Moving On

Ok I've stopped ranting and raving against Blogger (they ARE hosting my blog, after all) and will just move on. Let's talk about something nice! And fun!

Like ... we're getting various fixes done around the house, yay! We called in our trusty plumber and handyman, Uncle Teh, to help us get rid of a tree that started growing in the gutter at the top of the roof. It turns out that the darned thing had roots growing all the way down the pipe and he had to climb up on the roof to pull it out.

I thought it odd that he kept saying, "Ini pokok banyak celaka."

Not that I fully understand him anyway (and vice versa, I'm quite sure). He's more adept at speaking either Cantonese or Mandarin but we somehow make do with Malay. Being a rather old man, I suspect older than my own father, he tends to move about rather slowly. But the worst thing is that I believe he's a little hard of hearing which makes me look like a completely insolent young person (young relative to Uncle Teh) when I need to tell him something.

I have to practically yell at him, minimum twice, to make myself heard. The neighbours must think I'm downright rude. Make an old man climb my roof AND yell at him somemore.

Anyway, after that we got to asking about other fixes and then mentioned we wanted to get the house painted and he said, "Saya pun boleh sapu cat." Hooray! We've finally found our guy after looking and asking around for a few months now.

The quote he gave us for the work is reasonable, according to Atok, so we agreed. Today he arrived with his worker and started work. It's a bit messy and dusty around the house but at least we're getting somewhere.

The other good news is that Adik's toilet training is back to where it was, I think, when Bibik left. And he's also not too upset about not being given his pacifier to sleep. Takes a little longer, but he'll fall asleep eventually.

Plus his appetite is normal again. The past few weeks he hadn't been eating well at all, taking just 3-4 mouthfulls and storing most of it before spitting it out. Last night, he ate almost all the rice and veg and fish I put in his bowl, which was quite a lot, AND he even polished off Abang's leftover pasta. He was eyeing some other tid-bits but I stopped him. Last week, we got a bit carried away when Abang was enjoying his waffle that we stuffed him silly until he threw up.

All he said was, "I think I ate too much waffle." Yea... kesian ... so we learnt our lesson and decided not to overfeed Adik!

AARRRGH!

I just wrote a VERY LONG POST and .. and .. it's gone!!

UWAAaaaaaaaaa......

Siaran Tergendala

I seem to be having trouble uploading photos onto Blogger... will try again soon ...

The Great Shopping Experience

It never occurred to me that going shopping with Abang would actually be an enjoyable experience. I needed to get some baju and decided to take Abang with me so poor Daddy wouldn't be abandoned at home with 2 boys to look after by himself!

To be honest, I wasn't too hopeful. I fully expected him to get restless, bored and eventually cranky and then I'd have to ditch my shopping plans and go home empty handed.

How wrong can a mother be?

As soon as we reached the lady's fashion floor, he became my "fashion consultant", as one mat salleh lady put it when she heard him 'advising' me on what I should try.

"Mummy, you want to go that shop?" he asked pointing to a shop a few doors away, and before I could answer he continued, "Or how about this one right here?"

They both looked similar to me, so I suggested the nearer one. "Ok!" was his very enthusiastic reply. Once we were in the shop he browsed through the racks just like I did and would helpfully suggest for me to try one some of his, um, choices.

"Nah, that one is too colourful for Mummy." Or "Ooo, I don't know if Daddy would let Mummy go out wearing that."

"Why?" Ever the inquisitive little boy.

"It's a little, well, small." Then he appraised it again, looked at me and nodded, "Ya lah. A bit small kan?"

As soon as we found one that I wanted to try he'd rush to the changing room. "Wait, Abang, let me find a few more to try on."

"Why?" There's that 'why' again.

"Because if I'm going to the changing room I might as well take a few pieces to try on. Saves time."

After I tried each one, he very helpfully rated each one. "This one not nice. This one number one nice, then that one number two nice, then only the other one."

"Hey, thanks Abang. I was thinking exactly the same thing!" He was so pleased.

After 5 shops I decided he'd been such an angel that I should treat him to a nice lunch. He scarfed down a huge lunch and then we went back to the 3rd shop to re-try some baju this time with matching skirt/ trousers.

I finally bought something and not a moment too soon because Abang was getting a bit tired (and started stumbling into glass walls and bumping his head on sharp corners). He got major praises, hugs and kisses from Mummy for being such a helpful shopping companion.

We went home feeling very pleased with ourselves.

We've Been Had!

You know how I'm always going on about what a good hunter Harun is? I've blogged about it no less than 3 times.

Unfortunately, we now think it's not Harun that's doing the hunting. And, it's definitely not Thomas either. The reason we are now suspicious of Harun The (Non) Hunter is because I had the unpleasant experience of having Ratatouille in our kitchen last week. And I'm not one to swear, but that guy was one big mofo.

It was attempting to come out from behind the stove (note to Daddy: after we get your LCD screen can we please get a built-in stove) so after sms-ing Daddy who was lying down with Abang upstairs I immediately called our pest control company. I wasn't too optimistic that they could do anything, it being 5:45pm on the eve of Hari Raya.

So Daddy suggested we bring the cats in to seek and destroy.

They were SOOoooo uninterested in catching the damn thing. Daddy had to flush it out and it ran behind the fridge. Harun sniffed around. Thomas went back outside.

Daddy The Hunter then flushed it out from behind the fridge and it ran onto the rack next to the bathroom. Then Harun was a bit interested and tried to get into the rack as well. I went to get Thomas back in. Teamwork, Thomas, teamwork!

After awhile Harun lost interest in his new playfriend and was about to just sit and chill out. I was livid. Again, Daddy The Hunter, flushed Ratatouille out from the rack and it ran into the bathroom. Harun and Thomas chased after it and Daddy quickly closed the door. Yea! That's it, mission accomplished. Right?

Uh, right?

Hah! It was all quiet for the longest time and we mistakenly attributed the silence to the cats laying in ambush having surrounded the rat. After about 15 minutes we weren't too sure. Then we heard a meow. We know that meow. It's the meow that says, "Let us out please!"

Daddy wanted to open the door to let the cats out but what if Ratatouille came out instead?

"Ok then, I'll get a broom ready and beat the crap out of it." Not very convincing, if you ask me. I moved to higher ground.

He opened the door - broom in hand - and the cats came bounding out like they had a fun time playing with their new friend. Daddy gingerly looked into the bathroom and saw the rat resting nicely in the corner.

"There, Harun, in the corner! Kill! Kill!" Harun and Thomas just hung around.

Finally, I suggested we try to just shoo it out of the house. As soon as it ran out the back door, Harun and Thomas chased after it.

Hopeless!

A Mini Holiday

Sorry for the silence lately, but we just got back from a 'mini holiday'. I wouldn't exactly say we went "away" because we were actually just nearby at Marriott Putrajaya. It's even nearer than going to Nenek's house!

Daddy had meetings there which stretched for 3 days from Tuesday until Thursday so Mummy decided it would be fun for us to bunk in with him there.

And fun it was!

Daddy's meeting started bright and early on Tuesday morning so the boys and I went separately later in the afternoon. After we arrived, said hi to Daddy and unpacked, we headed straight for the pool. A splashing time for us especially since there was nobody else using the pool at the time. Once our fingers and toes were sufficiently wrinkled up, we went back to the room for a shower before dinner. But not before chatting with the hotel staff at the pool who were quite taken with Abang and Adik.



Dinner was interesting. We ate at the Japanese restaurant because the other restaurants were full. I wasn't too sure whether the boys would enjoy the food, though. But I guess since they didn't have a big lunch plus the swim helped make them hungry and they were just gobbling their noodles down! Without even being fed by Mummy or Daddy, amazing!

Actually, one reason for running off to Putrajaya was to escape the mercun that goes on every festive season. So it was extremely ironic that within half an hour of putting the boys to bed, suddenly we heard a very loud "Fffffffftttt-TOOM! FFfffffffttt-TOOM! TOOM! TOOM!"

There was a fireworks display going on at the field right in front of the Marriott which just so happens our room overlooked. Non-stop "Ffffffttt-TOOM" with the occasional "Fffffttt-TOOM crackle crackle crackle" for a solid 15 minutes. Amazingly enough, Abang slept through the entire display, without any movement whatsoever. Adik, however, had to have his ears cupped by Daddy (while Mummy tried taking pictures of the fireworks but they didn't turn out very nicely).


The next morning, I drove the boys home to pick up some things which we forgot to bring and then went back to the hotel. More water play in the swimming pool, a walk around the hotel, lunch for Abang and Adik and Mummy was bushed! (I thought it was very interesting that both of them ate very well during our stay there. Usually, they're so busy playing and experiencing new stuff that they're not interested in eating. Not that I'm complaining.)

By dinner time, I had decided to call in room service. Daddy had teambuilding activities and dinner in KL so it was just the three of us. The next morning I packed up ready to head for home. We were also concerned about Harun and Thomas, even though Atok and Cikgai did promise to feed them twice a day while we were gone (and they did).

Fun as it was, even the boys were chanting, "I want go home. I want go home."

Home sweet home!

Hari Raya is Coming!

Hooray, Hari Raya is just around the corner!

Abang and I attempted (keyword is 'attempted') to make some cookies last week. I'm not sure if they're any good, though. I followed the instructions but somehow my measurements went a bit off and I seem to have more flour mix than creamed butter and caster sugar. So it looks like I'll be making even more cookies than I had originally intended to.

This being my first attempt, obviously I was a bit 'kekok' as we say in Malay. The dough wasn't rolled out evenly, I didn't use the cookie cutter properly and the very first batch in the oven was in there a little, um, too long.

So what did I do? I camouflaged it of course! I melted some cooking chocolate, dipped the cookies in it and poured colourful sprinkles on them. Heh heh heh (Yes I'm rather pleased with myself for doing that because I'm not good at improvising!)

Too bad Adik can't quite help yet, although he would like to. He can help with the very simple stuff like, say, bringing me the flour or sugar. But even then I have to watch him like a hawk to make sure he doesn't drop anything or get distracted on the way there. Abang is pretty good at helping, as in he can actually help without too much supervision although he sometimes needs my help.

Wow, I stil have much to do before Hari Raya, so hopefully I can get the cookies right by then. Oooh, not to mention the cupcakes that are waiting for me ...

The Wrath of Abang

In case you're wondering: No, our house wasn't ransacked or burgled or anything like that. This was the result of leaving Abang in our room by himself after being sharply reprimanded for misbehaviour.

He got scolded, I left the room, he started to cry and then slammed and locked the door (don't worry, I have the keys to all rooms and bathrooms ready). A few minutes later, when Daddy and I were downstairs we heard a rather loud 'slide' followed by a dull 'thud' sound.

Daddy rushed upstairs while I had to prevent Adik from destroying the media player. On my way up I heard Abang getting spanked and screaming, "SORRY DADDY! SORRY DADDY!" Needless to say I got the shock of my life when I walked in and saw the room like that and I knew immediately what he had done.

He climbed up the dressers using either the drawer handles or the drawers themselves. Obviously it got too top heavy and both dressers collapsed. Basically, the bed saved him and everything on top of the dressers. We were surveying the damage when I saw that his pinkie had a slight cut and was bleeding. When I took him to the bathroom to clean it up I realised that the finger had swollen to almost double its usual size!

Fearing a fracture, Daddy and I took him immediately to the emergency room. To cut that long story short, the x-ray showed no fracture and we went home to clean up the room. Needless to say Abang got a very firm though gentle reminder/ request to never do that again. He nodded meekly.

A couple of hours later, bedsheets changed (dust balls all over the bed), bedroom vacuumed, floor and back of the dressers wiped down and the room looked like normal again. I'm so thankful that nothing more serious happened to Abang considering all the heavy items on the dressers - a TV, 2 bookshelf speakers, 2 lamps on top of the speakers, an ASTRO decoder, a heavy-ass receiver unit (we did the CSI thing and suspect that this is what landed on Abang's finger), my notebook and assorted other things like scissors. In fact, my sewing kit got flung out of the top drawer and while cleaning up I found a pin on the bed. Equally amazing was that nothing broke, everything still works down to the lamp that fell on the floor.

So, lessons learnt:

1. Tether dressers and other potentially dangerous cabinets/ racks to the wall (IKEA here I come).

2. Don't leave angry little boys by themselves, anywhere.

3. Shop for a wall-mountable LCD screen for the bedroom

(Just kidding on the last part.)