Kuala Lumpur: Becca, Hunter, and Blood Circulation Soup at the Wet Market

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Blood Circulation Soup

Year of the rabbit and Boom's welcome flowers for Hunter

Bec on our nite out in front of my local Buddhist temple

Upscale megamall Chinese New Year decorations for Year of the Rabbit

Chinese dumpling restaurant - one of our favorites

A rare child-free moment for two old friends and moms who collectively parent 6 children,
not including their husbands

January 30, 2011

Becca and Hunter don't cease to amaze with their teflon adjustment to living on the other side of the world. Bec slept more on the KL time schedule than I did. Then she and Hunter joined me and Boom for an early morning trip to Imbi Wet Market -- our local Chinese-Malaysian market with chicken, fish, veges, and hawker food stalls on its last day before it shut down for the Chinese New Year.

I immediately took Hunter to see the stall manning 20 miniature woks constantly being whirred to distribute the crepe batter evenly around the wok perimeter, whipping out 15 crepes for us in minutes. I came prepared with nutella and an IKEA knife to keep Boom and Hunter busy for the more important activity of me and Becca eating my favorite soup in Asia - blood circulation soup. Alright, no Asians call it that, but you may remember my first trip to Imbi market and the Asian couple who told me to try this soup since it's used to help women who've recently birthed babies recover and regain their blood circulation. I nodded patronizingly then proceeded to sweat profusely, like my blood flowed rapidly, when I ate the soup. Ken almost fainted after eating the soup later, maybe more dizzy from the freshly killed chicken smells than the soup. But, I was so dizzy a couple months later while eating it that I had to put my head between my legs. I had to have Becca eat it. She loved it, not eating the chicken necks but enjoying the rich ginger-laden flavor, eggs, noodles, and liver flavoring. She's intrepid, is all I can say.

And, I showed her where they killed chickens in front of your eyes, serving you their breasts soon after. Hunter, while brave until then, couldn't cope with the smell. Then we collected our veges, fruit, and Chinese New Year decorations while the rain started to pour.

We returned home to mellow and decorate, before tomorrow's day of travel to the Malaysian east coast, with beach, river, and possible monsoon remnants.

Ken put all 4 kids to bed while Bec and I walked through the Kuala Lumpur City Centre park in the light rain, almost having the park to ourselves, with me showing off my local Buddhist temple where we are regulars, with me praying/meditating there a few times a week. And, she saw the upscale materialist side of KL, to contrast with the wet market stalls, in the Pavilion posh mall where I took her to our favorite dumpling place where we drank beer and ate TRUFFLE dumplings. YES!!!

Walking home in the light rain, watching the clouds pass low around the lit Petronas towers was downright magical. Talking to an old friend with much-missed sardonic humor and deep knowing each other was transcendent.

Alice's 7th Birthday Party: Princesses, Nail/Makeup Salon, and the Pool

Pinata!

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Getting Pinata candy

January 29, 2011

Alice's birthday party ended with me explaining to her that she will never again have a warm-weather, swimming pool party outdoors on her birthday in January again in her life. She countered that maybe there will be a warm January day in New York when we could have a pool party at Nanny and Papa's house. I didn't add that she will probably never again want a princess party, because it'll seem too "babyish" by next year. Today was the last of the princess parties, in our home.

And, what a princess party it was. Alice envisioned this party 6 months ago when she first set foot next to our apartment pool, before we even signed the lease. Pool and Princess. We had a Nail/Makeup Salon set up with our two babysitters manning it. And, everyone got their own hula hoop and jump rope, which are all the rage at 1st grade recess at Alice's school. Alice is obsessed with jumping rope, the same way she was with the jungle gym in NYC.

The princesses arrived, with an awkward start. All of them seemed nervous, probably after the hype of getting gussied up in their royal finery. But, soon, they got giggly and excited about their nail polish, facial jewelery, tattoos, and sparkly eye shadow. They jumped rope. (Click HERE) They jumped into the pool. You might ask, as we logical adults did beforehand, if they would swim after all that makeup artistry was applied to their faces. They didn't think twice about jumping in. Then, they just ran back to the salon and got makeup again, happy as wet princesses. After that, they got overexcited because they got to apply makeup to Kenny, gigging hysterically at all the cross-dressing implications, not realizing that they gave him more of a makeup job that looked like measles rather than Paris Hilton.

Birthdays here aren't so different here than in the US. The girls ate pizza. They hit a pinata that was unbreakable, only finally beaten to a pulp by Ken (Our Venezuelan friend made the pinata and cupcakes for us, coaching us on the pinata hitting throughout). Click HERE and HERE for the two pinata videos. And, blowing out a candle that looked like fireworks (Click HERE to see). And, the after-party was almost more fun than the party, with lots of water-balloon making and throwing --with near-hysterical letting loose of all that pent-up party energy.

Alice ended it saying it was her only and last birthday in Malaysia.