Let's Pah-tee

You'd decided to wake up early today again. Daddy had overslept and he was in a mad rush to get ready for his morning goff game with Ah Kong. That's probably why you woke up early. Anyway, we lazed in bed until almost 8am before having breakfast. After we got ready to go out, we headed to the laundrymat to drop off Ah Kong's coat for dry cleaning, then went to buy lunch for Soo Kee and went home to change for the pah-tee. Abby is turning 2 on Thursday and her mummy and daddy are having a small party in G-Hotel coffee garden today. Dressed you up in your new shirt and pants from Chateau de Sable that Aunty Jamie had bought you for your 2nd birthday.

Since it was still early, we (Ah Ma, you and mummy) headed to Adventist Hospital to buy bread for tonight's dinner then went to Gurney Plaza for some chopping before the lunch. We bought some things before meeting up with Uncle Sin Tien and Aunty Ean Na and crossing over to the hotel. Abby and her mummy, daddy, Ah Kong and Poh-poh were already there. So mummy took some juice and mushroom choop for you and we started our lunch. Daddy and Ah Kong were already on their way to the hotel by then.

Forgot to take a picture of the present, but here's a picture of the box and card that we'd bought for Abby. Mummy had picked the gift when we went to KL. There's even a picture of you giving the present to Abby (you changed your mind halfway, you wanted to take back the gift!) in the slideshow below.

After a long and leisurely lunch with birthday cake cutting and singing, we headed home. We dropped both your Tou-tou's home first and before we reached home, you'd fallen asleep in your carseat. As I am typing this blog, you are still sleeping peacefully next to an equally tired daddy.

Our Saturday

Since we could not make it to Jushh-co on Thursday as it was a public holiday, we planned to go today. And we made it. We had a lie in this morning, as daddy and Ah Kong had gone off for goff... Evan Ah Mad had gone off to the market by the time we woke up. Anyway the 2 men had only gone to play a 9 hole game, so the got back by 10.30am. Oops.. too late to go to Youth Park as well as Queensbay Mall for lunch. So we scrapped the Youth Park plan and headed directly for some chopping.

We actually needed to do some banking but since the queue was sooooo long, we headed to Dragon-I for lunch first. Ah Ma had ordered pork chop fried rice. But while waiting for that to be served, you finished your moi moi before "sharing" the fried rice and pork chop. After lunch, we headed back to the bank to do our banking. While waiting for mummy to settle the business in the bank, daddy took you to watch the bands that were performing downstairs. He said that you enjoyed the bagpipes performance but when the band came on, you wanted to go off. Probably too loud for you.

After that it was time for chopping. Ah Ma took you to look around, while daddy and Ah Kong went to look at the golf bags. Mummy went up planning to get my voucher, but as the queue was not moving, I abandoned plans and bought you a new cutlery and plate set instead.

By then you were already getting tired and onee mummy could cayi (carry) you. We went to look for new PJs for you but there were none sold for your age in Hallmark. So before heading to the grocery section in Jushhh-co we went to look at some books in Borders. Went home tired and after you woke up, we headed to Youth Park.

You would not believe it. The evening crowd is even bigger then the morning crowd. You played around, looked at the fishes and monkeys before we headed to Penang Sports Club for dinner.

After your bath, you picar (play car) with daddy for a while before falling asleep at 10.00pm. Phew.. what a long day.

Flying Leap

As usual you've been our bedmate. And this morning you were sleeping on my bolster when I woke up to go to the bathroom. I was too lazy to wear my glasses but as I was walking into the bedroom, I noticed that you were about to take a flying leap off the bed!

Wah.. that sure gave me a heart attack. I had to run to the side of the bed and catch you. Did you realise anything? I guess not. You continued with your sleep while I had to lie still on the bed in order not to wake you up.. with my heart beating so fast! And because of your attempt to fly, I could not sleep immediately. I wonder if daddy realised anything at all...

Happy Labour Day

Like I had said before.. I love holidays. And today is Labour Day. What did we do? I had hoped for a lazy morning, but you had other plans in mind. You woke up just before 7am! So we lazed around, had breakfast before heading to Island Glades to buy some breakfast. As usual daddy had already gone off for his goff. Ah Kong on the other hand had to dial in for a meeting first.

When daddy came back, it was a little too late to go out as we had to wait for Ah Ma to come back with our lunch. And by the time she came back, she said that there was traffic jam everywhere. So we decided to rest at home and bring you out for a car ride later. And that was a good decision. As you'd woken up early this morning, you fell asleep by 2.00pm.

After you woke up from your nap, we took you out to town to buy some "eu char kuih". It was just the three of us, as Ah Ma was busy cooking dinner and Ah Kong had gone off for his goff. After buying, we decided to take a look at the traffic condition in Queensbay Mall. Yikes.. there were so many cars trying to get into the carpark. Luckily we abandon our plans to go there this afternoon.

So home we went and it was soon time for dinner. What was the special dish Ah Ma was cooking? Bah Kut Teh.. yay! But since the soup might be too heaty for you, Ah Ma had even cooked some special soup (ikan bilis stock, chicken and a lot of veggies) for you. And you got to eat the "or pui" that Ah Ma had cooked.

As always, you loved the food. Why do I say so? This picture says it all:

An Extra Day To Spend with You

I love public holidays. Tomorrow is Labour Day. I just wish I had extra leave that I could take on Friday to make it a super long weekend that I could spend with you. Oh well, nevermind, I'll save my leave so that we can go somewhere together on holiday. That would be more fun.

Who wouldn't want to spend the day with this adorable face:

That is why I look forward to the weekends...

Favourite...

You've got lots of favourite things. But they keep changing all the time. Your favourite DVD was Barney then it was Wheels on the Bus (we can be watching the same VCD 5 times in a row!) and now it's Barney again.

And your toys from Barney that you got for Christmas to your current favourite, Mickey Mouse. Which one? You've got 2 of them, one from Uncle Sin Tien that he bought from Hong Kong Disneyland and another that you picked in the Disney Store when we were in Japan. I remember daddy telling me that you'd picked that Mickey and insisted that was the one that you wanted, even though daddy showed you other toys...

So your current favourite is this Mickey that you picked yourself in Japan:

Mickey sitting next to you while you were sleeping

And what do you call him?

Mummy: Who is this?

Evan: Min-nee

Mummy: No.. Mic-kee

Evan (grinning): Min-NEE

Arghhh..

Our Weekend - Sunday

Where did we go? We woke up a little late today, so after we took our breakfasts and bath, we headed to Youth Park. It was already almost 11am by then. Daddy said we'd go have a look to see how warn the weather was in the Youth Park. To our surprise, it was still very shady and cool. And there were many children playing around still. So as usual you headed to play on your favourite slide first. Then after that we sat on the see-saw for a while before sitting on the swings (which you are not particularly fond of) and the little sea-horse.

Ah Kong was with us, as Ah Ma had to bring Great-Grandpa to for his follow up check-up. He'd fainted last Saturday and had some stitches on his forehead. After playing for a while, we went to have a look at the fishes in the pond.. but they were not there anymore. So where to next?

Brunch... We'd already cooked your moi moi and so we went to have our brunch. After that we went for coconut ice-cream. Mummy ordered EXTRA sized, so everyone got to eat a larger portions.. including you. Where to next? We went by the condo to pick up the bills and had no where else to go. So in the end, we decided to take the longer and more scenic route home. Yup.. through Teluk Bahang, Balik Pulau and Teluk Kumbar.

After a while, you got bored and complained of a painful foot. Mummy had to rub and rub your foot and soon, you fell asleep. We even drove out of the usual route. We tried to look for Pantai Acheh, but only found a road that got narrower and narrower, so we abandoned that plan. Next we took the road to Pulau Betong.. but we also could not find the beautiful beach that we saw when we were driving on the hilly roads.. Hhmmm...

We arrived home after driving for 2 hours. Daddy loves to say that we would have arrived at Ipoh by then... And you decided to wake up just as we pulled into the driveway. What did you say? "Agin".. Haha.. I guess that kai-kai wasn't counted since you fell asleep halfway!

Our Weekend - Saturday

We sure had a weekend full of events... On Saturday, we decided that it's ok to leave Soo Kee (your temporary kakak alone at home... Before that Ah Ma was worried that she might decided to run away, so someone had to be at home with her at all times.. ) Unfortunately, you were still asleep at 7.30am.. Ah Ma asked me to wake you up.. so back to the room I went and tried to wake you up. Dare not raise my voice too much in case I scared you.. Try as I may, you just turned away and continued with your sleep. Poor little guy. So Ah Ma came in and of course, she was talking at the top of her voice.. and that woke you up. Despite being woken up from your sleep, you were rather cheerful. After lazing around for a while, you got up to brush your teeth, change into your favourite car singlet and go down for milk before we went off to pick Bo-bo Poh to go marketing..

We were lucky when we arrived at the carpark.. loads of spaces to pick from. So off we went with Ah Ma to buy things.. First thing, fish. I had tried to get you to say "fish" many times before. And today to my surprise, when mummy pointed the fish to you and asked you what it was.. you told me "pish" (fish). Such a clever boy...

We went home to bathe and get ready for your party. Hehe.. you could even say "Pah tee". It was a little gathering for Citigold member's and their children in Greenlane McDonald's. You even got to meet our RM's daughter, Ashley. She's a sweet little girl who's 4 years old. Since her mummy was busy meeting her customers, Ashley even sat with us to have her lunch. What did you have for lunch? French fries and nuggets (your first Happy Meal) . We also got you a cup of Milo but that was the first time you tried it, and you didn't like it. So you drank plain water that (thankfully) mummy brought for you. As you were too shy and also probably too little to join in the games, we left a little earlier and went to Gurney Plaza for a little shopping.

First Happy Meal toy..

Nothing much to buy, Ah Ma only needed something from Estee Lauder. Dinner was home cooked food. There was your favourite soup. And I've noticed that you can even ask for soup. How? Like this:

"Choop onee (Soup only) mummy..." or "Cha moh (some more) choop mummy"

And if my response is too slow, you will start hitting my arms to get my attention!

I really love the weekends. We get to spend quality time together.

Baby Chair

I've noticed that lately you've been demanding for your baby chair the moment we reach the restaurant. The moment we walk towards the table, you'd ask for it "Baybeee cheh" or sometimes "Beebee cheh". You demanded that ee-ee brought you the chair when we went for lunch, tea and dinner on Saturday, when we went out for dinner on Tuesday and even yesterday evening when we went to Double Good for dinner.

And yet, at home, you struggle when we want to put you on your baby chair. Sigh.. maybe you prefer those baby chairs that they use in the restaurants and coffee shops? Duh.. and Ah Kong had brought your highchair all the from US.

Lately you've also started self feeding. I'd only let you self feed if the moi-moi is very thick... otherwise you'd drop them all over your shirt.. or it's rice mixed with some dishes and gravy. To our surprise, you usually don't drop much of the food all over. In fact, the place was rather clean when we went out for bah kut teh last week. Mummy had left you to feed yourself the "or pui" while I enjoyed the bah kut teh.. and by the time you were done.. you'd only dropped a few grains of the rice. Hhhmm.. I wonder if you're a naturally tidy/clean eater or greedy (don't want to waste any of the food)...

Please Let Me Sleep

I know I've written so many posts begging you to let mummy sleep. Sigh.. yesterday was one of the longest days in my life (so far anyway). You decided to wake up for a feed at 5.30am and refused to go back to sleep after that. Instead, you grinned at mummy when I sneaked a peak at you (I was pretending to be asleep before that!)

Then I needed to go to the toilet.. Darn.. Obviously you decided to follow me and help me pull the tissue paper. Then after that you told me that you wanted to brush your teeth! NOoo! So told you it's still early.. mummy still wants to "oi oi". Ok.. so we went back to the bed and lie down for a while. Obviously that wasn't the end. You were already wide awake by then. Next you told mummy that you needed to "mmk mmk". Being the (bad?) mummy that I am, I told you to poo poo later on *grin*, but you could not wait. And off we went again to the bathroom for you to do your big business. Not the end of my early morning torture session. Next you decided that you wanted to "pom pom" (take a bath). Try as I may, you wanted to pom pom. So... washed your little bottom and you were satisfied.

Back in the room you kept telling me (at the top of your voice) that daddy "oi oi". Then you decided that you wanted milk. So we had to go down to heat up your milk, go up to the room, finish your milk.. but you were still no where close to being sleepy. What else to do? Get up and get ready to go to work lo.. Both of us had our shower and by then, daddy was already semi-awake. Poor thing. I was trying go keep you quiet.. but you kept talking at the top of your voice. Poor daddy only slept at 1.30am.

Went down to have breakfast. But you decided that you wanted to "exercise". So sat on the machine on the upstairs landing and refused to go down with me. When I told you I'm leaving you upstairs, I think you to up too hurriedly and fell backwards on your back.

And what did you decide to do after we finally calmed you down? Spill your milk all over the table when I was not looking. Arghh... and it's only 8.00am! Ok daddy came down after that. Time to go to work, and you (grudgingly?) said bye to mummy as I'd just scolded you for spilling the milk.

After work, Ah Ma told me that you slept for 2.5hours. You went out with her and Ah Kong to the bank and fell asleep on the way back home. So after having such a long sleep, you only fell asleep last night at 10.40. I think by then I'd already dozed off once and daddy was also dozing off!

I woke up at 4.00am this morning, but dare not move in case you woke up. When I woke up again at 7.30 to get ready.. you decided to wake up too and stick to mummy like super glue! Daddy says I'm too "chor lor" when I get out of the bed. Hhmm.. maybe we should get those mattresses with pocket springs. And since we're at it.. a larger bed too! *hint hint*

Haircut again

It seems like you keep going for a haircut. What to do.. we want you to have a haircut and not crew cut using the electric clippers (ok, ok it's mummy.. daddy would happily let you have a crew cut). As usual we left work at 5 sharp went back to change into comfy clothes. Ah Ma had already told you that you were going for a haircut. In fact even before that I kept telling you that your hair was already long and needed a cut. You'd reply with a firm shake of the head, indicating NO HAIRCUT. But mummy would continue to tell you that Uncle will cut your hair. He even cuts daddy, Ah Kong and mummy's hair.

As usual, when we arrived at the shop you indicated that you wanted to go home. But after a little persuasion, mummy sat down on the chair holding you. You whined a little, but no loudspeaker so far... So he quickly snipped a little here and a little there. You struggled a little and got a but agitated as daddy had to hold your head still while Uncle Austin cut your hair. We had some che-che's help hold your hands too to make sure you stayed still. I had to distract you to ask you where che-che or aunty was..

But it was all over in less than 15 minutes this time. You were all sweaty from the stress and the stoplights in the shop, but definitely a handsome little boy with the new haircut *grin*

All cheerful again after the haircut..

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