Hiding from the kids

We've been married for 5 years and, with 3 kids I never thought we had 'expended' this fast. When we have the chance to just cuddle, it just feels the same as before we have them.

I'm not really sure about other parents, but we sometimes do 'hide' from the kids at little oppurtunies. I jokingly, call it as 'a state of denial'. Hubby loves doing it by lying in fetal position, holding a pillow and facing the wall. Whenever I think the girls are occupied with something, I'd join him and we cuddle, with eyes closed.

We may only have a few seconds of 'bliss' before the girls realise that mama and papa 'dissapear'. Then we heard something like this:

"Mama kat mana?"

"Tengok kat dapur"

"Takkk...kat bilik la"

Followed by small fast steps towards the room.

I whisper to hubby "No, no it is not happening to us...hold tighter, keep the eyes closed"

"Mamaaaaa, papaaaaa...."

"No, no...not happening to us"

Then we feel a force trying hard to separate us, using their little bodies to squeeze themselves between us. And they do it loudly, with giggles and laughes.

Ok, that's it...I open my eyes to face the reality.

Anyway, it is purely a joke between me and hubby. We love our kids to bits. And we know they grow very fast, and we may experience the empty nest syndrome earlier than we thought.

Bea3 is mobile now, I can't let the door to the yard open. That's her favourite place, she loves observing the cycles in the washer and dryer.



She can even pull herself up while holding on the sofa. Don't laught at my dirty sofa, ok;).



And she is also feeding herself.


Bea2 can feed herself with little supervision, cleaning up after her is another story though.



And Bea1 helps me folding the clothes, think you can tell which are hers and which mine.



It's just great to have kids, hiding from them is just another game.

Lecturer's blues

This is a time when I wish I have another group of readers besides wonderful mommies, a few friends and 3 wonderful male readers ...geee at least I know these guys have been reading my blog for awhile, lrong, Simon and da buaya.

I wish to have university/college students, or those who will be joining us soon.

It is a regulation that we give one week to the students to make complains before the exam results are finalised.

So, it is a norm that we have students knocking on our doors. For most, it is their first time doing that despite our reminders to them to see us if they want to get more than what they get from the lectures.

Three came to see me, not to complain but to get more marks. I went through the answer sheets with them and I really could not help them.

When I was a student, I really could not take a nagging lecturer. I thought I would not do that, nagging is definitely not a solution.

But what do I do when the students just would not leave and I'm just too polite to ask them to go?

Two of them even said they were a bit confident with the paper, but the answer sheets showed that they didn't even answer the questions. I mean they left nothing there, a blank!

As a relatively new lecturer, I would ask myself if my teaching is no good but I have 2 scorers for that particular paper.

My seniors came up with a hypothesis, sometimes they come in a batch. One batch is good, while the next can be a headache depending on certain circumstances, but I won't blog about it.

One student even claimed he studied together with one of the scorers but I thought "HELLO...does it make you any better?"

I can't believe it, I nag in my blog!

I need a break. So, think I share with you more crafts from Bea1 that are left scattered on my office floor.



The blue thing is a pool, with 3 fishes swimming around, a bee made out of kitchen paper roll, papa (that's what she said when I asked;)), and I'm sure you know it is a clock and that birthday cake, I think is due to the teacher ran out of ideas!
They supposed to have a cooking class but had it cancelled as not many attended the activities classes during the school holiday. I just need to get our kitchen done!

Well...at least I feel a lot better now! Though I know, putting a kid's crafts won't attract any students to read.

Blog list

I have long lists of what-to-do-at-home, what-to-do-at-work, what-to-buy, what-to-write, and I even have a list of lists somewhere. Due to the time constraint, I've been accumulating blog titles that I intend to do once I'm a bit free. So, now I'm creating my blog list:

1. I had a tag from Simon about the soundtrack of my life. Just did it half-way and it has been sitting in drafts for months.

2. Misyar marriage - yup, I also want to talk about it but I need to do more research. Probably have to let this one go as nobody talks about it anymore.

3. That Lenggong fieldtrip.

4. Teacher's day entry

5. Moving Day

6. Father's Day entry

7. More crafts from Bea1

8. Bea2 and her shoes

9. Bea2 and Mickey cookies

10. Bea3 skips crawling

11. Bea1 writes her name

12. The Cup - I'm so out of touch, blame it to being married to a non-football maniac. I even thought Buaya created the mascots out of Bear in the Blue House and the Moon (for the ball), till I saw it in somewhere in 5xmom's. I was stunned looking at Frings in action last night. Caught that while having supper outside.

14. Graduate teacher transfer and how it effect my 1 1/2 year-old nephew. He was 'forced' to be separated from his mother for 5 days for the mother to settle down in a new place.
Seriously I still can't see a justification for transferring married teachers with families who has been serving for many years, away from the family.

In a few days, I will add these

15. My new kitchen

16. Friends volunteer to do house-warming party

That's all for now. I may end up just updating the list *sigh*

These women inspire me

I've been here, I mean this one department in the university for about 14 years, as a first degree, Master's (later converted to PhD) student, tutor and now a lecturer. Except for about 21/2 years away while studying/working somewhere else, I knew that I'd come back and I worked to be accepted. During that many years here, I got to know a few ladies who had been my teachers, now colleagues and friends:

1. My boss
She is the head of the department, mother of 2 teenagers, 1 adolescent. I've been seeing her kids running around the department since they were small. Cute kids with blonde hairs. They go to school nearby.
She balances work and family well, and I learned from her. She just received profesorship recently.

2. One colleague
Also a mother of 3, but her youngest just finished the SPM and the eldest is now working. Had been seeing the kids around too.
She admitted she was not really 'succesful' in doing research. She told me that she stopped almost completely when one of the kids pleaded to her not to leave for a fieldtrip. She didn't have the heart.
She advised me to continue doing my research, suggested that I should concentrate on lab-based works as less travelling would be required. She made that mistake of choosing an area which required time away from the family, and she had decided to quit.
To me it really does not matter if she does not get the promotion, she is a great mother.

3. Another colleague
A mother to 4 girls, aged from 14 to 3 years old. They are also always around, the office is a stop between school and sekolah agama in the afternoon. She admitted that she is not good in multi-tasking.
Sidenote*
As a lecturer, besides teaching, we are also loaded with administration works, and depending on individual, we choose to do our research at our own conveniences.
She has yet to finish her PhD.
But I told her, I love seeing her taking good care of the family and spending a lot of time with them. And I even asked her if the PhD really matters now, when she had been spending a lot the time for the family.

4. One staff at the other department
I met her last year and we just talked a bit. Read the conversation here.
About two months ago, all of us from different departments were called for a meeting to plan for the application for research grant under the RM9. I was surprised to see her as a speaker, and people calling her a prof. She must had been promoted recently too. I could not help it, I just smiled but I could not meet to say hi and to congratulate her. From the little conversation that we had, I just thought a mother would always reluctant to be away from her babies, even if she is a professor!

As for myself, the thought of travelling (and leaving my kids) always makes me worried. The only nights that I spent away from the kids were 5 nights away from Bea1 when I followed a caving trip to Sarawak, and 2 nights away from Bea2 when Bea1 was warded last year. The trip to Sarawak was awesome but I try not to do it again unless all girls can stay with the father. I doubt as wherever I go, hubby would plea (with puppy-eyes) to follow. Yes, he's been following me around like a shadow. We need change of roles, (I mean from the assistant in the field to babysitter) here, please!

Anyway, I carefully choose my research areas, and plan that I can bring the kids together, or try to just make day trips. We are given an allocation of one overseas trip per year by the university (more if you can find the money elsewhere), and I have not done mine. Told hubby, I would try to make the most of local conferences, and leaving the kids is not an option now.
I might be ready when the youngest is 10 years old, but the thing is I have already started to think about our 4th;).

I'm doing things when I'm comfortable with them. I have 2 projects, and they are huge by my standards. They require more crawling under narrow cave passages, getting dirty in some muddy rivers, and sweating under hot sun but I chose my areas to be confined in the peninsula, and in a few labs here and another university. And I'm about to explode with excitement to kick-off with them.

As for overseas trip, I will wait when we have enough money to bring everybody but I will try not to go anywhere near a Disneyland;).

I don't know much on how the ladies made it, but I surely will learn more from them;).

Ok, that's a very positive note (a long one) for the day!

Pak Cik who does not move

Many amusing moments happen in our daily car rides with the girls, and that makes trips to and fro home/babysitter's enjoyable.

This is only one example. Recently, there is advertisement placed near a condo area that we pass everyday to go to the babysitter's. It is a man, sitting on a chair holding a huge board.

First time Bea1 saw it, she yelled to me that she saw a "Pak Cik" holding a huge "paper". When she kept seeing it everyday, and the "Pak Cik" does not seem to move at all, she might suspect something was just not right.

I asked if she wanted to go near him, she said she was scared;).

Yesterday, due to heavy rain and winds, that thing fall to the ground. Upon seeing that, I could not help myself, I laughed hard...but Bea1 was not in the car, I just imagined what she would say if she saw that pak cik fall on the ground but still didn't move.

I should not be blogging now, but I think this one deserve a blog;).

This morning, before sending her off to school, we made a stop there to take pics. The security guard must has put it back into position. Asked if she wanted to see "Pak Cik" behind the board, she said she was scared and rather saw the pic.


So, this what we see from the car


And this behind the board


Upon seeing that, Bea1 was finally satisfied. The "pak cik" actually has no body and no face. No wonder he does not move at all;).

Bea1 is having a good time!

I had never thought that the preschool has such an influence on Bea1. On Monday morning, after a very busy moving day on Sunday, added with playing until way past midnight with Bea2 and a cousin, I thought she would just continued sleeping till 10 am.

The preschool is closed for the school holiday but it is opened for activities in the second week. Bea1 indicated that she wanted to join.

Just to confirm, I asked her again on Monday before leaving for work. I didn't expect her to say yes, but to my surprise with both eyes still closed, she nodded. Asked again to be sure, she said she wanted to go. But she just could not move to the bathroom, and I had to carry her.

After being cleaned, she looked like she was really happy to go back to school after the one week break.

It is a small group attending, actually it is only 4 and the only two teachers are there.

The teacher said she was upset earlier as she expected it to be a normal school day, but later was ok when a Ukrainian boy who is from the same class arrived.

After the first day, I know that my girl will continue to follow the activities the whole 5 days.

It is about playing, with a lot of materials laid down for them. We were very late yesterday, and I just love seeing the kids having fun painting at the yard. The teachers cut plastic bags and put on them to protect their clothes. Which kid would resist that? Bea1 walked to them without looking back at me, no kiss and no goodbye!

And upon seeing me at the door, she would carefully gathered her works and happily showed to me one by one.

These are what she did for the first 2 days.


I love the flower, and flowers and butterfly.

Eager to see what she would made today, I have to wait for about an hour!