A beautiful Monday today.

Know why? Because it's the start of the 1 week school holiday. Ahh... the joy of sleeping till the sun burning the bumms. The command to tell the stupid alarm to go OFF. Yeah, nothing beats holiday time now.

Apart from that, the weather is extremely nice today. Not hot humid stuffy hazy as usual. It's cool, breezy, overcast just nicely, in fact, my boss said he felt like being in UK right now!

But hey, the real "cause" is.. I have a surprise call today.

*ring* *ring* "Hello?"

"Hi, Mrs. C? This is Suzie, from GeniusSchool." (OK, Suzie is the principal, and GeniusSchool is where my younger 2 kids are going every morning, I made up the names myself)

Funny, my heart skips a beat whenever I have calls from schools. Like my kids caused some trouble and I have to mend it, is something wrong with me?

BUT, apparently, she calls to ask me for my permission to put my 2nd son's picture up on a bunting for the coming concert day. Hey, fancy that? How would you have responded to that?

Frankly speaking, I really beamed from ear to ear, any mommy who wouldn't be proud that their kid is the chosen one, right? Secretly, I would have loved to become a "star mom", shh... don't tell anyone that I'm getting big-headed.

So, tell me that this ain't a beautiful day? Even my inlaws who will be coming to stay for the night today, I am so gonna make them have a goooood time. *shocking*

Have a nice day yourself!

Olympics spirit at home.

Riding on the Olympics heatwave, I started some "challenges" for the 3 youngsters too.

Being frustrated with the constant nagging, pleading, begging which at most times would turn into desperation, threats and punishments to instill well mannerism and good behavior in the house, I have, this week, started on the "Olympics" challenge for them at home.

I read from a friend of mine, physiomom's, blog that she used this trick to encourage her children to be helpful at home sometime ago when she was adapting to her "maid-less" days. Told myself that "hey, it sounds to be a good one, can try it on my youngsters". But being me, the normal me, had been procrastinating, dragging.. until I finally decided to take my lazy butts off the couch and do something finally.

And up on the fridge is a paper with their names on it. The game is to get as many "stamps" or "chops" (as they call it) under their names, so by the end of the week, whoever gets the most will get to ask from me whatever he/she wants to eat or get. Of course got a limit, later they say they want me to buy a real big playground for them, I'll be ... a toothless witch and liar! And that is something I do not like, honest.

So, it's darn easy to get one chop. Just do a good deed, either be helpful, or show good manners or do what I tell them to do, and there! I just can't understand why children feel so delighted to do "chopping". Such a simple act, and it pleases them till no end. Why ah?

Anyway, so far, the progress and results seem to be quite good. It does encourages positive behavior and challenges to beat the other. Only thing is, the youngest being clueless on what's happening would whisper and nag non-stop to me "mommyyyy... i want a chop".. what to do? curi curi chop one chop there for her loh. Else, she won't stop nagging, give me headache only.

I hope the Olympics heat won't die off so soon. Hmm.. where's the fireworks to officiate the opening ceremony of Home Olympics here, huh?

Come, let me tell you how to babysit.

The next thousand words.


All sorts of advice kept pouring to the new mommy whole night. Poor thing, who to listen, huh?

"You can't be carrying her all the time la.. you manja her like thaaaaat...". (Any proof to show?)

"You don't think it's superstitious hoh? Must go and get one "fu" blessed from the Kuan Yin and place it under her pillow, then she will only be goody goody hoh". *raised eyebrow*

And many more....

Come on la.. you have one kid makes you an expert? I had 3 and I know what I need to do there was to savor the food served only, not for drowning people with words of know-how and wisdom. And she wasn't even asking for your opinion or advice. But poor girl, she has to be nice and nod and pretend to listen attentively because you are her friend and guest.

Every baby has her own characters and personalities. I suppose it's more important for the new parents to understand her during the process of bringing and caring for her, so all these sorts of uninvited comments and advice are not exactly welcomed. Let them learn along the way, can't the people around see that? Eeyer.. I felt geram la, but who the heck I am to comment, huh?

Being a new parent, all the new experience and fuss of handling a baby by herself can be overwhelming. I can still remember that clearly when it all began 8 years ago. I'm thankful I have my mom who unselfishly came to my side to help me out every time I need her till I adapt to the new lifestyle. Not every mom can do that, I hear. Ya I know, I do have a great mom.

As for us "certificate holders, embarking on undergraduate course on child development and upbringing study-ology", we can *cuddle cuddle baby*, *ang ku ku* *wail wail wail* (fast fast hand back to her mommy) "nah, baby's crying, back to you" tee hee.. the joy of it. Those opinionated parents, just shaddap la, for baby's sake.

Pictures speaks a thousand words?

Home sweet home.

Back home now, safe and sound, everyone in 1 piece.

An anecdote from the journey: approaching the destination, there were various digital messages on the road saying "Traffic jam at causeway, avoid it by using 2nd link", something to that effect. And as I drove on, we noticed there were no signboards directing those unknowns to the said 2nd link. No words of "SINGAPORE". Just TUAS, along with some other towns of Johore, in the same font, same size.

Will you know Tuas is actually the 2nd link to S'pore?

At the Immigration, the officer was angry, unhappy, almost "vulgar" (I think!), that I held his booth up as we had to fill in 6 white cards at the spot! He said "why don't you take more white cards when you left S'pore last time and filled all of them before coming in?" Duh! As if I love being heavily verbally abused by him. That moment was really panicky and stressed. I had to squint my eyes really really forcefully to see the tiny prints on the card and match the info from the passport to the blank area. And some more, the phone kept ringing. Adui! Such a relief when we were done.

And all these while the whole world eyes on Beijing. I didn't miss the later spectacular show though. Wasn't that a really good show? And that was the 080808 for me.

Heard this before?

Saw this in my mailbox and made me laughed.

------->

Three women: one engaged, one married and one a mistress, are chatting over lunch and conversation turns to their relationships. They decided that night to surprise their men. All three would wear a black leather bra and thong, stiletto heels and a mask over their eyes.

A few days later they meet up for lunch.

The engaged woman: The other night when my boyfriend came over he found me with a black leather bodice, tall stilettos and a mask. He saw me and said, 'You are the woman of my dreams. I love you.' Then we made love all night long.

The mistress: Me too! The other night I met my lover at his office and I was wearing the leather outfit, heels, mask over my eyes and a raincoat. When I opened the raincoat he didn't say a word, but we had wild sex for hours.

The married woman: I sent the kids to stay at my mother's house for the night. When my husband came home I was wearing the leather bra, black stockings, stilettos and a mask over my eyes. He walked in the door, looked at me and said, 'What's for dinner, Batman?'

MUAHAHAHA.

Singkapoh, here I come.

This weekend, I'm going to make a very lightning fast, super hurry, rush trip to Down Below. Remember the little baby who appeared some weeks ago? It's her full moon's day, and there's going to be a little party at her posh home. Who wanna miss that?

Actually, I'm not really keen to make the hurried trip, considering the big guy needs to go to school and it's just like, what, probably about 40 hours packed inside. And most likely half of it will go to spending it at my hubby's sister's area. Not that I am unfriendly to her, but when you have (a) your own nephews and niece to play with and (b) your inlaws with a newborn baby who is just good for cuddling for, say, 10 mins, which one would you like to spend your time with? See? Exactly what I'm trying to say.

Anyway, my big boss is really a family man, and he made some "threats" discreetly, so there we go, committed to see that the big guy is well trained to be the top ponteng student in future. Sigh..

(Oh dear! I look like preggie into my 5th month, after savoring each biji durian one after another, not daring to drink water when I was done for fear I will bloat, and here I am, still bloating and I can't sleep.. ish! Angry, but still not regretting what I had done, God, I'm a hopeless case)

Back to the little baby, here I was chatting with the new mom, and listening to the oh-so-familiar tales of crying baby nonstopping, asking for advices what could possibly go wrong and how to overcome it super fast. I wanted to tell her "enjoy the process, dear".. hehe, yeah, I'm just wicked, kill me.

But that was exactly the kind of nightmare I had dealing with my eldest son. The first month when I had him was pretty good, albeit me being a little bit depressed for God knows why. Into the 2nd month, he was making me paranoid whenever he started to stir from his sleep, and the first hint he will be wailing for unknown reason, I will pick him up before it starts. I have tried rocking him to sleep, letting him suck on my "wonders of the chest", oh just whatever there could be.

Most times, I carried him until he sleeps in my arms and I dared not make any movement to just let him sleep on. Once, I had done just that for about few hours straight into the night and my bladder almost burst! *violin playing in the background the song "shi shang zhe you ma ma hau...*

But no, he just lurved to wail.. and it could go on for hours. And frankly speaking, I would have this evil thought to just cover him with a pillow to stop the noise. Of course, my better self held me back. The point I'm trying to say is, having a baby is unlike playing Barbie doll. The reality of babysitting is so harsh we can't fathom it at all before we got ourselves pregnant. All I had wanted at that time was "Give me a baby, I don't care, I believe I can manage, I can, what comes may".

But of course, your own blood and flesh brings lots of other good stuffs and many cheers and laughter. Especially in their toddler years. The best years in a mom's life, aren't they?

So, to my sil, I advised her not to stress herself over the baby too much, and it's basically all "trial and error" to see which methods works and which not. Nobody will be able to advise her what's the best way for she's the only one who understands her baby in this process.

As for myself, I can't sit back too much either. My kids are driving me nuts and need serious attention from me for some disciplinary actions.

(Oh yeah, I was out shopping to get gifts for my nephews, niece, little baby, new mommy, shopping is really rejuvenating, so happy now, but won't be happy when big boss sees all that, blek)

Who else gonna share some miseries of baby not equals Barbies? Those with easy going kids, you need not comment. :)