We stayed at Casa Del Rio. Yeah, that fancy new five star boutique hotel. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip, I loved it. And I know, we’re probably spoiling the kids with all this luxury… I mean I never got to stay in nice hotels when I was young! Kids these days, they’re so lucky aren’t they?

And I know… we’re spoiling ourselves too. But to me its all part of the holiday experience. Plus, we can never afford this kind of luxury on overseas holidays.

Anyway, we drove down there in good time, and were greeted at the hotel with a refreshing ginger and lime sorbet. A nice change from the usual fruit punch.

The rooms are really nice! They have a split level between entrance/bathroom and bedroom and the room extends out to a balcony with a comfy daybed.

The bathroom has a huge tub, in which if you were a couple - perfect for two, or in our case, if you have kids - perfect for them to splash around in. And it has a separate shower area with rainshower (of course).

We really enjoyed sitting on the balcony, what with the pretty flowers and the sound of the flowing fountain right outside, while the ceiling fan overhead kept things cool. I took the kids out there to eat their snacks so that they wouldn’t dirty the room.

What else was cool? Oh, the aromatherapy candle they lit during the turndown service, free wifi, free cake when we ordered drinks at the bar and in-room hot chocolate satchets.

What was not so good? Mini fridge wasn’t working, so they had to move a new one in for us, safe broke down, so they had to come and fix it, wifi wasn’t strong enough, so they had to come give us a booster gadget, turndown didn’t clean out our rubbish on the second day, breakfast was very slow on the first day, and we had to wait half an hour for room service to clean our room, as it wasn’t cleaned yet when we came back from lunch.

OK, so this post has become a review for the hotel. Haha. At least the service was very good. The hotel staff were all very prompt, friendly and responsive. As for Melaka itself, I enjoyed Jonker Street, we had Chicken rice balls (but not the original place) so maybe that’s why it wasn’t very nice, we went on the river cruise, visited the Maritime Museum and the ChengHo Museum.

The Chengho Museum was the best. We wished we could have spent more time there. They had a puppet show, a video, lots of models and historical artefacts and all kinds of interesting info about the eunuch, muslim Admiral - something the museum guide liked to emphasise to us. He also gave the kids little rewards if they answered a question correctly. Eg. asking Sean - “Which man in this scene is Cheng Ho?”

Unfortunately, my kids are too shy to speak to strangers, so I had to answer for them. Anyway, they went away with angry bird badges and butterfly erasers, so they were happy.

Cheng Ho had a fleet with over 300 ships holding almost 28,000 crewmen! It was a floating town. I didn’t know that.

And did you know Cheng Ho made it all the way to Africa and brought a giraffe back for the Emperor? I didn’t know that either.

So that’s about it for the trip. We’re planning one more local holiday soon!

Like our new Internet TV, on which the kids have discovered Youtube and a whole new world of shows to watch. There’s actually lots of good british children shows on Youtube - “Charlie and Lola” and “Ben and Holly” are our favourites. But now Sean is addicted to watching lion dance performances on youtube!

Anyway, what’s the cons of too much screen time? Apparently it detracts from real interactive time with the family, it makes kids anti-social, trains them to just receive stimulus but not how to respond proactively (for TV anyway), and on a subliminal level, the non-stop images, music and action that come from TV shows and computer games trains kids to expect simulation all the time, so when it comes to real world activities, that go at a much slower pace, like reading, kids no longer have the attention span or the patience to sit through them.

The pros of screen time? Peace and quiet for the parents! and also quite alot of interactive educational programmes really do help kids learn.

I have read about this before, and I have “tried” to limit Keira and Sean’s screen time, but really, only one hour a day, max? Really?

Somehow, I just can’t seem to fill up the kids’ day with other activities until there’s no need for some screen time to occupy them.

Well,  at least K & S have learnt to enjoy books since they were young. But who reads all day? (actually I did when I was a teenager, but anyway… that was when King’s Quest was the coolest computer game around.)

Let me recount what occurs in a typical 12 hour day with the children.

- They wake up, have breakfast, wash up, change etc (1 hour)
- They play with their toys (1 hour)
- They get bored of their toys, so watch some TV, play iPhone (30 mins)
- Me, trying to limit screen time, will read to them or get them to do some drawing/colouring (30 mins)
- Lunch time, get Keira ready for Kindy, and send her to Kindy (1 hour)
- At least, for the next 4 hours K is occupied at Kindy
- Sean at home, will sometimes watch TV/play on the computer or I will try to find some activity for him - like play dough or baking (1.5 hours)
- Then I get him ready for his afternoon nap and we do some reading and spend time together and he has a nap (2 hours)
- Pick up Keira, and let the children eat some snacks. The TV is usually on in the background (1 hour)
- If the weather is good, we go out to play in the garden or if not, I try to find more activities to do with them - toys, music, drawing, reading, TV - usually all - cos each activity only lasts 15 minutes max (1.5 hours)
- Dinner and play again - sometimes play on iphone and computer, sometimes toys (1 hour)
- Bath time and getting ready for bed. (1 hour)
- They will have their milk and watch some TV (30 mins)
- Up to bed, read some bedtime stories and sleep (30 mins)

So counting how much screen time they have - I would say MINIMUM 2 hours a day!

Well, considering they have parents who spend practically all day staring at the screen (ahem), I suppose that’s not very surprising…

But I do feel pretty guilty about it. I just simply can’t find enough activities to keep them occupied all day! I know if I spent all my time playing lego, hide and seek, tea party etc etc with them when they get bored, they wouldn’t need the TV or computer. But I don’t have the patience for that. After just 5 minutes pretending to eat pretend food, my brain turns to jelly.

The good thing is now Keira and Sean can play together and mostly all they need me to do is be around, guide them, mediate fights and praise them, which I love to do.

I suppose my problem is when they want me to play with them. For some reason, I can’t play kiddie games for very long… my attention span is just not there. I would rather read to them, bake together, do some crafts with them or yes, let them watch TV, than have to crawl around on the floor pretending to be a shark.

So, I’ve managed to identify my problem! The reason why my kids have too much screen time is because I don’t like to play childish games!

I can’t just force them to go play by themselves all the time, so if I’m really serious about limiting their screen time, i’ve got to give up my own screen time and seriously find alternative activites we all can enjoy.

But what else is there to do with kids at home?

What do you do? Is one hour screen time a day a realistic expectation? Isn’t it important for kid’s of this generation to be IT savvy - meaning they should be pros at googling, filtering spam and playing Angry Birds?

I like this huge space they have outside with a stage, water feature, and lounge chairs for people to hang around and catch a breeze. Of course its also great for children to run around in!

Last week we ate at Fatboy’s Burger Bar. Juicy beef, lamb, chicken AND pork patties with all kinds of condiments to choose from. I like their “Build your own” burger menu, so I can choose the strangest things on the menu and put them together. Hehe. It’s also easy to order for the kids, since they don’t like mayonnaise, vegies, onion, pickles etc that usually go in burgers, I just ordered a bun with a pork pattie for Keira, and that’s it.

Next time, I won’t even order the bun as she didn’t eat it! Just the pattie by itself. Me too, cos I don’t really like burger buns either. What’s the point of eating a burger then you ask? haha. I don’t know. Well, CY loves burgers so if I have to eat them with him, its nice to be able to customise:)

And the burgers at Fatboy’s are juicy and yummy. The fries were even better, big, fat, crunchy, fluffy wedges of real potato. good.

In other food news, I’ve been seeing people line up for Garrett’s Chicago Popcorn at Candylicious since its opening at 1 Utama for quite awhile. Finally was there one night when the queue wasn’t too long and managed to get us a small bag of macadamia caramel crisp - at RM19 for a little bag - it better be worth it. And it was!

Yeap, it tastes as good as it looks. Sweeeeet!

I was also excited to discover a new french bistro/restaurant that opened at 1 Utama recently. Petit Millie serves casual french style food with funny names - tartes, tartines and poutines - which are apparently fancified pizzas, sandwiches and fries.

We tried the spaghetti with seared tuna:

Fish Pie:

and “poutine” with scrambled eggs and gravy:

The fish pie was YUMMY, the other two alright. And unfortunately the size of the dishes were quite “petit“. I do want to go back to try the tartes and tartines  tho.

My last little piece to blog about - finally finished sewing a dress for myself - which didn’t turn out as well as Keira’s dresses. Making big people’s clothes is alot harder than children’s clothes. The fit is so much more important, and I have no idea how to adjust the pattern to fit.

So this is the end product, which I don’t feel I can wear out in public, as it doesn’t drape properly, makes me look wide, and strange things are happening at the back - you probably can’t see all that from the photo, but it’s not very flattering.

Keira’s dress is lovely tho And yes, that’s Sean half naked next to us. So, I’m trying to see what I can do to make this dress more presentable. Maybe make it longer.

And that’s all the bits and pieces I have from the past few weeks. Till next time! xxx

But now, finally, with Keira back at Kindy, and no work to do, I can blog.

So, Sean’s party:) It was a smallish affair - and since it was a small group, I decided to cook most of the food.

“Most” was home cooked but not all… the hokkien mee, roast duck and roast pork were ordered from the local dai chow, the rest - the vegies, meatballs, yam rice, devilled eggs, lemongrass prawn and herbal chicken we cooked.

I also made half of Sean’s cake. Haha. The ugly half:

The actual cake is a Secret Recipe Chocolate Cheese cake, then I made two car cakes to decorate the top - I seriously don’t know how to work with icing. How do you get it all smooth and perfect? Anyway, we actually made five cars, and these two were the most presentable.

And since the kids loved the bouncy castle/slide that we got for Keira’s b’day so much, I just had to get it again for Sean’s birthday

Sean was so shy throughout the party tho. He didn’t dare play in the bouncy castle (actually none of the little kids played in it cos the bigger kids were bouncing around way too rough in there!), But Sean didn’t dare run around to play with the smaller children either. He clung to one of us the whole night, and just looked.

Keira took some time to warm up, but after awhile I could hear her shrieking with laughter over something or other. Ah, she’s growing up.

Here’s a family photo just before we sang happy birthday.

It was a fun night overall and I really enjoyed planning it

Altho we still treat you like a baby, and I still wish I could cradle and rock you in my arms like a baby, (and actually I still do), you will be two years old in a few weeks time!

Time for an update on the little rascal’s progress.

At almost 2, we can see signs of the “terrible” phase coming in. Sean is becoming stubborn, saying “No” all the time, and crying at the top of his lungs if he doesn’t get his way. So, he has been getting “the corner”, when he is too naughty. Funnily enough, when I put him there, he stays there meekly and quietly until I come to get him!

His vocabulary is picking up slowly. The boy knows heaps of words, and his understanding is great, but he hasn’t got his pronunciation down yet,  and he knows it, so he only says the words that he knows he can pronounce. So far, still single syllables only.

So he makes do with single word questions and demands, like this:

“Mama, book!”

“Mama, deo” (video)

“Jie jie, come!”

“Wait!” with palms up

“Stop!” (when I try to sing… yes, I’m that bad)

He is still pretty good with food. He doesn’t eat alot, but eats enough. And he can feed himself quite well… err, sometimes even better than his 4.5 year old sister!

I am finally stopping the breastfeeding. Haven’t given him any in the past 2-3 days, when he asks for it, I have put him off in a rather interesting way, which is abit embarassing to blog about, but any mums out there who are curious, email me. Anyway, he has stopped asking for it

Unfortunately, Sean hasn’t been sleeping through the night in the past few months. Could be a bad habit, but he has to wake up 1 or 2 times a night to get a drink of water. I am so used to it that I don’t even complain about it anymore. He has trained Mummy well.

Oh, and he works the computer like a pro.

I am very impressed each time I see him clicking and navigating around. I’m like how can a baby do that??! Because I’m obviously still in denial and I still think he’s a baby.

Here’s a video with Sean in action. He is playing on starfall.com, which is excellent for young kids.

I don’t even have to mention the iPhone do I? He likes to play with the camera and take photos. Play with Talking Ben, Talking Tom etc.

He likes cars, bikes and making things fly. See this bike/buggy below (can rent at SS2 Mall RM10 for 15 -20 minutes) … after awhile, Sean was the one pressing on the accelerator, and steering the bike, while Ah gong just had to hang on for his life and navigate!

He’s not toilet trained yet. But slowly getting there. One day I asked him if he had done a poo, and he replied: “No, wee.” At least now he can tell the difference. He also likes to sit on the toilet - for fun - copying his jie jie, but nothing ever happens.

What else.. what else?

He can built really tall towers with Lego. He tries to sing along to songs by singing the last word in the sentence. eg. Music: “A whole new world….”  Sean (more or less in tune): “Wor…” hehehe. So far he calls me “Mama”, but recently started saying “Mami” sometimes.  Likes to cuddle Likes soft boiled egg for breakfast. Wants to go to kindy with Keira. Can pose for the camera.

That’s it. Except one last soppy observation from me … I’m treasuring every single moment with these two kiddos. Especially when they are enjoying each other’s company and playing happily together. They’re wonderful

We basically spent the whole week meeting up with them at every opportunity. Also saw plenty of lion dances, one dragon dance, did some shopping, swapped lots of ang pows, managed one session of mahjong, and ate, of course.

Anyway, the photos will tell the tale:

We had our Reunion Dinner at Chynis, SS2 Mall. Booked in for the first session, which started at 5.30pm. The next session was 8pm, so by 7.30pm we felt abit of pressure to eat faster and leave, but it wasn’t too bad. We finished comfortably with time to spare. Just no chance to hang around and chat. What to do - popular restaurants are like that. And anyway, it was too noisy to chat and also the kids wouldn’t have sat still for so long.

Here we are “lo”ing sang.

On the first day, we actually went shopping, and i bought new shoes and a cheong sam for Keira. Which got us some weird looks from the sales person, cos you are supposed to buy new things BEFORE new year right? haha. Ah well, I didn’t buy new clothes for myself this year.

We had dinner with the family that night. Here’s the hungry kids digging in on the spread. Sean was helping himself already!

Another night, we had a party with the extended family, and I took the chance to dress the kids up. Sean is wearing the chinese suit I bought for Keira when she was two years old. It fits him just nice now!

We saw this nine dragon dance performance at 1 Utama one afternoon. Unfortunately I have to say that the dragons were more impressive standing still than when they were moving.

Keira and Sean continued to have fun with Ah Gong and Ah Ma after Liem left:

and also played with each other quite abit. Sean can pose very nicely for photos now:)

Finally on Chap Goh Meh I made a roast pork dinner - western style, slathered with English mustard and served with apple sauce.

Also made a quinoa salad, which wasn’t too popular, but I loved it. I really like quinoa. It’s tasty and fills me up like meat does, so I don’t feel like I have to eat alot of meat. I’m not really into eating meat these days.

So that was our CNY, it was a good two weeks of family fun:)

I wasn’t expecting much from Kuching, but the Cat really surprised me. We all had a great time there!

We saw wild orang utans at the Semenggoh Nature Reserve, we had a real cultural experience at the Sarawak Cultural Village, we had lots of yummy seafood and the kids had loads of fun together, swimming in the hotel pool, playing in the rooms, and just entertaining each other all day.

So, photos coming up:

Our first full day there, we went to see the Orang Utans. I have a soft spot for Orang Utans because of my favourite author - Terry Pratchett - who features an Orang Utan as one of the major characters in his books. All Terry Pratchett fans think that these apes are something special. So I was very thrilled to see  them for real.

And this big fella literally brings that storybook character to life. He is 150 kilograms HUGE. And it is really easy to imagine him swinging one mighty arm to knock down five men flat, with ease.

Keira stuck to Liem at every opportunity. She loved his company, and now that  they have gone back to Oz again, she says she misses him. Even with the age differences, the cousins managed to play very well together.

The next day, we went to the Sarawak cultural village, which was a real educational experience. They had re-created all the traditional long houses of the Sarawak natives and  inside each one, representatives in traditional costumes would show us how they live, with blowpipe demonstrations, weaving, food and music.

The Kuching waterfront area was pretty cool too. It is always invigorating to walk next to a flowing expanse of water I feel. Something to do with the positive chi maybe.

We also went to the various musuems in the city. The Natural, Cat, History and Chinese Museums. We thought the Chinese musuem, altho small was very representative, and it definitely struck a chord with me.

Ate alot of fish, prawns and Sarawak Laksa. Had Sarawak Kolo Mee once. It was delicious!

So, it was an excellent trip all round. No one got sick, the kids behaved fairly well and everything went smoothly. It was well planned and well organised. And we have already started thinking where we should go for the next family holiday

ps. More photos here on flickr.

I’m so happy that she’s not being clingy and scared anymore. So the strategy of waiting until she’s ready worked. All of last year, I only sent her to a few art and craft sessions and a few hours of chinese class a week.

The chinese class was the one that really helped her grow confident I think. She still cried, but it had a small group of students and very supportive teachers.

Eventually, Keira learnt that when I drop her off, I would always come and pick her up later. Also she learnt that playing with other children is fun! So thank you Brain Bees!

So with Kindy, she was looking forward to meeting new friends. And now after one week, she already has one “good” friend who always wants to hold her hands

Here she is wearing her school uniform and sports uniform. She looks like such a smart little trooper in her collared shirt and shorts. And like she is a real school going kid…which she is isn’t she? My brain can’t process that fact yet.

I feel so proud watching her participating in the classroom and I feel happy and sad when she waves at me thru the window cheerfully and then turns back to play with her friends, while I quietly leave.

Sigh. Well now it gives me four hours free everyday with just onechild to entertain instead of two!

Here’s another pic of Keira in another variation of her uniform (with skirt) holding hands with Sean, who is giving a really sweet smile

In sewing news, I have completed two dresses for Keira. It is really satisfying to see the finished product, but damn, it is alot of work!

This is the first dress I made in sewing classes with the teacher’s help.

I used a dress pattern and it took three classes to complete.

After that, I went home and made another dress on my own.

This one was made with the same pattern, but no sleeves and I widened the neckline. I also made the little bag, which is supposed to match the first dress.

Now I’m trying to make a dress for myself! Hope it turns out wearable… Then I need to learn how to make boys clothes for Sean, then I want to make matching dresses for me and Keira, and then I need to learn alot more. But I’ll just try to do these first.

It takes quite awhile to get one done, as I can only squeeze in a short time each day to draw, cut, pin, iron, sew and unpick mistakes over and over again! But I am enjoying it. Hopefully this will continue!

My parents have gone home, and Keira says she misses them. And Sean was calling for them tonight before he slept. They really had a good time with gong gong and po po.

But I cheered Keira up by telling her that we will be going to Kuching with Ah Gong, Ah Ma and cousin Liem this weekend. She loves holidays, so she’s looking forward to that. Me too!

Then it will be Chinese New Year! And we will have more family to celebrate with this year, since CY’s sis and family are back. Yay!

So, I’ll sign off now. Happy Year of the Dragon everyone!

ps. all pics were taken on my new iphone 4s:)

This december we have been quite busy doing things. We visited all the shopping centers to check out the christmas decorations… our favourite is the one at Tropicana City Mall - Keira calls it Candyland! Check out the pics:

The kids went a little silly running from one sweet to the next. Sean of course tried to pull off all the “sprinkles”.

Yummm, a giant chocolate…

We also ate alot and cooked quite alot. I didn’t take many photos of the food tho, cos our trusty old Canon has finally died due to being dropped too many times by the kids. We didn’t get a new replacement as I’ve ordered an Iphone 4s, which is arriving any day now *!!!* and I’m hoping the camera there will be good enough. Can’t wait to play with it:)

I do have two pictures of food tho. Here’s a home cooked dinner we had one night with friends:

Sweet corn, roasted pumpkin and sweet potato, shepherd’s pie, roast chicken, portobello mushroom salad, satay and otak otak (the last two not home cooked). And here’s one of the dishes we had at Chynis, SS2 Mall on xmas eve/my birthday:

Prawn paste with prawn meat and almond flakes - is it a porcu-prawn? hehe. It was delicious tho.

Now, my parents are visiting for a few weeks. Keira is so happy, she has attached herself to my Mum and insists on spending every minute of the day with her. Sean enjoys the occasional grandparental attention but he’s going thru a “Mama” phase at the moment. Very sticky.

It’s lovely to have them around. And the fun continues in January, with more family catch ups and a family holiday to Kuching!

January also heralds a new beginning for Keira. She’s finally starting proper kindergarten. And I’ve registered her into a chinese kindergarten. I hope she’ll like it.

I’ve also finished my first sewing project, a dress for Keira, and am starting on another one - this one outside of the sewing class. will blog about this in another post. It is very rewarding to see a finished product, but unfortunately, it is alot of work!

So that’s December, and that’s 2011 almost done. This year sure is ending with a bang for me. Here’s to 2012, may it bring an even better year for all. Happy 2012 every one!

Seriously, ever since August, I had been living a monotonal existence - day in day out was just focused on kids, groceries, meals, kids… over and over again. I felt aimless and useless and stupid. What was worse was that I knew I was stuck in a rut, but I DIDN’T lift a pinky to do anything about it.

Then beginning mid-november, through no action on my part, things started happening.

A friend asked me to help her run a workshop for fresh graduates - on my own. I have never presented a workshop before, I don’t think I’ve even attended one! But the material was already prepared, and my friend said it was easy and all I had to do was to present it. So I did it!

It was a two day thing, and I missed the kids alot for those two days. when it was over, I was quite happy to go back to being the SAHM. Life went back to normal again.

Then, I got a sewing machine. I suppose the stars didn’t have anything to do with this as I have been wanting to learn to sew and make clothes for a long, long time. But maybe events have just made now the right time for me to start learning, since the kids are more independent and we can trust the maid to babysit more now after one year with us.

So I’m taking sewing classes and the first thing I’m learning is how to make a dress for Keira

Then, out of the blue, an ex-colleague called me up. She was out on her own and looking for someone to help her.

She asked me if I was interested to work for her, telling me I could work from home, in my own time, as she understood I had to take care of the kids. I said, “Hell, yes! I’m interested!” That’s exactly the kind of work I can do. In fact, it is the only arrangement that works for us.

Now, I’m a PTWFHM - part time work from home mum - hehe.

I’m really glad to do this now, as the timing is right, and just when i had been drowning in domestic lethargy. Life is more interesting when you have more things to do. And the extra pocket money won’t hurt either!

So that’s three exciting things to happen to me in the one month. Two days ago, a fourth major thing happened. It’s going to change the course of our lives again. (No, I’m not pregnant) But I’ll have to blog about that another time. For now, it won’t affect us in the short term…

As I said, I think the stars have really been directing their gravitational influences at me this month. All mostly for the good of course. I even won a rm30 Jusco voucher a few weeks ago..! Hmm, I should go buy a lottery ticket while the heavens are still watching shouldn’t I?

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:
3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1/2 cup corn flour

water

Instructions:

1) Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl

2) Gradually mix in water until the mixture forms a shape (I usually use around 1/2 cup of water)

3) Knead abit, and that’s it.

Here’s what it looks like when done:

The original recipe didn’t call for adding colour, but I added food colouring in myself, and the results were excellent! (Altho you get rainbow coloured hands if you use your hands to knead the colour in).

So this is what you get after adding a few drops of food colouring in:

And here’s what the kids do to it.

Keira says she was making a burger. LOL!

I can  store it in an airtight container for up to one to two weeks to be re-used again. But even if you throw an old batch away, you can easily whip up another fresh batch in 5 minutes.

It isn’t oily, it is really easy to clean off surfaces, and it is cheap compared to paying for store bought play dough:) I love it.

Unfortunately, they hardly ever play with it. They prefer to play inside this bedsheet tent instead. LOL.

I must say keira and sean are now really enjoying each other’s company. They can play all kinds of games together - sometimes it is the “Let’s hide from the monster inside the tent” game. Other times they play cars, blocks, hide and seek, cooking, feed the baby, follow the leader… It is so much fun to see them playing together.

Sean has reached the age where he can understand most of what we say, and Keira is really good at understanding his baby talk, so they get along really well, and actually enjoy each other’s company… when they’re not fighting of course.

‘Tis lovely

This is the story of how Keira got this scar on her forehead. You can see it there above her left eye.

It was March 2010, just two days after Sean was born, and the very first night we took him home to my parents’ house. Keira was two years and seven months old at that time. We were all pretty excited welcoming the newborn home. Keira was very happy and excited too.

So it was around 10pm, my parents and brother were sleeping, Sean was sleeping and we were getting ready to put Keira to bed. It happened very quickly. Keira, being her usual active self,  suddenly stood up on the bed and jumped onto a pillow, but somehow she tripped over the pillow instead and fell headfirst onto the bedside table. BANG! She started screaming immediately, and we rushed over to comfort her.

Then I saw blood… I looked at her forehead properly and saw something dreadful. A deep 10cm gash open on her head with blood welling out of it. She must have banged on the sharp edge of the table. It looked like it was split open quite severely.

I knew immediately it was bad and that she needed to go to the hospital to get it stitched up.

In the back of my mind I was thinking, “How could this happen on the very first night that we bring Sean home?!” And then I had to start to think how to handle this as I was breastfeeding Sean every two hours, but I couldn’t take a two day old baby to the emergency ward of a hospital, but I also HAD to go with Keira - she was crying inconsolably, which I knew in the back of my mind was also a good thing, cos that meant it wasn’t so bad to make her pass out or go into a coma.

We rushed to wake my parents, got a clean cloth to press onto the wound and decided that my mum would stay at home with Sean and my Dad would take me, CY and Keira to the hospital.

We headed for the nearest hospital to our house, which on hindsight, we shouldn’t have, cos we waited eight whole hours in the emergency room for a doctor to see us! It was ridiculous.

So during that eight hours, Keira quietened down, ate a chocolate and fell asleep, while we watched patient after patient who apparently had more urgent needs than us get wheeled in and out of the ward.

After the first two hours, my Dad drove me back to feed Sean while CY stayed with Keira. Then we went back to the hospital again. By 3am, we were getting very frustrated from waiting and we started pressing the nurses for our turn. I even (almost) screamed at them at one point. I believe I said something like, “I can see her skull!” Cos I really did think that the cut was that deep.

Finally around 4am, they called us. Keira woke up and started to cry and scream again. She wouldn’t let the doctor touch her, and they decided they had to put her under so that she wouldn’t move while being stitched up.

I had to lay on the bed with her to hold her down and tell her a story while the nurses and doctor tried to get the sedative into her.

After that was done, me and my dad rushed off home again for Sean’s feed, as my Mum said that he was crying. Man, it felt so strange to get home and try to sit peacefully with your newborn in your arms while thinking about your other child getting stitched up in hospital!

So when we returned to the hospital, it was all over. Keira was stitched up, awake but drowsy and saying goodbye and thank you to the nurses, ready to go home. So till this day I’m not sure how many stitches Keira got, as I wasn’t there to see it, and CY didn’t count them.

Sigh, we got home about 6am and tumbled into bed. My Mum and Dad didn’t sleep all night but still went off to work! While we slept in all morning.

Luckily, Keira woke up quite recovered, with no complaints at all. She didn’t even once complain about any pain and was her usual active self.

Here’s a picture of her back then with the bandage on her head. (ahh, so young!)

We took it off after two weeks, the stitches had dissolved and there was only the thin scar remaining.

Unfortunately, the scar is still here today. I was hoping it would go away as she grew older. But looks like she will forever have a small blemish on her forehead… sigh. No flawless perfection for my girl as she grows up.

And that’s the story of the scar. I live in fear of something like this happening again, or something worse. I wonder what I could have done to prevent it and I do feel guilty because I wasn’t more vigilant in watching over her.

Sigh, life is full of risks and I’m afraid I can’t protect my kids from all of them. Having Keira and Sean has given me some of the happiest moments in my life, at the same time, if you think about what it means to be totally responsible over the lives of your children… it gets pretty scary. This is parenthood hey?

No more… This is Sean now.

The little toddler who loves running dangerously at breakneck speed on the long sofa, climbing up the toilet to press the flush, jumping up and down on the bed and dancing to mickey mouse.

The little toddler who will hit his sister if she doesn’t share a toy and then yell: “Mine!”

The little toddler who enjoys his books, the iphone and loves motorbikes!

The biggest development over the last few months is his vocabulary. He’s picking up new words every other day. So far he can say:

- ball, book, meat,  mine, wine, bed, mole, wowo(dog) roar (lion), star(tar), car, yight (light), duck, gi (key), hai, walk, bike, mine, weet (sweet), yu (fish), eat, E (alphabets)

Two syllable words:
- yayaya, mama, daddy, kaikai, pom pom, dede (jie jie), bao bao, popo, bye bye, mum mum (food), baby

Most complicated word he can say:

- mermaid

And just today, I heard him say “jean” and “tak(truck)” while pointing to his jeans and a truck.

Exciting days.

He has pretty different food preferences compared to Keira. For one - he loves vegetables! He’ll ask for vegies and more vegies all the time. What a change! And he doesn’t like raisins or jelly!

But mention chocolate, sweets or lollipops in his presence and he’ll immediately say, “yayaya, yayaya” with that cheeky grin of his

He’s enjoys most foods though - likes rice, noodles, pasta, porridge, fish, tofu, orange, watermelon, pineapple, mango and banana. Doesn’t like kiwifruit or mangosteen. And not really a bread person.

He’s sleeping thru the night 80% of the time, and waking up occasionally just for a drink of water or a suck of milk.

On the naughty end of things, Sean will cry if he doesn’t have his way. And sometimes he will yell and shriek. He still wants to be carried alot, usually when he wants to be ferried around the house - to the fridge, to get a snack, when he’s bored…

But of course, the cute factor always cancels out the naughty factor. How to say no to a little boy who voluntarily and regularly comes to give you a hug and a kiss (muak) all on his own accord?  Arghh, why do babies grow up so fast? Why? Why?

(* photos here were taken about one month ago)

Finally my tastebuds are getting excited, and I can blog about food again!

Usually we don’t go to fine dining or fancy establishments when we eat out, cos you know… the kids. How embarassing to have two monkeys tossing food on the floor, climbing all over the chairs and making all kinds of noise in one of those quiet, candlelit restaurants with small tables and breakable wine glasses?

BUT, we have discovered that if a fancy restaurant is fairly empty, it’s OK to bring the kids as they won’t disturb other people too much and the restaurant is happy to have noisy/messy business rather than no business right??!

So, the first place that started the fine dining experience was actually and surprisingly inside a shopping center. It’s the restaurant arm of the new Lavender bakery that opened at 1 Utama, called - L.Table.

We were there on a Friday night, with the kids, and there was only one other table occupied. Perfect for us. hehe.

Immediately after sitting down, Keira and Sean started running up and down on the restaurant’s brand new sofa seats and Keira even tried to climb up onto the divider that separates one table from another. The waiter immediately removed all the wine glasses from our table and I moved the knives out of reach… yeah, destructive monkeys… but they settled down to eat once I got their food out. Phew.

So on to the food!

I believe L.Table has the fanciest menu of all the restaurants in 1 Utama. The few things that caught my eye included a lobster pasta, chilled cucumber soup and duck papardelle.

We ordered the other two interesting items - a black truffle tagliatelle (rm35++) and miso black cod (rm45++). The pasta was creamy and mushroomy with a good truffle undertone. But it was the miso cod that was the winner.

It came with lovely sauteed mixed mushrooms, asparagus and quinoa - a barley like grain that I’ve wanted to try ever since I heard about it. The cod was delicious. Melt in the mouth, sweet, and tasted almost like a combination of scallop and lobster! The quinoa was chewy and didn’t taste of much, but it complemented the strong flavours of the mushroom and miso. Good.

We will be back to L.Table

Another Friday, we explored the porky/pub haven at TTDI. The row of shoplots which houses Sid’s, Deutches Gasthaus, 42 East, Chip n Dale, Tom Dick and Harry’s etc. Yet again, not a place you would bring young children. But this time not because the kids are noisy, but because the pubs are! A crowd of adults drinking and smoking and letting off steam after a long week of work isn’t exactly a place for a family with two young kids right?

Nevertheless, we were there and we explored. And we discovered The Boathouse. Empty except for one other table with a separate non-smoking dining area away from the (empty) bar area. Perfect for us. hehe.

The Boathouse has a pretty pricey menu, which is probably why it was empty compared to the other pubs. But the menu also looked really interesting, especially their Cempedak Chicken, which I would have ordered if it had been available.

So I ordered two other starters - caramelised bacon and roast pork with brandy and poached duck egg on asparagus with hollandaise sauce.

Wah, this bacon and roast pork dish was sinfully delicious. Sweet and crunchy and garlicky and everything in-between.

And this asparagus with duck egg had cleaner, simpler flavours, it was well made and would have been better if the asparagus was freshly harvested from the farm - cos fresh vegies are tastier you know.

Cy had this roast beef spagetti pesto, which he had no complaints about and said that they gave a substantial amount of meat.

After dinner, Keira and Sean went to play at the bar area.

The bar table is actually also a long aquarium with little fish swimming inside. Pretty entertaining for the kids. As were the swivelling bar stools

Finally, this recent sunday, we had the opportunity to drop the kids off at the grandparent’s place for a couple of hours over lunch.

CY and I decided to take the chance to check out a non-kid friendly place - Craft Brews - another pub/restaurant that brews its own beers.

We walk into the place… and it is bright, spacious and devoid of customers. The kids would have loved it! hahaha.

We told ourselves that we would bring them there to terrorise the staff another time

In the meantime, we had a thoroughly enjoyable lunch. Relaxing in sofa chairs, reading the newspapers and eating a tasty lunch in absolute peace.

No cleaning up Sean’s mess off the floor, no telling Keira to stop climbing everywhere, no taking one child or the other off on walks to entertain them. Just us. Doing our own thing without any worries or hassles.

We ordered the beer sampler, which lets you try a few of the different beers they brew.

Each one had a distinctive flavour - the light yellow one tasted of bananas!

We also ordered the combo starter:

Fried eggplant chips in batter, bacon wrapped roast pork on skewers and more caremelised roast pork. Very fattening, but very tasty.

And the pork ribs with honey mustard sauce:

The pork was tender and falling of the bone and the sauce had a good mustard punch. I also liked the accompaniments - fried pumpkin, corn, beans and carrot - cos I like vegies

And that rounds up our recent food adventures. I’m satisfied for now. Looking forward to going back to the comfortable familiarity of the shopping center and eating at family friendly restaurants who automatically give you children’s plates and spoons the moment you sit down. haha.