BuffaFly

La Joyeux Bistro

2012-01-30T10:23:00.004+08:00

It may be CNY, but my side of the family has ang moh tummies. So instead of the usual CNY fare, my brother brought us to this pork-elicious place in Taipan USJ. We ordered most of the recommended dishes...
The pork knuckles were really good! Indescribably crispy and yummy!
Forget Tony Roma's. If you can't make the trip down south across the border, come here for real baby back ribs.We were so busy devouring all that porky goodness that we forgot to take a family photo. Nevertheless, everyone (even Ah Chor who claims to eat very little) enjoyed the meal thoroughly.

Earrings for my princess

2012-01-24T17:04:00.004+08:00

Two days before CNY, we were back in Seremban already, and while the boys went swimming, Joy went window shopping with me and Tua Um.

As we walked past Poh Kong, I asked her if she wanted to have her ears pierced. She nodded and said ok. (We had talked about this earlier so it wasn't really a spur-of-the-moment-thing).

So we went in, she sat down at picked out the flower-shaped earrings then waited patiently as the gun was prepared. At this point, she started to feel apprehensive and asked me to hold her hands.

I held her hands as the guy sprayed ethyl chloride on her ears and then with another lady (one person, one ear) they held the guns to her ears...one, two, three...bang! And it was done! Very efficient! Joy didn't cry but was rather shocked. She held me tightly and said, "Too pain, mum..." but was quickly comforted by looking in the mirror. When she got home, she happily asked everyone, "Do you notice something different about me????"

Joy turns 4...and other updates

2012-01-19T10:37:00.005+08:00

I've been rather slack in updating this blog.

We started the year with a 14-day fast and prayer. I skipped the fasting part because I'm breastfeeding but managed (by God's grace!!) to go for the 5.30am prayer in church for all 14 days....with all 3 kids and the last 5 of those 14 days were without Daalin (who went to India for a work conference).

Every morning for those 2 weeks, Joseph got up cheerfully at 5am and walked while I carried Isabel and Daalin pushed Joy in the stroller. I'm rather pleased with his enthusiasm for waking up early and obedience in going to bed early at night.

Isabel reached her 2-month milestone on the 5th and I did the 'customary' hand and foot print thingy. She's growing well - put on 1kg in the 2nd month compared to merely half a kg the month before.
Joseph is adapting to school slowly. He still doesn't speak because he thinks that everyone speaks chinese and BM except him. As for homework... it's so darn brainless at this point that I get Joy to help him.
Joy celebrated her 4th birthday yesterday. I bought a round vanilla sponge cake, cut it into a no.4 and iced it with the tub of mascarpone cheese that had been in my fridge. She then had fun decorating it.Hui-Wearn very kindly baked her a Rapunzel cake.
She was delighted, and it's just too pretty to be cut.
So now that she's 4-years old, she's agreed to finally ditch the potty and use the toilet.
So Joseph can be relieved of helping me to pour her pee and wash the potty.
Last night, we went for dinner at Halia @ Sime Darby Convention Centre. I bought Groupons so it was RM107 for 4 persons instead of RM68 person.
It was also a celebration for all the January babies - all 4 generations!
Blessed 4th Birthday Joy-Anne!!! We love you lots!!!

Keepsake moments

2012-01-12T21:04:00.004+08:00

We did a photoshoot last November when Isabel was 2.5 weeks old. I love every shot that Grace took!

She's great at making my kids feel at ease.

We started off with some shots at our poolside.

Then it started to drizzle so we went back indoors.

This looks like a studio shot...but it's just her wonderful (and ultra compact) props and skill.I'm totally amazed at how she managed to make my scrawny and terribly jaundiced baby look so chubby and pink!

I'm a perfectionist so when the kids don't behave and smile, I get worked up. But Grace just told the kids to play and enjoy.

I'm gonna treasure these photos for years to come. Maybe I should do this on an annual basis....

Bus stop 2011-2012

2012-01-03T15:57:00.003+08:00

We're three days into the new calendar year of 2012!

Reflecting on 2011, I'm so thankful for all that God has blessed us with. This was the year God fulfilled His promise to us. Our testimony can be read in the current issue of DUMC's Floodgates (page 7).

We moved onto our new home and found a new CG. Our new location enabled me to have a new job with a much nicer working environment and with a great boss!

I got pregnant in February and we bought a new car to accommodate our bigger family - Isabel arrived in November.

With so many good things in 2011, I am wondering how 2012 will be. How can it get any BETTER?

But God is a great God! He is an awesome God! He's not limited by my imagination nor comprehension. Therefore I trust that this God can and will bring us to greater heights, blessing us with more than we can ever imagine or ask.

What do we do?

We trust. We walk in obedience. God is good...all the time!

Cousin fun

2011-12-27T11:49:00.002+08:00

The Singapore boys and Brandon were here earlier this month to visit and boy, did Joe have a great fun time playing with the boys! They especially loved the castle...5 knights and a princess.

At night, they camped out in the living room....finally sleeping VERY late after a big fun pillow fight!

Playing Rapunzel...

2011-12-26T18:32:00.003+08:00

Joy insists her name is Rapunzel.

Princess Rapunzel.I made her a simple tiara out of silver pipe cleaners (cost less than ONE ringgit!) while she hijacked a long gold ribbon from one of the christmas presents and asked me to tie it to her hair. She asked me to stand at the bottom of her castle to pretend to be the evil witch!Of course she has a brave handsome prince to save her. It's so much fun when they pretend play together!

Blessed Christmas 2011

2011-12-25T15:30:00.003+08:00

It's Christmas!!!This is Isabel's first Christmas and obviously our first as a family of 5.I refuse to be part of all the secular celebrations and excessive feasting that have nothing to do with the true meaning of Christmas.

May you discover the hope, joy and peace that Jesus brings... He's the reason for the season!!!

cups, cups, cups!

2011-12-23T16:20:00.002+08:00

I was browsing... Joy came up to me and said, "I want the purple cup!!!"

me : huh? Why do you need these cups? Do you know what cup this is?
Joy : Ya... it's a suction cup....so that I can stick to you and be your siamese twin!!!

Nemo at 1 Utama

2011-12-23T15:41:00.004+08:00

We brought the kids to 1 Utama 2 days ago for this.......arriving there just in the nick of time to grab the last 2 registration forms.

After a Q&A time, there was a puppet show with a clear message to NOT eat shark's fin soup! Sharks are friends...not food.

This was followed by a craft session and then some photo-taking.I was just so pleasantly surprised that my usually-sticky-to-me princess went in to the children-only area without any fuss. And this was one of those times when I forgot to bring the camera and wished I had a fairly decent camera on my hp.

**Photos were taken with iPad and downloaded from the Voila Group Facebook site.

The difference with no.3...

2011-12-14T18:19:00.002+08:00

First kid - I washed his bum in warm water and dried with his own towel at each diaper change.
Third kid - a wet wipe will suffice and cold water is okay.

First kid - I used Bepanthen.
Third kid - Vaseline is much cheaper.

First kid - I jump each time he even whimpers a little... Is he hungry? Dirty? Colic?
Third kid - a little crying is good for your lungs.

First kid - I check the time at each feed, each nap and count how many times he poops each day.
Third kid - I don't even look at the clock.

First kid - I sterilized his bottles.
Third kid - I don't have a sterilizer. Rinsing with hot water will do.

On the plus side...

With Joseph, I worried he would get used to my rocking him to sleep and his sleeping on my chest would tie me down. My worries caused much unnecessary stress on myself. I rocked him till one day when he was 13 months old - he just pushed me away, crawled into his crib and fell asleep. I felt so redundant! Now, in the blink of an eye, he's coming to 7 years old, over 24 kg and impossible for me to carry.

I've learnt my lesson. With Isabel, I'm more relaxed. She can nurse as long as she wants. The last few days, she has been napping for about 3 hours each afternoon on my chest. She sleeps so much more soundly and I get some sleep too. I know for sure this will not be forever and I will miss it all too soon.

One month old - Non-fat milk or not enough milk

2011-12-04T10:05:00.000+08:00

Isabel is one month old...tomorrow! She's grown. Not as much as I hoped and wish but she's grown.

I estimate she's just 3.6kg at one month old (3.025kg at birth). Her head circumferance has increased from 33cm to 36cm. Length-wise, she's 55cm compared to 48.5cm at birth.

And she did all this growing on MY milk!!! But she ain't chubby... unlike some breastfed babies I know. Like her older siblings, she's lean. They all are when breastfed...like kampung chickens. My mum says I produce non-fat milk. That's why breastfeeding is such an emotional struggle for me.

Did I mention I have this love-hate feeling with breastfeeding?

I love how baby cuddles up to me. I guess it's God's way of making mummies hold their babies more so that baby gets the hugs and cuddles they need to thrive. It's good bonding time!

But if you know my babies, they take a really really long time to feed!!! They feed and then they fall asleep so I keep my boob. But once they realize their mouth is empty, they want the breast again.

They don't sleep for long periods either. At least not on their own. They can sleep 3hours in my arms but awake the moment I put them down.

They also want to be carried all the time. I realize now that this is normal for all babies. They love the warmth and coziness of being cuddled.

When they do sleep, I wonder if ...
A. they sleep because there's no milk to drink or
B. they sleep because they are actually full.

And when they take so long to feed, is it because...
A. they are waiting for the 'let down' for milk to flow or
B. they just like having the nipple iin their mouth

Consequently, baby is either stuck to my breast or in my arms at least 20 hours a day! Nah..I don't think I'm exaggerating.

I feel so trapped.

I eat in a hurry, poo in a hurry, shower in a hurry. I don't even have time to look in the mirror because baby will be crying and looking for my breast!

Thus far, the older kids have been great. They understand that I can't do as much with them for now. Joy in particular is still trying to adjust. She loves her baby sister but when it comes to bedtime, she wants mummy all to herself. She wants me to lie down with her and hug her till she falls asleep, which is what she's used to before Isabel arrived.

In spite of all the above, I'm thankful. This 'hardship' will pass. Soon. Though time seems to crawl by for now.

I'm thankful for perfectly healthy babies.

A different kind of confinement

2011-11-23T18:31:00.002+08:00

This is by far my most 'liberal' confinement.

It's been 2.5 weeks and thus far, I've gone out 3 times - twice to the paediatrician's clinic and of course to Joseph's graduation.

The first time round in 2005, I just sat in an air-conditioned room, ate, fed and slept. I slept when baby slept. Joe puked after every feed so I was always changing him and myself and we had tonnes of laundry. My MIL cooked while my mum helped with baby - changing, washing, rocking etc. I had difficulty getting up, couldn't cough, couldn't laugh and very sore nipples. I also don't know who on earth said women in confinement had to wear sarong! I felt absolutely fat, flabby and so totally like a "Ah Soh".

My second confinement was actually in 2007 after my D&C. We lost the baby at 9 weeks - I had bleeding, there was no heartbeat and baby was small for date. We stayed in KL and I was 'confined' for only 2 weeks.

The third time round in 2008, I still had my MIL to cook and my mom to help with baby while Daalin and Ah Kong entertained Joe (aged 2 yrs 9 months then) with trips to the park and playgrounds. I got smarter and wore long pants instead of sarong. While I didn't suffer from sore nipples, I did have a episiotomy wound that hurt for 2 weeks - sitting and moving was agonizing!

This time round is by far the least painful confinement. I had some discomfort sitting for about only 3 days. Thereafter, I've more or less gone about the usual daily stuff including bathing the older kids, cleaning the house, changing the bedsheets and folding the laundry. My mum does the cooking while I see to all baby's needs except her daily bath which Nana sees to.

I feel a lot more normal. I don't know where the sarongs are. And I am amazed at how I'm surviving with so little sleep.

p/s : If you're wondering how I have the time to blog, it's because I've learnt to do a lot with just one hand. So I can breastfeed while making milk for the older kids, or getting their breakfast or folding laundry or eating or typing like what I'm doing right now.

Standard 1 comes early...

2011-11-21T17:02:00.002+08:00

...for this particular school that we registered Joe in. He started Std1 orientation this morning. Kinda teary eyed because he was very apprehensive.

This boy like familiarity. So new environments make him uncomfortable. He threw up twice this morning before going to school.

He also asked me, "New school don't have toilet time ah?"

We had earlier told him that big boy school is unlike kindy where they all choo-choo train to the toilet together. Here he will have to take care of himself. His daddy stayed with him all morning and from the photos, I guess he was trying really hard to NOT cry.

When he came home, he was looking much better. He said he saw a few of his kindy friends in his new school. I know he will be fine once he settles in. For now, I just have to help him overcome his fears.

Life with Isabel

2011-11-19T17:10:00.002+08:00

It's been two weeks since Isabel arrived. Yes, that's the name Joy picked for her baby sister.Joy absolutely adores her sister, always wanting to hug and kiss baby Isabel. Isabel - she's relatively easier than Joe and Joy were at this stage. I say relatively. That means it's not entirely easy. But at least she doesn't keep throwing up like Joe did.

The first two nights after I got home from the hospital was tough. One night I fed her non-stop from midnight till 5am! That was on top of 3 rounds of formula (30ml each time)!

Thereafter things got better. Some nights she sleeps for at least a 4-hour stretch. It's also relatively easy because I don't have a c-section or an episiotomy wound to deal with. Having breastfed before, I also don't have to deal with sore nipples and I know how to deal with engorgement.

I used to say that I wish I could fast forward the first 6 months. Now I'm starting to enjoy every moment. After all, they do grow way too fast!

Last day at kindy - Circus Party

2011-11-19T12:53:00.003+08:00

Joe's last day at kindy was celebrated with a circus-themed party. Knowing my son, he's more concerned about his comfort than costume so that meant no face paint and no long sleeved outfit.I made him a bow tie out of ribbons and he wore a propeller cap and red-nosed spectacles borrowed from Ah Ku a.k.a. Billy the Clown.
His friends were very fascinated with both items...

I had to miss the party since I'm supposed to be in confinement.

He came home and told me, "Today I'm really walking out of JC for the last time..." Though he previously whined about having to go to school (because he's not an early morning bird), I think he's really gonna miss JC.

Before leaving, he gave a small thank you gift to each of the teachers who have taught him. He decorated Ikea frames (with my help) and wrote thank you notes to be inserted into the frame.

Three years of wonderful memories...he still remembers how he threw up on Teacher Esther in the first week in 2009. JC has given him a great foundation. Though I'm apprehensive, I'm sure he'll be fine in Std 1.

Graduating from Kindy

2011-11-14T10:24:00.002+08:00

My firstborn graduated from kindergarten yesterday. It seems like not so long ago that I cradled him in my arms. Just like how I now cradle his baby sister in the same sarong sling that I used for Joseph.

The 6-year-olds made a grand procession down the helium-balloon lined aisle in the main auditorium. My Joseph as always, had on a very serious face. He says he has to focus!

After the welcome and speeches, the graduands went on stage to receive their awards. This year, every child got an award e.g. Most Caring, Best Helper etc. I thought it was a very nice thing for the kindy to do to acknowledge that every child is special.
Joseph got the Awesome Artist award for his class. He told me this last week and was really pleased.
After the awards, each class performed an item. I thoroughly enjoyed every item. Joe's class did a choral-speaking one about a bear hunt.

And then all the graduands came on stage to sing 2 very lovely songs. I was indeed very surprised to see and hear my 'English' son sing a chinese song!

Joseph took some photos with his good friend...

..and also with some teachers (who were all dressed very nicely!)

I'm so nostalgic, looking back at the last 3 years and reflecting on how he has grown at Tadika Juara Cerdik. He can read very well and even big words in the Bible like synagogue and Nazareth are no problems.

He's kinda sad that he has only a few days left at TJC and I can feel his apprehension about going to Std 1. But I guess that's life - where the only constant is change. He will have to adapt and we will too.

Two, Three or More – No.3 is here!

2011-11-06T09:48:00.006+08:00

5th November 2011 – one day to due date : I woke up at about 6am feeling a little crampy with a stuffy nose. Maybe it’s hunger pangs. Popped half a polaramine, drank some water and tried to go back to sleep. A short while later, I got up again and felt some mucus oozing out but no blood. I still wasn’t sure if this was for real.

7.00am – the blood-tinged mucus plug showed itself. I showered and washed my hair but did not tell Daalin, who was going out for his Men’s Group Breakfast Meeting, knowing that if I told him, he would not go.

Thereafter, I had irregular contractions, about 20 minutes apart. I took my time to do devotion with Joseph and then Joy woke up and I gave them both breakfast before Daalin came back and we left home at about 10.15am for the hospital.

10.30am – Arrived at Assunta hospital, strolled from the multi-storey parking to reception and walked up the stairs to the delivery suite. I still wasn’t really in pain. The midwife did an internal examination – I was just 3cm dialted. After browsing the newspaper I started to get kinda bored. Contractions were about 10 minutes apart – some a wee bit more painful but still very bearable.

2.00pm – I was getting really bored and started to wonder if this was going to take all day. Meanwhile, Daalin entertained himself on the ipad.

3.15pm – The midwife checked me again – 6cm dilated. I thought it was going to take a long while more. Contractions were still irregular at between 3-6 minutes apart, some stronger some not at all.

After that internal examination, things happened really fast. I suddenly had very strong contractions with the urge to push. At each contraction, I asked Daalin the time – 3.28pm, 3.30pm, 3.32pm… and the next contraction broke the water bag as I felt a gush of fluid. Daalin pushed the bell button to call for the nurse.

Dr arrived just in time to put on his gear and catch baby, born at 3.45pm.
I’m so thankful to God for answering my prayers for a natural birth. No Pitocin drip, no epidural, no pethidine jab and not even the gas! I didn’t have an episiotomy either. But dr did stitch up a small tear which he said was less than half an inch long. I guess this is as drug-free as it gets. I’m also not on any painkillers, most of which I’m allergic to.

Even though the entire labour was almost 10 hours long if you count from the first ‘pain’, I was really in pain for only the last 30minutes.

And now the fun and adventure begins….by God’s grace and strength!

November Celebrations

2011-11-03T20:22:00.002+08:00

1st November 2011 - we celebrated Daalin's 35th birthday. I was hoping that we would have a double celebration but baby seems to want her own birthday. 2nd November 2011- our 9th wedding anniversary. We didn't plan for anything so we took an impromptu walk to Amcorp Mall to utilise the Kenny Rogers vouchers that Ah Kong gave to us, courtesy of Berjaya Group.
I felt I needed the walk.
On the way back, we stopped by the shops across the road to buy eggs and bread and just as we were about to step out of the shop, it suddenly poured heavily. So we went to the mamak next door for roti pisang and milo ais.

It's been ages since we've been to a mamak.

After that we walked home in the slight drizzle. Kinda romantic if you ask me.

Couple Buffet at Jogoya

2011-10-29T18:23:00.002+08:00

My last indulgence before baby arrives.... Jogoya @ Starhill Gallery is having a couple promotion i.e. Buy1Free1 only for Saturday lunch. But the promo expires this month. It's still Buy1Free1 for ladies on Mondays to Thursdays till 20 Dec 2011.
So we paid a total of RM98.30 for 2 of us. Well worth the money I would say. But you'll not find me here if I had to pay full price per person.

I think I had 3 coconuts. Very fragrant!

Haagen Dazs and New Zealand Naturals ice cream satisfied my sweet tooth! Hey...dentists can have a sweet tooth and still be tooth decay-free!

I'm not sure how much ice cream I had but I'm sure it made up for the weight loss at the last gynae check up.

And I know sashimi and pregnancy shouldn't go together but oh well... doesn't matter lah!

Now that my tummy's happy, labour can start anytime....I'm all ready - bring it on baby!

Two, Three or more - almost ready!

2011-10-21T10:49:00.001+08:00

It's two weeks to due date and I think I'm quite ready.

Still, I don't think baby will arrive much earlier if any earlier. From past experiences, neither babies wanted to come out. They were so comfy in there we had to evict them by force.

I was pregnant for a full 41 weeks with Joseph. Seven days past due date and there was still no dilation no contractions. His movements were also not satisfactory and so they wheeled me straight into the OT. Joe came out blue with the umbilical cord firmly around his neck three times!

Because of this, I was not allowed to go past due date with Joy. My gynae gave me up to 2 days before due date. Thank God I had a show just the day before I walked in to hospital to be induced. Dr Kalavathi of Seremban Specialist Hospital was most helpful in helping me deliver Joy naturally. No epidural! Hospital bill was less than RM2000 and I walked out of hospital with my princess barely 24 hours after she was born.

This time round, I'm hoping to do without an episiotomy. Then I can be jumping around the next day!

Two, three or more - approaching D-date!

2011-10-10T07:54:00.003+08:00

I realize that it's been a long time since I updated about our two, three or more plan. Well at the moment, it's no longer just two. No.3 is almost arriving!

I'm just past the 36 weeks mark and the due date is fast approaching. The kids are excited to meet their new sister. Yes, the gynae has confirmed baby is a girl (and I saw for myself) although I've been bumping into this old aunty in the church toilet for 2 consecutive Sundays now who keeps insisting that I'm carrying a boy.

I've put on about 12kg to date and everything seems to be right in front. Tummy is pretty low with plenty of pelvic pressure making it impossible for me to get through the night without getting up to pee.

The hospital bag is more or less packed and baby's clothes are ready in the drawer. Got my hair cut, and done most of the necessary shopping. Now I wonder if I can just leave my pink nail polish on my toes when I go in for delivery....

Ballet for my princess

2011-10-08T10:04:00.003+08:00

Joy finally asked for ballet classes. Some 2 weeks ago, she came up to me and said, "Mummy, I seriously want to learn ballet! Seriously!!!" So after a delightfully happy (and FREE!) trial class, we signed her up. I like this place because the teacher is really friendly and they are not too fussy.
For Joy's toddler class, they can pick any leotard/tutu of their choice, even if they want to buy from outside. Their fees are also very reasonable and she can stop anytime her interest wanes.
So I got her a pair of hand-me-down ballet shoes from a friend and handmade her skirt with some organza I had bought earlier (but didn't know what to do with).

I have no intentions of pushing her to be a prima donna ballerina though I won't object if she really wants to. For now, I'm just happy to see her so happy every Friday.

After all, that smile on her face is so absolutely priceless!

Canteen Day - caring for my sister

2011-10-04T08:40:00.002+08:00

Joseph's kindy had a Canteen Day for 6-year-olds yesterday. It was like a practical lesson as part of the syllabus in learning about money.

So I packed the RM10 in various denominations as suggested by his teacher and advised him not to buy junk like sweets, lollipops and other junk food. I also reminded him that there was no need to spend the entire RM10 just for the sake of spending.

He came home from school pretty happy because for one thing, there was no chinese lesson because of Canteen Day.

As soon as he got into the car, he took out the bottle of Vitagen that he bought for his sister. I asked him whether he bought one for himself and he said he already drank it up during snack time along with the pack of snacks (fishball + nugget + sausage) he bought.

Joseph also bought a cute little pink dinosaur eraser for his sister.

And for himself, he bought a mechanical pencil. Altogether, he spent RM3.95 and brought home the balance of RM6.05. I told him I was very pleased that he thought of his sister and didn't just spend on himself.

Last Saturday, he also showed his caring side without being prompted. We were at Children's Church and just before it started, Daalin took both kids to the loo (actually Joe went by himself) while I went to return the library books and then went to the loo.

When I got back to Hall 1, Daalin was already on stage leading worship. I looked around for Joy and finally found her standing next to her Joseph who had his arm around her shoulder. Since she looked pretty fine, I just stood at a distance behind her without her knowledge.

A short while later, pastor's wife who was standing behind them came to tell me that Joy cried for me but Joseph quickly asked her to stay with him and took care of her. She said was so encouraged to see Joseph take care of his little sister.

I just know he's gonna be a wonderful kor kor to 2 little sisters. Especially when he has his "nobody bullies my sister except me!" policy....

Princess Growing Up

2011-09-23T22:25:00.000+08:00

My princess is growing up too quickly!

Last week she finally asked for ballet lessons. So I brought her for a trial today.

She absolutely loved it and spontaneously thanked me for bringing her to ballet class. The teacher couldn't quite believe she is only 3 years (plus). I guess we will enroll her until her interest wanes.

Her precocious vocabulary includes big words (used in correct context) like ...

automatic

auditorium

advertisement

celebration

mannivannan

mammenchisaurus

fiddlesticks

and not forgetting essential words like sexy and skype.

She speaks a smattering of spanish, saying Buenos días instead of Good Morning and takes to mandarin more eagerly than her kor kor because she says, "I'm a chinese girl!" unlike her brother who says that he is an English boy.

Her bladder control is way better than mine as a child. She rid herself of daytime diapers at 24 months and night time diapers since she turned 3 yrs. My mum says I wet the bed till I was 4plus.

And her latest phrase that tickles me..... "Wa bo pui....wa tu tu ho!" (I'm not fat....I'm just nice!)

Lantern Walk

2011-09-13T09:52:00.003+08:00

Last night we took the kids down for our annual mini lantern parade...

The sky is still very hazy no thanks to all that burning in Sumatra so I didn't see any moon. But the light in the background kinda makes up for it...

We just walked round and round the swimming pool until it started to drizzle a wee bit.

Now that the lanterns are coming down, it's almost time to dig out my Christmas tree... I know it's only September....but this year the tree comes out early before I go into labour!

August happenings

2011-08-30T18:30:00.007+08:00

So we're at the end of August. Two thirds of 2011 has flown by. It doesn't seem like that long ago that we were ushering the new year in. And in just over a month's time, I'll be setting up my Christmas tree!!!

August - my parents celebrated their 38th wedding anniversary. With the newest addition to the family, they can now say that their 3 kids are married, with kids.

It's the school holidays! Brandon is here for a few days while his parents attend some training.I stepped into the cinema for the first time in many many years. It's been so long, I can't remember when I last went. Even my son asked me, "You know where is the cinema meh?" Together with another mummy friend and her son, I brought my 2 kids + nephew to watch Cars2.
I thought the automobile-version of a James Bond movie was too 'deep' for the kids but they enjoyed the entire outing nevertheless.
This morning the big boys brought the kids to the park.
Having his cousin around makes it more exciting and fun for Joseph.

Joy-Anne was not to be left out and had no problems keeping up with the boys.

Joe loves zooming down this ramp on his 2-wheel scooter.

Ah Ku tested out his new Canon 550D...

And I did some online shopping...

Pretty dresses make my precious pretty princess very happy!

A new baby in the house

2011-08-23T08:38:00.003+08:00

We've got a new baby in the house!

Now before you congratulate me..... the baby is not mine. I'm still pregnant and baby is growing well. Joe and Joy are delighted to have their new cousin in the house for a month. I'm also very happy to see how they are so loving towards her. I just know they are going to be wonderful kor kor and che che when their baby sister arrives in a couple of months.

A Week with the iPad2

2011-08-07T18:38:00.003+08:00

It's been just over a week since we've had the iPad2.... While I initially perceived it to be a very expensive toy for the sole purpose of entertainment synonymous with Angry Birds, I now find this is not actually the case.

It can be as educational a tool or as useless a 'toy' as you allow it to be.

I've installed educational apps for Joy-Anne's homeschooling, as well as games that Joe finds fun yet requires some brainwork.

Joy does rhyming with Dora, colours with Barney as well as math, geometry, phonics and chinese.

Joseph has more difficult apps but he tends to play more games. I have to enforce a minute-for-minute rule for him. One minute of learning earns one minute of game.

And every night.....the iPay plays Angry Bird and other games on it.

New BIG Wheels are here!

2011-08-02T08:15:00.002+08:00

Nearly 2 months from the date we paid the RM3000 deposit, we took possession of our new ride. This is the best buy considering Daalin's long legs (he pushes the driver seat so far back...) and his desire for kid no.4.

I've driven it only once yesterday to pick up Joe from kindy and he didn't recognize his ride at first.

And for starters...I've warned the kids that I don't want shoe prints or extra marker pen deco on the seats.

'ow' spelling dilemma

2011-08-01T18:59:00.004+08:00

Joe asked me this last week after his spelling test. He knew immediately that he had made a mistake even before teacher returned his book (today).

He said....if c-o-w is cow and n-o-w is now, why isn't m-o-w mow???

I guess English words are more difficult and complicated than the Malay language which is mainly writing exactly as you hear it.

Nevertheless, I encouraged my boy and told him he made good use of his ears and common sense in trying to figure out the words.

Exfoliating 51

2011-07-27T08:11:00.002+08:00

Joe's top right central incisor (the baby tooth of course) had been wobbling for months. In fact, it was kind of protruded and overlapping the other central incisor for quite a while but I just left it as it was.

Monday being a school holiday because of the Sports Day the previous Saturday, we went to Ikea.....all day! When he came out of Smaland, he told me that he had a bump on his mouth and a wee bit of bleeding. He was cool about it and didn't seem to be in pain so I didn't do anything.

Later in the evening, he pointed out that the tooth was very wobbly. On closer inspection, I found that it was hanging by almost nothing. So I asked him if he wanted it out. Apprehensive at first, but he let me because he was more afraid of swallowing it or having it drop out in school the next day.
So holding the tooth with a gauze, I gave it a twist and out it came. It didn't hurt but he asked me, "Am I gonna die?" when he saw the blood.

Slight compression and a cup of cold Ribena later, he was smiling again when I told him putting the tooth under the pillow will result in an iPad2!

He wasn't fooled.... coz he promptly told me "There no such thing as a tooth fairy!!!"

I think he looks kinda cute. And he paid me with 10 kisses :-)

Durians and Mangosteen

2011-07-27T07:53:00.002+08:00

Ah Mah and Ah Kong were here for dinner on Monday night. Tua Pek and Tua Um were also in town for the MTV World Stage concert so we all had dinner together at home. After a lovely dinner of simple home-cooked food which included tu kha chor, we had a feast of durians and mangosteen. Photos especially for YeeYee's drooling pleasure ..... We were so busy eating that nobody remembered to take photos until we were almost done.
Mangosteen were only RM3.50 per kg. So cheap!

Joe's Sports Day

2011-07-24T19:26:00.006+08:00

Saturday 23rd July 2011 was Joe's kindy Sports Day. I woke the kids up early and we left home by 7am.

We had breakfast in the concourse area, and then sent Joe into his class and found some seats right under the fan inside one of the tents.

The event started promptly at 8am with the kids' march past and then the National Anthem.

A few speeches followed and then the 6-year-olds did a dance. Joseph had been singing the song at home in the last couple of weeks but absolutely refused to dance for me at home. He kept telling me I had to be patient until the actual day.

While he remembered all his dance steps, he didn't smile. And it's not that he forgot...he said he had to focus on his dance. I guess he's just not the showman kind.

After his dance, I retreated to the back and parked myself under the fan again because Joe's class item was the last one.

Jolly Jelly - they had to run and pick up 2 water balloons and then walk on a bench then run to the end to drop the water balloons into a pail before running back.
I'm still kicking myself for forgetting to switch the camera to video mode. Nevertheless, his red team won the gold medal for his item.

God answered our prayers - the weather was perfect! It was nice and cloudy and the sun didn't come out until 10am.I think the teachers did a great job in organizing the event. Everything went smoothly and the whole event ended by 10.30am instead of the anticipated 12noon.

We had ample time to go home for a shower and some rest before going back for Children's Church and Little Lamb.

Joe came home and immediately put his medal in the glass display cabinet, next to his 2009 Sports Day medal. He said he thoroughly enjoyed himself. I guess this would be one of those things he will miss if he's homeschooled. So for now, the firm decision is to throw him in the 'deep end' and see how he fares in a chinese school. I'm sure he'll be fine.

while we were gone...

2011-07-13T18:26:00.004+08:00

...the children were left in the very able hands of Nana.
I think she did a great job ensuring they ate and slept when they were supposed to. On top of that, she took them for walks to check out grass...

...and feed the fishes in the koi pond downstairs.

They took care of each other and gave Nana a minimal amount of nonsense.
They also had a lot of fun in the playground downstairs...

...and also made egg sandwiches.

Nana usually allows them a lot more mess-making than mama does.

To me, the best part is that even though Joseph skipped school for 2 days, he memorized Psalm 23 (the whole passage) at Nana's 'homeschooling'.

Joy woke up at 5am on the 3rd day crying in her sleep/dream for Mama. She says that in future, she will go with us for family honeymoon :-)

Pangkor Laut Resort - Day 2 & 3

2011-07-12T17:16:00.008+08:00

Monday morning when most of the world wakes up to go to work.... we woke up to beautiful views of the gardens and the ocean beyond. On the way to breakfast, we stopped by the pool.
Breakfast at Feast Village was probably the best I've ever had at any hotel/resort. To start the day, I had a serving of fruits which included red dragon fruit.
My Daalin was also very healthy.... he munched on a celery stick!

Then I had an omelette (cooked on the spot at the egg station, of course) and some seafood breakfast pie.

Waffles freshly made at the waffle station, topped with mixed berries (or your choice of topping)....

There were also a few other 'live' stations serving japanese teppanyaki noodles, roti canai, and simple dim sum. I skipped the noodles, roti canai and nasi lemak.

We were both very delighted with the juice station. You get to pick your selection of cut fruits and there's a staff stationed full-time at this huge heavy-duty juice extractor who will juice the fruits for you on the spot. No water added. Fresh, pure fruits juice. Ice and milk available if you prefer.

After a few glasses of fruit juices, we took the shuttle to Emerald Bay again. By then it was about almost 11am and the sun was out in all its glory but the beach chairs were nicely shaded underneath the huge wide foliage.

The beach boy brought towels and cold water without us having to ask for it. This is excellent YTL service!

My Daalin made himself comfortable in the hammock and soon dozed off.

It was a very lovely morning indeed. So relaxing, just enjoying the sea breeze and the sound of waves breaking on the shore.

We then sat down at Chapman's Bar for our lunch.

It's right on the beach and we had a wonderful view of Emerald Bay.

For starters, Daalin had the Greek Salad...

...while I picked a less healthy option - Nachos!

Daalin had the Pangkor Lamb Chops for his main course.

My main course - Chicken in a Basket.

For dessert, I had a fruit salad...

...and Daalin had the Walnut Chocolate Brownie.

After a very full and satisfying lunch, we went back to our villa for a siesta. In the evening, we went for a swim but the weather suddenly took a turn for the worse as we were greeted by a thick blanket of haze. The air also stank of ashes.

We still made our way to Uncle Lim's Kitchen for dinner.

We ordered the Duck Spring Roll and Salted Egg Chicken for starters, and Oyster Omelette and Soft Shell Crab for mains but requested that they all be served together.

Of all the meals, I must say that this is the only one we didn't enjoy. Maybe we ordered too many fried stuff. But they were more oily than I had expected. The oyster omellete was especially disappointing with more flour batter than anything else.

For dessert, Daalin had a Avocado Cream.... I would never pay RM25++ for this! The cup probably cost more than the contents.

I had the Mango Pudding....

On our final day, we again had a very enjoyable breakfast. Daalin must have downed at least 5 glasses of fruit juices.

I spotted a couple of peacocks that strolled into Feast Village. This one was particularly vain...

We checked out and departed on the 12noon ferry. It had been a very lovely holiday at a very lovely resort. Pangkor Laut sure lives up to it's brand of being a YTL Luxury Resort.

At RM799nett per person for the 3D2N package, I felt it was real value-for-money. Driving to Lumut cost RM2.70 in toll each way (between Damansara and Rawang) and a total of RM17.10 for parking at the multi-storey car park.

We started our drive from Lumut at about 12.45pm and arrived home at 4pm.

Next year will be our 10th anniversary....and Daalin is thinking of..... Maui!!!

(**only because he has a conference there around our anniversary time next year)

Pangkor Laut Resort - Day 1

2011-07-12T16:44:00.006+08:00

Daalin and I spent the last 3 days on a private island. Every year, we go away on an annual honeymoon for our wedding anniversary. Since I will be in confinement during our anniversary this year, we decided to go earlier while I can still travel.

The drive to Lumut was pleasant and took just 3 hours. We used the new KL-Kuala Selangor highway and then the west coast road.

Upon arrival at the Pangkor Laut Resort office, we were served a cool welcome drink and then waited in air-conditioned comfort. The waiting room also had computers and newspaper to keep you occupied while you wait.

Just before 11am, we were escorted to the ferry which is actually a speedboat. It was really clean and had life jackets for everyone.

Half and hour later, we arrived at Pangkor Laut where we were greeted by name and escorted to the lobby. The friendly staff greeted us with cold towels and cool drinks.

The friendly staff who greeted us then escorted us to the Royal Bay Beach Club where we had our lunch.

For starters, I had the Caesar Salad...

...while Daalin had the wok-fried prawn and smoked salmon salad.

My main course was the Alaskan Salmon Burger.

Daalin had the Royal Club Sandwich.

And for dessert I had the Black Forest Mousse...

...while Daalin had the Soy-milk Panna Cotta with mixed fruits.

Our stomachs full, we made our way back to the lobby and then we were escorted to our Garden Villa.

Our luggage was already in the room. And since we requested for the ground floor unit, (coz I'm too lazy to lug my belly upstairs) we had an open-air oversized bath.

After a afternoon snooze, we took the shuttle to the western side of the island to Emerald Bay - supposedly amongst the top 10 beaches in the world.

After a beautiful sunset, we made our way back to Feast Village for our dinner.

Again, it's a 3-course meal. Daalin had the Grilled Chicken and Pear salad for starters.

I had the Seafood Chowder.

Daalin had the Baked Grouper for his main course.

While I had the Loin of Lamb.

Daalin's dessert was the Pandan Creme Caramel.

I had the Chocolate Mousse.

And then we retreated into our Garden Villa for a good night's sleep.

Vroom Vroom Lecka Lecka

2011-06-24T06:59:00.004+08:00

Yesterday was one of those stay-at-home-with-the-kids-fun-days.

Before their afternoon nap, I asked Joseph to read a story for his sister while I folded the laundry. He gave me a good laugh as he read because he read it with all the expression and intonation that I had previously used. He also kah liu a bit here and there to make his sister laugh.

In the evening, we went out to the Mutiara Damansara area where we found some cool friends parked outside IkanoPowerCenter.

These cars are just dummies. Can't open the doors. I think they are there to promote the new Cars2 movie.

We also popped over to Lecka-Lecka for some dessert.

I previously bought some vouchers from one of those discount sites. RM50 voucher for only RM20.

So we had lots of yummy gelato and also took home a 500gm pack.

Tiramisu-making lesson

2011-06-20T08:19:00.007+08:00

Some months back, a friend brought a homemade tiramisu to another friend's house for a fellowship meeting. My daalin wallop at least 4 to 5 pieces in one sitting.

Knowing he likes it, I thought of making it for him for Father's Day and asked this friend where she buys the sponge fingers.

She told me that she bakes the sponge herself. Then she asked if I would like to bake together in her house. I gladly took up the offer.

Last Thursday, I had to lie to my Daalin that I was going to work. Well actually I did go out to work. It just wasn't in the clinic.

I googled my friend's address, sketched a simple map and drove to her home located in an area that I had never been to before. Thank God I inherited my dad's sense of direction and map-reading abilities. I didn't get lost.

So we started to bake. My sifu also baked one for herself because it was her mom's birthday the next day.

First we measured out the flour and baking soda.

Then crack 2 eggs in a bowl.

Beat the eggs on high for 5 minutes...

Gradually add in the sugar...

Add flour+baking soda and mix in well.

In a small saucepan, melt butter into milk...

Then pour into batter, beat and pour batter into baking tray.

Put tray into pre-heated oven at 350C and bake for 20-25 minutes. Check constantly.

While the cake baked and then cooled, we prepared the filling and topping.

Prepare coffee+sugar in saucepan and bring to boil for a minute. Then add in the rum. Leave to cool.

While the coffee cooled, I grated the chocolate.

Then sieve icing sugar in a bowl...

...add in mascarpone cheese (very much cheaper bought from a shop in Taman Megah)

....and mix well with grated chocolate flakes. Cover with cling wrap and put in the fridge until ready to use.

For the topping...

Beat whipping cream + kahlua until stiff enough to form soft peaks.

To assemble the cake, cut it into 3 layers. Place bottom layer back in the pan and 'paint' with coffee mixture. The coffee should sufficiently soak the sponge without making it soggy.

Then spread a layer of mascarpone cheese filling...

Repeat with second layer of cake, coffee mixture and filling and a third layer of cake and coffee mixture.

Then cover with the whipping cream + kahlua topping.

Sprinkle the top with cocoa powder and chocolate flakes. Chill in refridgerator.

I brought the tiramisu home and hid it at the back of the fridge before Daalin got home. Thank God he's the kind who's not very good at finding stuff even if the item is right in front of his eyes. Hence he didn't go digging in the fridge and didn't find my secret in the next 3 days.

Sunday night - after we got home from dinner, I brought it out and he was surprised. Then I told him I made it and he was even more surprised.

Nevertheless he was happy and that made it all worth it.

I have an extra tub of mascarpone cheese in the fridge and will probably make this again when I'm in the mood but I'll do it the short cut way using store-bought sponge cake. My sifu says can also try using bahulu (cut and arrange tightly) instead of sponge.

Father's Day 2011

2011-06-19T21:29:00.003+08:00

Blessed Father's Day!

I'm blessed to have a wonderful father, and father-in-law and not forgetting the father to my children.

The kids made 'neckties' for him and Joe made him a #1 Dad medal in kindy.

We spent the morning in church where Little Lamb had a Parent Appreciation Day party. After a blissful afternoon nap, Daalin and the kids went for a short swim.

Then we went out to Vary Pasta for dinner.

Eight dishes and the bill only came up to RM110.50.

We came home and I presented Daalin with his surprise dessert - tiramisu!

I have to confess. I lied to him in order to make this for him.

I told him I went to work. Well actually it was work. Hard work! But it wasn't in clinic. I went to a friend's house to make the tiramisu. It was really REALLY hard work! But so worth it!

Daalin was really surprised and walloped about a quarter of the tray in one sitting.

things I learned as a mother

2011-06-15T10:49:00.003+08:00

Motherhood has been very educational. I kid you not.

I've learned to multitask e.g. breastfeed, eat and read newspaper/fb at the same time. Or rock baby to sleep in sarong sling while cross-stitching.

I've also learned to gauge how high a fever is without using a termometer. I can figure if it's a low 38C fever or a high almost-40C fever with a touch of my hand.

Looking at their faces, I can anticipate if they want to poo or puke. So you grab a container/potty/chui kong before the river of food mixed with gastric juices come rushing out.

Sometimes, I feel that I'm the student in this journey.

For example, I've also learned that :

1. Snakes are reptiles. But not all snakes lay eggs. Certain species like the anaconda give birth!

2. The Brachiosaurus has its nostril at the top like a whale.

3. Sharks have vertical tails while orcas have horizontal tails.

4. Penguins are found only at the south pole while the polar bear is found only in the north pole.

But every now and then, God uses my children to teach me.

Once, Joseph was on a streak of naughtiness and it was one of those days when he said sorry again. Without thinking, I responded, "Say sorry again.... everytime say sorry but you do again and again. How many times do you want to say sorry?" And instantly, God convicted my heart. Isn't that how it is with us? We come before God in repentance again and again. Each time we say sorry and then go back to our old ways. But God in His great mercy forgives again and again.

Another time, I was just staring at my 2 sleeping kids, just enjoying their look of sweet surrender, oblivious to the cares of the world. God spoke to my heart - that is how God delights when we surrender completely to Him and rest in Him.

New wheels and Pasta

2011-06-12T06:57:00.002+08:00

Last Saturday (not yesterday) we finally made a visit to a showroom.... I know it looks more like a playroom. But this is just one corner of it.

So we were at the Toyota showroom for a test drive.

New wheels are on the way!

The rest of the day was spent in church and after the evening celebration, we made our way to this pasta place I found in Damansara Jaya. It's called "Vary Pasta".

This was our 3rd visit there and we ordered a few different kinds of pastas which are all very reasonably priced (between RM11-16). Daalin and Nana enjoyed the Aglio Olio which was too garlicky for me.

Bolognese comes in a choice of chicken, beef or pork. Yup....this is a non-halal place!

Joseph had the carbonara again. It also comes in a choice of pork bacon, beef bacon or chicken ham.

He ate by himself - no problems when it comes to yummy food.

We had a couple more pastas which escaped the camera because I was too hungry and forgot about it. I like the tasty and value-for-money pastas but it's still no comparison with Sofia's in Melbourne which I so miss. Oh and the best thing is that prices are nett. No govt or service taxes.

Pancakes and the Park

2011-06-03T10:48:00.003+08:00

On Wednesday night, Daalin and I went out for our regular husband-and-wife-time. When we got back, Joseph said that he wanted to go for mother-and-son-time with just me. So in a spur-of-the-moment decision, we went to Kiara Park early Thursday morning. Joe and I are early birds whereas Joy and Daalin are sleepyheads.

When we got home however, it took Joy 5 seconds to realize we had gone out and left her behind and she was mad at me.

Later, we made pancakes and she kinda forgave me for leaving her behind. Actually Nana made the pancakes with them.

They enjoyed the cooking lesson.

And then Joe decided to top the pancakes with cheese and honey.

Joy who usually eats nothing besides oats also enjoyed the pancakes and ate 2 whole pieces all by herself.

This morning (Friday), we decided to go to the park again and this time, I woke Joy up and brought her along.

It was really nice. Joe and I sat at a picnic table and did his quiet time while Joy had her milk. Then we went walking and saw spider webs....
I made them cross the very shallow stream but my city kids complained about getting their feet wet. So much for wanting to see nature!

I showed Joe his kindy's class namesake - the hibiscus.

And they checked out the family of tortoise in the lake.

I enjoyed just walking with them and chatting about sweet nothings on a slow unhurried morning.

School holidays sure are fun!

Indoor Beach Party

2011-05-27T18:12:00.005+08:00

Joe's kindy had an indoor beach party this morning, on the last day before the school holidays! I was initially too lazy to do anything but I had a sudden last-minute burst of inspiration yesterday and even did something for Joy so she didn't feel left out.
Yup....I have a Beach Hunk and a Beach Babe!

And the 2 hula sisters looked absolutely pretty as well!

The teachers obviously put in a lot of effort with the deco to cook up the right ambience.

While waiting for the party to start, we walked around and took photos with all the lovely art work on the walls.

And then they started eating...

Tonnes of food as usual....and mostly the usual food....sausages, nuggets, fishball......but one kid in Joe's class brought a big tub of cut apples! And I'm so surprised that Joe opted for apples instead of potato chips (which he kindly declined).

While the kids were busy eating, Joy had some fun smiling for my camera...

I asked her to pretend to kiss the dolphin and she kindly obliged me.

Then she made herself very at ease with Joe's class...

And she even parked herself behind kor kor when it was time for a class photo. Teacher was so kind to let her busybody.

At the end of the party, the teachers announced 2 names from each class for Best Dressed prizes. My Beach Hunk was one of the 2 from his class. Such a pleasant surprise considering it was a last minute effort.

Back home, my Beach Babe obediently posed for me again with her pink sunglasses. And she wants to go for another indoor beach party!

busy updates

2011-05-19T08:30:00.002+08:00

I know, I know....I've been rather inactive with blogging lately. Busy is the usual excuse.

In fact, I just realized my desktop calendar is still at April when we're more than halfway through May.

thank you YeeTeow for the pretty PINK Timberland sandals!

All's well though.... and the children have been good. Joseph's appetite has been exceptionally good lately and he hasn't had any antibiotics so far this year. His latest 'thing' is to practice holding his breath underwater while he swims the diameter of the baby pool.
Joy is blossoming and all ready to be a big sister. She's very motherly to her brood of 'babies' i.e. Boots, Angelina (her little bear) and baby Jaguar.

Sometimes, she's too mature. She says things like, "You shee shee....I also have to shee shee ah? See...I told you I have no urine!"

And her latest thing.... refusing her afternoon naps yet having energy to keep going till 10pm!!!

Sofas are not for sitting

2011-05-06T09:00:00.003+08:00

When we bought this promised land, it came quite fully-furnished. But I was thinking of changing the sofa set. I'm quite glad now that I didn't...

one of those rare times when she sits like a lady

I don't know if it's a universal thing with children or just unique to mine but they have this inability to actually put their rear ends on the sofa for a decent amount of time.

They prefer instead to climb and jump and imagine it's some high cliff that they have to climb over to escape the great white shark swimming below. Or imagine she's humpty dumpty sitting on the wall...
I guess I shouldn't curb their imaginative play which is why I'm glad it's not a brand new and NOT WHITE sofa.

They can jump all they want until they grow out of this phase and I don't have to get stressed out and scream at them everyday to sit down and stop jumping.

coz I didn't buy it!!!

Annual Family Holiday Down South

2011-05-04T06:49:00.005+08:00

Last weekend was a long weekend for us and what a weekend it was!

The 'holiday' started early for Joe with a school trip to Zoo Negara on Thursday. After having visited the Honolulu Zoo in 2008, Melbourne Zoo in 2009 and Singapore Zoo in 2010, he finally visited our local zoo this year.

The next day (Friday) was a post-outing school holiday. Since Daalin was also on his Easter mid-semester break and I don't work on Fridays, we drove down to Yong Peng, arriving just in time to watch the Royal Wedding live on TV.

I find Yong Peng relaxing because the kids can entertain themselves and I don't have to do house chores :-)

The next morning, we made our way to Desaru and checked into Lotus Desaru Resort. We picked this resort mainly because it's located in Johor, has many-rooms apartments and something to entertain the boys.

The resort water park with a long water slide was certainly the highlight for the boys.
At night, we celebrated Ah Mah's birthday.

While the boys spent morning and evenings at the waterpark, my princess preferred to stay dry and close to me.

She certainly found Tua Pek's iPad more entertaining.

The boys loved this coconut too. But my princess was terrified of it!

The coconut tips over with a big splash when full....Joe thought it was great fun!

Besides all the water fun, there was a lot of iPhone and iPad and Wii time and of course just chit chatting and enjoying family company.

We had all our meals in the hotel room. Ah Mah was a fantastic Food Minister. She brought frozen nasi briyani, beef rendang, char siew, devil chicken, boneless roast duck and a lot of other stuff.

We even had sushi-making in the hotel room!I think the hotel staff might have freaked out if they had seen us carrying in the rice cooker, hot plate, pots and huge ice-boxes (filled with frozen food). Lucky for us, they didn't.

On Monday, we checked out and left the hotel at 11.30am, arriving in Yong Peng at 2pm. After a late lunch, Daalin took a short nap while I packed our car and fed the kids milk.

We departed Yong Peng at 4pm and the drive home was certainly one of the most pain-in-the-rear-end ones for me. Around Tangkak, a milk truck crashed to the road side creating a 5km jam because busybody Malaysians stopped their cars on the emergency lane to loot the milk.

Then it wasn't even 6pm when my son surprised me by saying he was starving. We stopped at the Ayer Keroh overhead rest stop to tar pau KFC. There was a huge crowd and long queue at KFC. Then it poured heavily when we wanted to leave.

Just after entering the highway again, there was another jam due to another accident.

We finally passed Seremban at about 8pm and traffic slowed down again....all because of an accident on the south bound lane!!! It took us 45 minutes to cover the stretch between Seremban and Nilai.

KL was jam-free and we got home at 9.30pm. It took 5.5 hours for what normally takes under 2.5 hours!

Joseph wants to go to Lotus Desaru again....

We'll see..... maybe when the Senai-Desaru highway opens, and it's off-peak period.

He sure did enjoy himself though.... family time is great!

Six today!

2011-04-14T17:44:00.002+08:00

Joseph is 6 years old today! We had a mini joint-party with Nat in school.

Nat's mummy and I were schoolmates and though we didn't 'pakat', Nat is 2 days younger than Joe while Nat's sister is 11 days older than Joe's sister.

It takes very little to get children happy and excited. A simple chocolate cake with dinos on top was enough to make the boys happy.

Knowing the kids don't have a lot of time to eat due to the short recess time, we only had simple egg sandwiches and vitagen.

Joy-Anne was very happy to go to Kor Kor's school.

I hope this means she will adapt well next year, without much crying like her kor kor.

Blessed 6th Birthday Joseph!

I am pleased with the way you have grown....how you show so much love, care and concern for your family and in particular the way you care for and protect your sister.

I am glad you can tell right from wrong.

Most of all I am pleased you have Jesus in your heart. We pray that you will grow up to be a man after God's own heart - that you will love Him, obey Him, serve Him and walk with Jesus all the days of your life.

A butterfly for my sister

2011-04-13T19:05:00.003+08:00

Joseph received this from Clarysse for his birthday - A DIY Finger Puppets kit. He was very excited to start making some puppets. Much to my delight, he said he wanted to make a puppet for his sister. I was very glad that he thought of her first, instead of himself.

So he made this butterfly one for her, with help from mama of course. Needless to say, she was very happy when he gave it to her. Only after that did he think of making a puppet for himself and I helped him make these two..... and orca and a great white shark... Now he's gonna tell me a story about a killer whale vs a great white shark!

A Dino Party for Joseph

2011-04-11T07:06:00.005+08:00

Now I know why I like my new home so much..... it's spacious for parties!!! And what a blast we had... Joseph actually turns 6 this Thursday on 14th April but we had an early celebration yesterday evening.

Truth be told.... I liked Azlin's food so much after our home-warming that I had to find another reason to cater from her again. So we had a party for Joe.

Shireen baked Joe's dino cake - Japanese cheese cake with dinos, trees and a volcanoe as well!

I handmade a photo frame for each child - personalized with their name on it. And I made Joe write a thank you note for each frame. He wrote it 16 times in all! He did complain a little but I told him he had to share a bit of the work with me.

Uncle Billy @ Ah Ku did a great job at entertaining the kids, parents and grandparents.

He also led them in some games to work up an appetite. We sang Happy Birthday and Daalin prayed for Joe before everyone attacked the food.

The evening ended with Joe opening his presents after all our guests had left.

Now the princess wants a pink butterfly party when she turns 4 years old...

Chef Joy

2011-03-24T18:40:00.002+08:00

Since we have a kitchen for the kids, I requested Ah Mah to sew a chef's hat and apron to complete the look.
It would have been easy to just buy from some toy shop but this is better. It's special because it's made by Ah Mah. I can tell Joy that her Ah Mah is so clever to be able to sew it for her.

Thank you Ah Mah. Now Joe wants a similar one in blue!

Hyla in the home

2011-03-23T05:46:00.000+08:00

I've had a problem with dust for the longest time. It's more accurately called indoor pollution. Now that we have a new home twice the size of the old one, I told Daalin that I'm gonna need some help with keeping the house clean but I still don't quite like the idea of maids or cleaners.

So we finally got a Hyla. It's much more than just a vacuum cleaner.

The stuff that comes out of the mattresses and pillows is just shocking!

Can you imagine sleeping with all that every night?

So far, cleaning has been a breeze. I can clean everything from ceiling to floor with this Hyla. There's even no need to wash the curtains because I can just suck everything up and flush it down the toilet. And thus far, I'm glad to say that Actifed is no longer my best friend!

Bellygood Restaurant

2011-03-22T17:29:00.002+08:00

Sometime ago we bought two 50% discount vouchers each for a 3-course meal + drink at Bellygood Restaurant in Sunway Mentari. We went twice and found it closed both times, before eventually finding out from their neighbour that they close on Mondays.

Then we forgot all about the vouchers until last night, and the vouchers expire today! So Daalin and I had a really nice porky lunch today.

For drinks we had iced lemon tea.

Then came the salads.... Grilled Bacon Salad...

...and Smoked Salmon Salad.

Next up came the main course...Pork Belly...

...and Baby Back Ribs...

Nice. But I wouldn't pay full price for it.

For desserts, we had a choice of Cinnamon Apples with ice-cream or Sticky Date Pudding but the ran out of the latter so we both had the former.

Compared to Nambawan, this place is more refined. It's a rather cosy quiet place. But the food is pricier although not as pricy as the few famous american foodchain restaurants. Nambawan is not fully-air-conditioned and doesn't have the ambience of a place where you'd bring someone for a first date. But it's value-for-money.

I guess I'd go back to Nambawan....especially for the RM6.90 pork burger!

2011-03-03T08:40:00.002+08:00

I'm a banana. Yellow outside but white on the inside.

I also have a western stomach. I'd much rather have pasta or burgers than rice. Anyday. In fact, I'd be quite happy to not have to eat rice.

For a vacation, I would pick USA or Australia over China. Anytime. For that matter, I've been to both USA and Australia but never to China and I would go again and again to USA and Australia (if I had money unlimited) and it would not matter if I never went to China.

I know, I know....it's so un-chinese of me. Kacang lupakan kulit.

But my children will have to go to chinese school and learn to read and write chinese. He's already learning it in kindy and they are tested on 'ting sie' every week.

This is what he had to write last week.

Gong Ji (rooster) and Mu Ji Hui Xia Tan (mother hen can lay egg). Not easy and so many strokes. So my smart son being the adaptive child he is, wrote Tan as in his surname because he couldn't remember how to write tan as in egg.

But he did eventually get it right in school. After 2 big chee tans, this time he got 9/10. I know he has the brains if he will just focus and concentrate on his work. For now, he's such a dreamer and so easily distracted.

Nana's Birthday

2011-03-03T08:33:00.002+08:00

Yesterday Nana turned 64 years young. We had an early celebration on Monday because KimKim is on night shift the rest of this week. Simple makan and chit chat at home. And the kids wanted to cut the cake again and again...
...and again and again...

Yesterday on the actual birthday, I told Joy-Anne, "today is Nana's real birthday" and she gave me a duh look and said, "again ah?"

Nana & KongKong went to Shogun on their own for dinner. Birthday girl eats free and senior citizen gets 50% off.

YeeYee buy. Mama pay.

2011-02-28T09:00:00.003+08:00

New Lightning McQueen swimpants and rashguard. Size 7/8. YeeYee buy. Mama pay money.
New pink sunglasses. USD3. YeeYee buy. Mama pay money.

Joe's Texas t-shirt from Elizabeth's Ah Mah and Joy's polo t-shirt that YeeTeow bought. But mama pay money.

And I've no idea why they like to climb on to the sofa like this....

Good thing I didn't buy this sofa. So there's no heartache.

HomeBlessing Party with Luscious Treats

2011-02-20T23:39:00.003+08:00

I just had the most delicious western spread...in my own home!!!

We organized an 'official' homeblessing/housewarming with our immediate family, CG, Senior Pastor, Zone Pastor, Ministry Pastor and our ministry 'colleagues'. It was a wonderful time of worship, prayer and testimony to God's goodness, faithfulness and providence.

And how you may ask did I find this wonderful caterer who single-handedly cooked all the mouth-watering fare. Well I first found her cousin who makes cupcakes and the likes when I googled for cakes for my dad's birthday. But her cousin was unable to bake on the date I wanted and so referred me to Azlin, telling me that her lasagne was "to die for". However Azlin was also unable to cook on 1st Jan and so referred me to another cousin who did the little cupcakes for my dad's 65th birthday. Culinary skills sure runs in the family!
From Luscious Treats we had Chicken Lasagne, Beef Shepherd's Pie, Lamb meatballs with Minty Yoghurt Dip...

...Tomato Salsa Bruschetta...

...sweet and spicy chicken wings...

...baked custard tartlets...

...brownie cheesecake...

...mini tuna puffs...

...mini chicken sausage rolls...

...and this was a last minute bonus which was not in the original menu.... marshmallow treats! Everyone ate and overate to their hearts content and we still had plenty of leftovers. Most were surprised to know that a malay lady cooked such wonderful western delights. KongKong said the chicken lasagne is wayyyyy better than any restaurant's. Joe said he liked "the potato on the shepherd's pie". This is coming from a kid who eats chicken rice without chicken and wan tan mee without wan tan.

Me....I'm looking forward to walloping the leftovers tomorrow because I was too busy to properly savour the food tonight. Oh and the cost...RM15 per head - delicious value for money!

New bicycles in our new home

2011-02-16T23:11:00.002+08:00

It was a quiet day at work and I felt prompted to google for children's bicycles.

We have been planning to get bicycles for the kids but the old home was not conducive. There was no place to store and no place to ride since the terrain is too hilly.

Now that we're in our new home, there's a spacious lift lobby and flat ground all around the condo compound.

Low and behold, I found an ad for not one but three (!!!) bicycles for sale, 2 of which are LeRun bikes. I'm not too informed about bicycle brands but I think this is a decent one because I've heard of it. We bought the 'package' of 3 bikes, 2 helmets and 2 bicycle locks from the very nice man. Needless to say, the kids were thrilled beyond words.
The biggest bike (adult size) couldn't fit in the car so we'll have to make another trip when the YongPengTribe comes with their MPV.

I'm absolutely certain this is another of God's blessings because we concluded the sale barely 2 hours after the seller posted the ad. Now mama can ride with the kids while papa jogs and watch for cars!!!

swimming in pink

2011-02-15T18:35:00.002+08:00

I went to Jusco 1Utama to check out the pre-renovation clearance sale, looking for electrical items but ended up buying a swimsuit (size 10!!!) for my princess. Ogival - RM30 only. Particularly love the coverage over the shoulders and neck to keep her warm from cold wind and the pretty skirt.

And... Nana is back!!! With lots of goodies too!
Thanks Yee Yee for the pink sunglasses! I love it!!!

Sembawang Splash Park - revisit

2011-02-04T18:55:00.003+08:00

We made another visit to Sembawang Splash Park this morning. The weather was absolutely lovely and the kids had a blast!While the boys ran straight for it, Joy-Anne took a while to actually get herself wet.

If we had gone to the WaterPlay at the Singapore Zoo, we would have spent a LOT of money on admission fees.

While this is all FREE!!! Wonderfully FREE!

I read that there's a similar thing back home at the Mines Shopping Centre but when you're not on holiday, you just don't have the time to go. And when you are free to go, everyone else is also free making the place very crowded.

I was very surprised that we almost had the whole Splash Park to ourselves this morning. Hardly half a dozen other kids considering it's a public holiday. Maybe all the Singaporeans are in Johor busy shopping or visiting to collect ang pow.

The water aside, I think the best part for Joe is just spending time with his brothers...

...that's what Chinese New Year is about after all - spending time with family!

Blessed Chinese New Year to everyone!

January Birthday no.4 - mine!

2011-01-30T22:50:00.004+08:00

After planning 3 birthday celebrations this month, I get to enjoy mine - today! I had an early celebration at Cell last Friday night when we hosted the CG at our new home for the first time. They very kindly surprised me with a blueberry cake - thanks to Facebook for keeping everybody informed.

This morning, my fellow coordinators surprised me with a cake at Little Lamb.

We had lunch together with my dad, brother and sister-in-law. Then I had a blissful 2-hour nap in the afternoon on my comfy new bed in my lovely new home.

In the evening, we dropped Joe and Joy off at my brother's house for them to practice their parenting skills while we went off to claim my free meal at Shogun.

Round 1 - most things salmon...

Round 2 - more sushi, lobster salad and oysters...

Round 3 - sashimi and soft shell crab...

Round 4 - taking a sweet break...

Round 5 - more salmon and oyster...

Round 6 - fruity dessert and I couldn't eat anymore...

We walked around for 2 hours checking out treadmills and then went to JuiceWorks to claim my free smoothie (member benefit). Of course I had a cookies and cream smoothie!

It's been a very sweet and blessed birthday! Thank you Lord!

January Birthday no.3 - Ah Chor is 86

2011-01-30T22:44:00.003+08:00

This is way belated because I've been so busy. Last last Friday i.e. 21 Jan, my grandmother turned 86. We were supposed to go out for dinner but because she had a very bad pain in her good left leg, we had to come up with Plan B.

So we bought her favourite foods and her favourite cheese cake and brought it to her home for a very simple celebration.
Every birthday is precious and should be celebrated no matter how simple. It means we have had another year to live!

A Castle in the Promised Land

2011-01-27T18:06:00.003+08:00

There is a slide in my house that is older than I am. My parents had it made for my older sister. But since she now lives on the other side of the planet and my brother does not yet have kids who can play with it, I am priviledged to possess it. So I made plans to incorporate it into a 'castle'. It's probably the closest to my childhood dream of a treehouse.

After lots of online research, I had some idea about what I wanted - a loft that is accessed by a rock-climbing wall, a 'kitchen' underneath and the slide by the side.

At the same time, a friend asked if I wanted to buy her used Ikea loft bed. And so that's how this blueprint came about...

I 'drew' this blueprint and gave it to my contractor. He gave me a funny look. Like I was mad.

Nevertheless, the castle arrived today!

The kids are so happy. But of course.

I bought the handholds from Corezone. Cost about RM35 each if I remember correctly. Joseph has no problems climbing up by himself. But Joy needs help and that's how I want it because I don't want her going up all by herself.

Joy-Anne's kitchen is underneath the loft, with a small cafe window. I plan to put up a sign over the window that says "J and J cafe".

And she's gonna cook lots of yummy food for me!

Moving into the Promised Land

2011-01-20T14:57:00.003+08:00

Joy-Anne turned 3 years old on 18 January 2011. On her birthday, I plopped her on the weighing scale and the reading totally shocked me! I had thought that with Nana gone, she would be less nourished and well, not gain so much weight.

So that's extra weight to lug into the Promised Land...

Some time back, I wrote about why we call it OUR Promised Land. We finally marched into our promised land yesterday - 11 days short of one year to the day we first viewed it.

We had planned to move in before Christmas. But God had other plans.

While I had previously mentioned to Daaling that we are 'enlarging our tents' after 7 years - just like DUMC, he now mentioned to me that we are moving right after a stretch of 14 days-5.30am fast and prayer - just like DUMC did before the church moved into the current premises. (The church had a 21-day fast and prayer before moving.)

And this is only possible because of the delay in renovation works.

The main delay was in the woodwork - the blade at the factory broke and a suitable replacement could not be found. So the contractor outsourced it but the results were not acceptable to him. He rejected everything and started again from scratch. I had initially forgotten to tell him that I wanted the kitchen cabinets to have hidden 'handles'. By the time I told him, he had already outsourced it and manufacturing was in progress. As a result of the redo, I got what I wanted.

This new home is a testament of God's providence and faithfulness. He has led and provided every step of the way. What a faith-building exercise it has been!

It is certainly our hope and desire that this home will be a blessing to many other people.

p/s : Guests are welcome. Advanced notice appreciated.

Joy is 3...almost!

2011-01-16T17:03:00.008+08:00

We had an early birthday celebration for my princess... Though it wasn't a real big birthday bash, it was enough to make her very happy.

Ah Kong, Ah Mah, Ah Ku & Kim Kim and the 2 great-grandmothers were Joy's birthday guests.

Unable to decide where to eat, we finally decided to eat at home.

A few days ago, while at Jaya Grocer, Joy pointed to the boxes of Ferrero Rocher on display and said, "Mama, can you please buy this for me?" I asked her if she knew what that was and to my surprise (and horror!!!) she said, "chocolate!" So Ah Ku bought some for her and fed it to her....

...without my permission!!!

As promised... the princess got her PINK princess Dora cake.

Kinda out of proportion because Dora is a lot shorter than Barbie but Joy didn't seem to notice nor care.

Last week, she told me, "You must shake my hand and wish me happy birthday. You must!!!"

And she added, "Everybody must wear pink party hat...if not.... no cake!!!"

So everybody wore pink party hats that mama made.

A year ago, she used to get upset when I told that she didn't look nor sound like a 2-year old. Now, she happily says she is three years old.

She can proudly proclaim she is a big girl one minute and the next minute, she tells me "Your baby cry". And when I ask her, "Who is my baby?" she says, "me la!"

Yes, almost three years old...in 2 days time.

Three years seem to have flown by.

I think time goes by faster with every kid you have.

Joy happily fed herself the cake...

But she didn't eat a lot and guess who had to finish it up...

Very nice (in my opinion) mango cake covered with PINK fresh cream from Raspberry Cake House (Sunway Metro).

And since Dora is not made of fondant, she gets to keep Dora.

Happy Birthday my darling princess...

May the Lord grant us wisdom and patience to teach you His ways, and may you walk faithfully with Jesus all the days of your life!

Joy's Hip hop dance

2011-01-10T17:18:00.002+08:00

Doing the Hip Hop thanks to Angelina Ballerina...

First day of Joe's last kindy year

2011-01-10T16:31:00.003+08:00

Joseph finally went back to kindy to start a new academic year. His kindy has a practice where returning students start a week later. Joseph sure wasn't complaining about the extra holidays and neither was I.

In fact, I think he was a little apprehensive to start school again. He's just by nature very cautious and rather timid about new surroundings. Kinda like his father.

So we really had to give him encouraging words and pray for him before we left him in his new class with his new teacher.

Back home, Joy wanted to wear her uniform as well.

She has been saying she wants to go to school but makes no whining about it. I'm not sure she's serious about it.

At the moment, she's just happy wearing the uniform which is a hand-me-down from a friend who's daughter graduated from the same kindy last year.

She wore the uniform when we went to pick Joe up and lucky for her, the teachers didn't think she was a runaway student.
When we got home, Joseph was back to his usual cheery self and seemed quite happy with his new class and new teacher.
I sure am not looking forward to when he starts primary school next year. I just know it's gonna be pretty traumatic for him and there's going to be lots of crying.

Dinosaurs at the National Science Center

2011-01-07T09:52:00.004+08:00

Dinosaurs have invaded the National Science Center.
I read about the exhibition but decided to wait till after the school holidays to bring Joe, so as not to join the crowds.

Just as I expected, the place was pretty deserted yesterday.

Joseph had almost all the dinosaurs to himself.

It was a father and son outing because Joy isn't too crazy about dinos and I didn't want her to be frightened.

Entrance fee is RM10 per adult and RM5 per kid. You get to buy1free1 with MAS Enrich card.

It's not a very elaborate exhibition but enough to make my kid happy. After all, it cost only RM10 (Joe got in for free because of Edwin's MAS Enrich card).

The exhibition is on till 31 May 2011.

Blessed Birthday 1.1.11

2011-01-01T22:44:00.003+08:00

We started the new year with a celebration - Kong Kong is 65 years old today!

We wished him happy birthday at the stroke of midnight, while at Watchnight Celebration in DUMC last night.

After a late morning, we went to Uncle Paulemen & Aunty Sharon's new home for lunch. 4 families with 9 kids - the kids tested the home for kid-friendliness and it passed. I don't know what it is with kids...or maybe it's just my kids but they absolutely love jumping on sofas. While we normally put our rear end on the sofa, they like to climb up, throw all the cushions on the floor and then dive into the pile of cushions.

The adults were treated to a sumptuous home-cooked lunch. Pasta, pork ribs, etc and Pauline made heavenly tiramisu!

At night, we had a family dinner celebration at TGIF Subang Parade. Location decided based on accessibility for my grandmother.

I made prior reservations and we had a very cozy round table.

The birthday boy had a margarita.

Joe enjoyed the fried mozzarella again.

And Joy just enjoyed her porridge and jumping around.

The Fridays guys brought out the cake after our meal.

I ordered mini double-chocolate muffettes from Wiz, arranged the numbers myself and sent it to TGIF earlier in the day.

But barely 2 hours after I dropped off the cake, TGIF called to say there had been an accident and they squashed 7 of the mini cupcakes. Luckily I had extras at home.

So as 'compensation', we got the mini desserts on the house.

The manager was very nicely apologetic about the incident and the guys there sang a very nice birthday song so I forgive them :-)

The kids enjoyed the dessert and it was a lovely evening. There will be three more birthdays this month. Joy turns 3 on the 18th, my grandmother will be 86 on 21st and then it will be my birthday on the 30th. Four generations in one month!

Blessed New Year .... it's gonna be a blessed BETTER year!

Christmas Pig-out at Nambawan

2010-12-25T20:11:00.003+08:00

With restaurants everywhere serving exorbitant turkey meals for Christmas, we decided to pig out at a very porky place.

Nambawan sounded like a Thai or Indonesian restaurant initially before I read somewhere that it means 'Number One'.

We tried the Pork Burger (RM6.90). It's full of 100% babi-goodness - tender and juicy.

Pork Sausages (RM13.90)

Stone-charbroiled Pork Belly (RM13.90)

Roast Pork Belly (RM13.90) - topped with fried pig skin. Mmmmm....yum yum!

BBQ Pork Ribs (RM28.80) - served with salad and fries on a separate plate.

Joe is not quite a meaty person so I got him a carbonara pasta (RM13.90).

He fed himself with no problems.

Daalin particularly liked the sausages and pork burger. I liked the pork burger too.

It was a simple satisfying lunch. But the place is not posh nor fine-dining kind. I guess this helps to keep the prices down. I would go back especially for the cheap and good pork burger.

Merry Christmas!

Blessed Christmas 2010!

2010-12-25T17:16:00.001+08:00

Blessed Christmas everyone!

I'm liking this song that we sang at the Children's Church Christmas Party..... I'm celebrating Jesus!

'Twas the week before Christmas

2010-12-20T07:38:00.003+08:00

'Twas the Week before Christmas

Twas the week before Christmas, when all through the house
All my stuff are in boxes, and I've lots of contractor grouse.
The boxes are stacked to the ceiling with care,
In hopes that in our new home, we would soon would be there.

The children are nestled all snug in our bed,
Because the babycot we dismantled ahead.
The drawers are empty, our clothes are in bags,
Our books are in boxes, we've thrown out the mags.

Moved we should have, if not for the contractor's clatter,
For the cabinet delay is what's the matter
We wish it could be done in a flash
But it looks like there will be no Christmas bash.

The kitchen is empty, there's nothing to show
Our bed is not ready, we can't lay low.
If only we could magically make them appear,
Then we could move in our stuff and our gear.

So it looks like Christmas in our old sty
No tree, no lights, no reindeer that fly.
We'll still be merry though there's no bling,
For Christmas is all about Jesus, the birth of The King!

December happenings

2010-12-16T08:20:00.004+08:00

The lack of activity on this blog tells you how busy I've been.

I don't like cooking. I don't like thinking of what to cook. The last time Nana went to USA, Joseph was only about 6 weeks old. Life was much easier because I just had to give him the breast and he fed himself. I didn't have to defrost food. No need to debone fish. I hate fishy fingers! No need to chop vege.

Happy kids kai kai

I've always known it's much easier to go out and work than to be a full-time stay-at-home-mummy with no maid.

I've no idea how my mum raised the 3 of us while babysitting another dozen kids while we ourselves were still kids.

hairstyle for the season

So far it's been alright. The kids don't seem much thinner and are just as happy.

Little Lamb Christmas Party 12 Dec

Joy-Anne is particularly sticky to me now. But it's really nice to greet her in the morning and she throws her arms around me and says, "I'm glad you're my mother".

Lego Christmas at Bangsar Village II

At other times she hugs me and says, "Mama....you're my best friend!"

New doorbell at my new house

I've only worked a grand total of ONE DAY since Nana left. Daalin took care of the kids and took even managed a trip to the park.

Joseph is sometimes very VERY good. He can make the bed on his own initiative.
At other times, he helps me put his sister on the potty, and then when she's done her small business, he takes the potty to the toilet to pour out the pee and washes the potty then puts in back in the usual spot.

Children's Church Jungle-themed Christmas Party 11 Dec.

He can also hold her bottle when she refuses to, read to her, make her laugh and also cry.

So while they play, I can still manage some packing. I tried this on yesterday... It's my dance costume made when I was 15 years old. I can still wear it!!!

Anyway...I'll be quite glad when Nana comes back..... in 2 months time!!!

Nana goes to USA

2010-12-08T07:55:00.004+08:00

Nana left for USA last night. The night before, we all went to TGIF for dinner. Fried mozarella is pretty yummy.

And rather fun to eat.

See how long you can pull the cheese...

I know Nana will get a lot more yummy American food in USA but we just wanted to give her a treat because she has been working so hard taking care of my kids and helping me pack up the house, in particular the kitchen.

The Salmon Pasta I ordered for Nana was pretty good. Daalin and I shared the Sizzling Chicken and Cheese.

So we were all at KLIA last night.

After check-in, we had a bite at McDonalds and then took some photos...

This is the closest the get to a snowman for now.

Joy put her head in here and said, "Christmas is not about presents!"

I also had fun riding on the trolley with the kids. The 'Anjung Tinjau' is quite deserted with a long hallway :-)

The kids prayed for Nana before she walked to the gate. I could see Joy was controlling herself because she had this really serious look. I know they'll miss Nana and Joe says he'll miss her yummy food. But time flies so it won't be long.

Singapore in December

2010-12-04T09:01:00.007+08:00

We just got back from a short break to Singapore.

Joseph had a wonderful time with his brothers.

They had pillow fights in the attic.

We took a drive down Orchard Road.... this is the Ferrero Rocher Christmas Tree.

The decorations are not as elaborate as in previous years.

I particularly enjoyed the black pork ramen at Tampopo (Ngee Ann City). It's a specialty at this restaurant and the crowd and queue outside means it's really good.

I forgot to take pictures of the food though.

Joseph and Brandon thoroughly enjoyed themselves at the Walking with Dinosaurs live show. He promised me he would not hide under the chair if he was afraid and he kept his word. Brandon was very mature and told us the dinosaurs were all robots. Daalin said the show was worth every bit of the S$41 that the ticket cost.

After the dino show, we met up at Raffles City Shopping Centre where there was a live Dora show.

Joy was very excited...

Even though there was a galore of Dora merchandise, she did not bug me to buy anything but was content to just take photos.

I explained to her that the seating area was only for children and mummys and daddys had to stay behind.

So when the show started, she went up front and sat with the other children, all by herself.

And she actively participated in the singing and dancing with actions, not even looking back to check on my presence.

I was rather surprised, and felt redundant of course.
The bigger boys found Dora too boring and went to check out some book shop.

After dinner at Shokudo (it's like Marche, but japanese), we took a drive down Orchard Road...

I stuck my head out the sun roof to take some photos.

We also drove past the Singapore Flyer...

...and the Marina Bay Sands Hotel which is really really huge!

While the holiday in Singapore was good, the return to Malaysia was horrendous. We inched out way for 2 hours to cover just 500m to the immigration & customs checkpoint in Johor.

I had planned to have lunch at 12noon in Yong Peng but we didn't arrive in Yong Peng till 2.30pm! The children finished all the bread and biscuits and every tiny bit of food I had in the car.

Back home safe and sound, Joe is having a wee bit of a hangover. He says he misses his brothers and wants to sleep with them in the attic. I guess he has to wait till Chinese New Year to 'camp' in the living room with them. Unless Tua Pek and Tua Um wants to adopt him....

Splash Park @ Sembawang Shopping Centre

2010-12-02T17:54:00.002+08:00

I found a better alternative to the Water Play at Singapore Zoo.
This Splash Park located on Level 3 of Sembawang Shopping Centre is FREE!

The dry playground is open mall hours but water play operates 11am-2pm and 5-8pm. It's not as elaborate as the Water Play at the Zoo but I'm not paying $12 per kid and $18 per adult just for them to run around the water play area for an hour.

The kids had a blast running through all that shooting water from the contraptions and sliding down super fast when their butts are wet.

There's no shallow pool so it's actually more hygenic since there are people who go into these water play fully clothed in their regular clothes and just soak in there.

We had lunch at the food court and then Joe had a ride in Uncle Nick's car with the sun roof.

Milk tooth extraction at home

2010-11-22T20:19:00.003+08:00

Joe lost his first milk tooth today. I had noticed it shaking a couple of weeks back and was hoping it would stay at least until after his concert. Well it did. But in the last few days, I found he could tilt it forward up to almost 90degrees. So I suggested removing it to avoid him swallowing it.

Here's how a dentist does it at home.

Get some dental floss. Be generous - make it long enough.

Tie one end around the shaky tooth. It's quite tricky with the smooth satin floss.

Here's the last picture of the tooth still in the mouth.

Tie the other end of the floss to a door knob. I let Joe pick which door he liked and he picked the bedroom door.

And this is how you do it...

He felt a pinch kind of pain at the split second when the tooth came out. But by the time he actually felt any pain, the tooth was already out.

I asked him if it was painful and he said "just a little bit" but he is game to do it again when the next tooth shakes.

This is indeed a milestone - my firstborn's losing his first milk tooth.

I'm so proud of him. But no, the tooth fairy does not live in this house.

Year-end Party and no lollipops!

2010-11-19T15:51:00.003+08:00

Today is Joe's last day in his 5-yr-old class. My baby has only one more year in kindy before moving on to primary school! The kindy had the usual last-day-of-school-party.
When we got home, Joy also wanted to wear a costume.

I thought it was very nice of his teachers to give out little gifts to all the students. In his right hand is a present from Teacher Suet Ling and the other hand is holding the present from Teacher Kathleen.

Teacher Suet Ling is his class teacher. But because Teacher Kathleen (Lily class) can't teach Mandarin, they swap classes i.e. Teacher Suet Ling will teach Lily class mandarin while Teacher Kathleen teaches Bluebell class Bahasa Malaysia.

A lot of the food stuff that the kids brought were not eaten there but teacher packed it up into a party pack. So when Joe got home, his sister rummaged through his party pack.

I'm proud of my children. They have learnt well.

Marathon Shopping

2010-11-17T20:18:00.002+08:00

We were out for about 10 hours in total today! Out shopping! Arriving at Ikea just before 9am, we had breakfast there with free coffee.

Thereafter the kids played at Ikea...

...and The Curve...

...until lunch time.

After lunch, we went to buy stuff and then drove over to Tesco whereupon Joseph's batteries ran out and he fell asleep in the trolley while we walked around.

Joy-Anne seemed to be high on some unknown substance. She was so hyper and was singing non-stop. For the record.... she lasted a total of 13 hours from the time she woke up at 8am!

For the duration we were out, I would probably have paid almost RM10 in Midvalley Megamall (which since 1st Nov 2010 has increased it's weekday parking by 100%!!! Disgusting!) But today, I paid nothing for parking! Zero! Zilch! Wonderful!

A butterfly and a thunderstorm - by Joseph

2010-11-16T16:28:00.001+08:00

My storyteller... aided by a tambourine, a rotan, 2 maracas, a djembe (Balinese drum) and his sister the butterfly!

Joseph's First Concert

2010-11-15T06:54:00.004+08:00

Joe much-anticipated-First Concert finally happened last night. He had been practising it at home when he thought no one was looking but refused to dance for me. In fact, until Saturday he told me, "The concert day is very near already. You just have to be patient for one more day".

Yesterday evening, in spite of the very heavy rain, we made our way to DreamCentre at 5pm. The children had dinner in ther classrooms while parents had dinner in the Sports Hall.
After I helped Joe's classmates to touch up on their make up, I made my way upstairs where I found Joy-Anne pining for her brother.

She kept saying, "I want my brother.....I want my brother..."

After Negaraku, speeches by Pr Daniel and Teacher Stephanie, the curtains went up to reveal a most impressive backdrop.

Joe's item was the first one - Colours of Malaysia, to the tune of Siti Nurhaliza'z Warna Warna Malaysia.

The costumes were all really colourful and beautiful. Sure looked good on stage!

I thoroughly enjoyed myself watching all the dances. The children were all very good and they danced so very well.

After the concert, Joe got a photo with his classmate, Miss C - she danced really well too.

This costume will be recycled for Chinese New Year next year. Joy wants me to "please please pretty please buy me a pink costume".

In the mean time, he'll get to wear it again on Friday at their year-end party.

White walls and what colour doors?

2010-11-10T14:25:00.002+08:00

I have to decide.

On the paint colour for our new home. Real soon.

To make things easy, we initially decided on everything white. Yup. A white house. Or rather, home.

But after the weekend at Avillion Admiral Cove, I'm so inspired by the blue/white colour scheme which I find so soothing. Maybe just one blue wall.

Or blue curtains. I can easily change curtains when I tire of the colour.

And what colour doors? White as well? Or something else?

Breakfast & Bye Bye Avillion

2010-11-09T10:33:00.002+08:00

Breakfast at the Traders Coffee House this morning was marginally better than yesterday's. They had guava juice and orange juice. Yesterday they had mango juice and orange juice. I started off with a bowl of fruit. The nasi lemak (only with sambal and the usual condiments, no chicken/beef.) and mee goreng looked too unhealthy. So I had some eggs, sausages and hash browns (nice and crispy).
I finished my breakfast with another huge plate of fruit. The breakfast fare is alright if you just want something to fill your stomach but can't beat the quality that we had at Saujana and Cyberview Lodge.

After breakfast, Mr Alan the General Manager arranged for the marina manager to give us a guided tour of the pontoon area.

Overall, it's been a good holiday. On the hotel - it look really nice and pleasant. Staff are friendly and courteous. The signboards leading to the hotel are rather obscure and not easy to find but Mr Alan says they are working on it.

As for the little things (in the room) that were not in working order, Mr Alan's offer to change our rooms made all the difference.

I like the Vista Wing much better. The design shows that somebody did some thinking. For example sink at the pantry, bedside power points and conveniently-located switches. The daybed is also spacious enough to sleep 2 small kids. It's actually the size of a super single bed (3.5' wide). We'll certainly consider this hotel in future, and maybe bring the kids along.

Avillion Admiral Cove for our 8th Anniversary

2010-11-08T23:04:00.005+08:00

We take a short break every year in conjunction with our wedding anniversary. This year, we decided on a different view and found ourselves at Avillion Admiral Cove, Port Dickson. We picked the Straits Studio for RM235nett per night, booked at Matta Fair.
First impressions was that it was clean and neat.

But we eventually found lots to complain about. The safe wasn't working, the tap was faulty, the electric kettle didn't switch off automatically, there was no TV programme and the telephone was faulty as well.

Maybe it was just this one particular room we were in. Nevertheless, I liked the looks of the KDK Baby Fan. We bought one unit of this for our new home.

The view was lovely. It's a sea front hotel. Not beach front.

That's good for us because we like looking at the sea but not swimming in it.

On our second evening there, we took a short drive to check out the lighthouse in Cape Rachado.

Signboards leading to this place are quite scarce and we had to stop twice to ask for directions. We finally found the entrance to the Hutan Rekreasi hidden behind Ilham Resort. This forest reserve is actually in the state of Melaka.

We hiked the tar road and it took us 8 minutes to get to the lighthouse.

Another flight of steps took us to the gate which was locked.

So we walked around it, taking in the view.

The only other lighthouse I've seen close up was at Cape Schanck, Melbourne.

There was another trail which we walked a while but then decided to turn back because they sky looked like it was going to pour.

Back at the hotel, we got a call from the hotel General Manager, inviting us out for a drink. I suspect that it must have been due to the feedback I submitted to the reception earlier in the morning.

So we met up with Mr Alan Kay at the bar for a very friendly chat over milkshake and (virgin) pina colada. Then he kindly offered to move us to another room in their new wing.

So we got an Executive Room on the top floor of the Vista Wing - newly opened in April this year.

It's much bigger the interior deco is pleasing to the eye.

The cute little pantry area has a small sink so you don't have to go all the way to the toilet. And the kettle works nicely.

The bathroom is spacious and comes with a nice rainshower.

Tomorrow, Mr Alan has kindly offered to arrange for us to visit the pontoon area (normally restricted to only boaters).

Joe's First Hospital Stay

2010-11-05T15:14:00.002+08:00

I was at work yesterday when Daalin alerted me that Joe came home from school looking very lethargic and went straight to bed without taking his lunch.

A while later, Nana called to say Joe had a high fever. While I usually wouldn't panic because he has a fever ever so often, this time I decided to go straight home to check on him.

He looked unusually tired so I took him to Pantai Hospital because his two other usual paeds were closed at that hour.

We saw Dr Azam - a paediatrician Joe had seen before a couple of years back. Long story short, I decided to have him admitted so that antibiotics could be administered intravenously. The paediatric ward was a full house so they put him in the adult ward next door. And because it's an adult ward, we got a single room while paying for a 4-bedded room.

Joe was really brave when the needle went in. He said it hurt just a little bit.

He wasn't too happy at first but cheered up after Daalin promised him a reward of a piece of strawberry marshmallow cheesecake.

While Daalin sat with him in the hospital, I went home get a shower and Joe's dinner.

He didn't eat the hospital dinner which wasn't too bad.

Then Daalin went home to get a shower and also bring Nana & Joy-Anne & Kong Kong for a visit. Joe was getting restless while waiting for them. I think he missed his sister a lot.

So I kept him busy with some games on the computer. He could play with both hands. Even the wrapped up one.

Then his reward arrived and he happily ate. No more vomitting. And he was much better after the first dose of antibiotics went in.

While KongKong, Nana and Daalin watched tv (only in single room) for the by-election results, Joe played his computer games and Joy jumped around the bed.

This morning Joe was much more alert and happy. Thank God Dr Azam allowed him to be discharged even though he wanted to keep Joe for another day. But Joe was getting really restless. I think he might have broken the bed if we stayed another day.

So he's got to continue on his antibiotics orally. The recovery might be a bit slower but at least he's at home.

More Sushi and Cakes

2010-11-02T10:47:00.003+08:00

We went out yesterday evening (Daalin's real birthday) to our new home to meet the contractor and then decided to have more sushi for dinner.

Earlier in the day, Daalin's office colleagues took him to Sushi Zanmai (Sunway Pyramid) for lunch.

Then it was Sakae Sushi for dinner.

Daalin didn't mind one bit.
He also had another two cakes in office making it a total of four cakes for his thirty-fourth birthday!

Fun with Four Eyes

2010-11-02T09:19:00.003+08:00

I found two blind mice on my bed yesterday...
Joy still wants a pink sunglasses but settled for Joe's old grey one.

After making the pair of real spectacles, I found out my professor doesn't use it.

He says the actual reason he can't see is because that particular teacher uses red marker pen while the other teacher used black marker pen.

Duhh.....now why didn't he tell me that earlier!!!!

I could have just bought teacher some black marker pens instead of spending RM150 on a pair of spectacles that just sits in his bag.

Papa's Birthday Celebration

2010-11-01T08:32:00.002+08:00

Joseph says :

Today is my Papa's birthday. It's a Monday, and I have to go to school. Mama says today is the start of my exam week. But I've no idea what that is. She did ask me, "What is exam?" and I answered her very honestly, "I don't know!!!"

So we celebrated Papa's birthday last night. Nana and KongKong lugged this huge jackfruit all the way back from Penang. It's even bigger than both our heads put together!

We also cooked a whole fish caught from Pastor Nancy's pond.

And we had TWO cakes for about the price of one.

On our left is the French Vanilla Mille Crepe from Humble Beginnings at 50% off and on our right is a White Chocolate Cake from Raspberry Cake House, covered in fresh cream which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Nana fried some noodles which went very well with the rendang (too spicy for me) that mama bought. Pizza is our standard birthday fare. And Nana made fruit salad instead of coleslaw this time.

This is us....simple home-cooked food in our comfy messy home.

After all the eating, Joy-Anne and I put on a show for the grown-ups. They said it was a very good show. I'm sure it was because they all laughed a lot and clapped really loud. Mama was so impressed and I told her I had rehearsed the show with my sister.

Mama says we have to do it again so that she can video it up for Yee Yee to see (and laugh).

Tonight, Papa and Mama are going out for their husband and wife time and also to celebrate their wedding anniversary which falls tomorrow. Sometimes I want to go out with them. But I understand that they need some time on their own so that they can be good Papa and Mama to Joy-Anne and me.

Happy Birthday Papa....I love you very much!

Vain, Pretty and Pink

2010-10-28T09:25:00.004+08:00

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

2010-10-28T09:23:00.001+08:00

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.