Desa Permai Condominium

We REALLY love our new apartment. These are a few shots taken by our interior designer (sounds posh, huh?) before we moved in and messed the place up ;-)

Catching up

There is so much to blog about from the last 2-3 months, that it is almost too daunting to try. But let me make a start. Here is a link to a photo album of our family holiday in Kuching. We went with my parents and sister while they were visiting us in Malaysia.

Kuching 2008

A lovely place for a holiday, and the Orang Utans were particularly impressive. God has created some truly astonishing creatures.

I have preached a couple of times since the last posting. See the updated SERMON links on the right-hand side of the screen.

Oh, and what about our new apartment I hear you cry. Well, that deserves another blog posting, methinks.

Jeremiah - a survey of the Old Testament book.

Here's my most recent sermon, continuing from Isaiah in the Old Testament Survey series.





Most likely my next sermon (in August) will be on Lamentations.

Nothing but the kitchen sink

Welcome to our new home!

Unfortunately, we can't make you a cup of tea because the kitchen is empty.

But you can enjoy our million dollar "Mid Valley" view... from the yard.

Yes, we have the keys to our new apartment. PRAISE GOD! It is no longer called Taman Bukit Tenaga, but now "Desa Permai". Give it 4 weeks and it should be inhabitable. More pics to follow.

Happy Birthday, Michael!

On Sunday, Hannah attended her first birthday party (apart from her own!). It was at "Kidz Sports & Gym" in Great Eastern Mall. Michael was 3 years old. Sorry, Michael, we didn't get a picture with you in it!

Although Hannah probably had no idea she was at a birthday party, she did have a good time. Lots of space to run around, lots of brightly coloured balls to play with, lots of soft mats everywhere, lots of happy children running around. Oh, and air-con.

However, being less than 2 years old, a couple of features of children's birthday parties didn't agree with her:
1) Organised games involving bigger kids. Too confusing and scary.
2) Party food. Fries and nuggets just don't do it for Hannah. So we resorted to sharing the parent's food with her - White rice and curry! That's our Hannah. But she did manage some birthday cake and fruit.

So what should we do for hannah's 2nd birthday in July? Will she be ready for some serious partying?!?!

Hannah's first drawing?

(Daddy would like to confess to adding the pink 'flowers', all in the spirit of encouraging Hannah to express her own creativity.)

A Survey of Isaiah

Talk about a mammoth topic for a sermon... And it turned into a mammoth sermon! Apologies to those who sat through 1 hour 7 minutes of my voice on Sunday.



Next up will probably be a survey of Jeremiah, but before you run for the hills I promise to find a way of making it shorter ;-)

Who's Who in the Zoo?

Until today, Hannah had never been to a zoo. Since Daddy is on leave this week, he decided to give Hannah the ultimate 'animal' experience at Zoo Negara (Malaysia's National Zoo).

Early morning preparation included reading all Hannah's animal books with her - in the hope of priming her vocabulary for the outing. Unfortunately, most of her books cover pets and farm animals, so she was woefully unprepared for 'rhinosaurus', 'hippopotamus', etc. not to mention the world's largest rodent (you know, the 'Capybara') or local animals such as the Tapir and Kancil.

Other preparation involved packing Daddy's backpack with food, water, diapers, more water, and a couple of Hannah's favourite toys. Then 8.30am came, and it was time to get going. The zoo opens at 9am, and even then the day is starting to get hot.

Driving to Zoo Negara took a reasonable 30 minutes using the MRR2. I had already checked the price of tickets online (RM15 for adults, RM6 for children over 3). Disappointingly, it turns out you also have to pay for parking (RM4) on top of your entrance tickets. As I drove in at 9.05am, the large carpark was deserted. I picked my shady parking spot, and gave Hannah an obligatory change of nappy to start us off nice and fresh.

Once inside, I decided to take things easy and hopped on the free train that does regular rounds of the zoo. We sat for 5 minutes, Hannah got fidgety and indicated she preferred a more 'happening' form of transport. So we hopped back off and set out on foot.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised by Zoo Negara. It is bigger and more stocked with animals than I expected. The paths are nicely shaded by very established tree canopies. Some of the exhibitions have seen better days, but generally the animals looked healthy and well looked-after. It was sadly quite empty, even by lunchtime, although a modest crowd of about 50 mostly foreigners magically appeared for the "Multi-Animal Show" (every day at 11am, but don't worry about missing this underwhelming performance).

Hannah was kind enough not to demand being carried everywhere. But still, it was a pretty tiring and sweaty day out. Some respite came from lunch in the air-conditioned fast-food restaurant. I was the first customer of the day at about 11.45am. Then the lunch-time rush came in with, ooooh, 3 other families.

And now for the photos. No great wildlife shots I'm afraid (hey, you try lining shots up with a 20 month old toddler pulling at your arm, or worse still try and get her in the shot with the animals!!!). But I just felt I owed it to Hannah to have photographic evidence of this adventure.

As you can see, Hannah had trouble focusing on the animals.

By the way, the animal vocab priming really didn't work. Anything big was declared a "cow!", while anything bird-like was a "duck". Oh, and Hannah got a fright from a "lamb" (which was actually a goat).

Going Against The Flow

Having been parents for a considerable amount of time, we've learnt that toddlers do the exact opposite of what they are told, most of the time.

Whenever we say "NO!", we realise it is a double-edged sword: she may well obey us, or flash us a cheeky grin and do it anyway, and perhaps do it repeatedly in the days and weeks to come.

In case you are wondering, the following sequence of photographs are in the correct order:

The young adventurer not only discovered that handrails usually accompany stairs, she has discovered how to use them, even if she's not quite the correct height yet.

To her (and our) amazement, Hannah discovered yet another skill - walking up the stairs backwards, all the while holding on to the handrail! No wonder she is a picture of concentration, tongue sticking out and all.

Little Hannah conquers yet another obstacle. It seems as though recently, Hannah has been blossoming into a little girl and leaving her little baby identity far far behind.

Not only has she developed a considerable amount of vocabulary, our little angel seem to be hitting the "Terrible Two's" a little prematurely.

"NO!" is the ruling word in the household - either announced by the obstinate toddler or screamed by the terrified grandparent.

Some of the controversial issues in this household includes:

1. The potty - some time ago, Hannah decided the potty is for playing and not for you-know-what. She happily sits on it, lid closed, diaper on, and proclaims to the whole world that she is, well, sitting. 'Everything' gets caught in the diaper these days. Sigh.
2. Bath water - as the name suggests, water in a bath tub is for bathing. Simple. Our Hannah decides she needs a little alkaline addition to her tummy and regularly drinks it. We've tried taking away her plastic tubs, firmly but calmly reprimanding her, but all to no avail.
3. Pyjamas - Hannah has quite a few lovely body suits given to her, but we've had to pack it away prematurely. One night after we had put the little girl to bed, we popped in to check on her and discovered to our amusement (and horror) that she was soundly asleep, but half naked. Having acquired the skill of undoing poppers, she now takes off any article of clothing that has poppers. She then comes over and dolefully goes "mummy help", and expects me to do up everything just so she can take it off again. Typical, isn't it?

And of course, there's the favourite video, the favourite book, the favourite song etc that Hannah requests over and over again. Recently, she's taken to the Doxology, a song that we sing at the end of our bedtime story and prayer routine. It doesn't take Einstein to figure this one out though - a smart toddler bedtime delaying tactic.

So, our little Hannah has a mind of her own. Whether it is climbing up a flight of stairs, combing her hair or getting potty trained, she decides to do it her way, on her terms. The occasional battle of will ensues whenever parent and child disagrees.

You win some and you lose some.

Who can resist this cheeky face anyway?

Now that we have to sing "Doxology" so often, can someone offer us alternative tunes? The least we could do is to make it interesting if we have to sing it for the umpteenth time.

Recent shots

While we have managed the odd blog with photos here and there over the last few months, you might have noticed a distinct lack of more reflective entries. Nothing very deep and thoughtful. Well, that is mainly because a) Cindy is usually the one who writes those, but b) recently she has been worked pretty hard in her latest hospital department, leaving her very little free time, with c) whatever is remaining being consumed with preparing for some exams coming up next month. You get the picture.

So, I'm afraid you will have to be satisfied with another of those 'odd blogs with photos'.

You might remember a previous blog a few months ago when Hannah won a couple of magazine photo competitions.

You may also remember the blunder on the part of "Mother & baby" magazine who failed to print Hannah's name and age alongside the photo.

Well, as a goodwill gesture they featured Hannah again in their March 2008 edition.

And did they remember to publish her details???

Well, she might be 19 months now, but that will do just fine. Thanks, "Mother & Baby". Do we get more free nappies for this???

Learning Chinese

Recently, Hannah's vocabulary has mushroomed. From colours to letters to numbers to people's names to all sorts of household objects. All in English (apart from terms for relatives, such as 'aunty' and 'uncle', for which she uses Chinese). But this Chinese New year has given her reason to learn a couple of useful Chinese words: "ang pow" (red packets containing money) and "xie xie" (thank you). Have a look for yourself:

For more pics of our CNY celebrations, have a look at this:

CNY2008

Happy CNY 2008

Chinese New Year is in full swing, and Hannah is lovin' it.

Here is just a teaser of Hannah in ONE of her New Year outfits (and Daddy's cap). More pics to follow soon...

Hannah approaching 18 months

In about 3 days, Hannah will be 18 months old. A landmark. And in the absence of many recent photos of the young lady, we think it is high time we let you see her again. These shots include various poses from the last couple of months, culminating in a surprisingly nice family photo taken at Rajes and Shan's wedding in Seremban today.

Well, pictures speak louder than words, so don't let me delay you:

Come and See

In case you haven't seen this addition to the list of sermons on the right, this was preached by Chris on 20th January. It is part 3 in a 6-part sermon series that our church is conducting on the topic of discipleship. This message is about the first phase of discipleship, as modelled by Jesus, entitled "Come and See".

Click the 'play' button to listen now, or right-click the title in the playlist and chose the 'download' option.





Chris will be preaching again on 3rd February.

More memories

My Dad has just uploaded some video clips, mostly of Hannah, from our Christmas holiday in Ashtead. These are on his own website, along with a few older video clips. Click the link below, or follow the additonal "Videos" link on the right-hand panel.

Click here

Oh, and happy 30th birthday Cindy. Welcome to the club dear ;-)

Memories of Christmas

Spending Christmas in England was great, and we have lots of pictures to remember the holiday by. For Hannah, it was her first time on a plane, her first time in England and her first experience of * * WINTER * *

Check out the pictures, and read the captions, by clicking on the web album link below or on the right-hand panel:

Christmas in England 2007

By the way, do any seasoned family travellers out there have advice for parents of jet-lagged babies? Hannah waking up just as Mummy and Daddy are going to bed has been a painful experience for us!

Merry Christmas 2007!

Click here for some festive fun from the Wylie family ;-)

Hide and Seek

Behind the trolley, eh?


Let's take a closer look

Poor photo quality aside, I do believe you can make out the side of Hannah's face, and her hair, as she skulks behind the changing trolley. Close your eyes for 2 seconds, and you won't know where this little girl has gone...

Getting ready

Ok, here are signs of packing in earnest. We actually packed these bags at the weekend, and have been adding things during the week. One case is full of Hannah's winter clothes (and nappies and milk), while her parents will either brave the elements with their limited winter wardrobe, or shamelessly borrow clothes from family members once we get to the UK.

Hannah has decided this pile of luggage forms a handy chair for her to perch on every once in a while. She is even learning to declare aloud "Chair!" when she sits / leans on it. Cute.

And how about an up-to-date picture of Hannah? Well, here is a mystery shot taken today. Who can spot the girl? Answers via the comments button below: