Happy Chinese New Year of the Ox!

We would like to wish our family and friends a happy new year, and may the year of the ox bring good health, wealth and happiness! More posts on JW's new year adventures to follow...

Being thankful

A couple of things lately have brought to mind how thankful Mr Kong feels now that JW has entered our lives.

Firstly, Mr & Mrs Kong learnt that a friend's baby has health problems that are more serious that previously thought. Its heartbreaking to think of a baby being ill and the nightmare his parents must be going through.

Secondly, during JW's recent trip to the hospital to see the pediatrician for his innoculation, Mr Kong was in the lift when a family got in wheeling an older lady in a wheelchair. What struck him was that she was silently weeping into a towel, obviously very upset.

It just struck home that while we struggle and sometimes worry about JW, the fact is that he is a healthy happy baby and both Mr & Mrs Kong are also relatively young and healthy (touch wood).

We should remember to be thankful for that.

Popo and Gung-Gung

JW's Popo and Gung-Gung are regular visitors to Mr & Mrs Kong's place, of course to spend time with the little bub. And he really enjoys those visits.

JW on Gung2's lap - Gung2 braving the cloth diaper

Mrs Kong has noticed that especially Gung2 acts quite uncharacteristically with JW. According to Mrs Kong, not the way she remembered him when she was growing up. Then again Mrs Kong probably did not have JW's charm and thunder thighs.

Gung2 with JW and Popo changing JW's shorts elastic band to a larger size

Popo on the other hand will probably be a little more strict with JW, but not much more either.

Gung2 playing a music box that he bought for JW from Subang Parade

JW giving a cheeky grin

Please come again soon, Gung2 and Popo!!

Ah Gung and Ah Ma

2 Sundays ago, we made a date with Ah Gung and Ah Ma to take JW plant shopping at Sungai Buloh.

We'd heard a lot about the good variety of plants on sale in the area at reasonable prices and thought it was *finally* time to sort out our garden.

Ah Gung and Mama playing with JW

So we had a good breakfast of Roti Canai before setting off on the 40 minute drive.

Ah Gung showing JW some self defense moves

Pretty uneventful drive but when we got there, JW was fascinated by all the different plants. He kept reaching out for them (well to be honest, he reaches out for every new thing these days)

Chewing on own hands is still the best!

We ended the trip with some nice new plants for the garden and the house.

Also a cute little mandarin orange tree from Ah Gung and Ah Ma. We are starting to get ready for JW's first Chinese New Year! Ready to recoup Mr & Mrs Kong's investment ;)

Baby Hercules at the supermarket

Mr & Mrs Kong's usual grocery shopping is done at Jusco Midvalley - mostly because of the convenience and largely because of the Isetan Gardens baby room.

The products are pretty good but somewhat pricey and not always available but ok nonetheless. (although Mrs Kong has a new best place - Giant Kinrara. For groceries that is, not baby rooms).

A few weeks ago, we were doing our weekly shop at Jusco and of course at checkout our ever curious bub decided to help with the shopping.

Yup, that's a large bag of sayur he's lifting up

Unfortunately, the checkout lady was a bit of a grump - not even the hint of a smile for her little helper.

Another piece of evidence for Mr & Mrs Kong's suspicion that JW is going to grow up to be one strong fella. We'd better hit the gym to keep up...

Always eventful

Mrs Kong is wondering why every week its something:

This week its "Awwwwwwww!"
Last week it was "Blurrrrrrrgggghhhhh!"
The week before it was "Oooooooohhhh!"

Hope next week and the following weeks will just be "Mmmmmmmm..."

Poke bum (well thigh actually)

Last Monday, JW went for his last Hepatitis B jab. That's his last for a while, unless we opt for the Pneumoccocal jab.

If not, his next will be the 12 month MMR jab (measles, mumps, rubella) which has been quite controversial in UK as there have been some concerns by parents it might cause autism. All unproven of course. We'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.

Innoculated - got a cute plaster out of it

Anyway, JW was his usual cheery self - gave Dr A, the pediatrician a big smile and was happily playing on the examination couch when the needle went in.

As usual, there was a few seconds delay before the waterworks but he recovered his composure quite quickly.

With Papa at home after the docs and lunch at Megamall

Oh did we mention he is sitting up quite well by himself these days?

Sunday Morning

Sunday morning smile for Mr & Mrs Kong - Mrs Kong's two favourite men

There is something really special about our Sunday mornings now, and its this little smile we get from JW. It just perfects the day.

Five Months Old

Yes we are!

Some of JW's daily activities are -

1. half flip, with an occasional full flip
2. intense finger and fist sucking; and chewing at toys
3. seeing across a small room
4. holding his own head up
5. pull up to standing with support - hard to get him NOT to stand these days
6. showing great interest in real life objects after getting bored with his toys
7. getting distracted very easily
8. babbling a lot, and perhaps complaining to us!
9. trying to sit up in the car seat! (Mr Kong thought he had a stomach ache at first)

He continues to surprise us on a daily basis and keeps us guessing at every moment. So much excitement in one little package!

Baby's first holiday

For JW's first holiday, we decided to take a family trip (just the three of us) to the popular Malaysian tourist destination - Cameron Highlands. The journey was well planned, with the major portion of the trip (to Tapah) for JW's lunch time nap. Starting off at 12 noon, with JW in his new car seat, we made it to the hotel with a few stop overs. The views were amazing and the air just cool!

JW started the day being very excited. Perhaps, from the tone of our voices, he knew that this would be an exciting day for all. We tried our best to prepare him for colder air and temperature by getting a few pieces of warmer clothing. In the end, we ended up piling on the layers when the night came, as it was truly cold for our little Malaysian baby.

JW in his little cot provided by the hotel. Yes, having mummy's body heat close by did come in handy

Our son was king of the hill. We were bowled over by the attention he commanded. Waitresses loved him. Coffee shop managers came to make a cot for him to lay down while we ate. Yes, he isn't ready for a high chair yet, but never mind, he just gets his own cot in the restaurant! We looked around the restaurant and wondered why only JW got a little cot made for him!!

Rolled up between two table clothes, our fella fell asleep watching a couple of Japanese children at the next table. It was like a dream. Then again, we suspect that the waitresses would have offered to baby sit if he started fussing about. He definitely caught everyone's eye!

napping in the coffee house

waking up from a nice nap

JW and Mr Kong at the Boh Visitor Centre - JW dressed for winter in Japan

We made it to a few attractions, including the new Boh visitor centre. JW watched us as we had scones with lovely afternoon tea. (no solids for him yet!)

diapering above sea level

But on the way back to the hotel, we just had to leave our mark via a diaper change.

We had a good trip to Cameron Highlands, and am relieved that we survived the trip without too much fuss. Maybe we will go to NYC next..

No shopping centres pt 2 - Lake Gardens

Continuing our quest to let JW experience environments other than shopping centres, last Sat Mr & Mrs Kong were planning to go to the Titi Eco Farm in Negri Sembilan since it was Mr Kong last weekend on his weeklong 'holiday'.

We'd heard a bit about the farm and read some things about it. It seems like a very nice place to visit, get some fresh air and learn about organic farming.

Unfortunately, after studying the map (lots of white 'uncharted' areas!) and reading that it takes 2 hours from KL and we needed to get there by 9:30am to catch the farm tour, Mr & Mrs Kong wisely decided to be less brave and go to the Lake Gardens (aka Taman Tasik Perdana) instead ;)

Mrs Kong with JW picnicking on the grass.

"What is this green stuff?!?"

"Must investigate the green stuff..."

Chubby hands in the grass. Notice the lack of wrist.

Grass all over the place!

More green stuff!

Mr Kong has good childhood memories of picnicking at Lake Gardens and hopefully JW will have them too. It is still a very nice bit of green in the middle of KL but Mr & Mrs Kong couldn't help noticing that building works are making it smaller and smaller. What a shame.

At the very least, we hope this picnic is a small step in ensuring JW doesn't turn out addicted to Malaysian shopping centres!

Being tourists aka no shopping centres pt 1

Mr & Mrs Kong are trying their hardest to take JW to places other than shopping centres.

Its hard as there aren't that many baby friendly places in KL and shopping centres are definitely the most convenient, there's food, no need to worry about sun or rain, the floor is smooth and Combi stroller friendly, there's lots for JW to look at and the best ones have great changing/feeding rooms (though they never have an extra chair for the father - cheh!)

Our top picks for shopping centre changing rooms are - Isetan @ Midvalley Gardens, Isetan @ KLCC, The Curve 1st Floor changing rooms.

Anyway, that's how the other week Mr & Mrs Kong took JW to KLCC park on a Sun evening. The park was packed out with tourists (or maybe KL's contingent of immigrant workers)!

Mr Kong could not resist a couple of tourist shots too:

With JW at the Twin Towers

Not much you can add to that. Hope JW noticed that it wasn't just a noisier, windier, hotter, green and blue shopping centre.

Cutest photo yet - Mr Smiley and Laughy

On Wed, Mr & Mrs Kong dashed to the baby car seat sale at Robinsons, the Gardens Midvalley to grab a convertible car seat for JW as we were afraid that he was outgrowing his baby car seat.

At the rate he's putting on weight, we thought at most another 3 or 4 months and he would outgrow it when it should last him till 1 year old.

Anyway, long story short, managed to get him a pretty good seat -the First Years True Fit Convertible Car Seat. We're pretty pleased with the purchase as it has very good review and safety ratings and was 20% off. The only question is will the bub take to the seat as well as his last one.

There was a bit of hoohah at first as when we arrived at Robinsons, the seat had not arrived (it was the first day of the sale and admittedly, Mr & Mrs Kong were a tad kiasu) so went for lunch at Yogitree while waiting for it to arrive.

While there Mr Kong captured the cutest picture of JW yet (in our opinion anyway):

Notice the dimples on his cheeks - they are not true dimples, just 'fat' dimples

Yup, the little bub has become very smiley over the last week or two and this week was also the first time that we had heard him laugh out loud. Mr Kong was playing with him on the changing table and was giving him a few playful nibbles when JW laughed out loud.

It is the happiest sound Mr Kong has ever heard.

Is it wrong to eat Kittys?

Our little friend JW seems to love patterns of every kind. Mrs Kong has caught him staring at the patterns and designs on her T-shirts when he should be concentrating on suckling.

We were wondering if he might be a future graphic designer...

A couple of months ago, Mrs Kong and JW were at Fit For Two on a Saturday morning (as they are almost every Saturday morning) with Auntie K and Josie.

JW was sitting on Auntie K's lap when he became fascinated by Josie's blanket, which had a Hello Kitty design.

"Hmmm, what an interesting design"

"Hello, kitty - get in mah belly!"

"Meh, I wasn't doing anything..."

Maybe he's just looking at the designs to see which look good to eat...

A Well Deserved Break...

... but only from work.

Mr Kong has been working pretty hard lately but with some minor Malaysian Public Holidays and judicious use of annual leave, he is off the whole of this week. A well deserved break from work.

But of course, there us lots to do at home - tidying up the study, making full use of our walk in wardrobe, going on a day trip and of course, the biggest challenge of all - Operation Bottle.

Mr Kong is looking forward to spending some quality and 'quantity' time with his family.

Boring

Mr & Mrs Kong are trying hard to write a post that does not involve JW. Let's see... hmmm... ummm...

...darn it!

How much for the cheeks?

A couple of weeks ago, Mr & Mrs Kong took JW to Popo and Gung2's place for a dinner and a visit. As usual he was doted on.

After dinner, as we were putting JW into his car seat, the neighbours who'd lived next to Mrs Kong's parents arrived and Mr & Mrs Kong took the opportunity to show off JW.

One makcik (auntie) took one look at JW, looked and pinched his cheeks and exclaimed "Kena timbang ni!" ("We need to weigh these cheeks!").

Cheeky

How much would you pay for these cheeks?

Irresistible

How does one resist a smile like the above?

Meeting Uncle S

A couple of weeks ago, Uncle S came over from HK to KL for work and a bit of baby shopping and got to meet JW.

Here's a snap:

Uncle S, grumpy looking JW and Mr Kong shopping in Megamall

Next time we hope Uncle S will bring Auntie W2 and 2 playmates for JW. We know they're working on it right now ;)

The many faces of JW - age 3 1/2 months

This week has been quite exciting in the world of JW and Mr & Mrs Kong. JW has been growing and developing fast these past 3 1/2 months but this week has seen some major developments.

The ickle fella has started:

1. Babbling
2. Smiling regularly
3. Trying to laugh
4. Holding is head unsupported
5. Noticed his arms, hands and toys
6. Started eating his arms, hands and toys
7. Flipped on to his tummy (once)

We can hardly keep up!

And so, to commemorate, we present:

The many faces of JW - age 3 1/2 months

JW being cute

JW eating his hands

JW not being experienced in eating his hands, and getting his finger stuck
Either that or he's trying to pull his non-existant teeth

JW acting nonchalant & cool

JW smiling

And finally, JW laughing

What will next week bring? We look forward to finding out...