Joni pushes Hannah on the tricycle

4-year-old Joni pushes 2-year-old Hannah on her tricycle.

Two more cute kid stories

I've got two cute stories to tell too, in addition to the one Ian told earlier.

Story 1: When food drops on the ground
We babysat my friend's 7-yr-old girl. When my friend came to pick up her daughter, one of the three wee girls dropped some munchy on the floor. So my friend said, "Oh, don't eat that. It's dirty because it dropped on the floor." Whereupon, Joni's little voice chirped: "Mummy says she can eat it because she has a strong stomach." Blush, blush...

Story 2: Looking a gift horse in the mouth
Hannah was seen playing with a switched-on torchlight in her left hand and a wooden spatula in her right, pointing at the mouth of a toy horse given by a little girlfriend from church. A little doctor wannabe!

Ta, and so much for little girl stories!

Juliane

Joni the Mediator

We were at a birthday party and the kids got normal-air balloons on plastic sticks (the kind that stand up without need for helium).

Hannah had been annoying Joni by bopping her on her head with her balloon, so I told Hannah that if she didn't cease and desist, I would take the balloon away from her. She didn't, so I did.

Naturally, Hannah, being 2½, started whining and crying. After some minutes, Joni decided she wanted the baby sling that Hannah had on her lap. I told Joni that she'd have to ask Hannah for it because it was Hannah's. Joni asked, then complained to me that even though she said "Please", Hannah didn't give it to her. I explained to Joni that it was because Hannah was upset that her balloon had been taken away from her.

Then Joni proceeded to negotiate with Hannah that if mummy gave her back her balloon, would she promise not to bop Joni on her head anymore? So Hannah promised, and we gave her back her balloon, then Joni asked for for the sling "please" and Hannah gave it to her!

Juliane and I were quite impressed with 4-year-old Joni's negotiation skills! ☺

Joni & Hannah with parasols

10th year anniversary

Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001.
A little over 10 years ago, I helped with Joshua Chin and Amy Liew's wedding. 10 years ago, they invited me to their place for dinner "in appreciation for the help".

Chew Juliane was also there. I assumed that she also had helped with the wedding.

She hadn't.

It was a set-up :-)

But half way through the dinner, my dad called, saying "Turn on CNN!" It was September 11, 2001.

We spent the night without any thought of romance... the dinner turned into a prayer meeting. We stayed up watching the news. The next day, online looking at the news.

However, God still put us together again 30 September 2001 and we've been married since 21 June 2003 (on Joshua Chin's birthday! :-)

• Ian & Juliane's engagement
• Ian & Juliane's wedding
• Joni's birth
• Hannah's birth

Joni & Hannah with "kor kor" Simon Lim

Simon is the son of our wonderful babysitter, Rebecca. Obviously Joni & Hannah really like "kor kor" Simon. ("Kor kor" is Cantonese for "big brother".)

These photos were taken at the August Children's Church at Community Baptist Church, Puchong.

Photo video of our Singapore trip.

My friend Lim Chee Peng made this photo video collage of our Singapore trip.

If you're on an Android phone or other smartphone, click on this link instead to use the YouTube app to view the video.