the only times we go to USS are if we get free/discounted tickets, and the organisation’s Family Day this year afforded the opportunity to do so.

Shrek & Fiona with their offspring

finally got to ride the battlestar galactica human & cyclon, and while going on the two rides consecutively left us a little jelly-legged, we thought the rides at gold coast’s movie world were more thrilling in comparison. BUT! the Transformers Ultimate 3D ride definitely beat the rest, hands down – it was AWESOME, and this coming from a rides-junkie. it was a very realistic, in-your-face experience, all that swiveling, smashing, shuddering, sucked-into-a-vortex, and free-falling effects keeping you gasping and shrieking throughout. it was so good, aniq and i sneaked away from the rest to queue up 30mins for it again. the boy is turning out to be a rides-junkie like me. unlike my brother, who could never stomach a ride, even the kiddy Dragon one at Far, Far Away, which left him looking quite pale, teehehee.

anda mudah berasa mual?

after each ride, aniq and his cousin adam would check with each other: “are you all right?” so cute.

and as for these two – *facepalm*.

well, neither wish came true.

so i woke up yesterday to a mug of cold soya bean shoved in my face, with the instruction to drink up, unbrushed teeth and all, from the kids who had the (very Western – thanks, TV shows) idea that mummies MUST be served breakfast in bed on Mothers’ Day. after a series of rolling around on our bed (while i gulped down my cold soya bean), they pushed their daddy off to the kitchen to insist he help them make the rest of my breakfast. within minutes, they shoved a plate of scrambled eggs and turkey bacon strips in my face, still on my bed, teeth still unbrushed. and because the Asian me is not completely enamoured with the idea of crumbs and grease on my bedsheet, and inviting scavenging ants and other insects into my room, i shooed them out, kids, scrambled eggs and turkey bacon strips all, to the dining table, where food should rightly be served.

no chance of precious alone time at home because we brought their oma out to Singtel to cancel her Mio subscription, and thanks to her (very influential and techno-savvy :p) son-in-law, got an iPad for her internet-surfing/Youtube-browsing pleasure. since she refused to let me pay for it, i settled for paying her monthly wifi subscription instead. persuaded her to open up a facebook account, but only because i don’t have one myself so no chance of her adding me as a friend ha ha ha. happy mothers’ day, mom. even *i* don’t own an iPad, sheesh.

well, i did get some cake and ice-cream. mum said she has long stopped enjoying sweet treats like these since her own kids have grown, and i might be on my way there because i can only take a few spoonfuls and prefer to watch (or rather grimace at) the kids devouring them like the deprived little cave children that they are.

and what else DID i get on mothers’ day then?

(no, not a date with Thor. darn.)

i got me a beach holiday in june! hurrahs!

“that was easy,” he declared, heading back to the football match on tv with his father.

!!

on another occasion, the girl was being whiny (again), insisting her father stay in her bed that night. (again) we tend to ignore her, mostly unreasonable, whiny requests (tough love, honey), but the next thing we knew, the whines had ceased. her brother had invited her to his bed and they were happily snuggling under the covers.

brother = problem solver.

it’s times like these when the concept of having siblings makes a lot of sense.

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a big thank you to our wonderful family for celebrating with us. :)

“princess theme? fairy theme? ballerina theme? princess-fairy-ballerina combo/hybrid/mutant?” we mulled and nibbled, nibbled and mulled.

“how about mermaid? Ariel IS technically a princess…”

“hmm, mermaid… fishes… seafood… mmm…” a quick call to Fish & Co. to make a reservation for the guests, who were concurrently texted, and we were good to go.

can you tell by now that the highlight of a party for me is filling up goody bags for the kids? it was, erm, unfortunate that i could not fill glitter-glued goody bags with, oh-i-don’t-know, shell necklaces, sparkly combs, diamante stickers, The Little Mermaid dvds… because 80% of our little guests were boys, who would surely declare the contents as “lame!” and proceed to stomp the bags into a glittery pulp.

on the other hand, no one can say no to a cute, friendly crab.

my favorite item – these came in a box of 3 different titles which i unpacked to give out individually, so a family with 3 kids would get a complete set. plus, they glittered. without being… girly.

i ended up hanging around the aisle of toys ‘r’ us for half an hour playing with this. i knew the kids would like it because: a) it is a toy, b) it is not a book, c) it will keep them occupied for a while, d) it will never run out of battery, e) it will never get spoilt, f) their parents will want to play with it too. (well, i did.)

and WHICH KID DOES NOT LIKE STICKERS? please tell me.

the obligatory mix of foodstuff. because you have to feed kids at parties or they’ll cry foul and complain to the Association of Universal Goody Bags.

and now this has nothing to do with the goody bags, but it was the only thing that had an ACTUAL mermaid on it. and it definitely made the girl (and all the boys) happy, because it was sooo cold and yummy. :D

I LOVE BIRTHDAYS.

guess who else has been counting down the months (yes, she does know the names of the months after all) and going “I CAN’T WAIT FOR APRIL!”?

i could hear it whirring in her mind: “that’s a lot of lost income”, and she doesn’t say it out loud but she probably thinks i’m being frivolous. having worked from the time she was 18 all the way through her 50s, earning more than enough for us to be comfortably off, i don’t blame her for expecting me to do the same. nevermind that I’ve paid my dues in the same organisation for 10 years – heck, that’s even longer than my marriage – and a year off is but a small blip in the 30 more years of service I have till retirement.

and then she said maybe SHE should go back to work.

way to go with the guilt trip, mum!

in any case, everyone else i’ve spoken to have been surprisingly supportive – colleagues, fellow mummies, spouse – thank you for sharing, commiserating, understanding.

i can’t be sure if i’ll make much of a difference to these two in such a short span of a year – the risk of me driving them up the wall and vice versa is pretty high – but there’s a good chance i’ll come out a happier person.

kidnapped their cousins for a day out. shh don’t tell their parents the amount of sugar they consumed collectively….

we are young, originally uploaded by izadd.

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The kids love their satay. And they particularly love the satay at their Yai’s stall :)

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We welcome the arrival of Is’s baby girl today at Thomson Medical Centre. She looks like the daddy with the lips from mummy’s :)

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