blinka.Li

Jien's Work 2011

2012-01-05T17:07:00.000+08:00

I have to sheepishly admit that I don't spend quite enough time with my kids. But working from home allows me to have an extra bit of advantage of peeping at what the boys are up to, and I LOVE that...

So these are some of Jien's work which I categorized them into :

~ The Dino Series

The herbivours..names? Ask him.

I called this one ~ The Dino's Party..Quite a handful of species here. I just enjoy looking at the details. The type of legs, taiils, teeth, horns, spikes. Interesting.

These dino's skeletons were found lying on my kitchen floor one good afternoon. I love the colour. Cute little blue head dinos.

~The Car Series:

My boy is a fanatic Cars fan. He watched the E.N.T.I.R.E Cars movie when he was about 2 yo. And he kept watching it over and over again for almost a good year!! Then the love for the fire red sports car kind of subsided until we brought him to watch The Cars 2 in the cinema and the love just grew double into madness now!! Sometimes, he would just play with the colour changer the whole morning, happily watching the car changing colour..

~The Human Series :

Us...by Jien. I am holding Jung then. ;)

This is the summary of our recent trip to Taiwan by Jien. So many home-stays, hehe...it must have been tough for him keep changing places to stay or he could have enjoyed them so much..haha. Well, look at the animated planes, the train station, the cloud, the fruits, the motorcycle and of course, the dinos just have to show up in the drawings..huuusshhhh.......

Summary 2011

2011-12-28T16:53:00.000+08:00

The year is ending! So super duper fast!

Looking back, it has been quite a fruitful year indeed (Thanks for the blessing, the One Up There! ;))

Health wise :

~ Great!! I am able to maintain my weight and control my healthy diet so far. Good cholesterol level, good blood pressure, good overall. Some said I look thinner now than the me in my wedding pictures!! Whoa! I weighed lighter then!! My target this year is to shake off the extra fats which sometimes make me looking 2 months pregnant and of course, the big legs if possible!! And I want to go back to my yoga again to have my body more flexible which I still think is vital for a good health. I am slacking and lazy in dragging myself up in the morning to do so...C'mon girl, u can do it!!

Family :

Great.

Working from home is still my best choice. There were crazy days when I need to send my eldest to kindy and picking him up from school at the beginning of the year. I lost a lot of weight then due to the rush hours madness, speeding after meetings just to drop him to school was sheer madness but, truly gratifying as parents. I could then chat with the teacher, know his friends by names and chat with some of the parents too. It is a wonderful feeling when the kids start calling me as 'T Jien's mummy!' Then, the work load piled up and since the boy is looking more ok and not 'blur', I eventually get a van service to drop him.

Next year would be my younger one's turn to the kindy. I am really not certain if he is ready; he is such a cute pie and baby - that he is still baby talking and not fully toilet train (shiver~one more week to go!!). Well, of course, now having 2 in the kindy means my bank account will shrink quite a bit when the school begins. Whoa, and my duty would be to pick him up from school, at least for a good 2 months (well, that is IF the school accepts this boy after the trial 5 days!!~~What? u mean I pay u and I have to toilet train my boy??!!~~)

We had a good trip to Taiwan this year. I will surely plan for something again this coming year!! Beijing is my target! ;)

Career :

No complaint.

The house we moved in was nominated (Thanks to Michael Tang if you are reading this!!) and shortlisted for the PAM design award! Though I did not (~~damn!~~) win, well, at least, this humble abode of ours got featured in the magazine and I get calls to feature in other magazines too and guess what? Hey, potential clients started making enquiries!

Also, another bungalow that I worked on won an international Interior Design Competition. Well, read me : the Interior Designer IS NOT me...haha..but hey, if the house is shitty, the ID can't be possibly winning right??!! Haha!!

Thanks to my friend's support, I am starting to divert my focus slightly from purely residential to commercial / industrial building which I reckon is a good turning point. Not to say that I will completely discard the residential part of it which I think is still my forte.

I hope this coming year, I will have on hand a hotel job to start with!!! Really looking forward to this!

x x x

I hope it is a great year 2011 and we shall all have a wonderful and peaceful 2012!! Cheers!

2011-09-09T14:57:00.000+08:00

It is scary to see how my sons are repeating after me..I mean copying me especially the way I talk, my gesture, the way I node my head...way too scary with Jien..even the way I got angry and scolded him, he copied it and 'translated' it on his brother. Eww!

It happened a few times already that he shouted at his brother. Even the 'Aiyo!' sound all too familiar and that echoed in my mind and raised my hair!! Eeeeerie!

Tell me, how can one sane fella not yell when having to work from home, answering phone calls, thinking for solutions, cracking the head and the boys are fighting and screaming at the other end??!! Sane or saint here eh?

Ah well, no excuse now. It is too scary to get this copied and passed down.

I have to learn to take a deep breath and pinch myself the next time I loose my temper and go screaming again! Ahhhhhhhh............!

A Good Break

2011-09-06T18:53:00.002+08:00

People like us, the designer (kuli) don't have many holidays actually. Well, this last particular Raya cum Merdeka break was such a blessing to me. Absolute no calls and no work! Bliss.

It started off with big cleaning up of my office. I hate working in disorder. I remembered during the schooling days, I will take few days just to tidy up my room. Making sure everything is in order for the new semester. That includes tearing up unused exercise books and binding them and turning them into my useful sketchbooks. Now I have to discard all the old drawings, heaps of them. Preliminaries sketches, obsolete printed drawings etc and turning them into my recycled fax paper or my son's sketch paper...HUGE pile.

Then, it was fun time (??) at Sunway Lagoon. Well, fun time for Jien only to be specific. Jung was like a clinging koala and would not even want to wade in the pool! Gosh. Just too young for that maybe. Will wait for another 10 years before our next visit. ;P

Then it was all good resting and good family time together at home. I just love the simple form of it. Grabbing some books to read, and the fact that I can read the newspaper slowly..is already something I cherish so much!! haha!

The highlight was of course a dinner gathering of my relatives at my place. I was just toying with the idea just before the holiday and saw my cousin on the FB. We started chatting and then it was all set and scheduled. I am so super glad that I did that. I love watching my aunts chatting together. Reminds me a lot of my mom. And the fact is, my paternal aunts and maternal aunts are very close and they are like sisters!! We are just so blessed that we have that strong family bond. Now I understand why my mom always organized some parties despite all the hard work cooking and preparing the food for like almost 30 pax if not more. It is a sheer occasion of joy seeing all the relatives come together, seeing some grow up to be teenagers / married / having babies etc. It is a loud, fun, and love is in the air.

Too bad I did not take any pictures. Will surely organize another soon.

And of course, this is their first visit to our new house. All going oo and ahhh and LOVE the house. Glad! ;)

Loving Today!!

2011-08-26T11:14:00.003+08:00

I love today..

Yessss, for :

1. Hubby is coming home today and I will be seeing him tomorrow morning!!
2. Holidays are approaching.
3. Got the submission done yesterday for a nice couple.
4. Get the drawings printed out and ready for contractor to quote for another job.
5. Finally have time to check for another project's drawings.

Can't wait can't wait to see hubby!! Yippie!

This long wait is only after 2 short (looonnnng!) weeks of hubby's assignment to New Zealand. He was kind of lucky to catch a glimpse of the heavy snow fall in Wellington. Emotionally, I guess he is worse than me. Home sick, missing ME and the boys, missing the house, the bed, well, everything here! Well, just 2 weeks!

See, it is kind of strange that when he is away, I have ALL the energy to get up early, cook my breakfast, prepare Jien's breakfast, read them books, play with them, bring them to the park, to the malls, etc etc...The moment hubby is back home, the adrenalin level will drop to the lowest low. I don't know how you see it. But I see it as I am such a LUCKY mom.

Counting down, counting down!! ;)

I KNOW

2011-08-25T08:41:00.000+08:00

My elder son is better in trying to express himself in words now. And so he is enjoying school to the fullest. Not a day have I to worry about him not wanting to go to school now. He happily awaits the uncle to pick him up and happily hopping on to the van. Not a teardrop shed.

Knowing more words and to actually spell them helps him a lot in his capability to read too. So now he is the 'genious' in his class for he is good in English and learning fast in Mandarin and Bahasa. All teachers adore him.

Well, good for him.

So with boy like this, I think he tends to think he knows a lot or everything maybe. In Hokkien, we call it' Keiy Kiang' or 'Keiy gao'. Everything he wants to try, he will brush your hands aside before you even tell him what to do. Everytime you tell him to do something...he will say 'I KNOW!' Not in a snobbish way, but a very relaxed and non-chalant way. Well, maybe I am still treating him like a small boy and suddenly I got this low tone 'I know...' , it somehow made me paused on whatever I am doing and give him a good look (stare)...

Jien, please wash your hand after food ya.... J : I know

Jien, turn on the light please if you are trying to read..... J : I know...

Jien, go pom pom first then play J : I know

Jien, ............................ J : I know

Scary? I know........

In the Park

2011-08-23T09:34:00.000+08:00

I was checking some pictures to be placed in the blog the other day only to find out that I have the July month totally void of any pictures.

I was utterly sad as this means I had missed my sons on the entire month!! Oh yes, watching them growing everyday yes but having able to revisit their cute little faces is another.

As I flipped out my camera feeling sad, I checked the pictures in the camera and go 'YEAH!' I did take their pictures!

And they were in one of our favourite parks! I love seeing my sons playing in the nature, get all dirty, wet and soaked up! It really feels good!

Ahhhh......life! ;)

My Paleontologist

2011-08-22T16:20:00.004+08:00

Yes, paleontologist...I only knew this word few weeks ago. All because of my eldest son who suddenly is a freak dinosaurs fan. Everything down to our daily conversations are on the topics of dinosaurs.

'Mama, do you know what is Cretaceous Period?'

'Mama, see, Diplodocus. See this one, a triceratops. And this one ......'

My brain can only accommodate a few names like Tyrannosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Triceratops, Protoceratops, Stegosaurus (as I am typing this, I am checking the spelling from my son's book, ;)). So the rest, it sounded like an alien trying to squeeze in new words in my tiny brain. But to my son, all these names are fantastic and he can already easily memorizing 30 if not more...goodness.

The other day, I was amazed at his ability to spell Ankylosaurus. So I asked him, do you know how to spell mama's name?

He looked at me and tap his chin....'How mama? How to spell your name??'

Yeah, this paleontologist of mine loves his dinosaur BETTER than his mom already...aiyoyo!!

Song Bird

2011-08-18T11:57:00.003+08:00

My younger boy loves to sing lately. Old McDonald Had a Farm, Twinkle-twinkle little Star, numerous others and his favourite 'The Dinasaur' which he invented his own.

He would climb up any make shift stage available and would perform seriously. After singing, he would nod his head exclaiming 'Thank you! Thank you!' So cute.

And today, while I am working, I can hear my boy singing Chinese Song in the hall. It is amazing that he still remember the rhythm and hum and sing along. He has not listen to these songs for at least 4 months already! And to me, this cacat song that he is humming and trying to follow just sounded like heaven! ;)

Bliss.

* Twinkle Star - spontaneous visit to I-City.

Conversation with Jung

2011-08-16T10:31:00.003+08:00

This second son of mine love watching TV and savoring his roti canai.

And so he picked up the word - telescope from the TV numerous shows on the pirates. So all the rolling drawings in the house turned into 'a telescope' and his toy naturally.

x x x x

Yesterday, I baked some yummy tea muffins. It is supposed to go with some beaten cream cheese and honey. So as I dipped the muffin and pass to him, guess what my Jung said ??

'Mummy, is this SPICY??!!' ;P

Colored Version

2011-08-16T10:26:00.003+08:00

I have not seen Jien doing any art ever since the introduction to iPhone and iPad. Today there is this coloured back ground thingy in my computer scanned image.

I don't know how this thing end up in my computer. And surely my son's knowledge of computer is advancing by the day....

I just love the colour and of course I know he is drawing my car..the number shows.. haha!

Some Conversations

2011-08-03T19:11:00.003+08:00

Me : Jien, who is your best friend in the class??

Jien : Gotham (not sure if the spelling is right, but I know this boy).

Me : Why?

Jien : Because he is brown....

Me : *Laugh till almost fainted*

Well, at least, my boy likes him because of his colour, and not dislike him because of his colour. Reason to celebrate good teaching for not being racist..

x x x x

Me on the computer.

Jien : Mama, what are you doing?

Me : Working lo...

Few days later...

Me : Jien, what are you doing in mama's office ?

Jien : Working lo....

Me : *speechless*

x x x x

Hubby has the hobby of giving a ringgit a day for Jien, for him to save so that he can grasp the concept of saving and numbers..

And ever since my boy, Jien learned about Hong Kong Disneyland, every time I ask him where should we go for holiday, he would answer without a second thought : HK Disneyland.

And one day I retorted by saying : But we don't have enough money to go there.

Jien : Ma...(digging out his few ringgit from the pocket [apparently that week hubby did not give him on a daily basis, so he got few ringgit at one shot] ) see you can take this, we have money!!

:x

Quite a Fruitful Year

2011-08-03T18:31:00.004+08:00

Last year, I THOUGHT I have not accomplished much in my work and also my personal life. It is like so quiet and yet forever busy kinda thing.

Then recollecting back, I saw myself moving into a new house, new environment, new neighbourhood and my boys LOVE where we are staying now. They just LOVE the new house.

Then one of the bungalows that I had designed was selected by the developer to be interviewed. And so they interviewed the happy clients and took pictures and videos of the house. Pleased.

Then without me knowing, another house of my design was published (without acknowledging me, the ID took credit of EVERYTHING...hsh, hush..) in a local magazine. I was delighted when my client showed me and gave me a copy. Delighted.

Then with friends' encouragement, I submitted our newly renovated house for a design competition organized yearly by the fellow Architects in Malaysia (PAM) and guess what?? I am shortlisted! I did not expect anything but I am shortlisted! Hey...

Not bad after all...kan? (* ps : just in case you wanna know : I did not win la! ;) ) The picture on the left showed my favourite part of my house which is not selected to be published in the medalists / shortlisted booklet....Don't know why they had selected the normal views of the house...hmmm...want to ketuk who ever choose the pictures! ;(

The Second Boy

2011-06-01T12:12:00.003+08:00

I had always known the fact that I write less about my second child. Poor thing. The mother is just too busy with 2 boys, work and everything else.. sigh.

My eldest is literally like a clinging bug to me. So that explained why my second one does not seem to have much time with me. And so, he naturally has to find an alternative comfort source - his father.

The recent absent of my maid sort of pushed this child back to me again. He always want me to hug him and would push the brother away if I am with him. And knowing that he won't get my attention during day time, he would jump onto me and sleep on my chest every night, without fail. Yes, and he is now 13kg. More than the weight of a sack of rice on me, every single night.

His giggles and laughter are very contagious. And this boy loves to act and roar like what he says 'Scary monster!!' I really enjoyed that!! He loves playing hide and seek and I have to say that he is better at the game than his brother. Of late, this boy suddenly talks a lot!! Yes of course he was 'talking' last time but maybe we need a baby translator but now he would say things like

'I am angry!! Very very angry!!' 'Mama, come, siddown (sit down)!' 'Mama, koko is naughty!!' 'Mama, it's cold...' 'Mama, I'm coughing!'

He is also the more alert and the smarty type. He would call out in the mall for me if he ever lose sights of me. But he loves to run in the mall too, so losing sight of him is such a common thing in the mall. (did I mention that my son runs super fast?) And this young man is a stubborn head, if he wants to run, trying to hold him will only cause some casualties (coz he bites) and also some real steam fueling (yes, his father always ended up with a remark : no more coming to the mall next time, just stay at home!!)

Did I ever mention that this boy loves his roti canai? Not just the roti but the sauce! He would dip his fingers and happily indulge the occasionally rather spicy dal curry. He could easily finish a whole piece of roti sometimes and we love serving him one as that also means that - help yourself, no feeding required - and so means more free time for ourselves. Bliss!

Courses Options

2011-05-20T09:00:00.000+08:00

Sometimes I felt empty inside. I have been churning up designs after designs; taking care of the kids day in day out. I felt that I needed a change. Maybe I should take up some courses. For a start, cullinary class maybe? Or fashion design/sewing class ? Or maybe joining .....? Hmmmm...still seeking.

Yeah...maybe I should start doing something different before I feel stale, useless and lifeless!

My 2 YO Jung

2011-05-19T09:00:00.003+08:00

My Jung turned 2 on last March!! Time flies!! This little devil in the house is a total opposite of his elder brother. His voice grew louder and clearer as he grew taller. He is not as interested in books. But he is good with running, climbing, jumping etc. He is surely more athletic and more expressive.

This monster adores his brother so much. He picks up all the words from him. Now he can tell his name in full and can tell single words like chicken, monkeys, rooster etc.

Not much of phrases yet, but the one that he always repeats are' mama, whatcha doing??' 'I don't want!!' 'Help me!' obviously we feel so pai seh when he kept shouting 'Help me!' when we are struggling to carry him in the mall!! Kidnapper ??

This boy loves his fruits and vegetable. I have never seen a boy his age gobbled down vegetables like he does!! He would finish off the vege portion on the plate and left the meat untouched and would ask for more vege! So funny! :) Oh and he does not like being fed. He loves to hold his food with bare fingers and usually after a meal, he would be soaked in sauces as if he just fell on the kitchen's floor in a restaurant!!

He loves his routine of sending and fetching his brother from school. I hope it will pave an easy way next year when I send him to one next year..he loves the sun, water and I am sure if I let him play in the rain, he would be hilarious!! He is also a tough boy! The other day, he was trotting on the side wall of the school's pond and fell into the shallow pond. I am sure if it was Jien, he would be crying his lungs out but this boy just gave me that shock look then a sorry look hoping that I won't scold him. The fact is, I was laughing my tears out (of course, after inspection to find out that he was fine,;P)!! This boy!!

I love you Jung for you are the sun shine in the family. You are so full of energy and cheerful. Your presence broke the silence in the air. Your laughter brings joy to all including koko. Life will not be the same with you!! Mama can't wait to go backpacking into the nature with you one day cos you just simply belongs to it! So energetic and marvelous! I love u boy!! :)

Jung @ 1 day old.

Jung @ 13 days' old.

Jung with me @ 2 weeks+ old.

Jung @ 2 months' old.

@ 4 months' old.

@6 months.

@1 yr old. I missed the curly hair so so much!

@ 1.5 yo....so fast!!

House for birds

2011-05-17T15:15:00.005+08:00

I was clearing up lighting loops features that we hung on the tree for CNY decorations the other day, only to find that there was a nest on the tree and the mother was sitting still and hatching eggs apparently. So I left the loops untouched and told my family about it. Everyone was pretty excited and happy about it. Even my maid. I am not sure if my Jung actually can see the bird but he just ikut happy and excited.

Don't ask me what kind of bird. I had been looking for one kiddy bird dictionary for quite some time now and can't find one. They are always about fish and dinosaurs. But this bird sing pretty well. In the morning and evening, we have birds singing in our house. So close to nature. I for one love it!! As what hubby said, we don't have to rare one or cage one, but we have them singing for us!!

Just about a week plus, the eggs hatched. We saw 2 tiny baby birds(can see them clearly from my bedroom) , wet and tiny, sleeping soundly in the nest. The colour blends in so well with the nest. Then, the other day, with Jien, we saw the tiny ones stretching their big mouth waiting to be fed. Oh and the parents kept bringing back food. So very busy. Just like us parents!! :)

And today, I saw one of the birds already flew to the next tree. She was chirping and singing every few seconds as if to tell the father 'can I do this? Is it safe?'. And I can sensed that the parents are watching nearby. As I was taking pictures of her, I could see the papa bird was flying nearer and making some alerting, not so happy sound.

I can't seem to find her sibling. As I was writing this, her voice seemed further away already, sounds like she had made another bigger 'steps'.

Will she ever stay in the same nest and sing to us again?

Oh...

Frantic Start

2011-04-28T09:35:00.005+08:00

This is a crazy month. I signed up for an examination to be a facilitator for Green Building Index last month and from then on, it is :

. No weekends
. Waking up middle of the night to study
. Waking up middle of the night to catch up with work
. fatigue
. fatigue...
and fatigue........

First, I don't really INTEND to be one. I just want to know MORE about this GBI thingy. It is an in thing in the industry. Plus, more architects and even clients already know more in depth, I can't be just sitting and relax and I don't want to be in the last batch either.

The highlight is my maid was away for 2 weeks for her 'vacation' back home during this critical period. And that blown my brain and body apart, well, almost..

Thanks to my dear dear husband who had been so helpful taking care of the kids and cleaning the house, I mainly need to cook...;)

It is all over, and now live is back to normal and my maid is back! Yippie!

Good to go NORMAL again, ahh.....being able to sleep till 8.00am is good!

;)

Strawberries Cheesecake with Sweet Almond Crust

2011-03-16T17:28:00.003+08:00

Busy busy. Too busy to do anything.

I would still want to keep this blog alive of course.

And I am typing this with lightning speed early in the morning while printing some of my work...

Now, I posted my lovely cheesecake in FB, and some asked what is the recipe...here it is :

Crust
250g low-fat digestive biscuits
100g almonds 125g butter ( I find that the crust is too thick, I would try a 125g low-fat digestive biscuits with 50g almond next time...maybe you try and let me know??)

Filling
15g gelatin powder
100g mineral water
250g cream cheese
150g low-sugar strawberry yohurt
80g strawberry jam (we use mixed fruit as substitute)
50g whipping cream (so little, wonderful ;))

Garnish
strawberries
strawberry chocolate bits
....which we use none to garnish...;P

Crush digestive biscuits and sweet almonds. Heat to melt butter.

Thaw cream cheese, yoghurt and jam at room temperature. Dice cream cheese.

Beat whipping cream until stiff.

Method
1. Mix the crust ingredients well. Press onto bottom of the cake mould. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

2. Slowly stir gelatin powder into mineral water. Stir over a pot of hot water until gelatin melts completely. Set aside.

3. Beat cream cheese, yoghurt and jam well. Fold in the whisked whipping cream in 3 additions. Stir well. Finally add in gelatin solution and stir well.

4. Pour filling into the cake mould. Refrigerate until set. Take out, unmould, garnish if you want and yum yum, enjoy!! ;)

Year End Celebration

2011-01-03T20:39:00.016+08:00

I was devastated. Brain stuffed and heavily suffocated. I needed plentiful of fresh air. I needed a get-away. So I plead, hinted, begged and finally forced my hubby to let us all go somewhere. Just somewhere.

Knowing me, my hubby still asked where could the destination be.

Knowing our financial status, I suggested Cameron Highlands since we have not been there for quite a while now.

So off we went. The weather, superb. Drizzling yes, but while we were out catching some fresh air, the rain almost always seized its way down. The hotel, not too bad. We stayed in the Century Pines Hotel recommended by my cousin. A last minute booking in fact, on-line. Yeah!

This time around, we actually went for strawberries picking. Jien enjoyed it so much!! And my Jung was squeezing the fruits and daddy gotta constantly watched him before we got chased out of the plantation. I had my wonderful charcoal steamboat filled with loads of vegetables!! The slice meat was wonderful! Yum yum!

On the way back, I brought back a one week's supply of vegetables and salad!! I am just so happy. :)

The only set back was the heavy traffic stretching from Tanah Rata and Brinchang. The amount of cars choking the road were just a pain. I wonder how the locals can take this...

My boys enjoyed the cold weather just as much as I did. Jung was even reluctant to take off his sweater! Funny boy.

After the trip, we waited for Jien's birthday. I was so utterly busy with my schedule but at the back of my mind, I wanted to celebrate his birthday - a party, as Jien requested. A promise I wanted to fulfill.

So I set out a 2 days' earlier party. A weekday. Nonetheless, my good friends and their kids turned up for the party alright. It was fun and our house was filled with lots of laughters and joy!

The kids were happily playing in the playroom and the adults were enjoying the Hin Hua noodle and the bak kut with black soy sauce prepared by me. Yes. Me. While it was still a working day for me! Phew! I wonder how I did that?! I also prepared a pot of vege soup, grilled pock chop and fried chicken wings! The food was all swept up by the end of the night! I was so pleased!! :)

The kids went home with their small X'mas gift from us and the adults went home with a full tummy!! Great!

And of course, our birthday boy was happy too! He got his bicycles from us and loads of gifts from the aunties and uncles.

He loves this - from aunty Prudy. Instead of the bicycle..Hmmm

x x x x x

Next, on Jien's birthday, we set out down south- Singapore!! Yes, our friends offered us their house for our short stay! Marvellous!

So it is Singapore Zoo again! This time around with our little Jung. We expected Jien to enjoy himself in the zoo but our little Jung was also brimmed with excitement in the zoo. We spent a whole day in the zoo! And the water park in the zoo literally siphoned out all the energy from our kids! They slept so soundly shortly after watching the sea lion and dog show.

This Christmas, we told ourselves- no more Orchard Road. We made a right choice. We just stayed in. The rain was pouring hard but the house was filled with warmth joy of friendship, a simple roast chicken dinner with salad.

The kids danced, the adults laughed. Oh what joy!

Before we headed back home, we stopped by at the Jurong Bird Park. This time, both were down with mild fever, cough and running nose. I hope the birds did not catch any of these! Goodness. Well, kids are kids, being a bit sicky never bring their mood down too far. They still managed to run, shout and most importantly - enjoy themselves. They just loved watching the penguins! ;) As for me, I enjoyed the walk, but the crowd.

Mid way home, we stopped by at Malacca. Again, a last minute booking online just about a day before our stay! And the rate is much better than making a CALL direct. Weird but who cares.

It was a 5-star (really? I rate it as 4-star) Philea Resort Hotel, a new hotel just about 2 minutes drive after the Air Keroh exit. We just wanted a break in between. Again, our aim is to stop, not to venture into the city. And so again, we made the right choice. The hotel is new, less than 6-months old maybe. They have got a nice setting. With buggy picking up guests to the lodge. The lobby is grand! But something is amiss. The restaurant is big, but something is missing..the ambiance is lacking, the romantic feel in the restaurant is just not there.........no pictures, no decor..hmmm.....but my kids enjoyed the buggy ride. They enjoyed watching the big swimming pool. Oh yes, they did not ask to go venture into the pool. Maybe they knew for themselves that they were not fit to do that. Poor thing! ;)

It was all worth it. With so little budget, we spent our holidays so wonderfully. With so much time spent with the boys, they are like super glue now to us. Sigh! The downside of a holiday! Ha!

Happy New Year and have a great start to all!

Moments

2010-12-21T09:00:00.001+08:00

The best pictures do not need the best camera.

The best pictures need not the most beautiful face.

It needs just that special moment.

That smile from a kid. That very naughty and mischievous look that capture, especially, a mom's heart..

Upper pictures : taken by Jien

Lower pictures : by me and Jien just adores them because he said his brother is just so CUTE in those pictures!

Merry X'mas

2010-12-20T09:00:00.000+08:00

Just to wish friends and blogger friends out there - Merry X'mas and a very good holidays to all of you and best wishes for a brand new year, leaping high like the RABBIT! :)

Conversations w Jien II

2010-12-03T09:00:00.000+08:00

Sometimes working from home means one has to tahan with the noise and the constant interruptions that the monsters create from the back ground.

Since Jien's computer is small and inconsistent, he always seized the chance when I took a break to sneak into my office to play with my computer.

Sometimes it gets on my nerves if he is not willing to budge when I return.

Just the other day, he got me really furious, as I was really not pleased that he is spending too much time on the machines.

As I was raising my voice and shouting my lungs out, I blurted and said

'Ok, I am not going to work from home like this. I will go out and work just like papa. You boys stay at home with Aunt N. Mama is surely moving OUT!'

'Oh no mama, NO! You don't "work" like papa, you "work" HERE mama. Here you go mama! I love you mama (giving me a big hugz!!)

Just as I thought how sweet my boy is and then he said

'You 'walk' like this mama..'

"Tata tata tata.........." wondering what he is doing?

He is marching away...............

Working ,'WALKING' ??........

DUH................

Conversations w Jien

2010-12-02T09:09:00.003+08:00

'Mama, the computer is not working again...'
'What happened?'

'I don't know. I GIVE UP'

*gulp* I had never know the meaning of giving up until I was like ..... year old (too shy to fill in the blank)

'Mama, I am so sad'
'Why?'

'Well, the computer is not working.'
'Can you wait for papa to come home so that he can fix it?'

'But where is papa?'
'Papa is working.'

*silent*

'Mama, can you take me to the airport?'
'Huh? Why AIRPORT?'

''Coz I am so sad and I miss my computer..'
*Me - Can't stop laughing.........*

'Oh, mama. Please don't laugh. I am sad!'

Awwww.............

Rainy

2010-11-30T09:00:00.000+08:00

It has been raining practically everyday now in Klang Valley. And I love to watch rain drops. Now I can see them in a different perspective. From bottom up, from our car porch.

I had purposely punch a hole in the car porch roof to welcome more natural light into the car porch and the house. So with a sheet of glass, we now can watch the rain and the lovely plant from 'beneath'.

When I saw the circles hitting the glass, I said 'Nice!'

My Jien heard it.

So everytime he saw me gazing the rain drops, he would say 'It is nice, mama!'

Copy cat! ;)

Penguin Family

2010-11-29T09:26:00.000+08:00

For about more than 2 months in our house since we moved in, we are bugged by this penguin - PINGU.

Jien has been so obsessed with him since we subscribed to the fiber optic thingy which is first launched in our area and Bangsar. So my son, Jien especially will be glued to the TV first thing in the morning. He would speak like one, walk like one and the gruesome part is he memorize the series so well that he would make the same sound at the exact same time! Ewww!

Good thing is now we have to subscribed to this particular channel to watch them, so we do NOT subscribe and the boys are off from being penguins now. Phew! *cold sweat*

Having said that, we, the very 'nice' parent, still, from time to time, allow them to watch the VCDs that we bought (oh please, he already knows how to operate the player since more than a year ago??). This picture is among the hundreds taken by Jien using my handphone. *shake-head*

So now he always associate himself with Pingu and his brother - Pinga. :)

THAT, is cute.

Pom Pom

2010-11-26T10:06:00.003+08:00

Lately, my younger son Jung is just so extra cute and funny.

He is slow in 'talking' but lately he could finally speak more like 'this one', 'apple', 'nana' (banana), 'yes' 'no' 'up' 'dun' (down), and one of them is 'pom' ...

Every evening, aunt-N (maid) will shower him. But when he saw us (aka, me/hubby) all getting ready to go into the bathroom, he would want to pull down his pants and diaper so that he can 'pom-pom' AGAIN. This time, in the bath tub.

We have a big one at home, it is a FUN playground for him. It is coincidental, that we have this big tub, a cast-insitu terrazo tub. We have that big space after extension and I can't be having a huge shower for not much of purpose. And of course in the back of our mind, we want the kids to have fun in the bathroom, they love water!

At first, we thought of buying the standard ones in the market. But a standard one is so small, too small for both of them. So we thought, ok, look for a double-size ones - but hang on, the price is not doubled, it is almost 4 to 5 times more expansive!

So after talking to my contractor of what I like, we decided - terrazo!

It is not too slippery and we can build it to the max of the space! So now all 4 of us can go in and it is still roomy!! ;)

So there u go, the 'pom-pom' time now always stretch to a good half an hour or more but it sure is a fun and memorable time!

Thinking Mode

2010-11-25T10:25:00.006+08:00

I am extremely busy lately. Well, as usual.

And when I am thinking, I mean having deep thoughts; when I am forcing my creative juice of my noodle, when I am twirling my pencil trying hard and quick to come out with something - I need warm air! Yes, I can't think when the air con is in full blast. Just can't.

I remembered having to escape down to the library section in my previous office to do that. Or go out to the cafe nearby, anywhere but not in the freezing dry air in the office!

So sometimes hubby will come back and ask, 'Aren't you feel stuffy and hot in here?'

I just brushed it off with a big smile. ;)

(*picture showing my cheeky son peeping through the intended gap for ventilation just so that I don't I run out of air in my office while thinking! ;P)

Where to GO?

2010-11-24T10:29:00.007+08:00

We have been hit quite badly after moving
to this new house. I mean our pocket is now in CRISIS. Well, considering whacking the old shattered house and almost rebuilding in that sense....

But the traveler bit of me is bugging me lately. I have not traveled to NEW places since like ages ago. Yes, I do traveled to Singapore just last year but that is like RE-visiting. I don't consider that so REFRESHING.

But with small budget, where can we go? Yes, I mean WE. I can't do without my boys. Neither can they. So, any suggestions?

(picture showing our little green patch on the 1st floor........oh! how I wish to trek somewhere, with my back pack and of course, this time, I must picture it with my boys too! haha!)

New Art Piece

2010-11-03T10:44:00.003+08:00

I did not know my 4-yo son can do so many things with computer now.

I intended to place some of his art piece here awhile ago and while browsing the files, I accidentally saw some of the files not saved by me. They were his 'computer graphics' art which he named them and saved them file by file accordingly like 'Ice Cream', 'apple' (which he used the red back ground, wow), 'train', 'sun' etc...simply so cute! I compiled them all and they simply look gorgeous to me!

Oh, and yesterday, I left my live messenger on with an old friend of mine, I left to attend a meeting only to find my friend calling me and said 'Hey, your son is Skype'ing with me! He said that he is hungry and that u went out to work. He said "I miss u, papa"!!' Well, it must be that during the time when hubby was away, I always msn him and our son is watching closely ler!! So he must have thought that daddy was 'talking' to him again...

Whoa! Kids nowadays...

Praises

2010-10-01T09:00:00.001+08:00

My main contractor said he is really 'not free' having to entertain the passerby that called him or bugged him during the construction of my house. He said there are really quite a handful (well, exaggerating on his part of course). Anyways, for most contractors, they would be so happy to entertain so that they can rope in more possible clients. But unfortunately, this contractor friend of mine just do BIG projects. He is doing it for me as a favor as a buddy. Some even told him this: "you just COPY (hello??!) the design of the house and quote for mine la." WTF??!

Now, we ourselves had our neighbours (or are they?) coming in during / after construction of the house to demand to see the interior of the house. Initially, yes, during the early construction stage. We would not mind. But hey, there are some, after us telling them we are the owner, for privacy purpose, they are NOT allowed. And still, these thick faces still say, for a quick look only. Just a quick look at the MASTER BEDROOM toilet. HELLOOOOO!! Knock knock!! Though, at that time, we had boxes and things look messy and all, as if we are not moved in. BUT helleer, we said PLEASE, no. Gently and politely too! I feel like calling the police for intruders!

Well, of course, there are some nice neighbours and sincere comments and praises. I have to say that I am very proud of the house. Every single detail is drawn and discussed with the contractor or sub-contractor. All my friends love the house, even bringing their friends to see the house! Goodness.

It is a kind of encouragement. A kind of affirmation for the work. Hard work.

I am really glad.

They encouraged me to send for some local magazines for publications. I am still doubtful. Every time I look at the house, I have to say, I really like it but is this SO SO special? And when I compare myself to some great architects, I feel so small and ..................maybe not!

Yesterday, a note from the letter box goes like this:

I am really glad. Even if I don't get the job after meeting this guy(who knows if he cannot afford my fees?? :P), I am still very very much a happy designer!

Hey, stranger! Thank you so much!

Missing the curlszz

2010-09-30T11:20:00.005+08:00

The other day, I was downloading some pictures off my camera, it has been awhile since I lay my hands on it. Poor camera.

And so the pictures flooded my computer. Tonnes of pictures. Browsing through the pictures, I came across some of the daily pictures I took only probably few months back which I thought I took it only, err, last week?? For that, I gotta remind myself, time flies. Take more pictures of the boys before they turn to me and say, 'mama, please-la, stop that please! This is not cool..'

So, here is one of them. I just love it. My lovely, handsome, playful Jung.

Oh.......How I miss those curlzzzz......they are all almost straightened now..:)

My boys

2010-09-28T15:57:00.003+08:00

It is hard to believe that my boys are now 4 and 1.5 yo!! Time flies...really..

And it is also hard to believe that they are so different from each other other than the look. Most say they are twins! Gosh!

.With Jien, my neighbours were surprised that we have a baby at home, because he hardly cry and he is soft when crying. With Jung, I bet my neighbours 1km away can hear him loud and clear..ahem!

. Jien loves reading; Jung only tear and throw books! :)

. Jien loves indoor and my Jung is a 100% athlete material. He is strong, fast, agile.

. Jien is gentle, loving and cuddly. Jung is full with jealousy, a fighter, fierce and he bites and pinches!! So be warned!

So with all these differences, there are chaos everyday in the house. They fight, push, squeeze, bite, chase each other. Then another minute, we will hear laughters. Then another minute, complaints and cry.

Everyday, without fail. So my neighbours had heard the crazy mother's screams too. Everyday. Without fail. (they must have regretted having me as their new neighbour)

This woman must be insane.

Yeah. I AM going insane. Bless you. :)

New School

2010-09-22T17:06:00.002+08:00

With our new home, new address hence we gotta find our 4-year-old a new school.

Got one, damn nice one, with beautiful classroom (fully a/c), nice clean and proportionate (for the kids) toilets for boys and girls, nice landscape with safe playground, clean and airy canteen, computer room, a hall (for a kindy??) and there is a big fountain to welcome the parents. According to hubby, their syllabus is good. Plus it is less than a good 5 minutes drive from home!! Ahmm..sounds fantastic right?? Well, it has gotta be balanced off with the correct weight of dollar and cents of course.

Well, anyways, we weigh it all and thought, 'well, let's give this boy a try..' More of saying let's give the teacher a try knowing fairly well that our son is kinda 'problematic' child.

It turned out well. Our son was all so excited to go to school that very day. We put on nice blouse and pants for him. He looked cheerful and the very next day, the same thing.

I tried to catch some short conversations with the class teacher to find out more about our son. Whether he is ok, bla bla bla.

It turned out that he is still pretty much absent minded, not answering to the teacher, duh..

Today, the 3rd day. I went to pick him up-LATE! Very late. I was totally absorbed into discussion with my client and forget to pick up my son. What a mother??

Good thing is the school is so darn near. I zoomed in after a good 25 mins LATE. I double-checked my phone just in case the teacher called. No, no calls!

The school was almost empty, no lights for classrooms and I hurried my steps. Ah! Lights in HIS class. His shoes! Ok, better. Then I peeped in and saw his teacher browsing her phone while my son was playing with the toys. Phew!

'Ah! Look, your mommy is here!' said the teacher in Mandarin.

We exchanged a few notes. She actually said that our son is SMART. What?! Smart? No teacher ever says that to me.

She says there would be a short presentation coming up end this week. There would be dancing and all. So they are practicing the steps in the class and my son being him, is not willing to participate. He was playing and reading the books and all......She was caught by surprised that when she played the music while waiting for me, the boy is dancing and doing the steps, the correct steps she said! :)

Not too bad.

So the journey home I can see myself smiling all the way......a happy mother indeed. Ha!

Breathless

2010-09-02T09:52:00.005+08:00

Yes, I am a bit 'breathless' nowadays. No, I don't look great and make other 'breathless'. I am breathless! I think I need a check up. Stress I suppose.

Anyway, there are reasons behind these breathless thingy. Other than work, I think the biggest cause is my darling dear Jien. He is utterly so rebellious off late. He would turn a deaf ear when we are in the mall, so if you see a woman yelling and screaming for her son - that would be ME. He would watch TV whole day if permits and would pounce and sit on his brother; he would not come down for dinner; he would just do his colouring for a good 2 mins and wonder off; he would still pee / poo in the pants if he is in front of the computer screens etc etc...

That all blew my blood streams. I could sense my fire burning and bursting. I, screamed, yelled, hit the sofa, broke the cloth hanger.........sigh...

After all that, I found that my son is the resilient type. He is also the forgetful type for doing all these clown acts which he repeats day in day out. And he never listens!! Duhhhhh!!

Catching my breath, deep breath.....I tuned down, soft talk, so soft that I can't even hear my voice and weird thing is he sort of *zing!!* and give me that 'I got it, mama!!'

Argghh, kids!

Slowly settling IN

2010-08-11T14:00:00.004+08:00

It was a slow start, our renovation. Then up to the 2nd month, I complaint to my contractor. Then suddenly everything zoom and vrrooomm and now we finally moved in...

We moved our luggages, books and garbage (yeah, after a long 5 years, I realized I had collected lots of them!!) to our new house one fine Saturday, 31 July. We moved in with the carpenters still working in the house!! Haha!! Well, we had to as I had promised my tenant for our apartment, so we had to move no matter what.

Good thing I have a very accommodating and understanding AND of course very helpful MIL, FIL and SILs. We left our maid in their place for almost almost a week while I clean and tidy up the messes in the house. It was extremely tiring having to go to and fro everyday to our hometown but we missed our kids so dearly. Well, my consolation is the wonderful dinner, the hugs and smell of my kids and I gotta spend 2 extra hour in the car ALONE with my husband. :)

When we decided to move them back, the house is almost there with more cabinets done and completed. I am so worried about the noise, dust and the dangerous tools that the carpenters used but strangely my boys are ok with it. They stayed upstairs all the time, enjoying the new found SPACE and of course the big bath tub that we specially have for them to splash!! My boys were so happily soaking themselves in the water and forget all about missing the old house and the noise downstairs!!

'So, Jien, do you want to stay here in our new house or you want to go back to our old house?'

'I want to stay in our new house, I want to stay with YOU, mama..'

Hmmmm........It is all worth it then..

This picture was taken during the construction. This picture shows the 'air well' created by using ventilation blocks to screen off the afternoon hot sun to the living and master bedroom; this screen also gives us more privacy too, we now can keep the windows and sliding door open to let the air flows freely!! I took the picture because I was utterly in love with the shadow play it creates! Such wonderful surprises for me.

And I love the natural clay colour decorating the otherwise cold colour of the house. I can't wait to have pots of plant to blend in more green to the air well.

More pictures next. Gotta catch up with my work! tata

Moved

2010-08-09T10:23:00.000+08:00

6.8.2010.WE.HAD.FINALLY.MOVED-INTO.OUR NEW HOUSE.

Google

2010-06-29T17:23:00.004+08:00

Ever since he discovered the power of spelling and words, my son now GOOGLE.

Yes, he would key in for example 'Baby Einsteins' and enter and he would then even go to You Tube to watch baby Einsteins from the computer!

Well, I don't know, should I be happy for that? I don't know.

All I know is ..I HAVE TO SPEND MORE TIME WITH MY SON IN FRONT OF COMPUTER NOW..!! Yeah, who knows he might accidentally view some ahhhemm..stuff.......??!!

3.5 year-old and google...I still cannot believe it myself!

House

2010-06-28T10:11:00.002+08:00

House is so important.

Especially for me, house needs to be cozy, comfortable and also be quite tastefully done...at least to my eyes. :)

So as I mention, the house is almost almost there. I am pretty excited over the look. Of course, any house will look so much better without grilles and so is ours... ahhhh...those nasty looking grilles. Well, apa boleh buat...

The other day, I brought a new friend of mine (a client of mine actually) who happened to be in Interior business doing built-ins. He was all too excited when he sees the house. He wanted to do the built-ins, no sharing with others........as he wanted it to be his and his profile only. He adores the concept and all......bla bla bla.

Deep inside, I know he won't be my contractor and so it is true. The cost is almost 3 folds of my the other contractor. Wah!! 3 BIG FOLDS!! But I am really happy and proud that him, being an ID, loves the house! ;)

So be it, I know the house will still look good with my the other contractor..

I don't need 6 figures ID job to make my house look EXTRA good. Architecturally it is already nice and all I need is some very basic built-ins to store things, that's all.

Can't wait to move in! About a month more to go!! Yippie!

Deserted blog

2010-06-17T09:39:00.002+08:00

I was so occupied with works and my new house-to-be that I have absolutely deserted my blog site and also my fellow blogger friends...

It was a crazy May and June is worse. I can feel each of my nerve beeping with siren! Yes, I am stressed up. I admit that. With stress, I don't get any thinner but I grow side ways..duh, that makes things worse for me!

BUT BUT BUT I am really glad that the house is looking good now..from its poorly maintained, tattered, old fashion, disaster interior state, it is now slowly transforming into a more vibrant, lofty, modern, airy and well-lit house. Yes, ours is an intermediate house, but we have so much light in our living room and kitchen and all rooms!! I am pleased. Pictures? Wait la..belum siap lagi..

Kids? The elder one almost fractured his bone the other day, again..yeah..almost. We went to my friend's house, the huge TV was placed on a mini side table and dear son, with his itchy hands went touching it (or leaning? or pushing? God knows!) and all I heard was a loud thud! And I thought, oh Lord, I hope the TV does not smashed .......as it would cut the boy!! Blood! OMG!

No la, just minor accident. Yes, I did go crazy at that moment. I pushed the TV away, scooped up my boy and rushed to the hospital with a screaming boy. He is all fine and running now but I still have this occasional back cramps. Hey! It was a good 6 hours of waiting and getting the foot (well, feet, yeah, both but NOT at ONE-go and for that extra X-ray, we waited for an extra 1.5 hour!! fffff...) X-rayed bla bla bla....

The little one? Walking is like running for him!! He is super active and climbing is his forte! He loves biting his brother and we all know that it is because he loves him so much! wakakaka!!

This little one is more tuned into Astro - Xiao Tai Yang than Playhouse Disney! One Cina AhPek we have but boy we are glad! :)

Till then...........

Singing Bird & Dancing Baby

2010-05-18T17:09:00.002+08:00

For the last few weeks, our house is filled with the songs from the purple Barney. And so my Jien, knowing how to operate the player, plays it almost everyday..and the songs always play in my mind now. And worst of all, I find myself singing the songs too! Duh...half a century old and singing Barney's songs...aiyoyo..

And then I find my boy really sing! He sings so well and I am all surprised and of course, very pleased. :) He remembers the lyrics and the funny thing is, he raps too!

So while he is rapping away (or mumbling away), my lil one there is dancing the bit away. The way he dances is just so so CUTE! He would bend his knees like a rapper and it is just so cool. It is the best entertainment at night lately. Haha!!

Glad to know that my boys love and enjoy music just as much as we do.. :)

Special Moment

2010-05-13T16:47:00.003+08:00

I love it when,

..that I am working, I bring my kids along too. Yes, they are playful. But hey, they are kids. (Plus they are boys! :O ) So when my maid was back home for 2 weeks, my boys were happy following me around. I bet they enjoyed it too.. But I can't be doing this too often, it is way too tiring yelling at one and carrying the other. ;) And of course, construction sites are dangerous.

..that my 2 kids were too playful that they refused to sleep in the afternoon. Comes night time, they were already in bed at 9p.m. both. That leaves me with my hubby some time to be ALONE; we did some chatting, play some VCD to watch bla bla bla...Wait, did I tell you that this only happens TWICE so far? ;P

..that hubby came back early from work, and I was done for the day early too! So we would go to the park with the kids, had early dinner and just the other day, we were at KLCC park and the kids were so happy.

..that I could join my kids for a nap in the afternoon if I am really exhausted. It feels good.

..that we are playing hide and seek in the house (though small). This happened only yesterday. The house were filled with laughter and chuckles.

All these special moment rarely happen, but they are such treasure moment to savor.. :)

Birthday Party

2010-05-03T09:00:00.005+08:00

We don't have parties to go to for a long long time and now we are sending our kids to one...lately. It was a BIG birthday party to start with. The birthday boy is a 5yo, my best friend's son. And the theme - the ultimate BEN TEN.

As we arrived there at the scene, the Ben Ten posters, banners, balloons, cake were there to greet us already! The kids were playing in the indoor playground; some lil girls were having good time doing pedicure (man, I don't do pedicure till I was like 30-yo? shoot!); some were enjoying the photo-frame decoration session and have their pictures taken by a professional photographer, got it printed out instantly and framed and bring home as a door gift, brilliant!

The adults? Busy eating and chomping down the food.......haha!! And of course, most were busy chatting away and let the maids do the chasing and shouting. Us? Take turns lo, we hardly (never) bring the maid out. She needs time-out anyways. Later, more gifts and fun with the magician.

The sparks in the b-day boy shined. Oh who would not?? Such a big huge party! How lucky are kids nowadays heh?? My Jien thoroughly enjoyed himself and us too as everything was paid for and all we need to buy was a present for the b-day boy...kekekeke...

So how much would you splash and spend for your marvelous kids' birthday? 3-figure, 4-figure or in this case, 5-figure!?? ;P

Jung turned ONE YEAR!

2010-04-05T14:36:00.004+08:00

This post comes way too outdated. My Jung is exactly One Year + 3 weeks old now.

Just a few days before his birthday, like normal days, he would go to sleep earlier than us. Just like normal days, we would pile up heaps of pillows surrounding him. Ok, confession, we, as in my 2 boys must sandwich me to sleep soundly at night (Jien is worst, he must have me on bed or refuse to go to sleep till now!).

So, hubby was away in Taiwan for work assignment and I have to handle the boys by myself at night. Just I picked up the phone trying to make a call to hubby and walking towards the room, I heard a loud thud. A very familiar ones, with Jien, probably that happens like god knows how many times....

I rushed to the room only to find my poor baby on the floor, crying. Damn, I was just a few steps away from the door and him! If only I walked faster!

My poor boy was screaming. Well, this is not his first fall but this time the scream was quite alarming. But it somehow subsided, but I can still hear him crying in his dream. I have to keep soothing and talking to him for over an hour plus before he really drifted off. Now, as mother, I sensed that something is not right but since it is already late and he was so tired, I just watched him just in case anything went wrong.

Damn, I noticed he cried everytime he tried to turn his body. I could not bring myself to sleep that night. Like a half asleep owl, I woke up, checked his temperature, check his breathing, check his movements. By morning, I was totally absolutely entirely worn out.

Now, every morning, this boy of mine would wake up with the best smile ever to his parents and my maid. We love greeting him in the morning. But not that very morning. He cried. He wanted to be carried. And not willing to crawl at all!!

ALARMED.

We picked the boys, packed our bags and RUN to his pediatrician. Good thing, no waiting. She got a check and press both his collar bone. He cried when she gently pressed on his left side. She too alarmed. Quickly wrote a referral letter and we then sped home to send Jien to our neighbour to babysit whilst pick up baby's lunch and rushed again to the hospital.

One thing good is I have 2 cheerful babies. Eventhough if they are sicky, they don't usual wail and cry. They look good and still basically, cheerful.

But this time around, the stressful and tensed air filled my car. My baby probably felt it and he was a bit uneasy too....Damn.

Thank god that the Q for X-ray was short and my baby DID NOT cry in the X-ray room!

Whilst waiting, we went for lunch and rested.

Time is ticking fast, and ................finally we got our result....

"No fracture and no dislocation noticed"

Me and my maid both gave a big loud sigh of relieved!! :) And my baby woke up from his sleep and gave me a good smile. I was so happy that probably he sensed that too!!

That very nite, he could put down his hand and shift his weight to his hand while sitting. And by morning, my baby was already crawling like normal.

x x x

On his birthday, I was so sick probably stressed over work and taking care of the 2 while hubby was away. High fever and bad bad bad sore throat. So no baking cake for my poor Jung as I planned to. Hubby bought a cake, we sang a birthday song ; I took a few pictures with Jung and quickly hide under my blanket and sank into the bed. Not even eating the cake!!

Good thing is we have actually celebrated his birthday a day earlier with his cousins or poor Jung will have such a non memorable birthday. (well, as if he could remember)

xxx

My Jung could now walked about 20 steps in total and prefer walking than crawling now. He is a food lover, any food, any junk whatever, he would put in his mouth to satisfy his curiosity...

He loves his brother though Jien always pushes him and bang his head (yeah, poor thing). He watches his brother with such admiration and care and I just hope that one day, they can really be good buddies.

He does not appreciate music as much as Jien do and his way of dancing is just so cute - shaking his head!! haha! I can see that he is more active, physically and in many ways, very very different from Jien. He is expressive, 'talks' A LOT and LOUD. He loves companionship, loves to be among kids and laughed together with them (even though he is obviously clueless of what the kids are laughing or playing! :) Just too cute.

His hair is so silky black and still wavy and I have no heart to cut it real short for him. And so 90% of people we met mistaken him as a girl though he is in a boy's blouse, navy blue, khaki brown, boys pajamas etc. Well, I am fine with it, I knew it is his hair and of course, I have a beautiful baby, kekekeke ;P

Jung, mama loves you..mua muak muahhhhh!

Happy Birthday, my baby!!

Spelling. Oops!

2010-03-30T09:02:00.002+08:00

So now my Jien is beginning to READ.

Other than his books, if I am reading the papers, he would spot out the words that he could pronounce and recognize, then point and read them out to me. One of his favourite TV channel - AFC, being his favourite because they have lots of simple word appearing during the advertising bits, so he could read out loud.

So the other day hubby was watching other channel on the TV, non-English so it was with English sub-title. Our son was trying very hard to read them on the screen, not many words that he recognized....until he blurted out something which actually appeared there...

"WHAT THE HECK!"

with no mistakes, perfect pronunciation!

Oops!...

Colours - colourful!

2010-03-16T16:30:00.006+08:00

I just love kids-way of colouring. It is just so 'their'-way, colourful, playful and fun! :)

As Jien sees it! Done yesterday. I just love the color-combi!

Spelling

2010-03-16T10:00:00.001+08:00

Jien loves to do spelling. He is still reading his old picture books but this time around, he paid lots of attention to actually spell out the words.. He enjoys it. He started reading signs on the roads, reading some simple story books etc and I can tell that he is so happy as he can finally do some actual reading!!

And best of all, he is influencing his brother to start picking up books to 'read'.

So in the morning, there would be heaps of books lying on the floor as my Jung will start to read (flip, turn and EAT and CHEW!) the books. Oh, I am so proud, I must say! Haha!

My the other Baby- a peep inside!

2010-03-15T16:20:00.003+08:00

Ok, since there are requests to see the inside of my 'the other' baby, here are some of my favourites:

(right, read clockwise)
1. The high ceiling of the living room with some tropical touch. I love the water feature (see the stone studded urn?) and the pond signifying and dramatizing the 'entrance' to the space. I am so happy that the owner finally sold to the idea as during the construction period, they almost scraped and covered up the pond for wanting a bigger living space...See, my boy is enjoying with his friend and all my boys love the water feature! The sound of water is just so calming and pleasing in our hot and humid weather!

2. The bright and airy master bathroom. Need no artificial lighting of any kind during day time! The clients are pleased too!

3. The master bedroom. Read the continuous big sliding door that stream in abundance of light and air?! I just LOVE it!

4. The rustic feel of powder room. Yes, no 'window' but big opening to the blue sky from atop! See the bare cement wall? We love it. :)

5. The low entrance space opens up to a brighter, well-lit stair well.

I can't be showing every bits due to some respect to the owner la...

Like it?

Renovation. Bits

2010-03-10T09:14:00.002+08:00

The other day, we brought along our eldest son to our new house to be.

There were loud bangs of hammers hammering and shattering the walls; echoing in the hall full of debris, timbers, grilles, etc. My boy went 'What is that mama, what is that mama?' and he just covered his ears all the time, frightened.

We only uttered this:

'Remember? Restaurant Makeover ( A programme we watched in Astro 703 AFC) ?'

He instantly got it, get his hands off his ears and pretty much enjoying himself there, INSTANTLY.

:P

Renovations

2010-03-05T11:37:00.003+08:00

I don't know how many times I had been drawing and knocking down walls for other peopl's houses. This time it is MINE, yeah, OUR VERY OWN HOUSE, from the floor to the ceiling and to the roof!

Compared to our renovations done to our tiny apartment last time, this is at least 5x the work. Everything seems to be so old and meant to be torn and thrown.

If only we had more budget! Well, nevermind. I will twist and turn and squeeze my brain to make the house looks good with an extremely tight budget.

We finally started work on 3.3.2010! Consider a good date on the lunar calender. I just pray that everything goes well.

I have to reinforce myself with these reminders ALL the time :

1. This is just another house, relax....
2. Use your brain, cheap material can look good too...
3. Breath, DEEP breathe, remember - CANNOT argue with your partner during the process.

I have to say, being a designer, my brain always, yes, always flashes with ideas and images. It is nice that you can imagine things but when the images start to twist and kept coming or when you are trying to imagine hard for alternatives, I tell ya, it KILLS so many of my brain cells!! Haha...and when you see me staring in blank, and yes, I am not listening to whatever you are talking, nothing travels into my eardrum as my brain is flipping through images. GOSH, I tell ya, it must be tough being my partner sometimes.

Honey, I guess ya know what I mean..:)

Jung @ 11 mo

2010-03-02T15:09:00.004+08:00

Jung is such a cute pie now. He loves venturing out and loves 'kai-kai'. He would not mind in the car seat now, but 'PLEASE TAKE ME OUT!!'

Jung could stand without any support for more than a month and we are waiting for him to 'shift' his step and start walking. He is still pretty 'talkative' . Ooh and Aah aside, there are more of other 'consonant'-like cutie sound. We missed that though Jien and Jung is just 2 years+ apart!! Gosh!

Just about CNY, I was so so busy and poor baby has to start fully on bottle milk. A total of 6 months if not more, earlier than his brother and it was so easy!! He did not beg for my breasts and he is still a cheerful pie! :P Having said that, I still have to let in for him to suckle to sleep - thankfully only at night.

Well just ONE tiny thing about him - about stuffing things in his mouth!! I know babies love to do that but mine is just going over board it seems. The second he picks up a thing, he would stuff it in his mouth without examining! His records?
Left : Vicks (once, it was the Ru Yi Iu bottle and the lid accidentally opened and the 'hong iu' just POURED into his mouth!!)

Right of picture : SOIL (yes, SOIL!!)

Center : Toys but this one is just CUTE! :)

Yesterday, while I was doing some reading, the 2 boys were rummaging my make up shelf; the big one helped himself opening the lid and was enjoying the nice aroma of the expansive face moisturizer...the little one? Licking the roll-on deodorant when I rushed to stop the fellows! *smacked head *

Long-break Effects

2010-02-22T11:02:00.002+08:00

The holidays ended finally. Too fast and too short. I think.

I am slowly picking up myself to work. As usual, there are always things to draw, letters to type, phone calls to be made...and I put ALL that behind me and I am flipping through one of my favourite architectural magazines, newly arrived and hot in my hands..

I am not those springy and ever-in-the-high-spirit type of person. I need to settle and ease myself to the right mode every time.

I love the way the Chinese companies celebrate the 1st day of working though. Must dress up nicely, red if possible. Lit up the red long fire crackers to signify good luck- the thundering sound that breaks the normally quiet morning, I LOVE IT. It somehow lift up the spirit better (at least for myself). And the lion dance? I just simple LOVE it. Speaking of which, I did not see any performance- live, YET, this year. I could just hear the drums and symbols beating from afar... Anyways, this idea of celebrating the 1st day of work, it gives hope, it lifts up the spirit and it sets the mind to work harder and have a better year ahead!! I LOVE THE SPIRIT, I LOVE the positive attitude.

Maybe next year, I should do the same. YEAH!! I really think so! Great!

Oopsy! Waita-minute, does that mean that I am going to break the law?? :P

Gong Xi Gong Xi

2010-02-12T06:36:00.003+08:00

I am still working at the moment, imagine this....imagine a woman working few mornings ( yeah, 2am in the morning ), looking fat (sitting too much), messy hair, long un-pedicured nails, pale-looking and not forgetting that red-shot eyes...I think I have to hide myself this CNY! Hahaha!

Anyways, this Tiger year, I managed to squeeze out my limited available time (with hubby's assistance) to bake some cookies for us, MIL and my father! Phew! Baking simply because I think the cookies out there are just way too sweet and I just want to feel the hectic feel of CNY. Yeah, cleaning, baking, wiping, dusting - all the hard work before the CNY is quite a norm ever since I started working. :)

I want to wish everybody a very happy CNY and have a wonderful holiday! As for me, I am going to snooze the whole holiday. Zzzzzzz........;P

Another - the Mask

2010-02-02T15:47:00.010+08:00

I am extremely excited as this house is going to be exciting!!

I have to say that the initial idea is NOT from me but I carried through the idea, made some changes, improved it. Most importantly scaling to the right proportion and livable and here, we have the MASK... Hopefully, it will be completed by this Christmas!
Creating is torturous but exciting at the same time.

It is DONE!

2010-01-27T15:48:00.004+08:00

After 2+ long years on site, the house I like is finally ready. This weekend, I am going to take her pictures for CF purpose.

I. AM. SO. HAPPY.

3 YEARS

2010-01-20T15:15:00.004+08:00

Jien turned 3 last X-mas.

To me, this number 3-thing is so so special. It used to be so much yelling and screaming. Me. Not him. As I was trying to get him to follow instructions; to remind him that he needs to do his poo poo IN the toilet bowl, not OUTside the bowl; to tell him to go to the toilet to wee wee before he did it, not after he did it. The best is, he always love doing it on the carpet!

The screaming list goes on and on. In the mall, if you see a woman shouting and chasing, that is probably me. In the car, you will see a woman's face goes strangely stressed and stretched, that is me trying to get him not kicking the dash board. In the park, most likely you would find me running and chasing after a boy then having a wonderful evening stroll.

The screaming thing lessen ABRUPTLY when he turned THREE.

He listens to me MORE. He answers MORE instead of repeating what I asked or said. He enjoyed the park MORE. He loves to run, jump, play, in short, MORE active. LESS of him doing his biz on our pathetic carpet; the other day, I forget to put on his diaper before he goes to sleep and he surprised me with a dry pyjamas the next morning. :) He would still run in the mall but if he is with me, he is more careful and would turn and look for me sometimes!

He gave me time to work by asking,

J:'Mama, are you work(~ing)?'

'YES'

J:'Ok' then, he would help me close the door nicely and left to play on his own...ahhhh.....:)

He is of course, a bit jealous of his brother. But generally, I thought he is a good bro. He greets the little one good night, everyday and he will give me a wonderful, magical kiss on my lips when I go to sleep. :)

As a boy his age, he already cultivate a habit to read and learn. He would turned off the TV when he is bored and pick up his books, drawing board (still his favourite TOY) and now his exercise book and he would do the self-taught part, especially in the evening or in the morning if he is not going to school. So he could spell so many words and best of all, he is now FINALLY interested in learning Chinese character and I am so so glad. :)

Some 4 years ago, he was just a tiny dot in the womb and today he is a boy of almost a meter tall!

Jien, mama loves you and I know, you knew it. You taught me about love, the unconditional love and for that, mama will love you FOREVER! :)

Best of 2009

2010-01-18T15:12:00.003+08:00

The list goes like this:

1. Successful pregnancy. Non diabetics
2. My baby Jung was born, totally natural, without any epidural or drips. He is such a cutie pie and now he is turning 10-month old soon!! :)

3. Bought our new house. Yes!! Landed one. MORE space now! HOORAY!
4. My father turned 80-year-old!! And I pray he will still go on to celebrate his 100-yo birthday with us!! :)

5. My Jien attended the nursery without much fuss. He is the 'monitor' of the class I think. Monitor the class, standing most of the time, surveying the teachers' room, check the radio, checking the food, flip through the books at the rest corner and most of the time, watching others playing and cheers as an on-looker. I am SSSSSssssso...........proud.....?! Anyways, he was just 2+ then. I can't expect much; as long as he did not complaint much, I should be thankful already, heh? ;)

6. I can't think of any now, well I think I should count myself healthy and the rest of the close family members are all happy and healthy and blessed!!

7. I think being able to loose weight and fit into my old jeans within 5 months after pregnancy counts? :) Glad I did not turn into a big lump of fats after giving birth. Phew!

Seven is a good number, I think...and I hope I can have more lists to share with you all at 2010! Let the TIGER roar me high!! hahaha!

Happy New Year! Belated as usual..

2010-01-03T23:17:00.004+08:00

I am so so so busy and finally here I am again! Hello friends out there (waving hands, madly) !! How do you do and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Work is starting to pour in and money wise, I have yet to see but I certainly need good planning this year as time is flying and with 2 kids now, the usual work that I need a good 3 hours to complete seems to be taking days (forever) and THAT is certainly not what I have expected and it is getting on to my nerves and I need to deal it with care before I go CRAZY.

Well, we managed to squeeze in a mini trip down to Singapore on Jien's birthday (to update some pictures later) for X'mas. The journey was not too bad. Maybe we were both mentally prepared for the worst. Haha!! We put up 4 days in our friend's house and the boys, friendly as they could be, did not show much tantrum (good lord! ;P).

We spent a good day in the zoo. Yeah, a good day means a WHOLE day. It started from around 10.30am to almost 5pm in the evening when we 'touched down' our friend's home!! The boys were so tired and knocked out once they hit the car. Haha!! And I myself was fast asleep that night.

I had a 2 days' crash-course learning WHO IS ADAM LAMBERT. My girl friend in Singapore was so crazily fascinated and in love with this young chap and not wanting to feel left out when we next have a gathering, she actually showed me the idol's first and till the last move - being boycott. Handsome, yeah...ok. Talent? Yes. I think he has powerful vocal. And he is a natural entertainer. Hmmm.......crazy for an idol? Me...nuh..no time. I have 3 boys already. Not another one ppppppleeease!

One of my highlights during the trip was to meet my LOOOOOOOOOOOONG lost friend. We last seen each other like probably 20 years ago? :) We have found each other again and guess what? We both ended up as designers!! We are now mother for 2 kids and we worked from HOME! What a coincidence and this time around, I don't think we are ever going to lose touch again, eh?? :P

x x x x

Resolutions?

I am certainly going to ENJOY my life more!! This is my resolutions!! Living my life to the FULLEST!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Hugzzz!!

SUEH!! puik puik!!

2009-12-11T11:15:00.002+08:00

Oh it was a terrible November!!

First I was so so busy with work, but then, the client did not pay!! It is an ID job and we are the contractor. After paying half of the work, he had been using his partner as an excuse. 'Oh my partner went for Haj, after that should be ok' 'oh.. I am waiting for the funds myself' After that, 'oh he is very tired after Haj, so busy, I can't even see him myself'. After that, sick la, oversea la, whatever bullshit you could think of....

Then it is the stubborn bacteria/virus that cause all my 3 boys to be sicky for more than a month!! Goodness...!! Well, good thing is they don't have fever. I consider that lucky.

Then the BIG thing. Our house got broken into!! Yes. We only realised that 2 days later as the house was not in a mess AT ALL. I am not going to elaborate. Too painful to bring back the story. We had lost 4 nice watches (our birthday's gifts to each other), some cash, some jeweleries and a laptop.... I certainly think it is an inside job - the guards!! They are new (I don't know why the stupid management changed the team as the last badge was SO GOOD!) and they don't look good / kind. :( Yes, the police came, did a report and took some finger prints. THAT WAS IT?? My Iranian neighbour was so shock that the police did not question the guards nor get any CCTV records from the management nor asking the neighbours what-so-ever, NONE. Yes, we paid the police's salary but their job is to make reports only. Catching the thief, oh ppppleeeaseee!!

Then I realised I lost some keys for my project. I need to replace the locks. S.H.I.T.

Then another job the Contractor blew up the job as the carpenter was admitted to the hospital and I gotta find another one to continue the job. I hate working with this one as I knew that he is not that honest and his costing is SKY HIGH as we need to pay for his super luxury lifestyle - branded T-shirts, luxury cars and houses. Haha!! If not because I had to deliver to my client and the fact that I can't get my other contractors to help (year end and CNY rush), I would tell him - GO FLY KITE!!

Then the i-phone decided to give up yesterday!!

I am really drowning!!

Lucky thing - my boys loved me and my hubby supports me ALL THE WAY!! Nobody gets hurt and we still have lots to eat, a house to stay (a new one in fact coming our way)..what else to ask?

I reeeally need to have a GOOD YEAR to start next ...Pray pray pray...!!

Turning 8 months

2009-11-26T09:26:00.006+08:00

Jung turned 8 months old last Sunday.

This little boy of ours had a nickname, cili padi. We thought of the name because he is so tiny compared to his brother at birth and even now :)..but not his voice and cries, it is super loud, clear and ALARMING!! So that's why, cili padi.

Being little, this little one is very very agile and fast. He already crawling with his limbs and not on tummy any more at about time just pass 7months. He was already learning how to stand 2 weeks ago and already cruising his way about the same too. Now it is his exploration period and he would go round the house checking and biting things. This, of course, includes visiting the toilet if we forget to close the door...

He got this bad running nose germ either from his father or brother a couple of weeks back and with that, with us forcing him to drink his medicine, with the bunch of teeth trying to push their way out of his gum, his voice was at the loudest mode for weeks now and whowww, that was truly something to EXPERIENCE, babe! :P

Oh yes, a bunch of teeth alright! From one tooth, all of the other teeth (5 of them) decided that it is about time and while making their way out, my boy was at his most irritable period; he bites almost anything to ease himself. Toys, papers, plastics and today I just realised that he bit his spoon too and the plastic thingy chipped off and ok, where is that tiny bit now?? Don't ask me.

He loves the outdoor. He loves the playground and we can surely see that he is so different from his brother.

Hair? Still curly and wavy as ever and thicker now. I just gave the brothers a hair cut the other day. One ended up with a mushroom hairstyle and the other gave up the Korean Star quality already.

What a bundle of joy.

Neighbour

2009-11-20T10:51:00.002+08:00

The other day, I decided to take the boys down for a walk. On the way out, I saw my neighbour with her grandson both standing outside the house with a guard probing the lock. She, an Iranian, with her very broken English, said that the key was broken and stuck. She said it should be alright, the guard is helping her anyway.

I had not spoken to this very neighbour of mine though they had moved in for maybe 6 months now. Yeah, bad. Real bad of me right, so snobbish and UN-friendly. I know. But apartment living is like this I suppose. You lockthe door and you just don't see anybody else. I can't be knocking their door and say HELLO?? So the most is an occasional HELLO if we bump into each other in the lift. And the worst part is, I go out of the house during the non-peak hours, so to be frank, I hardly know my neighbours - horizontally (same floor ) or vertically (worse still). BUT BUT BUT I do see their maids though. Most maids and old folks bring the kids down to play and I am more 'familiar' with these faces...duh...

So back to my story...

When I got down, it started to drizzle, so I picked up the letters and went up straight. She was still there. Without any hesitant, I invited her in the house. Apparently the guard could not fix it and he had to get a locksmith. I talked to the locksmith over the phone, I knew he must be a Chinese somehow and it would be better if I do the talking. He said the fix would cost RM120 and asked whose house was that. I said my neighbour, an Iranian family. I told the old lady about the price, she said she does not have that much now but her son will be back soon. I told the him to come, I will pay first. He said DON'T. He said his experience with these people are NOT GOOD. They don't pay and asked me not to do this, just forget about it. I steadfastly assured him that I would pay. 'DON'T.WORRY.JUST.COME!' I think I am doing the right thing. Even if the son does not pay me later, I don't want the poor lady to be stranded out with the 2.5 yo and it was near dinner time!

So while waiting, we had a 'conversation' (see, it is quite hard to grab what she meant with her limited vocabs) and the boys were enjoying each other companion and started playing.

Soon after, hubby came back and this handy man of mine took less than 30 seconds to probe open the door. The old lady was so relieved. I called off the locksmith and he was relieved too. :P

ALL SET and the best thing was that sets on our friendships. My Jien happily strut in their house and played with his new friend and refused to come back home until we had to drag him back for his dinner.

The other day, the lady cook us a bowl of yummy Iranian noodle soup. All ingredients flown in from Middle East. It is very rich and delicious.

I am glad that it all turns out so rosy and sweet.

Growing Lettuce

2009-11-16T14:58:00.004+08:00

Hmmm..it seems that you girls out there want to try out this greenie lettuce heh??

Step 1 : I got my seed from Ace Hardware shop (or any hardware shop in the mall).. Funny though, for something so soft like this, you find the seeds in a HARDware shop...well, go to the end of the shop, you will find a gardening section. They sell tomato seeds, sun flower seeds, cucumber seeds, choy sum seeds, etc etc in small packet. Cheap. RM2 maybe.

Next -Soil. Good one would be the black organic soil. Next, get some pots suitable for planting vege..it has to be quite deep. I got myself a long small tub-looking plastic thing as I don't have the energy to transport it. I can't recall the exact cost, maybe RM 8. Well, if you have a plot of land to plant, then no need pots ler....

Step 2: Just plonk the seeds into the soil, and water the plants twice a day. They are forever so thirsty!!

Step 3: Sun it. Afternoon sun could be too hot if leave direct.

Step 4: Separate the tiny ones once they started shooting up to about an inch or so. They need space to grow.

Step 5 : Keep watering them twice a day. When you wash your rice, keep the water to water the plant. :P By the way, too much water might rot them, so I prefer them in pots so that I can 'transport' them if need be( if kena too much rain water, they tend to rot)

And by a month plus, you would be able to see the greeny leaves growing nicely and by 2.5 months or so, they should end up on your breakfast table then!

Good luck!

3rd Harvest

2009-11-01T09:00:00.002+08:00

Our 3rd harvest is by far the most successful one. I had 2 batches of the seeds planted at 2 weeks intervals and as I had used the previous seeds from my last batch, I have got too much to plant!!

So we ended up eating fresh lettuce (psss..no pesticides!) almost EVERY MORNING!

LOVE IT!

Getting Older

2009-10-30T09:00:00.000+08:00

Oh yes! It was my birthday. Last Monday. I had a few days' celebration, as usual. We started warming up the event by celebrating it with my most precious people on earth - Hubby and my 2 beloved boys. Yes, a dinner at Bijou, Mon't Kiara. Lovely. I love the interior decoration. I have no idea how is the food but just looking at the ID in the papers, I said go ahead and try. The result? No regret. :P Best of all, we had the restaurant almost to ourselves as the patrons that came after us went to another section of the restaurant, so yes, ALL to ourselves. So we don't have to worry about our boys annoying the romantic ambiance...hmmm....and ahHHH...ERR...too dark??!! Hello, I cannot read the menu! Gosh!! Am I too old or was it really too dark?! And seeing and pity this ah soh, the waiter then adjusted the dimmer and it was all then COZY and WARMTH. :p

Then, the next day, we had a celebration with my in-law. Yeah, they seemed to remember my birthday WELL. Not my father, not my brothers.......We had Japanese food and then a lovely cake from the kids. I selected the green tea cake from Lavender and it was good!! Not too sweet and the texture is smooth and it just melt in the mouth....Maybe order the same thing for Jien's birthday...keke

Then, it was my REAL b'day on Monday. Hubby gotta leave for Taiwan. WORK. And I have to slog like crazy having fetch Jien to and fro his 'school'. I had decided not to overwork myself and my maid during this testing time of not having hubby to assist, so NO DINNER at home. We went out for dinner! Yes, with baby and all!! And WE.MADE.IT.THROUGH!! It was enjoyable, completely relaxing (for I had expected the worst) but but BUT things turned out rosy. Ahhh.. The boys behaved themselves like angels! :)

This year I received the most birthday wishes I think. Online wishes. Thanks to FB! Geez.....amazing! But it was sweet. :) Thanks to all my frenz out there for the warm wishes (I even received a card from a friend who is actually traveling now in Egypt), thank you all !! muak muak hug hugz!

Yoga

2009-10-29T20:35:00.001+08:00

Jung's favourite pose for the past 2 weeks.

Mickey in Jien's Eyes

2009-10-28T20:16:00.000+08:00

miska........muska.........

MICKEY MOUSE!

Illustrated by : Jien

Wonderful 7 months- Jung

2009-10-27T17:23:00.006+08:00

Jung turned 7 months old last week.

At 7 months, he is now sitting up straight on his own without support, and he is 'crawling' by dragging his lower body, at quite an amazing speed across our stretch of carpet. He must have hit himself a couple of times hard on his head that he rarely venture any further then the carpet - his territory for now. Haha!

He eats 3x cereals a day. 2 BIG spoonful mix. I tried him on pumpkin but he seems to not quite enjoy it. Ahhhh...so the lazy part of me tells me, nevermind la, just feed cereal!! So cereal for the last 1 month! [OK OK, I will prepare something this week....guilty liao] Of late, he loves eating bread and 'rice', I guess it is time to prepare some other solid food to let him try.....[feeling more guilty as I am writing this..]

His favourite person is NOT me, sigh.........but his DAD (well, I should be glad that it is not my maid!!). He wants his dad to carry him down to the park, twice a day!! That smile he gave when he saw his dad back from work is so so so sweet and no wonder hubby is so willingly walking him even if he is so darn tired after a whole day's work. Well, a bit of jealousy yes (*sob sob*)[hey, I am still breasting feeding you little monster at midnight ya know?!] but I am torn apart with so many things to take care, so I am really grateful for hubby helps me A LOT by taking him away from me!!

My baby is still weighing light - only around 8kg now. He got his little TOOTH about 2 weeks ago and last few days, he caught mild fever and we were suspecting of another one springing up soon.

His crowning glory is so thick and wavy - I just love it!! Anyways, it is getting too long in fact and we are thinking of trimming it but I still can't picture him sitting STILL so the idea is shelved for the moment.

It is funny seeing him growing fast. On one hand I feel so glad with the thought that I could go out with 2 running boys - swimming, trekking, diving and having more freedom but at the same time, knowing that this would be my last baby, I just hope that time would go a bit slower for me to savor every bit of it all!

Buzzing bee

2009-10-22T09:32:00.005+08:00

Busy busy busy..

Woke up around 7.30am everyday, feed baby, then get myself ready. Have my breakfast then put baby to sleep.

Then sneak a little bit of time to read e-mails/facebook and start work. Pick up Jien in the school around 12pm, bathe him, feed him and myself and spend about half an hour or more with the kids while my helper have her lunch and clean up the mess in the kitchen.

Then work *disturbance* - work - work *baby cry* - work *Jien knocking on the door*........work...break....break...duh..

...then express milk in the evening. Prepare dinner, bathe, eat my dinner with super speed (while feeding Jien) then put my punctual baby (8pm) to sleep.

Only then, I can start to unwind a little. Read a bit of paper or book, chat with hubby a bit (poor him, so little time for him!). By 10pm, prepare to sleep and we sort of 'take turn' reading to Jien and 10.30 - pengsan.

Come weekends, the working part will be replaced by seminars, marketing, taking care of the kids(helper on leave what...) but in a somewhat relaxed manner.

Psss..........actually I enjoyed it when I go out for meeting (that is when my maid is taking care of the 2 monsters). On the journey, I try to relax myself. At least, it is a consolation that I have my 'own' time!

So another baby to come??? Nuhhhhh.......With this kind of schedule? You gotta be kidding me!

Drips

2009-10-07T14:13:00.002+08:00

No, my house taps are ok, no drips and no leaking.

It is my milk supply - drips, only.

It is just ONE day out and missing schedule to express and there you go, drips only.

I am SAD!! I want to continue breast feeding my baby - for at least another 6 months from now! But alas so little. It is either I stay at home so that I can boost up the supply again (which is kind of impossible lately, lots of meeting etc!!) or I should just give in to formula...

I try the formula for his cereal and he seems to enjoy it. (unlike his brother who rejected any other drink except mama's milk)

I guess I just have to be contented with mixing both now.

Arrhhhh........I am SAD!

Should I stop??

2009-09-28T16:57:00.003+08:00

It was a girl-night-out again with my buddies. As usual, great conversations, good food and great fun.

This time we happened to mention about blogging again. And the girls were a bit worry on security that one may 'mark' you and hence had pulled out all her pictures in the blogs. Wow. Serious. And the other would not even think of starting a blog for the same reason.

Hmmmm.......I felt threaten and being watched and my hands were sweating liao!!!

Hang on la...look at the few little 'cats' that pop into my website, hardly reach 10!! Marked? Popular blogger maybe la!! I don't blog hop and I never did. So people like Karen, Lydia, Mott, Clair, Pu1Pu3 were all blogs that I HAPPEN to read and some have become friends of mine now. Fated? Maybe...;P

Then again, some of the blogs that I read started to 'close shop' or inactive in other words. Maybe blogging is indeed a waste of time?

Well, as for now, I still write. I treat it as a channel to vent my views, my love, my happiness, my mood and to share it with the one I love(hubby of course) and friends who care to read and share some views with me.

I wish that this could be a gift to my sons when they grow up too. They will then probably know more about themselves when they are tiny and of course hopefully, they will learn more about their mother too. As simple as that.

Maybe one day, I will stop posting pictures of mine and both the boys. Y'know, for privacy of us all or perhaps poof........I will disappear without any notice but for now, I enjoy blogging and blog I will.

Popular Student

2009-09-25T14:20:00.004+08:00

I think my boy is a popular kid in school. When I fetch him from school, there would be kids running to the door and said 'xx, 你的媽媽來了!!' . Different kids but all seems to know his name pretty well!!

Reasons:

1. He speaks English, whereas the rest are Mandarin spoken kids. Lately, I notice even the teachers sometimes speak to him in English. See how ONE person can influence the rest?? Lets just say that my boy is so hard headed and refuse to learn Mandarin...duh...

2. He hardly eat ANYTHING prepared by the school, I mean his brunch aka tea breaks. His teachers even told me to bring something for him just in case he is starved (for a SINGLE meal??)

Well, he is a growing kid alright, so we always keep things in his bag : biscuits, corn flakes, cakes, muffins, potatoes w fry eggs etc.........Sometimes the food container is emptied - we started wondering if our boy actually eat it or it is his trick to make him 'popular' by distributing the food ?? Hmmmm....looks like a politician in the making yeah??

3. He 'sings' his 三字經、弟子規 already and I really need to buck up a little!! Now for a person know next to zero about Mandarin to memorize breezily on this literature stuff, don't you think he is amazing??

p/s : try it on ANY kids who do nothing but to sing it EVERYDAY, you will have a kid who sings literature in a month's time. As I said before this, to put logic and meaning to kids at this age is like pulling a bull up the tree but memorizing things........you sure lose to them!

4. He is always late for class....(sounds very much like his mother)

5. For quite some time, my boy wee wee in his class. (The situation is better controlled now, no more wee wee thingy for the past 2 weeks already!)

See how popular my boy can be?? For the wrong reasons....of course!

Going Solid

2009-09-15T10:00:00.006+08:00

Jung is a week away turning 6 month-old. I can't help but to compare him with his giant brother at 5 months old. Jien is around 9.35 kg and my poor baby is now only 7.35kg!! A good 2kg behind.

He is a small 'drinker'. He would be satisfied by 'clearing' one side of the breasts. When I grab him and force him the other, he would stretch himself, or even CRY to let me know - I AM DONE!! Goodness.

And I blame it on his curiosity and playfulness too. He would rather play than drink!! Imagine!! His drinking time - midnight when mama wants to rest...crazy.

Off late, he had been showing signs, lots of it that he would want to try some other food. So the other day, we gave him a biting biscuit to ease his itchy gum. He enjoyed it so MUCH and actually bit off quite a big chunk of it!! Yesterday, I mixed some rice cereal for him with expressed milk, making sure it is not too thick for the first timer. The result?

Clean sweep and a happy baby!!

Oh boy...is he underfed before this?? hmmm.........

5.5 mo - Cheeky

2009-09-14T10:26:00.002+08:00

@ 5.5mo, my Jung is so cheeky and smiles A LOT!

He behaves so well when we go out so we love going out with him now. He would be so busy watching EVERYTHING!!

He loves hanging out with his brother. He would go near him, touch him, pull his shirt, his hair, his pants, grab his bottle and plunging 'wet' kisses on him and the next thing you know, Jien would be wiping his face and give Jung that 'yucky' look...cute!

Inspired

2009-09-02T09:48:00.003+08:00

Being busy can be so numbing at times at you just can't seems to breath properly sometimes. I feel like I am drowning at times!

Coming across some interesting articles could just lift up the spirit and at least, hit my brain with a big signal to ponder and think of what I can do and what should I DO...next..

Weeks ago as I browsed through (note : browse, hardly have time to really enjoy my Sin Chew Daily now) the papers, I came across a short article (note the word short).

It was about a group of Taiwanese who went to Germany for study and training course. They were always in a rush, so the 'leader' ordered a lot of food just in case the group are hungry. Apparently they had ordered too much food. There were about a third of the food left over. After settling the bill, they hurried and left. An old lady who happened to be in the restaurant rushed out to call this young chap

'Young men, there are still so much food left over! Don't you want to finish your food first?'

Annoyed, the leader was wondering why this old lady is so busy body 'I had paid the bill and we are all full already!'

'But you are WASTING food!'

None of your biz??

Well, the old lady must have created some kind of commotion and later she called the public affairs authority and you know what, the Taiwanese kena SAMAN!

This is what I like the most about what the officer said :
'Yes, you have paid for the food, but you are not only wasting YOUR food, you are WASTING the world's and EVERYBODY's rights to RESOURCES!'

Does this strike you some way? It struck me.

x x x x

I had an old pal in Penang, I called him Lolo - in tagalog, it means 'grandpa'.

He had put in a lot of effort in gathering the public to make organic mud ball. And turning the rivers in Penang clear once again...

Amazing.

x x x x

Yesterday in Star papers,a young architect had designed his house to be a growing green house.

He is doing his part as a designer...........

Now, what can I do to offer ?

Hmmmm....

Water water I Love U!

2009-08-25T09:30:00.001+08:00

I asked the nurse when she brings my little new born back from a bath,

'Ada 'nangis ?'

"Tak ada! Diam sahaja"

Asked again the next time he bathed,

"Tak ada, syiok saja dia..! Baby ni cool la"

x x x

During confinement, I can hardly hear any cry in the bathroom, no struggle but pure serenity...And I recalled the 'Atapchai' episode, he did not cry AT ALL! He was so calm and seems to enjoy the warm bath SO SO MUCH that he did not mind us 'shaving' him and 'flouring' him!

xxx

Now after 5 months old, look at my baby .....

Jung - 5 mo Updates

2009-08-24T09:49:00.006+08:00

Jung turned 5mo last Saturday.

He is a very curious baby now. Ever so engrossed into adults' conversations. While feeding him, he would turned and listened if I am talking; He enjoyed watching the moving leaves, colourful flowers and of course, he now joins his brother and watch PlayHouse Disney. *Smack head*

He reached out for things now too. And the other time when he rolled back on his tummy and I saw him 'accidently' rolling back on his back, how wrong was I. It was NOT an accident, he acquired the skill actually at around 4-mo! What he did was to push up his backside and force the bum to sway one side and BOOM, rolled!. How smart!

A baby who listens well probably talks well too. Jung is very 'vocal'. So besides crying, this tiny monster actually experimenting his voice now! And his eyes contact is very good. So this little charmer is like a little magnet attracting aunties, po-po, uncles and even the guards downstairs at the park whenever we took him out for a walk.

This little charmer had make mama a zombie one. He is waking up more times at night almost at 2 hours interval to feed! Goodness!

He loves watching his brother and his brother?? Loves him but at the same time can't help but feeling JEALOUS! Poor thing. He would come rolling my back while I am feeding, purposely flipping the books so that I can read for him while I am attending to his lil bro!!

x x x

So to celebrate the good weather, the haze-free air, the 5-mo old boy, the 1st day of Puasa (ie good traffic, less crowd!), hubby spontaneously suggested to revisit Zoo Negara again. We were all so excited and we asked if our maid would come along and she happily nodded too. So that was how we celebrated our Saturday - with the monkeys in the Zoo. ;P

Jien : picture showing his first time trying to flag the sign "peace"!

Schooling Boy - the Good Points!

2009-08-17T09:50:00.003+08:00

Other than the 2-days crying in school, my boy is now officially a one-month student!! Not bad!

Well, as I said, I don't expect my boy to learn anything so far, some good points seemed to surface and I, yes, I AM the one enjoying the schooling effect.....

First, my boy wakes up early nowadays. Even non-schooling days.

We actually spend more 'quality time' together when I bathe him in the morning, pick him up from school, enjoying the remaining snack in the car, singing song together in the car, rush and run for we are both hungry by then....Then I will bathe him again thoroughly after school and have lunch together with him.

He used to spend 40 mins on his meals but now he would gobble his food fast due to the hungry pangs! (Yes, my boy played too hard in school and did not have his snacks provided by the school)

After a short session of TV or computer, my boy would be SO SO EXHAUSTED and would catch his long nap in the afternoon. That leaves me and maid having more time to do our own thing or to entertain the little one.

As my friend, Joyce said: well, once your boy started going to kinder, you will gain extra 1-2 hours for yourself! How true is that! :)

Schooling Boy-School Environment

2009-08-05T14:26:00.005+08:00

Jien's kinder is no ordinary kinder. It is more like a day care center actually; catering for kids as young as 2 year old. Some are still wearing diapers! The center is small, with only 2 classes. What interests me was that they taught kids the basic thing : manners. I remembered when I first visited the school with Jien, all the kids stand up and bowed to us saying ' Ah Yi zao shang hao ' which means good morning auntie. When some kids came down and saw me, they too bowed and said the same. Pretty impressive.

The curriculum was also slightly different. Instead of learning the basic ABC, simple Chinese characters, these kids are taught to memorize and sing Shakespeare's poem, the Chinese literature like 三字經、論語.

I do agree that kids have EXTREMELY good memories. Their reasoning skill is, well, not so. So the best is to drown them with things to memorize.

Frankly, I don't know if my boy really learn anything in the school for the past 2 weeks plus. I just want him to be exposed to a Chinese-speaking environment for the moment. And I doubt that he even knows what books are in his bag except for the light snack we stuff in everyday. Hehe!

But being his mum, I know I can teach better than a teacher at this phase of his life (unless I am prepared to pay for a private tutor who teaches ONE TO ONE and that she/he is at least a degree holder!). I am very happy to say that he is now singing about half volume of the 三字經 with me (of course, with his English accent!) everyday and he enjoys learning it with me. I make sure I am not rushing it and I make sure that he is enjoying it. He also begins to write simple word like 一、二、三、四.

Chinese (Mandarin) is hard for the recognition of the word unlike the simple ABC which make up words but it is quite easy learning how to speak.

I just hope one day I can go for a calligraphy class again to pick up my love for the art. But this time I want to do it with my boys!

Short Escapade

2009-08-04T21:05:00.004+08:00

Last week, hubby was surfing the net for hotel rates. Obviously we needed a break. He was looking at Avilion-PD, & Guoman-PD etc and I told him-- expensive. Then he was looking at Genting Highland-ahhhhh, I don't like it. It is just too overly commercialized, congested, no-where to go to other than the Theme Park which does not sounds attractive AT ALL. I love the cold weather though.

So I suggested Bukit Tinggi.

He checked out the rate. It was quite ok. Colmar-The French Theme, Berjaya resort's one night stay of one room suite costs RM 200 with complimentary breakfast for 2. We jumped into it and had a wonderful, peaceful, pleasant weekend with our 2 sons!!

So off we go last Sunday. The journey only took us about an hour. No hassle. No jam.

As it was an off-peak period, checking in/out was easy.

The room? A bit run down (biasa-lah, Malaysian style). But it is quite a big suite complete with living hall and a pantry. The room is furnished with a four-postal bed. 2 TVs - one in the hall, one in the room. Not bad!

I revisited the Japanese Garden. It is still my favourite spot there.

What amazed me was my Jien who always requested his father to carry him whenever we were at the Zoo, actually walked and ran in the park. He obviously enjoyed himself too.

Oh..the breakfast was quite ok too. Quite a spread of choices for a buffet.

The fresh air, the cool breeze, the smiles of our boys made us decided that we will surely visit it again. :)

I am recharged!

Weekends

2009-07-31T09:30:00.001+08:00

I remembered hubby and I got so stressed out on weekends when our maid is off duty. Oh the crying baby, changing diapers, complaining kid, cooking, cleaning, feeding made us so busy and stressed out that we almost almost almost .........quarrel!

Thank goodness that is all history now and it lasted like for 3 weeks or so before we adjusted ourselves, do a bit of planning of schedule, wake up slightly early to get ourselves ready, pre-planned out lunch and dinner to be simple - ALL IN ONE-POT meal.

One of the beautiful Sunday mornings, I woke up early in the morning, blessed with 3 healthy boys sleeping soundly still in the warm bed. I prepared this lovely breakfast for them and I feel so GOOD, myself. :)

Life is just GREAT!

Jung @ 4mo

2009-07-30T09:30:00.002+08:00

Jung is already 4 mo + 1 week old. Wow!

He probably weighs around 7.5kg and oh, I just adore his hair. It is silky soft, black with a bit of brownish tone at the tip as if he dyes his hair! Oh it is also slightly wavy to give that sophisticated look!! This thick crowning glory of his always make strangers asking if he is a GIRL..hmmmm....

He loves to play and he keeps looking at his surrounding now, as if to scrutinize the details of them all! Instead of looking at his hands, now he enjoys stuffing his hand in his tiny mouth and suckle. Yummy drumstick!

He also learned to roll over on his tummy, sometime about a week before he turned 4-mo. And this morning, he 'accidentally' managed to roll back on his back! He is also seen arching his back side up and push himself forward!! Yeah, he begins to crawl!!

He loves eye contacts and chat, like I said, especially to his dad! He chuckles and smiles when we speak to him. It is such a joyous moment talking to this boy.

With him being more cheerful and us, being more 'experienced' and all, weekends seem to be more enjoyable now. We managed to even cook up lovely breakfast at times!! We also started to venture out to malls and outdoors more often with him. He seems to enjoy it himself! :) Just the other day, we went to zoo for a short morning stroll. Love it !

He seems to be drinking 'less' in day time. The intervals could drag to about 2 half to 3 hours and I can't force him to drink as this guy would just turn his head and even started to cry if I try to feed him slightly 'earlier' to meet my schedule to go out. Quite a stubborn guy I thought!

On the other hand, he is feeding on a 2 hours interval at night starting from 2am. So I gotta wake up at least 3 times before greeting his morning smiles to stir up the groggy me..

My precious jewel...

Autism

2009-07-29T20:25:00.003+08:00

So much had been said about how 'smart' Jien is at his age, we as parent still can't help but to worry that our child might be slight...yeah, pinch, a bit, tiny bit maybe - autistic.

Maybe he watches too much TV. He is just too absorb in it and I kinda regret allowing hubby to buy him computer at times. He is just SO SO into it and therefore, self-absorption.

Maybe he is not the chatty type. He can hardly hold a proper conversation with me or hubby for more than 5 minutes (teaching session is different, which could last for about 10 mins or more). His eyes contact is, well, I must confess - poor.

He is always seem restless. He can walk and walk and stand for hours without 'sitting' or people say 'diam-diam' for even a minute! So, friends always commented that he is rather hyperactive. Which I thought that hyper kid should be jumping and running A LOT which my kid doesn't.

The act that chills us both is the fact that he loves to

arrange things, the trait that an autistic kid loves to do or MUST DO.

We are still observing at the meantime. Hoping and praying that we are wrong.

Brothers

2009-07-29T14:51:00.005+08:00

It is tough to get them both to take a nice picture. It is like, you know, one will surely look the other way, each having their own agenda...

Like THIS.

or sometimes when I am a bit lucky, I get at least ONE to smile at the camera...

Like THIS.

or the pictures will turn out to be like this one here as if there is a conspiracy going on and that they are saying :

'Please go away camera, give us some PRIVACY!!'

I just love these pictures!

Off to School!

2009-07-27T11:28:00.002+08:00

Yes, I had finally sent Jien off to 'school' and I had been busy lately going to visit my 'the other baby' at site which is near completion yet still quite a bit to do.

So how is my Jien doing?? He is ......

1st day : Did not cry. I left him there, he marched in, took off his slippers and put on the shelf. He slipped in and did not even waved back at me! I left the bag with the teacher and left. Asked his teacher how is he doing...'OK - did not cry' was the answer. I was anxious the whole morning and kept checking my phone if the teacher did call me..NOPE, nothing. Hubby, SIL all called and my answer is : He is doing fine, I THINK ...

2nd day : Did not cry...cool

3rd day : Papa sent him to school.

Midst of class, a mother went to send something to her daughter and left, maybe he saw 'her' and 'thought' it was me leaving without picking him, he broke down and cried - according to the teacher... :P

4th day : Papa sent him to school. Approaching his school, he told papa : MY FRIENDS, PAPA! and when the teacher came to take him, he CRIED and said he did not want to go to school!! HAHAHA! Finally!

But being him, he quiet down fast and went in reluctantly....oh poor thing.

5th day : Cry again!

6th day : When I went to pick him up, I saw tears in his eyes. I asked teacher what happened? 'He was playing upstairs and refused to come downstairs...' duh........

7th day : He was joining his friends for lunch!! WELL, let me make it clear here. HE. IS. FEEDING. HIMSELF!! I was so so so happy when I see that.

His little friends started to strike a conversation with me..

'Ah Yi, ni hao..'

Me : 'Ni hao..'

'Ah Yi, (in Mandarin) you know, Jien does not sit down and study. He was playing masak in the room. He played with teacher's radio'

I smiled. kekeke, actually I wanted to burst out and LAUGH!! wakakaka. So typical of my SON!

More to come...next post.

Black Face vs White Face

2009-07-10T11:11:00.002+08:00

Hei Lian, Bai Lian - direct translation in Chinese, which goes to say that in parenting your kids, there is always the case where either one of the parents would take the role of the stern, fierce, shouting, chasing, in other words the devil one and the other one would be the lovey dovey, soft spoken, anything-can-do, saint-like character...

Ok, I guess you all know where I stand. Yes, the devil one with the two horns. You are SOOOOO absolutely RIGHT!

I guess normally the one who stays at home and face them more would always be the 'hei lian'. What to do? We are seeing their horns growing every SECOND and just can't help but to YELL, YELL and YELL!

Jien sometimes can be so mischievous and he is such a techy-boy at his age. Being a TV addict, he would turn on the TV, computer and sometimes playing daddy's i-Phone and the PSII (which we upload Baby Einsteins and Elmo's shows) all, I repeat -- ALL, at ONE GO!!

Recently this really pissed me off! Actually, it worries me, so it kinda pissed me la! He couldn't care less when we call him. He is so blur and absent minded! He was SO into the thing he is playing or watching! Goodness!

So yesterday nite, I restricted him from watching TV or playing computer. I pulled him down to read with me - all nite. Every time his itchy hand almost touch the button, I would yell and stop him. He jumped and pulled himself back, looking at me and laughing away. That is my boy, never really understand the meaning of scolding...

We actually sat down and do some spelling and drawings. He did well. He asked for his milk later and knocked off fast when in bed after a very very hilarious song of the Micky Mouse Club House which made both hubby and myself laughed so badly (because we tried not to laugh out loud and we don't want him to know that we were laughing!! ;P)......

Kids. No kidding.

Jien at 2.5 yo

2009-07-09T10:28:00.004+08:00

It has been a long time since my last blog...miss me??

Anyway, I do miss all of ya...

I was not exactly THAT busy. Anyway, being at home, I noticed my elder son is acting pretty much like a very lonesome child. His main companion is TV and TV alone (oops, I left out his con-the-puter [his- computer, that is the way he pronounces it, on purpose]). Ok ok, yes, he is spoilt to the brim!! 2.5 yo with a computer - laptop to be exact!

I do sneak out to play with him for a while, but I guess that is not enough. Having peer group to play with is a different story all together...

Off late, Jien started to LOVE spelling!! He picked up his old books again with a new interest - to spell, my memorizing of course! He now can spell - cat, dog, bird, papa, mama (no more mrm!), bat, ball and owl. That's all.

Whenever we are out, any signboard that is in bold and catch his attention, he would start to spell out the word. Cute!

But this worry mama starts to get a bit jittery that the son will become 'banana'. Most of my friends' children have this problem of refusing to speak Chinese. Wahhhh!! That is utterly not what we want! I noticed my child will turn into one soon if I do not start talking to him in Chinese NOW. So lately, I purposely talk to him in Chinese, I just don't care if he understands it or not.

Our Chinese 'lessons' which took place in the morning at my last trimester with Jung ended when Jung was born. I speak to Jung in Chinese from the very beginning and I never feel odd about it. But since I started speaking English to Jien, it felt a bit odd to switch though. Sigh...

With all his fantastic fabulous nouns and verbs that he is using and speaking, there are only TWO things that he refuses to say. One small one big. Nope, not 4D or DaMaChai lah please...The small one - wee wee and the big one POO POO!!

Yes, he simply refuses to tell and that make us all very busy searching for clues to avoid the after MESS since he is already off diapers! Gosh! Parents out there, any tips for me please?

He still needs to be fed..well, am I spoiling him??

x x x

With all the points above, I am planning something for him to do. Something BIG and would surely left him in awe and tears..

I will tell you in detail next time...kekeke

四个爸爸一个午餐

2009-07-01T14:58:00.002+08:00

上个星期日, 我请了四个爸爸吃午餐。

那是一个父亲节的月份。

第一个男人, 当然是我老爸。
老爸今年八十岁了。
两鬓斑白的他还是相当健壮。
老爸算是最疼爱我这个老么了。
想想，到我现在要整四十啦，
老爸还会帮我买鱼，买水果。
总是怕我饿坏了。

老爸除了跟他相熟的朋友会滔滔不绝，
和其他人，包括阿哥们和我，
他总是选择沉默，三缄其口。
可是我早知道他的爱。
他爱家，爱老妈，爱孩子 - 爱透了。
但，他就是不会说，不会表达。

爸，您不必说。女儿明白。
女儿我，面对着您，
也变得哑女，顿时语塞。

爸，我爱您！

。。。

第二个男人嘛。。。
犀利了！
打从我没和老爸住在一起，
我就和这男人同居了整整十多年！

老妈的传统思想，要女孩念完中学就好。
你连忙把我从老妈手里抢了我过来，
匆匆地把我给推进大学门拦。
供我，宠我。总是把好的东西往我这里塞。
就从来不计较。也没埋怨你的担子。

他是我三哥。

想当年，他就像老爸一样的管教我。
甚至比起老爸更严肃，更凶！
对他，我总是又爱又怕又敬。

要不是这老三，我没今天。

阿哥，我敬爱你！

。。。

第三个男人 - 我的家翁。

我很感谢他。
因为，他给了我这第四个男人！

。。。

当然，不用说，这第四位 - 是我丈夫；我孩子的爸爸。

我常常跟老公说，
他呀，是我老妈选的。
认识了十多年的朋友，
竟然是在老妈去世的时候再遇上而互产好感！天！

自老爸手里接过了我，
你就像老爸一样呵护、怜惜我。
是几时修来的恩德?

有你，我真的万事足矣！

孩子的爸，希望我们真的能够

携手

白头谐老！

Jung @ 3 months

2009-06-25T16:13:00.010+08:00

My baby turned 3 months old last Monday!! How fast!

Recalling the time during confinement, he was such an angel initially, sleeping most of the time and 'behave' so well until the about the 3rd week, the 'wind' in his tummy build up and he was crying relentlessly for about 3 weeks then.

Come Saturdays and Sundays when our maid left us, ooo....it would be such a hectic, restless, mindless, super-busy, super-tired day for me and hubby taking care of the 2 monsters. And baby Jung just seems to cry so hard especially in the evenings before he knocked off... sob sob! I felt like a terrible mother!

Until....

One fine day, I picked up my parenting book again and look for some clues. I knew all the rules but I just want confirmations and a 'pat' on my shoulder to reaffirm myself that my baby is FINE. No baby is born to cry so much and to be hot tempered! There must be something wrong!

I kept hypnotizing myself that I should keep myself HAPPY, POSITIVE so that my baby can sense it. I keep shower him with kisses, strokes, massage and telling him how much I love him even the cry is so loud it could be heard miles away, I swear! That aside, I make sure I do not touch any 'offensive' food for that period. I did not eat any ginger, big onion, garlic, orange, milk, cheese, lemon, etc etc. Mind you, the bread that we baked that period - we use soya milk instead of cow's milk. Yes, to that extend.

Then, one morning, I turned my baby (he sleeps chest down) after his sleep. That particular morning, he gave me the sweetest heart-melting smile!! And from then on, there is no turning back!! He loves smiling to me and hubby every time we carry him, and especially in the morning! What a great way to start off the day! :)

Evening sleeps?? He did cry a bit but not the super loud cry anymore. It was the kind of cry that tells me : Mama, I am tired, I need to sleep now!! Well, before this, he would want us to carry and carry him - DON'T EVER PUT ME DOWN or I will BLAST!!! Whoa, mind you, my record was to carry him more than an hour putting him to sleep! - I am so relieved that was already a HISTORY...phew!

Talking about sleep, one day, like any other days, he was sobbing a bit trying to sleep. I carried him, this way, that way, all ways- all failed. I could feel my temper brewing.....ahhh...I need to stay away from him, to calm down myself. So I just put him down...to back off.

What is wrong?? What have I done wrong?? Then something kinda miracle happens to me : After a while, he kinda quiet down. Myself, still feeling a bit agitated, I just stay put to watch what happen next. Another minute passed. I told myself, give him 5 mins before I pick him up again. Next minute - even more quiet. Next he was seen turning his head, eyes shut and next - zzzzzz away!! Hooray!! I was so used to patting Jien to sleep and I forget that all babies are different. Nowadays, my boy sleeps on his own but sometimes with mama's patting. How easy.

For the past one month, my baby is super sweet baby. The type that anyone would want!!

He feeds about 2 hours intervals and more frequent in the evenings storing up his 'tank' before a long long sleep of 5-6 hours before the next feeding.

He knocked off quite punctually at 8pm. So I could go out with friends for dinner. Or have a short outing with Jien and hubby. This had never happened to me when I had Jien!

He sleeps well in the afternoon and feeds on bottle well too if I do go out for work. I normally left the house in the afternoon to ease out my maid. That is when everyone's tummy is full and happy; the boys are ready to take naps - then vrrooom I go!

He loves his mobil now and love watching his hands!! He suckle his hands too and as usual - very LOUD!! Wakaka!

He is such a dear boy and we all love him so much!

Portrait

2009-06-22T13:44:00.006+08:00

Yes, notice I changed my picture on my profile? Oh it was for a corporate member picture thingy and being a last minute person, I got hubby to do it last night for me (while the deadline is TODAY). I was on my simple cotton shirt (about to go to bed), I am tired, so is hubby.. I told him the reason I need the picture and I don't want to look straight and smile (please la, knowing that I am so tired with blood shot eyes, I don't think it would be a good idea to smile...).

Anyway, we sort of get it done. In less then 3 mins. Supermodel just know how to post well and fast! Wakakaka!

Well, I wanted to do it last week but then hubby was on an oversea assignment....is this a good excuse??

This morning, I did some touching up. Ahhhh...too many 'pot-holes' on my face. I don't want to cause uneasiness in the board y'know...ahem...

When I was almost done and actually quite satisfied with it whilst the bugger, Jien, walked in and saw my picture on the screen.

'Mama!!' he exclaimed; when I am about to ask him if the picture is NICE...he blurted out first and said

'Big mole, VERY BIG mole, mama...!!'

Duh....

Walking Again

2009-06-18T09:56:00.004+08:00

Last Sunday, a week plus after the cast had been taken off Jien's leg, he was still unable to walk. Or shall I say, he was SO UNWILLING to walk. He stretched, kicked, knelt, crawled macam-macam but just dare not to stand up. He bent his knees immediately when we try to make him stand up. MIL was worried seeing him this way. So that Sunday she kept asking us to take him for physiotherapy treatments. Well, ehhem...what makes her think that our son will listen to the doctor? Knowing him inside out, we just wait. Probably giving him another week. Afterall, he was SUPPOSED to be on cast for another 3 more weeks or so if we do not seek another doctor's advise. We count ourselves lucky to have his leg 'breathing' again. Oh...hubby said that sting when the cast was taken off was TERRIFYING! Just by seeing him bending his knees and swinging his leg freely already make us quite happy.

Anyway, the very next day, I did what I normally did encouraging him to walk a bit. To my surprise, he yielded to me this time and actually walked! I was so delighted and the whole day, he had been either holding my hands or pulling my shirt when walking. It felt good to see him on his both legs again.

Then, the following day, waking up from his loooooong 12 hours sleep, he slipped down the bed and started walking on his OWN! I was smiling from ear to ear then! He walked gingerly and slowly. Seeing my happy face, he grinned too!

Kids, they are simply amazing!

Outing

2009-06-12T20:15:00.003+08:00

I have been longing to meet up with friends. I mean in a relax way without my babies with me.

And so I was lucky to be able to attend a wedding lunch the other day, without babies, without hubby. I was chatting away like a bird (please, I hardly talk nowadays! It is hard!) and was enjoying myself with the good food and good company. Catching up with the latest updates is vital for me.

Here is the groom, my course mate, my ex-house mate. Lucky him, he got a sexy wife! :P

I was with a long maxi dress I bought just days before at Lavie. I fall in love with the dress immediately when I laid my eyes on it, it was love at first sight!!

Gugu Gaga

2009-06-11T10:00:00.002+08:00

My little one is a little chatty cutie.

He loves talking to his papa especially. He would gugu-gaga and it is like having a conversations.

Everyday, he would have a few sessions of 'conversations' and if you don't understand him and carrying him the wrong way so that he can't face you and 'talk' to you, he would make a fuss!!

How CUTE! ;P

Boutique Lover

2009-06-10T10:05:00.003+08:00

Ever since I am a mother, I have been shopping at this little heaven of mine - Lavie, a boutique at Plaza Damas (behind block G) and Grace the owner of the shop has become a friend of mine whom I will see about 4 times a year!! Hahaha!

I simply can't find time to leisurely hunt for nice clothing nowadays. At Lavie, Grace, knowing my taste, likings and SIZE, would continuously flood my changing cubicle with tops or dress for me to keep trying. I save effort and best of all, TIME, shopping there. Of course, she has a good selection of clothings which she sources from Thailand, Korea, etc and she also has some branded stuff which I normally shy away, hahah!! The quality of the material is good I should say. Now, I am her good customer for I always end up buying a few pieces (sometimes 10!!).

The other day, I went there again to grab some new 'simple smart'baju and I bumped into a woman, at the age of 60 and having extremely good figure with size S, goodness!! She is super sanguine (the one wearing white with black prints) and she and Lavie's partner kept us laughing and giggling away the whole afternoon and we all had a wonderful shopping day that day.

And of course, I ended up buying 7 pieces of baju!! Ahhhh! It does feel good to shop! INDEED. :)

Updates

2009-06-09T14:00:00.009+08:00

Oh.....what a busy week.

Nope, not because of the kids. Basically I am back to work.

I am very happy to resume work for my partner had been doing SO SO MUCH during my pregnancy and also my long leaves. I was on site checking some of our latest works the other day and not forgetting snapping some pictures of my own. Haha! Not bad, not too fat I thought....

As for my the other baby- the bungalow, well, still snailing and inching away and now it is more of the ID work and I am busy checking out some final details before they proceed on making the built-ins. I love the brightness and airiness of the house. Simple layout and to me, it is NICE. I love this house.

AIRY living room with timber roofing and exposing rafters. I just love it!

As for the other house, the client is very busy checking work on my behalf during my leaves!! Hahaha! She is the 'site officer' now checking all the sub-contractors work. Even the main Contractor does not know some of the NSC! Well, I am still doing my part and give her advise and well, it is a more relaxed work because the main contractor is a better contractor and I am not the ID for the job. My client relied heavily on her ID consultant, so GOOD for me la! :P

And most importantly, I will have some new jobs coming in. SO SO LUCKY. Yesterday, I closed a deal for a bungalow - a good one. But his kind of taste is not my cup of tea....I hope we can meet half way though for the design and outlook of the house.

As for the 2 kiddies at home, they are doing great.

We consulted another doctor last Friday with the title 'Sports' orthopedic and it made a great difference. He took off the cast and did an x-ray and was of the opinion that the bone is growing well and Jien can actually do AWAY with the cast, with IMMEDIATE EFFECT!! Hubby told him that the other doctor's advise was to stick with the cast for another month. Well, he was so confident that it can be taken off and tadaaaaa.............bye bye cast. His only advise is don't let him run, just walking will do. Till today, my boy still have not gather the courage to walk. RUNNING?? Not so soon la. He is now crawling and today, he actually stand up to switch on the TV. See how important the TV is for him?!!

The younger boy is so angelic lately. Sleep well and eat well. Of course, if we are slightly late to cater for what he wants, the loud speaker is still blasting alright! Kekekeke

Conversations

2009-06-04T17:03:00.003+08:00

Talking to a toddler can be quite cute..

Passing by the the 'M'..
Jien : Mama, I want Old Mc'Donald Fries.
Me : OK OK!
After buying, I did not give him straight away..
Jien : Mama, I want Old Mc'Donald Fries.
Me : Jien, you can't have it now, it is very hot.
Jien : Mama, I want VERY HOT!

:P

x x x x

It can be quite musical..

The other day, I bought a pair of breast milk storage shells and I have been quite constantly wearing it at night. My boy who always kena hugs from me of course noticed it right away.

For the first time when he accidentally 'touched' it, his first reaction was to quickly moved away (like kena electric shock la) and stared at my breasts and wanted to touch them again which I said no!

After a couple of times, he somehow knew about this hard breasts his mother suddenly had.

One fine day..

Jien : Mama! I want!
Mama : Yes, what do you want?
Jien was looking at my breasts and said

'DRUM'!!

x x x x

Well, sometimes he can talk like a Japanese too (no offense please, sumimasen yo!)

Me : Jien, say 'Mitsubishi'
Jien : Mitsubishi
Me (amazed, wah! Not bad!) : Jien, say hippopotamus.
Jien : Hippopotamus
Me (proud) : Jien, what colour is this ?
Jien : YERROW..........
Me : Alamak!

It takes a Mother...

2009-05-29T10:08:00.003+08:00

I was lying down at my usual salon at DH having my hair washed and getting ready for my long due hair cut. My eyes started to well up and tears streamed down my cheeks.

Yes. I was crying.

...

I was happily walking towards the salon and as I reached there, I heard a young lady's screams. Hysteric scream. I stood still. I saw her car all the way up the curb, obviously she reversed her car too fast probably and the whole car went up the wide curb. But her screams sounds panicky and onlookers rushed to help her. Kind Malaysian, I thought. But the face of all onlookers told me something is not right. She was looking down and looked away. Repeatedly.

I waved to my hairdresser and went in. I thought she was just a young girl driving her father's car and now so panicky for she knocked the car....

No..

I was told there is a BODY down there. A small girl. Maybe 3 years old.

My heart shivered. My body felt cold. My fingers went numb. 3? Just like Jien...Tears streamed down.

.....

Later on, the news came back and said that the lady was actually the driver AND the mother of the girl. She could have moved in the wrong gear and reversed too fast and knocked down the little one who was standing on the curb. They said the little one's head was crushed....Tears welled up again.

I don't know how I can be so sentimental. Maybe I am a mother now.

But life seems so fragile. Life can be so cruel, the way the daughter was brought to rest is just simply too unexpected and .........poor mother, how is she going to go through her life now knowing that she is the one who ramped her daughter under the wheels.....

.....

Even after I left the salon, there were still crowds at the site with police and ambulance..

I did not joined them. Yes, useless me. But what can I do? Watching her cry? I don't want to record the scene in my brain. I can go crazy..

With a heavy heart, I uttered a prayer for both the girl and the mother.

Rest in peace, little one. God loves you...

.....

Parenthood

2009-05-26T15:26:00.007+08:00

I don't know how to begin writing this.

I was hilarious and merry on my last post and just on the same day, a matter of few hours, I was brought down to the lowest valley. My heart shattered, bled and I was in deep sorrow.

That very day, Jien was pretty much the same. Happily practicing his skill 'hitting' at the mouse and playing with his pass-down computer from me.

Perhaps he played too much on the screen. He was a bit blur, maybe. At night, he requested again to play. We let it be but after an hour or so, we reckoned it was enough for him. He was then showing a bit of tantrum and went to the kitchen and dished out his plastic bowls and ........

as I saw him coming out from the kitchen, I laid Jung for his bedtime. When I came out, Jien was already screaming and crying. He tripped and fell down on the floor and limping to his dad. I thought it was a normal cry. I reached for my phone for a missed call and called back a friend. The cry persisted. Hubby and I suspected something is not right.

After calming him down, he was still complaining of pain and refused to move his left leg. He was unstable emotionally.

We decided to go to the hospital to do an X-ray. We knew our boy would not cry - not this way.

We are right. He got a hairline crack - at his tibia and not his knee cap as we had suspected.

Now we knew why his cry was so heart-wrenching. My heart sank deeper and deeper when I see his tears flow with every small movement he made. It felt like needle pricking my own flesh. I kept holding back my tears for I do not want him to see that.

After the doctor did the cast (half cast), my brave boy was already waving goodbye to the doctor. I AM SO PROUD of him.

His progress in short :

Day 1 : Trauma. He could not sleep well not to mention that it was so hard putting him to sleep. He kept saying ' There, mama, there'. It took me 2 hours to finally put him to sleep. He woke up about 3 to 4 times midnight crying. Poor him. Mama and Papa? Drenched and worned out.

Day 2 : It was a Saturday. Hubby carried him to the living room to watch TV. He was put lying down the whole day. We had to put him on his diapers again. Emotionally not stable still. When aunt and Ah-Mah came to visit, he cried again. But he let his aunt carried him and he was actually in a 'sitting' position then.

It was the worse Saturday for all of us. By night, maid left. I did not made her stay. If only she has the heart to leave and not assisting an injured boy, why keep her?

We were left to nurse for our kids by ourselves. Well, good thing is we are hands-on parents so we are ok but we were drained out and so so so fatigued and knocked out. Jung was not his normal him that day which he would doze off by 7-8pm. He screamed and cried maybe for being too tired waking up the whole evening.

Day 3: Jien could sit up and he is not that bored anymore! Reason: he is on his lap top again. But we are the one that have to keep running to him for assistance to 'click' and 'drag' the mouse. Alamak! By evening, hubby took him to the park with his stroller. He was smiling again for he could get his ice-cream from the convenient shop again. :)

Jien with his make-shift table....

Day 4: Starting to feel bored with his lap top. (well, too slow the speed!) Nonetheless, he perfected the skill to 'click' the mouse. Hahaha! We could tell that the pain somehow wears off already. So at night, we took him to our neighbourhood shopping mall. He was ok in the car on his car seat. :)

Day 5: We noticed some mild rashes and I decided to try putting off his diaper. I lifted him up this morning and put him on his potty, he could do it. So I made him wear his training pants instead. Another improvement. :)

The next X-ray and appointment with the orthopedic will be on Friday. Though doctor had mentioned that it could be 6 long weeks on the cast, we are praying that it could be earlier. Can't wait to see my boy on his feet come running towards me..!

Happy Bird

2009-05-22T11:39:00.003+08:00

Oh yes, I am feeling great today. I am not singing like a bird but I do feel like I am flying! Like a bird!

Why? Guess.....:)

a. Hubby is great. He gave me a new mouse for my computer as a Mother's Day gift.
b. My baby Jung is progressing well, he slept well yesterday afternoon.
c. My baby Jung is sleeping well last night.
d. I had a very very good sleep last night.
e. Jien's flu is finally off!
f. Jien is drinking a LOT of water lately, that makes me a happy mom.
g. Jien started to keep his toys if instructed (by me of course)!
h. I had a great session of yoga this morning.
i. I had a slow and relaxed shower this morning.
j. Jung is a happy baby this morning, he FINALLY smiles to me!!

Pick your choice...

And the answer is

YES!! ALL of the above. :)

9th Week

2009-05-20T10:51:00.003+08:00

Time flies. Jung is already in his 9th week after birth.

He is such a serious boy. Till today, he has not shown his smile to me, not any of us. Ha ha... I wonder if he is really a choleric... Then it will be fun later as I am more sanguine, hubby a melancholy and Jien, a phlagmatic.

His colic has somehow subsided. Thanks to 'Poh Ying Dan' - a Chinese powdery medicine that I will feed him every morning. Just a little bit. He seems calm and comfortable after taking it and will fall back to sleep after a short session of breastfeeding.

He refuses colic drops. He would hold the drops in mouth and used his tongue to push it ALL out. He would cry with top volume after that with his face turning pitch red! Crying is one thing, sometimes with all this crying, he would puke the milk out! Gosh!! So no more colic drops. Anyway, that Dan also is good for overall health, so ahhhh.....never mind la! After all, my MIL is so happy that I do feed him that.

He loves people to carrying him around. In the park especially. So whenever we find that he had problem going to sleep, we would take him down to the park. It makes us wonder what is in the house that makes him stays awake?? (sounds spooky? ;P)

Well, he feeds on ONE side of my breast only for each feeding MOST of the time. I wonder if he is lazy, or he is sleepy or my breast is SO FULL of milk and he would be FULL so FAST? Sometimes one feeding would take less than 5 mins. So with not enough hind milk, his poo poo has turned watery. God bless us that that only last for 1.5 days, he started to drink longer (though still prefer 1 breast at a time) and the texture of his poo poo also looks better now. See, a mother has to always pay attention to 'SAI'!! Yeah, that is what we do best. kakaka!!

Since he loves cuddling so much, none of us are 'hands free'. And so it makes us all so busy from the minutes he wakes up from his sleeps. He kept changing his nap pattern in the day time especially. He used to sleep for an hour or so but now it is becoming shorter and yesterday, each nap only last for about 20 mins. Just enough for us to go take a nice shower or poo poo!! And then it would be exercise time for us carrying him and walking around the house. I guess I would be so masculine with my big springy muscle to flex on my arms if this carries on!! wakaka!

All right, but one thing sweet about him is he allows me to rest longer at night. His first sleep at night can last about 4 to 5 hours!! Then 3 then 2 then 1.5 and you know that he is about to wake up already...!! haha

Each child is different and I am ever ready to take on the challenge. From the minute I was pregnant with Jung, I was ever ready to take on the responsibility to love and care for this lovely boy of mine no matter what it takes!!