Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Trip to Cherating: Day 1 (Part 2) - Juan Or Met New Friend
Just when we thought we were the earliest to arrive, apparently one colleague and his family had already arrived there since 10.30 am or so. So turned out we were the second earliest to arrive.
While waiting for our room to be ready for check-in, Papa took the opportunity to surf the internet using the wi-fi facility (which is only available at the lobby area) while Juan Or occupied his time by watching his Tom and Jerry DVD cartoon (Mommy brought two laptops along for that purpose!).
While the boys were busy with the laptops, Mommy took the opportunity to look around the hotel lobby area. This was how the lobby area looked like.
Then somewhere around 12 noon plus, Mommy received SMS from the main troupe that those who had already arrived at the hotel can go ahead and have their lunch first at the hotel's restaurant. It was a buffet lunch with a humble spread of Malaysian dishes - about 4 or 5 main dishes and a soup, plus desserts and ulam (Malay version of salad). It was at the restaurant that we met the other colleague's family who arrived earlier than us. There was where Juan Or met a new friend, Jonathan Tennant, who is 3 to 4 years older.
Juan Or did not immediately click with Jonathan - yes, Juan Or has always been shy with unfamiliar faces, but eventually with Jonathan constantly looking and smiling at him and with Jonathan's mum inviting Juan Or to join them at the hotel's swimming pool and playing water gun, plus Mommy constantly asking Juan Or whether he wanted to join Jonathan Koko or not, Juan Or eventually opened up. What's more, both of them loved looking at fish swimming in the pond overlooking the restaurant, so much so both of them became good friends with Jonathan putting his arm over Juan Or's shoulder!
Here's another 'good friend' pose! ^_^
Here are two more of Mommy's favourite photos of the day!
Later at about 2 pm, then only did the main troupe arrived. They had their lunch while Mommy had just finished lunch while Papa who had already finished his lunch much, much earlier (Papa's a fast eater!) went ahead to unload our luggage from the car to our room.
This was how our room looked like.
See the window at the top right hand corner of the photo? That's the bathroom's window. Hehehe....that's for you to peep at who's taking bath! ^_^ Supposedly that's for the bathroom's ventilation, right? Hehehehe.......as soon as Papa sensed Mommy going in to do a big business, Papa immediately closed the window and the window remained closed for the rest of our stay! Hahahahahaha! This is a classic example of how sometimes some things may look nice in interior designing terms, but actually it's not practical! ^_^
On the other hand, Juan Or seemed to get himself comfy with the room immediately. He immediately liked what he saw and started jumping happily on the bed (it was a king-sized bed!)! He was also able to drink milk without hesitation in the new environment considering he had previous history of drinking-milk-problem in places other than the babysitter's house. Here he was, drinking milk at the indoor verendah-like bench.
The faculty's general meeting was scheduled to start at 3.30 pm and then immediately followed by Foundation in Science Annual Programme Review meeting at 5.00 pm (this was the meeting which was chaired by Mommy), so Mommy quickly took bath of Juan Or since he had substantially dirtied himself during lunch and after that Mommy took bath as well. Then Mommy left the room for the meetings while Papa and Juan Or stayed in the room to rest and enjoy themselves.
Finally the meetings ended at 6.30 pm, Mommy went back to the hotel room and found Juan Or fast asleep. According to Papa, not too long after Mommy left for the meeting, Juan Or konked out and slept like a log - too tired perhaps. So even if Juan Or accepted Jonathan's mummy's invitation to play water gun in the late afternoon, Juan Or still would not be able to make it because of his tiredness. ^_^
We went for dinner at the hotel's restaurant, went back to the room and watched television and slept early. Mommy was surprised too that Juan Or was willing to sleep early. Otherwise had he been in own house, he wouldn't want to sleep early, he would still want to play and play and play. Mommy reckoned it was probably due to the hotel room's dim lighting which gives you the sleepy and lazy feeling....hahaha! So that night, Mommy got to sleep early - as early as 9.30 to 10.00 pm - never before in Mommy's life after Juan Or came into the world, and indeed a good and ample rest too! Call it luxury sleep! ^_^
That sums up the end of our first day at Cherating.
To be continued......
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Juan Or Definitely Needs Digi's "Pimp My Broadband"!

"Yay! Mommy is back from work already! Now Mommy's laptop is all MINE! Mommy, please switch on the laptop for me. I want to watch the educational slideshows and YouTube videos that you have downloaded from office. In the meantime, I'll play with the computer keyboard first while waiting for Mommy to set up the laptop, ya?"
"Mama, why is your laptop on already but the programmes takes so slow to move?" Mommy says,"Well, Mommy's laptop is old already. It's already 5 years 2 months old, sure to become slow in processing. Some more the RAM is too small by today's standard. See-lah, if Mommy can win Digi's "Pimp My Broadband" Contest and get either the 1st, 2nd or 3rd prize, then Juan Or gets to watch from a brand new laptop or netbook with faster processing speed, OK?"
"Mama, aiyo, your laptop is so slow one...until now I'm still waiting!"
"Yay! Finally I get to watch what I want! Here's my favourite educational slideshow on animals that Mommy downloaded from Brillbaby."
"Hehehe....more animals with the pronunciation as well. This is good to teach me new words and how they are pronounced."
"An animals video that Mama downloaded from YouTube. Hehehe....Mama is always trying to snap photos of me, dunno for what....so I make funny faces for Mama!"
"Mama, you mean that's all the videos you have for me to watch!? Why so little one? I want to watch more videos!" So Mommy says,"Juan Or, Mama has work to do in the office. Mama can't be spending the whole working hours downloading things for you in the office. Some more at home is the dial-up networking type of internet connection, so if Mommy wants to download videos from home, then it's going to take forever to download. Probably if wait until next morning, the download process is still not finished yet. See-lah, if Mama wins something from the Digi's "Pimp My Broadband" Contest, at least if get to win the 4th to 50th prize, then Juan Or will get to enjoy 3 months free subscription to DiGi Broadband plus a free broadband modem! How's that? Then Juan Or gets to watch more funny videos, advertisements, nursery rhymes animation and even Mickey Mouse cartoons from YouTube! Mommy can just straightaway download them from home for Juan Or to watch, no need for Mommy to juggle time with office work to download these for you. How's that, baby? Hope for the best, ya? Tell all Aunties and Uncles reading this blogpost to vote for Mama, OK? And don't forget to thank the Aunties and Uncles who vote for Mama, OK baby?"
"OK, Mama. To all Aunties and Uncles reading this, please vote for my Mama here. And many, many thanks for your support! Alternatively, you can also vote by clicking my photo at the top right hand panel which leads you to Digi's "Pimp My Broadband" voting page. Just look for the 'Thumbs Up" icon and click, ya? One vote per day and everyday until 16th October 2009. Many, many thanks again! OK, in the meantime, since there's no more videos to watch, I might as well play with my good 'ole metal canister."Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Sheer Determination
And when Juan Or found the laptop, he would hug the laptop tightly (which was still in the bag) and then sat there in the dark storeroom waiting earnestly for Mommy to switch it on. If Mommy pretended to ignore his antics, he would briefly come out from the storeroom and called Mommy by making some 'ee-ak-ee-ak' sound, then go back into the dark storeroom and hug the laptop while squatting down! Then when Mommy finally went into the storeroom to check him out, he would grin at Mommy. Then when Mommy started taking the laptop out from the storeroom, Juan Or would start laughing. Smart boy! He sure does know at this tender age that determination will get him what he wants! Mommy managed to snap some photos to show how detemined he was:
(Juan Or approached the laptop.)
(Juan Or settled himself down on the storeroom floor first.)
(Juan Or took hold of the laptop to embrace it.)
Because of his sheer determination, Mommy had no choice but to reward him by allowing him to watch the laptop! Taa-dah!

(Back view)

(Front view. Note Juan Or's Great-Grandmother at the background.)

(See! So much of concentration on the laptop.)

(In this slightly sideways pose, the way Juan Or watches the laptop looks similar to how his TV-addict Great-Grandmother watches the TV!)
(So much of concentration....Juan Or was still undistracted even though Mommy went so near to capture his photo!)
("Mama thought I dunno that Mama is snapping my photos meh?")
And the good news is that Juan Or no longer became 'insomniac' as a result of watching the laptop at night. For the past few days up to today, Juan Or obediently went to sleep without making any fuss. Whew!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Let's Dance to the Beat!
Watch how Juan Or danced to the music in front of the laptop!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
IT Boy
Sometimes, Mommy pretended to not to entertain his request, then Juan Or would fret even louder. Then finally when Mommy gave in to his request, he would immediately smile and even give a cackle!
So what is it about Mommy's laptop that attracts Juan Or so much? Actually, besides those interactive Power Point slideshows for babies (you can download them from Brillbaby), Mommy also downloaded TV commercials, Sesame Street singing programmes and nursery rhymes from YouTube. However, those videos opened most frequently so far are TV commercials and Sesame Street. Mommy knows Juan Or loves watching TV commercials because everytime there is a commercial going on the television, Juan Or would stop playing and watch without blinking his eyes. So same goes for commercials shown in the laptop, Juan Or would watch with great concentration. That's how Mommy got Juan Or to at least keep still for some time rather than moving around by climbing and playing at dangerous spots (Haha! Mommy's trick at keeping him at bay minus the frets!).
Juan Or's attention span at the laptop is usually for about 30 to 45 minutes compared to reading books at less than 5 minutes only! Mommy can tell when his attention span is over - he would start poking at the laptop's keyboard, play with the screen or even use his foot to step at the corner of the laptop (to which Mommy will quickly remove his foot away!).
Here are some snapshots of Juan Or enjoying himself at the computer:

(Juan Or is waiting patiently for Mommy's laptop to set up.)

(Watching the laptop like a big boy!)

(What are you watching, Juan Or? You look so engrossed!)













