Babies' Toys...

The girls don't seem to be very interested in toys. And by that I mean the real toys. Instead they seem to like playing with the everyday items. List includes stools, indoor slippers, containers of all sorts...

Jun Lee making Teh Tarik...

Our Bowls and Cups...

They also love printed material of all kinds including books (not just the childrens' books) magazines, pamphlets... and they tend to stuff the latter under the glass top of the table.

Last month, Grandma bought them a set of plastic bowls and spoon (the real kind as used in restaurants) as toys, and so far it's kept them amused as they pretend to eat of of them, and also offering some of the (imaginary) food to us.

What They Call Us...

Sometime in May I wrote that they can pronounce Mommy (sounding like "MaMi") here.

Since then they've progressed onto a whole host of words. By now they recognise people by age and address them accordingly. For babies their age they would call them "baby". For older children they would call them "cheche" or "korkor". Adults pretty much fall into the "aunty" and "uncle" category, and "kongkong" for seniors. While this is fairly accurate they have a tendency to call even people in their 20s "uncle" and "aunty", which I'm sure could be annoying, hehe...

Within the family, paternal grandpa is called "YeYe", my brother is "SokSok", and maternal grandpa is "KongKong". The funny one is when they refer to grandma as "MiMa". They can actually pronounce "Grandma" but I think they just use "MiMa" as it's easier to call.

Mommy's Birthday...

Happy Birthday Mommy!!!...

We had a barbecue on wifey's birthday with family and friends, just a small do. By the time we got to the cake cutting, JL & JY were quite sleepy already... Plus it wasn't me taking the pics, so they were quite bewildered by the photographer.

It was wonderful night, and wifey had a great time. Plus we hadn't had a barbecue for such a long time it felt good to be messing about with the grill... haha!

Thanks to all who came to join us!

Babies at Bedtime...

See me wink...

Che che's ear...

...

...

...

Mommy is here...

The girls are usually put to bed at 8pm, and we'll wake them up at 11pm or so for their last feed and change of diaper.

During that time they're usually quite active and happy as they've had what amounts to a long nap, and had their supper, what's not to be happy about?...
The routine would be:
1. Feed them milk
2. Carry them onto our bed and change diaper
3. Let them wander around on our (comparatively) huge bed
4. Carry them back to the cot

They would do and say a lot while playing on our bed, as it's like a big playpen to them, with the large pillows and all. Here are some of those antics I managed to capture.

Oh yes, since a while back they already know how to point to, and say some parts of their bodies like eye, ear, nose, mouth, teeth, hair, head, foot, tummy, chest, shoulder, chin... anything I missed, wifey?

Mama, Mamama, Mimi...

It used to be confusing when the babies call Mama. This was because we were not sure whether they are addressing their Grandma or Mummy. There was a point when they used to call their Mummy "Mamama" and their Grandma "Mama". After a while, it was back to Mama. About a month back, they started to call their Mummy "Mimi".

Now they mostly call Mummy (yep, the full deal), but still revert to Mama once a while.

Morning At The Park...

Wifey's writing...

Now that they are older, we have started to bring them to the park for their morning walk on weekends. It's good to expose them to the greenery (as well as the lake and the waterfall...), all worlds away from the everyday busy concrete jungle.

The first time Jun Lee was fine and walked by herself quite quickly. Jun Yen refused and had to be carried by her Mummy for a while till her poor Mummy’s arms began to ache. After much persuasion, she did walk a few steps. Both of them enjoyed the experience very much though.

The second time we were there, it was the other way round. Jun Yen was happy and couldn't wait to walk by herself while Jun Lee despite willing to be on the ground, refused to budge from her position at first. But it wasn't long before she began to chase after her little sister.

The third time, we expected both to be happy and walking on their own. However, it was deja vu as Jun Yen refused to walk while Jun Lee was fine. By now we figured it depends on their mood, as both were happily running around later on.

Oh what a beautiful morning...

Look at that...

Mommy, what is Jun Yen looking at???...

See, Yeye and Grandma are here too...

Last Sunday we also did something new. Usually, we only let them walk on the footpath along the lake. This time, their grandparents brought them up to the suspension bridge. They were obviously scared, refused to walk and demanded to be ‘Pau-pau’(being carried). Perfectly understandable as the bridge sways when you walk over it.

We met up with them whilst Grandma was trying to coax them into walking across. I walked across and took Jun Yen who was being carried by her Grandma and put her down on the ground, and held her hand in an attempt to get her to cross the bridged. However, as she saw her father approaching the other side, she called ‘Papa’ and walked towards him and happily walked with her father hand in hand across the bridge.

I then took Jun Lee from her Yeye but she was unhappy and refuse to move when I put her down on the ground. We tried to persuade her and she started walking one small step at a time. It was an achievement for Jun Yen who crossed over and then looked back, called ‘Cheche’ and started to walk back to Jun Lee. It seemed like she was telling Jun Lee that she can do it since she's done it.

Bravo Jun Yen, Jun Lee!

Engines...

Over the years (since I learnt how to drive that is...) these are the cars (if you can guess what they are) and engines that I have owned or had a close acquiantance with...

4G15
4G13
4G92P
4G93P
4G18
M111.960
XU10J4R
1ZZ-FE
1AZ-FE
S4PH
D4F

Future engines which I'd like to own include:
N52B25/B30
M272.E25
1AR
4GR-FSE
K20A
K24Z2
EA113 2.0TFSI
EA111 1.4TSI

Yup, just a bit of geeky, self-indulgent scribbling... :)

Fish Head At Pudu...

I haven't been posting up any food reviews of late, and that's either because the places I've been to recently didn't warrant much mention.

This place, I had to post up a review.

Imagine this, a very very old (possibly pre-war) shop literally a few feet away from the dusty and noisy Jalan Pudu, with no signage of any kind, with 7 or so tables, and where you have to wait for like an hour (usually more) before you get any food. Why then would anyone of a sound mind put themselves through the ordeal?

I have seen the crowd lining up during lunch hour on those rare occasions when I forayed into Pudu, and have always regarded the situation with a mix of curiosity and disdain. Last Saturday I lunched at this place, and came away with the former satisfied and the latter dismissed.

According to my father, this place has always attracted the crowd in droves since 30-40 years ago. I have also apparently eaten there when I was a child, which I suspect could have only been an unpleasant childhood experience. It's apparently acquired a near legendary status as the sam chi mui (3 sisters) fish head stall. True to its name it's run by 3 sisters.

We sat outside along the kaki lima (shaded corridor) on plastic stools waiting to be seated, whilst entertaining ourselves looking at the wares of the next door shop (industrial filters and pumps!) One of the sisters (Crocs-wearing, bob-headed, hair-dyeing) came to take our orders whilst we were seated waiting in a brusque businesslike fashion. Thankfully, we were seated not long after.

Rice arrived in a not-seen-for-very long-time porcelain container, chipped almost all around the lip. And then the piece-de-resistance arrived in a large platter. The Hong Siew Yu Tau or stewed fish head was a whole Soong fish head deep fried and smothered in a luscious gravy. Accompaniments were stir fried sang cheong with kow choi fah, and veges. Excellent!

Went to the back looking for the washroom and surprisingly the whole place was quite clean and organised. No greasy floors, pots and pans and empty bottles strewn about, you get my drift. Saw a single lady (no doubt one of the sisters) furiously cooking on a, get this, wood fired stove! Now, you hardly find these anymore, which undoubtedly added to the flavour. No doubt the single cook also contributed to the legendary waiting times.

Best of all though, lunch sufficiently filling for 5 hungry people cost a mere RM48! Definitely recommended, but you have been warned about the waiting time...

Oh yes, though there was no signboard on the outside, a small one inside the seating area proclaimed it to be Kedai Kopi Hock Seng Hin. Not much help though as you can't see it until you're actually inside.

More Teeth...

Concurrently with Jun Yen's fever last week, we also saw signs of the lower molars! Both sides!

Also she has been like a parrot the past weeks, repeating almost perfectly the words we say. We've really gotta be careful now...

Jun Lee has learnt to lay out the cloth diaper (that we use as a towel of sorts) when she sees her sister being washed. It's really cute... yeah, words can't describe it...

Here's a few random pics I took of them, not in any particular sequence, and some dating a while back...

Let's have tea!

Zzzz...

Where are we going?...

Jun Yen sucking her thumb...

Jun Lee...

The Sniffles...

Almost a month with no updates... yup, it has not been a good two weeks...

Jun Yen and Jun Lee, in that order, got sore throats and the accompanying fever, cold and cough, also in that order. By now Jun Yen has pretty much recovered, but Jun Lee still has a cough.

To make matters worse, I came down with the same vicious brand of flu last Sunday, and was on medical on Monday. Tuesday was pretty much spent catching up on work, through a haze of Clarinase...

It's only today that I was feeling up to posting something.

CNY Lunch at Umai-Ya...

It has become a CNY custom to meet up with our friends for a "Lou Sang" session, but by the 6th day we were all a bit tired of pig's trotters, steamed fish, prawns, roast chicken etc all the traditional CNY goodies... So it was quite welcome when CK suggested Japanese food...

Our plan was to go to Umai-Ya at Uptown, which had been satisfactory on a previous visit, but as it was fully booked that day settled for the original outlet at Damansara Perdana.

First impressions weren't positive, with the whole building all looking a bit run-down. The restaurant itself wasn't bad, and the room we were given was quite nice and cosy.

To cap it all off, the food was okay, nothing spectacular, but certainly streets ahead of the usual Jap buffets and everything was passably fresh. The sole exception being the soft shell crab that our friends describe as "tasting funny", upon which I didn't take any, so thankfully I can't describe what that "funny" was...

Fortunately their impressive service looks to be holding strong still compared to our last visit a few years back.

Aren't we going all Japanese today...

Jun Yen with Mommy...

It was quite a hoot with our friends' babies around too. A lot of time was spent feeding them, and in CK's case, changing his baby (!!!). For us though it was mostly keeping them amused and feeding them tidbits...

7th and 8th Tooth...

Yeah, like I said before, wasn't gonna be long before the other one starts teething again...

We were at 1U last Saturday and while wifey was at a particular Japanese cosmetics counter, I kept our daughters amused. Evidently not easy...

While playing with Jun Yen, saw signs of 2 teeth on the lower jaw, flanking her two existing teeth... Haha, apparently I was the first to spot it, as neither wifey nor their Grandma knew...

Frontera Bar & Grill at Jaya One

It's been quite a while since anything food related came onto this blog. It doesn't mean I haven't been eating out, but definitely less than before the babies came along. Nowadays distance and baby-friendliness become great concerns in dining out.

Yesterday night was an exception as Mom offered to take care of JL & JY while we take a break.

Jaya One being a hitherto relatively unexplored place (I'd only been there once for a quick lunch at Wendy's) and being relatively nearby, it wasn't difficult to decide to check out what else they had to offer.

Brussels Beer Cafe was packed solid last night with some event going on. Looking around the rest of the outlets were fairly empty. But then it was a Thursday night, so maybe these places do most of their business during lunch and weekends.

To cut a long story short, settled on Frontera Bar & Grill as somehow Tex Mex food sounded very appetising yesterday, and also I was eager to try Tex Mex stuff outside of the ubiquitous Chili's/Fridays/Las Carretas types.

The place was quite sparsely decorated, but good enough, with small cacti on the tables and lots of red, green and white! They also had a pinata hanging around, very Mexican methinks...

Ordered the taquitos de pollo, beef enchilada, beef chimichanga, and the Horny (???) Margarita and a beer to wash it down.

Wifey's impression at the end of the dinner sort of captured the overall feel of the food. She mentioned that it all looked rather homemade, both in terms of presentation and taste. In this case I'd say it's more complimentary than otherwise.

Won't go into details (and no pics to boot) but suffice to say that it all tasted good, and portions were adequate. The meat in both the chimichanga and enchilada deserves special mention in that it was tender, flavorful and plentiful. The chimichanga was thankfully not swimming in some sauce, which makes the skin go soggy and unappetising.

The bill came to RM115, which is not exactly cheap, but right in line with other Tex Mex joints. Part of the blame has to go to the margarita which costs RM23, but you do get what you paid for as it's really strong! Don't let the size of the glass fool you...

Chinese New Year 2009... Pictures...

Okay, here they are...

Gong Xi! Gong Xi!

Hmm... I think your's looks nicer than mine...

Yay! Got angpow from Yeye and Grandma...

Angpows and Oranges!...

Mommy with Jun Lee and Jun Yen...

Chinese New Year mood...

Is it for us???...

Yay! Got angpow from Kongkong too...

These are the first pictures posted here courtesy of the Canon system. All were shot with the 450D, the 17-40L and the Nissin Di622. As of now though all bar the 450D are gone, replaced with the trusty Tamron 17-50 (which I also used on the Nikons) and the 430EX.

7th Tooth...

Past few days Jun Lee has been behaving quite cranky, not to mention pooing a lot, and erratically. Typically this would indicate she's teething again, and yesterday we were proven right.

After quite some time with 6 teeth (2 lower, 4 upper), we spotted a new tooth on the bottom left...

No sign yet on Jun Yen, but if past behaviour is anything to go by, it should be soon...