HK Holiday Aug 5-9

Our highlight of the year - a trip to HK.

For two reasons, we chose HK, becos Macqueen is at Disneyland, and Carol has given birth to baby girl and we must visit.

Day 1
We flew SQ, Nathan watched a movie of Kungfu Panda 2 which he really wanted, and he enjoyed it so much, even laughed at certain scenes... Hannah also had fun watching some cartoons while on board. Both kids were terrific, ate, watched movies, played with stickers...

On arrival, we were took a taxi to Harbour Grand hotel, we had a great view of the harbour from our room, a spacious room we've got. Then, met Carol for dinner. She brought us for authentic HK food at a sidewalk cafe, had fishball noodles, dry noodles with chicken and soya sauce chicken wings, milk tea and condense milk loaf, whoa, the start of a fattening up holiday.

Day 2
Had Dim sum, carol's recommendation, good deal. Kids had baos and porridge. Then, started our nightmare of a lifetime... joined a super longest queue to get up the double decker bus that would bing us to ocean park. It was only a 10mins bus ride, and the buses were frequent enough, but there were simply too many people. We queued for more than half an hr, the queue was indeed the longest we've ever seen and been in.

Highlight of ocean park was the aquarium where we got sight of the hammer head sharks, turtles, manta ray, sting ray, largest crab in the world and fishes. The sharks were def the highlight, Nathan enjoyed the visit a lot. Next was the panda. It was a huge disappointment, only one panda, seated in an aircon room eating shoots non stop, and we just streamed past it in a bee line ... not worth it at all. We also went for the dolphin show which was another let down, the crowd was horrendous, just too many people cramped together in queues, shoulder to shoulder under the great big sun drove us literally MAD. Finally, time to go home, another last queue for the cable car .... what a bliss to be up in the cable car, all quiet and by ourselves.

We wanted to try going up the Peak, one of HK's greatest highlights, but the queue was again, an unbearable sight. We stood in the queue for 30 mins, couldn't take it, decided to give it up after one whole day of queuing, took a fast walk to catch the Star ferry across to Kowloon for a quiet decent western meal in our hotel. That was the most exp pasta dishes we've got ... almost $200 in total, with a glass of red! How generous of LC.

Day 3
The easiest and most relaxed day of the trip - to Noah's Ark. First of all, no queue at the bus lane, and only 15mins to the site. The huge ark greeted us. It was another typical hot summer day. Nathan got sight of his triceratop. I liked the merchandise the most, bought wall stickers, and more stickers, and foam art of the ark ...

There was a show about Noah's ark and moses crossing the red sea, ending with the Lord's supper room, it was all a little 'preaching' hope more tourists will come visit the ark and see the Lord's hand in creation and nature. Looking at the crowd on a sunday, the biz is not going to make it. But we enjoyed ourselves.

We had dinner with carol and terence at a mall near their residence. We visited their apt, small but livable. I had a good time chatting with her and really good to see an old friend in a foreign land.

Day 3
Disneyland
We arrived in a taxi at the hotel, dumped our luggage and took a bus to disneyland. No queue for buying tickers or entrance, just walked right in. The queue started when we waited for the first show of the day to start - Lightning Macqueen! Father and son took a pic with the real size car, nathan enjoyed the show. Next, we went for a jungle boat tour .... queued for less than 20 mins. It was not so exciting for the kids, they were rather afraid. We went for a corousal ride, nathan sat on a carriage with daddie, while hannah chose her own horse and i stood beside her. We also watched Lion king and Golden mickey show... queued about 45mins each for the shows. The last ride of the day was on a spacecraft. Nothing exciting about that, took us another 45mins to get there.

By the end of the day, we were beat. Settled in a chinese restaurant in disney hotel. The hotel was grandly decorated in victorian style with pretty wall paper and large sofa and chairs. The room was very comfortable, and we had a view of HK island, and the pool.

Day 5
Breakfast with disney characters like mickey, daisy and goofy. Mei was braved, she gave hi-5 to all three of them. Nathan wasn't so interested in them at first, but seeing hannah so keen, she got him excited too. How nice to have the two of them. They surely complement each other.

Flight back was even better, hannah slept for almostb 2 hrs on board, and i had a nice time relaxing.

overall, Hk trip was ridiculously expensive, not so pleasant becos of the large no of tourists, it was crowded and HOT, but we had a great family fun together, and that's important.

Hannah is TWO

Wow, my girl is big now.

We had a party with close friends on sat night. I baked a strawberry cake for her and cooked dinner - pasta with meatballs, sausages, green salad and couscous salad. The cake was designed 'minimouse' look alike, it was okay, but many found the cake too sweet, less sugar next time.

I think the kids had fun. Even nathan, who was not the star of the party, he had a blast, being thrown around by luigi, and swimming and playing with Sara. Both of them got on really well together, and they like having hannah around them too, sometimes the little ones doesn't observe rules, they got annoyed, but most of the time, they would laugh wildly and ran about. Really nice to see our kids grow up together.

Hannah blew off her own candles, not much strength though, she tried. She loved the cake, had two servings. She's so independent, could just leave her on her own to eat her dinner and cake, while i got busy in the kitchen.

It was nice. You don't need a big party with everyone, just some close friends to have some fun.

Solving puzzles

At barely 2 yrs old, Hannah is able to fix a 12 piece puzzle! But she is selective with puzzles. Some, she would do it again and again, others simpler 4-6 piece puzzles, she wouldn't be interested. She esp likes this 12 piece puzzle cardboard one from giant, with animals in it, and she would do it 4,5,6 times in a row, until she's distracted to do something else. What can i say? She's alittle genius in our house.

She enjoys singing too. These days, she's been singing alongside me to nathan at bedtime. She repeats word for word during prayer time too... as best she could, some 's' missing.

She has also started slicing up food stuff. It went on one day when I was busy in the kitchen, I handed her a chopping board and a mushroom and a butter knife, she started chopping it up, then scooping into her bowl, poured them out and chopped again. My domestic helper!

Such a joy to watch her grow up day by day.

church camp june 15-19 2011

This yr church camp was at Malacca, well known to be a historical town with good food. We ate in most days except sat lunch, we had chicken rice balls and chendol, nothing to shout about. Sitting on a trishaw was a highlight for nathan. We went with the Chan family. And after lunch, we baby sat sara, brought nate and sara to the maritime museum, while I watched over hannah having her nap in the pram.

On the walk back, we saw a playground, everyone had our rounds except nathan, he didn't like the spinning momentum. Even hannah had a go, I had to hold her tight.

2 milestones achieved during the camp - calling me 'mummie' and spoon feeding of med. She ran a fever after lunch on the last day of camp, on our road trip back home, we had to feed her panadol at the stop, she was good, she ate the med with a spoon... no stringe. And she slept all the way home. Journey back home was far more peaceful and smooth compared to going there.

We were stopped halfway by traffic police who claimed we sped, but thankfully we were spared and let off pretty quickly. And hannah was terribly grumpy, sreamed for more than 30mins and even vommitted in her seat, so I had to carry her the other half journey to hotel and she quietly slept on me.

This yr, they provided toddler care, so we were relieved from both kids during the morning talks. I missed all the night talks, having to bring hannah to bed about 830 and pick nathan up by 9 to settle him to bed too. He attended all sessions and had a jolly good time.

We tried to serve this yr too, i volunteered for one morn session, taking care of p2 and lc led bs for one session, co led with the other guy. We sat down at meals to chat with quite a few others... got to know many new faces as well as catch up with old ones.

It was quite a fulfilling time there, i esp liked the parenting workshop one afternoon with Chris, i was all attentive and alot of what he said got into my head and heart - learning to love and respect my husband more, as the head of the house and father to the children. It is so important to restore that headship back to him as that is not my role as the mom - the caregiver and lesser partner in christ. This is an area i have failed so many times, God has convicted me of my wrong doings and I have to change my ways. To honour my husband and be a less angry person.

Living moment by moment, to be moulded into his image for his glory not my own. From fear to faith, from anger to love. May this always be on my mind and God gives me strength to stand firm and strong.

Swim and goggles

She had such fun playing with nathan's pair of orange goggles. She would put them on, fill them up with water and simply hang them around her wrists. She is so good in the water now independent with her arm bands. I could do some strokes around her and she enjoys herself kicking about, and even dipping the back of her hair in the water like doing back strokes! She's a cutie. And I never have to worry about sun block lotion for her cos she's already tan from day zero. She's gonna be one active lively babe.

Dare the playground!

She dashes to the playground, climbs up and slides down - no fear. She's tried the covered slide too... with Nathan encouraging her to go go go, she just goes... with her little hands and chubby legs, she dares to climb anything and everything. I could just sit there and watch them play, but i fear a fall so i'm always right behind her back.

Even with a small playground we have in the aprt, they have such fun.

Weaned at 18mths, self sleep at 20mths

Just in case i forget, i want to blog this and brag about it, at least for our family, its kinda of a break through to wean her off the breast and drinking formula with the straw cup totally, over 3 days... and

One fine day, i just decided to place her in her own bed in a separate room, she slept fine for afternoon naps, an hr or so, then i started putting her down at night, first 3 nights, she wailed and woke every 2-3 hrs, almost felt like giving up and dying, but in me, i persisted and persevered, looking fwd to a longer term good, and we did it - she slept through ultimately.

The cutest things happened, she would wake in the morning, walked to the kitchen looking for me.. finally, she walked in the rt direction - towards our bedroom, and she knocked on the door... 'ma ma' i couldn't help but jumped off my bed and gave her my sweetest embrace.

Hannah is sweet in so many countless ways, but she has her stubborness too. She's a smart fellow, and tends to take advantage of situation, she can't quit her pointing finger and nasty look towards us yet, with repeated reprimanding, hope she learns.

It's a 'monkey see monkey do' stage now... whatever gor gor does, she does it ... and they play lovingly together often though many quarrels too.