Etienne and Elise wishing grandpa happy birthday Oct 2009

Etienne and Elise wishing their malaysian grandfather happy birthday :)

Etienne babysitting Sep 2009

Etienne babysitting, and Elise said in french, "She doesn't know how to talk, Maan-maan!" (that's our nickname for her, like tien-tien for Etienne and li-lise for Elise)

Emmanuelle tweetering Sep 2009

Kae's FB status updates 2009

KAE IS HAPPY COUSINS AND AUNT ARRIVED SAFELY, AND IS THANKFUL FOR AN ABUNDANT LIFE, GOD IS GOOD, CHRISTMAS IS HERE :) 21 DEC 2009

Kae there's more snow on my balcony :)! And my cousins and aunt have arrived safely, hurrah, let the parties begin :)! 18 Dec

Kae there's snow on my balcony!! "I'm dreaming of a white christmas...", but not too much snow so that my cousins and aunt can arrive safely today midday by train! (all the flights were cancelled last night) 17 Dec

Kae to her 2 year old, "What are you doing my love?" to which she replied, "I'm inventing..." 16 Dec

Kae to her 5 year old, "Have you been listening to what I said?" to which he replied, "What?" 14 Dec

Kae partied two nights (one in lyon one in chaponost) for the festival of lights http://www.lumieres.lyon.fr/lumieres/sections/fr and now it's midday and she and all her kids are still in pyjamas... :)! 9 Dec

Kae is with her kids reading christmas stories, opening advent calendar flaps and keeping an eye out for the poor christmas tree that is threatening to topple over everytime 2 year old rearranges its decorations! 2 Dec

Kae then spent the weekend nursing two sick kids, one still jumping and climbing around despite having asthma, the other still smiling and burping despite having a blocked nose and a cough. We don't know if it's swine flu since the former is not serious enough to be tested, and looking at the list of possible symptoms the whole family has probably got it already and survived! Surviving the nights is another story :) 29 Nov

Kae just spent an hour making mushroom lasagne, did you know how much cream and butter and olive oil goes into it? Nigel slater recipe :) 28 Nov

Kae nobody told me that untangling a slinky (which takes up to half an hour each time) is in my parental contract... 26 Nov

Kae wished she could have recorded the surrealistic conversation she had today with her 2 year old (it's too complicated to write down!) Oh, and she's in the "Why?" stage!

Kae loves her son's drawings of a rainy day...there's always a sun over the clouds and a rainbow under :) 22 Nov

Kae feels like a lioness: roaring at her cubs, who are tumbling everywhere (except the baby, who is amused), and scuffing at them with her paw...grrrrr... 17 Nov

Kae is also amused: Julien is babysitting, which means he's watching France vs Ireland with baby Emmanuelle on his lap....and goal!! 1-0! Now they're dancing, ha! 14 Nov

Kae is losing the battle on dirty laundry... 14 Nov

Kae Parenting Tip #207: Don't tell them the secret. Etienne asked me the other day, "Mummy Daddy is it true you can see us from behind your head? How do you know when we are going to be naughty (in french "faire un betise")?" I said it's a secret parents have. So DON'T Let them find out :)! 9 Nov

Kae bought a calendar from the voluntary firemen at the village for Etienne, told him they were fund-raising, and he said, "Yes they are not rich huh, when I went to visit the fire station I didn't see a piggy bank." 6 Nov

Kae is having a lovely birthday: a clean house (thanks to nice lady from ADMR), all three kids napping, facebooking (thanks for all the greetings i really treasure them, and my DAD just joined FB too bravo!), a warm cup of tea and chocolate, AND resto tonight with hubby thanks to grandparents babysitting, wow. Nov

Kae celebrates 9 years of marriage to her wonderful man (but no resto tonight due to three wonderful kids, on school holidays as well, may be an early night, ha!) Oct

Kae's two year old wants to know why Baa Baa Black Sheep doesn't have another bag of wool for a little girl. 22 Oct

Kae Parenting tip #206: If your milk looks a bit orangey, and your milk carton rattles, investigate... there may just be an orange colouring pen slipped inside by your 2 year old. Huh. 19 Nov

Kae Elise at school http://ecolemartel.laclasse.com/spip.php?article496

Kae Etienne's school cafeteria menu yesterday: Velouté de légumes (vegetable cream soup), poulet rôti fermier au jus (roast farm chicken with its juices), galette de pomme de terre (potato cakes), yaourt (yogurt) et fruits (ditto). 14 Oct

Kae to Elise in a stern-mum voice, "Stop jumping on the sofa, monkey!" Elise answered, "I'm not a monkey, i"m a happy!" It's true :)... 7 Oct

Happy birthday Dad :)! Oct

it's official, kae can no longer keep up with FB status updates, plus she hab a blocked nobe again, courtesy of her kids... aaarrrrrrchoooo! Sniff! 30 Sep

Kae is sorry she can't join any mafia wars, sorority sisterhoods, etc or take any iq tests or personality tests or whatever on FB...three kids keeping her on her toes, she can barely keep up with the status updates :)! 18 Sep

Kae wonders why elise is obsessed with dressing up the cordless phone in a pink sock... sorry if you've tried to call :)! 1 Sep

Kae quotes Etienne, "When I grow up and earn money mummy, I can fly to africa and give them half!" 20 Aug

Kae still didn't know what she didn't click but anyway all her friends are back :).... 14 Aug

Kae didn't know what she clicked but she's lost all her friends...urgghhh.... 12 Aug

Kae wishes she could bottle the incomparable warm, fuzzy, sweet new baby smell .... (and filter out the yogurty cheesy burped milk smell, ha!) 5 Aug

Kae has finished reading How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman, likes it, and is on to season three for Dr House (efficient night feeds!) 28 Jul

Does watching dr house (series 1 and 2 i know i'm really behind) during night feeds constitutes as continueing medical education...:) 15 Jul

Elise calls emmanuelle "pere noel" (father christmas) sometimes, wonders if it's because of the gift she got from her when she arrived, ha!

Emmanuelle Kai-Ling arrived Sunday 5 july! 9 Jul

"We do this because, in an imperfect world, we see—and have fallen in love with—the perfection for which it was intended. We do this because we know that this darkness—of sickness, of tumors, of poverty, of war—isn't what was meant to be. We do this because we know that there is a light behind it all, and that this very world, this very creation, will one day become light—but not just one day, not just in the sweet by and by. See, here's what's most important. We work because, in working, in the smallest and most imperfect way, we might just be a bit part in that redemption, right now, right here. So that's the crux: despite the deaths, despite the setbacks, we know that the Barenaked Ladies, those most sage of Canadian philosophers, were right. We have to kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight." 1 Jul http://mercyinafrica.blogspot.com/2009/03/kicking-at-darkness.html

Kae thinks her fellow malaysians should be more concerned about the death rate from road traffic accidents (so drive carefully!) instead of the H1N1 flu hyped up...? 27 Jun

Kae should be working on the mercy ships formulary instead of FBing...ok i'm logging off :)! 20 Jun

Kae has no time to work out how to do wall photos, so is adding photos to her profile pic randomly :)! 12 Jun

Kae needs more than 24 hours a day, and 10 kgs less (not that I want baby to come now, stay cosy baby stay cosy in mummy, it's just that I'm getting backache from sitting at the computer and may not reach the keyboard soon!) to finish the mercy ships essential formulary 6 Jun

Kae must log off FB and chase elise and dress her up, she's streaking around the house with everything off, diapers included! 18 May

Kae celebrated Elise's birthday today, she's two already :)!

Kae wondered what happened to her FB version, how do I view everyone's status update? Used to be able to do it by just clicking on friends, but now it keeps bugging me to add or search more friends!! 7 May

Good news: found - 4 coins that elise hid under her highchair; bad news:still unfound - 5 stones she picked up from the walk in the woods yesterday! 4 May

Kae has 3 more months to go till D Day, when she and julien will be outnumbered by their offspring! 17 April

Kae will be dreaming of sun, sea, sand and sailing, as she turns off the computer an hour earlier tonight for earth hour and to wake up in time for church tomorrow (time change in France!) 29 mar

Kae caught the bug that elise had, well I was teaching her to share, but still... now i'm stuck at home and bored and well I can FB now! 22 Mar

Kae has arrived safely back in Lyon, the kids are having early morning parties again, want to join us? 3am today, maybe 4am tomorrow :)? 6 Mar

Kae arrives in Singapore at 4pm, kiasu already, ha! And meeting the Notts gang on Sunday, call lich if you're free! 20 Feb

Kae's jetlagged kids woke up midnight to party till 5am when we first arrived, but better now so call us for evening parties instead! 11 Feb

Kae is flying to Malaysia tomorrow, sand sea and sunshine for a month, hurrah! 3 Feb

Kae and Julien will have a busy year....they're going for number three! Happy CNY and you'll need to prepare one more angpow for us next year, ha! 26 Jan

Kae finally has time to watch obama's inauguration online 21 Jan

Am proud to say Mercy Ships is listed in the top 30 exemplary ministries by Ministry Watchdog, and it's good to be aware too of dodgy ones so you know where your giving ends up! 19 Jan http://www.christianpost.com/article/20081221/ministry-watchdog-releases-2008-donor-alert-list/index.html

Kae thinks Elise is precocious: she started terrible twos at 16 months old! 18 Jan

Kae in her feverish state has managed to scan through all her friends pages today! Now if only I can get my eyes back in focus... 14 Jan

Kae is counting down to February trip to Malaysia (and skipping a month of winter here), woohoo! 12 Jan

Kae's nose is better but she's still eaten too much hotpot/steamboat last night, yum!! Blessed New Year everyone! Our resolution is to update our blog, ha! 1 Jan 2009