Recipe for those yummy little cupcakes

Since quite a few friends were interested in the recipe for those cupcakes, so I quickly wrote to my friend and got the recipe from her.

Banana Cup Cake
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted (as in liquid)
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 ripe bananas)

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl

2. Make a well in center of flour mixture. In well, mix together butter, mashed bananas, eggs, flour mixture and vanilla. Dividing evenly, spoon batter into muffin cups.

3. Bake 25 to 30 minutes.

Hhmmmm... Now I wonder if anyone else would like to bake the cupcakes and bring some for you and me.. *hint*hint*

Mashes Potatoes

Ah Ma decided to cook something different for you yesterday. Potato.. and she said you got so excited when you saw her peeling and cutting the potatoes. So she even called mummy to let you know what was on your menu for dinner. What did you tell me? "Potato.. POTATO.. POTATO"

You loved potato when Ah Ma cookes them in with her "kicap chicken" even when Ah Ma cooks the chicken without the potatoes you'd ask for potato. And get angry when you don't get your potato. So yesterday evening, Ah Ma boiled the potato with fish. Daddy mashed the potato and fish and added butter and milk to make it creamy. Looked so yummy.. I wished it was for me!

Mummy took out daddy's camera and took these pictures.. You even showed me your thumbs up when I asked you to pose for me.

But after all the hoo-haah.. you decided you didn't want to eat the mashed potato! Haiyo.. kept spitting it out! Instead you wanted "pong" (prawn). Where to find? We were eating roti canai with Ah Ma's chicken curry. Next you asked for "bed" (bread). In the end, after making a mess, you got off your highchair and wandered around while we finished our dinner. Then.. you decided that you wanted the mashed potato again.. after mummy had (ahem) tasted most of it!

Ooo Cupcakes

Ok I know that the cupcakes have been eaten and digested a long time ago.. But we did take the pictures.. so here we go..

Looks to yummy, tastes equally as yummy...

Mummy's friend baked them and passed 4 to mummy. I shared one with my colleague who (unfortunately) took one of the 2 teddy bears..

Went home and daddy tried one. He loved it and also asked me how come I didn't bake anymore.. Hhmmm.. last time I did any baking was when you were less than 2 months old.

I got to share the other 2 with you. And here's your rating for it:

TWO thumbs up and also one foot up. And I totally agree with you. I need to get that recipe.

Some Peace is Good

I know that I've been tagged so many times and I have done NONE. So today, while waiting for my friends to go for lunch.. I picked the simplest one to do *wink* Aunty Joanne has tagged me so many times but I never got around to doing it. I think she's going to kill me soon. So here's one for you, Joanne...

The world needs peace. Who doesn't?Let's all love a little more and fight a lot less.. and we'll one day have world peace.

Won't be passing this tag.. I guess most people have been tagged. PEACE to EVERYONE.

Let's Get Crafty

Mummy wanted to make your birthday a little more special. So this time, we got your invitation cards printed, and daddy even helped mummy to do these:

They are made and designed individually for each of our guests, with pictures that they'd taken with you since you were born. I got the idea from Ching Ern's mummy and she also gave me the link to get the instructions on how to make the maze book and also ideas and help to buy the embellishments to decorate the maze books.

Daddy was a big help.. he helped mummy cut up the board that was used as the cover of the book, as it was very hard and I could not cut too many at a go. Then daddy also helped mummy cup the pictures that were resized. Guess how many pictures in total were needed to make the 18 maze books? Around 250 pictures! Thank goodness I had daddy to help out.

And on your birthday, we put out the maze books and after you'd opened your presents, it was our guests' turn to receive a little gift from us. I hope they liked them:

On top of these, we also made the wordings "Happy 2nd Birthday Evan". Mummy drew and cut the first layer of letters and daddy did the rest: stick to the board, cut up the board and stick the words on the wall.

As there was some leftover cardboard, mummy decided to make this little sign to be stuck to the door handle (but it got in the way when we tried to close the door, so I stuck it to the door). Darn.. picture not clear enough..will look for another to post when I go home tonight.

Where is Ah Kong?

Where else? Ah Kong in "ah pok", take "pane". I'm sure you miss him, expecially during lunch time. He's in Paris and hasn't been around since we came back on Saturday from Ipoh.

We'll pick him up on Saturday morning ok?

As for Kakak Wati, she's also in the ah pok. But I don't think you miss her. She's gone back to Indonesia for a month. We've got another "kakak". She'll be with us while Wati is away. I wonder how well you'll go with her. For now.. Ah Ma says you don't want her to carry you.. yet..

24 Month Milestones

Wow.. you're already 2 years old. From our little baby, you've now grown to a little man. How much you've grown...

Here's my attempt at listing your milestones at 24 months.

Weight: 11.4kg at your last visit to Dr Mary's

Height: 82cm (also measured at your last visit). Although daddy and I think that you've grown taller ever since

Teeth: A lot.. I need to get daddy to put his fingers in to count them

~ Recognising people: You can recognise relatives even after having not met them for a long time. Although to make things easy, here's what you call them:

Ah Kong = (real) Ah Kong, Chek Kong, Pek Kong, Ku Kong, Teo Kong

Poh Poh = Bo-bo Poh, Chim Poh, Kor Poh, Ee Poh

Kor-Kor = Your many kor-kors

Ah Pek = Your many Ah Peks

~ Music critic. If the radio is playing a song that you don't like, you will say "change" (pronounced as "chain chain chain"

~ Love cars... can be told from your birthday cake and presents

~ Tell me what you want to wear. Mummy picked a Thomas the Train T-shirt for you to wear recently and you said "chain chain".. i thought you meant "train" but nOooo... you meant change.. coz next you said "car car"

~ Tells Furbie off. If you see him going to the kitchen you'd yell "Bibi.. out" or if he's barking loudly, you'd say "Bibi.. NO"

~ Picking up new words faster nowdays. You started off with "ball", "car".. now you can say "ba(s)", and even combine words such as "(s)peed bump", and "daddy/mummy in car". Looks like we all need to be careful with what we say in front of you!!

~ Recognise the playground nearby our house. You will get excited each and every time we drive pass the playground

~ Food: eat most things. And your favourite breakfast (for now) is baka (butter) and jum (jam). And also egg. Sometimes after meals you'll also ask for "a-dam" (ice-cream). You even ate the "pong" (prawn) from my char kuey tiau recently! It's getting difficult to explain to you that not all food is for you.. especially spicy food. You especially love soup that you call "choop".

~Able to recognise Ah Kong and daddy's car logo

~ You love to watch your CD, DVD and VCDs. And you pick your own show, turn on the correct player put in the disc, change the mode on the amplifier. Ah Ma reckons you even know to turn up the volume when they're playing your favourite songs. If you don't like the disc, you'll immediately turn it off. Favourite disc 2 weeks ago was "Wheels on the Bus" and this week is "Barney"

~ You current favourite song is Old McDonald. You'll jump in when they reach E-I-E-I-O. Singing only the I-O part. Haha...

~ Can say where daddy is "Daddy goff" (no need to guess what that is)

~ Know that Ah Kong is in the "ah pok" to take "pane" (plane)

As usual.. that's all I can think of.. I'm sure there are more that I've missed out... Nevermind, I'll blog about them when I remember

Sarong Clad Hero

You seem to love being wrapped in the multi-coloured nappy that mummy bought when you were little. We would usually use it to dry you up after you have done your business and we've given you a wash. How do you look like? Have a look...

Sarong clad hero

Yeah! Two thumbs up

That's so funny

Oops.. Almost "chau kui"

Evan's Birthday Party Pictures

A Wonderful Day to Turn TWO

Happy Birthday, darling. Everyone is here to celebrate it with you. And how did we start of our day? With a yummy breakfast consisting of pau from Ipoh that Chim Poh had bought and also kaya "kok" from Menglembu and of course in your case, your favourite thing in the word.. fresh milk *wink*

After everyone was ready, we headed to Youth Park as daddy had promised. 5th Chek Kong and Su Kor-Kor also came along with us. We let you play around and took some pictures before heading back home to pick up Ah Kong, and to see how Ah Ma was. Such a sad thing to happen today, she got robbed when she went to the Island Glades market. But she's ok. Just a little shaken.

We brought Ah Kong with us to pick up the Char Kuey Tiau that we'd ordered and also stopped to buy ais kacang before heading back to the condo. Ah Tai was waiting for her lunch.. and you too. We all had out lunch and off we went again. Daddy, you, Ah Kong and I went off to pick up the popiah skin from Chowrasta Market (bad traffic jam!) and then went to pick up Tou-tou as she was coming to the condo earlier to cook the soup. Then we dropped Ah Kong home, as he had to drive Ah Ma to the condo in the evening.

Back to the condo we went to drop Tou-tou and let her start cooking. And off we went to pick up your cake, buy ice-cream and then we went back to the condo. Ah Tai was on her way back in Uncle Dennis' car. She got carsick on the way to Kek Lok Si Temple. She did manage a glimpse of the temple before getting sick.

We cooked your moi-moi and started to decorate the condo. We had LOTS of balloons. Mummy had bought 30 balloons and also another 4 bear shaped balloons and Ashley Kor-kor also bought some from KL. So how many did we have to blow? 54 balloons!! While daddy put up the wordings, mummy tied the balloons together, all ready for daddy to put up. Soon your Chin Poh, Chek Kong, and Kor-kor's came back. Mummy gave you a bathe while daddy went out with Su Kor-kor to pick up some of the food that we had pre-ordered.

So where is the handsome birthday boy? Ta-da...

Soon our guests arrived. And we started to eat the yummy food. What was on the menu? Ahh.. a variety of home-cooked food, prepared with love expecially for your birthday party and some additions that daddy bought to supplement the delicious food. Ah Ma cooked the popiah that she's started to prepare as early as last week (peeling A LOT of crabs), Tou-tou cooked the "Lam Mee" a traditional birthday dish and daddy bought some fried belacan chicken and "heh cho" (something made of prawns). And also the red eggs that 5th Chim Poh made today before she left to go sight-seeing and visiting her relatives.

Even you enjoyed the food. Ee-ee fed you the chicken and hard boiled eggs (with Abby asking for food too). You ate and ate so much that we had to stop you. Your tummy was already so hard! At around 9.30pm, you were started to look tired, rubbing your eyes. So we quickly took out your cake. Your favourite.. CAR... and you were awake again *grin*

Blew out the candle on your cake (with some help from daddy and mummy) and served the cake with ice-cream. Even you got to enjoy the ice-cream. Vanilla flavoured Häagen-Dazs. What next? The presents, of course. So we opened them one by one (with the help of Anna Che-che and Abby). You picked daddy's present first. So while we opened the rest, daddy fixed up the present. Wow.. you sure had a lot of presents from family and friends. So thoughtful of everyone to remember your birthday. It was late and our guest started to go home.

How about you? You were all energized again. So busy playing with your new toys from the ride-on to the rocking horse. And mummy had to ask you to say bye-bye to your toys and drag you into the room. And of course withing 15 minutes, you were out like the light. It was already 10 minutes to 12!

Goodnight sweetie.. Happy Birthday.

Happy 2nd Birthday Evan

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