Happy Birthday, Pin Ku-Ku!

To celebrate Pin Ku-Ku's birthday, the entire extended family organised a barbeque dinner for her. It was the first time that the 3 princesses had a barbeque in their own backyard (well, it was their granparents' backyard), so there was a lot of excitement in the air.

The weather was perfect. It had been raining in the late afternoon, up to the early evening. It rained enough to cool down the temperatures, then it all dried up. A perfectly cool night. Just right for a barbeque.

Here are snapshots of a wonderful evening spent in the company of family & friends.

Bubbles galore.....

The Bubbly Birthday Girl

Two Beauties

Hot Babe with Young Hot Babe!

Young Hot Babe!

Girls, Girls, Girls!

Hmmm....Yummy and Totally Irresistable!

HELP!

Squashed by the Girls!

Squashed by MORE Girls!

Cool Dude!

Whining Queen!

All Smiles Again!

Oh, gosh...are you learning to whine too??

Having fun mingling.....

Chef Busy Working the BBQ!

Master BBQ Chef and his Prodigy!

Junior Chef at Work

Master Chef and his Assistants!

More Junior Chefs at Work!

The BBQ pit working hard...

Simply Delicious!

Hard at work...filling up our tummies

Our extra set of hands...mucking around

Say Cheese!

The Birthday Princess

25kg carrying 10kg!

Don't be shy...smile for the camera

Thumb's Up!

Yup! I definitely have my Daddy's chin!

Little Man with the Young Lady!

On my own two feet!

Mingling with the Ladies

Men Posing with the Birthday Girl

Mr T, Master T and Miss T

Posing with our Big Boy

Mingling around...

Cake Time

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Faces!

Almost the entire clan...just missing our Enchanted Lady

Members of the Dinner Party

~ Published from the Heart ...... burp

Publisher's note:
To our dearest Enchanted Lady, we dearly missed your presence at the BBQ.
To make sure you can enjoy the fun from afar, i have posted a lot, a lot of pictures for your viewing pleasure.
Much Love and kisses to you, dear Enchanted Lady.

When "I'm coming" becomes "I'm walking"

21 February 2011
Today Miss Chatterbox cum Miss Smart Alec out-did herself again.

As i called out to her this morning to come to where i was, instead of the standard response "I'm coming, Mummy", what i got was "I'm walking!".

And earlier this evening as I was in the midst of reminding her to get something done for me, she retorted "Wait, Mummy. Don't tell me now...my brain is still sleeping!".

Mummy was left utterly speechless.


22 February 2011
Today, Miss Smart Alec tries something different. For almost every question that i gave her, she replied in single letters. Not in a single syllable, but a single letter.
Q: Do you have homework today ?
A: N.

Q: Are you going to join Jie-Jie for swimming class this Saturday??
A: N.

I can just foresee the many challenges that lie ahead of me in her teenage years!


24 February 2011
Today, Miss Smart Alec decides to throw Mummy a different challenge.
Whilst patiently waiting for the traffic lights to turn green on the way to school this morning, she spoke a single word "YOURS".
Her stunned intellectually-challenged mother intelligent reply: "Huh?"
Miss Smart Alec repeats herself: "Yours?"

Silence greeted her.

Seconds later, Miss Smart Alec continues by saying "Mine is eight-o-three."

Turns out that Miss Smart Alec was doing a comparison of the time on her watch, with that of her intellectually-challenged mother's watch and the car's clock.

Sigh. I have so much to learn.

And to think that we were all a little anxious when little Miss Smart Alec took a little too long to start walking (she only started walking at 18 months, as she was very contented crawling on one leg whilst dragging the other!) and talking, compared to her 2 older siblings.
Now there is just no stopping our little Miss Smart Alec.

When she first started talking, Miss Smart Alec did encounter some difficulty pronouncing certain words.
'Biscuit' ~became~ "BIS-TET"
'Lion' ~became~ "YA-YEN"
'Kitchen' ~became~ "Chicken"
'Hannah Montana' ~became~ "HAN-TAH PON-TAN-TA"


Going back memory lane with the other 2 princesses......

The following exchange took place a couple of years ago when Princess No. 2, a.k.a. the Little Empress (not quite a whining queen, yet!), was much younger. Till today, my Princess No. 1 and i still laugh about it.

Mum to Princess No. 1: "Is it raining?"
Little Empress intervenes(without checking the weather): "No. It's not raining, Mummy."
Upon checking the weather, Princess No. 1 replies in the affirmative: "YOU BET!"
Little Empress immediately answers back: "I'm not BAD, I'm good."

Just recently, as Princess No. 2 and I were doing some school work together, she had to read the word "James". Confused between the English way of pronunciation and the Bahasa way of pronouncing the "suku kata", "James" became "Ja-Mis"!


As for Princess No. 1, her amusing moment came about when she used to take a ride home from school with a neighbour's son twice a week when she was in Standard 1. When she arrived home, she would call me whilst i was at the office to let me know that she had safely arrived home and that Uncle Patrick had helped her to get her school bags down from the car. So amongst ourselves, we all referred to the neighbour's driver as Uncle Patrick.

One fine day, as i bumped into Uncle Patrick opposite our house, i called out to him "Patrick...".
No reply.
Uncle Patrick looked at my direction, but did not respond. I called out his name again, "Patrick...".
No immediate reply.
However this time, he sensed that i was calling him and he moved towards me. I found out then, that his name is not actually Patrick.

Back in the house, I asked Princess No. 1 how she came to know that the driver's name was Patrick.
Her very innocent reply sounded more or less like this: "Yah...i always hear Ryan call 'Pak-trick', what."
I guess to an innocent first timer learning Bahasa Malaysian and who is more familiar with English names than Malay names, the word "Pak-Cik" does sound like "Pak-trick"!

My blessings.
Truly my blessings.

~ Written from the Heart
by a blessed Mum who continues to be both amused and intellectually challenged by her four little charmers.

You got anything to talk??

October 2010

It has apparently become quite a nightly ritual for the following exchange of dialogue to take place amongst the 3 sisters as they huddle together everynight in their Best Buddies room to indulge in some girl gossip time before getting their beauty sleep.

San Jie: "Jie-jie...you got anything to talk?"
Ta Jie: "No. What about you?"
San Jie: "Orrr...okay."
San Jie then eagerly asks her Er Jie: "Er-jie...you got anything to talk?"
Er Jie: "No. What about you?"
San Jie: "No. Orrr...okay. Then can i sleep now?"

On the occasions that San Jie does have something to say, she would then reply:
"I have something to talk, orrr.". Miss Chatterbox would then continue on with her chosen topic of conversation.

Every now and then, blessed Mum here would join in their girl gossip time. It is rather interesting the stuff that you hear during this girl gossip time as well as the little secrets that these little treasures share with you.
As i have been sworn to secrecy by my 1st Princess, i shall honour that trust.

I must make the conscious effort to ensure that i maintain that girl gossip time with my girls every weekend night. I can just foresee that in a couple of years, there will be a girl gossip corner on one end of the corridor, and a boy zone on the other end.

Looking forward to it.

~ Jottings from the heart
by a blessed Mum who continues to place the little treasured memories into her fast-growing Treasure Box.

Involuntary Closure of the Fast-Food Outlet

18 November 2010
It finally had to happen.
My single, sole customer has decided to part ways with his fast-food outlet. He no longer feels the need to suck up to The Boss anymore. In fact, i think my precious little customer was in his own little way, trying to punish the Proprietor of the fast-food outlet for neglecting him, in favour of spending a little more time with his competitors, his three big sisters!

It was not an amicable parting of ways.
It all happened rather abruptly.

True, i had been spending less quiet time with him during the day for him to just quietly enjoy the nutrients provided by the fast-food outlet. All the rushing around to ferry the kids to and from school and in getting the condo fully furnished and settling all the odds & ends had taken its toll on my quiet time with the Little One. Instead, i had been letting the machines do the work of pumping out the precious milk and then feeding it to the Little One subsequently. Rightly or wrongly, it was what i had to do, to better manage my time and to keep my self sane. The Little One would normally suckle for between 40 minutes to an hour, if left to his own devices.

It was mostly at night that the Little One would have more quite time to just suckle away. The Little One would very often be seen hanging out at the fast-food outlet for at least an hour in the night...it was his comfort zone before going off to dreamland. I treasured those quite moments, just bonding with my Little One. Though sometimes, i would fall asleep whilst manning the fast-food outlet whilst my customer was still feasting. On days when i am totally exhausted, my sleeping head would hang so low that it almost touched my Little One's head. Low enough for me to savour the unmistaken, precious baby smell.

So came that one fateful night when my loyal customer turned against me and refused to enter the eating area of his fast-food outlet. Whatever i did, he just refused to turn his head and part his lips to suckle. He had not been near the fast-food outlet for more than 24 hours and he decided to end his nightly addiction. Utter despair. The more i forced, the more he complained and pushed away. Mr T kept nudging him, encouraging him. But nope, the Little One had made up his mind.

I tried again the next day. Same old drama.
Mr T continued to encourage and nudge the Little One.
The Little One is no fool. When his daddy suggested that we withhold his formula bottle so that in his hunger, perhaps the Little One would patronise his dedicated fast-food outlet, the Little One complained even louder and made known his impatience and distress several volumes higher!

So the drama came to an end. Now, when the Little One looks at what was once his dedicated fast-food outlet, he just lets out a very cheeky smile. And when he is in a really cheeky mood, he would point and poke his little finger that way.

So, now it's just time between me and those machines pumping away the precious milk for the Little One to suck through a silicone nipple.
No more sucking up to the Boss.
No more fast food outlet direct to the customer.
I miss the special bonding time with the Little One...with his adorable face next to me, his little eyes looking up at me whilst he drinks away...
Sigh.....

Visions of the past......

~ Written from the Heartby a blessed Mummy with nipples that stick in varying directions as a result of being pulled in all directions, but who nonetheless is thankful for being able to provide precious milk to the Little One for over a year, and that is far, far longer and better than i had been able to achieve with my 3 princesses when i was still a full-time working mummy. Seeing the Little One healthy and happy, and knowing that my princesses have also benefited from little sips here and there from the unfinished bottle has made the entire experience worthwhile.Editor's note:-Just a couple of days ago, my 1st princess suddenly appeared before me during one of my pumping sessions and the following exchange took place...
Princess #1: "Wow, Mummy, I really admire you, lah. You never give up, hor."
Blessed Mum: Perplexed, i replied, "Huh, what do you mean?"
Princess #1: " Ya, lah! I think most mothers would have given up once the baby stop sucking. But, wah you still pumping and pumping even though not that much anymore. Wah...i must learn from you,lah....not to give up easily."
Blessed Mum was left speechless. No life lesson was intended to be given, yet values were learnt. Definitely a worthwhile experience

Turning ONE on 11-01-2011

The Little One turned ONE today, on 11-01-2011.
It's unbelievably scary how fast time just zooms past us.
Mr T and i reminiscent the miraculous moment (one of many) of the Little One's birth as the time neared to the exact moment exactly a year ago. I can still vividly recall the entire labour process in particular the last hour from when i kept harassing the nurses, wanting to know if my doctor was on his way to the labour room (as i knew i had to control the urges and squeeze me legs through every painful contraction until he got there) until the moment i gave my doc a smile so huge that he grinned and remarked that he hardly ever waliks into a labour room to be greeted by a smiling patient in the pains of giving birth! He spoke the magic words when he calmly said "Ok, you can push now. It's time."

The Little One turned out to be a Big One with a gigantic head which got just a little stuck midway at the tunnel exit. The pain was unbearable. Absolutely unbearable. The labour pains from the delivery of my Three Little Girls paled comparatively! I just new i had to get him out as the pain was unbearable. After getting the doctor's okay to push without waiting for the next contraction, out came our Little Prince. Absolutely amazing. Extraordinary.
Pain forgotten.
Happiness and bliss.
A billion times over.

Here are some snapshots of this little extraordinary human being that Mr T and i are so blessed to call our son...on the day he turned ONE.

Remembering the exact moment a year ago...

Here's a picture of the eldest darling carrying the youngest darling...

~ Published by a blessed mother, who laments at how fast time flies. With just a couple of blinks of my panda-eyes, my little baby is now ONE and reaching various milestones. The wonderfully empowering baby-smell is slowly disappearing to be replaced with a fishy, salty taste, reminding me on a daily basis just how quickly time zooms past each of us. In the midst of all our busy lives, we must always remember to take time to smell the roses and admire the beauty of all the beautiful flowers that surround us.