Another trip down south

This is Joseph's 3rd trip to Singapore. And he's not even 18 months old yet. He's having quite a ball here playing with his cousins.

Here's Joseph and his cousins...topless!

Just now I prayed with him before he went to bed....(when I switch off the lights and tell him "pray", he will kneel down, fold his hands together and bow his head)

me: Dear Lord....Thank you for watching over Joseph today. We commit him to you tonight, grant him a good night's rest. Cover him with your blood from head to toe...

Joe : toe

me: Protect him from all harm, keep all the mosquitoes and bed bugs away...

Joe : bug bug

me : Give him a good night's rest. Refresh and renew him as he sleep. Bless him with good health and strength

Joe : bless bless

me : In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Joe : ish...ish... (Trying to say "finish", while shaking his hands like "boh")

I have to try hard to NOT laugh.

My darling's a winner!!!

Last Friday 15th September, Edwin won the Pro-Vice Chancellor Award for Distinguished Teaching. It's a recognition for great teaching in the whole Monash Malaysia Campus. I'm so proud of him!

Next up is his application for the Vice Chancellor Award. That's for the entire Monash University (all campuses including Malaysia, South Africa and Italy).

In transtition

It's been a while since I updated this blog. The reason being I no longer have unlimited broadband connection and the luxury of time. Having served my compulsory service of 3-years with the civil service, I quit. I now work 2 days a week at a private practice clinic in PJ. Joe went to school. He had a bad traumatic start. After the first day, he clung to me like a koala on a eucalyptus tree, refusing to let go even when Edwin wanted to carry him. Suddenly "mama" became his favourite word. He became so fearful that I would leave him. So unlike the confident happy boy he was. We persisted for 3 more days. But I couldn't bring myself to torture him further so we have spoken to his teachers and decided to defer his going to school till next May at least. No more school for now. At least I can concentrate at work, knowing he's happy at home with his Nana.

This was Joe getting ready for first day of school.

Joe and his daddy

Yesterday, Joseph turned exactly 17 months.

He's grown so much. At 12.2kg and 83 cm in height, he is 3.5 times heavier and 60% longer than at birth. I made a count of all the words he can say and counted almost 50.

Ball

Bob (the tomato from Veggietales - when he wants to watch the show)

"boh" (don't have in hokkien)

boo

chiak (kinda like boo but in hokkien...I think)

hand

hair

head

hat

arm

knee

foot

eyes

fat (he pats his tummy and says "fat fat")

nat (his reply when asked "what's your friend's name?")

papa

mama

tweety

how (his response when he sees a puddle of pee on the bed/floor)

mole (his reply when asked "wat does kong kong have?")

nana

"ar" (meaning Car)

up

off

nen nen

yee

there

fish

duck

more

ku

mum mum

puh (when someone farts)

mouth

"C"

egg

oat

cheese

walk

door

key

moon

juice

push

no

sit

six

two

"mai" (don't want in hokkien)

I might have missed a few in my count. But he keeps me amazed as he learns new words everyday. Indeed, wonderfully made!

Chocolate Pie

This is a memory from my childhood.

My mother used to often make this wonderfully delicious pie. It has a pastry base, a thick delicious middle filling layer, and sweet fluffy meringue on the top. The filling can be either chocolate, banana or coconut....or anything else you can think of.

Joseph was fascinated with the pie. He said "wahh...."

Last Monday my mother made a chocolate pie. It was supposed to be for my brother's birthday. I had requested that she make the pie. However, since we celebrated Reuben's birthday earlier on Saturday, Reuben was not around to eat the pie on Monday.

Instead, Reuben had Domino's pizza and KFC chicken on Saturday night.

blufology absorbent diaper

I went to the "Mummy and Me" fair at Midvalley Exhibition Center last Friday. At the booth that was selling ScoobeDry diapers, this man was trying to sell me some diapers.

I had seen this brand of diapers before and thought it must be pretty premium because of the high price. It works out to almost one ringgit per piece. But this man claimed that since it was even more absorbent than a certain reliable brand known for absorbency, it is cost effective because only one piece is needed throught the night. He even boasted that he could put his own son in the diaper from 6pm till 10am the next morning. I wasn't convinced enough to part with my hard-earned money so he gave me 2 pieces as samples to try.
On Saturday night, I put Joseph in this supposedly-premium diaper after his bath at about 8pm. He went to sleep soon after that. Very early the next morning....too early in fact.....Joseph woke up crying in discomfort. The clock showed 5am. I found his shirt and pants soaked with urine. So much for all that boasting about super fantastic absorbency.
So I got up, changed Joseph's pants and diapers as gently as I could so that he slept on. Dry and comfy, Joe continued in his slumber. Then I felt this sharp pain on my left middle finger. I went to the bathroom to switch on the light and found a 1.5cm long papercut-like opening on my finger tip.
Grrr.....this darn lousy diaper not only leaked through Joseph's clothes and caused him discomfort, the velcro part nicked my finger!!!

I'm so mad....you can bet I'm never gonna purchase this brand of diaper and I'm certainly not recommending it to anyone I know. In fact, I think I'm gonna write to the company and ask them to compensate me for my pain and the cost of my plasters.

Joseph's favourite new toy

Joe has a new favourite toy. Every morning when he wakes up, he crawls over the the other side of our bed, opens the bedside drawer and takes out his favourite toy.


He waves them around, arranges them on the bed, twists and turns them around.


I thought that since he loves them so much, I should use them to teach him the colours of the traffic light.


After all, it's never too early to start. And he doesn't need to know the actual purpose of this 'toy' for the next 20 plus years.