Monday, June 23, 2008

The Singing...

Jun Yen has been quite vocal lately, of which her Papa is one example. Last week we found that she has learnt to respond to us. Mom and Dad demonstrated this by saying "chang ge" (sing) to Jun Yen, and she would do so. To make sure it was no fluke, we did it a few more times, with consistent response from her. Bravo Jun Yen! Encore!


Doe a deer, a female deer...

Yesterday evening Mom played the Sound of Music CD, and Jun Yen made a lot of noise, like she was singing along with the Do-Re-Mi song. If I haven't mentioned it before, this song since not long after they were born has been their favourite song, and anytime I sing it to them they'd smile...

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Playing Together...

The babies now interact actively with each other, and since they spend most of their day on the large mattress downstairs, they tend to come into contact with each other.

Funny incidents have included Jun Yen sucking Jun Lee's toes, Jun Lee licking the top of Jun Yen's head. They also love to play with each other's diapers which are really colorful. Jun Lee especially likes to disturb Jun Yen. Jun Yen would tend to sleep more during the day than Jun Lee, and she would crawl over to her sister and do all kinds of things like touching her head, scratching her diaper and so on, and this would of course wake Jun Yen up.


CheChe, don't cry...

The thing is, although Jun Lee likes to play with her sister, she doesn't like it when her sister does the same to her, and would usually cry very loudly.

Although I must add in this case the picture above was not caused by Jun Yen. Jun Lee had crawled down onto the mats, so I carried her back up to the mattresss, which she clearly didn't like. Of course, Jun Yen also started tugging at Jun Lee's shirt, so it really did look like she was comforting her sister.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Standing Up...

Since the week before (9 June) we have already put the babies back into cots as they tend to get in each other's way on the mattress, and also because Jun Lee tends to disturb Jun Yen.

For the first week we've rotated the cots, with each baby sleeping one night in each. Since beginning of this week we have stuck to putting Jun Lee in the wooden cot as she tried to climb past the barrier on the playpen cot which is quite a bit lower.

Morning Sis, you awake yet?

I'm awake, and I want milk milk...

This morning, I was shocked to see that she had managed to pull herself up on the cot's railing, and peering over into her sister's cot! According to Mom she'd learnt to do that since yesterday. So I grabbed the camera and took some pics, and ended up being almost late for work.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Sitting up...

Jun Lee can now sit up! Yeah, sure, she and JY have been doing that for a while now, but now Jun Lee can do it on her own!

You can put her lying on her back onto the mattress, and very quickly, she will roll onto her belly, tuck one leg under her belly, and push herself up!

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Not So Typical Weekend...

Here’s a typical weekend day, or at least as typical as it can be when wifey’s not around. Woken up at around 0800 by Jun Yen making whimpering noises. Must be hungry, poor girl… Jun Lee still asleep. Nowadays Jun Lee usually sleeps till later, but that’s because she hardly sleeps during the day. Very active lah…

Handed babies their milk, and that kept them busy for a while. As usual after they’ve finished their morning feed, they’re very happy, and after playing a while they’d go back to sleep. I went down for breakfast and left them in their cots until 1030 when Mom and I carried them downstairs for their baths.

Mom and Dad bought back a pack of nasi lemak at the Taman Tun market (the prepacked variety) and taufoofah. The rice was quite good, and had a decent amount of condiments for RM1. Finished that and left for assignment discussion at 1400. Classmates were delayed for a while and only got everyone together at 1445. We were mostly done by 1700, and I left for the badminton courts to pick stuff up from a friend.

New toy!New toy! L-R Jun Lee, Jun Yen

Arrived home to find the babies sitting up playing with toys, and in Jun Lee’s case, looking for opportunities to climb over the pillows. Mom bought them this new toy a few days back, and at first Jun Lee wasn’t interested in it, but seeing Jun Yen playing with it she wanted to play as well. Fortunately Jun Yen simply played with the other new toy (not pictured) and didn't make a huge fuss.

Papa, we're all dressed up to go to bed...

Later after they were changed and washed up, took them upstairs and sat them on our bed to take some pics, but because of the new environment, they looked a bit lost and were very curious. But it wasn't long before the both of them got bored and started crawling about!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Bump Goes The Baby...

By now both babies can crawl, or at least inch along, quite well. Again, here they're very different. Jun Lee is more physically inclined, and moves all over the mattress they spend most of the day on. A week ago (2nd June to be precise...) she crawled over the pillows we had put to fence them in, fell and cried like no tomorrow. (and the next day developing a sizable bump on her forehead)

Of course that scared the hell out of me, and I drove out (it was around 8pm) and bought a set of those foam "ABC" mats to lay on the floor as we were fairly certain that it won't be the last time she attempts something like that.

Hey, I can touch the mat! Wonder if it tastes good...

Jun Lee seems to be the more adventurous (and hence naughtier) of the two, crawling and moving about all the time, while Jun Yen is more patient and content to sit and play with her toys. Jun Lee even flips and turns around in her bouncing net! I've lost count of the contortions she can do on it already...

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Wifey's Birthday...

After dinner at Kura (and the requisite walkabout in 1-Utama...) dropped by Secret Recipe at Centerpoint for wifey's requisite slice of cake to wish and blow candles upon.

Wifey saw Baskin Robbins next to Secret Recipe and asked for ice-cream cake instead. So got a slice of nice pink strawberry cake RM10+) and got home to find Mom had tucked the babies in.

We woke the babies up (I know, I know... I'm the one who always says never wake a sleeping baby...) and got them to join Mommy to blow candle out on cake. Funnily enough, though they were a bit bewildered at first, they weren't grumpy or cranky at being woken up...


Mommy, I want cake! I want cake!

Why? Because it's Mommy's first birthday with them mer...

And the cake? Let's just say it was forgettable... It's the event that's memorable...

Kura Japanese Restaurant at One World...

We went to Kura at One World Hotel for wifey's birthday as we had heard good things about it. Also, the choice of ala-carte Japanese was deliberate as this week was sheer gluttony. (Wed - King Crab, Thu - Kura, Fri - Serena Brasserie, Sat - Hooi Loong) So something light yet sufficiently refined to slot in between those feasts.

We were seated at what I can only describe as cubicle. On the plus side it gave us a lot of privacy, but felt rather claustrophobic initially. The menu was rather intimidating with a huge selection. For simplicity's sake, I ended up ordering the Rokkaku Bento (RM65) for wifey and the Sakura Chirashidon Zen (RM35) for myself. Here are the pics of both, the larger set is the Rokkaku Bento. Taken with incredibly crappy Nokia 2mp phone.


Rokkaku Bento



Sakura Chirashidon Zen

To sum it up, it was very satisfactory. Portions were large, so much so by the end we felt a bit like we had just hit a buffet. Quality was more than decent, with the sashimi on wifey's bento deserving mention. Wifey usually likes her sashimi with lots of wasabi and shoyu, but this time she didn't touch either. According to her, the fish was great enough on its own. And lastly, price? Very fair for the portions, quality and environment. Service was also very prompt, though the staff looked a bit confused at times.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Papapapa... Mamamama...

Last week, Jun Yen had already learnt to babble something that sounds like Papapapa... much to wifey's annoyance. Though I'm fairly certain that she has no idea what it means and it's most likely just plain babbling. Still, it's a pleasure to hear, and is music to any father's ears.

Also Jun Lee yesterday learnt to say something similar, but certainly not Papapapa, if anything it sounded closer to Mamamama, so that pleased wifey.

King Crab Restaurant...

Went out for dinner today at King Crab for wifey's birthday. Mom and Dad's treat. Brought babies along, and for some reason today parking was packed along the road, so getting babies off proved a bit of a chore.

Ordered the Crab with Creamy Sauce (Lai Yau Hai), Fried 4 veges in shrimp paste (Sei Tai Tin Wong), Pork Belly with Yam (Wu Tao Kau Yuk), Clams in Superior Soup (Siong Tong Lala) and Steamed Silver Snapper.

Overall quite disappointing, bar the crab's still-excellent sauce and the lala. The Pork Belly and veges were so-so, and the fish quite abysmal, and not cheap at that. Crabs were rather small, and flesh not firm. And true to form, the last order (a fried bread roll) was forgotten. Service was as usual chaotic.

Price for 1.5kg of crabs about RM60, the lacklustre fish was a whopping RM70, the rest of the prices were quite fair, and hence not memorable. I don't know why we put up with this in light of the deteriorating food quality. I think we'll be giving this place a miss in the future.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Shiny...

Here's a day's worth of detailing the car. I think its fabulous, though not as bright as it could be as the shine is somewhat blunted due to the orange-peel as mentioned below. Compounding, compounding... later lah, huh...

5 hours worth of work!

No lah, it's not a solid 5 hours working on it. If so I would have passed out from exhaustion a long time ago... A lot of the time was spent waiting for the stuff to cure, inspecting, touching up, etc.
I had initially wanted a professional full detailing job, and even went so far as to go seek out a very reputable detailer for a quote, but ultimately balked at the RM500+ price. Not that it wasn't reasonable; it was, as the job covered both exterior and interior detailing, including the very labour intensive compounding to sort out the orange-peel effect which almost all new cars have.

Went home, took a good look at the paint. Conclusion - it was practically brand new, and decided I could live with the orange-peel, and save the whole compounding she-bang for a few years down the line. Under these circumstances I figured I could do as good a job as any pro-detailer; I had quite a bit of kit, had the basic skills, and most importantly I really care! (my own car mah...) So for now, all I wanted was protection for the paint, and to clean up the interior. Not that it was grubby or anything close, just that despite the previous owner's meticulous care, the beige leather had already become slightly stained in some places. Also, aesthetics aside, I just didn't fancy sitting on top of someone else's stains!

So last month Saturday 17th was D(etailing)-day! I got down and dirty! Washed the car thoroughly, clayed it, dried it, used my favourite arsenal of Autoglym's Super Resin Polish and topped up with Extra Gloss Protection, and voila! Superb! Paint was even better than when it came out of the factory, smooth and shiny! Now to make sure it stays that way...

Took the whole morning and a bit of the evening. Was so tired out at the end of it all! But well worth it. Now to do the interior, and will most likely go Meguiars for this. Look at my detailing posts for more.

Detailing Arsenal...

From my previous post, doesn't take much to guess that yes, I am an Autoglym fan. I've used Meguiars, Kit, Turtle Wax, Armor All, Simoniz, Amway, 3M and goodness knows what else, but at the end of the day, nothing beats Autoglym for ease of use and durability. You can just get away with using only SRP, and it'd last for months, but coupled with EGP, I have gone almost a year without waxing my previous car, and the protection was still there.

The only drawback (price aside) is that Autoglym is ridiculously difficult to get in KL, and I am already shuddering at the imminent run-out of my SRP & EGP. And when you do manage to find it, Autoglym stuff is firmly in the premium segment and prices are not for the faint hearted!

But if you really think about it, it's money well spent. Better to spend more for stuff that works than spend less on stuff that doesn't. Quality aside, both the SRP and EGP goes a long way. In fact I can't even remember when I last bought EGP which costs RM58.80 for a 325ml bottle.

My detailing paraphernalia consists of some very eclectic stuff, a lot of it bought due to recommendations, impressive labels, and the desire for experimentation.

Regular usage - Autoglym SRP, EGP, Meguiars Rich Leather Cleaner & Conditioner, Magic Clay Bar (or something like that bought at Eneos), Armor All Shampoo (not bad actually, but phasing out in favor of Autoglym), various sponges, various cotton cloths, The Absorber (fantastic drying cloth! Costs 70 bucks!!! But well worth it, used it 5 years already), Meguairs Clear Coat Body Scrub (fantastic at getting rid of small scuffs and marks)

Gathering dust - Meguairs Quik Detailer (part of the claying package, the clay bar is horrid, too sticky), Meguairs Carpet Cleaner (okay lah...), Turtle Wax Hard Shell Wax (bought with a sense of false economy), Turtle Wax Bug & Tar Remover (doesn't work well and smells awful), Eneos Tyre Gel (useless, thank goodness it's cheap), Armor All Protectant (not good, using it for tyres now)

Stuff to be deployed - Autoglym Bodywork Shampoo Conditioner (couldn't find this earlier), Autoglym Vinyl & Rubber Care (got from Singapore), Autoglym Fast Glass, various microfiber cloths, microfiber wash mitt.

I also have Bosch 270AE orbital, which I have used all of two times! Found it too much fuss to get it out, plug it in just for the application stage as orbitals are pretty useless for any serious work (polishing) and no good for buffing either. Besides Autoglym stuff (especially EGP) is quite watery and works better with hand application.