Bradley never fails to make my blood pressure go up and in many instances, my blood boil. He can be so sweet and soft-spoken one moment, yet stubborn and screechy the next. When I read this post, it occured to me how much similarities both these babies share. Must had been the cot-sharing when they first met.

Here he is, pulling his own shirt off. And he kept saying, “Me strong man”.

This year was no exception.

We started off with my mum’s famous lam mee with generous helpings of king prawns, crab meat, shredded pork and spare ribs and home-made sambal belacan.

After lunch and resting a bit, it was wet-wet-wet all the way. Everyone came prepared with powerful water guns and even buckets to have our own Songkran festival. While the kids rested a bit, the adults took the opportunity to chit-chat and catch up seeing that everyone is often so caught up in their own lives and kids. Kong kong also kept the kids entertained with his natural story-telling abilities. He is a favourite with everyone.

For dinner, we had a picnic out in the garden, with servings of Dad’s roasted chicken and turkey.

The kids were all konked out by 8pm. What a happy and memorable day for everyone!

Little bubba is doing well in the tummy. I have not put on as much weight as I’d thought I would – probably due to work stress (always a hurried lunch of salad and a cold sandwich at the desk; tend to nibble over dinner as the maid’s cooking sucks) and also that I have not been bingeing this time around. I don’t have specific cravings except for the ocassional need to have ice kacang and bubble tea.

It’s getting increasingly to walk around for too long a period of time without suffering a back ache and Braxton Hicks-type of contractions. I call this – AGEING! Also, I have been getting bouts of insomnia after having fallen asleep for 2-3 hours. Again, this is AGEING!

We are looking forward to receiving little bubba from the stork in 10-11 weeks time. In the meantime, we are enjoying being a family of 5.

We decided to bite the bullet late last year during the school holidays and booked a short 45mins flight from KL to Langkawi. And because I was already pregnant then, we booked to go on our national carrier instead of the budget airline so that I didn’t have to walk too much. All my fears were largely unfounded. Bryan and Brandon behaved like angels on the flight and were super-excited to finally be in the plane but of course, Bradley freaked out and cried for 20mins upon boarding, which led to him falling asleep on my chest. But really, what a milestone for me!

It was also my first time on this island and I love the laid-back nature. We spent the next 3D/2N frolicking in the sun – by the pool and at the beach; made multiple sand castles along the fine, sandy beaches and mainly hung around the Pantai Cenang area. As it was the start of the holiday season, the crowd hasn’t quite started yet so the town was still relatively quiet. I really like this island and can now understand why some friends come here multiple times in a year. We rented an MPV so it was early for us to get around as well.

On the way back, all 3 boys were cool about being on the plane already, even Bradley who didn’t cry. There was a bit of turbulence but the older ones kept jumping up and down in their seats, going “This is fun!” while I was trying to contain my vomit. Guess kids are more resilient than us adults.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.