THE BEST COMPLIMENT EVER

What is the best compliment that you received so far?

To me, the best compliment comes from my precious little girl, Crystal. One day after fetching her from school, both of us were waiting in the car for the daddy who was meeting a friend in his office. Out of a sudden, she hugged me by using her little hands around my neck and there came a sweet voice "Mummy, you are the best mummy ever in the whole wide world, I love you mummy".

"I love you too, girl" I replied. Then I asked her, "But mummy always scolds you ah?"

She looked at me and replied "because I naughty bah! and.. I don't want you to die!" She showed a sad face after saying this.

To reassure her and take these insecure feelings out from her, I said "Oh, don't worry, mummy is not going to die, mummy want to see you and your mei mei Pearl grow up and become useful persons."

She puzzled for a while and asked "what is a useful person, mummy?"

In order for her to understand what I meant in a little mind sense, I said "to be a useful person means, listen to your daddy and mummy, study hard, help others, do not cheat or lie to people....OK?"

"OK" she replied. "Can I kiss you, mummy?"

"Can..." I replied. Then she gave me a tender kiss on my cheek.

"I love daddy too and why daddy so slow...?"

"Little while more, your daddy is coming..."

It was so sweet and pure, it touches my heart so much that this will last forever. Undoubtedly, it's the best compliment in a my life....

PRIMARY 1 REGISTRATION

It's the time of the year when parents are busy choosing a primary school for their kids. Registration is now opened for children born in the year 2003 (children of the sheep year) to Primary 1 two years later, i.e. 2010. I am one of those parents this year. I am planning to register Crystal to Shan Tao primary school where I studied before. It is near to where we live too. It was advertised in the newspaper that the school only accept the max of 300 students due to limitation of classrooms, that's really makes me worry whether I will be able to secure a place for my little girl. James & Jenny will be registering Joshua to the same school too.. Guess we have to be there as early as 6am to queue up for the form.

There have been many cases that children are sent to primary schools that are far away from their residing address, that cause a lot of troubles and stresses to the parents. We wouldn't want to be at that kind of situation later.

For those whose children were borned in 2003, please get ready and bring along the neccessary documents to the school for registration. The documents are: birth certificate of your child (both original and duplicate), IC of both the parents (Original & duplicate). Some school even ask for a copy of the electricity or water bill to show the actual resident's address.

SUNDAY SCHOOL

My 2nd attempt to register Crystal to a Sunday School went quite smooth so far. Unlike the 1st attempt, she wouldn’t let go off me and hold me tight like a crab. In order for her to get comfortable to the new environment, I accompanied her in the class this time. She gets livelier in the story telling and the colouring sessions which are her favourites. After the class, she is as eager as ever to show her daddy and Pearl her work. However, we have got a little problem, Pearl is so attached to her elder sister that she won’t want to go any further from the classroom, the daddy has to hang around with her outside for the whole 1 hour session for the past few weeks unable to attend the mass at the church. Sometimes Pearl even join in the class too.. just for a little while lah..

MY GIRL IS NOW 5 YEARS OLD

February 15 each year would be a joint birthday celebrations in the family. Crystal and Zac coincidentally borned on the same day in year 2003 and 2007 respectively. Crystal is pretty much excited about birthdays. She would ask when is her next birthday not long after her last birthday party..To avoid all the nagging, we only told her about our plan for her birthday just few days before that. I get her to help prepare 30 goodies bags for her little friends at shcool, particularly she would like to give to her best friends, May, Meagan and Kelly. We celebrated her birthday both in school and with family members where she enjoyed to the fullest.

Little blackforest cake to celebrate with her little friends at school

A princess strawberry cheese cake for the party at night (it supposed to be a pink colour one and I got 5% discount for the mistake the cake house made).

The birthday stars for the day

FEVER DUE TO "FALSE MEASLE"

It was not an enjoyable start of the Rat year for us as Crystal was down to fever from the 30th January night till the 9th February 2008. One would be surprised why the fever persisted for so long. We were very worried about that too as from doctors’ and our past experiences, fever should subside in 3 days time. The fever still coming back after the 3rd day after taking the medications that the doctor prescribed to her previously. We went to our regular kid’s clinic for consultation on the 4th day, antibiotic was given in addition to fever, cough and flu medications. The doctor asked to come back if the fever does not subside in 2 days time, that would be Chinese New Year’s eve. We were very hopeful that Crystal would recover by then as we won’t want to see doctor on the eve when everyone is in celebration mood and we are very much looking forward to Edward’s 50th birthday party. Unfortunately we have to visit the doctor on the 6th February and waited for 3 hours. We were informed by the doctor that Crystal obviously had a viral infection due to the fact that now the flu has surfaced and the fever should go away in no time and the rashes on her chest was due to the Vicks that we applied on her to relief her chesty cough and nose block. However, contrary to doctor’s advise, she still suffer from high fever and becoming weak with so many days of medications for her little 5 years old body. We were also very stressed out with sleepless nights to monitor her high temperature and think of all sort of stuff just to persuade her to take her medicine.

We decided to bring Crystal to a Chinese doctor on the 3rd day of New Year (glad that they open) early in the morning and was confirmed that the rashes on the chest and back were actually false measles and Crystal should avoid angin and heatiness stuff in her diet. There were no oral medications given except some herbs for bathing for 3 days and thereafter some herbs for cooling. We were so pleased that her fever went off the next day after the 1st bathe. Thank God for that!!

Herbs for bathing (need to be boiled for half an hour, though..)

Herbs that have cooling effect (Dried Chrysanthemum & Kim Yun Fa) add some rock sugar for better taste

Just thought we could get live back to normal after all the stressful days, Pearl’s turn again. What a start of the Rat year for us, I wonder??? We bathe Pearl with the same herbs in case she got the same virus. So much so we tried to avoid them get close to each other but the virus is highly contagious that there is not much we could do especially when they are in the same house all the time. OMRON Gentle Temp Instant Ear Thermometer MC-510 comes in handy again. It makes life so much easier when body temperature can be obtained with a few clicks. pearl's fever still comes on and off despite having flu, really need to monitor closely.

CHINESE NEW YEAR & EDWARD'S 50TH BIRTHDAY

We had a double celebration on the 6th February 2008 as we celebrated Chinese New Year's eve and Edward's 50th birthday at Atlantis restaurant. There were 2 birthday cakes too...good things must come in pair....

The cheese cakes are so so yummy...

BRIDAL BOUQUET

I was busy arranging a bridal hand bouquet and some corsages for a friend's brother wedding yesterday afternoon. I put together a dozen of each red and pink roses as requested, yellow peacocks, decorated with pearls and laces, and I got Cletus to finished it up with a ribbon as soon as he got back, took some photos and off we go to deliver the bouquet. My friends were pleased to see the bouquet this time with a pearl heart in the bouquet, I purposely added it on as a symbol of love for the new couple.