Throwing out Junk

I'm starting to throw out junk and pack stuff in preparation for our move to our Promised Land. (Will explain in another post)

I can't believe the amount of clutter we've accumulated over the years!!!

cupboard full of bags - mostly collected from conferences

celebrex that expired 8 years ago!!!

empty diaper packaging - probably since Joseph's time.

Drypers, Huggies, MamyPoko, Pampers - I've got them all!

I can imagine this packing is going to take many many many many days.....

Long Weekend in Port Dickson & Seremban

It's been a very long weekend which started last Thursday night. We drove back to Seremban to spend a night in AhMah & AhKong's house.

Ah Kong made the kids very happy with ice-cream in cones.

I'm amazed how such a simple thing can bring such huge smiles to their faces.

I let Joseph indulge, since we now find his cough gets better with Herbalife's tea. So he obediently takes the tea after taking cough-inducing foods.

On Friday morning, we drove to Bayu Beach Resort in Port Dickson. It's clean but not quite my cup of tea. On my own, I wouldn't check in here.
We had the very 'talkative' Rev Nicholas Choo (all the way from Singapore) as our camp speaker.

The kids hit the beach in the evening.
This time, Joy was no longer afraid of sand between her toes.

Joseph proceeded to built the sandcastle he had been talking about for weeks.

But a city boy is a city boy and he kept fussing about his sandy hands and wanted to keep washing them.

The next day, they hit the swimming pool and the city boy was certainly much more comfortable.

He's now very daring to jump into the pool unlike some time ago.

We had good fun in the pool. Joe particularly enjoyed playing with Iris che-che. And he had no qualms of splashing his kindy class teacher who was seated by the poolside.

On Sunday, about 40 of us drove to Seremban after checking out, to have Ngau Lam Fun (beef noodles) for lunch.

We went to the Quinn's branch in Kemayan Square. The entire shop was full of just us.

While the rest of the camp went back to KL, we stayed back in Seremban for another night. Daalin drove back to KL early Monday morning to go to work while Nana, the kids and I stayed till evening and then came back my Komuter train. I was quite afraid that the kids would need to pee during the 1hr 20mins-ride but to my relief, Joy pee-ed 3 times between the time she finished her milk, and the time we left home and thereafter stayed dry throughout the journey. Joe also didn't ask to pee. They were both very good in the train. Excited as well.

Today I did a little bit of packing and clearing out junk. Gonna give away stuff that I don't intend to bring to our 'promised land'.

Momma Mia - potty training humour

Just for laughs...
http://www.flowgo.com/funny/2426_momma-mia.html

Flowers for my Princess

Nana brought home a huge box of artificial flowers from I-dunno-where.

Pink roses made the Princess so happy!
Joseph promptly grabbed a bunch and pretended to propse to Joy - on one knee!

Now if only I knew what to do with all these flowers...

Sports Fun at Little Lamb

Little Lamb had their inaugural Sports Day this morning. Unfortunately, it wasn't announced earlier so the kids weren't dressed to the theme, except for my 2 kids.
I thought Joy looked so cute in a size M sports attire for Joe's kindy, in age 5 colour.


All the kids got temporary tattoos on their arms, just for the fun of it.

Then after snacks, it was just a free-for-all carnival-like setting where the children went around to various stations to play whatever they fancied. I think next year we should have a more properly-organized Sports Day with proper groups and prizes.

Nevertheless, the kids had fun!

A new Graco stroller for us

Parenthood welcomes into homes a whole lot of stuff along with baby. We are blessed to 'inherit' lots of hand-me-downs including clothes, toys, books, playpen etc.

I believe we bought only 2 major items, one being the convertible babycot and the other, a reasonably good stroller. After doing a lot of research and homework, we settled on a Graco Citisport on sale at Safe 'n Sound 1Utama for RM469, in June 2005.

Over the next 5 years, this stroller went many places with us....

Bali 2006

Frasers Hill 2006

Joseph spent many hours in the stroller....drinking milk, sleeping etc...

When Joy-Anne arrived, he promptly vacated it for her. For the first 6 months, I carried Joy in the sarong sling while Joe still sat in the stroller when we went kai kai.

A'Famosa 2008

flying to Penang 2008

Though he sometimes complained that his legs got tired, Joe still graciously let his sister ride in the stroller.

In August 2008 we brought the stroller halfway around the globe to Hawaii!

In Hawaii, we bought a second stroller - the Combi Flare for USD82. After conversion, it amounted to about RM280 which is far cheaper than anything of that standard in Malaysia.

Waikiki 2008

Both strollers went to Melbourne with us - very useful.

Joy-Anne conveniently fell asleep in the stroller wherever we went. And pushing strollers is such a breeze in pedestrian-friendly Melbourne. It also doubled up as a comfy chair for their meals when we had picnics in parks.

Joy fell asleep while nibbling on a cheese stick, during one of our walks

The last foreign soil this Graco stroller touched was Singapore in June this year.

Joseph no longer sits in his stroller (the Combi Flare) when we go kai kai. But he still uses it as a 'cave' for sleeping when we go to church every week. Each kid sleeps in one stroller so we still need 2 strollers for 2 kids.

A few weeks ago, the 5-year-old Graco broke a cable just as we got home from church on a Saturday night. With the broken cable, the stroller can no longer be closed. It fits into the boot of the Wira when fully open but nothing else will go into the boot.

So I brought it back to GBS Marketing (the distributor for Graco in Malaysia) and they had the technicians look at it. The conclusion is that it can't be repaired.

I went stroller-shopping and bought the Graco Mosaic at the Parenthood Fair in Midvalley Exhibition Centre (that is currently happening 20-22 August 2010).I felt this was the best deal - best price for a stroller that best suits our needs and budget. RM499 from the original retail price of RM699. Large basket, reclines to 160degrees, removable front bar, 5-point harness and fairly affordable.

It's time to retire the Graco Citisport. After 5 years, 7 countries (including transit in Japan and Korea) over 3 continents on 6 airlines and lots and lots of mileage, I feel it's served us well and has been worth our money. I'm also thankful that the cable broke right at home and not when we were overseas.

The stroller is still functional. It just can't be closed flat. So if anyone has any idea how anyone can benefit from having it, I'll be glad to give it away.

Watch out... I bite!

I got home from work today to be surprised by my children - the princess took a bite at her brother's arm!!!

This photo was taken about 5 hours after the incident... According to eye-witness account.... "she pounced on me and bite my arm!"

The victim was very forgiving and did not take revenge, while the culprit confessed and thereafter apologized to the victim with a hug and a kiss.

I'm shocked by how ferocious she is..... someday I'll show this photo to any boy who comes within an arm's length of her.

Mothering her BearBear

Joy-Anne has recently developed a strong attachment to this little brown bear. Yes, Yee Yee....that's Conrad that you got for free from Conrad Singapore. She carries it everywhere and says she is the bear's mother. When questioned why mother and not father, she can say that she is a girl and girls grow up to be mothers. (I'm so amazed at this understanding of hers!) She wants to carry her bear in a sarong, just like how I carry her in my sarong sling.

This is so unrelated.... looks like they are feeding a monkey in a tree.

Thanks to Aunty Cathy for the playhouse.

So I made a matching tutu for her bear this morning. She will sing to her bear...

...and dance with her bear...


...she uses the chui kong as bearbear's bath tub...

...and she gives bearbear a bath...

...makes sure bearbear is all clean and dry...

...gives bearbear a hug...

...imagine she dresses bearbear...

...and puts bearbear on the bed (the wooden xylophone)...

...then she breastfeeds bearbear!!!

I saw her on the bed, with the bear to her chest a few nights ago and she told me that she is feeding her baby milk from her nen nen. I was surprised speechless! She weaned herself off me at 13 months and more than a year later, she can remember.

I'm just glad she's got her basics right : girl grow up to be mother, boy grow up to be father and babies should be breastfed!!!