Merry Xmas and Happy New Year

Everything has changed in my life for the last quarter of this year.

I moved to new company, new location and different people to deal with, different culture. From a typical local company to an angmoh culture.

Since my FIL passed away, MIL has been staying with us. It means, there are some new arrangement in my house. There is not much freedom as previous. Just take easy for everything. That's life.

Derick has grown up silently in front of me and hubby but quite talkactive to the rest. He has been quite brave to come to the stage/front of many audience surprisingly.

Joshua is still trying to talk word by word. He always call 'ge ge' as 'di di'. He say 'Na..na' as 'nai nai'. He can say moon, star, bird, ball, turtle, milk, poo poo and snail. After he passed urine he will say 'tip tee' as 'pee pee'.

Nevertheless, in between of all rapid changes in my life, I still can free myself as a mother, wife and DIL. I took part in company Dinner and Dance party this month. The organiser hired a photographer to take some fun pictures as above. Do enjoy.

In addition, I grab this opportunity to greet my readers A Blessed Christmas and Fruitful New Year.

The Left Handed

I have not updating my blog for more than a month. I quite miss my blog though. However, due to work and family commitment, I am not able to update my blog regularly now. I can write now because I wake up in the early morning due to knock off at early night. I can't sleep for more than 6 hours.

I have many things to share with my readers about Josh.

Josh and Der are quite different. Josh likes to play ball. He likes to go to the field and watch people playing basket ball. Then, he will imitate what he has seen.

Around this age, 2 years old, Der loves car/bus very much. All Der's toys are cars. Der likes to play riding bus game. How people taps the card and he sounded ' ga gu' (the sound that you heard while you tapping the card). Josh does not interested so much with cars. Nevertheless, he will ride on his small car which used his two legs to move front/backward. While moving backward, Josh will sound 'de...de..' (read in han yu pin yin). He tried to imitate the sound of security alarm for car while moving backward, then I will sound de.de..de(the emergency sound when the car very near to the pillar). Josh will smile and shout to protest me.

Josh is quite observant. He also observe people's mimic. He will afraid while he is seeing some guys look a bit 'hiong'

Josh likes to eat Meiji yogurt very much. I can say he is quite addicted to them. He eats about 3 cups a day. He also will try to scoop the yogurt to his mouth himself using his powerful left hand. His left hand is so strong to lift up things and throw toys. His left leg kicks ball very strong and far.

If you read my previous blog, I have suspected Josh is a left handed when he was 1 year old. However, expert said you only can tell whether someone is left/right handed when he/she is 2 years old. Now, the probability of left handed Josh is about 95%.

Josh, Mommy believes that you are a talented boy. Mommy hopes that you can make use of your talents.

Josh Has Weaned Off Breast

Josh, you are 2 years and 2 months now.
You are really quite different with your brother.
Mommy is quite surprise to see that you can hold pen very well with your left hand.
Mommy guided you to hold pen with right hand not more than twice. Definitely, Mommy never guide you to hold pen with left hand. This may be God’s will. You learn to hold pen very well with left hand yourself.
You have weaned off breastfeeding.
The moments of breastfeeding you are quite enjoyable and fulfilling.
After Mommy came back from Japan, you only breastfed for few times for fun.
You forgot to breastfeed gradually. Mommy tried to distract you with your favourite ‘star biscuit’ when you led Mommy to master room and pointed to the bed. You know there was your most comfort bed to breastfeed.
Your last day of breastfeeding was 16 Aug 2010.
You breastfed longer than your brother.
However, the moments of weaning you off breast are easier than your brother.
Your brother cried for 3 days to forget the breast.
You may be lucky to have a caregiver to help Mommy to distract you from breast. Or maybe unlucky, not under Mommy’s care for 24 hours.
Mommy believes you will always think yourself in positive way as Mommy that you are lucky not another way round.

Eventough Mommy felt a bit sad that you have weaned off, Mommy tried to comfort herself by agreeing the fact that this is a sign that you have grown up and both of us can sleep through the night.

Josh, to-date, you only speak a few words.
Mommy is not worried at all.
The person surrounding Mommy is more anxious than Mommy.
Mommy feels fun to guess what you want to say.
Mommy wants to cherish the moment you speak with your baby language.

Josh, you are so playful now.
You like to play water.
You like to imitate your brother.
You are not afraid with pool anymore.
However, you are still afraid of strangers.
Hopefully, you will overcome this soon.

FIL, R.I.P

While I was taking Narita Express train to Narita Airport Terminal 2 on Saturday (7 Jun 10), Sam smsed me to inform that FIL was in critical condition. He would be flying off to see FIL in Shanghai when I was back on the next day.

After I received sms from Sam, I start to think whether FIL would have his last breath on that Saturday.

The 6.5 hour flight from Tokyo to Sin was so long. Finally, I knocked off for an hour of half. After wake up from my nap, I shall reach Singapore in an hour time.

When I was in the taxi, I smsed Sam and informed him that I would be home in 30 mins and requested him to response if he has read my sms. I have to give such notice to this man, otherwise he would be already in his deep sleep and didn't hear his Hp sms alert tone. In 2 mins, I received sms from Sam as such, I am waiting for you. I was so surprised and smell something fishy. There must be something in his mind that make this man couldn't sleep within this hour 1 a.m.

I reached home and Sam seemed really waiting for me. Sam said that he wanted to discuss with me. Sam asked what we should do in the future. I am such a direct person. I didn't response to him and asked how was his father? Then, Sam told me that his father had his last breath yesterday afternoon. FIL is 71 years old. Sam took the morning flight on the same day I reached home. Both of us were so busy taking turn to travel to/from T3 Changi Airport on that Sunday.

FIL had been staying in Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai for 3 weeks. He was sick with undiagnosable illness.

Just Reached Tokyo

I never have such a plenty of time at home. I am blogging from the hotel. I can not remember when was the last time I watch TV on flight. I watched 3 serial of film (chinese, korean, american) consecutively.

Now, in hotel room, I can do so many things. Oh..everything is so expensive here. I spend $15.95 for a bowl of rice + beef + soup + such kind of salad sauce ( I didn't finish it, it's so yucky).

Hubby commented that I am so 'xin xien'. The city is very clean and neat. I admit I am really 'xin xien' and I love Japanase food. The Japanese meal on SQ flight also very nice.

Derick Joined Story Telling Competition

One day, Derick brought this (see above picture) from school. He showed it to me happily. “Mommy, see”. Oh…He got it from story telling competition in Chinese at school. Derick never told me that there would be a story telling competition. “Mommy, I tell story at school today. I got the 2nd prize”, he told me one day after he came back from school.

I was surprised and couldn’t believe it. “Do you mean that you went up to the stage to tell story at the hall?” “How many students went up to the stage to tell story?” He explained to me that there were 2 kids from each class join the story telling competition. There are totally 9 classes. In conclusion, there were 18 kids joining the competition. I still couldn’t believe it and wonder if I have interpreted him wrongly.

I asked him to repeat the story that he shared with his classmates. I opine that his story is so long winded. He created the story himself without copying from story book.

In the same evening, such a coincidence, I met his classmate after Chinese enrichment. I heard from his classmate’s mouth that Derick told story at stage at school on that afternoon.

To-date, I am still wondering whether he has eaten a lion heart on that day to come up to the stage, since he normally is rather shy to strangers.

A Nite Out

This is what I get as a new ACCA member. A pair of movie tickets plus popcorn and drink and a unique ACCA pin.

This was also the first time date in the evening with Sam after giving birth to Josh. The movie titled “Knight and Day” starring by Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. It’s fun to watch such movie after such a hectic and boring work in the day time. The popcorn itself is so sweet.

Sam commented that the taxi fare from Orchard to home is more expensive than the cost of movie ticket plus snack.
Yes, he is indeed right. Here is the detailed calculation:
Taxi fare from Orchard to home: $22
Movie ticket: $8x2=$16
Snack: $4
The taxi fare is higher of $2 than movie ticket and snack. That means the treat from ACCA is not attractive. But it’s still better than nothing.

When we reached home, Derick is half a sleep lying on the sofa with the TV is still on. Der is watching the news programme from Phoenix channel. (His dad’s favourite programme). Another funny thing which makes me smiles if I remembered it. Der is placing our picture (I and Sam’s picture) on top of the shoe cabinet near the main door. Der must have so missed us because we are always at home normally when he came back from his pm session school.

Joshua 2nd Birthday!

We bought a small cake to celebrate a simple birthday party at home. Joshua didn’t know that yesterday was his special day at all. From the below photo, you can see that his face expression was so strange with the self timer camera. Nevertheless, he likes to eat the cake very much.

Close up of the cake. Last minute, I placed an order for the cake via phone. Luckily, the staff is quite nice and willing to add the greetings on the cake. I ordered the cake from Four Leaves this time since the shop is located near my home.

Update on Joshua (June 2010)

Joshua, in another 8 days 2 hours you will be 2 years old.

You like to play balls.

Mommy believe you will be a great ball players when you grown up. Your left kick is so powerful. When the ball which you kicked hit Mommy's leg, Mommy felt painful

You also enjoy pushing chair and your stroller. Nevertheless, you dislike to push the walker.

The above are some photos taken at Palawan Beach, Sentosa during Sam's company's family day celebration in May 2010.

China Trip 1 - 8 June 2010

We are back from our China Trip. This year, we flied by Singapore Airlines to Shanghai and visited Qiandaohu and Huang Shan. Derick (7 years old) was climbing Huang Shan himself. He looked slimmer after coming back from China. Sam was carrying Joshua (almost 2 years old) all along the mountain.

The boys playing at the playground of Xujiahui Park.

View from Meifeng Peak, Qian Dao Hu.

We took this cable car to reach Mei Feng Peak.

View from Huang Shan.

We took cable car to the middle part of Huang Shan. The cable cars are similar with cable car to Sentosa island.

We stayed at New Century Resort, Qiandaohu for one nite.
The luxorious bathroom at 5-star hotel, New Century Resort Hotel.

Derick: Term 2 in P1 is Ending

Derick is coming to 7 years old. I feel so contented to have such a darling in my life. Derick is a smart boy, the teachers commended. But he is shy and slow in action. That may be his characteristic. His term 2 exam was ended few weeks ago.

He scored as follow for each subject:
Math: 73/100
English: 33/50
Mother Tongue (Chinese): 61/65

I am satisfied with his result. He didn’t really bother to study. I passed him 2 past exam papers from top school for each subject and he did them with a lot of careless mistakes.

Derick is very strong in Chinese now as he speaks Chinese everyday in Mainland accent inherited from his father. I plan to send him for Math and English enrichment class in the 2nd half year. I don’t want to teach him due to my childhood experience being coached by my mother. When I was 5 years old (K2 in Indonesia), my mother was so anxious with my exam. My mother was a housewife. Hence, every afternoon, she used her style to coach me to read Indonesian (something likes learn phonics in English). Her teaching style was really boring and out-dated. Everytime, I see the clock reach 4 pm, I simply hate it. I knew it was the time that my mother will teach me to read. I hide the books so my mother can’t teach me. When she asked me where the book is. I responded, “Don’t know”. This is a secret. Not anybody in my family knows about it.

I can’t blame my mother for using her outdated style to teach me though. I know that she wants me to be the best in class. She also really want to send me for enrichment class likes other kids. But she knew that my father was thrifty. Therefore, she tried to save every penny for more urgent things. Thankfully, when I was in P1, my mother know that she can’t teach herself anymore. I was glad that she gave up. She found me a tutor which love me because I was such a smart and diligent girl. My childhood friends even jealous because the teacher treated me differently.

After such a long memorable story, to-date, everytime I look at Derick carrying the bag, I found my childhood reflection in him. I don’t want Derick to hide his book and hate the school lesson. I want him to go to school without any pressure and simply likes the teacher and lessons. Since both of us are working, we can afford for the enrichment classes. Hence, I decided to sent him to enrichment classes and brush up his Emotional Intelligence (EQ) instead. I want him to be a kid who has a healthy EQ, confident and able to learn from mistakes.

My First Post From Iphone

I bought Iphone two days ago. Now, I am trying to blog via this wonderful gadget. It is so user friendly. I like the wide screen. I paid $438 after utilised $100 voucher. I tried N brand HP. The response is much slower.

Hatyai Trip 23 - 26 Apr 10

I brought my parents to Hatyai. My mother did a facelift surgery. The result is good. If you want to know the details of surgery, you may contact me. I myself spent some time for relaxing there.

We visited floating market on the first nite. Everything goes at 20 Baht per dish.

The sugar cane water is put inside the bamboo. Slurp...

I try the spa at Novotel. Cheap and good.

Soft shell crabs.

The prawns are so huge.

One of my new year resolution to bring my parents go for holiday has been fulfilled.

Mastitis for the 6th times

I thought after getting period, my milk supply will reduce. Hence, I didn't nurse so frequent. In the end, I got mastitis again for the 6th times within 22 months. This maybe due to Josh keep waking up at last weekend and interrupt my sleep.

Oh...I pray hard that this is my last time in my life mastitis attacked me.

Finally...

I got my period today, after breastfeeding Josh for 21 months and 25 days. I can feel that the time for weaning off Josh is getting nearer. I enjoy breastfeeding Josh very much. In the bottom of my heart, I am so reluctant to wean off him. I want Josh to be my baby forever. If compare with Der, Josh is less mature and more dependent.

Bintan 19 - 21 Mar 2010

We visited Bintan after our last visit to that island 5 years ago. All of us have a great time there. We took this ferry travel to Bintan.

The kids enjoy playing sand at the beach.

Josh was sleeping before we checked out hotel. He really know how to enjoy the comfort of staying at hotel. We convert the seating area become his bed. I was afraid that he will fall down from the King size bed.
Josh was playing with the stone while we were having coffee at the lounge. We travelled on "Emerald Class" hence we have the privilege to sit inside the lounge. If you are travelling from Bintan to Singapore on Emerald Class, you only need to give your passports and tickets to the staff there. They will do all the job for you such as check in your baggage and chop your passports. You even no need to pass through the immigration yourself. If you are travelling to Bintan, don't forget to book Emerald Class from Bintan to Singapore. However, there will be not much difference if you travel from Singapore to Bintan. You only get the privilege to step in/out from the ferry earlier and sit at upper deck. For more photos, please visit my Facebook.

Derick Can Ride Bicycle

Finally, Derick can ride bicycle (two wheels). He was so reluctant to learn how to ride initially. I have been asking him for a year to ride bicycle. As you know, I will not so easy to give up. I keep showing him how fun can ride bicycle. Telling him how's mommy learn bicycle when I was about his age.

Yesterday, my maid told me that Derick is able to ride bicycle. I asked the maid to bring kids to playground to play and Derick has to learn bicycle since it is school holiday now. The teacher has given me feedback that Derick is a bit overweight. Hence, he can't eat and watch tv only during school holiday. He has to be mobile.

Kids nowadays are very fortunate. Before he asked us (I and Sam), we have been planning to buy him a bigger wheel bicycle.

We were very happy to see Der riding the bicycle for so many rounds at the playground whereas Josh were running so fast to chase Derick.

Topical Test

Der had 2 topical test already in P1. He scored 21/25 and 23/25 each for the first and second topical test. I didn't teach him eventough he has been telling me that he will have a test. Argh..I forgot about it at all. I am such a bad mommy to neglect his exam.

Fulfilled Resolution

Finally, I have completed ACCA. This means that I have fulfilled one of my resolution this year. :)

In order to fulfill another resolution, I bought this. Huh...hope I can shed 2 kgs after doing more sit-ups with this bench. I am too greedy when I thought of shedding 5 kgs.

CNY 2010

This CNY, we spent at Holiday Inn, Batam. The view from our balcony.

Family photo taken in front of swimming pool.

Josh likes to carry Mommy's bag.

Mastitis Again and Again

This may be the 5th time, mastitis attacked me again. I went to see GP and ask for 2 days MC. I really want to rest and clear all the block ducts. I asked GP what kind of antibiotics that she will prescribe me. This is for ensuring me that she will not prescribe me Amoxycylin. I ate Amox last time, and within one week the mastitis visited me again. This may be due to Amox is not suitable for mastitis.

Sibling Suit

Derick likes to wear same clothes with Joshua. Everything Josh own, Der also want the same. Hence, I bought a few tops same pattern for them. A bit difficult to find for them due to quite a wide age gap (5 years).

Elmo Tops, I bought from Pasar Malam. The colour has faded after a few washing. Josh's hair is so short after I shaved.Eventually, I found these Bossini kids Tops. I bought 1 size 140/130 and 100. They fit nicely to both Josh and Der.

Gucci Bag

I can't believe myself. I bought a Gucci Tote Bag. This is my most expensive bag. Hope that I can control myself. I will not be eyeing for LV on my next shopping trip.

Derick has his FIRST swimming lesson

I have not been blogging for so long. I even forgot the link which I should log in. I type www.google.com and then I thought a while oh...should be www.blogger.com I have been so forgetful recently. My dear...

Finally, yesterday, Derick had his first swimming lesson at CCK swimming complex. I asked my friend who has 2 kids with 1 year gap, and we asked the coach to open a private lesson. From my obversation last evening, the coach is very patient, cool and handsome. Handsome will not be adding any value though. :)

I swam too yesterday; and today I realised my armache. Perhaps it has been a year, I never swim.

Lunch at Warren

We went to Warren Golf & Resort for lunch last Sunday after church service and took some photos.

Joshua @ 18 months

Before




















Joshua is 18 months old. He just started walking at 17 months. However, he can walk very steadily and even can have a small run now.
He understand our communication now.
He has taken all his immunisation.
He still love breastmilk. Once he sees me come back from work, he will hold my hand, bring me to my room, climb up to bed and ask for breastfeed.
My boss almost assigned me to China for 1.5 weeks, however; it has been cancelled eventually. Maybe she sees me that I was so hesitant to give her an answer unlikely my usual response. I am so glad that I still can continue to see how Josh drag me to bed every evening.

Updated as at 11 Jan 2010

I tried to polish the photo using Microsoft Picture Manager. This is my first time editing the picture. I tried to edit since I am resizing the picture for our passport renewal. Who knows, I am so addicted with photo editing. How? Do you think it is worth to spend 10 mins to edit the above picture (please refer to above and below picture, before and after)?

After

First Day Come Back From School

We are too hurry to wait for school bus hence I didn't take his photo. When Der came back from the school on the first day, I took this picture. He attends PM session. He reached home almost 7.30 pm on the first day. He reaches home earlier after first day about 6.45 to 7 pm.

As usual, he can't smile.

Derick's 1st day Primary School!

I applied for 1 day leave. The school is not allowed parents to step into the school even on day 1. I am at home to arrange my maid's schedule otherwise she will be 'kalang kabut'. (don't know what to do and busy for no other reason but still unsettled).

I guess Der will be very blur on the first day his own at school. I asked him, you buy things 70cents how much is the balance? He can't answer me.

Nevermind, every body has his own first time experience. He will learn through this.