Our weekend

On Monday morning, we often get asked about what we did over the weekend. A simple question, but a little embarrassing to answer since we hardly ever do anything more than grocery shopping. With little Hannah's arrival, we have more excuse to simply vegetate at home. After all, long outings pose a logistic difficulty and unlike certain countries, we do not have baby-friendly cinemas here!

Ah, but the last weekend saw us in an unusual flurry of activity.

Firstly, Hannah's Gong Gong and Po Po had gone home to Port Dickson, so we were left with a baby who had to be constantly carried and entertained. How the two old folks keep up with her, I don't know.

Next, our apartment had marked the weekend as a time for "gotong-royong" - Malay for a joint clean-up exercise by the community, that is, the residents of the apartment complex.

However, we weren't quite going to empty out store rooms or dig up weeds. Instead, we were going to paint the stairwells of the entire complex! All in the name of saving a few thousand Ringgits and, erm, spending some quality time together?

There were a few snags though - not everyone from the the various units volunteered, although you can be sure that Chris did his fair share of work.

Most who DID volunteer were unequalled in their enthusiasm, but unfortunately had just as much experience as Chris (none). The first stairwell took a whole day to paint, and cleaning up took almost as long as the painting (much to the chagrin of our caretaker)!

And of course, you have SOME residents who just look cute and well, LOOK.

Thankfully, the second day progressed much quicker - we doubled our results and created half the mess. By early Sunday evening, we had to dump our brushes early and prepare for our next engagement...

a Hindu wedding

Hindu weddings are often lavish affairs with hundreds if not thousands of guests. This was held in a community hall of sorts with an elaborate set-up on stage. The bride and groom were seated on ornate chairs (much like a throne) where they spent a good part of the first couple of hours performing prayers with a Hindu priest and musicians in attendance.


At the end of the ceremony, guests formed a steady procession, going up the stage to personally congratulate the new bride and groom. Otherwise, how would they ever know who came for the wedding? I reckon all they saw were a sea of faces in bright garments.



There they are, in all their wedding finery.

I suppose the groom can't help being bored. After all, half the guests were like us - his wife's friends who he had never met in his life. The other half were mostly his guests, including distant relatives he had never met in his life either! After going through a lengthy prayer ceremony, shaking a few hundred hands and desperately wanting dinner, he must have wished the camera man would quickly get on with it.

Well, congratulations Nesa & Ganesh!

Mum Mum?

"Next to structuring feeds and sleeptime, weaning is the most emotive subject in parenting"

Can't remember who said that, but that comment stuck and I wholeheartedly agree. Hannah is approaching 6 months and the time has come to expose her palate to a whole new delicious world. Just when we have finally sorted out her sleeping and feeding patterns, it's time to complicate things all over again.

For those unfamiliar with our local lingo, "mum mum" means "food" in baby language, and needs to be spoken with a sing-song intonation. I assume it's a mutated Chinese dialect, but even Malays and Indians understand it, so who knows how it originated.

Recalling our initial difficulty coming to a compromise with Hannah's "routine", we anticipate a similar struggle establishing her on solids. Hannah's carers (Gong Gong and Po Po) not only come from a different generation, but also a differing cultural background. While feeding babies rice porridge is unheard of in Daddy's home country, it is the norm here. Similarly, our suggestions to offer her mashed avocado (supposedly one of the best first foods for babies) was greeted with "What's that?", which then became "but it's not tasty", accompanied by suspicious looks.

Big names like the American Association of Paediatrics and the La Leche League mean nothing to them, so quoting them as our source of reference (among others) was useless. It was only after a phonecall to a fellow grandparent that they became more receptive to our weaning programme. Thankfully, this particular grandmother is rather updated and does all that we plan to do - puree & freeze fruits and vegetables, grind up organic oats and brown rice, and yes, serve avocados.

So, in the coming months, we will be embarking on this journey together, all of us none the wiser. No doubt, once Hannah has been established on solids, Po Po will have the satisfaction of cooking up rice porridge with ikan bilis and hin choy, and whatever else we were fed as babies.

After all that fussing, Hannah probably wouldn't even care less what we offer her - she has taken after the Wylie and Teoh boys, all of whom never had a problem with their food!

Ah, the joys of having a cross-cultural baby -- whose culture do we follow?

Identity Crisis

"You're so lucky!"

The oft repeated response whenever someone at work asks me about Hannah's childcare arrangements. Indeed I am fortunate to have such wonderful family support, knowing that Hannah is always being looked after by people who love her, almost unconditionally!

Oh, of course, this is the little monster we are talking about (happily chomping the unsuspecting Mr. Rabbit)...

Having compared notes with my colleagues, here are some of the common childcare arrangements of our local working mommies:

1. Send the baby to a local babysitter
2. Send the baby to grandparents / relatives staying nearby
3. Send the baby, with a hired maid, to grandparents / relatives staying nearby
4. Live with grandparents
5. Send the baby to grandparents for the week, only collecting her back at the weekends!

The first three options involve early mornings and late evenings, given the state of traffic jams in this city, ferrying the little baby to and fro her carer's house each day. The 4th option is what we have naturally settled into, since our new apartment is not ready for occupation. To many, this seems the most favourable arrangement. However, having the extended family all under the roof of a crowded apartment is not without its drawbacks.

Surprisingly, not a few resort to option five. A significant number will travel home to the East Coast (erm... at least 6-8 hours away?) for their confinement / maternity leave, leaving the husband alone in the city to continue working. Afterwards, many leave their babies behind with the extended family, choosing to come back to KL to work, only visiting their babies occasionally! This continues till the baby is a little older - until he can be placed in the hands of a trusted babysitter.

Well, we have to remember that maternity leave is a mere two months, and there are no creche services in most places of work. So, I suppose leaving the baby behind is safer than taking a risk with an unknown babysitter. After all, we are familiar with stories of child abuse and neglect under the care of hired maids and supposedly trusted babysitters.

So, having considered all options, I should be happy I have the best of all worlds, but am I?

Many years ago, I remember attending a seminar on "Balancing work and family" as a medical student. The speaker was a Consultant Pathologist who had deliberately taken twice as long to complete her training, just so that she could spend time with her children. Obviously, at that time I could not have possibly understood the difficulties of juggling so many roles. The only take-home message I remember is this: you will have to compromise.

That translates to: you will not be the best mommy you strive to be, or be as aggressive as you wish to be in your career aspirations. Spending more time in one area will inevitably result in compromise in the other.

What roles are we talking about? Well, I am first a Christian, a wife, a mother, a doctor, a daughter, a student ... or have I already got it wrong?

It's a little like those chemistry equations with funny arrows pointing both ways - eventually everything settles and the components involved reach an equilibirum. I guess I just haven't found that equilibrium yet.

The truth is, I wish I could be more of a mommy.

It is so difficult to reconcile the fact that my baby spends more waking hours with her carers than with me. Who is her parent?

Parenting choices such as using the dummy(or not), structuring feeding and sleeping times, having supervised tummy time etc., are all out of my reach, simply because I am not there. Trying to force the little baby into "my" routine at the weekends seems cruel, since she already has another routine. Hannah now wakes up irregularly at night, searching for her dummy, simply because she can't do without it now. Trying to break the habit during the weekend seems pointless, since she gets her way during the week!

The utter heartbreak would be if Hannah says "Po Po" as her first words instead of "Ma Ma". I'll blog about it if that happens, and all the working Mommies can then try to console me.

Experts say that babies instinctively know who their mothers are. But I really wouldn't blame Hannah if she gets a little confused. Everybody wants to have a piece of her (remember the market lady?), and Mommy just can't seem to get enough of her!

Working Mommies out there, any words of advice for this anguished Mommy?

Getting back online

Wow, it's been a while. Who would have thought an earthquake off the coast of Taiwan could have so disrupted our blogging? Actually, we don't have much to say, so we will let the picture speak instead. I have chosen this particular photo as my new desktop background - it's bound to raise a smile every time I turn my computer on! I hope it brightens your day too.

Christmas has been and gone, but the memories live on in photos... Hannah experienced a lot of "firsts" while she spent Christmas in Port Dickson (her maternal grandparent's home). She played with wrapping paper (infinitely more engrossing than the gift itself, much to her parents' embarrassment!), she saw roti canai being made on Christmas morning, she saw lots of cute chicks at the market, she went swimming for the first time...

Now, taking Hannah swimming required a little bit of preparation. First we needed a swimsuit. Not easy to find for a 5 month-old baby!!! But we took a chance with a swimsuit for 18 month-olds and, well, see the pictures to judge whether it fitted. All I can say is that Hannah is clearly getting a few spare tyres round her tummy, legs, arms, chin...

Next we needed some kind of float. Well, we had been given a rather cool inflatable baby boat (with leg holes) a few weeks earlier, so Cindy set about blowing it up.

And finally we needed a swimming pool. Now, one of the nicest places in PD (if you ever go there) is the Yacht Club, and rather conveniently Cindy's father is a life member. That means free access to their swimming pool. So we turned up on Boxing Day morning, nice and early to avoid the crowd. So early, in fact, that the pool wasn't really open! Never mind, no-one was going to stop a 5-month old in a fluorescent-orange swimsuit having a splash in the kiddies pool.

Did she like it? I would say she took to it like a duck to, well... water. It was a little cold to start with , but after a while she was happily reclining in her baby boat, waiting for Mummy or Daddy to tug her around. The next time we are in PD, we are definitely going to the Yacht Club again.

The picture below is a link to Hannah's Web Albums. You may have seen the link on the right-hand side that appeared a few weeks ago. You can go there anytime to get a Hannah-overdose. Every few weeks we will add to the collection of photos. They are of a decent resolution, so they should be good enough for downloading and printing, too.

So come and have a look at Hannah' First Christmas. Just click the picture below:

Hannah's First Christmas

And how was YOUR Christmas? Do tell us your stories.

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2006

Hannah has a message for everyone who reads this blog:


...and of course Happy New Year for 2007. In due course, we will post pictures of Hannah's first Christmas, which will be in Port Dickson.

Most importantly, we would like to give a little reminder of what we are celebrating. Please take the time to view this short flash slide-show that speaks clearly of the "Heart of Christmas" - Jesus Christ. He is truly wonderful to know, so as you celebrate his birthday once again this Christmas, please make him central to all you do.

Click Here for Flash Video - The Heart of Christmas

Snatch Theft

It's amazing how much difference a day's leave makes.

Tomorrow marks my 7th(24-hour) call of the month. It doesn't take a genius to do the math and figure out the frequency of my calls up to now. Granted, I'm getting several days off at Christmas, but it is still exhausting to keep up this pace of work.

Having today off somehow boosted my energy levels. I decided to experience first-hand the reactions of Hannah's fans (i.e. market ladies) after hearing all about it from her grandparents. Little was I prepared for what was to happen later.

It all started off pretty tamely with curious looks and a few regulars saying hi and making faces at Hannah. When we approached the usual fruit seller, I noticed she had signs suggesting a previous heart sugery and instantly felt I should be nicer to her. Why? I won't do a psychoanalysis at this point; let's just say it was an involuntary emotion.

So, I coaxed Hannah into throwing a few smiles in her direction, which she did, winningly. But the fruit lady did two things which left me speechless, one more so than the other.

"She doesn't look like you at all."

Unfortunately, women have the habit of reading between the lines, often coming up with the most unflattering conclusions. To me, after praising Hannah and fussing over her, saying something like that to the person holding her was almost like saying:

"You're ugly, are you sure this beautiful baby belongs to you, or are you the maid?"

I don't know, perhaps after seeing Hannah morning after morning for the past few weeks, she was expecting a more angelic human specimen as her mother. So perhaps she was surprised to finally meet Hannah's mother - plain old me.

Trying not to take offense, since probably none was meant in the first place, I smiled and allowed my parents to make the appropriate responses. However, I was shocked by what she did next.

As we were about to leave, she stopped us, quickly put away a few things, stepped away from her counter and came up right next to me and stretched out her hands to Hannah. Now, I have never met this lady in my life, and I don't know how well my parents know her since I was convinced she had just overcharged us for the bananas. I kept Hannah close to me.

Sensing my reluctance to release the baby, she slid her hands under Hannah's arms, saying: "Let me carry her!" and literally snatched the baby from my arms.

My heartbeat must have doubled instantly, and I don't know how my parents could have continued smiling. Hannah must have read my body language and her face crumpled within seconds, although those seconds felt like forever. I quickly took her back, but the lady continued to stay by my side and started touching Hannah's hands, even rolling up Hannah's long sleeve to look at goodness-knows-what.

Although it has been several hours since the incidence, the scene keeps playing back as though I am suffering from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). What if someone with less innocent intentions had done that? What was to stop this lady from running away, disappearing into the crowds of the busy market?

How can anyone claim such familiarity and forcefully remove a baby from her mother's arms?

It's just outrageous.

Even if I consider her actions rude and unacceptable, there will probably be more people like her. How do I say NO? Politely, of course. And what if some people won't take no for an answer, like this lady for instance? Should I have just forcefully taken my baby back, at the risk of having expensive bananas for the rest of my life?

It's awful. Now I'm left wondering what happens every morning (when I am away at work) when my parents do their usual market rounds. Although we have all agreed that no stranger should ever be allowed to carry Hannah, the situation this morning was a little tricky, since the fruit lady was not exactly a total stranger.

Call me stuck up if you like, (since I know of parents who would happily let anyone carry their babies, at any time) but letting almost complete strangers hold a small helpless baby IS courting trouble.

I've completely changed my mind about my cousin's baby who cries whenever someone other than the immediate family carries her. It's not fussy behaviour, but smart behaviour. It's the only protection against these 'snatch thieves'.

All I Want For Christmas

... is my two front teeth

So sings the little girl on the Christmas CD.

It has become Hannah’s theme song of the moment as she spends hours every day indiscriminately chomping on anything and everything that wanders near her mouth or hands. Her little hands are perpetually covered with a coat of slime and her chin glistens with happy muck.

The year-end not only brings to mind the joyous Christmas season, but also a time of reflection and thanksgiving.

Not too long ago in the month of September, Hannah made several promises to Daddy. We decided to see if she had done well keeping them. To save you the trouble of rummaging through our blog archives, here they are again:

1. I will wake up only once every night and sleep through the night within a month’s time.
2. Whenever you change my nappy I will not aim or shoot unmentionables in your direction.
3. I will not fall asleep within 5 minutes of starting my feeds.
4. I will stop fussing and fall asleep within minutes of your cuddling or rocking.
5. I will look pretty each time you take a picture of me, so we can land an advertisement deal and earn a lifetime supply of diapers.

Hannah has done well on most of them, except number 5. Despite having a loyal (and growing) fan club at the local wet market, she has still not attracted the ‘right’ type of attention. Many comments have been made about baby contests, but up till now it has been all talk and no action.

Finally, Gong Gong and Po Po decided they were buying too many diapers and dropped a copy of a local parenting magazine in our laps. They declared their grand-daughter could easily outdo the current “baby of the month” and bring home the promised hamper of goodies.

We scoured through our collection of photographs and decided this might impress the judges. What do you think?



Perhaps this Christmas Hannah will have more than just her two front teeth.

Food, Glorious Food!

Hannah has been showing interest in food for a few weeks now. When she sits on someone's lap at the table, she looks longingly at the food laid out. She salivates a LOT, she sucks and chews anything within reach, and she will even 'bite' your finger if you offer it, leaving you with a sore, red mark! So, last weekend, we decided to give Hannah her first taste of baby rice. Here is the result:

And when the parents took a break, Hannah took matters into her own hands:

A week has passed, and we haven't fed her solids since last weekend. So today we gave it another try. Any fear she would have lost interest were allayed when Hannah lurched forward for the first mouthful. You can see the intense concentration in Hannah's eyes (eye?):

So feeding Hannah looks like smooth sailing. Cool. Not what we expected after horror-stories from other parents.And one last thing. Have you ever observed someone else feeding a baby? Ever noticed how instinctively the adult's mouth opens just as they want the baby to take a mouthful? Even if the baby can't see them?! Here is the photographic evidence:

I am sure there will be more interesting or funnier food stories in the months ahead, so sorry for such an enthusiastic blog. But it is just another of those milestones that feels like it is worth celebrating. So what are YOUR baby feeding stories??? Click on comments below!

A 'turning point' in Hannah's development

Here is a sequence of Hannah taken yesterday, playing in her "Playful Puppy Gym." She has made a fair few attempts to turn herself over - even as far back as October when Chris's family were here. But all without success. Well, now we have photographic evidence that she CAN do it! At first, she got her arm trapped under her body and she would just cry, but in this sequence you can see she managed to completely turn over without any help.

So what's next for Hannah? Ah, weaning. Now THAT's another story for another blog...















"Did you get that on camera, Mummy?"

Matters of Life and Death

It was past 10 O’clock at night.

My senior colleague and I had been on our feet since 8am that particular Sunday. We had to ignore hints of fatigue and muster all our energy and concentration in an attempt to preserve the life of a critically ill patient in the Intensive Care Unit.

Consultant surgeons were at hand to perform a rare feat – a major surgical procedure in the relatively unsterile conditions of ICU with minimal anaesthesia. This was our last attempt to bring the patient back from the brink of death. The ICU was buzzing with activity, in preparation and anticipation of a real life drama gradually unfolding.

“Er, excuse me doctor, there’s a film crew outside asking for permission to film a scene.”

My senior colleague and I looked at each other in utter disbelief.

“They are filming the drama ‘ABC’ starred by that famous actor YYY!”

The nurse was clearly excited that her idol was standing just beyond the door. I hadn’t a clue what TV programme she was talking about or who the actor was. Needless to say, we were too busy to entertain such a request and proceeded to focus on our task instead.

Hours later, our patient was stabilized and adrenaline levels had returned to normal. As I sat down to review other patients, a man popped through the ICU doors. I noted his dyed hair, funky spectacles and multiple ear studs and immediately assumed he was part of the film crew. He smilingly returned a few things borrowed from ICU, thanked me, and left quickly.

How frivolous it seemed. On one hand we were struggling to keep not just one, but several patients alive. Ours was an ongoing drama with real consequences. Beyond the doors a team of artistes were creating an artificial world of suspense and romance, promising their viewers an hour of non-stop entertainment on prime time television, week after week.

Hospital dramas have long been a popular genre – just think of ER and Chicago Hope. These productions have been so influential in forming public conception of hospitals and the medical profession that I was a little disappointed to discover, early in my career, the REAL world of medicine – long hard hours, often routine and mundane work injected with unexpected moments of exciting action.

My hospital is located at the heart of “cowboy town”, a place rife with gangster activities, with drivers who manouever their little Kancils through town as though it was an F1 circuit. We see many cases of trauma – bullet wounds, parang slashes, amputated limbs, severe road traffic injuries, severe industrial accidents and burns/explosive injuries. Death, in many cases, is inevitable and real.

I remember a teenage boy whose mother seemed unnaturally calm seeing him hooked up to a ventilator and multiple drips. It was his third road traffic accident and he had recovered from the last two accidents sufficiently to get involved in a third. His mother must have expected the medical staff to perform yet another miracle. Unfortunately he succumbed to his injuries.

At the other end of the spectrum are medical situations where death is inevitable, but through no man-made cause. Not too long ago I was attending an emergency Caesarian birth where I assisted the neonatal team in resuscitating the little infant. Feeling happy that I had done a significant ‘good’ for the baby and her mother, I was crushed to find out later in the day that the little child had passed away in ICU due to a fatal congenital birth defect.

It is humbling to know the limitations of Medicine, but it leaves me feeling a little helpless. Each time a Caesar baby emerges, I think of Hannah and the miracle of life she is. I remember the time when we feared she would have to fight for her life if born prematurely, and thank God over and over again. Although Hannah is growing robustly, I am all too conscious of the fact that as parents, Chris and I are mere stewards of this precious gift of God.

Only God has the key to life and death.

Multimedia madness!

Well, after starting my own podcasts in the last blog, I thought "Why stop there?" So next we have a video clip of little Hannah - in this clip she is getting lots of attention from her grandparents (nothing new there!) This particular clip was recorded a few weeks ago when Chris's parents were here, and there were FOUR grandparents around to spoil her!



If you really want to see more of 'Hannah in action', then feel free to wander over to www.youtube.com and do a search for 'davehomebrew' (That's my Dad's online idenity!!!) I think you can find at least 4 videos there so far. Don't bore yourself silly, though. Videos are great fun for the nearest and dearest, but not exactly prime entertainment for the average blogger-reader.

Sermons online

Well, as I said I would many weeks ago, I have finally got some of my sermons online. I will start off with the most recent two that I preached, including one I literally preached a few hours ago! If I am able to, I will try to put more of my previous sermons online sometime in the future.

You will notice a new permanent section on the right of our blogspot entitled "Sermons." Just take a look there once in a while and you will always be able to find whatever messages I have posted on the net. I suggest you right-click on any message you want to listen to, and select "save target as..." to download the mp3 file onto your computer. Be warned - the files are about 15MB each!

If you prefer just to stream the audio online (thereby saving precious hard disk space), then click on the two links below for a few more options.

Have a listen and I hope God's Word becomes a blessing to you.

The Parable of the Shrewd Manager: http://www.archive.org/details/sermon261106

The Parable of the Good Samaritan: http://www.archive.org/detials/sermon170906

A day in the park

On Saturday we enjoyed a family day at Bukit Jalil Park with our church, Faith EFC. Hannah had a nice time with lots of people and a friendly dog. It was a chance to dress her up in a sun dress and a bonnet. Needless to say, she looked pretty cute.

We were glad for the chance to let Hannah spend more time with people from our church since on her outing to church the week before, she threw a fit! We were beginning to wonder if she was developing some kind of 'stranger anxiety' since she doesn't get to mingle with lots of different people at any one time. Well, thankfully her morning in the park was a happy one without as much as a whimper.

The morning started with a vigorous exercise routine led by our own fitness fanatic: Yun Yee. Twenty minutes later, we were begging her to stop so we could catch our breath... and eat breakfast! One of our church's home groups had organised that - a classic Malaysian breakfast of nasi lemak ('coconut rice' with curry), which definitely hit the spot. Next were some family games. Chris joined in while Cindy provided Hannah with a good view of the action. Eventually, the sun got the better of Chris (yes, he is still a pasty-skinned Englishman) and we decided to head home.

All in all it was a good family day out, and a good excuse to snap some more pictures. 

Double-take

Well, we can confidently report that Fudge the dog is still the number one friend of little Hannah. Whether she is stroking him, licking him or hugging him, he makes a fine uncomplaining buddy.

Now look carefully at the mound of soft toys and blankets above. They may look like an abandoned heap of baby-things gathering dust, but look again...

Keep looking...


Now just scroll down a bit...


That's right, come this way...


Just a bit more...


Nearly there...


Ok, now check the second picture taken moments later from another angle. Certainly not an abandoned pile of toys, but rather an elaborate bedding set. Oh, the things it takes to get our daughter to sleep...


 

Journeying On

The dearth of entries in this blog would probably indicate how busy we have been. 3 ½ months on, we are still getting used to having a cute, screaming infant in the house. Just when we think we've figured her out, Hannah comes up with something new to keep us on our toes. Resigned to the fact that life will NEVER be the same anymore, we are trying to find the appropriate balance of work, ministry, family and dare I say, leisure?!

For the sake of family and friends who keep checking this site only to find Mr Bumble Bee staring back at them, here’s the latest on our Princess and her tired parents.

Cindy’s been kept busy with 24-hour calls almost once in three days these last couple of weeks. Instead of getting several hours of sleep after coming home from a busy day (and night) of work (think: pre-pregnancy days), she finds herself having to entertain a noisy baby suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

From what, you say? Well, Hannah is still exclusively breastfed, so enough said.

Chris has had a slightly better deal this month, with fewer teaching hours and more time to sort out administrative work. However, with Cindy away so many nights, guess who has been pacifiying the little girl single-handedly?

And now, what about Hannah?

Being a baby of mixed parentage (‘Pan-Asian’ is the word to use?), we had to look around for an appropriate growth chart. We stumbled upon one on the WHO website (http://www.who.int/childgrowth/standards/en/) , which incidentally reflects the growth of breastfed babies – excellent!

Hannah started off as an average-sized baby, and has blossomed (or ballooned) to almost above-average. Yet, her weight for length is appropriate, so no worries of being overweight. At this juncture, I will have to introduce you to the ‘Grandparent Syndrome’.

There has been several new babies in the extended family (4 in the last 6 months!), with it not only first-time parents, but also first-time grandparents. Suddenly, all they ever talk about at family gatherings is baby talk – diaper brands, strollers, milestones and of course how well the baby is thriving. There seem to be a race for the fattest baby, almost equating health with size, as though being overweight is impossible for a baby. Scary.

Naturally, the grandparents have been comparing notes, politely and subtly hinting their respective grandchild has the upper hand in this informal competition. Curiously, the parents seem the least bothered about whether their baby smiles or crawls before their cousin's does. Now it’s not only the babies, but the grandparents as well who are a source of entertainment!

But for the sake of her grandparents scattered all over the world, we’ll have to report what Hannah CAN do.

If Po Po had her way, she’d say that Hannah is walking and even flying now. The real truth is, Hannah loves to spend time on her feet while being held upright, occasionally making stepping motions. We call it 'the moonwalk' since it gets her nowhere! Medically speaking it is a sort of infant reflex, therefore a little embarrassing to make a big deal out of it.

As for the flying bit, that’s Daddy’s doing. Hannah’s developed an acrobatic ability to hold herself stiff while Daddy flings her around in mid-air. With a little imagination, our little girl looks like Supergirl. A little far-fetched, but if you’ve run out of things to say, this one might just shut all the other grandparents up.


And now, with photographic evidence, this is what Hannah can really do. With her neck and back firming up, Hannah’s been keen to spend more time upright, with support of course.

Her vocabulary has also expanded from cooing to squealing, with a lot more spontaneous smiling. We think she might grow up to be quite a vain little girl since she now enjoys looking at her reflection AND smiling in approval at what she sees.

Unfortunately, Hannah is also starting to develop stranger anxiety, often crying hysterically when surrounded by unfamiliar faces. The elite group of ‘familiar faces’ only include Mummy, Daddy and Po Po. Hmm, so much for all those babysitting offers.

Although a little young, Hannah seems to be displaying signs of teething – lots of drooling, chewing, sucking etc. The teether has been getting its fair share of abuse, together with Fudge the dog, her security blanket and anything else she gets her hands on.

Just to show how quickly Hannah develops and changes, we have to report that Mr. Bumble Bee has fallen out of favour! Shocking.

Shall we even bother introducing her latest friend? Oh well, here he is anyway, Fudge the dog, Hannah's loyal sleeping companion. Let’s see how long you will last. You have been warned...

Hannah's Best Friend

This month, Hannah was hit by the travel bug and spent many many hours in the car, including a long ride to the Cameron Highlands (almost four hours) and a recent day-trip to Cindy's hometown of Port Dickson.

We discovered the key to surviving those long car rides - the indispensable presence of Hannah's best friend. Shall we then introduce you to.... MR.BUMBLE BEE!!!


Who knows how and why he manages to have such a predictable effect on the little girl. Without fail, her grumpy face breaks out into smiles and squeals of delight will follow when the cheery friend makes an appearance.

Interestingly, Hannah has also developed the ability to 'talk' to humans and inanimate objects alike. This was much to our delight when we were dining at a particularly posh (and quiet) restaurant and little Hannah was beginning to act up. Thankfully, she made friends with a wall lamp and proceeded to spend the next 30 minutes having a one-way conversation.

Looks like she's well on her way to having imaginary friends!

Goodbye Grandpa, Grandma and Auntie Sam.

Chris's family have just left Malaysia after a few weeks' holiday here. It has been a wonderful opportunity for Hannah to bond with her paternal family: Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Sam. Hannah will miss all of you, as will her Mummy and Daddy. Thanks for all your love and support. I will let Hannah make a few comments on this collection of memories:

"Tell me another nursery rhyme, Grandpa!"

"I'm having a bad hair day, Auntie Sam. It must be this damp Cameron Highlands climate. Any recommendations?"

"Thanks for the comfy place to sleep, Grandma."

"Why did that man say 'Cheese'? And why is everyone smiling at that flashing light? Sigh. Is it time to go home yet, Mummy?"

Grandpa's Gift

LITTLE HANNAH

Little Hannah, angel sweet,
Tiny hands and tiny feet,
Big brown eyes so clear and bright,
Staring sweetly, such delight.

Little Hannah, try to smile,
Showing off your winning style,
Everyone just loves to see
They all think ‘that smile’s for me!’

Little Hannah, crying now,
Why do you make such a row?
Is it time for your next feed,
Or is it something else you need?

Little Hannah, close your eyes,
Time to rest before you rise,
Dreaming softly, thoughts so pure,
Not a worry to endure.

Little Hannah, loved by all,
Little bundle cute and small,
Your doting parents thank the Lord,
You really are a gift from God.

 

Guests for dinner

Last Sunday, we enjoyed the company of Carol and Tony. They flew 6000 miles, along with Chris's parents, to have a holiday in Malaysia. Here we are at a Chinese restaurant not far from our house.

And here they are in Langkawi with my parents. "We hope you had a great holiday. Thanks for visiting, and see you again - in either England or Malaysia!"