Goodbye 2005 and welcome 2006

It's the 2nd last day of 2005. In a couple of hours, we will be crossing over to 2006. A brand new year. Hopefully a better year than this that is going to end soon.

So many things happened this year. I would not go into the nitty gritty of things but I'm hopeful that next year will be better for everyone.

Enjoy yourselves. Make some resolutions!

Happy New Year ppl!

10 things that I am thankful about....

I was replying a friend's e-mail the other day and it suddenly struck me that this is something that I can blog about.....

10 things I am thankful about.......
1) I am thankful to God for my family and the many blessings that He has lavished upon us
2) I am thankful for my husband who has really been there supporting me all the way
3) I am thankful for my good friends who are there for me when I need them
4) I am thankful for my new CG, where I think that I can learn and grow and hopefully give something back in return
5) I am thankful for the doors that God has opened for me and the opportunities that He has created for me
6) I am thankful for the gift of Life
7) I am thankful that I can enjoy and cherish each day with my daughter, husband and beloved family members
8) I am thankful for the help that I get from my parents and parent-in-law and my maid too
9) I am thankful for God being the shelter from the storm when things get tough, especially the way this year has gone
10) I am thankful that I am able to continue to know the Lord better with each passing day

There you go... 10 things that am thankful about.....

A friend's grief

Just found out that one of my best friend's dad passed away suddenly. Still rather vague on the details but we're all very shocked. My friend is still holding up but I think that she's more in shock than anything else.

My other best friend is coming in from Singapore tomorrow morning to pay respects. Will probably go to the wake tomorrow afternoon or something like that.

Just goes to show how fragile life can be. And how things can change in a split second.

My heartfelt condolences goes out to my friend's family. I hope and pray that God will comfort them in these times of grief and be a big shield and a shelter for them.

I think the wake is tomorrow. We will have to see how it goes.

Bits and pieces

I haven't been blogging for a while. So many things have happened during the past few weeks that I don't even know where to start. Anyways, some part of updating would be that we've joined a new CG (yay!) , which is really great for us. It's a family CG with a mixture of couples, kids and singletons. Christmas is round the corner and there are just so many plans during that weekend break! We have something on every single day! I bet that by the time I get back to work, I'll be dead tired and needing another break. I'm just glad that New Year's break would be rather long too. Hope that we would not be so busy then.

Other than that, I've been rather tired and yucky (that is a whole blog entry on its own some time down the road).

I'm just so tired. Woke up this morning feeling tired and that has continued throughout the day. Sigh....

Sleeping thru the nite...

Yoohoo! Yes, as the title puts it - Olivia slept through the night last night in her bed! That was really a great feeling and I'm really proud of her. I came back late from work last night feeling really lousy after a long day and my daughter decides to reward me with her sleeping thru the night! Praise the Lord! I'm really happy with her and hope that this is the start of her "sleeping thru the night" routine. She has had a few false starts but I'm keeping my fingers, toes and ears crossed that this continues.

ha Ha.... Will keep you guys updated on her progress....

Sleeping Habits

I’ve been reading this book called “The No-Cry sleep solution for toddlers and pre-schoolers” by Elizabeth Pantley. Yup, you guessed it, am having some sleeping problems with Olivia. All in all, Olivia’s a rather easy kid to take care off but the only issue that I face with her is her sleeping habits. It’s actually not her fault as babies need to be trained to sleep on their own and their sleeping habits need to be moulded. It is my fault that she sleeps the way she sleeps now. Or rather how she needs to be put to sleep.

Since the day she was born, some of my ideals on how we were going to train her were thrown out of the window. Some for being not practical but some mainly because I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Hubby suggested the cry-to-sleep solution which I protested vehemently to and sometimes even with tears as I didn’t have the heart to let my poor baby cry herself to sleep. It just sounds so cruel! Imagine crying yourself to sleep. However, then I didn’t discover Elizabeth’s book on her “no-cry method”!. Life would have been so much easier if I did! Hubby, being the kind of guy he is, just gave in at the end of the day and let me have my say and my way.

Having been a colicky baby, we used to cuddle and carry her a lot to soothe her especially during the bouts of colic. That carried on till now and it’s a tough habit to break!. Especially at this age, (she’s about 16 months going onto 17 months) when she’s all out for playing, putting her down to sleep for her day-time naps can be quite a battle. Just imagine carrying a kid weighing about 11-12 kgs for about 1 hour and trying to put her to sleep. Now u get what I mean. During the nights, it’s a tad better as she rolls around after drinking her milk and finally settles in a comfortable position to sleep. The downside is that this can take up to about 30 minutes with some form of scolding involved.

She still does wake up in the middle of the night screaming like she’s been having a really terrible nightmare and thus, this week the experiment is to totally cut out the telly for her. No more watching television for this week to see whether this has any effect on her sleeping. Hoping with my fingers crossed and with God’s grace that some good outcome will come out of this. Am also endeavouring to train her to sleep in her bed rather than co-sleeping with us. That would probably mean about a week of interrupted sleep. Sigh… guess I just have to grit my teeth and pull through.

Wish me luck. Will be back with some more updates, hopefully positive ones!

Speaking skills

Our lives have certainly change tremendously with the arrival of Olivia. We no longer enjoy the quietness and privacy in our house... we used to have the house all to ourselves and we couldn't entice our family members to come over... but now... we can't get rid of them! heh... just joking..

She has certainly brought lots of joy and laughter into our lives and definitely a test to my relationship with Elvin as husband and wife. ALso testing our capabilities as better parents.. like Elvin said previously... God gave us 9 months of pregnancy to be less shitty parents.

Now at 16 months plus, Olivia is delighting us everyday with her antics and newfound skills and vocabulary. She surprises us by learning quickly words such as "please", "night night" and such. But she really refuses to call her 2 grandfathers! she can call almost everyone in the family but totally refuses to call the 2 grandads. Both have definitely be waiting patiently, though I think that it's now bordering on impatiently, for her to call them. And when she does, I'm sure it will be such heavenly sounds to their ears!

Her favourite word is "Papa" and she loves to harrass our maid, Janiah, by calling her incessantly without any reason. SHe doesn't call me as much.. but she does when she needs to. She also has some other favourite words, but for certain reasons, I will not publish them here! :P
She does speak gibberish but her baby gibberish is only a few words unlike some of her peers who can rattle off a whole long sentence! What is definite is that she is learning quickly each day.

Thus, we have to be careful of what we say around her because you never know what will pop out of her mouth!

Blog competition?

I was feeling rather pleased with myself having updated my blog in a rather long time. Thus, when I went to check out my sister's blog, I was a bit crestfallen to see that she hadn't updated her blog even though she had a really long break last week! So, when I got home, I asked her why she hadn't updated her blog, to which, Elvin gave me a dirty look (sort of like saying that who are u to say anything since u haven't updated your blog!) but haha... I was prepared as I had already updated my blog yesterday evening. Thus, round one to HM... but that wasn't my point actually... I actuall like reading my sister's blog as she can be quite witty and funny at times.. something I think I lack... but Yen took it the wrong way definitely and declared a blog competition between the 2 of us.... haha...

Anyways, since i'm compelled to write..I'll just blog about the restful break that I had last week. It was really good although I still had to go back to work on Wednesday when most ppl were off. It was a time to catch up on sleep, meeting up with old friends and cooking. Yes, Hwee Mei can cook. I decided to cook some pasta.. was just a tad bored about eating out and eating my mom-in-law's cooking... so I offered to cook. It was quite okay as it turned out. Too bad I don't have any pics to show for it. And 2 days later, Elvin whipped out some home-made pizza... it was really delicious that my dad-in-law commented that he can open a pizza place... to that my hubby replied that we would be out of business real quick as the indgredients itself cost a whopping RM120!! Take-out is definitely cheaper.

We also went Hari Raya visiting to a friend's place in Kota Kemuning. We met this couple when we were attending our ante-natal class in SJMC in 2004 right before Olivia was born. Haven't seen them since till Elvin bumped into the wife at a buka puasa function. It was really good to catch up and to see our two little girls playing with one another. There interactions are really good for the children and it gives us adults a chance to see how our kids react whilst socialising. I just learnt that my little girl can be a real "cili padi".

All in all it was a good break. We finished SEason 1 of Desperate Housewives and is desperate for season 2 already.... Olivia also had the chance to meet some of her friends whom she hasn't seen in a long time.

Well... I have to go... market will be opening anytime soon... and I've run out of things to blog. till later then...

When is No 2 coming?

I've been asked this question so many times... I've lost count already..but I can tell you that if I could have 20 cents for everytime this question was asked, I would be RICH! Maybe I'll just clear the air once and for all... that is if anyone reads my blog and my ramblings.

Well, Elvin's always been enthusiatic about having our 2nd kid and it's been me who's been pushing it back. Why you might ask? WEll, I wasn't sure whether I could cope and I wanted to enjoy Olivia more and spend more time with her before baby No. 2 came along and she had to share our attention (although I do think that there is enough attention to go around since at the moment we're the only source of grandchildren for both sides!).

Anyhow, Elvin wants 4 kids and to be honest, I'm kinda scared of having 4... am trying to bargain for 3 but my dear ol hubby believes in the "middle child syndrome" and vehemently disagrees with me to have 3 children... and it doesn't help when some of my friends (can you believe it - my own friends, who are supposed to be on my side) agree with him on the "middle child syndrome" thingy!! :O

Nonetheless, I do believe that it's about time that we give Olivia another sibling to play with and an addition to the family to delight our parents and extended family. It's amazing that I know so many couples whom have a child Olivia's age and are expecting their second kid or next kid next year and I'm about possibly the odd one out (actually no, there's another friend who is in the same boat as me) who is not preggo! To tell the truth, I do feel a bit pressured to have another one.. but it's all in God's timing I believe. On top of that, I also know quite a few people who are due to be parents soon! It must be a very fertile year...either that or I'm more observant about pregnant women and children in strollers whilst at shopping centres.

Actually, I'm quite looking forward to being a mom again... it really warms my heart to see that my little child has grown - in the case of Olivia, boy, she has really grown by leaps and bounds.. always entertaining us with her cheeky looks and antics.

Maybe that should be my Christmas project.... but as I said.. it's all in God's timing.

Musings....

What a sad day for the nation.... and for the First family. Our first lady lost her battle with cancer. Just goes to show how fragile and precious life is. The weather has just been as reflective of the sombre mood that the whole nation has been since early this morning when the news broke.
As we were catching glimpses of the whole funeral telecast, someone posted this questions - "Do u think that our PM was prepared for this?"... I remember answering a question along those lines a few weeks ago.... This is what I think... No one can ever be prepared no matter how prepared they think they are for the passing of a loved one. I don't think that it's possible.... Although you would have seen it coming, yet the myriad of emotions that you feel at the passing of a loved one will just envelope you when the time comes. At least that is what I think....

It's been a really tough year for the world... look at the myriad of natural catastrophes that have taken place, the many lives lost... even amongst some of the people that I know, it has been a rather tough year. Let's pray that God will grant us the strength and sustain us for the rest of the year and the years to come....

Celebration of Life

I went for a wake on Tuesday and it got me thinking..... The wake was for Jeremy, my sister's boyfriend, Jon's brother. You can read all about it here http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=hweeyen. It was a beautiful service although me and my mom missed the eulogy bit as we got a bit lost in USJ. I heard that the eulogy was most moving ... coupled with a song written just specially for the occassion. Anyways, you can read all about it at the link above.

Anyway, the wake got me thinking as a line that the Pastor said during her sermon stuck me " WHere are you in this race?". That went straight to my heart and I broke down.... it was already a bad day for me to begin with... but that's another story all together. So just where am I in this race of life? What legacy do I want to leave behind when I go and meet my maker?

When I went for Jeremy's wake - I also wondered how would my wake be? As I was making my way to the wake, I already knew somehow that there would be many people at this special boy's wake. God's presence was really there and I felt Him after a very long time. It felt great and the floodgates of tears just broke open.

Weddings are a celebration of a union of two people becoming one in front of God. Funerals are a celebration of a person's life - the legacy he or she has left behind as he/she goes to meet the Maker. Makes sense?

I'm still thinking and wondering where am I in this race? I want to pace myself to run a marathon and not a 100-meter dash. I want to leave a legacy behind that I can be proud of, that would bring a smile to His face when I go and see him.

So where are you in your race? What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind?

Have a think about it.......

A day older...a day wiser?

I'll be turning 29 tomorrow... yup... I'll be a whole year older.. and no this is not a ploy to get more birthday wishes and presents..though the latter seems like a good idea... hah.. but for me at this point in my life.. it gives me the opportunity to reflect back on the past year and to imagine the year ahead.

At this juncture in my life, I'm very grateful that I've been blessed with a wonderful husband, absolutely cute daughter, great and supportive parents, a fantastic sister and not forgetting my wonderful in-laws..which include my 2 sisters-in-law. I must admit that at times I do act as if I don't treasure all these blessings but I really do! It's been an eventful year... one full of roller coaster rides... filled with laughter, joy, tears and a whole host of emotions. I think that I've also grown... though at times I seem to regress...but I'm slowly settling into being a mom, wife, daughter, friend and colleague. It's no easy task juggling all those roles..and it has made me appreciate my own mom even more!

So what is my resolution for this year before I hit the big 30? well, I want to be a more patient person, a person with a bigger heart and I want to be able to do more.. in terms of reaching out to people. For a start, I'm trying to be a more constant friend with my good friends.. and family too... also might include into that list..a try to be a mom again? that is with God's blessings..

Let's fill up the list as the year goes on.

But for now, I just really want to shout out to my friends..a BIG thanks for being great friends.. and to my family BIG hugs and kisses for being such a great support network.

Love you all!

My two favourite people

Just wanted to share a photo of my two favourite people with you guys. Of course it's my hubby Elvin and my favourite little princess, Olivia aka baby grubs... why grubs you might ask? that's because she used to be a tad grumpy when she was younger and her Ee-ee (who is my younger sister, Hwee Yen) together with my mom gave her that nickname. It's stuck eversince as nicknames do.

This is just showing Olivia's fashionable side. Her paternal grandad bought her that pair of glasses which has since succumb to losing one of its legs...no thanks to Olivia's gentleness. :)

You can see from the photo, how matching is their attire.. that's because daddy picked out the outfit for her! Anyway, I love both of them heaps... and they really can brighten my day.... just like sunshine!

Back after a long hiatus.....

This blog is back in business.... and as you can see, we took about a year off... yup..right after Olivia was born..and now she's what?? exactly 14 months old today!!!.. She has definitely brought lots of joy, laughter, entertainment and lack of sleep (which only applies to the me, her mummy!) to everyone in the immediate Yong and Chew clan...

Anyway, this is just a short posting...to revive this blog site... I guess I will be taking over from my dear husband...who started this blog..or maybe we will be sharing this blog to express our thoughts.....

I'll be back..with more stories on Olivia... and hopefully some photos too....