Rafe’s 31 Month Birthday

And the boy is 31 months old! [[image:2014-adik31month-11.jpg:Happy boy:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Like Yaya’s 6th birthday, we were in Minneapolis for Adik’s 31-month birthday. It has definitely been a busy and social month, despite it being Ramadan and me being in between projects (or unemployed) for almost 3 weeks. Adik is happily reading away, and his recognition of words is just amazing. When we read together, he wants to read to me and not the other way round. He will say “you read it” if he encounters a word that he doesn’t know. Then he will re-read the sentence and say the word again and be very pleased with himself. Chances are, when he comes across this word again later, he will recognize it. I think he is already starting to do what we all do, which is to say, he looks at a word’s beginning […]

Continue reading

72 Months (a.k.a the sixth birthday!)

And so the girl is now six years old! 72 months old! Hurrah!! [[image:2014-yaya72month-33.jpg:My big six-year-old:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Apparently we are feast or famine type people. After the end of June (and the end of my contract), a month where we did not do anything at all – did not go anywhere or do anything much – July has been very very active and social. I had a 20-day break before the start of my next contract, and since it was Ramadhan and the days were ridiculously long, you would have thought that we would have just holed up and done nothing. Nope, we were not going to waste the beautiful summer days where I didn’t have to work! We had a trip to Elkhart to see Becky and her family, and my next contract dictated that we be in Minneapolis on July 21st. So […]

Continue reading

Rafe’s 28 Month Birthday

28 months old! [[image:2014-adik28month-24.jpg:Yaya is holding my eaw!:center:0]] Caveat: this entry (for April) was written in June. Thank goodness for backdated entries! Also, we kind of forgot to take pictures of the boy to document his day any of those days in April. So this month’s entry will be a roundup of my favorite pictures taken in the last month. * Mouse over the pictures for captions Speech status: Still advanced. He is expressing ideas in full sentences, and is very obsessed with AC/DC’s TNT. I know. So appropriate for a two year old. 😉 Bedtimes: back to a better schedule of going to bed between 9:30-10 PM with no naps. If he does accidentally get in a nap, the bedtime is definitely pushed back almost two hours, despite it only being a 30-minute nap. So from my point of view (being the one who has to get him to […]

Continue reading

69 Months

Here are the 69 month photos! [[image:2014-yaya69month-10.jpg:Yaya and her mouse:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions So here’s the deal. This entry was written practically in June. So I will try to be brief and let the photos speak for themselves. Food status: no change. Nothing new was consumed in April. Reading status: same as last month. But we had a busy month of April, being out in Pennsylvania for two weeks. We also saw family during the Easter weekend. Let’s get to the pictures! Here are some of Yaya at play: [[image:2014-yaya69month-01.jpg:Playing outside:center:0]] [[image:2014-yaya69month-02.jpg:Playing inside:center:0]] [[image:2014-yaya69month-04.jpg:Blowing bubbles at Aunt Joan’s:center:0]] [[image:2014-yaya69month-05.jpg:Dying easter eggs with cousins Barb and Claire:center:0]] [[image:2014-yaya69month-12.jpg:First Easter egg hunt for the kids:center:0]] In Pennsylvania, we got to see Melissa and went out to dinner with her a few times: [[image:2014-yaya69month-03.jpg:Love this shot!:center:0]] Also some shots of the kids having fun at the new ducky hotel: […]

Continue reading

Rafe’s 27 Month Birthday

Twenty-seven months old now! [[image:2014-adik27month-03.jpg:Ooo-chak! Peekaboo!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for comments Speech status: There is nothing this child can’t say. He does have trouble with Malay or Spanish though, but English, he’s good. He speaks in full sentences. He does, adorably, sound like Ming Ming saying his Ls and Rs exactly like she does. Is this a symptom of watching too much Wonder Pets during my pregnancy? Perhaps. I love how he says “Bradley” (the name of his stuffed bearcat). It ends up being “Byadyey”. For whatever reason, this just makes me laugh and laugh. He is also learning to introduce himself. “Hi, my name’s Adik” (or sometimes Rafiq or Rafe). Shakes hands. He also loves pretending we have different names. “Mama, your name Siwa?” I say Yes, Adik. My name is Sila. He says “Not! MY name is Siwa!” And he laughs at his own joke, and […]

Continue reading

68 Months

68 months now! Five and 2/3 years old! Whee! [[image:2014-yaya68month-13.jpg:Chuffed about something!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Food status: nothing new. She is still eating our homemade bread. I am thinking I should talk to her pediatrician and perhaps sneak in some vitamins in powder form (hopefully some kind of no-taste thingy) into the bread. We will see. We were on the road for two weeks out of the past month so while on the road, Yaya subsisted on circle toast (cinnamon raisin english muffins), green chips (Lay’s Sour Cream n Onion potato chips) and milk. Some mornings she ate bagels. Sometimes she ate pizza. But she ate so much circle toast that she did confess to missing Mama’s bread at home. 🙂 Reading status: same as last month. Still progressing. However, my friend Amy posted this article that made me feel much better. Yaya cannot sit still […]

Continue reading

65 Months

65 months! Five years and five months have passed. [[image:2013-yaya65month-07.jpg:Beautiful smile:center:0]] * Mouse over pictures for captions Food status: A few new tastes! Yaya tried hot chocolate (during the snow adventures), finger tasted cookie frosting and also ate circle toast with a little nutella (under a generous slather of regular butter). So three new things. Baby steps, I suppose. But we are pleased with her. Sadly, none of the foods was at all healthy, but on the plus side she did not ask for more after she completed the tastes. Hopefully we will have more to report this next month and in the new year. Yaya is becoming a great big sister – always keen to teach Adik stuff, read to him, etc. She is still the second most dangerous thing for him (note Adik’s black eye from last month’s accident), but on the other hand, Adik is the single […]

Continue reading

First Snowfall of the Winter

So we actually missed the first snowfall in Ohio (in November) this year while we were away at work in Pennsylvania. But when we were in Pennsylvania (again, for work) in December, snow caught up with us. This entry is basically just some fun photos taken during the snowfall, and afterwards. Most of the photos were taken on the Sunday afternoon (you might remember the Eagles Sunday afternoon game with snow flurries that severely limited visibility on TV?), but some were taken in the days after. [[image:2013_decsnow09.jpg:Let’s play in the snow!:center:0]] As always, please mouse over the pictures for captions. [[image:2013_decsnow01.jpg:Adik wants to know what this stuff is:center:0]] [[image:2013_decsnow03.jpg:He’s intrigued by the stuff and keeps walking to make footprints:center:0]] And yay! Adik still fits into Yaya’s old snowsuit! He has outgrown the lovely one that he received from Abang Reza (and that is now going to be handed off to […]

Continue reading

Amusements at the New Ducky Hotel

So we have spent many days at the new Ducky Hotel in the past three months. We played in the snow, and amused ourselves in all kinds of ways. This entry is just a bunch of fun photos of the activities at the new Ducky Hotel (that would be the Homewood Suites in Lansdale, PA). Our Old Ducky Hotel was in Cranford, NJ. 🙂 [[image:2013_dechotel01.jpg:Smiling as brightly as the sun:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Let’s be pirates! [[image:2013_dechotel03.jpg:Dancing peg-leggedly?:center:0]] [[image:2013_dechotel04.jpg:Cheese!:center:0]] [[image:2013_dechotel05.jpg:Arr mateys!:center:0]] [[image:2013_dechotel06.jpg:Pirates have all the fun!:center:0]] And now let us have fun with Papa and Mama’s shoes! [[image:2013_dechotel07.jpg:Shoe on a leash:center:0]] [[image:2013_dechotel08.jpg:Pulling it onto the sofa by its laces:center:0]] [[image:2013_dechotel09.jpg:Doodling on Papa’s sneakers (a new “canvas”, get it?):center:0]] [[image:2013_dechotel10.jpg:Coloring the underside of Mama’s shoes:center:0]] [[image:2013_dechotel11.jpg:Walking around in Mama’s shoes:center:0]] [[image:2013_dechotel12.jpg:Attack Papa!:center:0]] [[image:2013_dechotel13.jpg:”I clapping!”:center:0]] Also very popular, activities on the sofa: [[image:2013_dechotel16.jpg:Napping on the sofa (with pillows […]

Continue reading

64 Months

So we are now at 64 months! [[image:2013-yaya64month-04.jpg:Love this shot!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Food status: Yaya tried one new food this month! Honey. She finger tasted it. I have hopefully convinced her that she should try eating pancakes with honey when I next make it. Let’s see if that actually happens (she has refused maple syrup on many occasions). She did attempt to eat carrots. The first bite went down well. The second bite, well, it came back up and so did everything else. ‘Nuff said. This time it was not on purpose, but it was still disappointing. So no new game or toy for her for the carrot attempt. We had a 2-week (almost) work trip in November, so it was quite a busy (and exhausting) time for us. Also Thanksgiving which fell on Adik’s 23 month birthday. But all in all a good month. […]

Continue reading

63 Months

Sixty-three months now! [[image:2013-yaya63month-03.jpg:Trying on her Bollywood Princess costume:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions So this month, Yaya had some adventures in trying new foods! First, there was the disastrous attempt at eating an apple. Yaya suggested it herself and then welched out of it, and after two hours of holding on to the apple, we placed it in her mouth and she purposely threw up to get away from it. [[image:2013-yaya63month-02.jpg:Crying because she doesn’t want to eat the apple nor does she want to let us take it away from her:center:0]] But after that debacle, she felt really really badly (it was her own idea to begin with, after all). So she made up for it by eating miniscule slices of strawberry for two days in a row. And then she also ate a tiny bit of the white part of a hard boiled egg (which she […]

Continue reading

59 Months

One more month till Yaya hits the half decade mark! Woohooo! [[image:2013-yaya59month-01.jpg:Poster child for barrettes?:center:0]] Note: Mouse over the pictures for captions It has been a busy month of June. We started off at the end of May going to Maryland to visit the family, and then working in New Jersey and Pennsylvania before returning home at the end of the first week of June. I think we are all still recovering from that long and crazy ride! But everyone did well, and we made it home and back to our usual routine. Food status: No change. What can I say? The child is strong willed. We were never able to get her to do anything she wasn’t ready to do (e.g., talking, potty training) and we just have to keep being patient I guess. One day, she will snap out of this and start eating normally again, inshallah. Yaya […]

Continue reading

Rafe’s 17 Month Birthday

And so, another month has passed by and the little guy is now 17 months old. He’ll be a year and a half soon! Wheeee! [[image:2013_0529_rafe15.jpg:Pleased as punch:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Adik can now pretty easily climb the sofa. He doesn’t need help or a boost, he can do it all by himself. He has trouble and needs help if he’s carrying something in his hands while he does the climbing but if he has his hands free, boom, he’s on the sofa before you know it! He enjoys sitting on the sofa, playing with his gadgets or reading a book. The bad thing is, he still doesn’t quite understand that jumping face-first off the sofa might not be the greatest idea. So we have sit with him and monitor him and make sure he doesn’t accidentally hurt himself. Adik is still quite obsessed with brushing […]

Continue reading

56 Months

Yaya is now four months away from her first half decade! 56 months now! Where did all that time go? [[image:2013-yaya56month-13.jpg:Marveling on the merry-go-round:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Food status: something weird happened at the grocery store. Yaya surreptitiously took a bite of a carrot at the produce aisle. She chewed a bit and then ended up spitting it out (into my hand, ew!) but she randomly took a bite of an unwashed, unpeeled, unprepared carrot! How odd is that? After we advised her against taking a bite of unwashed produce, and encouraging her to give carrots a proper try next time (meaning: washed, peeled, perhaps even cooked or with dressing, etc.), we did reward her for trying something new with a game. Right or wrong, we didn’t want to stifle her experimentation with food by not following through on our promises. Sadly she did not try […]

Continue reading

Rafe’s 14 Month Birthday

And here it is not even a third of the way through March and Adik’s 14 month entry is here! As always, thanks to the gods of backdated entries! [[image:2013-adik14month-02.jpg:Look at all my teeth!:center:0]] Adik has at least seven teeth, possibly eight (although the eighth is unconfirmed at this point). * Mouse over the pictures for captions The boy is running now! He falls down quite a bit but it doesn’t keep him down for long. Up he gets and off he goes, to the races! He even tries dangerous stunts like walking with a towel over his head covering his face as he thinks that that is funny. We have to help to steer him so he does not bump into things like furniture and walls. It is amazing how far he’s come with becoming mobile. He used to trip and fall over even the smallest things, but he […]

Continue reading
The schoolmate

gMalaysia Conference

Earlier today I attended an event organised by Google Malaysia called the gMalaysia Conference. It would be great to learn more about how Google products can help with my illustration business. Integrated with my Android smartphone, it’s already a indispensable tool for marketing and communications for my work. The schedule for the track I was on was displayed on this screen. Stuff happened. And no, this had nothing to do with patrons of wet markets. Everywhere I go to I’ll bump into old school friends. In this case, I met fellow tech junkie and professional photographer John Ling. During the marketing talk, I outed myself as using Google+ as a marketing tool by raising my hand and the speaker asked me to describe my experiences. For that, I received this set of Google Malaysia swag. It was a memorable day and I hope more people would be able to attend […]

Continue reading