Updates and Updates!

Alright....there are lots to catch up in these 2 months. I have abandoned this blog for 2 months! Been super busy. Good news are....I have safely and smoothly delivered a beautiful baby girl and the bad news are, I'm back to work this week and in the process of slimming down! Thank God it's holiday season now and Christmas is approaching. At least, it gives me some encouragement to drag myself to work after 2 long months at home. Let's go by chapters as I've loads to pour in here:

The Labour

It was unexpected. Really! After a gap of 6 years, I told myself that I'm already prepared for the worst, in terms of the pain. But thank God, it was a smooth, fast and safe delivery. I had the contractions coming in midnight after a vaginal examination by my gynae during the day. Touching dawn, I woke hubby up and told him the contractions were coming stronger but still manageable (we still have the time). We immediately sent Sebastian to my mum's house. Poor sleepy boy. But he was such a good boy and he understood what was happening. Hence, he did not threw any tantrum at all. This time I was smart. I asked hubby to bring me for my breakfast first before admitting into the hospital. My past experience was, I did not have a proper breakfast. Hence, not enough energy to push and drained myself in the end. As the contractions were still manageable, I nicely had my pork noodle and teh tarik first. Shortly after admitting, my gynae arrived and did a check for me. He told me I was 4cm dilated and he will induced me. Why should I wait any longer when I'm already full term (38 weeks) and 4cm dilated, he told me. Then, he said, "Today will be your baby's birthdate", which makes me nervous and excited at the same time. Soon, contractions are coming stronger and I asked hubby to rub my back (very effective and highly recommended!) to reduce the pain. Until the moment I can no longer bear the pain (with all the tears and sweat), I requested for epidural. Midwife gave me a quick check and told me to 'tahan' only la. I was already 8cm dilated. Not enough time for an epidural and why should I waste 1k for epidural, might as well go for a good meal, she said. Then, everything seems so painful, out of the world and fast. The next thing I could felt was the baby out from me and later the placenta. I told hubby, it was so comfortable the moment after delivering the placenta. He told me later the whole delivery process (from the moment the doctor walked in until finished), it took only about 15 minutes. I was admitted about 8am and I delivered 2 hours later at 10am. It was fast and unexpected! And the lucky thing was, I had no tear. Hence, no stitches required. It was a smooth one and I was discharged after a night stay, although my delivery package was 3D2N stay but nothing was more comfortable than home sweet home.

The Baby

I'll post her photos in the next post. Well, as similar with other newborns, her routine were pretty much the same. Eat, shit, sleep. First month, she sleeps alot and can't differentiate day and night. There were nights when I had to stay awake whole night, just because she didn't sleep. But luckily she has adjusted her biological clock now. Second month, we saw her first smile and ooo ooo ahh ahh. And the most award winning action we got from her is her cries every night before bed. Up till now, she cries every night hopelessly before bedtime. We do not know what's the reason. We tried everything to make her stop but she will just cry until she had enough. Then, she will drift peacefully to sleep till morning, only waking up for milk. In contra, every morning she loves to smile at the first sight of our faces. Keep the morning part but both daddy and I are wondering when will the night part of the crying gonna end? Hopefully she changes her pattern soon as it is quite tiring looking after a what-also-don't-want-crying baby.

The Brother

Having our undivided love for 6 years, suddenly he has to adjust to me not paying enough attention to him (as I need to take care of the baby!). I tried to attend to him whenever I can but luckily I have a hubby who will look after him for me. Daddy will attend to his needs whenever I'm not free to do so. Surely, my boy must have felt that I've neglected him and sometimes seeing him playing alone by himself, dare not to disturb me really made my heartache. There were times during my confinement month that I had depression. Regrets and bad feelings that I had abandoned my boy. Like for example, previously, I have to sleep with the baby in another room as she wakes up most of the time at night. I used to sleep with my boy in the same room and I can't anymore (as the baby's crying will disturb his sleep). There were nights he looked for me and wanted me to sleep with him as usual, but I can't. Those scenarios really made me cried. I never realized how hard it is to cope with having more than 1 children until now when I had 2. Jesus, I used to say my mum loves my brothers more than myself. How ungrateful was that? As a mother of 2 myself, now only I knew how a mother would feel if her children says she loves one more than another. Wished I could take back those ungrateful words. But a mother has all the love in her heart for her children. Well, my boy is coping very well now and has adjusted to the fact that his little sister is a part of his life. He is doing well, he loves his lil sister very much by showing affections such as kissing her and petting her hair. I believe parents should always make the effort of showing love and attention to their children as equally as possible. Thankfully, I have a hubby who shares the same thought and responsibilities with me.

The Father

Doing pretty good and very helpful with the baby.

I'll share her photos in the next post!

Okay...Just Another Quick Quick Update

Alright...here is another quick update:

4th June 2011
Hubby told me a couple of days ago, before 4 June 2011, that he will bring me for a good and nice dinner on 4 June 2011, which falls on a Saturday. I kept on thinking why suddenly hubby would initiate on a nice dinner and eventually, I found out that I have forgotten about our first ROM anniversary! And hubby remembered it! I thought it supposed to be vice-versa? Ladies more detailed and men more ignorant? Haha....anyway, I'm glad he did remembered. And when I asked him how he did, he said thanks to FB! Gezzz....

Anyway, time flies. It has been a year since our ROM. We didn't get any gifts for each other and just planned for a nice dinner. But it turned out that hubby worked the whole Saturday afternoon till 8pm and we only had dinner then...nearby. It was not those romantic anniversary dinner come to think of it, when he was not with me the whole day and we both were practically hungry and sweating like nobody's business during the steamboat dinner. But, it was indeed a day to mark my remarkable journey with him so far. Something to cherish and be happy about. Being married to him is one of the wonderful journey I ever took. I'm happy, we have a lovely boy, we have a happy life and soon, we will have an addition to the family. What else can I still asked for? Happy Anniversary Darling and hope we will continue this journey that we have started together till our last breath. :)

The Boy
He's going to be 6 years old soon in just a few days! He talks back quite a lot now, repeating the speeches after you especially when you are scolding him. It left me speechless sometimes. He picked up a new habit lately, which is, he brushes his teeth before bedtime every night using proper kids toothpaste. I guess it's a big sign that he is growing up. On food, he is as picky as ever. Other than these, he is one happy boy. Nothing much to update about him. Will post his birthday photos by next week. His birthday is on this Friday and both daddy and I took leave to accompany him. We will go for one fun adventure day together. Nothing specific, maybe just bring him to the waterpark during the day and cake cutting with his cousins at night.

Mummy
Baby and I are both doing good. I'm 5 1/2 months now. Lately, daddy and I has been cracking our head to find a nice name for her. There are thousands of names out there and we have to decide on one. So far, I have sortlisted Isabel. Her Chinese name will have to sort out with daddy's grandma because they have the generations' name decided. We will decide again on this later. My next check-up is at end of this month. Until then, I'm just so excited and can't wait to see her again on the screen. :)

A Quick Update

I need to make a quick update because I've abandoned my blog for more than a month already. Blame my boss because she doesn't travel as frequent as the other managers, thus, leaving me no time at work to blog. :P

The Boy:
There's so much changes in him and I can't stop him from growing. I mean he used to be so little and now he has grown so much. Silly me. Of course, he grows but time is really fast. I'm enjoying my every moment with him before he has a life of his own (not sticking to the parents anymore). He is currently 33 kgs (a lil' overweight but thank God he is tall) and 127cm tall. He does pretty well in school and finishes his homework at his popo's house after school every weekday. I don't have to worry about coaching him on his homework whenever I come home from work because he finishes everything before I fetch him. But of course, I do check his homework and hardly, there will be a mistake. And when there is a spelling test at school the next day, I'll give him the exercise the night before and he always gets the words correct. Of course, he is still a lil' bit weak in Chinese and I need to show him some of the words for him to recall and write.

He catches up on things pretty fast, like when you teach him only once and he will remember it for life. Daddy taught him once on how to count using his toes if 10 fingers are not enough to make up the sum (which is a wrong way for numbers more than 20!), and he remembered it since! For his eating habit, he is still as picky. He doesn't like vege and when we ask him to eat at least a few bites of vege, he will negotiate with us on the number of bites. He still loves milk as much. He now knows how to build words and combine it into sentences all by himself. If he doesn't know how to spell a certain word, he will ask me or Daddy. And he likes to write on the whiteboard, expressing how he felt at that time. Like his popo and meimei supposed to visit but never turned up. The silly boy wrote on the whiteboard, asking why his friends (referring to popo and meimei and the rest) never turned up. And when I came back late from work one day, he wrote on the board that only daddy and Sebastian go to sleep, good night.

Oh yes! His favourite new passion now is the Solar System. He learnt it from YouTube. And he memorizes all the planets in the Solar System and the sequences. Honestly, I didn't pay much noticed earlier on which planet comes after next until he 'educated' me. Now I know. :P There were so much that he learnt from YouTube, like opposites, etc.

I bought him a Solar System paper models, downloaded solar system education games for him on Iphone and even brought him to the National Planetarium. If you asked me, our National Planetarium sucks! But for RM1 per adult entrance, I guess the quality was pretty much like that. I actually expected a built up model of the Solar System on displayed at the Planetarium but to my dissapointment, I can't find any. It was just a model and a basic teaching to the public no how our Solar System looks like and yet the National Planetarium does not have it! We spent like less an hour there and then we went back, nothing nice. Even Petrosains is much much better.

On another update, Lunz finally read by himself now with me correcting him on every word he pronounce incorrectly. He reads during bedtime and usually he will read one page and me the next. It's a very good initiative start from him! And also lately, we have introduced a new game to him. Treasure hunt! We gave him a clue, ask him to find the spot and search for the next clue until he finds the treasure, which is usually snacks! He couldn't get the concept earlier but once he did, he liked it! He bugged us for more. So, we played with him few more rounds. Will do a better one next month with a proper present. His birthday ma! And the fun thing is, once he picked up the concept, he will asked us to join in his 'game', this time with him mentoring and deciding on the clues and writing them down for our guesses. And his clue makes sense. Smart boy!

The Father:
Nothing much about the Father. He is still super caring about the boy. And I love it the way he plays with him. It's heart-warming to see the bonding between them. He is a very caring father to the boy and Lunz is really fortunate to have him in his life. :)

Other than that, my hubby now is the Mahjong King! He, mum and either me or bro will be
playing mahjong every weekend. An addiction since CNY. Ish ish.

The Mother:
Ok, it's my turn now. I'm a happy mother with a cheerful, bubbly 6 year old son and a 4 1/2 months old baby growing inside me. I haven't felt the baby kicking me yet and I'm wondering if girls are much well-behaved than boys. Yes!! I'm having a girl. According to the doctor, 70% confirmed it's a girl and to be more accurate, it will be confirmed again in my next checkup, which is in early June. With Lunz last time, in my early 4th month of pregnancy, I already felt him doing somersault in me. Haha....hope to feel my baby kicking me soon.

We went for a baby fair recently and I'm very focused on the items I wanted to buy. I knew it would be very crowded, so, I told daddy what were the items I wanted and the moment we are there, just grab and go! In the end, I managed to buy what's in my list: 2 things, bottles and diapers. We went for a nice lunch after that. My sis-in-law will be giving me most of the stuffs, like car seat, stroller, baby coat, bathtub, breast pump, sterilizer, clothes, etc. So, thanks to her! We are saving a fortune. :)

When the time comes, I will just need to stock up on the necessary items such as 'loo yee' oil, cottons, towels, hanky, bottle liquid washer, baby clothes detergent, buttock cream, etc. Yeah, will need to work out a list later. So far, I'm feeling all good. I try to have at least one fruit serving per day, which I managed to have so far. I just had coconut water last Sunday and it was good! I'm craving for ice lemon tea.....watermelon.....!!

All in all, we are doing good and we are all happy. That's the main point of life. :)
I still have an outdated post to update: Our Hard Rock Penang and Grandma (Ipoh) Birthday Dinner. Will try to update whenever I can.

CNY 2011

I had been very busy at work and I didn't have the time to blog at all. I'm practically locked down in front of my PC doing work from 8.30am to 5.30pm every working day. I'm blogging from home now because I know I wouldn't have the time to do so at work tomorrow. And mostly, because I have things to post. ;)

CNY is still hanging around until next Thursday. This year, we went back to Ipoh and later to Penang with mum and family members. The children had a great time though, playing non-stop. One disadvantage going to Penang on public holidays is you get caught in the traffic jam most of the time. There were so many cars! Gurney Drive was so packed! We stayed there for 2 nights, with visits to mostly temples during the day and gambling at night. And fortunately, we stayed in an apartment. Therefore, lots of space for the kids to run around.

I think I'll do the Ipoh CNY trip again next year. I mean on the eve and first day. Firstly, I'm already married to daddy (I should be going back to his side of family) and secondly, I see how important it is for daddy to be there with his family members especially grandma. I meant I saw how much this means to him and how happy he was during our stay there.

Here are some of the pictures taken during the festive trips:

Picture with grandma.

Time flies....he has grown up so much...

Family shot.

In front of Seng Heng candy wholesale shop.

It's OK. It's not that scary right?

Beloved parents.

With beloved mum. Geeezzz....I looked fat!

The whole family.

It was so hot.

Ferry ride.

New Year 2011

Well...what comes after Christmas? It's New Year! Welcome to 2011, the year of Rabbit. And what comes after the New Year celebration? Work!! End of holidays! And I dreaded to think about going back to work. :( Haha....this is because I knew the big stuffs will be coming in. And I'll be drop dead busy at work. No more honeymooning when the bosses were on leave like in December 2010. :( Anyway, I got my first pay from SPE last Thursday. I just joined the company in the middle of December and yet I got the equivalent pay of my one full month in MTC. $$$ made me realized I made the right choice. Nothing is more comforting to know that your burden has finally eased. I don't have to worry about not having enough money to spend. I even managed to buy a personal insurance for myself with Sebastian as the beneficiary, which I was afraid to bear earlier because of the lifetime commitment (insurance) and my low pay.

And honestly, since I worked in Mid Valley, I'm more prudent in my spending than I used to be. I packed my food there, I'll be getting my season pass soon. There wouldn't be much impact on my expenses. I'll be able to save. No denying, there are also times when I walked into the same shop every few days just to have a touch on the bag I very much loved to own, but will never buy. This is because, the more I earn, the more I realized that money is precious and should not be simply spent. Of course, when it comes to my family members, I'm not stingy at all. But, when it comes to myself, I'll think twice to see if it's really necessary.

Enough of ME ME...well, back to the same question. What's comes after New Year celebration apart from starting work? It's back to school time! Both daddy and I had already brain-washed the lil' fella earlier that he has to go to school comes Monday. I even countdown the days for him. At first, he was very reluctant, which I do understand after a month of relaxing, eating non-stop, computer entertainment, sleeping and endless fun, definitely he dreaded to go back to school. He gave me a reason why he doesn't want to go to school. He told me he has lost his tooth (based on my previous post) and he can't go to school because of this. Little ones...they are so mischievous.

I had to refresh his memory by describing to him how fun school is. I told him as well that everybody goes to school, little boys and girls like you and Mei Mei. Where else, big girls and boys like mummy and daddy has to go to work. Then he bargained with me, that he only goes on Monday. I told him that school and work days are from Monday to Friday, unfortunately. I also wished it's just only Monday that we need to work or go to school. Hahaha...until today, he still told us that he doesn't want to go to school but the expression was not as sad as earlier. Maybe, he has accepted the fact that he really need to go to school. He asked us that uncle will fetch him from school to popo's house? Sort of getting some confirmation from us. Yes, of course, we told him.

We didn't do anything much for the New Year. On eve, daddy cooked dinner again. We spent the first day of the New Year decorating the house for CNY. The boy was non-stop singing and humming CNY songs while helping us out. It was real fun doing family activities like this!

Daddy made this deco himself.

This was also handmade by daddy.

We bought some new decorations also.

Hah! I love this very much!

Still more to decorate. See the purple bike over there? Daddy got it from Ikano this morning for the lil' one. As a reward from getting his bonus wor. You don't have to cycle the bike. It will move by itself when you turn the steering. And according to the salesperson, the bike can support 100kg max. The bugger was so happy that he has been sitting on it whole day.

By the way, both daddy and I has already started trying for a baby. Hope you will hear good news from me soon! ;)

Christmas Weekend

Christmas fell on last Saturday. I was working on eve and that was the best part. Everybody was on leave and there were only a few of us working. We spent the whole day chit-chatting like nobody's business. Apparently, environment here without the bosses is good. I guessed it applies everywhere. Well, anyway, how I wish everyday is like that instead of the usual quiet and tense atmosphere when the bosses are around. I also grabbed the opportunity to do my last minute Christmas shopping. Shopping to me now is like an everyday to-do activity during lunchtime. I will eat at my place first and walk around during lunchtime. Unless, of course if I have lunch appointment, then I'll go out to eat.

I'll be getting my season pass soon early of January and I don't have to worry about the crazy parking fees here. Yay!! Heard that the season parking fee has shot up to RM160 (old rate was rm80) per month. And the thing is, if you have already applied for season pass, you can't claim for the RM150 parking subsidy which I mentioned earlier in previous post. The company will pay the season pass for you monthly. Oh well, doesn't matter as long as I don't need to fork out a penny for parking. Besides, I gained because the new rate now is more than the subsidy and I don't have to top up the balance. The company pays everything. Great!

Back to Christmas, I rushed back home on eve because my darling hubby cooked us dinner. But then, I still took like an hour to reach home because it was damn jam in every corner. First, it was just after a heavy downpour. Second, it was Christmas eve. Everybody was in the mood to celebrate or maybe just like me, rushing back to be with their loved ones. As I drove home, one of the audience called into the radio station that I was listening to and complaint that he was stuck for an hour in a non-moving traffic outside of One Utama. Geezzz...people just like to cramp together during festive season. I was glad I had a warm celebration and dinner right at home instead of getting stuck in traffic, regardless car traffic or human traffic.

We had one of the most delicious western food cooked by daddy. This time, daddy used spices to cook the salmon and lamb. It turned out so tasty that nothing was left behind. We had red wine also. :)

Appetizer - big and meaty scallops. Yummy!

Lamb chop for daddy.

Salmon for me.

After dinner, the lil' one open the presents. He has bugging us to open the presents since day one I put them under the tree. Then I taught him how to cross the calendar to count down the days to Christmas, which he obediently obeyed because he understood the concept. Finally, after crossing out all the dates, he asked to open the presents.

He got 2 books and a pack of cookies from mummy and a puzzle game from daddy. Daddy got a t-shirt from me.

That's how we spent Christmas eve. On Christmas day, we had morning breakfast 'yong tau foo' with mum and dad and I gave dad a wallet as Christmas present. His one was damaged and I knew he needed one. I saw that he was very happy with the gift! It's always better to give gifts than to receive them because when your loved ones are happy, you will automatically be happy. :)

Later, we went over to sis-in-law (ks's sis) house for dinner. She made roasted chicken while daddy cooked sweet and sour prawn and a mix vege. The roast chicken marinated with thyme, rosemary, lemon, pepper and salt was so delicious that the 3 of us almost finished the whole chicken. Another fulfilling meal. Hahaha....it was so sinful. We ate so much. Well, that's what festive seasons are for right? To eat and enjoy ourselves. Then, the kids exchanged gifts. I bought a pair of shoes for Emily and a puzzle set for Dom while Lunz got an art set from sis-in-law.

On Sunday, I thought of just cooking an ordinary dinner because I craved for my super delicious soup but mum called me in the morning and told me that they will come to my house for dinner. And they wanted steamboat! Mum assured me that she will buy all the ingredients and I just need to make the soup. It was really fun gathering with family members. They messed up my kitchen but they helped me to clean it up later. Dad washed both the cars, he always does that whenever he comes to my house. Mum and dad! They are the greatest! Mum and bro bought three t-shirts for lunz for CNY. As for my birthday gift, mum bought 2 blouses while bro got me a dress. What an early CNY and birthday presents! Anyway, we went for shopping in the morning and daddy had already bought 2 t-shirts and 3 pants for the boy for CNY. According to daddy, might as well buy early since it's the year end sales now.

Talking about CNY...it's just a month away! I'm planning for my leave already. Can't wait for CNY because we will be celebrating in a different way. We will be spending eve and first day of CNY in Ipoh and the following days in Penang with my family. Just can't wait. But before that....

Have a very Happy New Year!

Trip to Bukit Gambang Resort City, Kuantan

We had a nice trip to Bukit Gambang Resort City. The place is quite deserted but overall, I would say it's a good escapade. The water theme park has a very good concept, which is cashless (you don't have to bring any cash with you for food, locker or tube purchases as you will buy a e-value wristband before entrance to the park. Amount of purchases will be deducted from the wristband's balance).

Another good concept of the water theme park is most of the slides or pools are suitable for kids. Very kids friendly. This time, Lunz was very daring. He tried all the slides, including those high slides meant for people of 110cm and above. And not just one round, but many rounds instead. And the tiring part was, we need to climb multiple staircases to get to the top of the slides. And the lil' fella did not gave up, he even asked daddy to carry him up some of the steps when he got really tired. I did not managed to take photos of the water park because it was a hassle bringing the camera along. Everything went into the locker. :p

Anyway, I managed to take some shots of the resort. We stayed there for 3 days 2 nights. On the first night, we occupied ourselves with some in-house entertainment, like playing the arcade games and pool ball. We bought 1/2 of roasted chicken on our way earlier and we had that for dinner. As I brought my newly bought multi-cooker along, we boiled some rice to go together with the roasted chicken. On the second night, I cooked. I actually cooked! Hahaha...also because the room has a pantry, that's why we decided to cook as we don't think we can get any good food at such deserted place. I cooked steamed fish, vege and hotdogs together with rice. Imagined all the cooking stuffs I had to bring along. Hehehe...but not too bad la, I preferred to cook anyway depending on the place. After dinner, we went for acrobatic and magic shows (FOC) at the resort's multi-purpose hall which lasted for an hour from 9-10pm. Not bad, the shows.

Overall, the bugger had a great time! The trip was meant for him and both of us are glad that he enjoyed himself.

Resort's swimming pool.

Swimming pool view.

The lobby view.

He won a BIG prize---> teddy bear (to me is a small prize if we play at KL's fun fair) and a MEDIUM prize---> robot. I asked him to pose next to the Christmas tree with his prizes and smiled. That was the smile I got from him.

At the Jungle Farm.

Genting Day-Trip During School Holidays 2010

OK.....Genting was damn crowded yesterday. We (both sis-in-law and us) thought that it would be nice to take the kids for some rides and fun during the school holidays. Yesterday was not a public holiday but it was packed with crowds in every corner. We missed out the point that today is a public holiday, hence many have taken leave yesterday. We picked a wrong day for the trip. Anyway, we saw that the queues for the rides at the outdoor theme park were crazy long. So, we dismissed the idea of going to outdoor theme park because we wouldn't get to enjoy the rides much. Most of the time will be taken up to queue for it anyway. And the price of the tickets are much more expensive than the indoors.

So, we bought only indoor theme park tickets instead. As we had sat on the rides many times before, only the mummies accompanied the kids this time. The daddies took photos and lingered around. Then, only both sis-in-law and I realized we made a mistake. Should have let the daddies accompanied the kids while mummies shopped!! Because daddies don't shopped, and they looked bored hanging around not joining in the rides. Hahaha...

Waiting for the gondola ride.

My darling baby, all soaked up!

Flying reindeer ride.

Train ride. The bugger purposely sat in front so that he can pulled the bell. Ting! Ting!

Junior bumper car ride. We expected them to sit separately because the car was so small but both of them cramped into one car. Lunz stepped on the pedal while Dom was in-charged of the steering wheel.

Both silly boys turned their car round and round. We had a good time eyeing them behind the bar.

The queue for every rides were crazy long. We had to wait at least 1/2 hour for each ride. Even worst were the caterpillar monorail and motion master. Heard the queues were not moving at all. In the end, we did not enjoyed many of the rides because it was too crowded.

But one major achievement that I must highlight here is.....my boy took his first roller coaster ride! Daddy did not managed to take photos because the roller coaster was too fast. At first I thought that he was not allowed for the ride because the minimum height required for the ride was 122 cm. We measured him based on a nearby measuring chart and found out that he qualified. So, we asked him to queue along. Dom was not tall enough, so he can't joined in. At the end of the queue, there was another measuring chart, just to check on each children's height before letting them passed. I found out that that particular chart seems to be higher for 122cm than the one that we measured earlier. But, anyway, since we were already in the queue, I decided to take a chance. If Lunz can't join, I'll bring him out then.

Haha....luckily he made it! Just on the border. But the train was almost full with passengers, the staff in-charge told us that he needed two more persons to join this ride. At first, we decided to let the people behind us to go ahead first because the four of us wanted to sit together but changed our mind quickly because we didn't know who to ask. Sis-in-law asked me to proceed first with Lunz while she took the next ride. Thank God I did because the train was stopped for 20 minutes for safety check-up after my ride. Sis-in-law gave up from the queue because she doesn't want to wait for 20 minutes just for the check-up.

I told Lunz earlier that this train will go fast fast. He said ok. At first I'm quite worried that he will be scared and maybe worst scenario, will cried after the ride or during the ride. But, to my surprise, when the train started moving, he was laughing badly. And when the train turned corners at its fastest, he laughed out loud. He enjoyed the ride very much. My boy really has grown up. By the way, my right arm was fastened tightly around his shoulders because I was scared that he will be thrown out from the train when the train speed at corners.

Later, daddy told me, he saw and heard Lunz laughing so happily during the ride from the platform. Yeah, I said, he sure did enjoyed the ride!

The Chef

Daddy is practically everything. He is a great father. He is a loving husband. He is a plumber. He is an electrician. He is a priest (when he nags...hehe...he is gonna kill me). He is a multi-tasker and most important of all, he is an incredible chef!

Stir-fry asparagus

Kung-pou chicken

Steamed wine enormous tiger prawn. Mum got it from Tawau.

Last but not least, radish+carrot+tomato soup! Taste good!

Everything tasted so delicious, nothing was left behind. Both of us, finished everything. The dishes were just some normal weekend dinner but in another meaning, also to celebrate the happy life we are living now. The above dishes were cooked by daddy except for the soup. I was the one who boiled the soup because I'm practically good at boiling soup more than daddy does. Luckily, I still have one winning point because daddy is a better cook at other dishes than me!

Good also....coz I get to sit tight and just EAT!

It's the Time of the Year Again!

Yo-Ho-Ho! It's the time of the year again. We took out the Christmas tree from the attic last weekend and put it up.

Well, it looks the same as last year because the ornaments were the same! We didn't buy any new ones. But, what's lacking?

Real pressies of course! Till then!

Then, all of us did some art crafts, thanks to daddy's idea. Just to decorate the house. The lil' one helped me on gluing the letters, painting and sprinkling the sparkling dusts.

Here was how it looks like:

Haha...not bad on a way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

The art work was hung up on the wall above the Christmas tree. And both of it will stay there until the next CNY decorations takes place.

Christmas decorations.

Now, I'm just waiting for my December's holidays and trips!

D.I.Y

Sometimes I really have to give 'thumbs up!' to daddy for all the hard work done at home. He really has the heart and effort to make things work. And for the sake of saving $$$ too. If for me, surely I will opt the easy way out and of course, easy way means forking out money to get things repaired or done. And by the way, sounds easy for me to say huh? Since I'm not the one who needs to fork out the money. Hehehe.....

Basically, daddy is in charge of the house's maintenance as:

(1) He has more money than I do.
(2) He is the head of the house.


The first one is ----> our washing machine:
According to daddy, this washing machine of ours has been standing where it belongs for at least the past 15 years. It was still working fine until few months ago when the machine began to show some old signs of 'aging'. It was spinning slowly, the laundry was not dried, the water did not drained by itself, the timer was not working, water overloading the level it should be and etc. So, I gave up on using the washing machine and I did the laundry myself with my own bare hands. I was practically hand washing the laundry for at least 2 months and the difficult part was when I need to wash the bedsheets.

Anyway, if I wanted, I could have easily sent the bedsheets to the laundry shop. But since I can still managed to do it myself, why should I waste $$$ on laundry outside. Alright, maybe just a bit of nagging and complaining while I washed the bedsheets because hey!, it was really hard to wash such big spread of cloth, not to mention one but a few bedsheets at a time. And twisting it dry as well.

Daddy put in some effort also and patience a lot, no denying. He went through internet research to actually find out what was wrong with the machine. The result of his research was, the machine was clogged, hence it can't functioned properly. Nothing to do with the motor nor the electronic plate. We just need to drain out the dirt that was clogging in the tubes of the machine.

And another, our washing machine is the front load type and seeing the rubber door casket so dirty, daddy dismantled it to wash. But after dismantling it, he can't fixed it back! The rubber can't be installed back where it belongs even with the help of several human powers (mum, dad and bro) pulling, pressing and fixing the rubber together at the same time. One obvious reason, the rubber was old and has loosen its elasticity.

So, off we hunted for a new rubber door casket replacement and it took like several weeks before we finally managed to get a new one! Ok...the several weeks delay was because I had to call in to the ELBA spare part outlet to check, but I kept on delaying, no time, not free....bla bla bla...

So, eventually I made the call finally and found out that the spare part rubber door casket was available for RM66. The problem was we need to get it from the outlet and this outlet was actually located in Kepong. Considering the distance, we decided to give another try at a nearby electrical shop to see whether the shop does sell spare parts apart from electrical appliances. Lucky us! We managed to get the same spare part but at a higher price of RM85. Daddy said it was ok because the RM 20 difference can be calculated as the petrol and time wasted for us to go all the way to Kepong.

And it was pretty easy fixing a brand new rubber door casket and daddy did it alone himself this time with no help at all to press the rubber side by side or whatever. So, it was the rubber's elasticity problem because we had so many attempts with the old one and failed miserably.

Daddy unclogged the dirt, fixed the rubber door and tested the machine few times after that. Trial runs were successful! Our washing machine is all healthy again! Daddy even painted it.

Looks brand new after paint.

Daddy said no point throwing it away when he was 100% sure he can fixed it. And also, because he knew the problem was not associated with the motor or electrical plate. If it was, it's definitely harder to fix. There goes, I salute his patience because if I'm the one willing to fork out money, I would have bought a new one considering this was rather old and not performing already after more than 10 years of service to the household.

Anyway, it is functioning well now just like it's brand new. I'm so glad as I need no longer be part time Filipino maid washing away the laundry. Hehehe.....hope this machine stays with us!


The second one is ----> our staircase:
Our wooden parquet staircase was plagued with termites and we only found out about it recently, a few months back when we noticed the differences on the surface of the parquets. Rather headache at first because we need to do something about it and we knew that that something could be very costly because it involves professional services. We nearly engaged those termites/pest buster! And it could meant fees like RM2-3k easily for a treatment. After listening to explanations and advises from the professionals, we decided to install the bait ourselves because coincidentally daddy stumbled upon a website that sells termite bait for USD 26 per box.

We ordered 3 boxes and installed 2 boxes at the staircase. We hope it will worked because basically the bait functions as the termite's food. The worker termites will feed on it and brings the poison back to the nest for the rest of the colony. After nearly 3 weeks, we noticed that there were still obvious differences to the damage of the wooden parquets before and after installing the baits. So, there could be only one reason. The termites were obviously not feeding on the baits! The baits were not working and the termites were still feeding on the wooden parquets, that's why the damages continued to worsen.

Our guessing was correct! The termites were still roaming around, leaving the baits untouched! So, we did one final step......to dismantle the infected wooden stairs on our own. Basically, it's daddy's hardwork because he worked on the stairs all by his own. I don't know how to help because it's a man's job but anyway I did help on the cleaning and tidying. He dug out all the wooden planks and the view of the damages by the termites were really disgusting. On the process of digging the wooden planks, we had to have an insecticide on stand-by because every time you dug a piece of wooden plank, there were lots of termites crawling underneath! Yucks!!

After digging the wooden planks, which was the hardest part, daddy put cement as the second step. Hopefully, by disconnecting the termites pathway to their underground nest, we will be able to control the whole situation from getting worse.

After laying cement.

We just need to paint it as the final step and so far, daddy had already done that half-way last Saturday. A little bit more to go and our new steps will be ready in no time!

Painted the stairs in 'honey' colour. Should have chosen a darker shade.

Bravo to daddy for all the hard work done!

Museum and Petrosains, KLCC

I was on leave last Thursday and Friday as mum wasn't around for that two working days. So, I have to look after the kid. Mum went to Sabah for a holiday together with dad and bro's family for the weekend. I sent the boy to school on Thursday and went to pick him up when it was about time for school dismissal. I was early when I reached the school compound and the classes were not dismissed yet. Some students were outside at the porch together with the principal, I noticed. Then, suddenly I saw my boy coming out from the front door, with no bag. So, I suspected that the class was not yet dismissed. He was ordered by his teacher to stand at the corner, nearby to the gate. I saw he was already sobbing. I was standing at the gate when he finally saw me, he cried even worst. But, even though crying, he dared not approached me. He just stood where he was, looking at me, crying.

Then, I 'tak boleh tahan', I went over to hug him and asked him what went wrong. His teacher saw me and explained that he didn't want to join in the art class, so she asked him to sit aside and gave him something (I think were pieces of shape foams) to play with. According to the teacher, he went and teared the pieces apart. That's why the teacher sent him out as a punishment. Then, I wiped his tears away and asked him to apologize to his teacher, which he did. But again, kids are kids. He got all cheerful again once he got into the car. I love fetching him home from school coz I get to witness his cheerful, happy face. He talked a lot too in the car because he was happy that I picked him up. And, it's really joyful to see him bouncing up and down especially when he sees me waiting for him at the gate. Can't wait to get his shoes on thou.

We enjoyed some mother and son quality time together that afternoon. I brought him to Jusco. We had lunch at Kim Gary. Then, I brought him to the Jusco kids play area. I think he played for more than an hour there. After that, I brought him for some grocery shopping and finally, a treat of Baskin Robbins ice-cream before heading home to prepare for dinner. Daddy said, we definitely know how to enjoy ourselves. Of course! Hahaha.....

As for Friday, we took him to the museum first and Petrosains next. As expected, nothing much to see in the museum. The museum are divided into 4 main sections now and all are newly renovated with different themes and exhibits. I mean I haven't been visiting the museum for the past 10 years. Hence, I don't know it has been renovated and the exhibits were different from the last time I went. If you haven't been visiting the museum for the past 10 years, it's actually worth paying it a visit for just RM2 per adult entry. Kids 12 years of age and below get to enter for free.

In front of the museum building.

Playing with the video art. Pool of fishes.

Posing in front of the exhibits.

Model of the ancient mining factory.

He said he wanted a picture with the trophy.

We had a short time at the museum and headed off to KLCC later for Petrosains. We were stuck in a terrible Friday lunch jam in town that I nearly gave up of going there. I wanted to go home already when daddy finally made his way out of the traffic and entered into the KLCC basement parking.

We paid RM24 for 2 adults and 1 kid tickets into Petrosains. At first, I thought the place was just another boring 'museum', but to my surprise for RM24, there were plenty of things to see. Even more than the Aquaria KLCC and less expensive. And most importantly, you get to learn a lot about science and children get to hands-on and play with the exhibits rather than just 'see only, please do not touch'. We spent almost 3 hours in this place and I really liked it. I mean the place. I'll definitely go again in the future when Lunz get older. I hardly recommend any local attraction unless the place is really worth visiting. And this Petrosains is really worth the entrance fees. But please, go on weekdays if possible as during weekends or public holidays will definitely be crowded and thus, you wouldn't have a chance to hands-on the exhibits.

You will get a short but slow welcome ride in a bubble car at the entrance until you reached to the starting point of the first exhibit hall where you will be dropped off.

First hall. Cheerful and interesting hall for the young ones.

Sitting in the 'car'.

Teach the young ones on image reflection. The toy car was actually underneath the glass panel but it appeared on top of it. My boy tried to grab the car. Obviously, you were unable to grab it because the car was practically not there. It was just a reflection.

Sitting on a 'digger'. Looks how fun this place is....for kids.

Second hall. Historic era of the dinosaurs. He got so scared by this T-Rex model that he asked us to u-turned back. Obviously, we ignored him and asked him to move on.

Learned about how plants grow by rotating the wheel to view the diagrams.

Live model of an oil drilling platform. You have to ride a helicopter simulator to get to this platform. But actually, you just entered on one side of the helicopter and disembarked on the other side. Ta-da! You reached the platform! But of course, during the helicopter ride, it was like motion-master.

Checking out the control panels.

Still exploring the platform.

After the oil drilling platform. Learned about kinetic energy and speed.

Had a fun time rolling the balls.

There were basically 7-8 halls but I didn't managed to take all because my camera was running out of battery. But all the halls were really interesting and you can really had a fun time exploring the stuffs. For example, you get to experience first to third degree of earthquake by sitting on a bench and pressing the buttons. The bench will shake. Then you have this booth similar to a telephone booth but you can experience hurricane inside once you pressed a button. Daddy's hair was a mess after he came out from the booth. There were many other things to see and play with. Wished my camera didn't run out of battery so soon. If not, I'll able to capture more shots.

At the end of the last hall, you will ride the bubble car again to the main exit. Then, we moved on to the next FREE show, the Playhouse Disney pals road rally exhibition.

Posing with Pluto.

Playing the games around.

Still exploring the games.

I asked him to pose with Donald Duck. Still remembered the first word he told me was 'DUCK' when he was a baby.

Last but not least, Mickey and Daisy.

Although tired but we had a great day!