Cate the Munchkin Face

Sorry, there's no real story here but I just couldn't resist sharing this picture that Cate's school sent me today of her munchkin face....

It's lovely that their school sends me daily pictures of them doing various activities in school!!!

Christmas Eve with Paul's Japanese Brother!

Paul's Japanese brother (long story, but he is really Paul's brother and he is really Japanese) has come to visit from Osaka, Japan with his girlfriend Yuki! His name is Takashi "something-Japanese" but we call him Andrew Chew.

They had left Japan a couple of weeks back and went to Bangkok before Singapore. Funnily, when we asked Yuki what she fancied eating, she said "Japanese"! So anyway we booked dinner at the Japanese Dining Bar oppposite our place. We always love going to Japanese restaurants with new people and even better, new Japanese people! What do I mean by that.... Well, Paul and I love Japanese and go all the time but we ALWAYS order the SAME stuff! It is only when we go with "new" ppl that we try new stuff.

Aunty Lin was VERY popular with the girls and they just couldn't leave her alone all throughout dinner! I hope they don't put her off having her own kids!!! :P

After dinner, Emma and Aunty Lin had a memory game challenge and lao shi did not give chance!!! Emma was CREAMED! Poor tot trudged to bed defeated....

There's nothing like a nice quiet Christmas Eve dinner with family.... :D

The sisters have each other....

Emma is dressing Cate up in all the items she can find in her dressup drawer.... They came into my study singing "Hula huuula... that's how we say HELLO!....Hula huuula....."

My girls are so nuts.... I guess whatever keeps them occupied on school closure!

And here it was Cate's turn to dress her Cheh-Cheh up....

Am so glad that Emma and Cate have each other.... they have so much fun together all the time....

**happy and contented with my 2 girls....**

Emma's first set of "Lines"....

Over time, with developing a mind of her own,... Emma has developed "a mouth". Answering back, snide remarks. Until a few days ago, Paul and I decided that enough was enough gave Emma her first set of lines to write as a punishment. We have lots of punishment techniques and I guess they were just not working.
For example:

* The Cane- Hardly use this cos our dear daughter doesn't seem to feel pain hence this seems to be one of the least effective

* The Naughty Place - It used to work pretty well but not anymore now that she is older

* Confiscating Toys - Again, used to really work, but not anymore

* TV Ban - Last time we used this, she seemed perfectly happy despite being a TV addict...

When we first gave her the punishment of writing 100 lines of "I will not be rude to others.", she was really excited, getting her stationery out. She even told Paul that maybe she should write 200 cos she is very good at counting. Anyway after like 30 lines, she was complaining, telling us that her hand was getting painful. By about 40 lines, she was crying "It's too much,... it's too much for me Papa...." tears streaming down her cheeks. So in the end we let her get away with 59 lines (to sides of lined A4 paper). Let's hope this works!!!....

Team Hoyt - they make us look like whimps!

Am sure most of you would have heard of Team Hoyt. I just came across this again after a long while and was so touched by it I actually cried. I can only imagine such love he felt for his son. This is about how a dad took his handicapped son on all his races and competed as a team. Doing marathons and ironman distances. Swimming with his son in tow in a little rubber boat, cycling with a specially made bike with his son strapped to the front, running and pushing his son in a wheel chair.

Marathon Personal Best: 2:40:47
Ironman Triathlon Personal Best: 13:43:37

When Dick Hoyt (the dad) first started competing in races with his son, he could barely swim.....

You can read more on http://www.teamhoyt.com

Team Hoyt makes me feel like such a whimp complaining about feeling the pain running piddly 10k races.

Cate's Passport Photo

As some of you might already know, we will be going away soon with the family and the question came up as to whether or not we need to change the picture in Cate's passport since the pic was from when she was 3 months old.

Anyway to cut a long story short, you can't just add a new picture to the passport anymore. You need to just replace the entire passport (and pay $70 for it).

So off I went to get Cate's passport photo taken at Coronation Pl. On hind sight, I should have just done it myself cos they were quite rubbish. I ended up using their camera to take the photo myself. Then I had to pay an additional $3.90 for a soft copy. They also refused to give me more than 1 of the photos on soft copy eventhough it cost them nothing. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, their soft copy was not the correct dimensions for uploading to APPLES (the online passport application site). The whole reason I thought I would pay to have it professionally done was cos I didn't want the hassle of resizing and cropping etc, and as it turned out I had to do it myself anyway otherwise when I uploaded Cate's picture, her face would be squashed cos the dimensions of the original pic were not correct.

ANYWAY! Here it is!!!!

This prompted me to look for Emma's passport pic. This was taken by myself when she was about 18 months.

My girls have such munchkin faces!!!

Reminiscing Emma's first laugh out loud....

After the Oons posted a video of my dear god-daughter Chloe, laughing out loud at aged 3 months (http://oonfamilia.livejournal.com/3319.html), I got all mushy thinking about how I felt when Emma had her first laugh out loud and dug up the home video. Here she is aged 4 months!

Unfortunately I don't have an equivalent video for Cate. Oops,....2nd child syndrome. To be honest, I don't think I can even recall when Cate laughed out loud like that. Bad mummy!

Cate's Concert Debut 2007

Will just let you watch the video, it speaks for itself. I was so proud of Cate. She knew the actions and didn't get stage fright. (Check out the teacher's actions in the background.... based on that, I think Cate's got most of it right!)

Sorry nothing on Emma here cos her item this year was seriously a bit rubbish. Not sure who coreographed it but it was a bit abstract and tran-sy.

Christmas is HERE!!!!......

Having moved to our current place for 2 years now, we had never put up a Christmas tree cos I think we are normally away over Christmas. Anyway, this year we are back from our holidays before Christmas and I really wanted a tree up. It would be Cate's first tree!!!

So off we went one evening to Robinson's. Their ornaments were beautiful. I could only look at the shatterproof ones though. (Glass obviously out of the question with the kids) Anyway I spent a good hour or so picking out all sorts of ornaments. Cate and Emma were being entertained by the salegirls. They gave them little snow boxes where they would clap and it would start to snow inside the box (see below). Kept them entertained for quite a while...

Anyway, the anti-climax to all this is that, we didn't buy any ornaments in the end. Paul was like "How much is this, how much is that,... how many of this do you need...." So I got too stressed out and returned everything to the shelves/baskets. Decided to use our old ornaments from before Emma was born. We could have made a trip to Concourse where I know the stuff there is really cheap and nice too, but everyone was already way too excited about the tree and we kind of NEEDED to have it up IMMEDIATELY.

We rushed home, got the tree and ornaments out, and the Chew's big and small, all got busy hanging the ornaments ....and voila!!!.... Our tree was up in less than an hour!!! Cate and Emma were so happy with their tree, they were dancing in front of the tree with just the christmas tree lights on until we had to carry them off to bed. We may not have got fancy ornaments but the girls loved their tree just the same... :D

MERRY CHRISTMAS MY DEAR FRIENDS!!!!

Cousinly Luuurve...

The cousins love hanging out at nana's. There may be fights and punches but they all keep coming back for more...

Cate is Marilyn - The making of

This is cate's little head before she transforms to her curly locks of Marilyn. Sometimes i just need to squeeze the living cuteness out of her!

I want to be pretty....

As I was drying Emma's hair after her shower, Emma said, "Mummy, I want to be pretty like the brown girls." I was a little puzzled,.... does she want a tan? Then she said, "I want my hair to be like the brown girls on TV. They are very pretty." Then I realised she wanted to have braids! I am no professional but here is what I managed to magic up in a few minutes!!!

Aunty Sheila's influence when she came to visit when Emma was aged 7 months really stuck! In addition, Emma's "Hip Hop Teacher" (I know,... this is what her school teacher told me) said she is a natural at dancing too! Aunty Sheils would be proud....

Am I depriving my kids?....

Today, I took Cate to the doc's (yet again). I just want her cough to be completely GONE before we go skiing. Nothing worse than having to nurse a sick child away from home in the freezing cold.

Anyway, our doc's is at United Sq, so there were plenty of toy shops there. Cate just ran into this toy shop and it was as if she has never played with toys in her life! She was all over the place, beaming away and playing playing playing. I don't really buy toys for the girls but that's cos they are always getting plenty of presents from doting aunties and uncles. However I have to admit, I do keep their presents away and only give them 1 at a time every now and again. (am I a meanie???....)

Well, when I saw Cate so happy at the toy shop, I seriously felt guilty..... am I depriving my kids???...

Saturday Morning Ride with @@@ - Pooped!

Round 2 on the roads clipless.... Paul and I cycled from home to Long House for breakfast with the AAA gang. I was so tired just cycling there! Seriously considered having breakfast and riding home instead of going on the 40km ride to and from Mandai. Well, of course, after chowing down the kaya toast, I couldn't really cop out....

As you might've guessed, I was dropped not too long after starting out from Long House. My wonderfully patient hubs stuck with me the whole way. At some small slopes, I was really struggling,.... my legs just wouldn't move anymore. I think it was a combination of being tired from Thursday's ride and also from being all tense with going clipless. It was a lot more stressful today as there were far more cars and traffic lights, and I didn't click on as well as I did on Thurs. I also had a small fall at one of the traffic lights cos I was so tired that I couldn't push off adequately. Luckily there weren't many cars around.

Andrew also gave me a quick lesson on how to click on and off a little more smoothly. It all made a lot of sense,..... but execution was quite another thing! I think I need practice..... Thanks for the tips Andrew!

At the end of the ride, we all stopped at a coffee shop around Binjai for a drink and some much enjoyed idle chit chat. Check out all the nice bikes parked!!!

I think I am liking cycling and really can't wait for it to be less painful cos there are parts that are really fun! Hopefully with more mileage in, and more practice going clipless, my stamina and speed will improve.... Over and OUT!

Paul and I after the ride

Cate is Marilyn...

Today I twirled Cate and Emma's hair into little bunches so that ALL their hair is off their faces and necks. They are sweaty little girls you see.... Each of their sweet little heads had about 6-8 twirly bunches.

Anyway when I undid them, they had curly hair! Here is Cate's "look". She was so amused. Could hardly go to sleep cos she kept sitting up in bed to try to take a peek of herself in the mirror by her bed.

Emma was alseep when I undid hers, so we couldn't have a good look. Maybe she will get a shock when she looks at the mirror tomorrow. See how fun it is to have girls!!!!....

Kitty Cat is back at the doc's again...

Decided on another visit to the doc's. After being on the neb for a month, her cough just wasn't getting any better and in fact, this week, it seemed to be getting worse. This is becoming her 2nd home. Look how happy she is!

After leaving the doc's ($338 poorer,... I know! Can you believe that!), armed with anti-biotics (which I normally resist), I went downstairs for a quick lunch (Katong Laksa).

I know I shouldn't have, but my lunch date (Cate) kept begging for my "soup", so I gave her her first taster of Lasksa gravy. She loved it and kept asking for more! Before everyone thinks I am a bad mother for plying my sick daughter with laksa gravy,... firstly, as you can see from the picture, she was feeding herself and secondly, she only had a few small sips (less than 10) and I made her drink lots of water after (also shown in pic).

Going,...going... Gone Clipless....!!!

A couple of months back, being a sucker for shoes, I decided to buy a pair of cycling shoes. They are lovely. After trying them out just once (on the bike of course), I put them away cos I fell so badly, my knee was swollen for like a month. http://mummy-onthego.blogspot.com/2007/09/big-fat-swollen-knee.html

Tonight,.... I succesfully went on a 40km ride clipless (on big roads with traffic and all)!!! I know it might not seem like much to most but it is a big milestone for timid ol' cyclist like myself.

Thanks Lin and Paul for hanging back with me. I REALLY appreciate it. I was very mindful that I was slowing you guys down and probably getting you all bored. I do strive to get better so that I can join you guys eventually....

I felt that the move from pedals to clipless showed a greater difference as compared with my move from a mountain bike to a road bike. Tonight we were going at a constant speed of about 28kmh and at some points on flats, I saw my odo show 35kmh which I never used to see unless I had just come off a hill which doesn't count.

Lin really gave me good tips about shifting my weight on the saddle and using different parts of my legs muscles. I definitely haven't mastered any of it, but I could kind of feel what she was talking about when I tried them out. Especially the shifting weight to the back part.

Clipping on and off was pretty ok, .... a little shakey sometimes but I think for a first time on proper roads, I would consider it a success.

Can't wait to put on these sexy shoes again.......

Catie Balboa - 3 days later

Do you think it's looking better? I think there is a chance for no scarring. Fingers crossed...

Catie Balboa... Black eye and all...

Poor cate bumped the corner of her eye during Sunday brunch with the Oons. Rushed her straight to the docs and luckily her eye was ok. Doc said that she MIGHT have a scar though. Am so heartbroken.

Cate has been real brave...

Happy Deepavali!!!

Another ehtnic day at school. I am not very sure what is an Indian outfit suitable for Deepavali but this seemed to work. It was from Mamoo (Aunty Elaine) from KL so I suspect it is actually a Malay outfit.

What a sweet smile from Cate huh?!....

OSIM Corporate Triathlon 2007 - I did it.... just....

About a month ago, I decided to rally up a team from ACN. I thought it would be fun and also to create an awareness of this sport which has recently managed to transform my previously less active life.

As it turned out, I managed to gather a team of 32 ppl(!) and we were all sponsored by a few of our generous partners. :)

From Team ACN, we had:
3 x Sprint Relay Teams
3 x Mini Relay Teams
7 x Sprint Individuals
7 x Mini Individuals

HOW GREAT IS THAT!!!

Having not trained much since Triladies, I initially wasn't planning on participating but after seeing the overwhelming response, I thought "How can I not be a part of this!!!"

I also had some friends who were going to be doing their FIRST tris. There was Shengko!, Pat, Lawrence (Emma's Godpa). Paul also decided to join in, so there was quite a group of us!

As I said, I didn't really train for this race and boy did I feel it every stroke, pedal, step, of the way!

THE SWIM was the toughest again. It was also the toughest swim compared to my previous race swims (OSIM and triladies)! I am not sure what it was but as soon as I was in the water, I felt like everyone was SO ROUGH! There were hands and feet everywhere, ppl tugging on my shorts, leg.... For a moment, I thought that my championship was coming loose. I stopped swimming, contemplating refastening my championship but finally decided against it as the chances of me dropping it into the ocean that way was much higher. Breast-stroking half the time,... I looked around and saw a whole mass of my wave ahead of me and I think there may even have been someone from the wave after mine overtaking me! Somewhat demoralised,... I persevered.... I was overjoyed to reach the shore, and it was even nicer when I had Wei Wei, Colin and Lin to cheer me on right there! I looked at my watch and it said 16:39min! What!? Wasn't half as bad as I expected....

THE RIDE was really just so-so for me. I was cruising along and didn't really "feel" it. Got real thirsty during the ride and tried to slow down to grab my bottle but ended up sticking my fingers into my front wheel instead (I know I am such a moron). Abandoned the idea of having a drink and decided that stopping would just be too disruptive. After dismounting the bike at the end of the 20km, I was pretty pooped. I think the actual ride took about 45min. Decided to catch my breath while walking my bike back to my transition area BUT there were so many ppl there cheering me on! Friends, colleagues,....Oh no.... pai seh.... how can I just be walking while they are cheering me. Surely I should be putting in just a wee bit more effort! Ok,... decided on a slow jog instead. :P

THE RUN was painful. I was just thinking "How can I do the Olympic Distance if I am already feeling like this on a sprint!" Well, ....the best part was the last stretch when I had my friends and family cheering me on. (otherwise you wouldn't be seeing the smile on my face below)

All in all, I think my entire race (inclusive of transition times) was about 1hr 37min. Despite my lack of training, I think my overall time improved by about 5min compared to my last race back in July. Most of the gains were from cycling I suppose since I was on a mountain bike then.

Lesson learnt: I don't think I ever want to do another race without putting in the necessary training.

One of the ACN Sprint Relay Teams comprising Linda, Jack and So Cheer. What a great team....They looked great!

Paul and Sheng - post-race smiles. Sheng's first tri! Go Shengko! Let's do another race together soon! Maybe Gin can join us too!!!

Paul and I with The Lims. (Ruth was taking the picture) This was Lawrence's First Tri too, I think he may be another one hooked....

Pat & I after the race - all smiles... This was her first tri too! You did great babe!!!

Thanks everyone for your support! (Ruth, Abi, Ginny, Wei, Shem, Mel, Colin, Lin, Angel, Kia Cheng) Our races are never the same without cheers of encouragement from y'all!

Happy Halloween!

Emma and Cate dressed up for Halloween before school. For those who remember, emma is wearing the same princess witch outfit from last year. Her school friends and teachers didn't seem to remember and loved it all over again. Just as well i didn't take the effort to make another costume! Partly cos there was no costume competition this year. Goodness, i shouldn't be so competitive! Incidentally, emma won last year. :-P

http://motherofcutiepies.blogspot.com/2006/11/halloween-costume-and-winner-is.html

Kissy Gals

Cate striking a pose with mummy while trying on her new swim cap.

How does one stay angry....

Below is a dialogue between Emma and I after she almost left her cardigan behind some place. She has been increasingly careless with her belongings and my patience was wearing thin!!!

Mummy Peng (in exasperation): Emma, if you had lost your cardigan, I would have been RAGING MAD!!!
Emma (innocently): What's 'raging'?
Mummy Peng (annoyed at being distracted from scolding): It means very angry.
Emma (eyes wide in slight whisper): Angrier than "CROSS"???
Mummy Peng: SIGH!.... a little.

How do I stay angry with that girl!!!!

It's tough being an officer's daughter....

It's tough being the daughter of an army officer.... It doesn't matter if you are only 2yrs old,... papa is still expecting me to do the flex arm hang!!!

p.s. Sorry for these really blury photos but my phone is seriously slowing down!!

Reunited

At last Kai Ma Lis has made it back from Bangkok, and Cate managed to catch a quick lunchie with her! Poor Cate,.... both her Kai Mas are perpetually absent! Well, hopefully after this lunch Cate would have made a good enough impression for Kai Ma Lis to move back for good soon!!!!

Got CROCs????....

The girls had their friends over this evening and look at this pretty little sight literally in my lift lobby!

Great Eastern Women 10K - Impossible is Nothing....

Another great shot to include.... Impossible is nothing....

Great Eastern Women 10K - I did it!

This morning I completed the Great Eastern Womens' 10km run. That is me above seconds from crossing the finishing line!!! :) I would say I was pleased with how I did,... not that it was really that great, but I met the target that I set for myself which was to complete the 10km within the hour. I completed it in 56.5min! Yay!

I am not going to lie, it was no walk in the park. I can tell you now that I suffered the whole way. I am no natural runner that's for sure. At the 7km mark, I saw those portable toilets and seriously thought about using them real quick,... after 2 secs of negotiation in my head, I decided that I was just looking for ANY excuse to stop and I had best press on!!! What am I thinking, portable toilets are gross anyway. Looking back, I didn't even need the toilet! I really need to work on my mental game.....

The whole experience was really enjoyable.... there were so many of us (Linda, Ruth, Lin, Janice, Elvia, Mel, Pat, Ching, Wei,....) and with the AAA guys cheering us on, how could I not enjoy this race!!!

Our "men" were great.... They were there cheering us on like crazy, taking pictures.... Towards the finishing line, I even saw some hands come out to give me hi-5s!!!.... but sorry guys, I just didn't have the energy to zig zag to you let alone lift my hands for hi-5s! :P It was also really great to cross the finish line to Lin and Ching's beaming faces and hugs :D

The girls and our men..... thanks for coming to cheer us on!

I think quite a few of us achieved our personal best times today! Ching ~52min, Janice ~58min. Lin (I am not sure if this was her personal best) but this nutter finished ~49min (insane!)

I love this picture of Hansel and Shem looking down the empty finishing stretch, anticipating our return....

Well done girls! We did it!

Best Buds

Emma and Mark at sunday family lunch at Akashi...in better times... ;)

Hide and Seek

Here is cate playing hide and seek with her sister. Not only are her feet in plain site, my wardrobe doors are see through! The sad part is that emma actually thought it was a good hiding spot! Kids...

PAUL CHEW and me....

On 11th October, 9 yrs ago, Paul and I were married.(yes, I was somewhat a child-bride)

Happy Anniversary!!! One more year and we get to TIN! (woohoo!)

Gone Ethnic

Today the girls were supposed to get dressed up in traditional clothes to celebrate Hari Raya! Cate in a chiong-sam, Emma in a Malay-like top. They are SO CUTE!

Kitty Cat Ems

Emma trying on her cousin Mark's school concert cat costume. Cutie!
Mark is going to be sweating in his fur!

Cheese!

This is a pic of cate that she took of herself using my phone. She was trying to take a picture of me actually but doesn't know which side the lens is. Silly billy!

My family...

Just the 5 of us just like it used to be. Now we have multiplied to 14!