So Fighter first week of preschool is nearly over! How did it go?
There you go hahaha. My vlog of his first day at school.
There’s a lot that I didn’t capture to be honest because my arms were full with crying toddler wtf.
On the first day, he happily enough put on his uniform. He had a mini meltdown before we left the house but I don’t even know what that was about – think he was just sleepy wtf.
The first two days I managed to ninja out of the class after depositing him and telling him I’ll just be outside. Of course there were some tears but nothing compared to the third day. FML.
The third day (yesterday), he already wised up wtf. The minute the car stopped in front of the school, he started bawlling. T_T
He cried and clung to me the whole way from the car to the classroom. He refused to even get down and play, and just gripped my body with his limbs like a koala sigh.
Every time I tried to raise the subject of me leaving, he’d cry louder and clutch me harder. T___T I kept reassuring him that I love him and I wanted him to have fun here and I’d be waiting outside for him when he was done but I don’t think he cared at all wtf.
In the end, the teacher literally pried him off me, screaming omg. Worse, there was another little girl whose grandma had left who attached herself to me so I had two crying children to leave haahahaha T____T
There has been progress though. The first two days when I peeked in on him a full half hour before school ended, he was already standing near the door with his school bag and bottle HAHAHA. Like all ready to GTFO of there. T____T
But yesterday, he was still playing around with the art paint tubes, and listening to a story like all of them.
Hahaha.
And when he came out of the classroom and saw me, he didn’t whimper or look tearful like he did the first two days. He just broke out in a huge smile and said, “Mommy, put money.” #thingstoddlerssay
Dunno what he wants money for anyway wtf.
Anyway I’m just very glad things seem to be improving although I’m very sure he’ll still be crying his head off later when we take him to school.
It’s been a crazily emotional week for me too – accepting the fact that this is another step towards independence for my son, having to see cry when I leave is just heartbreaking, and entangling myself makes me feel so guilty, like I’m abandoning him at his worst time. T_____T
But of course I know this is for his own good and we just have to get through this phase until he settles down.
Since school, Fighter has also been quite sticky to me hahaha. He now insists on us holding hands on the way back from school wtf.
If you had a kid starting school this week too, hope you guys had not too hard a time!
Another vlog is up. 🙂
This was recorded before he started school.
Fighter starts preschool this week. He’s a very gentle, unaggressive kid so we’re a little worried he’ll be pushed around in school. We tried teaching him how to stand up for himself but that didn’t work so good…. For those who are starting school this week and their parents, all the best!
Dear Fighter,
Tomorrow is your first day of preschool.
Right now, you are oblivious to the fact, playing in your auntie’s car before bedtime. I’ve tried to prep you for this – in the weeks leading up to today, I would tell you, “Fighter, next year you’re going to school, okay? You’re a big boy now.”
And you would always go, “mmhm.” (yes in your Toddlish wtf). But I don’t think you really understand what it means.
So tomorrow you will be dressed in a school uniform, I will harness you school bag on you and you will march off into a vast unstable world. This will be your first steps into 18 years of formal education.
Mommy can’t follow you into your classroom so this is what mommy wants you to know
1. Even though mommy can’t be with you in school, but know that the minute school is over, mommy will be waiting outside to pick you up. I will never leave you.
2. Play nice. I know you don’t like sharing but I hope you learn to in school. You’ll find that sharing makes things more fun because you get to play together. Way better than playing by yourself! (Except when the sharing item in question is McDonald’s fries WTF)
3. Wash your hands before eating and after you pee.
4. If someone takes something of yours or pushes you, it’s okay to stand up for yourself. Don’t cry, just say loudly NO or STOP IT. There’s no shame in defending yourself with words.
5. There is, however, in using your fists. But if you’ve tried clearly speaking up for yourself and it doesn’t work and there’s no teacher around, by all means, sock that kid one for mommy.
6. Remember to drink more water.
7. You’ll make lots of friends. I’m sure of it! When you choose your friends however, let it not be because he has the latest expensive toy, or because he bulldozes his way through, but because he is kind and you have fun together.
8. Be kind. If everyone is laughing at someone, it doesn’t mean you should too. It’s not wrong or weird to be different.
9. If you don’t like someone doing something to you, don’t do it to someone else. Likewise, if you see a kid who needs help, help. If you were that kid, you would want a friendly face in your time of need, wouldn’t you?
10. School is not an environment I can control and I know you’ll be exposed to all sorts of new elements that daddy and I won’t necessarily like. I hope you don’t lose your innocence and optimism. I hope you remember that the world is a wonderful place, although sometimes some people may do things that make you feel sad or angry. We’ll deal with those when they happen together. But please don’t lose that happy, optimistic personality of yours we love so much. This trait of yours will be what brings you through life.
At the same time, mommy has lessons to learn too. Mommy has to learn to let go, and let you make your own mistakes. To let you discover your independence and individuality and guide you to be the fine young man I know you will grow up to be. I have so many things I want to teach you still, but for today I will stop here.
Have a wonderful day tomorrow, darling (and many more awesome days to come).
Meanwhile, mommy will go cry in the corner out of separation anxiety wtf.
Love, Mom.
New vlog is up! This was filmed on 20 Dec actually, when we went to visit #competitiveauntie Careen who just had baby Tyler! Fighter had a minor meltdown when I held Tyler though hahahaha I guess no more siblings are on the radar if it’s up to him wtf.
Enjoy and please subscribe to my YouTube channel!
So we’ve been running our AirBnB for a few months now.
And yea it’s been pretty interesting so far. But that’s not to say that it doesn’t come with speed bumps.
I’m writing this feeling slightly stressed about this whole AirBnB shebang so I expect to sound quite pessimistic about it. But after experiencing this whole thing here’s the good, bad and the ugly of it.
Good: It’s super fun decorating the house
This only applies if you started off with an empty house obviously but that’s how it was for me. We had an empty house after our tenant moved out so I had all the creative freedom to do whatever I wanted with it — barring budget limits of course hahaha. I ended up buying most things from IKEA because… IKEA wtf. Inexpensive and I didn’t have a lot of time so it was very easy to have a one-stop place to get everything from furniture to soft furnishings.
I love IKEA though and even without limitations I can totally see myself shopping there for everything anyway hahaha.
But it was super fun putting rooms together, something I never had the chance to do cos when we got married, we just live in a furnished apartment with Fatty’s siblings.
Good: I had fun meeting new different people
As a blogger I get to go to events and all is true, but I end up meeting the same people – clients, other bloggers and influencers etc. Even if it’s new people they all work in the same ad industry and uhhh are kinda of the same mould wtf no offense I am from the same mould too hahaha. So hosting on AirBnB actually opened me up to opportunities to meet different kinds of people – although mostly Malaysians and Singaporeans – but it was really interesting to me. I also learned how to cater to different people’s needs. I felt quite proud of myself anticipating their needs and then fulfilling them. Like a concierge wtf hahahaha additional career option yo.
Bad: Hosting is a full time commitment
You’re basically a hotelier except you’re also chambermaid, concierge, and receptionist all in one wtf. I think it would definitely be easier if our AirBnB house was nearer to our own house la. As it is, I have to travel there every time someone checked in and checked out. Also had to arrange cleaning after every guest and replenishing supplies. I also learned the hard way that it’s not worth taking guests who only stay one night cos the cleaning cost is the same regardless.
Bad: Sometimes people steal stuff wtf
This one really baffled me because I had a party who took shampoo bottles. :X I dunno why anyone would wanna steal shampoo wtf cos it wasn’t that expensive also. And they were not even the tiny hotel bottles but regular sized Clairol Herbal Essence bottles, of which they took 4 wtf. But there you go. So this cost has to be born by us too.
Ugly: Being treated like a lesser being
IKR, the title is just coming out of nowhere! What’s going on?!
Okay, basically one obstacle we’re facing is the management committee of our development. Essentially the management is against AirBnB which comes as no surprise really.
Security is a major concern for the management and other residents naturally. We are a gated community and the guards are very stringent with visitors and contractors, which I understand. I also don’t want security issues so I’m also very strict when approving guests. Like I’d require verified ID and also their car number plates and ban visitors and parties. And shared facilities are off limits.
But this particular story isn’t about AirBnB.
It’s about my clashes with the manager of the development. He’s hired to manage and run the place smoothly so his job often takes him into conflict with me wtf. Whenever there’s problems he’d call me up and nag me. At times, he’d even get condescending on me fml. I don’t like it but he’s a much older man and I accept it as him speaking through his experience to who he views as a young girl.
It got so that every new thing that went on in the house, he viewed with suspicion and would either call me or go storming up to the house. Once I hired a truck to move some old couches from our house. It didn’t matter that the guards informed him *I* – the home owner – was present, he still showed up and called out for me and told me he was “suspicious of the truck”. -_-
I felt like that was just some crap reason he gave. If I wasn’t at home and some truck drove up and started throwing furniture in, then yea BE SUSPICIOUS BY ALL MEANS.
But I am at home leh!??? I want to clear out my entire house is my business, isn’t it?
Anyway, I attributed it to him being a grumpy man and very diligent in his job. I had to give it to him though – he did his job very well. Nothing escaped his notice and I do appreciate his conscientiousness in keeping our area safe.
But recently we lent our house to our friend HY who runs a bedding business. She wanted to borrow our bedrooms to photograph her new sheets. As usual, I informed the manager, let her and her team in, then left.
At 5 pm, I received a call from the manager. He told me HY and her team couldn’t be allowed to stay on after 5 pm. Either I came over now, or they would be treated like “outside contractors” and asked to leave. He also asked me if she intended to take photos of the neighborhood, to which I obviously answered a shocked no wtf. Then he said oh ok, because we’re a bit suspicious that she arrived, locked herself in the house and ordered pizza in.
Huh? He own self say she ‘locked’ herself up, so it’s not like her behavior indicated she was going to go out and paparazzi the neighbors. And is she not supposed to lock the door? Confusing.
I thought it was super weird! So we’re not even allowed to have friends over now? They’re not even staying the night! Is my house actually a chaperoned slumber party? But again, I attributed it to the manager doing his job and being stringent on security. HY wasn’t done with her work yet though so I told Fatty, who’s actually HY’s friend first and her husband was one of his best men at our wedding.
Fatty thought it was ridiculous and called the manager up and asked what was this he heard from me.
Guess what happened?
Yes, the manager said OHHH SHE’S YOUR FRIEND? He didn’t mean they can’t stay. They’re welcome to stay there as long as HY is there too!
What the???????????????????
Every thing I do I get watched like I’m a suspect but the minute my husband calls, everything is A-OK? What was that about????
I have no idea what’s going on. He knew from the start that HY was a friend of ours. Did he just not trust me because I look like a little girl? Hello, Fatty looks super young too what (and the manager has seen him), why he pass I fail? Is it because I am female? Is this some misogynistic thing? Does he prefer dealing with the “head of the household”? *grimace*
Or did he think I was going behind my husband’s back? Who knows?
This is the first time in my entire 30 years I feel so discriminated against.
I’m super fed up with him now la whatever it is. Fatty is good at hiding his feelings and being buddy buddy with unlikable people but I’m not. So now I just let Fatty deal with him. Whatever I request cannot go through anyway. *rolls eyes*
Anyway, the point is, thanks to all the trouble and pressure the MC has been giving us, we are probably going to stop doing AirBnB and try to rent it out long term again.
It’s a 4 bedroom semi-D in a gated community in the Solaris Dutamas area. If anyone is interested in a rental, please email me at fourfeetnine[at]gmail[dot]com. Thank you 🙂
Erm you know I toyed with a couple of DIY projects and “How-to” tutorial ideas. So this is actually a How-to blog post – How to make your bedroom feel like a hotel room.
Since I started hosting on AirBnB (more on this later!) I’ve constantly been thinking how to make our place more comfortable? How to make it more inviting? How to make it so that we don’t lose out to hotels (besides our price la wtf)? How to make our rooms cosier? How to make it so our bedrooms got the hotel feel?
Here are four ways I think anyone can do easily without investing a lot of money. Bear in mind there’s probably a lot more you can do. A lot of my tips are going to be concerning textiles in the bedroom. Why? We spend the most time snuggling down in bed so everything to do with the bed is going to be crucial.But I picked this list based on not having to spend too much money and for very little effort.
Invest in a down comforter
Source: Pinterest
A good quality down comforter goes a long way in upping the coziness factor in a bed! Personally, down gives the best temperature balance – it keeps you warm in a cold room, and not overheated in a warm one. Down is heavier than say, cotton batting, so it really makes me feel snug and comfy wrapped up in it. Also it feels super luxurious!
Upgrade the sheets and pick white
Forget satin or whatever. 100% cotton sheets feel awesome – crisp and soft at the same time – especially if they’re of a high thread count.
I recently got new bedsheets from Elise (stocked in Isetan) made from Supima cotton. Supima is grown in the US and it’s equal to Egyptian cotton. The fabric is of a 1400 thread count and feels thicker than our old bedsheets and omfg it’s soooo comfy! Getting into bed at night now is such a pleasure. 😀
To get even more ‘hotel feel’, get white sheets. No printed florals or cartoon characters please wtf. All hotel rooms use white bedding. I read somewhere it’s because white is the easiest to spot stains on and replace if necessary, and for easier bleaching and cleaning. But because the best hotels use white sheets, white bedding now represents luxury, cleanliness and a good night’s sleep. Everything I want in my bed hahaha.
The details on my Elise Macrame Lace sheets.
I also got this set in white as well. The black edging very classy leh!
Flowers
Another way to jazz up your bedroom is to simply add flowers to your bedside.
You can easily buy a few stalks of fresh flowers from the market, arrange them quickly in a vase on your bedside table, and voila! It looks prettier and cosier already.
However I would not choose sunflowers again wtf. I picked them thinking they would look so cute cos of their bright yellow color. But I forgot the inside brown part is very gross FML. Looks like a shedding animal staring at me now wtf.
Next time I’d go for roses, or peonies. Or even small plants like this!
Towels
Again, textiles are super important in creating a sense of comfort and luxury. In the bathroom, place a neatly folded WHITE fluffy towel on the rack and your bathroom automatically looks more shiok. Lolol.
My towels are also from Elise. They’re soft, thick and absorbent very very nice to wipe with them hahaha. And best of all, don’t leave lint on my skin wtf.
Rug
I never really thought about this until I started furnishing our other house. I was looking for things to decorate empty rooms and just bought rugs to lay beside the beds. It’s a great idea (ahem) because imagine you wake up, swing your legs to the floor to get up from the bed. And what do you feel? Instead of unwelcoming cold hard floor (or scratchy carpet), tadah! A nice soft rug to pamper your feet before they hit the ground running for the day. 😀
How to not like fluffy cozy rugs next to the bed!
Throw pillows
Oooh this is something that I realized when stalking AirBnB listings hahaha. I realized that a lot of bedrooms overseas – like in the US or Europe – had this but not many Asian bedrooms did.
And that is throw pillows.
Throw pillows pull the look of a bed together. They bring a bed from merely a place to sleep to the centerpiece of the room. Throw pillows can really enhance a bedroom’s decor (or entirely transform it) and up the atas factor.
Throw pillows can transform a boring bed like mine to…. 
To this! At the Elise display in Isetan. Whoops totally blocking the bed wtf. 
Stole this off their website. The pillows make it look so pretty right? When it comes to beds, the more pillows the better. (Also helps if you iron your sheets *furtive*) 
Penny agrees! (omg stoppit Penny don’t eat your skirt) 
I really really love my Elise sheets actually. They’re a relatively new brand in Malaysia and are available at Isetan now. The quality is excellent and it’s gorgeous to look at. And don’t need to say they feel soooo good around my legs after a long day – crisp, sturdy (not flimsy), smooth and soft. 😀 
Dey see me rollin’, dey hatin’ 
Shiok hahaha. I’m giving out ten soft, fluffy, gorgeous Elise towels for you guys to try! 
Just answer here What would you change about your bedroom and why? Comment here by 4th January 2016 together with your email address, and you’ll be contacted on the way to collect the prize! Looking forward to reading your answers!
Update:
And the winners are:-
1) Karmun Ng
2) Emily Teo
3) Jacqueline
4) Denise Teoh
5) Tan Kai Wen
6) Wahida Samsuddin
7) Joann Lee
8) Wong Fung Shien
9) Siti Dalila
10) Catherine Tan
Congratulations guys! Someone from Nuffnang will be in touch with you soon. 🙂
A few days late but Merry Christmas from the Tiahs!
It’s Penny’s first Christmas and our first year celebrating as four of course. It’s also Fighter’s first year where we actually did the whole Christmas present opening tradition (cos last year we figured he wouldn’t know what’s going on anyway wtf).
Here’s what happened on Christmas morning at our house. Happy watching!
And hope you guys had as great a time as we did!
This year, I decided to put up a Christmas tree.
And it’s up!
I was considering it and then I saw one for 50% off in Isetan so I grabbed it immediately, fake fir thorns and all.
My family (and Fatty’s) don’t celebrate Christmas but I kind of want to make it a tradition for the kids. What’s there not to want to pass down about the season’s spirit of love, giving and family right?!
So Fighter is two already and old enough to understand I think so tree and traditions from now on it is!
Decorations were also all 50% off wtf dunno why they discount Xmas stuff so early.
Presents under the Xmas tree all done too! Some are for the kids, some are for my brother and sister in law. And the green box is for our helper. She loves snacks and biscuits so I bought an empty box and ordered chips and bottles of soda and cookies from Tesco to fill it.
We wanted it to be a surprise so when the Tesco delivery came I ran damn fast to the door to beat my helper to it hahahaha. Normally she unpacks the items while I check them off the list but this time I hustled her away wtf, mumbling something about gifts for my friend and telling her to go eat her lunch wtf.
She said she ate already wtf. So I asked her to go do other work wtf she must be confused lol.
Anyway, does anyone want to see how tree trimming with Fighter and Mochi is like?
Here’s a video I made of us decorating the tree. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!
The other day I went Christmas shopping for Fighter and Penny. We don’t normally celebrate Christmas and Fighter has never received a Christmas present in his two years on earth wtf but I love the spirit of the season and I wanted to introduce that to him and Penny, as well as hopefully teach them about giving vs receiving next time. *noble wtf
So what should I buy them?
The last time we went to Toys’r’us, Fighter spent ages in front of this toy – the musical teapot wtf. You guessed it – he loves cups wtf so he was completely enthralled and spent like ten minutes trying to grab the teacups and opening and shutting the lid on the teapot.
Cups are kind of his obsession wtf and at home he keeps bringing me empty cups and glasses and telling me he’s made me coffee. Hahaha. He has a toy kitchen set at home too, so he pretend to wash his cups in the sink and then make fresh brews of coffee.
Why I got him the toy kitchen set is because he sees me or the helper cooking at home and he’d always seemed interested. Mummy and Fat Her Ooi had slight reservations about me getting him a “girl’s toy” I think hahaha but I’ve always been adamant not to expose my kids to ‘preconceived gender notions’. I buy him pink shirts and ‘masak-masak’ sets because I don’t want him to feel restricted by gender notions and feel like he must act only a certain way and waste his full potential.
Who knows, he may turn into a Michelin star chef wtf.
Worse, what if he feels embarrassed by his interests and preferences because society deems them “too girly”?
I told myself, no son of mine would be restricted in that way!
At the same time, I prefer not to buy him toy guns because you know. Violence. wtf. Anyway he hasn’t showed an interest in them yet.
If you say, what if he turns gay, let me give you a big -____- face wtf. Firstly, I highly doubt you can turn gay by playing with a few kitchen toys and wearing pink clothes. Secondly, if he’s gay, he’s gay. Fatty and I will always have his back (and Penny’s)
But recently, I’ve noticed something. Fighter is now two years old and his personality and character is obvious. He’s charming, impatient, easily moved to laughter, careless, messy and a very people’s baby. A lot like me actually wtf.
He’s also quite un-aggressive for a boy and very gentle. I realized this because a few weeks ago he got into a sort of fight at school. He was dancing around and accidentally sat down on another boy who was already sitting on the floor. The boy reacted by reaching out and clawing Fighter on his face. Instead of fighting back, Fighter burst into tears and avoided the other boy for a while. :X
So two things. One, Fighter has totally recovered physically and mentally wtf. He goes around now telling people at random, “Ethan scratch Jude.” WTF. Like very important like that hahahaha.
Two, WHERE IS HIS SELF DEFENSE INSTINCT?! Not to say I want to raise a gangster la wtf but I’m hoping he will strike back instead of just crying? Cos at other times when the kids play a bit rough, I notice Fighter sometimes get pushed around but he never hits back. He just moves away or comes back to me whining.
On one hand I’m proud that my son doesn’t turn to violence in hairy situations. On the other, I’m worried he’ll be bullied. Already so small sized. T___T
So I’m stuck. Don’t want my kid to be shackled by gender biases. But then when he acts “not like a boy” I get worried wtf.
I guess this is compounded by the fact that in two weeks he will be starting nursery. Real school where he will wear a uniform and I will have to drop him off and leave. T_____T
MY BABY BOY IS LEAVING ME *hysterics*
Here is Fighter, yep, looking gay. Yes, happy wtf.
So should I send him to martial arts class? Tell him to punch back? Reporting to teacher is one thing, but nobody likes a tattle tale wtf. Being a parent is hard.
Moms, what would you do?
I’ve decided to start dabbling in video a little bit.
So the other day (this was actually a few weekends back :X) I turned on my camera and just let it run the whole day. To capture an average Saturday with us and Fighter and Mochi.
And let me say, I dunno how people like It’s Judy’s Life does it wtf. It’s so damn hard! How does one get anything done in a day if they’re holding a camera the entire time?
Like if I’m by myself (without Fatty or nanny) it’s crazy la how ah. I’d be carrying Penny or Fighter who I swear will be trying to swat the camera out of my hand or eat it or something.
So there’s a whole chunk of the day missing actually when I took Penny to a birthday party by myself (Fighter was napping at home). My arms were just full of her and diaper bag and birthday present (and food wtf) I didn’t get to record at all.
So for Judy who actually successfully records her day, I can see why haters would say she’s a shit mom cos it seems like she’d only be focusing on capturing video and not actually parenting. But no leh I see it as she’s a super good multitasker why these people so full of hate one. *harumphs wtf
Besides the very tiring filming I actually had fun making this video. Quite fun to edit, maybe next time got alternate career for me wtf. (Say only actually my editing skills very bad plus I used Windows Movie Maker which basically cannot do anything besides trim clips and add 90s style visual effects wtf)
So here’s our day. Be warned that it’s full of whining and crying and shaky hands ok fml.
Hehe what do you think! Should I make more videos? Or to rephrase, do you want to see more Fighter and Penny clips? *bribery* Hahahaha no seriously thanks for watching. 😀
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