2009 into 2010: Time to Reflect

A few more hours and it will be a brand new year and I am not exactly excited and this is bad.

I should not be negative and I will not be negative.

There's more to life and just as there are a zillion reasons to complains, there are also a zillion more reasons to rejoice.

The glass is either half empty or half full ...... it's what we peceived based on the same thing.

I will be fine ..... I know I will. Good bye 2009. I do not know what's in stored for 2010 but knowing me, I will make the most out of it......stay true and stay healthy.

What do we have here?

Looks like something is happy munching my plants away. In a close inspection, I founf the culprit, one small green grasshopper but one with a huge appetite.

After the photo shot, I left the grasshopper with the plant but it disappeared the next day. Most probably looking for better plant to munch.

The love of my life

Here they are.....Hubby, Ryan and Caitlin.

Besides them, I am also blessed to have loving brother, sisters, cousins, aunties and all my in-law as loving extended family.

They make my life complete.

Cailtin, bring out the food

Here are pictures of Caitlin sitting pretty, waiting for her food in restaurant and she loves dining out.

She's much more adventurous compared to the brother when it comes to food. Unlike her brother, she will eat any thing you give her and when she's full, she will just shake her head to tell you that she had enough.

Looks like the girls in the family will be huge while the boys will be skinny.

Mid-Autumn Festival

It's about family gathering and eating mooncakes. Kids will have fun lighting up and carrying their lanterns while the older ones will have fun playing with fire (see picture).

We were at my in-laws for the mid-autumn festival and as usual, we ate until our hearts content before calling it a night.

Books Warehouse Sales

This is the my first Pearson Book Warehouse Sales and it will not be my last.

We bought loads of books for everyone, even Caitlin. It's really worth standing 4 hours browsing through the titles. I now have 6 months worth of books to read.

Life is good.

Ryan's 7th Birthday

We had 2 celebrations for him. One with the family and the other at his daycare. Of course the enjoyed the latter more as he was surrounded by his friends. It was a simple celebration and it was good to see he and his friends enjoying themselves eating and chatting.

He's still into Pokemon and hence he choose a cake (from Secret Recipe) with a picture of Turtwig. I was surprised as I thought he would have opt for Ash with Pikachu. Nevermind, as long as birthday boy is happy. The chocolate cake was very nice.

As for his present, he asked and we got him a set of 3 red coloured bakugan battle brawlers. He was estatics, so needless to say, he's one very happy birthday boy. And we hope he will happy and healthy for many, many, many more birthdays to come.

I am in control

The last few months were tiring and challenging. Work is as hectic as ever and deadlines are deadlines, period. It's not only work......I feel that I'm letting others and situations to dictate my emotions....and yes, this is bad. Generally, I just feel as if I'm no longer in control of my own emotions.

However, my aha-moment was during one of my conversation with my better half. He said "you are a victim only if your allow yourself to be one". (Adapted from a quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt; "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent"). I thought about it, long and hard. He's more objective than me as I'm more emotional...and yes, he's right.

That was a few days ago and I am slowly getting back into my old routine....deadlines are still deadlines...yes, but something can wait.......and that includes my blackberry.

Caitlin: 1 year old

Yes, Caitlin is now one and she had a few celebrations with our extended family members. She ended up having 4 cakes altogether. She's such a joy to be with and she's growing adorable by the day. Happy birthday, my dear. Mummy and papa simply adores you. Your brother too.

And we cannot imagine my life without you. Happy Birthday sunshine !!!!

Caitlin's First Dip

Joseph had a cool pool side birthday party for his 1st birthday celebration. It was really fun and Caitlin had her first dip in the swimming pool and she was such a natural. She was not afraid and even "paddle" towards the deeper end of the pool. She took it like a duck to water.

A future swimmer in the making? Why not.

P/S...Caitlin will be 1 soon and mummy is having a headache planning her parties!!

I was doing some backup on all my photos and I came across the ones taken during our family trip to Great Ocean Road, Australia. We enjoyed ourselves tremendously and hopefully, we can make more trip there.

Hubby Having High Bood Pressure

For a start, hubby has been having high cholesterol. He takes good care of his health, exercises often and have good eating habits, but he still ended up having high cholesterol (it's heredictary as mother in law is with high cholesterol and high b.p. as well). He has been complaining about having neck ache and giddy spells off and on. Then one morning, he found himself not able to stand up because he was feeling giddy and dizzy. He went to the see the doctor later in the evening and his b.p. were 143/90 !!!

The doctor is monitoring him and he will be going to do a full medical check up soon. However, he he did a cholesterol test a few days ago and although his result is still high, it's an improvement compared to his earlier results done some 6 months ago. We also bought an automatic home blood pressure monitor (OMRON IA2) to help him monitor his b.p. He has been recording readings between 130/85 and 140/95. He's not on medication. Well, not yet and that is something we wish to avoid, if we can.

His full medical check up should be able to shed more lights. For the time being, he is keeping a close eye on his diet.

Ryan's dirty shoes

This is the state of Ryan's shoes on Fridays; smelly and dirty after he trashed them for the last 5-days. We will make him scrub his shoes as clean as possible, leave them under the sun and just before they are dried, mummy will apply the "whitener" to make his shoes more "presentable".

And just in case his shoes do not dry in time, like most kids nowadays, he has another spare.

Ryan's Human

Ryan drew this for his Chinese lesson on human parts.

Kidda cute, don't you think?

Chinese Dessert: White Fungus and Gingko

Aunt Jo have been boiling dessert for us for the past few weeks and one of her CURRENT favourite is white fungus with Gingko. The dried white fungus will "blossom" into what-is-seen-in-the-picture after soaking for at least 30-minutes. As for the gingko, we will need to remove each of them from its shells, cut in into halves and remove the 'green sprout" found inside each gingko. Otherwise, the gingko will taste bitter.

Lots of work but it's worth it...........yummy, yummy...

CNY 2009: Dragon Dance

This is an overdue post.

Every Chinese New Year (CNY), my neighbour will engage a lion dance troupe to their house as part of their CNY celebration and for the lions to "blessed" the house.

Ryan looks forward to see the lions in action, prancing around and about to the loud drum beat. He is seen offering angpows to the "lions". For me, it's nice to see this tradition alive and yes, it does add colours to our CNY celebration.

Michael Jackson (1958 ~ 2009)

I am a fan of Micheal Jackson and I love his songs, MTVs, dance. For me, he is a legend, an icon.

I watched his last rehearsal video from Youtube a moment ago and I feel sad that he did not get the chance to perform. Although the video is short, he was full of energy and he was simply mesmerising. I believe his comeback concert will be awesome.

May God bless his soul and let him rest in peace, away from his worldly suffering.

Eczema

I have not been away. Somehow, did not blog for the past 1.5 months and it would have been more if not for comments from friends who have been asking me why no entry?

Since this is my first entry after so long, there are so many, many things to share since so many things happened !!! Soemhow, I choose to write about my hubby and his encounter with eczema.

It started with a small patch on his leg and he did what a normal guy does; he self medicate until the patch grew bigger and become redder. Still he persisted and at one point it did seem to be healing. Then, one fine day (this was going on for 1-2 months), he developed fever and then rashes on his body. It was damned itchy and soon the rashes became more and more and we thought he had measles. We went to doctor several times before he was refered to a skin specialist who told him that he may have eczema. Anyway, the specialist also think that he may be allergic to DETTOL as he has been using it to wash himself. All in all, it took him 3 full weeks and several more visit to the specialist before the rashes finally gone.

Moral of the story: Don't use DETTOL and listen to your wife when she ask you to see a doctor when the rashes is just a small patch. :)

Caitlin: 8 months

Caitlin has been a good girl. Although I'm busy as a bee, I'll make sure that I spend time with her. Afterall, she's still a baby and I don't think there will be another after her. :) ....so more the reason why I need to make that extra effort and enjoy her baby years.

She's being photographed in one of her bad moods. Ain't she adorable, even when she's pouting.

Ryan's school holidays

I took leave and we (Ryan + Me) decided to hang out in the mall. Afterall it was during his school break. He's happy and I'm happy and his school break is arounf the corner and we may decide to do it again...hanging in the mall and doing nothing~ enjoy whatever that's around (exhibition monsters etc) and just enjoying each other company.

Toy #2: Nintendo DS Lite - Pokemon Limited Edition

It's more for Ryan but we are still keeping mums about it and will only "reveal" it to him when the time is right.

Everyone been asked me the same question: What did he achieve to deserve this? Well...he did quite well in school but that's not it. I am actually going to use this to motivate him, make him complete his tasks faster and make him stives harder.......if he does what he suppose to do and do it well...then he can play. Sort of like a carrot and stick approach. Dunno whether it will work or backfired. But at least, I try to make the boy to be more focus.

Wish us luck.

Power Bars

I think I look fat; eventhough I have not been eating a lot but I have been munching. And because of that (the munching stuff), I think I am starting to pile on. Do bear in mind that I have not lost that extra kilos from delivering Caitlin.

I intend to skip dinner and instead, eat fruits. Actually, I just need to exercise but no time........and it's not me giving excuses. I have been working, working and working and Caitlin has been waking up more frequent now, sometimes up to 5 times a night. Argh.....

Wait a minute, that's not what I want to blog about. Focus, Shirley, focus....what was it? Yes, power bar....that's right. I discovered that if I'm too busy to eat, I can always grab one of these and it's delicious. Save me time and I will not go hungry and snacks on unhealthy food.

Caitlin had Roseola

Caitlin had flu. At first, we were not THAT concern as she tends to get cold and flu since she's in a air-conditioned creche and she and her friends tend to pass their cold around.....However, after a few days, she was not getting any better and we took her to Dr Kwan, her pediatrician. She was given a variety of medicine as she was coughing and had phelgm as well. Still nothing out of the ordinary, until on the third day, she started developing very high fever (40.1 degrees).We took her to her pediatrician again who checked her lungs and they were cleared. This time around, he prescribed her stronger medication.

For the next few days, her fever did not go away. She lost her appetite, she was crancky and miserable, all day long. I could not take leave and I am glad that my mother in law was able to take care of her during this period. I will send Caitlin to her house early morning and fetched her back at night.

On the sixth day, Caitlin's fever abruptly disappeared and I noticed there were red spots on her forehead.

By evening, the spots turn into angry red rashes covering the whole of her forehead and parts of her abdomen and buttocks!!!! We roughly know what it was as we had a similar experience with Ryan but we were not prepared to see more and more rashes coming out.

We took her to her pediatrician yet again (visit #3 in one week) and he confirmed that Caitlin is having Roseola and taht she is to be under quarantine for the next few days. No medicine needed but Doctor did gave her some medication to help reduce her itchiness and she was REALLY, REALLY CRANCKY.

She is now fully recovered and we are happy to see her smiling again.

Qing Ming 2009

I did not go back for Qing Ming (All Soul's Day) last year as I was pregnant with Caitlin and was "suffering" throughout my pregnancy. As far as I can remember, I have always go back to my hometown, Teluk Intan, for Qing Ming. This year is special for me as I decided to take Ryan along. (Hubby was excluded as he's taking care of Caitlin who is too young to participate).

As with previous years, we woke up early and by the time we arrived, it will be break of dawn. We have engaged someone to take care of the grave and therefore, the place is usually clean when we visit. My grandpa passed away in 1979 and my grandma in 2002, the year Ryan was born. I'm very closed to my grandparents as I was bought up by them. When grandpa passed away, I was 7 years old and I have fond memories of him. I knew I'm grandma's favourite and I got away with many things.

I wish Ryan had the opportunity to know them, especially grandma. I know she will adore him and Caitlin. I intend to come back for QingMing for many more years to come. Being here, eventhough it's only once a year, is good for me.

P/S: Hubby is going to take Ryan for Qing Ming (his side of the family) this Saturday.

Caitlin: 7 months

I forgot to post this earlier....Caitlin at 7 months. We wish her hair will grow faster.

Cailtin: Messy Eater

Here's Caitlin, being fed by Aunt Jo. We introduced her to cereal. She loves her cereal and we are very happy that she is eating well....unlike her brother who still weighs a mere 18 kgs at 7 years old.

Caitlin is a messy eater and lately, she has this bad habit of spilting her food out. For her, it some sort of a game and an achievement and she can be seen grinning after each attempt.

Aunt Jo will be cooking porridge for her soon and with porridge, we can introduce her to other different varities of vegetables and meat, all properly blend of course.

If she loves cereal, I don't think she will have problem with porridge, fingers crossed.

Tarot Card Reading

Did this for FUN and here's the result. All I had to do is answer a series of questions and viola, out came a card. Wish that life is that easy.....

You are The Wheel of Fortune

Good fortune and happiness but sometimes a species of
intoxication with success

The Wheel of Fortune is all about big things, luck, change, fortune. Almost always good fortune. You are lucky in all things that you do and happy with the things that come to you. Be careful that success does not go to your head however. Sometimes luck can change.

Life in the City

Ryan has been putting a lot of effort to improve his studies and his Mandarin. I have always been proud of him and his achievements, no matter how small. Being a parent, I will always encourage Ryan to try harder as I want him to do better and to make him realise his full potential. At times, it may seem that I am pushing him too hard.

He's in a daycare and typically, his day starts at 7.00 am and ends at 10.30-11.00 pm. It's tough and he has no choice but to get used to this kind of routine. That's life in a city. His childhood is very different from that of mine, who grew up in a rural "kampung" and that of his father's, who although is a KLite but back then, life was not that hectic.
Life then and now is totally different. Whatever it is, family's love and guidance is very important. I have to be tough with him and be there for him. Being a parent is hard work.

I found him sleeping on a chair, after he finished his homework. He's tired but after a good night sleep, he will be fully energised. Papa carried him upstairs, to continue his sleep.

Sleep well and remember that mummy and papa love you ......... always.