Handy Manny

Here's Solomon 'fixing' his toy telephone (there's nothing wrong with it of course). He'll go to the drawer and get the screwdriver and batteries and fiddle with the back of battery-operated toys. He even asked me to cut a piece of brown sticky tape which he stuck on his toy. I think he get this from Mummy who fixes everything with sticky tape!! :)

Solomon loooves tools, rackets and balls of all sizes, anything with wheels and also guns (love of guns definitely from Daddy)! I wonder why this comes automatically with the Y chromosome? He grew up with more pink girlie toys in the house, considering he has 3 sisters, yet he obviously prefers "boys' toys". Interesting...

This is his toy tool box. He calls it his Handy Manny bag. Two nights ago, when we were at Kenyalang shoppping centre, he spied another set of toy tools hanging in a shop. He wanted it and started crying and screaming, sitting on the floor (luckily wasn't rolling on the floor... maybe cause there was not enough space in the cramped shop!!)! :)

I had been thinking of getting him more tools to add to his collection, but I did not want to reward his screaming, lest it become a habit and we can never go shopping again!! So I will get the toys some other day.

I think it is important that we do not give in to their tantrums. Solomon just turned 2 last year and is now showing all the signs and symptoms of the 'terrible twos'!!

Starting around two weeks ago, he would scream when he cried! Like really loud, until his voice gets hoarse! Eva just got out of this phase last year, when she turned four. Now it's Solomon's turn!! *sigh*

I remember when Annie was around this age, and I still sold ice-cream at my pharmacy shop. There was this one day that she wanted ice-cream and I did not allow her. She cried and screamed and rolled all over the floor for around half an hour! After that, she never demanded for ice-cream from my shop anymore. She realized it was futile. I still sell candy and chocolates at the shop but the kids know that it's not for them. If I do not train them like so, how would I ever be able to bring them to the shop everyday without going mad or having all their teeth fall out!! :)

Anyway, Solomon still screams when he cries nowadays, and I suppose this will go on for another year or two. But he is otherwise a good-natured little boy and is very brave when he goes to school in the mornings cause even though he's okay most mornings, at times I can see he is trying his best not to cry! :)

Questions

Claire comes up with the most interesting questions.

In the car just now, she asked me, "Can we drink our own tears?"
"You know, the water that comes out from our eyes?"
"If we collected them in a cup, can we drink it???!!"

I don't know where she gets these questions from...

...but she did mention something about Sponge Bob Squarepants!! :)

Boulevard

I'd heard about the playground at Boulevard, a shopping mall here, but never made the effort to check it out. This is cause I find the parking there atrocious, which is why I've only ever been to Boulevard maybe twice or thrice, since it opened. Apparently Annie also heard of this place from her friends and did ask more than once whether we could go.

So since Hubby was around, I decided it would be a good time to scout out the place, cause I could just relax in the car, while Hubby did the maneouvering around the lousily-planned car park. (FYI, he just parked on the yellow line on the main road in front of the mall instead!!) -_-

So anyway, after lunch at Kenny Rogers, we went searching for this wonderful playground/ kid's utopia, place. It took a while till we found our way to the top floor. It was a large caged up area with plenty of slides and such.

There was an entrance fee of RM1 per royal child and us adult slaves and ladies-in-waiting got in for free! They had massage chairs which we could use for RM2 per half hour. It's such a good idea, we can relax while keeping an eye on the mini monsters, but alas, they were all in use.

Wouldn't it be great if they had this at Spring (another bigger, better shopping mall)? Better still, take it to the next level and provide childcare! *sigh* That would be every parent's dream come true!

Well, anyway, the kids had a blast! Annie was a very good jie jie and took care of everyone. Sidekick didn't follow and Hubby and I left them to fend for themselves. We just watched from the benches. There were a lot of kids running about, so I did half expect some collisions, but fortunately all went well.

It's a good place to let kids release their excessive energy, so I guess we'll be back again someday.

Wonder if I can bring my own masseuse...

Just wondering...

I was just wondering... why is it that the guy who sells bananas out of the back of his van, down the road from  my shop does not have to pay for parking?

He parks his van at a parking lot owned by the city council, and everyone has to pay for parking when we use one of these spots. I for one have to pay RM48 every month just to park my car outside my pharmacy.

So I'm thinking, in order to save RM48 a month, maybe I should just leave the boot of my Avanza open and hang a few bunches of bananas??!!! hahahaha...

Chiak pa bo su cho...

You recall the photo I put up in my previous post, of the Air Asia plane which skidded on the Kuching International Airport runway a couple of days ago? Well, I got that photo from Facebook.

I've since come to the conclusion that most FB users are seriously 'chiak pa bo su cho' (direct translation; after eat nothing to do)! This is because a day later, this photo emerged:

Then, later that night, it became this:

Hahahahaha!!!!

Ultraman sekali lagi telah menghapuskan raksasa makhluk asing!!!
Syabas!!!

First birthday of the year...

The first to celebrate his birthday every year is Marc. His birthday is on the 12th of January, so we celebrated it last Sunday at the condo.

Swimming...

yummy food...

and cake...

= PARTY!

Listen to the rythm of the falling rain...

Telling me just what a fool I've been... *ding dong.. ding dong...* (how else can you spell that sound... hmm??!!)

I wish that it would go and let me cry in vain.... and let me be alone again....

Well, it rained the whole night last night... and I mean by the buckets, not just drizzles...

So one of my staff called me this morning to tell me she's flooded in and can't get to work. It happens every year (she lives in Bau)! Come Chinese New Year, flash floods will be common occurrences. 

There was one year when Hubby had to wade through waist-high flood waters to reach his aunt's house to help them move their furniture to safer heights! That year, some houses had their whole ground floor submerged! Scary...

Hubby says, we're lucky we live on the 11th floor!!! Hahahaha...

As I'm typing away, it's still raining!! With no signs of it letting up! *sigh* Getting up for school wasn't easy this morning and everyone's in a lazy mood. Wouldn't it be nice to stay home and bake cookies or something? :)

The reality however, is filled with work, school, tuition and errands... so nope, no cookies...


Oh yes... FYI, an Air Asia plane skidded on the runway while landing, amidst heavy rain, at Kuching International Airport last night. It's wheels are stuck in the mud, so the plane is smack on the runway, preventing other planes from landing or taking off.

Luckily there were no casualties, but I think I'll stick to MAS whenever possible, thankyouverymuch...

Creaking bones

It's funny how we remember random, seemingly insignificant, little details of our childhood. One warm, fuzzy memory I have of being a kid, is hearing the occasional bones creaking/clicking noises which my mum made as she moved about the house. I guess it was comforting to know mum was nearby.

I was wondering if it was weird that I would remember something like that, until recently Annie asked me this,"Mum, why is it when you or Kakak move about your body makes noises?"

I told her, "I suppose we're getting old and our bones are starting to creak! "

And she replied simply, "I like it."

Guess I'm not the only weird one...  :)

Floating lantern

On Christmas eve, when we were at Kung Kung Titus' house, we 'launched' a floating/ flying lantern. The kids had been pestering Daddy to get them a floating lantern since they saw a photo in my phone of him playing one in Bintulu on Mooncake Festival night.

When we went to watch the animated film 'Rapunzel: A Tangled Tale", they became even more enamored with the lanterns and renewed their pestering. (Floating lanterns were a feature in that movie.)

Anyway, Hubby finally got them and even I was enchanted by a lantern that could fly. It was basically your own mini hot air balloon! We only played one, because images of lanterns crashing and houses on fire were going through my head!! :)

All the kids were excited and jumped up and down, shouting when the lantern took off gracefully into the night sky. The adults were rather excited too actually! :)

It was pretty awesome!

You should also see the instructions which come on the packaging of the lantern. It is made in China and the English translations are hilarious and make absolutely no sense!! Here's some of them:

And my favourite....

do not forget Wishing oh....

All over again...

It's 2011, and school officially started yesterday. So it's back to the daily grind! We're doing it all over again...

My school bus driver job has resumed and I'm back to ferrying the kids to and fro from school and extra curricular activities. *sigh* I miss sleeping in! During the holidays, I didn't hear the scary sound of my phone's alarm for more than a month!! What bliss!

Hahaha.. we're only two days in and I'm complaining. Actually I don't really mind, I'm just complaining for the fun of it! (dramatization ma... otherwise so boring) In reality, I'm so used to the daily frenetic routine that when I find myself with free time and all the things on my to-do list crossed out, I get restless!! (anxiety disorder you think?)

So anyway, I've been so busy with Christmas and New year and getting the kids school-ready, I haven't blogged about all the fun times we had with the cousins who came back from Singapore and Miri.

FYI, Hubby and I ushered in the new year sleeping in bed! :) Actually we were half asleep, and the fireworks woke us up so we went to have a peep from our 11th floor window (Chinese New Year fireworks from up there is the best!!). We're definitely getting old... We had a chance to go out when the kids all fell asleep after coming back from dinner at Taiku's house, but chose to stay at home instead!

Okay, so Christmas and New Year's Eve was basically filled with feasting, feasting and more feasting!! The schedule went like this:

• Christmas Eve dinner at Kung Kung Titus'

• Christmas Day lunch at Kung Kung Paul's

• Christmas Day dinner at Lok Thian restaurant (My mum's cousin's birthday and wedding anniversary. The kids slept over at Kung Kung Paul's)

• Hubby and I left early to get to a friend's barbecue!
  

•  Boxing Day dinner was a BBQ at our condo to celebrate ours and Sis no.4's 10th wedding anniversary!! How time flies!!

•  Day after that, Uncle Polycarp treated us to a wonderful buffet lunch at Pullman (the newest hotel here), because he won the lottery in Singapore!! (in Singapore dollars some more... aboden...) 

• The final feast was on New Year's Eve at Taiku's house.

In between all the gorging feasting, we also managed to squeeze in quite a few Sarawak Laksa breakfasts!

The conclusion of course is that; I have, through no fault of my own (I blame the holidays!) gained weight!!!! :)

Well, my battle against weight gain is a whole other looong story, so here are the photos instead...

Christmas Eve at Kung Kung Titus' house.

 All the grandkids were in attendance. All 15 of them... with 2 more in the oven!

Mmmmm.....

 Presents galore.. and even ang pows from Kung Kung! :)

When we got home that night (Christmas eve) there were more presents to open... from mummy and daddy. Solomon was too tired and 'KO'ed with his new water gun by his side!

Managed to do a bit of karaoke before Christmas morning mass at Carmelite!

 After mass was lunch at Kung Kung Paul's house.

 Hughie loves demolishing gingerbread houses...

 More pressies!!!

The daddies and uncles ended up playing with assembling the toys...

On Boxing Day, everyone came over for a swim. This is adorable cousin Ben Ten from Singapore who's the youngest cousin, for the moment...

 We had a barbecue that night, to celebrate ours and Sis no.4 & Richard's 10th anniversary! (just another excuse to EAT... again!)

I think the kids must've gained weight over the holidays too! :)

Having fun with sparklers 'imported' from Singapore...

 Our lovely guests...

 Demolishing yet another gingerbread house...

 The 5 sisters.. brother (no.6) still asleep?!

Here we are at Puzzle, the cafe at the new'ish' Pullman Hotel... The kids thoroughly enjoyed the ice-cream bar with it's plethora of diabetes-inducing toppings and sauces!

 Pleasant place with good food...

... especially the desserts! I finally got to try 'real' macarons, not the fake, hard, sugary concoctions! Yummy, yummy... The yellow one is peanut butter, which I do not really care for, the orange one is orange obviously, with a heavenly orange-scented buttercream. The brown is chocolate with a decadent chocolate ganache filling. *sigh* I have to make these someday...

I had called ahead to make the reservation on behalf of Polycarp, the lucky lottery winner. I told them to put the booking under his name (which is not a very common name) and this is what we saw when we got there! :)

The last dinner of the year was at Taiku's house.

So that was it! Christmas and New Year's Eve gone in a flash! Have a great year ahead everyone! Now we have Chinese New Year to look forward to! Less than a month away!