Chenya is ONE TODAY!

Yupe. Chenya turns ONE today!

Time flies. It was like yesterday that we were eagerly awaiting her arrival and then went through the one month of confinement with the confinement lady from hell and now she is ONE.

She is definitely a fast learner, with minimal patience and always know how to get what she wants. She plays guns and not dolls. She climbs and seemingly not afraid of anything at this point in time.

We miss her since we could not celebrate her birthday with her as both of us are now in Atlanta USA. Mommy's company normally has a meeting in USA around July every year and it looks like there is a likely chance that we might miss celebrating her birthday every year .....sigh....

Anyway, just happy that this little princess of ours is turning ONE and we could not wait to get home and cuddle her because we miss her and Ryan so much....

Our eldest daughter turns FIVE today

Yupe. Our eldest daughter, Zoewe, our very lovable toy poodle turns five today.

It has been a wonderful five years having her as our constant companion. She is such a mild manner pet and she is constantly ready to cheer us up anytime and anywhere. She does not have a temper, does not throw tantrums, does not yell at the top of her lungs for food, sits quietly by our side while we watch TV, snuggles up to us and insists on dumping his butt on my head and sleep on my pillow when there is a thunderstorm in the middle of the night.

Over the last five years, she HAS NEVER ONCE growl, bark or even loose her temper with either Ryan and Chenya despite being bullied by these two super active siblings. All she does at most is to run and hide under the massage chair.

She is ever so cuddly and eating is her favorite past time. Anytime, anywhere and any day is a good time for a snack, hence earning herself the nick name of `piglet' from her vet.

Her favorite toy is pebbles and balls and she will constantly bring you either a pebble or a ball, asking and begging you to play fetch. It is such a joy just watching her bouncing and jumping after the pebble and ball all over the car porch. All your stress will just automatically goes out the window. She is just simply amazing.

We are looking forward to spending many many many more birthdays with her and she is definitely a part and a very very important part and member of our family.

Happy Birthday Zoewe....we love you dearly .....

You might want to catch up on some previous post I have written on her ....
http://babynme2008.blogspot.com/2008/11/our-daughter.html (Our daughter)
http://babynme2008.blogspot.com/2009/06/best-of-friends.html (Best of Friends)
http://babynme2008.blogspot.com/2009/07/zoewes-2nd-birthday.html (2nd birthday)
http://babynme2008.blogspot.com/2009/09/sore-loser.html (A sore loser)

This hour 4 years ago .....

Four years at this time (2:50am), I was with my wife at the Damansara Specialist labour room. The doctor has stopped giving my wife steroids and the medication to delay labour (her water bag burst prematurely and medication has to be given to delay labour in order that the lung is more fully developed).

Four years ago, wife was screaming in pain and we were waiting for the doctor to come to administer her epidural injection and we were told that he was coming all the way from Ampang. She was in so much pain that they gave her laughing gas. Anything, anything to stop the pain.

I was so tensed and worried seeing her in such pain.

The doctor finally came and asked us to read the pamphlet about the risks associated with epidural. Honestly, we didn't bother. We just bloody signed the form and asked him to get on with it. He gave the first dose but the pain refused to go away. He frowned and GOD, that is the worst thing a doctor could do in front of his patient ... that frown.. So, what does it mean? Is there a problem? What? What? What is that frown supposed to mean? Damn it! Don't just frown....Talk to me!

"Emmmm....still painful?" he asked.
"Yes! Yes!" my wife almost screamed.
"Ok..I increase dosage and see ...." he calmly answered....

30 minutes on, he came back and asked "still pain?"
"Yes! Still very painful!" wife answered impatiently....

And he frowned AGAIN! And this time with a rather worried looking face! I just cannot described the stress level I was going through then. But nevertheless, have to put up a brave front for my wifey...

"I have already given you a large dosage...eeemmmm.....ok....I increased a bit more and see ..." he said matter of factly....

Thank God that final dosage helped and the pain finally subsided 30 minutes later. Wife finally got to catch some sleep and seeing her sleeping, I slipped back to our room in the hospital for some shut eye...

I woke up at 6:45 am and stumbled over to the labour room ...and what did I see? Dr Guna was already there and getting my wife ready to deliver...

"Get ready." he said..."he is coming"

I ran back to the room, grabbed my camera and video camera (because wife insisted that the incident be recorded, else she would rip my head off)

The moments spent in the labour room the next 15 minutes were intense and nerve wrecking. She huff and puff, screamed and pushed....

At 7:03am, baby Ryan arrived safely into our family .....

Thinking back, all these seemed like just yesterday but so much have happened within these four years. We have all come a long way. Ryan has came a long way. From a 2.2 kg pre-matured baby, he is now a 14.5kg super hyper active boy that seemed to have an endless supply of energy that super charged his legs and turbo charged his stamina, not to mention his brain and mouth that just would not stop talking, asking questions or getting him into trouble ....

Happy Birthday my dear son, for completing our lives with such happiness and joy, filling our hearts with your cheeky laughter, breaking our silence and tranquility with your constant screams and excitement. We love you and never stop being you..because we love you for who you are ...

Thank you mommy for bringing him into the world, the bravery and the courage that you have to muster (knowing how much you fear pain and blood), the long suffering you endured and the patience you shown in guiding and teaching him to be what he is today...a son that we are truly proud of ....

The Old leaves and the New begins .....

Every two years, for those with helpers or maids at home helping out with house chores and taking care of the little ones, we have to face the inevitable of our maid completing her full 2 year term and will be leaving. Not only do we suddenly lose a helper, our life routine that has pretty much settled in will get disrupted to a certain extend. To those, who have not manage to get a replacement maid immediately, I would say that the changes can be rather shocking and drastic to say the least.

Our pinay maid is coming home today, one month earlier than her contract date. She has not exactly been an angel and comparing to our previous maid, an Indonesian, this helper is definitely not only smarter but also more daring and lazier.  However, after having said that, she was still manageable. We do still appreciate her for taking care of Ryan and especially Chenya, whom she has taken a special liking. Maybe, it is because she has a daughter of her own back home and she misses her a lot. She is constantly worried of how she is doing and how well she is growing. Then again, which mother would not.

The biggest mistake we made with this maid was our liberty with her in having her handphone. We have been warned by the agency that we should not allow the maid to carry her handphone during the day. We were specifically instructed to take the handphone from her in the morning and only give it back to her at night. But, we were too soft hearted, We thought that by treating her well like our family member, she would put her work and task first before playing with her handphone.

Our problem started when she bought her new handphone. She was constantly on it, at first secretly and later on more blatantly. It gets better if we reprimand her but only for awhile.

So, lesson learnt and learned the hard way. Never never again allow the next maid to carry her own handphone as all pinays apparently have the same issue. They just have too many friends to chat with .....

We are going to welcome our new maid today after dropping the previous one off at the agency. The whole cycle of getting to know her, getting accustom to her, getting her trained, getting her familiarized with us and her tasks, learning to trust her, getting her into her routine starts all over again, not to mention our apprehension of how Ryan and Chenya will take to her. But at least, we have a replacement almost immediately and my mother in law has been very gracious to come stay with us for two weeks to watch over her while we are at work.

As with all our previous maids, we wish her all the best in her life back home and the future. And with all our new maids, we are looking forward to a wonderful and pleasant two years ahead.....

Celebrating our maid's recent birthday in March this year....We made it a point to celebrate all our maid's birthday. We made it a point to make sure that they get their ang pow during Chinese New Year. We made sure that they get a Christmas present when we do our Christmas present exchange under the Christmas tree each year. And the presents are not only coming from us but from my sister, my mother in law and sister in law.....

The cake that we purposely purchased for our helper this year to make sure that her birthday spent with us are memorable ones. She claimed that no one had purchased a birthday cake for her before ....

We are uncertain how much she appreciated all this but deep in our hearts, we just want to be the best employers we could possibly can (despite being human) to her, to be fair to her and to do our utmost to make sure that her stay with us during the years as pleasant as it can be ....

Bon voyage Ranelyn and Welcome Emily ..(another saga unfolds) ....

His garage!!

Soon, we would have to consider moving to a larger property with a bigger garage because Ryan's fleet of cars, bicycles, tricycles and what not, is getting larger over each birthdays.

If only there are actual ferrari's, mercs, BMWs, audi's or Bentleys....sigh

Children nowadays are so lucky and pampered...At my age back then, all these are but dreams and wishes that will never come true..

3 years old Party - Third Wave !

This is will be his third 3 years old small celebration with several people who have grown to love him very much and have literally watched him grow up.

There is this Chinese restaurant where we stay and we have been frequenting it for almost 50% of our dinners. The lady supervisor, the chef to the kakak who brings us our drinks have grown to adore Ryan over the last 3 years.

Every now and then, they will buy toys for Ryan or take him to the 7-Eleven located a couple of shops away. Ryan absolutely adores them and even called the lady supervisor, 'Kai Ma' (god mum). She is of course absolutely delighted.

For his birthday this year, they bought him a cart that he could ride at home.


So, it is only a reasonable thing to do when we bought a small birthday cake and make it a point for Ryan to celebrate his birthday with them and get them to blow out his birthday candles. We wanted Ryan to remember (I certainly hope that he does and if not, I hope that this blog will remind him) of the people who have watched him grow, who have become part of his life as he journey through life and the people who have loved and adored him. We wanted him to learn to be thankful and grateful and know from a very young age that he is indeed a lucky boy with so many people around him that loves him.

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 ....

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 ....:)

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)

Temptations @ Ara

30th September 2010

My wife's birthday.

Initially I have wanted to have a nice quiet dinner, just the two of us at Zipangu Shangrila KL and made the reservation for it. Wanted to give her a surprise but on second thoughts, knowing how busy she is with her work, I gave her a call a day in advance to inform her. And luckily I did, because she will be attending some function at Petaling Jaya on that day in the evening and it would not make any sense for us to travel back to KL for dinner.

So, after some thoughts, I guessed the best option would be to turn our home into a mini restaurant to serve our VVIP guest for the night.

Did some quick planning on the menu and informed my maid to be prepared for some cooking that day and that evening for our special guest. For desert, my maid helped me to prepare one of my wife's favourite...Tiramisu.

On the day, I took half day off from my work and went about shopping at Cold Storage at Solaris for the ingredients necessary for the evening dinner. I wanted to make sure that the food are prepared well in advance so that I don't have to be stressed out serving our VVIP guest that night. So, the afternoon was spent in the kitchen, busy preparing with my maid who turns out to be a great help.

And at 7 p.m., Temptations @ Ara is finally ready to serve our special guest for the night .....

The menu for the night .......

One of your her favourite drink. Soda with lemon, lemon zest, ginger with a dash of mint, served chilled.

Soup : Seafood Chowder with clams and shrimps

For the first starter : Asparagus wrapped in bacon, pan seared to perfection, served with a dash of mustard

Followed with the second starter : Pan seared Scallop served on a bed of green salad with home made tartar sauce and thousand island dressing.

Next, we have Lightly pan seared tuna slices served with tartar sauce.

For the main course, pan grilled medium rare ribeye steak, marinated with shiraz, served with black pepper sauce.

For desert, sweet wine tiramisu to wrap up the evening on a sweet note.

My two very special guests for the night. All in all, it turned out to be better than dining at any other restaurant down town.

Ryan's Birthday Celebration Finale

12th June 2010

Ryan turned 2 on the 30th May 2010 but we can't organize a party for him earlier as most weekends were either not suitable for most of the guest or we were not free.

Finally, we managed to arrange one on the 12th June 2010 and it was like a grand birthday celebration finale for the lil one. It was supposed to be a small event among close friends but it didn't turn out to be as small as I expected. Instead of a small group of 20, we ended with over 45 guests !

Our decision to arrange for a mobile steamboat (lok lok) van turned out to be an excellent decision. The guests enjoyed themselves and we were totally freed from the hassles of having to prepare food or the clean up after the party. Besides, we also ordered some nasi lemak and satay with plenty of beer, soft drinks and packet drinks to go around.

Ryan was having the greatest time in his life. He found a friend in the son of my wife's colleague and they were literally `break dancing' at the car porch to the delight of all the guests who surrounded them for the show!

The last two years watching him grow from a 2.22kg pre-matured baby to a bubbly hyper active boy that he is now has indeed been an adventure, experience that one could not attached any monetary value. As we watched him grow, he has taught us the right values and priorities of our life too. We are certainly looking forward to celebrate his next birthday and I'm sure the next one year will be another year of adventure filled with fun, anxiety and priceless moments.

His 2nd Birthday Celebration Begins!

Ryan's 2nd birthday celebration has begun.

First round : A pre-birthday holiday to Tanjung Jara Resort
Second round : A buffet lunch at Lemon Grass Garden Shangrila KL with family members, grandmothers, aunties, uncles and cousins.
Third round : A night out at the PUB at Shangrila KL
Fourth round : A seafood dinner with crabs among close friends at a restaurant near our home followed by the session of presents opening and assembly (as seen above)

Next: A birthday party with close friends and a planned `lok lok van' 2 weeks from now...

I'm not sure whether he is having more fun or his mother and his many `nannies' who are finding reasons to organize a party....Hahaha

Stay tune for more birthday celebration pictures then ....

Our `Eldest Daughter's Birthday!'

Yupe. We seemed to be celebrating lots of birthdays lately. This round was for our `eldest daughter' in the house, our maid. She has been with us for slightly over a year now, and we have come to refer to her as our `eldest daughter'. While news of maid abuse and rights seemed to dominate the local headlines recently, we are only too glad that we are lucky enough to have minimal problems with her so far.

She has her limitations but then who doesn't. While we continue to remind her of our expectations of her performance (we made it a point to lay down our expectations and work schedule the moment she arrived), we are also constantly reminding ourselves that she is also taking care of Ryan now. With Ryan being quite a handful, we have also lowered our expectations on her towards her house chores (although we didn't specifically told her that). The biggest relief is that she has demonstrated time and again her affection towards Ryan and Ryan fondness of her as well. However, we are quick to ensure that we do not allow her to replace our love and our position as parents to him.

She was quite surprised when we took out the birthday cake and told her to change so that she could take some pictures. She loves having her pictures taken and sent home. We also make it a point to allow her to call home to speak to her family and daughters, so that they too could wish her happy birthday.

At the end of it all, I can see that she was happy and grateful. To us, we are only happy that she is happy and hoping that she will continue to treat our family as hers as well while she is here.

Zoewe's 2nd Birthday!

Zoewe finally turned 2. It was as if we only brought her home yesterday while she was just 3 months old. How time flies. I can still remember clearly how little she was and how active she was, jumping all over the house, not forgetting peeing and pooing all over the house ....sigh. It was initially a nightmare trying to house train her. And the Sunday mornings that we have to take her for her puppy obedience training classes and the stress I had to go through to ensure that she listen and obey me with simple instructions to pass the final test. (Incidentally, if she fails, it is not her fault but the owner who have not done enough!! stress!)

I can still remember seeing her in her cage at a pet shop and how cute she was. I actually called my wife who was then in Hong Kong and lied to her that I actually place RM500 deposit for a puppy! (Just to get a kick out of it. haha). She was shocked and repeatedly questioned me whether am I sure of the responsibilities that come with it. When my wife finally came home, I took her to have a look at Zoewe at the pet shop and we told ourselves to have a cooling period and will proceed to get her if she is still there one month later. One month later, when we went back to the pet shop, there she was. Much larger now but ever so cute. She kept on `hard selling' herself that my wife could not but to agree to `adopt' her (with the condition that she will only play with her, while I would have to shoulder all other responsibilities...that's what husband is for...sigh)

I can still remembered how she jumped over the bean bag on the 3rd day at home, knocked her head and went into fits. I thought I have lost her there and then. Thank God, she was fine after a check with the vet.

And then, a month after she came home, we found out that Ryan was on his way. We were struggling to decide whether we should keep her or give her away (with mounting pressures from friends and families that baby and dog does not mix well). But by that time, Zoewe is more than just a pet. She is family. We could not just give her up and decided to ensure that she gets the equal amount of love and attention that we would give to Ryan.

Since her arrival, she has brought nothing but sheer joy and adventure into our lives. She is without temper, without mood swings, ever so ready to give, ever so ready to share her bubbly cheerfulness, ever so ready to love.

Happy Birthday Zoewe.

His Presents!

Children nowadays are so fortunate! I don't quite remember the birthdays that my parent celebrated for me. The only one that I remembered well and with pictures taken was my 21st! But here we have Ryan celebrating his 1st birthday 3 times! And the amount of presents that he received from our friends and relatives were more than what I got in 3 years!

Of all the presents, I must said, I love the remote control love buggy the most! Honestly, I have always looked at kids with this little gadget with envy and thinking how lucky they must be. The closest I've got was a battery operated toy tank (which incidentally, was already a big thing to me back then!). Secretly, I was hoping that his toy car could fit me..hehe...so that I could give it a spin. Oh well, never mind. Maybe, my son would fancy one of those remote control helicoptors soon...hahaha..

But seriously, the amount of presents do not represent the love our parents have for us. It's rather unfair to compare my childhood with Ryan's because we live in two different era. Education, exposure, standard of living, financial capabilities and a host of other factors have changed the way parents demonstrate their love for their child. Not receiving the amount of presents like Ryan or getting the birthday celebrations like he did, did not mean that I receive any less love from my parents. The amount of education and life they have given me has been a good proof of that. It's just that today's parents will go a long way to ensure that their children would have their needs and `want's taken care of.

However, I believe that being a responsible parent, we got to constantly remind ourselves that we do not spoilt our child or uses material possession as a replacement of the quality time or love for our child. I have friends who have bought luxurious condominiums and cars for their children once they are old enough to drive, all fully paid for. And some even had the guts to specifically asked for the type of car and NOT just any car!!! I think it's an excellent idea to invest in good properties for the future of our child but to hand everything to them in a silver platter could sometimes do them more harm than good.

His 3rd Birthday Celebration in A month!

Last Saturday, we celebrated his 1st birthday for the 3rd time. This time, it was with his mommy's collegues. We had a small party at home. He was obviously enjoying all the attention and lots of presents too. And he gets to cut his birthday cake for the third time and this round, we bought him a 3kg chocolate banana cake from Cake Sense.

Besides having nasi lemak, fried meehoon and curry chicken, I prepared several appertizers as well. Thankfully, they turned out OK.

More pictures of his presents and him, tearing and thrashing his presents later.