Oh No.. It Rained

With Ah Kong's friends over, they decided to treat them to a BBQ. But.. of all days, it decided to rain.. Actually it had been raining for the past few days but it did not rain yesterday, so were thought that there was hope of a BBQ by the poolside. But it was not to be...

It rained in the afternoon and stopped a while (raising our hopes again, I might add) and when we went down to clean the BBQ pit, it had already started to rain again. Sigh... What to do? We had to put our "backup" plan into action next. Use our (still new) oven. Very soon, the aroma of grilled chicken was all over the condo. Yummy.. Ah Ma's BBQ recipe sure is the best! And everyone agreed to that. Next came the prawns. While the prawns were cooking in the oven, Ah Ma even cooked steaks to order! Daddy's steaks was done to his liking: medium-rare! Eeww... After that was Ah Ma's fish that she's bought fresh from the fishermen near our place. It was so fresh.

What next? There was a birthday to celebrate. So.. we had chocolate mud cake that we bought from the shop outside our condo. On top of that another friend of Ah Kong's even brought yummy cheesecake. Double yummy.. You loved the chocolate mud cake, which Ee Poh and family also love!

What time did you sleep? With all the excitement and all the aunties and uncles to keep you entertained, we went to the room at 11.00pm, but you didn't sleep until probably 12.00midnight after daddy and mummy fell asleep. I think we slept before you!

Only thing is you had to wake up early in the morning (3.40 am ok!!) to do a biggie and drink water and insist that mummy had to go to the kitchen to top up your water bottle and after all that you just went back to sleep, while I lie in bed with my eyes wide open! Sheesh.. I feel so groggy now...

Let's Go For a Swim

It looked so sunny yesterday evening. And I was feeling a little too lazy actually, but you seemed to energetic yesterday and poor daddy was trying to take a nap. So mummy brought you down for a swim. At first I thought of doing it by myself, but Ah Kong was also keen to bring you swimming. So in the end, we went down with Ah Kong and Ah Ma too. The last time we went swimming you got sick and that was the scariest time ever.

Dressed you up in your new swimsuit and off we went. As usual you refused to get into the water at first. Ah Kong had to carry you into the small pool with you trying to get your foot on the sides, struggling!

Finally mummy gave up and told you to sit in the small pool while I went into the bigger pool. Of course, you decided to join me immediately. After a while, you started to relax and enjoy the warm water. Even kicked the water. When Aunty Ruth and Uncle KK came down, you even showed off your kicking skills. After that, you decided that you didn't want to get out of the water. But I dare not let you play for too long, so we wrapped you up and headed to the condo for a warm drink followed by a warm bath. That was fun, let's do it again soon...

Looking better?

We've finally cleared most of the things. Daddy and Ah Kong even put up some of the pictures, cuckoo clock and we put away most of the things that were in the boxes. (don't open the closets! Hahaha..)

With Ah Kong's friends over, we had to clear out your toys from your "play room". So where did they end up? Outside in the living room lo.. Can you see the toys on the floor? That's not all of them ! Some are in our room, others are on the shelves near the dining table.. Sigh.. too many toys!

Naptime

Seems like your nap time is now regulated. Ah Ma says that right after Clifford the Big Red Dog, you will go to the room and fall asleep quickly. Hhmmm... Looks like that seems to be the case. At 2 sharp for the past 2 days you'd fall asleep.. in the car!

On Saturday, daddy and mummy had to take turns carrying you so that we could have lunch! And right after we finished our lunch, you decided that you'd had enough sleep already! Arghhh... Yesterday was the same case. Barely 10 minutes after we got into the car, you'd fallen asleep. After we went to 2 stalls (1 in Terengganu Road and another in Tanjung Bungah) to buy some tea time snack, you decided to wake up! Slept for 1 hour in the car!

So would that be the same today? We thought that since we were not going anywhere, you'd follow the trend. Sigh.. I was SO mistaken. Went into the room at 2 sharp and thought that you'd sleep 5 minutes later (like Ah Ma said you would). Did it work? NooOOooo.. (obviously). I took me a good 25 minutes before you finally decided to fall asleep! Sigh..

And now? Deep in slumber land...

Correction: Already up even before i manage to upload the pictures! Haiya...

Nope.. woke up to lie on my lap.. sleeping again

So many boxes!

Boxes everywhere... That was what the house looked like the last few days before we officially moved.

And the condo is also full of boxes (obviously) and it took us a good 3-4 days to (almost) finish unpacking. There are still 2 more boxes that we need to clear before Ah Kong's friends come this weekend.

Here you are playing among the boxes.

What Happened to All the Water?

*Backdated post.... (very)*

Oh no.. I didn't notice it at first when we went home on Sunday (from the condo). In fact, I didn't realise that the fishes were missing when I came back last Tuesday. Even made the mistake of asking you where the fishes were. Luckily you were ok with the missing fishies. Ah Kong had given the fishes to his friend. 3 of the Japanese carp. Daddy said that they'd told you the fishes were to be given to "uncle".

So what was your reaction when you saw this?

Look closer..

Eh? No more water edi... Water go to unker's housh (house).. (You told me that EVERY night, when we go downstairs to take your milk!)

Er.. ok i guess you got mixed up between the fishies and the water. I'm sure you'll miss those fishies. You used to feed them with Ah Kong whenever he goes home for lunch. Never mind, maybe when you're older we can get you some fishies to feed in a fish bowl, since this pond will be covered up soon.

Need Sleep

I guess everyone has been tired with all the moving. I cannot imagine when the time comes for us to move back to the house. Yup, I forgot to mention that this move is only temporary while the house is under renovation. Only realised why Baby Zen's mummy left us a message.

We've been staying at the condo officially for a week. Yet, I think everyone is still very tired. I don't know why you should be tired, but you seem to be so. You must love the excitement of staying in a new place, because you seem to sleep late and wake up early. So do you suffer from lack of sleep? Obviously not! Why? Because your afternoon naps have now extended to 2.5 hours!

Who is suffering from lack of sleep instead? Hehe.. I wish to say it's me, but I think daddy is still very tired. With the move, we now have to wake up earlier to travel to work. I cannot proclaim to be lacking in sleep because sometimes I fall asleep before you do at night! Hehe... Daddy on the other hand has those little things to check on and fix around the place still. So he's really tired. He fell asleep even with you making a ruckus in the room yesterday evening!

Hopefully you'll sleep in this weekend. We all need the long long sleep to rejuvenate!

We've Moved

Mummy received news that we were to move to the condo the weekend after I came back from Bangkok. Yikes.. that gave me around 2-3 days to pack up all the things that we've accumulated over the years. What to do? What to do? Can it be done on time? When daddy picked me up on Wednesday, he told me that they'd postponed by a week. Phew.. Now I will have more time to pack.. or so I thought anyway.

Ok, the truth was that I did procrastinate a little. And the boxes only arrived on Friday. Luckily Ah Ma decided to engage some professional movers to help. I started to pack up the clothes into the boxes, while daddy went through all the things to decide what needs to be thrown, kept or given away.

Everynight was spent clearing all our stuff. Some nights I slept when you fell asleep and refused to wake up later (as I had promised daddy) to continue packing. Hehe.. still tired from the trip. Anyway, we took Thursday afternoon off and we finally finished packing all the things. By the time we were done, it was 3am. Why did we take so long? Because we had to wait for you to fall asleep, which you have taken to sleeping only after 11pm! Otherwise, you'd be so very helpful. Either helping by pulling out the things that I'd put into the box or asking me what the items were, or deciding that you wanted to sit on my lap!

Friday was D-Day. We all could not wake up, since we had a very late night. When mummy and daddy finally got ourselves out of bed, you continued to sleep until almost 9am. Since it was already late, I gave you milk and off we went to the condo with some small nick-knacks that we were to move ourselves.

Daddy left shortly for the house after we were settled in. What did we do? We entertained ourselves, had lunch and mummy even ordered delivery for myself. Daddy came again later to drop some things and see how we were doing. Since you were still awake, we decided to go back home to see how the moving was going. The house certainly looked.. bare. All the things were cleared and just before we left, it was even emptier. Why? Because one of the charitable organization had sent their recycling team to remove all the wooden fixtures. So the house was REALLY bare.

We arrived at the condo just as the movers reached. Soon, they were moving the boxes and boxes of things into the house. When all was done, they opened the packaging of the bulking items. I wish that was the end of the moving. Sigh.. but seems like that's not the case. Now it's time to unpack. As of now.. we still have A LOT of things to unpack.

And with all the moving, you did not take an afternoon nap. You dozed off for 5 minuted on the way back home in daddy's car. So I expected you to sleep early at night, but I was mistaken! Sleep only came to you (and me) at 11.30pm!

Chippies again...

Daddy said that he had promised to go home yesterday during lunch time. Too bad we couldn't make it, since mummy had a lot of work to do. So today we bought lunch and went home. Of course, you were glad to see us home. It seems you even told Ah Ma that we'd be back today. And good thing we decided to go home today too. Since Ah Kong did not go home for lunch today.

Like I was saying, you sure were glad when you heard us coming home. But you were even happier when you saw what we had brought back for lunch. Yup.. chippies! You were grinning from ear to ear when you saw the "Golden Arches" logo. That's right.. you can recognise this:

And this too:

What do you call them? "Chippies".. what else?

I wonder if you will greet me with "Eh? Where chippies?" when we get home, like you did the last time... Sigh.. more eager to see the chippies than mummy or daddy...

Ba-nga-nga-nga

Although you are willing to try most of the food that we introduce to you, you seem very reluctant when it comes to fruits. It's durian season, and obviously you refused to try that. In fact, the moment you see the white Styrofoam box, you'd point to it and say "No...."

What is strange is that you'd take orange juice but not oranges. Then again, you had grape yogurt yesterday but when Ah Kong asked if you would like grapes, since you'd take grape yogurt, you said "No..."

So what fruit would you eat? Apple is one of your favourite. I used to give you pear too, but nowdays you'd only eat it if you're in the mood for it. Other than that, banana is your favourite. You'd ask Ah Ma to buy you ba-nga-nga-nga when she goes to the market. Whenever we go to the Pulau Tikus market, there are only 2 things that we have to buy: ba-nga-nga-nga and baka bun (butter bun).

The latest thing you have learnt is whether the banana is ripe enough to eat.

Ah Ma : What colour is the banana?

Evan : Gween, can-ngot eat (Green, cannot eat)

Ah Ma : What colour is the banana?

Evan : 'ewo, can eat (Yellow, can eat)

It's very amusing how fast you pick up things now. So whenever you see the banana that Ah Ma buys you'll know whether you can eat it or not.

P/S: Despite learning things quickly, there are some things that you refuse to learn. Like the correct word is "ba-na-na" and yet you'll say "ba-nga-nga-nga". Otherwise it will be "ba-nga".. Anything but the correct word!

Missed You So Much

I was away on holidays with my friends from last Friday and only came back on Tuesday. While it was fun, I had to leave you crying, in Ah Ma's arms, asking for me and that made me sad. Thank goodness for mobile phones. So daddy would call me and we'd chat a while or he's SMS me to tell me the little naughty things that you did while I was away.

It was a relief when I arrived home. I get to see you and daddy, whom I've missed so much. The moment I got home, I hid in the kitchen and you came out asking for mummy. Daddy was there but you told poor daddy "Dowan daddy". The smile you gave me was the sweetest and I missed your smiles so much while I was in Bangkok.

Better still was your reaction when I gave you your presents. You went "Wow.. nice, nice".. Talk about being appreciative. Worth all the effort I spent to pick some nice things for you. Will post about your "loot" later on...

Backseat Driver

Why are you called a "backseat driver"? Because you sit at the back and you tried to help Ah Kong drive. Or to be more specific.. park his car!

We went out for lunch on Sunday: you, Ah Kong, daddy and mummy. Couldn't decide where to go. We went to Lorong Selamat and finally found a parking spot. Ah Kong was backing when we heard the backseat driver saying:

"Go all the way"

Wow! We were surprised that you could say that. Next we're wondering where you learnt that from. Ah Kong reckons probably from Ah Ma! Haha...

Do Not Disturb: Artist At Work

I thought that I had posted about this before, but looks like I didn't. Remember that "artwork" that you'd drawn for Mother's Day? Well, here are some pictures of you busy drawing:

You love to draw when we're in the room at night. You'll tell me "Mummy, daw" and you'd put mummy and daddy's pillows on the floor, one for me and another for you. And I'll put the paper on the floor and we'd draw.. Or more like you scribble and mummy draw whatever few things that I can draw. But it's fun, and I love your imagination..

Scribbly-scratch

Evan: This is ai-yo-pane (aeroplane)

More lines and scribbles

Evan: This is (s)tar

Drawing session with mummy

Artist at work..

And there are times when one of your many toys are "taught" how to draw. Here's Elmo taking drawing lessons from you (picture not very clear beacuse you were moving around):

Things I Overheard You Saying...

You seem to be more and more curious. So whenever you hear a sound, you will ask "Wat dat?" of "Eh? Wat dat?"

Another thing you like to ask is "(What) are you doing?" Just like when we were in The Smokehouse, waiting for the tea time menu to be served, and we were playing in the gardens. Chim Poh went to hide from you.. so what did you say? "Chim Poh... (What) are you doing?"

Whenever your toys fall, you'll say "Ash-den" which is your version of "accident". Especially when you play with your garage. Sometimes, one of the cars will overturn when it is maneuvering the bend and the next car will bang into the overturned car, so you will say "Aiya, ash-den".

Which brings us to your next word "Aiyah..". Chim Poh reckons you picked that up from me. She says I use that word quite a bit. So when anything happens, you will say "Aiyah..."

It's very funny how from saying a few single words, you are now almost able to hold a conversation with us. Just like when you were playing with daddy.. He arranged your trains in a row and you told him "No, daddy.. Not like dish (this)".

Sometimes it's a little difficult to figure out what you are saying.. I'd try to guess what you're saying with words that sound almost alike. If it's wrong, then you'd just say "No" and we'd move on to the next guess *wink*. You used to get really upset when we could not figure out what you were trying to say. I guess when we are around you more often, it's easier to understand you. And you definitely understand what we're telling you. In fact, Chim Poh and Chek Kong and Su Kor-kor had difficulty understanding you.. But after 3 days with you, they could pretty much figure out what you try to tell them.

Oh yes, you also like to say this:

Mummy: Where is Ah Ma?

Evan: Upstairs

Mummy: What is Ah Ma doing upstairs?

Evan: Doing something

or

Mummy: What are you doing, Evan?

Evan: Something

Never something specific. Always a standard answer of "something"... Ok there was this one time that you gave me a specific answer:

Evan: Going home

Mummy: Go home to do what?

Evan: Go home, do something

Mummy: Do what?

Evan: Go home, wash b*rdie

Er.. ok next time, we'll leave it as "something"!

Wedding Dinner

We had 2 dinner's to attend yesterday. So, who did you go with? Daddy, of course. Why? Because he's going with Ah Ma and Ah Kong... It was daddy's cousin, Siao Lee's wedding dinner. Mummy on the other hand attended my colleague's wedding dinner.

In the morning, we headed to Gurney Plaza to get the batteries in my watches changed. Yup, they all decided to die on me at the same time. But no such luck. One needed to be sent to KL to have the batteries changed, while another shop did not have the size needed for my other watch. Sigh.. Anyway, we had a quick lunch after that and headed home, since daddy had a very early game to play.

Tried very hard to get you to nap early, but you decided that you preferred to play. In the end, you went into the small room with Ah Ma and after a long long time, you finally fell asleep. By the time you woke up, it was time to get ready for the wedding dinner. You were too grumpy to want to have any tea and so mummy got you ready first, then left you with Ah Ma along with your cheese. Aunty Asher was coming to pick me up soon. Luckily I was ready by the time she arrived.

By the time I got back from the wedding, it was almost 11.00pm and you guys were only on the way home. Daddy told me later that there was a traffic jam, trying to get out of the carpark! Poor daddy was so tired. He woke up this morning with aching arms. Why? Because you were so lucky to be seated right in front of the speakers! It was so loud, so daddy had to take you away from the loud music. Poor thing, you kept telling daddy that you were (s)cared.

Well you came back looking tired, but as always did not fall asleep immediately. By the time you fell asleep, it was 11.30pm and you still woke up at 8.45am this morning. Mummy tried to pretend to sleep to see if you'd wake me up. Surprise, surprise, you just played on our bed, until you spotted me looking at you!!

I guess you are still tired for the late night, you took your afternoon nap without making a lot of fuss. All settles within 10 minutes. You usually give me a harder time to get you to nap when mummy is around..

Haircut Day

We're tired from all the travelling and late nights but we decided to bring you to Uncle Austin's for a long needed haircut. Yvonne kor-kor mentioned that your hair looked too long. Don;t I know it...

So we unpacked and left the house at around 5p.m. for Uncle Austin's. When we arrived, there were 2 customers there, but we had to wait for almost an hour before it was finally your turn to have your hair cut. Daddy had planned to have his hair cut too, but changed his mind after waiting for so long. You were quite happy playing around and mummy had to ask you a few times if you were ok cutting your hair. You happily said not scared, cut here-here-here... Took Ching Ern's mummy to get you "prepped up" for the hair cut. And it sort of worked.

By the time your turn arrived, you sat quietly on the high chair while your hair was cut, but only for 5 minutes. When you noticed some hair dropping on your arms, you got upset and in the end, we finished the rest of your haircut under protest and in mummy's arms.

Before

After

Our Holiday in Camerons

I know I have mentioned many times before.. but it's true.. I love long weekends. This weekend was the Penang Governor's Birthday. So, we got today (Monday) off. So where to? It's the best time to travel since only Penang state was having this holiday. Cameron Highlands.. yay! And Su Kor-kor was taking the weekend off too and was joining us and 5th Chim Poh & Chek Kong in Camerons.

It's been a year since we last went to Camerons. The last time was during the Labour Day holiday stretch. This time it wasn't anywhere as crowded as last year. In fact, most of the cars bore Penang number plates! Hahah.. everyone had the same great idea to go to Cameron Highlands. We left Penang on Friday night to stop over in Ipoh, so that we did not have to leave early on Saturday. By the time we arrived in Ipoh, it was already past 10.00pm but you were not tired at all. So we all sat around and you finally went to sleep while daddy and Su Kor-kor went out to buy supper "ngar choi kai" (bean sprout chicken noodle) from the famous Cowan Street. Ah Ma was going to sit with you while I had my supper, but somehow, you decided otherwise and woke up. So... we all shared the noodles and chicken. You finally went back to sleep at 12.30a.m! The latest you've slept so far...

On Saturday morning, your internal clock didn't reset. You still woke up early. 8.30a.m. Sigh.. Ok after that everyone had to wake up, since you spoke at the top of your voice! After everyone was ready, we headed to Ipoh's old town to have breakfast. What did we have? Our favourite curry mee and all sorts of ingredients (fish ball, meat balls, "ngau kan yin", etc). Daddy ordered kuay tiau for you, but you ended up eating only a little but of that and lots of fish balls and meat balls.

After getting ready and packing, we headed to Camerons. Only thing is we had to make a u-turn back to the Ipoh house as mummy had forgotten to bring your two "precious": Barney and "baby" (the "kiam chai" bear). We finally arrived at Chek Kong's apartment in Tanah Rata at around 1.00p.m. We rested a while, played a while and soon it was time for dinner. What did you do while waiting for dinner time? We'd packed your Thomas the train set on Friday to bring along. So daddy set it up in this corner:

Dinner was at the usual spot in Brinchang. We ate a delicious dinner and went for a walk at the "pasar malam". It sure was crowded. After buying a few things, we left to go back. It was rather late, but as usual while on holidays, you only finally went to sleep at around 11.00pm, despite only napping for an hour in the car on the way up.

On Sunday, we woke up early (again)... It was quite noisy outside, with the vehicles moving outside and the birds, so since you woke up, no one else got to sleep either! Ah Kong and Chek Kong got ready and headed to the golf course. What did we have in mind? Have a look at this picture of you and Kor-kor:

Yup.. we went to "Ye Olde Smokehouse" for brunch. Ok, it was supposed to be breakfast, but by the time we arrived it was almost 10.30am and since we all wanted to eat scones, we waited for the "tea time" menu to be served at 11.00am. While waiting, you wondered happily around the gardens and we took some pictures too.

The food was delicious. We originally planned to give you the scones, but you had your own plans. You ate around 80% of Su Kor-kor's Bangers and Mash and wasn't interested in the scones.

After that, we went to take a look at the Strawberry Park Resort, then to a strawberry farm. This is the first time you're looking at a strawberry. What did you tell me? "Stowbewee oh-gut" (Strawberry Yougrt).. which is the closest to strawberries that you've come to so far..

We had another round of lunch in Brinchang with Ah Kong and Chek Kong who had finished their golf game. After that we sent them back with Ah Ma while we headed to the playground in Tanah Rata. You sure had fun. Especially since we missed Youth Park this weekend.

Went home for your nap. Look at what we saw before heading out for dinner:

Mist

Taken before the mist came

This morning, we woke up early as we planned to leave early, have lunch in Ipoh and head back to Penang, before the traffic on the Penang Bridge got too heavy.

All relaxed in the deck chair. Waiting for everyone to get ready.

Again, you slept most of the way down and only woke up when we arrived in Ipoh. Ah Tai was waiting for you to go home. Lunch was in Overseas Restaurant, Ah Tai's favourite restaurant.

After lunch, we headed back to Penang, making a detour to Nanna's house to drop of some things first.

Happy Birthday to Ching Ern

Happy 2nd Birthday to Ching Ern!

Hope she likes the present that we got her..

A Special Day..

Today is a day for celebrations. Since it was the middle of the week, we headed to TGIF in Queensbay Mall to celebrate. What was the occasion? Hehe.. Birthday celebration...

Mummy even managed to get you to say "Happy Birthday to Mummy". So sweet. Really made my day. In fact, I loved hearing you say that, I asked you to wish me several times, in the end this is what I got:

"Happy Birthday to Evan" (sigh..)

What greeted me first thing in the morning? 2 cards: one from you and another from daddy. You even wrote the wishes in the card for me, with daddy's help.

Thanks to my 2 darlings for this wonderful day..

Reading books

I love buying books for you. I started to buy board books because you'd er.. eat books when you were younger. I bought you a pop-up book before, but the book has met it's maker... Not in a very good condition anymore. All tattered and torn.

Well, for your 2nd birthday, you received several books. Some we have opened, while others are too advanced for you, so mummy put them aside for later on. On Saturday night, before going to sleep, you insisted that you wanted to read one of the new books that was still wrapped up. Mummy told you that it's still wrapped up. Guess what you did? You managed to peel open one of the sides and happily exclaimed "Open edi" (opened already), wanting to read the book and not go to sleep. Sigh.. it sure took lot of persuasion before you went to sleep!

Here's a really adorable book that ee-ee gave you for your birthday. It's called "In the Jungle". We call it the "Jungle book" .. easier. It's got a picture of an animal under the flap and you love it. We read this book before you take your afternoon naps and at night before bedtime. You can finally recognise all the adorable patchwork animals. Pronunciation is not too accurate, but getting there. There's the ai-yon (lion), giyaff, chupra (zebra), tiger (clearly), bird-paiet (parrot), hippo, monkey. The snake is “ssssss”. Sounds familiar? Looks like you haven't forgotten what you said so long ago. The last one that you learnt is the crocodile. You call it co-cu-DILE. Before that you'd tell me "Me dun no" when I asked you what it was!