School holidays almost kaotim

Children, your holidays almost over now, and mommy can go back to leisurely morning breakfasts and workout in the mornings again.

Yeah, that's what I missed most when the holidays are here. I am just so into yoga now. Then again, the week hadn't been too bad either. Most mornings, I would sleep in till about 9+ coming to 10, until korkor comes over and tell me he's hungry and want to eat something. Usually the bread will be on the table, but that morning, we ran out of bread. So I had to unwillingly drag myself up and took them out to buy a loaf of bread home.

The other time, we went out to market and then to have loeshuefun in pork soup for breakfast. After which we strolled over to my friend's home where their 3 kids just got up. When we got back, I made some sardine sandwich for lunch and cleaned up the house. And there went half of the day away. The rest was spent either on internet, cooking, or playing some games or toys together. Ain't I blessed to have such a good life? *aksi look*

I had intended to bake a cake, get a science project done, cut their hair and do some studying together. Seems like I managed to cut their hair only today. The rest have to wait till the next holidays *grin* But we managed to clear up some of their junks too in the afternoon. The whole bunch of toys in that corner, some which were absolutely untouched for weeks or months, were thrown away, some better quality ones are stored into the closet and some in the closet were taken out to be "revived". Seems like we had a good time together. I introduced UNO to the kids as well, and they are now bugging me to play with them... heiz..

All because of orange.

Oranges. You like them cut? Or peeled? or blended? How about squeezed?

All 3 of them had the special privilege to have freshly squeezed orange juice every morning when they were toddler, diluted twice, to encourage them them to drink lots of water.

Now that they are over that age, in the you-don't-drink-this-water-you-will-get-it-from-me stare age, I would just cut or peeled the oranges for them. But they still have orange+tomato juice as breakfast each morning.

Today, didi dunno fatt-meh-san-keng laukei for orange juice, and had to be squeezed and not blended. I just ignore him and said there aren't any oranges left in the fridge. So then he nagged whole day to go out to shopping mall and get them.

Eventually we did. When we came home, he held the orange squeezer and bugged me to make him orange juice. We had a good long debate on why he need to drink orange juice, squeezed, while he can eat them cut, or he is already drinking it blended every morning. He maintained that he wants to drink it, without any other fruits along, and that this year, he hadn't drink any squeezed orange juice.

Forkuan jor, I snatched that thing he was holding, and cut the orange into half for him, squeezed them hard, while complaining why he must give him so much things to do with him standing beside me. I told him "see? now I have to wash this, and this and the cup after you finished drinking it" and bang the cup on the table unwillingly for him.

While he enjoyed sipping the drink, and I was still furious on his sudden unreasonable demand for his craving, I continued cutting the rest of the oranges for the rest of us. Then I turned to him and barked "Have you finished?". He jumped up and looked at me in puppy eyes, nodded his head. Dang! At that moment, I just held myself from laughing. Why am I getting all worked up over it anyway? Do I want to be call a diktator like goolypop? NO!!! I'm not like her! I'm loving and caring and nice...

While we were eating our cut oranges, he came over and whispered softly "Can I have one?" with his puppy eyes..Heizzzzz... it's so hard to be angry with him for long. But I think he won't ask for squeezed orange juice for sometime.

Movies at home these days.

These days, I had been watching movies at home, after strolling out for a walk at the nearby night market last last weekend.

Sometimes, I just feel surprised at myself that I can just leave the TV alone for days, when some years back, I would be chasing tvb serials, or sitcoms, or watching something. Life when in Brunei, chasing the Astro WLT at prime hours seemed to be the highlight of the day, especially when a good one was showing on. Nowadays, TV is, most of the time, enjoyed by the kids or by the breadwinner, to destress at home after a hard day's work.

After coming home from pasar malam, I told them to shower and change into pyjamas, spread out the bed quilt on the floor and we watched Ice Age 3 together. It was such a cosy ambience and it made such a nice and simple family time. Meimei slept after awhile, but that was ok. Next morning she just said it was magic that she woke up from her own bed.

As for the movie, I had preferred Ice Age 1 however, maybe the expectations were too high after hearing many good reviews about it.

Few days later, korkor wanted to watch Night at the Museum, after which, I recommended the X-Men to him. Both were reruns for me watching those together with him. The younger 2 weren't very enthusiastic about them though and I had to admonish them for being a nuisance and disturbing the ambience. Consideration for other people! I told them, and from then on, they kept mumbling "must be considerate-TED!".

When they were ready for bed, I put on "He's just not that into you" while I left them alone in the room. It was a very entertaining one, and it reminds of "those" days when I would be turning every single little detail of what the guy I liked did and guessing like forever if he was into me. Oh boy! I'm sure glad those days are over.

When I finally went to sleep at about 2am, I found them all sprawled out everywhere with the lights on (just like the restaurant staff in restoran city when their energy level is 0) *grin*. They sure had a good time until they slept, while I had a good time watching that movie on my own.

Last Sunday night, I watched "Obsession" with my hub. Kind of similar to "Fatal Attraction". Enjoyed that too. Now, next movie please.

What a good mom I am.

After last week's mischief and the vow that I would TRY my very bestest yet NOT to lay cane marks on his flesh again, we had some few days of "wind flat wave peace" (translated to fong ping long jing in kong toong wah".

Then, he did it again! Told him, warned him, about the danger of pointing a sharp pencil onto his sister's eyes when he was angered with her stubbornness, and he still have to do that again. So, off I went into a fury again, yelling my head off at him, asking him what he wants me to do with him exactly.. sigh.. really spoilt my image. I think my neighbours would be thinking what a mom I am, yelling all day away.

But I did not cane him (a pat on my back), and out of the sudden, a bulb light came on in my mind. As I said the danger of his action would be making someone blind, why not he tries to feel how it feels to be blind. So I blindfolded him! Told him to move and get things done blindfolded. Haha! Soon he pleads to take the blindfold away after knowing my point (I hope), and I hope too that would prevent him from doing it again. I think next time, I'm going to tie up his hands when he beats anyone.

Today, he kacau his little sister again while having dinner. I sat with him and asked him if he's being naughty because he wants my attention. And so, I made him stay beside me and have all my attention while I wash the dishes and do the house chores. I even made him clean the table and the kitchen floor for me. How nice! The floor sure felt nice to walk on after cleaning. Haha!! I think I'm having a little improvement here on the disciplinary area. Surely a better way to punish him instead of caning him! And in the end, one house chore completed without me! Nice!

So, do I deserve an ice-cream now?

What a bad mom I am.

Last week had been a caning week for didi. This was what my kids get for testing my patience to the limit. For some weeks, I had refrained myself from using this harsh method of disciplining, as they already understood I meant business if nothing's done when I counted until 3. The eldest and the youngest are still following by this rule of order while the middle one is just trying his luck all the freaking time.

I got blown away that day, and took out to whip it on his thigh just moderately. He quickly ran off to keep all the toys strewn on the floor which I had told him to do for the umpteenth time. Then he made a dash to the bathroom to get his shower and before I knew it, korkor was yelling "OHHH!! You spoilt the shower door!!!!"

That made my blood boil even further and he got a few spankings more on his little thighs.. poor thing. As was always, after I calm down, I would be spilling over with feelings of guilt and asking myself if I need to be so harsh with him. Then I made him stand in front of me to watch me fix that door back. For some unknown reasons, I weeped in front of him, trying to make it as dramatic as possible, possibly so to let him know my heart really breaks to see him destroying one thing after another. And of course, the heart pains even more when I need to punish him for that.

When it's all done and well again, we patched things up and he cried like he was really sorry and said he promised he would TRY not to do that again.

Couple of days later, we were all chilling out at home all day on a Sunday. Korkor were either playing Wii or restoran city, I was either sleeping or watching tv, meimei was playing toys, papa was somewhere around and didi was jumping up and down. Soon meimei said loudly to ask me have a look at her little room she built with the building blocks. "Wahhh.. look veeeeery nice wor", my usual compliment to whatever they make all the time.

Then that didi had to destroy her creation, just like Stitch, and I warned him to stop that before walking away to the kitchen. Very soon, I could hear the sound of another "deesh! wham! bang!" followed by the sound of meimei's loud cry. It was really disastrous. My head didn't tell me to think what to do next and I just go and whack that fler hard. He cried in pain, and I knew that was pretty enough for him.

Much later, I saw his thigh had that red line of cane mark, and the saying "pain on his flesh, more pain in my heart". I was weeping deep inside me. Later when they slept soundly early for the night, I sneaked into their room, and rubbed the mark, as if hoping to rub the bad scar away, cried a few tears, held his hand, prayed to God and wished He will give me strength and guide to be a better mother on the days ahead. I hope there's no bad scar on his memory of how bad a mother I had been to him.

Bkt Jalil Park again.

Last weekend, my mom was back again, to meet my nephew and niece from Bangkok who were here since ... some time ago.

We spent time playing Wii, swimming and strolling at Bkt Jalil Park, our 2nd visit since the Go Go Green event ran by the kids' preschool.

This time round, we checked out the rest of the park and I find that I really love the place. It's just beautiful and a good hangout to chill (in this case, heat up) with the family. It was a pity that we went there quite late, about 6pm, as were taking a long time to get out from the house due to the hot weather. Hence, by the time we took a big round, time was already getting late and the sun was about to set. There was still a children's playground we haven't seen yet.. our next target!

While guiding the kids to bend down, getting ready for a race, suddenly my sil ran scrambling away. I thought "WTH! Cheating in front of the kids?" Then, we saw that she spotted a bill on the path in front and she found RM50. What a lucky day indeed! Of course, we were discussing to report police or not and surrender our (it's ours already!) "finding", and looked around to see if there's anyone looking for his money... for about 2 secs? And we hurried away and thank God for sponsoring our dinner that night. But we did leave something else for other people, and it was a ball, not any ball, but our FAVORITE ball. OK la, we are fair, aren't we?

During the walk, I had this thought in my mind. Why aren't there any business entrepreneurs at these parks, renting bicycles for these joggers or park-ers? I think it should be good response. And they could also provide some leung-cha, i-screams, kuih-muih, special services, I mean, those are what I would be happy to pay for at that time. In fact, cyclists for young and old can enjoy some simple traffic rules in the park.

I remember when I was young, my parents used to take us to DR Park to cycle on Sunday mornings. There was this bicycle kiosk, renting out bicycles cheaply, and they have tricycles, bikes with training wheels, bigger ones, and even larger ones. And that little area has proper roads, equipped with traffic lights, gas station, road signs etc. The slope was THE challenge for us kids. Going up the slope would be so "killing", and coming down would be so "heart-pumping". I think I never managed to conquer that fear. Ahh.. some simple family activities, in fact, was already available during our time, but not now. What a pity.


(Pictures taken a few years ago at DR Seenivasagam, Ipoh on a cheerful morning)

My little pink book

Do you write journals last time when you were young? I did, I guessed it's called the traditional or conventional "blog", but supposedly to be kept private, not for any 8poh (yes, you!) to see.

I think I started writing short notes when I was in my teens, in those small pocket diaries that someone (dunno who) gave. Then I advanced to nice nice books, with sweet looking covers to pen down the happy moments in my life. Now that I look back on them, I did seem to have a very happy childhood, and a very happy growing up life.

One book was dedicated specially just for dear, then later known as loekung, then also known as banker, sometimes hub, sometimes ...

It helps when I read back on my little pink book. Especially when the marriage is in a "challenging" mode. When I question myself why the heck I chose him. And it warms my heart to look and recall back the intensity of love we both felt for each other at that time (hoi! dun be dirty minded, that's not an x-rated diary ah).

Surely it meant something when that happened. I'm just so glad that I had chose to pen down the happy memories instead of the unhappy ones. And by doing this, I had made the happy memories stay stronger in my mind, helping me move forward with my life with a bright outlook, and trashed all the unhappy ones to the bin.

A very fun project is about to start

Bought a full length mirror finally, after several years of procrastination.

And it stems from a "project" idea with a 38-poh to show off our new purchases, sharing it over yahoo photo-sharing application with each other.

Oooh.. I so gonna love this new fun thingy. Here's the first one "camwhoring" with meimei.

p/s: Still laughing silly when I recall he said "I don't want to know", when he found out the hiao pictures she took of herself. What on earth are we gonna do with ourselves?

p/p/s: who else wanna see me modelling in sexy lingeries? Come and invite me to photo share. But take precaution, it's NSFW.. :D

Bidding farewell to a special friend.

The day finally comes when we have to let her go. Heiz.. big girl already la, got bulu got wings la, hoe sang sing joe yan la..

.. macam I bidding farewell to my little darling ah? Nola, where got so soon?

She's my special friend, JM, I know from the early days in varsity. Ever so friendly, outgoing and caring, I had been her coursemate, roommate, bedmate, then housemate again when I went over to KL to work. So many fond memories.

The best time would be when we went on a holiday in Taiwan together, KK, and sailing on our virgin cruise holiday.

She's one of the best roommate I ever had, remembering so fondly how I used to cuddle myself comfortably in her blankets and pillows, while she sat beside at her table studying. Then she would look over, and ask me "got sumsee ah?". And there she would be, reluctantly or not, lending a listening ear to my woes.

A nanny to my kids, she's dear to their hearts, swarming over her when she comes visiting. Sometimes I would be a liiiiitttttle bit jealous, but I know my position won't be so easily compromised anyway. In fact, I feel very grateful to her for giving me some breather space to find some private time for my own while I know someone I trusted upon is showering them with love, attention and care.

(JM, make sure you change your will, so my name appears as beneficiary and not just a witness, ok??)

Thanks, JM for being such a good friend to me all these years. And I hope the land of greener pastures would bring you some surprise and joy, and happiness, and of course, no need to mention, more moolah.