Such a Good Boy

Daddy was going off on his golf trip today and the flight out was 6.30am. His friends had agreed to meet at the airport at 5am! The initial plan was for him to go with Grab, but in the end I agreed to send him to the airport (he hinted heavily that the rest had their spouses dropping them off...).

And yet daddy was worried about me driving back home in the dark all alone. When he asked you if you'd mind tagging along, to our surprise, you agreed. 

Of course, you only woke up like 5-8 minutes before we left the house and then just sat/slept in the car with your eyes opened...

Not the best person to have a conversation with in the morning, but it was still comforting to have you with me in the car. Driving back in the rain was a tad bit scary, despite knowing that daddy's car had amazing handling. 

Hugs to my good boy. 

Happy Birthday Tou-Tou

It's an early celebration since daddy would be travelling and next week (right after he got back from Vietnam) would not be ideal to meet everyone.. just in case.

Then Uncle Sin Chuan and Aunty Amy would be leaving for 2 weeks and by the time they come back, Tou-tou's birthday would have passed. It is a Chinese superstition not to celebrate after the actual date. 

So Ah Ma had to scramble in search for a restaurant to have dinner, which she could not find any available. And Monday was a no-go since Audrey is having school, which means they would not be able to arrive on time for dinner.

In the end, the location was buffet dinner in E&O. The hotel gave her a little cake and Ah Ma also ordered a cake for the dinner. When we all sang the birthday song, even the other guests clapped and cheered after we sang the song. 

It is a happy occasion to celebrate Tou-tou's birthday. 

Christmas Tree - Part 1

The tree is partially set up today. We had planned to do it on Saturday, but there was too much work and homework to complete over the weekend. In fact today was almost a "no-go" as you still had a lot of homework and CA1 team work to discuss. We also had to go out for Tou-tou's birthday celebration dinner so we had very limited time.

In the end, daddy brought up the tree and we had the tree and lights set up first. Needed out muscle man to lift up the heavy box from downstairs before he headed off for his holiday. We plan to put up the ornaments on Friday, which is a public holiday. 

Daddy setting up the base

Ko-ko could not help us this round, but he was reminded that he would not be excused when we put up the ornaments this Friday.

Mei-mei helped to put on the branches up till the ones which were too high for her

Can't wait to finish decorating the tree. 

Sleeping in the car

As a child you both had different behaviours while in the car. 

For Evan, you'd fall asleep easily the moment we got into the car. For Evelyn, you'd not fall asleep easily, so it was always a struggle in the car as you were a wriggle worm.

Then Mei-mei seems to be falling asleep easily while in the car. You'd even fall asleep on the way to school. Ko-ko on the other hand rarely sleeps in the car, even on long rides. Maybe it's the fear of another round of "vomit shampoo" from Mei-mei!!

Here's how we found you sleeping on the way back from seeing Dr. Mary on Sunday:

Swollen Mouth

It started off as a pimple in your nose. We didn't make much of it since it has occurred before. Daddy tried to squeeze it before dinner on Saturday (and you were crying and screaming about it). Then we had dinner and all seemed well.

The next thing we knew, you were down with a fever just before going to sleep. Gave you Paracetamol (after much persuasion), put on a fever patch and off you went to bed. By then, your upper lip seemed to have swollen and the fold on your (upper) lip seemed to have gone all crooked. Oh dear.

The next morning, you still had a slight fever and your lip seemed even more swollen. I could not decide whether to bring you in to see Dr. Mary. Having a fever meant you could not go to the Paediatric Clinic, instead you'd need to go to the Unwell Child Clinic. We did a Covid test to rule that out. In the end, I got Ah Ma to drop us at Adventist Hospital.

It was a long, long wait for Dr. Mary to come down. My heart sank to the ground when I heard her tell me what could have happened had we not brought you in. The puss could go to your brain. Then, it would be a harder thing to cure.

Thank goodness we had gone in. You were given a course of 5 days' antibiotics and ibuprofen, and also MC for 2 days. She had also reminded me that if your swelling did not subside the next day, we'd need to bring you in; otherwise, she'd see us on Tuesday.

Picture of my teary eyed baby which I took to send to daddy

On Monday, you were not very happy to have to skip school, but ended up watching TV non-stop as I worked from home. In the end, I tried to encourage you to do something other than watching TV. So you took out the present you got from Audrey and spent the time in your room building the Sakura Tree Music Box. 

So many little parts to build

Brought up this Eevee rug which I had made before to cheer you up

You'd come to my room occasionally asking for help, but you built most of it yourself, including putting on the flowers and lights.

That night, you happily showed everyone. But when you went to Ah Ma's room, you dropped it. Daddy had to come to your rescue and fit back the part that had fallen off.

On Tuesday, your swelling had almost fully subsided. So you could go to school to attend your Festival of Lights celebration. 

The follow up check-up was good, but since there was still some swelling, you were given extra antibiotics to last up till Sunday.. yay (not!). 

Letchumi Ban

Today is the Festival of Lights celebration in school. You had signed up to perform for the celebration (I assume during chapel). 

So we took out your dress which I had bought online from before (still very big sized) and you went to school all decked up. Had to remind you to hold up the skirt when you climb the staircase or else you'd certainly trip on the long skirt. 

And because you were dressed in the lehenga, daddy called you Letchumi Ban. You didn't understand why, so we had to explain to you that this is an Indian girl's name.

Got this picture from the video your teacher shared with the parents:

Japanese Night

We planned to have a "simple" meal of Japanese with Chawan Mushi, Miso Soup, Salmon (pan grilled and raw) and fried garlic. The weekends has been very difficult and taxing to dine out. We'd need to book a table and we'd also need to battle the heavy traffic to reach the dinner location.

So today was supposed to be a simple meal. And of course, Ko-ko was supposed to wake up early to help Ah Ma go to the market. In the end, they both left before you got up because you set the alarm wrongly and they just let you sleep in instead! 

It was quite a busy day of errands per our usual Saturday, but we managed to have dinner served at around 7.30pm, after Ah Kong had reached home from his meeting at Bayu and had his shower. 

Dinner is served

First University Information Day

We'd seen the banner on the lamp poles outside of school. So today we cancelled guitar lessons and headed to E&O Hotel to attend the Monash University information day.

As this was something new to us, we were quite unsure of that to ask. And since time was rather tight as we needed to go pick Evelyn up from ballet, we made 2 quick (but informative stops). First was the Engineering Faculty. Daddy sat with you to ask some questions and get some information about the engineering programme. 

I sat at the side and observed the other departments in the room. Also sneaked a picture of the both of you:

I had noticed that there was a Bachelor's of Applied Data Engineering and another under the IT department. We decided to head to the gentleman at the Science Faculty to inquire on the difference, to which he gave us a very interesting and informative explanation on the programme as compared to the Data Science programme under the IT Faculty. He even shared the median salary and offered his business card where he said that he's share a link to the Dean's speech on the degree.

I hope that you had a good idea on what was needed for your pre-university programme to head towards the area of studies you are interested to pursue.

We had to leave after that as it was time to rush back and pick Evelyn.

Here's to many more such information day for you (and us).

Another round of celebration

 On this actual day, you got another cake and an ice-cream treat at Inside Scoop!

Happy Birthday to our little precious

 

And just like that your age takes on double digits. 10 years since you decided to make an early appearance into this world. You are the sunshine in our lives, our little Stinky Poo. 

Happy 10th Birthday to our precious little one..

With lots of love,

Ko-ko, Daddy and Mummy

Patriotic Day Celebration

Before the actual day, Ko-ko called me to ask about getting a "Chinese Costume". The only reason you wanted to wear is because you'd get additional points (or something) if you went to school dressed up.

As for Mei-mei, you had picked the Chinese costume the night before, but just before going to sleep, you asked to wear "National colours" instead. So I allowed you to pick your new costume in blue just before having your shower to go to school

Look at grumpy's expression!!

Barbecue Party

It has been a long time since we had many people over to the house for a party. This year, we agreed to have a party for your 10th birthday. You requested to have barbecue. So daddy (reluctantly) agreed. 

Planning of the menu was done way ahead and we also had to buy the steaks (you had specifically requested for this) a few days in advance to dry age them in the fridge. 

Our trusty grill

Everyone had a Pokemon allocated to them.

Daddy started off with cooking the chicken which we kept warm in the oven when it was cooked. We also cooked the potatoes and veggies in the oven. 

Next on the grill were the steaks. 

Look at the flame!

While the steaks were resting, daddy ran off for a quick shower. Then he came down to cook the prawns. 

Prawns on the grill

Finally everyone arrived. And it's time for dinner:

Our dinner spread

Perfectly cooked steaks

We were all very full from dinner. So we sat around a little and then it was time to bring out the cake:

Cake all beautifully boxed and delivered to us

Our little birthday girl posing with her Eevee cake:

Blocking Ko-ko from blowing out the candle

Cousins.. missing Annabelle

Family photo

Then it was time to open presents:

It was a lovely party. We missed having your cousins and uncles and aunties, Tou-tou and also Bo-bo Poh at the house. 

Happy Birthday, Ah Kong

We had an early celebration as Ah Kong's birthday falls on a weekday. He requested to have the celebration at the Wine Shop. So we picked the outlet in Tanjung Bungah, Wine Shop Signature. We were lucky that we managed to get a table with low seating. Better yet, it was on the ground floor. 

We came home to have the cake which Ah Ma had ordered (daddy and I had also bought a cake, as we did not discuss on who was to get the cake so it was to be a long week of cakes!). 

Evelyn lighting the candle

Ah Kong cutting the cake. I hope he made a wish

Happy Birthday!

Hello Ipoh, land of great food!

The rest of our stay in Ipoh was filled with spending time with Chim Poh, Chek Kong and Kor Poh (and later Ashley Kor-kor, Uncle Dennis and Smoky who came over on Friday) and eating all the yummy Ipoh food which we had missed for a long time. Our last trip to Ipoh was during Chinese New Year and many shops had already stopped selling even though we arrived 2 days before CNY. 

Here are the food we enjoyed: 

Kai Si Hor Fun

Curry (pig skin) Chee Cheong Fun

Missing are the pictures of the curry mee we had twice and Yong Tau Fu from K-10.

We had an amazing dinner in Tong Hoi on Saturday:

Mei-mei and you had so much rice to go with the amazing fish and prawn (gravy):

We had curry mee on Sunday (and even packed the soup and extra noodles) to bring back to Penang.

Goodbye, Club Med!

We still had time till lunch (in fact a little pass lunchtime as daddy had his massage session) to hang around the club. So we left you in the morning half at the Kid's Club and told them that we'd pick you before the swimming session. After dropping you off, I went back to finish up packing. Ko-ko had gone for another round of tennis. 

Then I headed back to the main building as you were having a parade. Here you are in your purple costume which they had provided to you:

And here you are with your friends in the parade, and in search for Santa:

Santa running away from you:

And you all finally found Santa:

Even managed to spy on Ko-ko having his tennis lesson:

Daddy and I finished up packing and waited and waited for Ko-ko to come back to the room to shower. Daddy then headed to the car as it was time for his appointment. That was when he spotted Ko-ko still playing tennis with the couple who trained together.

Daddy had managed to get a room extension for our room. So Ko-ko rested in the room while I went to pick up Mei-mei and we had another round of archery. Headed back to the room to shower and then went to get ourselves checked out.

We spotted the Kid's Club having lunch and they allowed Mei-mei to join then. So Ko-ko and I ate at the main restaurant and daddy later joined us too.

Keeping this picture of the rooms with seaview

And this picture of the communication we received from the club

By then, our luggage were already at the main building. Daddy went to pick up the car and once our car was loaded, off we headed back to KL. Would you believe it? The moment we left the club, it was raining cats and dogs! We were so lucky. Before we had arrived, it was forecasted to rain everyday, but we were blessed with perfect weather throughout our stay in Cherating. 

We had to make a quick exit to pump petrol before heading to KL, and another stop in Genting for a wee-wee. In KL, we stopped by Kor Poh's house as she had promised to make yam cake for us (specifically Ko-ko). We got to stretch our leg and do a wee before hopping back into the car and driving to Ipoh. 

We arrived in Ipoh a little later since we left at peak hour. Then we headed to Cowan Street for the famous Ngar Choy Kai.

And now the third leg of our holiday begins: IPOH!