Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Change of Taste

Remember the rocking giraffe that Mommy bought from My Dear Warehouse Sale? Actually this giraffe has a 2-in-1 function. You can either let the giraffe move on wheels or you lift up the wheels so that it can rock.

When Mommy first bought the rocking giraffe, Juan Or didn't like the rocking function. He was only satisfied with moving on wheels. When Mommy tried to teach him to rock, he would fret and refuse, so Mommy finally gave up.

About 2 weeks ago, all of a sudden, Juan Or knows how to rock! And mind you, he finds rocking fun now, no longer wants to move the giraffe on wheels. Mommy also took a video of him rocking, but the moment he saw Mommy taking out the handphone camera, he cannot concentrate on rocking anymore. So in this video, you will see Juan Or rocking rather half-heartedly because he was too eager to see what Mommy captured of him! And notice too that the eye stickers of the giraffe were gone already because of his itchy fingers peeling them off. As of the time of writing, the sticker deco at the neck has gone too! *Faint*




Mommy Got Tagged!



Last week Thursday, Mommy got tagged by Aunty Alice Law from 'My Little Sprouts!". The tagging game goes that the person who got tagged will look into his/her first folder according to Picasa or hard drive and then select the 10th photo, blog about the story behind the photo, mention the person or blog that tagged the person and finally tag five other blogs.

When Mommy looked into the first folder, the Picasa programme in Mommy's laptop actually indicated the first folder's date of creation as '18th July 1912'! Mommy's first reaction was like,"Huh, how can that be? The computer wasn't even invented back then!" On top of that, the folder contains only videos and Mommy recalled these videos were captured by Mommy's previous Motorola camera handphone (which was damaged as a result of short circuit following battery defect). When Mommy checked the handphone's micro SD card, apparently the same video is still in there, but dated 18th February 2009, i.e., when Juan Or was 9 months old. So how did the year change to 1912 (and the month to July) when a copy of the file was saved into Mommy's laptop? Anyone to offer Mommy an explanation? By the way, Mommy only bought this laptop in July 2004.

Although the game is to select the 10th photo of the first folder, however, Mommy decided to select the 10th video of the first folder instead because of the 'auspicious' year change! If Mommy is to stick to the rule strictly, the 10th photo would have been some boring agarose gel electrophoresis photo which was part of Mommy's M.Sc. research results!

So there you go. This video shows Juan Or at 9 months old, was already able to sit up steadily and he enjoyed listening to noises of plastic containers cluttering and knocking on the floor. This video reminds Mommy of how much he has grown 14 months later (Juan Or is now 23 months old)! You can see from this video that his head, body and limbs still had the chubby baby look but now he looks like a little boy already. Even his skin texture appears to have 'roughen' up just a few days ago. Just by looking at this video, Mommy really misses Juan Or's infant days, although Mommy must admit his infant days are not without difficulties. Whatever it is, it is a record of fond memories for Mommy to rekindle when Juan Or turns into a grown man.

Mommy is tagging the following five mummy blogs (preference is given to mummy blogs that have not been tagged for this season):
Aunty Agnes Loke from LilHyppos Hypopotamum
Aunty Sheoh Yan from Blog With Yan
Aunty Lee Pei Yi from BoeyJoey
Aunty Kam from The Kam Family
Mom-Daughter Style

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

First Home-cooked Meal in the New House

Last Sunday, Juan Or woke up from sleep twice and ended up in a cranky state and crying spell. He didn't even finish his morning milk - only drank 2-3 oz and after that vomitted everything out together with some slimy stuff with saliva, probably due to his excessive crying earlier. After that, Mommy rocked him to sleep in the spring cot and Mommy continued with ironing clothes. Since it was already quite late in the morning (morning is the usual time we go for family outing) and Juan Or was already back to sleep, we decided not to go for any outings and that Papa would go out alone to buy things while Mommy stayed at home with Juan Or.

It was during this nap-taking time that Mommy had the chance to do some household chores. Mommy managed to finish up the rest of the ironing and proceed with opening up packages of kitchen utensils and washing them since they have never been used before. There were many things to wash - ladles of all shapes and sizes, chopsticks, wok stand, kitchen knives and cleaver, various containers and bottles for storing salt, sugar, MSG and pepper, oil pot, rice cooker's pot, 40-cm wok and the cover, measuring cups and spoons, garlic crusher, peeler, pestel and mortar- you name it! Just when Mommy had done about half of those washing, Juan Or woke up after sleeping for about 2-and-a-half hours. Mommy fed him the remaining milk that he didn't finish that morning and by then it was already 11.45am. How time flies!

Later on, Papa came back home with the things he bought and McDonalds for lunch. Mommy stopped all the housework temporarily to eat. Juan Or joined in to eat, but he was more keen on the French fries and Coke only.  After eating and clearing up the dining table, Mommy continued with wiping those utensils dry and keeping them in their proper places. Next came the step to fill up those containers with cooking oil, salt, sugar, MSG, all-in-one seasoning, cornflour and pepper. And finally, Mommy opened the cooking gas tank seal for the first time and attached it to the hose, then tested the new gas stove. Mommy was glad everything went well despite having some feelings of anxiety because Mommy has never done this before!

That evening, Mommy decided to cook dinner for the first time in the new house. Mommy cooked rice, hot assam prawns and stir-fried Beijing cabbage for dinner. The preparation involved for the hot assam prawns was the longest compared to other things Mommy did for the day. The prawn dish's gravy made use of bird's eye chillies, fresh turmeric, garlic and powdered turmeric being pounded together. And these were the yields for dinner!



And since this was our first time having a humble home-cooked meal for dinner in our new house, Mommy got Papa and Juan Or to pose in front of the food as well! ^ ^



Here's Juan Or having his dinner. He prefers to scoop himself and insisted on eating rice only and refused to eat the prawn and vegetable. On seeing his rice so plain, Mommy secretly added a bit of the cabbage gravy to his scoop of rice. The moment he ate it, he gave Mommy the signal that he wanted to spit it out! Later on, Mommy added a bit of the prawn's hot assam gravy to his rice and he kept on eating!




This day (Sunday, 18th April 2010) marks the day we ate our first home-cooked meal together as a family in our new home.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Seeing Monkeys Again! (Part 2)


This is a continuation of the previous blogpost.

Remember Mommy mentioning that the tram appeared to not only take the passengers up and down the Bukit Malawati, but also a little beyond that? Well, apparently the tram went on further to Taman Alam which is Kuala Selangor's own nature park.

Immediately when the passengers got down the tram, there was a man, the park's officer, checking the passengers' tram tickets. Upon closer inspection of the ticket, then only did Mommy realized that apparently the ticket did include Fresh Water Fish Park as part of the itinerary. So looks like the RM3-per-adult fee is worthwhile after all since it not only includes the tram ride but also the fee for entering the park.



This is the ticket that covers both the tram ride and the entry into the fresh water fish park in Taman Alam.


This is Juan Or posing at the entrance of the fresh water fish park. Mommy was so much in a hurry to ask Juan Or to put up a pose so much so Mommy didn't realize that his shorts was 'eaten' up by his crotch!   ^ ^ It was only at this time of writing that Mommy realized the pose defect, but too bad, this photo is his one and only pose in front of the aquariums!




After that, Juan Or and Mommy went into the small building complexes to see the fresh water fishes in aquariums. What was Juan Or's reaction to the fishes? Well, he appeared indifferent towards them, but was clingy to Mommy in that he wanted to be carried all the time. These are among some things we saw:



A humble collection of fresh water fishes in their respective aquariums.



Fish with no name! Well, not exactly that they have no names, but rather, the name tag of the aquarium has probably fallen off and not replaced till now. But other aquariums had their fish name tags still intact at the top of the aquariums.


After the aquariums, we went out of the small building complexes to visit the 'super mini' zoo. There weren't many varieties of animals, but nevertheless, it was a humble collection. We saw....


....the porcupine,....



....the birds,.....



.....some colourful jungle fowls, ......


.....a peacock without its beautiful tail, and......



..... two peahens who seemed more vain than the peacock to want to have their photo captured!


Besides looking at the animals, there was also the nature park for visitors to stroll. So of course, Mommy asked Juan Or to pose some more.



When the next tram arrived, Juan Or and Mommy boarded it and the tram actually took the passengers for an extra three or four circles on the car park area of the park, probably to give the passengers their money's worth and perhaps to give more thrill to young children with the tram's sharp turning motion. During this time, Mommy managed to glance back at the park's direction and saw a big signboard at the main entrance stating that an adult's entry fee is RM2 and child RM1. So Mommy's conclusion is that the RM3 fee paid just now comprises of RM1 for the tram ride and RM2 for entering the fresh water fish park.


Finally, the tram brought the passengers to where we first started and Papa came to receive us back again. Papa also mentioned that during his wait at the tram stop, he noticed the tram actually brought the passengers to more than just up and down the hill, so thought the RM3 paid was worth it after all. With that, Papa announced that in our future trip to Bukit Malawati, he will be going on the tram as well! ^ ^


We went for lunch after that at Pasir Penambang (still in Kuala Selangor) at Tian Wai Tian Restaurant (Mommy has blogged about eating here before), only thing now was that Mommy was too hungry so forgot to snap photos of the food! After the restaurant, Papa took us to a stall (near to Pasir Penambang's wet market building) to drink and eat the flesh of pandan coconut. The last time we went to this stall, each coconut costs RM1.50, but now the price is RM2! This time, Mommy remembered to snap some photos (because stomach was full already!).




After the coconut drink, we were ready to leave Kuala Selangor and along the way, we stopped by at Tesco Kuala Selangor because Mommy had to buy the 9V battery for the new gas stove. Juan Or too, was pleasantly surprised that we decided to stop by his favourite kai-kai (outing) place (Juan Or always points at Tesco and says he wants to go there whenever Mommy drives past Tesco Puchong). Mommy used to wonder - what fun is in store for toddlers in hypermarkets? Well, Mommy can't think of any except for the fun ride in the shopping cart and the joy of seeing many different things or perhaps the joy of merely being out of the house!




Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Seeing Monkeys Again! (Part 1)

Last Sunday was a last minute decision to head the car towards Kuala Selangor. Both Papa and Mommy decided to let Juan Or visit the monkeys again at Bukit Malawati, Kuala Selangor. Just like last time, Papa parked the car at the foothill of Bukit Malawati and Juan Or was still asleep. So Mommy woke him up and he ended up fretting and crying! Luckily there was the Bukit Malawati tram passing by and lo and behold, Juan Or's teary face immediately turned into a smiling face!

This time round, Papa and Mommy decided to let Juan Or experience the ride on the tram. The ticket for an adult costs RM3 and is free-of-charge for children 3 years old and below. So Papa asked Mommy to accompany Juan Or in the tram ride while Papa waited at the bottom of the hill since the RM3 fee can be quite costly for merely riding up and down the hill - or so we thought at first.

Juan Or and Mommy then got up the tram and Mommy managed to snap a photo of Juan Or before the tram started moving.


And here's the tram from the passenger's view.



Then when the tram started moving, Mommy can't help taking some more photos, and Juan Or kept on uttering,"Train, train!" Probably he was very excited about actually riding on the so-called 'train' since all trains he has seen before are merely toy trains.




Here we go up the hill!


Still in the tram, this photo is Mommy's favourite self-portrait of Juan Or and Mommy. This angle really made Juan Or looked like a young boy, rather than a toddler.


Finally we are at the top of the hill to see the main attraction - the monkeys!



And more monkeys sitting in a row!





Juan Or was very excited about seeing monkeys and kept on calling,"Monkeeeey! Monkeeeeyy!"



At the hill, there was an ice-cream man selling bananas, longs beans, and peanuts for people to feed the monkeys. The most expensive item was the banana - a small bunch selling for RM4! And the bananas didn't look good either, but anyway, who cares, it was after all for the monkeys' consumption. Even bananas meant for human consumption (like the tasty pisang berangan) cost much cheaper for that same amount! Hahaha....if you intend to feed monkeys with bananas, might as well buy bananas from a fruit stall first before going up Bukit Malawati - it's cheaper that way!

By the way, when Juan Or saw the monkeys peeling bananas to eat, he looked at Mommy and insisted that he wanted to eat those bananas too! ^ ^ So Mommy had to console him by saying that those bananas eaten by the monkeys actually don't taste good. They are not the pisang berangan that Mommy usually buys for him (Juan Or only eats the berangan breed and nothing else!).


It would be a waste if you only go there to see monkeys, so Mommy pointed Juan Or to the scenery from the hilltop and of course, the famous Kuala Selangor lighthouse.




When the next tram appeared, Juan Or and Mommy boarded the tram to go down the hill. However, the tram didn't seem to stop the moment it reached the foothill. The tram went on much to Mommy's surprise. First thing in Mommy's mind was probably the tram was making extra circles to give passengers their money's worth, but turned out, the tram was actually taking the passengers to another destination, Taman Alam, which Mommy will narrate in the next blogpost. Stay tuned!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Instant Promotion from Baby Car Seat to ......

Adult car seat! Yes, you are reading it right - it's the adult car seat!







Recently, when Mommy was fetching Juan Or back from the babysitter's house to our new house, Mommy was stuck in a horrendous traffic-jam. Then, suddenly out of the blues, when Mommy turned behind to glance at Juan Or, Juan Or was already standing at the back seat! Mommy then quickly asked Juan Or to get back into the baby car seat but he refused. So Mommy asked him to at least stand on the floor of the car while holding the front car seat from behind. Instead, much to Mommy's horror, Juan Or wriggled his way out to the front part. Since he was already at the front and still standing, Mommy ordered him to sit down to which he didn't comply. Then when the traffic-jam started to move a bit, Juan Or jerked as a result of the inertia, but Mommy was prepared by blocking with the hand. That was when Juan Or realized he needed to sit down, so he sat down obediently. When the traffic came to a halt shortly after, Mommy quickly strapped the safety belt onto him and instructed him to hold the strap (that runs across the chest) a little so that it wouldn't touch his face so much. And much to Mommy's surprise too, for the rest of the journey home, Juan Or obediently sat still while holding the chest part of the strap and did not at all attempt to wriggle his way out of the safety belt.  Juan Or is a big boy already! ^ ^


 As soon as we reached home, Mommy checked the safety belt of the baby car seat. Apparently, the safety belt was still intact. Mommy's first thought was,"Huh, Juan Or has already become an escape artist!?"


From that day onwards, Mommy put Juan Or to sit on the adult car seat, stacked two baby pillows to act like a booster seat and strapped him on. Till today, Juan Or did not attempt to wriggle out from the safety belt. Guess Juan Or probably prefers to sit with Mommy (even though the safety belt does touch his face a little) than to be at the baby car seat.


See the two baby pillows Juan Or is sitting on? That's the home-made booster seat!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Musical Toothbrush

During the moving house process, sometimes, small and tiny items get lost among the plastic bags of 'rubbish'. This was what exactly happened to Juan Or's finger toothbrush (the type of baby toothbrush where you slip it into your forefinger to brush). On the day of moving out from the in-laws' house, Mommy recalled taking that finger toothbrush and dropping it into one of those plastic bags containing 'rubbish' and then putting that plastic bag (together with other plastic bags of 'rubbish') on the front car seat. Later when Mommy reached the new house and did the unpacking, Mommy just cannot find the toothbrush anymore! So for that Sunday night, Juan Or didn't brush his teeth.


Never mind, since Mommy was on leave the next day, Mommy would drop by at The Store Sri Petaling to buy a new baby toothbrush. That was when Mommy saw this musical toothbrush (the brand is Sunbaby) which Mommy recalled never to see this particular toothbrush being sold before. Actually, this toothbrush is like a rattle combined into a toothbrush, only thing is that the rattle sound is more melodious than the typical rattle. It doesn't require any battery (which is a good thing!) and it is also not too expensive - only RM4.90!
Since Juan Or is quite a big boy already, Mommy felt the musical toothbrush is able to fit into Juan Or's mouth, so Mommy bought it.





So that night, Mommy showed the new toothbrush to Juan Or. What was his reaction? He was very happy to hold it. Somehow he knew it is a toothbrush because he immediately put it near his mouth, but he seems to see it as a toy also because of the 'ting-ting' sound when the toothbrush is moved. Hahaha.....that's what the toothbrush is made for - to make brushing teeth more fun!  ^ ^


Then Juan Or went on to pose for Mommy the moment he saw Mommy taking out the handphone camera. Now it looks like as if Juan Or is the model for the Sunbaby musical toothbrush (but this is not a Sunbaby advertisement! ^ ^).











But, most of all, Mommy likes this photo the best!




Now you see Juan Or is so happy posing with the musical toothbrush, but when the real brushing began, he refused to open his mouth, started fretting and crying so much so Mommy had to scold him and tell him that Mommy is buying a 'rotan' (cane) soon! With the mere mention of the word 'rotan', he immediately stopped crying and obediently opened his mouth for Mommy to brush!  

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

New Home, New Life (Part 2)

This is a continuation of Part 1 where Mommy last mentioned about how Juan Or cried and cried and cried asking to sleep in the spring cot to which Mommy didn't allow, then later Papa came over to scold him and he stopped crying and finally dozed off after gazing outside through the window.

After sleeping for about 3 hours (it was 3 am by then), Mommy was awaken by the soft crying sound of Juan Or. Turned out, Juan Or was vomitting (on the bed!). Mommy quickly put a hand under his mouth to collect whatever vomit that came out. Luckily, the vomit did not contain food particles, only saliva, but the vomit was very, very slimy - perhaps had phlegm in it. Mommy immediately recognized this pattern of vomitting. The last time Juan Or had this kind of vomit was when he cried excessively after falling down his kiddy ride car and hurting his lips and mouth. And this kind of vomit would only happen about 3-4 hours after the nonstop crying episode. After vomitting, Mommy wiped his mouth and he went back to sleep without fuss. Later, within half an hour to an hour's time, Juan Or woke up again to vomit out the same slimy thing. This vomitting episode went on for a regular interval of about 5 times. Every time after the vomit, Mommy offered him water to drink but he refused. Thankfully, by 5.30 am, the vomitting episode ended and Juan Or was sleeping soundly. But Mommy didn't sleep well at all because Mommy had to wake up whenever he woke up to vomit.

It was a working day for Mommy again and Mommy had to leave the house early to avoid traffic jam, so Mommy woke him up at 6.20 am, sent him straight to the babysitter's house and then headed to office. By then, Mommy was very sleepy, so Mommy stole some sleep in the office (it was still not 8 am yet).

By night time, when all three of us were back in the new house, things went on as usual and Juan Or was still just as playful. He had big appetite too - wallop two pieces of cheese slices and even asked to eat Honey Stars and Coco Balls (which he called as "Cocops") cereal. Then it was time to sleep. Thankfully, this time he didn't ask to sleep in the spring cot, but he did insist on going downstairs first (don't know for what?). So Mommy told him that Mommy would only allow to go downstairs for a while and after which he must go upstairs again to sleep. Thankfully too, he complied and went upstairs again without fussing. Everything went well, he played with his toys for a while, Mommy read with him and he settled himself to sleep in no time at all. Mommy is very happy that everything went well for the 3rd day of moving in.


Here's a happy Juan Or, posing for Mommy moments before going to bed.

New Home, New Life - (Part 1)

The day before yesterday (i.e., Sunday, 4th April 2010) was the first day we moved into our new house. That morning, Juan Or was still sleeping soundly in the spring cot (in his paternal grandparents' house) while Papa and Mommy packed some more things (or rather 'rubbish') into our cars to be brought there. Papa drove to the new house first because his car was already full. Mommy would only get moving later because Mommy had to wait for Juan Or to wake up and drink milk first.

Finally at 10.20am, Juan Or woke up but he refused to drink milk, so Mommy fed him with banana. Mommy still had some 'rubbish' to pack into the car, plus some real rubbish to clear from our soon-to-be ex-bedroom. After making a mental checklist, finally Juan Or and Mommy set off to the new house at around 11.30am. On the way, Mommy stopped by at a stall to buy chicken rice  for lunch.

Upon reaching the new house, Mommy unloaded the 'rubbish' from the car while Papa watched over Juan Or. Unloading 'rubbish' from the car was just the beginning of the effort. The rest of it laid in unpacking them and deciding where to put or keep them or even to find a place to keep them. Along the way, Juan Or took his afternoon nap which was very surprising to Mommy because from Mommy's experience, Juan Or wouldn't want to sleep when he's at a new place - only wants to play and play and play.

Later on, Papa went out to buy economy rice for dinner because Juan Or was still asleep and Mommy still has lots of 'rubbish' to unpack. Actually Mommy already planned to go to a Chinese restaurant for dinner, but too bad, the timing just wasn't right simply because Juan Or was still asleep and the evening was getting late, so is prone to being fretful and a cry-baby.

The unpacking of 'rubbish' more or less stopped by night time because Juan Or seriously wanted Mommy to pay attention to him playing and reading and all the what-nots. Of course, along the way, Mommy did other things that were not to do with unpacking such as boiling water and soaking dirty laundry to be washed the next day. By the way,  Mommy was very anxious to try out the new washing machine for the first time - more of a trial run of sorts - and even got Papa to install the washing machine's water hose socket which looks rather complicated to Mommy.

Juan Or's playfulness went on till around 1.10am when finally, Mommy told him that playtime's over and that it was time to go to bed. By the way, Mommy is determined to wean Juan Or off the habit of sleeping through the night in the spring cot - a habit that Juan Or developed because of interference from his paternal grandmother. Because of this habit, the hall (in the in-laws' house) became like Mommy's 'bedroom' whereby Mommy would sleep in the hall every night to accompany Juan Or sleeping in the spring cot (which is located downstairs). Ok, back to the story where playtime's over. So Mommy asked Juan Or to sleep on his bed (Papa and Mommy bought him a queen-sized bed to last him till adulthood) and much to Mommy's surprise, Juan Or willingly climbed onto the bed and laid down. It was like he seems to know this is a new place, new room and new bed for him! Then Mommy switched off the light, turned on the air-cond and laid down next to him. Mommy pretended to sleep but actually was watching how he settled himself down to sleep. In the darkness, Juan Or played with his fingers, flapped his arms and legs, lifted up his legs to play with his toes, spreaded his legs opena and close repeatedly and then did the same with his arms. Just within 15 minutes of restlessness, Juan Or became quiet. Mommy peeped over and found his eyes already closed - sleeping already! Good!

Juan Or behaved very well that night. He slept through the night without waking up - so very much unlike the time when he was still sleeping in the spring cot in in-laws' house. Mommy woke up at 7.10am (Mommy took a day's leave from work), Juan Or was still sound asleep, so Mommy quickly went to wash clothes. After scrubbing and throwing the clothes into the machine, Mommy went up to check on him, turned out he was still sound asleep! So Mommy continued with unpacking some of Juan Or's 'rubbish'. Later somewhere around 8.30am to almost 9am, Mommy was greeted with the babyish voice of Juan Or calling "Mama". Mommy turned around and Juan Or gave Mommy the most lovable and cutest smile! Indeed Juan Or is very happy to be waking up in his own new room!


Sleeping so peacefully! Papa has arranged his bed in such as way that one side is surrounded by the corners of the wall to minimize the chances of him falling out while Mommy slept on the open side of the bed.






A closer view of the sleeping 'B'.



Mommy put a pillow against the wall to prevent him from 'lodging' into the narrow gap between the wall and the bed.





Juan Or's bedroom.



Ha, that's what the pillow is for too! To prevent him from turning and knocking onto the wall!



Mommy then took him downstairs and  fed him milk to which he drank almost the whole bottle (only 1 oz left) although he was a little hesitant to drink at first. Nevertheless, Mommy was very happy with his progress! After drinking milk, Juan Or continued with watching his favourite Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while Mommy hanged the laundry to dry. After the laundry, Mommy fetched Juan Or to the babysitter's house while Mommy went to run errands (servicing the car which was a week overdue, buying a little groceries and baby necessities). After running all errands, it was time to pick Juan Or up, bought economy rice for dinner and headed back to the new house.

Once back home, Juan Or was very playful and by bedtime (it was 11pm), Mommy switched off the light and told him to settle to sleep. This time round, Juan Or was very much the opposite. He refused to lie down in bed, instead wanted to go downstairs. Mommy didn't entertain his request, so he cried and cried and cried and then started asking for the spring cot! Mommy didn't give in and he still continued crying. Later, Papa came over to scold him to which he immediately ceased crying (he seems to be more afraid of Papa when Papa is angry!). After Papa left, Mommy explained to him why he should settle himself down to sleep and that new house comes with new rules - no longer like how it was at his paternal grandparents' house. Juan Or was trying hard to hold back his tears but he did it successfully - no more crying. Then, in the darkness of the room, but with curtains opened, Juan Or asked to see outside through the window. It was a beautiful sight - though not of natural scene but very serene and peaceful. Even Mommy enjoyed gazing outside through the window. So both of us sat on the bed in the darkness of the room watching the lights from the lamp post shining onto the houses. Mommy continued explaining to him about how things and rules have changed - no longer the old ways like in paternal grandparents' house. He seemed to understand, even nodded his head. After all the explaining, Mommy asked Juan Or where was the moon, stars, clouds and birds. His answers were,"Moon tau loh (Hainan dialect for 'gone already'), stars tau loh, birds tau loh" except for clouds which were clearly there. Juan Or continued gazing outside, Mommy was already feeling very sleepy and finally dozed off. Moments later, Mommy woke up shortly to find that Juan Or had also dozed off but still in sitting position!

So there goes out first two days of our new home, new life.