Cuti-cuti Melaka

Some weeks ago, I had to attend an event in Melaka on a Friday evening. I asked hubby to come along so we could let Yiu Yiu enjoy the hotel facilities. So while I attended my event, hubby tended to the girls. And I took over the parental duty after that so he could catch up with his ex-colleague in Melaka.

From our hotel room, we could see boats cruising down the Melaka River and promised to take Yiu Yiu for a ride.

Unfortunately the next morning, we woke up to gloomy weather and we thought, "There goes our plans." After breakfast, it stopped raining and we quickly went for a quick dip in the pool.

Beauty queen material?

This is her signature pose these days, with the V sign

It was a cold day so we didn't let Yan Yan go into the water

It started raining again soon after so we left the pool and went back to the room and got ready to check-out. After lunch, the rain had again eased and we decided to have a go at the river cruise.

At the jetty waiting to board the boat

Examining the tickets

It was quite a pleasant 40-minute ride and I must say that the state government did a pretty good job in cleaning up the once filthy river. Along the cruise, we caught glimpses of historic buildings, old warehouses, churches and villages.

Colourful buildings depicting legends of the Malacca sultanate

We headed home after the cruise, and didn't visit attractions at Ayer Keroh as planned, as a thunderstorm was brewing behind us.

Missing out – the sequel

I knew I was going to miss Yiu Yiu's kindy party today but by a cruel twist of fate, Yiu Yiu also had to miss her kindy party.

I got a call from Yiu Yiu's class teacher on Wednesday night while I was in Singapore. She called to inform that one of her classmate was a confirmed H1N1 case, and as such, her whole class would have to be quarantined for a week. My first reaction was praying silently that Yiu Yiu would be spared from the nasty virus. My second reaction was imagining how she would react to the news that there'll be no party for her on Friday since she was so looking forward to it. Surprisingly, she took to the news really well, and her mind was focused only on the jelly that the babysitter was supposed to prepare for her to bring to kindy. Her reply was "Then the jelly that Aunty YL make we eat at home lor." :-)

Hubby quickly called the paediatrician who advised that if she didn't develop any fever 2-3 days after the exposure, then she'll be fine. Hubby took leave the next day to stay home with her (we leave Yan Yan at the babysitter overnight whenever I travel as hubby can’t manage both on his own) and I cut short my trip and returned home last night. I was occupied with thinking about how to manage the situation, since if I'm home, I'd like to be with Yan Yan so I could nurse her (she's still rejecting EBM, sigh!) and that would mean I couldn't return home. After considering several options, I eventually spent the night at my sister's house (which is just five doors away from mine) with Yan Yan. We dared not even let Yiu Yiu know that I was home!

Today is the 3rd full day since her exposure (her classmate last attended kindy on Tuesday for the outing to High 5 Bread Town) and since she's alright, we brought Yan Yan back home this evening. On hindsight, if Yiu Yiu really had been infected, she would have had contact with Yan Yan already on Wednesday, since it was a rest day following the outing and she spent the whole day at babysitter' place.

From her kindy's blog, it was mentioned that the girl had been sick over the weekend but her fever subsided on Monday only to resurface after Tuesday, after which she was confirmed to be suffering from H1N1. But I think her parents should have kept her away from the outing, knowing full well that the child had been unwell. And because they didn't, four classes had to be closed, and close to 80 children exposed to the risk of contracting the virus, and missing their kindy party!

Anyway, since I missed the outing, I had to rely on this mummy's blog to read about the outing. And thanks Jazz for the photos – so sweet of you to try to take some shots of Yiu Yiu while busy chasing after Faythe and Vyktore's classes.

Yiu Yiu's class at High 5 Bread Town, courtesy of Jazz

Missing out

…on Yiu Yiu's kindy outing to Hi-5 Bread Town
…on Yiu Yiu's kindy mid-term party
…on Yiu Yiu's Talent Time showcase in her music school

All because I have to travel for work :-(

Also, Yan Yan has been rejecting EBM since last week when she started feeling unwell. Babysitter had tried feeding her with spoon, syringe and cup but to no avail. Yesterday she only took about 4oz EBM in total, dropping to 2oz today. The last few days I tried to compensate by nursing her often through the night but when I'm away, she would not be getting her daily milk quota – and I'm worried sick coz I'll be travelling intermittently for almost half of June. Sigh!!!

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