Weekend before the BIG Weekend

What did we do? Well we spent the weekend in the condo starting from Friday evening. But before that, we dropped off to visit Tou-tou as Ah Ma wanted to borrow Uncle Sin Tien's car. As we were left, mummy put you in your car seat. And that night, you decided to scream and protest having to sit in there, when you willingly went in on our ride to Tou-tou's place. Sigh.. So.. what to do? Let you continue protesting all the way to the condo. That was the longest and noisiest ride ever. We were all thankful to finally arrive there. And you went up to play until it was time to go to bed.

The first thing we did on Saturday morning was to go to Youth Park, just as promised by daddy. After that, we went home to pick up kakak Wati as she was to help clean up the condo in preparation of your birthday party. We bought her lunch and went back to have our lunch and off we went to Island Plaza to buy some things for the house. After that, it was your bedtime, so we headed back for you to rest a little and for mummy to wrap up your presents.

After kakak was done, we headed home to wait for pick up Ah Kong and Ah Ma then then went for dinner and headed back to the condo. Another late night for you as usual (sigh..)

Sunday was spent with mummy at home and also at the mall. Ah Ma and Tou-tou went to get their hair done, so we went to Gurney Plaza to buy some things for your upcoming birthday.

And so that's how we spent our weekend. Daddy has promised you another round at the Youth Park next weekend, when it's your birthday. He's not going to play golf that weekend even. Lucky you.

Countdown: 5 days to your birthday

Pweesse Go to Sleep

When we came back from work yesterday, Ah Ma already gave us warning that you'd slept longer than usual. Instead of sleeping around 2.30-4.30, you slept at 3-6pm! Sigh.. So that meant that we had a long night ahead.

True enough, you refused to go to sleep. We went down for supper as you only ate a little bit of moi-moi and some rice (furthermore, your dinner was interrupted by the need to poo-poo. Sigh.. ) You helped mummy to push your high chair to the back where you had milk and some cornflakes.

We went upstairs and you played on our bed and played and played. Even when you started to show signs of being tired, you refused to sleep. You'd stay still for a while, then continue to play. In the end, daddy fell asleep first. In fact, I think mummy also fell asleep before you finally slept. By then it was already 11pm!

We woke up to move you to your cot. But as usual, you woke up later to ask to be moved to our bed again. And then you woke up at 6+. SO EARLY! I pretended to sleep, but after a while you got bored from being bf and you called Mameee Mameee Mamee.. too difficult to ignore. So I looked at you and what did you tell me? 2 thumbs up (yup, you finally know how to lift the thumbs instead of the index fingers) and "good". Sigh.. We lazed in bed for a long time (no intention of waking up so early) and then when it was time for me to get up and get ready for work, you fell asleep. Haiyo... keep me up when I want to sleep and when I'm up, you go to sleep. But that was only for a short while. You woke up while I was having my shower, calling to me. So we had breakfast together today.

And our last look at you was when you were waving cheerfully to us from the upstairs garden. How to stay angry at you?

Countdown: 10 days to your birthday

Ah Kong is Back

Actually this is a bit outdated, but I thought of blogging about it anyway. Ah Kong had been travelling for the past 3 weeks. First was to US for a week, the back to Malaysia for 2 days before heading to Perth with Ah Ma for a holiday. On the same day that he arrived in Penang, he took another flight out to Japan. Phew.. So I know that you missed him a lot, especially during lunch time where he almost always goes home to play with you.

So on Saturday, Ah Kong was to arrive at 8.20pm. Even before that you knew that Ah Kong was coming back. Even when talking to Ee-ee, you told her "Ah Kong.. Ah Pok" er.. that's your version of "airport". Mummy had taught you that word over the week. And so now whenever anyone asks you where is Ah Kong, they'll get the reply "Ah Pok". Hahaha...

You were so happy to see Ah Kong, but you didn't have enough sleep that day so by the time we arrived home, you'd already fallen asleep. Poor little guy. You slept before 9 and only woke up at 8.30 the next day! Wow! Record. And since you didn't really see Ah Kong the day before, you still told mummy that Ah Kong was at the airport!

We spent Sunday morning with Ah Kong and daddy in Youth Park. Hhmm.. there seems to be more children than usual. Maybe because it's still school holidays. Well, after 30 minutes, you got tired and we went to have brunch before heading home, as daddy and Ah Kong had a golf game in the afternoon.

The rest of the afternoon was spent with mummy. I tried to get you to take your nap, but as always, you bullied me. There was one stage that I pretended to sleep hoping that you'll follow suit. But.. what did you do? Stand up and take off your pants and diapers.. telling me that you wanted to poo-poo! Sigh.. So off we went (lucky for you, you did need to poo-poo.. or else... ) and after a while you finally went to sleep, giving mummy some time to do my things. Phew..

After you woke up from your nap, you had your milk and biscuits while watching you Wheels on The Bus VCD. I've been watching this show at least 4-5 times in a row each day, I'm going to start pulling out my hair very soon. But this time after watching for 2-3 times, I managed to convince you to watch Barney. Thank goodness. I'm safe from Argon the Dragon, Mango and Papaya!

Countdown

I looked at the corner of my desktop and saw this:

Yikes, only 16 days to go.. So what have we done so far? Er.. sent out invites. Made it using the Moody Blues template. Er, the name of the template is not befitting the event that I'm using it for, but I like the layout, so ta-da.. this is what we got:

Have printed the invitation cards and given them to our guests. Now to plan for the party... Hmm.. not too sure of what to serve. But at least we've bought your present when we went to The Gardens.

A date we almost missed

We were on our way home and discussing about your weight gain when mummy remembered that you had an appointment with Dr Mary for the second JE jab. Phew.. thank goodness we didn't miss it. Went back to check that your appointment was at 7.15pm. Wah.. so early.

So mummy quickly gave you a shower, fed you dinner and we had our dinner and you also joined us to eat some of Ah Ma's yummy cooking before heading to Adventist. Thank goodness the traffic was good all the way, but we were a little late. But there were only another patient before us. So you played outside a while before it was your turn.

But instead of walking into the doctor's room, Dr Mary came out. I was wondering why. Until she explained that your last injection was only 2 weeks ago and you DEFINITELY will remember her (which you did, because you kept shaking your head as we walked towards the paediatric clinic!). So she asked the usual questions of whether you had fever in the past few days. We said no, but you vomited once this afternoon after lunch. She said that was fine and we waited outside for Dr Mary to prepare the needle.

When all was ready, we went in for her to check your tummy which had a little wind and then onto the bed for your jab. You knew it was coming and cried and cried as we held you down to get the jab. Last time Dr Mary said the JE injection was more painful as it was on the muscle. But you were a brave boy and stopped crying after a while. Phew..

After the injection, Dr Mary explained that the manufacturer of JE has stopped production of this vaccine as there is no demand in Japan and the demand elsewhere was too low. So the stock would most likely be depleted by the time 1 year comes for you to get the booster jab. But she said we are at low risk so it is fine.

After prescribing some medicine for your tummy, we went to pick up the medicine and were on our way home. That was fast...

Oh yea... I had asked Dr Mary about you gaining 0.4kg over the past 2 1/2 weeks (quite a lot. Daddy is worried about your big tummy). She said it's fine, you just need to exercise a bit more to burn the excess calories. So looks like we need to make that trip to the playground more often.

Bye Bye PJ and KL

It's our last day in KL. And we slept in until almost 8.30am before getting up to freshen up and go for our buffet breakfast in the hotel's coffee garden. Went back to the room after breakfast to bathe and pack up to check-out of the hotel. We took our time and checked out around 11.00am.

Where to? Hehe.. not leaving yet as we had to wait for Yvonne Kor-Kor to come back from her meeting. She wanted to hitch a ride back to Ipoh. It is election day tomorrow and she's going to vote. So.. we went to 1-Utama. The one place that we haven't been to yet. There was already quite a number of cars there. Hhmm.. don't these people need to work?

So we went walking around, looking for this shop that custom made teddy bears (we didn't find it) and bought Big Apple donuts to bring back to Penang for ourselves and Tou-tou and your uncles and aunts. We even had time for mummy to buy a new pair of jeans. Soon it was time for lunch. So we headed to Italiannies. Yummy... We had pizza and pasta with salmon. Phew.. we were so full from lunch. By then, Yvonne Kor-Kor called to say that she was ready, so we quickly finished lunch. But before we went off, we stopped by Pumpkin Patch to pick up a blouse to go with the skirt that we bought on Wednesday for Abby's birthday.

We headed to PJ to pick up Kor-kor. By the time we reached her apartment, you'd already fallen asleep. As we were leaving, there was heavy traffic everywhere. I guess it's after prayers, so everyone had long lunch. Finally we were on the highway and headed towards Ipoh.

We exited at Simpang Pulai and reached Ipoh around 4.30pm. While daddy had a nap, you entertained everyone. We fed you moi-moi that Chim Poh cooked for you before heading back to Penang. Before heading home, we made a detour to drop off the salt backed chicken that Chim Poh bought for nanna. And finally we're home. Home sweet home. Kakak and daddy took almost 10minutes to unpack the car. Why? Because the car boot was so full of things that we bought and also your present from your Kor-kors.

Where to go today?

Where to today? We had it all planned. Since we had retail therapy for mummy yesterday, we had to do something this trip for you too. So we headed to KLCC as planned as we wanted to let you see your (current) favourite thing.... fishes. Yup, we went to Aquaria.

Mummy woke up first and since you were still asleep I quickly took a shower before you woke up. And just on time too, you woke up just as I was dressing up. Phew. You and daddy freshened up before we headed downstairs for the buffet breakfast. After a leisurely breakfast, we headed upstairs to get ready to go "kai-kai". Even though we were read, we had to wait a while as Yvonne Kor-kor was not ready. She was going to ride in our car to show us the way to KLCC, since she was going to her office which was nearby.

After dropping her off, we headed to KLCC. We were lucky to get a parking spot nearby to the entrance and off we walked to the KL Aquaria which was nearby. Thank goodness it's not school holidays yet. And the Aquaria was rather deserted, so we could go at our own pace. Or more like your pace.

After Aquaria, we headed back to KLCC which was VERY crowded by then. I guess it's lunch time. You were already hungry by then, so we quickly bought you a box of milk from Cold Storage and sat down for lunch consisting of pizza, coke and mushroom soup that you enjoyed. After lunch a a quick stroll (and some shopping), we had to head back to the hotel as you were grumpy and tired. You fell asleep shortly after getting into the car and by the time we got lost and back to the hotel, you were almost done with the nap. Luckily you slept on a little bit more in the room, before waking up.

After everyone was up and ready to go off, we headed to Ikea for a little bit of shopping. Your 2 kor-kor's and Uncle Dennis were to meet us there. We bought some things for the condo before heading to The Curve to pick a restaurant for dinner. It was already way pass 8pm by then. So we quickly decided to have dinner in Marche. We bought you broccoli soup that you loved. After an enjoyable dinner, we headed back to the hotel with you aunt's and uncle to chat a while until it was time for you to sleep.

A long but enjoyable day for all of us. There was a little sight-seeing for you as well as retail therapy for us. Goodnight...

We're Off to KL

I'm writing this while you're sleeping on our bed in Eastin Hotel in PJ. Yup, we're on holiday. Why are we on holiday again? Well, mummy's excuse is that since Ah Kong and Ah Ma are on holiday in Perth, and since we already have to take leave to take care of you, sooo... we might as well go on a holiday too. Yay! And here we are...

We left yesterday evening after dropping Ah Kong and Ah Ma at the airport. After that, we headed to Ipoh to stay the night. 5th Chim Poh knew we were on the way back, but she did not tell Ah Tai, otherwise Ah Tai will be waiting for us. And luckily she didn't tell Ah Tai too, because, by the time we went back home to pick up some important things that mummy had forgotten to pack (namely your Barney and your Lavender's Blue CD) and pump petrol before starting our trip back to Ipoh, we arrived at 10.30pm. Ah Tai was already fast asleep by then.

You had fallen asleep on the way back, but since you were not wearing your PJs, you woke up when mummy tried to change you. You entertained your Chek Kong and Chim Poh before finally sleeping again at 12midnight! And you woke up before 7am this morning. Sigh... Luckily mummy was already awake by then (surprised, eh?) We lazed in bed until 7.30am, had a drink of milk got ready and went out for yummy fish balls (for you and us) and currymee (for us). We even stopped by another coffee shop to have the Ipoh white coffee before heading home to spend some time with Ah Tai before heading to PJ.

You fell asleep on the way to PJ and woke up just before we arrived at Yvonne Kor-kor's apartment. So you got your afternoon nap of 1.5 hours. Where did we go after that? It was too early to check in so we headed to The Gardens at Mid Valley. Did a little shopping, bought your birthday present, bought Abby's present and some other things before heading home. BUT.. not before having the yummiest gelato and also buying 1/2 dozen of Big Apple donuts for tea-time.

We dropped by Kor-kor's apartment to pick up the present that they'd bought for you before heading to check-in at the hotel. Rested a while and freshed up a little before heading to Bangsar Shopping Complex. Ashley Kor-kor had already knocked off from work and was also heading there with Uncle Dennis. We wondered around a little before heading to Alexis for dinner. We ordered a variety of food to share. We had penne carbonara, spaghetti vongole, mushroom risotto, pepperoni pizza and beef burgundy stew. Wow! The food was yummy, we'd originally planned on going to Italiannies which we'd thoroughly enjoyed during our last trip, but Ashley Kor-kor recommended this place, and no regrets!

We came back and you had your milk milk and now you're fast asleep. Goodnight, sweetie. We have a long day tomorrow. Muakksss....

My New Bolster

We were both so deep asleep that I didn't realise.. until daddy woke me up. I was holding you like you were my bolster last night! Haha... And throughout the night, I had to wake up to move you to the middle of the bed. Yup, you have become our bed mate too. Sharing our bed with us.

Best of all, you slept through the night. I guess Dr Mary's advise to give you supper is working, although daddy is worried about your growing tummy! Never mind, we'll try to cut it down when you get used to sleeping through the night.

Time to Visit Family

It's the second day of CNY and thankfully you woke up a little later today (7.30am.. ok la!). Quickly got you ready, had breakfast and we were ready to go a-visiting. When everyone was finally ready, off we went. Daddy had to drive our car, as we wanted you to be seated in the carseat for the ride to Chemor and Tanjung Rambutan.

First stop was Chemor, to visit Ah Tai's brother and his wives and family. Would you believe? Ah Tai's brother is 100 years old. We all sat around chatting and enjoying the wonderful spread of tidbits there his wife always prepares for us and soon it was time to go off to visit our relatives in Tanjung Rambutan.

Here you are enjoying the "ngaku" chips that by now everyone knows you love:

It was a rather scenic drive to Tanjung Rambutan. We weren't sure if they were around as we did not visit them last year. By the time we arrived, you'd fallen asleep. We thought that if they were not around, we'd drive back to Ipoh. But.. they were home. So daddy carried you and you woke up. Luckily you were in quite a good mood. So you were quite cheerful in their house. It was upstairs from a shoplot. Again, we had yummy tidbits and drinks. Soon, it was lunchtime. Time to leave. But before we left, Ah Kong's cousin gave you a convertible BMW toy car. Lucky little guy.

Home to yummy lunch that Kor Poh had cooked. Chicken and abalone porridge. Even you got to eat that. And you enjoyed the lunch.. a lot. We all had an afternoon nap, while Ah Kong and 5th Chek Kong went for a round of golf. Daddy had to wake up earlier from his nap, as tonight's dinner was to be prepared by the "younger" generation... as in daddy, your kor-kor's and Ah Pek. What was on the menu? BBQ... yup, something different from our usual spread of previous years.

After you woke up, while you were having tea-time with your kor-kor's mummy helped Ah Ma prepare the apple salad. Soon it was your feeding time and shower then it was our time to enjoy dinner. It was soon your bedtime. But like yesterday, you had to say goodnight to everyone and kiss them before going up. It took you a while before you finally went to sleep.

It's the first day of CNY!

It was a VERY early day for everyone sleeping in our room. Why? Because you woke up early. And like yesterday, you decided to call everyone's name. How to sleep? Sigh.. boy.. it was only 6.30am! And you slept late yesterday too!

Anyway, since you were already up, we managed to get you to lie around bed until almost 7.00am before heading to the bathroom to brush our teeth. That was when we got the shock of our lives. You had 5 mosquito bites on your left cheeks. And it was one big swollen cheek! Sigh.. I wonder who removed the mosquito repellent.

Anyway, nothing much can be done, so we went down for breakfast. Your chim poh's were already up and getting ready to pray and for the lion dance troupe. We had our breakfast and quickly went to use the bathroom. Otherwise, there would be a long queue of people waiting to use the bathroom.

Before anyone was ready (Ah Kong and Ah Ma who woke up early too and all ready) gave you the first ang pow for the CNY. They couldn't wait, I think. Ashley Kor Kor was still in bed half awake!

Finally everyone was up and the lion dance troupe came. By then daddy and Ah Kong had already put up the lettuce and ang pow from the stick through the upstairs window. While waiting for the troupe to get ready, we stood around outside taking pictures. Su Kor Kor even let you take pictures using her camera. Look what you took: Daddy taking a picture of you

Er.. partial picture of mummy.. your finger got in the way!After that, it was time to give out ang pows and to receive ang pow. Ah Tai was waiting to give you an ang pow. Daddy tried to get you to take it from Ah Tai, but in the end, we only took it when mummy carried you.

After lunch of the usual yummy mee suah, we took some time to take pictures. Daddy had brought back his tripod and so we managed to take some family pictures:

With Ah Tai

Soon, it was time for you to nap. You were already cranky the whole morning from the lack of sleep. And yet, when mummy took you up to the room, you refused to go to sleep. In the end (again!) Ah Ma had to intervene and you slept almost immediately. Sigh..

Mummy cooked your dinner for you while your many kor kor's kept you entertained. Soon, it was dinnertime. And again, your Chin Pohs and Kor Poh cooked so many different dishes for dinner. After your first round of moi moi, you also joined them to have some rice and the pork ball that is daddy's favourite dish. And you loved too. Daddy's boy...

This time you slept earlier. I guess from the long long day, despite your afternoon nap. And this time, daddy warned our other "room-mates" not to be too loud the next morning, so that you get to sleep in a little more.

Chinese New Year

It's a time for celebration and how did we do it this time around? As always we headed back to Ipoh in 2 cars. Why? Because we had to carry so many things. Also, we were stopping by BM on the way back on the 3rd day of CNY.

So on Tuesday, we went home to have diner, do last minute packing before heading to Ipoh. You we're a good boy all the way back, although you did not fall asleep until we were more than 1/2 way there. And you continued to sleep even when daddy carried you up to the room. Thank goodness your Su Kor Kor had the foresight to turn on the air-con to cool down the room as well as turn on the mosquito repellant. So after tucking you and bringing all our stuff out of the car, daddy and I chatted with your Kor Kor's before heading to bed.

Today we woke up early as you decided to wake up early too. Probably because you slept earlier than usual last night. Poor Ashley Kor Kor who was our "room mate" also had no choice but to wake up, since you were (in her words) calling everyone in the village. Haha.. from the time you were up, you called Ah Kong, Ah Ma, mummy and daddy.

We spent the day chatting and everyone else entertaining you. Of course when mummy tried to get you to nap, you refused to. You only took your nap after Ah Ma came in. In fact, you slept almost immediately. Big bully!

Mummy fed you dinner first and you even got to join in the fun for our dinner. Yee sang. Daddy carried you and you got to help mix the yee sang.

What did your Kor Poh and Chim Pohs cook?

Yummy right? They always cook up a storm during CNY. 8 dishes. Even the yee sang (except for the sauce) is home made!

As usual, being in a new place, you refused to go to sleep early. Even when everyone left us in the room, you played around and only finally slept at 11pm!

Gong Xi Fa Cai

And we're off to Ipoh tonight. Will blog about our second CNY with you soon... I hope...

Getting Ready for CNY

It that time again. CNY is just around the corner and one of the things that needs to be done: get a haircut. Hehe.. we all need a haircut. In your case, it a little more stressful. Then again, maybe it should be considered stressful in mummy's case too. I'm still wondering what to do with my hair. Cur? Perm? Trim?

Anyway, we've been putting off your haircut for way too long. And sometimes when we finally found the courage to bring you to Uncle Austin's place, he's got too many customers. And we don't want you to scare them off with your volume. Hehe...

So today, we left work a little earlier to try our luck again. And daddy called ahead to check if the shop was crowded. Nope.. nobody around. But Uncle Austin was a bit worried about giving you a haircut, as he's accidentally snipped a little kid last week on his ears. Sigh..

As always when we arrived, you didn't want to get into the shop. Luckily daddy told me to carry you, otherwise, we'd be standing at the door. In the end, mummy had to coax you to "wash your hands" to get you agree to go into the shop. When the time came for your haircut, you struggled a bit but suddenly stayed still when Austin started to cut your hair. Hhmm.. so he quickly snipped here and there.. And he stopped to take out the electric clippers and oh boy.. what a mistake! You started to make noise and struggle until the end.

Thank goodness all was done in less than 30 minutes. Of course, mummy needs to put in some work to cut some of the stray hairs that he'd missed. But... better than letting mummy cut.. Look:

Weekend in Ipoh

We made a trip back to Ipoh over the weekend. Originally planned to be a stopover in Ipoh before heading to KL, we ended up only going to Ipoh as Chek Kong and family decided to go back to Ipoh too. Chek Kong suffered another mild stroke over the week and we had wanted to visit him. That's why we planned on going to KL.

Anyway, since the plans changed and we were to meet in Ipoh, Ah Kong had wanted to make it our usual day trip. So off we left early on Saturday morning. We arrived in Ipoh at around 10.30am and went directly to the Ipoh old town area to eat our favourite Curry Mee. On top of that, Ah Ma even orderd the "liu" (from the neighbouring shop) with fishballs, meatballs, beef tendon balls and many more that I don't know what they are *grin*. So since you could not take the curry mee, we gave you the soup from this as well as 3 fishballs that you happily ate. After that we headed home to see Ah Tai.

Of course she was already waiting for you. Kor Poh from China was also there. She'd met you last year when she came back to visit Ah Tai. It was nice to go back to Ipoh as it's been a while since we last went back. You had a good time plonking on the piano too. Too bad you also had to feed to mosquitoes while you were playing there.

After your lunch and nap, we went to play in the garden and soon Chek Kong and family came back. He sure was happy to see you.You'd even called to "chat" with him while he was in hospital. Aunty Su told mummy he told her that you'd called. Haha... And your aunts brought back donuts from "Big Apple" and you loved the "snow" one.. Actually, you loved the icing sugar! Turns out Big Apple is also known as "Krispy Kreme" that we saw a lot of people queuing up for when we were in Japan.

We had dinner at home. With the yummy roast duck from KL. On top of that we also had yam duck and "lap mei fan" from Overseas Restaurant. We ended up staying the night. Aunty Su managed to "convince" Ah Kong to stay the night. After dinner, we went out to buy mosquito repellent as there were a lot of mosquitoes. Also we wanted to buy coconut water. We went to many places before finally finding a place that sold coconut water.

Ah Tai waited for you to go home before she went to bed. You even kissed her and called "Ah Tai" (much to her delight, I'm sure). And soon you also went to bed, after much effort from mummy's side, as you were excited with so many people around.

We on the other hand, went out for supper of "Nga Choi Kai" at Cowan Street. Yummy.. And the next morning, we had another round of curry mee as well as more liu and after that we went for white coffee and "chee cheong fun" while you had the toast.

Soon, it was time to go home to Penang. But before we made our trip back, you had your lunch that Ah Ma had cooked for you. Unlike the trip to Ipoh where you were up the whole trip and we had to keep you entertained, you slept almost all the way back to Penang.

Rain Rain Go Away

And our party season is not over yet. Daddy invited some of his colleagues over for a barbecue party yesterday. Of course the seasoning of the food was done by Ah Ma. But daddy did his part, he seasoned the cod fish. There was one piece left for you to share with Kelvin.

Our guests started arriving after 6pm. The skies looked OK, but within 1/2 hour, it started to get dark.. and then.... drizzle. Sigh.. So up we went with Kelvin and some of daddy's friends to relax in the air-conditioned house while the rest of them continued to barbecue the food. Yup.. they all carried umbrellas and continued in the rain.

Mummy was upstairs in the condo and heated up the oven to grill some of the food. In the end, Uncle Terence went down to bring up the prawns and mummy and Aunty Joanne "tried" to grill the garlic prawns. Er.. we couldn't really tell whether they were properly cooked or not. Nevermind.. They looked ok.

While mummy was busy with the prawns, Melissa Che-che kept you entertained. She also took some nice pictures of you and some of her and Bee Suat Che-che with you too. Looks nice right?

There were also pictures of Kelvin. Here's a nice one:

After a while, the "heroes" downstairs came back up with the cooked food. In fact, they had already eaten the food while cooking downstairs. Never mind, there was more than enough to go around. In fact after everyone was done eating there was still a lot of leftovers. So how? Some of them were playing with your Christmas toy, which were building blocks. They made a game out of stacking to see who'd end up knocking down the pile, and the loser had to eat one piece of chicken thigh. Yup, that helped clear off most of the food! Haha...

You were so excited the whole night, "entertaining" everyone, especially the pretty che-che's that you did not want to go to sleep even after Kelvin had left and it was way pass your bedtime. In the end mummy gave up, took you out again and you kept Grace Che-che entertained until around 12midnight! Yup, I think that's the latest you've stayed up so far. I think everyone had a good time chatting and enjoying the food. I know you did..

Everyone left shortly after that and we only woke up at 9.30am this morning. Why so early? Because Ah Ma called to ask if we wanted to have breakfast with them.. *sigh*

At Long Last...

All this while, you were able to call daddy "da-da". Or should I say "whisper da-da". At long last, you can say more than that. At last you can say:

Ma-mi: Took you a long time. But better late than never. You started off by saying "Ma-ma" after we came back from Japan. But it's mostly "ma-mi"

Ah Ma: That is very clear. No denying you're calling your grandma

Ah Kang: Or something like that. It was initially "Ah K'ng" or "Ah Ka" then slowly it sounds like Ah Kong. You sure made his day when you finally called him Ah Kang (good enough-la)

As for daddy.. it's still a whispered "da-da". But at times when I ask you to call daddy, you will yell at the top of your voice "DA".

Other than these, you can also say: "Car" and even recognise pictures of cars in the newspapers (even if it is not a whole car) and of course "Ball". Oh yea.. and "Nanan" for milk, even recognising the box of milk when we open the fridge door!

Even Wati is lucky as you seem to be able to call "Kaka".. probably because it sounds like car. I wonder what else you'd be able to say next.

Happy New Year 2008!

How time flies, it's now

Another Christmas Party

Tomorrow is Christmas and we had another party to attend today. Where? In Aunty Jamie's house. This time the crowd is even bigger than the one that we had in our condo on Saturday. All the great-grandaunts were there along with their family. And so there were more kids there too. Look at the food that they ordered:

On top of this spread, we were treated to another of Great-Grandpa's specialty. Hainanese Chicken Rice. Yup, no chicken rice tastes the same after this. Ah Kong didn't join us today, as Uncle Stanley had invited us to have dinner with him in Equatorial Hotel too, and since we already had plans to go to this party, Ah Kong was our representative to have dinner with Uncle Stanley. *grin*

Before we went down to join the rest, we had to feed you dinner first in Grand-Aunt Doris' room. Away from the crowd. Otherwise, you'd be too excited to eat dinner. By the time you were done with dinner, they'd already started, so mummy took some food and we went to sit by the Christmas tree to enjoy our dinner. Of course, you also had to share some of mummy's chicken rice. And some of the noodles(mee tiau) too.

Just like our party, there was a gift exchange session too. But with a different twist. How? Lookie here:

Did you spot him? No? Look again:

Haha.. yup, uncle Sin Tien dressed up as Santa Clause. You didn't want to take a picture with him, but you were willing to take the present from him.

It was almost 10pm and was pass your bedtime when we left the house. We even packed chicken rice for Ah Kong to have, since he missed out on Great-Grandpa's chicken rice.

Good night, and Merry Christmas.

Our Christmas Party

It has become our family tradition to have a Christmas party, with most of Ah Ma's relatives coming to the house to have dinner followed by presents. Of course, we had Ah Kong's friends over too: Uncle Stanley and Aunty Nellie. And since our Christmas tree was set up in the condo, our party was held in the condo.

Unlike the other parties that Ah Ma throw, our Christmas party is simplified where we bought most of the food. But the food was bought from a variety of places. And also in the end, Ah Ma cooked the prawn dish and she also left mummy and daddy with instructions on how to cook the potato dish (Ahem, and it turned out ok too!)

Luckily for us, you had your afternoon nap on time and that gave us enough time to prepare the potato. After you'd woken up, mummy gave you your bath and fed you before our guests arrived, because knowing you, you'd get all excited and not be able to eat your dinner.

At around 7pm, most of our guests arrived. Hhm.. quite punctual surprisingly. Even Abby, Uncle Sin Chuan and Aunty Amy arrived on time. They'd driven straight to our condo from their trip to KL. Soon food was served and everyone had a great time trying the variety of dishes while listening to Jim Reeves singing Christmas songs. Look at the "loot" under out tree!

What's next? Gift exchange. This year, we had 3 assistants to help give out the gifts, unlike last year where we only had Anna Che-che to pass the gifts around. And on top of the gifts, we bought reindeer antlers for the 3 of you when we went to Nara.

Giving present to Ah Ma

Annabelle giving her daddy his present

Little Reindeer

Opening presents

On top of being our early Christmas party, today is also the winter solstice festival. So great-grandma made a traditional Hainanese dessert (tang yuen) that is different from the colourful ones that we usually have. It's been a long time since she made this. Not too sure exactly what it's called, but it sounds something like "wa-at", made with the glutinous flour, peanuts, sesame seed, coconut and sugar(and maybe some other ingredient that I cannot figure out). And the picture does no no justice to the taste:

This was served along with our dessert of chocolate mud cake from Sunflower (next door) as well as Häagen-Dazs ice-cream.

By the time everyone left, you were already very tired. But too bad our room's air-con was not working well. But you'd refused to sleep in another room, so mummy had to turn on the fan and try to get you to sleep. After you'd fallen asleep, I moved you to your bed, but you woke up again and refused to sleep, so back to our (hot!) room we went to go to sleep.

Me Oh My...

How much walking did you do while in Japan? Let your shoes give you the answer:

Oh no.. they look quite clean right? Coz Kakak already washed them. By the time mummy procrastinated and got around to taking the picture, they've already been cleaned.

Actually, they were brand new before we left Japan. One lady we met on the way to Japan even told her son that your shoes were identical to his, only yours were new and still very white, unlike his. And after this trip, your shoes probably look worse than his!

Ooo.. It's time for Shopping

Of course! With Christmas just around the corner, we need to do our Christmas shopping. Our Christmas tree has already been up for one week, but the poor little tree is bare underneath. So we NEED to do the shopping for our little tree *grin*.

Off we went to Gurney Plaza on Saturday after everyone was up and your moi moi was ready. We originally planned to eat somewhere else before going shopping, but it started to rain, so we had no choice but to go directly to Gurney Plaza. Lunch was a quick one in Aji Ramen. Daddy had to eat quickly as he'd promised you that he'd bring you to have a look at the Tiny Tunes characters that were going to make an appearance.

You didn't seem as interested in it this time as you were the last time mummy showed you the Tiny Tunes characters. So we went our separate ways from Ah Kong and Ah Ma as we wanted to buy gifts for you and your cousins, while Ah Ma needed to buy some more gifts for our party guests. Where to? Toys R Us, where else?

Mummy walked around looking for something to buy for your cousins, as we'd already decided to get you the Imaginarium that daddy wanted to buy a long time back. What to buy? Especially Annabelle che-che who's got almost every toy imaginable! Before we picked a toy for the girls, you'd picked another toy that you wanted, using your newly learned word. What is it?

Yup. You went: car, CAR, CAR, CAR, CAR. What to do? We ended up buying that car for you too. Not much time left and we were getting a headache trying to pick a toy, so in the end, we picked a dog house for Annabelle and a shopping cart with Hello Kitty for Abby. But before we left, you also picked another toy, a Barney soft toy. OK, OK, time to go before you pick more toys!

We paid for our purchases took wrappers from the wrapping counter and off we went. We dropped our purchases in our car as Ah Ma said that she was not ready yet. So we walked around a little more before leaving Gurney Plaza.

Went home and you fell asleep shortly after that, as it was way pass your nap time. So mummy took this chance to wrap all the gifts while you napped.

Where to go on Sunday? Hehe.. Gurney Plaza again. No chance to pick up gifts for Ah Kong and Ah Ma yet. After we'd bought the toys yesterday, Ah Ma unloaded Ah Kong with us, so no chance to buy their gifts. So another round of shopping today.

Another round of shopping (inclusive of trying to crack our brains to figure out what to buy for them) and we're finally done. Even managed to buy a new pair of shoes for daddy.

Happy Birthday Daddy

This year's celebration was a little low key. Why? The excitement from the trip to Japan is still in our minds. Furthermore, you had a jab scheduled for today. Daddy says I should have remembered his birthday when making the appointment, but mummy pointed out to him that I did ask him "Is 4th December ok?" when making the appointment and he'd said it's ok. Duh!!

So after work, we went home to get you ready to go see the doctor. Our initial plan was to have our favourite Bah Kut Teh for dinner. The wait for you to have your second flu jab wasn't too long. But before we left, Nanna (who's staying at our condo) called to ask us to join them for dinner. She said another celebration with them on the real day. We'd already had chocolate mud cake as daddy's birthday cake yesterday.

So off we headed towards somewhere in Hillside nearby our condo to have dinner with Nanna and 4ee Poh and family. And so ends daddy's birthday celebration.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Happy Birthday Great Grandpa and Great-Grandma

Yup, Great-Grandpa is 90 and Great-Grandma is 80 years old. So where did we hold the big birthday party? It was being planned many months in advance. With Ah Ma delegating the task to your uncles, since we'd be in Japan during the crucial weeks leading to the birthday celebrations.

The birthday was held in Evergreen Laurel Hotel with the food being catered by the Chinese restaurant. We were supposed to arrive early, but as we were cleaning the condo with kakak Wati as 4th Ee Poh, Teo Kong, Uncle Julian, Uncle Ashley and Nanna were going to spend the week in the condo, we were late. Then again, so were the rest of the family.

We arrive just pass 7pm and some of our guests were already there. So before more guests arrived, we quickly gathered in another room to have our family picture taken. After trying to get 3 babies to co-operate, we finally managed to get a decent looking picture with (almost) everyone looking at the camera man.

Soon, we rejoined the party and there were more guests arriving. You, daddy and mummy were asked to sit at the main table with great-grandparents. It seems that is great-grandpa's request: that his great-grandchildren sit at the main table with him. So along with Anna Che-che, Abby Mei-mei and their parents, we sat at the main table. Before food was served, we were entertained with pictures of everyone when they were young, including mummy and daddy's wedding picture and your baby picture too.

Food was served and, boy was it yummy. Even you got a portion. But you obviously were not interested in the food, so we asked the waiter to serve your portion to other people. We even had a traditional Hainanese dessert that was nicely packed. Uncle Sin Chuan had gone online to look for the recipe and get someone to make it for this party.

Cake was served and it was a two-tiered cake, with one for Great-grandpa and the lower layer for Great-grandma (this layer had mahjong tiles on it!). We stayed for almost all the dishes, but it was too late and so we decided to leave. Everyone has having a great time, but you were getting grumpy and tired.

By the time we left Gurney Drive, you'd already fallen asleep on your car seat. Even the short ride to the condo left you totally zonked out.

More Pictures from Our Japan Trip

I wrote earlier that I was going to post a picture of the crowd in Shinjuku. Look at the crowd!

And here's of a little lane with several eateries that I had mentioned:

Here's a picture of some sort of sea-snail that I ate in Kamakura.. It tasted rubbery but was grilled quite well.

Loved those beautiful pictures that I'd posted in this blog? Well here's the photographer (it's daddy.. who else?) in action (in the Kayukan in Osaka):

As most of the pictures that were taken of you had you all covered in your jacket, we attempted to at least take a picture of what you wear underneath... (except that you weren't in a co operative mood then)

And here you are checking out the diaper changing room as well as breastfeeding room in Sunshine City:

Here's of a "Capsule Hotel" that we saw when we took a stroll further than we usually take on our last day in Akasaka:

Bye Bye Japan

As our flight was at 11.30am and we needed to take the bus (just like when we came to Tokyo) which took 2 hours, we had to wake up early to get ready and do some last minute packing before heading to the nearby hotel to catch our bus.

We waited a while and soon our bus arrived. They loaded our luggage onto the bus and we were off. Such a long ride, and thankfully you dozed off on the way and only woke up as we approached the terminal where they checked our passports before dropping us off.

We had some brunch while waiting to board the flight. Our flight had to be delayed but thankfully we arrived back in Singapore on time to catch the connecting flight to Penang. Again, you fell asleep shortly after take off and woke up only less than 2 hours before we arrived at Singapore.

We met Aunty Jackie on the flight. She was the stewardess on our flight and you were nice to her, showing her your "disappearing hands".

Here's a picture of you having fun on the plane.

And so ends our 2 week holiday.

Our Last Day in Japan

What shall we do on our last day in Japan? We have one more day to go, but several things more to do. Ah Ma wanted to go to Sunshine City in Ikebukuro and we weren't too interested in more shopping, thinking of going to Ueno Zoo to let you see the animals.

As usual, after giving you your moi moi, we headed to Akasaka-Mitsuke station and daddy and I were going to head to the Marunuochi line to head to Ueno while Ah Kong and Ah Ma were to walk to Nagatacho station to ride on the train on Yurakucho Line to bring them to Ikebukuro.

Mummy and daddy were undecided on what we preferred to do, and in the end, we decided to follow Ah Kong and Ah Ma to Sunshine City. We walked and we walked and we rode on escalators going up and down and we finally arrived at Nagatacho Station. What a long walk. Thankfully you sat willingly in the stroller!

We took a (nicer looking train that those we've sat so far) and soon arrived at Ikebukuro station. Pek Kong's instructions were to walk out of the station and we'd see a sign directing us to Sunshine City. But I guess he forgot that there were many exits. And the first exit we took was the wrong one. After doubling back and looking around for signs, we saw the sign indicating Sunshine City. Finally.. We had to walk and walk quite a distance before arriving at Sunshine City.

Nothing much to see there actually.. Now we regretted having gone to Sunshine City. Should have stuck to our original plan of going to Ueno. Too bad. It's too late to travel all the way back to Ueno. So.. we spent our day there in Sunshine City, having Burger King for lunch (too much Japanese food over the past 2 weeks), deliberating whether we wanted to bring you to see another aquarium in Sunshine City (which we didn't) and finally heading back to Akasaka. We'd gone separate ways from Ah Kong and Ah Ma, but in the end, they arrived home earlier than us. We did manage to get a picture the beautiful Christmas tree and also of the fountain. The thirds picture is of the pretty girl preparing out delicious Cold Stone ice-cream. Oh yea.. also took Baby Zen's mummy's advise to try the Godiva drink.. Yummy

Dinner was of course to be with Pek Kong. After all, it' s to be our last meal in Japan with our host. What was for dinner? Have a look.. A quaint restaurant (not very little... it looked small from outside but it had a lower floor for dining). These are what we had as our last meal in Japan.

Here's of a picture we took of the wonderful lights nearby Pek Kong's apartment: