Ben's Grocer @ Publika

My mom called yesterday and asked if I wanted to join her for shopping day at Publika. OFCOURSE MOM!!!! It's been soooooooo long since we've went out together mom. (eventhough we see each other everyday when I drop my kids at your place) I kinda envy my younger siblings because they have more privilege of going out with my mom whenever they please. *sigh* I really miss going out with you mum! *sobs* *sobs*

Concourse area of Publika. They have some sort of flea market that Sunday

Baby Boy, Baby Girl, Mom, My youngest bro,

and my aunt who takes care of my kids when I'm off at work. ^^

Youngest bro and mum goofing off

We went to Ben's grocer's for brunch. It's like your usual grocery store, but the stuff there are super expensive. Well, mainly because they cater imported stuff similar to Jaya Grocer or Cold Storage. If I have a hard to find ingredients for them western recipe, I know where to find 'em already. hehe.. Oh, another thing is, eventhough it's called a grocery store but they do have a small quaint cafe/eating spot in the middle of the store.

Food station

Good ol' burger and fries.

Various dishes! Next time I'm gonna try their quiche and lasagne.

Pizzzaaaa. It was okay. My son loves it~

This is what i had. Mocha and choco-banana-almond cake. Quite nice! ^^)b

We had cake, coffee, pizza and burger. It was okay. Nothing special. Next time, we might want to try the "grilled" stuff. That one looks tantalizing! You can pick your meat and ask the chef to cook for you, for an extra little bit of price ofcourse. I think it's still worth it. :)

DROOOOOLLLLSSS!!!!!! I LOVE MEAT!! Totally not made for vegetarian ahahaha!

The bomb!

Nice day going out.
We should do this again mom! ^^
Love you!

Nah, belanja selfie sikit. Hehe.. Baby girl not cooperating with mummy. =3=

A Night Out To MyBurgerLab@OUG!

Eversince I settled down, got married and have kids, it's really hard for me to go out at night and hang out with my friends. Firstly, because my responsibility now is geared more towards our little family. I wish to be there for my kids when they need me, and they need me a lot when they're still babies. You know, being a mum is never easy. Being a mother of two is even harder. It's never a breeze and there's hardly break for you! lol but the good thing is, I think I am getting the hang of it more than ever now. It takes a lot of compromise and patience with my husband, but all in all, usually everything went well after a little talk. :) Now that my youngest is older, she's less fussy and gets along better with my husband. That means, I can leave her (and her brother) alone with my husband sometimes at night and have some of my me-time with friends to recharge!
*^_^*

Tonight is one of those rare nights that I was able to hang out way past working hours. Yay! So my colleagues and I decided to go and try this burger place just 3 minutes drive from work. It's called MYBURGERLAB! We have been wanting to go since a while ago, but never got the chance. One of my colleague passed by the place during lunch time but it was closed. Then only we knew that it's only open for dinner.

We reached there around 8.30pm and it was packed! We came in a party of 6 and since the place is full of peepoz, we had to split tables. Oh well, it's not a big deal. Ordering was a bit confusing at first if you don't know what to order but lucky for us, their menu is huge ass on the wall. You can look at it and decide what you're gonna have while waiting in line the long queue.

The menu on the wall. This was on April 2015.
I heard they often change their menus base on events and stuff so do check out their specials!
Oh, the number on the top right of each boxes are the price. :-)
(Click on image for bigger view)

After ordering and paying, we were given a bill with a number. So just wait for them to call up the number and voila! You're ready to enjoy your meal. Which, usually isn't that long. >v<
And now, time to chow down!!

My friend's Say Cheese Burger. Yum!

My A+ Burger! OMG that sharp cheddar is awesome!

A colleague tried the Cthulu burger! I have to say it taste a little bit like sushi! XD;

This was back when there was a promo. It's Kaiju burger.

You can check out their menus from their website at myburgerlab.com
The prices are for ala-carte burger only. If you to add fries and bottomless soda, just add RM6.50. All prices are inclusive of GST. (based on the site, as per this review is written) So far, I had a pretty nice experience here. Would definitely go again! ^_^

From Left : Yen, Fadil, Piyush, Me, Winche, and Das~

Address :

8, Jalan Awan Hijau,
Taman OUG,
58200 Kuala Lumpur.

Opening Hours :

Tuesdays ~ Sundays
5:00PM ~ 10:15PM

Verdict:

Taste ★★★★☆
Quite unique and rich taste. I think they're really bold to try different ingredients things in their burger other than your usual meat patty, veges and cheese. Oh, their charcoal bun is soft! If you're into soft bread burgers, this is it)

Portion ★★☆☆☆
It's good enough for me, but most of my guy friends said the burger size is too little and not too fulfilling

Value ★★★☆☆
A bit on the pricey side but it's good that they give out free kids meal! ^^ Plus point for me as a parent of two kids haha

Ambiance ★★★★☆

Totally nice deco and cozy. Definitely cozy. A bit noisy since there are a lot of people

Halal Certified : Yes
The last time I went there, they displayed their halal certificate at the counter.
No pork or alcohol served, definitely.

OVERALL VERDICT : ★★★★☆

Heeeeeyyyyyyyyyy~~~~

Heheh.. heh..hehh.....

I knew eventually this blog will be collecting dust. Sokkay. It's not like this is a life commitment die die must do wan. Anways, to start kicking back off again with this "family-life-kids" blog, I have decided to revamp (more like install from dowloaded free template) the looks of this blog. Last time it was autumn themed and I have no idea why the background image went missing all of a sudden. If it wasn't for that, I think I don't even have the urge to install a new theme.

Okay!
Quick recap of the year.

• Shareese just had his little didi circumcised on Monday. He's recovering now. So manja!
• Ariessa just learned to walk at 1 year 4 months old. Pretty late if you ask me.
• She still doesn't really talk properly yet. I think she's mastering the art of caveman communication because all she does is point and grunt. 
• Shareese has just finished his first year of kindergarten at age 4. He knows how to write some numbers and letters. His number 2 and Z is almost the same and sometimes it's flipped. I hope it's not dyslexia. Maybe it's just a phase. *meh* I love how he writes the number 3 though. So cute like the M from McDonald's. But sideways. *w*
• Shareese didn't manage to attend his kindy's concert/graduation day this year due to...circumcission thingy. The timing is soooooooo unfortunate! What kind of school does school performance day ON A DAMN WEEKDAY??? merghh.....!!
• Shariessa (yes, I have brangelinafied my kid's name) are like cats and dogs. Urhm.. or like Tom and Jerry. They can't stand being near each other (they fight!) but when they are apart, they feel incomplete and wants to find each other. Tsundere much? =3=
• We had a nice family trip in Penang last month. First time going out as a small family. We usually just tag along with either our parents. Saving gile on food and accomodation. So, achievement unlocked! Family trip!
• Lately, I am highly addicted to a new hobby of postcard writing and pen-palling. I just want someone to talk to with not much long term commitment. and I love the feeling of receiving letters and packages from overseas in my mailbox instead of just bills and junk mail. ^^
• I started reading A Song of Ice and Fire. Nice~
• . - .   I don't know when but I am starting to get addicted to coffee and tea. Bittersweet mocha is AWESOME!! So far the best mocha I had is at Butter + Beans. Nyam!!
• Crepe cakes are delish!!
• Here's a drawing of Shariessa.

That's all folks. Have a nice day!

Cravings Satisfied (partly)

So I managed to whip up that salmon sashimi from the recipe I got by majnouna. Bough salmon from Jusco and the soy sauce there. Butchered up some cucumbers and spring onion and whipped it up with sesame seed oil and sesame seeds. and VOILA~~~

It doesn't taste as good as I expected (I didn't get enough soy sauce ;_; ), but it did cure my cravings. Nyammsss!! Sad thing is, I still want more. Maybe end of this month I'll go to the Sushi King RM3 member's day. HUE HUE HUEEEEE!!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday My Little Buster!

14th July marks Shareese's 3rd birthday. Happy Birthday my little buster!!! My husband and I planned to bring him to the movies for the first time. We had never brought him to the cinema before this because, well, he was too young at that time and he was also very sensitive towards loud noises. He doesn't like the loud sound made with speakers. If we turned on the volume over a certain level, he will panickly asked us to turn it down immediately. *w*;;;
Oh, and did I mention he's scared of the dark too? LOL~ apa punya anak jantan la ni hahahaa.

So anyways, that Sunday afternoon we bought tickets to watch Despicable Me 2 at Space U8's MBO.

Shareese and his lovely minion poster at MBO Space U8.

He loooooooovvvveessssss the minions A LOT and he has been looooooooooping the first Despicable Me movie for countless days on our home theatre. He could almost memorize some of the dialogues already. At first he was really excited to watch the movies. He urged us to go into the cinema faster even before we claimed our tickets hahaha such an excited boy. We thought it'd be one smooth sailing first time movie watching with our little guy, but it wasn't. T__T The minute they turned off the light he repeatedly asked me to make the lights turn back on again.
"Mama! Delap! Nak lampu! Nak lampu! Nak lampu! Mama! Mama! Mama!! Lampu!! Lampu!!"
Yes, he loves repeating himself. <O>
Then the movie trailer starts and the sound was blasting.
"Mama!!! MAMA!!! SLOWWWW!! SLOWWW!!! BISINGGG!!! Mama.. Mama!! MAMA!! MAMAAAAAA!!!!!"
Omg…… if he doesn't shut up and disturbs other people with his constant repetitive requests, we might as well need to ditch the movie watching session and burn our tickets. T__T

Luckily, when he saw the minions during the movie intro, he kinda settles down a bit. "MAMA! BANANA!!" pbfftt! Ok Shareese, yes it is banana. He watches it gleefully, but halfway through the movie he insisted on going back home though. (Yes, my son has short attention span. Like most kids.) But the overall experience of bringing him out for a movie for the first time is not as bad as I expected. Atleast he didn't asked me so much questions during the movie like the kid behind my seat did. Kekekeke… but that's an older kid. Maybe 6 or 7 years old. Curious little bugger.

I love bringing my kid to Space U8's MBO because most of the people watching the movies there are parents with kids so even if Shareese DID throw a dramatic appearance during the movie, I think most people there would understand and not judge us. Wuuu.. I'm kinda scared to bring him out for movies where majority of the movie watchers are unmarried people or couples  without kids who thinks parents who brought their babies and kids to movies are jerks. ; - ;
I said this coz I was one of those people. I got pissed off over this parent who brought a wailing baby to an action movie. whut…….  you dumb?
I won't bring mine to action movie. Maybe just go for those family time animation movies which he likes.

So far, success! Great first time experience with Shareese at the movies for the first time. PAPOI!! Here have a cake.

Happy Birthday Shareese!

Happy 4 month old little Rissa

Today marks Ariessa's 4 month old urhm..monthliversary? pbffttt apekah. How time really flies. Her cheeks are getting more and more fluffier these days. Alhamdulillah semakin membesar anak mama ni. YIIIII!!!! GERAMMMMM!!! I know it's not really a good thing to comapre your kids but I can't help but notice that Ariessa's social skills seem to develop much earlier than Shareese.  She can already smile at 2 weeks old, at 2 months old she can already have "conversations" with people and calling them with random AhAHH sounds. At 2.5 months I could hear her first laughter after we tickle her. Shareese started smiling after my confinement period ended and he hardly respond to our tickling and talking. He's quite fast at developing physical features though. Can already sit without support at 2 months. Ariessa seems a bit flimsy. Oh well, girls are more delicate (and talkative) by nature I assume. =)

Shareese is slowly learning to accept that he has a little sister. When Ariessa was first born, he mati-mati don't want to look at her. It feels like if he looks at her, he is acknowledging her existance hahaha. Funny little guy. And he calls her Arasso instead of Ariessa. =_= Smarty pants... Too much of Korean drama infused to him thanx to my mom. Now everytime I see him touching his little sister's head, patting her and kissing her, it melts my heart! Aww... And I really love how he calls his sister now. Isha! Isha punya! Sayang Isha!! Eh~ Mana Isha!! WHEEE COMELLL GILAAA OK!!!!! (lantak la, anak aku. semua pun comel!!)

Dear baby Rissa and abang Shareese, mama hopes both of you will grow up to be a gentle and kind hearted children, and most importantly jadi anak yang soleh dan solehah ye cayang uchuk achyammm~ 

Ariessa at 1 month till 4 months. Cheeks getting slightly thicker. XD

Choo Choo Train

It's public holiday today. Salam Maludirrasul!

We've taken the opportunity to bring our little one on his first train ride. (on the commuter) He's very excited and was very amazed by how the train works. At first he was more interested on the view outside but at the end, he keeps on pointing to various parts of the train, the blinking lights on the map above the door, the announcement in the train, the sound of the door opening and closing, and most of all he is very interested with the connectors between the two train coaches. My curious little boy. :)

Oh, on another note, the service and infrastructure of the latest commuter is pretty damn smooth (for me, compared to the last time I took a ride on the commuter). The coaches are plentiful, speed is much faster, seats provided are a lot more, and gotta love the new map on top of the doors that is updated in time as to where the next stop will be. Thumbs up for for improving the facilities. About time.

Muddy Playtime

It's rainy season. Yes, it is. The sky is cloudy, the road is wet and the playground near our housing area is all muddy and dirty. But that doesn't stop us from bringing our son to play! He loves the slide. He has been talking and requesting to us to bring him to play the slide for a few weeks now. Luckily today is a holiday and the weather this morning looks pretty nice to go out for a play at the playground, (also husband has been saying he needed a jog) so we brought him out to play! Look at this happy face!

Happy? or not?

Dirty shoes. But it's okay. At least you're having fun!

Big Bad Wolf 2012

So.. Big Bad Wolf... The Biggest and Baddest Booksale of all time. Atleast 75% discounts on ALL books and up to 95% discounts for selected books. Whoppeeee!!! I have been hearing about BBW (Big Bad Wolf) since last year but I wasn't really sure what it was all about and this year the hype about the sale was crazy. Even my friends whom I never thought would pick up books went there and spent hundreds of ringgit to buy books. The first BBW sale was held back in 2009 at Amcorp Mall and it was organized by the very sweet husband and wife who owns BookXcess. I love everything about BookXcess. They may not have a lot of titles up for sell there (since they only buy overprinted books, and that's the reason why they are able to sell their books so cheap!), but they got most of the non-fiction writers I love. Jodi Picoult especially. Oh Oh! And their kiddy books are really REALLY worth buying. RM19.90 for a kiddy book that can play sounds and music? That's a bargain!

Anyways, back to BBW, The Big Bad Wolf Sale 2012 started on 6th December till 23rd of December (i heard/hope they will prolong their sale if possible) and they opened up their sale with a crazy 63 hour straight of non-stop shopping hour. I didn't manage to go on the first weekend due to the fact that my husband's grandma was sick with hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and we spent most of our weekend at his parent's house helping his family in any way possible. I heard the crowd during the first weekend was crazy and packed, and driving there will result you getting stuck in massive traffic jam even in the wee hours of the morning. Ohhkayy....

Lucky for me, they have another 60 hour shopping marathon for the second weekend and I went there at 12am and there was NO JAM! NO CROWD! And i spent more than 4 walking around the exhibition hall scouting for books, books, BOOKS, AND MORE BOOKS!!!! Imagine a big belly 27 weeks pregnant lady walking around with a roller bag full of books in her totoro poncho. (it was quite cold and i wanted to wear it. so,yeah!) I bought books for Shareese. Not baby books, not storybooks, but mostly hardcover non-fiction books like the introduction to the solar system, facts about the earth, rocks, cars, planes, trains. LOL. I know one day he will be very much into these factual books as much as me and my husband was keen and interested in it eventhough we've already turned 26 years old. XD


The reason why I didn't buy much storybooks or fiction books for little one is because he had quite a lot of hand me downs storybook from my mom and aunts. I still haven't cover most of it with him yet and he's pretty much more interested in the interactive e-book on his iPad. Simply because it's more, interactive. : /   Who doesn't love reading books that reads out loud to you with wonderful animations and beautiful songs and encouraging sound effects?

I hope he will love books as much as his parents does.
I will make sure he does. : )

These are our stash of the day for 4.5 hours at BBW 2012.

Left : Shareese's   Middle : MINE!    Right : His

Steal of the day. Thick hardcover animation
artbook of BOLT and BEE MOVIE for
just RM10!!!!!!!!!!
Awesome or what???!!!!

My favourite. The illustrated art is wonderful!

❤❤❤

I will definitely save up and go again for next year's stash!

My Neighbour Totoro Cloak!

I have been wanting the cute Totoro costume for toddlers.(pictures are from http://youandmie.wordpress.com/) But most of the site I found either doesn't sell it (means they are only just for show), or is really damn ridiculously expensive. (Talk about RM400 for a costume for toddlers. Not within my budget. 9_9) So there I was talking to my friend June about wanting to get this costume, and for some reason she managed to find an AFFORDABLE totoro hoodie on ebay! Not for toddlers though, and it's not really a hoodie but more like a cloak/poncho/snuggie.

FINALLY GOT MY HANDS ON THIS!!!!!!!!!! 

 (more pictures here)

OAIJDSLKAFLKAJGKSLAJDALKJFGOAIGJHOUADSLJSFS!!!!

(yeap that's ugly ol'me)

*sniff* The material is really soft! Made out of fleece!! FLEECE!! WARM AND FUZZY FLEEEEEECE!!!!! *snuggles snuggles* And best of all it's just RM70 (when June helped me buy it on ebay. Sorry couldn't find the link on ebay anymore. hmm...) I am gonna use this as my nursing cover. :3 Yesh~~ I will! So happy!!! Thankyou for helping me buy, June!!! <3

Online Shopping Stash

So I was browsing through the web for an online shop that sells nursing wears (that can also be used during maternity period) and nursing bras. The bras I have currently aren't really that comfortable anymore (yay bigger boobies thanx to pregnancy hormones) and I don't think I should spend money buying just new bigger sized bras. I should invest on some good nursing bras. since I want to fully breastfeed my second child. I wasn't able to do that for Shareese due to several reasons. One of the main reason was because my milk supply isn't enough and my nipples were cracking like crazy. One time when I was nursing, blood was coming out from my nipples instead of milk. The nurses assured me that it was normal because breastmilk comes from blood anyways, and that my body wasn't able to convert the blood to breastmilk thus the reason blood was flowing out my milking duct instead. Scary.. (._.) Honestly I was traumatized and opt for formula milk instead, which till now, I think was a bad move. I read that once you've given formula to your baby and stopped/reduced pumping breastmilk for your baby, the milk won't produce as much as it should. I hope I won't do the same mistake again for my second one. I WANT TO FULLY BREASTFEED!!! >.< It's not easy, but I will give my best! No more feeling traumatized or scared or complaining or bitching about how hard it is. Huhuu..

( ; - ; )

Anyways, most of the online shops I found on the net gives me ridiculously high priced items. I don't fancy spending more than RM100 for a single piece of clothing… Urhm wait, more like I DON'T WANT to spend so much on clothes. I can't afford it no matter how they claim that their goods are of high quality. Plus, the designs aren't really that nice either (for me at least). After several minutes of browsing through, finally, I am so glad I bumped into Mammahouse.com, an online maternity/nursing and baby shop that gives affordable price for the stuff I need. Yays! It really is affordable and most importantly, very comfortable! Good enough for me. Doesn't need to be branded. I don't go for brands. I just go for price, and comfort, and looks nice enough to me. Yays cheapskate mom. XD

First time buying stuff there, I only bought two new maternity. Their service is very efficient and fast. I got my stuff delivered the next working day. (i ordered it on Saturday before noon, and got it on Monday but if I ordered it on Monday, for sure I'm gonna get it the next day!) It's a bit too big for me but it IS comfortable. Had to send the pants to be altered. The length is too much for me. (or my legs might be too short for average ahaha..haa… I'm 151cm by the way) I wouldn't recommend buying long pants here because you can get better designs of maternity pants at AEON (previously Jaya Jusco) for roughly the same price. Not sure about their short pants though.

Satisfied with the first purchase in October, I decided to buy more in November. Tried out their nursing bra. I bought this one.

image from mammahouse.com

Tried it out, VERY NICE. Much nicer than those I bought at AEON after I had Shareese. And the design is really cute too.  Gonna stock up more on the
nursing bras. :3 Love~

Here's some of the stash I bought. There's a yellow training pants for Shareese. I recommend that if you want to try and potty train your toddler. The lower part has thicker fabric on it so if your toddler "accidentally" piss, the damage won't be as much on the surface he sits on, but he will still feel soaked and uncomfortable and will (probably) won't want to pee in his pants again. XD

Stuff bought on November 2012 from mammahouse <3

So yeah, if you're planning to buy some affordable maternity/nursing wear, do check out Mammahouse. Recommended by a cheapskate-money-saving-mom like me. :p

His favourite past time

Little one has been so addicted to his iPad. Although it was initially bought for his second birthday by my mom to let him learn alphabets, numbers and stuff from the various apps that is available for iOS, but he has been using it mostly to play games (some educational games, mostly it's either the racing game or Subway Surfers). If not, it's youtube. It amazes me how he learns how to use the gadgets so fast. He knows his way with the gadgets. Honestly, deep inside I am proud. Though I think it's nothing special and kids nowadays, they do learn really fast!

Sometimes when he gets bored of his iPad, he'll ask to play his Papa's phone. One thing that's troubling me is he's a sore loser. XD And he gets frustrated easily when things doesn't go how he wants it to be.

I love to play games~

But if I lose, this is how I will become T_T

He'll throw tantrums.
Or Sulk.

SO CUTE!!! XD
ok.. at times it's annoying. but still~ <3

It's HERE! My First Photobook by Pixajoy!

Yes yes!! It's finally here. I couldn't believe it would be this big. Err.. the description does say the photobook will be printed out in 11" x 8.5" but the size I had in mind with that figure was about an A4. Turns out it's much bigger than that. I think it's quite worth the money (provided you buy with discounts via Groupon or Living Social) =p  I bought mine to be printed out in matte paper, but the pictures turn out to be a bit dull. Mostly because the lack of quality from the photos I took. I think if the picture quality was a bit higher, printing it out on any paper shouldn't be a problem. In case you guys were thinking of getting one, try out the glossy paper print first, just to be on the safe side.

Nice right? : ) LOL I cincai do this in 1 hour..You guys could do better! XD