Chinese New Year Penang Heritage Fun Ride

Good news! Finally, Lucas' is willing to wear his helmet during cycling :) hooray! So, it was all in good time as we participated in the Fun ride organised by one of the cycling groups in Penang. We had to drag ourselves to wake up in the wee hours as the event starts at 8.30am. It was a short ride & we had so much fun riding around Beach street to Komtar & back.

Home Sweet Home.

Yeay, mum is back home, & just in time to celebrate dad's birthday! :)

Even better, my cousin/god sister, Shallyn, came by just in time as we are about to sing the birthday song. We are missing our lil sis in this pic... but next year on, we will be celebrating more birthdays together!

Hope.

I believe there's still hope that this year will be a better year. There are times we weep in silence because it not easy holding it inside. Yet, as much as we need to hold ourselves together & we need to put in our decision, somethings are not up to us to decide... But I still have what little faith left, believing it will be alright.

5th January 2014. Recorded.

2013 in Review

Dear readers, how have you been? As the year is coming to an end, work & events are piling up, my calendar is filled up almost to the brink! Such joy… :) Have you been naughty or nice? I'm a little slow in blogging but I have not forgotten this blog. As I am blogging with christmas songs in the background, I would like to close the year to blog about the year;  rewinding back & reflecting on the good times & bad times, happy times & sad times, about the people we journey along with.

2013 is indeed a very unique year. It is filled with joy and unexpected sorrows. It was a year of Friends losing friends, friends losing siblings... I pray hard that those who are trying to move on, will find peace and let go of those who have left.  A sweet girl and a dear friend of my sister was one of the people I will remember. Though a life is lost, memories of her still remains.

I have also learned very much about HOPE & FAITH, experiencing how fragile life can be first hand & how life can just change it's course, at any single time. I've learned to live life to the fullest & appreciate everyday spent with loved ones. Life is indeed UNPREDICTABLE. How insignificant our little rants are compared to others who are fighting to live on & move on. I pray that my mum & my aunt both find strength & hope to continue fighting on.

I now learned to rant less… (not that I have anyone to rant to… :) but as long as I give it my all whole heartedly, I believe the reward is just around the corner, work more, complain less…). This year, I have been blessed with great opportunities to improve and grow in my passion & career. Though I'm still taking baby steps but I remain hopeful that all things will fall into place.

Although, financially, this year has been a tad challenging for me, I'm grateful that Lucas & I are blessed with lucky stars throughout the year. This year, by far, must have been the year for most won giveaways & challenges as well being featured. How awesome is that ?! So despite all the sad things that happened, there are also the good things I look forward to :)

Last but not least, we would like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year! May the new year bring you & your family new hope, new joy & new adventures… xoxo, yours truly.

The broken monkey...

It has been a few days now, I have noticed that every time when I am occupied with something, cooking, or when I am working on my desk, Lucas will run to me, giving me the look, nagging & babbling (in his own language) and showing me his broken monkey. It happened a couple of times that it did occurred to me in my thoughts "What a lousy toy is that? Why does it keep falling apart?" 

On good times, I will fix it back for him, on other times, I will just ignore him and told him to play without the monkey attached, & I will continue on with my work or chores. That's the part & parcel of being a Work-at-home mom. You always question yourself about which should be prioritised in a day, sometimes you give in, sometimes you can't. Barely a handful of people understands the situation that I go through daily… 

One day, daddy was watching over him while I was cooking lunch. Lucas did the same thing running along with his toy but to daddy. But, this time "unfortunately" daddy caught him red-handed. Daddy told him off and asked him "why did he remove the monkey from his toy?" It was then, that it struck me, all this while, Lucas was trying to get my attention. Sigh, he must have felt neglected when I am busy with my daily chores & also sometimes work that he tried to get my attention. This coming from a less than 2 year old kid. I felt so bad. All he wanted was for me to be there to play with him. I also realised that at times when I actually stopped my work and walked to him & fixed his monkey back, he would usually smile and continue playing before "breaking the monkey" again...

Sometimes, we get so caught up with time & work, we often neglect and push aside people who are closest to us. This is how a broken monkey reminded me about the most important thing in life, just being there. I'm still working on making myself more available to my family but life ain't easy. A mom gotta do what a mom gotta do.

Going 21…. *months*

The little fell caught the flu bug a few weeks back. Fever went on for 4 days with runny nose & bad cough. Despite being sick, he was still very active running around & being his usual jolly self. It's only when it's time for medicine & during the night, he gets cranky. During the Dr's visit he still weighs below 11kg. Still a little underweight for his height & age.

24th Oct

I love it when he asks daddy to read him a book before he sleeps. Somedays, he will fall asleep before daddy is back home & daddy leaves for work early so he won't be able to see daddy. So bonding time like this is very precious… :)

I love to watch him sleep. I really do. He literally konked out after taking flu meds.

Because he was sick during halloween, we cancelled our plans for taking him out for trick or treating this year. We didn't want him to spread his flu to other kids as well. So we spent the day at home. We sort of dressed him up in his "glow-in-the-dark" pyjamas for the occasion :)

During the long weekend for Deepavali, we went back to daddy's hometown. He now knows how to answer us when we ask him, "where is daddy's hometown?" he will answer "tampah" (suppose to be Kampar… He had a swell time because every time he meets his aunt, he will get loads of presents. 

He is so loved!

We captured some pictures during our family trip to Ipoh.

Group picture of the family at Plan B, Ipoh (love this place)

More pictures of the little guy while shopping!

We also spent a lot of time cleaning up my sister in law's new house. Lucas had fun running around the living room that was still very empty.

Below are his loot from Aunty Stephanie & grandpa, which I'll be keeping for later ;)

He pouted his lips when I told him he cannot play with them yet.

This little guy can now say "Thank you" in words instead of signs. I'm so proud of him. The first time he said thank you was when his aunty gave him something. Everyone was surprised as he barely speaks.

He now knows how to say thank you after I applied lotion for him (without me asking), took me by surprise but I was really happy. 

New words he can speak : Duck Duck, Throw, kank kiu (thank you), poke, two, cuckoo (mimics the cuckoo clock when it cuckoos) **We are going slow & steady but we will soon get there ^_^

New things he does : 

• Washing himself while bathing (with instructions of body parts like neck, tummy, hands, face, etc…)
• Peeing in his potty (before and after bathing) showing progress with the potty.
• Drinking fresh milk / formula in the morning.
• No more pacifier :)
• Drawing in circles with a crayon *sometimes*
• Ask me to clear his ear wax (he stays really still and let me clears them but he wants to see the wax after) *I'm amazed but I did this with extra extra caution & only with his "consent"*
• Tells me to wash him up when he poos  or when diaper is really wet, he will ask me to change him by pointing to his diaper & pulling me to the room/toilet.
• More opinionated and says No to things he doesn't like.

And of course, still gives me the million dollar smile I love… 

Review : Balancing cactus by Plan Toys

During the long weekend back to my in laws, Lucas was given a toy by his Aunty. I have seen and heard about the balancing cactus from plan toys before and it did occur to me I might buy it for him one day. Lucas is so loved. The moment we unbox the toy, I was amazed that he immediately knew what to do. He started playing with it almost immediately and that was about what he did during the long weekend.

On the box, it states for 3+ years, so parents should always observe their kid when playing as some parts are only a thumb size large. I guess it's still possible to choke on them.

The cactus came with a base and 18 pcs of parts.

The base has 5 holes. While the rest of the parts has different count of holes.

I love how it encourages creativity. There's no right or wrong in constructing the cactus. The goal is simply to balance it and not let it fall.... If possible :)

The concentration when Lucas tried to build the tallest cactus... :)

Another attempt with another method of construction.

Look mummy... No hands! And it's still standing... :)

Disclaimer: This review is not sponsored and it is based on my personal opinions.