Playtime with Shin Chan

Both Brendan and Eryn likes their cute, short, chubby and huggable Crayon Shin Chan soft toy.

They'll both literally fight over this soft toy.

Here's one pic of a very happy Eryn having a good time with Shin Chan and one of her older friend.

Mandi time

Babies love water. You just can't deny that. Like Brendan, Eryn just loves splashing in her little bath tub each time she takes a bath.

Cuckoo Cuckoo

Just want to share the pening-pening cuckoos in a shop I visted many, many years ago in Rothernburg, Germany which specialized in cuckoo clocks!

The clocks were carefully and beautifully hand-crafted. There were lots of designs and you can just be in that shop for an hour, staring at each cuckoo clocks!

Imagine having all the clocks stike at once! Cuckoo cuckoo cuckoo cuckoo cuckoo…..

Toddler language

Eversince I deliver Eryn, Brendan started talking and talking and talking, and most of the time at home. Outside, he’ll be as quiet as a mouse. Like all toddlers, his pronounciation wasn’t matured yet, but it’s improving by the day. To understand toddler talks, you have to be a parent to a toddler to understand the “foreign” language.

Some of his earlier pronounciation of some words were as follows :

Motorcycle – Moto-Ah-Geh
Crocodile – Koh-koh-die
This one - Jee Jahn
Don’t want - Duu when (we initially thought he said durian)
Shoe - Chooo
Socks - Chocks
Firecrackers - Far-yea-kah-kek

Now, this is Brendan’s favourite “rhyme”. You guess what it is:

“Chooo maa ker kah daddy coe.
Daddy chit ay pane go mea chee koe”

Kids say the darnest things!

Situation 1 – Brendan & mummy playing with a set of wild animals toys (given by a friend) for the first time.

Mummy : What’s this? (holding a tiger)
Brendan : tah-geh
Mummy : What about this? (holding a giraffe)
Brendan : jee-ghap
Mummy : What’s this? (holding a lion)
Brendan : nai-yen
Mummy : What’s this? (holding a hippopotamus)
Brendan : cow
Mummy : What?!! Cow? Hahahahahaha. No, this is a hippo!!
Brendan : hahahahahaha. Hippo! Hippo!


Situation 2 – Brendan and mummy going for a walk downstairs around the apartment.

Brendan : Mummy! Mummy!
Mummy : Yes, Brendan?
Brendan : Old man. Got one eye.
Mummy : One eye? Where?
Brendan : There (pointing to a four-wheel drive)
Mummy : Huh? Where?
Brendan : There….. Uncle drive car.
Mummy : Oh, the uncle who drives this car has only one eye is it?
Brendan : (nods head). Car accident. Bom! Eye gone.

Brendan takes mummy hand and walks towards the four-wheel drive.
Brendan points at the picture by the car door which is actually the face of a pirate with one eye covered. Hahaha.


Situation 3 – Brendan and mummy shopping in Tesco on Hari Raya Haji eve. There was a huge piece of meat hanging from a pole, with some blood on the plastic mat below it

Brendan : Mummy, mummy. See….. got blood. (pointing to the blood on the floor)
Mummy : eeeee…… don’t go near there Brendan. It’s dirty.
Brendan : Mummy, mummy. Blood! Accident. Cow die.

Haiyo….. the things this fella says! Don’t know where he learns from.


Situation 4 – Mummy came back from work.

Brendan : Mummy, poh-poh cut pandan leep.
Mummy : Oh! Brendan follow poh-poh to cut pandan leaves ar?
Poh-Poh : Brendan, poh-poh use pandan leaves to cook what?
Brendan : Barley…… Chweet potato choop (as in sweet potato soup)…….Kaya......Kitchin lice (as in chicken rice)…… Jen-nee (as in jelly)….. Boh-Boh-Cha-Cha……


Situation 5 - Brendan and his poh-poh (grandma) were having a conversation.

Poh-poh : What’s mei-mei’s name?
Brendan : Aye-Reen (as in Eryn)
Poh-poh : What’s daddy’s name?
Brendan : (says his daddy’s name correctly)
Poh-Poh : What’s mummy’s name?
Brendan : (says his mummy’s name correctly)
Poh-Poh : What’s poh-poh’s name?
Brendan : (says poh-poh’s name correctly)
Poh-poh : What’s kong kong’s (grandpa) name?
Brendan : Ah-na Ah-na Ah-na Ah-na(grandpa likes to go “ah-na ah-na ah-na” whenever Brendan makes lots of noise)

Cheesy Situation

Cheese – either you love it, or hate it.

My hubby has always been a cheese lover. He once took back a small pack of cheese given to him by a friend during one of his visit to Germany. I don’t know what kind of cheese that was but the whole house smelt strongly of that cheese once the pack was opened. In fact, he was asked by his friend to pack it nicely cos the cheese will cause a lingering smell which will take some time to go away.

I normally stick to my usual sliced cheedar cheese for my bread or the cheedar block where I cut a small piece for my pasta. Lately, Brendan has a liking for cheese as well after daddy came back from Mexico last month with some small tubs of French cheese spread.. Brendan likes it on his bread with a little butter or sometimes, just the cheese spread on its own.

During his first outing with us to a Christmas buffet dinner, he happily tried the various types of cheese there and happily chewed on it!! Boy, was I extremely surprise by his liking for cheese. I’ve put a temporary stop to the cheesy breakfast meal and it’s been 5 days since he last had cheese. He hasn’t asked for it since and it was a relieve to me that he isn’t a cheese-addict after all.

I remember one trip to Karlstadt, a small town in Germany. I came across huge pies of cheese in one of their local market. Some of the cheese can be as big as the tyre of a tractor, if not bigger! I suddenly felt all cheesy all over. I’ve never come across such big blocks of cheese in Malaysia anyway. In fact, everything else was big.

In one particularly dinner meal, I ordered a bowl of salad, soup and main course. Our German friends stared at me in awe when I made my order. I didn’t know what the surprises were all about until the food arrived. The single serving of salad was as big as a big bowl of salad for about 3-4 persons in Malaysia. And the delicious creamy mushroom soup alone looks like a maindish by itself, with a generous serving of bread. By the time the main dish came, I almost died! It could feed a family of 4! The main dish has it’s own serving of salad. Gosh, I was simply embarrassed by my order and didn’t want to look like a terrible guest. I later seeked permission to ta-paoed the unfinished food. It was one of the main joke of the night.

Lion dance performer

Brendan trying to do his lion dance performance for all at home. One 'stiff' performer :-)

Toys!

Daddy and mummy seldom buy toys for Brendan and Eryn. Most of their toys are hand-me-downs or are bought at a local church garage sale. One of daddy’s close friend gave daddy lots and lots of toys today. Daddy’s friends children are now in primary school and their interest has now swing to computer games, board games and card games.

There were plastic bags and one big big basket full of toys. Dozens and dozens of them – action figurine toys, McD’s and KFC toys, play-doh sets, cooking set, a set of wild animals toys, soft toys – big and small and some with sound, cars, aeroplanes, helicopters, a set of old drums, an electrical keyboard, a remote control car, two battery operated dancing dolls, alphabet mats, a bowling set and a writing table.

We are planning to wash everything tomorrow and keep more than half of the toys for future playing. We gave a few away to one of their poor give year old friend.

Anyway, it’s a good post-Christmas gift for the kids.

Brendan & Eryn engrossed with their “new” toys.

We took Brendan to his friend’s birthday party at MacDonald’s Sunway Pyramid last night. It was one of my very good childhood friend’s eldest son early 2nd birthday celebration. It was Brendan’s second time eating at a fastfood restaurant. He doesn’t seem to like fastfood except for French fries which I find to be a little salty for children. Well, he liked the hot milo too. So, that was his dinner. Well, he had “dessert” later – his usual nen-nen.

Brendan giving Dennis a big birthday hug!

New Year 2006

It’s a brand new year and I wish for a brand new me. Things at work have been quite uncertain for me and I do wonder where this year will head on. I’m starting work officially at a new environment in 2 days time. Same company, different situation, different environment, different location, different experience. I’ve no resolutions to set this year. I’ve no time to sit and think carefully about any resolutions actually.

There are so many things on my mind, and I’m trying to reorganize myself at this point of time.

Currently, I’m pretty much contented with the time I’m spending with my kids and contented that my mum is still so kind to help us out with the kids while we work, The kids alone are a blessing to me and it over-rules all other worries I always have.

Here’s taking the opportunity share with you one of my favourite sms greetings of all time :

“GOD will be ABOVE you – to BLESS you,
BELOW you – to SUPPORT you,
BEFORE you to GUIDE you,
BEHIND you, to PROTECT you,
BESIDE you – to COMFORT you,
And INSIDE you – to SUSTAIN you.

HAVE A BLESSED YEAR AHEAD EVERYONE!

New Year's Eve

Instead of going out for a night’s fun, the whole family decided to stay in to watch Lord Of The Ring on tv and wait for the clock to strike midnight. The kids had been out too much before Christmas and in one 3-days-in-a-row outing where we’d been back late, Eryn had been sleeping at midnight since that outing until now. So, we are trying to “retune” her sleeping schedule.

Our apartment is situated on a hill and we had the lucky opportunity to view various fireworks going on at the padang near our house, at another nearby hill situated not far from where we are as well as fireworks at Sunway, Bukit Jalil and some unknown location. Brendan and Eryn had already fallen asleep when it was almost midnight.

Suddenly, there were sounds of firecrackers and while watching tv, we saw fireworks at around midnight. Brendan loves looking at fireworks and we tried to wake Brendan up. As he was so sleepy, we had to carry him out of bed. After swinging his head from side to side, up and down for few good minutes, he finally fluttered his eyes to see what the loud voices and fusses were all about. At the sight of the beautiful fireworks, he immediately opened his eye big-big and started pointed here and there up in the sky, going “wah!..... wah!......cantik-cantik…..”

With the loud noises and the “wahs” and “ooooos” and “cantik-cantik”, Eryn too woke up from her sleep. We too carried her to the balcony to join in the family fun of fireworks-watching. After more than half hour, they both dozed off to sleep happily.

Doctor doctor!

I took my mum to a government hospital somewhere in KL for a check-up and we had to wait really long just to see the doctor.

Her appointment was scheduled to be at 10am. We arrived at 9:40am, registered my mum, and the waiting game began. We didn't get to see the doctor until around 11:35am. We entered the room and saw a few of the 4th year students sitting inside. Two of the students were then asked to entertain us. We were promised that it would only take 15 minutes. Well, the whole thing actually took one hour and the kind of questions they ask can really make you wonder how qualified these doctors are.

These two female 4th year students can't speak proper English, whatmore wanting us to "TRY" to understand what they're trying to say. They kept repeating the same questions and some of the questions are totally absurb. Among them are....

"How do you feel today?" (they asked this numerous times within that one hour interview)
"How do you feel the last time?" (asked this twice)
"Do you know where you are now?" (DUH!!!)
"Do you know what's the date today?" (despite writing it down on the paper)
"How old are you now?" (despite asking many times about the birth of date)
"How do you minus 7 from 100?" (what?! mathematic class ar?)
"You know, world, how you spell back?" (what? I don't understand leh...)
(she meant to ask how to you spell "world" backwards!! whatever for?!)
"How many children you have?" (after telling them I'm the eldest, and followed by one boy and one gal....)

The list goes on and on.... It was like a typical teacher-student classroom interview setting. They were treating my mum like some sort of a stupid person.

My mum can't really speak and understand BM and they took the advantage of whispering to each other in BM. My mum told them that she was taking a medicine for health and one of the student whispered to the other student, "apa ubat itu? tahu tak?"

I was sighing away, reading my papers and occasionally give them that really hard glare.....

Finally, I exploded and told them off, telling them that I do lots of reading myself and is quite knowledgeable and that what they're doing is really so unprofessional. I may not be a doctor but I don't think a doctor should treat an illiterate person like some donkey. Immediately they kept their trap up. They even relay some wrong information to the main doctor we were supposed to see cos when that doctor reviewed us, she told us that based on what she compiled from the two students, she gathered that my mum said this and that, which I found really amusing. I stared at them back and even corrected that the medicine my mum is taking is not what they claimed it to be. They immediately looked down and flip through their book.

Now I know why my friends who are now doctors in other countries just do not want to come back to Malaysia to work. And I also know why some friends do not have the confidence in Malaysia's young doctors!!

Christmas Day

Mummy woke up feeling a little groggy and upset. Groggy cos didn't get a good sleep last night. Upset cos daddy's flight from Mexico was delayed. Daddy was supposed to be back on Christmas even. Mana tau, the queue was so long, 6 hours to be exact, and that made daddy missed his flight!! And then, gotta change flight, transitting in Paris and then Singapore, which caused further delay and daddy was finally home at almost Christmas day midnight!

Mummy took Brendan out to Putra Stadium for a very nice presentation by a group of children, and then continued on at the Children's party in one of the VIP lounge. Brendan was particularly excited at seeing his very first puppet show. And then, he kept pulling me to get him one of those helium balloons.

Mummy then took Brendan for his very first lunch at MacDonald's as well. He saw the Ronald MacDonald figure from far, pointed at it and said "Mummy, old man!" hahaha.

"No, that's Ronald MacDonald", mummy said.

Then he said, "MacDonald Duck!" MacDonald Duck!"

Mummy later took Brendan out together with Po-Po and Auntie Karen for a Christmas buffet dinner at Sunway Lagoon Resort Hotel with lots and lots of food. Everyone, including Brendan, ate until perut wanna pao-cha.

Then, we went for a stroll, hoping to digest the food, while admiring some nice glittering lights and beautiful christmas tree nearby.

We went back home at almost 11pm and waited for daddy to come home.

Brendan and his very satisfied and cheeky Christmasy grin....

I LIVE it my way

With so many of my colleagues leaving, the goodbyes seem to be quite unbearable. My mailbox is full with goodbyes and notes and messages, short and long. Two emails particularly caught my heart.

One said this.... " I leave you with this thought; it's a line from an old french war song...... Chacun Son Tour. Aujourd'hui le tien, demain le mien. To each his turn. Today yours, tomorrow mine."

This one touched my heart even more. It seems to potray what I want to say as well...

I guess the end is near, and so I face, the final curtain.
My friend, I'll say it clear,
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain.
I've lived, a life that's full, I've traveled each and every highway.
And more, much more than this,
I live it my way.

Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention.
I did, what I had to do, and saw it through, without exemption.
I planned, each charted course, each careful step, along the byway,
and more, much more than this,
I live it my way.

Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew,
When I bit off, more than I could chew.
But through it all, when there was doubt,
I ate it up, and spit it out.
I faced it all, and I stood tall,
and live it my way.

I've loved, I've laughed and cried,
I've had my fill; my share of losing.
And now, as tears subside, I find it all so amusing.
To think, I did all that, and may I say --- not in a shy way,
"Oh no, oh no not me,
I live it my way".

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught.
To say the things, he truly feels,
And not the words, of one who kneels.
The record shows, I took the blows ---
And live it my way!

Mummy work there...

This morning, my son saw my name tag and access card and pointed to it and say "mummy work there".

Brendan recognises my company logo a few months back and I believe credance should go to his grandma or daddy (despite them denying teaching my son that) cos I've never tell him where I work in. Whenever he sees my company's logo in the newspaper, he'll go "mummy work there". He sees it on the paper bag, he'll go "mummy work there". Whenever he sees the logo on a car or in a banner, or on a t-shirt, or in a magazine, or paperbag, or anywhere else, he'll go "mummy work there".

Each time he says it, I'll be patient and reply "smart boy! Yes, mummy work in this company" and smile.

This morning, it was a different story. With low morale, and straight face, I told Brendan "Yes, mummy work here, but mummy might not be working in this company in the future". I then went to work with tears swelling in my eyes.

For those who know of the vss announcement, I was asked to stay on to serve the company. I wrote in an appeal but was rejected. For certain reasons, my morale has been very low, I'm demotivated and gloomy. 3 days ago, I've rejected a high pay job to give myself a chance to serve the company, but in a different environment now.

I've loved my job and my company all these while. The last day for my colleagues who got the vss is today. I'll be having 2 farewell parties today. The place has been very nostalgic for me. I thought everything should be ok until Brendan had to point out to me and made me aware of the presence and facts of what's happening.

The sentence "mummy work there" lies lingering in my head the whole morning...

Home Orchestra

The flu season is in. Everyone in the house were either sneezing, coughing, sniffing, talking in a coarse voice and the two kids are making all sort of orchestra.

This mini orchestra had been going on for quite a while. My little girl is not that badly affected and I believe it's the power of breastmilk. With Christmas around the corner, I wonder what kind of Christmas we'll be having.

It's "nggghhhhmmm" here and "heeeekkk heeeekkk" there, "sqeirubndfsbdt" here and "sigh...." there....

Tong Yuen Festival

Can't resist eating tong tuen. Here's some pics taken while some relatives made the tong yuen. Simply yummy!

Here's wishing everyone a happy "Mid Autmn Festival" or " Ko Tong Chi".

Eryn - simply pictures 2

My little gal, now 6 and a half months old....

Eryn - simply pictures 1

Times Square display

I too joined the gang in posting some shots to TIME Magazine's Person of the Year for display in Times Square, New York. Didn't expect the reply to come back on the day itself.

Here's two of the shots :

Brendan on Times Square, 14th December 2005

Eryn on Times Square, 14th December 2005

modern handsfree set

I didn't know this made a come back!! I was driving somewhere along LDP and came across this lady who practically stuffed her handphone into her tudung while talking and driving.....

Kids at play

Brendan is quite a neat person and always arrange his toys back properly. He would sometimes take whatever his little sister is holding and put it back into the toy basket. Sometimes, he'll smack Eryn on the head, pull her legs, press her cheeks (yes, he just LOVE doing that!) and roll beside Eryn whenever she's on her tummy time. He can happily take out his toys for some of his friends to play but when Eryn tries to dig out the toys, he'll quickly gather them up and store them away. Eryn will always cry whenever he does that. sigh!

However, there are times too when Eryn loves having her brother playing with her. He can just go and hug her, kiss her, press her cheeks (yes, again!), pat her and just make her laughs. Eryn laughs the loudest when her kor-kor has the mood to play with her.

Yesterday, one of my good buddy asked how should she tackle sibling jealousy once her second one arrived in 2 months' time. I told her that I'm definitely not the person she should ask. hehehe

Here is just one of those many moments.....

pre-Christmas spirits

After coming back from the park yesterday evening, hubby suddenly decided to make a sudden decision to take us all for another short outing! This time, it's Midvalley Megamall. Hubby will be busy in the next few days and will be leaving for Mexico next Monday for a week, coming back only on Christmas eve. Since it's public holiday yesterday, all of us adults made a quick rush to shower, have dinner, change, pack and zoom.... off to Midvalley!

The kids have been sleeping late but waking up pretty early though. Zzz.... I'm half dead.....

Mini-mardi gras carnival

The whole family went out to One Utama earlier on to join in the fun-filled carnival. It was a rather welcomed outing cos the christmas spirits is in the air and Brendan has been asking to take him out. Even little baby Eryn knows what going out means.

There were tons of Mardi Gras characters and performances. The children were particularly scared when come face-to-face with the extremely wierd looking characters. They enjoy the music and colourful happenings. Brendan has always been a shy boy in public and didn't hesitate to show his shyness when Santa came and give him a sweet! Santa even had to tell him "Go Go Go".... Ewwww... how cruel can Santa be....

Eryn was kicking her legs to the tunes played there, enjoying herself with all the fun-loving people there, occasionally asking for her milk!

I was really glued to the performance by our very own Limbo Rock King, who actually made it into the Malaysia book of Records. Here's a video of the stunt :




Mardi Gras characters

Let's Samba!!

The Victorian Carriage Horse Ride

mummy & the beautiful auntie zzzzz... sleeping beauty.....

vss deadline

Today's the deadline for the submission of the vss application. I've happily sent in my application last week. I've no qualms about leaving or staying at the moment, coz everything is still in a daze for me after the so-called take-over. I've been quite contented for the past 6 and a half years that I've been working here, being in the comfort zone. I've had a few offers to move on, but due to my kids, I wasn't willing to start fresh all over again. This time, I have to relook at all other potential offers cos I may be kicked out of the company quite soon should my vss application be accepted.

I've always wanted to get less stressful and more flexible job so I can spend more time with my kids (no, a full-time mum is definitely not for me) and hopefully venture into something where I can have a good juggle between work and family.

I hope my time has come for me to move one. I hope to start fresh somewhere else, and preferably AFTER CNY. My boss keeps saying "you'll have to stay... you'll have to stay..." and I'm saying "give me the money, give me the money" and he'll say "where you want to go? what you gonna do?" I'll just simply say, "probably be a housewife and have more time at home". haha, like real..... It goes on and on everytime..

The "letter" will be out next Thursday. So, we'll wait and see...

DIY popiah

DH is a popiah lover (the wet one, not the fried one) and has made us all his Kelantanese-style popiah which turns out to be quite ok, but soggy at times.

Three weeks back, I had the opportunity to eat one of my friend's cum ex-classmate's
mothers special homemade popiah. I've tasted it once before when I was still in school. So, this time, she invited me over to her house and boy, it was just as good as ever. The secret to the delicious popiah lies in the individual cooking of each single ingredients, supplemented by the very shiok homemade chilli sauce, pounded kacang, fried shallots and of course the prawn paste. There were the usual taugeh, long beans, fried egg, grated turnip with carrot, cucumber, tauhu, prawn, mushroom and a very, very nice braised pork dish.

The technique of folding the popiah itself requires some skill. Boy, thinking of it makes me hungry now.

huh? who? what? where? tagged?!!

Haiyo! I've been busy for the past whole week that I've no time to read any blogs, whatmore penning down one!

Mana tau, the first blog I read today made me realised that I kena tagged!

So, I'm supposed list down my 5 childhood memories of food. Kena korek deep into my long-forgotten memories. Hmm....

1. Ice-cream potong from the ice-cream seller on bicycle

This guy is still around, but I can see that's he's aged so much and his cycling is much slower. We seldom get ice-cream as a treat but whenever we do, my siblings and I will rushed to the gate and shout "ice-cream!! ice-cream!!" and the ice-cream guy will come peddling to our house. We'll always ask for the ice-cream potong sandwiched between two wafer biscuits. This is still very much available, but nothing beats the traditional way.

2. Mum's apple pie

My mum used to make cookies, cakes and pies for us. Making apple pie was quite a chore for her, so she doesn't make that often. I loved mum's apple pie and have asked her to make it for us, but she's getting quite tired making those kind of stuffs for us. These past few years, she's only making cookies prior to CNY and that's it. Mum, pleaseeeee make me an apple pie.... pretty please.....

3. Soft-boiled kampung eggs

Nothing beats nicely soft-boiled eggs DIY at home. The eggs are exceptionally good and healhty. We used to get our supply from my late grandma, who used to rear lots and lots of chickens and ducks. After she passed away, we get our supply mostly from the kampung near where we stay. Nowadays, the chickens are either not laying enough eggs or there's not enough chickens. Hmm.... which comes first? chicken? egg? chicken? egg?

4. Kluang Botak curry mee.

Always one of my favourite. The curry mee uncle is botak, thus the name "Botak curry me". His curry is just so perfect. There's lots of ingredients added to the curry mee as well and the cockles make it so yummy! Oh! and that extremely nicely blended dry chilli which accompany the curry mee makes it so perfect. He has now opened his stall somewhere else and the old place is now managed by his very own son. My hubby never fails to eat it whenever he goes back to my hometown. yummy! yummy! slurp!!

5. Kluang railway station toasted buns.

This always have a place in my heart. I've never ever in my life tasted any buns more perfect that this. As a young girl, I love going to the railway station in hometown (yes, the famous Kluang railway station) for the coffee, nasi lemak and the toasted buns!! Yes, toasted buns were always a must for me. The thick piece of butter together with a very generous serving of kaya in the soft buns is really to die for. The kaya is home-made and the butter creamy and hard, which will slowly melt in the buns. Every bite is simply delicious! Tried making it on my own but the original Kluang railway station soft toasted buns are still the best!

I could list down more, but it's time to move on to the MEME tagging instructions.

I'm to list down the last 5 (including myself) who have been tagged :
1. J
2. IreneQ
3. Dobbs
4. Beat
5. ME!!

So, I'm tagging :
1. Rina
2. Chief
3. Louise (you'll love this!) :)
4. Jasmine
5. Jefferene

Chubby chubby

Some friends and relatives seem to say that Eryn looks chubbier than Brendan. Well, actually, Brendan was a chubbier baby. Brendan was 50cm at birth weighing at 3.4kg while Eryn was 53cm at birth weighing at 53cm and one week overdue. So, Brendan should look even more chubbier coz Eryn seems to be slightly longer/taller.

Well, as long as they're both healthy, it doesn't matter who's chubbier, as long as it's not mummy! :-)

note : Eryn's 6 months weight is not measured as the jab was taken was 5.5 months at the doctor's advice.

No longer a baby

Being the only baby in the house, Brendan used to be showered with tons of attention, buckets of love, millions of hugs, never-ending pampering and always, always at the centre of attration.

When mummy found out she was pregnant by accident, Brendan was only 11 months old. Mummy didn't know whether to cry or to smile, and didn't know if she could love another baby more than Brendan. As the pregnancy advances, Brendan grew bigger.

Brendan is no longer a baby and Mummy has come to love the new baby as much as Brendan, so much so that Brendan gets very jealous, till he screams for attention and smack his little sister on the head.

It's been a lovely (and challenging) motherhood journey, and there'll be a long way to go.

Brendan will always be a baby in mummy's heart...

Naked babe on the loose.

Help! Help! My butt is stuck!
Oh, just my luck!












Mmmmnnnnngggghhhhhh.....
Come on, a bit more....
Mmmmmnnnnggghhhhhh....















Hahaha, the naked babe on the loose
And mummy is so amused!









My poo is just about
going to be out,
Hey, don't you laugh out loud
Or I'm gonna pout!

Daddy-day-care

As a follow-up to my earlier post, it's been 4 days that DH was home alone with little Eryn. I'm even more amazed than before.

He happily claimed that he waited for Eryn to poo in the afternoon, before taking her out to jalan-jalan in Tesco. Eryn is always so happy when she's out to Tesco coz she loves seeing those colourful stuffs on the shelves, happy because she's got new "toys" to grab, even though for a very short moment.

I seriously do wonder who DH can bring Eryn out alone, while pushing the cart and does grocery shopping!! Most of the time, he wouldn't really be bothered with the kids, always busy with his work, coming home just to sit and relax in front of the TV, read his papers, play with the kids for a while and practically do nothing much. These 4 days have really opened my eyes to (what Max calls) the daddy-day-care services.

He happily announces, without a single stress on his face that he cooked, washed, swept and mopped the floor and did what most housewives did without a single problem. I've sometimes seen him to be quite a lazy, messy and "lun-chun" person. Well, he still is sometimes.

He even knows how to carry Eryn in the DIY sling! The one that is used by Indonesians to carry their babies. And the best part is that he does it better than me and he demonstrated it to me.

Somehow, I noticed that my kids are particularly obedient with daddy around. Brendan will eat his food, take his medicine, swallow his vitamins without any fussiness when it comes to daddy feeding him. With me, or his grandparents, he'll run here, run there, whine and ask for nen-nen, etc.. sigh! I'm jealous...

Daddy shopping with Eryn at 5 mths old

My little babies

As Brendan is away in his grandparents place for a week, my time alone with Eryn brought back memories of when Brendan was still a little baby. Everyone has been commenting on how Eryn is a replica of Brendan when he was a baby. They have a differences in personality and milestones development. I've never seen the facial similarity until I made the comparison here :

daddy & baby home alone

DH (hubby) is home alone with baby Eryn. He says that Eryn is an active baby and demands attention most of the time. She does her "business" a couple of times in a day and have a high frequency in her feeding schedule. So, now he knows how it feels to be stuck at home with a baby, and that's without Eryn's naughty kor-kor who's always disturbing his little mei-mei!

Somehow, I'm amazed that DH was able to cope - preparing breakfast for himself, feeding Eryn, carrying her, playing with her, cleaning her poo, putting her to sleep, had lunch, did some washing of the clothes, scrubbed the soiled napkin, feeding again, playing again, cleaning again, prepared food for dinner, etc. Hmm..... not too bad. Don't think I'll do all that. I'd probably chuck everything aside and wait for DH to come back before I do all the cleaning and washing. I also have to schedule my pumping sessions in between, wake up approximately 4 times at night to feed Eryn, sterilise the pumps and bottles and do a few other stuffs too. So, his work is still considered pretty ok.

I had earlier applied for a week's leave to spend some personal time in my hometown together with the kids as I have 25 days leave left for the year, of which only 10 days can be carried forward. We drove back on Sunday but came back again the following day as I have be back to work, thus cancelling 4 days leaves. This means DH has to be on leave to stay home with Eryn in the daytime for these couple of days. It's going to be a busy week for me and this means DH will be the temporary house-husband! ( I think he tak boleh tahan. After I came back from work yesterday, he cooked a simple dinner meal and went out to do some machine troubleshooting for a couple of hours. I think he's just trying to "run" away from responsiblity. haha )

My parents have been very accomodating, wanting to care for the two kids in my hometown but Eryn is still exclusive on breastmilk and she direct-breastfeed at night, waking up 3-5 times for her feed. So, it would be a hassle to my parents.

Meanwhile, Brendan is having lots of fun in my parent's big, double storey house - running and climbing all over the house. There's ample of space there compared to my teeny weeny little apartment here in KL. So much so that he doesn't want to nap or go to bed early. Brendan "called" me twice yesterday, once in the afternoon and once at night, to give me a peck through the phone before continuing to tear the house down.

Eryn with one of her favourite plaything, the Lamaze Puppytune toy - without her kor-kor to take her things away from her and "bullying" her.

Banana man

I find this to be very funny and thought I should include it here.

I know of some friends who are what we call the "xiang-jiao-ren", directly translated as"banana man", literally means a chinese fella who can't speak chinese.

This story was brought up in our steamboat gathering yesterday.

During our school days, we used to have Mandarin classes scheduled for the Chinese while the Malays attend their Islamic classes and the Indians attend their tamil classes.

In one particular class, our skinny Mandarin language teacher (who likes calling people "da-fan-su", or "big potato") called on some of the students to name an animal in Mandarin. One of my classmate, who is, well... was, a definite "xiang-jiao-ren" was called, and it went something like this :

T : (in mandarin) E, please name me an animal.
E : (in mandarin) "Ju-Ba-Jie"

*everyone started laughing*

T : (in mandarin) You think that is funny is it?
E : What's wrong? "Ju-Ba-Jie" is a pig wat..
(innocent looking and totally blur over what the big hoo-haa was all about)
T : (in mandarin) I want you to go to the field and run two rounds.

E went to the field and ran 800 metres in total. Well, E said that he should have answer "Sun-Wu-Kong".

poor thing......

Steamboat gathering

One of my ex-classmates, Louise, is back here in Malaysia for a 2 weeks break from Vienna. She had been working in Germany for a while before moving on to work in Vienna for two years. After this break she's heading to work in Sweden!! She's such an independent person and has dones lots of travelling all by herself.

We took this opportunity to have a steamboat session with some of our primary school classmates last night. Most of us have been friends since Std. 1. There are a few others who are working overseas and outstation while some just simply M.I.A. We normally meet each other once or twice a year. It's always a good time chatting and laughing over the good ol' days whenever we are together.

I've been to Yuen Steamboat in Bandar Sunway twice and suggested that would be a good place to eat and chat at our own sweet time. They have a good variety of seafood, various fish/meat/vegie balls and vegies plus ice-cream and dessert. My goodness! Their super famous teriyaki honey barbequed chicken was always snatched up whenever the waiter brings them out.

Anyway, William (always the top boy in class) was the earliest. We've lost touch with him eversince his family shifted to Kajang when he was in std. 5. So, it was good to have him join us since everyone hasn't seen him for 20 years, except me. It was a surprise when he happened to be flipping through his classmate's (whom I got to know in a teen's camp) address book and came across my name. That was like (ten) years back. We met once and then lost touch again until he IM me sometime last year.

Jac, pregnant with her 2nd child, came with her hubby (happened to be one of our ex-classmate's brother). Ern, newly married, came later with his wife and Wee Chun came after his golf game when some of us were about to leave. Kit came AFTER some of us have left.

The same, old story normally crops up each time we meet, like who is staying where and doing what, and like how Ern broke his third finger (never fails to be one of the topic) while trying to be a hero by penetrating layers of papers held up by Meng (who's now a Dr. in Melbourne. Came back recently to Malaysia but didn't bother to call some of us huh...), and how they would 'pakat' with each other not to tell Ern's parents until Ern decided to let his dad know without telling Wai Meng, who then got scolded by Ern's dad. Then, there's the biology/chemistry "test" where these boys would place a frog under an empty soda can and blast the can off with a firecracker. And speaking of chemistry, our Dr. Wai Meng would do his own mixture of dunno-what-liquid in the sink in the lab and smoke would come out while the class is in progress. Then........ well, I think these childhood days should be another topic by itself.

It's nice seeing all my good old Std. 1 mates again and do hope we can have annual meet-ups. Cheers to everyone... (hope to see more of the missing rest in our next gathering)

Milk supply

For the past 2 weeks, I noticed the sudden ample space in the top part of my freezer. My milk bottles are also getting less. I started to add another pumping session whenever I can.

It's been quite hard to pump in the office with so many unpredictable meetings and work to do. I used to pump in the server room, but have now "migrated" to my own room so I can multi-task at the same time - pumping and doing my work. I brought a long piece of cloth from home to cover the glass partition in my room to avoid having a "free show". So, whenever the cloth and a cardboard box are up against my glass partition with my room door closed, everyone knows that a session is in progress. hehehe.

I've been quite concerned over our dept. shifting to a new location come next month. I wonder if there will be a PLACE for me to pump, and whether there's going to be a fridge for me to STORE my milk.

Now, my concern has shifted to whether I have the TIME to pump and whether I can keep up with the pumping now that the milk supply in my freezer is slowly diminishing. Eryn is drinking more now and I'm NOT prepared to start on formula just yet. The only way to keep up is to pump more, but where am I going to find time to pump?!! Pumping 3X a day is considered part of my daily routine. Adding one more is considered to be quite a burden to my already heavy routine.

sob! sob! no choice but to boost up that supply soon. Those who have gone through this should understand the predicament I'm in. sob! sob!

badminton session

I haven't been exercising for a very looooooooong time and last Sunday, I was invited by a friend to play badminton.

She said, "You should exercise. You should keep yourself healthy. I know you always say you have no time, but if you got no energy, how are you going to take care of your kids?".

Well, that got me going. I waited for my son to take his nap, and got hubby to jaga the kids while I go for a short badminton session at the badminton court near my area.

Oh Boy, my muscles were really kaku and I can't even run properly. And because I've not exercise for a long time, my left shoe's rubber sole came out a little. After the game, I felt good. Went back home, mandi, ate the koawteoy and popiah that me & hubby prepared earlier on and I felt refreshed that I took the kids to a nearby park later on.

Later that night, slightly more than one hour before my usual bedtime, I was at the sofa, eyes half closed and feeling very drowsy. Zzzz.... I fell asleep. Dead tired, man...

Got up late the next morning, and still felt so tired. The next thing I know, I felt muscle spasms in my calf and thigh and as I tried to climb a few steps, *ouch* the pain in my muscles were stretching to the max. Told a colleague about it and he started laughing.

"That's why lah... didn't warm up! Lazy to exercise! Serve you right!"

It's been three days now and my muscles are still aching.... Dang.... I should probably start swimming soon to keep that muscles going.

Aura Cleansing

I happened to chat with a friend on the directions in life when we came to the topic of aura cleansing.

I was then introduced to this person who does aura cleansing as well as healing sessions. I was told that aura cleansing is done to "fine-tune" the energy level in a particular person, getting ride of unwanted negative energy. We contribute to our own happiness and we are to think positive at all times. However, certain circumstances causes the accumulation of negative energy in one's life.

I was told that this aura-cleanser (or whatever you call it) has done healings and cleansing for many people, including cancer patients, sick patients, infertility problems to things like bankrupcy in life and things like that.

Well, I tend to think a lot, and now, I do wonder if I should go for aura cleansing. How it works and why it works, is a mystery to me. Maybe I should just check it out.

D-Paradise Tropical Fruit World & Aboriginal Native Village

I took a drive to Melaka this morning to attend the opening of D-Paradise, a Tropical Fruit World and Aboriginal Native Village which has the World's largest collection of tropical, sub-tropical and continental fruits of over 800 types in a 168 acres of lush, undulating, tropical terrain at Lee Garden with the largest canopy walk in the world at 9km long.

D-Paradise has a diverse range of exotic wildlife, with rare species of flora and fauna. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see much of these attractions. In fact, I was looking forward to see the tribes which seems to be one of the main cultural attraction in that place, specifically the Padaung (Ring People) from the Philippines and the Agta tribe.

The Padaung tribe wear bronze rings around their neck and apparently, the ring makes for a whispery voice and those who wear them cannot yell. The rings are also worn on the arms and legs. The Agta are dark-skinned, kinky-haired pun nosed and thick lipped people who are less than 3 feet tall. They go bare footed. The men used to wear G-strings without shorts.

I would love to be in the presence of a swarm of dragon flies but did get the opportunity to visit the dragon fly sanctuary. There seems to be so many places of interest that I'd like to see such as the world's largest cactus collection, the pangolin sanctuary, mushroom farm, the mesmerizing bamboo garden, man-made bird-nest sanctuary, up close at the Crocodile Park (reminds me of Steve Irwin), the kongkang sanctuary (the so-called Malaysia's koala) and the everything else, but time didn't permit. I learnt that some of the animals will only come sometime next week in time for the launch by our very own PM this coming 15th November.

It wasn't really a fun trip this morning coz I didn't get to see what I was looking for. I got bitten by mosquitoes and the waiting time for the transportation was slow coz' the buggies haven't arrived yet. But was pretty happy to receive a basket of passion fruits which I love very much. (A good friend of mine used to stay in a farm and I love drinking the passion fruit juice which was simply refreshing!) PLUS a 2D 1N stay each at the D-CEO Village Resort which we were told valued at RM1,000!!!

My conclusion : it would be quite an educational trip for children and for those who loves nature, especially non-kampungnites. It's quite an expensive affair too coz the entry fee is RM49.90 for an adult and RM29.90 for kids age 4-11. Rental of a buggy for the whole day is at RM89.90. You definitely need a buggy to go round coz the area is extremely big. Though you can go cycling there, the hilly terrains can be quite a daunting task for some people. Accomodation : I'm not really sure, but at RM1,000 this seems to cost more than some of the 5 star hotels in KL. It's an interesting affair for foreigners though.

I think people like me shouldn't expect too much. My late grandparents used to stay in a kampung house (well, minus the 5 star treatment though) surrounded by lots of wild animals, pets, fruits and vegies. So, I can't comment much.










one of the Aboriginal Village

nicely decorated
wood carvings








The performance
theatre / stage
of the aboriginal tribe.







Bones, skulls
and more...







Entrace to the
gourd and melon
plantation.











Gourds






Monkey Cup
Pitchers
> a rare and exotic
insect-gobbling
carnivorous plant
in this World's Largest
collection of monkey
cup pitchers








Malaysia's very
own red berries..













Passion
Fruits













The pathway..














Some big,
long, red
chilli plant









Lone ranger : a pumpkin!!
D-Paradise has the World's
largest collection of pumpkins
which come in different
shapes and colours.

Genuine or a cheat?

Last night, when I was walking towards my car, there was this Indian lady of about 50 who came rushing towards me. She was holding a plastic bag and one of her hand was in the plastic bag. I was like getting really terperanjat and was ready to put up a kungfu hustle fight when she pulled out what looked like a piece of colourful beaded cloth.

"Excuse miss, I have this piece of cushion cover here which would look nice on your car seat. Would you be interested to buy it?"

"No, (with a hard-to-flash smile) thank you". I said.

"Miss, I need some money" (she started talking very very fast) "I dropped my purse in the taxi just now and need some money to go home"

"Sorry, I'm not interested, Auntie", I replied. I mean, if you dropped your purse, how did you ever pay the taxi driver then??

"Miss, how about you give me RM5 then? I really need some money". She speaks good English!

"Auntie, why don't you go to the shop over there and ask the shopowner?"

"Shopowner? Ok lah"..... and she headed off to another direction.

I kinda pitied her. What if she's really stranded there. Wanted to offer her a lift also I takut. She could be a cheat for all I know. So, how?

Jalan-jalan, cari......

This Raya hol, we took the kids out to 'hang-kai'. It's also meant to be a treat to the maid.Thinking that it would be a good spend some quiet time in KL, we headed to the KLCC Park, with the thought of going to KL Aquaria. Parking was quite easily available and only at RM1 per entry at the carpark beside it.

As we were walking towards the park, I was really surprised to see tons of human beings lepakking around there. Well, we proceeded to walk towards KLCC and boy, for the first time in my life, I felt like a stranger in my very own country. I turn left, I see foreigners. I turn right, I see foreigners. I turn around 360 degrees, I see foreigners!! They are everywhere... Bangladeshis, Indonesians, Myanmar(ians?), Nepalese, Thai. Hehehe, I pulak felt like the tourist now.

The pool was packed with kids and the female guard there was shouting over her speaker over and over and over to tell some (brainless) adults to R.E.M.O.V.E. their shoes before entering the water... Duh! Some nuts these people are! Kids are playing in the water leh.... Hmm..... no wonder our public toilet is pathetically unhygienic.

Well, speaking of toilets, I was scouting around for the toilet in KLCC to wash my kids' milk bottles and the very first toilet I went to was the PREMIUM toilet. Haiyo, pay RM2 just to wash bottles? It was jam packed everywhere, inside KLCC, outside KLCC, inside the LRT, at the LRT station, well... except the car park I suppose. Head also pening already. So, we decided to leave a.s.a.p.

But then, it's a public holiday, so they get a day (or more) off, so it's understandable that they too want to 'hang-kai' like us. Didn't take us long to get out of that crowded place.

It's so nice to stay at home and lepak. Tomorrow, I'm cooking one of my favourite dish, Sayur Lodeh, which I learnt to cook from my hubby's aunt's maid. yummy yummy....

Deeparaya Holidays

It's a long holiday for lots of people this week. For the first time in my life, I'm spending my hols in the city, and for the first time, I'm NOT taking any leaves in-between. It's so nice to work on such days coz it's stress-free and jam-free! I don't even have to rush home like I used to everytime a big festive holiday comes.

Some divisions in my company has been required to take compulsary leaves. Come to think of it, if everyone is away from work, why do I need to go to work? Hmm.... I can make good use of my leaves and take it on any other stressed and jammed up day.

So, these few days I've been taking my kids out to long-kai here and there. As yesterday was the Deepavali hol, hubby & I took Brendan out to my hubby's aunt's place in Saujana. Later at night, we took the kids out to Sunway Pyramid. Was kinda surprised that there are still lots of people jalan-jalan there. I cooked Fish Curry just for the fun.

For tomorrow, we are celebrating (for the very first time as well) Raya at home. Our maid is a muslim, so I shall be cooking nasi beriyani and beef rendang for her and the whole family. hahaha. We may take this opportunity to take the kids and the maid out to long-kai in jam-free K.L.

To everyone out there, Happy (belated) Diwali, Selamat Hari Raya and Happy HOLIDAYS!!! Those travelling out there, happy get stuck in traffic jams!

A surprise SMS

*beep beep*

"Hi, Mei! How hav u been? Long time no share ya? ......... Just to update u, I'll tying the knot 19th Nov. Yup, finally! My fiance's ..........."

I got that message while I was driving to work last Thursday. I knew instantly that it was my Kor from college, and I knew that he's got some pretty good news coz I've not heard from him for months (and according to him, it's actually two years).

I really don't know know how we became Kor and Mei but that had been the way we call each other. My Kor has been someone whom I respect. He gave me the guidance and the confidence in many things in life. We shared lots of laughters during our college days. We used to have jamming sesssions together, and he's one very good singer and a guitarist. I'll be at the piano and together with the other band members, we'll have a good time jamming together.

Somehow, we lost touch when Kor went to UK to further his studies. It came upon by chance that I saw an email which I thought could be his. So, I sent him an email and the reply came to say that he was indeed my long-lost Kor!! He's now at the other end of East Malaysia.

Sometimes, God send us guardian angels without us knowing it. My Kor was my guardian angel in college and he's been a blessing to me in many ways.

Well, Cheers to you, Kor!