Haircut Again...

It's that time again, the dreaded haircut. Ok lo.. it's mummy's fault that I wanted you to have a nice haircut rather than have it cut using the electric razor. Daddy reckons it's stressful for you since you make a big fuss almost everytime we bring you for a cut, which is very often too.

Usually, I'd prep you for the impending haircut days before the actual cut. This time, we just decided to do it on the spur of the moment. You see, you (actually it's "we") had a lie in until 9.45am. How come? Because it was the Hari Raya holiday and Ah Kong and daddy had already left for golf and there was no construction next door to wake us up. So since you seemed to well rested, daddy offered to bring you to Uncle Austin's for a haircut, after we'd had lunch.

Since you didn't seem sleepy and we could only bring you for haircuts during holidays or weekends, we tried our luck. Daddy called Uncle Austin and he said that it was a good time for us to go. We needed to make sure, since now that we've moved, the shop is a lot further from our place than before. So off we went. I had to talk to you to make sure that you didn't doze off, even prepping you for the haircut, asking where you'd like your hair to be cut. You'd respond to me, touching your head left, right and top saying "here, here, here".

We arrived and had to wait a while before it was your turn. So daddy took out his phone and took a "before" picture. See the sides.. it's so long, covering your ears! And your after shot. Cut looks good?

To our surprise, the haircut was a breeze. Everything done in less than 20 minutes! You sat happily on the highchair, strapped yourself in and sat quite still while Uncle Austin cut your hair. There were times when we had to hold you to make sure that you didn;t fidget when he was cutting some parts of your hair. Otherwise, it went so well, Uncle Austin even joked that it was a pity it was Thursday, otherwise he'd buy lottery since you were so co-operative! Your fringe is a little shorter because you moved and he needed to "rectify the problem". Otherwise, the cut was good. Should be able to last another 2 months.

Ferry Ride

It's been a long time since we took the ferry. Wait a minute.. you've never been on the Penang ferry before! So since we were going back to visit Nanna and Grampy and we're on this side of the island, we decided to take you on the ferry for the first time ever. We had to wait a while before it was our turn. And it was already 11.30am. We all slept in late (especially daddy...) so we left home later on Sunday. Saturday was already a full day for us, going all the way back to Ipoh and you having a wonderful time, playing in the playground in Polo Ground and running around looking at fishes.

Here's some of the pictures that we managed to take. You loved the view, and didn't even mind the sea water splashing on you.

Our Little Baby is Now 30 months old

I'm getting lazier to list down your milestones. You've grown so much, (and I'm getting older and more forgetful) so many things that you have done, some amusing, others that drive everyone up the wall. Here's a few of how you've grown so far...

Vital Stats:-

Height : around 85cm (I think)

Weight : 11.7 kg (still for quite a while)

~ Self-feeding for quite a while. Thankfully not a messy eater. Only thing is you do not like veggies. Only take them with your moi

~ Favourite food: You told Nanna yesterday that "You (My) favoneet(favourite) chippies"

~ Speech: takes a person who is familiar with you to understand what you are talking about. In fact, Ah Kong still needs help to figure out what you are talking sometimes. Even Ah Ma does not understand you 100%. But we have noticed that you are picking up new things very quickly

~ Music: love songs, especially when riding in your car. You will ask daddy to play "Eh-wan's chee-dee (CD)". Can even sing the whole Twinkle Twinkle Little Star song and a few others

~ Demanding: "Chan(ge) to Eh-wan's channel". What is it? 613: Playhouse Disney lo.. You even know how to change the channel yourself!

~ Cars: Still love them and now trains too

~ Caring: so sweet when you knock into us and we make crying sounds. You'll quickly come over and as "(Are) you ok?" and pet us and whisper "ok.. ok.. ", just like how we talk to you when you fall down.

~ Talk to Furbie: You like to ask him "(Are) you goo(d) boy?" and answer your own question with "Ha.." ("Yes" to your question)

~ Talk in proper sentences. Can even tell daddy off "Daddy drive too fast". Even asked Ah Kong "Ah Kong, are you weady (ready)?"

~ Recognizing things: Can recognise cars. I have even heard you saying "Look like Ah Kong car, ngot (not) Ah Kong car". Same goes for logo's. You even recognise the "halal" logo saying it's like your yogurt

~ Potty trained: 99% for wee wee and 100% for poo poo.. when you are awake. You will tell us that you need to "wee wee" or "ngk ngk". But on rare occasions, accidents still happen

~ Mr Curious: Still love to ask "Wat dat?" whenever you hear some sound or see something new

~ Current past-time: Other than drive mummy crazy, you love to hop around.. just like your favourite Tigger.

You've grown up so much since you turned two. At time you are the perfect angel.. at others, a typical two year old child in the "terrible two's" stage! Either way, we still love you loads.

Worms?!

You had been complaining of tummy aches.. but I had thought that you were just pulling my leg, wanting sympathy. So I told Ah Ma to let you be. Why did I say that you wanted sympathy? Because you'd run to mummy saying that you had a "tummy pain pain" and ask me to carry you so that it'll be better. Hhmmm...

Anyway, last night Ah Ma said that your pain seems to be more often and worse. So since Dr Mary had night clinic, we brought you there. Gave you a shower before going. Before that I had to tell you that we were seeing Dr Mary, that she will be giving you medicine so that your tummy wont hurt anymore. You seemed quite ok with that. So when it was our turn, you seemed ok.

Dr Mary said that your tummy had a lot of "wind" so she prescribed medicine and for mummy to stop temporarily the Prolactor (good bacteria) while your tummy recovers from the wind. Next she said that since you were over 2 years old, you needed to take de-worming medications. That was to be taken after you recovered from your windy condition. She said that you needed to take it every 6 months and every time you take it, everyone at home also needed to take the medicine.

When we went home, mummy gave Furbie his medicine while you helped kakak keep your toys. You told me that you were tired, since you did not take your afternoon nap. So after that, mummy fed you your medicine. Phew... it went smoothly. Before feeding you the medicine, I told you that Dr Mary said that you had to take the medicine and that your pain-pain will go away. You told me that you wanted to take the medicine from the yellow spoon that the pharmacist che-che had given you. Ok, so I measured using the syringe then poured onto your spoon. And you happily slurped all the medicine! Yay! Clever boy.

Shortly after going into the room, you kept telling me to turn off the light. I guess you were very tired already. By the time daddy came online, you were already sleeping. Nevermind, daddy will be back today. You'll get to see him (and your new toys) soon.

Pick Up Daddy

What did you say the moment you saw mummy and Ah Kong walk through the door this evening? "Later we go pick up daddy from ee-pot okay?" Sigh.. No dear, daddy's not coming back today. It's a little difficult to explain to you that daddy will be back in 2 days time.

Nevermind, I know you'll be very excited when you see him. Of course, daddy would not be back empty handed. I "heard" the toys just now when we were chatting. Not exactly sure what they are, but they're some "noise makers"!

What Happened to Furbie?

Poor poor Furbie. What was your reaction when you saw this?

"What.....?"

You were lost for words. Hehe.. we thought that you'd ask him your favourite question: Are you ok? But you only uttered that single word when you saw him.

What happened to Furbie? Well, he's been having some skin problems. The doctor calls it "yeast infection". Nope, it's not harmful to us, and neither is it to Furbie, but it does cause him a lot of discomfort. And it didn't seem to be getting better from the last visit to the vet. So we took him to see the vet on Saturday, leaving you with Ah Kong and Ah Ma.

Although I would take up any other alternatives that the vet would have to offer, he said that the best way to totally cure Furbie of this skin problem was to have him totally bald. So he had to be sedated before the vet shaved him bald.. totally... We took him home, waited for him to be less groggy and for you to take your afternoon nap before giving him a bath in the medicated shampoo and applied medicine to him. He seems to be better, but losing all this hair made him feel the cold. Kakak says on Monday morning when it rained heavily he was trembling, despite her putting on a towel for him to keep warm as well as his t-shirt. Poor little Furbie.

I hope that his skin problem will improve faster. But we will need to keep him short haired for at least 6 months. I hope that when we visit the vet in 2 weeks time, his skin would have improved.

The Wonderful Skype

Nope, this is not an advertisement.. Hehe.. It's just that it's so very useful and free. We logged in this evening to have a chat with daddy. The last time we used to chat on Skype when daddy was in Japan for work. Then you were too young to be able to chat with daddy. In fact you had a puzzled look when you could hear daddy, but not see daddy. After a while you got bored and I put you to sleep and continued to chat with daddy.

Today, you're older but still as surprised that you were not talking on the phone and yet you would hear daddy and not see him. Hehe.. in fact you were wondering why you could see so many pictures of yourself on my notebook, especially the one of you playing in Youth Park (you could recognise the place as "playground").

Anyway, after the initial surprise, you were quite happy to chat with daddy for a while. Then after that you were more interested in jabbing at all the buttons on my notebook! Even when daddy was chatting with Ah Kong, you kept poking at the number 1 key, and telling mummy that you were pressing on number one! So very helpful. In fact, halfway through the conversation, you even ended the call by hitting your favourite button "ESC"! Of course daddy knew who the culprit was that terminated the call! Naughty Evan lo.

In the end, we had to end the call when you got even more bored and started to pull things out of my drawer and ended up with a smack on your hand followed by you howling away! Maybe it'll be better tomorrow night, if we get to chat with daddy again.

So kind of you..

I know you love me just SOOO much. Why? Well, every night you will quickly jump onto my side of the bed and when I ask you where mummy will sleep if you hog my side of the bed? The response:

On the floor!

Thanks so much! Even with daddy away, I don't get to sleep on his side of the bed. I still have to sleep on the floor. You are very kind, Evan Ban!

BeanBag Hog

Cool swimsuit, eh?

Daddy took these pictures of you sitting on the beanbag before daddy took you down for a swim on Sunday. You seem to love sitting on daddy's favourite seat. Hhm... move over daddy, it's now Evan's seat. I think by the time he comes back, your bum imprint would be permanently on the seat. So it's now "Evan's chair"!

Last night I sat down on the beanbag and you told me that you wanted to sit. So I carried you to sit on my lap, but guess what? You asked me to get out of the chair. You wanted it all for yourself! What to do? Let you sit lo. Of course, you just wanted to sit there while "enjoying" the song from your favourite serial (Best Kept Secret at 9pm). So after you vacated the seat the moment the song ended, I thought I would get to sit there now. But nOooOoo... Next you wanted mummy to play with you. Then you needed to wee wee.. by the time I got to sit down, the show was almost over, and time for our nightly routine: keep your toys, take your milk, kiss everyone goodnight and go to the room to "wind down" for the day. No chance to sit on the beanbag! Maybe I will have a chance tonight?

This is going to make daddy SAD

You'd usually stand near the door at home whenever you hear the door opening to see who is home. And whenever you see us, you'd say "Mummy and daddy come home". Well, you did your usual yesterday evening and you noticed only Ah Kong and mummy coming through the door.

What was your reaction? "Eh? How come no daddy wan?"

Later on you probably recalled where daddy was.. You told me during dinner "Daddy go to ee-pot (airport)". And when I told you that daddy was in Singapore, you told me "Eh-wan (Evan) also Chingapor" and when asked why you wanted to go to Singapore, you told me "Er.. er... to.. to... buy nen-nen lo!". I could hear Ah Ma giggling as she listened to our conversation.

Poor daddy, I'm sure he misses you a lot. We spoke to him over the phone last night and you played your drums for him while singing "Old McDonald's" before saying good night to daddy. Well, we'll see daddy soon this Friday ok?

Daddy's Gone to Singapore

Daddy has gone to the airport today. He needs to travel to Singapore for some work. He'll be back on Friday, and judging by his expression yesterday, he's not very keen as he'll miss you a lot (well he added "and mummy too" after a long afterthought! *grin*)

He played with you last night, trying to tell you that he'll not be around, but you didn't seem to understand. At first you said that you also wanted to go to the airport. Then later, you picked the word "Singapore" and also told daddy that you wanted to take "air-plane to Chingapor".

You were still sleeping this morning when we left for the airport, but don;t worry, daddy will be back on Friday. He's made mummy promise to post daily updates on you on the blog. Er.. hopefully I will be able to do so.

Self feeding

Actually we've let you self-feed yourself for a while, and I'm proud to say that you're very good at that. When we first started, it was during dinner time. I'd put some newspapers under your baby chair, but you didn't seem to drop much on the floor, so I stopped putting the newspapers. Some rice would drop on your lap, so daddy would remove your tray after you were done with dinner and bring you to clean up in the bathroom, as well as wash your hands and mouth. Sometimes, not a grain or rice drops. Hhmm.. I think it's because you're greedy, so you are careful to make sure no rice drops on!

Since you are ok with rice, obviously there is no problems with moi, since it's all stuck together. So, there is certainly NONE wasted whenever you feed yourself moi. Here's a picture I took of you enjoying your moi in front of the TV. I'd usually put it on the coffee table along with your water and wet towel, pull your little chair and you'd feed yourself. That's why I managed to get the pictures of you.

What did you have for lunch? Pumpkin moi. Can't you see from your messy face?

Of course, soon you realised that I was carrying the camera and tried to "help" me with the camera. So what did picture did you take? Barney..

I had to keep away the camera after that so that you'd finish your lunch.

Birthday Dinner

So where did we go to celebrate Ah Kong's birthday? Well, since we could not make it on Sunday (daddy & mummy had to attend a wedding dinner), we celebrated a day earlier. Well, we asked and asked Ah Kong to think of a place to go for dinner, but he could not decide.

What to do? So we took out Friday's newspaper that has a listing of where to eat. Scanned through and still could not decide. In the end, we finally agreed on Ribs Barbeque Restaurant on Burmah Road. Ok, the last time we tried to eat there, they didn't have any tables available. So this time I called ahead to get a table. And we got one. So the moment we arrived, we got a seat, ordered our food and even a main course for you. What next? Go for walkie lo.. What else? It's your favourite thing to do while waiting to be served dinner. Don't know where daddy took you to. But when mummy's soup was served, I could not find you. Had to call daddy on his phone. Soon, we were sharing yummy pumpkin soup.

Our main course was served shortly. As for your order... We waited and waited and it never arrived. We noticed other tables being served and so daddy checked with the waited. Guess what? He never took the order! (Of course they did not let that on, but it's obvious since he quickly ran to the kitchen with a piece of paper and walked over to say that it was "on the way"). Of all orders, he had to leave out your order. After waiting forever, it finally arrived. But you were no longer hungry. You'd drank most of my soup (thankfully!) and eaten my potato wedges and other things. So in the end, daddy finished off most of your fish. What did the restaurant do to compensate for the delayed food? Free ice-cream for all of us, including you.

The food was good. Only thing that the "hiccup" made me rather unhappy as they had left out your order (maybe he didn't expect us to order a main course for a little guy like you?). Maybe next time we have to ask them to repeat our order to make sure this does not happen again...

Walkie walkie

That seems to be your latest favourite word. You keep using it, wanting to go for walks. Especially when we're out for lunch or dinner. You'd request to go "walkie-walkie" either after the meal or while waiting for the meal to be served.

When did this start? When you were hospitalised. Since there was nothing much to do in the hospital room, we'd take walks around the ward either (with mummy as your slave reminding you to walk slowly as I struggle with the thing carrying the IV machine) to look at the little sleeping baby or to play in the playroom until your IV machine's battery started to run flat and beep, signaling it was time to go back to the room to charge the IV machine. In fact, you even requested to go walkie-walkie when you woke up in the middle of the night. Nothing could persuade you to sleep or just lie in bed. In the end, we did go for your walkie and thank goodness the playroom was closed, otherwise you'd be playing in the playroom in the middle of the night!

So now who's designated to bring you for walkies? Daddy, of course. Mummy gets to enjoy my meal while daddy has to turn on his super fast speed to eat dinner/lunch then bring you for a walkie. Of course, you'll only start to ask to go for a walkie after you'd finished eating!

Mummy, wake up

I love the weekends. We usually get to sleep in. Like 2 weekends ago. We slept until almost 9a.m. That's considered very good. Thanks goodness despite waking up early on days when we go to work, you also sleep in when weekend comes. And I'd usually only wake up after you'd woken up.

Actually to be more precise, you'll wake me up. I try to continue sleeping even though I can feel you moving around the bed. You'll try to entertain yourself for a while until you get bored, then you will come over to my side of the bed to wake me up. How? Simple: by using your little fingers to pry open my eyelids. What is the first thing I see?

Yup, you peering at me like that, and telling me "Mummy, wake up!"

Where is it?

Quite a number of mummy's friends were asking where this yummy coconut ice-cream is sold. Hhmmm.. shall we tell them?

Ok, ok, we'll share the "secret" location. After another round of it this weekend, it's a place worth mentioning and sharing with our friends. It's sold by a Thai lady who has a stall to your left just after you enter the gates of the reclining Buddha's compound in Burmah Lane. I have asked her before and she says that she sells on weekends and public holidays. (She speaks hokkien.. phew!)

We usually order it in a cup which comes in 2 sizes: big cup and small cup. She also sells ice-cream on a cone. I've never tried that, so don't know if the ice-cream on a cone comes with the corn, peanuts and "atap-chi". No pictures.. coz everytime we buy it, we finish it in the car (also never thought of taking a picture... too busy eating!)

So, hope that our friends will enjoy the ice-cream as much as we do.

Happy Birthday to Ah Kong

Ice-Cream Today

As usual, daddy had his early morning golf game today. So we went out for an early lunch with Ah Kong and Ah Ma, since Ah Kong's game was in the afternoon. On our way downtown, guess what you said?

"Later we go buy aishh(ice)-cream, ok?"

"OK" seems to be your favourite word lately. Everything ends with an "ok". Haha.. I guess you picked that up from us. But we didn't have time to buy ice-cream with Ah Kong, since we had many things to do and buy before Ah Kong's golf game.

So when daddy came back from his game, had lunch and a shower, we headed out again to buy ice-cream. What's so special about this ice-cream? Nope, it's neither Haagen-Dazs nor Baskin-Robbins. We can only get it in one particular place (in Penang anyway) and the lady only sells on weekends and public holidays.

It's Thai coconut ice-cream. Complete with peanuts, corn and "atap-chi" (palm seeds). Oo-la-la.. Just the right dessert for today. Yummy... Daddy reckons even you know a good thing when you've tasted it!

Terrible Two's?

Some days you are the perfect angel. Others...

You're almost 2.5 years old. Growing, and learning new things as the days go by. It's is sometimes easy to get you to understand why you are not able to do things or to eat some things just by a simple explanation. BUT.. that does not mean the explanation is something that you will accept or want to understand. That's when we are reminded of "the terrible two's".

These days I will tell you not to do things and what do I get in response?

"WaaaaaahhhhhHWAAAAAAAHHHHH"

Any hope of explanation to calm you down does not work, until you get what you want. Especially giving you the key-card to open the security door to the condo. If anyone forgets to give you the key-card.. Sorry-lah.. Their eardrums will suffer the consequences! How to calm you down? Go out and let you zap the key-card again.. what else?

Sometimes I tell you with my most stern voice "That's enough".. what do I get in response? More tears and loud wailing again.. Some days, you'd just ignore me. Otherwise, you will conveniently change the topic. How? By drawing our attention to something else, or even better.. a *kiss*.

How can we remain angry? I wonder if the age of "the terrible two's" will end just like that when you turn three? Hhmmm...

First time: Hospitalised

Daddy and I were out to lunch on Wednesday when Ah Ma called to say that you were complaining of a tummy ache. We thought you'd all right after a while. But less than 10 minutes later, Ah Ma called again saying that you were crying non-stop and daddy could hear your in the background when he was talking to Ah Ma. So we rushed back to the office to pick up our notebooks and headed back home. Ah Ma called again, worried about you asking where we were. She wanted to drive you directly to the hospital, but I had called ahead and the doctors would only be back at 2pm.

So we arrived home but you'd fallen asleep from all the exhaustion. A while later you woke up writhing from the pain, telling mummy that your tummy was "pain, pain". So we rushed you to the hospital. The moment we arrived, you told me buy bread! Then when the nurse saw you, she said that Dr Mary was on emergency leave. (Already knew that, because I had called ahead). So we waited to see Dr Khaw. What happened before it was your turn? You decided to throw up all over daddy. And when we went in, you also decided to decorate his office and giving him some "aromatherapy" by vomiting another 2 times.

Diagnosis: food poisoning. Ah Ma had it the day before, so you probably got it from her. And with you deciding to vomit twice in the doctor's clinic and a check indicated no bowel movement, he recommend that we admit you. Sigh.. my heart (and daddy's too) heart dropped to the ground when we heard that. He said that better get you on the drip to rehydrate and later cure the food poisoning. He actually said 3 days minimum! Yikes...

He took you to another room where he inserted the "thingy" in your right hand for the IV and also took some blood for testing. We were about to cry when we saw you crying when the doctor did all that. Started to wonder if we did the right thing in agreeing to have you admitted. The admission process was so so long. And guess what, by the time we got to the room, you seemed all fine and dandy!

Look at your little hand.. Poor thing

You chatted with the nurse, telling her that the tag she gave you was a watch and it had the numbers "ninety-four" (which I don't know where you saw that from.. ), let her change your dirty clothes and told her lots of things. When daddy went back to pick up some things, we "roamed" the paediatrics ward, checking out the playroom, looking at that tiny baby who's got jaundice and testing the tv in our room. And then it was still ONLY 5 pm. Sigh..

Ah Ma and her friends dropped by to see us. Then daddy went back to change and Ah Kong, Ah Ma and our house guests came over to see how you were before heading off for dinner. We sat around, ate dinner, played a little and watched "The Fox and the Hound" and you fell asleep shortly. Phew.. peace for mummy, only then could I take a shower. Daddy dropped by later with some food for me and you woke up, asking to go for a walk and go to the playroom. Daddy finally left as the next bed was occupied and there was no place for him to sleep. So, we played in my little (very tiny) bed and you asked for more food (I'm officially off cinnamon rolls for a long, long time!) and we finally got to sleep..

Or so I thought... The nurses were in and out of the room, either taking your temperature or adding anti-biotic to the IV and it went on all night. I think either it was you waking up the other baby, or it was her waking you up. Dr Khaw come over quite early this morning and he said you looked fine and we could be discharged. Yay! Thought that we could leave quickly.. But by the time all the procedures were complete, it was already 12pm!

Longest 24 hours of my life, and I hope NOT to see any hospital room for a long, long time. Everyone was so tired from this affair, we all fell asleep shortly after lunch.