The Wonder Girl

Here's the Malaysian version of the Wonder Girl :-)



How did this come about? Her papa has been practising this dance for the last few weeks as he'll be performing at one of his Lions Club function. And whenever papa practises, the girl will dance along.

So how? Boleh tahan or not? :-)

When Elmo grows up

I heard about this show on radio the last couple of weeks but it never occurred to me to bring Yiu Yiu to watch, since she was never a fan of Sesame Street. The only two characters she knows are Elmo and Cookie Monster :-)

Anyway, last Friday, my younger sister called to say that her clients gave her few free tickets for the last show on Sunday, and asked if I would want to bring Yiu Yiu along. Got free tickets of course go la :-) So off we went, three adults and three children, to Stadium Putra Bukit Jalil on Sunday, for the 8.30pm show.

The moment we settled into our seats, Yiu Yiu said, "Mummy, we came here before one. The Disney Princess show remember? Last time we sit (sat) there one, remember?" This girl really amazes me sometimes with the things that she remembers. Many a times, she'll remember things from the past and tells me about them – things which I myself can't remember :-)

Anyway, the stage seems quite small and there were not many people at that last show. But the moment the lights were dimmed and the characters appeared, it was totally entertaining. There was 90 minutes of lively songs and dance, and awesome backdrops. Even this cynical mummy enjoyed herself thoroughly.

The opening act

This song is about being a cowboy

And this about being a forest ranger

And this is obviously being a fire fighter

Can't remember this song...train driver perhaps?

The final song...dunno why they call this the Pageant

A very happy girl at the end

So what do you want to be when you grow up?

Our Merdeka day

I read about this fun place for kids from this mummy's FB update, and decided to make a trip there on Merdeka day. We slept in (which is rare coz the girls will normally wake up by 7ish am even during weekends) and woke up at about 9.30am, so by the time I finished cooking porridge for Yan Yan and got everyone ready, it was close to noon time. Hubby suggested we swing by Sungai Chua for our dose of 辣汤 (spicy soup). Both of us love this claypot soup, as well as the 花雕雞 ("fa tiew" wine chicken in claypot) and we drive all the way to Kajang for these dishes every now and then. The other dishes we typically order here is the stir fried cabbage with dried shrimps and cili padi, as well as the spring roll. This time, we also ordered the claypot pan mee in clear soup to try, and the soup was tasty, though I find the dough a little hard. They have the claypot pan mee in 辣汤 (spicy soup) base as well, so that'll be our new dish for the next visit.

After lunch, we set off to Broga, reaching the rabbit farm at about 2.15pm. It was really hot by then but luckily, the whole park is rather well shaded with plenty of durian trees around. We went straight into the rabbit pen where rabbits and goats roam freely. Yiu Yiu had a good time petting the rabbits and goats, though she kept asking me how come there's no pink rabbits???


She then went on a pony ride, and though she wasn't afraid that I was not riding with her (instead I walked along with her), she kept saying that she's falling down :-) But after the first ride, she said she wanted to ride again…haha.


Next stop was the ponies enclosure but we could only pet the ponies from the outside. There were also cows, goats, sheep, monkeys and deers enclosures, and Yiu Yiu had fun feeding the goats. Yan Yan tried to touch the goats several times, but each time, she withdrew her hand when she almost touched their heads.

The picture at bottom right are rabbits reared for their meat

Here she's saying, "Don't bite my mei-mei ah" to the goat (LOL)

The girls then spent some time on the swings, and Yiu Yiu also attempted to cross the hanging bridge. It was just a simple wooden plank suspended within nettings but she was pretty scared at first as it swayed as she walked. But nonetheless, she braved herself and walked the entire length.

Round 2 on the pony

We left the rabbit farm and drove into Broga town, about 1km away for this:

The ABC from this stall (directly opposite the Broga police station) is reputedly quite good, as well as the pan mee. We had wanted to order a bowl to try, but it was sold out. The ABC though, lived up to its reputation. The other famous food in Broga is grilled freshwater fish, which we didn't try looking for.

On the way back, we stopped by the Ramadan bazaar in SS15 Subang Jaya, which is one of the largest Ramadan bazaar around. We had planned to tapau food for dinner but to our surprise, this year's offerings were not as good as previous years. The food didn’t look that appetizing so we ended up only buying some snacks.

On the way home, Yiu Yiu asked,
Yiu Yiu: Mummy, today is what day already ah?
Mummy: Merdeka day.
Yiu Yiu: Oh Merdeka. Later when we go home, we take out my flag and sing Negaraku, OK?
Whoa! Looks like my daughter is far more patriotic than me :-)

Pre-Merdeka day

Friday was a public holiday in Selangor and since Tuesday was Merdeka Day, I took leave on Monday, so I had a long break from work :-) After sending Yiu Yiu to the kindy in the morning, I dropped Yan Yan to the babysitter as usual, so I could have some time to run some errands - went to LHDN to request for a refund of my overpaid taxes for the past 10 years and visited a primary school which we're thinking of enrolling Yiu Yiu into (though we have registered at another). I then settled at McD SS2 to take advantage of their free wifi, when I got an sms from hubby asking if I wanted to catch a movie :-) This would be our first movie after more than one year. The last movie we watched together was Harry Potter, one day before giving birth to Yan Yan. So we went ahead and "abandon" the girls at the babysitter while we went to watch this:

Photo from here.

We are probably one of the last few people on earth to watch this :-) and I must say that Inception is an awesome movie – a little confusing at first but after getting the hang of it, the excitement and suspense was sustained right till the end.

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?