Dell-icious

We finally replaced our desktop of more than 10 years on 1 December 2010.

The Intel Pentium III 667MHz machine served us well. It had since had its hardisk, CD drive, keyboard and mouse replaced, and its RAM upgraded from 128MB to 192MB courtesy of a good friend.

Our new machine is a Dell Inspiron 580 with an Intel Core i3 550 (3.2GHz) processor, 4GB RAM, 456GB hardisk, and 20-inch LCD monitor.


[The old Pentium III machine]


[Our new Core i3 machine]

Julian at 42 Months

Julian turned 42 months (3 1/2 years) on 28 November 2010. He had his pneumococcal vaccination and weighed in at 14kg.

• He has developed a habit of screaming - sometimes for no reason.
  
• We notice that he is now 'louder' when addressing people. Previously he used to address people softly under his breath.
  
• He likes to say "Yes, sure!"
  
• He can read the temperature on the digital thermometer correctly.
  
• He can turn on the computer, log on to the Internet and shut down at the end of his computer session.
  
• He is finally cycling his tricycle.
  
• He can wear his pants on his own, though it is problematic when the front and back is specific.
  
• He continues to improve in his food intake. Now he eats some fish and meat (char siew and satay are acceptable to him because he calls them 'burger-Q').
  
• He's now off the potty... all big or small businesses are done in the toilet.

[Julian down the tube slide]


[The softer side of Julian]


[Julian keeping fit]

Julian's Concert Debut

Julian's kindy held their annual concert on 27 November 2010 at the school premises. It was Julian's concert debut :-)

He was involved in 7 items. Of these, he was most participative in the YMCA dance. He wasn't originally slotted for this item but because he seems to enjoy it so much and could remember all the steps, his teacher put him on stage as well on the day. We thought that was really nice of her. He also participated in the 'Hot Potatoes' and 'Waka Waka' dances. For the other items, he mostly just stood still on the stage :-) In the percussion band, which was the penultimate item, he was crying and saying "I want to go home". But still he stood on the stage and 'resentfully' shook his shaker... I suppose we should give him some credit for that :-) Julian was actually nursing a slight fever that day.


[Justin is Julian's No. 1 fan]


[Doing the Waka Waka dance]


[Y... M... C A!]

Justin at 16 Months

Justin turned 16 months on 25 November 2010. We took him for the chicken pox vaccination and he weighed in at 9.6kg. No change in weight.

• At the moment he regularly puts up a fight at bedtime. He refuses to go to bed mainly because he wants to watch TV! *slap head*
  
• He's a mega TV addict. His favourite is still the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse series(DVD).
  
• He's now adept at putting the discs into the DVD player. However, we have recently elevated the player so it is out of reach of the boys. Let there be peace on earth...!
  
• When he gets a chance, Justin also likes banging on the computer.
  
• He also likes playing with the bread tags. We use them to keep him occupied during dinner time :-)
  
• He can kick the ball now (one of the baby milestones)
  
• His bottom right and left molar erupted - his 10th and 11th tooth respectively.
  
• He likes to eat fruit loops, especially the yellow loops. He doesn't fancy the red ones.
  
• He can say "ma" (Mickey Mouse, moon), "men" (Amen), "deh is" (there it is/here it is) and he makes some sound resembling flower for 'flower'.
  

[Justin down the tube slide]


[Justin at the toy library]


[Justin on the computer]


[Justin doing the Nativity play shepherd impression]


[JUstin in a sticky situation]


[Justin's wet look]

Eleventh Encounter

We presented our eleventh Engaged Encounter Weekend. The 79th Catholic Engaged Encounter Weekend was held from 19-21 November 2010 at the College General, Penang. 21 couples attended the weekend. We were on the presenting team with Fr. Ambrose Vaz, and Andrew & Katherine Chong, all from the Singapore Engaged Encounter Community.


[Presenters of EE79 joined by Justin]

Bread Pudding

We had lots of frozen leftover bread and some mixed fruit that we needed to get rid off. So, 7 November 2010 saw us baking bread pudding.


[Tearing the bread into bits]


[Mash!]


[Cream!]


[Freshly baked bread pudding: Quality check!]


[Slice of bread pudding: Simply delicious!]

Youth Park and Airbase

We were quite busy on the weekend of 5-6 November 2010. On 5 November 2010, we took the boys to the Youth Park. They had good time in the field kicking a ball around, chasing bubbles, launching a helicopter fan, and having a picnic. They later continued having fun at the playground.


[Bubbles!]


[Bubble chase!]


[Everybody look up!]


[Justin is now good at kicking the ball]


[Julian catching his breath, not!]

On 6 November 2010, we were at the Penang Children's Library in the morning. Then, we were off to Butterworth in the afternoon for the Open Day at the Royal Malaysian Air Force airbase. Due to the crowd, we had to park quite a distance away from the entrance. It was scorching hot and we had to carry the boys *sweat*. There were a few fighter jets, a helicopter and a Lockheed C-130 Hercules on display. We took the opportunity to walk through the Hercules.


[One of the fighter jets]


[The Hercules]