Jin and lizards...

My dear hubby is like super scared of lizards..wait,,scared is a softy word - terrified is more like it..he gets all pale whenever he sees one even if it's the tiniest house lizard. Anyway, today he was in the toilet doing the BIG one and I was running around trying to get bean into bed and making her milk when I saw a small lizard in the hall.

Naturally, knowing how Jin hates lizards, I made it a BIG point to let him know that there was one in the hall running around.
Cin at hall : JIn - got lizard in hall!
Jin in toilet : KILL it please
Cin : but but, it's small and harmless
Jin : Can you PLEASE kill it
Cin walks into the kitchen with a huff, takes out the spray from under the sink and sprays at baby lizard. Lizard runs out of kitchen. Cin follows - and begins to wonder just when did insecticide start smelling so good..looks at can in hand : which says - Dettol disinfectant spray..yikes wrong spray!
Runs back into kitchen, took right spray and sprayed at baby lizard again. At this point , Michiko comes out to see what the whole commotion is about.
So I start telling her : Michiko - lizard lizard. dont let it go into sophie's room!

And guess what? Lizard promptly goes into soph's room %^%*^...so i start screaming..and sophie starts crying cos of mummy's crazee screaming.(poor baby!) and all this while, jin in toilet shouting : where is it? what's happening? DON'T let lizard into toilet PLEASE.

Michiko says : Don't scared maam - lizard no bite.

She chases lizard out of sophie's room. Guess where lizard went next?

The Toilet la! LOL.

Jin in toilet - super MAD. Very angry.
Me in soph's room - rolling on floor in silent laughter
Michiko in soph's room - super calm. Says : Maam, lizard no bite. No scared. It's OK. bu yao Pa.

LOL

Jin in toilet : Cin - the lizard walked over my pants (angry tone)
Cin trying to control laughter : not my fault, michiko chased lizard in there. you come out la.
Jin walks out without his pants into the other toilet. Michiko goes in and takes toilet brush and hits lizard. Must have been a pretty hard hit cos toilet brush broke.

What a night!

A month of working from home..

..and counting on. So our Myanmese helper has been with us a month - which means, I have also started working from home for about a month now. What's working at home like?

1) Long hours! It's like one never stops working..I sit in front of the PC over lunch, tea and dinner. I am on emails at night while Jin watches Idol and Lost. When I am not working, it's tending to little bean - playing with her, cleaning her up, feeding her..yes, I can't help but to be a little hands on around my darling baby..but that also means - no ME time! I am tired..grrr

2) Lonely - no adult conversations :p thank goodness for msn where I get to stay in touch with some colleagues!

3) Hot - it's freaking hot working from home - trying to save planet earth by living via wind but geez, it's HOT.

4) Aching - could it be my posture but my shoulders do hurt a lot after a long day..hmmm

5) Rewarding - especially when little bean smiles ever so sweet to see my face upon waking up from her mid-morning and afternoon naps. Also, getting to hug her and smell her whenever I need a de-stress moment and there's no kit kat in the house!

These are the "making me smile" moments - little bean cuddling her bunny to sleep

No more yakking with colleagues over lunch. Replaced by watching bean play with her food with half attempts of putting food into her mouth :)

Kindermusik for Bean

We took Soph to her 1st class over the weekend. The July mummies organised a trial class with Kindermusik at Tanglin Mall (paid $23.35) so 12 babies met up early on a Sunday morning for some music and bonding with parents session. I thought the class met the objective - very tempted to sign up!

Soph loves playing with balls. With her - baby thaddeus, baby poppy and baby cedric

With poppy and adora after class

After class, it was a mad dash to Cable ski 360 restaurant for Eddie's bday brunch. Although the setting was nice, it was just too hot to sit outside. Bean was dripping sweat - took pity on her and decided she would be a happier bunny without her clothes :)

With bday boy

Sophie telling Maya that diapers are the new fashion :)

The weather was just crazee hot over the weekend. Mummy decided that the only way to cool off was lots of pool time. Sophie was the happiest baby on the block - check her out in her new swimsuit..isn't she just the super chubs? heehee :)


And finally, Sophie learnt to crawl...and in return, big bruises on her knees..ouch!

Easter in Taiwan

We spent 5 days over the Easter break in Taiwan with Lin and RY. It was a short trip packed with tons of activities. Here's Sophie getting ready for yet another adventure overseas :)

Curious on the plane

On our 1st night, we headed to the industrial town of Hsin Chu where we sampled the taiwanese version of our yong tao fu. Basically different variety of fish cakes covered with yummy sauce.

Sampling different varieties of local food

Annie and George were our host for 2 days..they along with their lovely doggy "oo loong", drove us to Sun Moon Lake where we had afternoon tea at the lovely Lalu Hotel, a 5 star establishment with beautiful views of the lake. We also pampered ourselves with a spa session, lin and RY kindly watched the little bean while we melted under the experienced hands of the taiwanese masseuse. :)

Oo loong posing as Taiwan's mascot/ambassador

Jin with Sun Moon Lake in the background

Afternoon tea at Lalu Hotel

Day 3 saw us having a go at the famous taiwan xiao long bao. Personally I feel that the din tai fung in spore serves good enuff xiao long baos ;). In the late afternoon, we arrived at Lugang - an old quarter with a street market winding through conservation shops and homes. we had traditional ice desserts and fried oysters with egg (oh chien).

Sophie : What the?! Mummee help!

What's this? more bubble tea? RY and Jin had like 3 cups a day!

We set off to Yang Ming Shan(YMS), the famed national park, on Day 4, hoping to see some cherry blossoms and flower gardens. We found out upon arrival that the flower season ended like 2 weeks ago. :( We attempted to head up the mountain to see some calla lilies in action but the rain came and we had to seek shelter at some uncle's home midway up the mountain. It was so cold and windy!

Taking shelter from the rain and checking out the views

With bad weather not looking to end anytime soon, we made the decision to head back down the mountain. It was after lunch at Shihlin that Lin realised she lost her phone. We found out that her phone was left on the bus coming down from YMS - we decided to split , Lin and RY went back up the mountain to retrieve the lost phone and we headed to meet Annie at the electronics shops.

Check out jin and RY drooling over the food and how Jin gets rewarded and the expression on RY's face is classic ..lol

That evening, we walked Xin Men Ti , a bustling area filled with young fashion and hippie shops. There, we tried the famous ah chung oyster mee suah - it was really good. Although stuffed, we still ventured ahead for hot pot dinner - thus making ourselves mega stuffed. We walked the Shihlin street market after dinner and could not even look at the variety of food on display. Exhausted as we have been walking the whole day, we headed back to the massage place next to our hotel for a foot massage with sophie on my lap :)

At the busy cross streets of Xin Men Ti

Getting some of the yummy Taiwanese fried chicken

This shop serves really really good mee suah!

RY cracks me up over his food obsession :)

Sophie on her dinky chair as the shop's baby chair was gross!

Day 5 saw us skipping the lure of the museums. We decided to take it easy on our last day - we had a leisure breakfast at a local tawainese 'you char' and soya bean place just 5 minutes from Yomi hotel where we were staying.

Super long yu char

Bean having a quiet moment with daddy at the hotel lobby

Then we went to check out the tallest building in Asia, Taipei 101. It was filled with shops just like the ones at Orchard road. We met up with my taiwanese colleagues and they hosted us to a lovely lunch at 1010 chinese restaurant located at Eslite bookstore building.

Taipei 101 in the background

Bean slept the whole flight home..I think we were just tired out from the 5 short days..hopefully the next Taiwan trip will be longer :). Funny video of bean trying suan mei ice cream :D

Jin and his Bar Bee Q and bean turned 9 months!

For months Jin has been bugging me about doing either a steamboat or BBQ dinner at our place. i think he got tired of pestering me to organise and took matters into his own hands. He invited RY, lin, li mei and karen, went to Giant at turfcity to get the grill and charcoal, hopped over to Meat the Butcher and bought his $60 BBQ package.

We all thought that the package (pre marinated) was pretty good value for $ - sausages, pork chops, lamb, beef, chicken - 6 pieces of each. We bought otah from Ghim Moh market as an additional dish. We ate till we were stuffed and there were still leftovers.

Check out the food and company!

The Cooker with his "cookees"

The lamb and otah getting ready to be eaten :)

The "feast"

I am the glutton next to Karen..check out her tiny morsel compared to my huge sausage :D

When RY piles on the ketchup, you know he is preparing to EAT!

It was a good night of fun..made more memorable that the grill burned our patio table ..hehehee

More important highlights - Sophie's 9 months!! as Adora puts it, she has been out of my tummy longer than she has been inside. At 39 weeks, our little beansprout can now sit on her own, has 6 teeth and weights 9 kgs. It tickles me to see her sitting up on her bed playing with her toys at 5am in the morning..lol.

Potty time!

Play time!

Such a sweet smile..*meltz*

Play time with daddy

Hello Blue Whale , swim buddy..

Sigh, must she chomp on Patrick ? :(