June 2008 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Sherilyn Has Mandarin Homework Too!

And she’s only in the class for 3-year olds. I was shocked when I saw these 2 books in her school bag the other day. The teacher wrote ‘Revision’ on one of the books and expected the parent to coach the kids at home. I am fortunate that my mil is still around to help me coach Alycia and Sherilyn in their Mandarin homework. When she goes back to HK or NZ, it will be the blind leading the blind for I know very little Mandarin words.

Sherilyn has no problem tracing the word ‘yuet’ or moon in Mandarin (pic above). When it comes to word recognition, she hasn’t the slightest clue…. and the same goes for this yellow banana mummy.

Don’t you think that this book is a tad too tough for 3-year olds?

No. of times viewed = 371

A Shampoo For Dry And Chemically Treated Hair

These days, my hair is always tied up in a pony tail. That’s because my hair always strays everywhere and I just don’t have the time to blow it dry and have it carefully coiffeured. With 2 hyper active toddlers and 1 demanding baby, I need to have a hair style that does not need any blow drying to put it in place neatly. My friends commented that I look more elegant when my hair was rebonded and slightly colored. I am planning to do another hair rebonding, most likely a digital rebonding this time. With my hair perpetually straightened after the rebonding, I don’t even need to comb my hair when I get out from bed! This time, I better find a hair salon that uses a good quality chemical to rebond my hair. The last time I did a hair rebonding, flaky dandruff shed from my scalp. Not only did the chemical cause dryness to my scalp, my hair was also dry, stiff and got badly entangled after each wash. The entanglement was so bad that I could not even comb my hair when it was still wet. I had to wait till my hair was all air dried before I could comb it. The owner of another hair salon that I went to the other day told me that I should have used a very mild and moisture-rich shampoo to detangle my hair.

A friend of mine told me that she has tried an ultra-mild and moisture rich shampoo that contains Avocado oil and Nettle extract called Bumble and Bumble Gentle Shampoo. This shampoo is specially formulated for chemically treated and chronically parched hair, i.e. hair that is fragile and has been permed, colored, rebonded and overstyled. It helps keep the hair soft, healthy, strong and luscious with the wholesome and rich oil of one of nature’s best food – the avocado. She told me that the Bumble and Bumble Gentle Shampoo is currently on sale at mybumbleandbumble.com. I’m going to get a bottle of this shampoo before I make a trip to the hair salon for my hair rebonding!

No. of times viewed = 194

Half A Year Has Gone

I just realized that today is 30th June, which means that exactly half a year has flown passed us, in what seemed like a blink of an eye. I remember very vividly ushering in the new year and celebrating the New Year’s Eve at Pavillion and staying a night at Sheraton Imperial Hotel with hubby, Alycia, Sherilyn and Su (my previous maid). We had a great view of the spectacular fireworks set out at the Merdeka Square and KLCC at 12 midnight from our hotel room. I was 6 months+ preggers then. Now, here I am with another baby, who is 2 months+ and half a year has gone. Time really flies and without realizing it, I will be ushering in another new year. My New Year Resolution is still not achieved yet and today, I realized that I have to set my mind to work towards it.

What about you? Have you met your New Year Resolution yet?

No. of times viewed = 190

Getting Married In The Seventh Month Of The Chinese Calendar

The Chinese have a taboo of getting married in the seventh month of the Chinese calendar (which would be the month of August in the English calendar) as that month is believed to be the month of ‘hungry ghost’. Thus, many love birds who are eager to get married would normally rush to tie the knot in the months of June and July. However, my cousin who is a Christian does not believe in such a taboo and she’ll be getting married in the seventh Chinese month. She called me the other day for Wedding Ideas and told me that the Chinese restaurant that she has booked for the dinner has given her a 30% discount! Most restaurant owners would normally have special offers in the seventh month of the Chinese calendar as many Chinese shun away from having wedding dinners in that month. Do you believe in such a taboo?

No. of times viewed = 210

Does Baby C Look Like A Boy Now?

I wrote in my earlier post that almost everyone who sees Baby C the first time would comment that she looks like a boy. Well, last night I dolled her up in her cheh cheh’s old dresses and what say you now? Does she still look like a boy now?

Baby C in this Pumpkin Patch dress which ‘sam koo mar’ (3rd sil) bought from New Zealand for Alycia 4 years ago. Alycia only wore it once, Sherilyn wore it a couple of times and now, Baby C gets to wear it. It still looks like it’s brand new.

Initially, Baby C was all smiles when I dressed her up so prettily but after a while, she cried. I am sure she must have tried to tell me this – “mummy, stop treating me like a doll and put me back in my jammies now. I need to sleep now!” LOL…

No. of times viewed = 570

Make Your Kids Drink Water The Fun Way

Most parents whom I know of would tell me that their kids don’t like to drink water and that they have a hard time getting their kids to drink plain water. Alycia used to hate drinking water too when she was a baby but I have been diligently training her to drink water since she was a baby and now I have no problem asking her and Sherilyn to drink water, PLAIN water that is. However, there are still times when they don’t like to drink water, especially when they are sick. As for Baby C, since she is still breastfed exlusively, I don’t give her water, except when I feed her antibiotics, which I will only feed her with 1 or 2 teaspoons of water to wash away the awful taste from her mouth.

When I was still employed and have the money to splurge, I would buy new water tumblers and sippy cups for Alycia and Sherilyn very often. One surefire way for me to get my 2 older girls to drink water is to buy them new water tumblers and cups. They find it very fascinating to drink water from new cups or tumblers. Another way is to make drinking fun – put their water tumblers in the fridge so that they have chilled water to drink, putting ice cubes into the water, make ice pops with fruit juice, bottoms up or ‘yum seng’ with them (they just love this!) and let them pour water from one cup to another to drink.

The other day, Alycia and Sherilyn were treated to some rock melon jellies that my sil bought from Japan. The jellies came in tiny plastic cups. After they had finished eating the jellies (they use a spoon to scoop out the jelly, strictly no sucking out the jelly as this method of eating had caused many fatal accidents in toddlers), they poured water into their jelly cup to drink. The result – they finished their entire tumbler of water and even asked for more!

Look at their happy faces, pouring water from one cup to another. But this can be quite messy if they spill the water.

No. of times viewed = 308

A Birthday Gift That’s Everlasting

I have not gone back to my hometown for more than a year and I am really looking forward to a trip back next month to celebrate my dad’s 65th birthday next month. I miss everything about my hometown – my parents, the house that I grew up in, the good old Ipoh food and even the air and the water! Yup, even the air is fresher and water is cleaner in my hometown. Now, I am really lost for birthday gift ideas. Instead of giving my dad cash, coz that’s just what I have been giving him for the past few years, I am thinking of getting him a gold bullion from Monex. I know my dad is not a gold person but he’s a very practical person. Gold prices are soaring now and if I got him a gold bullion, I am sure it will be a good investment for him too.

No. of times viewed = 328

Alycia Is Testing My Patience

Alycia is really testing my patience to the limit. Since early last year up until now, she has been falling sick every other month. That’s when she first started attending pre-school. Alycia was a very healthy baby for the first 1 year of her life and never once fell sick during that year. Her immune system started to go downhill ever since she attended pre-school in January last year, when she just turned 3 years old.

Alycia had missed more than 7 months of classes last year and had missed out on most things that her teachers had taught the pupils, which are the basics / foundation. When she resumed classes again in September last year, she was way lacking behind her peers in class but has since improved tremendously at the beginning of this year. She can now write her name and recognize all the letters of the alphabet. She can also recognize numbers from 1 – 30+. She can also recite numbers 1 – 50 (with a few numbers missing here and there)

I have had and still am having a tough time coaching her in her homework, especially in Math, Abacus calculation, mental calculation and Mandarin. To begin with, her attention span is very short. Each time I teach her, her mind will be wandering far away. After repeating myself infinite number of times, she still does not appear to understand what I am trying to say. However, sometimes she will give me pleasant surprises when she suddenly appears to grasp everything that I had taught her and she would give me correct answers all the way. Many times, she will give me excuses to avoid doing her homework.

Today she brought home Math homework. One of the exercises is recognition of numbers – circle the number(s) that is bigger than a given number and circle the number(s) that is smaller than a given number (from 1 – 50). Another exercise is ‘what number comes before this number’ and ‘what number comes after this number’. What I did was to write out the numbers from 1 – 50 on a piece of paper and explain the exercise to her. After explaining to her umpteen times, I asked her if she understood the concept and she said no and shrugged her shoulders! I got so mad with her that I was raising my voice throughout my session with her. This happened over the past 3 days and sometimes, my mil would help me coach her. Even my mil who is very patient with the gals lost her patience with Alycia. I am just so worried for Alycia. I may sound like a ‘kiasu‘ mum here but Alycia’s attitude and comprehension towards Maths and Mandarin are really making me freaking worried….. and hubby has registered her in a Chinese primary school.

Am I putting too much pressure on Alycia? Do you have a tough time coaching your 4.5- year old toddler in Math / Mandarin? Do you have a fun way of teaching your toddler? I’ll be glad to hear from experienced parents who have successfully made doing homework (especially Math) a fun thing with their kids.

No. of times viewed = 371

Wimbledon Championships, London

It was really an exciting time, watching underdog Chris Eaton take the Wimbledon tournament by storm yesterday. This 20-year old hunk who is ranked 661 in the world has been catapulted into the media spotlight after beating a player ranked nearly 550 places above him and winning a place in the second round. This new British tennis star has a secret weapon to his sweet victory – his gorgeous model girlfriend. Eaton, who drives a battered second-hand Vauxhall Astra with one wing mirror covered held on by duct tape and strings his own rackets before each match, has been backed all the way by his parents. He is now guaranteed at least US$33,000 for making the second round on his Grand Slam debut which is not bad for a man who was playing in Uzbekistan on the eve of Wimbledon and can’t even afford a decent new car.

This handsome six footer who has been playing tennis since he was five years old played six qualifying matches to get through to Wimbledon and his previous claim to fame was a practice session with Andre Agassi at Queen’s in 2006.

Next up for Eaton is a clash with explosive Russian 25th seed Dmitry Tursunov. If only I lived in England, I would definitely get my Wimbledon tickets and watch this amazing new tennis star in action.

No. of times viewed = 166

Sherilyn’s Colorful Personality

Sherilyn has a very ‘colorful’ personality. She’s a drama queen, very imaginative, can be very good in immitating people, loves singing and inventing her own lyrics all the time and is a ‘cili padi’ or ‘fighter-cock’. She never ever wants to loose out to her cheh cheh and always wants to be in the forefront, never in the backseat. When she’s good, she can be very angelic and when she’s bad, she horrid.

Her colorful personality is even shown in her coloring. All her colorings are multi-colored, hardly a single color, though black seemed to be her favorite color early this year but now, she loves a multitude of colors in her coloring.

Sherilyn’s homework.

Check out Baby C’s development here.

No. of times viewed = 301

Web Hosting Providers

I have 2 money-making plans in my mind now. I was telling Elaine the other day on google chat that I plan to set up my own online store. I don’t mind paying someone to help me set up the store but the biggest set back now is that I just don’t have the time to go about doing it. My other plan is to create a couple more blogs, dot com blogs that is, no more free sub-domain blogs. Should my plan materialize, I will need a new webhosting provider as I am not quite satisfied with my current web hosting provider.

I was informed that I can read independent review of the top 10 web hosting providers at webhostinggeeks.com. I can see from webhostinggeeks.com the list of web hosting awards from best budget hosting to best blog hosting, best ecommerce hosting, best email hosting and much more. There are providers who can provide cheap professional web hosting services under $10 a month and some providers even provide a free domain forever. If you are also looking for a web hosting provider, do check out webhostinggeeks.com.

No. of times viewed = 185

Guess What Fruit This Is

When I saw these fruits that my mil bought from the SS2 market on Sunday, I was really amazed. The fruit is very light, has very smooth and shiny skin and looks exactly like a toy fruit. You have any idea what fruit this is?

These are passion fruits or markisa. They aren’t very costly – RM10 for 8 fruits. To eat the fruit, just cut it into half and scoop out the seeds. You can also scoop out the seeds, put them in a pitcher, throw in some ice cubes and honey and you’ll get fresh passion fruit drink! Easy way to make your kids drink water, they’ll love this drink.

Click here to see the cold green tea soba/noodles that I cooked for the gals.

No. of times viewed = 409

Medical Assistants

When my pediatrician told me that Baby C has urinary tract infection (UTI) earlier this month, I was devastated. When he told me that the UTI was most likely caused by a kidney reflux problem, my heart sank. I felt as if I was in a nightmare that would not end. My mind fast-forwarded to the worst case scenario and I almost wanted to cry in the hospital. There were a couple of medical assistants at the doctor’s office and one of them cheered me up. She kept talking to me and made me feel better. It is important for a medical assistant to be compassionate, kind and amiable as their pleasant disposition would bring some cheer to patients and their loved ones.

One of the quickest ways to begin a career in healthcare is to become a medical assistant. A medical assistant is not a nurse. A medical assistant job provides a variety of medical and administrative duties and provides the educational stepping stone necessary to advance to other medical careers. If you would like to take on the challenge to be involved in this noble job, you can get your medical assistant training or certificate from a recognized medical assistant school. You do not necessarily have to attend the traditional classrooms at strict timings in a medical assistant school. You can now get a medical assistant certificate in just 6-8 weeks at your own flexibility by pursuing the program online. To learn more about this online program, visit medassistant.org today.

No. of times viewed = 335

Poor Baby C Has The Sniffles And A Stuffy Nose

My poor Baby C has a really stuffy nose, which makes nursing extremely difficult for me and uncomfortable for her. Try pinching both your nose and drinking at the same time… it feels terribly uncomfortable right? That’s just how she feels and she has to unlatch to catch her breath whenever I nurse her.

The Tonimer Baby spray (isotonic sterile seawater spray) which our paed prescribed cannot really bring her total relief.

So at 10pm last night, hubby went to Jaya Jusco after his session at the gym to buy a nasal aspirator. Luckily Jaya Jusco was not closed yet. The nasal aspirator was quite helpful, though I had to pump many times to successfully aspirate the mucous out from her nostrils.

Poor Baby C is really cranky and wants to be carried the whole day. I am going bonkers!

No. of times viewed = 1857

Cheapest Ever

I have not gone to a government hospital for aeons. The last time I went to a government hospital was about 30 years ago when my mum brought me to a government dentist to have my tooth extracted. Today, hubby and I brought Baby C to a government hospital to consult the pediatric nephrologist. I couldn’t believe my eyes when the total bill came up to only thirty ringgit, out of which the medicine cost a mere RM1.50! Wow, that was the cheapest ever medical bill hubby had paid for the kids. Though we had to wait for hours for our turn, it was worth the wait. That’s one of our austerity drive to lead a frugal living in view of the recent fuel hike. On another matter, if you want to get the cheapest ever Toyota Radiator or radiator for any brands of vehicle, go check out radiators.com.

No. of times viewed = 156

Professional Nannies For Hire

Before I gave up my job as PA to a Dato’, a job that I really loved, I was dreaming to be a SAHM and I envied my friends who were SAHMs. I missed my kids terribly each day when I was in the office. However, I realized that life as a SAHM is not a bed of roses and that the grass is indeed not greener on the other side. Within 3 months of being a full time SAHM, I felt really restless and wanted to return to the corporate world. My mum said that I am just not cut out to be a full-time housewife as I lack the patience, a virtue which is important in order to be a good SAHM. I know that there is just no solution to my problem if I wanted to return to the workforce. I needed to find a nanny whom I can really trust to leave my 3 precious angels in her care and I just could not find that nanny.

If only there were companies here that I could hire professional nannies from like the Elite Nanny Canada from elitecarecanada.com, I would surely return to the workforce, with a peace of mind knowing that my kids are in good hands. Parents in Canada are very lucky that they have access to such professional nannies who are also affordable. All the nannies from Elite Care Canada have at least one year working experience as a nanny or a half-year full time training course in this area.

If only there were such companies here in our country that can provide affordable yet professional nanny service like Elite Care Canada, I am sure many mothers like me would be happy to return to the workforce. Prices of most things have now increased. An additional income to the household would definitely make life more comfortable for everyone in the family.

No. of times viewed = 271