Juan Or's Early Days of Chinese New Year 2011

Chinese New Year, or rather the mood for the celebration, actually starts on the eve itself, and that was on 2nd February 2011. Papa was on leave, but Mommy decided not to take leave from work since Mommy's work is under the flexi-working hour system. So all us, Papa, Juan Or and Mommy spent almost a day at Mommy's office before going for the reunion dinner at the in-laws' house.

As usual, Juan Or refused to eat anything when at the paternal grandparents' house. Don't know why but he seemed naughtier in many ways when he's there. So he ended up playing masak-masak (cooking) with his cousins only -  Juan Juan and Ah Xuan from My Little Sprouts. 

CNY Day 1

Juan Or was all dressed up, drank him milk and preparing to go for the open house at Papa's boss' house. By the way, the red packet Juan Or is holding was given by Mommy.

So we had our brunch at the open house and as usual, Juan Or refused to try any of the food there. The food served was buffet style. There were mutton rendang, big prawns (but they were rather tasteless!), mix vege (very good!), satay, laksa, shaved ice-cream (good!), char kuey plus a few dishes more but Mommy can't recall already. Anyway, Mommy dared not take photos there because of the many watchful eyes. ^_^


After the open house, we went to Juan Or's paternal grandparents' house and stayed there for dinner as well. Again, as usual, Juan Or refused to eat anything there so Mommy had to pack some food back home for him to eat later on.

CNY Day 2

We went ot Mommy's father's house and then to Mommy's maternal grandmother's house in Klang/Port Klang for visit and as expected, Juan Or fretted and cried a lot, so we did stay that long for each visit. After all the visitation, Papa decided to bring us to Jenjarom to visit the Dong Zen Temple, famous for its beautiful garden, especially during Chinese New Year.

Juan Or's favourite at the garden is the fountain.

There were other things to see too, such as....

.....and this.....

....and this.....

....but Juan Or refused blatantly to enter the hall. Instead he chose to cry and cry and cry!

So we had no choice but to go back immediately. In the car, Juan Or quickly dozed off to sleep. Papa drove us to The Summit for lunch at MacDonalds before heading back home.

Back at home, Mommy cooked an abalone dish and kai lan vege for dinner, plus a soup dish (ABC soup) as well. This was our first home-cooked CNY meal!

Here'a closer look......the kai lan vege dish....

......and the abalone dish. There are altogether 5 abalones in the can which cost RM80 (after discount given by one Chinaman shopkeeper), so 1 piece costs RM16! *Gulp!*

CNY Day 3

We went visiting as a big family to Papa's side of relatives in Seremban. Overall, Juan Or behaved quite well (though not too well all the time!) when going into people's house. Mommy managed to capture a photo of Juan Or together with Juan Juan.

By evening, we went back to our own home and Mommy cooked dinner again.  Since there was not much time left for preparing dinner, Mommy cooked can food again - pacific clams - but this time with fresh shitake (instead of dried mushroom) and eryngii mushrooms. For vege dish, Mommy cooked kai lan again because the vege cannot last that long in the refrigerator anymore.So, this is our second CNY home-cooked meal.

By the way, this is also our first Chinese New Year in our own home after moving out from Juan Or's paternal grandparents' house. ^_^

Juan Or on the 4th Day of Chinese New Year 2010

(Note: There will be no blogpost on the 3rd day of CNY because Mommy's handphone had low battery....hehehehe.....forgot to charge the battery, so couldn't take any photos. ^ ^)

So what did we do on the 4th day of CNY? Well, we went window shopping at The Curve, Kota Damansara. So just before we made our way there, Mommy made another attempt to put on another Chinese New Year suit onto Juan Or. This suit was bought by Juan Or's paternal Grandma. It is sleeveless, comes with a pair of shorts and made of cotton material, much like those material normally used for British India or South China Sea clothes. So what was Juan Or's reaction towards the CNY suit? Well, Mommy anticipated him to be fretful and hesitant like last time, so Mommy made sure that before the top part was worn on him, Mommy buttoned up all the buttons leaving only the topmost button open so that it could be worn like a round-neck T-shirt. And the wearing action had to be done quickly! As expected, Juan Or fretted and struggled a little when Mommy put it on, but once it slipped onto his little body, he seems fine with it already! After that, wearing the shorts was just a breeze! Ta-dah, a China boy!

Juan Or the China boy.....

......and now posing with the sunglasses!

Chinese New Year decoration at The Curve was nice, but not outstanding though. Papa, on the other hand, didn't quite like the deco because it was the fusion type - a fusion between traditional and modern CNY deco. Here are some snapshots in The Curve itself:

Don't know why Juan Or just refused to look towards the handphone camera! Too fascinated with the CNY deco, perhaps?




Here's the overview of the CNY deco at the concourse area of The Curve.




Juan Or posing at the bench. The hand at the left is Papa's hand holding his handphone.

Fake bamboo trees with lanterns hanging at the top as part of the CNY deco.





A wishing tree to hang your CNY wishes with a fee, of course. But guess who's wishes came true first? The Curve's management, of course!




Aaahhh.....something more red in the background now.

Then we walked out of The Curve building towards the direction of e@Curve and more photos were snapped.

Juan Or posing with two cows. Now, who's the other cow? Papa, of course! He is an ox actually, not cow.



Juan Or seems enchanted with fountains.

Here's the front part just outside e@Curve where you have fake plum blossom trees decorated with red lanterns and a fountain at the centre of them all. In fact, Papa preferred this type of CNY deco than the ones in The Curve! Juan Or, on the other hand, seemed captivated with the rhythm of the fountain. He would stand and stare at the fountain for quite a long time.

Juan Or and Papa posing at the fake plum blossom tree.





A nearer view now.






Mesmerized by the fountain.

A closer view of the mesmerization.





A beautiful setting. No wonder Juan Or seemed enchanted with it.




Taking a seat by the side fountain.

After Mommy was satisfied with snapping photos, it was time to have lunch, so Papa took us to McDonald's at e@Curve. This time, the strawberry topping ice-cream was only half-price, so Papa bought it together with a Big Mac, fillet-o-fish burger and McD's fried chicken value meals. Surprisingly too, Juan Or had very good appetite for the ice-cream, french fries and fried chicken. Mommy was very happy too that Juan Or ate a lot of meat this time. Mommy shredded the chicken meat according to the grains and gave him one shred of meat at a time to hold and munch, just like holding and munching a french fry. Previously, this meat-shredding trick was successful but only for a short time, then he revert to his norm of not wanting to eat meat again. Mommy guessed probably Juan Or likes to eat food in a commercial setting. That probably explains why he seems to eat better when eating outside compared to eating Grandma's home-cooked food. By the way, a McDonalds staff came over to our table to give Juan Or a plastic McDonalds pencil box and a stationery set - what a pleasant surprise!

Just one last look (and snap) before we leave the place.

After McDonalds, we went back into The Curve again to do some window shopping. Along the way, while waiting for Papa to see his things, Mommy took Juan Or to sit in a kiddy car (upon Juan Or's request) but without putting in the coin, of course!

Juan Or on the kiddy car which he refused to leave after that!

Juan Or on Day 1 of Chinese New Year 2010

This was what transpired on the 1st day of Chinese New Year 2010 (14th February 2010).

First, Juan Or woke up late that morning. See the red mark on Juan Or's forehead? He slept so soundly that he didn't realize the mosquito biting him! By the way, Juan Or's paternal Grandpa handed ang pows (red packets containing money) to him and since he was still sleeping, Mommy slipped the ang pows between his thumb and forefinger, and then took a photo of him!

Finally when Juan Or woke up, Mommy took him to the babysitter's house to drink milk. And since it was New Year, so Mommy spend some time in babysitter's house as part of new year visit before the babysitter was scheduled to leave for Thailand at noon.

After that, Mommy brought Juan Or back and tried putting on a Chinese New Year boy suit on him. Mommy bought this suit from Giant Desa Petaling for RM9.99 and it comes together with a Chinese hat. Alas, Juan Or hated the suit that Mommy had bought with all good intention!

He fretted, screamed, struggled and cried when Papa tried wearing the top part on him so much so Papa was not able to button up let alone wear the pants on him (Mommy was busy snapping photos.....hehehehe!). In the end, Papa gave up. So Mommy tried but failed too, so Mommy gave up too. Don't know what was so scary about that Chinese New Year suit. Cheh....there goes Mommy's money for buying something that Juan Or refused to wear!

So Mommy wore Juan Or a new set of normal T-shirt and shorts type of clothing and he immediately stopped crying! Look at how happy he was wearing only 'normal clothes'!

And here's Juan Or looking outside the house. Must be eagerly waiting for guests to come, perhaps? Since Juan Or's Grandpa is the eldest son in the Lok family with a stay-in Great-grandma being the matriarch, so the house is expected to be filled relatives soon.

During the waiting process, Grandpa entertained Juan Or by bringing him out to the porch to look around. Here, you can see Juan Or holding an ang pow that Mommy gave to Juan Or.

Then, went up sitting on Mommy's car.....

.....and out in the hot Chinese New Year sun!

And finally it's Mommy's turn to take over Juan Or from Grandpa. So Mommy took the opportunity to snap a self-portrait - just the two of us! By the way, you may notice that both Juan Or and Mommy wore red that day. Pure coincidence? No, actually Mommy did it for two reasons: because it was Chinese New Year and also because Mommy was about to ask Papa to take photos on his DSLR camera to join a Huggies Hug Me in Red Contest! Just trying Mommy's luck since Mommy had recently purchased Huggies diapers for Juan Or.

After having vegetarian noodles for lunch (cooked by Juan Or's Grandma), Papa and Mommy took Juan Or to 1 Utama Shopping Centre to watch acrobatic lion dance performance. The lion dance was supposed to start at 2pm, but we already reached there about an hour ahead of time. When the time was nearing 2pm, Juan Or became restless and fretful due to sleepiness, but luckily with the mere thumping of the Chinese drum, gong and cymbals, Juan Or immediately stopped fretting and watched intently instead! However, too bad, Mommy left the handphone at home, so couldn't take any snapshots or videos, and turned out Papa forgot to bring his handphone as well! Now, that's real coincidence!

Juan Or's Reaction Towards Lion Dance

Chinese New Year is coming soon! Yesterday, Papa and Mommy decided to take Juan Or to watch lion dance performance. This would be Juan Or's first time then. So we headed to Giant Bandar Puteri Puchong. The area where Giant's management wanted to hold the lion dance performance was rather crammed but since we were there early, we managed to get quite a good viewing spot. Another good thing was that since the area was crammed with spectators, more in-coming customers plus the lion dance troupe itself, Giant's management decided to start the performance 10 minutes earlier than the scheduled time. So, yippy, we didn't have to wait too long for it to start!

So how was Juan Or's reaction towards the lion dance performance? With the first loud clang of the cymbals and Chinese drum, Mommy expected Juan Or to be shocked, but no, he was cool all the way! Papa carried Juan Or so that Mommy could capture the lion dance and Juan Or's facial expression on the handphone videocam. At the same time, Papa closed Juan Or's ears in case the loud clangs damaged his hearing. After Mommy was done with filming (Mommy didn't film right to the end of the performance), off and on, Mommy would glance at Juan Or to which Juan Or nodded his head as if to say he enjoyed watching it! However, about 5 to 8 minutes into the performance, Juan Or started shaking his head while saying "Bo-ai, bo-ai!" (don't want, don't want!). Looks like Juan Or found it too noisy, so we left the place.

Anyway, with Juan Or's cool reaction, Papa and Mommy now feel more confident to bring Juan Or for acrobatic lion dance performance in the future. So from now on, Mommy will be on the lookout for acrobatic lion dance performance schedules in major shopping complexes......but that's only if we are able to catch it at the right time when Juan Or is not sleepy and fretful!

Chinese New Year 2009 Edition

Here is a collection of Juan Or's baby fashion statement during the Chinese New Year (CNY)week. Most of Juan Or's CNY clothes were bought long before he was born (Yes....Mommy was very excited about baby shopping!).

"Yay! My ang pow!"

CNY 1st day: Juan Or received his ang pow from his paternal Great-Grandmother. Oh, sooooo happy! Juan Or was wearing a Mickey Mouse set suit given by the babysitter as his CNY present. Holding him was his paternal Grandma.

Still the 1st day of CNY, Mommy changed his clothes to Chinese New Year suit bought from Tesco. This is a suit meant for 1-year-old toddler and Juan Or was 8 months old and the top part cannot be buttoned anymore because his neck is too thick for it. Mommy bought this suit for only RM2.98 (85% discount), originally sold for RM19.90! Anyway, Mommy put this suit on for Juan Or just for the 'guests' to see. Can't wear for long anyway because this suit cannot absorb sweat efiiciently.






Shown here is Juan Or in his full CNY suit and being carried by his paternal Grandpa.






2nd day of CNY: Juan Or had just finished eating his baby biscuit and ewwww......Juan Or's mouth was totally messed up! Shown here is Juan Or wearing a Mickey Mouse suit set which Mommy bought from Anakku (2 sets sold for RM29.90).

Shown here is Juan Or getting a good wipe on the mouth from his paternal Grandma!

"What's that, Mommy? I can't hear you!"


On the 3rd and 4th day of CNY, Mommy didn't manage to capture photos of Juan Or....too busy.

"Don't say 'Cheese!' Say 'The B'!"

"Why, Papa? Do you want to join in?"

"Look at my hand kung fu!"

5th day of CNY: Juan Or's T-shirt is a Winnie the Pooh meant for 1-year-old toddlers, bought from Hytex warehouse sale in Kepong for RM5. The shorts (brand is 'Little Koala') was bought from a warehouse sale in Giant Taman Connought for RM5 also.

"Me in soldier clothes!"

"I'm a little soldier baby!"


6th day of CNY: Mommy bought this soldier suit set for only RM4.90 from a tenant in Central Supermarket in Old Klang Road. Boy, that's a good bargain!

"Hello, Mommy!"

7th day of CNY: Mommy bought this 'Little Koala' polo T-shirt (toddler size) for RM5 from the same warehouse sale in Giant Taman Connought.