my sweet pea

adele turned full month last sat. it was a quiet event. us being here. sorry, no pictures to show except this one taken a little before that.

for now, she's my "sweet pea", jerome's "sweet baby", jerald's "pretty girl" & daddy's "princess". it's amazing how much she resembles her 2 big brothers at birth. we reckon we would one day return to MN to show her her place of birth. other than that, MN is a quiet place boasting perhaps only of mall of america - the biggest mall of US.

we're now in the process of packing 2 yrs' worth of barang for our move home for good. "for good" somehow has a nice ring to it.

little bundle of sunshine

wed morn 5 am - we rushed down to the hospital in the freezing -20C cold with howling winds easily bringing the temperature down to -30C. not my idea of a perfect timing for adele's delivery, i whined to God. i was exhausted after a sleepless night. the boys were really co-operative on this drowsy morning. after 6 hours of monitoring, contractions became irregular. we were discharged at noon, totally exhausted.

fri noon - J's dad arrived to help us out. relief sets in. now we feel ready.

sat morn - contractions start. feel quite unsure now. after monitoring for 2 hrs, i decide this was really it. leaving the boys with grandpa, we left for the hospital. the nurse checked & started yelling into the intercom that she needs help to get the room ready & for the recep to page the doctor NOW! it sunk in that she was coming. our regular doctor could not rush down in time. a flurry of activities started. page the doctor on stand-by again. nurses rushed into the room to set things up. adele attempts to wriggle her way out. doctor comes. rushed introduction. adele was ready to arrive. 3 pushes, 6 mins & a cry erupts in our ward.

our little one has arrived to the warm sunshine of MN. after endless months of winter, she has brought an early spring. happy birthday, adele sweetheart.

thank you, Jesus. for all 3 parts of my prayer for her delivery answered in perfect timing.

snowed in

camping indoors. trust J to come up with this ingenious idea of setting up tents for the kids. their fav toys were also invited to the session.

boom-boom shoes. indoor version of ice skates.

when the cold winter weather drives us indoors & the boys crazy, we often have to think of "outdoor" things to do indoors.

i'm thinking of our old neigbor's spring tulips, chirping birds, green budding leaves, colorful blooms, farm babies at the zoo... in the dead of winter. spring offically starts mar 20. in MN, it starts warming up much later.

this spring we have something extra to look forward to. adele's birth! which is any time now. we trust in God's perfect timing. though i have my own selfish little extras - morning, when J is home & not in school, when J's dad is here. :)

my numerous blogs tonight are a reflection of a 3rd trimester nestling instinct - instinct to clean the house & tie some loose ends before baby comes along. i'm hoping to do some arty spring stuff with the boys before adele arrives. green grass, colorful spring flowers, fluffy bunnies, chirping birds, rainbows....

skyscrapers

read somewhere that it's fun for kids to paint with different paint mediums & surfaces. so this is a 3D version. Jr promptly concluded these boxes could be skyscrapers. :)

love is in the air

1st saw this on another blog as a Christmas angel but i thought this fits well too. just nicely for 2 siblings. till march, at least... :)

V-Day's cookie decorating at our community. cookies, frosting, sprinkles n candy. how sweet...

summer food in winter

another great food-ie session at lorraine's. yum!

imagine fabulous grilled ribs in the dead of winter! dave had to grill it outdoors in his winter coat.

lorraine made us tons of dessert - ang-mo & chinese. think banana pie with peanut butter chocolate with whipped cream. adele took a jump after 2 mouthfuls.

bubor hitam with coconut milk. yipee! satisfied my almost 2-yr long craving. even had some to take home. that i savored slowly & selfishly by myself over the next few days. polished off the last lot of coconut milk into a pot of nasi lemak. hehehe.

the boys had tons of fun with play pretend. mr incredible? pianist? swimming coaches?

CNY

alright, this is really long overdue. let me think... blame it on 3rd trimester fatigue? sluggish winter blues?

anyway... more pictures of our CNY celebration in MN

dragon dance by the boys. i wish i know how to put up videos of them doing the dance.

CNY celebration at MN Institutue of Arts. lion dance, chinese lantern making. check out our really tired little one...

on our walk back to the car - shots of local houses (castles?), a glimpse of adele beneath the thick winter coat & a tri-snowman.

the tallest we've seen was on tv. apparently someone built a 2 storey high snowman with christmas tree branches as his arms. amazing but true.