CNY in Malaysia

It was an unplanned opportunity to celebrate CNY 2009 in Malaysia. The last time I celebrated CNY in Malaysia was probably over 10 years ago. Ian collected a good amount of ang pow while I got used to the giving ang pow tradition. Ian got to see many lion dances.

In Penang, we took him to the beach. Six months ago, Ian was fearless of the sea and enjoyed being washed away by the waves. This time, he curled up his legs and only played with the sand :)

In Kuala Kangsar, he rode on a motorcycle and drank warm coconut juice fresh off the coconut tree. He ate durian and papaya from our relative's fruit trees. We also showed him various tropical fruit trees.

I had hoped for his eczema to improve because the weather in Malaysia is more humid. To my disssapointment, his eczema did not improve. He is still very allergic to certain kinds of food and his skin is still super sensitive.

Here are some pictures of Ian...

Ian drinking coconut juice

Ian playing with the lions

Beach boy Ian's new slippers. He is learning to walk with one of these slippers. See how he curls he toes to hang on to his slippers. Ian spraying us down with the hose Ian washing car Ian eating bread with soy milk powder Ian playing my old organ

After bath activity

This is what our active little Ian does everyday after his bath time. He treats his bed as a trampoline. We better have routine checks to make sure all the screws that hold the bed together are intact.

Ian on the Keyboard

One of our very dear friend, Hsing captured Ian's pianist potential (hmm...cross fingers...) on the video. We have dropped Ian at their place while we attended Pearl's company Christmas party. She has a keyboard at her house and let Ian played on it.

It was funny to watch because Ian actually played note by note and even played the whole range of the keyboard :) Pearl said he must have watched and learned from his papa :))

Cookie Time

This afternoon was a pretty slow one, so I decided to bake some oatmeal cookies with Ian. The recipe stated "beat well" twice but I did not get to do that because Ian was the chef. The cookies turned out great even without beating well.

Ian is not a great fan of eating but with odd things such as cookie dough, he dives for it. It must be the sweetness that he likes. Though I had a bunch of clean up to do after that, it was fun for both of us.

Ian secretly munching on the cookie dough while I was measuring other ingredients

I even got him to act cute and smile for the camera because I told him that he had to stop eating the cookie dough if he didn't, hehehe.

I had to wrap things up quickly or I wouldn't have any cookie dough left to bake

Turning Point

After today, I will be staying home for a little while. I have mixed feelings about it. I love spending time with Ian and being there for my family but I will miss my work life as well. I am thankful that God has led me to this point and all the support that I got from friends and family. So, I’ll see. After all, I will have the option of going back if I want to. I am looking forward to my new job…

See below...it is all worth it!