4th masterpiece from pre school

After the long CNY pre school holiday, this is her latest art work with CNY theme. It looks like those lion dance thingy right?

I notice that she has show some improvement on her coloring skill. See the below picture....the coloring strokes seems to be neater than before. The right hand side picture shows the sample of her coloring style at home.

This is what she used to color, or rather 'conteng' with her color pencils. So 'wu li ma char' right? See the difference between the top picture and the below 1? Below picture is her 1st masterpiece back in January 2010. Within a month time shows improvement liao....not bad! Keep it up my dear. I would love to draw and color with you 1 fine day (currently she doesn't allow me to borrow her color pencils -_- kedekut) . I LOVE to draw and color very much! Was the 1st prize winner for those coloring contest organized by the malls and school too. I really hope that my lil Smellybutt inherits my love-to-draw-and-color gene :P Maybe 1 day I can be her live Mona Lisa model. Muahahaha! Dream first.

Colourful fireworks in de sky

Last Sunday (8th day of CNY) was a special day for the Hokkien people. It’s call Bai Thin Kong (erm, no idea what is it call in English :P soli) I’m sure most of us, especially those who resides in Kepong area, witnessed the fantastic colourful fireworks in the sky. Luckily that I still managed to catch these beautiful fireworks on time as I had a movie date with HubB that night. The “72 Tenants of Prosperity” was indeed a nice show!

I reached home at about 12.10am and as I entered the taman, I could see many neighbours busy preparing to blast the dark sky. Some already playing with the fireworks too. As the clock striked 12.30am, I captured these :

And these….

Smellybutt was sleeping and I took the above pictures through the same bedroom’s window. Half way doing it, Smellybutt was awaken by the loud noise out there and she shouted "Oooh I want to see!!". So my sister quickly carried her to the window and she was so happy to see those beautiful fireworks from such a close distance. In Ipoh, my FIL carried her to the car porch to see it, but those fireworks were quite far away.

15mins later, the show was over and we all went to bed with Smellybutt. She gotto wake up again at 7am for attending her pre school. She was very cooperative and went to bed straight. But there was some people playing with the "phao jeong", neh those long dangling red fire cracker which we get to see together with lion dance. We just covered her ears with small pillows and slowly she ZzzZzz.....

I help you lah

On chor 3 (3rd day of CNY), Smellybutt was very happy to be back home in KL. No no, don’t get me wrong ya. She did enjoyed her stay in Ipoh very much, but just that she didn’t have much things to do to kill her time there. I only brought a long 3 of her favourite toys – jigsaw puzzle, ABC puzzle and color pencils. Her major hobby has got to do with water! She loves to play with water very much. Aiyah, hardly find children hates water right? Even if I just give her a small pail of water and some masak masak tools, she can keep pouring water from 1 container to another for a very long time.

She just had her shower, smells good and clean. But the moment she saw her Popo at the car porch arranging flower pots, lil kepohchi wait no more! Dashed out immediately and said to Popo “I help you!!”. Help do what ar?? IF she touches the flowers, their life span will be shorten immediately. IF she siram bunga, there’ll be making of “Tsunami : Revenge on flower pots”. IF she helps to remove those dead leaves/flowers, maybe in the end we only get to see the pot and soil only. So, to avoid all these disastrous IF’s, Popo quickly set up a “stall” for her, with lots of WATER in a big plastic container.

See, she clad on a waterproof apron, so that she won’t get wet.

Popo already placed her order with iron chef, and there she goes, happily preparing barley drinks lah, latte ice lah, kari mee pedas lah…semua Popo’s favourite!

Busy walking up and down and repeated Popo’s order for more than 5x!! Customer service ma….

In the end, floor was wet, shoes also wet, and above all her once-smells-good head also wet wet wet! Sweating gila!! No doubt, the weather was super hot, be it in Ipoh or KL. If stay in the house, I do feel like as if I am teppanyaki-ing myself!!! Behtahan!!

Got table manner already

She has learned to say this at the pre school each time before she starts her lunch, "Thank you for the food. Teacher and friends, lets eat!". She could say it out loud and clear and I just love to ask her to repeat it over and over again, until she malas to layan me :P

And for Cantonese version, she loves to say this to each and everyone on the dining table, "mama sik fan, baba sik fan, popo sik fan....". She'll bilang everyone without fail. Sometimes, after eating half way, she will repeat it again too.

The other night where we had our dinner at Sungei Way together with our close relatives, just a min after we put her on bed, suddenly she said "Oh!! I forgotten to say aunty sik fan, uncle sik fan, kor kor sik fan.....!!!!" Hahahaha!!! Not bad wor...still remembers what she has forgotten earlier.

Wishing everybody healthy always!

Lil Smellybutt would like to wish you Gong Xi Fa Chai and san thai kin hong!! Stay healthy always!!

Surprisingly, she WILLINGLY to wish almost everyone she met during CNY with that sweet greeting. Even to those she didn't always get to meet so often. I guess all this due to her attending the pre school. She has learned to mix around with people =) Good sign ^_^

World of jigsaw puzzle

Lately, Smellybutt is so into jigsaw puzzle game. She used to have this 2 set of puzzles only, which are way too complicated for her to deal with in the beginning. She doesn't like playing with it at all, EXCEPT menconteng the puzzle with pen! I got these as free gift from Carrefour last year.

2 weeks ago, while I was looking for Joey Yap's fengshui and astrology book in Popular Book Shop, I stumbled upon this simple children's jigsaw puzzle. Not too expensive though, only RM19.90 for a set of 8 different insects picture puzzle. Quality is good too. Before I let her play with it, I've been giving her numerous warning not to conteng this set of puzzle, coz I paid for it! Hahahahaha!!! So far so good, she has been taking good care of it and even reminded me that she is not allowed to conteng her puzzle =)

To my surprise, she has managed to conquer all these 8 jigsaw puzzles within a week time. And best of all, she could remembered the name of the insects too, with some little help from me for certain insect's name. I've gotto give her some hint, by saying "Dra" and she would continued saying "dragonfly" when I pointed at it.

This cricket has got 5pcs to be assembled together. The most would be dragonfly and stag beetle, which have 7pcs each.

This jigsaw puzzle had accompanied her throughout her 5D4N stay in Ipoh. She has yet to get bored with it at the moment. But somehow I feel that she didn't have the challenge anymore since she already knew how to assemble each of it and even can tell me the name of the insects. I thought that I've wrongly purchased it for her, thought that this set of jigsaw puzzle was meant for 1yro ++. But as I studied the details at the back of the box, it stated there "for 3yr and above"!. Waaa...I am so proud of her, as she (currently 2yr 4mth) could easily solved the puzzle which were meant for 3yr old kids =)

I may start to look out for a more challenging set for her!

My Ooucchh! CNY

It was pretty quiet at my in law's house in Ipoh during the first few days, coz my brother in law has shifted to a new house. So Smellybutt was quite lonely. But....nah....even if her lil cousin sista is around, she will ignore her and will not even let me talk/touch her!! Else she'd yell "ng pei mama!" means don't let mama. Don't let mama do what leh? I have no idea why she is so so so so dislike me talking or touching other children o_O

Here's our CNY preparation and celebration.

Clockwise : Sweet "look yao" from Ipoh (specially picked by the farmer coz FIL and him are buddy buddy ma), yummy home baked cookies by my 2 aunts from Bentong Pahang, CNY oranges.

Lin chor yat (1st day of CNY), we went to a few of relative's house to pai nian. Wishing everybody Gong Xi Gong Xi!

As a result of that, Smellybutt managed to collect lotsssss of ang pao from the dearest relatives!

Steamboat at Moven Peak, Greentown as our reunion dinner on the night before lin chor yat

Lin chor sam (3rd day of CNY), we came back to KL and reached my mom's house by noon. At night, we gathered with our KL close aunty and cousins for a sumptuous dinner at Sungei Way.

And of course, lou sang is a must!! Smellybutt didn't want to be left out and she grabbed a pair of chopstick and joint the crowd!

But just a moment before we all left the house for dinner, I accidentally slipped and fell in the bathroom +_+ Ooucch....I was a great fall (like humpty dumpty)!!! Luckily I didn't slide all the way to the mangkuk tandas and managed to keep my head in upright position. Hurt my poor my left hip and buttocks. You know me lah, no flesh, only bones covered by a thin layer of skin, almost like the wantan skin....thus no shock resistant feature available. After a while, my back pain developed. Sigh....I really feel that this year of Tiger is not too favorable for me, who was born in the year of Monkey. Yeah...Master Joey Yap already said so what....gotto be careful a bit this year. Prone to accident (involving car, advised to be less speedy! and true enough, I was running into the bathroom and hence....+_+) So my luck percentage is 50-50 this year =(

I better watch out, I better not cry
I better not try to be like a hero in the sky
Running, speeding is prohibited, not to try!

Happy Chinese New Year!

We'll be heading back to Ipoh this afternoon, as I have taken 1/2 day leave today. This is the first year we travel back to Ipoh on broad day light!! Hopefully this is a good try =) Coz usually we'll only leave our house in the wee hour, to avoid the heavy traffic.

And today, Smellybutt will get to enjoy herself with the mini CNY party at her pre school. We have gotten a notice from Teacher Nel earlier that to dress up our child in their preferred cloths, best if put on a Cheongsam. Well, I couldn't get a nice fitting Cheongsam for my lil skinny gal. But I've managed to dig out this hong dong dong (red) Sam Fu which was a gift from her Mah Mah (my MIL) 2yrs ago!! See, have to keep it for 2yrs baru muat nicely on her.

Check out my lil model =) She's gonna wear this to the pre school this morning. Wee!!!

Wishing everyone a very Happy Chinese New Year!! May this year of tiger brings you more luck, better health, and happy always!! Let's ROAR together!!

No dark no light, just green lah

The green conflict

Today, Teacher Nel has asked Smellybutt about colors, so finally it was her turn to give her answer to the teacher directly. She did it pretty well, managed to tell all the colors correctly in English. BUT, when Teacher Nel showed her dark green color, she paused a while before she gave her best shot!

Teacher Nel : QQ, what color is this? (showing her dark green color)

QQ : (paused a few seconds)....... cheng sik!!! (means green color).

Muahahahhaha!! Quite smart of her to do it that way =) In order to prevent from giving the wrong answer, she had chosen to say it in Chinese instead. Hmm...I'll see what I can do to help her to identify that 2 different tone.

She whispered answer to her classmate

Teacher Nel has given me some updates this afternoon. Of course, the main zhu kok must be Smellybutt lah.

First thing in the morning, right after the assembly, students will get back to their own classroom and be seated. Blame the busy and happening weekend that we had with Smellybutt =) The moment she stepped into her classroom, she was kinda blur and then she asked Teacher Nel in Cantonese " Ngor chor bin dou?", where do I sit? Hahaha. Just had 2 days break only and already forgotten where is her usual seat.

Next, Teacher Nel did some revision on what she has taught the students last Friday, which was about colors. Teacher Nel had asked a student seated next to Smellybutt. Unfortunately that lil boy couldn't answer her. Guess what? Smellybutt has actually whispered the answer to that lil boy!! Waaa....I couldn't believe it. I thought she would just freely yelled out the answer. Didn't know that she knew how to curi curi helped her classmate in that way. Hmm...she remembered the colors so well, but not her usual seat.

The other day Teacher Nel was just telling me that she could recognised all the colors from a small box of color pencils. But if flashed her the dark green, she could only say green. She still couldn't differentiate the darker and lighter color. Hehehe. So I'm pretty sure that the questioned which she panai panai leak out the answer to her classmate must be the original color and not darker or lighter color. Anyway, still a good sign from her lah....at least it showed that she has learnt something from the pre-school, except being a kepochi =)

2 other of her kepochi incidents were if she heard somebody crying (from the next door), she would asked Teacher Nel "who is crying ar?". And at home, if she heard the sound of keys, she would asked us "who is coming home ar?". Seems like she's very alert of things happening around her. In another word, quite a penyibuk jugak lah.

Kof Kof..kahtuikkk

If Smellybutt is able to kahtuik (spit) out her phlegm, she would have recovered much earlier. The phlegm medicine prescribed by the Pead was not too effective for her, even after 1 week taking it. My friend recommended me to let her try a Chinese medicine call "hou zhou san". It helps to melt/dissolve the thick phlegm so that she can spit it out easily, or rather puke out the phlegm. Sometimes the dissolved phlegm may come out together with poo poo too.

Hou Zhou San bought from Hai-O. "Hou" means monkey.

Fantastic fact about hou zhou san :-

This is something really amazing for me to find out the origin of hou zhou san. The name itself, "hou" means monkey. My dad told me that hou zhou san is made of the kidney stone found in the monkey's kidney!! Kidding or not?? Erm....I guess no joke lah coz that was what my grandfather told him. My grandfather used to be a Chinese sinseh, major in pile (hemorrhoid) treatment.

Just mix a small teaspoon of the hou zhou san powder with warm water will do. Taste a bit bitter though, but that is really sap sap sui (kacang saja!) for Smellybutt :) The powder in that bottle has combination of a few other ingredients too, 1 of it is pearl powder. Well, the rest of the ingredient, can't understand and recall.

After taking it for 3 days, we saw improvement on Smellybutt. The first time she spitted out the phlegm, the texture was quite melt down already. Then when she coughed again, I kept asking her to spit out the phlegm. Initially she refused but due to coughing too hard, she couldn't control it anymore and she puked! Everything inclusive of her dinner + milk too! EEwwwwww....luckily I was holding a handkerchief at that point of time, just to catch her phlegm ma. Didn't know I get a handful of output. After that incident, she didn't want to spit out the phlegm anymore. Sigh.....she still cough a bit with the phlegm tersumbat in her throat.

Then, my mom told me that the Hai-O personnel has informed her earlier that if we mix the pure hou zhou san together with those from the bottle, that way works better and can speed up recovery too. Check out the price of this pure hou zhou san....RM75 for a milligram!!! In Cantonese, the measurement refers to "yat fun", which is very very very little only. If you ever harchew in front of it, all gone by the wind immediately! So we have to handle it with TLC.

Actually the pure hou zhou san was quite kasar, not in powder form. So once I have paid for it, the guy will help me to pound it into very fine powder and pack it into 2. I need to feed Smellybutt with it twice a day only.

This is how it looks like, after pounding. The guy added 2 small tiny pearl on it too. I took extreme care on it while snapping this photo. Almost want to hold my breath...hahaha

And it's ready to serve....

to the new unofficial Hou Zhou San Ambassador!!

With this pure 1 milligram of hou zhou san, it works so well! She hardly cough too. I only hear her coughing once in the early morning and another time in the late evening. Cough lesser means I don't have to keep asking her to spit out the phlegm, and this is such a breeze for her and myself too. What you pay is what you get lah.

P/s : If you want to buy the pure hou zhou san, please get it from Hai-O instead from those normal Chinese medicine hall. Coz I went to a nearby Chinese medicine hall first to check out the price, see if it is cheaper than what Hai-O offers. The uncle said he's not selling it. He also warned me to be very careful when buying it, coz I will not be able to find out whether it is the pure hou zhou san or not. Hmm....very true. So I went back to Hai-O to purchase the pure hou zhou san. At least Hai-O is a big and reputable company....