1 more week to 2010!

I've been lazy and busy for the past few weeks. I've started to look after Ashlynne (altho it's more like on and off since sis still clearing her leave on and off) and thank god she's such a gem and easy to look after. The boys love to see her everyday at home and will ask about her if she's not coming over. There's more or less a routine set now and I would think it'll not be difficult to transit when school holidays are over and sis starts her work formally lol.

Just as I was feeling proud of myself being able to look after 4 kids at home, my period was late for a week and during that one week, the question keep popping in my head: what if I was pregnant again? I was pretty confident I wasn't, but deep deep down inside I was pretty scared that I might accidentally be! The good thing was that it came a week late *whew* and I was never so happy that my period came :P The last thing I would want is another baby now as life is getting easier with Min already 2. I think I am getting tired of babies...of course except when they aren't mine and they go back home every night just like baby Ashlynne lol

It's 2 days to Xmas and another week to a brand new year 2010. We've truly enjoyed this school holidays as I had more time on my hands to spend with Hao and Ee when Min is in school and Ashlynne is not here. I took them to the library, shopping, sumptous breakfast without fuss etc. Truly amazing time to rebond with them. I think I'll be looking forward to the next school holiday. By then Ashlynne will be nearly 1 year! Time really flies.

As year 2010 approach, it's time for new resolutions and goal settings. I think for next year, I'll not push myself too hard and try to relax a bit more. I have always been pushing myself to be too perfect and wanting to over achieve in everything around the house and sometimes it drives myself crazy and getting so uptight. It's time to let my hair loose a little next year and go with the flow. New challenges for the new year. It will be an interesting year!

Nearing end 2009!

Its been 2 weeks into the school holidays and I haven't had much time to update my blog. Of course the main reason is the kids creating havoc and chaos at home and also because we took 4 days off to drive up to KL and I must say it was a good trip with the kids. Surprisingly the boys were very well behaved during the 4 hrs trip and didn't fuss too much. All was excited to get to KL asap when travelling up, and they were so exhausted that they slept most of the way back home. As expected, we covered most places that we can bring them to play and left no time for us (me and hubby) to do any shopping or leisure walking around. It is becoming a yearly event that we will travel up to KL every year end for a few days' stay and I am starting to wonder if my kids are travelling too much and being too pampered for that! So far, we've been to Bali, Bangkok, Brisbane, Beijing, Japan, Hong Kong and KL, and will be planning to go to the States or Europe side in the near future. In a way we are very happy that they get to experience the different cultures, seasons and living experiences in different countries in real life and they've come to love travelling to places that they've never been to and will tell us where they would like to go in the future trips. That aside, the expense issue is getting bigger and bigger yearly as they grow older and no more getting concession pricing for most stuff and we are travelling further and further away from home to more expensive places. But I guess all is worth as it may come to a day when they will stop travelling to us and start going with their friends, spouse and own families.

Its nearing the end of 2009. Time really flies and soon 2009 will be history for us. Stepping into 2010 signifies more responsibilities and challenges for everyone in the family, particularly hubby and Min. Of course Hao has his P2 work to overcome and Ee has his K1 work to progress to. The bigger challenge will be settling Min into his preschool, even though he has started for a week and a half now, but separation anxiety is still a big issue for him. Hope he will overcome it soon. As for hubby, he needs to plan for his career move and realign his goals. As for me, I've started looking after Ashlynne, who is a gem and cutie pie, and hope I'll be able to cope with her once the new school term starts too. 4 kids in a house ~ it's going to be a real chaotic challenge!

Its results time!

Hao finally got back his report book yesterday. The moment he stepped down from the schoolbus, he told me he had got his report book back. With much anticipation and excitement, I opened up the report book right after we reached home. His results were within my expectations, although I was hoping it will be much better than what I was looking at. Nevetheless, he has done a good job this year, not just on his academic but being able to blend into the school and friends, getting used to primary school life as well as learning to manage expectations and stress that are being loaded to him throughout the year. Overall, I must say he has done a good job. Of course, that being aside, I told him that I will be expecting more next year since it will be his 2nd year and he already know what to be expected and what he has to do to be consistent throughout the year to achieve the results that we set for him. Let's just see what will come for him next year, 2010~

The Christmas Spirit!

It had been raining for quite a few days. Not the kind of heavy downpour, but rather wet and drizzle and stop and drizzle again and stop again and drizzle again kinda raining days. It made the weather very cooling and warmish all together at the same time. Ironic huh? The rain is making the air very cooling and windy at some times, making me want to curl up in my warm bed with a cuppa tea and of course my laptop and tv remote control, surfing net or watching tv all day long...Of course, that's my own little wish! Reality is that I have 3 monkeys with me all day long and with plenty of housework and cooking to do! Good thing is that exams are over and we are more lax with Hao's homework now and just doing our regular reading. I am also starting to coach Ee on his chinese writing and hope he picks it up over the holidays and get a better headstart in chinese than Hao did when he was younger. We always learn from our mistakes and I didn't have time to pay more attention to Hao's work when I was working back then, so I am trying to make up for that and get Ee to start earlier.

Ee can be considered fully recovered from the accident. His scar is no longer painful and he's behaving like normal. Only paranoid mummy here constantly asking him not to scratch or rub his wound, so afraid that it'll tear. The truth is that it isn't going to tear again and it's not hurting him anymore. We remind ourselves to massage him after every bath and also prevent his scars from getting too dried or too much sun. We can just hope for the best now. So here's how he looks now...

Back to the December rain and Christmas spirit. Have I mentioned that Dec is my favourite month of the year and Christmas is my favourite holiday? Well, that's because Dec is full of rainy and cooling days which make me feel lazy and cold and warmish all together, and Christmas is the holiday season that you can feel the spirit of giving and receiving all around you! Everywhere, everyone is getting presents for their loved ones and it's just so joyous and warm. Of course, there's also plenty of holidays during year end, and a lot of anticipation for the new year, and a lot of shopping for CNY clothes, new school year stuff, bonuses to look forward to (not me anymore), making resolutions for the new year etc. I don't think I need to say any more LOL. It's absolutely my favourite time of the year!!

Survied Year 1!

Exams are finally over! I can't believe that we actually survived year 1 in primary school LOL. Hao scored quite well for his exams, although we felt that he could had done better, I think he did try his best. Now we are just waiting for his report book and the school holidays to come. But if you are thinking we are relaxing at home, you are quite wrong. He still has to do his daily readings of English and Chinese books and in school, class tests and spelling tests are still ongoing. So, everyday you'll still see him doing work and reading. Of course, his workload is much lighter than before the exams.

Ee is finally cleared of his plaster days. He had his doctor review on Monday and the doctor said that his wound/scar is healing well. Now he needn't use the plaster anymore and can leave the scar exposed. However, he will need to apply sun block to the scar whenever we are out so that the sun will not hurt his scar or darken it further. It will be quite ugly to have a scar that's visibly darker than his skin, considering it's a rather long scar. We also need to apply aloe vera/vitamin E gel to his scar and massage it so that the tissue below his skin will not harden as it heal and end up with a centipede like kinda scar bump. Must really do this diligently so that he'll become handsome again HEHEHE...

Will post photo of how Ee looks now later when I am free!

Something here and there..

I've got some time yesterday and managed to download some photos from my handphone.

Last month, we brought the kids to Downtown East for bowling. It's their first hand experience at the kids bowling alley and they had a great time. Unfortunately there wasn't any alleys left with the kids' gutters so we didn't had a chance to let them have a go at the real thing.

After bowling, we headed to the Xplorer Kids for a little fun!

Happy Birthday to Min!

It's Min's 2 year old birthday today. Last night we went to Roland's Restaurant with in laws and family for a birthday dinner. Was quite a nice dinner and the restaurant wasn't too crowded. Coincidentally, today is a school holiday in lieu of the Deepavali holiday on Saturday, so we took the boys out for a nice lunch at Ding Tai Fung. For dinner, I cooked a simple pot of pork ribs with crab porridge for them since the weather is so hot and they just didn't have the appetite to eat anything at all.

We are not avid fans of birthday cakes, but nevetheless, we went out after dinner to get the kids some small cakes for dessert. We put a birthday candle on Min's cake and sung him the Happy Birthday song. He happily blow out the candle and ate the chocolate cake all by himself!