Finally..A nice birthday cake for the 2 of them!

I'm glad it was over....with JOY! I had a tough time to make decision which cake to order, which baker to choose from. Then later encountered last minute cancellation from the baker. And finally we get to celebrate Dun Dun and Smellybutt's pre birthday with my close relatives together with this lovely birthday cake!

We had it at Marco Polo Restaurant. Why there? Because we do not have enough of children headcount (min 10 children) to celebrate at Mc Donald, thus we decided to have a dinner at a restaurant instead. Oh btw, we get to watch free dance show by the "Aquas" there too. Hehehehe. Coincidentally, there was a wedding banquet at the hall. That newly wed (and rich) couples have arranged for some live dancing show for their guests. Smellybutt doesn't want to leave the place, she said "want to see cheh cheh dance!".

Here are the pictures which were taken on that day. Erm...please excuse me for the bad picture quality. Resolution too high, scratching my head to rectify this before posting them here. But I gave up.

The lovely dovey birthday cake for the 2 VIPs :)



Close-up on the 3 stooges. Not bad lah, hand drawn.



Smellybutt was really happy with our unplugged birthday song, followed by a Mandarin version from her 2 lil cousin brothers too.

A big big bite!

Group photo together with my aunt, uncle and cousin sistas!

My family

This is one for the prop I bought for her cake. She loves ambella :)

P/s : Stay tune for the coming actual date i.e 7 Oct 09. I've hide all her pressies under the bed, just want to let her see all of them on the actual day. Popo will be getting her another cake too. I think we'll have nightmare over cake after this.

My Bentong relatives

Last Saturday, I had a great time cathing up with many of my relatives from Bentong, Pahang. My parents were born in Bentong. Some of my mom's siblings have moved to KL for many years too. We all met up during a wedding banquet held at Hei Loi Tan Restaurant in Puchong.

#1

Pic #1 - The man in lime green shirt is my my uncle together with his wife and children. He's my mother's eldest brother. They are well known for the home made kaya puff (kayeng-kok) in Bentong. Anyone tasted the Bentong Moki Home Made Kaya Puff before? It is really delicious. They made the kaya by them self and that is really a hard work and time consuming too. Apart from kaya, they also have pineapple flavour as well which is equally yummy! It is just an hour drive to Bentong. So if you happen to be there, do drop by at Bentong morning market and look for the mini stall next to a sugar cane stall in front of the covered wet market building. Anyway, just ask anyone about Bentong Home Made Kaya Puff and you will be directed to the stall. Nobody would not know this delicious kaya puff lah!

#2

Pic #2 - Together with my cousins. The lady in white is my uncle's eldest daughter and the far right is his younger son, who is as tall as a tiang lampu lah wei...

#3

Pic #3 - The lady in white next to me is my mom's youngest sister, together with her husband. My aunty is the owner of the mini stall in the Bentong morning market. She helps my uncle to sell the kaya puff.

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the kaya puff with me. Normally we'll order a box of it when we are back there. My sister's ex colleagues love it very much. She'll take order from them and inform my uncle a day before we travel back. My uncle will bake the fresh kaya puff for my sister to deliver to her ex colleagues.

#4

Pic #4 - Another cousin of mine, Vivian. She has completed her Uni in KL and been working here for 3yrs already. That's her youngest brother, who's still studying in Bentong. We've just met each other in Facebook recently. All this while we've lost contact with each other. When we were younger (she's just 3yrs younger than me) we used to write letter to each other. That time she was still in Bentong. Now....MSN will do :)

#5

Pic #5 - Ok, this is the amazing part. Smellybutt met my uncle 1mth ago in KL. He and his wife came down for a wedding banquet as well. She met him once only. And to my suprise, she "willings" to call him uncle and let him carries her and walk away out of my sight! I don't know why this could happen lah. She will not allow strangers to carry her. Well, even though she meets my KL cousins more often than these Bentong relatives, she still refused to let them carry her, or even look at them too!

What?? No cute cuppies for their birthday??

Last Monday, I was so so super super angry and disappointed when I got to know (last minute!!) from the baker that she was not able to deliver my order for this coming birthday celebration on 27th September 09. Really sueh lah...I had a hard time to decide which type of cake to buy for the VIPs - Smellybutt and my dad. Yes, this year we are going to have a join celebration for both of them, as their birthday date is just 5 days apart. And by the time I've made my decision to go for the cup cakes, this is what I get lah now.

I've placed my order with the baker on the 7th, and then I only get her reply on the 9th. Then ding dong ding dong for another 2days, she said she'll work out something for me. I was so relieved with her reply, meaning I'll be having the cute cuppies for the VIPs birthday! Her artwork on the cuppies deco are superb. In fact, my friend has ordered from her last month for her son's birthday. She told me that not only the design of the cuppies was great, the taste was good too. I was really looking forward to her cuppies.

Sigh, on 14th Sept, she told me that she couldn't make it for me. Well, in her email, she did apologize a few times for this bad news. She couldn't take anymore order for the time being due to the sudden workload change. She's still a full time employee, this baking biz is just her part time job. Ok lah, I do understand her position now. But at least she should have inform me earlier that she MIGHT NOT be able to do it for me lah. At least I still have plenty of time to hunt for another baker mah. I only have 1 week time to look out for new cake, and that would be during the Hari Raya break. GGrrrrrr.... I went berserk with her surprising news!

I have promised Smellybutt that I'm gonna get her Barney and friends birthday cake. Yes, the 3 stooges of purple, green and yellow dinosaurs. But at the same time, I have to suit it for my dad too. He'll turn 68yr old this year. With this, I pening kepala liao, coz the cute cuppies which I've initially ordered would have 2 different theme to suit them individually.

So what did I get for replacement on this very last minute? I've placed my order with San Ferri cake house. I love their cakes, taste good with reasonable price. I've browsed thru their customized cake design catalogue and found 1 design which is quite unique. Will not describe further here. Shall wait for De Day :) Hope can get a nice and yummy (mm..yummy level is guaranteed lah) birthday cake next week.

p/s : I wish I could bake...so that all the headache to choose for the right cake would not take place... IF I could ever differentiate between the baking powder, the self rising flour and the whatever flour in the market. I don't like to bake, but I do have the interest to decorate the cake. Whatever involves art will catch my interest. I would foresee that my future first attempt could be on cupcake lah, smaller size ma. If I have the time, I want to learn about cake decoration.

Flower girl wannabe : the worst episode

It's getting out of control....

Sigh...Aunty Dory....I almost give up to live up ur hope. Smellybutt seems to enjoy the rehearsal WITHOUT following my instruction. Hahahaha. This round (could it be the final round??) Popo pretended to be her partner. We thought that by doing so, she would have a better picture of what would take place on the actual day. But we were wrong lah. She couldn't be bothered about Popo walking with her side by side. In the end, in order to empty her basket, she terbalikkan her basket!! Then ran away!!

I noticed that she couldn't do 2 things at 1 time. Either we get her to walk only, or stand there and throw the flower petals onto the floor without moving an inch ^_^ In another word, she is not ready for multi tasking - walk and throw flower petals onto the floor at the same time. Actually Aunty Dory didn't ask for it. I was the one who get Smellybutt to throw flower petals when marching into the hall. I still can't guarantee that she can perform perfectly well even just to get her to walk in without any other stunt. Uwaaa..what talk me?? Everything seems to be a big NO NO. Like this cannot, like that cannot :O

Never mind...we'll be back to Ipoh this Raya holiday. Why not we have another 1 last final round, together with the bride and groom wannabe. Tiga ekor jalan sama sama. Hehehehe...I wonder what will happen. Excited!! I gotto tell Smellybutt about this plan. Must get her ready, mentally and physically.

Do check out the horrible stunt from the run away flower girl...haaiihh....

"Eh Mak Engkau!"

That's what exactly you gonna hear from me if I did something unintentionally, example drop something down or accidentally spill some water onto the floor. Normally the Malays are very used to this, they call it melatah. The very commonly used term is "oh pocot".

I can't really recall since when I have this melatah habit. Quite a rare habit for a Cina ah beng like me. Mainly due to my school mates who are mostly the Malays during my primary and secondary school. That's why I can actually speak like them too :P Besides this, another weirdo thing which happens to my elder sister and myself is.....we both speak Bahasa at home! Muahahahaha. Don't ask me why, I can't tell either. It just happen so naturally. Before my Malay colleague knew about this, she was very surprised when she heard me talking in Bahasa and mixed a bit with Chinese over the phone. She asked me curiously, who did I talk to? I said talking to my sister lah! She starred at me blankly.

Now come to the most interesting part. I have a successor too. Apparently, Smellybutt LOVES to say the same whenever herself and/or myself did something wrongly, or whenever she saw me being clumsy a bit. She heard me saying "eh mak engkau", and the very next day, she could actually say it out too! Guess how does her version sounds like? She said "maadao!" LOL!!

Each time I drop something I will try my best not to melatah infront of Smellybutt. But this lil parrot will giggle and say "mama nearly drop it...maadao!"My sister and I would always laugh out loud when we heard her saying "maadao". Sooo cute and hilarious lah!

The ABC lecturer

Want to learn how to play the ABC puzzle? Here's the guide from Cikgu Smellybutt. She will teach you where to put and where not to put the letter. Sorry ya...lecture being conducted in Chinese :)

Basically, Cikgu Smellybutt was trying to tell her student (who?me lah) this while pointing at the puzzle board :

"not put here keh...not put here keh...PUT HERE KEH".

Rudolph the whole red reindeer!

This is not just a red nose reindeer, it is a whole red reindeer :)

Finally Smellybutt owns it already. I bought it from an online store. Actually I bought 3 of it in total. 1 for Smellybutt and the other 2 for her lil cousin sisters in Ipoh and Melaka.

The moment she saw it, she was so excited. At first, I was just filling air into the red one. Then she saw the blue one and she wanted it too. Haiih...she was bugging me very hard for the blue one, so I got to pump in air for both.

She had a hard time to decide which one to take. Of course she wanted both, but I told her that we need to give one of it to her lil cousin sister too. She nodded, and yet still refused to let go any of it! When HubB took away the blue one and put it into the car bonnet, she cried badly for it. Then we changed it with the red one. And she cried. And we exchanged it again, and she cried. Waaaaa...like that how? No choice lah, got to be hard on her. HubB just took away the blue one and ignore her cries. Poor Smellybutt. Cried badly also no use lah, cannot be so greedy. After a while, she was Ok already.

She couldn't bounce with it properly, so I've got to sit behind her and bounce it for her. As usual, she would say dun niao! dun niao! Hehehe, thanks to my feather weight body, else how to sit on it and bounce together with her leh.

But I believe that this bouncing deer is a great exercise, even for adult. When I sit on it and bounce it myself, I almost couldn't catch my breath after a few bounce. Felt so tired playing with it. Or was it due to my low stamina? Honestly, I hardly do any exercise except carrying her up and down the staircase :P

Smellybutt with the reindeer butt :)

A picture of her happiness while having the 2 of them, before the disastrous cry!

Le Tour De Cameron trip report

Last week Aunty Dory was telling me that she was looking forward to our Cameron trip story. Adui, now only I can cerita a bit here. No time no time...has been harchew-ing and coughing a bit lately. Luckily a minor attack, now recovering liao.

Ok, here's the mini report for our trip to the cooling and wet highland.

22 September, 2009 (Saturday)

We left our house at about 9am for breakfast. Immediately after the breakfast, I quickly took out Novomin, the magic pill, and fed the weak stomach travelers - my dad, my mom and the feeder herself! My sister was the driver, thus she didn't join the Novomin club. My mom doesn't need the magic pill actually. She doesn't have motion sickness problem, but because of travelling with Smellybutt who can never have her butt on the seat all time, she has to take it lah. Just in case she tak boleh tahan with Smellybutt moving around in the car non stop together with the winding road. Oh btw, we used the Tapah route to get to Cameron Highland. This new route is much less winding compare to the old road.

We reached Equatorial Hotel at about 3pm and it started to rain. Apalah...just arrived and rain pulak. No choice but to check in to our apartment and hibernate there lah.

An hour later, the rain stopped and we quickly jumped into the car and move on to Boh Plantation. Upon reaching the main entrance road to the Boh Tea Centre, we just noticed the sign board which says that the Tea Centre will be closed at 4.30pm. Waaaa....luckily we were there by 4pm, still have some time to linger around.

The cafe was so jam packed with people. My dad was assigned to jaga table and my mom and I got to que up for the drinks. My parents wanted to try their famous and laku teh tarik. Too laku, all sold out. We ended up with some Boh Tea and a piece of very nice and not too sweet chocolate cake. The green scenery at the plantation was superb! Weather was cold due to the rain earlier.

After walking around taking picture at the plantation, it started to drizzle again and we got to drive back to our room :(

At about 6pm, we went down to Tanah Rata to check out their pasar malam. Again, the moment we reached there, it started to rain. Sigh...what else can I say ar. Rain rain rain and rain. We then looked out for a steamboat dinner for the cooling weather. Most of the restaurants were full . So we have to wait for about 1/2 hour to get a table. We had an organic steamboat dinner, as the owner of the restaurant sells organic vegetable.

After the hot steaming dinner, we went back to our room and continue our hibernation :P The only things which kept Smellybutt busy in the room was the little light switches on the table next to our bed and not forgetting the TV remote control .

23 September, 2009 (Sunday)

We all woke up at 7.30am and headed down to the cafe at the lobby for our buffet breakfast. When we checked in on Saturday, we saw a few tourist bus there but not a big crowd though. But when we were having our breakfast half way thru, the crowd was getting bigger and there was a very long que at the entrance of the cafe. All waiting for their turn to get a table for breakfast.

After the breakfast, we headed to the Strawberry Farm next to Equatorial Hotel. So convenient! Luckily it didn't rain and we kept our promise to Smellybutt, to be able to pick our own strawberries (and ate a few at the same time!) We paid RM40 for harvesting 1kg of strawberries. We were given 2 big styrofoam tray for collection.

HubB was carrying Smellybutt throughout the harvest session. Both of them were having a good time testing the strawberries repeatedly!

Tadaa!! These are our picks of the day. There was a Bangladeshi worker in the farm who guided us how to pick a nice and sweet one. He was very kind and helpful. He told us that not to ignore the small size one as they are the sweetest! Very true!

Next, we went to the pasar pagi to borong some sweet corn and vegetables. No pictures for the stuff that we have bought, not enough hand to snap pictures leh. The corn and vege were so heavy lah! That was the final itenerary for our trip. We left the highland at about 11.30am as my sister has to meet up with her friends in the evening.

Overall, it was a fun trip. Smellybutt didn't fuss around in the car. Thank god.

ABC Puzzle : Mission accomplished

Bought this ABC puzzle quite some time already, at least 3 months ago from Jusco. When I first showed this to her, Smellybutt wasn't that keen on it. I did try to teach her the alphabets 1 by 1 and showed her how to place them to the wooden board. Again she couldn't pay much attention to me. Ok lah, maybe too early for her to understand it and to re-arrange all the letters at the right place.

Last month, to my surprise, she was able to re-arrange all the letters into the right place. She can even recognise and say to me the letter of alphabet A, G, K, M and W. When she holds the letter C, she will say "moon". Hehehe. The letter C is similar to the shape of a moon, because most of the time she only see the crescent moon from books and TV, seldom see the full moon.

The crescent moon = letter C
That's Smellybutt's theory :)

Popo has actually taught her bit by bit everyday. And she could pick up so fast. Hmmm...maybe she likes Cikgu Popo instead of Cikgu Mama :)

I would encourage mommies to buy this ABC puzzle as it really heps your child to learn and understand the alphabets efficiently. Why? According to montessory study (actually it was my boss who gave me this wonderful tips of montessory, yes ,she took the course) a child can learn better by allowing them to hold and feel the object. This method is far more effective than buying an ABC book for them to read. I'm now trying to get the numbers puzzle, since Smellybutt already can count from 1 to 10 smoothly. Erm, she still love to swallow the no. 6, we have to keep reminding her not to miss out no. 6 whenever she counts to us.

Btw, she is very good in differentiating the 3 look alike alphabets - b,p,q. Whenever she plays with it, she will surely solve that 3 alphabets first. Sometimes, she would ask us to do it, and we would purposely put at the wrong place. She will then correct us saying "not put here keh, put there". Hehehehe. It's her turn to become a teacher.

Another educational toy which she has yet to conquer all, is the My ABC Travel Bag. This is my another online purchase, hardly to be found in most of the educational toy shop in KL. It is very convenient to bring along while travelling as it can be zipped up when not in use and there is a cloth handle sewn to the book so we can carry it with them.

Each of the pocket has an object (cloth stuffed) which represent the letter of the alphabets. This cloth book brings 2 developmental benefits to the children - language and development of the senses. It is really a good buy!

Those objects which are visible from the below picture is what Smellybutt can say out to us now. Just another 8 more objects to go :)

Semangat patriotic

My poor blog...left it alone for more than a week untouched! Busy bee lately, not enough time to do update, even though I have a lot to write actually.

Here's a quick one. My lil "ngoi kok zhea" (it means the very faithful and loyal to the country :P) happily saying Merdeka! while waiving the jalur gemilang which Dun Dun bought it from kedai runcit belakang rumah. Hehehe. Now the mini flags are almost flat...too ganas with it.

Dun Dun taught her to say Negaraku. Then Smellybutt relates it with the flag. From then onwards, she's been calling the flag (whatever flag lah, even those by the road side for the chinese kao wong weh celebration) as "Nananaku".

When it rains, she'll say "Nananaku wet wet liao, aunty didn't keep it at home".
When she wants to sleep, she'll ask "Mama, Nananaku leh?". If I don't bring it up and place it next to the bed, just prepare to listen to her default question for 100x.

Happy (belated) Merdeka to everyone!

In the video :
Me : QQ, what are you holding?
QQ : Barney!!
*??????*