A fresh look for 2011...

A new hairstyle to welcome 2011! Hehe.

Nana loves her fresh "Dora" look, which she claims to have, and we totally agree with her. She does look like Dora! Hehe.

Zac's new haircut was actually more of an accident. We had wanted to give it a trim, but as usual, our "can't-sit-still" son just have to move. So, there you go, a big hole in the middle of his head, leaving us with no choice but to cut the hair very, very short. Zac doesn't like his new hairstyle, and he blames dear for it. He also said something funny with regards to his new look. "Papa, I look so different. What if Ms Leann don't let me go in to class next week, because they think I'm a new student?" Haha. Kids... They always have funny thoughts like this!

The young chocolate lover

Nana, this is for you to look at when you are older.

A 100% supporter of chocolates, especially those from Godiva, you would always have a hard time deciding whether to share your chocolates with anyone or to enjoy every single bit of it all by yourself. This was the look that you gave me when I asked for a piece of chocolate from you. Well, you were holding on to two pieces, one on each hand, and all I wanted was JUST ONE piece from you. You immediately gave that famous frown, and tears began rolling down your cheeks...

Girls will be girls!

If you are a female reader, do you remember growing up with lots of sneaky chances to play with your mum's belongings like clothes, make-up set, accessories and best of all, her shoes?

Well, I did! Hehe. The fun that me and my younger sis, Faizah had when we dressed up together... All done secretly! Messing around with mum's stuffs would mean getting a good spanking! Haha. This definitely brings back sweet childhood memories! :)

Fast forward the time and you'll see history repeating itself! I caught Nana putting on my boots. With all the heels away since it's winter now, Nana seems to develop a new interest - a deep interest in the seasonal footwear, the BOOTS! She was even trying to tie the shoelace! Since she has never really tried tying one, all that she could do was twist and turn the shoelace till it looks like a ball!

A great week for us!

It was a great week! Dear was on leave since Monday, and on Wednesday, we went for a short road trip to San Diego & LA again. The 4 of us loves California, mainly because of the lovely beaches. Somehow, the seaside is always the preferred option each time we plan for a trip. The waves, and the smell of the ocean seems to be the perfect place for us to unwind. And for the kids, they are just contented to play with sand and having a BIG space to run around. Look out for the photos in my gallery yah... Will upload them once I'm done with all the editing...  

Anyway, we got back to boring Arizona last night. Haiz. Back to being the full-time housewife with loads of laundry to wash and the usual household chores that comes with it. :(

Today, we decided to just stay home and rest before dear goes back to work tomorrow. The kids will be having their 2 weeks winter break till New Year. Guess what they did at home today?

Dear and Zac played Wii, and most of the time, they were arguing! Haha.

And dear Nana had the lappy all to herself. She's so relieved that Zac has Wii to keep him occupied and not bugging her for a turn on the computer.

As for me... what else could I possibly do? With my laptop being conquered by my girl, I am left with just 2 options... To either laze around while watching them do their stuff, or get busy with the piling housework... So, of course I chose the first option... LAZE AROUND! Haha... It's a weekend after all! Which means my day OFF!

Being thankful!

My parents have always taught us to be grateful for what we have. Being the sole breadwinner in our family, ayah (which means dad in Malay) struggled to cultivate this good habit in us. As a kid, me and my siblings used to compare ourselves with the rest of our friends, whom we felt, could get everything they asked for.

Ayah knew it was never going to be easy to get this message across to all four of us. Watching news together became a method to inculcate a feeling of thankfulness. He would always highlight how lucky we are compared to the starving and poor kids in the other parts of the world. And I would gladly say that it did work, at least for me.

Emak (mum in Malay) supported him strongly. As a full-time housewife, she attended to all our needs 24-7. I can still remember the way she taught us the importance of not wasting food. Scaring us was her technique. She said that the food will cry and come back to scare us if it was thrown away, because it would feel that its life has been wasted and not appreciated. Being a little kid, I totally believed in that. And even up till today, I would try to finish up every single grain of rice and ensure that my plate is sparkling clean, except for the leftover bones which could never be eaten. Haha.

Now that I'm a mum myself, I try to pass this message down to my children, with the hope that they are thankful for what they already have, and most importantly, they must learn never to waste food. Kids nowadays are so fussy. With so many options given, they tend to eat only their favourite food, which are mostly junk food.

So, the smart me thought of using my mum's method on Zac & Nana. And guess what... Zac said something which I could never have thought of when I was a kid... He asked "Mama, how can the food come and scare us? The rubbish bin is so slippery. How to climb out and find us?" Me and dear broke into laugher. It's amazing how he could come up with that! How come I didn't think of it that way when I was younger? Haha.

Anyway, Nana was still a bit scared. She couldn't finish her lunch and insisted that dear help her finish up. Look at her face!!! She's so scared that the corn, carrots, and fish will come back to bother her at night. ;p