Thursday, October 28, 2010

Juan Or's Self-made Greek Goddess Fashion

Mommy didn't do this for him, and neither did Mommy see him doing this, but don't know how Juan Or 'twisted-and-turned' himself, he ended up modifying his singlet-T into a Greek goddess-inspired fashion!







This reminds Mommy of pretty models parading the Grecian goddess fashion such as this, ......


(photo from TrendHunter Fashion)


....also of Lord Buddha with his lopsided shoulder fashion, ......




.......and the late wrestler, Andre the Giant from World Wrestling Federation (WWF) which later changed name to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).




As far as Mommy remembered, there were three occasions Mommy spotted Juan Or in his self-made Greek goddess fashion. One was when he was still sound asleep on his bed when Mommy had to carry him into the car and the other two occasions were when he was playing by himself.

This is how Juan Or's 'design' looks like from the behind. Bare shoulders......pretty 'sexy', huh? ^_^



Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Control King




Juan Or may be small-sized and very young (yes, he's the youngest in the family!) and maybe the least dominant person in our family of three, but don't underestimate him! He may be small, but he is so full of fire! Hence the Malay saying 'kecil-kecil cili padi' (as small as a bird's eye chilli, yet so full of fire). He can even control what Mommy wears. ^_^



There were a few occasions in the past after Juan Or and Mommy arrived home after a hard day's work, he insisted that Mommy should immediately change Mommy's working clothes into house clothes. Then when Mommy told him to wait for Mommy to quickly settle some household things first before changing to house wear, he insisted (and FRETTED!) that no, Mommy should do it NOW!
 


Then this happened just a few days ago when Mommy felt it was already time to change Mommy's old and worn out rubber slippers to a brand new one. Actually Mommy already had the new pair of rubber slippers in stock way before the previous pair became worn out. So the moment Juan Or saw Mommy putting on the new pair, he immediately insisted that Mommy should go back to wearing the old, worn-out pair! And mind you, he not only insisted, but he fretted and almost cried that Mommy should change back to the old one immediately!


(See the heel part of this old, worn-out slipper? Anytime soon, a hole is going to appear but Juan Or insists that Mommy should still continue wearing this!)


 (This is the new pair of slippers that Juan Or despise so much!)

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue!

(This Buzz Lightyear image is courtesy of Del's blog dedicated to Buzz Lightyear toys.)



For Toy Story Fans or mummies with children who are Toy Story fans, Mommy is sure you know this famous Buzz Lightyear's shooting-laser pose, right? Well, yesterday, Mommy had a good chance to see Juan Or put the pose to 'good use'.


It all started when yesterday, Mommy had to make a sudden trip down to Pandamaran in Port Klang to change a car tyre. The tyre on the back of the driver's side was already bulging and swollen, so posed a higher risk for bursting and thus very high chance for road accident to happen. You may be wondering why change tyre in Pandamaran, somewhere far away from where Mommy stays? That's because Mommy's Ah Yi (maternal aunt) and her husband opened a tyre shop, so Mommy is sure of getting good price for the tyre and service plus Mommy need not worry whether a certain procedure or service is unnecessarily done onto the car in order to make more money from the customer.

That day, by noon, Mommy came out from office, went off to fetch Juan Or from the babysitter first and then headed off to Pandamaran. Once at the tyre shop, Mommy was greeted by Mommy's cousin (Ah Yi's son) who helps his parents full-time in the shop where hard labour of tyre services is concerned. The last time Juan Or went to Ah Yi's place and meets her and her family, Juan Or would always end up crying because he is the type who cannot stand to see unfamiliar faces looking straight at him. But by now, at 2 years 5 months old, Mommy was still unsure what would his reaction be to face them. So when Mommy was telling the cousin about the car's tyre problem, Juan Or was cool. Nothing seems to bother him. But problem started when Juan Or sensed that Mommy was bringing him to the shop's office section. Mommy had not even started to open the office door, Juan Or had already burst out crying in protest!

So in the end, Mommy had to bring Juan Or for shopping at EconSave to stop him from crying further (Yes! Luckily EconSave is just about next to Ah Yi's shop!). And of course, when it comes to shopping, Juan Or is all for it! So we had a good time shopping plus window shopping with Juan Or riding in the shopping cart. In the end, Mommy only bought some big onions and limau nipis (lime) because the supply was already finishing at home.

After coming out from EconSave, there was a row of kiddy rides and as usual Juan Or wouldn't want to miss that. Juan Or rode on the car kiddy ride without any coins inserted. Then one Malay toddler who looks just a little older than Juan Or came and sat on one Doraemon kiddy ride just next to Juan Or. What Mommy saw next was a typical scene of  'monkey see, monkey do'. Whenever the Malay toddler stood up, Juan Or would follow suit. And when he sat down, Juan Or would do likewise too. And both kids seemed to enjoy the play even though they were strangers to each other. After that, the Malay toddler attempted to touch Juan Or on his arm. Juan Or is one boy who doesn't like to be touched by unknown people - not even by unknown kids. So to ward off the boy's touch, Juan Or did the Buzz Lightyear shooting-laser pose on him! ^_^ But of course the Malay toddler was not bothered by the shooting-laser pose and still went ahead to touch Juan Or!


Watch this video! ^_^






Not just that, Juan Or even gathered all the words associated with Buzz Lightyear to scold the Malay toddler for touching him. Mommy remembered hearing Juan Or scold the boy with words such as "Buzz Lightyear!" and "astronaut!". ^_^ *Kids!*

Friday, October 22, 2010

When the Young is Eager to Become Old.......(but not the other way round!)

Yesterday, after buying economy rice for dinner and picking Juan Or up from the babysitter's house, Mommy dropped by at The Store Sri Petaling to see a Women's Clothes Fair held there - just to see whether there were anymore nice designs with attractive prices to choose from (Mommy had already been there the day before yesterday!). The prices go to as low as RM5 for a knitted blouse and RM10 for office-wear skirts with inner lining, plus fitting rooms for you to try them first before buying (unlike other women's clothes warehouse sale where they don't even bother to provide fitting room)! Hehehehe.....those were the days (before Juan Or was born) when Mommy was able to buy common clothes by merely making a good estimation without trying it out first. But now, fitting room is a must -  now that Mommy has given birth before because you never know.....^_^


Now back to the main story.....


Mommy was choosing clothes and Juan Or hanged around. Somewhere near the clothes rack was the rack displaying children goodies -- those type where sweets, candies or chocolates are put into the hollow tube or holder with toys attached to it. The one that attracted Juan Or's attention was a big candy cane-shaped type.




There is a squeaker at the bottom of the candy cane, so when a kid uses it as a tongkat (walking stick), the thing will go 'squeak-squeak-squeak' as the kid walks. So Juan Or had a good time using the candy cane as his tongkat to walk while accompanying Mommy to and fro from the clothes rack to the fitting room! He was actually emulating his Great-Grandma walking with her tongkat.




Now, isn't that a classic case of the young so eager to become old? And yet you may have seen or known of old people not wanting to admit they are old, right? More so if the old people already have to use some form of walking aid - afraid in case they look even older when using them. ^_^



*You may also like to read this*

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Bursting at the Seams

Huh!? What can be bursting at the seams? No, no, no.....Mommy is not talking about human flesh (or rather fat!) growing sideways!! ^_^


It's the oyster mushrooms again, but this time are white ones instead of grey! They seems to be bursting at the seams this time and not growing out from the proper channel! (Hahaha....but that's only on one 'bottle' and not the others!). The seams turn out to be a small tear at the plastic wrapper of the oyster mushroom's growth medium. And the small tear was caused by it being the folding point of the plastic bag. So the mushrooms choose to 'burst' out from there.



This photo was captured at 6.24 am - just before Mommy left for work.




Then about 13 to 14 hours later (at 8.05 pm), the white oyster mushrooms have grown this big! Woo-hoo!




Before harvesting, Mommy called Juan Or to come and 'enjoy' the mushrooms fresh as it was, first by smelling the mushroomy smell - .......


inhale.....






...and exhale - ....






......then by touching and feeling them!





But hey, not too rough, ya? Mommy doesn't to see the mushroom's 'umbrella' tear apart!





Go ahead, Juan Or, tell the mushrooms to grow some more so that you can eat them up, ya? ^_^






Here's Mommy's take of the mushrooms:

view from the top....





...view from the side....






....and view as a whole.







Now, here's the harvest!






P/S: Slurrp, slurrp, slurrp, Mommy can't wait to cook the mushrooms together with tom yam prawns this weekend! ^_^

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Juan Or at His Paternal Great-Grandma's Birthday Lunch

This blogpost is an outdated post - 10th September 2010.

This was the day the Lok family celebrated Great-Grandma's birthday by having a birthday lunch at Leong Ah Restaurant (Puchong).

At his age of 2 years 4 months old, Juan Or no longer cries when he saw unfamiliar relatives' faces (unlike when he was an infant), but of course he still doesn't like them to touch him ('See no touch' motto!). Also, when he saw his beloved Grandpa and Grandma and also his Second Uncle at the luncheon, Juan Or went into manja (wanting to be pampered) mode. And that also meant some form of 'freedom' for Mommy because Juan Or would want to be carried by them almost all the time (in fact both Juan Or and Juan Juan from My Little Sprouts were competing with each other for Grandpa, Grandma and Second Uncle's attention). This also meant Mommy was able to eat in peace.......hehehehe.


Here's Juan Or sticking to his Grandpa like leech.....




.....and as usual, he would be sucking ice.....






.....and sucking his fingers too!







Here's the Little Sprouts' family together with Grandma (Mommy's mother-in-law), ......







......and Juan Or's uncles and aunty (i.e., brother-in-law and cousins-in-law to Mommy).






Both Grandparents were busy entertaining the Grandchildren's wishes and wants right from the time of waiting for food till the eating process so that Mommy can shake legs and eat.



But when sleepiness finally struck Juan Or, he somehow knew how to look for Mommy! So Mommy had to hold him on the lap while eating. Luckily it was already towards the end of the course, otherwise it was going to be a handful to have to attend to two things at the same time. Luckily too, Papa is a fast-eater, so Papa finished his food well ahead of Mommy and took over sleepy Juan Or. Phew!






See....Juan Or was so blissfully asleep! Who cares about the endless chattering and the clanking of the forks and spoons, bowls, plates and glasses? Sleep means sleep! Mommy captured his sleeping photos from all possible angles (just for keepsakes!).^_^





*Sleep, Baby, Sleep! Sweet dreams, Baby!*

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

"Free Milk! Free Milk! Anyone?"



Yup, you read it right! Mommy has free samples of Anmum growing up milk for ages 1 to 3 to give out! And nope, Mommy is not promoting any brands of milk to anyone. Mommy just doesn't want to waste away edible things that someone else can make use of.

This was how it came about.

One day while shopping at Tesco Puchong, one Anmum representative gave Mommy a packet containing 2 sachets of Anmum growing up milk for ages 1-3. Then some day later, Mommy received a phone call from Anmum asking Mommy about the day Mommy received those free samples and the person mentioned that she is going to send a free sample of another variant. So finally the free sample arrived yesterday.





In it contained 2 sachets. So now Mommy has 4 sachets of the free sample milk powder. The one that Mommy received earlier has a choo-choo train picture on the packaging and Juan Or indicated his interest to try it just because there is a choo-choo train on it. ^_^





So yesterday night, Mommy prepared the milk and told Juan Or that this was the 'choo-choo train' milk that he wanted. Juan Or took it, laid down on the floor to drink it while watching DVD. Mommy waited and waited but the level of the milk in the bottle didn't seem to change! So Mommy sort of 'threaten' him to stop the DVD if he was still not sucking. Same thing - the milk level didn't change a bit even after turning off the player. So finally Mommy took the bottle away from his lips and he, on his part, also willingly let go off the bottle! Then he told Mommy,"Don't like!" So Mommy said,"Alright, never mind. Mama also agak you won't like it. So you want to drink GainPlus now?" Juan Or nodded eagerly. Mommy then went to the kitchen sink to pour the milk away, but before pouring, Mommy tasted the milk a bit just to see if there's any chance Mommy can accept the taste of the milk instead of wasting it away. It was yucks for Mommy! With a heavy heart, Mommy had no choice but to pour it away in the sink. While pouring, Mommy was thinking about the many starving and malnutritioned children out there especially in Africa and here it was, the milk wasted away just like that! Then Mommy prepared his regular GainPlus EyeQ milk and he finished it within just 5 minutes! So you see, it's the taste that matters for Juan Or. ^_^

OK, back to the unopened sachets of the free sample Anmum milk. If your child is currently on Anmum milk for ages 1-3 and you would like to have the free samples, kindly let me know via the comments section or drop me an email (alicephua79@yahoo.com). If there are more than one takers, then I'll ask Juan Or to randomly pick one taker's name and I'll mail the samples to the lucky person.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Trip to National Museum

Yesterday, Papa and Mommy decided to bring Juan Or to go visit the National Museum. Reason? Because from a dusty corner of Mommy's memory, Mommy remember seeing real steam locomotives on display there and that Juan Or loves anything to do with 'toot-toot train-train', so why not take him there to see the real thing? So when Mommy told him that we were going to the museum to see Thomas and Friends  or Tho-fren (Juan Or's abbreviated version of Thomas and Friends), Juan Or cheered very happily and kept on saying "Choo! Choo!" during the jorney.

We arrived there, parking was RM2 per entry and there were not too many nor too few people there - just nice. It was a sunny day too which was perfect condition for Mommy's handphone camera since photos would only turn out sharper if under sunny condition.

Right at the entrance of the museum's compound were the locomotives. Immediately upon seeing the locos, Juan Or kept on saying,"Ai (want) Thomas!".

Here's a mini steam loco, mini as in because the caption board said so, but to Mommy untrained eyes, it still looked big! And because this loco is green in colour, Mommy bluffed Juan Or and said that's Percy! ^_^



Next was the regular-sized steam loco and since it is all black in colour, Mommy couldn't think of any names from the Thomas and Friends series to tell Juan Or, so this is a 'nameless' loco! ^-^



Mommy also managed to capture a photo of the modern day train (is that a diesel train?) but only from a distance because this train is placed right in the middle of the parking compound, so was not conducive to cross the parking area with cars and buses frequently passing by and with a young child tagging along. Luckily too, Juan Or did not pester to go have a closer look - he seems more interested with those Thomas and Friends type only!



We didn't immediately go into the museum, instead we 'visited' all the vehicle displays at the compound first. We saw all sorts of carts,......




 ......riskshaw, trishaw, antique car, and even the first generation of Proton Saga, .....



.....the antique fire engine (fire engine is also Juan Or's favourite vehicle!), ......



.....and boats.



 Among the antique vehicles was a stall for anyone interested to take photos with colourful parrots, with a fee of course! The fee was RM15, but the signboard did not indicate clearly whether it was RM15 per session for taking photos regardless of how many photos you take. Anyway, Mommy was not exactly keen on taking photos with parrots plus the price was steep, so Mommy merely stood at a hidden angle (yes, hidden from the man who manned the stall!) next to a pillar and clicked (for free)! ^_^



Here are more poses of Juan Or at somewhere near the antique vehicles. Too bad, we missed the snake exhibition although the signboard was still there.






We took one round around the museum's compound as well and found the fountain (the fountain is also Juan Or's favourite).

 

Then there's this bronze statue of someone in history with whom Mommy asked Juan Or to pose. After reading the caption board, turned out this man in history is Sir Frank Athelstane Swettenham, the man who contributed to the early developments of Selangor, including the opening of Port Swettenham, now known as Port Klang.






After we were satisfied exploring the compound, we entered the museum. The fee was RM2 per adult and free for children below 12 years old. The inside of the museum is all renovated, so it looked more spacious now.



Now there are four galleries in the museum: Gallery A for early history (Permian, Prehistory and Proto-history Eras), Gallery B for the Malay Kingdoms ranging from the ancient to the 19th century ones, Gallery C for the Colonial Era (Portuguese, Dutch, British, Japanese Occupation, Malaya's education system and Malay freedom fighters) and Gallery D for Malaysia today. However, those stuffed wild animals display that Papa and Mommy used to see during our childhood were no longer there. Where have they gone to?



Anyway, Mommy didn't take much photos when in the galleries because the lights were mostly like those hotel lights - dimly lit yellow lights, thus not suitable for Mommy's handphone camera. It was only at Gallery D when the lights were more of the white type. So Mommy snapped a photo of Juan Or together with a model steam loco,.....






....a tin dredge model, .....






....and a photo of Juan Or doing a face-fit on the 'spaceman suit'. You can see Papa holding him up from behind because his legs were not long enough to stand on the back platform.



Finally we were done with the museum and we came out. Mommy saw there is a walking pathway to go to the National Planetarium and Mommy had also wanted to go to the Orang Asli (Aborigines) Museum just adjacent to the main museum building,but Papa said it was late already and had to go for lunch.


So we left the National Museum, and Juan Or went to see and say goodbye to the steam locos one more time while Papa walked to the parking lot and drove the car to pick us up. Next, we headed to Plaza OUG at Overseas Union Garden via Old Klang Road for McDonalds.

As usual, we took advantage of the McValue Meals offer that starts at 12 noon, but we reached Plaza OUG at about 11.35 am, so we loitered at the plaza for a while. Thus, Juan Or gets to have his kiddy ride.



Finally the clock striked 12 and we were at McDonalds already. While Papa was queueing up to buy food, Juan Or had a good time fiddling with the McDonalds' plastic spoon, disposable sauce dishes and the salt and black pepper mini sachets. As usual, he would arrange the mini sachets in an array (like what he would do for his toys).




A pose for Mommy!



Finally Papa was back with the food. Mommy's food was a Fillet-O-Fish. Wah, can't wait to eat, stomach was rumbling already!






Nothing seems unusual about the burger, right?




Now when Mommy opened the burger, can you spot anything unusual?





Yes, that's right, how come only half a piece of cheese was used? Strange.....other McDonalds outlets are not doing like that. Does that mean if the price is cut at 12 noon, so does the ingredient? Only the McDonalds at Plaza OUG will have the answer.