2021 CNY - Family Pictures

This morning, everyone including Ko-ko woke up earlier. He was reminded many times to make sure he was up before 8.30 and Ah Ma even told him no ang pow if he's not down early. 

We initially planned to have the pictures taken from my phone as it would be easier to copy/upload/send them. But in the end we brought in daddy's super camera and it was a good thing too as we discovered that the pictures could be transferred to my phone via bluetooth. 

We also wanted to take pictures at the front of our house, but could not put the camera for a nice shot. So ended up taking the pictures inside.. with the air-cond turned on. It was a lucky thing we decided to have the "Fook" put up where is was. 

Here are some of the pictures we took: This little girl sure likes to pose!

Daddy and I

The 4 of us

Our family with Kakak

The 6 of us

Ah Kong and Ah Ma with grandkids

Ah Kong and Ah Ma

After all the pictures were taken, it was time to give you kiddies your ang pow.

2021 Chinese New Year in Penang - Pre-Ang Pow Photos

Here are some of the goofy pictures we took before finding a perfect spot to have our family photos taken:

Daddy and his kiddos

Look at her!

Another silly shot!

Wefie with Evelyn....with the top of her hair, anyway

My boy is getting taller.. well.. my heels gave me extra height today

Our two precious Roti Ban's

Wefie with mummy

Random shot

Posing

2021 Chinese New Year Eve

This year, it is a first for all of us. To have celebrate Chinese New Year in Penang. And at such a small scale.. just the 6 (or 7 including Kakak) instead of the usal large Ban clan of a minimum 20 of us.

Ah Ma cooked the favourite dishes we would usually have if we were to be back in Ipoh. So today, the reunion dinner would be popiah. Here is my assistant helping to cut up the leeks (and you complained bitterly later about your hands smelling of the leeks!)

Before this week, Ah Ma had already steamed and peeled the crabs needed for popiah as well as our mee suah. For the popiah, Ah Ma had already fried some of the ingredients the day before. And of course, Kakak had already fried up a whole lot of shallots. 

And so here we are all ready for our mini reunion dinner:

Here is my popiah.. all ready.. for the camera *grin*

This morning, I had also shaped the peanut balls for our "Seung Wan Yuen". Daddy helped to blend the peanuts, sesame seeds and the winter melon.

The red dots looks so pretty

The inside.. full of peanuts

We tried to stay up till late, but everyone seemed too tired and went to our rooms to rest or in the case of Mei-mei, to sleep. 

There were some fireworks, but it seems to be very quiet this year in Penang. Not sure if this is how is usually is, or because of the current situation as we;ve never experienced the eve nor the first few days of CNY in Penang before this.

It is still MCO so we could not go over to BM to celebrate Grampy's birthday with him. So I arranged to have some food and also a cake to be delivered. Ee-ee and Teo-teo also joined in the celebration. For the cake cutting and singing session, we also joined in via WhatsApp video to sing the birthday song.

Happy Birthday, Grampy!

Boh Geh

 

Yesterday night before bed, you asked me to help you pull out your tooth which was shaky and bleeding the whole day. But when I tried, it was not easy as your tooth was so tiny! Daddy offered to help, by using the pliers.. but you said "NO!!!"

So today, you were just sitting next to me when you suddenly exclaimed "My tooth fell off!". 

Happiness as that means the Tooth Fairy will be visiting tonight. 

Fever Scare

Daddy and I had gone out to buy lunch and when we got back, we opened the door to a teary little girl. You told me that you missed me and that no one was around other than Ko-ko (who as usual was hiding in his room). Got a bit of scolding for being so dramatic.

In the afternoon, we were lazing in bed when I told daddy that you had dozed off. He thought that it was strange that you needed a nap. And true enough, when I touched you, you felt warm. Oh dear! You woke up when I tried to check your temperature with the thermometer.

The moment we said that you had the fever, you panicked. I guess it's true that you have a fear of contracting the Covid as you immediately said "But I didn't go out". We had to tell you that it could be the hot weather that caused you to have fever. 

Needed a bit of persuasion before you'd take the fever medication (thankfully I have spares in the cabinet!!) and then put the fever patch on you. You temperature was slow to go down, but it finally did.

You seemed perfectly fine other than feeling warm to the touch. Thank goodness!

Online Ballet

You have been attending online lessons since MCO started. When most of your friends went back to the studio later on, we continued to have you attend online lessons seeing that it was still an available option. There was only once when you went in as the teacher wanted to see you face to face to evaluate whether you are coping with learning online. The following week we thought to let you go back, but was turned away due to "higher" temperature. Daddy and I then decided to just continue with the online lessons as we did not want to rush back every time we go in to the studio and get turned away.

When you started lessons, you were doing it in your room. But then later on you had character shoes (with heels) and that would scratch the wooden floor in the room, so the venue changed to the living room. The space here was bigger too. 

Most days we'd go out to run errands or just leave you alone while we stay in our room. Today we decided to enjoy the aircon in the living room and also listen/watch you have your lessons. 

Managed to sneak a photograph of you:

It seems that the exams for this year would be postponed. Partially because the examiner would not be able to fly into Malaysia but I suspect also because you all are not learning as efficiently online. Either way, the exams are not important to me. Just as long as you are enjoying your lessons. 

Having Children

We were having a discussion this morning about the calendars and how the Chinese Lunar calendar is not the same as the Gregorian calendar. I also explained to you that once every 4 years would be a leap year when February has 29 days. Then I jokingly asked "Imagine you are born on 29th Feb? You would only get to celebrate your birthday once every 4 years!". You looked at me wide-eyed and our conversation continued:

Evelyn: Oh no, luckily you told me about this.

Mummy: Why?

Evelyn: I was planning to have my kid's birthday on 29th February.

Mummy: What? You have this planned?

Evelyn: Yes. So now it's better for me to pick another date.

Mummy: (Thinks to myself: Oh my...). So how many kids do you want to have?

Evelyn: Twins.

Mummy: Why do you want twins?

Evelyn: If I have only 1 child, she (yes, "she" as you have mentioned many times that you want a daughter) would be bored.

Mummy: Well, even with twins it doesn't mean they want to play together all the time....

Evelyn: *Keeping silent.. probably digesting.. either what I said or your breakfast *grin*

Goodness, the funny things that go through your mind.. My dear, you have many, many more years before you will have your child(ren). 

Cycling Fun

Before the extension of the MCO came into effect, we decided to allow the both of you to go cycling. We worried that with the "tightening of SOP" you may not even be allowed to go cycling.

So today, you got to go cycling and Ko-ko was very kind to agree to accompany you, meaning you could cycle everywhere and faster than if we were to follow you by foot.

Lost track of how many rounds you both went and also went uphill on Jalan 15. When you finally tired out, Ko-ko rode off to other parts of the housing area for a while before he came back.

So thankful to have Ko-ko who was willing to ride slowly and accompany you. 

Happy Birthday, Ah Ma

Today is Ah Ma's birthday. For brunch we had a Western breakfast of eggs, sausages, English muffin and bacon which was cooked by daddy.

For dinner, Ah Ma ordered delivery from Starview. She said that she wanted to have Chinese food for her birthday. 

Our dinner selection

Of course no birthday is complete without a cake. Here is the birthday girl with her cake:

Birthday girl with Ah Kong

With grandkids

With Ah Kong and daddy

And of course, my two kids made her handmade/hand drawn card for this special occassion:

Rainy Car Wash

Daddy made a mistake to suggest that you helped him wash the car. When he changed his mind, it was too late and you were making a big fuss that you wanted to wash the car. 

So in a race against time (before the rain came) you all helped him was the car. Ko-ko was forced drafted to help out as well.

I was relaxing in the room when I heard the strong wind blowing. So I went down to help (and take photos) to speed things up.

Playing with water

As it started to rain, daddy drove the car under the porch so that you could all dry the car up.

And to finish up this watery task, you both had a quick run in the rain before heading up to shower.

Playing in the rain

Welcome, Emily Starr

There was a Big Bad Wolf sale during the end of last year and I bought this "Make Your Unicorn" and today we finally found the time to sit down and make it.. or rather mummy made most of it.. 

Most of the sewing was done by me. But of course, you helped me in the jobs needing small hands such as threading the needle, turning inside out the parts (tail, horn) and of course, stuffing the unicorn. 

Turning the horn inside out

Mei-mei took a picture of me sewing

Unstuffed Unicorn

Filling her up

And finally it was all ready.

Introducing the latest addition to Evelyn's collection... Emily Starr the Unicorn:

Happy Birthday, Sammi

Sammi the fish was missing for a while. Kakak buried her under the mattress when she changed the bedsheets in your room. Daddy and I searched high and low and finally found her under the bed. Poor thing.

Last night we realised that it was her birthday (as written on the label). But it was too late, and so we agreed to make the birthday cake the next day. 

Here is her "mummy" making the cake in a mug:

Ta-da.. candle on her cake:

 

Exam Week

With the MCO 2.0, the school decided to proceed with having online exams for the primary school children. As for the secondary school children, Ko-ko initially had to cram for his exams which unexpectedly was planned to be brought forward by a week, but the school still could not make it before MCO came into effect.

The school provided briefing to the children as we as parents on what would be needed for the online exams. On top of that they had 2 trial runs to see what issues may arise during the real exam day. As much as the school tried to iron out as many issues, on the exam days itself there was quite a bit of panic. One main issue was the usage of the answer sheet. The instructions were not consistent where some teachers insisted on the usage while the parents were told that either the answer sheet or question paper would be accepted. Nevertheless, the teachers involved have tried really hard to ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible. To me, the online exams were a cause of headache but the teachers have been amazing in trying to make the best of something new.

All ready for the exam

"Group photo" on the last exam day

This Covid has led to many new things and changes in our lives. I really hope that all goes well soon and we can get back to as normal as possible a lifestyle soon.

6 Years Apart

This picture of you all ready for school (one week into attending school in Rajawali) at the age just over 2 years old popped up in my Facebook history:

And this week, this year you are now just a little over 8 years old and in Year 3, all geared up to take your first ever online exam:

Oh how our little thing has grown so much.. 

Dr. Mummy, Toy Rescue

It is quite often that you would bring me a toy and ask me to fix. There are times when I'd procrastinate, but this poor doggy's ear fell off when you jumped on it. So... Doctor Mummy to the rescue

"New Year Dog" with the sewing equipment and fallen ear

"New Year Dog" is all fixed

Then on Saturday, you showed me your Elsa with her super tangled-afro looking hair. So I soaked her hair in clothes softener, and later dried it up, but it didn't seem to work very well. 

Just hangin' out

On Sunday, we tried another time with hair conditioner (after looking for ways to detangle hair on Pinterest). This time it seemed to be less tangled, but her hair still looks like a lion's mane!

Evelyn even remarked that she must be alive and secretly tangles up her hair when we're not looking. It gets tangled shortly after it has been combed out!

Yay! Now Everyone Can Ride!

 Haha... yes! Although I am the last to achieve it, I am finally able to ride the bicycle.. yeah, yeah at the old age of 42. But.. better late than never *big grin*

And of course, the little girl was like a boss to me, telling me how to cycle and what to do and what not to do. We had tried a few times in the car porch and today, daddy decided we'd try out in the field after we'd gone for a walk/cycle around the housing area.

So first, I tried peddling using Evelyn's little bike and it worked. Daddy asked if I'd like to try cycling on Ko-ko's bike. I was hesitant as it was very high, I had to tiptoe when the bicycle was stationary. But in the end gave in and yay! I made it. I can cycle. 

Mei-mei and I had a very good teacher.