Heather Hoh Dz Yun

Daisy The Pug with New Family

2012-02-12T15:41:00.002+08:00

Close to 6 years ago I've blogged about Heather and her encounter with Daisy the dog, well the breed of Pug. Heather was only less than a year old and Daisy I would say is probably a year old or something. Here is the link to the previous post of Daisy; http://heatherhoh.blogspot.com/2006/07/daisy-again-daisy-who-daisy-pug.html

Coming back to the topic of Daisy with new family, she had always been very close to Heather's grandparents rather than my late brother the actual owner because her grandparents are almost always at home compared to my late brother as he needs to work, but to bo fail that she is always at the care of my late brother's hands. It's sad to write that Daisy had lost him in 2008 due to an acute heart attack which he had that shocked all of us. Since then Daisy had grown more attached to Heather's grandparents as somewhat a reminder of him.

I must say that Daisy is the most pampered dog that we ever had and she is the probably the 3rd pedigree breed, years before that we had Boxer and then Labrador breed, but never had such a gentle and pampered pug before. I have since shifted out from our existing home after I got married and never had a chance to stay a night with Daisy, in my life she is probably the 7th or 8th we had and in our old place all of our dogs are buried in our garden yard, sounds like pet cemetery? Well we loved our dogs and we treated them a family and we gave them a proper burial instead dumping their carcass into some trash can or drain which most people do it.

Anyway the reason for this entry is about Daisy going to a new family, just a few months ago Heather's grandparents had sold our landed to property to have a smaller and easier maintenance due to their age, and the best choice that they went for is a condominium but the sad part is animals such as dogs are usually prohibited in these residential places, so a new family was identified and so happens this family is an all pug lover and I heard from my wife that this family actually rescues pug, like hose abandon ones. Here in this case of Daisy she is not abandon but just the conditions doesn't allow her to be with Heather's grandparents.

I know Heather loved Daisy very much and one particular Chinese New Year and I think it was last year she purposely went off with her grandfather just to play with daisy for an hour or two, it's sad to hear she has left our family but we are glad and it is a blessing that she is now with a family that has other pugs and so Daisy has company now, probably it's hard for her at first but I think she will blend in quickly as this family is a pug lover meaning there is much pampering involved.

The 2nd last photo is actually the new family with Daisy in it, she is on the right. I hope they don't mind as I've placed it on this blog without their permission as Daisy has been part of our family, though little do I know about Daisy's new family, I'm very thankful as they are referred to my parents by my wife's friend, but judging from the photo and how my dad explains about the way they take care of pugs and their living condition, I strongly believed it is a real blessing for Daisy to be part of this family so may god bless this family for their love and kindness.

Fashionista

2012-02-07T21:33:00.003+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

She is Heather my daughter and sometimes I find her having a very different choices of colors and expectations from others, few years ago when she started coloring, Heather always picked the darker colors and till present drawings and color choices often deviate from the standard. Imagine a house that she drew and later color them with not so normal colors that we often see everyday.

Well I can't argue much about her dresses and what she wears but we do often give her choice to choose her clothing when there is a need to get new ones, just weeks before the festive season we were doing some clothing shopping for her and while mommy is at the cashier waiting to pay for the purchase I was with Heather at the accessories section where there are heaps of add on glasses, belts, hats and whatever you need to pimp yourself after you put on your dress whatever you are wearing. We were at the fashion sun glasses section and she was trying out several glasses and finding it funny I started to take out my phone and snap pictures of her putting on these glasses.

Coming back to Fashionista, I don't believe this is in the dictionary yet, but I maybe wrong but the word is more recent and it is only mentioned in urban dictionary, and it goes;

A person devoted to fashion clothing, particularily unique or high fashion.

A person not to be called a fashionista would be someone who obsessivly follows trends. REAL fashionistas do not believe in trends.

I somehow like the last sentence 'REAL fashionistas do not believe in trends', even myself I don't follow trends but sometimes there is a wee bit tiny that you would mimic, like I'm definitely not going back to bell bottom pants.

7th Chinese New Year is Over!

2012-02-06T23:43:00.001+08:00

Yup! Today is the last day of Chinese New Year and marking the beginning of the Dragon year ahead. For this year I can see Heather is really getting into the 'Lou Sang' thing which only happens during this festive season and I have no count of how many times we have done it, only today itself we have done this twice.

Like any other year most days are nearly the same with day one going around visiting families and relatives and every year families and relatives will sure comment about how fast Heather is growing up and what a fine girl she is turning out to be. Come day 2 the usual of spending over half a day at her grandparents place, the mother side actually where she will be playing with her cousins and the word 'tired' is not in her vocabulary, and later followed by another drinking session at our place and followed by some gambling.

This festive season, I have to say that Heather has been testing my patience or rather exploring how pampered can she go, for the past few days she tried to show and project puppy faces to me in order to gain favors and obtaining something, I really had to say that parenting is hyper difficult.

Anyway festive season is gone and back to reality tomorrow. It has been tiring and lethargic after all the preparation and running around purchasing stuff to ensure the custom stays alive.

Will be another year for all of us to celebrate again and I hope things will be a blast in 2013.

wordpress.com

2012-02-06T18:45:00.002+08:00

I'm not losing out, if my little brother Aidan is in wordpress.com; I gotta be on it as well.

Well just like Aidan; www.heatherhoh.blogspot.com is now available in www.heatherhoh.wordpress.com as well. Will give it a couple of months or a year to see which is better until a permanent migration.

New environment, New Stuff & New Place

2012-01-04T14:26:00.001+08:00

This day is true first day of school for Heather, being in primary one, her school time starts in the afternoon session, she will to drill 3 years here before she can get into the morning session. No worries, I trust she will get there soon enough as time now doesn't seem too long to us adults.

I took a full day of from work and previously a day for her orientation, people do say that taking leave is actually taking time off for yourself, but these days taking leave from work is mainly for the children. It was a full hectic day actually and it all began this morning at 7am onwards. Hectic? Well the morning session was all about Heather's little brother who starts his 2nd year kindergarten. It was a teardrop event for him, rushing back after Aidan was quickly off to a quick lunch for Heather as her school starts at 12.45pm, we reached there pretty early thanks to the close vicinity of our residential area. Her grandfather, the mother side was also part of the entourage, reason being we had plan a few days earlier to bring her grandfather to meet up with her day care center which is just a stone throw away from the school. After that the grandfather needed to pick Heather's cousin up while I shuffle quickly into the school compound to bring her to the assembly hall prior to going to class.

It was actually a 20 minute briefing an gathering for the children before the respective class leader holding up a small black placard indicating their classroom. By 1.15pm they were already settled and seated in their own place and Heather choose her seat to in front, during my days I never like to be in the front but now I seem to understand that being in front has the fullest advantage of both vision and sound from the teacher, as nobody else would want to sit in front, Heather was joined by a plump kid which awkwardly cries his heart out and jokes aside that I should not talk to much knowing Heather's little brother will join the marching band in 2 years time. The funny thing is Heather being herself had to coax the boy and when I look her, she gave me that laughing grin, as if she finds him a joke as well. Anyway another 30 minutes I'll need to be back to the school to meet her for recess time, multitasking myself in the pos office now waiting to renew my road tax.

Orientation Day

2011-12-30T22:52:00.001+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

It's back to school!, really? well not really as today was her orientation day at her new school, Heather is moving up to Primary 1 after 3 years in Kindergarten. I must have mentioned hundreds of donkey times that time passes quickly and the fact is. It was like yesterday that I took her to the very first day to Kindergarten and reading what I had documented before (http://heatherhoh.blogspot.com/2009/01/heathers-first-day-in-kindergarten-im.html) does bring back the good memories, clearly remembered that I'd probably more anxious and nervous than Heather herself, one things for sure that she is probably filled with enthusiasm and confusion of what to expect.

The same goes, for the last couple of days I had the very same feeling and though today was not the real first day of school rather an orientation, nonetheless the same feelings lurk. It was an early morning activity where these few days because of our work the children had to wake up around about 6 plus and hurried of to the shower as we need to drop them to my in-laws place, since today was her orientation, I took the day off from work and there burns one day of leave entitlement just to go to school with her.

As soon as we reached and entered the school compound, we were no different than the vast amount of parents scuffling around the school compound to look for their children's designated classroom. Heather's class room was 1T and it took sometime to find it as it was located in Block C, as Block A it ends with 1S, so one would think that 1T would continue to Block B but there was a skip. Upon arrival to her classroom, we were told to gather at the main hall where an actual assembly was done to the children and parents like me just need to stay aside and watch, throughout the assembly it was a speech that you need to do this and that and not to do that and this, and the words just keep coming on the rules of hair, uniform, behavior and the need to go to toilet.

After the speech the children continued to be in their classroom groups whereby the teacher would be like a tour guide holding up a plank with 1T written on it. Basically the scenic route was to the little girls and boys room, the canteen, recycle area and the best part was to show off the schools Koi pond, damn! they had that in the school and it was nicely maintain to my surprise.

The whole thing actually took well over 2 hours as much time is needed to fill up some dental, insurance and personal particulars form, by 11am that ended the whole orientation program, Heather seems cool throughout the program and it thank god Heather is not one of those many kids who cried and burst the silence to their parents, I could imagine Kindergarten but Primary 1? the truth to be told as after seeing these kids, I reflect upon Aidan, 2 years and it will be his turn.

Parting is such a painful experience!

2011-12-26T13:00:00.001+08:00

Well like they say all good things must come to an end, this morning Heather was all long face and with aplenty of sourness when we said that we are packing up and checking out. I know the feeling and I too wish it was longer but the same question is how long is enough?

Some photos taken around the resort this morning.

My Holiday & I Deserve It.

2011-12-25T21:11:00.001+08:00

Yah right! She deserves the holiday, well actually she does, not because it has become a usual tradition that we leave our home during Christmas but because she did well in her finals for kindergarten.

This time around the destination is Avillion PD, the first time we ever left during Christmas was to KL city when Aidan was just a year old, followed by going to the beach just to chill off for the year but that of course it's for our benefit but these days of going away the children enjoyed it more. We too enjoyed in such a way that we do nothing for a few days nothing but just eat, swim and sleep, and talking about doing nothing tomorrow holiday is over and we are going back, what a bummer and a show stopper.

Probably age is up and I do wish it can go on for a few more days but as it goes good things must always come to an end and somehow i dread going to work and I'm also a kid that wants more and longer fun!

So what's for next year? Well I had told her that if everything goes well most importantly her results is good, I might just take her to experience her first flight and go somewhere else and new. Destination still unknown yet but will have to see several factors such as her results most importantly, the days we can go off and lastly finances.

Train Ride - Slight Mishap

2011-11-29T23:27:00.001+08:00

The same goes as one good turns deserves another. So last Sunday was Heather's second train ride and as mentioned in Aidan'a blog that there wasn't much crowd on that day and happens that the train had ample space and the children had good seats looking out the the window while the train passes over buildings and landmarks.

We took the train from near our home around 10.15am and we arrived to our destination KLCC or the twin towers around 10.45am, probably this would be the day that I remember most as it was like those Final Destination moves, as the train stopped at the station, usually there are two doors which one belongs to the train and the other is the station door, the train door opened simultaneously with the station door to let the passengers out, mommy and Aidan got out first followed by a few more in front and then came to us.

Usually if the door is about to close there would be some beeps and warning tone, as me and Heather approached the door, Heather was right in front of me and he was holding on to my hand and suddenly the train door closed as it hit my hand the train door retracted but the station door closed as well and that had a tight squeeze to Heather's hand, so happb there was a fellow Malaysian who say as he was also looking behind to check if his family was out but as soon as he saw Heather's hand stuck between doors he immediately pry open the door with his hands and luckily the station door retracted, also the train door had also squeezed me a few times as I was trying to get out and the same happen to the man's family.

It was a lucky moment and Heather only complained about a light pain to the forearm. Following the day my mood wasn't good at all and I was furious with the train operators as I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that their technicians do routine maintainence and not sleeping on the job.

Anyway I wrote a formal complaint and they have yet to come back to me officially, I had also tweeted many times to them about this case.

The return journey was a good one as I ha expected heaps of people like the last trip to sardine pack the caboose. But it was okay the children had Rhee seats as well and enjoyed the scenery back.

Graduation.

2011-11-18T15:23:00.007+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

One down, 4 more to go. Which 4? Primary, Secondary, College, & University, well that's pretty much the basic but people are actually going for more like at least 5 to 6. Well myself I went through 6 with a Master's d

egree. That's what is needed during my generation and talking about making money and getting rich, well that's zero to none.

I always explain that back to my parent's days because people are least education and very

little in terms of paper qualification, so that makes an impact and edge when looking for a job, those days if you have a diploma you already have the edge, corporate look for paper qualification then, as decades pass, because everyone thought the same way, more and more people are having paper qualification and in some countries like India, the

streets are full of at least Master's degree. Recent country now is China, where everyone is fighting for paper qualifications so this country will eventually become like India where there is a scare in available jobs.

I seriously wouldn't want my children to study and eat on books for the rest of their life as

I can see paper qualification is loosing their attractiveness, literally every tom dick and harry has at least a degree qualification and this makes selection size a little harder. Seeing on the way the world trend is moving towards hard skills, just like those days when our parents lived on. If you know how to cook, repair, or whatever the hands can be used, the money and the living is there.

Back to Heather's graduation, got too carried away talking about

career development. So today is her big day and finally after 3 years she is done and gone with Kindergartden, it was like yesterday when I took the time off from work and fetched her to Kindergartden, I remembered her aunty was saying that she couldn't sleep and she was anxious over going to class, I could clearly remember and my feelings on writing this entry is proud and somewhat sad that my little girl is growing up quickly. Thinking back the first day, I could see the brave girl in her for not crying as most of her classmates then were drowning themselves in their tears, but for Heather she is an observant, being in a strange new place and meeting new people, she observed and followed what the teacher wanted her to do, she was great.

After 3 years now, she is done and finished with it, I could not really remember what I did for the last 3 years, but I could certainly remember how her first day was and yesterday, it's like reading the first and the last chapter of the book, besides that during her 3 years in this Kindergarten, she had gotten loads of trophies for her participation in story telling, drawing and various competition.

So in the next month plus or so she will start a new chapter of her life and for us parents, nothing's change actually just keep on working to make ends meet. Given a time machine, many would say that want to travel back to change certain things, but for me I think to re-live the days of being children is far more priceless.

Concert time again!

2011-10-15T20:11:00.005+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Well back in 2009 Heather had her first concert dance performance and after being a senior and year 3 student, this would actually be her last concert for this kindergarten as she is moving on to primary one next year. Being her last for this school she was given multiple roles including the opening speech in English, when I knew about it I was really praying she will not screw up as standing alone in front of the stage with hundreds of people is not exactly breath taking. I'm surprised that she took every word an hand action with accuracy. She also had other roles of being in a drama and the last closing performance act which I have yet to see as I'm currently blogging live from the concert hall.

And so the continuation of this blog at home because the day after I need to take off for a week business trip, it is only now I have the time to finish up this entry. Seen here are some photos at home before departing to the concert hall, you'll notice that she had a nice bun on top of her head, I shall be covering this later, but coming back to the Heather's final concert in her kindergarten, I'm surprised that she didn't freak out or anything, could it be the teaching of this school is top notch? and that they encourage public performance? Well I certainly would agree that the more someone does public performance the better they will be when they grow up as everything is about facing the public and matters most to connect to people. 3 Years ago when I attended the first kindergarten concert I have seen other parent's children coming out to give their opening public speech and I never could imagine Heather was selected to do the English opening speech, I mean there should be many other qualified students in her class and in the entire year 3 students but Heather was the chosen one, so thinking about it she would have did her teacher and the school proud if not how would she be selected? Just weeks before when I first asked her to recite it out, she forgot some words but she manage to do over 80% of it in memory, and of course being in front of hundreds of people the anxiety would have been stronger on our side as parents rather than her. She did exceptionally well with word for word accuracy, and pretty good standard for a 6 year old child. Again I would have urinated in my pants when I was her age. Seen here is a recorded video of her doing the speech, mind the quality as it was recorded with my rusty 4 year old Canon IXUS camera, would certainly be looking for a replacement on doing HD movies.

Overall, good job to her and I'm proud to have her as a daughter. Will be covering more blog entries on her concert with more pictures of Heather.

Taking down your orders!

2011-10-10T12:03:00.001+08:00

Decades ago when someone goes to a diner or a restaurant, the orders are usually taken by a waiter or waitress or in a more traditional Asian restaurant with multiple stores and choices the customer will walk to their individual stores to call for their orders and hopefully minutes later the food will arrive.

In a more modern environment now with new standards and type of diner such as the bloom of cafes' and such the waiter/waitress no longer lingers around to take your orders once the menu is placed, but now they provide order memo for you to write down the number of your meal from the menu and call them once you are done and so happens for the very first time we allowed Heather to write them as she is probably old enough and she is able to write simple words now. So her first time actually went well!

Official Birthday Celebration

2011-10-01T21:38:00.007+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

What could be a blast of having birthday celebrations again and again, so is overdoing a question? Technically not in Heather's context, so lets rewind back to last Saturday which it was her Chinese birthday and we sort of had a small piece of cake candle blowing done, see previous journal entry.

Came Thursday where she had a birthday bash with her classmates in Kindergarten and a huge custom cake to go with it and accompanied by party packs giveaways to her classmates both at school and in daycare. That's already counted twice the birthday celebration, so today Saturday we had brought Heather to TGIF,

well it's a tex-mex dining concept which the name goes by the popular sentence Thank God It's Friday. I'm not too sure how the word came about but I reckon it's from working class people who is looking forward to the weekend and celebration on Friday as it is the end of the week, I thought it will also be celebrated by much drinking, laughter and people going crazy to wind down for the week.

Anyway coming back to Heather and TGIF, last

year we brought Heather to Chilli's in which is another tex-mex style dining restaurant, so we decided to try TGIF for a change as these two diner offers serenading and singing in public to your birthday and of course offering FREE cakes or desserts to keep the birthday person happy. This time we had also brought Heather's grandparents to come along for the celebration and she is happy to see her grandparents on this day.

It wasn't really something to shout about but the fact is the whole family get together on her birthday and obviously Heather loves to feel important especially on her birthday, so the important moment came when all the dinner is finished and from a corner 3 of the TGIF staff came out with 3 small cup desserts with a unlit candle on it, Heather didn't know about it at first until one of the staff was trying to role play her to give a thank you speech to her parents for coming to TGIF and organizing, Heather was reluctant at first because the staff actually gave her a ketchup bottle to make believe as a microphone, it was hilarious and after a few seconds of pause she played along and said thank you to mommy and daddy. The next thing was Heather was made to stand on top of the chair and the whole diner was looking at her because in these situation who doesn't want some entertainment, but it's her birthday and the whole world should know. Once she got up to the chair everyone sang the 'Happy Birthday' song and finally Heather made a wish and blew her candle, I thought it was the end but the staff's of TGIF continue to cheer and sang their own rendition of birthday song.

The movie was shot and it was uploaded here, but do ignore the watermark of 'unregistered', I was trying to get some converter as the Iphone movie format was different. As this is a quick job, I have to used whatever I can get hold.

It was a blast for her and my guess is she is looking forward to another birthday party soon. But the next one would be her brother Aidan.

It's my Birthday!

2011-09-30T23:04:00.004+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Yes, it's my Birthday today and I'm 6. Heather

had actually celebrated her birthday with her friends yesterday at her kindergarten, and according to her it was an awesome coolest one, mommy did said that since it will be her last year in kindergarten and usually once come primary 1 most of her kindergarten friends will be forgotten and the truth is a fact.

I never recalled any of my kindergarten friends and I could not recall anyone had followed me to primary 1, for Heather knowing that he area which she was brought up with this kindergarten the chances are impossible to none when she moves back here to Taman Megah next year for primary 1.

Anyway coming back to her party, mommy made alot of effort to specially ordered the cake custom made from her friend and also took the liberty to prepare party packs filled with goodies and playstuff last Sunday. I recalled that she and Heather spend some constructive time preparing these party packs to be distributed to both her kindergarten mates and day care friends. As I picked her up today, the first question mommy asked if she had a good time at her birthday party and with much happiness she replied with a big 'yes', w

ell as long as she is happy than we are okay.

She turns 6 today and she will be 7 next year, time really do passes quickly.

Heather 7th Chinese Birthday

2011-09-25T14:43:00.002+08:00

It was Heather's Chinese birthday yesterday, in mommy's tradition if one celebrates Chinese birthday, the person should eat flour noodles, with 2 hard boil eggs and a piece of chicken maryland.

According to mommy this is the first time she ever gets a chance to cook as all the years passed her Chinese birthday always falls on the weekday, so happens this time it fell on a weekend and mommy had the time to do it. I've missed out the photo for the bowl of flour noodles but I reckon next year we should get a chance.

As for today, because I had gotten like 2 slices of cake yesterday, one was consumed during lunch yesterday and the other was left in the fridge, with much enthusiasm over candle blowing we had to make her request come through, and so the slice of cake will do, we put up a stick of candle and there we went singing happy birthday.

He Ain't Heavy, He's my Brother

2011-09-04T15:28:00.004+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

The title 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother' is actually a song made famous by the Hollies back in 1969, if one studies the lyrics and also there several famous artist impression of this sentence being made into pictures, the most popular one is the older brother carrying the younger brother behind his back.

The song tells that true family brother relationship, the song starts as saying 'The road is long with many a winding turn that leads us to who knows where, but I'm strong, strong enough to carry him, he ain't heavy, he's my brother'. So what's this gotta do with Heather's blog entry? Well as parents we do always tell our children that the next closest thing is your brother or sister and that we parents may not always be there for them forever as no one is immortal, the only one that could look after you and care for you is always your family, and closest family meaning your brother or sister. Though I can see many quarrels and fighting between them, but nevertheless they are always playing together, though often complaint about one another, as parents I do hope when they grow up they will look after each other, the same that goes with the song that he/she isn't heavy.

As the song lyrics continues, his welfare is my concern, no burden is he to bear, we'll get there. Be it Aidan or Heather, as brother and sister they have too look out for each other and I do pray that they do, following on one post in her brother's blog "my mentor, my best friend, my sister", I strongly believe both should mentor one another and share experiences, happiness and knowledge together.

Barriers To Have Fun

2011-08-20T21:25:00.003+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

We were once a kid, period, no doubt of it. But

have we actually forgotten how to be a kid? I think so and if we still act like a kid means we will

be plagued with people calling us immature. So what's with the greatness of being a kid? I shall explain as we were at the playground behind our home this evening for the very first outing of the kids riding their push scooter. The moment when we reach the playground the kids dropped their interest of playing with the push scooter immediately and scuffle off to take the swings and the slide ride, both Heather and Aidan broke the entire silence of the playground as it was still early and there was hardly any other people there, their shouts could be heard over the entire field as it echoed off the surrounding homes, embarrassing? Yes it was but as a kid we could be easily forgiven, coming back to having fun.

They were so actively running around going up and sliding down and doing it over and over again, and I turn to my wife and told her that our children had probably never gone out for a long time and it was a moment of energy release like an atomic bomb chain reaction going, I had also told her that as a kid they really know how to have fun, and so the question of us as an adult, have we forgotten to have fun like them?

Every shout and energy burn is that they do is releasing every endorphin in their bodies, which is why they can shout, laugh and run all over the place like there is no tomorrow, as they had their fun I keep thinking how is it feel to have those endorphin now and totally not thinking of any other thing but to have fun? I'd probably guess as an adult, we sometimes became to mature till we forget how to have fun and be a kid. If you ask me, I would do anything to have that kind of fun and to be able to feel like a kid again instead of catching up with society pressure.

First Scooter

2011-08-07T23:13:00.005+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

I did ask myself is it too late that Heather has gotten her first push scooter? Let me explain, children push scooter is constructed out of a small platform usually with one wheel behind and one in front for direction maneuvering, it is probably in the market for many
donkey years, it has probably evolved out of in-line skates where they are made of high durability polyutherene material. Children scooters remained the same for many years, there are still foot powered where the pushing energy of ones foot is transferred to the scooter and thus forward momentum.

So what the nuts am I talking about physics and engineering here? As I found out that though this vehicle looks easy but riding them isn't that easy after all and let alone the understanding from children. I had certainly thought it would just be an easy learn from Heather and her brother Aidan, but it seems Heather needed more time and

practice to actually know how to ride this scooter.

The idea of getting her one didn't really came serious and I knew my neighbor's children had one which usually in the evening either the younger sister or brother would take turns to ride it around the house compound. All this time a bike is more relevant for both Heather and Aidan, in which Heather had already gotten a bike but to me it's either the problem lies with us parents for not bringing the bike out for her to ride or she is plain not interested in them.

So it came a time, well it was last week when one of my work colleague was asking where to buy children's bicycle and what was the minimum price to it? He was surprised that children's bike do cost a bomb these days and due to budget constraint he had gotten a scooter for his cousin's sister kid, and so it began me thinking should I get these scooters for my children as well,

and true enough we had gone to Toy 'R' Us over the weekend and explored these scooters, to my amazement they had so many themes for these scooters and it kept me thinking that it must be hell of a good business if not these people would not incorporate latest themes in them.

While at the scooter stocks, they had Ben 10, Transformers, Barbie, Disney Princess, Cars, and Winnie The Pooh. As usual me

daughter had settled for Barbie and Aidan had settled for Cars, so next comes the safety stuff, being a moving vehicle one must always protect our heads especially head concussion and injury is pretty nasty stuff. What other choice but to get helmets, and the good thing is that children helmets now comes with knee and elbow pads which are a bonus and value added.

The moment when they got back home, Heather was more anxious to see her scooter assembled and giving it a go but the thing is the helmet does seem to be very comfortable for her, but it isn't a choice if she decides to take the scooter onto the public roads.

Story Telling - Revisited

2011-05-29T23:08:00.006+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Back in 2009 (http://heatherhoh.blogspot.com/2009/06/first-award.html)

when Heather first entered Kindergarten when she was only 4 then, she had to participate in story telling competition, at that time she had already exceeded my expectations to be able to recite the whole story about 'A Selfish Cat', at that age she had achieved top position for being the best.

Just last week when she tells me that she will be doing another story telling competition that week and unlike the last time she didn't recite any story to me and heck i know about the title as well. I knew she would do well and I just told her to give it the best, I'd reckon that being a 6 year old now she would be shy to perform in front of her parents as she is growing up and starting to understand the meaning of stage fright and shyness. I can remember there are times when I feel embarrass to do something in front of people unless I'm in the performance mood.

Then it came the next day whereby it was

parents/teachers day where we would be seeing their class teacher one on one to discuss about our kid in school and the teachers are ready to answer any question pose

d by the parent and let alone their complaint about our kids. When it came to my turn to see Heather's class teacher Mrs. Chan, the first sentence she had told me that Heather did very well for yesterday's story telling competition, she didn't elaborate further about 'very well' and I didn't really dwell further but just throw an open ended question 'is it?', we then proceeded to talk about her results and behavior in school. Overall she was 8th in her class and majority of her test we at 100%. The only thing that her teacher complaint about her is her feisty attitude where nobody can bully her but she can go around bullying others. Sounds independent? Though I don't condone it but it is good in away that she is strong and can never be pushed around, but at this age probably it's not right, so I reckon a talk with her would be good.

So the next day when she came back for her usual weekend at our place, she immediately showed me her trophy and I was set aback by the position, it was not 'best story teller' like what she did in 2009 and 3rd place in 2010, but No.1 position which she had rebounded back from previous year. What more could a parent asked for, with the recent mid term examination results whereby majority had hit 100% and coming back as No.1 English story telling, it is a double celebration and joy for us. I'm totally proud of her and we sort of had an exchange of promise that if she does well for her exams, we are going to the beach for a good holiday, so it looks like she will be getting the holiday she deserves. By the way and I think the story is 'A Kind Mouse'.

So this trophy is definitely an added treasure to Heather's many achievements that she has done since the start of 2009. Again I have to say that I'm very proud of her.

Silly Bandz

2011-05-29T22:38:00.007+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Most people do not know about Silly Bandz, in fact I didn't know about Silly Bandz until last year 2010 when my wife got some packs of it back for the kids. I literally had no idea what Silly Bandz was and my wife tells me it is the latest craze in the States, I couldn't be bothered but I know my kids especially Heather was crazy over them.

So what are Silly Bandz actually? Basically they are rubber bands made of silicone rubber which are formed into shapes including animals, objects, numbers, letters and now going into games, celebrities, cartoon character and many more. As I mentioned I couldn't be bothered about Silly Bandz and had no interest in finding out more about them, it is only today when I put Heather's story telling trophy which she had won a few days ago into her display cabinet to join the rest of her achievements and it is then only I saw the packs of Silly Bandz. After some Googling and searching around for sources and info about Silly Bandz it is now only I knew it is a total hit in the States and the number of people writing into Answers.com and Yahoo Answers to ask where to get Silly Bandz in Malaysia?

My wife actually got them from Borders Bookstore, but I reckon those are basic shapes and themes, I've visited the official site and there

we have Spongebob, Angry Bird, Justin Bieber and even Kim Kardashian. The ones that my kids are having are basic stuff like princess, dinosaur, and animals. I seriously do not mind have Justin Bieber to join the Bieber fever and even Spongebob, though I'm not really a fan but it would be fun to have them in collection and seriously waste some money, who doesn't these days?

Further to their catalogue of Silly Bandz, they have Marvel, Batman, Dora, Toy Story, even Transformers, some sources indicated that Silly Bandz are actualy banned in classrooms for being to distracting, as students are busy trading with one and other, there are even scary stories that Silly Bandz can cause blood circulation cut off whereby the children wore them too high up their arms causing severed blood flow restriction. I believe all toys and items are at the parents onus to monitor and educate on how they use and play them.

JunkMonkey Noobie

2011-05-28T21:40:00.013+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

4 years ago (http://heatherhoh.blogspot.com/2007/09/first-bag.html)

I've actually blogged about Heather having her very own first bag and because she had loved that purple dinosaur so much I can't help but to fulfill her

wishes, being a 2 year old one might guess why would she want a bag? I could not recall if I ever had a bag at that age and I reckon I don't. Well mommy had always wanted her children to be occupied with at least some activities to maintain their brain development be it drawing or writing, and so the bag would contain color pencils, crayons, activity books and coloring books but I beg to differ that it was more of wanting to keep the children occupied while we enjoyed our cuppa or cups of joe at our favorite breakfast cafe 'The Coffee Bean.'

She is now turning 6 this year and coming back to bags, I reckon she must have like over 4 bags with one recently I bought as a Christmas present, it was a Crumpler Baby Anchovy which now she is using it for her outing bag to keep her activity books, coloring books, crayons and color pencils whenever we go to the shopping mall or have our meals at cafes' and restaurants.

So is a bag always a bag? or does it shows what lifestyle or culture are you? Unlike designer bags it often depicts your status or how well you want to blend into society. I maybe wrong but the modern culture or society now goes for bags that are of practical to their usage and lifestyle, think about it as the modern age now carries at least a few gadgets to work or play, and most designer bags wasn't really designed to carry all these gadgets let alone given the storage space.

I'm actually a very meticulous person when comes to bags which is why I've got like dozens of them being kept cold storage because after sometime using it, you'll eventually find that it doesn't serve the purpose and there are limitations. Call me crazy but I think I'm not alone, on my everyday work usage I need a bag that carries a laptop, the charger, various USB cables, sync cables, thumb drives, portable hard drive, digital camera, Ipod touch, diary, spectacle casing, files and a calculator. That is a whole lot of rubbish in the bag, so need I say more when I say I'm very meticulous with bags?

So what's with JunkMonkey Noobie?

It's a bag actually, and you've might have guessed it since we are talking about bags since the start, it is a cool name bestowed by the creator, it measures 22cm in height, 28cm in width, and 10cm in depth. I was actually looking for a lifestyle bag for sometime to replace Heather's music school bag which she is using the one given by previous Yamaha Music School, but because she is attached to another school now, carrying that bag doesn't seem to jive, so enter this JunkMonkey Noobie which proves to be a better replacement because of aplenty storage and compartment, the previous bag was just one opening and she had to fit all books, color pencils, writing materials, sanitizing lotion, her hair band, her hair clips, and packets of tissue (hey! she is a girl after all), with her new bag she can actually organize some of her stuff better now by separating books and other stuff.

We had two of these JunkMonkey Noobie, the creator called the colors Mario Red and Annoying Dinosaur Purple. I began to wonder if the creator actually hated Barney being purple and his annoying voice, anyway Heather had picked the Annoying Dinosaur Purple and left the Mario Red to Aidan. She was thrilled with the bag and she kept nodding her head when I asked if she liked it. Today was actually the first day she took this bag to her music class and she seem a bit shy because everyone was teasing her including her tutors wowing her for having a new cool bag.

I had to say that the material used is top notch and tough, they call it 1000 denier nylon fabric and it's very suitable for kids everyday use and abuse, those who have children can actually notice that their school bag can easily be debilated after a few months of usage and it become brittle and tear easily by the end of school term. Sometimes I think my children are like monkeys and we have to replace their school bag every half yearly, sometimes I wish they make school bags like they use to, I probably remembered my school bag had lasted at least a year or two before we replace, some even go for years until it tears and crack.

So for this JunkMonkey Noobie, Heather could now manage her music class stuff like never before, because of the individual components, tissue packs, hair bands and sanitizing lotion can now be separated and easily reached and found unlike the previous bag, all eggs are in one basket. I must say most fancy bags sold outside are more or less like a basket where everything are tucked inside, however these lifestyle bags are created with the understanding of people usage today, these components are made in mind that people do carry Ipod, headphones, calculators, cables, laptop, Ipad and other gadgets that needs easy reach and storage.

'F' word

2011-04-29T13:34:00.002+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

So comes the popular word which everyone in the world uses, the 'F' word or in plain context the 'Fuck' word. It is actually used in every context of English, it can be used as a single just 'F', plural or a noun. Contrary to popular belief, the 'F' word is still a vulgar word while some just use it as an everyday figure of speech to express anger, happiness or excitement. The word is even made more popular now as they call it the 'F' bomb ever since the popular celebrity Christian Bale in one particular movie shoot claims to have used the 'F' bomb

36 times to the director of photography.

Ok! so why am I inputting this article about the 'F' word into Heather's blogsite? well you guess it! and yes it was the very first time I heard her

using the 'F' word, it was a week ago when I picked her up from her auntie's place and while I strapping Aidan onto his car seat, I heard her telling her uncle from within the car 'goodbye Fuckers' which he also outside waving goodbye to both Heather and Aidan, immediately I was set aback and it didn't occur to me to ask her where she learned it from but rather expressed with anger and telling her that do not ever use this vulgar word again. I reiterate several times to her that this is a vulgar word and never to use it again while driving back.

So later in the night just after dinner, I conveyed what Heather said earlier that evening and mommy was a little outrage and started asking me why I didn't ask where she learned it from? To me I reckon it was most probably the older children in her day care center but to satisfy our curiosity, I called Heather in and ask where or who taught her the 'F' word?

As usual she shrugged her shoulders in a very denial state and claims do not know who taught her, so after some a few hard and persistent interrogation she claims that her other auntie's two boys taught her. Again we reiterated that it was a vulgar word and it would be very rude to use the word. Keeping my fingers crossed, I do hope she understands, on the same night I had updated my facebook status that Heather used the 'F' word, and what came after that was something that I hadn't agree on.

So came the following week, mommy had telephoned her other auntie to convey what had happen and Heather had a new vocabulary, mommy told me that night when I updated my facebook status, her cousin had told the auntie that her two boys had taught Heather the 'F' word, so what happen is highly predictable, both had gotten some spanking.

It was told that sometime ago the boys had heard the 'F' word from school and they had came back to ask the mother what word was it, during her explanation Heather actually came in to join the conversation or so called the education session about the 'F' word. Didn't realize that she has kept this vocabulary and decide to use it.

Anyway, she is 6 and being a kid these days, the 'F' word is no longer exclusive and we do hear about it often and even movies these days then to overuse this word.

I'm not being angry over her, but I do hope she will use it properly when the time comes but certainly not at this age.

Bye Bye Playroom

2011-04-03T10:15:00.006+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Has it been 3 years having the playroom? as in a pure playroom? Time to say goodbye to the playroom. Back in the old house there wasn't really a proper playroom rather just a corner with the assortment of toys, and there is where Heather had her fun, even with the new place and a dedicated playroom, Heather didn't make much use of it as most of the time when she returns she would be more on Playhouse Disney. These days the so called playroom is used as a weekend tuition class from us.

We've decided that 2011 would be an end to the playroom and it's time to built a proper

study room with book shelves as in 2010 Heather always wanted a table for herself after doing some stuff on my table downstairs. It was a joy for her few weeks ago when we first started

to install new book shelves for her and Aidan's collection of books.

It was even more joyful last week when she woke up from her afternoon nap on Sunday and found her table was built with movable drawers for her miscellaneous storages. The usual Hello Kitty Panasonic desk lamp was used back as originally it was hers.

The whole revamping of the room didn't come cheap, and a couple of grand was spend on it, but to me at the end of the day this is part of her education and learning progress and it is every buck well spend. Seeing her happy and motivated to study because of her new table is a good sign. As for the shelves it is still in the process of arrangement as we are still trying to clear all her years of paper, magazines and some toys collection.

6th Chinese New Year

2011-02-05T21:13:00.005+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Yes I'm going to be 6 years old year and this is my 6th Chinese New Year, I still get red packets also known as 'ang pau' and yes I do know there is cash ins

ide them, the question is what am I going to do with the cash? As far as I know each red packet th

at I receive I will need to pass it to mommy for keeping. Well that is probably what Heather would be thinking?

At Heather's age, I already knew what I wanted to do with the red packets, well actually what's inside matters most. Looking back at Chinese New Year, what I had enjoyed most is the red packets whereby my mom didn't really kept it for me but rather allowed me to enjoy the fruits given by people, in which I think that is not right and since I'm an adult now. For every buck that I get, I would spend it on relentless rubbish, in other words toys, back then there wasn't much of toys to choose from, we didn't get PSP, Ipod, Ipad or PlayStation, but rather the then high tech toys was remote control

cars and Game & Watch as shown in this picture, it was the iconic toy that every kid wants to get their hands on.

But who can blame me?, I was a kid then and I just love to play, spending on toys keeps me happy and I think I'm pretty much a spoil brat, yes a spoil brat. Actually till today I still consider myself a spoil brat as I still do love spending money on toys, and things of fun that makes me happy, but most importantly you must know how to earn to spend. So for the time being whatever Heather wants she must work for it, in present meaning to her is to study.

So coming back to her 6th Chinese New Year, this year is the year of the Rabbit, and it's not Heather's year because she is a Rooster, but it's daddy and mommy's year as we both are Rabbits. Sometimes in Chinese zodiac, it doesn't mean that if you're Rabbit and this year is the year of the Rabbit is good for us, almost always things can go against you. Anyway I'm not a zodiac or a feng shui master so I will not dwell into this.

For this year Chinese New Year, it has been fun for Heather, collecting red packets, attending reunion dinner and having fun with both sides of uncles and aunties is a blast for her, most of them are praising Heather for getting more intelligent and getting more good looking and mature. To me, I can say she is growing up quickly and getting more mature but of course at this age, a kid is still a kid, somethings they are still very childish and do often get on your nerves. Overall she has been very enthusiastic of Chinese New Year, and hoping it will never end, as today I told her that Chinese New Year has ended and she refuse to accept that it is, guess she is enjoying every moment till school starts on Monday.

The Tooth Fairy?

2011-01-07T22:35:00.004+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

The Tooth Fairy folklore probably existed over a

hundred years ago and it's still a very strong tradition in Europe. So why are we talking about Tooth Fairies? Let's look at the explanation taken from Wikipedia "The legend of the tooth fairy is about a fairy that gives a child money and gifts in exchange for a baby tooth that has fallen out."

Same question again, why are we talking about Tooth Fairies? Yesterday Heather lost her first tooth naturally, she was actually complaining about a loose front bottom tooth a week ago and a few days ago I saw there was another tooth struggling for the same space as the current one. Yesterday it finally came out naturally and I was actually asking her where did she put her tooth, she replied that she had thrown it away. I was meaning to tell her the folklore about Tooth Fairy and hoping that if she would have kept it under her pillow tonight and I would probably slip in a buck or two just to go along with the folklore of Tooth Fairy.

When we are born we actually had these set of so called 'Deciduous Teeth' or some they call it reborner teeth, I certainly cannot remember when I lost my first tooth, all I know is that once in a while I would use my fingers to feel all of them and when comes to one that is loose I will know it's time to say goodbye to it. I did in fact remember there were occasional times when I actually speed up the change of teeth by twisting it left and right when it's loose, it's a darn habit.

My teeth are not really straight and perfect in which I do regret not going for bracer's, it would definitely add a point to charisma, for Heather I'm definitely encouraging her to go for bracer's as that would last her a life time of a good set of nice smiling teeth.

Big Girls Don't Cry

2011-01-04T14:17:00.008+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

This entry should have been posted long time

ago, and I mean technically last year 2010, but hey it's just 4 days passed 2010, so that isn't a long time right? Asking myself a nut question.

Well I'm actually proud of Heather as she for the very first time did her first public piano recital, not that she hasn't done it before but this time it was without her tutor helping her, her piece was actually 'If You're Happy, You Clap Your Hands', yes the familiar song that every kid will come to learn about after watching the fat purple dinosaur 'Barney'. Though that piece as arranged single notes but it requires both left an

d right hand.

I had actually no idea that day was a performance day, frankly I was stunned when I send Heather up to her usual class as the week before the tutor actually told me that next week would be like a party and please arrive an hour early. It's already end of the year and a week before Christmas and in my mind I was expecting a little year end party for her, I was set aback when the door open and I saw the usual chairs' being placed for the performers in queue, I then told myself 'damn, if I had knew, I would have practiced that piece with Heather'. Anyway since we both are caught of guard and leaves us no choice but to play along with it.

I did have some confidence with Heather as at home she did a few rounds of this piece, so anxious as she would be, she quietly sat herself down together with all other students and children waiting inline for their public performance, she opened her sheet book and started to look at the notes, time to time she would look at me with a smile in which I cannot decipher what she was meant? is she nervous or was she sacred?

Her name was like number 13th or something and when she was called, the public gave an applause and hurried herself to their piano and calmly sat herself down, her teacher adjusted the tones on the piano as it was an organ when she performed, then silence came and she started playing the piece. To my amazement she did it nicely with every note correct, but of course there were few tones out but the notes was correct. I remembered last time she needed her tutor's help and she would be crying when she finished her piece, but this time when she completed her piece she walked back calmly to her seat and I gave her a hug and praised her. It was actually a moment of happiness for my daughter as I know she is growing up.

I'm not exactly hoping that she become a professional pianist or to write her own music, but that's what she desires I would go all out to support her, but in the meantime I just want music to be part of her life, and to be able to appreciate those little things in life when she grows up and find that life isn't that easy after all. Even for myself I don't take music professionally or seriously, but rather more of enjoyment and to release stress of the daily things that we go through.

Senior Year

2011-01-03T12:35:00.003+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Nope it's not one of those High School Musical Senior

Year episodes, not probably for another 10 years or so. Yes, it's Heather's final year in kindergarten and time is flies by swiftly. Today Heather is finally joined by her little brother Aidan who is into his 1st year, as there are two this year I needed mommy to help out on Aidan in which I know I could not probably handle him, but I think I did a great job today as getting him to sit patiently and trying to get him to participate what the teacher is trying out the very first day, which is singing with hand signs.

Upon arriving to the kindergarten, I left Aidan with mommy as Aidan being 1st year his class is located at the ground floor, unlike Heather which is so called seniors are located at the top floor,

being more mature as she is Heather knew how the who kindergarten works and without much issues she hurried into her new class upstairs and I had to guide her to look for her designated table space where the students names are usually written on a card which is stuck to the table, I had chosen a nice view of the whiteboard for Heather so she don't have to turn much of her head to see the whiteboard.

After the seat has been chosen and there was still time as today's first day suppose to start about just slightly pass 8, Heather had followed me downstairs where is found some of her friends who will be joining her in the same class and they were mingling around the yard playing with those playground stuff. I knew she would be okay with her friends so I went back to check on mommy and Aidan, they seem to be doing well and Aidan though very lost and clouded, he was well behaved.

Time goes by so quickly, looking back at 2008 where Heather first gone to kindergarten, it really brings back such good memories of our time together, where she is still a little girl.

Happy new year Heather, Daddy loves you.

Punishment

2010-12-12T13:15:00.006+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Ahh! the topic of punishment revisited again, I think it has been two or three years back in this blog journal that I've actually state the topic of 'punishment'. Well this time Heather's punishment didn't come from me or her mom but rather her day care tuition tutor, the story goes from last Friday where me the usual weekend parents would drive over to her nanny's place after work to pick her up, funny as it seems by the time when I usually got there Heather would be jumping with joy from within the house and would announce loudly that daddy's is here. Last Friday was different, having been late already to pick them up I would have expected Heather to be back from her day care tuition center as her two other cousins are already back.

I sat myself in her nanny's house engaging in the usual women's conversation as both Heather's aunts where there as well and the whole story started as to why Heather isn't back yet in which is told by her two other cousin that Heather is going through a stay back punishment for not practicing her mandarin word reading the night before and she could not read properly on the actual day on Friday, well much complaint came from her great grandmother, and her two grand aunts about Heather's recent rebellious behavior and how she constant thinks of darn ideas to get through her day in homeworks and around the house.

Not that I'm against it or encourage it, even one of her grand aunts did comment that when we were younger we could not even think of such twisted ideas, and yes they were actually commenting on cunning survival thinking of Heather, for me I do hope that it will be put to good use and to bring the best benefit to her in life and not be using this twisted ideas t

o do bad things. Which is why I'm on the fence of 50/50 neither for or against her. As far as I know in the coming decades to be able to survive and make your buck you need more street smart rather than a whole lot of library of books knowledge in your brain in which you'll end up using 10% of it to make a buck.

Coming back to Heather's punishment, I still remember those days I'd probably had an encounter of staying back in tuition if I cannot finish the work given, other than that in school would probably go for detention class which mainly consist of picking up thrash or cleaning up classrooms, while in secondary I didn't get these

before as I'm sort of the law, and yes I was a prefect then, I call the shots of who goes to these darn detention classes, so to speak it's so evil that no one besides us can judge people, kinda like the idea though.

One of those punishment that I did receive in primary was writing on paper and on the blackboard of hundreds of words like 'i must behave in class' and etc. Well thinking back, it was kinda fun in school, I would have probably done different stuff if I can just be back at my child and teenage years in school.

*picture of Bart Simpson is used without permission, mainly to depict and example of a type of punishment.

5

2010-11-27T21:01:00.004+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

5, five? I just notice that Heather's life journal blog turn 5 this year like last month. I've started this blogsite about her back in October 2005 and she is 5 year old now. I never blog before prior to this, and though blogging has been around for a few years where people put their experiences, thoughts and stuffs that they encounter of, be it daily, weekly or monthly, you can basically blog about everything from the people you meet just now, products you use, the movie you've watch yesterday and the list goes.

For me, the whole reason of blogging is more like dropping my experiences as a father since day 1 and how Heather is growing up as one day she might explore this blogsite and start reading about her. Sometimes I do wished that my parents had written a diary about me growing up and the pictures that accompanied with. With the digital age and the web, basically your diary is stored and available for you to write or edit and the good thing is that it can be read by everyone around the world.

For Heather, she doesn't really know about this site yet but I'm pretty sure that one day she will see when I continue to blog/write about her. I will probably continue to write about her as long as I can think straight, fingers are moving and have internet access.

For 5 years, to some it may be short and maybe to some it seems long as I've read some parents blogsite about their children only lasted like a year or two. Well I hope I can keep it up for another 5 years to make a decade diary of her.

Why? What's happening? What's going on?

2010-11-24T22:30:00.004+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

What's happening? what's going on? that's what i asked myself about half an hour ago while closing the door to my daughter's previous play room in

which is more of a storage area now. Flashbacks of memories and visions of what Heather used to play and what she use to do in her play room.

Coming back to the topic, what actually happen? what's going on? why did it took so long since the last update on Heather's blog site? Questions, questions, questions but only one answer, 'plain lazy'.

She turned 5 years old approx 2 months ago, she still comes back for the weekend and thus we are still known as weekend parents after all these years, it sucks and we know it, but deep down I love my daughter as much as i love my wife. Well enough of the candy story on my side and let's pull back to Heather, well for a start she is growing up to be a fine girl and her discipline level is pretty much top notch but of course at times being a girl, she can be a tough cookie.

These days i try my best not to raise my voice at her but rather trying to tell her this and that and what is wrong and what is right. Her school exam results had a big improvement for the 2nd half year and we recently awarded her a quick getaway and fun in the sun.

She will go through one more year in kindergarten for her final 6th year and she will be in primary school, can't believe it that my little girl she used to be is entering primary school. I still remember the first day of me going into primary school where my mom tells me countless times that i'm entering a bigger school. Technically you're like being deported into another country and yourself is an alien, what and who was your friends previously in kindergarten may not necessary follow you to the same primary school. For Heather's case, i don't expect anyone from her current place will ever follow her into primary school as we are living in a different district. Life goes on and things change, we as humans must always learn to be adaptive to every environment or else we will always be uncomfortable and things like this will hinder our ability to learn and mix.

She is already 5 and i trust that 6 years in primary school should be a blink of an eye, this i will have to look forward to how my little girl grows up.

Year Of The Tiger 2010

2010-02-15T21:33:00.006+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

It's the 2nd day of Chinese New Year and it's the year of the Tiger, the Ox just left it's post like 48 hours ago. Won't be hearing from the Ox again for another 12 years. This year is Heather's 5th year celebrating Chinese New Year and she is becoming more mature and friendly to people especially on myside of the relatives. Though she only sees my uncles' once a year, this year she has been very friendly to them, one thing i'm proud of is her manners and she knows how to address people.

Time passes very quickly, year after year in a short span of time, it was just like yesterday Heather is was born and today she is already coming to 5 years old. There is a Chinese saying to parents that one should try to avoid 'open year' to their children, meaning is to scold and have some kind of walloping to the children for their misbeha misbehavior. This goes especially to the 2nd day of Chinese New Year where once you start, the whole year will be a buffet of walloping to the children. Up to one's believe but I think I open the year to Heather's little brother Aidan for misbehaving early in the morning.

Back to the first day of CNY, our year theme was the color 'pink' and we had all our outfits with some form of pink as we wanted to change from previous red or yellow. Pink was good, and we managed to get a proper family photo on the first day of CNY, last year we didn't do one was because of the children, I could not remember but I think it was either Heather or Aidan was giving a hard time trying to stay still. As usual my patience is very limited and once or twice if they misbehave and unable to stay still, I'll eventually give up because it's not point to have a bad photo for the year.

Heather has yet to come to realize the beauty of receiving 'ang pow' as a kid, the value of money is zilch, I could not recall when was the first time i felt happy when receiving 'ang pow'? To Heather receiving 'ang pow' seems to be like a game for the time being, meaning if someone gives you 'ang pow' you say thank you and you pass to your parents for keeping, that's all for the time being. I believe in time or maybe next year Heather would probably be asking can I keep the 'ang pow'? meaning to spend it. At the moment I guess Heather would not be spending anything yet as what she wants now is totally sufficient, when comes to the day where she asks about her 'ang pow' I would most probably be teaching her about some savings and maybe a small % for her to buy what she like, I seriously do not know how to approach this, for me I was entitled to keep all my 'ang pow' but I think back I did go on wasting it on toys and a whole lot of rubbish which I get satisfaction for like a few days. Even now when I tend to buy things, stuff these days will look very satisfying but when you got it and experience it like a few days, you get bored and eventually equals 'waste of money'. I would probably approach her a different perspective meaning to allocate some small amount of % and then lecture her about a few days of joy and a lot of days of 'waste of money'.

Kindergarten 2nd Year!

2010-01-05T14:39:00.004+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

It's exactly the same time as last year where my baby girl, once upon a time I should say is now growing up and soon touch 5 years this September 2010. Yesterday was her first day back to school after a long term break since November 2009. Again, I could have done better if not for work commitments and to certain extent some financial constraints, I would taken more breaks to bring Heather and her little brother Aidan to places.

Back to first day of school, the same goes like last year, Heather was cool with no fear and by the time I got to the nanny's place to pick her up she was half awaken but fully dressed with her shoes on already. Last year was fully awake as I could feel that she was excited and kindy was all new to her and have the slightest idea of what to expect. Guess this year it must have been there, done that.

Her nanny did told me the night before she couldn't sleep, I could almost guess she was pretty anxious going back to school or she was still in holiday mood, whichever. It was less than a 5 minute drive and it was a cold morning as it had been raining before dawn so the rain had actually cooled the air pretty much, as we got down from the car we could almost see the venue to be full of parents and kids that had Heather gone through last year, in other words, 1st time to school. As usual the sight was a little unpleasant and it was more of a stress to most parents as I could see many children burst into tears, kicking up a fuss, fear of parting and etc. I hurried Heather to her class and quickly got a nice comfortable and good view seat for her, as for Heather she didn't bother much as probably to her crying and fussing around is nothing new as she could always she her little brother react that way. After she sat down I stayed with her for a few minutes until the official start of the first day and I was outside overlooking her through a large piece of transparent window, she knew I was there as she always look back at me and wave.

Parting is so difficult, wasn't me but to most parents that their kid would cry and shout mommy so loudly that it breaks every silence in the vicinity, most of them aren't alone shouting, as the time the bell rang, it was the starting of school and parents are not suppose to linger around in the classrooms anymore but some case were exempted due to their kids. I even saw one kid was literally dragged and carried back into the classroom by the headmistress after the kid refuse to budge and wants to follow the mother.

Coming back to Heather, it was all cool and I had left the premise after 30 minutes as Heather had settled down, I return later 30 minutes before the first day ended to pick her up and the weather wasn't negotiating well with the parents and myself, it started to rain as the strike of the school ended, I had to hurried back to the car with haste to grab the umbrella and I keep thinking Heather would be looking for me as she was expecting me to pick her up, right enough when I came back she was looking out the classroom window and lucky there was a rule that if no parents or guardian were to pick them up, they are not allowed to be out of the classroom.

I saw Heather and I went into the classroom to take her, immediately I could see she nearly cried, she grab my legs and I told her that daddy went back to the car to take the umbrella as it was raining outside, after a brief explanation she was relief and we walked slowly back to the car. While walking I had told her that tomorrow is the 2nd day, and daddy got to work so her auntie Lisa which is her usual driver will pick her up, I felt so sad as I wanted to also take her the 2nd day to school and I know there would still be parents around for the 2nd day and I wanted to ensure her that I'm around, but due to work commitments I do hope I can be there for her next year for the 1st and 2nd day.

She was so lovely when she went back to the car, immediately she wanted to show me some new books that the teacher had given and so I did not engage the gear and I listen to her and ask her to show me, she then opened her bag and took the books out and it was then I discovered her water bottle was leaking and immediately i emptied her bag and wipe down all water in the bag, it's a pity that a few new books was soiled by the water and I had reminded her next time to close the cap of the bottle tightly, she says she did, then i guess there must be some defect on the bottle. She then showed me the books and I told her, please take care of it and not to draw on it because it's your school books then she tells me that she needs to stick her name on it as mommy told her the day before, she was so lovely as she remembered what her mommy had told her.

I guess mommy should be worried too much as I told her later that evening that her little girl remembers what you told her and she is growing up well.

Fun in the Sand again! & Christmas EVE.

2010-01-02T17:21:00.003+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

It was Heather's 3rd time to the beach for 2009,

today is the second day of 2010 and depending on financial means and opportunities I hope to bring

Heather and her little brother a different beach and new places.

Coming back their 3rd time to the beach, it was truly a get away from our home and vicinity during Christmas, last year we had checked into the metropolitan jungle whereby they had their first hotel experience. This time it wasn't at any water chalets due to some different experience that I wanted, we had checked into well known beach resort where the pool was huge and be able to accommodate hundreds of holiday goers compared to the previous resort we were at. It was the same place Port Dickson but at a different stretch of the beach. To my surprise the beach stretch here was very much cleaner and i mean very much were during low tide you can see your feet but of course not blue or swimming pool clarity like some other islands and beaches in Malaysia. It was a big difference from our last destination. One things for sure the sand wasn't as gold and fine as the one we had, but it was a great get away.

This time we had 2 nights and 3 days instead of 1 night 2 days. So the whole trip was a slow and i call it more of a holiday rather than rushing and making use of every minute. To me it was a growing experience that the children had, now Heather wants to be more independent in the pool whereby with the float she want to try to gain forward momentum by her own without me pushing. It was a learning experience and after some huge struggle to get some momentum going she managed to make some underwater thrust with her legs, though not far or fast it was a learning experience for her.

Socializing!

2009-12-03T22:28:00.005+08:00

By Patrick Hoh

As written in her little brother's journal entry, I had borrowed the same title of 'socializing' and I think this tittle is pretty significant to Heather in this journal entry.

I'm feeling proud this tim

e round for Heather though she had been under some stress for this trip as we keep reminding her about being the biggest in our friends group in this outing to Port Dickson and that she should be good and show a good example to others, in total there are about 4 other toddler not inclusive of Aidan. She has done some proud as she

tried to behave well, the good part is she manage to socialize well with one of our close friend daughter Caitlyn, I don't blame Heather for not mixing with the rest is probably because of the age gap. Caitlyn is somewhat closer to Heather's

age about turning 3.

This time round in the pool Heather had gotten a bit more exciting by showing less fear to the water and in fact she did try to swim by kicking herself in the water, in which is a good sign. I did have some thoughts to send her for swimming classes probably in another year or two, it would be an additional skill to her.

During the play in the beach, somehow Heather shun away from the salt water, as she was too busy playing with sand, i guess she still had fear of the sea and the waves crashing in. I'm definately looking forward to our 3rd upcoming trip to Port Dickson and will see how the children goes.

1st Setember 2009 PD, Avillion Trip Video

2009-10-17T13:53:00.003+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

A animated slide with video compiled from our trip to Port Dickson in September, it was Aidan's and Heather's first beach trip.

Thank the lord for giving me a wonderful family.

Happy Birthday Heather!

2009-09-30T17:50:00.001+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Officially today Heather is 4 years old, blink of an eye my little girl is growing up so quickly. I had some small chances of looking back videos when she was barely one and I felt so proud to have a daughter. Miss those moments when she was a toddler and I could hold her in my arms.

I've gotten her a nice present, it was a good one and I have been thinking much for the last couple of weeks and made up my mind while I was on a business trip up north. Hope to present to her during this week and hope she loves it.

Happy Birthday Heather.

From Daddy.

The Highlands!

2009-09-08T12:33:00.006+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

The highlands again for Heather, last week was the beach and this time is the cold weather, during the drive up to the highlands I did ask Heather if she prefers the beach or Ca

meron Highlands, she replied the beach, well it's one preference and who doesn't like the beach, I too prefer the beach to a certain extent but both are nice as it invovles

nature. I can't help myself

but to start of with this journal entry of me complaining about ther whining girlish behaviour. She seems to get on my nerves and continously throwing tantrums despite all of us are having fun. Ok, I'll stop here if not I could write a whole essay about her behaviour and attitude.

This time round, during the drive up there, we manage to stop at the first waterfall before Ringlet to wn as the last time was a national public holiday thus causing huge jam as everyone wants to stop and see the waterfall. It's not really a huge waterfall but rather a small one, we climb the steps and went to the side of the waterfall so the both Heather and Aidan can have the experience of touching and feeling the water. Heather as usual since the last trip to Port Dickson had fears of it. She was negative about feeling the water and keeps whining about her being scared. Mommy had told her that if she is so scared, she wouldn't enjoy anything. Her younger brother is different, immediately when I put Aidan down, he reached for the water to feel it.

After some pester and talk, Heather finally touched the water and had a smile to her face. We continued our climb up and we had pass Ringlet town which previously we had Chicken Rice there but this time we had our breakfast on the way up in Bidor which serves

the famous Duck Noodles. We stopped the Cameron Valley which on the way up to Tanah Rata town for some scones and good cup of Cameron Highlands tea, there as usual Aidan and Heather ran loose running around looking at the vast valley of lush green tea plants, they started to have fun as children had abundance of energy to waste.

We checked into Strawberry Park Resort in which I would have gone for the something else, as the much talked about Strawberry Park Resort was an entire let down, probably I had so high expectations the day before climbing up the highlands. I still kept my positiveness while checking in as the staff are friendly and the manager had extend his warm welcome to us. Once in the room, it was a heaven and hell thing, the room is a little dark, the furniture is old though refurbished, the wooden flooring feels so sticky and the worst part was the toilet in w

hich it needs dire renovation, correction, the entire toilet should be hacked away and put in new bright tiles with new bath tub, faucents and the entire works it. I'll stop here as my list of complaints could go on and on, overal had they charged me for the full price and not the speacial festive season price I would have bang my head against the wall for choosing this place. For me, I don't mind paying expensive but in return I should be getting what my money is worth. I should have listen to many bloggers about their comments on Strawberry Park, anyway I'll stop here.

Overall, I had ask Heather again about Cameron Highlands, and this time she says she enjoyed it and happy with it, in fact she was also asking when we can come back as I told her after the 3rd day there will not be anymore holidays till year end and on the condition that she gets good grades for her finals, and told her that we won't be climbing up the highlands until mid or end of next year, as we will choose other destination to visit.

The Beach!

2009-09-01T12:25:00.005+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

You may call Heather a slacker from Aidan's point of view, it's only at 4 years old Heather gets her first time experience to the beach and experiencing the waves. Last

weekend was her first trip to the beach and as mentioned in her brother's blog journal entry www.aidanhoh.blogspot.com it was the closest beach that is within reach, probably an hour plus tops. The rest of the beaches are located like 2 hour plus drive plus some inner road traverse.

This beach trip has been splen

did for Heather as she had so much fun, who wouldn't when comes to water? but i must say that Heather sprouts chicken featers, in other words pretty scared of water. The first day when we arrived we hit the pool right after lunch as the sun was up and shining down with a fair bit of heat which is splendid for a cold pool. As soon as we reach the pool I went into the pool first and it was a children pool with no more than 1/2 a metre in depth, for Heather it was just nice which is up to the chest, as soon as she enters the pool she started shiver not by the tempreture

of the water but rather scared of the pool. She cling to me like a brick with cement paste as I told her you can put your foot down and you don't have to be scared as this is fun and it's a holiday.

The entire time she held on to me as mommy wasn't around yet cos she is busy attending to Aidan in the room. I never saw Heather that scared of water, just past 20 mins and mommy showed up with Aidan, and immediately mommy took over my job into explaning to Heather about the pool and no danger because she could touch the ground and we are always there.

The same thing happen later in the evening when we hit the beach, she was so scared of the waves and even to walk on the sandy beach, the whole time I had to educate her about the waves and the sand, though she has sprout chicken feathers, this trip was awesome to her and he keep on asking me when she could go back to the beach again. I guess the more experience they have the less afraid they become.

Fun Time With Ball!

2009-08-22T14:15:00.005+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

From baby to coming 4 years old, children these age have heaps of energy to burn, I couldn't agree more with mommy when she suggested to get a ball for those two fellas,

and she is right. As Heather's little brother is getting bigger, Heather now has some company to play with, though often they fight for belongings and toys, I reckon Heather appreciates her little brother's company.

Next month would be Heather's official year to turn 4 and think of it, she has already been in school for nearly a year once November semester ends.

Growing up does changes a person, Heather now oftens wants attention and to get it, she would sometimes throw some tantrums or give her parents attitude. I can't blame her because the days of seeing her in a year still only makes up 35% of the days in a year. We are just waiting for another year or so when she will be back here permanently.

Plucking Strawberries!

2009-06-18T14:55:00.003+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Days before our trip to Cameron Highlands, home of tea and strawberry plantations, we were

telling Heather of what to expect in our coming trip, from then on I know she was getting anxious and

enthusiatic about the trip and keep asking us when can she pluck strawberries?

Finally the day came and we were off to Cameron Highlands which we had to f

ight way up due to the bad jam, had I not known that the jam is bad I would have postponed the trip to some other time. So happens on the 1st May 2009 was a public holiday for both Malaysia and Singapore and the highway to Cameron Highland wasn't promising let alone the huge jam up in Ca

meron Highlands in which made worse by the heavy downpour in the later evening and night.

Luckily where we were staying had a nearby Strawberry farm which is about 5 minutes drive and Heather manage to had a great time, not only

pluck fresh Strawberries but to also enjoy the experience of the farm and eating fresh Strawberries on the

place itself.

It was so addictive that she had to ask us again on plucking and visiting the Strawberry farm, which of course the next day before we depart we had to d

o some shopping and we did the same thing the farm again.

First Award!

2009-06-18T13:05:00.004+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Again, my bad. A check to Heather's life journal blogsite and it shows my last input was in April and now it's already June. Told myself that I seriously need to update her life journal blogsite 'religiously', and so while skimming over my handphone data ca

rd yesterday I stumbled upon a picture of her story telling award and i'm happy to annouce that she came out tops in the 4 year old category as the 'Best Story Teller'. Seen previously the uploaded video of her telling the story of 'A Selfish Cat', it was the very same story that she took the award

back.

Needless to say I so proud of her, she was happy too as the morning itself when she took the award back she could not wait to show us the throphy, as usual on a Friday evening doing the w

eekly thing of picking her and the brother up, as soon as I arrived to the place she was running out to and shouting to me about receiving the award.

Prior to the competition she was telling non stop to others in the family and to some even find it a little disturbing on repeating the same story over and over. Overall I'm happy for her as she manage to remember the story by heart and pull it off to the public, though I'm not there during the competition as far as I know parents were not invited, I guess there must be a certain extent of stage fright due to the performance in front of her classmates and teachers.

Heather, well done! we are proud of you.

Heather The Story Teller

2009-04-24T23:56:00.007+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

What can I say? I'm proud of Heather and her progress in Kindergartden, when her aunt told us that Heather could recite a short story both in Mandarin and English, I was amazed and I could not imagine at the moment how Heather would express and recite the story out, and I thought it was just like reading out monotonously from a book or a paragraph.

When Heather took the liberty to perform her act, I was like Simon Cowell doing his auditions and getting amazed by someone who really had talent and could make him speechless, I was like him. I was speechless and so proud that my little girl could recite a story, and not only words but with actions and epression. There was some setback due to her pronounciation, but I totally forgive that part as she is just 3 year plus child, thinking back when I was 3, I could not even speak properly.

Anyway, enough of my explanations, the attached video is Heather telling her story. It was actually recorded while she did her story telling again, I was lucky as she had perform live for us to see last week.

Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do

2009-02-17T13:47:00.003+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

I was actually surprised that she knows the tune

'do re mi fa so.....' when she told me last week during her hands on the piano. Me being zero in Piano and music which I too just start to learn them could only teach her the keys to press for Do Re Mi Fa So..... and so on. I was shock to also see so much enthusiam in Heather that she wants to try out the Piano which on Friday she came back and told her that she can have a go on Saturday, in fact she remembered what I've said and many times she ask if she could play with it.

Well maybe it doesn't sound right at all when she played, no worries who done right the first time playing piano. But I can see she could probably do well if she keeps her enthusiam flame going.

Art Attack!

2009-02-01T13:37:00.003+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Another new activity added to Heather's development

portfolio, it seems there is no ending, and almost always these activities are money equivalent meaning the more activity that we put in the child the more money we need and thus we need to work harder. The cycle seems no end or is it that parents these days are being too ambitious with their children? I can't seem to figure out yet as I always tell myself if Heather is at home she would be wasting much time either lying around or just burning time with the TV, so I reckon activities like doing art and cr

aft would be good for her as in to spur their thinking and creativeness.

It was nice to see Heather did her first mini make up drawer

which originally suppose to be the 'Hello-Kitty' one but she choose her own colours and design, I was surprised to received positive feedback from her tutor that she is able to decide which colours she wants and how well she can paint things, during her session I was telling mommy that at home if Heather paints she would make picasso out of her art, meaning to paint out of the line and without any consistency but during class with her tutor around she would put on a different behaviour by painting according to instructions given by her tutor.

She did pretty well, I must say for her first class and she is looking forward for more of this activity in the future and the next class I could just drop her off and get a good hour of peace and quiet time.

Heather's First Day In Kindergarten & I'm So Proud!

2009-01-05T22:00:00.006+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

I can't believe myself that I had only 3 hours of sleep last night,

when I woke up this morning my wife was complaining that I had non stop rolls on the bed in which w

as collateral damage to her as she could not have a good night's rest. No one could possibly blame me as I felt so

anxious and nervous as I had to take my little girl to class for the first time since she came out into this world. I mean it was like myself embarking the first day of a new job as per my wife saying. I thought alot about Heather last night and wondering how she would be on her first day and how keen she will be to take up education for the first time, and the list goes on with much more thoughts about her during classes.

So it was the first day and I had a debate with my Heather's mom if she would be picky with her food, you know those kind of food that they serve in Kindergarten, I remember clearly 29 years ago back in 1980 my Kindergarten food was basically red bean dessert, sandwiches, fried noodles and sometimes porridge, I could be wrong but I think I enjoyed the food as I was not really a picky eater and I would down anything then because I love to eat. True enough I was right about Heather being picky, the first day they served a piece of Banana Cake and a small cup of Milo and after the first bite Heather put that piece of cake aside and finished her cup of Milo instead.

After being with her in class for like an hour or so, I took myself out of the classroom to get some breather as there were too many people in the class which makes ventalation a problem, can't blame the people as their children was whining and crying upon seeing their parents not beside them. Outside, I was looking from afar and seeing Heather sitting down without any problem, I thought about many things outside the classroom as I could still feel the lethargic due to the lack of sleep, just a scene that I'll never forget upon arriving to pick her up, upon reaching and parking the car I could see she was calling out to me right from inside the house with much enthusiasm and to my surprise that she is all dressed up, groomed and with her school bag ready. That particular scene has made me very proud of her, it was a very nice way to great me on a start of a new week towards the year 2009. She was so adorable and here I am thinking that's my little girl going to school for the first time, nothing made me felt any happier then knowing that she is all growing up.

So far the day ended without any cries from her and I'm so proud that she is pretty well behaved in class, but there are still alot of worries that I could only be with her the first and second day as I still feel there are lots of guidance that I still need to do before I could let her go and be independant on her own, I told myself I had to learn to let go and let her be. I always feel that there is not enough time that I spend with her and be able to guide her through everything. I guess thats all about life, to be able to learn to let go.

I So So So Nervous & Anxious!

2008-12-30T11:42:00.003+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Why am I feeling this way? Heather is going to start Kindergarten school like next week and I

don't know about her but I seem to find that she is pretty keen and interested in starting classes, for me I'm so so nervous because my little girl is going to school and I'm anticipating the possible fear that she will get, the confusion in classes and the direction that she is supposingly be going like which is her classroom and etc. These few days I have been thinking back on the first day that I was in Kindergarten, I could still remember the abstract memories of me in Kindergarten the very first day, I was thinking of my mother that she sat right outside the class overlooking me for like a couple of hours and time to time I would check outside if she is still there because I was so afraid and I could not let go of my mother at that time, and of course I cried tremendously hard when I she tried to leave me which she is suppose to. I could remember well enough for a couple of days she was there to see me and later as I grew accustomed to other children there and the environment I somehow let her go.

Heather is starting next week Monday and it's my turn now to feel myside as a parent that I'll have to accompany her, I'm not too sure if she would be like me who cried hard and not letting my mom go or would she be just fine in class to mix around and not knowing if I'll still be right outside the class for her? Again I'm so so nervous & anxious for Heather, my little girl is growing up and I'm really happy for her that she is taking the next leap in life by getting education and of course as a parent I'm too in transition for the next chapter of fatherhood.

I do hope she will blend in well and study hard to ensure a good future for herself.

Frosty The Snowman

2008-12-02T15:40:00.004+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Frosty the Snowman

Was a jolly happy soul

With a corncob pipe and

a button nose And two eyes

made out of coal

The song frosty the snowman, we probably have heard it many times during the month of December, i had to admit nothing beats the feeling of Chirstmas in December. I just find it exceptionally joyful and relax during this time, probably it is the year end or it is an indication that you've serve the year enough and coming to an end? or maybe looking forward for a better year ahead. Whatever it is I feel slighly happier during this month, while some may feel different as to some Chirstmas means spending money during this month. For me, yes expenses do increase especially this month as now we have to spend more on the children but I take it as a blessing becuase see my children happy and joyful means it is a point for us as a parent.

Coming back to Frosty The Snowman, nothing really significant just last week during our usual breakfast session in the nearby complex I had told Heather a few times that if you're good I'll bring you to see snowman, and obviously she is puzzled on what am I talking about. It was only right after our breakfast session I brought Heather up to the 1st floor to see some medium scale Christmas decorations. She didn't feel estatic or anything about the snowman, either I think I'm being childish about her or she thinks Snowman as something too common, nothing speacial.

Trick or Treat!

2008-11-03T16:12:00.004+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

In Malaysia we have never actually celebrated Halloween which falls on 31st October every year, but there is some form of so called celebration done by shopping complexes, restaurants, pubs and hang out places, mostly decoration. The only time which I really see Halloween being celebrated when I was studying in Australia and you really get children knocking on your door dressed up as freaks to ask for candies and sweets. In Malaysia however if one were to do such thing we would probably end up staying outside of the gate not being entertained or being shoot away. It's not that people are not friendly or being mean just that we are not western culture enough to know or to celebrate Halloween due to the fact we are Asians.

But of course we have our very own so called Asian Halloween which is mainly celebrated by Chinese or in other words 'Hungry Ghost Festival', it's a little taboo to explain but you've all reckon what it is. During the weekend after breakfast in a shopping complex, we came across one of the court that has Halloween merchandise, mainly lots of decoration of the pumpkin face and eerie ghost/monster mask and costumes. I think this is the first time Heather actually saw 'jack o lantern', I didn't tell her what it is because she didn't ask, anyway it's too early to explain to her the origins of 'jack o lantern', probably next year.

It wasn't much on the Halloween decorations, probably just to attract people and customers who are curious of what Halloween is about and I doubt many of us understands the true meaning of Halloween. I shall not dwell into this in detail yet, probably next year as this is mainly a horror festival.

Nenndendoo Wee!

2008-11-01T09:33:00.005+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Just about a couple of weeks ago I was debating to myself if I should introduce video games to my children mainly Heather, I had my first video games experience when I was 3 or 4 then and it was just the end of the 1970's where video games made it's debut in the states first then only came to Asia, it was then the 'ATARI' and I reckon my parents paid a bomb for it as every new technology the high cost incurred mainly comes from the R&D and the first batch of manufacturing costs.

The graphics was out of this world back then when it had only a few colours, I still remember few popular games that springboard the ATARI as the most demanded gadget in everyhouse hold was 'Centipede', 'Space Invaders', and 'Pac-Man' to name a few. I basically grew up with video games and had evolve together with this technology compared to children and teenagers these days when they start they were already exposed to CD-Rom and DVD-Rom games, during the ATARI time it was cartridge type about the size of a normal PDA phone now, the main electronic circuit inside was actually protected by a somewhat flimsy plastic case in which was not so durable then dropped or accidentally thrown, the circuit was also very sensitive back then. I remembered a few games landed up in dustbin after it was dropped on the floor. It was also an era where Capt Jack Sparrow or we call it 'imitation' or 'pirate games' is not heard of because it would be too expensive to imitate these electronic circuit and also many third world countries have zero knowledge of electronics yet.

After a few years when ATARI took many household by storm, it has finally met their match, the NINTENDO game system was born and the trademark game for NINTENDO till this day is the ever popular 'MARIO BROS', it was the birth of the 4bit and 8bit graphics system and the sound effects when compared with todays technology is crap! NINTENDO lasted for some years when the next video game techonology evovled was the 16bit system and it was the SEGA MEGADRIVE, all still runs on the cartridge type with awesome graphics and probably 256 colours or more, the battle for better graphics, sound and resolution didn't stop there and SONY had set it's home video game standard by launching their own version which we known as the 'Playstation' which first of it's kind runs on CD-Rom. Besides home video gaming there are other alternatives which of course the ever old school arcade centre or PC games which graphics, gameplay and sound technology boast better than video game consoles.

It is true that PC games till now has the better edge due to it's flexibility in product upgrades such as GPU (graphics processor unit) and even sound card that boasts surround system. But the home video game console had never left the scene which is a never ending battle to obtain supremacy in audience, and again SONY after many years with their Playstation 1 proceeded to Playstation 2 which again had set standards by using DVD-Rom and even using Dual Layer DVD in some games like GOD OF WAR and GRAN TURISMO.

For now we have seen the latest Playstation 3 which runs on BlueRay and the ever changing graphics and sound is a battle among developers and manufacturers since when I started playing video games back in the 1970's.

So enough of the evolution of gaming consoles, last week I was asking the question if she wants to play Nintendo Wii and she immediately nodded her head and says 'yes' not knowing what the heck is it. So I also ask her to ask mommy if she can play Nintendo Wii, and she could complete the word Nintendo Wii but rather Nenndoo Wee at first but after a few tries she pronounces it somewhat correct and mommy was mean as well and gave Heather a condition that if she can pronounce Nintendo Wii properly she could play. It is only recently I got it back and it would be a fun thing for the family plus I hope it improves Heather motor skills and reflexes when playing games.

Last night was the first time Heather played and she fell in love with it, who doesn't? and for a start I reckon the Wiifit should be a good start and it is very much easy to understand the whole gaming concept by using your body movement as a form of control, it took me sometime to educate her on how to play and she gets the idea slowly. Check out the funny video of Heather playing the Wiifit running which made her grasps for breath.

I Enjoyed Too!

2008-10-31T12:22:00.004+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Nope it wasn't my birthday bash over the weekend, or was it? Definately not as I didn't had the chance to blow the candle and it's only a single piece of candle which represents a year old. As far as I know I saw my little brother Aidan had face to face contact with the cake and he cried and burst in to tears over it, I wonder why? Birthday party and cake blowing is such fun. Plus I love the helium filled balloons, I guess it's just me Heather Hoh.

So that's my reckon thoughts of my daughter commenting on Aidan's birthday bash over the weekend, I'm not sure if I ever had any birthday bash like this but I could remember my brother had one when I think he was 7 or 8 when I was only 2 or 3, I could remember there was a cake which is shaped of a plane, talking about cakes and their shape it would be interesting to know cake flavours, design, artwork and type have evolved. Taking example I doubt 20 years ago there was cheese cake, i mean in Malaysia, maybe there is but it wasn't the majority choice yet probably.

Cheese cakes was actually invented by the Americans dating back to 1872, the reason why I mentioned cheese cake probably not well known in Malaysia 20-30 years ago was because of our thinking towards westernization was only the tip of the iceberg, then McDonalds had only mediocre outlets in central KL and I could remember we had to drive a long way from PJ (Petaling Jaya) to KL (Kuala Lumpur) and the outlet where I had my first burger was then outside of Sg. Wang, it was then Fillet O Fish was so popular back then. These days could you grab a burger or any type of western food anywhere, in fact everyone is selling and cooking western food, be it steak, chicken chop, fish and chips or hotdog, you could easy get it arms lenght.

Aidan's cake was not cheese cake but rather a so called 'low fat' peach cake in which me and mommy didn't had the chance to try out because I was trigger happy with my camera and mommy was too busy socializing, by the time we got back to our table everyone was leaving because it was approaching 11pm. Sigh! for me and mommy because we wanted to eat the cake.

So coming back to Heather, she had a very good fun filled time running around with her cousins, playing with toys in which mommy had prepared in goodie bags for all the children and of course these children was spoilt additionally with helium filled balloons, mommy did the same thing by getting a helium gas tank like what we did for Heather 2 years ago. Just that this time is different because we brought the entire tank to restaurant and the adults were facinated and each had a go in filling up the balloons with this tank. I guess we are all children too!

I Love The Stage!

2008-10-27T21:49:00.004+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Loving the stage or not, it is something for me to find out, all I know was that I asked the question 2 weeks ago when Heather for the first time went up to the stage to rehearse for her role in a Kindermusik score. Back track a month ago her teacher actually approached me and asked if I would want to enroll Heather into the upcoming concert in which she will perform a Kindermusik score with me (Walk & Stop), I had a moment of silence and I proudly answered the teacher 'why not?' let's give Heather a go since it is good to expose her to the stage, limelights and the audience just to train her to be more bold and not having stage fright. Well true enough when the day comes to attend the rehearsal and she was actually getting cold feet, I remembered it as she was tell me backstage that she is scared and I told her 'I'm coming with you, and be with you all the way' then she started to calm down and both of us went up to do our feat.

After the rehearsal I asked her again, do you want to attend concert again? Immediately she noded her head with much enthusiasm, yesterday was the actual day of the concert and she didn't have any stage fright, much to my knowledge she was filled with enthusiasm and keep asking me when is her turn, she did gave a good 100% performance without any flaws and I think she forgot about the audience which is why she didn't have cold feet. I was proud as my daughter did her first so called public performance.

I'm actually looking forward next year when she will be performing by herself up the stage, and I think she will do great and as a parent I'm proud of her and hope to see more potential in the coming future.

3rd Year Birthday

2008-10-18T13:51:00.003+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

I should have updated this a long time, which is why I did the entry on 'Guilty' before this. I feel so guilty for neglecting my children's journal entry for so long as I would know that they would enjoy reading about themselves when the time comes.

Anyway, luckily it was less than a month when Heather celebrated her 3rd year birthday, more like a very small celebration. Just a couple of weeks back I was having lunch with some of my old time friends in a local chinese restaurant which is a favourite amongst teenagers and young adults, there sitting next to us where some very young students (i think) celebrating their friends birthday, so the topic about children birthday struck and we continued on to talk about it and one of my close friend brought up a recent experience that he heard someone had just celebrated his 21st birthday in a ballroom in a hotel near our place and it was a very posh extravagant celebration which is similar event that you do during a wedding. Immediately we made comments that these days parents finds the cash, the children spends it. So a joke was cracked when one of my friends says if my daughter wants a posh birthday bash, can! do it in McDonalds, we were laughing and smiling towards the idea that western food is serve, unlimited drinks, party hats are provided and even an indoor playground. Somehow McDonalds birthday party can be considered as a posh party depending on individual.

I must admit children are pretty much lucky now as the world demand for materialism increases, and also capitalism continues to create needs for us and making excuses for us to spend.

Bother & Sister

2008-10-18T13:25:00.002+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

The thing about Heather is her protective behaviour towards Aidan, ask anyone of our family, relatives and even some friends, she will pick a fight when anyone of us threathen to take Aidan away or even to mentioned selling him, just a week back when one of our close friend carried Aidan, Heather's face changed and she walked over and question our friend 'why are you taking my ah ti'? to her 'Ah Ti' means little brother and we do always address Aidan by 'Ah Ti'.

In the babysiter's place which is her aunt, she would also dare to pick a fight which anyone that she thinks is taking Aidan away, in a sense I'm happy that she had instill this in her so early, as we always wish that when the time comes when we are unable to care for them, Aidan will always have her sister looking out for him. But of course when comes to personal stuff and belongings Heather is pretty much selfish and reluctant to share and with this I can forsee in the coming future both will have strong sibling rivalry and how is going to be the judge when a fight begins, we as parents will. sigh!

That's practically normal, I had to admit I had lots of fight with my late brother when we were small and thinking back sometimes my brother would give way and allowing me to use his things, can't explain how much I miss him. Whatever it is, rivalry is normal but as a brother or sister it remains permanent as in life we can have lots of friends and they come and go, but family members are different.

Guilty

2008-10-18T13:10:00.004+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

The title 'Guilty' is not addressed to Heather, but more towards me. I know I had been slacking in updating Heather's journal blogsite but didn't know the last entry was half a year ago. My heart is flooded with guilt now, just a week back my insurance agent had ask me if I blog? I told him I do blog but mostly for my children and blogging on their progress of life. I had tried to instill my own blogsite where I talk about everything under the roof or what experiences I may encounter but can't seem to do it religously, at the end I scrapped the entire blogsite after 2 to 3 entries. In other words a loser in blogging.

It's already October and Heather had just turn 3 years old in which I should have done a journal on it, I had lots of pictures of Heather although I had very much delayed in updating her blogsite, I also had to admit that I was pretty much busy with work and life but come to think of it nothing is more beautiful than having strong thoughts and words of my children.

There is always a chinese saying that time passes like a blink of an eye, and seriously 3 years experience Heather has as a human in this world. Heather is very chirpy these days, some would find it noisy and annoying but I can't blame them who comment about it especially her babysister, he once told me that my daughter is like a rooster that goes on none stop making noises and I had the same experience when she is back with us now. The verdict of this constant noise making to me is normal for children, I would seriously prefer my daughter to be very chirpy and not afraid to talk and express themselves rather than being mute and silent most of the time, this way I know socializing is not an issue in the coming future, but of course everything has a limit which is why most of the time we as parents almost always teaches her when to speak, make noise and when to keep silent. Tough job I may say, being parents it is a different paradigm shift now and it will always be as years progress you tend to teach new things and find new ways to teach your children, no longer the cane is being used (errr....sometimes), communication is pretty much important to let the children think and reflect.

Visakha Bucha Day

2008-05-20T11:35:00.003+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

In Thailand they called it VISAKTHA BUCHA but here in Malaysia, Singapore and some countries we normally refer to it as Wesak day where we pray and celebrate the upmost respect for Buddha, more often families will pray for safety and health. It was a long weekend, well sort of, even though it is just an additional day due to the wesak holiday and we still felt that there wasn't enough time for us with the children.

The last Saturday was good one where mommy and Aidan went of to do some oracle consultation in town and I'm left with Heather at home, so since it was a pretty pleasant Saturday and Heather had just woken up from her Saturday afternoon nap, I best thought she would like to go out and so we hop into the car like any father and daughther and drove to a mall for her weekend dose of so called mechanical elephant ride in which you pay like RM3 for a 5 minute ride on these made believe animals which children would be estatic to see. Since we have no hurry and time is aplenty I gave Heather two session rides of 10 minutes, she was indeed happy and the funny thing is she was very well behave as usual with me only, but she seems to act different when in a family, I mean she is a little naughtier when mommy is around, wonder why?

Coming back to the mall, I decided to give her further treats by taking her for a walk to the other end the mall to buy speacility candies like those made of gum like glycerine then last but not least an ice cream treat in which she had somewhat cheated me by just eating a few scoops and leaving over 1/2 the quantity to me, surpisingly I seriously do not know who me and Heather had spend 2 hours in that mall, I think it must have been the walk around and some window shopping. It was indeed a great Saturday afternoon between a father and a daughter.

Three Wise Monkey

2008-05-12T10:44:00.005+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Three Wise Monkey as the name suggest the proverbial principle "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil". In certain cultures and folklore there is a 4th monkey present which depicts a monkey crossing his arms or covering the abdomen meaning 'do no evil'. In chinese, Confucious mentioned with reference to these monkeys as "Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety"

One interesting point to note that these 3 monkeys have been given names and they Mizaru, Mikazaru, and Mazaru. As decades and years goes by we often refer these monkeys in our everyday life and many meaning and suggestions can be conjured up as for instance teaching a child not to do evil or bad things which directly implicating the actions. As the case of this blog entry appearing in Heather's blogsite, it was just like any other Sunday afternoon where Heather had just woken up from her Sunday afternoon nap and the outside day is pretty sunny which so happens to be a perfact day for some photography. Heather being playful as she is was pretty co-operative in posing for the camera and I out of the blue I just utter to her 'see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil', I'm amazed that she remembers these actions as sometime ago when she was younger I had actually thought her about the 3 monkey actions and I'm really surprised that she remembers them.

These actions and depiction doesn't suggest anything it was just some fun that Heather could do for the camera and I must say that the pictures came out to be pretty cool for Heather.

A Great Uncle

2008-05-03T08:55:00.005+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

It had never occurred to me that a relationship between a niece and an uncle would be so premature or so short lifted in other words. I had always thought, imagine and had strong wishful thinking that her uncle would see through her life right from birth till the starting of her very own family. On 28th April 2008 about 1 plus in the morning all these thoughts, dreams and wishful thinking crumbles down when I had gotten a call from Heather's grandfather informing me that her uncle Adrian have passed away. The point of losing someone is just a fraction of the time remembering when we were all still having dinner the night before like any other usual Sunday night, her uncle was still glowing with youth and good health and Heather had so much fun being around him on that night and they were both jokingly exchanging teasing gestures, that didn't stop there as we continued to have our usual tea session in an international franchise cafe. Things continue to go pretty well till 9 plus when I had to drop him back becase he had later appointments then, and that was the last I seen him in his goodself.

At 3 plus the following monday morning, I had never imagine myself being at the morgue in University Hospital to identify my very own brother in a police body bag, it's not that I'm being dramatic here in explaning on what I saw that early morning, but I guess Heather would want to know on how all it went down. My late brother's case was classified under police case due to the sudden death at his age of 37, when I entered the morgue it was a total nightmare for me seeing my very own brother laying so still and pale and Heather's grandfather broke down immediately. We were later told to leave and would return later in the afternoon to obtain the results of his death and true enough after much speculation his death was due to a heart disease where they call it 'Acute Myocordial Infarction', where the viens had sudden blockage and could not supply enough blood oxygen for the heart to function.

Even till today we have not told Heather yet about his uncle and she is still very excited to see him, we have already thought of excuses to tell Heather for the time being till the day when she knows how to read her very own blog/journal entry, in the meantime we would be telling her that Uncle Adrian has gone to a far away place to work and will not be back, I could not imagine a better way to tell Heather as she is just 2 1/2 years old at this point of time. I'm saddened by the case that she was starting to get along pretty well till this tragedy struck. He was more than an uncle to her, I would remember how they both enjoy each others' company and her uncle had gotten her a nice pair of crocs shoes last christmas. Her uncle was a great and kind soul who often help animals, donation to the poor, orphange children and he is listed under WWF for his kind contributions, it's sad that Heather could not know him better as he would as an uncle influence Heather into most of his interest like dancing, violin or even astrology.

Her uncle Adrian Hoh (June 19th 1970 - April 28th 2008), may he rest in eternal peace and be with the LORD.

3 Heathers - 'Mommy Minnie Mes' Revisited

2008-04-27T14:46:00.004+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

July 30th 2006, Sunday I had uploaded a photo of 3 Heather sitting on the couch, she was just 10 months then. The idea of this shot and digital manipulated photo was I had several shots of Heather of different position and different expression, so it would be good to cook up a photo of all three Heather sitting on the couch. The same thing was done just last month when Heather sat in the couch again and moving from one end to the other, so I grabbed my digital camera and start taking her again, the one done in 2006 was a little amateur and some improvements has been made to the latest one.

Heather has grown up so much comparing 10 months old with 2 and a half years old. We used to call it 'Mommy Minnie Mes', as she had very similar looks to mommy and that time the term minnie me was used because of a popular hollywood movie 'Austin Power' the bad guy with a smaller one, and he is called 'minnie me'.

The actual blog entry link as follows; http://patrickhoh.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.html

Mona and Herbert Hyman

2008-04-21T21:02:00.007+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Does Mona & Herbert Hyman sound familiar? To me it's not as I have been going to their outlet for many years ever since it landed on the shores of Malaysia, I reckon it's time to do some research on the outlet in which we so used to patronize every Saturday morning and a few times in the weekdays afternoon for my work and sometimes in the night with my wife. I'm referring to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf coffee chain, I never knew who founded it until just now I did some research on their beginings and how it ended up in Malaysia. According to the source wikipedia.com Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf outlet chain is one of the oldest and largest privately held chain of specialty coffee and tea stores. The first store opened in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood in 1963. It is only available in Malaysia and Singapore when a Singaporean entrepeneur bought the chain and expanded it accross Southeast Asia.

For me as a coffee drinker there is a certain difference between Starbucks and Coffee Bean in terms of the crowd and the culture of the people patronizing the place. For a start the coffee taste is totally different between both of them although they both serve the same type of coffee preparation from lattes to cappucino and to americano. Their beans used and the final outcome of the taste as a coffee drinker/lover can distinct them easily, then comes the hanging out part, you can see straight from the crowd that many young executives, businessmen, college students or as a whole younger people will definately choose Starbucks over Coffee Bean, the crowd in Coffee Bean are somewhat more towards real coffee drinkers and the more conservative crowd. For myself I do not have any preference as during weekdays it will be up to my mood to choose which outlet I'm going to spend a couple of hours working if I'm out in the field.

Till date Heather has been patronizing more of Coffee Bean I would say when she first visited the outlet when she was actually a few months old referring to her earlier blog entry at www.patrickhoh.blogspot.com It has already become a norm and culture for us to have breakfast at Coffee Bean virtually every Saturday and Heather would sometimes been given a choice between other breakfast outlets or Coffee Bean, the outcome Heather would choose Coffee Bean. I could imagine if I had counted the start of me or the family patronizing Coffee Bean we would have contributed to their over a hundred million revenue. I dare not do the computation as our household consumption per capita exceeds many others when comes to food and beverage.

Heather still enjoys being in Coffee Bean very much till she has made many friends with the staff of the outlet but most of them do not last too long during their tenure as they would be transferred to other outlet for their service and training. Heather is growing up so quickly as I see the photos taken last time in Coffee Bean and now.

Story Telling Time

2008-04-21T10:46:00.004+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

So what's about story telling? We have seen it on movies, television or sometimes heard on the radio about story telling, most of the time we see in the movies that a parent would sometimes read stories either from a book or recite them out from their mind before they sleep. That's in the movies and I sometimes wonder how often do parents read story books to their children before bedtime? Well I certainly look forward to doing that someday with Heather and Aidan when they are sleeping independently.

Having said that and coming back to story telling time, I'm actually amazed how strong interest that Heather shows and how she would run towards the front place of the teacher during her Kindermusik lessons. She just loves story telling time when compared to other children who usually runs around during this session of story telling time. I'm very happy and amazed that Heather can sit there quietly and whether if she is paying attention or listening, she is well behaved in class. I wish I had that interest and that behavior when I was a child as often my parents would tell me that I'm a very naughty boy.

In fact these days when Heather comes back she would look forward to Kindermusik classes, sometimes she would ask me tomorrow got Kindermusik? The first picture on top you can see Heather in Red & White stripe shirt, and the second is very obvious in Green.

Hard Disk Cleanup

2008-04-19T14:41:00.003+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

I have gigs of photos in several hard disc, DVD, CD and thumb drives, most of them are family photos and Heather seems to top the gigs of photos. In my current PC now I have a very unorganized folders of pictures taken and some as I was going through last night I didn't really know I had taken these before. There are a few to me is totally out of the blue, anyway I had to do some housekeeping and backing up of photos now that Aidan is out now it will be gigs of extra photos on top of Heather's.

Just last week I was having a conversation with a close friend and the topic of portable drive came up as I told him I bought another portable hard drive in the recent PC fair which has reasonable amount of space and not a bad price to pay for. I was telling him I need more space to ditch photos and MP3, these days MP3 seem to average between 4.5mb - 6mb depending on the quality, but digital photographs especially taken with DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera could top up to 10mb or more if they are taken RAW format wich is uncompressed. Basically space is every photographers dilemma and nightmare. Then he mentioned something about getting another hard disk to back up existing hard disk and so forth, I was doing some thinking and it's kinda ironic and it doesn't really make sense, is like buying a house to keep a house or building another house over it.

Anyway these days a hard core photographer who chooses to keep all their photographs are going into terabytes instead of gigabytes. So coming back to my housekeeping of my hard disk and photos, I stumble upon a compilation testing movie on Heather which dates between 2006 and 2007, the soundtrack on the movie 'Come Fly With Me' is sung by Michael Buble made popular by Frank Sinatra during the 60's or 70's I think, the reason why I choose this 'Come Fly With Me' is because the starting scene that Heather is pretending to fly after she had her Kindermusik class in 2007 which the song 'Soaring Soaring' is played and they are needed to mimic as an aeroplane, and this happens to be Heather's favorite.

Playing Police!

2008-04-18T12:07:00.003+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Just the other day on a Saturday evening (12th April 2008) I was in my study room doing some pictures for their blogsite and holding Aidan on the other hand, Heather picked up a cap from the room which I've taken out from my old car that I've sold recently, this is a red cap given by Honda as a trinket for servicing my car at their service center.

At the same time there is also a big balloon pump, so Heather out of the blue took the pump, wore the cap and starting making war gun and battle sounds and keep telling us she is 'police', it was too funny and I had to pick up the digital camera and take a movie out of it. I know she is going to hate me later when she grows up and be so embarrassed about it. Anyway here is the video attached.

Sushi For Heather?

2008-04-13T21:22:00.003+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Turning 2 1/2 years old, it's time for Heather to explore other cuisine and food, I reckon she is a little older now to try raw food, so which culture and race is well known for their raw food experience? None other than Japanese, so we decide to take Heather to a local sushi bar and took a few types of sushi for her to try, I first took the raw fish roe sushi from the bar and given some of the roe to Heather and it was a total let down, she immediately rejected it and refuse to go further. I don't really blame her as it took me sometime to accept raw food during my early years of exposing to sushi. It was only lately in these few years where I found out that I love raw fish like salmon and mackeral.

After that I came to know that raw sushi stuff is not up to Heather's taste yet, luckily I didn't dip anything in the soy mix wasabi sauce or else she will even reject more. It is scientifically proven that raw food posesses the most nutrients and vitamins as heat usually destroys up to 50% of the food nutrients and vitamins, take vegetables for example, most nutrionist would tell you to take them raw because of the concentrated anti oxdiants they have, but usually after they are cooked most of them have already disappeared, like salmon and makeral for instance they have their natural fish oils which is very healthy to take them but when they are cooked they would loose most of these properties, one note to be caution is that raw fish if not prepared correctly they contain more bacteria that you could bargain for which is why the sushi is often accompanied by wasabi which is a type of mustard that retards bacteria in raw stuff, most people think that wasabi is for taste but really it is for anti-bacterial purposes.

Having said that during Heather's first sushi bar experience, she only manage to take cooked food which is our set meal, her mom had unagi teriyaki (a type of eel) and myself salmon steak, basically salmon fish grilled with teriyaki sauce, so Heather ended up eating cooked ones, like I say I don't blame her as raw food takes some trying and acceptance.

Strike a Posse!

2008-03-16T22:28:00.005+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Just like her brother's blogsite http://www.aidanhoh.blogspot.com/hoh.blogspot.com/ it has been several months since anything was written and it's really my fault and due to some personal reasons as in health and time factor.

Like I've mentioned in Aidan's blogsite, I did took lots of their pictures during chistmas and such but did not have the time to process them and post it up. Just yesterday I took my camera out again and began shooting Heather and she is much more mature now as she understands the meaning of camera and capturing a picture, she was so happy to pose for the camera with a cap in which I was clearing it from my car.

I had to mentioned it again that time do passess quickly as Heather is now 2 and a half years old already and she is growing up day by day, not to mentioned the temper and the words sometimes she would talk back and questions that she would ask. Like any child I would expect the question of 'what's this?' to be very common.

Tantrums and showing temper seem to be very common from Heather now and she can really show that she is not talking to you or rather hate you for a short period of time, and I notice this for several weeks already and I don't blame her as everyone has their own temper and tantrums. When this happens at the wrong time, I would blow up and end up shouting at her in which I live to regret it most of the time. But in order for me teach and dicipline her I have no choice sometimes to raise my voice, I tried the softer approach a few times but just sometimes my patience runs out.

Anyway, let's see how the coming months comes as she will be reaching 3 years old.

WC

2007-11-23T23:51:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

The everyday throne in which majority of us sits on it every morning is an incredible feat of engineering and invention, while some would prefer to answer nature's in the evening or late at night, in other words the time frame is purely up to an individual preference. So coming back to the throne or they simply call it WC which in short stands for 'Water Closet' on why it is an incredible feat of engineering and invention? If we observe every 'Water Closet' has an 'S' shape right at the bottom, it is actually there for a very important reason while some might guess why isn't it other shapes besides 'S', firstly the 'S' bend is somewhat act like a trap in which it creates a water seal which remains filled with water between flushing and this strongly acts like a barrier that prevents sewer gases from passing up the drainpipe, if not for the water our toilets would smell awful all the time.

Many of us goes by without knowing the importance of the 'S' shape, besides keeping awful smells and sewer gases at bay the 'S' shape bend also acts as a siphon action with helps during the flushing process, this works when water fills up the bowl will create a high pressure area in which will force the water past the 'S' shape, at the point the water will start to move and it automatically creates a vacuum that pulls the water and waste out of the toilet, when there is no more water left then the air stops the vacuum process, this is vital or else our waste will remain stuck up on the upper level in which is very obvious to us.

I have actually started putting Heather on an adult water closet instead of her usual plastic sit bowl since last week and found out that she is still a little wee bit to small for our adult seat, so the idea of getting a child adaptor or a comot is needed. Just 3 days ago while on the hunt for baby monitor for Heather's little brother, I had came across the actual adaptor and straight away without any hesitation I bought it and the night itself it was splendid for Heather as it fits snugly on her gluts and her legs where nicely positioned without any discomfort. I did call it Heather's first 'Water Closet' experience.

Competition, Jealousy or Sibling Rivalry

2007-11-18T12:59:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

"Competition is the rivalry of two or more parties over something. Competition occurs naturally between living organisms which coexist in an environment with limited resources. For example, animals compete over water supplies, food, and mates. In addition, humans compete for recognition, wealth and entertainment." (http://www.wikipedia.com/)

For Heather competition I reckon after 1 day of observing her is not define as above but rather the entire defination of competition to her is attention and 100% from us. It's a fine challenge now for both of us as parents and herself as a big sister. The question of favouritism is still in the closet as I do not know if we practice it but I do hope we don't.

I never thought I would be typing this topic of competition so soon, but today Heather had just experience a whole new feeling about competition and rivalry, today was actually the first time Heather had meet with her little brother up close and personal. It was in the afternoon that mommy was carrying Aidan and Heather was so curious about the baby that she wanted to pet Aidan’s head like we usually do to Heather but mommy told her off as newborn heads are very soft and fragile, next thing Heather began to cry and further to that I too restrict her from touching the baby as Heather is still 2 years old and still could not control her strength as in touching soft or hard, I’m just too worried that she may do some unconditional harm to the baby, I know it is not on purpose but precaution is better.

Heather felt pretty sad and cried almost instantly as we needed to coo her again and again telling her that baby is very fragile now and when Aidan gets bigger Heather could touch him. Another episode that had happen to Heather is while in the same room, Heather again wanted to touch Aidan but we refuse and she just ran off back outside to the living hall upstairs and watch her Barney program, that’s when me and mommy really notice that she felt sensitive, I certainly cannot blame Heather being like that but I do hope she understands some day when she becomes a parent.

It’s a very big challenge for us now as a parent as we too are being introduced to new feelings like Heather had experienced her first jealousy and rivalry, for us it is giving the same love and attention to both, I had always knew that to certain extent on every parent there is no equal love and attention to all their children, I may be wrong but then again it is the minority as I had observed there is always bound to be one that gains more than the other. I would certainly find out soon if I do favor Aidan or Heather?

Little Sister or Brother for Heather?

2007-10-21T20:37:00.001+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Ever since mommy's prenancy reached the 2nd tri-mester her tummy began to petrude and goes larger as the weeks passed and I'm pretty sure that Heather is often confused as to why momm'y tummy has grown to this large proportion, often I would tell Heather there is a baby inside sleeping and obviously I ain't telling a lie to a child. Mommy would then sometimes asked Heather if she wanted a sister or a brother? It was a mix response from Heather as sometimes she would say sister and sometimes she would utter brother, many of our family, friends and relatives had been asking 'so what is the gender of this upcoming baby?' so often we replied without any answer as we didn't demand the Gyneacologist to actually go into detail using their ultrasound to check on the gender, it was actually an understanding deal between me and mommy that we would not want to know and leave it to god's fate to determine what we are going to receive.

Like most new generation, it doesn't really matter on what the gender is as getting a child in the first place is very difficult for people who are in the metropolitan area. I had written about the difficulties in getting a child earlier in my blogsite that people these days who settles themselves in major towns are getting lower chance of getting a child due to the environment, stress and the food that we consume, I maybe wrong but emperically from most people I come across don't just get a child whenever they wanted it, for us technically speaking Heather should be our second one as the first one was fated to pass off. I'll not dwell into this as I think it's fair when the day comes when Heather or her upcoming brother or sister who reads this will at least know they techinically had someone else before them.

Coming back to Heather, I had to admit that she had been a very good and obedient child these few weeks as there are times when she had forgotten herself and got too naughthy and sometimes I do snap and throw some temper towards her and I felt sad. In fact I sort of regret scolding her sometimes as I should be less forgiving because she is just 2 years old and to what degree I place my expectations on her. Nevertheless she is very well behaved these days and I told myself I should be satisfied now and continue to guide her to the right direction and educate her whenever I get the chance.

This weeks parting scenario was painful, I once told mommy that every sunday we felt bereaved, it's someone really close has depart from us, but of course this is not the scenario but we felt like that. Before we left the house to take her back to the babysitter, I always tell her that daddy will come see and pick you up this coming Friday, immediately she wanted me to hug her and she placed her head on my shoulders as she strong feels that she is going to be separated again. I believed that as I could feel the way she hugged me back while her head is on my shoulder, I felt painful as well because I will not get to see her for the next 5 days. While at her babysitter's house before we left off, Heather hugged her mother and did not want to let go as it has become a con routine from her babysitter to distract Heather so that we could make a clean get away but this time she refuses to listen to any so called bullshit of getting ice cream, eating sweets, looking at the fridge for stuff and etc, she just held on to mommy but eventually her great grandma just told her that she is going to introduce something to Heather and that's when she let go and we make a clean get away. I seriously do not know how to describe the feeling of Sunday evenings, for almost 2 years I could only say it felt like a bereavement.

-78.5 °C (-109.3 °F)

2007-10-19T21:47:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Whenever Heather is back during the weekend and to the point when we resume our role as weekend parents, sad to say I would have expose her to greater amounts of education and general knowledge about our everyday things and gadgets. Heather in turns now gets very curious over objects and things that she sees and often pop the question 'what is this?' It has been 3 weeks since she had a small celebration for her 2nd birthday and her mommy bought Baskin Robbins ice cream cake, as usual these cakes are usually kept in display fridges as to keep the tempreture at freezing point to maintain the solid of the ice cream, when we bought the ice cream cake home the person working in Baskin Robbins took the liberty to include some dry ice to keep the tempreture as low as possible during the journey back from the complex to home.

While driving home, I had my mind set on fiddling and exploring the dry ice and I could remember I have not played dry ice since five or six then since started buying ice cream from common grocery shop rather than the mobile motorcycle ice cream guy which they have heaps of dry ice inside this large aluminium or rather light steel case tied behind his motorcycle that would cool and upkeep the ice cream from melting on our scorching hot Malaysian weather. The dry ice is rather at a freezing point whereby holding with your fingers more than 15 seconds could spell disaster and pain to your fingers as our tempreture is significantly lowered with ligthning speed. Dry ice at common times are at -78.5 celcius, at 0 celcius water starts to freeze and at this value we can become so solid that a hit could break us up into pieces without us feeling anything. Dry ice is rather fun to play with when put into normal room tempreture water as the solid carbon dioxide gases releases itself and bubbles with smoke in the water. When that happens we get this cool fog that flows perfactly smooth.

I had to share this experience with Heather and she was rather amazed of the smoke or rather fog that flows smoothly out when lightly blow. She took a couple of light blows to the smoke and she started laughing as this is the very first time she had encountered such and I too rekindled some memory while playing with dry ice and thinking back of my childhood that I used to request the ice cream guy to spare some dry ice for us to have fun.

Bath Tub With Water Jet

2007-10-14T22:57:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

'Kakuzzi' is how Heather speaks of a Jacuzzi, I've have been trying to teach Heather on the pronounciation of Jacuzzi during this weekend but the result wasn't so fruitful as the closest she can get is speaking out the word 'kakuzzi'. Our so called new home has a two person Jacuzzi thanks to the reminisence of the previous owner which they find it to be a fixture and thus cannot remove the Jacuzzi unless a huge payment is made to a contractor to cart it away. Therefore so called benefitting us the new owners, frankly I've never had the feeling of Jacuzzi fetish and never had the urge to try one out as many times I've been travelling and I sometimes get it in my hotel room.

Heather during this weekend was the first of the family member to enjoyed the Jacuzzi which cost us additional to fix a broken pump, I'm not so sure if the previous owner had left it like that or was it damaged due to the long 2 month renovation process. Filling up the water just enough to cover the water jet holes is like ordering a pizza as the sheer volume and depth of the Jacuzzi takes up humungus litres of water because it is a two person Jacuzzi. I was told by the pump repair man that it's not too common for a house to have two person Jacuzzi, while majority are only single because due to the space it requires and the cost of installing the size for two. Not too sure how true the pump man is. Nonetheless when I started to talk about Jacuzzi to Heather and asking her if she wants to play in a Jacuzzi, she nodded her head as if she knew what is a Jacuzzi is? During the process of filling up the water Heather had been looking and analyzing what am I doing? at one point of time I was doing the water preparation, she accused me of playing with water. So once the water had covered the jet holes, it's time to place Heather and I could see she is like puzzled over the large bath tub, so I gently pressed the on button of the Jacuzzi to fire up the pump to recycle the water and the water jet, Heather was truly amazed and started giggling due to the underwater strong water pressure.

She had like about 20-25 minutes of fun and I had to be standing in the Jacuzzi observing her playing just to ensure total safety and she doesn't trip and fall or drown herself. I could see how much fun she has, then I thought how lucky she is now having to enjoy all these at a very early stage of her life.

Another Year, Another Number

2007-10-09T17:25:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Yes! it's another year and another number for Heather, in other words HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Heather is now 2 years old since last week, I would have updated this her blogsite much earlier due to the fact that we are in transition of moving to a new home and most importantly for any updating in blogsite is internet connection, as we've just managed to reconnect our broadband services just today. In addition we could not plan anything fancy for Heather's birthday due to the transition of moving to a new home. Definately I'll try to make it up to her on her 3rd Birthday.

Heather's 2nd birthday wasn't much of a fancy event, being just us and her aunty's family to witness her blowing the cake and obviously much improvement and development to Heather as now she could blow small puffs of air and even managed to blow one out. Compared to last year she could not even blow puffs of air, when the candles are lit and the cake was brought out, I noticed that Heather sat in her baby chair with amazement and anticipation, it looks like she is thinking of what next is going to happen and questions has begun spinning in her brain. Nevertheless it took several attempts from Heather to blow a candle out and she was overall amazed of the entire birthday procession.

Heather Wet & Wild Saturday Afternoon

2007-09-18T23:17:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Seriously, it has been sometime since I had so much fun with water especially on a hot Saturday afternoon. As usual I did my rounds of washing car in the weekends and often Heather is always asleep but this particular Saturday she was awake and she had joined me for a splendid good time washing car, well not that she is of any help but rather a big annoyance. I didn't mind as she had so called helped a little by hosing the car with water until she didn't find it much fun and she had decided to turn the hose against me and laugh till she dropped.

I had quickly ran upstairs to get my camera to take some good shots of her playing with the hose and water and of course not forgetting good video scenes whereby she is armed with a moderate pressure water hose. I had to adjust the water so that it splits out like a large flower or else I'll be getting direct water shots from her.

It was fun and we both giggled to our heart's contend, after 15-20 minutes or so, it was my turn for revenge and yes it was great I had tricked her to pass me the hose by telling her that I need the hose to clean the car shampoo off but instead immediately when I got hold of it again I started taking my revenge by shooting back water at her and it was great, I had my great laughs and she in turn look for shelter from the water and at the same time giggled like hell. Apparently I noticed something about her thinking about her surrounding, that clever girl had used the pillar as a form of shield from the water hose and so I had to get around her to continue shooting water at her. I had to admit I haven't had so much fun with her, we both got wet all over and I had to call for her mother to quickly shower her and make sure she gets into dry clothes as children at her age catches cough and cold easily after long exposure to water.

First Bag

2007-09-08T16:50:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

So what do children at Heather's age get for a bag? Let me re-phrase, what type and design do children at Heather's get? I maybe wrong but based on my observation it's usually Barbie printed bag or sesame street, sometimes it could be Barney. While we were looking for Heather's birthday present last week we came across a nice Barney bag which is small in size and very suited to her. Since she loves Barney so much, her mom decides to get one. Actually this bag isn't suppose to be opened till her 2nd birthday but so happens I was dismantling the store room cabinets and we actually hid her 2nd birthday present up there and sharp as she is, she spotted the present and her mom went soft and allowed her to open her presents early. Together with her present there was the barney bag and it look so cute on her.

I seriously doubt what stuff she would put in at this point of time as she has nothing else besides story books, toys, a barbie doll, a couple of pacifiers and sweets of course. Other than that I seriously do not know what she will put inside.

Purple Anthropomorphic Dinosaur

2007-09-08T16:19:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Scientific shows, documentaries and hollywood movies have potrayed dinosaurs as heartless and mean creatures. According to Wikipedia.com Dinosaurs were vertebrate animals that domincated terrestrial ecosystems for over 160 million years and first appearing approximately 230 million years ago and an uneventful catastrophic extinction event ended dinosaurs' dominance on land.

Dinosaur fossils were first discovered and recognized in the nineteenth century where mounted dinosaur skeletons have become major attractions at museums around the world. Till today Dinosaurs have become part of world culture and it has ever since then remain popular to human beings of all ages. One great apperance of Dinosaur is in the ever popular Transformers cartoon which they are simply called 'Dinobots', they are completely extinct and we could only see them on screen which is brought to live by technology and animation.

Coming back to Dinosaur as heartless and fiercesome creatures, science has potrayed them as they are judging from the study of their teeth formation and the anamoty of their bodies, maybe they aren't like that if they are domesticated like dogs, which they can be fearsome and heartless animals, but it doesn't make sense to keep a T-Rex as a pet as they are known to be gigantic. Anyway they are extinct and we could only talk and imagine about them, so as for the title 'Purple Anthropomorphic Dinosaur', we could guess by know the key words 'Purple Dinosaur' as none other than 'Barney'.

The word 'Anthropomorphic' simply means attribution of uniquely human characteristics and qualities to nonhuman beings, inanimate objects, or natural or supernatural phenomena. (wikipedia.com). In other words imagine your cat or your dog has human characteristics that is by far superior than any other animals like know how to cook, take care of itself, joke and talk to you, but then again there might be but the chances of having one is like a million to one. However Barney the purple dinosaur is a creation of a TV program for children's education and possibility adult. Barney was created in 1987 by a mother to her son initially for education, it was known as Barney and the Backyard Gang. I would actually love to see the first few episodes of Barney and wonder how does it look like compared to now, as it was later revamp to 'Barney & Friends' in 192 and became as huge success worldwide.

Seriously I thought I was going crazy for the last couple of weeks as I could not get Barney's tunes out of my head, it even rhymes automatically when I'm working, travelling and before going to bed. I thought I was crazy but Heather's mom had the same experience too. Every weekend now we seem to be tortured by Barney & Friends while our daugther Heather goes on enjoying every single song that Barney sings. I was pretty amazed as now Heather could sing a couple of them and also doing the actions of what Barney is doing on the dance. Whatever it is this Barney crazed of Heather will not stop and to be frank I'm still encouraging her to see more as I think and I've graded Barney & Friends to be somewhat educational, it would of course be a pity to our minds and ears but as long as Heather likes it and learn something from it, I seriously don't mind. In our household now, Heather watches Barney during her milk time, before going to bed and sometimes on my personal computer.

Barbara Millicient Roberts

2007-08-31T15:16:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Barbara Millicient Roberts born on March 9, 1959 from the town of Willows, Wisconsin, officially she is 48 years old now but she still looks as good and hot as she is in her teens. Before Barbara Millicent Roberts there was Bild Lili, also known as the predecessor of Barbara Millicent Roberts which hails from Germany, born sometime in 1955 and Bild Lili stop existing right after 1964.

The above story must be head scratching and the question of who is 'Barbara Millicent Roberts' and 'Bild Lili' should pop up by now unless the reader has done some research or have already known on the above characters. Barbara Millicent Roberts has the trademark name that is worth billions of dollars and we are talking none other than 'Barbie'. In short Barbie is a best-selling fashion doll launched in 1959. The doll is produced by Mattel, Inc and the creator is Ruth Handler an American businesswoman, the doll's design was inspired by the German doll Bild Lili. Barbie doll had some very interesting start and success story, the first Barbie doll wore a black and white zebra striped swimsuit and signature topknot ponytail and was available as either a blonde or burnette. The doll was marketed as a "Teen-age Fashion Model," with her clothes created by Mattel fashion designer Charlotte Johnson. The first Barbie dolls were manufactured in Japan, with their clothes hand-stitched by Japanese homeworkers. Around 350,000 Barbie dolls were sold during the first year of production. (source & picture : http://www.wikipedia.com/)

This week Heather is like passed 23 month and which means she is approaching 2 years old, during the weekday we've talked about getting a Barbie doll for her as we thought it was the perfact timing to get her started in dolls. This morning when Heather received her first Barbie doll she was fascinated till she can shout 'Barbie Doll', actually months ago she did hold some Barbie dolls which was the cousin of hers and she already knew that pretty doll is named 'Barbie' but she didn't really have one to call her own. We were trying to search for something for her age as the packages of Barbie goes with the range of the children's age. We could not see anything that is suitable for age 2 as most of the packaging is 3 years above and the package comes with a basic 'Barbie' doll full dressed with accessories such as a hair brush, 2 hand bags and 2 pairs of shoes. Heather started with brushing Barbie's hair back to place as the packaging now makes Barbie's hair look like a rug. Later she proceed to try on other shoes for barbie and start to explore the handbag as well. This could be an educational toy to teach her how to groom herself and every girl needs to learn the basic stuff like dressing up, accessorize themselves and brush their hair.

1+1 = 2

2007-08-26T21:20:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

The most used equation question is 'what is one plus one?', some say eleven as a joke but referring to mathematics, one plus one is almost always equals to two. So what is two here? Next month is the month of September and this used to be a speacial month about my wife to me, now it's a also speacial to my daughter and I'm referring to their birthdays. Come September 30th 2007 Heather will be 2 years old and she is still the most exiciting thing that happen to us, althought I'm anticipating another one in November, be it another daughter or a son both genders are speacial to me in everyway, and Heather would become a sister in November.

I had been recently using lots of dicipline techniques to teach Heather to be of best behavior whenever she is back with us and of course this invovles certain amount of scolding and lecturing because Heather has her very own thinking now and as parents, it's our duty to guide her to the correct way and be of best behaviour. Not that she is naughty or anything but I can say that she is at her highest curiousity point and a very active girl. People used to say that you've got to need lots of energy to have children and so I now understand what people used to say and what they meant.

Till now we are still weekend parents and sometimes I felt hopeless that I can't be with her 7 days a week due to work commitments for both of us parents, she begins to understand now she wouldn't be see us for a couple of days till our next visit and pick her up. Just today while I part with her, she held on to me and somehow she knows that we are going to leave for a couple of days, she reluctant to let off from my shoulder and her babysitter has to ask her to follow her to the kitchen to get some food and help her out. I strongly feel that she knows that we are leaving as every last word before we part I always say softly to her ears that 'daddy loves you and will pick you up on Friday, be a good girl'. I still could remember how I held her against my chest and her head resting on my shoulder while I rub and pat her back softly. It's a challenge for us to bring ourselves out from this weekend parents role as it is a curse at times.

Growing Up

2007-08-26T21:00:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

I have got to admit that I'm not being so hardworking lately on updating the progress of Heather's life, a couple of reasons actually, mainly her life is pretty stable now without much new exciting happening as compared to her first year whereby she learns how to turn herself around, take first steps and utter her first word. We adults aren't that exiciting but only new experiences and episodes, in other words life is like a rollercoaster, anyway this is about Heather and at the moment the only rollercoaster ride she is getting is the real thing later when is gets bigger in age. Other than that I don't see any rollercoaster life experiences but just growing up because everything is handled and maintained by her parents.

Heather is pretty much responsive now in terms of communication as in when a question is being thrown at, she will answer or respond, often the uttered words are not that accurate but we can interpret her nicely. During the weekends her activities for the past month is all about seeing Barney, luckily I had managed to get her some collection of Barney episodes and I'm amazed that she fell in love with Barney actually. She would often ask us to repeat certain music videos to her preference and she has the ability to sing together now, one of her favourites of course is no other than that song title 'My Yellow Blankey', 'If You're Happy', 'Mister Sun' and 'Sheep Medley', luckily and thanks to consumerism that DVD players are now available at very low prices as the rate of her choosing and repeating songs on the DVD does accelerate the wear and tear of the DVD player. Whatever the cost is, I feel that it's okay because she is learning in terms of language and musical skills.

In terms of drawing and writing, she is still learning and I feel that it's on the edge now as she would come to writing and colouring with ease, her mother already commented that she holds the pencil with great accuracy but just don't know what to express. I'm just waiting for the day that the two doodle that she has which one is a small and portable one and the other is a large one to put to good use.

Splish, Splash!

2007-07-31T19:22:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Can any of us really recall when or at what age we had our first dip into a swimming pool? I certainly could not remember but I could recall the experience I had, I was terrified and could remember I used to stick to the sides of the pool and in denial of going into the center despite with floats, kickboard and my father carrying me.

We've just got the keys to our new high-cost apartment just 2 weeks ago and I thought it would be a great idea to bring Heather now at 20 months old for the very first time to a swimming pool since she likes to take long showers and enjoy water in everyway she could. Just before the weekend we bought Heather a brand new piece of swimsuit and also her very first together with some donut floats and hand floats for safety purposes. During the weekend, I thought of trying out a swim with her but due to time unavailability and also it's best to test how she would react to swimming pools, so it's best to show her first.

At first sight she was a little stunned and curious, so I took her close to the edge of the pool and asked her to bend down and feel the water and it was a love at first sight for her as I knew her curiosity went sky high. At that time there were also some children in the pool breaking the silence with their happy and loud voices that they emit due to the fun they had. I could see how Heather wished she had been in the pool, nevertheless the time would come and I'm making some schedule to bring Heather for her first dip into the pool and also to get her some experience on water kicking, futher into the future I would certainly allow her to take up swimming lessons, because you'll never know you need them.

Raising Heather

2007-07-13T17:53:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

The past weeks with Heather has been very challenging and daunting task, frankly speaking bringing up a child is not easy and one requires a great deal of strenght and most importantly patience. It is said by chinese beliefs when a child had undergo some form of fever and sickness their behaviour and attitude goes haywire, in other words they tend to be very naughty and rebellious. This theory speaking has not been proven yet, not in my household but more or less I find that this is due to the growing up Heather that she chooses to express her activeness and naughty side.

On her other developments, her speech and words are improving and she basically understands what we speak to her, she is much stronger in Cantonese chinese language at the time being mainly due to her 5 days at her baby sitter's place where they communicate more on Cantonese language and sometimes Hokkien, back during the weekend we would converse more in English so she gets both languages.

One important thing that I notice about Heather is her interest and tendency to sing to her favourite songs, like the past weekend when we were playing some of her Kindermusik songs, she tries her best to sing along with it, only those words that she doesn't know how to speak she would utter similar sound. In which is a good sign and showing strong interest music, Heather has been going to Kindermusik I reckon about slightly over a year and much I have agree that Kindermusik does bring positive learning to her, as most of us would never start kindergartden not until we hit the age of 5 years old.

When she turns 2, I have lots of wishful thinking of taking her learning to the next level like introducing her to musical instruments and even golf for a start, this of course would highly depend on her interest on whatever we introduce to her. If she chooses musical instruments then I would make sure that she gets the best or vice versa towards golf. There is always a saying that we must do what we do best, myself I have to admit that I love to do lots of things and taking up new stuffs but I always go half hearted on those that I take up, in which is a terrible bad habit I admit. When Heather turns 2 and beyond, things would definately be more exciting for both parents and her.

Still Weekend Parents

2007-07-01T13:52:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Clearly a year and a half back, i've posted a similar title called 'Weekend Parents' and till today we still are. Do the maths and the results are as follows; we get to see our daughter 156 days in a year which is equivalent to 22 weeks, crash in the holidays and official leave we take, proabably another extra week or two which is still 40% in a year. The question is how to sqeeze more percentage of seeing our daughter in a year? I strongly reckon that there are more parents out there who carries the tittle 'Weekend Parents' like us, getting 40% in a year maybe lots compared to other parents but nevertheless it is something that we have to ponder about.

Yesterday Heather reached 21 months old, and till date as a father I'm really proud of her behaviour in public and in class, but of course there are times during dinner she would go a little crazy by trying to feed herself and playing with her food. In class (Kindermusik) she is one of the best behaved children, not that she is my daughter and I'm taking sides but it's a fact compared to the rest, she is very much trained now to be patient and not eagerly takes things when offered, she would often wait for the crowd of children to disperse first after taking play stuffs and then only Heather goes for her turn. With this behaviour I'm proud of her, even in shopping malls Heather is somewhat manageable as she doesn't really run around and most of the time we would hold her hands and she is okay with it. Being a 21 month old child, she is very talkative especially at home and with close people, while outside with people that she seldom sees or mixes she would keep to herself and often grade the environment, which is good in a sense that we should listen first rather than utter nonsense.

Just last week we've brought Heather to a professional award winning hair stylist for her first official proper hair cut but it turns out to be a disaster because she reluctant to even give a chance to the hairstylist to cut her hair, basically she was shouting and crying all the way. We all do know that professional hairstylist are a little on the softside and seeing Heather cry and shouting all the way did freaked the hairstylist off, I've told mommy that maybe she is not ready for a proper haircut but in time she would love hair saloon as this is every girls/women's hang out place.

20 Months

2007-06-11T20:58:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

It was crayons and colouring pencils a couple of months back and now it is sticker books, somehow Heather knows that we need to peel in order to get the sticker out from their original place to expose the sticky side. I was surprised during last weekend where she had gotten a sticker book which we bought a couple months back the same time when we had gotten her the colouring books. She somehow called me to over while she was on the bed and with the sticker book opened wide, at first I thought she wanted to ask me what are those pictures in which she usually does but to my surprise she had asked me to peel the sticker out, amazed and I peeled a couple out and she started flipping to other pages and there she goes decorating the book with stickers. It is to my amazement now that Heather had progress so much from last year when she was only 12 months.

3 months more and she will turn 2. Time flies quickly as we have confirmed that Heather would be a sister in November 2007 as we are expecting a new member of the family, it's too early now to tell if Heather would have a brother or a sister as I'm planning not to know when the time arrives as it doesn't really matter on the gender. I shall elaborate more on Heather's upcoming brother/sister in the coming weeks and months as the baby inside her mother has new developments.

On the hindsight, Heather grows with more emotions as we felt she somehow know that every Sunday evening is the time that she would leave us and be back to the babysitter for a couple of days till we met up next. Every Sunday evening before she gets into the car for her journey back to the babysitter, I would somehow tell her in words that "I'll be picking you up next week Friday so be a good girl" it hurts on myside and somehow she would respond by uttering a confirmation sound and she usually keeps quiet during her journey back. I've always wish that I could see her everyday when I return to work.

First Entry - Some Excerpts

2007-06-02T13:36:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Since this is the first entry of Heather Hoh, I shall continue to write about her life journal in this blogsite address of her own as she is just 20 months old and I'm really anticipating when she will start writing things about herself or any stories or things that she had experienced. So to speak her first journal entry.

As this is the first entry, I shall be posting some of the excerpts from her previous blog/journal entries found in www.patrickhoh.blogspot.com

Heather's Early Hours

As I was doing some cleanup to my PDA (O2 XDA II) SD Card recently, i stumbled upon some shots of Heather in which i've taken just less than 24 hours in the hospital, could hardly remembered i've taken these shots and i do admit that age is catching up although 30 years old is still very young to a vast majority. I could still recall Heather's skin is pretty much soft, and rippled just like an adult who spend too much time in contact with water. She could hardly move as such only her fingers and her head waving a little from left to right and vice versa, but one things for sure nature had blessed her with a powerful throat whereby all babies could cry and scream loudly when necessary to alert adults either they are hungry or uncomfortable.

Looking back again, i still remember how the feeling of a father watching her very own child being brought into this world as it wasn't an easy view. My advise to all future father to be is to make sure you've got a strong stomach and seeing the doctor preparing for labour is already good enough to make you sick, imagine the doctor has to ensure that the opening is large enough to accomodate the baby's head.

Anyway, it's for me to know and for you all father to be to find out. I would definately recommend to be in the labour room to give the love, support and care to your wife who will be enduring great pain to bring a child into this world.

posted by Patrick Hoh at

Materialism

2007-05-30T19:09:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

We have a common view about things, prevalent almost everywhere, which is that our life has to be comfortable.

- Swami Krishnananda

Look around us and we find that we are surrounded by products and gadgets. Just fumble in your pocket or in your handbag and most likely you'll find a mobile phone, communication has become a necessity in our lives but what tickles us look at the latest mobile phone in the market given that we've just got a brand new one a few months ago and what new technology has to offer and differ from our existing one? Downright a mobile phone main usage is to provide us a two way communication but it has evovle into something more personal and often dictates our lifestyle and in addition incubating the need in us.

Mobile phone is one example that we could use to highlight about 'materialism' and nonetheless materialism to a certain extent plays a strong role in our lives and often it dictates how we should our lifestyle should be if we are not careful. Often we find ourselves chasing for materialist objects till we end up creating other troubles and worries. Businesses and corporates are targeting their products towards the greatest people that has the strongest spending power which is teenagers and to a certain extent children. I recall that mobile phones are meant to be more of a business gadget than a fun lifestyle phone that one could own. As I was having lunch during an ordinary working weekday, I could observe my neighbour table whom is packed with teenagers and each an everyone of them has a mobile phone that is so fancy packed with features will make any businessman's phone look stupid.

Besides mobile phones, the choice of clothings and apparels for children and teenagers have exploded out of proportion and these children and teenagers know brands and what is best for them to stand out and not getting lost in society. All these are pretty much inevitable as this would be their generation need and because of the vast majority it would be difficult to seggregate a particular child or teenager different from the rest as this would create a certain unacceptable behaviour and withdrawal from society, so to speak 'do what the romans do', although I'm very much against this but it is not our generation anymore and we have to embrace and accept how a civilization or society evovles. Trust me, there are lots of people are still in their old school thinking and they would do anything to groom their children similar to their thoughts.

Coming back to materialism, sometimes I fear that we've started the trend of dressing and looking good too early for Heather and everything must be in quality, just last month we have gotten Heather a new trendy fashion shoe that has a price tag equivalent to an adult pair of Nike or Addidas sports shoes and yes I'm talking about CROCS as the attached picture illustrates. 30 years ago the price of this pair of CROCS could buy dozen pair of shoes that could last close to a decade. I may be exaggerating but the fact is there are majority of parents who would think twice before buy a pair of CROCS at this price for a 18 month old toddler. The size, colour and design was chosen and we were off to the cashier and the cashier made a comment that 'children these days are so lucky' and I couldn't agree with the cashier more as they are definately very lucky.

Anyways materialism would continue to grow and evovle as long as technology, innovation, inventions and breakthrough in products continues to flood the market, people will look forward to ligthen their wallets through getting these products that dictates how their lifestyle should be and in summary 'how much money is enough?', and to what extend will this 'debt society' evovle too?

The Learning Curve

2007-05-04T18:47:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

I've had good seasons and some deeply painful ones.

I've made some spectacularly good choices

and some outrageously bad mistakes.

I'm very human - a work in progress.

-Robin Sharma

I read on the newspaper some weeks back and there was this story about a 70 year old women who've just graduated with a university degree, can you imagine one self studying at the age of 70? This is to show that even at the age of 70 we are still learning, according to science we start learning even when we are in our mother's stomach by the second trimester we already have ears and hearing development. Learning and understanding our mother's voices and conversation around has already begun, so by the time when we are into this world we automatically would start learning different things to adapt to the new environment.

Today I'm still learning, not academically at the moment but learning the behaviour and actions of Heather and in turn Heather is trying to learn from us, so this is a two way learning action. Heather has been back with us consecutively for a week already and this is by far the longest I've seen and been with Heather thanks to the long public holidays. During this time Heather and I had our very own frustrations and anger, myself wanting Heather to be at her best behaviour at all times and Heather wants to have fun and often forgotten who she is, so to speak this is a clash. Sometimes I wonder am I placing too high of an expectation on Heather? Just few days ago there was also an article about parents now putting very high expectations on thier children especially in their studies and this has lead to social and mental problems of a child. In my past entries I've mentioned that parents now fills their children with almighty activities and depriving them of their actual childhood times where after school is playtime.

During my age I didn't had the chance or should I say the privalege to be filled with many activities and I'm talking about music classes, ballet, dancing, tuition and so on. I only did after school tuition and I remember I dread it because I rather spend my time at home playing computer games or go cycling. I can say I was rather lucky but given the chance to reverse time I would want to learn more by going to all these classes and now I certainly regret not knowing how to play the piano or even swim properly. So coming back to parents who fills their children with activities till social and mental problems arise I think it we have to understand our children on how much can they take, and I always share that each human being is a unique individual where we are not all born the same, some could take lots of activities and end up with excellent results in all activities while some could only do good in one and the rest are all mediocre results. I had many wishful thinkings of Heather's activities but now I'm still trying to understand and learn how much potential she has before I engage her in music, golf, yoga and etc.

So the learning curve for human is never a hill type curve or with bumps, I strongly reckon that we should always be ready to learn and if possible learn new things everyday, even now since I've complete my master's degree I'm learning other things to keep me occupied and be a better person like what the above author who quoted 'I'm very human - a work in progress' because there is not a perfact human in this world, there is no complete human. Since I got to know this quote, I've been debating in myself that I maybe acting a little too harsh and have high expectations of Heather lately till I sometimes blow my tops when she does something that doesn't please us. I tend to think about what the author have written that we are all very human and a work in progress, I mean what can I expect from a less than 2 year old child. I'm not perfact and how can I expect my daughter to be perfact?

Women Just Love Shoes

2007-04-22T22:15:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

I came across an article writing about women and shoes, it's about shoes that hurt women and women love them. This article mainly talks about high heel shoes that often hurt women and to certain extend deformaties in women's legs can be found, high heel shoes damage often rippled right up from the heel to the knees causing pain, muscle sores and arthritis in some cases. Having all these known problems high heel shoes continues to be in the spotlight for any top shoe designers like 'Louis Vitton', 'Jimmy Choo', 'Charles Jourdan', 'Bally', 'Hermes' to name a few. Talking about high heel shoes, I was at a fashion showcase recently doing some fashion photoshoot and I could imagine that without high heel shoes the model doesn't have any synergy with the dress that she is trying showoff on the catwalk, this also brings about much flare to the model with high heel shoes compared to flat heel ones.

Having said about high heel shoes, designers and models, we now take a look at Heather's collection of shoes, just the other day I was looking for a shoe for her to wear before we got out from the car and I was astonished on the amount of shoes she had at her age barely 2 years old. It simply astonish me to see that she is a lucky girl to have so many pair of shoes and thinking about myself at that age I doubt very much I had more than 1 pair. I notice that Heather's shoes are all flat heels, of course they are and I cannot see any infant, toddler or children shoes having high heel ones, are there? Well I'm not surprised that there are as in this modern world people create not only products but wants and needs of people, but high heel for children I would surely reject as this would definately interfere with their muscle and bone development that later in their adulthood could cause some disformaties and walking problems. Sticking to flat heels is a must till she is towards the end of her teenage life.

For Heather now, I'm begining to allow her to walk more often now like from getting down to the car to whatever shop or complex that we are going to, we are starting to train her to be more discipline and concentrate on her walking skills as often she would look elsewhere instead of the road or the surface in front. Anyway for Heather's age now, her shoe size is changing rapidly and I would reckon that a shoe size is good for about 4-5 months before purchasing a new size, compared to before there are plenty of children shoes now, those days we only have a shoe retail outlet where we can get everything under one roof from slippers to school shoes. These days shoe outlets are pretty much concentrated on certain type and range.

Heather 18 Months

2007-04-13T19:02:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Heather has now passed 18 months and going to hit 19 months end of this April 2007, this is the 90th blog entry on Heather's life and I reckon that up to date her life journal has surpass any doctorate thesis in terms of number of words and pages. I was suppose to compile her blog entries of her birth to 1st year into a printed journal complete with colour pictures and with a good cover binding, I guess I'll have to wait till she completes her 2nd birthday to compile birth to 2 years of her life.

Just last week I made a blog entry on her first masterpiece drawing and it's a pity that she had to draw that masterpiece on the floor, we as parents felt really bad as we've gotten her new drawing paper, crayons, colour pencils and colouring activity book without first getting a proper children table and chair. So this week we've made an effort to get a nice children table and chair from a swedish furniture and home supplies centre, at first we wanted to get her a better, higher quality and more solid wood type but due to it being oversold we have to settle something that is one quality down. Nonetheless it was considered a better quality than those fabricated locally with rubber wood and metal folding legs. I must admit assembling both table and 2 chairs is not easy as the number of screw turns needed and my poor thumb has to go through the torture, the screws was very tight at certain points but it was all worth it and yesterday Heather did the opening ceremony by drawing and colouring on the table, did I mentioned she even did some scribbling outside of the art paper and somewhat drew on the table?

This week also marks her 2nd time in a different baby sitting environment, it's already a norm since her birth that we place Heather at a baby sitter's house from Sunday night till Friday evening, this time we change the schedule by bringing Heather back on Thursday's night and leaving it with her grandparents on Friday. We thought that this would benefit all of us as her grandparents needed the time spend on bonding and we could actually see Heather more often now regardless if it's only 1 day extra. Last week we can say she was somewhat traumatised because of the different environment that she has to be in and I totally understand even for an adult it would be difficult to stay in another place and environment. I was told that she refused to take her milk feeding last week and this week is an improvement as she had taken two feeds today. I could still remember last week when I reached Heather's grandparents house in the evening to pick her up after I finish work, Heather was shouting and happy to see me and I guess she must be very traumatised, but this week seems to be better, she didn't shout much but just rubbing her head trying to tell me she had fallen much and banged her head. Overall it was okay as her grandparents is happy that they can spend more time with Heather. I sincerely hope this goes on well in the following weeks and she would learn new things in this new enviroment.

A Picture Paints A Thousand Words

2007-04-08T22:18:00.000+08:00

By Patrick Hoh

There is a saying that 'A Picture Paints A Thousand Words' and I totally agree with it because when we look or stare into a picture it can have hundreds and sometimes thousands of meanings depending on what the painter is thinking off. Having this meanings thus leads to thousand words, taking for example the famous artist Vincent Van Gogh and his painting of a vase with 12 flowers, many have asked what is the meaning behind it? Till date no one knows, but what some say is a miraculous interpretation of the world around us, in the past there have been many works of painting, paintings by Van Gogh is more often reffered to as 'still life', works from Van Goh has utterly changed the way we in which view the world and many are puzzled why art lovers or collectors would pay top dollars for their piece of work.

So coming back to Heather, as parents we both thought it would be nice for her to have her own drawing materials and stationaries as she's pretty fond of drawing and scribbling despite of me getting a 'doodle' for her last year, till date I haven't seen any masterpiece from that 'doodle' yet. So today we've gotten her some beginner's drawing/colouring book, a whole art block with 30 pages of paper for her disposal, a set of crayons and colouring pencils and some drawing activity book. As usual after her afternoon nap she would hunt for something to do and I've decided to let her explore her creativity first despite having a proper children table and chair which we have intention of getting one good one as the it is currently no in stock. Heather was surprised and inquisitive of the drawing materials and activity book that we've gotten her, after opening the crayon box, instantaneously Heather grabs hold of a few crayons and started scribbling on the art paper and instead of colouring the ready drawn pictures in the activity book she started scribbling on the pages regardless if the crayon colours hit the pictures. I don't really blame her but it is a start as she doesn't stick to one colour crayon but several after each and every crayon does some form of scribbling.

After several minutes of scribbling, flipping pages, taking out all the crayons and regardless of crayon paintings on her face, shirt and pants, Heather finally drew her first masterpiece. Seen in this picture the word Heather, it would have been remarkable if she could write and spell her name at this age, by now you could guess that I wrote her name on it just to show her how to use a crayon at the begining. Her masterpiece wasn't splendid or works of art but to me it is a good start as what i've mentioned she doesn't stick to one colour but instead keep changing crayon colours to scribble.

I'm looking forward to get a children's table and chair of her own so that during the weekends she could spend some quality time on colouring and picture drawing activity to stimulate her thinking and mind. Once during my child years, I attended a memory and studying course which I could clearly remember that the tutor says colours increases a human memory by 50%.

Junk Food & Ice-Creams

2007-04-08T14:50:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

We often take sugar for granted and we humans at any one time usually consume sugar that could last for days or weeks supply, taking examples of cakes and cookies, these so called irresistable to eat stuff contains as much as a week supply of sugar. I mean supply of sugar for our human body, it has been documented once that each can of fizzy drink contains as much as six tablespoon of sugar but nonetheless we still crave for these every once in a while.

Last week was Heather's first visit to the dentist and I had make it a point to start early for her age once all her teeth is out and it was a successful one as she felt really wierd upon entering the dentist room. Luckily the dentist was a woman and she was pretty friendly towards her, since the dentist hydraulic chair is very much for adults it would be a trauma for Heather to since on the chair by herself and she would definately wouldn't want to lie to with great dicipline and open her mouth for the dentist, so I had to play a role at first to allow her to sleep on top of my chest with her facing upwards towards the ceiling. Everything went well for the first minute until she felt something is not right and she started struggling and I have to pass it to mommy which is better in terms of keeping her calm. It wasn't so bad as the dentist manage to take quick looks into her teeth and not to mentioned sticking the small mirror into her mouth to enable the dentist to see the upper teeth through the reflection from the mirror, all in took about a quick 3-5 mintues before she starts to keep her mouth shut. Overall her teeth according to the dentist is good and there is no sign of decay, the dentist urge us to continue cleaning her teeth during bath time.

So why the dentist? The answer is very obvious, I remember when I was a child I didn't frequent the dentist and that made me very agitated when see a dentist and I sort of regret that I should have seen the dentist more often or my parents should have brought me to the dentist at early age, not that I have decaying teeth or teeth full of fillings but just the growth of the teeth is not too perfact like those of actors and actress. I believe very much that teeth is a presentation of a human body and it should look white, straight and healthy, with these points would be added. Now I want Heather as a girl to have good teeth when she grows up, because as a girl/woman having a set of good teeth is a must. Having said that, the other sub reason for the dentist is because Heather has develop junk food craving as she often munches and look for them, not so much for ice-cream as she tends to eat whenever we have ice cream, other than that junk food is her preference like nuts, crackers and chips.

Heather is now approaching 19 months and her Kindermusik classes has just been promoted, she is now with the more senior children whereby more advance learning and techniques is employed. Yesterday was her first class for the second stage of Kindermusik which is 'Our Time', previously was 'Villiage', Heather had some handicapped there as some of the music and moves requires children to jump or leap, when come these moves I have to hold Heather and have to tell her to imagine that she is jumping. Jumping is something which we all don't know how or when we would learn as I can see most of the children age 2 and beyond (i think) knows how to jump well. Overall she had lots of fun meeting new people and going through new moves and techniques. As a parent I think she is developing and interacting well as she can understands most of everyday commands now, and her behaviour till date is good although there are times when she misbehaves, even we adults sometimes misbehaves.

Round And Round The Garden Like A Teddybear!

2007-03-11T22:09:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

It occurs to me that I have not been very religeous in writing Heather's life journal or blogsite, from weekly to now a monthly affair. I did give it some thought and if I were to write weekly at her age now it would be just repetitious inputs as she now takes life slowly by learning vocals and controlling her actions on using objects, and I seriously hope she does well in controlling objects as meal times seems to be disasterous for us. I must say that I'm proud that Heather is taking great effort to use utensils on her own to eat and she doesn't seem to like the idea of us feeding her now. Observing how Heather grows up does spark internal debates in me, I often ask myself how or when I started using fork and spoon to eat? Was it a mess when I was Heather's age? and I doubt my parents could recall.

Comes to the subject of teddy bears, Heather is fond of teddy bears now and she can't stop uttering 'bear bear' when she sees one or just out of the blue you can hear Heather goes 'bear bear'. Sometimes I wonder what's with teddy bears and humans? and how often we associate teddy bears with valentines, birthdays and as a toy to cheer people up. I grew up without any teddy bears and I could not remember myself pestering my parents to get me a teddy bear. Is there any statistics shown that teddy bears are for girls only? I seriously doubt it, and I think guys do have teddy bears one way or the other. The only thing I could remember is having a bolster in my bed unlike some children now has Spider-man, Buzzlight Year, Woody and etc.

Nevertheless soft toys does affect us one way or the other, which is why after so many years teddybears are still being manufactured and new types and materials are available now. Talking about teddy bears mommy has a huge collection of teddy bears with each bear has it's own name. The picture now that we see has several bears are new and just from the shelf which mommy got for Heather, in years to come Heather will be amazed on how many teddy bears mommy got, I would reckon more than 30 or maybe more.

GONG XI FA CHAI 2007

2007-02-19T23:27:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Another year has passed and we welcome the year of the 'Fire Boar', and we say goodbye to the 'Dog'. Heather is back with us since last Friday and today we've just completed our 2nd day of Chinese New Year whereby in the morning we had our opening year meal and visit to my in-laws place, yesterday was of course the first where we would go out for family and relatives house visit. Heather managed to obtain lots of red packets or 'ang pows', one relative commented that Chinese New Year celebration is more for the children and I have to agree on his comments because they are the one who is not losing but gain most of the time whereas we parents will have to give in exchange something for our children. This is entirely acceptable as we often failed to take the past years that we have been receiving into consideration, the rule of thumb is to stay single for as long as you can in order to continue receiving 'ang pows'. Coming back to Heather's collection of 'ang pows', I must say it's a fair bit compare to my childhood times.

Thinking back from last Chinese New Year, 12 months only and I can see lots of changes on Heather, the most prominent one is her ability this year to walk and run around. Last year she was always being carried by her mother. Her speech is gotten even better this time and often she responded to people's questions and conversation, others include her ability to use utensils to eat like we do, I thought this is the best development I've ever noticed and I only found that out today over our family opening year meal which I had an individual bowl for her together with a fork and spoon. I had taken away the fork earlier on but left the spoon on the bowl as time to time I would feed her, I was amazed when she took the spoon up herself this morning and started scouping up some brown rice and place it into her mouth. Although the accuracy of the rice landing into her mouth was not good but I'm amazed that she tried to use utensils like us to feed herself. This is truly a magnificient human development which is learned through seeing we adults do. After this I'm thinking when did I start using utensils to eat?

Having said all that, the first day of Chinese New Year has made red the colour of prosperity as a trend and it has been longed the colour for Chinese people. It so happens that on the first myself, mommy, Heather, my brother and Daisy The Pug wore red, it was truly an auspicious colour. As usual nowadays Heather had developed some bond with Daisy The Pug and she is getting very used to the licking and pouncing on her. Just this morning Heather had learned the word 'Daisy', and started calling Daisy.

Next year Chinese New Year would be better as I reckon that she can speak and amused more people than this year, I'm also wondering if this year can Heather become a sister?

Children Viral Infection

2007-02-11T23:01:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Type 'Children Viral Infection' in Google and you'll be amazed the number of hits and relevant links Google returns, it's about slightly over a million. Viral infection is pretty much common in children as their young and weaker bodies makes them susceptible or prone to virus and bacteria. Most common viral infections in children are cold, fever, diarrhea, ear infections and chicken pox to name a few.

Heather took a turn of viral infection for almost 2 weeks without any improvements, it all started with minor coughs, weezing while she breathes and running nose. Though that ordinary general practioners would do the job by prescribing her the usual cough mixture, antibiotics and flu pills but as a week passed, her condition isn't getting better so we've decided to seek a second opinion and took her back to the hospital where she was born and had to see the pediatrician. After a brief struggle (Heather doesn't like the pediatrician because the last few times seeing him was nothing but injections) put up by Heather and the pediatrician, the doctor manage to diagnose her of a viral infection and a pretty bad one too.
We took the medication home and I observed that the medicine given was of premium quality from multinational pharmaceutical companies and of course that carries a heavier doctor and medication charges, but it was okay because the most important thing is to see Heather get well.

Immediately after a day on that medication we could see Heather recuperating fast and becoming active again. We were relief that we've made the right decision to seek second opinion and bring attention to a hospital pediatrician.

When I was a child, I remembered seeing the doctor often as I was prone to sickness. Usually fever and nothing more, and I hated taking antibiotics especially those in liquid form because during that time I reckon that manufacturing of these medication don't take into consideration of children tasting them. Having said that Heather's medication was all fruity and it resembles sweets and candy taste, unlike my time it was all bitter and the smell was horrible. Before you could even swallow them you're most likely thinking of throwing up, for Heather's medication it was pretty simple to feed them as it didn't go down difficult judging from Heather's face and only at certain times when she refuses to take them.

Now adult medication seems to knock you out cold especially during working hours and taken them in the afternoon, I always dread taking flu medication prescribed by general doctors as they have the effect more of sleeping pills rather than cold or influenze pills. One thing's for sure we humans are vulnerable and weak although we are the high and mighty living organisms on this planet.

Here are some pictures taken early this morning as we were out for breakfast, Heather's face is so much better compared to the days before and we are relief to see her recuperating.

Children & Dogs

2007-02-06T15:07:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Not every dog is right for children and not every child is right for a dog, a saying goes. I always had dogs when I was a little child and all the way up to my teenage years and by the time I was an adult I still had dogs. Never once in the morning I woke up silent without hearing my dogs bark. More often the first bark was mainly channeled to the newspaper guy who rode his motorcycle from house to house to deliver them and sometimes if it rains, the newspaper guy would throw them straight into the house compound as not to get the newspaper drench in rain.
As far as I know there are few cases where the dogs helped themselves to a little early morning jaw exercise by destroying the newspaper.

Having said that, these few years had been very much silent as I've already moved out from my parents house who still have dogs which a few years ago joined by a pedigree breed. Every weekend when I go back, these dogs are still loyal and would come to greet me. Our dogs are the only closest animals that Heather ever gotten to touch, feel and played with. I do hope to get the message that all dogs are not equal to our family dogs as some might not be so friendly and could be easily provoked into attacking humans.

Last Sunday was pretty fun for Heather as she is now getting more used to the pedigree breed, a pug to say, more often she would avoid and run away because of the pug's active crazy behavior. That day Heather was having fun with the pug 'Daisy' and decided to ride it like a pony and often pounce up and down on it's back. I certainly would understand it does hurt and Heather sometimes climbs on top of my stomach to play horse ride or something. While seeing Heather having fun with dogs, mommy and me had a discreet conversation about getting a dog for her, and thinking what would be the ideal dog for Heather.

It is also proven in research that dogs can help teach a child responsibility, patience, empathy, and compassion with adult supervision. Although I didn't experience it when I was a child because as a child I find that I'm a very playful and with a little violence in me, so I often disturb and torture the dogs, and that's all definately wrong, I only started to appreciate dogs and their companionship when I turn to teenage years.

Anyway, I'll put the dog thing on hold till our next discussion with mommy arises and after we can confirm that we can fully take care of another life in our household.

16 Months

2007-02-01T18:48:00.000+08:00

by Patrick Hoh

Yes! 16 months has passed and Chinese New Year is just around the corner and I'm sure Heather will grip 'Ang-Pows' better than last year, she was only 5 months then. At this age she would better understand the meaning of festivals, well maybe just a small percentage and not much compared to last year. Just 2 days ago, Heather was helping her mom in putting up decorative birds up on the bunch of 'pussy willow' plants which we've bought several days ago. 'Pussy willow' plants are a traditional mark for Chinese New Year and as years passed these plants are not so much in demand because changing preferences in the new generation. I remember when I was little, my parents used to get these every year and there are years which we have turned to artificial ones. It's good to have them around as they do last years if undisturbed and it doesn't need water, they would wither naturally and dry up but they still maintain their colour and their texture.

The year 2007 according to Chinese Astrology Calender is the year of the 'Fire Boar' and supposedly is a good year overall for most animal signs. It would be a good career year for rabbits if we go further the effort on what we are currently putting in right now, as for Heather she's a chicken sign and I would like to stress more of her predictions for this year 2007 but these astrological books don't make sense for people at her age because most predictions are centered mainly on career, love and wealth. Obviously Heather's career will not start for another 20 odd years or so, as for love, it must be a joke at her age. If we are talking about love for parents, family members and relatives is a totally different story but most of these astrological predictions are usually in a couple relationship. Last but not least 'wealth', Heather basically came out to this world nothing, and i mean naked without anything and i don't see her bringing a bag or an account book along when she comes out from her mother's womb, so wealth again cannot be foretold. It would be more relevant when she hits above 20 and after her studies. Wealth is something that we are given or earned through our lives.

Overall for her age, I only believe in how parenthood can make a difference in years to come, only when she is independant then she would be a little dependent on all these predictions and of course the wind that she takes later in life.

Here in this entry I would also like to mentioned that last week our world statistics has grown and obviously it grows every second, our good friend uncle Joey and auntie Elaine had their baby daugther delivered safely into this world and soon Heather probably in the next few years have a close friend to play with, and I'm sure they would enjoy so much in watching their daughter grow up like what i'm experiencing now.