Almost a year out of employment!

Wow!! Time really flies! July 2011 was the last month I collected my employment cheque. Unfortunately, it was credited into my bank account, so it did not made an impact as it should have on me.

This month, I made my record low in terms of income, could not believe it!! All the hospital visits with little Megan has limited my time to work. But with each visit, we are nearer to the completion of her treatment, so it is worth it.

Sometimes I question myself - would it have been better staying on a job? Sometimes I wonder if it was worth coming out on my own into the big bad world.

Then I see my Ryan smiling at me when he comes home from school. I see him when I surprise him and pick him up from school. "Mummy!", he would call out. I wonder how long he will be delighted to see, how long before he becomes a cranky tween, a grumpy teenager? Or when he thinks it is not cool to be picked up by mummy? Hmmm...

I also see little Megan coming to me in the middle of the day and asking for her "Milk, milk". Or when she lies on the hospital bed, so helpless and depending on me to help her get better. Or those times she will ask me to watch Mamma Mia with her and see her dancing in my heels?

I also see Dylan more than my other two babies. I used to rush off to work in the morning and send them out early, picking them late. With Dylan, I enjoy the morning walks, I enjoy the fact that I can send him at my own time. I like the fact I can cook his meals, feed him and clean his poop in the morning. All the things which will go by quickly.

So, is it worth it? Every damn second of it! Money is not as good as before, but the time I get in return is worth so much more.

As I write this, I remember still being at work and frantically churnin numbers for bosses. Now, I am gonna be playing with the kids in the garden, gonna be blowing some bubbles and cooking them a home cook meal too.

We need to make choices everyday, make them wisely!

111111

Isn't that a special date? I am out as I am posting this, gonna buy chocolate ice cream to celebrate with my brood later. Have a good night ahead!

Threatened!!

So, we were talking over a late tea on Friday.

SL said that she has resorted to remove blogs which are inactive from her blog roll. And then she said to me "Your is about to be removed, so long never update".

So here I am, well past midnight, putting up a post so that SL will not remove me from her blog roll. Have mercy! I have kids to run after!!

Have a good week everyone!

A brand new start

2010 came and went past us all. Usually I hear people say how fast it has been, talking about where it went etc. Some years back, I have decided to take a different approach to it - I choose to think that it flew us by because we were healthy - Thank God.

There were many many incidents and occasions which happened in this year but the main things I am thankful for are:

1) My kids are healthy.
2) I am still married.
3) My parents and brother are healthy.
4) I chose a new path and am currently thankful I did it.
5) God gave us another chance to be better parents.
6) The share market has been progressing well.

As I reflect the year, I am looking forward to the following in 2011:

1) My kids being happy and healthy.
2) I continue to be married.
3) My parents and brother are healthy.
4) My chosen path becomes full bloom.
5) My newborn is happy to have come to us.
6) The share market continues to perform for us.

Hmm, seems to me there are only those few things I am concerned with. So long as the earth continues to spin, the air is breathable and the sun rises in the east each morning, I am happy to embrace each day, with its many challenges.

How about you?

Should we? Should we?

Our family is growing, and with it means that we are looking for a bigger car to drive all of us around.

I had not planned for a change of car since I got mine some 3 years ago. I had originally thought that it would last us a good 10 years or something.

Obviously now, with the anticipated arrival of the little one, we would have to consider a bigger car which can accommodate the additional car seat.

My original thought was a Toyota Wish or a Mazda or even a Chevrolet, but my hubby decided that those were not big enough. No, no, he is not thinking of something like the Ford F-150! That would be quite a bit of a trouble for me if there was a need to go to an auto shop!

He was actually thinking of the Estima. While I quite like the idea, it would also mean that the monthly commitment is much much higher than now. And I heard that the maintenance is not cheap either. And I have not seen many workshops where they can check engine light easily!

Can you imagine if anything goes wrong and I am stuck with the kids? It would be like I am looking for a San Diego auto repair shop!! Err, scary!

But anyway, we are not in a hurry though, we are merely looking around to see where the best deals are so that we are prepared when the time comes and we really really need a car.

So, you guys have any ideas on what is a good 7-seater to consider? Low maintenance and reasonable prices are key to us.

5 months on ...

Time flew by really quickly when you are healthy and happy.

It has been more than 5 months since we shifted to the new house. Ryan is still asking if the house is still considered new. He can still remember the condo which we have stayed in for about 8 years.

Megan is oblivious to the whole thing. She cannot remember the condo and I don't think she cares. She just wants to be around us.

Me, I am feeling happy, although I can do with escalators in the house. I really can use it. But I shall not complain. I got what I wanted.

Hubby ... is adjusting well. He says it does not make sense to go out when the house is so cozy. I think he is secretly happy that we moved, despite earlier objections.

I am 36

To many females, age is not something to be revealed.

For me, I am proud to declare my age because to me, it means I have another year to enjoy my kids and my family. It also means I have another year to work on my future.

I think, ageing is great, although I can do with more stamina and less wrinkles!

Have a great birthday to me!

We are shifting house today

Although the new place is not fit enough to be slept in yet, we are holding the prayers and move-in-house ceremony this morning.

I have a mix emotion in me - a little bit of sadness and happiness and excitement. I think generally, this is going to be a good move.

Will update with photos soon.

My baby calls me MA-MA

Being a mother is one thing, but having hear your baby acknowledging it by calling you so is another thing altogether.

Megan is now close to 15 months old and she called me the first time, very clearly, last Friday night when I came home.

She flashed me her big smile and said "Ma-Ma". Sweetest thing ever. Made all the cries and pain tolerable now.

On Sunday afternoon, she heard her daddy come through the door while we were getting ready for our afternoon nap. She said "Da-dy". Her daddy did not hear it, but I did and I just want to hold on to that for a while before I let it out to him.

My baby, she finally acknowledges me.

How my kids delight me

In one of those horrible tired days, my kids delight me in so many ways. Amongst them ...

RYAN: Mum, let's play hide and seek.
ME: No, of course not.
RYAN: Why?
ME: Cause I am too big and I have no where to hide.
RYAN: Aiya, you just hide somewhere lo, your stomach is so soft, people will think it is a pillow!
ME: *not sure I should cry or laugh*

But I should go to the gym more often!

In another, I was on the floor lazing around when Megan came to me grinning away and then proceeded to SIT on my tummy. Then, she decided it was more fun to bounce up and down on me!

Now, she is not exactly light and my tummy is not exactly toned, and so, the pain is truly felt! When I push her off, she comes right back at me, grinning. On top of that, she has discovered that it is more fun to poke my navel than hers!

Her ko-ko is of course finding this all amusing and is rolling off the bed laughing!

Happy New Year 2010!

Can't believe I forgot all about putting a post on this here!

Making my first dream board for 2010

This is my dream board. And this is the first time that I am doing something like this. It details 5 broad areas of my life which I want to focus on in 2010.

From the top left, there is a financial challenge which I want to fulfil. Once it is achieved, I will get a chance to visit the country where the Maori dancers live. And so the hunt begins ...

In the top middle is a place where I hold dear - my family. The words clearly tell how I feel and the kitchen tells the story of where I believe a family is united after a day's, week's of hard work. And so they become my garden of inspiration ...

Towards the bottom left talks about social responsibility. I feel that this is a very important area for everyone especially us parents who inspire to leave the world a better place for our future generations. For this area, my 2 key focus is to be more environmentally friendly - recycle! and also to adopt a child a year. By the time I reach my retirement age, I would have 20 kids!

Bottom centre talks about eating healthy, delicious food and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. More trips to the gym, daily walks around the block in my new place. More spiritual awareness, maintaining balance and harmony in life.

I have allocated the entire right space to things that I want to have for my family and myself - good things. Things which I can have without having to sacrifice our retirement and education funds. Luxury is never an option ...

When I was putting this together, Ryan was busy trying to help and was curious about what I was doing. I told him that this is a dream board which will help realise our goals. His association was immediately with MONEY, hehe. Great start eh?

Here's to a great 2010!

Tender moments with my kids

Both my kids are quite different in their own styles. One of it has to do with sleep.

When Ryan was a baby, he slept in the sarung and we would put him in and set the electronic timer in motion and voila! he will soon be in la-la land. However, we were always fearful about the times we would be away on holiday, how will we be dragging the sarung etc. around??

With Megan, we have conditioned her to sleep on the bed. Although she is on the sarung in nanny's house, at home, she goes on the bed.

Because they both have different bedtimes, Megan about 9-ish while Ryan is about 10-ish, the juggling has to be done right so that while I put Megan to sleep, Ryan is occupied with activities, toys, games etc. so that he does not feel left out.

Tonight was no different and he was on the NET playing with his Handy Manny game. I had gone to put Megan to sleep at 9.30pm and by 10.15pm, she was still nursing! Wow, I had not realised cause I drifted off to la-la land already. What woke me was Ryan's soft steps into the room, he wanted to tell me that the computer had stopped working and he wanted me to go have a look.

I gave him a hand gesture which said "Wait, I will come". He looked at me and then he walked out. Some minutes later, I could feel him next to me cause he got bored outside. This time, he gave me a smile. I gestured the same. After a long while, I could not hear him nor see him. Hmm, quite unusual.

When Megan finally drifted off, I went out to find Ryan playing quietly with his toys and he was telling me "Mummy, I want bread, I am so hungry." Wow, I felt so proud of him, cause I thought that he was actually quite matured considering he is only 4 years old.

Later we sat down for a light supper, fresh milk with biscuits and bread. He was happy all the way and finally went to sleep at 11pm. Barely 10 minutes and he already went off to a good night's rest.

While he was sleeping, I lay beside him watching him sleep and wondered where did all those nights go where I had to pacify him when he was sick, when he was agitated by his tooth growing, the nights when he would nurse and refused to be put down on the bed, the nights I lost my cool and the nights when he was still in my bed. Now, my little baby is growing to be on his own and insist that he sleeps with daddy cause he has his own mattress, he is insisting that he does things on his own simply because he is a "big boy". Sometimes he pushes me away saying that he does not need my help. While I am proud, I am also tearful, although they are tears of joy and pride.

When I sleep at night with Megan and I wake with her by my side, I cannot help but to wonder when she will also tell me that she does not need me, when she will finally graduate from mummy's bed to her own. Megan now takes comfort in knowing that I am around her when she fusses at night. She will soon one day be able to comfort herself quite well without me. I cannot wait for that to happen because it means she has grown really well, but to some extent I also dread that moment. Selfish me ya?

Sigh, these are tender moments in my life which I would protect and preserve for me to reflect and smile, one fine day in the future. What are some of your tender moments with your kids?

Belated entry - Our first outing to KLCC

I cannot believe I actually did not blog about this!

When Megan was born, I was thinking about when I would be able to bring the two of them out to the mall or the park by myself. The reason is because I have this phobia about on how they would both behave and how they would both want different things at the same time.

However, September 26th 2009 marked the day I first ventured out to the big bad world with my 2 babies.

This was the state of the usually full car park in KLCC on a Saturday morning. I was a little concerned about having a screaming baby in the car while looking for a car park, so we all headed down really early.

This was our breakfast. Ryan is mad about his sugar donut and I love my Zest.

We later went to Isetan where Ryan went on his usual round of playing with the toys there. I have a rule on this - only see, no buy. Only when I think I want to, I will splurge on some toys for them, but I do not buy when they are around - bad bad bad.

We close the day with a ride on the amusement rides. This particular one is RM2 per ride and it can accomodate 3 kids. As you can see, my 2 are truly enjoying themselves. I was half afraid that Megan would fall off.

But I had to almost peel her hands off, she was holding on so tight!

A ride with the Paddington Bear. Ryan was holding on to little Megan with all his might. Clearly, he was just as afraid that she would fall off too.

All in all, it was a wonderful day. Short of one incident with Ryan almost having a melt down, the whole outing went really well. And I am happy to report that there have been several others since then. I will post when I finally have the photos up!

House under renovation

I wanted to make a note here that our new house is undergoing renovation works. So exciting. Before we started, we had discussed about the plans and designs etc. However, as we go along, things seem to be changing on a daily basis as we encounter interesting changes.

People say that in order to see how strong your marriage is, one of the things to test is when you undergo renovation works. And it is true! Hubby and I have been at each other to impose our thoughts and ideals. Thankfully it has not gotten to the stage where we are strangling each other!

I guess in the end, it is ultimately the dream we have of our house. A place where we want to be in, a place to go to every night after a long day at work, a place where the kids will laugh and grow as well as the place where we will build and enhance our dreams, a place to call HOME.

It has been almost 2 weeks now ... can't wait for it to complete!

I just realised today ...

...that Megan has now officially spent more time outside of me than inside of me.

Oh how fast 9 months has been! Sometimes it is kind of scary when time flies by so quickly. But I also think that it is because we are healthy and therefore, time passes by.

And now, we are in the last quarter of the year, time to quickly re-check our 2009 new year resolutions and then start thinking about 2010's ones.

I think I am rambling on here ... I am not even sure what my initial thoughts were on this post. Sunday's syndrome I think.

Also, did you notice I changed my background to this blog? Pretty huh?

Have a good week ahead!

Megan's first holiday away from home

September 19th, 2009 is the day my little princess went on her first holiday. We went to Bukit Tinggi for the night. The whole family went including my parents and brother. I was a little stressed since I was not sure how she will react to the trip ... specifically if she will be able to sleep just as well.

Here she is seen sleeping just before we left for Bukit Tinggi. Doesn't she look absolutely adorable? Thankfully, both the kids behaved well throughout the trip. The drive was good except that I felt a little dizzy going up those bends.

Cheeky Ryan seen here when we went to walk at the French street. There was a fair going on and there was a booth where you can use a long fishing rod to fish some ducks out. The numbers on the ducks tells you the size of the prizes.

Ryan's first attempt gave him a "2". It was a medium sized tiger. However, he was not happy since he had wanted a dolphin. He stood around the booth and pouted till the man manning the booth said "Aiya, here you go la." and handed him the dolphin he had wanted. Ryan was delirious!

Megan, the dolphin and Ryan seen here on the mattress the next morning after a blissful night. Ryan was kind enough to let Megan touch and feel the dolphin after holding on to it the whole night. Ryan brought his new set of colour pencils and pens to draw and colour.


The fishes at the Japanese Garden is really big. I was half afraid that Ryan will fall into the water and would be gobbled by the fishes!

Hubby went to pluck some leaves for my boy to feed the deers. Good that he was not afraid of them. However, the deers did not look very well kept. Pity.

Ryan feeding a little bunny here. All the bunnies looked like they could do with a bigger place. However, Ryan enjoyed himself tremendously.

And where was Megan? Asleep in her daddy's arms most of the time. Poor daddy had to suffer from backache from all the weight!

All in all, it was a good trip. For sure we shall repeat this some day. We were thinking of getting the kids to an island trip soon. Any ideas which island would be good?

13 years together

13 years ago, on 17th September 1996, hubby and I got together as a couple and embrace life's journey. What a time it had been!

Many laughter, many tears and for most part of it, it was pretty cool.

We have our ups and downs and we also have a lot of silent moments in between. However, I think it is safe to say that it has been very eventful - we got 2 kids didn't we?!

As opposed to when we first started to go out and all, the celebration we had today was a simple dinner (without the kids) and then we headed home for the kids. Before, we used to take long walks and midnight conversations. Now, the hubby is asleep with the kids. How things have changed. Although I sometimes miss the way we used to celebrate, I am not complaining about the current state.

Hubby said this to me just now over dinner when I proposed we go somewhere after makan "Nothing is now more important than going home to the kids" ... wow, what a change from "Let's go somewhere nice for dinner and then we can catch a movie and then supper and then we can go for coffee/ tea and talk".

Nice change though huh?

Spoiling my kids with toys

When Ryan was a baby, I remember I used to go into a toy shop every week, sometimes everyday to look at toys. I was in the mode where I thought every second my kid was without toys, it meant that he was not going to be stimulated enough and that he was going to have brain damage etc.

Being in that mode meant that I was constantly buying toys and I would not settle for anything less than Fisher-Price. My hubby thought I had bought shares in them!

Today, I found myself at the toy section again, and I found myself once more fascinated with the toys they had on the shelves. After 30 minutes or so, I ended up with 2 toys for my kids.

This is the Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Cookie Shape Surprise toys which teaches kids about shapes and rewarding them with music when the right shape goes in. Although I bought it for Megan, it was more for Ryan to help teach her. I figured, that would be great to help them help each other. Too ideal? This is the Playskool Busy Chase n Crawl Duckies. Megan is creeping now and I figured this would be great for her to chase around. I love the way the duckies keep rotating each time it rolls.

And I am feeling a little addictive to my kids' expression when I gave them the toys. I think I might just go back to the toys section again soon. ; )

My online store@ www.busybeemum.com

Yay!! On 1st September 2009, I opened my online store at http://www.busybeemum.com!

I have been considering my own shop/ store for the longest time and I always have constraints in my ventures. Be it time or capital and it has always held me back. However, with the power of the web, I figured this seems to be quite a logical route to take and try out.

Further more, I am very motivated by Penny and her online store. Since my kids are my life now, I figured something to do with them would blend in very well. And so, I decided on offering kids' clothes, from newborn to about 5 years old.

Since the thought got stuck to my head, I have been spending quite a bit of time sourcing on products as well as deciding the terms and the layout of the website. Thinking of the brands to carry and who my target is has also taken some time.

While I would not say that I have nailed it down to a T, I have gotten some basics in place. And so, my Busy Bee Mum Online Store was launched. I am still figuring out things on the way and I am still trying to source for products, so frequent visits to the site will bring you pleasant surprise!

Come visit then!