I was shock at how this photo of Kharsyn who is going to turn 11 years old in 2 months time turned out like.  She looks matured for her age.  Since last year, she had stepped into the world of puberty.  I don’t know how someone classify puberty. Does puberty come in a certain age or puberty take it’s course when a girl develop ‘new’ changes to her body? Apart from the ‘new’ development, she is growing fast!  She had outgrown most of her clothes and now we are sharing the same shoes.  If only I am a little *ahem* thinner, we could be sharing the same clothes as well.

On top of that, this little woman has spotted acne on her face!  If you look closer, she have one under her nostril.  Must be the bad gene from Daddy’s side  *duck from flying pot and pan from relatives*.  So far, she is still free from the toxic of beauty product.  I am planning to keep her that way for as long as …. (fill in your blanks).  I still think it is best to avoid all those lotion as long as possible.  I have read and heard enough cancer causing agent in all those product even though they claimed that they are safe on accutane results.

I started her on cooking since last year. Now she is able to cook rice (in the electric cooker) and knows better than Daddy how much water to put in.  Other than that, she is pro at using the microwave!  Big girl is the most helpful around the house.  Love her to bits.

I’ve managed to picked up this Ikea lamp shade NOT at the table lamps department but at their bargain corner.  You know how prices there usually slashed at 30% to 50% off. This is a conversation with my 10 years old daughter, Kharsyn when she saw the lamp shade:

K – This is so pretty!  I want this too!

M – Ok, you can have it.

K – Errr… I think I better not take it.  I know you are going to buy a prettier one if I take this.

O.o asif I am going to buy another table lamp!

Few weeks ago, daughter had allergic reaction after eating only 2 fishballs.  At the beginning, she had a few blemish on her face and we thought they are some acnes or mosquito bites. We even applied acne lotion on the affected area.  Few hours later, the blemish grew a bigger patch and her body started to have show.  Later on, the Doctor confirmed that it was a food allergic.  She had been eating fishballs for the past 10 years and this is the first time she had allergic.  Can you imagine what 2 fishballs can do to your body?  It could be the preservative in it or… I really don’t know.  I find nowadays food is not safe anymore.  Better eat more green veges.

Oh, wait.  Veges had too much pesticide.  So how? So how!

This is another story when Daddy is  away on his long business trip.   Instead of getting upset and moody, I kept myself sane with self motivation like positive thinking and be cheerful.  This incident happened very recently.

Whenever Daddy is not around, I will take over the ‘driver’ role.  That morning as I was get out from the house, there is a huge and I mean really HUGE vapour trail right above the sky.  I quickly shouted for the kids to come over to have a look.  It’s nice to see the expression on their face and I boasted that it was a rocket who did that trail 😉 .  I know, bad me.  You see, they was so thrilled and thought that it is such an amazing trail.  We have not seen such a HUGE trail before!  And I was talking to them how world is so amazing, God created amazing things, bla bla.  We strike a very cheerful conversation that morning.  We even sang Amazing Grace in the car.  I’ve never felt so good (in the morning) before.  As our car was turning into the 2nd block of our house, we saw an adult dog and a puppy playfully biting each other.  We all know dog’s language  of affectionate is by biting right?  And I go, “Look!  There’s another amazing things happened!” And the kids goes, “WOW!”,  “WOOOOO!”

Another turning towards their daycare, my 9 years old Daughter said, “Things are so amazing this morning even  eggs grew on plant.” And I paused for a moment.  Did I hear her correctly?  and I asked her one more time, “HUH!  Where got eggs grow on plants wan.”

“There la.  I did not bluff you.”

o.O

After dropping the kids at daycare, I was still smiling from ear to ear.  That morning, I know the rest of my day is going be a smooth sailing day 🙂

Even if I was not tagged by my Sister, I will still hijack this meme from her blog.  I find this meme very different from others.  They are quite informative and reveal something that happened before I was into blogging.  I took sometime to follow all the previous link (kaypoh ma) and when I ended up on AnnieQ’s meme (sorry, lazy to dig the link.  She is on my blog roll anyway) I was quite surprised to know that her first pregnancy was a success from IVF.  And my million dollar question to her was, “did you asked the doctor to give you twins or it just happen that you have twins?” Very interesting meme right?  Here goes my meme:

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? Yes.

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? Yes.

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? Thankful and thrilled!

4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU? Nope.

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU? Initially I was shy to reveal my age cos everyone thinks getting pregnant at 25 y/o was a bit too young. But now, they envy me cos now I CAN FLY!  Hokkien say “ho miah”.

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? Missed the monthly thingy and the pregnancy test kit says it all.

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? Daddy lor.

8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? Yes.

9. DUE DATE? 13 April 2000.

10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? At one time, puke till blood vein burst. Lucky from 4th month onwards everything is back to normal.

11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? Wah, nine years ago man!  I can’t even remember what I ate 30 days ago.

12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? Refer to question number 11.

13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD SEX? Girl.

14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? I was stunt when the Gynae told me it’s a girl.  And later before i left the room the Gynae ask me again, “Are you alright?” LOL, I think my behavior is very obvious.  I have to put on a fake smile.

15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? Twenty Three!!! 23!!!  I was around 40kg and by the 3rd trimester I was 63!  You can’t believe how bad my stretch mark is.

16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? Baby don’t shower.  They take a bath daily.

17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? Now I’m lost.

18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? Nope.  All went well.

19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Private Hospital in Klang. (I almost want to give a cheeky answer again. LOL)

20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? Hmm… let me see.  From the minute I started to realise the twitching was a contraction till the baby delivered to this world is about 7 hours.

21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? Daddy.

22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? The Gynae, Midwife, Nurses, Daddy.

23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? Not very natural leh.  It was vacumn.

24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? What is that painkiller that make you drowsy and sleepy?  So drowsy till you can’t open your eye to push and you keep on drifting in and out? And I swear I will never let them poke me with that meds again.  Reason, refer to question number 23.

27. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 3.5kg.

28. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ? 2 days earlier than the schedule date

30. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Kharsyn.

31. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? 9 years and 8 days old.

We had a small party at home on Easter Day to celebrate my eldest Princess 9th Birthday.  Initially we was supposed to have an Easter egg hunt too but too bad, the rain just wouldn’t stop.  There goes my Kinder Joy (Bye-bye $$$).

When I say a small party, I was trying to limit her friends to at least 6 person but later, the crowd just grew bigger and bigger and she even invited her Sunday School friends :S .  And I ended inviting my Sisters.  If you must know I have a lot of Sisters.  If invitation was extended to Sis 5, then Sis 1 and Sis 3 will be included too.(If not, later they don’t want to flend me then how?)    Then Hubby ask if he should invite his Siblings.  Aiyoh, make me feel bad only but how to fit all of them in our house?  SIL, if you read this, forgive me.  Next time round, ok?

It is very easy to think of a theme. Any teenager her age is crazy over High School Musical.  Sis 5 help me with the banner while I was busy whipping up food in the kitchen.

There are other food like the bolognese sauce, yam samosa, california roll, unagi kabayaki, tamago (egg sashimi), foochow red wine mee suah (for the adult).  Each time I pick up my camera, there are always someone calling me or something to be done and I kept on forgetting about the food pics.  What do you expect la.  ‘M’ is for mother and ‘M’ is for maid.  Organizing a party is not easy, ok.

No pix on the whole lots of Kinder Joy too as I kept on forgetting or was too busy.  Muahahaha!  What an excuse.  The kids was so disappointed as they was looking forward to the egg hunt.  To keep noise at minimal, after the kids ate, they was in our room playing PS2 (HSM game too).  It was so peaceful as now the adult can sit down and yak while digging in the fondue pot!  Thanks Selena for the fondue pot!  I know that was like one year ago since I received them. LOL.  I just melt the dark chocolate with cream and had marshmallow, ice-cream balls and strawberries digging into it.  No pix again.  I was darn busy serving guest.  Refilled the drinks.  Wipe the spills.  Clear the rubbish.  Serving ang chiew mee suah *wink*  Good thing my Sister’s maid help me with the dirty dishes or else my back will break man!  And the poor me gotta finish up all the left over.  The best diet pills also can’t help me this time.

The weird part  is where after the song was sung, the birthday girl was supposed to cut the cake.  I almost ask, “where is the knife?” but realised it was a cupcake.   So weird to cut them and so weird not to cut them.  So I go, “Ok, everybody just take one and eat”. LOL

Happy 9th Birthday Sweetie!

Sometime ago, I received a forwarded email (I’m sure most of you received that too) that shows what triangle number is make out of which grade of chemical that was used to produce plastic. It was said the WORST ONES are Nos: 3, 6, and 7. I’ve never bother to check the numbers in my household as I always go for the branded ones (Instinct tells me that branded ones are more reliable. Duh!)

One fine day, Princess came home and told me, “Teacher say my water tumbler is no. 7 (pointing at the triangle number). Very poisonous.”

Then I quickly refer back to the email and very true, no. 7 is the most poisonous!

The above picture was taken 2 years ago. Spot that High School Musical (HSM) water tumbler. I don’t blame Disney for producing the product. Maybe it’s that trademark “Made In China” product is all not reliable! And I quickly went and check her HSM bento box.

Fuyoh, luckly it was no. 5!  I  gave Princess two options:

1. You want to use nice stuff but poisonous or
2. You want to be healthy and throw away all your HSM stuff

No doubt, she go for option 1. Then I thought to myself. How harmful is those chemical? After this incident, I have been very careful and always check the bottom of plastic food containers. The next round, I am going to buy only rock tumblers or stainless. It’s time to educate her on safety rather than beauty. (Hey, they rhyme!)

The Princess and Prince (8 y/o and 6 y/o) has a recital few days ago. This is counted as the third recital for Princess and first time for the Prince. All I can said is, the Prince played very well despite taking up violin lesson sometime in April. We are very proud of him indeed.

Just before the recital started, as usual the mischievous boy can’t sit still. He was seen here turning his violin into a Cello!

And he have to irritate everyone in the room with that streaky sound from the string instrument. The Mummy will have to go sheesh… sheesh…. or gave him the deadly stare.

The Jie-Jie is nothing but a Princess. Other than her chatty mouth (which girls wouldn’t) I do not have to nag her to sit still. But this girl wouldn’t want to take any pictures. Duhh!

As usual, 7.30pm is too early for Daddy to leave the office. He is giving this a miss. Again! The show was delayed for 30 minutes as many musicians turned up late. Prince got impatient and wanted to call his Daddy.

He is asking why his Daddy is not here yet and asked his Daddy why he doesn’t want to come see him play. Scout swear – I did not ask my Boy to called the Daddy. The whole night I was busy with my camera and I thought he just wanted a chat with his Daddy to kill time. The kids does that all the time at home when the Daddy comes home late. And the last picture here you can see my Boy almost in tears.

My Boy is very very close the the Daddy. He still cling on to his Daddy like a Koala bear. I almost forgot the phone was on speaker mode! Now the whole audience knows that the child’s father is not supportive 🙁 . I heard Daddy said something like… “pass the phone to Mummy” and I quickly took over the phone. And guess what? Daddy is almost reaching home and I asked him to detoured to join us since the show hasn’t started yet.  Of course my Boy was so thrilled to see his Daddy walk in and deserved a big bear hug!

I love this picture of the girls and their violin.

This was shot using a 50mm lens. This is what we called synchronized!

Princess is always duetting with this girl (sorry don’t know her name) as they are of same level.

And the Prince…

I was so proud of him, the moment we reached home I marched to my Sis’s house and show the video to Uncle Kimmy, “Uncle Kimmy, come! Nah, show you something. The child that never practise at home can played so well.”

Really! My kids hardly practise their violin at home. Haha! You may ask why. To me, I never like to forced my kids into anything and if I were to give myself a new chore like nagging the kids to practise this and that, you think it is worth it? I was fortunate as my kids was showing interest and naturally accepted it. Even without the daily practising, they still did well. I am not a perfectionist and I don’t expect to have one. They are what they are, the God’s given child.

I have been told that bringing up a girl and boy is totally different. Girls are so much easier and they tend to does thing without being told and of course…. smarter! I have never compare both my kids (Kharsyn 8y/o and Carlgene 6y/o). They are special in their own way. Being smart or not is not important as I was born intelligent but studies ruin me.

Now, the thing that I always need to nag on my boy is his lack of enthusiasm in his studies. He has got my bad gene. He is exactly like me when I was little – very playful and lost concentration easily. Getting him to do his homework without being told is like buying a lottery ticket. And if he really finished up his homework without being told, it is like me, hitting the 4 million jackpot! (This is how from the original title “Of Homework and Exam” was changed to I Won a 4 Million Jackpot! Haha!)

Last Sunday night I kept on nagging him to finished up his mental arithmetic homework. As usual, most of the time he will be playing with his toes and gawd knows what. 30 minutes when I came back to check on him, he is no where to be seen on his desk but pangsai in the toilet. But where is his homework? How come they are not on the table? As I approached the toilet, my anger was held back when I saw him continue doing his homework by using a stool as a table.

Of course I quickly get my camera and shot my winning lottery ticket. 4 million dollar wor! When he look up at me, he goes, “Oh, Man!” <~~ please insert the most macho slang. Of course the little boy need lots of praising to keep him motivated 😉 .

On an unrelated issue but still pertaining to kids, this week is exam week again especially for Chinese school. Whenever daughter came home, the first thing I ask would be her exam:

Mummy: How’s your exam today? Can do or not?
Dotter: Can!
Mummy: Everytime also say can but never bring home 100 for Mummy. You don’t know meh Mummy like the two zeros. Mummy like to eat eggs.
Dotter: Oh, so you mean you like to eat sausage and eggs issit!

Kids nowadays!!!

If you are someone who like Transformers or marvel hero type of movie, go watch Iron Man. By the time I walked out the cinema, I wish I can fly vertically up the sky with lots of smoke coming out from my palm and feet. And, and suddenly I am my Son’s target (Read: Kungfu fighting) pretending we are fighting with smoke and fire coming out from our palm and bullets coming out from our shoulder. As usual he is always the good ones and I have to play the bad guy role. You should see the way he throw himself on the floor when I return his shot. That is so real. Ah, it was a good movie tho. Don’t miss it.

On the other hand, Eldest Princess has now earned herself a green belt.

The following is just some silly photograph we took last weekend.

errr… errr… I better not say anything here.

Please ignore the two silly ladies on the right.  Look at my son.  So full of concentration and so serious. I like!

And now, please ignore the serious looking boy and look at the two silly ladies in the background.  Eldest princess can performed a very nice split eh?

Ok, ok. For once, we all need to be serious in self defence. HAI YAK, KA CHOWWWWW! poWWWW!

My son told us that he wants to watch Iron Man again.  Who wants to bring him along?