September 2012 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Pan-Fried Salmon Fried Rice

Fried fish only tastes good if it is eaten immediately while it’s still warm and out from the frying pan within the same hour. For left over fried fish that is kept in the fridge and reheated in the toaster or oven the next day, some how I find that the taste and texture of the fish lack freshness and juiciness. You will know that you are eating stale fish for overnight and reheated pan-fried fish. Fish like salmon where the meat is firm and harder than other fish will be even tougher if the fish is reheated in the oven or toaster the next day. I do not fancy eating overnight fried fish. Here’s what I suggested to the mil when we had quite a bit of left-over pan-fried salmon fish the other day:

Fried rice with pan-fried salmon fish, capsicum, celery, carrot and fried eggs. Yummy and healthy and the stale pan-fried salmon fish tasted even better when mixed and masked in this interesting one-pot dish!

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Cassandra’s Concert Rehearsal

It was Cass’ concert rehearsal day today and it’s supposed to be a no big deal thing for me as Alycia and Sherilyn had gone through this sort of rehearsals over the last 4 years. But it is a pretty big deal thing for Cass (it’s her first ever performance on a stage) and also for me as I tagged along for the first time… together in the big yellow bus with 60 over pre-schoolers and 6 pre-school teachers! Along with me were another mother (she drove her own car) and a grandma who tagged along.

In the past, the hubs would tail the bus in his car and ensure that Alycia and Sherilyn reached the destination. He would then leave the concert hall and did something else, only to pick them up 3 hours later. Actually parents were not encouraged to follow, but how could I have the peace of mind to leave my 4YO baby girl in a big bus with only 6 teachers to oversee over 60 kids? I would worry myself sick at home. I have never left Cass in a trip with her teachers before and I do not think I can let go, not until she turns at least 6YO. What more, with her minor urinary problem, I cannot just leave her in the hands of her teacher, as I know she would not have the time to attend to Cass each time she pees.

I was actually in a dilemma whether to follow or not. My motherly instinct told me to just go. And I have absolutely no regrets. The scene was quite chaotic with small pre-schoolers filling up the hall (and teachers hollering to the ‘wild’ ones) and there were not enough teachers to watch the kids. When the rehearsal was over, Cass’ teacher could not find one of her students. There were 17 number of 4YOs and one was missing and no where to be found! Panic button was pressed! I helped the teacher do the headcount many times but still 1 child was missing. We looked everywhere in the big hall but could not find her! Thank God, minutes later, she appeared out of no where and she got a tongue lashing from the teacher LOL!

Cass and I enjoyed our bus ride very much. It was her first ever bus ride too. Sitting next to Cass is Ethan, the class’ top 4YO boy who reads like a pro.

We reached the destination after a 20-minute bus ride filled with kids chatter and laughter…

A hall packed with kids and teachers. It was a combined event with 3 other branches. The kids were given some snacks to eat before their event. Sorry, no pix of Cass in action as the kids were all donned in their uniform, and I do not show pix of my kids in their uniform with the name/badge of their school in my blogs for their safety.

We had lunch at the Japanese restaurant at our condo. Cass rode on her scooter to the restaurant.

This girl sure has an expensive taste bud now. She ordered an udon set with tempura, California rolls and a chawan mushi.

Cass is one very happy girl today. When Sherilyn came back from school, Cass gloated about her exciting day’s happenings to her sister. Later when Alycia reached home, Cass bragged to her che che again about what she did today 😀

Would you allow your 4-YO or 5-YO child to go in a school outing without you tagging along?

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Our Weekend

I spent my Saturday afternoon doing some light revision with Alycia and Sherilyn as the both of them will be sitting for their final exam soon. It really ain’t easy to give equal attention to both of them and I have to admit that I am giving more attention to Alycia as what’s in her syllabus is tougher than Sherilyn’s. Really feeling guilty about it but like I said, it is not easy to divide myself into two equally. I shudder to think about the pre-exam period for next year as Cass will have to sit for exams twice a year too.

Our dining cum study table. To keep Cass from disturbing, I have to let the iPad and laptop occupy her. I am seated on my OTO portable massage chair to have a good body massage while I attend to the girls. Most times, I fall asleep mid-way talking to the girls as it’s just too comfy on that chair haha!!

On Sunday, we had lunch at Village Duck @ Bangsar Village after church. The hubs bought some cupcakes from Bisou Bake Shop. He was actually attracted to this rainbow cup cake but bought 5 other cup cakes of different flavors as there was a promotion going on (buy 5 free 1 or was it buy 4 free 1? ). That’s just one of his weaknesses. He gets all high whenever he sees pretty cupcakes and doughnuts and would surely succumb to his weakness and the problem with him is that he rarely eats them. So his angels and I have to sort of ‘force’ ourselves to indulge in ‘sins’, else they will all go to the bin after a few days sitting in the fridge. When our live-in maid was still around, she would be the beneficiary of these goodies as we share everything with her.

This sinful rainbow from Bisou is very rich, buttery and delish. But the layers of bright colors may shun many health freak parents away.

I have to put this on record too. Whilst we were at Bangsar Village, I chanced upon my very first supervisor whom I have not met for 16 years! I reported to her when I first worked in Southern Bank (now CIMB). She spotted me and for a moment, I had no frigging idea who she was. Moments later at the exact same spot that I was talking to my ex colleague, another stranger called out my name and introduced herself. She is one of my blog readers and she recognized my girls. I was telling my hubs that some kind of chance meeting wind must have swept past me yesterday.

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A Lovely Saturday Morning

This is a back-dated post. I only found the time to upload the bunch of pix from my camera this morning when all 3 rascals were in school.

This big, round and pink sun greeted me good morning when I stepped into the balcony to hang the laundry at 8am on a Saturday morning. Everyone else in the house was still in their dreams but I was up at 5:30am to start the day. What to do, no maid. Even if I were to stay longer in bed, my mind will be wandering outside of the bedroom, worrying about the load of dirty clothes, the dusty floor and my customers’ orders. Nonetheless, house work is not all that bad. Engaging in house work is a sure good way of burning the calories. I hardly have the time to exercise on Saturdays and Sundays ever since our live-in maid left as the part-time maids do not come during the weekends. This is what motivates me to mop the floor and scrub the toilet bowls 😀

Here’s wishing everyone a great weekend and TGIF! I’ll be off to Cass’ school lantern party in an hour’s time. My 3 girls look forward to this party every year in September.

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Flash Cards For 4-Year Olds

These are Cass’ BM flash cards from pre-school meant for 4-year olds. From my experience with my 3 kids, I think flash cards will only be effective in teaching the child to read if the parent is involved actively too. If the child is taught flash cards in school and then in go the flash cards into the bag without any practice at home, the child would most likely not remember the words being taught. It is only through daily practice that the child will remember. Also, it also depends on the child’s willingness to sit still and look at the cards. Some kids will run away or have totally no interest when the cards are being flashed.

For Cass, if I practice reading with her everyday, she will be able to remember and recognize the words. I also need to have refresher sessions with her on the cards that she had already received a ‘chop’ from the principal. Cards that she gets a ‘chop’ are words that she had already mastered and recognizes. With Cass, she tends to forget the words after several days, so I need to read the ‘chopped’ cards to her again… IF I have the time la.

I am already teaching Cass sukukata now and I think it is very beneficial to her in picking up BM words. I normally let her watch some interesting videos in You Tube on sukukata and I will also teach her on my own with the flash cards.

Do you think the words are too difficult for 4 year olds?

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Workbook With Grammatical Errors

I set some Math work for Alycia to do in one of the Math workbooks that I bought for her. Moments later, Alycia came to me, chortling away and pointed out the silly mistake that she spotted in one of the questions in the workbook :

What a glaring language error the author has made. In fact, the entire workbook has grammatical errors, especially in comprehension type questions. This workbook is now in cold storage. I feel it is such a waste to bin in as she has only completed a few pages, so I guess I’ll just keep it for a while before packing it together with the old newspapers for recycling.

No. of times viewed = 434

Our Typical Weekend Morning

This is a typical scene on a Saturday and Sunday morning. The 3 angels will be seated at the dining table, eating breakfast with eyes fixated on either a book or the newspaper, while grandma and mummy will be poring over the newspapers. Daddy will be snoring away and still in bed haha!

Check out Cass — she is ‘reading’ Horrible Science. Of the 100s of storybooks that we have, she seems to have a strong liking for the Horrible Science range of books and I think she is attracted more to the pictures than anything else.

Monkey see monkey do. I think it is very important that the eldest set the right example in all she does so that the younger ones follow the right stuff.

No. of times viewed = 346

Sushi Zanmai @ The Gardens, Mid Valley City

I know I have blogged about Sushi Zanmai not too long ago but I have to blog about it again as this time, it was an eventful lunch at this Japanese fast-food restaurant with a reputation of serving delish yet affordable Japanese cuisine. First, we could not believe our eyes when we saw that the queue was for once not over 10 meters long, literally and there was no double queue outside the restaurant. So what made this lunch so eventful and unforgettable? Read on but first, pull out a hanky to dab your dribbling saliva ;p

Some of the pre tummy fillers from the conveyor belt whilst waiting for our yummy hot and piping ala carte dishes…

Don’t know what this is called but it tastes like some kind of sea shell. Very tasty and love the texture of the meat.

Must have California rolls for the 3 famished angels…

Health freak mummy’s fat-free salmon sashi — all mine. I was craving for something light that day and it was actually my idea of coming to Sushi Zanmai …

Grilled Saba fish, mine too, for a low-carb freak…

Seafood salad, all mine too!

Beef Sukiyaki…

Beef teppanyaki, which is hubs’ pick…

The girls beaming with joy when they saw that the queue was only this short as compared to the perpetual long queue and overly-packed restaurant that we always see each time we pass by this restaurant.

Though the food was delish and satisfying, I have to say that the super cramped small table that we got spoiled our entire meal at Sushi Zanmai coz you know what? First Miss Clumsy Pot spilled her full glass of cold green tea all over the table and seat. Waitresses had to rush over to our rescue to wipe the table. Minutes later, daddy’s elbow knocked onto a piping hot bowl of noodles with soup and 50% of the hot soup splashed onto his shirt and pants. Cass who was seated next to him was not spared and she yelped out in shock and pain when the hot soup splattered onto her thigh and hands. So the excitement of easily getting a table and having the food served to us in a jiffy all ended in an abrupt halt with 2 messy scenes, just within 15 minutes of being seated at the table. We were all knocking our elbows against each others’ elbows and the table, which was not even a meter long was filled with food, bowls, glasses and things right up to the edge. Well, I guess you can’t have the best of both worlds. You pay this price for good food, do not expect an environment and setting of a 5-star restaurant or hotel.

Sushi Zanmai
Lot T-217
Third Floor
The Gardens
Mid Valley City
Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03 – 2282 1160

No. of times viewed = 523

Sherilyn vs. Alycia

Sherilyn, albeit younger than Alycia eats way more than Alycia. Each night, Sherilyn will request that she wants several types of snacks in her lunch box. If there is homemade cake, she will ask for 1 (sometimes 2 or 3 slices) and some biscuits too. If I am making sandwiches, she wants about 4-5 pieces of triangular cut pieces, which is equivallent to 2.5 slices of regular sized bread. For Alycia, she is the exact opposite. She does not like to be seen with a lunch box (and definitely not a pink lunch box or a girlish lunch bag), she only wants snacks that she can gobble down in the quickest possible time. She always tells me that since she is a school prefect, she has not much time to enjoy her food, not even when the prefects are let off 5 minutes earlier to eat first.

The pink lunch box is Sherilyn’s and the green one is Alycia’s. Sherilyn even requested for a packet of Dutch Lady chocolate flavored milk but I said no, lest she threw up as she had just only recently recovered from fever with vomiting.

My mil’s homemade banana muffins and homemade wholemeal bread.

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A Book Worm’s Favorite Place

If I would allow (had I the time on hand), the one place that my girls would love to be in from morning till night is the book store. Their favorite is Borders and MPH. Before we step into any book store, I have to set a condition – either no purchase of books (if I had already bought them new storybooks within the same month) or set a budget. Without setting terms and conditions, which I had done in the past, I can be rest assured of frenzied persuasion, whines, tears, me snapping at them and everyone leaving the mall sulking. I wish there was a public library near our neighborhood so that we need not have to dig dip into our wallets to spend on story books every month.

The girls’ ‘I-never-want-to-leave’ corner at Borders…

Mummy, can I have the Tin Tin mag and also this Star Wars book for my coming birthday, pretty pleasssssssse?

And by the way, have I mentioned that Alycia has a fetish on stationery items too besides books?

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If Your Child Is On Sick Leave

Alycia came home from school on Monday looking jaded, moody and had flushed cheeks and scarlet colored lips. Still in her school uniform, she curled herself up on the couch and dozed off, without eating her lunch. Her body was burning hot and her body temperature was close to 40 degrees Celcius. Daddy brought her to the GP to have a suppository to bring down the fever. The night before (Sunday), she had complained to me that her throat felt itchy and very uncomfortable. On Monday night, I told Alycia that she had to skip school on Tuesday, to which I was responded with shrieks of protest, sobs and legs-kicking from her, as expected.

When I woke Sherilyn up on Tuesday morning to get her ready for school, she was sobbing (out of discomfort). The moment she got up from bed, she ran to the bathroom and threw up. Her cough sounded bad and the vomit was purely phlegm. Both Alycia and Sherilyn are down with fever and a throat infection with massive built-up of phlegm. The girls must have been bitten by the virulent bugs from my friend’s kids on Saturday during our dinner. Her kids were down with fever and flu.

With a burning hot body, Alycia insisted in going to school on Tuesday and today. With tears streaming down her cheeks, Alycia begged me to allow her to go to school. She kicked up a big fuss when daddy and I forbade her. She cited that she must go to school as she is a school prefect and she would have lots of homework to complete if she misses school for 2 days. As usual, I exaggerated and scared her that she will risk getting her brain damaged if her fever is too high while she’s in school with no one to monitor her, but that did not seem to deter her a wee bit in relenting. She still wanted to go to school. After giving her the reasoning which only fueled her frustration, I just ignored her cries and fretting. This seems to be the case each time Alycia has to skip school resulting from fever.

Would your child be jumping with joy or sulk and sob if she has to skip school arising from medical leave?

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Roping In Kids To Do Household Chores

It’s been more than a month we are coping without a live-in maid. It’s tough but we humans are darn resilient creatures and yes, I am slowly getting used to it, albeit I still wish that there is a live-in maid to help me out. Though the girls help out in the house chores, it is only after being reminded repeatedly and at times being threatened. Well, kids being kids and I doubt any kid will willingly help out without being told, unless the situation at home is one that is so pressing that the kids need to partake in house chores in order to get by his/her day.

One chore that the girls will volunteer to help out without being told is folding laundry. The reason? See the picture below.

Because the only time that I allow them to watch the idiot box is when they help to fold the laundry. No work, no TV and that’s a condition!

And being maidless at home has taught the girls to be more adept with doing basic house chores. Here Alycia and Sherilyn are folding a king-size comforter and they can fold it pretty neatly too with concerted effort. Cass is also getting better and better each day with her clothes folding job assignment. Yesterday, she told me that she liked folding clothes and volunteered to fold the clothes for everyone! After folding the clothes, she will sort them out before keeping them into the respective drawers. I must really credit her for such a job well done given that she is only 4 years old.

No. of times viewed = 475