CNY @ Ipoh

This year, we went back to Ipoh a day before the CNY eve. We departed at 5am to avoid the massive traffic jam on highway. Luckily not many cars on the road =) so we reached Ipoh around 7.15am. We had a smooth journey all the way. When I carried YY into our car, she almost woke up so I quickly breastfed her and she was back to slumber very fast =) I put her into her car seat and she slept all the way to Ipoh, same to QQ too. 

Reunion dinner was done at home, as MIL cooked for all of us. It would be quite messy if we were to eat out. Both my SIL's baby and YY were still very young thus to handle 4 kiddos in a restaurant seemed to be quite handful lah. 

At night, QQ refused to sleep with her daddy next door, she insisted to squeeze in our queen size bed with me and YY. Adui, I had a hard time to rearrange the sleeping position for 3 of us. I was like solving jigsaw puzzle on bed. QQ doesn't really sleep quietly on 1 position throughout the night. She will surely turn her body 360 degree. What I worry most was her "mou ying geok" shadow legs. The moment she turn a bit and spread her leg to another side, YY will be roti canai liao...kena lanyak by her sister. The very first night, I let her sleep on bed first. As soon as she was in deep sleep, I get HubB to carry her down to the tilam on the floor :P Did it really quietly and slowly. The next morning, she woke up and looked up to bed with a smile on her face, greeting me Good Morning Mami!! Then, she looked at herself on the tilam, and started to ask me "eh, why I sleep here keh?". Hahahaha I thought she didn't realized it :P I just bluff thru saying that there was mosquito so I carried her down to tilam, so that she won't get bitten :P Well...she bought my idea! 

The second night, I didn't want to let her sleep on tilam coz  there would be massive fireworks  going on when the clock strikes 12. So I slept in the middle with QQ on my left and YY on my right. But these 2 fella couldn't be bothered at all by the loud noises out there. The dark sky was so colorful, with lots of fireworks in the air! They continued to ZzzZzzZzz.....Good, good.

We headed back to KL on Chor 3 (Day 3 of CNY) after breakfast. Again, the traffic was smooth, and weather was great too.

Here are some of the shots taken before and during CNY in QQ's pre-school and in Ipoh.

Hand-in-hand with her classmate, Belle. Belle's mommy used to be my classmate in college too =)

Buddy buddy with her cousin TT.

Also buddy buddy with another cousin sista, MM.

See....both of her cousins are so much BIGGER than her physically :P Both her cousins are just a year younger than her, but it looks the other way round rite?!

Me and my 2 yellow lil huat huat girls + MM

 

 

Happy Family! =)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A happy Mid-Autumn celebration

Yesterday we had a simple yet happy Mid-Autumn Festival celebration at my mom's house. None of us had a single bite on the mooncake on this special day :P We don't fancy mooncake lah. But I had already "sworn" in to have Haagan Daz Ice Cream Mooncake this year...however, bayang pun tarak ;( No time to buy 1, and HubB has been very busy traveling too. Wonder whether Haagan Daz still have plenty of it in store, therefore offering 50% discount to clear stock??!! I heard from my friend that 1pc of it will easily cost me around RM25 +_+

Here's Smellybutt, so engrossed with the colorful candles which Popo bought for her to lite up the tang lung.

She said, "mami, I pai-leng-leng the candles first ya" (means I arrange the candles nicely first)

And this is her mini work station at the car porch. She was the tang lung jaga, and her job was to pass each of the tang lung to us 1 by 1, for us to affix the candle on it.

First of all, must lite up her squirrel tang lung first so that she has 1 to hold on to. But after a while, she put it aside and started to bug us for the candles.

See, she was soaking wet due to running around the car porch non stop. She had even attempted to lite up the candles too! My sister and I was so stressed with her, screaming at her to stay away from the fire repeatedly. Our screaming just went into her left ear and then 'leak' out from her right ear immediately..... @_@

We didn't bring her out for a walk while carrying her tang lung, coz it seemed so quiet out there. All I saw was only 2 of my neighbour who played with the tang lung at their car porch. That was it. Pathetic betul this year. No money to buy tang lung and candles ka? Last year was still quite happening though. This is sad lah....

Here's the colorful paper tang lung nicely lite up and arranged on the clothes hanger :P Hope that next year's celebration will be much more merrier!

Tang Lung in de house

Mooncake and tang lung are available everywhere now. Before even reach the actual Mooncake Festival Day , I already so jelak with the mooncake lah. Since last year, my mom has been warning HubB not to buy her any mooncake. My mom and I don't really fancy those overly sweet mooncake being sold in the market.

Last year, my in laws bought the battery operated tang lung for Smellybutt....and it's the same for this year.

She got to choose 1 out of the 4 design which my in laws bought last week. She really had a hard time to choose 1 =) When all the 4 tang lung being switched on, the house was so noisy. My MIL gotto raised her voice while asking her to choose 1 "QQ you choose lah, ooi pin jek?", she needs to beat those loud music from the tang lung. Hehe.

After much consideration, she has chosen the sheep on aeroplane design. And HubB bought her the traditional easy-to-be-burn-out tang lung too :P This year, we plan to bring her walk around the neighborhood carrying her tang lung. Can't recall back why we didn't do so last year. Too much time spent on lighting up the colorful candles I guess. She's very obsessed with candles, all the time!

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!!

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 ^_^

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!!

New year

There goes our bold and beautiful 2009. Was it really a beautiful 2009? Partly yes, but then...no, not so beautiful also. Anyway, bumi mana yang tidak ditimpa hujan leh? So it's Ok, good or bad, we gotto live our best. In short, just jangan pandang belakang....instead, we move forward to the new year with new beginning. Coz I do have something to look forward to in year 2010.

I am looking forward to :

• see Smellybutt goes to her pre school with school uniform soon.
• see Smellybutt grows happily and more healthy, less picky!
• move into our new house by Q2 2010.
• see HubB doing well in his current job, and biz grow bigger and better!
• have more fat on my skeleton size body.
• have a big and bulging tummy....if you know what I mean :)

Last but not least, I shall pray for best of health for my family, especially my parents.

May the year of 2010 brings us more shines and glory!! May the year of Tiger brings us the greatest luck and health, so that we can "roar" all year long...and many more years!!

Yippy New Year to everyone!!

Xmas gift exchange

Teacher Nel has informed us earlier that the school will organize a mini Christmas party for the students on 24th December, which is today. So each student will need to bring along a gift for exchange purpose. Waaa....so young already can experience gift exchange! Your mama so old already, pun belum pernah do this leh. But it will happen tomorrow, on Elisha's wedding!

Barney wrapping paper. Psst...this is a recycle wrapping paper :P Why?? For small kid only ma....and it is still in good condition too. Save the earth!!

The gift - 2 coloring and sticker book with a box of 12pcs Faber-Castell wax crayons. This is the best unisex gift which I could think of, for a 2-3yr old student.

So many stickers inside the book!

I do hope that whoever gets this gift will be happy with it lah. Can't wait to go home and see what my lil girl gets today.

My most messy Winter Solstice celebration

Each year, December 22 is always a fixed date for Chinese to celebrate the Winter Solstice Day, a.k.a. "Kor Tung Jit". This year, I have my lil iron chef to help me out. The moment I told her that we are going to "chai min fan", means to "play" with the dough, her eyes grew so big and nodded non stop! With her presence, I knew that I've got to do some clean up later. But I was so wrong. It was a BIG clean up for me, because she mashed the dough into tiny little pieces and happily sprinkled them on the floor. I have no time to snap the disastrous condition as I need to rush and prepare for the first batch of tong yuen for my neighbour cum colleague, an Indian family who just stay few houses away only. He told me that before he moved to this taman, his neighbour used to share the tong yuen with his family. Ok, since the left and right of his house is also Indian family, I've decided to deliver my home made tong yuen for him.

Little iron chef was so happy and followed my instruction to pose for my camera with the small bag of colorful dough. My mom bought this ready made rice flour dough from the morning market.

We all thought that we have a big piece of gula melaka or brown candy (or "phin thong", just get to learn this term from Chinnee!) in the fridge...after searching high and low, bayang pun tak nampak! Knowing that the Chinese medicine hall already closed by noon, my only choice was to head on to the nearest Indian kedai runcit and get a piece of gula melaka. As for the ginger, we don't have any in the fridge either!! OMG, this year is the most unprepared year for the making of tong yuen. My mom was so selamba when I told her that I can't find the ginger. She said "go outside and 'harvest' the ginger from the flower pot lah...organic ginger tau!". Waseh....I didn't realized the existence of the ginger plant at home!

So my sister went to dig it out gently. The moment it was uprooted from the soil, we immediately smelled the ginger! Initially, I thought that it might be a very small and lousy ginger plant. But hey! This home grown organic ginger was superb lah!

See....that is my mom's very first organic ginger :) Smells good. Taste good.

By the time I was done snapping the above pictures, the camera's battery died. Grrrrrr....so not able to share the picture of my Ugly Betty Tong Yuen over here :P