Family Picture

Actually this was taken in 2007 before Alan Ku-ku went to US to study for his MBA. I nicked this picture from Ee-ee's Facebook. So I don't have a soft-copy of the picture taken of just the 3 of us. Anyhow, back to the main topic, this is a picture of the 4 of us. You recently came across the print out copy that I'd kept in my drawer. (Ok, I'm a procrastinator.. never got around to buying a frame for my 3 pictures!).

So now you can recognise mummy (obviously) and Ee-ee (since we see her quite often). As for the other two... I'd only mentioned their name a couple of times and now you can recognise them. Alex Ku-ku is now working in KL and so you see him less often. Well, even when he was in Penang, we rarely saw him. As for Alan Ku-ku, he's now studying in US, so the last time you saw him was when you were just over 1 year old. Of course, you still cannot pronounce the "l" in their names, so you call them: "A-nex" and "A-nen" Ku-ku! Hahaha...

How did it go last night?

I know I know.. I'm very long winded. Hey.. that must be where you get it from.. Since you are always full of questions too! Ok back to the "main" topic:

So far you have been willing to sleep in your own bed, providing mummy is with you while you are falling asleep. Again, you slept in your own bed until around 4+am and you woke up saying "mummy..." well that's what I heard. Daddy said he heard you saying that you were cold. Anyhow, you slept with us from then onwards. As I am typing this, you are napping on your mattress now. Guess you're quite happy with it. Kakak Wati said that you got upset when she tried to keep the futon into the bag on Thursday.

Did it work?

Yup.. I know I said yesterday that I'd only try getting you to sleep in your own bed only this weekend. But since the mattress and futon was still in our room, I decided to try my luck and ask if you wanted to sleep there. And to my surprise, you agreed to sleep on your mattress. Of course, mummy had to keep you company until you fell asleep.

So far so good. And I went to sleep shortly after that on my bed. But of course, you woke up at around 4 am again and climbed up on my bed to join us. Daddy must've expected you to do something like that, because he had your other pillow wedged in between our pillows (your spot), all ready for you!

I hope that this would be a good start to "weaning" you off from my bed. I wonder if you'll sleep on your mattress again tonight?

The Bed is all Mine...

... or so I thought. It was only mine for the shortest moment (no, I have not kicked daddy out of the bed!). You told me yesterday night that you wanted to sleep in the small room (your toy room). And I asked you many times if you knew that sleeping int hat room, you'd be sleeping alone. And you kept saying you want to sleep alone in that room. So ok, we got a little light to put in the room and changed and brushed your teeth.

Mummy kissed you goodnight and I told you not to be afraid if you wanted to go back to my room. You said "ok". I walked out of the room and chatted with daddy.. and.. "pitter patter" first I heard little feet running on the laminated flooring and next you were standing next to me, grinning away. NOW you wanted me to sleep with you! We went back to the room and I told you that I was tired and did not want to sleep in that room. So I told you that I'd go back to my room after you'd fallen asleep. Did you?

NOOO!!! No way, no chance, never! Instead, you kept grinning and chatting with me. My super thumping headache was no help either. So after 20 minutes or so, I gave up and back to my room we went. You did not want to go, but I was too tired. So... we brought over the futon + mattress and told you that you'll sleep on the floor on 2 layers, sorta like the story "The Princess and the Pea". That kept you contented... for a while.

Less than 10 minutes later, I heard you walking to my bedside and looked at me. I pretended not to hear you and you went back to your bed. I thought that you'd go back to sleep. Nope fat hope! You climbed back up on my bed and finally fell asleep on my bed.

Daddy moved you back to your bed later on but at around 4am I found a lump sleeping near my knee! It was you again! So I moved you back to between us and that's how you slept until I left for work this morning.

And I thought that you'd finally moved out of my bed. We're not doing any funny bedtime arrangements tonight. I have a bad headache today.

Eating Fruits

You have never been keen on eating fruits and veggies, and it was getting more and more difficult to convince you to eat veggies and fruits. But it seems that it's getting easier to convince you to eat the fruits (not veggies.. not working for now). How?

Because you keep doing hard poo-poo. Just like yesterday evening, you needed to do poo and you had so much difficulty trying to get it out. Your face turned red and you tried to get it out. So what did YOU tell me?

So I have to eat banana lo. Otherwise my ngk-ngk will be hard hard lo.

I hope that this serves as a lesson for you to take more fruits in future. Of course chances are you'd have forgotten about the need to eat more fruits by now. I guess we need to keep trying new ways to encourage you to eat those fruits!

As for veggies, the only thing you'd eat are that cooked in your moi-moi. Whatever Ah Ma cooks for dinner is not touched by you. The only veggie that you'd eat are still cabbage. And try as he may, daddy cannot convince you that cabbage = veggies...

Is it Sunday already???

Aw gosh.. as I am typing this, it's already the end of our weekend. How time flies when you're having fun. What did we do today? With our guests still around, we headed to Lorong Selamat fo lunch of Char Kuey Tiau and ice-kacang. You had kuay tiau th'ng which you enjoyed, drinking the soup to the last drop!

Before heading home, we stopped by to have our favourite coconut ice-cream. Even Ying Ying Kor-kor was happy that she'd gotten to eat it. She says that she can now go back to Australia happy, having eaten all the food that she was craving for.

After they left for Ipoh, you took your nap. While you were napping, mummy took this opportunity to try out this yummy yogurt cake recipe which was shared by Sethy's mummy. Of course, halfway through baking, you decided to wake up. Luckily daddy was around to keep you company and by the time you woke up, the cake was baking in the oven.

How did the cake turn out? It was yummy. Just a little short of vanilla flavour. Maybe next time I will add some chocolate. I had to put some of the batter into cup cakes because my cake tin was too small. Phew.. luckily I had some spare from before.

Anyhow, today seems to be a day for food and only food, and it's now over. Time to go back to work tomorrow. I hope you don't wake up early as you did this morning. At 7.40am on a WEEKEND!

Our Saturday

Despite your late night, you decided to wake up at 7.30am and we got up just in time to catch Ah Ma before she went to the market. So she waited for us while you freshened up, changed and drank your milk. Since we were late, our usual carpark was full, so we parked elsewhere. But it was still nearby to the market.

Bought everything we needed and headed home with breakfast for Ah Kong who was waiting for us at home. Ate breakfast and went out after we all took out bath. First stop was the kitchen appliances shop nearby. After wondering around the shop, you decided that you needed to wee wee. So off we went and after all was settled we went to our next stop, the kitchen ID shop. With your "help" the final details were settled and we headed to the Penang Sports Club for lunch. I'm sure you were very hungry by then. I was.. We had noodles and Ah Kong even ordered your favourite chippies for you. Of course the moment the chippies arrived, you only had eyes for that!

After the food was settled, you needed to output. But by the time we got the bathroom, you were so distracted by the decor of the changing room/rest room, you could not do your "business". Sigh.. So off we went to another kitchen appliances shop and (as expected) you insisted that you needed to poo.. and NO you could not wait to get back to the Sports Club! Arrghhh... So there we were using the "squatty" toilet. It's your second time using it, and the last time was too long ago so this time you were very interested in this new type of toilet!

We headed back home and soon Chek Kong, Chim Poh and Ying Yin Kor-kor arrived. They were to spend the weekend in Penang. After all the excitement of having visitors, you finally took your nap and when you woke up, we had dinner in Double Dragon Restaurant, a very old restaurant which serves yummy food. Only thing is that they were rather slow and by the time dinner was served, you were so hungry that you finished the whole bowl of rice! I was so worried that you'd over eaten, but you wanted to polish everything in your bowl!

You went back with Ah Kong while daddy, mummy and Ying Ying Kor-kor went to Gurney Drive to buy some food stuff that she was craving for. Lucky for her, it had stopped raining. We went home and you joined in the supper, eating the sotong bakar while we also ate the rojak. What a wonderful way to end our Saturday.

Where is your diaper?

I hope so. So far the only time you wear diapers is when you are sleeping at night. Naps are now diaper free. I started to let you nap diaperless on weekends, and at last I have asked Ah Ma to let you go diaperless. So far, everything seemed ok. Except that there was a slight accident yesterday. I was on half day leave and had a spa treatment compliments of Ee-ee. (Thank you!) And when I got back, you were sleeping. After you woke up, Ah Ma gave you Yakult and we forgot to get you to wee wee first. I guess there was no more place for the Yakult so you had to let go!! One minute you were squatting on the floor, looking at me do something and next thing I know... The floor was wet and the puddle was getting bigger and bigger! Ok, that's not your fault, since I forgot to get you to wee first thing after you woke up.

As for going out, we were never brave enough to bring you out without letting you wear diapers. My biggest fear is that you decide that you need to wee wee and we're somewhere where there is no such facilities. At long last, we decided that you seemed to have good bladder control, so we took you out last week diaperless (I even forgot to bring a spare diaper and spare pants! Yikes!). We went for lunch, then to Gurney Plaza to kai-kai. All seemed ok. But I was worried and kept asking you if you needed to wee wee. In the end, you decided that you needed to wee wee while we were in Gurney Plaza.

We even went to Uncle Khoo's house for a party and you didn't have diapers on. Nope.. no accident. Of course, I still had to ask you many times, in case you got too excited playing and forgot to wee wee. But I dare not let you go diaperless for the ride to BM on Monday. Hey, it's a longer ride and er.. we can't just roll down the window.

Today, we were out for a long time, and you obliged to my question (yup, you didn't seem too keen..) on whether you needed to wee wee twice. Today I was prepared with a spare diaper and pants kept in daddy's car. But we didn't use it. You must be sick of mummy asking you if you needed to wee wee.. But I'm glad that you are doing well. Hopefully soon you can go 100% without diapers.

Muakkss to you from mummy and daddy.

How's your mood today?

Lately you've taken to asking people how they feel. Especially when you know you've done something wrong.

Just like this:

Evan :Mummy, are you angry?

Mummy : Yes, I am.

Evan: Don't be ANGRY!

Hhmm.. seems like we're not allowed to be angry.

Then again, with you knowing that we're angry, you know to behave yourself and over Chinese New Year, we managed to get you to wish everyone.

You seem to be able to tell from our expression if we're happy, angry or sad. Just now as I was trying to get you to take your nap, you knew that I was already getting angry so what did I get from you? A little kiss before you decided to finally take your nap! How do we stay angry at you? Haih....

Happy Valentine's Day, sweetie!

Happy Birthday Grampy

Actually the birthday is tomorrow. But since today is a replacement public holiday and we haven't had a CNY dinner together, we headed to BM despite the (high) probability of heavy traffic with today being Chap Goh Meh and yesterday being Thaipusam.

Of course we had a late night yesterday so everyone woke up late today. By the time everyone was ready, we only left Penang at around 12 noon. So we picked up Nanna and headed to Aeon City for lunch. Walked around, daddy brought you to have a look at the play area in Jusco (which sadly most of the rides were out of order) and bought a few things before headed home. Wanted to get Grampy to join us for lunch, but he was "chef" for tonight's dinner, so he had to stay at home to prepare the soup. Tried to get you to take your nap, but you refused to. So when Ee-ee came, we headed to town to visit 3rd Ee Poh. Yup, she was back on holiday from Australia. We even got to see baby Felicia. You played for quite a while with Jayden before we headed to Ee-ee's house to pick up Teo-teo.

Headed home to wait for Grampy to prepare dinner. What was on the menu? Birthday lam mee. Yay! Everyone's favourite. Who's birthday is it? It's Grampy's birthday. He's turning 67 tomorrow. What else did we have to celebrate his birthday? A cake that we bought when we went for lunch.

Helping Grampy blow out his candle

After the cake, you insisted that you wanted to shower. And a good thing that you did too. You fell asleep on the way home. Must be very tired, since you did not take your nap and had such a late night yesterday too. And you are still sleeping now as I am typing. I guess you'll be sleeping through the night. I just hope you don't decide to wake up at 6.00am tomorrow!

Oh yeah, daddy brought his camera along to BM today. He took a few pictures of the beautiful flowers that Grampy has grown in the back garden. What do you think? I love the flowers. I think you like them too, since you kept insisting that you wanted to look at the flowers.

The 9th Day of CNY

Monday was the first day back to work after a whole week of holiday. Luckily you were still sleeping when we left for work, otherwise.. we'd have a very difficult start to the work week. Sigh.. We tried to go home early on Monday because we had plans for the 9th day of CNY. Why it's a very important day for the Hokkiens and since we had leave to take, we planned to make another trip back to Ipoh again.

So we went home, had dinner and got ready to leave for Ipoh. By the time everyone was ready, it was almost 8pm. Just as planned.. we didn't want to leave too early for fear of the heavy traffic on the Penang Bridge. Traffic was quite clear and we were soon on our way to Ipoh. We arrived at around 10pm in Ipoh to find everyone getting ready for the midnight prayers. Kor Poh, Chim Poh and Su Kor-kor were busy unfolding and stacking the paper hats that were to be burnt later on.

We left you to entertain your Chek Kong while we went out to buy milk. Yup, forgetful mummy forgot to bring along the milk that I'd bought. Anyhow daddy's camera's flash also needed batteries *grin*. 4th Chek Kong even gave you another ang pow. Why? Because he wanted you to greet him like this. I forgot to mention on the 2nd day of CNY, he was a little late for dinner because he went looking for ice-cream that he's promised you in the afternoon! How sweet..

At around 11pm, we started to bring out all the things that were to be offered for prayers. Even you helped out. Kor-kor let you help to carry foodstuff that were light and small. You were so happy to help out. And then.. it rained.. and the rain got heavier and heavier! Like I'd mentioned before, it's really strange for it to rain during CNY. In fact, it did not rain when we were back in Penang, but it was raining every evening in Ipoh, and so everyone rushed to pull the table with the offerings nearer to the center of the car porch while Chim Poh rushed to get something to cover the paper hats that were in the middle of the garden.

Anyhow, the prayers went on as usual and you were so excited. Kept asking if it were your turn to "pai pai". At long last it was your turn to hold the joss stick, kneel and pray and give me the joss to be put in the container. Of course, that wasn't enough for you, so you had another go at it.

After everyone was done praying, it was time for us to keep the food. Again, you were a good assistant, helping us carry the foodstuff to the kitchen. We had a feast enjoying the food before you finally decided it was time for bed. You kept telling me "Mummy, let's go upstairs and sleep". Of course before that, you had to do your round of kissing and telling everyone "goodnight" before we headed upstairs. By the time we got ready for bed, you were wide awake again. But everyone else was not. So after a while, you finally went to bed at around 2am!

What time did you wake up today? 9.30am... sigh I really wished that you'd sleep in longer, but you were awake already. We stayed for lunch, which was in the East Ocean Restaurant in Menglembu. The food was delicious. There was another round of lou sang which you got to participate in again (this time you didn't lose your chopstick like the first time). You loved the fish and also the gravy from the prawn that you ate 1.5 bowls of rice (small bowl). On the way back home, you fell asleep and only woke up when we made a stop at a tile showroom.