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 .....

Cravings for Pasta

Like I have mentioned in my earlier post, the cravings changes everyday and what is surprising is that things that my wife loves before, she dislikes. Food that she can't stand before, she craves.

Every lunch and dinner is pretty challenging nowadays as her cravings or the the food that she felt like taking changes everyday.

Just a couple of nights ago, she has a craving for pasta. Luckily we still had some left over spaghetti at home. So, it was a quick spaghetti aglio olio with basil leaves, fresh chili, corned beef with broccoli (since I read somewhere that broccoli is good for pregnant mothers as they are loaded with folic acid besides the fact that it is the only vegetable I had in the fridge at that point in time.)

I wonder what her next cravings would be .......

Stomach Pain excuse!

Fourth morning to play school.

For the first three mornings, he has been hesitant to get up to go play school and used the excuse that he was still sleepy and wanted to continue to sleep. However, we still managed to get him to change, get him into the car and once he gets to the school and seeing all the children there, he would be fine.

The fourth morning was no different. He was his usual grumpy self, rolling all over the bed and complained that he wanted to `oi oi' (sleep) some more. When we managed to finally get him to change and brush his teeth, he refused to go downstairs, knowing that he has to go `school'.

After much persuasion, we managed to get him downstairs and put him on the sofa to wear his socks and shoes. As we are preparing to leave, he came out with a new `excuse'....

He pulled up his shirt and rub his stomach and said, "Stomach pain pain...no school.." and lied on the sofa.....

.....AND he is only 2.5 years old !!!! OMG!

I wonder what excuse he will come up with next in order to avoid school...and this is ONLY the FOURTH DAY!!!

First day at School

Today is the day. The first day to school. We have just changed his daycare/school from the previous one to this new one known as Little Footprints. He has been attending daycare for the last six months but were sick so frequently that we have opted to change to this new center which looks better managed, more passionate towards the welfare of children and definitely looks much cleaner.

After more than 2 months not having to go to `school' we were apprehensive of how he would behaved this morning. We could not get him to sleep any earlier last night and we dread having to wake him up this morning.

At 8am, I gave him a gentle push and told him to get up. The first thing he did was giving me a frown and said "I don't want to go school!" (We didn't even tell him the night before that he was supposed to go school. How on earth did he knows, beats me!). Then "I don't want to go `mum mum' (eat)" followed by "I don't want to go `kai kai' (out)". Then he turned away and mumbled "Ryan want `ngoi ngoi' (sleep)"....

So, in order not to agitate him any further, we went to have our shower and let him lazed around a bit more. Then as expected, he wanted his milk. Made him his milk and he was having it with his eyes half closed..I was worried as to how to get him to dress without him making a big fuss!...

Luckily, after he finished his milk, he got up, still holding on to his pillow. I tried my luck and asked him to brush his teeth. Surprisingly, he agreed. OK..first hurdle done!..While he was brushing his teeth, I suggested that he changed his clothes and diapers. "OK daddy!" Phew...2nd hurdle done! So we quickly changed him but the moment he saw his uniform, he kept on saying "No school! No school!" Luckily his uniform is just an overcoat, so, we planned to let him wear it only when he gets to school.


Got him to wear his socks and shoes without much of a fuss (though he looked rather grumpy) and got him into the car. 3rd hurdle overcame! Phew.


But the moment we reached the school, he started to cry "Don't want school! Don't want school!". Well, we have no choice. I grab him and carry him inside. The teacher came out and helped him to put on his uniform. There were many other children crying with their parents and the moment he saw that, he stopped crying. He was more curious now. We led him into the playroom with toys on the table. Within minutes, he was busy playing with the toys accompanied by my wife.
After a couple of minutes, while he was busy playing and watching others, we `excused' ourselves silently from the playroom and stood watching from the glass window. While others were either busy crying or running around, he sat on his stool, clutching his bolster, watching others. Since he looked OK with the environment, we left.

When I went back to pick him up at 11a.m. he was already busy mingling around with other kids and was happy to see me. The moment he saw me, he went to the teacher and told her "Ryan go home!" He immediately grabbed his bolster and went looking for his schoolbag. Found it at one corner and immediately dragged it to the door, ready to leave.

A round of good byes and flying kisses all round to all the teachers, he was in the car heading home. First day at school wasn't that bad. The only problem I didn't anticipate was he didn't allow me to get back to work without making a big fuss....(But that is another story..)

2011 Count Down

Where to count down with a good view of the fireworks for Ryan? Last year, we had our count down at the Sunway Resort Lobby Lounge where we could get a rather good view of the fireworks except that we have to `fight' with everybody else for a good place near the window to watch it properly. So we called up Sunway again for their New Year eve count down specials. Besides the similar package available for the Lobby Lounge at RM80++ that comes with a free drink, their West Lake Chinese Restaurant package was pretty attractive too.

They served international buffet for that night with free flow of drinks (depending on whether you take the free flow juices or free flow house pouring eg wine, beer) with a DJ and a live band as well. To ensure that we get a table next to a window where we do not have to `fight' for a good view, we booked a table next the window where Ryan could view the fireworks comfortably while I could take some pictures when the count down begins.

The theme for the night was Chicago/Shanghai in the sixties and red and gold seemed to be the theme colours for the night.

Enjoying ourselves on the dance floor and Ryan enjoying his food.

Ryan enjoying his party pack and dancing away.

5 ....4....3....2....1.....HAPPY NEW YEAR!! and let the fireworks begin

It's another memorable count down for us and more so, because we did it as a family looking forward to a better 2011 knowing that we would have another additional family member joining us when we have our count down for 2012.

Wee Wee and Poo Poo

We have been trying to train Ryan to let us know when he wanted to wee wee and poo poo for a month now. Previously, we have taught him to tell us when he wanted to wee wee or poo poo but he would normally tells us after the event is over....sigh...

With him now approaching 3 years old by May, we really wanted him to understand the importance of going of letting us know when he wanted to do his `business'. So, we have decided not to let him wear his diapers during the day, so that if he had an `accident', he will be all wet and his pants soiled and he HATES that!

And it actually helps. He has started to inform us that he wanted to wee wee. Initially it was like a mad rush and `accidents still do happen' especially if we could not get him to the toilet bowl or take off his pants in time.

Last week, it seemed that we have been pretty successful not only with his wee wee but his poo poo as well. And he enjoys flushing the toilet.

So, as parents we are relieved that he has gotten the hang of toilet training and above all, I think we could save a `small fortune' by using less Mamy Pokos...hahaha

Cravings for Potatoes

As I was saying in one of my earlier post, wifey's cravings has been going crazy this pregnancy. Her appetite and nausea before and after food is so bad this round that she has the phobia of eating. She feels horrible when she is hungry but after eating, she gets her nausea and heartburn. :( It's definitely no joke being pregnant with all the changing hormones creating such havoc.

Last night, she suddenly had a craving for potatoes. We have initially wanted to boil ABC soup but it was a little too late to buy all the ingredients. Managed to get some potatoes though. So, instead of ABC soup, we did a mash potato with butter mixed with corn beef (one of her favourite), served in roasted potato skip with a touch of olive oil.

End result was pretty satisfying. She loves it (and finished the entire potato which was a great relief to me) and surprising, Ryan liked it as well. It must have been the fried corn beef.

Emmm...I wonder what her next cravings would be. I sure hope that it is not going to be abalone or shark fin soup but something much simpler and definitely cheaper like ABC soup!

Happy New Year 2011

Hi my dear blogging friends,

Wishing you and your loved ones a blessed and happy new year and may 2011 brings you even more happiness, good health and prosperity.

It has been a tremendous blessings knowing you and allowing our life's paths to cross somehow.

God Bless ....

From Daddy, Mommy and Ryan ...:)

10 weeks!

Date: 29th December 2010

Came back from our regular checkup. He/She is now 10 weeks old and is about 3.57cm. Heartbeat is strong and consistent. We can even see his/her limbs. 2 more weeks before the first trimester is over. Wifey is eagerly waiting for it. Her morning sickness is definitely worse than Ryan's. And her cravings ...swings from butter cake to jelly (agar-agar) on a daily basis. Pengsan liow...hahahaha

Last night out of the blue at 9:30pm, she wanted to eat jelly. Fortunately, we reached a compromise and she wanted egg caramel. At least that is still manageble as I can whipped that out in 20 minutes to satisfy her .....The other night, she wanted butter cake late at night. Baking is not exactly my strong point. So I offered her my finger spread with butter instead!! HAHAHA.

Also managed to contact the confinement lady who worked for us during Ryan's arrival. Fortunately, she is still available for June/July next year. Another hurdle solved. Was a little worry when we couldn't reach her for the past several weeks via her mobile.

I'm actually glad that I have started his blog as I find myself referring back to it to prepare ourselves for his/her arrival this round. And looking back at our journey with Ryan brings back many fond memories of Ryan when he was still so tiny ....:)

Korea - Jeju Island PART 4

Continuing on our recent trip to Seoul Korea, we have heard so much on Jeju Island. So, we booked ourselves with one of the local tours for a 3 days 2 nights tour to this island.

The flight was only an hour away but the trip was pretty expensive. Our tour includes a two way Korean Air air ticket from Seoul to Jeju, 2 nights stay at a 4 star hotel (breakfast inclusive) and a private English speaking tour guide.

On arrival, we told our guide, Peter, that we had not taken our lunch and he took us to have the best black pork BBQ ever. Apparently Jeju is famous for their black pork which came from the domestic black pigs. The pork was so juicy and tender even after we BBQ them unlike those we had back in Malaysia. (They were so delicious that we insisted that he took us back to the same restaurant for lunch before we board our flight back to Seoul).



After lunch, we were brought to this stretch of road known as the Mysterious Road as cars or buses are known to apparently `roll' uphills magically when their engines were switched off. Well, our car did `roll' up the hill and the explanation were pretty interesting.

The road `looked' like it is going downhill but our car has just `rolled' all the way up from the `bottom'. If you look carefully, all the traces of water actually ran `uphill' and not `downhill'.

Next, we were taken to visit the Dragonhead Rock also known as Yongdu-Am located at the western end of Jeju. Because we touched down at Jeju Island at around 2pm, by the time we arrived at Yongdu-Am, it was almost dusk, yet the place was still packed with tourists, all trying to get the best spot to have their picture taken. I'm not sure though which part of the rock resembles a dragon head but the structure does look interesting.

With the fast fading light, it was rather difficult to grab any good shots and without my tripod, all I could do was to support my camera on some rocks and took 3 shots at different exposure and using an HDR software to produce the shot above.

By the time we arrived at the hotel it was almost 8:30pm and we were dead tired but eagerly looking forward to the following morning.

Something new for this Christmas!

Since the days when we were staying at our little condo, we had this little 3 feet fibre optic Christmas tree. I think we had this tree for at least the last 6 to 7 years. I remembered paying something like RM150 for it then and we had not really buy much ornaments to decorate it as we always find them super expensive.

Since moving to our current house, this old faithful tree now seemed a little small for our living room. For the first year when we shifted in, we placed it on top of a cabinet to make it appeared taller. Last year, we had it on the floor with all the presents but we could hardly see it. So, this year, we have decided to get a taller one, maybe a 5 footer.

We still wanted a fibre optic tree as it takes out the hassle of having to put on the strings and strings of lights (which always get tangled up!). We were also hesitant knowing that it would cost us a bomb just to buy the tree not forgetting the super expensive ornaments to make it look at least presentable. Then a colleague of mine recommended this shop down at the Petaling Street where he said is a wholesaler and could get me a good discount.

So, off we went 2 Sundays ago, found the shop but unfortunately all the 5 or 6 footer trees have been sold out. We were left with no choice to take the last piece available... a massive 7 footer!! And we got a pretty good deal for it too. The tree only cost RM360! The normal 7 footer tree displayed at the shopping centers alone is retailed at over RM600! We got ourselves some brand new ornaments and the final bill came close to RM500. And finally we have our dream tree, a massive 7 footer with enough ornaments to make it look presentable.

And Ryan of course had the most fun. He has been pestering us to get him a `BIGGG XMAS TUEE' after seeing them at the shopping centers.

Well, putting up the Christmas Tree was a family affair. Everybody was involved. While daddy, kakak and Ryan was busy hanging up the ornaments, little Zoewe was waiting patiently for any ornaments to fall off so that she could grab them to play with. She simply adores balls, especially the shinny ones. Since Mommy can't climb, she took over as the official photographer to capture all these previous moments.

You can spot her as a reflection on one of the ornament, snapping away. And the final product, a massive 7 footer complete with silver and gold ornaments and with ribbon too! We are so proud of ourselves .....hahahaha.

All I've to do now is to get me a mistletoe so that I could kiss my wifey ......;)

Our 2nd Adventure begins!

Yupe. Our second adventure has started and it's been 6 weeks now. Wifey is expecting our second miracle and this little one is a `Made in Korea' kimchee boy/girl. We are obviously excited about it and wifey has been wanting a playmate for lil Ryan for quite a while now.

It seemed that the morning sickness for this one is worse than when she had Ryan. Last week was really bad when she felt nausea the entire day with no appetite to eat and can hardly drink any water.

To make matter worse, one of her tooth which has a previous hairline crack, cracked. It was so painful for her that she hardly got any sleep for 2 nights. We have no choice but to make an appointment with our dentist.

When we told him that she is 5 weeks pregnant, the first response was `OH. Sorry. I don't think we can do anything about it. Can't even give u an X-ray."

We were naturally stunned and worried because how on earth is she going to endure the excruciating pain for the next 8 months? We asked him again whether can anything be done. After thinking for awhile, he said, "I could give you some anesthetic."

The obvious next question that we would ask would be "Is it safe?"

He took out the leaflet, circled a part of the description and pass it to us and said "Read this please .." That part read something like ..."...this has not been tested for pregnant women. However, it has been extensively on pregnant women with no known side effects...."

He looked at us and said "OK?"

I was like "Do we have a choice?" Anyway, after giving it some thoughts and knowing that she would not be able to stand the pain for the next 8 months, we went ahead with the anesthetic. On inspection, it was confirmed that the tooth did crack and has to be extracted. In fact it was so bad that it actually broke into TWO during the extraction.

She was given panadols for the pain which only offered minimal relief. It was a painful day for her and equally painful for me to see her going through it.

Thank God, the pain went away the following day. And thank God, that the nausea only comes in the morning and she has started to have an appertite to eat.

And her cravings is like..."fried rice now, boiled carrots next, brocolli the next instance and longan water in the middle of the night!" Hahahaha...

Like I said earlier, it would not be an adventure if it is not exciting and this one proves to be a real adventure from the word `GO!'