive taste my baby has. :)
Anyway, here's a pix of the two girls taken when we went out shopping yesterday. Hana doesn't look that tiny here though. She's just lighter.

Don't they just look adorable? They've just got up from a very short nap!

Creme Caramel

2008-06-11T08:11:00.000-07:00

Creme Caramel

In a mixing bowl, beat 6-7 eggs (depending on the size) with 3/4 cup sugar. Then add in 1 tin of evaporated milk (475 ml). In the empty tin, put in 1 tbsp custard powder to 3/4 tin of water. Pour custard mixture into the mixing bowl.

In a glass bowl, or whatever else you can use that's about 4 inch high and 10 inches in diameter, spoon in Lyle's golden syrup, enough to cover the surface of the bowl. If you don't have that, then you gotta make your own caramel. Just pour 1 cup sugar into a saucepan and stir till sugar dissolves and turns golden yellow. Quickly pour the caramel into the mould/ glass bowl before it sets. Then pour in very very slowly and gently the egg mixture over the caramel/ syrup. Steam for about 20 minutes or bake it if you prefer it that way.

More Photofun

2008-06-11T08:03:00.000-07:00

Here's how Inez and Hana's pix turned out.

Angkasawan? No, it's Angkasa2!

2008-06-11T07:03:00.000-07:00

Here's a pix that Mika can brag about, "I went to the moon last school hols!" Hahaha Of course nobody would believe him but what a cool pix it is.

Click here coz everyone can be an angkasawan now!

On a roll again!

2007-12-23T18:23:00.000-08:00

I cringe to see the date of my last post pre-Hana. May! Well, it was just too busy a time at work and home to blog and I was getting to point where all I wanted to do was rest, rest and rest. But that was the last thing I was doing.

I remember having classes to teach at night on top of my regular classes and preparing for a big event in August. I was always home late and hardly spent time with my kids coz they'd be sleeping or about to sleep. I was also away a lot. I had to do my induction, finally, no more postponing (that took up 12 hectic days of my life) and then I attended the AsiaTefl conference (3 days) and then it was my hubby's turn to be away. Being single mom wasn't easy but thank God for my parents and in my condition, they didn't allow me to stay home alone. Imagine, at my age, still staying with my parents! Only went back to my own house when hubby was around. Hubby also tried to clear as much of his workload so that he'd be around when the baby was born.

Anyway, I began taking leave from work during the semester break so that my parents could go for a well-deserved holiday before my baby was born. After the break, I worked a few more days to make sure that everything was nice and tidy for the person taking over my responsibilities. Only by early-mid September, I finally was getting some rest. Since it was also time the baby was soon due, I really didn't fancy driving about 45 minutes to 1 hour to work and another 45 minutes to 1 hour back from work on my own. What if my water broke? What if I suffered from cramps? Haha maybe those were just excuses, but the fears were real. But basically, I just wanted to REST! Also it was fasting month and I was fasting despite being heavily pregnant, which wasn't that bad actually because as I have mentioned before, I didn't have much of an appetite.

Because hubby was only back weekends, I prayed and prayed that the baby would be a weekend baby. Alas, the baby was not cooperating. On 17th night, my husband, after waiting and waiting for a sign, any sign that the baby was coming out, left for KL. The next morning, I had a show. I have never had a show before so my mom said she had a show once in the morning, and by evening, she had already given birth. I called my hubby, the poor man, to break the news but told him that he shouldn't hurry back coz mom said there was no hurry. She'd waited a good 12 hours before she felt any contractions. So I waited my good 12 hours and nothing. Hubby came home and come morning, we made our way to the clinic and was told that the passage was still closed. What! Baby's not coming out yet?! We went home.

After two days, my hubby said, I have to go back but what happened, just when he was about to leave. Another show and again, no contractions. Now the poor soul was in two minds: Go back or stay back? The next day, I began having mild contractions, but few and far in between. Then they got closer and closer, every 5 minutes, then 3 minutes apart. I was scared but excited. Finally, my baby was coming out. NOT! It was another false alarm. So upon the advice of people around me, after iftar we made our to the hospital for the second time. Again, no passage. The nurse was disbelieving that I had contractions. Hello! I know what I was feeling. And sure enough the CTG proved that I was having contractions but alas, it just wasn't time yet. So home again we went.

My hubby was like, "Hmm, nak kena rotan nie baby nie...so nakal", which means this baby seems to be asking for a caning. Hahaha Anyway, no way was I going back to the hospital with another false alarm and because Inez was late due to the cord round her neck, my mom was worried that it's history repeating itself. So we went to my monthly gynae for a scan. His is a 3D scan, so you can see if there's a cord round the baby's neck. Thank God, no cord round neck.

Anyway, I continued to have mild contractions but strangely enough they began to get further and further apart. From 3 minutes, it went to 5 minutes then 7 minutes then 20 minutes apart. I went to sleep feeling contraction but when mom called to wake us up for Sahur my contractions were strong and I had difficulty even standing up. I started timing them. They were 1 minute apart. Sometimes the contractions were mild and sometimes they were strong. Then only I woke my hubby up. I told him we had to go to the hospital. We didn't even sahur or anything, just left the two at my mom's and went directly to the hospital. Ada hati lagi nak sembahyang subuh but I couldn't even stand straight. They called the doctor, took me into the labour room. Doctor came in at 5:30 and 5:49 my little Hana was born. Oops, actually it's 6:49. Sorry folks for the typo error. I swear this was my most painful birth. With Mika the wait was slightly longer, I was induced, and a little high on that gas that I didn't really feel the pain but oh I felt everything with this birth. With Inez I was unconscious the whole time that when I came round, the first question I asked was "Is the baby out yet?" :)

Well the rest is history.

Mika's Number

2007-12-23T17:55:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, everyone came back for the hols, minus one, my hubby. So since I lived nearby I didn't put up at my parents. My kids though, didn't want to go home with me as Mimi and Naqib were there. Two mornings ago (Saturday), I told my mom that I'd be bringing over some nuggets for the kids. So to get them all into the shower, she enticed them with the nuggets I was bringing. Naqib overheard and started to say that he wanted nuggets which of course, weren't there yet. Naqib then asked Mika to give me a call. Mika said, "I cannot. I don't have my mommy's phone number but I got my own number. It's 882!" Hahahahahahahahaha!

Meet Baby Hana!

2007-12-02T21:24:00.000-08:00

This is Baby Hana Danialle (pronounced Daniyal). I know, it's a boy's name with a girly twist to its spelling; so that's why I guess I sort of feel compelled to mention how it's pronounced as there have been many variations in the pronunciation of Hana's name especially by nurses in the hospital and clinics we've been to.

Lemme see, we have had people calling her Hannah as in Hannah Montana. To be expected, of course. Some also pronounced Danialle like Danielle but the most unexpected was when I was paged by the payment counter for Ha-na Da-ni-yal-li! Haha serves us right!

Anyway, Hana was born 25 Sept 2007 very very early in the morning at 5:49 a.m. This is my heaviest baby yet at 3.29 kg (Inez was 2.53 and Mika 2.8) and the one with the most hair too. The weight and the hair sooooo totally surprised me as I had very poor appetite when carrying her (couldn't eat meat, or seafood but I loved salads and fruits and I developed a sweeth tooth) and I never had babies with a full top of hair before. I remember when we had 'potong jambul' for Inez, the ladies practically had to scratch my daughter's head for hair! That was really funny. :)

Mika and Inez are very happy with the baby, being near her and touching her and having her fingers grip on their finger and have even come up with an assortment of nicknames for her. It usually starts with, "Why don't we call her Cookie coz she's so sweet?" :) Or when she pukes, they'd want to call her Pukey and Pookey and since for the Malays, the latter is a taboo word (kinda like why the Americans don't pronounce 'can't' the way the British do), I say it's a no-no, don't ever call Hana that. And when she poops, they call her Poopy or Stinky or Stinkypoo.

Then one day, Inez started calling Hana 'Lulu'.

"Oh Hana, you're so cute, let's call you Lulu." I'm not too happy with that either coz if you watch those Hong Kong serials or movies, sometimes, you hear the characters say, "Hey, don't treat me like I'm a Lulu!" and that means don't treat me like a bimbo or idiot or simpleton, if I am not mistaken. Anyway, Lulu is now expanded to 'Hanalulu'. Working Mom says that's great since her daughter gets called Aloha (a combo of Nuha Alisha). Who would've thought the two girls' nicknames have a Hawaiian theme! :)

My hubby on the other hand loves to tease my older two, who'd say something like "Can we touch Baby Hana?" The answer would be, "No, but you can touch baby Danny." Then Mika would go, "No! Danny is a boy's name. Hana is a girl!" all exasperated with his daddy.

Sometimes I have to get away from them so that Hana can sleep in peace, if not those two would be hovering over her...but all her awake moments, I try to include them in. Inez brings new clean diapers while Mika disposes of the soiled ones. It's great that they love their new baby sister and is not jealous of her. Mika wanted his Atuk to get a soft toy the other day, for baby Hana. I think that's just sweet.

Tried and Tested Cheesecake Recipe

2007-05-29T23:07:00.000-07:00

First of all, sorry no pix.

Here are the ingredients:
Biscuit base:
1 cup crushed Marie biscuits (that's about 12-13 pieces) OR you can use digestive biscuits and reduce the sugar
1/3 to 1/2 cup melted butter
1 tbsp brown sugar

250 gm x 2 Philadelphia Cream Cheese + 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 container plain yogurt (150 ml)
1 tbsp lemon juice

For the base, crush 12 to 13 pieces of Marie biscuits, they don't have to be very fine. Then add melted butter and 1 tbsp brown sugar to the biscuit crumbs. Mix well, then press evenly in a 7 in" cake tin with a fork.Then, cream the cream cheese with 1/2 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the egg one by one, then the yogurt and lastly the lemon juice. Pour onto biscuit base and put into a preheated oven at 180 deg C for 45 minutes. Then cover with foil paper and bake for another 15 to 30 minutes.

Try it. It's my hubby's fave cheesecake.

How much have YOU changed?

2007-05-10T21:51:00.001-07:00

You've Changed 48% in 10 Years

You've done a good job changing with the times, but deep down, you're still the same person.
You're clothes, job, and friends may have changed some - but it hasn't changed you.

How Much Have You Changed in 10 Years?

I don't know about you but I don't think I've changed much. I still have the same warped sense of humour, like a lot of the same things I liked 10 years ago. But you know, whatever I say I may like, my hubby will go, "Everything is your favorite. You like everything."

My hubby share my liking for cheesecake and jam tarts. While I like cheesecake and jam tarts and can only eat so much of them, my hubby eats cheesecake and jam tarts like they are the only two things in the world that he likes. Then I realise that whatever I like, my hubby takes that liking to greater heights. No wonder he thinks I don't have any favourite whatever.

Anyway, how much have YOU changed?

Tagged Again!

2007-05-10T02:56:00.000-07:00

Sometimes this tagging thing is a good thing as it gives one an opportunity to start writing again. Guess I hafta thank Flowerin. :)
Since I left blogging for some time and will do again this coming weekend (Ugghh…induction course! 2 weeks long!), I have been lazy to blog. In fact, today is the first day after ages since I’ve started lurking again, only coz I am feeling too lazy to be productive at work. So let’s get this tagging thing done. Here goes:-

Layer One: On the Outside
Name: Jujuqtpie. I’ve always been called juju at home and my youngest sister whose name also begins with a ju is called jue. I know, what a huge difference! Haha Jujuqtpie is actually my syoksendiri email address. I supposed I thought it would be easy for anybody to remember such a perasan or vain email add. But I’ve learnt that there have been many variations to how it's pronounced. I’ve always thought that it’s obvious that it should read juju cutie pie rather than jujuq tee pee or tongue in cheek: juju ke tepi (which literally translates juju to the side, y’know like Beyonce’s to the left, to the left in Irreplacable)
Birthdate: 24 Oct 1974 Haha I honestly didn’t feel old until I got pregnant this third time!
Current status: I am happily married with a girl and a boy. Doctor sez this next one could be a girl.
Eye color: Dark brown
Hair Color: Black.
Righty or Lefty: Most definitely a Righty

Layer Two: On the Inside
My heritage: I’m all mixed. Grandma on dad’s side was supposedly of Siamese blood while grandad had some Arab blood but for most part, my dad’s Malay. Mom’s Chinese but I can only understand a smattering of Cantonese and speak even less than a smattering coz I am sooooo out of practice. It’s kinda embarrassing to speak poor Cantonese to a nearly deaf grandma in my loudest voice. Mom said we were not interested in learning. Apparently my kids are like that too. Maybe my mom’s not pushy enough.
My fears: I guess standard fears like chronic and fatal diseases, death in the family, unfaithful hubby, horrendous bratty kids, etc.
My Weaknesses: I am not organised and I have a poor sense of direction. Working on it though.
My perfect pizza: Yum! Yum! Canadian pizza esp. with the super deluxe all cheese topping! Yum! Yum!

Layer Three: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
My thoughts first thing when I wake up: Omigod! What time is it?
My bedtime:When I am sleepy, I sleep. No fixed time.
My most missed memory: Weird that it’s ramadhan during my final year in IIU. It was great to berbuka and bersahur with friends!

Layer Four: My picks
Pepsi or Coke: Can I choose Root Beer?
Mc Donald's or Burger King: Big Mac and Whopper – I like all the big huge burgers!
Single or Group Dates: Dunno. Single. Never really been on group dates.
Adidas or Nike: Whichever, depends on design and price.
Tea or Nestea: Definitely tea – fave tea is Earl grey and Chinese tea. Love tea with creamer too.
Chocolate or Vanilla: Chocolate
Cappucino or Coffee: Not really a coffee drinker but I guess cappucino or can I say mocha too?

Layer Five: Do I
Smoke: Can live without! The other day, saw a dude in a Mercedes throw out his empty cigarette box out his car window. I remember thinking smokers aren't only a bunch of inconsiderate people, they're litterbugs too! Apologies to smokers who aren't but hey, you've got to know it's bad for the health. Think of yourself, family and friends and what you're exposing them too.
Curse: Sometimes esp. when extremely annoyed or angry though I’ve toned down a lot. Learnt the best of Chinese expletives and curses from my uncle!
Take a shower: Yes!
Have a crush: Those were the days…
Think I've Been In love: Still am with my hubby!
Go to school: in the capacity of an educator, yes.
Want to get married: Haha have gone beyond that.
Believe in myself: Depends.
Think I'm a health freak: Not me.

Layer Six: In the past month
Drank alcohol: No.
Gone to the mall: Who hasn’t?
Been on stage: Yes…isn’t life a stage?
Eaten Sushi: Urrghh, I wish I could. I miss sushi.
Dyed your hair: Never! Permed once with disastrous results, dun think God meant me to have hair colour other than black or later grey!

Layer Seven: Have I ever
Played a stripping game: No...but that’s an idea! Haha
Changed who I am to fit in: No. Too much work.

Layer Eight: Age
I am hoping to be married: Done that.

Layer Nine: What was I doing
1 min ago: Doing this tag.
1 hour ago: Having lunch.
4.5 hours ago: Was in Jengka.
1 month ago: Do I even remember?
1 year ago: You think?

Layer Ten: Finish The Sentence
I love: my family!
I feel: so sleepy at the moment. Woke up at 5 a.m. this morning.
I hate: smokers and inconsiderate drivers.
I hide:can’t think anymore…My brain’s gone to sleep ahead of me.
I need: to sleep! and NOW!

Layer Eleven: Tag 5 people
Please tag yourself and inform me so I can go read. Maybe jaylina? Wanna try? Mott? Mae? If you haven’t done this yet? Try laaaaaa

Tagged!

2007-03-27T02:56:00.000-07:00

Am I Weird?
The rule of this tagging game is this:People who are tagged should write a blog post of six weird things about them as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose six people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says 'you are tagged' in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

When I first looked at what I was supposed to blog about – my weirdness, the first thought was, “I’m not weird! I’m very normal.” Then, I began questioning myself if I was weird. After much thought, I figured that at this moment, I am considered a lil’ weird, especially by my office roomie, coz I can’t stand having the aircond on. I have resorted to wearing a T-shirt underneath whatever I have on, and still I feel cold. Sometimes, I wear a jacket over what I already have on, and still I feel cold. Poor girl has to tolerate having no air conditioning when I am around. Then, one weirdness after another comes to mind. Hahaha, I guess I am quite weird after all.
So, am I weird? I guess I have revised my answer to “Yes, I AM weird.” Here are the reasons why:

No. 1: Ever since the 6th week of my pregnancy, I have been feeling cold, shivering cold, especially at home though nowadays, at home, I’m okay. It’s at the office that I’m cold nowadays, and I get very bad headaches, like there’s a timebomb ticking in my head. Every time people who come into my office say it’s roasting hot in the office, I beg to differ. So yeah, at the moment, people at the office think I’m awfully weird.
Psst: I have a confession though, even before my pregnancy, I could live without the air-cond on, but I don’t mind if it’s turned on. Nowadays, I can’t have it on at all.

No.2: I can’t swallow capsules and pills. I remember when I was young, my dad tried to get me to eat my medicine the adult way, and when I couldn’t after some attempts, he asked me to put the pill in a banana. I must have refused coz I remember my dad chasing me round the dining table with the banana in one hand and the ubat in the other. I don’t remember eating it with the banana, so I guess I must have tired him out. Anyway, now I have this capability to withstand the bitter taste of Panadol, and many pills like it. If I have to take capsules, I’d empty them out onto a spoon. Actually I have successfully swallowed pills and capsules by accident at one time or another, but after that, I always feel like vomitting coz I can feel the medicine stuck in my throat. So, in order to not feel that, I always bite on the pills until they’re really tiny before I swallow them. I have a tip though, for anyone out there like me, do swallow your chewed up tablet with cold lemonade or the like because the medication doesn’t melt as easily as it would in a hot drink and you’d have to taste more of the medicine, which is not really that pleasant.

No.3: I like songs by Barry Manilow, Johnny Mathis, and John Denver especially Annie’s Song. Even when I tell people I listen to Josh Groban, they’ll go, “Why?” Hahaha, people say I’ve got a weird taste in music but I think I’m eclectic. Is that another word for weird? But really, my parents’ taste in music influenced us a lot. I say ‘us’ coz it’s not just me, even my siblings. We listen to the Beatles, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Johnny Tillotson, The Stylistics, The Beach Boys, Helen Reddy, Boney M, Andy Williams, I can go on. At the same time, we are also very contemporary. So I guess yeah, music wise, some people would say I am weird.

No. 4: Hmm…3 more to go. Suddenly, I have ceased to be weird coz I can’t think of anything else. Okay, is this weird? People look at me and think I am an extrovert. But to be honest, I am really quite shy. My face though, I suppose, is approachable, so people, I guess, find it easy to talk to me. So usually, when I travel on buses, some people do tell me their life stories and problems. Maybe it’s because we are strangers and aren’t most likely to meet again, I dunno.
No. 5: Some time back, I noticed my daughter telling stories she’d made up herself with rather morbid endings. For the life of me, I couldn’t imagine why her stories were dark and morbid, until one day, I somehow heard myself talking to her. E.g.: When she wouldn’t sit down in the car, I told her that if I would so happen to brake in emergency, she would fly out of the car through the windscreen, and the car would run over her and I’d lose my baby girl. That was the worst case scenario, and if by some miracle, she survived, and was injured, I asked her if she could imagine what her life would be if she was blind or crippled, etc. That is why she needs to sit down with her back pressed against the back of the seat and wear her safety belt so that she could be safe as Dora and Boots would say. Am I a weirdo mommy?

No. 6: Last but not least, I am this close to giving up here coz I can’t think of anything else already. I don’t think I am weird but I’ve done some weird things coz sometimes I do things without thinking. It’s a flaw; and it’s one that I try to curb. The last time I did something stupid was a long time ago, and at that time, Inez was but a mere babe. We went out for dinner with my parents and siblings at this Merdeka Station, like some open air food court. I remember we sat next to a table where two guys who’d just finished their meal started to smoke. I never liked the smell of cigarette smoke and was pushing the smoke away with my hands. As if the two dungus understand laa! I was so irritated by the fact that they were smoking in the presence of family and children.So when I picked up this tiny piece of ice chip on the table and without thinking, threw it at the nearby table, I didn’t expect to hit a target but it did.
The two guys looked at our table; and my hubby who knew no head and no tail looked back at them. I don’t remember if words were exchanged but I remember my hubby asking me if I did anything to them. I said, “Yep, I threw a tiny and insignificant piece of ice, and I think it hit one of them enough for him to feel the cold of the ice.” My hubby said, “If you’re gonna do something like that, tell me first so I can defend you.” Aah, my hero laa konon. I said, “I didn’t plan it, it was spur of the moment.” I am not proud of it but I guess annoyance got the better of me. I really can’t stand cigarette smoke and if people really need to smoke, the government should prepare a room free of ventilation so that smokers can smoke themselves and exhale and inhale their own smoke. Good idea or not?

That’s it. I dunno if there are 6 people I know that haven’t been tagged. Can I have volunteers? It’s not that hard but it involves some serious soul searching.

Just to say....

2007-03-19T01:47:00.000-07:00

This is especially dedicated to all who are concerned that I haven't been blogging (though I might be kidding myself here), this post just wants to say...

1) HI!

2) I miss blogging (so many things to write about) but I am so busy.

3) I just got back from a week long theatre workshop in Sunway University College (which was so totally cool, and we performed by the way) and was cut off from internet civilisation during that time.

4) I am okay (though I have totally lost my appetite for all food even Sushi, and chicken and prawns, nearly everything, and have turned occassional vegetarian coz strangely enough, I can eat burgers, and so far I've only vomitted 3 times due to food, but have got some rashes here and there which is normal for me coz my 1st and 2nd pregnancy were like that too, and tiny spots on the face, feel so un-pretty), and baby seems fine too.

5) I will do the TAG thing soon, I promise, Halwafy.

6) My hubby's in a cast, or rather his elbow is, coz he fractured it. That's FYI, Rin.

7) I want to thank everyone who congratulated me on my pregnancy and whoever who commented in the blog, and I haven't had the time to reply. Sorry.

Will blog soon once I am less busy, which is soon, I hope.

Did I say pencil marks? They are PEN MARKS!

2007-02-21T19:47:00.000-08:00

(Top: That's what Mika's masterpiece resembles and the lines are about 3 ft high and covers the length of my wall about 6 ft wide)

Last night I received a message from a friend who so happened to read my blog. Apparently she too had the same problem with pencil marks on the wall. However, her problem was solved with a little Axion and a rag. Happy, I got out my Axion and rag only to realise that the pencil marks weren't coming off because they weren't pencil marks but PEN MARKS! Oh how short-sighted could I be? I definitely have to get a new can of paint now and repaint that wall. Argh! No wonder the kids couldn't erase the lines at all.

I did a yahoo search and this is what I got:
From http://www.boston.com/globe/search/realestate/hotton/stains.htm

Q. How can I get ballpoint pen marks off a painted wall? REBECCA LEONG, Newton A. Rubbing alcohol is the cleaner most used for such marks. Others are acetone, Stain-X Carpet stain remover, sold in grocery stores; Ink-No-Mor, toothpaste, Vaseline and dry Brillo pads. With all these cleaners, try them on an obscure area to make sure they don't stain, rub off or affect the paint in any way.

I went to other sites but alas, no luck.

How do you get rid of pencil marks on the wall?

2007-02-21T00:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, my hubby made a startling discovery. We found 'senseless' (coz the letters made no sense) grafiti on the wall between the master bedroom and the children's room all written in pencil. It was Mika though he didn't say it. He kept quiet instead.

I made the kids erase the writing as well, with erasers, but the lines won't come off. I tried water and soap but it was a futile effort. I used some heavy duty detergent by Sanden Brook but the paint sorta came off along with some of the pencil marks. I mean the pencil marks just got slightly lighter because paint was coming off as well, so that's too strong.

I've given up but if anyone hs the solution, do share. I might have to repaint the wall. I would like to avoid doing that coz the paint alone cost RM30 and I'm just gonna use a little.

Although the pencil marks didn't come off, still made the boy especially, rub the lines so that he won't do it again. He promised not to anymore but I'm not too sure if he'll keep his promise.

Second Opinion

2007-02-20T19:22:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday last week, finally had time to go for a second opinion. I was actually the last visitor. Clinic closes at 6 p.m. I arrived at a quarter to. Had decided to wait at least a few days just in case there might be something wrong with the pregnancy. I mean if there's no change in the baby's size, then it's confirmed that the first doctor was right. Let me first say that I have never been to this doctor before, but he's recommended by the specialist I take my kids to. Apparently, all this while, there's an Obgyn specialist right next door and I never realised. I kid you not, that's how astute my powers of observation are. :) It just so happened that Inez had the beginnings of Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) the day before and had a bad rash and case of itchiness, more frequent trips to the toilet and as the night wore on, she even cried that peeing was painful. So, the next day, Tuesday, I went in a little late to take her to the doctor's who opens at 8:30 a.m. I did wonder if it could be some insect's bite but the doctor said that the redness would be on one side rather than on both. He stated two possibilities which were either a bacterial infection or a fungal infection. To recognise a fungal infection, there usually are tiny white spots and since he couldn't see any, he thinks it's the first. With some difficulty we finally managed to get Inez to pee in a plastic bottle for a urine test. The test results would come back in the evening and thankfully, it was negative. The white blood count in the urine is less than 10, so it hasn't gotten into her system yet. Thank God! Anyway, after the doctor has settled Inez, I voiced my worries about the hormone pills to him, and he suggested I go next door. But ordinarily, he said, doctors don't usually prescribe hormone pills as they can function as oral contraception. Since Inez was kinda late for F. Ain class, I decided to go next door in the evening. I got my mom to accompany me since my hubby had to work late. At first, I thought of not telling the doctor yet that this was actually my second trip to the doctor's. I wanted to see what he had to say. But Mom, being a mom, went directly to the heart of the matter and told all. The obgyn said that there's no indicator why I should be given hormone pills as I was not bleeding or spotting and I had not had a miscarriage before. And when he did a scan, guess what? The baby isn't undersized at all. And I found a magazine all about pregnancy that says that the size of 7 week old baby is about 1.8 cm. If only I found that magazine sooner. Then I would have known that the doctor didn't really know what he was talking about coz the first scan already showed 19mm.

Anyway, it had a heart already too! It's just soooo amazing to see the tiny heart beating. I was so relieved that there was nothing wrong with my pregnancy and somewhat angry with the first doctor for making me go through all that worry for nothing! So the dates coincide now and I'm due early October.

And the best part is the specialist charged cheaper by RM2! And I got free samples of Anmum and Enfamama too. Though I have to say, Anmum tastes better, especially the chocolate flavoured one. When I was pregnant with Inez and Mika, I used to put a spoonful of honey to help the milk go down better.

Anyway, thanks to the second opinion, I was able to celebrate the CNY with a peace of mind. But that's another story for another day. CNY was kinda tiring though I didn't do much. I guess I wasn't cut out for it and was napping everywhere I went. Hahaha. Shops were on sale and I had no interest to shop. All I wanted was to lie down and rest. That's what I wanna do now. LOL

Follow Up on Hormone Pills Updated

2007-02-11T23:59:00.000-08:00

According to my sis, who spoke to her lecturer. That doctor had no business prescribing hormone pills because I wasn't spotting or bleeding. She asked me to call the guy up and yell at him, "Are you trying to kill my baby?"

Even if the baby is undersized, it's better to let that baby be as long as it's growing and healthy, which btw, we don't know yet until next week. I don't know. For other people's sake, I hope this is an isolated case. I really dunno if the doctor knows something I don't. Maybe he saw something in the scan, or maybe he's just plain incompetent. I don't know; all I know is that if he did, he should have said something and since I wasn't too impressed by him, I am going for a second opinion and see from there if I do have to continue with Turinal, that's the name of the pills, btw.

Still praying for the best.....

The Discovery

2007-02-11T23:46:00.000-08:00

I know I am going backwards, but it's okay, right?

I actually found out that I was pregnant at the end of January.
And it was actually the third test since I missed my period. All because I felt different. Some parts of me felt tender and swollen and sometimes there was this miraculous feeling that like there’s life growing in my womb.

Just the day before, when I didn’t have time to eat breakfast, by the time I got to work, I was shivering. Although my skirt wasn’t tight, I felt like getting it off me.

Two lines! Omigod, I am pregnant! In a way, I am happy about it. Broke news to Zul. Made sure he was fully awake when I broke the news to him. Didn’t want him to think that he dreamt it all. Zul smiled. He seemed pleased with the news. Oh, apparently, he thinks he’s figured out when the baby was conceived. LOL Crazy man!

Called for a family meeting. Kids were watching TV already at 6:50 a.m. Interrupted their TV with the breaking news. Inez! Mika! Mummy want to tell you that Mummy’s got a baby in here. Mummy can’t carry you anymore and you can’t sit on Mummy’s tummy anymore. From my hubby’s tummy, Mika said, “That’s okay, Mummy. Daddy’s strong.”
“Mm, so understanding,” I thought.
“So Inez do you want a baby girl or baby boy?”
“Inez wants a baby girl.”
And Mika?
Mika wants a boy.
But what if this is a boy Inez. Is it okay?
Inez nodded.
And what if it’s a girl Mika, are you going to be okay? Will you be a good big brother and teach her how to play ball?
Yes.
Good, coz we don’t know yet whether it’ll be a boy or girl.
“We’re gonna have to save money, coz it’s going to be expensive getting a new baby.
“Mommy, we have a piggy bank. How about we give that money for Baby?”
That was so thoughtful of my kids.
Then called my mom who went, "Well, if not now, you’d be too old by then. Now’s the best age." That’s true, not that I like to be reminded of age catching up.
Then informed my youngest sis and WM. Told my officemates. Didn’t want to jinx this pregnancy, so am hoping for the best.
I always wish that my kandungan will be great khalifah on earth.
Amin.

Hormone Pills?

2007-02-11T22:26:00.000-08:00

Finally went to see the doctor on Saturday. Although I would have preferred a lady doctor, I didn't feel like coming back in the afternoon just to do that. I had after all been procrastinating enough as it was. So I waited for my turn and after half an hour, my turn came. I have to say that I'm not too happy with this doctor.

In all my experience being pregnant, I have only 1 horrible experience with 1st checkup and that was when I was pregnant with Inez. THis clinic was recommended and though the recommended doctor was not in, I agreed to see his colleague. When asked, I replied that I thought I was pregnant. She did a scan but couldn't find anything. So she asked me if I was certain. I said that I was. I did the home kit and it was positive. So she asked me to do another urine test and sure enough, the test result showed positive for pregnancy but the doctor said that the lines didn't seem to be too clear. She asked me if I wanted her to check if the baby was growing outside my womb! Nut case! Just because she wasn't efficient enough to see anything, and it would have been too early anyway, she made me worry unnecessarily that I might have complications! Needless to say, I never went back there and her esteemed colleague continued to deliver many of my friends' babies.

My recent visit to the doctor has got me worried all over again. And I am not too sure if this is unnecessary worry or not. When I went to get my meds, I didn't realise I was getting more than folic acid. Turned out I also had to take some other pills just labelled hormones. Let's reenact the whole thing.

Once we got the preliminary questions out of the way like why I was there, when my last period was, he concluded that I was about 8 weeks and he too jumped at the opportunity to do a scan. The nurse prepared me and the size of the baby now was about 19mm, and that, according to him, was the size of a 5 week old embryo (is that the right term?). So according to him, that's quite a huge difference. So I am supposed to come back in a week's time to do another scan to see if the size of the baby has increased or not and if it hasn't, it means that the baby's growth is stunted and he'd have to do D&C. Sounds painful already. So of course, my hubby was already asking why this would happen, coz I have been travelling and had just returned from Damai Laut the night before for a conference. I signed up for that before I knew I was pregnant and went on that long arduous journey by car! My hubby was like why can't you get a flight? I said it's too late to ask for one now unless you don't mind paying your own. I minded coz I sorta didn't want to go alone by myself. My friend btw, drove very carefully, and thoughtfully.

Sidetracked again! Anyway, doctor said no nothing to do with travelling. If it happened, usually it's because of the genetic make-up and stuff, basically like a plant that grows halfway and stops. So, should we be worried? He said no, because 8 wks' just like a tentative date or something and we should go back and scan and see if the baby's size increased or not. Then he asked me about my morning sickness. Have I started vomitting? I said no. Have I bled? Nope. Strong or not my feelings of morning sickness? I said it's hard for me to say because even with my first two pregnancy, that didn't come so early. With Inez, I only started getting nausea and vomitting after four months. Then the vomitting came at all times of the day. It wasn't morning sickness, it was just sickness, full stop. I didn't have appetite and I fasted without any problems.

With Mika, I've always said that Allah is so great that I was very strong when I was pregnant with Mika because I was travelling every week to KL and back for my studies. Although I had a poor appetite, I didn't vomit except for toothpaste induced vomiting early in the morning and at night.

Before I could explain all that, he waived off my explanations and asked me, "this pregnancy, how is it?" I said, well, I feel woozy all the time and tired, and I am turned off certain food now and I have poor appetite but have to to eat all the time. If not, rasa angin, gitu."

So he said, as long as that feeling is strong then the baby should be okay. I was telling my youngest sister and she went, "What's the logic in that? Does it mean that people with no morning sickness have weak babies? And there are cases where the morning sickness is so bad that the child is aborted."

So with that, we left the clinic, and when it was time to eat medication, I discovered I had hormone pills as well. On the first day, I took the prescribed pills but on the second day, I began questioning their existence. I have never been given hormone pills before. Usually, it's always been folic acid and folic acid alone. Is there something that the doctor isn't telling me? Is this doctor a quack?

Anyway, I tried to call the clinic back, but the doctor wasn't in. The nurse checked my records and the first question she asked me was if I was bleeding. I said no. Anyway, the hormone pills are supposedly to strengthen one's womb, but I consulted another doctor for a second opinion and she said that recent studies have shown that prescribing hormone pills does not prevent the inevitable from happening. The hormone pills he gave me was a generic one, whatever that means, but are supposedly harmless. According to my youngest sister, if I were given estrogen, estrogen would have caused uterine contraction and miscarriage. Normally, one doesn't prescribe hormone pills to pregnant ladies, coz they've got a lot of those already! So now I have a choice whether I want to eat the pills or not. I don't think so. If it's not meant to be, then, it isn't. All I can do now is pray for the best and that my baby is growing at normal pace, In`sya Allah!

To read more on the stages of human development, you can read here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stages_of_human_development

Welcome to the Year of the Pig (Part II)

2007-02-06T20:09:00.000-08:00

I recall watching Sagwa on Playhouse Disney one night and Sagwa's grandma was telling a story about how the Chinese calendar got its order. I must have watched it with my head backwards because for the life of me, I thought the pig was the first to arrive at the finish line. I remember feeling amazed that it was the pig that came in first, who would have thought? Then again, my memory could be faulty. I probably wasn't giving my full attention and somehow from that moment on thought that it was the pig that came in first. So I told my Mom, and she was like, "You must have remembered it wrongly. The first would be the rat. And the reason why there are no cats is because the rat tricked the cat." Oh, if you want to read more on the folk tale of how the Chinese calendar got its order, and the characteristics of each animal, go to: http://www.animeyume.com/fruits_basket/fbzodiac.html

Here's the folk tale from the website above:
Anyone who's seen Fruits Basket knows that the poor cat is not a "true" member of the zodiac. The reason for this goes back to an old Chinese folk tale in which the animals were assigned to the cycle of years. A long long time ago, the Lord Buddha summoned all the animals together to determine their order in the yearly cycle. When the Cat heard the news, he let his friend the Rat know about it and the two animals decided to go together the next day. However, the next day the Rat did not wake the Cat who, being a cat and loving to nap, slept through the morning. Therefore, the Cat did not make it to the assembly on time and did not get a year. This is why there is no year of the Cat and this is also why cats hate rats.
The Rat, on the other hand, made it there first and received the first year. He did not achieve this without trickery either. He knew that a small animal like him would not be able to compete with the others, so he begged the Ox to let him ride on its head. The Ox consented and they went together. Just when they were about to arrive, the Rat jumped off the Ox's head and got through the finish line first. This is why the year of the Rat is the first year in the cycle, and the year of the Ox is the second. The Boar, being lazy, came in last.

Ha!ha!ha! The story above jogged my memory a little, and now I am quite certain that my memory is faulty! The reason why I am talking so much about the year of the pig is that drum roll, please! I am PREGNANT with my third child! Mom says that loads of people want to get babies in the year of the pig coz it's supposedly lucky. Have to do some research on how much luck we're talking about here. I hate to announce my pregnancy so early but now I understand why I have been soooooo tired and why my appetite has been soooooooo erratic and sooooo weird and why I can feel every aching muscle in my aching body. Lately, I have been getting all woozy and if I miss breakfast, my world starts to spin. BTW, that's why I have sleeping so much too!

All this while, boley laa perasan awet muda but I tell you, once you get pregnant at this age, you dun feel awet muda anymore. I feel like a 75 year old. Maybe I should ween off my 3 inch heels but that means I have to go shoe-shopping first. Thre's no Modern Mom here, so that means, some time soon, I have to go to KL. Oh I swear I can't wait to slip into Modern Mom sandals. I hope they have improved the look of the sandals so I won't look so ah Poh like that.

Anyway, I'm not the only one pregnant this year of the piggie but my sis-in-law, her cousin, my friend. Here is what the same site above says about boars:

People born in the Year of the Boar are chivalrous, noble, and gallant. Whatever they do, they do with all their strength. For Boar Year people, there is no left or right and there is no retreat. They have tremendous fortitude and great honesty. They don't make many friends but they make them for life, and anyone having a Boar Year friend is fortunate, for they are extremely loyal. They don't talk much but have a great thirst for knowledge. They study a great deal and are generally well informed. Boar people are quick tempered, yet they hate arguments and quarreling. Also, they are kind to their loved ones. No matter how bad problems seem to be, Boar people try to work them out honestly, if sometimes, impulsively. They are most compatible with Rabbits and Sheep. Their opposite is the Snake.
If were born in the Year of the Boar, your Fruits Basket character is: Kagura!

Despite having all those nasty sayings like" fat like a pig, lazy like a pig", I must say I like what it says about Boar characters. And guess what? My dad is a boar too!

On another note, I don't have a clue what Fruit Basket means or refers to. :)

School Stories Again

2007-02-06T20:07:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I found out that I was misinformed by Mika. Apparently I had put too much faith in what Mikael said. I found out that the kids’ kindy doesn’t combine classes when they have computer lessons because although Mika has had his turn at the computer, Inez had yet to have hers. So on the way to school, Inez was saying how she hadn’t been for computer lessons and accused school of “cheating” her of her money. Wah wah wah! My mom was tickled that my daughter could accuse school of cheating her money. It turned out that school didn’t cheat her money after all as yesterday was Inez’s first computer class. She showed me her workbook and solemnly informed me that though there were many pretty stickers in the book, she could only peel them off upon their teacher’s instructions. Mom worked out that Inez’s computer lessons would be on Tuesdays, and Mika’s would be on Wednesdays.

My mom also had some time to enquire about Mika. The Malay teacher volunteered information that Mika is usually the last to finish his classwork although he holds his pencil very well. Apparently, Mika is playful.

Last month, I got Inez’s Art Class teacher to give Mika a tryout. When I came to collect my kids, the teacher was slowly shaking her head. She said Mika is bad at following directions and he daydreams a lot. Hmmm.

Mom noticed how Mika said his goodbyes yesterday. He called out to Jungle Boy whose name is actually Daniel, “Bye bye Gang Gang!” (same pronunciation as Gung ho) and Daniel called back to him, “Bye bye Gang Gang!” Oh dear! I wonder if Daniel brings that word home and experiments with it with his own family. What must his family be thinking? What on earth does Gang Gang mean?
Seriously, don’t look at me. I don’t have the answer either though I have been trying to get its meaning for ages. I know that it can sometimes mean ‘Eat’. But that’s all.

Shopping List

2007-02-06T19:47:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon, I received a phone call from my mom, picked it up to hear Inez’s voice, “Hello Mommy!”
“Yes, hello Inez.”
“Mommy! Nana says we are out of milk powder. Also Inez want nugget and meatball.”
In the background I could hear my mom asking Mika what he wanted from the shop.
Mika’s immediate response was, “CAR! MIKA WANTS CAR!”
“Not car! Food! What food did you say you wanted Mommy to get?”
“Mika wants mee.”Lately Mika has taken a liking to those longevity noodles cooked in oyster and soy sauce with chicken meatballs. Inez too but biasalaa, Mika will eat more of it.

Honestly, this is much cheaper than going out with either one or both of them. Usually Mika and I will go window shopping if I don't have anything to do on Saturdays while Inez goes for her art classes. Mika will go, "Mika is thirsty! Can Mika have chocolate milk, Mommy? Please..." Those were the days when a box of chocolate costs 80 sen. Now one costs RM1.60. Crazy! Then he's hungry, then he'll ask for Mexico buns, or Happy Meals. Then when we pass by a toy shop, he'll go, "Can Mika look at Mika's things?" Oh joy! But I allowed it lah. Thankfully, he didn't mind when I told him that we couldn't afford any of the racing cars or helicopters there. :)

Welcome to the Year of the Pig a.k.a Boar

2007-02-05T20:52:00.000-08:00

Some days back, a friend asked me what chinese year would it be this year? I said I am not sure. She said it was very strange that there was no picture of any animal representing the coming year. So she's guessing it must be the year of the pig. So we asked my mom, who gave it a little thought, and confirmed that yea, most certainly this year is the year of the piggy!

(Read up more here: http://www.usbridalguide.com/special/chinesehoroscopes/Pig.htm)

"A-hah! No wonder! I guessed correctly after all," said my friend.

It's interesting, isn't it? That when it's the year of the pig, there is no sign nor sight of the pig. I know it's supposed to be haram for Muslims to consume or touch a pig but to have no pictures! To not know what is a pig! To not recognize a pig when you see one and touch one thinking that it's not one! That's depriving people too!

Here's a story my cousin who operates a pet shop told me:

One day a boy runs into the shop excitedly and exclaims to his dad, "Aboh! Aboh! Tengok, Aboh! Babi!" which translates "Dad! Dad! Look, Dad! Pig!"

Dad slaps one hand on the back of his son's head saying, "Itu bukan babi!" which translate, "That's not a pig!"

"Habis tu?" or "Then, what is it?" the boy asks.

The father looked at the raccoon and said, "Itu musang!"

At that time I found it amusing that the guy didn't know his musang from his babi, then, it occurred to me that the Malay word for raccoon could be musang. Is it? Seems unlikely but who knows....

All this while, a musang to me is a fox and a serigala is a wolf. Am I mistaken? I have been told by a friend that a raccoon is a jebon. Where do all these names come from? But it was reported some months back in the papers that a village in Perak, if I am not mistaken, thought they found a new species of animal which turned out to be a mongoose! HA!HA!HA! For those of you who don't know what a mongoose looks like, do watch Casino Royale `cause there's a mongoose fight scene somewhere at the beginning of the movie.

I am going somewhere with this but I am afraid there's gonna be a Part 2. Soon, I promise, soon.

No angry Mommies and Daddies allowed

2007-02-05T01:50:00.000-08:00

This recent weekend, I was so woozy, I spent my time sleeping a lot, and my hubby let me sleep and did the vacuuming one time, two times, three times until he got so tired of vacuuming coz Mika kept dropping biscuit, then cake crumbs everywhere. When I was better, I vacuumed too coz hubby hated the vacuum on sight now and Mika was only allowed to eat under parental supervision. And because he did the vacuuming and cleaning, the children were allowed to mess up only their room. Should a toy end up anywhere outside their room, the toy would need tobe cleared up immediately; and Mika again, would be the usual culprit. Inez on the other hand would turn the channel the moment her father's back was turned despite already misused her TV time. She left her channel running and did God knows what but couldn't stand for the TV to be on other than Playhouse Disney.
So by nightfall, her father was very strict. And I, though quite sympathetic, had to reinforce whatever my hubby's decision was. You know, united front and all that provided that it's deserving and justified.
Then Inez came out with a drawing with a stick man and a stick woman with a huge X on each. She was quick to clarify that it meant NO ANGRY MOMMIES AND DADDIES ALLOWED!
Cute huh? That cooled her daddy down a little and she was allowed to watch her show again after her daddy had watched his show until finish.

Without help

2007-02-01T22:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Inez made me proud. She finished her homework all by herself. No help at all from me or her daddy. I also didn't have to sit with her until she finished. Maybe she learnt it from Mika. I dunno but I hope this i not a one day wonder.

We are all English!

2007-01-31T22:34:00.000-08:00

Teacher told Mom yesterday that Inez has a group of friends, including Zeti and they are mainly new students. That's good to know, I think. She also had an unknown eraser belonging to a certain Herr Rong, which was about1 inch wide and had a faded picture of Nemo on it. When I asked her why exactly is it she who is having the eraser, she answered that Herr Rong doesn't want it anymore and a girl gave it to her and she doesn't know why. Okay....

And Ja, I finally popped the question and as expected, Inez is English! Mika is English! Mimi is English! Zeti is English! Yay! We are all English! Of course I had to tell her the truth that she's quarter Malay, quarter Chinese, quarter Javanese and quarter Banjar. Mika too. Mimi would be quarter Malay, quarter Chinese, quarter Indian and quarter Bugis. Naqib too. Correct me if I'm wrong here, Ja! Anyway, no English! We are not English, we only speak English.

But this is normal. It happens to any child growing up speaking English. My mom tells me that I used to think that I was English too. Actually we speak sometimes Rojak English at home. So once at a restaurant, we couldn't finish the food, so we asked my brother to get the waiter to doggy bag the food. We waited and waited and waited. No waiter came to pack the food we wanted packed. So we confronted no.4 and asked him what exactly he told the waiter. No.4 said, "I said, 'nak ta -pau ah'."

A-hah no wonder no waiter came!

So no.4 kena bambu laa. "What language do you think you were using?"

I so cannot recall whether he thought it was Malay or English, but he certainly didn't think he was speaking Cantonese. Finally we got him to tell the waiter to 'bungkus' the food, baru laa dapat service bagus skit.

Mika's first homework

2007-01-31T20:47:00.000-08:00

I know. I know. It's been days again since my last post. Lately I have been lazy actually. I know that Mumsgather sez that everything is bloggable but sometimes I don't know what to write or where to start. In the end, you only write what you can. So today, I have decided to write about Mika getting his first homework.

The background

Apparently, we've just found out that whilst others go for computer class, my son has been left to play with toys on his own. No wonder he doesn't want to go to school. He feels left out. So remiss of me. Since he played on the computer at home sometimes, when hubby allows it, we figured he didn't need classes. They are anti-social enuf as it is, why encourage them further by introducing them to the computer and all the doors the computer can open? I already see my children addicted to the computer 3 years from now. Who needs real flesh and blood friends? We've got our ol' faithful, the computer. We can play online computer games and kill, kill, kill! Get my drift, right? So we decided that it'd be better for us coz it's cheaper not to have our kids go for computer lessons.

One day, mom took kids to school. Mika looked sad. Teacher asked him in front of his nana if he had told her about wanting to join computer classes. Mika in effect atually did but somehow sort of botch up his request by stating rather than asking.

"Mika play computer," Mika announced one day - some days back.

In hindsight, that was actually Mika probably trying to say that he wants to play computer at school. There we were thinking, how nice of the teacher to include our darling boy coz we didn't enrol him for computer classes.

So we decided to ask Mikael some investigative questions. Is it true that he was really sad that he couldn't get into computer class or was it just a ploy by kindy teachers to get us parents to spend more than we can afford to?

Us (hubby and me): Do you want to go to computer class?
Mika: *nods* with sad face
Us: How many of you are there in your class?
Mika: Five! *shows one hand, all five fingers up*
Us: So when they go for computer class, how many of you don't go?
Mika: Two!
Us thinking: Hey, teacher sez he's the only one left out! maybe he doesn't understand the question.
Us: Mika, how many of you play with toys when others are learning computer?
Mika: *shows two fingers*
Us: Two? Who?
Mika: *points to himself*
Us: Does Jungle boy learn computer?
Mika: *nods*
Us: So who else doesn't learn computer?
Mika: *points away from him, to the back twds his room*
Us: Inez?!

Poor kids!

My God! How blurred we were. I didn't know that for computer classes, they combined the classes. Of course Inez and Mika would be the only two who didn't have to go for computer lessons, coz we didn't sign them up! i'm afraid my sense of humour got the better of me and I started laughing. Oh poor poor kids. My hubby also felt bad and guilty. Immediately, he turned to me to say, "sign them up, on me." (you see my hubby pays for all the other stuff, utilities, cars, groceries, house; and me, I pay also for some groceries, phone bills, the house, but mainly the children's education is on me.) We called Inez out for confirmation. Inez confirmed Mika's answers.

Us: Mika, do you want to learn computer?
Mika: Yes!
Us: Inez, do you also want to learn computer?
Inez: Yes.

So that settled it and yesterday, Mika officially was enrolled for computer lessons and brought back his first homework. It was yesterday I discovered the difference between Inez and Mikael.

Mika's first homework

When I got back from work, Inez showed me Mika's book and said that Mika had homework. Mika himself was nearby, overheard Inez and said, "Yay!" Homework was a picture of a computer and above it was written COMPUTER in dotted lines. Mika's task was to trace the dotted lines and colour the picture.

He came over, took the book from us and immediately started colouring. Mom came out with two bottles of milk, and expected the two kids to start drinking. Inez, being her usual obsessive compulsive self, went in search for some tissue paper to wipe the bottle dry and Mika continued to colour, said, "But Mika got to finish this."

After about a minute, thirst or hunger got the better of him , coz then he said, "Mika got to drink milk too," then proceeded to drink his milk. After which he continued his colouring, finished it and went on to play with his toys. No help from me except to sharpen his colour pencil. The boy has finished his homework! In about 5 to 10 minutes tops! I couldn't believe it! If only Inez was like that.

Inez

Inez on the other hand struggled to finish her homework last night and it turned out that she didn't feel well. She slept halfway through her work. When my hubby carried her, he said she was warm. I checked and yes, she was a little warm. By 3 a.m., she came whimpering to our room. Her body was burning hot. Gave her wet rubs and this went on until subuh. By 6 both kids were up and wanted milk. I thought of taking her to the clinic, but by the time I was ready and she was ready, her temperature went down. So in the end told her that she'd have to go for F.Ain and maybe to clinic later, if her temp went up again. Poor darling started crying because she didn't finish her homework. Inez, inez, can't blame her though coz she was under the weather.

But my Mom talked to her teacher yesterday and told the teacher about Inez's trauma with homework and explained that Inez also goes to a morning school. So the teacher said that it's okay if she didn't finish coz she could come in early and finish it in school. Mom says, how to, because she'd be chasing after Mika, and by the time, he's ready, it's lucky that they are even there on time. The teacher understands. Apparently, as reluctant as Mika is to go to school, he's also reluctant to leave, the teachers in fact have to chase him around school to catch him to get him into the car! Sigh! Poor Mom, got to deal with Mikael and Inez.

Lost and Found

2007-01-29T01:10:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to write this entry for a long while now but I think this is the right time as support to Flowerin who recently nearly lost her youngest daughter, Jazz. Rin, I guess it could happen to the best of us. I suppose it's also a lesson to all moms to never ASSUME. It's really embarrassing how I lost Mika. I feel so responsible about it. We had actually all left the building already. Only Mika was still in the building. I assumed that Mika was with my husband. And he assumed that Mika was with me. Mika was 2 or nearly 2 at that time. I don't really remember. All I know was that he wasn't 3 yet. The thought is horrifying, isn't it?

I took my Mom, Ina the maid, my kids: Inez and Mika, as well as Mimi and Naqib who were still staying with us in Kuantan at that time, to Berjaya Megamall. Then my husband joined us, so each of us took a child. Ina had Naqib, Mom had Mimi, I was holding Mika and my hubby was holding Inez. Just imagine ya, 4 adults and 4 kids, yet we can still manage to lose one. We were on the way out but biasalaa sebelum keluar tu, singgah here and there. When the shop didn't have what I wanted, I told the rest to proceed to the car while I checked out one last shop. Somehow, when I left that last shop we were ALL together at, I took Inez with me, not Mika. I figured that my hubby would take Mika seeing that Mika did not accompany me. Then I caught up with them outside Megamall some minutes later. My hubby had come in his own car, so when Ina, I think, or was it my mom, asked about Mika's whereabouts, I confidently answered that Mika was with my hubby. I didn't expect Mika and his daddy to not be with each other.

"Are you sure?" my mom asked.

"I was quite sure but I called my hubby up anyway only to be told that Mika wasn't with him. I really thought he was trying to pull one over me. Tipu! I couldn't believe he didn't have Mika! Then where was Mika?

I tell you, it was horrible. There I was, assuming that Mika was with my hubby and there was my hubby, assuming that Mika was with me and the reason why we didn't realise it earlier was because we came in different cars. (Luckily he was parked just outside the back entrance). So then, all of us sprung into action - we ran back into Berjaya Megamall. While my mom ran to announce a missing child, I went to the last shop we were ALL at. My husband had the same idea. Since he ran in first, he got to Mika first. Luckily Mika was there and surprisingly he wasn't crying. I arrived just seconds after him. The girls at the shop were doing their best not to alarm him into crying. I think he must have been lost for about 5 to 10 minutes by the time we got to him. Luckily he didn't wander off from that shop. My mom was in tears by the time we got through her handphone to tell her we've found Mika.

I guess my hubby thought I had both of them coz Mika had gone to the back of the shop and somehow didn't realise when everyone left without him. According to the shopgirls, he looked as if he wanted to cry a few times but he didn't. I think he knew he was left behind because he hugged us so tightly after that.

Do you know what scares me? We could have left him there and would not have known that we'd left him until we arrived home. That's 30 minutes! Luckily, luckily, God willing, someone asked about Mika. I cannot imagine what would have happened to him if we hadn't realised it sooner? But I am not going to drive myself crazy doing that. I thank God that we realised it and got him back, and pray that it would never ever happen again. I don't think it's a mistake that could happen to anyone, just me. I hope no one else would go through the same hell we did thinking we'd lost Mika! I tell you, the thought of having lost Mika lingered for some time....It was real nightmare!

Inez's new friend

2007-01-24T21:17:00.000-08:00

I am happy to announce that Inez has a friend in school and her name is Zeti. Zeti apparently can speak English and therefore converse with Inez at school. I asked her about Yan Yan. She said that she didn't quite like Yan Yan. "Why?" I asked.
"Did Yan Yan like to borrow stuff without asking? Push Inez around? Rude? What?"
Inez said that she just didn't like talking to Yan Yan. What do kids talk about to each other?

Someone told me that somebody's son came home and asked his mother about 'sunat' or circumcision.
Son: Ma, sunat kan, potong ngan laser yer, ma? Laser macam Star Wars ke? Pas tu kan, kat kampung kan, potong ngan pisau potong ayam ke, ma?

Translated means Mom, you know circumcision, is it done with laser? Is it the same kind of lase like in Star Wars (u'know, from the sword). And then Ma, in the rural areas, do they circumsize with the knife that is used to cut chicken?

Mom asked son where he got such information from, to which he answered, from school. LOL

Interesting huh? Anyway, I asked Inez if she knew the girl's name in her F. Ain class. She said she didn't.
Me: Can she speak English?
Inez: No.
Me: So do you speak to her in Malay?
Inez: No.
Me: So how do you guys talk to each other?
Inez: She calls me in English.
Me: How?
Inez: she just says, "Inez! Inez!"

LOL. I tell her that her name is the same whatever the language. :)

Raining Cats and Dogs

2007-01-24T19:42:00.000-08:00

This morning was just awful. The moment I opened the gates to leave the house, it started drizzling. The winds were strong and it kept blowing the gates close but I managed to reverse my car out but dreaded the idea of locking up. The rain suddenly got heavier. Having left the umbrella at work, I made a run for it with my hubby's jacket over my head. Poor butt was right under the edge of the porch where the raindrops were larger and wetter. Got into the car, called my mom ahead to prepare her for my kids. Decided on the way there that I'd send Inez for her Fardhu Ain class so that my parents didn't have to send her in the rain. Called Mom again to prepare her F. Ain things and raincoat.

Just before we left my mom's. We discovered that Inez didn't pass her school bag to my dad when he collected Mika from the car and I was collecting her F.Ain stuff. My dad had already taken Mika and locked up. No dad to protect me from the rain with his huge golf umbrella. Made another mad dash in the rain. By the time I got into the car, I was more than 3/4 wet. The front of my skirt was wet, my butt was wet and you can imagine what else got wet as well. I had to turn the air-cond on, or the car would fog up. So the whole time driving, I was shivering and uncomfortable. I had a long way more to go. Huuuh, work was a 50 minute drive.

So after sending Mika, I sent Inez to her Fardhu Ain class. Girl wore a raincoat, so I figured that I didn't have to walk in the rain with her to send her to the door. There was a car parked to my right and the last I checked, nobody was in the car. So I told Inez to walk as quick as she could to her class which meant passing the back of that car. Inez, I hate to say it, is a bit obsessive compulsive (you know like that Jack Nicholson's character in the movie As Good As It Gets) and was walking so slowly because she didn't want to get her slippers wet. I opened my car door a little to tell her to run and to my horror, the car to my right started to reverse. My heart nearly stopped. "When did the driver get into the car? Couldn't she see a little girl in fire-engine red raincoat was behind her car?" I guess she did coz she stopped and luckily for us all, my silly daughter thought I was calling her and she walked back to me, Thank God! Not as fast as I wished though, she was still worried about her slippers and then only, the car proceeded to back out of the driveway. I dunno how loud I was but by that time, the teacher from school came out with an umbrella and took my Inez to the classroom. Omigod, I nearly lost her. Maybe I should've come out with her but at that time, it didn't seem like a good idea and there was nobody in the ca, and my daughter was wearing her raincoat. I guess my attention was so focused on Inez making her way on snail's pace to the across the driveway that I didn't realise the driver had gotten back into the car. If I'd foreseen the danger, I would've gone out but I didn't. Luckily, it was only a near death experience and not a fatal one. As Mika likes to say a lot these days, "Alhamdullillah". Thank God nothing happened.

The School from Sesame Street vs. the School We Go To

2007-01-24T00:36:00.000-08:00

The children were watching Playhouse Disney and Sesame Street was on, and it was about how much kids enjoyed going to school. So my mom figured that if she showed my kids how much these kids liked school, my kids would love school as much. Hahaha nyesal mak I! Why?
I don't remember the order, but they showed the kids playing at their school playground on very expensive and well maintained playground equipment (which my children's school don't have); then they showed the kids going into the classroom playing expensive looking toys (which I am not too certain if my kids' school has) and then the kids go to sleep and rest (which I don't think is allowed but they do make allowances for Mikael, who has slept in school 3 times and probably has some pillows named after him). Do you know what Inez said? I don't like school because there's so much homework!"

Binoculars

2007-01-23T22:03:00.000-08:00

It all happened the weekend my brother came down from KL with his wife and we visited his in-laws in Kemaman. Everybody met up at my brother's sister in law's home for tea before all of us went out for dinner together. My brother treated.

Mika and Inez played with Fahim, who brought out all his toys of cars, planes, trains, and dinosaurs and a pair of binoculars which didn't seem to interest Mika until we were about to leave. Mika wanted to bring it home with him and we explained to him in the car that he can't go round taking people's toys. Imagine if other kids did that to him and wanted to take away his toys?

Mika was silent for a while before he said, "Why don't Daddy buy one?"

After much explaining that his Daddy didn't have money to get him one, not even a cheap one, we thought the matter was closed. Over.

Last Saturday, when Inez was in Art Class, (I was at work), Mom took Mika to Megamall. Right between KFC and McD was a toy booth and Mika went up to the salesgirl and asked her, "Do you have binoculars?"

The girl looked blankly at him.

"A binoculars is something so you can see very far," he explained patiently to her.

The girl went to the boy at the counter and asked him about it, obviously, not understanding what Mika was saying. The boy said that they didn't sell binoculars.
"Oh," went Mika and then went the car area and sweet talked my mom into buying him a car.
"Can you buy me a car, Nana?"
"But Nana doesn't have $$$."
"But Atuk has."

I can't remember what else Mika said to my mom but whatever it was, it got him a yellow convertible that day.

Just now, Mom phoned to say that my son is now asking her to get him a remote control helicopter. Wahahahaha.

My New Year's Resolution

2007-01-10T23:22:00.000-08:00

I actually don't believe in making new year's resolution because if you want to make a change, you don't really have to wait for the new year to make a resolution. But this is the time of year when you get assessed at work and you need to fill up piles of paperwork on what you've done and how you've contributed. Oooh, I hate filling forms! Especially when you are disorganised as I am who don't keep an up to date record, filling such forms can be traumatic. LOL

So since it is the beginning of the year, it is only appropriate to start recording now and to start being more organised now and learn from last year's blunders. Then again, this resolution is not new. Every beginning of the year, I will vow to jot down stuff and every year, it stops mid way. By June onwards, my diary or organiser would be clean. Just don't have the patience and willpower to be organised. My hubby on the other hand is my direct opposite. The man has a file for everything! This year, hopefully, my diary won't go clean till September or after. But wait, I gotta go get a diary first.

Lost Nokia: Beware the pickpocket!

2007-01-10T23:09:00.000-08:00

On Monday evening, my mom lost her phone. It was a Nokia (dun remember what model but it had camera and colur screen and stuff and barely a year old). Partly to be blamed are my kids, especially Mika who lately has the tendency to go bonkers in supermarkets and malls. He will run around as if he owns the shop and making this tendency worse is Inez who thinks it is her fillial duty to go catch him on our behalf. Mika on the other hand thinks that Inez is playing catch with him, and suddenly, the mall is their playground. It's every parent's nightmare to have children like mine.

Then there are opportunists who seize the moment and take advantage of your being distracted while shopping, and brush near you to pick your pockets or in my mom's case, her handbag. Luckily for her, he only managed to get away with her mobile phone. She didn't see herself lucky though and would rather he steal her near empty wallet than her phone! Oh poor mom, she was so depressed and still half hopeful that she'd left her phone at home. As the fates would have it, the phone is gone forever!

So the next day, Mom gave a long lecture to my kids and Inez apologized profusedly and promised to behave herself in future. Mika said nothing until the lecture ended, went to my mom, hugged her and said only 4 little words, "I love you Nana."

I tell you, my son is very good at playing his nana. My mom went all soft but continued to tell them the importance of staying near the adults when shopping.

Homework! Homework! Homework!

2007-01-10T22:43:00.000-08:00

I am amazed how much homework kindy goers have: Maths, Writing, Mandarin and so on.

The first homework Inez did was for her Fardhu Ain classes. She opened her book and announced that we must read the 'Before We Sleep Doa' before we go to bed, and then proceeded to colour some pictures applicable to that doa.

Then while I was cooking dinner, she brought in her writing book, did a few Os and announced that she was tired and that she didn't feel like doing it anymore. So I said, "Okay, why don't you rest first and then get back to your homework a little bit later?"

"Okay," came the prompt answer.

A little bit later, Inez said, "Inez is still tired, Mommy." So I let her rest some more. I said she should do her homework after dinner. She did her homework during dinner. How convenient. She didn't want to eat. I told her since she was so diligently doing her homework, I would feed her while she did her work. She opened her mouth reluctantly for the rice and omelette dinner I prepared. I sneaked in some chicken once in a while.

But Omigod! So slow! So, after dinner, I caught sight of some Kuaci or sunflower seeds and had a lightbulb moment. I told her that I'd give her a kuaci for every O she wrote. Little did I know then that it was going to be a decision I would regret almost instantly. She writes her Os so closely to each other. So I revised my decision and told her that I'd give her 3 kuaci for every line she completed. I had to keep up with her. Every 2 minutes, she'd shout, "Finish!" and I wasn't even done opening the seeds. To keep her going, I told her that for each line of the next page, she'd get 5 kuaci seeds. Imagine how many kuacis I had to open for FOUR pages of homework! But at least she finished her Writing homework. I am a happy mommy. Then, she took out her Maths homework. She had to colour the right number of items based on the number given. Thank God I didn't have to bribe her with kuaci seeds anymore! Thank God she loves to colour! By the time she finished it was about half past ten. Then we turned on the TV only to discover that it was broken! Aaaaaaaarrrrggghhh! How am I going to live without my TV?! My hubby was on the way to my mom's, so I got him to borrow a set from my folks. Problem solved for the time being.

This morning, I found out that she hasn't done her Mandarin writing homework. So I told her to do it after her F.Ain class.

In the meantime, Mika played with his wooden truck. When asked to tidy it up, he was more interested in playing Pinball on the computer. I warned him that if I cleaned up after him, he wouldn't see or play with his toy for a week. Do you what he said, "It's okay. Mika doesn't want to play with that toy anymore." Wah wah waaaaahh! So I went on to keep it on a very high up shelf which he wouldn't be able to reach.

School Stories

2007-01-09T19:17:00.000-08:00

Sleeping in Class

When my mom went to pick the kids up on the second day of school, she was greeted by the teacher who laughingly informed her that Mika fell asleep in school. He was the only one who went to sleep!

"What time did he sleep?" my mom asked.
"Around 3 p.m.," the teacher replied.
"What time did he wake up?" my mom asked this time.
"Around 3:35."

My mom figured that somebody must have woken him up. No way Mika would sleep for a little after half an hour. Normally, he'd sleep for at least an hour or two. Since school ended at 3:45p.m., they must have woken him up to go home. Hahaha now that's funny.

It wasn't surprising at all knowing that he was the last to sleep the night before. He had taken an evening nap and so, couldn't sleep at his normal time at 9 or 10 p.m. But the next day, his sleeping pattern went back to normal. Thank God!

Jungle Boy
Yesterday I collected the kids from school. I was early but Mika was already out. Inez was still in Mandarin class. She was due out in another 5 minutes.
"Mommy!" Mika called as he ran towards me and started tugging at me to bring him to the car across the road. I told him we had to wait for Inez.

In the meantime, I asked his teacher how he was in class. She wasn't exactly informative. Just said that he was okay, he did colouring and was able to follow when she taught the class Mandarin. I was carrying Mika at that time, so I asked him, "Did you do colouring, Mika?"
"Yes," he said, nodding at the same time.
"Is this your teacher?"
Again his answer was, "Yes."
"What do you call your teacher?" I asked.
Mika shrugged and said, "I dunno."
The teacher said her name was Miss Tan.
"Did he made any friends?" I asked his teacher.
"Yes, there are only 5 of them," she answered.
"Is that your friend?" I indicated at a tall Chinese boy standing at the gate.
"Yeah, that's Jungle Boy."
"You call him Jungle Boy?"
"Yea."
The boy was appropriately dressed in camouflage designed T-shirt and pants.
In my mind, I was relieved that Jungle Boy was a real person.

Inez's Fardhu Ain classes.

Inez's Fardhu Ain's classes actually started this week and not last week. Poor parents of mine took Inez for the F.Ain class and were confused when the school asked for more money. They thought that Inez was attending pre-school there. They didn't have Mandarin; that's why I only enrolled her for F.Ain there. Her existing kindy has F.Ain classes but they coincide with Mandarin. That's why Inez has to go to 2 schools in a day.

On the first day, we were early and Inez was in time to see a teacher and her students singing some children's songs in Malay that even I do not know existed: lagu gajah la (i.e., Elephant song), kambing la (goat song), macam-macam (etc) and mostly about animals. Poor Inez didn't really understand but it seemed fun.

After class, when my dad asked her what she had learned, she said she couldn't remember and that she played with toys. I guess that's the highlight of her morning. Anyway, Inez seems to have made 2 friends in her F.Ain classes but not in school. Isn't that strange?

First Day of School (Part 2)

2007-01-04T20:54:00.000-08:00

When I came back from work all excited to find out how the first day of school went, I was surprised to come home to see both my kids were sleeping. Actually I shouldn't be surprised but amazingly, they slept throughout the evening until 6 a.m. the next morning. So no information except for what my mom got out of them before they kaput-ed. Apparently, Mika played toys for 5 minutes. Played at the slide for 5 minutes. I don't think he understands the concept of 5 minutes but if you ask him, everything is 5 minutes. Inez, according to my mom, did not talk to anyone. Not even Yan Yan, her only friend from last year.

I was afraid that they'd wake up after 3 hours of sleep and then stay up till 1 or something like that. Luckily, my worst fears did not materialise and they continued sleeping till morning. Around 6 a.m., Inez woke up all cheery faced and announced that she did colouring at school.

"What did you colour?" I asked.

"A dinosaur! With polka dots!" she replied.

"And Mika?"

"Mika played with toys," she answered, confirming what my mom had said.

Basically, the first day was uneventful. The next day was also more or less the same except that this time Mika did colouring and I have no idea what Inez did. She is more interested in talking about Mika than she is about herself. Apparently, Mika has got a new friend called Jungle Boy. "What do you call him?" I asked.
"Jungle Boy," said Mika.
"Does he live in the jungle?"
"No," Inez answered on Mika's behalf.
Puzzled, I asked, "Then why do you call him Jungle Boy?"
"Because...[something something]," I couldn't quite catch his answer.
"Is this a made-up friend like Cilia (i.e., Inez's made up friend from last year, who is supposedly from Mexico but speaks Chinese and likes Mexican buns. It turns out Inez was only tricking us.)?"
Mika said no. I will just wait and see if I can get more information from him today.

Inez on the other hand is still not talking to anyone in school and she finished a whole bottle of water, which would be a feat at home. My mom says she must be shy and so she covers that up by drinking.

First day of school (Part 1)

2007-01-03T00:15:00.000-08:00

It's the dreaded day for my Inez. Mika isn't too happy about it either. This morning, she was all geared up in her baju kurung and a kerchief on her head, all ready for Iqra' only to be told that classes commence next week. I can just imagine my girl heaving hugh sighs of relief.

Then, at 1 something, both she and her brother have to get ready for kindergarten. I received a call from my Mom at 2p.m. Apparently both my kids had clung on to her like their lives depended on it. Then she saw a table full of toys and directed Mika there and deposited him in an empty seat. Mika was distracted by the toys. Inez on the other hand had to be taken to her classroom upstairs by one of the teachers there.

A full report soon. To be continued....

Mika, the smooth talker

2007-01-03T00:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we went to my mom's rather late in the evening. Mom opened the door and got a hug from Inez who then proceeded to deal with her Astro. Mika gave my mom a big and affectionate hug.
Mom: Why, Mika, are you soo loving today?
Mika: Because...you make me sooo happy.
Who wouldn't be happy to hear that?

Easy Peasy Cooking

2006-12-28T22:40:00.000-08:00

Just to announce that I finally have the guts to share how I cook, online. It's still under construction, meaning to say that pictures are minimal. And the number of recipes are growing slowly but steadily. So if you are interested, you can click on my profile and then on the blog name or you can go directly to http://ezpzcooking.blogspot.com

In my cooking blog, I demonstrate that cooking is actually very simple and that you can cheat (sometimes, I make stuff from the tin). LOL I dedicate this blog to you, Ja.

Anyway, if you do try my recipes, do tell me if it works for you. I am most interested to know. Thank you.

I am not my hair: Confessions of a shallow wife

2006-12-28T20:48:00.000-08:00

I am not my hair is actually a song by India Arie. I have actually heard it many times and everytime I hear it, the same thought would occur to me, "What does my hubby think when he hears this song? Is he going to start singing to me that he is not his hair? Oh noooooooooooo."

Should I admit that I could be a horrible wife? A wife who dictates how her hubby's hair should be? That I can be so shallow...Well then, so be it. I am a horrible wife who dictates how her husband's hair should be; BUT hear me out.

My hubby sometimes gets dandruff and gets so annoyed with the dandruff that he goes to the barber and shaves it all off. It's not like he's Yul Bryner who looks gorgeous bald or Telly Savalas who at least looks like he's a force to be reckoned with. My hubby just looks er hek er hek erm buruk or plain horrible when he's bald. He thinks otherwise though. You got to hand it to him....the man has got confidence! Or should I say a false image of himself? Hahahaha I keep telling him that he's a turn off when he's bald. I know he's still the same guy but hair can certainly do wonder. Just take Legolas (Orlando Bloom's character) from LOTR, e.g. or Gary Oldman in The Scarlet Letter, they look so different out of character. So, hair is important. They say that a woman's crowning glory is her hair. I think this applies to men as well. With the right hair, my hubby can look pretty yummy, if I do say so myself.

Anyway, I forbade (I know it sounds harsh) my hubby to shave his head. LOL as if I am that powerful. Despite my threats to go bald myself, my hubby did shave his head again, and again. I remember closing the door in his face when I saw his bald head and sheepish grin. Until recently, that is, coz in my attempts to save his hair, I have bought this wooden comb (from 1 Utama, and it helps) for like RM25.90 or RM29.90 (I'm not very good at remembering prices) and shampoos like Stieprox (RM46) and upon Halwafy's suggestion, Body Shop's ginger shampoo (RM30 something2). So far, he's still using the Stieprox and it has reduced his dandruff greatly. I'm happy he's happy. And as long as he doesn't resort to shaving again, I am happier. He, on the other hand, has no problem with shaving his hair though coz, to him, it'll grow back, but in the meantime...

Anyway, since there's a problem hyperlinking, here's the lyrics to the song. I have also included the website I got it from coz you can also listen to the song for free. Of course, India Arie's lyrics goes beyond the point that hair isn't important, neither is colour of skin and that it's the soul within that matters. Haha I'm sure my hubby will have a field day with the lyrics but what to do? I just don't like my hubby's bald look!

Artist Name- India Arie
Song lyrics- I am not my hair [Featuring Akon]

[Akon]
See I can kinda recall
A little way's back
Small, tryin' to ball
Always been black
And my hair I tried it all
Had a gumby curly and all that crap
tryin' to be appreciated
Nappy-headed brothers
Never had no ladies
Then i hit the barbor shop
Had em give me little twists
And they drove 'em crazy
Then I couldn't get no job
Cause corporate wouldn't hire no dread-locks
then I thought about my dogs from my block
Kinda understand why they chose the steel and rock
Was it the hair that got me this far?
All these girls, these cribs, these cars
I hate to say it
But it seem so flawed
Cause success didn't come till I cut it all off
[Indie.Aria]
Little girl with the press and curl
Age 8, I got a gerry curl
13 and I got a relaxer
I was the source of so much laughter
At 15, when it all broke off
18,when I went all natural
Feb. 22, went on and did
What I had to do
Cause it was time to change my life
To become the woman that I am inside
'97 dread locks all gone
Looked in the mirror
Felt the first time that...
I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am not your expectations
I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am the soul that lives within
Good hair means curls and waves
Bad hair means you look like a slave
At the turn of the century
It's time to redefine who we be
You can shave it all off like a South African beauty
Got it on lock like Bob Marley
You can rock it straight like Oprah Winfrey
It's not what's on your head
It's what's underneath
I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am not your expectations, no
I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am the soul that lives within
I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am not your expectations
I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am the soul that lives within
[Akon]
Who cares if you don't like that
With nothing to lose
Posted with the wave cap
And the cops wanna harrass
Cause I got waves
ain't seen nothin' like that
In all my days
Man you gotta change all this fear
Steady judgin' one another by their appearance
Yes India, I feel ya girl
Now go on and talk to the rest of the world
[India]
Does the way I wear my hair make me a better person?
Does the way I wear my hair make me a better friend?
Does the way I wear my hair determine my integrity?
I'm expressing my creativity!
Breast cancer
Chemo therapy
Took away her crown and glory
She promised dad if she was to survive
She would enjoy every day of her life
On national television
Her diamond eyes are sparkling
Bald-headed like a full moon shinin'
Singing out to the whole wide world...
I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am not your expectations, no
I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am the soul that lives within
I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am not your expectations
I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am the soul that lives within
I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am not your expectations, no
I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am the soul that lives within
I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am not your expectations
I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am the soul that lives within

http://www.circularmoney.com/artistlyrics/indiaarie/iiianmh.html

I should have....

2006-12-27T20:43:00.000-08:00

Through Link Referral, I have been visiting other sites which I normally don't do. One site that I found rather refreshing and liberating, as well as funny and interesting was www.ishouldhave.com. It's really funny what things people regret doing. Or NOT. It's a site worth visiting even if you don't want to unload your deepest darkest secret.

If you've noticed, I've linked it from my blog so that anyone who wants to make anonymous confessions can go there and get things off his or her chest.

Happy confessing!

A book review - Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

2006-12-27T20:37:00.000-08:00

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Certainly, there was a funny assortment of books in the library. I don’t know who’s in charge of acquiring books in the library but I thank God for his or her good taste, even if it’s this one time. 8) Who would have thought that I’d come across this book again after all these years? Perhaps I never thought to look but I know that it is kismet that the book found me.

Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi was one of my childhood reads. I couldn’t remember exactly when I read it but it should be between 12 to 15 years of age. My friend N got me to read it because it’s one of her favourite books.

I don’t really remember the story but I remember that I liked it. A lot. All I remember is that it’s about a little girl and her school. So, being reunited with the books after so many years made me want to catch up with it immediately.

I re-read the book with great speed. Actually, to be honest, I don’t have the time to read it but it’s not a thick novel, and it’s not complicated. So, I recommend this book with great passion to whoever who hasn’t read this. It’s really a good book and it’s based on the recollections of the author Tetsuko Kuroyanagi of when she was a child. So, it’s not exactly fiction. After reading it, it makes me want to become a better mother and a better educator. If only everywhere in Malaysia, there is a school like Tomoe that doesn’t stifle a child’s curiosity and mould a child to some society’s preconceived notions, our children would grow up with their innocence intact and be better people.

The book is also like a tribute to the man who was her headmaster, and the creativity, patience and understanding he had in dealing with children. I have to say that when reading the book, I wished I had his wisdom, and her mother’s wisdom too.

The book begins with Totto (as Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, the author, was called as a child) being happy to be at school but totally oblivious to the fact that her class teacher was unhappy and at a loss at what to do with Totto. Apparently Totto was disruptive in class and disrupted her lessons by opening and closing her desk, which opens upwards (unlike her desk at home), and stand at the window to invite street musicians to perform for her and her classmates. Totto meant no harm but the teacher couldn’t control her. So Totto was expelled from school but her mother didn’t tell her that; she only said that they were to go to a new school.

And the new school was a in a train, and the school gateposts were growing. Amazing, isn’t it? Totto-chan was most curious if her schoolmaster was a stationmaster or a headmaster. Her mother asked her to ask the man himself and those were exactly one of the first words she uttered to him.
“What are you? A schoolmaster or a stationmaster?” she asked him spiritedly.
Her mother was embarrassed but before she had time to explain, the headmaster laughed and replied that he was the headmaster of the school.
Totto-chan was delighted and said, “Oh, I’m so glad, because I want to ask you a favor. I’d like to come to your school.”
And then the headmaster asked her to tell him anything she liked (without the presence of her mother) and she talked and talked and talked until she couldn’t think of anything else to say; and he listened with rapt interest. When she stopped, he informed her, “Now you are a pupil of this school.” He had listened to her talk for four solid hours until she had nothing else to say! How many people would do that?

I don’t want to reveal much about the book but just enough to entice you to read it. It’s not just for children, but I believe parents and teachers should also read this book as it shows us that children are capable of so much, and that we shouldn’t stifle their creativity and the excitement kids have towards life. So find the book and read it. It’s a keeper.

Here are some other reviews:
http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~prewett/writings/BookReviews/Totto-chan.html
http://daphne.blogs.com/books/2005/09/mini_review_tot.html

Whhhhhhhyyyyyyyyy?

2006-12-26T23:31:00.000-08:00

Mika has for some time now given up screaming for whining. If he doesn’t get his way, he’d start to whine and cry. It’s like a rotation. I think we’ve gone through his whining phase before. This is when we ignore him unless his cries are due to pain. Yesterday though, Mika took his whining to the highest level. He cried nearly the whole day. It actually started the day before. We went shopping and Mika wanted a golf set. He already has one; so I said no. I told him if he didn’t believe me, I would show it to him when we got back. And I did. I also told him the reason why his set was so high up was because he had used his golf stick as a weapon to hit people when he wasn't pleased with them.

That night, he kept asking for his box to be brought down even though I’d given him a putter from the set. He clearly wasn’t satisfied with only one stick. So, to my annoyance, he started to whine. And when I tell him, “No”, he goes, “Whyyyyyyyyyy?” Although he has the cutest way of saying it, too many whys does test one's patience. After sticking him with so many reasons, I finally gave up and started to use my husband’s answer to any query which he doesn’t want to give much thought to. For example, if Inez were to ask, “Why are they doing that?”; my hubby would say, “B’coz…they are too cute.” It used to work with Inez but for some time now, Inez would simply accept his answer then say, “AND…” Obviously, “too cute” doesn’t cut it anymore.

So when I told Mika it was because he was “too cute,” Mika immediately said that he didn’t want to be too cute. He wanted his box. And the boy is very single-minded. No matter how much you try to distract him from what he wants, he’d wake up the next morning asking for the very same thing he didn’t get the night before. So yesterday, his daddy took the box down only to have it kept again by his nana because out of 20 plastic golf balls, only 13 were recovered. God only knows where the other 7 went. So with every chance he got, he whined to my mom, whined to my dad, and then whined to me when I came back from work. Whine, whine, whine. Anyone with hearing found him soooooo irritating. I tried to interest him to play hide and seek. It didn't work. I was already preparing a vege dish. I was soooo annoyed that I told him if he didn't shush it, I'd stick the carrot into his mouth. Surprisingly, that got him quiet. As he was about to open his mouth, I showed him the carrot again. He immediately closed his mouth. Interesting, I thought. I suppose after that, he got tired of whining, coz he went to sleep.

Today, however, boy woke up all cheery. It’s amazing! It’s like the two days never happened.

Inez is Competitive

2006-12-25T17:41:00.000-08:00

Only the other day, Flowerin, my blogger friend was saying that she's worried about her daughter's competitive nature. It turns out my daughter is the same! We knew she was competitive but we didn't realise to what extent she was competitive.

One night, Inez and Mika decided that they wanted to race from one end of the carpet to the other end of the carpet with a ball between their legs. So, on your mark, get ready and go, and the two kids were off jumping, each with a ball between their feet and the first round Inez won. So I said, now it's Mommy's turn. Winner gets to compete with a new guy, since there are only 2 balls. And so of course I won. So Mika's out and it's Daddy's turn. Then it's Inez against her Daddy.

Now they wanted to walk with the ball between their legs, so 1st round, it was between Inez and Mika again and this time round, Inez won again. And we got Mika to say "Congratulations" to Inez; and Inez to say to Mika, "You can do it!"

But later, when Inez lost, she didn't want to shake Mika's hands. What a sore loser, I thought. What are we going to do?

So we continued the race. Since Inez lost, she's out. So, Mika raced with me. I lost on purpose and congratulated Mika and Mika assured me that I could do it. When Inez wanted to race in my place. I said, "No, Inez. Since you did not congratulate anyone just now, you can't play anymore. If you did, you are going to be frustrated many times because you are NOT going to win every time. If you want to play, you have to be a good loser and congratulate the winner and enjoy yourself playing/ racing."

Inez was silent for a while. Then she disappeared into her room for a while. It turned out she went to get some stuff and made sort of a barrier or hurdle in the middle of the carpet. She said she wouldn't be racing coz she was a bad loser but everyone else could. When we reached the barrier of toy bears and drums and cushions, we had to jump over it. Whoever reached the end of the carpet first, won. Woho, this was going to be how it was... So my hubby and I exaggerated our enjoyment when playing this new race she created but couldn't join in and made a fuss over congratulating each other that suddenly, Inez wanted to join in too. So we asked her if she was going to be a bad loser. She said, "No."

And we tested it. Sometimes we made sure we won, and sometimes we lost to her but Inez did not keep her hand to herself now. Tonight, maybe we'll race again and see if she needs reminding.

Of Rainbows and Monsoon Rain

2006-12-22T02:15:00.000-08:00

Today, I was telling my friend that I saw a rainbow at the beginning of the week, perhaps Monday, while driving to work. It's been a long time since I last saw a rainbow that I was smiling all the way to work. Spotting a rainbow is like spotting a shooting star for me. It's not an everyday occurance. It makes my day. So my friend went, "That's good. It isn't everyday you see a rainbow," which got me wondering if it was really a good thing or a bad. I'm not being superstitious here but right after, the monsoon rain came pouring. LOL

Anyway, my friend was stranded in Segamat for some days coming back from Batu Pahat, I haven't spoken to her yet coz she's been busy catching up on work. Luckily for her, her family was with her. Imagine, if her family hadn't followed, she'd be frantic about getting back to her young `uns. While she was away, we back here were talking about how bad the flood situation was. Another friend was talking about how her friend lost all his cats to the flood, coz water went up to the roof. There wasn't time to save anything, let alone cats.

Today, thank God, the rain has stopped for a while, and we saw the sun. Basically, good weather. Alhamdulillah. But one thing I don't get about floods is how some people like to "main air bah" or play with flood water. It's just icky and dirty, and most importantly, dangerous, especially if you are walking with yor slippers off. You don't know what you might be stepping on.

I remember when I was young, and water got into our rented house, only up to the steps. I don't remember water getting into the house and when water was receding, there were moving things in the water: black and slimy. I dunno if they were snakes or eels or worms! Imagine stepping on one of those. Euuw!

On a lighter note, I'm glad I found and bought raincoats for my kids. They are usng the raincoats now every day and I don't worry about them getting wet and chilled. Well worth the money I spent.

My Amateurish Cupcakes

2006-12-20T21:21:00.000-08:00

I finally bought all the stuff I needed to make Inez's cupcakes. I got myself disposable piping bags, an icing nozzle, some red ladybirds (made out of sugar and damned sweet). Everything else, I figured I already got.

I wanted something light and maybe spongy for the cake and used this lemon roll cake recipe. No lemon in the cake, only lemon in the filling, plus it's easy to make; so I thought, "Perfect!" For the icing, I used whipped cream, divided it into 2 portions: one of which I added about 2 drops of dark green colouring to. In my mind, my ladybug will be nestled in some green leaves on white background.

So here's the cake recipe:

Ingredients
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp cold water
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

First, in a mixing bowl, beat sugar and eggs until creamy. Then add in cold water. Then add in flour, salt and baking powder mixture and stir. Put about 2 spoonfuls into the paper cups and bake in a heated oven for about 10 - 12 minutes, or until cake springs back.

For the icing, I simply whipped the whipping cream. I didn't add any sugar as it was already sweet and using my creativity. Voila! 3 ladybugs on some leaves, 1 ladybug on a green heart and 1 ladybug in a green circle of 'leaves', which don't look like leaves. Still need some practice I think.

Black and White

2006-12-18T01:13:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I get some very interesting stuff in my mailbox and instead of the usual forwarding I do, I thought, why not put it in my blog this time. Here's one food for thought.

Harry Potter vs The Matrix

2006-12-18T00:37:00.000-08:00

Last night, aloud, I wondered what the last Harry Potter book would be like. My youngest sis was quick to answer that she thinks he's gonna die. I went, "Oh nooo! Not another Matrix!"

"He died?"

"Didn't he?" I replied. Actually I don't really remember. The whole trilogy is like a vague memory to me and apparently for my sis too. "She didn't die, right?" my sis asked refering to Carrie Anne Moss's character.

"Nope, she died too."

Last night I answered with utmost confidence that she died, and he died and he died because he finally understood what being the chosen one meant. He finally realised that he had to sacrifice himself for the greater good; if not evil will prevail. The ending was like the resurrection of Christ or something, so that the world wouldn't come to an end. And then things sorta went back to normal, or something; and I can't even remember what I had thought of that.

I don't know and at that time, I didn't really care. I had more important things to think about than the philosophy of the Matrix. The same sentiment applies to the present time.

But to follow Harry Potter or Harry Pothead as my hubby would call him, only to see him have the same fate as Neo is kinda crushing. Is he gonna die? Who else is going to die? My sis seems to want Ginny to be a casualty too. I guess we'll just have to wait for the book to be released. Btw, the fifth movie will be released July next year. And that's like a heartbeat away considering how fast time flies these days. I don't know about you but I am not so charmed by Daniel Radcliff's portrayal of Harry Potter. Don't think he can act as well as the actors playing Ron and Hermione. He's kinda stiff. Just like watching Jennifer Garner in Alias or even Keanu Reeves, for that matter. Love Keanu Reeves in Speed though. That's like my all time favourite action movie.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first movie though. The rest are kinda boring and I found myself falling asleep midway. That's very unlike me. So I suppose the movies are for die-hard fans only. The books are of course decidedly better and I guess for me, I watch the movies to get a better idea, for example of what a Quidditch game is like, and so on. So, although, I am not a fan of Harry Potter movies, I still look forward to seeing the book being brought to life.

Peach Cobbler

2006-12-17T21:20:00.000-08:00

This recipe is actually courtesy of Tobi Breternitz of Bay Port, Michigan who sent in her recipe for Apricot Peach Cobbler to Tastes of Home's Recipe Card Collection Magazine (volume 5, 2004 issue). I actually first tasted this simply scrumptious dessert when my friend made it for Berbuka last Ramadhan. However, it's a little on the sweet side for me. So I usually reduce the sugar. My kids on the other hand only ate the cake topping that I just make the topping on its own sometimes in a tiny rectangular cake tin abt 3 x 5 inches. It takes about 5 minutes to mix it up and half an hour to bake. You don't even need a mixer. My kids love it.

I will give the original recipe given by Toni and comment on the side the changes made.

Apricot Peach Cobbler
1 can (29 ounces) sliced peaches (I only use the Peach, hence, Peach Cobbler.)
1 can (15 ounces) apricot halves (Didn't put in apricots)
1/2 cup sugar (Give the syrup a taste, if you think it's not sweet enough, add just enough, even 1/4 cup is still very sweet for me and my family)
2 tablespoons cornstarch (abt 1 tbsp)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon butter (I like butter, but you can reduce this to 1/2 tbsp)
TOPPING
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar (I usually reduce this to 1/4 cup.)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 tablespoons butter, softened
HONEY CREAM
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons honey (I usually put in a tsp of honey and 1/4 tsp of cinnamon)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Drain peaches, reserving 1/2 cup syrup. Drain apricots, reserving 1/2 cup syrup. Cut apricots in half; set fruit aside. In a saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg,and reserved syrups until smooth. Bring to boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in butter until melted. Stir in peaches and apricots. Transfer to a greased 8-in, square baking dish. For topping, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add egg and butter; mix well. spoon over fruit. Bake at 350 deg for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown. In a mixing bowl, beat cream, honey and cinnamon until stiff peaks form. serve with warm cobbler. Yield: 6-8 servings.

By the way, the picture above is not my own, but it's from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Peach-Cobbler-VI/Detail.aspx and it's the closest pix that resembles what the recipe above yields. You can also click on the link and try the other recipe. It doesn't use apricots either.

Cool Colouring Link for Kids

2006-12-13T20:04:00.000-08:00

It's not easy to find a colouring link that caters to both your boy's needs and girl's needs but I found one, and it's cool because it has colouring pages ranging from alphabet to cartoon characters like Mr Men, Raggedy Ann and Andy, Powerpuff Girls, Medabots, Transformers, Winnie the Pooh, Barbie, Thomas the Train, you name it to holiday pictures, transportation, and firefighters and rainbows and flowers. And it's quite up to date, they even have Happy Feet. And Card Captors. We've struck gold, people; so why don't you check out this site coz it even has online colouring and drawing programme. You tell me, cool or not?

Kids Say the Darnest Things; They Really Do! (Edited in purple due to new information)

2006-12-12T18:41:00.000-08:00

The other day, I was talking to my mom in the car and Inez was asking me a question about something and I remember replying, "Oh this, you have to ask your Nana because she has a better memory."
To my mom, I said, "I don't know why, but I think my memory is very poor compared to yours."
The next night, I asked Inez to pick up her toys, and do you know what she said, "Oh Mommy, Inez forgot. Inez is so like you, Mommy; Inez has poor memory."
Back at me, how can I scold her for being so like me?
"But Inez, my dear, you are young, you are not supposed to have a poor memory."

Yesterday, my brother was telling me that Inez is now a liar because when he was outside washing his car, the children came out to play bicycle and they rode out onto the main road which they were not supposed to. In fact, they couldn't even play outside if there was nobody to supervise them. So when he asked them who allowed them out, Inez answered that Nana had given them permission to go outside and play. When my brother asked my mom, my mom said, "No such thing! I did not give them permission to go out." It turned out according to Mom, when the kids saw my brother going outside, Inez quickly went over to the TV, switched it off, called to Mika and she heard her say, "Mika, Uncle Juhan's outside. Yay, now we can go outside to play bicycle!" and out they went. So their Uncle Juhan confronted Inez and said, "Inez, don't lie to Uncle Juhan. I can ask Nana and find out from her."

Do you know what she answered? "What I did just now, I don't remember and I also don't know what I'm doing now." BIG SIGH!

And just like that she got herself out of that tangle. When Juhan told my husband about what the kids did and said, I realised the story is not complete. Hence this update.

That evening, when my brother told them to tidy up their toys, Inez said that she had forgotten again due to poor memory and that she was tired. She didn't get a good night's sleep the night before. Where do they learn all this?

Zul's Family Day(s) and Inez's Birthday

2006-12-11T22:22:00.000-08:00

This year we celebrated Inez birthday in Kuala Trengganu. We almost didn't go because my husband had thought of going to KT on his own for his company's Family Day. Only the night before he said that he wanted to bring us along. I went, "Whaaa! I got something on at work. I said okay to it because I didn't expect to take leave. So what's the earliest time you'd like to leave?" My hubby answered, "Noon, but take your time; don't rush."

So I figured if I missed the time, only my hubby would go. There was an preliminary interview session going on the next morning and I was supposed to be one of the panelists for lack of better people. I'm being modest here, lol. It ended at 1 p.m. and so I took a half day leave that day and a full day leave the next day and we left for KT at 3 p.m. Mika slept throughout the journey and Inez slept through the first half of the journey. We had to wake Mika up when we arrived. He sure wasn't happy about it. He was also not dressed for it and he wasn't happy about being changed either.

The dinner started at 8 p.m. We were told we were supposed to go to a Jim Resort and I was wondering what food we would be eating coz I was soooo Goddamn hungry! I told my hubby that the food had better be good but he said he wouldn’t bet on it. It turns out that Jim Resort was a place called Gem Beach Resort about 30 minutes away from KT town near somewhere called Bukit Rakit or Batu Rakit( ?) and it unexpectedly gorgeous. Haha you could tell we didn't have a high expectation of that Jim Resort at all. My hubby said if the price was right we’d stay the night there. One room costs about RM160.00. Okay la.

My hubby was actually standing in for his boss who couldn't make it, and he had to give a speech too. We found the idea of him giving a speech funny, and he was soo totally unprepared for it. He’d thought he’d have some time to prepare before the dinner but just after he sat down, he was called upon to give a speech and officiate the Family Day Dinner. I must say he winged it pretty well, after a rather boring intro. Towards the end, he had the audience's attention and one could see he was getting more comfortable on the stage and he was cracking jokes. Then, it was the award giving ceremony and then makan! Food was not bad, quite tasty. Do remember I was starving. We had ikan masin, some sotong dish, curry fish, fried cabbage, kerabu mangga, ayam goreng rempah, sup ayam or chicken soup which the kids ate with rice and fish crackers, but mostly they drank the soup and ate the keropok. Mika ate watermelon for dessert. Inez? Hmmph, don’t ask.

After dinner, there was lucky draw for the staff, and there ended the Family Day Dinner. It was a very simple affair.

Then we went to our room. It was okay. Not too shabby. And I dunno what fascination my kids have got for hotel rooms but they are just quite contented to be in the room although they was nothing much for them to do. They ransacked the room for hotel paper and pen and found none. In the end, we had to give them whatever scraps of paper we had so that they could draw and write.

The next day, Friday, (Dec 8) was actually Inez’s birthday and she woke up smiling. Mika on the other hand had pee-ed on the bed b’coz it was so cold. I was so upset coz he was sleeping on the wet patch. The reason he gave, “I cover it, Mommy!” I had to consciously stop myself from laughing. Oh I should have used the spare diaper I had brought just in case. I told him I would tell his friend, Luq all about it if he did it again. So far, no more accidents. I guess one should always expect an accident or two.

So, for breakfast, I met my friend and her hubby at the famous shop in KT where a fish head curry was priced at RM45. It was in the papers. We ate the Nasi Dagang there. Okay laa. I still prefer the Kelantanese version. And then we headed back home. We didn’t really spend time in KT or explore KT coz apparently my hubby had to go to work. He’s still new, so he hasn’t got that many leaves.

So that night, I cooked us a dinner of prawn sambal with petai, Thai basil chicken, fishball soup for the kids and one lettuce dish, and prepared some sushi with fried egg and beef and black fungus filling and invited my mom and brother over. And we bought a cake for Inez. Before we could sing the birthday song, she’d blown out the candles and mutilated the cake.

The next night, we celebrated her birthday and our anniversary at a Thai restaurant with my parents, my brother and his two friends. Alas, both my kids were sleeping. I told Inez we’d throw her a party next year, maybe some time in January. And that she’d have to participate in the party games. If not, we will never ever throw her another party in her childhood. I never said I would not throw one for Mika which she can tumpang. So she was very excited about the party and in planning the party games until Sunday, when we went for my husband’s yet another Family Day (the real one) at De Rhu Beach Resort. When the MC called for all children to participate in the Limbo Rock, my children both refused to join in. My hubby joined the adult male category though. Haha He immediately got backache after that. It’s amazing how low they went. I think they stopped at 3 ft. Yg gendut pun boley buat. Some didn’t even realize what they were capable of. They joined in for the fun of it. Amazing!

Anyway, I haven’t made my girl her cupcakes yet. That will have to wait till her party. If you have any excellent cupcake recipes and ideas, feel free to share. I’m all ears. Or should I say eyes? Thank you.

Favourite Car

2006-12-11T22:20:00.000-08:00

This morning, Mika found his father’s old Motor Trader and got excited at seeing so many pictures of cars. He pointed to one and announced that this was his favourite car. I took a look at it and saw that it was a Subaru Imprezza Wagon in ultramarine blue. What a coincidence coz his father’s many dream cars included an Imprezza though I doubt his Imprezza was a wagon. So I said, “Go, Mika, go show Daddy what your favourite car is. Inez, go and show your Daddy as well.”

So, the both of them climbed onto our bed, bringing the magazine with them, and started pointing at their favourite cars.
“Daddy! Daddy! I like this car! This is my favourite car,” Mika said.
“And this one is my favourite car,” said Inez, not to be left out, pointing at a blood red Toyota Celica 1.8 VVTi.

Both my kids seem to have very high taste in cars.

My husband who didn’t have his specs on had to peer at the pictures. I knew he did not favour Wagon, so I guessed he pointed to one he liked and asked Mika, “What about this car, Mika?”
Mika was really quick to reply, “That is your favourite car.”

Hahahahaha I found that entirely amusing. When I picked a car myself and showed it to the kids, they said it was very yellowish. I had pointed to them a yellow Volkswagon. Funny kids.

My Little Woman and My Little Man

2006-12-04T19:23:00.000-08:00

I am proud to announce that both my kids are OFF disposable diapers day and night! I am very proud of them. No more accidents. I think the last time was more an isolated case because my son was sick 6 days ago. I dun know what came over him, whether it's food poisoning or gas, but he started vomitting until there was nothing to vomit. Before he went to sleep, he asked for milk despite having eaten half a bowl of mac and cheese. At about nearly midnight, he started whimpering in his room. I rushed to see what he wanted. I thought he wanted to use the toilet but before I could do anything or he could say something, he vomitted all over me and himself and the carpet in the room, the floor and some part of the mattress. Out came the milk and some mac and cheese, and some more mac and cheese. Some came out in whole pieces, I was like, "Doesn't he chew?" Oh, soooo stinky. I had to wash the carpet 3 times before I got rid of the smell completely.

I took him to the toilet, stripped him, washed him and put him on my bed. Then 10 minutes later, while I was cleaning myself up, he started crying again. This time he vomitted all over the floor of my room. Out came more mac and cheese and milk. Took him to the toilet again, washed his face, rinsed his mouth.
"Mommy, Mika wants water."
"Okay, Mommy get you water."
Then like after 2 minutes, he vomitted the water. The water looked slightly yellowish. And he was crying in pain. I feel his pain. It's like morning sickness all over again, especially when you haven't got anything else to vomit out. From there on, his vomit became yellowish greenish. I kept giving him water. A medical book said to give juice and dry cracker. It did not keep him from vomitting. But at least he wasn't vomitting green stuff. He was vomitting the juice and cracker. Throughout the night, he did vomit and by morning, there were four wet patches on the bed, vomit in a container and one of the patches was pee coz he didn't have time to inform us and get to the toilet himself coz he was soooo weak already by that time. However, he didn't have diarrhoea. According to the medical book, if he continues to puke after 6 hours, I should take him to the hospital. Basically, after 6 hours he stopped. Actually thank God the book was there, it's Miriam Stoppard's A-Z Medical Book and mine is lost. But my friend has just ordered a copy and we used my address since she's away for work. I remembered her copy was with me and used it. And my husband was on his way back from KB, so it was only me dealing with all this crap.

By 7 a.m., he'd stop vomitting, and I monitored his intake of fluids and his temperature. This time, all the fluid stayed in. I gave him water every half hour. Made him porridge but he didn't want to eat. That night we took him to the clinic because he was warm. There was no fever, however.

After 6 days, my boy still has no appetite. I see him shrinking before my eyes. I give him milk, he says it's yucky, I give him food, he spits it out. There were a few times his appetite seemed to have come back and he was eating quite well, like 10 fishballs 2 days ago and some nuggets yesterday and fries 2 nights ago but they're not enough and they're the only stuff he'd eat. It's better than nothing I say. According to the doctor last night, if he doesn't improve, we'll have to get him hospitalised. I hope it won't get that far and that today is a better day for him.

On the bright side, nobody's wearing diapers anymore coz they've grown. They're now my little woman and my little man.

Of Happy Feet and books

2006-12-03T23:33:00.000-08:00

Now there's a new movie out, Barnyard! I've just watched Happy Feet with the kids and they aren't too happy about it. Neither was I, as a matter of fact. Too many songs I guess that became part of the dialogue. It was like watching a long karaoke session. Yawn! I felt for Mumble though and imagined what it was like for the poor penguins we saw in Underwater World, Langkawi. After 3 days, Mumble lost his voice, and after 3 months, he lost his mind. That got me wondering if we were looking at demented penguins there!

Then again, I was watching these new VCDs I bought for the kids called Letters from Felix, about a toy rabbit called Felix who travelled the world and wrote home to his owner Sophie about his adventures. In one episode, he found himself in the South American jungles and some animals, a jaguar, a toucan and a sloth (not too sure)on particular, purposefully got themselves caught by poachers to live in a zoo; only they weren't going to a zoo but to a restaurant that served exotic animals. So, if you believe one, you'd have to believe the other, right? I guess you'd have to be demented too, right, to want to go live in a zoo?

Anyway, they liked Over the Hedge, and Madagascar. Mika watched Monster House through his fingers. We haven't watched Ant Bully yet, but we should, coz it's about a destroyer and Mika's a destroyer too. He likes to kill bugs and he thinks he's doing us a service. Some months ago, I found a ladybug and excitedly called to my hubby and the kids. My husband picked up the ladybug and gave them a close-up look of it and accidentally dropped the ladybug on the ground. Immediately, Mika stomped the life out of that bug. Let's hope after the movie, he'll change.

The other day I bought Hansel and Gretel VCD for them. Not bad. It had Dakota Fanning but she wasn't the main character. Inez watched it twice and wanted to watch some more but Inez's Daddy said it's time to watch big people show, so she hasn't asked to watch it for the 3rd time yet. She's very into fairy tales now.

I remember I loved fairy tales as well, and my mom told us quite a number of fairy tales like the one about the king who wanted to marry his own daughter because she looked so much like his wife. She said yes upon the condition that a dress like the moonlight was made for her and the king made it happen. She then asked for a dress like the sun and the rainbow. After that she escaped and worked as a servant in a nearby kingdom. When the young king threw a ball, she attended in her 3 dresses, and the young king was very smitten with her but knew not where to find her until she dropped her ring by accident into his broth. And they lived happily ever after. I remember making my mom tell me that story over and over again. When I was old enough to read, I read all the Ladybird books like The Elves and The Shoemaker, The Gingerbread Man, etc. When I was about 11, I read all the Andrew Lang fairy books I could find in the library: The Red Fairy Book, The Yellow, the Olive, I think there are 12 altogether. I found them in Acmamall and bought the whole set. Working Mom has one set too. My daughter would usually bring out a book sometimes and ask for a fairy tale or two. Since I have to read aloud, I usually choose short ones. Mika is not into fairy tales yet (or ever, I dunno) but it's nice that he loves books too. He likes the Grolier ones with Opposite Words, etc. and of course Dora the Explorer!

Caterpillar lives in a raccoon?

2006-11-29T17:43:00.000-08:00

Usually, when we go back home at night, I'd slow the car down when we approach the rubbish area coz if you're lucky, you get to see the three little pigs. Not exactly accurate. You'd get to see a papa wild boar or a mama wild boar or both and their two kiddie wild boars or just with one of the kiddies or any one of the boars. One morning, we saw a huge monitor lizard. We love going by the rubbish dump area coz it's like our very own safari adventure. But alas, that night, we didn't get to see anything. So Inez thought that we were too late, the wild boars must be home sleeping. I looked at the time and told her since it was still quite early, they're probably on their way.
"You mean they're still awake?"
I said, "Yes, there are some animals that are only awake at night, Do you know any?"
"Is it like raccoon ah Mommy?" Inez asked.
Suddenly Mika was saying, "Caterpillar lives in raccoon."
I'm like, "Huh? Do you know what's a raccoon?" which sent Inez going, "I know, I know, I know! It's like [what'shername] in PB and J Otter!" and Mika went, "Yes! Caterpillar lives in raccoon and then it push its way out and it's a beautiful butterfly!" I laughed. Was I slow at getting what he was trying to say or what? Should've guessed he was going in that direction.
"Oh, Mika, you're a clever boy but it's pronounced COCCoon!" and he dutifully repeated coccoon after me, and said, "Yeah, caterpillar lives in coccoon and pushes its way out and becomes a beautiful butterfly!"
They are back home by the way. Aah, missed them so much!

It's all about Sushi

2006-11-27T22:41:00.000-08:00

If you had asked me a year ago if I liked sushi, I'd have straight out answered, "No!" followed by an "Eeuuw! I think sushi is an acquired taste," and I'm the type of person who'd give it a try before coming to a conclusion whether I like something or not. And that was based on eating sushi some time back. But if you ask me again today, I'd answer, "Yes!" Somehow, over the months, I have acquired the taste for sushi. It all started with my friend Mums, (pronounced Mooms), who made me sushi when I went visiting. It wasn't the typical sushi, so I ate some. My friend sorta tempura-ed her crabstick and carrot stick before rolling them up. Then my friend Yap brought back some sushi she bought from Carrefour. And then I went to another friend's house for berbuka and she made sushi and some Korean dishes. Then Yap gave me some homemade sushi, and suddenly I was craving to eat sushi. I started buying my own sushi and had spent a small fortune; so I decided to learn to make my own.

I called my friends up and to start off, I bought Japanese short grained sticky rice, wasabi, and seaweed/nori, Japanese mayonaise, and Japanese rice vinegar. For the filling, since I'm new at this plus we don't have a Japanese specialty shop here, I made do with Japanese cucumber, carrot sticks, crabstick, and fried omelette. Yap did a combo with tuna and Japanese cucumber.

According to my friend you can cook the rice as you normally would in a rice cooker but add extra water. Actually there are instructions on how to cook the rice on the back of the packet. So cook 1 cup of Japanese rice. When it's cooked, in a bowl put in 4 tsps of rice vinegar, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp sugar. Stir and add to hot rice; mix well.

Usually you don't spread hot rice on the seaweed or it'll melt, and always wet your hands when dealing with the sticky rice or the rice will stick to your hands/ fingers.

Okay, now on a sushi mat/ cling wrap, place a sheet of nori, shiny side down. First time I did it, I didn't have a mat yet, so I just used a cling wrap - okay laa. But you can also use aluminium foil.

Lightly press rice on bottom two thirds of nori, and then squeeze the Japanese mayonaise along the bottom edge of the nori on the rice. Put your preferred filling such as cucumber strips on top of the mayonaise, and if you like it hot, finish with a few drops of wasabi. My friend Yap uses crab sticks (which she bakes in the oven for a few minutes), egg omellette, and hot and spicy Ayam brand tuna as filling for her sushi.

Then using the mat, roll up sushi tightly, moistening the edges to seal and let rest.

Cut sushi with a sharp knife and arrange on a platter. Serve with wasabi and soy sauce. Usually, it's Kikkoman soy sauce.

For the uninitiated, here below is some info on different types of sushi. By the way, according to my sis, if you have thyroid problems, you shouldn't eat sushi b'coz seaweed has a very high content of iodine.

Types of sushi

The common ingredient in all the different kinds of sushi is sushi rice. Variety arises in the choice of the fillings and toppings, the other condiments, and in the manner they are put together. The same ingredients may be assembled in various different ways:

* Nigiri-zushi (hand-formed sushi). Arguably the most typical form of sushi at restaurants, it consists of an oblong mound of sushi rice which is pressed between the palms of the hands, with a speck of wasabi and a thin slice of a topping (neta) draped over it, possibly tied up with a thin band of nori. Assembling nigirizushi is surprisingly difficult to do well. It is sometimes called Edomaezushi, which reflects its origins in Edo (present-day Tokyo) in the 18th century. It is often served two to an order.

* Gunkan-maki (軍艦巻 - warship roll). An oval, hand-formed clump of sushi rice (similar to that of nigiri-zushi) has a strip of nori wrapped around its perimeter to form a vessel that is filled with some ingredient that requires the confinement of the nori, for example, roe, natto, or less conventionally, macaroni salad. The gunkanmaki was invented at Kyubei restaurant (est. 1932) in Ginza.

* Makizushi (rolled sushi). A cylindrical piece, formed with the help of a bamboo mat, called a makisu. Makizushi is generally wrapped in nori, a sheet of dried seaweed that encloses the rice and fillings, but can occasionally be found wrapped in a thin omelette.[1] Makizushi is usually cut into six or eight pieces, which constitute an order.

* Futomaki (large rolls). A large cylindrical piece, with the nori on the outside. Typical futomaki are two or three centimeters thick and four or five centimeters wide. They are often made with two or three fillings, chosen for their complementary taste and color. During the Setsubun festival, it is traditional in Kansai to eat the uncut futomaki in its cylindrical form.

* Hosomaki (thin rolls). A small cylindrical piece, with the nori on the outside. Typical hosomaki are about two centimeters thick and two centimeters wide. They are generally made with only one filling.

* Kappamaki, a kind of hosomaki filled with cucumber, is named after the Japanese legendary water imp fond of cucumbers, the kappa.

* Tekkamaki is a kind of hosomaki filled with tuna. The "tekka" (鉄火) means "gambling" as they were often eaten while gambling.

* Uramaki (inside-out rolls). A medium-sized cylindrical piece, with two or more fillings. Uramaki differ from other maki because the rice is on the outside and the nori within. The filling is in the center surrounded by a liner of nori, then a layer of rice, and an outer coating of some other ingredient such as roe or toasted sesame seeds. Typically thought of as an invention to suit the American palate[2], uramaki is not commonly seen in Japan. The California roll is a popular form of uramaki. The increased popularity of sushi in North America, as well as around the world, has resulted in numerous different kinds of uramaki and regional off-shoots being created. Regional types include the B.C. roll (salmon) and Philadelphia roll (cream cheese).

+ The dynamite roll includes prawn tempura.

+ The rainbow roll features sashimi layered outside the rice.

+ The spider roll includes fried soft-shell crab.

+ Other rolls include scallops, spicy tuna, beef or chicken teriyaki, okra, vegetarian, and cheese.

Brown rice and black rice rolls have also appeared.

* Gimbap, a Korean dish, is similar to makizushi. It was adapted into a Korean dish sometime during colonial rule.[3]

* Temaki (hand rolls). A large cone-shaped piece, with the nori on the outside and the ingredients spilling out the wide end. A typical temaki is about ten centimeters long, and is eaten with the fingers since it is too awkward to pick up with chopsticks.

* Oshizushi (pressed sushi). A block-shaped piece formed using a wooden mold, called an oshibako. The chef lines the bottom of the oshibako with the topping, covers it with sushi rice, and presses the lid of the mold down to create a compact, rectilinear block. The block is removed from the mold and cut into bite-sized pieces.

* Inari-zushi (stuffed sushi). A pouch of fried tofu filled usually with just sushi rice. It is named after the Shinto god Inari, whose messenger, the fox, is believed to have a fondness for fried tofu. The pouch is normally fashioned from deep-fried tofu (油揚げ or abura age). Regional variations include pouches made of a thin omelet (帛紗寿司 or ukusazushi) or dried gourd shavings (干瓢 or kanpyo).

* Chirashizushi (scattered sushi). A bowl of sushi rice with the other ingredients mixed in. Also referred to as barazushi.o Edomae chirashizushi (Edo-style scattered sushi) Uncooked ingredients artfully arranged on top of the rice in the bowl.o Gomokuzushi (Kansai-style sushi). Cooked or uncooked ingredients mixed in the body of the rice in the bowl.

* Narezushi is an older form of sushi. Skinned and gutted fish are stuffed with salt then placed in a wooden barrel, doused with salt again, and weighed down with a heavy tsukemonoishi (pickling stone). They are salted for ten days to a month, then placed in water for 15 minutes to an hour. They are then placed in another barrel, sandwiched, and layered with cooled steamed rice and fish. Then this mixture is again partially sealed with otosibuta and a pickling stone. As days pass, water seeps out, which must be removed. Six months later, this funazush can be eaten, and it remains edible for another six months or more.

For sushi recipes, do visit these sites:

http://www.visualrecipes.com/recipe-details/recipe_id/187/How-To-Make-Sushi/

The above site has step by step pictures.

http://japanesefood.about.com/od/howtocook/a/cookinghowto.htm

http://www.sushilinks.com/recipes.html

http://www.wasabi.co.nz/sushi2.html

So far, I can't bring myself to eat the raw stuff yet but the cooked toppings, and fillings, I'm okay with.

Did I just die and go to cupcake heaven?

2006-11-27T22:20:00.000-08:00

Inez's birthday is coming. So this time round, after that disastrous episode with Mikael's cakes, I thought I'd make cupcakes. Inez would love cupcakes! So I started searching for recipes and this is what I found. I lifted these pix off a cool blog called Cupcakestakethecake. The blog doesn't really provide recipes but they have some interesting links including:

http://bossacafez.blogspot.com/

which leads to:

http://cupcakeblog.com/index.php/

which leads to other gorgeous sites, all have which have beautiful cupcake recipes. No way I could come up with cupcakes like in the pictures but they are sooooo pretty, don't you think? Wouldn't one be inspired? I'll find one easy recipe that is managable and see if it turns out anything like the pictures.

Casino Royale at long last!

2006-11-24T00:26:00.000-08:00

The moment the movie was out, my husband was excited about watching Casino Royale. The first time we went, we were 20 minutes late and were too early for the next show that was at 9:40 p.m. as the children would be sleepy and cranky.
The second time we went, the guy in front of me bought the last tickets for the 9:05 p.m. movie. Yeah, no luck again. But had we bought tickets, we would have been cricking our neck from the first row.
But we did finally watch it. Do remember that my kids aren't with me at the moment. So, we took the opportunity to have a be-early anniversary western dinner of Black Pepper lamb Chops and Grilled Salmon in Lemon Butter sauce and yea, watch James Bond! When we finally got to watch it, I was more interested to see if the new Bond smiled at all. Yes Nell, he didn't just frown the whole time though he did have a Zoolander pout going on, but yes, he smiled and quite a number of times too! The first was at the Ocean Club when he snuck into the security control room after posing as a valet, banging the Rover into a fence. (Hah, even I can do that!) And when he was chatting up the receptionist, and next when Vesper Lynd noticed "perfectly-formed" tush and he replied, "You noticed," and after that I stopped counting.
Anyway, after all the reports about Daniel Craig this and Daniel Craig that, you know: can't drive a stick, too short, too blond etc., etc., I must say I kinda like him being Bond. I mean, he's got big boots to fill, yet he filled them very well. He was very cool, had this air of nonchalance about him and wears his clothes well. Must applaud the director for bringing out the best of Bond in Craig. Or should it be the best of Craig in Bond? Whatever. I say this because the movie shows a very deliberate Bond, a guy who assesses the situation before acting on it, and makes calculated risks.
Does this movie seem to you like it has the most fight scenes? I think so, coz I keep seeing Bond beating up one dude after another. And I do think this is the first Bond movie ever to exploit Bond himself rather than the Bond girls. Then again, this is the prequel. So I guess the exploitation of Bond girls comes later. Haha Also, you get to see the lovey dovey and tender part of Bond though the death scene was a bit overdone, and I think if not for the dialogue, there wasn't that much chemistry between him and Vesper. I mean there was, but not enough. You know how in some movies, you'd go, "Oh kiss each other already, why don't you?" in exasperation but in this movie, not really. So the script was good though the ending was a wee bit abrupt but on the whole, if you haven't yet caught the movie; go watch it! Daniel Craig portrayed Bond as realistic as a Bond can get, OR go watch for his abs! Mmmm Doesn't he remind anyone of a more rugged version of Nick Lachey, Jessica Simpson's ex?

What to do? What to do?

2006-11-22T19:12:00.000-08:00

"Inez, wake up! You are going to KL today!"

"Today? So fast ah Inez is going to KL already?"

"Yea, come and give Mommy a hug."

"It's okay, Mommy." She came to give me a hug, and then sat facing me. "Now you can go to work early," she reasoned. "The house will be tidy because there's nobody to mess up the house and you don't have to go to the beach."

BUT oh! How my heart crumbled into a gazillion pieces and how I felt like a horrible and bad mommy but in my defense, it takes 1 hour to get to my workplace, partly due to traffic light jam and distance, unless one leaves the house just before 7 or after 8, then you won't be stuck in traffic light jam. And if classes begin at 8:00 a.m., you can just imagine what time I have to get them to their nana's. I take turns with my hubby. If I am in no rush that morning, I'll be the one sending them. As long as I work at least a 40 hour week (8 hrs average per day), I'm okay. But it means that if I clock in late, I'd have to clock out late. So nearly every morning, it's "Hurry up! Mommy's late for work!" We have especially more of this when we have to clean up unexpected accidents, courtesy of Mikael. As for going to the beach - if I leave office at 5:30 I'd reach home by 6:30 and it'd be too late to take them to the beach sometimes. As for the toys, Inez is very good at tidying when she's in the mood. She's hardly in the mood, and Mika's worse. He's never in the mood! I usually tell them that if I have to clear their toys, I'm putting their toys away and they won't be seeing those toys for some time. Hahaha and I have a special box for that.
That gets them to tidy up. Mika though usually needs some alone time in the corner to reflect first before he decides to clean up.

Well, back to this morning's conversation, here is my reaction:

"Oh, Inez, Mommy doesn't have to go to work early all the time, except for when Mommy has classes or meetings. Today, for example, Mommy is not early. (The clock shows 8:24 a.m) And Inez has been going to the beach nearly every day except for Tuesday. Is Mommy a bad mommy?"

God bless that child's heart. She shook her head and gave me a hug.

I still feel like I am a bad mother though, that she feels like she gives me trouble. And that it's good for me not to have her around.

Well, I explained to her that my workplace is faraway and that is why I have to leave early and why I have to work. She is a good girl. She understands that we are all victims of circumstances. I wish I could spend more time with my kids too. I am working on getting a job nearer to home. Hopefully, by next year or mid December, I'll get that post I want.

Lohicimos! We did it, hooray! The trials and tribulations of toilet training

2006-11-20T23:02:00.000-08:00

I think we finally did it! I hope it's not too soon to pat ourselves on the back, though. We have been toilet training Mikael for some time now but we really took off his diapers about two months ago, just before Mikael turned 3. We also have been trying to ween both the kids off sleeping in their diapers, and for the past three days, we have not been cleaning up any pee or poo, accidental or otherwise.

Training Mika is not as easy as Inez because you could tell when she wanted to poop and you could quickly carry her to the toilet. Then I told her how proud I was of her and I praised her for being so clever and I promised her THE INCREDIBLES underwear if she could do it every day; and she did. And she got 2 INCREDIBLES undies to show for it. If I'm not mistaken, it's RM10 per undie. Training her to tell people that she wanted to pee was harder. But we never had to wash or clean her accidental poo. And she liked to control to the very last minute.

Mika on the other hand, seemed to be very comfortable in his poo and wouldn't tell anyone that he's done it unless the stink lets the cat out of the bag. Then only, he'd be dragged to the toilet to be cleaned. Even when his diapers came off and he was only wearing his big boy underwear, he would treat it like his diaper and poop in it. One public holiday, we thought we could laze around all day. Hmmph, we spent half the day cleaning up after Mika who was worse than a cat. We had the wash the floor, wash the carpets, wash his underwear, and wash the boy himself. By the time we were done, it was already 3 p.m.! So much for the idea of lazing around.

When we first took off his diaper, we took him to the toilet every half hour. Sometimes he did and sometimes he didn't. Sometimes, he said he wanted to but his real intention was to play with water at the sink. Sometimes, we missed his pee time and he'd pee wherever he was: on his toy motorbike, in the drain, on the carpet, on the floor. We told him if he pee-ed everywhere again, he'd have to stay in the toilet. NOT a good idea, coz he LOVES playing with water. His one joy is playing with the spray and spraying water everywhere. One cannot put a toilet roll in the toilet without it getting wet, courtesy of Mikael.

With Mika, peeing in the toilet was easier but getting him to poop took longer time. (FYI, that was an understatement, but you know what I mean.) It was like he was afraid to poop in the toilet bowl. I tried to train him using the potty but he only used it to play with water. Whenever we took off his diaper, he would not poop the whole day. Sometimes, he would control for two whole days! Finally, we purposely wore him diapers so that he'd poop. Then when it seemed as if he was was about to do it, we quickly took him to the toilet. When he got used to using the toilet, we took off his diapers completely. Then I got him to poop standing up and that helped reduce his fears. I promised him a big fire truck if he could pee and poop every day in the toilet bowl. Now, every time he goes to the toilet voluntarily, he will ask if he can get a cement mixer truck. I told him it is very expensive and we need to save up for it. We actually do coz it costs nearly RM70. Crazy!

Anyway, since Inez is going to be 5, we decided to stop wearing her diapers. The first few days, there were some accidents but no more on Inez's part. Usually, Mika would give me a lot of work. The first week, 2 'no clean-up' days. Then, when I was about to celebrate, 5 days of clean-up in a row! Though I put 'protection' in the form of medical underpads and a plastic sheet underneath the bedsheet, I find that sometimes these move or the children move. Then, we got to know of the existance of DISPOSABLE TABLECLOTHS which costs RM5.60 for 10 sheets. It's very soft like a plastic bag and 1 piece covers 7/8th of a queen sized mattress! I use 2 sheets.

I hope this lasts! I will keep you guys updated if it doesn't.

Parenting isn't easy

2006-11-20T22:49:00.000-08:00

Recently, we had an episode with my son, and we sort of left him outside at night. Of course we made sure the gates were locked and we kept him within our sight. Here goes:

One night, about two weeks ago, upon coming back home from an 'open house', I really needed the ladies', so I rushed into the house leaving my husband to deal with Mika. Mika refused to come out of the car and refused to have my husband carry him in. He said he wanted me. So my husband got the other stuff into the house first, and when he got back to the boy, Mika still refused to come out on his own or be carried. Still, my hubby carried him out but he struggled with my hubby. He still insisted on me going out to get him! My son can be really stubborn when he wants to and I was not appropriately dressed to go outside. So I was like telling my hubby to go get him. My hubby though, got so ticked off with Mika that he threatened Mika that he either came in or Daddy closed the door. Since Mika didn't budge from where he stood and crying, my hubby turned on the porch light, and closed the door.

After about half a minute, I opened the door, called to him but he kept saying, "I want Mommy to carry."

I said, "Why do you want Mommy to carry you? Why don't you walk here? Come, baby. Come in."

He simply continued to cry and waited there for me to come out and carry him.

Finally, I took a square basket, lined it with a pillow, and pushed it out the door, "Here, if you don't want to come in, you can sleep outside in this basket. Are you coming in or not?"

Haha, finally he came in, still crying. He saw that I was serious. I held his hand and walked with him to the sofa. Then I carried him to my lap and hugged the silly boy.

"Silly boy, Mommy sayang(i.e., Mommy love you). Why didn't you want to come in by yourself?
He hugged me back and then fell asleep.

"Silly boy," I said to the sleeping child.

Now, thinking about it, I think I know why he kept insisting on me to carry him though when my husband asked me why the other night, I said, "I dunno!"

When we were out visiting, I asked my son to 'salaam' (something culturally similar to a handshake) and he refused to do it. (BTW, I finally got my 5yo to 'salaam' though I can't remember what I promised her in return for her to 'salaam' people forever but I know i've fulfilled that promise coz if I hadn't, I'll never hear the end of it from my girl.)

Anyway, since he wasn't wearing slippers, when he asked me to carry him back to the car, I told him, "Ask Daddy. Don't expect Mommy to carry you after that horrible display of behaviour." So I guess that was his way of getting back attention from me.

Sigh, it's sure not easy being a parent. But that doesn't give a person the license to be a vindinctive parent.
Were we too strict? I dunno. All I know is that my hubby and I should be a united front coz no matter what, he's still the child and not the boss of us. Giving in to him would have just given him the upper hand and the knowledge that he can simply cry until he gets his way.

Oh-oh, somebody left the Astro Card

2006-11-20T19:52:00.000-08:00

This morning, just before I left for work, I received a phone call from my mom.
"Are you still at home?" she asked.
"Why?"
Apparently, when my husband left them at my mom's, the kids were making so much noise outside that my mom went to see what all the ruckus was about.
"What's going on?" she asked.
Mika answered, "Somebody left the Astro Card at home."
Inez was like, "Stupid! It's WE! WE left the Astro card at home!"
Clearly she exasperated with her brother, who was then suggesting to her to telephone Mommy.
"I don't have a phone! How am I going to call Mommy?"
So, they asked my mom to call me and luckily for them, I hadn't left yet, and so made my way to my mom's just to send them their lifeline. If I did not, ooh, poor Nana! I can just imagine them driving her up the wall!

Activities to do with your kids

2006-11-19T20:09:00.000-08:00

My son is crazy over anything with wheels. I'm sure any Mommy with boys say the same thing. If it isn't cars, it's dinosaurs or pirates! Though Mika isn't that crazy over dinosaurs, he loves pirates yo ho ho ho ho! But most of all, he wants to be a firefighter!
Interestingly, I didn't teach Mika to like cars. It seems as if this great love for cars is natural and innate. Inez has a toy cookie monster cement mixer truck and we had to literally teach her how to play with it. When Mika was old enough to play it, he was pushing the truck all over the place and making engine sounds!
Once I observed Inez and Mika playing with cars:
Inez: I think this car is cold. Let's cover it in with a blanket.
Mika: (banging two cars together) Acdent! Acdent!

This was a year ago or so.

Nowadays, the children are into colouring. Every day, Inez will draw and colour flowers, and rainbows, sometimes, fairy princesses. Her princesses used to be stick people, but now they are getting more meat. Sometimes, Inez will draw a car or two for her brother, who is now also very much into colouring as well.

Mikael doesn't draw on his own, prefering instead to get other people to draw for him. So, every day I have to (or their daddy has to) draw cars, trucks, buses for Mikael, and the boy would take any one of his three fave colours (i.e., yellow, green and blue) and colour all the drawings in one colour! Sometimes two, but usually it's just one.

Recently, I searched the internet for Firetruck printable colouring activities and the ones Mika liked are from: www.apples4theteacher.com
This one can be printed and you can also colour online. The drawing is nice. Other things like frog and caterpillar and fish are nice as well.

If you want to make your own firetruck box toy, I'm sure the kids will enjoy painting the box and messing themselves up. Have just found this just now. So, methinks this will be my weekend project with the kids since they love sitting in boxes, pretending it's a boat or car etc.
From the same site, you can download a whole other load of activities to do with fire-fighting.

Another thing my children love is artpad on www.art.com. I got this from watching TechTV quite some time ago. You need to have Macromedia Flash player to get started.