Our 6th Anniversary

We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on 1 May 2010.

We did a little bit of planning this year to have some time for ourselves on 29 April 2010 while the kids were at the baby sitter's. After dropping off the kids, we had Indian breakfast at Sri Ananda Bhawan's in the Little India area in town. We then adjourned to Prangin Mall to "walk-off" the breakfast :o).

For lunch, we had some difficulty with the venue. We initially wanted to revisit Chaser's at Gurney Drive, but little did we know that they were no longer there. Plan B was to try out Ribs on Burmah Road. This also we failed to locate. Finally, we settled for The Ship on Sri Bahari Road.

At The Ship, we ordered a Mixed Grill and a Seafood Platter. So, between us, we had beef, chicken, lamb, bacon, sausage, egg, fish, squid, prawn, soft-shelled crab and scallop. Really fantastic! To wash it all down, we ordered a Secretary's Mocktail and a Virgin Mary.


[The Ship's Mixed Grill]


[The Ship's Seafood Platter]


[Secretary's Mocktail and Virgin Mary]

Later in the day, we headed down to the apartment pool for a dip... something we have not done, just the two of us, in quite a while :o).

On 1 May 2010, it was pretty much a usual Saturday with one very active boy and an inquisitive baby *sweats*. After attending Sunset Mass, dinner, and getting the boys to bed, we lit our Unity Candle and prayed our Anniversary Prayer.


[Lighting of our Unity Candle 2010]

Let's Wash The Car

In the morning, it doesn't take long for the boys to "start their engines". Given a minute or two of "blur-ness", they're up and about, busy and active. Here're some recent photos.


[The boys... early in the morning...]


[Let's wash the car!]


[The boys]

True Flavours

While in KL recently we had the privilege to taste some True Flavours cookies. We sampled the chocolate chip cookie and the Anzac Biscuits. Both tasted very good :-)

Difficult to review chocolate chip cookies though I will say that they are of high quality. Very delicious :-)

I like the Anzac Biscuits in particular. It's an oat cookie. I think the main difference that makes it stand out is that it's so full of oats! Other oat cookies I've eaten are just COATED with oats. This is the real stuff inside out! I'm generally not an oat fan but this tasted really good. Not too strong on the oaty taste and not too sweet. Just the right combination to please the palate :-)

For baking enthusiasts, the recipe can be found in "Oats Delicieux!", Evelyn Tai's debut book under Seashore Publishing. It's sold in Popular Bookstore.

For those not into baking, True Flavours cakes & cookies are sold at Amcorp Mall, PJ on Sunday mornings and Bukit Kiara night market on Thursday evenings. You can check out the website: www.trueflavours.com.my


[Anzac Biscuits and Chocolate Chip Cookies]


[The Book: Oats Delicieux!]

The Plural of Car is...

Carses.

Conversation 1:

Julian: Wow! So many bus.

Us: So many bus-ES!

Julian: So many buses!

Conversation 2:

Julian: Wow! So many carses.

Us: So many car-SS!

Julian: So many carssss!

Is English really that confusing...?! ;-)

Julian at 35 Months

Julian turned 35 months old on 28 April 2010.

He is much more fluent in speech and can communicate quite well. He can be quite a chatterbox especially when travelling in the car. However, his overall speech ability is not fully developed yet. His effort in uttering new sentences is noticeable. Sometimes we have difficulty understanding what he says. However, we are very proud that his articulation of final consonants is clear especially with words/phrases that he is familiar with. For example, he can say 'daddy's book' as opposed to 'daddy book' (with the final consonant of 'book' clearly articulated also) :-)

Very often he is still parroting us especially when we ask him questions.
Julian: It's an orange bus.
Mummy/Daddy: Is the bus small or big?
Julian: It's a big one.
Mummy/Daddy: Is the bus big or small?
Julian: It's a small one.

But sometimes he can engage in quite intelligent conversations.
Julian: Mummy help Julian open (holding a packet of biscuits)
Mummy: Cannot Julian, mummy's hands are wet.
Julian: Mummy dry hand (holding the hand towel)

Julian is speaking English almost all the time; so much so that when we ask him to say certain words in a chinese dialect, he says it with an English 'accent'! We've requested the baby sitter to speak more Hokkien to him in the hope that he would pick up the tones of a tonal language...

When playing, Julian can be quite rough with Justin, rolling on top of him or pulling him backwards. While we adults worry about safety, Justin seems to love it. Sometimes Julian would push Justin down when Justin is sitting. If not 'saved', this would naturally result in Justin crying as his head would hit the floor. We used to think Julian was being naughty but have come to realise that he actually wants to play 'twinkle star' and wants Justin to lie down.

Currently Julian likes

• playing with balls and play doh
  
• painting
  
• tracing shapes using a stencil
  
• playing on the computer
  
• and of course, watching tv
  

For sometime now, he has been able to put on (sometimes reverse :-) ) and take off his slippers on his own. Now, he is also able to take off his shoes (those with zappers) and socks on his own. Yay! He's also generally able to feed himself at meal times although he still requires some supervision and some help now and again to get the food into the spoon. We haven't yet taught him to use the fork.


[A new form of self-imposed punishment?!]


[Oh... how comfy!]


[Julian loves ice-cream]

Justin at 9 Months

Justin turned 9 months old on 25 April 2010. No check-up this month.

Here are his updates:

• He is cruising more easily now.
  
• He can stand without support for a longer period (a few seconds now compared to a fraction of a second previously)
  
• He often demands food especially food we are eating. He would also purposely drop his biscuit on the floor when he doesn't want it anymore.
  
• He has said his first word - mum-mum. We sure know what his priority is! :-)
  
• He can 'ask' people to carry/play with him by 'calling out' "unh" while stretching out his hand and/or kicking his legs.
  
• He can wave bye-bye when asked to, or when someone waves to him.
  
• He can clench and unclench his fist(s) for twinkle star when we sing to him.
  
• Sometimes he says "tah" when doing the twinkle star action. He seems to be trying to say 'star'.
  
• He's quite a light sleeper nowadays. He wakes up quite easily especially when his position is changed while being carried.
  
• He is now very playful especially with big bro Julian. If Julian comes into the bedroom before he falls asleep, his sleepiness would instantly vanish and a smile would light up his face... not a good sign for mummy!
  
• He has started to pull open drawers *horrors!*
  
• He protests when we put him in his car seat. He would wriggle so we have difficulty strapping him in. Fortunately he cooperates in the mornings when we have to send him to the babysitter's. At other times, mummy mostly ends up carrying him but we still try to put him in the seat as often as possible especially for short rides. Rest assured, we're working on this :-)
  
• He's still very attached to mummy especially at bedtime and mealtime. He's also insistent on being held by mummy in the car. The very few times when we decided to switch drivers, we ended up having to pull over in the emergency lane to keep from going deaf! *slap head*
  

Justin seems to have sensitive skin. Mosquito/insect bites causes some reaction and can be quite bad especially on his legs.

Justin's turning 9 months also marked the end of exclusive breastmilk (because supply of EBM is decreasing). On 26 April 2010 formula milk was introduced. This was at the babysitter's. One oz of formula was added to the breastmilk as a start. He took it well. The amount of formula will be increased gradually so he can adjust. He's still on 3oz of milk per feed. Justin will continue to be fully breastfed Whenever mummy is around.


[Justin at 9 months]


[A delicious letter]


[Justin's first ice-cream]


[Justin and the Three Little Piggies]

Visiting KL

This year we decided to go to KL for our holiday. We were there from 20-23 April 2010. We stayed at my sister's place.

April 19
We travelled to Menglembu and spent the night there to 'break journey'.

April 20
We travelled down to KL, stopping over in Kuala Kubu Bharu (KKB) for lunch with my godparents. We had a good time and it was great to see them again (we last saw them in 2006).

April 21
We met up with friends we hadn't seen for a few years. First we met WY for brunch. Then we adjourned to her place for a wonderful and relaxing afternoon. We left her place before the after-work jam started and headed back to my sis' for a shower before our next appointment at Burger King, 1 Utama. Why Burger King? Because there isn't one in Penang! and we quite like their burger. We went to the concourse area after dinner. That evening we spent time with two couples. One had two children (4 years old & 10 months), whom they brought along. No, the children didn't 'play together'. The toddlers were each doing their own running with the dads running after them while the babies sat with the mummys, occupying themselves with whatever is on the table. The adults squeezed in whatever conversation we could ;-)

April 22
Day to do the touristy things. We took the boys on the LRT to KLCC. Got there in time to meet the lunch crowd (!!!) but thankfully managed to get a table. We went to Aquaria after lunch. There's actually a food court at the Aquaria as well, and it's not crowded. would have gone straight there if we had known. The Aquaria is actually quite nice and normally Julian likes fish, but somehow they didn't quite click. He was fascinated with some exhibits, but was running here and there most of the time. Couldn't even get a decent photo! We thought the acryllic tunnel would fascinate him, but again, we were wrong. Our next stop had better 'result' - the Petrosains. He enjoyed fiddling with the exhibits. Unfortunately we couldn't spend more time here as we were eager to take the LRT back ahead of the rush hour. That evening we spent time at home with Antonia and Grace.

April 23
Time to head home. We left at about 10.30am and stopped in Tapah for lunch. We made another stopover in Menglembu to rest and had early dinner before heading back to Penang. Arrived home after 8.00pm. Good to be home.

It was quite a short trip to KL and we didn't get to do all that we had planned. But that's not unexpected especially when travelling with kids. We bought absolutely nothing (we didn't have the time nor the opportunity to do so!), but we're not complaining :-) Our GPS served us well on the trip - both as a guide on the road and as a distraction for Julian when we needed to prolong his sitting at the table over meals. For the record, we only turn to the GPS for Julian as a last resort when we want more time to chat with people over a meal - it's not a habit we want to cultivate in him. I think what fascinated Julian the most were the cranes at the many construction sites in KL. Everywhere we went, his focus was always on the cranes. Blue crane, red crane, yellow crane, another one, white one, so big..., so many cranes..., wow!

Somehow an 'urban' holiday doesn't quite seem like a holiday. Or maybe the time spent in KL was too short... We chose KL this time round mainly to meet up with friends - and this we truly enjoyed.



[On the LRT]


[Checking out a tortoise]


[Julian and the tortoise]


[Can I go there?]


[In the acryllic tunnel]


[What's this?]


[Who is full of kinetic energy? Julian, of course!]


[Eh? Can see but cannot touch?]


[Justin in the play area]