Another - the Mask

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

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

It is DONE!

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

I. AM. SO. HAPPY.

3 YEARS

Jien turned 3 last X-mas.

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

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

The screaming thing lessen ABRUPTLY when he turned THREE.

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

He gave me time to work by asking,

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

'YES'

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

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

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

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

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

Best of 2009

The list goes like this:

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

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

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

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

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


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

Happy New Year! Belated as usual..

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

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

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

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

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

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

x x x x

Resolutions?

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

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Hugzzz!!

SUEH!! puik puik!!

Oh it was a terrible November!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

I am really drowning!!

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

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

Turning 8 months

Jung turned 8 months old last Sunday.

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

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

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

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

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

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

What a bundle of joy.

Neighbour

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

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

So back to my story...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Growing Lettuce

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good luck!

3rd Harvest

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

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

LOVE IT!

Getting Older

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

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

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

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

Yoga

Jung's favourite pose for the past 2 weeks.

Mickey in Jien's Eyes

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

MICKEY MOUSE!


Illustrated by : Jien

Wonderful 7 months- Jung

Jung turned 7 months old last week.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Buzzing bee

Busy busy busy..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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