Mameee, Mameee, Mameee

Finally heard Raelynn call mummy, mummy, mummy today. Too bad Mummy is sick with headaches and bodyaches and cannot entertain her much. :P Went for facial in the afternoon, so did not go back with hubby and RaeAnne after her music class and hubby said when they got home, Mei Mei was making a lot of noise looking for me. So sweet, think she misses me after all. :)

29 April 2011

We finally collected our car from Ka Hup today. Coincidentally, our car's birthday is also the date of the Royal wedding, because we were supposed to collect the car on Wed. But on Tues, the car salesman said it won't be ready cos after servicing, still need to go for interior cleaning which takes some time. I quite like the salesman, Zheng Wenbin because like his name, he was 文质彬彬 even when he was under stress by me. He even got the service centre to take care of two deep scratch lines that we didn't notice on the bumper. Now that we got a car again, can start keeping the car seats and other barang barang into the car cos we need to upgrade Mei Mei's bed very soon. She is getting better and better at climbing out of her cot. :P

Poor Mei Mei started running a fever yesterday afternoon so hubby brought her to see GP last night. I didn't go cos I was having body aches (symptoms of flu). This morning, hubby woke up with fever and hives while my bodyaches n headaches got worse. No thanks to RaeAnne who kept me up from 2 - 320am. So I accompanied hubby to see dr together. saw dr as well. :P

Also went to ERA today and signed up for course and to be a new agent. Unfortunately, because I was sick, I had informed Riza that I will be late and missed the chance to under study her. She had already just signed up a new recruit so she passed to Bryan instead. Oh well, I wasn't very happy but they are in the same team and I guess if I can make it as a real estate agent, I can do well anyway. Problem is the course is Mon - Fri, 10am - 1pm, dun think MIL will be happy to look after RaeAnne everyday. Got to think of a way. Maybe get her to bring RaeAnne home from school and look after her until I get home at 1+pm.

Good Fri long weekend

On Good friday morning, we went to Marina barrage for the first time (so suaku) for a playdate with the Feb08 forum mummies & kids. It was a potluck so we all brought food. I volunteered to bring fishballs and made some skewers with fishballs, quail eggs, cherry tomatoes and Jap cucumbers.


It was a breezy morning and many pp were flying kites but we didn't bother to bring one for RaeAnne cos we'll be the one flying for her. hee. There was an Easter egg hunt organised by Eliaw. RaeAnne wanted to the pink and purple eggs but during the actual hunt, she avoided any corners that had other kids (competition averse?). So in the end, she only collected 2 eggs that are yellow and orange.


Mei Mei was a good gal and did not cry despite seeing so many new faces. She didn't try to snatch any toys from the other kids. But she was tired out by 12+pm and fell asleep in the taxi ride back, while RaeAnne napped for 1 hr after we reached home.

On Sat evening, we brought the family out to Crystal Jade for dinner. RaeAnne enjoyed her noodle soup and ate quite a bit. Mei Mei didn't eat much on Fri and Sat though. Think she's teething.

Filamie said Mei Mei can almost climb out of the cot. Looking for a pull out bed for a long time but can't find anything suitable yet. Might as well make use of the sofa bed first. I bought a set of Disney princess bedsheet for RaeAnne to convince her to use the queen size sofa bed. She said ok but she doesn't want Mei mei to sleep on her toddler bed. Duh. :P

More than 3 months after our car accident, we finally went car hunting at Automobile megmart at 4+pm cos it's at Ubi n nearer to home. I already did research at sgcarmart and mycar forum for more than 1 month and narrowed the choices to Nissan latio, Hyundai Avante and Renault Megane. But in the end still prefer Nissan Latio cos it's a Made in Japan car and car parts are not as expensive.

Hubby was not feeling well so he only test drove one car though we viewed 2 Latios. First, a Mar 06 Grey Latio Premium edition from Ka Hup Car Trading cos the other Sept06 Latio we saw at Car Design was not Premium version and it had the same asking price of $37.8k as the first car but the salesman increased the price by $1k to $38.8k when we told them that we are not taking loan. Also the second salesman was not as knowledgeable and seems very ah beng n bo chup. He was not keen to let us test drive and started smoking halfway.

So we went back to the first salesman cos we decided on the first car. When trying to negotiate for the Mar06 Latio, the salesman was initially confident that we can seal the deal at $36k but I tried to negotiate for $35k instead. He couldn't decide so he called to ask his boss (manager) and his manager in turn asked the boss. Who knows the boss said $36k, he cannot even buy another Latio from owner and wanted to sell $37k instead. I wasn't happy with his boss '坐地起价' but the other car was so much higher. Plus if the boss refuse to lower the price, I guess the price is already quite reasonable. Another reason is because Hubby is not interested in cars and doesn't like to go car hunting n I am tired of researching non stop on his behalf so we decided to take it at $36.4k after negotiating for 1 hr. Still need to pay $885 for admin fee, lta transfer fee n STA assessment fee.

3rd dr review

Went for dr review today, good news cos I can go for most activities eg exercise, yoga, swimming, 针灸，推拿, even go back to work (hahaha) etc. But she still advised not to carry heavy weights (babies) since I still have muscle aches at the fractured area. But guess it will get better. I'm relieved cos the dr said the recovery was similar to as if I had surgery and said maybe it's because I was compliant with the brace (oops, not all the time actually :P).

Anyway, time to make fresh plans for the future then. :)

Taobao spree for the gals

Haven't spreed for a long time since the accident. No mood and no car to pick up the loot from spreeists. But Jessie (Jan10 mummy) organised a taobao spree again in march and it was too good to miss cos I needed to restock on clothes for the gals cos I donated a big bag of old and fairly new clothes to the maid's bb niece cos she is going back to June for home leave. The loot costs $200 incl shipping but for 3 pairs of shoes, 4 l/s shirts, 2 sets of PJs, 6 pants/jeans, 3 dresses, 1 swimming towel, 1 pair swimming goggles, 5 pairs of socks, 1 electric toy, 10 scrunchies, 1 safety lock, 1 shoe hanger, should be worth it bah. Won't need to buy clothes for RaeAnne since some of the clothes are still too big for her and can keep until she is years old. :)

Singing babe

Today, when I was using the plastic threading star shape n singing twinkle twinkle little star to Raelynn, she imitated me and sang winker winker lil tar. The words are not very distinct but the tune is defintely right. When i used the butterfly shape n sang 'fly fly fly the butterfly', she sang something incoherent but the tune is right again n we seldom sing this song to her. She is growing up so fast.

Raelynn's first visit to the library

RaeAnne has been asking hubby to bring her to the library to borrow many many books. He decided to bring her this evening and I decided to go as well so that we can bring Mei Mei to the library for the first time.

They were very happy with the train at the children section esp RaeAnne cos today we have been singing 坐火车 (Nai Nai is the first person to teach her this song) and I even found the youtube clip and finally realised the whole song is so long. :P When we took a photo at the train, a little Indian gal just came forward and squeezed in beside RaeAnne for the photo. RaeAnne was obviously displeased and a bit anxious but I'm glad she didn't push the gal nor start crying. At least she can control her temper. :P

She was a bit tired as it was almost 8pm by the time we reached. But she was still happy taking books down, pushing the books in, flipping them and stepping on books (just for a moment). We had to leave when Mei Mei started to lie on the carperted floor of the library to sleep. She can really sleep everywhere. hehehe.

RaeAnne wanted to borrow so many books for herself and Mei Mei so she kept bringing books to her daddy, but in the end we shortlisted to 19 books which was still a lot. :P

Raelynn is 16 months old!

Raelynn is 16 months old. She is 65.5 cm tall and 10.2kg. Weight increased by 300g. She can do a rendition of Twinkle twinkle little star but only the words winker, star and up are clear enough. Training her not to suck her thumb is still work in progress. Imagine I have more than 10 pairs of legwarmers but phased out cos she knows how to pull them off. So, I've resorted to buying big Gap PJs (2T) for her so that the maid can tie off the ends to prevent her from sucking her thumb. The big callus on her right thumb is getting slighly better so hopefully we are on the right track. In terms of speech, she still doesn't talk much. But she calls a dog 'duck duck' and a bird 'burb burb'. Oh well, I think she is slowly getting there.

Today, we ate at Macdonalds for dinner at RaeAnne's request. I brought along home cooked plain porridge with fried egg, steamed threadfin and spinach for Raelynn (finally made use of my thermos 3 tiered food jar) but even after she finished most of it, she was giving me such imploring looks and reaching out her hands for my food as we ate, that I finally relented let her try a few fries (wipe off the salt with paper napkins), steamed corn and burger bun. Hey, even RaeAnne had KFC mashed potatoes in HK when she was just 11.5 months right? :P Of course, she ate the junk food much faster cos it was tastier. :P

Went for physiotherapy again on Friday, 1 April but we are reaching a bottleneck, the aches have shifted down from below the neck to my shoulder blades but they are still very much there. Even my PT doesn't know what to do. She said the shifting of the pain may be due to me consciously trying to arch my back to try and straighten and also because I don't have enough rest (how to with 2 active kids). Once I'm awake, and open my room door, they keep running to my room. Hiaz.

Anyway, since she can't magically wish for my kids to grow up, she told me to relax my shoulders and said I actually look ok. She did loosen my joints and immediately after that, the shoulder blades area were not as painful when she pressed on them. Next PT session is 26 April (almost 1 month away) but I can't keep paying $40+ each time for her to 'crack' my joints. The insurance payout has long been fixed and all my PT bills are not counted. :( So, I really hope that the aches will go away soon.

Stir fried bee thye mak

RaeAnne's latest hot favourite is Bee Thye Mak or 老鼠粉. she loves to suck them down cos they are so slippery. So, I decided to try to cook stir fried bee thye mak today cos I had long beans and fish cake that has been stuck in the fridge for a long time. The recipe is diy after getting some inspiration from website.

Recipe

Ingredients (for 3 adults & 2 kids)
1) 1 bag of Bee Thye Mak (abt $1 if buying from wet market), scald with freshly boiled water.
2) 1 medium shallot or 2 small ones, sliced.
3) 1 fistful of dried shrimps
4) 3 prawns cut into small pieces (extra from my fridge)
5) 2 pieces of fishcakes (cut into slices)
6) 3 strands of long beans (extra from my fridge if not I would have used cai xin and added it at the end), sliced finely
7) Minced meat (abt half a bowl). Pre-marinated with sesame oil, a pinch of salt and pepper
8) 2 eggs (beaten)
* can also add some dried mushrooms. I didn't have time to presoak so never use them.

Preparation
1) Soak a fistful dried shrimps in a small bowl of hot water. Reserve the water for later use.
2) Fry the sliced shallots (red onions) in low/med heat until the shallots are golden brown. Remove shallots for later use.
3) Switch to high heat. Then use the oil to '暴香' the dried shrimps (and mushrooms).
4) Add the long beans. Once they soften, add the minced meat.
5) Once the minced meat is 80% cooked, add the fishcakes.
6) Add the bee thye mak, and the reserved dried shrimp water.
7) Add 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce and 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce (for colour)
8) Mix everything well then cover the wok.
9) Open the wok cover after 30 sec - 1min, then add the beaten eggs.
10) Don't stir too much if you want your eggs chunky.
10) Once eggs are cooked though, dish up and serve. :)

Verdict
1) RaeLynn loves it and ate very fast. Even pinched some from me when I was eating mine.
2) Hubby said it's nice. Like char kuay teow but not sweet.
3) But my most impt food critic (Ms RaeAnne Teo Kay Ris) REFUSED to eat it cos she said Bee Thye Mak should be white in colour not black. ALAMAK!!! Wasted my efforts to especially cook this for her.

In the end, I had to whip up a bee thye mak soup version for her last minute using dried silverfish as stock, added meatballs, fishcake and dou miao.

After I served her the bee thye Mak soup, she said something that made me laugh so hard: "Bee Thye Mak 本来就是这样的'. Sigh, so much for being adventurous in cooking. She just wants the usual brainless version. :P

Hopeless clinic assistants

So angry! Brought Raeanne to GP just now cos her cough is not better and still phelgmy after self medicating for 2 days plus she had fever yesterday night. While collecting the med, noticed that her phlegm med (mucuslovan) was colorless and not pink so I commented to the clinic assistants whether they changed the colour of the medication.

But they confidently said that it has always been colorless n said I made a mistake. Luckily I brought along the med (cos I have been self medicating her for 2 days) so I had proof that the bottle of 'mucuslovan' we were given was pink in colour. So the truth was revealed, they have wrongly labelled the pink med (given on 16 feb) as mucuslovan n given me the wrong med on 16 Feb 11. The night shift clinic assistants were defensive, kept asking me what was the colour of the other medicines given on 16 Feb and asked us if we have brought the other medicines and if we finished that. They were trying to imply that the clinic assistant merely swopped the labels (so it's not serious?) Hubby and I get irritated with their response cos it's irrelevant how the error occurred. Firstly, they should admit the mistake and apologize instead of making light of the situation and trying to pass the buck.

So I asked to see the dr instead. He kept laughing (in politeness or embarrassment or non chalance?)but after I got more agitated n told him medication error is very serious cos the patient can have severe allergy reaction then he said sorry n that he will speak to his full time staff, who was the one who gave the wrong med. We had shown the 2 bottles of pink med during the consultation to show him what we have been giving RaeAnne for the last two days but yet he never noticed that the second pink med was not mucuslovan. Even after this bad experience, we were still expected to fork out the consultation and medication fee in full, $22. Totally no service recovery or sincerity to appease the customers. The 2 clinic assistants tonight gave us black looks the whole way from dispensing to payment collection as if we were the ones at fault.

Raeanne had gotten allergic reactions twice since seeing this GP 2 yes ago. And now I wonder if it is due to wrongly labelled med cos there is no consistency in the types of medication triggering the allergic reaction. I feel like boycotting him altogether cos how to trust the clinic if he cannot stop his clinic assistant from giving the wrong med. I can't keep going back to the GP to clarify right? :P But Raeanne likes this dr cos he is gentle, soft spoken and always gives her a sweet.

i'm still searching for a good Gp nearby. The two we see are the GPs near MIL ie. hubby's old home. The one with hopeless clinic assistants (Seasons) is friendly but super long queue, whereas the other GP (JT) is very fast, but not very friendly cos he is a man of few words. Usually, we bring the kids to the friendly GP while the adults see the unfriendly one. But both require at least 2 visits before we recover cos med always not enough or not strong enough. I guess that's how they made their $. :/


After a long day at home with the 2 gals (since RaeAnne didn't attend school today), I initially wanted to take a break and just let hubby bring her to the GP. But if I have done that, I wonder if he would have brought the medicines to the clinic, if he would have noticed the colour of the medicines and questioned them. Or will he be as persistent when they insisted that the colour of the phelgm med has always been colourless and we were mistaken. He did raise his voice at the clinic assistants and I was a bit touched cos my hubby is Mr Nice guy and super non confrontional. But we are parents, if we don't fight for our children who were harmed by irresponsible medical staff, who would?