Random conversations

Just for records a conversation with Amber.

On the way to my father's for dinner, she threw a tantrum. Hubs threatened to put her down.

You 'lau kai' some more, I let you down now.
Cannot !
Where do you want to get down ? I stop you in front !
Cannot !
Ok, I stop you at the police station !
Cannot ! Cannot ! All the way......... also CANNOT !

Wah.. my 3 yr ++ very clever at arguing already. She tells us we cannot stop and put her down ALL THE WAY to my dad's house wor.. Hubs also 'tak tahan', broke down and laugh. Then the fart knows she won the game, also laughed and then.. no more tantrums.



Besides being argumentive, she's also very caring.

This morning I woke up with a sore throat. I told her so and :
Mama, I get mehleesen (medicine) for you ok ?
I go and get from the hairclip box (I keep some children paracetamols in a box with hair clips for travelling use)

Last week when I had bad abdominal cramps:
Mama, go home, I put 'hong yiu' for you ok ?
No need, doctor gave me medicine .
No lar.. put hong yiu, rub rub liddat liddat (show with her palm rubbing her tummy)
Put hong yiu already, not pain lor.

Sometimes she'll touch my dry elbows and knees
Mama, you see, your skin so dry. I put lotion for you ok ? Must put lotion everyday, massage massage liddat, then your skin no dry lor..

One of her itchy episodes asking hubs to scratch her back.
Hubs said : You itchy I scratch for you. Papa itchy who scratch ?
I scratch for you lor... (sad tone)

I constantly worry for her speech after she lost her front tooth. Sometimes she speaks with a 'lau foong' tone. For the record again, 2 words she can't pronounce correctly :
medicine MEHLEESERN
antibiotic ANTI BEE YOUR TICK

Other than that, she's okay. Now, I hope she won't be laughed upon when she goes to school next year.

I must get my camcorder sorted out asap to record her conversations asap !!!

A Trip To The Park

I knew we had to do something when Amber pointed out to a price label (with Carrefour logo, like 2 pointed arrows in red and blue ) and said .. Mama.. Carrefour !

LOL !!!!! She recognize the small tiny logo... clearly a case of too much shopping at the mall for her.

Then, a 'new' park opened at Ampang, a new place for weekend activities !! Hurrah !!!

Taman Tasik Ampang Hilir. Previously a small lake with couple of anglers over the weekend and a rojak stall nearby (very famous one!!!). DBKL took over and revamped the place. Now, it's a proper park with running tracks, 3 playgrounds and lots of stretching and exercise spots scattered around the lake. I think there's a small docking area coming up for paddle boats. (Aiyer .. so looking forward to that)

Staying at Ampang is quite pathetic. Hardly any places to bring kids to and we'll need to take a long drive to FRIM or Lake Gardens. The revamp of this lake is very very welcoming for parents like us.

Amber's friend, Sharon was at our place last Saturday and we all went to the lake. It's always nicer to have a friend to tag along isn't it ?


The 2 girls.. too light for see saw, hubs gave a helping hand.



Tied her hair up, dressed in sleeveless and long pants (to avoid mozzies and knee scratches when she falls)



Oh she had lotsa fun. And SO DID I !!! Whilst hubs and Sharon's mama took care of the 2 kids. I went for a jog round the lake.

Scenic and serene...

Little Sharon had lotsa fun too !!! She's really adventurous and daring.

Amber was a little more clumsy. Everywhere she goes, she needs Papa's help. She's not even confident to go down the chute slides. What to do ? She's been a mall rat all her life. :p

Sunset.. nice view of city and KLCC.

The girls watching the sunset.

Getting dark and time to leave...

Clumzy klutz.. I caught a picture of her falling down.. Luckily I put on long pants for her, otherwise she would have scraped her kneee.

It was a good evening out for all of us and I had aching legs, knees and bums !! A nice feeling though. It's been a loong loong time I exercised.

Before we left, I asked Amber :

Do you want to go Tesco or Park ?

I want to go to the Park !!

She had so much fun. We must work harder and fill her up with outdoor activities than just bring her to the Mall.

Homemade 'Mee Yoke'

Homemade mee yoke, har meen, prawn mee or some calls it hokkien mee. By any other name, it's still my favourite. A hassle to make but worthwhile the effort. Not too difficult but takes a long time, weeks, even months before I could come up with a pot of prawn stock. I get my maid to deshell the prawns and keep the prawn heads in the freezer and once I've accumulated enough prawn heads, then we'll have a Mee Yoke Day !!

Honestly, I won't go through the hassle if I don't have a maid !!

Well, homemade is always nice, you can add in lots of 'liu' , ie vege, meat, eggs etc whilst the ones you get at the stalls are very stingy with 'liu-s'

Here's my version of 'mee yoke'

Stock :
-------
Fry prawn heads in oil till dry and fragrantBoil in a pot of stock with 2 large onions for 1 hourStrain stock, discard shells and onions.Add in a piece of pork and slow boil till cooked.Add ikan bilis cube (no MSG) and salt to taste




Boil another 3oogm of prawns in with the stock, remove shell and set aside.

Sambal
--------
A bowl of chilli boh or freshly grounded chilli (preferred)
Half a garlic, minced
1 tablespoon Maggi belacan granules.
Fry all ingredients with half a bowl of oil till fragrant and turns to 'sambal red' color. Set aside. Important to add enough oil, the sambal should be oily enough to render your soup a nice dark red tinge. I used less oil this time (trying to stay healthy !!!!!!)



and another very important ingredient :
Shallot oil
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Fry a bowl of sliced shallots with a bowl of oil till golden

To serve :

Slice boiled pork thinly
Boil eggs, cut to half
Kangkung

Blanch vermicelli and kangkung, add in soup and garnish with egg, pork, prawns, shallot oil and sambal . Yummzzz !!!

The garnishings :


My portion :
Less sambal, less vermicelli and more kangkung !!



A pot of stock is more than enough for 3 of us, so I invited Amber's playmate from the same childcare center to come over for lunch !!!!

This mee yoke dish satifies my craving for mee yoke and it'll be quite some time later before I cook again. Gotta start accumulating those prawn shells !!!

Nasi Goreng Homestyle

Here's what I cooked for dinner today :

Fried rice with fried chicken wings and fresh tomatoes.



Here's what I did for a healthier and tastier version :


Chilli Infused Olive Oil for my fried rice. Yummy and zesty !

Fry garlic and salt with olive oil, add lots of vege (I used long beans) and then leftover rice, fry for 5 minutes, push rice to the sides and add a little more oil ,then beaten eggs, stir till egg is almost cooked and mix in the rice.. fry for another 5 minutes to the rice is literally 'hopping from the wok' , then you know it's done enough !

For the chicken wings, marinate with shrimp paste. Here's how it looks like :

Stinks like nothing you can imagine but taste heavenly !!!

I used 2 tablespoons for 20 chicken wings, add 2 tablespoon of sesame oil too.
I've left the wings marinated and frozen for a couple of days. When you need to cook, defrost it, knock an egg in and add 80% 'Kentucky' or all purpose frying flour and 20% tapioca flour.
Don't coat with too much or undercoat the chicken. Coating has to be sufficient to seal in the juices otherwise you'll end up with dry chicken meat or too much flour.

The chicken, naked :


Chicken, done and finger licking good !!


Since I'm on a mission to lose weight and stay fit, I only had 2 spoons of rice, 3 wings and lotsa fresh tomatoes. Hehehe ... If I can't stop myself from eating, I have to control the composition and stay off carbs right ?

Sleepless Saturday

Actually Friday night. Here am I, sleepless, on a Friday night up till Saturday morning. Put her to bed at 10.30pm and the sequence goes like this :

10.30pm - wash face, hands and legs, apply lotion, change to pyjamas
10.45pm - lights off
10.50pm - Mama, I want water !
11.00pm - Mama, my eyes itchy. I want handkerchief !
11.10pm - Mama, I want shee shee !
11.15pm - Mama, my bum bum itchy !!!
11.20pm - Mama, I want water !
11.30pm - Asleep, finally !!!

From 10.45pm - 11.30pm, I fell asleep thrice but her royal highness woke me up and I had to attend to her needs. So, now I am bright as a lark, can't fall asleep again !

This routine sounds familiar right ?

I start digging up project that I need to do and top on my list is learning how to download my video camera. The last video I took of her was on Aug 08 , our Langkawi trip. I look back and realise she has grown so much, just a year ago, she was so so much still a baby.


I hope to get all my videos up fast. I need to catch more of her moments before she starts putting on make up, wear high heels and lipstick and don't wanna annoy Mama at bedtime anymore !!!!

My Computer !!!

She can't wait to lay her hands on our laptops but we are very very adamant that she don't. Once she's at it, I can say bye bye to all my files and privacy.

So, she has her own make belief 'computer' ie, by using color pencil box covers to stand on the internal flip parts, it's stand and look like a 'computer' and she'll pretend to start working away.

She also did it with one of her books and I manage to catch in with my camera.

Mama ! You see ! My 'computer'. I can work !

She really makes me laugh with her non stop antics :D

Painting Activities For The Little Girl

I bought a paint set for Amber quite some time ago, in one of those trips we were back to Tampin but kept it away. You know how it's like lar .. getting messed up with paint all over. I also bought a plastic bib from Ikea, big enough to wear as a shirt and to keep her paint from getting to her shirts.

She asked me : Mama ... where is the painting ah ?

What paint ?

Neh, that one ar .. paint ar... got colour ...Mama buy for me.. you remember or not ???

Of course I remember, I was just too lazy to prop it up for her.

Okay, since it was a weekend and I have nothing up, I setup a table for her outdoors, squeeze out the color tubes and let her have fun!!




First she starts with blue..


Then she mushed up ALL the colors. I like this picture, showing her skinny legs :


Then Papa came to help and taught her how to paint a 'flower'

Painting kept her busy for hours while I cooked lunch.

If I'm in the mood this weekend, we'll do potato prints. I so remember those moments in Primary School. Arts was my favourite subject even though I was lousy at it.. hahaha...

DISCIPLINE !!!!!!!!!!!

She really had it from me. She was at her car seat and suddenly I heard a ripping sound !

Turned around and saw her happily tearing her book. I was MAD !!!!

Why did you tear your book ?

*quiet*



The moment I reached home, I took her out of her car seat to stand on the floor.

"PIAK! PIAK!"

I smacked her buttocks, a couple of times.

She cried wailing !

Actually, I wasn't that mad with her but I want to make sure she learns lesson. I never have the upper hand in disciplining her and this time hubs is not around, I'M THE BOSS !!!

Like it or not, no one to run to, no legs to cling to except MINE !

She cried and wailed and refused to say sorry and peed on the floor (probably to scared and was screaming and crying anyway)

I smacked her some more for not saying sorry (Actually, my heart also ached, but I want to make sure she learns her lesson)

I did not want to talk or smile at her. I put on a very very ANGRY face !

When situation calmed down, I changed a pyjamas to put her to bed, I looked at her in the eye and said "AMBER ! LOOK AT MAMA IN THE EYE , NOW !!!, I WANT TO TALK TO YOU"

Her 2 small round eyes, stared at me.... and she laughed.. kekekeke....

STOP LAUGHING ! YOU WANT MAMA TO BRING THE CANE ??

Neh.. the cane is there ! pointing to the cane !

*kek sei ngor lor*

I gave her a long lecture, among the things I reinforced was :

-Papa & Mama work very hard to earn money
-Earn money to buy toys and books for you
-Many children do not have as many toys and books as you
-Love your books, take care of them

-Mama don't like to beat you
-Mama love you very much
-But you make Mama very upset, very angry
-We work hard for money to buy you things and you spoil them !


She quietly walked to her bed and I forced her to sleep alone while I 'work' in the attached study room to 'earn more money to buy more books' (actually I was surfing the net, hahahaha)

Then after a while, she called out 'Mama ! I scared'

I shouted "GO TO SLEEP". 10 minutes later, I checked on her and she's already asleep, as opposed to the usual sleep routine of singing, climbing all over the bed for 1 freaking hour before she finally knocks off !

For once she slept alone while I happily surfed the net.

I really felt bad and sad for her but I believe in discplining at the right time. She does something wrong, she face the music and I'll make sure she remembers coz I don't wanna be like a tape recorder nagging her day in day out. I want her to be on her guide and know when I'm angry.

I was brought up in a very strict environment. My parents believed in "spare the rod and spoil the child" so we had our rotan moments, bad till I remember it today ... hahahaha. My sis tells me that I have to be 'cruel to be kind'. It's so tough to hit her but this little girl will not listen or obey me, what else should I do. I love her too much allow her to grow up as a spoilt brat.

Sigh.. disciplining our child is tough isn't it ?

Homemade Meen Hoon Kueh (Pan Meen)

I've been having smaller meals and soft food lately. My CT scan doesn't show anything but I'm still getting spasms on my tummy area but in lesser and milder attacks. Doctor can't pinpoint the cause, so I'm keeping fingers and toes crossed my tummy tum tum will return to normal soon.

Last Sunday, I craved for pan meen and decided to make some homestyle ones, just like my mom's 'meen hoon kueh'. Nobody at home likes meen hoon kueh like mom and me do so we only make is during school holidays when there's only both of us at home. Sometimes mom will use a bottle to 'giling' the dough flat but I found a solution to have a stretchier dough, I added some 'oil' to dough mixture.

Here's my Sunday lunch project :

First, I stir fried some minced pork and garlic with salt, soya sauce and fish sauce :

Then the most important ingredient, crunchy ikan bilis, just a handful, washed, panfried in little oil and use towel to absorb the access oil.

Boil a pot of ikan bilis stock with big onions, strain and made the dough with flour, eggs, 1 tablespoon of oil and just enough water to make the dough stretchy.

Soak a couple of mushrooms till soften. slice thinly.

I didn't use my hands like the old times. I was just too lazy. I used my cake mixer attaching the dough hook. Saves me the icky sticky hand feeling.

Stretch and tear small portions of the dough in small pieces into boiling water to cook. This is how traditional 'meen hoon kueh' it's done.

Add cooked meen hoon kueh to another pot with boiling stock, add spinach, mushrooms, once all is boiling hot, serve in bowl garnished with minced pork and ikan bilis.

Tadaa !!! Homemade meen hoon kueh :

It's really a hassle to cook it yourself especially so when only for 3 person (hubs, maid and me) but I was craving for the pieces of meen hoon kueh, the inconsistent thickness from stretching and tearing by hand. Just like the way my mom makes it.

On a side note, I did suffer another cramp after lunch, I suspect it was ikan bilis I couldn't digest.

Return and Exchange Policy

This incident happened today.

I was at Pumpkin Patch KLCC getting something for my niece's birthday today. I bought a few pieces and after paying, I noticed once piece, the piece that was going to be the birthday girl's present was slightly stained and stretched and it was the last piece left.

I checked the receipt, nothing on return and exchange policy stated.
I asked the staff if I could return. She was a real 'hark meen sun' (HMS) who looked at me blank and I-can't-help-you-look ! Then her colleague said I cannot return but can exchange.

Ok, fine I thought. I can accept it if it's for my own kid but as a gift, maybe not. I walked around and found an exchange piece of the similiar or higher price. So, back I went to Miss HMS and she took me to Customer Service to get the 'exchange' done but nobody there knew how to facilitate an exchange.

Then came the Chief Cashier. She muttered something like.. very easy only, fill in the "Exchange and Return" form.

My 'antennaes' went 'ALERT' when I heard 'return' . I quickly asked her if I could return.
She said "Can , no problem ! Same day purchase, can, which one you wanna return?"

Whooo, happy lah... I saw Miss HMS face getting blacker... like wanna kill the Chief Cashier.

So what did I do ????

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I returned ALL my purchases.


The Chief Cashier took my credit card slip and reissued another with the same amount in negative. No questions asked, with a smiling face too ! Miss HMS was so probably cursing me from head to toe, I didn't even bother looking at her.

I don't care if I've pissed the staff at PP Parkson but I do not like being forsaken. It's my right and entitlement to a return and they should not hold back asking me to exchange instead.

On a side note, the items were on a discount and I was 'sum tai, sum sai' , can't decide to buy or not (other than the birthday gift) but after paying, I realise Amber really doesn't so many new clothes. You know how it's like shopping ler.. it's always the devil in us calling for the purchase but guilt follows soon after you've signed the credit card slip !