So funny....

"So funny"

The latest phrase from my Josiah. Apparently quite a lot of things are "funny" to him so I cannot be sure that he understands the exact meaning of this phrase but the way he says it ..... is so funny to me!!

Chinese New Year this year was interesting. I hosted a couple of dinners. One steamboat with 2 other chinese families and one for S's boss and secretary. First time buying fishballs, meatballs....type things in London. Quite a novel idea really, this steamboat or more commonly called hotpot here. With the leftover, S and I had another two rounds of steamboat on our own. Lovely to have hot soup and noodles in the cold.

Oh, yes. Talk about the cold - how about the whole snow incident in London. Apparently, we have not had so much snow in London since 18 years ago. The whole of London came to a standstill with offices closed, buses and Tube not running, no school, like a national holiday! It was really nice. We went out to check out the snow and had full English breakfast for dinner (no food and no one would deliver!) The next few days were not as nice as it was so icy and walking with a stroller was a real pain. My wrist and shoulder was hurting from trying to navigate the ice. Josiah quickly lost interest in "snow" and "snowman" because it was too slippery for him to walk and he kept falling down. On the upside, he picked up a few new words like snow, slippery and pain :)

From our window - snow everywhere

Josiah kept saying, "Oh no, car is stuck!" - he loves even other people's cars apparently

Josiah meets Mr Snowman

Josiah learnt the word "scarf" as he has never had to put one on before. BTW, that is my scarf that he is wearing (too cheapo to buy him one!)

Happy Birthday Josiah

2nd January 2009



Dearest Josiah,



Happy 2nd Birthday to you.


I love you more than you think :p


So here's a little poem just for my little man...

Star, car, daddy then finally mummy;

Your first words were in that order,

Finicky about what you want in your tummy,

I am beginning to worry you have got some food disorder!

As your vocabulary expanded, my life became more contented

I don't have to guess what you want, I just have to give you what you ask

Sometimes I wonder if I am spoiling you

Aiyoh - for goodness sake's, you are only two

Other boys are jumping, hitting, snatching, pushing and pulling

Thank God for your calm and loving nature

You prefer to jump on the trampoline, push on all your cars and pull my hair

Thank God for your smile and laughing nature

Baby bibs and baby toys are still part of our lives

Drinking milk from a bottle at two?

Sleeping with mummy and daddy - still the story of our lives

We love you for who you are - who cares about the excessive drool

Have a lovely year ahead

It may be full of adventure - but don't be afraid

Mummy and Daddy will be here for you

Every single day, loving you, watching over you

Protecting you from the terrible things in live

Hoping that you would keep alive

Until your next birthday twelve months down the line!

Love always,

Mummy

It's Daddy

Am not in a blogging mood this week but just had to pop in this post. It really made me crack up in the middle of the street.

I was out with Josiah on our usual grocery run when he saw this ad on the phone booth on the way to Tesco

He runs towards it happily, shouting...."It's Daddy"

I could not believe what I heard so I asked him again, "Who is this?"

"It's Daddy" he shouted confidently.

Looks like I am married to Colonel Sanders then!

Shaun was not impressed when I told him - oh, come on....have a laugh....hehehehe.....

Josiah at the Winter Wonderland. He started crying once the ride started. Poor baby. He was reaching out for us to save him but all we could do was watch him go round and round :p

He still wanted to 'drive' so Shaun had to honour of going on the stomach-churning ride with him. Don't look at me, I get dizzy just watching these kiddy rides.

Happy New Year 2009!

Happy Belated New Year to all.

We are back in London...actually, for almost 3 weeks now. The trip back to Malaysia was so good for everyone especially Josiah. He spent 3 weeks basking in warm weather and lapping up warm love from family and friends. He hardly slept, played all day and over the 3 weeks became a new boy! More laughter, more brave and of course more naughty!

I think Josiah misses his cousin, Rayna the most - he would asks for 'che-che' in the mornings if she is not already there and when we go out, he only wants to see che-che when we come back. So now we are back to communicating through Skype again. I wonder how long before he forgets about the fun times in KL.

I had my share of fun too. It has been almost 2 years that I have not been separated from Josiah for more than 4 hours. Leaving him with my parents or my in-laws this round made me realise that Josiah is ready to go to nursery now. He loves meeting new kids and immediately starts playing with them, does not look for me when he is having fun so getting him to start nursery now would be good before he begins to be "shy" again. So after settling back to UK time and getting back to our new routine. Looking for the right nursery has been my mission of late. More about that in another post.

Shaun had fun playing basketball - something he does not get to do here because UK is "football nation". He got to watch a movie in the cinema after almost 2 years! We took Josiah to our favourite hang out places like One Utama, Ikea, Mid Valley, TTDI mamak shop... We also managed to meet up with the believers in Paramount and Puchong. Special bonus to be able to meet our close friend's baby girl, Natalie born on Christmas day - we met her hours before flying back to London.

What a lovely way to end the year. It is probably one of the best Christmas present ever - to be able to spend it with all my loved ones back in my own home. Alas, all good things must come to an end. Back to the freaking cold and wet days. Back to having to cook, clean and look after my two boys. Back to having no car and having to do groceries. Sigh. Can you tell that I am not looking forward to 2009? Here's some pics to cheer me up....sniff...

Josiah was great on the 13 hour flight both ways - slept most of the time ( we chose the midnight flight) and watched "Wall-E" and played with his cars. He still managed to fit in the baby bassinet as he likes to sleep all curled up.

One of the rides in One Utama

Cute puppies belonging to the owner of a restaurant we went for lunch

Having a blast soaking in the sun before we went back to 0C in London...brrr...

Josiah had his first swimming experience in Awana pool

Wordless Wednesday : Josiah loves anything with wheels

Check this video out...

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Hello from my new home!

Three weeks of chaos and madness. Chaos around the house from all that packing and madness from having to pack whilst Josiah is sick. This runny nose and cough germ seems to be some super strong type. Doesn't help that UK doctors will NEVER prescribe medicine for common cold to children. Antibiotics, cough syrup and cold medicines are a big no-no here. Everyone is supposed to let it run it's course but look at how long and tedious it can be.

The move went well, movers came at about 9am and were gone by 2pm. Josiah was brilliant that day - played with his new garage toy (my secret weapon) whilst the movers unpacked everything from the boxes. He couldn't nap in his new surroundings and stayed up until 6pm! Then we thought we'd put him to bed early but he got up 30 minutes later full of energy and was up until 10pm. Man, we were so tired but Daddy continued with unpacking ...etc which was strange until I found out that our family friend from America is coming over the following day! Gasp. Nevertheless, Daddy did a fantastic job and the house looked pretty presentable by next day.

I survived 8 days without internet but would not like to live through that again if possible. First day in our new home, it was raining all day. The apartment was cold and Josiah and I had a cough. I was so, so homesick and wished all day that I could be back in Malaysia. Now that everything is getting back to normal, I am still looking forward to my trip back to Malaysia. I am guilty of daydreaming about eating yong tau foo. Drinking soya bean. Walking around One Utama. Sitting in a car to get to anywhere. Showing Josiah his old bedroom. Watching Josiah play with his cousins. Oh, here I go again. Dreaming away my afternoon.....

Vocabulary Log

Black - from Baa, baa black sheep. He can't say the sheep tho..

Sun - he says this like, "Suuuunnnn"

Mole - he was trying to stratch out my mole on my arm (a bit of an OCD problem of his!) and I had to explain that it is a mole and cannot be stratched out.

Don't touch - from watching Pocoyo - he thinks he IS Pocoyo. Cute!

Wet - mainly used when he purposely tips his cup over to make a water puddle

Elmo - favourite furry friend recently

Kick - he always says this after he sees a ball

Chest, arm, toe, knee

Not winter yet - but this Mummy is too lazy to layer him up so just a short t-shirt underneath the big jacket

Pee-ka-boo, I see you

The movers were going to deflate Josiah's frog but decided to take it as is when I mentioned that Daddy blew it manually!

Here he is with his furry playmate - Elmo