Zombie

I am feeling slightly zonked out the last few days. Miss C has been on this teething thing on and off, and she hardly slept a wink last Friday night. And she has been waking up at least twice if not more during the night for a number of weeks now. The lack of sleep is finally catching up on me, my body feels achy from the constant nursing and holding, and I am not quite there at the moment.

I am even finding hard to utter the right words to stuff, paying enough attention to what my 3.5 yo is saying let alone walking in a straight line.

And I am struggling to find something to blog about because of this zombie mind of mine. I am starting to feel a bit snappy because of the lack of sleep, and not the best person to be hanging around with, heeheehee (evil laugh!) No, I mean it, I am a cranky old woman right now.

My sister is here for a week, so that has been a much needed relief for me. At last, I have the chance to pass the baby to someone else when I needed to take a shower, cook the dinner, have my breakfast, not having to bring Chloe along when I needed to drop JD off at kindy, someone to play with them while I sneak out for a walk ALL BY MYSELF, it helps in many ways.

On Saturday night, I had the chance to leave Chloe at home with my sis while we brought JD out for a dinner with friends. We could have left the 2 of them with her, but we are not that mean, haha. May I say my kid sis is a pro at babysitting. She managed to put Chloe to bed without much struggle, checking on her while she is asleep, and even managed to soothe Chloe back to sleep when she made some noises halfway through her sleep.

And for the first time in many months, I had the rare opportunity to have a proper catch up with friends that night. And catching up without a baby in my arm, eating with a pair of chopsticks in another hand, making sure the 3.5yo is sitting down in the restaurant and not running around...you get it....honestly, most of the time I am just dying for the dinner to end, because honestly, eating in a noisy Chinese restaurant with young kids, while trying to engage in some form of adult comversations is just a joke for me these days. Good luck with that.

Right now I have the chance to blog, without having the 9 months old holding onto my legs or playing with the swivel wheels of my chair, while my 3.5 yo sits quietly watching his kid's show...
Tomorrow is my off day, so I am hoping to spend some time with my sis, have a coffee, lunch, satisfy her shopping gratification at Target.

That said, I just found out my 3.5 yo is running a fever of 39.5 deg c, so it looks like I might not get my day off tomorrow.

GO away fever!

Legoland

My husband brought his Legoland Space collection of over 30 yrs old out from the shed. He was ready to hand this special collection to JD. Since then, JD was just captivated by the rockets, space ships, radar vehicles, astronauts in this Legoland collection. He sat on the floor, marvelled over the instruction sheet that came with it, mumbling to himself about the planets, earth, moon, asking me about the name of the various planets, borrowing books from the local library about the planets and so forth.

This morning he sat quietly in his playroom, very carefully trying to build a spaceship by following the picture on the instruction sheet. It was a bit hard for him but I was soooo pleasantly surprise when I sat down to look at his clever engineered spacecraft. I was speechless and was very surprise to see what he had built. And me of little faith had the cheek to ask him if he really built that. And he did.

Looks like JD has is slowly outgrowing his Duplo blocks.

My Morning Call

She was ready to play at 6.30am when it was still dark and cold outside. I wanted to snuggle up in my warm bed a little longer. I put her back in the cot after giving her a feed, but she woke me up again half an hour later. Thank u darling!

I guess she was my reason to wake up.

It was chilly this morning, the father n son were still sleeping, the street was all quiet on a Sunday morning, it was very nice to be out walking on this fresh morning. On the way home, we stopped by at the cafe to have some toast and my flat white.

The only thing was I discoverd that she has tossed her beanie out of the pram somewhere along our walk and I didn't notice it. So we went back the same route again, found the beanie, phew and I got an extra 30 mins work out :)

I was so afraid of not finding the beanie because her daddy bought her that just 2 weeks ago.

A Family Date

We just came home from a lovely night out. We have driven past this place, The Dux Restaurant a few times but never really went in to try. At 6.00pm, I rang to reserve a table for 4, casually mentioned that we have 2 young kids with one of them needing a high chair.

Upon arrival, we have a table set up in a quiet corner, candle dimly lit, crayons, colouring books placed on the table, with cute little cups and plates for the kids. We were so impressed with their thoughtfulness, and even more so for their friendliness, quick service, delicious food, the way they accommodate us. We felt touched.

It's never really easy to dine in a restaurant with 2 young kids, but their friendliness made us felt so at ease, meals never hurried, but quietly and happily, we enjoy our meals with little fuss.

Pop in there if you have a chance, the food is delicious!

But I only managed to get a picture of the tasting plate we shared, and it was very good!

Let's say if was a lovely date with the hubby, with 2 kids in tow :)

IKEA's Beauty

The beauty about IKEA is you can always find some smart invention for a very little price.

This is our latest favorite gadget!

It doesn't get any better than that, and it works on apples, pears, potatoes...I love it!

Squashed with Love

Hooray, it's Friday!

Hooray, it's Friday, the last day of school holidays! I have been busy. JD is going back to kindy next week and I am looking forward to my half day break. We have been busy with activities every day, to the park, playground, walks, playdates, gardening, car washing, baking, painting, craft, his daily lesson time with me....and on one of those days when I ran out of idea, I even brought the 2 kids alone to IKEA.

I almost chickened out half-way driving there because I think it's just mad going IKEA alone with 2 kids. But I did anyway and we came home with lots of different containers to put JD's crayons, colour pencils, paint brush, craft papers away nicely, we got more drawing paper for his easel board, and ate more Swedish meatballs while we were there.

It turned out we had a great time there. JD was very sensible and helpful when we were there. He sat at the table helping me to mind his sister while I went up to order some lunch. He didn't move an inch from the table. When we got the food, he sat there quietly eating his sandwich, chips, juice and also helped me to finish the meatballs. He also tried to help me with the trolley except he nearly ran into a lady on crutches, oops!

We are also in the midst of shopping for a new oven, cooktop and getting a kitchen renovation done. So, it has been mad! Driving around with both kids to visit kitchen showroom, checking out the new ovens, and by now JD is quite a pro with kitchen reno! And my mind is just about to explode with all the different quotations, cooktops, ovens in the market!

And on my usual kids-free Tuesday, I have been busy attending training, so that means I haven't had a break to myself the last 3 weeks.

Oh, I am so hanging out for next week!

But for today, I abandoned all plans and just brought the 2 little monkeys with me to a cafe! JD has his hot chocolate with plain toasts, I have my flat white with a muffin and Chloe just nibbled on a bit of everything. I need to chill!

Which hat suits me?

Chloe trying out the different hats she found in the kitchen cupboard.

The hard hat?

Or the straw hat?

But it seems like the hard hat has been rather popular with both kids in the family.

Chloe - 9 months old

Oh Chloe, she turned 9 months old a few weeks ago. Not the little baby anymore, but an active little crawler. She crawls, she stands, trying to cruise along, grabbing stuff, dropping them, eat, sleep, drink, a very happy not-so-little anymore baby.

She is at a wonderful stage of copying us. She waves bye bye by flapping her arms up and down. She will also try to give us a very wet kiss when we ask her to, hee hee. She is very vocal, especially when we are a bit slow with food.

9 months old and she is showing her character more and more everyday. A week ago whilst looking after my nephew, the 15 months old snatched a toy from her hand. I was quite amused when I saw that she gave him a look of disapproval, crawled over to the boy, and tried to get her toy back. She didn't succeed but she tried. Hahahaha, too funny but good for her. That's my girl! You go gal! Go

She has got 2 sharp little teeth, and she can eat lots of food with that 2 powerful incisors. She loves grazing on steamed carrots, beans, pumpkin, bananas, water crackers, toast. And she loves using her hands to try feeding herself rice and pasta towards the end of a meal. It is a mess but then she has got to start somewhere.

I also think she has a great sense of humour. She finds the buzzing sound of an electric toothbrush funny. She would sit on the floor and giggles every time I brush my teeth. She also enjoys watching her brother and I guess she thinks he is the biggest clown.

Easter Weekend

I should have posted something about our Easter weekend a while ago. But JD has been on school holidays, and I have been busy trying to occupy his time, bringing him out everyday to the parks, playground, bike riding, animal farm, science centre, IKEA and kitchen showroom!


We had a lovely Easter weekend and that included an Easter eggs hunt at a friend's place. JD collected enough chocolate eggs to last him till Christmas. This year I explained to him the meaning of Easter and I am not sure if he understands it all. I just don't want him to grow up thinking Easter = Chocolate Eggs and Hot Cross Buns!

We also brought him to Whiteman Park and he spent a good half day splashing around in the pool. We just sat back, watched him play, have coffee and enjoyed a lovely Sunday afternoon.

Play for Jayden is very simple. Water, slides and anything he can climb on. He can have hours of fun in a park, entertaining himself, making new friends, running around with kids he just met. Very simple fun really for a kid.

On this stormy night...

Once in a while I really enjoy this kind of night.

Both kids are fast alseep by 7pm. JD fell asleep whilst having his dinner and Chloe is usually tucked in bed by 7pm.

At 8.30pm, I switched on the TV and saw that Grey's Anatomy was on. This is rare for me. And my husband had to remind me, "Sit down, watch your show, the kids are sleeping!" :) Truth is I quite often forget to sit down and have a bit of time to myself.

Later on, he came out of his office mumbling something about seeing a movie. I thought he was suggesting us leaving both kids at home while we catch a movie on this stormy night, heehee! That would be an idea since they are both sleeping, hahaha!

Then I did the same to him "Go, both kids are sleeping, I will be fine!"

The thing is my husband dearly loves his kids. He was hesitating about going tonight because he was afraid JD getting upset if he finds out daddy has gone to movie without him.

The father n son do lots of stuff together. JD misses his daddy when he is at work. JD would ask to speak to his daddy at work at least once a day. During the day, when JD hears a car driving past that sounds likes his dad's, he will jump up, rush to the door shouting "Is daddy, is dady!" I feel sorry for him when I have to keep telling him that daddy is still at work.

Every weekend, regardless of the weather, the father and son will pitch a tent in the backyard,
camping! They call it the "Boys night out". And my husband can't wait for the day when Chloe joins them in the tent.

But he just rang, and I told him to enjoy the movie, have his mega size popcorn, drive carefully when he comes home later.

I will continue with my blogging, reading, drinking green tea, checking on the 2 kids once in a while...

Learning Chinese

A few days ago, I started to see a wonderful progress in JD. You see, I was brought up in 3 languages, Mandarin, English and Malay. I know all these 3 languages well, both reading and writing. I enjoy knowing the different languages and my knowledge of these 3 languages have come in very handy. Quite often at work, I would be call upon to translate documents or be a translator to overseas guests.

A few years ago, I even got a chance to appear on a foreign TV simply because I knew how to speak Mandarin, hee!

But I seldom speak any other languages to JD apart from English. The reason is because my hubby speaks only English and over the years I got used to it and English became my first language.

9 months ago, I made a big change. I started speaking to Chloe in Mandarin from the day she was born. JD didn't like the sound of the language at first. Infact, he hated it. He would quite often turned around and said "Talk properly mommy" when I speak to him in Mandarin.

But I persisted. My husband even encouraged me to speak more Mandarin to JD and Chloe.

3 days ago, as I was putting Chloe to bed, JD turned around and said "恺仪，再见！" (See you again, Chloe)

I thought I was hearing stuff. But when I asked him to repeat again he said "恺仪，再见！" (See you again, Chloe)

That was a WOW moment for me. I felt so happy knowing that he has been listening and he said it without me telling him to. I was so glad. So happy. Yes! My efforts are just starting to bear fruit. I should keep going and not give up.

And tonight, he said "妹妹，晚安！" (goodnight sister) as I put Chloe into her cot.

Oh, I feel so happy knowing that he has been paying attention and learning at the same time.

And my dad, JD's waigong would be happy to know that he can count "一，二，三，四， 五" all by himself. No doubt we have a long way till he counts to 100 in Mandarin, but it is a working progress.

So, I am feeling a bit more positive of JD picking up another language. Because for a while I really thought that I have left it a bit late.

And I need to keep going and not give up.

On other hand, JD's sister, Miss C has been enjoying her music session with some of the chinese music CD my dad brought over.

At the same time, I am trying to learn the full lyrics of 小星星 (Twinkle twinkle little stars)

Haha, my life as a mom has just gotten even more exciting!

Here's just a short video of Chloe enjoying her music session!

Bus Craze

Sometimes a simple thing can brighten up his day. JD loves catching buses. He thinks it is the coolest thing! He looks at his daddy with such glitter in his eyes when he catches the bus to work. During the day when we spot a bus on the road, he would think that his daddy is still sitting on the bus, hahaha!

Sometimes on the weekend, we will leave the car the home and catch the bus to town.

As you can see, he was THRILLED!

And Miss C joined in the fun too.

Gotcha!

A few weeks ago, we went to a Crab Festival in Mandurah. There were lots of yummy food on display and we had a little picnic near the foreshore.

Miss C has forever been eyeing our food. She likes to try the food we eat but I hesitated in giving her any crab as JD was prone to allergies previously. JD was munching on some fries, and without warning, she crawled over to grab hold of his packet of fries, thinking no one was watching! Ha, gotcha Miss Chloe!

6 weird things about me

I was tagged by Irene a while ago, and I have to list down 6 weird things about myself.

These are the rules: Each player of this game starts out by giving 6 weird things about themselves. People who get tagged need to write in a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state the rules clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. After you do that, leave them each a comment letting them know you tagged them and to read your blog!

1. I love bittergourd (苦瓜 ). I hated it when I was a kid. But later on, I discovered a yummy way of cooking it through my late father in law! My FIL and I used to share a passion for this dish. He had a little patch of bittergourd plantation at the back of his house, once in a while he would pick some from his vegie patch, stew it over the stove with some fermented black bean sauce and chicken. Oh, it was so delicious that both of us would sit at the table eating it happily with bowls and bowls of rice. No one else in the family enjoy this dish except for me and my FIL. I still cook it for myself once in a while and I still remember those wonderful moments we shared!

2. I don't like seeing water stains around the kitchen. This habit drives my husband crazy. I would insist on wiping the kitchen bench top, sink area dry when I see spots of water. And I do the same at the office kitchen, my mum's house in Batu Pahat when I do go back, my MIL's house when I go over, friend's place. It's crazy.

3. I must make sure the house is tidy before I leave. I dislike coming back to a house that is untidy. So I would make sure the pillows on the sofa are rightly positioned, toys are kept away, newspapers neatly stacked, no dirty dishes left on the kitchen table, shoes neatly aligned...it's another strange habit of mine. I just like the feeling of a house that's neat and cosy when I return. And I also do the same before going to bed each night, so that I don't wake up to a messy house :)

4. But I can't always keep my wardrobe neat. I could keep the rest of the house neat and tidy. But I struggle a lot with my wardrobe. It only starts to get better a year ago when I put in new storage.

5. Cooking and baking is my stress relief. Baking particularly relief my stress. When I was pregnant with both kids, and when I find myself worrying about something, I would start browsing through my cook book, and starts BAKING. And to help me ease my labour contractions at home the few hours before going to the hospital, I baked for 2 hours in the kitchen while breathing and rocking my pelvis through each contraction. And the midwives got some nice fresh cookies as a "Thank You" gift. That only happened with the first labour, the 2nd labour happened too quick for me to even think of baking!

6. I can't sit through a movie without falling asleep and this only applies if I am watching a movie on DVD. My husband would always get some DVDs out for me, but most of the time I would fall asleep on the couch watching them. And it's not because the movie is crap, it's me being too comfortable on the couch!

As for tagging someone. This is my first time doing it and I can only think of 5 ... Well, no obligations at all, just do if you wish to. Have fun!

Kelly of Qianyi's World - Hee hee, becoz you haven't been tagged for this one
Crazy mommy - to take her mind off the glucose test :)
Cat Aunty - becoz she is one cool cat aunty that provides refuge for the cats
Diary of an Eternal Sunshine to Be - so she can relax by thinking of something else other than work
2 be fair - Got to be fair I guess, plus she keeps picking on her niece's botak head :)

Blue Hands

Today being a recovery day for me, I pretty much let JD did whatever he wished. He wanted painting, so I set up the easel for him in the garden. He didn't want to paint with brush, but wanted to do "spray painting" instead.

Then he got hold of a tube of blue paint, squeezed it on to the paper, rub his hands ALL over it!

Honestly, I was worried that he was just going to rub his hand on my face or my clothes, hahaha.

And rest of the time, he entertained himself by doing hand painting, sponge painting and etc etc. He drew a sun and that's pretty much it for his art n craft session today.

Being Thankful

I caught a nasty virus, most possibly over the weekend. I felt life I had been run over by a truck, extreme tiredness and by lunch time yesterday, I felt the whole house was spinning. It was bad. I was trying to put the kids down for a nap so that I could rest, but instead got JD to run out of the room to grab the phone for me. I had to ask hubby to come home quick because I wasn't able to manage on my own.

It was the worst feeling, dizziness. Later on, Phil drove me to the doctor and they gave me a jab to stop the dizziness.

I have been sleeping for the entire day. At 2.30pm, I finally woke up and felt strong enough to get out of bed. The doctor has given the husband 2 days leave so he can stay home with me and the kids.

Phil was worried about me because I lost my balance yesterday afternoon. I knew he was frantically trying to get things organised to drive me to the doctor.

I was trying to reassure the kids that mommy is ok while lying down on the floor trying to regain my balance.

But instead, JD walked over to me, lay his head on my shoulder to comfort me. And he just lied on the floor together with me.

He is such a sensitive little boy that brings tears to my eyes. He has got such a caring heart in him.

And I am so thankful that my husband wasn't caught in a meeting or off-station.

A note to myself -perhaps I should show JD about dialling for 000 in case of emergency.

And I always have the same worry when I am unwell - who is going to look after the kids? It scares me everytime I fall sick.