A bit more to my previous post about canteen food and school allowance:
When I was a kid like HQ, I didn't eat the bread that my mum packed for me to school. My mum, whom I admire in so many ways, was a busy full-time working mum of 3. With working, cooking, washing and cleaning to do, she could only manage to pack bread for her children. How I envied my friends who have pocket money to spend however they wanted.
That's why, for HQ (and later QQ for the matter), I wanted him to have more varied packed food to entice him to eat. Also, eventhough I disagree with the food sold in the canteen, I wanted to give him pocket money so that he won't feel the way that I felt when I was a kid. ....................................................................................................................................
Last Saturday, we went to a wedding dinner of hub's friend. The bride is a slender lady with very long wavy brown hair. QQ was of course smitten.
As the lights dimmed and the bride walked in, QQ's eyes gleamed and she ohhed and ahhed. After the procession, QQ insisted in taking a picture with the bride. How she beamed! :-D
Later she noticed the bridesmaid holding the bride's train of her gown. So she asked and answered her own questions:
QQ: Why the jie jie must hold the bride's dress like that? So that the bride won't trip and fall ah? If the bride fall down, there will not be a wedding anymore ah?
Hahaha!!! Lazy to do more explanation, I just told her: "More or less like that, dear..."
Heeheehee...
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Hubs and I usually stuff little trash like tissue or candy wrappers into our pockets/ bag when we go out. We will only empty our pockets off the trash when we spot a dustbin/ reach home.
Once, hubs was stuffing some paper into his pocket when a piece dropped on the floor. QQ was quick to respond:
QQ: Papa, you, a grown up man hor, how can you be so shameful?!?! Throw rubbish everywhere?!?!
Adui... tak bagi chance langsung...
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When the dinner spread was served during last Saturday's wedding dinner, hub's friends who were sitting at the same table started encouraging my kids to eat, especially HQ, who is always very picky about food.
Jie Jie: Come on, HQ, eat! Don't worry, the food is all free! Your Papa give ang pow already, so eat as much as you can!
HQ: *whispered in my ear* If Papa gave ang pow already hor, then how can the food be free?!?!?
I was glad he whispered in my ear and not answer them in his loud voice :-S.
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One day, after breakfast and while we were walking to our car, HQ said he has something to ask me, but asked me to promise not to be angry with him. He then whispered his questions in my ear.
HQ: Who is God?
HQ: Why do we need to live if in the end we die?
HQ: If it's so difficult to make a baby, why does God want to make a person die?
He must have known that the topic of death is taboo, therefore asking me beforehand not to be angry with him. I wonder how long these questions have been lingering in his head...
QQ: 4y 7m old
HQ: 6y 9m old
(C) Lee Pei Yi. All rights reserved. Originally published for http://boeyjoey.blogspot.com/. All images and text can only be republished with permission and links back to the article/ blog.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
canteen, daily allowance & our failed plans
What's selling at the canteen
On top of daily packed food, we gave HQ a daily pocket money of RM 2 per day. On his first day of school, since we have 30 minutes to kill before his 15 minutes Di Zi Gui briefing at 12.45pm, we went to the canteen to explore. I wanted to see how's the pricing like and to point out to HQ the food that's good to buy for break.
Horror of all horrors!
The school canteen sells all kinds of junk! It's like a junk heaven for kids! All kinds of gassy drinks, sweets, and packet junk food available! Fried burger meat, fried sausages, fried nuggets, instant noodles in plain watery soup, fried instant noodles.
I nearly fainted.
I couldn't believe a school canteen is allowed to sell these kind of food :-(.
So before school even started on his first day of school, HQ spent all his pocket money, on a bottle of Solivite and 3 pieces of nuggets.
Of course there are good food as well like fried rice, porridge, mixed rice, vegetarian mixed rice, and fried chicken rice, but HQ said he will not buy those because he's afraid he may not be able to finish up within the given time. Sigh...
Daily allowance
At first, I did doubt that his daily allowance of RM 2 might not be enough. Food is expensive.
A small packet of french fries is sold at RM 1. Solivite/ Vitagen/ Nutrtigen is sold at RM 1 per bottle. Plain porridge/ plain noodles in soup (including instant noodles)/ fried plain noodles/ fried rice with egg are priced at RM 1 per bowl. Added with 4 pieces of fried fu chok costs RM 1.60 per bowl. Bigger portion at RM 2 each. Chicken rice with 1/2 piece of fried chicken at RM 2 per plate. RM 3 for chicken rice with whole piece of fried chicken. (I really feel very "housewifey" now :-S).
On the first day, he finished his food super fast. This, I believe was purely due to hunger.
However, on the second day of school, I made sure he left for school in a full stomach. During reccess, he ate super quick too. This time however, I noticed is because he wanted to have a chance to buy canteen food to eat o.O". On top of his packed cream bread, he bought a packet of french fries and a bottle of Solivite.
First Plan
To encourage HQ to eat more of my packed food and less bought food (canteen food), I packed more food into his tupperware. I tried to put in more variety of his favourite food, and instead of unpacking food from their original packing, I included the packaging. I'm sure he will take more time fumbling with the packaging, but I made sure to let him know that I've already cut one end of the packaging so that he can access to the food.
Some pictures of his packed food for school:
1st: chicken floss bread, rice biscuits, seaweed sachets, mini tangerine.
2nd: peanut butter & grape jelly shaped sandwiches, mini tangerine, seaweed sachets, multi-grain snack.
3rd: peanut butter sandwiched biscuits, seaweed crackers 
4th: "ma lai kou", caramelized walnuts, haw flakes as snack
5th: waffle, rice and barley crackers, multi-grain snack, seaweed sachet (he only ate the seaweed and multi-grain snack :-( )
6th: Gardenia waffle, sunflower and sesame seeds snack, haw flakes
Sure enough, he told me he could not finish up the packed food in time. Therefore, no more time to buy food from the canteen :-D.
However, my plan only worked for 2 days :-(. On the 3rd day, he started to eat his packed food in Popo's house before he left for school. Thus eating less lunch that Popo prepared, and getting the chance to buy canteen food during break :-(
Second Plan
Hubby started a system to encourage him to save money. If HQ does not use his RM 2 allowance for a day, he'll receive another RM 2. He can put this RM 4 into his piggy bank. If he manages to bring home RM 1 for that day, he will get another RM 0.50.
Once his piggy bank is full, he can keep half of the saved money in the bank. He is allowed to buy anything with the other half. Everyday he gets a new RM 2 disregarding how much he save the previous day.
He told us he thinks that saving RM 2 per day is more worth it :-).
How did he flare?
At first he was very excited to save the extra money in his piggie bank. We were all smiles :-D
Later he started bringing the money that he saved to school and spent it on redundant stationaries at the school bookshop *shake head*
Now, the novelty wore off, and he has started to request not to bring packed food to school, but to be given the chance to buy food from the canteen to eat :-(
Ah well...
Do you find the food sold in your child's school canteen acceptable?
Do you mind your kids eating food from the school canteen?
How do you encourage your kids to eat your packed food and not buy junks from the canteen?
(C) Lee Pei Yi. All rights reserved. Originally published for http://boeyjoey.blogspot.com/. All images and text can only be republished with permission and links back to the article/ blog.
On top of daily packed food, we gave HQ a daily pocket money of RM 2 per day. On his first day of school, since we have 30 minutes to kill before his 15 minutes Di Zi Gui briefing at 12.45pm, we went to the canteen to explore. I wanted to see how's the pricing like and to point out to HQ the food that's good to buy for break.
Horror of all horrors!
The school canteen sells all kinds of junk! It's like a junk heaven for kids! All kinds of gassy drinks, sweets, and packet junk food available! Fried burger meat, fried sausages, fried nuggets, instant noodles in plain watery soup, fried instant noodles.
I nearly fainted.
I couldn't believe a school canteen is allowed to sell these kind of food :-(.
So before school even started on his first day of school, HQ spent all his pocket money, on a bottle of Solivite and 3 pieces of nuggets.
Of course there are good food as well like fried rice, porridge, mixed rice, vegetarian mixed rice, and fried chicken rice, but HQ said he will not buy those because he's afraid he may not be able to finish up within the given time. Sigh...
Daily allowance
At first, I did doubt that his daily allowance of RM 2 might not be enough. Food is expensive.
A small packet of french fries is sold at RM 1. Solivite/ Vitagen/ Nutrtigen is sold at RM 1 per bottle. Plain porridge/ plain noodles in soup (including instant noodles)/ fried plain noodles/ fried rice with egg are priced at RM 1 per bowl. Added with 4 pieces of fried fu chok costs RM 1.60 per bowl. Bigger portion at RM 2 each. Chicken rice with 1/2 piece of fried chicken at RM 2 per plate. RM 3 for chicken rice with whole piece of fried chicken. (I really feel very "housewifey" now :-S).
On the first day, he finished his food super fast. This, I believe was purely due to hunger.
However, on the second day of school, I made sure he left for school in a full stomach. During reccess, he ate super quick too. This time however, I noticed is because he wanted to have a chance to buy canteen food to eat o.O". On top of his packed cream bread, he bought a packet of french fries and a bottle of Solivite.
First Plan
To encourage HQ to eat more of my packed food and less bought food (canteen food), I packed more food into his tupperware. I tried to put in more variety of his favourite food, and instead of unpacking food from their original packing, I included the packaging. I'm sure he will take more time fumbling with the packaging, but I made sure to let him know that I've already cut one end of the packaging so that he can access to the food.
Some pictures of his packed food for school:
1st: chicken floss bread, rice biscuits, seaweed sachets, mini tangerine.
2nd: peanut butter & grape jelly shaped sandwiches, mini tangerine, seaweed sachets, multi-grain snack.3rd: peanut butter sandwiched biscuits, seaweed crackers 4th: "ma lai kou", caramelized walnuts, haw flakes as snack5th: waffle, rice and barley crackers, multi-grain snack, seaweed sachet (he only ate the seaweed and multi-grain snack :-( )6th: Gardenia waffle, sunflower and sesame seeds snack, haw flakesSure enough, he told me he could not finish up the packed food in time. Therefore, no more time to buy food from the canteen :-D.However, my plan only worked for 2 days :-(. On the 3rd day, he started to eat his packed food in Popo's house before he left for school. Thus eating less lunch that Popo prepared, and getting the chance to buy canteen food during break :-(
Second Plan
Hubby started a system to encourage him to save money. If HQ does not use his RM 2 allowance for a day, he'll receive another RM 2. He can put this RM 4 into his piggy bank. If he manages to bring home RM 1 for that day, he will get another RM 0.50.
Once his piggy bank is full, he can keep half of the saved money in the bank. He is allowed to buy anything with the other half. Everyday he gets a new RM 2 disregarding how much he save the previous day.
He told us he thinks that saving RM 2 per day is more worth it :-).
How did he flare?
At first he was very excited to save the extra money in his piggie bank. We were all smiles :-D
Later he started bringing the money that he saved to school and spent it on redundant stationaries at the school bookshop *shake head*
Now, the novelty wore off, and he has started to request not to bring packed food to school, but to be given the chance to buy food from the canteen to eat :-(
Ah well...
Do you find the food sold in your child's school canteen acceptable?
Do you mind your kids eating food from the school canteen?
How do you encourage your kids to eat your packed food and not buy junks from the canteen?
(C) Lee Pei Yi. All rights reserved. Originally published for http://boeyjoey.blogspot.com/. All images and text can only be republished with permission and links back to the article/ blog.
Monday, February 27, 2012
an escape plan
When hubby was staying in the hospital, QQ missed him terribly. She kept sending SMSes and calling hubs, until it's way past her bedtime. Even hubs was already very tired and seriously needed to rest.
But QQ was adamant to make one final phonecall, which she insisted was very very important. She would not tell me what she's going to tell her Papa. And because she was crying urgently and in the verge of waking HQ from his sleep, I finally relented.
Here's what she said to her Papa on the phone:
QQ: Papa, please come back home now... I miss you soooo much! *whine*
Papa: {don't know what hubs said on the other end}
QQ: I tell you what you can do! If the doctor won't let you go home, you can escape from the hospital!
Papa: {don't know what hubs said on the other end}
QQ: You can come out slowly from your room. Crept, crept crept and don't let the nurse and doctor see you! Then you run to the lift! Then when you come down already ah, you can find a taxi and ask the uncle to bring you home! *grinned triumphantly *
LOL!
Well, she got tired of waiting for her Papa to reach home and fell asleep in the end. On the next morning, she was indeed disappointed when she found out that her Papa did not follow her plan to escape from the hospital... Hahaha!
QQ: 4y 6m old
(C) Lee Pei Yi. All rights reserved. Originally published for http://boeyjoey.blogspot.com/. All images and text can only be republished with permission and links back to the article/ blog.
But QQ was adamant to make one final phonecall, which she insisted was very very important. She would not tell me what she's going to tell her Papa. And because she was crying urgently and in the verge of waking HQ from his sleep, I finally relented.
Here's what she said to her Papa on the phone:
QQ: Papa, please come back home now... I miss you soooo much! *whine*
Papa: {don't know what hubs said on the other end}
QQ: I tell you what you can do! If the doctor won't let you go home, you can escape from the hospital!
Papa: {don't know what hubs said on the other end}
QQ: You can come out slowly from your room. Crept, crept crept and don't let the nurse and doctor see you! Then you run to the lift! Then when you come down already ah, you can find a taxi and ask the uncle to bring you home! *grinned triumphantly *
LOL!
Well, she got tired of waiting for her Papa to reach home and fell asleep in the end. On the next morning, she was indeed disappointed when she found out that her Papa did not follow her plan to escape from the hospital... Hahaha!
QQ: 4y 6m old
(C) Lee Pei Yi. All rights reserved. Originally published for http://boeyjoey.blogspot.com/. All images and text can only be republished with permission and links back to the article/ blog.
Friday, February 24, 2012
QQ's new look :-)
We have been putting off trimming QQ's hair... she has been telling us to trim only after her birthday (July 2011), then after her kindy concert (Oct 2011), after Christmas (Dec 2011), and lastly after CNY (Jan 2012).
So recently we brought her to Snips at Cheras Leisure Mall.
Just for comparison, this is a recent photo that we snapped during CNY, when her hair was still very long.
The before hair, reaching almost her waist when let down. 
Getting ready... 
Hair snipped... 9 inches off!
The Jie Jie who cut her hair asked me for confirmation several times before snipping. She's more ngm seh tak compared to us :-).
Although QQ felt bored sitting still for the haircut, I think QQ enjoyed the experience. She was making monkey faces at the mirror, kept going near the mirror to check out her new look, and was picking her nose too. Look at how she sat while getting her hair cut... tsk tsk tsk
After the haircut, QQ looks like a totally different person...
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Hahaha!
The hair is correct, not the specs la! She was just fooling around with the frames in the shop when I went to collect my new pair of specs.
Here's a more accurate snapshot of her :-).
Hubs and I think that she looks very much more cheeky with short hair :-D. Less girly now but chubbier. What do you think? :-)
(C) Lee Pei Yi. All rights reserved. Originally published for http://boeyjoey.blogspot.com/. All images and text can only be republished with permission and links back to the article/ blog.
So recently we brought her to Snips at Cheras Leisure Mall.
Just for comparison, this is a recent photo that we snapped during CNY, when her hair was still very long.
The before hair, reaching almost her waist when let down. Getting ready... Hair snipped... 9 inches off!The Jie Jie who cut her hair asked me for confirmation several times before snipping. She's more ngm seh tak compared to us :-).
Although QQ felt bored sitting still for the haircut, I think QQ enjoyed the experience. She was making monkey faces at the mirror, kept going near the mirror to check out her new look, and was picking her nose too. Look at how she sat while getting her hair cut... tsk tsk tsk
After the haircut, QQ looks like a totally different person...
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Hahaha!The hair is correct, not the specs la! She was just fooling around with the frames in the shop when I went to collect my new pair of specs.
Here's a more accurate snapshot of her :-).
Hubs and I think that she looks very much more cheeky with short hair :-D. Less girly now but chubbier. What do you think? :-)(C) Lee Pei Yi. All rights reserved. Originally published for http://boeyjoey.blogspot.com/. All images and text can only be republished with permission and links back to the article/ blog.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
she must have been terrified...
I brought both my kids for a dengue test recently. As hubby was already hospitalised that time for dengue, I needed to handle both kids on my own. Since the Pead's additional nurse did not come that day, I couldn't leave QQ outside, so I brought both kids into the Pead's office.
After checking on HQ's tempreture, lungs, ear and throat, I got the cue that the Pead is going to exract HQ's blood to test for dengue. I held him on my lap.
He started to get suspicious, and asked the Pead and senior nurse "What are you going to do?"
When he spotted the needle, he knew what was going to happen, and started to struggle. I asked him to look away, but he was too curious. When the needle was inserted, he screamed: "So painful!! Please stop! I beg you to stop! Please!!! I beg you!!!"
QQ who saw everthing unfold before her eyes screamed: "NO!!! Please don't do that to Korkor! No!!! Don't do that to Korkor!!!"
Among the din of both screaming kids, it took me awhile to realise that I no longer hear QQ's voice. After making sure HQ was ok, I couldn't see QQ anywhere in sight
She was hiding in a corner, behind a chair, and shaking with fear. She knew it would be her turn next.
The next thing that I was going to do was one of the hardest thing that I had to do as a mum. I carried a crying child, who's pleading me so pitifully not to have her hand pricked.
I will never forget the look of fear and helplessness in her wet eyes...
I'm so so sorry, my love...
(C) Lee Pei Yi. All rights reserved. Originally published for http://boeyjoey.blogspot.com/. All images and text can only be republished with permission and links back to the article/ blog.
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