Can I be her friend?

Oh dear oh dear oh dear!

Just during lunch at the church cafeteria today, a young man who's a trainee at the "special needs" church training centre approached me, asking me if I would allow him to be friends with my girl. I thought it weird, and I've seen him around before (but never talked) so I politely told him she's very shy (which is true). Besides I really didn't want to appear rude as he asked me in public and not to humiliate him because he's "different".

After lunch, he saw Vic running around with William and then he commented that she likes to run. I was like, yea... and then he asked me if I'd allow her to follow him out when he gets to know her, and he has a swimming pool in his house so she can go swimming with him!!!

OM goodness!!! Inside me, I'm ringing red alert red alert, weirdo on the prawl! Quickly I told him, but... she's very shy she probably wouldn't want to as she doesn't know him, etc and then moved along.

All these while, Vic was not with me. Thank God.

Back at home, I asked Vic if she's follow any stranger, uncle or aunty, go swimming or shopping or any sort of activity, and she affirmatively answered, "No." We've had this chat before, not to talk or follow strangers, and it's good we have stories about big bad wolves going in disguise (eg, The Wolf & The Seven Young Kids) and I reiterated to her again that bad people can disguise to be friendly, kind uncle/aunty. NEVER NEVER NEVER talk, accept things, or follow them!!!

So, the next time he comes up to me, I will just tell him nicely that we are not interested and whether or not that hurts his feeling because he's "different", I think this is the right thing to do.

Parents, never let your kids out of your sight, even in compounds or places familiar to you/them.

Her humour in the morning

When Vic started kindy at 3, this sleeping beauty used to take half an hour just to open her eyes in the morning, and then the next 15 minutes to clean up and change (with my help of course), but for most of last year and this year I'm happy to report that she's quicken a lot, and cut short the process from slumberland to cleaned-up-changed status within 15minutes.

Bravoooo!!

And some mornings she has this humor turned on too... for a child who used to be grumpy and crying just because she was put in sitting position or because daddy took some of her space on her bed in the mornings... this is also a big leap!

Like this morning, she told me with her eyes still closed, that she can't get up because her body was glued to the bed!!!

And then at the dining hall, I told her to wear her socks first while I heat up her breakfast. When I came out, the maid was wearing her socks and I expressed shock! And what was Vic's excuse? "Oh, I don't have hands, I am a shark... see? These are my fins!" and she waved her "fins" around for effect.

AAhh, she's such a darling with the charming sweet smile. The other day she got another compliment for being such a beauty (sometimes by strangers too, like the other day at the Immigresen) and the nice aunty looked at her face to even examine her... then said she's got such beautiful eyes! Haha... but as usual, Vic is the super-shy-ultra-cool girl (comment from a classmate's parent last year) who didn't respond with a thank you or a smile. Aiseh... have to train here abit!

This week's reading progress

Victoria's reading for this week. Target one page per day, with revision of previous pages.

Page 1

... Woody the cowboy and the toys in Andy's toy box had a meeting. Andy was moving house next week, so his birthday party was being held today and the toys were panicking. Birthdays always meant new toys, and they were all worried about being replaced.

Page 2

... Woody sent the Green Army Men to spy on Andy's party. They set up a baby monitor inside a plant then broadcast descriptions of Andy's presents as they were unwrapped. Nothing sounded too threatening - until the last present. All the kids gasped.

Page 3

... Then suddenly Andy and his friends raced into his room with the new toy. They ran around happily, then rushed out again - leaving the mystery toy in Woody's spot on Andry's bed. It was a Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger. "Howdy," Woody introduced himself.

Words highlighted are the ones she has problem pronouncing as of this afternoon's status. We spent 3 hours to revise through these three pages. Frustrating part is, sometimes she knows the words, sometimes not. I can't tell if she's memorizing or guessing or she is just flipping in between moods. Ahh well, do whatever I can.

The frog, the cat, the horse, the girl and medicine!

You would think that William is such a boyish boy, with all his craze over trucks and heavy machineries, and then cowboys and horses and such...

The frog
And then he has this girly influence by his mummy and much-adored jie jie - on soft toys! A year back, when he was shopping with hubs, he laugai-ed and pointed to a frog soft toy that he wanted, which hubs obliged, and then he hugged it all the time, well, back at home it was once in a while.

Fat Hailey aka Cowgirl
And then there is the pink doll, a Heh Heh replica, but newer version because this was the spare that we bought during Victoria's toddler years, afraid that Heh Heh will one day meet her end and then we'll have to face a crying princess. So we bought, but Vic rejected it back home simply because it was new... and FAT.

So now this 2nd Heh Heh is fondly called (I'm solely guilty of this) Fat Hailey, which William has gladly adopted as his very own Heh Heh, that sometimes take the role as Cowgirl when she gets on the Horse.

The Cat
Oh, and once when Vic and I were having a rare mummy-daughter shopping spree or more like, errands spree in Ikea, Vic spotted a collection of soft toy cats. You know how much I "love" cats, be it real or fake. I said NO. Also because we have enough of soft toys and they collect dust easily, and dust is our numero uno enemy in the house.

But when we were checking out, Vic took one - the ginger cat, and another - the grey cat which I objected, but she said one for her, and one for William. OK, so I agreed because she had a good heart and didn't have cash. So I bought these two cats and although Vic named the grey cat "Boy" for her brother, William aptly renamed it to simply, "Cat"


The Horse
Last week I remembered a brown horse that a friend, Aunty Jocelyn and Uncle Jeremy gave to Vic for Christmas some years ago. Vic didn't play with it and I kept it new in a bag. It struck me suddenly that William was all crazy over cowboys and hats and horses, so I took this horse out, and that very evening he insisted to bring it for cell gathering, and then to sleep with.

But oh no, hubs and I banned the horse from sleeping on our bed because it has been out and germs will crawl all over our bed, so William countered us by saying, "Horse sleep on William bed"... ohh, smartie.

So these are but a few of the main characters of soft toys that William plays with. Occassionally he goes to the display cabinet and helps himself to my TY beanie collection (now you know where the kids inherited this soft-toy-loving from) and even uses the dog as his make belief horse for his plastic cowboy.

I know, soft toys are homes for dust and dustmites, and they should be entirely banned. I put away my sleeping partners a couple of years ago, sacrificing them because of Vic's allergy to dust. And then this William took an affection to soft toys because he sees Vic with Heh Heh, but whenever I can, these toys go into "hiding" and he doesn't seem to notice... phew! Or when Mr Roboclean vaccuum comes out for his weekly duty, any toys within range goes for a suction bath!

Oh, and this is how William takes his med - through a syringe - the same as Vic, only that I couldn't catch a shot of Vic eating her med. Thank God no problems getting them to take medicine now, which is a good and bad sign.

Random pics of William

Little fler did this after his breakfast one day. He just had to REARRANGE my pet cats and put the little puppet heads on their tail.
Ta daaaaa!! He got busy last night with Jie jie and the maid, and did this (he claimed) all by himself. He carried it carefully down the stairs, refusing my help and then placed it on the dining table for me. Awwww! (Btw, I think he made a garage for the cars)
Caught another time with his xxx on his head, he says it's his cowboy hat. Ah, this cowboy is so in love with Toy Story. If you are a fan, you're already his friend. ; )

Mama's birthday luncheon at Holiday Villa

Two weeks back, we had the privilege to celebrate Mama's birthday at the Four Seasons, Holiday Villa in Subang Jaya. The food there was ok, no crowd so it's pretty good environment for kids. Just have to be there early to stretch your money as the buffet dim sum promotion starts from 9am till 2pm (plus minus) for only RM30 nett / per adult. Kids 5yo and below eat for free.

The other highlight of the luncheon was the homemade birthday cake which Vic had a big hand in making... cheesecake! She helped mash the digestive biscuits, scoop in the butter and slice the lemon rind. Good job, Vic!


The camera-shy little chef

Raining shit

Awhile ago I brought William to his "throne" to deposit his big savings. When the maid stood there to help, he told her "don't see!" then I nudged her to continue her work downstairs.

Then I stood there waiting and this little fler looked at me with his usual cheeky smile, and commented, "William mmmm mmmm drop drop drop... like raining!"

Whooaahahahaha! I said, "Oh? Like rain?" and made the sound effect, "Boom boom boom!"

He thought it hilarious too that his stool is dropping out from his posterior like rain and reiterated, "William mmm mmm drop like raining... boom boom boom!"

Sleep talking

Last night, hubby got complimentary shiatsu massage from the little masseur who slept in between us because I was too tired to put him back to his cot and fell asleep.

In the middle of the night, he cried a little and sleep talked, "Don't want big bad wolf, don't want big bad wolf!" for obviously he looked over and saw his father. Groggily, I pretended not to know who is the big bad wolf, so I said, "There's no big bad wolf here, boy boy... where got big bad wolf.."

Then the big bad wolf got up and said in his low, gruff voice, "I am the big bad wolf!" Haha, I half thought that hubs got up to play with him.

Then the big bad wolf suddenly toppled down and continued snoring. ; P

Fast forward a few hours later.

This morning, I was lying on the bed beside the sleeping cowboy. Suddenly I heard, "yooo dle leeee hee.... ooooo"

Slowly, I turn over to check if he's awoken. Little cowboy was obviously sleep talking.

Hubs and I smiled to each other. He's so totally obsessed with his cowboy-cowgirl thing. : )

What type of antihistamines do you give your child?

Very recently I have been informed by a doctor that sedative antihistamines are outdated (yes, I know that already) and less than a handful of research has been done on them, therefore it is not the best (read safe) antihistamines to be given to children.

Sedative antihistamines

Antihistamines that fall into this group is namely the "popular" ones - Actifed, Promethazine, Polaramine and Piriton. Promethazine, apparently, is amongst the tops in putting a child to sleep (but surprisingly, that doesn't work all the time with my little boy).

Non sedative antihistamines

The non sedative antihistamines came out later and therefore, more research was done (fair comment) and so these should be given to children now, and not those in the first group. Amongst these are Zyrtec, Claritin, Cetirizine and Allegra. Out of these, Zyrtec rank the "lowest" as it can also be sedative and cause drowsiness.

For the past two years, my kids have been downing on Promethazine, dozens of bottles have been emptied into their guts cumulatively up till now, coupled with some Actifed and Polaramine and also Zyrtec, every time they catch the flu bug. These are all prescribed by their paed.

Now that I hear this new news from another doctor also in this high end private hospital, I am confused and feeling a little cheated. What if it is true, that their paed has not prescribed the best antihistamines for them? Mine you, William started taking antihistamines even below one year old.

Questions

So what kind of antihistamines do you give your child when he or she falls sick? Do you have a preference or any over the counter, any prescribed medication? Are these all just branding, where some doctors prefer one than the other, or is there an element of truth? Is sedative antihistamines really "not so good" for kids, maybe posing long term danger to their health if taken for the long run? And how is it that the reputable doctor prescribe these medications to the kids?

Oh, and we respect them so!

We have seen, over the past 5 years, an old doctor who would not hesitate to prescribe antibiotics and Brufen for infants, another doctor who is also a lecturer and sits on the Board of a well known private hospital who refuses to give a single drop of medication even when the child is near wheezing and coughing his lungs out and then when it comes to allergies, those who think you can still eat foods that you're allergic to, another who says abstain totally - don't even go near emulsifiers they are dairy in disguise, another who says eat in moderation and let the immune build up...

Sure, each to his own opinion, but you know, I need some light here. I need some clear direction. I used to balance accounts. I want to know what's right, what's wrong, what's black, what's white. I can't allow my kids to be used as guinea pigs, or be given medications that quietly harm rather than heal.

Allergist doctor

And from her allergist doctor in Tangkak, he's aware of her condition and says this is a form of allergy, because "allergies can manifest in different ways." Scary. But wasn't she just ZERORISED last month??? So what is going on? I'm not a very smart person, someone better enlighten me.



I am frustrated. If you can hear me, I am.

Addiction

The past few weeks the kids have been hooked Toys Story 3, gaga over it, keep asking me for permission to watch. Sometimes it's a yes, sometimes it's a no. But this is a far improvement from what seemed like just awhile ago when Vic was afraid of this animated series.

William loved this show right from the beginning, because of the characters closed to his heart. He's a big fan of cowboys, horses and now the spaceman! He knows their names and even sings to the cowgirl's call, "Yoodle leee hee hooooo!" : ) At such a young age, he's already got his mini collection of TS3 stuff, from a coloring book, to sticker book to the latest lantern.

When the show is on, both kids will sit quietly on the sofa, and William... well, he is like already in the cast... no response when you call him or if you block his view, he'll tilt his head sidewards. At least Vic is still on planet Earth.

When the show is on, I can practically do whatever I want... from taking bath, to opening the front grille without the boy rushing to go out, to having a decent mealtime and me-time, to even getting a meal cooked. Aahhh, what bliss! But the trick here is not to get them addicted and to use this DVD only when very, VERY necessary.

So the kids have moved on from the Donut Man series to Barney to the Monkey show (Curious George) and now Toys Story 3. My bet, they'll probably get bored with this by Deepavali... ; )

Banana leaf rice

Last week after church, we couldn't decide what to eat for lunch, so we asked Vic to choose between Indian or Chinese. Obviously she chose the former, that being her all-time favourite food as she can use her hands, eat as much rice as she likes.

Crunchy fried chicken

The spread

See the way she scoop up the rice? Looks very right to me. Daddy's her "indian" teacher ; )

Food taste better with your hands

EEeeeeee!!! Very hot very hot!

Ooohhh!! Must drink water
William told jie jie to use her fork and spoon... like this!

Teaching Vic maths and spelling

Vic is still on her medication from her ENT specialise, prescribed last Wednesday. Her course is for 7 days, and the next appointment is this Wednesday. As I wrote in my previous post, her running nose stopped after taking the medication, but over the weekend it came back, and she also developed a fever on Saturday.

However, last weekend was a pretty busy weekend as we had a wedding dinner on Saturday night at Hee Lai Ton Seri Kembangan, and on Sunday - Mama's birthday luncheon at Holiday Villa Subang Jaya and a dinner at Souled Out Sri Hartamas.

The kids were even supposed to go swimming with Mama Yeh Yeh on Sunday evening but we have to pass that as they are unwell.

Naturally Vic is absent from school today, to rest at home. During breakfast she asked me if she could watch tv, and I told her she has to do her maths first then she gets to watch.

Then I gave her a deal, 30 correct maths questions for a reward of 30minutes TV.

*Hand shake*

Unfortunately that didn't happen. Quite expected but look, I didn't set her up. She has to learn simple arithmetics by now. 23 + 4, tick. 23 + 5, tick. 23 + 11, tick. Few wrongs on the others so I gave her a chance to correct herself after some explanation. On the final 3rd round, I marked her paper and here are some examples of wrongs and rights...

28 + 3, wrong. (She answered 21)
19 + 4, wrong. (She answered 13)
19 + 6, wrong. (She answered 35)

34 + 12, tick.
28 + 5, tick. Guided.
28 + 6, tick. Guided.

Final mark = 12/30 out of which 5 were guided.

Sigh. I must be a damn lousy teacher.

Then spelling. She wanted spelling for a change. So we went through her vegetable book, that's the theme for these few weeks. (We have themes of words for her to learn at a rate of 3 new words each day)

And these are her correct revisioned words (ie words spelt last week).

onion
peas
chilli
celery
radish
carrot

My theory of our problem here is this girl is still struggling with matching her phonic sounds to create a word. She may know her phonic sounds for all her alphabets but not able to listen to the phonics then spell the word.

So what's the best way to guide a child to teach? Lots of encouragement to read and spell, and yet... How can you let a child read only when she/he is ready? That's crap. They will never be ready. How can you make everything enjoyable to encourage passion? That's also crap. In reality, we don't face that. There are things we have to do, need to do, must do.

So what's the secret out there?

Bloodied

Three mornings ago on Tuesday, I woke Vic up for school as usual, and in the dark as I helped her to sit up, I discovered to my shock, that Vic's white bedsheet had a 20cents size blood stain.

Then I quickly checked her pyjamas and found more horrid stains with blood. A lot of blood. There were huge stain marks on BOTH sides of her pyjamas blouse on the arm area and my immediate thought was that she's scratched herself so badly on her inner arm where her ezcema usually comes out.

But a quick check and a sleepy Vic told me that it's NOT. It's not from her ears, neither from her neck and her nose and face looked clean. Then where? As I searched her body, I noticed more blood stains on her shirt.

I moved Vic to another room as William was sleeping and we didn't want him to rouse.

Here I cleaned Vic up and confirmed with her that it was her nose where the blood came out. This is the 4th episode, the first 3 a week or so apart in June/July. Back then, we took her to our normal paed who said that she may have been too rough with her nose (very possible) either through sneezing or digging (very VERY possible). So we left it as it is, adviced her to love her nose more and put her on some anti-histamine for a few days.

But this time, this really got hubs and I worried. And the grandparents too. I gave her quick call to her allergist doctor, Dr Wong and he adviced us to bring her to an ENT specialist for a thorough checkup on her nose "little area" but he did suspect this could be due to an allergy reaction.

So some of you may have saw my FB message for an urgent ENT recommendation. A couple of hubs' colleagues also recommended ENTs that they know. Thank you, Rachel for suggesting Dr Raymond, whom I spoke to and he sound like a very caring man. Unfortunately, we didn't make it to see him, as we got another recommendation to see a Dr Lim Whye Keat from Assunta Hospital who specialised in paediatric ENT.

Vic was diagnosed with nose allergy, and he has prescribed Augmentin antibiotic to stop the infection, Zyrtec antihistamine, a medicated nasal spray and Oftalmolosa cream for the inner nostril. Her "little area" in the nose shows blood all clogged up, and bubbles as air tried to flow through.

Vic's running nose has stopped but she's still on the other medication.

Thank you all for your prayers and continue to uphold this little girl in your prayers. She's keeping cheerful.

Oh ya, thank God her favourite doll, Heh Heh was spared from any of the stain. Heh Heh is too old and fragile and cannot endure another bath.

William feeds himself

William have some special tastebuds very different from the sister... noted from birth that he likes his brocollis and carrots which Vic have trouble even putting in her mouth, he asks for vegetables and lately discovered joy in eating fried shallots!

But they rub off some good on each other, for example, William loves Scott Emulsion the original kind and now Vic takes that too (she vomitted that out when she was 3yo and first time eating).

Getting the kids to eat is not much of an issue, but getting the menu right is more challenging because of their allergies.




Feel blessed that he can feed himself without much problem, does not even want the maid to feed him even, sometimes tells the maid off for cutting his pork and vege (but this, the maid has to defy his orders lar) and I can even get a good 10 minutes of blissful, fret-free, undisturbed mealtime if he's digging into his favourites of the season ie spaghetti/pasta and mee sua soup.

But after he finishes his food... oh no! That's when the trouble starts... and when the maid starts her exercise! He can hardly sit still - will stand on the chair, play with water, or mostly just run around.

Spoiling her eyesight

This girl of mine has this very bad habit of sitting on the floor whilst doing her homework or any form of writing or drawing, with her chin placed on the table that leaves the distant of her eyes and paper around 6 inches apart. That's horribly near and will definitely spoil her eyesight in due time if she doesn't heed my advice!

I keep reminding her to on the lights, sit on a stool to do her work. But many times I caught her doing just the opposite. Makes me jump at her whenever I see this! I mean, wearing glasses is not akin to a lifelong sentence and with the laser technology evolving, there's always a good chance of getting one's eyesight corrected at a later stage. Yes, at a later stage, but what happens during her growing-up years if she ever EVER has to wear glasses?

I grew up wearing glasses, eversince end of Primary One and I hated it. I didn't want to wear it even though I couldn't see the blackboard and always copied from my friend next to me. Oh, think of the inconvenience of PE and sports too and swimming with a blur sight (not that I swim, anyway).

But that aside, I really want my two kids to have perfect eyesight. It's not just loading them with cod liver oil and stuffing them sick with carrots and fish, but also inculcating good care habits.

So you can understanding how I fume whenver I see only 6 inch gap between the eyeballs and the paper.

Why so quiet in the car?

Because one knocked out, and the other was doing "pedicure" at the back... (quite cho lok also)

Hunky hunky!

Caught an image of cheeky boy who thought it was funny running around with his shirt stuck on his head. Image a little blur as I took it quickly from my handphone.

So the secret was to catch the bird!

Last Tuesday I decided maybe I should try William WITHOUT his diapers for that day... see how it goes. My little helper, Vic who was on the whole week's holidays, was ever ready and enthusiatic to encourage the brother.

Big boy now
In the morning William did part of his big business in his diapers and the other part (which I managed in time) deposited in the bowl. After that, I bathed him and took the opportunity to remind him that he's getting older now and should learn how to shee shee in the potty or toilet like us, so no more diapers.

Vic came in and asked if I needed help to take his clothes, I said no, coz it's already on the bed. Silently I thought, "Oh no, she must be up to something!" when she just suddenly disappeared and no sounds.

Monkey business
When William finished his bath, I was pleasantly surprised to see, admist her excited scream of "surrrprrriiissseeee!" laying neatly on the bed, arranged strategically on top of his pants, a new monkey underwear (which we bought from UK early this year).

Thanks Vic
With a little nudge from the sister (and thanks to her brilliant idea) and simply because William was into this this monkey cartoon (Curious George, if any of you have seen this) for the last one month, William finally agreed to NO DIAPERS only if he wore the underwear!

So that was it! My few attempts earlier failed because he didn't want hisbird bird to fly away and this underwear actually "secures" his little birdie! My boy is soooo conservative! ;P

The first hour
Anyway, the first one hour, Vic kept asking William if he wanted to shee shee, every 5 minutes or so! It was quite hilarious especially during breakfast when all she could think of is getting the brother to sit on the potty. An hour later, we put him on the potty after asking him, and when he successfully deposited his little biz there, we all felt triumphant! Wow! (I am already thinking how easy this could be... haha) Then my little helper shoo-ed me away and told me that she can manage wearing his underwear and pants back. (Of course I insisted to supervise)

Oops!
That afternoon, I think two accidents, and that evening 4 in an hour after dinner (must, must NOTE this down)! Poor hubs was the one taking over in the evening as I brought Vic for her JMC class... kekekeke!

The next few days, some successes and some accidents but a little accustomization for the boy as he was confused why I wore diapers for him when he was going to sleep (refused - aiyaks!)

A couple of times, quite randomly, I put him on the throne and he did not only his small business there, but also deposited the bigger one! So totally proud of him! Haha... : )

Along the highway
One thing I want to put down also was when we were heading back to Seremban on Friday morning, I didn't put him in a diaper as it was just an hour's trip and he did both his business before that. Hubs was rather hesitant, and so we kept asking him almost every 10 minutes or at any stop opportunity if he wanted to pee.

At one stretch of the highway (LEKAS highway, because we avoided the jam with this detour, thanks to FIL who guided us. Even the GPS did not know the way!) William said he wanted to pee. So we stopped on the emergency lane, pretty dangerous but it was uphill and the cars could see us, the traffic was light.

Took his pants off, hubs held him one side and startled whistling (guys do this, right?) and I did the "sheee sheee" sound... all the time we kept checking if the ground was wet and looking out at traffic! William took his time to pee but after what seemed like eternity, but really was only 3-4 minutes, aaahh, a little stream of river!

So that is the first 5 days account of William diaper-free days!

ZERORISED for the 3rd time!

This is NO JOKE.

God is great. And eventhough this is deja vu, the feeling is still great. To see Vic's allergy points, all of it - yeast, eggs, candida - down from a high of 15 to ZERO within 2 months!!!! Even Dr Wong was pleasantly surprised, but he explained that this is plausible as she gets older and stronger. I hope he is so right.

I hope this 3rd time of hitting ZERO will MAINTAIN ZERO for the next one year. It's not the end of the battle yet, friends. For Vic, this still means no egg-contained food, no buns or breads or pastry, no pizzas, no tarts, no commercial spaghetti or pasta, no seafood except fish, no fried chicken or nuggets, no jams or kaya spreads, no cookies and cakes except allergy-free ones, no mushrooms or yellow noodles.

But she's a strong girl. We continue to encourage her and praise her for her efforts and patience.

The occasional, "please mummy, can I try? Just lick the spoon? Just one small bite?"

The occassional sulk, "why can't I eat? when can I eat? how come William can, I can't?" still stirs my heart but yes, God will heal our little girl. (Just don't take too long, God)

So guys, it's the one year countdown until August 2011.

Yeh Yeh's birthday at Oriental Kitchen

There are lotsa Oriental restaurants around, some are from the same group, like Oriental Banquet and Oriental Pavillion (both in PJ), and some are independent like Oriental Cravings, and this newly opened Oriental Kitchen located at The Strand, Kota Damansara.

Last Sunday we celebrated early Yeh Yeh's 58th birthday at Oriental Kitchen.

Some of you may notice from my blog that I don't really do food reviews but this post will be an exception. Ma Ma and Yeh Yeh discovered this restaurant themselves (it is opposite The Wok - a nyonya restaurant) and met with the nice, young entrepreness named Erica weeks before and because Vic and Will have some food allergies, I have been liaising with Erica on the food menu.

She was very accomodating and after discussions with her chefs, recommended the whole 8 course menu. Here are some pictures, more food than human...

Wolfberries (gei ji in Cantonese) with spinach in chicken broth
Steamed fish in supreme soy sauce
Stewed pork knuckle
Smoked chicken (stewed in soy sauce and herbs, then smoked)
Kapitan sizzling hot plate prawns and squid
Crispy pumpkin - highly recommended.
Braised lala in superior soup
Paku belacan - very crunchy and cooked just perfect

Vic couldn't eat the cake, but she gladly offered her services, to cut the cake for Yeh Yeh. Here she is sitting on Yeh Yeh's lap, whilst brother William watches (and learn, I presume)

We wish Yeh Yeh many more years of God's blessing of good health and happiness. Truly, he is one great grandpa to the kids and a wonderful father and father-in-law.

Guess what's on his head?

Can you guess what's on William's head? He wore it himself... very cheeky!

Proud of his "xxx" on his head

Closer look

When the truth is so hard to speak

This morning I got angry at Vic because I discovered that the small sanitiser bottle that she claimed to have thrown away a couple of weeks back, and then bugged us to buy her a new sanitiser, which also has to be the Dettol "pink" label which comes with a strong but nice perfume... well, that "thrown away" old bottle was actually still in her school bag!

Maybe it's my bad for not checking first but I trusted her. Although she told a few lies before, this is not her first, but this is the first time I actually got so pissed. I confiscated the new bottle and then told her that she won't get to use that.

Guess peer pressure starts early these days. I know one or more girls in her clique of 4 has this perfume-sanitiser, but ah well... too bad.

Bird bird fly away

Sometimes when naughty William runs around naked when I change his clothes or diaper, I tell him that he better wear his diaper fast else his bird bird will fly away...

Today I thought of trying him diaperless for a few hours and see how it goes. I've been telling him a few times before that one day he will have to learn to "shee shee" in the potty or toilet and not the diaper.

Anyway, when I reminded him that this morning, he told me he wanted to "shee shee" and I brought him to the toilet where he did his small business. (One tick for success, I was already half beaming to myself) Then I took him out and wanted to wear pants for him, no diaper.

William ran away saying, "no, bird bird fly away"... Aisehhh!! I confimed with him that he wanted to wear diaper because he feared his bird bird will fly away. Yikes, backfired! Now I've to slowly brainwash him that we must "teach his bird bird to stay put"...

Silently tell myself I must check out how to potty train a boy... any tips anyone?

UPDATE @ 1556: When I gave him bath just now, I didn't let him wear diaper. Fella cried when he discovered I put on his pants without the diaper. Sigghhh...

A "wet" Merdeka day

On Monday night, we decided to give the kids a surprise the next day... swimming! It's hard to get such opportunities as we don't stay in a condo, and suit our timing and kids' health, weather forecast, blah blah blah...

Anyway, we invited cousin Theodore and parents to join us for a late morning swim starting at 1030am (because we all woke up late) till 12noon and delighted that they could make it.

For the first time, Mummy went into the pool (don't ask me why... many lame excuses including "cannot find suitable swimming suit") and got "shot" at a few times by Daddy-William team and also Victoria. Of course, I wasnt' all the useless and innocent in the waters... I was busy shooting away as well.

Poor Vic... she got most of the shooting from everyone until she had to yell us all to stop and put on a sulky face but that didn't stop us. She just seemed like the natural candidate because she was the oldest toddler around and kept screaming when water is splashed on her.

I love pictures of the kids in the pool, as the sunlight and colors make the pictures stand out. So less said again, and let the pictures do the talking. ; )

Vic "shooting" water at Theodore - he's also a natural in the waters
Daddy-William team - they bullied poor Vic
Sssspraaayyyy!!!!
Stealing a kiss from the Queen again... haha!

Sliding down... looks tempting, I must remember to pack proper change of clothings the next time we go so I can slide down too ; )

Sliding down... wheeee!!!
Hahahahaa!!! Mummy got wet, and this are their evil faces
Oh no! There's a shark in the waters
He couldn't resist watering the plants by the pool
If you're happy and you know it, smile like this...
Mummy "forced" them to take a picture together