2011 Brings Big News - Part 1!

What excuse can I give for being away for so long?

What news is so big that it takes months to announce?

Is this enough as an excuse? :)

Probably not but then it has been a rough pregnancy so far.  I spent the first trimester being so sick that I was afraid to eat, which made me more sick and so I had to force myself to eat.  Never, ever felt that way about food before!  Those who know me would know that I love to eat.  I am never one for dieting, food fads...etc and even if I tried, my hunger pangs would make me eat :)

Wanting to puke 24/7 and then puking at least 2-3 times a day was enough to put me off food for good. Except that I'm pregnant and need to eat.  Typical story of my life, when I am not allowed to be on a diet, then suddenly dieting is the easiest thing to do.  On numerous occasions, I would literally be in tears trying to find something that I think I can eat.  Nothing looks appealing to me and I had ZERO appetite.  The worst time was one of the school run to pick Josiah back from school and whilst walking, I suddenly threw up on the sidewalk!  Yucks....and I used to think that puke on the sidewalk belongs to drunk people.  I now have new found perspective on sidewalk puke :p

Fast forward to second semester, I start to feel a little better in month 5, but then I start to fall sick.  Just a bad, bad cough that refused to go away.  Being pregnant, I am unable to take medication.  All that coughing just made me feel tired, is hard on my pelvic muscle and is irritating to say the least especially when I have to talk.  To top things off, Shaun delivers me the biggest shock by announcing that he is being transferred to New York and is needed there AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

Pregnant, toddler in tow, feeling sick and having to plan a major move to a place I have never been and don't know anyone there.

Is this enough of an excuse?  YES - I think so!

Stay tune for Part 2 of my crazy life :p

Wordless Wednesday

I love my Spiderman costume

I love it when Daddy reads to me

And life passes by....

Has it been more than 3 months since Josiah started school??

Well, our lives have changed so dramatically that I am still reeling from it.

So what has changed?  EVERYTHING - and it stems from one huge change, bedtime!
After nearly 4 years of sleeping like a typical Malaysian kid ie about 9-10pm; he is now having to go to bed at 7-8pm so he can be up early enough for school.  The snowball effect of going to bed early includes earlier lunch, dinner, bath time and no more going out at night.  He might not even see Shaun before he sleeps.

On the upside, Josiah is really thriving in school.  He loves the uniform, loves the teachers and loves going to school.  Basically, if he is slow in getting ready in the morning, I just tell him that Daddy is going to school without him.... he focusses and immediately hurries up.  I am so happy that he is happy in school.

He started out going for half day school and is now doing three full days from 9am-3pm.  The first few weeks of the additional hours was tough ...... on his bladder!!   You see, my little man has inherited my toilet phobias despite me trying SO hard to be normal around him and toilets.   He prefers to hold in his wee-wee instead of using the school toilets.  With his incredible  bladder control, he manages when he is on half days but on the full days......well, let's just say, he is the only boy with a "take-away" bag at pick up.  I have tried talking to him and explaining the need to let the wee out as soon as possible, but his response is that "someone is using the big potty"  ???!!!  Telling him to use another potty (out of the 5 others available) seem to be unsuccessful.  Is he my son or is he my son?  Sigh.
Few more weeks of this, constantly telling him that his actions of holding in wee-wee would make his ku-ku broken and we are finally seeing some dry trousers at pick up.  Ermm, yes, I cannot bring myself to refer to this *blush* penis as penis :)   I'm old fashioned that way - heh, heh.....  Just going to leave it to his teachers to correct him!  *blush*

On the diet/eating front, he has realised that the longer hours meant that he is famished by the time I pick him up at 3pm.  And of course, I never bring a snack - hey, I'm trying to be a good mum here!
He tells me that his tummy is rumbling and I'll tell him that he should have had his lunch.  Then he tells me that he HAD his lunch, comprising of ONE potato (I imagine only one small piece) and ONE bread (also probably tiny piece).  He always refuses vegetables and sometimes has the pudding.
So basically, he is eating the side dishes as his main meal.  But I know it is a big step for him and continue to encourage him to eat the main meal.  Problem is, his preference for Chinese food is so strong - he just hates English food, unless it is fish fingers or sausages.  The fancy school menu normally comprises of exotic lamb tagines with coucous, pot roast, goulash, sheperd pie, sweet curry is just beyond his simple palate.  He just wants chicken rice :p

He loves singing and dancing in school - frankly, that is all they do at the moment.  Very, very slack compared to Malaysian kindergarten.  I believe they learn ONE alphabet and ONE number a week.  So lesson time is really easy-peasy for him.  They have tons of different songs and he is loving it.  Apparently, they even have a "Get Movin' assembly", where they gather to dance to all sorts of lively songs - one of his favourite is YMCA!!  Sweet - old is gold!
The all time favourite song is the 'Witch Doctor' song which they play all the time from YouTube.
Check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8qDphoQPdw

I reckon we have contributed a lot to this clip having more than 4 million hits!!  Josiah can listen to this about 8 times consecutively - warning, it is the tune is very catchy and soon it would be haunting you like it's been haunting me.  Uh Eeh Uh Aah Aah Bing Bang Walla Walla Bing Bang!!!!!

I am one happy mama and I want to thank all his teachers for making his first formal school experience such a happy one!

Can you tell Shaun got a new camera :)

My little chef

I love this pic - Grandma and Josiah

My First Day at Big School

 It was our first morning in "Big School" today.  I tried to put Josiah to bed earlier last night hoping that he would be in a good mood today but alas - Josiah (the real Energizer bunny) tossed in bed for about 1.5 hours.  Well, at least he fell asleep because I did not.  Typical worry wart mum!

Anyhow, he was up and about, excited about school until the time we had to change him into his uniform.  Oh, I'll let the photos speak for themselves.  In the end, it was the only tears he would shed that day and I was so proud of him.  Some other boys were crying in class but he was happy to be in school...just make sure to strip him off his uniform the MOMENT we step back home and he is happy.

Big day, big boy and a big smile at pick up.

Why was I so worried?

Look at those tears...

In the bus - his famous smile is back!

How I love you

Obviously, I am going through some rough time leading up to Josiah starting school.  Somehow it feels as though I will be losing him to the rest of the world now.  He has always been my little baby and then my little boy and now he is going to be someone else's friend.  He's going to have to listen to someone else aside from Shaun and I.  At times like this, I really wish that I have the guts to say yes to homeschooling.  Unfortunately, with my lack of discipline and organisation skills - I fear I may do more harm than good going down this path.  Anyhow, back to me being soppy about him growing up - just wanted to post his latest quirks and sayings that makes it that much harder to let go.

I love it when he wakes up from his nap and is always in a bad mood, all teary, upset and wants to cuddle with me for a little while before he pushes me away :p  In those special 20 minutes or so, I get to smell his hair, kiss him, hug him and rub his little tummy with no complaints from him.  It is as if he is happy to be my baby for a little while.  It makes me so warm and fuzzy just thinking about it.

I love the way the hates the way I dry his hair after a wash.  He is extremely concerned about not having "spiky hair" and will pat his hair down angrily.  So cute and so Josiah!

I love the way he checks himself out at any mirror or reflecting surface - he is so vain.  I have caught him checking himself out at the oven door, the shiny door knob in my toilet and have even caught him checking himself using a sunglasses on the dining table to check if his mouth is dirty.  So cute, so OCD and so Josiah!

I love the way he shudders when his fingers touches any squishy stuff like cream, chocolate sauce, sauces....
He has come a long way from those infant days when he cannot touch even grass or sand but I guess his little OCD about things touching his fingers have not gone completely.  So cute and so my Josiah!

I love the way he looks at me after he has done a poo and asks me if I am happy....my heart melts....I must have been quite the nagger back in those potty training days.

I love the way he gives me the cheeky grin - to try to evade a punishment, to make me laugh or just to make me heart him more.....you choose, because I fall for it every time.

I love our little ice cream game he plays with me whilst I am cooking in the kitchen.  Josiah would climb into my laundry basket and pretend to be the ice cream seller.   I love ice cream and I love Josiah :p

I love it when he says things like,
"You have milk here" whilst pointing to my breast.  When I explained that there is only milk in the breast when I have another baby, he replied, " That's okay Mummy, we can buy one tomorrow" leading to a discussion on how babies have to grow in the tummy and he quickly said that I have a big tummy, leading me to tell him that  his Mummy is just fat.  Classic Josiah.

"You come and play with me?" he uses both thumbs to point at himself whilst giving you the cheeky grin. Heart. heart. heart

"Mummy, you are just like Katy" - from his favourite children's cooking programme, "I Can Cook" on Cbeebies whenever he sees me in the kitchen.

"Can you open the banana skin for me?"

"I want some wallaa (water) please?"

I could go on but am guessing that most would have had too much of sweetness from this post for a sugar high.  So better just stop and let the pics speak for themselves.

Josiah only feeds himself when he is served fish fingers!

The Spider Man shirt that he wants to wear 24/7

Move aside Jamie Oliver - meet chef extraordinaire, Josiah Ow Yang

Uh, oh - cheeky grin....what has he done?  Try to ignore the flower hairband on his head :)

When asked who messed the living room, Josiah is always answers with gusto," Me, me, I did it!"

josiah + mummy = love

We love to jump!

This month marks the end of one chapter of Josiah's life - his carefree life as my little boy.  He will be going to nursery every day from 9am to 1pm from September 9th onwards.  He will be attending a boys' school near our house.  He has a cute uniform with matching hat and blazer.  The only problem will be to get him to wear it as he is going through his "I only want to wear ______ today" phase.  We go through his conversation multiple times a day when faced with clothes changes.  He wants to wear home clothes to church, he refuses to change into pyjamas at bedtime and changes about 4 times a day just because he feels like it (he just goes to drawer and helps himself).  Every time there is silence and he is not playing - you know he has gone to change his clothes!!  A month ago, he wouldn't have cared less if I had dressed him in a pretty dress. Go figure.


Jump ahead - he has his own opinions on dressing and is adamant that he gets his way.  Good luck to me this Thursday trying to get him into his uniform and to school on time.  The latter struggle would also involve nap and sleep time which has always been an issue for us.


I have also started my driving lessons after passing my theory test two weeks ago.  Big change for me too as I have not sat behind the wheel since 2007.  So far, I've only been allowed to drive in a straight line and turn left.  Hahaha.....it is really like starting driving from scratch.  But I am not bothered as I have always been a nervous driver and London traffic is no easy ride.


Jump in anticipation of change.....

Josiah still drools a fair bit for his age

Do not focus on my belly button!!

Pure Happiness

Notice the hands? Truly father and son jump team :)

Car wash

Do not be deceived by the photos below...

This scene is not done on a weekly basis...not even monthly basis :p

It's the first time the car has been washed since we bought it and left it in the basement in January 2009.

Shaun got his driving license in March 2010

You do the maths

Josiah does the wash

We love our car - she may be old and smell funky but she moves and so we love her.