National Horse Show 2012

We took the kids to the Penang Turf Club's National Horse Show 2012 on 1 December 2012. There were a variety of horses, ponies, and donkeys in the stable area. There were also exhibition and competition areas, a bazaar, and stalls. There were also shows of various kinds throughout the event.

The boys were not particularly afraid of the horses. However, at one point Justin was rather close to one horse when it suddenly sneezed. He was startled and cried...


[Horses in various shapes and sizes]


[Horse shoes: Hey! It's the letter "C" :o)]


[Julian: Good horsey, good horsey!]


[Justin: That was fun... let's go another round!]

Jianna at 8 Months

Jianna turned 8 months old on 30 November 2012. Here are her updates:

• She puts almost everything and anything into her mouth.
  
• She's very good at pulling herself up (especially using a chair) to standing position. Once standing, she can move around a bit while hanging onto the chair.
  

[Jianna and Mummy]


[Jianna stands!]


[Jianna smiling]


[Jianna: Ha! Ha! Ha! Very funny!]


[Jianna sitting pretty]


[Jianna: The impossible shove...]

Julian at 66 Months

Julian turned 66 months old on 28 November 2012.

During a discussion with him, the conversation led to us asking how many bums he has. He answered, "One bum... but got two parts."


[Julian the blue Angry Bird]


[Julian pulls a funny face]

Justin at 40 Months

Justin turned 40 months old on 25 November 2012. During his visit to the clinic for his regular growth checkup in early November 2012, to our surprise, he weighed in at only 12kg, a drop of about 1kg from a previous visit.

Here are some updates:

• When he wanted to play with his toys during bedtime, we did not allow him. We told him that his "toys were sleeping" to which he argued, "No! Toys got no eyes like that!"
  
• He told us sadly that his classmate and dance partner, C, doesn't love him. When we asked him whether other friends loved him, he answered, "Yes, D (a boy) and EW (a girl) love me." *sigh*
  

Speaking of love, here's a recent bedtime conversation...
Justin: Julian, do you love Mummy and Daddy?
Julian: Yes.
Justin: I love Mummy only.
Daddy: ?!?! Do you love your friends in school?
Justin: No, I'm too busy...
Daddy: ?!?!


[Justin and his lollipop]


[Justin the Space Bird]

Kindy Concert 2012

The children's kindy held their annual concert on 17 November 2012 at the school premises. This year, the children put up a play set according to Disney's The Lion King.

Julian played the part of one of the hyenas and was involved in the song "Be Prepared" and the stampede.


[Julian the Hyena]

Justin played the part of a zebra and was involved in a dance according to the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".


[Justin having fun]


[Justin's dancing with a classmate in the midst of a headgear malfunction]

Both also did a parody of the Gangnam Style dance called "Happy Lion Style".


[Happy Lion Style!!]


[Julian in a Gangnam Style pose]

The kids had a good time, and the teachers did a fantastic job with the costumes.

Mummy

 

MARIE LAM CHEE CHUN

Loving, faithful and selfless wife, mother, and poh-poh.

Born: 24 October 1945
Called Home to be with the Lord: 2 December 2012

May her soul rest in peace. Amen.

Sungai Sedim Tree Top Walk

We went on an outing to Sungai Sedim on 11 November 2012. The main objective was to go on the Tree Top Walk.

On the way, we stopped for lunch at Lunas. We tried the roast duck and roast pork rice at Tan Kee coffee shop.

We arrived at the Sungai Sedim Recreational Forest at around 12.30pm. Just as we were walking away from the car, it started to rain. So, we sought shelter at a nearby hall. After about half-an-hour, it stopped raining and we made our way to the Tree Top Walk entrance.


[Sungai Sedim Tree Top Walk]

It was an interesting experience being able to walk so high up in the forest canopy. Only a platform of wire mesh separates you from a 50m plunge down to the forest floor *shivers*.


[A long way down...]


[The walk itself is quite relaxing]


[The boys on the walk]


[A view of Sungai Sedim below]

As we were beginning to enjoy the walk, it started to rain, again! Fortunately we had a large umbrella with us, but it was barely enough for the five of us. But huddled under that one umbrella we did. Since we were not sure whether we were more or less half-way, we decided to go ahead and inched our way for rest of the walk. Incidentally, the Sungai Sedim Tree Top Walk, at nearly 1km long, is purportedly the world's longest canopy walk.

Obsession with Jianna's Neck?

Here are some recent photos of the children.


[Jianna: Hey! I can't breathe!]


[Julian: Justin! Her neck! Grab Jianna's neck!]


[Justin: Julian! After this shot, let's grab her neck!]


[Justin: Eh?! This can't be her neck?!]


[Justin: I... need... Jianna's... neck!!]


[Julian: Ahhh! This feels like Jianna's neck!]


[Justin: Look, Julian! A model of Jianna's neck!]

Jianna at 7 Months

Jianna turns 7 months old on 30 October 2012. No clinic visit this month. Here are her updates:

• She makes a beeline to grab something that takes her fancy since she's mobile now.
• She crawls on her hands, left knee and right foot :-)
• She can pull herself up to standing position with support since about six-and-a-half months old.
• She is eating solids (cereal) well, especially at daycare.
• Still fully on breast milk. She takes about 8 to 10oz per day at daycare inclusive of milk used to make her cereal.
• She has now started to reach out to Mummy to be carried and has become choosy. She turns away from a person when doesn't want to be carried by that person.

 
[Jianna standing in the play pen] 

 
[Jianna trying a rusk]

 
[Jianna: You got that right!] 

 
[Jianna the hair dresser]

Julian at 65 Months

Julian turned 65 months old on 28 October 2012. Here are some updates:

• When he wakes up, the first thing he asks is "Where's Jianna?"
  
• Has started to like puzzle books with mazes, and spot-the-difference and colouring-according-to-the-numbering activities.
  
• He surprised us with some basic translation knowledge when he pointed out that Jalan Delima is "Delima Road".
  

 
[Julian]


[Julian pointing out something to Justin and Jianna]

Justin at 39 Months

Justin turned 39 months old on 25 October 2012.

Here are some updates:

• Queries anything that is irregular.
• There was once when we were going out to eat, he said we were going "mealing". When asked what it was, he answered, "For people to eat."
• He is mummy's fashion consultant. He likes to dictate what mummy wears.

[Justin draws a FireFly airplane]


[Justin with his green cup]

Julian and Justin's First Competition

Julian and Justin joined their kindergarten friends in their first competition in public. It was on 20 October 2012 at 1st Avenue, Penang. It was the Penang leg of their kindy franchise's "Idol" competition. Their kindergarten competed against the other Penang branches.

Justin danced to the tune of the Lion Sleeps Tonight. Julian did some acting/dancing to the music of Be Prepared from the Lion King, and some Gangnam Style dancing.


[Justin dancing with a classmate]


[Julian in a Gangnam Style pose]

They were given medals for participation but their group items did not win any of the main prizes. Nevertheless, they had fun.

Jianna at 6 Months

Jianna was 6 months old on 30 September 2012. Her check up was on 9 October 2012 and she was given her vaccination. She now weighs 7.3kg and is 72cm in length. Here are her updates:

• She can now push herself up onto her hands and knees, and can squirm around. We've even seen her on her hands and feet! She'even shown some capability of 'moving' herself forward.
• She pushed herself up to a sitting position on 1 October 2012, just one day past 6 months. It happened at day care and apparently caused quite an excitement there. We were shown the photo when we picked her up that evening :-) The previous day, we caught a photo of her in sitting position, but she was 'plonked' in that position :-)
• She likes to look at herself in the mirror. She would almost always smile and sometimes give a small laugh.
• We gave her her first taste of solids on 15 September 2012. She tried plain rice cereal... didn't seem too enthusiastic about it. Perhaps it didn't look as interesting as what we were eating at that time! She showed more enthusiasm the second time round - maybe because there was no other food around! Subsequently, she's doing well with her solids now. She eats once a day, usually in the afternoon.

[Jianna's first solids]


[Jianna starting reading early :-)]


[Jianna on fours]


[Jianna sitting upright]

Julian at 64 Months

Julian turned 64 months (5 years 4 months) on 28 September 2012. Here are his updates:

• He has started reading the photo captions on our blog.
• He loves being loud.
• He can be quite stubborn, and often responds only after being scolded or threatened *rolls eyes*.
• Sometimes imitates Muslim peace greetings or prayers, influenced by Upin dan Ipin Hari Raya episodes.
• He continues to amuse us with his interpretation of things :-). When passing Shamrock Beach one day, he exclaimed (referring to the rocks in the sea), "Look at those rocks! They're sham rocks!" When we told him that his great-grandaunt had a stroke, he said seriously, "She got lines."

[One scar too many: Hope this is not a yearly affair]

Justin at 38 Months

Justin turned 38 months on 25 September 2012. Here are his updates:

• He likes to sing. He has even made up his own song to 'tell' us what he's doing!
• He can play on his own.
• He speaks with a 'Malaysian Chinese' accent, expertly using 'lah' and 'wan'. *slaps forehead*
• He has begun to make amusing remarks :-) Unfortunately we don't recall any to include in this blogpost :-(
• For the past two months or so, he has been generally sleeping through the night. No more waking for the wee morning Milo. Yay!

[Justin reading]

Jianna the Catholic

Jianna was baptised on 22 September 2012 at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit. The occasion was made extra special with the presence of almost all our immediate family members and several extended family members. Only Gabriel couldn't make it as he had to go to school.

 
[Jianna, I baptise you...] 


[Anointing on the forehead: Jianna gives Fr. Bernard a cautious look]


[Photo with Fr. Bernard and Godma Antonia]


[Family Photo]