30-something at long last

I'm now officially 30-something. 31 years and 1 day to be exact. On the ox-picious day that I turned 31, I had the luxury of indulging in my favourite past-time - window shopping!!! It's window shopping because I don't have cash to burn.

So I spent the morning getting my hair trimmed. It was starting to stick out at the ends and I couldn't stand the untidy look. I'm a slob when it comes to grooming but I still want my hair neat (and my men's hair short!).

The rest of the day was spent window shopping and playing with Joseph at Ikea and the Curve. We got home at about 5pm, and then went out again to Midvalley Megamall for dinner at Chili's.

Chili's is synonymous with celebrations in our family, thanks to CIMB which offers RM50 vouchers for only 8500 credit card points.

this is probably our first photo as a family eating together.

We took some photos while waiting for the food and also before messing up the food.

Joe : doesn't papa look handsome like me?

getting my sugar fix

Nana had Fish 'n Chips (chips substituted with mash potatoes so that Joy could eat) and Joanne had a Quesadilla Explosion.

Joy-Anne had macaroni and cheese from the kids menu (Kids eat free!) but she helped herself to my mash potatoes.

She thoroughly enjoyed feeding herself and playing with her food.

Then she fed me....

...and Nana too...
And Joseph fed her...

...and himself...

it was a feeding party!

After clearing out the food, we got down to the cake.

Both kids wanted to pull at the cake box ribbon.

How many hands does it take to open one cake box?

Happy Birthday to mama!!!

While we ate the cake, Joy-Anne just wanted to climb around... have to show off some samseng-ness mah....

Then when we asked for the bill, the waiter saw the cake and said that the birthday girl can actually get a free cake on the house. So I said "sure!!!" and Joe got to blow another round of candle. Before going home, we had to detour to ToysRus because when we got to Midvalley, Joe said he wanted to go to the toy shop. I said, "but you already have so much toys at home!" And he said, "No.....just look only. Not buy." So I told him we could go after dinner.

We needed the post-makan walk anyway. And Joy-Anne was so happy to climb around.

Joseph found a female friend at ToysRus and they ran around screaming and chasing each other. Girls these days are really not quite ladylike.

I was really tired when I finally got into bed. But it was certainly a very blessed birthday. Nothing beats being spending time with people you love.

a photo shoot coming up

If there's one thing that I regret not doing for my wedding 6 years ago, it's getting a good professional photographer and videographer. On hindsight, it's definitely something worth investing in. But I was a student then and daalin was a fresh grad. We couldn't really afford to spulrge.

So I came to know about Grace from my cousin, Michelle. Grace is a professional photographer and videographer. Her work can make me cry even though I don't know the people in the videos.

I've toyed with the idea of getting a family portrait photo shoot done but it's just so expensive. Then last December, I got a call from her partner Choon Ean asking if my family would like to be models for their photography workshop. Choon Ean is my sister-in-law's best friend. Since the YongPengTribe was too far away, she asked us. It was a chance for a free (!!!) family photo shoot.

Unfortunately daalin was busy the whole day with Monash's Open Day. I was so upset!!! What a lost of opportunity.

So when Michelle forwarded me this promotion that Grace launched, I jumped at it immediately.

Grace said I was the first person to book! We'll be shooting on 9th Feb. I'm so looking forward to it. I hope Joseph cooperates this time. And hopefully, there will be no red ants crawling up his pants.

quiet CNY at home

We got back to KL on the first day of CNY itself. This is probably one of the quiestest CNYs we've had in a while. My in-laws are down with Chikungunya. It's a pity they couldn't quite enjoy because started getting sick last Friday and was at their worse on Saturday and Sunday.

But on the bright side, it's a good thing they got sick when there was plenty of people in the house to help care for them.

So I took the kids to the Lake Gardens today. They enjoyed themselves thoroughly.

together for chinese 'niu' year

We had a Tan reunion on Saturday. The kids enjoyed each other's company. The more the merrier and this CNY, there are 7 grandkids.

Joy-Anne surprised me by falling asleep in Mabel's rocker. She just sat in there like an old lady in a rocking chair while Sean rocked her and before we knew it, she was asleep.

We didn't have anything planned. Just a yummy reunion dinner on Saturday. Mabel only got her mummy's milk. No tu kha for her. The mosquitoes probably found her young blood yummiest of all because she woke up with 6 bites on her face.

mabel : what are you looking at?

At night, the boys all put on their new pyjama pants made by Ah Mah.

As you can see, it was a great challange trying to get a decent photo of all 5 boys together.

Sunday morning....the kids all woke up happy for more fun together. And I'm just so glad that Joy-Anne has been eating and drinking and sleeping so well.

Happy Chinese 'Niu' Year to all!

happy smiley again

After 3 days of eating well (i.e. 3 meals + 4 bottles of milk each day), Joy-Anne is looking better and certainly smiling more.

I managed to get some smiley pictures this morning. She was very obliging in posing and generous with her smiles. Can't quite hide those slim legs though. She doesn't have chubby thunder thighs. Just long and slim like her father.

What more with all the exercise she's getting these days, walking everywhere. She doesn't want to be carried. She will say "walk" and squirm out of our arms onto the floor.

Last night, we celebrated my grandmother's 84th birthday.

Secret Recipe makes yummy cakes but suck at decorating/writing on them so this is my DIY job. I had 3 sugar rats which had been sitting in my fridge all this while. And since my grandma was born in the year of the rat, and we are still in the year of the rat, I thought they made perfect deco for the cake. Joy-Anne fed herself noodles and ate up 2 whole pieces of taufus. This was after she had her dinner at home, followed by milk in the car on the way to the restaurant. And after that she finished another bottle of milk with her eyes closed, before we left for home.

Joseph also ate pretty well. He finished his dinner at home. At the restaurant, he fed himself a bowl of noodles. Then he helped himself to a piece of birthday cake which was a yummy cheesecake.

Later he had some fruits and after all that another bottle of milk before going off to dreamland.

I wanted to take photo of the kids with their Ah Chor but Joy-Anne was already asleep.

Hooray for kids eating well!