Long weekend

Friday was a public holiday for Selangor so it's a long weekend for us. Hubby woke up extra early on Friday while the girls and I were still snoozing away. When we finally woke up, we found him downstairs washing our cars from Enterprise Car Rental. Well, that's his exercise quota for the month :-) Yiu Yiu joined him and got all wet while I busied myself in the kitchen cooking porridge for Yan Yan.

We had planned on going back to Kuantan this weekend so after bathing both girls, we set out for dimsun brunch. After that, we took Yan Yan to the paediatrician, as she has rashes all over her body, which started appearing on Wednesday. Though she doesn't seem to be bothered by it, I was worried that it might be something sinister, perhaps a reaction to her vaccination last Friday. But the paediatrician diagnosed it as roseola. I hadn’t thought about roseola, as she had it few months back, and though she did have fever on Monday and Tuesday, it was really mild compared to the high fever the last time. Anyway, she was only given some antihistamines to help clear the rashes. We drove back to Kuantan after that with the car rented using Enterprise Coupons.

Yiu Yiu was looking forward to going to the beach but it was raining yesterday evening when we got back, and this morning, Yan Yan woke up with a slight fever and even vomited on me as we got ready to go for breakfast, so again, we gave the beach a miss. We went out shopping in the afternoon though, and the mall was packed with people doing their Raya shopping. Should've rented a car using Savings Car Rental Coupons to save us the hassle of having to find a parking.

Proud of my girls

I had been so busy last month and I delayed taking Yan Yan for her 12th month vaccinations till Friday. Instead of taking her to her regular paediatrician at the hospital where she was born, I took her to Yiu Yiu's regular paediatrician instead. After the usual drills of measuring her length and head circumference, she asked me to stand and carry Yan Yan so she could inject at her thigh. I suggested to breastfeed Yan Yan instead (something the paediatrician, also a lactation consultant and breastfeeding advocate, regularly recommended during Yiu Yiu's time). So while Yan Yan got comfortable suckling away, the paediatrician poked the needle into her thigh, and there wasn't even a whimper from her – she happily continued suckling away.

For my records, she now weighs 8.6kg, is 76cm in length and has a head circumference of 45.5cm. I'm amazed that she grew 5cm in less than three months. She's definitely bigger and taller than her che-che, coz Yiu Yiu was around this height and weight when she was about 2 years old.

Later in the afternoon, after much procrastination, I went to the dentist for my supposed 6-monthly-but-dragged-till-12-monthly dental check-up. As with last year, I took Yiu Yiu along.

Playing happily while waiting for our turn

I was concerned that the decay at her two upper front teeth had gotten worse and there is now a visible black hole.

Can you spot my rotten teeth?

Since it wasn't bothering her, the dentist recommended leaving it alone as her permanent teeth will erupt in the next year or so.

However, she discovered several tiny cavities on Yiu Yiu's molars and recommended that those be fixed instead, since the permanent molars won't erupt until she's nine or ten. She immediately did a filling on one tiny caries, and to our surprise, my little champion was cool and calm throughout the procedure. She sat still and kept her mouth open and the dentist completed the filling in a jiffy.

She was so relaxed while the dentist checked on her mouth. She even had one arm under her head :-)

Cool and calm throughout, despite the many instruments in her mouth

It really helped that the dentist was really good in handling children and Yiu Yiu was very much at ease with her. In fact, she was really looking forward to the visit when I told her I'd be bringing her to the dentist. I'm glad she had a pleasant first visit to the dentist last year, so she totally has no dentist-phobia. She needs two more 30-min appointments to fill the rest of the cavities.

As for me, same message of needing to floss to prevent tartar buildup, which I find so challenging to do. Not that I hate flossing but having to care for both girls alone most nights, I'm lucky if I even get to do a proper brushing!!! And I had to replace the crown on one of my molars as it was chipped and food keeps getting trapped in the crevice.

Bento #164 – #168

More bentos:

Spaghetti bolognese with cubed pears


Fried rice, French beans wrapped with ham and cubed pears


Potato wedges with chicken nuggets and heart shape guava


Bread with ham rolls and grapes


Lotus paste pau with fishball and cucumber skewers, and grapes

Bento #159 – #163

It's been a while since I last posted any bento posts. I'm still making them on and off for Yiu Yiu and Yihao, and still snapping photos of them, but since I don't really decorate them, I thought they may not be so blog-worthy. Anyhow, since I've taken the effort, might as well just post them up for records.

Cocktail sausage wrapped in bread, with skinned and seeded grapes


Red bean pau, heart-shaped cocktail sausages and grapes


Hearts galore – French toast in heart shape, and rose apple in heart shape too


Pan-fried chicken drummet with chocolate mantou and tulip shape rose apple (though Yiu Yiu calls this crown shape)


Red bean pau (again) with fish fingers and heart shape rose apple



The good news is, Yiu Yiu almost always finishes her food in kindy now, compared to those days when the bento sometimes returned home untouched.

The making of a compulsive hoarder

McDonald's sauce plates

Empty M&Ms tube

Edible decorative wafer rose

Empty chocolate container

Empty tube of toothpaste

Empty jelly containers

These are things which Yiu Yiu deemed to be "cute and pretty" and hence, she refused to let me toss them out, despite my repeated requests. And I don't want to toss them out secretly coz my little girl has the memory of an elephant, and may out of the blue ask me where her prized possessions are. She even decorated one of the jelly container with a Snow White sticker written with her name!

She even keeps this! You say pengsan or not??!!

Plastic peeling from panty liner

I hope she isn't a compulsive hoarder in the making :-)

More conversations with my 5-year old

We bought some haw flakes from the store and Yiu Yiu wanted to eat them.
Yiu Yiu: Mummy, can I have the biscuit?
Mummy: Which biscuit?
Yiu Yiu: Neh, the round round one ah, the one we buy (bought) just now.
Mummy: Oh…that's called sang jar peng
Yiu Yiu: Huh!!! Give birth holding biscuit?? (literal translation in Cantonese)
(I later realized that it's actually called 山楂饼，so it's not "give birth holding biscuit" dear :-))

I was washing dishes after dinner one day when Yiu Yiu came to ask for permission to drink her yoghurt drink.
Mummy: No lah dear, you are coughing. Don't drink cold drinks lah.
Yiu Yiu: Never mind lah, can one. Just now also papa let me drink Milo.
Mummy: I gotta scold your papa already. Coughing still let you drink cold drink.
Yiu Yiu: Don't scold him. Can you scold people who's older than you?
Mummy: Well, I scold him because he's wrong to give you cold drink when you are coughing.
She disappeared from the kitchen, only to return a moment later.
Yiu Yiu: Mummy, you don't need to scold him already. I told him nicely already and he knows he's wrong. So don't scold him, OK mummy.

We were on the bed getting ready to sleep and she got upset with something I said (which I can't remember what now).
Yiu Yiu: If you say that one more time, I'm going to go away.
Mummy: Go away to where?
Yiu Yiu: To papa's mattress.

Yiu Yiu: Mummy, mei-mei told a lie at Aunty Yoke Ling's house today.
Mummy (laughing): How can mei-mei tell lies? She cannot talk yet.
Yiu Yiu: Yes it's true. She said "Papa tata" But papa never beat her right?

Smart retorts from my 5-year old

Yiu Yiu doesn't like tofu and one day during dinner, I was feeding Yan Yan some steamed tofu and she happily lapped it all up, so I said:
Mummy: Yiu Yiu you see, mei-mei like tofu so much, you don't even want to eat.
Yiu Yiu: Haiya! You give mei-mei anything also she'll eat one la.

Yan Yan was crawling all over the bed trying to grab things at both bedside tables so I reprimanded her sternly, "Mei-mei, NO. Naughty!"
Yiu Yiu: Mei-mei naughty also you give birth to her one what.
Mummy: So it's my fault is it?
Yiu Yiu: No, your tummy's fault.

At kindy this year, Yiu Yiu has to do spelling, ejaan and 听写. She normally comes home with a small book with the words for ejaan or 听写 for the next week but I never realized what they were for until several weeks on. Inexperienced mummy :-) Anyway, after my realization, I started practicing with her. However for spelling, the children are not given the words in advance, as they are expected to be able to write them out simply by listening to the words (the kindy used phonics to teach English). She always come back with lots of mistakes, sometimes not even one correct. When I asked her, "How come you don't know the words? So many mistakes." She retorted, "You la, teacher say must practice the Blend Book at home. You never practice with me also."

OUCH!!! Yiu Yiu – 3, mummy – 0.

Weekend with the girls

The past 2-3 months were really hectic for me, and for many weekends, I was away from the girls due to work and travelling. Last weekend was really good as we spent a quiet Saturday together at home. On Sunday, we went to Nilai Memorial Park to pay respects to my late dad.

In the evening, the girls spent more than an hour in the playground with their cousins.

Pushing mei-mei on the baby swing

Practising the hula hoop from music class

Looking forward to more such relaxing weekends and quality time with the girls.