Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Corn Hailer

We had small BBQ in our house last April, in junction to celebrate the newly wed, my little brother and his wife. Unfortunately I didn't snap any good pictures because it was a very hot night and not really an enjoyable BBQ as most of us are tired. My parents just reached our house from Manjung around 7PM and it was a bit rushed.

Anyway, we had a lot of scrumptious food like my mom's yummilicious marinated chicken, squid, fishes, sausages and corn. My new sister in law brought delicious custard pudding as well. I oven bake some mix vege and we also had fried meehon.

That night also is the first time Zahra Elena had corn on the cob and she loves it very much! She finished almost a whole cob and I had to slow it down because my auntie said too much corn for toddlers can lead to appendix problem because they can't process it like we do.



Nyam nyam


Wahh the corn is so yummy

Hail to the corn!

The next day, I was surprised by her stool. Bertompok-tompok penuh corn ok!!! All still intact with a perfect shape of corn kernel hahaha. Padat dah jadi kuning keemasan. Opss..scrap that from your imagination! :D

I still have one cob leftover from the dinner, maybe I can thinly slice it and make bubur jagung. Yummy!

;(

I got Proton Exora invitation for a test drive event this weekend, but it will take a whole day (9am to 5pm) and not recommended to bring your child. There will be outdoor session and need both couple coorporation to get involved with the contest/competition.

I really looking forward for this event because it looks fun and we get to do a lot of thing with the car, but I never leave Zahra with my MIL, and I don't want to take the risk dia menangis cari I ke apa. And my babysitter won't be around so I can't leave her there neither.

Sigh..

Have to give it a pass. Takpela..Zahra comes first.

Monday, May 30, 2011

The New No-Oily Kitchen

Finally, after a year of planning and revising our plan, the second kitchen is ready! We already have a well-planned kitchen installed in the house before we moved in, I would say a well-planned because of the material we chose, the color, the wiring done, the gadget we bought, etc. But one thing we overlook is the position of the kitchen.

MrComot made some renovation at the back of the house to be as laundry room and it works well, until we start cooking then we realized that the kitchen become stuffy and oily even if I just stir in some garlic for Zahra's porridge! This is because the kitchen has become the middle room, and we can't do any ducting to suck the smoke out, so to reduce the smell, we just use recycle technique for the hood (charcoal filter installed and it will suck in the oil and smoke, clean the air and will release it back into the room). Not a wise move. The salesman said charcoal filter will work as good as ducting, and that's a lie ok.

The current kitchen is something like this:

The green oil and smoke hehe

I'm not very fussy with the smoke and smell because well, first thing first, I rarely cook hehehe. But it bothers me when MrComot complained everytime I cook, "ala..lantai kita berminyak". So not encouraging ok! It's somehow annoying and potong stim. Well, he's not really complaining, it's just his feet is made for this thing..oil and dust collector hehe. He can feel even a slightest dust on the floor and me on the other hand..nahhh..as long as I don't fall, the floor is alright to me hehe.

And this seriously become a reason for me to feel a tug to cook in the kitchen. I don't have the heart to see he keep on wiping the floor even though I already clean it :( And not to mention all the curtain will have this funny smell too. Another factor is, I was thinking sampai bila tanak masak kan? Somehow I need to cook for my kids if not for us, and I want to cook nasi tomato with ayam merah! That will need a lot of frying gagaga.

The kitchen finally installed last two weeks.

The kitchen#2 in kitchen#1

Unpacking the boxes and assembling the cabinet

Mounting up

Guy stuff

They are moving a bit the washing machine. The wall without the kitchen.

And the after look ;)


We went totally opposite with the old kitchen this time. The main thing will be colors. Kitchen#1 is all white and shiny and kitchen#2 is very dark brown and matte. Other than that, we make it as minimum as possible so that we can lenjan the kitchen habis-habisan without feeling guilty hehe. The whole thing is using the cheapest material, pressed laminated wood for top and cabinets. The kitchen#1 is made of solid surface and shiny gloss door and look what happen now? Just a pretty face with not much servicing.

By the way, we moved the hood from kitchen#1 and do the ducting (the smoke will be sucked up and thrown outside through the tube). We bought new hob anyway because we can't simply reuse the hob#1, it will leave a hole on the solid surface there. So basically we have two stove now. Ok la..the other one can masak maggi, won't smell and produce smoke that much :)

The new kitchen made its first debut by frying nuggets and it works! No more oily floor and smoke at all!

BTW, we still have few other small thing to settle:

1) the wall is not tiled, so somehow it will stain later. We planned to DIY the tiles later, maybe this weekend
2) Need to buy the washing machine cover since they are in the same room.


Other than that, I need to rearrange all my plates and pots so that there are easily reached. Then I'm going to be the domestic goddess. OK, where is my apron?



Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Portraiture Pwincess

Oh my...it's almost 3 weeks this blog is abandoned, I am very very busy this few weeks, hardly can seat relax-ly and type something. There's a lot of thing going on both in carreer and personal life

On carreer wise, there has been small restructure where I got new manager to report on and new AGM as well. So we were running around with lotsa meetings to put everything back in place, and not to mention we have 2 big migration project this year, involving big services - DNS and email.

On personal life pulak, we are squeezing everything in place even though both of us have very limited time now because we are expecting 2nd baby! Yeah! I wanted to make a proper write up, but later lah.. So with the second baby coming in, we have to finish our second kitchen (thank God, it's done last week) and I'll write about it later. Then few other thing as well...arrangement nak balik kampung lagi, my parents went back to Terengganu for good last week, so we have to think a lot of thing now, the travel time with little one, Raya, etc etc.

Not to mention that I'm juggling hard between a demanding toddler and tiresome pregnancy.

And the latest news pulak, all the kids in babysitter's place infected with chicken pox. For now only 2 kids free from it, Zahra and the youngest baby (7months Rizqi). Since everybody are infected, the parents decided to leave their kids there *sigh* and I only knew this when we reached at the front door. I wanted to bring Zahra to the office today instead of leaving her with the babysitter, but MrComot had this urgent meeting in Cyberjaya and has no time to detour to my office to drop me there, so I have to follow him to CBJ and leave Zahra there. Thanks to my bos and my new office laptop, I can work anyway as long as got internet connection. I can't bring her here..it won't be that comfortable as it is not my office. Sigh again. Hope Zahra is OK, won't be infected. She already had her immunization last 2 months..but if nak kena, kena jugak kan. What I'm more worried is, if Zahra kena, there is a risk for me to have it too and now is very crucial for me not to have this extra infection.

I owe this blog a lot of stories! Well, I need to jot down all of that because every little thing means a lot to me. Thus I need more time for that! *nanges*

Anyway below is a couple pics of Zahra las week, portraiture style. It's hard to snap her pic these days because she likes to move here and that when I point the camera, and will only have blurry ghostly like pictures. This is the first time she stands still and willingly smile for the camera.




Zahra at 1year4months




Happy Friday everyone! Hope you'll have a good weekend. I have a wedding to attend to on Saturday and more stops in between to settle few other thing lagi. Ahh..work is never end, all I need is extra days for the weekend.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Aku-Noi The Joy of Motherhood




Wanted to enter this contest since last week, tapi busy ya amat la. I've been away for training for a whole week. Anyway just a short one.

Pengalaman paling happy - bila my Zahra Elena jadi cheeky monster especially lately dia start ada imaginary food where she will picks up her 'food' from anywhere. Tiba-tiba tepi tangga la, from gate la, bawah meja la, dari buku la..she will use her pointy finger and thumb like pinching something out of it run to me and say mamamam wants to shove the imaginary food into my mouth. So cheeky monkey. I just get along and open my mouth saying nyummmm sedapnyaaaa and she will sengih broadly like winning something big. Every phase she will have different behaviour that makes this motherhood is enjoyable and priceless. Most of the time it'll be unpredictable event and even looking at her happy makes me happy :)


Anyway I don't have any gambar kemesraan between me and her because I forget to bring home the camera cable and most of the pics in the phone pulak semua inappropriate hehehe. I just have this pic of daddy-daughter time where she was giggling happily when MrComot tried to catch and kiss her, somewhere in Feb 2011.




Last but not least, enjoy your motherhood. Penat2 pun all paid of watching your little one growing up from little tot to bigger tot. Yes, she will always be my tot :)


Monday, May 9, 2011

Happy Mom's Day!

Happy Mommy's Day everyone! I know I am one day late, but *sigh* I am still busy as ever. I also doesn't wish my mom *yet* and planned to do so after this entry hehehe. But I love you mom!

Anyway talking about mom's day, I didn't get anything this year. Well, not exactly like that, I said I want this and that, and MrComot said, ok nanti jom kita pegi beli. But that's the whole point! I wanted something surpriseeeeeeeeeeee hahaha. Not that ok I can get it by buying it myself. I knowww...so demanding. It's only that, this year's mother's day is a bit special to me, because I know the feeling of being a mom and I feel all happy and have this tinggling emotion when my friends wish me happy mom's day :D

We went out on the Saturday night and had a yummilicious dinner in Italiannies and I see that no gift on the way, so I declared loudly to MrComot, 'OK! Kita kira ni dinner mother's day lah yer?' while smiling broadly feeling all happy and all he replied, 'Nooo..ni dinner biasa, mother's day esok me cook'.

Ok, ada dia masak? Haha tak ada ok...

Anyway on the evening of Sunday after I woke up from my afternoon nap, he came to me and whisper, 'Happy mother's day sayang! Thanks for being the best mommy and wifey in the world!'. Oh well..at least he wished me without being asked, so that will be my perfect mom's day present hehe..

Since I have nothing else to story about mom's day, below is random pictures of Zahra in May 2011.




Zahra with her messy hair, just woke up early in the morning, and busy to join me brushing teeth, only that she prefers my toothbrush over hers.





The first day I put a chair on the porch (the renovation is done weeks ago, yeay! we finally installed the gutter so the rain won't fall directly on the ground and we can put the chairs there, but now we have another problem, it has become cat's nap place!). She loves to walk on the porch without shoes because it looks cleaner with the tiles I think. I planned to buy a swing there, and if I bought one, I'll post it here! Swing is my 2011 material wishlist! :D




Dah pandai meniarap baca buku! But, this is the only time she does it. Most of the time, she prefers to be on my lap when I read her the book. She also loves reading by lying next to me sharing one pillow. You are so manja!



So how mother's day serves you. I know everyday is mom's day, but it's not like you celebrating it everyday right? Just count how many days you hug and kiss your mom, and how many days you fight back and melawan cakap? Haaa jawab jawab haha. So tak salah ada special day to celebrate it. Ahhh pandai cakap orang, I also didn't give my mom anything! Actually I wanted to give her some flowers, but time is killinggggg me. And I also want to enter this contest, hope I manage to do it before it ends.



So happy mom's day to all mommies! You deserve all the fine thing in the world. Being a mommy is not easy, but to put all the material thing aside, raising children is the best thing Allah granted us, right? There is no such joy can compare when you get to love the little one and trying your best to give her/him the best. So tak dapat hadiah pun takpe, just enjoy the motherhood ok *haha talking to myself :P*



Ok, gotta call my mom now!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Safe Hazards for your Toddler

Ohhh how I missed my blog and writing. Sorry for the long hiatus, I'm pretty busy with work lately.

Anyway, just to share with you this article that I read online because it's real! I mean, it just happen few days back and then I read this one and was like..OMG, nasib baik Zahra ok..

It's about safety cautions in your house. My house is not baby-proof, MrComot planned to make baby-proofing dulu, you know lah with all the soft edges cabinet, install latch for doors so baby won't pull and have accident, but I stopped him and said instead of making baby-proof house why don't we teach Zahra to baby-proof herself? Like, how not to pull the door that hard, avoid tersepit tangan, kena bucu meja, etc. Well..it works! Despite a lot of minor accidents especially kepala terkena meja, she's all fine (but I secretly feel it's luck, that the Malaikat is watching after her because many times in front of my eyes, she fell and about a few milimeters to hit the table).

Ok back to the topic, the point here is..my house is not baby-proofed. So it's not toddler-proofed either. But babies and toddlers are different. Babies are more controllable because their movement is limited and they seems like to behave better. And toddlers? Oh my...I seriously can't control her anymore. Well, I can still teach her how to walk within gaps, how to close the door softly..but kids this age, they love to explore and do whatever they want to do. With a lot of energy! So accident might happen if you take your eyes away from them.

Below is 10 surprising safety hazards we can find in our home (original article from here):

1) Diswasher - easy access to to knives and sharp forks
2) Latex balloons - choked to death when they chew or blowing up the balloon
3) Kitchen ranges - children tipped over and hit scalding water
4) Soft bedding - SIDS
5) Hand me down baby gear - secondhand item may have damages or missing parts
6) Bath seats and rings - may lead to drowning if you leave her unattended for few seconds
7) Bath and baby oils - products that contain hydrocarbons - causing pneumonia, irreversible lung damage and even death (check your make-up stuff too, in any case your baby play with it)
8) Family dog - dog-bite injuries
9) Power window - crush limbs or fingers
10) Pocketbooks and purses - poison, choke, or injure kids (eg: safety pins, hard candy, pens)

Well, not all applicable for Zahra like, we don't have a dishwasher and I don't put the soft bedding for her cot. But the one thing that happen last few days was - Latex balloons!

She loves balloon very much and keep on holding and sucking the balloon for weeks and I just let her because it's nothing big for me, and after sometime, the balloon getting smaller and smaller and bursted after she bites it! She wasn't afraid of the burst, instead busy chewing the pieces! Luckily my sister was with her that time and managed to dig the latex pieces from her mouth.

My only concern that time was the latex is toxic for her..and even if she swallow it, it will pass through the poo. I don't realize there is a bigger risk than that, til I read this article.

This is the real danger on latex balloon:


"Since 1973, more than 110 children have choked to death when chewing or blowing up latex balloons. Latex balloons are one of the worst things to choke one because they can conform to a child's throat and completely block the breathing"





Oh my..nasib baik Zahra tak telan.

So guys, watch out your kids when they playing with balloons. They seriously love eating it. And maybe I need to start on toddler-proofing the house now.



Edited:


Found this couple of pic Zahra Elena playing with the balloon last weekend :)


Her new hobby - pinching and stretching the balloon


And chewing it. I think she likes the rubber taste. Haishh..budak kecik macam-macam.