Lately, QQ has been requesting hubby and I to do lots of funny thing at home, like do deep kissing, hugging, and holding hands while watching TV right in front of her eyes! Although we feel really awkward when we do that due to her request, she gets really happy, give us a BIG smile on her face and clap her hands. She gets really upset, close up her ears and yelled “STOPPPP” at us  when hubby and I sometimes argue or raise our voice angrily while talking to each other. She even yelled back at us, asking why we want to get married in the first place if we hate each other so much.

I wonder what has gotten into her, my only 6 year old girl??

Until 2 days back, she told me that a boy’s parents from her class have separated. QQ said the boy and his elder brother are now living with their father while their mother lives alone. This obviously leaves impact to her and perhaps she is feeling insecure, so afraid of loosing either both of us one day.

Finally I understand. At least hubby and I now make an effort to avoid raising voice or argue in front of the kids, unless one of us really gets *MAD*!

Looks like my 6 year old QQ is now mature enough to treasure the value of a happy family eh…

I thought non-identical twins will look very different, like Annie Q’s twin boys but Irene kept on saying that her twins are non-identical. So we decided to get some parents out there to judge and see picture below and judge for us, k.

Pics taken at Irene’s twins,  Eden and Aiden’s 2 year old birthday party

Tell me, don’t Aiden and Eden looks the same? I see one is more chubbier than the other. Apart of that, they looks EXACTLY the same to me. What say you?

Wait till I get my turn to use my brother’s new dslr, Nikon D90, then you will be able to see more presentable pics here. Meanwhile, bear with these….

Didi and Korkor at 20 months..

Thank goodness, they look “better” now after one whole month of being sick. Now my maid and I are working very hard to stuff them with more food and they are almost eating round the clock (either main meal, or healthy bites).

Continue from previous post, Frequently snap by JAWS

I gave up feeding them formula and now I am in the process of weaning them off breastmilk. And guess what method I use? White Vinegar!! YUcky idea right?? Better than pounding tumeric which leaves stain, applying cruel cilli, ginger right?

Initially my maid suggested using the bittergourd juice, but it does not work on strong-will Didi. Since we do not have any nice edible cider vinegar at home, I resort to white vinegar we use for washing, wahahaha!! Not poisonous la, since they are made of rice right?

Effect on Korkor

First I applied some on my teats and effect was great on Korkor. He ran amok running around scratching his tongue and I could not stop laughing at him. He remembered the effect so well that he stayed away from latching on to me for 2 days. It was the most horrible days in his life, I think, as he could not fall asleep each time he is very sleepy. He got so cranky that he want me to hug him tight all the time. In the end, I gave in, and have to reassure him that nen-nen is clean again since he and didi fight over me so much, each wanting only to be held by mummy, not wanting Mummy to hug another party. So now, Korkor is back to the breast but I no longer allows him to treat me as a pacify. Once times

up, I’ll tell him nen-nen is going to be smelly again once Mummy in pain and he sometimes just goes off. If it does not work at times, I”ll dip my finger in vinegar and put it near to his nose. This usually makes him release me immediately!

Effect on Didi

Unlike Korkor, this child is too smart to be cheated. When I first put on vinegar, he will continue to suck and suck until it goes back to normal taste, pretty smart eh? Since it is harder to wean him, I thought of weaning Korkor first and Didi later. But Korkor just can’t stand seeing Didi getting the breast and again, lots of struggle begins. So in the end, both still gets the breast. For times up, instead of putting near my vinegar-dipped finger near to his nose, I have to poke my finger into his mouth so he gets a stronger taste of the vinegar to release me.

YuM SeNg!! Love only drinking plain water from bottle and not milk

As of today

After a week of practising the vinegar thing, they now automatically release me (most of the time) whenever I tell them to stop sucking Mummy before it turns sour again. Hopefully this method will continue to work (before they turn any smarter) and they wean automatically soon (although I still very much enjoying their closeness and feel very em-seh-tak, sigh…)

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!

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…!

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?

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!

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??