This is how William pretends to sleep

Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping? William boy...

Gotcha, mummy!!!
Happy 2nd Birthday today, my boy boy! May God bless you with infectious smiles and laughters, love multiplied and good health to last!

I will post more on his birthday in the next few days (hopefully got time)

First Indian barber haircut

About a month back, we brought the kids and ex-maid for a haircut. Daddy needed one too, so we all went to our friendly neighborhood Indian barber - this is one of the things we believe in doing ie supporting local neighborhood small business.

Just a little history on the kids' hairdressers. Eversince birth, William have been going to this lady hairdresser who operates from her house called, Aunty Ah Tan, in Seremban. Vic used to patronise Aunty Ah Tan as well, until she reach over a year old I think, and we wanted to leave her hair long, and so we cut her fringe ourselves. Daddy attempted once which left her with a very modern zig zag fringe during the year-end festive season, thereafter Daddy vowed never to cut her fringe again, and so I took over the noble job which saves us RM8 every 2-3 months.

As for William, he has not been cooperative whenever I try to cut his hair, not that I was confident enough to do that in the first place, because cutting boys' hair is very different from cutting a girl's. There's also no room for mistakes. So every few months when his hair touches his ears, we will coincide a hairdresser visit for him during our visit back to Seremban.

However, going back to Seremban is getting more rare with the kids' activities and our busy schedule. The kids do miss visiting their grandparents in Seremban though, especially Vic.

Back to the Indian barber haircut. So William sat on Daddy's lap whilst the Indian barber snip snip and shave shave away. He was very curious, very cooperative and didn't cry and didin't fidget.

Then it was the (ex) maid's turn. And Daddy's. By this time, Vic wanted to join in what looked like fun to her. So I asked Uncle Indian Barber if he could just trim her fringe without any charge. And I think Vic flash him a hopeful smile that sealed the deal.

So this is the first Indian haircut for both the kids. Unfortunately my camera battery went flat after I took William's pictures.

Many ways of showing love

My 5 year old is very matured now. She has grown up exceptionally during the past one week, helping me to watch over little brother William as I finish off some chores, or cook their meals. She's endured some pinches and hits from her playful brother without retaliation, but merely reporting to us with added whines and grumbling of course.

During William's pre-birthday celebration at Souled Out, she wanted to eat pasta, but the pasta was spicy, because it contained cajun. So the next day, I decided to cook pasta for the kids, chicken bolognese style, with chopped fresh tomatoes, golden fried potatoes (thought she liked this, because potatoes used to be her fav... but season's changed now, and I only realised), mixed herbs and melted cheese on top.

At night, as I put the kids to sleep, she thanked me for cooking the pasta for her. Aaahhh, so sweet.

Yesterday too as my hands was full with things to bring into the room and I hurried William along to come along, he kept back his things and then just as he was headed towards me, he turned around. I nagged him again to hurry up, only to stop short when I realised he went back to take my 1600ml water tumbler for me to drink. Totally totally touched.

And when he drinks his milk at night, he'll continue to hold my hair and look at me in the eyes... such a loverboy!

William's pre-birthday celebration

Today we celebrated William's birthday very impromptu at Souled Out. It was supposed to be a normal dinner since we had a voucher to use, but hubby last minute thought why not just celebrate for him as well... get a free cake mah! Haha... so here are some pictures to feast your eyes on.

The SO banana split that we all shared... rum n raisin for me, choc for MIL, strawberry for hubs, bananas and corn flakes for vic and choc sticks for william, but RM28 for this is SO NOT worth it

Drawing picture of Mama

Finger licking good, this carrot cake
Jie jie help blow the candles for him. He tried, but can't.
Very serious birthday boy...
Look at the funny glasses the waiters put on him... and William was so sporting too! Vic as usual was camera shy...
One for the album... my soon-to-be 2 year old. Forever my boy boy.

Picnic at TTDI park

These pictures were taken the day after Vic celebrated her 5th birthday. We spent the morning at Taman Tun Dr Ismail park, catching little fishes and bicyling for the kids.

I let the pictures do the talking...

April 10th: What an incredible day it was!

Yesterday we celebrated Victoria's 5th birthday.

The night before, she got to sleep as late as she wanted to, which was past midnight (she was born past midnight also).

Vic was a happy girl on her birthday.

She had her Popo Gong Gong come to PJ and spend the weekend with us, and brought her cousin sister Grace as a surprise!

She got to ride her bicycle out in the porch for almost as long as she'd like, and play with her cousin and then sleep for awhile in the afternoon before going out for a pre-booked dinner at Bavarian Wirtsthaus in Ara Damansara.

BW is a new place to us and belong to an acquitance. It sounds and serves German but the ambience in the restaurant is more like a normal Western pub/restaurant. We called two days before to enquire on the menu and pre-ordered two pork knuckles.

Vic has mentioned that she wanted to eat sausages for her birthday. I know she missed this eversince we got back from the UK, where she got to eat sausages almost every other day. But here, I don't like to buy the packed ones and don't entirely trust the sausages from some of the hypermarkets (as I remembered seeing a Mickey Mouse roaming around Carefour some time back).

So here we are, slightly past 7pm at BW, together with Popo Gong Gong and cousin Grace, Yee Sok, Yee Sam with baby Theodore and Mama Yeh Yeh who just arrived back in Malaysia from NZ early that morning itself. We are truly honored to have everyone come to celebrate Victoria's aging.. haha, ok, her 5th birthday!

We ordered the homemade bratswust for both the kids, but only Vic enjoyed hers whilst William preferred the Nuerenberg sausage which he swapped some of this bratwust with cousin Grace. The side dishes were served as centre dishes, consisting of saverkraut, mashed potatoes, fried potatos with bacon and onions (this is my favorite), red cabbage, radish and bread. After half way through our dinner, the two pork knuckles were served.

My review of the food? The side dishes were nice but I was disappointed with the size of the bratwust as you can see from the pictures, they are not very huge. I remembered having enormous ones many years back at another German restaurant and filling myself with so much meat until I almost vowed to be a vegan! The owners could also do a little more with the air condition there (not cold at all) and do up the deco to create more german ambience.

However, service was alright, and food was served within reasonable time. The owners even condoned off our area to be non smoking, at the request of hubby who knew the boss. But the company was great... I couldn't ask for anything else. What was more important was that Vic was truly happy. After stuffing herself and fulfilling her craving, she went around hugging everyone (I put this condition on her) before she could open her present.

Vic was sporting, and I love her more for that. That's being a good host. She got really excited when she saw that we bought her, not one, but TWO Transformers and her much-desired mini umbrella. Haha... woots! Immediately she said she will share with William, and I think she's so generous lar.

The surprises didn't end there. That's just the first. After opening her present, the staff brought out her surprise jelly cake, with her favourite charactor BEN 10 in sugar paper on her cake and colourful alphabets candle.

Back home, we gave her the 3rd surprise, which is her organic, egg-free, dairy-free strawberry ice cream. The other box and flavor, we will reserve for the 4th surprise later this week.

Tired girl, but happy girl.

God bless you with overflowing blessings, loved ones to surround you, good studies and most importantly, complete healing from all your allergies and good health. God bless you so much, my darling Victoria that you will in turn be a blessing to others, just like what you are to us now.

Having her bratwurst


Her Ben 10 jelly birthday cake. William had his first taste of jelly cake on his yeh yeh's lap
I love you sooo much, Daddy
The homemade bratwurst which is not very big.
Pork knuckle. Rather dry. Got leftovers so I will make soup or porridge of out it.


Eat cake, Honey
Her Transformers toys. She thanked me for buying them.

Preparations for Vic's birthday

Today I brought William and the maid out in the morning to Bangsar Shopping Centre to kill two birds in one stone. I wanted to buy the kids' birthday presents at Toys R Us and Vic has mentioned that "if it is cheap" she wants those little cars that can change to robots... I told her they are called Transformers.

Don't be surprise, my little angel girl loves all sorts of boys toys, from Ben 10 which is still her current craze, to Transformers and also Spiderman. I don't know how she get so hooked to all these because she doesn't watch TV or Astro at home, and definitely none of these animations or cartoons.

William was busy going through all the toys, and naturally he went for all the big cars and trucks. He couldn't decide which he wanted when we showed him two choices of our shortlisted toys. Smart boy stared at both the toys and then grabbed BOTH at the same time! When daddy went to pay, he quickly took another excavator toy and put it on the cashier table, insisting that daddy paid for that as well. The cashier helped us hide that toy, though. Hehe..

And then I wanted to get her surprise ice cream, the gluten free, egg free organic soy ice cream from the Organic Farm Shop (where we became member on the very same day we received news that she had numerous allergies - September 2008). They used to sell these ice cream in normal food containers and only came in soy flavor, but now they put them in sleek black ice cream containers, with a label, cheaper than what we used to pay, and comes in two yummy flavours ie vanilla and strawberry. We took two boxes immediately.

So my plan was this. Call the school today and tell the teacher we would like to have a surprise birthday party for her during recess time tomorrow. But bad news, and all my fault. The teacher informed me that I need to fill a form a week in advance, and they don't allow celebrations on Fridays as the kids have a different programme on Fridays. Yikes, so looks like it has to be a belated celebration for Vic with her classmates next week. Of course this is a surprise, and Vic doesn't know anything about this.

Saturday April 10th is her actual birthday. We have planned a dinner party (very small scale) at a German restaurant in Ara Damansara. I made some enquiries today and placed the booking (and ordered two pork knuckles in advance). Why German? Because the little girl has said she would like to eat sausages, so who serves the best sausages in town than the Germans, right? This place is run by hubby's customer and I do hope the food is yummylicious!

She has seen the two packs of presents (one for William bought in advance) and they are not hidden on top of the bookshelves, so no itchy fingers can "accidentally" open the presents. I only gave her a clue that her presents comes in three, beginning with a "T" and another beginning with a "U".

Any guesses? Hehe.

William as he is now

My William. He used to hold my hair a lot, when he sleeps to when he stirs to when he plays with me. Even when I carry him, he will have one hand behind my neck clutching on to my hair.
But now he does not do that so often. I'm quite missing that.

William is tall. Everyone says so, and some commented that he doesn't look like a toddler approaching 2. He looks like 2.5yo, maybe. But he doesn't speak a lot, yet he understands the things that we says. Of course because he doesn't speak a lot we never know if he does understand us, but then he surprises us by responding in action. Like, when I say quietly to hubby that I will be going out soon, and I will need to sneak away to avoid a laugai toddler wanting to follow... my William immediately springs into action by heading towards the door or insisting that I carry him.

But he does speak. He speaks in his own baby-ish tones and is so cute when he pronounces certain words his way. He has spoken more words in the past one month after we tell him he needs to, and we try to remind ourselves not to speak on his behalf or understand him too easily, which makes him lazy to express himself. He knows how to call relatives and grandparents, and name colors and says 1 to 10, and he says all the flash cards pretty correctly and says his favourite items without being coaxed to, such as "Nut" for coconut, and "truck" or "jie jie school" or "sit car".

But William is shy. When he is, he will twirl his tongue.

I ask William who is a good boy, he says Jie Jie. I ask him who is a good girl then, he says William. Haiyoo, and then I ask him, "Is William a boy or a girl?" and he answers me proundly, "Girl!" Haha, I think that's because he hears us calling Victoria a girl and thinks he is one too. On the other hand, my Victoria wants to be a boy.

William likes his vegetables. We thank God for that. Unlike his jie jie who always puts aside her vege to eat last. He recently developed a love for plain white taufu, which I discovered last weekend when we had dinner at Vietnamese Kitchen. From then onwards, he kept asking me for "tohfooo." He still ask for more Scotts Emulsion after been given one spoonful. Like most other food items, what William likes, Victoria dislikes.

But the two kids do share some things in common. For example, both would "fight" over who gets to wear the Mickey Mouse crocs, which belongs to Vic. I have a shake-head Mickey Mouse (moves when under solar energy) in my car, which William adores and attempts to behead whenever he has the chance. He has also recently taken on an interest to Thomas & Friends because it's all about trains, and then he still likes his trucks and all heavy vehicles especially the excavator which he says, "Scoop, pour!"

And he still adores The Donutman series (especially Barnyard Fun showing all the farm animals) and irritates me to the max by taking out all the CDs and putting everywhere.

William is easily over 15kg by now as he approaches 2. I find it tiring to carry him for long, but happy that I still can. Recently he has climbed up and down the stairs in our house all by himself. Two flights of it. Having said this, we would still rush to his side if we see him going up the stairs himself.

My William. It seemed like not too long ago when I was busy liaising with the hotel and arranging for the Barney mascot and magician and planning for both the kids' joint birthday party to celebrate Vic's 4th and William's 1st birthday.

My William. He used to look at me and give me a nice wet kiss on my cheeks and then he smiles. Now he kisses me mucha-mucha style without as much as look at me. I think I must make this a daily habit before he entirely forgets to kiss his mother.

Boy boy, you are growing up way too fast.

Victoria tells me...

... she wants to be a pilot now. That's her ambition because she likes to fly the aeroplane.

... when she die she will go to heaven with Heh Heh.

... she will play with William in heaven, and Daddy and Mummy can join if we want.

... she wants to go to heaven now (Mummy says, NOOOOO you're too young!).

... she wants Daddy to teach her to ride her bicycle with only two wheels and not four.

... she would like to have a robot toy that can change into a car (Transformers) so that she can share with William.

... that she misses Kakak Yana.

... that she wish our new kakak can do her work well, so that she, William, mummy, Daddy and Kakak can all go to the playground.

... that she loves me so much that she wants to marry me. : ) I say no, she can't marry her own mother. Then she says she will marry William. Then William and me. I smiled. This is then that I explain to her that she must marry someone NOT in the family, and from the opposite gender.

What to wear for church service?

I was trying to wake my sleeping beauty up for the evening church service. As usual, she takes a long time just to stir before she even gets up. So I used Heh Heh to asked her something close to heart.

Heh Heh asked, "Hey, mummy wants to know what you want to wear later for church?"

With eyes still closed, Victoria mumbled, "Just panties, that's all." Then she turned around and went back to lala land.

Hhmmpk.

The maid that left...

The early days...

A month before William was born, my maid (now considered the old/previous) finally arrived after more than 3 months of waiting for her. I remembered the day I picked Yana up from the agency I was heavily pregnant at 8 months. A car was parked very close to mine after we left the agency, and I was trying to squeeze my belly into the driver's seat. Yana quickly showed concern.

Then when I wanted to buy her lunch, she insisted she is not hungry and that I shouldn't bother. She was hardworking right from the very minute that she arrived, and was eager to work. She had initiative, quick to finish her task and spoke well.

She showed interest in my kids while on the way to the house from the agency and asked about their names. I remembered how she offered to carry Victoria the very moment she saw her. And how observant she was when she mentioned to me that Victoria's nails were rather long and needed to be cut, and how she helped my mother-in-law out of the car to the clinic without being told to.

After the first month that William was born and just a week before the confinement lady take off, Yana offered to give William bath, under the supervision of the confinement lady and myself. She was eager to help me look after little William, and she did her job well.

Sure there were many unpleasant times when she did things her way, or go into her emotional outburst after being scolded. But undeniably she was a good worker, never taking time off for herself during "working hours" and quick in her thinking. During the episodes when the kids were admitted to the hospital, Yana helped me a great deal by keeping the house clean, and cooking for the family, doing her work without my supervision. Sometimes I feel she can think like me, doing things ahead of me without being told, and knowing my standard of hygiene.

I cherish most those times when I planned the day's menu and she executes it to her best. The first Sunday in church with the new maid, I immediately missed the old maid. Even Victoria felt the same.

Her relationship with Victoria started of as good friends, teaching Vic how to sing Indonesian songs, coloring and painting with Vic, etc and towards the last 6 months it was more of a love-hate relationship as Vic grows older and begins to have her own opinion, the two of them sometimes clash.

As for William, I would like to think that Yana treated him well, from feeding him milk and putting him to sleep during the day time, to playing with him whilst I rest or do my work, and cooking his porridge and bathing him.

However, there were those times when we got so angry at her for being careless with William and as a result causing some minor cuts and bruises on him, there were times when we got angry at her for talking back, for not admitting her mistake, for reinterating herself as high and mighty (she is actually an above average maid as she can cook very well, clean, take care of baby/kids, garden, sew and even massage!).

Taken on Yana's last working day

Then came the new maid. She is nothing like Yana. From the first day here, she has not shown much interest to get to know the kids, nor does she fare well in her chores. Obviously the kids have not accepted her, not even now after close to 2 months. She doesn't know hygiene and speaks in her funny lingual although she is from the same side of land as my previous maid. She needs a lot of supervision and even does wrong right after being told how to.

I know there is no such thing as a perfect maid. Although I know William will not remember Yana, but I want him to know that she played a part in his life, and despite her flaws and some unpleasant episodes, I think she's been a blessing nonetheless, and placed in my life at the right time.

In the meantime, let's hope the new maid bucks up.