Recent events:

Chinese New Year 2017 and Leow Yi Chen's one year old birthday.

This little girl just woke up with a bang, literally. Gave out a loud shout the moment she awoke. You're too loud babe, shhhh. Hahaha.

Chinese New Year was good. Visiting was pretty smooth this time around compared to last year especially, because last year I had just given birth to YC and was still pretty tired.
She's a big baby now, but to be more specific, she's a long baby. Not roundish and chunky like YJ was but long.
Supermodel material yo.

And very cheeky.

YJ too. Saying a lot of funny stuff. And overall just being cute.
Our YJ is very sensible. A great big sister of the family overall.

Love these two! No regrets having them. No regrets taking epidural for them ha!

Pictures!

Ok bye!

Chinese New Year round the corner.

Last Chinese New Year, I spent it doing my confinement after YC's birth on the eve of CNY eve.
This CNY, YC's gonna spam pineapple tarts and drink Fanta Orange.
Like real.
But this little lady is indeed a little too mature for her age, preferring rice to porridge and using Megabloks to hit her older sister's head. Fine, she learnt that from her sister but still not very innocent please.

As for lil YJ, she's experiencing her terrible two right now, I assume.
Sometimes she acknowledges she's being naughty and tells me stuff like, "I don't want. I'm naughty."
Ok babe.
That's very cool attitude but look, I'm your mum. When I tell you not to dash ahead of me, you jolly well stay right beside me.
People have told me I'm being too harsh when I tell her things like she'll DIE if she gets BANGED DOWN BY A CAR.
But hello, isn't that the truth?
So should I have said, "You'll receive a multiple choice question of whether to go to heaven or earth or have nowhere to go as a wondering ghost if a car comes along and.. erm, kisses you?"

Sorry, me no have time for fancy talk.
In her face, LISTEN TO ME OR DIE.
Don't judge ok, usually I'm pretty nice to her as long as it doesn't involve danger or her treating me like her dog.
Nowadays she just likes to order me around. I WANT MILK this minute and right next, I DON'T WANT MILK, followed by throwing the bottle on the floor.
Like, am I supposed to condone such behaviour?
Sorry babe, your mum is me so your life is gonna suck pretty big time if you continue to carry yourself this way.
Sometimes I feel she might have inherited my rebellious gene. My mum had a pretty tough time disciplining me when I was young too. But I still loved my family, because I guess ultimately we all understand who cares for us, even in a hard way.

Two days back, Edward and I went to Adventure Cove waterpark and had a whale of a time.
So thankful for him planning the day for us.
It was super fun. No kids, just us. No stress of having to watch over vulnerable tiny human beings.
Parents do need such times to recharge.
Thank you Lao Gong!

So yeah, here's an early Happy Chinese New Year to whoever's still reading. Example, myself.
Sometimes self-talking clears the head and the heart. Everyone should do it once in a while.

Ok bye!

So that Edward would willingly slave for the babies.

Let's see... I'm just starting to type without a topic. The inertia to write on this blog is real. Nowadays social media is so much more of pictures than words, I must also have been influenced a little. Thank God, you can never really kill the naggy auntie in people like me.

Ok, I've decided. I'm going to write about self-assessment/evaluation/criticising, whatever you'd like to call it.

I've never been someone whom people would find easy to get along with.
Seriously.
My family members feel I'm too headstrong and always want the last word.
My close friends, most of whom are my volleyball team-mates from school, remember me as the mad capt who always insisted they do more physical training than they would like to.
My husband... pretty much feels the same way my parents and siblings do.

All in all, I tend to be a little too much of a military soldier than a lady. And people around me would usually go like, "NO THANKS."

So how have I managed to survive marriage till now, even with two kids?
When I really have moments like this and self-reflect, I think it should largely be attributed to Edward's blind and unconditional love for me. Given he's also not the most patient of human beings, I guess marriage life can sometimes be really demanding for him.

Am I being boring already?
Hey I'm trying ok. It's not everyday that you get to hear my sincerely bash myself.

When the higher powers above threw Edward on me, they must be thinking,
"There. Deal with this difficult man. But most importantly, because YOU DESERVE IT."

Let's face it. Nobody on Earth is born easy to deal with.
We're not difficult because each of us is difficult. We're difficult when we're put together.
It's difficult because there's very often no right or wrong.

So yes, just based on our personalities, Edward probably has a harder (hopefully just slightly) time than me in our marriage.

It's the start of a new year. And what do they always say? New year, new me?
I'll try to become just a little better.
Trying doesn't mean I'll succeed but it's a plan ya?

And yes, I've thought of the topic.

Ok bye!

Did I just blink?

A little less than three years later, I'm back here, in my little space, to blog again.
Don't think anyone still comes back. Three years is not a short time, and whoever still checks back now must love me a lot.
I don't consider myself very lovable, so. Hahahaha.

What have I been so busy with?
This.

Babies, two of them. They are a handful, but at the same time also fills the heart. Oh man, these babies! Their love for their mums can be so overwhelming I've cried because of it before. The size of a baby's love is so infinite that it can take up the entire life of his/her mum in all aspects - time, space, her heart. As a mum, sometimes you find that the only thing you're able to do is hug your kid, because she demands it. No. You are not allowed to do anything else.

Makes it really hard for someone like me who's so used to being efficient. Like, ok..... so what would carrying you and having you stick to me produce? Apart from the regret that I produced you. Then the guilt sort of hits me. What the hell was I thinking? It's always like this - torn between love and hate. Anyway that's child caring for you. The results are always pretty intangible, but given time, you'll see it. I've seen it.

So ya, short post for a new beginning. Experiencing some sort of inertia here. It's not easy to type adult lingo after communicating to babies for most of my waking hours for the past 2+ years ok. Hee.

Goodnight for now. Sleep is a mum's Vitamin E, and by that I mean Vitamin EvErything. Well, nearly.

Back back!

After some light years, I'm finally back here to write again.
Don't think anyone still visits this ghostly place anymore but yeah, I'll write on.

Thank goodness for blogger which has safekept my precious photos which went to the dumps with my phone that was damaged.

Two more months to da big day!
Don't really know what to expect so I'm not expecting anything in case I expect wrongly.

There you go, I've been resurrected.

Ok bye.

The true spirit of Chinese New Year.

It lies in reunions.
Of relatives especially.

A lot of times, we would rather spend time with our friends than relatives. Well, at least that is true for me, and it's rather sad.
This new year, I've been warming up ties that were going cold and I'm very happy about that.
Gotta keep it up!

祝大家新年快乐！心想事成！



Ok bye!

Ask for happy pictures

and I'll give you happy pictures.

------


My dearest little ones.
Shopping together is not as easy as it was in the past when Hanxu was still stationed in SG but still pretty easy because she visits often. WAY TO GO XUXU CHONG!

My silly mummy.
She has a natural resistance to negative things and is always happy. Gotta thank my dad for enabling her to be so.

Ah yi.
I heard from her kids that she's as silly as my mum. 'Nuff said.

I met this Indian baby in the library one day.
He was so cute. Our interaction was of me acting like I was going to steal his picture book and him asking me to keep quiet and smiling. When his mum told him it was time to leave, he followed but kept looking back at his new friend, me.

My room-mate.
It's hard to believe I keep an Onion in the room but that's her name. Hanyan, Onion. Her level of crap output makes her a true Chong.

Ex-room-mate who is now stationed in Indonesia trying to become a wife.
Even the Indonesian chilli is not able to set her nonsense in flames. Her nonsense has not only not diminished, but in fact has grown. I think she's deprived of crapping in Indonesia.

Secondary school babes.
We met up to celebrate our birthdays. Love it that they are so near each other. Makes everything so much more convenient.

Yet another 3-in-1 birthday celebration.
Hanxu's, Yingying's and mine. I love these girlies and they know it.

This picture is merely to tell you that you have nice teeth.
Mine desperately need to see the dentist but you know what? I don't think I'm gonna bring them.

Edward and I with our new statuses of Fiance and Fiancee respectively.
I don't know if I made the right decision by saying 'Yes' but let me tell you something I'm sure of. Being proposed to feels really good. HAHAHAHAHA.

Spot the ring!
I'm kidding about the part when I said I'm not sure about agreeing. Of course I am! Look at how overjoyed I was! It can't be worse than being left on the shelf right?

And these are the rest.
What we'll be doing for the rest of our lives. Working hard for it but still making time to find the fun in it. Go silly!

Ok bye!

21st January 2013 - I do.

I'm writing this so that if one day,
age really does overcome me,
my memory fails me,
my bad temper clouds my better judgement,
my heart is congested with too much negativity,
the sun fails to rise and set and
the stars stop shining..

I'll be be able to come back here and recall how sweet you were.
How much sincerity I saw in your eyes when you spoke those words.
How much your hands were trembling.
How you were so nervous and therefore short-tempered, on hindsight.
How colourful those sunflowers looked.
How much effort you put in to give me that surprise which you did not manage to pull off anyway.
How shiny the ring was, but nothing compared to the sparkle in your eyes.
How cute you were after rambling on and on, to finally remember what you really wanted to say,
to ask me to marry you.

Edward, thank you for everything.

Ok bye.

2013

I'm blogging about welcoming 2013 on..

*checks calendar* hmm, 2nd January 2013..

*checks clock* 10.45 a.m.

Talk about being laggy.

2012 didn't end too badly. We had our usual family Xmas gathering at my 2nd uncle's house. Always great cooks and fabulous hosts, my 2nd uncle and auntie. Then, went singing with my PJVball girlies and some of Vincent's friends. All I can say is, well, I hope 2013 will be a year of love-blossoming. :D

2013 didn't start too badly. Ed and I were with the BPVball gang. Very nice to cross over to the new year with these buddies. Always there, always ready even for impromptu meet-ups.

To be honest, I'm not expecting anything from this year, except for the addition of some wrinkles on my face, the increased possibility of getting muscleache and kneeache from exercising and a drop in student count.

Ok, to be fair, I'll be suffering less from acne problems because that's a problem for the young to deal with, isn't it? That's probably the only advantage of aging.
I can't believe I actually whined about pimples when I was young. SO SO IGNORANT.

SO.

These are my hopes and wishes for 2013:

1) For my best friends Kaiwen, Kailin, Zhenqin, Jiajia and Jiayi to get blissfully attached. Really, these people have no reason to be still single, but then again, being attached doesn't necessarily mean better. Not trying to imply anything about things between Ed and I. We still cool.

2) Better (more predictable) climate/weather worldwide.

3) My students to do well in their studies and be more sensible children.

4) Good health and happiness for everyone. Those whom I can now put a finger to are my family, Ed's family, relatives and friends.

5) Travel to Europe, especially Italy, again.

6) Before the Europe trip takes place, I hope for a higher tolerance for long haul flights and land rides.

7) A higher tolerance for nonsense and more patience to anybody who, to me, is crap. I should stop expecting people to know how to do things properly everytime.

8) Eight hopes/wishes for good luck. Number eight is for people around the world to maintain their sanity so that world peace is more possible. Some people are really going mad and doing things they shouldn't nowadays.

May 2013 be a great year for you, reader.

Ok bye!

离别.成长.

刚在一本中学的佳作集里读了一篇关于离别与成长的短文。
中学生小小年纪就对这么沉重的话题有所见解，而且看法耐人寻味，让我惊讶之外，也感同身受。

作者谈到成长就是离别，而离别会带来成长。

真的，成长就是与生命中的一个一个阶段说再见。每个阶段里都会有这对自己来说特别的人，特别的事物，特别的地方。

人会离开，事物会变得没趣，地方会改变，而有时候是自己选择离开。

涵煦已进入人生的另一个阶段。除了祝福，我们没别的应该说，应该做。
连Mardi 都远走高飞了呀。
我们一家真的在缩小。浩劫啊！！浩劫啊！！！

看着涵沿硬是乐观的说我不久也会嫁出去，整间房间就让她独占了，我忍不住担心她会不习惯那寂寞。
或许是我多想了。
解决问题的最佳方法应该就是希望她早日有个男友并成家吧？哈哈。

那爸爸妈妈呢？

我真是个多虑狂。

Ok bye.