On the way to LV, as a way to keep Mal occupied. I handed him the camera and gave him the green light to click a few shots. Wonder that was a mistake, cos he was hooked with it after his first few clicks and refused to return the camera to me. so for the rest of the journey afer Hoover Dam, he was clicking the camera away. I guessed that gave him some good practice. So throughout the trip, he was hogging onto the camera. He insisted on having the camera whenever he saw us took it out. When we finally looked through the pictures, we were amazed by how well some of the pictures turned out. Maybe I should say, a good 5% turned out displayable! Although our body were chopped off, due to the angle he took the pictures (he was much shorter than us so everytime he tried to take a picture of us, he got to tilt up the camera) some of them turned out pretty artistic. Remind me of those techniques our photographer used for our wedding photos!!! We were totally spun out.

We met up with Auntie MG from spore at Las Vegas. This would be the 4th time that we are visiting the sin city. This time, the visit was more for Auntie MG to satisfied her wish as she had not been to LV even though she had been to US for a few times. The highlights of this trip was the shopping and the halloween decoration at Bellagio Hotel. The decoration was so bright and colourful, much nicer than the Independence Day decoration they put up while we were there with ?? and ?? the last time, but still, it can’t beat the one they put up for Chinese New Year during our very 1st visit . Mal was happy to have someone else to play with for a while and if you will to ask him, he will tell you that ‘I went to Las Vegas to pick up Auntie Mui Gek!’

6 Oct was our Chinese Mooncake Festival. We had a small celebration at Daddy’s office. It was a simple get together to share some mooncakes. All the mummies and kids turned up at the office unexpected and uninvited. We had brought our own little mooncakes for tasting!

I rummaged through the house to look for lantern so that Mal could bring along. I found a miniature one, think we brought it along when we moved over from spore…a small pathetic one…made of paper which required a candle to light. Did not light the candle though as I foreseed that it would catch fire in no time!

Anyway, Mal was more fascinated by some other kid’s battery operated lantern blasting with funky music instead of his tiny weeny one held using a chopstick! Should have brought his one from spore…the one grandpa gave him when he was barely 1 year old!

By now, I should have known too well that establishing a routine for a growing up baby, toddler or child is a painful process. The pain comes from the constant change in their behaviour. For example, establising a routine to let the baby sleep at 7 pm when they are 3 months old doesn’t really ensure that they are going to stick with that routine for the rest of their toddlerhood! The job as parent is never done! It doesn’t mean that at 3 months old if they can sleep at 7 pm means we, as parents have succeeded in establishing their sleeping habit! Maybe few days down the road, we are back to training them to stick with the routine again!

Just a month ago , Mal had learnt how to sleep on his own during his afternoon nap. But for the past few weeks, the routine was kind of messed up with friend visiting and us travelling abit. Now when we tried to ask him to sleep on his own during naptime. He refused! He will either want me to lie next to him or he will keep insisting that he is NOT TIRED! He knew very well that after lunch, he will need to take his bath and followed by naptime. Even before he stepped into the bath room, he started reminding me that HE IS NOT TIRED! cos he knew that he was expected to sleep after his bath!

So just a few minutes ago, as I was lying beside him in his bed, with my facial mask still on. He was playing with his night light and saying how he can just rest by sitting up and not lying down, and that he is not tired thus do not need to nap. He then leaned over and said he wanted to kiss me! My NO was unheeded and the next thing I knew was him saying ‘Mummy RELAX, RELAX’ cos he was leaning so close to give me a peck on my cheek! actually he was kissing the mask! which tickled me so much…by the peck and how well he could use the word ‘RELAX!’

We had a long weekend last week. It was Columbus Day on Monday and it happened to be Canada’s Thanksgiving Day as well. Daddy had 3 days off from work. Didn’t do much though, just hanging around and relaxing. On Sunday, we finally brought Daddy to the Pecan Farm which he had heard so much about. It was another leisure afternoon spent there. After that was some shopping at the nearbly factory outlet…a move more for Daddy to appease my constant nagging, deprivation from shopping whenever he is around It was that night that we saw on TV news that Arizona had its 1st snowfall this year at Flagstaff! The weather is much cooler this year. Last year around this time, when we first arrived, the weather was still scorching hot. After hearing the news, first thing that came to my mind was ‘AIYAH, we should have forego the shopping and drive up the mountain for some breathtaking views of the autumn leaves and if we are lucky…we may catch some ‘virgin’ snow!’ this will be exactly what Daddy would love to do if not for my constant nagging Maybe Daddy is right for once…Mummy can be very hard to please, heheh.

During one of the wives’ coffee gathering a few weeks back while all the daddies were at work, we visited a Pecan Farm . I was surprised that such a nice cosy green corner exist in hot arizona desert! It reminded me of the little bed and breakfast inn we stayed during our trip to Yosemite and I knew instantly that Daddy would love to be here!

Beyond the entrance of the farm was a quaint little cafeteria where diners could sit outdoors and enjoy a sight not commonly found in the Arizona desert. Rows of trees lined a green meadow that gave shade and refreshed the hot desert air. It was amazing what these trees can do to transform the landscape. It looked almost like an enchanted garden. The first thought that came to my mind was to sit and have lunch under the trees while the kids played in the meadow.

As it turned out, it was a long and leisurely afternoon where all of us enjoyed ourselves. The kids had a blast picking out stones and pecan nuts, running around chasing each other, and just enjoying the freedom of the outdoors.

We should definitely bring daddy along to one of these farms one of these days. It would be a great place to spend the weekend since he loves the outdoors and he can be spared from all those shopping trips.

Since Mal is a big fan of Walt Disney’s stories and has the habit of not wanting to return the story books he borrowed from library (I have to secretly stuf his books in the bags each time we visit the library and not to breath a word about returning….else it will be ‘Mummy….NO….don’t return the books!!!’), I have no choice but to invest in the books.

It is almost impossible to get hold of these books from the bookstores as they were mostly published in the 70s, 80s and some even 60s! The only choice is to go for 2nd hand. Not that I mind. For a while, I was quite a diligent garage sales grabber on every Saturday. I would lug Mal along while Daddy was still fast asleep and began my hunt for used toys and books. Some of the books were in pretty good condition and selling at a dollar, 50cents, 25 cents…if you are lucky…even at 10cents! The problem with this is, you can’t choose the books you want and the luck factor play a big part and it is common to come home empty handed after a whole morning of hunting.

I found a better place for 2nd hand books….ebay! For once, I don’t feel sour about letting this online auction giant sucks me up with their endless fees…partly because I am not a seller this time

Most of the time the books, like most used books, were a bit dogeared and also not uncommon to have some pages scribbled. But for less than a dollar a piece, what more can you expect?! I have no complaints…in fact these books have now become Mal’s best companion at bedtime and they also spare me the ordeal of seeing Mal part with the books which he has grown attached to.

Last saturday, we attended our first ‘cultured’ event with Mal. We went to a ballet performance by Arizona Ballet . It was held next to a lake under the stars. I was very excited, as I thought Mal would love the great open space and also, we go t to use our new picnic basket! It was a real cool basket which I got it at 75% discount from my favourite Target store. It comes with 4 plates, 4 glasses, 4 sets of cutlery and 4 napkins. It would be a perfect evening…the stars, the food, the dance, the great open space for Mal to run about…It all seem so perfect.Maybe it’s because of the great expectations that I already had prior to the event, the whole thing turned out to be quite a disappointment to me.

As it was a free event, there was quite a big crowd and by the time we reached, most of the seats near to the stage were taken

During this time of the year, the sun sets early, even before 6.30pm. By the time we got there and manage to find a place to settle down, the sun was already setting. Picnic in the dark wasn’t really my cup of tea. The 2 little candles we brought along did not help much either and I got really edgy with the slightest spilage of drink and food as I could already imagine the ants marching gayly to our food, feasting with us!

Although I tried to choose a place near to the edge so that the kids could run around the open space next to it, it was too dark and seemed too unsafe to let them roamed about without supervision. So the kids were cooped up at the small area we had…made up of a few mats and the performance only managed to capture their attention for a mere 5 minutes or less. After that, it was funtime at the little space we sat. It was not only distracting and noisy for us but also for the people sitting around us.

After the 1st part of the performance, which was 1/2 hour into the show, I told Daddy that we should leave. It was too stressful for me!

We soon derived at the conclusion that maybe I was too uptight as I had set too many unrealistic expectations. First and foremost, expecting a kid to sit through the 1 1/2 hour performance is simply too unrealistic!

So should we go for such performance again?? Yes I think the great outdoor is too good to be missed. The grass, the lake, the fountain, the stars…they were perfect! Maybe we should attend such performance more often…as practise make perfect! As for picnic…never have it after the sun sets…so which one should we go for? the dance or Mal…hmmm…probably we should give our attention to Mal and take the music part of the dance…let it be our background music while we lie together to watch the stars. Think this will be more relaxing and enjoyable for everyone