my cheeky boy

My cheeky boy likes to climb into this position in his highchair. He calls it the 'stuck' position.

We then tickle his backside and he laughs.....happy to be tickled.

Then he'll say, "somebody please come and help me!"

tooth no more

I visited a friend's dental clinic yesterday to have my tooth extracted. Yes, even dentists need extractions.

That's my tooth.....clean, caries-free, perfectly-sound.

Adult human beings have 32 teeth. Or are supposed to have. I happen to be one of those whose jaw is just not large enough to fit all my large teeth. With one lower lateral incisor congenitally missing, I only had to have 3 good premolars extracted for orthodontic treatment. That was completed way back in 1993.

Unfortunately, I also have impacted lower wisdom teeth. Yup, two of them. So after much hesitation, I finally braved myself to have the right one removed by a lecturer when I was a dental student in my third year. I had a horrible post-op experience when I took Ibuprofen for the first time and discovered to my horror that I'm allergic to it. My eyes swelled to the size of golf balls in half an hour. It took a visit to the A&E, a steroid jab and 4 days for the swelling to subside.

A year later, the upper wisdom tooth overerupted and was biting on my lower gums. Another extraction followed.

I kept putting off the surgery for the left side.....until I was about to leave the civil service. I got a friend of mine brave enough to have me as a patient, and the tooth came out in several pieces. That was in July 2006, I think.

Over the past year, the upper right wisdom tooth has again slowly but surely been overerupting. In the last couple of days, it had been causing much pain every time I bite. Looking into my mouth, I could see the indentation of the tooth on my gums.

No choice.....have to take it out even though I'm about 5.5 months pregnant.

Dr Jean is a very gentle and competent dentist friend. It was a rather painless procedure. In fact, her topical anesthetic was so effective, it even numbed my lips and tongue.

So now, I have only 24 teeth left (all caries-free, restoration-free). Joseph has 20 teeth. That's not a huge difference is it?

2 dinners and a winner

Monday night, darling and I decided to go out for our usual date. It had been postponed from the week before because of my stomachache. Izzi's Restaurant @ Damansara Utama was having a fantastic promotion - 75% discount off food for HSBC credit card holders. Being the kiasu people that we are, we decided to dine there. We arrived there at about 7.30pm and was shocked to find a big crowd waiting outside. Not wanting to wait, we eventually ended up at Champ's in Centerpoint Bandar Utama.

I tried the much-talked-about 'Damn Shiok Hokkien Mee' (RM18.90) while darling had the Ipoh Sar Hor Fun (RM16.90). The hokkien mee did live up to it's name. The soup was really damn shiok - sweet, tasty and slightly spicy. The pork ribs were very tender and the meat easily fell off the bone. Prawns were huge and other ingredients were generous.

The Ipoh Sar Hor Fun however was not what we expected. Sar Hor Fun, as we know it, is like the local Wah Tan Hor. This was more like Kuay Teow Theng. Nevertheless, darling thought it was really good. Tasty soup, smooth chicken, naked prawns (that's what it says on the menu) and very smooth hor fun.

The next day, darling had a pleasant surprise when he was announced the winner of this year's Monash University Pro-Vice Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research.

The prize is a RM10 000.00 research grant. Yeah, it's only for his research. Not for my shopping pleasure.

my winner!

Feeling in a celebrative mood, we decided to try Izzi's again. It was also the last day of their fantastic promotion. So this time, we arrived there at about 6pm. No crowd outside, but inside was already full house. The waitress took down my name and told me we'd have to wait about 30minutes.

Just before 6.30pm, they called for us. With rumbling tummies, we (darling, me, my mother and Joe) made our way inside, sat down and quickly placed our order : Izzi Dough Ball (RM6..80), Izzi's Chicken Wings in teriyaki sauce(RM11.80), Caesar Salad with chicken (RM22.60), 2 orders of Spaghetti Carbonara (RM15.80), Pollo Tropicale pizza (RM24.80) and Tofu in Ginger Sauce (RM10.80).

The service was pretty efficient and the food came quickly. The Izzi Dough Ball arrived first. It was soft, fluffly and warm, served with garlic butter.

Next came the Izzi's Chicken wings. Juicy and tender enough. Caesar Salad was also pretty good.

Then came the Spaghetti Carbonara which is our all-time favourite. Joe also liked it very much. He enjoyed feeding himself.

The pizza was so-so. I prefer the crispy thin-crust ones from Domino's. In our excitement, I forgot to take pictures of the food until we were half way thru eating.

clockwise from top right : spaghetti carbonara, Izzi's chicken wings, pizza pollo tropicale, another spaghetti carbonara, Caesar's salad.

The tofu arrived last and I remembered to take a picture of it. This was japanese tofu, fried and drenched in sweet sour ginger sauce. Pretty good.

I was thinking that we might have to tar pau whatever we couldn't finish. But we did finish everything! Yup, everything! And the most satisfying part.....we paid a grand total of only RM28.46 after the fantastic discount!

Pregnancy and Kids

This is me now...22 weeks pregnant, 55kg and starting to feel like a beached whale again. I'm expecting to deliver my second child (gynae says looks like a girl!!!) in mid-January 2008, about 2 weeks before I turn 30. Yup...the big 3-0 looms just ahead. It's a major milestone in any woman's life. Firstly, you'll no longer be in your twenties. Thirties is when you start to have problems maintaining your weight, wrinkles creep up where you don't want them and you start to feel...well, not-so-young anymore.

Eversince I was young, I've had a 'plan' for my life - married by 25, kids before 30. A career however has never been a big priority. I always knew I'd rather be home with my kids than in a power suit, jet-setting across the globe earning big bucks.

By God's grace, I married a wonderful man 3 months before my 25th birthday. I had my first kid at 27 years of age and I'm looking forward to celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary this coming November, before welcoming our daughter in January.

I still get comments that I'm so young la when people ask if I'm expecting my first child and I tell them Joseph is already 29months old. It's weird....when I'm with my chinese friends, I do feel a wee bit young. Most of my peers are expecting their first child or getting married. But when I'm with my malay friends, I certainly feel that I'm running behind time.

For example, my friend Dr M ( a fellow dentist) got married in 2003, about half a year after me. She already has a boy and a girl, the younger one being about a year old already.

Another friend, Dr R (also a dentist) got married in Sept 2004, conceived 3 months after marriage and had her first child in Aug 2005. Her second child is due anytime now.

Yet another friend, Dr A (another dentist...what to do...got plenty of dentist friends) got married in 2005, had a boy in May 2006 and is expecting a girl next month (Oct 2007).

Children are indeed blessings from God. I'm of the opinion that if you want kids, then you shouldn't wait too long because the older we are, the less energy we have to run and jump and tumble with them. I'm sure there are those who disagree, with the opinion that having kids later in life will mean more financial stability, and the ability to give their kids the best.

Then again, what does giving your best to your kids mean? Is it the best baby cot? the most expensive milk? the most hi-tech stroller? the most fantastic encyclopedias? expensive toys? Indeed...there is a wide array of gadgets and gizmos out there to make parents part with their hard-earned money, believing that they are giving the best to their kids.

I on the other hand, feel that giving my best to my kids mean strolling in the park, reading to him, giving him piggy-back rides, playing hide-and-seek...all of which means giving him time.

We now realize that if we were to wait till we feel ready to have kids, we might never have kids. In fact, if our parents had waited till they felt fully ready, we might not exist! I don't think we will ever find ourselves at a stage when we feel we have enough money, or enough time to have kids. Human beings are greedy. We always want more.

We've learnt to manage what God gives, and trust his providence. After all, He is Jehovah Jireh. He always provides. His blessings are never ending.

Happy 28th Birthday Ah Ku

Ah Ku turned 28 years old on 11 September. Yes, he has a very easily-remembered birthdate thanks to a bunch of terrorists 6 years ago. 9/11. Well, I wasn't born yet then so ignorance is bliss.

We celebrated Ah Ku's birthday last night. Papa took me to Domino's to tar pau pizza. I enjoy seeing the uncle make the pizza and putting it in the oven. Mama bought KFC mash potatoes for me and also a cute little cake for Ah Ku.

Here's we are with Ah Ku's cake... That's che-che Joanne on my left.

And another pic with Nana and Kong Kong as well.

See I'm trying to help Ah Ku blow out his candles. There were so many that Ah Ku had a hard time blowing them out all by himself.

Finally we cut the cake. It was so yummy we finished it all up. Sorry yee yee...none left for you.

more Yong Peng action

There's so much space in Yong Peng. No need to be cooped up in a 'pigeon hole' like in KL. Joe went cycling with his daddy.

He also enjoyed playing with water, just like Fireman Sam (Astro channel 24). In being helpful with watering the grass, he managed to flood a small area because he only sprayed water on one area.

Here we have koh teow teaching Joe and Bran to aim properly at the grass.

Of course, there's also tv time with Brandon. They have totally different styles of watching tv. Joe will watch quietly, 100% focused. Brandon on the other hand gives a running commentary on the show, complete with sound effects.

They have so much fun entertaining each other. It really gives me some time to rest and relax too.

Now...I'm happy

Joe made my heart melt last night.

I was lying down on the bed, kinda incapacitated from the pain in my stomach (I had been having bad gastric and diarrhoea for the past 2 days) while he was rolling and jumping around playing with nana. Then nana took him to make milk - his much-needed 'opium' before sleeping. He came back to the room carrying his bottle of milk and tugged at me saying, "Mama, get up. Feed me". So I muttered something asking him to let nana feed him. But he insisted, "Mama feed me". I dragged myself up and took him on my lap. Joe said, "Now I'm happy".

Yeah.....mama's happy too.

Joe checks out school in Yong Peng

We arrived in Yong Peng early this morning. Yup, reallllll early - we started our journey from KL at 5.00am and arrived here at 7.20am. Joseph slept the whole journey here and only woke up when we parked in the porch.

He spent the entire morning playing (and messing up the room) with Brandon. Then when school started at about 1pm, he joined them to work up a sweat.

Here he poses with Brandon. He's almost the same height as Brandon now....shorter by just about an inch.

I still made him take his afternoon nap. More so because I needed it. And after he woke up refreshed, he joined Brandon's class in their English phonics lesson.

More photos tomorrow...