Making Money Online

I thought I won't be having more chance to blog for money after resigning from my full-time job. The reason? Very simple - no access to Internet at home! But thinking twice about making money online, I simply can't resist not to do anything if there is slight chance given. Therefore I took up the courage and sign up with bloggerwave.

Next, I think I shall try to discuss the money-making plan with my hubby and seek for his approval to have 24 hours online access from home. Some IT gadget that I will need including a laptop, modem, router, ... I think I need to find out as soon as possible. Of course before I'm able to start spending money earn from paid post, I think I need to save enough to get the necessities tools to start my plan at home. So bloggers, I'm in with bloggerwave what about you?

Last Day!

Yup... today is my last day in corporate world. How do I feel? To be frank, I'm happy and relieve that I can leave finally. Perhaps I'm not in a good company... staying there for 5 years with no performance reviews (hence no increment), no bonus, ...Yes, you READ me?? I never know we will receive bonus working for a company after 2 years I joined in!!!... no career path, etc... Basically I just work for money. Feel wasted for my knowledge and time but now it's all over.

People always asked why I stay on? Well, I always have hope towards the company but the greater the hope the greater the disappointment. The most terrible thing that I received from management is "You don't contribute because you have no projects on hand!" Hello... how would you expect someone who do procurement, someone who do customer support, someone who do company's inventory control, someone who take care of financial have certain projects with customers? What excuse is this??? I just feel unfair to those supporting staff in this company as I already knew it's very hard for them to get increment. Shall I psycho them to leave as well... *evil grin*

Alright, no more complaining and it's not good to talk bad behind, huh? But this is reality! I hope you won't feel so bad about your current company as I hardly can find any company like mine... so be grateful! Hahaha...

Chinese New Year 2008 - Part 1

This is a backdated post.

On the first day of CNY, En En woke up quite late and later after bath, mummy changed En En into a dress and clipped her hair with cute hair clips. She is not very well-behaved especially there were visitors and relatives in the house. En En dragged her blue chair from living hall to dining area making those squeaky sound and it was very irritated. The more we asked her to stop, she protested to do it repeatedly.

Mummy baked moist chocolate cake on CNY eve. After almost 3 years never touch the baking utensils... but the baking "product" was surprisingly impressive! Yummy!

All set and ready to be served... but wait... moist chocolate cake need to be chilled overnight in order to be more tasty. Cutting the cake is not an easy job though, some tips from MIL is to use a knife that is rubbed with a little butter and repeat rubbing after a few cut. Or alternatively, clean the knife frequently. This is to ensure that the edging of the cake maintain its smoothness (of the looks!). Don't believe me? Next time when you order a few pieces of cake from Secret Recipe, observe how they cut on the cake.

At the evening of the first day of CNY, En En still insist to go kai-kai. Well, we brought her to Gurney Drive and have a walk there. As long as she's able to enjoy the seaview, the boat and the bird, she's one happy baby!

1 year old blog!

Search back the history on when this blog is started and it's last year's TODAY! Was worry whether I could blog continuously back then but what worry me today is why there's so less of opp to grab lately?? Muahahaha... never think that I will blog for money as well... this is life that full of unpredictable incidents on countless sun rises and sun sets...

Time flies and Happy 1st Anniversary to Awaken Spring!

TAG: Let's Play Domino

Slavemom sent this to me yesterday. Now only I know this is Domino... :)

Rule: Copy the entire list and add your name at the bottom. And tag at least 5 friends. (But you can tag as many as you like.)

Thea is {bloggerhappy.com}, Childstar, Mike, My Scrappy side, AbieAggie, Alpha, Apple, Apols, Jacqui. Jane, Jody, Joy,Kelly, Mich, Peachy, Jenny, Nyumix, Rose, Agnes, Hazel, Lovelymummy, Slavemom, Peridot&Sapphire

You are next: Hui Sia, Peter, Sandra, Christine, Miranda

Awards!

These are given by Jo-N. Thank you for the lovely awards.

Forever Friends Award

Always in My Heart Award

Thank you very much, Jo-N. I'm passing this to all my blogger friends too.

Potty Train? Not now...

Yes, the culprit that hold back potty-training for En En is constipation. Even till today she's not willing to tell us when she wants to do big business simply because she's afraid of the painful feeling... As a result, En En keeps her bowel movement moment as long as she can and we have no choice to give her medicine for softening the stools every alternate day.

Been giving her "cheap" formula milk for almost a month now. Her stool no longer hard as rocks but we believe it's her habitual way to keep the stools in her tummy until she finally decides to let go. Such a weirdo baby... She was previously taking Gain Plus but now change to Nespray 1+ (yeah... ease on mummy's pocket too, LOL!) and there is a different of her "output" as well. Even she doesn't have bowel movement for 2 days, by the time she does her business there is no more hard stools and bleeding. That's a blessing! Hopefully, she will outgrown the fear for the red potty soon...

Latest music lesson with En En

Even wonder how to teach young toddler to differentiate loud vs soft sounds? Mummy really think hard about this but bear in mind that young ones are interested in actions and sounds... in other words it must be interesting to them.

So, take lion as an example, Mummy told En En lion papa is very fierce (just like her daddy) and roars the loudest. Therefore, mummy leads En En hands to press on the left side of the piano which sounds the loudest... just let her presses to get the most loudest sounds produced from the piano. Then at the middle is the lion mummy (to make sure she can differentiate) and lion baby's sound will be the soft one, at the right most of the piano. When mummy was leading En En to press on the keyboards, not forgetting to imitate the sound of lion's roaring in Loud,Medium and Soft. En En was very happy to notify the differences and is able to tell "lion papa" is on the left side and "lion baby" on the right side. Sounds cool, huh?

Right now, she will point to the piano and said "I-yen papa" and wants to press on the keyboard. She got it right BUT lately she introduced in "I-yen Ah Mah", "I-yen Ah Kong"! *slap forehead*

Posting about CNY?

In fact, mummy got a few post about CNY to share but busy... or maybe lazy to sort out the photos and blog. Need to get daddy's laptop to download the pics... oh yes, they are not yet downloaded and that's why.... Mummy went to sleep early these few days and feel much more better with no blog hop or blog update in wee hours at midnight... LOL! Simply love this feeling - to sleep as much as possible and the time when En En sleeps (or not yet? No idea...) mummy already zzz...

Knitting is getting into mummy's head everyday now as Ah Mah is leaving mummy to sort out all the wrong stitches all alone and that really makes the mind thinking hard. Don't ever think that knitting is a simple job, it's not! Nightmares haunt mummy when there's no solution to overcome the wrong stitches. That's why mummy's knitting garments takes so long to complete. *Sigh* NO pain no gain, practice makes perfect,... ok, still got to hang on... By the way, did you know knitting in other hands train your patient?

Well, got to really sort out some pic and update some backdated post on CNY later... ciao!

No production for scrapbooking

It's 2008 now and I can't believe I never scrap any Layout (LO) since the beginning of the year. I really miss scrapbooking and I wish I can finish using all the pattern papers and cute stickers /embellishments that I have in my stash.

Hubby and I are hooked on movies lately. We watched LOTR extended version almost every alternate night after En En went to bed, be it after 10.30pm or 11.30pm... I should use the time for doing some scrapping but just too lazy now. I'm crazy over knitting and I never stop practicing everyday even it's just a 15 minutes slot per day... so determine (this is when I'm really in the mood!) Obviously I'm not in the mood to scrap even there's only 4-5 pages to complete En En's mini album.

Hopefully I'm able to come out with something for this coming weekend. Finger crossed!

My New Hang-out place!

I found new things to do ... in the laundry area!

Hmm... how to operate this washing machine? I always saw kakak using this to wash clothes... Make sure the door close tight tight...

Then, push some buttons...

Suddenly mummy asked me whether I wear shoes or not coz the floor is wet and slippery. So I double checked...

Yes... I'm one obedient girl.... shoes - checked! Pardon for my big tummy but this is my view from top...

I think I'm done now. I want to find my Pooh Pooh bear... coz I'm afraid kakak will throw Pooh Pooh into the water and it needs help! "( in fact, we soak the plush toy for wash but En En thought Pooh Pooh is drowning, LOL!)

Sleeping Habits or Pattern?

En En lately prefers Ah Mah to bring her to bed at night. She will screams "Mamie, bu yao!" whenever I try to go upstairs with them. She will push me away and enjoy Ah Mah as her companion besides her Pooh bear. Pity mummy...

She requests to sleep in the bouncer and also Ah Mah to do the swinging and story-telling session of Minnie the Pooh and friends. She will stay awake for another 1-2 hours in the bedroom before she sleeps. She will play and read her books before bed even she's getting tired. She will never compromise to go to bed after milk, after story-telling, after enough playing,... we couldn't force her anymore, scolding is not effective too. En En will decide when she is willing to sleep.

Last night mummy tried to accompany her into the bedroom. She's playing with her wooden cutting toys and pull out Winnie the Pooh's story book... she was busy with her activities and never call Ah Mah or mummy. Mummy was able to read some knitting books and started to cast on with En En occupied with her own stuff. Then, she's bored and yawning... she remembered grandma shouted once for Ah Mah. Mummy quickly offer to tell her the Pooh and friends story from her book. She laid on the bed with mummy till the end of the story and asked mummy to repeat again! *roll eyes* Ah Mah will repeat for her about 3-4 times but mummy is not so patient... hehehe...

Wanna know what I told her? "Quickly go to bed with pooh pooh then you'll meet with Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet and Baby Roo..." En En nodded her head and quickly crawled to her bouncer. She didn't sleep immediately and kept on waking and asked for the story again. Mummy told her to bring pooh pooh and sleep together so that they can meet with other Pooh's friends. She finally requested that she wanted to sleep on the bed. Within a few minutes, she's off the her dreamland with Pooh bear!

I wonder whether children love bedtime story? En En is one that wants you to repeat again and again... if I didn't tell her she will meet Pooh bear's friends if she goes to bed I don't think she's willing to shut her eyes so soon. Parents are trained to be creative when they have children around, isn't it?

Terrible Nightmares?

Mummy and daddy couldn't have good night sleep during our break for Chinese New Year and even now after we were back to work. En En did it again this morning around 2.30a.m and 6a.m. She was crying hysterically, screaming out loud especially if mummy tried to put her down to bed or bouncer after comforting her. Worst still, she was pointing at the bedroom door with the eyes shut and we wonder how she knows the door's direction? There were a few times we have to wake her as she won't stop crying if mummy never stand up and walk around after carrying her. She requested us to go out from the room! As if she wants to go kai-kai.

Sometimes, it works after comforting her with a little rocking in mummy's arms and she also requested mummy to swing her after putting her down at the bouncer. So, welcome back the use of bouncer again. Arrgh... Even during daytime, En En is now turning into one little fussy, noisy and cranky monster as she will just throw anything on hands when she's playing alone and scream out loud of a sudden.

Is it nightmares during sleep? Too many outings and people to meet during this festive season? Overstimulated?

Favourite activity for Chinese New Year

Guess what is that? I know many families was having gathering for Chinese New Year and also another favorite activity for anyone during the gathering regardless of age. It's gambling session! My family and my in-law's family seldom have this activity unless there are friends and relative come back from outstation and overseas. I think this is the tradition and culture in Chinese society as I still remember when I was a little girl I used to see my grandparent, granduncles and aunties will sit around the table to play blackjack. That's the moment I know we were having relatives from far away visiting us for celebrating Chinese New Year together.

These days most of the relative and friends are working across states or countries. We don't really meet every year for Chinese New Year celebration. I even heard of one of my cousin brother who's working in California, US plays poker through online casino. He is the frequent poker champion when playing with us back here before he moved overseas. Seems like all his Chinese house mates went home to celebrate this festive season but he got to stay back due to his work requirement. He even recommended us about this online casino whereby we can find the best review for various online casino and he is having great fun without us for this Chinese New year too!

Clingy again!

En En cling to mummy early this morning after having a nightmare and refuse to let mummy went anywhere without her. She yelled at anyone came near giving the message that never think to carry her away from mummy. Mummy is happy that she stick like a glue now but today mummy still need to go to work.

Nevertheless, mummy is late for work and En En unwillingly wave goodbye to mummy after she failed in trying to ask mummy to carry her to work together. Lately, she prefers mummy to carry her more... this is the result of one week spent with her for 24/7 even mummy overslept at midnight and during her nap time too. Hehehe...

Tag: Want to know what I love and hate?

This is a long due tag from Denna. Just realized this morning... sorry :)

1) I love to eat: hot and spicy + a tiny bit of soury food! TomYam is always yummy to me; never reject any types of curry puffs and of course chinese dishes.

2) I hate to eat: durian, everything meat meat meat... and cheese, chesse, cheese

1) I love to go on: vacation by the beach with family

2) I hate to go on: trip with people who prefer to sleep in the hotel or not adventurous at all

1) I love it when: it's a cozy and lazy afternoon to do some baking and reading in my own pace

2) I hate it when: everything's is so rushing and pushing

1) I love to see: peace and justice, serene of the sea, winding road in countryside, smiling face

2) I hate to see: cruel side of human being and politic

1) I love to hear: nature is singing, babies is laughing

2) I hate to hear: the sound from TV that's on for almost whole day and I'm living in such environment with no complain can be made.

Not passing this tag.

Funny Faces

She is just too funny...

The funnniest one...

"Ohh... ooo... oooo..."

Honey, where is my glasses?

Hubby and I both wear eye glasses. His eyesight is more serious than mine, he will go almost half blind without the glasses. Due to this, he hardly can go anywhere without his glasses. It will be very risky if he goes for the LASIK surgery. Therefore, he decided to stick with his old frame.

There had been quite a few times his glasses was damage while he was playing sports or worse still was pulled by our little princess when she was younger. As a result, we had misalign frame and loosen handle due to tiny screw came off just like that. I was surprise when I read about Great Discovery: Zenni Optical $8 Glasses! Wow! That's a very great deal. Those are very stylish prescription glasses with so many types of frames and lenses to choose from. I'm going to tell hubby about this great deal!

Gong Xi Fa Cai

En En with Gong Gong

Wishing you & your family a Happy & Prosperous Chinese New Year!!!

Why so difficult?

Recently En En becomes a very difficult to handle toddler... how?

- refuse to nap
- refuse to sleep even it's already after 11pm
- back to sleeping on her bouncer at night (extra work for us to swing her... arrgh...)
- throw tantrum and cry out loud in order to get what she wants
- still refuse potty and do her big business behind the door or anywhere out of our sight *slap forehead*
- refuse to tell us when she wants to pee even she knows it
- refuse to take bath
- refuse to get out from the shower room if we manage to bath her
- refuse to put on her clothes and diaper after bath
- refuse to change diaper no matter what (so, we have to lock her hands and legs or bribe her with new things such as mummy's camera... it's risky though)
- refuse to taste new food
- refuse to finish all her biscuit or piece of fruit and will force us to swallow hers by pushing into our mouth
- refuse to take water

Why? Why? Why?

Dress and Skirt

Nope, Mummy never got any new dresses and skirts and these are En En's new collection for the Chinese New Year. Except the blue dress that mummy bought, the rest are either from Ah Mah or Po Po. En En is so lucky!

This is the first time En En has all the new dresses... last year she has more blouse and pants simply because she was "botak" very little hair and didn't look nice in a dress. So this year En En is going to loook more feminine than mummy liao!

Blog and Traffic

Do you ever wonder why your blog never get approved after your apply with PPP even your blog is more than 90 days? The next concern to look into most probably is the traffic from your blog. This is even true for those bloggers who blog for money, they will need traffic to increase their page rank and indirectly will have more opportunity to write paid post.

Basically, I don't realized the impact of the traffic and never think about my blog has any traffic. Then, I found Buzzfuse and it can actually help in promoting our blog and increase the traffic to allow our blog to be more visible in the blogsphere. Buzzfuse not only accept post but it accepts videos, photos, and even songs in which will help to promote your site to audience. Hence, you will have more visitors dropping by your blog and therefore more traffic!

Signing up with Buzzfuse is free and they also offer premium account with even more features. Well, I'm going to sign up and create more traffic to my blog now! What about you?

I love...

Today I feel like wanted to voice up something so I asked mummy to help me blog and let aunties know whether I'm clever girl or not.

I love to eat "kiam hu" "(salted fish crackers) and "bak hu" (homemade meat floss) that Ah Mah made. I can just take as many "kiam hu" as I can if I request from Ah Mah, Mummy and Ah Kong but they always limit me and worst still hide the bottle that keep "kiam hu" away from my Sight! I can't help it but it really taste so munchy and crunchy... hmm... I wish when I grow older and taller I will take the bottle and keep for myself inside my shirt!

I love to have/play with "bak hu" when I'm having my porridge. I prefer to ask daddy to bring the "bak hu" to me. Whenever they suggested "bak hu" that's the time when I don't tolerate to take porridge. So, I will quickly said "papa! papa na (means daddy take in mandarin)" Then, I will slowly use my finger to nibble and put into my mouth bit by bit or pour them out from the saucer and mess on the "table" of my walker. Ah Mah said must put me into the walker when it's feeding time otherwise I might run away in the middle of my meal. I also don't know how and when... I was busy playing with "bak hu" my porridge already finish and I also feel not so comfortable on my throat and requested to take half bowl of the soup.

Basically, that's my feeding time and the usage of "bak hu" but now I don't really like to eat "bak hu". I still love to play with them. *Cheeky grin* The new activity I love now is talk to myself and pen-down afew things from my thought...

See? I can hold the pen very well now and Ah Mah said I'm holding pen in a correct way now!

Getting a laptop

As I blog until today, will you believe that I still haven't own a personal laptop? I wish I can get myself a laptop for the ease to access Internet in the middle of the night... haha! Yes, that's the only undisturbed time I have for blogging. At the moment I still need to borrow hubby's laptop and wake up in the wee hours at night to do blog hop!

Lately, one of my friend can't wait and quickly bought himself a brand new Dell laptop just because of his new found love - blogging. He only graduated last year and started working less than 3 months! I was shocked and wonder how he got enough money to buy the laptop. After approaching him, we finally realized he used cash advance offer from the bank! No wonder suddenly he can afford on so many IT gadgets. He's going to get a new Apple classic iPod soon. I wonder whether he's able to pay back the debt later?

Happy to see her face!

Mummy feels recharge and happy whenever our little cheeky princess is around. She will show us her funny faces, imitate everything we said and give you funny faces when she is asked to show us. Sometimes, she won't tolerate and ask you to back-off with very irritating and fierce face and screams "Bu Yao!!!" She doesn't like kakak (our maid) and thus everytime seeing kakak she will screams "Tak mau... tak mau..." and use her hands to push in the air as if kakak is trying to touch her.

She is the little energizer at home. She is not only active, talkative and energectic... most importantly, she lights up our life!

What!!!??? Quit Job?

If you are a full time working mum, I'm sure everyone will stare at you like an alien if you mention you want to quit job and stay at home. Some people may claim that it's not wise to quit job in when you are young because you won't know what's the future will be. Single income family is not that popular in these days unless daddy or mummy earns alot. I do have a relative who is a mummy in managerial position while the husband is taking care of the family and not working. Cool huh? I don't think there is something wrong with the family... it's just our society will see it differently.

Well, especially those mummies who went for tertiary education, was having very good pay job and suddenly decided to quit. What did your family members say? I think they can voice up their concern and worry to you but the most important person that stand by you must be your husband, isn't it? Please share with me.

I have a complicated feeling when thinking about my not-so-good full time job that leads me to nowhere even after another 5 years and miss time spend with my child. I'm not a good mother as I don't know how to balance well about what I'm looking for in my career life versus my family. I feel miserable loosing my technical skills days by days and doing don't know what the heck in my job until I feel like I'm just a clerk! After much thought over this issue, I decided to put a stop here.

MIL was a full time teacher when she was young and she treasure family times with her children. Time was a challenge for her back then and she shared with me those moments she missed with her children. On the other hand, my mum who's a full time SAHM and later became WAHM wishes that I can earn my own money and be independant so that can send my children to daycare. Haha... can you see the conflict here?

Well, the decision is on my own hands and only I will decide what I want for my life. Afterall, there are even lots of things to learn in the house, isn't it? To name a few, cooking and baking which I long to but never start on anything yet; more time spend with the little one,... and if possible I might become PTWM.

Conclusion, it's not the end of the world if you don't work. It's another turning curve in life whereby you may not know what's the challenge ahead.

I signed up!

From day one I start to blog I was puzzled when the blogsphere is talking about PPP. Huh? What's that? Later I found out it's PayPerPost. What? Yes, it's the hot topic every blogger is talking about whereby blogger will get paid to blog.

I was wondering and reading all about this new opportunity that offer to blogger with much hesitation as I'm not so sure how to do it. First, I found it stressful to write paid post as I had heard there are time frame for you to complete a task to submit. Secondly, it's quite challenging as I need to squeeze my brain juice to come out with my own words or reviews about a particular item or topic... I got even more stressful when I think about this. Next, I think I'm not prepare to take up this new role even it promises some lucrative rewards later. Therefore, I was holding this idea until recently... well it's almost 9 months before I really decided to blog for money. Basically, this is how I feel about get paid to blog but once after you see the money deposited into your account, you will get more motivated and determined to snatch every opportunity that comes across! Trust me... haha!

After getting some advise and guides from experience blogger mummies, I finally signed up to kick start with blogging for money. Yes, it was tough at the beginning but when I get the hang of it, everything goes smoothly without any notice. I guess the first step is very important. If you never step out you won't know what will happen next.

You know I love scrapbooking and cloth diapering and it is quite expensive to buy imported items. Especially some specialty scrapbooking supplies which is uneasy to find in our local scrapbooking stores. Even if we do get it here, they are very expensive compare buying from overseas. Besides, I'm also planning to get a few pairs of wool longies with my money earn from the paid post. Therefore, most probably I'll use the money for online purchase. What will you do with the money you get from blogging?

So my friend, if you are reading this post, I think you also will be tempted to try out your luck in get paid to blog, aren't you? Hurry up, come and sign up today and start to see money rolling into your account!!!

TAG: Big Bang World Record

I was invited by Jo-N and Slavemom to this world record links.

We are challenge you, everyone, to participate this "Big Bang - World Record". Our goal is to exceed 1.000 links. Together will be reach that goal. Just make sure you follow the rules. Have fun!

*Start Copy Here*

1. You do not have to be tagged to play along. This game is simple and so are the rules.Copy from *Start Copy Here* through *End Copy Here*2. Add your site(s) to the list. Just be sure to post at each site you add.3. Tag or don’t tag, your choice, however, the more tags you create the bigger the list will grow.4. Let me know your blog’s name and url by leaving me a comment HERE. I will add you to the master list. (If you would like the scroll box code, leave me your email address and I will email it to you.)5. Come back and copy the master list back to your site, often. This process will allow late-comers to get as much link benefit as the first ones in.

1-Attitude, the Ultimate Power 2-Juliana's Site 3-Rusin Roundup 4-Grow Rich Along With Me 5-Comedy Plus 6-lynda's loft 7-Amel's Realm 8-MAX 9-Speedcat Hollydale 10-Mariuca 11-Complain Complain Complain 12-Mariuca's Perfume Gallery 13-Life Is A Roller Coaster 14-Sugar Queen's Dream 15-First Time Dad 16-Life 17-My Life 18-The Painted Veil 19-My Thoughts 20-DatCurious.com 21-Little Aussie Cynic 22-A Nice Place in the Sun 23-DatMoney.com 24-LadyJava's Lounge 25-Cat Tales 26-The Callalily Space 27- Hazel 28- Rooms of My Heart 29-Slavery Bliss 30-Shower Your Children With Love-The Right Way 31-It's All About Play 32- AwakenSpring

*End Copy Here*

wish that you can join us too:

Anna, Chanel, Christene, Christine, Denna, Healy, Chew Lee, Peter, Shooi

Inseparable Cute Duo

What happen to me today?

I was very late to office today with my mind full of the plan on what to do after I reached office. En En woke up in the middle of the night and I got to entertain her till almost 5am, then went back to sleep coz feel very tired to wake up early today.

Initially, I planned to go to bank to withdraw money and go to mainland to collect components from supplier but before that need to call up supplier to confirm their location. Then, after I login searching for supplier's details and my other hands was actually looking for my car key, wait a minute... how come there's no key in my bag as I remember I never put it on table yet and... I think I didn't have it in my hands when I came out from the car!!!

Went down to the car park and it's confirm my key was still hanging inside the car which didn't use remote to lock. I locked it by hands la.... Duh! Luckily my colleagues are kind enough to help me get it out from the car. Ha! They are Mr.Utility in my office, from broken high-heels to mechanical problem... you name it, they are very hands on. They can fix almost anything and I really respect them.

Bad thing is the car door for the front passenger cannot be opened after the incident probably due to the way they "open" the door to retrieve the key. Well, never mind at least I can drive home later.

Next, I checked on my Touch N Go... arrgh! I left it at home! If I have it I can travel back paying the Penang Brigde toll only RM5.60. Without one I need to pay RM7.00. Call me stingy, I just don't want to pay extra so I have to get it at home. Ended up I didn't go to collect goods from supplier.

Why suddenly I become so forgetful? Motherhood did change alot of things huh?

You like pants?

I was stunned when one of my 5 years old student, Cecilia said this to me:

Cecilia: Teacher you like pants so much ah?
Me : Huh? What made you think so?
Cecilia: I never see you wear skirt or dress.
Me : Oh... yes. Pants is more comfortable. I know that you like dresses very much.
Cecilia: Yes la... dress is so pretty why don't want to wear?
Me : *speechless*
Cecilia: Next time you wear for me to see, OK?

Why? I also don't know why. I realized 95% of my working outfits are blouse and pants and I hardly have any dresses or skirts. Ever since En En is here, I never wear skirt. I might be getting some dresses and skirts for this Chinese New Year.

A Mother without weekend

Mummy miss lots of family occassions and activities for being a mom without a weekend. I work half day on Saturday and full day on Sunday as a part time music teacher. So the time Mummy has for my little girl is - Saturday after 1.30pm and Sunday before 10a.m.

As she grows older, mummy realized there must be some change to overcome this situation. Mummy hopes to spend more time for her as mummy already missed all the Sunday for the previous year. Suddenly feel like money is not everything and how many 3 years that we'll have to watch our little one grow up? Daddy is the one who doesn't want to miss the growing years of his baby even he was requested to work overseas for 3, 6 months and 1 year but he turned down them all. Mummy really salute daddy being so caring for the family.

Well it's true that when you are away too long from the little one the bonding will not be so strong. En En only will cling to mummy when she's sick and time for kai-kai. Other than that, she will tell mummy "Ma-miee... bu yao!" (mummy... don't want!) So heartache eh... The horrible part is she now calls Ah Mah as mamiee (since Ah Mah look after En En most of the time) and Mummy as Ah Mah *roll eyes* ... Identity switched! Mummy needs to work out something now...

p/s: When Po Po is here, En En only wants po po to do everything for her and by then she will says "Ah Mah, bu yao! Mamiee, bu yao!" I wonder what's my mum's tactics?

To the beach!

En En was so excited when we brought her to the beach in Batu Ferringhi last weekend. She screamed of excitement and laughed non-stop when she saw the sea while we were getting nearer to the beach. She loves the view of the sea, the boats and the birds.

Weird enough, she refused to step down to the beach and asked us to carry her while she's exploring the new view. She kept on saying "pom... pom..." - swimming in the sea while pointing to the sea! Unfortunately this little one is quite timid and never ask us to let her play the water. She's scared!

Before we went back, she finally agreed to step down to the beach but never move her step. *roll eyes* Stood there still for mummy to snap, snap!



Dear beach, we are going to pay you more visit from now on...

New stash of cloth diapers again...

So colourful, aren't they?

This time En En become the inspector for QA! Haha...

Moment that we enjoy...

It's gonna be time for ICE-CREAM! Three of us, with daddy being the super fan... just love the chocolate-top cone sundae from McD even En En also will scream for it if she sees us with one in hand. She can't really finish the whole cone by herself and mummy will be the one who helps her to finish up 70%, otherwise the ice-cream turn into liquid very fast with En En's super slow and careful bit-by-bit-lick. She is sure enjoying it very much... Slurp~! Slurp~!

We found out we are only fond of the chocolate-top sundae even there are so many types of icre-cream available from McD such as the McFluffy, the new Sundae Twist,... then later only mummy knows the chocolate used is from Cadbury. No wonder the chocolate taste different from the sundae in cup!

Yesterday daddy and mummy passed by McD and can't help to get another 2 cones and enjotying them in the car before go home! Really sick with McD cone sundae... Great ice-cream doesn't necessary to be Haagen Daz or Baskin Robbins, isn't it?

I want to write!

Today En En's cousin sister, Jia Yin jie jie was here. She was doing her homework while En En can't wait to play with her. Then, jie jie gave En En a piece of paper and a pen.


En En was excited as she would love to follow what jie jie was doing and decided to do some writing. So, she asked mummy to bring her to the table and asked to be seated in our chair which is a bit low for her to reach the table. Then mummy helped to make the chair higher and here you go:

En En sat there for at least 20 minutes before asking us to bring her down from the higher chair. She still hopes that jie jie already finish her homework and she can't wait to sit on jie jie's laps. Unfortunately, jie jie as a Form 1 student still have lots of homework to finish. Mummy asked En En to go back to her place and write again and she did. So clever today...

This is the scribbled piece of "artwork" from En En...

New Wooden Toy

En En has one new toy set since yesterday and she's happily playing with them. These are very interesting piece made from wood and little one will be learning to use a knife (wooden too) to cut, cut!

See how En En practise her cutting skill...

You will hear "shack! shack!" sound when the fruits are being cut... it has very strong Velcro in it to attach together...

UP CLOSE:

Sweat no more!

Do you feel stressful and anxious when you realized you haven't pay your credit cards bill or never settle your home loan yet? I do and this is the reason why I refuse to use credit card even the bank offers various type of reward programs. In fact, it is very tempting but when I think about the debt or credits that will snowball if not handle properly in using the credit card, I pull myself back.

We heard very often about once you have a bad credit, it will be very difficult to apply for other new credit cards or even getting a loan. Sounds terrible, right? But if you apply for bad credit loans, this is not a big deal anymore. We do miss out in our financial planning from time to time but actually we still can look for advise from finanacial planner and carry on with rebudgeting or planning to settle off those bad credit. The key to avoid bad debt is no other than never drag the payment and try our best to pay on time.

So, what happen if you are really having a bad credits and wish to get a new financial aid now? Perhaps you can explore at bad credit loans and I'm sure they will help you to find you a solution to overcome your problem.

20 months old!

Whoa... so fast En En reached 20 months already. Another 4 months to go and she will be 2 years old. My baby is a big girl already and she speaks very well now even sometimes she will babbling on her own when she's angry or irritated. This time mummy is going to blog a quick update about our little girl.

Vital:

Height: Forgot to measure
Weight: 10.7kg - dropped from 11.2kg due to recent sickness
Teeth : Unable to count but her upper and lower molar teeth all out! At least 16 or more??

Diet:
- Refuse totally on plain water and it's getting harder to make her drink water
- Feel grateful as she is very interested to drink soup everyday from breakfast till supper!
- Daily meal including oatmeal for breakfast (never refuse since she's 6 months old), porridge or porridge mix with 1 Tablespoon rice cook with fish or meat or both. Must serve with hot soup!
- She's not keen in chewing food, evrything goes into her mouth she swallows it directly. That's the reason we hardly ccan change porridge into rice yet. But weird enough she chews very good on biscuit or fried salted fish crackers but not rice.
- A big fan of ice-cream! She will throw tantrum if we refuse to give her the ice-cream with cone once she sees it!
- Refuse Pedia Sure milk due to the sweetness and back on Gain Plus. Take 6oz for 2-3 times daily.
- Interested to taste different food and will ask us to include her on the dining table whenever she sees us having meal even she already had hers.
- Still in love with yoghurt drinks and she thinks yoghurt is ice-cream as she will ask for more.
- Loves cold drinks.

Vocab:
Too many until lost count, she can speaks simple words with us and understand whatever we told her.

Development:
1) En En is able to imitate every words that we said and she will repeat it again in front of us.

2) She will giggle and laugh when we talk about her funny actions that she did among ourselves even she was playing and seems not concentrating with adult's conversation. She listens to every single words that we said and this cheeky girl always alert at anytime! So better be careful about what we said with her existence.

3) She's able to use spoon to feed herself well but still make a mess if she's trying to scoop the soup out from the bowl.

4) She loves to take her soup from a bowl and will act like the old chinese that drink directly from the bowl without any spoon.

5) We will need to hide stuff/ food or anything that we don't wish her to take/consume when she's not aware. Once she knows where we place them she will lead you there and ask you to take for her even she just saw it once. She has very good observation and memory.

6) She will trick us to get what she wants. Firstly, she will manja with you and pretending to ask you go to the kitchen but when you pass the staircase, she will points and scream to go up. Our little navigator won't give up easily if her desire never meet. She will make noise and fuss until you have to negotiate with her. Forget about sweets, that's a turn off for her.

7) En En starts to scribble on paper with colour pencil but she is still learning to hold the pencil properly even she can scribble something out. We are not giving her real pen to write but she prefers pen over pencil.

8) Able to understand when we reason with her why this can or that cannot. She is also able to understand instructions when we ask her to bring her nappy to the laundry basket, put back her pacifier on the table, take the bottle from the table, bring mummy a pillow and so on...

9) Able to take off unbuttoned blouse on her own.

10) Able to wear her shoes properly and mostly she wear the shoes left and right correctly.

11) Feels shy when she's topless or without a diaper... she will quickly ask to cover up but will say shy shy and laugh at anyone of us who go topless or reveal some bare skin in front of her.

12) Joking around with us about "nen nen" (boobies) and she said mummy has, Ah Mah has, papa has,... everyone have including En En too! She then comes close to mummy in order to pull up mummy's shirt for a peek! Naughty girl!!!

Time is not enough...

When you do internet surfing... ahem... not exactly. It's when you are decided to do online purchase and can't get yourself stop at comparing prices and the products from different merchants...

When you made mistake in knitting after nearly completed the garment then only realized you have to undo everything and start from the beginning...

When you have a toddler who needs your attention around the clock if she's not napping or go to bed earlier at night...

When the kid needs you to bring her here and there and asking you to carry her all the time and won't stop telling you she wants this and that but ended up it's not her main purpose and get cranky since she's not been satisfied...

When you realized you have loads of work to complete in the office and yet you still wants to save the time for blogging....

WHAT A DAY!

Our typical chinese baby

Eventhough there is Portugese blood runs in the family (daddy's side) and En En is the 5th generations... coming to the end already...



Why is it so? Recently En En take at least 3-4 bowls of soup per day, take salty fish and love it to every bite, a fan for chinese tea, main meal is porridge and rice, pick salty crackers over sweet one ... last but not least, she speaks Mandarin very well now. She is able to pick up every words that we teach or told her and use it back on us...?!!



The only obvious fact is she's not made in China! LOL....

A task that's still new and interesting for En En

See the happy face?

What do you think about casino?

Money? Gambling? Genting Highlands? Men in tuxedo and ladies in sexy evening wear? That's from James Bond movie series. Well, in Genting Highlands we have uncles in batik shirt and lots of aunties too... Don't get me wrong, I do not know how to play poker and not even know much about gamble. I just don't have the luck to play in casino. So, call me an idiot on this.

But do you know in order to play well in the casino you need to have very good calculation besides luck? Yes, I mean lots of mathematics and how many of you ever think that gambling is another method to train our brain to think faster and perform quick calculation? At least I think so and I do learn to play mahjung with my husband and my parent in law when I was pregnant in order to keep my brain think fast and solve complex calculations. It is said if the mother think harder and learn more new knowledge, the brain cells of the baby will develope even faster. Not sure how true it is but I did it. Alright, I exclude money rewards here as I never gamble with money before as you know... I just don't have the luck.

What if for those actual gambler who wish to play but not in the casino and doesn't have any companion? Today we have online casino that offers various type of gambling games. You will sure find the one that you are interested without leaving your home, for instance. This online casino do offer real money rewards if the player wins by playing through the monitor screen. How amazing! If you are interested you can just join in the fun and let me know if you ever win in online casino.

Formula Milk

We temporarily changed En En's milk to lactose-free milk and mummy didn't know any good lactose-free formula milk out there and ended up with Pedia Sure. Dr.Tan told us he won't recommend this milk to children as they normally won't switch back to their original milk. On top of that, this is the most expensive milk in the market. Imagine that... 1.8kg is more than MYR100 (am I right?)

Mummy and daddy tried on the milk as we are curious how come our little girl doesn't like it as she never finish them. Guess what... Pedia Sure in fact is the most yummy milk among all that we had tasted before and it is the sweetest too! No wonder, En En doesn't have sweet tooth and in fact she dislikes sweet taste. She even spit out the syrup medicine and therefore we need to dilute the medicine with water for every feed!

Come to think about it... En En helps us to save money indirectly... LOL!

When I think about retirement...

I hope I don't think like my parent. There is this tradition in chinese family that the parent will stay with the son when they are old and retired. It's the responsibility for the son to offer everything back to his parent in which my parent think my brother should do too.

I may have another different lifestyle and I prefer that I can work hard enough with my husband to acquire a small house for our own after we retire later without depending on our children. I found out it is quite interesting and glad that there are care homes in other countries such as United Kingdom. How I wish we have care homes in Malaysia to provide shelter and care for the elderly. It is very important that someone is willing to listen and care for the old group as they are unable to cope alone with daily chores and may need assistance from others.

If we ever have care homes in Malaysia, I will visit the old folks there and be a volunteer to help out. It's a good deed that you are still able to share out the love and at the same time offer help to the elderly.

Sunshine on the face!

Thanks everyone for your kind concern about En En, she's back to her usual self again. No more fussiness, crankiness and suddenly doesn't cling to mummy??!! Huh? After recovered she becomes independant girl already yeah...

We saw her cheeky and smiling face since yesterday besides being able to play on her own. This morning before mummy out for work En En was sitting quietly waiting to be fed for breakfast. She even peeked inside the bowl to see whether they are any food left as she wants to have more. Guess her good appetite is back and it's time to start her on more nutritious diet.

En En - down again!

So heartache to know our little one is having flu 1 day after discharged from the hospital. This time she has running nose and coughing. Last evening, discovered her body became warmer and without hesutation we gave her fever medicine after getting the cough and running nose syrup from doctor.

She sleeps soundly after the medicine and no really keen on milk as before. At least she can swallow water and soup when we spoon-feed her. Still time for medicine is the time for war between En En and mummy!

Let's pray hard that she will get stronger and recover faster...

When the wish list goes longer...

I have a wish list and I will be glad if the wish list goes longer since I loves online shopping but hubby will be worrying more than me even I'm buying stuff with my own money. Wish to know what I have in my wish list? You probably will be fainted to know what I'm looking for as they are plenty.

The problem now is the wish list needs money to be fulfilled. Well, at least this is true for my case. Except working for money there is another type of service whereby you can get advance cash through online payday loan. This online service is good for emergency cash needed since it processes much more faster and open to public. Anyone can apply it online while at the same time you are able to find all the related information in just one-click without leaving your home.

It is very convenient to have such service and you maybe interested to know more. So, hop over to discover more about this online payday loan.

Sick Baby, Panic Parent...

2 Jan 2008

Today was a terrible day for En En and mummy. En En was on drip since she didn't want to take in anything including medicine. We had to force-feed her while she's screaming her lung out! Daddy got to lock her arms and legs while mummy got to hold her head firmly in order to pump medicine for her.

While she's awake, she will asked to go "kai-kai" and the place that we can go is the playground room in paed center. Luckily there were a few children who will played with En En when they were there together. So, basically the day is long... and mummy know that En En also feel boring to stay in there. This is the only entertainment En En had for her waking period.

Due to new environment and phobia of the nurses who came close to us, En En barely can sleep even after injection. Her will power was so strong to refuse dozed off in the ward room. She was crying to ask us bring her to the playground room in the paed center even it's already 11pm! She kept on crying and screaming if we ever tried to go back to the ward room. Every other children already went to dreamland but not En En. Daddy had no choice seeing our little one cried for almost 2 hours non-stop and requested paed to give her another jab to release her tension and relax her muscle so that she can sleep soundly to get better rest. Otherwise... everyone around her will be affected especially mummy who needs more rest like her.


3 Jan 2008

En En showed some interest in food and she was asking for "mum-mum" during breakfast time. this is a good sign, even she just had a little bit but it's an improvement. Medicine? Still need to force-feed her. *Sigh*


She felt drowsy and tired after some walk and medicine but she just refused to sleep in the crib and insisted mummy to bring her "kai-kai" with eyes half close. She kept on crying for another 1 hour and just made eveyone felt bad about her crying as her voice turned coarse. Lastly, Ah Kong & Ah Mah applied with pead to get En En back home in the afternoon and sent in by evening.


So, we went home for lunch and En En managed to drink 4oz milk and 4oz ribena in that afternoon. Then at late afternoon, we managed to get her ate 1 bowl of very watery oatmeal. At least we feel relieve as she has more fluid intake. One thing never change is En En still refuse anyone else to hold her except mummy. Mummy's biceps were so painful after holding her for the past 2 days and finally asked the help of our maid to help mummy in this:

We turned out with a homemade sling. Mummy like this idea as it ease the pain of the arms and more comfortable for En En too. :) So, temporarily had to use this solution to wear our clingy baby.

Brought En En back to the hospital around 5.30pm and surprisingly she didn't protest and she gave some cooperation when it's feeding time. She took dinner even very little and she is able to take medicine when we tried to spoon-fed her. Hurray! No need to force-feed already. Mummy was so proud of her improvement.

She slept at 9pm even she was complaining and crying for a while but much better than the night before. Never woke up for the whole night so mummy and daddy also can have a better sleep.

Today

Finally pead announced that En En can go home already! When mummy asked her whether she wants to go home she said NO! Huh?? Asked her still want to stay in the hospital she said YES! Oh no... must be the attraction of the playground room.

En En was discharged from the hospital about 10.45am. Bad news is Ah Mah is suspected to contract the same disease since this morning...

Dark New Year and 2 Down!

31 Dec 2007

Evening

Suddenly Mummy was having diarrhea before went back home and felt nausea! That kind of feeling never return since mummy was having it while pregnant with En En for 7 months! First thought in mind is the wind inside the bloated tummy was tumbling up and down.
Well, it's new year eve and Mummy wish to see En En earlier and forgot about the nausea feeling. On the way back home while driving... mummy vomitted in the car! While still speeding through the traffic light... LOL! There's no way to stop but never mind since it's just a few minutes to reach home.

The whole evening from 7pm till 11.30pm, mummy vomitted four times after any fluid or solid intake. It felt better if didn't took anything. Rushing to the toilet thrice and couldn't even attend En En since she was calling mummy for so many times even up to the bedroom. Mummy was sleeping like a log in the living room. All Mummy knew is En En did cuddled up with mummy afew times when mumy was sleeping downstairs.

1 Jan 2008

12.05am
Mummy was getting better and stop going to the toilet after taking 2 tablets of motilium to ease the wind. Hoping to get a good night sleep with En En now. Before even stepped up the stairs, we heard a loud cry and coughing sound of our little one. Mummy then discovered En En thrown out her milk together with phlegm that cause her to cough so terrible. Consoled and persuaded her to get back to sleep. We thought everything should be fine.

2.30a.m
En En cried and woke up because of her coughing and vomitting again. Still some phlegm was discovered with little fluid. We cleaned her and she was back to sleep.

3.30a.m
A loud cry - as En En was having a hard time to sleep and vomit for another time.

4.40a.m - 5.30a.m
En En's condition not improving and vomitted for another 2 times and this time is right after every intake of fluid. We tried to make her sleep but not very sucessful as she probably has stomach pain and that bothered her alot. She passed alot of gases out and that made her even difficult to get back to sleep.

Mummy was having fever by now.

5.45a.m - 6.30a.m
Discovered En En also has fever. She kept on vomit again. It's alarming us already. Everyone suspected mummy spread the virus to En En already as we were having the exact same symptoms except En En has no diarrhoea yet. Hence, quickly packed her clothes and neccessities and rush to clinics to get confirmation.

6.45am
En En vomitted for the 7th time and doctor in clinic advised us to send the little one to ICU immediately and mummy was given afew medicine to cure for the illness. Doctor even told us it's very likely nowadays everyone is catching this type of virus and we are not the only case.

7.30a.m
Reached Adventist Hospital but there's no paed around. Took En En's height and weight's measurement. Mummy can only rememeber the weight was 11.1kg. We need to wait patiently for the paed to reach the hospital in around half an hour time.

Mummy quickly wallop down all the oral medicine as En En seems like clingy to mummy and refuse anyone else to carry her. Die la.... as we already know it's 80% En En contracted the virus from Mummy and now she still cannot let go of mummy. Mummy was so weak to hold her and walk around... but still with determination the body can go beyond our will.

Around 8.00am
Dr.Tan arrived and after examination and checking En En... he started his explainations and it's the cause of air-bound virus. 100% contracted from mummy as this virus spread very fast and anyone who get close to us will be contracted depends on the immune system. Wah! So scary... but because infants and toddlers are weaker for their condition, ok... it's the virus evolution in the body that reacts very fast so the changes is rapid and unpredicatable.

Paed advised us on what to do and how to look after her besides prescribed the medicine. En En must on lactose-free milk and paed even said it's normal that she will lose her appetite and refuse to eat as that's the reaction of the virus inside the stomach. Just be sure she's not dehydrated and take medicine on time for a day. En En was not admitted and was advised to come back again the next morning.

We went home with En En and followed pead instructions but too bad we hardly can feed her fever medicine every 4 hourly. En En was sleeping througout the day with very little appetite to eat anything. There's no more vomitting but the fever still not completely gone.

11.10pm
En En was in the dream for almost 2 hours and Mummy was glad that can give her 4oz of milk and 1 oz of water while she's sleeping.

2 Jan 2008

3.30a.m
Mummy was abit worry as her fever never subside. She's getting warmer and wamer. Tried to feed her water but unsucessful.

5.30a.m
Checked her temperature and it's a dangerous 39.8 degree Celcius!!! Called the paed and was advised to admit her to hospital immediately.

6.00a.m - 8.15am
En En was given suppository and we are advised to sponge her with warm water in order to make the temperature from her body to subside faster. The whole emergency room was filled with her loud scream and cry. She clings and screams for maamiee... no matter what! En En already grows the fear of seeing nurses and the ward with so many beds for the second time! Daddy went to register and we finally settle down in the paed ward room.

Her weight went down to 10.9kg and she was so shock and frightened about what's going on to her in such a short time and can't stop screaming and crying for very long time... so heartache to hear this repeatedly.

Mummy was having headache but nothing much can be done except continue to take medicine on-time and hopefully can recover faster to take care of our little one.

To be continued...