His 4th Birthday

21 May (Friday)

As requested, we ordered a 'big' Ben-10 cake for his little party at school on Friday (21 May). I was outstation so hubby went to collect the cake on Thursday evening. I asked him to MMS the pic to me. When I looked at the pic, I found that the Ben10 print was a little too small from what I have expected but when I asked Ethan, he said he likes it and was very excited about his little party at school. So, it's ok lor.

Initially, I planned to take leave and go to the school with the cake and to take some photos. Unfortunately, I had to go to Penang for 3 days so I asked hubby how? I said maybe we can give our camera to the teacher and ask the teacher to help us to take some photos. Man being man, he said no need to take photo lar. So, no photos lor. Luckily I asked him to MMS the photo me, otherwise, I don't even know how the cake looks like.

The only shot of the cake.

I arrived home on Friday evening. Hubby and Ethan picked me up at the KLIA. Ethan was so happy to see me and the moment he saw me, he called out "MUMMY" and ran to me and gave me a big hug. I asked him "Do you miss me?" he said "I miss you". I'm not sure if he understand what that means but I don't care. He said what I wanted to hear...haha!! I asked him about the party again, he said he was happy and his friend sang birthday song to him and his friends and teacher ate his birthday cake.


22 May (Saturday) - The Actual Day

The next morning, we woke up around 9+. We planned to go out and look for his bicycle in the afternoon and later go out for dinner to celebrate his birthday. Mum called at around 11a.m. and said she wanted to join us with my youngest sis and my niece (her mum, i.e. my another sis is in confinement). Initially, mum said they can't join us so I thought only the 3 of us will celebrate his birthday. Since they are joining us, we changed the plan to celebrate his birthday during lunch and buy his bicycle later. We went to the Curve and had lunch at The Garden. We went to the place to celebrate new year and I like the ambience, decor and food there. Ethan liked their watercress soup and finished almost the whole bowl when we were there the first time. I ordered the same soup but he doesn't like it that much on that day. He was having a bit of my Aglio Olio Shrimp Spaghetti (my new favourite) and pineapple fried rice.

After lunch, we did some shopping and cake hunting there. I wanted to buy cup cakes but couldn't find any. Saw the shop that is selling jelly cake (the place we bought a cake for his 2nd birthday) but the ready made ones are not interesting. In the end, we got a vanilla ice-cream chocolate cake (paid by sis) from Baskin Robbins for him. Actually, it was more for me coz I'm very into ice-cream lately :-P. We went home and had a little cake-cutting session. I really enjoyed the cake but not sure about the others...hehe. After that, we rested for a while and went out for a simple dinner.

He ran to the rides and happily climbed on
it without asking for permission.

The 2 kiddos

The yummy ice-cream cake

23 May (Sunday)

I bought him a Spiderman bag few weeks ago for his birthday. We saw this bag and he wanted me to buy for him. I told him, I will buy it later. After some shopping, I have forgotten about it and when we were on the way back, he asked for it again. So, I told him to wait in the car with Daddy and I will buy the bag. I bought it, hid it in the car boot and told him the stall has closed. He was so disappointed and shed some tears, knowing that he didn't get the bag. He has asked for the same bag a few times after that and I gave some excuses that we can't get it.

I wrapped it up nicely and intend to give it to him after we cut his birthday cake on Saturday. Somehow, we were too exhausted and forgotten about it. So, I gave it to him on Sunday morning and when he opened up the gift, he was soooo happy to see the bag. He said he wanted to bring the bag to school. He also insisted to carry the bag to attend Darren's birthday party. We just let him lar.

His present from Mummy

After opening up the present, we headed to the party venue and met up with Darren's and Terry's family. The boys were having fun. They couldn't remember each other of course but they warmed up pretty fast and were playing together happily. The lucky boy also received presents from Darren's and Terry's mummies. Thanks to these 2 lovely ladies.

More presents. He wanted to open
them immediately.

The birthday boy and the cake admirer

Enjoying the cake

A rare shot of the 3 boys together

After the birthday party, we went to buy his bicycle. It's a birthday present from Daddy and I top it up with a helmet. Got what we want and we promised to bring him to the park to cycle in the evening. As the bike is pretty big for him, he could not cycle properly at first. His legs were barely touching the ground when he tiptoe, but after a few rounds of practice, he was cycling pretty well. He also learn how to use the brake instead of his shoes to stop the bike.

He insisted to put on the helmet even though
he was sweating badly. He said the guard will
catch him if he doesn't put it on.

The happy boy


I love this pic.

Happenings in May

3 years, 11 months, 2 weeks & 6 days old.....

On Ethan:

His Birthday:
He's turning 4 next Saturday. This year, it will be the simplest celebration. It gets simpler and simpler every year. We will buy a cake for his small little party at school on Friday. He told me months ago that he wanted a "BIG....Ben-10 cake" for his birthday. I asked him "must be big? cannot buy a small one?". He said cannot, his friends do not like small cake. Kids nowadays are so demanding. I don't know how big is big and how small is small. Whatever it is, it has to be Ben-10 la. Then, the three of us will celebrate his birthday on Saturday. Mum and sis can't join coz sis just had a baby girl and mum is helping out, so no celebration for them wor. Probably just dinner with a candle blowing session and a present. We're thinking of a bicycle. I want it to be a surprise for him but don't know where to hide the bike and when to buy it. Furthermore, I have to go outstation next Wednesday to Friday. We have to figure this out.

Sleeping on his own:
We have planned to move him into his own room but every time we discussed that, he got all teary and upset. Hubby said wait until end of the year wor...

Diaperless:
Some updates from the previous posts, he is diaperless now, day and night. The first few weeks were difficult as we had to bring him to the toilet in the middle of the night. There will be 3-4 'accidents' in a week in the beginning but it reduced week by week. I think it took him around 3-4 months to be totally 'accident-free'. We still have to make sure that he has his last round of milk one hour before bed time and clear his bladder before sleep. Otherwise, we have to bring him to the toilet in the middle of the night.

Brought him to watch Toy Story I & II on 25 April 2010.
The movies lasted for 3 hours and the cinema was
freezingly cold. My fingers were all numb
after the movie ended.

A video of him doing his silly dance

On Mummy:
I have just completed the 2nd semester of my study. It has been almost a year since I "dig this big hole and jumped into it". Hopefully I can complete it by end of this year or latest by mid of next year. I presented my proposal to the examiner on 7th May and the preparation was tough. I have 3 supervisors and each of them has different opinions. I can't fulfill everything they asked me to do but just did what I thought was right. I arranged for a mock presentation on 6th May, a day before the actual day and 2 of the supervisors were present. I got shot by them left, right and centre. That made me very down. It seemed like whatever I have done was rubbish. I went home and corrected my presentation, read up whatever I need to read, went through the slides again and again and pray for the best. Still, I couldn't slept well that night as I was too nervous and worried that I couldn't answer the examiners' questions. Went to bed after 1 a.m. that night, rolled around for at least another 30 minutes and woke up at 6a.m., before the alarm went off. I arrived at the campus one hour before the presentation starts and went through the slides again in the car for another 30 minutes.

While I was going through the slides, mum called and told me sis has just delivered a baby girl by C-sec. She was overdue by a week and I was happy to hear that both mum and baby are safe. After the phone call, I went up to the meeting room and waited anxiously for the presentation to start. I was the 2nd presenter. All my 3 supervisors said they will come and they didn't turn up until the first presentation started. I tried to relax and listened to what the first presenter had to say but the more I listened the more nervous I got, so I looked away, kept my mind blank and and tried to think of other things.

My time came, so I did what I had to do. Each of us were given 30 minutes for the presentation and Q&A. The first presenter stood up during the whole presentation but I knew I had to sit down coz my legs will be wobbly. If they ask me to stand, I will tell them frankly that I will be more stable sitting down. I think I finished my presentation within 15 minutes. After countless questions, I looked at my watch and there was still 10 minutes to go. Gosh, that moment seemed like forever. The examiners asked so many questions and gave some not so important comments. There was a question, which I couldn't really answer. Thank God, one of my supervisors backed me up but in the end, the 3 of them were arguing among themselves on my research. I still think I was lucky because all of them showed their support and turned up. I noticed most of the supervisors were not there and their students had to fend for themselves.

After the presentation at 10 a.m., I had a long discussion with my supervisors. Two of them left after 1 hour and I continued with the other one until 1 p.m. I had initially plan to go for a pampering session after the presentation but my head was pounding by noon, so I decided to go home and rest. Went home to sleep and less than 15 minutes in dreamland, hubby called and woke me up. After that, I couldn't sleep anymore and decided to pick mum up and visit sis at the hospital. We were greeted by this little cutie pie....

My 'just arrived' niece

My Last 3 Trips

This post is really meant for memory sake for it is so outdated- the last 3 trips my company sent me to.

Nantes, France (14-20 September 2009)
Went there to attend a conference. The journey was boring as usual but not too tiring as there was only 1 transit (KL-Amsterdam-Nantes). Nantes is a very small town but there is a nice old castle there, which reminds me of the fairy tales. There is nothing much to do there except walking around town, do some (window) shopping and simply enjoy the cool weather. I was trying to buy some souvenirs but couldn't find any souvenir shops there. Strange huh? But I bought a bag for myself.

Me and my colleague stopped by Amsterdam and visited the city for a few hours as we had a 10-hour transit time on the way back to KL. If you ever transit in Amsterdam, I recommend you to take a look at the city. You can store your luggage at the airport. The big locker can fit two big luggage and the train ticket to city centre cost less than 5 euros (if I remember it correctly). The best part is, there is a toilet with shower inside the airport. I have used it twice. It's free but they just provide the shower with hot water. You need to bring your own toiletries and towel.

Walking back to the hotel.

Told you I did a lot of window shopping.

The town centre. We hang out there eating ice-cream.

Picnic.

The entrance to the castle.

Inside a Cathedral.

River cruise at Amsterdam.

A typical building in Amsterdam.

Multi-storey parking for bicycle.

Tourists at the infamous red light district.
I saw the ladies waiting for customers. Some pretty, some not
and some are frightening.

Bordeaux, France (3-11 October 2009)
I went back to KL from Nantes on a Sunday, spent a weekend in KL and off to France again the next Saturday. So I crammed myself again in the tiny seat for 10+ hours. This time, I transited in Paris. It's crazy to walk at The Charles De Gaulle Airport. I had to walk for around 30 minutes from one terminal to the other to take a domestic flight.

Bordeaux is bigger than Nantes and there are more things to see and buy. I thought as we get closer to the year end, the weather will be colder so I brought along my thick jackets and sweater and boots. The weather forecast said the temperature would be around 15C. I was wrong and so was the forecast. It was so so hot. It's even hotter because I wore sweater and boots. The mat salleh walked around in shorts and t-shirts. I felt so stupid but it's ok coz I got myself another bag.

The street is closed every Sunday for pedestrian and some bazaar.

The Sunday market.


Spices and sauces.


Funfare and fountain.


The city train.


A hot and sunny day.


Don't know what building is this but I love the stone wall.


The Cathedral at night. We were having dinner nearby.


The place where the meeting was held.

Busy Friday afternoon at the shopping street.


The same shopping street at night.

Skelleftea, Sweden (17-23 January 2010)
This is the best trip among the three. In fact, I would say that it is the top 2 places that I will remember for a long long time to come. First will be Milan, not because of the shopping but the buildings. I just love to see the architecture and people walking around, hanging out at the sidewalk cafes, walking their dogs, etc. etc. It's just so Italian. I will remember Skelleftea for it's snow. It was my first time seeing snow and so much snow. The river was frozen and everywhere you see is white. When you are walking outside, you can just smell the snow. To me, it was really cold but to the locals, -5C is very mild weather. The third day we were there, temperature dip to -17C. I just got to know that Skelleftea has 6 months of winter!!! Wow wow wow!! I did so many new things there like walking in the snow, wearing 4 layers of clothes, riding on a snowmobile and tasted the best salmon ever. It was really a great trip.

Preview of the snow.

A view outside the conference hall. It was snowing at that time.


Another view on a brighter day. We only saw the sun for
one day throughout the 5-day stay. One thing
I learnt-the brighter the day the colder it is.


The bridge we have to cross (i.e. walk) to go back to the hotel.


It was pitch dark at 3 p.m.


On the way to the Svansele Wilderness Centre and saw
these lovely red houses. Almost all of their houses are red
and they look really nice surrounded by ice.


Moose on the loose!!


Dinner being cooked.


Dinner is ready-It's difficult to balance the potatoes on the
curved plate that is made of wood. The cutleries and
mug are made of wood too.


Moose and reindeer meat.


Great coffee and ginger bread.

Ben 10

3 years, 6 months, 2 weeks & 2 days old.....

After the previous unhappy incident, daddy voluntarily bought 3 tickets for the Ben 10 show. I was really surprised that he is willing to spent RM49/ticket on a kid's show. The last time I got a surprise like this was more than 2 years ago when he brought us to a Valentine's dinner at a hotel. We were the only couple who brought a child along. Back to Ben 10. Well, it is not really one of Ethan's favourite show but when daddy told him that we are going to watch Ben 10, he kept asking for it non stop. He knows what is tomorrow but can't really understand that today is Wednesday and the show will be on Friday. So, we had to bear with "Daddy, I want to watch Ben 10" like 20 times a day for 3 days.

He got really excited that Friday (27 November 2009) morning. We got up at around 9 a.m., had breakfast and headed to KLCC. We reached there around 11 a.m. and walked around. Too bad the christmas deco was not up yet that time. Otherwise we can snap a few more photos. There was nothing much to do so we went for lunch and went to the convention centre around 1p.m., took some photos and waited for the show to start at 2p.m.

Ethan complaint of stomach ache right after lunch and I bought 'yu yee' oil for him at the Guardian pharmacy and gave him some chinese medicine. He was ok after that but the stomach ache bothered him until Wednesday, when we finally decided to take him to the paed. He has no diarrhoea though. Everyday when he complaint of discomfort, I gave him some chinese medicine and applied oil. He will be ok after that but the next day, the discomfort returned. His paed. said it was wind and prescribed some medicine for him. After two days, he has fully recovered.

Back to Ben 10 again. The show didn't start at 2 sharp (biasalah....we are talking about Malaysian time here) and ended at around 4.45p.m. Ethan really enjoyed the show. He paid full attention to the show especially during the fighting scenes while I was busy taking photos and videos most of the time. Hubby was enjoying looking at Ethan's expression most of the time. He must be very satisfied thinking that his money was well spent. All in all, we were all happy at the end of the day.

We went for a bite at the Burger King after that. Boy, I haven't been there for a long long time and I don't even know when did they stop the free refill for soft drink but I noticed that we can pay with Touch & Go card there. After snacking, we went for some shopping at Isetan but left empty handed. Ethan refused to sleep in his pram even it was way past his nap time. We decided to leave KLCC at 6.30p.m. and wanted to stop for dinner on our way home. Ethan was still wide awake then.

So, off we went to the car park and when hubby tried to turn on the engine, it couldn't start. Gosh, I was panicked a little. He tried a few times but still the engine refused to cooperate. Then, I saw the car park management office tel no. on the pillars and asked hubby to call them. A guard was doing his round on a bicycle and hubby asked him something. I couldn't hear what he said coz I was at the lift area with Ethan.Then he said he's going to walk to the management office. So we waited for him there for like 15 minutes before he returned on a motorbike with a management staff. They jump-start the engine and we quickly drove away. Ethan fell asleep even before we reached the car park exit. That's how exhausted he was. It was already 7p.m. by then but we decided to check out some shops to get the battery replaced. As it was a public holiday, most of the shops were closed. Luckily we found one that was still opened. We got the battery changed, went for dinner and 'sempat' stopped by a warehouse sales on the way back. I have never been to so many places before in one day. We went out at 10.30 a.m. and reached home at 9 p.m. It's a record!

Posing time


His very own silly pose


Another one.


There...he saw something..


....and dragged daddy to buy for him


The stage.


His very own seat but it is too big for him.


One of the scenes.


The show ended but he refused to leave.

Frustrated Frustrated!!!!!

WARNING!: BEE, THIS IS NOT FOR YOU TO READ.



I'm so gonna explode!! I do not know what he thinks and how he manages things even after knowing him for more than a decade. Let's get to the details.

WHO?: My 'lou kong'

WHY?:
He said he might need to go to Jakarta like few weeks ago. So, I kept on telling him go to apply passport earlier coz he is not born in P.M'sia. No, he did not do anything about it. In the meantime, he kept on saying he might need to go..he might need to go.

On Tuesday, he said "I might need to go this Friday". Still refused to apply passport and he even told me that his colleague said can get within one day. I told him a MILLION TIMES that he's not born here, so need longer time to get a passport.

Then the day after, which was yesterday, I saw the tickets so I asked him have you got your passport. Guess what......NO!! Who on earth (other than this man) will issue flight tickets without a passport. You tell me. He said he will apply tomorrow (which is today). I don't want to comment already. What else can I say right? From the beginning I told him that he needs to get his passport first. The best thing is his boss doesn't know that he doesn't have a passport! Great or not? I also asked if he knows what documents he needs to bring. I got a stern reply that he already went to get the forms and everything. Fine. I keep quiet after that. I expect he has asked everything since it's already so urgent.

This morning I got a call from him. Surprise surprise....He said he needs to fly back to his hometown this afternoon to get it. If he applies here, it takes 5 days. How will you react? Why on earth this question was not asked when he was there to collect the form??? Didn't I SAY it takes longer for him? DIDN'T I?? WAS I TALKING TO THE WALL OR WHAT?? I was totally speechless. I was VERY MAD but there is nothing I can do about it. Do you know that kind of feeling? When you are so mad but you don't want to let it out so you just keep it inside until you feel like exploding? You can't talk, you can't shout and you definitely do not want to cry. I didn't talk much, just asked when is he coming back and told him I don't want to talk already.

My phone rang again not long after. Once I saw who is the caller I took a deep breath before I answer it just to keep cool. He asked me where is his birth certificate. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Now only you're asking me that?? I managed to tell the location of the document without raising my voice and end the conversation qucikly before I lose it.

My phone rang again. I took another deep breath. He asked me if I can pick him up from the airport on Saturday evening. I said I don't know. What else am I suppose to say??? I'm fuming inside and cannot think straight.

WHY? WHY? WWWHHHHYYYYYYYYY????