chip-pea

Long overdue updates...(blowing cobwebs on blog away)

2012-01-06T22:32:00.024Z

It's been almost 1/2 a year since my last posting. That's because my parents had quit their wi-fi at home and I've resorted to the old fashion way of sending them paper photos through the post. They prefers it that way. More tangible. Anyways, life has been going fine. Winter is here. Not as cold YET(praying very very hard for it to remain above 10c until Spring reappears.)

Kids are growing well. Euan is 15 months old and running around. He is a very cautious (very hard to earn his trust), focused, cheeky and determine person. Just like his daddy. However, he has my bad temper. He loves Woody and Buzz lightyear from the cartoon Toy story.
Infact, only Toy Story series can keep him seated on the sofa for a good 30 minutes whilst I zap around the house doing chores or taking my shower. That's because he's going through a serious phase of separation anxiety. He loves shoes and brings his shoes to us and ask us to wear it for him when he wants to go out. After his shoes are on, he would go tap on the door and say "there". Pointing is his way to lead us to what he wants and explain to us what happened. For example he would point to his head when asked where his brother smacked him. Sigh. He loves to wear my house slippers and copy me in cooking and loading the washing machine. Infact he helps me load the machine sometimes lol!
He loves football. Always plays that with daddy...

and also developing a liking for books.

The good thing about the second one, we don't have to rush out to buy books/toys to assist his current development, like we did with Tobey almost every weekend in the early years. It's all prepared for Euan since he's born. Sometimes I wonder whether it's too overwhelming for him. So far, that's not the case yet. He seems to get drawn to certain things on his own as he grows older.

Tobey is now 4 1/2 years old. He started primary school back in September 2011 (Reception class).
He is growing up into a charming little gentleman with his daddy's mild temper , talks non-stop, inquisitive, very participative, learning to write and spell very well from school, very sociable, happy, sweet and kind boy. However, he does wears his heart on his sleeve like mummy. He is into bowling and video gaming on the Wii.
We do try to expose him to broader subjects, like aviation for example (hoping that he will want to be a pilot and we can retire in style :P)
Here's Tobey at m&m's World and Hyde Park Winter Wonderland fair in London. It was a long overdue 'mummy and Tobey' outing...(we had tonnes of fun on that day, chatting the whole day long. I really enjoyed his company)
I am impressed at the rate he is learning from his primary school. For example, his school is currently having "Science week" theme these few weeks. He came home today telling me about "experiments" they did in school and locked himself in the washroom to do some "experiment" with the hand wash. Something about bubbles. On this coming Monday we are suppose to dress him up as a mad scientist before sending him to school. Hmmm....Here is a shopping list ("because daddy say it's important!")I asked him to write for me and his Christmas card to us (he knows that 'xxx' means kisses haha) Bearing in mind that this is a progress from only able to write his name and to these in 3 months;
Both of my babies play and fight alot. Hence everyday is never boring in that aspect. Usually because Euan wants what his big brother has and big brother decides that "he's a baby and can't play with this big boy's toy!". They love each other to bits though:) Should have given Tobey a sibling much earlier.
In terms of holidays, we had 2 mini local holidays last summer. We ventured into Lake district(with SK's parents and brother)...
and Butlins Skegness (just us) ....
Now looking forward to Easter break where we'll be back in Malaysia for 3 weeks. The last time we were back , I wasn't even pregnant with Euan yet. I hope none of us will fall ill this time. With me still breastfeeding Euan, hopefully he will not have any tummy upsets from the change of diet back home.

That's all for now :))

Pics update-July 11

2011-07-30T19:12:00.021Z

Here are the plums. Can't wait for them to go red, that's when they'll taste like honey. More and bigger fruits this year.

Conference pears...my favourite

As usual the lettuces

My boys have been busy building (with their new Taiwanese construction bricks 'La Pao' bought by SK's parents and brought all the way here by SK's aunties..longs story, as you can imagine, we had lots of visitors from Malaysia these past few months)...

tanks...(lovingly built by daddy for his precious sons)

trucks ...
and lots of swords and guns which are Tobey's speciality. He comes out with different designs each day with his Legos and stickle bricks too. The other day, one of his guns was a double barrelled one, complete with a view finder.lol!

Euan doesn't like to be restrained!

He's crawling and climbing stairs now. He can stand unsupported for longer now. A tough nut. Seldom cries.Whenever he bumps his head or falls, he'll just wipe his brow and carry on. Quite focus for his age. Very often he can remember where he kept his toy and will go back to retrieve it after playing with something else for a long time. Still likes chewing on things. 2 lower central incisors came through at 8 months old.

spending time with mah-mah

My almost 10 months old darling boy enjoying the swing:) I can't believe how fast it's been. 10 months went in a flash. He's slowly loosing his baby-ness.Sigh!

My baby's 4th Birthday Party

2011-06-06T20:45:00.030Z

Mummy was still cooking at the very last hour

Daddy was putting up decor at the very last minutes

The home-made fruit cake (SK's mum family recipe) which daddy and mummy stayed up to 2:30am icing it-The Indiana Jones Lego Cake

The guests.

The bouncy castle was a hit! All kinds of fight happened in it.. (away from the parents eyes)

Mummy and baby. Euan wondering what was happening.

Daddy barbecue-ing chicken wings, satay and sausages.

Guests indoors whre the French open final was on (notice my dear friend on the sofa. She is due any moment now!)
Euan on the castle. He's exactly 8 months old on the day of the party (5th June 2011)

Tobey having a ball!

During the singing of the birthday song...my favourite picture...it captured my boy's emotion of "OMG! it's finally happening!!!" happiness .

during the blowing of the cake

..cutting of the cake..

The gifts. Hi "yeh-yeh" bought him a 16inches bike. He can ride two wheels for a few months now. Our gift to him is a portable basketball hoop with stand. It came the next day, Amazon was late.

Both me and SK slept before 9pm after the party ended.Our backs, arms , eyes...everything hurt, but I tell you, it's so worth it. I am pretty sure this party takes a good big spot in my darling's childhood memory. He still can't stop talking about it.

Euan 7 months old

2011-05-11T12:38:00.009Z

Sits very well

Crawls Caterpillar style
Pull to stand! Yay!
Favourite chewy toy- ELC rubber snake

My superhero baby :)

Not forgetting my sweetheart"nearly four years old" firstborn. We are in the midst of organising his 4th birthday party. I pray that the weather holds :/ Stay tuned!

***Bonus Feature***
Brothers playing together. Hopefully one day they can both go "~~kau lui~~" go to library together and leave me in peace. Wishful thinking.

Gulliver's Theme Park- Round 2

2011-04-05T13:17:00.024Z

Almost exactly 2 years ago, we brought Tobey to this park. Can read the first account here. I remember it was really packed and there were many rides that Tobey couldn't get on. Not because of his height (he's already > 90cm, but because he was still pretty young (1 year 10 months old)). Last Sunday, which was Mother's day, we brought him there again to take advantage of the 'mothers go free' offer. It was forecasted to be raining in the afternoon, but we decided to bet against the weather. IT DIDN'T RAIN :P was abit gloomy at some points, but no rain.

There weren't many people there(probably because of the misleading weather forecast) so there was really minimal queue. We kept meeting the same set of parents and kids on the rides. This time Tobey went on each and every ride, except 2 out of 3 roller-coasters. He went to the smallest one. Like me and SK, our son hates rides with gravatical shift. here are several pics,

Notice the lady in front of Tobey? He has a son that kept running off screaming every time he's let loose from the stroller.. So funny!
Tobey got scared on this swinging ship ride. I had to ask the attendant to stop the ride immediately. Thankfully, they were the only ones on the ship, so he stopped it. He said that Tobey is considered a brave boy already, seeing that he's willing to give this a go.
Tobey rode this ride on his own. The boy next to him has got Chicken pox! He came and sat next to Tobey when the ride was about to start. Too late to do anything about it without seriously causing a scene.

If only..hahaha!

In the miniature church. He looks so serious.
You see, father and son having so much of fun!
At one of the teacups ride, Tobey spurned the cup too fast on it's axis until SK's compass got shaken and he was nauseous. FINALLY, I had a chance to go on some of the ride with my firstborn. We had so much fun. SK commented that he had more rides so far with Tobey than he ever had in his entire childhood. More to come dear! Fix your compass! (in two weeks time)

Of Briyani rice, Cheesecakes and a getaway plan...

2011-03-27T20:39:00.012Z

I've found a gem from Tesco that can bring authentic homemade Briyani to our table at home. It's Shan's Special Bombay Briyani mix (recipe here). I just followed the recipe at the back of the box (quite alot if work, as the box are only the spices) and voila, here it is.
Spring is here, so is the baking spirit. A week or two back, I baked a Japanese Cotton Cheesecake, but the hubby said not enough cheese! Tried out another recipe that require's 3 times the amount of cheese used in the previous one. Pass! SK said it's like his favourite Secret Recipe's New York Baked Cheesecake. It's from Tina Bester.

And here's my boys again :))

got him a bumbo chair from a car boot sale (like a flea market back in Malaysia) for £8

As the weather is warming up, SK took Tobey to the barber for a trim. He always looks all grown-up with a shorter haircut. Here's the big brother insisting on carrying little Euan.

So proud that he succeeded :)

I am quite productive today for some reason, After all the cooking, I went on to scout a Legoland weekend break.We'll be going for a 2 days and 1 night trip. The package includes 2 days park tickets for all of us. We'll be staying at the Brooklands Hotel. After scouting the net high and low, I am so happy to have found this hotel. Good and reasonably priced hotel in this country is like gold dust. I am the type that don't mind staying back in the hotel if I have to, rather than going out sightseeing. Bonus is that it's right next to the Mercedes-Benz world, where we can watch racing on it's track right from the window of most rooms. Tobey and SK will definitely enjoy that. It's like watching Top Gear live :P. Not forgetting, there's also the Brooklands Museum a few minutes walk away, where Tobey can sit on an actual Concorde! This will be Euan's 2nd getaway with us. First being the visit to my brother-in-law for CNY last month. Looking forward to it.

Pics update

2011-03-17T14:32:00.016Z

I am sure you guys are here just for the goods, here you gaw......

He semi-seats now

Smiles/chuckles at his brother's jokes every day

He explores through his mouth, rather than fingers. Those golden fingers are reserved for the mouth too.

Big brother Tobey is fine too...a few weeks back he can swim by himself on the back...It's more like floating to me. He's very proud of himself nevertheless. He's into stickers now. Daddy indulged his new hobby by getting him Star Wars sticker book. I've been spending ages with him completing the pages with the correct stickers. Now I know about Anakin, The Imprerial Trooper,Chewbacca and Padme Amidala as if I grew up with them. He's been trying to read more too. SK attended another meeting with his key worker yesterday. Quoting Mrs. Garrick: "It's such a change to see a boy that is happy and independent all the time".

Also, (just so that I remember this episode, as this is not the usual virus) during the end of his half-term holidays, he was down with Hand, Foot and Mouth (not to be confused with Foot and Mouth from the Pigs. This is a common childhood illness according to the medics here). Mild fever for the first night and then ulcers in his mouth. (He's been having a very bad habit of putting things in his mouth again, for some strange unknown reason. Maybe he's trying to copy Euan. Probably got the germs from there). This is a very contagious illness, hence I kept him home from school and also away from Euan as much as possible. Eating and drinking brought him to tears for two days. All he could take in was yogurt drinks. He even said NO to ICE-CREAM. Sometimes he would ask for his favourite food, only to cry after the first bite, as he had forgotten about the ulcers. He lost so much of weight. No more rosy cheeks (that is like his 'health-o-meter'). On Day 3 I forced SK to get something from the GP to relieve the pain so that he can eat, else I'll die of heartbreak. GP gave us this spray to numb the ulcers before meals. Also an anti-viral for the thrush on his tongue. Those medication were God sent. Tobey could eat and hence got much better. He completely recovered on day 5. After a good talk with him about germs and how it got to him, he now know not to put his fingers or toys in his mouth. Also to not KISS his school friends!!! ( I caught him doing that one day and was gobsmacked). Only kiss your parents and Euan!

18th February 2011-Euan Weaning

2011-02-18T21:01:00.006Z

Euan has been showing signs of wanting to eat our food for weeks now. Initially, I was really adamant to wait till 6 months, but upon seeing his' longing for food face', trying to grab our plates and doing his munching and sucking motions, I gave in at 4 1/2 months. Actually I did try to a week or two back with a sample pack of rice cereal with FRUITS which was abit sourish, and he didn't like the taste of it ( i didn't have any plain ones). Today I fed him propper plain rice cereal mixed with warm water to a smooth consistency. He smiled widely upon the first spoon. I think in total he managed to keep down 2 spoonful. Good enough.

Moving on to Tobey. On the way to school today he asked me "Mummy, why have FIVE Tobeys in my school!?Why Why WHy???" Yup there are FIVE of them. All in the same CLASSROOM! So much for trying to name our kid something "uncommon" back in 2007. I just told him I don't know why. Maybe because his name is such a nice name :P

Chinese New Year 2011- Picture update

2011-02-14T15:56:00.012Z

SK took a few days off. We went up to Birmingham to visit the brother-in-law to celebrate.

Here's Tobey standing beside a stationary "dragon" in Wing Wah restaurant

Euan first time on a high chair- not ready yet :P

Found frozen durian!!!!! from Wing Yip chinese supermarket. I was beyond happy.

Bunked at the BIL's apartment. I really like the floor to ceiling windows.

My men.

A friend gave Tobey a lantern. He thought it's simply a colourful paperback to store his toys! We lighted it up for him...

He and daddy went out to the back garden for 5 minutes with the pretty lantern...cold...brrrr!

My cousin went back to Malaysia for CNY and came back with THESE little treasures from home :) Thanks to my mum and auntie for these lovely munchies :))

I finally bought a rug to create some kind of segregation (TV area and bookshelves area) to my long-ish lounge.

The Brothers

2011-01-26T22:18:00.005Z

Tobey- Ever cheerful and friendly, Euan- Ever serious and reserved. Their personalities couldn't be anymore different. Only thing in common, they absolutely love and adore each other.

Euan at 16 weeks & Tobey at 3 years 7 months

2011-01-20T14:41:00.018Z

My darling Euan smiles alot nowadays. His hobby is finger sucking. I remember Tobey didn't take to soothing himself by doing so, although at that time we encouraged it so that he can use that to fall back to sleep in the middle of the night. He preferred the pacifier. Euan on the other hand couldn't take the pacifier. It triggered his gagging reflex when I tried introducing it to him. I guess because he doesn't take the bottle at all. At a luncheon yesterday, a French mummy friend of mine was kind of 'disapprove' of me letting Euan do so, saying that it'll become the hardest habit to break and so on. But seriously, how do you stop a baby from sucking his own fingers??? I am quite relaxed about it to be honest. It's a small matter in the grand scheme of things. YUP. totally different from the first baby. Not that I am adopting a 'tidak apa' attitude towards my second one, it's just that I know what to worry and what's not worth worrying about. I've learnt that they grow up at a blink of an eye, so it's most important to enjoy them as much as possible, rather than worrying about why is he not drinking from a cup yet, or flipping to his side yet, etc. Like SK said, "Have you met a healthy baby that grew up not knowing how to walk ?" (Edit: I misquoted him, it's actually "Have you met an adult who is still crawling?")

Euan recognises us now. He cries when someone he's not seen before carries him. He loves us to carry him about and hates to be put down on his bouncer/cot/bed, unless it's nap time. He loves going out. When we put him in his winter jacket, he gets all excited! He naps two 30 mins naps and one 2 hours nap during the day. His night time sleep commences from 9pm to 9am. He still wakes up for feeds, especially so last week, I think it was his 3rd month growth spurt. He's showing alot of intrest in solids. Whenever he sees anyone eating, he would do his 'munching' mouth movement. I will definitely wait till month 6 to introduce him any solid. It'll be rice cereal followed by chinese rice porridge with added vege/meat/fish one at a time as I slowly introduce them to his diet. This time I will forgo western style of steam and mash vege, etc. Easier and tastier. I can't believe he's in his 4th month already. Time really flew by. Here are several pics taken today :)

My darling Tobey has started his swimming lessons this month. His lessons are being held at the hotel's indoor pool behind my house (1.3 m throughout). It's just 5 minutes walk. But I still drive as it's still too cold for him to walk now after a swim. I just dry him and bundle him into the car after his lesson. He takes his shower when he reaches home, rather than doing it in the hotel changing rooms. He's being taught by his instructor Jeremy together with another student Lian. (not Liam, but Lian). I think he enjoyed himself, although at one point when Jeremy let go of him so that he can learn to float on his own, he started to protest and wanted to get off the pool ;)

He can write his own name now and started writing it on everything he owns(like his cupboard!!!) until we stopped him.His current favourite TV programme is the Octonauts. He's started to venture into really spicy food. Kept saying things like "Hot noodle that one, more please". Still loves school 3 hours a day. When I asked him whether he wants to sta 6 hours on some days (so that I don't have to do the school runs on some days , as he has 15 hours a week free schooling) he said "No , it's too long mummy". My son is truly a creature of routine and loves his home comforts. Oh well, maybe later :)) Here are few pics during him during his swimming lessons.

3 months old Euan

2011-01-03T19:41:00.005Z

We didn't gel his hair. It's naturally curl-up into a stylish point at the top. His forehead still smells fab!

Hello 2011!!!

2011-01-02T21:26:00.016Z

Since I last posted, Euan has grown up alot. He'll be 3 months old in a few days time and is due for his 3rd month immunisation jab on the same day. This little baby still is very sweet and considerate. He has taken to sucking his own fingers to comfort himself. During the night, he comforts himself back to sleep and only cry for feed if he really have to. Very thoughtful baby hahaha! He recognises faces and ask to be picked up in his own way. During bath time, you can ask him to kick the water and he would proudly do so with a big toothless grin on his face. These few days, it's as if he just noticed his tiny toes. He would wiggle them and move his feet in circular movement whilst watching intently. I guess his feet are always covered by his sleepsuit, hence he never knew. Euan adores his daddy and Tobey. He loves watching them play from a corner and would not take his eyes off them and their toys.

Euan watching daddy and Tobey playing Wii. These pictures were taken on the 5/12. When Euan was 2 months old. Will load up his recent pics soon.

See how he happily joined in the gang

Learning from his big brother

*** Warning- Long winded posting below***

December hasn't been a good month for us health wise.

It started with SK accidentally shut the door on Tobey's left ring finger on the 7th of Dec. We rushed him to A&E and his finger was x-rayed. It had a hairline fracture at the very tip. They bandaged him up and put him on a course of antibiotic to avoid any infection. We kept him home from pre-school but he still went to perform in his nativity play on the 9th as he had been practicing really hard for it. As he's a sheep for the play, he's suppose to take off his t-shirt before putting on his costume. He refused and wouldn't let his teacher take it off for fear that it might hurt his bandaged finger.

my darling with his injured finger

He got really bored midway

Posing with something we won in the raffles draw

We took him for further 3 check-ups. It's all healed now, but the boy still insist on having a bandage on until his new nail grows back. Whenever he accidentally pull off the bandage he would cry out of fear, as if his finger fell off. Silly bunny.

On the 19th, Tobey started to have a flu. For the next few days he had mild temperature at night and that followed by a terrible cough for a couple more days. Other than being snotty and very lethargic, he was well in himself, as in he still as active as usual. We wanted to bring to go to the church service on the eve of Christmas, but since he's still not completely well, we didn't. When he got better, except for a lingering cough, SK and Euan fell ill with the same virus on Christmas day! Both of them were being hit REALLY hard by this strain. SK was literally bed-ridden for a few days. It was so heart-breaking seeing them being so weak! I weren't so worried about SK, but was quite panicky for Euan. He was just 12 weeks old. I didn't want to leave any stone unturned and was ultra alert of the symptomsor changes. For the first 3 nights, I took him to see the out- of- hours doctors. The doctor on the first night even offered him antibiotics! I stopped after 24 hours as it did not take effect( after seeking approval from a doctor first of course) and I was then pretty sure it was a viral flu. Antibiotics would not help. I don't understand how can a doctor just put his finger in the air and simply prescribe antibiotic to such a small infant. On the second night, he vomited one of his feeds. The second out-of-hours doctor said it's just a very bad flu. Just treat him with calpol(children paracetamol) and neurofen (children ibuprofen) at home and let the virus run it's course. On the third night, his cough was getting so bad that it again triggered his gag system and he vomited twice. I was so anxious and thankfully the third out-of-hours doctor wrote us a letter and referred him to be seen by the paediatrician immediately. Euan was being examined thoroughly for the next couple of hours (wee hours of the morning till 5 am). I told them that my concern is his hacking cough that is so bad that it's causing his body to jerk and gag. He is being diagnosed as having Bronchiolitis. Apparently, this virus affects mostly babies between 3-6 months during the winter months. they have been seeing so many babies this winter down with the same virus. The symptoms are mainly coughing, accompanied by mild fever for the first few days. The coughing is the only way the babies use to clear their airway of mucus. Since babies aren't able to spit out phlegm like adults, they just retain it longer until it's being expelled in their diapers. The severity of the symptoms peaks at day 3 then it stays bad for 4 days and gets gradually better in the next 3-4 days. There's nothing the doctors could prescribe him. We were just instructed to keep him hydrated and temperature down. I think he turned the corner and started to get better on day 7, except for the irritating cough. Again, I took him to the our local Cambourne paediatric doctor to be checked out again, just to make sure he hasn't got any secondary infection such as a sore throat. He was alright. She told me that almost all of Cambourne babies are down with this virus this winter, it just went around the village. Great. Today is day 10 and he's 95% back to himself. There's still this stupid damn cough that appears a few times in a day. Oh, hubby's purchase of a vaporiser is worth every penny. It humidified Euan's room and help loosen his mucus from his nose and airway, hence made his breathing easier and gave him better sleep. And to think that I actually objected to this purchase a few months back. Sigh.

SK is also almost back to his usual self. He's alright, except that he felt cheated of his Christmas holidays. 8 days were used up to nurse this virus off system. I think before next winter break, I would try to keep Tobey off school for a few days. Really don't want any of us to spend another Christmas being sick.

As for me, I am just so glad that my 3 sweethearts are ok now. I only managed to go to the sales twice. But didn't managed to get anything for myself both times. However, I did quite good on the internet shopping front. Breastfeeding shrinked me a little, so I dug out many pairs of jeans which were banished to the top of the cupboard and suddenly have new clothes to wear..hehe.

To family and friends, here's wishing you good health and lots of love in 2011.

Euan at 8 weeks old

2010-11-30T14:31:00.010Z

He smiles more now. Unlike Tobey who as as a baby was more generous with smiles, Euan is more mysterious and always looks as if he's pondering about the meaning of life, hence making his smiles more golden ;) He gurgles alot though.

At his six weeks check he weighed 5.8kgs, at 90th percentile and height at 75th percentile. So now, 2 weeks later he should weight more than a kg more. He takes a few naps a day and starts his night sleep at around 8pm. Will wake up every 2 hours for feed. However, from 12 midnight to7/8 am, he wakes up only once (on most nights).That's the saving grace for me. He is still exclusively breastfed.

We woke up to 5cm depth of snow this November morning. We walked to school today, so that Tobey can make snowballs and footprints on the snow on the way there. Today was his dress rehearsal for his nativity play (on the 9th Dec).. We ended getting him TWO sheep costumes (long story). SK took leave just to attend his firstborn very first play :)

He's enjoying pre-school alot. Few weeks back, SK went for his development meeting with his key worker. The only concern the teachers have is how he's not intrested in playing games on the school's computer. Here's why;

I've also been lugging the kids to do school visits , in preparation of choosing the most suitable school for Tobey's reception in 2011.

More pics

2010-11-22T21:59:00.004Z

Euan at 7 weeks old

Tobey practicing his school play

Almost 3 1/2 years old Tobey

Family picture

Euan at 5 weeks old

2010-10-28T20:49:00.008Z

He's rounder now with all the breastmilk he's been getting...hehehe.. He's currently having a growth spurt , where he wants milk, alot of milk almost every hour at times. He has very strong neck and can turn his head left and right to look at things. He's attracted to anything red and will stare at that item for a long time. He's aware of his brother Tobey alot. When Tobey is playing near him, Euan will gaze at him and his eyes will follow him wherever he goes. Tobey on the other hand is becoming very protective of his little brother. Whenever Euan cries he will say "Don't worry Euan, Big Brother Tobey is here!". He will always be very happy to see Euan after school. It's very heartwarming for me to see that they are starting to bond a little. Euan is also more aware of daddy now...probably wondering who is this man that looks so much like him ;P

Life for me after my parents went home (thank you papa and mummy for all the help and putting up with my hormonal mood swings )has been HECTIC! Basically, from the time I wake up at around 8 am it's go go go! Bath Euan and myself, feed Euan, eat breakfast with Tobey, house chores, feed Euan again, send Tobey to pre-school (he eats lunch at school), grocery shopping, feed Euan, put him down for a nap, cook dinner, pick Tobey up from pre-school, give Tobey his snack, finishing up preparing dinner and somemore housework, bath Tobey and give him his dinner....and on and on. After the initial hormonal weeks, now things are more settled, and admidst all the tiredness, I am actually very happy to look after this little family of mine :)

Updates on Tobey: (this is typed up very fast as Euan is currently tugging on SK's t-shirt, looking for a feed)

Tobey is growing up into a very boyish boy. His current favourite cartoon hero is no longer Firemand Sam, but Sportacus from the show Lazytown. He will do his Sportacus moves and can be persuaded to eat something that he doesn't want to eat just by saying "Sportacus eats this too". He loves school and is known as the one that gives the biggest smiles to the teachers. I love hearing about his school day on our walk back from school. He tells me that his favourite teacher are Mrs. Robot (Roberts) and Mrs. Garrrrrick (Garrick) and how he played "chasing" and "fighting" with Mitchell and Asher for example. He also pretends to be Luke skywalker from Star Wars alot (as he plays Lego Star Wars on Wii everynight with daddy-which is Darth Vader). He has light sabers (which actually lights up in different colours) and would spar like his character from the game. Tobey can recite his A-Z but can't recognise all the characters on paper yet. He still loves us to read to him and is learning to write his name. He loves playing Lego and stickle bricks, constructing bridges, buildings, cars, birthday cakes, etc., making up scenarios as he plays with them. So much more to update on my big boy, will do so when I find more time. Just want to say that I am very proud of him.

Got to go now.Bye.

Euan Wong

2010-10-08T20:16:00.006Z

Delivered naturally on the 5th October 2010, weighing 8lbs 2oz. Our hearts are bursting with immense joy. Tobey is over the moon too :))

The waiting game

2010-08-29T15:57:00.009Z

A few more weeks before my due date. I have been feeling really heavy and 'pressed down' whenever I move about. My bladder is the size of a teabag, so each glass of water I consume equals to three loo trips..haha! In the day time, I still carry on as usual as possible. Grocery shopping, play dates, birthday parties, getting the house ready for the arrival of our second one, etc. In the evenings, I would spend my time researching on the pros and cons of Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC), which I am leaning towards now.

I just want to be able to deliver naturally, and be in and out of the hospital without having to stay in the hospital for 3 nights all on my own with a newborn after another Cesarean. After all the intensive head pounding research, I've decided to wait till 41 weeks. If I go into natural delivery by then, then good. Let's just hope the integrity of my stitches from 3 years back is good enough. Statistically, there's 0.35% chance of a rupture happening. There's also a chance of things going awfully wrong in a Cesarean or even a natural birth. Child birth is a risky business, period. If this is another late baby and exceeds the 41 weeks mark, I will go for another section. Under no circumstances I will be artificially induced again. No to epidural too during a VBAC (who knows, I might just turn around and beg the doctor for one when the time comes, we'll see..haha!).

Tobey has been behaving rather weird lately. Most of the time, he's the good boy he is. But, there are times when he shouts at us when he doesn't get his ways. At times he would resort to crying. Just a few minutes ago, he spat at me when I told him not to disturb his daddy who's taking a much needed nap.I noticed that these unacceptable behaviours happen more when his daddy is around. Maybe because he felt that daddy will always be on his side when he's up to no good. Me and SK (although we have slightly different method in disciplining), we try to discuss about it and stand united when confronting him. Our method is to 'nip it in the bud' each time firmly. I know it's called the 'Terrible Three' and all that, but apart of me wonder whether it's anything to do with the impending arrival of his baby brother. We do talk to him about his brother off and on. Telling him that we'll need to carry his brother because he won't know how to walk yet when he's out, about how his brother would cry alot as he won't know how to speak yet as he's not a big boy like him and so on. He's quite careful in not to jump on my tummy, sings to the baby and whenever I bump myself he would asked "Is baby brother alright?". Sometimes he would ask questions like "Does my baby brother like dark? It must be dark in mummy's tummy." Which is quite sweet :)

Anyhow, I am quite calm and prepared for the delivery (being the second time around). All I can do now is just to pray that everything to be alright.

Several pics I forgot to include in the previous post.

These are the sweetest plums ever! They are from our plum tree in the back garden. Tobey and I polished the whole plate off. SK just get to see the picture as he's adamant that he does not like plums. Tobey even ate the skin. He never liked fruit skin. Now we are waiting for the apples to get bigger and ripen. Hopefully, they are just as juicy and sweet :)
This is an indoor beach in a mall. They just poured huge quantity of soft sand onto floor and threw in a whole bunch of beach toys for the kids and set up beach loungers for parents to sit on. It was fab !
Father and son with their Legos. This is their favourite after dinner game (other than Star Wars in Wii). They would conjure up different scenarios which makes me laugh. For example, SK would build a private car park with gates. Tobey will have to pay SK some money to park his fire engine in SK's exclusive car park for a few minutes. Or there will be fire in the FIRE STATION, and the driver of the cement mixer truck would put out the flame with his mini fire extinguisher..hehehe.

Double rainbow seen outside, from Tobey's bedroom.

Pic updates

2010-08-12T23:21:00.012Z

It's been a summer of

...funfair

...ice-cream

...baking

...fun days with friends

...first fruits from the garden trees

We are hosting two language students from China for 3 weeks. It's been an amazing experience learning about their culture. Tobey is getting used to all the attention and like them to bits.

Also, today was my lucky day. I finally found THE poster for the empty wall in my living room. I've considered many options when we first moved in, but nothing really stood out, so this has been put on hold for a looooong time. For this one, once I saw it, I knew it's the right one. It's a subtle oil painting of a landscape with colours which both me and SK found so soothing.

Dry night?

2010-07-25T21:11:00.004Z

Tobey has been going to the loo to wee since 2 years and 1 month old. But poo-poo is a different story altogether. He refused to poo in the loo and only goes in the diaper. So his days were diaperless until after dinner, then he will ask for a diaper to do his business. After that he will have his shower and stay diaperless until sleep time. We tried to persuade him to deposit in the toilet a few times but failed miserably. He rather hold his poo in until his night time diaper comes along. This went on until June this year, a few days after his 3rd birthday. SK decided to get him to poo in the toilet again..this time he was promised 3 tic-tac sweets if he succeeded. He was also given 1 or 2 whilst trying to tide him along. Suddenly, it happened. SK witnessed it. I was so upset that I didn't get to see that magic moment. Nevertheless, I was overjoyed. The following day, he told us he wants to poo but was a bit too late and pooed in his trousers instead. He was very apologetic after that. It was as if he was embarrassed to have done that. From then till now, he's been telling us whenever he wants to poo (except for a few times when he pooed in his night diaper in the morning. When we asked him why? He said because mummy was sleeping and daddy was bathing, so he had "no choice"). I was really afraid of a relapse, but thankfully he didn't. So now we can confidently say that he's potty trained.

The only diaper he wears now is when he sleeps. A few nights ago, I forgot to put on his night diaper for him. But he was dry when I gave him his morning milk. I truly think it is most likely just a one-off because from what I read, they will still need a night diaper till 4 years old. So I didn't purposely leave him diaperless after that. Should I? Hmmm ..I better get a mattress protector first before finding out.

Hunstanton Beach

2010-07-05T21:06:00.016Z

We and our cool "peaces"..hahahaha

Last Saturday, we finally ventured to a UK beach. I've never been to a beach to a UK before...hehe.. Southampton port is not counted. Anyhoo, we wanted a beach that is not too commercialised in hope that it's not too crowded and polluted over a summer weekend. A friend who used to live in the Norfolk area recommended Hunstanton. Whilst we were packing for the trip, Tobey reminded me to bring his favourite snack and toy. Of course, his "seaside cream" as well (Sunblock). Of course, I also packed spades, pails, towels, beach ball, float, slippers, wellington boot, change of clothes, shower gel, wipes, picnic mat, snacks, plastic cutleries and cups, and 6 bottles of 2L mineral water (it was a smart move by SK actually, because they don't have a shower facility there, so we actually used these bottles to bath Tobey before changing him into clean clothes so that he can sleep comfortably on the way back. If there's sand on him, he'll probably complain till there's no tomorrow. He's fussy that way ;P)

The journey there was mostly single carriage roads sandwiched by countryside for 1 hr 30 mins. YAWN. Tobey was very patient and too excited to sleep on the way there...Once we found a spot on the beach, he quickly requested for his spade and pail and immediately started building his sandcastles.

After one successful castle, he asked me " Mummy, where's the FLAG!?" Huh??? And I thought I have packed everything he could ever wanted for a beach outing. Anyways, I tied a ribbon on a plastic spoon and tell him that's his flag.

Then SK went to the sea with him. He wants to bring his spade and pail into the sea, plus wear his cap too.
I went to get lunch from those street vendors and a parasol for us as it was getting too sunny. After lunch, I just sat myself like a whale under the parasol, kept slapping suncream on myself and people watched. For us, it's not crowded at all, as there's lots of space between our picnic spot to another. The beach is sandy with big stones mixed in. Sigh, how I miss the sandy white sand of Malaysian beaches. The water was abit murky too.

I also saw that SK and Tobey ventured further and further away. This daddy was trying to encourage his son to go further into the sea, by throwing the ball further off and encouraged him to go get it. Tobey was in his round float and was ok floating around for as long as his feet can touch the ground when he stands in the water. I wasn't too worried also knowing that SK is quite a good swimmer :)
After about 3 1/2 hours, we cleaned-up, packed up and went home. The boy slept all the way home. He enjoyed it alot, kept saying " My love my seaside, please go seaside again please"...that equals to a successful trip in SK's and my books ;)

30th Week pregnant

2010-07-02T09:04:00.007Z

I am spending my remainder pregnancy weeks nowadays doing as much as I can with my 3 year old and hubby...before the arrival of the second one. We are trying to go places that we've always wanted to go with Tobey (the beach this weekend, hopefully) and do leisure things like sleeping late, sleeping-in and just laze around doing nothing. With a newborn, means alot of home stay, sleepless nights and DVDs if I am lucky enough to have the time.

In September, Tobey will also be starting Pre-School 3 hours a day for 5 days a week. When I told him that mummy can't go to 'school with him', he asked me "where will mummy be?"..."In the car at the car park in front of your school waiting for you, of course!". He's happy with that, although deep down he knows I'll be snoozing at home....hahaha. I will miss him though. We'll be paying for him to have lunch at school too. Saves me from cooking for him when I am busy with the baby, plus he can learn to eat together with other kids and hopefully pick-up all the good table manners on the way...hehe.

Changes, changes, changes..bring it on!

Disneyland Paris 2010

2010-05-28T21:42:00.025Z

Ok. Actually this trip is for Tobey, before the new baby comes along. He has been watching alot of Disney movies (favourite being Toy Story) and programmes on TV, so he's pretty familiar with the characters and at a ripe age/tall enough to start enjoying most of the rides in the parks. Since we won't be throwing him a 3rd birthday party, this is also to make it up.

We were there for 4days/3nights. This Disneyland is made up of Disneyland Park and Walk Disney Studio Park. Disneyland park is subdivided into 5 other areas with different themes (Discoveryland, Fantasyland,Adventureland,Frontierland and Mainstreet, USA). Walt Disney studios is much smaller with live show studios, stadium for stunt show and also cinemas for animation shows.Both parks were really well-maintained. Roses in front of castles, beautiful waterfalls, no rubbish on the ground, well manicured lawns...the dedication put into making the whole disney experience alive for kids was amazing. We stayed in New York Disney Hotel. Old deco but spacious and only 5 minutes walk to the parks. Too many pictures to post, too many rides and adventures to write about. So I'll just post a few to summarise things up.

First 2 days were sunny and hot! We slapped on tonnes of sun cream and ventured into the Disneyland Park until the closing time. Hehe :)

We went on like 20 rides. This Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast ride was Tobey's favourite. We went on it for 4 times! Thank God for fast passes.The Le carrousel De Lancelot ride

Here's a 6 months pregnant woman on a horse :p

Autopia- Where Tobey gets to drive daddy around for a change (daddy pressed on the accelerator, whilst Tobey steered the wheels)

Lunch break entertainment. Tobey was dancing on the bench to the music whilst munching on his lunch

"It's a small world" ride. My favourite. It was beautiful and so well presented.

Here is Tobey with his favourite Disney characters. He called them his "friends". Starting with Minnie,

With Mickey

With Woody and Jessie

With Goofy. He was leaning his head on Goofy's palm, as in to sayang him. My sweet boy :)

I think this is ~~Simba~~ Timon ~~not sure~~.

with unidentified monkey character

and the piece de resistance- a meeting with Buzz lightyear himself. His current favourite cartoon hero.

In the studios, Tobey's favourite was not Playhouse Disney live show nor Stitch Live...

...it was the Motor Stunt Show Spectacular! We watched it on the last day and it was pouring cats and dogs, but still they managed to do all those dangerous stunts without accidents.

It was SK's favourite too. SK rode on several other more thrilling rides (such as Space Mountain: Mission 2 which is a gravity defying roller-coaster in the dark ) which are not suitable for kids and preggy woman.

Of course, we took sometime off to visit Paris. It's more for me, as I have not been there before. It's just like another big city. Not as pretty as London. Dirty metros and people are not that friendly.

Happy 3rd Birthday my darling boy. Mummy and daddy loves you around the universe and back ..then more :)

Salad Crop

2010-05-19T18:23:00.004Z

Here's proudly presenting the salad crop planted from seeds by yours truly.

I just realised my son hidden a stone in between the leaves after looking at this pic

We harvested some to make an Avocado and Egg salad for dinner tonight.
It's amazing how a 58pence pack of seeds can give me at least a dozen packs of the same salad which cost about £1 each in the supermarket. Of course, homegrown ones are organic, tastier and fresher.

London Zoo

2010-05-18T19:13:00.010Z

We took the train down to London to visit ZSL London Zoo. This would be the 2nd time Tobey got on a train. The first time when he was about a year old, but I doubt he remembers. The 45 minutes journey went by quite slowly for us parents as the boy kept asking questions about why the train stopping at other stations? Are we in a tunnel? and various other questions again and again. I think he expected a steam engine train complete with "Choo-Choo" sound..hehe! We told him we got n a modern train instead.
Once in London we took the tube. A first for him again. It's a "smaller train" according to him. From Camden Town station, we walked for about 15 minutes to the Zoo entrance.
Last Summer, we took him to Colchester Zoo. We were expecting London Zoo to be much bigger and better from what we heard from friends who visited. But it's actually much smaller. In Colchester Zoo, the Safari area was a huge piece of sandy field where all the safari animals mingled amongst themselves. We also managed to witness Warthogs fights. In London Zoo, they were just normal sized stalls for each individual type of safari animals. What can we expect eh?, It's after all in the middle of a metropolitan.There weren't even Elephants for us to feed nuts to! Plus the animal petting area just consisted of Sheeps when we were there.
Anyway, we are still thankful for a great day out as it was suppose to rain but it just drizzled twice for 5 minutes when we were walking the grounds. We also managed to watch a 20 minutes live show called "Animal in Action". Like us, Tobey is not a fan of animals. He just lingered a minute or two at each exhibit before saying "my see something else please". He is more fascinated in reading the map and pretend to direct us to the next stall. Oh well.

Mr. Map reader
Jelly Fishes

Most co-operative Penguins ever. They literally parade themselves for the visitors at all times. Walking around the pond, lining-up or simply just walked forward in a group and stared point-blank at the spectators. For a while, I wondered that maybe they are the spectators of us silly people at the other side of the fence.

26th April 2010

2010-04-26T21:50:00.019Z

SK spent some time this evening trailing the boy around the garden. He managed to capture what the boy usually does when he's hanging out in the garden. He does and is encouraged to get out there to play and be adventurous whenever the weather permits.

Plucking some blossoms of the tree for mummy & making sure no cat is messing with mummy's vegetable patch :)

Peeping Tom

Half-time

I have to mention this here. Today, the helium balloon he got from his friend's birthday party over the weekend flew off his hands and up into the skies. We both looked at it flying upwards helplessly for a few minutes.
He asked me to 'rescue' it for him. If I could fly, I would fly up there to get it for him, but I couldn't. So I explained to him that the balloon has 'gone home to God'. He accepted it but ran to hug me and cried for a little while, totally devastated. "My love my yellow balloon" he said. A few hours later, an airplane flew past and he said (looking very hopeful) that the airplane will rescue his yellow balloon. I had to break it to him that it's not going to happen and that his balloon will not be coming back anymore. It's heartbreaking knowing that I can't protect him completely from sadness however careful I am. I guess being there to hug and explain things to him is the best I could do. Not easy being a parent. Now I feel like getting a tank of helium to fill up a room full of yellow balloons for him.

**********************************************************

On a separate note, trees and plants are starting to bloom;

Cherry Blossoms

Apple tree blossoms

Plum tree blossoms

Rhodendrum flowers- We got 2 of these last year and waited for them to bloom, but they didn't. This time around, blooming it did, but only from one plant. The other one needs to be replanted to a more sunny spot.

Pics updates

2010-04-19T20:08:00.008Z

Weather has been fantastic.Tobey has been busy playing with friends and spent most of his time imagining different adventures in the garden. The other day he told me he's building sandcastles on the seaside (we have to bring him to the beach soon)..hehe...the last pic shows our attempt in planting vege seedlings into the ground. Tobey helped me with his new set of tools. They are choi-sums and pak-chois cultivated from seeds. We've also planted courgette seeds in pots to cultivate into seedlings, but they have yet to break through. Last weekend, we sowed salad and chives seeds directly into ground (it's possible to do so according to my friends' experiences). So fingers crossed. It's definitely won't be as good as FIL's vege patch last summer. But one can only try. Plus I found pottering around the garden is very therapeutic for both Tobey and me. SK does alot as well. But he's more interested in keeping the grass healthy, moss free and scaring cats away with some ultrasonic box, gel repellents, etc. He actually checks the perimeters for cat poos twice a day. Yup. TWICE.

I've been busy in the kitchen too. My firsts lately were mamak mee goreng and garlic loaf. The bread dough actually doubled in size after some waiting time, but I forgot to take a pic of it as I was busy punching the air out of it. Very satisfying. Highly recommended.

Easter break'10

2010-04-09T17:48:00.014Z

Easter break starts on Friday (Good Friday) and stretches until Monday.

On Friday, SK needed to work from home and needed some ultra-quiet work time, it was raining cats and dogs, so I brought Tobey to this play centre to make use of his excess energy. Being a public holiday, the place was heaving with older kids. With my pregnant tummy, I could no longer trail him in those structures as certain section requires me squeeze my whole body through 2 rollers, like pan meen rollers. So I told him to fend for himself, make sure he stay away from rowdy kids. I parked myself at a table nearest to the structures so that I can still keep an eye on him. We had lunch there too. After like 3 hours I had to drag the boy out.

On Saturday, we went to town, came home, he still got the energy so we went cycling to the nearby playground.

On Sunday (and Monday), we went up to Birmingham to stay a night and to help BIL view a few apartments. That morning, I was the first to wake-up because going to Birmingham also means visits to Malaysian Delight Restaurant. I dreamt of their Assam Laksa the night before....slurp...

Anyways, in between viewings we had lunch there with BIL- Super gorgeous Assam Laksa, Wa Tan Hor (another one for ta-pau as well), Braised pork belly with yam and Char keow teow. Then after more viewings (all the shops were closed because it was Easter Sunday) we chilled out in the hotel club lounge eating canapes and helping ourselves to free drinks (ahem..that's the advantage of having BIL working in a hotel) but all I can think of is dinner back in the same place. So dinner time came and for dinner we had -Butter Prawns, Belachan Kang-Kung, Claypot seafood with tofu, Sizzling pork chops....just your average dinner food when eating out in Malaysia right? nothing to shout about. But having authentic Malaysian dinner served in this country is really a rare treat. Very often in chinese restaurants, you'll find Hong Kong cuisine being served instead. We've also tried several other restaurants that serves Malaysian food, but nothing as authentic as this one.

Anyways, here are several pics
Tobey and I chilling out in the room. Tobey is playing Jelly Car on the iphone (he is laughing to himself in the picture above) and I am playing his DSi.

Yes the boy is a gamer. We had to confiscate Wii from him because he was refusing to do anything else whilst playing it. "Tobey time for dinner", "wait 1 minute mummy". We kept it in the cupboards and told him that it's spoilt and being sent for fixing (sorry boy, but it was too overwhelming for you). To cater to his geeky gaming genes from his daddy, plus to further nurture his concentration skill, we substituted it with a DSi game console instead. It works. He enjoys it moderately whilst still rather go out for cycling, football, crafts activities, playing with his friends, etc. Lately, he's been surfing the Internet on my laptop too. He can't read or spell yet, but he can navigate and click on fixed links at the top of the window using the touch pad. Usually he'll click onto the BBC link and look for CBeebies website. He will then look for games to amuse himself. To avoid him being obsessed over it, we only allow him some time on the laptop after dinner/lunch. Both SK and I are trying to let him enjoy these moderately and not deprived him from it altogether. Because the last thing we want of him is to become stuck in his room, gaming his time away into his teens. Honestly, it's not exactly the route to a balance healthy lifestyle. It has to be one of the activities that he enjoys amongst others.

Conversation with my 2 yrs 9 mths old boy

2010-03-23T22:14:00.002Z

1)Tobey and mummy at the top of the stairs

M: Let's go downstairs boy
T: let's go!

The next thing I know, he wrapped his hands and legs on the stairs vertical banister/rail thingy.

M:Argh! What are you doing? Get off!
T: I'm Fireman Sam, my slide downstairs.

Fireman Sam is his current cartoon hero.

2)Tobey checking my tummy with his stethoscope

T: My checking baby
M: Is baby sleeping?
T: No, playing toys

3)Mummy rubbing tummy on bed with Tobey next to her

M: You'll have to be a big brother an look after baby when he/she is out ok?

Tobey stared into my belly button

M: Oi! Concentrate, mummy is talking to you. You'll have to help mummy look after baby, ok?

Tobey leaned forward and looked into my belly button more intently and seriously.

M: Hey, I am talking to you.
T: My looking after baby now!

He was trying to look AT baby through my belly button

Baby Number Two

2010-03-22T12:31:00.006Z

First scan at Hinchingbrooke Hospital Treatment Centre

Yup I am 3 1/2 months pregnant with Tobey's bro/sis :)

Although I have been through all these before, for me, this baby is entirely different from Tobey. It's a new life altogether. Today we went for the first scan. I was moved beyond words when I saw my little baby inside of me. After making sure that he/she has got 2 arms and 2 legs, the next thing I noticed was how sharp his/her nose is. Tobey had my button nose in his first scan pictures (he still has the cutest button nose). I guess this baby has SK's nose.

The first month of pregnancy was smooth sailing. I was telling my friends how I might have escaped from suffering any morning sickness this time around. With Tobey I had a few weeks of morning (2 hours each day max) nausea. I remember vividly munching on vinegar and salt rice cakes on the way to work. I spoke too soon obviously. Month 2 and 3 was torturous. Most days, I suffered from mild nausea ALL DAY LONG.I couldn't even vomit to relief it. I couldn't eat well, but if I was hungry, the nausea got worse. So I had to force food into my system for my sake and the baby's health. The sight and smell of certain food can really set me off. First it was chicken -on-bone (same case when I was carrying Tobey), then it was pork, then fish, then cheese...etc. At one point, I could only tolerate toasted bread with tomato sauce! Cooking for Tobey and SK was like an out-of-body experience. I did it without passion and just like a robot. MSG in outside food didn't agree with me as well. I suddenly found the smell of anchovies repulsive! I love food and my love for eating is common knowledge to everyone I know. So having such a 'touch-and-go' relationship with food genuinely saddened me. I couldn't even stand my usual favourite laundry detergent of Lavender and Camomile. I got tired easily and slept alot more. Long story short, I was at one of my lowest point in my life. The only thing that can relieve my morning sickness was a walk in the fresh open air. Unfortunately during those months, UK was suffering the coldest winter in 30 years. So a slow walk in the park was out of the equation. It was more like sticking my head out an open window for several minutes a time.

AAAAAnyways, every cloud has a silver lining...Spring came 2 weeks ago, a months late, but it came at the tail end of my morning sickness period. Most of my nausea went away along with the cold. I started vegetable gardening, took Tobey out for walks in parks, cycling and to the playgrounds, hanging my laundry on the washing line, visiting friends for lunch dates and sometimes just ate lunch in the back garden. Simple pleasures that 5 months a year of winter robbed from us. I hate winter. I really do. Snow no longer hold that magical feel to it and has no more 'wow factor' for me anymore. Snow is more like a massive inconvenience to our lives here, which centres alot on being outdoors. I lost count of the number of times my car skidded on frozen roads. When the sun came back, my appetite and energy returned too. I cooked up a storm. Portugese Curry Devil, Mango Rojak , Hokkien Mee, Wonton Mee, Prawn mee...it was such a relief.

I can't wait to hold this baby in my arms in September. I pray daily that this baby will be healthy and well-formed. We discussed for centuries before decided to have another child. Especially when it's just the both of us caring for both children in this foreign land. No maid, no relatives, no easily available yummy food (plus in a huge variety) to turn too when we don't feel like cooking for a week, no cheap childcare, the list goes on. All we hope is for he/she and Tobey will look out for one another in life and can be pillars of support and strength to each other. Especially when we are not around anymore (we'll be travelling the world! Woo Hoo!).

Two is our magic number.

Where has Spring gone?

2010-02-19T22:04:00.005Z

It's been the longest winter ever in my 8 years here. When we thought we heard Spring at the doorstep, the snow will swiftly come and greet us (how I wish I am in the Malaysia, under the scorching CNY sun). Like this morning, it was frosty and white again outside. Fortunately, the sun came out and melted off the ice on my car (It was about 2-3 celcius) Yay! no need to scrape windscreen. Tobey and I went for our usual Friday town outings. It's usually when I stock up on groceries from the Chinese supermarket, toiletries/vitamins/nappies from Boots and do a bit of window shopping. It's the best time, as that is when every store is stocked up for the weekend. So you get your hands on the weekend offers and abundance of stock /options without the weekend crowd.

It's also the day where we try to lunch at new places. I heard of this noodle bar from a friend, but I could never find it in the Cambridge town street maze, until today. It's Yippee Noodle Bar.

Tobey was trying to dig into the noodles with his chopsticks (from the right side)

We shared a bowl of Beef HoFun noodle soup. Abit like Vietnamese Beef Pho, with tastier and thicker soup. We also had some Tempura prawns. Both were really good. SK wants to try it for himself tomorrow. I hope I can find the restaurant again ;P

Magic Moments

2010-02-10T11:23:00.001Z

I hurt my hand banging it against the doors again. Sigh.

Tobey: Mummy pain?

Me: Yes, ouch!

Tobey: (rubbed his fingers on my hand and said) "Don't worry mummy, pain go away soon...my love mummy" and hugged me.

I felt much better after that :D

Updates

2010-02-10T11:13:00.005Z

Helping mummy with the ironing. He's ironing his muslin cloth. Don't worry, the iron is NOT turned on.

At Nandos waiting for food. He no longer can fit into most high-chairs comfortably.

Visiting Shean Wenn in London. They held hands on the way out of the restaurant.

His uncle visited us. The boy just wouldn't stop playing his uncle's Iphone's games.

Settling-in

2010-01-23T18:43:00.005Z

There were 3 "settling-in-sessions" this week at nursery.

Tuesday- We were there for about 45 minutes. I filled in some forms and he explored the new toys and activities. I was given a list of things to be packed into his bag.He was reluctant to leave.

Wednesday-Bag all packed (spare clothes, nappies for poo-poo, hat, gloves, wellies, handphone (kidding), muslin cloth and water tumbler). Tobey double-checked to see that his muslin cloth and water tumbler is in before leaving. He loves wearing it. Kept saying "My going School, this my bag".

I was with him for 10 mins then made my exit. I told him that I am going to the supermarket opposite to do some shopping and will be back very soon to pick him up. At first, he whispered "Mummy stay here, sit-down next my". I told him that Ian (his key person) would be looking after him and pointed out at all the fresh paint readily available for painting. He went to the paint straight away. I was told me to come back after 45 mins. I went to the cafe in the supermarket, bought newspaper and some overpriced tea and was prepared to read in peace. Surprisingly, 2 of my friends were there too (they just came back from shopping and waiting to pick up their older kids from school), so I ended up chatting with them and looking at their purchases. Newspaper untouched.

When I went back, all the kids were all wrapped up and was playing at the nursery's playground. Ian told me that he didn't even ask for me. It took me another 10 mins to persuade him to go home.

Friday - 5 mins after bringing him in. I was told to exit for 1 hr 30 mins. Tobey said "No , mummy stay". Ouch! heart pain :( I pointed at all the soft play dough they just made and he said "kay" to me leaving. I went and bought some stuff, cooked dinner and tried to make some calls. I missed my boy. When I went to pick him up, I was told he was fine for the first hour. Then when the children and adults set-up the tables for teatime, he started crying and asked for me. Ian quickly got him his muslin cloth and tumbler. He calmed down. When I went to him, his face lighted up and he was seated with other kids around a table having his toast with butter and jam. His face was all red from all the crying. After making sure he hasn't got a temperature, I asked him why he cried he said "my tummy pain, my cry". He didn't ask to go for a wee at all. When we got home, he went for a big wee. So, I figured, he wasn't comfortable to ask to go for a wee in a new surrounding. Hence, he held it in until his tummy hurts.

So this coming Monday morning would be his first official session. Just Monday morning for now. He asked for his bag today so that he can go to school. I'll put a nappy on him then, until he's used to the place.

Nursery

2010-01-14T13:58:00.006Z

Although his days are filled with a fair amount of playgroups and classes, I've always been around him. Now that he's old enough, we've enrolled him into nursery starting off just one morning a week and increase accordingly (probably up to 2 or 3 mornings a week). Reason being, I don't want him to miss out on the benefits of being away from me. I am hoping that he'll learn to fend for himself by himself amongst his peers. It's also so that he will be ahead of the game and ease into Pre-school easily this coming September (kiasuism :P). I've visited several nurseries within reasonable driving distance, but still settled for Sunflower Nursery which is just 5 mins walk from home (save petrol which is £1.119/litre now ~CRAZY! get to sleep in more, no traffic jams..etc).

So very soon, my baby will be going to "school". The big question is, what do I do with my free time? I hope to get back to work part-time if possible. Just have to leave it in God's hands. Who knows he might have other plans for me ;)

Crunchy peanut butter cookies

2010-01-13T14:56:00.010Z

Ingredients

8 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp caster sugar (I used icing sugar instead for better texture)
2 tbsp crunchy peanut butter
1 free-range egg yolk
50g/1¾oz butter, softened
icing sugar, for dusting

Method

Mix everything into a bowl. Mix with hand. Shape with dusting of flour. Bake 10 mins in preheated oven of 180 C.

Tobey was the main chef this time around. He's getting a hang of listening to the ingredients being read out and adding them into the mixing bowl accordingly. I mixed them with hand. He then shaped and sprinkled them with sugar strands (instead of icing sugar).

He decided to shape them to various sizes

Once it's baked and cooled, out came the coloured icing tubes for more decorating

Finally the taste test- "Mmm Nice, my make cookie nice"
(he then asked to save a few pieces for daddy)

Yam Pau

2010-01-12T23:41:00.000Z

I didn't make this ..hahahahah (as if I can). It's from the Chinese supermarket frozen section. I am a total convert. Move aside Red Bean and Lotus. Make way for Yam Pau. Yummy!

Why?

2010-01-11T12:15:00.002Z

It has started.

"Why turn off tap mummy?"
"Why wipe hands mummy?"
"Why not climb mummy?"

I find it quite amazing for now. I am sure I'll sing a different tune once he goes on overdrive.

Pretend Play & 2 1/2 yrs old Developmental Checks

2010-01-08T23:53:00.008Z

We couldn't find a dentist toy set (there goes the early retirement dream for SK).So this Doctor one would do. Actually, he's been using shoelaces, ribbons, ties and any bit of string as stethoscope to check our heart beat. That is on top of our daily temperature check with the digital ear thermometer. As expected he was ecstatic when we handed him a plastic briefcase filled with a stethoscope, a syringe, 2 medicine bottles, an otoscope (to look into ear canals), a thermometer, a clipboard, a "knee knocker" and a cute pair of spectacle frame. It's the first thing he plays with everyday.

I role play with him using different scenarios. He loves it.

For example:

I play the Dr siting at the desk . He comes into the clinic on his red race car and ask for a check-up. I check his heart beat whilst he takes deep breaths. Then I check his ears and knocks his knee, where he'll pretend to move his leg after each knock. Very dramatic. Lastly, I place the thermometer under his armpit and declares that he has a temperature and needs an injection! I'll extract some medicine from a bottle and an injection is given to his bum and he'll go "ouch!". That calls for some pain medication for the pain :P. He'll then shakes my hand and hops onto his car and zooms off into his kitchen. 2 Seconds later. He'll be back to return his empty bottle of medicine for me recycle.

Today we went for his 2 1/2 years old developmental check. He met all the milestones/ should haves. Showed no nerves whatsoever when being observed playing with the tea set, building blocks, threading toys and such. Infact, he impressed me. How come he never concentrated that well at home. Tsk. Long story short, the health visitor were charmed beyond words. She commented that he looks really healthy and confident. We discussed about him still asking for a nappy to do his big business and then goes into hiding (usually the hallway) to be alone and will only reappear and ask us to "please wash poo away" once he's done. I am going to try out her suggestion.

Hello 2010

2010-01-01T00:18:00.006Z

2009 is when...

...We newly moved to our new home in Cambourne, where we made many good friends.
...SK settled into his new company
...My parents, SK's parents and my auntie&uncle visited us from back home
...We went home to Malaysia for a holiday

and the best part is that we saw Tobey grew into a fabulous boy that he is now. All we wish for 2010 is for him to continue growing into the happy, healthy, confident, assertive and loving person we wish for him to be.

Happy New Year everyone. May this year brings you added happiness and contentment, the fortune that your are looking for, be surrounded by good people, and good health to enjoy them all.

Pan Mee

2009-12-30T21:15:00.008Z

I was feeling really lethargic one evening. So I decided to pull myself together and do something interesting in the kitchen. I made Pan Mee for the first time. It's not my favourite, but Tobey liked it back in Malaysia. It took me 2 hours. Kneading and rolling of the noodle took most of the time. I really ought to get that special pasta/noodle machine.

Anyways, here it is...

.
.
.

Just kidding...it's more like this

Actually, I am pretty proud of my humble bowl of Pan Mee. Although it's not much of a looker, but the taste is there. SK asked me how come the noodle looked like belts.Tsk! If only they sell that potato leaves here, then the garnishing would look more complete.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-27T19:59:00.014Z

a beautiful rainbow on our way back

We went up to Birmingham for 2 nights to celebrate Christmas with BIL and his partner, Ann. Plus also to 'hit the sales' on Boxing day...hehe...We stayed in BIL's hotel and had steamboat as Christmas Dinner.

Ann with BIL and our little Christmas spread.

Tobey with his uncle. He calls him "tup-tup" (instead of "Suk-Suk")

Gone were the days where we would leave the hotel at 6 am and speedwalk for 10 minutes, making sure we are the first customers at Next. Now, (or rather after being parents) we value our sleep more. Furthermore, there was no way we could compete with the younger generation of today. They lined up outside Next (in the cold) since 4am. Doors opened at 7am. Cheesin(spoken like a true oldie ;P). We started at 10 am and by 3pm, Tobey was too bothered by the massive crowd, so we went back to the room for him to rest. Instead, he happily spent the next hour or so playing with everything electronic in the room.

Here's my baby in the midst of his phone 'conversations'

I did managed to sneak out for some alone shopping time when both father and son were asleep. That was really good.

Snowy 18th Dec'09

2009-12-18T12:22:00.014Z

Promised SK I'll bring the boy out to build a snowman. Early in the morning, Tobey came to me and went "Mummy,wake up! snoremen snoreball please please please! My brush teeth!" (he willingly went and brushed his teeth). So after breakfast, we ventured out into the -2 c with a mission. I lost my gloves, so had to put on my kitchen mittens to build it. Even with them, I can only manage a tiny one before my hands went numb. Here are several pics, especially for his family back home who misses him :)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Everyone. God Bless.

Fortnight of Fun and Food

2009-12-08T17:31:00.028Z

It was a good holiday. Malaysia is still as vibrant, except for higher food prices, more elevated highways, increase in the number of sky scrappers and trendy restaurants/cafes/hang-out areas.

At Pavilion KL

We met up with many relatives from KL and Penang. Attended two weddings. Met up with friends. Went to pasar malams, mamak stall (day and night), took the LRT to get to Petaling Street, visited the shopping centres and restaurants. We left Tobey with the in-laws some of the times. So SK and I actually had alot of fun kidding around and trying to act like a non-married couple on dates. Managed to get myself a chinese watercolour scroll for my stairway too (for those who knows me, you can imagine how ecstatic I am to have finally got my hands on one that I like). Food wise, we made it a point to be very objective this time around. We tried to say NO to repeats and to 2nd best. That's how we managed to eat everything on the list. From durian to crab, mee goreng to fruit rojak, from Shanghainese noodle to Japanese buffet.

Say hi to "Poon Choi" at Jeff Lee, Sungai Buloh market square

Back to Tobey

The down:

Whenever he's not in an air-conditioned room, he sweat-ed. Mozzies seems to prefer his firm flesh to our flabs. A week into the trip, he had a temperature for 2 days. Hovered around 38-39 c. Normally back in UK, I would just treat it with over the shelves children medicine. But I was worried about Dengue and such, being in Malaysia. The first children clinic we visited was rubbish. The woman doctor was such an irritant. Spoke to us with a condescending tone and as if we were irresponsible teenage parents. Then she went on to prescribed antibiotics for a viral throat infection.Classic. The antibiotic was too strong and caused his tummy to be gassy. We then brought him to Megah Specialist Medical Centre. Met a fantastic pediatrician, Dr. Lam. He told us his throat infection was so mild, it need not to be treated in the first place. The wind medication he prescribed eradicated the air in his tummy straight away. By day 3, Tobey is back to his usual self.

The ups:

FIL put him on the front seat of his bike and rode around the neighbourhood. He was even allowed to handle the acceleration(the throttle) at times. Oh boy, the boy was over the moon and couldn't stop talking about it. About how he went on the "up-downs" (road bumps) and how the bike sounded like.

Tobey on daddy's new bike

He helped in picking the young coconuts from the tree in front of the house

This is his current trademark smile for the camera

and walked to pasar tani/malam. During the walk to pasar malam, he used a torchlight to shine everything along the way, the drain, the pavement, etc. Of course there were the trips to the malls.

Natural smile :)

SK spoilt him rotten with coin-operated rides and toys. Whenever we are out on our own, we ended up always thinking of the boy and buying him gifts. We noticed that decent toys cost much more in m'sia compared to the UK.Something that we bought for £40 is priced at almost RM400. I wonder how on earth a person working in Malaysia (those on average income) be able to afford them! No wonder toys of "lesser quality" (flimsy) has a market there). It's really unfair to say the least. Having said that, from what we observed in shopping malls and restaurants, many MANY Malaysian must be earning waaaaaaay above average.
He loves looking at puppies through the windows and shouting "down Chili down!" ,"puppy mum-mum!", etc. he got to sample many Malaysian dishes for the first time too. His favourites are "Pan mee" ,"Hor Fun","Roti Telur". and "Big prawn". His first request after landing was "Yeh-yeh, Big prawn please!" hehehe.

At Canton-I, One Utama

Sagano, Renaissance Hotel

Both set of granparents really showered him with love and attention. It' so sad that he's living so far away from them.

I thank God that the flight to and from was relatively easy on us and Tobey. We felt rejuvenated and are glad to be back home.

Savoury Cheese and Onion muffins

2009-11-18T12:32:00.009Z

Another cooking lesson with Tobey. This time we made several savoury muffins for breakfast. I made these using (enough for 7 big muffins)

10 tbsp self-raising flour
5 tbsp semolina flour (makes the muffin softer in the inside
3/4 mug of mozarella cheese
1/2 mug of fried onions (I got mine from the salad counter in the local supermarket)
1 medium egg
1/2 a mug of goat's milk (that's what in my fridge, I am sure cow's milk will do fine)
1/2 a bowl of frozen peas
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

Mix everything together until you reach a gluey or "dollopy" consistency. Add more flour or milk if needed. Spoon them into muffin cases and bake at 200 C for around 20 mins (or when the top is crusty and brownish). Eat them whilst they're still warm...

********

The other day I stir-fried these soya beans with garlic and chinese sausage for dinner. It's our first time eating fresh soya beans. SK stared at it for quite sometime before even touching it...they turned out to be quite tasty :)

Tobey at 2 years 5 months old

2009-11-09T22:36:00.010Z

Tobey with one of the pumpkins from the garden.

With mommy ...

With Daddy at The Waffles Company

Conversation clips:

Mommy(M): Let's brush teeth.
Tobey(T): Yes, big nen-nen dirty teeth, YUCKS!

T: Didi, where are you?Mimi, where's daddy?
M: Pom-Pom-ming(showering)
T: Daddy dirty, YUCKS!

T: Mimi, HELP! (his friends where piling cushions onto him and tried to sit on him)
M:Stop boys!
T: (Tobey emerged from the mountain of cushions before mommy got to him..) AAArgh! (pushes one 3YO away and said..) No! Go away! Bad!

I was immensely proud that he stood-up and defended himself.

B0b The Builder Live C0ncert

2009-10-28T22:09:00.005Z

Today Tobey went for his first live concert. The Bob The Builder one..hehe.. He went with his good friend Ethan. It's around 1 hour and 20 minutes show, with a 20 minutes break in the middle. Tobey managed to stand/sit still for the first 30 minutes. The storyline was about Bob and Wendy trying to build a recycling centre in Sunflower Valley. And all the other characters (Spud, Dizzy, Scoop, Mr. Pickle, etc.) helped.
After that he got really restless and got down to loiter around the theatre floor. Good thing was, he wasn't alone, there were other toddlers loitering alongside him. They mostly went to the foot of the stage to dance nearer to the characters which was really cute to watch.
For the parents, well, I bet most of us must have yawned at least once in during the show. If only there's a Handy Manny or Special Agent Oso concert. I am sure Tobey would enjoy it even more.

Mr. Wind

2009-10-22T20:00:00.002Z

Tobey walked into his garden. Noticed his goalpost being blown down. He looked up to the sky and said "NO wind, NO!. Naughty!"

Spotted!

2009-10-09T19:48:00.017Z

Today we attended a lovely luncheon held by another Malaysian mommy at her house. The guest list were 6 mommies and their kids. It was so much fun for Tobey, it was like a mini-playgroup, but only consisted of his favourite familiar friends which he plays with all the time. Her parents cooked the yummiest curry chicken. Her live-in nanny did all the cleaning-up, hence leaving her to mingle with us. We had so much laughter between us girls! So good for the soul. In such a short time in this village, I am already blessed with a group of such awesome girlfriends! Each and everyone of them are so sincere and special in their own way. I really thank God for them :)

After several hours, most of us proceeded to Camb0urne Children Centre 1st anniversary Party. There was cake cutting (yummy not overly sweet cake baked by a famous nearby village baker), various art & craft activities and also puppet shows and performances.

Look how happy they were! Tobey is at the left most

Tobey enjoyed painting the giant paper house, the singing and the cutting of papers using REAL scissors.
I was browsing the advertising board and saw Tobey in one of the promotional pictures!

I remember that day, he was fascinated by a plastic baby shark in the tank. He must have been 18-19 months old.

He was so shattered when we got home after some grocery shopping, he actually dozed off on the floor for 20 minutes, whilst watching TV.

Side updates:

Over the weekend, we sent my aunt and uncle off to the airport. Since we were in London, we dropped by Chinatown for lunch at a Taiwanese restaurant and bought ourselves some moon cakes.
I got Tobey a Buzz Lightyear T-shirt last week. He chose it himself over another Toy Story 2 T-shirt. He acted like the character Buzz once the T-shirt in on him, such as pressing buttons on the T-shirt and launches his arms into flying mode. So funny.

Here's my little Buzz lightyear playing with playdoh.

and I can't resist posting this last pic up..hehehe...

my handsome little cyclist

That's all for now folks!

First Bicycle

2009-09-29T22:14:00.005Z

He loves his bike. He ask to ride it when he wakes up. He remembers my promise for him to ride it after he takes his nap or finishes his meal. He waves goodnight to it when it's being stored in the garage. He asked us to whisper whenever we are are near where his bike is 'sleeping'. He loves his bike.

It's understandable really...it's his first mode of transportation and with it comes a certain level of Independence that means the world to a 2YO. As parents to our baby, the reward of seeing him enjoying it so much and being good at it as well, is astoundingly heart-tugging and simply priceless.

Of Lately

2009-09-23T09:09:00.010Z

Tobey is seen here spotting some shades and daddy's watch (the line on his chin is not a gotti, just a stain from breakfast :P)

Eating his pasta (reluctantly and just because daddy is insisting)

Eating his dessert all by himself (willingly)

Thinking hard during some card matching exercise

Hanging out with his mates (he's actually busy picking up stones to be thrown into the mini fountain)

Tobey's Vocab at 2YO

2009-09-12T15:24:00.009Z

Tobey is not the fastest in speech development. He's the slow and steady type in this department, but we love him just as much :)

Words he's still working on

Eway-Away
Tar/ "pon-pon"-Car
Pees-Please
Tetar-Guitar
Tenma-Grandma
Wewic-Music
Taptop-Laptop
Targe-Charge
Klat-klat-Chocolate
Toooool-Stool
Knock-knock-Hammer
Scoo-Screw
Bloon-Balloon
Told-Cold
Matoes-Tomatoes
Cavot-Carrot
Lin-Lin-Muslin
Pecs-Specs
Poon-Spoon
Tic-tic (said with cutting motion with his hands)- His plastic Knife
Voo-Voo-Vacumn
Chiak-Chiak-Camera
Glape-Grape
Toish-Fish
Ane-One
Tee-Three
Quare-Square
Tangle-Rectangle
Fawa-Flower
Tactor-Tractor
Pay-gup-Playgroup
Wawerfly-Butterfly
No-nore- No-More
Ta-Done-All Done
Nee-No-Ambulance

Other words he uses to communicate, along with alot of signing with his hands

Thanks, Pot, Wash (When he says WASH, that means the next thing he'll be doing is running to the sink to wash whatever he's holding), Wipe, Stand, Sit, Jump, Room, Push, TV,Toys,Poo-poo, Wee-wee,Book, No, Yes,Yeh-yeh(Grandpa), run,walk,mum-mum(eat), Drink, Leave, Go, Run, Light, Wind, Sun, Trousers, Jacket, Bag, Work, Hair, Tea, Hold, Tree,Stairs, get-up, Hot, Baby , Daddy/Dee-dee/Da-da/My Da (this is so sweet), Mama/Mommy/Me-me/ ("Mama big nen-nen" (that means he wants a full bottle of milk, rather than half a bottle, the way he say it sounds as if he's ordering a big "Milo Ice" from mamak stalls) Boat, peas, Pot, Kick, Hand,Nose, Eyes, Ears, leg, Toes, Head, Bum-bum, Teeth, Brush, Mine, Lift, Blue, Red, Yellow, Black, White, Green, Mint, Big, Small, Bubbles, Bye-Bye, More, Swim, Hat, Dark, Room, Shoes, Socks, Write, Sleep, Nen-nen/Milk, Dark (He doesn't go out when it's dark), Man, Door, Chair, Juice, Bed, Shake, Nice, Stone, Wait, Draw, Spray, Phone, Dance, Clean, Fan, Look, Bike, Clock, Sun, Moon, Star, Bird, Cat (Occasionally it's "Mau", cantonese for Cat I guess), Dog, Mouse,Duck, Sheep, Two, Nine,Ten, Round, There, Help,Glass, Disc, Drive, Buy (He will flip through the Argos shopping catalogue, point to a toy he wants and ask hi daddy to "buy"), Money,Wheel, Cook, Die, Comb, Climb, Bath, Bus, Wow, Loud, Bar (his fruit bar), House, Fly, Mist, Egg, Half, Boiled (his fav breakfast is half-boiled eggs with buttered bread), Toast, beans, Bug, bees, SNOT (I know, and he makes sure I get hold of his every snot to throw it away), Throw, Rock, Type, Dirty,Close, ...

Probably missed several words out, but more or less they are here. He is willing to try to pronounce new words after us, when he's in the mood. Else, he'll scoot off to play......which is really what 2YOs ought to be doing now ;)

Ending of a good Summer

2009-08-25T20:30:00.016Z

Tobey enjoying a nice big mug of homemade iced mint tea on a hot day..."aaaaahhh..nice" he said.

The weather has been rather unsettled lately. Amidst the sunshine that we are so used to now, we have very windy and rainy days. Autumn is fast approaching. Sigh! Before you know it, it would be grey, cold and miserable again. I can bear the run up to Christmas, but January and February has always been difficult. Chinese New Year season and away from family back home. Anyhoo, here's another post on the joy of Summer this year. I think Tobey really enjoyed this one. Hopefully, he will have equally much fun (or more) next Summer.

1) Cambourne 10th Anniversary...

was held on the 15th August. It started off with march of the school band. As soon as we heard it from our garden, we quickly walked out to the centre to show our support. It was celebrated in the usual English Fete style, with reenactments of medieval war times (they actually used swear words in this one, and the head of the war troop actually hit one of his soldier's steel hat with something that looked like an axe), fun fair, face painting, stalls selling food and such. The only twist was the Chinese Lion Dance. Strange. They probably found it to be loud and amusing for the kids.

This "Man-On -Sticks" kept talking to Tobey. The boy just froze and stared at him each time.

As usual, he insisted on going on the ride. £1 a ride. What a rip-off.

2) Chives-Tomatoes-Pumpkin-Pear

I've been distributing lettuces to my friends around the village. As we found it hard to finish these garden crops even though we eat them almost (more like every single meal) everyday. Some of my friends also have vege patches in their gardens. One of them gave me bags of Chinese Chives. I love them. I used them in wonton, fried with eggs and also with coriander in a savoury pancake mix of flour, egg, salt and water.

These three wontons are the only few dainty ones I made for this pic. After that they were all "rushed-for-time" sized. During dinner SK said " This is not wonton, this is a ping-pong ball staring at me!" You get the idea..hehe

My Chinese pancakes :P

The Tomatoes are beginning to ripen. I've stopped buying tomatoes from the supermarket for 2 weeks already. We've planted tomatoes in our old place before so we know from now on, they will keep on coming...aaarghhh help! Tomatoes soup anyone?

We planted our fruit trees this year without expecting any harvest until at least next Spring obviously. But this Pear tree seems quite enthusiastic to show us a preview of what it can bear.

Don't think this will grow to be a proper sized pear before winter sets in.Again, this is the first time I saw a pear growing. I was expecting them to grow like Rambutans, but not bulging from the bottom of a flower. SK was the one that pointed it out to me. Can't wait for next year's harvest :)

We are now seeing some form of Pumpkin growing. Unfortunately, these would not grow into a pumpkin big enough to carve for Halloween. More like those for a lovely pumpkin soup.

3) Injury

I don't really like to blog about Tobey's sickness or injury in this blog. I find it too painful to reread/remember it. But this has to be recorded as it is officially his full fledged toddler play injury. We were invited for a weekday lunch by a mommy friend. Tobey was having fun playing with the other toddler boys. Whilst playing hugging with one of them, that boy probably lost his balance and fell on Tobey, or maybe he just decided to push out of over-excitement. My darling baby fell backwards and hit the back of his head on a corner of a table. There was blood. My heart was ripped out. I concentrated in staying focus and stopped his bleeding. Checked for any other anomaly. By then he was back on his feet and wanted to continue playing. Brought him to the surgery to be looked at. Nurse told us that it's a superficial shallow cut. The reason why it bled so much was because the scalp is full of capillaries. She just cleaned it with salt water, put band aids on and told us to keep his hair dry for 3 days. I took him there for another check-up after that. After a week, on his second check-up, we were instructed to wash his band aids off as the cut has closed. He still has a small swell around the wound which I am keeping an eye on. If only I can rewind time. Then I can take the fall for him. I think only mommies out there can understand this.

4) Best friend?

Hong-Hong is now officially the boy's "best -friend" . Even though at a picnic today, Hong-Hong fell down, Tobey tried to help him up but instead of a thanks, Hong-Hong gave him a slap, Tobey still smile and asked to play with him whenever possible...Hmmmmm....

All-in-one

2009-08-11T10:11:00.015Z

Nowadays, so much have been happening. I find it easier to just jumble them all up in a single post :)

1) Water Play

After watering the plants on a muggy evening, this is how he cools himself down.

2) £5 Unlimited ride funfair
There were like 4 'ridable' rides for toddlers in thefair, but Tobey didn't mind going on the same ride over and over again. His favourite was the bike. But the operator of the bike carousel let the rides went on for too long! There's once he actually let a ride went on for as long as it took him to finish his plate of chips!!!

3)Hands-in-pocket training

He loves all things electronic (like daddy). He also loves browsing them in the departmental stores. Especially televisions and cameras.To ensure he doesn't break anything, we told him to place his hands in his pockets whilst browsing, else he'll go back into the stroller or we'll leave the place.

4) Hair cut

A friend of mine recently commented how long Tobey hair is and must be uncomfortable for him in Summer months. She was right, and Tobey is quite a 'sweater'. Today I braven myself and gave him a much shorter haircut. In the pic above, he's holding his crotch because he's bursting for the loo and wanted to get this shot done as over with ASAP!

Last but not least...

5) The Lilies

They've at last bloomed gloriously in the garden. Planted by my greenfinger FIL, they refused to bloom before they flew back to Malaysia. So here are the pics

Pics update

2009-08-04T23:22:00.005Z

I love these two pics. Will frame them up one of these days.
Gum-gum face after the initial thrill of handling a hand whisk all by himself and realising mommy wants him to kept whisking till it's pale and fluffy......hahaha

Nowadays he's doing his daily chore of watering the plants via a hose, instead of a watering can. SK would set it to 'mist' mode and spray it upward, he would then run under it and says "naining, naining!" (raining, raining!)

Wysing up the kiddos

2009-07-23T14:26:00.014Z

Wysing Art centre held a 'Den building event' in the communal green area right opposite our house. Excerpt from their website;

"Wysing Arts Centre is a research and development centre for artists set in 11acres of rural Cambridgeshire. At Wysing we support artists to practically test out new ways of thinking in contemporary visual art. Artists working from studios or undertaking international residencies are encouraged, alongside visitors, to take creative risks in a supportive environment in which the exploration of process and collaborative ways of working are paramount..."

Kids from around participated to build tents/dens together and had a picnic under it right after. Parents can help too. I didn't call to book a place for Tobey, thinking that he's still too young to help erect tents and such. But since it was held right outside us, FIL just too him there and they allowed him to join in. He was the youngest participant. The older kids kept an eye out for him too. I don't know whether he acquired the skill of "working in a team" or anything artistic, but he sure had lots of fun!

Here are several pics taken by FIL;

The wee-wee story

2009-07-23T10:15:00.004Z

A few months back, we tried taking the diaper off Tobey whilst he was running around the back garden. He wee-ed on his shorts whenever he felt like it. I don't blame him really. Our theory is, because he's always been on disposable diapers, he seldom felt wetness (unless it's overfilled), hence he seldom felt the discomfort that deters cloth-diaper users to wee so often. This is a disadvantage, simple because he will not be motivated to learn to "hold" his wee in.

Anyways, we knew he wasn't ready then, but at least he experienced the consequences of wee-ing on himself and how uncomfortable it felt. Following that, when the weather was good, we took his nappy off once in a while for the same purpose. I put him on the cushioned seat on the toilet whenever I can and asked him to wee. He always co-operated and tried his best to wee. More often than not, he always managed to produce some. I've also tried asking him to do a poo, but I got a feeling that he's almost afraid to poo into the toilet bowl. He asked to squat on the seat to poo, but he still wasn't comfortable doing his big business there. Anyways, I decided to leave that till a later time and just concentrate on the wee-ing.

Two weeks ago, I've decided he's ready to be trained seriously, as he's already 2 and the weather was sunny enough to wash and dry 10 shorts in a day . Also whilst my in-laws are here to help motivate him. I got my gloves, cleaning rag, carpet stain remover spray and handwash powder all lined up by the utility sink. I was ready. I took it off after his morning bath until after his evening bath. Only put it on during his afternoon nap. He also wears diapers when we are out and about, which was quite alot for the past two weeks. This time we use the potty. We placed it in the only tiled area in the house, which is the kitchen (yup, my whole house including the bathrooms are carpetted). How it works is that we will ask him whether he wants to do a wee every 30 mins or so and he would answer "yes" or "no". If yes, we'll ask him to go to his potty, take off his shorts/trousers and sit on the potty to do a wee. After a few days, he insist that everyone within his sight has to go "shhhhh" before he will start to wee. He's quite good at that. In the beginning, he would only wet his shorts once or twice a day (especially near nap time when he was too tired to "hold" it in). It also happened when he as over excited or engrossed over a toy/game/show. He would only poo in the evenings, when he has his diaper on. Only once he poo-ed on the carpet and oh boy, he was so grossed out by it and froze on scene.

He got better each day.

Today (23rd July 2009):

He was out at the front of the house building tents with other children on the little field opposite my house (It's another eco-hippie-ish program they often have for kids around here, will blog about it later). He was out with FIL. According to FIL, midway he went to him and said "WEE WEE"...He quickly took him in and he did a wee in the potty. I am overjoyed. I am so proud of my little boy. I know it's still a looong way to go before he can do that more often, but at least he got the idea now.

Updates

2009-07-22T12:47:00.015Z

SK was on leave for a week. The first few days were spent painting the garden fence with FIL. Myself, MIL and Tobey also helped.

The painted fence brightened up the garden alot.

Before:

This is the first pic we took of the garden

After:

Picture taken just a few hours ago

The vege patch has grown! We've been having fresh salad and lettuce straight from the garden. We literally walk out, select and pull. Really can't get any fresher than ;P
We've added another apple tree to the garden (So now we have cherries, pear, plum and apple trees) Plus two bushes of blueberries.

Tobey kept plucking them and popping them into his mouth, when we were not looking, even before it has a chance to ripen.He stopped doing it lately...maybe because they are still too sour to be eaten.

Hopefully by next season we won't have to buy much fruits from the supermarket anymore..hehehe(fingers crossed).

In terms of vege addition, this pumpkin plant has the spotlight at the moment. Its facinating how fast it crawls along the ground.

the yellow bit is it's first flower...I think it will eventually grow into a pumpkin

Flower wise, these are the newbies..my favourites!

Roses and Lilies

What else..oh

Several nights ago, Tobey "made" his own lemon drizzle muffins. Actually, it was a premixed from a box. We just needed to cracked an egg in, add water, stir, spoon into the casings given and bake. I let him cut the packaging, pour the flour mixture, cracked the egg, pour the water and stir. He really enjoyed himself very much. He kept asking me to carry him to look into the oven whilst they are rising in the oven.

concentrating and following instructions given to him...if only he obeys me so willingly at other times

so proud of his own creation. The muffins are placed not in neat rows simply because Tobey insisted the muffin casings to be placed that way.

That's all for now folks ;)

Visit to Colchester Zoo

2009-07-13T10:40:00.025Z

This would be Tobey's first visit to the Zoo. We figured he's old enough to appreciate a zoo outing since he quite enjoyed petting animals during our Mudchute farm visit the previous weekend. Colchester Zoo has a good child-friendliness rating and nearest to us. So we just packed a picnic (actually SK spend an hour playing gourmet sandwich chef that morning, making his version of the perfect sandwiches..kekeke) and went off, even on a raining morning (once again the weather forecast failed us). As we reach nearer, it was raining even heavier. SIGH! But once we parked the car, it STOPPED. Literally stopped for the next 5 hours. Thank God again.

Anyways, we were quite impressed by the size of the zoo and how well-planned the layout was! It was so well kept,leafy and peaceful, with several water featurus along the paths. The zoo is segregated into the Beginner's area, Aquatic area, Lakeland area, South America Area and lastly the African Safari area. There were many picnic tables and sheltered areas for families with packed lunches. Playgrounds/areas dotted along the routes and many child-friendly restaurants. Antibacterial foam wash dispensers were easily available as well.

Here are some ofthe pics taken;

Feeding the elephants

Feeding the goats

Watching the feeding of Penguins

Petting the horses

Lunch break!!!YAY!!

This is the first time Tobey had a sandwich for lunch. Nowadys, he rather drink his water from cups and plastic bottles!

Train ride with daddy

Wallabies (the white one is the one with Albino)

I can't remember what this animal is called, but huiyo, they really fought!

African Safari section..There were Giraffes, Zebras and Rhinos, Ostriches...we spent the longest time there, watching in awe...

Beautiful Tiger

resting before going home..we couldn't feel our feet anymore

At that point in time, SK rate this as a "Definite-venue-to-revisit" UNTIL he discovered his whole shirt was enveloped with some kind of black tiny bugs with wings. We spent the next 30 minutes trying to get rid of them. I even changed Tobey's clothing, but the bugs came back. Luckily they don't bite. When in the carpark, we saw other visitors busy brushing off bugs from their bodies and clothes...My guess is that the smell of the Zoo penetrated into the grain of our clothing, making us smell like the rest of the exhibit, hence attracted those bugs... :P So this zoo is now marked as a "No-wayI-am- going-back-to-this-place" venue.

Cambourne Fun Fair

2009-07-13T10:01:00.010Z

There was a funfair in our village from Wednesday to Saturday last weekend. It created a kind of buzz amongst mothers at the local playgroups. Of course, we paid a visit on Friday evening. Many of the rides are targeted towards teenagers(or trill seekers). Just several to keep toddlers like Tobey amused.

Cars and train rides.

Can you see how happy he is in those pics??? He just loves driving. Usually, he'll climb onto the driver's seat of mine or SK's car and can spend forever and a day pretending to drive....

At times, he would insist that we shut the doors and leave him alone to his driving. Of course we can't. So we get into the backseats and just wait till he gets bored of his "toy". We must have looked so silly to passer-bys. SIGH. The things we do for our kid.

Mudchute Park Visit

2009-07-05T14:53:00.019Z

Over the weekend we headed down to London for good Dim-Sum (we have yet to find any nice Chinese food in Cambridge) and visited to the Mudchute Park and Farm, recommended by Tsulin. Tobey really enjoyed himself, visiting each animal, feeding them leaves and try to immitate the noises they make. He wasn't afraid of almost all of them, except the pig with slimy nose.

Feeding himself lunch and enjoying the lolli given by one of the waitress.

Tobey got a chance to meet up with little Shean Wenn again at the restaurant.

Both coincidentally were dressed in white tops and brown bottoms

Park entrance

Tobey visiting all the farm animals (mountain goat, pigs, chicken, birds, Guinea pigs, etc)

my favourite are these chicken with puffy white-hair.They look as if they blow dry their hair for our viewing pleasure. SK called it JUDGE CHICK

Tired..."Let's go home daddy"

Water Fun

2009-07-05T14:44:00.006Z

We've been having sweaty and humid heatwave for the past week. It's just like Malaysia minus the air-cons! Here's making the most out of the situation

Who do I look like?

2009-06-27T23:40:00.004Z

I've got asked this many times. "Who do you think Tobey looks like?" or "Who does he takes after?". I can understand those observant eyes, staring at him, as if trying to match him to us. Because I love doing that to other kids too.

Answer is, he's quite a mixture between SK and I. both in terms of features and character. He has my facial features, flat nose, deep smile lines, my eyes and chubby cheeks. His body build, ear shape, small nose and fair skin is like his daddy's. He's happy most times just like his daddy but inherited my impatience and bad temperateness. He's straight forward like daddy but cheeky like mommy. He has my hair texture and colour but they mess up into a bird nest right after waking up, just like daddy.He has my infinite appetite for food and daddy's infinite appetite for all thing tecky and electrical. He has the love for pet and not afraid to be near them, just like daddy. The list goes on.

So there you go. There's no short answer to those questions. You'll need to sit down and have the patience of a saint if you really want me to know my answer :)

Gone too soon....

2009-06-27T22:26:00.006Z

I'm dedicating this to another great person who left this world earlier this year. I still can't believe that you are no longer here. You'll always be missed and remembered.

Like A Comet
Blazing 'Cross The Evening Sky
Gone Too Soon

Like A Rainbow
Fading In The Twinkling Of An Eye
Gone Too Soon

Shiny And Sparkly
And Splendidly Bright
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Like The Loss Of Sunlight
On A Cloudy Afternoon
Gone Too Soon

Like A Castle
Built Upon A Sandy Beach
Gone Too Soon

Like A Perfect Flower
That Is Just Beyond Your Reach
Gone Too Soon

Born To Amuse, To Inspire, To Delight
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Like A Sunset
Dying With The Rising Of The Moon
Gone Too Soon

Gone Too Soon

Favourite past time at 2 years old

2009-06-25T15:54:00.009Z

Every chance he gets, he'll rush out to play football. Of course, he'll try to drag someone along with him, as an opponent. Very often, it's FIL or mommy in the day time and daddy in the late summer evenings. This morning, he woke up at 7AM, night nappie bursting, went into his visiting grandparents' room to drag his grandpa out of bed for his early morning spot of footie. Everyone else was still asleep.

So here he is, in his sleep suit (I cropped off the foot area of his old but comfortable old sleepsuits for hot summer night sleeps, SK call them his castaways suits ;P).

Here's my little footballer in the making,busy practicing his moves and his future publicity pose.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

2009-06-25T14:36:00.004Z

Once again Sukye made me drool with her cooking. I remember making "Siew Pau" based on the recipe she used last year and it turned out quite ok. This time, it's her Hainanese Chicken Rice. Normally I only use normal Free-Range Chicken, but this time I used the Corn Fed Free-Range she recommended. I put more chopped ginger in the rice and left out the white pepper in the marinate, as my son don't like white pepper. Didn't manage to take a pic of the soup as we only had it after the meal. Tobey had it with normal rice instead on the gingery and garlicky rice.

It was quite a hit during lunch time today, so I am going to make it another time for dinner too, so that SK can get a chance to eat it fresh as well.

Click for recipe

Eco Summer

2009-06-19T15:19:00.013Z

What's happening in the back garden?

Note: All planting is done by SK's dad.

Vege plot (cultivated from seeds)

Waiting to be planted on the ground

Our "Resident Waterer" filling up his watering can. He takes his daily watering duty very seriously.

Boy on a mission

concentrating

Goal!!!

Juicing

My in-laws converted me into a believer in juicing. I noticed a difference in myself and Tobey when we consume half a glass of fresh fruit juice each day (preferably being consumed within 5 minutes of being juiced, before oxidation happens). Yes, it's more expensive than shop bought juice and the cleaning of the machine right after can be a pain at times, but it's worth it. I highly recommend this method of getting children to consume fruits and vege.

Prepared fruits

This combination is a modification from a recipe found in our one and only juicing book. But being the lazy me, I normally would just juice whatever fruit that is available + carrots(for sweetness) and a lemon/orange(for a touch of tangy-ness)

Juicer in action

The reason...

2009-06-16T22:31:00.013Z

...we chose this family orientated village is because we feel that it's the perfect place for our son to grow up, near to nature, and yet not too far from civilisation. All these are just 5 mins walk from our doorstep.
Today, after Tobey's nap, FIL and MIL introduced me and Tobey to more of our own unexplored neighbourhood. Well, what can I say, me and SK are still trying to convert ourselves to be more "outdoor-ish" for our son's sake. My in-laws are the naturist! Hence they explored the area more than us. Anyways, we went for a nature walk.. around the ponds, across hills and into one of their many woodland trails.

Tobey walked, run and hopped so much! We stopped at one of the little piers around one of the ponds and decided to tickle the water with long weeds (sorry, I don't know what it's called)

and then waited for fish...

"Where's tish mama?"
(rest assured that he is within half an arm length from 3 adults)

of course, we threw in a littlebit of playground time as well......

up and down the little hill so many times, that is after 1 hr and 15 mins of nature walk. The neverending energy of two year olds.

Me and SK will really need to put our act together and bring him to these kinda walks more often and be more adventurous ourselves, since our son is the happiest being outdoor and seems to enjoys nature so much!

6 monthly dental check-up

2009-06-13T22:32:00.004Z

waiting for out turns in the dental clinic

All three of us went for our dental check-up a few days back. It was Tobey's 2nd. After months of complaining how slow his teeth growth was, there's no stopping them now. In the span of 3 months, he's grown another 7 teeth, including his canines (which are suppose to grow after the molars, according to his dentist). Also confirmed that 2 molars are breaking through. Tobey also have got a fused tooth. Both his Upper Central and Lateral Incisors are fused together. Nothing serious. He'll probably have a bigger tooth replacing the milk version of it later on.

Tobey was a good boy throughout. We explained to him why mommy/daddy has to have their teeth checked. He was very fascinated by the patients chair's mechanism. When it was his turn to hop on, his expression was priceless. He chose a Scooby-doo sticker from the sticker tin offered by the dentist, as a reward for being a star :)

Lucky Belt

2009-06-13T22:09:00.007Z

"Eeeeeee...Look, there's a giraffe on my t-shirt....."

"...which is tucked right under my BELT!"

"Mom! Stop it!"

My handsome little boy in some of his new clothes (birthday gifts). The belt on that trousers would be his first! He went "daddy's bet(belt)". No it's Tobey's. And he was SO happy. Kept checking on his belt every few minutes. I guess just like the sunglasses, he felt grown-up to also wear a belt like his hero.

The Unexpected Fair

2009-06-13T20:47:00.009Z

Today, SK drove us into the city to have some lunch and to walk-around, since the weather was quite pleasant. Coincidentally, there was a fair going on opposite where we parked. Probably a continuation of the Strawberry fair held last weekend. It was quite a bonus as besides the usual inflated slides, rides, games, food and art&craft stalls, there were a few surprises you don't expect in a usual fair.

There were several oversized agricultural horses lazing around having their lunch, whilst the public stared and patted them, took pictures with them and read about them. At one point, one of them decided to pee. OMG, it was like a high pressure tap!After several seconds of not blinking, I quickly stood a few feet back from it's behind......

Anyways, FIL carried Tobey to to pat one of it. He was quiet and abit reluctant to touch it initially, but did so when I ask him too. I guess it's daunting to see a horse in real-life up close, not to mention such a huge one.
Then there were the replica steam powered vehicles. A few of them were choo-chooing across the field. Tobey was SO fascinated. He kept going "choo-choo" and refused to take his eyes off them! Anything machine that moves or makes sound, excites it till no end. What can I say, he's just being a boy.
(short in-between story in regard to his facination with electronics and machines: A few days back I operated the shredder to shred some documents. I pulled out my phone charger from the socket and replaced it with the shredder's plug, pressed on and shredded. I unplugged the machine and put it away after use. We've always told him how dangerous it is and he was never allowed to touch it. Last night he copied my every step. Pulled out the lap top charger, and replaced it with the plug from the shredder. The next thing we know, the shredder was shredding and he was running to us as he's still afraid of the sound it makes.

SK: You can NOT play with this! Who taught you how to operate it?!
Tobey: MOMMY!)

Then there was this re-enactment of medieval time. There were tents with beds inside and people cooking over wood fire. Then they decided to put on a fight right in the midst of the settlement. It must have been so confusing for Tobey to see armoured men, holding what looks like a much bigger version of mommies kitchen knife and striking at one another.

Our little boy is still not exactly exposed to any form of violence. Today SK bought him a Buzz Lightyear beamer that beams arrays of lovely LED light patterns on surfaces. It resembles more of a gun than anything. But he swiftly brought it to his head and went "Vooo Vooo Voooooo", as it's a HAIRDRYER to him.

Tobey's 2nd Birthday Party

2009-06-08T15:17:00.023Z

He will be 2 on the 10th June. We threw him a party on the 7th June (Sunday). Venue was our home and food was partly home-cooked and bought, and of course the BBQ. The weather forecast for that day was suppose to be HEAVY RAIN for the entire day. I prayed superhard for a few hours of non-rainy period, just so that we can open up the garden for the kids to play and also for the BBQ to happen. The party starts at 1pm, by 12noon it was still pouring cats and dogs. Then it slowed down to a drizzle, and then it halted. SK quickly took out the pit and started on the fire. We crossed our fingers for the rain to stay away. It did, not only that, it became SUNNY!!!! Thank God. He is really watching over us. Anyways, here are the pics

I cooked a huge pot of curry chicken (it was a big hit as many of our friends "tapau" some back for dinner), salmon pasta for the kids (not enough seasoning, sometimes, I forget that they are already two, no longer babies that shouldn't take so much salt), mixed vegetables, and agar-agar. Bought food were delicious chinese roasted duck (all the way from Northampton, our friend helped us to transport them over), and 4 platters of sushi. We also took out the deep fryer and deep fried calamari rings, mushrooms, chicken dippers and onion rings. BBQ food were lamb, sausages, marinated chicken wings and so on.

We made use of the entire ground floor. Guest were free to roam from the hall to the play room, to the garden and also the kitchen/dining area. both patio doors from the kitchen and hall were open wide. This was only possible due to the weather change earlier (OMG I am so grateful!).

French Open Men's final was also on tele, so several men were glued to the screen for a while, my favourite Roger Federer won. Quoting my MIL, "A champion will always be a champion"

It was so lovely to see our friends enjoying themselves, mingling and the kids having a great time running around and simply being cutie pies. OK, here's the cake... Tobey loves Handy Manny and his set of talking tools.
Here's the cake cutting session in pics....

with mommy and daddy and paternal grandparents candle blowing with daddy The birthday kiss from Karmenwith all his friends!This kid sized bench is one of Tobey's birthday gifts. He's seen here posing with Sam and Karmen...Cute overload!

Most of Tobey's gifts were clothes, just as I wanted it to be as he already has toooooo many toys. SK's parents got him a top of the range juicer.Mommy and daddy STILL have not got the time to get him his gift yet...hahaha! Tobey missed his afternoon nap and ate very little lunch on that day. He was too busy playing with his friends and downing in fruit shoots.

Happy 2nd Birthday my darling baby :)

My Cutie Pie

2009-05-26T21:03:00.012Z

wearing his first sunnies
Looking ultra-cool

Pretending to be daddy after paying for a parking ticket

So proud to be wearing dark glasses just like his hero

Helping his paternal grandpa in preparing the holes for the trees mommy planned for the garden

watering the hole to soften the soil for further digging

hardworking boy at work, even when it's windy and chilly

cleaning the patio with the access water

23 Months and 12 days old

2009-05-24T16:24:00.011Z

I am so late in this. Sk's parents are here and Tobey is still busy sprouting his set of whites. I am also "busy" preparing for his upcoming 2nd Birthday party. The invites were sent out, the cake is ordered...how exciting!!!
He's wearing a t-shirt bought by my mom's friend from Malaysia. He looks like a little middle age man whenever he wear something with collars.

"The cat is kau-kau-ing (sleeping) mommy"

Chilling out

Daddy refreshing his memory on BBQ-ing, in preparation for the party. Wed ug out our old and trusty traditional BBQ pit, instead of getting one of those new ones which runs on gas...Hot air balloon over the roof of our house

At Karmen's 2nd Birthday Bash

2009-05-11T21:48:00.009Z

We had so much fun! Tobey was busy helping himself to the extensive range of toys Karmen has in between taking in mouthfuls of deliciously marinated and BBQ-ed meat (thanks to Tsulin's hubby, the BBQ chef from OZ) I met many wonderful mums and enjoyed the chats immensely. Wished we could stayed longer for the cake cutting ceremony (had to pick-up SK's parents from the airport), but nevertheless, we enjoyed our selves

Good food, good company (both for the adults and kids) and good weather, it couldn't get any better :)

Tobey in action

Family pic Tsulin, the kids and the trike (one of Karmen's lovely bday pressie)SK assembled
Yummy mummies group pic

Pic Fix

2009-05-07T20:25:00.007Z

I have not much time nor motivation to blog lately, but that is not an excuse to Tobey's Number 1 fans!!!....Here are some pics...more updates later, the boy is busy going out and attending parties! Infact he just came back from one where he quietly took a bowl and picked smarties off the birthday boy's cake (after the candles been blown), put them into his bowl and eat them slowly in a corner.

in the playground last weekend

wearing mommy's belt

Rubbery Rubbish

2009-04-23T13:59:00.004Z

My son likes to pick the smallest little speck off the floor and hand it to me to throw it in the rubbish bin. Be it a small piece of paper or the smallest speck of dust only he can see (which I still take it from him in good faith and throw it in the bin before his eyes). A few weeks back, he handed me what looked like another rolled up grape skin. I took it from him and rolled it between my fingers abit, it felt abit plump and squishy, "Hmmmm..maybe there's some grapeflesh still attached to this.." but it's too rubbery...I looked down and it's a dead baby SLUG! HORROR OF HORRORS!!!!!

I screamed so loud (I know I shouldn't but it was instinctive), SK came rushing into the kitchen, I showed him and he asked Tobey where he found his little treasure...Tobey showed daddy to the area near the front door. It must have crawled in through the bottom of the door. SK then sprinkled some 'Slug killer Powder' along the front paving and true enough, the next day, we found many little dead baby slugs along it.

Random Springy pics

2009-04-21T21:13:00.011Z

If u squint your eyes enough, you'll see SK n Tobey at the bench on the left, hanging out in the park amidst the blooms

close-up shot

mommy and Tobey getting ready to go out on a sunny Tuesday

This is what he loves doing around our neighbourhood. Picking up stones and throw them into the drain just to hear them go "plop"!

He also loves running this stretch of walkway...

.....and run up and down this wooden bridge.
My darling looks so much like a big boy here...

***************************************************************

On a less Springy note...these pics show Tobey trying to get to his new toy (a tractor I got him from the groceries supermarket) from a tied plastic bag. He tried using his fingers, when that failed, he took out his hammer, then the pliers, then the spanner....kekekeke

Colour me Yellow

2009-04-15T12:15:00.003Z

YELLOW

You are very perceptive and smart. You are clear and to the point and have a great sense of humor. You are always learning and searching for understanding.

Find out your color at QuizMeme.com!

nah..I am more like a Purple!

chip-pea

Long overdue updates...(*blowing cobwebs on blog away*)

Pics update-July 11

My baby's 4th Birthday Party

Euan 7 months old

Gulliver's Theme Park- Round 2

Of Briyani rice, Cheesecakes and a getaway plan...

Pics update

18th February 2011-Euan Weaning

Chinese New Year 2011- Picture update

The Brothers

Euan at 16 weeks & Tobey at 3 years 7 months

3 months old Euan

Hello 2011!!!

Euan at 8 weeks old

More pics

Euan at 5 weeks old

Euan Wong

The waiting game

Pic updates

Dry night?

Hunstanton Beach

30th Week pregnant

Disneyland Paris 2010

Salad Crop

London Zoo

26th April 2010

Pics updates

Easter break'10

Conversation with my 2 yrs 9 mths old boy

Baby Number Two

Where has Spring gone?

Magic Moments

Updates

Settling-in

Nursery

Crunchy peanut butter cookies

Yam Pau

Why?

Pretend Play & 2 1/2 yrs old Developmental Checks

Hello 2010

Pan Mee

Christmas 2009

Snowy 18th Dec'09

Fortnight of Fun and Food

Savoury Cheese and Onion muffins

Tobey at 2 years 5 months old

B0b The Builder Live C0ncert

Mr. Wind

Spotted!

First Bicycle

Of Lately

Tobey's Vocab at 2YO

Ending of a good Summer

All-in-one

Pics update

Wysing up the kiddos

The wee-wee story

Updates

Visit to Colchester Zoo

Cambourne Fun Fair

Mudchute Park Visit

Water Fun

Who do I look like?

Gone too soon....

Favourite past time at 2 years old

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Eco Summer

The reason...

6 monthly dental check-up

Lucky Belt

The Unexpected Fair

Tobey's 2nd Birthday Party

My Cutie Pie

23 Months and 12 days old

At Karmen's 2nd Birthday Bash

Pic Fix

Rubbery Rubbish

Random Springy pics

Colour me Yellow

Long overdue updates...(blowing cobwebs on blog away)