ah ma's birthday

dad surprised mom with a beautiful bouquet of roses!
he'd a kinda shy look on his face when i asked him, 'is that for mom?'
she was truly touched by dad's gesture as she held them.
but when we were alone in the kitchen she asked me,
'did u make daddy buy the flowers for me?'
of course i said 'no!' & told her i was surprised myself. haha!
dad at 66 & mom, who just turned 63 make such a loving couple!

i teased dad by demanding to know how much he paid for it
which i know can be a bomb on valentine's day.
he smiled & wouldn't tell me. awww so cute!

pretty in pink

hubs did get up early to buy crabs
cos there was no supply from lahad datu.
he went all the way to tuaran for 'em.
we'd baked cheese crabs!

beautiful crab roe from the tuaran crabs

then we'd crabs from donggongon market
courtesy of my FIL, who btw is a great cook!
hubs learnt to cook from him & yes, i'm very blest.
the fierce looking donggongon crabs
soon turned into chili crabs by hubs' skillful hands.

juicy & yummy butter prawns, last dish prepared by hubs.
we were all spoilt rotten on valentine's day big thanks to him :o)

happy valentine's day in advance

mom will be celebrating her birthday tomorrow, yup, on valentine's day, & yes, she's one lucky mom cos it gives us all the more reason to celebrate the most talked about day, 14 february. i'm taking a day off work which i do every valentine's day, yay, so that i won't miss a moment of her birthday & also i make meself available for her to order me around. haha! nah, she's way too nice!

hubs, as chief chef, will be in charge of the kitchen in preparing the birthday-cum-valentine's day dinner for us. he has ordered fresh crabs & prawns from lahad datu but due to the cny hols, it's hard for the supplier to confirm any orders for now. i pray & hope that we can have them for tomorrow (fingers & toes crossed), if not, hubs would've to wake up real early in the morning to get them fresh, if any, from the market.

i'm in charge of the cake which is the simplest of all task & settled for a carrot cheese cake. mom loves healthy cakes but i must add that a carrot cheese cake can be sinfully rich as well. haha! when i told an about my cake choice, he exclaimed 'not again!' it's actually my 1st time ordering a carrot cheese cake, i suppose his 'not again!' meant that he's not at all keen on a veggie cake.

to all loved ones near & far...valentine's day is more than a day for celebrating romance. it's also a day for celebrating true friends of the heart like you. happy valentine's day with love!

balik kampung

we spent the 2nd day of cny at kampung tombovo with hubs' side of the family, meaning the whole kampung. the boys had an enjoyable time playing with their cousins, including a very cute & young uncle ethan. The annual tradition for the lee family is the lion dance performance which as always is the highlight of the day & the kids love it to bits.

bright orange lion

fearless performers braving the firecrackers to ward off evil

playful lions

hubs fed both boys while mommy was busy snapping away :o)

uncle ethan with his nephews

an & his young uncle having a jolly good time

i love these 2 pictures of an & cousin mayesha

she was trying to get his attention & finally got it.
she's such a sweetie!

cny greetings

copycats

kids just love to imitate adults/their parents & does exactly what we do. i'm sure you've experienced it with your own child/children or nieces/nephews. it's cute that the lil ones can mimic us so well that at times it's hard not to laugh. an example of that would be my 5-year-old giving his lil bro his own set of instructions of how things should be done, sounding more like an adult.

in the backyard doing a bit of fun washing...
big bro:
di di, go get the brush! (an calls his lil bro, di di, meaning younger bro in mandarin)
di di:
(dutifully goes to the sink which is still quite high for him, standing on tiptoe, struggles to grab one of the brushes used for multi-purpose cleaning from an old rectangular cutlery container)
big bro:
(using the brush on his tricycle) di di, go get water!
di di:
(again he dutifully goes to the sink to fill a round container with water, soon after splashing the tricycle with it)
big bro:
di di, not like that! get some more water!
di di:
(by now he does his own thing, totally ignoring his big bro's orders)
big bro:
(continues with his demand) di di, bring me the oil tanker, i want to wash it. it's dirty.
it's fun watching them play "wash up", copying what hubs & i'd normally do when washing the car.

but what happens when children emulate the actions of their parents to perfection? han loves helping me with the laundry as early as the days he was able to stand on his own two feet. he'd drag/pull the laundry basket out to the back, take the small plastic chair by the side of the front loading washing machine, then having seated comfortably on it he puts the clothes carefully through the big porthole & into the washing drum.

mom & i were busy talking one of the mornings while i was just standing outside the door near the washing machine. han, like a gentleman, helped me with the laundry by doing all of the above. he'd usually stop once he has finished putting all the clothes in & having closed the door of the washing machine. mom & i continued on with out chit chat oblivious to what han was doing next cos most of the time he'd entertain himself by riding the tricycle. when i turned to look at where he was minutes later, he was standing quietly on the small plastic chair with an opened but empty bottle of fabric softener in his right hand. the detergent dispenser was sticking out & that was the first thing i checked. not much was to be seen in there. i quickly call out to mom to confirm that the bottle of 2 litre fabric softener was indeed empty & she said, 'no, there's still three-quarter of it left.' han had taken a step further that morning by imitating the way i pour the fabric softener into the detergent dispenser. i explained to him that he wasn't to do that again & only mommy with big hands can do such things. anyway, the laundry for that day came out smelling stronger than usual!

han @ 15 months

1st project: belt

i must admit, i only did 10% of the work & mom did the rest. what can i say, she couldn't resist it once she saw my yarn & needles! she'd knit away when she sits down to relax. trust me, knitting can be very soothing & calming! i can now cast on stitches & do plain simple knits with confidence. it took me forever to get it right but i did it! yay! right now i need help with casting off, i.e. securing all the stitches once you're done. since neneth is on a long break, jurra has been our (ulai & myself) replacement teacher. terima kasih di atas bimbingan dan tunjuk ajarmu!

my first ball of yarn which cost me RM6.80.
bravo color yarn by schachenmayr
weight of yarn: 50g (150m)
fibre content: 100% acrylic

needle size: 4mm

i'm going to have to buy myself another ball of yarn for practice cos mom did most of the knitting for my belt which doesn't count as my work. i think i'd get mom her own needles as well! to my knitting buddies, ulai & oojiez, gambatte ne!

knitting bug

i've caught the knitting bug from neneth which i find very addictive. my interest began when she knitted a beautiful sweater for baby ethan & i'd been bugging her ever since to teach me. neneth is very kind & gave me my first lesson in knitting yesterday (thanks heaps!). it was initially mind-blowing even when she taught me the basic stitches which is knit & purl, the reverse of knit. my fingers felt so clumsy & awkward around the circular needles although i did manage a few imperfect rows until they began to relax & the rhythm of knitting soon got me into a hypnotic state. haha!

neneth gave me the link to a site called knitting help where you can learn to knit with free knitting videos which is great for someone like me. i've also found other knitting sites with gorgeous patterns & one of 'em is garnstudio with its fabulous drops design. another site i absolutely like is vogueknitting. it's colourful, funky and trendy all at the same time!

click on the individual images
to view their pattern.

i'm going to take baby steps & not get too excited over my new found hobby. my first project (fingers crossed) would be to make meself a nice knitted belt, preferably in red. wish me success!

knitting totes by berroco
where you can get more
free patterns from here.

sergeant hassan

...is totally made up by hubs! he used the quite effective sergeant hassan when the kids are being difficult. he'll say, 'daddy will call my friend sergeant hassan if you don't keep quiet,' or 'sergeant hassan is only outside & he'll come to take you if you make anymore noise.' hubs will sometimes look out the window & the boys will magically settle down.

lil han can be cheeky at times & before hubs could pretend to call his make-believe sergeant hassan, han would be on the phone first pretending to speak to him & asking him to come. so when hubs fetched him from the playschool last week, his teacher came out to ask hubs who sergeant hassan was. hubs could barely contain his laughter & burst out laughing. apparently our lil boy had said something along the lines of, 'keep quiet. sergeant hassan wants to come.'

hubs did explain to the teacher who this imaginary person is. i suppose she'd thought that han is actually well acquainted with a real police officer!

toothless

an lost his front tooth 3 nights ago. he has been wanting to put his tooth
under his pillow for the tooth fairy but i told him not to
for the reason that it might be misplaced after a night's sleep
& i wouldn't have the time to search for it in the morning.
so i told an that i'll keep it in one of my jewelry boxes instead.
he protested by saying that the tooth fairy can't possibly open the drawer
& know which jewelry box to look for. he got me there!

tooth fairy, wherever you are, this is an obvious photo evidence of an
having lost a tooth :o)

shhhhh...i spotted a tooth fairy! she's coming for the tooth! yay!

click to enlarge. tooth fairy certificate to print
courtesy of the tooth fairy herself.

pollen jocks

if you've watched the bee movie, i found one of 'em pollen jocks in my backyard in the wee hours of the morning. dad tends to plant all sorts of vegetables in his garden & i'd voluntarily photograph his produce. this time round i was more fascinated with the pollen jock that was going from one flower to the other of a gourd family. i must say that the bee movie has made it all the more interesting when you actually see one of 'em real ones going about doing their thing. haha!

bread story

first there was a cake story & now, bread story. i was down with a bad cold since new year eve & having to consume antibiotics just made the whole thing worst as i lost my sense of smell & taste, thus my appetite was nil. what have i been eating mostly for the past weeks? uhuh, it's bread! for those that know me/work with me will say that that's what i normally eat on a daily basis (ha!ha!), so i suppose i eat more of it when i'm sick as a dog. woof!

since we're on the topic of bread, i love the combi of peanut butter & chocolate, plus i'd spread 'em on really thick, gooey & yummy! the kids love bread just like their mommy, be it white, brown, black or blue as long as it's bread. we especially enjoy the bread from the ever popular fook yuen kopitiam @ damai & their newest outlet in asia city complex.

an likes to have his bread with butter & kaya/roti kahwin, or with just a slice of cheese, whereas han goes for the tasty peanut butter & hubs can always eat it plain. what about you? how do you like to eat your bread?

zen garden resort 15-16 december 2007

this is definitely an outdated post that i've been meaning to write about
a month ago which i think is still never too late to blog about :o)
by the way, i love the pictures that came with it!

hubs had been wanting to bring the boys up to kundasang
& we did just that when he finally got a break from work
to get on with the christmas hols. yay!
off we went with 2 of hubs' cousins & their families for a getaway
from the hustle-bustle of the city, even if it was just for a night :o)

beautiful & bright red poinsettias sold at the kundasang's vegetable market,
perfect for christmas!

pretty chrysanthemums

han enjoyed the market especially with so many things to look at.

'what's this mommy?'

taken outside the restaurant of zen garden resort where we stayed the night.

trying to get the kids to sit still was no easy task.
my superboys with their cousins mayesha & flynn.

this picture of my 3 boys i like a lot!

pine 1- the lodge that we stayed in was very comfy
& definitely great for families.

hubs woke us up for the magnificent & majestic view of...

the glorious mount kinabalu

an wore 4 layers of clothing including my sweater.
it was freezing cold in the morning but the breathtaking view was well worth it.

the kids having their breakfast while playing outside on the veranda.

we took a drive to poring hot spring.
since it was a weekend, the place was awfully crowded.

we'll have to come back another time to do all of the above.

i love the green feel of this picture. it's so refreshing!

time to head home!