Saturday, September 19, 2015

Aunty Talk

I like to share my experiences on Dayre. (Kinda miss blogging on Dayre actually.)

So here's one for those who are expecting a child/planning for a child.

When you bring your kiddo out, you tend to attract aunties (sometimes uncles). And from my experience, they ask similar questions.

Aunty Question #1:
How old is your baby?

Nothing wrong with this question ah. Standard la. I would ask the same if I see other people's kiddo.
BUT! (got but one.. aunty mah!)

Let's say your answer is "Oh, 3 months old."

If you have a fluffeh baby like this..

then they will ask..

Aunty Question #2:
What milk he/she drinks?

Now this question applies to even those who don't have a chubby baby.

If you have a chubby baby and your answer is :
1) Breastmilk
Most will go ... "WAHHH! So good ah!" 
then somehow you feel like they are staring at your boobs and you would feel uncomfortable.
OR
it'll make you super proud that you feel like arching your back, lift chest up and if you can thump your chest.. "Ya Aunty.. the boobies did the baby good!"

2) Formula Milk
Most of the time they will say ... "Oh no wonder! What brand ah?"

If you have a less chubby baby and your answer is :
1) Breastmilk
They might go "Aiya. no wonder. They say breast milk dun make baby chubby one."
(This is from listening/reading other mother's rants. My kids are all on the chubby side when they are infants.)

2) Formula Milk
"Huh? Formula also not so chubby one ah? What brand you give him/her?"

Contrary to popular believe that to have a chubby baby, all they need is milk... is wrong.
In fact, they need milk and sleep and GENES!

Yup, if you don't have a chubby baby but your baby drinks and sleeps well.. blame it on the genes.

Aunty Question #3
Boy or Girl ah?

You see.. I had this problem with Lucas. Somehow, many thinks he's a girl.
GIRL? DID YOU JUST SAY THAT I'M A GIRL??

Unfortunately, his sister suffers the same fate.
Only that she's always mistaken as a boy..

Wear boyish colour .. ok la.. no one can tell cos she has got no hair..

HUH?
Wear pink and girly tops also people say I'm a boy?
@#$%%^&**((^%#@

Ya.. so.. if you would like to avoid aunties (people in general) to ask if your baby is a boy or a girl, I strongly suggest you to dress your baby up like this..

For girls.

For boys, just keep wearing blue and a boy coloured hat. Don't go metrosexual. 

Well, unless you don't mind answering this question 1987654367890 times every time you bring your baby out.

Aunty Question #4:
Your first child?

Very normal question but if you answer "Yes, my first!"

BE VERY PREPARED for aunty to give you some tips of advice. 
Yup, you don't ask for it but they somehow feel.. "Lai lah, you no experience, first child. Aunty tell you how to take care of your child."

To be honest, I have 3 kids from the same factory. Every child is different.
What makes aunty think yours would be the same as theirs/or their grandchildren?

But again..
Aunty's advise may not be wrong. Just listen. I don't shut out every aunty I meet cos sometimes they may ask/say something that you have never thought of and you would go.. "God sent this Aunty to you."

So Yup... only 4 common questions. 
Sounds like nothing and I'm so petty to be blogging about it.

Wait la wait.. wait til you have to answer it 8287356299 then you can come and tell me.. "Ciku! You are right!" 
hahahaa.. kidding kidding..

Just something for all new mothers to expect.
Don't get angry at aunties.  I may be one of them. Hahaha..

All questions asked are genuine.. unless you can sense them coming with some "comparison" like "OH .. my grandson/granddaughter ah... bla bla bla.." then I wish you luck.
;)

Disclaimer:
I have no intention in hurting any aunty's feelings. Just something that came to mind and I thought of blogging about it.

Take a chill pill.. my mum's an aunty too!
;)

Saturday, September 12, 2015

I'm back! Long post ahead with photos of my 3 kiddos (you read it right..Three!) and baking! ENJOY!

My last post was last year! WOW! Let me just wipe off them 2inch layer of dust from this blogspot of mine. Hahaha..

Hope that this post finds everyone healthy and happy!

I've been blogging on Dayre every day .(Ok.. almost every day cos I do get quite busy with everything happening in life.)
Click on the link if you would like to know what has been happening.

Quite a pain to be reading more than 365 days of entry actually. So I shall sum it up here.

What have I been up to?

Firstly, I've relocated. Currently in Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia. Following my husband in his call of duties.
At first it seems like a dread because I know nobody.
But thanx to Dayre, I've made some friends who are living/from Miri and from then on, let's just say.. I'm truly blessed.

It does get lonely for me sometimes. But I do stay in touch with my sister, my mum and my besties (only a handful of them but they are the best!!!) , so after chatting nonsense with all of them, I don't feel so bad anymore.

Helped the kids settle down and Baby #4 came!
If you think I didn't blog about Making Baby #4, I did! but on my Dayre .

The Dayre community were so nice that they were camping through my 10days contraction and on the day that I was admitted to deliver our baby girl (yes!it's a girl!) , they were just awesome supporters!

and of course, naturally, most of them became fans of the girl.

And in Dayre, she's known as FJ or Fluffeh.

Why?

Because she IS Fluffeh! 
Hahhaa.. Well, the nickname Fluffy Jr was given by James when I was carrying her. Then it became too much trouble to be typing "Fluffy Jr" everytime I blog on Dayre. So I shorten it to FJ and then somehow she's called Fluffeh cos she's fluffeh. hahahaha.. 
Ya..not a very interesting "how you get your nickname?" story. :D


Lucas adores her. 

So does James.

She's truly blessed to have two elder brothers going "You are so cute, I wanna kiss you all day and night!" which makes us, parents go "GENTLE AH! she's still small!" "Gentle ah gentle." 
Hhahahaa.. Any parents here share our sentiments? ;)

FAST FORWARD!

She's now 7 months old!
ooops...blur photo...

Ahh..a better one.
but she's usually with a "WHAT YOU LOOKING AT?" face..

Like this...
Yup.. this is her standard look.

You get semi-happy face like this when you snap a photo at the right time.

And you will need two adults or another kiddo running around doing silly stuff to get this kind of smile. 
Hahahaha...

Besides taking care of 3 kiddos..

I've been baking. 
Before you go "WAH! YI LEI! you so power! go to a land you know nobody also can bake ah!"
I have God to thank for this cos it really wasn't in my plan when we moved here. My job was to really just take care of the kids and see how things goes.

But it was God's plan to have me meet the owner of a cafe here and things has never been better since!

I'm currently baking for a cafe named Brewhouse. It's located in Permaisuri Imperial Mall, Miri.
If any of you are from/visiting Miri, do go grab a cup of coffee from Brewhouse and have a slice of cake/Brownies or some butter cookies or Chocolate Tarts made by yours truly.

Here are some of the cakes that I've baked so far for Brewhouse and individual orders..

Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cake.

Nutty Chocolate Oreo Tarts.
(The nuts are caramalized with Salted Gula Melaka)

Rainbow Cake!

One of the best sellers at Brewhouse:
Green Tea Cake with Matcha Cream Cheese Frosting

The other crowd favourite..

Red Velvet Cake.


Chocolate Chip Brownies
(which is available at Brewhouse on a daily basis)

Lemon Cake

I made Durian Cake for fun cos it's the Durian season.

The latest flavour that we introduced at Brewhouse:
Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Cake
(just..so..gooooddd...)


I've also participated in Curtin University's Club Open Day.
Thanx to Brewhouse for lending me their manpower.
Otherwise, how on earth can I be at one place for two days for 7 hours straight?
With three kids.. impossible unless I bring them along.
Haha..

So ya, that's the baking summary. Quite short actually but I have so much to update, can't tell more. You can check out my Facebook Page: Cikumuffin's Kitchen
for updates on the cakes available at Brewhouse.
And if you are in Miri and would like to other a whole cake, do drop me a message via my page or you can drop me an email at the.ciku.muffin@gmail.com

I've also decided to take a sabbatical from blogging on Dayre...

WHY???!?? Cos typing on the laptop is more fun! hahaha.. kidding kidding.
cos I realised that it does take up some of my time and I need to devote more time to my second son, Lucas.

Through photos.. you may not see any thing wrong with him.. come let me show you...


A happy toddler at the playground.


He is quite developed in his hand and legs coordination.

No problem with hand-eye coordination too.

Being cheeky is something he's born to do.


He rejects when we read to him but he wants to read like an adult. *rolls eyes*
So what's the matter with him?
He has speech delay.
Is it just a delay or something more serious than that? I have no idea.

He's 26 months old today and we get him saying "Dada" , "Mama", "Come", "Done" when he wants to. And some other words here and there... when he wants to.

So we decided to bring him for hearing test just to rule out hearing as his problem. He of course don't have any hearing problem because this toddler of ours can listen to commands and understand them well.

What causes the delay?
Again.. I have no idea.

So we decided to send him to play school.

Here he is having breakfast on the way to school.
He just started about a week or so. 
We were recommended to give him about 3 months in play school to see if there's any improvement before searching for help from a speech therapist.

I would think that the presence of Fluffeh may have made his speech delay further because I have to spend some of the time attending to her.
And also now that I'm a work from home mum instead of a full-time stay at home mum.

So that's why I'm eliminating whatever daily "distraction" , just so I can concentrate more in helping this lil boy.

Let's just pray for the best!


How is it that blogging on my blogspot be any different than blogging on Dayre?
Well, with Dayre, I blog from the App on my phone. So it's quite like an "temptation" to keep it updated. I'm not saying that it's bad or wrong. I do love recording what has happened on a daily basis but I guess eliminating what is necessary may just help.

And when I blog on my blogspot, I have no choice but to only do it when the kids are asleep cos I can't possibly be typing on a laptop when they are awake. One sentence also difficult.
I would still love to record my children's development. That's why I decided to revive this blog, just so that next time , when they are all grown up (leaving mummy and dada to tend to themselves), I can read it again. These memories will last forever.

I haven't forgotten about my first born. Don't worry laaaaa...

James is now almost 6 years old. How time flies eh?

Here he is doing his homework.
We sent him to a Chinese medium Kindie because we don't speak Mandarin at home and we would like to send him to a Chinese Medium Primary school next year. So we figured a year of practise would do him some good.

And it paid off. He can now speak Mandarin fluently and is a little more hardworking.

How did my lil baby grow to this?
*sob sob*

I'm glad that even though Lucas is showing signs of "attention deficit", he still adores his lil sister. 


 All is well in this little family of mine.. ok ok.. not so little anymore. Hahahaa..

Oh I forgot to introduce our latest addition..

Ladies and gentlemen, please meet Audrey Tan..

Also known as Fluffeh.
Fluffeh Junior.
Haha..

That's all for now folks!
Hope my super long post didn't bore you! ;)

p/s: any of you from Dayre reading this... HIIII!! Missed me?? Drop a comment! ;)