4 is just a number....

Eya celebrated her 4th birthday last Friday, 24th September in 2 occasions, the first was at her school's Jamuan Hari Raya and the other one was celebrated at her tok ayah's house later in the night.

As last year, I had to pack 50 goodies bag to be given to her friends at the nursery. For this year, her acu did the tag for the goodies bag. The tags were very nice, and we got the tags printed and cut out at a printing shop. She was quite mama's little helper that night as she helped me to pack all the goodies bag.

Her 4th y/old goodies bag

For the cake, we booked a simple chocolate buttercream cake. So, on the morning of her birthday, I sent all the goodies bag and cake to her school. Ticer Farah told me that she will celebrate her birthday during the jamuan.

Once we arrived at her school that afternoon, she was eating with all her friends and asking when she will blow the candles. The teacher prepared all the cakes and gathered all of her friends. This year, she was good as she didn't cry when people sang her the birthday song. Being 4 this year, she can blew all the candles on her own.

As for the celebration at her tok ayah's house, her cik yong bought her a delicious Dora's cake. She was ecstatic when she saw the cake.

For this year, opah gave her a nice pink bicycle for her 4th birthday and Zidane got a green tractor.

Eya with Aqilah, one of her good friend

Eya surrounded by her friends

Eya cutting her birthday cake

Happy 4th Birthday, EYA.... 

Harness for kids...

I spent my Saturday afternoon playing 'Little Big Planet' on PS3 while hubby web surfing beside me.

During the surfing, he read an article from Kosmo, about usage of harness in young children. In the article, most experts asked rejects the use of harness in children as they damper their growth.

I started using harness on Eya since she started walking, which is almost 3 years ago. I knew about harness while I was staying in the UK. Most parents there will strap their young children with harness when they go out in public. At first, it was quite a shock to me but I thought the idea was great as you can easily know your children whereabouts compared to releasing them, and when they are not in your sight, you call out for them. 

So, when Eya started walking, I searched high and low for the harness. It was not available in any children store, so I had to search for it quite some time before I managed to find it. It was from Taiwan and it cost around RM30-40, I really forgot the price of it.

As Eya was quite young at that time, it was not that hard to strap her with the harness. I still remember using it on her during our trip to Ipoh Parade. Almost everyone keep saying bad words to us, and looked to us like we are harming our little girl. Even a young kid (I still remember until today what she said) said to me, 'Macam bawak anjing' (like taking a dog). Not just her, a few aunts and people around my age stop and giving rude comments to us. For me, I didn't give a damn on what people think as long as I know my baby was safe with me.

Just imagine if I let her loose, without any strap. She will wander aimlessly on her own and if I couldn't keep up with her, she will be lost, just like that kid that got lost in Sogo. With that strap on her, I had a feeling of relief that she is with me all the time. Eya loves to hide behind clothes rack and wander into shops, so sometimes its hard for us to find her. So, using the harness, we knew she is just beside us.

Using the harness, you could not simply pull her anyway that you like. She may fall down, so the harness is just a tool that keep your child with you.

When she almost 3 years old, I bought another type of harness, more suitable for her age, which was a wrist harness. Instead of strapping the harness at her back, the wrist harness, was strapped at her wrist. It still has the same concept, but it was less restraining to her.

Until now, I don't think people still accept the usage of harness as they equate it to restraining an animal. As for me and hubby, we like to know that our daughter is with us safely, so we don't really care what the public thinks when we put the harness on her.

Now, just a few days before Eya turns 4, we had stop using the harness. Now, for every visit to the mall, we will put her in shopping trolley (if available) and sometimes, hold her hand. But without the harness, we still worry about losing her in the crowd of people.

Updating my micasa status

My new house is supposed to be ready in these few next months. In the signed S&P, it should be ready by end of this month. My house is already ready, just waiting for the completion of 2 other models.

As for now, hubby has taken measurement for all the windows and doors for the quotation for grill and curtains.We had done some window shopping for the furnitures. In fact, we had done a little bit of shopping at Ikea during the sale. Mostly for Eya's room. All the lights also had been bought, along with the curtain railing.

Not that many things to buy, just:

• Bed for Eya's room
• Our wardrobe
• Sofa and dining table

So, here are some pictures of our new home:

View from the front

Kitchen area

Dining and living area

 

 

View from Master bedroom

Balcony area

Still in progress

As for now, the road has been done, together with the landscaping. We estimate that the house will be ready by November or December. Really couldn't wait.....

Making my first-ever kuih

I never spend much at pasar ramadhan. I will only buy 1 or 2 type of kuihs for my 'break-fast'.

My favourite kuih will only be the kuih displayed below:

                                            Karipap                                          Kuih lapis

                                       Buah melaka                              Cara manis

This year pasar ramadhan was very costly. 3 buah melaka will cost you RM 1, compared to last year of  7 pieces. But, I have no options of not buying it, so I close my eyes every time I paid for the buah melaka.

Then, one day, Lida's FB status read as 'Buat onde-onde for berbuka'. Not her exact status, but something like that. So, I commented on her status that next time, if she is doing buah melaka, she should save some for me.

Ended up, she leave a message in my FB inbox with details on her recipe. It seem easy to make it but I'm not interested in making my own kuih.

So, I asked mom on the level of easiness in making the kuih. Mom said it is an easy kuih to do.

We went to Tesco to buy the tepung pulut and gula melaka to do it. For the green factor, I used pandan leaves for it. The total cost of the shopping is only around RM5.

First thing that I did was to blend the pandan leaves with water. The, sieve it to get only the green liquid. Pour it into the 'tepung pulut'. Then, using your hand, blend the pandan water and tepung until you get the right consistency.

After, some times, make the mixture into balls, place gula melaka in it. Unlike the pasar ramadan sellers, I put big chunk of gula melaka in it.

Then, hubby being helpful, helped me in boiling the balls and kaklong helped me to mix it with grated coconut.

Walla! this is the result of my first experience making 'buah melaka'. The green color is not that nice as I didn't use any artificial color. The reason why the kuih looks so tempting in param, green artificial color.

  My creation of buah melaka

With cost of doing it for only RM5, I can get only 15. I'm doing it myself, I got almost 100 of buah melaka.

Aleya's third admission...

Last month, Eya was admitted to hospital due to rotavirus. Just 2 weeks ago, she was admitted again due to high fever.

On that particular Thursday, she told me she had a fever. I thought she was lying and just making excuses not to go to school. So, I asked hubby to check her temp using the digital thermometer and it turned out that she was not lying. Her temperature was 39.5.

I asked hubby to take care of her while I went to work. Exactly at 5.15 p.m., I clocked out and rushed home. She was asleep at that time, so I packed all her belongings and mine.Hubby told me that her temperature was still high, although she ate the medicine form a clinic that morning. We were worried if Eya's fever reach 38 or more as it may cause fit or a very high fever. So,  thats why we resort in going to Assunta.

We rushed to Assunta, taking all the shortcuts. The doctor took nasal swab, to check for H1N1 and also a blood test.

As her temperature was very high, 40, I agreed when the doctor suggested she should be admitted. This time,  the admission process went smoothly.

So, after 2 blood test and 2 urine test, she was diagnosed of having UTI (Urinary Tract Infection). I wondered how a small kid could get UTI, so I googled it. I found out kids that like to hold their pee, is likely to get UTI.

She was released after 3 days in the hospital but for a few days, she was very restless. I left her with my mom but I didn't know why, she refused to stay with her opah. She refused to eat and only drank water and milk for the 2 days she was with my mom. Me and hubby decided to take her back and hubby need to leave her with mom for the 2 days while we are at work.

So, the followup after she was discharged was done yesterday. She need to take an ultrasound test to check her kidney and another urine test. As for the kidney, everything looks normal but her urine was still dirty.

 Eya waiting for the radiologist to start the ultrasound test.

Dr Mary decided to do a culture test for the urine to check for any growth. She supposed to call me today but until now, still no call. I assumed everything is fine then.

Research Assistant opportunity

I am looking for a full-time research assistant. The project title is "Campus IT Governance: A Good Practice Framework to Govern IT Processes and Resources in a University Campus Setting". The duration of the project is for 12 months and the RA will pursue their Master degree while doing the project.

No one is going to pretend that RA pay is lucrative but I promise that the successful applicant will be “paid with opportunity.” If you fit the bill or know someone who might, please send this along to them. For more information, just leave a comment with your email.

Lappie was sick, but now it 's back...

I was not being able to update my blog as usual before this due to my sick lappie.

It could not start properly and the screen was fuzzy, with a vertical black line in the middle. When I tried to google it, most of the surfers said it maybe due to faulty screen.

So, I asked Hamdi to repair it, and he sent it to his friend in lowyat. The friend tried to replace the screen with all screen that he got, which was almost 10 types of screen and none successful. He tested it for a few weeks.

That didn't work, so the last resort was to call Dell. I didn't call Dell initially as my lappie warranty had finished and I read on the net that their parts is very expensive.

So, hubby called Dell and explained the problem. Remember that before calling Dell, you need to be prepared with your Service Tag and Express Service Code, and also to try troubleshoot your lappie online.

Luckily, we called Dell as it turned out that lappie has a year extended warranty for its motherboard.

2 days after the call, Dell rep came to my office and changed the faulty motherboard. The guy told me that if the motherboard is damaged, its better to buy a new lappie. BTW, the guy is new to the job and took almost 2 hours to open lappie.

I was so relieved and happy that lappie is healthy again and hope that it can serve us for a couple more years.