Laneige in Sabah

Laneige was launched in Kota Kinabalu this year! i was ecstatic! since they are new, the SA loaded me with many sample packs! isn't that awesome?

previously, laneige can only be found in VERY limited places like Sunway Parkson, Midvalley Jusco and a few other stores. however, many counters are beginning to emerge.

to date, I've finished one bottle of Laneige White Plus Renew Essence RM 175 and I'm now on the second bottle.

i am also using the Water Bank Moisture Cream RM135 as my day and night cream. Running out of my third tub and i shall source from Hong Kong instead of Malaysia since beauty products there are  dirt cheap  cheaper.

my colleagues have been complimenting me on my complexion ever since i started using Laneige. they asked if it was the motherhood glow or if im using any special creams on my face. *beams*

hence i've decided to continue my current beauty regime.

i wash my face with water in the morning and use facial wash at night. using Laneige Foaming Cleanser. it makes my skin taut after cleansing which i dont quite fancy. i surmised that it will dry my skin but i'm still continuing it because none of my family members are using facial cleanser! no one to donate to.
since im using only 2-3mm each time, that is per night, i can convincingly announced that i can only change cleanser after 3-4 years? this coming CNY will be my second year and i doubt ive used half of it. darn!
nevertheless, it isnt that awful that i totally need to chuck it aside. as long as i quickly slather my hada labo toner followed by face cream, my skin feels good.
i am a very lazy person. with no maid and one active toddler, most of the time i would just live with the tight skin and after a wee while, i would not feel a thing.

i have learned from my mistakes. never to fall prey to the SAs before checking out on the products somewhat thoroughly.

in the olden days, i will have many facial cleansers, toner, creams and whatnot. not that i have problematic skin, but i think that is simply bad attitude.

now that i have a family, i should practice frugality and only buy what is NECESSARY. *pouts*

therefore! laneige is one brand that i swear by would stay loyal to, until (if) i find a better one.

also, i have this hypothesis that Asians should use Asian products. not because we should support them -_______-
it is because they would, well they should! be more appropriate considering the condition of our skin and the environment that we live in.
another bonus is that hubs likes SUng Hwa Kyo hence he supports me using Laneige! *twirls*

birthday at Supul

 the hubs brought us to a korean restaurant on my birthday this year!


 

 child-friendly restaurant enjoying his mickey mouse cutleries
 





 yay! tucking in because we havent had korean for eons!

 cuttlefish

 

the notorious chicken ginseng soup

 barbecued pork. they did it for us because it would be safer that way ;) we did not want to bbq on the table with a toddler around.

 



 surprised me with two slices of cake.
 

KJ looks quite funny here.



looking at bats!

 

Goodbye bats! we are leaving~

 



 which kid does not adore blowing the candles?

 






bliss.


we dined at Korean BBQ Supul, City Mall.
the bill was astonishingly cheap! :) we had 5-6 dishes that night and i thought the meal would cost more than RM200! but i think it was barely RM100. madness!
nevertheless, the food was satisfactory but not genuinely korean.
i missed the korean restaurant in Api-Api.

when a child is under the weather

when a child is ill,

we must keep them hydrated!

and since they wouldn't have much appetite,

this is the time where the mother has to close one eye and give sugary-high energy drink to the child.

that is me.

im the type of mother who will try my best to reduce, i wouldnt say avoid, unhealthy food in my family. 

hence i will try to model what i preach.

well, but in this case, these photos were taken during CNY 2012. KJ was ill.

that is mug of ribena!

and potato porridge.

he wants to eat the porridge with the crunchy fried crabstick.

*close one eye*

this tells us that he has recovered.

whether or not a child is TRULY ill, you observe him. if he is still active, then u can sleep in peace.

you should only worry when he is not.

this is our yearly practice.

on the second day of CNY, we will have a coffee break in our car with these take-away before departing for granny's at Sitiawan.

piping hot egg tarts and Wu Kok (yam puff).

the mandatory drink at Nam Heong,

old town white coffee!

yes, this was the second day of CNY, and the crowd was terrifying.

KJ @ 2 years old

perineal massage how-to

YOUTUBE PERINEAL MASSAGE


perineal massage is not only useful for delivery, it also helps to strengthen the muscles for those intimate moments.

so do it mommies!

this stretching exercise can be carried out for mommies like me, who have had their first vagina birth.no harm done, more to gain ;)

read the techniques here on how to do it.


as for episiotomy, some mothers shared that an episiotomy done is better than a natural tear. some said otherwise.


EPISIOTOMY video

i almost had one (episiotomy), but my midwife suggested not to as we (the baby and i) could cope. phew.

i did not checked on the wound though. neither did i enquire which grade of tear i had (grade 2 tear, grade 3 tear) but according to hubs, he said it should be a very minor grade. 

however, i remembered i was in pain, and also maybe i was just afraid of the wound hence i was particularly careful. i walked around the ward and behaved like i had a c-sect. pretty embarrassed when i was questioned.
the other veterans could sit cross-legged on their bed, wolfing down on their meals right after delivery. *gasped*

it took me almost 3 weeks to a month to completely heal and not feel any strange sensation at the bottom. 

life is like that. there will always be contradicting stories so the decision is yours. my good friend shared that she was given salt bath to speed up the vagina wound. Means u sit in a pail of salt water, daily.

Meanwhile my nurses in SWACH (Sabah Women and Children Hospital) advised that salt water is not recommended. it would instead promote infection and delay healing.

i guess i would put in episiotomy in my birth plan  in future.


updated apr 2013: this is a new link which explains more about episiotomy. ive changed my mind! NO episiotomy this time around please! never! :D 

Refining motor skill with play dough

made play dough using tmx this morning.

this was our second time using tmx.

our very first home made play dough was cooked on the stove.

hence without having me to tell you, i will not cook it on the stove ever again.

i accidentally poured oil in the first step (instead of the last step) but thankfully they turned out beautiful.

the whole process only takes 7 minutes!

Copied the recipe from somewhere but i dont remember the link.

Thermomix Playdough
Ingredients:
250g Water
100g Cooking Salt
1 Tablespoon Cream of Tartar
280g Plain Flour
15ml Cooking Oil
Food Colouring or Powder Paints (to colour)

Preparation:

Put the water, salt, cream of tartar and food colour into  . Heat for 5 minutes at 60o on speed 3.

After cooking, add flour and mix for 40 seconds or until mixture is combined and thick.

Set dial to closed lid position.

Add oil and knead for 1 minute on  

Tips/Hints:

If you wish to make several different colours from the one batch, leave out the food colour in step 1. Then when dough is made, divide dough into balls and add a different colour to each ball. Knead the colour through the dough.  Store each colour in a separate airtight container to keep dough from hardening.

Encourage your children to be creative and make play dough models, characters, animals etc.

I have written this recipe as I now make it, which is the "tried and tested forum recipe"!!   Thanks everyone for your input.

He still does not fancy playing with the dough.

he only wants to make them into balls.

Gave him a plastic knife to cut but...he is still not quite *there* yet

toothpicks to poke around. he did not, i did!

cookie cutters to cut.

well, he only wants balls :(

i get discouraged easily.

im gonna brush it aside and get motivated to introduce other activities!

KJ @ 2 years old 8 months

Learn through play

children learn better through play,

and we totally believe in that.

when he was 2.5 yrs old:

plays with syringe

plain water

the concentration

with coloured water

syringe of different sizes

lay out the alphabet cards and match the leapfrog alphabets to the cards.

he doesnt like to arrange the cards in alphabetical order.

his pasta

oct 7 2012

conversations

this afternoon at 30 months old, KayJay said like!

i was halfway dozing shook up and replied hmmMM?

he went Like Mommy's Milk oh!

-___________-

i was nursing him to sleep in the afternoon today. =)


i owe it to KJ, i should really blog more because i am just too forgetful these days. 

his developmental progress is not updated at all. my bad darling.

by the way, he says he is Darling L.Kj. heh heh

 mommy loves you.


oh! by the way, i feel mega jealous when he says Like aunty, like aunty's house. darn! puts on a deaf ear!

Typical one day trip in Kota Kinabalu~

 the mighty Mt. Kinabalu!
 

love the impish grin with ah kong and ah ma

 
 the Ooi's reunite in KK, first time ever. brought them to Kundasang and Ranau.
it was their 4th or 5th trip here but never brought them up anywhere. he he
 
 favorite family member! ah gu!
   
the nuclear family! 

please note the MAJESTIC breathtaking view behind us in all the photos above.

 drove further down to Ranau. from KK, u go up to kundasang where it is the entry point to mount KK, then u'll go down to Ranau. i think Ranau is a valley.
 
 visited Kifli's house upon request. yep, mom called him one night before and asked if we can visit his kampung house, and if his mom can cook kampung meal for us. i know, shameless. hah
 
 glad this little boy loves coconut water
 
 was it a dog or a cat that caught his attention
 
 kampung rice. kifli's mom planted herself. harvest and everything on their own. except milling, she sends them to a nearby milling factory.
 
 pucuk paku? can't quite remember. steamed, hence u can taste the crisp freshness of the vege.
 
 kampung petai. i LOVED it! miniature in size as compared to the peninsula's.
 
 i was scooping daun bawang stir-fried with bunga kantan. i eat for the sake of bulking my bowels.gulps.
to its right was Soup, cooked with bush talap. kj doesn't like it and it was the only dish with liquid!
then, to its left, was barbecued wild boar.
 
 before we left, they suggested to snap a photo! =)

 
 next station, we went to a river !
 
 my heart skipped a beat when i saw these 2 lads walked down towards us. they look like superstars. no joke. especially the white shirt chap, presumably because he wore the sunglass on his head. heh heh
 and obviously when u are tall and lanky, u win extra points automatically.
 

look at them! u can soak your feet into the river and the fishes will feed on your feet. nibble away all your dead skin!

 
 kj chickened out when he saw the schools of fish. he totally forgot that he wants to swim with them originally.
 
 look at kj's feet! =D
 
 the boys enjoyed themselves tremendously.
 
 time to confess, I'm frightened of the slimy beings as well. see how i avoided them.
 
 how could he not love his uncle?
 
 mom insisted on bringing her grandson up to the hanging bridge albeit the dark clouds gunning towards us. it rained for a good 5 mins halfway through our play there.
 
 that grin again. signature grin?
 
 incredibly stunning, don't u think so?
 
 the yellow team.
we parked beside the road when we captured this view.
 
 bullying the grandparents?
 
 he said COLD
 
 i love this
 

 seeing is believing. i never believed this until i saw this with my own eyes.

this trip was worth all the money spent on flying them over.

no signs of emo-ness from her highness this time. hooray! :p





sorry, by the way, just to explain the title: typical one day trip. i said that because everyone who comes to KK, will definitely do this. they will undoubtedly go up to Kundasang. we once did that when we were strangers in KK.  our colleagues' parents/friends who came to KK will ALWAYS ALWAYS be brought up to kundasang for a night. nevertheless, we have only stayed up there once in our 3 years stint here :)

This time, we didn't manage to bring then to the Desa Cow Farm because we left the house late, at 10 plus in the morning. no time to even stop at Tuaran for Hub's FAVOURITE tuaran mee.

we were lucky that Kifli was around hence we could go to his kampung. it was pretty deep inside the town of Ranau.

the typical Kundasang trip for us would be : leave KK early morning ; breakfast at Tuaran (tuaran mee) /Tamparuli (tamparuli mee) > Pekan Nabalu > strawberry house at Kundasang (strawberry ice cream) > War Memorial at Kundasang > Desa Cow Farm (drink fresh milk) > will be late afternoon by then, hungry. sped down to Sepanggar for coconut pudding > seafood dinner in KK town.

yes, we don't lunch at Kundasang because the food sucks. not much variety of food stalls/restaurants as well. hence we would always remind our guests to eat more in Tuaran :)
and remember, u cannot over stay because u have to come down before dusk. no street lights. the road is windy. better not take risk.

we have never been to Poring Hot Spring yet.

no idea why it doesn't attract us.

oh, and u can forget about Kinabalu Park. brought my brother and friends there once. THAT's IT! i will never enter that place ever again, unless if I'm climbing the mountain.

hopefully this post can remind me of places in future :)

cheers