counting down to ... a holiday of *stress*?

We will be flying off in about a week's time and I'm getting stressed up over it. We have yet to pack, plan the trip and my biggest stress factor, I'll be taking care of #2 myself - without the help of the maids.

Some people applaud my sheer bravery in bringing both kids with us on a long haul trip - it's about 16 hours excluding the stopovers. Bravery or sheer stupidity ... i don't know but I can't bear to leave either kid behind and I cannot afford to pay for the maid to accompany us on the trip ... so there ... well just try it out right? and I hope the other passengers won't line up to strangle me.

Well, I know it's a holiday, and yet I cannot fully enjoy myself running around painting the town red, but it's would be a good time for me to bond with boy boy ... he's a lot more expressive now - showing his displeasure by pushing us or turning away ... and he has learnt to ignore me by looking away if I come back late from work ... i truly look forward to our bonding time and I supposed I just have to learnt how to manage the stress ... i just hope #2 doesn't suffer in anyway!

V recently performed in her childcare centre end of the year concert, and it was quite funny to see her, because she was one of the least expressive one - didn't really want to "shake her booty" and with a perpetual scowl on her face ... but she went through her parts and she was the only one who did the actions in accordance to the music (the rest were a little too ahead) ... and after the concert is _over_, she now starts to sing the song in the car ... and other songs too ... 6 months ago I worry about her not really speaking, and now, she can negotiate and put 2 and 2 together ...

She was also whining about playing this "mango puzzle" and we, for the longest time, just ignore her because we don't have any puzzles that has a picture of a mango! We assumed she was just making it up or just wanted some other puzzles ... then one find day, my ultra slow brain finally figured out what she wanted ... "you want zingo is it?!?" and she nodded slowly ... she must be thinking "finally! what took them so LONG to figure out what is mango puzzle!" So she is happily playing with the daddy on her bed now ... the daddy is happy too, since he gets kisses by giving up his tiles to her, and she would pat his face and promise to find the next tile for him ...

We also recently (just the 3 of us) took some pictures ... V was in a FOUL mood so there was hardly any shots of her... didi had this "gong gong" look about him which I just adore ... will post up later =)