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Time flies and it is now time to renew our “tai fan shu” Kakak again.

I am glad that she is willing to stay for another year without going back for holiday (ok, I do tempt her with some bonus in exchange for this to keep her happy although she did not ask for anything) . I am also glad that she is the ambitious type  so she plans to work for many years before “retiring”. Of course I also put a lot of effort to do brainwashing, encouragement and “dream building” with her from time to time!

Our Kakak when she arrives

I still remember our horrible experiences when we first have this live-in helper that comes from another part of the world, how she steals the forbidden home food (I thinks she still does that sometimes due to curiosity), how hubby found her sleeping on our sofa in the morning instead of cleaning the house (welln she still sleeps in her work occasionally), how she vomited inside hubby’s new MPV (thank God she grew out of motion sickness) and bla..bla..bla..

Overall, I must say that she improves a tremendously and I can be simply contented by just closing one eye. At least now she knows what she should be doing and I no longer need to give her instructions on her routine job.( I am ok although moping is not done daily, fans and lights only wipe once a year and curtains change twice a year as long as she keeps the boys away from me when I need to work). I treasure this extra pair of hands to manage some simple daily chores and I hope to keep her as long as I can (I don’t expect to see more from her and to me, it will be just good enough as long as she maintains her performance as of today)

When to renew her passport (expiring in April 2011) ?

Although her passport is expiring in April 2011, I was told by my agent that I should renew her passport now. There must be a year of lead time before her passport expire when we renew her visa/permit, I was told. To renew her work permit, Fomema, and such, my agent told me that will cost about Rm7xx, including Rm100 charged by agent to do the work (but some said it is Rm1250 now including the fee for the extra course attended that we have to attend with the helper?)

Now the problem lies in renewing her passport.I was advised by many to bring her to the Indonesia Embassy to renew the passport. But when I google and saw this from Leena’s blog, *wa-lau-eh*, it really freaks me out man! My agent also told me that now they are made to sign an acknowledge letter of their minimum salary of Rm600 (which is a big jump from her current salary!).

Not only that, I was just told by a friend that our maid will be interviewed at the embassy during renewal (to check their condition with employee kua..) and also we need to attend a half day course with the maid (thanks to our si-beh smart punya minister punya idea!).

After some consideration (of having my fussy hubby taking her to queue and becoming sardine one whole day under those zinc roof, leaving me behind with 3 monsters at home), I think I better let the agent handle this. Fee charged is Rm480 (pretty expensive eh?)

So, by not having to sign any letter now, or does that still mean that we have to bring her to the course and adjust her salary? sigh…I just promised her some bonus prior this and now a big jump in salary?

Anyone just renew their Kakak’s passport can share? *scratch head* sigh…Si-beh confuse now!

Yesterday hubby and his brother were just discussing about getting about a new home and moving to somewhere which is more strategic. Money is still the main concern as we do not even have enough to keep aside for savings let alone to pay for a house deposit. Even a term life insurances would be great if we have just a little more to spare.

I told hubby we should really work out something since the formula-free and diaperless boys are growing up quickly and they will be needing a lot like their sister once they starts pre-school later. Not easy when there is only one man working and having to feed so many mouths (including the maid) at home eh…!

I used to have very smooth and black beautiful strands. After I gave birth to the boys, my hair is dryer and it curls at the end like wire. They no longer look nice and soft no matter how expensive shampoo I use. Perhaps I can use some vitamins for hair to improve its condition but definitely it is not going to be as nice as before

Sigh…another 2 kids of mine now begin to hook to my computer. Playhouse Disney has always been QQ’s favourite website as there are lots of online activities and games to play. But now, she no longer surfing alone. Her 2 little brothers are now old enough to recognise the cartoon characters and they both glued to my lcd monitor whenever they see their sister playing on it. Such early age to start using computer huh? How about yours?

Just like how we adults prefer certain doctors to others, our kids are just the same.

On QQ’s first dental treatment (a rather emergency one), I had no time to survey so I just brought QQ to one nearest dentist at our area.After inspection, this lady doctor said that this particular QQ’s tooth condition is very bad and it requires a root canal treatment. Since QQ is already in such pain, and it is almost impossible to find another doctor within the same day (see how “rich” our local dentists are with their all-day-long full appointment), I asked the dentist to go ahead. Poor QQ, not only the dentist is lousy at tricking her, she forced her to open her mouth ALL TIME, and even wanted to stuff the black rubber into it to keep her mouth open. It makes QQ cry and struggle even more, and almost puke at many attempts.

A neighbour then introduced Klinik Ho and Yeoh at Balakong and praised the doctors for working well with children. QQ was lucky as I managed to slot her in the day she complaint tooth pain. This is how a good dentist works with little children:

1. Inspect and becareful of “scary words” as he explain to parents
2. Apply some gel to numb gel on the gum before injection (then leave the room for 5 mins) - QQ was so relax as we chat and joke while waiting for the dentist to come back
3. Blocked QQ’s view and perform injection (the leave room for 5 mins) - QQ still can sit there smilling, hehehe…
4. Perform a quick cleaning and quick filling
5. Done

The dentist uses phrases  like “catch chong-chong (cacing), put some medicine to kill chong-chong, caught the chong-chong) throughout all the scary procedures to distract QQ away. Overall it was done fairly quick and I am really satisfied with this dentist way of dealing with our little friend here. How about yours?

Money is never enough. My brother who is only in college just got his first DSLR, a D90 kit. With all original lenses, flash, accessories, everything goes up to about Rm7k. Do you think an 18 year old student really need that? I doubt so. Told him to buy the third party, he said it will affects the performance. Heck!

At this age now, QQ often request for this and that too. I told her that her father goes out in the dark before dawn and only comes home when the day is dark. And yet, we could not afford many things that we wanted in life. If only we have knew about the investment of gold earlier, or have a sum to catch the future rise of the gold price, we would have buy gold coins and make a fortune!

Funny, my girl does not have good teeth like me. Believe or not, I had  just done a filling at one of my molar, for the first time in my whole life a few weeks ago!

I start wearing a braces only at the age of 13 (if I remember correctly) and had them removed when I was 21 (during my last year of university). Why so long, that’s because I am attached to the government dental (will put that in another story) I had 4 molars extracted in the procedure, but no cavity although wearing so many “besi” then.

Back to QQ, I was so devasted to see that mostly of her molars are partially gone! At the age of 5, she had her first very pityful root canal treatment (an unpleasant encounter in Sg.Long), and few weeks back, she had another filling in another molar (this time a very pleasant encounter at Klinik Ho & Yeoh where I  will go in more details in another post).  I asked the dentist if her teeth is really dirty or what, but he said its fine.

Unlike other children, she does not like sweet things and prefer plain water to sweet drinks. Wonder what could have cause her to have such weak teeth??

It is scary to breastfeed babies with full set of teeth (molars and canines), especially when accidentally snap on your teat once they fell asleep attached to you!

And I am lucky to stuck with 2 JAWS! *CRY*

Not only I have to endure the risk of being accidentally snapped (btw, they are really good boys and dis not bit me during teething), their weight on my poor shoulders when they sleep on me at night are unbearable too. Ok, I know I am much, MUCH more heavier than the boys, but it is so difficult to sleep and they really makes me loosing good sleep at night.

You probably think it is easy to remove my poor tender flesh away from these jaws? Unfortunately not so. Many times when they found their “soft teat” missing from their mouth, they will wake up and go on top of me again and this repeat again and again for so many times in a night until all us of could not sleep well.

Hence I decided to wean them (you would have known if you read my funny weaning process with these boys in http://www.facebook.com/chinneeq). Really don’t know whether to cry or laugh!! Will update more here when I have time again.

Unbelievable! It seems still like yesterday when I carried the boys in my stomach and now they are going to be 2 soon. Giving birth to my twin boys was a scary experience as I was wheeled into the operation for c-sect when they refuse to come out (thanks to some silly inteference) although I was dilated 10cm.

I still remember being wheeled into observation room, with oximeter on my finger, as I lost too much blood. Thank God I did not need a blood transfusion. What a moment to remember!

Shall we see some pictures of the kids, at gathering we went to. Sorry, no group pics of mummy here as I gained so much weight and look very awful, as compare to many slim mummies out there

Gathering at Sin Lee’s place

Each year, my uni-mates (also house-mates) and I still make attempts to gather at least once a year. Most of us have a least a pair of kids by now and I am still at the lead (with 3 kids = 3 Angpows, YAY!!)

My very friendly boys with Aunty Siaw Wei and hubby

See how much weight they have lost? Korkor had 2 courses of antibiotic over the month (So “sam thong” when I look at them, sigh )

Girls at Lion Dance

Together with some other blogging mummies, we also went to visit Jacss and her new baby after hubby got his new auto insurance quote for this new year. Irene, Jo-N and us were the first to arrive so we had plenty of time savoring the extremely yummy Chu Keok Chou (Vinegar Pork Knuckle) and Rice Wine Chicken. Forgot to ask Jacss if her Confinement Lady is good, but I tell you, her cooking is really superb (hubby who had a chance to taste the yummy dishes said it is even better than my 2 previous confinement lady). Hmm…shall keep her in mind (as if I still wanna plan for another confinement, jialat!)

Loving brother and sister sitting quietly at the living hall while their Mummy Chanel busy yakking away..

Chanel, Paik Ling, Peggy, Wen and Shireen came later. I think our laughter, and the kids messiness almost tear the house down. Nice to meet up with all of you again.

Pretty Baby C being kepit by my boys

These are all the pics I managed to catch at the gathering. We had to leave first and the boys were knocked out the moment they went into the car.

Good that the last few days of CNY falls on a public holiday and a weekend!

On early Saturday morning, we went to One World Hotel and I finally meet up with Moe (owner of http://www.dotdotslittleshop.com/ who resides in Brunei, and also reseller of Mama Patch) and her pretty little Dot-Dot  (if only time permits, I knew cheeky Didi wanna play with this pretty jie-jie!)

Together with SIL, we finally made our first visit (most likely the last too) to try the Japanese Buffet at Umaiya Japanese Restaurant. Not really worth it for us as we do not like Sashimi and yet the kids (who just ate a few beans and less than a spoonful of ice-cream are charged )

Since we are already in Damansara area, I took the opportunity to visit Vichelle at her new place. Thought of dropping by at Jazz too, but she was occupied with her leaking roof.

Thanks for dropping by at this blog. Time is short, and the weather is real bad. So we do not do much visiting this year and so sad I did not manage to meet up with all friends as I planned to.

My mum’s home in Melaka was like an oven so we either stayed in our air con room or drives around to enjoy air con and sight seeing in our car. Kuantan, on the other hand, has very strong wind but still the air was very hot, really beh-tahan.

Although many people in KL complain the weather is hot, but for us, our home here facing the jungle is so cooling and air smells so fresh and nice.

QQ with her childhood friend

We went next door to QQ’s ex-nanny’s house to “Pai Nien” the moment we reaches here. It is really nice to be back here again, and now it is home for me here (QQ claimed that Mummy orang Melaka, Papa orang Kuantan, and she orang KL!)

Lion Dance at Sg.Long Buddhist Society

This year we came back just in time to join the Sg.Long Buddhist CNY gathering. Lots of great food there from the potluck and I must say that everyone done a great job and contribute a lot to the extension project of the centre.

Boys in their sis’s pre-school on CNY Open day

On Thursday, QQ’s preschool had the CNY Open House. It is funny to see the boys helping themselves with a seat each among the kids the moment food is served in their sister’s class.

Like last year, this year they engage Lion Dance performance too. I love to take the opportunity to expose the boys to the loud noise at lion dance to get them used to it.

We had fun going to places to catch the lion dance. Do you and your kids do the same too?

Will be posting more activities on our last weekend of CNY.

Half of our New Year cookies displayed on our table are gone by now. No, we do not have any visitors coming over to consume them. As usual, they all ended up in our stomach, hahaha… (I am even munching one pineapple tart while typing this now!)

Once we are done with the cookies, we will start to attack those can drinks sitting in our store room. When our fridge is cleared later, QQ will start to arrange the soft drink cans into my fridge and chill them. When the can is too cold to be held by her little hands, she will use her custom koozies to hold it. That’s how we enjoy our Chinese New Year at home each year!

I started blogging in March 2007. I then went into paid posting and to find out more about opportunities, I have been blog hopping a lot to read what my online friends are up to. At the same time, we get to know each other better through our parenting blogs.

Although most of us hardly do paid posting nowadays, I am still very hooked to blog hopping. But of course there must also be a system on how I read all favourite blogs, since there are too many to follow up.

1. Subscribe blogs through Google Reader

Yes, it is easy to open an account with Google Reader. Just subscribe your favourite URL into your reader and this way, you will be able to catch up with only “unread postings” from the blogs you subscribe to. This way, you can save lots of time by going into blogs that have updates and you know that you won’t miss out from your friend’s new postings.

2. Do grouping all the blogs you subscribe and read by groups

I categorise all my favourite blogs according to groups. For instant, I have

• Local mummies (Group 1,2,3 4)
• Oversea mummies
• Mummies with Twins
• Baking/Cooking Mums

I visit blogs with updates by groups. This way, I make sure that I visited all blogs without having to miss out anyone. Grouping also makes visiting easier so I can plan to clear the unread groups by days.

3. Lastly, I leave a comment.

Although I must admit that I can’t leave comments for each postings and updates from my friends. There are too many postings (for instant, I have > 500 unread posts now) and it will be too tedious to do so. Therefore, I’ll probably just choose one of the latest posting and leave a comment there. Just a small gesture to let my friends know that I visited them.

I have almost 200 subscribe blogs on my Google Reader now, and well, if you ask me if it is too tiring to visit the blogs, I can tell you that I still enjoy doing so, although no longer as frequent as previous. Maybe a reason to that is because I am too KPC to find out what is going on out there with my friends and their kids! From there I also get to know what’s happening in town. Many time, I find it very helpful to search for certain info just through my Google Reader when I remember reading something similar posted by some friend bloggers on their blog.

Hope the tips above helps anyone who wish to find ways to catch up with their favourite blogs the easier way.

The weather in Melaka is unbelievably HOT! Since we miss big family gathering, I rather stayed at home inside my air-con room with my sick boys instead of bringing them around to pai-nien.

My kids with my Goh cousins

We only bring the kids to my paternal grandparents place, then also to visit my maternal dotage grandma who almost could not recognise us anymore. Despite old age, she still looks really good. I wonder if my grandma knows how to apply the home acne remedies when she was younger. I hope all my grandparents still have many more years to come as they are still very healthy at such old age.

Kids at Beer Garden, The Jetty

We can never be bored with sight-seeing in Melaka. Melaka has changed so much ever since declared as World Heritage City by UNESCO and although it is hot to walk around, we drive into Jonker Street and the town each night to see the beautiful lantern decors.

At the Lobby of sea facing Holiday Inn, Melaka

Us on boat tour

We even went for a boat tour at the Melaka River on the last night before we came back to KL. Tickets are really cheap (Rm10/adult). If you are going to Melaka, you must also check out the very interesting land-and-sea experience Melaka Duck Tour (but it is Rm45/adult). We plan to check that out the next round we go back to Melaka!