being happy, being grateful

Today, we had the most exhausting day. We were out of the house early, dropped Em with my mom and we just took off..the 3 of us. By the end of the day, we were knackered. I still am to be completely honest.

If you're wondering what we did the whole of today - we went shopping. Not your everyday, ordinary shopping at the malls but shopping for plants, pots, potted plants, furniture. "Shopping" that more often than not isn't very appealing to kids; especially to 2yo toddlers.

But, as I've mentioned before, Ash has changed so much. And, she's still changing. Actually, the precise words we used were that she's grown-up alot. Sometimes, I feel she's like she's like an adult. At times, even adults don't behave like she does.

She was great today. We dragged her all over town, missing her naps while we were doing all the err...dragging. Even when we had our lunch, she ate by herself, not messing too much of her shirt. Not demanding for attention even when we gave her none. I mean, she was as enthusiastic as we were when we saw a couch we liked or a table we fell in love with. Watched attentively when we were at our friend's shop. Waited patiently for us while we finished haggling prices.

Frankly, she's always been like this - being a co-operative kid. Yes, she does have her moods. I mean, she's still a kid whatever it is. But, usually, when it comes to the crunch, when we really needto rely on her to be good, she gets the job done. Like today.

Yes, I am proud, I am happy. Sometimes, when I feel this way, I wish I can tell her how much her good behavior means to me. And how if I can make her understand how thankful I am and how much I appreciate her for that, I will..in an instant.

Also, while at the nursery today, I had a good workout. Chasing a toddler who runs faster than you, beats any diet regime or even downing weight loss pills. Really, this is something I have to thank her for :-D.

a community message

**UPDATED WITH PICTURES**

I am rather busy...with my farm...the virtual kind..lol.

I'm sorry but this game is insanely addictive.

But, I do have time for a rather quick announcement. This post isn't paid and no, I do not get any commission from the number of people joining. So, do not worry no?

Anyway, a friend of mine, who, incidentally is in the beading/jewelry business, has started a beading class but this is no ordinary beading class. This is a class specially for kids from the ages of 4 and up. Of course, if you'd like to join your kids, you are welcome to do so.

So, if you are a little bit urm...curious and wonder if your kid is up to beading you something for Christmas, please check out her blog.

Go ahead, check her out...ask her for more details if you're interested..she won't bite.

As for me, I'll catch ya later...back to my farm...lol

Monster Inc is 3 months

How time flies...I am still holding on to the hope that by next week, she's in school, the following week, she'll be off to college and the next month, she'll get married...:-)

Anyway, some photos of errr...the feared one! (note : I think I should stop referring to her as MI cos well, hubby doesn't think it's funny and seriously, I don't think she is...she's just being herself i.e a baby).

some B&W action goin' on right here - I was trying to "hide" the huge comforter I plonked
on the arm chair you see on the far right, which was inadvertently included O_O

chicken....fried

I didn't tell you this but whilst in Switzerland, I had a massive postpartum craving for fried chicken. Actually, any chicken that is crunchy, tasty and junkfood-ish...except KFC.

You know, in Swiss, at times...for dinner, I'd "ta-pau" this roast chicken from a grocery shop called Migros. Sounds Greekish or Italianos', I have no idea but the roast chicken is fah-reekingly awesome! I'm serious, it's really nice. I would get the half chicken, which cost me about CHF6++ (about RM20). We'd have this chicken with pasta or bread and soup (canned of course. The apartment kitchen was too small for me to boil soup), after which hubby will play his PS3.

Now..you know.

Anyway, this postpartum craving I was having, I brought it home with me. Just 2 weeks ago, I asked my mom to buy only chicken for me (she goes to the market every Sunday and she would normally buy my fresh groceries for me...I know...I'm hopeless). I specifically wanted the thighs and chicken wings, nothing else. If you can't guess it by now, they are my favourite chicken parts *smile*.

So, every day, from that day, I had baked chicken wings or thighs for lunch. I'd marinate the pieces differently each day. Cut up the spuds, carrots and onions and just plonk it all into the oven for a couple of minutes and ta da....I have my lunch. Fairly quick and easy which works really well for me because with Em, I no longer have the luxury to "cook". She's a real fiesty one I tell ya. In the end, I got my food satisfaction, and she had my attention.

Finally, one day, I ran out of chicken wings...or thighs. I had my last piece in the freezer; one miserable looking piece of leg. Plus, I also ran out of spuds and carrots. Only some 'yin choys' were left in my fridge.

"I'm not about to bake the yin choys. That'll be suicidal. Not to me but to the greens. They'd all come out looking ugly. And I would imagine that if I was a yin choy, and I was on my death-bed, I won't want to look ugly isn't it. or come out dead looking ugly."

I finally decided that I will fry this last leg instead. No point urm...baking this one lonely meat.

As for the yin choys, I decided to boil soup. I sauteed my last packet of ikan bilis and threw it into the pot of boiling water disregarding the fact that it will taste extremely fishy and I would have nothing to combat that fishy taste (I ran out of ginger too).

As it turned out, the soup was ok. The chicken wasn't. Here, I'll show you :


I left the lid on for too long.

So, moral of the story : frankly, there isn't. I took this photo cos I was testing out my lens but as you can see, it's totally blown out. ANd blurry. And I need more practise. And never to buy manual lenses even though they were a steal.

And, I'll have you know that as of today, my postpartum crazy craving is gone! Yippeee....:-D

Trying out...on her own

well...almost..:-D

a good friday

Today we had fun. In "we", I mean Ash and I. Em was at my MIL's. Yeah, sometimes, we swap the kids. A little troublesome I know but easing my burden a little will have long lasting happiness in the household heheheh...

Anyway, this afternoon we paid a visit to Ashley and her mom. I didn't tell Ash about the visit of course. I merely told her we were going 'kai kai'. Then again, I had to repeat myself many times cos she keeps forgetting.

The cleaners were at our house in the morning. So, I had to do everything else like eat lunch, shower and get ready after they leave. It was a good thing too cos we were scheduled to meet Barb after lunch anyways.

Ash is quite shy when going into people's houses. She takes a while to warm up. Sometimes, that can be a very long time. Fortunately for me, she warmed up pretty easily with Ashley and at Barb's. Soon, they were playing; one following the other. Plus, Ashley had so many lovely toys (I wanted to ask her if she had any golf training aid also heheh..). She even showed Ash around the house...so cute!..So, Barb and I got to chat a little.

It would've been a perfect way to end the visit with hugs and kisses. However, these the two buddies had other ideas and decided to turn on the tears instead. Nothing major la. Normal occurrence especially with little girls. Perhaps, I need to visit them more so the kids will get used to each other. Yeah, maybe that could be the solution.

We had a nice time no doubt. Barb even bought us tarts which were yummy. And I had "longan"..don't be jealous ya..:-P

I took my camera to snap photos. Here are some of them :




It was great meeting you and Ashley again, Barb. We should really do this more often.

Favorite activity

Em's favorite activity, apart from crying, is having a bath. She is one clean baby; can't stand being dirty, can't stand being sweaty, can't stand...well, urm not bathing.

She takes her bath in the morning, as soon as I get up (I am clearly not a morning person) around 8:30am or 9. Sometimes, if she wakes up late or if I am late in doing the laundry or washing the dishes, she'll have her bath later.

After smelling clean and nice, I'll put on a tuxedo shirt for Em.....lol. No, of course not, I am only kidding. I'll just put on whatever and she'll be all set for.....bed! Huh? Yep, she wants her bed. One thing's for sure, this girl can really sleep. Her sister never slept so much during her err...infant years. I told you they are the exact opposite of each other.

I look forward to them growing up. Not because I want to watch them claw at each other or yank each other's hair out. Just that, you know, it'll be interesting to see the kind of personality they'll each develop into. I can see one in Ash now, it's Em's that I'm curious about. I'll have to wait some more...about a year or two, depending on how quick it shows.

Then, it shall be interesting times..I can assure you.

About mom

is

tiring, but rewarding

frustrating but satisfying

un-nerving but challenging;

makes you wanna scream yet makes you extremely happy

you are relieved when your kids are asleep, that they are tucked safely in their beds

you miss them when you are away (but I don't miss insurance agents who keeps giving you life insurance quote), you talk about them, you reminisce, you think of them 24/7 even though, you told yourself not to

it's true, what they say about being a mom and when you become one, your entire world changes. the feelings are hard to describe. only moms will know and it doesn't matter how you became one, you'll know.

My girls

Lets take a break from all the ainz, twinez etc...and get back down to earth for a bit here.

Lets talk about my girls.

I went through my hubby's external drive to look for old photos of Ash. OMG...you mean, you haven't gotten them printed out?? hahah...yes, I haven't done it. Ash doesn't even have a photo album. *shameful*.

So, anyway, about them girls. I realise that they are as different as night and day, the sun and the moon, ebony and ivory, chicken and duck...you get the drift don't you?

Ash was much skinnier, taller and fairer than Baby Em when Ash was her age.

Besides that, Ash was less talkative and always smiling. Whereas, Baby Em, is extremely talkative to the extent that if she is "talking" to you and you ignore her, she will scream her head off. Baby Em is not so smiley. She gets irritated with the slightest discomfort - wet, hot, hungry, sleepy, dirty.

And to think...they both "came" from the same place, conceived by the same people (ts true folks, the last time I checked hehehhe)...O_O

Ash at 2++ months

Taken today. Baby Em, 1 week shy of being 3 months old.

The one who loves coffee

This one's for you, crazy-coffee-loving-mama..., as promised :-D

Actually, it took me forever to find it. I caught a glimpse of one...somewhere once while on the train but I couldn't find it anymore. Until we walked along the city streets of Zurich. The city of the rich and famous. Switzerland's equivalent to NY's 5th Av. But somehow, compared to our urm..indoor equivalent i.e Pavilion, KLCC etc...doesn't feel so 'hot'.

I didn't go into any of the stores that's for sure. Well, maybe one where I bought an ancient used AF lens. I'll tell you about that later and post photos of Zurich later. It's very European city-like. Alright, so what on earth is an European city like? I have no clue. I've never been to Europe, London yes but not Europe. My hubby made that statement.

Did I enjoy it? Yes and no. Yes, because even though with scores of buses, cars and trains passing through the city each and every minute on a Saturday, the air feels and smells clean. Try walking along Pudu and you'll faint within 15 minutes! No, because I'm at the age where walking alongside buildings and more buildings (even though, I've been told that walking is best when you want to lose weight; better than the best diet pills in town!). Not exactly my kind of a holiday. But that's what you get, when you have limited time, and lazy bodies..heheh...:-D

This is definitely not Zurich per se. We only saw probably a fraction of it. Saving it for our next trip..heheh...

Oh and I'm feeling alot better. Thank you for asking :-p...Sore throat's gone, jet-lag's gone, exercising has also gone...Back to my boring life..*sigh*

A sore throat

That is what I am having right now - a sore throat.

Not the best time to be ill. It all starts with a sore throat, then the cough, then the fever, then the sniffles. By the time, everything else have healed, my cough will continue to linger. Very much like my stubborn blackheads, to which I will need a highly effective blackhead extractor.

I can't be ill. Not now. Not for the next 100 years! Oppss...if I am still alive by then...

Alright. Time to drown myself with more liquid. Arrgghh...

Is it not summer?

Perhaps the tail-end of it but nonetheless, it's still bright at 5 and only gets dark at 10.

That was how I remember what it was like during the summer and it was exactly that during my Swiss trip. A pretty good time to be on a holiday if you don't mind the crowd and er...more crowds.

One of the highlights of the trip was our journey up the Swiss Alps. One of them at least; there are 3 different mountains in different locations. I mean, it's either the mountains and lakes anyway but beautiful.

We went to the nearest (to where we were) and more popular touristy one. I was a little bit disappointed because it was way to commercialized and unfortunately for us, on the day that we went, the weather wasn't so inviting. It was cloudy the whole time with smattering of rain.

To get there, we had to travel approx 3++ hours. Going on 4 different trains just to get to the station below where we would take 3 cable cars to Mount Titlis. In terms of efficiency when it comes to public transportation, the Swiss ranks second, coming pretty close to Japan. Ok, so I thought I'd just add that in. It's that or a run down of what Decaslim can do for you? LOL..

Alright, so..train ride and then cable car. I particularly enjoyed the last leg of the ride simply because the track passes through the old settlements at the foot of the mountains. And the train that we rode on was the old vintage ones. It makes you feel like you were warped back in time and living in the good old days. I was told that the houses are occupied by mostly people in their 70s, 80s etc...The younger ones have all gone to the city.

The view from up above, is nothing short of magnificent. If only I had wider lens, more time and better weather. It's cold (-5) but still breathtaking.

Before I end, some photos.




More here if you are so inclined.