Two cakes for two occasions

I don't really like cakes with too much cream or frosting, so Jan's plain butter cake and moist chocolate cake are two of my favourites. Since I was still on confinement on Mothers' Day this year, Hubby bought a mini butter cake and chocolate cake from Jan's @ Abu Siti Lane for a small celebration at home.

Hannah and Heidi walked into my room each carrying one cake with a candle lighted up, and they were so excited with the "surprise"! Either that, or they were excited that they could get to eat cake ;)

So this was my first Mothers' Day with all my 3 little girls.

So on my father's birthday yesterday, I requested Hubby to buy the same two cakes again to celebrate at home since Helene is still a bit young to go out. Hannah and Heidi were again excitedly waiting to surprise their Gong Gong, each holding a cake with a lighted candle.

As expected, my dad was indeed pleasantly surprised :)

The girls helped him to blow out the candles. First Hannah:

Then Heidi:

And then it was picture time! Grandparents with their granddaughters:

Kiss for Gong Gong from Hannah:

And one from Heidi:

And Gong Gong with the latest addition to the family, little Helene:

Hannah and Heidi also helped to cut the cakes.

And then it was time for a whole family picture:

Happy birthday Papa/Gong Gong with lots of love from all of us!

Hannah's day trip to Hatyai

Last weekend, Hubby and his siblings took a day trip to Hatyai to visit his uncle who is not well. Now with 3 kids, we have to practise the "divide and conquer" rule, so MIL took care of Heidi, I stayed at home with Helene and Hannah followed Hubby. The last time she went to Hatyai was in 2010, and you can read about it here.

They left the house at about 5.30 am to avoid the crowds at the border on a weekend. Hannah posed for a picture while waiting to get through immigration.

This is her with Hubby and Hubby's cousin.

Since Hubby's uncle was resting most of the time, they took some time to check out the new mall nearby his house - Central Festival Hatyai. Needless to say, Hannah had a ball of a time.

Here, she pretended she was a mermaid :)

She came back with quite a lot of things, as since she was the only kid, she got lots of stuff from her aunts and uncles. But she was nice enough to think of Heidi, so Heidi got some stuff too and she was so excited running around the house when they all finally got back at 11 plus. Hannah was fast asleep, as she woke up so early that morning, but Heidi was full of energy going through all her things.

Hubby said he will take me soon for makan and shopping - looking forward to that day lol ;)

We survived the first 3 weeks

So okay, at first I was thinking, how are we gonna handle 3 little girls below the age of 5, one being a newborn? Now, after 3 weeks, I'm glad to say that we have settled down into somewhat of a routine, and guess what, the house has not collapsed around us either ;)

Helene had an episode of jaundice not long after being discharged from the hospital, so into the hospital we went again, for her to have her "special sunbath" aka phototherapy treatment. The first day was not so good as she screamed blue murder *no pun intended* everytime they put her under the light. So we had to stay another day and only on the 2nd day, she somewhat calmed down enough for the treatment to take effect.

I am very glad that Hubby is such a great help, as well as MIL. So our weekday routine is as such, Hubby goes to work in the morning and drops Hannah off at school. Heidi stays at home with me and MIL comes by around 9 am to help to bathe Heidi and Helene as well as to cook for me. She leaves around 12 plus to fetch Hannah from school and brings both Hannah and Heidi back to her place so that I can get some rest in the afternoon. She cooks dinner for me at her place, and after work, Hubby goes to fetch the girls home and brings back my dinner. So far so good ;) On weekends, we are all home together. Hubby cooks for me so that his mum doesn't need to come up and down and also bathes all the kids and keeps them occupied. Sometimes he will bring Hannah and Heidi out so I can get some rest. Indeed he is super-hubby and super-daddy to all of us :)

Helene has some interesting expressions, even from when she was just a few days old until now.

Her Jie-jies are very loving towards her (for now, that is :p) and keep wanting to kiss her and carry her.

Now that she is 3 weeks old, here are some recent photos of her:

Will blog more soon.

Introducing Lim Helene

Hi everyone! I am Lim Helene. Today was supposed to be my actual due date, but I came out early at 37 weeks and 6 days, on 23 April 2014. I was born at 8.27 am weighing 3.28 kg.

This is me with Mummy just minutes after I was born. Lots of people had comments about my red, sexy lips ;). 

And this is me with both Daddy and Mummy - Daddy and Mummy took this same photo with my jie-jies Hannah and Heidi when they were born as well.

When Daddy is free, he will probably blog about my birth story, just like he did for my jie jies Hannah and Heidi.

After the nurses had cleaned me up, this is how I looked.

They brought me to Mummy's room for some bonding time. One good thing about Adventist Hospital is that they encourage mothers and infants to room together, so the nurses will only bring me back to the nursery if I need to be bathed, changed or checked by the doctor. All other times I can stay in the room with Mummy if she wanted me to. It was also good that Mummy managed to get a private room which was an answer to her prayer. Daddy told her that when he went to do the admission, this was the last private room available.

The next person to see me was my very excited Hannah jie jie. Daddy picked her up from school and she came straight to the hospital to see me.

Later in the afternoon, Ah Mah brought my other jie jie to see me. Heidi jie jie was also very excited and she kept wanting to touch me :)

Mummy's office and friends also sent some lovely flowers to the hospital. The entire room was full of the fragrance of the flowers.

After 3 days and 2 nights in the hospital, we could go home. Daddy took some pictures with me before we left the hospital.

This is me asleep in my playpen at home for the very first time.

Stay tuned for more updates on me!

On my day off

A couple of weeks ago, I took a day off from work because my mother in law had something on. Incidentally, Hannah was also on holiday from school. I was trying to think of what to do to keep them occupied for a few hours before my mother in law came home. Bringing 2 kids to a mall by myself is a complete no-no as I wouldn't be able to chase after 2 active kids, so in the morning, we ended up at McDonald's Sunrise Tower. I seriously think that this is the happiest place in the world for kids (besides Disneyland, of course). Whoever condemns McDonald's obviously doesn't have kids!

Later on, I took them to visit Chew Thean Yang Aquarium a.k.a. the mini zoo. The girls loved feeding the fish and looking at the animals there. Cheap and fun entertainment - highly recommended :)

Heidi's speech has increased by leaps and bounds ever since before turning two. She couldn't speak much at all previously and now she can't stop. However she definitely has a Malaysian accent to her speech, even calling us "Mummy-ah", and "Daddy-ah", not to mention all the "lahs".

Speaking of speech, Hannah asked me just the other day, "Why did Jesus make babies not able to talk?" I gave her the standard "Because that's how it is" but it didn't seem very convincing to her though lol.

Out of the mouths of babes ;)

Happy 2nd birthday Heidi!

Our 2nd little princess is 2 today! When she woke up this morning, we could see the excitement in her eyes as she knew it was her birthday. We asked her "Whose birthday is it?" and she said "Me!" We promised her an evening out today so she's looking forward to that, and Hannah too :)

Happy birthday princess and stay cheerful and bubbly always! God bless you today and always! Lots of love from Mummy, Daddy and Jie Jie Hannah :)

Will blog more about her birthday party and presents in another post.

Sisters

Now that Heidi is almost two, she and Hannah are very close as they can play together and communicate with each other. Heidi loves to imitate her Jie Jie, so she will copy everything Hannah says and does.

The other day, we went out for dinner with friends at Gurney Paragon, and Hannah wanted to wear her necklace with a heart pendant. Seeing Hannah wearing a necklace, Heidi also wanted to wear one, so Hannah lent her one as well.

We had dinner at Rakuzen, and we were early, so here are the kids posing for pictures before the rest arrived.

Hannah also seems to think her sister is some sort of a real live doll. One of their favourite games is where Hannah sticks clothes pegs all over her sister's (and her own!) hair. This is the result:

So yesterday, besides putting the pegs on Heidi's hair, she also decided that it would be a good idea to peg her sister's skin! Of course Heidi wailed the place down and she now has a bruised shoulder as a result. We didn't scold Hannah however, as she was quite remorseful for having injured her little sister. She immediately showed me Heidi's bruise when I got home from work yesterday. We just explained to her that she must not do it again as it is very painful and she seemed to understand.

But she definitely sayang her little sister. Heidi's birthday is approaching so Hannah wanted to get her a gift. Heidi's favourite character at the moment is Olaf from the Disney movie "Frozen" but unfortunately we don't have the merchandise available at the moment. So we got her the next best thing, a stuffed snowman. It's all wrapped up now, but Hannah took a picture to show her Daddy what she bought for Heidi.

Our two little princesses..we hope that their loving sisterly bond will last even though they are all grown up :)