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Ok.  I think I did mentioned that I entered a competition from our corporate association.  Now, after that, our house got featured in the magazine.  And now, they want more article from me.  Good advertisement for me.  

But the thing is, I do not have any professionally taken pictures for my projects (call me kedekut, but hey these people - the good ones, are really pricy)!! Good thing is they do provide photographers for free.  They arrange for photo shooting day and 2 houses were shot in a day with 2 teams.  Well, to be honest, I don't quite like the pictures taken (simply because they take care of the ID but not so much of the architectural essence of the house which I am proud of..).  See my point?  I CAN be that fussy.  But since it is for FREE and I got free advertisement, hush, I don't even bother to comment much on the pictures.

The thing is, well, I have to prepare for write ups.  Hack.  Another time consuming matter which crack my head and nerves.  Hello, being solo means I have tonnes to do but well, for free advertising of the company, I just swallowed the pain and force myself to start typing, typing and more typing...See, I am a very sincere designer, I love pictures, I love my designs and the things I do, but having to translate what I do in words are just tooo.....tooo......argh......

Anyways, then they asked me for my picture!! OH. MY. GAWD!  Where to get the picture??  I have not taken any proper pictures for ageees!  Anyways, I hate to delay on the articles and their work and today I dragged myself, pulling out my camera and tripod.  Thank goodness, good weather.  I purposely making sure that I am wearing black.  Put on my earrings and decided to put them off so that I look more natural.  Smiled and posed, nope, smiled and posed again, nope....until I got these 2 which I think can pass just ok...I had to end the session fast before my domestic helper thought that I am a jerk!! ;P

The SUDDENLY baby is turning 3!

Jung my second boy(my last too!), my little baby, is turning 3 next month!!

My baby who mumbled and slurred suddenly speaks! Not just words but he utters phrases!! All of a sudden, just about a week before he attended his kindy.

About 2 weeks before class commenced, we were still busy potty training our boy.  We almost gave up;  he would pee on the floor and only then, pull down his pants as he was not comfortable.  He would run and hide somewhere, pooed, and then, came walking with his legs stretched w-i-d-e open.  He then advanced into pulling down his pants first before his biz --- BUT, he did that everywhere EXCEPT in the toilet.  Sigh....

Then, just about few days before the final countdown to school, he suddenly called and informed us of his needs.  We were soooooooo pleased with him.  There we go, saying bye bye to the day time diapers!!  We will slowly train him for 100% diaper free; we are still waiting for some sign and signals from our boy.

Jung is such a sweetie pie.  He loves us and he showed his love in every little thing he does.  If we were to leave the house, he would call for ALL OF US, making sure we are all in the car or leave the house.  Should one of us decided NOT to go, he would make such big fuss and would even CRY for that matter!! Same as going to bed, he wants everybody to be in the bedroom with HIM, the master Jung.  Haha!! 

And yes, this boy is such a demanding boy; knowing exactly what he wants and whatever that he does not want - he would give a big answer 'NO! NO!' and if he is really angry, knowing his fists are still small, he whacked us with his big head, real hard!  True to himself who is born in the year of OX!! 

And with this strong character, it is impossible to force anything down his throat.  IMPOSSIBLE to give him an extra spoon of rice just to clear the plate; IMPOSSIBLE to give him even a mouthful of chicken if he decided that he is just going to eat his vegetable; IMPOSSIBLE to feed him a grain of rice if he decided to just have soup for the day; IMPOSSIBLE to drip a drop of soup if he decided that he is just going to eat his fish......My maid tried, I had tried and hubby refused to even try!  The hardest part would be to have a him sick.  Not a single drop of medicine.  Yes, I mean it.  Please don't tell me I had not tried hard enough.  Even if 3 person were to hold him down, he would either hold the medicine in the mouth and spit out later, or he would gargle and spit or he would not even want to open his mouth; worst of all, he would cough all the way (if we managed to force down a tiny ml) until he vomited out all his food together with the medicine!  Amazing yes but definitely not amusing!!!  We had wasted a whole lot of medicine and antibiotics - not a single drip so far!  So we had given up seeing any doctor if it is cough and running nose (due to makan fried food ler..), just watch his temperature and suppositories at night.  Duh....

Talking about food, have I mentioned somewhere that my boy L.O.V.E.S his vegetable??  Oh yes, he is one of a kind.  He loves vegetables, Chinese style only though.  He loves his stir fried broccoli, taugeh (bean sprout) and spinach the most!!  He would eat almost as much as I do!!  Oh and he loves his fruits too.  He eats his apple, pineapple, papaya, oranges, mangoes, kiwi fruit.  Black berries and strawberries are his favourites so far.  

Jung is a very active, outdoor type boy.  He dances and sings most of the time.  He shakes and twirl and spins and on top of that, he moves his brows and burst with loads of expressions!! 

He is still at letter O and sometimes letter X (lately letter P).  Not showing much sign of wanting to learn, we kind of take it at a slower pace compare to his brother.  But he loves his animals.  So he recognizes a handful of animals now.  And even know names like hammerhead shark and brachiosaurus!  ;P

Jung baby, mama loves you.  Thanks for spicing up our life!  Muak muak hugz hugz!!

Jien's Work 2011

I have to sheepishly admit that I don't spend quite enough time with my kids.  But working from home allows me to have an extra bit of advantage of peeping at what the boys are up to, and I LOVE that...

So these are some of Jien's work which I categorized them into :

~ The Dino Series

 

The herbivours..names? Ask him.

I called this one ~ The Dino's Party..Quite a handful of species here.  I just enjoy looking at the details.  The type of legs, taiils, teeth, horns, spikes.  Interesting.  

These dino's skeletons were found lying on my kitchen floor one good afternoon.  I love the colour.  Cute little blue head dinos.

~The Car Series:

 My boy is a fanatic Cars fan.  He watched the E.N.T.I.R.E Cars movie when he was about 2 yo.  And he kept watching it over and over again for almost a good year!! Then the love for the fire red sports car kind of subsided until we brought him to watch The Cars 2 in the cinema and the love just grew double into madness now!!  Sometimes, he would just play with the colour changer the whole morning, happily watching the car changing colour..

~The Human Series :

Us...by Jien.  I am holding Jung then.  ;)

This is the summary of our recent trip to Taiwan by Jien.  So many home-stays, hehe...it must have been tough for him keep changing places to stay or he could have enjoyed them so much..haha.   Well, look at the animated planes, the train station, the cloud, the fruits, the motorcycle and of course, the dinos just have to show up in the drawings..huuusshhhh.......

Summary 2011

The year is ending!  So super duper fast!

Looking back, it has been quite a fruitful year indeed (Thanks for the blessing, the One Up There! ;)) 

Health wise :

~ Great!! I am able to maintain my weight and control my healthy diet so far.  Good cholesterol level, good blood pressure, good overall.  Some said I look thinner now than the me in my wedding pictures!! Whoa!  I weighed lighter then!! My target this year is to shake off the extra fats which sometimes make me looking 2 months pregnant and of course, the big legs if possible!!  And I want to go back to my yoga again to have my body more flexible which I still think is vital for a good health.  I am slacking and lazy in dragging myself up in the morning to do so...C'mon girl, u can do it!!

Family :

Great.  


Working from home is still my best choice.  There were crazy days when I need to send my eldest to kindy and picking him up from school at the beginning of the year.  I lost a lot of weight then due to the rush hours madness, speeding after meetings just to drop him to school was sheer madness but, truly gratifying as parents.  I could then chat with the teacher, know his friends by names and chat with some of the parents too.  It is a wonderful feeling when the kids start calling me as 'T Jien's mummy!'  Then, the work load piled up and since the boy is looking more ok and not 'blur', I eventually get a van service to drop him.  


Next year would be my younger one's turn to the kindy.  I am really not certain if he is ready; he is such a cute pie and baby - that he is still baby talking and not fully toilet train (shiver~one more week to go!!).  Well, of course, now having 2 in the kindy means my bank account will shrink quite a bit when the school begins.  Whoa, and my duty would be to pick him up from school, at least for a good 2 months (well, that is IF the school accepts this boy after the trial 5 days!!What? u mean I pay u and I have to toilet train my boy??!!)

We had a good trip to Taiwan this year.  I will surely plan for something again this coming year!! Beijing is my target! ;) 

Career :

No complaint.  


The house we moved in was nominated (Thanks to Michael Tang if you are reading this!!) and shortlisted for the PAM design award!  Though I did not (damn!) win, well, at least, this humble abode of ours got featured in the magazine and I get calls to feature in other magazines too and guess what?  Hey, potential clients started making enquiries!

Also, another bungalow that I worked on won an international Interior Design Competition.  Well, read me : the Interior Designer IS NOT me...haha..but hey, if the house is shitty, the ID can't be possibly winning right??!!  Haha!!

Thanks to my friend's support, I am starting to divert my focus slightly from purely residential to commercial / industrial building which I reckon is a good turning point.  Not to say that I will completely discard the residential part of it which I think is still my forte.

I hope this coming year, I will have on hand a hotel job to start with!!!  Really looking forward to this!

x  x  x

I hope it is a great year 2011 and we shall all have a wonderful and peaceful 2012!!  Cheers!

It is scary to see how my sons are repeating after me..I mean copying me especially the way I talk, my gesture, the way I node my head...way too scary with Jien..even the way I got angry and scolded him, he copied it and 'translated' it on his brother.  Eww!

It happened a few times already that he shouted at his brother.  Even the 'Aiyo!' sound all too familiar and that echoed in my mind and raised my hair!! Eeeeerie!  

Tell me, how can one sane fella not yell when having to work from home, answering phone calls, thinking for solutions, cracking the head and the boys are fighting and screaming at the other end??!!  Sane or saint here eh?

Ah well, no excuse now.  It is too scary to get this copied and passed down.  

I have to learn to take a deep breath and pinch myself the next time I loose my temper and go screaming again! Ahhhhhhhh............!

A Good Break

People like us, the designer (kuli) don't have many holidays actually.  Well, this last particular Raya cum Merdeka break was such a blessing to me.  Absolute no calls and no work!  Bliss.

It started off with big cleaning up of my office.  I hate working in disorder.  I remembered during the schooling days, I will take few days just to tidy up my room.  Making sure everything is in order for the new semester.  That includes tearing up unused exercise books and binding them and turning them into my useful sketchbooks.  Now I have to discard all the old drawings, heaps of them.  Preliminaries sketches, obsolete printed drawings etc and turning them into my recycled fax paper or my son's sketch paper...HUGE pile.  

Then, it was fun time (??) at Sunway Lagoon.  Well, fun time for Jien only to be specific.  Jung was like a clinging koala and would not even want to wade in the pool!  Gosh.  Just too young for that maybe.  Will wait for another 10 years before our next visit.  ;P

Then it was all good resting and good family time together at home.  I just love the simple form of it.  Grabbing some books to read, and the fact that I can read the newspaper slowly..is already something I cherish so much!! haha!

The highlight was of course a dinner gathering of my relatives at my place.  I was just toying with the idea just before the holiday and saw my cousin on the FB.  We started chatting and then it was all set and scheduled.  I am so super glad that I did that.  I love watching my aunts chatting together.  Reminds me a lot of my mom.  And the fact is, my paternal aunts and maternal aunts are very close and they are like sisters!! We are just so blessed that we have that strong family bond.  Now I understand why my mom always organized some parties despite all the hard work cooking and preparing the food for like almost 30 pax if not more.  It is a sheer occasion of joy seeing all the relatives come together, seeing some grow up to be teenagers / married / having babies etc.  It is a loud, fun, and love is in the air.

Too bad I did not take any pictures.  Will surely organize another soon.  

And of course, this is their first visit to our new house.  All going oo and ahhh and LOVE the house.  Glad! ;)

Loving Today!!

I love today..

Yessss, for :

1. Hubby is coming home today and I will be seeing him tomorrow morning!!
2. Holidays are approaching.
3. Got the submission done yesterday for a nice couple.
4. Get the drawings printed out and ready for contractor to quote for another job.
5. Finally have time to check for another project's drawings.


Can't wait can't wait to see hubby!! Yippie!

This long wait is only after 2 short (looonnnng!) weeks of hubby's assignment to New Zealand. He was kind of lucky to catch a glimpse of the heavy snow fall in Wellington. Emotionally, I guess he is worse than me. Home sick, missing ME and the boys, missing the house, the bed, well, everything here! Well, just 2 weeks!

See, it is kind of strange that when he is away, I have ALL the energy to get up early, cook my breakfast, prepare Jien's breakfast, read them books, play with them, bring them to the park, to the malls, etc etc...The moment hubby is back home, the adrenalin level will drop to the lowest low. I don't know how you see it. But I see it as I am such a LUCKY mom.

Counting down, counting down!! ;)

I KNOW

My elder son is better in trying to express himself in words now. And so he is enjoying school to the fullest. Not a day have I to worry about him not wanting to go to school now. He happily awaits the uncle to pick him up and happily hopping on to the van. Not a teardrop shed.

Knowing more words and to actually spell them helps him a lot in his capability to read too. So now he is the 'genious' in his class for he is good in English and learning fast in Mandarin and Bahasa. All teachers adore him.

Well, good for him.

So with boy like this, I think he tends to think he knows a lot or everything maybe. In Hokkien, we call it' Keiy Kiang' or 'Keiy gao'. Everything he wants to try, he will brush your hands aside before you even tell him what to do. Everytime you tell him to do something...he will say 'I KNOW!' Not in a snobbish way, but a very relaxed and non-chalant way. Well, maybe I am still treating him like a small boy and suddenly I got this low tone 'I know...' , it somehow made me paused on whatever I am doing and give him a good look (stare)...

Jien, please wash your hand after food ya.... J : I know

Jien, turn on the light please if you are trying to read..... J : I know...

Jien, go pom pom first then play J : I know

Jien, ............................ J : I know



Scary? I know........

In the Park

I was checking some pictures to be placed in the blog the other day only to find out that I have the July month totally void of any pictures.

I was utterly sad as this means I had missed my sons on the entire month!! Oh yes, watching them growing everyday yes but having able to revisit their cute little faces is another.

As I flipped out my camera feeling sad, I checked the pictures in the camera and go 'YEAH!' I did take their pictures!

And they were in one of our favourite parks! I love seeing my sons playing in the nature, get all dirty, wet and soaked up! It really feels good!





Ahhhh......life! ;)

My Paleontologist

Yes, paleontologist...I only knew this word few weeks ago. All because of my eldest son who suddenly is a freak dinosaurs fan. Everything down to our daily conversations are on the topics of dinosaurs.

'Mama, do you know what is Cretaceous Period?'

'Mama, see, Diplodocus. See this one, a triceratops. And this one ......'

My brain can only accommodate a few names like Tyrannosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Triceratops, Protoceratops, Stegosaurus (as I am typing this, I am checking the spelling from my son's book, ;)). So the rest, it sounded like an alien trying to squeeze in new words in my tiny brain. But to my son, all these names are fantastic and he can already easily memorizing 30 if not more...goodness.

The other day, I was amazed at his ability to spell Ankylosaurus. So I asked him, do you know how to spell mama's name?

He looked at me and tap his chin....'How mama? How to spell your name??'

Yeah, this paleontologist of mine loves his dinosaur BETTER than his mom already...aiyoyo!!

Song Bird

My younger boy loves to sing lately. Old McDonald Had a Farm, Twinkle-twinkle little Star, numerous others and his favourite 'The Dinasaur' which he invented his own.

He would climb up any make shift stage available and would perform seriously. After singing, he would nod his head exclaiming 'Thank you! Thank you!' So cute.

And today, while I am working, I can hear my boy singing Chinese Song in the hall. It is amazing that he still remember the rhythm and hum and sing along. He has not listen to these songs for at least 4 months already! And to me, this cacat song that he is humming and trying to follow just sounded like heaven! ;)

Bliss.

* Twinkle Star - spontaneous visit to I-City.

Conversation with Jung

This second son of mine love watching TV and savoring his roti canai.

And so he picked up the word - telescope from the TV numerous shows on the pirates. So all the rolling drawings in the house turned into 'a telescope' and his toy naturally.

x x x x

Yesterday, I baked some yummy tea muffins. It is supposed to go with some beaten cream cheese and honey. So as I dipped the muffin and pass to him, guess what my Jung said ??

'Mummy, is this SPICY??!!' ;P

Colored Version

I have not seen Jien doing any art ever since the introduction to iPhone and iPad. Today there is this coloured back ground thingy in my computer scanned image.

I don't know how this thing end up in my computer. And surely my son's knowledge of computer is advancing by the day....

I just love the colour and of course I know he is drawing my car..the number shows.. haha!

Some Conversations

Me : Jien, who is your best friend in the class??

Jien : Gotham (not sure if the spelling is right, but I know this boy).

Me : Why?

Jien : Because he is brown....

Me : *Laugh till almost fainted*

Well, at least, my boy likes him because of his colour, and not dislike him because of his colour. Reason to celebrate good teaching for not being racist..

x x x x


Me on the computer.

Jien : Mama, what are you doing?

Me : Working lo...

Few days later...

Me : Jien, what are you doing in mama's office ?

Jien : Working lo....

Me : *speechless*

x x x x

Hubby has the hobby of giving a ringgit a day for Jien, for him to save so that he can grasp the concept of saving and numbers..

And ever since my boy, Jien learned about Hong Kong Disneyland, every time I ask him where should we go for holiday, he would answer without a second thought : HK Disneyland.

And one day I retorted by saying : But we don't have enough money to go there.

Jien : Ma...(digging out his few ringgit from the pocket [apparently that week hubby did not give him on a daily basis, so he got few ringgit at one shot] ) see you can take this, we have money!!

:x

Quite a Fruitful Year

Last year, I THOUGHT I have not accomplished much in my work and also my personal life. It is like so quiet and yet forever busy kinda thing.

Then recollecting back, I saw myself moving into a new house, new environment, new neighbourhood and my boys LOVE where we are staying now. They just LOVE the new house.

Then one of the bungalows that I had designed was selected by the developer to be interviewed. And so they interviewed the happy clients and took pictures and videos of the house. Pleased.

Then without me knowing, another house of my design was published (without acknowledging me, the ID took credit of EVERYTHING...hsh, hush..) in a local magazine. I was delighted when my client showed me and gave me a copy. Delighted.

Then with friends' encouragement, I submitted our newly renovated house for a design competition organized yearly by the fellow Architects in Malaysia (PAM) and guess what?? I am shortlisted! I did not expect anything but I am shortlisted! Hey...

Not bad after all...kan? (* ps : just in case you wanna know : I did not win la! ;) ) The picture on the left showed my favourite part of my house which is not selected to be published in the medalists / shortlisted booklet....Don't know why they had selected the normal views of the house...hmmm...want to ketuk who ever choose the pictures! ;(

The Second Boy

I had always known the fact that I write less about my second child. Poor thing. The mother is just too busy with 2 boys, work and everything else.. sigh.

My eldest is literally like a clinging bug to me. So that explained why my second one does not seem to have much time with me. And so, he naturally has to find an alternative comfort source - his father.

The recent absent of my maid sort of pushed this child back to me again. He always want me to hug him and would push the brother away if I am with him. And knowing that he won't get my attention during day time, he would jump onto me and sleep on my chest every night, without fail. Yes, and he is now 13kg. More than the weight of a sack of rice on me, every single night.

His giggles and laughter are very contagious. And this boy loves to act and roar like what he says 'Scary monster!!' I really enjoyed that!! He loves playing hide and seek and I have to say that he is better at the game than his brother. Of late, this boy suddenly talks a lot!! Yes of course he was 'talking' last time but maybe we need a baby translator but now he would say things like

'I am angry!! Very very angry!!' 'Mama, come, siddown (sit down)!' 'Mama, koko is naughty!!' 'Mama, it's cold...' 'Mama, I'm coughing!'

He is also the more alert and the smarty type. He would call out in the mall for me if he ever lose sights of me. But he loves to run in the mall too, so losing sight of him is such a common thing in the mall. (did I mention that my son runs super fast?) And this young man is a stubborn head, if he wants to run, trying to hold him will only cause some casualties (coz he bites) and also some real steam fueling (yes, his father always ended up with a remark : no more coming to the mall next time, just stay at home!!)

Did I ever mention that this boy loves his roti canai? Not just the roti but the sauce! He would dip his fingers and happily indulge the occasionally rather spicy dal curry. He could easily finish a whole piece of roti sometimes and we love serving him one as that also means that - help yourself, no feeding required - and so means more free time for ourselves. Bliss!

Courses Options

Sometimes I felt empty inside. I have been churning up designs after designs; taking care of the kids day in day out. I felt that I needed a change. Maybe I should take up some courses. For a start, cullinary class maybe? Or fashion design/sewing class ? Or maybe joining .....? Hmmmm...still seeking.

Yeah...maybe I should start doing something different before I feel stale, useless and lifeless!