Go go holiday tommorow

I'm very excited plus a bit worry for our Cameron trip tomorrow. Excited because all of us, including my dad will travel together. My dad doesn't like to travel. So it is amazing that he wanted to join us this round. Worried a bit because this is the first time we bring Smellybutt to Cameron, with the winding road condition. Even though we will use the new Tapah route, but still....a winding road also. I don't know whether she will have any motion sickness or not. My dad, HubB and I will definitely need to pop a Novomin pill, to prevent any fountain-alike action going on in the car. Yes, 3 of us are lembik. We can't stand those winding road, the sea and the areoplane. My sister will be the driver, else she would join the Novomin club too. Hahahaha...she's yet another lembik one also lah. People like my dad and sister can never be the passenger. They need to drive, they are too used to be the driver hence they will have motion sickness when they become the passenger. At least HubB and I are not as bad as both of them. We still can tahan better.

Yesterday night already packed most of Smellybutt's clothing. Thick and thin, extra of this and that...sigh...it is just a 2D1N trip to Cameron, still pack like pindah rumah. I have not pack her food and other stuff leh - toys, milk powder, bottles, straws, cup, bowl, spoons, cheese, bread, honey star, fish biscuit, koko crunch and raisin, just to name a few. Hahaha! A few konon.

Since Monday, I've told (or rather brain wash her!) Smellybutt that we will be going to Cameron, a pretty cold place for a holiday. Also mentioned to her that we will bring her to harvest some strawberry. When I asked her back what are we going to do in Cameron, here's what she has said to me :

Me : QQ, what do we do in Cameron?
QQ : Go kick ball!!!
Me : ???? Ok we will try. Some more?
QQ : pluck soh-beh-ri

Hehehehehe :)

Will take lots of pictures (HubB just bought me a 4GB memory card!) there and shall update again after the trip ^_^

Help the poor villagers in Kapar

I'd like to share this with everyone, hoping to have more helping hands, volunteers and donation for the poor villagers in Kapar.

I have gotten the permission from my friend, Suzette, who has blogged about this, to copy the content of her write up and post it on my blog. I have not been involved in this charity program before, thus I believe whatever she has to say about it will give a better picture to everybody.

My heart was sadden by the condition of this unfortunate child, as well as the other poor villagers. Knowing their current living condition has really make me feel more grateful with what I have now - a healthy family, a steady job and income, able to have food on table and a comfy shelter.

My family and I will do our bit to help them out. Will start to pack some extra toiletries for the adult usage, and not forgetting to pack those 'abandoned' clothing of mine (people got no baju to wear and I have plenty to be abandoned at the corner of my wardrobe!) and some of Smellybutt's old clothing too. They really need more children's baju now. Err... I guess that with my petite skinny skeleton size, my baju should be able to fit the children too. Also a very special thanks to my beloved mom. She has rendered her full support for this charity drive. My mom was a government servant for more than 30 years, and she was under the Kementerian Perpaduan dan Kebajikan Masyarakat Malaysia. Visited many orphanage homes and has seen many of those poor and pitiful families. Thus she can relate very well with what I've shared with her about this charity drive yesterday night.

Here's the story about Lotus Planet, which has been in existence since 17th April 2008. Todate, it has fed and helped thousands of the hungry in the rural & urban poor of KL. It is without doubt the ONLY organisation in KL which is non racial and non religious in its approach. Apart from this weekly street feeding, Lotus Planet has also extended its mission to the poor villagers in Kapar. Apart from basic food supplies, the villagers are also in need of medical support. One child in particular is Kartik.

STORY OF KARTIK

Kartik is a 10 year old boy. He is a paraplegic. He was born normal but sometimes last year he suffered a high fever. He was taken to Klang General Hospital. He had two bouts of such high fever. However, after he recovered from his fever, he became a paraplegic. It is suspected that he could have contacted meningitis. Now, Kartik is not able to use his limbs. He is not able to walk or talk.

Kartik’s parents are drug addicts. They had abandoned him with his paternal aunt, Letchumy, ever since he was very young. His parents whereabouts are not known. Kartik’s birth was not registered, hence he has no legal documentation.

Kartik is not able to control his bowel movements. As a result, he is put on disposable diapers. He uses 10 pieces a week. Apart from that, he is also fitted with a pacemaker. He needs to go to the Hospital at least once a month for physiotheraphy etc. Each visit costs about RM200, which Letchumy is not able afford. There are times when these visits had to be skipped because of lack of funds.Kartik needs a wheelchair in order to be mobile. On a weekly basis he needs a pack of disposable diapers. He has been advised to drink Junior Plus Milk to strengthen his bones. Kartik needs long term care and assistance.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

Specifically for Kartik:
A new or used wheelchair is urgently required. If you have one that you have used, that would be great, as it also saves the environment instead of purchasing a new one. Donation of disposable diapers and Junior Plus Milk would be appreciated.Of course, donation in cash is a relief to his hospital visits too. We also need volunteers to help buying and visiting this village.For other children in Kapar:We need donations of food supplies, medical, diapers, supplements, toiletries, clothes (particularly children’s clothing), shoes, toys and books. The visit to Kapar village is once a month, with the next one scheduled for 5 Sept, 1 Oct and 16 Oct (special Deepavali visit).If you are unable to help the villagers in Kapar, but if you run a blog, please can you help spread out the words?On behalf of the villagers in Kapar, we thank you very much in advance!

THE STREET FEEDING PROGRAM

For the street feeding program, we need volunteers to pack and distribute the packs – we do this at 3pm every Sat at a shoplot in Damansara Uptown. We also need donation of ready to eat food/drinks for the street feeding. We usually feed around 500 people, but donations of any amount is welcomed.For those who are interested to volunteer, you may contact Ms Yeap: yeapkimsee (at) hotmail (dot) com; and/or Ms Ainie: lotus (dot) planet (at) yahoo (dot) com.

A PERSONAL NOTE (from Suzette)

My ex-boss has been actively involved in this program. I think this is a very great and warm/meaningful project, particularly on the Kapar mission. This is what she told me:“You see real poverty! The living conditions are really terrible. Women struggling to feed and keep the family alive. Most have many children, some do not go to school. They are so grateful for our support and look forward to our monthly visit.”She said, what touches her most in the village, are the smiling faces of the children and the hope in the mothers’ eyes.Please help spread the words. Let us bloggers do something to help this poor village.

Mama's car also don't want

Smellybutt has declared this, "don't want sit mama's car. sit Ah Yi's car only"!! What's the difference between Ah Yi's car and my car? THE SMELL.

My car still has some Ambi Pur car air freshener smell, though I have removed it long long time ago. I don't quite like it too (not that fresh feeling lah :P). My brother in law used to drive this car, so that is why the car perfume was once kept in this car that I'm driving now. But all this while, Smellybutt was Ok with my car leh.

Last Saturday, we went to Mid Valley to meet up with Aunty Dory. Before we got into my car, Smellybutt was about to cry, asking Popo not to bring her into my car. Aiyooo...and true enough, along the way to the mall, she attempted to puke a few times! The last attempt, she was crying already and said "don't want sit Mama's car ar!!". *geleng kepala liao*

Then she kept telling us that only want to sit Ah Yi's car. We figured out why. Because Ah Yi's car still have the smell of a new car. Btw, Ah Yi has been driving her new car for almost 6months already. So I told Smellybutt to ask Baba buy new car for me lor!! Muahahahaha!

I guess that I need to drive another car whenever Smellybutt is on board. I feel a bit tensed up with her whenever in my car, each of her puke action/attempt has actually drove me up the wall!!

Don't want papa's car

Adui...I don't know how long this will continue. Couple of weeks ago, Smellybutt cheated me about her vomit action whenever we were in the car. She has been acting very well, full of expression with her stereotype dialogue "mama, vomit aaa..". After some observation on her with such behaviour, she seems to be paranoid with HubB's car actually. If we need to go out with HubB's car, she refused to enter the car. Not even let me open the car door too. I asked her why she doesn't like papa's car, and she replied "don't want papa's car...vomit aaa...". Yeah, I have expected her to say so. The moment I opened the car's door, she immediately want to puke liao! The "bluueekk" sound was so real. But nothing came out, phew!

I guess it could be due to the car air freshener smell, which make her feel nausea. All this while, since she was born, we have never changed the car's perfume leh. We have been using Ambi Pur Aroma Gel with Peach flavor. Yum Yum!

We are so puzzled, why all of the sudden she's "allergic" to the smell. How come? This will not happen if we travel on my sister's car or my car. HubB's car a bit sueh lah now :P

Anyway, HubB has bought a charcoal base deodorizer. Hopefully it helps to remove the peachy smell in his car. Charcoal is a good absorbent. It works well to absorb smell and acts as dehumifier, thus it is best placed in cupboards, cabinets and drawers.

We'll be going back to Ipoh in 2 weeks time. I don't know how will the 2 hour plus journey turn out to be. Hopefully nothing gross take place. Just sleep all the way, will ya?

Pretty packaging

It comes with an anti slip mat too

(the one on top of the box)

Sneak preview of her counting

Since last month, Smellybutt was able to count from 1 to 10. While counting, hunger striked, thus she has swollen 4, 5, 6. Hehehe. Here's the preview of her incomplete counting. Yesterday night we managed to coax her to count from 1 to 10 and she did it. Nah..can't record it down as she would only want to count while lying on bed and lights off. A newer and complete version is in the making....so stay tuned :)

Sing and count with meerkat

Watching Barney Let's Go To The Zoo DVD is indeed a great way to teach young children about animals. Smellybutt is currently hooked on this DVD now, almost a MUST on every morning. Popo will repeat to her again the name of the animals which appears on the TV. She can tell me the name of the below animals fluently, just after a few teaching. I'm really happy with it! These are the animals which appear in the DVD.

Ziraffe

Zebra

Hipopo

Rhino

Elephant

Meerkat

I was so impressed by her saying meerkat to me, whenever this animal appears on the TV screen! Barney does the 123 counting using meerkat pictures too. I will sing along with Barney, and it becomes Smellybutt's favorite song now. Whenever I say meerkat, she would definitely wants me to sing to her. She will participate in the singing too. Her lyrics are the blue font part ^_^

1 little, 2 little, 3 little meerkat
4 little, 5 little, 6 little meerkat
7 little, 8 little, 9 little meerkat
10 little meerkat at the zoo!

Yay!!

Home made play dough, I'm gonna try it soon

As I was blog hopping, I've stumbled upon this super mom blogger who has shared with everyone about the recipe for a home made play dough. It was awesome lah! I wanted to get some play dough for my lil Smellybutt too, but each time I look at them, I just couldn't stop thinking having them in her tummy. Even though it says non toxic and safe for children. Sure boh? My lil alam flora just love to pick things up from the floor and chucked it into her dustbin mouth! Apatah lagi the colorful play dough, right? If you are keen to try it out, check out the recipe here, or here for more recipes (cooked and non cooked type) from the mat salleh.

entirely edible play dough for your lil one!

Wait a minute! If you are lazy like me, and still want to make your own play dough which doesn't require cooking, then this would be a better choice for all the lazy bum :D I just googled it and get this marvelous non cooking recipe. Do share with me once you have try it out ya!

Here's the lazy bum recipe :
3cups flour
1/3 cup salt
2tbsp oil (veg)
1cup water
7 drops food coloring

1) Mix dry ingredients with oil
2) Add food coloring to water and mix together.
3) Add water to flour/salt/oil mixture slowly ~ about 1/4 cup at a time and mix together with a spoon.
4) Once you've added all the water, knead the dough with your hands

I guess Smellybutt would love to play with it. Will shop for the ingredients and get started soon!

Picnic@theBangalow : A happy day for us

It was a great day at Picnic@theBangalow last Sunday. The crowd was not as big as I've expected. But it's Ok lah, still a fun day though. Here's Mini B Shoppe, a mini shop for the day. Small crowd and yet still can make some sales. Almost can cover the rental fee. Hehe, not bad! :D

A simple hand made poster :D

Smellybutt enjoyed the day very much. She was so happy walking around the place, playing all sorts of toys available at a special room for the kids. There was a tall chinese girl in the same room, playing with her younger sister. She saw Smellybutt and then started to pinch her cheeks mildly, saying "eee, you are so cute". Hahaha. I thought Smellybutt would have jeling her for such criminal act. But she was Ok. Then the same girl came to me and said "hhmm..I think she's very light. I'll carry her!". I have no time to stop her at all, and my lil Smellybutt already been lifted up. I quickly play along with 2 of them, make some monkey noise and funny face, just to distract Smellybutt a bit. I expect Smellybutt to cry out loud, but again, she didn't...Cool!! Later only I found out that the lady who did a bento demo was the mother for the girl who did the feather weight lifting earlier :P Another funny incident was, Smellybutt tripped and fell on the floor. Don't know how she walk on the carpet lah. I quickly asked her, are you OK? She said this to me "no pain, luckily I got wear clothes ooo". LOL!!

Next, we brought her out to the garden as there were a few bouncing toys available, and I knew Smellybutt would love them. She has played with it before, when she was in the pediatrician clinic waiting for her jabs. She kept saying "dun niao, dun niao" while riding on it. She even refused to get out of the place even though we were all kena goreng under the hot sun.

Her "dun niao dun niao" action

Look at the sweat lah...

Then grabbed this adult bouncing ball and kicked it!

Resting on Doof bean bag - a very very expensive bean bag! Trust me.

Cutest for my naughtiest one

Check out what I've bought for Smellybutt. Just arrived, hot from the oven! I mean the courier van :D

These cutie little underwear are not the normal underwear though. These are the training pants, meant for children who are ready for potty. Some information to share with everyone about training pants.

Training pants helps to increase child's motivation to be toilet trained. They are not cloth diaper or disposable diaper, thus their level of absorbency is low. Some features of the training pants are :

• waterproof outer layer
• double layer soaker
• 100% soft cotton flannel next to child's skind which helps prevent rashes without masking the sensation of wetness
  

They are so cute! Irresistible! Can't help but to purchase the boy's design too. Hehe, it is just an underwear, same cutting for girls ma...so why not! The 2 boy's design are Monril brand. Quality is superb! The below picture shows the inner part of the training pants. It is exactly like the cloth diaper too. If you are cloth diapering your child, then you should know what I mean.

Smellybutt has been doing very well with the potty so far. The only time where she would forgotten the potty is when she's too busy with her toys /books, and during her sleeping time (afternoon nap and night time). Hope that with this training pants, she will be more alert of her business after this :D

Here's a box of cute rompers for her too. Aiseh...another irresistible purchase, they just got to end up on my hand now. I purposely picked this design as they are just nice for my lil naughty Smellybutt. She was born in the year of pig, but she acts like a monkey! LOL! Courtesy of my gene though, a monkey year mama. 1 box comes with 5 pieces of sleeveless romper. Brand is Mom and Bab. This cute collection is none other than from My Mini B Shoppe. Hehehe. Quality is very good and they are 100% soft cotton. It comes with a gift box, thus it makes a great gift too. Price is really affordable for this imported rompers, only RM65/box. Can't wait to see her wearing it!

Today, tomorrow and day after will be my busiest day ever

A busy weekend is awaiting me, right at the corner! :D

Smellybutt is officially 22 month old today. Hehe, so consider as another full moon celebration for her. A reason to buy a cake again tonight :D She loves cake and candle very much. In fact, she has dreamt of a Barney birthday cake, as what I've promised her too. This early morning, in the wee hour, suddenly she was awake with her big round eyes staring at me! Then I moved closer to her and she said this to me very loudly "mama! buy Barney birthday cake arr!!". I said yes to her, then she dozed off. Hahahaha. That was cute.

Btw, I haven't decided yet which cake to buy. Because my mom has been searching online for other bakers who can bake yummy and nice looking cartoon cake. My mom is very hook up with the internet, search for knitting design, about beauty products, which cream is very poisonous and harmful to our skin, joining lots of forums, find the latest computer game and to crack the password to play it for free :D LOL!! I'm proud of having such an IT savvy mama!

Tomorrow my IT mama will celebrate her sweet 62 year old birthday! Not only that, 8th August is also my mother in law's birthday, and my ex colleague's birthday as well!! And tomorrow I need to attend a wedding dinner too. This year, 8th August is a very busy and "ong" day for me lah.

But last week, we had a pre-birthday celebration for my mom together with my eldest brother who was back from Singapore. My brother has been staying in Singapore for the past 10 year. He studied for his A-Level there, then at NUS and thereafter continue working in Singapore until now.

This is our all time favourite cake, Royal Almond from Thyme Bakery @ Desa Aman Puri. I have asked them to customize this cake with the honey bee outlook. Isn't it a cute cake?

Smellybutt rebut to cut the cake :D

An attempt to lick the plastic knife !!

My happy mama with her favorite cake

Last but not least, I'll have a busy and exciting Sunday for Picnic@theBangalow organised by Tiny Tapir Eco Shop. FYI, it's a FREE event for everyone ya. Do hop over there for a BBQ session at their private garden, line up with lots of activities for both mommy and kids. My Mini B Shoppe will make its first public appearance for the event too!! Hehehe. Very excited for it. So make yourself available this Sunday, 9 Aug 2009, 12pm till 5pm and join the happening event ya! For more details, please click here.

Flower girl...can ar??

Last Saturday, we went for a relative's wedding dinner at Jalan Imbi. Luckily we left the house quite early as the road was so jam that day. It started all the way from Jalan Kuching right up to Jalan Tun Razak. There was a road block near The Mall. No wonder lah so jam. Coincidently, with all these road block and traffic jam, along the road we saw a few cars broke down and they 'enhance' the traffic at the same time. Adui...what a journey.

I was pretty excited to attend the wedding dinner with Smellybutt. The last round she attended one was sometime in...err....oh gosh, I can't remember. I guess it was during my 2nd SIL's wedding in Ipoh in April 2008. At that point of time, Smellybutt was just 6 month old. Now, 22 month old wannabe, a whole new experience for her and myself! Coz she can talk so much now, asking this and that all the time, compared to her 6 month old age, she only oooo and aaahhh. Hehe, not much pressure at that time.

Everything went well, except during the newly wed couple marched into the dining hall. You know, the lights off and loud music...these are the must do for any chinese wedding dinner. The moment they switched off the main lights and the room became darker (dim light condition), she started to get closer to me and said "mama, aa mo mo liao", means dark already. I said yeah, just for a while only and they will switch on the light again very soon. She wasn't convinced with it and she demanded for the lights to be on!! And then her eyes were flooded with tears liao. I held her tightly and explained to her again that the beautiful bride will walk in soon. I kept reminding her that for aunty Dory's wedding, she will be walking in first while holding a small basket with flower petals in it. She was a bit relieved with it, and I have to add in some story about Ah Jat (crockroach) incident. That finally made her laughed.

So, my previous prediction was quite accurate though, that she will cry for the dim light condition. I'm worry that she might ruin aunty Dory's big day. If Smellybutt can't make it, then she'll call off the flower girl thingy. Oh dear....I really want to make it happen for aunty Dory. But won't put pressure on Smellybutt though. Will just try my level best to coach her. Haha. Coaching konon.

Smellybutt's big gu jeh was even more excited as she called me up last Friday asking for Smellybutt's height. She wanted to buy a flower girl dress for Smellybutt!! So nice of you big gu jeh :) But I told her not to buy any now, as I still do not have the confident that Smellybutt can perform well as a flower girl. More training needed!