Sharing

I was at KFC with Tian, MIL, SIL and her 7 yo and 4 yo sons. I promised them a treat at KFC to stop them from whining all the time when we were trying to shop.

I ordered a large french fries among other foods and divided them among the 3 kids. Then I saw Tian leaving most of her fries on her plate, I asked her if she was full and to share some with her cousins. She said OK. I took most of her fries and put them on the 4 yo's plate, expecting them to share out. The 7 yo began to grab from the plate and 4 yo refused to share with him. The fighting began!

To our surprise, Tian took all the leftover fries from her plate and gave them to her cousins. I just love her attitute. Either she is really caring or she has enough confidence that we will provide her enough when she needs anything.

Earlier when we were shopping, the 4 yo was whining and Tian simply took a brochure from our trolley to 'entertain' him. She was imitating what we did when our 1 yo Tao was crying. The way she did was cute. She took the brochure for her 4 yo cousin and said, 'Neh! Give you to see. See, this is pretty etc.' Imagine a 3 yo consoling a 4 yo. I am so proud of her.

She says.....

Just now, Tao was flipping through a photo album and I heard "Oh, No!" several times.

I thought I had heard wrongly or it was just a random babbling. I approached her and realised that she said "Oh, No!" because some photos had dropped out from the sleeves and she was unable to put them back.

Seaching for Extinct Hardware

As mentioned in my previous post, I have to submit PCB (Potongan Cukai Berjadual or Monthly Tax Deductions) to LHDN (Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri) for employees. I have to key in information of employees into provided software and output into a diskette (We have stopped using diskette eons ago!!) and bring to the bank for payment.

Last month, I submitted the cheque and completed form by post to LHDN in KL as advised by the staff that we had to do manual submission for the first time. Early this month, I began to hunting for below 'dinosaur' at shops selling computer hardware.

The owner of the shop thought I was a teacher as she mentioned only schools were still using diskette drive

I did not managed to buy diskettes from the computer shop as the owner mentioned that their supplier does not supply them anymore. Luckily I managed to get a good friend of mine to get me two diskettes. Thanks, you know who you are :)

My only 2 diskettes for PCB submission purpose

Tian's First Drawing

Tian is 3 years and 4 months old. I have never seen her taking any initiative to write or draw although she has been to her pre-school for one semester.

As I was working on my lap top just now, she was beside me mumbling away and I did not pay attention on what she was doing. Then she showed me this and told me a story.

This is a happy girl like me. I have hair, eyes, nose, mouth, arms and legs.

This is a sad girl. She is crying because she does not have mum and dad. She stays in an orphanage. She is unhappy and that's why she does not have any hair.

I was quite surprised. This is a very simple drawing but I have never seen her draw anything except scribbling on her colouring books and I have long given up hope on her artistic ability. I now really understand that I need to let her learn at her own pace and not to force anything on her.

Short Trip to Desaru Beach

Yesterday, we woke up early and had a lazy morning at home. Hubby and I completed our house chores early and made a last minute decision to go to Desaru Beach which was about 2 hours drive from home.

I quickly packed necessary stuff: spare clothes, towels, food, milk for the kids etc and off we went. We stopped by McDonald's to pack our lunch and ate on our way to save time. Tian slept in the car ( I just love her easy going attitude) but Tao was wide awake all the way although it was supposed to be their napping time.

It was Tao's first trip to the beach. It was a pity it started drizzling within minutes we reached there.

The sky was dark as we reached there and the girls barely touched the sands when it started drizzling. Tian was so reluctant to go to the shelter that I took pity on her and I asked hubby to scoop some sands for the girls to play with.

Tian was contented to play in the shelter.

It was drizzling non-stop until 6:00pm and we decided to leave because it was getting cold. To conclude, our time spent on the journey to and fro the beach was more than the time we spent on the beach. Oh well!

We saw rainbow after the rain.

Hubby consoled me by saying that this trip was just a trial run. We would just plan better next time and choose more suitable season to go to the beach around March or April.

No easy way to earn money

I have been investing in mutual funds on regular basis. Not a lot but I have a few funds that I will top up (a couple of hundreds ringgit just for savings sake) whenever I see the prices dropping in order to capture lower buying price.

The problem is whenever I top up the funds, the fund prices will start to drop so I will ignore them for a while. When I begin to study the prices again, I have missed the good prices to consider selling those funds that I should be able to make some money. Hmmph!!

I guess I can only earn money through hard work. No easy money for me.

Self Trained Potty User

Since last week, Tao has been bringing us her potty when she wants to pee or poo. Sometimes she will miss and only bring her potty to us after she has peed onto her cloth nappy.

She will look for her potty and becomes very anxious if we have forgotten to put it at the same spot where she remembers. Then she will show us her potty and says 'shi shi' (wet) to indicate either she wants to pee or she has wet her nappy.

She is also learning to talk in single syllable words like 'moon' to indicate everything in the sky from stars, moon and lights. 'Nana' for her indicates everything from fruits and vegetables. 'Poo' means fart or poo. And of course she is able to call us papa, mama, ah ma, but not ah kong yet (much to her grandpa's exasperation). She is able to call hubby's brother 'er buo', much to his delight as she actually seldom sees him.

She does not speak as well as Tian when Tian was her age but she understands what we are telling her very well. She is able to carry out our instruction for her like, 'We are going out, bring your shoes here to put on.' Or my MIL would tell me, 'I am going out to get the clothes. Don't let her stand near the door so that she can't go out' and she will quickly walk to the door and wait for her grandma to go out.

She is getting very curious and wants to have whatever that we are eating. I am not that strict with her diet anymore as she is already 16 months although i still cook 'bland' dishes for her (without salt and MSG) and using only liquid amino and vegetable seasoning bought from organics shop. However, I am glad she is still in love with her oats porridge with either fruits or raisins that I prepare for her every morning. At least, she starts the day with healthier choice of food.

She says.....

My MIL was comparing Tao's bowel movement which is a normal once or twice a day with Tian's abnormal ones which is once every two days or even three days.

MIL: Tao Tao is so good. 'Ng ng' at least once a day. You are very 'cha'. (Inferior or not up to that good in Mandarin)

Tian: Yes, I am 'cha' (fork). Mei Mei is 'tang shi' (spoon). Ah Mah is 'tie' (plate). Mama is also 'tie'.

And we all rolled with laughter.

My First Gardening Attempt

Hubby and his partner bought a lot of Podocarpus Macrophyllus, called Luo Han Song or Buddhist Pine locally and planted them randomly around their plantation. It is regarded as feng shui plant in Chinese community recently and its market value increases as it matures.

There were hundreds of leftover plants that they left under a shade due to the reason that there were no space to plant. Hubby has not organised his worker to move the plants to bigger bags for them to grow properly. What a waste!

Last week, I saw huge flower pots for sale at Giant and bought 4 of them. I asked hubby to bring home a few plants as I planned to plant some. One of my florist customer told me that I could display some plants at her shop and she could help to sell off to interested buyers. However, I did not plan to sell them yet as such small plants would not be able to fetch much value.

Yesterday, I transferred the plants from their tiny bags to pots with my MIL's help and advice. That was the first time I attempted gardening and it was not because of interest but as a form of 'investment'. Haha.

Huge pots with ample space for growth without having to transfer to bigger pots in 1 to 2 years

Confinement Preparations

For my first confinement, I did not prepare anything for myself and just let my MIL and my mum buy all the necessities like Chinese herbs, wine etc and I let them plan with my confinement lady regarding my meals. Those dishes were really nice and I could polish off every last grain of rice and last drop of soup.

During my second pregnancy, I became very interested in Chinese herbs and I studied each type of confinement meals to know the benefits of each type of foods like turmeric chicken, kacang-ma chicken, pig trotter in vinegar etc. I bought many types of Chinese herbs and labelled them properly so that my confinement lady would know which types should be consumed during first half of confinement and some to be consumed after 14 days.

Some of Chinese herbs bought for my second confinement like Chong Chau-Cordyceps, Dang Shen-Codonopsis Roots, Kao Li Shen-Korean Ginseng, Pao Shen-American Ginseng, Ren Shen-Ginseng, Yi Mu Chau-Herbal Leonuri or Kacang Ma for Sarawakians, Chuan Xiong-Rhizoma Chuan Xiong, Du Zhong-Eucommia Bark, Dang Kui-Chinese Angelica Root, He Shou Wu-Polygonum, Yu Zhu-Polygonatum, Kei Chee-Wolfberries, Bei Qi-Astragalus Root.

Additional stuff: Dried Longans, Red Dates, Black Dates, Wu Jin Wan, So Ho Wan, Sesame Oil, Sweet Vinegar, Rice Wine, Ginger Wine, Yellow Wine, Red Yeast Wine (Foochow Style), Martell, Dome, Black Beans. (Due to breastfeeding, I would ensure my confinement lady steamed the wines long enough to ensure no alcohol left in my dishes, soups and double boiled chicken essence)

Ingredients for afternoon tea-time: Red beans, glutinous rice, tangerine peel, brown sugar, black sesame (to be ground).

Rice were all replaced and alternate between millet rice, brown rice and multi-grain rice to ensure more nutrition and less starch (ie. fattening).

For bath, I bought pre-packed herbs from Chinese Shop and requested my confinement lady to add lemongrass, ginger and eucalyptus oil. Kiasu, I admit. I also bought 2 types of pre-packed herbs for baby, first type to be used during the first few days to prevent jaundice and second type to be used after that to prevent heatiness in baby.

When I referred to my list of things to buy (yes, I am a hoarder), it seemed like I had bought a lot but I finished most of the herbs because I had confinement food for 40 days and more. I love confinement food and that was why I could happily polish off whatever my confinement lady cooked and she said she seldom saw new mum who would always finish her meals. No wonder my colleagues were shocked to know what I have consumed during my confinement period. I will post more pictures of my meals in coming posts.

She says.....

I was hanging clothes outside the house this morning and took a peek into the living room to see if any of the girls were up to mischief. I saw Tian who was sitting on the sofa put her foot on her sister's head and Tao was annoyed.

Me: Tian, don't bully Mei Mei. She does not like having your foot on her head. Do you like people putting their foot on your head too?

Tian: I do not bully Mei Mei. I am just using my foot to 'sayang' her.

Me: *Argh*

I miss my confinement period

Most people thought that I was crazy when I told them I enjoyed my confinements a lot. That was because I was being pampered like an 'empress'. I had my confinement lady, my mum and my parents-in-law to help out and they had unspoken job delegation.

1) Confinement Lady: Cooked confinement food (breakfast, tea time-missed if I had late breakfast, lunch, tea time, dinner, supper), helped out with baby (bath, changing diapers, feeding milk (formula and expressed milk etc)), slaughtered chicken (yes, we bought live chicken and the auntie would slaughter the chicken and cook it immediately so that I could have fresh chicken), washing baby and my clothes, boiling red dates drink, preparing herbal water for taking bath.

2) My Mum: Helped to take care of the baby when confinement lady was busy so that I did not have to touch cold water to clean baby's bum, helped feeding baby and washing my pump for expressing milk. When baby no.2 came, my mum also helped to entertain elder girl, Tian so that she would not disturb me.

3) My parents-in-law: Helped to buy food for the family and for me like pigs' stomach, liver, kidney, chicken, kampung eggs, pomfret fish, additional Chinese herbs etc.

4) My job: Tried to express milk as much as possible for the baby before she learned how to suckle. I took care of the baby at night but my mum and confinement lady would take care of the baby from morning around 7:00am until baby slept at night around 9:30pm.

I had a lot of rest but I did not treasure the time I should be resting. I kept on reading magazines and surf net when my mum asked me to rest my eyes.

I will be writing some posts regarding confinement as a record for future references in case my sister or friends need them.

How would you choose names for your children?

Choosing a name for an unborn baby is very important to every parents. For me, at least. It is not just a matter of choosing good sounding name with good meaning but for me, I have to ensure the number of strokes in the combination of characters reflects a good hidden meaning as well.

Most people will scoff at this practice but I just want to ensure everything that is within my control will bring the best for my children. I heard from my BIL mentioning most of his colleagues in Singapore will also practise this when choosing names for their babies. I am not the only 'kiasu' one here.

I will only check on the hidden meanings from books. If it is good enough, I will use the names. However, I know some people will wait until the birth of the child to get the year, month, day and time of birth (ba zhi) for a naming expert/ fortune teller/ medium to choose a name. I am not that extreme yet.

I heard that there is a lady expert in choosing names in my hometown who is able to tell a person's characters by just studying the names. It is so accurate that even the most skeptical person would be amazed. Normally her 'story' regarding the person's life will coincide with the prediction of the ba zhi. So I come out with the conclusion that when we think of a name for our baby, the destiny is fixed and it will affect the time the baby is born, ba zhi. Or we can say the other way round. After the baby is born, the parents will use the ba zhi for choosing names. The names chosen will then reflect whatever contains in the ba zhi. However, some people believe that if the ba zhi for the child is not that favorable, choosing a name with good meaning with rectify the ba zhi a bit. Simply choosing a name might magnify the negativity.

This lady mentioned that when parents choose certain name for their children, the children's character will be moulded to fit the hidden meaning behind the names. However, I do not deny the importance of upbringing by the parents as well. I have not met this lady yet so I am not able to judge her accuracy yet. Hopefully I am able to meet her one day and hear the 'story' behind my name.

No matter there is truth in this or not, choosing a good name is better than deliberately challenging destiny by choosing names with less than favorable meaning. Don't you think so?

* This post is only a reflection of my opinion regarding above mentioned title and it is not intended to offend anyone who thinks otherwise.

Shopping Continues!

My business is not exactly thriving but I have a customer who orders certain fixed amount of cut foliage from me weekly. Her weekly order is more than a few florists' orders added together.

The problem is every time I deliver those cut foliage to my customers, I will go to shopping centres or grocery shop after that. That means I will spend the money, if no more, that I have just received.

The only excuse I give myself is that I will need to buy those things no matter business transaction is done or not. At least I am not withdrawing money from ATM. Heh!

Excuse for buying: Buy 3 tins of MG 1.6kg FREE 1 pack o MG 600g. Need I say more?


Excuse to buy Ah Hong's Healthy Medicated Diets: My MIL likes to get cooking ideas from cookbook and this book contains a list of benefits of Chinese Herbs as well as nutrition of normal foods that we take for granted like black bean paste and fermented bean curd. (Ha! Ha! As if this is very important)

Excuse to buy Diet Therapy for Infants: I have been wanting to buy this book for a long time. The first time I saw this book was when Tao was a few months old. Still breastfed and never got sick. Tian had always been healthy and never even cough before going to pre-school. So I thought I had taken care of a child without needing this book so I probably would not need it. This book was at 20% discount today and I made a decision to buy it because the two kids had just recovered from cough, fever, flu a few weeks ago. If you read my posts before here and here, I prefer natural therapy for children instead of giving them multivitamins (even though from organics origin). This book contains recipes for children who are suffering from cough, constipation, nappy rash etc and the ingredients are natural foods like barley, red beans, chinese yam, fruits. I regret I did not buy this book sooner. I am not doing promotion for this book. I am just being a busybody to share the good points about this book and to justify buying it :)


Excuse to buy: Ermmm...... What can I say? I finished using my moisturizer and when I was buying Phytomilk for the kids at organics shop, I simply asked the shop owner types of organic moisturizer that she recommends. I was tempted by the ingredients like daisy, rosehips oil, avocado oil, evening primrose oil, green tea, essential oil etc instead of my normal moisturizer ingredients like glyceryl stearate, cyclomethicone, steareth-21, ethyparaben, isobutylparaben, propylparaben. Yikes! I read that parabens will disturb our endocrine system and it enters our bloodstream when rubbed onto our skin. Do you think this excuse is valid for buying organics (but more pricey) skincare?

Books for Tian

I have stopped buying toys for Tian for a long time. Reason: She never asks for toys when we go shopping and even if I buy one for her, she will only play for a few hours and very seldom after that.

She is happy when I buy books for her and will pester for me to read and explain to her. This is a good habit but I have been guilty of not allocating a lot of time to read to her.

Books that I bought some weeks ago at discounted price

One thing I do not understand is that she likes reading but when I try to do revision on her flash cards from her pre-school, she is very reluctant to learn. I will need to bribe her by telling her that I will read the books that I have bought for her if she finishes revising her flash cards.

Did I do wrong in showing too many colourful pictures to her since young? The principal in her new pre-school told me that children will only love words and letters if we do not show them colourful pictures before 2 years old. This is to prevent them to be attracted to pictures instead of words. She showed me the materials that they use for teaching are plain and mostly without colours.

I do not know if this is true but since Tao does not like looking at books, I might be able to start showing her letters and words (not pictures) when she is older and see how it goes. I think my parents-in-law will think I am mad if I start flashing letters and words to Tao instead of pictures.

Understanding Monthly Tax Deductions

I went to LHDN (Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri) in the city a few days ago to apply for employer income tax number for the company as well as employees' income tax number. The officer taught me how to download a software that would reflect income tax deductions from employees' salary that we would need to bring to the bank when paying for Monthly Tax Deductions.

I began to understand how salary my salary was deducted before. Employers will refer to Schedule of Monthly Tax Deductions to determine amount of tax to be deducted from employee's salary. That is why it is important to let employer know any changes of marital status, whether one's spouse was working and how many children in the family. These information will ensure accuracy of deduction so that one does not need to claim overpaid PCB (Potongan Cukai Berjadual or Monthly Tax Deductions in English) the following year when we need to submit Borang B or BE.

Schedule of Monthly Tax Deductions provided

I noticed newer generations of government servants were very polite, efficient, helpful and understanding. We do have people around us (especially older generations and those influenced by them) who will not hesitate to criticize government servants but I am sure these services from government servants will continue to improve.

Shopping Spree

I am always ready for shopping whenever my parents visit me. My family members are the only people who can tolerate my 'passion' for shopping. I could walk around one shopping centre from morning until night (resting only for meals) even when I was pregnant. I would also lug around my two daughters and my 'unwilling' hubby for shopping when there were nobody at home to look after them.

When my parents visited me last week, I brought them shopping and bought a lot of stuff. The excuse that I used was 'These are all for Chinese New Year and I will not have time to go shopping after they left'. So let's see my loot below.


For Tao, I bought 3 sets of clothes for Chinese New Year, 1 pyjamas (my kids must have new pyjamas for CNY as my parents practised this when we were young), shoes bought by my mum. I will need to buy new socks and some comfortable clothes to wear at home. This is only the minimum requirement as I always end up buying at least 5 sets of clothes for each of them.


For Tian, I only managed to buy a dress for her, 2 pyjamas and the Jusco brand blouse and shorts were too cheap not to buy so I could let her wear those at home. I will need to buy at least 2 more sets of Chinese New Year clothes, a pair of shoes and socks for her.

I bought those at Padini. I have been wanting to by a cardigan but nice ones were not on sales before. These are not considered as Chinese New Year clothes though.


I bought the blouse because it looked nice after being worn.


This pair of shoes was really cheap after discount due to no sizes left. Excuse to buy: Shoes were flat so I could carry Tao when going out. Not that I never carry Tao in high heels before. Haha.


This shirt was expensive even though after 50% discount but hubby did not like the faded effect. He would wear whatever clothes I buy for him anyway because he disliked going shopping and trying on clothes. So I will buy for him any clothes that I think will look nice on him.

I have been busy.....

Last three weeks were busy weeks for me. Florists began to orders cut foliage from me but quantity was really small and each florist would only order once every two weeks. What I had heard was that most of the florist here tend to plant some species on their own and they would only order from suppliers when there were huge orders from their customers.

I was busy not because of the orders but because I did not fix a day with them for delivery. I ended up delivering one small batch of leaves to customer A and received a phone call from customer B requesting for same types of leaves the following day. I will need to come up with an agreement with them so that I can save some petrol.

My mum came two weeks ago and my dad five days ago and both of them went back to home town yesterday. They went to Resort World Casino in Singapore with my PILs last Friday using tourist bus and it was a good deal. Each person paid SGD100 that included bus fare, SGD10 meal vouchers, SGD100 betting chips (not exchangeable for cash, one needed to place bet and only the winning chips could be cashed), some betting vouchers that needed to be topped with cash of similar value.

I planned to bring them to Desaru but the kids and my mum were not well due to the hazy condition here. We ended up going shopping most of the time. I wanted to bring my mum to buy clothes but I ended up buying lots of stuff for Tian and Tao. I saw some really pretty dresses for the kids that costed above RM90 and some branded ones above RM120!! I kept on telling myself not to buy as kids grow so fast. Only if I have more orders for leaves, then I will consider to use the extra income to buy for them.

My First Business Transaction

I have been planning and making strategies for past two weeks and I did my first business transaction just now. Yeah!!

My hubby is doing plantation business for cut foliage for export purpose and I always see them scrapping foliage that is not up to their 'export quality' standard but is still considerably good.

Two weeks ago, I came out with an idea to sell their cut foliage to florists around my housing area. My hubby was not interested at all and thought the volume that they would order would be very small but I managed to persuade him to bring me some samples to show to the florists. The first time I went with the 'export quality' foliage and I could feel that they immediately shut me off when they told me directly that they were not able to afford this quality at higher price and they were always using 'rejected' foliage.

I went home and revised my strategy. I asked hubby to bring me 'Grade B' quality samples and went to distribute to them again. They were more friendly to me the second time I went as I told them I understood their need and I thought I could supply them foliage at the quality and price that was agreeable to them.

Last weekend, I received my first order from one of the florists. I was happy although the amount is very meagre. At least I knew that my strategy worked. Hubby laughed at me but still brought the quantity that I wanted to deliver to the florist. I told hubby I would do this business professionally with him. I would pay him the cost that they normally sell to their customer and I would only earn the margin that I had marked up.

My first batch of cut foliage sold to florist

I do not know if there will be more orders from the florists but I am keeping my fingers crossed. My hubby thinks that I am playing 'masak-masak' but I have more purpose in life when I plan, make strategy and think how to proceed with this business.

Tao's Favourite Past Time

Free Labour for Majlis Perbandaran Kulai

Picking up leaves, pebbles, soil from the ground and stuffing them into her mouth when we are unaware

Donating Stuff to Orphanage

I went for breakfast on Sunday with my girls and hubby and there was a small sized road show for parents and kids. There were singing competition, colouring competition, story telling etc. I noticed there was an area for recycling organized by an orphanage nearby. I did not even know there was an orphanage near my house and I had never heard my friends talking about it as well. It showed how uncaring this society had become.

After lunch, I gathered my bags of old clothes and boxes of old magazines and asked hubby to fetch me to pass my stuff to the recycling committee. When I reached there, they told me it was only until 12:00pm and gave me the address to pass my stuff directly to the orphanage. It took me more than half an hour to find it.

I passed my old clothes and magazines to them. They thanked me and I had to resist the temptation to check my stuff again to ensure I really do not need them anymore. I told myself, 'For Goodness Sake! You packed these stuff more than 1 year ago and never needed to retrieve any item. Just let go and you will find space for newer things to come.'

So I said good bye to them and left, feeling good about myself. I educated Tian about orphanage and how lucky she was to have mum and dad who loved and cared about her.

I plan to do more spring cleaning and de-cluttering these coming weeks.

Hard Anodized Wok

I have never thought that I would be so happy about buying a wok. I am falling into 'auntie' category.

I have been searching around for a value for money wok. The one that my MIL is currently using is too big for my liking. I only cook for my kids and sometimes simple dishes for the family so I do not like to lug around the big traditional wok for cooking and washing.

I planned to buy Tefal non-stick pan but after reading an article about poisonous fumes from the pan when cooked under high temperature (I am a Chinese, so it is inevitable) I dropped the idea. Stainless steel wok that I found looked more like aluminium wok and the quality on the handle etc was bad.

I went to Jusco to look for anodized wok a few weeks ago but all the good quality woks costed more than RM150. So I decided to wait for member's day to arrive before I go and buy.

Last week, I saw in the newspaper the same brand that I planned to buy at Tesco at 50% discount and quickly suggested to hubby to go shopping there. Ta da......



I am so happy. The quality of this wok is good and it not too big for daily handling and most important thing is that it costs less than RM100. Hehe!

Nutritional Supplements for My Girls

It has been a month since I started to feed Tian and Tao with Multivitamin mentioned here. The effect is quite good. Both of them seldom have runny nose anymore. Even if they sneeze and cough, they will get better after taking medication once or twice (leftover from their previous visit to family GP).

The result is more significant in Tao. My MIL says she looks healthier (not that pale anymore) and fleshier but I think she is still in the 'mini size category'.

I feed them only once a day and one bottle have to be consumed in a month. After the first bottle is finished, I will stop feeding them and see how it goes. Children have to build up their immune system and cannot depend too much on nutritional supplements, that's what I think.

A visit to orchid plantation

Last Monday, I went with my hubby to visit his customer who owns an orchid plantation. After having discussion with him, he brought us around his plantation and I had an enjoyable time admiring different species of orchids.

Enjoy the photos below:

Starts Walking and Says 'Mama'

Since 18 Sep, Tao is able to walk unaided and she does not crawl anymore. She likes to go outside to walk around.

This is the first time we brought her outside and let her walk on her own

She is able to squat from standing position to pick up things and stand up again

She also starts calling me 'Mama' and means it.

There is one bad habit though. She tends to hit us when she is annoyed and does not get what she wants. If I reprimand her or smack her arm, she will cry very pitifully and rolls about on the floor. Nobody teaches her to do that and Tian certainly does not behave in this way when she was Tao's age.

Decision on Pre-school

After discussion with hubby, I went to pay for RM1000 deposit for Tian's pre-school next year. We decided to let her go to a different pre-school, G as mentioned in my previous post.

When I went to the pre-school to make payment yesterday around 12:00pm, I saw all the cars driven to fetch the children were imported cars like Toyota Estima, Toyota Wish, Vios, Honda Accord etc. It made me think, 'Do these parents send their children to that pre-school because they can easily afford the school fees or they really understand the need to expose their children to better learning environment to prepare them better for Primary School?' But of course the rich had more choices than the rest of us.

However, the pricipal did tell me before that parents who plan to send their children to a popular private primary school starting with letter 'O' will send their children to this pre-school.

We are not well off but we are just willing to invest in children's education. Hubby says we can go to 'Tea Garden' less and go to coffee shop more for breakfast in future. I tell him the most realistic way is to earn money 'fast fast'.

Sleeping through the night, at last!

Tao has been sleeping through the night since last week. I have also stopped breastfeeding her before sleep for last two days.

The first day to wean her was not planned at all. We were having dinner at a small town near hubby's hometown and the journey took almost an hour. After feeding her formula milk, we left her at her car seat and she slept until we reached home and did not wake up until the next morning.

Yesterday I brought her to our room to sleep and she tried to ask for 'nen nen'. I told her 'no more' and gestured with my hand, which she understood and she lied down to sleep without creating fuss. I was glad!

I just hope that she will continue to sleep through the night and I can start planning for holidays (getaways). Ha! Ha! Ha!

Sweet Potato Muffins

A friend of my hubby's family who plants vegetables gave us a box of sweet potatoes two weeks ago. The quality of the sweet potatoes is good, sweet and without too much fibre.

I have been adding to Tao's dishes or soup. My MIL cooks porridge with sweet potatoes and sweet potato soup (dessert with ginger and dried longan) regularly and we are still left wth 1/4 box of sweet potatoes.

As I baked banana muffins before, I replaced bananas with sweet potatoes and modified the recipe a bit and voila.....

They were not as fragrant as banana muffins but surprisingly, Tian loved them and could finish the whole muffin each time she had one as snack.

Before and After Pre-school

Tian has shown some improvement in her writing and colouring after 2 months of pre-school. I tried to guide her in writing (tracing) and colouring before pre-school but she refused to let me guide her hand and would simply scribble and colour as she liked. I had since gave up guiding her and left it for her teachers to handle this stubborn little girl.

Colouring before pre-school

Colouring after 2 months of pre-school

At least she can colour one area by one area. She likes to colour only small area and refuses to cover larger area. If we 'force' her to colour larger area, she will complain that her arms are sore.

Writing before pre-school

Writing since pre-school

She can trace the dots but is still impatient to follow the dots properly. Impatience is in her genes (but I am sure not from me, haha).

Aftermath of Car Accident

I went to the workshop last Saturday to pass some documents before the workshop can proceed to repair my car. I passed to them 'Perakuan Pendaftaran Kenderaan', Private Car Schedule (Insurance Policy) and my IC and driving license as well as my husband's IC and driving license (as car owner).

My Police Report. Private information covered with Tian's colour pencil

The clerk was kind enough to e-mail to me photos taken at the accident so that I can update in this blog and I have also got a photostated copy of my police report. Who knows I might need it to make complaint about absence of traffic light at that junction in newspaper if I have time and nothing better to do. Heh! Heh!

The damage on my poor car

The van swung 180 degree after knocked by me, bumped onto the divider and knocked the right front of the Waja on the left. Imagine how 'light' this van is and I doubt on the safety factor of this type of van and it is used to fetch children to and fro pre-schools!!

The damage on the Waja

My daughter now view me as a mum who will simply knock into cars. Whenever I drive her out and there is a car in front of us, she will quickly grab her booster seat and says, 'Mama, be careful of the car in front. Don't knock into the car, OK?' Hmmmph.

Need to decide on pre-school again

Before I enrolled Tian into her current pre-school, I have also 'book' a place in another pre-school. This pre-school, G has only classes for 4-6 year olds and it does not provide day-care. So the teachers are only committed to teaching instead of taking care of them after class. I had seen the syllabus and was quite impressed with what they have committed to teach the students. I enrolled Tian to her current pre-school because they had 3 year old syllabus and I wanted to expose her earlier so that she would be more prepared to go to Pre-School G.

Early this week, the principal from G called me to confirm if I would let Tian to start schooling there next year. Since they have a lot of students on waiting list, I will need to book a place for Tian with RM1000. The monthly school fees will be RM100 more expensive than her current pre-school and it is situated a few kilometres further away from my home. My only concern is that Tian has just got used to her current pre-school and I am worried she will need time to settle down again in a different pre-school.

Her current pre-school standard is also fine but I think they do not expose the students to different languages evenly. In Tian's case is Bahasa Melayu and she is not able to read the words in her book yet. She has shown improvement in tracing lines, colouring and reading (by heart and not actually recognizing words) though. I do not know if I am expecting too much by judging a pre-school from a 3 year old kid's performance and she has only been there for 2 months.

However, the principal at G told me that we need to ensure our children master their languages so that they will not suffer in Primary School especially if we intend to send her to Chinese Primary School. They will have 7 subjects to cope and a lot of homework. If they are slower, they might be put in separate classes with weaker students. I will need to confirm on this with my friend who has sons in Chinese Primary School. The principal told me that if parents and pre-school work together, the students will be able to cope well in early primary school years without resorting to tuition.

I went to see the principal at Pre-school G just now to understand more on the syllabus. As I walked out, I saw a mother bringing her son and told the principal she wanted to enrol her son for 4 year old classes next year. The principal directly told her their classes was full already. So I believe what she says about they have many students on waiting list and needs us to confirm a place with them eventhough there are still several months until end of the year.

I am in dilemma. My initial intention to send Tian to her current pre-school is to give her a better headstart at pre-school G but now I really need to consider properly. Since Tian's pre-school is having Parents Day tomorrow, I will go to meet the teachers and see how it goes....

Craft-ing Session!

Tian always wants to seek for my attention when I am doing my work at my laptop. She will try tracing dots or colouring but will end up asking me to do it with her.

Last Saturday, I thought of making lantern with her. I prepared the materials for her and she spent quite some time (without me) trying to glue pieces of papers onto the toilet roll.

Prepare materials as below.

1 toilet roll

1 piece of blank paper cut to the size to wrap around the toilet roll

Some coloured paper cut into different shapes (Use old magazines to be more environment friendly)

Scissors

Glue

Straw (Those bigger in diameter type used for drinking tea/ beverages with starchy pearls)

Any string for tying onto the straw

Step 1.

Apply glue and wrap blank paper onto toilet roll.

Step 2.

Depending on your kids' age, you might need to cut out different shapes from coloured papers for your kid. Kids who are able to handle scissors can be encouraged to do the cutting.

Step 3.

Let your kids glue the pieces of papers onto the toilet roll.

Step 4.

Make two holes opposite each other at top of the roll. Make a small cut at the straw for tying the toilet roll.

Plants in my garden

There are a few plants that I did not mention in my previous post about my vegetable patch.

Spring Onions

I am not sure if these are called spring onions because the bulbs and stems are much smaller compared with what I used to buy when I was studying overseas. Spring onion contains antioxidant, vitamin C for immunity, decreases high cholesterol level, sugar level and blood pressure. Having these plants is really a convenience because we usually require only a small quantity to use as toppings on dishes or a few stalks to add to stir fry dishes for more flavour.

I am not sure what these are called in English. Direct translation from Hokkien would be 'Red Bamboo Leaves'. The leaves can be cut, washed and boiled for consumption to get rid of 'heatiness' in our body. Sugar can be added for better taste. My MIL mentioned to me that pregnant woman should not consume this.

Okra (Lady fingers)

My FIL planted about 20 plants of this and since they start to bear pods, we have okra dishes on alternate days but we can never have enough of them. Stir-fry with either anchovies or dried shrimps, steamed with pork, cooked with curry dishes, assam (tamarind) dishes are some of the dishes prepared by my MIL who is a very good cook. I will also stir-fry with garlic with a dash of liquid aminos for 1 year old Tao and she loves it. I feed her regularly because they are free from pesticides and chemical fertilisers. My 3 year old Tian who dislikes vegetables does not mind having okra dishes as well. I think this is due to we have too much of them and since they are free, we will pluck those okras when they are still young and tender, so the texture is really fine and tastes sweet.

Chinese Yams (Shan Yao/ Huai Shan)

Our neighbours who pass by our house will always wonder why we neglect to trim this bush since my parents-in-law take such good care of our vegetable patch. This is in fact the leaves of Chinese Yam (Shan Yao/ Huai Shan) and we have to let it grow abundantly so that we will have fuller roots to harvest early next year. Yes, it takes that long. This Chinese Yam that we are growing are slightly different with those we can buy at wet market. The flesh at the root is purplish whereas normal Chinese Yam is white. We consume these yams by preparing as desserts or porridge.

It is believed to benefit kidneys and female endocrine system but there is no scientific evidence to support safety and effectiveness of the claims yet. My parents-in-law said their parents would prepare Chinese Yam porridge for them whenever they got sick as a child as they were too poor and lived too far away from the city to consult a doctor.

Chillies

Chillies contain high levels of vitamin A and C as immune boosters and antioxidant. Like spring onions that I have mentioned above, it is good to have chilies in my garden because we will not feel obliged to buy a whole bunch of chilies when we need only one or two for flavouring dishes or dipping. The rest will normally rot away before we need it again.
This type is chili is too hot for my liking though but the Indian guards who patrol our neighbourhood will certainly ask for some when they see us around.

Car accident

I have always considered myself as a cautious driver but I have had a few minor accidents before.

First accident I had was many years back when my hubby fetch me to visit their family plantation quite far away from main road (tar road). He was driving along bumpy red soil road and I asked him to let me try to navigate the 'jungle road'. We came across a puddle at a T-junction and my hubby told me to drive 'faster' past the puddle so that our car would not get stuck. I listened to him, pressed onto the accelerator hard and swerved right. However, I accelerated too hard and could not go straight in time and went straight into a ditch. My hubby did not know to laugh or call me stupid. Some farmers passed by and used their lorry to pull our car out.

Second accident happened when I was driving along a long stretch of road. When I came to a traffic light, I saw the light turning yellow and decided to stop instead of rushing pass. The car behind me could not stop in time. Luckily, I saw the car coming fast towards me and I released my brake and tried to go forward but the car still knocked my bumper. The lady was so scared that she was trembling as she wrote her phone number to me. I was quite calm at that time and asked her to see if her children were injured. I recognised her as she was a teller in a bank that I always go so I was not worried about compensation.

Today, I meet with car accident again! I went to fetch my daughter, Tian from her pre-school and went to petrol station to fill up petrol. It was raining when I drove back home. As I reached a junction, a van turned despite seeing my car going straight. I honked at him, pressed on the brake and made a slight turn to the right to avoid him but his van was not fast enough and I knocked the left rear of his van. I could not swerve in time as the wheels were locked when I braked due to no ABS function. The impact of my car hitting the van caused it to bump into another car stopping at the junction. It was a funny scene as the innocent driver told me she saw our car knocking and she had already stopped her car but did not expect she would be hit as well. The driver turned out to be a driver of a pre-school as I saw the pre-school logo on his shirt (I won't dare to let my kids to be fetched by 'bas sekolah' anymore).

I quickly called my hubby to come. The driver acted blur and told me to claim insurance. I said, 'Yes, claim insurance but YOUR insurance, not MINE.'

He said he wanted to leave first because he had to fetch the children back home. Luckily I was calm enough at that time and did not panic (Maybe due to past experience :p). I told him, 'To claim insurance, you need to make police report so you need to wait.' Luckily, I did not foolishly let him go after he gave me his name card. Without police report, I would not be able to claim compensation on my car repair which I think will be very expensive looking at the damage done.

The ever-ready 'Towing service' arrived and told me to make police report with him and they will settle the rest of the bills with the driver's insurance company. So my hubby called his dad to come to fetch Tian home and went to police station with me. I made my report and the person in charge of the towing company told me they will take a few days to settle the insurance issues and will repair my car like new!!

I honestly marvel at the efficiency of the towing service. In fact, there were two companies coming to us but the guy who reached first shooed away the second guy. I guess economy is bad and people have to stay competitive in order to survive. If only every organisations are as efficient (you should know which organisations I am referring to), we would have much better place to live in.

I remembered this morning when I went out with my hubby and parents-in-law for breakfast, I removed Tian's booster seat so that we could sit comfortably. When I wanted to fetch Tian in the afternoon, I was considering to take time to put the booster seat back on the passenger seat or not. So I thought, better be save than be sorry and went to my bonnet to get the booster seat. When we left the petrol station, I remembered to put the seat belt on Tian. Otherwise she would have been hurt from the impact. Sometimes we do take short cuts when we think the distance from her pre-school to our home is so near and do not bother with booster seat when we have placed it in bonnet. After this incident, I will ensure my kids are properly strapped in car seat (for Tao) and booster seat (for Tian) every time we go out.

* Photos will be uploaded soon.

Our little garden

We have a little vegetable patch in from of our house. Plants are planted by my parents-in-law without using chemical fertilisers and pesticides. We will collect vegetables and fruits peels, water from washing rice, vegetables and fruits etc and place them on the soil as natural fertilizers and the plants are growing so well.

Screwpine leaves

Screwpine leaves (Pandan leaves) are use to add flagrance to foods and desserts. It is rich in anti-oxidant and anti-cancer properties.

Lemongrass

Lemongrass is also used in cooking and I used a lot during confinement in my food as well as in boiled water for taking bath. It is antibacterial, antifungal and improves blood circulation.

Aloe vera

We use aloe vera for surface burns by applying the gel found in the succulent leaves on affected skin area as it has skin-soothing and healing properties. We also consume aloe vera by scrapping the gel of the skin and cook as desserts. Pregnant women should not consume aloe vera juice and desserts.

Basil Leaves

Basil leaves are used as spices for cooking. They are anti-inflammatory, anti-stress and purify blood.