Bowl Bento! Bowl Bento! ????

What do you think that phrase actually is? Beats me initially. Let me tell you how it got started....

We were driving Ryan to Cheras to pick up his grandmother. On the way, in the midst of our conversation, my wife asked me what I would like to do for my birthday (which is due next month). While I was thinking and contemplating how to answer her...my son answered for me ....

'EAT!' he said....

I looked at him and said 'Huh? What?'

...and he repeated again..."EAT! Daddy eat. Mommy eat. Ryan eat. Poh Poh eat. Ma Ma eat.'

We were pleasantly surprised. He has associated birthdays with eating and parties because we always have a good dinner when there is someone having a birthday at home. For a child not even 3, I think he is pretty smart (sorry..I'm again being bias ....)

Then he uttered 'Bowl Bento! Bowl Bento!'

"What?" I asked and he repeated again 'Bowl Bento!'
"Bowl Bento?" I asked again and he was getting frustrated and impatient that I could not understand him.
"No...Bowl Bento!' he repeated himself.

I looked at my wife and my wife asked again, "Bowl what?"

He was getting really frustrated by now and repeated himself again. "Bowl Bento! Fire Bento!" and he put his lips together and blew .....

Have you guessed by now what this little monster is trying to tell us?

"BLOW CANDLES!" That was what he was trying to tell us. For my birthday, I need to blow candles for my birthday cake.

Now I am convinced that I have a genius on my hand ...(getting overly bias by now but then hei, I just can't help it...he has inherited my genes ....Hahaha)

First BOAT Ride!

Date : 15th February 2011 (Birthday of Prophet Muhammad S.A.W.)

It was a public holiday. We have to sent my mother in law back to my brother in law's house in Cheras. And since we will be going that way, we thought that we go a little earlier and drop by the Mines Wonderland to give Ryan his very first BOAT ride.

We told him about it and he was obviously very excited. We left our house by 10am and were there by 11am. We stopped by the Uncle John Kopitiam located just next to the canal for our breakfast. We had a tough time getting him in check because he just could not contain his excitement seeing the water and the boats.

Once breakfast was over, we got ourselves tickets for tour the North Lake which is a longer tour taking approximately 50 minutes. I have taken the South Lake tour over a decade ago and honestly I wasn't impressed. Hence my expectation this round is minimal (if not any)....

We were the first to board the boat and hence got ourselves the front seats with the best view. As we waited for other passengers to board, Ryan was talking excitedly non stop. The moment the boatman came on board, he was telling the boatman that he is going for a boat ride! (over and over again).

The `water lift' was pretty interesting where the boat has to displace water in order to lower the boat from the canal within the shopping centre grounds to the actual lake. The moment the boat hits the lake, Ryan was ecstatic!!! There were only three other children on board but you could hear only one voice throughout the 50 minutes....HIS!!!

Mommy and Ryan with their 'Titanic' style pose!

Overall, it was a very pleasant experience and for Ryan, memorable and exciting. I guessed we have more fun watching him having fun than the boat ride itself ....but then again, that's the joy of every parent out there ......

First LRT Ride!

2nd day of 2011 Chinese New Year.

We have always wanted to let Ryan experience riding the LRT. However, with so many people during the normal weekends, we have postponed the idea till now....

So, on the second day of Chinese New Year after a lunch at my sister's place, we decided to take him to ride the LRT down to KLCC just for the fun of it. Since we stayed near the Kelana Jaya LRT station (which is the last stop), we could easily find a place for him on the very first coach so that he could have an unobstructed view of the track as the LRT glides towards our destination.

Needless to say, he was all excited every time our train passed another train on the opposite direction. On arrival at KLCC, we found the place packed with tourists and lots and lots of foreign workers out on a holiday. So, instead of walking about, we find ourselves a nice spot in Chinoz. I ordered a nice pint of cold German beer and some food while we watched the traffic goes by before taking the train back 3 hours later .....

Needless to say, we as parents are as excited as him on his first LRT ride ...!!

Kids say the funniest things !!!

1st day of 2011 Chinese New Year.

Kids sometimes come up with lines that will totally either amaze and surprise you OR totally embarrass you.

For courtesy and since this is the Chinese New Year period, we have been teaching Ryan to say "Gong Xi! Gong Xi!" while holding his hands together and he picks it up rather quickly.

On the first day, we asked him to great us `Gong Xi! Gong Xi!' early in the morning and in return (as in our Chinese tradition) gave him his red packet (ang pow). He gladly takes it and attempt to put it into his pocket. (We have told him the night before that ang pow has money inside and he must be careful with it while we were packing our ang pows for the new year).

Before we went out, we called our helper (maid) and gave her an ang pow, telling her that it is our tradition as Chinese to do that for the new year. She gladly (of course) took the ang pow and said 'Thank You sir and maam".

Then I jokingly asked her to hold her hands together and say `Gong Xi! Gong Xi!' as a gesture to greet guests during the new Year. As she hold her hand together to utter those greetings, Ryan intercepted with his version of the instruction.....

"Say Gong Xi! Gong Xi! Got MONEY wan.....!!!"

OMG! (Slap forehead)....We were definitely amused since he said it in front of our maid...but I would probably dig a hole to hide out of embarrassment IF he were to say it right before our guests or friends ....!

Creative ??

Happy Chinese New Year Everyone. Here's wishing everyone a very FRUITFUL, PRODUCTIVE, PROSPEROUS and HEALTHY Year of the Bunny!

Ryan is now 2 years and 8 months but the way he is learning and picking up lines, remembering things and doing stuff on a daily basis now, never ceased to amaze us. Many at times, we seemed to forget that he is not even 3 years old (Too bad for him, cause I tend to be a little harsh on him treating him like he is 3!! ...sorry son..if you read this some years down the road when you are older).

On the 3rd day of New Year (after an eventful day running around and posing for pictures for his camera crazy daddy and his auntie (sai ku cheh) who just got her new Nikon D3100 DSLR), while relaxing at home and playing with his toys (which are boxes by now), he came up with his version of an AEROPLANE, complete with a pilot !!!!

I remembered making one just like this more than 6 months ago while playing with him and had not revisit this since. Amazing! He made this purely either of his imagination (which he has lots), or creativity or merely remembering the one I made before. Whichever the case may be, THIS IS SIMPLY THE MOST CREATIVE AEROPLANE THAT BOTH OF US HAVE EVER SEEN!!! (Sorry, being parents, we are bound to be pretty bias on our judgment...Hahaha).