What's up?

nothing much. two kids sick and then recovered. Then Jill had slight temperature coz she was teething. Hmm, I noticed this trend with girls...Jon's cousins Megan, Mabel and Qiqi.

Then last Fri afternoon, we brought Jill for a hair cut and Jon came along. After the haircut, we got home and Simon brought them to walk in the compound for like less than 5 mins while I prepared Jill's porridge. That night, Jon kena fever of 38.3 degree Celsius! Aiyo, just because my dear hubs didn't wipe him when then they came inside. But hubs protested Jon wasn't even perspiring. i said he didn't but once inside when he stops moving, the perspiration will come.

On Saturday, Jon's fever even went up to 39.4 degree Celsius, coz I thought he was recovering and was feeding Jill lunch and bathing her, so late in giving him panadol by an hour! *faint* Thankfully, grandma managed to buy red onions (rm15 per kg now!, and was out of stock at some places...weird I know). and rub him all over with a pouch containing crushed boiled red onions and boiled egg. That apparently brought him temperature down and the fever was gone. Have you heard of this old wives' remedy for fever? It seems to work for Jon.

I didn't have time to scrap with the kidlets being sick for two weeks, and me for two days. Jill is also very maja nowsadys, clinging onto me for dear life. I am so tired I can't even scrapbook while Jill is napping. I just quickly eat my breakfast and read the papers before taking a quick morning shower, and soon she will be awake. She sleeps shorter hours when teething coz uncomfortable mah. She's better the last few days. So, let's hope she sleeps longer and then I can scrap again before Jon comes back. In the afternoon when the kids nap, I nap too. very tired nowsdays...am I getting old? And I don't stay online very long at night after the kids are alseep.

Here're a few photos of the kidlets.

Jon loves feeding the fishes. Will let him do so at night otherwise the fishes will die from over-eating!

Jill wearing my fav adidas cap

PS: Jon still refuses to wear his PE t-shirt to kindergarten on Mons and Weds! Managed to get him to wear the school shirt instead. Better than nothing!

And our home is slowing taking form, with roof beams cast and some walls up. YAY!

View of the front of the house

Our small kicthen, smaller than the one in my flat in Singapore

The living room

Master bedroom with the pipes sticking out from the side. next to it is a very small bedroom 3...can't be helped, I wanted everything on one floor and there's limited land space unless we have more budget for a double storey

Hope all of us will have a good week, coz next week is CNY!!! And Jon's kindergarten will be closed the whole week. yeah, in Malaysia, that happens, so all the teachers can go back to their home town and celebrate CNY. It's more festive that way, compared with Singapore. I miss ba kwa and pineapple tarts from Singapore!!

Green fingers...not mine

Check out what's growing in our backyard.

I didn't know what which vegetables belong to these leaves. Can you guess?

Ans: Ladies fingers. My fave veg and I don't even know what they look like when grown. In this modern age of convenience where everything is cleaned and packed nicely to be sold in supermarkets, who would know the original state of our produce?

Corns in different growth stages and sizes. They're really sweet and taste great when we steam them or boil them in soup!

Baicai on the ground....

...and when plucked, washed and cleaned.

Don't know what's this veg. Will check and revert. Tell me if you know.

All the above are grown by our Indonesian helper. She would take the bulbs of the vegetables that were cut and instead of throwing them away, she planted them in the ground. The baicai takes two weeks to grow. All taste very sweet....no fertilisers or anything added. Just water and sunshine.

This purple plant that is grown by my mother-in-law...I don't know the name, she boils it and adds some rock sugar to it to make cooling tea.

I wish I have such green fingers.

My 2nd Swap...

(I don't know why the pic appears like that when the photo is the right side up)

Here's a pic of the calendar swap that I did....I was too lazy to measure and draw the calendar boxes on computer and print out. Boy, did I regret after measuring and drawing by hand, the 10th one! We did 24 pieces, so we would have two calendars with 24 different designs by 24 super nice and talented scrappers. Can't wait to receive the rest.

I was assigned to do July. Do you know that according to the American calendar, July is National Ice Cream month, and the 3rd Sun is National Ice Cream Day? What's more, 30 July is Lollipop Day! So fun! I can't wait for those days and have loads of ice cream and lollipop!

Kidlets have been sick and hubs too, for the last two weeks. Started with Uncle Bryan passing the fever and sore throat bug to cousin Megan, who passed to younger sis, cousin Mabel, who passed to Jon last week. Thank goodness Jon only got sore throat.

Jon, who is into deconstructing, will take apart the Ikea chair and carry his portable seat aroubd the living room. He will even carry the legs of the chair while he takes his afternoon naps. And he has this habit of arranging the items of the day near him. Woe unto us should we try to move them!

Then Jon passed to Jillian last Sat, who then had fever on Mon. Then Simon got the flu bug on Wed. I was fighting symptoms of flu and took panaflu over two days, plus lots of vitamin C and water. Managed to hold off the bug at bay. Poor Jill threw up a couple of nights and days coz of her phlegm. Had to cancel playdate for Jon, as Simon and Jill still have not fully recovered.

Jillian broke out in red patches when her fever subsided and the flu started. Doc said some kids will react that way. In this pic, the red patches had reduced in size. Her right eye lid was also swollen. Poor girl!

What a start to a new year! OUT, you bugs!

Jonathan's first day at pre-kindergarten

Jon went to school on 3 Jan without a fuss. The teacher brought him to his classroom upstairs. He was bigger than all in his class of 3-coming-4yr-olds. He's in the Level 1 class. By size, he would fit with the kids in the Level 2 and 3 classes downstairs.I took a few shots. There were four boys and three girls by the time Jon got to class. One of the boys was crying, first day trauma. I believe there're couple more classmates. He was nice and drink a little from his bottle. Said bye to him. But I forgot to tell Teach about his rough play at home and went back up. I found him checking out the other classrooms. very independent boy. As usual, he did a little wave with his hand while it's hung by his side. Very cool.
When I picked him up, he was playing so I took a few more photos. He was the only one who walked out of the play area to check out the slide. But he didn't go on it coz there were puddles of water. Disappointed. (note: he checked out the slide on day 2 too. Nope, puddles of water were still there. He didn't understand when I told him PE days are on Mon and Wed and I'm sure someone will clean the puddles up.)

Grandma said that she heard him say "F... Y.." to the helper in the afternoon when he passed her his snack bowl. WHAT!!! When I asked him about it, he was puzzled. If he did say the vulgarity, he didn't understood what it meant. But we shall monitor him over the next couple of days and see if he repeats it. (note: another 'F' word today..."follow me". Much better.)

Jill was having her milk when she woke up around lunch time and I happened to give Jon his, before his nap time. Have not taken shots of them together for ages. Since helper was around, I quickly snapped away without fear of Jill falling or Jon hitting her. (yes, he's into a boxing phase right now.) I like this photo very much. Looks like they're in the middle of a jump.Also, after working on the Calendar swaps for a couple of hours in the day and more at night over three nights, I've finally finished 24 pages of July 2011. Getting started was siong coz not much mojo this round. Super siong swap! Here're sneak peaks of some of the assembly.

Drew 1,680 boxes & 168 days. Lots of cutting: 24pcs of JULY 2011...

Drawing & cutting 24 speech bubbles & 24pcs of borders...

Stamping & cutting 24 ice cream stamps...Stamping & cutting 24 lollipop stamps...

...used 72 puffy stickers + 200 foam dots over 3 nights of intense scrapping, I am finally done. Sent them to Singapore today. Hope they reach in time for the crop party this Fri evening. Love to be able to join the ladies one day.

Goodbye 2010 & Hello 2011

Husband and kidlets are sound asleep...fireworks are going off (thankfully not as noisy as CNY, akan datang), dogs in the neighbourhood are barking like crazy!

Just want to say 2010 has been an eventful year, with loads to be thankful for. But most of all, I am thankful for relationships with loved ones, family and friends. I am also grateful for my hubs and two kidlets. Lots of sweat, laughter, kisses, hugs, screaming, shouting, and smiles, but I have a positive attitude to take them all *grin*. After all, relationships are what makes life more enjoyable, livable, and bearable.

I am so sleepy but also need to rush out my July calendar pages for the swap that is going on in Singapore next Fri. I have 24pcs to make by this Mon morning to mail out! With freezing hands, I shall be working in semi-darkness and of course will give Jill her next feed due in another 2hrs.

I shall leave you some photos taken this week.

Kidlets with their new bags from gugu (Jon with Christmas pressie and Jill with birthday pressie)

Jill, Jon and Mabel got to blow some candles coz grandma wanted to eat cake.

Sweet Jill...but beware if you try to take anything from her hands, she's a screamer!!

Jon lasting for all of 3 seconds in the cutest dinosaur costume at his pal, Mason's place.

Peals of laughter after Jon got into the humongous Superman costume. Check out his chest!

Wishing you all a Blessed 2011 ahead!