My daughter

My daughter is almost six months old. I realised that I hardly write anything about her, or take a lot of photos about her. That's what happen to a second kid I guess, but I love her just as much as my son. She's so cute, smiles so sweetly, and is soo cuddly. I love being with her, lying next to her and watching her sleep, and playing and tickling her and seeing her smile.

But my back really ache from all that carrying. My shoulders too. She. Is. Very. Heavy. At 8.15kg and not even 6 months yet.

Bathing her is becoming more and more of a challenge nowadays. She can sit upright quite well in the small, no, tiny bathtub, and boy, she loves to grab the wash towel and suck on it. With all the bath water and soap. Yep. Yep. And she'll be very upset if you pry it out of her hands. She loves to bathe though and is always happy in the water. I usually bathe her twice a day in the tub. I think for my son, at that age, my hubby and I were doing the car-wash routine. One holds him upright, the other wash, soap and rinse. I think I understand how that comes about. Daughter is now extremely squirmy in the tub. And extremely slipperly to handle for one person. I think she drinks quite a lot of tub water too, when I bathe her. :P

My dear darling daughter sleeps throughout the night from day one. She is a real sleepyhead. She loves to sleep. She can really sleep. But nowadays she doesn't seem to be able to sleep well, especially during the day. Keeps waking up. Like now. Gosh.

My daughter loves to put everything into her mouth, unlike her brother, who never put things in his mouth. She is curious about everything, and has learn to flip from back to tummy like an expert. I think she's going to learn to crawl very soon, seeing how she would stretch her hands out for her toys (and her brother's toys) and kick her legs in order to get what she wants. She also can sit upright for quite a long time, and she loves being upright. In a way, she is more active than her brother, always trying to get things (to put in her mouth).

Dear daughter makes the cutest sound. She is very vocal when it comes to telling you what she wants. Except that no one knows what she's saying. She loves to sing when she hears music, and she sure loves to complain a lot when she's being ignored. Darling daughter loves to look at her big brother, but sometimes she's afraid of him especially when he shouts all of a sudden. She is also wary of him when he comes too close, as she has been bitten by him a couple of times. My baby girl can really cry too. Very loud, inconsolable cries if she's angry or hurt. Otherwise she's always full of smiles and happy sounds.

I love my dear little girl very much.

Family and Friends

Today, we went to my aunt's place for dinner. A whole day with both kids out of my hair. The son was very happy with my cousins. There were Lego, drawings, and what-nots. The daughter was being happily carried by all my aunts. There was good food, nice air-con room where I can surf and play all day. When was the last time I felt so bored?

Haha.

Bored. Bored enough to be playing games in facebook. :P That's what someone commented. I should have just taken the chance to go for a spa huh.

Anyway, it makes me realise that I'm really happy to have my two kids. I think I will not exchange anything for my life right now. Even though, sometimes I have regrets, of not being able to go far in my career, of not having time to do my stuffs like study a Masters, or ... I dunno. But it all pales in comparision when at the end of the day I have a darling husband and two darling little kids.

Come next year I will stop work for a while and spend time with the kids. It's a bit hard to let go, since no work = no money. It means I have to really cut down on spending. And going out. And I hope I will not end up being too down and dumpy. Humf. I shall play more piano and learn violin with my son, and carefully consider the options of what I really want in life.

It's really hard, in a way.

***
Min is away in HK for a much needed holiday. Shessh, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I miss talking to her online!

Nowadays, the number of friends I have seem to be dwindling.

:(

Learning points

I've learnt that, when writing (or trying to write) a novel ...

1. one should not rush the story. It comes as it wants to.

2. writing in first person narrative is difficult.

3. 50 000 words is a killer. It's actually more than a hundred over pages. Was it two hundred? I forgot.

4. writing from existing characters is difficult. Because one has to keep to character, otherwise why write using existing characters?

5. I'm really bad at my tenses.

Posting here, because no face to go post in the LJ. Haha.

I'm that kind of person who writes a few lines then go and check the word count. Haha. I think I may not continue writing the story after November. No incentive. No motivation. As it is, I dunno why I'm even continuing to write, since there's no way I can magick up 40k words in 3 days, especially I have to work for the next few days.

I'm not even thinking of editing the story yet.

*****
The other thing which I had been thinking about.

It takes a certain kind of person and age to like a gucci bag.

:P

I've been shopping around with my mother, because she wants to get a bag. She said that 20 years ago, she bought a gucci bag for $300. She was shocked at the prices now. I said that a nice leather Tods bag cost over 2k. What does she expect? Duh.

So we went shopping at Gucci. I think I might start to like Gucci bags too. Heh. Wen already got one right? I want one too. :P Someday. Maybe when I'm slightly older. It takes a mature (aka taitai) look to carry a Gucci bag.

*****
The last thing.

I was a bit irritated. No, very much irritated, when my mom told me that somebody said that in times of this economic crisis, people should dig out their savings and spend. Spend. Spend. Spend. To stimulate the economy. Go for spas, fine dining etc etc. Can't quite remember what exactly, mom told me that quite a while back.

I was quite pissed off because.

1. We don't really need you to tell us what to do, do we?

2. More importantly. Of all the things to say. It's true that we should spend money to stimulate the economy, but to tell us to dig into our savings is rather ridiculous right? After all, savings are for like old-age, health-care or for more important stuffs, and not frivolous stuffs. And what with all the increase in basic necessities, GST not even lowered, and the risk of retrenchment, or pay-cuts or people already losing money in shares (not for me, mind you), I think it's rather insensitive and ... well, it just doesn't go down well with me. I mean, after all, you aren't going to take care of us when we're old and enfeebled right? You'd rather agree to euthanasia and for everyone to work until we die. Do not fall sick. Do not pass goal. You are to work for the economy only. And work for our pay.

My NaNo

This is the prologue to my story which I'm writing for my NaNo. But because I'm so much into Skip Beat right now, it's kinda hard to get into the mood of Ghost Hunt again. So I haven't been writing much, and the deadline to the 50k words is this Sunday. I sure am not completing it. Anyway, since the two kids are finally knocked out, and I'm bored enough, I'm posting just the prologue here. Tell me what you think. :)

Actually as I continue into the story, my grammar and my tenses took a huge nosedive and ended up being very confused. Very very confused indeed.

*****

The following story uses the characters from Ghost Hunt by Fuyumi Ono. Otherwise the story is written by me and whatever coincidences there are in real life are just coincidences.

Prologue

1st November, Saturday

It has been almost a month since the Agawa case. I am Taniyama Mai, high school student, 17 years old. I work as a part-time investigator at SPR (Shibuya Psychic Research), the Japanese branch office of the British Society of Psychic Research. Our office is located at Shibuya Street, on a second story of a small building. If you do not know where to look, you may not be able to find it, as we are not popular or famous at all. The office investigates paranormal activities, and as suspicious as that may sound, we actually do have business … sometimes, that is.

What with the attitude of our young boss, Shibuya Kazuya, 18 years old, most would-be customers would be pissed off, if not, intimidated away. Shibuya Kazuya, as he is known in Japan, real name Dr Oliver Davis, is a paranormal researcher with the British Society of Psychic Research. I call him Naru, short for narcissistic. He is extremely good-looking, extremely intelligent, and extremely confident. And he knows it too. His personal assistant is Lin, full name Lin Koujo, a Chinese from Hong Kong, who practices the art of Taoist magic.

With both of them back in Japan after their trip from England, life in the office is back to normal.

***

It had been a gloomy morning today. The sky was overcast and the wind was beginning to be chilly. I pulled my sweater closer to me as I ran from the train station to the office. Yikes, I was already late. In such weather, the best place to be is to be in bed, with the warmest blanket possible. I was late not because I woke up late, but I wanted to lie in bed a little longer. Sigh, I can just hear Naru’s sarcastic response if he were to know my excuse.



“Mai, tea.”

I stepped into the office and those were the first words I heard. Don’t ask me how Naru knew it was me. He was covered by the screen, and I quickly pulled off my scarf and took off my sweater.

“Hai, hai,” I replied as I hanged my outer-clothes up.

I looked over the screen and was surprised to see a visitor. Both the visitor and Naru were sitting on the sofa in the reception area, the visitor’s back was to me. There was a forbidding air around Naru and I can feel animosity emitting out from his black figure. He was also frowning. Yep, definitely in a bad mood.

The visitor heard my step and he stood up and turned towards me. I stopped in surprise, a gasp escaping from my mouth.

“H .. Hirota-san.”

“Good morning, Taniyama-san. It’s been a while,” Hirota said, bowing politely.

“What brings you here?”

“I have something to discuss with Shibuya-san.”

“Mai, tea,” a rather irritated voice interrupted before I could question any further.

That certainly accounted for his bad mood. No tea and an unwelcome visitor so early in the morning. I hurried into the kitchen to prepare tea.

Hirota Seigi (aged twenty-four) is a detective with the Zero Investigation Squad of the Japan Police Force. The squad specialises in the investigation of paranormal stuffs or any unexplained stuffs which the normal police force cannot deal with. For someone working with supernatural stuffs, Hirota-san’s disbelieving attitude towards paranormal things sure is a paradox. I wonder how he survived so far in his department.

We met Hirota on the Agawa case. He was disguised as a client’s brother but was actually secretly investigating Naru over the death of his brother, Eugene. I’m not sure how convinced Hirota was, by the end of that case, of Naru’s innocence, or whether he is still in disbelief of the existence of ghosts, spirits and the likes.

Anyway …

“So what brings you here, Hirota-san,” Naru said as he sipped his tea slowly.

“As I said earlier, I had a case which seemed unusual and I would like to ask for your advice.”

Naru remained silent, as Hirota placed a piece of paper on the table.

“This is a photocopy of the original letter. Please take a look.”

I craned my neck forward to peer from behind Naru’s shoulder as he picked up the paper and read it:

“I have finally mastered the strength to write a letter. My body no longer exists in this world. I had died and was given a funeral. My death was neither suicide nor accident. I was murdered. Unfortunately I could not see who the killer was. Someone pushed me from behind. Desire to know and to have revenge is keeping me from passing on. Please help me.”

A chill ran down my spine. The last time the spirits have asked for help was in the Urado case, and that case was not pleasant at all.

I glanced down towards Naru as he placed the paper back on the table. He raised an eyebrow as he looked at Hirota.

“And you expect me to believe that this is not just a prank?”

“Here is a photocopy of the front and back of the envelope in which the letter arrived.”

The address on the envelope gave only the words: Police. Central Ward, Tokyo. Of course, it would be delivered. The envelope had the proper postage which was stamped with the date: 1st October, last month. The return address was Nishikawa Maiko, Itabashi Ward, Tokyo.

“This was the first of the letters which arrived. This letter was recovered from the corner of the room of the police officer who had thrown it away upon opening it. It was fortunate that this letter missed his wastepaper basket and ended up in a small corner. By the time the fifth letter arrived, the police officer started collecting all the subsequent letters and passed them to his superior. He also managed to find the first letter with the envelope, but unfortunately the rest were thrown away.

My department was given the case last week and I was assigned to be in charge. A letter with the same contents arrived everyday with the morning post. However, yesterday we received a different letter.”

Opening his briefcase, Hirota took out two more sheets of paper and placed them next to the first two papers.

The words on the letter were large, erratic.

“I am very tired. I will have my revenge. Someone must pay for this.”

The envelope was dated 30th October. The address and return address were the same.

“After I had received the case, I had done some enquires. This was what I have found of Nishikawa Maiko. She was seventeen at the time of her death. Her death was recorded as a suicide two years ago. Her body was found washed up along a river. She was an orphan who stayed and studied at a local boarding school which doubled up as an orphanage. According to the reports, her death was ruled as a suicide. There were evidences that she was depressed at that time, and a note was left behind, which indicated that suicide was the most likely cause, but now with these letters … ”

Hirota massaged his temples as he frowned towards the letters.

Naru cocked his head towards Hirota. “This appears to be more of a police case. I’m sure your department will be more than capable of re-opening the case and investigate the claims the letter has written.”

Hirota looked unhappy at what Naru said.

“I had gone down to the local boarding school to find out more from the staff. There had been some strange and unexplained occurrences in the school for a while. What I need to know is whether such a letter … is it really possible to be written by a spirit?”

“Does it matter? Whether the letter is written by a spirit or by a living person? You can still investigate the claims.”

Naru looked at the pained expression on Hirota’s face, and took pity on him.

“So what are these strange occurrences?”

Hirota opened his notepad.

“The teacher counsellor I spoke to mentioned that the school building has a history of being haunted. There have always been rumours and stories of students seeing ghosts, or hearing unexplained noises, and things moving by themselves when no one is around. However lately, such unexplained occurrences seem to be happening more frequently. She wasn’t sure when they start, but a student was hurt by broken glasses, another was pushed down the stairs, writings on walls appear mysteriously. Those were some things she heard but it seems that there were more.

Also, she had given me a sample of Nishikawa-san’s handwriting and I’m sending the documents for analysis. If the letter is written by a spirit as claimed, then not only do we have to re-open the case to investigate, we also have an angry spirit to contend with.

My department would like to humbly request your help as you are an authority in this area.”

Hearing that, I can’t help but burst out, “Does it mean that you now believe all these paranormal stuffs and ghosts and spirits and that Naru is not guilty of his brother’s death?”

“Mai,” Naru said sternly as Hirota winced from my outburst.

“But …” I looked at Naru as he shook his head almost unnoticeably.

I could see that Naru was curious about this case.

Hirota looked down at his shoes. “That is neither here nor there. However if …”

Just then, the doorbell chimed and a lady came in.

“Miyoshi-sensei …” Hirota was surprised.

*****
If you have read up to here, please compliment me. Haha. I'm fishing for compliments. :P

Why I hate Lego x 100

At the end of the day, I had enough. All the stuff went back into the box and the box had been confiscated. He'll see it when he is six years old.

That was after I counted to make sure all the pieces were there, went hunting under bed and under the sofa for the missing pieces, and broke my back fixing up a 6 to 8 years old helicopter for him.

Which he then proceed to crash the 'copter and smashed it on the floor.

I don't care if there are any missing pieces.

They'll go into the vaccum cleaner tomorrow if the lousy maid is careless.

She can't even iron the curtains properly. I had to do them. And hang them up. Because she also can't hang them up properly.

The son is an expert blackmiller. He loves to ask if you are happy. And there can only be one right answer. Otherwise he'll cry. And he'll ask it when he knows you're angry with him.

Well, right now I'm angry with him. And he knows I'm angry with him.

So he's playing quite quietly by himself. I guess he's okay as long as I am not playing with his sister.

Thank god for my mother who came down after she heard both of them crying loudly over the phone today. Although she's glued to the TV most of the time.

Why I hate Lego

Buying a set of lego for 6 to 8 years old is a no-no.

On one side, the little one is screaming her head away just because.

On the other side, the big one is screaming his head away just because.

The little one wants to be carried? Wants to sleep? Is hungry? Is dirty?

The big one's 6-years-old Lego helicopter has its propeller dropped off again x 100 times.

Or the tail dropped off.

Or the propeller dropped off again x 100 times.

*sigh* x 100 times.

Maybe I should just indulge myself with retail therapy and buy that Tods bag.

Luckily I told the son that I dunno how to fix lego. Wait for the daddy to come home and fix for him. Otherwise, the 6-years-old lego helicopter set can change into a fighter jet plane or a propeller plane. And woe be me, if I have to change it for him x 100 times a day.

As it is, I'm fixing the propeller on the helicoper x 100 times already.

Maybe I should go and see what's nice at Tiffany too.

Tempers a bit short

When one is with the kids all day long at home, one can eventually be driven up the wall.

Especially when the older is hyper-active and digs out toys after toys after toys, and the younger somehow just cries all day. And you want to do the spring cleaning.

*sigh*

My back hurts. I can't go for my massage cos' who is going to take care of both kids? Mom complains a lot when I leave both of them with her. My back hurts from carrying the younger one. Trust me. She's heavy. The difference between her and her brother is that she's so much softer (not so firm, muscles that is) at that age.

I need a haircut and a proper hair treatment. So I ended up cutting my fringe myself, and making a mess out of it, because the younger was crying at the same time. Did my aloe vera hair treatment though. Gosh, when was the last time I did that? I remember last time Wen and I were crazy enough to even buy candlenuts, fry them and put on hair. Heh. I missed a papaya wrap though. That was really good.

I missed a nice massage and a nice wrap and a nice hair treatment and a nice pedicure.

So two more medicated plasters for my poor back. I'm afraid to put more than two each time because the last time I did, my son developed some rashes after breastfeeding.

Am so not writing for my NaNo anymore, because by the time I'm free at night, I'm just brain dead and zombified, and all I want to do is to vegetate, read and watch animes.

Favourite anime is Skip Beat. I went to buy the manga. One volume only. In Japanese no less. Because I figured that since the mandarin version is in traditional Chinese characters, it's a bit hard to read anyway, so might as well get the original. I'm against getting the English version anymore, because it's simply too fake. I'll wait for the sale and get the whole series. Yeah, I'm that crazy about it.

But it's really funny.

I like Nodame too. It makes me want to play my piano. Started learning Schubert Sonata in A because the piece was played in the anime. Played really sweetly. Am still learning to play Sibelius Romance Op 24 No 9. It isn't really difficult, more like a Chopin rather than a Liszt. I was afraid it was going to be like a Liszt when I saw Anton Nel's Youtube recording. But the score didn't seem so difficult. I went down to the library to get the score and met Xel for tea. I wish I could get a new piano. Hubby told me to get it tuned, but it's not just the tuning part. *sigh*

It's going to be hard to stop work next year. I don't really want to, but then there's no one to take care of the kids. It's also scary not to be working. The money part, the freedom and expectations.

We got a new car. I'd love to have an audi. I'll miss this old Renault. It's so damn solid. People bang into us also no need to repair. Ha. I remember I banged someone's boot and her boot totally crumbled. My front hardly had a scratch. Hubby had the left back door banged up twice, and never got it repaired. Gosh, four years fly so fast. The car is now making funny noises, that's why hubby wants to get a new car. If it were me, I'll drive till the car is on its last legs.

I'm lucky both my kids sleep through the night.

I need to start losing weight.

A dismal world

You know your brain isn't functioning very well when you start keying in wrong userid and password. Hmmf.

NaNo has been quite dismal, since I haven't written anything since Sunday. Check out my synopsis here. I really ought to start to write even a bit, but have been busy with other things.

Met up with fellow blogger yesterday. Been a looong time since I've last saw her, except for her pics in MSN. Gosh. The last time I met her face to face was before I had my son! Waah. Talk about super long ago. Was talking about why I don't feel like blogging anymore. Mainly because no one reads my blog. Haha. Then again, another reason was the gag I enforce myself. Can't write about work, can't write about hubby's work, can't write too much about kids, can't post pics of kids, can't write about politics ... so basically there's nothing to write about. My interest blog is on my LJ. I hardly write anything there either. But if you're interested and you know me, drop me an email or MSN. :)

Caught up with the gossip of what other bloggers are doing. Stuffs I used to read last time. Which I don't now, only those links I have on my sidebar. Some of those links also needed to be updated. Well, perhaps when I have more time, I might change a few links over there.

Damn, I get more comments on my posts on my LJ than here. *mutter*

Heh heh.

Anyway ... just a thought ... perhaps what we really want is just an apology for losing the money, instead of a shove-in-your-mouth that you ought to be thankful that there is a profit. WTF.

Long time no post

Yep, long time no post. Been busy with work, the kids, work at the clinic, and finally a new project. Was influenced by some people in LJ and started on NaNo. That is actually a competition, sort-of .. I mean, to write a novel of 50 000 words in one month. In the month of November. That is. Now half the month has gone by, but I don't have 25 000 words yet. Arrgh. I'm way way behind, and I doubt I'll have the time to complete anything.

I'm posting stuffs over at my LJ. So if you wanna read my story, which is basically a fan-fiction, which means I'm using characters based on a published source. Of course credits are given duely to the author. People who know me might know which characters I'm using. Hahah.

I've got a new craze now. I love Skip Beat. :)

Ranting mode - ON

I have been using my steraliser for two years with my boy. When my girl came along, I took it out of storage and happily used the expensive equipment again. Until I assigned the maid to do the steralising. Now, the steraliser is broken. What am I supposed to think?

The floor, even after mopping still feels dusty.

My clothes have holes. And the thread has been worn thin after a few washes. Hubby's pants edges frayed. Threads came out of the cloth.

Baby's clothes still smelt of milk and vomit even after washing.

I'm starting to get real fed-up.

Chronicles of the Empress Dowager and the Dinosaur

The Empress Dowager doesn't like to sleep in her three-inch thick mattress in her cot. Nothing but the best, and the best is the one-thousand dollars thick mattress. Right smack in the middle too, all wrapped up warmly in her blanket. Otherwise she'll sleep fitfully and cries loudly. But when the Empress Dowager is sleeping happily, the Dinosaur will appear and start stomping around the palace. Stomp stomp stomp Grrrraaaaoooow. Of course the Earthquake wakes the sleeping Empress, and we're back to square one.

Empress Dowager sleeps a lot. She sleeps through the night, from 9pm to 9am. She sleeps through the day too. If she wakes up before 9am in the morning, she'll need to have her morning siesta by 10am. Lately, she needs to be carried to sleep though. Let's hope that phenomenon is only temporary.

The Dinosaur is watching lots of cartoons. Mainly 'The Land Before Time' and 'Toy Story 2'. It's amazing how dinosaurs can watch the same cartoon over and over again and ask for the same cartoon again and again. Everytime when the Dinosaur is stuck on the computer (he watches the cartoons on the computer), there is peace in the world.

Man ... I'm tired.

Orange flavoured pocky is delicious! Yum yum. Very delicious. Must buy more. Goes very well with fresh milk. There are 5 sticks in one packet. Four packets in one box. Mummy and Dinosuar have them in the ratio of 3:2. And one small cup of milk. Food always taste nicer when one is snatching with someone else, in this case, the Dinosaur was protesting a bit when Mummy drank the milk from his cup.

Otherwise, I'm still hooked on Ghost Hunt and wish there are more of the stories.

Alone again

I sent my boy to his grandparents to stay for the night, and the maid went with them too. Mom was a bit grumpy about him staying tonight, because she wanted to go marketing on Saturday. I'm going out for lunch with Min tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to it. Damn, I'm hungry thinking of that. After that, I'd want to go shopping. It's the neighbour's girl's birthday tomorrow and PM's birthday at the end of the month. Perhaps I might be able to bring my boy back early to attend the party. But I'm not so sure how it would go.

My back aches. From all the carrying of my heavy boy. I'm carrying about 30% of my body weight. Now my lower back hurts really really much. On wednesday after school, I brought my boy to the botanic gardens. Wanted to let him feed the fishes with the bread but we didn't bring any since it was a spur of a moment visit. So I tried to find the much talked about children's garden. We walked for quite a while, so of course the little one gets tired and needs to be carried. No way were we going any further. Sheesh, I carried him up a slope, and all the way back to the car.

We went for ice-cream after that. I wanted to go Hagen Daz, and thought of visiting Xel at the same time. Drove round in circles to get to the esplanade. Drove round in circles to get back to the clinic. Haha. Damn hard to drive, read a map and handle son in back seat of the car all at the same time. The roads have changed so much I'm just not familiar with them. Good thing traffic was clear. Ice-cream was simply lovely, but I felt that I didn't have enough. My dearest son loves what I like. And he eats a lot. I mean a lot. If I want to eat anything, I must eat my share FAST.

That is why tomorrow's dim sum lunch must not have son coming along. He'll eat all my share as well! *bleah* So of course my girl will come with me. I hope she sleeps through the lunch! It's a bit hard to breastfeed and eat at the same time. *sigh*

I got a bit addicted with online shopping and bought a lot of stuffs for my two kids. All thanks to my dear neighbour. Heh. Not her fault entirely, but she knows I so love to shop. Damn, it's so fun to put things into the shopping cart. And it's a bit different from shopping irl. It seems a bit surreal. And the cash amount just adds up. The stuffs are so cute, you just don't want to put them away. So I got a bit carried away and went to look up other sites to shop. Like some cute Hello Kitty stuffs. So I added lots of stuffs into my shopping cart. Fortunately, there's no way for me to ship them back here, so that one's just for fun! :)

Meimei's sleeping so soundly. She sleeps through the night, thank goodnes for that. I'm a bit worried though, because she doesn't drink as much as I felt she should be drinking. Like she can got for 7 hours without milk, then I get real worried. But hey, she looks like she's still all right. Think 97 percentile and all that. Must go weigh her again to ease my worries!

Being All Alone

The little one is sleeping peacefully. She can sleep for long stretches, unlike her brother when he was at her age. The bigger one is out with his grandparents. This is peace. Peace I hardly ever have now.

So I cooked my very simple lunch of udon and steamed shumai. It makes a whole world of difference buying the udon twice as expensive as those I usually get. This udon is those found in the frozen section. Very chewy texture. Yum!

Here's a picture of my lovely lunch.



I made some jelly too, last Friday. And added kiwi fruits in it. The jelly was a little big hard as I used agar agar powder. I think I need to add more water? Or maybe use jelly powder instead of agar agar powder? My boy loves it. That makes me happy. :)



I poured orange juice over it. Honestly speaking, I'm not really partial to jelly. It's just so much fun to make.

Hubby has said that it's not so nice to post pictures of our kids on the blog. I tend to agree with him. So as much as I want to show the whole world how cute my kids are, I must desist. Ah well.

My dsyfunctional family

I wanted to go out for dinner to celebrate with my colleagues today, but my mom told me last minute that she wanted to go out and could only take one kid. The bigger one who is easier to bring out. After I've asked if she could take care of them both, and she promised to, and I had told my colleagues that I'll be attending. *sigh*

Now why did she have to go? Today she rushed home so as to pack lunch for her son. Her 28 years old son. Who is going overseas to work. Who wrote out a list of essential things to bring then dump the list with the mother and expected her to get for him. Whose mother had to worry about him getting a flu jab and bringing the appropiate medicines. Who expected the mother to pack his luggage for him.

I do not begrudge my parents going overseas after he settles down, but all these preparations should be done by him himself. So today after my mom rushed home, she called me to say that he would be going for dinner with his friends after all. They were supposed to go shopping for stuffs for him. I mean, can't he even get his own stuffs himself?

And my mother told me that because she was not around, her sons were not able to have breakfast in the morning. Like it's my fault for keeping her away from her sons. Geez. Hey, we aren't talking about school-going children here okay.

Next time, my kids will make breakfast for me and for themselves.

It's not that difficult to take care of both kids actually, just tiring. And hubby doesn't come home till so late. Although I really appreciate my mother helping me with the kids, the way she goes on and on about it sometimes drives one crazy. It's more stressful listening to her.

The government wants its citizens to have more kids, but what's the point of having kids if one does not have time or energy to spend with them? If you don't have time to spend with the kids, don't expect to come home from work and have your children running to hug you because they miss you. Bah, they won't because they don't even recgonise you. And when you're working so hard, by the time you're home and have free time, all you want to do is to rest and have your own personal time. The government wants mothers to have more kids, and continue working after that. Is that going to work?

Phut phut ... the poo index

It's a lovely day today. Let's talk about poo. They come in many different shapes, colours and smell.

My dearest boy is now potty-trained. After a few canings and 'accidents'. I won't really call them accidents you know, after all, poo announces itself quite loudly, it's just that he didn't want to sit on the potty and pooed all over the floor. That's one gross factor 10 plus plus. Nowadays, he'll sit on the potty after announcing that he has a tummyache. And his poo is a LOT. Well formed, nice solid durian-like poo. Feels like durian too. That's what dear hubby said, after he had to pick up his son's poo off the floor. Euuugh.

And while he sits on the potty doing his poo poo, us poor mummies have to sit by him to keep him company and smell his really smelly poo poo. Reason being to make sure he completes his poo poo business, and not get up suddenly and drop the poo poo on the floor. That defeats using the potty right? (Trust me, it happened) So sometimes I'll read him a book (yeah, it's really a big long business), and sometimes I'll tell him a story. Actually I've only sat with him twice. Most times, he's at my parent's place. Timing, you know. Heh.

Now my dear daughter, she poos just about every minute. She sneezes, and phuts. She coughs, and phuts. She hiccs, and phuts. So there I was lifting her little butt, when she phut. The poo shot out with a force of a speeding bullet, fortunately, I had quick reflexes, and could feel the poo shot past the hairs of my arm. Splat, and it landed on the floor mat. Yellow runny eggy stuffs. Gross.

Life after two

I know I haven't been posting much nowadays. There're always other things to do when one is on the computer. Like reading other people's blogs, reading reviews an watching animes. Well, that is when the two kids are sleeping. Otherwise, my dearest boy will always be clamoring for dinosaur cartoons, which one has to look for them in youtube. The power of the internet! The power of YouTube!

The grandfather and the father have been showing him youtube vidoes of tanks and aeroplanes and lots of war stuffs. My darling boy has quite a violent vocab at two years and eight months. Also, the darling boy can switch on the laptop himself and I'm trying to get him to recognise alphabets by teaching him on the computer keyboard.

Fortunately, he still likes listening to stories and enjoys cuddling with me to read books together. *whew* It's quite scary what computer takes away from us!

The second one has been a bit neglected. Today she just had her first jab. Which should actually be done when she was one and a half months old. With our boy, I was very concerned about dates and stuffs, and he gets a proper assessment every month, plus we did all the weighing and measuring height and head circumfence diligently. We weighed our girl at one month, and she was about 5.2kg! Very big! Mom was already complaining that she doesn't fit into the bathtub! Didn't take her height and head circumfence though, and now she's two months already! Time sure flies.

My dearest daughter has quite a different disposition from her brother. She's not amused to be awaken at night for her feed even though it's been like more than four hours already. She's not amused when she's crying loudly to have a breast stuffed into her mouth. She's not amused when her diapers is soiled. She's not amused when she's not hungry but it's more than four hours and she needs to be fed and so stuff breast into her mouth. Gosh, her voice is loud and fierce. And she's not easily soothed. Unlike her brother. Cry, give milk = happy. This one, cry, cannot give milk. Must soothe first, generally by carrying (must be upright) and walking around and patting. *whew*

It's really not easy taking care of two. Mom still comes and help, and some nights, we send our boy over. Wednesdays and Fridays are school days for our boy. He is in the morning session, and we have been late for the past few weeks. *bleah* It's not really our son's fault, it's just that there's so many things to take care of, and the boy is not the easiest person to feed breakfast to. Fortunately, he looks forward to going to school, so there's no problem in that at all.

I'm glad that my boy adapts so quickly to school. It really saves a lot of headache. The first day in school, I sat in with him for the two and a half hours. The second time, he cried for an hour when I left. The third time, he cried for half and hour. The fourth time, he pulled my hand a bit but didn't look back when I disengaged and left. Nowadays, he hops into class, sits down besides his best friend, says things like 'I brought my police car today!' and never a look or bye to his poor mom. Heh. Not that I'm sad or anything ... I'm really proud of my darling boy. Of course the heart aches a bit since he didn't even say goodbye.

I'm so lucky that my mom is so caring and helpful. When we send our boy over, I could really spend quality time with my baby daughter. When she's here, she'll look after baby and cooks for us. And I could spend quality time with my boy. Or to get a proper rest = sleep. Nights isn't really restful. And when my mom is around, I could bring my boy swimming. We did that a few times already, and my boy has become a bit braver. He'll hold onto his floats, those long stringly ones, and I'll be a few feet in front of him. I also bought him a watergun to encourage him to swim, and he was so happy. The last time we went swimming, he toppled over into the water, somehow the stringly floats rolled under him and he slowly toppled - from upright position to lying back on the water and slowly starting to sink, after he lost his grip on his floats. I rushed to him, but you know how things are ... when in a hurry it became even slower! Heh heh. All is okay, he just got a bit of a shock, and the darling boy never even let go of his watergun throughout!

Will bring him swimming again when all of us recovers from runny noses!

Motherhood

It's really nice not having to wake up so early and rush to work. Life with the kids is so meaningful, yet sometimes it can be rather stressful, especially when the two of them cries at the same time. The big one should know better, and fortunately he's not like that all the time. Except that one night, just me and the two of them, and that wasn't very fun.

Anyway, the dearest son is a really good kid most of the time. Sometimes he does get jealous and scratches his little sister. But when I look at it, I see that he just wants the attention, especially that of his grandmother. He doesn't do that when I'm around. Except that one night when she cried non-stop, and he was trying to be helpful by beating her cos' she's naughty. *sigh* Of course that only makes her cry even louder!

He's an intelligent boy and knows what is right and what is wrong. It's rather amazing what kids know nowadays. I'm glad to be able to spend time with him.

Been watching the olympics. Didn't know that starhub had six channels dedicated to the olympics until 3 days before the end. Caught the rhythmic gymnast performance and am so impressed with the gold medalist individual, Evgenia Kanaeva. Her performance is so beautiful, so graceful, really a class above the rest. She seems to be dancing and floating, definitely deserves the gold medal. Catch her ribbon performance here. She performed the same dance in the olympics. The music is as beautiful as her dance. Photos of her here. I love her performance with the ribbon and the hoop best.

A crab, K Drama, Headaches

Just a few weeks with my little girl, and now I'm wondering if I should change her name. Emily sounds too sweet a name, and she's so grouchy in the morning, grunting like a dinosaur whenever she's left alone, or when she's dirty or hungry. Gee, she really loves to be carried at ALL times. My boy wasn't like that when he was little - he just drank his milk and went to sleep immediately. Not so this little girl. When she's dirty, she refuses to open her mouth for milk, and you have to clean her up before she'll drink. And after changing her diapers, she'll want her milk immediately and she starts yelling for it. So of course, after her milk, she'll poo again. *wipes forehead* ... Does that reminds you of Lucy in Peanuts? I bet she's going to bully her brother when she's bigger. Leonard is very easy-going after all.

Now I understand why all my galfriends are so hooked on Korean dramas. And my mom too. I watched a couple of episodes of The Legend with her, a couple of the daily 6pm to 8pm Korean dramas on TV with her, and I'm also hooked on them. I guess it's because the actors/actresses are really good-looking, and although the dramas can be quite long-winded, the stories are actually quite interesting. And it's all the romance stuff. And when you have nothing better to do, like lack of good animes to watch, you'll end up watching TV. So now, I'm going around either asking pple to borrow the K-dramas, or asking hubby to rent some nice K-dramas for me to watch. Heh.

My Whinings

If you click on the link to my very dear girlfriend's blog, you'll see a link to my blog under YP's whinings. Yep, I'm going to whine a lot. That's why one blogs right? To whine, because there's no one else to whine to. I bet Holly likes to whine a lot, and poor Biscuit has to be all ears for her.

Anyway, Whine no. 1. Mom disappeared off home with the big baby aka my son, and will not be back tonight. The difference between now and two and a half years ago when she does the confinement thingy for me is that she left me the maid. And dinner. I guess I'd better pop in more of those efficient painkillers tonight again. I think these painkillers are really good. They make you feel good, despite the pain all over. Today is only Day 4. Less than a week. Neighbour says she stays in bed for ONE whole week. Mom says I should stay in bed for one whole week too, but half-heartedly. Well, we can see how impossible it is when I'm all alone.

Whine no. 2. My nipples hurt like hell. But I'm still breastfeeding directly. Because pumping out requires: Step 1. Going down and storing milk in fridge. 2. Getting ready bottles = walking up and down stairs again. 3. Warming up milk = walking up and down stairs, and time needed while baby cries. 4. Feeding baby. 5. Washing and sterlising bottles = walking up and down stairs. I guess I can get the maid to do it, but I'd rather do baby things myself, and besides, it's rather tiring to yell for her all the time too. I still need to go down and oversee what she does. *sigh*

Whine no. 3. Hey, where are my birthday presents and birthday treat? *sob sob*

Whine no. 4. I want to go shopping. Didn't get to go at all!

Whine no. 5. I am working too hard and I am don't feel appreciated.

Whine no. 6. I want to go shopping. Got sale. :(

Whine no. 7. ...

One can never be prepared enough

So you thought you're all ready? The bag is packed, the nesting is done, work is completed, and you don't want to go back to work. And the waiting is just mind-numbing. And I'm putting on too much weight! And the cramps are just annoying. So in we went, and out she came. Finally.

25th June, a nice day to remember. The first thought was that, Whoops, she's dark! And she has lots of hair! Hubby is the kind who would count toes and fingers and check the ears are there. He was pretty worried because of all the bleeding in between, but I thought things were pretty cool right up to the end. My girl cried almost immediately and opened her eyes almost afterwards. And she's into the milk business two hours later. I always felt that my boy didn't take on to breastfeeding so easily because he was fed milk when he was brought into ICUC despite my insistance that he gets only breastmilk. Humf.

Anyway, so even if you're ready, my mom was not. Huh, so fast? That's her first reaction. *sigh* Anyway we don't really subscribe to the confinement foody thingy. All my mom cooks for me everyday is simply normal fare, except that she'll add more ginger and sesame seed oil. Pork and vege or fish, maybe chicken. Pork rib soup or herbal chicken soup. No prawns, no other seafood. And I don't feel so tired or in pain as the last time. Most likely because this time round, I'm popping the painkillers like water. It makes a whole world of difference when there is less pain. I was up and jumping like anything, and only when the painkiller wears off do I realise that I wouldn't have that much energy if I'm in pain.

Proper pain management is a very important thing.

Am trying to post a picture but there seemed to be some problems ...

I miss my dear boy

I realised that I haven't been writing about my dear boy for a long time now. I miss him very much, although life is like back to when I have no kids without him around. He's spending all his time at his grandparents' place and he watches lots of cartoons. I'm feeling quite unhappy about this, but there really isn't much choice is there? I remember last time when hubby and I discussed about it, we agreed that our kid should not be watching too much TV, as studies have shown that watching TV at an early age do cause ADHD when they're older. When my boy is with me at home, we hardly ever watch TV. The only programme I allowed him to watch, and it's watching with me is Animal Planet where I find it's soothing and there are lots of animals. Otherwise, sometimes he might watch some animes with me, but I don't really watch with him around, only when he's asleep.

So there he is, watching cartoons in the morning, my mom assured me they're educational cartoons, but still .....

*sigh*

Not that I spend a lot of time teaching him really, but most of the time, we'll be doing things together, like reading some books together, or playing some of his toys or painting, or just talking. He does not spend anytime with the maid at all when he's with me. But unfortunately, I can't care for him right now in my state, else I'll end up in hospital again, and this time my doc will definitely roll her eyes at me. It was so hard to get her to agree to let me get out!

My boy doesn't attend school. It was a bit regrettable that I had to withdraw him from his weekly enrichment class, but as I was expecting my second kid, and no one else wanted to bring him to class, I had no choice but to stop the lessons. My boy misses attending the school sometimes, but he has forgotten about it. Although sometimes he would carry his bag, put on his shoes and enthusiastically look forward to going to school. *sigh* Sometimes I feel so bad depriving him of such stuffs. One more month, and I promise to make up to him.

Nevertheless, he speaks extremely well and has a most logical mind ever. Cute things he would do:

In the car, he'll ask for the road directory, open the pages and proceed to direct his father which way to go. Go straight, turn right, turn left. Red light must stop you know. Papa, don't drive so fast. Drive slowly. Stop here. Etc.

We rented the rat chef cartoon on DVD. What's it called? Some Rat......(sp?) or something? It was a pretty funny cartoon, but it was a horror show for my poor boy. He watched with his eyes wide open, when the rats got attacked by the old lady in the kitchen, he clung to me so tightly like a koala bear and cried, and when I told him to cover his eyes and stop watching, he refused to close his eyes, instead he'll keep watching with tears running down his eyes, and kept saying nonono!

He cried and was sad when the papa rat and the hero rat was separated.

He screamed in terror and cried (but refused to look away or close his eyes) when the hero rat was chased in the kitchen in the restaurant.

After that I had enough, and switched it off and read a soothing book to him. Heh.

We also rented the cartoon CARS on DVD, and he enjoyed that very much. After which he took out all his toy cars and proceed to race around the house. Plus he pulled out the wheels on his model beetles and proceed to do change of wheels like that shown in the cartoon.

There was a three year old girl who came to visit her mother in the other bed, and she sang ABC to her mom. It was then I realised how impressive my boy is, for he can sing the whole song without a single mistake, with very clear and correct articulation at less than 2 and a half years old. Heh heh. The only thing my boy can't quite get it right is to speak proper mandarin, although nowadays he does know quite a few words, and the dialect as well. We're still trying to correct him on using too much singlish, but that's mainly our fault, because we use singlish ourselves. My boy may be very impressive in his vocab, but when it comes to numbers, he can't count for his life. He refused to count, he refuses to learn to count, and wild horses and chocolate bribes do not work on him. I guess when he's ready, he'll be ready for it.

I'm not sure if it's a bad thing not to send him to school yet. We haven't even looked at nurseries or kindergartens for him. I'm feeling a bit stressed about all this, but hubby seemed not too keen to send him to expensive schools (he doesn't want the boy to be atas), and I don't want to send him to playschools which are more child-care in nature - they're pretty expensive and they don't cover much if only in the morning. We tried looking at some church kindergartens but it's a bit difficult too. I'm not too keen on the Montessori, because they too are more child-care in nature, and there are so many different types, and there's no one to send our boy to school too. *sigh* I'm thinking that perhaps we'll skip the nursery all together, and just throw him a couple of enrichment classes, plus music class plus whatever he's interested in. How old do kids learn to read and write?

*stressed mother*

Now that I cannot spend much time with my boy, I feel that I'm losing him to lots of external forces. It's really so depressing, and I was looking so much forward to this time to bring him out to places with him and do lots of things together. *sigh* And why did this have to happen? I shall still blame the pple I work with for what happened to me. It's definitely their fault. So there. Humf. Not that they cared a single iota what happened to me. That's how it will be.

Hungry Hungry

Staying in bed all day makes one think of food. Now I have a craving for the Goodwood Park Hotel Durian Roll. Hmmm .... too bad, there isn't anyone who can get out there and buy for me. *sniff*

Home is definitely more comfy. There's music, when one's bored, there's work, and the bed is definitely most cozy. Of course, the downside is that I have to supervise my own meals, otherwise it'll turn out awful, like I went down yesterday and found that the maid did not turn up the heat on the oven when she roasted my chicken. Gah, she almost spoiled my lunch! I'm an extremely fussy eater. And of course, nobody will come and visit me at home, and the last of Min's chocolate was in my tummy a long way back. Heh heh. Still, one can't really complain since home is still the best.

The son has been banished to his grandparents, who take such delight in having him, that he has completely forgotten about his poor mummy who still misses him. It can't be helped, he's too energetic and everytime after spending time with him, things aren't too good for me. Don't wanna end up in the hospital again. My doc says I'm like a timebomb and I've got a feeling she's going to want me to induce again next week, but I'm so enjoying my holidays! It's rather bad to get baby out when she's still preterm ya?

So just lying in bed and listening to music, doing a bit of work here and there, and hoping for two more weeks of bliss.

Life's like that

I haven't been blogging for a long time already, I wonder if anyone still comes to my blog. Life simply caught up with me, all that work and stress and being a mummy. It's really not easy being a working mother, and I've decided that my children are going to be more precious than anything else.

It seems that my workload is extra heavy this year, even though they know that I'm expecting my second one. I'm not complaining, because it's not a big deal really. But I'm super pissed when my request not to do so much climbing stairs was turned down and inevitably a cause of my predicament now. Now I understand what politics is all about. Till now no one has called me to find out what happened to me. Except for one and it was work-related. Oh well, I guess I don't need that either.

So here I am, growing grass around my ears. I'm considering bringing my stuffs here to do, but those papers are rather important, and I don't want them to be moving around too much. Otherwise I'll need my work laptop to do real work, but there's no one I can think of to go down and pick the lock for me and bring it here for me. Was actually planning to get a good rest for two weeks and go back to do work, but my precious baby thinks otherwise. Everyone is very nice here, and I'm eating like a pig, not only the three square meals, but food from home, and sometimes begging my parents or hubby to get some dim sum for me to satisfy my cravings. Heh.

Plans went awry though, was planning to try out some Chinatown dim sum with PM and maybe Min, was planning to go Sentosa with my boy on Sunday, and the sale is on! But for now, I'll just lie quietly, watch animes, do light work on the bed and eat. :)

Things I'm impressed with my dear boy:

When I asked my boy a question in the negative form and change the same question into a positive form, he understands both and answers them consistently! Wow, I'm impressed.

Eg. You don't want this one right? - Yes. Do you want this? - No.

He talks non-stop and likes to tell stories.

He fed me my medicine. He said to me: Mummy, I hold the medicine for you. You drink water first, Mm. Then you open your mouth. And he pops the medicine into my mouth. Aaahmmm. And he gave me the sweetest smile possible.

Although the last time his hand was a bit wet and the antibiotic tasted awful after that. Euuugh.

He: Mummy Mummy! How's the walk, Mummy!
Me: Very nice, dear.
He: Mummy Mummy! Ask me how's the walk!
Me: How's the walk, darling?
He: Very nice, Mummy! *beamz*

We passed by the zoo, and he cried because he wanted to go to the zoo.

When he wakes up and opens his eyes and he sees both his mummy and daddy by his side, he smiles the most wonderful smiles every possible.

I love him so.

:)

And yes, I missed him so.

His eyes sparkle with happiness when I give him chocolates. He says: I promise to wipe teeth! I told him to be a good boy and stay with ah gong and ah ma, and he bounces from side to side saying: I will! I will!

And he says in the sweetest voice ever possible: Mummy I love you!

:)

Loving my boy

During the holidays, my mom went off to Macau for a short (5-days) trip. I was left handling my boy all by myself! Was feeling a bit apprehensive though, cos it's been a long time since I have to take care of him on my own, especially the feeding part.

So anyway, on Tuesday off she went, and that was the day I had to go back for some workshop. My family are so wonderful people though. My older brother actually took leave to spend time with him, and watch over him and the maid! My father came back during lunch to check on him and my younger brother came home early too. It really says a lot of how some people are huh. The other side could not be moved to return. *shrug*

Anyway, the rest of the week passes by so quickly. My boy and I spent our time playing, doing some artwork, and I got some time to myself reading when the maid plays with him. On Friday I brought him out to the Botanic Gardens and to an impromptu artclass. He enjoyed himself so very much and was deeply sound asleep by night. Must really do these things more often!

His favourite song is now Puff the Magic Dragon. :) And he listens closely to the lyrics and wanted me to tell him the story. And he'll ask questions regarding the lyrics too. Are all kids like that?

He'll be playing with his toys and listening to the song, then he'll suddenly run up to me and say, 'Mummy mummy! Why does it say 'but not so little boy'?' And he'll listen intently to my explanation and goes 'Mm'. And runs back to play with his toys again. Heh.

My boy loves going to parks. But he hates sand. He loves fixing aeroplanes and tanks and bulldozers and guns out of his lego blocks. He loves his playmobile motorcycle more than his bulldozer. He loves to listen to songs and stories. And he hums and sings songs when he's happy. And I love him very much. :)



That's him posing for the camera, rare actually, but because I told him to smile for daddy. :)

The Weekend

To cut the long story short, I dragged my butt down to Taka and bought a packet of Leonidas. As my boy would say: YUM YUM! :) I'm a happy girl again. My favourites are the ones with strawberry fillings and the alcoholic fillings. But can't take alcohol, so I only sneak in two alcholic ones, the ones with cherries. Heh heh.

They're all MINE! Not going to let my boy know. The last time he took almost half my loot. Humf.

Things pretty perked up after 5pm. Thank goodness, otherwise it would be quite upsetting. Must change strategy now. It doesn't make sense to work so hard and not be paid. Plus nowadays I'm really quite fed-up with the MIL and her antics. No more.

Anyway, do you know one can actually suffer from anime withdrawal? Arrgh.

Some other news: I heard that someone suffered a mild heart attack because he was taken to task. Tsk tsk tsk. Such cold-heartedness and tacklessness. If it's really true, I wonder how those people can spend CNY with a clear conscious. If you aren't willing to put in the proper funds, you can't expect so much. I think sometimes we just forgot what it is that we do. Apparently the new guy isn't very nice too, I heard.

*sigh*

Oh well. Four more months to go until I take a break. :) Well, sort of a break. Heh.

A Quiet Lunar New Year

So I didn't go to my mother-in-law's place after all. I mean one should stick to one's decision, and besides my parents were behind me all the way. Heh heh. And it was really hubby's idea. No loss. And if I were really the evil one as she thinks I am, I would not have let my boy go as well. Humf.

Anyway, it was nice to rot at home and watch animes. I should have been doing my work, but hey, it's a holiday and I had been working too hard for the past few days. I wished I still had my old animes with me. :( Still upset with hubby for frying my HDD. *sigh*

The rest of the holiday we spent at my parents' place. We played mahjong too! And hubby was slightly better this year. Except that sometimes in the middle of the game, I happened to look at his tiles, and exclaimed,"How come you are one tile short!" It happened a few times. We think he probably forgot to take his tile before discarding. Hahaha. Anyway, for the two days, the overall winner is ME! :) Even after contra-ing off hubby's losses, only me and my younger brother were winning.

My boy really gave me luck though. He came, he sat on my lap, he shuffled my tiles, and he knocked down a few tiles, and hey ... I won a self-picked max round! *beamz*

*****
We opened the clinic yesterday and only had one patient. Guess what actually happened? At four o'clock, we heard the patient banging on the glass door. Yep, dear hubby had forgotten to unlock the main door. *rolls eyes*. Today we realised that somebody did come around two, and the main doors were locked. *bleah* Oh well. :(

Some more funny things about my boy. He opened his ang pows and went tatatadum! as he took out his notes. Plus he went ding! when he found something I forgot what. And when my aunties came around to visit yesterday, Mom told me that he stood and faced the wall and was too shy to look at them, but after a while, he pulled up his own chair and sat in between them and chatted with them like old friends.

So overall, it was a quiet lunar new year. I'm feeling rather down in the dumps for this holiday season doesn't feel like a holiday at all. I didn't even have new clothes to wear, and the lack of meeting up with friends and relatives (every year there are less and less relatives to meet up with) does set the mood, or lack of it. I guess it'll just get worse. In other words, it's really a dull and boring holiday. Maybe I should just go for yoga too. Hmm, I wonder if the spa is opened.

Now I just feel like having Leonidas. The other day I had Calbury's at my mom's place, and those tasted really wierd. Guess my tastebuds have become more refined and cannot take these cheap chocolates anymore. Heh.

There's something about stories

My boy loves listening to stories. The other day, I was telling him the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, when it suddenly hit me that, hey ... Jack was a thief and a murderer! He stole from the poor giant, and killed him too! Tsk tsk tsk. What are we teaching our kids here eh?

And a while ago, I told my boy the story of the three little pigs. There are many versions of the story too. He cried when he heard that the big bad wolf ate up the two little pigs. Really! He cried! Oh dear.

*bleah*

I had to calm him down and ended up with telling him that the third little pig being the smartest of them all, finally killed the wolf, cut open the tummy and rescued his siblings. Still quite morbid actually.

*bleah*

I think we shall look at the Aesop Fables instead.

Come and Go

At a tender age of 2 years and 16 days old, my boy knows the difference between come and go. When he sees me and runs towards me, he would say, 'Mummy I come already!' and when he walks away from me, he actually says, 'Mummy I go already!'.

We were taken aback.

I looked at my hubby in shocked, and asked my parents who taught him that. Nobody knew.

We were so impressed.

:)

And the sentence for today is 'I dunno' with vigourous movement of the head from side to side, even to things he does know, which he says with laughter in his eyes and a big wide smile. He sure knows how to joke.

That's my cute boy.

I love him so.

He can sing:
ABC
Twinkle twinkle litle star
Jack and Jill
Mary has a little lamb
This old man (incomplete)
Motorcycle song
London bridge

His current favourite is Jack and Jill. I wasn't fast enough to record him on my hp. Will try again next time!

*****
In other news, my hubby fried my HDD. 200G worth of data. 10 years worth of treasure. All burned. Sob sob sob.

What a bad Xmas.

:(

A long long time later

I know I haven't been blogging. Just didn't feel like doing it. It just got boring after a while. I think my mood is like duh... duh... . What do I feel like doing? I feel like shopping, but clothes are to be on hold again. Anyway, I've got so much clothes, this morning I was just clearing out bags of old clothes, new clothes, clothes I wore only once but will never wear again, some clothes I never even wear before! I haven't finished clearing out my cupboard yet and I really have lots of clothes. Must stop buying!

What about bags? I'm just too lazy to change my bags often. Once I carry a bag, it just takes too much effort to transfer all those wallets and dunno what other stuffs women carry in their bags into a new bag. Besides all my bags are kept quite out of reach, so do I really need so many bags? Although it was quite disappointing this last Tods sale. All the way down there, and I didn't spend a single cent! Didn't quite like the bags, well .... I did quite like the nylon ones, but they weren't on sale. Sigh.

Books, bags and clothes. What else is there to buy? I didn't buy anything for myself this Christmas, perhaps that's why I'm feeling down. Add to the fact that I'm working today and on Christmas too. And it's raining almost everyday. What a foul weather. Yesterday was nice, and I brought my boy swimming. It was very cold though. We didn't make cookies as we had wanted to. For a few reasons. 1. Butter expired. 2. Was too tired, stayed up late to watch Pirates of the Caribean: At World's End. Quite silly show actually. Soooo showy. I like the first one best. I need more chocolates. Finished Min's chocolates too fast. Had a sore throat after eating four continuously.

Sad there's really nothing nice to eat around here. :(

Anyway, I could really get used to and love not doing any housework! And house is still spick and span. Am I going to suffer next time if I don't have a maid, or am I going to be addicted to have one forever?

Thirty plus and counting

Dressing in the thirties can be quite daunting. Yesterday I walked around town looking at the current fashion, while waiting for Min to turn up for dinner. The clothes seemed to be catered more for teens and the old boring working folks. What about stylish thirtish young adults? And to add on to the insult, most of the stuffs are winter wear, so dull and no-no. Hmm. It's no wonder Wen has turned to K-fashion, although I haven't seen her as of late, so I've no idea how K-fashionable she is, although her stories in her blog brings imagination to rot.

She is years too late in K-fashion though. I myself owned a couple of Korean stuffs - dresses no less, once upon a time when one of my current ex-colleague introduced me to this quaint little shop which sells Korean fashion. Not the teenage Lucky Plaza type, nope. And I don't even wear them often. I'm not sure how the K-fashion has become right now though, but the way Wen writes in her blog, it seems that they are more suited for young punks than thirty-something stylish adults. Heh.

So I walked around feeling a bit down, and empty-handed, till I decided to visit the French boutique. And spent an unbelivable amount for a pair of super short shorts. Winter fashion has no shorts elsewhere, can you blame me for needing a pair of super short shorts right now?

That's the danger of waiting too long for a friend to turn up for dinner. Heh heh. And hey, the black T was so cute ...

And not to mention, I spent a bomb on my rebonding again. Maybe next time I just need to go elsewhere. I might want to highlight this time, except it's so hard to maintain colour, especially when the colour fades, it looks really awful. I'm still in the super-straight look and will wait out one more year before I'll try anything different.

Besides it's been a long time since I pampered myself. It's just so depressing if one doesn't go out and doll oneself up now and then. My boy loves my new nail polish. He said,'So nice! So pretty! What is it?' Yep, he really said that. And last night when he saw me with my new hairstyle, he did a double take, thinking that I was someone else. Hahahaha.

Anyway, today I've finally threw in the towel and called for help. We'll be getting a maid. I'm sick of cleaning the house. The current part-time cleaner is not doing a good job.

Man, I'm going to be very broke.

My boy and his lamboghini

This picture speaks a million words. So there I was, vacuuming the floor, because I just couldn't wait one more day for my maid to come. And my boy got all excited and wanted to sit on the new car! Oh, he knew that it was the vacuum cleaner. He said so himself, then he laughed and said he wanted to sit on the car.

And when I turned it on to clean the floor, he kept yelling, Mummy! On! On! On! On! After a while, it didn't take a genius to realise that he really meant to switch it off, because he didn't like the noise. Then again, when it was off, he yelled, Mummy! On! On! On! On! Did he really know what he wants?

Now my boy says words like. Why? Why? Why? and Because Because Because. He's still asking What's that? But it's been peppered with Why. On top of that, he's really good at telling stories. He would say, in his oh so serious voice, that he just didn't want to touch the elephant.

Mummy: Did you like the elephants?
Son: I just dunwan to touch the elephant. *sob sob tone*

Yeah, we went to Bintan again. This time the resort hotel wasn't so great. I told hubby that he should just be assertive and ask for the best hotel. *bleah* We went for the elephant show, and baby freaked out when he was brought near the elephants. He screamed in terror. *rolls eyes* We fed the elephants bananas, and baby was so unhappy. We sat on the elephant knee to take a picture and he had tears running down his cheeks. Okay, so when the ordeal finally ended, and I asked him if he liked the elephants, that was what my cute little boy said.

*sigh*

How to be like a man eh?

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*

Another sleepless night

My sense of time has been completely screwed up. The last couple of weeks of late nights have finally led me to this wide-eyed state. And I didn't even drink coffee. We had been staying up late catching movies and doing work. Some were pretty good. The movies that is. My dear boy caught his first horror show too. We watched Monster House. It was pretty cute. Not really frightening, but must be pretty frightening for him. He held onto us pretty tightly. There was Battle of Britian and Because I said so. Both were quite good and really enjoyable. Battle of Britian seemed so familiar. I think I might have played the game when I was a kid. All those bombers and fighters and spitfires and those views seen from the airplane ... so nostalgic. Maybe I watched my brother played when we were kids. On the computer that is. I doubt I've watched the movie before, or haven't I?

Seems that baby will not have a fever tonight anymore. But the true test would be at about 1am, 6 hours since the last dose of medicine. I hope he won't cough so much too. Poor dear, it's so painful to see him so sick. Kids are so fragile. I really hope his fever doesn't come back up. It's so difficult to give him his medicine that for the past two nights, he slept without taking medicine and yes, with a fever. Hubby said it's okay. I guess we'll leave it to the expert. I'm so tempted to be paranoid.

We are looking for people again. It's so hard to find good help. Maybe the pay is too low? I think this time we would seriously consider finding foreign help. Perhaps it's for the best eh? I wonder where all the employable people have disappeared to? Probably pay is too low for them. But rent is too steep for us. You really wonder what you're doing at the end of the day!

My little painting fell off the wall again. This time it left a little crack on the study table. This little painting isn't really little actually. Once upon a time a long time ago, Wen was shopping for her funiture and stuffs and we went into this woody place in Balestia and I bought two wooden frames with tiled paintings in them. Well, I hung both of them up above my study table, using the famous 3M stuffs, one above the other, and strangly enough, the bottom painting never drop off. Only the top one. The third time it happened, I switched both paintings, and guess what, the top one dropped again!

Dear hubby rolled his eyes all the way to the back of his head. I told him that as the painting on top is higher than the one below, the top painting will have a greater gravitational potential energy, therefore it exerts a greater force and thus is more prone to falling.

Hubby told me: Murphy's law. Murphy's law. When you least expect it to fall, it will fall. I think that's what he said. Gotta check with him again, except that he is sleeping right now.

What do you think actually happened?

Hey, I even changed the 3M tape each time! A new one okay!

Now only one painting sits on the wall. My table has a little crack. *mutter*

Hubby rolled his eyes again as I taped the 3M tape on a shelf on the wall. heh heh heh. Perhaps I'll take a picture the next time I tidy up this place.

In other news, hubby tried his hands at repairing the air-con, and inadvertably killed it. And he did not even turn off the mains when he was doing the work! How not angry can I be? Grr. Not only did he spoil the air-con, he put himself in bloody danger. Duh. I thought he was only going to put it back, but while I was cooking, he went and did so many things to it. Now it's dead. RIP.

Boys.

See, blogging always make me sleepy. :) Yep, time to sleep. We are now camping in the study room cos cannot live without air-con!

Blah blah blah

So what am I doing? Still up so late? Last minute work as usual, but my mind is already too saturated, and I'm taking a break, write a post and going to sleep. Datelines be damned. Actually I should try to be more productive as this is the only time I can get to do so much, and the many cups of tea really kept me awake. But my mind is really not working anymore. Can't be help eh?

I got a few things to blog about, but baby just took this time to whimper. SIGH.

I guess that's it.

Destination - Banyan Tree

The whole place is beautiful, especially when you have a whole villa with a private pool and an outdoor jacuzzi.

The view is absolutely fabulous, the company is great, and the food is pretty good. Sort of. Unfortunately we didn't have time to get out and sample the kelong seafood. Sis-in-law said that they have changed the chef so the food is much better. I can't imagine how horrible it must be previously. So much of a super-high class resort, if the food isn't too good, it just isn't that good.

When we got there, all of us got down to the beach to get dirty. Well, sandy. The kids ran around and tried to make sandcastle but the sand was too wet to stick. I brought baby down and tried to get him onto the sand. He didn't like the sand very much. When he got sand on his feet, he said, 'Mummy, feet got something!!!'

Here is me trying to put him down onto the beach, there he is gripping very tightly onto me with his hands and feet. No way is my little boy going to have sand on him. How fastidious can he be?

On the second day, we sneak out to have a nice massage. Hmm ... I think I must have become extremely spoilt. Thought the massage was only so so. Ex too. After that, we went to play in the mud. Not too sure what the vehicle was called, you know those four wheeler buggy or something where you drive through some muddy trek. Hubby said, 'Think of them as horses with wheels.' And in the middle of the forest trek, it rained big cats and dogs and we were soaked to the skin. I've never felt so cold in my entire life or so wet! Not to mention, the manaic hubby was driving at full speed through puddles of water, thus splashing mud and water onto me. At least the muddy water was warm compared to the rainwater!

We had to turn back when the vehicles started to have engine trouble. There were five vehicles all together. And we also had a entrouge of engineers on bikes with us to lead the way as well as to start our engines when we stalled. Which was pretty often when it started raining. On the way back to the starting point, the kids stopped and with their mother, they all ran into the sea. To wash off the mud. What the hell. Hubby and I threw down our helmuts and joined them as well. They were screaming at us 'The sea is warm!' Anything was better than being cold and shivering to the skin eh? And we were all in T-shirts and shorts. Only my sister-in-law was smart enough to have her swimming-wear under her clothes. Duh.

So we rode up and down the beach for a while, in the rain, which had become a drizzle, and when we finally reached the starting point, the sun came out and smiled at us. Duh duh duh. What a mean weather! One of the kids exclaimed. Indeed. So the nine of us came back dripping wet and mud. It was fortunate we didn't bring our boy along. I can imagine him turning up his nose at all the mud and water! He didn't want to hug me when he saw me dripping wet! Tsk tsk.

It was too soon when we had to go back. There was water-skiing and more stuffs which the boys arrange. They sure know how to play. It's pretty fun when there are lots of people I guess. If it's just us, we probably wouldn't do all these things. My poor baby. When he grows up would he still have his cousins to play with? They'd be all big and maybe boring. :P

I guess baby enjoyed himself in his own way. Here he is, playing hide-and-seek and catch and eating fries. :)