Pigging out at Barnes and Nobles bookstore

Anymore mumm mumm ?? Mummy bought this for Daddy to bring to office but before Daddy reach home, we had finished half the pack…just the 2 of us!

We were looking at some photos we took for Mal one or two months back and found that he had grown quite a bit. Anyone of you feel that he had grown FATTER?? We thought he did. Actually other than his 3 meals, Mummy feed him afternoon snack and supper as well. For afternoon snack, we usually have cereal, cookies or cake…with or without milk. As for supper, in order for him to drink up his milk, it is usually with some crackers or now….waffle. It will be good if we can substitute the afternoon snack with some fruits but Mal is not into fruits but we think we should still keep on trying. He used to hate vegetable and chunky meat…but recently he had been eating…so we are quite pleased as our perseverance finally paid off. Here are some shots of him pigging out …

It is so much fun having grass in your backyard. It is like having a small park right at your door step, which means we do not need to leave the house to go to a park. Was thinking that we could lay some mats, pull a table and have a picnic in our backyard one of these days. There is this whole stretch of wall along our backyard and it looks like a perfect place to practice some hand stand. Mummy used to be able to do it long long ago while she was in Secondary school but obviously age has caught up with her now and those were the days….you would have seen the pics here if she succeed in holding there long enough for Daddy to snap a pic. Even Daddy had to struggle to get there. Decided to move on something less challenging….the Forward Roll…Mal was definitely happy to see all these…cos it means he can join as well….since Daddy and Mummy do it….means I can also try! Did we just set some bad examples for him ?? heheh

Daddy let Mal tried on his jacket thinking that he is a big boy now. Here is Mal looking more like Casper in his oversized jacket. Fat Hope! Daddy…looks like there is still a lot of growing up for me to do….

We just finished webcaming with yeeyee. Mal saw yeeyee’s pooh bear over the webcam just before we said goodbye and upon bidding goodbye. He wanted Mummy to get pooh bear from the room, guessed he wanted to show ?? that he has a pooh bear too, not knowing that yeeyee had already hung up. So here are some post webcam pictures for ?? to see! He was having some intimate moment with his little pooh…while breakfasting at the same time!

It was Sunday morning, while Daddy was still lazing in bed, Mummy brought Mal to the lawn for breakfast. We used the small little foldable chair as a make shift table so that we can put his waffle and milk, oh…after the Elmo and Friends book, mal’s breakfast and snack was waffle….or in his mind…pancake…for a while, which was a good break from his bread and peanut butter spread. It was a beautiful morning with the sun out to warm the cold air. With his red hammer in hand, he ran around the lawn, hammering. By the time Daddy joined us, he was almost done with his milk and waffle and decided to try on Daddy’s coffee instead. He esp loves sipping on Daddy’s 3 in 1 coffee, either becos of it’s fragrance or of the ceramic cup that was used. Daddy was quick to replace the coffee with his milk instead. Mal sometimes does fall for the trick.

I need to add this before I forget again…Mal is now becoming a chatty little boy. He can say quite a few words and he picked up broken english used by us as well. He was saying ‘like that…like this’ and it really amused us when we heard him said that cos it sound quite irritating when he go around doing things and telling us ‘like that….like this’. We didn’t know we used that phrase so often until we heard that from him. So gotto really watch what we say nowadays cos this little monster is learning like a sponge…absorbing everything!

Some of the words in his dictionary now are : there, here, go there, come here, sleep here, sleep there, want this, buy this, swing, humming bird, like this, like that, sit, read book etc.

He had also learnt how to count but only ….3,4….8,9,10!!!

We are teaching him to say ????????? and ????. I realised to learn all these within 1 week is abit too much….so if he can master ???? by the end of the week…Mummy and Daddy will already be very pleased and proud. So don’t be surprise if you picked up the phone and heard a cute little voice saying ????!!!

Remember the tree with nice autumn leaves in our back yard. By now, it had lost its crown and was replaced by its winter crown, though bare but I still find it nice in it’s own way. It is amazing how mother nature had endowed each plant with it’s own unique way to survive in the different seasons throughout the year. Just in our back yard, there exist 2 very different vegetation. One that thrives during the cold winter and the other, shed all its leaves and hibernate during winter but will see it sprung to life when the weather gets warmer. The orange tree is the one thriving in this cold winter. The oranges had turned to a deeper shade of yellow…but still quite hard and I guessed the fruit will be very sour…unlike those that we saw along the road, where they are very orangy and taste sweet as some of them actually went to harvest some to try. Yeah, over here, at this time of the year, we get orange tree lining along the roadside!

Our landlord decided to pump in USD 2000 to get our front and back yard all done up! We thought it was too expensive and Daddy already planned to do it himself with another friend. Being amateur to gardening, we thought it is as easy as sowing some winter grass seed and sprinkle some water…letting nature do the rest of the work. Maybe that will eventually works but will take a few weeks before we see any result. With the professional team in, our front and back yard got nice carpetted grass almost instantly. We sent Daddy to work in the morning and went to do some grocery shopping, by the time we were back, our back yard was nicely done and Mummy first reaction was …’Yeah! we’ve got GRASS!!’ Now Mal can run barefoot in the backyard, kick his ball and ride on his bike…and maybe when the spring comes…when it is not so cold….roll on the nice green grass as well

hullo everybody…see me do stunt!

Daddy had taught him a new way to get up his new super high queen size bed.

The weather had somehow turned cold these few days and finally it feels a bit like winter. Snow is also coming in at Flagstaff, the place we went for road trip last week. Mummy decided to let Mal put on his new thermal pyjamas so as to keep him snug and warm in the night. It was the usual story book reading before bedtime…and Daddy was reading him his new Elmo and Friends book. He was pointing to pictures in the book and identifying each objects when they came to ‘pancake’ which he immediately associated with ‘mumm mumm’. Maybe pancakes still ring a bell to him cos when he was much younger and when we were back home, Mummy used to bring him to MacDonald to have his pancake breakfast which he loves and would eat on his own with his fork. It was ‘mumm mumm’ all the way after that and we finally gave in to him and toasted some waffle we had in the fridge. So supper time for him was Choco Waffle with Milk!

We planned for a road trip up the mountain to get a feel of winter with some friends. It was merely a short 1 1/2 to 2 hour drive up the mountain in flagstaff and it was amazing how the temperature and the vegetation differ from what we have here. It was actually cold but not as cold as Aspen. We rented 2 cabins and a hotel room and a total of 5 families went for the trip together. Mummy got to shop quite a fair bit cos the other wives love shopping as well and Daddy had no choice but to succumbed to peer pressure We reached there around evening time and it was just nice for us to start the steamboat. It was cold outside and steamboat is the perfect choice for the group as we gathered round the stove to cook and got to enjoy hot and soupy dinner! Mal had a great time playing with his favourite playmate too, Hannah ??. We got to share with the same cabin as Hannah and her Daddy and Mummy. The trip was good except for the uncomfortable bed, which was too small and too squeezy for a family of 3 as everyone has to squeeze with their little baby or toddler! Luckily it was just one night and luckily we were all still quite young and thus even with little proper rest…we had enough energy to continue our hunt for good food and shopping the next day. The kids were tired too but they got to sleep in the car. All in all, in was a good experience and I guess we don’t mind doing it again…maybe when the snow comes in…

Malcolm just loves soup. He is a very soupy little boy. Other than mushroom, he will usually ask for soup during his meal time. Mummy will try her best to cook soup everytime when possible. Today we are having pork rib with ?? soup. He absolutely loves the soup and even the huai shan as well. Back home only grandma eats that! In case some of you do not know what is that…it is some kind of chinese vegetable rather similar to lotus, normally used for cooking soup. Mal came up with the idea of dipping the huai shan, which have become blend after hours of boiling, into the sauce for the fish that I cooked, so as to add more flavour to the huai shan. Though Mummy and Daddy were quite upset cos he was messing up his food again, we were quite impressed with him. This little monster is becoming quite smart for his age, especially when it comes to food! Isn’t he?!

Breakfast time with his new Elmo present

I just love u….Elmo!

Dancing to Elmo’s happy tune

We finally receieved the christmas present from Xiaoyee. Due to the festive season, the parcel was delayed as usual. Mal still not too sure what a present mean to him but was delighted when he saw the elmo. His favourite monster and furthermore this Elmo can talk and sing! It is Elmo Checkup time and it came with different accessories for Mal to do the checkup on Elmo. It plays a happy checkup tune when the instructions are followed and checkup completed. I guess that is Mal’s favourite part… as he gets to dance to the happy tune! Thank you ??! Mmmmuuuuaacccch

Malcolm had learnt to sing the Birthday song…in his very own way which only Mummy and Daddy and probably himself can understand. I think his special liking for the song came from the candles that he got to blow after singing the song. Here’s him, singing his lungs off…clapping his hands away at the same time He just can’t stop singing!

It was beginning of a new year and the group of us decided to have a Popiah Party to satisfied our cravings. Everyone helped to prepare some ingredients and we had all the ingredients nicely spread out on the table. The only challenge was for each of us to roll the popiah successfully. I guessed even the most horribly wrapped popiah tasted good as eventually we still got to eat the skin and ingredient just that in a less glamorous way. It was during the party that Auntie Bebe gave Mal a toy vacuum cleaner. I guessed it was about time for someone to get him that since he was so popular for being the ‘little boy who loves to vacuum’. Mal definitely loves his new toy and so do the other kids.

Decided to sin a little bit by having pop corn one of the night. It was simple and fun making the pop corn. Just had to put the bag of pop corn into the microwave oven and voila! it’s done. The next thing is to pour in the caramel over the bowl of pop corn and heat up in the microwave oven again to melt the caramel. Very soon, we had a big bowl of pop corn which taste sinfully delicious !

This is something that I must add for the New Year Eve party. There was this 65 year old popo whom Mal had very special attachment for. She was Daddy’s colleague’s Mum who was here from Spore for a short visit. Mal usually was not very open and friendly to strangers and will take a long time before he will feel comfortable, open up and interact with them. But for this popo , it was almost immediate. When popo first offer some biscuits for him which we thought he would reject, he happily accepted and very soon he was playing with popo all his favourite games, like kick the ball, catching and hide and seek. When popo came to the party, he insisted on going out to the lawn area in the dark to play with her when everyone else was inside the house. We were totaly amazed by his immediate connection with this old lady. The only probable reason we thought was probably Mal miss yeeyee or popo back home too much.