Thursday, August 26, 2010

Six Years of Jesse

Jesse is six today.

It wasn't all that long ago when he was just an itch in my groin a baby. And suddenly, lo and behold, the boy is six.

Suddenly, he's all independent and stuff. Suddenly he doesn't need Daddy to switch on the lights for him anymore. Suddenly he's operating the DVD player all on his own, and working the iPhone. Suddenly he's Googling, and reading his own bedtime stories. Suddenly he doesn't need Daddy to wipe his ass anymore.

And suddenly I miss it all. Except maybe that last one.

He's even begun dictating the terms of his birthday celebration. "Daddy, for my birthday, I want to go the the place," he explains, "where we eat the fish on the leaf, with the Roti Canai and the sugar."

It used to be McDonald's. But my little boy is all grown up now. *sniff*

In other news, Little Maddie is on her way into her McDonald's phase very soon. Ah, the stories I have to tell. :) More blogging!!!

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Calling Alvin!

I've been thinking; how is it that there are so many Chinese guys out there named Alvin? It boggles the mind.

I know no less than 10 Alvins - in all their many permutations of the name. There is the original Alvin. And then there's Alwin and Alwyn. And Elvin, of course. I also know an Alvern. And perhaps the most unique of them all, Alwynt. (I swear I'm not making this up.)

Somewhere along the Chinese anthropology, we decided that good ol' Ah Fook, Ah Keong and Ah Beng are just not cool enough. And so Chinese parents went looking for cool name to tag onto their kids. And we probably got some of these names from the Bible (the Christian names, as we used to call them), and a whole lot from Hollywood and other popular culture.

Which brings us right back to the question, where in the world did Alvin come from? As far as I know, I never read about an Alvin in biblical times. If he did indeed exist, he sure as heck didn't do anything important enough to be mentioned. Which leaves us with pop culture. There are only two Alvins that I'm aware of. There's Alvin the chipmunk, and Alvin Stardust who sang one sappy hit song in the 80s.

Surely your parents didn't name you after a chipmunk, did they? And who listens to Alvin Stardust anyway?

So Alvin, can you ask your parents?

Monday, June 28, 2010

Stealth Kisses

Maddie doesn't do kisses.

For some reason, our little girl doesn't liked to be kissed. Her lips are no man's (or woman's) land, which can be tough on Daddy cos she's got the cutest little lips that are just begging to be kissed. Heh. But when you come within stinky-breath distance from her face, our baby girl will take all necessary evasive action.

I've tried shaving, so that my stubble won't bother her. Heck, I've gone as far as to brush my teeth and gargle with mouthwash (in the middle of the day, mind you) to no avail. I come close and she'll twist and turn her head. Sometimes she'll even shove at my face. One time I swear she was trying to break my nose and shove the bone up my brain to put me out of my misery.

And then she shakes her head vigorously to display her disapproval. This is coming from a 13-month-old kid. So what's a Daddy to do, but to get creative?

Maddie has no problems kissing inanimate objects. Bring her dolly up to her face, ask her to kiss it and my little girl will crane her neck out to peck the doll. So I do that, but at the very last moment, I pull dolly away and steal a kiss, like a ninja. Score 1 for Daddy. She has since wised up to my ways and that trick's not working anymore.

I also found short-lived success by covering my lips with my hand or a sheet of paper, coming really close and planting one on her kisser. That one's not gonna work anymore, too.

Then one day while I carried her, I put on the most pathetic face I could muster and asked, "Don't you love Daddy? Don't you want to kiss Daddy a little?" She looked at me with a twinkle in her eye, leant forward... and gave me a friendly pat on the back.

*sigh* Guess I'll just have to settle. Until you're ready, sweetheart.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Drawing Inspiration

iphone_photo

Jesse made me this drawing a couple of days back. "Take this to work with you, Daddy," he said, "and show it to your friends". The kid's a narcissist, I tell you.

The drawing made me laugh. It's his cute little attempt at spelling and his record of events and observations that entertains me no end. I think I'll teach him to blog next. That oughtta be hilarious.

As for the drawing, the boy managed to sucker Uncle Jeff into getting him the new Iron Man toy as a present when they were out at Tropicana City. He's also awed by the fact that Iron Man has a triangle arc reactor this time around.

I dunno, but I thought that deserved a blog post in itself. :)

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Maddie 365

Maddie turned one 2 Sundays ago. As tradition, we had a little bash for the family. It was like a scene from Goodfellas.

There was Jeffrey and Stevie and Me. There was Gino from the family up north. There was Slicky Ricky and his brothers, Eric the Booze and Two-Tone Tony. There was Tall Joey, who was Lari's brother from the wife's family. Two Jasons. And you had Ashley The Eyes and his gal, Cotton Candy. And Jeremy 2K, who gets the nickname because he owes me 2K.

It was all in the family, but you get the idea. Now enjoy the photos. :)

Maddie tries Vitagen

It's Maddie's first birthday and we're a little liberal with her eating for the day. She gets a first taste of Vitagen and she loves the stuff. Check out the killer pose.

Buffet Spread

The spread. We catered this from D'Fortune and it was good. An order for 45 feeds 60, with some leftovers. Shhh...

Upset

Maddie complaining to Auntie Sue, "There's just too many people here, and they're eating my food!"

Sleeping with the aunties

The Grisly Sisters (mine), watching Maddie sleep. There's something discomfiting about this picture, because you should never sleep in the presence of these two. Especially when they have marker pens nearby. Trust me on this. Poor Maddie.

Maddie's birthday guests

The whole village. 60 of us, Grandfathers, grandmothers, grand uncles and aunties, uncles & aunties, cousins, etc. And this is not even the whole family! They came, they ate, they left. Just like locusts, except that we like them and they brought gifts. Heheh.

Birthday song

One for the album. Everyone singing the song, but Maddie just wants cake.

Kids attacking the cake

Kids ravaging the cake. This one comes from The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and it's got all kinds of goodies on top. The little horrors were just picking off the colourful treats, led by their leader, my son. :)

Flower Child

A little flower power for my little girl. Maddie's totally into the cake decoration. She's also into her very first taste of cake.

Maddie's Leftover Cake

No it wasn't the kids. This was all Mae. Apparently it's extremely difficult to cut a cake that's got all kinds of candies on it.

Cuppacake by Wondermilk

Cuppacakes from Wondermilk. Mae bought a whole box of the stuff and ate it for a week. Yeah. Eww. Too much of a good thing, as far as I'm concerned.

Maddie's Birthday Present

Maddie gets her first birthday present. She loves it, if only to jump up and down on it.

It was tiring just looking at all those people. And in the end, it was more a party for everyone else than it was for poor little Maddie. Sorry sweetheart. Daddy will make it up to you every birthday from here on, okay?

Friday, May 14, 2010

Reprise, Repeat, Repulsor

I haven't blogged in ages and I figured I should. Aside from being a nice reminder of things that happened in our lives, it's also pretty therapeutic. And Lord knows I need therapy from time to time. Comes with the whole territory of being Hainanese. Heh.

Anyway, it's been over six years of blogging now. Or semi-blogging, as the case may be. Jesse's going to Primary 1 next year. Maddie turns 1 this Sunday. I'm pushing 40. And Mae is 25. (It's statements like this last one that ensures I get to turn 40.)

At this stage, if you've read this far, you'd realise I'm just rambling. Sort of a freestyle riffing. There is probably a point to this post, but it might take awhile getting there. It probably has to do with growing old and getting verbose. A few more years, I'll be recounting war stories and their many reruns from a rocking chair.

So yeah, this one's about growing old, and growing up.

I look back at the last six years of blogging and I don't recognise the blogger. I've grown awfully cynical and perhaps even somewhat bitter. I don't marvel at too many things these days. And people don't surprise me any more. I've grown to hate more things than I love. Because with age and experience, comes the ability to see through all kinds of bullshit. You know, the kind that suspends your disbelief in anything, allowing you to be happy and well-adjusted.

Growing old sucks. Cos you can't find the time to watch a movie at the cinemas. No wonder I'm bitter.

I need to watch Iron Man 2 before I self-destruct.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Eight Months

Wow. It's been awhile since I was last here. Yeah, I really should blog more, but somehow, life got in the way. And poor Maddie went through 8 months of her life without so much as a squeak. :(

Sorry, Sweetheart, Daddy'll make it up to you. I promise. With any luck, that could well be a nice convertible for your 21st birthday. But for now, it'll have to be a bunch of catch-up posts. Heh.

maddie-may-wjesse

Fresh from the farm, Little Maddie meets her big brother for the very first time. Although she appears nonchalant despite Ko-Ko Jesse's gawks, we suspect she's just holding back. In time she would develop the very same goofy stare (complete with mouth agape) for Ko-Ko as well.

maddie-june-haircut

In the morning of her Full Moon party, Maddie gets her first haircut, courtesy of Grandma & Guys unisex salon. Despite my little girl's lack of hair, my mother takes another swipe at her barren locks at the very moment I had my back turned. Apparently, out of superstition. By the time I realised it, it was already too late. So, instead of stopping her, I stopped time. Via my Lumix LX-3.

maddie-july-sleep

In her second month, Maddie sleeps. A lot. Didn't help that she woke only during the hours I was at work. Sometimes when no one was looking, I'd wake her up just so I could enjoy her waking moments. Shhh...

maddie-aug-botaks

Three months on, and Maddie's still not doing terribly well in the hair department. We resorted to hats, hairbands, bonnets to help "girlify" her a little bit. In the end, I decided to lob off my hair too, just to keep my little girl company. Just so she can look back one day and say, "Hey, Daddy had a silly haircut too!" Mae hated the way I look. Silly woman.

maddie-sept-biting

After four months, Maddie starts practicing her bite. On anything, including her very accommodating big brother. She would eventually develop a couple of cute little gnashers.

maddie-oct-wmommy

At five months old, our little princess develops a winning smile. She's also gained a lot of strength in her legs, kicking about every time you carried her, all the while grinning from ear to ear. Mae is all smiles too at this point, since she started to be able to squeeze back into her old jeans.

maddie-nov-vw

Right on schedule, at the age of six months old, Maddie learnt to sit unaided. Here, we're prepping for one of those shots that was all the rage in the 70s. You know the put-you-kid-on-a-car shot? Helped that we had Mom's vintage VW at hand. This was also Maddie's first long-distance trip. We went back to my family home in Taiping. She cried most of the way cos she didn't want to be confined in a car seat. *sigh*

maddie-dec-ktinggi

For the Christmas holidays, we decided to take another trip. This time a short one to Bukit Tinggi, since Maddie wasn't terribly big on long car rides. The cool weather and the funky threads went down well with our little girl, hence the happy demeanour. BTW, those Vincent shoes she wears, we bought from FOS Kids & Teens. Cheap shoes for under 20 bucks. She can outgrow them without us feeling too much of a pinch. :D

maddie-jan-standing

And finally, this just in. At a ripe old age of 8 months a couple of weeks back, our little girl is learning how to stand on her own two feet. Assisted by her own two arms of course. And as usually, Daddy is proud as hell. :)

So there. A pretty long post, after a long break. And with plenty of pictures too. A good restart, hopefully. :)