Grand Introduction

Ladies and Gentlemen,

With great pleasure and delight, may I present to you,

Miss Myra Ines Foong Zhi Xin,
Born on 16th July 2010,
3.6kg and 51 cm long.




Myra in her first week:






Myra in phototherapy



Myra being sunbathed for her prolonged Jaundice



Myra in her Fullmoon Day outfit


Myra with her brothers on her Fullmoon Day



Myra at 6 weeks


She is Myra Ines Foong Zhi Xin.
Myra, the female of Myron, means fragrance (derived from myrrh),
Ines means pure and innocence in Latin,
Zhi is a plant with medicinal value, and
Xin means joy.

We pray that as she bears all these values in her name, she will be a channel of God's blessing to the people around her.


I thank God how she is so welcomed and adored by her brothers.
I was especially concern about Myron, being still such a baby himself at 16 months, but he really loves her. Every time she cries, he will run to her and want to give her a hug to comfort her. He loves to pat her all the time. Of course at other times, he is curious and would be poking at her face. We constantly have to remind him to be gentle as he gets really excited.

So here is where I'll need to go edit my profile.... again.
:)

Grandma's To The Rescue

This Mommy's crazy.

We have been given the birthday invitation like weeks before, but she could not decide if they should go. Gadget-daddy's priority, so we were waiting to have him confirm his schedule.

Then a new addition to the family arrived in Penang, 2 weeks ahead of schedule. We wondered when to make the trip to see the baby boy. date finally set, and we are going for the party this weekend.

Theme: Safari.

So last minute (hmmm... I seem to run into these with my kids quite a bit), I went to the mall to get some materials, nice leopard prints, and got Ah-Ma to sew a costume for both the boys. If only I knew how to work the sewing machine...

So I cut out the costume and Ah-Mah did the sewing. Think the boys will look savagely cool in them!!



Thanks, Ah Mah!! You sure dote on your grandkids.
:D


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Myron has some viral infection that causes sores that look like ulcers in his mouth and has spread to his face.
This has been for about a week now, and it's really taking a long time to heal.

So Myron looks like he has 2 pimples on his cute face and aspot on his neck, thanks to the endless drooling. Because of the sores in his mouth, he has also refused to nurse directly. Hence a feeding session becomes a 2 person job sometimes. Mommy, moomy the cow expressing milk and Mil feeding with a cup... And this happens even like at 3am, which is why I am up.
Then this evening, Myron ran a fever.
Mil did her usual dough-rub for him.

I really don't know how such super moms like Mott and Lia do it, especially when the boys are/were young like mine. *Salute*

Whenever anyone asks how I manage 3 boys, well, I say that it's with the help of my in-laws.


Thank you, Mah-mah, for going through all the growing pains with me for these 3 precious darlings.

Goodbye, Grandma

Thank you for all your comments and well wishes. I have not replied because the updates would let you know what's going on.

My grandma passes away this morning about 11.30am.
My mom called to inform me as I was heading out to buy something.

Grandma actually gave birth to 10 babies, 3 boys and 7 girls. But due to a hard life, she gave away three of her babies. Only one was acknowledge as this one was given as a favour to a relative who wanted another child, but could not conceive after many years.

Grandma was widowed more than 10 years ago.
Today, she leaves behind 7 children,
30 grand children and 27 great grand children.

She was holding on to her last breaths, waiting for her youngest son to see her. He finally did visit her on Friday night. This morning she passed on.

I am glad I took my boys up to see her one last time.
When we were there and I heard that this uncle would come see her, I somehow sensed that even if I planned another trip this coming week, we might not make it to see her again.

When we were there, I was glad my boys were not afraid of her. They climbed on to her bed and played and sang around her, while my aunt fussed, asking if she wanted a drink. Then we brought Myron to her. The latest addition to her great grand children.





Be at peace, grandma.
All your children have come to see you before you move on.
In your own ways you have done all you could, you have done your best, to care for your hildren and your children's children.

Under Currents - Updates

Turns out that the little bumps/blisters on Myron's feet are actually ants bites.
Phew. What a relief.

Yes, I am so So glad Gadget-daddy was right, and that I need not have panicked and got all worried for nothing.

So tomorrow we will be off to see my grandma.
I hope she will wait for us.

When We were kids, my older sister and I would go to Taiping a few days ahead of our parents with a relative and stay with our grandma, my mom's mom. We would have three cousins (children of my first uncle) if not more (children of other aunts and uncle sent to be cared by grandma full time for a few months if not years) staying with grandma and we played all the time: Hop-scotch, hide-and-seek were our favourite.

We would sleep on an elevated wooden platform, all the kids in a row, with a pillow and a blanket. At certain seasons there would be a huge mosquio net hung across the platform. I remembered the one we had was pink, and it made me think of candyfloss. Usually we all would chat and laugh until grandma comes in to turn off the lights and then we would settle to sleep one by one. Grandma slept on the edge of the platform.

Every morning she would serve us a cup of coffee, with sugar, but no milk, and we would have to wait for breakfast to be bought back from the market. My uncle's wife usually did that for us. Lunch was usually plaine rice porridge with a fried egg each. We added soy sauce and pepper to taste. Dinner was a little more lavish, with a meat dish and vegetables. I remembered her steamed mince pork was my favourite.

Grandma's family lived simple lives. They had no TV, no refrigerator, and no telephone for the longest time. I remembered my mother had to call a neighbour's house and she would holler over the fence and grandma would hurry over. Sometimes my mom would put the phone down first and call again in a minute to save on outstation-calls charges.

It was at her place I had a first hand experience of bathing by a well (getting water out with a bucket at the end of a string requires real skill, I discovered) and using a real outhouse, bucket toilet (tandas tong!!). The later probably gave me constipation for the years to come because I would try not to go as long as I could. It was really too disgusting to describe.

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Ah... so many stories to tell... but will have to wait till I come back in a couple of days' time.
Now off to bed for I will be driving that 3 hour journey up north.

Stories Of My Father For My Children - Part 1

Stories of my Father: The Amputee

My father lost a leg to Diabetes. There was an ulcer on his right foot that would not heal for months and we were in and out of the hospital all those time. We were taught by the hospital nurses how to do a dressing for the wound every day.

Eventually the infection got on to his bone and he had to amputate his right leg below the knee.

For a man who lost a leg, he never lost his sense of humour.

From the time they wheeled him out of surgery, the first thing he said to his anxious family was,
" Now I can join the cacat (handicap) race."

Another time, we were talking about buying shoes. He said he should look for another amputee who wants only a right shoe, then they can save a lot by sharing a pair of shoes.

"But," I said, "That's not so easy, coz you'll also have to find a GUY with the same shoe size."
Hmm.. and we had not even thought of style and colour preference yet. What about those offers where the second pair comes with a 50% discount. Could we just claim for one side for free?

Of course, because of his sense of humour, we would sometimes tease him.

There was a period he was worried about finances and would frequently complain aloud that he had no money. To that my younger sis and I would say, "How about playing your guitar in the pasar malam (night market) and we'll give you a bowl to collect charity from passers-by? You could even have the dog with you to pose as a blind-seeing dog (he was really losing his eye sight too)... or he could just guard over your collection.

An incident he found funny was when he took a trip to a temple in Klang with my mother and brother. While they were inside doing their rituals, my father sat on a bench under a tree waiting for them. A lady came up to him and offered him RM10. He laughed but very politely declined. He laughed for the rest of the day recalling this incident and we teased him that he should go get a lottery ticket.

One things he would say about his amputated leg was it's a "mow-ying-geok". In Cantoneses means "a leg without a shadow". More accurately, it refers to a kung-fu where the kick is so fast you don't even see a shadow of it. And with that he would be moving his stump around, mimicking some kung-fu moves while resting on his bed.

One of my father's lessons on life was to always be brave, to have courage. This was definitely courage in a circumstance of life beyond himself.

May we all find courage in our dark days too, and still be able to see the funny side of life.

Good Ole MIL

Had some fruits today and searched the fridge for some pickled papaya I thought we had. Turned out it was finished some time back.

So before I knew it, Mil was already at work making a new batch of pickled papaya. She's just amazing.

The secret of it is to use a peeler to make fine slices of the fruit. The it's the usual sugar, salt in hot water and then add in vinegar and chilly. The fruit should sit for a few hours before it's good to taste. After 24 hours, it'll be even better.


Mmm... tangy and spicy.

Will come back and tell you about our busy weekend.