Big Hairy Tooth Fairy

Kids no.3 and 4 are having a very bad chesty cough, so I borrowed Sis no.2's nebulizer set to use at home, to save us time and money consuming trips to the doctor.

This helps a lot, as the noisy machine is not as scary at home as it is at the clinic. Solomon used to have to be held down by three people just to get through a session (see here), but now he holds the mouthpiece by himself and sometimes even fights with jie jie to see who goes first! :)

In other news...

Claire has received her very first 'payout' from the big 'ol Tooth Fairy who luckily happened to be in Kuching this week and not Bintulu! :)

It's funny that this is the third tooth (the first two she either lost or swallowed down before having a chance to put under her pillow!) Claire has lost, 'cos she's only 5 years old and kids usually start losing their milk teeth averagely at age 7. She lost the two bottom front teeth first and there were already permanent teeth pushing up from below. Now, the latest one which earned her RM10 is an upper front tooth, but there's so far no sign of the replacement yet...

That's her tooth in a plastic bag she's holding up!

Pretty lucrative eh, this business of losing teeth?...

High speed chase

This morning, at around 8:58am, a very 'interesting' (I currently lack 'decent' adjectives to describe this curious experience!) thing happened! We were involved in a high speed car chase!!

Seriously!!

Okay, it wasn't really that high speed like in the cop shows on t.v. with drifting and all that, since the two cars involved was my 'mummy car' (an Avanza), and a wee little Perodua Viva. We were going maybe maximum 80km/h? :)    (bear in mind small road and plenty of traffic)

Alright, alright, I'll rewind a bit...

So, it's a Sunday, and Annie has ballet class at 9am. Hubby and I, along with Solomon pile into the car to send Annie for class. As we approach a T-junction and slow down to stop before entering the main road, an idiot (the kindest word I can think of at the moment) turns in from the main road. He turns too wide and cuts into our lane, so Hubby swerves to the left to avoid him. It is too late and he clips the rear end of our car and scratches the back door and bottom right bumper/mudguard whatever thingy.

And guess what???

Guess???

He keeps going!!!!!

We are in a bit of a shock and there I am still thinking maybe he didn't know he hit us? 'Cos I just cannot fathom how a person can just drive off after hitting another car! Like maybe the loud bang... scratch... and jarring impact somehow escaped him??!! Nope.. don't think so...

Thank God Hubby was with me, if it was just me, I think I would've just sat there, frozen in shock, not knowing what to do!

So anyway, Hubby swings the car around and goes after him. He honks his horn and there's no way the idiot doesn't know it's him we are after! And he keeps driving away!!

After going straight, he turns into another road. Hubby catches up with him and manages to cut him off with our car and he has no choice but to stop... for a while... then...

He turns his car around and drives off in the other direction!! Hubby is really 'hot' now and Annie's quiet at the back and sooo gonna be late for her ballet!! :)

After tailing him for a little distance more, Hubby decides to let him go. With us in the car, it's not worth driving recklessly to get to the idiot! I guess we have to put things in perspective and not, in the heat of the moment, cause even more damage!

I suppose it's a good thing we didn't get to him, 'cos I think Hubby would've started a fight, what with the superheated mood he was in!! And a confrontation would not be good news... I saw 2 men in front and am not sure if there were anymore behind. It would've been traumatizing for the kids to witness too! Luckily Hubby has the ability to maintain a level head in such a condition, where some people's minds would've overridden logic, whereas others still, like me, would've totally jammed!! :)

Well, at least the damage is not too bad... Just another scratch (pretty big though) to add to my collection!

If we thought the Malaysian police would actually do something (other than recording and filing) if we reported it, we would. But alas...

So if anyone sees QAT 790, a silver Perodua Viva, parked on the roadside or something, do me a favour and give it a good strong kick in the rear!!! :)

Cupcake workshop

On the morning after Hubby's friend Leo's wedding, I took the opportunity to have some friends over, since the house was empty 'cos the kids had all been packed and shipped off to Grandpa's the night before! :) Many of my friends are also interested in cake decorating, so three of them, my old schoolmates, came over and we had a grand time making fondant cupcakes.

Here are the pics:

the three lovely ladies..

and their equally lovely creations...

we should do this again soon :)

Kindy open day

While Hubby was busy with his buddy's wedding activities on Saturday, I was preoccupied with kids 1 through 4. Solomon was running a high temperature, Annie had Taekwondo and music classes which she had to be ferried to and fro from, and Claire and Eva were participating in their kindergarten's Open Day.

At their kindy open day, there were various activities going on in the individual classrooms:

stamping with banana stems and carved potatoes...

learning about magnets via 'fishing'...

instilling environmental awareness by recycling paper...

computer aided learning... Annie hung around awhile because her Taekwondo class started later and was being held just around the corner in an adjoining block. Solomon was left at home with Sidekick to get some rest.

Here they volunteered to be interviewed! They'd do anything for candy! :)

A wee little 4 year old boy sang while playing the ukulele! If I am not mistaken, he has two older brothers who are also super talented with the guitar. He couldn't even pronounce his 'L' sound yet, so he was going,"Yu ya ya yu ya ya yu ya yu ya yay..." Too cute...

Then Eva participated in a telematch game where she had to run to a toy house and pick out her name from a bunch of paper gingerbread men cut-outs and run back and tag her teammate.

Claire's year did a dance to the 'Shalalalala' song.

They have all been practicing for months for this special occasion and everyone of them did extremely well! That day, the school was full of parents with cameras snapping away and you could see their faces beaming with pride!

More wedding bells

Another of Hubby's friends, Leo and Angelia, got married on Saturday. Hubby gets really happy when one of his friends get married, cos we married young compared to our peers and he's had to wait a long time since our wedding to attend any of his friends' weddings! His peers (men seem to marry later) are only now getting married or expecting their first child, while Hubby and I are celebrating our 10th anniversary come this December!

Attending someone else wedding is so much more fun than attending our own! Our wedding was so stressful and tiring (especially on the facial muscles), that we were so relieved when everything came to an end after the long months of preparation. I think majestic 8 course Chinese dinners where almost the whole town is invited is staged more for the benefit of our parents, rather than our own! Never mind, we'll torture our kids when it's their time to get married! :)

So anyway, happy Hubby + wedding dinner alcohol = mabuk.

Here are the top 3 ways to tell when Hubby has had one to many:

3. the headlock - he will show his affection (which is overflowing when he's tipsy) with a loving headlock. (yes, my head is also not spared)

2. the Japanese water torture - except he uses Chivas Regal

1. the 100% guaranteed way to tell he's gone... the hands in the air! :)

Well, back to the wedding...

So there's this Chinese custom, where the groom knocks on the door of the home of the bride, on the morning of the wedding, to seek permission to enter and claim his bride. The 'sisters' of the bride will then subject the groom and his 'brothers' to some form of mild 'torture' or humiliation or tests to earn entry. Hubby was part of the entourage... luckily the ladies were gentle on them!

 they had to apply lipstick and put on pink girlie hairbands...

he had to do push-ups cos the groom answered a question wrong...

 everyone had to dance...

Hubby drank pure lime juice...(notice all the 'pretty boys' at the back!)

another ate noodles with chilli padi...

and the groom waxed his leg!

after all that hard work, and then searching for the key, he finally got to his beloved :)

For the rest of the day, they had the Chinese tea ceremony at both parents' homes, a wedding mass at church and lunch.

Then came the grand finale, the dinner at The Hilton:

a lot of their old schoolmates travelled home for this joyous occasion.

all the boys singing their St. Joseph's school rally on stage! (after 'a few' drinks...)

I made this for them...

Congratulations Leo and Angelia!

Beach babes

Sun....

Surf...

Sand...

Glorious peaceful serenity wouldn't you think...?


Nope...


Not when you're accompanied by these four cheeky monkeys!

So, Hubby came back last week for Kung Kung's birthday and was supposed to bring us to the beach the  following day for a two-night stay. Unfortunately, he had to fly back to Bintulu the next morning for an unexpected meeting!

That meant I had to bring the kids myself. I couldn't cancel the trip, because the kids had been looking forward to it for ages, and furthermore, I had already paid for it.

The beach is less than an hour's drive from town. I drove the kids up and we stayed at a front row chalet which was absolutely wonderful, because the beach was right in front of the room. I could keep an eye on the kids at the beach from a lounge chair right outside our door.

Hubby luckily managed to come back on the second night of our stay and took a taxi from the airport right up to the resort! Cousins Allyson and Michelle also joined us cos their Mummy and Daddy went off to climb Mount Kinabalu for the second time!

I took loads of photos on the first day since I was bored without Hubby around. Luckily I did, because it was nice and sunny and the pics turned out really well. The other two days that we were there was rainy and overcast.

The kids had a blast building sandcastles, digging holes and basically just flinging sand around...

Climbing coconut trees...

Playing at the surf...

Playing at the pool...

And of course, catching tiny fish!

Solomon especially enjoyed himself, while Eva still didn't like getting dirty much and sometimes preferred to stay in the room watching t.v.! :)

Well, everyone had a great time, and went home happier.... and a few shades darker.

Kung Kung is 70

We celebrated Kung Kung Paul's real 70th birthday last Wednesday. I say 'real' because last year Hubby wanted to do a big celebration for his 70th birthday, but when he found out it was actually only his 69th birthday, he still wanted to go ahead as planned and decided we would celebrate his Chinese 70th birthday then! (Chinese age is a year ahead of 'western' age.)

So anyway, we had a lovely dinner at Sarawak club and everyone ate too much as usual!

 The food was spectacular...

Happy Birthday Kung Kung.

Solomon's progress

Solomon seemed to enjoy school, it's activities and surroundings. For the first week, he enjoyed playing with the many toys and singing along with the teachers. He especially loved water play! He would however cry if he realised Sidekick and I were missing! Sidekick still follows him to school and leaves the room when he seems more settled.

Last week was Hari Raya holidays. Solomon's school had classes as usual but he did not attend, as his sisters were all on a whole week of school break.

This week, after the break, he does not seem as keen about school as before. Perhaps the novelty has worn off and he prefers the comfort of home to the new surroundings. This morning he totally refused to wear his school uniform so I just let him go in normal clothes. Sidekick reports that there are a few new students who keep crying and that makes Solomon want to cry as well! Also, one of them is a naughty girl who disturbs Solomon and his school bag and he being timid will just whine to Sidekick! I do think this is his first school bullying!! :)

Today he refused to join the other kids as they sat on the floor playing. He preferred to sit at his desk with all his belongings (bag and bottle) on the table and his arms protectively around them! :)

I do hope he learns to love school soon!