3 years old Party - Second Wave!!

Ryan's birthday has always been celebrated in waves....lucky boy. The first wave was with his mommy's best and close friends and colleagues who all have almost watched him grow from a tiny baby to a cheeky, jumpy and super active boy today ....

Since he has been attending a daycare school for the last couple of months, we thought it would be a fantastic idea to have him celebrate his birthday with his classmates, and his school encourages it.

On Friday, which was the last Friday before they closed for the school holidays, the school planned for a costume party with the `Superhero' theme. We thought it would be an excellent idea to have his little birthday party with his classmates then.

The challenge was of course to find him his superhero costume. We were informed on Monday and we had to get him his costume by Friday which does not leave us much time to hunt or make one within 4 days, considering that most of us are working parents. I had wanted to make him a Iron Man costume but after checking out on the web, the efforts needed are just too much to complete within 4 days. At the same time, we really wanted him to be proud when he walked into school on Friday.

After some frantic last minute check searching through Google, I finally managed to call one shop located near Cold Storage at Jaya One who do have superhero costume for a 3 year old. The choices were rather limited ..and I have made up my mind on what Ryan would wear...and I was pretty sure that he would look absolutely charming in it... AND I WAS RIGHT!

For one morning he was BATMAN!!!! And he enjoyed every minute of it...
I was totally impressed with the school and the teachers because they too, went all out to make sure that the party was a success. The teachers and helpers were also in various superhero costumes. There were Spiderman, Superman, Robin and Ryan's class gorgeous class teacher was Optimus Prime (my favorite Transformer!!!)
He did have his chance to blow his birthday cupcakes candles with his classmates and I hope that he will remembers it...if not, I hope that this entry in this blog will ....

A Very Pretty Glowing and A very pregnant mommy

I have always been intrigued with the beautifully taken pictures of pregnant mommies with their protruding tummy, that moment captured for all eternity.

So when my wife suggested that some shots be taken, being a avid photographer game to try out new challenges, I am more than happy to have a ever willing model for it. Where else am I going to convince another pregnant stranger to have me photograph her pregnant belly.

We were having a weekend holiday at Shangri-La KL, celebrating Ryan's 3rd birthday. We grab the opportunity to use the nice setting in the room for some shots.

This is definitely my first attempt at photographing a pregnant woman and I was frantically searching the web for some tips and tricks. It will also be the last time that I will be photographing my wife's very pregnant belly as we will be closing our production line after this....so, this is now or never ....

Wife is shy in showing the pictures taken, afraid that she would look unsightly but I think she has the most beautiful pregnant belly of all...and she really glows! (I think all husbands will think the same thoughts of their wives anyway).

So, without showing off any other pictures without her permission, I cannot help but to share this one picture which I loves very much ....

3 years of PURE JOY!

30th May 2011

Ryan finally turned 3 today. We have gone through great times with him in the last 3 years. He has brought us pure joy and occasional `nightmares' but everyday he surprises us with his new learning, new words, new actions with pure cheekiness...

I can still remember vividly 3 years ago, when wife was hospitalized early when her water bag burst. She was given steroids, antibiotic and medication to delay his arrival as he was pre-matured and the doctor wanted to make sure that his lungs have developed fully and properly. On the 29th May 2011, the doctor came and after a last minute check, confirmed that Ryan will be ready for delivery and scheduled the anticipated delivery the next morning from 9 to 10 am onwards. He stopped the medication that delayed the contraction at around 6pm. By 7pm, the contraction started. I remembered the nurses were checking on the contractions the whole night and we knew that this is it...Ryan is finally coming....


We have decided early that we are definitely going to get epidural despite advices from some well intended relatives and friends. However, given that my wife will even panic when she has to do a blood test, I just cannot imagine her having to go through the ordeal without it. By 12 midnight, we told the nurses that we need epidural. She came back with a form and asked us to read the small print bla bla bla before we sign...My wife was in too much pain to even bother then..."Just give me the pen and sign!"

And then we found out that the doctor to administer the epidural have to come from Ampang. We were told that he has been informed. When you are experiencing labour pain, every minute is like an hour, and he took one full hour to arrive ...hair unkempt (as if he just woke up from his sleep) and in slippers....(See also panic!.) He administered the first dose and said that it should work in 30 minutes....


30 minutes went past..and nothing! Wife was grabbing my arms and squeezing it so tight that I would need the epidural injection next....We called the nurse and he came in, looking puzzled! (Although I looked cool and calm then, I can tell you...panic lar...) He checked and then said he will administer a little bit more...and said something like "full dose already...emmmm" (You tell me....panic or not??)

I think the epidural finally worked around 3pm and wife got to sleep a bit. I was too tired by then and I went back to her room to grab a nap, ready for Ryan's arrival the next morning....

Woke up at about 6:50a.m and after brushing my teeth, stumbled to the labour room. Dr Guna was already there and RYAN WAS COMING!!!...OMG! So early ar???

Rushed back to the room, grabbed the video camera and ran to the labour room ..arriving just in time to hear my wife pushing and screaming ....Too panicky and no time to switch on video camera lar....just hold her hands and told her to push like hell...Dr Guna said "Can see the head now." I went to have a look and with one final push, "Whoossshh.....RYAN FINALLY ARRIVED!!" The first thought....RELIEF!!!...and the JOY then sank in .....

Time of arrival : 7:13 am.
Weight: 2.22kg
Length: 44 cm

....and I'm getting ready to go through all this again soon.....hahahaha.....


(Images captures with my Nikon D90 with Nikkor 50mm 1.8 portrait lens)

The Green Monster

Well...here is the picture of the Green Monster that some of you wanted to have a look from my last post on his 3 years old Birthday party ....

This very good friend promised that he will bring a `surprise' and the surprise turned out to be him in this Green Monster suit to surprise Ryan....

Unfortunately, my poor boy who is normally quite brave was totally horrified and terrified of him and have absolutely nothing to do with him....Not only is he so scared of the monster, he insisted that the monster suit which was lying on the ground in our home after our friend has taken it off, be taken out of the house ...!!

The funniest story of course was when he told us how he got to the wrong house along the same road who were also having a party, walked in completely suited up with minimum vision helped by his friend and started to realize that he has went to the wrong house when he could not recognize anyone there....

He told us as he turned and leave, he heard the children there (I guessed they were totally excited by then, thinking that they would have a green monster for their party) asking their parents or the adults, "Why is he GOING AWAY??" obviously with lots of disappointment ...

Sunday at CyberJaya

Last Sunday my wife wanted to drive by Cyberjaya to check out some new property launches out of curiousity and we took the opportunity to bring Ryan to the Cyberview Lodge for some fun photography. He was having a blast and I was happy having a super happy model running everywhere and posing ever so willingly.

The property that we were looking at are located near the Perdana Lakeview. So, we took the opportunity to capture some pictures of him against the backdrop of the lake and the scenic bridge at Putrajaya.

He was wearing the boxing gloves that he got as birthday present the night before.
A very pregnant mommy with this super active monster ....
He was super happy at the CyberView Lodge because there were plenty of space for him to run ...
I love this shot where mother and son was captured walking in unison .....

His ever famous Kung Fu Ip Man Wing Chun stance when taking pictures and I love this shot which captured that right moment ...
Fooling around captured on camera ...
I simply just love that cheeky grin on his face ....
One last picture with mommy before we headed for a drink by the poolside bar and left the place before the heavy downpour came down ......another Sunday afternoon well spent with loved ones and many wonderful moments captured to be remembered and cherished for a long time to come ...

3 years old Party - First Wave !!

It's May again and Ryan will turn 3 end of the month. We just had our first wave of parties to celebrate his 3 years old birthday. The first wave was held at home with some of my wife's close friends and colleagues, many of whom has literally watched him grow as well as those whom we have assigned the roles of `nannies' when they come visiting .....

For this celebration, we scout through the Internet and found this lovely lady who was very kind and gracious to rush us this beautiful Mickey Mouse and Mickey Mouse Club House cake complete with 32 individual cup cakes. We were thoroughly happy and thrilled with the cake and so were the guests.....




This year unlike last year where we invited over 50 friends, we have only invited only 16 very close friends and instead of catering like last year, I have decided to make some simple finger food and turned it into a wine and cocktail dinner party. Was rather busy cooking and preparing and hence only managed to grab only a few pictures of some of the finger food served for the night.....

Chicken Liver Pate served with tortilla chips ...
Smoked Salmon Dip served with tortilla chips ...
Pan Seared Tuna served on a piece of fresh lettuce with ebiko topping and wasabi sauce .....
Shrimp with bacon wrap served with Mango salsa in a fresh tomato .....
Mash potato with corned beef served in a oven baked potato skin ....

The night went well. A good friend even tried to surprise Ryan by purposely hiring a green dragon suit and came all dressed up (poor guy actually walked into the wrong house along the same road that was also having a birthday party and have to `run' away from the children of the wrong house). Unfortunately, our ever brave Ryan turned out to be totally horrified of the green dragon and decided to have absolutely nothing to do with it...a sincere effort went wasted but we as parents were absolutely delighted and grateful to this friend of ours who went through all the trouble ....:)

First 3D Glimpse

Date : 17th May 2011

We had our first 3D glimpse of our baby girl now that she is 29 weeks old. We wanted to do a full 3D scan. However, she wasn't too cooperative and the best image the doctor managed to get was the one above. Hence, we will be going back in two weeks time to do another 3D scan and hopefully we have better images of her.

For a time being, we are glad to have our first 3D glimpse of our soon to arrive new member of our family. Wife is officially grounded and would have to be monitored closely for the next 5 weeks to ensure that she doesn't have a premature delivery just like when we have Ryan.

Our anxious wait continues .....

Invasion of Gadgets !!!

The arrival of iPhone and iPad have I believed drastically changed the lifestyle of many both locally and abroad. I think (my opinion solely) that the craze has reached a feverish pitch which I think it's rather unhealthy.

I was having my dinner with my wife the other day at the Hyatt Saujana Ara Damansara. While we were talking and waiting for our dinner to be served, in walk a group of young people, 6 of them in their early 20s. They were sitting a couple of tables of away and the moment when everyone settled down in their seats, everyone brought out their SMART phones and iPhones and were all busy typing, texting, checking and God knows what...they were doing with the handset ....

Question: Why bother to meet up for lunch where everyone basically will sit there round the table and were busy texting someone else or busy updating their facebook telling others where they are and what they were eating...

Or would you let your children play with some apps on the iphone or ipad in order to keep them quiet during a function outside? I'm actually in a dilemma here. On one hand, I know for a fact that I will be able to keep Ryan glued to his seat if I give him something to occupy him like our phones or probably a Sony portable playstation (I think that is what it is called)....but on the other hand, am I starting him young on getting addicted to video games and replacing that with the simple pleasures of life like climbing trees and catching spiders and butterflies like I used to do ...

If he gets totally addicted to computer games or online games later in life and neglect his studies, can I discipline him in all honesty knowing that it was I who introduced him to it in the first place .....

What do you as parents think?

Getting Ryan ready .....

Ryan will turn 3 this coming 30th May and our little baby girl is now 30 weeks old. We believe that a 3 years gap between the old would be a good age gap between the two. Hopefully, they will get along well and he will love and protect his baby sister once she arrived.

I heard that a year gap between two siblings is not ideal as they tend to fight over things quite a fair bit. I for one is one example as I'm only one year older than my sister and I remembered that we fought like dogs and cats....

Anyway, we are doing everything we can to prepare Ryan for her arrival. Ryan is a rather possessive boy and demands lots of attention. I'm a little worry that he would be jealous and thinks that we don't love him as much when his baby sister arrives. We are quite glad at least Ryan is more receptive of my wife's pregnancy now. Whenever, we asked where is mei mei (sister), he would now point to his mommy's stomach and says, "..in mommy's stomach ...". We are also constantly getting him to rub his mommy's tummy to sayang (love) his sister and getting him to kiss the tummy to kiss his sister. So far, to our relief, he is rather receptive....all fingers crossed now as we prepare for the little one arrival ....

Any other good tips for us from parents who are experienced here ????

When the water bag burst...bring the handphone charger !!

Ryan is almost 3 years old now. As my wife and I were sitting yesterday at Damansara Specialist Center waiting to get my stress test done, (and we were there since 10am in the morning!), we were discussing on how should we celebrate his coming 3rd birthday. Naturally, we ended up talking and remembering fondly his arrival 3 years ago ....and I'm still laughed at for doing probably one of the most unlikely or `stupidest' thing in my life....

Wife was carrying Ryan for 34 weeks then. She was coughing badly and her work load has been pretty stressful during that period. May was their financial year closing, hence, the pressure of chasing of sales figures to make up the volume or the stretch target was always there ...

On the 28th May night, she came back late at 11pm after a stressful meeting with her boss. I remembered she walked in wearily and was so tired that she said she will skip dinner and would probably just take a bath and retired. Ryan was not due for another couple of weeks. Suddenly, she called out from the bathroom, while sitting on the toilet seat saying that she is `leaking'. I came rushing in and not knowing what to say (honestly) told her to continue sitting and wait awhile if the `leak' continues. After another minute or two, she said `yes..still leaking with a bit of blood.'

Honestly, I have started panicking inside but being a all macho husband, have to put up a brave front. Don't know ask me why, but the next thing I told her to do was....'Ok. Go and have your bath first.' Maybe experience tells me that a bath is something she would not have a chance to take for the next couple of weeks if Ryan is really arriving.

After her shower, she confirmed that she was still `leaking'. "Ok" I told her. "Water bag burst liow. Time to go hospital for check up now." sounding confident and like I really knew what I was doing.

So we changed and get ourselves ready. Then she asked me what to bring along. And I told her to make sure to bring her handphone charger !!!!! Why? I really don't know. Maybe because somehow I have the inclination that she would be admitted and would need to make calls. Maybe because she has the tendency to run her phone battery to the ground and always complained that her handphone battery is flat. Maybe because I knew that she would still be making calls over the next few days (even in the hospital) to chase sales figures since it is the financial year closing. I really don't know why. But, my wife obediently pack her handphone charger and off we went to the hospital.

Her water bag did burst though the baby wasn't due yet. Wife ended up hosptilised for another 2 days with medication and steroids to prepare Ryan's arrival, planned on the 31st May. Was the handphone charger useful? OF COURSE! During her two days there, she DID made those calls to chase for the figures required.

Would I remind her to bring the handphone charger this round for our coming daughter? Of course besides other equally important items such as change of clothes, hot water tumbler etc..hahahaha

Fooling around with a very pregnant lady ....

Date : 2nd May 2011

We took the opportunity of the long weekend with Labour Day to stay over at the Shangrila Hotel Kuala Lumpur. My wife has been travelling rather frequently to Singapore over the last 2 months. Not being comfortable of her flying alone (besides the opportunity for me to travel to Singapore to explore the city with my Nikon), I have been travelling with her as well, leaving Ryan home with the maid and my mother in law.

Hence, we thought of compensating our `lost' time with Ryan with a stay at Shang so that could have some quality time besides allowing him to enjoy himself at the pool.

I have always wanted to take some pictures of my very pregnant wife as part of the memories that we could pass on to our soon to arrive daughter, reminding her how heavy and difficult it must have been for her mommy to carry her full term. (It somehow didn't occur to me to grab some shots when we were expecting Ryan. Probably, the DSLR bug has not caught up then).

Anyway, we had some pretty good fun capturing the following pictures ....

His latest obsession ....

This is his latest obsession - the torchlight!

The torchlight, a courtesy from his grandmother who is here, staying a couple of days to take care of him while we travel to Singapore. With it, he is constantly going into unlit rooms, the kitchen, kakak's room or finding any excuse to go upstairs to play with it.

Well, at least he is NOT jumping, climbing the sofa or kicking. The only sad thing is poor Zoewe simply just can not find a quiet place to take a nap, as she will have the torchlight beam shining directly into her eyes wherenever she goes.

Took the above picture inside the toilet in perfect darkness and he enjoyed every minute of it ...

Are your children as obsessed with the torchlight as Ryan?

His very first BURGER!

Date: 24th April 2011

Ryan had his FIRST burger from McDonald's today. This is not his first trip to McDonald's but what he had before was just the fries.

I had to work today and his mommy has promised to take him to McDonald's today. So, they went for their lunch. I heard he has a blast at the playground. When I arrived home, he happily took out his burger and showed me and was happily munching away.

Another simple yet memorable milestone for him.

Medicine Time

Ryan has been having a running nose and cough for over 2 weeks now. He has visited the doctor twice during this period and we have stopped him from going to his play school for three days now.

He is not really getting any better actually and he has very a dry cough especially in the middle of the night. Over the last two nights, he has vomited his milk and phlegm over the bed due to the severity of his cough.

During the last visit, the doctor has recommended an inhaler and separate medications, Flixotide (2 puffs once every morning) and Ventolin Evohaler (2 puffs every four hours or when he coughs badly). Hopefully, that would help clear his nose block and the phlegm. Besides the inhaler, he has to take at least three other types of medication. For most parents, I think, getting their young one to take this could be a nightmare...well, we had that problem for a while ....

Nowadays, Ryan simply loves his medicine. All we really need to do is to pass him the syringe with the medicine and he will gladly and eagerly pump the whole content into his mouth without any fuss....

Getting him to do the inhaler is not too difficult either with the condition that I would have to inhale from the inhaler too after he has finished...(well, a small price to pay to get him to get his proper medication).

So, does your child make a big fuss when it comes to medication time?

Picture taken tonight when Zoewe just came back from her grooming. I was experimenting with my Nikon SB700 flashgun and he gladly pose for me....(the same can't be said of Zoewe who was just too eager to get out from his grip).

I am Humbled!

I was totally humbled by my son the other day.

Over weekend, we went out in the morning. When we arrived home, Ryan was his usual active self, jumping, climbing and running all over the house.

As it was time for his milk, he told me he wanted his milk. We were downstairs and we had a tin of his milk powder stored in the kitchen.

Instead of wanting the maid to make it for him, he insisted that I make it for him. I am used to making his milk at night upstairs everyday but I have seldom make it for him during the day downstairs. Anyway, since he wanted me to make it, i went to the kitchen, opened the cabinet door and pull out a can of milk powder. I filled up his bottle with the right amount of hot and cold water and open the can of milk powder. As I looked the milk powder, I am already wondering why the milk powder looks different from the one I used every night.

And at the moment, this little rascal was shouting "NO! I don't want this ONE!"

"Go away! Go and Play first" I replied thinking that he was just being difficult and wanted more attention.

"NO! I don't want this ONE!" he insisted.

"Daddy said Go and wait!" I was getting impatient.

"NO. Not this ONE! THIS IS MOMMY'S ONE!" he shouted in reply.

OMG!. I took one look at the label and true enough, I have pull out the ENFAMAMA instead of his Pedisure. And the ENFAMAMA is my wife's milk powder. And I was about to make him a bottle of ENFAMAMA if he has not been so insistent that he DOES NOT WANT this bottle.

My wife has the BEST LAUGH! I was truly HUMBLED! I told him I was so sorry for shouting at him and thank him for correcting me, giving him a big big hug.

He of course, was on cloud nine, laughing cheekily for the next half an hour. My wife has not stop laughing since......

It's a GIRL `Baby Dinosaur'!

Date : 6th March 2011

Took wife for her normal check up with the Dr Guna. Baby is now 20 weeks old. We took Ryan along to start preparing him for the arrival of his new sibling.

When we asked him earlier whether he wanted another baby sister or baby brother, he had always said 'No! Ryan only!' So, we guessed, having him witness the pregnancy and seeing the baby during the scan will arouse his curiosity and prepare him better.

As usual, Dr Guna apply some gel and started scanning. As I carried him in my arms, he was pretty curious over the entire process. Then Dr Guna switched on the sound for us to hear the baby's heartbeat.

He looked excited (as he is always pretty dramatic) and asked "What noise? What noise?"

We explained that that is the heartbeat of his baby sister/brother and pointed to the images of the baby.

To everybody amazement, he said "Dinosaur!"

I immediately stepped in attempting to correct him. "No. That's NOT dinosaur' That's a baby". Then he correctly himself and said "BABY DINOSAUR!" (Even Dr Guna laughed at this point in time).

After more explanation, he finally said 'Baby 'ngoi ngoi' (sleeping) inside mommy's stomach'.

As Dr Guna was rotating the baby around, he asked "You want to know the gender?"

Of course. Although we are fine with either sex, but we would really love to have a girl this round since we already have Ryan in the house. And he confirmed it...

"It's a GIRL...."

My wife is already planning of the next shopping spree ........!!!!!

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).

Ra Ra ah ah ah.. Roma Roma ma ....Gaga Oh la la

My little boy has always taken a liking to music even before he started to walk. And he has always been shaking his bump and his body when we switched on music in our car stereo but he is into HOT HOT music with lots of tempo and beat...

It is therefore no surprise that one of his favourite singer is none other than LADY GAGA!

He has been listening to her songs off and on for some time now, whether in the car or when we go karaoke but it never occurs to me that he can memorized them.

I was driving him to school this morning and while waiting a the traffic light, I was unconsciously singing ..."Ra Ra ah ah ah...Roma Roma ma ..." and before I could go to the "Gaga .." part, he looked at me and to my amazement, said "BAD ROMANCE!!!"

And I said "What?" and he repeated himself ..."BAD ROMANCE!"

I asked him who the singer was... and he said " GAGA!"

Emmmmm....not bad for 2.5 years old boy ....and it took me weeks to remember the first line and even longer to remember the name of the song ....

"Stan Notty Coner N Cly!!!"

Yupe...
That's exactly what I got from my little rascal the other day.

And this is the exact words that we used to reprimand him when he is extremely naughty. We have decided not to use the cane as much as possible and we have not start either. We found out that the most effective way to punish him is to `banish' him from our side, either make him to go upstairs with kakak or to make him stand at a designated corner of our house known to him as the `Naughty corner'.

We would scold him and told him to go to his naughty corner and stand there and cry all he wants and he is not allow to leave the naughty corner unless we ask for him or he starts to say sorry for being naughty.

So, the other day, I accidentally split on water on the table. This little cheeky fella saw and asked "Who make?"

And mommy pointed at me and said " Daddy made".

He immediately pointed his accusing finger at me and said "oooooooooorrrrrrr...."

Then with a stern and serious face, said, "Go....Stan Notty Coner and cly!"
followed by "no notty !!!!"
followed by "go upstairs !!!!"

We were stunned and at the same time amused. I got a shot of my very own medicine...hahahaha
So, had no choice but to say sorry to him and said 'Daddy no more notty' .....

123456789 and 10

Date : 23rd Jan 2011

"1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10!" he shouted ......

We stopped whatever we were doing and asked him to repeat it one more time......

"1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10!" he shouted again in one breath !

We were ecstatic. We finally got him to count from one to ten. We have been trying to teach him counting for months now. He has been pretty good with `1,2,3, and 4', always got stuck at `5' and will be able to continue from `6' till '10' if he paid attention to what he is doing. But never once has he been able to count from 1 to 10 correctly.

Our repeated attempts to get him to count correctly again proved futile as he was now in his cheeky and playful mood and just refused to focus and concentrate.

Just the other day, he wanted me to sleep with him on the mattress on the floor of the living room while watching his favourite Ultraman DVD. I was just too tired and was really comfortable sitting on the sofa. So, I told him to count to TEN before I would go down to sleep with him.

Count to TEN he did but he took a shortcut!

`Eight, Nine, TEN!' FINISH!' he shouted back.....

I had to leave my comfortable sofa and crawled down to sleep with him on his mattress while he put his leg comfortably on my stomach because although I did tell him to count to TEN (and he DID), I didn't specifically told him when to start counting .....

I guess I better be MORE SPECIFIC now with my instructions .....