Sunday, February 28, 2010

See you again, Mum!



We dropped by Sheri's place for a visit and spent about an hour catching up with her and her family. Before that, we sent Mum and Dale to the airport for their flight back home to Sydney.

Mum has been in Singapore/Malaysia for about two months. She has been truly wonderful in helping with the household chores and looking after Ryan. An extra pair of hands really made a world of difference. It is also wonderful that Ryan can get to spend some time with her, I'm sure he will miss her lots.

Time for Ryan's swimming class! Mum and Dale tagged along.







Brunch at PS Cafe


After a rest at home, we took Mum and Dale to the Singapore Flyer, which is the largest observation wheel in the world.



Thursday, February 25, 2010

Making a wish




We went to the airport earlier tonight to pick up Mum and Dale who have been in Ipoh for a few weeks. Before that, we had dinner at Suntec City and we visited the Suntec City fountain, which is the largest in the world. Supposedly, if you make a silent wish and put your hand into the heart of the fountain while you walk around it three times, your wish will come true.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Swimming





We drove home to Singapore last night so that Ryan could attend his swimming lesson this morning.

We have switched him to the pool at Tanglin Village, which is heated and nearer to our house. When we first inquired with Aquaducks many months ago, our first choice was Tanglin Village but we were told that they had a vacancy at Suntec City on Sunday afternoon so we went there instead. However, we had to rush to get to the lesson (because it is just after Ryan's noontime nap) and the pool at Suntec City can get terribly cold when the weather is hot.

So I managed to get a transfer to Tanglin Village. It's great because the pool is heated and it takes us five minutes to get there. Unfortunately, due to various reasons, eg. travelling, Ryan has had to miss all the classes up till today. I felt quite bad about that so I made sure that, when we were in KL, we went swimming in the condo pool as often as we could.

Ryan definitely enjoys the water. We went to see a showflat in KL and there was a water feature in the foyer - Ryan squealed with delight when he saw it. He crawled over to it straightaway and started splashing the water about and he even wanted to climb into it!

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Still on holiday

We spent the last few days getting quotes from kitchen suppliers to install kitchen cabinets in the new condo and shopping for furniture. There was also swimming at the new condo with Malcolm and Justin.



Justin celebrated his 8th birthday with a big party on Saturday and we were invited to join in the birthday fun. Jimmy set off more fireworks, which was great fun to watch. After the party, we drove home to Singapore.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Fireworks

We drove back to KL yesterday and had dinner with Richard's parents and Malcolm. When Margaret and Jimmy got home with Jerica and Justin, we lit the Lucky Lantern that Jimmy brought back from Sitiawan.



Watching the lantern float up and away brought on feelings of peace and serenity... which didn't last long because we followed that with the fireworks!


Ah... what would Chinese New Year be without fireworks?

After that we went home but not before meeting up with Terri and Vincent for supper at A&W.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The more we get together

We are still in Ipoh. This is where most of my mother's siblings reside, so this is where the reunion takes place every year for my side of the family. My mother is the eldest of nine siblings so Ryan has a lot of relatives here - great-grandmother, grandmother, grand-aunts, grand-uncles, aunts, uncles and cousins.

Here's Ryan with my mum at the reunion dinner.


Lion dance at the hotel - got Ryan to touch the lion's head!

Monday, February 15, 2010

Chinese New Year

Yesterday, I got my Valentine's Day pressie from hubs - a heart-shaped pendant with pink sapphires and diamonds from Tiffany's - thank you sweetie! We didn't plan any romantic outing this year as Valentine's Day coincides with the first day of Chinese New Year and family comes first, more so with Ryan around.

We drove out to Ampang yesterday with Richard's parents and Mary to visit Richard's uncle and his family. Richard's aunt is a great cook and we had a yummy lunch at their house, as always. After lunch, we went back for a rest and only ventured out again at dinnertime. The hot weather encourages lots of lazing about.

Today we drove up to Ipoh to see more relatives and friends. Here are some shots taken by Kar Yee.


Here's Ryan in the hotel room, escaping from the heat and humidity. We will be in Ipoh for two nights.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Gearing up for Chinese New Year


Chinese New Year is always a busy time. There have been all the household preparations - buying the plants, stocking up on mandarin oranges, goodies and drinks, putting up some decorations, doing some cleaning and tidying up and lots of laundry. Then there was shopping for new shoes and new clothes and getting haircuts.

We drove up to Malaysia on Friday, where we normally celebrate the occasion with our extended families. We set off on Friday morning and arrived in KL in time for lunch at Yut Kee, thankfully there was no traffic jam along the way. After a good rest and relaxing swim in the condo pool, we went to see Richard's sister, Mary, at her clinic and after that, went for dinner with the family.



This afternoon we met up with Mary again at our new condo unit to give her a tour and we took the opportunity to let Ryan have a swim in the condo pool.



After that, it was time for the traditional Chinese New Year eve reunion dinner.

After dinner, we went back to Richard's parents home and stayed up with them until past midnight (when the Chinese New Year rings in). This gesture is supposed to give our parents long life.

We will be in Malaysia till Sunday, 21 February and we have a packed schedule, which promises to be tiring but fun.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Ryan's Lunar Birthday

It's Ryan's lunar birthday today.

To mark the occasion, we carried out the Chinese traditional ceremony of "Zhua Zhou". We gathered some objects which symbolise something in his future and he is supposed to pick one. So, for example, if he picks a golf ball, he may do something related to sports, eg. be a sportsman or write a sports column. If he picks a pen, he may be a writer.

There was some discussion about whether we could manipulate the results by selecting those objects/professions which we deemed worthy and omitting those which we did not, eg. preparing only stethoscopes (so that he will become a doctor) or omitting the pen (so that he will not become a writer). In the end, we decided that it would not count if we manipulated the game because the game is supposed to reveal what is supposedly already written in his destiny. We concluded that, even if the object is removed from selection, it would not change "fate" and we would end up with an inaccurate glimpse into his future instead, which would defeat the point of the game.

So we prepared a broad selection of objects to cover most of the usual professions - a camera (photographer), a calculator (businessman, accountant), a computer mouse (IT line), chopsticks (chef, hotelier), stethoscope (doctor, nurse), a spool of thread (fashion designer), a golf ball (sports), cash (banker, rich man), a pair of shoes (traveller), ruler (lawyer, judge), dictionary (scholar), pen (writer), stamp/seal (politician, official), paintbrush (artist), CD (music), handphone (communications), screwdriver (architect) and a toy car (driver).

Some say that the game should end when the child selects the first object. We didn't think that this was fair because Ryan might simply pick up the item nearest to him and then throw it away in favour of another item. So we gave him full opportunity to examine whichever and as many items as he wanted.

These were his favourites: golf ball, spool of thread, money and the stamp/seal. So he may become a sportsman/official with lucrative clothing endorsements?

I noticed that he chose the smaller items that he could hold in his hand (ie. he picked those items which he could actually pick up) and he didn't go for the larger items like the shoes and the dictionary. So perhaps the size of the item makes a difference and smaller items have an advantage.

After the game, we served Ryan a chicken drumstick - he is supposed to eat this while having one foot in the house and one foot outside the house - so that he will always have food to eat wherever he goes.

When Ryan was about ten months old and able to stand up quite steadily with support, we let him play in these coin-operated cars/trucks/planes/etc in the malls. Ryan loves turning the steering wheel while making the appropriate sound effects (even though the machines aren't moving).

Here's one of his early sessions - driving carefully, checking his blind spot, both hands on the steering wheel, taking good care of his passenger.


And this is him last weekend. Driving like a demon, yelling at people to get out of the way!


Hahaha! I'm joking, I'm joking.

Still he does love it, so we try to give him a go whenever we come across one with a steering wheel.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Ryan's first haircut!

We took Ryan for his first haircut today at Little Red Dot Salon at Forum Galleria. We have not had the heart to cut his curls off, but his hair has been getting in his eyes, so we decided to get him a trim in front and keep the back and sides untouched.

After hearing all sorts of horror stories from other parents, I was half-expecting a meltdown. To my pleasant surprise, Ryan was relaxed and calm throughout. With his cooperation, the whole thing took less than 3 minutes and he got a lollipop from the salon afterwards. Short and sweet.






The final result.

Monday, February 1, 2010

The ball pit

We recently bought an inflatable ball pit for Ryan and Richard set it up a few days ago.

Ryan doesn't really like to sit in it for long. Once he's put there, he will pick up a ball and throw it across the room so that whoever is babysitting him will have to go and fetch it. He'll throw a few more out and while his carer is a good distance from the pit, searching under the couch and table for the balls, he will climb out and go search for more interesting stuff to do.

Last night, Richard found a way to keep him in the pit, at least for a little while longer. Check it out.

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