"kutu" mission

I'm going crazy thinking about head lice, or more commonly known as 'kutu' here.

Two nights ago, I noticed Brendan scratching vigorously in his sleep and the first thought that came to mind was that he must have been sweating and have not washed his hair. So, the next morning, I washed his hair, but noticed that he still continue scratching and scratching his head later in the afternoon.

Oh no! Must be 'kutu'. I checked his hair and I think I see nits on his head. I can't seem to find that stupid kutu. Make me so stressed the whole day yesterday thinking about that stupid kutu. He must have gotten it in school quite recently. I normally spend half hour to an hour reading books in bed, with Brendan beside me, and I didn't notice him scratching much before that, until two nights ago!

So last night, I beh tahan liao, after spending an hour trying to take out the nits and looking for any live kutu last night, I decided to drive to the pharmacy in the rain, with my two kids in the tow. I got a kutu comb (like the one on the left below) and a kutu shampoo (apparently, it kills the live kutu and nits as well). Drove back home, and immediately try to comb Brendan's hair. Stupid comb, doesn't work cos it's not that fine. Some more say, 100% guaranteed. Blah!

I checked Eryn's hair. Perfectly clear. I tried to check my hair, but seems clear also, but I can't help feeling itchy all over just thinking about the stupid..... yes! K.U.T.U.!!!

Couldn't sleep the whole night, thinking about this stupid.... K.U.T.U.!!! This morning, again, I drove to the chinese medicine shop to look for the wooden kutu comb (like the one above right), and it's equally lousy. Can't comb anything out at all. sigh! The uncle told me that it's common for school kids to have kutus and its spreads easily. He even says he used to have lots of it and have to comb it out all the time when he was small!! Eeewwww.... GELI!!

So, washed Brendan's hair with the kutu shampoo. He's scratching less now, but still scratching, and I did some reading and realise that the itch may still continue for a few days before it totally stops. The nits are still there, apparently, dead, and I can't stand the sight of it each time I checked.

I washed all bed sheets, towels, clothes, combs and took out the pillows and bags out to sun in the sun cos kutus are susceptible to high head. kah kah kah... Die! Die! You kutus!! Die!

So, again, I took out my two books, "Herbal Home Remedies" by Jude C. Tood and "Debug your home the natural way" by PAN-AP.

My good faithful books give me some tips on how to remove kutus the natural way. One of it is to pour boiling water over tobacco leaves (apparently, tobacco from cigarettes with the papers removed also helps) and strain to use the liquid to rinse over hair at least 15 times into a basin. Reuse the water. Then leave it on for a few hours before shampooing out.

Coming with a solution of one part vinegar and one part water makes it easier to comb the nits out. Other natural uses are neem oil, oil-based shampoos and hair dryer (for adults only).

One comment I read on the net states that the mother uses Listerine mouth wash and leave it over night and white vinegar for the nits later.

I'll wait for a while to see whether the scratching is still there. Otherwise, I'll drive out to get myself a pack of cigarettes for the tobacco rinse.

For more reading on head lice, you can click here, here and here. I found a home remedy suggestion too here.

Butt Exposed

I was having breakfast with a friend this morning when this two beautiful girls sat near us, but I almost choked on my coffee when I saw two rounded apples peeking out from one of the girl's pants!!

The photo might not be that obvious but when she was near us, I could see the deep 'longkang' there for all to see. hahahaha

One Malaysia?

It was a disturbing day for me when I read news of the attack on churches. We've come this far and yet, being a country known, or claimed, to be multicultural and multiracial, we see idiotics acts like this being done. What a total shame and a total disgrace. Haven't these people search deep into their roots of their own moral and social beliefs before resorting to such action?

I have many friends of the Malay, Indian, Eurasian and even East Malaysian races, and never once I've encountered any racial or even religious tensions among ourselves in school or at work. Well, I do remember the time when I used to have an old primary 2 school-mate who was sentenced to death for bombing of a shopping mall in Jakarta 9 years ago. He and his group were claimed to be involved in the bombing of two churches before that incident in Indonesia. He also lost his legs because of one of the bomb blast. I remember him to be a loner who used to mumble to himself. We never knew where he went after primary 2 or 3, until news of him appeared about 20 years later.

What had happened recently shows that some people are pathetically ignorant. Their actions are only detrimental to their own being and peace. As the late Mahatma Gandhi puts it, "Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary".

It is still a good understanding to know that there are many people out there condeming the attacks and wanting a real One Malaysia peace as written here , here and on many other websites and blogs.

Peace to all fellow Malaysians...

Primary One

I'm joining in the bandwagon to blog about Brendan's first day of school.

He managed well, having two of his friends from kindergarten in the same class and a few other friends in other classes. The teachers in the kindergarten has prepared him well for primary school, just like the principal has promised.

Brendan was surprisingly quite enthusiast about going to school. I met a mummy friend I know from a mummies group whose daughter is also studying there. I also bumped into a client and a few neighbours whose kids are also studying there. It's such a small world to know some people in the school.

Things were so different back then when I was in primary one. I remember playing and playing only, and I had wonderful teachers who were extremely experienced in teaching. Nowadays, we have to be careful of our kids' well-being and all.

I've put Brendan on the school's food programme at RM80 for two months. Don't think I can prepare food for him everyday and decided to go ahead with the food programme which have quite different variety of food every single day, inclusive of a drink. Brendan takes his lunch at 11am which means by recess time he'll be so hungry that he'll chomp down on his food. He only reaches home at 7:30pm which means he'll be hungry.

It's the start of the year and big challenges are coming ahead. Get ready to rock-and-roll!

A decade in pictures

Some fond memories of my kids from the time Brendan was born in October 2003, followed by Eryn in June 2005. I'm getting older.....

Brendan proved to be quite an alert baby but was quite a difficult baby to take care as he tends to wake up at night and cry. He started speaking a little later though, compared to Eryn who would start speaking at age 1.

Brendan was under the care of my mum in Johor and I used to travelled every weekend to see him from KL to Johor, transporting frozen breasmilk in a cooler box in the KL-Johor bus. The breastmilk stopped at around 6 months and I continued my weekend visit, travelling alone most of the time as hubby was busy working until I was 8 months pregnant with Eryn. Brendan is actually quite a matured kid for his age, but can be quite mischiveous when he's with his maternal grandparents or his little sister.

Eryn was a very smiley baby and was so much easier to care for. Eryn was under my care and with the help of a maid, it was time for Brendan to be up in KL together with us as a family. I'm so grateful to my parents for their great commitment in taking care of Brendan in the first one and half years. Eryn was lucky to be breastfed until one year old, before supplementing with formula partially until age two where she only suckle at night.

Eryn can be quite cheeky and is quite a messy girl, compared to Brendan. She started walking at 10 and a half months, compared to Brendan who started walking at 12 months plus. She loves posing and can really dance so naturally with her soft body movement.

Together, Brendan and Eryn makes a perfect sibling companion, playing masak-masak together, toy cars, combat, and many more. However, sibling rivalry is always there. It's always a case of 'I first, you second' or 'He/She disturbed me', or 'This is mine, not yours', etc.. Well, you get the idea.

A decade has passed and it has been an interesting one, with the birth of my two beautiful children, a great gift from above. They stressed me up, I screamed at them, they whine and fight, but they're still my love and my sunshine and their surprises never fail to bring a rainbow on after a rainy day.

Happy New Year 2010!

It's a brand new year and we are now moving into a new phase as Brendan is entering standard one and I'm starting all our in a career that will be me more time for me and my family. Life is getting interesting.

We didn't celebrate new year eve in a grand manner but went to join our housing area's New Year Eve party, organised by the residents and the association on top of the hill overlooking the township, with tons and tons of hawker food available, and lots of prizes for lucky draw. There were performances by a lion dance troupe, a cheerleading group from some secondary school, lots of other performances including a singing group from some club. Great night and beautiful fireworks at the hilltop and the surrounding township at the stroke of midnight.

We also chose not to have hawker food at the residents' party and opt for our small family dinner at Sakae Sushi and for the kids, it was something fun and interesting, as long as they get to jalan-jalan, as usual.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010! May this year bring you lots of wealth, health and joy!

School Orientation

It was Brendan's school orientation yesterday morning. He took it very well and was pleased to have two or three of his kindy friends in his class as well as a few other kindy friends in other classes. The demand for the school is so high that there are 8 classes consisting of 50 students each and the headmaster was announcing that he'll stretch it to 11 classes.

We have opted for a chinese school. Though I didn't like the idea of sending him to a chinese school, I had to change my mind after scouting around for a kebangsaan school which really pulled my confidence down with the standard of teachers dropping in the few kebangsaan schools that I went to check out. Pathetic. It's therefore not surprising to see quite a few Malay and Chindian kids in the school.

It will be a tough challenge with tons of homework and with strict discipline a but it will prepare Brendan for  later years I hope. Brendan's kindy has prepared him well and surprisingly, Brendan doesn't find it boring, at least for now. If things doesn't turn out well, we'll have to find other alternative. (cross fingers).

The number of textbooks and workbooks are crazy, just like when Brendan was in kindy, but for him, it looks too easy as he had done all these work while he was in kindy. I hope he can still say that when he reaches standard 4-6 and secondary school. We'll have to wait and see.