Move 2012

Wow! I noticed that I have not updated this in ages!

Time for a quick update! We have now moved from Aberdeen to Kuala Lumpur. We have been here since March 2012 and it has been an interesting move so far! Coming home to Malaysia after living abroad for the past 10 years certainly has it advantages and also disadvantages! Still in the process of buying a place to call our own and I am hoping that it will happen sooner rather than later!! 

Other than that, we have now Mikayla in school and she is certainly enjoying it! She has been in this new school for 1 term and by gosh! We are nearing the end of term!!! The good thing about this is that she has made friends here and is certainly adapting well to the weather! Education wise, there were adjustments needed for her. Though she is in an International School, she is required by the Malaysian Education Department to learn Bahasa Malaysia! Something that she has not learnt before due to our own lack of usage of the language whilst we have been away! So good times ahead for her! Hope that she will learn and use the language at some point soon! She is getting better at understanding and knowing the words.. so that is a start! I am hoping she will be able to converse in simple malay language before the end of the year! 

As for Max, he is definitely enjoying being home with mommy and grandma! As we are staying temporarily at my mom's till we secure our own place, he gets to hang out with grandma alot especially when mommy has to go and get errands done!! He is becoming quite a talker and he enjoys company! One other thing we have noticed that he likes are flowers! Maybe this is a sign that he will be a romantic when he is older! Fingers crossed! Need to however get him into a school when he turns 3! Maybe even slightly before that! I seriously need to get my backside going and looking for places for him!

Busy week

Another busy week for me leading up to the school holidays... so much going on!!!
Today Mikayla had roman day at school and she went to school dressed in a roman toga... did all things roman and ate some roman foods... one of which she said was roman door mouse?? She was sure that it was actually a mouse that tastes like chicken... i suspect it really was just chicken... hehehe... too bad i forgot to take a picture of her this morning before she headed off to school.. might get her to replicate the toga again just for the pictures....
on top of that, the funniest thing happened today.... Max saw a spider and got really scared..... it was at a friend's house... Mikayla and Max were in the conservatory when the tiny house spider appeared... he came running to me in the living room saying 'pider, pider...' mommy, pider.... at first i thought what was he talking about... then i figured out spider... it is the time of the year when spiders come out of their hiding places... and roam the homes.... so Max was actually trying to get me to come and see and remove the spider but i instead said to him... go on and play.. you will be fine.... so off he went.. apparently he stood by the conservatory door for a bit before going back in to see Mikayla.. when he did go in... he was saying to Mikayla... 'pider pider'... shortly afterwards, i heard his cries from the living room and then i decided to go and check it out.. the sight i saw was such a cute sight.. Max was hanging on to Mikayla for his dear life refusing to step his feet down to the floor for the fear of the spider which by now was long gone..... he saw my friend and I and he decided to cling to me instead.. i brought him closer to where the spider was and boy his shrieks got louder! Too bad i did not have a camera handy to film it all...  but i had to convince him to look down and see that there was no more spider on the floor.. finally he did look and saw no spiders... he said 'uh oh' where? pider gone? So i assured him that the spider was gone and he finally came back down to the floor to walk again.... both my friend and I thought that it was quite hilarious the way he hung on for his dear life over a small tiny spider just about the size of his fingernail... hehehehe!!

Blueberry Orange Muffin turned Bundt Cake

So the other day whilst i was trawling the internet for recipes, i found this one on Anncoo Journal and decided to give it a shot... I had blueberries to be used up and decided on this one... seemed easy enough for me to do...

I was lazy to take out my muffin pan and thought since i had a bundt pan on hand... thought i'd just use that instead.... So here is how my muffin turned cake came out looking...

It was a big hit when i took it to some friends of mine for a taste test! So much so, i had to bake another for my dear hubby to try.. my daughter does not like blueberries so she passed on it... but my son on the other hand adores blueberries and cakes so he had quite a lot of it!!!! The second time i made it, i had run out of flour so i used self raising flour instead and omitted the baking powder and it turned out just as well.....

On the whole an easy recipe to make with most things that you would have on hand... 

For the recipe, please go directly to http://anncoojournal.blogspot.com/2010/11/blueberry-orange-muffins.html

Thanks Anncoo for your lovely recipe!!!

Coming back to blogging again?

Had a look at my blog and realised that i have not written in it for over a year.....

Maybe its time for me to fill it up again!

Well, I think the busyness of life has gotten the better of me! Hence the lack of writing!

Anyways, some things i think i'll share...

In about 21 days my older baby is turning 10! Gosh!! How did that happen? She is growing up fast! Sometimes i wish that she could just remain the little baby/girl she once was! She is definitely now having a mind of her own now more than ever!!! This generation of kids are just far too advanced! They want things that I could only have imagined for at that age!

cont. 17 June 2011
So, my girl is now 10!! Double digits... there is definitely no going back now!!! Only managed to come back now to continue writing... busyness of life has again gotten the better of me AGAIN!!! Anyhow, hopefully i will get some momentum going...
Oh btw, today my boy is 20months old!! Gosh! Honestly dont know where all the time has gone to!!!!
Well, more next time......

Happy New Year 2010

Happy New Year blog! Its been a while since i have updated any sort of information on here!

Anyways, all has been well! Max is now 14 weeks old and is cheeky as ever! I am set here wondering what happened with the last 14 weeks!!! Time has definitely flown by!!!

Last year ended with lots of fun and started with lots of fun as well!

We went to London when Miks school holidays started and officially made Max a Malaysian! He's now got his Malaysian birth certificate and a Malaysian passport!!! Whilst in London, Miks went ice skating thanks to two very kind folks who decided to give their ticket to Miks coz the rest of the tix were sold out for the day!!!

Then, we spent Christmas with our dear friends in Horsham, UK. After that we were on our way to Malaga, Spain for the new year! Boy, was it FUN!!! We then returned home to reality and went back to good old routine! Miks is now back at school and Max....is what can i say....busy growing up trying to catch up with his sister! 

Speaking of which, against lots of books and health visitors advice, Max had his first taste of baby rice cereal at 14 weeks old!! He absolutely LOVED it!!! With that, he also slept much better at night and was not as fussy and wakey in the middle of the night! Looks like there is no turning back for us now in terms of food for Max!(Unless of course his body suddenly decides that it does not like food yet!) Then also as well as introducing food to him, last night i decided to try to let him fall asleep in his bed on his own, after having his usual cuddles and feed! He cried...no more like SCREAMED his little lungs out for about 15 mins with some breaks in between and pacifier soothing but no picking up! guess what?? he did it and slept after that. He also in my view slept much better last night with waking up only closer to 2 am rather than his usual midnite, 1am , 2am , 3am, 5am  and 7am!  After the 2 am feed, he only woke again at 5am  and again at 7.30am! So glad! I might try it again tonite! Hard as it was, i thought i wasnt able to go to bed last nite coz i was thinking about how mean i was to my baby boy! But i was wrong! I did fall asleep and slept much better than in previous nites! Will it work again???? Let's see! And also, he woke up in good spirits as well today so i guess no harm was done to him last nite having him scream like that!

Baby M's grand entrance

Baby Maxwell Owen made his appearance a day after his due date on Oct 17th, 09! He weighed in at a whooping 4.3kgs / 9lbs 8oz.

 Obedient boy we say he is! He knew exactly when to make his appearance so it was convenient for everyone! And boy, did he come fast! Save all the gory details...but contractions started for me on Saturday morning at 6am. Then at 6:15am Mike asked me if i was doing fine, i said to him i think so! Then 15 mins later, he asks again and i still say i think i am ok...... he decided that this was it eventhough i was not convinced! So, he got up and got himself ready...whilst all that was going on, he also asks me if we should phone the hospital, i say no and finally at 6:45am with my contractions about 3 mins apart, we phoned the hospital and they advised that i have some breakfast before hand...which i did! Went to hospital 8am and then was admitted and he was born at 10:45am that morning!!! so not too long at al a labour! Praise the Lord!!!

All was well and Baby M and I was needed to stay overnight at the hospital. We got into the recovery ward later that day and Miks was very excited to finally get a chance to come to visit! She was ecstatic!!!Baby M did fantastically at the hospital! He slept through the night so i thought that it would be great times ahead!!! A day later, Sunday evening we were allowed home! Little did i realise, my joys of baby M sleeping through the nite was shortlived!!! He did not only not sleep that nite but he was screaming his head off!!!!

However, he did finally settle and slept for a bit that nite!!! We have all recovered well since then!!

It's countdown time!!

it is now 3.5 weeks to my due date! And we are all very excited anticipating the arrival of this new little one! For one, i am sure eager to find out what i have been carrying with me all this while...be it a girl or a boy! However, we've still got to wait till the little one is ready to make an entrance!!

Recently i was asked, why not jot down on your blog all the things i have taken for granted that i have never imagined that i would have difficulty doing normally!
So here is a some things i have had to improvise:

1. First thing i had noticed was my own disability to see beyond my own belly button! Now, even to look at my toes which of course every now and again i have them done was no easy task! It could only be enjoyed by me when i am sitting down! when I am standing i have to literally bend over to see it!
I had missed taking a snapshot of me trying to see my toes whilst standing at about 30 weeks...but this is me at 36.5 weeks.

2. Then i started noticing that my arms were getting shorter coz my bump was getting bigger... now i think if i were just that little bit shorter, or taller, it wont bother me as much. But at my height and the designs of the houses and their countertops here, i find myself unable to reach in front of me for very far without again having to bend over! This has been really interesting coz i've had to improvise of my food chopping! Having to do them sideways is not always fun! In fact, once my DH said to me something was not sliced thin enough! I said to him be glad that it is even sliced at all! Coz at the rate my bump is growing it is not the most comfortable thing to be worrying about how thin my slicing of veggies are!

3. Obviously nail cutting was also becoming an ordeal. One day i literally had to lift my leg on top of the countertop in the bath and tried to clip one toe nail the best i could!!! Not the easiest task! So what do i do? I managed to clip that one toe nail and then decided i wont attempt the rest! Just go and get a  nice and pretty pedicure!!