bao bei, ji de ma ma ai ni

this sentence has been ringing in my mind for the last few days...

translated... precious, remember mummy loves you

i've been "hearing" about the china earthquake from J for the last few days. usually he "logs" into the SIN & US news while i cook & he'll read the more newsworthy stuff to me.

it was only recently that he chanced upon a SIN fun raising program & logged onto youtube for more videos. it was then i saw some heartwrenching snippets. of all, the one that the newscaster related this incident...

rescuers found the dead body of a lady crouching over. her position seemed rather awkward. as they moved her away, they found a little bundle under her. it was a little baby, probably 3 - 4 months old, sound asleep in a swaddling blanket. as the doctors unwrapped the blanket to examine the baby, they found a cell phone with a text message.

bao bei, ji de ma ma ai ni

she had used her body & life to shield her precious baby. how great her love for her child, to exchange her life for the safety of her child

Jesus, please bless her soul...

real picnics

apples in the "train". met a lady who told us this playground was built by the neighbors.

note the flyaway hair & hooded boys. it was a freezing cold day & we were the only crazy ones having a picnic there. but it's hard to have lunch in the car & having promised the boys. it's hard to disappoint the little ones so...

little one gobbling all the "gripes!" while his big brother naps
sunny day... we packed a pizza & chicken nugget for a picnic lunch at the wildflower garden. when we reached our car, we felt the 1st rain drops. oh, oh... better change plans to find somewhere to eat. after spinning around for a while, Jr looked a little green. better find a place to stop & fast.

this is along the walkway of a store, facing the car park. J says it's like AMK industrial park.

Jr : are we having a picnic outside the toy store

M : *sheepishly* yes...

J : if we are in SIN, do you think we would sit here & eat

M : *Jl's famous words* no way!

locked out

hi! if you are reading this, you've been invited to join us in our deepest thoughts & fabulous photos *haha*

but seriously, we've had an issue with net security recently & hence the decision to lock strangers out.

for a day or so i had put some links to some friends & bro's blogs on my blog. after that day, i received an email from a friend to say that someone had "found" her & sent her some emails. someone whom she didn't want to "found" by. apparently she found my friend on my blog. we think she might have "google"-d my friend. *shudders*

we "google"-d ourselves & found quite a few links. *freeze*

this reminded us of a stranger who had left comments in our old blog. stuff like "hai, please read my blog, add me to your friends" & stuff. kind of creepy... if he had been tall, dark & handsome i might have felt flattered but unfortunately he was not. hahah

yesterday there was a SIN who was arrested for some racist remarks he made on his blog. *not that we would make such remarks but...* someone once likened a public blog as "advertising" your life on a billboard along a busy highway. even the police here sometimes use blogs & facebook entries as evidence.

some time back we made the decision not to put up & remove some "sexy" pix of our boys following a friend's advice that some weirdos might get a high from seeing our 2 young, innocent, cool dudes in the bluff. in case you were wondering.... the recent one of them in the bath tub was taken without any vital parts being seen. hope you weren't turned on by his "love handles" or "buns" though. =)

free smells & sights

we found a new place to explore this weekend. farmers' market! free parking! yeah!

very much like our pasar malam.

lots of lovely spring blooms, fresh fuits & vegetables *cheaper & less dusty than the stores*

we bought tons of fruits & veg & were happy to munch our way through one serving of strawberries & grapes while exploring the FM itself. after that came the tempting freshly roasted sweet corn. YUM!

second born

was preoccupied writing the previous blog that i failed to hear a little voice beside me.

Jl : want to read, want to read, ...

i look down at him pointing to the legs of the crab & suddenly realised he was counting 1, 2, 3 by himself! =) he hasn't gotten beyond 3 yet though he can say other numbers.

he had read this book so many times with his big bro & me that he knows some activity we do with this book.

name the animal in english, in mandarin, colors, count, talk about what the animal is doing, animal parts.

we usually count the number of legs on this page with the mummy n baby crab.

the joys of indoor mall's play & chill out area

dong gi a gi

taking a stroll on stone arch bridge with woof - his "dog" with no "legs". still waiting for daddy "bob the builder" to fix the wheels. the wheels that came off have since become baseballs

jerome was singing "dong gi a gi" for a while as we held hands & walked along the path. i thought he was just singing some nonsense song till i caught the last word. "geese"

M : what are you singing?

Jr : *suddenly shy* don't feed the geese.

M : ....

a while ago he had pointed to a signboard & asked me what the words say. *he's becoming interested in print & would ask what it reads*

M : oh, it says don't feed the geese.

R : why?

M : they don't eat stuff like popcorn & french fries.

R : why?

M : it makes them sick & their poo poo will dirty the water.

R : i see... *after a while* dong gi a gi, dong gi a gi =0)

July 16

reality bites! ouch!

i woke up with a rude shock yesterday with a message from message from my sis. that MOE sent me my new school posting starting July 16. wah! i've been out of job for almost a year now.

i can't really say i'm looking forward to going back to work. i guess i do miss adult conversations sometimes but kid conversations sometimes do amaze me as well so...

the latest this evening...

M : time for bubble bath

JR : i don't want to have this bubble bath

M : *puzzled* this bubble bath? *he loves bubble baths*

JR : i want to have a watermelon bubble bath

M : *oops, no more BB solution. thought they were happy playing bath toys without the bubbles so can save $* i can make a "pretend" one for you if you really want. *bath foam with red food coloring - how's that for creativity?*

jerome trots off happily to find some toy to take to the bathroom with him.

smoke detector goes off

i'm no expert in cooking but thought could at least pride myself at using the oven quite often.

recently i followed some recipes to use a broiler *like BBQ grill in the oven* to do some dishes. buffalo wings, mayo fish, adobo *PHIL* chix.

we wanted to go for a lunch picnic. the boys enjoyed mayo fish *they've never eaten so much fish before. in fact, to date, they only eat fish fingers & mayo fish* so i thought of doing it again.

after a while, i saw smoke sneaking out of the stove top. i opened the oven door to see the aluminium sheet the fish were sitting on on fire. thick smoke billowed out of the oven.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

A : what's that sound?

J : smoke detector!

A : how?

J : list of instructions *open windows, turn on stove fan, open door, turn on fan*

A : how? will fire fighters come? *there's a fire station just round the corner*

Jerome (R): what's that sound? what's happening?

A : there was a lot of smoke so the smoke detector went off. mummy's a little scared. are you scared?

R : i'm not scared. i'll protect you.

awwwwwwww...

the best part! the fish was unscathed in the whole ordeal! it was still perfect & the boys still ate lots of it.

ni hao

i'm chinese - watch me use the chopsticks

i'm hungry - fingers are faster

cool dudes

it may be mid spring but it's still 5 degrees outdoors today... nvm, we'll look cool for a while longer...

it's amazing that one in a while when the temperature plunges, we still wear wooly hats, mittens & jackets & turn on the heater in our apartment.

there was a sign at the zoo that states that some animals in the zoo will only be in their outdoor exhibits sometime between may - oct when the temperature is at least 15 degrees day & night.

they don't say MN has 6 months of winter for nothing *brrrrr*

fisherboys

wheelbarrow with water makes a good "water table"
plastic cookie cutters double up as lovely fish
scoops, baskets & nets make us great fisher-boys =)

after 3 recent armed robberies in the neighborhood, i thought it would be safer to stay closer to home. our outdoor activities are now confined to the side door of our apt. *can't wait to move to our new place*

one threads, one eats

no prizes for guessing why jerome's craft ended up as a necklace & jerald's a bracelet =)

jesus is my shepherd

dancing with Jesus...



Me (A) : who loves jerome ?

Jerome (Jr) : mummy!

A : Who else?

Jr : Daddy!

A : Who else?

Jr : Jesus! *sweet! i thought he would say Jerald... =) *

splashing in puddles

we did something SIN grandparents would frown upon. after the rain, we took the boys downstairs to splash in the puddles. hooray!

snowboots doubled up as rainboots for the activity.

jerome : we're pretending to be pigs splashing in the mud. oink! oink!

april showers bring may flowers

tulips outside neighbor's house

*note the contrast - rundown house with amazingly splash of lovely colors at yard*

3 cheers for the lovely sun! it was 15 degrees today. we had a nice picnic at the park, watched the dam at the missisipi river open *waterfall!*

J quizzed the boys... what are the things we do together?

Jerome (R): go for picnics

Jerald (L) : eat chip *potato chips =)*

r : go to the playground

l : play sand

r : go to the park

l : kick ball

r : go to the zoo

l : drink juice

r : go to the childrens' museum

l : play water

r : splash in puddles

l : make kor kor all wet *laughs wickedly*

to wash or not to wash

this is dumb... when we first moved into our apartment, i did a nice scrub of the bathroom. only to realise later that there are no drainage holes for the water on the floor to flow out. horrors! i had to go on all fours to dry it with a towel.

after that i always remind myself not to use too much water when i wash it. & to turn on the ventilation fan till it dries.

last week, it was a little more soapy than usual so i splashed a bit more water to flush out the soap.

a few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. it was the neighbor downstairs. boy, was he mad! his apartment ceiling is leaking! he says each time we wash the bathroom, his ceiling would leak but this time it's really bad. J had to apologise profusely before he backed off & said it's not really our fault but the apartment's. =(

sigh... as the weekend approaches, i worry. how i'm going to wash it without water? any brillant ideas?