a while back, my cousin told us how his kids, who are about eight, would sometimes call him up from school. you know, to tell them that they weren’t feeling well, or to make last-minute after-school arrangements, or well, just to ‘report’ about something they deem as important.

to do so, the little fellas (who are twins, by the way) would need to fish out loose change from their pockets to use the school’s public phone. their daddy thought of getting them a handphone but, as i’m sure most parents do, felt that they were too young for such a responsibility.

yet i did wonder too – what if parents need to get in touch with their kids in school, other than having to inconvenience their teacher via the staff room phone?

and then i discovered online of this new mobile service by M1 called KidSAFE, i immediately thought of them!

a quick glance at the features and i knew it was perfect for parents – AND kids. well, at least kids who are just old enough to know how to function a handphone, lah. not, of course, for aniq (who’s all of 3 and more interested in playing with the torchlight function on my handphone) or auni (who’s all of 10 months and more interested in slobbering all over my handphone).

anyway, as i was saying, KidSAFE has all these child-friendly features that i think will most likely appeal to you young-ish parents of even young-ish kids.

first of all, the service uses a stripped-down-to-basics kinda mobile (a Samsung SGH E200, to be precise), so it’s easy to use (read: idiot proof! yes, that includes some of us who may be, ahem, gizmo-phobic), especially since it’s meant for kids who’ve never owned a handphone before.

and – here’s the important part – it’s actually SAFE to use.

let’s see, now…

parents can program up to 40 phone numbers that their children can make and receive calls from
- hey, that’s a whole lotta numbers! but i would think the most essential ones would be, of course, the parents’ numbers, as well as their grandparents, close relatives, or even their neighbours and trusted friends. with these digits pre-programmed in the phone, there’s no worry about getting the numbers right, especially in times of emergency. i mean, there’s plenty enough to remember with all those spelling tests and math homework, isn’t there?

parents can choose to be alerted via SMS when the KidSafe SIM card is taken out and used in another mobile phone
- so no tampering can be done on the phone – you know how sticky those young fingers can get!

the KidSAFE program and features can only be changed with a 6-digit parent PIN
- and that secret PIN number, which only you have access to, will be required to amend the phonebook entries and any KidSAFE functions on the child’s phone. how’s that for All Mighty Powers?

there is internet restriction on KidSAFE phones
- which, i think this is pretty important, as this minimises any chances of exposing your kids to violent and unsavoury content. let’s hope they don’t grow up too fast, shall we? :S

you have control over their viewing and downloading of games, music, or videos on the phones
- so they are less likely to unintentionally access chargeable mobile services and chalk up hefty phone bills! yeah, they can forget about voting for their favourite Singapore Idol on those 1900 numbers.

you get to monitor the last 10 blocked actions
- including details of numbers attempting to SMS or call the KidSAFE number, and attempts made to call or SMS unauthorised numbers. which means, your child is safe from being contacted by strangers, and at the same time, you can be assured that they’ll be unable to dial out strange numbers too. hey, you’ll never know.

phew! *pant pant*

so, i guess it is possible after all for parents to have the confidence and peace of mind should they decide to give their kids their own mobile phone, eh?

and you know, i think it could actually be a good tool for parents to teach responsibility. for faris here, he was afraid that the phone would get stolen when he brings it to school, so his dad reminded him not to show it off to his friends and to make sure that he brought it along with him when he’s out of the classroom. but kids being, well, kids, he did accidentally show it to his friend, then felt bad about it when his dad advised him that it might tempt people to steal it, so he’s been more careful with it since…

faris and his brother, faiz, can now make calls to their parents and grandparents with ease. no more digging around for coins in their pockets to make calls on a public phone! can use the money to buy extra snacks liao!

just a few notes about round two of the Jalan-jalan Cari Makan roadtrip to KL we went on two weeks ago.

remember, it was all about the food, the whole food and nothing but the food.

so ok, let’s go. first stop, breakfast on a saturday morning across the border. some had roti canai, some had nasi lemak. some had kaya toast. and a side of sausage. (which is what i call that juicy meat with the bald head. ie. “hey Sausage. Sauu-sageee.” coz she really feels like one. cheese-filled.)

we reached our destination in good time, but our hotel rooms weren’t ready. in fact, they weren’t ready for a few hours more. this resulted in a Singaporean female lioness unleashing her wrath of fury to the hapless hotel staff. wah seh. you don’t play play with Singapura lionesses, ok. they are not all docile, purring Kucintas, hor?

we bunked in with lyd & mr boy, the latter whom Sausage is smitten with, for some reason. she calls out to him every time she sees him from afar, and has absolutely no objection to him carrying her. why ah, Sausage, why? why do you like mr boy so much? is it his magic mole that holds the charm? coz mummy also has a mole and you like her very much too.

[insert obligatory family picture. see hot Sausage in stroller.]

anyway, the hotel we stayed in was the heart of damansara, perfectly located with malls and shops all around, and too many restaurants we didn’t know where to begin with.

ok ok, i know where we tried to begin with. it was the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

i said tried, coz we somehow didn’t end up eating there although i think most of us wanted to. see, we happened to be there on a valentines weekend, and well, malaysians are not immune to the pull of the valentines dollar, or rather, ringgit. a few places had projected that valentine couples would readily open up their petaling street wallets on this special weekend, and priced their set meals and buffets at exploitative costs. unfortunately for us non-valentine tourists, bubba gump was one of them. so we gave it a miss, and headed to marche instead.

what did we eat? i don’t know! i think aniq had spaghetti, i had rosti, auni had mushroom soup (and bits of bread, baby bites and anything else she could grab within her reach), izad had turkey ham something (that looked like Spam to me), and grilled chicken. should have ordered the crepe, which thankfully rin & naz did. the calamaris farah & naz had were not as good as the calamari you find in SG. and i wanted my bundaberg root beer but got ginger ale instead, grr.

we settled in our rooms for a bit, naps for the drivers and some of the kids, and then we got ready for our reservation at Rebung restaurant. which we were an hour late for coz we got decidedly lost. lol.

(well, at least i almost wished we had, so we could go to T.G.I. Fridays instead. shhh.)

but found it we did. we had to lah, the last time we came to KL, we cancelled our reservation coz we decided to do tony roma’s or something. :p

this famous restaurant is owned by chef ismail and dr sheikh muszaphar. yes, THAT one. the pride and joy of the nation. the handsome-tak-boleh-carry astronaut. the manager of the restaurant told us that we should have informed him of our, ahem, ‘interest’ to have him present that evening coz apparently, he makes guest appearances lah, ok! but nevermind, he said, next time sure boleh. because, malaysia boleh.

so what did we eat at rebung? err…

i don’t know either! lol.

the dishes are mainly traditional. think hajah maimunah to the power of three. with all the ulams and asam pedas and sambals and siput seduts galore, i’m very sure our parents would lurrrve this place. the rest of the gang did too, actually, since they all wanted to try out this place. izad, don’t say lah, he’s one of those appreciative of malay foods. (unfortunately, the fella had a seriously bad case of ulcers this time round, so his palate was a little wonky. nonetheless, he valiantly attempted all the dishes that came his way despite their threats to assault his wounds.)

i think i had my rice with whatever i was familiar with, ie. asam pedas, kicap ikan… ok, i’m sorry, all i can remember was feeding auni with rice and sup daging. lol. and pisang goreng. i know, i’m like the absolutely worst person to bring to a buffet, i swear. hopeless like anything.

anyway, the manager took us around the place, took some pictures, and we left, with our butt marks imprinted on the red sofa as a memo for mr astronaut that the Kucintas had come, preened and poised, ready to pounce on him. meoowr. next time lah.

the next morning was hotel breakfast, the usual fare. i was delighted to find porridge amidst this, and proceeded to stuff auni with as much of it as i could. can you tell i’m obsessed with stuffing her, like a turkey?

with all the restaurants around our hotel, it was a bit of a puzzle how we somehow ended up going all the way to KL central for lunch. some had chicken rice, some had bubur ayam (which again, i managed to stuff the little Sausage with). the fella, despite his frazzled ulcered tongue, could still taste how bad his mee bakso was. which was why i held out on local fare – i wanted my westerns and i wanted my meats, dammit!

BUT! to keropok lekor, i concede.

coz, malaysia has the best lekors lor! they have soft ones, thick ones, crispy ones, thin ones.

i like the piping hot chewy ones. mmm mm.

next up was PS Boutique. that’s Petaling Street Boutique, to you.

the lure of this place is, of course, the search for the Almost Genuine-looking Fake Goods. attempt only if you are already familiar with the real stuff, know your goochis and el-vees and praduhs well. also your tissohs and omegahs. :p now, we will not disclose what have been collectively acquired at PS Boutique by the gang, as we are sworn to secrecy of the highest order. (now, pls girls, tuck in those blue boxes away…)

but i will tell you this – izad’s favourite stall in all of PS. this is real stuff, cannot bluff. with the heat beating down on us, we had at least three cups between us.

my perseverance finally paid off when we reached pavillion – carl’s jr.! and this time, no wussy chicken burgers (coz the last time we came, the beef broiler machine thingy was out of action). good ol’ double hunka meats for me. and this time my turn to stuff my face, with the yummilicious chilli cheese fries. and free flow of drinks!

they (the burgers) were so huge, i shared one with izad on the spot, and took away another one, of which i devoured half of at the hotel later that night, and the other half… back home in singapore, shhh. lol.

speaking of that night, we decided not to follow the rest to farah’s friend’s house coz it was late and we wanted to get the kids bathed and in bed after a long day out. he was kind enough to pack some of the satay kajang he’d served, though.

and so much for getting into bed – us and aniq ended up sprawled on the hotel room sofa watching a ‘friendly’ Wall-E dvd we’d gotten from PS Boutique earlier.

on our last day, our Bubba Gump plan was once again thwarted (why ah??), coz we decided to push on to KL central again. eh, we didn’t even get to eat those swedish meatballs at ikea again. and TGIFridays was out of the window as well, lol. so much for damansara.

we got to KLCC and headed for Chilli’s instead. nachos, fajitas, all good. even auni had her free kid’s meal of mac & cheese. now i know what to buy for her next time. gooey, disgusting mac & cheese. lol.

and that, i THINK, concluded our Jalan-jalan Cari Makan trip. well, give or take a few snacks in between.

travelling with a bunch of friends is always good. give and take is a must, and miscommunication inevitably happens, but surviving it only makes the bonds stronger, no? well, i hope so.

travelling with kids – what can i say? the joy and the fatigue come with the package.

leave them behind? yeah, right!

it’s here again… another Bow Party!

drop by http://www.sugar-bows.com, choose from an array of sugar sweet bows for your babies and toddlers, and key in this discount code:

HAN-WJMMS-8407

and to ALL the mommies who’ve emailed me about auni’s nylon headbands, great news – they’re up for sale! they now come in a variety of colours to mix and match with any bows and clippies to go with your little one’s outfits.

check out the headband in black – i’m still finding the right Little Black Dress (for auni, not me) to go with it.

yeah, i’m a sucker for matchy-matchy. :p

so, have fun e-shopping… and don’t forget the discount code, yo!

ps: the code can be used multiple times till 23 feb 09, monday, and all payments for discount orders must be made by 26 feb. ok? go!

pps: speaking of LBD, did mummy wear hers to prom night on V-day? stay tuned…

i have lots of raw video footage of my kids, never really have the time to edit most of them. i was just browsing my uploaded videos and i noticed that there are more videos of aniq than auni!

so to even out the score, i created a new video just for her, with special appearance by her brother of course! enjoy!!

this sight greeted me when the elevator door opened on thursday night when i reached home.

i was so excited, i ran tottered (wearing high heels and carrying shopping bags, mah) as quickly as i could to call aniq who was home with his daddy and sister.

he’d already seen them, but i hadn’t, so we all went out again to coo at the basket of furry felines.

“see, the baby kitten is drinking milk from the mummy cat,” i said.

“same! like mummy and baby auni!”, he pointed out.

“yes, same,” i beamed at him.

see how both babies’ paws are positioned. uncanny. heh.

i was telling the husband that the mummy cat looked so… tired, from the demands of motherhood. there was another kitten snuggled up under her, so i could empathise how she must be feeling, with two little ones to care for and nourish.

oh, and i also wondered – where the heck is the daddy cat, eh? hmm.

aniq has this nightly routine of drinking milk and reading of storybooks before he sleeps.
he either gets his mum or me to do it, without this routine its rather difficult to get him to sleep unless he is very tired and sleepy at the same time.

settings
Exposure:0.3
Aperture:f/2.5
Focal Length:5.1 mm
Exposure: 0.00
ISO Speed:80

taken with LX3, edited in lightroom 2

… is what she is. unafraid of falls and bumps, just like her brother.

here’s their latest play activity together – the baby sister pushing her big brother on his toy truck all around the house. yet another form of entertainment for us!

let’s see if she can meet her brother’s milestone of walking at ten months too.