Worth the Wait

Saturday i chaperoned Panini at a friend's garage sale, had a quick lunch with Pea, Panini, Nata and Juneybug, and then dashed home, for some reason forgetting i had presents to get for the next day's birthdy party, and food to prepare. i spent two hours rolling around with the kids in bed, shuffling my laptop out from under hyper butts and pushing heads aside so i could view the tv at the same time. i know, parenting, right? Sometimes I wonder why i complain so much when all i have to do is gather up struggling children and pile them into bed with snacks and a prone me for their eternal, tormenting entertainment. oh, yeah, crumbs in the bed. i hate that.

then i had baby two's re-staging of her concert (the school does it twice, once for the younger kids and once for the older kids' parents. but then we have to take our kids to both, so everyone turns up anyway. why they do it twice is beyond me and i think it's cruel!) it's hot and there's no space and by the time it was baby two's turn, she was crying. i got called to her class room by some unscrupulous mother, much to the frustration of her teachers because they were making headway. by headway i mean they had given her cake and she was stuffing it into her mouth through tears and sobs, like some bulimic it girl.

after i appeared, there was no getting her to agree to do her bit in the show, and i would have taken her home if her grandma and i had not already spent an hour and a half getting slowly steamed in the hall like dumplings. at least tok mummy had a nap. baby one was getting antsy and i just wanted to lie down. so between me and the teacher we telepathically agreed on the best strategy: mummy go to toilet. poor thing got onstage and danced her disheartened way through her steps, all the while staring at me with watery puffy eyes, her harry potter birthmark glowing red on her forehead while i tried to smile encouragingly. after she got off, we were out of there like lightning. even tok mummy, who normally loves things with loads of kids around, was scampering out the front door while i ran for the car in the rain, yelling instructions on where to meet for the quickest getaway. by the time i got home it was almost seven, and i had less than two hours to make it to bangsar in the pouring rain, grab presents, find Pea, Nata, Juneybug, Nellnug and Jitski for eats before the show we were to watch (Bunga Manggar, Bunga Raya, loads of fun, poignant and very clever, but mostly one big celebration).

then I get home and defrost all the little chicken drumsticks especially for little hands, pour over the kikkoman, honey and grated garlic, tupperware it and stuff it back into the fridge for grilling the next morning. then i wrapped the presents and put them away to avoid discovery. that day i had the brilliant idea to follow Panini's advice to simply get someone else to cook. our office is upstairs from NZ Curry house, Wangsa Maju's Celebrity Mamaks to the Stars. the boys there are all my fren and i have their number on quick dial. one phone call and i had mee hoon to feed 20 people. snap!

Sunday dawns at ten am for me, and i get the chicken going and call hubby boo who's coming from genting after a wild night at the era music awards the night before (sorry, but everyone is starting to look really datin, even the guys) and make sure he's awake and then proceed to give him a shopping list of all the stuff i should have bought the night before. drinks, ice, pick up the mee. we go down to the pool after Panini arrives, bringing lucky dips for the kids to take home later.

one of the presents i bought was a star-shaped lilo, which lung-challenged Panini offered to blow up. luckily before she passed out Mamamin and Niamah arrived with their babies one and two and THE CAKE. Niamah doubled the lung workforce and in no time we had transportation to and from each side of the pool.

being a fashionable family, they all arrived in trickles and by noon we were prunes basking in the sun and eating off plates resting on contented bellies.

THE CAKE was divine, and baby two was so happy with it!


go to Mama Min's site and check out all her other awesome creations.




then before i knew it, it was almost two and i had to get ready for my date with the opera. ben tan (yes, tadano from sumolah) offered another ticket at short notice which Panini took. Realising she only had shorts and flip flops, we scrambled through my wardrobe for something for her to wear, but realised soon that was NOT going to happen (i'm two of her), and that she just HAD to go shopping - an hour before the show, half an hour before we were supposed to meet.

we made it in time, listened to the fabulous Sumi Jo and the MPO and then spent the evening with friends, my favourite pastime besides being alone doing my own thing: talking non-stop. later, i came home to find we had forgotten to have the lucky dip and i had not even given baby two her presents yet.

a lovely weekend with lots of lovely like-minded people just wanting to have a nice time with other lovely people.

lovey!
C