Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Fighter cock

Make no mistake, little SE is fierce. She does what she wants and if someone tries to stop her, she BAWLS. Real loudly too. My mum says this one is a fighter cock!

Here she is blithely ignoring my calls to come in and change her shoes.

No, I don't hear Mummy calling

And trying to get her to go back after playing outside.

No, I.DON'T.want.to.go.inside

She's small and cute now.  Worst case, we can just lift and carry her (bawling away) to wherever she's supposed to be.  Bet she won't be easy to handle when she's bigger though!

Thursday, December 26, 2013

No school yet

After some agonising, we have decided not to send JE to kindy next year. She will attend only 2 years of kindy before primary school. I'd initially planned to send her together with Jensen, her cousin of the same age who will be starting next year. I do think she is ready and would enjoy/learn at kindy.  So why not?

Well... mainly because we live 45mins away from the kindy located near my parents' house. Kindy starts at 8am, so she'd need to leave our house by 7.15am.  Working backwards, she'd need to wake up around 6.30am.  This girl loves her sleep - I wake her at 8 to 8.30am these days and it's already not easy getting her up! Adjusting our lifestyle (i.e. earlier to bed and earlier to rise) isn't quite possible either. Even if I leave the office at 6pm sharp, it's over an hour before I can reach home and start making dinner. Dinner is served around 8pm and bedtime is 10.30-11pm.

Back to the topic, hubby isn't in favour of sending her to kindy yet for another reason. He says she has many school-years ahead, so let her just play for now. Which makes sense to me, actually.

So it's another year of pure PLAY for my little girl!

My hat nice or not?

Everybody twist and shout

Good day, sir!

I have prepped her that Jensen will be going to school and she will not go yet. That he will have friends, get party packs. She seems ok with it - happy that she doesn't have to get up early, doesn't have to eat fast and can still put her fingers in her mouth.

My back-up plan should she really want to attend kindy... try to get her in half-way through! Will see how. Fingers crossed that everything turns out fine. It is only ONE year of delay after all.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Climb again

I've been slightly slack in taking photos of the kids, so brought my camera when we went out for food. Ended up taking more photos of JE's backside haha.  I had to call her to come and EAT a dozen times throughout the meal!

Climb

She'll turn back, take the proffered mouthful of food and turn away to play again.

What's over there?

Aikss... what to do with this girl??

Fiddle fiddle

The important thing to me is that she does finish her food. But hopefully all this 'force feeding' doesn't affect her future eating habits. I'm thinking that soon I must get her to feed herself - maybe once she has something to do (i.e. select food, scoop into the spoon etc), the playing will reduce. As it is, she will be the very last person to finish at the meal table.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Climb up climb down

JE is hardly still. While watching TV, she holds the edge of the table/chair and jumps. While eating, she would get down and roam around, drive her car, or climb something that's available.  Trying to stop the latter habit is proving to be a challenging task. This girl just doesn't have much interest in food!

Look at me! I can climb so high!

And now the little one is following. Sigh.

Look ah, I can climb here
SE: Me too! I can climb too!

Friday, December 13, 2013

Tupperware again

I posted about my Tupperware hobby earlier... is it becoming an addiction now?  Heh. Pictured here are things NOT in the earlier post. There are more that weren't with me yet when I took these pics. And yep there are more coming. Arggh!

Most ARE being used actually. Except for the odd few that I bought just because people were clearing stocks at a good price.  Also, Tupperware tend to come in sets (of 3, 4, 5 pieces) so sometimes I don't use every single piece. But hubby is pretty good at helping himself to them too!

I do get so happy shopping for, buying, receiving and using these colourful things. :)

These are all our Mummy's tupperware

But this one is my milk bottle. *gulp*

Sunday, December 8, 2013

House in a mess

We have had workmen tramping through the house the past week, making long-delayed repairs and minor improvements. It's trying having messes everywhere and everything not in the usual place. There are also visits to shops to choose tiles, paint and whatnot. Still, I count myself lucky we didn't have to move out as hubby had feared. Also, it's nice to have the job done before CNY.

Fixing, painting, drilling, hacking...

Having small kids around is a nuisance as they do keep touching things they're not supposed to! And someone is always needing attention. It's also hard for them to nap with drilling and hacking noises. Finally resorted to putting them in the maid's room where no work is being done.

Why so dirty? Where's my doggy? How come cannot watch TV?

OKlah, I eat my blueberry waffle and don't ask anything

Looking forward to completion of the work next week!

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Love steamboat

Gotta blog about this place we went to last week. People sit at a counter and take food from the conveyor belt. Typical of a sushi place... but this is steamboat! I'd thought this would be expensive since each plate contains a small amount of food, so was glad to find out it's a fixed price buffet.

My pot of soup nicely boiling away. Notice the stack of plates so far :)

Hubby was happy since he loves steamboat. JE was thrilled at the novelty and the free flow of ice-cream. SE chomped down loads of quail eggs and fish (I didn't want her eating processed food) and ice-cream (oh well, she'd eaten up her mains so some dessert won't hurt). My maid was happy she could eat all she wanted. Bottom line... everyone was happy!

I ate a lot!


Can we come again?

This is 'I love steamboat' at Kota Damansara, price RM35 for adults.

Friday, November 29, 2013

Milk box

While chilling out in the living room one day, SE came over bringing a milk box from the store room. Then she started playing with it.

For my next trick...

Look, I can fit into this box!

Ta-dahh! Applause please!

Kids can be so amusing! Of course, after a while she fell over and started bawling. Kids, heh.

On the subject of milk, I'm slowing down on breastfeeding. I had been worried about nights - she would wake 2-3 times every night, bawl, and I'd have to nurse her back to sleep. Recently she wakes just once and I can pat her back to sleep without offering milk. Looks like my role of milk producer will be over soon... having mixed feelings about that, sigh. Still, SE is 1.5yo now, target well achieved!  *pats self on back* Looking back, it was tough dropping everything twice a day at the office to go and pump milk. I don't think I could have done it another round!

NB: It's time to stop breastfeeding for another reason. SE talks a bit now and comes to me going 'Mekk! (milk)' If her request isn't fulfilled, she will just keep going 'Mekk! Mekk!' at me. Don't wanna continue being harassed by a little girl for milk. :)

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Lollipop balloons

We passed by some product roadshow the other day where there was a clown twisting balloons. So we got into queue. That clown was sooo slow! It was ages before we reached him. JE requested a lollipop balloon. AND THE CLOWN SAID NO!! He said it'd take too long to make and the queue was too long. What bull was that?? A lollipop isn't complicated to make at all. And my kid had already waited that long for her turn. He spoke in Mandarin which JE doesn't understand yet. I told JE to choose something else because this clown doesn't know how to make lollipop (which I suspected was the case). But no, he told me that he does know but it will simply take too long. What to do... JE accepted a flower balloon instead.

Back home, hubby whipped up a bunch of lollipop ballons for her. I *heart* them! Design-wise they're even better than the ones she has gotten before from other clowns. And they didn't take long to make, no sirree!

I have so many lollipops!

(Face sour coz I asked her to stop running around and stand still for a photo)

Friday, November 22, 2013

Bib time

JE and SE are starting to play together now that SE is a little bigger. A recent game is putting on matching bibs. (SE doesn't like them during actual eating time and our stack of bibs hasn't been used for ages!)

JE: Heyy let's put a bib on!

SE: Oo does this mean I get some food?

On another day... put bibs on and then go watch TV.

Don't disturb ok? We're busy watching TV

I do like them doing things together!  For the bibs, I think JE always grabs the red one... this girl always goes for pink/red/purple! Luckily SE isn't too fussy for now.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Eating out sans maid

My maid just requested 4 Sundays off a month to go to church. For hubby and me, that's too many when we have two young toddlers! We compromised at 2 and hopefully that's the end. Last week we went Japanese for dinner during Ilyn's day off.

It was rather stressful. SE had her baby food but refused it once our orders started arriving. She kept reaching out for our food and if you stop this girl from getting she wants, she BAWLS really loudly. She played with the chopsticks and napkins (fine), the wasabi and pickled ginger (NOT fine) and the plates (NOT fine either since they were breakable). She was also moving around a lot and I had to use my leg as a barrier in case she fell off the seat. She bawled quite a few times throughout our meal!

JE? Also climbing around and fiddling with things. She IS older now though and would stop when told off. Only thing is I have to keep asking her to eat or she wouldn't eat much.

Our table was definitely attracting attention in the restaurant! *shy*

SE: I want to play with this plate

The plus side of not bringing the maid, the bill is lower. But even thrifty me agrees with hubby that the additional cost is worth being able to enjoy our meal in peace! It doesn't help that hubby gets grumpy when stressed... and eating with a sour-faced person isn't fun at all.



Saturday, November 16, 2013

Yums sour

Now, what is JE eating? A sour lime plucked from my little plant! Ughh, how can anyone eat anything so sour?? She happily eats fresh umbra off my parents' tree, but calamansi are definitely worse.

Slurpppp ahmmm

SE, don't eat this thing ok?  It's too sour! Oh well... sighh..

Slurpppp ahmmm

Both limes were sucked pretty dry by the girls. Luckily my plant is in a pot and takes ages to produce a small crop, or I'd be worried about gastric problems!

Slurpppp ahmmm

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Breakfast for the girls

Breakfast's up!

Left for JE (stick must be pink), right for SE (not fussy on colour)

Most mornings, SE gets fruit and an egg. The egg is either steamed with some milk or scrambled with butter and milk. Occasionally she has oats with banana or Marmite. This girl is easy, she wakes up all ready for breakfast and always finishes everything up.

JE has fruit and a half-boiled egg. I was super-glad when she accepted the latter - much easier than trying to feed her bread or anything else! Typical result of a half-hour session with much exhortation to 'eat faster, swallow your food, don't keep in your mouth so long, no need to chew and chew etc'.... a quarter piece of bread eaten! Often she spits out the food after a good 5mins in her mouth too, sigh. She's getting tired of egg though. My back-up plan for now is cereal and biscuits.

The whole reason why there is fruit for breakfast is because of JE. Since fruit was about the only thing she ate with minimal fuss, I always included some at breakfast. Now SE gets fruit too... not that she is complaining. :)

Addendum: Welll.... SE finishes her food MOST of the time. But occasionally she doesn't, and that's when she gets special treatment... eating al fresco! Here, with balloons to play with. And a plant to hold. Life is good when you're a little princess!

What? I must have nice environment to eat my breakfast



Friday, November 8, 2013

Pao-pao

SE is in such a pao-pao (want to be carried) stage!

Please Mummy, pao-pao me!

Quite hard to refuse especially now she knows how to call "Mama!" first.  Plus make puppy dog eyes.

Pleeeeaasseee....

Oh well she's not going to be this small and cuddly ever again. Might as well indulge her (and myself) as much as I can!

Monday, November 4, 2013

Science Centre visit

Took the kiddos to the National Science Centre. They're too young for science, but they had such fun with the exhibits! There are plenty of levers/buttons etc to touch and press and turn and wind and see.

Various science exhibits...

Press this to see what happens...

Oo let me take this ball out!

Hey how come got so many of me?

Press this, turn that...

Also a kiddie play area that's just right for JE and SE.  No decent photos of JE as she was JUST too busy running here and there!

I will climb there next

Look! I'm hatching!

There's also a kiddy discovery section.  Again, JE just couldn't stay still enough for decent photos. The lighting is on the dim side so moving kids end up being blurs on photos! SE is slower and easier to photograph hehe.

I'm a mighty grasshopper!

Now I'm this sweet honey bee

Overall there are plenty of things to do and I liked quite a number of the exhibits. I wish it was better maintained but for the admission price of RM6 adults (RM3 for older kids), it's definitely value for money.

Can wash hands here! (Nothing worth touching in the touch pool tho!)


Monday, October 28, 2013

Port Dickson trip

I bought a Milkadeal voucher for RM99 for a 2-room apartment in Glory Beach. My sis and SIL said this place was run down. I was sold by a few features though. Hubby only found out later that my voucher was for Glory beach and also complained. (Eh how come everybody has been to this place except me? Heh)

So.... how was it?

Firstly, the resort didn't have anything to do with the deal - the apartment was owned by a private individual who had only 1 unit. Now I know that individuals can put up such deals... interesting.

The features that drew me in? Well there was...

A beach! Yeh yeh yehh!!

SE's first time! She pointed to the sea and said 'Wo... wo (water)'

There was also...

A playground! Yayy!

And...

A water slide! Watch me go!!

And even animals...

Rabbits and turtles! (Turtle pond is right behind SE here)

Giant arapaima fish! (Lost my brand new Tupperware here, sigh)

Leatherback turtles! (Access only at feeding time)

Even hubby cheered up for some monkey business.

Up!

The shared facilities above were well-maintained. The apartment was clean with a view of the beach, towels/soap/kettle/kitchen utensils etc provided. The beach wasn't anything to shout about, but this IS Port Dickson. I just wanted sand and waves for the kids. JE was 'a little bit scared' of the waves though.

Food-wise, we found a nice corner restaurant a short drive away. This 'dragon phoenix pot' dish was good - fresh seafood in a curry-like soup. Yumss!


So overall... yes, it was a good holiday! :)