Playing Rapunzel...

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!

A butterfly and a thunderstorm - by Joseph

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

Doctor in the House

Joe skipped school on Monday. He had fever since Saturday night and still had it in the wee hours of Monday morning so I decided he should stay home.

We didn't make a visit to the doctor. Instead, we had a 'doctor' check him at home.

Joseph was a very compliant patient.

And after that, he felt much better and had a round of golf with the 'doctor'.

Watch out... I bite!

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

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

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

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

Homeschooling by Joseph

Every time I get home from work, there is sure to be some sort of a surprise waiting for me. Some days, it's a pleasant one like a drawing by Joseph. Other days it's a shocking (and tiring) one like the naked mattress - one look and I know someone vomitted on the bed.

Today, Joseph presented me with this :

He drew it all by himself to homeschool Joy-Anne! I'm so tickled by how the watermelon / orange / apple gets smaller and smaller as he is squeezed for space at the end of the row.

The teacher :

The student :

Last weekend

Last Friday morning, I found my princess burning with a temperature of 39.1C at 3 o'clock in the morning. One suppository, tepid-sponging (with some 'fighting') and 30 minutes later, her temperature came down and she went back to sleep. Her fever came back about every 6-8 hours in the next 24 hours.

We had a busy weekend lined up and I really couldn't afford to have her being sick. I had teaching duty at Little Lamb the next day and we were also to make a day trip to Seremban for Ah Mah's belated birthday celebration on Sat.

So we dropped by Baby and Beyond Clinic on Saturday morning.

Looking nothing like a clinic, it certainly is the most kid-friendly clinic in town.

No sterile-looking set-up.

Dr Chow Su Lin attended to us. Joy was a very obedient patient. She sat really still while the doctor examined her.
Doctor said she had some crepitations in her right lung, upper lobe and diagnosed a lung infection i.e. pneumonia. Pneumonia sounds a lot more morbid.

We spent about an hour in all at the clinic. Including time for the kids to play. From the clinic, we went straight to Seremban, crawling the whole journey there because of the heavy traffic.

In fact, we had to go straight to the restaurant where Ah Mah, Ah Kong and the YongPengTribe were already waiting. Good thing both kids slept through the extra-long journey and arrived there all refreshed to play with their cousins.

Joy is all better now. Thank God for her speedy and complete recovery. And we had a great weekend in spite of fever and traffic jams.

Loving and laughing

I'm totally in love with my little princess. She always has some wisecrack to make me laugh.

Two days ago I took her with me to the nearby Carrefour at The Sphere (where they have this cool basket that the kids love to pull like a rickshaw). As she walked pulling the 'rickshaw' basket, she suddenly stopped, put her pointer finger to her right cheek and said, "Let's just stop and think".

Huh? Think? A 2-year-old can stop and think?

See my huge tummy. Mummy says it's a ball!

Then last night, just before falling asleep, she rolled over, looked at me lovingly and said, "Mummy, why are you so pretty?"

Smiling, I replied, "Joy-Anne, you are more pretty!"

I like to sayang my bear-bear.

She's also capable of imitating Joseph's expressions. He has this bad habit of getting angry and pulling a grumpy face over trivial things. So I refuse to entertain his tantrums.

Then I ask Joy-Anne, "Show me kor kor's grumpy face..."

And she does this :

This is her 'cute-cute' face :


And this is her happy face :
I think she's over 16kg now and I'm really not sure this high chair can take her weight. Probably because her breakfast intake is double of Joseph's! And she doesn't vomit like he does.

Doing The Freeze

One of the many things the kids do at Little Lamb is this - dancing!

And this has got to be their favourite...

I love watching them dance and jump.

Nevermind if they break the bed. Then I'll have a reason to get a new one!

Kid's Prayer Song

This is one of Joseph's favourite songs.

Simply titled "Kid's Prayer", it's a very meaningful song. Joseph can sing the entire song by heart (while Nana can't remember the words).

And this is his other favourite song - High Speed Song.

Be blessed!

J&j at the National Children Workers/Leaders & Parenting Conference

My mum and I both attended this fantastic conference jointly organised by DUMC and SIBKL. So Joe and Joy had no choice but to tag along. In my opinion, it was a most blessed choice.

The conference lasted from Wednesday night until Saturday afternoon, ending with a wonderful Rock 'n Roll Easter Party (with a 60's theme). Because we stayed on for celebration yesterday, the kids were in church from 8.30am till 7.30pm!

With my bags of stuff (milk, change of clothes, cereal, lunch, toys, books etc...) I didn't bring my camera. But Mei Ling very kindly took some photos for us at the party. And the pro always takes better photos. Joy wore her polka-dot Gymboree dress that YeeYee bought.
Joseph wore a hand-me-down Gap stripped shirt with suspenders and bow tie that are at least 7 years old (Joshua wore this as page boy at our wedding) and his favourite jeans from Target Australia. It's his favourite because there are no buttons or zip. (Very difficult to find this kind of pants!)

And Daalin who was part of the worship team on stage had red hair! I think they both look so cute together!

two, three or more - the kids' answers.

Do you want another baby?

Joy-Anne : No need. (waving her hand)

Joseph : NO!!!!!! Two children is enough.

videos for laughs

This is for Yee Teow...

And I could watch this a million times and still laugh hysterically...

cousin time in Yong Peng

School holidays have come and gone in the blink of an eye. We started with a busy weekend - Joe's sports day, followed by 3 full days in church for VBS (Vacation Bible School).

The kids are underaged (VBS is for 6-11 year olds) but were there because their father was in charge of worship.
On Tuesday evening, I told Joe that I had to work the next day, and he would be staying at home because it's the school holidays. Joe said, "Let's go to megamall!!!"

Hmm....he must think holiday = kai kai.

So anyway, I explained to him that he had to stay home for 2 days and then on Friday, we would go to Yong Peng.

Mama : Today is Tuesday. Tomorrow is...?

Joe : (sings his days of the week song) Monday....Tuesday.... ohh....I know....Wednesday!

Mama : Good....and after wednesday is...?

Joe : (starts singing from the beginning again) Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.... ahh...Thursday!

Mama : Good! And after that will be...?

Joe : (starts singing again...from the beginning) Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.......it's Friday!

Mama : Ok...on Friday...we will go to Yong Peng.

Joe : When we go to Yong Peng...have to be very good. Because....Ah Koh is very fierce!

At this point Mama is dumbfounded!

Mama : So at home you don't have to be good? Would you like me to be fierce like Ah Koh?

Joe : No.....I want you to stay just the way you are.

Mama : Why? So you can bully me?

Joe : No....so I can love you!

So anyway... we went to Yong Peng on Friday. The kids napped all the way there and was fully recharged when we arrived. Joseph and Brandon had a good time fighting, playing, bullying each other. Now and then each will complain about the other but overall, I think they had a good time.

Joy-Anne also had a very good time, especially on the bicycle. She went for lots of rides.

She didn't play much with Mabel. We'll have to wait till Mabel toughens up.

bully bully

I can imagine this must have been myself and my brother more than 25 years ago...

When the kids fight....I get the camera first instead of the cane :-)

bedtime without papa

some photos for Papa... taken with Kong Kong's camera.

cheeky kids

Joy has been enjoying this 30-year-old slide. It's probably actually more than 30 years old.She now walks up the front portion. And then she slides down and says, "wheee!!"

Joseph loved it too. This was taken when he was about 15months old.

And this is me....when I was about 15 months old... (ahem! the prettier one in the photo... )

I think Joy's prettier than I was as a kid.

She's even more cheeky than she is pretty. Yesterday, she tripped and fell all by herself, and hit her lip against a stool.

thank you Aunty Yin Fern for the pretty Gymboree (size 3 yrs!!!) clothes...

they fit me perfectly!

As she was crying, Nana asked her, "who bully you?" and without batting an eyelid, she pointed to Joseph and said, "kor kor!".

In actual fact, kor kor was nowhere near when she fell and even came over to pray for her when she cried.

kor kor enjoying his new toy

Joseph is another cheeky fellow.

I was doing some revision with him (so that Teacher Esther doesn't go mad on Monday) and I pointed to the first character (below) and asked him, "what's this?"

He said, "heng". Then I pointed to the second one and asked him, "now what's this?"

He paused a while.... and then he said, "elephant".

Mama : What???

Joe : Ya...see....it's an elephant.

See why I can't homeschool?

happy smiley again

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hooray for kids eating well!