Dmitry’s 6th birthday party
Finally, the party hour came. This is the day Dmitry has been waiting for: presents, birthday cake and guests. Mommy ordered a Spiderman birthday cake. I had no time to collect it from the bakery so we asked uncle BS to pick it up for us
Yummy bread!
LA baked another loaf of bread this morning to make garlic bread for Dmitry’s birthday party tonight. This is the second loaf of bread she baked since our Princess’s bread maker is back last Friday. LA baked a milk bread. The house was full of fresh bread aroma.
Dinos are down with flu
Oh dear! Three dinos are down with flu again. CNY is just around the corner. This is what LA and I fear about. I took them to the clinic nearby to get some flu medicine then took them for a spin at downtown. In the car while waiting for the light to turn green, I taught Richie the word “downtown” and “uptown”.
We went to the town to see some CNY decoration. The decoration is not as beautiful as 20 years ago. Partly the reason is lack of sponsorship. Shops are not willing to sponsor as the local government does not care to participate in the CNY decoration.
I hope I will have some time this weekend to go downtown for photo shooting. I always wanted to do it but did not find time for it. I hope this year I can find some time for it.
New Coffee Bean Membership Card
LA, Rich, Nik and I went to Jusco to shop for some products and we went to Coffee Bean for a cuppa and to buy D some surprise. At the Coffee Bean, I saw the new membership card with Christmas theme. It was very nice and I asked my friend Umi who worked there if I could change my card. Unfortunately no, she said. I still had to pay RM25 for the card! I decided not to.
After our drink, we went up to Jusco to see some electrical appliances. Umi called and told me to come to Coffee Bean and she had something for us. When I went there, she presented the card to me as a gift. Thanks Umi! It is a nice Christmas gift.
Cold Soba
Besides karate and yoga, I learned to make Sushi rice ball and cold soba during my first trip to Okinawa. Actually, the one I ate on Okinawa was not soba. I can’t remember the name of the noddle but it was white in color. I learned to make the dishes from Sumako sempai.
Today, I prepared the two dishes for the kids and LA. They loved it so much!
Home Sick
I have been on Okinawa for exactly two weeks now. Despite training schedule and some sight seeing activities, I begin to have home sick now. Although I have been able to communicate with home via Skype video, it is not so much the same as looking at the actual person. I missed all the playing, shouting and crying of the three dinos (kids) which sometimes and most often times drove me up the wall.
I am able to channel this feeling to traning but when I am not training and writing on my MacBook, I think of them so much.
I know what is my next birthday wish will be but this time, no one could ever make my wish comes through. I will have to work very hard to make this second wish come true and that can take me years to realize the wish. I hope LA and the three dinos can be patient.
Richie owns a shop on Okinawa?
Sensei and I went to the Okinawa City to do a frame for a souvenir. I came across a shop with a very unique name which I am familiar with. The name of the shop is “Richie Rich”. I created a song for Richie when he was a baby/toddler based on a ringtone of LA’s phone. The song goes like this: “Richie rich rich, Richie Richie Rich.” Wow! I do wish Richie owns a shop on Okinawa!
Hi handsomes
They are drop-dead-handsome, aren’t they?
Flash flood
Last night and this morning were unusually humid and hot. After sending D to school, it began to rain heavily. After LA and kids finished their lunch, LA noticed the water level had risen. She alerted me and quickly we started to move stuff on the floor. Another inch the water would have enter the house at the car porch. Some water had enter from the rear entrance and the rear bathroom was already flooded. Dead cockroaches were floating in the water. An awful sight, but D and N were excited.
Thanks grandma and uncle BS for coming to help.
It was about 4 years ago when the last flood came. D was still a baby. So this was the second time for D and first time for Rich and Nik.
We are all fine and in good health and at this moment as I am writing this post, the water has subsided and we have cleaned up all the mess. No losses of property.
This is the 5th time our area was flooded. Can you imagine how the hell can Bukit Beruang (our area is supposed on the high ground!) get flooded? This area has been heavily developed with more houses and high rise apartments. Tress have been chopped down. When the city council approved the plan for development, their oversight on irrigation systems has caused this inconveniences. What a GREAT! job they have done! Despite of previous floods, nothing has been done to improve the irrigation system. So incompetence and ignorant.
Dominik at 6 months 19 days
Nik has developed strong arms and bones. He is able to do push up. Here are some photos of him doing high push up.
Chap Goh Mei Lion Dance
Chap Goh Mei or “The fifteenth night” is the fifteenth day and also the last day for Chinese New Year celebration. Today, we had a Lion Dance at grandma’s. We were waiting for the Lion Dance team to come at 1400 hours. The boys were getting impatient since 1230. Finally, they arrived at 1405.
The two big boys were a little agitated by the loud drum noise. Dominik was really enjoying the drum rhythms and he was kind of dancing and getting excited in the whole event.
D and R enjoyed so much playing with the colorful papers from the party poppers.
Dominik at 6 months
These photos were taken on February 22. N could push up his body up high with his hands on the floor. He could also roll to his side but a little clumsy.
Dietrich at 27 months
These photos were taken on February 22.
Child abuse
Actually, I did not plan to write about this child abuse thing. It happened to my kids and I would not want to leave any marks on them. So, I decided not to write about it and hopefully to let this incident died. But I read about this maid thing in Suzette’s blog and I think I shall speak up and warn other parents about Indonesian maid.
Last August when my wife gave birth to Dominik, my mom sent her maid to our home to help. She helped to wash and cook. We did not want her to even lay a finger on our kids. But my 2nd son, Dietrich, liked her very much and liked to hug her. We left it to be but we tried to prevent him from doing so as much as we could.
Then I had retianl detachment in September. Had a surgery and needed for follow-up examination in KL. My wife would drive me to KL for the examination. One day in October, my wife sent me to the clinic in KL without taking any kids along (we left them at home together with my MIL and the maid), we discovered a small bruise on my eldest son left inner arm. We began to be suspicious about her and my wife asked Dmitry who did this. He told my wife that the maid “pinch” her! My wife asked him 5 times and he answered 5 times the same answers! Then my wife and I checked on Dietrich and found a bruise on his right waist. Dietrich did not know to express yet. Then we decided to file a police report and sent her to the police station for investigation. And we had to sent our kids to General Hospital for examination! After the police investigation, we deported her back to Indonesia.
Why did she pinch the kids? We trained our kids to do household chores. It appeared that Dmitry wanted to help her to clean the dining table. Apparently, the maid did not want him to do that so they were snatching the cleaning cloth. And the bitch pinched him. As for the case of Dietrich, we did not know what happened because he did not know how to express himself yet.
Of course not all Indonesian maids are bad. My mom had one maid earlier and she was very hardworking and quick in her work. We, particularly my sister Angie, really missed her. Angie missed her so much even until the last days before her departure. We tried to contact her in Indonesia but failed.
Before this happened, my wife and I had talked about installing CCTV at home. But before we could finalize the decision, this unpleasant thing had already happened. It was too late to install and we would never need to install one because my mom had decided not to employ any maid anymore.
If you want to install one, then do it! Don’t think about the cost or its worthiness. You never know what these fanatic Indonesian maids can do (but not all of them are like this).
Luckily, the incident did not leave any permanent psychological effect on our kids.
Fly kite
After dimsum, our plan was going to the MBMB park at Bukit Serindit to watch kite flying competition. I got to know there was a kite flying competition at the park after I had a morning workout at the park. D wanted to fly a kite long ago.
When we arrived at the park, it was noon time and there were some crowds at the tracks and some kite sellers and parents with kids were flying kites. So we went to Roger’s Kites stall and bought a kite for RM45! It was quite expensive for a small one but according to the man, it will last for 2 years because of the stitching. So we bought it.
I had not been flying kite for more than twenty years. I could not get the kite up. After many tries, the man who sold us the kite offered to help us. He slightly explained and I had recollection of the techniques in the younger days. With his help, we finally got our kite soaring high in the sky. Can you spot which kite is ours? The photo was taken using my cell phone the kites look small.
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New Year countdown with crabs
After we finished with our grocery shopping at Tesco, we were driving aimlessly on the street and suddenly, LA sparked her taste buds and wanted to have some crabs for New Year Eve’s supper. The regular restaurant at Jalan Bunga Raya where we usually bought crabs from was not opened that night. We went around the town to hunt for crabs. We had to buy from another restaurant at the adjacent street. We bought a can of stout too.
When we arrived home, it was an hour before midnight. We prepared then ate the crabs just before midnight. Nik was sleeping already. D and R were so eager to eat te crabs with toasted breads.
Just before the clock struck 12, I called Michal in Poland to wish him and his mother and girl friend a Happy New Year. Michal, if you are reading this, Happy New Year and we wish you were here to celebrate with us New Year 2007 and have crab party. Do you still remember the restaurant we had crabs party beside a temple?
Runaway treat
LA book a hotel room at Mahkota Hotel to give us a retreat for the end of 2006. She got home in the late evening and told us about it and the kids were joyful to hear that they would be going to the swimming pool the next morning. We got ready and and moved the our luggage into the car and I started the engine. We were out of the house for our 1D/1N holiday in Melaka!
We checked in to Mahkota Hotel at 9th floor in Jasmine block. This was the first time we stayed in Mahkota Hotel. The one-room apartment was not too bad except that D and I had to sleep on the floor. We bought some supper and ate in the hotel while watching TV until midnight.
We woke up at 0700 and had breakfast at 0800 and 0830 we were heading to the pool. The breakfast was quite a hectic one as both D and R were getting excited about the pool and could no longer sit still to eat their breakfast and Nik was starting to make noise. LA and I had to wash down our breakfast with juices.
When we were at the second pool, the water was cold and the morning breeze made us felt colder. But that did not stop the kids jumping into the water. R was shivering and I had to wrap him with two pool towels and to rubbed him to keep him warm. As soon as he had warmed up, he insisted to go into the pool again. We played until the sun came out and we began to feel warmer but we had to go fearing of getting sun burn.
We returned the pool towels and went back to our hotel room and took some hot drinks and hot bath/shower. After the hot shower, D laid down on the couch and fell asleep. Soon, Nik was asleep on my chest followed by me. LA and R took the luggage to the car. When they were back, LA took some candid shots of three of us sleeping.
R got his first mini waterfall bath.
Ooooo…. cold. An gu…. The water was cold. Nik only got his feet wet.
R was shivering.
Teaching R to swim, actually kicking his legs in the water.
D was soaking in the cold water and sneezing away.
R was wrapped in two pool towels and I rubbed his body to keep him warm.
Caught in candid camera having siesta after the swim.
Nik was sleeping on my chest.
R was helping mommy to pack.
R gave D a kiss. Smuck!
And a smuck to daddy.
Daddy woke up and kiss kiss!
My birthday cake
Ha! Finally we got settle down for my birthday cake party. Nik was already soundly asleep after D, R and I returned home from a meeting with Jim and Karl for some karate matters. Sorry Nik.
Christmas in PJ
This was my first time to spend Christmas away from home. LA and I decided to go to PJ to visit her mother and brothers and sisters on Christmas eve. We actually planned to have a day trip and would be back to Melaka to celebrate Christmas and my birthday. Every year we would visit The Portugese Settlement at Ujong Pasir to see some Christmas decoration. But we ended to spend our Christmas in PJ and missed the Christmas decoration this year. When we were back to Melaka last night, we went to the town to find some supper and we thought of dropping by but we gave up when we were caught in traffic.
LA, Nik with cousins Lilian, Vivien and Shane
LY with Nik and LA with Su-An
Strong grandma
Nik with cousins Sharlene, Vivien and Wendy
D and Rich got their Christmas presents from Santa Clause (daddy)
D got this dream Yoyo and R got some play stamps
Nik’s day out
We decided to go to grandma’s after picking D from school. So I took a half day off. When we arrived at grandma’s, the three musketeers were very happy but Nik was still sleeping in his portable car seat. LA had to carried Nik with his car seat. After our lunch, we began to hunt for my running shoes. I was actually thinking to buy Power running shoe for it is cheap and after all running shoe does not last long. Unfortunately, I could not find big sizes to fit my large feet!
LA suggested to go to Mahkota Parade and there we go. To our surprise, D said he wanted to stay with grandma. So we left both D and R with grandma. Poor grandma, she had to take care two musketeers.
It was Nik’s second visit to departmental store. He was excited to look at lights and people walking by. When he was tired, he would sleep in cuddles.
After taking many look at all the shops selling sports shoes, I decided to buy a pair of Addidas running shoe. It fits my large feet well. I really liked this Addidas UK 12 size and its design. I was hesitating because of the price, which was RM167.90 after 40% discount! LA said that was her Christmas gift to me. But I was still hesitating because of the price and it might not last long. Finally, I decided to take it. Honey, thanks for the early Birthday and Christmas gift!
Now, I’ve got the shoe but I feel a little pity to wear it for running. I hope this pair will last me for at least 2 to 3 years to spread even the cost.
When we arrived at grandma’s, we learned that R had stepped into the drain. Luckily, we had bought him and D a new pair of sandal earlier before we went to MP.
We arrived home around 2030 and three musketeers were soundly asleep in the car. It was a tiring day for all of us.
Nice tower castle
This morning, Richie built his tallest tower castle when D was at school. Both of them could not build anything together as they would get into commotion and would demolish anything. So, without D, R was able to sit down by himself to build.
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Young engineers
D likes to play with his wooden blocks we bought him from Taipei. He likes to build towers with the wooden blocks. But R likes to demolish what D builds. Today, D built the tallest tower and R was not a demolition man, instead R built smaller tower but his tower collapsed.
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Yummy crab
LA likes to eat crab. I like to eat crab too but I am lazy to peel its shell and I dislike the messiness. LA ate quite a lot of crabs before she delivered Nik. The Chinese believes if the pregnant woman thinks of eating something, her husband must get the food she likes. Otherwise, the baby will become greedy when she grows up! It’s Chines folklore.
After LA’s massage at my parent’s, we passed by a restaurant beside a temple. I went down to buy her a crab in sweet and sour sauce. I bought a small bottle of Guiness Stout. It has been a long time since my last Stout in the mid 1990s! While I was waiting for the crab at the restaurant, I saw an old man ordering Stout. I did not know why I had the urge to drink Stout after so many years.
We came home and set in the dining room to eat the crab with toast breads. Umph… yummy! 
D and R like the crab and the sauce with toast breads too!
Michal, if you are reading this, can you remember we took you to this restaurant for seafood? You were so enjoying the crabs! We wish you will come visit us again and we can have crabs party. I can’t remember if I made you a picture eating crabs. I am going to go through my CD archives to find out.
Protected: Richie at 2
Protected: Nik at 2½ month
R and I camped out
I’ve been sleeping in the living hall for almost 2 weeks. The kids and the baby are co-sleeping with us and our room is a little too small to fit two adults and three dinos. I decide to move out so that LA and N can have more space to sleep better. MIL is sleeping in the middle room and the 3rd room has been transformed into my home office. It is a little house. It sure is cramp but we quite like the closeness.
Last night when we returned from our parent’s, it was almost midnight. R was very sleepy and I took out the mattress and he laid on it. I gave him nice pat and he was sleeping soundly in no time. “Are you sure you want him to sleep with you? What happen if he wakes up crying looking for mama in the middle of night?”, said LA. “Don’t worry for that now. Let me take care of him if he wakes up crying.”, I replied.
I quickly washed and retired beside R at 0015. This little dino was really tired. He was sleeping motionlessly (except his little snoring). I woke up a number of times to check him and he was still sleeping in the same position. About 0300 (I think), R woke up suddenly without making any noise and he walked into the bedroom and climbed onto the bed. When LA woke up this morning, she was surprised that R walked in himself without waking up everyone.
A happy evening ♥
LA and I have made up this afternoon. She then took D to Tesco for some groceries and I stayed at home to baby sit R. R was snoozing away on my chest while I carried him at work. He had a good and sweet nap. No fuss at all when he woke up. I made him a bootle of Ribena juice and he finished all. My MIL was taking care of N.
We had dinner together awhile ago and I just finished washing dishes. When I was doing the dishes, R snatched the table cloth from D and he shouted and made a lot of noise, “Mum! Mum! Richie took the table cloth!” And R made some noise too, “nyum..nyum..nyum…Ah!” Then I heard LA said to D, “D, you stand at the table and don’t talk. Richie will return the cloth to you.” Interestingly, about a minute later, R return the cloth to D! I was amazed and I laughed.
I am going to take my bath and later will take LA to my parents to ask my uncle to give her a massage. She hurt her back on Monday night. We were at a temple watching “Fire Walking” ceremony. She was carrying R for too long. I was carrying D. I hope to acquire a good telephoto lens for my Canon so that I can make some pictures at the temple next year.
Protected: Dinos sleeping postures
Protected: Dominik’s inoculation
Protected: A tiny birthday party
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