Maid woes - part 2

I just scolded the maid again this afternoon cos I caught her pouring my ebm into the pot to heat up with the blended avocado. Already told her so many times that ebm must be heated up separately in bottle warmer and not more than 40 deg. And she tried to boil my ebm !?! Wth! When I confronted, she still argue and keep saying she add a bit only. Told her a bit also cannot, what does the ebm come from? I got to squeeze it out drop by drop leh. U think it is tap water, just open the tap got ebm flowing out? Refuse to say sorry until I tell her to do it. Even then, she refuse to look at me when she mumbled her sorry. How not to scold like that?

I am so pek chek that in the end I pass her a holy bible and ask her to talk to Jesus Christ and reflect whether what she did (never concentrate on her work, keep making the same mistakes again and again, refuse to admit mistake, argue, refuse to say sorry) is right since she is a catholic. No offence to the christians and catholics but i really dun know what else to do with her to wake up her idea, I am sure her God will do a much better job to 'kai dao' her than me.

Maid woes

I read Sharon's blog about the mistakes that her one month old maid makes (It's a new day! Amen) and I can't help smiling cos her reactions are exactly like mine. Her post and exasperation sounded so much like me. It takes another maid employer to understand the woes that we go through.

I've been screaming like a mad woman to the maid these few days. What can I say, things that she should have been 'auto pilot' mode by now (IT'S BEEN ONE YEAR FOR GOODNESS SAKE), she is still making mistakes. And when I tell her off for the mistakes she make, she will either lower her head and refuse to acknowledge me or come up with all kinds of excuses. Yup, 'sorry' is a billion dollar word that she will never use. Looks like it's a common problem among all Philly maids. :P

At least Sharon and Qingling's maids smile when they are scolded for mistakes. Mine is plain defiant by refusing to look up nor acknowledge me. Which makes me want to shout even louder at her so that she will look up at me. Sigh, my temper has gotten worse since I have a maid. :P RaeAnne was so sweet, after I scolded the maid (for adding so much salt and not stiring the salt properly into the beaten egg before frying), she came to hug me and pat me on my shoulder. Later, she even told hubby that she likes the 'salty' egg. Aw... so sweet, my anger melted away a bit cos RaeAnne reminded me who are the important people in my life, definitely not the maid cos they come and go (though she has been naughty most of the day. She napped for only 1 hr again and sent the art easel crashing to the floor, breaking it into a few parts. But that's another story altogether...).

Filamie has been behaving so distracted cos she spoke to her agent (my gal's classmate's Daddy) on the sly on wanting to take home leave in Dec even though her contract is not up till Aug 2012. No news from the agent must have driven her nuts. Little did she know that the agent's staff has already spoken to me and I told her that I am not letting her go on home leave until June 2012. What if she never comes back after going in Dec. You don't know how these people think no matter how much salary you withhold from her. Raelynn is only 1 year old, too young to even go to CC and I'm quite sure ILs can't cope with 2 kids and I'm not keen to train a new maid nor go to ILs house to look after the 2 gals in the day.

In the meantime, the Filipino agent is on her way to Sg, arriving Sg tomorrow. Hope she and the local agent can come to my house soon to 'wake up her idea' and her head so that she can start working properly again.

Birthday celebrations for Raelynn

Duh, RaeAnne's birthday is on 22 Jan and Raelynn's birthday is on 2 Dec. Was wondering whether to celebrate together so that I can get a nice cake and catering. Furthermore, RaeAnne will be going to a new school in Jan 2011 so I don't think it'll be very fun for her to celebrate her birthday in a class of very new friends of 21 days. But how to settle the cake? Who gets to cut it? Will I be stealing the limelight from Raelynn's 1st birthday bash if I do a combined one? After all, cheh Cheh's had her own show with 'birth to twelve months montage' and I even rented toys and got helium balloons for the special occasion. Dilemma, dilemma. :P

Miss long winded...

Call me superstitious but I knew once I talk about the partial success we have with RaeAnne's sleep training, things will happen. True enough, tonight she came out more than 10 times from her room to look for me.

Every excuse equal to 1 visit to my room and I got to accompany her back to her room/bed, kiss her goodnight, say 'Bye Bye' to her, walk back to my room but before I know it, she's back again with yet another excuse. Got to commend her for coming up with so many excuses to make her visit to my room sound more genuine.

It started at 1040pm
"Mummy, I want to shh shh (yes, she did pee)."
"Mummy, off the fan"
"Mummy, I want to ng ng in mummy's toilet bowl (yes, she did poo in my toilet)"
"Mummy, I don't want this already (returns me my hp)"
"Mummy, I don't want this already (hands me her soft toy squirrel"
"Mummy, where Daddy? I want Daddy to sleep with me."
"Mummy, hen3 re4, I want to change shirt" (of course hot lar, since you asked me to switch off the fan)
"Mummy, cut my nail (shows me her partially chewed on finger nail)"
"Mummy, my leg itchy (shows me the sole of her foot with a red mark, wants me to scratch it but refuses mopiko)
"Mummy, I want to hi5 Mummy"
"Mummy, I don't want to sleep"
This dragged on until 11.05pm when I cannot take it anymore cos it's delaying Mei Mei's dreamfeed. While I tried to BF Mei Mei, RaeAnne came into the room again. Got hubby to deal with her. She screamed and throw tantrum and woke poor mei mei up. Arghh! Fed up and slammed the door to shut out the ruckus. Luckily, Mei Mei suckled and went back to sleep.

Sigh, in hindsight, I think we brought her back from MIL house too late. We left at 850pm after my shower. But she was already tired and rubbing her eyes. Told hubby we need to bring her back by 830pm next time. Got to factor in wind down time for her. Want her to start rubbing her eyes on her bed not elsewhere. :P

Also, I am still sick (down with cold), slept the whole day so she spent the day at MIL house. MIL fetched her after school. Maybe RaeAnne is glad to be home and wants to spend more time with me. That's why she keeps saying she doesn't want to sleep.

Fed Raelynn avocado puree (mixed with EBM) and she likes it. :) Cheh Cheh hated it but then I wasn't smart enought to add milk then. This time round, I checked the Annabel Karmel book and realised that need to add milk. Hee Hee.

My poor brother just found out that he has HFMD. And he said he did carry Raelynn last Sunday when we went over for dinner. Eeks! Poor RaeAnne already got that last year. Keeping all my fingers and toes crossed that Mei Mei will escape this infectious disease. Cos HFMD causes mouth ulcers, the poor baby cannot suck milk and will lose weight really fast. :(

Sleep chart - part 2

We started using the sleep chart for RaeAnne since 8 July, today is 25 July so it has been 17 days so far. It helps to establish a sleeping routine so that she knows what to expect and what she is expected to do (aka sleep on her own in her room after all the 'before sleeping tasks ie drink milk, brush teeth, read her a story, sing her a song, go to potty' have been completed).

There was an article on sleep training that I read on young parents. So I decided to incorporate the tips together with the sleep chart. I started out with sitting beside her cot bed then 1 day later, I started to sit closer to the door, then sat outside the room facing the door, then sat outside my own room. Of course, she protested in the beginning and keep insisting that I sleep on the toddler bed with her. Something which I started doing to get her to nap since late Feb this year. But in a way she had no choice cos if I told her if she doesn't want to let me sit where I choose and I will close her door and just leave her to sleep.

Well, the verdict is that all these helped. She is now able to sleep on her own bed in her own room. Although she still runs in and out of her room a few times before settling down, at least we don't need to squeeze ourselves on her tiny bed anymore and wait until she falls asleep. Still need to give her a cuddle and good night kiss but I'm ok with that. She's still our darling little gal after all and I want to let her know that she is loved especially at bedtime when we forgive all her naughtiness for the day. She still wakes up at night on most nights to pee or because she had a bad dream but usually putting her to potty and a hug/kiss works to let her go back to sleep. :)

Raelynn is able to climb off the bumbo chair and stand with its support. Looks quite cute when she does that. Machiam like model posing for photo beside the bumbo chair. But it also means that we can no longer use the bumbo chair to restrain her. :P

Arghh!!! I am falling sick, scratchy throat, phelgmy and sneezy. Hate to fall sick cos I always end up spreading the virus to the 2 gals. :(

Bo gey no more!

Mei Mei has been sucking on her lower gum, she looks like an old lady n sometimes a little goldfish. So cute! Checked her gum n yes her bottom left tooth had finally cut through the gum. Going to miss her gummy smiles after this. But hey maybe she can start eating soupy rice by dec? :)

Decided to buy tickets to the Barney show at expo on 11 sept since there is a promotion for Friso customers, 20% off all cat of tickets. Tickets range from $28 to $75 but we only bought $38 ones. It is a 65 mins prog. No point spending too much on stage shows until I am sure she will enjoy.

Raeanne is 2.5 years old!

She is 92cm tall n 13.2 kg when I measured her today. But I wonder if she is really 92cm cos when I measured her the second time, she was only 90.5cm. Duh... But she is definitely in her terrible twos now. I hope this is already the peak cos she spends so much time throwing tantrums n doing things that she should not. I just spanked her cos she cut up the pooh loves you leapfrog book. And use ball point ink to draw all over mei mei's bumbo chair. There goes my hope to sell the seat n tray next time. Arghhh!!!

Came back at 125am from cgh a&e cos of a painful bump inside my nose. A&e dr could not do much for me cos I am already taking antibiotics given by the GP. Oh well, at least I know it is celluitis n not something really dangerous. Hubby was worried that the kids will miss us when we were away but luckily the house seems quiet when we came back.

Me want to follow Nai Nai

After being woken up 3 times from her afternoon nap, RaeAnne was understandably grouchy. Mei Mei was practising her vocals in the living room. It was so loud that even though I asked Filamie to bring Mei Mei to the balcony and close the sliding door, I could still hear her clearly from my bedroom. I told her to close her room door so that Mei Mei won't disturb her but she refused. I told her she can either learn to sleep on her own (don't keep coming to disturb Mummy), or she can go and sleep at Nai Nai house next time. She seemed to understand and tried to lie down again.

But after Mei Mei quietened down, RaeAnne came to my room again. This time, she threw tantrum and said she wants to follow Nai Nai. Told her Nai Nai is not here today, she can follow Nai Nai tomorrow. She continued to kick up a fuss so I tried calling MIL and she is more than happy to come over to get her. So, off she went at 5pm to Nai Nai house. She even said she wants to sleep at Nai Nai house so MIL helped to bring her school bag and school uniform. Oh well, maybe it's a phase. Since I'm now a SAHM, I'm not too worried about the lack of bonding. If she wants to follow Nai Nai then I get a chance to spend more time with Mei Mei. :)

Canapes

Remember the salmon roe that I bought during Hokkaido fair a few weeks ago? I finally defrosted the 2nd batch. I decided to make salmon roe canapes to savour them fully. Wanted to spread tuna mayo on the Jap cucumber but the only one in my pantry is the healthy tuna flakes in olive oil. Luckily had some leftover mayo in the fridge.

Hubby said they are not bad but asked me what are canapes? Duh... Okie, I know I married a man with simple tastes. But I should be thankful, if he's really into fine dining. He'll probably start criticising my 'homely' canapes. ;)

P.S. A canapé (Spanish/French for couch[1] and known in Italy as tartina) is a small, prepared and usually decorative food, held in the fingers and often eaten in one bite.

Home grilled shishamo

Oh ya, last Fri when RaeAnne was at ILs place for dinner, we cooked a sumptuous dinner for ourselves. I fried basil minced meat again with thai chilli and we grilled shishamo over our gas cooker. haha. I love the shishamo most though a bit 'chao ta' but it took a long time to grill. Wish I have a charcoal grill then. Oops, I threw away the charcoal stove after more than 5 years since we moved in. :P



Also made chicken stew this week (added celery too though personally I don't like it) but disappointed with the result cos the chicken is very tough. Not sure if it's because I didn't stew it long enough or is it because I added the wrong seasoning or simply because Filamie cut it too small? :/ Luckily, RaeAnne likes the gravy. :)