I’m pretty sure that I had mentioned in one of my previous post (or was it on FB) that I was having issues trying to get Arianna to have her bath everyday. In fact there were many times, not just once that I was so tempted to just list her on an online auction site just to be rid of her but of course, I would never do it – never ever!! Just the feeling…the thought, you know? At first I thought it was just a fluke thing that she refused until it became a daily (painful) task trying to get her to have her bath. Everyday we would have a major drama happening with me screaming my head off and close to having a brain aneurism from all the stress I had to keep in until one day, my Mum the genius came up with this brilliant idea!

Get the kids to sit in their chair and have their bath!! Sounds so simple, I still kick myself for not thinking of this or more so, for thinking outside the box with it comes to kids. All this time, I had them standing up and I would shower them down. KR was more than happy to have her bath any way but Arianna was a whole different story. She’s like a mixed bag of pre-packed beans – you don’t know when you’d get a rotten bean!

KR having her shower in a chair – her BLUE chair.

Arianna’s turn….note that she’s in a RED chair – must not make the mistake of sitting if someone else’s chair ok?

A nice, clean bundle of joy! ^_^

It didn’t take much after that to get Arianna to bathe coz she was excited about the whole idea having seen KR bath that way and me….not only I was less stressed, I avoided that backache I was experiencing when I was bending over showering them down. Thanks Mum, you are indeed a genius!!

Instead of our annual family getaway to Parkroyal Penang, we decided to take our (complete) family in KL. Actually this was a 2-in-1 plan as I had to go to KL anyway to sort out my Visa since I renewed my passport and in order to avoid any complications at Gold Coast airport upon arrival back in Australia, I had to have my passport revalidated and updated in the system. So a visit to Australian High Commission was the main agenda for the trip. We took MAS on the way there but Air Asia on the way back, and lets just say that although everyone CAN now fly AA, most of us prefer not to (and you’ll know why in Part 3).

Waiting for the plane in Penang Airport

Thankfully there was no delay at the airport and Arianna was pretty good as well. I was stressing out thinking back to how bad it was when we first came over. How my sis and I suffered!! Thank goodness my tummy was still small at that time and I could still carry Arianna, if not…Lord knows how things would have been. She was a pretty good traveler and didn’t cause much trouble at all. By the time we got to the hotel, we stayed at KLCC Impiana, it was way passed their bedtime and they were hungry. So we quickyl gave them their bottle and they had a quick nap.

Cheeky poser pulling the same pose as Arianna did once upon a time in Parkroyal, Penang.

Checking out the bed

The room itself was alright but I wasn’t too happy when told that they didn’t have 2 baby cots as requested many months ago when I first booked the room – there was only one. This meant that Arianna would be in bed with us, between us. :/ I was more afraid that she wouldn’t be able to fall asleep but apparently this was no problem at all. The only thing was that when it was bedtime/naptime, she wanted us BOTH in bed with her. So we’d both go to bed with her and pretend to be asleep. The problem with this was that more often then not, Ted would really fall asleep!! lol BUT the worst news was when reception called again and told us that there were NO cots at all and that they only had a matress for KR and I was like, WHAT??? But what can you do? If I had paid full price for the room, I would have kicked up a HUGE fuss seeing that I booked in a long time ago, BUT since we were there on a special rate, I didn’t want to pull my weight and just stressed out about it, internally. But surprisingly and praise God, there was one cot in the room after we got back from some shopping. Phew! So KR could at least sleep at the same level as we were.

We spent the first day just taking it slow and it was then that I realised that I had forgotten to bring their milk with me! >.< Imagine my shock, my horror....a quick, short walk to KLCC Suria solved that problem since we had to go get some other stuff as well.

Here’s proof they were at KLCC, at least they can say, I was there!

After our shopping, it time for bed and just before that, I bravely decided to let the girls have their bath together. This was the first time in a long time since they had shared a bath and I was a little worried that Arianna might try and drown poor KR. But surprisingly, the girls enjoyed their bath together!! The first time I put them in together back in Sydney was a major disaster! Arianna was totally upset about it and was close to shoving KR out of the bath. Poor thing didn’t know what was happening…

Needless to say that everyone was in bed by 9pm under protest nonetheless…but it had to be done. Although it was suppose to be pretend sleep, there was nothing to watch on TV plus switching it on would disturb the girls so, everyone turned in early. Plus the next day was going to be a busy one.

I actually have a toddler at my feet as I’m typing this out. KR woke up an hour earlier from her arvo nap and I guess she’s just enjoying some time by herself not having to fight over every single toy in sight. I reckon its a nice change for her. After all, she looks and sounds happy from where I’m sitting!

These days (as I’m growing bigger with JR), everything seems to be a juggle for me. I can hardly find any ME time and everything I do seems to revolve around the kids, if not, housework/cleaning/cooking. Such is the life of a SAHM and for most times, I wouldn’t really be complaining. Seeing that I’ve been both a SAHM and a working mum, I know what it’s like living both kinds of life. While I love working and having time away from screaming/whinging kids, I cannot help but admit that I did miss them loads while at work. You sort of miss the laughter and the giggles mostly but what you experience is actually more of the crying and whinging of course! lol

So what is life as a SAHM? Please don’t think it’s all just sitting around and doing nothing. Unless you have a maid at your beck and call, it ain’t a bed of roses at all! You pretty much handle everything from the moment you open your eyes till you lay your head down to sleep. I am not so fortunate as some of my friends/relatives who are SAHM and have maids to help out. For me, it’s all me, myself and I. So I do the laundry, the cooking, the cleaning & ironing (I hardly do these coz I hate them both with a passion – I avoid whenever I can), I try to stay sane when the kids try to kills themselves and of course, to help me keep sane, I sew. It’s a lot on my plate but this is merely the tip of the iceberg. Soon JR will be here and it will be 3x the trouble! lol A friend said that she can hardly cope with her 10 months old and she thinks I’m a super woman being able to handle 2 toddlers and another baby on the way. I am modest and always say that I’m not the only woman with 3 under 4 but more so, I think I was merely insane or at least I can plead temporary insanity when we conceived JR. lol But now that the deed is done, there is no turning back but more importantly, there are no regrets. It’s always a gift from God when one is blessed with a child. I always remind myself that there are millions of women out there who want a child but cannot conceive hence I should always be thankful for what He has given us. Plus, He wouldn’t have allowed this to happen if He knew we couldn’t handle it. So if He has confidence in us, then I reckon it’s only right that we put our trust in Him. After all, He’s got it all planned out for us.

And as a working mum, I was blessed in that Ted was home during this period. While I was merely on assignment work (just a few months), he was able to adjust his work shifts to suit mine hence he stayed back with the kids and became a SAHD (Stay At Home Dad). I can honestly say that he really enjoyed it and given the choice, he would gladly stay home. He pretty much did everything I was doing when I was at home which meant that when I came home, dinner was (most of the time) ready and dishes were washed up after and he cleaned the house – more than I ever did anyway! And I actually enjoyed this time away from the kids because I didn’t have to face the ‘music’ all day, everyday. I had the freedom to blog (when I had the time of course) and actually read some books (during lunch breaks and on the bus). It was good to bring some of the bacon home and to know that you amounted to something at the end of the day. I always feel more empowered and independant when I’m working and bringing in the money. It makes me feel more financially stable and well, all in all, I don’t feel like I’m wholely dependant on Ted, financially. Hence I’m glad to a certain degree that I have something to do (which I enjoy doing) that help bring in a little bit of spending money for myself. Thank goodness I’m not a shopperholic! Just a tad bit nutty when it comes to fabric. LOL

So while I try to continue this crazy juggle of what my life encompasses, I may whine and bitch (most of the time in silence) about how sometimes life is just so unfair or how I wished I had more of everything (except kids of course), I always remind myself that I must be thankful that I have a roof above my head, food on the table everyday and a warm bed (and body) to come to every night. Mostly, I must be thankful that I met and married a good provider and father, Ted. It may just be the simple things in life, but they are the most important. At least to me.

We are into the terrible 3s with Arianna these days. And I personally have had ALL my buttons pushed to the extreme by this cheeky child of mine that it’s not funny anymore. Sometimes I wonder what I’m doing wrong or what I should be doing to change her behaviour. Perhaps sending her to a Boarding School is not such a bad idea. Although I don’t know anyone who has attended boarding school before, Ted is of the opinion that it may well do her some good.

Ok, perhaps we are thinking too much into it but I reckon it wouldn’t hurt to see what options we have. We’ve thought about homeschooling as well, but we haven’t decided for sure if that is definitely the path to take for us. After all, one has to have the discipline to follow through and I’m not too sure if I’m cut out for that. Then of course you’ve got the option of the public schools as well and that is divided into the Girls school and the Boys School. I came from a co-ed school so I don’t really know how much different it would be but I guess if the girls were to go to the girls school, then I guess our little man would be going to a boys school. But again, it is far to early now to decide for sure but we definitely have our cards on the table. We just have to think it through properly. Geez, you’d think that getting a proper education for your kid would be easy, but I guess from this, I think not!

We let Arianna watch her first ever DVD at the age of 8mths. Even then, it was merely some 5-10 minutes and any longer than that, she loses interest. But the one thing that we did notice was that she was very into advertisements. I reckon it’s the colors and the music that comes with it. But these days, She is an aboslute tv monster! Literally. Switch the TV on and you have a very well behanved, quiet child…minding her own business until she gets bored of what she was watching and then she turns her attention to KR.

By which time, she would have irritated KR and they would both be screaming at each other, trying to kill the other. Scratching and hair pulling have somewhat become a norm and surprisingly it’s not Arianna who is doing these deeds – it’s KR! I reckon it’s just her way of defending herself and standing up for her self as well. While I do not condone it, I also do not just close an eye over it. I end up being the referee most of the time!

Here are some shots of my to-be tv addicts *shakes head again* :

So into the show that they are sharing!

Another sharing moment *pricele

This one looks like she’s had a rough day at work. *lol*

And all this watching and concentration is from watching the shows n our old but moderately sized tv. Nothing close to the Samsung HDTV that we recently saw and wished we could own! But I reckon that if we did own a really huge TV then we’d only be encouraging her to watch more tv.

Woot!!!! Just 1 more sleep and Ted flys out tomorrow arvo. ^.^ While everyone’s (the girls & I) really excited at seeing him after missing him for 2.5 months….it has been slightly tainted with the fact that Ted and I are not 100% well.

I actually developed an overnight sorethroat that was so bad that I had a rather sleepless night last night. My throat was hurting so bad that it felt I had sandpaper for the back of my throat! So today I was a very good girl and stayed off the spicy and oily foods. Imagine how hard it was NOT to have Mee Ku for brekkie!!!! *shakes head* But that’s alright….hopefully tomorrow it will be better and then we can have Mee Ku!!

I don’t know of a quick remedy to cure sorethroats but I reckon the best would be to gargle with salt water (preferably warm salted water), drink lots of fluids, stay off spicy & oily foods, make a drink of lemon+honey (thought I only had honey coz our limau kasturi isn’t ripe yet) and eat ice cream!!! Yes, I know as Malaysians, we steer clear of anything cold when we are ill and it didn’t occur to me to eat ice cream but apparently the logic behind it (according to Ted) is that the coolness of ice cream or cool drinks helps to numb the pain so although it doesn’t cure it, it is suppose to help ease the pain without meds.

Plus it’s an excellent idea to gorge on ice cream! LOL I did have a little but not much and I reckon it did help a wee bit. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll be feeling a whole lot better by tomorrow. I’m picking Ted up at the airport around midnight and tomorrow being the procession for St. Anne’s Feast…I’m really hoping that I will beat the crowd going home!! Otherwise, I’m dead meat….. >.<