The apples won't fall far from the tree!

Me as kiss at our D&D

If you look closely, you can already see the signs that the apples aren't going to fall very far from the tree! =)

Irfan on the left, practising his rocker growl!

Malays have a similar saying...Kemana tumpah kuahnya kalau tidak ke nasi? which literally means, where will the gravy fall if not on the rice. (hur hur...i'm a brilliant translator, I tell ya!) 

Ihsan's got the black lips down pat!

I can only imagine the mayhem they will get into when they are bigger. And really, I only have myself to blame! hehehe.....

Noisy Football Match

We've had this book 'Noisy Football Match' for quite some time now. It was a gift from our Aunt Marina who is just absolutely awesome at picking really wonderful reads. They boys have always loved this book. Largely because the panel on the very right could be pressed to make sounds of the football match. For example, if you press the picture of the referee blowing the whistle, you'd hear a "peet, peet" whistling sounds. There are cues in the book for when to press which buttons, which makes the book come ALIVE! 

So it was absolutely an adventure, out of the pages of their storybook, when they went for their first ever football match. A good friend invited us to join him to watch the Final day of matches of the Nexx Lions Football Cup, which comprised of Under 19 players from clubs from around the world like Manchester United, Liverpool, Sporting Lisbon and even Singapore fielded an Under 19 team.

 I was stoked to be able to support the u19 Liverpool team play against Sporting Lisbon. Too bad Liverpool didn't win, but it was still an awesome match. Sporting Lisbon played really well and it was really exciting to think that some of these young boys are going to be football giants like Ronaldo, Nani, Luis Figo in future!

Ihsan looking all handsome in his Man U kit!

We were initially nervous that the twins would be too wriggly and distract everyone else. And you know what, they did. They kept running up and down the grandstand. But everyone thought they were very very cute. At least I kept telling myself that, but who doesn't love a pair of excitable twins in matching football kits getting excited about football? And since we were in the VIP area, they had loads of places to run to and I could whisk them off to somewhere quiet if they needed a time out!

Of course, we came back to read the 'Noisy Football Match' and relived their real life experience! They are still talking about the match today! Can't wait for our next one! Thanks Uncle Sop!

They had loads of space to run around!

They kept asking to go down to the field! =)  I'm sure they were thinking, "why are we here at a football stadium but not given any access to the football field?

Day 1 without the Live-in Helper: Wish me Luck Okay?

This is a second draft of my post.

The first ended up being one long rant about all the reasons why I am glad our live-in helper has returned to Indonesia for good. I deleted it when i realised it doesn't matter anymore. It was the past.

All that matters was that she was honest. I could trust her to take care of my boys. She was really very good at laundry and a part of me was really sad, maybe still sad, that she has left us.

But it is a step in the right direction. We will be going on without a live-in helper. My mom was a successful career woman and mother with no live in helper, and I shall be too!

So day 1.

Hubby and I woke up 1/2 hour earlier today. The boys were still asleep. Phew! I made their morning milk bottles while hubby showered. Their school bags were all packed and ready to go.

7am: We woke them up, got them into their party clothes- they're celebrating Christmas today in school, got them to brush their teeth.

7.10am: I washed my face, brushed my teeth, pulled on some decent clothes and a tudung. Hubby rinsed the bottles and left them in the sink for me to finish up.

7.15am: Lined them up to wear their shoes. Ihsan ran back inside and refused to come out because he wanted to bring a picture of Bob the Builder with him. We told him he'd get to eat a christmas log cake if he went to school. He quickly ran out of the house.

7.20am: Finally out of the house and off to school.

7.23am: Boys arrive at school for temperature and HFMD checks (their school is at our void-deck, so it's quite a speedy journey).

7.30am: Successfully done temperature checks, mouth, hand and feet checks. Hubby heads off to work.
I head back upstairs.

Ordinarily, I'd come up get ready for work and be out of the house by 8.15am. But today, I'm on leave. So i spent the morning clearing out her room and turn it back into a study cum laundry room. I also changed my sheets and arranged for some laundry ppl to pick them up to be cleaned (it's Dec and there's no sun, I'd rather save myself the trouble).

The new study cum laundry room...Work in progress...

Hubby confided to me that he was pretty scared about how we'd be able to cope without a live-in helper.

I replied, " Yar! You better put in your fair-share of work to keep this household together.

But the truth is....I am afraid too! But I think we can do it. It's going to take some hard work and discipline to manage this household, my challenging work and the rambunctious twins, but I think it'll be okay.

Wish me luck okay?

2s company but 3s a crowd...NOT!

Our year end break with our boys was extra special this year because we spent extra time with our lil cuzzin Mik. We came across extra tickets for the SSO Baby Prom, which was awesome by the way, and decided to bring Mik along! We also made a trip to the zoo together!

While it's awesome to have a twin to hang out with all day, it's EXTRA awesome when you have a cousin just a year older to join in the fun.

It's really cute how these three are turning out to be such awesome buddies. Mik comes to my mom's every Thursday and Friday, and he never fails to ask for the twins. I think he sometimes struggle with waiting for the clock to show it's 4.30pm, which is when my mom will bring him along to pick the twins up from childcare! Mom says he asks, non-stop, for the twins. =)

And they've grown soooo much too. I couldn't help but look through the photo album to pick out pics of the 3 of them together. I found these adorable ones!

We went through an adorable phase of trying to dress them in matching onesies! 

It's also always more fun doing stuff together. Makes it more worth our while to go through the labourious work of pumping up the rubber pool and filling it with water!

Sometimes I look at them, and they remind me of the triplets on the movie Brave! They've got a book out, by the way. It's a real simple book with that awesome illustration that was basically the movie.  It focuses more on the triplets this time. Not literary genius, but a nice follow through from the movie if you and your kid have watched it.

I really prefer a newly published book this year- 'What Brothers do best!' There's also a sister's version which is super cute, with pairs of different animal brothers and sisters. It's a simple book with beautiful illustrations. And it has that calming sibling effect compared to Brave's 'Oh Brother', which seems to just suggest mayhem aplenty. I really don't need anymore mayhem in my life!

Check out the book. Don't think its in our bookshops yet, since it's so new though. =)

Fashionista Hijabi Wannabe!

One thing I never expected I'd have so much fun with, when I decided to wear the hijab, was the ridiculous choice and array of hijabs I now had access too. And the different styles! Soooo fun!

I'll admit that I have been checking out some tudung/hijab tutorials on YouTube. But I'm not VERY experimental with the way the hijab is worn, especially at work.

I always worry that people get distracted with the fashion-forward tudung tying styles rather than focus on me, what I'm thinking about and what I'm saying. I sit in some pretty high-level meeting with pretty important people in my field, and there's this one big boss that looks at me very intensely when i speak, and I wonder if he's ever thinking...."How DOES she tie that on her head?" Okay, so he does look intently at EVERYONE when they're speaking, and usually with the same intense look as i think he's ACTUALLY thinking about what you're saying- but STILL I get paranoid!

So I love colours and prints, but the way i tie my hijab is quite standard.

Oh, i also have a crazy love for colours and prints. And for  good few months after I started wearing the hijab, I'd keep picking crazy colours and prints only to find that all wardrobe was mostly stocked with crazy colours and prints. So for awhile, I was a walking crazy flurry of bright colours and prints! Since I've realised that this can't go on for long, I've been trying to buy less clothing with prints! But it's sooo difficult to reign in this instinct for bright colours and prints that has developed over the years!

Oh...of course, the hijab only looks good for like 5 seconds after I leave my home. I'm notoriously a tom-boying kinda gal, who is like usually quite heck-care and not very tidy, so usually by lunch, i'm pretty much lucky it's still in one piece on my head!

lol...

Anyway, since the pretty hijab only lasts like 5 min...I've started to take vain-pot pics of me in them before I leave home...heee...

See..which one you likey most?

Post Va-cay Catch Up- Shang Rasa Sentosa!

I told myself I would not go anywhere near work emails during my 2 week vacation. I successfully did so. In fact it was so liberating that I stayed away from the laptop and macbook as well. So besides occasional iPad time, I spent almost zero time on the laptop and macbook. Which was awesome!

So now, I've got to play catch up!

When planning our end of year break, we thought really hard and decided on a staycation at Sentosa. With the terrible twos having come early, we thought the stress of handling 2 strollers, the massive luggage and their tantrums through custom checks, immigration queues and flight time, would negate any of the happy and relaxed vibes we may get from the holiday.

So we checked into Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa. A tad pricey at $500 plus per night, but it was surely worth it!

Ihsan with our free blow-up ball!

We were a tad disappointed when they told us that the kids pool was closed for renovations. We did pick the hotel because of the kid friendly pool. But we soon found that the adult pool was very kid-friendly too, with lots of shallow areas for the boys to wade in all by themselves. With close supervision from us of course!

Ihsan again!

We brought like a TON of pool toys and they STILL wanted to play with other kids toys! We did nothing all day but swim and nap!

Irfan and me. This was a pre-meltdown photo!

Of course, food is quite expensive in Sentosa. We only ventured out once to a Halal restaurant at Siloso Beach which had decent Asian food at reasonable prices. But, most of the time we depended on room service or the hotel eateries. Largely because the boys would be pooped up their morning and afternoon swims and take really long naps!

Ihsan with his breakfast plate- biscuits, cereal, papaya, sweet corn and scrambled eggs!

I loved the buffet at the Shang. It was very kid friendly, with a special buffet line for kids. My only complain is I don't understand why kids' food- must mean sugary cereals, buns etc. I can't be the only mom that limits her kids sugar intake and prefer whole foods and cereals for their kids?

Irfan with his own breakfast plate!

In fact, I loved the fact that the staff were really friendly with the kids and patient with tantrums and screaming. We had a fair share of meltdowns at the hotel restaurants. It was nice that the staff would offer sweets and chocolates to the kids to try and calm them down, but they should ALWAYS ask the parents if that's ok first!

One night, at their Middle Eastern restaurant, the boys started crying cos they were starving! The wait staff brought fish fingers out to appease them with MARSHMALLOWS! I almost had a meltdown myself. Luckily for me, my kids have no idea what marshmallows are. So they didn't make a fuss, when I told the waiter, "No marshmallows, please!"

They were also very nice to ask at the end of our meal whether they could give our kids ice-cream. I thanked them for their generosity but said next time!

All in it was a great relaxing stay there. We'll definitely return for a visit!