Making A Little Change

It is sad to look at how far behind I am in updating my blog, this blog. I changed this blog title so that I could capture the growing story not just about Charlotte but also Abigail, our new added bundle of joy last year. I tried very hard to upkeep the events and pictures, but I couldn’t blog about it. I have no time to write long and detailed story of the what, who, when, which and how.

I have no intention to discontinue this blog nor do I have the intention to discontinue keeping the memory of my children’s growing. I am going to make a slight modification of how the stories will be memorized though. I have no time to blog about all the details, but most of the time I make the pictures tell the story. So, I’ll just gonna keep taking picture and write a short journal about it, everyday. It is an “A-Photo-A-Day” project that I’m gonna do, and I really really hope to be able to capture 365 of 2012! Wish me luck!!

I have started it, and I will be updating the pictures soon. See you there http://ayearinlife-2012.blogspot.com/

An Eventful Month

Never thought that we could be this busy in November. Somehow or rather, we had scheduled event week after week.

First it was Charlotte's 6th birthday! We first had a small celebration among family members. It is always the case, that Charlotte will celebrate her birthday at least 2x, sometimes 3x. The highlight was the birthday party we did for her and her friends. It was kind of tricky to plan for her birthday party this year. We wanted an outdoor play but it was raining season. Pat and I hesitated for quite a bit and we only sent out birthday party invitation at the very last minute.

We organized a park-&-pool session at our new home, only few friends are invited, they are obviously the special someone named by Charlotte. The kids enjoyed themselves in the water before we adjourned to a restaurant nearby. Let the pictures speak for itself...

Follow up by Charlotte's Graduation Ceremony. The ceremony was a very organized and solemn event that I ever seen of any children's event. The message sent out from this ceremony wasn't much about concert and performance but it carried a very meaningful reminder to all, to be grateful and respectful to parents. I hope Charlotte builds her foundation with these good values and carries them with her through her growing.    

Then it was school holidays! Since Abby is still too young to travel with us, we had to leave her behind and we just embarked on the nearest adventure - Universal Studio Singapore!

我的第一个见证

我从小就在基督教家庭环境中长大, 受的不只是基督教的教导 而且也听了很多人与人之间以基督教教育为中心的教导, 参与了很多生活营, 宣传活动, 见证会等等 但是本身却没作过或体会过什么惊人的见证. 又或许我的生活一直都很顺利, 也没经过什么大风大浪, 所以也不怎么会有特别的体会. 可是唯一根基扎的很稳的就是"凡是都要祷告". 小时候的我无论遇到什么事, 或什么危险, 总是"主啊! 主啊! 帮助我.."的在祷告, 祈求.

不知道什么开始, 生活的脚步快了, 责任多了, 肩上的负担重了, 时间少了, 忘了凡是都要祷告, 信靠主必然得胜有余的教导. 虽然妈妈时时都在提醒不要忘了祷告的力量, 不要忘了上帝是真神. 可是, 我总是左耳听右耳出的, 没真正的把它听进去.

在可宥(Abigail) 四个月大的时候, 我发现她的头部长了许多一粒一粒的"红疹". 当时, 我们并没有怎么得别着急, 就等了每个月要打育苗针的时候才问了可宥的儿科医生. 那儿科医生初步的诊断也只不过是一般的皮肤敏感. 他给了一瓶药, 约四到五天内就没事啦. 我们也没多顾虑, 就离开了. 过了大约两个星期, 我才发现本来的"四到五天"还没进展反而有点严重了. 我也开始焦急了, 又带了可宥马上去看了她的儿科医生. 这次, 医生的诊断还是相当简单. 他写了个字条给我们, 说"没事的, 等她在长大些割了吧". 听到"割"我们就急了起来, 毕竟头部手术 还是不简单, 更和况是对一个一岁不足的婴儿来说. 可是, 那个儿科医生也不多说, 只叫我们依照字条上写的去网上翻阅有关的资料.

回到家之后 我们马上翻阅网上所有关于"sebaceous naevus" 的资料. 我们是越翻阅, 越着急, 又忧虑. 虽然资料显示没什么大不了的问题, 可是我们对那必须面对的手术和那几个少数危机总是耿耿于怀. 网上的资料显示有少部分的病例会导致恶性肿瘤和影响发育的进展度. 虽然并没有统一的病例数字, 试问哪个作父母遇到这样的事会不担心的? 我们接二连三的寻找儿科医生, 皮肤专科医生, 我们就希望会有不一样诊断结果, 可是最后判断是一致的. 我们的希望也跌到最低.

从一开始, 妈妈对我们的鼓励和劝慰都离不开"祷告". 每一次都要我们向上帝祈求. 有一次, 大哥大嫂刚好来拜访, 妈妈也就向他们提到了这件事. 我们一家人当中大哥的信心最大, 所以妈妈也请大哥帮忙代祷. 大哥也给了我一个很合适的金句, 他说"在人不可能, 在神凡事都能!". 那天过后, 我每一个夜里在抱着可宥, 喂着奶的时候我都不断的在祷告. 我祈求上帝怜悯可宥, 让她小小的生命可以逃过开刀动手术的必要. 我祈求上帝亲自为可宥作医生, 为她医治. 我恳求上帝显神迹, 让在人不可能的, 在神凡事都能...就这样, 每一天有很多人都在为可宥不停的祷告.

在不停的祷告的同时, 我们也式这找了我小时候常看的医生. 他不是什么专科医生, 可是他是我们小时候一有皮破血流就找的医生. 记忆里他是比皮肤专科还棒的呢! 他肯定了一部分是 sebaceous naevus 没错, 但他却说另一部分并不是. 他配两种吃的药, 还有一罐涂的. 我们问了那 sebaceous naevus 的一部分是要怎么解决, 他也没清楚的解释, 只是说那个没要紧, 以后在弄. 妈妈也说可宥爱流汗, 建议把她的头发剪了, 我也照这做了. 总之, 可以式的我们都不会放过. 一个星期过去了, 也不见有特别的进展. 我们也接受了这个事实. 就也不再服药了. 唯一没有停止的就只是祷告. 

过了大楷三个月, 有一天要去接可宥回家的时候她的babysitter忽然对我说"我跟你说她的头..." 还没听她说完我心里就冷了一下, 又不知道发生什么事了. "她的头好像好了!". 当时的我又急又兴奋, 马上看了一下, 真的, 那些凸出来的变平了, 头皮也没以前的红肿了! 观察了差不多一个礼拜, 情况真的有改善!!! 我马上的把这个好消息告诉妈妈和大哥. 大哥作了一个 thumbs-up 的动作, 点了点头笑笑的说"我每晚都在为她祷告"!!!

现在的我在一次的找回祷告的力量, 再一次的体会到是神的应许与祝福. 其实, 上帝并没有离开过我们, 是我们离开了上帝.

这是我小的时候最爱唱的一首诗歌, 当中的意义, 我到现在才真正的体会到.

野地的花，穿着美丽的衣裳，

天空的鸟儿，从来不为生活忙。

慈爱的天父，天天都看顾，

他更爱世上人，为他们预备永生的路。

一切需要，天父已经都知道，

若心中烦恼，让他为你除掉。

慈爱的天父，天天都看顾，

他是全能的主，信靠他的人真是有福。

I Wish...

Sometimes I wish...
To have more than 24hours a day

To have longer and better sleep
To have a little getaway
To have a quiet time and space of my own

To have time go for regular facial

To have a time for a good hairdo

To have a nicely done pedicure

Before I wrote this, I thought I had a lot to wish for, I thought I was desperate, I thought there is something very important missing in my life, I thought I needed something more…but I realized that all I wished for was very trivial.

Instead of ranting, I am now thankful...

For 2 wonderful children

For an amazing family love and support

For true friends to share all the joys and sorrows

For I don't have to worry for food and shelter

Most importantly, I am thankful that I have God, the Heavenly Father, my shelter and my refuge in time of trouble.

He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40: 29-31

Trick or Treat!

Halloween celebration is not very popular here in Malaysia, other than seeing Halloween decorations, Halloween costumes selling at the malls young children here do not experience the trick or treat fun.

I did not have plan to celebrate Halloween, I don’t have the time, and I don’t have the energy to be honest. But Charlotte curiously asked “mommy, what is Halloween?” I felt that the explanation of “scary dress up” and “pumping carving” is not good enough. So, I had an idea of getting helps from others to celebrate this Halloween together.

Charlotte has 2 other classmates staying around our neighborhood, and another good friend staying just nearby. So, I invited all the mothers and one other neighbor and shared the Halloween idea with them and luckily all were very supportive. Since I couldn’t host the party, I asked all participate family to take turn to host and let the kids had the Trick or Treat from house to house! J

Each of them is requested to dress up in their Halloween costume, bring a candy carrier along and each family need to prepare a fun Halloween game as the kids visited their house. The kids happily shouted “Trick or Treat!!” as they visited each house and they played games, made scary faces, spent some time and enjoyed themselves before moving to another house. In total we had only 5 participated families, the highlight of that night for the kids? Of course the candy collection!! See how big was Charlotte’s candy carrier?

Actually I wanted to bring Abigail along for the Trick or Treat, unfortunately when we left for the 1st house it was drizzling. So Abby had to stay home L  

I hope the parents did not have a big problem saying “no candy today!” to their kid after that night J  

Thank you all for your participation and support to make this event successful!   



Mini Mid-Autumn Festival

I was in China right before mid-autumn for business purpose. I knew I would be tired after the trip but I want to make something for Charlotte. I felt that I have negleted her in some way, or less patience with her now that with baby Abby around. Also, they are growing up so quickly, next year Charlotte and her 2 good friends are going to 3 different schools. So, I thought it will be a good occasion to have a mini gathering.

I did not prepare anything other than just mooncakes and lanterns. We let the kids took the lanterns and parade around the neighbourhood. It was funny that it started with just the 3 girls, then 2 other boys from the neighbour joined along the way, and later another 2 boys...it was quite fun actually.

Our First Letter Exchange

About a month ago, I received a notice from Charlotte’s school that they are introducing post office, stamps, letter and etc in the coming week and we were asked to write a letter to our child and mail it the conventional way to the school address. I was excited as I think the kids will be excited too when they received the letter from their parents this way.

We were asked to keep the letter short, but take this opportunity to express our feelings, expectations, hopes and wishes through this letter. I think this is good as being an Asian, we are not as open and direct when confronting with our feelings and emotion with our loved ones. And I needed this opportunity share my feelings with Charlotte and how things have changed with Abigail’s arrival.

My letter to Charlotte:

亲爱的宣宥,

你知道吗 你是妈妈最宝贝的宝贝? 你是一个很乖, 也很贴心的孩子. 妈妈很欣慰, 也很疼你. 我都会把最好的给你, 用的, 吃的, 穿的, 包括时间和精神. 希望你能健康和快乐的成长.

妹妹出世之后, 家里大大小小的事多了不少. 妈妈也因为要照顾妹妹而很可能有多少忽略了你. 对不起! 但是妈妈还是很爱你的, 希望你会懂事. 你和妹妹都是妈妈的宝贝, 妈妈两个都爱, 两个都疼.

你今年六岁了! 明年你就要升上小学一年纪了. 妈妈最担心的是在学校功课, 饮食, 样样都必须自己负责. 妈妈希望你能学得更自立, 至少在家里能开始学习吃饭和喝奶都不需要再喂就好了! 宣宥 要加油哦!

妈妈爱你!  

Few weeks later, they have an expedition, going to the post office! And I knew what’s coming although nothing was announced by the school. However, Charlotte was very cute and she can’t keep the secret (or maybe she was not told that it suppose to be a secret). She told me that I should expect her letter, in green color envelope J .

One day, I was late from work and she called. She said “Mommy, can you please quickly come home? My letter is here!” J Of course I made my way home at the soonest and she eagerly passed me the letter and asked me to read it!

She wrote:

亲爱的爸爸妈妈
我爱你们
我也爱可宥
可宥是我的好可宥
宣宥上

There was no punctuation on each sentence, and I don't know why the paper was so broken. I think she must be trying to decorate it using a shaped scissors (see the edge of the paper) and that's how it turned out. 可宥 is Abigail's chinese name but she wrote it wrongly (oops!) and the characters on the letter were she and Abigail. The envolope was nicely decorated (I didn't know that it is allowed, haha!), Mr Postman must be amuzed when he delivered it.

A Quick Update



It is time for me to post about Abigail's growth progress; it has been 4+ months! How time flies. Sometimes I really wish for the 25th hour. My days are much occupied since I return to work, no time to slack!

Abigail is growing very well; she hits every growth milestone quite timely (Charlotte was always behind by 1-2 months as far as I could remember). She is a very cheerful and friendly baby. She smiles whenever she’s called and she loves Charlotte. She responds to Charlotte very well, sometimes she coos the loudest when Charlotte interacts with her. It is very funny to see the “chicken-duck” talk between the 2 of them.

So far, she wakes up once at night for feeding and she sleeps very well when she is swaddled. However, this has ended last week since she masters her new skill to roll over! She kept rolling over and woke up on her tummy and smiling at me in the middle of the night L  I had to keep waking up, put her back to sleep and that equal to no sleep!! Help!! But she has this cute and innocent face that you won’t get mad at her. Instead, I can’t help but kiss her a few times on her cheek before putting her back to sleep.  

Maternity Leave, Ended

Wow, this is the longest blog break that ever happened to me. I have been busy, really busy...

I have returned to work 2 weeks back. Well, my maternity leave ended long time ago but I took additional 2 weeks off from my previous accumulated time off that I had not had a chance to claim. I am now learning to live with new schedule, juggling between work loads and kids and sleep deprive…

When I gave birth to Charlotte, I took everything personally. I did everything for the baby myself, even during the confinement month. It was very very stressful and tiring. This time round, lesson learned. I took the opportunity to rest as much as I could. While having confinement helpers around during the first month I let her managed every for the baby, including the night feeding. I'm still breastfeeding, but with EBM I left the feeding job to her and trust that she is able to do the job that she is paid for. I did not have to worry about Charlotte too because my mother was around to help out and to take care of her. So, confinement month was rather enjoyable this time, except the ridiculous confinement rules that I had to follow...

After the first month, most "helpers" had left but luckily we have found a baby sitter to take care of Abby. I decided to start sending Abby to her (bad mommy, I know) because I needed the time to settle some overdue errands, get quiet time of my own, rest and rejuvenate before returning to work. Also, I need to start practicing the morning routine, that is getting myself ready for office, that includes expressing breast milk, feed and change Abby, get Charlotte ready for school, and not late for work and school. I could almost imagine the chaotic situation especially when Pat is out of town. So, by starting this routine while I'm still on maternity leave I could practice and set the schedule early without having to run into morning madness (although I still think that morning madness would still happens, hopefully it will be less frequent and in a smaller scale).

It is also a good thing that I am sending Abby to sitter, I could use the time to do marketing every morning after sending both girls off, get paperwork filed, bills paid, did some exercise, facial, hair cut and most importantly, planned and get things organized. Besides, Abby is starting to recognize faces and places. Getting her familiarized with her baby sitter early hopefully will minimize the separation anxiety that I used to deal with Charlotte when leaving her with her grandma in the morning.

Other than enjoying having a little quality time of my own, I managed to accomplish a small home improvement project. We never completely furnished our rooms for this current house that we have been staying for more than 8 years now. The master bedroom was the only room that we furnished, leaving the other 3 bedrooms and family hall upstairs "free style". Charlotte is still sleeping in our room, on our king + super single bed and we didn't really bother of furnishing the other rooms until Abigail's arrival. The baby stuff and everything else seem overflowing and running out of storage. So I engaged an ID company and my medium scale home improvement project was completed right before I return to work.

I think I had fully utilized my maternity leave. I am now embarking on another new chapter of life. I know it will be challenging, but blessed.

Stay tuned for my next update.

Introducing Abigail

It has been a month and I still don't have much pictures of Abigail to share. My SLR is only operated by me, and since I'm being requested to bed rest most of the time no one has been taking Abigail's picture.

This is the picture I took during the first few days, at the hospital. She was sleeping soundly after breastfeed. I took this picture with my phone camera.



This is the picture that I took 2 days ago, still with my phone camera. I think I need to take out my camera from the bag and standby all the time in order to capture a very nice moment of Abigail.

She has a rather boyish look and most people said if I give birth another child, it will be a son! Crazy!! I was satisfied with just Charlotte, and now I am very contented with Charlotte and Abigail...another one??? Don't even think about it!

Hello World!

Date: 20 Mar 2011
Time: 11PM

Couldn't sleep. Left Charlotte in the room and joined Patrick downstairs for a movie. Had the "jambu air" with rojak sauce that we just bought from town. Not too long after, Charlotte woke up. I went up in the room with her and pat her to sleep. I came downstairs again after 15min, but didn't get to finish the movie as she woke up again soon after I left.

Date: 21 Mar 2011
Time: 1.30AM

Patrick finally finished the movie. We both couldn't sleep and chit chatted. I asked, "what if baby still hasn't come after 40 weeks? What do we do? Induce? Or wait?". Pat said "don't know, better ask the doctor tomorrow". Yes, we had a scheduled check up on Monday morning (21 Mar) because Pat has to travel out of town on Tuesday. We need to make baby is not arriving any time sooner when he is not around.

Date: 21 Mar 2011
Time: 2.30AM

I felt the pain in the lower abdomen. I told Pat "hey, I felt the pain and it is a little different and intense". Pat said "so how? Is it time?", "don't know, let's wait for a bit more" I said. The pain came at 5min interval and we decided to go to hospital. I wanted to take a shower but Pat said it was a bad idea. So we woke up Charlotte and my maid and headed to the hospital.

On the way, the pain interval was every 3min and it was getting very intense. Pat was driving very quickly and Charlotte was asleep at the back with my maid.

Date: 21 Mar 2011
Time: 3.30AM

At labour room. The pain was almost unbearable!!! My water bag broke after a short while and I heard the nurse calling doctor and mentioned that I was 6cm dilated. I was in pain and I asked for Epidural. Not sure if it was a good idea at that moment but I needed something to ease the pain level, I was going insane, almost.

Soon, the anesthetist came and administered the Epidural and my Ob came too. Too many things going on at the same time and all I knew was the pain was getting bearable and it was time to push!

I heard doctors and nurses kept saying "ok push! push! keep your head down to your chest, hold your breath and push!" ...

It wasn't easy...I remembered one of my coworkers told me "if God made us (male) to bear and deliver babies, I think there will be no babies..."

Date: 21 Mar 2011
Time: 5.00AM

Baby Abigail made her appearance and greeted the world!!! She tipped the scale at 3.48kg, 51cm long.

Chiffon Cake, Finally!

Most of my friends and relatives know that I like to bake but I don't really like to eat cakes, or pies, or biscuits. I like to try out new recipes, test out my skills, and happy to see people around me enjoying the output. But there is one cake I do like and I will eat a couple pieces every time I buy them. It's the Chiffon Cake. It is very soft and light, not oily and I don't really feel stuffed after I ate it. I love them and I found out that Charlotte also likes Chiffon Cake. That makes me an excuse to try making it. Actually, I tried baking a Chiffon Cake many years back, when I was in my teen. But it was a total failure and I never touch on that recipe ever since.

I have been trying baking Chiffon Cake for the past few weeks and I had disasters that no one could imagine. I didn't come across any of the challenges mentioned in every recipe such as difficulty in removing the cake from the cake pan, egg whites not beaten to the right stage, cake did not rise properly and etc. What I had was my cake raised perfectly and I didn't have any trouble removing it from the pan because it fell off from the pan the moment I inverted it! So what I had from the last few attempts were all collapsed Chiffon Cakes that looked like this...although it all tasted great.

I asked the experts, I checked the recipe, I bought fresh ingredients, but nothing helps. Finally I was looking into my oven last night and I realized something. I realized that my baking tray was closer to the upper heat element of the oven than the lower ones. I recalled all my Chiffon Cakes had nice golden brown top but the bottom and sides looked "naked" when removed from the cake pan. Maybe the bottom wasn't completely baked and that's why it fell off the moment it was inverted. So I moved the baking tray to a level lower and tried baking another one. This time I tried the Orange Chiffon Cake recipe as I ran out of coconut milk (santan) for Pandan Chiffon Cake and I had no more bananas for Banana Chiffon Cake. I separate the egg yolks and eggs whites carefully and followed the recipe steps as much as possible. I want to rule out all the possibility of "is it something wrong with the ingredients I put, or is it my skill in making it".

And finally there is a decent looking Chiffon Cake from my oven...

And a happy customer...she's my biggest supporter afterall and she said "mommy, 你成功了!"

Next, I need to work on the skill removing the cake from the pan so that the side doesn't look so "cacat", haha!



My Pregnancy Memory

I didn't write down any pregnancy memory when I was carrying Charlotte. Back then, I didn't even have a blog. I only started blogging 2 years after having Charlotte. And this is it, a blog all about her.

Now that I am expecting my second baby very soon, and I think I have a perfect place to keep not just about my kids' growing up memory, but also start all the way back from my pregnancy memory.

I remember clearly the night before I found out that I was pregnant with Charlotte we invited a few friends to our house for dinner. We cooked steak and had a very nice wine and we stayed all night chit chatting. The next morning, I decided to take a home pregnancy test since my period was late. When the test result came out positive, the first thing I recalled was "damn! I was drinking last night!"...it wasn't a planned pregnancy but Pat and I did talk about it as we thought we'll just take it easy and if it happens, it happens...and it happened!!!

I swear and was 101% sure that I will not have a second child. I guessed I was not prepared to welcome another baby experience along with the responsibilities and commitments associate with it. I was overwhelmed, my tried to do the best (I think I did) for the Charlotte, I was committed to breastfeeding, I sacrificed my career commitment to allow bandwidth to take care of the Charlotte, I gave up many opportunities on both personal and professional growth. Naturally, I was in phobia to commit another one. Pat on the other hand, always wanted a second child. But he couldn't push to hard for it to happen because half the time he is not home and he knows that the responsibility is all mine. His brilliant idea is to have maid to help out, but I am someone that cannot rely on maid entirely, not on baby, not even on house chores. Baby is too fragile and I can never imagine to have something happen to a baby because I "outsource" the responsibility to a maid and accident happened. So second baby was out of the equation for quite some time. Charlotte is turning 6 this year and maybe I'm kinda forgotten about all the sweat and tears, and I also missed the feeling of having a baby kicking inside your tummy when you are carrying him/her, but I also realized that now I am 6 years older, my stamina and health may not be in the same condition as 6 years ago. Can I still cope with the night feeding marathon? The miserable colic cry every night? The washing and cleaning...so just like the 1st pregnancy we were not to serious about it but we are blessed!

I found out that I was pregnant at around the 5th week the first time, and this second time was maybe just around the 3rd week. We couldn't see any sign of embryo formation when we went to see the Gynae, just a sign of positive pregnancy with thick wall on the uterus. I was in a little denial for a couple of weeks until the presence of an embryo showed on the ultrasound scan later on. So the pregnancy journey started...

I had a very easy pregnancy the first time. Everything was normal, I ate as usual (maybe was eating a lot more than usual), sat, walked, slept as usual. No morning sickness, no backache, nothing...so the whole 40 weeks passed by very quickly and Charlotte born just 2 days earlier than the EDD. The 2nd pregnancy is a whole new experience, and I never thought it could be that challenging although I had heard many difficult pregnancy experiences before. It started with a very bad morning sickness, or maybe I should say all-day sickness because that's really what it was. I felt so sick all day long, nothing (food/drinks) seemed to be able to comfort my tummy. I was hungry but everything that went in came out pretty soon. What makes it worse is the washroom in the office, the look, the smell, even just the thought of using it made me sick already. So I was really dragging myself to work everyday in the first trimester. Not only that, I started to have backache even at 8 weeks along. I couldn't bear the pain even just walking a short distant, imagine back then my tummy had not really show and I was worried sick about the remaining 30+ weeks journey. In between 1st and 2nd trimester, I had numerous occasions of spotting and visited A&E very frequently. I spotted when I was slightly overworked, slightly over stressed, did a little bit more house chores than usual, baked a cake or two over the weekend...I was on bed rest many times so far. I felt so fragile and weak with this 2nd pregnancy, but I was all energetic and active during the 1st. No wonder the old wive tales called it unique pregnancy...but I call it "age does matter pregnancy"...

With Charlotte, I had a very clear sign of labor - my water bag burst at 40 weeks, at 4+am. I knew for sure I had to check myself in to hospital by then. I am now 38+ weeks and for the last one whole week I kept having false signs of labor. I felt the contraction last Thursday late afternoon, Pat was away from home and so I drove to the hospital myself and had a CTG check. The nurse asked me to pack my bag and check-in that night because the contraction was strong and consistent. On my way back, I called Pat and asked him to come home immediately. Pat came back late night, but we didn't check ourselves in because the contraction had went away, and it was nothing for the next few days. I woke up on Saturday morning and found out that I had "show" and this time we packed and put all the necessary things into the car and went straight to the hospital. Strangely, the contraction that morning was very mild than usual and my Gynae said there was no dilation yet. He sent me to CTG monitoring again and when the result also showed mild and inconsistent contraction I was sent home. I had my follow up today and my Gynae said my baby likes it in my womb and decided to stay a little longer...(sigh!). I'm home once again.

Will the bell rings next week?

Double Reunion & Happy New Year!

I am very lucky that I still get to have reunion dinner with my parents every year, and still make it with my in-laws. My parents usually start early whereas my in-law has a big clan and it usually takes awhile to start and to finish. So, each year I will steal the opportunity to have double reunion, start with an early dinner with my parents and then adjourn to my in-laws.

As usual, lots of food, lots of chit chatting, and the kids had fun time of their own. My father bought them a whole big box of "pop pop", I think there was 50boxes inside and 4 kids finished it all in 1 night. They were also very creative in playing it, not just throw and popped it but they had a strategy. The boys built a "castle" with the empty boxes and they fight to hit the castle to blow it down. My girl, at 5+ years old was not very far behind the game. She was quite a "samseng" as well, catch her in action here...

My mother is usually nowhere to be seen. It is rather difficult to have her to sit down, she is always too busy with the cooking and serving. My dad will be joining the kids, monitoring them as they play. In the end it was the 3 of us and our spouse sitting by the dinning table and making noises as we chit chat, joke and sharing funny moments (hehe).

I had no picture taken at the in-law house (oops), usually there were too many "photographers" and too many cameras...so I just keep my and concentrate eating (haha).

After the 2nd round of reunion dinner, the adults at my in-laws usually gathered and play card games while the kids were warming up and waiting for the fireworks moment. We stayed there until almost midnight and get back to my house and get ready for this...

We moved Simba to the next junction before the clock hits 12.



and then it was action! Sorry, bad angle picture because I was scared myself (haha)

So that was it! Officially welcomed the year of Rabbit!

Eve of The Eve

The Lee clan actually celebrated the eve of the eve this year and we headed for a festival feast at the Spice Market Cafe Rasa Sayang, catching the buy 1 get 1 free deal.

As usual Charlotte had lots and lots of fun with her cousin brothers around, especially Abraham...or should I say she is close to anyone who has iPhone, iPad, Wii, PS and etc. See how she monopolized the iPad from her cousin brother...

Meal time was long, or intentionally long. We spent a lot of time chit chatting and enjoying the reunion. My brothers, Pat and myself have a lot in common to talk about, like career, family, investment, hobby and my parents are usually listening, observing and laughing at some of our crazy moments. 

Overall, we had a great time at the early reunion and it is always a must to capture a family photo...I was at 32 weeks!



年年有鱼(余)!

It's the year of Rabbit and Gong Xi Fa Chai everyone!! This year I didn't bake any of the Chinese New Year cookies because physically I just couldn't cope with the chores. However, I still did something, something easy but interesting --- Jelly. I bought several fish molds and with simple coloring I made Japenese Koi Fish Jelly, symbolizing 年年有余. My initial attempt only yielded half of the portion. The control of the coloring wasn't good, and the mold was a little too difficult to handle. But the result was very nice. So I decided to do it again, and I had 100% yield the 3rd time, at last. I gave this auspicious symbolic jelly away to my parents, brothers and in-laws. They all loved it!

I also had several demand of cakes that I used to bake, like the Orange Cranberry Buttercake and Cheesecake. I had my brother to buy back a big pack of dried Cranberries from the States and it was just in time for CNY baking. The biggest hit this year was a new Cheesecake recipe that I found. I tried it a couple of weeks before CNY, and I baked it for my parents on new year's eve and then I baked it again for another gathering with my in-law. It has great smooth and silky texture, not too sweet, not too heavy. I am definitely adding this to my recipe collection!

Wrapping Up 2010!

I was partly very busy with work, plus the pregnancy progressing into the third trimester and having to have a frequently traveled husband I missed updating my favourite celebration of the year, Christmas!!! I looked back my SD card for photos took, unfortunately I didn't have many as well *sob*. I guess I will just do a brief wrap up for 2010...

A week after my babymoon to KL, we actually had another trip to Melaka. It was a planned to trip with the Chan clan. There was a lot of walking, eating, talking and driving. A short trip, but I think everyone had fun, especially Charlotte.

Then it was Christmas celebration. I can't believe it that I didn't take any picture of Charlotte in her beautiful dress that Pat bought her for Christmas eve! I have no picture to show what so ever took place during Christmas, not even a family photo under the Christmas tree. How lazy was I? Or I should blame it to the pregnancy *hehe*?

Anyway, we attended Christmas eve service at the church with my family and spent the entire Christmas day with in-laws. We had Christmas dinner at one of Pat's sister's house and Pat assigned me a real good challenge - roast turkey! I made it, with Pat's help of course. The bird that we bought was about 5kg in size and I couldn't manage that weight myself. It turned out to be quite a success. But just when I thought it was over, Pat threw another idea after the Christmas dinner with the turkey left over. He suggested to have another lunch the next day and asked for "kiam chai boey" with the turkey left over. So I woke up early the next day, rushed to the market and get the ingredient and rushed back to cook for lunch. I have to tell you that the "kiam chai boey" was the best I did so far (thanks to the turkey) and it was probably the most expensive chai boey ever *ha*. Unfortunately, no picture on the turkey and also the "kiam chai boey"...

Some random pictures in Dec 2010...

loved the grand piano that cousin Rachel has! 

picture with cousin Christopher at Melaka

The war ship at Melaka

Playing PS III - cousin Samantha helping her

Pressies under the tree - the new scooter from daddy is Charlotte's favorite!

 

The lady bug backpack from KimKim

I think my next post will be CNY. Hopefully I will have a better story to tell and more pictures to share.