P is for Potty Training

I'm so proud to report that the baby of the family is settled well into her childcare routine and absolutely loving the experience (unlike Big Sis who still clings and tears every Monday/Tuesday morning, but that's another story). She has always had the independent streak and 9 solid hours without Mummy...? Pah, not buggered.

Every morning, she rabbit hops into the centre cheekily. She kisses me with gusto at the door then runs off to chuck her bag and bottle into the cubby hole and join her buddies in the music room.

Her vocabulary is also growing, mostly in English/Singlish at this stage although Arissa and I do converse to her in Malay: Daddy, where are we going? / This is yours / No!! That is my one.. are the most common phrases. The rest are a mish-mash of gibberish and actual sentences which no one fully understands.

She has also learned to put on her shoes all by herself. I was bursting with pride when she pushed me away and sat down to figure out her Lacoste mary janes with its complicated loops. I'm not sure how long I waited, must've been a good 4 minutes but she did a great job of putting the shoes on the right foot and pushing the velcro end through the loop and fastening it properly.

Her A to Zs are coherent, 1 to 10s are perfect, even 一 to 十 is making sense to me!





And among all these milestones, the one that made me throw up my hands and clap in sheer delight is when she daintily perches on my toilet seat and lets the flow come through. At first, she looked mildly stunned then grinned hesitantly at the new experience. Wheeeee! Toilet training in the works soon enough!
ps: if I have the ..energy.. to toilet-time her. otherwise, let's wait til she's 3 please..

Tribute to Whitney

Warning: the next post is narcissism in full swing (pun intended).

Everytime I go to Omar at Tresses Couture, I hyperventilate at the cost of a haircut.


I come back, whine and whinge on Facebook and always get amazing responses..


Whether its a 'Whitney' or a 'Halle', 26 'likes' is good enough reason for me to keep going back. Now, if only I wake up to a head of voluminous hair every day!!

Catching Up

I got lazy filling out the last day of HK where we visited Ocean Park. It wasn't as exciting to me, perhaps the weariness from a full day expedition to Disneyland hadn't worn off before we had to drag ourselves to another amusement park.

Even the dolphins at Ocean Park shared my sentiment and refused to perform that day. In the end, everyone decided we've had enough of amusement parks and instead headed off in search of other (gastronomical) pleasures.

These 2 places were our salvation, finally I got to delight in some Hong Kong food proper.

ISLAMIC CENTRE CANTEEN serving dim sum + Cantonese cuisine
40 Oi Kwan Road
Wan Chai

MA's RESTAURANT serving Northern Chinese cuisine
::address tba::

For once, even the kids seemed to truly enjoy their meal asking for doubles and triples. Maybe I should starve them more often at home, so they learn to appreciate food!

The one thing we created on our HK trip is a theme-parkaholic. Big Sis just couldn't get enough of it. Sapna convinced Arissa to join in on her company's Family Day at USS right after we unpacked from our holiday..




but no... not in Paris. *i wish*

For someone decidedly timid, whose most-used phrase is "...but I'm scared", she surprise me with her display of courage the moment we get past the park gates. I get sick easily so theme parks and me, we never get along but she convinced Mousey Mummy to get on the 3D Transformer Ride and some crazy roller coaster where I was yelling my lungs out. I should've just hung out with Anish while she takes Godma along with her, my mettle is not made for any vomit-inducing thrills.

When Godma is on a roll, she gets nutty on big adventurous outings- next she promised the kiddies a zoo trip. It was Arissa's fifth trip to the zoo, Sofia's second, Anish's third (seriously they average 1 zoo trip per calendar year) but the first time actually buying the tickets for me, and I felt cheated that a whole day at our award-winning zoo costs less per child than an hour at Kids Explorer. And they learn more too!


**Last photo with the Helper before she goes home?! :(

And with January, comes the most important day of all- the husband's birthday. He turns 36. THIRTY SIX.. omg, neither of us could come to terms with it- we kept counting and recounting until finally he admitted that yes! he is an old fart. The conversation during dinner centered around our soon-to-be-set-up retirement fund.. *pah*


Then comes one exciting Anderson Secondary School Class of '93 reunion, in time for Lo Hei. We celebrate one school mate coming home from the States (for a holiday) and another leaving for Canada (for good). Someone decided it was funny to look at old photos of our prom night and I almost died laughing!



Since we enjoyed the gathering so much, Aisyah decided to organise another one in quick succession as a 'going-away' dinner for our dear friend, Siti Aminah, who is relocating to Perth. Perth!! Sigh..

one with the boys..

And so....with the start of a new year and the end of CNY, its crunchtime (read: building on that retirement fund). C'mon water dragon, take me on a thrilling ride this year (just make sure I take my motion-sickness pill beforehand).