A Happy Day

Dark clouds covered the grey sky. The grumbles and growls of thunders were heard for the past 2 hours. Yet, Mia smiles happily while her daddy steals a bit of time to "rest his eyes".

Pink dolphin for you Takako! Oh, she's so happy. Why?

Because we're back at the pool after a 3 week break. In spite of all the signs of a possible thunderstorm, it never happened and we had a blast in the pool.

Haaaaa.... the first dip after being away for so long. She was overjoyed.

Today, I managed to take a picture of her in a baby floater. This one is borrowed from her cousin because I forgot to bring hers with us today.

Just look at her go. She's such an independent little pumpkin. She can hold herself in the baby floater, kick her chubby little legs and float around the big pool without a care for anyone else.

Later on, I decided to catch a ride on her floater. Scarf is off and abracadabra... MORE HAIR on our baby's head!

It was indeed a happy day for baby Mia yesterday. And it was a happy day for her mummy and daddy too because later in the night..... ;)

We went on a shopping spree and gotten ourselves 27 new DVDs to watch

To kick start our movie nights... we watched:Haaaaaaaa..... more happy days to come...... :)

Of Food and the Merry Month of May

Its the merry month of May. The harvest festival month. The Sabah Fest month. The popular month for people to get married. Its all happening here in Sabah, Malaysia.

And in this month, I'm going to cook something new everyday - be it sweet, savory or just a little snack. Because of a challenge given to me by Cinda to cook something different each day, I've started a food blog - Of Sugar and Spice. And to kick of this cooking marathon, I've made:

Pineapple Apple Crumble Pie

Award from SJB & Veron!

I got tagged!

Sorry SJB & Veron for taking such a long time to respond! And also.... Thank you, you two ;)


1. Copy and paste the award - CHECKED: tuuuu di atas!

2. List who gave you the award and link back to their blog - CHECKED: Received from http://sj-myphotopage.blogspot.com/) and http://cabitravel.blogspot.com

3. Tell us 10 things that make you happy - CHECKED:

The 10 things that make me happy in no particular order:
1. My wonderful husband
2. My smiling/laughing/happy Mia
3. Happy families
4. Taking photos
5. Looking at photos
6. Traveling
7. A clean home
8. Spending time with great friends
9. Shopping
10. Fast internet access

4. Pass the award to 10 bloggers that brighten your day.
In random order as well:

1. SJB @ http://sj-myphotopage.blogspot.com (Regularly updated: Her photos, her stories can brighten up anyone's day)
2. CathJ @ http://www.cjgotravel.com (Runs in the family... a regular updater too: Good read on her work, life and travels)
3. Rosie @ http://roscsymone.blogspot.com (a sassy lady with great tales to share)
4. Foleria @ http://booh7979.blogspot.com (tips on losing weight without saying no to good food!)
5. Cinda @ http://simplyaboutlife.blogspot.com (supermom & netbrity chef in the making)
6. Don @ http://isitsimplyaboutlife.blogspot.com (honest, frank, hilarious tales of a superdad on "what not to do!" - guide for the husband!)
7. Steffi @ http://steffiana.blogspot.com (live, love, laugh babe!)
8. The eat out gurus @ http://everydayfoodiluvkk.blogspot.com (food reviews in KK and beyond)
9. Apsara & Vera @ http://babygaga.wordpress.com (nice to know where this expat family are!)
10. Last but certainly not the least, Veron @ http://cabitravel.blogspot.com (travel tales and more!)
    

===============The End.... of the tag!========================

5 months old today

Height: 65cm
Weight: 7.1kg

Eczema practically healed. She's started Step 2 of her medication today.

Favourite show, Bananas in Pajamas

Likes to catch/touch/play with her toes

Does not like the glare from the sun. She can pull a hanky over her eyes all by herself.

Still bites on furniture

Bites on the animal buttons... favorite is the rooster. The buttons can't play music anymore. Spoiled by her saliva.

Grabs anything within reach: newpapers

Takes her clean and folded diapers from the diaper basket then spreads them around the living room as if Mummy does not have enough cleaning up to do.

Strong enough to take her father's shoes of the shoe rack

Likes to give her Mummy a foot massage. Yeah right! She just likes to touch and tickle...

Can flip with ease. Can't crawl just yet but she can drag her body on the floor, on the bed and lift her bum up high!

That's Mia's 5 month development in summary. I wonder what she'll be able to do by her 6th month.

Of Birthday Dinner & Prezzies

This is a very late entry. But better late than never huh?!

Warning: Lots of pictures in this post because this time, I decided to allow the pictures do the talking (Well, most of it anyway!).

I had a wonderful dinner with my ladies to celebrate my birthday last week. Because Teresa was away overseas, we only managed to get together on Friday 17th April 2010.

"Thank you Janet for the treat. Thanks ladies for the company and thoughtful presents. Thanks to God for really great friends. We're truly blessed."

The dinner was at Recipe House, Damai. This place is one of our favorite Japanese restaurants in the affordable category. So, here's what we had:

Teriyaki set for me. See that hand... that's my Mia trying to grab a bite!

Salmon sashimi... yum.....

Torikatsu set for Lola Dora

A bit of everything for Teresa

Salmon skin set for Janet

Rosie ordering her Torikatsu set

Kesian my Mia.... she wants to have a taste

Janet and Teresa trying to wipe Mia's neck... the hardest area to clean for now

We were happily talking about everything from JCI to engagement matters when suddenly I felt a little hand patting my back. I turned around and there was a little toddler there who wanted to have a look at Mia!

Here he is, Mia's new friend - 10 month old Angus. When Mia saw Angus, she let out a loud, "Hi!!!!" Angus looks a lot like Mia that he can pass as my son! LOL!

Angus' mum - Helen (I think). She's so sweet.

Before we left, Mia wanted to shake Angus' hand. Look at those fingers!

When we got home, I couldn't wait to open my prezzies:

From Janet & Magdy - Esprit long wallet. I don't know how they know but I've been wanting to change my purse for soooooo long but I couldn't find the perfect one. And they found THE wallet for me. I love the colour too as it matches Mia's diaper bag which is now my handbag like 99.99% of the time.

From Rosie, a kitchen scale. When I opened this gift I was jumping up and down. Images of scones, cupcakes, muffins, cakes and pies flashed through my mind. Finally, I have a kitchen scale and a gorgeous one too. Because of this scale, I will be starting a baking & cooking blog very soon. It is in the making....

From Teresa - goodies for me and Mia from Indonesia. A really special angel winged teddy bear is part of the package. The green thing in the middle - that opens up to be a handbag. I love it, really handy.

Nah.... bonus picture! Mia in her first batik! As you can see, the top part is wet already because of her saliva.

Oopsie!

I messed up this blog's layout while trying to spruce up another blog of mine.

They'll be some changes to this blogsite in the days to come... please bear with me while I experiment ;)

Chao!

A Photo Meme...

I was photo memed by Cinda last week and was so touched by the beautiful story behind her photo of her in-laws' 50th wedding anniversary. This got me thinking, would my husband and I be able to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary? If we could, that means I'd be 85 and my husband, 91. Geez!

It's quite unlikely that we'd be around for our 50th wedding anniversary celebration here in this temporary place we call earth, so I intend to make the best attempt to celebrate our marriage each and everyday.

It's nice to see old photos and get to know the story behind it. I hope others are able to join in, if not in your blog, then maybe on a scrapbook page or a photo album.

These are the rules:

1. Open your first (oldest) photo folder in your computer library
2. Scroll to the 10th photo
3. Post the photo and the story behind it
4. Tag 5 or more people to continue the thread

Well, I only got my first digital camera in late 2004 and all my photos were stored on my Dell laptop. Unfortunately, that died on me in 2007 and with it, it brought took along my beautiful pictures and memories. I searched and searched for the CD where I backed up some photos and I came across one CD which is the oldest.

This is my photo meme:
This picture was taken by Winnie during our holiday to Bangkok on 14 February 2005. It was just Janet, Rosie, Winnie and me on that trip. At the time we were all very single and decided to get those cheap fares and spend 5 days in Bangkok.

I remember that we were on transit in KLIA and to kill time, we sang along to "I'm All Out of Love" over and over again at the boarding gate.

We arrived in Bangkok at around 10 or 11pm and after checking in at our hotel, we took a tuk tuk to Soi Cowboy. I think we were cheated on the tuk tuk fare but we didn't care. We had a blast screaming to the top of our lungs until we reached our destination.

We did what we did best at the time - club hopping. A 'GRO' chatted with us in one of the bars and stuck stickers on us. Winnie got the most! Then we proceeded outside for some snacks, street food ie frogs. I wanted to try out the cockroaches but Rosie stopped me.

That was just the beginning of our wonderful holiday and the fun continued throughout the time we were there - the con jobs, the food, the culture, the history, the 'shows', the shopping. As much as I love going on vacations with my husband, I sure do miss those days of holidays with the ladies!

So here's my tag of 5 more beautiful people to continue this thread:

1. Rosie @ Rosc De' Cowgal
   
2. Foleria @ Living Life to the fullest
3. Veron @ Cabi's Travelog
   
4. Steffi @ A Simple I Love You means more than money
   
5. Evelyn @ Life Now and Then
   

Not well

There are just so many things I've been aching to blog about but unfortunately I'm not feeling well. Sore throat, a bit of a fever, sore muscles (or more accurately - fats. Hang on, can we get sore fats?!) and a headache.

The only thing that keeps me out of the bed is the sight of this:

Haaaa, my Mia!

I've been me me'd by Cinda and I'd love to get started on that first and foremost. Then there's the birthday gathering with my besties and the sweet prezzies received.

But for now, allow me to take care of me first so then I can think better and take better pictures than this:

In the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie 'The Terminator', I'll be back...

New Food Moment:: Tortang Talong

I tried making my own version of the Tortang Talong we ate at Masarap Restaurant.

I'm guessing that 'tortang' came from the word 'torta' because in the Philippines, 'torta' refers to a kind of omelette made with eggs, ground meat and sometimes minced onion and potato. 'Talong' on the other hand means eggplant. Hmmmm, sounds like 'terung' which is eggplant in Bahasa Malaysia.

As I'm a clueless wonder in the kitchen, I had to not only google the recipe, but find a video to demo how to cook it. Thanks to YouTube, I was able to come up with this really simple recipe for Tortang Talong for 2.

Ingredients:

• 3 cloves garlic - peeled and grated. Yes, I usually grate my garlic. I love the aroma but hate to eat chunks of it
• half a bowl of lean pork meat - minced
• 2 medium size eggs - beaten
  
• 1/4 bell pepper - diced
• 1 potato - grated
• 1 small carrot - grated
• 2 medium size eggplants
  
• 2 teaspoon of plain white flour
• 1/2 cube of chicken stock for seasoning
• oil for frying

1. Wash the eggplants and grill them until the skin becomes black.
2. Once done, peel the burnt skin off and set aside
3. In a large bowl, mix well the pork, bell pepper, potato, carrot, garlic and chicken stock
4. Heat about 2 teaspoon of oil in a frying pan and saute item (3) until cooked
5. Remove from heat and transfer them into a bowl
   
6. Divide beaten eggs into 2. Pour half onto a plate and the other half into the meat mix, pour the flour in and mix well
   
7. On another plate, use a fork to press the eggplants so that they become flat (I should have taken a picture here but by this time, my little Mia who was in her walker has grabbed hold of my chunky calf and is making a lot of noises. Yes, I got distracted)
8. Dip the eggplants into the remaining eggs. Make sure you get eggs on both side of each eggplant
   
9. Place meat on top of each eggplant
10. Slide each eggplant gently onto the frying pan (with a bit of hot oil - just enough so that the eggplant don't stick to the frying pan) and just pan fry on each side until they are golden brown
    

There you have it, Tortang Talong, ready to be served. The bottom one is a little bit messy but tastes delicious all the same.

When my husband came home and saw the Tortang Talong, his reaction was "Wah... my darling cook Filipino food now!" Hmmmmm, I'm trying darling. Trying.

She has Eczema

See that? That's Mia a couple of days ago. I've tried the Pawpaw ointment on her. It worked for a while. Then a few weeks later, the rash came back with a vengeance. I tried Sudocrem which I bought from Mothercare. It didn't make it worse. But it didn't make it better either.

We could only get an appointment with the pediatrician for 13th April -my birthday. So yesterday, we went to her pediatrician at The Kids Clinic. Dr Terry Huang checked her and diagnosed her condition: mild case of eczema and she's got fungus there. Euwwwwww!

Everything got checked for signs of eczema on other parts of her body. Luckily, its only on her cheeks. The rash that we've noticed at the back of her head is not a rash. It's birthmark. And there I was putting rash cream on it every day!

The Dr gave us 2 types of medication.

• I: Candacort. We need to apply this on her cheeks twice a day, morning at night. Then we can apply the Sudocrem on top as a moisturiser. This has to be done for 3 - 5 days (no more than 2 weeks) until the red rashes disappear.
  
• II: Candazole. Once we stop the Candacort, then we use Candazole for another 2 weeks, and Sudocrem on top.

We started applying the Candcort with Sudocrem last night.
The rashes seem to have "calmed down" this morning. I wanted to take a picture from the side but Mia keeps on turning wanting to look at the camera. Ishk, ishk, ishk! This girl thinks she's a diva. You can only take her picture from the front... no side views!

After so many failed attempts of trying to take pictures of her cheeks, I finally had 1 successful shot. I had to put her on the floor and distract her with her new toy (thanks Auntie Elva!). See, no more red rashes. The cheeks are still a bit rough because of dehydration and scarring so we'll still continue with the Candacort until her chubby cheeks become soft once more.

Note: Dr explained to us that:

• Sudocrem is a moisturiser. It is not recommended to be used on all babies because it contains fragrance. But since Mia's rash did not become worse from using it, we can continue to use it as a moituriser
• Pawpaw ointment is for cuts and wounds. Mia does not have cuts and wounds on her cheeks so we don't need to use it.

More on eczema. These are just some of the aggravating factors to eczema:

1. Use of soaps, detergents and solvents. Be careful of using cleansers that foam and lather as these lead to drying of skins. (We don't use any on Mia. I wash her face with plain water. I do bathe her with baby bathing lotion ie Johnson & Johnson. Maybe I'll stop using them for a while even though the bath lotion does not foam and lather)
2. Long periods in water especially in baths and chlorinated swimming pools (Mia's bathtime is usually around 5 minutes. Swimming pool time has been 20 minutes. Now I'm reducing it to 10 minutes followed by cleaning her with clean water all over)
3. Antiseptics and perfumed products such as bubble bath
4. Wool and nylon
   
5. Fragrances in cleansers, moisturisers or perfume sprays
6. Substances causing allergic dermatitis (eg plants, rubber and nickel). (No more rubber mats for her)
   
7. Allergens eg certain food and house dust mites
8. Stress