My Ramblings

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Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Very Pretty Pretty Gingerbreads

Having had a disastrous attempt with the gingerbread-man-on-the-tree project, a very very kind and sweet lady - Javapot, personally made me some gingerbread man to hang on our tree.

Look closer .... aren't they too good to eat  ? Look again... real close :
 These very pretty pretty gingerbread man are hand stitched by Javapot.. Thank you so much.. My tree is filled with a special selection of ornaments we love very much and your gingerbread man tops the list !
 Pretty eh ? I truly admire your fine craftsmanship. I feel so proud to have the handsewn gingies hanging on my tree.

 Our tree, filled with all things nice and pretty.
Thank you Javapot. Thank you millions ! Wishing you, your hubs and master prince very Merry Christmas filled with love, good food and all things nice !

p/s  you got me started on sugar cookies already !

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

The Tree Is Up..

After the disastrous attempt with the gingerbread man, I dug out some hidden treasures from my store, from my B&K (buy and keep collection). Amassed many years ago.. before I even had Amber. These mini wooden ding-a-lings . ard 25 piece in a box, I got it for a steal, only RM1 from Watson's warehouse sale. 




I was sick and homebound last week, I had some time to hang the ding-a-lings, baubles and hubs did the lights. Our tree, standing tall, proud and warm. I look forward to turn off the lights at night and leave only the Christmas tree lights on :


 My favourite ornament of all has to be the extendable Santa Claus.. Cute eh ? We fell in love with it immediately and just had to bring one home.
Cute eh ? 



We wish you a merry Christmas, We wish you a merry Christmas, We wish you a merry Christmas ....And a happy New Year.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Disaster Gingerbreads!

Look what happened to the gingerbread man Amber baked.. I hung them on the tree and we were away for the weekend. I came back and they were, broken, handicapped, DECAPITATED !!! The ants were having an early Christmas feast while we were away.








 All our hardwork went to the wastebin !


Gingerbread man is really not for decorations, especially in our hot and humid weather. Like javapots said.. it'll invite cicak and ants

All our hard work gone to the waste bin.. I'll just stick to recyclable ornaments !

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Eck-zam Day

Amber had to sit for her first mental arithmetic exam today. She's into her 8th month of class and currently in Book2. Teacher feels she's ready to sit for exam. I had a fright initially when she mentioned 'exam'. My 4 year old, subjected to exams, pass and fails ? At this age ? I can't get over it, even till now.

Her exam was actually last Saturday and we rescheduled it to today as we had plans to go back to the in laws and also get her allergy checked. That was a blessing because she was sick last week and I don't think she could do her best.

When I mentioned 'exam', that she has to go for 'exam' and has to sit for 'exam', she was all excited.
She thought eck-zam (that's how she pronounces it) was an outing to somewhere and a fun event.
Wait till she finds out the ugly truth about exams, I thought but of course I would have hoped she'll enjoy exams in her coming years !

I realised I'm the panicky type and being typical myself as a student, I forced her to practise all morning, even at the mamaks when we had breakfast. Hubs cut it short and said to let her rest, after all exam is 2 hours away.

We bathed and showered her.. I made sure her clothes were comfortable and will not cause itchiness. Amber, being her, always always complains about itchiness and all.. I had to make sure she don't waste precious time scratching. I trimmed her fringe, pig-tailed up her hair and make sure no hair went astray and itches her eyes. I really am PARANOID but ... but... my baby, is going for her first exam..naturally, kancheong-ness sets in.

I cursed the traffic at MRR2 when I saw a long queue. Hubs was getting very annoyed with my anxiety, almost as if he was sending me to sit for exams.

When we reached the center early and punctual. I gave her the abacus and 2 pencils. No mechanicals and erasers.

Each exam is 3 minutes duration and they had to complete 10 mathematical equation using the abacus. No correction by erasing is allowed but they are allowed to cross and rewrite the answer.

When the teacher pressed the stopwatch, I saw Amber talking to the teacher instead of doing the equations. This girl.. haih... she still doesn't understand the concept of EXAM. Still talking. Teacher told her to keep quiet and do her work.. All this while I was peeping from outside the room and laughing..

Results are not out yet. Apparently, it has to be sent to Taiwan for marking - such big deal meh.. ?? but her teacher called me later and said Amber did well and will pass.

Let's wait for the actual result.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Making Gingerbread Man Cookies

We baked some gingerbread man cookies last week. Allergy free recipe. Eggless and substituted butter with margarine.

Both of us had lots of fun, she was especially keen on shaping the cookies and I was responsible to roll the dough and transfer the cookies to baking sheet.





The taste wasn't much different from the usual gingerbread and I decorated it with icing n what nots to be hung on the Christmas tree.. which turns out to be a bad idea.. 

I'll post what happens next.

Having her cake and eating it too

Amber's had her last day of school recently. I think her kindy is one of the very few that has classes up till the end of the month ! 
Parents were asked to pack some food the kids. For once and for avoiding birthday cakes throughout the whole year, I'm allowing her some cuppies. Finally she can have her cake and eat it too. 

I took the recipe from here and made little changes. I used unsweetened soy milk in replace of the cold water and used canola oil instead. Canola works well for the cuppies as it's a low aroma oil. I've used peanut/palm oil blend before and that doesn't work well, the 'smell' of oil was too strong and overpowering.



Adios to her many of her kindie mates. Half of them are moving on elsewhere and next year, Amber will be in Yr5, the 'upstairs kid' they call it, coz Yr5 & Yr6 class are held upstairs.

Enquiries

I've written to McDonalds and KFC to enquire about their food ingredients. Amber takes only nuggets and fries from McDonalds and fried chicken and mashed potatoes from KFC.

I really do not think KFC would add milk to their mash potatoes but just to be safe than sorry.... we'll we never know. I wanted Dr Wong to test the mash potatoes last week but he mistakenly gave Amber the antidote drops too fast.. and hence we could not test out the mash potatoes.

We're not fast food junkies, in fact we hate fast food but sometimes for convenience and to fill up her tummy when we're rushing time, we'll just hop in to the nearest McD's. I admit. . their free refills of cokes and coffee is a big draw.

Can't wait to hear from McD & KFC..

Thursday, December 2, 2010

When It Rains.. it.. POURS !!!

literally.. it does..

I did post on Amber sleeping snugly in my office last week. All was not well. She was weak and want to be carried to the car. I had to quickly buy a pair of pants from the shops downstairs when she told me she was cold, her feet was cold and she had no energy.
We braced the mad KL Friday evening jam to Cheras and pick up hubs. Amber had fever and looked listless. We made a quick decision to stop by at Pantai Cheras A&E to get her checked out instead of racing back to Tampin as planned.

She had fever of 40.5 celcius.. mighty high ! Her tonsils were inflammed on one side. The doctor quickly suggested suppository, something which we've not used for years. When Amber heard.. 'stuff the buttock' , she wailed.. I gave her a choice.. Papa to stuff or Doctor ? Somehow , having to choose Papa over doctor makes the ordeal less painful.... and so we stuffed her. She wailed.. like a baby, as expected. :(

She's given antibiotics (Zithromax) , Ibuprofen and Panadol to bring down the fever. This is her first try at Ibuprofen. Works like wonders. I always worry that Panadol or any other Paracetamol may not last more than 4 hours.. and now with Ibuprofen, she takes them alternate at every 4 hours interval and an extra bullet   suppository at night if the fever does not subside.

We stopped by at KFC along NSE to get her some food, mashed potatoes. We need some food before we could feed her another dose of ibuprofen. After coaxing and forcing.. and finally meds in, she threw up, luckily a quick minded decision to let her hold the mashed potato bowl saved the vomits.. some ended up on her clothes and some on hubs jeans.. the only pair of jeans he had to last for the weekend. Poor hubs had only one other pair of tattered shorts.

And so... we took a slow and quiet drive to Tampin. Upon reaching.. she was jumping high n low, playing w everyone. I was also jumpin high n low, making sure she had enough liquids in her tummy. She refused her Isomil as she said it hurts her throat very much.

Middle of the night, fever came back, ferocious.. I didn't have a thermometer with me but i guessed it was close to the 40's range and so.. we sumbat her buntut again.

The next morning, we took a very early drive to Tangkak to consult her allergy specialist. I got the maid to prepare her barley water and porridge before we left.  I wanted to be early.. to be the first in line.. as I had to make my way back to Tampin for lunch then go to Malacca later, with the in laws.

The doctor checked on her inflamed throat again and found many white ulcer spots on her tonsils. No wonder she's been complaining since few days ago of pain on her throat. We shrugged it off as a non event or as an excuse not to finish her food.  The spots looks real ugly and Dr Wong was trying to console her.

He asked if she liked ice cream or yogurt but I intercepted and whacked the whole idea off. She's allergic to milk remember ???  Dr was also taken aback .. quite funny and sad at the same time. We both could not offer much solution to the poor child's inflamed throat.  

Her allergy test was NOT GOOD. New surprises. Allergy to milk came back. WHAM ! WHACKED !! We are down the ladder again, back to ground zero and starting all over again.. sigh ! sigh ! sien ! major SIEN !

Her allergy reading was :

House dust mite - 10   
Egg - 6
Milk - 6
Candida - 0

This is so disappointing. SO SOO SOOO DISAPPOINTING ! I had expected better results from her test 2 months ago where she was tested to be allergic only to eggs and now we have milk and house dust mites to deal with.

The deal about house dust mites is you cannot eliminate them. I think she caught it from an overnights stay at the in-laws. Our room is usually unoccupied and it's also usually very dusty when we go back for a stay. There's a helper to change the sheet and clean the room but only so much can be done. I know the room is laden with dust mites as I can't sleep either on the same night. Moi wasn't feeling too good and can feel the dust mites trickling down my throat when I tried to sleep.

Then the eggs..OK ... we tried hard to eliminate.. tried very hard.. at least it went down from 12 to 6. Try harder ok ?? and trying harder is not good enough.. we have to STICK TO IT !!

And the milk.. I half suspected something bad to crop up from this visit when Amber has been coughing a lot lately. All the syrups prescribed did not work and kill off the cough.. True enough, she has allergy to milk and there's some milk substance there somewhere in her bloodstream. I can only pinpoint to the few roti canais she started taking lately.. and oh pleasee... there's only so much so little milk in her roti canai. and why wasn't it detected in Sept, our last visit ?

GAWD !!! Exasperating.. it's like winning the race.. almost winning .. nearly there.. only nano seconds to the finishing line and then a gust of wind blows you back to ground zero !

Really kek sei ngor..

And then the hubs fell sick

And then I fell sick ..

All of us we sick... tic tac toe, eenie meenie miney moe, if it's not me, then you.. or you.... our table is laden with a medley of sick medicine.. Sheesh.. I dun likey this at all..

When we got home on Sunday night.. my gingerbread man , which I've hung on the tree before we left, all fell down.. tumbling down... like the stock market lately. The house was infested with ants..I spent the very late Sunday evening burying the gingerbread man and killing ants ! Sigh.. I give up my big big idea of hanging gingerbread man on Christmas trees. I'll stick to baubles instead. Wait.. I have some real funny pics to show. Let me find time to download first.

Her fever subsided on Monday and I took the day off to send and pick her up from school as it was also her first day of Holiday Program at another center. I've arranged for transportation to pick her from the holiday program school and send her to Boon's

Somehow, my motherly instincts tells me something and somewhat will go wrong. It was the first day of Holiday Program and situation was, needless to say, chaotic. Parents paying for fees, asking for transportation , yada.. yadda. . yadda... all last minute and i have the hunch that something will go very wrong despite me reminding the lady in charge of transportation where to send Amber to and when to start pick up,, etc

I trailed the van, like a private detective.. not too far and not too close that my daughter will see me.. True enough.. the van sent her home  instead of  Boon's. No one was at home to receive Amber. I honked the van and told him it's definitely the wrong address and never to send her home. I didn't even mention 'home' .. i just said.. salah.. jangan bawa dia ke sini.. Gave the correct address and again I did the snooping work.. followed the van all the way to the childminders. The guy was pretty good, I must say. He doesn't just send her home and honk for someone to get the child but he will stop the engine, get out.. assist Amber out and walk her to the house. I like the arrangement and I know Amber will be safe in his hands.

And so.. what else ??  I was sick.. body aching like mad.. went to see a very rude doctor who didn't like me asking sooo many questions.. we walked off but not before hubs gave them a piece of his mind and we went to the hospital. The doctor at the hospital suspected dengue but I really do not think so. After 2 days of painkillers.. I feel better. I hope the pain has been killed for good and no signs of dengue.. luckily i didn't waste any money taking the blood test  :)

I need to get well, the family need to buckle up. Christmas is coming. We need to get our Christmas tree up.


tis the season to be jolly... falalalala... lalalala.. deck the halls with boughs of holly.. falalalala... lalalala

Friday, November 26, 2010

What A Girl Wants

 shoes ! shoes ! shoes !

and .....


more shoes !


She's crazy over shoes. Don't get her started and never never bring her to a shoe department. Whenever we pass by one, she'll stop to try, even though it's adults shoes.





Never mind... after all she's only a girl..

Oh.. I also forgot.. never bring her to accessories and nail polish counters too.

Don't grow up too soon girl.. stop at Barbies and books.. leave the fashion stuff to mummy k ?

My Sleeping Child

We had a hectic day today. A new IPO listing today, hubs has a meeting in the afternoon and we have an appointment to go somewhere these evening. Amidst the chaos, the last thing I wanna do is rush home to pick her in the evening when it's pouring and flooding everywhere. 
We took the easy way out and asked her to skip school. Such bad parents we are but but ..... most kindies have started their holidays and her's is the rare one.. class goes on till end November. She's doing revision works, nothing important, can skip la...

I took her to office, armed with blankies, quilts etc. My office is so darn freezing cold, she's wearing a jumper, baby pantyhose, and covered up with a wool blanket, hubs denim jacket and her own denim.  

Amidst the pile of clothes, my sleeping child resting :


I sooooo love to watch her sleep. Don't you ? I mean don't most parents do ? Kids are the sweetest when they shut up and sleep like an angel  :)