My babysitter has been teaching Emily mandarin. She has thought her how to address people. She can address people once we point to the person and said “Jiao Tar” (address her/him). The best is when she addressed ku ku, babysitter hubby’s sister. She will make her lips pucker and make her eyes small.

Now this is very cool because as and when I want her to call me, all I have to say is the magic words, “Jiao Wor”.

Me: Jiao Wor
Emily: Mummy ah

Me: Jiao Wor
Emily: Mummy ah
Tim: Mummy.

Isn’t this cool? 90% of the time this works but the 10% when she wants to tease mummy and ignore me.

http://lionel.textmalaysia.com/clothes-folding-machine.html

My family went to get the prize. We can only choose from 1 shop in Penang, Sony Central Audio. Before hand, my hubby and I discussed what we were getting. It fits perfectly with our budget. We got a Sony Home Theater System. Now my children can have virtual Barney sitting next to them with the DTS surround sound system.

My cool hubby won a merit award from Sony in a nature photography contest. The prize is 1K Sony Product Voucher. It finally pays off with all his effort in taking good photographs. He has made our garden to look like a place for the birds to nest. He placed some birdseed on a container for their meals. Every morning, birds will come and sing. Let’s hope they don’t output where they eat.

http://www.sony.com.my/press/Nature2005_winner.asp

What shall we get from Sony? Any great ideas

I shop, choose and buy. It is cheap and practical. Hubby acknowledged. I told my hubby not to get me anything because he will probably get something I don’t like. Why waste the money?

It has been a long long long time since I wore a watch. I think 5 years since my last one ran out of battery. A few months back, I got a swatch but I lost it. 😥 I decided to get another simple one.

For my hubby’s gift, I just gave him permission blessings to get a camera lens.

We have an early celebration on Monday as it was an off day for us. Tim had school and babysitter agreed to take care of Emily. We went paktor (dating) and had brunch.

Valentine’s Day is around the corner. Let me share a Love Story with you, not mine but a good friend of mine. I started chatting on the Internet during my University’s days. During, that time Jaring did not existed yet, I know I am OLD. There weren’t any chat software like MIRC, ICQ, Yahoo chat, MSN chat or Skype. It is pure Unix command chat. Chatting in a group will give you a real headache, you will see lines and lines of messages scrolling up your screen. No windows, pretty emoticons nor buttons to control. I used to chat in my campus research lab all through the night. I have to say that I knew lots of people through the Internet.

Anyway, when I returned to Malaysia, I wasn’t into Internet because I had to spend my time making money for a living. A few years later, MIRC was in trend and I started again. I knew a couple of crazy friends there. One of them, let me call him Mike. Most of the people I talked to are Malaysians. Mike is a friendly person and in his mid 20s at that time. He started chatting and he will chat almost 25 hours a day. I knew him because he wanted to know about IT but he graduated in Accounting.

One day, he told me that he knew this girl from the net. He was practically telling me that he really want to meet her. I am not sure what he and this gal chat about but something certainly sparkled from their conversation. Is there such a thing called cyber love? The problem is that this gal was staying in Sungai Petani, Kedah. I had to dig it out from Mike, who the gal is. From the moment I heard her nick, my jaw dropped. In Internet Chat, we all use nick instead of our real name. Let me called her Sammy. By the way, I met Sammy, she came to KL a few times, I had lunch with her and her friends.

Mike planned out how to meet her, since she stayed so far away. He had to drive more than 5 hours to get there. He asked me to accompany him. It was fun, never been up North for a long time, I agreed. Man, they need support when it comes to meeting someone special they never meet before. A few friends with me accompanied him up there. We went right after work on Friday. He drove straight, so excited he forgot to fill his tank on his way there. Fortunately we made it there before the tank dried up. By the he drove a pretty cool car too, Honda Prelude.

When we reached there, the place where they suppose to meet were dark. Nope, there weren’t any fireworks but a great burst of laughter. Love turns into a big joke. I was practically laughing non stop. Sammy turned out to be Simon. It wasn’t a gal that he chatted with but a guy. Mike was very sporting, he took it pretty well. Now I have lost touch with him since my move to Penang. Last I heard, he has gotten married to a pretty gal. Properly, have a handful of kids by now.

Happy Valentine’s to everyone, you may get the unexpected.

*Names used in this story are made up.

Every evening before bed time, I will spend a quiet moment to read to my children. Although half of the time, they will not be listening but you will be surprise that they do learn from the story reading. Emily will try to flip the pages and Tim will be lying on the bed. I bought a bible for toddler where they have big pictures and a few lines for the story.

One story that I read to them goes like this:

The Tower of Babel

One day some me made a tall tower. It would make them look important. These men were very proud. But God did not like this.

For them to listen, I acted the story out. God was angry. Show them angry face. Why God angry I asked. I said, because people don’t listen to him. Show them angry face. I ask them “how angry?”. They show me their angry face. Why angry? Because people don’t listen to God. Pointing to the ear.

Now, whenever they don’t keep their toys, I said mummy is angry, I will show my angry face. Emily will try to follow by putting her both hands on the body and show her cute face. Tim will say, ” mummy angry”. Later they understand and keep their toys. Sometimes Tim says “Scare, Scare, mummy angry”.

Children can learn very fast at this age. My hubby has successfully thought Timothy how to pray at night. He can say a few lines and end with Amen. He can also sing, “Yes Jesus Loves Me” and “God is so good”.

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Prov 22:6.

Today is a prosperous day for me. 😆 By the way, I am born in the year of the dog.

26 Jan:

Late night packing.

27 Jan:

Early morning drive back to KL, started the journey at 7am. Stop at Taiping for overpriced dim sum. It was pretty pathetic because there isn’t much selection and I was charged for RM1.40 per plate. I thought Taiping should be an affordable place to have food. Reached KL in the noon time. Later in the evening, Tim wanted to sit the train. Parked at MidValley and took train to KLCC. By the way MidValley charge only RM1 for parking per entry. KLCC charged by hour. We made a big mistake of doing that. Why? Because lots of people returning using Komuter. All the machines didn’t want to accept notes. There was an extremely long queue at the ticket counters. Fortunately, a good soul helped me to get tickets. The train came late. Worst of all, people didn’t want to move into the train. It was difficult to push a stroller into a crowd. The LRT was much better. KLCC night view of the fountain was beautiful.

CNY Eve:	Started the morning with breakfast with my brother. We had dim sum again. It was far better than the one in Taiping. Later, went to Kidzports to meet some mothers and let the children have some fun. Forgetful mummy forgot to bring socks for them. Later in the evening, our family had a scrumptious reunion dinner. After which my sister who loves gambling, played mahjong with mum and dad. Obviously she was the “Choy Sun Yeah” (Prosperity God) for that night. For me, I quit gambling long time ago. It is pretty hard being born into a family who gambles. Anyway, with God, nothing is impossible.
1st Day:	Had early breakfast in McDonalds that was the only place that opened near my house. Relatives came in the afternoon, very “lau juak” (happening). Lots of catching up with my relatives. As usual gambling started again. Mainly they played mahjong. Let’s hope, they don’t get caught, else will have new hair style. Dropped by my hubby’s aunty’s place to collect something for his mother. Aunty gave Emily angpow, she took it. Later aunty gave Emily chocolate, she gave her back the angpow and took the chocolate. :wall: With Emily, it is all about FOOD. I took my family to the Curve & Ikano. Wow, that place sure has lots of good place to eat. I did a super fast 15 mins scroll in Ikea as my hubby watched over the children as they were playing with the play house outside Ikea. I got a blue curtain, a toilet roll rail and 2 red boxes in 15 minutes.
2nd Day:	Early morning drive back to Penang to avoid traffic jams, we started the journey at 8am. There were lots of cars on the road but no traffic jams. Children slept all the way back, which was good so mummy can rest too. We reached home at 1pm, had lunch and unpacked. Daddy and Emily took a nap. Amazing that Emily still can sleep since she slept through the journey. In the evening, we went to my parent in law place for dinner. PIL burned some light fire cracker, just to increase the CNY mood.
3rd Day:	Morning, we went to my in laws relatives place for CNY visitations. It was customary to pay respect by visiting them. It was a quick visit as my son was anxious to watch lion dance in one of the mall. My nephew bought his own toy lion dance there. He performed with Tim in front of the actual lion dance performance, with drums et. al. At the end of the day, mummy went to buy one for Tim to play.
4th Day:	Back To Work.
8th Day:	Firecrackers heard all night.
10th Day:	Prosperous Day!!!

Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner happens on the Chinese New Year Eve. Chinese New Year is also known as the Lunar New Year. It is celebrated on the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar. The Chinese New Year celebration starts on the Reunion Dinner Day where the family will join together to have a meal together. If children are outstation, they will return home. It is also called “Tuin Lien” in Cantonese. On that day, it will be a scrumptious meal for everyone. It is an exciting day to catch up with everyone in the family before Chinese New Year.

This year, I could return to my parents place for Reunion Dinner. By right, I should have it in my husband parent’s place. However, out of the kindness of my husband and his family, they allowed me to return home with my family in KL every alternate year. My parents would love to see their grandchildren. It would be fair as my parents often don’t see my children very much as I lived away from them.

My mom will go all out to cook us a delicious meal. The meal could actually feed the whole village of people. Not that we have so many people in my family. Anyway, the meal will be eaten for the next few days. My children enjoyed their trip to see por por and koong koong (grandma & grandpa). Two of them are pampered by them.

The next day, Chinese New Year day, children will receive angpows (red packets with money) from parents and married couples. Only married couples were allowed to give to any unmarried ones. There is also a practice of visitation, going to older siblings’ house or older relatives’ house. My parents are the oldest, so we get to stay at home and wait for relatives to come. There will be lots of goodies to eat such as love letters (kuih kapek), sweets, peanuts, kuaci, pineapple tart, mandarin oranges (“kam” as in gold) and etc… Everything used in Chinese New Year either have the word gold, prosperous, wealth, good health and good things.

Anyway, I had to return on the second day of CNY and visit my in laws. It was a rush but it was enjoyable. My favorite CNY dish would be “Yew Sang”. I love the one sold in Jaya Jusco with the Japanese Salmon. Yummy!!!! In KL, I met with a couple of mummies, Twinsmom & her adorable twins (saw Twindad too), Agnes & Zara (Zara’s mama), Faythe and her Papa & Mama Jazzmint, WaiHan and LingLee in Kidzport. One dad, fong fee kee because no one take care of little skywalker while he drives.

Today I am back to work. My company doesn’t observe Awal Muharam holiday. Reason is that it has too many holidays in Penang. We have 17 public holidays and 2 are not observed, that is Awal Muharam and Quaran Day.

By the way, Emily gave mummy a great CNY angpow. She started calling me “mummy”. Not just once but a 3 times consecutively at one time. Every time she called me aloud, she will give a cheeky smile. :jump: I must say that she is developing very fast, she mimic whatever I teach her. She recognizes the Giant hypermart and will make a loud shout every time she sees it.

When I was home, my mum showed me this photograph, guess who is it? Doesn’t Emily look like her?