We were in Sunway Pyramid over the weekend, and saw this road show that some company was running; as there’s a Bouncy Castle set up, I brought the girls over to have a look.

As the girls jumped in the Bouncy Castle, I went to check out the goods the company was selling.

Have you heard of Kawai Kanyu Drops? This road show was run by them.

This is a Cod Liver Oil supplement founded way back before WW2, and ever since 1932, children in Japan are required to take a Kawai vitamin every day (in schools). Still manufactured in Japan, what I like about it is the little ‘gummy drop’ like pill, not just the look, but the taste as well.

I got the girls to try since they were giving out samples, and both thought they were given sweets.

Seeing that they like it so much, and it was going for RM55 (regular ~RM68) I bought 4 tins, 2 for myself, 2 for the girls. Each tin contains more than 180pills.

Since then, the girls were each given 1 Kawai Kanyu Drop to start their day, and they eagerly open their mouth when I give it to them. Sometimes asking for more (but no, I don’t give in).

I have to give it to the Japanese who can make supplement taste this good; even the packaging is so appealing.

A little drama first…

Yesterday, I told Jelly I will cook yam rice for dinner and got her to prepare the ingredient, frying the yam, boiling the meat and slicing the mushroom.

When it was 6:15pm, I asked her to get the rice rinsed and I’ll do the cooking. She replied, “I’d already cooked the rice, mum”
WHAT????
“I said I’m cooking yam rice right? Why did you cook the rice first?”
“I thought you want, mum.”
“I was just upstairs, you could have asked me right?”
“I thought must cook rice, mum.”
“You don’t even have to call me on the phone, you just need to ask me, that also you can’t do?”
“I thought..”
*cutting her off*“What about the chicken stock?”
“I used to cook the rice, mum.”
WHAT THE ….??? Hate it when they don’t bother asking!!
….. Anyway, Yam rice I’m going to have. So whatever rice she cooked, I got her to store away, we can do a fry rice later.
GRRRR…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’d been cooking yam rice without following a recipe, yesterday I decided to follow this Yam Rice recipe from Delicious Asian Food.

I found what I’d been doing wrongly all this while cooking yam rice the way I did.
1) I fried the uncooked yam cubes with the rice – making the yam very mushy when served
2) I threw away the water that was used to soak the dried shrimp – wasted
3) I didn’t pre-cook the meat, sometimes causing the rice to have the ‘smelly chicken’ smell.

Here is the recipe (I replaced pork with chicken and used an estimated measurement to make cooking easier):

Ingredients
1 small yam dice (cut into small cubes and pre-fried till light brown)
1 piece of kampung chicken breast (the recipe used belly pork, since we don’t eat pork, I use chicken instead).
6 pieces Chinese dried mushroom (pre-soaked until soften. Retain the water used for soaking)
1 handful of dried shrimps (pre-soaked in water for about 5 minutes. Remove dried shrimps and retain the water used for soaking)
Water for boiling
2 cups of rice (rinsed)
4 tablespoons palm oil

Seasoning
1 tablespoons light soya sauce
1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
1/4 teaspoon of white pepper powder
1 teaspoon salt

Method
Bring a pot of water to boil and add chicken. Remove scum from water. When chicken is cooked removed from water and allow to cool. Slice the chicken into small pieces.

Heat up 2 tablespoons of shallot oil (we always have this ready at home). Add mushrooms and stir fry for 2 minutes then add dried prawns. Continue stir-frying for a while until fragrant.

Add chicken and rice and continue stirring and then add the seasoning. Once the rice is evenly coated with seasoning, add the chicken stock (whatever we have left after Jelly used it to cook the first batch of rice) and water previously used to soak mushrooms and dried prawns. Transfer this to rice cooker.

If need to, add more water to cover rice mixture (this call for your normal rice cooking intelligence to know how much water is enough). Switch on the rice cooker. Once rice starts to boil, add pre-fried yam and cover. Allow it to cook till done.

And this was what we had for dinner yesterday.

The yams are in cubes not mashed up, the rice has the fragrant of dried shrimp (must be from the water that’s used to soak the dried prawns). I had another plate of left over just now for breakfast, and the dried shrimp fragrant was very profound. Yummy!

Go try out this recipe or any other recipes from Delicious Asian Food. And while doing so, stand a chance to win USD100. Click below for details.

Sometimes, we have to take it from her.

♥Language Police♥

Daddy is trying to get rid of all the LAs, MAs, WUTs, MEHs in Zara’s English. And eventually after enough drilling, she promised Daddy she’ll drop them.

When she accidentally used them, she’ll say, “Rubbish. Ptui Ptui *pretending to spit*” Before rephrasing it to remove the LAs, MAs, WUTs, MEHs.

And when I use them, she’ll be correcting me, “Mummy, in English there’s no MEHs ok? If you use that, nobody will understand you in England” (sounding exactly like Daddy).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

♥Belief♥

We were stuck in a jam in a parking lot of a mall, caused by a group of people trying to change the tyre of a car. They didn’t have a jack, and guess what they did? About 6 of them lifted the car up for the 7th person to install the spare tyre.

Daddy got real grouchy because of the jam : “Idiots!”
Zara : “Idiot is a really bad word, you shouldn’t say it.”
Daddy : “But they are idiots. I cannot BELIEVE what they are doing.”
Zara *sage-like* : “If you think about it long enough, you’ll believe it.”
Daddy’s mood change with her remark : “Zara, I like what you’d just said. If I think long enough, yeah, maybe I’ll believe them. Can I use what you’d said at work?”
Zara *still sage-like* : “No. These are my words, you cannot use them.”
Any traces of foul mood has been removed from Daddy while he laughed away at the wise daughter’s remark.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

♥Our Marriage Counsellor♥

Now, we don’t mean to quarrel in front of the kids, but Daddy and I both have very strong temper, and when we’re unhappy about each other, we’ll raise our voice at each other.

Once, Zara was in the car with us, she said wisely in the middle of our argument trying to make herself heard, “You know or not? Family are supposed to love one another!”

Another occasion, I was angry with Daddy, and told Zara Daddy made me angry. Zara went to Daddy and said, “Dad, you must love mummy like last time. Make mummy love you back”

Taught Zaria how to sign “I Love You” 2 days back.

Yesterday, she was flipping through a book with pictures of real horses. When she reached the page with a horse resting, she signed to the picture “I Love You” while mouthing the words; and then proceeded to lean one side of her cheek on the picture (her way of ‘sayang’ or showing her affection).

When I asked her “What about us?”
She then also did the same thing to Zara, Daddy and me while saying “Aff (love) you che-che” “Aff you mummy.” “Aff you daddy.” while signing “I Love You”.

Sweeeeeet…

Love You (Thanks to Sasha for making this into a gif)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I like her way of signing smelly too. She puts her hand near her ear, bends and stetches her fingers.

Smeh-yee

Tic Toc Tic Toc
~3 months just zoomed by so quickly.

Tic Toc Tic Toc
How much time has this @#$^&*#^@ testing has taken.
Since returning from Houston, I’d been working late almost daily, exchausted at the end of the day, and dread waking up to face another day of testing.

Tic Toc Tic Toc
Still hasn’t bought Jelly’s ticket to return home yet.

Tic Toc Tic Toc
When can we go for our first family holiday this year?

Tic Toc Tic Toc
When am I going to bake the pie that I promised the girls with the pastry that has been sitting in the freezer since 2000BC?

Tic Toc Tic Toc
What? Already middle of August, 3 and a half more months and 2008 is over.

Tic Toc Tic Toc
Die. I still have 8 photobooks and 8 posters to create before my voucher expires.

Dooooooooooooooooooooot…..

After the incident, we still went ahead and brought the girls to Bagan Lalang.
(Daddy said he’ll try to bring us there every once a month if not more.)

You asked how to get there? Where it is?
Bagan Lalang is actually after Sepang. So we took the KLIA highway, and then turned into Sepang. You’ll see the sign board pointing you to Sepang Gold Coast or Bagan Lalang, just follow that.

Why go there so often?
Because the girls like it. Imagine Zaria will suddenly say this at home while playing, “Want go Alang-alang. Play play sand.”
The water and sand is cleaner than Port Dickson or Morib, the waves are calm, and there’s a big stretch of shallow pool. We probably only need to worry about the jelly fish.
Daddy likes to see the girls a bit tan.
This is such a good place to take photos of the girls at play.

The only problem is bathing the girls after they play.
We bath them outside a shop, using the water from the hose, and pay the owner some money.

Photos for this round :

Daddy and the girls.

Zaria giving thumbs up to Bagan Lalang.

There are lots of crabs hiding out.

Zara combing the beach for sea snails.

Zara picking up sea snails.

Zaria loves the mess.

Zaria loves the mud.

Zaria playing in the shallow pool (big area of the sea is with this water level).

Migratory Birds (?).

Love this shot of the girls (I wouldn’t join in, afraid the mud will stick to me, since I don’t have a place to shower).

Zara showing Zaria how to dig for crabs.

Zaria picked up the skill very quickly.

See how dirty she got?

After Zara stopped and left the beach, Zaria still wanted to dig for crabs.

The short stretch of sandy beach at Bagan Lalang.

We stayed till sunset. And the view is marvelous.

However, we also got attacks from sandflies, and all of us got bumps all over when we got home.

Saturday morning, Daddy and I wanted to plan for an outing, so we went to the study to surf for info. I left Zara in the room with a diaperless Zaria, telling them we’ll be quick, and asking Zara to keep an eye on Zaria.

A few moments later, Zara came tugging at my t-shirt, “Mummy I locked meimei in the room.”
I went to confirm and sure enough, the room door was locked.
Zaria was knocking on the other side of the door saying, “Want come out.”

While Daddy went to search for the spare key, I told Zaria to wait and at the same time, I gave Zara a good scolding.

Daddy found the bunch of keys and started trying them one by one. ~20 keys and none fit! I start getting worried. My scolding started getting worse,
“How can you do that to meimei?”
“What if something happened to meimei? The police will come and ask who lock meimei inside.”
“Are you a wicked step-sister?”

Daddy tried the 20 keys again; and then my turn to try, while he went to search for other keys he’d kept. Zara was sobbing quietly (because I threatened if she were to cry, I was going to smack her), while I scolded her. Zaria still calling out calmly, “Mummy, open door.”
“Mummy come hug you(me)”
“Want go out.” and finally
“Poo-poo oh-di (already).”

SHIT! She’s diaperless, remember?

Daddy was digging this box, and that box, while I kept trying the 20keys again and again, Zaria calling us, Zara sobbing, this went on for like 30mins. All these while, Zaria was just calling out to us, not crying, not panicked. The only time she cried, was when she heard the gate opened and Daddy unlocking the car (to search the car for any keys). She cried and said, “Want go kaikai (Chinese : go out). Want go kaikai!” When I reassured her we’re still all here, she then stopped crying and continue to call out calmly, “Mummy, open door. Want go out”
“Poo-poo oh-di.”

I told Daddy I’d drive out to look for a locksmith. I left, and found a hardware shop with a big KEY sign board. I went in and very quickly told my story. The owner of the shop said he didn’t have a locksmith, but gave me a contact. Just before I left, he told me I could try giving the door knob a few hard knocks with the side of the hammer.

I called the locksmith, he’s 30mins away from our house. He asked me to sms our address to him. I didn’t know how to operate Daddy’s phone (my mobile locked in the room with Zaria), so I went home and told Daddy to sms the locksmith. I also told Daddy what the hardware shop owner mentioned. He quickly dug out his hammer, placed a piece of cloth over the door knob, and knocked the door knob. One, Two, Three times, and the door knob fell off (such quality!), the door opened.

The smell of shit!! FoooooooooYOH.

Zaria was sitting on the bed, hands and tigh all covered in shit, happy to see me and declared again, “Poo-poo oh-di.”

Zara stuck her head in, I was still angry with her, so I told her to go out, and stay in the guest room, I didn’t want to see her.

Got Jelly to change the bed shit sheet and mop the floor with dettol, while I gave Zaria a bath. Daddy went out to purchase another lock.

While I was changing Zaria, Zara stuck her head into the room again. I told her, “I’m still angry with you. Go out! Don’t come in. I don’t want to see you.” She said gingerly, “I just want to say sorry.” I was still angry, so I told her, “Say your sorry and go!” She walked into the centre of the room, faced Zaria, “Sorry Zaria”, then me, “Sorry mummy.” and then went out again.

*heart melted*.. I forgave her immediately.

In the night when I tugged Zara in, she said, “Luckily you have a good idea to bang the door opened. If not, police will come and catch me, and lock me up in a dungeon right?” I had to tell her only if something happened to meimei, and police don’t lock people up in dungeons.

We can still smell shit in the room as of today if we took a deep breath. Buek!
And guess where we found the spare key to the room? Daddy kept it in the room! How clever.

I could have shown you the real thing, but I’ll be kind, this is close to it.

At 3 years 8 months, Zara weigh 13Kg, and she’s 105cm tall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~

My weeks seem shorter these days because of the amount of things to do at work. I’m glad to have the girls entertain me and help me to destress.

These 2 weeks, these are some of the things Zara said that tickled me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~

On school snack.
Zara never eats the snacks in school, she always eats the Baby Bites or Jacob biscuit that we packed for her. On the way home I asked her what she ate in school, and she told me the food from home.
“What did your school served today for snack?”
“Chicken rice.”
“Chicken rice? How come you didn’t eat the chicken rice? I thought you like chicken rice.”
“Because the chicken they used is low quality chicken; and you know, it’s so boring, they only used salt and pepper to cook the chicken.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~

On her being naughty.
“If you don’t behave, I’ll put a black mark on the calender. When there are 20 black marks on the calender, I’m going to buy a cane.”
“I’ll buy a magic eraser from Teacher Pauline (her class teacher), and I’ll rub away the black mark. Then no more black marks on the calender.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~

On breasts
“Now I only have nipples, so small.”
“When you are a big girl, then your breasts will grow”
“Yah, my breasts will pooooooffffttttttt puff up like puffer fish” And she cupped her breasts, then extended her arm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~

On haze
While driving her home from school, pointed to her the hazy surrounding.
“Look Zara, the whole place is so hazy.”
“I think God is wearing glasses, so every thing is blur.”

Knowing I like reading, Kitty Cat got me to do this bookworm tag.

Do you remember how you developed a love for reading?
I can’t remember.
Maybe when I was 7years old. We had story telling competitions in school, and you have to pick a book, read it, and then recite the story to the whole class (and hopefully be selected to represent the class).

What are some books you read as a child?
I can’t remember either but they were all Chinese books.
One set of books I remembered the most was my parents’ gift from Taiwan, compositions written by local children. I can’t recall the name of the books, but some of the composition, I could still vaguely recall.

What is your favourite genre?
Non-fiction novels written by Chinese authors about life in China.

Do you have a favourite novel?
The Good Women of China – By Xinran (I would love to read the Chinese version, but I don’t think I’ll be able to find it)

Where do you usually read?
In bed or in the toilet.

When do you usually read?
If I’m not too tired, after the girls are asleep, or when trying to get them to sleep.
Most of the time when I’m in the toilet.

Do you usually have more than one book you are reading at a time?
Usually no.

Do you read nonfiction in a different way or place than you read fiction?
I’ll feel more for the characters/events since I know they are real.

Do you buy most of the books you read, or borrow them, or check them out of the library?
I buy them most. Most of them are picked up from book sales, but I’ll hunt a title down if I know a favourite author has released a new book. (Library? Who borrow books from the library in Malaysia?)

Do you keep most of the books you buy? If not, what do you do with them?
Yes, I keep most of the books I buy. (Daddy is complaining I need a bigger book shelf)
Only very rarely, do I give away my books.

If you have children, what are some of the favorite books you have shared with them? Were they some of the same ones you read as a child?
Both girls love reading.
Zara’s current favourite is the Ginn Reader Series, while Zaria is books with Maisy. I never read (or being read to) such books when I was young.

When I was a child, I read only Chinese books, and at this point in time, the girls are not being read in Chinese yet. Hopefully, they will when they start going to school.

What are you reading now?
严歌岺~小姨多鹤
(Chanced upon it when I was in Beijing; not knowing she’s the bilingual author Ge-ling Yan whose The Uninvited is still sitting on my shelf.)

Do you keep a TBR (to be read) list?
My whole shelf is filled with books and I’ll read all of them one day soon, or after I’d retired.

What’s next?
I’ll probably check out Yan Ge-ling’s The Uninvited.

What books would you like to reread?
None identified now, there are so many good books to read (and I’m lucky I’m bi-lingual, so there are more variety), I probably won’t re-read any.

Who are your favourite authors?
Ha Jin, Xin Ran, Yu-Hua (余华), Khaled Hosseini.

Now, I’d like to know more about the reading habits of:

ehon
Lian
Grace
Giddy Tiger
WMD

Reading habits are infectious, see how the girls spent a lot of their time when they are in the bedroom.