I HATE dentists! (Part I)

In my earlier post I mentioned the much dreaded word "toothache" and

5Xmom responded with:

"Wah...I hate toothaches and I HATE dentists. I hate dentist, I hate dentist...Ooopsss....I forgot, back to MG's blog."

then twinsmom responded:

"I HATE dentist!but I love my tooth, have to love them, otherwise they will make me miserable."

and 1+2mom said:

"I very scare dentist! So i very takecare of my kids teeth."

Note: Better brainwash my kids not to become dentists if I don't want everyone to hate them.

I have discoloured teeth, or more correctly, they're multicoloured. Hues of yellow, grey and brown. I was told they are that way probably due to some antibiotic my mum took when she was pregnant with me. Not my fault ok? I don't like sweets and I brush. We even had a dentist in school for regular checkups and they thought us the art of brushing during primary school. I remember standing in a field with my red kole and brushing until my mouth foamed but we were not allowed to gargle for 10-15 minutes, then *gargle gargle* and repeat. Yuck! Feel like gagging from the memory.

When I was 12, a dentist told me "Your roots are dead. We have to do root treatment." (*shiver shiver*). And so he took out all the roots from one of my tooth and replaced it with a screw to hold up that tooth. (Watch out! MG got bionic tooth).

I went on with my bionic tooth for another 10 years or so. One day, as a young working adult, I went to see a doctor for a simple cold and after checking my throat and having had (what must have been to him)a horrible close-up view of my teeth, the doc told me "Young lady, you should get your teeth fixed. With teeth like that for a lady your age, I am sure your confidence will be affected." Then he gave me an understanding smile. I felt like clobbering him or giving him a bionic bite but I just gave him a small smile (a smile that does not show teeth, which I had practised and perfected for years) and left.

I felt even more ashamed with my teeth after that I decided to fix it however much I hated the dentist. Thinking back now, its such a small thing to feel so upset about. Teeth only mah! What about people who have cleft lip or some other deformity or handicap. Its society which looks at people differently just because they are "different". Confidence should come from within oneself but I didn't know any better than.

And thats what spurred me on to fix my teeth. It cost several thousand Ringgit. Hey! At that time I only earned less than RM500 a month so several thousand Ringgit was big! (Come to think of it, its still big Now!) And I paid for it with my own hard earned money. (*ahem*)

Wah. This post getting long. I will talk about what happened at the dentist later lah. Now lazy.

Toothache

I'm having a toothache but thats the least of my worries.

I'm worried about all my babies (so what else is new?). Baby No1. (Mr MG) is away doing something he'd really rather not be doing. Sigh! Poor Baby.

Baby No2 (ie the real baby in the house) is down with fever. On and off, on and off. Poor baby. I'm stuck at home without a car so I'm a bit worried his fever will be high. I keep on checking his temperature. Poor baby must be wondering what mummy is doing sticking something under his arm every hour. Sigh! Guess who won't be having much sleep tonight.

Then theres Baby No3 (toddler) who is feeling just a little jealous about all the attention Baby No2 is getting. She too wants to have her temperature taken and wants to take medicine! (And to think of all the times when she was ill and I had to force the medicine down her throat. Maybe next time I will pretend to give it to baby!)

So, here is Baby No 4 (MG), feeling all disorientated, uncomfortable (time of month summore), worried and ahh.... yes...the toothache. I thought I was writing about toothache? I AM feeling disoriented, can't you tell?

Note: Baby No4 needs some babying and TLC now but must go and baby all the other babies first.

Lost....

Today... I lost my....

• dictionary
• recipe book
• pc game
• radio
• directory
• blog
• toddler's games

Aiseh.... MG must be getting old liao.....

Pssst... actually my streamyx was out. So if I haven't been visiting your blog you know why lor... I'll come over later..... when I can find the time. Too much time was spent today trying to get the pc in order again.

Switching back to Blogger Comments

"Blogger News

Comments Revisited
Good news everyone! We've updated the way comments work. Among the many improvements are pop-up windows for comments and the ability for commenters to fill in their name and web site info—no Blogger account needed.

– Biz [2/10/2005 05:06:00 PM]"

Blogger has recently updated their commenting system and thanks to Mdmafia and Narrowband for bringing to my attention that you lose your old comments after a few months under the Haloscan free basic account unless you pay to upgrade, I have decided to reinstall my old blogger commenting system. Narrowband has even put up a very detailed step by step guide here on how to reinstall blogger comments for your blog. Unfortunately, like Jason, I only saw it after I tried it out myself... the hard way! Thanks anyway Narrowband.

Previously I had switched to Haloscan because those without a blogger account will find it difficult to leave comments but now they can. In addition, the commenter has the option to delete their comments if they wish. Just click on the trashcan. I will also get email notification of any comments. Most importantly, I don't have to lose my comments and I don't have to pay :-P (Psst.. I too kiamsiap, don't want to pay for my own domain, unlike some people, person or mysterious individual. All reasons for me why I should switch back to blogger. I lose my trackback function though, but thats no big deal to me.

For the time being, I am keeping the Haloscan comments as I do not want to lose those comments since they cannot be imported into the blogger system at this time. Don't want to lose my cream mah. Like I mentioned to Narrowband, I blog for myself but comments are like the icing to the cake. Its fun to read comments, gives me more motivation to blog. Want to eat cake must wallop the icing too right?

So for visitors to my blog, please leave your comments on the blogger system instead of the Haloscan one. I have already started the ball rolling. Thanks for visiting my blog and thanks for taking time to comment.

Mad Post

On Sunday evening I was mad at something someone said to me.

I kept on thinking about it and as I thought about it I got madder and madder.

Then I started to think about all the responses I should have said to that person and I got even madder and madder.

That made me stop enjoying everything around me and oh boy that got me very mad.

I stopped enjoying my kids and I remained very mad.

Then I got mad at myself for being so annoyed at something so inconsequential and for ruining my own evening so I got madder and madder still.

Negative thoughts can fester if I allow it to. I can control how my days turn out by just trying to change the way I think from negative to positive. It takes practise to think postitively and I am still practising the art.

My blog helps. Blogging helps me put my day into a postive mode. Writing about positive stuff sets of the positive train of thoughts going and the positive chain reaction that follows. So as far as possible I will refrain from ranting, raving and venting here.

Duck mania!

Toddler: "Mummy, I want to choose the duck." (said eagerly)
MG: "Ok. Choose. Choose." (said with a hint of impatience)
Toddler: (*shuffle*shuffle*shuffle*) "Cannot find the duck, mummy." (in a rather sad voice)
MG: "How about the chicken then?" (in a cheerful voice)
Toddler: "I want the duck" (sulking, not giving up)
MG: "Look, this one got mushroom." (in the most persuasive voice)
Toddler: "I want the duck" (who r u trying to kid???)

No, MG and toddler was not haggling about what to eat for lunch but rather which diaper (pattern) toddler should put on.

Toddler is in a duck craze mood for now. She must wear clothes with a duck motive, play with duck stickers, sing duck songs (eg: "Old McDonald had a farm..... he had a duck...."), watch Donald duck, play with duck finger puppets, read duck stories etc etc. The only exception is she won't eat duck. She's still very picky with her food.

Hmm... I wonder what the next craze will be. Not boys, I hope!

Scenes of Chinese New Year II

This chap here wearing a laughing buddha mask is an important team member in the lion dancer's troupe. Laughing Buddha will interact with the crowd and show the lion where to get its "food" of chinese lettuce ("sang choy" which sounds like prosperity vegetable when pronounced in cantonese), mandarin oranges ("kum" which sounds like the word gold) and of course Angpow.

Toddler loves to watch the lion dance. She would rush to the lion to try to pet it, not at all afraid of the loud drums and cymbals. I guess it must be because while I was expecting her, I stood right next to the drums during a lion dance at a friend's house. After that I could not sleep the whole night and was worried for days afterwards that I had damaged the baby's hearing by being so dumb to stand right beside such a deafening noise. I went to check the web to find out when baby's ears and hearing are developing etc etc.. (*rolls eyes*) Its funny to think about now but at the time I was really extremely worried!

One starts to worry about one's kids as soon as they are conceived, even when they are in the womb and throughout their lives. Sometimes the things we worry about are quite ridiculous :-P

Scenes of Chinese New Year I

Pretty Lanterns all in a row. Looks even better at night.

I love the way the city lights up during each festive season. We're lucky we celebrate so many festivals.

On the 3rd evening of Chinese New Year, we took baby and toddler for a car ride to see KL by night. Actually, we were more thrilled to watch the lights then the kids. Toddler was busy singing songs in the car while baby was busy looking at toddler. Only MG "Oooohhed" and "Aaahhhed".

We drove passed the KL clubbing and night scene. (a scene we once frequented) It was very pretty, the street was all lighted up in blues and looked like a fairyland. On certain streets, the lanterns were strung side by side with some lighted ketupats. Even the decorations are "Muhibbah" (depicting racial tolerance). We stopped at the Dataran Merdeka and got down to admire the lighted courthouse. Too bad I did not have my camera with me then. Maybe another time........

Terms of Endearment

There's this guy, a neighbour whom we often bump into in the elevator. I shall call him Mr E (E= short for Elevator). Mr E is not much older than us. One day Mr MG told me "I'm not sure what to call him. "Brother" or "Uncle". Mr E is obviously older than us, so "brother" seems disrespectful. On the other hand "uncle" sounds sooooo old because he doesn't look much older than us. We haven't resolved this dilemma, so its just "Hi, how'r you doing?" each time we bump into Mr E for the time being.

We Malaysians have a funny way of addressing people. Almost everyone is a "boss", "taukeh" (can be in Malay or Hokkien), "see tou"& "loh sai" (in Cantonese) or "see tau poh (for the feminine gender)". (All terms of address have the same meaning ie. boss). We call the condo guards, the mamak stall operator, the newspaper vendor and anyone else in some position of authority or ownership or anyone whom we don't know how to address "boss".

Similarly, we are called "taukeh", "see tou" etc by the condo guards, the mamak stall operator, the newspaper vendor, the hawker stall operator etc. Strange. I could be buying "Chap Fun" (Mixed Rice) and the conversation could go something like this. "See tou poh siong sek mee yeh." (Boss lady what would you like to have?) After picking the dishes I might say "See tou poh, kai soh" (Boss lady, how much?) to the lady seller. Or it could go something like this "Boss, roti kosong dua" (Boss, two plain roti canai, please) says Mr MG to the mamak stall operator who would reply "Ok boss" (Yes boss). Very strange indeed.

I was just thinking about how I am no longer a "leng lui" (pretty girl), a term usually used to address a SYT (sweet young thing) when I saw Mdmafia's very funny musings about this. I was "leng lui" for a very long time. I don't mind being called "leng lui" accept by the illegal VCD peddlars. Somehow it sounds more like a leer or tease when it comes from the mouth of someone with coloured hair, cigaratte dangling from lips, hipster jeans etc and it scared the shit out of me as a young girl but no longer. Its afterall much younger sounding and flattering than "auntie" or "see tou poh".

I still remember the first time I was called "auntie". It was at the butcher at the wet market. I had quite a nasty shock then as at the time I was still not yet horizontally challenged and wasn't even dressed in auntie garb. But the chap was just a teenager helping out his mum or so I consoled myself. (probably he was older but I'd like to think that he was a teenager lah for obvious reasons as the younger he was, the "older" I would appear to him so he'd have more reason to call me "auntie". Its just like our current dilemma with Mr E.

I'm used to the term "auntie" now. Why, someone even called me "auntie blogger" on his sidebar. Hahaha. Anyway if anyone could tell me how to address Mr E, I would be grateful.

Valentine's Day story

Wife: "Where's my present?" (smiling and looking hopeful)
Husband: "What present?" (looking puzzled)
Wife: "Eh, you forgot adi ah, today is Valentine's Day!" (a bit dissapointed but still smiling)
Husband: "Oh yah sorry darling. Happy Valentine's Day." (looking sheepish)
Wife: "So? What are we doing today?" (a little bit annoyed but still trying to smile)
Husband: "Huh? Must do something wan ah?" (still looking puzzled)
Wife: "You are soooooo unromantic. You men are all the same. Once get the girl adi, romance all gone liao." (smile disappearing)
Husband: "Hehe" (trying to smile)
Wife: "We just got married today izzit? So many years adi, you every year oso the same one. Never plan anything." (no more smile)
Husband: "But who's going to take care of the kids?" (still puzzled)
Wife: "Can't you arrange for a babysitter so that we can spend some quality time together? Its been ages since we've even had a proper conversation, not to mention spend some time together, just the two of us." (looking quite annoyed now)
Husband: "How to arrange babysitter? I've got no one in my family, your family all busy and surely we don't want to leave them with strangers." ( not looking puzzled anymore). "If you are so keen than why don't YOU arrange for a babysitter." (now looking a little bit annoyed)
Wife: "Why do I have to be the one to do it? Everything oso I must do" (mumbles angrily to herself)
Husband: "What do you mean everything oso you must do. I am the one who has to work all day and come back must do housework summore!" (looking annoyed now)
Wife: "Oh so what you do is work lah and what I'm doing is NOT work. You think I goyang kaki all day lah izziyt! (voice getting louder)
Husband: "You blog all day! Never look after my babies" (sounding fed-up)
(Husband & Wife talking in raised voices now and children crying in the background from the commotion and no one bothers to pick them up)
Wife: "You see! Its so noisy around here. 365 days a year I have to deal with this and today no different. I have no life around here!" (shaking from anger now)
Husband: "What do you mean you have no life. You are the one who chose to stay at home with the kids!" (looking exasperated and very annoyed)
Wife: "Yah but you always work so late ..... blah...blah....blah" (brings up other issues not related to current V-day argument)
Husband: "I can't believe I'm hearing this. What about you? You are so.... blah, blah, blah...." (brings up unrelated issues)

Uh oh.... day of love turned into day of disappointment, anger, hurt liao! (in an argument usually most people bring up history, future etc etc all unrelated to the original argument. You'd be surprised what your partner says or thinks when revealed in an argument!)

Hehe is that what happened at MG's home? No lar....

Here's what actually happened.

MG got to sleep in till 9.30am and got woken up by Mr MG who had already changed and fed toddler her milk.

Mr MG: Kiss kiss. Happy Valentine's Day hon. I made breakfast.
MG: (Big Smile) Wah! Got breakfast.
(This is BIG man. Because Mr MG the man, does not cook. He can't even differentiate between onions and garlic. He can't even fry an egg. The only thing he can cook is Mee Maggi Curry, no other brand or flavour will do. MG taught him to eat Indomie Goreng but he doesn't even know how to cook that one! So of course thats what we had for breakfast. Haha.)

After breakfast we, all four of us ie together with baby and toddler when to pak tor at shopping mall. (I'm surprised to read about so many other people pak toing at shopping mall! If got kids like us, nvm lah got to entertain kids but those youngsters got no place to go one meh?) We had a nice time just walking around doing and buying nothing in particular. Its quite rare that we jalan-jalan without rushing around with some shopping purpose in mind.

Toddler saw the heart shaped balloons around and wanted one.
Toddler: "I want balloon, balloon, mummy."
Out of sight of toddler MG went to secretly ask vendor: "How much is that balloon?"
Vendor: "RM18."
MG: Okie (then quickly runs off, wah so expensive and "yat fatt" (18) summore for Chinese New Year izzit. Surelah the vendor will fatt (8) from fleecing all the sweethearts.
MG to toddler: "No. no balloon for you sweetie. You've got lots of toys at home. Lets go help mummy choose some photoframes for the Gong Xi Fa Cai photo of you and baby to give to kong kong/grandpa." (distraction is a great way to divert a tantrum)

At the same stall a man was rebuking his daughter
Man: "No! You can't have the balloon. Its for mummy. "
Daugther: "I want balloooooonn.... "
Man: "SIT! SIT DOWN!" (growls at daughter)
(Poor kid! I thought V-day was day of love? Oops! I shouldn't be so judgemental on the man. Sometimes children do need to be taught that not everything revolves around them.)

Later in the day MG decided to cook dinner for Mr MG since he made breakfast. Just as we sat down to eat, baby wailed so MG has to get up to attend to baby. Just as Mr MG was about to eat, toddler decides to throw a BIG tantrum because she wanted to drink F&N Orange before her dinner. Cried so hard till she threw up on the carpet. The first time she did that and what a memorable day to choose to do it.

Well after we finished our meal (at last!) Mr MG laid on the floor while his family gave him a massage. MG taught baby to pummel daddy's biceps with his little fist while toddler scratched the other arm (well trained by MG adi from young to help mummy)

All in all a very nice day indeed. A day that could easily have turned out like the mock scenario I painted above. (Sorry if I offended any ladies from the stereotyping. Its just mock, make believe lah! I couldn't resist the tongue-in-cheek "You blog all day" part though. Hehe.)

Life is what we make it out to be. I choose to view my cup as half full not half empty. I am happy NOW, not "later when......." Will blog more about this "Happy NOW" concept another day.

I love.........

Since its Valentine's Day and I'm in the mood for love, might as well blog about all the things that I love....

• I love my husband
• I love my baby and toddler
• I love my family, my dad, my brothers and sisters
• I love my simple home
• I love to sing
• I love soft, soothing and relaxing music, yeap the kind that they play in elevators and lounges because they just sort of fade in the background and is not jarring
• I love broadway show tunes
• I love prawn fritters and fried wantans and char koay teow and nasi lemak and hawker food and..... oh dear, I guess I just love good food and a good drink every now and then
• I love the air after the rain, the wonderful fresh smell and feel
• I love the rain
• I love the beach, walking barefoot on the soft sand and the sound of the waves splashing
• I love to watch my babies sleep and I love to smell my babies, all 3 of them (hubby included hehe)
• I love flowers. They're so soft, colourful and lovely
• I love perfume
• I love to do cross stitch
• I love to cook
• I love to read and I love a good book
• I love to write
• I love to blog
• I love home cooked food and the smell of the food cooking
• I love........

There's too many things that I love, I could go on and on but better stop here and go wake a sleeping hubby to wish him a Happy Valentine's Day. We never really "celebrate" Valentine's Day although some years we get a heart shaped cake to share just for the fun of it but its not necessary for us to try to say I love you on this one day... because every day is important to show our loved ones in little ways that we care for them.

Happy Chinese New Year

Just wanted to wish everyone Happy New Year and Happy Holidays before the Balik Kampung exodus begins. Don't eat, drink and gamble too much yah? Click here to ignite virtual firecracker and view greeting :-)

There is beauty all around us....

Update on baby and toddler's development milestones.

Every now and then, I like to record down baby and toddler's development so I can refer to them later and smile.

One of the best parts of being a parent is to watch your child progress and grow right before your very eyes.

Toddler is at the Questioning stage. "What's this?" is her favourite question. It gives me the perfect opportunity to talk to her and teach her. She has also recently learned how to use the word "because" so she would ask herself questions and answer with a "because". Recently she asked herself "Why is it dark dark?" then she answered "BECAUSE it is not bright bright!"

Baby is easily amused. He laughs easily. Just play a game of hide and seek or peek-a-boo with him or call out his name when you walk past him and he will laugh aloud with such glee. He makes me feel like an award winning stand-up comedian.

Baby is now at the Scanning stage. It is lovely to watch him. Everytime we go to a new place his eyes will dart everywhere and he will stare and stare at his new surroundings in wonder. If I am carrying him upright he will turn his head this way and that to try to look over my left or right shoulder as if annoyed that I am blocking his view.

If I give baby anything to hold, he will examine it with great care, turning it this way and that and passing it from hand to hand. To a baby, there is so much to see, feel and learn. As he is getting more and more aware of his surroundings he is seeing lots and lots of things for the first time, the colours and wonders of the world around us.

As adults we have forgotten to "see" the wonders around us. Most days we just give a flitting glance and everything around us passes by in a hurried blur.

Have you stopped to admire the wonders around you today? Photo taken from MG's window.

Glossary of terms found on blogosphere in Bolehland

Someone asked me "Is kembang a verb or a noun, adjective? I need to know what it is to be able to kembang or get kembang or ...make pple kembang ..er....how to use."

That made me realise that since I started having a blog, I have learned quite a few new terms previously unknown to me or unheard of. I have compiled them here for easy reference. They're by no means complete because I'm still learning, so please feel free to correct me or make any additions or edits like in a Wikipedia :-) I've learned a lot from the young people, but some of the orang tua-tua taught me quite a few terms too.

Learned these from Twinsmom:

PIP - Pee In Pants (best used to indicate laughing very hard eg laugh until PIP liao)
MCAP - My Cina Ah Pek
CAS - Cina Ah Soh
HYT - Handsome Young Thing (opposite of SYT or Sweet Young Thing)
Bone Gas - Literal translation of Cantonese term "Guat Hei" eg. "mo guat hei" means no backbone, lame or of weak character.

Learned these from 5XMom:

Kembang - Proud as a Peacock or full of pride
ATM - refers to spouse who is the breadwinner
SHART - Shit while farting
KKC - Kamera Kesayangan Cina-Ah-Soh
Chey - To express praise for oneself eg "Chey, not bad lar me" Can also be used to express disgust. Eg. "Chey! Why u so like dat wan."
Choy - An expression to sweep away bad luck eg "Choy, how can you say dat?"
mya - mine or in Malay punya eg "lu mya pasal" (Its all your fault)
uwek - Puking sound
P.S. 5XMom please correct me if I misspelt your terms lar. You got no search box at your blog and I cannot remember all mah.

Didn't know these were spelt this way:

Oso - also
Dat - that
Lar - lah
Okie - OK
Wat - what
Izzit - Is it?
Blardy - bloody
Dang - damn!
Oledi - already
Adi - already
Abuden - Ah... but then
Wan - one
Farnee - funny
Summore - some more
Oh Marn - Oh man!
kenot - cannot
Dunno - Don't know

Some other expressive terms:

Fuiyhoh - Used to express admiration
Aisehman - Sigh!
Chey wah - Almost the same meaning as Chey
Hor - Right?
Liao - Same meaning as adi or oledi
Muahahahaha - Indicating loud and hearty laugh
Khihkhikhikhi - To express a sarcastic or mocking laugh

Some abbreviations:

OIC - Oh I see
KPC - Kay Poh Chee (busybody)

More terms I just learned. Thanks for the contribution Eyeris.

Wahlauwei! - To express surprise or 'Wahlau-ness' of something
Bleh - To express disgust, or to show someone you have a very long tongue
Cis - To express disdain (also, see CEH)
Ceh - To express indifference/disdain. Best used with a hand waving dismissively at something (synonym: BAH!)
Jia-lat - To be in big trouble (Usage: Aiyor, accident! This time jia-lat liao lor.!)

My definations on the above may not be very clear, so here's an example of the usage.

Blogger : Eh, you should blog lar.
Friend: Tell me more....
Blogger: Can be kpc. Read people's blog blardy farnee wan. Sometimes read until want to PIP liao. Fuiyhoh, I tell you hor, some of the CAS blog about their MCAP, ATM or even KKC, if not careful read adi can SHART!. Dunno why, sometimes summore got some HYT or SYT think the CAS got no bone gas, kenot take what CAS blog about, Wah dat time, like war only on the comments board. Choy! Like dat oso can wan. Uwek! Khihkhikhikhi.
Friend: I'm not keen.....
Blogger: Chey! Why you so like dat wan. Dang!
Friend: I have no time....
Blogger: OIC. Izzit? Aisehman you don't know what you're missing. Sometimes got interesting comment dat time hor, chey wah, Oh Marn, feel so kembang oledi. Muahahahaha.
Friend: Really?
Blogger: Aisehman, too bad lar. Abuden you should try it one day.
Friend: Maybe I will try soon...
Blogger: Okie.