Day 2 started with the kids waking up way before the adults! Aidan was given the nick name ‘The Little Stomper’ because he stomps around the house. After breakfast, we headed to SeaWorld Indonesia. We thought it’d be a 2-hour thing and was hoping to go for dimsum after that but we spent about 4-5 hours there instead. We were very impressed with the attractions at Sea World. There were sharks (More sharks than Aquaria  mind you and there are HUGE nurse sharks and black tipped sharks - bigger than the ones we saw while diving).  To name a few, there was a Dugong aguarium (our 1st time seeing one!!!), an eel aquarium - full of eels!, Pirahna aquarium, Sea Dragon aquarium (this is so cool! First time seeing this), a Touch Pool where you can actually dip your hand into the water to touch the baby black tipped sharks and sting rays. We went in the tunnel which cuts through the aquarium (similar to the one at Aquaria) and lots more! The kids had fun. We adults were impressed at the place and at the same time happy that the kids had fun. I’ll let the pictures do the talking - although the pictures that  I took did not do the place any justice whatsoever.

How cool is this Touch Pool? We got to touch sting rays and baby black-tipped sharks!

Aidan pointing at the giant moray eel in the eel aquariam. There was loooads of them!

After the aquarium, we headed to the 4D theatre. I’ve not been to a 4D theatre before and neither have the kids and we (adults) found it pretty cool! The kids were terrified though…..

Next, we headed to watch the live show. There were sea lions, dolphins and whales….

After the live show, we headed over to the rides section. Notice the bag? It’s actually meant for me but Hubs carried it for me instead. It had all the kids’ essentials in there. Anyway, yes,  I got another handmade  bag made for me by Sasha….You can read about it in my shopping blog.

Wanna guess why Ashley was upset?

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Cause KP, Aidan and I went on this ride and she wanted to ride on another ride. After much tantrum throwing, Hubs walked her over to the other ride…

Our host and hostess, EK and KP Thanks guys!!!!

There are actually more stuff to be done at SeaWorld but we were tired then and decided to head back. For dinner, we ate at a Korean restaurant called Chung Gi Wa restaurant. Lots of Koreans customers there too - which only mean one thing right? That the food is yumylicious!

At the end of the day, the kids slept and we had some time to lounge in front of the tele while sipping on our hot drinks.

That’s it for Day 2:)

We’re back from our short breakie at Jakarta.  Yes I know, I did go there last  November with my girlfriends but this time, it’s with my family (yes kids included this time).

We left on a saturday (30 Jan) morning and the kids had to wake up before sunrise! Ashley woke up that morning and asked us why was it still dark outside? @_@

Anyway, the kids entertained themselves during the flight except for one time where Aidan threw a tanrtum for 15 minutes (and 15 mins of tantrum in the plane IS long….trust me).

As long as Aidan had his munchies and car (and not to forget MY hair, he’s fine)

Ashley playing with her Barbie doll….

Aerial view of Jakarta from the plane.

We were greeted by our lovely hosts - KP and EK who scooted us off our feet and brought us straight to Warung Daun to fill our tummies with delicious Indonesian food at Warung Daun.

The sambal was soooo yummy! and it was served on a hot plate!

This is called the Flying Fish - not sure what’s it called in Indonesian though. The fish was fried till all parts of the fish was crispy. The bones could also be eaten as well.

After lunch, we adjourned to KP and EK’s apartment to rest and relax….Hubs nursed a hangover @!$%@! (ya..he was out partying while I was packing for everyone the night before and had to please Ashley cause she wanted to bringall kinds of apparel including her equestrian apparel!). KP and I brought the kids to have some fun at the pool.

Ashley was so happy in the water. She kept getting KP and I to recite some lines from The Little Mermaid cartoon - she being the mermaid of course…

Aidan frowing cause I wasn’t NEXT to him. Ai yo Mommy’s boy….

After swimming, we brought the kids to the playground to burn more energy so that they’d knock out early at night and we adults can relax… After all that…..we headed to Rempah-Rempah for dinner. Might I say that I have never been disappointed with the food that we had so far at Jakarta!

This is a snapshot of some of the food we had…..

That’s that for day 1. Didn’t do much but just chilled and ate. Day 2 and 3 were very exciting especially for the kids…..

I’ve always asked myself whether there are greener pastures elsewhere compared to where we are living now in Malaysia and once in a while, we do talk about the possibility of living in another country. It has always been talked about but nothing concrete has come out of it. Some of the reasons why this topic has been coming up in our household are but not limited to the fact that

1. Malaysia - well…Malaysia boleh la. If I go into details, I might be locked up with the key thrown away….

2. Standard of education here in Malaysia can’t compete with our neighbouring country such as Singapore…need I say more?

3. more than 10 years ago, when I was fresh out of uni, my starting salary was about rm2300. Today, a fresh grad with an engineering degree gets the same amount (+/- 5%). What’s wrong with the equation here?

4. We fight over the slightest thing like the use of the word ‘A**ah’. Some ppl want it to be used exclusively by them but don’t know that this word has been used since the days of their nenek punya nenek punya nenek moyang days!

Anyway to cut the story short, if we do ever decide to live elsewhere, the next thing I have to worry about (but it’d no biggy) is to get reliable long distance movers to move all of our junk!

I was looking at some old photos taken in 2008…and can’t believe how time freaking flies ok!…Ya i know, I’ve said this so many times in my blog but I can’t help feeling this way especially when I look back and see how small the kiddos used to be…Here are some of the photos taken in Sept 08 when Aidan was 1y 4mo. (He’s now 2y 8mo)

Photo taken at the KLCC playground…..

He was laughing at Sydney…

The kids watching one of their cartoon DVD

This was taken during our Heavenly holiday at Langkawi

..which pair of shoes the Lil Missy wore to the playground?

Once in a while, cousins Nicole and Bridget would come over in the evenings and the kids will play together at the playground. I’d usually get the kids to wear their crocs shoes but this time, Ashley decided to wear something else. Can you guess which pair of shoes she wore to the playground????

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She wore the wooden slippers on the far right. Talk about being siu-cheh right? I saw this pair of slippers at one of the stalls at Mid Valley Mega Mall.  It was displayed on one of the pop displays and I couldn’t resist not getting them. Note that I couldn’t resist not buying them and not Ashley. It cost about rm30-rm38 (I think)…or was it RM25? I can’t recall the price but I got her 2 pairs…one is this one in pink and another with white flowers

I mentioned in my earlier post that we have reviewed and revised our life insurance according to our current requirements. If you haven’t done yours and you’ve got little ones in the family, for peace of mind, I suggest you get it over and done with. Get several free insurance quotes and see what your options are like. Better to get it over and done with instead of procrastinating like us before….you’d have better peace of mind. Trust me.

20 Jan 10 - Cousins at play at the playground……

With 2 young kids, we can’t stop thinking what would happen if something were to happen to both Hubs and I (touch wood!!!). Who will take care of the kids?  Will there be sufficient funds for a good education and etc. Hence, Hubs and I have taken the initiative to review and revise our whole life insurance and also made a will. We have been procrastinating about the will and I must say that we have finally finalised it. At least if something were to happen to either or both of us, we know that the kids are covered.

I mentioned 3 years ago that my kwai lou neighbour who lives 5 houses away complained about Sydney. If you can’t remember, you can read about it here. Anyway, that was when Aidan was 4 months old and I have been pretty busy after that cause Aidan was only 4 months old and I hadn’t started working from home yet - hence I don’t bump into the kuai lou lady that often. However, over the past 3 years, whenever we do bump into each other, she’d pretend to not see me and would put on a long, black face. (She used to be very friendly when we do bump into each other or when she walks past my house). At first I thought she really didn’t see me…and then after awhile, I was like what-is-your-effing-problem lady! (No i didn’t say that to her la). Then I thought and figured that she was still mad at how noisy Sydney is perhaps????? The last conversation I had with her was 3 years ago when she complained about Sydney. So if you’re reading this, you read this carefully chi-sin-kwai-lou! (not being racist here..just being pissed at you!)

 - what the hell am I supposed to do? All this while, Sydney was the only dog on our stretch of houses until last year when our nextdoor neighbour moved in with a dog.

- Sydney barks when there are strangers lurking around. Yes, she’s a dog. Dog barks. Go figure. DUH!

- Sydney has not had the ‘honour’ of peeing or pooing at your garden. If you found poo there, it’s not Sydney’s ok? We never let her run loose around the neighbourhood so that she can find a nice spot to relieve herself. She is always supervised and with a leash.

- errr….hello? My house was not the one that got robbed eh? Yours was the one. If you had a dog yourself, the kids who stole your handbag and notebook from your house would  have thought twice before risking their asses to steal your stuff. Didn’t you just wish at that time that we were your next door neighbour? cause I am pretty sure Sydney would have barked their asses and socks off!

- and for your information, I only have 1 dog in my house, not 2, not 3, not more. Just 1. So deal with it. If she’s too noisy at night, barking at strangers or stray dogs and you can’t sleep, I’ll buy you ear plugs. Close your windows, turn on your ac and be done with it. No? You don’t use an AC? Too bad la! I can’t solve world hunger!

Sydney is family to us. She’s the kids’ best friend and always allow the kids to do whatever they want with her e.g. she lets Aidan hug her to death! (ya not literally la). She’s also like part of our home security systems.

So chi-sin-kwai-lou…….if you think we are going to do something about Sydney, think again. She is here to stay.

After 1.5 years that Tini has been with us, I discovered that Tini has been using pipe water as opposed to water from the water filter to sterilize the kids’ bottles in the sterilizer.  I posted this on my Facebook status but some people think that it’s ok to use pipe water since the water in the sterilizer will be boiled anyway? How many of you think it’s ok? It does make sense when you think about it.

Note : In Malaysia, we cannot drink water from the pipe. I don’t know about the rest but we will filter the water and boil it and cool it down before drinking it.

Now that the kids go to bed early on weeknights, Hubs and I get a chance to catch up on movies on DVDs. A couple of nights ago, we watched Changeling (Starring Angelina Jolie). While Hubs practically slept throughout the movie, I enjoyed the quiet time I had to concentrate on this movie. This movie is based on a true story - about a mother’s quest to find her son who were up against corrupted police in LA. After watching this movie, I just felt that I had to hug my kids more often and tighter and always constantly remind myself to be thankful for my kids - that they are safe and free of any exposure to illnesses e.g. mesothelioma.

So if you are reading this - forget about your kids not finishing their food or milk. Forget about the tantrums they threw this morning.  Just give them a big bear hug and a big wet kiss and tell them today, how much you love them!