Babysitter for a day

Last Sunday evening, BIL & SIL sent Ven-Hynn ("VH") (the name is quite special hor?) over to my house as they were invited for a garden wedding reception at Carcosa Seri Negara by one of their closed friend. Since the H1N1 scare and VH's immune system is still immature, they prefer not to bring him out and exposed him to all the germs etc.

So DH, Werney and me play "babysitter" for a day (or should I said a few hours). Anney also quite "kepoh chi" and whenever the VH cries, she would run over and try to stroke VH or pat him. We were more worried that Anney may accidentally pat him too hard or sit on VH, so we try to make sure Anney stays far from VH.

Well, it is definitely not so easy to care for 3 kids!

Yes, I still need to make sure Werney have her dinner or sometimes, still have to feed her as she has the tendency to tell me half way through the meal, that she doesn't want to eat anymore or she is full. Werney still needs me to bath her.

As for Anney, she will acts a little manja and wanted to be carry too when I carry VH. When I feed VH milk, Anney also wanted to drink her milk too although she just had her porridge like 10 minutes ago. I think babies also can feel the competition!

For VH (currently @ about 6 weeks old) .....according to SIL, he doesn't like to sleep and true enough, he doesn't sleep well. Aren't all babies are supposed to sleep most of the time? Well, I'm totally wrong! VH loves to be carry around and would nap like 10-15 minutes before he cries again. I even try to put him in the baby sling but I am not very used to carry a small baby in the sling and definitely not confident enough to walk about with VH. I'm still very used to carry baby in hip position and not the cradle position.

Anyway, we managed to steal a few shots at our backyard........

Baby Ven-Hynn

Closed up on Baby Ven-Hynn

Both Werney and Anney also wanted to lie down next to Baby Ven-Hynn for a shot

My 2 girls

Weekend activity

I blogged earlier that both my girls are water babies.....they just love splashing and dipping their feet in the pool. Since we move out from our condominium early this year, there wasn't much opportunity for us to bring both Werney and Anney for a swim.

We dug this inflatable pool out from our storeroom on Saturday and set it up at our backyard. It is way too small for Werney but nevertheless, she still loves it. Although it may look small, this mini pool took a long while for the water to fill up. As the water was also a little cold, I even had to boil 2 kettles of hot water to make the water warmer.

Really wish we could have a "real" pool at our backyard but thinking about the maintenance cost etc, don't think it is feasible for us to do it. Anyway, we probably wouldn't have the time to use it during weekday as most of the time, my girls will be at grandma's house.

Also see the mini grass garden behind? DH spent some a lot of time to make it look like this. It was once a "junkyard" with overgrown lalang and it took quite a lot of efforts to clear the concretes, woods, stones and whatever left from our renovation works and filled it up with proper soils. It was hard work but now it is great for DH to practice his golf and for my girls to have a mini picnic outdoor!

Both my girls enjoying a dip in the mini pool....

Student wannabe

Although Werney and Anney's age gap is about 3.5 years, Anney really adores her Cheh Cheh. She would follow everything her Cheh Cheh does, love to hug each others (and of course fight too!) and recently, she also wanted to follow her Cheh Cheh to school and insisted to wear the uniform too.

Everyday, Anney would follow my mom and dad to send Werney to kindy and now, Anney wanted to wear the uniform too! A car ride to kindy is not enough to satisfy my curious toddler. My mom also said she would cry if she doesn't get to wear the uniform.

See this is my student wannabe...sorry mommy think you are too young for pre-school at 15 months!

Anney in Werney's kindy uniform

See got school bag too!

More pose in kindy uniform....it's like a maxi dress lol!

Birthday's celebration

Yours trully here celebrated the 30+ birthday two Fridays ago with my family members.

We decided try out the new Shabu Shabu restaurant at Kuchai Lama. The price per pax is RM28.80 nett/adult which is inclusive of buffet style steamboat and free flow of green tea and soft drinks. Kid below 5 is eat for free.

Shabu Shabu @ Kuchai Lama

It was my first time dining at a Shabu Shabu restaurant and I find it is quite interesting. Everyone has a mini bowl of soup of our choice - plain, miso or tom yam. The foods are available on the sushi bar and they have a variety of seafoods like crab , prawn and even scallop on shell. I didn't manage to snap any food pictures as I was too busy eating and entertaining my little active missy here. She just refused to sit still in her highchair until we gave her this.......

Anney got excited that she can have the egg all by herself

See how cheeky my baby look!

After the dinner, everyone decided to pop by my house for red wine and cake cutting. Yes, birthday's celebration must have cake la! I really like this rasberry cheesecake from Secret Recipe....the cake is not too cheesy and it is made from soft cheese. We managed to finish 80% of the cake even after the delicious shabu shabu buffet dinner.

Yummy rasberry cheese cake from Secret Recipe

DH bought this beautiful bouquet of roses for me. Although it is really impractical but I am a sucker for all things nice and romantic! Thanks DH for the roses.

Roses from hubby

Parents-Teacher Day

Last Saturday, both DH and me met up with Werney's teacher. It was the Parents-Teacher Day. Our appointment was 6.10pm and it was over within 5 minutes! Werney's teacher is the "quiet" type and I certainly hope she is not like that in front of the kids!

Anyway, she passed us Werney's mid-term exam papers and asked us whether these were what we expected from Werney?

Werney did really well with score of 98% to 100% for all her 5 papers and when we told her, result is not everything, the teacher looked a little shock! I was expecting her teacher to go through Werney's progress like reading etc and how she behave in school but all these were not told to the parents until we prompted her. Anyway, conclusion, my little girl here is also a chatter box in school! The teacher also mentioned that there was once Werney's classmate asked her why she has so many things to talk (slapped my forehead)!

My miss chatter box!

Vicks VapoRub - don't use on a child below 2!

Just thought of sharing this information with any parents who regularly slather Vicks VapoRub on their children and even babies. After all, this is what our older generation did to us, right?

Early this year, there was a report in CHEST Journal, January 2009 issue that indicates Vicks VapoRub may stimulate mucus production and airway inflammation, causing serious negative effects on infants and young children. The study was conducted after a few cases of children being brought to ER after their parents / grandparents applied Vicks VapoRub on their nose.

The ingredients in Vicks can be irritants which cause the body to produce more mucus in order to protect the airway. In children, whose airways are much more narrower than adults, any increase in mucus or swelling can narrow them severely and could lead to severe respiratory distress.

If you read the label on Vicks VapoRub, it clearly indicated not to be used for child below 2! For older children or even adults, you should never apply the Vicks VapoRub directly in the nose or under the nose because of the potential danger above.

If your little one is really suffering from cold and blocked nose, maybe you could try humidifier or saline nasal spray or even sitting in the bathroom with running hot shower! The mist from the hot shower would help to clear the congestion.

Pass this message around to your hubby, wife, grandparent, nanny or any caretakers. I think better to take precaution before anything untoward happen to our loved one.

White pearly

Anney loves getting her teeth brushed. I started cleaning her teeth when she was a few months old. Initially, I started with a finger-type washcloth from MAM and then, I changed it to the traditional toothbrush when she was a year old. However, as I uses a battery-operated toothbrush to clean Werney Cheh Cheh's teeth, she wanted to try that too.

So yesterday, I bought the same one like Cheh Cheh but in different colour. See, how cute is this Colgate SpongeBob SquarePants's battery operated toothbrush?

Colgate battery-operated toothbrush for kid

Although the recommended age for the battery-operated toothbrush is for 3 and above, Anney seems to be able to use it well with our supervision, of course. She can even press the on/off button with her little finger. The toothbrush is not cheap....it is RM23.90 for one and the bristle head is not changeable. Nevertheless, it can last more than 6 months.

Little Anney enjoying her new toothbrush

I think it is important to start brushing your child's teeth as soon as the first tooth appears as tooth decay occurs faster in children than in adults. By introducing teeth brushing to our child, it also help our child to develop a crucial habit which will last a lifetime.

The key to getting your child to brush is to make it fun!

Penang getaways @ 6 to 8 June 2009

We went to Penang during the recent school holidays. We were there for 3 days and coincidently, it was the weekend of Agong's birthday. So, you can imagine the traffic going up north and down south of the North-South Highway.

The drive from KL to Penang was quite smooth (we left house at about 7 am) except for the occasional heavy volume of cars near Jelapang toll (Ipoh exit), along the North-South highway. The traffic within Penang was chaotic though. It took us more than an hour to drive from Penang bridge to our hotel at Batu Feringghi. Once we reached our hotel, we didn't feel like driving anywhere else on Penang Island. Luckily, our hotel has everything that we need from the daily pasar malam (night market) to plentiful of makan places.

We didn't do much sightseeing and spent most of our time lazing around the hotel and also Batu Feringghi area.

We did drive to the Tropical Spice Garden and realised that we can't push our stroller there as the path are all pebbles and steps. So decided to abandon the visit there. Luckily we haven't paid the entrance ticket!

We also visited the Toys Museum @ Tanjong Bunga. It was supposed to be the largest in the world and first in Asia. The Toys Museum is actually a collections of all toys, life-size models of super heroes to tiny action figures. Although it is one of the top 10 must go according to the Penang Guide, go only if you have nothing else to do in Penang lor.

Entrance at the Toy Museum

Life-size ninja turtle

Beautiful Barbie

My favourite cartoon character, The Beauty & The Beast

The Incredibles

Mr. Bean

Werney posing with Kung Fu Panda

Barbie with baby in sling. Cute!

Tinkerbell and other dolls

The highlight of our trip was actually the visit to the Adventure Fun Zone at Golden Sands Resort. We paid RM31.50 for the whole family for 2 hours of fun and adrenalin-draining slides. Both my girls really enjoy themselves and I think daddy too! For the brave ones, there is also a Demon Drop slide, which is like a 24 ft. vertical drop! Of course, we were too chicken to try that out.

Anney with DH at the giant slide

Werney at the giant slide. After one try, she insisted that she will only slides with daddy!

Werney doing upside down monkey bar

Anney going solo at the giant red slide

More monkey bar antics

Other than that, we spent a lots of time at our hotel. The hotel we stayed was really kids' friendly. They have a supervised Kids' Club, children pool, games room with Nintendo Wii and Children eat-for-free. The hotel also have other activities like horse-riding, parasailing, jet ski, jungle trekking etc. The hotel has direct access to the beach but unfortunately, the beach was kind of polluted and the waves too rough for a swim.

Overall, our short vacation has been great other than......

• Our "Siu Jei" (Werney) who refuses to eat at hawker stalls (complaining it is hot because there is no air-cond & fan). DH & me have to rush through our Char Keoy Teow, Assam Laksa, Muar Chee and Wan Tan Mee

• Our "Siu Jei" also refuses to walk on the sandy beach and screamed "Somebody have to carry me!" when we were at the beach. She just doesn't like the feeling of sand on her feet
  

• Our super active toddler who almost turns the car upside down with toys and foods everywhere and refuses to sit still in her car seat when she is not sleeping
  

• Me having to squeeze my butt between the two car seats for our 4 hours journey up to Penang and back to KL

Anyway, we still have lots of fun and looking forward for our next vacation.

By the way, school resumes tomorrow.

Book Buffet

I just got back from a book buffet. You might be asking book also got buffet, meh? Yes, Scholastic is currently having a book buffet promotion at MegaKidz Midvalley, from 12 to 14 June 2009. You pay RM49.90 to buy a bag and you can stuff all you can (as long as can fit into the bag). They have about 20,000 titles on promotion. Isn't that great? The catch is that the bag is only approximately 25cm x 25cm x 1 cm in size. It looks really tiny.

The bag look like this.....


Guess how many books I managed to fit into this tiny wonder?

I managed to stuff a total of 16 books. On average, the price per book is about RM3.10 only. This is even cheaper than 2nd hand book shop. While I was walking out, the organiser told me I could actually stuff in more books but since I couldn't find any other suitable books for my girls, I declined the offer.

The place was not too crowded but the selection of books for younger children (like below 5 years) are quite limited. What was more disappointing was there were a group of kiasu mommies who just took all the books and then slowly sorting what they want and what they do not want on the floor, while trying to stuff the books into the tiny bag! The rest of the parents basically have to stand there and wait! The organiser told me that they will replenish the stock tomorrow and I hope they will have more selections for younger children.

Anyway, these are what I managed to grab.

Swine flu...it is a world pandemic now

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that the current swine flu (influenza A) with H1N1 strain is a world pandemic now (the last was in 1968!).

It is really worrying as we hear more and more new cases being reported each days and worldwide, there are about 30,000 confirmed cases. Hong Kong has ordered the closure of all schools for 2 weeks. In Malaysia, over the last few days, the number of confirmed cases has also increased and the country's total is now 11 cases. The last I heard was the New Zealander tourist staying at Holiday Inn Penang (well, my family was also staying at the same hotel over last weekend and luckily, we didn't have any close contact with any Ang Moh there!).

School will resumes next week. I am quite worry as the according to WHO, the virus normally attacks younger people below 25 years. Furthermore, you know how children like to share foods or share everything and touches everything, because they are simply curious. If our kids are not by our sides 24/7, it is just not possible for us to monitor them all the times. I hope the kindy would do all the necessary to monitor the situation.

In the meantime, I just hope WHO could come up with some vaccines to curb the spread of this pandemic fast.

Side track a little bit, the haze is back in Malaysia again. While driving to work this morning, the visibility in KL is quite poor, it is like being masked with some thick fog, only these are "bad air"! Hope the haze situation would not be as bad as in year 2005.

So people, please stop the open burning, you are just killing yourself!

Anney @ 15 months old

My cheeky little baby is already 15 months. She is definitely very mobile now.....

• Can walk and run really fast
• Can walk a few steps backward
• Can do tippy toes like her ballerina cheh cheh
  
• Love to climb anything
• Love to eat anything we eat
• Blah & blah a lots and pretty loud too....a few new words to her vocabulary are Up, There, Abre (In Spanish, it means Open. This is the effect of too much Dora show lor!)
  
• Can imitates some of the words we said
• Have about 12 teeth
• Weights about 11 kg
  

Top 5 things to pack for vacation with kids

I love travelling with my kids but packing for vacation can be a little tricky when I have a baby (now toddler) and a preschooler. Unlike the times when there were just DH and me, we could just pack and go!

Now, I have to start planning and packing days earlier before our vacation.

Besides the usual stuffs like clothing, favourite toys, favourite books, pillow, bolster, blanky, wet wipes, diapers, baby's toiletries, bottle steriliser, milk and snacks (I know it sound like I am packing the whole house which DH occasionally joke about), these are my top 5 "must have" when travelling with my kids:

1. Travel size first aid kit



You will never know when you need this and certainly I do not appreciate running to the hospital in the middle of the night, in an unfamiliar place unless it is really an emergency. Items normally included in my first aid kit are:-

• Plaster
• Antiseptic cream
• Tweezer & scissor
• Cotton
  
• Glove
• Alcohol swap
• Sting bite medication like Zambuk etc
  
• Neurofen for pain relief or fever
  
• Anti-histamine and decongestant for allergies & flu
  
• Eu Yan Sang Bo Ying Compound
• Digital thermometer
  

2. Electric insect repellent


This gadget doubled up as a night light. A great invention to keep the mossies away and the night light leave a soothing blue light for bed time. The insect repellent uses some ultrasonic sound technology to drive away the mossies and it is chemical free! Great to be used in hotel room. Just plug into any AC outlet.

3. Thermos Bottle & Food Jar


This wide neck thermos food jar can be used to store both liquid and solid food. It is spill-proof. I used this to "tau pau" porridge or any hot food just in case any of the 2 girls are napping during meals time. The thermos bottle can store water for hot drink or to make milk.

4. Nail clipper
Broken nail really irritate me and it is dangerous too if you are carrying your child with broken nail as you may accidentally hurt him or her. This tiny tool also serves many other functions like cutting the loose tread on your cloth, price tag, open a snack etc. Just make sure you check this in with your luggage as this is no no for your hand carry.

5. Digital Camera
Last but not least, my digital camera to capture all the happy moments or actions.

Well, I suppose "travelling light" does not exist when travelling with kids and good planning on what to pack would make or break a vacation!

Thousand Birdie Giveaway, win a blog revamp

Do you like my blog design?

I fell in love with Gisele Jaquenod's templates the first time I visited her site. Gis is born in Argentina and dedicated her free time to design blog themes. Her blog templates are all so sweet, so cheerful and definitely different from the many blog templates I have seen.

I'm currently using Birdie's Sweet Blog template. Other wonderful templates from Gis are...

Birdie's Good Life

Birdie's Bloggin' Out Loud

Birdie's Secret Garden

Being new to the blogging world (yes, my blog is less than 2 months old) and a self-confessed IT-hopeless mommy, Gis' site offers wonderful resources for bloggers. Besides that, Gis' site also offers free beautiful templates (like those above) for bloggers. Most of the templates available are suitable for both Blogger or Wordpress users.

Gis is currently giving away a blog revamp for one lucky winner. I hope to be the lucky one! What I would love from the blog revamp is the design of a 125 x 125 px banner for my blog. How wonderful would that be right coz' I have been wanting to have both my princess pictures on the blog banner or title, yet I haven't found the time to do it yet.

If you would like to win yourself a free blog "make over" by expert like Gis, do hope over to her site and join this contest! Deadline is June 15, 2009.