So many Cars

These are some of Zaky's collection. There should be some more hiding in the toys corner. Cars, cars and more cars!

Even with all the cars that he has, he is constantly asking us to buy cars for him when he is at the toys shop. Faint. How many cars does he need??? The same applies to balls. We have so many balls at home. 😓

Well, I am only glad that at least he likes cars and balls and not dolls? Hohoho.

Mummy Lim

Good Popo, Bad Popo

I told Popo that I was going out with the girls on Friday night and asked that she doesnt let Lil Isaac naps for too long in the afternoon. She was really nice and offered to bring the kids swimming in the late afternoon as swim they did. In fact, they water played for at least an hour and went to run at the playground thereafter. The kids were indeed very tired kids that night. Thank you Popo.

On Saturday morning, the kids woke up bright and early as usual. Lil Isaac was up first and Popo brought him to the living room to entertain him so that I could sleep more. Thereafter, she brought Lil Isaac to the market to buy bfast. She had wanted to bring Lil Shauna too who didn't want to follow but quietly watched the YouTube. So I managed to doze here and there until 9ish. Heavenly.

We didn't go out much on Saturday. Popo knew that I was tired and didn't insist that we crawl the malls. Hehe. So nice of her again.

Just that I thought everything is hunky dory, Popo had to drive me crazy again with all her routines and her sneers at the maid. How I should not do this and that, not now but another day bcos she hasn't mop/ wipe/ wash.. How this and that is dirty and how the kids must be changed/ washed that leave them crying, screaming, yelling. How she talks sarcastically at the maid, but I really think the maid is at no fault and doesn't deserve the treatment. She's at it now, I am trying hard not to hear. Arrggghhhh. Popo is still Popo. Nothing has changed.

Mummy Lim

Tian Wang Yi

The Osim Tian Wang Yi (TWY) is my bday present this year. It cost us about $5k and I had to admit that it was an impulse buy. I must had felt very rich then after collecting my bonus. Lol.

I had thought that the TWY will be greatly utilised. Imagine a nice massage after a hard day of work. Sadly, it wasn't so. I still prefer the human touch and would opt for a massage by Daddy Lim anytime. Hohoho.

Thus, our TWY is underutilize, sitting in one corner of our living room. Only ah yee helps to work the TWY whenever she comes to stay overnight. Sad.

Last week, during our family Christmas celebration, my bro and SIL enjoyed the TWY very much. Even Fione seems to enjoy the massage. I was glad that my TWY had been put to good use.

This morning, I finally sat on my TWY. My back is breaking after last night's "workout". Before I was even midway into the massage, lil Shauna chased me off. She wanted to try, must be after seeing Fione enjoying herself last Sunday. She thoroughly enjoyed herself and was on the TWY for 30 mins and still didn't want to stop. I had to chase her off to do something more constructive.

Then Popo also asked to sit on the TWY! She has never tried the TWY even when it was bought many months ago. She complained that her legs were aching and ended up on the TWY for 30mins too. Woohoo!

We are having a Christmas gathering this Sunday and I also have a queue forming for the TWY. Haha. I am glad that it is put to good use.

Ok, I should continue the disrupted session.

Mummy Lim

Party Time

I have a hot date tonight! Hehehe.
We are going clubbing again. The last one was a couple of months back. Yes, it is the same gang. Daddy Lim was drooling. Hehe. Too bad, one of us has to stay at home just in case the kids need us in the middle of the night. He can always plan his night out with his "uncle" guy friends. The only rule - the kids have to sleep first before one of us can exit the house.

The excitement has reduced drastically as compared to the last 2 sessions. However, the companion is just right and that is all that it matters. Despite the reduction, I was still jumping around these few days when I thought about the event (so you can imagine how I reacted the last 2 rounds).

I am all ready. Daddy Lim is fetching the kids and my job is to tuck them in. You can imagine how fast I will sneak out once lil Isaac goes to lala land. I am in lala land too. I love the girls. It will be a good workout session tonight. Hehe.

Mummy Lim

Clothes

I used to love online shopping for the kids. Kids’ sizes usually go by age and the sizes are usually right. There is no need to physically try the pieces and when the loot arrived, they fit almost perfectly most of the time. The same applies to buying pieces off the rack for the kids. Easy breezy until a few years ago when Lil Shauna started to choose what she would wear and not.

Still, it wasn’t a big problem. All I have to do is to bring her along and ask her to choose what she wanted or put her in front of the computer and point at what she desired. She may sometimes take a long time to choose or end up with pieces that are totally off or something that is way too expensive. Then I will decide that we save some $$ and not buy anything, which is usually fine with Lil Shauna. Clothes aren’t the most important thing in her life, at least not yet. It is shockingly scary how kids’ dresses can cost more than $50 or even close to 3 digits.

Things only became a problem in the recent months. I don’t know if it is bcos kids started to grow at different rates at pre-schooler age or Lil Shauna’s extra kgs around the waist is the culprit. Pieces that I bought without her trying on now look weird 50% of the time, tugging at the wrong places, bulging here and there. The sizes may be right, yet they ended up too small or big, usually the former. It must be the Lim family’s “big” genes at work. It is now a risk to shop online or buy off the rack without trying. There are times that the pieces came out of their packaging and straight to the pass-it-on or recycling bags. Some of the pieces may be luckier and she wore them for a couple of times before they become a permanent resident in her drawer and mummy soon put them in one of the bags when she does spring cleaning. Ouch, my pockets!

Her little bulging tummy is an eyesore. I think Daddy Lim and she should work out some exercise regime. They both need to lose that tummy. The clothes are always growing a tad too small after a while and usually only at the tummy area. Lol.

Shopping for Lil Isaac is still fine. Nothing related to sizing bit bcos there are only that many boys’ clothes in the market. Lol. Oh, he needs new shoes. His feet seem to grow faster than the other parts of his body. My $40+ See Kai Ran shoes that I bought online was only wore for a few times before they went to the hand-me-down bag. Arrghhhh..

Mummy Lim

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! Hohoho.
Unfortunately, my Christmas was more tiring than merry.

I started my Christmas shopping 2 weeks before, grabbing whatever that I think suits whoever. The serious buying took place last Friday when I was on half day leave to comb JP. It was hard work jostling with the last-minute shopping crowd. Wrapping was done at whatever spare time that I have, usually after the kids slept. See, hard work. I was tempted to gift the presents in their rawest form, i.e., unwrapped. I had wanted to be environmental friendly since most people tear and throw away the wrappers. Some may recycle, isn’t it more environmental friendly if we do not wrap them to begin with? No, I am not finding excuses for myself. I really do feel that way. However, the wrapped presents look so nice and I have always enjoyed wrapping. Hehe. So here we are, presents all wrapped up except for 3 more to go for the Christmas gathering on 30th.

Daddy Lim and I knocked off at 3pm on Christmas Eve but he was busy and we didn’t leave until 4ish. The kids were home. We brought them to JP for an early dinner. Lil Isaac wasn’t his best self and was whiney and grouchy and difficult. He insisted on wearing a pair of slippers that kept dropping off while he walked. One of them dropped 3 storey in JP and we lost it for good. Strange kid we have. Lol. We then brought the kids for a massive grocery shopping and we were very glad when we were finally home. Phew. Hard work again.

Daddy Lim had to work on Christmas day. We held a mini Christmas celebration in the late afternoon with my family and Nainai was also invited. We didn’t go to the church as mummy wasn’t sure what time the service was. Ok, I was lazy. Anyway, the celebration was something out of the norm and non-routine irritates Popo, who was cooking for the event. So she was “dysfunction” in the morning and a set on invisible routines appeared to help her cope. Staying at home was way too much to bear with both kids leeching on me, Popo busied herself with don’t know what preparations for the afternoon and auntie was of no help at all. As usual, none of the kids wanted her. Nobody wanted her to even touch them and everybody wanted me to play with them, which I wasnt in the mood to. So we escaped to the Kids’ Maze, an indoor theme park at Jurong Safra. With the distractions, the kids gladly let auntie entertained them. Popo happily prepared what she needed at home with peace and I took whatever opportunity I could find to hide one corner.

I did climb the structure with the kids but rested more than climbing. It was a 5-storey obstacle course with plenty of slides. I felt like I was working out for the sinful dinner that I was going to have. The structure is made for kids and some openings are really small. I am really glad that I have a skinny maid. Auntie seemed to enjoy herself and survived really well. At least there was no nagging from Popo. All of us ended up with some injuries. The slides are too long and narrow and some really spiral. As I go down the slide, I could hear the sounds made by static. There was this particular one that left me with a dizzy head after every slide. Hard work. Lol. The kids were glad to leave after a 2 hours play for the Christmas party.

Popo started cooking at 3pm and we started eating non-stop until almost 7pm! S**t, how fat is that? The finger food were just too delicious to resist. The kids played toys and games and run around and fought and threw tantrum until I gave up. It was so tiring and we started opening the presents at 6ish. Kids were happy for a while until they started playing with the new toys and fought again. Aiyo, want to vomit blood!

I was really glad when the celebration ended at 8pm. We showered the kids and kept them in the room while Popo and auntie wiped and mopped and clean. Phew. The only consolation was that the day’s event left the kids tired and tucking them to bed was really easy. Unfortunately, we forgot to make jiejie go to the toilet before bed and she had an accident. Ouch!

How can Christmas be so tiring? What went wrong? Suddenly, the idea of having a quiet candlelight dinner with no kids seems so appealing. Lol.

Mummy Lim

Cockroach House

*Viewers’ discretion is advised.

Remembered the “pretty” cockroach houses that we bought and set up after the cockroaches totally disregard us and paraded openly in Tiggy? We were amazed at the amount of roaches that were trapped in the houses and are very disgusted as well. Each time that we peek into the house, Daddy Lim will start his, “there should be no eating in the car” speech. Regretfully, biscuits and tidbits get passed around the next moment when the kids boarded Tiggy.

It has been at least a month since we set up the traps and we are still seeing new catches, the twitching legs, feelers moving rapidly trying to struggle free. DIE! We thought that the baits are probably losing their effects and set up new traps yday. Strangely, although we are very much disgusted, it is very satisfying seeing the increased in the roaches trapped. The satisfaction is much more than those roach poison, where one roach helps to kill the others by spreading the poison around bcos we don’t see the roaches dying in those cases. The roach house simply proves that it is very useful and effective.

We still see an occasion lone cockroach running around but the number of such dare devils is definitely lower. We must buy more of such houses. Kekeke (evil laugh).

Mummy Lim

Mini Concert

Yday marks the end of Lil Shauna’s 1st semester with the Yahama Junior Class (YJC) and the semester ended with a mini concert. I was very gan cheong, much more than her, who spent the day at Palawan beach, Sentosa with my bro’s family. I was so gan cheong that I sort of went into escapism mode and told Popo that it is Ok to skip the concert if Lil Shauna is too tired. Hahaha.

We attended the concert eventually. They made it back at 7.30pm, leaving us enough time to take a slow walk to the school across the road.

The concert wasn’t that bad. In fact, I actually made Lil Shauna practiced on the keyboard 4 times over the last week. Our maximum was like 2x on normal week. Yes, I am kiasu mummy. She is quite skilled in her “hot cross bun” by yday. The concert consists of some song performance and memory singing. It was pretty obvious that Lil Shauna wasn’t very confident of some of the songs. Then again, most of the kids are like that, but some are really good.

She breezed through her “hot cross bun” too. As expected, the rest of the kids performed harder pieces. Hers was definitely the easiest but it was her choice. It is more important that she enjoys it. The kids received a Christmas pressie at the end of the concert, which made them happy kids.

Lil Shauna did mention to Daddy Lim that she enjoys the music classes. Phew. However, when I asked her last night (after the concert) if she wanted to continue with the class, she said “no” again. I am cleverer this time and again suggested that we try for one more term without asking her why she doesn’t want to continue, which she agreed easily, so I guess she doesn’t hate music classes too much.

Seriously, I don’t know why am I am insistent that she continues with her music class. Actually, I don’t think I am insistent, only Daddy Lim thinks so. At least I know that I will not pull hair (maybe I would, but not too hard and too much) if Lil Shauna finally decided that she will no longer want to go for her music classes, just like what she did to the ballet class. Maybe I like it that she’s learning something good. Maybe I like attending the classes with her. Daddy Lim and I both recognize that she hasn’t a natural talent in music. Still, maybe she will still make it big somehow? Hahaha.

Mummy Lim

Happy Bday Bb!

Post written on 12th Dec 12.

Yday was Daddy Lim’s 35th bday. Yes, old man already.
We did discuss the possibility of taking leave and going on a “hot date” on his bday. However, we were both swarmed with work after returning from our holidays and taking leave was simply out of the question. We made do with knocking off on time, which again didn’t happen. We struggled to leave the office at 5.30pm. Well, better than nothing.

We had a nice dinner at one of those restaurants in JP. Nothing fanciful but definitely more appealing than some fishball noodles or chicken rice. Daddy Lim didn’t get himself anything in Korea and was dying to spend $$ back home. He had been whining about it. Hehehe. He bought himself a pair of Adidas slippers and was looking for a pair of track, a design that he found in Korea Cheju but he didn’t get them then. I didn’t even know that he spotted something in Korea, I was busy manning the kids while he shopped then and had to exit the shop with Lil Shauna cos she was trying to drink her strawberry milk and the shop auntie was shooting us dagger eyes. Korea doesn’t have the best customer service.

Daddy Lim didn’t find what he was looking for and is regretting big time now. He kept lamenting that he should have bought the shoes in Korea. Not my fault, I didn’t stop him then hor.

He is also after a pair of $400+ Red Wing shoes. I was very much appalled when I heard about the price of the shoes. I would never buy such expensive shoes for myself. He said that Red Wing shoes are made in US or something, really good in quality and very durable. I had thought that it was some China brand initially and was wondering why such China brand shoes cost so much. I mean, look at the name. Red Wing sounds so similar to some "golden phoneix" or “yellow panda”, names that one would probably associate with something MIC. To date, I am still teasing him about his Red Wings. I supposed he would get his Red Wings soon. He requested for it before our holidays when our budget was a little tight and he said that it would be my bday, Christmas and CNY gift to him. Like that how to reject? I was hoping that he would change his mind about it after the holiday but apparently he didn’t. Lol.

After the dinner, we rushed through some grocery shopping and fetched the kids, who wanted to “make” cupcakes for Pappy’s bday. They each decorated a cupcake, smearing the readymade cupcakes with icing and pouring sprinkles on the icing. Lil Isaac ate more of the icing than putting it on his cupcake. Lol.

We had a simple candle blowing ceremony with the cupcakes. The kids had more fun like they always do on bdays, whoever's bday. Lil Isaac was so anxious to blow out the candles that we had to keep lighting it.

Well, kids are blessings, so is the wife. So Daddy Lim had plenty of blessings for his bday. :p

Love you deep, deep bb. May you have good health and God’s blessings on you for the coming year. Oh also that you will lose some weight and that look-like-6-months-pregnant tummy. Hohoho. But you know I still love you… the kids too. Muaks.

Mummy Lim

Life Goes On

I read Mummy J’s post relating about the heartaches bcos her MIL seems to be permanently shifting in with her. Nope, she is definitely not one of those nasty DILs from hell or not being filial. Her MIL is definitely not the easiest and kindest person on earth. In fact, she’s probably nowhere near those descriptions. And I feel her. I really do. It reminds me of my own problems with my mum. Yes, my own mum, flesh and blood.

I had thought that DILs will only have problems with their MILs, not daughters with their mums. I must be naïve then. So, I actually begged my mum to come and stayed with us almost 2 years ago to supervise the maid and the kids after my MIL turned us down. We had no other better options then. I had thought that I was so blessed to get my mum’s help then. Well, it is still a blessing somehow but as I mentioned in my earlier posts, Popo comes in a package and with her baggage.

We had plenty of conflicts over the 2 years and COUNTING. We had quarrels and cold war and I finally decided that the best approach is to try to stay out of her way as much as possible. She almost runs my household now, as if she is the lady of the house bcos to her, I am and will always be her daughter and mother runs the house, not daughters. She has somehow conveniently forgotten that I too, am a mother of 2. Plenty of reminders that this is MY home, that I am grown up and have 2 kids didn’t get into her. Things didn’t change. So much so that I ended up behaving like a spoilt brat sometimes and purposely do stupid things to go against her way/ routines just to irk her. There had been occasions that I was so pissed that I wanted to drive her out. Yes, I am the unfilial one, not Mummy J. But, I didn’t and I am quite sure that she is here to stay.

I had hinted her previously that one day, my MIL could be too old and wants to stay with her kids (maybe the elder one) and there could only be ONE grandmum in our house. Please, one already drove us crazy. If we have 2, we will be the ones walking out of the house. We do not have the space too. I did mention too that maybe she could shift back to my brother’s place if that ever happen but Popo simply refused. She refused to even entertain the thought. Of course, I don’t know if I am digging my own grave to bring in my MIL so as to chase away my mum. I cant tell which is the lesser evil.

We have no idea why Popo loves to stay with us so much. Maybe she enjoys running my household and couldn’t do so in my bro’s place. Yes, Popo is a control freak and we see the problem getting more and more serious. Maybe I am easier to bully. Maybe we are usually not at home. Maybe she didn’t want to have conflicts with my bro and SIL (but ok to have conflicts with me??!!). I don’t know. I guessed I will be happier to condition myself to think that Popo loves me too much to leave me. Hahahaha. I only know that it will be a long time that Popo will be with us and that Popo will continue to irk us with her queers. See no evil, see no evil.

Then again, auntie may quit on us soon, especially at the rate that Popo “sternly talks” to her. Popo insisted that she NEVER scolds auntie when everybody keeps telling her to stop scolding auntie. The kids are growing up. They are easier to manage and Lil Isaac is joining jiejie at the kindergarten next year. I think we will not engage another maid if auntie does quit and I wont be surprise if she does. I think she’s being verbally abused now. Without a maid, maybe Popo will be kept busier and less time to perform her weird routines? Or at least she irks me less bcos I don’t see her “scolding” the maid?

Whatever the case, I should count my blessings. Bcos of Popo, I can work without worries, my kids are well fed and my maid didn’t dare to hanky panky. I also pray that my maid wont go crazy and do harmful things to my family. Life goes on.

Mummy Lim