I have heard this very nice song many times over the radio but didn’t know what was the title until a few days ago. So far it never fails to touch me. However it was not a song to cheer me up especially now when Daddy was not around and we were so far away from home…
Even so, I had been playing this song over and over again for the past few days and as usual, poor Mal got to bear with me! By now, he even picks up some of the lyrics of the song! Here is a little preview of Mal’s version of the song. (think he is a bit tone deaf like Daddy. hahaha!)

It has been quite a while since we bake cookies. One way to keep Malcolm happy at home is to occupy him with some household chores. Baking is one of the things that will keep him really really happy…cos he gets to
crack eggs
seive the flour
beat the egg and butter and sugar… not with his toy mixer but the Mummy’s REAL mixer!
gets his hands all dirty squeezing and rolling the cookie dough

He just woke up from his afternoon nap and baking cookies seem like a good idea since
Mummy had some craving
we got nothing much to do
all the mummies will be having a garage sales at Auntie Angela’s house the next day which is a Saturday while all the daddies were away…

so at 5 pm…we began our baking session. Hmmm…the cookies turn out quite well even though Mal did get on my nerve messing up with the cookies dough which I had rolled and arranged nicely. We end up having very late dinner as we were too full snacking on our freshly baked cookies! Doesn’t he remind you of Cookie Monster!

Summer is coming to an end and autumn is around the corner. The weather is however still as hot in this part of the US we are in. We woke up one morning with dark cloud looming in the sky. Very soon…raindrops came pitter pattering onto our window panes. We were having breakfast and Mal was fascinated with the rain as it hardly rains here thus Mal was so ’sua koo’ when it comes to rain…something we have back home in abundance! I rolled up the blind and opened the window for him to get a closer view, feel, smell and sound of the rain. This was enough to keep him occupied for quite a while…

Taking care of Malcolm is now faced with new challenges as he learns how to speak more. When he first started asking qustions and speaking in full sentences, we were surprise, happy and amused. Now, it was a test of our patience to answer all his questions. He asks questions like
“Where the sun sleep”
“Why Daddy need to go Las Vegas”
“Why the moon follow us home”
“How come the bird is not scared of the rain”
“Why Daddy never buy me necklace” (After I told him Daddy bought the necklace for me)

Other than questions, Mal had started talking back at us! Today, while I was mopping the floor (btw I still used the dinosaur method of mopping the floor with a rag) I was kneeling down with my butt facing him. He suddenly exclaimed “Mummy don’t push me!” I told him I didnt “Don’t push me with your butt!”
Oh, so I had accidentally bumped him with my butt causing him to slip…actually it was the bump and the wet floor that caused him to slip. My fault…so I apologized…

There was another incident 2 days back which got me really mad. I had cooked some noodles for myself after feeding him his lunch. When he saw the noodles, he asked
Mal : “Why mummy cook noodles”
Mal : “Mummy don’t cook little bit, I want to eat”
I scooped some noodle in his plate even though I knew that he shouldn’t be hungry after the amount of rice I have fed him. True enough, after a few bites, he lost interest. As it was running late for his nap time and he was obviously tired, I finished off the last bit of noodles in his plate.
Mal : “Mummy don’t eat my noodles!”
I told him I had already swallowed
Mal : “Mummy spit out my noodles!”
I ignored him and went on to wash the dishes. I took his crankiness as a sign of over tiredness. He continued to whine and wanted me to cook more noodles…this soon turned into crying and screaming which made me so angry. But instead of locking him up in his room for time out, I locked myself in the room! only for a while before I opened the door. This didn’t stop him from crying…he continued to cry for his noodles! I was so mad that I was no longer talking but shouting at him! Finally I asked him “Are you still hungy?” which he replied with a “YES!” I had no choice but to take out the pot and cook him a small piece of noodle just to shut him up as I was very sure that he should not be hungry. At the table, he quietly ate his noodle even though he was dozing off! I ended clearing away the noodle before putting him to sleep.
I was trying to figure out why he acted this way?!
Was he too tired?
Was he still hungry?
Was he just being stubborn?
Was he too proud to not eat the noodle after all the commotion he had caused?
Maybe is a combination of all the above. I concluded that the distraction method is soon going to lose its effectiveness on Mal. He is now more persistent and his memory is getting better. He is more persistent in getting the things he wants and even if we manage to distract him, he will remember again what has caused him to be upset before the distraction.

Another scenario…
We were shopping in the toy department. He saw an Elmo toy which he liked and insisted I buy for him. (Before this, Mal has never made a scene at the toy section before, which I believe is a nightmare for a lot of parents) I tried to distract him with something else but did not work. I explained to him that the toy was expensive and the item was not on sales. I further explained that I did not have enough money to pay for the toy that day. He was still not convinced and began to whine. I cracked my brain to come up with something to stop his whining. Finally I told him why not we go home and take his Ang Pao $$ to pay for the toy. He accepted the explanation. At the entrance of the house, I was quick to put down everything to prepare dinner. He sat at the door and said
Mal : “Mummy, take my Ang Pao $$ to buy toys!”
WAH! I was exhausted! He still remembers his toy at the departmental store! I ended up letting him cut the tofu while I prepare dinner. Ultimate distraction cos this is the first time I let him help to cut the tofu

Can’t wait for Daddy to come back to take over the parenting job even if it is for a while!!!

Woke up to another great video this morning. Inspiring in a different way… the music… the dance. Remember Daddy and Mummy walked down the aisle to this piece of music a few years back. So refreshing to hear this played in such a different way! So funky….so cool…absolutely LOVE IT!!! Since Daddy and Mummy can never dance like this…maybe Malmal can one day help fulfill our dream….actually is more of Mummy’s dream Not too young to start now…as we had fun dancing and hopping around again …. hahah

The picture speaks for itself… we did celebrate our country’s birthday…just that this picture was a bit late…

CAN…Father and Son Bond

A friend sent me this link yesterday…Me and Mal watched it several times before we went to bed and when we woke up the next morning. I had to explain to him what the video was about. I think he was more touched by the music than what he saw and he liked it as he asked me to play it again and again. Daddy was however not around to share with us this….10 more days to go…

The power of music is so amazing and overwhelming. No wonder it is the universal language. It feels so good to let something like this touches us and brings out the emotional part of us that was sometimes lost or forgotten in this busy, stressful and crazy world that we live it. It makes me ponder on the things in life that I have taken for granted and how much we are willing to sacrifice for our kids…

So sit back and let this video touch you like how it has touched us…

It has been quite a while since Mal had started speaking in full sentences and asking us all the HOWs and the WHYs. Was inspired by some video clips I saw on some of my friends’ blogs…thus I decided to try my hand on it as well. Managed to do this today as Mal had an early afternoon nap and thus had a late lunch at 2 plus. After that…he was happy to play by himself for awhile. This however didn’t last long as very soon he was playing with the CPU which got me really mad. After some lecturing from me…it was…’Noooo…OOO Mummy don’t sit there!!!” whenever I tried to get back to the computer again. He just wanted my full attention. He definitely had it…as we ended up dancing in the living room for the next 1/2 hour or maybe longer!

Anyway here’s the clip…quite cool(i mean the software)…can add in music as well but couldn’t find one that is suitable…from the limited MP3 I’ve got…so just enjoy this la!

Just a quick update before we rushed off to the supermarket for grocery shopping…Here’s Mal’s all time favourite Happy Birthday song …from Hallmark. Once a while he will ask us to play him the Happy Birthday song and this is what he refers to…. Daddy came up with a bright idea of placing the mouse just over the Replay button and told him which button to press each time the song ends. This spare us from having to help him replay the song again and again

Remember Mal used to love Kaya …He loves to have it on his bread for breakfast. He still loves it very much just that we hardly can find Kaya here….or good authentic Kaya…When ?? was around, she had whipped out some kaya though she claimed that she had forgotten the recipe. She had forgotten the proportion for the sugar and egg used…but still the kaya turned out yummy! Mummy was too lazy to pay much attention then…Mal was however the one who watched the whole process. Now when ?? was not around…Mummy was desperate to find out how to make the kaya. Luckily, there was a recipe ?? borrowed from Auntie Lilian hidden somewhere in the drawer.

The recipe looks easy…a bit of mixing and 1/2 of cooking. Mummy decided to make it in the morning and was ambitious to think that in 1/2 hours time the kaya will be ready for breakfast! The mixing was easy…but the cooking part required lots of patient and endurance! Stirring the mixture over a super low fire. 20 minutes of stirring and Mummy was already grumbling at Daddy for not helping…so Daddy had to take over. Time passed fast when you are not the one stirring…very soon…45 mintues passed. During this time, Daddy had secretly turn up the heat while he was stirring…and this had caused the kaya to clump up and he immediately lower the heat again…but too late…the damage was done! After about an hour…we decided that maybe we really had the fire too low. So we turn up the heat a little bit hoping that the mixture will thicken faster cos it was way past the required cooking time. The heat did cause the mixture to thicken faster but overall the texture was not really smooth…as there were clumps … probably due to inconsistent stirring and intermittent high heat! So what we had after a morning of hard work…took us 1.5 hours of continuously stirring…was a bottle of…not so professional and nice looking but tasted authentic and yummy kaya! Maybe we were just too desperate!

This was during Daddy’s birthday…you must be wondering…why disneyland on Daddy’s birthday ?! isn’t that more for Mal! Yeah, the trip was actually all for Mal…but being the Daddy… sometimes these are the sacrifice you have to make Anyway the trip was not really planned but because we had 2 rooms in LA Sheraton over that particular weekend and to make the best out of it…we thought a visit to Disneyland will be just nice. Anyway, other then the disneyland … we had really great Japanese food every night as we discovered some really authentic Japanese restaurant! Even better than those back home! So that was something for Daddy…GREAT FOOD!

We drove there on Saturday and on Sunday, we went to Disneyland. It was raining in the morning and for a while we thought we might need to cancel the outing. We went ahead instead and oh boy! we sure glad that we did cos when we reached the park, the rain had stopped and though the weather was still cloudy, it was PERFECT weather to visit disneyland especially when it was SUMMER time! We had this perfect nice whether till like 2 pm and that was when the sun began to peep through the clouds and it began to get scorching hot! It was Mal’s nap time and even with him sleeping in the pram, with the hood over it, we thought the heat was too much, not just for him, but for both of us too. We end up hopping from one air conditioned store to another…trying to stay out from the sun as much as possible. Finally we decided to turn back to the restaurant…the Pinocchio restaurant where we had lunch and we waited till Mal was awake before continuing our walk in the park.

Actually just recently we were still thinking that Mal was too young to enjoy or appreciate disneyland. It was quite conincidental that just 1 month plus before this trip to disneyland, Mummy chanced upon some really old Walt Disney story books in the library with stories on disney characters such as Goofy, Mickey, Donald, Minnie, Pluto, Chip and Dale. Mal likes these character soo…ooo much that now…he only read Walt Disney story books every night! These are now his favourite! By the end of 1 month, he was so familiar with all these characters that going to disneyland…a place where Mickey and all his friends stay….sounds almost too good to be true…maybe for Mal. He was soo…ooo excited! It was so cute and sweet to see how his face brightened up each time he saw these characters in the park. Though it was the 1st time he came face to face with them…and if Mal could really speak…this might just be his words….’Hey old pal! How’ve you been?!’ cos he had been reading about these guys EVERY NIGHT!!!

One of the amazing things in the park was when Mal met Mickey. Mickey has a HUGE house!!! At the very end of it…there was a looong queue…with a sign indicating that ‘this is the way to see Mickey filming’ we wasn’t sure whether it was a joke or was there really Mickey at the end of the queue…where there was a room with the door closed. We took the chance and queued for like 1/2 hour to finally get into the room and SURE ENOUGH! Mickey was there! Mal was overjoyed! We knew he was though he was still too young to articulate his feelings. We took pictures with Mickey and he even gave Mickey a BIG HUG! That was not easy for Mal as he was always very shy in front of strangers…and remember just a few months back when we were in San Diego seaworld…he wasn’t at all interested and was even scared to go close to one of these life like cartoon characters. But with Mickey, he was not at all shy and even walked forward to initiate a hug…which made the people queueing behind us went ‘oh…so sweet!’

After the meeting with Mickey, Mal was all warmed up and was ready to meet his next idol…Minnie. It was another looong queue, this time out in the open air, right outside Minnie’s house. This time it took us even longer…maybe 45 minutes to an hour. This was however not as exciting as Minnie was walking in and out the house…making people in the queue went ‘wooh’ and ‘ahh’ but still, Mal was excited and happy… this time…he even gave Minnie a peck on her nose!

Some of the highlights of the outing were

1. Close and personal with Pluto
2. Close and personal with Goofy
3. Watching Goofy, Minnie and Mickey climbed to the top of the mountain
4. Visit Mickey’s home and Close and personal with Mickey
5. Visit Minnie’s home and Close and personal with Minnie
6. Visit Chip and Dale’s home
7. Visit Pinocchio and Geppetto’s restaurant

We spent a whole day at Disneyland and though there were fire works display in the night…we decided to call it a day as our feet were sore from all the walking! Mummy and Daddy were actually not big fan of Disneyland and Walt Disney characters …. plus the rain, the sun, the heat and the long drive…the whole trip could easily turn into a drag and nightmare … but how Mal’s eyes lit up when he saw all those characters…and how innocent and pure his affection was … really melt our hearts…and it really made the trip all worth it !

Mal’s 1st Watch

Was tempted to buy Mal a watch for quite a while but could not justify why he will need one at such a young age when he doesn’t really understand the concept of time and doesn’t know how to tell the time yet. He only know that when the sun set…it is night time…time to sleep and when the sun is out…it is day time…and he can get off his bed. I was also concern of spoiling Mal with such thing. I cannot remember when I had my 1st watch…but definitely not when I was 2 years old!

When I told Daddy about my hesitation, he was there to clear my doubt. His reasoning was…of course it is ok to get him a watch…Mal has to learn someday to tell the time and having a new watch for him may keep him interested and we can teach him from there. Daddy was so positive about getting Mal his 1st watch which surprised me as usually he would be concern that we will end up spoiling Mal by loading him with fanciful toys and stuff. I do agree with Daddy’s reasoning but that also means that we have to put in effort and be diligent in teaching him how to tell the time.

So finally we got a simple kids watch for Mal from Timex. It was under clearance and cost around USD 5.50 Will see how interested is he in learning how to tell the time…for now…he was obviously thrill and excited with his new ‘toy’

Mal’s 1st Watch

Was tempted to buy Mal a watch for quite a while but could not justify why he will need one at such a young age when he doesn’t really understand the concept of time and doesn’t know how to tell the time yet. He only know that when the sun set…it is night time…time to sleep and when the sun is out…it is day time…and he can get off his bed. I was also concern of spoiling Mal with such thing. I cannot remember when I had my 1st watch…but definitely not when I was 2 years old!

When I told Daddy about my hesitation, he was there to clear my doubt. His reasoning was…of course it is ok to get him a watch…Mal has to learn someday to tell the time and having a new watch for him may keep him interested and we can teach him from there. Daddy was so positive about getting Mal his 1st watch which surprised me as usually he would be concern that we will end up spoiling Mal by loading him with fanciful toys and stuff. I do agree with Daddy’s reasoning but that also means that we have to put in effort and be diligent in teaching him how to tell the time.

So finally we got a simple kids watch for Mal from Timex. It was under clearance and cost around USD 5.50 Will see how interested is he in learning how to tell the time…for now…he was obviously thrill and excited with his new ‘toy’

Mal’s 1st Watch

Was tempted to buy Mal a watch for quite a while but could not justify why he will need one at such a young age when he doesn’t really understand the concept of time and doesn’t know how to tell the time yet. He only know that when the sun set…it is night time…time to sleep and when the sun is out…it is day time…and he can get off his bed. I was also concern of spoiling Mal with such thing. I cannot remember when I had my 1st watch…but definitely not when I was 2 years old!

When I told Daddy about my hesitation, he was there to clear my doubt. His reasoning was…of course it is ok to get him a watch…Mal has to learn someday to tell the time and having a new watch for him may keep him interested and we can teach him from there. Daddy was so positive about getting Mal his 1st watch which surprised me as usually he would be concern that we will end up spoiling Mal by loading him with fanciful toys and stuff. I do agree with Daddy’s reasoning but that also means that we have to put in effort and be diligent in teaching him how to tell the time.

So finally we got a simple kids watch for Mal from Timex. It was under clearance and cost around USD 5.50 Will see how interested is he in learning how to tell the time…for now…he was obviously thrill and excited with his new ‘toy’

Now that Mal can speak more and understands when we tell him things, it is easier for him to understand what we expect of him. Potty training is something that requires a lot of discipline and perseverance on both the parents and the kids part. Buying the potty is just the very very first step to successful potty training. We had bought the potty for months and finally today, Mal poo inside the potty!

It had been an on and off effort on our part to potty trained him and obviously it was not successful and obviously we are partly to be blamed for not being consistent in our training. 1 week ago, we tried to train him again to pee, this time in the bath tub. For a few mornings consecutively, we took off his diaper and let him put on his underwear instead. We keep it to just the mornings as he needs to nap in the afternoon and thus needs his diaper on. We had to regularly bring him to the bath tub, maybe like every hour or 1/2 hour to remind him to pee. In return we told him he will get a sticker if he pee in the bath tub. He did it quite a few times but only when we bring him to the bath tub in time. He still does not know how to tell us when he needs to relieve himself. But it was a good start and we were happy with his progress.

This morning, after breakfast, Mummy noticed his facial expression when he stood in a corner. Thinking that he wanted to pee, Mummy brought him to the bath tub again but there was nothing. Mummy tried to change him into his underwear but he kept insisting that he wants to wear pants instead which actually what he meant was … he wanted to put on his diaper! Then he gave the facial expression again. This went on for a while, with Mummy insisting that he either pee or put on his underwear as he would not get to put on his diaper. Finally Mummy realised that maybe he wanted to poo. So Mummy asked him to sit in his potty and try to poo there this time. In return, he would be rewarded with BIG stickers! It took us 2 tries and on the 2nd try, he did it!

A while later, when Mummy brought him to the bath tub again to pee, he told Mummy he has no pee but needs to poo again. So Mummy put him in the potty and he did it AGAIN! When Daddy woke up, Mal was so proud to announce his great achievement! Certainly hope that his potty training will be less of a mess since he can communicate better is more ready now.