We wall papered our room, ourselves!

It took us the whole afternoon on a Saturday to wallpaper one of the wall in our room, just the 2 of us and 4 hours to be exact. It wasn't the perfect wallpaper and the end result wasn't perfect either but it didn't matter. It was our first time experimenting with wallpaper and we decided to go with something safe and we're happy with the outcome.

Before

After

Surprisingly we didn't find the process difficult but for sure it requires a lot of patience and interest and not something you can do on your own especially if you have a huge wall. We've enjoyed it and looks like there will be more projects in the coming weekends at home lol.

Cost

• we bought from Korea Wallpaper at RM350 per roll, we used only 1 roll for our 14ft x 9ft wall
• a set of DIY kits available from Korea Wallpaper at RM29.90 (it consist of a packet of powder adhesive, a roller, a scraper, a sponge, a penknife and some instructions)

Instructions

1. Take exact measurement of the height of your wall, then provide 2 extra inches on both ends when cutting.
2. Lay and stick newspapers on your floor (so that when you roll the glue over the wallpaper, you will not mess up your floor) and cut the wallpaper to your desired length.
3. When you've finished cutting the wallpapers, prepare the glue. Mix the powder adhesive with water (follow the instructions given on the wrapper) and stir until it becomes gluey. Get your kids to help and turn it into a family project :)
4. Use the roller and roll the glue onto the back of the wallpaper evenly. Ensure you've got glue everywhere and especially the corners and sides (from our personal experience, it would be easier with more glue)
5. Stick the first wallpaper to the far left/right of the wall, leave 2 inches at the top and bottom. Once you've got the wallpaper properly glued to the wall (ie it is not too sticky and should still be movable if needs to but yet it won't fall off when you remove your hand), trim off the 2 extra inches at the top using a penknife (I prefer scissors). Then use the scraper to scrape off extra glue or bubbles by pushing them to the sides (you will see glue coming out from the sides). Use a wet cloth to wipe them away (do not wipe too hard or too many times as your wallpaper might tear). Once you're satisfied with the wallpaper, then trim off the 2 inches at the bottom. If you have power sockets/switches on the wall, use a penknife and cut an X across the sockets to create some space and then scrape the sides of the wallpaper nicely to the sides of the sockets. Trim off the middle section with a penknife.
6. Repeat the above until you have the entire wall properly covered - make sure the patterns of the wallpaper are in order when you affix the subsequent pieces. For the last piece, in addition to the top and bottom, you might also need to trim off the sides depending on the size of your wall.
7. Lastly, wipe the wallpaper thoroughly to remove excess glue on the surface. 

Korea Wallpaper also provide free DIY classes on Sunday from 10am to 5pm (30 mins per class) but we were too lazy to go and decided to check out tutorials available on Youtube instead :)

And lastly, if you're too lazy to do this on your own, you can pay the professionals to do it. Korea Wallpaper charges RM200 per roll (price would be cheaper if you have more rolls, eg RM170 per roll for 2 rolls etc) and they also provide 5 years warranty if you engage their service.  The only downside is you will need to wait as their schedules are usually quite full (when we enquired, we were told we need to wait a month!).

So there you go and if you do decide to try this on your own at some point, share your success stories with me and show me your new room :)

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 5

 

How time flies, from April till now... goodbye 2012, hello 2013

It didn't even feel like 9 months, that was how long I've left my blog idle. I have to say I have been lazy plus the last few months have been pretty hectic.  

I've really missed reading some of my favourite blogs in the last few months as well, wondering how my blogger friends have been keeping up, how the kids have grown, what have they been doing in the last few months or what yummylicious stuff they have been cooking/baking. It is time to slowly do my 'catch up'. 

So what have I been up to the last few months? A couple of things here and there but the the highlight would be that we've finally moved in to a new home, our own home. We completed the move in Oct and the renovation took about 5 months. As of today, there are still some minor hiccups to fix ie leaking at the porch, over sensitive DB box etc... yeah 'minor' stuff hehehe and a house warming to plan.

Here's a photo of the wet and dry kitchen, my favourite part of the house.

I have also been feeling under the weather a few months back and it lasted quite a while. I was constantly feeling dizzy day and night and 24 hours round the clock. A blood test revealed that I do not have enough iron, in fact the iron count was really low. So I was officially anaemic! It wasn't pleasant as I sometimes could not even walk properly, let alone drive. It took me more than 2 months to finally feel better with the help of some supplements and lots of purplish veges as well as some of the Chinese herbs my FIL got for me. I also started running to keep myself in better shape.

I also got promoted at work. Not a lot more money but definitely a lot more work :(. With heavier responsibilities it also means some extra hours at night (after the kids hit the sack) to pick up some bits and pieces. As I used to take this time to blog, now you will understand why I don't blog anymore.  

As for my kids, they've been doing ok. Zac is now 2 years old. We celebrated his 2nd birthday at the new home and got him a fancy car birthday cake. Cars and trains are his favourite toys. We invited the family over and had a simple steamboat dinner. Physically Zac is doing very well as well but unfortunately he is a bit slow verbally. At 2, he could only say selective words (pronounciation usually not accurate) and only 1 word at a time. He only started calling me 'mama' slightly before he turned 2 but started calling his papa and ceh ceh very much earlier. I guess it is true that boys are slower than girls at the younger age. Zac's swelling on the cheek have also disappeared but the small purplish veins are still visible and the skin is still warm to touch. Whatever it is, it is still there but I am happy it isn't growing and the swelling is no longer visible. At 2 Zac is also going through the 'clumsy stage'. Often knocking himself onto things, falling, and ended up with bruises.  

Kids at the party

Zac on his big day. And yes, I also need to figure out next why the photo ended up like this when the original looks fine. 

My girl is now 4 and will be turning 5 in February. This one is a hands full. Lots of drama, lots of demand and lots of cheeky ideas. She participated in her first Sports Day a few months back and got her very first 'silver' medal. We also attended 2 meet the teacher sessions, one in June and the other in November to discuss her progress. Overall she is doing ok in school and is labelled as a very loving girl who likes to hug the teachers and is very expressive. The complaints the teacher has is that she still gets distracted easily and likes to lead in class - wants to be the first to answer a question even before the teacher calls her name and will often encourage her classmates to follow whatever she is doing. We also attended her 2nd school concert in November and this time she did an Indian Dance, the JaiHo song. 

Ceh ceh posing in her sexy costume

In a fairy costume given to her by my ex boss

Ceh ceh and her supporter

And this week she started another head scratching hair pulling stint - she refuses to eat again and this has been ongoing (on and off) for a while now and it's getting tiring (for me!). She's only at 14.2 kg now and have been at the range of 14 - 15 kgs in the last 2 years :(. Today she likes eggs, tomorrow she hates eggs. Sigh.....

Without realising, my maid Reni has also been with us for a year now and I have just renewed her work permit and it cost me RM930. This includes the fee I paid to the agency for the running. I'm sure many of you must be wondering why I have never written about my maid since she came 12 months ago. I guess I am quite lucky as I didn't end up with a maid from hell. I've got what I would call a 'normal' maid. One that behaves like a normal human being - sometimes hard working, sometimes lazy, sometimes act dumb, sometimes act smart, sometimes drives me up the wall, sometimes made me feel thankful for having her etc.

So I guess I consider myself lucky as she is 'normal' and both my kids are attached to her. Apart from handling all the cleaning and washing (which of course is clean if you don't check in detail) and cooking, she also look after my girl from the time she returns from school. My boy stays with the babysitter and only gets picked up by us when we're back from work. We also installed CCTV at home to keep an eye on her for a peace of mind. She's educated (she can read) and after staying with us for a year she is now able to speak some English. This maid of mine is also quite resourceful aka busy body, she knows all the maids around here,  which house has how many maids and as some of them are using part time maids, she even knows what they are getting per hour/per day etc. Not sure if its a good or bad thing. As she's considerably smart and cunning, we're sometimes on our toes when dealing with her.

And can you believe this, I actually started drafting this post a few weeks back (sometime in Nov) and I only managed to wrap it up on the last day of 2012 :). I guess I can consider this as a good end to 2012 :), finishing what I started hehehe. Anyway, let me wish all my friends and families a blessed and happy new year and may your new year be filled with only the best in everything you do and not forgetting, the BEST OF HEALTH!!!!

Switching formulas

When Hayley was 3+, I wanted to change her formula. She was on Enfagrow A+ and because of all the big hoo hah going around the market with all the added sugar in formula milk, I was going around trying to find something suitable and healthier for her. I also hated the fact that Enfagrow A+ always increase their price and I hate being one of their victims.

My sister and her friend recommenced Lactogen. They said it was cheap and good and their kids have better appetite and healthier looking output (hehe) after consuming the milk. I bought a small pack, it was really cheap if compared to Enfagrow A+ and so I gave it to Hayley. She said it wasn't nice and she didn't like it. I persisted, told her it was for big girls like her and she can no longer drink the baby's milk meant for her little brother (yes Zac is also on Enfagrow A+). I persisted for over 3 months and when she started refusing her milk in the afternoon and couldn't finish her milk in the morning and night, I got worried. I even resorted to adding some milo into her milk calling it 'her specials' to give her the colour and taste and even that she didn't like it.

I even tried Mamil Gold which she rejected.

I finally decided to switch her back to Enfagrow A+. To my surprise, she didn't like it anymore. Left with no choice I decided to give Anmum Essential a try. It is the only brand in the industry that claimed they have 'no added sugar' in their formula. I have always wanted to give this brand a try (cause no added sugar ma) but because they have not been in the industry long (well, at least not as long as the other brands), I didn't have the confidence in their product and the name 'ANMUM' didn't sound like a formula for kids. I probably have more faith in their Anmum Materna for expecting mothers than their Anmum Essential for kids. If they change the name to Ankid Essential maybe I would have tried it sooner.. haha

Anyway, I finally bought it and gave it to her. And guess what, she liked it! She said it was nice and since then she is back to taking her usual amount of milk a day. I am now a happy mum again! Very soon, I am going to switch Zac to the same formula :).

It is cheaper than what I used to buy and it is healthier (no added sugar ma) so why not? hehehe

My niece Caitlyn turns 4

Caitlyn who is born 3 weeks after Hayley (my sister's youngest) finally turns 4 this weekend. Happy birthday Caitlyn, yee yee wishes you lots of happiness and best of healthalways.

The 2 best friends

The birthday girl with her small yee yee (I am the big yee yee ;))

Crash Boom Bang

Zac started walking when he was 15+ months. Now that he is 16+ months, he is more adventurous and more daring in taking those steps. This also means more injury, more bruises and possibly more blood....sigh....

This is a photo taken just yesterday after he has had 3 falls! Twice at the babysitter's and once at home. Apparently aunty said he stepped on his own foot and his face knocked onto the table and then he bounced and fell to the floor. He ended up with a bruised eye and a bruised cheek (the right cheek which is not visible here). When he got home, he was crawling and then his hand slipped and his forehead knocked on the floor. You can see the bungalow on his left forehead as a result of this!

I just hope the future damages will be less serious otherwise I really need to wrap my entire house including the floor with bubble wraps!

Taken with his mouth full of cheerios

Zac's Update: 15+ months

At 15+ months, I:

• developed a habit of biting people. I was just being playful and didn't realise that I was actually hurting them :(
• love copying everything my sister does - shouting, throwing the toys around, jumping, banging my head against the door/wall
• love the outdoors, love watching cars zoom by, birds and aeroplane flying in the sky, kids running around in the park, barking dogs
• love eating and drinking my milk, beats my sister everytime in finishing up my food and milk
• am still not using words to express myself that much, still prefers to talk in my baby language
• know what 'sayang' means and will use my hand to rub my mummy's face when she ask me to sayang her
• love pretending to be an aeroplane flying in the sky. Will lie on my tummy and lift both my hands and feet off the ground and pretend to be flying. It was fun!
• am walking a lot more now although I still need to grab on to something or someone to stand up. I am starting to learn to run too!
• still have the usual swelling on my cheeks but it is getting a lot less obvious now :)
• am supposed to have my 15th month Pneumococal jab (last jab) but mummy wasn't sure if she would want me to go ahead with it after reading all the posts by other mommies about how bad these jabs are... she's in a dilemma.
• hate hair cuts, the aunty and the razors frightens me each time
• picked up cycling on my own. Mummy puts me on the tricycle one day and I surprised her by pushing myself forward using my legs and reversing! I wasn't tall enough to cycle so I had to stand up and use my legs. I even got down on my own! I'm a pretty smart boy.
• have a lot of focus compared to my sister. I like to watch what others do and then copy/follow. I can play with a toy for hours on my own provided my sister doesn't interrupt/disturb me.

Happy 4th birthday my girl...

Today, my girl turns 4. Happy birthday girl!

Although it is your birthday, can I please make a wish? PLEASE quickly get over your 'picky eating' stage pretty please? Otherwise all my hair will turn white very soon!!!!! Thank you.

Here are some photos from her celebration at school.

Party packs for her classmates, yellow for the boys, red for the girls

Happy with her present from the teacher and card from her friends

CNY

Happy belated Lunar New Year. I hope everyone have had a great celebration. It has been a pretty busy and tiring one for us (although most of the time were spent at home and to hospital visiting my mil). We'll let the photos do the story telling :)

Kids and fashion show:




CNY seems incomplete without a visit to Thean Hou temple. There were lion dance performances and the place was crowded!




Back to papa's hometown in Kuala Lipis, Pahang. Early morning fresh air, something you hardly get in KL!



We finally visited House of Joy this year during the 3rd day of CNY. They are currently at a temporary home in Bandar Kinrara (after the fire incidence and while waiting for their new place to be ready). The place was crowded with kids and elderly and good samaritans. We've been wanting to go and do our bit the last few years but didn't manage to and glad that we finally managed to make it this year.

From their wish list (our little contribution)

Gathering with some good friends

CNY open house at a friend's place. Kids enjoyed the lion dance.

Do you love me or not?

Recently my soon to be 4 year old girl is constantly asking everyone in the family especially me and the papa that question.

Is it common for the first child to behave this way when they have a younger sibling who is at the moment getting more attention from the parents? Is that a sign of insecurity or sibling rivalry? Are we not juggling our love correctly between the kids resulting in such a behaviour? Should I be alarm? What should I do?

Of late she is showing a lot of unacceptable behaviours which warrants some whacking (on top of the usual reasoning, explaining, scolding, warning and punishing) - running and playing in the middle of the road despite us telling her many times that it is dangerous (if you asked her what she did wrong, she can tell you that she cannot play on the road as there will be oncoming cars), throwing up food whenever she feels like it, most of the time with the excuse that it was too big a spoon and it made no difference if we're feeding her or she was feeding herself or if we're eating at home or eating out (sometimes we only give her half a teaspoon and she still said it was too big), not listening to what we say and intentionally not doing what we repeatedly asked her to and many more....

I know kids will be kids and we can't expect them to be perfect at all times but as a parent I believe we also need to teach them from young on what's dangerous and acceptable and what's not and we will use whatever method that works. Having read many blogs written by mothers who I look up to in parenting, I know whacking is not the best solution and I don't like doing it too but sometimes I just don't know what else to do or how else to send the message across to her. Whenever she misbehaves, I always start by reasoning and explaining and if she still repeats the same after a few times then I will move on to warning and scolding. If that didn't work it will be punishing (usually we'll make her stand at a corner by herself staring at the wall and she will cry and cry) and lastly we'll use the cane. No matter what methods were used, we always explain to her at the end of it why we did what we did to hopefully help her understand.

I am really at my wits end on how to handle this girl of mine at this stage. I hope this will only be temporary and she will learn to understand better as she gets older. Can anyone please tell me at what age things will start making sense to them?

I do constantly tell her I love her and her brother (trying to instill in her head that I love both the same no matter what) but everytime after an unhappy episode be it scolding or punishing or whacking or even a simple thing where I don't oblige what she wants then she will say that I don't love her and will wrap her arms around herself and show me that she is unhappy. She will only show me her happy face again when I say I love her.

Whenever I am home she will want me to do everything for her such as bathing her, feeding her, brushing teeth with her, making her milk, playing with her etc. She won't want the maid or the papa. It feels like she's trying to tell me she wants my attention and I am trying to give her my undivided attention as much as I can (which is very hard with a 1 year old around) and I hope every little effort I am putting in will make a difference.

Looking at her reactions, I also sometimes wonder if I actually caused this. You see, the maid helps me with Hayley when I am at work and on weekends and I don't usually let the maid handle Zac as I don't trust her with a toddler (she tends to be forgetful and careless). So I usually will bath, feed and attend to Zac myself on weekends while she helps me with Hayley. Before having the maid, I will attend to both myself. I am wondering if she's taking this negatively that I don't care for her anymore and leaving her to the maid? I wish I can just get into her head and understand what she's thinking.

I actually did think of this before and tried attending to both kids myself on weekends and was told off by some people that I should not do that now that I have a maid. I was constantly asked what's the point of having a maid if I still have to do everything myself? Anyway, from this weekend onwards I am going to brush aside what others have to say and try changing my approach and see if it will help.

Sigh.... with 2 kids I am already at wits end. I really salute parents with 3 or more kids and doing it wonderfully.

Super moms!

When Zac was a few months old a friend of mine introduced me to a Breastfeeding Network on Facebook. The members on this network helps and encourage each other on breastfeeding and discuss and share knowledge on how to give the best to our babies. Gina Yong, the famous breastfeeding guru is also on this network and she is quite active in giving advices too.

When I started reading the posts on this network, it made me feel like crappy mom. Some of the moms are really amazing I tell you. I just don't know how they did what they did. Here are some of the things that made me go 'WHOAAAAAAA.........'. Let me know if you feel the same too :)

1. Most of them breastfed their babies exclusively until they are 3 or 4! Some even continue to breastfeed several kids (eg feeding the 3 and 4 year olds while still pregnant with the next one).
2. Some of these mothers have so much milk that they actually 'donate' their milk to babies in orphanages or use their milk to make breast milk soap.
3. Some of the mothers are also strongly against vaccinations, even the compulsory ones. I know of one who had 3 kids (pregnant with No 4) and all her kids have not been jabbed before, not a single one. She claimed that all these vaccinations actually make the babies sick. According to her (she said she made a lot of research herself), babies are born healthy and all these vaccinations with chemical contents that are actually harmful to small babies who cannot tolerate them will only make them worst. Also according to her, her kids have never been seriously sick, just the usual flu and cough and they usually heal very fast and they have NEVER been to the doctors. She however do supplement her kids with Vit C and VCO (Virgin Coconut Oil). Whenever the kids are not well, she will boost their Vit C intake, that's all.

So, are you feeling crappy yet?

I have given my kids all the jabs in the world (kiasi), even the not compulsory ones and now I felt like I have failed my kids by injecting them with poisons and not to mention those antibiotics they have taken due to their sensitive throat since they were babies.

Although I hate going in there to read the posts (as they make me feel crappy) but it honestly does provide a lot of useful tips and infor in bringing up kids the healthy way. I am surely going to get some of those Vit Cs and VCOs for my kids now :)

Zac's update: 14+ months

At 14+ months, I:

• am finally walking :)
  
• have added a couple more words to my vocab: a-ti (aunty), ish (fish), if (give), however my pronounciation is still a bit off and only my mummy can understand me mostly for now
• am getting more demanding and I also love to test the limits of my parents (driving them nuts :-))
• love to eat (eat anything and everything) but dislike drinking water
  
• love shaking my butt to music
• love going kai kai (going out) and will often point to the door and demand to be carried out of the house. If my papa who is usually shirtless at home puts on his shirt, I know he's going out and I'll stick to him like glue
• am more focus and can play a new toy by myself for quite a while (so unlike my sister, according to my mom)
• also inherited my mom's sensitive throat, I often get sore throat that requires antibiotics :(
• still have my usual swelling on the cheek but it is getting less obvious now that I am growing up

Zac's Update: 13+ months

At 13+ months, I:

• am still not walking yet but love to stand
  
• can say a couple more words such as: bird, ceh ceh
• love nursery rhymes. Will clap my hands everytime mummy finished singing my favourite 'twinkle twinkle little star' and 'Old MacDonald had a farm'.
  
• love to copy everything I see around me, when mummy roars like a lion, I would roar too, when mummy pretends to be a monkey (with both hands on the chest scratching) I would follow too (I even copied the hands), when popo uses the spoon to balance a plastic cup, I would do the same. I just love to copy everything I see :-)
• I have quite a character, mummy said I have a bad temper and am a pretty rough boy
  
• still have my usual swelling

Playing staring game with with one of the ceh ceh. Look at the size of my head and forehead! Mummy said I look like a flowerhorn fish - no wonder the doctor had to use a forcep to get me out of her tummy even when it was a c-sec...

Singapore Zoo (Part 4)

This a a 'must go' place everytime we're in Singapore. The zoo :-). So this time no exception. Singapore zoo is a great place, very child friendly and clean. We can easily spend more than half a day here looking at animals, playing at the water park area and just chilling out.

S$5 per bowl of carrots (about 5 carrots)