Would You?

When Kenzie boy was still a baby, I told myself that I would not do these, not until he reached 1 year old:

1) No TV 

2) No Tab or Ipad (for games, etc)

3) No YouTube

But, I broke all my own rules when he was just as young as 1 month old!

1) I let him watch the TV when I needed to do house chores

I strapped him on the bouncer, on the DVD, and he would quietly watch until I finished my house chores. Each time I let him watch the TV, I felt guilty, but I needed to do my chores and have some me-time too. How?

2) I gave him the Tab when we went out for dinners or eating out in restaurants. 

That way, we could eat in peace for at least half an hour or more. Before we decided to bring the Tab out, he would not sit still when we were eating. The hubs needed to carry him and walk around, while I hurriedly ate. When I was done, I would carry him around and the hubs would eat. We hated attending wedding dinners because we really could not enjoy the dinner with a toddler around. Not to mention the long hours, from 7pm-11pm and the couple only marched-in around 8.30pm. The toddler would get pretty restless by then. 

The Tab solved everything.

3) Kenzie boy started watching YouTube as early as a few months old because he saw us watching the YouTube. So he was curious and wanted to know what was it, and not long after that, he could swipe and select his own programs from the Tab. Now, Kenzie boy types on his own what he wants to watch.

Example: He types "Wheels On The Bus", and all things related to the song will appear. 

He even knows the developers such as "Muffin Song" or "Hooplakidz", so when he types those words, all nursery rhymes and programs developed by Hooplakidz will appear.

Not bragging, but just for my own record:

1) He knows his (complete) phonics by 10 months

2) He knows his numbers by 14 months

3) He knows how to recite A-Z by 15 or 16 months

4) He knows how to write (on the doodle) A-Z and 1-10 by 24 months

5) He can now type, spell and read! Write anything on the doodle, he can read it out. Even "Maggi mee kari" or "Selamat Hari Raya". I tried letting him read Peter & Jane 3A, and he reads like they are peanuts.

And from where and how did he know everything? 

Yes, YouTube.

So, would you, like me too, let your kids play with the Tab and watch YouTube?

I know it's not good to let them start young on this kinda gadgets, but: 

Would you, like me too, give in, when you wanted to do house chores or rest or need a break or have some me-time?

Would you turn to the gadgets for help when you want to have a peaceful dinner or when you are eating out?

Would you let them learn from the YouTube so that they could learn more? Or would you, like me (initially), insist that you can teach them yourself, read stories to them and teach them ABC's and 123's every night after coming back from work.

Sorry for my long-winded-ness. but here are my two boys, age 2.5 years and 6 months, watching the YouTube yesterday. I was down with flu, the hubs was not around, I felt giddy, but I still needed to do house chores, wash clothes and hang clothes and mop and vacumn and cook. How? 

Would you have done this if you were me? 

Dinner

The Way To A Man's Heart Is Through His Stomach

Haha, actually it's just another cooking post. But just to add some freshness on the introduction, chewahhh...

Feel like posting something "relaxing" and no need to use brains to think what and how to write kinda thingy. 

Braised chicken and mushroom with sesame oil & ginger (mayau keong tungku gai)

Stir-fried "pear" melon with "har mai" (dried shrimps), fried fuzhuk and fish paste
*The melon looks like a pear, and it's not "see kua" or "jit kua" or "seng kua",
so I also don't know what "kua" is this*

Minced pork steamed egg

"Harm choy" ABC soup

Something To Ponder - What If ?

***Warning: 

This is not a nice post. Not something I would choose to write in my cute pink polka blog, but I feel I have to blog about my feelings after meeting up with my good friend for lunch the other day. 

My friend met up with me for lunch the other day. She is my very good friend, an ex-colleague from my very first company I worked with after graduation. That was almost about 10 years ago! And we are still keeping in touch til today. Her hubby has an affair, and it was going on for 2 years without her knowledge. She finally found out about it, and long story cut short, she is in the midst of getting a divorce. She has sold their current house, bought another house to stay with her 8 year-old daughter, and hubby has also bought another house. Many changes needed to be done, many changes needed to be adapted, many changes needed to be get used to - again. It was hard to accept, because her hubby was a very nice man, a gentleman, very loving to his kid and family (before his wife found out about the affair).

Something to ponder.

What if one day, I find out my hubby has an affair. What would I do? 

1) Will I close one eye and pretend nothing happened for the sake of the kids? 

2) Will I talk to him calmly and tell him I can forget about everything and treat as nothing ever happened if he breaks the affair and come back to me for the sake of the kids again (Even if he says yes, there will be a scar, and I don't think I will trust him again)

3) Will I go to the "ugly" side: Confront the other party, check on her, stalk her, "make it big" and mess things up and hell, I don't know what will happen next

I never thought of this before (because I feel it won't happen to me, but after I knew about my friend's case, anything can happen in future). Just what if.......

Don't Dream It's Over

Warning: Rant post. Emo post. Whatever.

25.10.2013 @ 9.30am

I feel powerful
I feel great
I feel I am in control
I can control
There's no right or wrong

I know what I am doing
I know what's happening
I know myself
I am myself

You may hate me
You may think I like to start fights
You may think I don't understand
You may think I'm a biatch

Life is short
Have fun
Break the rules
But know the boundaries

Maybe I'm fantasizing too much
Maybe I have too high expectations
Maybe I am too confident
Maybe I should't reveal too much
or Maybe I should, coz people who read this blog are all people that I don't know
So no harm

All good things will come to an end

Fantasy's over

Wake up

Let go

Don't dream, it's over

Currently listening to this song, which suits best with my emo today.

The Turtle & The Rabbit

Take some time (if you are interested) to watch the video.

Do you think the story applies to you and your company? You may want to share this video if you are planning on your company team building event. Or you can share this during your office meetings. I personally think this is an interesting video.

Just to share, when I was working in my previous company about 8 years ago, I joined their first team building in year 2005. I remembered clearly it was at Saujana Hotel @ Shah Alam. The very next day, an employee tendered his resignation. After a few months, more than 10 employees tendered. The company then stopped having team building activities for a few years. They organized another team building building in year 2009. It was still clear in my mind. It was held at One World Hotel @ One U. There were rock climbing activities as well, followed by a scrumptious Japanese dinner. Everyone was happy. Very happy. And motivated. The very next day, on a Monday, our Financial Controller was asked to pack her things and leave immediately due to cost-cutting and restructuring thingy. Few months later, many big shots left too. I left after a year.

I have been working in my current company for 3 years now. They so far, had organized 2 team buildings. I went for the first team building. No effect. They talked about working in a team, yadaa yadaa, but when we came back, everything was back to normal. Department A still blames and points finger at Department B when problems arise. Until today.

Is team building activities a waste of money? I personally feel yes, it is. To me, employees just treat it as a "holiday", for free food and fun, and also "getting out" from the office.

Your say?  

Now You Know

Now you know. See you want to have third one or not.

This was what my hubby said lastnite when we were discussing about sending Kenzie boy to playschool cum kindy next year.

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P/S:
Before you continue reading this post, please note that I am not rich, thus, I feel the school fees for a 3-year old is very expensive. You might not feel the same and think the fees is just peanuts for you.
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You see, due to various and personal reasons, we have decided that Kenzie boy is to stay with my parents in Cheras starting next year, and we only take him back every Friday evening after work, and send him back to my parent's every Sunday evening. This is the best we could think of now, for him and for us.

My mum helped out, drove around and looked for a few kindies for a few days. The one we wanted was full for the 3-year old class next year, and many more were still on waiting list. So we gave up on that one.

Then my mum came across Q-dees near her area, which is in Taman Segar, Cheras. She talked to the principle, and she felt this one is the most OK one, compared to the few which she has surveyed. One class will only have 15 kids, and now there are already 7 kids. She called us and discussed over the phone about the fees and all, and we agreed. She paid the registration fee and booked a place for Kenzie boy for next year.

This was what she said over the phone:
Application fee is RM60. Monthly fee is RM220. So means, for registration fee, we need to pay RM280 first. RM280 only ma. Then upon commencing school, you need to pay RM600+ for term fee. Every kindy is the same, they go by term. So you ok mou on this?

I was hesitating because I know we will not only be paying monthly RM220 for such a popular kindy. But I immediately agreed because she sounded very impatient in the phone.
***This is the thing when we seek help from others. If can, I would have wanted to do it myself, the rounding and surveying and all, but again, due to various reasons, I had to ask my mum to help.

Later that day, she WhatsApp-ed me the attachment below. I was like, gawd, there are so many other more miscellaneous fees. Upon registration, the fee is RM280 (which my mum already helped me to pay yesterday). Upon commencing next year, we will have to pay another RM634 + RM190 (the principle FOC one pair of gym wear since my mum paid immediately on the spot after calling me). Total first fee is RM1104. Every term, we will have to pay RM634 on top of the monthly school fee. And please, by the way, the monthly school fee is not RM220 as claimed by my mum. They have other miscellaneous charges which add up to RM350 per month. All these for only: 8.30am-12pm.



My jaw dropped. I never thought the first payment would already touched over RM1100++. Compared to the current nursery Kenzie boy is attending (plus daycare until 7pm), the fee is much much lower than this, but again, due to personal reasons which I am not convenient to talk about here, I had to make some changes.

Mommies, if you are reading this, forgive me, as I am a new mom. I really don't know and never expect playschool cum kindy fees can be so freaking expensive now. And now, they have term fee? Gawd. I thought only sekali pay one lump sum upon registration, and then we just sit back and relax and just pay the monthly kindy fee. No?

Hubby added one more sentence, "Sang zhai mm chi mai ka".
Ok hubs. You win. I got no more energy to argue with you.

Rojak Roast Chicken

Another home-cooking post. Coz that's what I like, and also one of the things I am good at (Not good at cooking canggih gourmet food, but good at cooking simple home-cooked food from anything I could find in the fridge). Don't mind or don't get bored ya?

I was on leave yesterday because I had to take Kenzie boy back from my parent's place, and after that, took him for his 2.5 year old jab at his paed's (2nd dose of Hep A). He stayed at my parent's from Sunday evening until yesterday afternoon as his nursery closed from Monday til yesterday.

Anyway, back to this post. When you see the word "rojak", no no no, it doesn't mean I marinated the chicken with the black rojak sauce. Haha. It means I marinated the chicken with anything available at my kitchen counter, and chuck in with whatever vegetables I could find in the fridge.

My all-time favourite McCormick's Italian Herbs spices have finished. So for the marinate, I make do with: Soya sauce, pepper, oyster sauce and Lea & Perrin's sauce. I also chuck in some lemon, an onion, carrots and potatoes for taste. Before baking (at 190 degrees for 1 hour), I threw in a blob of butter for the extra rich-ness.

Rojak roast chicken

And since I did not go to work yesterday, I made the effort and cooked more varieties for dinner, because usually on weekdays, I don't cook, as it's already late when I reach home from work. The hubs cooks, because he usually reaches home earlier.  And normally it's just "chin tan chau choy" kinda food. Or I call it the 3F's (Fried egg, Fried fish, Fried vege) kinda food.

So, for my own record, I also cooked these for dinner yesterday:

Chicken herbal soup ("yoke zhok" & "pak kei")

Minced pork taufu

Bittergourd fried egg

Baby C & Baby G

Here's Baby Clarrisa (Baby C) together with my Baby Gavin (Baby G). Clarrisa is my niece, my older sister's baby. She has two girls. Kimberly is 2 years 5 months, and Clarrisa is 8 months.

I have two boys. Kenzie is 2 years 6 months, and Gavin is 6 months.

I don't like to compare. But since this is my personal blog, hehe, I can't help but keep looking at the size difference. Baby C is two months older than Baby G, but Baby G is so much bigger than her. Well, she was born small, to start with. My sis gave birth through c-sec sharp at 37th week (ngam ngam full term) because she didn't want to wait any longer. I gave birth via natural birth 4 days before my due date, at 39th week+3days.

I want a 3rd one. But hubby says enough. So, yeah, I'll stop at two.

Happy Monday from Baby G and Baby C.

P/S: I can't help but to dress Baby G in pink rompers and pink socks. Crazy's my name, remember?

Gavin and Clarrisa

Glee: Tonight We Are Young

I listen to this whole day from:
7am til 5.30pm (in the office)
5.30pm til 6.30pm (while driving home all the way)
8.30pm til 9.30pm (before I zzz)

Yes, crazy's my name.

Kenzie Boy And His Nursery Ryhmes

Just to record down the moment of my boy singing nursery rhymes.
Ahem, he's just 2+ and he can read well.

Little Jack Horner

Rock A Bye Baby

Mulberry Bush

Jack & Jill

Baa-Baa Black Sheep

Hey Diddle Diddle

Mary Mary Quite Contrary