Days of our lives...

Changes

2009-08-14T13:56:00.003+08:00

Following with our move to Perth, and not having been updating this blog (blame it on not having good IT infrastructure here and there is always not enough time), we have started a new blog for what's going on in Perth for us. Please visit http://kohtanginaus.blogspot.com/

GUILTY

2009-07-24T13:08:00.003+08:00

OK, OK, accept charges against us for not posting regularly! Verdict: GUILTY in the 1st degree!

Somehow it is just so difficult to sit down to blog these days. Guess it is because we have 2 young kids. All our time revolves around them.

Sorry to those who has been faithfully visiting our blog and hoping to read some updates about us. We will try to update sooooooooooooon...

Long time no post

2009-03-27T14:44:00.002+08:00

Geez... how time flies... as we get older each day, there is just not enough time to accomplish what we want to do every single day. Is it because we become slow and therefore take longer time to do things?

Ok, ok, what a lame excuse to start to a post that is long overdue...

For the past months, we have been busy settling into the life here in Perth.

First, update on Kyrene. She is causing some worry to us. She is not finishing her tea break or lunch in school. Seems that she spends those times to try to make friends and play. She is still trying to make new friends in her school, which she is facing some difficulties. Not because of language or race, as she is trying to be friends with 2 Asian girls. She is learning that its hard to join an existing group when she is new. Other than that, she is doing ok here. She sometimes doesn't understand what her teachers are saying but yet too shy to ask or speak up. The teachers have no complains about her, in fact, she was given a honour certificate during one of her school assembly for her enthusiasm in learning, caring for others, etc. She has her 1st show and tell (public speaking session) in early March. She slso had her 1st school excursion to AQWA earlier this week. Oh, she also started private piano lessons since Feb and going to have her 1st performance end of this year.

Next is Kaylen, the naughty one. Not much about her except she is still not sleeping through the night and cries very loudly (sometimes her cries are very sharp) whenever she can't get what she wants. She doesn't seem to have grown much in size, sometimes she eats and drinks a lot, sometime very little. We tried cutting her hair, didn't turn out very well, a bit look like we put a bowl over her hair and cut. She can't really speak, only manage "pa pa, ma ma". Once in a while, she would impress us with one or two words (like that day I thought I heard her said "apple") but it is often an one-off thing. She does seems to understand us though cos we are able to tell her to do something like go take shower (she'll go to the bathroom to wait for us), throw in the dustbin (she'll throw the things into the dustbin), put in the basket (she'll bring the hangers to put in the laundry basket), so on and so forth...

Helena started on a full time job since early Mar. It is quite a change for her after staying home with the kids for the past 2 years or more. She is working in a small software reseller firm doing customer support. A bit tough at first but slowly getting better.

With Helena going back into the workforce, now it is Johnny's turn to stay home to take care of the kids. Not easy for him I would say. But he is doing a good job so far. He is getting used to it now but eventually, he will still go back to work when we can work out for someone to help take care of the kids. So right now, his daily routine is really to send Kyrene to school, Helena to work, do some shopping, take care of Kaylen at home, do housework, fetch Kyrene back from school and pick Helena back from work.

Shall post pictures rather than write so much in the next blog.

Chinese New Year and Kyrene's Birthday

2009-02-19T11:31:00.003+08:00

Ok, got over another wave of celebrations...

We had a sumptious reunion dinner with Helena's parents, sis and family. We had super expensive yu sheng! We ordered a $40 salmon yu sheng from a chinese restuarant, added our own lobster meat (we bought 2 live lobster from Canning Vale Market). We also ordered roast duck and roast meat from the restaurant. Helena also prepared some char siew. For dessert, we had Kyrene's birthday cake.

Auntie Daphne and Auntie Christine sent Kyrene a birthday present all the way from Singapore. Kyrene was very happy. She brought her present along with her on the trip. The other present she got was her favourite. Nintendo DS game - Cooking Mama. Throughout the trip, her Nintendo DS keep her, Justina and Jesmond occupied during the long drive.

We drove down south to Albany on 1st day of CNY, which happens to coincide with Australian Day (so it is a public holiday here). We stayed in Albany for 1 night in Albany Gardens Holiday Park. The next day, after some sight seeing in Albany, we proceeded to Pemberton. We stayed at our favourite place - Lavender and Berry Farm, for 2 nights. It was a chance for the urban kids to experience farmstay. They tried their hands at chopping wood and using a fire place in the house. After Pemberton, we went to Margaret River to stay for 1 night. There, we stayed at Sunflower Animal Farm at the recommendation of Helena's friend. The kids again had lots of fun here and wished we had stayed there for 2 nights instead of 1.

A pity that holidays always so short...

Life without computers

2009-01-12T23:58:00.004+08:00

For those who reads this blog regularly, must be wondering how come there is no updates for so long. Are we ok in Perth? The answer is: we are fine, just that our dear laptop decided to take a break on Boxing Day. The screen just went blank. We have been relying on the laptop even though we have a desktop PC, so when the laptop died, its not just data files (for those waiting to see photos, you have to wait longer now, got to try to recover all our digital photos) lost but in a way, communication too has been disrupted.

Just some quick updates:

We ended 2008 with quite a busy schedule. Helena's mum was here to visit us. She went back just before Christmas. Helena's ex colleague and his family came for a short holiday and we managed to arrange to meet for dinner with them. Our dear friends from Hong Kong arrived on Christmas eve and we spent the next 10 days with them, all the way till 1st week of Jan 2009.
On Christmas Day, it was literally feasting day. We had so much to eat at 2 different house visits. As usual, kids love it on Christmas as they got lots of presents. It was so sweet of our dear friend from Singapore who sent us our Christmas presents via post. And Santa grant Kyrene her Christmas wish - now she got a pink colour Nintendo DS Lite!
After Christmas, we went to stay at a penthouse in Mullaloo Beach Suites with Keith, Priscilla and their daughter, Karis and some other friends. It is a beautiful place, we get to watch beautiful sunrise and sunset over the ocean. We had our New Year countday there. It was more feasting and drinking over that few days. We went to the beach to build sandcastle and swim. The only down side is Kyrene came down with fever on New Year Day itself. But she recovered 2 days later.

These 2 weeks we are taking it easy. Chinese New Year coming and we are going to be busy again. Helena's parents, sister and her family will be here to visit us and spend CNY with us. And of course, not to forget, Kyrene's birthday is on CNY eve. We will be going down south for a short trip during that time.

So, stay tune for more updates after CNY and hopefully, you'll get to see photos updates as well.

Kaylen 1st Birthday

2008-12-10T14:09:00.006+08:00

5 December - Kaylen's 1st birthday, celebrated in our humble new home in Perth.

Time flies, Kaylen turned 1! We have been busy with our relocation to Perth that we have not plan for anything big. We took the kids out to The Beach House, an indoor playground, something like Fidgets in Singapore. We then went to Ikea to have late lunch and shop for stuff for the house. After that, we went to the city, Hay Street, to have dinner and some more shopping. We bought a tiny weeny little cake from Miss Maud's (Kyrene insisted on this cake because its the only cake with Happy Birthday wording, it is chocolate flavour and its small enough for our little family) and 4 cupcakes from the bakery in David Jones. Then, we went home to sing birthday song to Kaylen, cut and ate the cake.

Kaylen started to walk just a few days before she turned 1. Just last month, she was walking but with some support. She would hold on to the wall or chair or cupboard and walk a few steps. Few days ago, she bravely move away from the support and took one step at a time. She is still wobbly, when she looses her balance, she would sit down. We are trying to train her to walk with shoes. The other small achievement is get her to sit on the car seat and stroller. Still not 100% successful because she would not sit on it for too long.

Speech wise, Kaylen is not there yet. She has yet to speak one word. If she wants anything, she would point and scream for attention. She can only makes sounds like "ah, ah, ah" or "er, er, er" or "oh, oh, oh". On her birthday that day, she keeps going "woo-ahhh, woo-ahh", sounds pretty much like she is imitating the crows here. Its very funny actually.

Probably Kaylen is "growing" up. Lately, she just not interested in porridge anymore. She would prefer to eat what we are eating, like rice, noodles, burgers, fries, pizza, etc. She has been eating a lot of potato. Looks like she is literally "eat potato grow up". Haahaahaa...

Here we are in Perth

2008-11-30T21:16:00.002+08:00

Finally we are here in Perth, actually we have been here for 2 weeks now.

We have been real busy for the past 2 weeks, since the day we touched down on 15Nov early in the morning. That day itself, we went to so many places. Helena's friend fetched us from the airport, went to our rent place in Willetton, went to test drive and took the 2nd hand car that we are buying from friend's brother, went to shop for fridge, washing machine, bought vacuum cleaner, rice cooker, dinnerset, cutlery, pillows, etc. At the end of the day, we were so tired that we only managed to clean one of the rooms so that we can sleep in that room.

The days that followed, it was more cleaning and shopping. Our shipment from Singapore got held up at the port, and that kind of upset our schedule. As a result, we are still in the midst of unpacking.

Helena's aunt and cousins came over for holiday during the 2nd week, so we spent some time with them, bringing them around Perth.

It was good thing that we have friends here, and cousin's friends, and friend introduced friends to us, and cousin's friend who introduced friends to us. Its really a bunch of friendly and helpful people over here.

Well, once we are more settled in, will take pictures and post more updates over here.

Kyrene's Graduation Night 2008

2008-11-05T15:54:00.003+08:00

Blame it on the lousy camera that we own... did not managed to take many good pictures of Kyrene's performance during the Glory Kindergarten 33rd Graduation Ceremony. Only the shots taken of her and her good friends looks good. Luckily, some nice parents of her schoolmates took pictures of her during the performance and said will pass us those. In the meantime, here are picture of Kyrene taken together with Hwee Teng and Su Anne.

We are moving...

2008-10-24T00:14:00.003+08:00

Guess its time to make the announcement...

We are moving to Perth, Western Australia end of this year. Some of you would be surprised but some would have guessed that this will happen anyway. Yes, we finally decided to move to Perth. We are leaving mid Nov.

We have been busy preparing for the move. Just finished packing up the stuff for shipping and the mover has just got those out of the way yesterday. Now, we got to start packing and cleaning the house before we leave. Seems like we have accumulated quite a lot of stuff over the years.

We probably won't have enough time to meet up all our relatives and friends over here before we leave. Hope to keep in contact either via email, online chat, forum discussions, or even phone calls. If anyone going to Perth, remember to pay us a visit.

We will miss Singapore... families, relatives, friends, food, shopping, etc etc etc

Pick Pocketed

2008-10-08T22:37:00.002+08:00

Auntie got pick-pocketed at the market!!! Who, who, who, har?

We have been hearing so many stories about aunties get pick-pocketed but never thought it would happen to ourselves, right?

Wrong! Because the auntie that we are talking here is none other than auntie Helena. Ok, ok, laugh all you want, auntie Helena got pick pocketed in the morning when she went to the wet market in Bukit Batok.

Here's her story:
It happened real quick. I was browsing some children stuff, I took out my wallet to show my friend, and then put it back into my bag. Then a lady next to me asked her daughter where she got the wallet. I saw its my wallet. The little girl gave the wallet back but did not say when or how she picked up the wallet. Then, the lady told me to be careful as it has been known that there are a lot of pick-pocketers in the market. It was only when I wanted to pay for some stuff that I realised my money is all gone! That is all my hard-earned marketing money. Really feel so sad.

Times are bad (stock market so bad) and economy is expected to turn for the worse. Crime rate sure to go up. So, everybody reading this, be careful, don't think it won't happen to you, it can happen to anybody.

3 Weeks in Perth

2008-10-07T15:29:00.005+08:00

For those who keep in touch with us often, you probably would say "Oh, Perth again?"

Yes, we just went to Perth for 3 weeks in end Aug, early Sep. This time round, we did not drive to the North, nor the South. We just hang out in the metro.

Couple of highlights:

- Met up with Helena's uni friend who is expecting her number 2 in Oct.

- Met up with friend's friends who have migrated to Perth

- Met up with group that is going to Singapore for rugby games to discuss about what they need in Singapore

- Met Johnny's old neighbour there, we played host to show them around in Perth and invited them to taste Helena's cooking

- Met up with group of friends that Helena made in online forum for mothers

- Went to Cohunu Wildlife Park, Yanchep National Park, and the zoo (Singapore Zoo is better)

- Celebrated Mid Autumn Festival there

- Went to South Perth for tea

Did not take many pictures, our camera refused to work in the cold weather.

Change person...

2008-08-18T16:40:00.003+08:00

Today, was catching up on friends' blogs and I happened to read LH's where she commented about how I (referring to Helena) have changed from a career-minded person to a domesticated person who's priority is family and kids. Frankly, I never expected the change myself. Till today, even my own mum asked me when am I going to return to the working society. I am not sure if I can fit back into the working society actually. Will I be able to take the stress? Will I be able to work late? Will I be able to concentrate on work and not think about my kids?

These days, my small talk with parents, grandparents of kids in Kyrene's school, my friends, my relatives are always about kids. I share with them about how I fear if my kids can make it in school, how I don't wish for riches but wish for my kids to be healthy, how I fear if my kids misbehaves, etc etc etc. I got no more aim for myself in life, only aim to bring up the kids well. Is this the real me???

I am not the only one that has changed. Those who knows Johnny for a long long long long time ago, would have noticed the change in him as well. I shan't elaborate more. Johnny is also more domesticated now, putting family first as well. In fact, I think he is more worried about his kids than me.

Both of us are busy planning the future right now. It is going to be yet another big change for us. Will keep our friends post once our plans are finalised. Stay tune...

Updates updates updates

2008-08-15T15:05:00.005+08:00

Terrible, terrible, terrible... fighting against time again. No time to blog here.

Ok, shall keep it short and sweet. Here are some photos of our Bintan trip on 27-29Jul.

Mid Year

2008-07-16T14:01:00.005+08:00

How time flies... Its half a year gone. What have we achieved?

Kyrene brought back her kindergarten graduation photo the other day. So fast, she has been in Glory Kindergarten for 3 years - from N2 to K2. In another half a year, she would have completed her kindergarten. Next year, she will be going to Primary 1. The registration is end of this month. Still a big headache which school to apply for. Default is Pei Hwa but guess we want to try for a girls' school. MGS got limited seats and more than 1km, RGS more than 2km. These days, enrolling kids into school is soooooooooo stressful and worrying for the parents. During our times, our parents just simply enrolled us in school that is nearest. Where got consider whether that school produced scholars. Or least my parents did not think of that. Life is so competitive, even at such young age.

Kaylen is 7 months old now. She is able to sit up, crawl backwards, and now struggling to crawl forward. She loves to reach out for things now, and would happily put everything she can grab hold of into her mouth. 2 of bottom teeth has sprout out. So started giving her baby biscuits, baby bites and bread to snack. She is still eating mainly cereal, though slowly starting on porridge too. With Kyrene, she started on porridge much earlier, whereas Kaylen still eating puree at thsi stage.

July is birthdays month. Justina, Brother-in-law Joven, Elliot, Fanny, Angela, Kathryn, Keith, Priscilla, ...

Kuala Lumpur and Malacca Trip

2008-06-26T23:32:00.009+08:00

Really difficult to find time to update blog these days...

Here's some pictures taken during our trip to KL and Malacca during the school holidays. We stayed in The Westin in KL and Hotel Equatorial in Malacca. Did a bit of sight seeing this time round. But no much to see.

Whole lot of December babies

2008-06-10T18:27:00.006+08:00

Online forum thread discussions are so common these days, so I got to know a whole bunch of mummies who gave birth in late Nov n in Dec 2007. We would discuss anything under the sky, from pregnancy to delivery, to post delivery to baby care, and lots of shopping sprees. Once in a while, the group would meet face-to-face too.

We missed the earlier gatherings. We turned up at the recent one, 7Jun at Hard Rock Cafe. Here's a pic of all those who turned up. Look at how many Dec babies there were. It was quite fun.

We are already planning the next gathering. Hopefully, more mummies and babies can come.

Kaylen starts on solids

2008-05-26T11:26:00.005+08:00

Been busy lately thus no time to update again...

Sigh, planning the future is tough. Been procrastinating for the longest time ever. Time is running out, got to get something going. So many things to think about. Got to weigh the pros n cons for everything. In such dilemma right now on...

Started Kaylen on solids last week. She is sooooooo happy. A tablespoonful of cereal was not enough, she cried for more. Now, she is feeding almost half a small bowl.

Back at Port Dickson for Johnny's Bday

2008-04-27T13:41:00.011+08:00

Same time last year, we were at The Legends Water Chalets in Port Dickson to celebrate Johnny's birthday. This year, we decided to go back there for his birthday again. This time, we stayed in the Premium chalet as it comes with a king size bed and a queen size bed, which then 4 of us can sleep comfortably in.

Last year, we managed to catch some small fish, this year, nothing at all. Johnny was very disappointed. But he managed to sight a turtle. Its very rare to see sea turtle in this part of Malaysia, so he is very lucky. Told him that its a good luck sign, probably means long life for him (especially since he was there to celebrate his birthday).

After 2 nights in Port Dickson, we decided last minute to go Malacca to stay for 1 night. We stayed at Renaissance Hotel. We did not do much in Malacca, just laze around in the hotel, went swimming in the hotel pool and went to Carrefour at Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall. The Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall is quite new, not all the shops are open. Quite a happening place.

Overall, the trip is good except the part when Kaylen would cry very badly in the car. Sigh... she really does not like car rides.

Justina, Jesmond, Kyrene, Kaylen

2008-04-11T16:12:00.002+08:00

This pic was taken during 2008 Chinese New Year

Before and After

2008-04-09T12:41:00.004+08:00

Here are the before and after pics of Kaylen (refer to the hair) :)

Before

After

Children

2008-03-31T08:41:00.004+08:00

How true...

A baby will makelove stronger,

days shorter,

nights longer,

bank balance smaller,

home happier,

clothes shabbier,

the past forgotten,

and the future worth living for.

Audrey's Birthday

2008-03-15T14:41:00.004+08:00

Today is Audrey's birthday. In dog's life, she is 49 years old, that is, 7 years old in human years. We are going to buy a birthday cake and sing her a birthday song. She will not be able to eat the cake (we never feed her with human food, she has her own expensive dog food). We bought special treats for her though, so she can have her chicken today.

Since the birth of Kaylen, Audrey kind of get neglected. Mummy's hands are really full with the 2 human kids. No time to play tug of war with Audrey. One thing about Audrey, we know she is not happy when she just refused to pee on the paper that we laid for her. Mummy has been busy cleaning up her wee every day.

Guess we are not good dog owners after all. Sorry Audrey, despite giving you premium dog food, invest in dog mutli-vit, send you to expensive dog grooming and buy you accessories, etc... we are not able to give you lots of tender, loving care and our time and freedom as much as we want to. Please forgive us.

Chinese New Year

2008-03-06T10:00:00.003+08:00

Chinese New Year is another 1st for baby Kaylen. We bought new Chinese style clothings for both Kyrene and Kaylen. Both of same material, Kyrene's one is cheongsam while Kaylen's one is a cheongsam top with pants. Kaylen is actually wearing the size meant for age 1 year old!

Kyrene's 6th Birthday Pictures

2008-02-25T16:28:00.010+08:00

Finally got some pictures of Kyrene's 6th Birthday Celebration at home...

Sorry, no time to update...

2008-02-12T00:48:00.000+08:00

Yo, for those who have been viewing our blog, sorry lah, too busy to update these days.

Quick update:
We are somewhat struggling with Kaylen. Its been almost 6 years ago, so a lot of things, we kind of forgot what it was like or what/how to do. Back then, my sister and my mum were around to help out most of the time. This time, I'm really very hands on myself. Sometimes, when Kaylen cried so hard, I wonder what I did wrong and if I had been a bad mummy.

We celebrated Kyrene's 6th birthday in Jan over a few days. She had a mini birthday party at home where we invited her Kindermusik kakis and 2 other families. Ernest was down with HFMD, so he could not come. Chloe and Ashley were also not well on that day and did not turned up. As usual, we got too much food leftover. The worse was the birthday cake. Too big for so few people. We will post the photos when we get the softcopy from Daphne.

On Kyrene's actual birthday, we checked into Siloso Beach Resort in Sentosa for one nite stay. The hotel room is not quite fantastic, so we did not stay 2 nights as initially planned. We basically relax by the pool, went up the Merlion, Johnny and Kyrene went to take the Skylift and luge.

CNY - we had an early reunion dinner with Helena's family on 2Feb. Ate a lot of chilli crabs. Reunion dinner with Johnny's family was on eve of CNY. Usual, had steamboat. This year, the mood was dampen. Basically, just go through the motion (reunion dinner, lo hei, bai nian) with Johnny's family.

So much for now, its 1am now, need to go get some sleep. Will update soon...

Kaylen is one month old and confinement is over!

2008-01-09T03:12:00.000+08:00

Just celebrated Kaylen's full month on Sat, 5Jan. Not exactly a celebration, just gave some cakes, kueh, red eggs to family members, few relatives and neighbours. We went back to Helena's parents' place for lunch, then back to Johnny's parents' place for dinner. Didn't have a big bash but we were still feeling very tired after a day out.

Confinement is over, hip hip hurray! Been eating out, nasi padang, laksa, nasi goreng, chicken rice, satay, etc... even had lontong at my in-laws' place on Sat. Yummy! Then again, it means I got to cook again. Yes, Johnny can take a break from cooking liao. Headache... what to cook everyday???

Had a good gathering with a group of friends that we made during our honeymoon trip to Adelaide way back in 1999. There was so much to catch up on with them. We are planning to go on a trip together (been talking about it for years and it never materialised till this day). We are the only ones that is going to bring kids along, but these folks so far have no complaints about having the kids around. Really glad about that.

Going get busy planning for Kyrene's 6th birthday bash. Stay tune...

So fast, more than half way through confinement

2007-12-23T17:24:00.000+08:00

Can't believe how time flies... Kaylen is 19 days old, our confinement is more than half way through, about another 10 days more and its over!!!

Since the birth of Kaylen, our lives have been very busy. Johnny is busy with household chores, marketing, going to supermarket, confinement cooking and taking care of Kaylen here and there. Mummy is taking care of Kaylen most of the time, once in a while, chip in to do confinement cooking. Mummy's panda eyes are back again, having to wake up every 2hrs to feed Kaylen. Kyrene is busy keeping herself entertained, and helping out when changing Kaylen's diapers & bath time. Not to mention, got visitors to entertain. We are lacking rest but still hanging in there. Our priority is family for sure. We are looking forward to celebrate Christmas as a family.

Here's wishing one and all "Have a God Blessed Christmas & a wonderful New Year in 2008!".

Confinement Man

2007-12-17T16:57:00.000+08:00

Time really flies, Kaylen is 13 days old and I'm almost half way through my confinement. Talking of which, I should give credit to the person that is helping with my confinement. Its not my own mother, its not my mother-in-law, its my husband!! Yes, Johnny Koh again.

He's taking slightly more than a month's leave to stay at home to help with confinement. This time round, he's doing more, he does the cooking too! Before I deliver, I prepared a 30-day menu for him to serve as a guide what to cook. He would go through the numerouse confinement recipe books to check out the ingredients, do the marketing and then whip out the dishes for me to eat. Once in a while, he would come up with his own recipes. Can see that he's more tired this time round. He got to do the housework, cook, and do the entertaining when visitors come visit us. He lost a few kilos within this 2 weeks.

For me, its more on taking care of baby. I tend to the baby most of the time, feeding her, changing her, bathing her (something that old folks would very much frown at cos I'm not supposed to touch so much water), putting her to bed, etc etc. Kaylen is waking up every 2 hrs for feed or change of diapers, so I'm very sleep deprived at the moment.

Looking forward to Kaylen's 1st Christmas.

Annoucing the new addition...

2007-12-11T11:06:00.001+08:00

Here she is... Johnny, Helena, Kyrene and Audrey proudly introduce to you the new addition to our family --> Kaylen

Baby Kaylen was born on 5 Dec 2007, at 12.29pm, weighing a good 3.195kg. We thank & praise God for the blessing of this daughter, being there to comfort and assure us during the past 9 mths of Helena's pregnancy and the smooth delivery that Helena went through (it was less than 4hrs & without epidural!).

We continue to pray to God for Kaylen's good health and growth. We hope she can breastfeed properly soon and that her hearing will pass during the next hearing screening test next month.

We want to thank all the people for the care and concern showered upon us during this time, the prayers, the support, the well wishes and gifts. Stay tune for more updates on Kaylen :)

Fancy Dress Party

2007-11-20T16:59:00.000+08:00

These days, the schools organised many activities/events for kids. I don't remember having Racial Harmony Day, Family Day, International Day or Fancy Dress Party in school. Kyrene just had a Fancy Dress Party on 15Nov, the last day before the start of school holidays. As we were informed of the event way beforehand, when we were in Shanghai, we went hunting for a fancy dress. Its cheaper compared to Singapore.

We saw a Mulan costume but it was a size too small. I really like that one. But Kyrene chose this pink colour princess gown. I thought its a little too elaborate (it comes with can can on the inside). She likes it so we have to buy it. She looks pretty in it so guess its worth the money. Don't know how many times will she get to wear it though.

BBQ

2007-11-16T09:53:00.000+08:00

Its been a long time, really miss those good old school days where BBQ at chalets is a norm. I am still all excited about BBQ but not Johnny. He thinks its so much hassle, its troublesome and hot and tiring...

We had a lot of fun last week at Aloha Changi chalet with some friends. The chalet was a bit old. It has 4 bedrooms but our friends all decided to squeeze inside 2 rooms. Mmm... those were the days where we used to find some chalets "spooky" and love to tell ghost stories when we stayed overnight. Anyway, good thing that we booked that chalet which is away from the rest of the chalets, we are a bunch of very noisy people. We made so much noise at night but need not worry about disturbing the neighbours.

There was too much food for the BBQ as usual. But the food was good. Johnny even went all out to go Geylang to buy durians for all to eat. The kids (Ernest & Kyrene) went around shooting the adults with water guns. LT, too bad you can't join us, I think it was a lot of fun.

Stay positive

2007-11-06T09:42:00.001+08:00

Its really good to know that there are lots of caring people people out there.

Just last week, I shared with friends and people I've been talking to in an online forum for mummies/mummies- to-be about some uncertainties about my pregnancy, well wishes started to pour in and many have prayed for me and the baby. With all the support, how can I be not strong and stay positive? I really really really appreciate it.

I know I should be getting as much rest as I could but there's so much to do this month. This weekend we got a BBQ at the chalet, next week is last week of school for Kyrene (she got a Fancy Dress Party on Thu), then I thought of bringing Kyrene to watch Disney Magic & Scrooge, then its another weekend at the chalet where brother-in-law will celebrate the daughter's 1 year old birthday, and it clashes with my cousin's wedding. Then there is some shopping to do for baby stuff and Christmas presents. By early Dec, I should slow things down and probably sit at home to wait for the arrival of the baby.

Oh, we are still working on the name for the baby. By the way, its a girl.

Ups and downs

2007-10-30T10:18:00.000+08:00

This blog is more like my own blog rather than a family blog at times ;P

Just last week, I made it "public" on this blog to tell people I'm pregnant. In fact, for the last few weeks, I have been going round "informing" friends about my pregnancy. Not sure if its not meant to be this way. Just when I thought everything is going well for this pregnancy, a check up yesterday didn't bring good news. Gynae found that baby is a little small for her gestational age. I am to follow up with another scan to determine to check if my placenta is not able to offer adequate nutrition to the baby and whether the blood flow between placenta and baby is ok. Now I am stress out, super worried and at loss. What have I done wrong again?

For the last few years, been through a lot trying for another kid. Sometimes, I thought maybe its because of my work stress. Now that I quit and stay at home, things are not that smooth either. Maybe it is really age is catching up... Maybe it is true that older women have more problems with pregnancy. Maybe this... maybe that...

Pls pray for the baby, me and my family (I know Johnny is worried too but he tried not to show it so that I won't be even more worried). I really hope baby will grow over the next month and come into this world normal and healthy.

Tummy getting bigger...

2007-10-24T10:52:00.000+08:00

8 more weeks to go... yes, 8 more weeks before the little one is going to pop out. My tummy is showing now and most people realised that I'm pregnant. See my latest photo taken when in SHA.

For my past pregnancy, I didn't take any photo of myself with a big tummy. The only pic that I can remember is the photo I took with friends during Sandra's wedding (nobody knew I was pregnant then, I only looked like I put on a lot of weight). I still remember telling DY, Clee & Jess on that very day and they were all surprised. All along, I feel that I don't look good on camera, so all the more I wouldn't have any pic taken when I'm pregnant, cos I probably looked super ugly.

Not sure if baby is going to be like Kyrene at birth, a whopping 3.395kg. Suspect it may be smaller. Then again, weight is not important, most important is healthy & normal. I'm going to attempt for a normal delivery without epidural, please pray for me. Haahaa...

Am getting clumsy with the tummy bulging out. At night, it is hard to sleep properly. Glad that this time round, I'm able to feel the baby moving inside. Johnny & Kyrene got a chance to see & feel my tummy moved. Johnny is soooooo happy cos with Kyrene, we didn't get to at all. We were so worried back then. Like before, the pregnancy symptoms were mainly experienced by Johnny. This time round, he seems to have a lot of craving and eats a lot. Now he complains that he is so fat that he failed his IPPT. Yeah, yeah, yeah, blame it on me lor.

Shanghai

2007-10-10T11:04:00.000+08:00

We were in Shanghai from 28Sep to 7Oct. It was Johnny's first trip to China and glad that he "survived". When my mum was there a week ago, her trip was affected by the typhoon. When we arrived, the weather was quite warm, not like the usual autumn weather.

The sky at SHA is very different from SIN. The place is hazy most of the time, the traffic is very messy, the pavements not all done properly, people can be pretty loud. What is interesting is that the buildings come in all shapes and sizes. The architecture can be very diversified. Some are much more modern than SIN.

Shopping wise, we didn't buy much. As usual, mainly spent on Kyrene's things. There is a place called Raffles City, they got all the brands/shops that you find here in SIN. But prices are a bit on the high side.

In general, the food in SHA is more salty than SIN. Personally, I find that its a bit like Taiwan food, eg. cold dishes like bamboo shoots, seaweeds. We tried the Da Niang jiao zi, I like it very much.

David and Stephanie have been great hosts. We made a short trip to Suzhou and Hangzhou to visit some of the places of interests there. As it was public holidays week in China, the places of interests were crowded and entrance fee went up. For some of the places, we decided to give it a miss, just not worth it to go join the crowd.

We had a nice dinner with a fantastic view on the day before we left. David's friends joined us for the dinner. They were telling us that typhoon is coming. I jokingly said that maybe we can't go back the next day. That night, no typhoon but our flight was delayed the next day. At arrival at the airport, upon check in, we were told that our flight would be delayed for 1.5hrs. Sigh, we spent 2hrs hanging out at the airport, nothing much we could do except to use the food vouchers to eat all we can.

The next day, read in the news that typhoon strike in SHA. Stephanie said it rained very heavily and gusty wind on the night we left. Whew... probably God is protecting us, let us come back to SIN before typhoon strike.

Achievements

2007-09-26T10:43:00.000+08:00

A group of my friends just came back from their Mt Kota Kinabalu expedition. Congratulations! It does not matter whether they made it to the top, bravo for their interest, determination, endurance, freedom to go where they want, do what they want.

What about us?

Well, for me, I survived one year of being a stay-at-home mum. No income, no social life, but develop more patience, learn to slow things down, deepen the bond with Kyrene.

As for Johnny, can't think of much, except he managed to keep sane in his work and survived a year of being the sole breadwinner for the family.

A challenging year for Kyrene but she learns. Probably I am giving her too much stress in schoolwork???

Lucky for us, we still managed a few overseas holidays as a family. Quite a number of short trips to Malaysia, a trip to Hong Kong, and coming up next, Shanghai.

The most joyous event for us is probably we are getting a new addition to the family at the end of the year :)

Is it the environment or our human body?

2007-09-18T09:52:00.000+08:00

Sometime ago, Kyrene developed some rashes over her body. We brought her to the doctor, as usual, was unable to deduce if its a case of food or dust or skin allergy. Or it could be just a case of what we used to call when we were younger, "feng mo" in Chinese. We suspected that it could be dust or dirt. These days, we make sure the surroundings are clean for the kids, very particular about their personal hygiene, etc. I somehow felt that they are too "pampered" that when come into contact with little contamination, they fall sick. For Kyrene, the rashes went away after 2 days. It strike again during National Day eve when she had a mini sport day in school. That really confirm that it was dust/dirt that she was allergic to cos she developed rashes on her legs after sitting on the floor. When we were at Port Dickson, the swimming pool water must have been dirty cos her rashes came back again. The only cure was to give her anti-itch medicine and apply calamine lotion.

Just last weekend, it was my turn. I woke up on Fri morning to find some red spots. It went away after I applied some anti bacteria powder. But that very night, the rashes got really bad and I couldn't sleep the whole day cos of the itch. I suffered real bad cos I could not take any medicine just like that. To be on the safe side, I went to KKH 24Hr Clinic to have it checked. I was sent to the Delivery Suite for observation for half an hour, then the duty doctor asked me for my medical history, then he said the rashes don't look serious, and sent me home with some anti itch medication. The rashes went away the next day. In the end, just like Kyrene's case, no conclusion if I was suffering from food or dust allergy.

Years back, I had similar attack. I recalled I went to SGH A&E at midnight. After 3 hrs of waiting, took blood test, and the doctor just said, they can't find what is the cause of the rash. They said if I am really need to know what I am allergic to, then to take the allergy test which cost a few hundred dollars. I didn't of course. My only deduction is that I may be sensitive to protein. That time, I ate too much egg whites and seafood and that could have triggered the rashes.

The rashes episode really set me thinking... why are we getting it so easily these days? Is it our environment more polluted? Or is it our body immune systems are weaker?

Catch up

2007-09-12T09:22:00.000+08:00

Wow, didn't realised it has been 3 weeks that we have not updated our blog. LH, ok, I admit I am one of those that don't update our blog regularly.

So, what's up lately? Now, let me try to recall...

After the Port Dickson trip during National Day holidays, we haven't been anywhere else. Johnny wanted to travel again, either Port Dickson, KL, Cherating, anywhere that we can afford or I can still go, except those that involves ferry or boat ride. Johnny suffers from severe sea-sickness these days, don't know why. Guess I have been a spoil sport, keep reminding him that I am not working, so we should not spend unnecessarily.

Kyrene has developed some unwillingness to go to school. We spent a lot of time trying to find out what's wrong. I figured that it is because at home, she gets a lot of attention, but in school, her teacher pays more attention to the rest of the kids, rather than her. She is starting to get lazy to do her school work, or even to use her brain. She complains that school is boring. As I shared with Johnny, this is part of kids growing up, they go through this phase. Kyrene just got to learn that she cannot be in the limelight all the time. Anyway, to cut it short, I learn a lot about kids, bringing up kids, etc, eversince I became a SAHM.

What did we do during Sep school holidays? Johnny took a week leave to keep us company. For the 1st few days, we basically went out shopping everyday. We went to check out Giant supermarket at Tampines. That day, while we were at Suntec, we decided to catch a movie. Think it is the 1st time that I watched a movie with Johnny at the cinema. 2nd time with Kyrene. On Fri evening, brought her over to Eng Huat's place, while she spent time with Isaac, we, adults, enjoyed our steamboat dinner.

Kyrene must have enjoyed the outing to Wild Wild Wet on 8Sep, Sat. She got to have lots of fun with Ernest, Kayla and Steffi. She enjoyed but I suffered after that, because I came down with a cold. The cold developed into cough (which I hate most) on Sun. Especially during this time when I can't anyhow take medicine. Got doctor's appointment on Mon, so I asked for some cough syrup. Strangely, I feel that the cough syrup is kind of strong, it makes me loose my voice and drowsy. But am getting better...

No time to update our blog these days...

2007-08-20T11:12:00.000+08:00

Not sure how many people actually read this blog but got to admit that we have not been updating it as often as we should be. Time is never enough for me (helena). Probably I spent more time resting my body these days.

During the National Day period, we went for another short getaway. We went back to Port Dickson but stayed at Avillion Port Dickson Premium Water Chalet this time. We went to the place with Billy, Grace & Isaac. Overall, the trip is ok, except that Kyrene developed rashes just before the trip and during the trip. Kyrene is very sensitive these days, we suspect her rashes were due to the dirty water in the swimming pool in Avillion. When she's at the beach, she's ok. Johnny tried his hand at fishing (the very reason why he wants to go back to Port Dickson again and again) but no luck this time. One unforgettable thing that happened over there is probably Isaac decided to "bomb" at the restuarant where we were having breakfast on the last day. Gosh, should see how we quickly got out of the restuarant and rush him back to the chalet to wash up.

If you were to ask us, we prefer The Legend Water Chalet over Avillion. Johnny wants to go back again, I have to remind him we have to wait till next year to travel again.

2 more weeks and its going to be Sep sch hols. Gotta make plans for Kyrene to keep her busy :)

Hong Kong Trip

2007-07-16T10:31:00.001+08:00

2 weeks ago, we went to Hong Kong for a week or so to visit Keith, Pris and their families. Oh, how Karis has grown! As she just recovered from a bad bout of fever & flu, she lost a bit of weight. But she is still sooooo cute...

It was pretty much eat, sleep, swim, shop in Hong Kong. Places of interest that we went were Ocean Park, The Peak & Disneyland. Probably because we have been to the Disneyland in LA & Tokyo, the one in Hong Kong was quite a disappointment. We felt that the entrance fee is expensive, the place is small thus not too many rides & the parade is much smaller scale. By late afternoon, we were not enjoying the place and just wanted to get back to the hotel, not even wanting to stay till 8pm for the fireworks.

We extended our stay for a day to make a 2D1N trip to Macau. We stayed at Westin Resort Macau, thanks to the wonderful recommendation of Pris. We like the place very much as it is tucked in a quiet corner of Macau, away from the Casino. We did nothing but eat & swim at the resort. Kyrene loves the swimming pool.

Before we knew it, it was time to head back home. Now, we looking forward to the next holiday, coming up in Aug... heehee... :)

Mid Year School Holidays is over

2007-06-29T10:14:00.000+08:00

Time really flies... Kyrene's 1 month Jun school holidays is over. So, what did we do during the school holidays?

No overseas holidays this time. Signed Kyrene up for 2 school holidays program, one in the 1st week, and the 2nd during the 3rd week of school holidays. Its a 3-day program each. The 1st one is about environment/recycling. She learnt to make crafts from recycle materials, the thing I am impressed was that they made a piece of recycle paper out of newspaper. They got to visit the New Water plant and Bedok Reservoir. The 2nd program is about food and science. They learnt to make chocolate cookies, jelly and how to season a chicken. For the outing, they went to Farm Mart to see goat, cow, quail, frog, organic vegatables farm.

In between Kyrene's school holiday programs, we arranged to meet up some friends and their kids. Kyrene had a great time with Ernest, Kayla, Huixin & Huiyin at the zoo. Then, she also got to meet Adeline & Anne where they had an hour of fun at Safra Toa Payoh Kids Adventure Land. Other days, she was just following me to run some errands and shopping.

It was pretty much a no school work or studying school holidays for her. Well, give her a break,she probably won't have achance to relax once into primary school.

Teething Problem

2007-06-11T09:53:00.000+08:00

Last week was teething week. Wondering what is the teething problem? Heehee... Johnny had very bad toothache and he went to the dentist last monday. He pulled out 2 teeth at one go. Well, he asked for it. The dentist suggested that he pulled out the wisdom tooth but do root canal treatment & crowning for the other one. But he told the dentist to pull out the tooth instead as he felt it is too expensive to spend more than $1K for a tooth. For the whole week after that, he was suffering as the healing was slow and painful. He has not been sleeping well at night due to the pain.

Now, Daddy understand the price to pay (the pain to suffer) if you do not take care of your teeth, especially during younger days. He also learns how expensive it is with dental treatment these days. With Daddy's suffering, now we keep reminding Kyrene on the importance of healthy teeth. She now gladly brushes her teeth daily and watch her suger intake.

So, all of you out there... remember to take care of your teeth at all times! :)

School Holidays Again

2007-05-25T01:12:00.000+08:00

Johnny and myself have recovered from fever, but my health is still not good. Thank God, Kyrene did not catch the fever bug from us. I try to pile everyone in the family with lots of vitamins, fluid and rest. I wish I could have prepared more healthy food for them but I am too weak and tired to cook for the past weeks. Hope things get better as the weeks go by.

School is out for Kyrene from 24May to 24Jun. She has some holiday classes to attend, otherwise, rest of the time, I would have to think of something for her to do, especially arts and crafts stuff. So many times, she rather stay at home to do arts and crafts than to go out shopping or visiting. Other programmes that we have lined up - watching a play on Vesak Day, her classmate invited her to his birthday party on one Sunday, meeting up with some friends that we made during our last Tokyo trip, and meeting up friends from Kindermusik/Julia Gabriel, so on and so forth.

This June is going to be very eventful, stay tune...

Sick Last Week

2007-05-22T10:27:00.000+08:00

Last Tue, I came down with fever. It started with running nose, then in the morning, when Johnny asked me to take Kyrene's temperature, I decided to take my own temperature too. It turned out that Kyrene was not having a fever but I am. When I drop Kyrene off at her school, I suddenly felt very weak. Luckily I managed to walk home. I sms Johnny to ask him if he could come back in the afternoon to help take care of Kyrene, I was afraid that I may faint anytime. He came home that afternoon and decided that I should go see the doctor in the afternoon. For the whole of Wed, I took medicine and rest in bed for the whole day.

On Thu, I felt better and asked Johnny to go back to work. By late afternoon, Johnny came back. His turn to come down with fever. He was shivering all over when he came back from the doctor. So, the next 2 days, it was his turn to take his medicine and slept the whole day. For him, he recovered faster because he was prescribed with antibiotics.

Apparently, many people came down with fever these few weeks. My brother-in-law was down with fever on Tue too. Sigh... blame it on bad weather... Global warming...

Mother's Day

2007-05-17T10:06:00.000+08:00

Last Sun, 13May, was Mother's Day in Singapore. My mum invited the whole family to some Mother's Day Celebration Lunch organised by Compact Life Pte Ltd (company selling health products, which my mum is a member & customer of for a number of years). Well, we were keen on going but since she already booked a table, and didn't want her to be unhappy, we went. It was held in some function room in Yio Chu Kang (or was it Ang Mo Kio) Grassroot Club, near Yio Chu Kang MRT Station.

The programme stated that it starts at 11am, but we were only allowed into the function room at 12 noon. The food is average. The entertainment, er, well, not the youngster's cup of tea. Some of the singers totally unheard of in our era. And Hokkien & Cantonese songs, something Kyrene definitely does not undersand. Not forgetting to mention that the sound systems was terrible and yet so loud, that you can hear it way back at the other end of the building. The lucky draw prizes also limited and not that great, and we are not so lucky to win any prizes. The whole event is more for the company to get people to buy their products. You get sales people coming to your table every now and then to ask you to buy something. Kyrene was busy doing her own drawings for each person on the table, while my niece & nephew were busy chatting among themselves to keep themselves entertained. We were so glad that it was finally over at 3pm (supposed to end at 2pm) and can't wait to get home to some peace and quietness.

Mum, thanks for the lunch, but please, don't do this to us again next year.

Kyrene's 1st Trophy

2007-05-17T09:50:00.000+08:00

Last Sat, 12 May, was Glory Kindergarten Family Day Carnival. Luckily, we decided to attend this year's event, Kyrene actually had a chance to collect her 1st trophy which she won for a drawing competition held during International Day in her school. Also, she and the rest of the kids performed several song items for the parents.

There were also lots of food and games. Kyrene enjoyed playing the games a lot. She even helped to get a souvenir for her cousin, Isaac, by playing a few rounds of the games. We invited my brother-in-law and his son, Isaac, along, so that Isaac can familiarized himself with the school surrounding. Isaac will be attending nursery in Glory Kindergarten next year.

Spring cleaning

2007-05-03T10:46:00.000+08:00

Our spring cleaning is not limited to once a year affair during Chinese New Year. Friends who know me for many years would have known that I often spring clean my house once every 2-3 months. My spring cleaning would include rearranging the furnitures and redecorate the house. If I recall correctly, this should be the 3rd time I have done this since I became SAHM slightly more than 6 months ago.

This time, I decided to move Kyrene's stuff up to one of the bedroom (she calls it her Play Room now). Her collection of books and magazines have also been moved into the study room upstairs. The lower level of the house is much less cluttered, so its easier for me to clean on a daily basis. Not quite done yet with my spring cleaning, thus explain my less frequent posting this week.

Some may notice my blog also changed in design and layout. Yes, my blog is also not being spared. It will be revamp every other few months. And I promise I'll write more interesting stuff.

Poor child

2007-04-30T10:06:00.000+08:00

Last Thu, my nephew, Isaac was warded in the hospital for fever & cough. Doc said he got lung infection. As Isaac does not like to eat medicine, so he had a hard time recovering. He was put on drip to get the antibiotics into his body system and he did not like it either. He was so happy to see Kyrene and us when we went to the hospital to visit him.

On Fri, I went over to my brother-in-law's place to help out with the maid to take care of Cheryl while they are at the hospital. Cheryl has grown much and its much easier to take care than before. Kyrene loves to help to take care of Cheryl. Fri night, Johnny had to work, so I had to work doubly hard to take care of Kyrene alone at night. Kyrene stated one condition for letting her daddy goes to work, that is, I play with her with her cooking toys. So we play masak masak till 11pm, at the same time, did the laundry.

Hurray as Isaac was able to discharge from the hospital on Sat. We went to fetch him from the hospital to send him home. He was glad to be home, he was happily playing with Kyrene with all his fav toys. However, when it comes to medicine time, oh, our hearts sank, when he started crying so pitifully and said "no, no, no medicine". We got to coax him to take his medicine, reminding him that if he doesn't eat his medicine, he will have to go back to stay in the hospital.

We decided to change the layout in our house again. So gonna be busy and tired. More cleaning to do...

Midweek

2007-04-25T10:24:00.000+08:00

Hey, its midweek again. Like Kyrene, who is always asking when is it going to be Saturday and Sunday (cos Daddy doesn't need to go to work, can stay with us, and on Sun, we can all go to church), I also look forward to weekend as I don't need to take care of the family alone.

Ok, I need to include one more member of the family in this blog. That is Audrey, our pet dog, also known as the elder daughter of the family. Audrey just turned 6 yrs old in Mar. Overall, Audrey is a good dog, she is nice to Kyrene, love to sit on people's lap and get lots of tender loving strokes, and loves to go to the balcony in the morning to sun tan. Just one thing, she can be temperamental and throws tantrums at times.

Lately, Audrey has been throwing tantrums again. How does she throw tantrums? By pee-ing all over the living room. Just yesterday, she jumped onto one of our Ikea chair and pee on the cushions and chair. My friend was telling me that she is trying to mark her territory. Probably so, eversince I stopped work, I mopped the floor more often to make sure the house is sweet smelling and recently, we just throw away our sofa (which has been her bed as seen in this picture since we brought her home) and gave her a towel to sleep on instead. We did so, thinking that it will be cooler for her, and to prevent her from getting bumps on her back. I also suspect she is throwing tantrums whenever we do not spend enough time with her at home.

Port Dickson Weekend

2007-04-23T09:52:00.000+08:00

Last Fri, we last minute decided to drive to Port Dickson and stayed at The Legend Water Chalets. We enjoyed ourselves very much. We reached there around 5pm, checked in, went out to buy dinner & cake, went back to the chalet to have our dinner and then celebrated Johnny's birthday.

We quite like The Legend Water Chalets. Its chalet standing over waters. Inside the unit, that is a small floor panel which you can see the water below. Too bad the water ain't the clear blue kind. The bathroom has a big bathtub, the roof of the shower area can be opened, so you can bathe under the sky. The room has a king size bed and a day bed. On the balcony, there are deck chairs for you to sit and relax and look out at the waters. The best part is one can stand at the balcony to fish. It would have been great if the view is full sea view instead of staring into the chalets opposite. Well, one can get full sea view if willing to pay more.

The next day, we drove around Negeri Sembilan without a map. So, we were just driving aimlessly around. Finally found a shopping centre to eat our lunch. After lunch, we decided to go buy some fishing gear, so that we can do some fishing back at the chalet. Yes, you can do fishing right at your own balcony. But when we got back, the tide was all the way out and our chalet was standing on muddy ground. Kyrene was so disappointed. But not for long, cos the tide came in soon after. We started to fish about 1 hr later. No big fish, just small small ones. For the rest of the evening, Johnny was busy trying his luck at fishing.

On Sun, we didn't feel like coming back to Singapore. The drive back home was a long one. We took the coastal route back to Malacca. We started to feel the heat of the weather in Malacca and Kyrene didn't feel too well after the bumpy drive. So, we had a quick lunch and headed straight back to Singapore via the North South Highway. Sigh.... another holiday over, when is the next one?

Last six months

2007-04-19T09:32:00.000+08:00

Ok, this is going to be a long one...

Till this day, I can't believe that I made the BIG move to leave the workforce in Sep 2006 (for good? I don't know at this point in time). Since I returned from overseas studies, I have worked hard for the past 11 years. I also can't believe that I quit my job because of family, particularly, my princess - Kyrene. Before I embark on the next part of the journey of my life, I took a break first in Oct - went to Perth to visit my dear friend and her newborn baby girl, Karis.

Got to admit that I am not used to being a stay-home mum. I was busy cleaning up the house at first, re-decorating some parts. After a month of so, boy, was I dead tired. When Kyrene is around, its always "Mummy, can you do this with me?", "Mummy, can we play toys together?", "Mummy, can we do art & craft together?", "Mummy, can you show me how to conduct this experiment?", and it goes on and on...

Oh, and not forgetting I got to cook! Johnny loves it cos finally he gets to eat home cooked food everyday.

Now, I am pretty much used to the change (except the monetary income part, I can't spend like I used to). Social life? Very little energy & time left for it. Don't be a surprise to find me turning into a yellow faced auntie soon. The thing that keeps me going is seeing Kyrene loves me so much more now.

The last Christmas & Chinese New Year period were tough times for me. Many things happened. Let's just say, it was not the best time of my life. Everyday now, I tell myself it will be better tomorrow.

Good times? Yeah, we still take our short breaks and holidays. We made several trips to Malaysia, sometimes, it is just a day drive into JB for shopping. Then, there was the 3 nites stay in Ritz Carlton Kuala Lumpur. Well, as I write, we are planning to go away this weekend : )

Finally, here is it...

2007-04-18T15:45:00.000+08:00

I have always wanted to start this long time ago... but you know me... often procastinate. In the past, I have work and family commitments as excuse for no time to do this, but now that I am not working, one less excuse.

So here is it. My very first blog.

Time flies, it has been half a year that I made the BIG decision to become a stay-home mum/housewife. I never know that life can be THAT busy. Everyday, there are endless chores waiting for me to finish. Then, I have to crack my poor brain to think of things to do with Kyrene. Social life? Not as rich as I wish it is...

Well, do visit our blog regularly to know what's going on in the lives of the Koh-Tang family :)