For more than a month, Daddy has not bought a loaf of bread for himself but instead he has been eating home made bread. As for the girls, they are not really bread eaters, and they do not like wholemeal bread. If I baked sweet bread, or rye, I’ll make sure they have it for breakfast as well instead of their usual Koko-crunch or toast made from High-5 bread.

Here are some of the photos of the bread which I baked from then till now, and I think I’m getting the hang of how the dough works.

My 1st wholemeal loaf.. looked horrid right? Although edible.

2nd attempt, still not so attractive, look wise.

3rd attempt, YES!

Sweet white rolls.

Daddy likes the wholemeal walnut bread, so I made it again, replacing 1/2 cup wholemeal flour with wheatgerm.

Made focaccia for dinner using a recipe from the The Pauper Chef, it came out very bland, but that’s because I didn’t put any topping besides coarse sea salt. Daddy liked it though.

This is my favourite. Love the crust colour, and the purplish hue on the bread from the rye flour.

Using the sweet bread recipe, I added ground black and white sesame for some nutty flavoured buns.

Then last weekend, I tried to make coconut buns.
Daddy loved it (but he has to encourage me, or I’ll stop baking).
My MIL, FIL and SIL said they were nice.
My dad said no standard (not enough coconut it seemed).
My sis said it’s ok.
So you know who the critic is.

One day we were talking about love.
Me : Do you think mummy love you more or mummy love meimei more?
Zara : I think you love me more, because I’m good girl and Zaria is very naughty
Me : No. Mummy love both of you the same. Because both of you are my daughters
Zara : I think I love you more than Daddy.
Me : But mummy always scold you.
Zara : *reassuringly*It’s ok, you scold me for a reason. Daddy dilly dally for no reason, just always like to dilly dally.

Zara was angry with me for something I said in the car (actually, it’s just a small matter, we said we’ll go for a holiday without her, and she got so upset), and when we got to the supermarket, she didn’t want to hold my hand. She even said, “I don’t love you any more. You are just a piece of junk.” (if you are asking whether I’d used such words to her, NO, I never did).
She was walking in front, and I was just following behind. When she took a turn, she got blocked by some dry grocery sacks (where I was tall enough to see her, but she’s not tall enough to see me). I just stood still on the same spot to see what she’s up to.
Then, she turned back and couldn’t spot me. I could see her turning white, then red, she took a few steps forward, then backwards, terrified, she started shouting, “MUMMY! MUMMY!” and then started crying. I raised my hand up and said “I’m here.”
It took her a while to calm down, she kept asking me, “Where were you? Why I couldn’t see you.
I told her I was right behind her and because she was angry, she couldn’t see me.
She said, “I was so angry until my eyes got fire, and I cannot see clearly. Now I’m happy, my eyes got water, wash away the dirt and everything, and then I can see clearly. o.O”

Zara went to the shop with me and when we got back, she swung the car door too hard, and knocked into the pillar in our porch. The car door has a slight scratch. Of course Daddy wasn’t happy. He brought it up again after a day :
Daddy : So, what did you break today?
Zara : Nothing.
Daddy : The rate you are going, one day you wake up and you’ll find the whole house collapsed.
Zara : Dad, I don’t want the house to collapse.
After thinking for a moment..
Zara : But the house and the car is not connected wut!

I was so against going to Bagan Lalang over the weekend because it’s Raya, as the bathing facilities are all operated by the Malays, I was certain we would have trouble cleaning the girls. But then, it was 3 against 1, so…..

Thank goodness it was a cloudy day, where the sun wasn’t glaring, and the weather not too hot. You should see the grin on Zaria’s face when we arrived, as though she’s reached the land of sweets.

They started by playing with the sand. The sand is so clean, so white right?

I remained under the shade on the mat reading, while Daddy brought the girls out to get dirty.

Zara loved the water.

Zaria loved the mud.

When I joined them a little later, they offered me mud pies.

My own feet getting dirty.

Zaria looked like she pooed in her swimming costume.

And I was right, all the toilets were closed, at least at our side of the beach. Imagine all this dirtiness and we only had 1 med size coleman filled with water to wash them? The mud was clinging on to their hair, their skin, their nails.. Ewww.. But, since I’m used to working with limited resources, I managed to get them cleaned.

It was ~4pm, and Daddy thought we should take a slow drive to Tanjung Sepat for dinner. When we arrived, and parked our car, we saw this :
Piglets roasted for someones wedding.

So many piglets slaugthered to have their wedding. *cruel*

At 5pm, many restaurants were already full. We chose our usual hang out. Ocen Seafood Restaurant (no, I didn’t spell it wrong. See for yourself), waited almost 15mins for a table, and another 30mins for our food.
I don’t know if the name was supposed to be Ocean with a missing A, or the restaurant was actually named after Or-Jian (Fried Oyster omelette) their famous dish…..

Zaria waiting patiently at Ocen.

After dinner, we took a stroll out to the Lovers Bridge.

It was another hour + slow drive to get us home.

Zara loves cabbage. We normally fry cabbage with dried prawns and she’ll pick up all the dried prawns and put aside before consuming the cabbage. One day,
Me : Aiyo, just eat the dried prawns la. You won’t die, it’s just a small one.
Zara : I’m not a seafood-tarian you know. I don’t like seafood. I don’t like prawns, I don’t like crabs. I’m a vegetarian. I like cabbage.
Me : But you eat fish right? Fish is also seafood. You cannot be a vegetarian if you eat fish.
Zara : That one I just force myself to eat. Because I want to have brains. (we had been telling the girls, eating fish will give them brains because of the DHA)

On another ocasion, when we asked her to eat some pork dish specially cooked for the girls, she said, “I’m a vegetarian, I don’t eat pork.”
I replied, “Who said you don’t eat pork. You eat charsiew (BBQ pork) , you eat juicy pow (Xiao Loong Bao).”
She said, “I only eat low quality pork. All the low quality pork no pork taste. Good quality pork we eat at home got pork taste. I don’t like.” o.O”

Another totally unrelated topic, I asked Zara if Daddy and I can go on a holiday without her.
Zara : “That’s not fair! You go for holiday you must bring me and meimei”
Me : “But Daddy and mummy also should go for holiday on our own right? To pak toh (Chinese : Date) and spend time together.”
Zara : “No. You should bring us.”
Me : “Next time when you get married, you also will go for holiday with your husband alone right? You won’t bring mummy right?”
Zara : “When I get married already, after a while, you will be dead, that’s why I can’t bring you on holiday.”
Ouch!

Have you heard that the winners for Alliance You:nique Picture Card’s Sweet Family Moments contest are out?

It was difficult to decide on the Grand Prize winner, so they decided to have two winners. And these are their card designs :
from HOOI SIEK YI (761019-XX-XXXX) and

from LIEW WEI YIN (781004-XX-XXXX).

The list doesn’t end there. Find out from their website to find out who the 2nd (10 winners) and 3rd place (20 winners) winners are with their winning designs, and the same time, you may want to book mark that site or join You:nique’s Facebook Fan page to get informed of their next upcoming contest.

You:nique : Great Rebates; Great Rates; Great Rewards; your card, your choice; your design.

I’m amused and at the same time finding myself out of wits handling the little one. See the things she said.

Daddy asked her to share a piece of cake she’s eating, she said, “This is a girl’s cake, boys cannot eat.”

Zara complained to me that Zaria took a piece of dough I gave her. Zara said, “Naughty Zaria, took my dough”
Zaria explained to us, “No. I’m not naughty. Jiejie left it there (at the sink), so I take.”

Sometimes I mixed the girls’ name up, and a few times when Zara did something wrong, I raised my voice and said, “ZARIA! Don’t do that.”
Zaria would quickly correct me, “It’s not Zaria, it’s Zara.”

While poking my belly button, she saw my laproscopy scar. She looked concerned, “Tssss. Mummy, what happened?”
“Mummy, had an operation last time.
“Painful or not? Let me sayang. *blow the spot* Better? *kiss the spot* The doctor just now ampoo-tait (amputate) you?”
(for her, anything that happened in the past is ‘just now’)

She asked me to read a book to her, I told her I can’t because I was having a fever.
“Then, I read myself.”
She took a book, and pretended to flip the pages. “Once upon a time, the mummy is having a tem-pee-cher (temparature), the jiejie is coloring, the mei mei is covering her (face with a) book, the aunty is cooking, the daddy is working. The end.”

Daddy was asking Zaria why she broke a basket at home in the car, and when we arrived our destination, she refused to hold Daddy’s hand, she said, “I’m not going to friend you any more. Because you say something bad about me.”

o.O” o.O” o.O”

Sometimes when I raise my voice at Zaria, or scold her, she’ll challenge ask me, “What did I do? Mummy? What did I do?”

One day, I called her “Little One”, and she replied by folding her arms, and turning away, “I’m not little any more oh-kay? I’m big girl.”

Daddy was touching her head, while reading a book to her, she said annoyingly, “Daddy! You cannot stroke me, after that my hair fall down (i.e. messing up her hair).”

I asked her to tidy up the puzzles she’s scattered on the floor before reading, she told me, “I cannot clean up, it’s hard work. After that my hand become hard.”

o.O”

When I knew that Irene had 2 Hi-5 concert tickets to give away, I immediately booked them. After discussing with Daddy, and forking out RM655, which we spent on purchasing 2 more tickets and booked a night stay in Genting (during their super peak season), we collected the 2 tickets from her. (Thanks, Irene)

So off we went to Genting on Saturday for the 7pm concert.

Girls wanted sweet before the concert.

Irene’s tickets were in front, and ours were way behind, so Daddy took the back seat, while girls and I took the front (You can see from this pix how near we were from stage).

Girls were practicing their 1, 2, 3, 4, Hi-5.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… Oh, did you ask how the concert went? To me, it was boring. The hall was less than 20% full. When the concert started, Daddy came to the front to sit with us. Our row and the one in front were almost empty (maybe all the people who got free tickets didn’t turn up). The girls, however, rather enjoyed the ~1hr performance. Zara stood up to dance with Hi-5 members and Zaria joined in once or twice.
Honestly speaking, I wouldn’t pay again to watch it.

After the concert, the girls requested for the rides in the theme park. So I bought 2 day passes for indoor park, and let them ride on the carousel and the Paris Genting ride for as many rounds as they wanted to get my money’s worth.

The whole place was so crowded… but the girls had a quiet moment with the clown, just 2 of them, each waiting for their turns to get a baloon from the clown.

Their final ride was on the bumper car. Zaria was too young, so she had to sit with Zara. Zara was no expert in steering, and she was just going in circles; and banging on the wall and getting stuck. I was shouting instructions but Zara didn’t quite get it. At one point, both got so frustrated and started crying and the attendant had to come to their rescue. The whole time, Daddy was just standing at a corner fiddling with the camera. Grrrrr….

We only got back to the hotel at 11pm+ and by the time the girls showered and settled down, it was midnight. That night was a cold cold night, I didn’t sleep well since the girls were stirring in their sleep.

The following day, we had late breakfast, and just went on the caterpillar ride before we headed home. Daddy thought maybe we should stop by Bukit Tinggi and let the girls see a bit of the Colmar Tropicale.

There was really nothing much in the ill-maintained ‘village’, but the girls spent sometime with the swans at the ‘moat’ until Zaria got pecked by one of them and started wailing and wouldn’t stop even when we tried to pacify her. Her reason, “The swan eat (ate) my finger.”

And the whole time we were there, Daddy only took photo of this….
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Grrrr…..