Build a Castle

Somehow you prefer to call your buildings "castles". Other than your building blocks, you'd also use anything and everything to build the castles. I guess all it requires is imagination. And you have loads of that. Here's one of your creations made with the many pillows that we have (yours inclusive), bolsters, stuffed toys and also balloons (leftover from your birthday).

Nice?

Changed it a little...

At the "birth" of this blog, the blog title "Our baby Evan". But come to think of it.. you're already 3 years old. So decided to change it a little and now it's called:

A Big Scare...

I could not sleep and decided to creep out of the room so that I could do a little reading on the book that was lent to me. But before I could settle down and start reading, you'd woken up crying for me and complaining of a tummy ache. Oh no, you could not open your eyes, but agreed to have a cup of Milo and insisted that it be a cold cup! Wah.. sick and can still negotiate!

So out we went with me carrying you and you were slumped on my body. Wanted to leave you in the dining room with Ah Kong and Ah Ma but you insisted on following me into the kitchen. Made you a warm cup of Milo and we went to the living room so that I could sit you on the sofa. Instead of sitting upright.. you slumped in a half dazed manner. Took a sip from the cup and said "I want COLD Milo!!!". Hhmm... one minute you're half conscious and yet you could still make demands! Added more fresh milk (cold one..) and you finished all in a gulp. Then I asked if you wanted more. Yup, so you drank my Milo too. Then you wanted more cold milk. Gave you another half cup of milk and you dozed off on my lap. No requesting for your "6-1-3" channel.

After around 30 minutes, I decided to try waking you up. It was rather scary as you'd dozed off and barely moved in your sleep. I was getting mentally prepared on bringing you to the hospital. Took me a while to get you up, kept thinking of that time in KL when you wouldn't wake up. Thankfully you finally woke up and could walk by yourself to the room to wake daddy up. And from then onwards, you were your normal self again. I guess you were just tired from a busy evening on Saturday at daddy's friend's house. Phew....

Ate a lot of lunch and we both even went swimming while Ah Ma cooked dinner and Ah Kong and daddy went for golf. What a weekend!

It's a Promise

A promise? Yup, that's what you told me last night when I tried to get you to sleep. Sigh.. it was already almost 11pm, waaay past your bedtime. But you seemed to be full of energy. And when you discovered the paper that I'd printed for you with patterns to trace, you came into the room and asked me to accompany you to the living room to watch you draw.

As we were walking out, you told me "I promise you we sleep" (after drawing). Couldn't help laughing that you knew to use the word "promise" and in the correct context too! Yup, our little negotiator is on the roll.

In fact daddy and I had a good laugh about your negotiating skills. We usually snack a little when we come home from work and you'd also join us. Not wanting to spoil your appetite, we'd try to give you less. This is what happens:

Daddy: You take only 1 will do, ok?

Evan: 3? (showing 3 fingers)

Daddy: No, one.

Evan: 2, ok? (showing 2 fingers)

So who wins in the end? Obviously you get more than what was negotiated. But one thing I've noticed is that you are very honest. If I give you more than promised, you'd look surprise that we gave you more. Of course, if it were to be less than the promised amount, you'd make sure you get the numbers that we'd agreed on!

Saturday Treat

Saturday nights are our usual day out for dinner. Reason: it's Ah Ma's "day off". Of the 7 days of the week, she only has a rest day on Saturday. Of course, weekends means it's her rest day from taking care of you too.

It was a lazy day yesterday and by the time we woke up and got ready, it was very late in the day. So we headed to Cold Storage with the intention of buying potatoes for mashed potatoes to go with the yummy beef pies that we'd bought earlier on. Of course, we took our time wondering about and in the end daddy bought some Wagyu steaks as well as a Black Angus steak (since there were only 3 slices of the Wagyu left).

So instead of eating out, we had steak for dinner. Who was the chef for the night? It was "Chef Daddy" with mummy as his assistant *grin*. While waiting for Chef Daddy to cook dinner, I prepared your Macaroni and Cheese that I'd picked up from Cold Storage too. I was worried that you may not like it (then die liao.. because there was nothing else for you to eat in that case!). But thankfully, you LOVED it and kept asking for more.

Here you are enjoying dinner (in front of the TV: rare case). Sitting there with one leg up!

And here's our steak. Baked potato is still missing because it wasn't soft enough when the steaks were ready...
Hope that you can join us the next time we have this..

Keeping you entertained

I found this picture that I had wanted to write about but had forgotten about it. The first time we went back to Ipoh with you, we had to pack A LOT of things. Our first Chinese New Year saw us going back in 2 cars! Yup, just the 5 of us, but we had to go in 2 cars. That was how much we had to bring along with us for that few days.

As you grew up, we realised that there were some things that we could make do without. Even now, we bring fewer diapers since you only wear them when you go to sleep. In fact, we even went back to Ipoh recently without any toys! So how do you keep entertained while you are in Ipoh? After all everyone's all grown up. There are only stuffed toys that you are not very interested in.

Why, there is a piano and an organ for you to play with! And that's what you look forward to everytime we go back to Ipoh. Furthermore, there are so many Kor-kor's to keep an eye on you. And here's the maestro:

I think that is 5th Chim Poh's hand holding on to your t-shirt, making sure that you do no fall off the organ chair, since it's rather high..

Something Special

Our birthday party guests (for both the Penang and Ipoh parties) came with gifts for you and when they left, they did not leave empty handed too. Um.. yeah, they took with the the leftover food.. but that's not all.

We had to work really hard a long time in advance to get all the gifts ready for our party guests. What were they? You call it "my buff-day frames". Got this idea from Aunty Wooi Sin (She's full of wonderful ideas) and with the help of Yvonne Kor-kor who helped me buy the frames and passed them to me during Chinese New Year. When I did the little maze books for your 2nd birthday, I had to wait until you fell asleep before I could start work. This time.. I have a little assistant to help me, so we generally start work on the birthday frames after you had eaten dinner and we'd taken our showers. There were times when you were "too helpful" and I'd start to regret letting you help. But then I calm down and think that the recipients of the birthday would appreciate the frame since you'd chipped in to help me out. It was great fun to have your suggestions. You especially loved to add all the embellishments (mainly those little stars and flowers) which sometimes got the frames too cluttered and I had to quietly remove some.

My little box of embellishments is now a mess, no thanks to you, but I have no regrets for letting you help me and I'm sure our party guests think so too. I hope they like the frames as much as we enjoyed making them.

Here's what the frames look like. No two are alike both in design as well as in the pictures inside the frames. The picture of the frames that were given to our Penang guests were taken by me (so lousy photography as always) and daddy took the time to help me photograph the other frames given to our Ipoh guests (those are the ones with the pink background)

Mummy and Baby?

Picture credit

You seem to like the advertisement for Pleo dinosaurs that are being sold by Pensonic. There's a big signboard outside Minden Heights with a picture of 4 dinosaurs. I couldn't find the exact picture but there are 3 in the background (which look smaller) and 1 in the foreground (bigger looking). Whenever we pass Minden or drive around the corner nearby Citibank, you'll get all excited and tell me "There's baby dinosaur and mummy dinosaur".

I just wonder what made you decide that the BIG dinosaur is "mummy" and not "daddy"...

Birthday Celebration in Ipoh

We rushed to the East Ocean Restaurant in Menglembu the moment Ah Tai agreed to go out for dinner. Better be fast before she changed her mind. Dinner was delicious. Chim Poh was kind to help us book the 2 tables before they went off on their holidays. Even the food was pre-ordered based on what we had in mind and the restaurant captain's recommendations.

4th Chek Kong was a little late as I had informed him that dinner was to start at 7.30p.m. and with the change of plans they couldn't contact him, since he'd gone jogging. Anyhow, he arrived shortly after we arrived. We got a room for the 2 tables and so it was a little more private. And a good thing that we booked so far in advance. The restaurant was very crowded!

After you at the fish dish (super yummy fish and almost a whole bowl of rice), you were quite satisfied and wanted to get down from your high chair. You kept yourself entertained and sometimes someone will bring you out of our room, either to look at the live fish that were kept in the tanks or to walk around outside. 4th Chek Kong even brought you to the shop across the street for lollipops! Lucky you.

As usual, there were gifts (you sneaky Kor-kors and Ah Pek said that they are unwrapped, so not really considered as "gifts") and ang pows despite our request. Thankyou to everyone who made it to dinner to celebrate Evan's 3rd birthday with us.

Weekend in Ipoh

We made the drive back to Ipoh on Friday night thinking that the traffic should clear by then (it was close to 9.00pm.m by the time we reached the bridge). But what a mistake. Traffic was heavy all the way across! You fell asleep on the way to Ipoh and we couldn't get you up to go out for supper even. You refused to wake up, only waking to giggle and laugh for 10 minutes at 1.00a.m. before continuing with your sleep. Phew...

You slept in quite a bit on Saturday morning, then again so did the rest of them who were supposed to be up early to go for Cheng Beng! Ah Ma stayed with you after she got back from Cheng Beng and I left to go to the columbarium for 6th Chek Kong. You called me to ask where I was and it made me so guilty for leaving you behind.. but we think you're too young to go to such places.

After that we were too hungry to wait for lunch, so we bought lunch on the way back. What did we have? McDonald's, so we also bought a McValue Meal for you (Milo + nuggets + chippies). Boy were you happy. You nearly finished everything. Then took you up to have a nap so that you won't be in a grouchy mood for dinner.

Woke up in a rush as we had to leave early for dinner since Ah Tai had decided that the weather was turning bad and she had changed her mind about going to dinner. We needed to leave before it started to rain. Everyone had to try their luck in persuading her to go, but she flatly refused. In the end, I brought you in to try your luck. Taught you to say "Ah Tai, kia chiak pui" and she agreed to go for dinner once you asked her to go for dinner! The general consensus? Should have sent you to ask her first and they wouldn't need to try so hard!

I will write more on dinner with some pictures in another post. After dinner we gave our dinner guests something handmade just like what was given to out guests in the Penang party. Eu Jin Ah Pek and Lourdes Ah Mm gave you an adorable hat and an organ. Yikes.. another noise maker! After a while those sitting in the living room sent you to their room to torment Ah Pek and Ah Mm instead.

Sunday was another day of yummy Ipoh hawker food and dinner of the Hakka "Hor Por Char" (lui char). As you "love" veggies so much, you had some meat dish, BUT you drank a lot of the veggies soup. How come? Because the veggies were all grounded and when you eyed the soup suspiciously and asked me what soup it was, I told you "Mint soup". So you drank.

And that's how our weekend went in Ipoh.

Up to no good with Ah Nee Kor-kor? Hhmmm...

Made with Love and Kisses..

... that was what was put in when Chin Poh (with the help of some of your Kor-kor's) made this beautiful blanket as your 3rd birthday present. It's an amazing patchwork blanket with 6 teddy bears (all with different patterns!).

I tell you the pictures (and my poor photography skills) don't do the blanket justice. The teddy bears are so beautiful and the fabric so soft and comfortable.

Chim Poh had to work on it until yesterday afternoon to complete the hand sewn patchwork blanket. You're such a lucky boy to have such a wonderful birthday gift. Here's Chin Poh putting the finishing touches to the blanket:

And here's the blanket on your "princess and the pea" bed at home in Penang:

We're off to Ipoh

Tonight.. for this:

Countdown: 1 day to party time!

Evan at 36 Months (Plus)

Ok ok, a few days overdue. But better late than never. Furthermore I don't write on milestones very often. So here goes...

At 36 months and (count count count..) 5 days old:
Height: 88cm ( i think.. )
Weight: 12.7kg

- You have no more inoculations to go for until you turn 6 years old. Phew.. no more doctor visits. *touch wood*touch wood*

Speech:
- At the last visit to Dr Mary (last week that I forgot to blog about... ), she asked you what the item that she was holding in her hands was and you could tell her it was a stethoscope. She was impressed that you knew a word and a 3 syllable word too.
- You're starting to pick up bigger words too. Such as "deneecious" (delicious) instead of a simple "yummy" or "good".
- You even use words like "beautiful".
- Still cannot pronounce "l" in words. So it's "nike" for like. You used to have difficulty with "y" too. So instead of yellow, it was "neyo". After a lot of "YE-LO", the closest that you'd give me is "YE-NO". Ok, tried showing you how the tongue needs to touch the upper teeth.. Still not working. Need to work on that.
- Every night before we go to sleep, you'd tell me "Mummy, I tell you something, ok?" and when asked what you would like to tell me, it's still the same story "Talk about the zoo" and "Talk about the school".
- Picked up from someone this "I tell you.. " and "Hey, are you listening to me?"
- Your "yes" has changed from "ha" to "ya", the word "yes" is still eluding me.
- Last night you told me that you wanted to sulk. Yes, you used the word "sulk" just because I didn't want to let you play anymore!
- I sometimes try to add some Hokkien when I talk to you, so you know some Hokkien words. Very limited, but better than none I guess.

Food:
- Still a picky eater as ever. Favourite food is pumpkin moi moi. Kakak is always asked what she cooked for your lunch. If it's vegetable moi moi, she knows to cook a smaller portion, because you will have all sorts of excuse on why you don't want the moi moi (too full, not hungry, stomach has no more place...). But Ah Ma says that you'll then "share" her lunch later on!
- Self-feeding very well. But you get lazy and I end up having to feed you the balance of the food, or else you'll not eat up your lunch/dinner.
- Fruits are no longer a favourite. The only reason you would eat is when you had a hard time doing your poo poo. Still, you are not keen to try out new fruits no matter how we try to persuade you to open your mouth. We'd only end up with you covering your mouth like this.
- You are quite fine with the food that we eat for dinner. Daddy says you are like me, we need gravy in our rice before we can eat. And you also love drinking soup. You've taken to imitating someone by drinking directly from the bowl!

Potty training:
- 100% wee wee trained at home and 100% poo poo trained at home and out.
- There were several "accidents" on your carseat and so far so good since then *touch wood*.. all is fine. But we still go out with a Mamy Poko pants in my handbag and spare pants in the car.
- Thank goodness you give us enough warning on the need to wee wee and so we have time to bring you to the nearest toilet.
- Taught you to pull down your pants and underwear, stand on the little stool in our bathroom and wee wee and you loved the idea. But 1 week later, you decided to wee wee using another style. How? By climbing up the WC. And you even told me 2 nights ago that you could go by yourself "No need mummy to help"! I was worried that you might fall down, so I peeked at you and quickly pretended to be watching TV when you were done.

You & Me:
- Sometimes you get it right sometimes, you still refer to daddy as "your daddy" when you're talking to Ah Kong
- When referring to yourself, you sometimes say "mine" or "me" and yet there are times when you still say "Evan's"

Learning:
- You know your capital letters very well. Boh-boh Poh had advised that you learn the capital letters properly before we taught the lower caps. Well.. you know your alphabets well, so we've moved to lower caps, which is a little more difficult as you confuse the "p", "d" and "b" and also the "h" and "n". But it's ok, we'll take it easy and slowly learn them ok?
- Drawing is one of your favourite pastimes. You're so lucky that you got all sorts of markers and books for your birthday. Now is the time to worry about you drawing on your clothes!
- Books are a favourite and you have some favourites that I try to read to you every night before we go to sleep.

Love:
- Of course you love us a lot. And we love you too. Sometimes you'll tell me "I nuff you mummy" and give me a big juicy kiss. Love it that you are so generous with your kisses.
- You love making lots of noise. This birthday also saw several noise makers. We are also guilty in buying you one of the noise makers. Sigh.. you wanted an electric (toy) guitar, so we bought it (much to our regret!). The manufacturer should provide ear plugs for the parents!
- Your cars and trains are never forgotten. You'll still make time to play with your garage and Thomas train set. On top of that you have a variety of Thomas & Friends VCD and books. Nanna had brought back the Thomas books that belonged to Ashley and Julian Ku-ku all the way from Singapore.

Manners:
- You know to cover your mouth when you sneeze (even when faking it).
- "Excuse me" is the word to use when you sneeze or even cough.
- Only thing that annoys me is when you purposely slurp when you drink your soup! The more I try to stop you, the louder it gets. Come to think about it, I think I haven't heard you slurping for a while. Maybe that phase has passed... phew.

It amazes me when I look back and see all the changes in you. No longer our little baby, still as precious as ever.

What came in the mail?

Something blue came in the mail yesterday. And it was addressed to you. The only other time you'd received something in the mail was from your Alan Ku-ku (so long ago that I cannot find the post anymore). This year Alan Ku-ku wished you a happy birthday via SMS and he was on time too.. Surprise, surprise!

Who sent you something this time? It's your Ying Ying Kor Kor and Jack Hou Chek Chek in Australia. There was even a message for you.

"Things to do when you are 3:

1. Be a good boy

2. Eat veggie

3. Read more books"

When asked if you did any of the 3 listed, you said no to #1 & #2! What do you think of this Thomas & Friends card?

Tricked You

That's what you told me yesterday. Well, it sounded more like "I twiked you". And why did you tell me this? Because we were all ready to go to bed when you told me that you needed to wee wee (despite already wearing diapers). And of course you insisted that you needed to wee wee in the toilet (sign of successful potty training?).

Asked you to get daddy to help you with undressing and turning on the bathroom lights, but you insisted "Only mummy". You sat and sat on the toilet and nothing came out. Obviously, since you'd just wee weed 15 minutes ago... And after giving you a smack on your bottom, you laughed and told me "I twiked you.. hahha".

How do we get angry when you can tell me such a thing?

Countdown: 3 days to birthday party (Yup, another party in Ipoh to celebrate with the Bans)

A Birthday Treat

One of the presents that you got from the party was a bicycle. Yup, Ah Kong and Ah Ma bought you a bicycle for your birthday. Mummy and daddy had initially planned to buy you one only after we'd moved back to Minden Heights, but they were insistent on getting you one for your birthday.

Since you were not allowed to ride the bicycle in the condo, we decided to bring you to your favourite place, Youth Park on Sunday. And as usual it was so crowded. We had to park at the furthest carpark and double back to the roller-skating rink. So how did you get to the rink? Why by your "daddy-powered" bicycle, of course!

Looks like you're enjoying the bicycle ride, huh? But we had a tough time trying to teach you how to ride. You'd step on the pedal for around 45 degrees then somehow pull the pedal back and step on it again. Not the right way to ride the bicycle, but it still works.. you were still moving!

Posing with your bicycle

We let you ride the bicycle for a while before we headed to the playground. You always love the tunnel slides and all the playthings things in the playground. Halfway through playing, there was a commotion. What had happened? There was a green snake (probably fell from the trees) and was trying to get away from the crowd. Ok, that was the signal for us to leave. After all we were parked to far away and it was already 7p.m.. Furthermore it looked like it was going to rain heavily too. You weren't too willing to leave, but in the end we left with you on your daddy-powered bicycle to the carpark.

What did you remember from this trip to the Youth Park? Only one thing. The snake! Yup, Ah Ma told me that you told her about "people telling you there was a snake". And you told me the same thing that night when I asked you what you did at the Youth Park too.

It's Party Time...

Our guests started arriving after 7.00p.m. But there were still things to do. Sigh.. At long last, as the rest of our guests arrived, the food were also ready. What did we serve? Well, mummy and daddy made the bruschetta, Ah Ma cooked the fried angel hair pasta and breaded prawns and we ordered fried belacan chicken and pizza. A little western food style (except for the belacan chicken, of course).

Managed to freshen up before putting the finishing touches on the bruschetta and dinner was served. I'm sure everyone enjoyed the food. Even the kiddies ate the same as ours, only a little different: pasta without the basil and prawns without the shells. Wine, juice, coke and water were served to everyone, and you even got to drink the peach juice, which somehow you decided to call "grape juice" and when corrected you'd call it "peach grape juice". And you had a wonderful time toasting with Kelvin!

After the food was cleared away and dessert was served, it was time for the cake. What was the design that you picked? Why Thomas, of course... Last week when I asked you, you told me that you wanted "Bob the Builder", but knowing how you change your mind, I printed several other cartoon characters and in the end (not surprisingly) you picked Thomas. Nice? It's vanilla with blueberry flavour as you'd requested.

After cutting the cake, we had the cake with the Haagen-Dazs ice-cream that we'd bought. Then to your favourite part of your party, opening the presents. Yes, I know we'd asked for our guests not to bring you any gifts BUT they didn't feel the party complete without giving you anything since it is your birthday.

So to our guests, thank you for all those wonderful gifts. Evan loved them and I hope that you liked the gift that you took home with you too.

Party was great and you only slept after midnight!

A Busy Saturday

The menu was planned, but we still had loads to do. Decorate the place (no more 50 balloons like last year!), pick up the cake, buy ice-cream and baguette for the bruschetta, feed ourselves and buy more balloons (as you had requested). As this was the first weekend of Cheng Beng, we decided to have lunch in the Tanjung Tokong area before we go battle with the heavy traffic.

After lunch, we headed to the toy shop nearby Prangin Mall to pick up more balloons, the stick for the balloons, mask for the party pack and a pump. Next stop was Giant supermarket as daddy did not particularly like the baguette from Cold Storage. Too bad the baguette sold there didn't look very appealing. So off we went to pick up the cake from Maxim's in Pulau Tikus. This year we wanted a change to the cake, so we ordered the cake from Maxim's and the design was picked by you.

We made one last stop to pick up the ice-cream and baguette from Cold Storage. Since there was no other choice, we had to settle for the baguette from there. By then, it was pass 3.00p.m. and I needed to make you that you had your nap..otherwise, we'd have a grumpy little boy (not baby anymore? Sigh... ). Good thing we settled all that was to be done in one go. So home we went to settle you for your nap and for us to call to order some food, start decorating the place and prepare the tomatoes for the bruschetta.

By the time you woke up, we were almost ready for the party. Only needed to go out to buy ice and to pick up the fried belacan chicken for the party.

That Day FINALLY Came..

Yup, it's your 3rd birthday. And we even managed to give you a kiss and hug at the stroke of midnight. How come? Because you were all excited and energetic after the birthday party! And.. I forgot to let you wear this adorable hat that Aunty Joey had lent us. So I we let you wear the hat, snap a few pictures, cuddle and kiss you a little more before we headed to bed. Don't know about you, but I was soooo tired. Phew.. what a busy day it was!

Party Invitation

Here's the invitation that was printed and given to our party guests:

The quickpage conveniently had 3 places for me to put in pictures, so I put in pictures of you at different ages. Hope our guests liked it.

Countdown: 1 day to your birthday