17 month old cilipadi Dylan

Dylan is a real CiliPadi..He is quite small for a 17 month old boy – only slightly above 9kg. But don’t underestimate his small stature. He surprises us all the time with the things he know and understand.

Speaking in short phrases
Wo pu yau.. (I don’t want)
Butterfly fei kau-kau (butterfly fly high high)
Hai yau (want sommo)
Hau chik (yummy)
Daddy/ mummy/ gege/ gong-gong….. suei chiau (…. sleeping)
Mummy/ daddy chu chuo kong (mommy go to work)
Tong tong (pain pain) – when he wants someone to sayang him or when he hurt himself
Che ke huai liao (this one spoil oredi) – so now u know he spoils things all the time

He speaks mostly mandarin but occasionally will surprise us with new phrases in English.

The other day, he was climbing all over the place and hubb grabbed him. He was caught by surprise, so he yelled, “Daddy go away!Daddy go away!”
Another time, I asked him, “Where is daddy?”
He looked at hubb and said, “Daddy here.”

Just like Bryan, he loves music. He can sings “parts” of his (or Bryan’s) favourite songs. And he sings them in tune.
Fly fly fly (..the butterfly)
Row row row (your boat…)
Tom tom bak (Anmum Essential program on Astro Channel 611)
Roary!!! (…the racing car) Roary!!!! (…the racing car)

Besides loving music, we suspect that he has photographic memory too, just like Bryan.

Hubb taught him the names of various animals in a book, and the next night, he could name all of them when hubb randomly turned the pages and pointed it to him. So he can recognize and name many types of animals now.

Love to imitate the Digiman acts in the Digi commercials.

Am super bahlehko to my dad at my mom’s house, and is bahlehko to me when at home.

His trick to bahlehko to me …NEN NEN. Whenever he wants me to carry him, and I ignore him. Or if he thinks hubb is gonna take care of him and I am going somewhere else, he’ll yell, NEN NEN. Coz he knows no one can take over the nennen job from me and I’ll have to do it myself…so he’ll get ME. *cheeky*

He is walking, running, climbing very well.

I have just enrolled him in the weekend TumbleTots session. And after only 2 sessions, he was already able to climb the ladder using his hands & feet.

So now at the children’s playground, he can play the children’s slide – Climb up the ladder and slide down all by himself.

He could also walk up & down (sometimes run) down the slide. According to one of the TT teachers, that is considered very good as none of the other kids in that session could do it. He needs to have very good balancing skills to do that.

True enough, we have always found him to have good balancing skills. Even when he was learning to walk, he seldom have any hard falls.

Now, he loves to wear other people’s shoes. His dad’s, his brother’s, even my high heels. His balancing skill has to be pretty good considering that he could walk around the garden in my heels without falling. Bear in mind, he does have a small stature and he is only 17 months old. Actually he could do that even before he was 17 months old.

Loves to go for walks. At my mom’s house, he’ll take his shoes, position them nicely on the floor and then get climb on top of the sofa. Sat down nicely and then kick his legs around, then yell, “Gong gong…zhou zhou.” (Gong gong walk walk). He’ll throw a tantrum if my dad ignores him.

If my dad let him have his way, he’ll be out of the house 5 mins after he got in. He wants to go out all the time.

So now, my dad have to hide his shoes. No shoes, no zhou-zhou. *poor kid*

He is able to drink from a cup independently now. And when he has had enough, what does he do with the remaining drink? Blow bubbles!!!

Yeah, he’ll be happily blowing bubbles into it, humming and giggling happily. So, we dare not give him too much water/ drink at one time. He won’t make a mess drinking it, but he’ll make a mess blowing it later on. *my cheeky lil fella*

Loves spicy food. He steals my char koay kak, wantan mee with sambal, dips fishball in spicy lok lok sauce, dips his finger in my sambal belacan and lick lick lick…
Eats his rice with curry long beans,

You say la..this boy is cilipadi or not? Small in size but big in accomplishments. I’m so proud of you my dear baby.

Lil Tutor

Earlier this week, one of Bryan’s school teachers told me that she has asked Bryan to start tutor one of the younger kids to read Peter & Jane.

This kid usually will be dreaming away when the teacher is trying to coach him, so she thought it might be a good idea to get Bryan to teach him instead.

How did he teach?
Bryan: MS, listen listen *gently pull MS’s ear). This is Peter. This is Jane. This is Pat the dog…..
MS: (Repeats)
Bryan: Miss M, MS said “dog” not “dog”. (Don’t asked me what was the exact pronounciation….

Overall his teacher said that he did a good job, but we donno where he learnt the ear pulling trick from. The teacher said that they never did that in school, and neither did we ever do that to him at home.

Maybe it’s from one of the cartoons he watched. *shrugs*

Next i heard that they are going to get Bryan to tutor an older kid. He’s Japanese and is just exposed to English not long ago. Will see how that one goes.

I am glad that they got Bryan to do some tutoring. Hopefully he can tutor Dylan when Dylan is ready.

Cameron Highlands – Day 3

Frankly, i was relieved when day 3 came. I am so ready to go home. Why? Because I hardly get a good night’s sleep at the hotel. 4 of us on 1 king sized bed is definitely a no-no. Esp for hubb, who is so used to having a king sized bed all to himself most of the time.

Even Bryan complained that the room is no good.

He said, “My bedroom better. I got big bed. I got star light. I got butterfly. Hotel room no good.” Yeah, he also doesn’t like to share a bed with so many people. Makes me think just how lucky he is.

As a finale, we went to the Bharat plantation tea kiosk for breakfast. It was a simple brekkie, sandwiches & masala tea. We din order scones as we doubt PIL would like them. And scones are definitely more messy to eat. I am sure the kids will want to play with applying the cream & jam on the scones. I want a relaxing breakfast, and sandwiches are the easiest.

The kids had some tuna spread, biscuits, milo & choc milk. All the stuff i brought from home.

After breakkie, it is then back to the hotel, pack up and some last minute photography at the hotel garden.

Bye-bye Camerons. Next holiday stop… Langkawi end of this year. Must remember to get extra bed this time.

Cameron Highlands – Day 2

Day 2 is the highlight of our trip. Or the highlight of Bryan’s trip. This is the sole purpose that he had been looking forward to this trip since we told him about it a week ago.

Why? Because after breakfast, we took him to see this.

The butterfly farm. I donno why but he has this fascination with butterflies. He loves them. Everything about them. So you can imagine how happy he is to be there.

Singing to the butterfly. Cause MIL told him that the louder he sings, the closer the butterfly will get to him. And truly he sang really loud. So loud that you can hear him loud and clear from the other end.

The butterfly farm is much smaller than the one in Penang. There are also less butterfly but the variety here are bigger. But it is so much more enjoyable to be here, because it is cooler, so I don’t mind being here longer.

Since I expect us to be here longer, I took the time to setup my tripod so that we can take our family photo. I dare not trust my DSLR with strangers or even PIL in that sense. Why? Because I am afraid that they do not know how to use it, especially the focus point. I don’t wanna run the risk that the trees became the focus point and the subjects (we) turned out blur instead. Since I had my gear and the time to set it up, I rather do it myself.

But sigh, with kids, it is hard to get a good one. Pic 1, Dylan blink, Pic 2 Bryan blink, Pic 3, kids have had enough and wants to wriggle away… Bear in mind that they had to stay at one place for quite a long time – for me to set the focus and turn on the 10s timer release.

After butterfly farm, we proceed to the strawberry farm. I had heard of this one up on Brinchang hill that have a small animal farm as well, and I wanted to go for this one. This one is located near the Boh factory, so we have to drive through a narrow winding road. It was quite a long drive. Half the time, I know hubb is doubting that I am giving him the correct directions. Also I know he was not pleased that I made him drive all the way there when there are so many strawberry farms all over the place. Some of the bends are so narrow that it is quite scary when another vehicle comes in the opp direction.

Luckily we managed to find the place, and true enough there was a small animal farm. The animal farm is quite pathetic but hey, the kids donno that. All they know is there are animals.

One day old goat kids. These were born just a day earlier.

Dylan can recognize all the animals there but he got scared when we bring him closer. Bryan is also quite scared of them. Can’t blame them as they have had very few contacts with animals.

Then we proceed to strawberry picking. And for this reason, I am so glad that I came to this farm because the strawberries are soooooooo delicious. Huge and sweet! I had never tasted such good strawberries from Camerons. And the farm assistant was very friendly and he kept picking strawberries off the vine and asking us to taste them. Well, his friendliness paid off as we ended up buying double of what we wanted.

Usually I eat my strawberries dipped in honey because they are usually sour. But these are soooo sweet! It is unbelievably sweet! They are huge and sweet. But the guy told us that medium sized strawberries tasted best. It may be true, but we just can’t resist picking those huge ones off the vine.

Bryan was pretty clumsy with the scissors in the beginning, but not long afterthat, he became an expert at picking (cutting) the strawberries off the vine. You gotta be careful, cause you don’t wanna cut off those unripe, bruised/ small fruits or the strawberry flowers.

Things got slower after this, as the kids are tired. Actually I am tired. The kids seem to be able to go on and on… Anyway, after lunch, we took the kids back to the hotel for a short nap.

Since it was only a short nap, we proceed to window shopping. How can u go CH without visiting the nurseries right. It is so enjoyable to just admire the flowers even if we are not buying.

Dinner was our favourite steamboat at a watercress farm. I only managed to snap some photos before dinner as dinner is quite a havoc.(usual la) It’s a good thing that PILs are there to help out. Otherwise… *pengsan*

Camerons – Day 1

Guess there are not many cool & green places in Malaysia, since it was so easy to guess where we were going.

Yes, we went to Cameron Highlands. It is actually one of my favorite vacation spots. I love to go to the tea plantations, order some tea & scones and enjoy my books. I could spend the whole afternoon just doing that. Of course, that was before the kids came along.

We drove there on Saturday morning. My parent in laws (PIL) came with us. So now you know why I worried about space. With 4 adults & 2 kids in child car seats, there is indeed no space for anything else. With the third row of seats up, I don’t even have a car boot! So we have to keep the bags in between the kids’ car seats, underneath their feet or on top of our laps. I knew then that there goes my shopping plans (if any).

We left our home about 930am after the kids’ had their breakfast to pick up PIL. MIL bought some char siew paus. Although both of them already had breakfast, they ate quite a lot as well. After a hearty meal, Dylan dozes off… But Bryan was wide awake and was looking forward to arriving at Cameron. He repeats over and over again, what he wants to do at CH.

We stopped by Ipoh for lunch. Initially we wanted to go to the Ipoh old town (not the franchise, ok) for some good old Ipoh white coffee and some beef noodles. But hubb missed the Ipoh exit and headed straight to Simpang Pulai instead. Usually, I am the navigator and he will just drive. But this time around, I am seated at the 3rd row and could not get a good view of the sign board from where I am. So he’s on his own to watch the signs. My FIL is no help at all with reading signs.

So without me, he is lost…literally.

We had to exit Simpang Pulai and head back to Ipoh using the regular roads. I was quite pissed at hubb for missing an exit and I am in no mood to navigate him to the old town of Ipoh. So I just told him to go to Onn Kee for bean sprout chicken & hor fun. Less turnings less chances of mistakes. Besides Onn Kee is air conditioned, so it will be more comfortable for the kids.

After lunch, we head straight up CH. Bryan dozes off almost right away this time but Dylan was wide awake. He stayed awake the rest of the journey.

We checked into our hotel past 4pm.

Both kids were so happy to get into the hotel. Bryan exclaimed, “Wahhh..can sleep and watch TV one wor..” Then both of them got busy with playing with the light & TV switch next to the bed.

We gave them a bath. Bryan loved the tub because, he can “bath & swim like a fish.”

I tried to get them to nap after that but both of them seemed too excited. So I told hubb to take Bryan to MIL’s room or take him to the garden downstairs for a walk.

Unfortunately, with Bryan out fr the room, Dylan refused to nap as well. He kept running to the door saying, “Ger ger leh? Daddy leh? Chou chou (walk walk)”

After 30 mins of trying, I gave up.

So I took him to MIL’s room and suggested that we go to the Pasar Malam.

Not long after we started the drive to the PM, Dylan fell asleep. So I had no choice but to carry him in my arms and let him continue to sleep when we reached the PM.

Bought some snacks – my favorite fried fresh mushrooms, ban chien kueh, satay, putu buluh, BBQ chicken, and strawberries dipped in chocs. All food only Eh? Why? Because I have no more space in my car, remember. No shopping for home … *sigh*

Despite all that food, you would think that we won’t need dinner right. Wrong. We stopped by a South Indian restaurant for dinner where we ordered tandoori chicken, naan, roti pisang, roti bawang, mutton murtabak (yummy) and roti telur. Dylan’s dinner consists of roti bawang & roti pisang dipped in Heinz vegetable puree. Hehe

I did not snap a single photo of our food during the entire trip. Because, by the time the food arrive, I am too busy cutting up the food for Dylan, feeding the boys and trying to get some bites myself. Dining has got to be the most tiring part of the trip. And I have got proof for it. Though we ordered a lot of food for all our meals, I actually lost 1kg when I got back. Guess I really was not eating much during the trip, and all that walking around definitely helps. Hey, I am not complaining. I am glad I lost weight.

Ready, Get Set…

We’ll be going off for our first family vacation.

And the first thing that i prepared for the trip is

Food.

I find it ridiculous that I am packing so much food for a 3 day 2 nights trip, and to somewhere local. Both Bryan and Dylan have been taking outside food, so theoretically I should not have any problems with ordering food for them.

But I was worried, “What if they don’t want to eat?” What if they are too playful? What if what we ordered was not suitable?”

Rather than leaving to fate, I feel more comfortable knowing that I have something “nutritious” available for them at all times.

So I packed chocolate milk drinks, Milo (in case Bryan doesn’t want milk), some healthy low fat vegetables & grains biscuits, cereals, baby biscuits and salmon spread with crackers. I have also bought some baby jar food. Dylan has never had these jar food and I doubt he will eat them straight. This guy can be quite a picky eater sometimes. So I intend to mix these into the noodles/ rice/ porridge or maybe spread them on bread or biscuits for him. At least I know he’ll be getting some vegetables during our trip.

Bryan is not much of a milk drinker, and he is not choosy over the types of milk too. He’ll drink whatever I offer him. So I just packed packets of sample milk powder. He can decide which one he wants to have. Dylan is still fully bf, so no need to worry about milk powder for him.

And for those times when they have had enough but we still want to enjoy our meals, some (hopefully healthier) snacks of cereals and milk Rockies.

I have not even started to really pack yet. There’s still clothes, pillow & bolster (for Bryan) and some toys to keep them entertained during the journey. Hopefully they’ll sleep through and not fuss.

And I intend to bring my entire set of camera accessories (all my lenses, flash, tripod, chargers). Oh oh, there’s the video camera too, and the compact camera (backup). I definitely don’t want to regret later that I did not bring this or that. I can already hear hubb complaining over all that stuff.

Seifor leh…I wonder how I am going to cramp all that stuff into our car?

Oh ya, where are we going? Somewhere cool, green and hopefully not crowded since it is not a holiday weekend.

Lil Daredevil To-Be

We had only started to let Dylan play with the tricycle a couple of days ago, and already Dylan has begun to master the skills of maneuvering his tricycle.

His legs are still too short to pedal the bicycle, but he can push the tricycle all around the house now, including reversing into or out of corners.

He is definitely getting comfortable riding the tricycle, but we are not getting any comfortable.

This lil fella is already attempting stunts with the tricycle. Lifting the tricycle as high as he could and letting it fall with a loud THUMP! Or attempting to lift the tricycle up the stairs!

Haizzz…I used to complain that Bryan was a lil rascal, but looks like Dylan will be even more of one.