My Baby...

Love taking random photos with you. 

Being silly while waiting for daddy to try out a his shorts:

Win-Done

Your message to daddy today.. to show that you've finally won!

 

Covid.. again

Daddy tested positive again yesterday. So we all had to take the tests several times. Again, my body decided to torture me. First test had a very faint line. And second test had none whatsoever!

Cancelled your tuition. No point risking other people's lives especially when they are quite aged.

You came back, had a shower before doing the test. All was good.

You told me that you didn't want to test again in the morning but later that night, daddy said best for you to test. You agreed to do it (giving me saliva sample with your eyes closed) when I said that you'd be exposing many friends in school, unlike me who is sitting at home. 

All is good. Thank goodness 💗

Lost Tooth

One of the last few teeth to be replaced by an adult tooth. Despite knowing that I'm the "Tooth Fairy" you still looked for the bag to put in your tooth before going to sleep. 

Didn't take a photo of your tooth (with a decay in it), but of your moolah:

Karate - Green belt grading

You proudly came back to inform me that you were the only one from school selected to take part in the green belt grading.

The exam location was the same as before. Only thing was this time seemed to be a larger crowd taking the examinations. We arrived on time (obviously.. when the location is just a 5 minutes' drive from home..) and headed to the back waiting area. There were still many children waiting for their turn to be examined. Group 2 green grading were just grouping and shortly after you gathered with the rest of the children in your group. 

At 10.30 am sharp, you all started the examination.

Once you were done, we waited a little and Ah Ma came to pick us up then go for lunch.

In the evening, Sensei Li Li messaged the parents to congratulate the children for a job well done and to inform us that you'd all passed the exams. Yay!

Makan Holiday

This whole trip back was just a makan holiday for you. To our surprise, despite the late arrival, you managed to crawl out of bed to join us in Kampung Jawa for early morning char kuey tiau. We arrived just before the crowd came and so it wasn't too long a wait before we were served. Daddy ordered 4 large CKT and you inhaled 2 plates, just like that. And then saying that you could even eat a 3rd plate! Walaueh.. 

You then went back and continued sleeping. Daddy and I went out to buy lunch, and thinking that you'd be too full from breakfast and have already eaten curry mee, we decided to buy something light from the Shark. To our surprise, you were disappointed to find that we did not buy you curry mee!!

Dinner was a heavy meal of steamboat. Which you (obviously) thoroughly enjoyed. Our meal lasted a long while and only towards the end that you started to lie abit on the sofa in between stuffing yourself. 

On Sunday, we headed to the Shark again to buy the curry mee. Sadly, the CKT was sold out! You were so disappointed. And it was only 11.30am! But you did get a packet of Kuey Tiau Th'ng which you said was nice.

Dinner was in BM. As you had so many things on your makan list, we decided to cook carbonara in BM. 

Ta-da.. carbonara with crunchy lard

Monday's lunch was unplanned. In the end, we thought to try our luck with the famous Lorong Selamat CKT. To our surprise there was table to sit at and not a long queue. It looked like it was the assistant frying. That was probably the reason for the lack of wait. Your verdict: meh.. ahaha.. so we can strike this place off.

Monday and Tuesday's dinner was Ah Ma's cooking. She said that you had mentioned about missing seafood. So there was big prawns and steamed fish (*lol*). 

Tuesday's lunch was with the 2 oldies as we had to go to work and Mei-mei had school.

And before leaving Penang, you packed 1 large box of fried rice from Ah Ma and 2 boxes of CKT from Super Tanker (combined 3 large packets). Oh and you also ate 1 packet of CKT before dinner.

P/S: I think even you started to feel CKT overdose after this trip

2023 Christmas Tree is Up

Since Ko-ko is back this weekend, we decided to put up the Christmas tree. It's not too early.. in fact, may be a little later than usual. Anyhow.. Mei-mei determined the theme this year to be blue and silver as she had done a quick check to validate that last year's theme was red and gold. 

Before we got home to start the "project", Ko-ko informed me that there was a typo on the name when he tried to do check in. Walaueh... so I had to get onto a call with Firefly to determine what needed to be done. In the meantime, Mei-mei and daddy started to set up the branches. 

By the time I was done, the tree was ready. So we quickly opened up the branches and I set to putting up the lights. 

This is what she was up to while waiting for me

Once I was done with the lights, my job was about done! Lucky me. I got to sit back and watch the two of you put up the decorations. You're both tall enough to decorate the whole tree. 💕 Sometimes Mei-mei would ask for help to put an ornament at a certain high point. 

And finally, it was daddy's turn to put the angel. 

Et voila.. we're done!

Melts the heart

Hard to get a photo of the two of you together with no shouting. 

What are you both up to? Cracking the 12 eggs and adding (a lot of) cheese to the mixture for the carbonara.

Long ride home

You had come home after the bout of food poisoning. And while the initial plan was neither for us to travel to KL nor for you to come back during the 4-day Deepavali break, you requested to come back during this break. My guess is that you did not manage to eat all the Penang food to your heart's content that trip since you had not fully recovered by then. 

So the deal was that you'd be able to come back only if we were able to buy you an Aeroline bus ticket. By the time you'd asked to come back, the plane fare was way too expensive. But luck must have been on your side. There was ONE LAST seat available on the bus. Only thing is we had to sign up for the card (putting in a RM200 deposit into the card) and utilise the PAP (some sort of priority booking) to purchase this seat.

The days leading to your return trip, we kept reminding you to pack some snacks and food, knowing that you were such a big eater. 

You decided to leave your duffel bag at Denisse's place in the morning so that you did not need to make another trip back to the hostel, nor drag it all around the whole day with you. You even had lunch in Sunway Pyramid so that you could locate the new pickup point. 

When the time came, the bus was late. They informed you and in fact even called me (the booking was under my account) to inform of the 30 minutes delay.

At long last at 2 minutes pass 6, the bus departed. At that time you told us that the ETA per Waze was 11pm. Shortly after that you said "the dinner is SO SMALL". Oops.. then we found out that you had bought ONE bun for the ride back! Oh dear.. and we had reminded you so many times.. Ah well.. you'll have to learn the hard way then. You then mentioned that you had an energy bar with you to which daddy quickly told you to EAT LATER.. or else you'd be super hungry!

Traffic on the highway was horrendous, as expected. We waited and waited and in the end.. you only finally arrived at Queensbay at 12.45am! You had informed us that you were getting onto the second bridge and we got ready to go pick you. Daddy said that we'd be waiting for you at least 10 minutes, but I said that it's better for us to wait than for you to wait again (yala.. miss my son too ma...).

You spotted the car as the bus drove pass us to make a U-turn at the roundabout. 

We headed home for you to have a quick shower and then eat a bowl of the curry mee Ah Ma had cooked before going to sleep.

Return of Letchumi Ban

 We were trying to recall your "Indian" name. Found it in last year's post. This morning was a mad rush to tie up your hair into two braids (didn't do a good job though.. ). Reusing the same lehenga this year. Looks like we will need to get you a new one next year. It's getting shorter... 

Coincidentally I was also dressed up in my Indian costume as we were having a celebration in the office too:

Creative Writing

I'm so happy that we came across this program while browsing the Penang Science Cluster webpage. It's called "Pow Pow Earth". It's a free program run by a lady and her mother. She is based in the US. Every Sunday, you would wake up and quickly eat your breakfast in order to join the class. Every week, she will talk about nature, science and the environment. You will then have to write a short story relating to the learning for the day. 

This was the first one you shared with me.. I was amazed at your writing:

The learning was Jane Goodall

This was the hybrid car session:

I checked that the learning was about "Wangari Maathai", but I'm not sure what the coconut story and the Maldives are related to her. 

This is the latest from this week. The session was about the dam:

Longest Wait Ever!!

Today was supposed to be a photography session for the dancers participating in the year end event. Well, I had checked with the studio and they informed me that lessons will go on as usual up till the time to get ready for the session i.e. 3.40pm. Since you'd be having lessons first, it didn't make sense for me to put on the makeup for you in advance. 

Well, turned out that everyone wanted to have their makeup done by the teachers in school. On top of that, your group only started having their makeup done from 5pm! This resulted in a backlog... a very long and delayed backlog!

Daddy and I had gone grocery shopping and there was heavy traffic on the way there, and we'd thought that we were late. In the end, we waited another 1.5 hours before you were done with the photoshoot!

Here are some shots of our little Thai girl:

I had provided you with the makeup stuff and one of the request was for glittery brown/gold. Guess where we finally got that color from? Haha.. it was your toy makeup set. Ah well.. it was put to good use. Many of your friends used yours too. 

Luckily too we had a change of plans to have sandwiches for dinner at home. So when we got home, we prepared the ingredients while you took a shower. 

Children's Day - Mayura

For this year's celebration, you asked to have a Mayura costume. It's obviously not a very famous character. In fact, she is the second antagonist in the cartoon Miraculous Ladybug. 

So we worked to look for the parts to make your costume. We initially bought a piece of fabric with a peacock tail, but could not make it work. So did a little more Google-ing and found some DIY ideas. Luckily I ordered the felt and other materials earlier before we had to make the sudden trip to KL. 

Last weekend, we proceeded to cut and assemble the parts of the dress. We drew the outline of the 4 layers of felt, cut them up and hot glued them together and then I sewed the "feathers" onto the black dress:

We also found a brooch similar to what Mayura has to house her Kwami:

I'd also ordered a purple fan and orders some white and blue boa to be added to the costume. On top of that I also made the headpiece for you. 

The last part of the costume were the purple legging which stressed me out a lot as the online shop delayed in sending them out to us. In the end, it arrived just on time on Wednesday. 

Daddy's right.. I do enjoy making these costumes with you. *grin*

Here is what Mayura looks like:

And here is my little Mayura (sans the big split up the front of your dress!!) And as a last minute addition, you brought along your ballet character shoe to complete the costume.

I'm glad that the allergy did not stop you from attending the last of your Children's Day celebration in school. Hope that you had fun in school. Some of your friend's parents had share photos of them in their costume. So cute. 

Allergic Reaction

We picked you up from school yesterday as we were nearby, picking up daddy's car. Then after your shower when we returned home, you came to my room and whispered "Mummy.. I am moonface again.. ssshhh... don't tell daddy". So I opened the Tiger Balm and turned on the room light to have a better look and got a shock of my life.. it wasn't just on your chin, you had an allergy breakout on your chin area as well as your forehead. 

Later that evening, I realised that the rash had spread to the back of your body. Had to tell daddy and see what he thinks. He said to give you the antihistamine which Dr Mary had prescribed last time before we went to Perhentian. It was just half of the tiniest tablet. Took you a while to eat it, but certainly faster than the antibiotics!

This morning, you looked better and I gave you another half to eat.

In the evening, I received a missed call on Messenger and later saw this message:

We went home to discover your whole face was swollen. Called the hospital to check on the doctor available for night clinic as well as doctor on call in ER. Found that we wanted to see the doctor on call, so we ate dinner, showered then headed to the ER. Took a while before it was our turn to see Dr Khaw. 

He asked a few questions, checked your body and concluded that it was an allergic reaction as there were no blisters on your rash.. *phew*

He prescribed some medication, including something for what he deemed to be a prolonged sinusitis and then said that you should take a jab for the allergy. Then he left. The nurse came later to give you a jab which she said could be either given on the thigh or buttock. You opted to have it on your thigh. 

All done and then it was time to pay and wait a little for the nurse to come explain on how to take the medicines. 

Went home to give you the medicine (1 extra now on top of the antihistamine) which took a little longer and some scolding from daddy while I was in your room getting your clothes for school the next day. Then you went straight to sleep.

*By the way.. you cried when daddy said that you need not go to school tomorrow if your allergy did not clear.. It's Children's Day celebration and you were looking forward to the event

Evelyn goes ice-skating

At long last, you have your chance on the ice skating rink again. This time in Sunway Pyramid. You had spotted the rink when we came early this year, but had no opportunity to go. 

This trip, you were very good and patient with the changes in plans and today, we made sure to make it to the rink.

We left Denai Alam early this morning at 7.40am. After dropping Ko-ko off at college at 9am, we headed to Sunway Pyramid. As it was still early, we headed to the canopy walk to discover how the walk is for Ko-ko from college. Hey.. it was just a 5 minute walk. No wonder he hangs out here so often. 

We then went back where daddy paid for the two of you and off you went in to collect your skates and get onto the ice.  

Waiting for your skates

Slowly skating by holding the sides

I sat down in McDonald's for a drink before going for a walk around the mall. As it was early in the day and on a weekday, the mall was relatively quiet. 
Shortly after 11am, Ko-ko messaged me to say that he was done with the morning lessons. I told him to take a Grab over, but he opted to walk. He then went to have a look at you both skating before joining me at Zara. 

By then, daddy and you were done and we got ready to head over to Grand Imperial for lunch. As you were both already hungry, daddy ordered some items first while waiting for Ashley Kor-kor and Uncle Dennis to arrive. 

When they arrived, Kor-kor ordered more items and we ate and then headed back to Denai Alam. Ko-ko was too exhausted from the morning lessons and not well enough to attend the classes in the afternoon. 

We will be heading back to Penang tonight after dinner and dropping Ko-ko back to the hostel.

Jyuraku

This place is everyone's favourite when in KL. We did not plan to go anywhere fancy, but in the end, with your consent (you didn't want to go.. you said the toilets there weren't the cleanest) we went there for dinner to treat Ashley Kor-kor and Uncle Dennis for their help and caring for you up till the time we arrived in KL.

It was raining, so the traffic headed there was horrendous (it's relatively near for KL standard) . We ordered some nice Japanese food and even packed Garlic Chahan for you. 

Mei-mei pretending to eat the decorative flower

As it wasn't a planned dinner, by the time a booking was made, we only got the table/room upstairs. It was tatami dining. 

She wanted this photo of her so "tall" as she's near the lamp

Wednesday Change in Plans

The plan today was to go have a look at an available room in Nadayu since we're around and Ko-ko was still on sick leave. We took at look at that room, and another unit which was available for rent soon, then walked around to look at the facilities.

Then we headed to Sunway Pyramid to have lunch. We parked quite a distance and walked to Ma Maison. We could not decide whether to eat here or Din Tai Fung. In the end Ko-ko said that he's able to eat here (maybe he knew you have been wanting to eat here since the last trip).

But when the food came, he could barely touch the food.

My katsu

In the end, we had to abandon plans to go ice skating for you. We had initially planned for you and daddy to skate while I walked around with Ko-ko and he could Grab back to the hostel if he got too tired. 

But in the end, we had to abandon the plan and head back home after lunch. He was feeling nauseous and you were good about the change of plans.  Such a sweet girl 💖

Big Tofu

You sent an early morning message on Sunday (well, early by your standards) saying that you had diarrhea. Then we chatted and I suggested that you ordered Vietnamese Beef Noodles by delivery. You did that and then I headed out to Adventist Hospital to bring Mei-mei for her flu vaccine. 

Just as it was her turn to see Dr. Mary, you called me to say that you did not feel well and that you felt like you needed to vomit. And 5 seconds later, you vomited (while in the call with me). By then I was in Dr. Mary's room and so we hung up. A while later, you called to say that you felt much better. But I suggested that I'd ask Ashley Kor-kor to bring you to see a doctor. So I quickly called Kor-kor and she said that she'd do that. 

Luckily Kor-kor also asked you to bring a change of clothes so that you could stay over at her place. We were so torn on whether to immediately drive over to see you. When we called you, and daddy asked if you wanted us to go see you.. you hesitated a bit before saying that it's not necessary.

But you did not seem to be getting better, so on Sunday evening daddy slept early so that he'd be in a good condition to make the 3 hour drive to KL. 

We woke up to have breakfast, and after packing up, we headed out to Eaton to buy some ang koo kuih. Wanted to buy kuey tiau th'ng from 7th street market, but decided against that when we saw the traffic heading towards town. 

Instead, we went back home to pick up the container and asked Chim Poh if she could buy "kai si hor fun" instead. She managed to, so we made a quick detour to Ipoh to pick up the noodles. We reached Kor-kor's house at 12.30pm, just on time for lunch. My heart broke to see how weak you were. 

You ate some of the noodles and slept most of the night. Then you had fever and in the evening, we brought you to a nearby clinic to see the doctor. He worried that it may be dengue so he did a blood test which turned out negative. Got MC for another 2 days and headed home. Took 3 hours to eat up 1/2 bowl of noodles. 

I slept in the room with you. At 3am, you were in pain.. in fact, I am not even very sure of when you started writhing (silently) in pain. Got you up to go to the toilet again and then gave you your medicines (including Paracetamol as the fever was back again). You seemed to be ok and managed to continue sleeping until today.

Well so far, you seem to be getting better and having a much better appetite. We've gone to your hostel to clear away the food, including the noodles you'd left in the room since Sunday (which messed up your table!!) and also brought back your clothes and bedsheet to wash in Kor-kor's place too. 

Hopefully you'll get better soon, our little tofu.

Return of the VainPot

Just a weekend, but you decided to paint your nail.. and even draw cherries.. not too bad for a first timer... 

Halloween is in the air

And in the supermarkets.. here is a giant pumpkin for sale in Jaya Grocer.