Bento post #154 – #158

These are some of Yiu Yiu's bentos the week before and after our Langkawi trip.

Made some potato croquette one of the weekend as my frozen bento stash so fried some for her, plus a hard-boiled egg in the shape of a fish. Gave her some grapes for fruits.


A simple spaghetti bolognese with meatballs. Didn't pack any fruits due to lack of space.


Fishball with cucumber skewers and grapes.


Fried rice with rose apple cut in the shape of tulips – but Yiu Yiu calls them crown shape instead :-)


She wanted to buy the sausage bun after her music class so I pack it for her bento the next morning, and added some grapes. Easy peasy.

Yan Yan – 10th month update

Yan Yan is sick again – this time, it's croup. She started having slight fever on Monday afternoon and by night time, she developed a cough and her cries were coarse. And whenever she coughed, she'd cry in distress, so I suspect that she might have a sore throat. A visit to the paediatrician on Tuesday confirmed croup, or called laryngitis in adults. I'm not sure if it's due to her sickness but she's been rejecting EBM at the babysitter's, though she could still be persuaded to eat some porridge. Luckily she would still nurse when I'm home. She's on antibiotics, Ventolin and a cough syrup, and hopefully she'll be back in the pink of health soon.


She practically didn't gain any weight in the last month, weighing 8kg compared to 7.9 kg last month. She's now 71 cm in length with a head circumference of 44 cm.


Physcically, she can now stand alone momentarily and well as climb down the bed. She would crawl to the edge of the bed, turn her body around, extend her legs downwards and slowly slide her body down. She has even started crawling up the stairs. Time to wipe the dust off the safety gate.

She will respond to her name by looking around or stopping what she's doing to see who called. She understands when we say "No", by pausing and looking at us, before merrily continuing her mission. And if I had hopes of her separation anxiety easing, it's merely wishful thinking as she cries even if I attempt to leave her side – so I have to carry her even when I have to use the washroom – no kidding!

She had her first taste of ajinomoto food when we were in Langkawi. I actually brought the slow cooker along to cook porridge for her but on the second day we were there, when hubby tried to heat up the porridge for her dinner, it fused. So the next day, we resorted to McD porridge + banana for her lunch, and tofu and steamed fish for dinner. On the last day, it was some butter cake for breakfast, plain white bun for lunch and mee suah soup for dinner.

And she's finally teething - we can feel her two front teeth erupting from her lower gum :-)

Cuti-cuti Langkawi – Part 2

Among the places we visited was the Underwater World. Despite having been to Langkawi numerous times for work, I've never visited the Underwater World, and I must say I was quite impressed with it. I had been so excited seeing penguins for the first time in my life while visiting the Biodome in Montreal last October, without even knowing that we have penguins right in our backyard :-)




The children were all very excited when they knew that we would be taking the cable car. None of them showed any fear ascending or descending the very steep incline to the top of Mount Mat Cincang. We also took a walk on the steel bridge suspended across Mount Mat Cincang and a neighbouring mountain but unfortunately the weather wasn't too good to accord a clear view of the mountains and sea beneath.



We also visited the Dataran Lang, with its iconic eagle monument in pre-flight pose.


Another attraction which the children enjoyed tremendously was the well-maintained Langkawi WildLife Park which houses more than 100 species of birds and other animals like ostriches, rheas, parrots , crocodiles, donkeys, raccoons and monkeys. We bought a package of foods for feeding the animals at the entrance, but quickly realized that the animals must be extremely well-fed as most of them showed no interest when we offered the food.

Feeding the flamingos...

...and the mousedeer

Cuti-cuti Langkawi – Part 1

We went to Langkawi last weekend for a 4D/3N visit with my younger sister's family and mum. Sis had just given birth to her third child and it's customary for her to go on a holiday (she went to Kuching and Kota Kinabalu respectively for her 1st and 2nd child) before her maternity leave ends. When she suggested that we go together, we agreed as hubby had never been to Langkawi before. I only realized that it was revision week at Yiu Yiu's kindy after we booked the flights, so she had to miss that. Hopefully she wouldn't flunk her exams next week :-)

We stayed at the Sheraton Langkawi Beach Resort. The rooms are housed in chalets scattered all over the resort amidst lush greenery, and it's not unusual to see monkey and squirrels roaming about. The rooms are incredibly spacious, and comes with a huge balcony.

The cousins enjoying instant noodles in the balcony

We asked for a baby cot in each room, and despite that, there was still ample space for the children to run about. My only complaint was having to rely on buggy ride to and from the lobby.

Waiting for the buggy in front of our rooms

Buggy ride

The children enjoyed spending time by the beach and in the pool.

Views near the beach and pool

We rented a Toyota Innova so it was convenient driving about the island to visit some of the attractions, as well as eating out.

First hair cut

Yan Yan had her first hair cut two weekends ago to trim her fringe as it was getting long and covering her eyes. A painless process thankfully :-)

Before...


During....


And after....

Bento post #146 – #153

Bentos for the last two weeks:

French toast cut out in shapes of heart and bear, with star fishball and apples with very imperfect star cut-out.

Mini sausage bun with fishballs and jackfruit.

Egg noodles tossed in dark and light soya sauce and oyster sauce, with pan-fried chicken drummet and pieces of rose apple.

Bread roll with ham, cucumber and carrot, and tulip rose apple.

Chicken nuggets with potato wedges and grapes, and some tomato ketchup in the strawberry tub.

Kaya sandwich with bear facial details (another idea from this mummy) but didn't turn out as nice coz I don't have cutters in the right shape so had to improvise. At the side are two heart-shaped cocktail sausage and grapes.

Red bean pau (the last one in my freezer) with star-shaped fishball and carrot, and grapes.

Attempted to make meat floss sushi but the rice didn’t hold too well so ended up mixing everything together and simply press them into bear shape. Added one fishball and some grapes.

From complaints to marriage

Last year, Yiu Yiu was in the same class as Evan, and on and off, she'd come home and complained that Evan was naughty in class. This year, Evan is in a different class which is just next to hers and since her kindy practises an open concept, she can see the happenings in Evan's class.

Sometime early this year, she came home and said, "Mummy, this year in 5-year old class ah, Evan is a very good boy. He listen(s) to his teacher."

A few weeks later, she came home and said, "Mummy, Evan is a handsome boy."

Last week, Evan's mum twisted a heart-shaped balloon for her, which she gave to a teacher with the instruction to be given to Yiu Yiu. She came home on Friday with the balloon and said Evan gave it to her. The babysitter teased, "Who's Evan? Your boyfriend is it?" to which she sheepishly replied, "Yes."

On Monday while on the way to the kindy, we passed by a banner by the roadside advertising a wedding fair. On the banner was a picture of a couple getting married.
Yiu Yiu: Mummy, why are the people getting married by the roadside?
Mummy: No la, it's just a picture. It's promoting a wedding fair at Midvalley.
Yiu Yiu: What is a wedding fair?
Mummy: It's a place where people exhibit their wedding gowns, photos, etc.
Yiu Yiu: Mummy, next time when I get married, I want to get married at the place where you and papa married. I don't want to get married by the roadside.
Mummy: Haha…ok. Who do you want to get married to?
Yiu Yiu: Evan.

From complaining about Evan being naughty to getting married to him – that's a HUGE transformation :-)

So HW, this DIL pass or not?

With her friends from music class