deeparaya holiday photos

before going, as i was packing, the girls were so thrill to see their swimsuits that they had to wear them and pose...and "try on" for fun!

on the way to cherating....ellisa slept most of the way (just recovered from her fever..phew!)....popo hugging her...erika watching 'high school musical'...this pic, erika looked tired but she never seem bored of the show even after watching it over and over again...since we were all "trapped" in the same car...after the long trip...i can't make the songs go away from my head...obviously erika is able to do the dance steps and sing all the songs!

ellisa getting dressed-up for her dip...

swimming in the pool....erika is sooo afraid of water, that she only sat on the steps of the big pool...while ellisa was happily jumping in...of cos we catch her everytime she jumped...but she was happy to be wet and love the thrill of jumping into the big pool...only on the last day...was erika brave enough to go into the big pool.

to me ~ the best part of the holiday was all the snoozzzzzing and siesta time in the hot noon day...that's the most enjoyable event for me!! hehehe

at the beach...erika just want to build sand blocks (where to find castle nowadays?)..the same story, erika don't even wanna be near the sea...ellisa is happy to play water but she was not too happy to dip in the sea too...maybe it too big a pool for her liking!...anyhow i got my wish...she was totally soaked in seawater...and i hope her skin will be smooth as silk soon.

one of the fun activities was zooming around in the atv...erika needed a lot of coaxing before she was brave enough to get into one...but once she was in it...she was shouting and screaming..."fassster daddddy fasssster"...."don't stopppp....morrrree"! daddy tekan max. just to make her happy...

happy birthday erika

today is your birthday...erika was so excited to go to school as she will have a birthday walk and a small celebration...not her usual grumpy grouchy morning self...very chirpy, happy girl today!

doing the birthday walk, erika is holding the earth (a sandpaper globe) and walking in an ellipse circle round the sun (a lit candle) in the middle. she had to walk 5 rounds signifying 5 years of her life...as she walked aunty jaimie read out facts about her life when she was a baby until she was 5...erika was shy and walked a little too fast...but we all can see that she was glowing from the attention and the fact that is is now finally 5 years old...can't wait to grow up!

instead of a cake, my good idea was to take choc. chip muffins with icing of "erika" written on each of the muffins...save on cutting cake! and it personalised the muffin & made it real easy to distribute...the children loved it.

another good idea is to give out art blocks with pictures of erika in the cover (this one is yeh yeh's bright idea) instead of the usual party packs of sweets!

and it is also a day erika have to say goodbye to her sucking thumb day...so far she has been good this morning...

life lessons

finally erika is getting a piano...actually mommy have been bugging daddy to get it since august...but daddy is always dragging his feet since this is not-top-priority item unlike golf or cars or... (ok don't want to go into that any deeper or else will get mommy real worked up!) actually i don’t mind getting it myself…but since this is sort-of big purchase item, want him to be involved mah (let him be “the man” once a while loh! give some face kua)…and some more it’s for his daughter. a piano is quite a big furniture item in the house, so we all should like as we will be stuck with it for a long time.

anyway, yeh yeh must have realised the “struggle”, maybe he have 6th sense and so he promised to get one for erika. so to make peace for all and not to evoke any "jealousies"...he bought mah-mah's old piano for erika. mah-mah then can have a new one...very diplomatic lah! make everyone happy ~ win-win loh. so at last...erika can start practising...which i know is not her top-priority too! she is adverse to any kind of work ~ homework, schoolwork, pianowork….it’s a real 4 letter word for her…i can’t imagine how she will cope when she goes to cina “homework” school in 2008!!

mommy have to threaten, bribe, sweet-talk to get her going…come to think of it ~ do i really want to put her or more likely "me" through all of that. but that girl needs discipline badly and so will try her on the cina school and see how she survive or sink in it.

aiyooo…yeh yeh really adores the girls… when he came for a visit yesterday, erika played with him and stuck stickers all over his face….and he just lay there and enjoyed the attention and let her do whatever she wants. if it was me…surely different reaction!

as you all know we are going for holiday….but ellisa has been sick (why does this happen when we wanna be away) – fever on and off since monday…very worrying!! sent her to the paed yesterday…will do the same again today…long weekend…makes us even more anxious!! she’s fine a few hours…then fever…paracetamol….fine again…some how we can’t seem to break the fever cycle!! let’s see what the paed says today…

oh yeah found a site for discount furniture!

happy holidays!

"classic" old dress

ellisa just got this hand-me-down dress from mah-mah. amazingly, this dress is worn by two generations. dunno can last for another one or not??

mah-mah was digging out some old things and found the little dress which was ku-ma's that ku-ma wore in the early 60's!! she must have kept for sentimental reasons and also these were hand-made by her...so this dress is around 45 years old!!! wah another 50 years can become antique.

hello melissa ku-mah this is me in your dress!!! remember this boooo-tee-ful dress?? i look good in it... love ellisa

vely happiie hor-lee-dae

we are going somewhere for the long hols...yahoooo!...and already in the hor-lee-dae mood...some more my office is located in a yiindian area....really into the hor-lee-dae mood loh...temporary stalls and "ethnic" music in the air...of cos...coz havoc to navigate the road too...festival is like tat la...

can't wait to go holiday...bringing kong kong and po po...actually suppose to give them a break but they are there to help mommy also loh! ehh..not easy woh...2 anak! somehow they love to help out...especially po po never seem to be tired from the grandchildren, mommy not very maternal lah...

i also receive a lot of "advice" or "tipsy" or "old wives tales" from aunties saying if dip ellisa into salty sea water...maybe can cure her...so will try that...and hopefully ellisa will stop saying "it-chi, it-chi" to us! actually i now used a cream with 10% urea content and it seems to help a lot...so maybe with the "special salty seawater dip & spa"...ellisa's skin will be all new and soft like a baby!

yappiiee hor-le-dae!!

kek kek kek

whenever we attend a birthday party, erika will whine "why is my birthday so long one?"..."when is my birthday coming?"..."how come i cannot celebrate my birthday yet?"..."why always other people's birthday and not my one?"...it will go on and on...

and this month is like the birthday month for the family as kong kong, yee ma, mommy & sean are all october babies! and erika is the last to blow her own birthday candles...this really makes her jealous la...she of cos blows all our candles for us.

another thing we made a deal with her is for her to stop her thumb sucking habit when she hits 5...that's a tough one loh! still psycho-ing her.

my fridge still have 4 different types of cakes...jelly cake, choc. mouse, layer cake & cheese cake...quite "jelat" already lah! non-stop makan "cake"...from last months mooncake festival...face also look like cake...kek kek kek!

growing up

everyday, without fail popo will have a story of erika or ellisa for mommy...on what they did at home...so here is 2 stories:

erika was given a sweet from guess who?? (mommy's sweet battle with kong kong is still on) anyway...ellisa saw the forbidden sweet and wanna have a bite...of cos erika saw her motive and quickly wallop it...then cunningly gave her the wrapper...so bad hor! ellisa took it la...not knowing any better...stared at the wrapper for a while...realise oiii no sweet one...then said..."i troo, i troo"...walks to the dustbin and get rid of the junk.

as usual in the noon time watching wahlaitoi, dunno if it was advert or singing show...ellisa immitated the singer and started singing and dancing..."lap sap chung....lap sap chung..."

still battling with ellisa's enzema...tried so many things: bath oil, soap-free and fragrance-free products, cool-warmish bath water with oil, creams, cortisons, careful with her food...no fish, nuts, seafood, milk-based products, eggs...basically she can't eat a lot of things...poor girl...and she loves to scratch, scratch, scratch...until it bleeds..still continue scratching...so it can get really teruk and mommy feels soooo bad for her!! paed says it's bad but not cronic case yet! any more good ideas?

lunch w boss

yesterday boss belanja makan lunch...as a belated birthday thingy...he remembers coz he puts everyones b'day in his scheduler...even i a "loiyan" don't do such things...anyway...the schduler reminder pops up and me no escape la...have to makan lunch with him instead of my frens...

went mid-valley...nearest mall to office...ate thai...usual lunch...talk about work, his family...he brag about his over-achiever daughter...i sit and listen loh...must get into his good books too...

the thing was the restaurant was having promotional items and the promo is with a certain bank's credit card in order to enjoy the promo...you have to pay with bank xxx credit card...which he don't have but i have....so i ended up paying the bill!!

for an accountant he was very generous this time...i said this not becoz he paid me back but he wasn't his usual self...as he didn't make a claim from the office account for the lunch- this is a first!...hmm got ulterior motive ah...i wonder is he guilty that he didn't give me a higher increment?? aiyoo if like tat...think buy me one lunch can make me forget ah? think i am lu lu or is he really changed?

checking index

i am frantically checking the haze index...not the commodity one!...to see if it has reached 300 or not...you see...tomolo is public hols for selangor...& i too would like to join in the lazzziness...daddy will be home and his project is to clean-up our garden which he calls "my amazon jungle"...it was a tropical forest a few years back...

so tomolo gotta work ah? haze index not up to 300 yet??

that's looking at the good side of a bad situation...

haze is back

almost every year we get it around the same time...last year it was during ellisa's fullmoon...that was in august ...it really put us in a limbo as we were considering to postpone the party or move it to a hotel...finally we stuck to our decision to have it at home, as the caterers were booked in advanced...prayed real hard....and as suddenly as it came...it went away on ellisa's fullmoon...so we had a wonderful party in the garden with lots of yummy food...even had a yummy roast lamb.

no wonder read so many blogs of unwell mommies & babies....today is real teruk case...all grey and "foggy" except instead of cold - its hot, stuffy and smoky! to my surprise a fren in jakarta does not suffer the same fate...life is not fair.

had a great weekend...spent friday nite at yeh yeh's...celebrate mid-autumn festival ~ forgot to bring camera so didn't capture the lanterns, mooncakes, tiny yams, kacang, fruits and tea. since it's a tradition, the whole family still sat in yeh yeh's garden...with the haze...to play paper lanterns...burned a few...the children like to see the lantern go up in a blaze and of course played with candles, sparkles and pop-pop...unfortunately...the pop has fizzle out as these were left-overs from chinese new year!

saturday we had a mini-hols in le meridien...took erika to stay a nite (solly ellisa had to leave you with po po) the room was small but had a good view of lake gardens....all clear sky today...haze blew away...we had a good time in the pool...their pool is very biiiigggg, very nice...cannot say the same about the bed....daddy is like the "princess and the pea"...we think the hotel is owned by lebanese...the interior deco & food relects the middle eastern touch...which i don't know how to appreciate loh.

sunday...haze back in force! went to church...go home...watch F1...daddy was dissapointed with the results...he don't like the renault driver...but i think he finished 1st!...siesta time - need to recover from the mini-hols...then had sate for dinner...snooze till morning! we are very horizontally-inclined people.

popiah

popo made popiah today and asked erika to try some...erika survey the popiah skin, fried sengkuang, lettuce and all the other condiments....then she said "no lah...i don't want....but can i play with the mask!"

and the mask she refers to is the popiah skin...trust a girl to say such things!

not well

was feeling really bad physically...aching from head to toe..(hint! a body massage would be great)...so went home early from work yesterday..well not that early la..considering it's 3:30pm and today resting at home...so thought of putting some pictures up since haven't done it for a while.

erika was so tired...slump on the couch and into dreamland.


picture of rossie relaxing at the front door...


the girls in their creative element...ellisa was happy scribbling and erasing...


mommy's little helper...in the kitchen...they played with the floor steamer (suppose to kill germs) until the little tyre came out! so the "toy" is now out of commision.

photos

This photo was taken during my lunch break on the 5th floor of the hotel...you can see the palm trees swaying violently and the torrential rains...visibility very bad.






This photo taken at the hotel lobby...see it's raining IN the lobby...with winds of about 130+km pushing the rains in, the housekeeping staff had their hands full trying to make sure the lobby is not flooded.




The next day after the typhoon...a mangled mess of billboards on the major roads...causing havoc to the already bad traffic.

home sweet home

so glad to be home....you really appreciate malaysia especially for its weather! we are a land flowing with milk and honey...we are sooooo priviledge, taking for granted clean water & electricity...manila is still strugling in the dark when i left...

anyway...soo happiiieee to be home..will post pictures later...got tones to clear at the office...

my girls missed me soooo much...they were hugging me for so long...it's a real touchy moment...almost cried...was my sis bird-day yesterday...so went to her house straight from the airport...if there were not so many people around...sure cry already. erika kept saying...'mommy i forgot how you look like...i miss you soooo much, don't go away'...like she was so afraid to lose me.

ellisa put on so much weight but po po lost some! po po says she drank milk 2 hourly...and of cos...poo poo a lot! po po was so glad mommy is back...hahahha...she can get back her beauty sleep.