Buckets full of goodness!

Everyone who knows me knows I love my ice cream.

Of late, essentially after the birth of my 2nd child, I have given myself the license to wallop ice cream to my hearts content. I need to manage my stress and I better do it while I can still afford (in RM and weight) it.

I have been eating loads of Sunnyside ice cream, boxes of Bulla and some Tiptop. Christopher joins at my side especially when I buy his favourite strawberry!

And now.....I have another brand to add to my ice cream list.

BUCKETS !

I tell you the taste is out of this world SUPERB. I don't taste the mixture of water and fat (like in most of our local ice-s). I don't 'feel' the fat or the heaviness after eating (like in some flavours of Sunnyside). I don't feel just a little unsatisfied (like when I have Bulla frozen yogurt).

I just feel this is so fulfilled.

When the guy there let me taste the orange flavour, I tell you, it really was a SURE SIGN that no flavouring was added. It really tasted like orange. And was not too sweet, even mildly sour (it was a sorbet, after all). He told me: "All Vitamins intact too!"

The Belgian chocolate was smmmoooottthhhhh with just a tinge of bitterness.

And the mango was a BOOM WOW WOW in the mouth.

They change the flavours every week and we are expecting DURIAN this mid week. He says: "It will be like you are eating cold durian!".

I am so waiting for their peppermint with choc chips. He told me that peppermint is white, do you know? And so all the green peppermint ice creams that you see have colouring/flavouring.

There are of course flavours which I didn't like. BUT I still highly recommend this place if you want some great ice cream.

Per cup is about RM6+ (cheaper than Gelato). And you can take away the smallest amount for about RM19, after discount (which will have about 4 big scoops). I took away the family pack which has about 7 scoops for RM28.90.

This is a pic from their website:

There is a map to the Kota Damansara shop in their website. But for the sake of directions with landmarks, the shop is behind Subway. And Subway is in front of Tune Hotel.

They are planning to open one in Bangsar Shopping Centre soon. Also there are plans for diabetic approved ice cream (with natural sugar called stevia) and ice cream cakes.

****
Premium Buckets Sdn Bhd

38-G & 38-1, Jalan PJU 5/20B,

The Strand, Kota Damansara,

47810 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Tel : 03 6142 8588 Fax : 03 6142 8488Mobile : 012-692 8869
premiumbuckets@gmail.com

Kuala Lumpur:

2nd Flr, Sooka Sentral, Jln Stesen Sentral 5, 50470KL

Petaling Jaya:
Wisma LYL, Lobby, Jln 51A/223, 46100 PJ-->

TPM:

Food Court, Enterprise 4,

Teknology Park MalaysiaLebuhraya Sg. Besi,

Puchong, Bkt. Jalil, 57000 KL

Klang & Tropicana: Opening soon!

Caylee, oh Caylee!

For the pass few nights Caylee has been somewhat a troublemaker in the night.

She goes to bed usually around 8+ pm, unless we go out for some 'air' after dinner. And even then, she will be in bed latest by 10pm.

Of late, she has been getting up in the wee hours of the morning. It starts with a caterpillar pose and then she will sit up. And she will call us. If no one attends to her at this stage, she will stand up and call for us even more.

Once she is on her feet, it will take longer to get her back to sleep again. So, I have taken to jumping up and making her her bottle as soon as she whimpers, hoping the drug of the warm milk will lull her back to sleep.

And ever so often, she would also whimper in her sleep - almost every two hours throughout the night. For which I would have to squirm my hand between the cot bars under the bumper to pat her back to sleep.

Of course all this means - total lack of sleep for me. Which I am finding difficult to bear these days. I must be getting old. And of course lack of sleep means frequent bouts of flu for me. I must be getting weak.

BUT (drumroll), last night was the worse.

I was heavily sedated with Actifed given my congested nose. So, told hubby to take over the night watch.

At 12 pm, I was awaken by her call. And she was already sitting down, getting ready to stand up. I nudged hubby and told him to faster deal with her. SIGH...hubby brought her to our bed.

Which really is a bad thing coz coming to our bed is her motive and it signals play time with mummy and daddy for her. And of course me being sick, I don't want to pass the bug to her.

So, I got out of bed and told hubby to make her milk and put her back into the cot. I got of bed to drink water coz I was hacking!

She didn't finish her milk mind you coz she was so distracted by the activity in the room. And hubby gave up eventually.

To cut the story short, Caylee kept me awake for 3 hours. She finally dozed off only after a 2nd attempt at warm milk at 3 am. In between she sang to us and talked to us and hoped for a response. I originally talked to her and told her to sleep, sang to her, hushed her. But then I realized it doesn't work at all. When she doesn't want to sleep, she doesn't want to sleep. And I was dead tired by then that my sleepiness could override my maternal instincts for 5-10 minutes before it kicked in again. So, I was aternating looking at her while lying down pretending to be asleep to discourage her from thinking I was up to play and dozing off. Which really is more tiring than just being awake!

At 3 when she at last fell asleep, I thought I could have at least 3 hours of uniterrupted sleep before I had to get to work.

I WAS SO WRONG.

Caylee woke up again at 5+ and I had to get up again to hold (by force) her bums down so that she would not sit up. And then sing, pat, hush her back to sleep.

I was so reluctant to get up when my alarm rang at 6.30 am. And surprisingly when I got out of the bathroom, still drugged mine you, our little 'angel' was already up and smiling at me.

Reckon if it happens again tonight, I will have to take MC tommorrow. My head can't take this semi drug state!

The Sings My Soul Special Edition by Robert Morgan

For anyone who loves hymns, the title ‘Then Sings My Soul’ brings a tune to your head straight away. And hymns are what this book is all about. Each page tells the story behind the hymn. From the traditional hymns like the title to common Christmas hymns. With Christmas coming, it sure will make an interesting topic of conversation. And as a bonus to music literate readers, the page beside contains the score of the given hymn too.

I love inspirational reading. And I wanted this book badly because nothing can be more inspirational than that which results in art/music. So, you can imagine my utter astonishment when I got the book, complements of Booksneeze, that this book had music notes I could play on my piano. And it does make me appreciate the hymn so much better knowing the story behind it. My son sits beside me at the piano learning the hymns as well. And later I sing the hymn to him at night and tell him the story as well. There are a lot of stories about strength and love from hymns. So, if you love inspiration and hymns, I really would recommend this book to you.

Today I cry

"When things are good, we never ask God "Why?" but when things go bad, we always question God."

I truly agreed with this statement.

But today I questioned God.

I know all things happen for a reason. Yet when the inevitable happens, I still cry out to God "Why?".

Darling Samantha, I have never met you. But I love you. As I am sure your mummy and daddy loves you. And more so our Father. May your days be ever brighter in the arms of our Father.

Kimmy, Julie, Jonathan, may the Lord give you a double portion of peace and strength.

An eventful weekend (addition)

Oh yeah...now that I am back home and just looked inside the fridge, I am reminded....

Hubby and I went back to the JJ Swiss Roll again this trip. They have moved to a proper shop just round the corner.

We bought half a durian roll and half a cempedak roll.

Verdict?

The cempedak roll was EXCELLENT ! The durian roll palatable.

And we already have our eye on the blueberry roll and chocolate mint roll.

All cost RM12 per roll and its HUGE !

An eventful weekend

We had GREAT plans for this weekend - Taiping zoo, Camerons etc. But I guess our two mindedness caused it all to come to naught.

Anyway, we left for Ipoh on Saturday morning after a stop by Christopher's school for the year end PTA meeting.

He is doing well in school. Joined the 3 year old class the first half of the year and the 4 year old class the 2nd half of the year. His tracing of alphabets (big and small) is good. And his numbers 1-20 is progressing well. He is also almost completing 1A of Peter and Jane.

Next year, he will be starting chinese. Thinking to maybe get some chinese books at home too so that he can practice his strokes. Anyone know where I can get them? My boy does love to do some work at home. I don't force him at all. He takes the books out himself and does it. Although when he does take it out, I do sit with him and guide him a bit.

I am not that worried with his schooling and whether he is a top student or anything. As long as he is happy learning, I am sure he will get there one day.

Back to the trip....

We had lunch at home upon my mum's previous insistence. It was a meaty affair. She bought 2 roasted pork leg (RM7 each) from the Pasir Pinji market. And stewed with mushrooms a whole pot of chicken feet (RM3 only). We were meatily satisfied. Yummy.

For dinner, hubby and I decided to find this 'Wonderful' fried chicken from Menglembu. Asked around and found the supposedly 'wai sek kai' at last.

Sure doesn't look like much of a happening place!

But anyway, tis the food that matters!

This is what we came for - the Wonderful chicken! Below shows the fried chicken, the honey roasted chicken and the fried mushrooms!

I got to say, I kinda loved the honey roasted chicken more than the fried chicken. Can't say I can fund something like this in PJ. They have the paper wrapped chicken as well but we didn't try that.

Now that we know how to get there, definitely will have to go back and try the paper wrapped chicken the next time.

Disappointedly, I got to say that is more or less all we really got out of Ipoh.

We wanted to eat the Drunken Chicken Noodle @ Kedai Kum Kee, Pasir Pinji but it was closed. Sigh.... We did eat the egg toast though. It is still yummy!

Wanted to try the char liew @ Wok with Kim, Jln Yang Kalsom but it was also closed. Someone told me it opens at night. Is this true?

And the reason why our trip was so fruitless was coz....drumroll....we were all sick!

We did visit a pead and a pharmacy though. And got to say the Tiara pharmacy in Ipoh Garden East is quite good. The flu meds we got for Christopher tasted like Ribena and was quite effective @RM5 a bottle.

Just before we left, hubby and I realised that:

1) We did not even drink white coffee

2) We did not eat Taugeh Chicken

3) We did not get to eat this goreng pisang

Next round, next round....

And finally something about Caylee....she is able to get herself into sitting position now. And is attempting to stand. She is ambitious in that she wants to stand and then release her hold. Which of course just causes her to fall down again.

Caylee @ 7 mths

She has been stagnant at 8+ kg for the pass 2 months now. For her age, she is slightly below average. But her height is at the top percentile - can't remember the number, only saw from the graph the pead plotted. These numbers don't really mean much to me as long as the pead doesn't voice any concern.

But what really amazes me about this girl is her character.

She is very much into detail. Minuet things like my ear studs attract her. And the little bell on my bracelet holds her focus for minutes. I don't really think its a girl thing. Coz she looks at other small things with equal interest.

Did I mention she grasps things very well? Not a rough fist grabbing but pinching between fingers. So she manages paper very well.

However, she is less acrobatic than her brother. Christopher was standing on his head, in an inverted V, with one thumb in his mouth and the other hand balancing himself at her age. But Caylee is still attempting to lift her bum up with only knees and hands for support. She moves by way of propelling herself. From a sitting position, which she sometimes is able to get herself into, she makes a leap forward towards wherever she wants to go.

And while Christopher never went commando in his crawl, Caylee pulls herself forward with her arms, dragging her bum along. And she turns herself around with her belly button as the focal point.

And I have to applaud her upper body strength. She has a great capability to stretch her upper body right up to her fingers to try and reach for Christopher's toys. And if she manages to get it, still manages to pull herself back to sitting position. Amazing!

Her playpen has been lowered at the nanny's place because Caylee is attempting to stand now. And soon I reckon she will be moving arond more. She has got a strong kick too so I have no doubt her legs have strength as well.

She does seem to be a strong one. God really answered my prayers far more than I expected.

What makes her laugh? Christopher for sure. She really looks up to him. Everytime he turns around and talks to her, she will chuckle. In fact she will laugh really hard when he does some kind of stunt. Gosh ! My 2 kids seem to enjoy the adrenalin rush!

And if anyone can topple over a bumbo chair, my girl can. The bumbo chair can't contain her anymore.

Really can't wait for her to grow up and watch the 2 kiddos play together.

A slow day

It does seem like a long time since I updated anything. I actually have alot I want to write. But between work (and squabbles with a particular colleague what more!), 2 kids who are mildly ill and trying to stop my flu from exploding out, my attempts at blogging has been put aside.

Christopher is at home today due to a mild fever. So, he has to skip his (annual) photo session in school. He is fine with it. He prefers to stay at home with mummy. And when he is alone with me on adhoc days like this, he can be really good. He knows he has a bonus day and doesn't take it for granted.

He was rather shocked though that this bonus day doesn't apply to his little sister. And he has told me 2 times now to go pick up his little sister.

Spending time with him has also got me getting creative. No...not in crafts and all that. I can't stand the fact that I have to clear up all the mess after which. And yell instructions while at it as well.

Instead I have been creative telling him stories - combining Godliwocks (is that the right spelling) with Little Einstein. And combining Litte Red Riding Hood with the 3 bears. And each story somehow works its way to a moral ending. Sometimes I amaze myself! hahahaha.....

And creative also in cooking coz this boy requires highly flavourful food.

Anyway, he is so into Toy Story 3 now. Requesting me to look for the horse/donkey in the show. What a request! Even Woody or the robot (whatever his name is) would be easier to find. But then again, maybe if he can't find it and I can't find it, it would be one less thing he wants to buy without any money!

I am looking forward to this weekend. Going back to Ipoh and making a one day trip to Taiping. I am still thinking if Camerons would be a better trip. Would a farm visit or a zoo be more fun to a kid?

He of course chose the zoo. What does he know about farms anyway? But reckon if he had a choice, he would rather go see an aeroplane or sit on a train. He so loves his vehicles!