of duckies and froggies...

of blogger and mah fan...

2011-03-08T17:05:00.000+08:00

Wah… must have been ages since I updated this blog…. So many things happen so fast and also compare to facebook, blogger seem so mah fan to update already :D.
Anyway, Ah fie is now four years old already and we have finally relented and sent her to school. We originally thought that we will delay sending her to school and let her enjoy her childhood a bit longer, but mana tau, seems like school maybe did her good too. I mean previously she is just stuck in the babysitter’s house the whole day watching cartoons. And knowing ah fie, she likes to interact with people so probably the interactions at school is good for her.
As it turns out, she is having such a party at school and quite literally too. First day itself, she had so much fun until she didn’t want to go home… it’s been a month plus since she started school and she still have this impression that school is equals to reward instead of something dull or something like that. She will think of going to school as something fun or a reward for something good. So we as any good parents take this to our advantage. Instead of buying her present or goodies if she behaves at home, we just tell her that we will not send her to school if she is naughty.

Ah shawn pulak, is fast approaching two, but somehow still have not learnt to talk. Not even any first work. He is talkative though. On any good day he will mumble on and on and on in his own language but nothing makes sense to us. Maybe he is just like one of those kids who have achieved some super duper high level of consciousness and intelligence, and he is speaking at a higher level language that we could not comprehend.
Or maybe he already knows how to speak but just pretend not to be able to speak just to humor us… we wouldn’t know…

of "I can do it, Daddy" and "I can't do it, Daddy"....

2010-12-24T09:16:00.001+08:00

One thing that is unmistakable about Ah Fie is that she is a real hard headed person. When she decides on something she will insist on it. If she is doing something and having difficulty, she will insist that “I can do it daddy” if she sees that I am trying to help her.
I think she have been eating something heaty for the past 2 days and having difficulty when she wants to drop a few bombs in the toilet. I felt pity seeing her because whe was really having a hard time. Her face was grimacing and tears were even coming out of her eyes, but when I checked on her she still insisted and said “I can do it daddy”. Hopefully that attitude stays with her troughtout her life.

But then of course laaa there are just sometimes when she’s “I Can’t do it daddy” even without trying…..

of old folks home and Mars Rovers....

2010-11-15T09:56:00.002+08:00

Wah… been away so, long until this blog feels like something that is very foreign liao ….. (I am sure that in due time the kids will use this against me ). I think maybe facebook have something to do with it… but since FB is not really for archiving and looks more like a reporting tool, I have to capture in blog too laaa so that in the future I can come back and read this to get sentimental when i have nothing to do and things get a bit slow in the old folks home.

Anyway, some updates on Shawn. We (or rather, my mother in law) threw a big birthday party for Ah Shawn for his first birthday. We invited lots of people which is a good thing because People == Presents and $$. The whole party was quite chaotic and everyone had a good time especially Ah Fie. Only one person missing from all the fun was Ah Shawn himself . He was so exited throughout the preparation in the afternoon that he missed his nap and was cranky when we had the party. So for him the party is just: Get Cranky, Sing Birthday Song, Blow Candle, Drink Milk and sleep.

On his Progress, Ah Shawn started to walk about a week or two after his birthday. So I guess that was his birthday present from God. One thing though, Ah Shawn is also in some ways like Ah Fie, he don’t have a good feel of his surrounding and always walk into things. So maybe if God run into this blog post while doing some searches for outdated blog posts, maybe He can consider equipping the next batch of humans that He plan to dispatch with at least some radar capabilities, or at least harder cranial bones.
On the speech portion, Ah Shawn is still not making much progress. He is still babbling and not making any sense to us. He talks a lot (in fact more that the average kid) but it is just that he is not making any sense to us. Or could it be that he has already mastered some other foreign language but it is just us who are not understanding him….. Anyway, he does understands some simple commands like ‘WOI!’, ‘DON’T Touch’, ‘EI!!’ Or ‘Give me!’ or ‘GO to Papa’. In case you were wondering, we didn’t teach him the ‘Go to mommy’ command. He don’t need to be taught that command because it’s already built in. He is like those littlebubbles of liquid metal in Terminator 2 when the T-1000 melted in the steel mill. The little bubbles will work it’s way and joins with others until to form back the T-1000. In other words. You put Ah Shawn anywhere and he will move around like the Mars Rovers until he finds Mommy.

Oh Yeah, Speaking of Mars Rovers, Ah Shawn is kinda like one of those Mars Rovers thingies. He is a very curious boy. Anything and everything will gets his attention (especially dots or dirt on the floor). Ever since he learnt to walk, he just cannot sit still and will walk around the house. When he sees something that strikes his interest, he will reach out to grab it and put into his mouth to analyse. No need for me to take video and upload here because if you want to know what I mean you can maybe search in youtube or something about rovers collection mars soil sample and it will give you some idea of what I mean.

of 20 years from now and RM50K...

2010-09-27T16:52:00.002+08:00

I think around 20 years from now a phone conversation that goes something like this will happen:

Me: Hallo!

Shawn: Hello….

Me: Hallo! Hallo! Can you hear me ah?

Shawn: Yes I can hear you…

Me: Hallo! Hallo! Hallo! Can you hear me ah? Hallo!

Shawn: Yes, yes, I can hear you laaaa… speak laa.. I can hear you…

Me: Oooo ok, ok. ei Ah Shawn ah.. I am hungry laaa… can give me 50 linggit to buy chau hor fan ah? (*Yeah 20 years from now Chau Hor Fan will cost 50 linggits)

Shawn: Don’t want laaa

Me: Ei… now you billionaire liao 50 linggit also cannot give ah?

Shawn: I don’t want to give you because you no bother about me one…. you didn’t blog about me one…

Me: Aiyah…no laaa… I busy maaa… I busy pouring all my undivided attention and love to you maaa…..

Shawn: Oooo like that ah…. then ok laaa… I bank in 50 linggit to you laaa…

Shawn: ei.. while I am going to transfer money to you, you want me to bank in RM50K for you to buy a nice bicycle to ride to the kopitiam ah?

Me: ooo like that ah… if you insist can also laaaa

Yaeah yeah… I have not been updating my bloc recently…. and shawn have hit a few milestones… so I have some updating to do…

of stages of develoment and autobabysitter...

2010-05-09T11:35:00.001+08:00

Based on my experience with Ah Fie and ah shawn shawn boy, I think I have pretty much formulater the various stages of a child development and how to manage it.

Stage 1- they are just infants, so pretty much they eat sleep and poop
Stage 2- they still cannot roll so just put them on crib and should be ok liao. Might be a bit noisy though
Stage 3- they can roll over liao, but two small bolsters stuffed on the side will solve the problem
Stage 4- they can crawl, so things will get a bit tricky, but nothing like a loud and stern “Haaaa” or “No” will not solve
Stage 5- that can stand up if they hold on to something but too chicken to lift their leg to move around. So can just lift them up to hole the edge of the sofa. That should keep them occupied and because they too chicken to move around, they will stay there
Stage 6- they learn how to ‘cruise’ (walking while holding to something). So put a stool in or chair in the middle of the room and let them walk around it. because they cannot walk unassisted, they will not be able to grab other things and just contained to the area around the chair.
Stage 7- they beginning to walk, time to bring out the playpen. This one may also get a bit noisy
Stage 9- they get distracted by TV, so, in comes the ‘auto babysitter’
Stage 9- they starting to grasp the meaning of cause and effect, so you can threaten them with punishment if they misbehave such as switching off the TV.
Stage 10- they have deeper understanding of cause and effect so, you can start to bribe them with rewards.
Stage 11- they learn more complex things like rationalization, so you can explain simple stuff to them, like if they don’t drink water, their poot poot will come out hard and backside will be pain pain.

Ah shawn shawn boy is currently in stage 5 and Ah Fie in stage 11 (therefore the last stage that I am able to formulate)

But I do believe that there are future stages where they are more self aware and when you can manage by threaten them with photos of them in cute but high embarrassing valued photos. Or one where you can bribe them with promises of a new bicycle or something

of cartoons and magic words...

2010-04-23T16:31:00.001+08:00

the other day ah fie was asking me to switch on the cartoon for her;

Ah Fie: Papa, I want to see Cartoon.....
Me: What's the magic word?
Ah Fie: *think for a while*... Hocus Pocus....
Me: Woahahahaha no laaaaa

of pillow and 'hold my hand'...

2010-04-19T11:55:00.001+08:00

I think Ah Fie hit a milestone of sorts last weekend. I think she is more aware of herself these days and that she is trying to differentiating herself from the rest of the furniture in the house.

Just the other day, while she was on the potty, she stopped me when I went to check on her. She said something like “you cannot come and see me because I will shame shame”. Good progress. I am not really sure if she meant shame shame of people seeing her piku or seeing the result of her poot poot. You see, we (Me and her) have been categorizing her poot poot into 2 categories. They will either be like worm worm (which is where the poot is long and thin) or pillow (short and fat ones which normally needs more effort from her during the process). The categorizing thing have been getting a bit lame so I that’s why I think the shame shame could swing either way.

Anyway, back to topic.
Friday night when I was about to put her to bed, she suddenly came to me and told me “I big girl oredi , I sleep by myself today”. You see, I have been sleeping in the same room with her ever since ah shawn was born and it’s no easy walk in the park. Little miss diva has a ritual and lots of demands when she sleeps like hold my hand (or don’t hold my hand), or watch small TV, or sleep with one of her doggies or sleep with papa and I think you get the hint.
So I was obviously glad when she said that she wants to sleep by herself. She even did the whole bed, arranged the pillows, open up the blanket and switched on her small tv…

But knowing miss diva, she that didn’t take long. After a while she came out and called me. But after she got comfy, she insist to sleep by herself again. This went on for a while and eventually, I just stayed in the room until she sleeps. In any case I think she made a good effort but since she did not mention any good behavior reward, I think it will conveniently forget…..
….. until she learns how to read and remind me…

of being a parent and cleaning up mess...

2010-04-18T11:26:00.001+08:00

i just realized that a side benefit of being a parent to 2 kids is that i am now able to clean up mess pretty efficiently

of waxing my legs and 3 doctors...

2010-04-16T14:01:00.000+08:00

Either our boy just love to see doctors or we are worry warts. Last week alone we (or rather Shawn shawn boy ) 3 different doctors on 3 separate occasions. It all started when his temperature went up on Saturday evening. Initially we thought he was just a little warm but when his temperature reach 38 degrees on Sunday, we decided to take him to see the doctor.
Went to pantai, but was informed that there is already 11 people in line and since Dr Hasanah is not on duty we decided to take him to another clinic instead, but no chance also because it was lunch time and the doctor at the other clinic was out. Finally ended up in another clinic recommended by wifey’s friend. Doctor was in and since we didn’t see any other patients we thought that we will get some consultation immediately. After around 30mins of waiting in the hot reception area we finally got to see the doctor. Doctor diagnosed as a normal flu and prescribe Paracetamol + antibiotic. Somehow that don’t give us much confidence. The were no specific instructions on what the antibiotics course should be and weather we should finish the whole bottle or what. But we decided to wait and see and in the mean time manage the fever with panadol.
By Monday morning, Shawn is still warm so I decided to take leave and bring him to see Dr Hasanah.
Dr found out that t was due to early stages of tonsillitis. I guess that’s why I have confidence in Dr Hasanah. She is very thorough and explains everything which to me is very important.
Shawn’s fever went down on Monday itself after taking the antibiotics that Dr Hasanah prescribed.

Ok let’s see, that’s already 2 visits. Not the third one. Our babysitter and us noticed shawn start to develop a rash (yeah just one rash) on his foot on Wednesday. Initially we thought it was just a bad mosquito bite. But somehow the rash seem different , and also not like those that Ah Fie gets when she takes paracetamol. Then by yesterday he got another one the other leg and some on his mouth.
So we to take him to see the doctor again after work. And that is number 3 visit….

Now as I am writing this, on reflection, it does seem that we are a bit paranoid… but then again it’s shawn shawn boy and we just want to best for him.

On a separate note. Shawn shawn boy is progressing well. He is now in the cruising stage, which means he will grab whatever support and pick himself up to stand up and walk. Me, I am contemplating on waxing my legs because when ever the little boy try to grab my leg to pick himself up, he will grab hold of a bunch of leghair… ouch…

of crawling and bragging...

2010-03-29T21:27:00.003+08:00

This post is a bit late but something that i definately have to put in to brag about :D
Ah Shawn can crawl liao !!

of milestones and snails...

2010-02-23T09:42:00.000+08:00

Ah Shawn Celebrated his First CNY this year and I think he grabbed to concept of CNY pretty well. Every time he is handed an Ang Pow he will grab it and hold on to it. I mean for a kid, isn’t that the most important thing about CNY J

Since it has been a while that I updated about the little boy, lemme capture a few milestones that he has hit.
His firth tooth is beginning to appear. And along with that is all the crying and wailing. Speaking of that I need to make a note to record down his wails, because this boy can really shout and in a high pitch too. So I guess he is primed to be one of those American Idol preliminary contestants who goes up to the audition and shout the whole song out.
Like Ah Fie, Ah Shawn is also starting to discover that he has toes and beginning to try to put them into his mouth. Probably a good thing, at least train him to be limber and flexible. A little stretching is good I guess.
The boy is also learning to crawl, although not very successfully, he will climb up on all fours and try to move. But most of the time he will just end up stuck in that position because he didn’t know what is the next ting to do after that. Or at times he will try to push with his feet while his head is planted onto the ground, something like how those drunk drivers trying to get up in COPS. Anyway, I think before time he will soon get the hang of it.
On a related development, our little boy also have this tendency to slobber everything with his saliva, even when he have nothing in his mouth he will have saliva all over. I think probably related to his attempt to learn to move around. I mean, snails excrete those mucus to help them slide to where ever they fancy, so probably Ah Shawn have picked up this technique from some animal planet show or something. Which reminds me that probably I should not let him watch any of those shark related documentaries now that he is teething and all…
Oh yaa, one more thing that I really like about Ah Shawn is that this guy really loves to laugh and smile. And not just those snide ‘I only smile at you because I want to give you face and I am still relying on you for continuous supply on milk’ smile. He has one of those genuine hearty silly faced smile that will brighten up your day.

So that’s pretty much about it for Ah Shawn for now.

of video and goldfish...

2010-01-26T23:16:00.002+08:00

i think Ah Shawn might want to have a pet goldfish when he grows older...

of break ins and ADUNs...

2009-12-11T14:22:00.002+08:00

wah... this one i must update immediately.
Yesterday a buglar broke in into the apartment unit opposite to mine. fortunately the owner was at home and when the burglar saw the owner, he managed to escape.

Then today i came back during lunch hour because the plumber will be here to fix a pipe int he kitchen.
When i open the doot i noticed the padlock bracket on my grill door has been bent. wah.... the burglar must have tried to break into my unit today.
So now here i am at my apartment and don't dare to go back to the office. who knows, the buglar might come again to finish the job.

To kill time i wrote an email to the ADUN for my area. (Yeah the same guy who did not do a thing about the email i sent to him last time) This time i will monitor again and see how he will respond (or not respond) and maybe this time i will copy a few more people. Who should i copy in the email ah? and can give the email also ah :D

of milestones and a sneaky boy...

2009-12-02T23:18:00.005+08:00

Wah... after a long pause from posting in my blog, suddenly so many events that i have to jot down. Like some sort of blog posting diarrhea, but in a good way laaa...

Shawn Shawn Boy hit one of his developmental milestones this evening. He successfully turned! Yay!!!
He have been trying to turn for past week and have not been successful. Mainly due to his hand got stuck. But i guess this time he just forced his way through.
The unfortunate thing is we missed it. We just got home and wifey had just put him on the mattress that we had in the living room while we go to put our stuff in the bedroom.
Then mana tau, when i came out, the sneaky little boy was already on his stomach.

Feeling the utmost responsibility to update you (my loyal readers) with documented proof of Ah Shawn's milestone, i turned him back on his tummy and asked wifey to record the whole thing. (also because it's fun to see him turn :D)

Oh ya, not wanting to be left out, Ah Fie also joined in and cheered him on :D

of kalumpo and miss 'oopsie'...

2009-12-02T11:03:00.003+08:00

Wifey, Ah Fie and Me went down to kalumpo last weekend for a bit of a walk see and shopping. Oh ya, we couldn’t bring Ah Shawn because he’s too young, and also his granma misses him and wants to take care of him for a weekend. I know that the latter is a lame excuse but I have to put is so down so that I don’t feel so guilty.

Back to the trip, actually it was more meant as a leisurely recreational trip (but I think ‘leisurely’ is relative) which essentially means going to shopping malls (and yes, shopping is considered recreation :) ). For Ah Fie, it’s like one of those “Get out of Jail“ card in Monopoly. She was like suddenly got out of the dungeon and was all excited. Want this and want that, to which we will normally oblige. I mean after all, ever since Ah Shawn arrived, we have to divide our attention between the two of them. From the get go, she was all excited and keep on mentioning that she wanted to go kai kai all the time. That is… for the first day laa… then I guess the weariness seeps in and requested to be carried all the time. She will just pretend to fall down on the floor and say “oopsie…”. Initially I thought she really fell and picked her up, but it keeps happening all too frequently until it become a pattern…. I guess my little trickster still needs to learn a thing a two about timing…

But, like all good things, we also have to cap off with some scary moments, to cut long story short, Ah fie put her fingers into a small gap between the car doors as I was closing it…. Scared the crap out of me. She screamed, she cried, wife screamed, wife cried. We quickly rush her to the hotel lobby to ask if there is any nearby clinic. After given the directions, the first thing the hotel staff ask was “who closed the door?”. Then at the clinic after checking her fingers, the first question is also “who closed the door?” wah… the guilt ah… it’s like someone have been keeping track of all the bad things I had done and dumped all the guilt on me at one go. Fortunately, it was only some minor lacerations (no bleeding) and no broken bones. As for Ah Fie, just put her into a shopping mall with some of those coin operated ride thingies, and all pain and tears will be gone.

Some other observations on this trip:
1. Either the Swedish furniture place is now officially a tourist spot or the lighting there is exceptionally good for digital photos, because there are lots of photographers there. Some even with digital slr. Maybe next trip I should bring my Mamiya RB67 so that I blend in…. speaking of which I wonder what film to bring… or maybe I just bring the Contax?
2. The most surefire way to cut short the travelling time between pulau and kalumpo is to put a mother who have been away from her son for 4 days in the driver seat. Guarantee to deliver results.
3. The kakak special curry mee at the midvalley food court still taste as good as I remembered. Although I personally think they should put more noodles. Also that porridge stall at the basement also serves some really good porridge and yu char koay.
4. If the smart alec waiter at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Ask you to solve the make 4 triangle by moving only 2 toothppick puzzle, just take one toothpick and make the figure ‘4’ instead of making 4 triangles. We put our best brain on the table for this task, but Ah Fie did not manage to solve it….
5. For our 5th anniversary dinner we had McDs. I had my portion at the restaurant and wifey have to tap pau and have hers at the hotel room… all because miss ‘oopsie’ was hungry and wants her nen nen. Oh ya, we had our 5th anniversary this year. And as a consolation for putting up with a hard of hearing guy for 5 years wifey got something in return. You Know, that iDevice iThat iYou iCan iMake iCalls iWith iThat iRhymes iWith iBone….

as you can see.... Ah Fie is not much of a poser...

... and i often wonder why my back hurts so much

of mood and contax...

2009-11-26T19:54:00.002+08:00

i think sometimes film captures mood better than digital photos...
here are some recent shots with the contax

of hairdo and teenage angst...

2009-11-22T19:22:00.003+08:00

wah... looks like i am not writing much about Ah Shawn, i hope he don't hold this against me in his teenage angst years...

i think sometimes our babysitter worry more about our kids than us... which i think probably is a good thing ... because sometimes we also tend to overlook certain things.

anyway, i think she's a bit worried that ah shawn might end with a hairdo like his papa. She keep asking when we wanna shave his head and i think she already beh tahan us liao and asked us last week if she can take him to have his head shaved. No probelm for us in that, so we let her loo...

and that's how ah shawn got his first haircut, and ah fie also got a haircut to boot. Like ah fie's time, I also shaved my head just so that i can have the same hairdo as ah shawn.

of throw up and silly remarks...

2009-10-28T23:01:00.002+08:00

Ah Fie have been sick since Sunday. Threw up in the middle of the night on Sunday night and then again when I moved her to sleep with me, and again when I moved her to sleep outside in the living room (because both beds in the room is soiled). Then again when she tried to sleep while I held her….
Off to pantai at around 3.30am and she threw up again in the car….
Poor girl….

Anyway, according to the doctor she have gas or something that is caused by virus. Throughout Monday also same case. I took leave to take care of her and she seemed fine, but threw up everything she had (basically milk) in the afternoon and in the evening…. And due to the medication, she had diahorrea. Not sure if it is a good thing or not. Good probably because at least what she ate is coming out from the right end. Maybe bad because both ends also come out….

So she have been on a non-milk diet since today. Poor poor girl… but other than those time when she vomit, she is still very active. I guess it’s just her nature…

Sometimes ah fie can say the silliest things… or maybe she is just a bit koo koo when she is sick…
When I was cleaning her and packing her soiled diapers after a diahhorea episode, she suddenly say “Stop, don’t throw, I want to share with mommy!” apar la inin anak

Then this evening, I sae some dark marks on her legs and asked “Why your leg got dark dark?” and to that she replied “my legs dark dark hor… I change my legs hor…” ??

of princesses and pirate ships and seven drawfs...

2009-10-04T13:08:00.001+08:00

After many many moons of not exercising, I went for a hike at bukit jamble last Sunday. Wahhh…. Fitness level definitely dropped… almost cannot reach the top… I guess I must be getting old (or weak or unfit or all the above)…
Anyway, I heard a very nice song sang by Taylor Swift and have been listening to it over and over again…. The song is “The Best Day”, it talks about her and her father’s relation ship….makes me wonder if ah fie will write something soppy like that for me when she grows up….
Oh ya… one part of the song says:
It’s the age of princesses and pirate ships and seven drawfs,
And Daddy’s smart and you’re the prettiest lady in the whole wide world…

Wah….. jiwang nyer… yeah... i am really getting old... and sentimental.... and soppy......

of 2 months and WARRIOR WOMAN...

2009-09-29T16:06:00.001+08:00

Wah…. It’s been so long since I updated my blog. (wifey also complain oredi liao…)
Anyway, ah shawn turned 2 months old yesterday, and to celebrate that we send him for torture.
Well not really laaa, we took him for his jabs. Yes, emphasis on plural, jabS. One on the left leg and one on the right. Then there is also the oral one. So I guess you can say that we were as kiasu as you can get… but you might be wrong, we are not considered kiasu enough…
To top off the kiasuness we also took ah fie to get her hepatitis jab. So all in all 3 shots L.

Ah shawn of course like all babies wailed like there is no tomorrow, but only for a while laaa… I mean he got better things to do… e.g., sleep…

Ah Fie on the other hand was a WARRIOR WOMAN!! (yes in full caps). I tried to distract her when Dr Hasanah inserted the needle, but she felt something and look at her left arm (where all the action is happening). She just looked with a non-chalant face throughout the whole process and did not even squeal or squeak. Nothing! As if nothing happened. And when we let her go she just got bacl to being busy with Dr. Hasanah’s toys. I was amazed at this little warrior woman… I guess maybe if we tell her that an injection is something normal, she will just take it.

Anyway, back to ah Shawn, he is 2 months old now, and his face is getting rounder and rounder. But still a lot of gas especially when he is having his milk. I guess that he must be thinking that since his mouth is occupied when he is drinking, he might as well make noise from the other end :)
Likes to talk too, I still dunno what he is saying but he likes to talk and laugh when he is taking a piss or right after he have done his business. So I guess it’s all good.

of waiting and extreme pain...

2009-08-14T13:47:00.003+08:00

Since the last entry of my blog was a quick update on wifey’s water broke, I better give a quick update here. Else the three (yes you three readers of my blog) of you will think that we are still in the labour room and wifey is having a super mega mega long labour.

Anyway, wifey was putting Ah Fie to sleep when she noticed that her water has broke. We got ourselves ready and double and triple and four-ple and five-ple check if we got everything. Strangely, although this time we knew what we need to do, I was kinda nervous. I guess probably with this second time, I have some idea what I am in for compared to last time when everything seem new. I guess it’s something about ignorance is bliss kinda thing.

Called my mom over so that she can take care of Ah fie for the night, but ah fie was still not asleep yet. At this point we still not manage to successfully train her to sleep with other people (me included) except wifey. So I was worried if Ah Fie will have any problems. Fortunately Ah Fie managed to sleep and did not give any problems. Anyway, Ah Fie have been very matured about the whole process of her brother’s arrival. I will probably write something about it (but not now, lest I jinx it)

Anyway, my mom arrived and we proceeded to the hospital. Quite uneventful, still no contractions. The nurses got wifey prepped and we watched a bit of TV. Boring shows, some re-runs on AXN.
Anyway, but around 2.30am wifey decided that I better go back and get some sleep since we thought that there will not be much actions.
I kinda feel bad leaving her alone at the hospital and it’s the first time I am away from her for a very long long time. But I guess it’s the right thing, because I don’t think I can do much if I were there the whole night.

Next day, after dropping Ah fie at the baby sitter’s place, I went over to be with wifey. She had little sleep and was worried that she might not have strength for later. Dr Tan came and checked at around 9-ish and told me that baby should arrive around lunch time.
So we wait….and wait… by 11.30am the nurse put wifey on drip. But according to nurse, the something something (I forgot what is the correct term liao, but given the situation, I think it’s forgiveable laaa) is still small and have to wait longer.
As predicted the contraction comes when wifey was put on drip. Really breaks my heart to see wifey in pain. And to make it worse, wifey said that this time it’s more painful then ah fie….

So mah wait… and excruciating pain … and wait and extreme pain and wait…….. until around 1 pm++ Dr tan came and check again. Then he called me aside and told me that Ah Shawn still have not come down far enough yet and that something something opening still only 8cm. Since wait so long liao and worry about risk he say have to go for c-section. I went in and see wifey….Somehow I feel relieved because finally wifey’s suffering can stop and lesser risk to Ah Shawn.

So they pushed wifey to the OR and I have to wait and wait again… Felt like the longest time to wait because no one can tell me for certain how long she will be in there. Everyone I ask also cannot say. 1 Hour? 2 Hour? 4 Hour? But all give same answer -“Dunno”. Anyway after the longest wait they brought Ah Shawn out. The nurse told me Ah Shawn’s head shape was a bit big. “See la… no wonder cannot come down…” but I was too preoccupied to hear her… I picked him up for a while and took a photo of him. Wah… it’s like suddenly engulfed in a totally different feeling….. suddenly like a nice feeling engulf your whole being… I want to say like the good feeling after letting go a hard sai… but this is more than that… maybe you have to be a parent to feel it…

The next series of events are another round of waiting … waiting for the nursery to clean Ah Shawn … and waiting for them to push wifey out from the OR….

I get to see Ah Shawn again later and got to hold him again… and of course the photos…. Then much later they push wifey out from the OR… she still blur blur and stim stim like that so I let her rest… but she kept saying sorry…. I also dunno why… maybe the medication thing laaaa….

So back to now.. ah shawn is 2 weeks ++ liao and doing pretty well… Ah Fie have been very well behaved and I am proud of her… so I guess all in all it’s a good thing J

Here we go...

2009-07-27T22:54:00.002+08:00

we are in the labour room now....
water broke at around 10.30pm....

here we go....

of anticipation and picture book...

2009-07-22T08:50:00.000+08:00

"Any time now…"

That’s what Dr. Tan says in our visit last Saturday. I guess that is bumps up the anticipation by a notch. Somehow going through it for the second time seems a bit of different.
Not that we don’t love our little Shaun any less, but it somehow seem different. Less of the nervousness but more guild for not being nervous. Less getting edgy about preparation and weather we had prepared enough, but more of the feeling like we have this under control.
So it’s like a mixed feeling.
He also seem to be getting more and more active these days. Was moving quite a lot last nite and Ah Fie got a feel of it too. Poor little girl wants to feel her brother in mummy’s tummy but when he moved the little girl just pulled away. Maybe feeling geli.
But one thing our silly girl did was she took up her picture book and point it to wifey’s tummy as if to show her brother the pictures. Keep saying stuff like ‘I show baby’. Hopefully she maintains that sharing spirit when she meets her little brother for real…
So… Any time now…

of super backdated post and pacifiers...

2009-07-13T23:42:00.000+08:00

This is a super backdated post…..
Actually I have been meaning to write this but scared of jinxing it.
I think when Ah Fie was about 1+ going to 2 she weaned herself off the pacifier. At that time we have not even think of planning to wean her but I guess she beat us to it.
I guess it’s a good thing that our little girl was a bit fussy. she is kinda fussy about her pacifier. If it does not feel right she will spit it out. Then she also have this habit of biting her pacifier. Then she also have this habit of biting her pacifier. So what happened was that she bit a small tear on one of her pacifier and started to rejected it. We got her a new one but she doesn’t like and that is how she decided that she don’t need it …
So I guess 2 seemingly bad habit (fussy about pacifier and biting it) can add up to be one good thing.

or stemlife and cryocord...

2009-07-02T08:47:00.001+08:00

I think we have been taking things with our boy too lightly liao. It just hit me that wifey is about 1 month away from delivery and we still have a lot of things to prepare. Sometimes feel bad also because seems like oftentimes we were so busy with ah fie that we thought that we will have enough time and should not be an issue with ah boy. I mean we have gone thru the whole delivery thing before mah…
So last night we start to sort out the baby clothes to get them washed, make a list for wifey on what to pack and plan out the sleeping arrangements etc.
Then there is also this part about cord blood banking… and we are back to the decision between Stemlife and Cryocord. For ah fie, we used stemlife and thought that maybe we can use cryocord for ah boy to increase the variability. But then stem life have a very good discount when I called the sales agent 1.3K++ only….
Anyway, I have contacted the sales agent for both and sad to say, both are not really pleasant experience.
First one is stemlife. Somehow I feel like the sales agent is not very keen on getting me sign up. She like to rush when talking and keep correcting me. I have the same feeling when dealing with her when we had ah fie and to me service is a major consideration. Anyway, I told her I will call back, but at the back of my mind, even if I were to sign up with stemlife, I will probably sign up thru another agent.
Then next I try Cryocord. Since I do not have the contact number I called their hotline at their website. Definitely not a confidence inducing call… The girl (and I stress girl) that answered the call sound more like some admin in a tire workshop than someone who I will trust with something important. From the get go, she greeted and talked in market Cantonese (which I think not very professional laaa). When I asked about the packages and rates that they offer… she also don’t know… (I figured out later that maybe the hotline is for people who have already sign up and want to notify them that they are delivering so that cryocord people can come and collect the blood). But one right thing that she did is to take down my phone nmber and say that she will direct me to the sales people. Then later the same night, a guy called me. And from the get go he started to greet and spoke is a very rushed tone in Mandarin. Nothing wrong with mandarin, but maybe he might want to consider talking in a more professional manner. After all sales people are the front office of the company maaa. Anyway…. I think the hotline girl maybe took the wrong info and inform this guy that we are delivering now or something and that’s why he called immediately. After I clarified, I asked about the rate, and again the first thing this guy tell me is that he can’t tell. (talking about sales.) I am not a salesman, but I think it should be one of the 10 commandments of a salesman to be aware of what you are selling. Anyway, after I pushed a bit, he say that maybe not convenient to talk over the phone and he will pass me to another agent that covers the hospital that wife plans to deliver at…. I dunno laaa. Maybe I am being a bit of a ‘wet market auntie’ fussy, but I think as a sales person, it should be pretty basic that when a customer comes in, your objective is to make the sale.

So in summary, I think there is really a good opportunity for someone with the means and resource to set up a cord blood banking service. Because from the experience I have with these two supposedly major one, the sales people failed.
I think maybe I am being a bit nitpicky here but I think I have the right to be so as I will be spending a significant amount of money and entrusting someone with something precious.

Maybe in the end I might just as well get an airtight container and keep ah boy’s cord blood in my home fridge…

of rhymes and seven...

2009-06-27T23:44:00.003+08:00

Ah Fie is now at this stage where she likes to talk. She can talk about whatever stuff and sometime she will recite rhymes.
So last ween when i was picking her from the babysitter's place...
Me: One Two...
Ah Fie: Buckle my shoes...
Me: Three Four...
Ah Fie: Shut the door...
Me: Five Six...
Ah Fie: Seven....

*aiyoyoyo*

of kiasu and two bottles of free beer...

2009-06-27T23:33:00.001+08:00

Sometimes I feel bad also because I don’t write about our baby boy as much as I want to. Hope when he reads this he is in a good mood :D. Anyway, today we went for our appointment with Dr Tan again. This time we are as kiasu as kiasu can be J. We were already at the clinic at 8.15am (doctor only comes at 9am). Well we have good reasons. For the last appointment, we have to go to the clinic 3 times before be get to see Dr tan. First time was the actual appointment date but by the time we went the list was already full for the day (and it’s only 9.20am) so we went back on the next Saturday, but Dr Tan was not in for the day L. Eventually Wifey went by herself on a Monday.
So this time I think ok laaa to be a bit kiasu…

Anyway, according to dr tan, we are progressing well. This time he tried to taka a 4D photo of our boy, but ah boy was being shy and closed his face with his arm. So dr tan turn to the other ‘head’ and we were given the full view of ah boy’s pee pee. He even printed a photo for us :D. I think I will keep that photo in a safe place so that I can use it as blackmail material in case ah boy is naughty in the future.

Oh ya, on a separate note. This week must have been some lucky week for me. First, I won an ipod shuffle in Friday in some function at work, then later took wife and ah fie to Friday’s for dinner (to smoothen some bad news wifey had at work J) and won 2 beers in some toss up promotion thing. I wonder where can buy lottery ah :D.

of medicines and going against the grain...

2009-05-24T21:21:00.003+08:00

I am not sure if this is normal or not but Ah Fie seem to have this fascination for medicine. No .. no .... not the interest in studying medicine type of fascination, but more to applying and eating them.
Dunno when it started but i suspect it could be from when she she was little and cauget fever or something. The medicine prescribed has a strawberry flavour and we think she might have associated medicine to strawberry syrup or something.
But the wierd thing is that it is not just limited to fever medicine, during her recent bout of cough and runny nose, we tried chinese medicine. You know those that the chinsese doc prescribe in powder form and has a strong herbal taste... Strangely our little giurl seemed to liked it too. She will run for it as though it is her hilight of the day when we ask her to take it... how to explain ah....
Then comes the part on creams and ointments. For some reason she also always asks for it. and she will be so happy when we apply it on her mosquito bites and scratches....

Kids are supposed to be scared and dislike medinines right... so how ah?? Ah Fie is going against the grain ah?

oh ya, on an unrelated topic. Wifey and I was talking about this article in the news paper about some folks who went cycling around the country and mention that when the kids have grown biggwer maybe we should do the New Zealand thing again but in caravans this time. Then she ask ah Fie if she wants to go to NZ, and that it's far far away and have to take plane to go there... and of all things Ah Fie say no she don't want to go. When asked whty, she say plane high high up and she scared will she will fall down... aiyooooo

of filems and digital...

2009-04-26T21:57:00.003+08:00

i finally got my batch of B&W filems developed (Yay!!!). and here are some shots of Ah Fie. Somehow filems especially digital brings out somethign that i still can't get in digital. (or maybe i am just too cheap to jump into digital ...

Ah Fie have recently caught on this habit of doing the V sign thng when she senses someone is about to take photo.

hmmm... let's see what i want to watch... Barney. or Barney, or Barney or.... Barney...

Little girl and he box of crayons

doing the clap clap dance

of being equally clumsy and temper tantrums...

2009-04-21T21:36:00.006+08:00

I think Ah Fie might be ambidextrous. You know, not right handed nor left handed, but both handed?

I noticed that when she eats she sometimes use her left hand to hold the spoon while at other times she uses her right hand and her motor skills when using either hand are pretty much matched. But then again, it could be just the case the she is equally clumsy with both hands. hmmmm.....

Recently her tantrums are getting a bit more liao. Whenever she wants something she will insist on it and will cry and cry until she gets it. I try to be patient but sometimes i also dunno what to do because obviously she's distressed, but to give in will only spoil her.

But one thing about her is that i thinks she knows that she pissed us off when she throw her tantrum because when she stops she will be talkative and try to look for things to talk about and become all manja and soppy...

i wonder how i can exploit this ... :D

of shoes and unaccounted outfit...

2009-03-26T15:35:00.003+08:00

I get the feeling that our Ah Fie will grow up to be one of those shopping kaki women (in other words a normal woman).
I recalled one incident when we took her out shopping and end up at a sport shoe shop. Ah fie just took the kids shoes from the shelf and sat herself down. Then she started to take off her shoes and mumbled to her self "Try First, Try first" repeatedly.
then there was this other time when she was about 1 year +. We were buying some clothes for her at Tesco and she started to pick up clothes from the rack. Turns out that when we got home there was one outfir that was un accounted for. I had thought that wifey had chose it when i was paying but wifey said she did not.... must have been our little shopper girl.

of psp and dirty thoughts...

2009-03-10T08:46:00.001+08:00

This is another backdated post. Wifey and I went to see Dr Tan two weeks ago. As usual his place is packed, but then again, it’s a Saturday, so probably that is the busiest day. After so many visits, I think we are pretty equipped. Got our newspaper and PSP to keep us occupied for the 1-2 hours of wait :). There is this this thing about Dr Tan. Even though the wait is long, sometimes it seems bear able because when you go and see him, he will greet you with his booming voice and make you feel welcomed.
Anyway, cut story short and before long, it’s out turn. Dr Tan did the usual stuff. Scan thru everything, then he flick here flick there and then stopped at one spot at baby’s crotch :D.
And even before he asked I kinda get the feeling oredi. Then he asked wifey if we wanted to know the sex of the baby. We of course said yes. Then he goes to explained the spot there as the ‘bird’ (yeah, that’s the term he used :D)
I wonder if that’s how it is supposed to look like but the little birdie seems very obvious, some bright spot and like just standing there. Not sure if baby was thinking of something dirty but the little fella was pointing straight up :D. I guess he really wanted us to know that he is a boy.

So, now… have to go back and separate all the clothes that ah fie can pass down to his brother and it seems like we might have to buy some more new clothes. I mean it’s either that or we will have to raise our second one as a cross dressing boy…..

of emails and DUN...

2009-02-18T14:05:00.008+08:00

As much as possible i always try to keep this blog about my family and try to avoid other stuff like politics etc. But this time i think i'll make a small exception. It has been some time since we elected so called people to serve us. Speaking specifically the MP and DUN for our respective areas. So i thought of doing an experiment here.

Actually calling it an experiment is overstating it. Basically i just want to see if i am able to get the DUN from my area to respond to a small issue that i request him to resolve. So what i did is to search for the email of my DUN and then wrte him an email. The request i make will be a simple one which i think should be simple enough that a solution is possible.
Then i will track the time it takes for him to at least respond either in email or in visible actions to the issue i raise.

So today i sent 2 emails. One to the DUN for my area and another to the DUN to the area adjacent to mine (on another issue).

So now, just sit and wait and see when they will respond (if they do).

oh ya, just to ensure that this experiment don't last forever, i think i will set checkpoints at 1 week. and maybe another one at 1 month.

wish me luck

ei... bt the way, anyone know if gmail can have an option to track if my email is opened and read? i know that MS outlook can, but can't find it in gmail.

update 19th feb: Day 1. No reply from both DUN. Maybe they are busy. I mean they don't sit in front of the computer they whole day waiting for emails to come in.

update 20th feb: Day 2. Still tarak reply. Maybe they are usy la. and maybe they only cumulate their mails and respond on the weekend....

update 25th feb: Day 8. So now can consider 1 full week already and i still do not see any replies. Maybe they are busy la... Yeah , right. We put them to where they are ant they are suppose to represent us and serve us. So, in my opinion they should listen to the people ma. anyway, i think i can easily strike off "very good and prompt response" if i were to grade these two guys. On a side note, i wonder if i will get a faster response if i were to put "Gambar gambar Skandal Ahli politik" or something like that.

update 2nd Mar: Day 13. Yay, finally got a reply. But not from the ADUN in my area, but from the adjacent one. Anyway, he asked me to call the police and gave the police phone number in response to the traffic issue. "Highly paid messenger" but at least he replied. :) Oh ya, his reply was on 28thFeb. so technically only 11 days to reply.

update 5th Mar: Day 15. Yay again... got the mail from the ADUN from my area. Finally. So in terms of replying mails, it hink quite OK la. but.....
just look at what he replied...
"
Dear Mr. *something something* (Actually he reply to my real name la i paiseh to show ma)
Thanks for your email.
We are looking into the matter.
Hope to get more feedback from you.
Thanks.
"
that's all.... so I think some things never change...

of letters and 2 years...

2009-02-07T23:27:00.005+08:00

Dear Sophie,
Today you celebrated your 2nd birthday. It seems like such a long time ago on the day you were born. I guess the natural instinct is to say how time flies and it just seem like yesterday, but somehow i kinda felt a bit differently. Seems like that day you were born was such a long time ago. I huess probably it's because the last 2 years were so packed such good times that you have brought to us. Some sad, some frustrating, some heart warming, but mostly funny memories of your kooky antics.

As i am writing this, you were already asleep. We went to dinner with Ah mah, Ah Kong, Yeh Yeh and Ma Ma + all your aunties and uncles. And i think somehow you kind of knew that youare the star tonite judging by the way you run around and act cutesey with everyone. Dinner was a riot with all the kids running around but you are really blessed with Sam Sam who is there to look after and entertain you. If not ah... your papa sure will be more Botak-ker liao.

I guess now you are also entering your terrible two years and i think it is begining to show. I just hope that you grow out of it soon but i will try to be there to comfort and soothe you when the tantrums come ok.

lastly, thanks for the 2 wonderful years that you have given me and i can't wait for the many more wonderful years ahead.

love,
daddieeee...

of japanese food and wait...

2009-02-03T16:32:00.005+08:00

We took Ah Fie out for jalan jalan at queensbay mall last friday. Actually jalan jalan is a bit of a misnomer because all we do is Ah Fie will run around and do some silly dance and we will be chasing after her. So in effect no one is actually Jalan-ing....

Anyway, for dinner, i thought that i'd give wifey and Ah Fie a treat. So we went to that new japanese restaurant near harvey norman. I ordered a few stuff and wifey got a bento set. Since they have kids menu (actually 2 choices only la), We ordered the rice set for ah fie. Can be considered a milestone of sort la because this is her first restaurant meal of her own. (usually we just share our food with her, we are cheapskate ma...). Surprisingly she did pretty well, she finished her whold bowl of rice, but I think Ah Fie over did it a bit la. She was a bit over possesive of her stuff. Won't even let me touch her chicken. (actually it turns out that the chicken was really awful... probably that's why Ah Fie don't want me to touch it :)

I caught a short videoclip of wifey feeding her. Wifey promised to her that she can have the watermelon if she wait and finish her rice. But Ah Fie being her, chose not to understand the concept of wait and snuck a few pieces when wifey is not watching :D

of long silence and hoping we did not pissed someone off...

2009-01-31T16:18:00.004+08:00

Wah.... so long never ost liao and so much has happened.
I also skipped one post on our 2nd visit to Dr Tan. I hope out baby number 2 don't get pissed off with us for not putting much updates.
Anyway, our second visit to Dr Tan on Jan 2nd was a relatively pleasant one. This time we did not bring Ah Fie along because we were not sure if she can tahan the long wait (usually about 1 hour only la). This time we can see the baby a bit more clearly liao. And Dr Tan even show us the heart beating. I think he got a newer and more sophisticated scanning thing. He even let us hear the baby's heartbeat. which is really cool.

Then Yesterday was the third visit. We got to the clinic at 9.30am but Dr tan was not in. He had to attend to an emergency at the hospital. But that time we were 10+ in the que liao. But we came prepared. We brought newspaper and psp to kill time so the wait was not that bad. anyway, we got to see him only at around 12.30pm. Sometimes, i feel pity too for doctors because Dr Tan said he had top attend to an emergency C-section at 3am that day and just admitted 2 mothers. anyeay, back to baby. This time can see clearly the head, arms and legs. I gues number 2 is not shy like ah fie. According to Dr Tan, things look fine and no problems. so off we go.

actually sometimes i feel bad also. when wifey was pregnant with ah fie, it seems like our world revolves around wiifey's tummy. but this time around, somehow it seems a bit different. I guess it must be the first time thingy.

of 3 miliseconds and my pants...

2009-01-01T22:37:00.003+08:00

As i am writing this, my pants is draped over the laundry basket. There's a wet patch on it courtesy of Ah Fie.
We are in the midst of training Ah Fie to cue us when whe wanna do her poot poot and she she. So sometimes we forgo the diapers and let her wear pants only to air her butt, but it was quite nerve wrecking and wifey will go "Ah Fie, you wanna she she ma?" every 3 mili seconds.

So far, she only manage to tell us that she has she she'ed after she had done it. hopefully she can progress to telling us before the fountain really comes. *fingers crossed*

Update (5th Jan): Wah... i think Ah Fie took it as a challenge since my post above. Yesterday we continue with the training and everytime she wants to she she whe will tell. But she was slightly late in telling us about her poot poot. Anyway, she is making good progress and i am so proud of her.

of jagung and water...

2008-12-31T22:40:00.002+08:00

I guess we have now been upgraded to the famous "terrible two" club....

of videos and dancing...

2008-12-15T22:02:00.001+08:00

afie can look very silly when she dance at times. but that's what makes her so adorable. don't you think?

of photos and postings...

2008-12-08T23:51:00.005+08:00

I also just realized that i have not been posting any photos in my blog entries lately, so here's one to catch up :D. Not shot by me la. (maybe that's why so blur blur :D).

or poppa and meh mie...

2008-12-08T23:25:00.002+08:00

I did noticed that most of the parents blog will mention about their kid's vocabulary once their kid have started to speak. So here is my show off moment.
My Sophie also not bad la...

Let's see what she can say oredi.
Papa - that's me lo.. but sometimes when she wants to call me while drinking her milk it will come out something like 'popa'

Mamie or Mie or May-Mie - That's wifey lo.. but sometimes our little girl also get herself confused and call MaPapa to which i think she either wants both of us together or changed her mind halfway.

Meh Miu - Cat. I also dunno why she say so. we tried to teach her miu miu, but it comes out as meh miu.

goggie - dog in general or sometimes her smelly stuffed dog. again don't ask why it comes out that way

moo moo - cow loh...

yeh yeh - grampa (my poppa)

ku kung - the other grampa (wifey's papa)

ah ma - granma (Wifey's meh mie)

mah mah - the other granma (my mieee)

she can count in mandarin from one to four. in engrish she can count to four too but she will drom the 3. so it will come out something like ' one, two. four..'

nen nen - the white stuff in the bottle that is making me poor

pau pau - to carry her

the auntie, unckle che che keke routine lo

oh yeah. she can say plizz too. Even when you ask her "Must say what?" she will tilt her head and say the cutest "plizzzz". you try and see... her plizzz is the cutest that you will ever see (but then again in my eyes my little Sophie is the cutest baby)

ah fie - that's what she call herself. We tried teaching her to say Sophie, but she just stick to ah fie... so we gave in loh...

and let's not forget 'Ah Nee', which is what she calls barney. She woke up calling for Ah Nee this morning... Sometimes i wonder if in her heart if barney is in higher priority than me and wifey...

i think got a few more la, but i also forgot all liao. so hopefully this list is good enough as a show off piece :D

of 40km and clingy girl...

2008-12-02T09:02:00.002+08:00

wah... looks like i am getting lazier and lazier with my blog updates liao...
Actually i have been quite busy also la. My office had moved to another location about 40KM away and I have to spend more hours on the road daily. Not sure if it is a good idea but the department have decided to start the office hours at 7am (vs current at 8am) so that we can officially go off at 4.30pm to avoid the jam on the bridge. This just means that i have to start driving at 6.20am :(
waking up early is not the problem but not being there when Sophie wakes up is. I miss her and her morning chirpiness ...

Speaking of her, Sophie have been quite clingy and whiny lately. she would want me to carry her and hug her tightly even when at home and watching barney. Not that i mind, but not sure if something is bothering her, but then some people do say that sometimes children can sense when something new is about to happen. In any case i do hope that she can be back to her normak chirpy self again.

of plizz and what...

2008-11-03T08:14:00.001+08:00

We have been teaching Sophie to use the magic word when she wants something. So most of the conversations will go something like this:
Sophie: pau pau (carry)
Me: Say Please…
Sophie: plizz…
Me: OK
.
.
Sophie: dumm (go down)
Me: Say Please…
Sophie: plizz…
Me: OK
.
.
Sophie: nen nen (nen nen la, what else)
Me: Say Please…
Sophie: plizz…
Me: OK

And so on…

Then yesterday, wifey tried to be creative…

Sophie: ater (water)
Wifey: Must say what?
Sophie: what…

WOAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

of little kids and box...

2008-10-08T23:29:00.006+08:00

sometimes hor... with a little imagination, little kids will use anything they can get as a toy. i guess Sophie is no different.

of ultraman and not too long ago...

2008-10-07T21:21:00.004+08:00

when i was a little kid not too long ago (with emphasis on 'not too long ago') i remember i had hair....

another thing i remember is that when bathing and washing hair time i like to shape my hair on my forehead into a sharp triangle. you know, the Ultraman hair. (or those well versed in cantonese might call it 'Ham Tan Chiu Yan')

so now that i have a kid on my own i figured that i should start her early lo....

of some sweedish place and some chairs and table...

2008-10-06T22:40:00.005+08:00

We went down to kola lumpo for the long Hari Raya break. Wifey was over due for her annual pilgrimage to that sweedish furniture place and we have not really taken Sophie anywhere far before. So mah pack our bags and go lo.

Sophie being the curious little girl that she is was all excited. She keep standing up in the car to look throughout the journey, laughing and having fun all the way.

As this is her first trip we didn't really planned much. Just some shopping at midvalley, klcc aquaria and the sweedish place.

First day after arriving we just check in into the hotel and after some rest, went down to walk see walk see at midvalley. But i guess we got a bit lost track of time and kinda extended her meal time. She threw a tantrum and only settle down when she got her food. I guess we paid big time that night when she started having nightmares and cried her heart out. Don't even want to let anyone touch her. But actually i am not sure if this is good or bad because after an hour or so of crying she got tired and fell back to sleep.

then next day was off to klcc aquaria. but our little girl was either scared of the fishes or too amazed at them. I dunno which. She just had her eyes wide open. I think probably good also la, because at least she got to experience new stuff. :D

so next day mah check out of hotel and using a little device called Nuvi, we made out way to wifey's favourite place. Like most people, when go there have to buy something one. (After all come so far oredi mah) We got a table and chair set for sophie and some loose stuff (but mostly for sophie)

so that's all loh. Sophie's first long trip. I wonder when she will be ready for a longer trip say for example New Zealand perhaps...

of photos and lomo...

2008-10-01T16:09:00.005+08:00

Long time never post liao, so i put some lomo shots of Sophie!

Sophie doing those "Girls and Hot cars are boring" shot

Every parent must have a dorky(but cute) shot of their kid. So here's ours.

If only you can hear her scream...

Sophie doing one of those "thinking about some world issues" shot

A random shot... i guess...

Oh Ya, tomorrow we will be driving down to Kalumpo for some makan angin. Actually just makan angin aircond at shopping kompleks only la...
will be Sophie's first trip away from home. Let's hope she'll have a good time.

of lomo and abang fed ex...

2008-09-10T22:41:00.004+08:00

Wowsh!!! i really have to tabik this folks at Lomography Asia. As you know hor, i recently bought some lomo cameras and due to my overenthusiasm, i kinda broke the winding mechanism of the supersampler. I thought "Wah habis liao la.... money down the drain and I only manage to go through 2 rolls" then i send mail to lomography asia and the person there replied with instruction for me to return the camera. So i mah promptly mail the kamera back to lomography asia (in HK by the way) on 2nd Sept. The Kakak at post office say that it will take around 10 days to reach (i was too cheap to use poslaju or express mail). So after sending and everything i mah go back home and try to tell myself that no more chance liao la. most probably they will chuck the camera somewhere and take their sweet time to look at it. and probably they will charge me for it.

BUT mana tau. today i got a call from abang fed ex saying i got a parcel and when i asked from where is the sender, he told me HK. Wah i was so surprised. When i got home, it's there the camera have been repaired and returned to me, within less than 1 week. no charge and they use Fed Ex priority mail some more.....

Wah... tabik sama these people at lomo....
eat your heart out you Canon and Nikon service center guys...

no la no la... this is not abang fed ex. this is Sophie la.

of waking up and new word...

2008-09-04T13:41:00.003+08:00

This morning my little girl used another new word. These days she like to sleep late and what i normally do is to get into my work clothes and sit on the bed while watching her wakes up. As usual she woke up and do her stretched and when she sat up she looked at me and called me Papa. Then she look at me and said her new word "hug" and walked over to me.....

Fowsh!! if she ever learns to attach the words "i need money" to that, I will be broke liao.

of propaganda and stuff... again...

2008-08-24T23:14:00.002+08:00

Remember the propaganda? you know, about the one with the purple shoulderless dino? not only is our girl under his spell and moving to his instructions, she is now even asking and knows how to put the vcd on. *shake head*

of Sophie and Lomo...

2008-08-23T00:13:00.003+08:00

Have you heard of lomo before? i have heard of it for quite a while now and decided to try it out. so recently i got myself the actionsampler, fisheye and supersampler.

and today i got some rolls developed. i think it's one of the best purchase by far.

just check out the result. these are from the supersampler. unfortunately the film got scratched and i accidently broke it. so will have to send it back for repairs. hopefully it is covered by warranty..

of papa and miee...

2008-08-17T17:11:00.002+08:00

I'm not sure where she learnt this but instead of calling wifey Mama or mummy like any other kids, Sophie will call Wifey as Miee. All the while Wifey have thaught her to call mama or mommy but not miee, but somehow that word just stuck. Occasionally she will call mama, but most time she will just call out miee (with emphasis of dragging the eee).

But she still calls out papa all the time. When she wakes up, she will say Papa softly and sometimes halfway through her milk she will pull out the bottle and say papa before continuing.

Then there is this other thing, I don't know if it's a good or a bad thing, but Sophie seem to have this habit of waking up in the middle of the night and sometiems start calling out people. Most of the time she will call Pa Pa or Mieee and sometimes she will just sit up and shout out Papa!
I guess she must be dreaming about us all the time :)

of milk and crap...

2008-08-01T23:15:00.001+08:00

I think Sophie have reach this stage where we need to make her earn the milk that she drinks every day :) So we'll start with her crap. In this case get her to throw her own crap.

of walking around and that thing about camera...

2008-07-23T14:30:00.000+08:00

Here is another video capturing two of my little girl's traits: walking around aimlessly and her thing about the camera.

of hair and macam macam lagi...

2008-07-14T22:51:00.000+08:00

One thing about our little girl is that she is very curious. Another is her dislike of anything being put on her head. Specifically anything to do with her hair. Well i can't really blame her because she must have freaked out when she came out from wifey's womb and saw that her papa got no hair :)

Anyway, this it about Sophie, so back to her.

Wifey got sophie a few hair clips and when ever we tried to put it on Sophie's hair, 2 things will sure to happen. 1. She will get curious and irritated. then she will pull it off to see what it is. 2. she will sometimes run to the bedroom where the mirror is and look at herself (looks like our girl has got a vain streak in her) and upon seeing something on her hair, will pull it ous to look at it.

not only hair clips she will not even let us put a hat on her.

so you must understand and forgive us when we try to get her to get used to the concept of having her hair done up. hera are some of out more successful attempts.

of the spoon and bowl grabbing stage...part 2...

2008-07-08T11:31:00.000+08:00

ok continuing on from the previous part...

Moving up the level is the next method where there might be some dirt or higher chances of contamination on the floor. At this level, there are no documented data on the dirtiness of the floor, but also there is a lack of data to indicate the exact cleanliness. Therefore, in keeping to the cautious side, it is recommended for the parent to employ the method suitable for this level. This method states that for the object that have been dropped, the parent will need to flick the object in the air for a few shakes. The theory behind this is that the movement of the object will cause it’s surface to have friction with the air at the molecular level. This friction will cause of object’s surface to get heated up. The germs, upon feeling the heat will jump off from the object thus making the object free from germs and safe for your child.

Next on the list is the level where a certain level of contamination have occurred on the object and is visible, but unknown risk level. Something like you see some stuff sticking on the object but you don’t know what it is and weather it will pose a danger to you. The method to disinfect for this method is pretty simple. The parent just need to use the finger (usually thumb or forefinger) to wipe the area of the object that touched the floor. It is believed that the action of wiping the surface will rub away any visible contamination on the object thus making it clean, but recent studies have shown that that is in fact not the real reason. Through rigorous testing and experimentation, the actual reason is due to the “good guys bacteria” factor. When the person wipe the object with his/her finger, the “good guys” bacteria will be transferred to the object and these bacterial will go into war with the germs. As we all know, good guys will always win, do the good guys bacteria will eventually kill all the germs and thus disinfect the object.

The fourth method of disinfecting an object that had touched the floor is to rub it against the parent’s clothing. This is normally employed in a situation where the parent have only one hand free (while the other could be holding the child or fending off food splatter from the child). The area of the clothing to rub are mostly (but not limited to) the stomach area of the shirt for normal or round shaped objects (often times ball or bowl) or the side of the shirt, near the hip area for smaller or odd shaped objects (e.g., choot choot/pacifier or spoon). Alternately, the parent sometimes use the thigh area of the pants to clean the object but this is more limited to occasions when the parent is in a sitting position. The rationale behind this is that by rubbing the object to the clothing, the germs will be transferred from the object to the clothing and therefore making the object free from germs. But those goodie two shoes will argue that what will happen to the clothes now that the germs are transferred onto it. Not a problem at all because floor germs will die at high altitude (just like how those folks who climb everest cannot survive for long in the ‘death zone’ – I knew this fact because I watched discovery channel!).

Continuing up the chain, the next method is usually employed in more extreme situations where it is pretty certain that the level of hygiene is confirmed to be low for example, the floor in a Chinese restaurant. The method recommended for this level of contamination is to put the object into the parent’s mouth and lick it. This assures the parent that the object will be disinfected. The mechanism behind is simple. When the object is put into the mouth, all the germs on it are suddenly plunged into darkness. This will send them into a panic mode and when they get licked, they go all beserk and start to attack and kill each other. Eventually all the germs will die, except of course the last lone germ (the last one standing), but don’t worry, it will die too because when the object is taken out from the mouth into daylight, it will see that it had killed it’s fellow germs and could not live on with the guilt thus committing suicide by jumping off. And this leaves us with a clean object! One caveat to this method though, it is only effective if the mother of the child does it and not the father. The reason is really simple, it’s icky for the father to do that.

Finally, there is the ultimate. The mother of all contaminations, a contamination so bad that there is very little hope left. I am talking about the ‘Someone pee’d on the elevator floor’ dirty. For this level, it’s no other choice but to throw the object away.
Oh ya, there is also the part of quickly go out and try to buy back the exact same thing so that your child don’t throw a tantrum and ruin your day.

So there you have it, the “Three aunties and six grandma’s Methods of disinfection”. Use it wisely and don’t say I didn’t tell you…

of the spoon and bowl grabbing stage...part 1...

2008-07-07T11:27:00.000+08:00

Sophie have now reach ‘the spoon and bowl grabbing stage’. This is the stage of development where the child will want to grab the spoon (or fork or chopstick) when you have her by the table during your meals. In turn the parents, feeling a sense of incompleteness will hand a bowl or plate to the child to play with. I dunno why, but we do (just like how some people will close the bathroom door when they pee even when they are all alone at home).

So anyway, with all up, there will be downs and with all grabbing, there will be throwing. Our little girl is no exception to that rule and she is at this sub-stage of throwing things on the floor. And again, as parents, we dunno why, but we continue to pick up the stuff and hand it back to the little girl. Thus, the vicious cycle.

That leads me to the topic. As we all know, the floor is full of those nasty icky stuff when the rule of thumb is that whenever an object touches it, the object will be rendered ‘not fit for a child’s mouth’. Therefore the issue here is how do you deal with a child who constantly drop something (that she will eventually put into her mouth) on the floor while maintaining your sanity. This is where the “Three aunties and six grandma’s Methods of disinfection” kicks in. For the uninitiated, this is the tried and true set of methods that has been used (but unproven on its effectiveness) through the generations.
*Since this is a long post and I need you to put high focus on this critically important subject I will post it in 2 parts.*

The first method is for when an object is dropped onto the floor that is fairly clean and pose little risk of contamination. In fact the step is carried through just for show only, so that the child sees that you at least concern for their well being and did something to something that she dropped onto the floor. In this level, the parent will pick up the object and stare at it for a while. The act of staring the object itself does nothing to the object but it was believed that the germs got so freaked out at the sight at someone staring at them that they just drop dead, thus making the object safe. But this method does not have a guaranteed effectiveness due to the fact that some germs might not be paying attention and did not notice someone staring at them (couple to the fact that there might also be some blind germs).
To be continued in part two...

of papaya and kungfu panda...

2008-07-05T23:05:00.003+08:00

little girl sitting in her favourite chair enjoying her favourite food...papaya...

of propaganda and death rays...

2008-07-01T12:20:00.000+08:00

I have not really put a finger on it yet, but there is something really sinister about that purple-shouederless-thighless dinosaur named Barney. from the first time Sophie see Barney and his propaganda, she was hooked. I mean she will just sit there and watch. and if you know Sophie you will know that she does not sit still. But with barney on TV, she will be hooked. She will even asked for it to be played. I present to you exhibit A.

if you examine closely. the subject seem to exhibit the tendency to move to the instructions presented on the cathode ray tube (i could say CRT - but it sounds more sinister this way). We postulate that this could be due to the invincible death ray emitted from the purplish tint of the dinosaur exterior.

of sunway carnival and that seberang place...

2008-06-27T12:11:00.000+08:00

Wifey and I seldom go over to seberang. not that we have anythign against seberang, but what's there to see la. So anyway, there is this new shopping mall called sunway carnival that opened some time ago and i thought that probably that is a valid reason to step over the pond.

So a few weeks ago we took our little girl over to that sunway carnival place.

It's the girst time that sophie when over the other side and i guess this counts as a milestone of sorts. The sunway carnival place was not bad actually, but exactly like what the loctor mayat explained: 80% are shoes and clothes shop.

Little girl seem to have a blast and was checking out this and that. So much so until she miss her nap time. I just hope that she don't get to attached to that seberang place :D

this is what i saw in the back seat when i reach home and parked the car...

of mama and other finger...

2008-06-25T22:42:00.001+08:00

Finally... after many many many moons of refusing to say Mama, Sophie finally said Mama. She started with Papa long long time ago and then went on to Ama, kong kong, jie jie and even er ke (brother no.2 - referring to our babysitter's second son), but never Mama.

Wifey keep trying to program her to say mama or mummy, but our girl is tough as nails and has her own mind. if she don't want to say. it means it will not come out from her mouth even if you force her to. So having her finally say Mama is definately a good sign. At least now she can get wifey all wrapped round her other finger. :D

I really like this shot because i took a shot of her lying on the chair and showed it to her. then i ask her to do it again so that i can take another shot. and she did!

of leader and ah ju...

2008-06-24T22:07:00.002+08:00

Wahhhh.... it's been some time since i wrote something liao. So many things have happened till i also dunno where to start. maybe i will put in installments lah, not the 0% interest no downpayment type one, but more to the part by part one la.

Anyway, The 3 of us (for the un initiated, that'll be Sophie, wifey and me) met up with ah Ju and Leader for lunch the other day. Ah ju came back for a short vacation and we took up the chance to meet (and to show off our little girl of course). Then leader told me that i have not updated my blog for some time liao. Fowsh! so there are real people reading my blog :) Anyway, it was great meeting up with old friends and to top it off Ah ju belanja some more.

of photos and curious nature...

2008-05-26T22:53:00.002+08:00

Here are 2 recent shots of Sophie. i think most will prefer the first shot, but my favourite is the second one because it really brought out the curious nature in her. In any case, I just love the tones and the mood it captured. What do you think?

for those interested in numbers and jargons:

Film: Kodak Tri-X 400

Camera: Mamiya 7II

Focal length: 80mm

Aperature: f8 (i think)

of mother's day and reluctant mum...

2008-05-13T22:35:00.003+08:00

It just hit me last Sunday during church that last weekend was mother's day. Unfortunately i didn't manage to get anything for wifey but Sophie kept us really busy. She came down with fever on Sunday. It started with a mild warmness in the morning after her nap, but it slowly progressed to high 37 deg. By evening her temp remain high, and we wiped her before putting her to bed, but later in the night her temp went up all the way to 39.1 deg and we decided to take her to see the doctor. Since it's alredy 11pm we decided to go straight to Pantai. At pantai, the took her temp and it was already 39.6 so the doc administered those butt thing. Sorry la, i really forgot what it was already. but it was simething administered through her anal cavity to control the fever. Poor Sophie. I think that helped. But one thing i really learnt from that midnight visit is that the service really sucks. Not the roomba vacumn cleaner suck, but suck as in lousy. The guy who was supposed to be the doctor there just acted like he 'dropped by' once in a while while attending to other patients. Come over and say something, then walk away, then come over again say something (contradictory I might add!) and then walked away. At first we thought he was just a concerned passer by, Then he came and check Sophie's chest, look for rashed and tried to check her throat. Sophie was obviously irritated and struggled. The guy then say, 'hmmm she don't like' and didn't proceed to check her throat (i think big mistake). Then he walked away and after a while he suggested to us to wait outside the room. We thought that we were waiting for the doctor and I asked her 'Are we waiting for the doctor?' To my surprise, he said 'I'm the doctor'!! So i asked 'Then what are we waiting for' He just mentioned 'For the medicine'. So we waited outside. After a long while the nurse came with the bill and asked us to go to the reception to pay before getting the medicine. So off we go, but the stupid guy who was supposed to be manning the counter was not there and we were kept there waiting for more than 20 minutes while Shopie was hungry asking for milk and getting irritated. Anyway, the guy showed up later, we settled the bill, took the medicine and left.

Sophie's temp went up and down the whole night and by morning it was still high. So we decided to go to see Dr Hasanah. and what really pissed me off is when Dr Hasanah told me that the dosage that the 'Supposedly doctor' administratored to us was too high. and one of the medication that he gave should not be administered with the paracetamol that he gave. She corrected the dosage. But what i am really unhappy about is when she shecked Sophie. Although she was struggling , Dr checked her anyway and when she look at Sophie's throat, she mentioned that Sophie has some infection on her tonsils. When i thought back about all this, i think the moron that was supposed to check Sophie the night before should have caught that. and his 'hmm she don't like' had caused him to mis diagnosed my girl.

Sophie is getting better now, her fever have subsided a bit but she is still cranky and still have not got back her appetite. So still have to be careful and patient with her.

As i am writing this entry, I think i should write in to Pantai and give my feedback on this guy. Seriously. these things needs to be corrected. The supposedly doctor and the dumb guy at the reception.

Anyway, on a happier note. Isaac's mommy finally got off her lazy bumm and started to blog. I have added her blog in my list.

of keys and video...

2008-05-10T22:32:00.003+08:00

Yes, it's confirmed. My little girl wanna get out of the house. First she wants to wear shoes by herself, now she's fiddling with the keys and trying to open the locks...

of video and shoes...

2008-05-08T23:24:00.004+08:00

Our little girl really likes to go out. and she will always be getting her shoes as a sign that she wanna go out. I managed to record her trying to wear her shoes...

aiyoooo... this girl ah... comical la...

of career and newspaper...

2008-05-03T17:03:00.003+08:00

Sometimes hor.... as a parent i often wonder what kind of career Sophie will have when she grows up. Assuming she did not strike a lottery and retire at 25 la.

So do you think she got any potential in the newspaper industry?

i mean not the publishing end.... the recycling end la..... woahahahahaha...

of :( and :( ...

2008-05-02T23:24:00.000+08:00

Wah…. Today seems like a very black day for me.
Per plan, I wass supposed to take a day off today because I applied for leave last month but have to go to work on that day. So I was supposed to take Sophie for her Chicken pox jab and then bring wifey’s car for polish and wax.

But…

Last night I got a call from my boss that I might need to go to China to help out with a factory issue. But when I check my passport, I found out that it has expired, so that means I have to go to the immigration department in the morning to get it done. So mah have to tell the babysitter that we will not be taking Sophie to the Hospital tomorrow lo.

But this morning, on my way down to the immigration department, got a call from my boss that his boss did not approve the travel. So no point in wasting 300 linggit if not going.
Turn back after reach the immigration department. Called my mom to tell her of the change of plans (she was originally supposed to go to the hospital with Sophie and me).
But when I got home, our babysitter have taken her out to the market and while waiting I got a phone call from work (a long one I might add). But when the babusitter got back, I was still on the phone and then my mom arrived and start asking about taking Sophie. Obviously the babysitter got confused because I have not tole her about the change of plans But luckily I managed to sort it out (aiyoyo)

Sophie was in her joyful mood at the hospital. Even when Seeing Dr Hasanah she was in a happy mood. Then the interesting part came. When it was time for her jab, She just look at the needle. She even look when Dr jabbed her and she didn’t even cry, not even a shriek or squeal. Just a curious look and a slight flinch when the needle came out. I am not sure if it is a case of high tolerance to pain or just a heightened curiosityu that overcame the pain that she kinda forgot to cry. But one thig for sure is that I am terribly proud of my girl!.

Anyway, back to black black day. So after the doctor’s appointment, I checked my mail and found that I had to call in for a meeting. I have been running around the whole morning that I did not even had time for breakfast and now have to call in to meeting pulak. Halfway through the meeting, my house’s cordless phone ran out of battery pulak, so have to call in from handphone. Meeting ended at 12.30 but by then I have pretty much have to go back to work because have go back to office for another meeting at 2pm. Went down to the hawker for a quick lunch. But that prove to be another frustration becase the guy I ordered drinks from took sooooo long that even after I finished eating, he still have not brought the drink. Cannot wait, so I went to him and told him I want to tap au, but the guy who was supposed to tap au also took so long that I just left.
Then another big bummer, when I whent to the car, I saw that someone have scratched the bumper. Must be when trying to get out of the parking…. Aiyoyoyoyoyo

So when got to the office, thought that I might just relax a bit and make some popcorn in the office microwave. But that one also got screwed because halfway thru, my department admin came over and talk and talk and talk until I forgot about the popcorn and it got burnt. Haiyoooo popcorn also can get burnt…

But fortunately after about 3 hours of frustrating meeting (calling in to a bunch of folks in china who have a factory issue but won’t listen to good suggestions), I guess the black-ness ended, because no more unfortunate things happen and I get to go back to pick up Sophie. So now it’s 11.20 pm and nearing the end of the day, If you ask me did I have a good day, I’ll probably say yeah, because I am the proud daddy of little girl who look at fear (in this case needle) in the eye and did not even shed a tear.

of some photos and penang ferry...

2008-04-26T00:59:00.004+08:00

Recently i took my birthday present for myself out for a ferry ride and these are the results...

There used to be 2 types of ferries. one for passenger in the uppder deck and vehicle on the lower deck and another that carries vehicles on both decks. But after the platform collapse tragedy, they converted the vehicular ferry to carry passengers on the upper decks.

For some, the ferry ride is just a matter of getting from point A to point B, but for others (especially kids) it is an adventure by itself and worth all running for.

but if you have been on the ferry day in and day out like these two guys who are supoposed to man the gates. the ride is just a thing to get done.

for some it's business as usual...

for others, it's a temporary escape from the 'white noise' and opportunity to steal some time to be alone.

or just to catch a breath (in this case, through a lighted cigarette)

but there are those who vuiew it as a temporary sleep mode for the brain...

but all that doesn't matter, because pigeons rides for free!

here's a cheesy shot under the guise of testing my kamera.

hope you you enjoyed them

of left shoe and right shoe...

2008-04-26T00:52:00.001+08:00

sometimes hor.... when putting on you your daughter's shoes, you gotta pay attention, or else this will happen...

of shark and climbing out....

2008-04-07T17:32:00.005+08:00

I still have not figured out if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Our little girl is very active and cannot seem to sit still. It is as if she needs to be always on the move. You know, like a shark, they have to swim constantly else they will sink. Our little girl will always be walking around or going to grab something and sometimes it seems that she carries this through into her sleep.

Sometimes she will wake up in the night and climb out of the crib. I was going through some photos yesterday and saw these photos. I guess wifey must have taken them. Looks like little girl decided to climb out and then fell asleep right after she got out...

of kiddie swing and visit to the park...

2008-04-06T14:15:00.005+08:00

We took our little girl to Youth Park the other day. as usual, she got all excited and want to touch this and that. Since her butt is big enough to prevent her from slipping through, we thought that we'd let her try the kiddie swing.

i think she still cannot decide if she like the swing or not. (oh ya, anyone knows how to flip the video ah! else everyone have to bear with me and bend your head when you see this video :) )

of birthdays and mamiya...

2008-04-03T21:24:00.004+08:00

oh ya. this year, i got myself this fella for my birthday :)

of april 4th and february 2nd...

2008-04-02T16:36:00.000+08:00

I had a rather odd but pleasant surprise at church last Sunday. Normally, at the end of the service, during the announcements, the liturgist will announce the names of the members who will be celebrating their birthdays in the coming week. And what do you know, my name was announced and I have to go up to the front to receive my present. Everything is good and well…. Except for the fact that my birthday was on February!

Actually hor… it is like this. My birthday is actually on February the 4th, so I guess somewhere along the way the month and day digit got mixed up and it became April the 2nd. So according to my church my birthday is actually on April 2nd. I did correct them a few years ago, but i guess it’s kinda cool that I get to stay younger for 2 extra months every year J

Speaking of church, please continue to pray for my pastor’s son Isaac. His fits have returned and he was admitted to the GH ICU last week.

of squeak and squeak and squeak and squeak and squeak........

2008-03-17T09:53:00.002+08:00

I think wifey and I have become those irritating parents that buy those squeaky shoes for their kids. Those irritating shoes that squeaks everytime the kid takes a step.
We got Sophie a pair of shoes for Chinese New Year and only realize that they were the squeaky type when we tried them on her. But at that time we figured that it’s no biggie as Sophie is nor really walking yet. Besides we normally have her in barefoot on the rubber mat when we teach her to walk. So the extent of the irritative-ness did not really dawn on us. Now that Sophie is walking consistently these days, it become clearer to us that our contribution in increasing the stress level of the people around us has increased by a few points. These days, whenever we go out it will be *squeak* *squeak* *squeak* *squeak* *squeak* and I guess I will be expecting hate mails soon.

One strange thing that I notice is that, as irritating as those squeaking can be. The ones from Sophie never bother’s me. In fact it sometimes sounds like music to my ears (and good music I might add). I guess I could be bias but it really does sound fine to me. So I guess the big ‘light bulb’ message to me is that ‘If the squeak comes from your flesh and blood, it is music. But if it’s someone else’s kid, then it’s damn irritating and you’d rather endure multiple root canal (in one sitting!) than to hear another squeak’.

Oh ya, Talia Ann’s daddy got a good point on getting soft soled shoes for Sophie. So I guess that is a good enough reason to replace the squeaky shoes :D

of small steps and tiny house...

2008-03-13T22:12:00.002+08:00

As you can see from the previous video, our little girl can now walk. It's been a step by step process for her. Initially, she was reluctant. We would put her up on her feet and encourage her to wake but she will just stand there and then sit down. Or she will just drop on all fours and crawl.
So it came as a surprise when we came home from home one day. As usual we would put her to stand near the sofa and play with her doggie while we go about putting things away and do stuff in the kitchen. Sophie, being the curious little girl that she is will always crawl to the kitchen to see what we are doing. But on this particular day, i guess she got too curious and toftally forgot about crawling and tool a few steps towards the kitchen. (as you can see we have a very tiny house where the distance from the living room to the kitchen is only a few baby steps away:)
I manage to see that and quickly grabbed the camera. but we did not manage to record it.

Anyway, i guess form one or two steps , our little girl seems to have got the hang out of it and have been walikng here and there ever since. I think she like it so much that sometimes she will walk to somewhere and then didn't know what to do when she got there aznd then walk back. silly girl...

of long time and no post...

2008-03-09T22:13:00.004+08:00

wah... so ling time never post oredi.
well here's what Sophie have been up to.

of 12 months and letters...

2008-02-07T23:10:00.000+08:00

Dear Little Girl,
Todat you turned 1 year old. Cannot call you baby anymore because you are big big girl liao. Daddy hope and wish that you will continue to grow up being cheerful and happy girl that you are. And Daddy will always be there to sayang you when you cry loud loud (until no vioce) and also play with you.
So happy birthday little girl. Daddy sayang you very much.

Daddy :)

of a little girl and her shoes...

2008-02-07T22:54:00.000+08:00

As part of Sophie's Chinese New Year/ 1st birthday outfit, we bought Sophie a pair of shoes. We tried them on her the other day and like any new thing to her, she will initially be puzzeled. Then she started kicking as if her feet were demon possesed or just stepped on elephant poop or something. But i guess she gave up later on and gave in to this new concept of shoes and went on as normal.

EEeeeeeeeee.... i think i just stepped on kau sai.

Check out my Jimmy Choo's

See! I can even do corny Aerobics moves in them.

of 7th february and a year ago...

2008-02-07T22:24:00.000+08:00

Yay! Sophie turned 1 year old today. As usual she woke up happy this morning. Talked and talked non stopped and making funny happy sounds the whole morning.

It seems so surreal that she is already 1 year old not. Or should i put is as Wifey and i survived 1 year of taking care of our little diva. I guess time really flies when you have a kid. Things have to be more planned out and not that spontaneous anymore. You always have this buzz of excitement when you get home because you can see your baby after a day of work.

I did a search in wikipedia for today's date and found out that Sophie actually share a the same irthday as a few famous people such as; Steve Nash (yay!) which could explain why our little girl likes her hair unkept and ruffled (like Steve's before the prior to 2008 season), she also share the same birthday as the emperor Puyi of China which again, could explain her 'divaness'. Not only that, the guy in limp biskit Wes Borland was also born on this day, which could also (again!) explain her angry tantrums.

oh ya, today is also Chinese New Year. So happy Chinese New Year to all!

Ging Xi! Gong Xi!

of early celebrations and thunder...

2008-02-02T22:05:00.000+08:00

We will be ~~cashing in on~~ celebrating Sophie's birthday tomorrow. Her actual birthday on the 7th, which is Chinese New year. So we decided to celebrate early so that she will not steal the thunder out of CNY :)
Anyway, i think it'll be a small party of sorts. We'll have some family members and friends over. If you are reading this and feel like coming, do join us, but remember to bring big and expensive presents :)

If you see Sophie doing this face hor... stay upwind of her ok?

of birdies and wifey's godmum...

2008-01-20T22:24:00.000+08:00

I think it's no secret that our little girl do look a bit like a boy and sometimes do get mistaken for a boy. We get a lot of "Oh, she's a girl is it? Nvm la, old people say, next one sure will be boy liao". As if there is something wrong with having a daughter la. But I guess it's just that some folks still get stuck in the old thinking that having a son is good mentality.

Anyway, that's not the story here. Wifey's godmum have a special throry about the "next one will be a boy thing". According to her, before Sophie was born, the 'birdie' was supposed to fly into wifey's womb and attach itself to Sophie and she will be born a boy. but the Sophie came out before the 'birdie' arrive and now is left inside wifey's womb. So it will attach itself to our next one...

Doesn't makes much sense medically, but since the logic jives, who am I to disagree :)

We heard that she passed away yesterday. I have only met her a few times and do not know her well. So i guess i'll remember her as the lady who told wifey that she has a 'birdie' in her womb.

Sophie sans birdie

of letters and 11 months...

2008-01-13T23:07:00.000+08:00

Dear Sue Yi,

You hit your 11th month last week and it seems so surreal that you will be one year old in a month's time. It seems like not so long ago mommy and I were struggling to keep up with your feeding and sleeping times and the works (in fact we still do).

Your character is becoming very evident. For one, you are a very curious girl and everythingwill attract your attention, and now that you are crawling, we were kept on our toes constantly making sure you don't grab the wrong stuff (worse put it in your mouth). We just wonder how we will be able to cope when you are able to walk, but I guess we will.

You are also a very active girl, and other that when you sleep you are always on the move. Either looking for something or cruising from room to room usually looking for mommy.

Mommy and I felt that we are blessed because you are a very easy to laugh (but then you cries easily too). I guess it's a good thing because a happy baby always makes our day. You laugh very easily and your laugh are very infectious and like those from the gut laugh.

But then you cry easily too, especially when we chanmge you to your sleeping clothes. You will really really protest whenm we take your clothes off and put on new clothes. I hope this will pass soon.

Anyway, it's been a good trip and sometimes when I thought about all the joys that you brought to us, I don't know how come we did not have you earlier.

love

daddy

of New year's present and curious buffoons...

2008-01-03T09:19:00.000+08:00

Sophie gave us a small new year present yesterday. We were playing with her on the bed before putting her to sleep when she suddenly picked herself up and stood up unsupported. Thus far she can only stand up when she have something to hold or pull but I guess she must be in a good mood last nite that she decided to pull that stunt. I missed the picking up part because I was looking the other way. We encouraged her and clapped and typical of our little girl, she gave us her goofy laugh before falling down on he bum. Then wifey asked her to do it again and like a good showman, she picked herself up and stood up again.
Being the excited and curious buffoons that we are, wifey and I asked her to do it again, but I think our little girl knows how to maintain the value of a good performance. Overexpose it and it loses its value…

of routines and changes...

2008-01-02T16:14:00.001+08:00

Wifey started her new job today. I am still at work and have not seen her yet. So I hope that everything is ok. I am a bit worried for some unknown reason. Not because I worry that wifey is going to screw up, in fact I think she will do well. But I guess it’s just a normal tendency to worry about someone you love when they enter into a new surrounding.

I guess it goes without saying too that Sophie’s routine and schedule will be shifted a bit. I hope she can adapt well to it.

of red spots...

2008-01-02T08:04:00.000+08:00

Our little girl gave us a scare last Wednesday. Since we thought that she had recovered enough from her bout of fever, we took her to the Christmas service on Tuesday. But when we checked on her later that night we saw that she got red spots on her forehead and back of her ears. The later in the night we also found more spots on her back. We suspected that it might be chicken pox or something and monitored it. We were kinda worried because she just recovered from the fever and now chicken pox pulak….
Anyway, on Wednesday we calmed down a bit, our baby sitter told us that she heard from the other babysitters in my apartment that the spots could be due to the paracetamol that we gave Sophie when she had the fever. My SIL also mentioned the same thing. I guess in a way it’s good to know some additional information, but we decided to monitor her anyway.
It turns out that they were probably right because after a few days, the spots slowly disappeared.

of Christmas and not X'mas...

2007-12-25T23:10:00.000+08:00

Sophie had her first Christmas today. I guess she's still too young to know that today is different from other days. Wifey gave us a surprise in the morning. She had sneakily bought Sophie and me presents. Sophie got a cute little globe thingy with a snowman and 'snowflakes' floating around it thingy. And I got (an easier to descrive item) card. Me on the other hand, did not get anyone anything :( . Makes me feel kinda bad pulak.....

Anyway, we went to our Church's Christmas Service at Vistana Hotel. Sophie was pretty exitied to see so many people and kept looking everywhere. I guess that this is the first time that she had seen so many people, especially kids. We were not sure if she is still feeling a bit blur from her bout of fever but she seem to have missed her milk time and even her sleep time. But then again, our little girl is quite a curious girl and she easily gets distracted.

We brought our babysitter and her daughter to the service too. Hope they had a good time, because wifey and I were busy taking care of our little diva that we were moving around and did not really stay in our seats the whole time.

Finally Merry CHristmas to everyone! Not X'mas but Christmas, because there's not Christ in X'mas.

...little girl in her Christmas dress...

of fever and a cranky diva...

2007-12-22T23:19:00.000+08:00

My little girl is down with the fever :( .... We detected her body temperature to be a bit high last night and she wouldn't want to sleep on the bed. Instead she will only sleep if she lie on wifey's chest. By this morning she was het temperature were still mildly high, but not alarming 37+ degrees. But being the ~~chicken shit~~ concerned parents that we are, we decided to take her to see Dr Hasanah. Nothing to be worried about, just wanna make sure, besides it's goign to be a long weekend and we want to be really sure (some ppl might call it anal). Dr Hasanah did a check but did't find anything wrong although she did mention that Sophie's tems is a bit high. She said that it's probably a viral thing and gaves us instruction to give Sophie soem paracetamol.

Out little girl's temp is still in the high 37s but at least she is sleeping now. Hopefully she recovers tomorrow, because she is one cranky diva when she is sick...

on a side note though, She seem a bit more chatty even with this slight fever. I wonder why...

of mommies and an interesting video...

2007-12-17T21:19:00.000+08:00

someone sent me this. I think all mommies outght to learn the words by heart :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFYcmZEOvW4

of of goofy faces and some thoughts...

2007-12-12T11:07:00.000+08:00

i just realized that most of Sophie's photos that posted were shot with her in her goofy faces. Maybe i should start to shoot and post some nicer or serious photos of her...

anyway, some updates on my little girl. She seems to be very attached to wifey and will cry when wifey leaves the room. To the point now that she can only fall asleep at night if wifey hole her and put her to sleep. I tryed many times to put her to sleep but she just cry and cry and cry. but when wifey comes and pick her up, she will stop and smile (probably to taunt me). then the also have grown to this habit of only will fall asleep lying on wifey's chest. Dunno why, but i think probably she just like the smell of wifey's chest.

of letters and ten months...

2007-12-09T21:35:00.000+08:00

Dear Sue Yi,

I just realized a while ago that you are now into your tenth month. Time really flies and it seems like only a while ago that i was writing about your ninth month. As i was writing, you are now peacefully asleep with mommy. Yeah, i know, it's only 9.45pm and probably the kids that will grow up in your generation sleep a lot later, but i guess we are more used to putting you to bed early.

Your teeth are continuing to sprout and i think i noticed more rough patched on your upper gums. You already have 4 teeth on your upper jaw and i guess it won't be long before more to come.

You have also been keeping us busy ever since you started to crawl. I guess it's probably due to your curious nature that you tend to crawl every where. Not sure if it will be an indication of the person you will grow up to be, but i do sometimes get the feeling that you will grow up seeing the world. something like that song from alison kraus - gravity:

And the people who love me still ask me,

When are you coming back to town

And I answer quite frankly

When they stop building roads

And all God needs is gravity to hold me down

So if you really grow up travelling ans seeing the world, Can mommy and I come too ah?

Well, by the time you read this, i guess you would have had a few adventures of your own and wherever the path takes you, i guess you will know that I will always be there for you.

hugs and kisses,

daddy

of flowers and last Tuesday...

2007-12-02T22:57:00.000+08:00

oh ya... someone got these last Tuesday...

of premium meat and bad moods...

2007-12-02T22:17:00.000+08:00

Our little girl have been quite moody lately. She can go from laughing her heart out to full blown crying in minutes. I guess it must be because she is teething. the third tooth on her upper jaw is has broken through and the rest should be just around the corner.

She still have not grow out of her habit of putting everything that she can get hold of into her mouth. And if she could not carry the object to her mouth, her mouth will go to it. Sometimes she will even lunge head on to whatever she's trying to taste. If the taste suits her palate, then she'll bite, so be warned, you are made of premium quality meat, then better be careful when you see Sophie, couse she might just lunge over for a bite.

... and you thought i was joking...

I think Sophie is that don't like to sit down for long type of person. Ever since she started to be able to crawl, she have been crawling non stop. Imagine, when we put her down, even before her butt touches the ground, her feet and hands will start to crawl. She have found a way to get out of the bumbo seat and she have been quite successful thus far, so we upped the ante and put her in the play pen. Seems to work, but little girl seem to have a plan on her own. On her good mood days, her escape strategy will be to chew and bite her way out, but on her bad mood days she will cry and cry and cry until we give in.

... just hanging out at her favourite joint.....

until something tasty caught her eye...

of more teeth and bad mood...

2007-11-18T21:58:00.000+08:00

We spotted Sophie's 5th tooth this weekend. The tip is just appearing on her upper right jaw. Not sure if this teeth growing thing is supposed to be like this but it has been some time since she sprouted the first 4 teeth.

And with the sprouting tooth, someone's mood was not good this weekend....

an old photo of Sophie enjoying her favourite desert, papaya.

of interviews and a moron...

2007-11-13T14:56:00.000+08:00

Wifey went for a job interview yesterday...

Interviewer (who is already late by 10 mins): tell me about your self... i don't have much time... *while talking into his handphone*
Wifey: bla bla bla
:
:
:
Interviewer: Actually hor, for this position, you should not be wasting your time fighting with the applicants in their 20s.
Widey: Huh?!
Interviewer: You should be doing direct sales la. come come i introduce a friend to you.

my take? what a moron.

of letters and nine months...

2007-11-10T00:20:00.000+08:00

Dear Sophie,

You turned 9 months old 3 days ago. As usual we took you to the local clinic for your checkup. Attually it's more like the nurses asking a few questions and taking your weight and measurements. No jabs this time.

You are now able to crawl quite fast and we are having our hands full trying to keep up with you. We just wonder what would it be like when it's time for you to walk. You are able to pull yourself up to a standing position but you still need to hold on to something. I am trying to get you to cruise but so far, you are just doing small steps.

One thing we seem to notice is that you are extermely determined, eventhough you sometimes fall down when climbing over things or trying to stand up, you seem to continue to pick yourself up and continue. I guess that's a good thing as I always believed that you should not give up too easily on what you want.

Another habit that we noticed about you is that you are a curious little girl. Everything seem to attrat your attention and when something got your attention you will go for it. You also seem to be fascinated when you see children, I guess it's because Auntie Babysitter's daughter always play with you and in effect you seem to like kids. I guess that could be a good thing too and hopefully that will develop into good social skills.

One thing about you is that you seem to always seem to keep us on our toes. Once we thought we have figured out your pattern, you seem to switch. Your current trend now is to scream and cry everytime we try to change your clothes. Something seem to trigger you whan we take your clothes off. Dunno why. Another thing that you seem to do now is that you will struggle when we change your diapers. somehow, you will turn and struggle when the wanna put on a new diaper. You seem to be more contended to be bottom less. Hope you are not setting a new fashion trend. Your teeth seem to have stopped sprouting out after the two top and two bottom teeth. I guess you have already know that 4 teeth is more than enough to menace mommy and me :)

Anyway, meancing or not, daddy still loves you. and very much i might add. So come over for a hug after reading this.

love,

baba

of a video clip and some crawling...

2007-11-06T23:55:00.001+08:00

someone is refusing to sleep....

of busy and updates...

2007-11-06T13:03:00.001+08:00

Last month have been an extremely busy month. I guess it’s probably due to work among other things. As the project that I have been working on have come to it’s completion, I had to look for another job. In a normal circumstance, that would mean that the workload will go down gradually, but unfortunately for my case, the project was delayed and was dragged for quite some time which only means that the supporting resources have gone to other projects leaving very few people behind.
Anyway, I am in my new job now. New office in a new building working with new set of people. I guess the cycle will go on again.

of letters and eight months...

2007-10-20T03:30:00.000+08:00

Dear Sophie,

Actually this letter is a bit late :( but i guess it is better late than never. You turned 8 months old 2 weeks ago. I was going through some of the old photos and it just struck me of how much different you looked compared to the day you were born. I can still recall clearly the small groaning sound you made when you were just delivered and now you were already babbling.

I of course am loving you more and more as you grow. You seem to have that effect on me that makes me happy and calm. The past few weeks have been quite hectic for me to the point that some nights, i can't sleep well. But when I see you smile in the morning, I somehow knew that my day will be bearable and things will be alright. And in the evening, when i come back from work the stresses of the day seem to melt away the moment I hold you. I guess you just have that effect on me.

You are begining to get the habit of staying up later in the evenings. You used to fall asleep easily after your feeding in the evening, but lately you seem to be very active and still wanting to play and only sleep at around 8pm onwards. I guess it's still ok as long as it doesn't gets too late. And talking about sleeping, I find myself often go in to the room to check on you when you sleep. Just feel like wanting to see you and be close to you. There is a certain calmness that feel when I see you sleeping peacefuly and smelling your baby scent.

Development wise, you have been crawling as what Dr Hasanah calls it 'combat style' i.e., crawling with your stomach. But yesterday evening we notices that you can now crawl with your hands and feet. And quite fast too i might add. I guess we will have to keep a closer eye on you from now on.

You are also getting pretty good at reaching things and grabbing them, which of course without fail you will put into your mouth. We also noticed that you are also able to grab and throw away things that you dislike which sometimes annoys the heck out of us because we have to pick them up.

You have also begining to say 'ma ma' but then it sometimes sound like 'mum mum' which in any case makes mommy (and me of course) really happy. In terms of vocabulary, you seem to have picked up a new habit of making noises by breating air through your mouth and making that 'zzzzzzeeeee' like sound. We are not sure where you picked that from but you seem to be talking in that language a lot these days.

I guess the thing that i really want to say is that I'm really glad that you are around because although work can sometimes take a lot out of me, you seem to have that ability to put them back all in for me.

'Pheezeeeee.... (with saliva spraying ala Sophie)'

daddy

of blogging and one year...

2007-10-07T20:57:00.000+08:00

Well well well.... what do we know. Time sure flies fast. If i hadn't know better it would have gotten a few million frequent flyer miles. I just realized that this blog is exactly 1 year old yesterday. Kind of surprising that I managed to sustain this for a year now. Anyway, I guess the reason i blogged was because i wanna document as much as possible my thoughts and experiences about life and especially about Sophie. Who knows, Sophie might grow up to be a famous opera singer or something and I will have ready material to publish an Authorized (or Unauthorized depending on how juicy it turn out) biography. but i guess most importantly is that I wanna document something for her to read when she is on the throne doung her daily business. I guess, life is fragile and sometimes we might miss out something we wanna say, so I guess this is one way to ensure that Sophie get to know what she meant to me.

Also, i guess this will be good material to lay out a guilt trip in case she get into that teenage angst years and hate her parents.

of duckies and froggies...

of blogger and mah fan...

of "I can do it, Daddy" and "I can't do it, Daddy"....

of old folks home and Mars Rovers....

of 20 years from now and RM50K...

of stages of develoment and autobabysitter...

of cartoons and magic words...

of pillow and 'hold my hand'...

of being a parent and cleaning up mess...

of waxing my legs and 3 doctors...

of crawling and bragging...

of milestones and snails...

of video and goldfish...

of break ins and ADUNs...

of milestones and a sneaky boy...

of kalumpo and miss 'oopsie'...

of mood and contax...

of hairdo and teenage angst...

of throw up and silly remarks...

of princesses and pirate ships and seven drawfs...

of 2 months and WARRIOR WOMAN...

of waiting and extreme pain...

Here we go...

of anticipation and picture book...

of super backdated post and pacifiers...

or stemlife and cryocord...

of rhymes and seven...

of kiasu and two bottles of free beer...

of medicines and going against the grain...

of filems and digital...

of being equally clumsy and temper tantrums...

of shoes and unaccounted outfit...

of psp and dirty thoughts...

of emails and DUN...

of letters and 2 years...

of japanese food and wait...

of long silence and hoping we did not pissed someone off...

of 3 miliseconds and my pants...

of jagung and water...

of videos and dancing...

of photos and postings...

or poppa and meh mie...

of 40km and clingy girl...

of plizz and what...

of little kids and box...

of ultraman and not too long ago...

of some sweedish place and some chairs and table...

of photos and lomo...

of lomo and abang fed ex...

of waking up and new word...

of propaganda and stuff... again...

of Sophie and Lomo...

of papa and miee...

of milk and crap...

of walking around and that thing about camera...

of hair and macam macam lagi...

of the spoon and bowl grabbing stage...part 2...

of the spoon and bowl grabbing stage...part 1...

of papaya and kungfu panda...

of propaganda and death rays...

of sunway carnival and that seberang place...

of mama and other finger...

of leader and ah ju...

of photos and curious nature...

of mother's day and reluctant mum...

of keys and video...

of video and shoes...

of career and newspaper...

of :( and :( ...

of some photos and penang ferry...

of left shoe and right shoe...

of shark and climbing out....

of kiddie swing and visit to the park...

of birthdays and mamiya...

of april 4th and february 2nd...

of *squeak* and *squeak* and *squeak* and *squeak* and *squeak*........

of small steps and tiny house...

of long time and no post...

of 12 months and letters...

of a little girl and her shoes...

of squeak and squeak and squeak and squeak and squeak........