Christmas in Ipoh

Scrap Credits: Holiday Card Templates by Shabby Princess

Christmas Sampler by Shabby Princess

It was the longest time I spent in Ipoh with Gong Gong and Poh Poh so far. And since we had not gone back for quite a while already (maybe 2 months?), I was still quite reserved when they tried to carry me. What have I been up to?

With Mommy and Chiu Chiu...

We went to church on Sunday evening, Mommy said I've been a good girl. There's this rule in the church (St. Michael's Church), where babies and toddlers would need to go to the Cry Room during Mass so as not to disturb the rest of the parishioners. Mommy took me there, and I'd been very co-operative and stayed in there till Mass finished. Well, maybe there're other toddlers to keep me occupied.

The next day, they took me to have some rides when Gong Gong and Poh Poh went to get me my Christmas presents.

And here's my Christmas present from Gong Gong & Poh Poh :)

Yes, a Minnie bolster! I've also got a recoder (another musical instrument) but there's no picture to share. Other than that, I'd been busy with so many activities at Gong Gong & Poh Poh's house.
The pictures didn't turn out so well, Mommy's h/p fault again :) Ya, running on the treadmill, playing with the piano, watching fish with Gong Gong, etc...

Ta Yi Ma (big Auntie) came back in the afternoon. So, only Xiao Yi (small Auntie) didn't come back because she's still in Russia studying. We went to the Christmas Eve Mass, partly because I would only sleep at ~2am and also Poh Poh was supposed to sing in the choir that night. This time, I was not behaving very nicely. You see, we were there early because Poh Poh had to practise with her choir group first. So, when they started singing, I would insist that Mommy stood up as well (the rest of the parishioners were sitting down). We were in the Cry Room, but we could see the choir from there. I wouldn't let Mommy sit down until they finished their song. After that, during Mass, when I saw a toddler had his 'nen nen', I asked Mommy to make for me as well. But I insisted to pour the milk powder in on my own, which ended up spilled on the bench and Mommy had to clean it. After that, when I saw two brothers fighting (one slapping the other on the face), I did that to Mommy too! And this time, I kept walking around, distracting Mommy's concentration. I also wanted Mommy to take me out, but she managed to distract me with other things, one of which was her crystal bracelet that I kept wanting to play with.

After Mass, I was excited to see all the lightings and decorations outside. It was really pretty, and I wanted to take photo with the Christmas tree. We took a few family photos (too bad it was in Gong Gong's camera and we didn't have the softcopy here). Initially everyone was smiling, except me. Mommy showed me the photo, telling me that I was the only one with a sour face. So from then on, I'd been smiling away. Here are some of the photos, but most are blurry because they were taken with Mommy's handphone (our camera was still under repair).

The next day, which was Christmas day itself, Daddy arrived. I was so excited to see Daddy. So Mommy was relieved for the day, as I clinged to Daddy from then on. We had lunch in Ming Chung restaurant. We forgot to take photos of the dishes until we're nearly done :P
We went back to Penang that evening since Daddy and Mommy had to work the next day.

My 2nd Chinese Birthday

Well, this year my chinese birthday falls on the same day as the Winter Solstice Festival, or also known as the Dongzhi. This day marks the end of a good year with Dong Zhi, the arrival of winter. Daddy remarked that my chinese birthday always falls on some special day, like last year, it was during New Year day.

We went back to Ipoh that day, to celebrate Christmas with Poh Poh and Gong Gong. Mommy is taking the following Monday off, which is also Christmas eve. Unfortunately, Daddy would be going back that very day since he needs to work on Monday.

Mommy dressed me in my new blouse and skirt. We stopped for dim sum in Restaurant Foh San in Ipoh before reaching Gong Gong's house. Everyone was too hungry and we ate everything that was served. Mommy even tapau-ed a few paus back for Gong Gong and Poh Poh.

Upon reaching Gong Gong's house, I saw Chiu Chiu too. He's arrived from Singapore to spend Christmas here. And I also saw my old time favaourite - the piano! I spent some time banging away. But I prefered the small chair instead of the bench.

Hurray... Mommy remembered to bring my toys along too :)Daddy fed me tang yuan made by Poh Poh last night. Mommy asked him to feed me the pink ones since I'm a girl. But after a few taste, I wouldn't want anymore. Mommy guessed that the ginger taste was too much for me. Then Mommy fed me mee suah, prepared by Gong Gong. Daddy said I have to eat mee suah on my chinese birthday, and since it was the Dong Jie festival, he also wanted me to have some tang yuan too. Daddy seemed to be very particular about all these customs. So Mommy had to make sure that these were all ready and prepared for me.

After that, I went to explore the staircase - another of my favourites. Did you see what T-shirt I was wearing? This was the first time that I was wearing it although Daddy had bought that for me last August.
Daddy spent some time with me before he went back to Penang.
When he left, I was wailing loudly and wanted to follow. Mommy had a hard time calming me down, and finally I dozed off while waiting for the online Barney to load on Chiu Chiu's laptop (again, Barney always did the trick!). But when I woke up from my nap, the first thing I asked Mommy was "where's Dad Dad?". I even packed my toys and told Mommy, "Mama, chou" (let's go Mama). I pointed to the gate and asked her to take me to find Daddy. Well, it's not easy for Mommy, she needed to explain over and over again that Daddy had to work, so he had to go back. And I've suddenly became very clingy to Mommy, not wanting to be left alone without her near my sight. She had to bring me along even when she's bathing or went to the bathroom! And worst still, I wouldn't want to walk. So Mommy had no choice but to carry me around, even up and down the stairs. Well, actually this was not really good for her, since she's expecting a baby. Luckily, I would listen at times and walk on my own, but she must tag along.

That night, Mommy had a tough time getting me to sleep. So we played until close to 2am in the morning. See how did we spent the night?
I kept playing my toys over and over again, also going down the stairs to say good night to Poh Poh, Gong Gong and Chiu Chiu repeatedly. And Mommy read me the story books that I just got recently from my birthday - The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, The Clever Monkey and also the Ten Wriggly, Wiggly Caterpillars. I had a special preference for The Three Little Pigs that night, and poor Mommy had to read that to me more than 10 times that night. Until finally I'm in dreamland...

Of Pressies and Toys

I had many presents from my 2nd birthday, and most of them were toys. I did get some clothes, shoes and books too, of course apart from the ang pows.

Here are some of my belated birthday gifts, but I loved them all the same.


How do I play this, Daddy?

Amah also gave me a bicycle, which was rather different from the one that Kim Poh gave me (hey, yes. I have 2 bicycles this year!). After a few days, I managed to cycle around on my own, much to her delight. You see, there's a small compartment at the bag to put my bunny backpack too. And I've had fun playing with the drawing board that Mommy bought for me. However, I always crossed my boundaries and even scribbled the red frame too. That caused Daddy to be angry, so finally he put some papers on top and reminded me not to cross the boundaries.

Well, there were other boundaries to take note of too, but I didn't comply. One day, I was left alone for awhile, and when Mommy came to check on me, she saw that I've scribbled my hand, arm and even the sleeve of my T-shirt with the blue marker pen. She was really angry and tried to clean me and my T-shirt. Unfortunately, my shirt's ink could not come off. So from then onwards, everytime I wanted to draw, Mommy would let me wear her black T-shirt so that the ink wouldn't show. Daddy laughed at me and said that I looked like Harry Potter... What do you think?

Finally 2!

How did I start my big day? I woke up at 10am in the morning! Mommy took leave to accompany me today. Since we had to go to Amah's place to pai Ah Kong by 10.30am (it coincided with Ah Kong's chinese death anniversary date today), Mommy quickly changed me into my new suit given by Amah.

And Mommy quickly let me have my nen nen, followed by a hard-boiled egg. Mommy said I have to eat egg on my birthday.

After that, Mommy drove me to Amah's house. Since they had taken down my car seat to wash (I wee wee on it when they let me go diaperless on one of our outings, oopss!) and had not put it back yet, Mommy let me sit in front with the seat belt on. She took some time to convince me to sit there, because I kept on insisting to sit at the back. But she told me she could not monitor me if that's the case. In the end, I agreed. And off we went.

After we reached Amah's place, we paid our respect to Ah Kong and then I played with cousin Sarah. I had lots of birthday gifts awaiting me there. I also had an early lunch, Amah cooked a lot of dishes today. If you noticed, I changed to a Minnie pyjama halfway thru. That's when I found out that I had another Mimi pressie from Koh Koh (Sarah's Mommy). I immediately asked Chik Chik to change for me. Since then only Mommy realised that my favourite cartoon character is Minnie.

Not too long later, the mail man came. There was a parcel for me! And it's from Mommy :) She asked me to open my present, and wow, see what I got? While I was busy exploring my new toys, Daddy came back for lunch with a cake. I haven't seen what it was, but I immediately said "Mimi". Yes, they had asked me and I'm expecting that :)

We had a simple candles blowing and cake-cutting ceremony.
If you're wondering why all the pictures taken were so small, well - ask Mommy. She didn't realised her handphone setting had changed and had been snapping away without checking. AND....apparently, she blamed me for that because I had been playing with her handphone these few days. My only photos were either from Mommy or Daddy's handphones now because our camera went out of order again (during the 2nd day of my LeaderLand session), after they sent for repair last time. So, the picture quality was not that great.

After lunch, Daddy left to work again. He couldn't take leave today since he just changed job to a new company, so he had limited leaves. Mommy took me home for a nap. After my nap, I played with my new musical instruments. I really enjoyed it :)

When Daddy came back from work, he took us out for dinner. I was delighted when I saw the decorations at Queensbay Mall. I loved holding the decorative balls hanging on the Christmas tree. It took sometime for Mommy and Daddy to whisk me away.

We went to TGIF for dinner. Since they would be singing birthday song to me, Daddy thought that I would enjoy it. I had a fun time scribbling away while waiting for our orders. And I enjoyed the food. But halfway thru, I wanted to go out. So Mommy and Daddy took turns to bring me out. Towards the end, the crew came and sang me a birthday song. I was frightened! I wanted to sit on Mommy's lap. And when I tried to blow the candle away, it just wouldn't go off. So Daddy helped me with it.


After that, Mommy suggested that we go to Toy R Us. I enjoyed playing with the toys there. Daddy entertained me while Mommy went to buy some groceries. When Mommy came back, I showed her my newfound swing. I enjoyed swinging in there, but Mommy said it's too expensive to buy. In the end, she bought a drawing board for me since I loved drawing so much. When she's paying for it, I chanced upon a box of bricks, and I wanted that too! Daddy asked me to ask Mommy if I can have it, and she said yes! Wow, so I have another new toys!

That night, I played with my bricks before going to sleep. Since it was rather late that night, Daddy didn't set up the drawing board for me, but Mommy managed to arrange the magnetic alphabets and numbers on it and put that in my room.

Oh yes, Mommy boiled bird nest for me that night, so Daddy fed me before going to sleep. I loved it!

So, that's how I spent my 2nd birthday.... I'm a big girl now :)

A Prelude to 2

The night before my birthday, Mommy taught me how to make my own cake. She sang the birthday song to me, and at the end of the song, I would blow off the candles and we both clapped :)

After I changed into my pyjama, Mommy let me open my birthday presents. I've started to receive my pressies as early as one month back, but Mommy kept them very well - until the night of my birthday.

I loved all my presents and thanks a lot Aunties for your gifts. They are all from my playgroup's Mommies and also my Mommy's colleagues and friends. I started playing with the toys that I got and Mommy and Daddy had some hard time trying to get me to sleep after that!