First day at work for me today – this spells depression! Ha ha actually, no lah. I’m too tied up to be depressed

Hope everyone had a great chinese new year (seemed like it from all the blogs I’ve been reading but not left a comment). We certainly had. A full week of family times and food. Can’t get better. Just hope that I have time over the next couple of weeks to complete these back-dated posts:

1) Langkawi holiday in Nov 2011

2) Brandon turning 3.5 years old and starting kindy

3) Chinese new year 2012!

4) Updates on  the little pea in the belly

I used to be able to steal some time during lunch to write up at least one post, but not anymore. Today, I’d worked through lunch (thanks, Subway) in preparation for meetings which will take me from 2-6pm today. Weekends and public holidays are strictly reserved for the kids and VT so I don’t turn on the MacAir (much as I love handling this little baby). As it is, VT complains that I’m on the iPhone all the time – whatsapp-ing my coolest and closest friends. But I cannot leave with these buddies of mine!!!

 But hopefully soon, I will be able to catch up with some updates. When I don’t drop dead by 9pm.

Now that my morning sickness has completely subsided (in fact, I’m putting on sooooo much weight as I’m constantly eating!) and I’m getting some energy back, I’d wanted to get right back into one of the love of my life – BAKING. When Tomoko asked me to be one of her pioneer adult student (she held kids classes in Dec), I’d jumped quickly at the chance.

Caramel Factory is truly a labour of love, and because of that, the shop oozes of love. Tomoko who is a pure-blooded Japanese is married to my childhood friend. She is funny and friendly, and weirdly enough, I didn’t know that she was such a talented baker until she showed her blog to me. She specialises in Japanese-style and French cakes, pastries and even puddings. This makes her baking classes so unique because it’s not the run-of-the-mill butter or chocolates cakes that seemed to be offered by everyone else. Anyway, Tomoko has been a SAHM to her cute, recently turned 1 daughter and her husband helped set up this shop for her. Isn’t that sweet? He’s even around during the classes to take care of the administration and help take photos. Of course, he is the official food taster, being a bit of a foodie himself.

Last Sunday, Caramel Factory had its inagural adult baking class and I was honoured to be one of the 6 pioneer students. We learnt to bake Japanese Souffle Cheesecake and Diamant Vanille, which really is a rich and crunchy butter cookie during the 3 1/2 hour class. The class is totally hands-on and everyone got to bring home their own creations. In addition, there was a tea break towards the end when Tomoko made us tea to go with the delicious cake and cookies. It was almost like being a guest in her house! You can see the photos from the class I’d attended here.

Thanks, Tomoko, for being such a great teacher. I particularly enjoyed the fact that you self-lessly shared all the tips and techniques, which I find many people (including friends!) don’t. I will definitely be back to the Caramel Factory!

What a remarkable and memorable yet challenging year it has been! The most significant event was of course VT’s 9-months job posting to Abu Dhabi. Looking back, I didn’t know where I drew the courage and strength to be a single working mum to 3 kids in his absence. VT only got to return for a week’s duration every 2-3 months. That only shows you how incredible women are!!!

On my work front, I’d finally had the courage to change employer after 14 years. It has been 8 months at the new work place and I’m loving every moment of it, so definitely no regrets.

Then of course, our 3 boys grew up by leaps and bounds this year, both physically and mentally. I’d only just recently noticed that Bradley (now 2 years 3mos) can jump very well with his 2 feet off the ground, Brandon can speak very well now despite still using “me” instead of “I” (but it’s so endearing at the same  time) and Bryan can rattle off characteristics of each of his Ben 10 toy figurines. Come over and we’ll show you our collection -  it’s frightening!

Just over a month ago, I’d announced our impending arrival of bubba number 4 next year. How best to end the year with such wonderful news? I guess the beds in Abu Dhabi and Dubai were really comfy *wink*

In between all these, there were moments of sadness and feeling down and overwhelmed. But I choose not to dwell over petty issues and look ahead instead. And for that, I am looking forward to another memorable and exciting year ahead – year 2012, year of the golden dragon, year of my (and VT’s) personal zodiac.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Despite battling a terrible morning sickness, we proceeded to our family trip to PD as it was all planned and pre-booked well in advance. Plus it was only a weekend away. We left at 10am in a convoy of 3 cars – my parents, brothers and ourselves. There was a terrible 2km long jam on the way there due to an accident and by the time we were past it, I was pukish but thankfully for the numerous plastic bags I have in the car for events such as these, I didn’t create a mess.

It was past noon when we arrived at Avillion but the rooms were not ready yet so decided to have a quick bite at KFC in the town centre. Upon checking in, we had coconut water to quench our thirst prior to heading out to the pool where the kids had a whale of a time till dinner. We had a BBQ dinner at the coffeehouse to celebrate my mum’s birthday – of course, she didn’t know that I had pre-booked a cake for her. When it appeared together with the band from the lounge, her face was all flushed. I didn’t expect them to send the singers too so that was a really nice touch by the hotel. I don’t recall much of dinner actually as I was feeling really tired and sick by then. We settled for an early night in but I was awaken by a phone call from my parents, telling me that there was a bat in their room! Later into the night, I could hear banging and clamouring next door (my parents’ room) and then silence. Guess the bat has been caught. But then, at 3am I was again awaken by what sounded like really loud fireworks and I was asking myself, who the h*ll releases fireworks at three in the morning??! Upon enquiring the next morning, I was told that the sound was actually bombs exploding - illegal farming of fish. Scary!

The next morning, the kids zoomed into the pool again, stopping shortly only to visit the petting farm (where Bradley almost squeezed a chick to death and rattled the rooster by pulling its crown and feathers). After lunch, also at the resort, we bade farewell. VT complained that I konked out the moment the car hit the highway. Hey, I was tired from the lack of quality sleep the next before.

Although it was a short break, it felt really good to be away from the city and for the cousins to be able to play and interact with each other. My brothers and parents have been to other short getaways during the year but this is a first for me. I couldn’t possibly have gone with the kids without VT being around.

No photos this trip – everyone was too busy chasing after their own kids.

Brandon has his own self-made words:

Gung gang

Sing Hong

Nobody, including the creator I think, knows what these words mean. Brandon says it in such a funny manner that we crack up whenever we hear him say it. We observed that he uses them whenever he doesn’t know the word for something or for someone.

As for Bradley, he says:

Wa fung

Similarly, he uses that for objects he doesn’t know the word for.

I seriously wonder how they came up with such words.

Bryan doesn’t/never had any. He didn’t utter a word till he past 2 years old and then went straight to sentences by the time he was 2 years 3 months.

Speech development is such an amazing subject.

This year is the first year that Bryan gets to participate as only K1 and K2 are involved. I tell you, I was more excited than he was and of course, I shed a tear or two when he made his first appearance on stage. Every family only has 3 tickets so I brought my MIL along while Brandon and Bradley sat on our laps. VT, who was then still in Abu Dhabi, returned specifically for the concert – staying for 2 nights in KL only before returning to work. That’s RM4,500 just on airfare and he had to make the 7-hours flight each way  - Bryan, remember this!

But it was definitely worth it. The concert was held in PJ Civic Centre and was so well run and organised. At the end, when parents collected their child from the stage (dismissal was by class), they even had 2 security personnel stand on either side of the stairs to ensure the child doesn’t slip or fall. Well done – I’m impressed!

Back to the concert, Bryan participated in his class dance with a chinese song from the 70s (I guessed from the beat) entitled “Chi Dao”. It was very entertaining and I’m glad that we had it on our videocam. I have watched the video at least 10 times. Shiok sendiri We were asked to put makeup on our child but I didn’t. To my surprise, the teacher did and even gelled his “lalang” hair down. I couldn’t get a good photo of our little starlet because he was so excited that day. And for us, it was truly a memorable event.

Oh. My. God.

That is how I’ve been feeling the past 5 weeks. Every day is a OMG day. I have never vomited so much in my entire life. The nausea gets so bad that it wakes me up from sleep in the middle of the night, and I have to quickly run to the loo. I stare into the bowl so often these days that I have a stool so that I can at least vomit comfortably lol.

I’m in my tenth week now. The nauseating feeling has subsided but having said that, I’m still taking Primperan 10mg (class B drug) twice daily – down from thrice daily two weeks ago. Doesn’t help that KL has lots of potholes so I’ll definitely feel quesy when I drive to and fro work. I’ve also be hospitalised for one night a couple of weeks back because I couldn’t hold a darn thing in my tummy. Yes, it was THAT bad.

Fingers crossed I’m over that bump now with lighter days/months ahead!

Not that I wanted to keep this piece of good news from everyone but I have been so sick to my guts that I can hardly put my head up long enough to turn the PC on. It has been weeks of constant throwing up, feeling listless and already 3 visits to my ob-gyn. And tomorrow, I’d decided to check myself into the hospital to get onto some drips, which my ob-gyn promised, would make me feel brand new. Even if it’s for a week.

But yes, we are expecting baby number four! EDD 1 July 2012.

I just need to stop feeling sick in order to start feeling the familiar excitement. So much other stuff to update on the boys. But that will have to wait.

Sometime in September, I took the boys to the dentist – that’s a first for them. I was initially worried that the kids will kick up a fuss, cry loudly and won’t lie down for their teeth to be checked. My fears were unfounded partly because Dr JoEe is an old school mate of VT and he makes occasional late-night appearances in our home for poker sessions, hence the kids are rather familiar with him. The boys passed with flying colours in terms of sitting patiently on the dentist chair (JoEe called it his “spaceship”) and for good teeth. However, JoEe advised for Bryan to get off the bottle as it can lead to tooth decay and an overbite.

Bryan loves his milk bottle. At the height of his love affair, he had to drink at least 10 bottles of 8oz milk daily. That’s 80ozs of milk a day! I knew it would be a challenge to get him to lose the bottle.

We started off using a cup. Surprisingly, Bryan was highly receptive but it lasted only fro a couple of days. Then, he had to be co-orced and later, forced to drink formula from the cup.

Next, we tried plain UHT milk from the Tetrapak. Fail. I had no choice but to introduce flavoured UHT milk despite the colouring else he refuses to take ANY milk at all.

Bryan has found another love of his life: Strawberry flavoured UHT milk in Kids size (125ml), which I allow him to drink 4-5 packs per day. It’s burning a hole in my pocket but I think it’s good that he’s still getting some milk in.

As for losing his previous love of his life (ie the bottle), it was a fast and painless process. Well done, Bryan. You have hit another “growing-up” milestone. Mummy and Papa are super-proud of you!

Everything in the UAE spells money. The Emirates smell of money. Everything has to be big and lavish. As a result, everything is super expensive. Including a cup of Starbucks.

But dear VT still insisted on treating me to the most expensive high tea I have ever had. To be precise, AED425 (MYR340) per person. With reservations in tow, we were allowed through the main gate and onto the private bridge that took us from Jumeirah to Burj al-Arab, which is often mis-quoted as the world’s only 7-star hotel.  Without a reservation (either for room or food), you cannot even step foot into the hotel, I’m told.

High-tea was served on the 127th floor in “Sky Bar”, a semi-circular informal setting with couches placed all around the circumference of ceiling-to-floor glass panels.

View of Jumeirah Beach Resort and the lagoon where the rich & famous park their yatchs

So, what do you get to eat for AED 425:

 Champagne

 Fresh berries with cream

 
Variety of scones, served with strawberry preserves, marmalade and clotted cream