St Petersburg - Day 1

We left for St Petersburg via the internal flight instead of using the train since we didn't want to take the risk due to the recent bombing incident that happened a few months back.

Checking in our luggages, we left things that we won't be needing at my sister's hostel

Sze Yi's very excited, we're about to board the flight soon

We finally reached St. Petersburg

This is the domestic airport in St. Petersburg

We're quite disappointed with our appartment, it's not as good as shown on the internet, and quite old compared to the one we had in Moscow.

The Living Hall - the TV is not working, so we converted that into a room that can fit 4 people

My parents' room, this is the biggest room and the nicest

This is our room, we can open up the sofas to make 2 beds

This is the dining area, luckily the TV is working here. It's where the guys watched World Cup every night.

The kitchen

Our bathroom - it comes with a washer

The walkway to the living room

We reached there towards the evening, so the kids were very tired and slept early. My younger sister went out with my brother to get some groceries for the week (yes, we'll be there for 1 week). Hubby and my sister's bf took my parents out to buy dinner, while I stayed back with my elder sister and the kids since the appartment management would be coming later to fix the TV.

Here're some pictures that Hubby took while they were out:

 

 

 

That's all for Day1 :)

I Found My 2nd Helper

It was not long ago that SY was so eager to help me with the change of bedsheet. Now, ~3 years later, look who's my new helper?

Do you think they look alike? They were about the same age too (SY was 2 year and 4 months then, while SJ is 2 year and 3 months now).

Now, I'm waiting for them both to do it themselves, without me being in the picture! Hmm.... am I too ambitious?

The Vegetables School

Yes, that's what Sze Yi told Amah - we sent her to the vegetable's school! They only ate vegetables there :)

Now, Sze Yi would say her grace out loud before each meal, regardless of where she had her meals - at home, or while dining outside. And automatically Sze Juin would stop eating and follow suit. Sometimes I'm not sure if I should feel proud or embarassed - she's drawing too much unncessary attention!

Before we went to Russia, I left them at Amah's house for a week, because SJ got bronchitis while SY's having minor cold. So they actually missed school for quite a while - about 3 weeks. When we're back, naturally SJ didn't want to go back to her classroom - she joined her Jie Jie at 5-year old class. So I dropped them at SY's class  (her class teacher is ever so nice and could handle SJ too!) every morning for about 1 week. Then SJ's class teacher would come and bring SJ back to her class after she warmed up.

I was told that SY is a very good Jie Jie. She really takes great care of her Mei Mei, and I'm very proud of her. Even the teachers there praised her and asked Daddy if they ever fight at home. Because everytime when we came to pick them up, we always see SY either holding SJ's hand, or guiding her somewhere - to the toilet, or to take their shower, and even helped her take her school bag and stuffs. SJ would always said it's too heavy for her, and ran to me straightaway :) But too bad SY's only so caring in school. At home, she likes to bully Mei Mei, and they always fight! Mei Mei has very good defence system too, in fact I often heard Jie Jie crying and calling for help when Mei Mei went too wild!

One obvious improvement I saw in Sze Yi is that her character has improved a lot. She can understand a lot of things very well, I just need to explain to her and she would listen to me. She's also not as naughty as last time. Unfortunately, I also observed there's a switch of role between the girls - Jie Jie becoming more kuai while Mei Mei's becoming more cheeky and naughty. The worst thing is that she wouldn't listen, and it's hard to explain to her, unlike her Jie Jie. Maybe she's still small, but she's certainly showing a very bad Terrible Two behaviour. I have never beaten Sze Yi with cane when she's small. But with SJ, it became so uncontrollable and there's no way to make her calm down or listen to me unless I use the cane. That's the only thing that would make her stop for awhile before continuing to throw her tantrums. Sigh... and I'm losing my control very easily nowadays too.

Over all, I'm quite happy with their new school - the teachers were all very caring and helpful. However, most of the time, I couldn't help noticing that SJ would always be in somebody's arms. She would only let certain teachers carry her. And at times she wouldn't want to participate in the activities at all. I guess she's still a baby - the school didn't accept any 2 year old, the youngest is 3 year old. But they took SJ in because they are very understanding on our situation and for the first time I could feel that they were doing it out of love and not for profit at all. The only drawback is that this school is really a school, not so much like a day care where we can request the teachers to do additional things for them. But looking on another perspective, this environment would quickly train them to be more independant, which I see that SY has adapted to really nicely. As for SJ, if she's not so manja, maybe she'll adapt faster too, but because she's the youngest, and most of the teachers are extra lenient with her, that's why she has a lot of exception. Luckily she has a Jie Jie to keep an eye on her and help her adapt.

My First Pony Ride

I had my first pony ride during the Family Day event organized by the church that Poh Poh and Gong Gong went to. Daddy didn't join us as he's attending a company event. Luckily Small Ee Ee was there so she helped to take care of me while Mommy attended to Mei Mei. 

Initially I was afraid, but after Mommy let me observed for one time, I felt that I could handle it. Mei Mei was sleeping, so I went alone. It was fun at first, as you can see me smiling all the way. 

Not even half way thru, suddenly the pony suddenly shake his body so I got a fright. I cried all the way and kept telling Mommy that enough's enough.

But the pony guide still let me finished up one whole round before they let me down. Phew! What a scary experience!

Up Close and Personal with Moscow

We're in Moscow for about 5 days. Initially I was rather worried on how to handle the kids during the long flights (we had 3 continuous flights, the longest was around 9 hours), but luckily it all turned out rather well. SY was kept entertained by the little doodle that I bought (I actually went to buy 2 sets - one for each girl in case they fight over it), and they sure came in handy. SY loves doing maths and drawing things in it - and I was amazed at her drawing and math skills, really. Where as SJ was still scribbling most of the time, but she enjoyed it too. Then there were those in-flight movies and games which kept them entertained, so I didn't need to worry that they would get bored with my very limited handphone games.

What else did we do in Moscow? The pictures that I shared in the previous post were on Red Square. Here are more...

Our transportation mostly were metro, bus, and walking most of the time. We also had a boat ride in St. Petersburg, so Sze Yi was very happy that she covered all types of transportation while we're there. We used to promise her to take her for a bus ride when we're in Penang, but never had the chance to do so. Now she got to experience all in this trip.

The escalators to the metro - it was so high and fast! SY and Daddy counted until 100 before it actually ended! How scary!

A closer view at the metro station (all metro stations have their own unique design and architecture)

We went to see a Cat Show on the 2nd day there. 

It seems that only Russian can train cats very well

This activity was mainly planned for the kids. Unfortunately, they were rather afraid, especially when the clowns started throwing the balls to the audiences. Sze Yi got scared and cried :) Then, Daddy and Chew Chew were called up to the stage to perform with the cats! I only managed to capture that with my handphone, so it's a bit blurry.

Well, the cat's claws accidentally scratched my brother's legs when it climbed over him to the poll, they sure were sharp! Honestly, I was more impressed with the 2 dogs there than the cats :)


The third day was my sister's convocation. The whole event was organised by the students themselves.
 

Many people got attracted to the kids maybe because they were the youngest audiences there. Some graduates asked to take photos with them. When SY refused, one even gave her a flower until she agreed!

After that we adjourned to the Malaysian Embassy for a garden luncheon. It was a very nice environment. We tasted the traditional Russian rice cooked with mutton. It was delicious, but the rice was rather oily.

This is the place where we stayed, we're neighbours to a souvenir shop. The shop lady liked the kids so much that she gave them a souvenir each :) And we even got to take photos with her!

The last picture on the right bottom corner was taken at night. The day time there was longer since it's summer, it's still very bright until around 10pm. In the morning, it would start to be bright as early as 4am. So for the first few days there, I woke up at 3-4am in the morning! Well, maybe it's partly due to jetlag too, coz it's 4 hours behind Malaysia.

Here's the places and scenes that we'd pass thru each time before we get to the metro.

It was quite a long walk. In fact, we're really tired from the walking, and my back was aching from carrying SJ most of the time. I only let her walked along the Arbat Street, as that's the safest place to walk on her own.

This is the post office. We actually sent postcards back to ourselves, but we still haven't received them yet.

Finally here's the Metro Station. If you look carefully, there were two policemen on duty. The security were not as strict as last time, after the bombing event.

The following day would be our last day in Moscow before we flew to St. Petersburg. So my sister took us for some souvenir shopping. Not that we had a lot of space for souvenirs, because our luggages nearly reached the max limit (39.8kg, our limit was 40kg!). Anyway, it's fun to see the types of souvenirs sold there, right?

We had Russian Kebabs for lunch that day. Even though I packed lunch for the kids, they didn't always want to eat. They were more excited to try the food that we had. For our lunch/dinner, we normally cooked 1 meal and ate out for another meal. Unless we're too tired that day, or the outing extended till very late, we'll just eat out for both meals. The kids were satisfied with just potatoes, so I just had to make sure that their porridge or mee suah had potatoes in it. And surprisingly, they even ate chicken or pork with their porridge/mee suah there! Maybe it's softer? They hardly eat meat in Malaysia!

The Russians were very particular in culture and arts. Their works include a lot of details, which can also be seen in their buildings' and churches' architecture. They are also very good in painting and potraits. I couldn't help admiring the Russian ladies there too. Their features were sharp and nice, which were very well accentuated by their great taste in dressing. Even their main souvenirs - the matryoshka doll were very unique - each were hand-painted and not 2 sets were the same.

Well, that's all on Moscow. Too bad we didn't get to visit my sister's university, as she excluded that from the itinerary towards the last minute since my parents were tired from all the walk (actually we're really tired too, especially when carrying the kids along while they're sleeping). But a good thing was that we got to see it from the outside. This trip would not have been easy without my sister's bf's help. He helped a lot in many many ways, especially in helping to entertain Sze Yi most of the time. He's the most patient guy I've ever seen, and he's also a good cook. The meals that we had at home, mostly were prepared by him and my sister, while some were by my dad and elder sister.

Ok, stay tuned for my next update on our St. Petersburg trip.

From Russia With Love

We finally made it there :) It was Mei Mei's first oversea trip, and she's having a great time!

We actually prepared pacifiers for them in case they complaint of ear pain due to the height pressure. Furthermore, since both of them still having runny-nose like syndrome, we're advised to prepare lots of juices or sweets for them to chew as the runny nose might cause ear pain during the flight. But I found that pacifiers worked best for them, and came in real handy too, compared to lollipops and mentos! Surprisingly, both of them took it very well, and we don't have any problem with them at all during the flight there. At first, Jie Jie was afraid of the aeroplane, so Daddy told her it's train. Somehow she bought in that idea, and didn't seem to be scared anymore. But when we reached there, she told Daddy that actually she knew it's aeroplane, but decided to play along with Daddy! As for Mei Mei, she's very excited, and didn't show any sign of fear at all. I do nursed her on and off so maybe that helped on the pressure problem too. I also gave her the ventolin spray before the takeoff.

Both girls carrying a Tigger each with them

My sister had rented a very nice and cosy apartment for us. It was located on Moscow's most charming and lively pedestrisan street, The Arbat. I felt like being in Europe while walking down that street.

We're very very satisfied and happy with our apartment, really.

The girls in their first winter jackets

Looking at the photos, you must be thinking how cold it's in Russia right? Well, we're already warned that it's summer so it's adequate to just bring windbreaker or normal jackets, but since Sze Juin had bronchitis 1 week before the trip, we wanted to be more equipped. Ended up, Hubby and I kept thinking it's very cold there, so we bought mostly winter clothings for the kids and ourselves. That ate up a lot of luggage space actually.

Who knows when we reached there, it's so much hotter than in Malaysia! But luckily the apartment that we're staying in Moscow was fully air-conditioned, so the girls still get to wear their winter jackets :) Just for fun, actually.

Warming up the fireplace?

I'll just share a few shots of the places we went to in Moscow on the 2nd day there (we actually arrived in the late afternoon so we stayed in the apartment most of the time that day.

Russia is so much sunnier and more colorful than what Hubby initially projected as cold and grey. More photos to follow later, after I've compiled them. So stay tuned :)

Bronchitis and Father's Day

Sze Juin had fever for nearly a week before we finally took her to see the doctor. Prior to that, Jie Jie had fever first, we took both of them to see the doctors (two separate doctors) and during both times, SJ was checked and diagnosed to be perfectly OK. So only Jie Jie was on antibiotics, but they couldn't find anything wrong with SJ.

So when SJ's turn to have fever, we thought it was just a normal sore throat and took her to see the doctor. But still again, nothing wrong with her, not even a red throat. So we thought it's OK. After about 1 week and her fever still didn't really go down, we took her there again, and this time the paed suspected it's bronchitis. We're asked if we wanted to send her for chest x-ray to be certain that it's not pneumonia, we agreed. Luckily it's just bronchitis. Initially we didn't want to take her to see the doctor because if it's suspected dengue, she'll need to have her blood taken and we didn't like that. So we just stop her fever by using Paracetamol and IbuProfen.

We chose not to be admited, so we had to make several trips to the hospital for nebulizer treatment. I took the day off and my boss is so nice to let me work from home for half a day so that I can bring her there at least 3 times a day, and thank God after the 4th time, doctor found her 80% recovered. I was so relieved, because we'll be travelling in a exactly a week's time.

This was also her first time taking antibiotics Zithromax. I only managed to protect her from antibiotics for 2 years and 1 month :( Anyway, that helped her condition to improve a lot, so I wouldn't fret. Besides that, she's also on Singulair, and probiotics.

SJ holding her own nebulizer valve

She's so coperative when it comes to giving her the nebulizer treatment. Even the nurses were surprised, normally kids that age would cry or protest, but SJ co-operatively allowed them or me to put that on her. Sometimes, she even wanted to hold it herself, all through the whole process. I was so proud of her. 

Being a kiasu mom, I also took her and her Jie Jie for Ayurvedic treatment, since I wanted something to keep them from harm while we're travelling. It's OK to take the Ayurvedic herbs together with the western medicine (1 hour apart), and I felt more secured  having something with me while we're away. I'll also be bringing all the basic medications along. The paed also gave me the ventoline inhaler, in case I'll be needing that during our trip. I think we're well prepared, and since SJ's recovering very fast, I'm hoping she'll be fully cleared by then. 

Well, all this actually happened on Father's Day. So you can guess how Father's Day was celebrated this year. Anyway, we did manage to squeeze in a simple dinner together as it's also Sa Chik's birthday that day.

Amah's Birthday

We celebrated Amah's birthday at Hokaido Restaurant. Hubby's really impressed with the dishes there so he took us there for an experience for ourselves. I couldn't agree more with him. What I liked best about the restaurant was the sequence on how they served the dishes - large plates of fruits and vege before meat and finally carbohydrates. Really a very creative and healthy way of eating!

Preaparing to cut the birthday cake

Did you noticed the girls in their new dress? It's a belated Christmas presents from Aunty XP, and they loved it very much! Thanks XP, it's so very thoughtful of you. The dressses just arrived at the right time for such a special occasion :)