THREE TIMES THE CHARM

Guess who were visiting us?  Maddie, Natalie and Nathan.  Our long weekend couldn't get any better than that!

We knew that caring for three children could be quite challenging for us ... the amateurs.  But Maddie was such a sweet heart.  A wonderful big sister and helper for us.  And to make things less challenging, Marcel proposed our "best practice": play time (Marcel) and meal time (Yanny) - which I agreed with.

Two crying-for-milk babies, eight ounces of milk and Marcel's first booger picking later, DV and Jeh's infant babies and my big baby fell asleep.

But not for long because Natalie woke up for another round of milk.  After Natalie finished her milk and was ready to be put to bed again, I found that Uncle Marcel sneakily moved to the best spot on the bed already.  He tucked himself in to the part with the extra blanket.  HAHAHA.  Sneaky!!!  So I had to put Natalie on the other end.

After three hours of nap, Nathan greeted me with his lovely smile and giggle.  He immediately tried to flip himself for tummy time!!!!

Whereas for Natalie, as long as she had her pacifier, she was good however.  I took off her paci for this photo though :-)

And here are some videos of their play time.  It's so funny how Nathan was so easily entertained while Natalie was playing cool as I sang to them.  :-)  Enjoy!!

Thanks for letting us borrow your babies, Jeh and DV.  Hope you had a great time off!!

MEMORIAL DAY 2011

Today is Memorial Day in the US.  For employees, today means holiday.  For students, today means a long weekend.  For parents, today means an extra day to spend time with their kids.  But for my co-worker from the previous company, today means good bye.

A little over 8 weeks ago, my co-worker learned that her husband had brain tumor.  He received chemotherapy; however, it did not work out to their advantage.  After a brief illness, my co-worker's husband passed away last week at the age of 61 years old.

Today, I got a chance to visit my co-worker during the memorial gathering at her place.  As you all know that my previous company was moved to the East Coast resulting in the closing of our office. My co-worker was one of the last ones to "close out the office."  It has been over 5 months now; and my friend is yet to find a job again.  Little did she know that her husband would need her more than ever before.  She mentioned to me how grateful she was to still have not found a job and able to spend time with and take care of her husband during his last few months.

What seems to be a detour to us may actually be a new way to blessing!

May you find this story encouraging!

JOY-FUL COMPANY

I had a joy-ful company today.  That's right.  Veri Joy was my little company this afternoon.

We forgot the baby gate today.  Then I was reminded by Ci Kiki's Blanket Time with Maxie.  Thanks to Ci Kiki for putting that tip up on her blog hehehe.  So I laid down a blanket on the floor and started to put any "toys" that I can find at home for her to play.  I said, "Baby Veri, it's Blanket Time!!!  You want to play with these toys?"  And then she crawled to the blanket and played with uncooked pasta and plastic cups.  She stayed within the blanket and played for 1.5 hours while I worked.  Pretty good heh?  Great job, Baby!!!  Oh, but the uncooked pasta did not stay too long.  Veri started to chew them.  HAHAHA.  So I replaced that with Marcel's Hive.

Pasta -- not effective

Hive -- effective  :-)

Once she got tired of the blanket and started to feel hungry, she crawled out of the blanket towards me.  Then she called me, "Eh eh."  Thanks to Papah and Mamah who had written down Veri's routine for the day for me.  So I knew it was time for lunch.

Is this her hungry face?  TOO CUTE!!!!

Within 30 minutes, she ate lunch, pooped, and started to nap.

Like Winnie Pooh like Veri :-)

She woke up and called me, 'Eh."  I turned to her; and she smiled at me.  Then, she fell back asleep.  Awww.

Mommy asked to let her wake up by herself since she already ate.  But she napped for 3 hours.  Although Aunty got a lot of her work done, Aunty started to worry that Veri may not be able to sleep tonight.  So Aunty woke her up.  And Veri gave me her biggest smile and funny giggle when she woke up.  Who can resist this joyful look!!!

And it's PLAY TIME!!!  The play time did not last too long cause she started to feel hungry.  :-)  She finished her "juice" a.k.a. blended fruit in less than 5 minutes.  Whoaa, so hungry huh, Baby?



After snack time, it was Blanket Time again for almost 2 hours.  Then she had her milk which took her 10 minutes to finish.  Aunty was delighted because I heard that milk time could be a challenge for her.  Praise the Lord she was drinking well today.


Not long after that, it was time to say bye bye to Baby.  Aunty had a great time with you today, Baby.  Thank you for being such a wonderful baby!  I hope you come and visit Aunty more often!  Aunty's place is always open for you.


Thank you Mamah and Papah for trusting Veri in my care today.  Hope you had a wonderful day at work.  Veri is such a great baby.  Very understanding and joyful for her age.  You are blessed!


Now, it is time for Aunty to take care of my own big baby.  :-)  Look at this smile.  He always comes home from work with this smile.  Thank you, Baby Cel, for being a happy worker and husband ... even though work can be demanding at times and I can be pretty nagging for most of the times.  :-)  Love you.

Ahh, what a great day today!  Thank you, Lord, for blessing me with this wonderful life today.  You are too WONDERFUL for me!

GET WELL SOON, XIAO WANG ZI

It breaks my heart to see a little bit of what 小王子 has to go through.  He lost a lot of weight already.  I just wanted to embrace and snuggle him all day and all night.  Whispering and praying in his ears that he will get better soon ... and that the needle pokes are just tiny ants trying to get some warmth from him.  My poor little baby.  Hope you get well soon, 小王子.

Loving and praying for you,

Aunty & Uncle

SNEAKY SNAKEY

Don't know what kind this is.  Don't know where it came from.  But it was found at our front yard before it made its way to our neighbor's this afternoon.

[click to enlarge]

Six-foot long snake in the front yard

Genesis 3:14

So the LORD God said to the serpent:

   "Because you have done this,

   You are cursed more than all cattle,

   And more than every beast of the field;

   On your belly you shall go,

   And you shall eat dust

   All the days of your life.

And I am glad the animal control comes to the rescue.  Praise the Lord for keeping everyone safe!!!!

MOTHER'S DAY REMINDER

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers.  Yes, you are precious in God's eyes, Mothers.  Your husband and child(ren) call you "blessed."

When I think about Mother's Day ... how we honor and celebrate our mother ... how I too will one day become a mother, I always think of my mother in-law Mamih Santi.  How she has inspired me on how to become a godly woman, wife, mother, sister, friend, and daughter.  Every time I shared my admiration about her and how she is a Proverbs 31 role model God gave in my life, Mamih Santi always replied, "That is too much of a praise, Darling!  God is my inspiration."  Oh how I love her.

Talking about being a godly woman ... earlier at Church, I was involved in a little hiccup.  As I was congratulating mothers that I saw on my way out of the Chapel, I ran into one person who said stuff that I found very unpleasant.  At the end of the conversation, I told her that, "I don't think you deserve to say those stuff to me.  And I don't think I deserve to be treated like that by you."

I was deeply hurt.  As I was trying to calm myself down, I was reminded of Proverbs 31 and how Mamih Santi would react differently to the situation.  The verses from Proverbs 31 that really stood out to me were these .. especially verse 23:

11a The heart of her husband safely trusts her.

12  She does him good and not evil

All the days of her life.

23 Her husband is known in the gates,

When he sits among the elders of the land.

26 She opens her mouth with wisdom,

And on her tongue is the law of kindness.

28 Her children rise up and call her blessed;

Her husband, also, and he praises her.

30 Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing,

But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.

I may have disapproved her way of talking to and treating me.  I may have responded to her without grace.  Even though I was hurt, I should not let my human nature judge her or even put my view of her on her husband and children.  I asked Marcel to pray for me as we hopped into the car.  During the prayer, God silently reminded me of two things:

1) There are these difficult people that I have to deal with whether at work or even at Church.  But remember, that these difficult people are God's grindstones in my life.  Thank God for them because through them, God is trying to take away the rough edges off my character so that I can look more like Jesus.

2) According to Proverbs 31, a husband is honored and respected by others because of his wife.  A wife can bring a disgrace or honor to her husband.  Whether or not you are married with or without child, once you are married, society sees you and your husband as "one."  So as a wife, it is my godly calling to treat, talk to, respond, and give respect to others in kindness whether or not they deserve it or I feel like it.  I cannot control what others think of me and Marcel.  People will think of us based on the knowledge or experience they know of us.  This is just like how I negatively responded and judged her entire family based on what she had done to me (ok, this is hitting my not-so-proud moment).  What I can control, though, is how I respond or treat others.  How I choose to live my affair will greatly impact Marcel.  It becomes our affair.  My actions and words should not be a stumbling block for others to respect Marcel.

So as I close this blog entry, let us encourage one another to grow into Christ likeness through prayer and fellowship.  If what God taught me today encourages or inspires you one way or the other, please let me know how I can be praying for or praising with you.

May this be a blessing!

NOOGEEK COUPLE

We are about to head out for our date night tonight ... and thought of saying "hello" to everyone since it has been awhile since the last time I updated the blog.

Have a wonderful weekend!