Out comes the mountain lizard

Imagine this scenario.

A huge light-browish grey reptile crawled out from its dank dark hole in the ground under a rock. The sun up ahead was hot and glares accusingly. Gingerly, it popped its head out. Blink *flash fat yellow diamond* blink *flash fat yellow diamond*, its big round eyes went. It looked right. It looked left. Blink *flash fat yellow diamond* blink *flash fat yellow diamond*, its big round eyes went.

That. Describes my dear hubby perfectly.

Heh heh heh.

Whenever we have to drive to town, that is how he feels like to me.

And the other day we drove down to Shenton. Was I so underdressed in my three-quarters and Burkies! And yes, I was carrying the street directory too. We missed a turn somewhere, went round a block once (fortunately) and I managed to direct hubby to where he was supposed to go. He'll be totally lost I'm sure! At least me, the geography student can read maps. :P The wonton noodles was great though. And food always taste good when two people are snatching for it. Don't believe me? Go ahead and try it! Snatch food with your partner I mean, and the wonton mee too.

So we laugh at the owlet twins, but I got a sneaky feeling we aren't too unlike them. But definitely better. Definitely. At least hubby dresses much neater, and I don't dress too badly too, I hope. hahahaa. Definitely not over-sized T-shirts. :P Those two are definitely from another world, though they are really nice people. But it really feels strange talking to them. Serious.

And we passed by the big construction site where the IR is being built, and this time hubby laughed at me and my wide-eyed blink *flash fat yellow diamond* blink *flash fat yellow diamond* look. Wah, the whole landscape is totally changed. Cold it feels. New it feels. Reeks of money too. Are they doing a drive-in for cars up in the ferris wheel or what? New money. Corrupt money. Paper money. Whatever. Money makes the world go round. Doubt it's going to be a place for poor plebians like us.

*****
Found some kakis at work who speaks same language as I. Quite nice actually. To be able to discuss somewhat. And quietly we share and exchange. Stories and gossips.

Ohhh, my boy understands the word 'exchange' too. You want him to give you something he has in his hands, never snatch it from him. Tell him exchange, and he'll gladly give it up. And wait for something better. :)

*****
On a side-note, I'm not sure if this will betray confidentially, tell me if it does and I'll remove it. I laughed my head off the other day, just because the poor chap came out with his ear stud on back-to-front in a strange position in the ear, and when asked about it, was told that the young man was shown if it was ok like this and he said sure, you'd know best. So there you go. And I laughed and laughed and laughed and said that no wonder he looked amiss, and that you don't show your butt to the world like that. Poor guy, his friends are all going to laugh at him. He was young and some girls might find him cute, and sincere and he went specially to withdraw crisp new notes for it. Okie, so I exaggerate somewhat, but I just couldn't stop laughing. Please help me.

Count my blessings

After watching tonight's episode of Jamie's Chefs, I think we really got it easy. I guess starting your own restuarant is really tough, tougher than anything that could be. It makes me think back when we started our business, and it wasn't that bad. At least we weren't arguing. Most of the decisions were made by hubby, and I declined being his partner, mainly I couldn't if I want to, and I really didn't want to. So he got his mom to be his main partner, and boy ... she did give a lot of trouble, and she did make things difficult for me and for hubby and for everyone else too. But especially for me, sometimes I find it really difficult to face my friends, and I lost a friend too, but I'm glad I really have friends like Wen, although I'm sure she was pretty pissed off with us as well. I would certainly be pissed off too.

When you are faced with unreasonable people, there's no way you can win any arguments unless you are simply as unreasonable as her or you can just walk away from it all. Except that you are kinder and nicer than she is, and you'd never do that to a friend of a friend of a friend, and basically you'd never stoop to her level of unreasoness.

And at the end of the day, it's really your choice right? Are you going to let one nasty lady spoil your life?

When I'm old, I won't be like what Wen says. I shall go and do my yoga and spend more time with dear hubby. We do have quite a lot of stuffs in common, actually. I shall also go out for nice dim sum meals with my galfriends, and pour through my cookbooks and cook something nice. And if Wen promises not to complain about me putting in oyster sauce (which, excuse me, I never add oyster sauce nowadays!), I might just cook something simple for her. Haha. Cannot live up to her standards, especially when I go over her place and she really whipps up something fantastic from her cookbooks. I shall go back to my mountain and read my cookbooks again. :P

Come to think of it, I never really really did cook something authenic from all those cookbooks I have!

So anyway, have a little nasty run-in with the MIL again today. For some reason she must dislike me. Oh well, the feeling shall be mutual eh?

She was just completely unreasonable. What happened was this: Just because I spent a little more time with my boy in the living room because my boy wanted to play just a little bit more with me, and he didn't want to go to the kitchen, so when I went to the kitchen, hubby had put the rice in the bowl for me. Isn't my dear hubby sweet? And we didn't even think much about it, until the MIL critisised and scolded me. Wah lao. Like I owe her something in my life. Like I am the maid huh. Isn't she really pathetic or what? I was quite upset about it until I told myself that she's just plain pathetic if she wants to be unhappy about such things. Ha. It's not going to make me upset, although it did make me lose my appetite. Completely. You can really feel the stomach drain its hydrochloric acid down a hole and suddenly you just don't fell hungry anymore.

Not that the food was any good as usual.

*****
Anyway something sweet happened today. Dear baby was saying 'Papa, zip! Papa, zip!', and when I told dear hubby about it, and he did what dear baby wanted, my precious boy said 'I love you, Papa!' without any prompting! Although I prompted him to say 'Thank you, Papa.' :)

It's really quite sweet, because nowadays he (the son) is always saying 'Don't want Papa, don't want Ah Ma, don't want this, don't want that etc.' And 'Papa, hand.' because I told him he mustn't say 'Papa, hand go away'. So he cut the last two words out. Heh.

Well, my boy is now at this stage where he only wants mama. :)

The book says that kids won't get spoilt, if we are firm with them. I don't think that my boy is spoilt. He listens to us quite all right, and now that they are in this stage of development, they are trying to see how far they can go with things. And it's really up to the parents to teach him what is acceptable and what is not.

For a period of time, my boy is always crying to want to sit up in the front of the car. He'd howl when we disallow him, until one day, I held him tightly, looked into his eyes and told him that he cannot sit in front and because it's dangerous. He knew the words 'cannot' and 'dangerous' and from that point in time, he never asks to sit in front anymore. Right now I'm trying to teach him that he must sit in the car-seat at all times, but this is a bit hard to maintain because we can't be consistent in this ruling all the time. Still, we'll try.

The other thing I need to teach him is not to spit out his food. Not having much success here, must get a cane for this.

*****
I guess at the end of the day, we just need a big hug from the people we love and for them to tell us that you are doing all right.

My boy gives really fantastic hugs. He even pats you on your back. hahaa.

More stuffs about my boy. Not yet two, nope, but the things he say:

Water boil. Very hot. Dangerous. Don't touch. Ah Ma cooks for L. Fish got bone. Chicken got bone. Cannot eat. Cat meow meow where are you? Dog woof woof where are you? Pig oink oink. Chicken tok tok KE! Elephant bom bom bom! Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Konichiwa. Morning wake up cannot cry. Say good morning papa, good morning mama. Papa I love you! Mama I love you! Mama carry you (still trying to correct him on that!) Sing twinkle twinkle little star! Not lemon. To eat. Frrrruuuuuit. Star. <-- he actually means (it's supposed to be diamond) it's not supposed to be lemon. Lemon is a fruit that can be eaten. A diamond which is like a star! --> Sing abc. Sit bicycle with ah gong. Go down slope. Very fast. Almost fall down. Wind whooooosh. Watch cartoon.

He is quite demanding, when you sing abc, he would want you to sing twinkle twinkle little star. When you sing twinkle twinkle little star, he would want you to sing abc. :P

He can sing along with us twinkle twinkle little star, abc, doh re me, london bridge, old macdonald. Not sure if there are more.

He knows about Mr Uppity, Mr Skinny and Mr Bump. Yeah, I read him these books in the car or at night. Other books are too boring for me to read to him. Heh.

:)

The good, the bad and the ugly

Another mommy who goes back to work and finds no place to express. I'm amazed how some of my colleagues can actually use the bathroom. I refused to do so too, put in a suggestion but was typically ignored, and finally just used the sick-bay and the photostating room. Most people just couldn't care less. I remember reading a point of view from someone (a female) who wasn't a mommy, and how irritating it was for her to have a colleague who is a mommy needing a room to express. I can't remember who it was, but there you have it. Society is still not open towards such ideas and stuffs.

I quarralled with my father again yesterday over breastfeeding my baby. They want me to stop, but it's easier said than done.

Anyway, don't want to write about unhappy things.

My boy's favourite phrase nowadays:

What's that? What is that? And he points at every single thing. And he expects an answer. Like he really understands. *rolls eyes*

He's cutest when he's sleeping. I think he's really into the terrible twos stage now. Must buy a cane soon.

Why I feel stressed Part Two

I spent the whole day with my boy today. I wish I have more time to spend with him. I wish when I'm with him my mind is not elsewhere, like how I need to clean the house, to cook, to feed him etc. Why can't I simply enjoy being with him?

He didn't want to eat his porraige. He kept spitting them out. I yelled at my mom when she nagged for the nth time that the fish was sliced too big. OKie, fine, so she always manages to feed him till his bowl is clean. Yeah rub it in, Dad. You weren't a great parent when we were young either. Why do I have to hear so much crap from you?

The thing is, I still need encouragement. My boy is almost two and yes, I'm still breastfeeding. To my parents, it's like ... 'disgusting'. Big boy still breastfeed. Breastfeed already he won't eat anything else, he'll only want milk. See? When you are around he won't eat his food. When I go to my parents' place, I'm told to 'disappear' when they want to feed him his dinner, otherwise he won't finish his food, because there's always his milk. I'm made to feel guilty that I'm causing him not to eat proper food. Yep, that last sentence definitely hit the nail on the head. But I'm too thick-skinned to really let it affect me, but it hurts inside. When my boy doesn't want to eat his porraige. What should I do?

For all people say that breastmilk is good, if he doesn't want to take his solid food, he'll be hungry. And he'll suffer. If only my dear boy would take his solid food. If only if only if only.

And I tried. A different tactic. I canned him today. Not once, not twice, but a few times. There were red streaks on his arm. I felt like crying. The first two times he looked a bit amazed. Was it a new game? Only when he cried, after the nth time he spitted out his food. Did he learn? I'm not too sure. I explained and explained. And looked at him and told him he cannot do it. But did he understand? It seems that my mom is doing it better than I am. I'm just not spending enough time with him.

I wished I could have more time with him. Holidays are coming, but hubby doesn't have any help. He called me earlier. Five times no less, cos his assistant didn't turn up. But what can I do? How does telling me help? I was happy until I knew. It just makes me stressed. I'm expected to do this, I'm expected to do that. What to do?

And the best part of it all, is the voice at the back of my head. Whose voice? The MIL, her accusing voice that I like working more than taking care of my boy. Yeah right. She might not know what she have said, but the words will always be remembered. If I'm rude enough, all hell will break loose.

*****
I need to chill with friends.



Anyway, this is the second time I tried making baked rice. This round it turned out pretty good. I loved it. Ate a bit too much too. Hubby seemed quite neutral with it, but he did say it was better than the first time. The first time the prawns and other stuffs were boiled before added to the rice and baked. It didn't turn out that nice. This time, acting on a hint from my brother (younger), I fried the prawns and chicken and squid and onions in butter before adding the rice and cheese. Yep, my younger brother is quite a cook. He's pretty proud of his fried-rice, but I wasn't too impressed, since I think my fried rice is pretty good too. Plus fried rice is so chicken feed. HAhaha. Anyway, for a time, he was pretty obsessed with baking bread, and actually borrowed books to read up on it. I even saw some dough being covered up, waiting to rise. But somehow the final product was elusive. And he was very very elusive too when I kept bugging him to let me try his bread. So one day, I asked my mom, and finally found out that ALL his bread attempts failed. Big F9. They were as hard as rock. Ha. Ha. Ha. Man, I'm evil.

Coming back to my baked rice, I added some pasta sauce and I kinda regretted it. Tasted a bit sour. Hmm, have the pasta sauce turned bad yet? Hubby wanted to eat spaggatti and pasta and bought this big bottle of pasta sauce, and we only had spaggatti once, and the sauce was kept in the fridge. There didn't seem to be any mold growing on it, so I assumed it was still safe to use. Maybe I'll skip the pasta sauce the next time. Will need to add bell peppers and pineapples. Yep, that'll do the trick.

Still, I'm quite pleased with my baked rice. Heh. :)

Need to add more prawns though. Was fighting with hubby for them.

*****
There was a German fair, and I bought more German knives. *bleah* And two latte glasses. :) Not that we drink coffee, but the cats were sooooo cute! Can't I buy some stuffs to cheer myself up? The cats were all so cute. I want to get more!! Hubby got no money to buy for me. *sniff* And I got a boy who'll break my things if I buy too many deco stuffs. So perhaps next time.

I'm stressed too because I'm undergoing some withdrawal symptomes from something I shall not talk about anymore now what with all that stuffs going on. :(

Why I feel stressed right now

It's not because of work. It's because hubby's problems have become my problems. *sigh* It's hard to find good help. We called a few to come down for interview, they say they will, but they never turned up. Is the job market that great nowadays that people have lots of job such that no one wants to work? Looks like we might have to look at the foreign market. I wonder what really is happening. *sigh*