Vain, Pretty and Pink

As I was taking photos of Joseph and his dinosaur last night, Joy didn't want to be left out. She picked up her hairbrush and asked me to take photos of her while she brushed her hair.
Vain, vain.....yes I know, like her mother.


My princess has grown a lot. I have to weigh her again soon.... really really heavy.

I made a pair of butterfly wings and a star wand for her.

When she wanted to pee, she stood in front of the potty and said, "I magic my pants down!"

Looking at her photos, even I can't quite believe she's not yet three years old.

Right now, she has a wish list...

1. Pink Umbrella

2. Pink Bicycle

3. Pink Violin

I know....Christmas is coming. Then her birthday. Well I've told her that she'll get her reward if she can stay dry all night. The night before she stayed dry. Last night, she got up at 12.15am and said, "Mama...I want to shee shee in the potty". And then she stayed diaper-less and dry till morning. So the same diaper has been dry for 2 nights in a row now. We'll see how things go...

The Dinosaur Museum

Two weeks ago, Joe received from Ah Kong a present - a T-Rex excavation project. There's a huge chunk of soil package with bones embedded inside. So we dug and dug and it was really hard work. For me at least. Joseph was a lot more patient and seemed to enjoy himself.

Finally we got out all the bone pieces and assembled the T-Rex. Joe wrote out a sign for a Dinosaur Museum.

He took out all his other little dinosaurs and arranged them.

Joy-Anne came and wanted to be the tornado that blew off all the dinosaurs in one sweep.

Anyone feeling generous can feel free to add to his collection. In the mean time, the T-Rex goes back into the box until we can display it in the new home.

Sakae Sushi @ BVII

We got some pretty good deals for the house yesterday. There was a warehouse sale at Better Living - just across the road from church. Bought a Johnsson Suisse w.c. for RM284 (discounted from RM734) and 8 cartons (16pieces each) of 1'x1' Niro Granite black anti-slip tiles for the bathroom.

After making 10 trips up and down from the car to the new home carrying the super heavy tiles and w.c., Daalin was really tired and I thought he deserved a treat.

So we went to Sakae Sushi at Bangsar Village2 for dinner. I had told Joseph about this place where you can place your order via the computer and the food just appears at your table and he was really excited.

I'm not quite sure why but Joseph seems to have developed a liking for sushi. So once we got our booth by the conveyor belt, he pointed our this thing that he wanted.

To my surprise, he took a pair of chopsticks and said he wanted to try using it.

At first it didn't quite work...

So he tried using one side in each hand.

Then out of frustration he put his mouth to the plate.

After a while, he managed to balance a blob of rice on the chopsticks.

Finally he was able quite happy to be able to actually eat with it! I sure was proud of him.

Daalin enjoyed the temakis. We had a total of 3 unagi temaki and 7 soft shell crab temaki. It's buy1free1 when you pay with a Citibank Credit Card.

This is Joe's all time favourite - the Chicken Katsu Don.

The father and son sometimes go to Sushi Zanmai (The Gardens) for their father-and-son-time and they always have a Chicken Katsu Don and the Tamago sushi.

This is the other Citibank offer - salmon dunno wat.... one pair is free. The other 2 are RM1.30 (discounted from RM5.90).

Towards the end I realized I hadn't taken any photos of Joy. And she knew it, I think. Coz she suddenly opened up her 4oz bottle and drank up all the water like from a cup, and said, "Mama, can you please take my photo?"

Since she was next to me, I had to pass the camera over to Daalin.

Then she posed again...

Joy didn't eat any sushi. She's was happy eating Quaker Oats at Sakae Sushi!

The Citibank offer is valid till 31 December. We'll probably make at least another trip there to take advantage of it.

E&L's Wedding

I've known Uncle E for at least 10 years since KongKong's last posting in Bentong. His dad came all the way from Bentong to Seremban for my wedding 8 years ago. So it was with much anticipation and joy that we attended Uncle E's wedding to Aunty L, a very sweet and pretty lady who is Joe's guitar teacher.

We didn't make it to his church ceremony because 9am was a bit too early (and stressful) to get the kids ready.

Joy wanted me to "put the pink thing on my eyes" for her. She sat still so obediently and gently closed her eyes for me to work. Yes yes....I know...vain like her mother.
Joseph got a little bit upset because he couldn't join in the girly stuff. But he soon decided that it was better to be a boy when I told him that men don't have to be pregnant and don't have to wake up at night to breastfeed.

On the way out, Joe asked me if he was having guitar lesson that day. When I told him no...he was a little upset. And I had to explain to him that it was not possible for Aunty L to give him a lesson that day because she was busy getting married!

The luncheon at Oriental Pavillion Jaya 33 (how convenient for us!) was absolutely delicious!

First dish - roast pork, roast duck.....so appetizing! And then I loved the pan-fried tuna fillet (no bones!!!) in pomelo sauce. They also had a dish of soft shell crab!!! I've never had soft shell crab at weddings before. The food sure beats any hotel wedding dinner!

It was a good thing we were seated towards the back because there was a lot of space for the children to move around a bit and we could enjoy the food.

After the lunch, we went through back to church and stayed on for Children's Church, followed by Celebration (whereby both kids napped in the respective caves, I mean strollers).

Busy, busy, dreadfully busy...

Joy can sing the Veggietales Busy Busy song.

I have been running around so much that I didn't realize I lost some weight and now weigh merely 46.5kg. Well it hovers around that to about 47kg.

We've finally finalized most of the renovation details and paid a deposit to the contractor. Hacking begins on Monday!

Provided there are no delays, we should be celebrating Christmas in the new place. Now I'm wondering if my 3ft-tall Christmas tree will look tiny in a 2500sf home.

Veggietales Dance! Dance! Dance! and a marathon weekend

Another marathon weekend....I survived!

Saturday morning - Nana went out to church before 8am for Prayer Track and Daalin went out to collect the sink, tiles, taps etc that I bought the evening before and sent them to our new home.

Ah Mah's yummy 5-variety of nuts mooncake

As soon as he got back, we went out to church. Daalin led worship for Children's Church and then I was on duty for Little Lamb. Thank God everything went ok even though I had quite the bare minimum number of helpers.

After church, Nana and the kids came home while Daalin and I went over the our new home to meet another potential contractor. We got home only at past 10pm.

Next morning - woke up and went out to church again for 2nd round Little Lamb.

After church & lunch in church, Daalin had to stay back to lead worship for KIDS ministry while we came home to put the kids to nap.

In the afternoon, Nana then went out to pick Daalin and they went to pasar malam for the weekly grocery-shopping.

And then when Joe woke up.....he got to try out our new toy....the Veggietales Dance Mat!

Thanks to Goh Yee Teow who brought it back all the way from USA after YeeYee bought it for USD19.99 instead of the usual USD49.99.


Joe loved it! And I love it too!



I bought two dance mats so we can do duet or duel when the other mat comes back sometime next year.

And the new stroller wheels arrived as well....all the way from USA. It cost USD32 (including shipping to USA address) to change all 4 instead of RM80 for ONE that the Combi store in Midvalley wanted to charge me.
The wheels were badly worn out, unevenly....I believe due to the excessive wear and tear while we were in Melbourne last year. Now it looks good as new.

Sunday evening - we went out to Atria after lunch to buy more bamboo mats for church. At the same time, I checked out Sleep Factory's new outlet on the third floor. We bought 3 pieces of Queen-sized latex mattresses - soft yet firm. Just the way I like it. It supposedly has features like negative-ion, anti-dustmites and a 10-year warranty.

So it was quite a marathon busy weekend. But very fruitful and fulfilling! Daalin and I agree that even though we spend just about our entire weekends in church., there couldn't be any better place than to be in the house of God!

Dinner & Blessing

We had dinner at New Paris Restaurant in SS2 last night. We = myself, Daalin, J+j, Ah Mah & Ah Kong, Nana & Kong Kong, Ah Ku & KimKim, Ah Chor, Pastor Nancy & Uncle Nat.

I've no idea what we ordered because at chinese restaurants, I leave the ordering to my in-laws while I just enjoy the food.

The tau fu (which seems to be their specialty) was good and I particularly liked that thing in the watermelon bowl which I thought was pork and was gonna finish up the last scrawny piece until Daalin pointed out that it was only chicken skin left.

We had tu kha as well. This one is good to eat. The other tu kha I have is nice to squeeze.

We polished everything off....

But Joe preferred bananas (BYO) to the pig's leg.

After dinner, we proceeded to our new home for a time of prayer.

Daalin led in a short time of worship and then Pastor Nancy prayer over the house for cleansing before we walked through the entire place from room to room praying.

Now I'll be busy meeting contractors, deciding on which one, shopping for appliances and mattresses and maybe praying that money falls from the sky.

Yes, I've been busy...

Someone commented that I must have been super busy lately.....because the blog has not been updated. Well, someone is right!

I've been busy packing. And when you pack, you come across a lot of stuff that have been idle for ages.

Maybe everyone should do this every once in a while. Declutter.

I realize that I've never lived in any one house for any more than 7 years. Seven seems to be the magical number - in the Bible, in DUMC and for me.

I lived 11 months in Ipoh, 4 years in Seremban, 3 years in Raub, 3 years in Segamat (in 2 houses) and then 9.5 years in Penang (in 1 house and 3 apartments). Then I came to KL for further studies - one year in 6th College UM, one year in University Tower, 2 years down the road from UH in a rented room, 6 months in a rented room in Damansara Utama and then I got married and lived one year in Pantai HillPark with my sister-in-law.

This month is about exactly seven years since we moved into our current home, a year after getting married.

We got the keys to our new home last Friday, 1st Oct 2010. The entire legal process is actually not quite completed yet but the vendors have graciously handed over vacant possession.

So I've been busy meeting designers and contractors. I made a few random calls and also engaged a few friends in this line to give quotations.

In the mean time, the children have been rather cooperative. They make no fuss when I pack their toys and books into boxes. And they have a blast playing with all the boxes.

Joe is particularly excited. Because his father promised him an aquarium where they are gonna feed the fish with dead mosquitoes!