A Hair-rowing Experience No More

Julian went to the barber on 15 January 2011. For the first time he sat on the chair (elevated) by himself and even allowed himself to be wrapped in the cloth! What a pleasant surprise for daddy and mummy :-) Well done, Julian! This deserves a special mention on the blog :-)

Just for the record, on previous visits, Julian would sit on daddy's lap and refuse to be covered. He used to cry, then gradually he stopped crying but would squirm throughout the haircut. Toy distractions and bribes of lollipop did not work... Julian got upset when the hair fell on the toy and he couldn't care less for the lollipop ('future' reward didn't register with him, I think).

Julian Bitten

Julian was bitten on his forearm by a schoolmate on 12 January 2011. We do not know exactly how it all happened but apparently this schoolmate had a tendency to bite when provoked. So, this time, his target was Julian. Ouch!


[Julian's bite mark]

Julian at 43 Months

Julian turned 43 months (3 years 7 months) on 28 December 2010.

Some updates:

• Since we got our new computer, he's been on the computer every day that we're home. However, we control the amount of time he spends on the computer. We would tell him when the long hand of the clock reaches a certain number, he would have to press 'x' and shut down. When the time comes, he would stop playing without any fuss :-) The maximum we allow him is one hour.
  
• He likes to play a fishing game on the Internet. It's educational for numbers and counting but we also insist that he does his ABCs and reading before fishing.
  
• He is able to sing several nursery rhymes in full now. He's even able to sing in tune for some parts :-)
  
• He can say his prayer on his own (short version). With a little bit of prompting, he can do the 'long version' :-)
  
• Now he's at the stage where he demands full attention and wants to show us everything. Mostly, he will demand daddy's attention: "daddy, dump truck carry sand!", "daddy, how many fingers are there?", "daddy, which one do you like?" (by this it means daddy has to repeat the question, i.e. ask Julian which one he likes), "show mummy...Mummy I catch two foams", etc. He would call loudly and repeatedly if he doesn't get an immediate response.
  
• He is also starting to ask questions to get information, e.g. "Mummy, what's that?" (when he sees something new to him), "Daddy, what are you doing?", "Mummy, where's daddy?"
  
• He's showing some improvement in his maturity in that he can be reasoned with more often now. He can respond in a calm and 'mature' manner.
  
• We use a counting method to get him to do (or stop doing) things. E.g., mummy will count to 3, Julian must get on the car seat. This works generally well. However, at the beginning of the month he would sometimes 'rebel'. When we start counting 'one', he would say "I don't want 2. Only 1." More recently, he sometimes 'bargains' with us - "No, count to [another number]". Sometimes, he gives a number that is sooner than our offer :-)

[Julian]


[The smart way to water paint]

Christmas 2010

Our celebrations began on 21 Dec with dinner in Butterworth. Aileen and Christina were in town but we missed Antonia this year.


[Christmas in Butterworth: The boys with Ah Kong and Poh Poh]

We travelled to Menglembu on Christmas Eve and attended midnight mass in Batu Gajah. It's been a long time since we went for midnight mass and this year we were reminded why we stopped going... the crowd... the slight rain didn't help either... Justin was asleep from beginning to end, while Julian dozed off midway through mass on daddy's shoulders. We were outside the church as it was packed inside. The speakers outside were not working so we could hardly hear what was going on. In addition, the people outside were talking away.

Christmas Day saw us opening presents and enjoying mum's home-cooked lunch. Julian and Gabriel had a whale of a time in Grandma & Grandpa's new balcony-top swimming pool. Justin, alas, was fast asleep... Dinner was the simple yet delicious claypot chicken rice in Menglembu town.


[Christmas duet: Deja vu from last year's performance]


[Christmas in Menglembu: Presents, presents...]

Boxing Day was a Sunday, so we attended Mass as usual in the morning. The highlight of the day was more splashing time in the pool for Julian. This time Justin joined in, but Gabriel had left for Ipoh. That evening, we travelled back to Penang.


[Splashing time!]


[Christmas at home: More presents!]

Justin at 17 Months

Some updates:

• His 12th tooth, the upper right molar has erupted.
  
• On Christmas Day we noticed his upper left canine just erupting.
  
• He is able to spoon-feed himself, although he sometimes has difficulty scooping the food from the plate.
  
• When offered food, he prefers to take the food from the packaging/'source' rather than have us handing it to him.
  
• He doesn't like to come down the slide anymore. We have no idea why.
  
• He was able to respond accordingly when instructed to 'stop crying' on several occasions when he was simply fretting.
  

[Justin loves to stack blocks]


[Justin in the pool with Mummy]


[Justin having a go with painting]


[Justin feeds himself]


[Justin trying a pacifier]

Julian's First Pet

Julian went on a school excursion to the CTY Aquarium on Burmah Road on 15 December 2010. Each child was entitled to bring home either a pair of fish or a tortoise. We opted for the fish as they have a shorter life-span.

After the excursion, while at the baby-sitter's, Julian had already subjected the poor creatures to a great deal of stress (read: fish tank tsunami). On the third day, one died. The better half is still alive today, tolerating Daddy's meagre maintenance, and bearing the brunt of the boys' force-feeding.

But credit is due to the fish... because feeding it is enough incentive for the boys to rush straight home instead of dilly-dallying at the apartment lift lobby.


[Julian's first pet]


[Behold the lop-sided one...]

Straits Quay

On 7 December 2010 we took the boys to Straits Quay, the newest-but-not-completely-opened mall on the island. We read about the Christmas candyland and the big Christmas tree there. We were not disappointed. However, we were rather early so we didn't get to see the tree lit and we didn't wait for the carollers. We think it's a beautiful place, although Julian was too busy running to take in the sights, and daddy was hot on his heels ;-) Justin was walking at a more leisurely pace so mummy was more relaxed :-)


[Candyland]


[The Giant Christmas Tree]


[Closeup of the Star and decorations]

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]

Family Day at Golden Sands

We spent a 3-day 2-night stay (22-24 October 2010) at Shangri-La's Golden Sands Resort at Batu Ferringhi for my department's family day.

On the first day, we checked-in at about 6.30pm and had an opening dinner.

A telematch was scheduled on the morning of the second day but we decided to spend time with the kids on the beach instead. Later in the morning, we adjourned for a dip in the pool. The resort had a nice pool area with many pools of different sizes, depths, and purposes. There's even a jacuzzi :o).


[The boys in the sand pit]


[Fun on the beach]


[Julian: Look at that!]


[Justin and Daddy]

After lunch and a nap, we took the kids to the resort's Adventure Zone where they had a kid's play area with a ball pool and an obstacle course. We ended the evening by the beach.


[The boys and Mummy have powers of levitation?!]


[Julian and the sea at dusk]

On the last day, it was more fun in the pool before we checked-out and had lunch.

Unlike the previous family day, we did not have any work-related activity. So, it was a fun and relaxing stay.