DYLAN's still not out!!

it's been awhile since the last update of events in our lil rascal's life! today is the 8th of june and ryan's lil brother, DYLAN (we have decided on this, or rather mommy has decided) is still kinda comfy in mommy's tummy! edd's on the 14th but since ryan was a week earlier, we were kinda on standby the whole of last week and every passing day is weary! hahaha...at least mommy gets to eat and drink watever she wants prior to delivery and of course the dreadful confinement period, hehehhe. we have been trying to orientate ryan to dylan's arrival and he has since gotten used to the idea! whenever we go out, we will say "shall we get this for dylan?" and ryan would say "ok, i buy for dylan"...so heartwarming at the very mention...sigh!

i have to bring this up. we thoroughly enjoy our conversations with ryan these days. i m totally blown away by his vocab and choice of words for different occasions. he is able to relate and ask questions that will make us go, wow! eg. "daddy, thought we going into the tunnel?" when we passed by the cte tunnel after cairnhill and did not go into it as we made a left turn into newton instead. this boy's 3? hahahah...ok enuf of self praise but i m truly proud of him and all that we have tried to inculcate in him, esp the good manners stuff. when i usher and help him to get up our suv, he will say "thank you" and that always brings a smile to my face... whenever he wants something, he will initiate "mommy/daddy, can i some of that pls?" or "can i have water pls?" how else to refuse?

at times, he will also fault us for things we did not do or asked him to do. eg. he will say "told you to let me wear my crocs!..aiyah!" hahahahha and whenever mommy sits infront instead of at the back with him, he will say "told you not to sit in front". he can be pretty naggy at times and we always enjoy those moments upon seeing his annoyed expressions.

i brought ryan for his first golf lesson last sat and he enjoyed it even before we left the house! he was busy swinging his driver at home at our every attempt to tell him not to. when we got to the range at jurong country club, he was all excited and couldnt wait to get out of the car. i was amazed that he was able to address himself well, hit the ball and even ending off with a nice stance even without me showing him prior. took a few video and shots of this remarkable milestone! hahahhaha he's a natural just like his daddy! hahahahah...alrite alrite...

to date, ryan's has acclimatised himself to his pre-nursery school at pandan calvary. all i need to do is drop him off at the gate and he will say "bye daddy! see you later!" and he will walk towards his class looking for his fave teacher mdm christian. it's such an accomplishment for us! now we dread having to intro him to his new school next year at maris stella kindergarten. fingers crossed!

oh oh, very impt milestone!! ryan's 80% potty trained!!!!! woohoo!!!! it seems everytime i'm away for more than 2 weeks, mommy is able to wean him off his pacificer last year while i was in geneva/france and this time he's potty trained (except during naps, dodo and at night, he still wears his diaper)!he will always say "wee wee!!" and the closest person will whisk him off to the toilet! hehehehe but sometimes it can get pretty annoying when he needs to go every now and then and esp at restaurants. when we got back to the table, he will say "wee wee!" with a cheeky smile and it's always not urgent but he had to go anyway and will try to "squeeze" his wee wee out! pardon the impatience at times but if you experience it first hand, you can easily relate! i m truly proud of his achievements to date and i tell him everyday how much i lurve him! we will always hug tightly, kisses after kisses and say "i luf u, i luf u, i luf u!"

ok, to the next update which will be Dylan's birth story...signing out for now!

2009 update thus far...

it was off to a good start thus far and mummy recently went for the detailed scan at TMC and confirmed that ryan's gona have a baby BROTHER!! this time round, mummy was kinda disappointed since she has been hoping for a daughter. we kinda knew the gender when we saw lc cheng last month for the 4th month visit and baby's gender identification was in full view as he was in a frontal view on his side but mommy was still in hope till the detailed scan! hahaha... so choice of name was Dylan (to date) though daddy likes Brandan.

ryan has started pre-school at calvary pandan kindergarte which is just 1 min drive from our place. class starts from 830am to 1130am and we always barely make it in time cos of the constant dragging of feet and diversion antics of our lil rascal. first thing he says when we wakes will be "i dun wana go school daddy!" or "today go school?" and if the reply is "yes" he will scream "no dun wana go school daddy!" and off he goes to roll on the bed a lil longer saying "i'm so tired! let me sleep plss!" while at school, he's adapting well and following the daily programme. we bought 3 sets of uniforms for him and mama margaret bought a pair of white shoes from bata. i was at a loss at wat to do on the first day of school and mommy took leave to witness the milestone. tehteh dominic and mama margaret had to pick mommy as mommy was supposed to stay at home and daddy to send ryan to school and head for the office thereafter. while at school, daddy videoed the entire scene of ryan getting out of the car and walking up the steps carrying his turtle backpack. he was alrite till i told him i had to leave for the office and thats when he started to be clingy and i was at a total loss! to make matters worse, teh teh dominic came in and told ryan it's ok and mama margaret is waiting outside!! OMG!! ryan's not supposed to know that!! mama and mommy had to hide when we ryan turned round to look. hahaha... tehteh dominic as usual took some pics and then went out. i stayed with ryan for a lil while longer and then i told him i will be back to get him. his fav teacher mdm christian sure knew how to distract first-day goers like ryan and soon ryan waved goodbye to me while i hurried off. i joined mommy who was waiting outside and we went to peeped into his class and ryan was seen mingling with his classmates and appeared fine. mommy went off with tehteh and mama while i headed off to the office. when i returned with mommy to pick ryan at 1115, we went to peek at ryan once again and saw that he was playing by himself with one of those fishing toys while the rest of the class was listening to the teacher's story telling. hahaha.... when he got out of class and walking to the gate, we waved and smiled at him and he waved back as he approached us. i picked him up and gave him a big hug of assurance and we walked to the car. he said" i wana say bye to my frens!" hahaha...he did just that while we drove off to mama's.

ryan wore his white shoes for the next few days and seeing that other kids do not adhere to the "regulation", ryan wore his blue and green puma shoes alternating daily between the two. he wore his crocs twice to school and was scolded by mama. hahaha... each day, i will put on his socks for him and by dismissal, his socks will be in a ziploc in his bag! hahaha... he prob couldnt stand the stuffiness! each day i would ask him wat he had for bfast in school and sometimes he would try to trick me with "noodles again" (one of his fave). we are actually amazed with his level of adaptability as he was able to adapt well in school after i leave and even his teachers were shocked that i was not intending to stay with him throughout for the first few days at least. hahaha... i wanted to try leaving him to adapt and he was up to it! hahaha... i was sooo proud of my lil rascal. at dismissal, he will always say"i cannot find daddy!" hahaha....but i always tell him that daddy wiill go to the office and always be the first person he sees whenver he got out of class and that has been true to date! to see him looking out for me and waving back is such a heart-warming experience!

ryan's fave color has been red for the longest time and all his coloring assignments have red as the majority color and the occasional blue and green (prob inputs from his teachers). his fave teacher is mdm christian (a plump chinese teacher who is ever so passionate with kids) and mrs tay comes a close second and each morning i m rest asssured with leaving ryan with either of them as they are always capable of distracting him with something (milo, help with bringing paint bottles for paint class, see the lion dance drawings on the notice board and such) one of ryan's fave is watching the lion dance performances whenevr one comes by to the temple downstairs and he will always make someone carry him to the window to witness the sight and he will go "cheng cheng cheng" with his hands on his head simulating. tehteh dominc bought him one of those scaled down version from chinatown and he went "i scared!" hahahaha...wat a waste of money! and to think he would enjoy it so much going "cheng cheng" around the house! hahaha... only recently he overcame the fear and goes around now "cheng cheng" much to out amusement! mommy recorded the episodes on her mobile and he would always pick up her mobile and say " i wana watch cheng!" and the video would loop endlessly till he was distracted by something else! hahaha....

something to add, unc eugene and daddy bought a RC (remote controlled) car each for $399 for a ready-to-run set and it comes with nitro fuel! one of our childhood aspirations, we were exhilarated at the purchase and the cars were zooming around the carpark at cashew heights! wat an experience with the loud engine and exhaust sounds!

wat a traumatic fortnite...

it has truly been an extremely angst-ridden fortnite for mummy and daddy. for starters, we brought ryan to the pd on the 19th of nov for his eczema and let him stayover at tehteh dominic & mama margaret's on the 20th. the very next morning, we were blasted with the news that there was a swell below his chin. we went over to take a look and decided to bring him over to see David for consultation. he gave us Augmentin (antibiotics) and told us to continue to monitor him since his temp is on the rise. just about evening, ryan's fever hit a high and his whole body was filled with rashes. mommy brought him down to see unc rod with tehteh and mama. he wrote a referral for us in the event we wanted to admit him. come about 10 plus, ryan's entire body was red with rashes and daddy decided to send him down to thomson medical for a thorough examination. we saw the in-house GP and the nurses contacted dr stephen ng since dr tan was away on hols. ryan was admitted and dr ng concluded that ryan could be allergic to augmentin as well and introduced klacid with ryan responded well to and with the addition of prednisolone, ryan's rashes subsided. they had to do a blood test to determine the nature of the fever and all and that was the first time daddy had to carry my lil rascal while seated and blood was extracted with a syringe. at the very instant when the needle pierced through, ryan screamed "oow" and immediately daddy's heart sank when he saw the tears rolling down his precious lil one's cheeks. ryan cried for a while more till he was given 2 stickers to divert his attention from the pain. the ryan stayed 2 more days and was discharged on the 21st. the swell was still there and we were slammed with a 1k professional fee from the stand-in doc!

ryan was once again active and up to his usual antics throughout the week that followed despite the random irritation of the swell under his chin whenever mommy or daddy touched it. daddy decided to bring ryan down to see dr wong at olive tree to seek some closure for the swell and was told to continue with klacid and hopefully the swell will settle or else a biopsy needs to be done thereafter. everything was normal till sunday morning when daddy noticed the swell reddening and spreading to the right side of ryan's chin. daddy grew concerned and was on the lookout for an increase in temp. true enough, ryan was down with fever the following morning and we called the pd for advice. we were asked to proceed to dr cheah's clinic at gleneagles for immediate attention. dr cheah was very experienced as he answered daddy's various queries and that the swell was due to bacterial infection of the lymph nodes and most times could be soothed with the introduction of antibiotics. in ryan's case, we had to proceed with the next stage which is incision to remove all pus thereby leading to the recovery process. ryan refused to remove his tee and once again, daddy had to carry ryan while the surgeon applied local anaesthesia to the swell. on being pinned down, ryan started struggling franctically and screaming. daddy was angst-ridden as the doc proceeded with the incision and lots of pus was removed. all this while, ryan was crying and struggling to break free but with the help of the nurse holding on to his legs and daddy holding on to his hands, the procedure ended shortly thereafter. we were taught how to clean and replace the gauze and told to return in 2 days for a follow-up cleaning and assessment. daddy hugged ryan tightly and promised to buy him anything he wanted at toys 'r' us. we went over to forum's outlet and there ryan picked out a 1:7 scale size ferrari f430 remote controlled car and a junior golf club set which he has been pinning for. on seeing ryan's joy and satisfaction, daddy felt better following the eventful morning.

3 hours followed and once again, ryan's fever escalated and mommy was at a loss what to do since we inserted the suppository at 11.30am and it was too early to give nurofen to bring down the temp. mommy called gek hong and was told to give paracetamol and continue sponging him. come 4pm and ryan's temp was 39.3 and mommie became flustered. called olive tree once again and was told to give nurofen which effectively brought down the temp. 3 hours later again, ryan's temp shot up once again and daddy called dr tan for advice if we should bring ryan to thomson for medical attention since his temp escalates every 3 hours. daddy know that mommie is feeling really drained and exhausted from all the worry and looking after of our lil rascal. daddy told mommie to bring ryan down to thomson so that the nurses can help in managing the fever and continue monitoring. dr tan went over and decided to do a few blood cultures to investigate the cause of the fever which relapsed after a week. by the time daddy got there, i was told that the nurses would be doing the "drip" procedure on ryan and we knew wat would follow. daddy carried ryan to the next room and ryan immediately suspected wat was to follow and wanted to go out. we were asked to leave the room and the next few minutes was terribly traumatic and heart wrenching!!! ryan screamed and cried "nono, oow, i want mommie, nono" as the nurses held him down and inserted the needle for easy access of blood samples. once again his hands were taped with a foam board under each to prevent him from tampering with the needle on his right hand. daddy hugged ryan tightly as ryan sobbed away. ryan had some corn muffins from kenny rogers and tehteh and mama left a while later. daddy found it difficult to leave as he prayed over his precious lil one who fell asleep after a terribly traumatic and eventful day. hope his temp will stabilise and a closure be attained for his spate of fever from the infection.

our latest acquisition: the QUINNY BUZZZZZ!!!

a new addition to the family of strollers!!! this brings the total to FOUR!!

no. 1: the MAXI-COSI TAXI (damage: S$ 645, predecessor of the quinny)
no.2: the made-in-japan COMBI (damage: S$ 700, weighs a mere 4.2kg)
no.3: the MCLAREN stroller (damage: not so bad at $245)
no.4: the new acquisition, the QUINNY BUZZ!! (DAMAGE: $ONE THOUSAND FIFTY!!)

all that for 1 kid (with another on the way). and it just seems that the price keeps on escalating with each buy! this is def the last stroller for us! mommie just cant stop herself whenever she set her eyes on a gorgeous ride for our lil one(s) and i cant really do anything to stop her for fear of constant persuasion tactics (nagging to put it simply).

the latest addition takes up so much boot space we are so thankful our ride's a SUV. seriously, although you can strip it down part by part, you dun wana do the hassle each time you load and unload it from the car. the color's nice, APPLE they call it and ryan loves it the moment we brought it home! he had the virgin ride (though it's really meant for Valerie/Branden) and enjoyed every sec of it! though it can take a max weight of 18kg, we do not wana risk ryan jumping on it and spoiling it in the process. so it's nicely wrapped and taped up in a corner awaiting the arrival of junior the 2nd!

but i have to admit, its really comfy and i am so tempted to sit on it! hahaha...it feels so soft and cool and a nice color to top that. love the hydraulic open-up function with just a single press of the catch at the handle and it COMES TO LIFE! hahaha impressive to the max and there's a catch for everything. it's hard not to fall in love with it, seriously. love the suspension which means junior gets a comfy ride on watever terrain! off-pavement? no problemo! hahaha... its truly a heavyweight when it comes to pricing and the actual weight!! a hefty 12.8kg!!!! thats 3 times the weight of our COMBI!! the MAXI-COSI TAXI was quite heavy but without the car seat attached, it was pretty ok at prob 6kg but even without the seat, the BUZZ is still about 9kg!! guess i really have to train up those muscles to be able to load and upload it from the car! mommie will just be carrying junior of course! she will prob fall over with it! hahaha

ryan's 30 months update!!

ryan's already 30 months old! how he has graduated into a full blown rascal! hahaha.... he's such a joy to be around with these days! he never fails to put a smile on your face with his multitude of funny antics despite some very frustrating moments! mama (mommie's mum) always say though he's such a rascal, he's soooo geram (some malay word for something). mommie is still as busy with her marking and complaining! one great news: mommie has been aceepted to nan hua high! that's like a triple upgrade!! and whenever she's stressed out, she can always walk across to our church for some quiet time with God. daddy's waiting for the lil rascal and mommie outside the zoophonics school at beauty world. he has been attending classes since 3 months ago with 30mins of chinese and an hour of english. there's art and craft, phonics of course and the usual songs they sing week after week! no wonder ryan's pretty bored of it all and pretty lethargic in class! poor mommie!! but i must say that ryan's pretty fast in picking up the entire zoophonics of alphabets! tell him an animal and he will say the corresponding sound! amazing the first time i heard him say! money well spent! hahaha...

daddy's been travelling and just returned from Hanoi. First ever trip to the land of communism. was there for a week and everything seem so affordable, cheap would be too degrading a term to use. food was out of the norm and they do not have deep fried spring rolls in hanoi!!! asked for them wherever i went, from classy to the roadside cafes and no fried spring rolls!! the nerve of them all!! my first scooter-taxi ride and it was truly exhilarating! hated the pollution though, there were thousands of scooters everywhere and it was truly a case of order in chaos!! had seafood for every meal and even went to Ha-long bay, rumoured to be one of the 8 wonders of the world, but seriously, it was just a test-your-stamina trekking up and down the caves kinda trip and not forgetting the sun bathing onboard a Chinese junk experience. it was an enjoyable experience no doubt with extremely cheap massage (imagine this: you pay S$6 and you get a foot and full body massage within an hour. pay S$12 and you get the same massages with a few other tricks thrown in for 2 hours! not surprising that uncle ian and i went there daily after dinner. called mommie everyday and my lil rascal refused to speak anything more than a "daddy!" before running off! hmph!

teh-teh fat (daddy's dad) is to be admitted today for his bypass op tomorrow morning. will bring them to our place for our lil rascal to entertain and spend time with him before i drop them off at the hospital. as usual, daddy's worried about the op and everything! after all, teh-teh fat has slogged hard for the family and it's about time for him to retire and indulge in his fav. hobbies like offshore fishing, gardening and travelling.

mommie's been hoping for a meimei and she has since convinced me to change from PROJECT RACHEL to PROJECT VALERIE. its about time for a didi or meimei for ryan since he's already 30 months. at least there's someone else to share his wealth of toys!!! we are almost drowning in his sea of toys which he would flaunt around by scattering them all over the house! and when you ask him to pick them up, he would divert your attention to something else or make up another funny antic to distract you. this boy's the ultimate! of course we have to be firm on several occasions and he is one who is not receptive of any harsh talk or punishment! that will only make him more rebellious and stubborn. oh did i mention he's one awfully stubborn kid and the only way is to talk to him nicely and hopes that he will comply! hahaha... what are we to do with him except to love him for who he is! afterall, he's our pride and joy! hahaha... that said, we always try to discipline him whenever he crosses the line by putting him in a "naughty corner" which he never fails to kick up a big fuss by crying and say "NO!" and "i want go there!" (meaning anywhere out of the corner). another peculiar trait of his is that whenever you ask him to apologise, he will only put his right palm to his head (symbolising an act of apology, dun ask us where he learnt it from, we have no clue watsoever!) and if you insist on him verbally apologising, you have to try to convince him to do so! hahaha.... and if you succeed, they will shout it out "SORREE!" of course we will deem it as an act of defiance and often he has to say it again in a milder tone before he is let off! SIGH!

of course the above are just his negative traits and to start talking about his funny antics would be too tedious a task! at the end of the day, his positive traits truly outweigh his negatives so thats why he's still our lovable lil rascal!! just remember, be nice and talk to him in a mild tone whenever you want him to do something and he may just do it! hahaha (thats if he has not distracted your attention to something else, unless that's something he favours!)

RYAN CHUA: our pride and joy!!

wow! it's been awhile since we posted anything cos we have been thoroughly busy. mummy's so tied up with marking scripts and i have been travelling for the past 1 month! yeap, was away from the 1st to the 26th of april. missed my clownish boy and wife terribly to the point of tearing at times during our multiple Skype sessions. 1st stop to vienna and then to czech republic to check on production and then back to vienna and then to geneva for the setup. stayed in france and commuted to geneva daily cos france is simply breathtaking amidst the snow-capped mountains. after 2 weeks in europe, it was back to bangkok and enroute to shanghai for another show. long haul trips needs some time to get used to. anyway, 6 cities in a month is crazy and caused the 'foreign' feel when i got back home. the sight of my beloved wife and my mischevious son behind the glass panel at the arrival hall was a sight to behold! truly emotional! a hug and kiss was never enough to make up for a month's absence. the next 2 days was filled with ryan goin "i want daddy!" for everything (bath times, changing diapers, the works). one amazing realization was that ryan has been WEANED OFF his pacifier!!!!! woohoo!!! kudos to mummy and ah-ma for not relenting on the chilli juice method! one other thing i cant stop asking ryan to say is whenever i ask him if he needs to change his diaper, he will reply "No Neeed!" the intonation is simply to die for! hahaha.... my lil boy has grown tremendously both mentally and verbally over the 1 month and i m truly proud to be his daddy. we bought him a rock guitar at ELC after shopping ard at taka and toys'r'us, cos he was simply obsessed with strumming a guitar. he would strum his body and its truly hilarious! gong gong must be behind it all! back home, he was so excited and was strumming away after we put on the shades and attached microphone that came with it. to sum off, ryan's a precious gift from GOD and we will always treasure and luf him amidst all the clowning around and cheekiness!

ryan's 2nd birthday cake design

family photoshoot no. 2!

my groovy boy!




it's a 1st march 2008 saturday morning as we head down to bugis for our 2nd family portrait. pretty apt as ryan's gona turn 2 in 2 weeks! mummy decided that we should dress in jeans and a white top. brought mickey and pluto along (frm HK disneyland, bought by grandparents from both sides) since they were part of the pic taken a year ago. how our boy has grown since! the make-up artist wanted to do up ryan's hair but i firmly rejected!! OMG! the entire shoot took 2 hours and we were trying soo hard to get ryan to be in position or rather to smile at the camera amidst running ard and ransacking the toys they provided. we moved between 2 studios but we prefered the white background over the green! nice pic of my groovy boy who NEVER fails to dance to any music being played anywhere! just 2 days ago, he went on his own up a stage near the coffeeshop near mama's place (palm gardens) and started line dancing which gong gong has been teaching him! wat a sight! he went forward, backward, did a turn with hands moving to an invisible beat! he dozed off in the car and had a long nap before we went over to daddy's parents place for dinner.

Barney put me to sleep...

16th January 2008

It was 8.15pm and Ryan climbed onto the massage chair after gesturing to mummy that he wanted to watch Barney...

Yup, the little one knows and is pretty good at demanding for whatever he wants!

Mummy plays the vcd for him and within 10 minutes, the rascal had dozed off!!! Haha!

Just look at the rascal with his ah-bu (bolster) slumped in the massage chair comfortably...