14 February 2010 - a special day indeed

14 February this year will be a special day. In about 3 weeks, we will be celebrating

1. Chinese New Year
2. Valentine's Day
3. Hayley's 2nd birthday

We haven't thought about what to do to celebrate Hayley's birthday but since we will be back in papa's kampung for CNY, it will probably be a simple party (with just a cake) back in papa's kampung with papa's side of the family. We'll probably have another party for her when we're back in KL with my side of the family :-)

Now I need to think of what present to buy for her birthday....

Colourful lunch

Will you eat these?

Purple sweet potato with chinese spinach and chicken porridge

Pumpkin with Japanese spinach and pork porridge

These are some of the many porridge I prepared for Hayley for lunch on weekends. Occassionally I would like to prepare porridge in different colours just to see if she would eat them. Thankfully I have no problems with her so far and she will eat whatever porridge in whatever colour I prepared for her. Once I even cook porridge using red spinach and the porridge came out red and it looks really scary (even to me) but she ate it with no complains :-)

Apart from the above, my other regular ingredients are:

• carrot
• potato
• broccoli
• cherry tomato
• fish
• dried oysters or scallops (for flavouring)
• small pak choy or whatever green leafy vegetable I can find in the fridge
• peas

I am getting bored of using the above. Any other good and healthy suggestions?

My resolutions for 2010

It is almost the end of January and I suddenly realised that 1 month is almost gone and I have not really given a thought about what I want to achieve this year. Well not that I can achieve all of it but I would at least like to have a checklist to put me in 'check' :-).

I like seeing a list of things that I want to do and having to tick it off after I've done it gives me big boost and motivation to do even more. So this is something I would like to continue doing year after year - being busy and having no time is no excuse :-).

The top of my list would have to be GOOD HEALTH

I started paying more attention to my health from late last year as I do agree with some blogger moms that we have to make sure we're healthy in order to be around to look after our family and kids. So I did my blood and urine test in December (I have phobia towards needles so for me to go through the ordeal takes a lot of courage) and found out that I have some minor cholesterol issues and I am low in iron both of which I have to deal with. I am happy to have found out about it now before it got too late. To deal with the cholesterol issue, doctor advised a change in diet (more greens, more fruits, more fibre) and also exercise. I have started changing my diet, taking salads for lunch and Quaker Oats for breakfast ocassionally or when I can as well as avoiding fast food, oily and fried stuff. I do still ocassionally pamper myself with those treats but they are definitely not as frequent as they used to be :-). I also started taking slow jogs 3x a week for about 15 - 20 mins. I will gradually increase the speed and duration over time. On the iron issue, I bought some supplements at the recommendation of the pharmacist.

My lunch (not exactly healthy as I've got thousand island dressing on it)

In 6 months, I will need to get another blood test done to see if there are improvements. If there are then I will have to continue with the effort, if not then I may have to consider medication.

Next on the list would be TO BUY A HOUSE

We have been longing to buy another house for sometime now. It is really difficult to find a suitable place in a location that we like with the limited budget we have. Prices of properties have gone up so much that its scary. Hopefully we will have better luck this year.

Moving on will be TO HAVE ANOTHER BABY and TO SUPPORT A CHILD

4 in a family is the ideal number to us. My hubby wanted 6 actually but I know he's joking! I cannot imagine going through child birth 6x. Sorry NO NO! 2 for me would be perfect, someone for the other to play with and to provide support as they grow up. Hopefully we will get a boy but even if its a girl we're happy. There is nothing more important to us than a healthy little baby.

I also want to give back to the community by supporting a child. I know this can be done easily via World Vision for a meagre RM50 a month. There are so many children out there living in poverty and they deserve to go to school, have proper medical facilities and lead a better life. By donating RM50 a month, which I think is really a small amount, we can make such a HUGE difference in the life of a child. I should have done this earlier but I guess it is still not too late to do now.

Next on my list would be TRAVEL

This is a selfish resolution. Papa and I have not travelled (I mean a real holiday to somewhere nice and far without the baby) for some years now. Our last holiday alone was 3 years ago. We still go for short and local trips once a year with the little girl but it would be nice to have a break just the 2 of us to somewhere nice and relaxing. We still have not given a thought about where to go but hopefully we can go somewhere this year. We just need to make sure I'm not pregnant and we have a reliable person to look after Hayley when we are away.... hmmm... looks like we won't be going anywhere after all :-)

My resolutions can go on and on as I have a few from last year and previous years which I didn't manage to achieve and also a few more which suddenly just came to mind :-). Anyway, going to put them in bullets from now on so I won't end up writing an essay:

• spend more time with family and friends
• continue to perform (dance) once in a while
• learn swimming (have been in my list for years, for someone with a phobia, how do you think I should start?)
• learn another language - Mandarin (it will come in handy at work but am still trying to make time for this)
• climb Mount KK (been on my list for years and its still not done and I think it's going to remain in my list for a few more years)
• get a bicycle so I can ride around the neighbourhood instead of run (NEW and easily achievable, but whether I actually use the bicycle or not after buying it is another story :-))
• consider sending Hayley to her first playgroup/nursery when she turn 2 (NEW and not sure how my babysitter will react to this, will need to gauge her reaction soon and also to find a nursery that will accept 2 year olds nearby)
• get a maid to help out around the house (NEW and we're still considering the pros and cons)

That's it for now. Am sure there will be more to come....

My almost 2 year old.....

Dislike....

• eating fruits or vegetables with skin such as grapes and tomatoes. She will keep them in her mouth until I got fed up and ask her to spit it out. She simply refuse to chew on it.
• strangers, will cry or make noise if someone she is not familiar with comes to the house or attempt to play with her, but she will warm up to this person in 5 mins
• putting her toys back to its original location, will have to threaten to throw them into the bin to get her into action
• noise, a small sound coming from the neighbour or the sound of thunder will frighten her to tears
• napping, she hardly show signs that she's tired, I will normally have to force her to nap

Likes....

• taking out all her toys, play with it for 2 seconds and then leave them all on the floor
• going to the playground to watch the uncles fly their kites... she prefer running after the kite than sitting on a swing or a slide, weird kid I have here
• taking baths, she will open the drawers and pull out her pyjamas and head towards the stairs on her own (the bathroom is upstairs)
• sitting or standing in between the papa and me, what a light bulb!
• likes singing and dancing, rather good at booty shaking, still teaching her hip rolls at the moment
• reading, for 5 mins only. She will take out a book (its normally the same book from a bunch of books) and will ask me to read to her. After 5 mins she will run away and do something else.
• swimming in her own private pool
• holding the label of her handkerchief when she's having her milk and the label of her napkin when she's napping/sleeping, very weird
• saying hi or bye to strangers she meets in the lift, at the mall etc but when people walk near her to get to know her, she will run away and said she's scared
• playing with gadgets such as our mobile phones, cameras, laptops

In another month my little girl will turn 2. I can't wait....

Maybe its time to consider migrating?

I don't usually write about stuff which relates to politics or ministers or the country on my blog. I find most of the things I read in the paper (the first few pages) to be brainless and childish so I didn't really bother. If an ordinary Malaysian like me can feel this way, I always wonder what Malaysia would be like to the eyes of foreigners?

But today, after all that has happened in the past few days, I am just so upset. I am an ordinary Malaysian who works hard everyday to make sure I am able to put food on the table and I have enough to buy milk for my little girl.

Her formula milk was previously (a year ago) at RM55 and today it was RM68. Gardenia which is another one of her favourite snack used to be RM2.10 and its now RM2.20. These are essential items people! An average income earner like me is struggling to keep up with all these price increase and I can't imagine what the poor would have to do to stay alive. While the ordinary Malaysians like me are worrying about the escalating costs, I am surprised that there are people who have nothing better to do but to spend time arguing about the use of a particular word, demonstrating and burning places of worship! Does it really matter who uses the word?

I used to be proud being a Malaysian. We are the only country I know that lives peacefully despite being multi racial. I don't think that is what I am feeling today.

I have never thought about migrating. I have friends who told me about their migrating plans for the betterment of their children's futures and I just listened without taking it to heart as deep down I am happy staying and working hard in Malaysia. My family and friends are all here, my home is here.

But after seeing all the things that has happened in the past few weeks, I guess the idea of migrating is not just for a better future for the kids, it is for the safety of the family and should be considered. If they can burn places of worship today, how can I be assured that they won't burn homes or schools tomorrow?

I wonder if things will change in the next 10 years, will it be better or will it be worst? Will Gardenia be RM4.10 in the next 5 years? Will a teh tarik cost RM2.10 then? High possibility. Will our salary be increased fast enough to keep up with all these escalating costs? you can go to bed early and dream....

With all that is happening, I am not even sure if I should have more children. Why bring him/her to this world to suffer?

Malaysians, why can't we just live in peace and harmony and use our strength to create a better country that benefits us all?

'Everybody' sleeping

During bedtime last night, Hayley kissed her giraffe (the Big Headz I got from Guardian, yes I spent RM600 in less than 2 months at Guardian to collect the 40 stamps) and her all time favourite dog good night and said this "everybody sleeping".

Her giraffe. It is just too cute and Hayley fell in love with it the moment she laid her eyes on it. I am hoping to get her the elephant as well but I think I have ran out of things to buy at Guardian.

Then she started humming to the Happy Birthday song. It doesn't make sense, everybody sleeping and Happy Birthday doesn't come together. Then she repeated the word 'everybody' again and ahhh.. I finally realised that she actually pronounced the word everybody as 'ehbidy' which rhymes a little with her 'appy biday' and she nicely continued the birthday song like this

"ehbidy to u...... ehbidy to u......." Kids... simply amusing :-)