Happy Chinese New Year 2009

...to everyone. May the year of the Ox bring you good fortune, good health and abundance of joy.

New Banner

Of course I didn't do it on my own. Unlike my previous banner, this one is done professionally by my good friend Tsu Lin. I 'had to' enlist her help after secretly marvelling at her own banners and those she's done for others for many many months. I WANTED ONE TOO!

She was charitable enough to do one for me free-of-charge! All I needed to do was to send her several of my favourite pictures of Tobey and told her my preference in colour theme. In no time at all, she managed to churn out the perfect banner! Her designs are so unique and fresh. I loved the colour mix and embellishments used. I am so happy :)

If you want one of your own, or as a gift to a friend, wherever you are in the world, do drop her an email at tsulinplusplus@gmail.com , you will not regret it.

19 Months Old

Listening to music on the pc

It's been 11 months since his last weighing and height measuring session. After many queries about his weight (such as "he's so heavy! is he 20Kgs?!"), I finally brought him to the baby clinic today.

Weight: 13.24Kg
Height: 85cm (head to heel)

Weight wise, he's at the 91st percentile. A slight drop from the previous measurement of about 98th percentile. Height wise, he used to be around the 95th percentile, but now only at the 75th percentile.

I discussed with the nurse about his slow speech development. She straight away knew that I am comparing him to little girls. She said that girls tend to be much faster in picking up speech and thinks that Tobey is "normal" for a little boy his age.

Like any other 19 months old, he loves play. He copies us till the very last detail. That's why we are pretty careful in what we say and do in front of him. He copies us in driving, dressing up, cleaning, reading, writing, talking on the phone, using electrical equipments, dancing, locking and unlocking doors. He can literally turn on the correct socket switch to the DVD player (there are like 4 others ) pops his Balamory CD in and presses play. The only way of stopping that is to pull the plug off the socket.

He loves the company of other kids, but his personality of a big bear with a gentle and calm demeanour is not doing him much good. He's prone to being bullied. It's typical of toddlers to snatch toys or even push or pull to get what they want, or to establish territory. But my boy, he doesn't do that. He very very seldom pushes, snatches or screams at another. For example, If another tod snatches a toy he's playing, he would move on to another toy and wait for his turn on the toy that was snatched from him earlier.Then 10 mins later, he would readily share his precious biscuit with the same kid! When someone pushes him off a riding toy, he would bounce up and move on. He very seldom came running to me crying, except when he was hurt really badly. Although we are generally proud of his happy and mature behaviour, we really do hope he would learn to strike a better balance soon. At least for his own self-defence! But how??? How do you teach a kid to retaliate?! headache.

He doesn't seems to see himself as a baby anymore. When asked "how a baby cries/plays/dances/sleeps?" He would start pretending out his own interpretation of a baby. Funny. He loves music, like his daddy. Both of them can spend ages in the study listening to music and just chilling out together. He dances to catchy music. But loves relaxing to Vonda Shepherd, just like his daddy. He's very methodical and loves routine. Every night before going to bed, he insists on turning off the hall lights, the tv, put away several toys, shut the doors to the hall and pull down the blinds to his room. When I cook without my apron, he would get the apron and hand it to me, and stand beside me to make sure I wear them before going back out to play.

He still loves fruits and vegetable. We were in a restaurant in Birmingham the other day. The couple at the next table were surprised that we said "Tobey, if you take another scoop of rice, we will give you this carrot" Let me explain, we now boil slices of carrot or broccoli florets and bring them with us when we eat out, as a bribe/reward/incentive system when he finishes his lunch/dinner. Recent favourite is cucumber. He hyperventilates from excitement when a bowl of cucumber is placed in front of him.

That's all I can think of at the moment :)

Housewarming Pics

We had our housewarming lunch on the 10th of Jan 2009. Tobey's 19th month birthday :) Yes, that was planned. I told myself not to be stressed-out over cooking and make sure that we are in a relaxed mood, so that our guests would also feel at ease. We ordered and bought almost half of the spread and the other half was nasi lemak and few easily made curries and sambals. It worked. The party lasted till dinner time! There were 5 other cutie-pie kids. Needless to say, Tobey enjoyed himself until he refused to nap. Both me and SK weren't feeling too well, thankfully my BIL and his partner were there to help us. Leaving us more time to enjoy everyone's company. Here are several pics.

The food...


Let's eat!
The kids...



Kids and the daddies...
Kids and the mommies...
The goodbye...
Thanks everyone for coming!

First Snowy Walk

It snowed last week. The snow stayed on the ground for several days. It was slippery, freezing cold and at the same time beautiful to look at. Everything was white and clean looking. My son took his first snowy walk then. He was so curious and cautious at the same time, kept looking down whilst walking slowly, bending down to touch the snow, grabbed some in his hand and then shook them off a few seconds later.





I felt so glad that I was there to witness this.

Year end/ New Year activities

We've been looking forward to the December/January holidays for a long time. We needed a break and we needed the sale to happen as we have a home to start furnishing. On Christmas day, everything's closed. We took the opportunity to go to the touristy part of Cambridge. We weren't alone, many tourist were there too. It was chilly, but at least no Arctic wind threatened to freeze our noses off.

Tobey giving mommy his trademark kiss

Father and son

Then on boxing day and the day after that, we hit the shops. We managed to get several basic furnishing at half price. Maybe our expectations were set too high, but seriously, the high street sale this year were lame. Unless you are the type that changes the entire content of your wardrobe on a yearly basis, then there's nothing to shout about. I found more genuine discounts on the Internet instead.

Moving along, our friends came to visit the following day. Tobey had a great time playing to cutie baby Sam who's a month younger than him. It felt like a week ago that we've seen these two as weeks old babies.

Playing rolling on the floor game

making calls to Toys R' Us

Then SK went back to work for several days. On new year's eve, I fell sick, and he stayed home and looked after Tobey for the entire day, leaving me to sleep till 2pm and rest throughout. Thank God for him. On new year's day, we went up to Birmingham for an overnight trip in BIL's newly refurbished hotel. We got to stay on the Club floor where our room card allowed us access to this Club lounge for food and drinks round the clock. All these for a minimal charge ;P Tobey developed a runny nose on the same day, so he was quite cranky at times. Spent the day with BIL and his girlfriend.

My bar tender for the evening

Today, we had Saimun, Sukye and Dominic over at our place for lunch. It was nice catching up with them. Tobey had even more fun with "ko-ko" Dominic who's 3 years old. Dominic was very engaging and Tobey loved his company!

Henry is still the all time favourite of every kid that's seen it

Playing ball

I love this shot!!!

Tomorrow, Tobey will meet two pretty little girls, Shean Wenn and Kaka are their names... can't wait to see how his play would be with them.