...and then there were two!: February 2008

Friday, February 29, 2008

Bon Voyage!

Some adjectives to describe our holiday next week.

maiden
last-minute
a long time coming!

This holiday has been in incubation for a long time. When DN was 4 months old, it was supposed to be a weekend trip to Malacca with my family. We first talked about it when I was in my third trimester and blissfully naive. A baby in a car seat for 3 hours? Why not? They sleep all the time what. (Prrrtfh!) Then it became a trip to Perth when he was 10 months old, but that was shelved because I couldn't find time away from school. From then until now there were the odd discussions about quick trips to Bangkok / KL / Hong Kong whenever PF had business trips.

But nothing ever materialised because deep down inside, I think we're both wibbly jellies about the whole thing.

Personally, I'm afraid of...

becoming public enemy numero uno on SQxxx coz my toddler won't stop screaming
feeding DN when we're out coz he's a chinaman through and through... nothing can come between him and his porridge
having to deal with a cranky toddler coz he couldn't nap well in the stroller
not being able to shop properly (sob! sob!) coz Mr. Emperor has an attention span of a fly and his bed routine must start at 730pm (that's why we chose Perth... retail is just not one of their strong suits!)

Anyway, we talked about it and we're finally going. Booked our tickets last week, and applied for DN's passport today, which is an adventure in itself.

We initially wanted to take passport-like photos ourselves and apply for his passport online... but with photos like these???

NG 1
(plus, we'd have to photoshop the background white)

NG 2.
(if the immigration officer doesn't laugh, I will. And the background is not white.)

NG 3.
(The background's white but I don't think ICA would approve coz you can't see his right ear. Go figure.)

NG 4.
(I actually thought this was THE ONE, but no... he's not "facing the camera" coz his chest is not directed at it. Bah.)

So what's a desperate mom to do? Get the "experts" to do it themselves. So I brought DN to ICA to get his photo taken.

In the photobooth, DN had to sit in a bumbo perched on top of a high stool. He's not really IN the bumbo. It's stuffed with a towel, so he's sitting on top of it actually.

Wah. Relak brudder!

Now, there's always a queue to take photos and the "photo people" usually only take 1 photo of you. Didn't smile? Too bad. One eye big, one eye small? Sorry, long queue. So with DN, the "photo girl" probably thought she was being generous by doing it 3 times. (which, if you ask me, doesn't really count coz the first take, he turned to look at me, and second take, he looked at the camera sideways... all rejects anyway!) So the minute she got a picture of him looking at the camera head-on, she finalised and printed it.

This is what the 1st pic looked like.

Humph. (NG in my eyes!)

She refused to take another picture even though I begged.

Me : "Please! Please! Please! Please! Please! Let him try again! He wasn't smiling. He looks so shocked in this picture! How can I use this for his passport? Cannot lah!"

Stupid cow : "Sorry miss, cannot. Babies very difficult to take picture one. Once they look at the camera, we got to take already. You see? All these cannot use coz he not looking at camera. This one ok."

Me : "But he looks funny! Please? Can I try again? Just one more! Only one!"

Stupid cow : "Sorry ah. Cannot. Long queue! Otherwise people complain."

Me : "PLEASE??!"

Stupid cow : "Sorry, cannot."

Me : "What if I pay again?"

Stupid cow (after a short pause) : "If you pay, okay."

So I did! The first shot was another NG. Horrors! I only have 2 more shots at this. So I started ... singing, and bouncing coz the song called for it. Ya, and just my luck that our booth was the one right in front of the entire queue of people. -_-

"Hop little bunny! HOP! HOP! HOP! Hop little bunny! HOP! HOP! HOP! ...Der Nen, PLEAAASE smile!"

So there I am singing and bouncing and begging and what does DN do?

He smiles!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

On a bus

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a terrible traveller, literally. A bad dream for me would be to sit in a cab, and then on a ferry. A nightmare would be cab - ferry - HELICOPTER! I will shoot myself in that dream.

Strangely enough, I'm okay (sort of) on buses. As long as the bus is not too crowded and the bus driver is not having a relationship with the brake pedal, I should be okay. Taxis are another story.

So when I had to pop into town today, I decided to take a bus with DN and not a cab. He was really quite good on the bus. He sat on my lap 80% of the time and busied himself with smiling and waving at fellow commuters and looking out the window. Whenever we passed a construction site (which was quite often coz everyone is en-bloc-ing their lovely old condos -_-), he would point and start shouting. He really likes those excavators and cranes! The only challenging thing was carrying him, the diaper bag and the stroller up and down the bus.

PF sent us home.

DN's famous "SMILE!" face

Friday, February 15, 2008

Chinese New Year Day 1

Standard happenings on CNY Day 1:

Visiting both sets of parents and grandmothers
OD-ing on steamboat
Farming DN out to excitable relatives
Melting in the sweltering CNY heat
Giving out ang pows -_-
Receiving ang pows :)
Taking photos with CNY wall decorations at PF's parents' place

The Ongs in 2007

The Ongs in 2008 (decidedly older, with more lines and more chins!)

DN's "how-can-you-not-give-me-another-ang-pow" face

Chinese New Year Day 2

DN demonstrated his eating prowess on Day 2 when my aunts, uncles and cousins came over for breakfast. DN sat at the dining table for about 1.5 hours and was fed egg mayo sandwiches, bak kwa and chrysanthemum tea, AFTER his breakfast of raisin bread. I think he was very pleased with the buffet breakfast. Everyone was very amazed with his bottomless pit.

Number of times DN pooped during CNY (his norm is once a day):

Day 1 : 3 times
Day 2 : 4 TIMES!!!!!
Day 3 : 3 times
Day 4 : 3 times

He was crapping like a newborn!

CNY is all about eating...

... and drinking...

... and more eating.

(that's his Great-Grandma Wee)

DN's face when told he cannot eat anymore.

The first thing he does when we arrive at someone's house is check out what's in the lacquer boxes.

Chinese New Year Day 3

We took a break from all the visiting and went to the Botanic Gardens with Katriya and her parents. We couldn't have chosen a better day. :)

Katriya and DN

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Ushering in the New Year

DN's hair grows so slow that we've only gotten it cut twice since the day he was born - before his birthday and last week. It's actually a good thing because cutting off his hair is as difficult as cutting off someone's inheritance. Phew.

DN tagged along when PF got his hair cut and it took two grown adults to cut his hair - one to restrain him and another to cut the hair. DN just wouldn't keep still, and he's a blur in all the photos I took.

DN stayed in the chair for about 2 minutes before squirming so hard that we had to release him, lest Kate cut his ear off.

Kate tried to tempt him with a hair roller, haha.

On CNY eve, we had dinner with both sets of grandparents and lohei-ed at DN's great-grandma's.

Here's to good health and lots of happiness in the year of the rat!

DN : "I wish for an endless supply of food!"

On CNY eve, we had reunion dinners with my parents and with PF's parents, and we also visited PF's maternal grandmother. Although it's "cooler" to scoff at all these gatherings, I actually like the idea of Going Home. When you go home, you know you'll be taken care of (i.e. FED, in our society). It's a place where you can fart, burp and pick your nose with wild abandon and know that you'll still be loved.

I hope, in thirty years, DN feels the same. :)