World Book Day, 6 March 2014

Today is World Book Day and Connor's school celebrates it.  Every child was given the option of arriving dressed as their favourite literary character or in any costume they like.  At the end of the day, everyone gets to go home with a book voucher.  Nice.

Connor went as Darth Vader.  Why?

Because:
1.  We have a Darth Vader costume on hand
2.  Mummy didn't have time/energy to make a proper literary character's costume


At 1:45pm, they had a parade of all the Nursery-P3 kids in the playground and parents were invited.  I went and it was quite fun to see all the little ones.  There were a few Fantastic Mr Foxes, one Naughtiest Girl in the School, one splendid Harry Potter and a few Cats in the Hat.  There were loads of pretty princesses, more than a few recycled Halloween costumes and ONE Darth Vader.  Funnily enough, Darth Vader's class had Darth Maul and a stormtrooper as well.... so you can say the P1/2 class had quite a bit of the dark side of the Force.

The best bit was the teachers all dressed up as well.  The Best Teacher's Costume had to go the P1 class teacher who came as The Book Fairy.  That's what it said on the plaque on her front.  She had wings, the cover of a book taped to her wings and pages from a book made pretty pleats on her skirt.  I'm thinking back to my school days and it's really hard imagining... oh... Mrs Gan say.... coming as a Book Fairy.

Well done, everyone!

Our first Christmas in Scotland, Dec 2013

Christmas 2013 marked our first Christmas in our home in Scotland.  This is the third Christmas we've spent in the UK so far and yet again, my hopes for a white Christmas were dashed.  At least it was cold.  Last year's Christmas in Liverpool was spent in almost tropical 16C weather.   I was completely pissed because if I'd wanted a warm Christmas, I would have stayed in KL and not bothered to fork out money to fly here.

We had Nana, Grandad and Uncle Mark drive up from Liverpool to spend Christmas with us.  It made the house very noisy but I thought it was much better that way.  Who wants a quiet, dull house during Christmas anyway!

A big pile of presents awaited our boys under the tree on Christmas Day.  We didn't go mad as Connor had just had his birthday in Nov and Anders is really too young to appreciate anything.

This is Connor opening the little present that Anders got him.  Well... Mummy had a hand in it but I thought it would be nice for him to get one from his baby brother as Connor's life has been turned upside down by the arrival of a younger sibling.

Connor's main present from Santa Claus.  What is it?

Santa brought him a... Lego Chinook!  Our boy was so thrilled.  He didn't put it together though.  It was his Uncle Mark who patiently built it after breakfast for him.

And here is little Anders opening his present!  I bought him that little Santa suit because I couldn't resist it.  We never bought one for Connor as all the ones on sale in Jakarta/KL were so thick my heat-sensitive son would have melted in it.  

When my husband first found out I'd spent money on clothing that he would only wear for a day, he grumbled.  But when I dressed Anders in it and our little baby boy beamed up at Daddy, Dear Hubby changed his mind very quickly.  "Oh.  He does look cute.  Very cute."

Heh.  Mummy knows.

Here is Anders chewing on one of his presents - a baby kilt.  Mummy had searched and searched and searched for one.  Do you have any idea how expensive kilts are?  I would have had to take out a mortgage to pay for one.  So I was very happy when a mum on a local forum was selling this one, she's bought two and was selling the spare one.

As Anders was born here in Scotland, I wanted very much for him to have a keepsake of his place of birth.  So... kilt or shortbread?  Kilt it was.

So there you have it.  We hope you've had a wonderful Christmas just like we did.

Darth Snowflake!

I'm sure you'll have to admit my snowflake-making skills have improved vastly since my first disastrous attempt several weeks ago.  

Shot against our kitchen tabletop which has all those sparkly bits in it, it certainly looks like a snowflake from a galaxy far, far away.  Maybe this is what snowflakes look like on Hoth!

Thank you Anthony Herrera Designs for the fabulous Star Wars snowflake templates.   You can print out templates of various designs and there is even a video to show you how to make one.

If you are going to make lots of them, I would suggest investing in a really, really, REALLY sharp knife.  As you can see from my attempt, some of Darth Vader's eyeholes are quite scraggly looking.  This is because the knife I was using wasn't sharp enough to cut through all the layers of paper.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2014: Connor helps decorate the tree

Connor and our tree, Dec 2014

Connor helped decorate the tree this year.  We didn't get to do this last year.  Last year's Christmas almost didn't happen!

But this year is all good.  Connor is finally old enough to be entrusted with the baubles and besides, they won't shatter if they fall onto our carpeted floor.   Daddy climbed up into our loft to retrieve all our Christmas decor and we put the tree together.  Then I left Connor with all the baubles and told him he could decorate it any way he wanted.

But once Connor was done, our tree looked quite peculiar.

There was a band around the tree with a very heavy concentration of baubles while the top and bottom were a little bare.  This band was about the same height as Connor's hands in the picture above.  I wonder why?

I've left it as it is because I think it's so cute.

Merry Christmas to all, wherever you are!

Darth Connor!

Darth Connor!  Nov 2013

Our son was introduced to Angry Bird Star Wars some time ago by his uncle.  He never took much interest in it till recently and then he would quiz me about the various characters in the game.

For the first time ever, I had ALL the answers to something.  "Oh this bird?  This is the Han Solo bird, Connor.  Mummy loves Han Solo.  He's so wonderful."  "This one?  This is a stormtrooper pig." 

Like many others of my generation, I grew up with the original trilogy.  My Star Wars had Han Solo, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker, not CGI.  I spent a large part of my childhood carefully arranging pillows and bolsters on the floor to form the cockpit of my X-wing fighter.  Then with my uncle's battered motorbike helmet on my head, I would climb in and soar to a galaxy far, far away in my imagination.

So when my son showed interest in Star Wars, I was so thrilled.  Finally.  My very own padawan.  Teach him the way of the Force, I shall.

Daddy got very suspicious as Mummy enthusiastically gave in to Connor's request for Star Wars related toys.  "But it's his birthday, darling!"  "Yea, yea.. his birthday or yours!"

And so Connor woke up on his 5th birthday this year to find his presents were a lightsaber from us, a Darth Vader costume from J and a knock-'em-down Angry Birds Star Wars game from M&J.   He was over the moon.  In fact, he wore the Darth Vader costume for three days straight before I could peel it off him.

When I watch him play at being Darth Vader or Yoda, I feel like I'm watching me as a child.  It's so brilliant that something that had captivated me as a child has the same power over my son so many years later.  

May the Force always be with you, my little padawan.

Home from the hospital!

I'm sitting here at the breakfast bar in our new kitchen (completed like... erm... 4 days before Anders was due to arrive!) and Anders is sleeping peacefully post-nen nen.

He was born 12 June and we had anticipated going home two days later.  Unfortunately, Anders chose to be stubborn and stopped latching onto the boobie, resulting in a weight loss that took him past the 10% weight loss limit for newborns.  The hospital refused to let us leave until Anders got his weight up so Mummy worked very hard expressing milk (mooooo........) and cup-feeding our littlest man.  Suddenly one night, around 2am, Anders decided he would latch on again and his weight and temperament improved immediately.

We got the okay to go home on Sunday... it was Father's Day!  Happy Father's Day, Dear Hubby!  Dear Hubby had been wonderful.  He'd managed the house, the cooking and above all, managed our rather lively Connor all the time I was away.  I knew he'd been doing a good job because Connor did not seem to miss me much.

His faraway grandparents in Malaysia and Liverpool have met their latest grandchild via the miracle that is Skype.  I think Skype is just fantastic, you won't appreciate it until you have family living far away.  My parents were simply ecstatic to see him even if only on a screen but at least you know he's there with you in real time, not just a photograph.  And you can see him move his little arms or hear him make those cute baby sounds as he snoozes.  They do ask about me but 98% of the time, I keep the camera focused on our littlest arrival and they are happy to just gaze at him.  I tell you what... after those sleepless nights of expressing, cup-feeding and worrying about his weight loss, Anders looked a much better sight than Mummy!  You know what they say - I got a face made for radio...

Connor has been a wonderful big brother so far, asking to hold and kiss him.  Before Anders arrived, I'd bought him a book called "I'm a Big Brother Now!" and we read it together a lot of nights and I talked about the baby.   I think it also helped that the arrival of baby brother somehow coincided with the arrival of a shiny new red bicycle that he'd been asking for.  I'm sure he's thinking that if this is how things go, he wouldn't mind TEN baby brothers!  TEN bicycles! Wah liao!

So what's life like as a mum of two children?  Well, for starters... now I say, "My beautiful children!" instead of "My beautiful child!" as I have for the past 4 years or so.  I can't describe the joy I feel when I see our older son holding his younger brother, telling me, "Mummy, I am gentle with Anders."  I am just beginning to experience the chaos that comes with managing a newborn who's crying for milk at the same time I have to get a 4yo ready for nursery school in the morning and I'm bleary-eyed from lack of sleep.

I am so so happy and content.  I thought Connor's arrival completed us as a family.  But Anders' arrival has just made things even MORE complete if that were possible.

I'm steeling myself for an awful lot of work for years to come but you know what?  It's all going to be all right.

I am Anders

Hello.

Nice to meet you.  

I am Anders.

Easter 2013: What we did

For Easter 2013, Cadbury teamed up with the National Trust of Scotland to conduct Easter egg hunts all over the country.

I'd never been on one.  So I was quite keen to go.  What happens is that clues are posted along a trail and you search for all the clues.  There's usually a puzzle to solve at the end based on the clues.  And of course, at the end of it all you get an Easter egg!  It's a hollow egg made of chocolate and Connor received many, many eggs over Easter.

There are two castles about 10 minutes away from us and happily both castles were participating in the Easter egg hunt.  So on last Monday, I made Connor wear wellies and a warm coat and off we went to Crathes Castle.

Connor wasn't too interested in the clues but he was very interested in climbing every tree stump and rock that we encountered on the trail.  This is Connor with one of the clues.  Mummy was the one who filled out the crossword puzzle and solved the final question, not our son.  He's too little for that anyway.

They also had a face painting booth which was very, very popular.  I asked Connor what he wanted to be and he said promptly, "Butterfly!"  I knew it.  He'd wanted to be painted as a butterfly ever since Zara at school showed up painted as a butterfly one day.

It was a very unusual choice for a little boy as most of the other little boys were painted with fierce lines of black/blue/green.  But I didn't see any harm in letting him be a butterfly, he's only 4yo and really, why can't 4yo little boys be butterflies if they want to be?  There isn't any rule that says little boys can only have camo stripes on their faces.

Face painting in progress

And here's the finished product!  Our son was so pleased with his butterfly face paint, he kept shouting, "Look at me, Mummy!  I'm a butterfly, flying away!"  and he would run off, arms flapping and shouting with glee.

He earned a lot of smiles from little old ladies that day as he looked absolutely glorious in comparison with the other little boys.  LOL

We got a very large Easter egg but before Mummy could take a pic of it, Connor had sat on it and crushed it to bits.  Erm....  Oh well, just one of many.

It was good fun and I'll be doing the same next year.  I enjoyed the walk out on the castle grounds and Connor had good fun.

I hope you had a happy Easter too!

Happy Valentine's and a belated Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Happy Valentine's to all!  I was woken up this morning by our son waving a card in my face.  I thought it was from Dear Hubby but it was from him and it said "Sayang Mummy".  Awww.... And then Dear Hubby handed me his card.  So shweet.

I then handed Dear Hubby his V-day card, signed off by me, Connor and the new baby.  It's kinda funny how we both thought of getting each other a card from the kid(s)!   Since it's a day of love, it seemed perfectly right to have the kid(s) sign the card too.

And of course, Feb 10 was the first day of the Year of the Snake - so Gong Xi Fa Cai to everyone!  This is my first ever Chinese New Year away from home and without the delicacies associated with that time of the year.  Never mind, next year when we're in our own home, I'll cook up a proper CNY feast.  Minus the sea cucumbers though, Dear Hubby finds them so creepy.  LOL

Welcome to Earth, Baby K!

Well, it's finally happened.

Baby K has finally arrived.  I received the long-awaited SMS announcing the happy news while I was doing the school run on Tuesday and boy, that sure made me smile!  (Yes, I did make sure I was NOT driving when I finally read the SMS)

I made the trip to the hospital to see Baby K and his proud parents yesterday.  And my goodness - is he ADORABLE.   I just melted on the spot when I saw him all tiny and pink and oh so precious, wrapped up like a bak chang in the blue swaddle cloth, sleeping peacefully in his little hospital bassinet.   He reminded me of Connor four years ago who was just as tiny when he was born.  I wrapped him up like a bak chang then too!

I love newborns.  I love them for their feel, for their smell, for the instinctive protectiveness they arouse in me (even when they're not mine) and for reminding me again the miracle that is life.

I don't have any pictures of him but if you'd like to see the handsome little fella, you can click here where his proud aunt has posted some lovely shots of him.

Congratulations, A and J - you did a great job.

Congratulations, PB - happiest and proudest aunt in the world.

Welcome to Earth, Baby K.

Geronimo!

Connor has finally realised that it IS fun to jump into the adults' pool.  It took so much coaxing and encouragement on my part before he would but I did think it was very brave of Connor to jump into the pool as the water there is as deep as he is tall.   I started out with pulling him gently into the water.  Then we graduated to him jumping into my waiting arms.  Once he was comfortable with that, I started stepping back a little each time he jumped until I was too far for him to touch when he hit the water. 

Once he realised that it is actually fun and no, he wouldn't sink to the bottom and stay there, there was no stopping our little boy.  

We were so proud of him and he was really pleased with himself too because he knew that he'd just climbed up another level. 

Photos taken 1 April 2012.

Congratulations to A and J on their happy news!

I received some very happy news from an old friend a few days ago.  She wrote to say she was pregnant!  I was so happy for her.  I've known her since childhood, her older sister and I were inseparable in school and it's kinda strange to think that she's now old enough to be a mother... which means I'm getting old too!

Every time a girlfriend tells me they're expecting or a guy friend tells me his wife is, I get all giddy with joy for them.  Maybe it's because their news brings back memories of my rather happy and fuss-free pregnancy and I get all fuzzy and warm inside again.  Maybe it's because we've had so much joy with our little boy and I wish the same for my friends who have yet to experience parenthood.

Congrats to A and J - looking forward to saying hello to the little bundle of joy when he arrives!

Tossing the yee sang

The yee sang is a sort of salad dish commonly served during Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year or Spring Festival as it is called elsewhere).  What you do is get ready with your chopsticks and then toss the ingredients together as high as you possibly can while shouting all the stuff that you want to achieve in the coming year.  Great fun.

Last night, I had a Chinese New Year celebratory dinner with ex-colleagues.  The yee sang arrived and everyone got up, waving their chopsticks and talking excitedly about what they would wish for.

As we tossed it, most of my friends who are still in the workforce shouted "Bonus!  Promotion!  Pay rise!  BIG bonus!"

As those things are now irrelevant to me, I shouted the one thing I have been wishing for "Birkin! Birkin! BIRKIN! BIRKIIIIINNNNNN!!!"

Hey, I can dream right?

Gong Xi Fa Cai to everyone, wishing you a happy and prosperous Water Dragon New Year!

The sweetest thing

My in-laws were married one lovely Boxing Day many, many years ago.  We were at home with them in Liverpool for their anniversary just this past December and I'd gotten Manjarina Art to custom make a card for their special day.

My father-in-law has vascular dementia and his memory has been failing him more and more lately.  Sure that he would not remember to get Mum a card, my husband had nipped out to the shops and had gotten a card on Dad's behalf and then had gotten him to sign it.

On Boxing Day, we were up early with Mum and wished her a Happy Anniversary.  She was happy to see cards from us but I could see it wasn't really what she wanted.  She wanted Dad to remember the day and to wish her.  But knowing his dementia, she knew he would most likely forget and kept saying "I'm sure he'll forget, he can't remember because of his dementia."  Saying it so that if he did, she wouldn't be as disappointed.

Then Dad woke up, dressed and came down.  When he walked into the living room, Dear Hubby quickly asked before Mum could say anything. "Father.  Do you know what day this is?"   There was a pause as the whole room held its breath and hoped and hoped.

Slowly, Dad said "It's Boxing Day.  I know what day it is.  It's our anniversary."

Oh, the smile on my mother-in-law's face and in her eyes!

He turned around, said "Happy Anniversary, my love."

Then he walked over to where she sat.  He bent over, trembling a little from age.  She held her arms out to him and he gave her a kiss and they both smiled at each other.

It was the sweetest thing I'd ever seen.

Happy Anniversary, Mum and Dad.

Hurray! Christmas in UK!

I'd been asking and asking to spend Christmas in UK with my in-laws ever since Connor was born and we're finally doing it this year. I come from a Buddhist family so Christmas is pretty much a non-event for us.  So I've always wanted our son to spend Christmas with his paternal grandparents.  I think it will make for lovely memories for everyone.

We're headed back in Dec and everyone (except the blissfully ignorant Connor) is very excited about the trip.  The first thing I did when we booked our tickets was to rush out and get him a coat and some fleece clothing.  I didn't want to spend too much on his winter clothing as he'll probably be too big for them the next time we go back so I shopped at FOS in The Curve.  They had a great deal on fleece, Buy One Get TWO Free!  Worked out cheaper than anything I could get in the UK.

Am hoping for LOTS of snow so that my little boy can make a snowman in the back garden and we can have a snowball fight in the driveway.

Soooooo excited, can't wait!

A busy weekend!

What a super social weekend Mummy had.

First I had brunch with the girls.  Two of them were friends I'd made when we all suffered together in the corporate world.  One was a friend I'd known since I was three.  The fourth was a new friend and a sort of link for me as she knew the two different sets of friends I had sitting at the table.

I'd never had a brunch with the girls and yakked about the various dead animals we'd seen and/or killed (either in Bio lab or elsewhere).   I think that was why we didn't really manage to finish lunch.   I couldn't really eat after we'd all exchanged gory stories about dead frogs, snakes and cats.

Perhaps next time we'll talk about something more girl-appropriate like erm... Sean Bean and Daniel Craig.

The next day, Mummy took Connor to a birthday party.  The birthday boy was turning two and his Mum and I had known each other from our days in a shared office space.  I prepared Connor for the trip, telling him we were going to a birthday party and would be singing the Happy Birthday song.  Connor duly practised by singing Happy Birthday to his collection of trucks, trains, ambulances, cars and fire engines.  "Happy birthday to you, train... happy birthday to youuuuuuu...!"  sang my little boy as he clapped and then blew out imaginary candles on his IKEA birthday cake.  We had a lovely time at the party.  I got to chat with friends who have children of similar age and we were all exchanging stories about our boys.  Connor got to play with this fabulous Optimus Prime toy and a super dump truck.  He was really impressed by the dump truck, came home still talking about it.

To top it all off, we won 2-1 at Chelsea!  YES!

It says a lot about my life now that I consider one brunch and one kids' birthday party = super social.  LOL

Christmas Gifts Wish List: Leather pants

It's Christmas and it's time for presents!

Buy this here at the US Burberry site

This is one item on my wish list that doesn't make any sense.  Why?  Because I'm a good ol' pear shaped woman and the skinny pants trend is one that doesn't look good on me.  Try putting cling wrap on a pear.  Does it look good?

No.

But I want it anyway.

I hope the hubby is reading this.

Teeheehee.....

Happy 3rd birthday Connor!

He loved the car on his birthday cake.  We saved that bit for the last.

We got him really expensive birthday presents last year so we erm... dialled back the budget this year.  Besides we're spending Christmas in the UK this year for the FIRST TIME EVER!!!! - so we'll be spending then.

He still loved his presents, the cost doesn't matter to him.

Our little boy is growing up.  Happy birthday darling, Mummy and Daddy love you very much.  

Mid Autumn Festival Sept 2011

We were at Solaris Dutamas for their Mid Autumn Festival  event in September this year.  We brought Connor's dragon lantern but unfortunately the lantern walk was too late for our little boy and he was tired out by 8pm so we left early and never got any shots of him with his lantern this year.

All we got are some shots of him catching bubbles blown by a toy stall vendor.

Lanterns for next year.

Eye Candy: LFC Trip to Malaysia, July 2011

Eh. Silly ol' me has just figured out how to compress pics on our new machine. *face palm* Here are some pics (belatedly!) that we took at the StanChart Fanzone in Pavilion KL back in July when my beloved LFC made a trip here.

Us under the banner featuring my favourite player of all time.

I dunno which bright spark decided to make the Bukit Bintang entrance of Pavilion into a local Shankly Gates but you sir/madam deserve a medal! It was a huge hit with us local fans.

The "This is Anfield" sign is displayed in the tunnel leading to the pitch. As an LFC player, you're supposed to touch the sign as you're heading to the pitch. I remember risking falling headfirst into the tunnel trying to touch the sign when I did the Anfield stadium tour back in 2006. The organisers knew which fan buttons to press all right, you could see people leaping up to try and touch the sign. Wish they'd put it a little lower though!

My son imprinted with a (temporary) Liverbird tattoo. Being under 3yo, he didn't quite grasp the significance of it all, complaining to me, "Mummy... cold-cold!" as the guy patiently stencilled the tattoo on.

Connor munching away on his rice crackers in the dressing room replica. I made him pose under Reina's jersey as we have one of Dear Hubby posing under the same jersey in the Anfield dressing room.

I sincerely hope that Connor's head would have grown bigger by the time he suits up in the Red of our team and steps out onto the pitch.

Me and the greatest achievement of my life. 34 years in the making and worth it all.

Entrance to the Fanzone. This shot was taken approximately 11am when we arrived. It was COMPLETELY packed long before the players turned up around 3:30pm.

Now that I've figured out how to do the piccie compress thingybob, I guess I'll be able to start posting pictures again!