Grateful

1.

This is part of the daddy's reporting since the beginning of the year, letting me know of Little Bomber's behave in the morning when he sent her to childcare center. I've resume full time working scheme and no longer able to do the sending-the-kids-to-school, witness their (either) cheeky face or grumpy face, give a hug and bid goodbye. But the daddy did one little but brilliant initiative by reporting the situation via WA (What’s App) message, almost everyday. In a line or two, he would shared with me his joy if Bomber didn't bomb him, or his achievement of handling an outburst. Sometime, I felt my presence with them and mentioned the morning incident unconciously during our dinner chatting, and Bomber would asked, "how did you know? You were not there?" Hmmm... 

She later realised that the WA conversation (between mummy and daddy) in daddy's phone containing many of her mornings' picture...

Feb 2016: It's My Party!

A party, just for her. 

Credit: Template from Sahlin Studio; TaylorMade Designs, AmeliaScrap, It's my party....
Photos taken by a dear friend, SY.

HAPPY Birthday, Darling.

Jun 2015: Beautiful Moment with You

Capturing the smiles of my first-born during the trip to UK.

Credits: Template from Sahlin Studio, Designs by Anita, P & Co.

Time flies, she is ten years old. I used to worry on her a lot and did scrapbook about her to console myself, so to speak. I am, still worry on her, but I have not done a page for a long time. No wonder it has been frustration and conflicting and distancing...

Ten years of motherhood, doesn't mean I get better.

Penang: Murals/Heritage Trail

After hearing so much of the Penang Murals Trail, we too, took a morning to hunt down as many murals as possible. Along the way, we discovered that there are not just Ernest Zacharevic's murals, there are many other amazing works too.

It was a fun morning, very much like a treasure hunt game- walking towards unknown based on the guided route.

Creadits: KPertiet's paper; Clementine Creative's Watercolour Circles; Misschifis' Fuzzy Felt Alpha;
Telling  the story of our lives from mscraps.com; etc.

Mar 2015: Another Ordinary Day

Time flies, she is 5 now. Love every moment with her, except when she bombs me.

Credits :Sahlin Studio's Digital Scrapbooking Template - May2015; Feifei's Stuff; Amanda Yi Designs; KPertiet@Designer Digitals; etc.

Penang: Misty Penang Hill

I have fond childhood memory of visiting Penang Hill. With luxuriant green, cold refreshing weather, tranquil, some part remained colonized too. I recalled, there was a green corner for kids to run wild while the parents get to sit down and relaxing close-by. About 830km above sea level, generally five degrees cooler than Georgetown, you will get to experience the change of temperature from the foot of the Hill to the Hill itself, with less than 30 minutes, excluding the waiting time at the queue to take the funicular. Penang Hill is one place that offering a spectacular panoramic view of Georgetown, sometime, Penang Bridge and beyond. 

Dec 2014: Pulau Pinang

Before the year (2014) ended, we managed to make a trip to Penang. The trip was unexpectedly awesome. Even the girls said so and asked for a return. Well, maybe we hardly a tourist in our own homeland, time was always allocated for family gathering, friends meeting, running errands and shopping(it's cheaper there). This time round, despite we made the effort to meet uni-mates and bonding with family members, we did what tourists do: sight-seeing to Penang Hill, water and sand playing at the beach, wandering and hunting down those famous street arts, finding those food stalls that we used to patronised... Penang is really fun, apparently.

This scrapbook captured one fun moment of the girls. SC drove through Jalan Tanjung Bungah to reminisce what we knew of Teluk Bahang, Batu Ferringhi, stopped by one of the smaller and quieter beach at Tanjung Bunga for the girls to have some sand play time. The girls were thrilled. They jumped, cart-wheeled, shell and rock throwing, soaked into the sea water, etc. They didn't have enough of it. Beach, one great place to be for the kids to release their energy. Zero cost, infinite joy. 

Oh, throughout our visit in Penang, it was raining everyday. This was the only bright, cooling day for us to enjoy the beach.

Sept 2014: Malacca

In many ways, Malacca is a very charming place to be. Its food and its mixed arts and cultural are the main attractions, along with those well restored historical architectures. Jonker Street, aka Jalan Hang Jebat, being the core of the Malacca UNESCO World Heritage Site, is where we don’t mind coming back again whenever we are visiting Malacca. Jonker Street is where I would find surprises whenever we are the wondering wanderers.

Slowly, I realised that, Malacca is also one of the places that I injected best memories to my children, my family. Pretty much similar to what my dad did to us. We used to visit Malacca for family trips. Those days, Malacca was much more leisure, much more simple; not as happening as now, was not so scorchy hot, was much lesser cars, little chaotic developments, no reclamation (or was it started in process?)... 

Malacca was a good place for us to escape from the metropolitan KL.

Credits: Amanda Yi Designs; Sahlin Studio; Kim Christensen's Design; Akizo, etc.

The text in the digital scrapbook is in Malay, for Melaka = Malacca; Bandaraya Bersejarah = Historical City. I am slowly losing the power of writing in Malay and speaking in it.


I share more of our surprises in Jonker Street here and there.

Aug 2014: Bomber's First Excursion

Little Bomber's first field trip to Singapore Zoo, without daddy or mummy. She probably missed us, but the teacher said, kids had a wonderful time. She mentioned many new animal names after the trip; built a giraffe with lego (at home) the next day. She is a step closer away from clingy. I think, I should celebrate the milestone, here, in digi-scrapbook way.

And then, I recalled of Jijie's first excursion, I did a layout for her too. It was 6 years ago!!! I walked through a wonderful memory lane while clicking through those scrapbooks I did over the years. One child, then two. It is a lot harder to parent these days. I reckon, this is a way of me trying to replay the moments with my children, and be reminded of how blessed I am to have them. Quote and unquote Louise Erdrich, time with children is like water runs through fingers, we tried to hold, to capture, to fix moments in a lens... 

My firstborn is grown up, my littlest baby no more; I am memorialise now.

May 2014: Holi Colour Fight!

Here, a layout for this crazy fun moment we had at the very first day of the school holiday. Evelyn invited us over for a colour fest- Holi, an ancient Hindu religious festival, celebrating the triumph of 'good' over 'bad'.

Our first to Holi, Bomber was totally astonished to the mess on everyone and clung to me when we arrived. For a while, I thought we would not be able to enjoy the fun. I tried to soothe her, tried to rub some goop on her gently, coloured myself too! Somehow, the baby powder did the magic, she was unleashed very quickly after holding the bottle of baby powder, exclusively. In total, it took less than half an hour for the girls to warm up themselves and joined in the attack and run. 

Credits: Sahlin Studio, FeiFei's Stuff, Pixels and Company, www.veralim.com.

Mar 2014: Shining Four

As she was marching toward Fourth birthday, I showed her what is four, playfully with her fingers, one, two, three, four. She grinned marvelously. Four seems to be a big number compare to Three, she was very looking forward to. I reckoned she has learnt a lot more about her growth and development from past year. As I looked at her happy face to the new discovery, I thought and added on, "When you are four, you have four things to do...". Indicatively, each finger tied with a challenge for her to take up. It would be some form of change to her life moving forward. Knowing her, she doesn't really like changes, but I believe she could do it and would get the great sense of accomplishment to meet her milestone significantly. I promised her that I would help. 

It was also a task for myself to learn her growth, that she is baby no more. 

Credits: Akizo, Sahlin studio, etc.

Feb 2014: Risky Affair

I forgotten how my secondary school classmates' chat group sparked a brilliant idea to travel together. It maybe because we ran out of topic to chat(?). There are nine of us, and by now I know the routine of each one of them and pretty much to sum up that our living as mother is boring and those singles are... boring too. Of course, we share more than just routine. Like old days, we argue sometime and piss off one or another, but we get to usual selves fast too. Certain days, we talk non-sense, we laugh crazily in front of our own phone; we give virtual hugs, we understand one's long silent without much asking. 

Sorry I digress. As majority of us supported the idea of  a weekend trip together, the destination has few criteria to meet: fun, safe and easy for us ladies to explore. I suggested Bangkok: cheap, exotic and not too far of distance, from both KL and Singapore. Truth to be told, I had not been to Bangkok! They all did, many years back. Lucky me, the travelling time and budget match most everyone, the food and shopping in Bangkok are already well known and attractive, they agreed unanimously to the Land of Smiles, again! Yay!!!

It's exciting, undoubtedly. No man, no kids, just us, ladies having lots of fun over a weekend. Just like old days. Since my friends were so accommodating, I volunteered to hunt for hotel and crafted the brief itinerary. I love doing it, I love learning about the city prior to the trip. It was overwhelming, too much resources, too big a city. 

Along the way, the news about the riot came in. We got worried. I doubled the reading about the city, about the situation. The news about the explosion near Central World shopping mall and at Lumphini Park protest rally site were just happened few days before our departure. 

To go or not to go?! We asked each other.

Feb 2014: Warm Up Stretch

We are working out seriously. Have been going to the stadium nearby for jogging every weekend... at least once.

Credits: Template from Kitty Designs, papers and other elements from design by Anita

Love the girls in full gear and spirit!

Jun 2013: Capturing

Like any other year, our 2013 has ups and downs. But I choose to remember the wonderful moments: A jolly celebration of my pa's birthday, accomplishment of an assignment to paint and draw with cardboards, and of course many other little moments. But I think the best of all, must be our visit to Sydney, which I believe it occupies a major part of my entries in 2013.

As  the year coming to a closure and another year approaching, I scrapbook the remarkable moment of ours. I take this time to reflect back on our journey this past year, and remind my self that to live mindfully and happily. Why? Time with children is only moving forward, and I have no ability to replay.

"Time with children runs through our fingers like water as we lift our hands, try to hold, to capture, to fix moments in a lens, a magic circle of images or words. We snap photos, videotape, memorialize while we experience a fast-forward in which there is no replay of even a single instant." - Louise Erdrich

We take family picture every year, during our annual family trip, to portray a family unit is growing older, too.

Creadits: Feifei's, Michelle Coleman, Deca, etc. 

The picture was taken during our visit to Kiama, NSW. 

Happy New Year, everyone;).

Nov 2013: Happy 70, Pa!

My pa is a typical conservative Chinese father: didn't show his love when we were young; left most parenting job to my mum and worked day and night to bring home the bacon. In retrospect, he was quite a distance from me, as a little child. We had little conversation. There would always a long void between us if he drove me to/from school. I could not bring a topic shared with him either.  There were times, I wrote him letters instead. I think I watched too much tv-drama. I needed to vent my frustration of him being bias to my brother, and few other emotions I had as a tween/teenager. From time to time, I placed the letter on his working desk and waited for his return from work to read. Not many letters though, a few. Less than five, I think. It was a way to communicate with him, it was an attempt to closer the distance. 

But he didn't reply anyway. He probably didn't know how to response.

Aug 2013: Doctor for a Day

This is my firstborn, dressed up in scrubs, paying attention to an explanation in the "Emergency" station of one programme called "Doctor for a Day" in Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital. Each and every session was taken up fast. But thanks to Jean of Wee Stories' for getting extra slots for SMBs, I managed to sign her up for it in the end.

The programme is part of the hospital's community outreach effort, where children can role-play as doctor in the hospital setting, and have a taste of being a General Practitioner, a Surgeon, as well as bathe, clean and diaper a baby in a nursing room. Brilliant idea to inspire young generation to be doctor in future.

However, it didn't conjure her to be One immediately. She may consider to be a nurse though. 

Overall, she had an amazingly good time there. Once she reached home, she made Bomber a patient and they had few rounds of role-play with the stethoscope given in the goodie bag.

Looks like she learnt to be a doctor to her baby sister. 

Credits: Michelle Coleman's Lucky in Love; Sahlin Studio's Art & Soul, Wild Blueberry Ink; Studio Romy, and the paper medallions from here.

May 2013: Oh Mum's Happy Day

I forgotten how I stumbled upon her blog.

But I could proudly tell you I am a regular visitor to her blog since then.

One year after another.

From different continents to same city.

From having one child to two.

Her photos never fail to put  a smile on me.

Her writing gives me strength to pick myself up fast from the mundane life.

Sometime, interestingly provoking.

I am one lucky reader benefits so much from her.

Photo credit: Rachel; Scrapbook credit: Maya de Groot

I met Rachel of http://4malmal.com/ last Saturday.

Finally.

It was my happy day.

But because of her family and her are leaving the tropical, again, very soon. 

I almost said "Nice to meet you" and "Farewell" at the same time, literally.

Fortunately, "All the best" came out from my mouth instead.
It is from the bottom of my heart.

And I scrapbook a little, to wish her, 

Bon Voyage.

Dec 2012: Let's Sprinkle!

We are getting a little bit more into Christmas now (a bit more busier too). 

I made lots of cupcakes with this recipes for giving out as gift to friends and colleagues. What's more? I got the girls to help me to decorate one of the batch I made. 

For the very first time, I have two helpers! I was a little disordered, to be honest. From melting the chocolate for creaming purpose, distributing the tasks of putting the sprinkles and directing the girls, to taking picture of one big achievement we had and of course, giving warning and yawning. 

Little Bomber had fun and was concentrating to attempt in doing a good job as per my instruction. She looked beautifully when she is concentrating to something.

Credits: JM's Designs, FeiFei's Stuff and Michelle Coleman.

And you can tell from the picture of the cupcakes, which are done by who=). Both did wonderfully, if you ask me, and I gifted them away, proudly.

 *This post is linking up with Fun for Free by Gingerbread Mum.

Nov 2012: 弟子规

There is an event organised by Xin Ying WuYi, with an intention to gather all wushu practitioners to exhibit their skills.

But I believe, letting the kids to have the most fun of it and build confident of their skills. 

If you or your child(ren) are interested in wushu, and if you will be somewhere near Singapore Republic Polytechnic this coming Saturday, 1 Dec, come and see these kids perform at 11am, Competition Hall, Republic Poly.

Admission is free for the opening ceremony. Say hello if you see us there!

Credits: Angelica, Akizo, RuthMelody and Michelle Coleman

This post is linking up with Wordless Wednesday by Sakura Haruka.

and 

Wordful Wednesday by Dominique's Desk

Aug 2012: Uniquely Her

Sometime, I think it is not her push the wrong button of mine. It is me, trigger the land mine inside her and got my self bombed. It is her temperament that I am still trying to grasp.

At young age, she is argumentative. Just yesterday, she refused to sleep earlier like jiejie (who already into the slumberland) because she is concentrating to do her 'homework'. It was just scribbling over the cardboard box that she got from Art Garden. Since when did she learn the word "homework"? Kids at this age pick up words fast, isn't it? Sometime, SC and I marvel at her witty statement and infectious grin. She is vivacious, she knows how to make us burst into laughter, when to give me a sloppy kiss to melt my heart, how to discharge my energy drastically.

She is uniquely bomber, both dreadful and wonderful!

Here, her trained-to-be-bombed mama decided to scrapbook a little to mark the very explosive Bomber, marching into 29th month. Challenging path ahead of us, why not take it positively. After all, kid grows fast these days.

Credits: Prego by Maya de Groof

Love you deeply.

This post is linking up with Wordless Wednesday by SakuraHaruka.