A winning photo?

Just decided to blog this 'cos it's my favourite photo of Hannah right now. She can be really adorable at times.

Here she is showing off three tricks - standing by herself (she can pull herself up using just about anything more than a few inches high) and waving. The third trick is not quite captured in this shot. You can probably make out that she is standing next to our Hi-Fi. Well, she has already located the volume control which she enjoys fiddling with when her music is playing (or when Mummy and Daddy are watching a DVD).

Now I entitled this "A winning photo?" because we have resurrected our photo competition hopes with this one, along with a couple of other cute shots. Hey, Pampers don't grow on trees, y'know. I mean, it's about time Hannah started paying her way in life...

P.S. Anyone know any Mother/Baby magazine editors?!

Father's Day

...or as Han said in church today, an 'afterthought' to Mother's Day!

Well, Hannah didn't forget her Daddy today. Chris got a rather handy book, in preparation for our new apartment (should be ready by early 2008 - click here for a link to an old blog on the apartment). In case you can't make out the title in the picture, it is "Home Improvement 101" (from Black & Decker, no less!)

So the gauntlet has been thrown down, it would seem, for Daddy to ensure the new apartment is inhabitable. But as Chris happily pointed out to his wife, to avoid any hint of sexism, most of the pictures in the book are of women wielding spanners, screwdrivers, drills and the like. Even the front cover features a woman with a paint roller. Ah, yes. Equality of the sexes. Let's not forget that when we get our new apartment. ;-)

Ok, let's finish this one with a call to all 'Fathers' reading this - post a comment with YOUR Father's Day gift and we'll see if we can spot any trends...

Sermon Update: I have mananged to upload the latest sermon to Archive.org, so now you can download a smaller (20MB) file or even just listen to it by online streaming (just like all my other sermons). Here is the link, and the link on the right-hand panel has been updated too:

http://www.archive.org/details/Leviticus19

Recordings from church

Here are two different types of recordings with very different content matter!

The first is some video footage of Hannah, recorded by our friend Eddy. Very sweet. For those of you who haven't seen Hannah in the flesh, you will get to see Hannah doing a bit of crawling and standing.



The second is Chris's latest sermon. The title is "Standards for Holy Living" and it looks at Leviticus 19 to see what it says to us today. Click here to download, OR go to the 'Sermons' section of the blog on the right-hand side.

Unfortunately my previous method of uploading audio files didn't work this time, so I'm temporarily using a free service called Badongo - it means you have to download a 40MB file, with no other options! My file will also be deleted in a few weeks' time. :-(

Hannah's F I R S T

F

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Well, it wasn’t quite as dramatic, but you can be assured it got my adrenaline pumping. After getting over the initial panic, logic and common sense kicked in and I convinced myself that Hannah was alright.

Immediately, my next thought was : how embarrassing, how could I ever have allowed that to happen? What kind of Mummy am I?!



For the last month or so, Hannah’s motor skills have developed exponentially, leaving poor Gong Gong and Po Po utterly exhausted and eager to hand over this clumsy bundle of activity to her parents by the evening.

She graduated from sitting up unsupported to crawling, turning, climbing and walking with support in a matter of weeks. We had to lower her cot, add cot bumpers and purchase a playpen to keep the young lady from injuring herself. Above all, we followed a fellow blogger’s advice and started teaching her the meaning of … NO. After all, it made more sense to teach her to obey a command (mainly to stay away from danger), rather than childproof the entire house (which is impossible).

Hannah seemed to be making quite a headway in this, often stopping her enthusiastic crawl whenever she hears a stern NO. Perhaps we became a little over-confident.

One morning, I was reading her some nursery rhymes and she started getting up to her usual tricks. She flipped, turned, crawled, rolled and moved steadily towards the edge of the bed, which is perhaps two feet from the hard ground. Rather than line the bed edge with pillows, we had previously decided to stop her with verbal commands, which had worked up to now.

You can guess what happened next.

Somewhere in the middle of “twinkle twinkle little star”, our little darling tucked her head, turned over and rolled off the edge of the bed onto the floor.

It took a split second for it to sink in.

All at once my heart rate tripled and Hannah’s inconsolable wails pierced the air. I was certain that picture of her casually rolling off my bed would play in my mind over and over again, each time amplifying to nightmarish proportions.

Despite managing severe head injuries at work on a regular basis , checking my own baby over proved more difficult than expected. I toyed with the idea of visiting a paediatrician, but finally convinced myself that it was just a bad bump. A quick look at several websites gave me more reassurance, but ultimately it was Po Po's cool reaction that made me feel better all at once.

"Hannah's a tough girl. You should have seen your brother. He's fallen off the walker AND the bed and knocked his head so many times as a baby."

Indeed, a quick check with my colleagues at work later in the day revealed a simple truth. 3 out of 4 babies seem to tumble from elevated surfaces at least once in their lifetime, as though this is a rite of passage.

Anyway, Hannah seems to have graduated from the "School of Hard Knocks" with flying colours. A week on, she suffers no ill effects from the incident and has progressed further in her plight for independence.

"Mummy, see, no hands!" seem to be her latest war cry, and Daddy has counted a full 20 seconds of Hannah standing alone unsupported.

What a relief.

Caught in a moment

 

This gorgeous photo was taken by TP, a good friend from Church. Thanks for making Hannah look so angelic, TP!

Happy Mother's Day!

First of all, for our UK readers, you ought to know that Malaysia doesn't follow the UK date for Mother's Day. I don't know why, but they follow the US 'Second Sunday in May' date - which was yesterday.

So it was Cindy's first Mother's Day. I think she was a bit sceptical about whether Hannah would remember, or indeed come up with anything to mark this special occasion. As it turned out, Hannah did rather well:

Not only did she give Mummy a cute book entitled "101 Secrets A Cool Mom Knows" (note the Americanism in the book's title!)...

...but Hannah also managed to buy a lovely bunch of red roses, which arrived a day early.

Finally, Hannah spared a thought for Po-Po, too. The flowers are from Po-Po's daughter and Son-in-law, but Hannah happily gave Po-Po a winsome smile as her photo companion.

All in all, a big "Well done" to Hannah.

Now, dearest daughter, what can you manage for Father's Day?

monkey business

Ever wondered what fun you could have with a dart-throwing monkey?! Well even if you hadn't, I bet you are wondering now :-)

So why not try this game I stumbled across the other day. In the meantime, we will try to find something else to blog about...

Bloons

The True Tastebud Test!

So far, Hannah has proven herself to be a gastronomic guzzler. She has not refused anything we have fed her... although it has taken a couple of tries to convince her of certain foods (most recently, cauliflower). She has taken to egg yolks and chicken porridge quite happily.


So we decided to put her to the ultimate test today...






She tried the King of Fruits...



DURIAN!






So what do you think? She liked it? Hated it? Spat it across the room? Finished a whole one by herself? Keep scrolling -->








Looking good!

But is it finger-lickin' good?

Hmm, not too sure about this...

Ok, let's try another approach. Have a good lick of a durian stone, instead of Daddy's finger!

Ok, this might work.

Yes! Keep it coming! Bring it on!

So there you have it: the Queen of Eating conquers the King of Fruits

Spring Cleaning

It was another busy weekend.

Cindy spent the weekend renewing her CPR certification while Chris worked a full Saturday teaching the same lesson three times!

An unexpected spurt of energy on Sunday afternoon saw both of us clearing out our cupboards and storing away some of our mess. Chris discovered old clothes (and how much he has grown since then) and recycled bags of unwanted teaching materials. Cindy, on the other hand, was delighted to find that she had shrunk sufficiently to store away ALL her post-pregnancy and maternity clothes.

The weighing machine doesn't lie, yet Cindy failed the acid test - her wedding gown!

Naturally, we ended up digging through old pictures and looking at our wedding pictures and scrapbook. Although it has only been 3 years, everything seems to have moved on and changed. Certainly, we can't imagine how life would be like without Hannah!

Our not-so-young flower girl has since hit puberty and would probably cringe at this picture...

A picture paints a thousand words...

(Hint: Chinese Wedding Tea Ceremony)

Unfortunately, we don't have time to pen a thousand words at this sitting. If you can hear little Hannah squealing and screaming in the background you'd understand why. Probably one of the most memorable moments at our wedding, we can safely say that the not-so-subtly-hinted desires have been fulfilled:

If you are still clueless, click here

Good news: Web albums supports video clips!

Wild Hannah Video - Click Here!

In between blogs, take a moment to enjoy a few recent shots of Hannah when she was 7 months old.

By the way, she turned 8 months yesterday!

Hannah at 7 months

Weaning Hannah - the basics

After the last blog by Mr Knightrider-wannabe, this one is going to take a 180-degree turn and move into...

... our kitchen.

By popular demand, we are responding to a very common query by friends and strangers alike when they see Hannah: "What do you feed her?"

In this age where we are drummed with the concept of 'you are what you eat', most assume that Hannah's fair and rosy complexion must be due to a secret ingredient mixed into her daily feeds. Never mind that Hannah is half an English rose, and naturally looks different from the typical Malaysian baby.

So, you have been warned. If you have absolutely no interest in what goes into a baby's mouth, and think that this mother is slightly looney to post pictures of common kitchen appliances, then surf on to another website.

We have been careful to follow official recommendations in weaning our daughter. The reason is simple. Not only has Hannah inherited half of Daddy's looks, she has also inherited his family history of allergies - food allergies, hay fever, asthma, skin allergies etc. So if you wonder why we have been so fussy with her food choices, then wonder no more. We simply want Hannah to have the best start in life possible.

Making baby food is simple and easy. We've used this over and over again:




Baby food jars are notoriously expensive and contain high amounts of preservatives that can't be too good for a baby's young tummy. We've taken to preparing our own food , storing it in ice cubes (one cube = one ounce) and storing it in our freezer. When required, we take out one to two cubes of fruit/vegetable, mix it with two cubes of expressed milk, a small amount of cereal/rice/oats and ta daa, we have one healthy, tasty baby meal ready.

Doesn't that take up a lot of time?

Not really. Writing this blog is probably more time consuming. Weekends are the best time to prepare the food cubes. Or in my case, any day when I am post-call.

In fact, looking at the kaleidoscope of colours in the freezer is pretty rewarding. Let's see, we have: Sweet potato, carrots, green peas, mango, apples, pears, pumpkin, bannanas, plums and avocado in view.

But, what if you travel?

These frozen food cubes travel surprisingly well. We've brought them to Port Dickson, and as far as Penang. I suppose if you're used to handling frozen / chilled expressed milk, this is no different.

If fact, since Hannah loves to eat with the family, we have made it a habit to bring her food along when we go out for simple meals. Never mind that she gets comments like "Yucks, what's that green stuff she's eating?". She laps it all up and even asks for more at times!

It is beyond the scope of this blog to talk about what and when to feed your baby. Here are some sites to check out if you'd like to know more about recommended feeding schedules and baby food recipes that are tried and tested:

http://askdrsears.com/html/3/T030100.asp

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

For a more local perspective, check this helpful book :

"When and What to Feed My Baby" by Mrs. Gill

Cooking for Hannah has been a joy. It has also been a way for us to reclaim some territory (the kitchen) that we've lost to Po Po since she moved in.

Our culinary skills must be of a decent standard. After all, the proof is in the pudding:

Have we answered your question?

The of the Proton SAGA


I am relieved to finally be able to write this blog. That's because I acually have a Proton SAGA to speak about, as opposed to one supposedly ordered but not materialised.

So what is a Proton SAGA?

It's a car. Chris decided 5 years of Malaysian public transport was enough, and we came to the conclusion we could spare enough money to get a second car (Cindy depends on her car to get to work in Klang every day - approximately a 25km journey one way). We chose Proton because, being a local company, their cars are cheap to buy and cheap to maintain. We chose the SAGA because it was the cheapest! It also has a 1.3 litre engine, so it isn't going to guzzle petrol.

So Proton make cheap cars... but are they any good?

Well, Proton (like other developing-country car manufacturers - think Daewoo, Korea) have cunningly made a living out of rebadging someone else's cars. Namely Mitsubishi. Now they DO make their own models. And did you know Proton actually owns that marvellous British automotive company 'Lotus'? Anyway, despite having a range of brand new models, they still get away with rebadging increasingly old Mitsubishis.

Ok, so what exactly is...or was... the Proton SAGA?

It is a 1983 Mitsubishi Lancer (yep, almost as old as me! Well, almost...). A fine car in it's day. And still fit for the roads today.

Nice. And why do you call this blog the "Saga" of the proton SAGA?

Well, that is what I'm getting to. You see, after some deliberation, Cindy and I decided to settle for the Proton SAGA. We found a dealer just round the corner from where we stay - very convenient, so we were feeling good. The salesman was helpful and seemed professional. All was looking good.

Then we wondered if these salesmen couldn't offer a bit of an incentive to buy their cars. So we asked around and managed to squeeze a meager discount out of a couple of salesmen. We reasoned that the car was already cheap, so we couldn't expect much discount anyway, yet it was still a bit disappointing. We went back to the first guy that we liked and asked him what he could do. He laughed (evil cackle?!) and assured us he could "do better than that." Thus, buoyed up with confidence we went to see him again.

This time, we went armed with credit card and cheque book. We felt we could just about pay for the car in cash and avoid any more bank loans (both of us really dislike loans except when absolutely necessary). Well, maybe it was a rush of euphoria at finally getting my own set of wheels, but we did a silly thing. We wrote a cheque for the full amount and went home, expecting a car in less than 2 weeks time.

Later we reflected on our situation. We paid a LARGE sum of money and went home with nothing! Not even a receipt, since their finance office was closed by the time we made the payment. What were we thinking?

The next day Chris got a faxed copy of the receipt. A few days later, feeling increasingly uneasy, we called our friendly salesman to find out when the car was coming. We were told the colour we wanted was not in stock. Could take two weeks more. Maybe three. Can't promise anything.

Gulp. Money paid. No car. What could we do?

When I got home that day, my Father-in-law thrust the newspaper in my face. There was a new ad from Proton. They were promoting the Proton SAGA in celebration of Malaysia's 50 years of independence...with a 25% discount. That was it. I suddenly felt completely cheated - although I really only had myself to blame for being so naive.

After much deliberation of our options (including going straight to Proton HQ to beg for mercy!!!), my Father-in-law agreed to see our salesman the next day. Well, he was also very unsure of how to approach this issue. So he prayed. Of course, he didn't want to get nasty and he hoped the salesman would be reasonable. He asked our Heavenly Father to make the way smooth for a decent resolution. He was an example to me since I was hardly able to sleep due to the issue, let alone commit it in prayer to God.

And what was the resolution?

My Father-in-law first asked for the original receipt (of which we only had a faxed copy prior to this) and then - Praise the LORD - the salesman himself said "oh, and by the way uncle Proton is now offering a discount on the SAGA, so we will be issuing you a refund for the difference once the car is registered." That's right - because he couldn't get his hands on a car earlier, he hadn't registered it so he still had the money. By the time he would get a car, the new price would be in effect!

I called him that evening to tell him we were willing to change our colour preference - if the offer was for a limited time, we might have missed it by the time he found our first choice. We went for black. Sporty, yes. Sleek, yes. But hot in a country like Malaysia. But I figured with the savings from the discount we could invest in a bit of window tinting to keep the heat down.

It took another week after that phone call to get this:

The "A" List

Chinese New Year has come and gone, so why are we still so busy?

Each weekend seems packed - either being occupied with work-related activities or meeting up with relatives near and far. Our plans next weekend have been changed and changed again, and still remains uncertain.

Gone are the days when our ideal weekend consisted of a trip to the local supermarket, a leisurely home-cooked meal and a movie on DVD, all in the comfort of our apartment. Our social life? Practically non-existent, but it suited us fine.

Suddenly, as parents of Hannah, our status has catapulted. We now find ourselves well within the "Celebrities' A List", with invitations to functions pouring in.

We find it pretty unnerving, but Hannah has taken it all in her stride. In fact, she seems to thrive on all the attention and adoration. The little social animal somehow manages to work her way through the crowd, laughing, squealing and charming everyone's socks off.

After a hard day's work, she can always look forward to a little R & R at home...

And if a nice warm bath doesn't do the trick, then Hannah can always depend on her parents to soothe any ruffled feathers (read: overstimulation resulting in excessive night time grumpiness).

That's what parents are for.

The 15 Days of Chinese New Year

It has been a marathon of festivities (and sales) in this country. First it was the Muslim Hari Raya and Hindu Deepavali in October, then it was Christmas in December and now it is the Chinese New Year!

Surprisingly, I often get asked if I celebrate Chinese New Year, as though being a Christian (or married to a Caucasion) makes me any less Chinese. However, this confusion can be explained by the simple fact that most other major festivals in this country are closely linked to religion. We can probably draw a parallel to the celebration of Christmas in the UK - CNY is more of a traditional celebration of ethnic Chinese all over the world, with a cultural rather than religious significance.

In fact, so much of the superstitious and religious practices of the festivities have been omitted in our own family that substantial research had to go into this blog!

Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year is based on the Lunar calendar. Celebrations start on the first day of the first month of the lunar year, and concludes on the 15th day, also called Lantern Festival or the Chinese Valentine's Day.

Yet, perhaps the most important day of the celebrations actually falls on the eve of the Chinese New Year:



The eve of CNY, also known as Chu xi, is marked by the all important Reunion Dinner. The meal is usually held in the home of the patriach, or the most senior member of the extended family. Although I have fond memories of CNY past where families of all 8 uncles and aunties used to gather under the roof of my paternal grandfather's house, we had a far more relaxing time in our small KL apartment with close family members.

Day 1 Buddhists typically abstain from meat on the first day of CNY. Most households will also welcome deities at the stroke of midnight, particularly the God of Prosperity. For our family however, it was church as usual. All the children were decked out in their CNY finery, Chinese or not!

Red packets, or ang pows, are distributed by married adults throughout the 15 day celebrations to children and unmarried adults. Although the original intention was to "suppress or put down the evil spirits" (a homonym), red packets containing money of various denominations are now given, well, just to keep the children happy!

Not to be left behind, Hannah could barely wait to collect her first angpow and decided to descend on her sleepy grandparents first thing on CNY morning. Hannah was later spotted comparing angpows with the children in church...

Day Two Traditionally, married women had little opportunity to visit their birth families. On this day however, married couples return to their wife's family homes to visit her parents.

Day Three and Four are considered inappropriate days to visit relatives for different reasons (more homonyms). Yet for our family, we took advantage of the public holidays and did more visiting. We managed to visit all the families with babies and made endless comparisons!

Day Five is Po Woo, where families traditionally stay at home to welcome the god of wealth. Businessmen often start work in this day accompanied by a display of firecrackers to symbolise a good start to the new year for their businesses.

Day Seven is considered a birthday for everyone, or the 'common man's birthday'. People often gather together for meals including 'Yu Sheng', best described as a tossed salad with many commercial variants.

Day Eight is a day of special significance for the Hokkiens, who may have another family reunion dinner (we didn't) and pray to the Tian Gong, the Jade Emperor (at the stroke of midnight of Day Nine).

And let's just fast forward to

Day Fifteen, called Chap Goh Mei in the Hokkien dialect. While some countries may celebrate it as a Lantern Festival, we have a rather unique practice of throwing fruits in the sea. More specifically, singles are encouraged to throw mandarin oranges into the sea in an attempt to find their lifetime partners (hence the alternate name ' Chinese Valentine's Day).

However, in practical terms, all children consider this the final day to reap in financial gains for the year, i.e. ang pows.

There are endless superstitions related to Chinese New Year - avoiding sharp objects and not sweeping the floor on the first day, eating various food with homonyms for all things good and prosperous, opening every door and window at the stroke of midnight to usher in the god of wealth and the new year, expelling the old, etc.

If your curiosity has been piqued, you can find more information on these sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year

http://www.educ.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/438/CHINA/chinese_new_year.html

Or, if you want more pictures of what WE did, check out our web album:

Chinese New Year 2007

More Milestones

We are now well into the 2nd half of the Chinese New Year (CNY) celebrations, so really, a CNY blog should be in order. For the uninitiated, CNY is a 15-day celebration but more about that another time.

Instead, while scanning through Hannah's library of pictures, we could not help but post these...

Well, we knew from previous pictures that Hannah has already mastered the art of sitting up unsupported.

Unfortunately, she doesn't quite like being on her tummy and hasn't quite caught on to crawling.

What Hannah DOES like however, is sitting on her potty! Changing diapers is no longer an unpleasant affair.

Hannah has another sophisticated looking potty that resembles an adult toilet, but this one-ringgit (15 pence) potty bought from the local morning market has been an obvious favourite.

"So, she hasn't crawled yet?"

Thankfully, this proud Mummy can tell her friends that her 6-month-plus baby likes standing too much to spend time on her tummy. Here's the evidence!


Next up: All you wanted to know about CNY

Down Memory Lane

With the latest batch of mango puree safely tucked away in the freezer and little Hannah fast asleep, it's time for a little catching up on the blog front!

In response to a comment from a faithful reader, here's a quick blog of our weekend getaway many weeks ago in the "Pearl of the Orient", Penang.

For many reasons, Penang holds a special place in our hearts - Cindy completed her medical degree and picked up more Hokkien in those 2 years than in her entire life; Chris landed his first job in Malaysia teaching English in nearby Sungai Petani; we returned to the island to spend part of our honeymoon (with family in tow!) and who can ever forget the glorious food Penang is renowned for?

Earlier this month, Chris was sent to Penang for a teaching assignment. We felt this was an excellent opportunity to take a break from KL life, meet up with old friends and of course, recruit more members into Hannah's Fan Club.

Hannah quickly recruited most of our ex-caregroup members from church, including potential babysitters. Very handy indeed!

Much of the weekend was spent in the hotel room, since Chris was in the classroom most of the day. Anyone familiar with Penang will know how precarious driving can be with 'skilled' motorcyclists weaving in and out of traffic effortlessly.

Thankfully, Hannah took to her hotel cot well and seemed happy to nap and play as usual, allowing Mummy precious time to watch movies on cable TV and simply laze in bed.

Kids grow at an amazing rate.

We last saw this lanky toddler over a year ago and she was a tiny bundle sleeping in her cradle. Either she has an amazing memory, or she just couldn't care less, this young lady instantly flopped on Chris and took the bottle in a ziffy, having just 'met' him minutes ago.

And yes, Chris wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with that right leg that kept popping up onto the table.

In short, we spent many hours in the car, many more in the hotel room, and several more meeting up with old friends and savouring Penang food. A lovely break nonetheless.

As for Hannah, we will never know what memories she has of this trip, but at least she seems to recognise where home is. Tired out after the long car rides, Hannah flops into a most unnatural position and falls into a deep sleep on her parents' bed.

Home Sweet Home

Old Pics

We finally re-uploaded the photos for the previous blog. Scroll down if you have a moment or two, and reasure us that we haven't just wasted 20 minutes :-)

Oh, and Chris's most recent sermon has been added to the right-hand column. It is entitled "Getting Right with God." If you want to listen, click on the link to get options for either downloading or streaming online.

New Pics

Not sure what happened to the last set of photos...

But you can see a few snaps from our recent weekend in Penang. Click on Hannah below:

Hannah at 6 months