Cheryl is 3!!

Cheryl turns 3 yesterday. I can still vividly remember the day she was born. It was my first pregnancy. I was very worried when the contractions kicked in. I remembered going to the hospital around 2.30am and only gave birth at around 12pm the next day. Since it was my first pregnancy and I did not know a thing about pregnancy and labour, I bought a book. I got to know from this book that I am suppose to head to the hospital when my contractions are 8 to 10 minutes apart if I stay quite a distance away from the hospital. I already sensed that I am going into labour that very day and stayed awake waiting for the right moment to head to the hospital.

By 7am the next day, my cervix had not dilate and the pain from the contranctions had became more intense. The doctor began to discuss the possibility of a cesarean section. He advised me to consider a cesarean section as according to him, the baby will suffer from lack of oxygen if I continue to insists on natural delivery. After discussion with hubby, we finally agreed to this. Hubby was not allowed into the operating theatre. The sedative given to me was quite strong as I only fully regain my consciousness at about 8pm.

Then only I realised how painful it is. I have just had a major abdominal surgery! It was so painful that for the first 3 days, I was not able to stand up. Even sitting up is a problem for me. I can't sit up by myself. I don't know how some of the others who have also just had a cesarean section managed to stand up only 1 day after the surgery. By the 3rd day, I still can't manage to stand by myself. It was so painful that I vowed to myself never to opt for cesarean section in my subsequent pregnancies. That was why I didn't even want to consider cesarean section during my second pregnancy and have to endured almost 1 full day of labour pain.

I think I have swerved too much from the original subject. Now back to the main topic which is Cheryl's birthday. I baked cupcakes for her this year. I made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. As the name of the cake suggested, it should be red in colour. But my cake is brown colour. Originally what gave the cake its distinctive red colour is the chemical reaction between the unprocessed cocoa and the acid in buttermilk. But now, more often than not, the distinctive red colour of the cake comes from artificial colouring. As I do not used unprocessed cocoa and I am not a fan of artificial colouring either, I just ommit the colouring from my mind.

As her everyday staple is porridge, I decided to prepare something different for her on her birthday. So she had fried chicken nuggets for lunch and my homemade hakka yam balls for dinner.

My Early Birthday Present

Penang Weekend Trip

We went to Penang on last Friday. It was a very long journey. According to the navigator, it would take about 4 hours for us to reach there. But we took about 5 to 6 hours bacause we made some pit stops along the way. I drove from Malacca to KL. It took about 1 hour. Then after we made a stop at the petrol station to fill up the tank, it was hubby's turn to drive.

By the time we reached Penang, it was already almost 3pm, if I recalled correctly. After some rest, we went to Bukit Genting for our dinner. The journey up the hill really made my head spinned. It was just like travelling up to Genting Highlands.Oh, we also spotted a very unique sight on our way up. They have this manual traffic light. There is one stretch of the road which can only accomodate 1 direction of traffic. Therefore, this is where the need for a manual traffic light arise. This person will sits inside a hut at the viewing point where he can see both direction of the traffic immediately before the stretch. He will determine which direction of the traffic to pass first. This is something special....

This eatery at Bukit Genting is operated by Thais. So, what we have for dinner that day was authentic Thai food. It is a shame that I have forgotten to take any photos of the food. We were also able to watch the sunset. It was very windy up there.

These are the photos taken at Bukit Genting....

Pik Lay had wanted to bring us to Kek Lok Si to look at the night view there during CNY. According to her, the place is brightly lit at night only during the CNY period. But it was getting late and so we went to Tesco instead to buy swimming suit for Cheryl so that she can go swimming the next day at the pool.

After Cheryl have her morning dip at the pool, we went to Air Hitam for our asam laksa lunch before going to Kek Lok Si temple.

Then we went to the famous cendol stall at Penang Road before going to sample the famous char kueh tiau fried by a funny looking aunty who wear a red hat and goggles. While on the way, we stopped at Gurney Drive for a short photo shooting session.

The day we departed from Penang was spent at home. So the girls have more time to themselves. They spent the morning at the playground as well as the pool. And also not forgetting the music session that they have with their Uncle WL.