Monday, May 31, 2010

Bali Getaway!

Five years ago, Pat and I went to Bali for the first time and I was about 6 weeks pregnant with Charlotte. I didn't enjoy that trip although I didn't suffer from morning sickness but I was feeling dizzy all the time. We didn't cover many famous tourism spots either. My memory of Bali was just the Hilton Hotel and taxi.

We took Charlotte along this trip and we were explaining to Charlotte that she was in my tummy when we were here  five years ago. Somehow, she's always quite happy when I told her she was once in my tummy :) This time we stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel. We touched down on Thursday night and we quickly checked ourselves in at the hotel and also had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe since it was rather late already. Then of course, it's picture time! Here are a few shots of the pool view at night.

 

Charlotte was getting tired shortly after, so we decided to head back to the room and call it a night. However, as we were passing by the live rock performance at the Centerstage and Charlotte was attracted to the performance (so did we) and we decided to hang around since it wasn't too pack on a week night. 

Charlotte requested to take the seat at the bar counter as she saw a few other children were there. Pat and I choose to sit at a table further to the back in order to get a better view of the rock band performance. I was amused to see her moved, clapped, cheered for the rock band and also made friends with other children. Initially, four of them were seated at the bar with just one popcorn serving. We saw Charlotte making small talks with the rest and they shared the popcorn with her (I guess she must be asking for the popcorn from them). After awhile, they took out another 3 popcorn servings so each of them had one to themselves. See how much the children enjoying the party...


By the way, we went back to the Centerstage on Saturday night and it was so packed that we couldn't even find a seat! Also, it was too smoky and noisy for Charlotte to hang around. So good thing that we had some nice time earlier. The band was really good!

One bonus service that we were quite happy to find out was that they have the Lil Rock Kids Club at the hotel, that we were able to spend some time on our own like having Spa or some outdoor activities while someone to look after the kids and they could still have fun. We get to redeem for 2 hours service at Lil Rock Kids Clud or it is charged at 25,000Rp/hour (RM10).

Our Bali getaway hence started...

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Food

I blogged about how picky Charlotte was as a young eater, it took a lot of creativity and patience to make her eat and drink (milk). Good food, healthy food, junk food, snacks, deserts almost nothing attracted her back then. I know many parents have to stop or restrain their kids when comes to the famous McD french fries, but Charlotte would just stop after couple of bites. Same goes for ice-cream, what do you think when you talk about vege, protein and bla bla bla...?

But, she is a much much better eater now. Her school serves vegetarian food everyday, and she is eating like a pro but of course she still tells me "I don't want vege" at home sometimes. Well, I think that's normal for kids. Her school is campaigning vegetarian month for the month of May. The idea is to educate people about "no meat, no slaughtering". They are having various program teaching the students about vegetarian food, bringing to them to the wet market, show & tell, and offering food packs. We were told to feel free to order dinner packs for our family for the entire month of May, and it is FOC! They are also offering lunch packs for weekends. This is the extra miles they go to encourage people to believe in no meat, no slaughtering.

I order 2 dinner packs for weekdays (I don't have to cook dinner for the entire month, yay!). It has been 2+ weeks and I have to say the dinner packs are very good. Everyone in the family loves it!


Without us realizing it, we have been doing something quite routinely lately. When Pat is home early and I don't have night meeting we usually head out to Baskin Robbins for some sweet treats. Last night we did it again. Charlotte and I usually share a 2-scoop sundae and Pat has one to himself. Last night, Charlotte chose Orange Sherbet and I chose Manga Tango. She told me "Mommy, you eat yours and I eat mine". I didn't quite understand what she was trying to say and so she went on "you cannot eat mine la!" *LOL*


Thursday, May 6, 2010

母亲节

几个星期前, 在回家的途中听车里见收音机播放的一首歌心里忽然有一种莫名的感触. 那首歌叫"太委屈", 描述的是谈恋爱的种种心情. 可是我的感触却和恋爱无关.

不晓得从什么开始, 己经不再要求别人的嘘寒问暖, 反儿负起了"照顾"这个责任; 也不晓得什么开始, 从一个对厨房, 家务事一窍不通的我变成了家里的总经理, 包办了家里大大小小, 上上下下所有的事务. 从父母的千金到为人 妻, 为人母, 加上身为职业女性, 肩膀上的负担和精神上的压力不时都把我压得喘不过气. 自己有时也觉得很无助, 很委屈. 丈夫虽然也有他的付出, 但男女还是不平等的. 彼此的责任毕竟还是有差. 以前是"男主外,女主内", 现在, 女生大都"内外双兼".

很多时候 我都沉不住气向妈妈诉苦, 有时是无意, 有时是无奈, 但是诉苦后看见妈妈的心疼我更是后悔了. 常常就和几个要好的朋友透气, 埋怨, 发泄, 同时也互相聆听, 心中的不平衡也幸好有她们才没有变得极端. 大家也觉得现代的女性特别的难做, 可是我们也因此变特别的坚强, 能干. 最重要的是我们也更爱我们的妈妈, 更体谅妈妈, 更清楚何谓"世上只有妈妈好". 也从中彼此鼓励, 以走得更长远. 我常常心里在想, 如果没有了妈妈, 没有了朋友, 那就更委屈了.

一日为母, 终生劳碌. 无论是家里琐琐碎碎的实务还是上上下下的起居饮食妈妈没有一天放轻松. 就算儿女长大, 成家立业, 到后来多半还是奶奶或婆婆来帮忙带小孩. 妈妈对儿女的爱是没有条件和没有止境的, 但儿女对妈妈(父母)的爱却很容易被取代. 有没有人想过为甚么当我们带一个刚学着走路的小孩是满满的爱心与鼓励, 但当手扶这一个年老, 走起路来不方便的人却是个负担? 为甚么我们教导小孩都讲究技巧和心理学, 但为甚么面对年老, 脑力衰退的却是满肚子的牢骚?



母亲节的意义是否每一个做孩子的都明白? 我也是当上了妈妈才真正的了解做母亲的牺牲和付出. 不要应为庆祝而庆祝, 总要存感恩, 要知道"树欲静而风不止, 子欲养而亲不在"的道理.

祝天下的妈妈们 "母亲节" 快乐!

Monday, May 3, 2010

Good Workout

We spent a very long and good time at the park last weekend and Charlotte surprised me by how much she has grown and so much more adventures then I knew. 

After the exercise with her scooter and bicycle, as usual we moved on to the playground. She used to be very conscious, she needed help on the slide, and swing. But this round all she interested was the climbing and we were surprised to see how strong her upper body is as she showed us the moves.




She must had a very good workout that evening, she ate quite a big portion at dinner!