The visit was actually suggested by Dylan’s teacher. She had asked my permission if she can take the boys out and suggested Penang Bird Park. It was a good idea since I have not taken the boys to the Bird Park.

We left early on a nice sunny Saturday morning. Bryan had his encyclopedia in the car and was already flipping to the pages on birds, preparing himself on what he will see at the park later. We picked Stella up and head straight for the park.

Dylan was cool when we entered the park, but panicked when his dad tried to bring him nearer to the birds’ cages.

Meanwhile Bryan is happy to be there and start pointing and naming the birds he recognizes. For those that he don’t, he’ll attempt to read out their names at the sign.


It was great to have Stella along because both the kids adore her. The kids were so excited to have her in the car and both wanted her to read their books to them in the car. At the park, she took time to explain the things we see to them.



Stella found some peacock feathers on the ground and gave one to each kid. They loved playing with it.

And the best thing about having Stella around is, there is someone to help us take our family photos.



Hubb and I have a photo taken together at the same red bridge 12 years ago. That was the photo that I was trying to find.

We hang around until it was time for the bird show. Meanwhile, we bought some fish food for the kids to feed to the fishes at the pond.

The bird show was actually better than my expectation. It was quite interactive. The trainers actually got the birds, (owl and eagle) to fly across the audience, swooping very low until it was just above our heads. One of the birds wings actually touched Bryan’s hair and he was so excited over it.

After the bird show, we got the opportunity to take photos with some of the birds. Unfortunately, the kids did not dare to let the birds stand on their hand.



One of the hornbill was actually very manja. And we managed to persuade the boys to stroke it’s feathers.

There were also some smaller birds on display near the cage. These birds are very tame and you can actually stroke their feather gently. Stella tried to get Dylan to touch but I think he did not dare.

Bryan is even worse. The moment I tried to bring him closer to the birds, he got frightened.

We left for Assam Fish Soup + Chicken Rice for lunch after that. Just because Stella was around, Dylan ate so much rice. I have never seen him so cooperative. Wish he can eat like that for every meals.

And that’s not all. Bryan & Dylan also made breakfast for daddy..Cheese & egg sandwich with loads of tomato sauce & mayonaise & fresh orange juice! Why tomato sauce? Because that’s what the kids like and they put what they like into the sandwich.

I cooked the omelette and the kids assembled the sandwich and smothered it in mayo & tomato sauce. Then I lightly pan fry the sandwich to get the nice crispy toasted taste. It was Bryan’s idea to “cook” breakfast for his daddy on Father’s Day.

Bryan proudly showing off his “accomplishment.”

Proudly showing his personally hand written card for his daddy.

Daddy happily eating his breakfast. See the lil hand at the corner. The lil fella refused to stand next to his daddy and said that he wants to sit in HIS OWN SEAT. Also he was too busy digging into my box of cheese. He ate 4 slices of cheese that morning and almost nothing else. O.o

People always say about how great a mother’s sacrifice is or how loving the mother is. I want to say that a daddy is also equally loving and self-sacrificing too. On this special occasion, I want to pause a moment to think about how great hubb is to the kids and how wonderful he is as a husband to me.

• He will spend time to do homework & reading with the children, and will offer to take over when he sees that I am losing my cool with the children.
• He attends all the children’s evaluation at school. No matter how busy his schedule is, he always make time to go to the school during evaluation to get the latest update/ development on his children.
• He always help me to organize birthday parties at home for the children. It is always a lot of work (with all the cooking & cleaning) every time we have a party since we do not have a maid. But he doesn’t mind the extra work because the kids have so much more fun with a party at home than going to a restaurant.
• He attended all the children’s birthday parties at school.
• We’ve carpooled a lot more since the kids started school as he wants to send them off and back from school. The children are always a tad disappointed when he couldn’t fetch them to school, so he always try to be there for them.
• His buddy activities are planned around the kids schedule. He always checks with me on the kids’ and my schedule before he plans his activities with his friends. Family always come first for him. And since we’ve got 2 kids, his night out with his friends have reduced so much and to such infrequencies that I actually suggests to him if he wants to call so and so out for drinks and I volunteer to take care of the kids.
• Both the kids adore their daddy. There was a time when both kids would reject his daddy and always ask for me. Now, when they have a nightmare in the middle of the night, sometimes the person they call is “DADDY!!!”
• He puts the children to bed 2-4 times a week. The children loves bedtime with daddy because it is so much fun. Sometimes eventhough it is my turn to tuck the kids to bed, they will ask that daddy sleeps with them instead.
• He is not an outdoor person, but if I ask him to do something for the kids, and it is outdoor, he will still do it, as long as the kids love it. But if it is for me ONLY…then I’ll have to slowly wait la…
• When we go for family vacations, the kids always come first. He will always make sure that the activities we plan around the holiday is something the children (and I) would enjoy. He is actually a very easy going person during holiday. He’s happy as long as we’re happy.
• He helps me with the housework.
• He is our home’s handyman. Fixes all the pipes, plumbings, electrical stuff, ensure that our home is secured, paints the gate, check our house roof for leaks, …Oh, what would we do without him
• He encourages me go out to have fun with my friends while he stays home to watch after the kids. Though he never reads any family/ relationship book, he understand that “When mommy is unhappy, no one is happy. When mommy is happy, everyone is happy” So it is important for mommy to have life/ fun outside family/ work too, so that mommy can be re-energized and bring even more energy back into the home. And I’ve to say that I have been so much happier lately now that Dylan is bigger and I can go out more often.

Most men can have children but not all can be a daddy. And my husband is a great daddy. We love you! Happy Father’s Day!

Up till a few months ago, I have almost no social life outside work + family. Once in a couple of months, hub and I may go out for dinner with friends, but that is probably it. The only other times that I have gone out is when my ex-classmates are back in town, 2 photography trips and when I do some volunteering work (once for World Vision & another time for Help Potrait).

I told myself that I will regain (enjoy) my life only after Dylan turned 2 early this year. And I am trying to fulfill that promise to myself now. But somehow, it seems that I am always put to the test whenever I am about to do something fun for myself, without my husband and kids.

March – Bali getaway- 5 days before I left for my trip, Dylan fell sick. The worse he had ever been since he was born. Sore throat and high fever. He was cranky all the time, and wouldn’t eat. Luckily he recovered about a day before my trip.

Apr – KL weekend getaway – 3 days before I went, Bryan fell sick. Sudden high fever. Luckily also recover before I left.

May, last weekend – Just a movie on Sunday evening with friends. Bryan got into a vomiting spell after he woke up from his afternoon nap. We had lunch at E&O earlier but everyone else was fine. He woke up and kept on vomiting. He just could not keep anything in. I gave him medicine, but he vomited that out also. In the end, I just gave him sips of water + ORS and sent him to bed. He recovered the next day.

It seems like I am put to the test whenever I am planning something fun for myself. Do I feel guilty? No. I know that I deserve some time-off for myself, to de-stress and feel happy.

But I can’t help but wonder what’s going to happen next before my upcoming vacations. I have a snorkeling vacation planned with my friends and a holiday planned with hub later this year. I wonder what the kids will “do” before I go for my vacation.

P/S: Kiddos, be nice to mommy ok, coz mommy is also planning a family vacation with you guys, and I promise you guys that you will LOVE it!

I just love their blur blur faces!

Unfortunately, that table was built by her husband, and I have not been able to find one that I like.

I gave up on my search for the perfect table and decided to settle instead for the plastic Ikea tables & chairs. I started asking around if they could help me to buy a set the next time they drive to Ikea. And one of the person I asked is my son’s principle, whom I know was fond of getting Ikea furniture for her school.

She told me that she has found a new supplier of children’s table of which the quality is even better than Ikea. And since she is buying for her new school, I could add in my order and be entitled for the bulk buying price too. I am delighted and ordered 1 set WITHOUT even seeing a sample/ photo of the product. Well if it was good enough for her, it was good enough for me. She has pretty good taste.

Anyway, she did more than just ordered for me. Her teacher assembled for me and her husband delivered it to my house! Unbelievably kind folks.

And verdict! The children loved it. I loved it.

The size is perfect. I ordered 4 chairs. So now it is our dining table. We normally have our meals & snacks on this table. No need to put the kids on children’s chairs. No need to worry about the kids, falling off their chairs as they climb up and down.

And it is stain-proof. The kids have drawn magic ink, crayon, water color, etc on it, and all of it comes off easily. I have not tried permanent marker on it, but even that, I think will come easily with damp cloth and some soap.

In fact, when we have guest, i think the table will also double up as a coffee table, cause we don’t own one but the table is at the right height/ size, if not the right design.

The built is very sturdy and made of high quality materials. I think we will enjoy this table for many many many years.

But there’s gonna be a first for everything. So today marks the first time that I am going somewhere without my kids. I will be boarding an early morning flight off to holiday with some girlfriends. But I know my kids will be in good hands.

I know I should be looking forward to this trip, and I do.
But I am also already looking forward to coming home to my babies….

Now that both kids are much bigger, we decided to take them up there for a visit to enjoy the beautiful lights.

We left for the temple after dinner at home. By the time I had cleared the dishes, it was already 730pm. (the kids overslept). Initially hubb was not very keen on going since it was so late already But I told him, how much time do you think the kids can allow us to be there anyway. So off we go..

As we got closer to the temple and the lights got clearer.. Both kids were started “Wahhh-ing….” away at the back of the car. Both were impressed and mesmerized by the beautiful lights. We pass by the temple from the bottom of the hills every weekend, but the kids were never attracted until we got to the temple itself.

Photos were taken by hubb during a separate photography trip with his friends. Yeah, he is slowly getting infected by DSLR photography.

When Bryan saw the pagoda, he asked me. “Is this Bangkok?”

Hubb was puzzled but then I remembered that hubb has a T-shirt with the Emerald Buddha Temple that we bought in Bangkok.

Neither one of us could recall if we ever told Bryan about Bangkok. In fact, hubb can’t even remember the last time he wore that T-shirt. So it goes to show how attentive children are to details.

Bryan insisted that that we pray and to ring the charity bell.

It was a windy night when we got up to the hill and there were not much crowd. So it was a really relaxing time for us. In fact Dylan did not want to leave at all. He refused to leave until I promised them to get them some icecream.

So we stopped by Maxim to get some gelato. The shop were about to close when we bought the gelato, so the kids had to finish their gelato in the car..or to be exact, at the boot of the car…

But as we were leaving our house, we saw a lion dance troupe going up the hill to the new showrooms at the neighborhood opposite our house. Looks like the developer is having a celebration there too! I checked the streaming banners that is hung everywhere, and realized that Saturday was the day of the celebration.

Silly me! I had received the invitation brochure in our mailbox and saw the banners everywhere. But I kept thinking that the celebration was on the 6th day of CNY. No it is Feb 6. *silly silly me*

Ah..better still. This is just opposite our house. So we changed our plans and decided to go for this one instead. Afterall this one have not only lion dances but dragon dances and firecrackers, and fireworks as well!

It was still early, 6pm + only, so hubb and I decided to go somewhere near for dinner first. The CNY celebration actually includes free buffet dinners. This developer is quite generous and normally serves free buffet dinners for all their celebrations. But neither hubb and I enjoy the thought of “fighting” for food and a table to eat. Ok la..there are usually no fights, but there is always a queue. We have 2 small children to take care off. It is no fun to find/ jom (book) a table, queue for food, watch over the kids and gobble down our dinner. We prefer to just relax and enjoy knowing that everyone is well fed.

The events start at 730pm with loud and very long firecrackers. I enjoyed it…kekekeke..It reminds me of the good old CNY days when we could burn firecrackers freely. But both my kids do not like it. Dylan was a bit scared. Bryan was not, but he said it hurts his ears and is so smelly!

Then there was the lion & dragon dances.

There are actually a lot of activities that night. Free calligraphy, free CNY cookies, free fortune telling, free tong yuen soup, dragon beard candy making demo and distribution, concert, acrobatic shows, china face changing shows… Lots of things to photograph but no mood cause I did not bring my DSLR. It was no fun to take photos on my compact camera .

We watched some of the performance and let the kids play at the playground till about 930pm. Then we go home, everyone showered, freshen up, kids changed into their PJ, and wait for 10:30pm..for the fireworks!

Yay! I have access to my DSLR back home. Since there is time, I setup my tripod for the shoots. It will be my first time to play with bulb photography. Unfortunately, I did not get any good photos. The first few shots, I was still experimenting with the timing of bulb. Just as I was getting the hang of it, the fireworks show have ended.

Sadly, I unclipped my camera from the tripod and put away the tripod. Just as I was about to finish keeping it away, the fireworks start again! This time even more brilliant, but I was too lazy to set up the camera again.

Don’t know what was going on up there. After the second round of fireworks ended, about 15 mins later there was another round. My neighbors’ kids was scolding… “Haiyo, I already switched off the lights and was ready to sleep, start again…Why cannot continue straight one.”

Hahaha..but cannot complain la..since nobody asked us to watch

To everyone who is reading this…GONG XI FA CAI. Have a Tiggerific New Year!

Scene #1: Both boys were making a lot of noise at the back of the car.
Me: Aiyoooo…both of you are so noisy.
Daddy: Later the police come and catch both of you.
Bryan: If the police come, I will take the gun and PONG the police
Me: Do you have a gun? No gun, how to PONG the police.
Bryan: Mommy, can you buy plastic gun for me. And put batteries inside so that I can PONG the police

Scene #2: Carpenter’s Close to You starts playing on the stereo
Bryan: Hey, that is my concert song. *Starts singing*
Me & hubb: *Ignores Bryan and continue talking*
Dylan: Hey. QUIET! QUIET! QUIET!
Me: *Oops, din’t know Bryan got fansee and supporter already!*

In the end we decided to welcome the New Year as a family. We would take the kids to the party and see how it goes. If the boys got tired, we’ll go home after dinner.

There were a few venue suggestions for the celebrations. Chilli’s at downtown Gurney or TGIF at Queensbay Mall, which is nearer to our home. In the end, we decided to go to TGIF because Chilli’s do not allow reservations on that day. Since it was a big group (12 adults + 4 kids), we do not want to take the risks.

We head straight to QBM straight after picking the kids up from daycare. We were afraid of traffic jam, and no carparks. But traffic was clear. Since our dinner arrangement was at 7pm, we took the boy to the “compulsory” spot first…Borders & Toys R Us. I even fed the boys some char siu paus as they complained that they were hungry already… (yeah, even lil Dylan). Luckily I had brought some paus as backup (in case the kids won’t eat the TGIF food)

There were no Kids Eat Free offer at TGIF that day, and they only have limited menu on that day, and everything cost Rm10-RM15 more that day. What a bummer!

Since their portions are usually huge, we decided that the boys will just share what we have. Hubb and I ordered the Jack Daniels Grilled Chicken and a Jack Daniels Burger.

Dylan had mostly fries, bits of bread and some chicken while Bryan had almost half of hubb’s burger patties, some chicken, fries and bread. It wasn’t really a healthy meal for them (esp Dylan) but we had to compromise each time we take them out to eat.

Before dinner, both my boys were quite shy. But after the fuel up, they warm up to my friends’ kids. The TGIF staff gave them each a balloon. And before long, the kids were busy having fun with the balloons. Throwing and catching balloon.

We were lucky to have a table near the corner with some space. So the kids gathered at that corner to play. A few of us adults have to help watch over the balloons to make sure that they don’t fly to the other guests table. A few times, it actually did. But luckily everyone is in a celebratory mood, and the guests will usually happily throw the balloon back to us.

When the kids got bored of the balloon throwing, I took out some coloring books & coloring pencils, and that continued to keep them entertained.

At about 9pm-ish, Dylan started to show signs of tiredness. Hubb asked him if he wants to sleep and then carried him in his arms. Dylan laid his head on hubb’s shoulder. Hubb pat pat pat his back and in almost no time, Dylan was fast asleep…Awww….it was such a sweet sight for me.

Since Bryan was having a lot of fun with his new friends, we decided to continue to stick around. Afterall Dylan was napping. We doubt he’ll nap for long and we hope the power nap will help to power him right past midnight for the countdown.

We left TGIF around 930 and went to JCo donuts. We ordered more drinks and Jco yogurt and continued the “lepak” session there. The kids continued their coloring sessions there and Dylan continued his power nap.

We decided to hang out at Jco until 12mn for the fireworks. There was a concert right outside the mall, and there were a few sponsors handing out free party packs. So the adults went out and got some for the kids to play with. So the kids continued their “party”…It was such fun to see them play.

Dylan woke up about an hour later…refreshed and ready to join the older kids to play.

At 12mn, we walked outside for the fireworks. It was not as great as I expected but Bryan enjoyed it very much. Dylan was a bit scared and kept asking me to take him back indoors.

We left after the fireworks. We reached home around 12:45mn, gave the kids their shower and milk. Both are still super charged from the activity with no signs of tiredness. I had a hard time convincing Bryan that it was too late for story books and that he had to go straight to bed. But as soon as the lights go off, both kids were in dreamland already.

I realized later that I had not been to a countdown party for at least 7/8 years. It was a really meaningful countdown for me as we welcomed it as a family.

I am really glad that I decided to bring the boys along. Everyone had so much fun. Nothing is happier for me than to watch my 2 boys having fun. And to share that with my wonderful husband and good friends….Priceless!

Happy Belated New Year everybody!

As promised, we took the boys to Penang Butterfly Farm on Saturday. When I told Bryan on Friday night that we will be taking him there the next morning, he insisted that I get him a magnifying glass. He played with one when I took him to my friend’s house not long ago. He said, “I want one just like Alicia’s and like the one Tigger has. I need one so that I can see the butterflies big big and I can see that the butterfly’s wings are like shingles on a roof” (this one he learn from his butterfly encyclopedia)

So no choice, we had to go to Popular and get one for him.

It took us about 45 mins to get to the park. Dylan find the drive long & boring and starts digging his mouth. He gagged and vomited his breakfast all over himself & his car seat just as we reach the teluk bahang dam. So no choice we had to get him a new set of clothes as soon as we reach the park.

Here’s my little scientist at the park on Saturday morning.

Nothing interesting for me at the farm because I’ve been there sooooo many times. It was more of a photo outing for me…

As usual Dylan attracts strangers to talk to him everywhere he goes. He wasn’t even shy when this stranger approached him to talk to him.

As soon as we left the park, Bryan says he wants to go there again. I bluff him that it takes A LOT of money to go to the park. So he has to start saving money. We can only go again when his coin box is full.

Problem is his school is planning an excursion to the farm next week. So he told me to give A LOT of money to his teacher…otherwise, he won’t get to go… Must pakat with his teacher to “brainwash” him that daddy & mommy got no more money liao… kakakakakaka.