The lil’ dude and his family…

In T minus 7 hours, Irwan will land in KLIA and that’ll just make Irfan the happiest boy today! He was even laughing and smiling in his sleep! No joke! I woke up with a start when I felt Irfan’s body shaking. I thought he was having a nightmare or wasn’t well or something like that. What I saw on his face 2 seconds after I got up made me laugh - he was smiling and giggling in his sleep! I think in his dream he was hugging/playing/*insert whatever you think suits best* with Irwan. Tsk tsk tsk. Daddy’s boy betul!

For the past few days, father and son have been talking to each other a lot on the phone. I had to become Irwan’s translator as he couldn’t make out what it was his son was saying. Haha! Irfan has been learning a lot of words the past few days and in all his pelatness, Irwan was just lost. Some of the words: lorry (very tongue twisting for Irfan!), rabbit, puppy (and going woof after that), squirrel (another tongue twister), lion, elephant, train, plane, truck, boat, ship, tv (good or no good? heh!), chicken, cow, Nike (for his sandals and shoes), bag and a few more I can’t seem to recall much. I think in a few months’ time, I may not be able to keep track already! Eeeeekkk!

He has also learnt to recognize his family members’ names since about a month ago. He can’t pronounce their full names but if you ask who is Irwan, his answer will be Papa. If you ask who is Nadia, his answer will be Mama and so on and so forth. He knows our names, all of his grandparents’ names, his uncles’ and aunty’s names as well as my grandmother’s name. He sure is a fast learner! And that brings me to my next question:

My Siamese twins! :P

:)

and Irfan’s been pretty okay so far. We speak to Irwan via VoIP almost everyday - so Irfan’s okay with that. He keeps counting with his papa the number of days Papa will be back. While counting, he’ll be pointing to god knows what. Haha! Ho-well, as long as the lil’ dude’s happy. :) And speaking of counting, Irfan’s favourite number is ‘8′ and as the Chinese believe - it’s a lucky number - as it means prosper or wealth. Who knows? *shrugs*

Still on the topic of numbers, Irfan has mastered the peg puzzles I bought him a while ago - from counting 0-9 (in all his pelatness) to identifying ‘em pictures below the puzzle to putting the numbers in all the right places. Although sometimes he just want to have it his way and park number 7 at number 1’s spot and vice versa. *slaps forehead* He takes ‘8′ with him when I give him his shower, but since it’s a wooden puzzle, it got wet and the paint came off a bit and since then he’s still allowed to take ‘8′ into the bathroom, but he has to leave it on the countertop. And I have to give him his bubble bath bottle in exhange. :P

We tagged along with my in-laws along yesterday to Planete Enfants‘ warehouse sale (thanks Sasha!) as my brother in-law and sister in-law wanted to get some things for their baby (SIL is expecting a baby boy - habislaaaaaaaaa… 2 heroes! :P) and I managed to find a laptop (will post on brand all all later - but it’s for 4-6 year olds.. okay kot?) for Irfan . It was supposed to be from us, but since mom in-law said that they’ve been searching high and low for such a lappie for Irfan, so now, the lappie is Irfan’s be-early birthday present from his grandparents. I hope Irwan managed to find something in Germany yesterday for the lil’ dude! Hahahaha!

Aside from his “gee-yai” (Mr. Giraff), Irfan has also become attached to his “bus”. More pics of him and the bus can be seen here. He even brings the bus into the bathroom with him when I have my shower! Tsk! Another security blanket perhaps? Heh!

Daydreaming.

First, take a tissue.

Then… blow the nose away! :P

What’s up with the thumb lah? Haha!

Irfan and gee-yai.

Having fun with me. :)

Gee-yai and the bus.

The peg wooden puzzle.

Aaron conducted a workshop for the five (Dinah, Hetty, Shannon, Tecky & I) of us in KLCC last Saturday. Thanks to the blardy roadblocks everywhere, everyone arrived late - but that did not dampen our spirit to learn more on photography. :)

Aaron was a cool sport - being patient with us and tolerated all our duh questions and answered them accordingly. I’ve learnt a few tricks along the way and hopefully my pictures will get better sooner, rather than later. Yes, I’m quite impatient like that! Hahahaha!

Aaaanyway, Shannon has uploaded her awesome pictures at her blog and I’ve uploaded pictures taken using Aaron’s Canon 5D and 1D by all of us to my site (it’s rather big - so please be patient. :)). His cameras are just awesome! But, they come with a price lah - two arms and two legs! :P

 I didn’t manage to snap a lot of pictures that day, but below are some of them:

Dinah.

We were both taking pictures of each other. Heh.

What a hot day!

Dinah taking some pictures.

Hetty.

Shannon.

to see his papa off last night. Irwan’s currently away in Munich for the next ten days and thankfully, although Irfan does ask for Irwan every nanosecond, he doesn’t seem to be too upset when I answer him by saying that Irwan’s only coming back in ten days’ time. He looks as if he understands. *shrugs*

It was hard for both father and son last night when the cab arrived to take Irwan away. Irfan was holding onto Irwan like a koala and refused to let his papa go. It broke both our hearts to see Irfan like that - but the man’s gotta do what the man’s gotta do. And furthermore, he has cut the trip short - from 3 weeks to 10 days! I don’t think both of them would survive 3 weeks away from each other. Heh!

As I lay Irfan next to me last night, he kept asking me “Papa? Papa?”. And each time I had to answer that Papa’s away on a work trip. Then, he asks again “Papa? Papa?” for the next half an hour or so and I dozed off answering him and I think he must have gone to sleep shortly after I’ve fallen asleep.

This morning, the first thing he asked when he woke up was…. yes, you’ve guessed it right! “Papa?” Hahahaha! But he’s allright. No fuss, no cries, nothing. After we were all ready, I made sure that we’ve got all our stuff in the car and that the doors are all locked and the alarm armed as we’ll be staying at my parents’ ’til Irwan gets back.

And he cried for me when I left for work. :(

Taken at KLCC park.

Old school cash register.

I’ve weaned him off the pacifier and he sucks his thumb pulak! Haha!

Upset.

Glassy eyes.

Alamanda.

Big baby. :P

Love the vibrant colours!

Funny face.

There’s the aeroplane!

Giving me a smile before going down the “hill”.

He’d done it again! :P

Checking out the aeroplane, kites and birds in the sky. :)

Let’s hit the road!

a new (but used) lens for Valentine’s Day! Hahahaha! Utterly pathetic (me and not the lens!), but nevertheless - it’s a 50mm f/2 lens (which I thought was an f/1.2 lens - but that’s another story for another day) and I got it for USD 79 + USD 33 (for shipping) from ebay. All in all I spent about RM 360 for this lens. It’s a manual focus lens, however. But it isn’t as difficult to use as I thought it would be. Thank god! ;)

Had fun with it for the past two nights - even Irwan was having fun! :P And I didn’t even need to pop up the blasted flash for any of the indoor photos. At ISO 800 and f/2, it was good enough. Can’t wait to play with it under the hot sun. It would be even better! :)

The only downside is that I need to increase my speed on getting the focus done. Irfan moves at lightning speed and it just blardy frustrates me when I’m moving at a snail’s pace. Hah! As they say - practice makes perfect. I sure hope so. Heh.

I just love the creamy bokeh it produces, but I’m still a tad disappointed that I wasn’t able to get the f/1.2 instead. Ho-well…

Went down on all fours to get this done. Things people do. Tsk!

The ever supportive partner. :)

One of those jadi pictures.

That’s me, a laptop and a vase behind the glade. Love the blurness. :)

During the last CNY holiday, we did not bother to go for a holiday outside KL because 1) everywhere is over-priced and 2) everywhere is jammed up! But, on the first day of CNY, father in-law was craving for some good seafood at Umbai - hence a day trip to Melaka was planned.

Both father in-law and brother in-law would head to Melaka first thing in the morning for a round of golf and the rest of us would join them later on. What we did not expect was for the traffic to still be bad. It was a massive crawl from Sg. Besi toll plaza all the way to Port Dickson. Cars who hogged the right lane and going slower than the snail didn’t help the congestion either. Pffftttt! Anyhow, we arrive in Melaka just in time for lunch.

After lunch, the men continued golfing and we thought of bringing Irfan to the zoo - which was just next door. But the place was waaaayyyyyy too packed and we just couldn’t be bothered to queue for tickets and headed to Jonker Street instead. The place was filled with tanglungs, trendy totes and quaint shop(houses). Irfan was asleep when we arrived, so Irwan offered to stay in the car with the lil’ dude while the rest of us walked around and I got to snap me some photos! Wee-hoo!

Had to call my brother for directions to Umbai - 2 separate directions mind you as the men were from the other side of town. Managed to find the place after all the confusions and had us some good ikan terubuk bakar, steamed prawns, chilli crabs and sotong goreng tepung. Yammeh! ;)

More pictures from the long holiday can be seen here.

Giving me a pose before lunch was served.

Watching his grandpa and uncle play golf.

Jonker Street.

Cheeky face.

Enjoying the swing.

Yaaaaaayyyyy!

Rocking hard! Haha!

Having fun with Papa. :)

We just want to wish everyone who will be celebrating CNY - Happy Chinese New Year! Be merry, be happy, but most importantly, please be safe - on the road or otherwise. =) We’ll be at my in-laws’ tonight for the dinner and won’t be doing any major travelling. Just want to chill and try to take some nice tanglung photos around town. :P

I hope I can catch up on my sleep. Hehe. But I’m sure I’ll have tons of fun with the lil’ dude too! Can hardly wait!

Sooooooo… happy holidays everyone!!! :)

Eeeeekkk… two more months and he’ll be two? Seriously? Seriously? Oh.my.god! I so cannot believe that two years ago I was this fat whale waddling around town and now my kid’s gonna hit two. Already??? Sigh.

He’s gotten more independent now - he can play on his own, venture around the house and duduk one corner playing with his toys quietly (his toys are all over the house! :P) and not insist that we play with him. Phew. He’s developed a passion for anything gadget-y and I’m seriously thinking of getting him a laptop. Probably his birthday present or something? Hrmmmm…

Speaking of birthdays, I’m still not sure whether to host a party for the lil’ dude or go away for a holiday. Will you guys kindly vote? Heh. Thanks! ;)

I have waaaayyy too many of his updates to write, but time is just not on my side to list everything down as I’ve got tons of cars to be cleared before the Chinese New Year holidays. Cina yang nak raya, Melayu pun nak sibuk! Pfffffftttttt! Will list them down when I have a chance but I just want to say that I’m so proud of my son as he was a really good sport when we brought him for dinner at Opus and drinks afterwards at The Attic. The gallery/bar/lounge is smoke-free and Irfan behaved really well and people were quite amused that there is a baby there. Haha. Zehan knows the owner and and he was rather cool about having Irfan there although the Manager didn’t seem too pleased.. but whateverlah. We didn’t stay that long because it was waaaaayyyy past Irfan’s bedtime and I was getting sleepy too. And it was only midnight! Hrmmpphhhhh… getting old dah! :P

Addendum: Mr. Puting has lost its existence for the past one week. Goooooooood boy!

Bye Aunty Yannie - see you in October. Hopefully!

Irfan giving me his sleepy look. Poor boy.

Mr. Giraff. :)

Happy kid! :)

Cute monkey face. Haha!

Papa putting on Mama’s shades on Irfan.

Stylo. Chet!

Reflection.