Kid's Talks

During the last trip back to my parents' home in Johor, YX make me laugh so hard. In the car, the sun was shinning at him. It was in the evening time and the sun was about to set. He dislike the sun light and was complaining but we couldn't do anything except to cover him with a piece of towel. He grumble and grumble until I asked him......

Me : The sun is going to sleep now. That's why it is low and shine directly on you. This is call SUN SET. So, do you know what is it call when the sun wakes up every morning ?

YX : Errmm......... SUN HAPPY !

@ _ @ Set = Sad !

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Last week, I brought him to Marrybrown. One of the kid's menu have the SMILEY POTATO. At the counter queuing up, YX shouted so loudly saying "Mama, look. There are S-M-E-L-L-Y POTATO ! "

I laughed and corrected him. Not SMELLY. It is pronounced as SMILEY.  @_@

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The kids' surname is TAN. To them, everything named after TAN. Sometimes, they will call each other TAN koko (elder brother) and TAN mei mei (younger sister).

When I asked if they know what is their grandparent's name ? Without hesitating, they proudly said "TAN Ah Ma, TAN yeh yeh, TAN popo and TAN gong gong !" 

That day, both kids saw some birds standing on the steels below the roof, above our car. Impromtuly, both shouted, "Don't shit on our car TAN BIRD BIRD ! "

LOL ...............  

At home, they will call MIL's dogs as TAN dog dog.

They even changed the surname of their cousins ! Kids......they thought everyone is TAN.

LUCKY

Many said I'm a lucky person. Indeed, I agreed and am glad that the lucky star are always shinning upon me.

When I was young, dad and mum never let us have hard life. With their merge salary, they tried to provide the best life for both my brother and I. No matter how busy they were, they will take leaves during school holidays to bring us for a vacation. We never traveled overseas due to financial issues but having the chance to tour the local destination has already brought us so much joy !

Dad fetches both of us to and from school since primary until we completed our secondary school. With his flexible working time, dad managed to transport us and he was never late for once !

After completing secondary school, dad and mum drove us all the way to KL to help us find a suitable college and a suitable place to stay. Not many parents did that for their children, but dad and mum never fail to protect us. Hubby have to do everything on his own then. Poor him. haha 

After marriage, I'm lucky to stay with my in-laws as they help us a lot especially with the kids. Many might think staying with in-laws is not that comfortable, but to me it was indeed a blessing. Both my parent-in-laws are not those 'yim chim' (fussy) type of people and we could get a long very well.

MIL cooked lunch for us to bring to the office. During dinner, she cooked for us again. Once we are back from work, we will have warm food ready on the dinning table.

MIL took care of the kids while we were at work and we doesn't need to worry about babysitters. MIL fetches our kids to school and guide them homework (especially Chinese subject).

Even married, both my parents are still very close to me. Whenever they came to visit, they never fail to bring gifts for us. Be it edible or toys for the kids, we appreciate everything they gave.

Happy Parents' Day to PAPA, MAMA, MOTHER & FATHER ! Hope they will always stay healthy and happy.

Note: I do hope my lucky star will continue to bestow me with good health too so I could live till old to see my children build their own family one day !

 

Reporters

We will be greeted by both YX & XJ at the DOOR after work, EVERY DAY. Not the house door, but car door. Both will rushed to our parked car and report to us on anything and everything that had happened in that day. They don't even allowed us to get down from the car first. LOL !

Sometimes, both speak at the same time. We don't know to listen to who first. At the end, we need to separate them, one speak to the father and another one speak to me.

Sometimes, both wanted to report the same thing to us. We will have to listen to the story twice.

Sometimes, both speak too fast. Got excited with the story and we will have to slow them down.

When we walked into the house, they are still following behind, talking non-stop. That's my 2 junior reporters !

Meme : Most Frequently Heard Compliment

First of all, I would like to say Thank You to Yvonne, owner of From TAIPING with L♥VE for passing this Happy Blogger Award cum tag to me. What is the most frequently heard compliment ?

Well, it is "WHY ARE YOU SO THIN ?" 

I'm not a skinny person. During my primary school years, I was a very plump girl. Many likes to joke that I ate my brother's portion. At that time, my brother was very thin. Thank goodness that I slim down when I grew taller !

After marriage, most of them are surprised that how come I did not gain weight after giving birth to 2 kids.

I think I should thanks to my kids too because after having them :
~ I need to rush to complete my task, thus I walk faster and used more energy.
~ I can't enjoy my food as I used to. In order to eat as fast as I could, I eat very little, finished my portion and left the dinning table.
~ I sleep early with them most of the time, thus no late night supper.


Now, I wish to pass this meme to 5 bloggers as below :
1) Lil' Dahling
2) Little Fearles & Little Cruz
3) Our Little Princess Gwen
4) Anggie & Jeremy Boy Online Journal
5) My Miracles

Mummy-J & SP, please join in the fun !

Drawings

When comes to drawings, YX will put in FULL POWER and heart to do it. But when comes to writing (especially Chinese words), YX will try to give all kinds of excuses !

YX's teacher even commented that YX really have the passion to draw. There was one time, teacher was wondering why took him so long to copy some wording from the whiteboard. When teacher when to check, she found that YX was doing 'voluntary work' ~ helping his friends to draw ! He even walked around the kindy and help his junior ( 5 years old class) to draw during his free time. *faint*

Teacher was impressed with his drawing skills as he can complete a few drawings in a short 5 minutes ! However, teacher told us that no matter how impressed she was, she still need to be stern to YX as he  should finished his own work before helping his friends to draw. 

Some examples of his homework that required drawings.

Left pic : Teacher draw some food on the white board for the students to copy, but YX filled up the space with his own idea. He drew all kinds of food !

Right pic : YX drew a monster and add dialog bubble on the chicken.

YX's school taught them about Family Trees. This was actually taught in Feb 2012. After getting familiar with it, YX needs to draw 'My Parents' in the empty space provided. Here are his masterpiece of 'My Parents'.

Papa's face was covered with moustache

 

Nice ?

Add caption

YX actually copied from the picture above (A) and drew his own version in the empty spaces below (B). If papa without moustache, he looks more handsome ! haha

Hop over to his drawing blog over here to see his version of Doraemon which he copied from a comic.

Stubborn

Every time when the kids does not listen to me, I will angrily said "stubborn". YX picked up this word pretty fast and when things does not gets into his way .......................

Case 1
He was busy drawing and the wind kept on blowing his paper causing it to flip. He felt irritated. He shouted "stubborn paper ! "

Case 2
I offered him a piece of chocolate when he was a good boy. Half way pushing out the chocolate, it got stuck at the small opening. Waiting anxiously for that piece of chocolate, he said "stubborn chocolate !"

Case 3
He wanted to open the water bottle cap. It was too tightly closed and he couldn't open it. Angrily, he said "Stubborn water bottle !"

Case 4
One night, he requested for something but on the wrong timing. It was bedtime, so I refused. Angrily, he said "Stubborn mama !"

Sister

I do not have any sister. I envy people who does because to me, between two sisters, they can do a lot of things together comparing to sister - brother. My aunt have 6 daughters and 1 son. I enjoy seeing the sisters having very close relationship. They share shoes, share dresses and share gossips !

I still remember when I was around primary school age, dad asked me before if I want to have any younger sister / brother and I told them NO because I wanted to be the youngest. As I grew up, I actually wish for younger sibling.

I noticed that both my kids love younger kids too. Whenever they sees my brother's baby (1.5 years old), they will rush over to play with her. That goes the same to SIL's baby daughter who is around 1.5 years old too. Both my kids will be so excited when they saw the baby and are willing to let go of their cartoon and spend the time with the baby.

XJ bringing cousin N for a walk around the house !

The recent trip down to my parent's home, both kids rather stay at home to play with Cousin N than to follow us ( hubby and I ) to a nearby shop to get something. Since Cousin N can walk quite stable already, XJ enjoyed holding her hand and walk around the home. It warmed my heart to see how she care for the younger ones.

I hope to give YX & XJ younger sibling too but...........there are too many buts. Let nature takes it course !

Selina

When I was a child, I've always wish for an English name. Most of my friends have one, and people remember them easily. Whenever I tell newly known people my given name, they will not be able to pronounce it correctly, what more to remember it! I was searching for a unique one and up till today, I have not found anything that I like. hahaha

I was also searching for a unique English name for both my kids and recently, I've settled with Selina for XJ but have not found anything that I like for YX yet. Why Selina ?

Picture was taken in Nov 2011. Look at how she posed !

XJ is a little girl who loves to wear beautiful cloths and have her hair tied up beautifully. She enjoyed taking photos and pose for me. We always labelled her as 爱美 (Love to be beautiful). That reminds me of the Taiwanese group S.H.E (Selina, Hebe, Ella) whereby Selina is those 爱美 type too !

beautiful bride. It was very noisy and XJ shuts her ears.

Besides, Selina always dream to be a beautiful bride. Same goes to XJ, she loves the bride and told me she wanted to be a bride herself. I've blog about this over here.

Last week when we were in a shopping mall in KL, there was a bridal show going on and XJ requested to take photo with the bride. She loves their gown !

Friendly bride who bended down to match XJ's height.

XJ loves this name too and enjoyed being called as Selina. I goggled and found the name - 'Selina' means 'Moon' in Greek.

YX who was so eager to have an English name quickly told me to call him Daniel. That was because one of my cousin's son who was quite close to YX was named Daniel. LOL ! Hmm.......I told him to hold on first and let me find something more suitable for him. Any suggestion, anyone ?    

Facial expressions

YX is a boy with lots of facial expressions. His mischievousness sometimes really makes me don't know whether to cry or to laugh ! Many relatives said he can act very well because he likes to show funny facial expressions and makes them laugh. Even his teacher commented that he was a joker in school.

The other day, I had an idea and asked him to pose for me so I can take his photos. Without hesitating, he quickly get into the act !

HAPPY    SAD    ANGRY    DREAMING    SURPRISED    BORING

Thank you [SK] for this tutorial so I can add 'spices' into my blog and make it more interesting !

My SuperStar

Last Sunday, we went to KL for a jalan jalan, makan makan trip. In the car, the kids were bored. They then took hubby's computer brochures (hubby took from Low Yat Plaza) and asked me to roll it up for them. I thought they wanted to use it as a binoculars (as they used to do that previously) but they did this instead .....

  

Singing a duet

YX was so immerse into his singing until closes his eyes.

Since both attended the same kindy, they learned the same song and could sing together. It was fun at first, but after they kept on repeating the same song a few times with their loud tones, I had to stop them ! hahaha....

Song they sang : 1 ) One Little Two....., 2) Bangun Pagi, Gosok Gigi......., 3)关怀方式 

I remember when I was young, I heard this song 关怀方式 via a Singapore telemovie and like it very much too (if not mistaken, it was in year 1992) acted by Chen Han Wei and Hong Kong actress, Zu Ying. And now, my kids are learning this song from their kindy.

Steamed Rice

We had been eating brown rice for the past 1 year. Both my kids love it too. Initially, I cooked the rice with rice cooker. Then I realized that the rice was a bit hard. I added in more water the next try and the rice was still the same. It even had a crust at the bottom of the rice cooker since mine was a non stick rice cooker. The crust was easily removed but it was hard to chew.

Mum then advised me to steam the rice. As there are only mum and dad back home, mum did not use the rice cooker to cook. The amount of rice mum cooked for 2 person (with mum eating a little bit of rice only) are just too little if to use the rice cooker. Instead of getting the mini rice cooker, she steam the rice.

I used her method and was glad to say that the rice turned out to be soft and no more hard crust to chew. Before cooking, I soaked the rice for at least 30 minutes for the rice to 'open' up. Rice cooked faster too after the soaking process. The only flaw of steaming rice was to make sure I put enough water for the steaming. As an absent minded person, I always remind myself so I will remember that I'm steaming rice in the kitchen before I got myself a black pot !

Follow me

For the past few years, I only bring YX to the office when he does not have school because he was too active and MIL does not have the energy to look after him. XJ would stayed at home with MIL. Recently, XJ no longer allowed us to 'dump' her at home with MIL anymore. Whenever she does not have school, she will quickly grab her water bottle in one hand and her darling Patrick in another hand and rushed to the door waiting for us.

Picture was taken a few months back

No choice, I will have to bring both to the office. Boss did 'complained' before saying when 2 were together, they were very noisy. I did tried my best to keep them occupied so they will 'fight' less and create less havoc in the office, but sometimes I just can't control the situations.

Yummy..... eating with chopsticks

Despite boss complained, he still provide breakfast for the kids. The breakfast will be on the table by the time we arrived. At this age, they will stick to me like glue. I guess, a few more years down the road, they will not want to stick to me so often anymore.

My girl

XJ @ 3.5 years old

After posting up this ~ Her 1st April Fool Joke, I felt terribly sorry for my careless mistake. It was lucky that XJ did not hurt herself. Looking at her photos, I somehow felt god is fair. God gave us one over active child (YX) and one easy to handle child (XJ) to balance up our lives.

Every one (10 out of 10) commented that YX is a super active child while XJ is a more well behaved one. No wonder I'd heard from experienced mother saying girls and boys are totally different.

From my Korea trip posts, many asked how come they did not see XJ's photo. Well, she did not followed us for the trip. Initially, I wanted to bring both kids along for the holidays. However, my parents advised me to only bring 1 child because handling 1 kid will be definitely easier than to handle TWO. When they are together, tsk tsk tsk...........my world will turned upside down ! haha

I was glad that XJ is a very obedient and a mature girl at her age. During my 1 week long holidays, she did not even fuss for not having me around at home despite she was used to sleep with me all these while. She slept with MIL, goes to school as usual and drink her milk without any problem. According to hubby, she asked him EVERY DAY when is mama coming back. Hubby then said on Sunday and she will continue to ask "What day is today ?" And when Sunday was here, she shouted 'YAY, mummy will be coming back today". *Grin*

Childhood durian ice cream

Durian ice cream. Selling at RM0.30 per stick.

After lunch, I suddenly felt like eating ice cream. Hubby had the same crave and agree with my idea. I drove to a nearby provision shop and to my delight, I found my childhood ice cream. I used to choose this durian flavour and the red bean ones when I was a child. They tasted heavenly. Hubby loves the taste too. Do you remember this ice cream ?

Cars For Sale in Malaysia

When I completed my studies, dad promised to buy me a second-hand car so I can drive to work. I turned down the offer because I was too timid to drive in big cities, like KL. Dad and mum laughed at my silliness saying how lucky I was to be offered with such luxury and yet, I do not know how to appreciate it.

I regretted. Many years later, after married I suddenly had the courage to drive. Not because hubby bought me a new car, but because of conveniences. Unlike in KL, I can take LRT easily but public transportation are not that easy accessible in the town I'm staying after marriage. The house we are staying are away from the town and if I were to take a bus, I will need to walk a few minutes before reaching my home.

To cut the story short, I picked up driving when I was pregnant with YX and I always joked that he gave me the courage to drive ! After driving for a while, I realized how easy it was to be on the road. I can leave at anytime I wanted and does not need to worry about rain at all. I can go to anywhere I wanted and does not need to worry about any inconveniences. There was even one time whereby hubby had a stomach discomfort and I drove him to the hospital. Emergency like this will just happen at anytime and I was glad I can drive and save the hassle for calling the ambulance.

I always told hubby how nice if we can buy our dream car. To own a car, we need a large amount of money and to pay for the maintenance, it is another different story. So, all I could do is to hop over to the website to look at my dream car and envy them one by one. With the wonder of the Internet, purchasing became easier. If ever you wish to buy a car, you can just browse via the Internet for the cars' information at the comfort of your home / office. The website provided clear photographs of the car and are very well categorized according to the brand. You will not feel lost even if you are a newbie to the Internet.

Not only you can make a purchase from the website, you can also post up your old cars for sale. All you need to do is to register as a user, login and are free to use the website at anytime. Isn't that easy in this technology savvy world ?

Icy cold Sweet & Sour Pork

Last weekends (after the Korea trip) my parents were still in Seremban and we decided to have dinner together at Kong Ming Oakland Restaurant after recommended by one of hubby's friend. This friend praised highly on the fish head. When we arrived at the restaurant, the first thing hubby wanted to order was the fish head. However, something caught our eyes. We saw almost all the tables there ordered a dish with ice covered till the top. Curious, we asked the waitress and she told us it was Sweet & Sour Pork.

Sweet & Sour pork. RM 25

Immediately, hubby placed an order for that special dish. It became a STAR for that night. It was super delicious as it was crispy and cold. Unlike the normal way of preparation whereby the pork were covered with lots of tomato sauce and made them soggy, this one was well coated with the sauce yet crispy. We had fun digging for the meat under the ice ! As for the kids, they enjoyed both meat and the ice !

Apart from the sweet & sour pork, we had the below dishes too. 

Minced meat tofu. Nice to goes with white rice. Our families' favourite tofu dish. RM 12

Claypot garlic chicken. Very fragrance as they fried with curry leaves. Yummy ~!  RM 23

Fried 'chun kuen'. Not a good choice. The fillings have got too much of carrots. RM 18

Fried vege. Nothing special.  RM 18

Fish in their speciality sauce. As they ran out of fish head, we had the whole fish instead. Not too bad. RM 32

 steamed rice RM 1.50 per bowl

As far as we know, this is the only restaurant in Seremban serving steamed white rice in the stainless bowl. Our total bill (6 Adults + 2 Children) comes up to RM143.50 inclusive of a pot of tea.

This restaurant had an older branch in the town center. But of course, the new restaurant looks more comfortable and presentable. After hubby told his friend about this unique sweet & sour pork, he was surprised and keen to try them out. He did not noticed this dish when he dined there previously.

Kong Ming Restaurant :

(Old) Seremban Town : No, 48, Jalan Tuanku Munawir, 70000 Seremban, N.S
Tel : 06 - 7631025

(New) Oakland : 112 - 1 - B & 113 - 1, Lorong Haruan 5/4, Oakland Commerce Square, 70300 Seremban
Tel : 06 - 6314663

Her 1st April Fool Jokes

Worry ....... 

On the 1st of April, I left the 2 kids in the bedroom doing their own stuffs while I was downstairs putting the laundry into the washing machine. Just for a short 10 minutes or so, XJ gave me her first April Fool jokes at the aged of 3.5 years old.

scissor

Blamed on my absent minded as I did not keep the scissor properly. I actually took that pair of scissor to cut XJ's finger nails. However, after using, I left that scissor on the bed, and went off. When I came back to the room, I was shocked to see this .........

some strand of hairs on the bed

Hairs were on my bed. YX who was busy drawing did not notice what did XJ did. Then, YX suddenly saw this .........

a bunch of hairs on my bed but YX took and put on the floor.

......... more hairs !!!!! I was shocked when I saw that bunch of hairs and never thought XJ would be so silly to cut her own hair ! I just couldn't believe my eyes. What a great April Fool days to remember !

Korea ( 20 - 26 Mar 2012 ) Day 5

Day 5 was our last day in Korea. Our flight was scheduled at 11.20 pm but was later delayed till 12 am.

As usual, we woke up early in the morning and check out from the hotel. We kept our luggage in the bus until departure. We had our buffet breakfast in a Grand Ballroom (somewhere away from the hotel). We were lucky to be the 1st group to arrive as we doesn't need to queue up for the food. While eating, a few groups of tourist came and the ballroom was soon packed.

The palace

After breakfast, we then proceeded to visit the Palace of Korea.  Again, we were the 1st group to arrive and we don't even need to queue up for the toilet. A few minutes later, more and more groups arrived.

YX with the giant wooden gate

The olden palace

The guide brought us to visit the olden palace The structure looks a bit similar to the Chinese one.

Cheese !

The weather on Day 5 was great as it was sunny ! Despite the bright sunlight, it was very cold. We were all wondering why was it colder than the previous days.

Waffles stall by the roadside

After a few minutes visiting the palace, we left to visit the Crystal and Seaweed factories. Just outside the Crystal factory, we saw this waffle stall and give it a try. It was delicious ! The waffle texture was just like bread. I bought 1 plain 1800 won ( RM5 ) and 1 Nutella 2500 won ( RM 6 ). Very expensive huh ! but very fillings. 

Stewed Pork with carrot and cabbage

Due to the waffles, YX and I lost our appetite during our lunch. Each of us had a pot of stewed pork to go with steamed white rice. The gravy was more toward sweet taste. Not too bad actually.

Right after lunch, the guide brought us to have more shopping. We visited the Myeongdong Street (something similar to our Petaling Street) for free shopping. Since our flight was very late at night, we have lots of time to spent. At the Myeongdong Street, everyone complaint the weather were extremely cold. Suddenly, there was a gushed of winds and to our surprised, it WAS SNOWING ! 

Catching snow !

All of us who had never experience snowfall were so excited. We stood still for the snow to hit our face. YX was trying to catch the snow but the wind kept blowing them away. The snowfall does not last long. It was only for a short 2 minutes. When the wind blows, the snow flakes were 'dancing' in the air. The view was spectacular !

A dot of snow on YX's hair

Snow on my cousin's jacket

We then understood why it was terribly cold that day comparing to the previous few days. We were all so lucky to be able to experience snow falls on the very last day of our tour !

Cream puff

I came across this cream puff stall and gave it a tried. The skin was not crispy (and it was cold) but the cream was really nice. Selling at 2000 won (RM 5.60)

YX saw Super Mario !

Around 6pm, we proceeded to have our dinner near to the airport. That night, we had steamboat with noodles and steamed rice. The noodles were delicious. It was very springy. The over tired YX slept in the bus after we left Myeongdong Street and he gave his dinner a missed.

Tired

At the airport, his 'battery' was finally recharged and he had a piece of bread with hot chocolate. He slept in the plane until we touched down at around 7 am the next day.

Healthy pillow, chocolate rice bar, Pororo toy, seaweed, chocolates and comb

Here are some of my loots. I bought 1 healthy pillow for MIL and 1 for hubby. Amazingly, the pillow really reduce neck ache. It was very firm and comfortable to sleep on.

Face masks

I also got myself some face masks.............

cutie socks

......... and cute socks for XJ. In the Everland theme park, I bought 2 hair clips for XJ as they looked cute. 1 red ( in the pic) and 1 pink ( not in the pic).

photo album

We also bought the photo album complied by the guide's assistance. Throughout the tour, there was a photographer following us and took our pictures. We knew they will be selling us our photos but we did not expect that they did not let us choose our own photos. Instead, we need to buy the whole album. 

The priced we paid for the album

Ours ( my parents + YX & I ) cost 90,000 won ( RM 252 ) for 18 pieces of photos. My cousins paid more. His family (4 pax) album cost a whooping RM 406 for 29 pieces. We were all a bit surprised by the exorbitant price, but everyone paid. We will handle this golden album with great care !

One of the photo inside the album. The photographer photoshop every photos he took for us. Nice ?

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