Happy 1st Birthday, Adelia!

8th Nov 2009 - Adelia turns One!

The Tansumas held Adelia's birthday party at Heritage Mountain Community Center. It's a great idea with the large number of people and kids. So many babies! All of us seem to be carrying one at any one time. We celebrated Miles' birthday as well as his birthday falls on the same day as Adelia.

Happy Birthday, Adelia & Miles!

Welcome Baby Emi!

The newest addition to the Van family.

Baby girl Emi was born on 5th Nov 2009.

She is so beautiful and looks very much like Jack!
Congratulations, Carolyn, Rob & Jack!

I just choked on my chocolate pretzel.

First, my son tells me I have a big bum. 2 hours later, I turned around and almost choked on my chocolate pretzel when I saw Edwin. 2 hours 2 minutes later, my face is all red from laughing so hard.

So..anyway, I did do some exercise tonight. I went swimming, my all-time favourite sport/exercise. Feels really good.

I came home and caved in to my desire to eat those chocolate covered pretzels sitting on the kitchen counter.

Dear Lucas,
Mommy will work really hard to not have a big bum. Really hard. Maybe tomorrow.

Love,
Mommy

The honest opinion

Lucas: Where are you going, Mommy?
Me: Mommy is going to do some exercise.
Lucas: Because you have a big bum?
Me: NO. Because I want to be strong.

Help yourselves to the candy..at the door.

The Lims hosted a Halloween Party this year. Fun! All the details into the decorations, food and games were amazing. We had so much fun! Best-dressed has to go to the hosts..the french maid and the pirate. We had good weather too which allowed us to go out with the kids for trick-or-treat.

A couple of firsts for me:

1. Seeing self-serve candy placed outside the door.

2. Shoved by Simon during a friendly (or maybe not) musical chairs game. (I will get you next time, Simon!!)

First taste of Durian

Buy me a toy car so Lucas can play with it

That was what Edwin told me to do for his Birthday last month.

We celebrated with some close friends at E-Canteen. It was great. A private room to house all of us with 2 kids in tow (almost). Where the kids can make as much noise and no one will glare at us. Where we can have decent Hong Kong style food and milk tea whilst talking loudly over the table to each other.

Goofing around

Lucas is turning 3 in a month's time. He is such an easy-going, good-natured little guy. He adores his Daddy very much and I must say I do envy Edwin for being the receiving end of such warm, enthusiastic and excited welcome when he steps through the door everyday. I guess it is hardly the same when Lucas is with me for almost 12 hours a day.

Thank you for listening

Silence. Finally.

Update on house construction @ Diamond

Framing is almost done and roof will be up soon.

I would have a dozen more

Kids. If I don't look like an elephant when I am pregnant and if I have family here with us.

There are so many moments I wish I could freeze time when I see my boys.

Lucas is a great big brother. He has his moments of being possessive of his toys and they still do tussle over the same toys but it is all a part of growing up. It's great that they have each other for company and I love to see them play together and communicate with each other in their own unique manner. Lucas is speaking very well now and it opens up a whole new world for us as we have to explain everything to feed his curious mind. Linus is currently in love with books, balls, and digestives.

The boys were recently introduced to the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, one of Edwin's favourite shows when he was young and even now I think. Lucas can sing the songs pretty well and I hope to get it on video soon!

Living his dreams through his son

He said something about his dream of sleeping on a bunk bed when he was young and didn't get the chance to. And one day, he walked through the door with planks of wood and started building one for his son. I was hesitant about Lucas sleeping in a bunk bed at such a young age, but the beam on Lucas' face was unforgettable. He was so proud, so happy and hugged his Daddy and said "Thank you, Daddy. I love my new bed."

Conversations with our almost 3-year-old

Lucas: Daddy, when you are a big boy, you can go to school with Lucas.
Lucas: And when I am a big man, I will go to work.
Daddy: But Daddy don't have a school bag.
Lucas: Lucas will buy you one school bag ok?

Daddy: Look at that yellow car. Daddy likes that yellow car.
Lucas: No. It is not yellow. It is a green car.
(It is indeed a green car)

Lucas & Linus are currently in love with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. A classic.

W+J Wedding - Oct 13th 2009

Beautiful in many ways.

Congratulations to the newly-weds!

A sit-down Thanksgiving dinner @ home for 18 adults & 10 kids

Oct 11th 2009
I am still almost a month behind in updates. Catching up is getting harder these days.

To my readers, I am sorry about the music you hear in the background. Removing it was taking up much longer time than expected and I got diverted to other business. I will attempt again later. (in the meantime, you can mute the music with the speaker icon on the slideshow page)

We invited some close friends over for Thanksgiving dinner and decided to do away with plastic plates and cutlery and have a sit-down dinner. We roasted a Turkey for the first time and it was good for a first attempt!

We had great fun planning and setting up the place for the party. Lucas was very excited to have his friends over too. He is a little social birdie.

In retrospect, we had great fun and the best moment must be the "bread-stuffing" moment during one of the games we had that evening. Hooray to videos we can revisit the laughter that day.

By the end of the evening, Edwin was drunk on the couch. Cleaning up up for a dinner party for 28 took one full day but I would still do it!