Colours in Life

The other night after our night out, I don't know what strikes Jien but he started taking out these bowls and cups and arrange them on the kitchen counter. Any idea? But I thought it was kind of - weird but nice.

Art Work

What say you about this art work?

It is by my 15-month-old boy. I love it. He drew up something which is apple-like and he repeated it. When I saw it I was kind of stunned and by the time I took out the camera, this is what was left (he deleted part of it)!.

Sentimental Boy

It has been more than 2 weeks since the big quake in China. I read the Chinese paper with me holding the paper real high because I can't help but to shed tears reading the story and looking at the pictures, and I surely don't want people to see me - tearing reading paper??

I have to admit, I cry easily. Over love, touchy story. Even over joy.
I laugh easily too. And when I laugh, I could feel my belly shaking (now worse, the extra pounds of fat shakes!!) and I think the whole floor in the apartment hear me alright!

Hubby said I pass down the gene to my son. Oh yeah?

Jien laughs easily yes. What a joy.
And he cries over things like in the Einstein series, there is this puppet hippo 'yawning' away but he surely sounds more like crying. And so there goes my son's tears.

Just this morning, he happened to watch 'The 3 Little Pigs' story in the Disney Channel. He loves the story book we bought him but as he saw it being 'animated' and when the pigs got scared and chased, he cried! Aduh!

Family vs 'career'

I had a good chat with my ex-boss today. I was attending a meeting somewhere in town and just right downstairs of that familiar office that I used to work. So right after the meeting, I went up to chat with my ex-colleagues and boss.

More new faces and more new projects. We had a good chat about the good old days and as usual, we had a long chat, nice chat. The first thing that was brought up was he had invited me to join them back, as 'partners', no more as a staff since I am having my practise now.

Well, I declined from the start. It was a good gesture of them but I have to say no for now. I love to lay my hand on BIG projects again since for these couple of years, I had been just working on bungalows and houses AND houses... only. I yearn to learn more and expand my knowledge. When I look at the projects, my hands and my brain got so excited! BUT the timing is just not right. I love the way my style of living now. I have no one to report to. I love it while working, I have my boy come knocking on my door calling 'mama' (though sometimes I have to admit, he interferes). But I have come to this point of my life that I wanted most of my time spent on family. I know I would miss my boy growing up and it won't come back again. NEVER. So whatever expansion and promotion - just have to wait.

Baby Talk

Couple of days ago, my boy started baby talking.

It is cute to listen to his respond.

'Jien, you want to read this or this?'
'Ma-ca-rr-ba-.......'
'???'

'Okay, you want to draw. What is that?'
'Car-ma-k'ng-ta....'
'????'

Me and hubby always have a good smile on our face after that foreign language session with him.

Grieving Mothers

Aside from suffering from the ever soaring inflation and escalating price for commodities, we are indeed a bunch of blessed mothers who can STILL happily celebrate mother's day.

For some, they are not as lucky. They could be having nightmares and sleepless night after losing their loved ones in the disaster in Myanmar and yesterday, China - one of the worst earth quake in the last 3 decades for the nation.

As a mother now, I can't help but have teary eyes and felt the grieving pain of the victims. They lost their loved ones, lost their house and even have to leave their homeland to get to a safer and alien place to start all over. It is a disaster. I could not imagine if that were to happen to me.

I picked up my cheque book and signed for the donation fund in Sin Chew Daily. I hope those who has not done so, find a good channel to extend your help.

Our mother earth is angry, furious and seriously ill. She needs our immediate attention and care. This is an alarming call. What have I done so far and how much more can I help the earth?

Organic Week

I felt good.

I picked up my long forgotten yoga and for a start, I did it twice this week. I am trying my very best to make it a point to practice EVERYDAY. :)

We had a whole week of organic vegetable this week. I try to slot in more vegetable in the meals and had them 'naked' (no frying like most Chinese cooking la!) whenever possible. I reduced abruptly on deep frying and instead go for grilling and baking. I am happy with our progress to eating healthy meals. And I am happy that I am in charge in the kitchen. I love playing with fresh ingredients and I love experimenting.

Yesterday, we were at a bookstore again (Jien's favourite) and I was instantly glued to a series of beautiful pictures displayed on the shelves upon entry. The cook books by Beverly le Blanc. Absolute nice graphics and good pictures. Good packaging too. I can't help but to get myself this one. It is ring binded so it 'stays' open at 'that' particular page when I need to prepare and refer while cooking. That is important! Haha!

When I started 'reading' it today, oh-o, there are lots of 'ingredients' that I have absolutely no clue of. They are pretty 'mediterranean'. Argh, who cares...I am ready to learn and hopefully hubby's tummy is ready for this and while we go green for our meals, his face does not (turn green)! :P



Picture Courtesy of Energy Boost, Love Food (Parragon Books Ltd)

Steps

My boy is growing fast. He comes running and storming nowadays and pretty much know how to get what he wants by a very powerful tool - CRY and true enough, he IS crying with tears flowing but as his mum, I knew he is just playing a trick so that he could get my attention and most importantly, get the thing that HE wants. Good gracious. It seems that nothing can stop him from touching and 'ruining' the house except for one little factor - height! Jien is absolutely shaken and scared of height!

For instance, even a small drop of say 3", he would ponder to step down. And this is even so if there is a change in colour or material. He would stood still and cement his feet down and would not budge a little. I would have to do much of coaxing and try to remove his 'frozen' feet one at a time!

This pretty much reflects myself. Actually I am myself quite an acrophobia person. No doubts that I had scaled one of the ranges in Nepal, I have to admit I AM still afraid of height. I have no qualms about going up hill but I have doubts about coming down. I always have the feeling that I took the wrong step and I will start rolling down like a humpty dumpty! That is even more so when I have Jien in my tummy! I will be so careful and have that insane phobia that I will grip on to railing or hubby, SO tightly!

One thing for sure - I did not know this is inheritable. And for a one-year-plus, he loves climbing and scaling - upwards. But when he then 'realize' his position and 'height', he would start crying for help.

I wonder I was like this when I was little. :)

Artist at Work

Things I like about working from home

I cannot recall how many times my boy fell from the bed. He used to cry on the bed calling for attention in the morning. From there, he proceeded to slowly dragging his butt and landing his legs first. He then learned to crawled and open the door himself (we purposely leave it open slightly). Most of the time, I would be there to greet him before he says anything.

For the past few days, my boy would come walking to my soho's door and with his tiny fingers, he would 'knock' the door and call 'Mama! Mama!' Knowing well that I am inside, working. How sweet. This is surely the privilege of working from home as when a baby just woke up from a good sleep, they simply look like an angel.