Sarawak Malaysia to New Orleans

New Orleans Chinese Language School

2010-09-25T21:05:00.000-07:00

Meredith started attending weekend chinese school in New Orleans every Sunday afternoon. This school is staffed by volunteers from chinese community in New Orleans and has been around for 30 years. It is pretty well organized with students being group into different classes and age group. There are probably about a hundred students spread in different class.

So far, Meredith hated chinese school. She said it is very boring. She ranked it in the fourth place behind ballet class, swimming class and her regular pre-kindergarden class.

In the 4-6years old class, there are many parents who stayed with their kids during the class. A number of them are very opinionated, and makes a lot of suggestion on how to teach. I am impressed with the teacher for having the patience to handle the parents in addition to the normal teaching duties.

Surprising words from Isaac

2010-09-25T20:10:00.000-07:00

I was using my laptop early this morning on the breakfast table when two years old Isaac approached me. Isaac just woke up and he was still rubbing his eyes. Suddenly, he said something that took me by surprise. Issac said,"can I use the laptop to check email?" in perfect sentence. He doesn't even know how to read and I don't think he knows what is email.

"Accident" principal

2010-09-19T07:36:00.000-07:00

Meredith came home one day from her school and told Boon Hong that her school has an "accident" principal. Boon Hong was puzzled and asked her what does she meant by accident principal. Meredith said her school principal is Miss Blake but there is also an "accident" principal in addition to Miss Blake. We finally figured out she was referring to the assistant principal but she mispronounced it. The assistant principal will certainly not be happy to known as accident prone.

Meredith at her classmate's birthday party. Most of her classmates organized their birthday parties at "jumping castles" warehouse where kids bounced off gigantic inflatable slides.

Meredith at her classmate's birthday party. After attending a lot of kids birthday parties, I noticed there is not a lot of food for adults at typical american kids birthday party. I much preferred Asian style kids birthday party where parents get to eat a lot...

Boon Hong got very good at baking various chinese style pastry after living in New Orleans since there is no place to buy these from. She started making these pastry/pau with yam and red bean filling a year ago and eventually got really good at doing it.

Isaac's pant got wet after going to the swimming pool, so he had to wear Meredith's dress on the way back.

Meredith first week at school

2010-09-02T21:02:00.000-07:00

Meredith has started the first step in the long road of formal school life. She finished her first week of pre-kindergarden last week. There are very few good public schools in New Orleans, a lot of people here chose to send their kids to private school and ended up spending thousand of dollars every year on school fee. We thought we had to go same route and send her to private school when we were looking around for school last year.

At the same time, we decided to let Meredith attempt to test into a public run advanced studies school. This school is a lot of cheaper than private school and has very good reputation. Students at this school are doing curriculum a year ahead of other school. For example, kindergarden kids here will learn materials typically covered in first grade/primary school year one. The enrollment at this school is very competitive and only about 40 students made it each year out of a few hundred applicants. Thankfully, Meredith accepted and we can save $$ from private school fees.

Meredith in her school uniform. Boon Hong spent a lot of time shopping for her uniform, shoes and school supply.

Isaac getting ready to send his big sister off to school.

Due to budget cut in the government funding, parents have to help support the school by supplying the crayon, paper towels, tissue paper, ziplock bag, glues, pencils and Lysol cleaning spray.

Meredith and her classmates playing at our house. These two classmates also attended the same playschool with Meredith last year, so they have some company together in the new school.

Exercise time

Isaac always carry his "schoolbag" whenever Boon Hong drives Meredith to school even though he doesn't go to school. He put a transformer toy, water bottle and also a toy gun in his school bag and he likes to pretend he is going to school.

Passing through BP Macondo oil spill site

2010-09-02T19:50:00.001-07:00

Recently, I passed by BP oil spill site during an offshore trip. It is impressive to see the armada of different drill rigs and vessels congregating on this area. The rigs/vessels seen in this photo included Boa Deep, OI3, Skandi Neptune, DDII rig, Enterprise drill ship. The sight of these many highly capable vessels/rigs working together are unlikely to be seen again for a long long time.

Water park in New Orleans Audubon Zoo?

2010-08-08T17:21:00.001-07:00

New Orleans Audubon Zoo is a great zoo with very natural settings and wide variety of exotic animals but it is not a water park, at least not till today...

This afternoon I took Meredith and Isaac to the zoo by myself while Boon Hong went shopping. The temperature was hovering near 100F and after looking at a few animals we gravitate towards the Monkey Hill area of the zoo. The Monkey Hill consists of a rope walk where kids can climb up and down like monkey/spider. There is also a small man-made water fall nearby. After climbing the Monkey Hill, Meredith and Isaac couldn't wait to dip their feet in the pool below the water fall. At first, they just wanted to "touch" the water. Then, they wanted to stand in the water. And then before you know, Meredith "fell" and started playing around in the water. After that, there was no going back. Isaac and Meredith were soon playing and swimming in the pool.
We had such a good time and stayed till the zoo closing time. When the security guard came by, we finally realized we are one of the last people to leave the zoo.

Meredith summer swim class

2010-08-07T21:03:00.000-07:00

Meredith has been taking swimming lessons all summer long. She goes to swim lessons twice a week. We started with the group lessons at the YMCA near our house and then switch her to a smaller class size a swim club nearby. After three months of swiming lessons, Meredith can swim now. Although she still lack confidence, she can swim over to me standing 15 feet away and lifting her head out of the water to breath several times.

Isaac has also been having a lot of pool time. Boon Hong brought him along and let him play in the pool while Meredith is having her swim lessons. Isaac still doesn't how to swim but he has learned a few tricks. He will duck under the water and pretend to be shark biting around wildly while I hold him.

Isaac watching a baseball game. New Orleans Zephyr is not a very good baseball team but it is a pretty good deal when the ticket price is only $1

Isaac waiting for his turn at the swimming pool

Dress like a Cow and eat for free day at Chick Fil A

2010-08-05T21:08:00.000-07:00

The Chick Fil-A fast food store has been opened in New Orleans for almost half a year now. Their business is amazingly good since people here are really eager to try something new. The other major draw is the children playground in the Chick Fil-A, it seems like all the mom brought their kids there to kill time and use the indoor playground. Boon Hong also frequented Chick-Fil-A.

This time, Chick Fil A is coming up with "dress like a cow and eat free day". Boon hong made a cow costume for Isaac using a paper box. She also made a "cow t-shirt" for Meredith by pasting patches of black sponges to a white T-shirt. Isaac's costume is definitely a crowd pleaser, many people in Chick-Fil-A try to take photos of his costume. As a reward for their effort, the Chick-Fil-A guys gave them free breakfast meal and also several more coupons for redeeming free chicken sandwich in future.

Letter to Meredith

2010-08-03T06:37:00.000-07:00

This is a letter that Boon Hong wrote to Meredith on her birthday, we thought we might post it here so one day Meredith can read about it when she grows up:

Dear Meredith,
Mummy think it will be very meaningful to write you a letter every year on your birthday , starting on your 4th birthday this year, and hope I will keep my words every year.

Meredith, you are my precious angel and I wish you have a happy and sweet birthday this year. You have grown to be a big girl now, and got very excited and can’t wait for this special day to come. You thought that being 4 years old is the coolest thing ever and it assembles your turning to be a big girl. You even want Mommy to bring a princess cake to school and hold a party for you. I can’t stop myself saying that to you that you will be my baby always no matter how old you are turning to.

I love you, honey. Mommy likes spending time with you each day even when you are being cranky each time when you wake up from your afternoon nap. Mommy finds many things that you said are simply cute. You always think in a logical manner. You once told Mommy that you want to raise four Baby Isaacs and live close to Mommy so that I can come over to help whenever you need a hand to hold the four Isaacs. You also came home from school one day and started asking me if you can have your own room since you are a big girl now. Now that I have prepare a bedroom for you, you also wanted me to move my clothing from the closet, so that you have a place for your toys and clothes. Although you are officially “out of mommy’s room”, you still wake up sleeping next to Mommy almost every morning.

Something that mommy wants to make sure you know for sure is that I love you very much. Mommy’s love is unconditional and willing to go an extra mile if I can make you happy. Mommy can’t imagine that we have been together for four years. You brought me tears and happiness during these years, and being able to watch you grow and be there for you is the greatest gift from God, even if you hates mommy for correcting your wrong behavior sometimes. Well, Mommy doesn't like seeing your hair being cut by your classmate at school, and I know it was partially your fault because you love playing silly games with your classmate. However, Mommy wants you to be able to stand up for yourself and not compromise to others. You need to learn when to say “no” to others and be assertive. However, Mommy was surprised with what you said when I drive you home from school (after that hair incident). You told me if your classmate claimed to be your best friend, she will not harm you because friends do not hurt each other. So, each year you will be a little wiser and smarter.

Pineapple Tart

2010-03-03T20:56:00.000-08:00

One of the thing we missed most from Malaysia is pineapple tart. I can still remember vividly the ubiquitous pineapple tart that are present at almost every house during chinese new year visiting.

This year Boon Hong finally tried making pineapple tart based on the recipe she found online.

Small group CNY dinner

2010-03-01T21:04:00.000-08:00

We celebrated chinese new year this year with our church small group by having "hot pot" dinner gathering. We also took the chance to celebrate Meredith and Isaac birthday.

The first words ever from Isaac,"Papa, Jie Jie hit me!"

2010-02-21T07:01:00.000-08:00

Isaac will be turning two at the end of February. He is a very active boy and he is on par with other kids in his age when it comes to development. However, he is lagging quite a bit behind his sister in terms of language development. Meredith was fully conversational when she was one and half year old but Isaac only knows how to utter a few individual words. He cannot put words into a complete sentence so far. That is until yesterday. Much to our surprise, Isaac uttered his first complete sentence yesterday. He ran to me, while crying, “Papa, Jie Jie tah yoh!” and pointed towards Meredith. He was saying “my sister hit me!” in Chinese.

The first full sentence of Isaac life is truly memorable (being bullied by his sister, Meredith), I just hope this would not be the recurring theme of his childhood.

Gong Xi Fatt Choy from New Orleans

2010-02-21T06:39:00.000-08:00

Gong Xi Fatt Choy and Happy Chinese New Year from New Orleans! There is not much chinese new year celebration in New Orleans because everyone is so consumed with Mardi Gras and the chinese community here is quite small.

We tried extremely hard to find a lion dance for Meredith and Isaac to watch. The vietnamese village in West Bank of New Orleans had a lion dance celebration but we missed it. And then there is a chinese church here that put together a 15minutes lion dance celebration as well, we also missed that lion dance performance by 15minutes. So this year the only lion dance Meredith and Isaac saw are from Youtube.

New Orleans Saints won the Superbowl!

2010-02-16T16:44:00.000-08:00

New Orleans Saints won the superbowl! The whole city almost went crazy. The neighborhood that we lived was transformed from a sleepy suburban street into an eruption of cars honking each other, neighbors running outside and cheering each other and setting off fireworks.

The Tuesday after Superbowl, there was a victory parade in downtown New Orleans to celebrate the Saints victory. It is estimated that almost a million people showed up to cheer the Saints. I went to the parade after work since it took place near our office. It was a big mistake. I left the parade halfway and expect to beat the traffic leaving downtown. It took me one hour and 15 minutes to drive 0.5miles in order to get on I-10 freeway to go home.

See video clips below that I took at the Saints victory parade

Fellow Malaysians watching the parade

There is no line in front of this restroom because it costs $2 per use. I ended up paying $2 to use this restroom since the line at the other free restroom is about 50 people long.

Isaac also got asthma meh?

2010-02-07T12:49:00.000-08:00

Isaac was sick for the last two weeks. We took him to the pediatrician and the doctor wanted us to give him some inhaled medication to help relieve his congested lung.So we let isaac used the same nebulizer inhaler that Meredith used for her asthma treatment. Isaac was very coorperative, he quickly put on the face mask and he looks excited to be able to do something that her sister does everyday.

Meredith looks very amused when she saw Isaac using the inhaler. She said, "Isaac also got asthma meh?" Like all good Malaysian, she doesn't forget to add 'meh' to the end of her sentence.

It's carnival time in New Orleans!

2010-02-07T07:20:00.000-08:00

Mardi Gras is here! It's february in New Orleans, the temperature is in the mild 40-50s fahrenheits but carnival and party atmosphere is heating up. This is after all the Mardi Gras capital and the New Orleans football team The Saints has made it to the Superbowl for the first time in history. On average, there are about six parades every day of the weekends in February leading up to Mardi Gras. There are parades in downtown, uptown and Metairie (near our house).

I took Meredith and Isaac to the Excalibur parade in Metairie this last Friday night. The parade is very family friendly and the crowd is just the right size, we don't have to jostle for space and Meredith can walk right up to the parades when people on the float wanted to throw her a toys. This is a far cry from the very raunchy Mardi Gras celebration in downtown New orleans where someone will be embarassed to bring along their mother.

Meredith and Isaac was initially unfamiliar with what to do at the parade. Meredith warmed up to the parade pretty quickly, she was jumping up and down with her hands raised screaming "give me beads!" as the parade roll through. I hold Isaac in my arm and isaac is a magnet for soft toys. People on the floats started throwing him soft toys like octopus, ducks and heart shape pillow. Meredith started to learn making eye contact with people on the float and pretty soon she is hauling in her share of toys. Meredith said Mardi Gras is just like Halloween, instead of free candies, she is getting free beads and free toys thrown at her.

Isaac dressed up warmly for the parade

We went to another parade in Metairie on Saturday night.

Isaac and Meredith with the beads and soft toys they collected at the Friday night parade

Very family friendly parade in Metairie

How big is the tv screen at movie theater?

2010-01-31T20:01:00.000-08:00

This weekend we went to a watch a movie for the first time. The last time we went to watch a movie was more than two years ago, before Isaac was born. So we decided to go watch a movie this weekend. This is not a date, we took both Meredith and Isaac with us. We don’t have much to do this weekend and we felt that Meredith are old enough to enjoy watching a movie already. So we looked up the movie listing and decided go see “Princess and the frog” at AMC in New Orleans. Meredith was very excited about going to a cinema. She kept asking how big is the tv in the cinema. She said, “Is it bigger than our new TV or the same with our old tv?” So, that means a choice between a 25inch TV and a 40inch TV. Boon Hong replied that, “No, the TV in the movie theater is bigger than a wall.” Meredith keeps saying this is not possible. We have taught her to question thing that doesn’t make sense, so she says a tv bigger than a wall is impossible. When we got inside the Cineplex, Meredith was delightfully surprise with the size of the screen!

She is almost four years old now and she is a crazy about cartoon. She was practically glued to the “The princess and the frog” movie. This is fun cartoon, it is a special remake of old Disney classic but the princess is black and the story is set in New Orleans, there is a lot of places in the cartoon that we recognized.

New Orleans finally have free museum day

2010-01-31T19:37:00.000-08:00

Having lived in Houston, we expected museums and zoos to be free on certain days of the year with corporate sponsors chipping in to have free days for the public. Well, this is certainly not the case in New Orleans because there is a very few big companies here. None of the museums have free days until now! Finally, Target is sponsoring a free day once a month at the children museum, so I took Meredith and Isaac and had a blast a the children museum. Below is some photos from the children museum and also from Eechin visit. Eechin came in from Houston a day before her conference.

Free day at children museum

Isaac and Meredith pretend to shop at the kids grocery store at the children museum

Isaac playing eye doctor

This weekend

Meredith first play date

2010-01-23T12:19:00.000-08:00

Boon Hong took Isaac and Meredith and Zoey to the playground near our house and ended running into Kayla, which is another one of Meredith's classmate.

Zoey, Meredith classmate, at the craft table with Isaac and Meredith

Meredith invited her classmate, Zoey, to our house during Martin Luther King holiday. This is the first time Meredith invited her friend to our home. Zoey is one of the only three girls in Meredith class and Meredith constantly mentions her name when she tells us about her school day. So, we decided to invite her to play with Meredith. For a few days, Meredith was super excited about her friend coming over to visit her. She will obliged to anything we say, including finish your rice, clean up your toys as long as we threaten her with canceling her friend visit. Meredith also mentioned that she really hope her brother, Isaac, will sleep really really late the day her friend came to visit, then she claims that she can play barbie dolls and cooking with her classmate without Isaac disrupting them.

The first question Zoey asked Meredith when she got to our house is:" Meredith, where do you sleep? Can you show me your bedroom?". Meredith is very innocently reply, "I sleep on this small bed on the floor or I sleep with my mummy". Actually, Meredith uses a small baby size mattress that we took out of her baby crib. Her baby sized mattress is laid on the floor next to Boon Hong bed but nine of ten times, she ended sleeping on Boon Hong's bed. Zoey couldn't help but burst out laughing when she saw Meredith mattress on the floor. Most American kids have their own bedroom so she was surprise that Meredith sleep on the floor in our bedroom.

Picturepeople studio portraits from 2009

2010-01-23T11:56:00.000-08:00

These three photos are taken when we went to Houston in August 2009. There is a nice and not too expensive photo studio in Houston Galleria shopping center. Boon Hong likes to bring the kids there once a year to have their portraits taken. So far in New Orleans, we have not come across any photo studio like Pictures People in Houston. Most of the studio here are either the Walmart and Target photo studios or the really expensive private photographers for hire, there is not much in between.

Day after Christmas

2010-01-09T06:08:00.000-08:00

We went to Baton Rouge the day after Christmas and saw our friends Miao Miao and Tien Yuan from Houston.

2009 Family Newsletter

2010-01-02T07:00:00.001-08:00

2009 has gone by very quickly for Chang’s family. While Boon Hong often wondered how time gone by so fast, Meredith frequently claimed that she wants to grow up quickly so she can do things bigger kids do. Meredith had a rather eventful year after coming back from Malaysia. She struggled with several episodes of asthma attack in September. She now uses a nebulizer daily to inhale her asthma medication and tends to get sick easily with weather changes. On the bright side, Meredith is learning how to communicate her feeling with her mother every single day. She would let her mother know that she doesn’t appreciate her mother for cutting short her school hours from full day to half day. She was also upset when her mother picks her up an hour earlier on Wednesday because that’s when the lawn was mowed and the pollen level is higher. She doesn’t yet understand that her mum wants her to be like any other kids and is sad to hear her says that. Meredith loves attending school and she has a very close friend in her class whom she loved to play with. She talks about her friend almost every day after returning from school. One funny story is Meredith often swaps shoes with her friend in school. Still, Meredith’s favorite time is spending quality time with her dad at night as she gets to pick books for her dad to read for her. She has a good bond with her dad, and she has stated before that she never ever like her dad being away from home in her broken English one day. This certainly melted her dad’s heart and this sweet statement of Meredith will go with her dad for a long time. Many friends have quizzed us about how Meredith gets along with her little brother. I would say their relationships are tense, combative and sweet and fun all at the same time. They fight constantly and tears are often streaming down Isaac cheeks as he pointed towards “Jie Jie” as Meredith wins almost every fight at this stage. Isaac has grown more assertive compared to a year ago. Isaac learnt how to complaint to his mother by saying “Jie Jie” and then pointing his head or run towards his mother while his sister tried to take away his toy. Sometimes, they played so well and the room is filled with laughers. Isaac is a happy toddler and has great personality that makes us laugh all the time. While he is not good at expressing himself verbally (he can only mumble a few words), he is very good at expressing himself comically. Isaac loves to imitate. We were watching American football on TV where players crashed and tumbled all over each other. tackled Isaac soon found a ball, and started running around the house, throwing himself on the floor every few steps like the NFL players. Isaac seems to understand everything we said. He dances, pick things up, perform his comic routine, and repeats words at our command.
Boon Hong is still the cook, babysitter, mommy, and toy pick up person in Chang’s family. She has enjoyed her time at home and being able to watch her kids grow daily. She enjoys the peaceful moment even more when both Meredith and Isaac play together nicely. Boon Hong is also very grateful this year for her family to come visit her. After living in the US for 13 years, Boon Hong’s parents and her sister finally come to visit her for the first time. They stayed for a month, took a tour of California and went on a road trip to Smoky Mountain and Atlanta. Boon Hong would cherished this very special month with her family for a long time.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2010

2010-01-01T21:42:00.000-08:00

Road trip to Smoky Mountain with Boon Hong family. We saw some snow at Smoky Mountain.

Mid-autumn festival

2009-10-04T21:04:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, we celebrated mid-autumn festival at a friend's apartment. We bought two paper lanterns, one is a duck cartoon lantern for Meredith and Isaac gets a fish shape lantern.
The lanterns are $2 each at the local Hong Kong market. We lit the candles for them and took them on a walk around the parking lot.

We also went to the zoo this weekend because the weather is really great, cool and breezy. We need to make better use of our annual pass because we haven't been the zoo that much even though it is free with the annual pass. New Orleans is very enjoyable and it is one place it has that is better than Houston.

Meredith and Isaac riding the carousel at the zoo, it's only $1 for each child.

Meredith has been sick

2009-10-04T20:39:00.000-07:00

Meredith doing her treatment of albuterol to clear her lung during her asthma attack

We have not updated our blog for a very long time. My workload has increased last few months and between work, kids, part time graduate school, I am struggling to fit everything in and to find time to post on our blog. But I think it is finally time to update people of our recent activities.

Recently, both Meredith and Isaac have been sick a lot. Since they got back from Malaysia, we have been in and out of doctor's office almost every week due to cold, fever and other minor sickness. I think the main reason is Meredith started school and she brought home all kinds of germs from school.

Lately, she got two episodes of asthma attacks too. She never had asthma attack and the first time it happened, we didn't know what it was. She complained of stomach ache and we thought she was having stomach virus. Apparently, she was breathing very hard using her stomach until her stomach muscle started hurting. Thank God that on both occassions she have recovered well.

The clinic here has given her a nebulizer (an air compressor look alike thing) for us to take home, she has used that to breath in a solution to her cope with the asthma attack. We still don't know what trigger her asthma, the doctor is thinking that it might have to do with pollen. New Orleans has been raining nonstop for past few weeks, maybe that has stirred up the pollen.

Anyway, she is doing okay now and we have to give a small dose of Pulmicort everyday for 3 months (using the breathing machine) to prevent further asthma attack. Boon Hong is keeping a log of her activities to figure out what trigger her asthma.

New Orleans Tomato Festival

2009-07-04T06:39:00.000-07:00

New Orleans truly has a lot of festival. Starting with Mardi Gras in February, follow by French Quarter festival, Jazz festival, Greek Festival and two weeks ago a small time festival called Tomato Festival.

All the festival consist of the same components, food, drink (beer) and dancing. This small tomato festival is no exception.

Summer Camp in New Orleans

2009-07-04T06:07:00.000-07:00

Every Friday afternoon, all the parents are invited to attend a weekly recap/performance at the summer camp that Meredith is attending. We went to the last two performances. Meredith is in the smaller age group, she hasn't had a chance to perform yet. All the kids in her age group sit in front of the stage and sing a long as the older kids lead the songs and perform short skits.

Her camp counselor leading a song.

The gym facility, this is where most of camp activities are held.

Meredith with her teacher.

The older kids performed while little ones tried to follow along

Meredith dressed up for her camp costume day. The camp rotate through various themes, sometimes the kids are required to dress like superhero or someone from the past.

Isaac comtemplating in front of the window.

Meredith says she shops for free

2009-06-15T20:31:00.000-07:00

Meredith has been going to summer camp for the past two weeks. Her summer camp program ranges from swimming to outing trips to local grocery store/supermarket.

Meredith came home today and asked Boon Hong not to buy apple because she has already bought apple when she went to grocery store today. She has with her a plastic bag of food.

Apparently, her class at the summer camp took all the kids in a school bus to Breaux Mart, a local supermarket and let the kids pick several things to buy.

Meredith said she bought an apple for Boon Hong, an orange for pa pa, and a bag of chip for Isaac. She also bought a box of fruit juice and cookies for herself.

The most hilarious thing is she said this store sells stuff for free. Meredith said all she has to do is to scan all the items and put it in the plastic bags. She claimed that no one has to pay for things at Breaux Mart. She always sees us paying at grocery store and she told Boon Hong that we need to go to Breaux Mart in future because it is free. She did not realize her summer camp organizer has already made arrangement with Breaux Mart for all the kids to pick several items from the shelf and the school has already paid for everything.

We have the entire Audubon Zoo to ourselves!

2009-06-13T08:45:00.000-07:00

We went to Audubon Zoo in New Orleans two weeks ago on Memorial Day holiday. It rained heavily on that day for almost entire day. The rain finally stopped around 2pm and the zoo closes at 5pm. We just joined membership at the zoo for the entire family for $65 (50% off from their regular membership price due to a promotion), it doesn't cost us anything to go the zoo for just two hours.

When we arrived at the zoo, I must say there are less than 10 visitors in the entire zoo since the rain just stopped and the zoo will be closing in a few hours. The zoo entry ticket is $13 and it is not worthwhile to go for just a few hours.

We went to the petting area, this is where the kids get to touched and combed the hair of goats and sheeps. We were pleasantly surprise, Meredith and Isaac are the only two kids there and they get to touch all the animals without having to wait in line. This is such a far cry from Houston zoo on public holiday where 100 kids chased around 5 goats trying to comb their hair.

Visit to New Orleans Museum of Art

2009-06-07T11:57:00.000-07:00

After Hui Fun, Eric and family left, we decided to go take a look at NOMA (museum of art) since we are already in New Orleans city park area. The museum is housed in a very classical looking building. It is free for people that lives in Louisiana, so everyone you heard that, please move to New Orleans where museum is free!

Although compact in size, the museum has some very high quality art works including some work by Edgar Degas, a renowned french artist. We chanced upon a photography exhibition when we visited. While Boon Hong kept looking at the photography exhibits, I spent more time photographing the kids. I liked the interior lighting in the museum, it is soft but not too dim. I wished our camera can take better picture in these light conditions.

Meredith and Isaac in the pink room

Meredith and Isaac in the yellow room

Meredith and Isaac in the blue room

Meredith and Isaac in the light filled atrium of the museum

Fun mama visit us from Houston

2009-06-07T11:31:00.000-07:00

Fun mama of the funschoolhouse blog came and visited us in New Orleans.
They were passing through on their way back to Houston from Destin, Florida.

Ethan is a big boy now and he is as high energy as I remembered him. Meredith loved to play with him and kept asking about him after he left.

We went to Russell grill near New Orleans lake front area for breakfast. We just discovered New Orleans lake front area and have been exploring that area last few weeks. City park, museum of art, marina are all clustered around this area.

Meredith, Ethan, Evan

Unique looking breakfast egg at Russell grill.

Pool Party

2009-06-07T06:01:00.000-07:00

We bought an inflatable swimming pool for less than $10 when Walmart was clearing out their stock last year. Since the summer has arrived, we decided to let the kids try it out. Isaac was timid at first, not wanting to step into the water. Once he got over his fear, he was plunging head first into the pool.

Meredith running in her school uniform

2009-05-31T05:26:00.000-07:00

Meredith attended a chinese language play school in Johor for 3 months. This is her running in her school uniform.

An eventful trip back to Malaysia from New Orleans

2009-05-30T05:46:00.000-07:00

I went back to Malaysia on April 16, I was supposed to stay in Malaysia for five days only and then fly back to the US with Boon Hong and the two kids. My trip took an interesting turn right from the start. My flight from New Orleans to Dallas was delayed for five hours and that make me missed the flight to Tokyo. The airport agent offered me a free hotel stay in Dallas so I can catch another flight to Tokyo the next day. I was pretty upset because that means I will lost another day in Malaysia. Then he offered me another alternative, rather than flying west to Tokyo, I got on a flight to Frankfurt, Germany and then I took another flight to Singapore from Germany. I had a long layover in Frankfurt and I even went down to Frankfurt city for a few hours to bump around. My total travel duration for that trip was 42 hours. It was the longest trip I took.

Anyway, we were supposed to fly back to New Orleans on April 26 from Singapore. Isaac has been sick since I got back with cough and runnig nose and it got worse progressively. Boon Hong took Isaac to the doctor the night before we depart and then again on the morning of our departure. The doctor we saw on the morning of our departure did an chest x-ray and confirmed that Isaac has pneumonia. We immediately cancel our flight that night from Singapore. Isaac was hospitalized immediately. He had antibiotic injection by IV and then nurse was giving a breathing device every few hours. It was quite a traumatic experience for little Isaac and the parents.
Isaac in his hospital crib in Puteri Specialist Hospital in Johor Bahru. Puteri is probably one of the best private hospital in Johor area. The facility is pretty good but still not quite as nice as the hospital room we encountered in Houston or New Orleans. The hospital room in Houston has free wi-fi and satellite TV and there is also a guest bed for the family member accompanying the patient. Puteri hospital provided a folding armchair for the parent accompanying the child. However, we are very happy with the services there, all the nurses are quite friendly and helpful.

Meredith visiting her brother in the hospital. Isaac stopped crying when he gets to roam around the hospital hallway.

Isaac had to go back to the hospital for 3 more days of antibiotic injection after he was discharged.

Our trip back to New Orleans from Malaysia

2009-05-24T14:41:00.000-07:00

I went back to Malaysia on April 16 to help Boon Hong bring the kids back to New Orleans. They have been staying in Johor Bahru for the past few months since we went back for Chinese New Year. It was a rather eventful trip but that is the subject of another post. Anyway, we flew back from Singapore on May 1 at the height of the swine flu scare. We bought a lot of face masks, we make Meredith wear a face mask too. Isaac kept prying off his face mask and the mask was way too big for a one year old, so we gave up on making Isaac wear a mask. People in Asia are generally more nervous about swine flu due to the bad experience with SARS. Lots of people inclucing ourselves were wearing face masks in Singapore airport and Tokyo airport during our travel. When we reached Dallas airport in US, no one is wearing a face masks even though that airport has tons of direct flights from Mexico.

Meredith wearing a face mask in Singapore airport. We bought a N95 face mask for her but it is too big for her face, so we let wear an ordinary surgical mask. I think it is not effective at all in stopping the virus and it makes it so much harder to breath properly. But it did gives us a false sense of security that we are doing something to protect ourselves. Boon Hong kept buying face masks every where we went even though we already have a few in our carryon luggage. She tried to buy face masks in the Guardian pharmacy in Singapore airport and then she bought some more masks in Tokyo airport. Now those masks just sits in closet collecting dust. Maybe one of our kids will make it to medical school in 20 years time and someone can put those masks to good use.

Meredith enjoying a cup of Vietnamese coffee at the Tung Nguyen coffee stand in Changi airport. I am surprised to see a vietnamese drip style coffee stand in Singapore airport, so I decided to try it and see how it compares to the Vietnamese coffee in the US. The price is S$4 which is almost the same with Starbucks but I can tell you that it is much better than Starbucks. I downed that cup of coffee and it kept me awake for the rest of the 30hours trip to New Orleans and I did stay awake for another 5-6hours after reaching New Orleans.

Isaac crying at the Vietnames coffee stand after fighting with Meredith to gain control of the spoon to stir coffee.

Tokyo Narita airport is great for kids, there is a nice play area for kids. It was early in the morning when we reached Tokyo, there is no one at the play area yet. So we feel we can let our guard down and let Isaac and Meredith play since all the other kids with infectious flu virus haven't show up yet. Anyway, that's probably what the other parents are thinking too when they tell their kids to start wearing masks when they see Isaac and Meredith in the play area.

Playground inside Tokyo airport

Meredith running in the tatami lined room.

Finally, we reached New Orleans, the kids remain jet lagged for almost 2 weeks.

We went out the first time a week after coming back from Malaysia to a crawfish boil at my co-worker house.

Memorial weekend picnic by New Orleans lakefront

2009-05-24T14:24:00.000-07:00

We attended New Orleans Chinese Baptist church since we moved to New Orleans. On Memorial weekend, the church group organized a picnic at New Orleans lakefront. New Orleans is bounded by Lake Ponchatrain on its east side. This lake is about the size of Singapore or perhaps bigger. I didn't know New Orleans has such a nice lakefront area until a few months ago when I stumbled it while cycling. Anyway, we are excited to finally go a picnic organized by this church group and get to know people who normally just say "hi and bye" better.
Meredith running around with her "buble blower" toy, she hardly goes anyway without bringing a bottle of buble these days. She is obsessed with blowing bubbles.

We just got to know this nice family with kids lately and they are leaving New Orleans for Washington DC soon. The problem with New Orleans is it has high crime, bad public school, prone to damage by hurricane, and lack of proper chinese food, so a lot of chinese families just make New Orleans a temporary stop over in their career. Once they got what they came here for (be it education, work experiences) they start making plans to move to other parts of the US.

New Orleans Greek Festival

2009-05-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

We have been back in New Orleans for about three weeks now. Actually, this weekend is a public holiday in US, it is memorial day. We have 4 days weekend. The weather in New Orleans is really nice now hovering around 70F, I guess this is the calm before the storm, before the dreadful heat of the summer sets in next few months and the threats of 2009 hurricane season looming over us. Anyway, this weekend was fantastic, we visited the Greek festival in town. It is held on the ground of a greek church right by a big lake in city park. Houston also has Greek festival but this one is way better than the one in Houston. There is a live band playing Greek music, lots of greek food, lots of dancing (the people in New Orleans love to drink and dance).

This is the ground of the Greek festival. Nice weather, nice food, nice Greek music.

The crowd was huge. It was hard to push our double stroller around in the crowd.

On the way to the greek festival, Meredith peruse her mum's lipstick to a horrendeous outcome. She smeared the lipstick on her mouth.

We stayed at the festival until 9pm at night. There are lots of people dancing to the Greek music. They sell a lot of cheap wine at the festival which helps promote the dancing.

There is a children playground at the festival with a sand box area. Meredith jumped right into the sand box because she has been playing sand at her play school everyday.

It took Isaac a while before he gathered enough courage to put his feet into the sand. Once he stepped into the sand, he was delighted by the new sensation.

The Greek people grilled whole lamb at the festival. We tried the lamb, it was good but a bit too dry, somehow I think it should be more juicy, the Greek guy sell a box with 1lb of lamb meat for $12.

New Orleans

2009-04-08T19:47:00.000-07:00

Boon Hong and the kids were in Malaysia the last few months while I am in New Orleans working. So I mostly spend time working, studying and cycling in New Orleans.

Photos taken during bike ride in a state park in Mississipi

My version of Ma Po tofu. New Orleans has no decent chinese food. Everything is sesame this, general tso that, moo goo gai pan, a bunch of half breed chinese food to cater to kuai lao. So I have to improvise.... I like the result
Went to watch the Ironman last weekend, it was awesome to see people pushing themselves to the max performance. There are some top pros in the race too like the guy below that won more than 8 ironman world title.

I also went offshore to work. I had a blast. Free hot meals four times a day, no need to wash dishes, someone to do laundry for me, no sea sick... it was fun.

Cameron Highland

2009-03-23T19:33:00.000-07:00

During our long stay in Malaysia, we went to Cameron Highland with my two sisters. There are five women and five kidos. This idea of going Cameron Highland for three days and two nights came from both my sisters. Elder sister wanted to bring two kids to explore the nature of Malaysia during the school holidays. Second Sister had been there before as her husband's mcompany has a bungalow over there as one of the staff benefits.

The weather is relatively dry and cooling. As soon as the kids arrived at the Mount Vernon Bungalow, they can wait to blow the bubbles that we brought from home. It is dry patches all over Meredith's body due to the dryness of the air. I am not sure how she is going to cope once she returns back to US.

We went to self pick strawberries, Rose Garden and Boh Tea Plantation.

Come visit Malaysia.

Isaac's 1st Birthday

2009-03-01T19:08:00.000-08:00

Isaac is a leap day baby, so he doesn't have a birthday this year. Since we are back in Malaysia and staying with my family, I decided to hold a birthday party for him, and letting Meredith and other cousins to have some fun. Johor Bahru is not a very kid friendly town and it was a tough job to look for a perfect place where both kids and adults can enjoy themselves. At first, I was planning to hold the party at the McDonald so that the kids can enjoy the nuggets and play in the indoor playground on the same time. Of course, the price of holding a party at McD is very affortable. However, I was a litle disappointed with the facilities at the McDonald. The playground is relatively small and very disorganized.

I found a horse riding school on my way driving Meredith back from school. My sister and I brought Meredith and her Xiao Biao Ge to the riding school during that evening, they were brave enough to ride on the pony, and they seemed enjoy and asked us to bring them here more often. So, We ended up celebrating Isaac's birthday there.

Meredith and her Xiao Biao Ge seemed to be the only two kids who enjoy riding the pony. Isaac fall to sleep during the cake cutting minutes. Meredith represented her baby brother blew the candles the third time this year.

Conversation between my older sister and Meredith:

Meredith: I want my mama to ride this horse.

Sister: It is a pony, your mother cannot ride on it.

Sister: You are the one that your mother can ride on it.

Meredith: I am a human, not a horse.

Sister: you must be the bad girl because you love crying.

Meredith: I am a good girl, not the bad one.

Tokyo January 2009

2009-01-21T00:57:00.000-08:00

We stopped by Tokyo for a few days on our way back to Malaysia for Chinese New Year. This is the very first time we have been back home for Chinese New Year since coming to the US ten years ago. We have been through Narita airport many times enroute back to Malaysia but we have never spend any time in Tokyo before. So now that we have two toddlers in tow and seven pieces of luggages weighing about 50lbs (25kg) each, we finally decided that it is the most convenient time to visit Tokyo while enroute back to Malaysia (actually we always wanted to do that before the kids but didn't get the chance because we always had to be back in Malaysia asap to apply for US visa). So we landed in Tokyo airport after flying for 13hours from Dallas, found the baggage storage center. We left five big luggages at the storage center for 500yen per piece which is quite reasonable compared to other airport. Then we hopped onto the bus with one luggage, one infant carseat (we did not leave the infant carseat at the storage center to save cost), two jetlagged kids and headed into frigid Tokyo winter. Tokyo is much colder than New Orleans and the temperature hovers around 30s to 40s fahrenheit.

Outside the Tsukiji wet market in downtown Tokyo. Tsukiji is a huge market where tuna auctions is held daily.

Award winning Prada building near Omatesando avenue in Tokyo.

Shinto shrine near Asakusa.

Meredith admiring the chocolate dipped banana in front of the Shinto shrine near asukusa.

We finally gave in and bought her a chocolate dipped banana for 300yen (about $3). She didn't like it and I ended up eating 3/4 of the not so good banana.

The shinto shrine at Asakusa. We arrived very early at about 8am because both Isaac and Meredith would not sleep and woke us up at 3am.

Shinto shrine at Asakusa.

Meredith developed a new habit. When we asked her to look at the camera, she would deliberately turn away from the camera.

When we arrived at Asakusa, the sun is still not up and temperature is very cold with gusting wind. So we holed in a McDonald right outside the temple. To my surprise, the McDonal is packed with homeless people. Many people just order a cup of coffee and sat for hours inside the McDonald to escape the cold. I saw a guy that simply grab an empty McDonald happy meal cup and started sleeping on the table. It is pretty thought provoking to see a country like Japan with so many homeless people.

Meredith dressed in the Japanese robe provided by the hotel. Tokyo is an expensive city. We stayed in a mid-scale hotel and it costs more than Europe or US.

Day after Christmas

2009-01-03T21:52:00.000-08:00

On the day after Christmas, we had a another group of friends visiting from Houston. So during the christmas week, our social life in New Orleans greatly expanded with all the visitors we had. Sadly, everyone has gone back to Houston two days later.

Walking in Audobon park in garden district of New Orleans

Isaac has never seen so many people in our house in New Orleans before. He is wondering why there is so many asian people in New Orleans suddenly.

Impromptu jazz performance in front of Jackson Square in New Orleans. In true New Orleans fashion, a passerby starts dancing to the Jazz music.

We brought our friends to this dessert shop, Sucre.

The dessert shop has beautiful interior and atmosphere. The cake is quite good too but really overpriced at $6 a piece.
Outside Sully mansion in New Orleans where Brad Pitt's latest movie "Benjamin Button..." was filmed.

Brad Pitt and A. Jolie. Rumor has it that Brad Pitt and A. Jolie lives in New Orleans part of the year. We have never run into them before until now. They are actually quite friendly to talk to.

Christmas Day in New Orleans

2009-01-03T21:03:00.000-08:00

We spent our Christmas day meeting up with two car loads of Malaysian Houstonians that drove six hours to Louisiana for Christmas. We met up in a friend house in Baton Rouge (about one hour drive from New Orleans) and enjoyed some good home cooked nasi lemak. It is interesting to observe a snippet of Malaysian culture at that moment with nasi lemak, some home made kuih with a roomful of Malaysians in the back water of southern Louisiana.

Looking at the mighty Mississipi river from river front in Baton Rouge.

Sitting in front of state capital building in Baton Rouge

Sarawakian Malaysian friend from Houston

The kids racing each other

Meredith unwrapping her present on Christmas morning before we left for Baton Rouge. Being cheap parents, we saw a mock up kitchen set that we really want to give Meredith but we just couldn't get over the price tag for the kitchen set. So we ended up buying a small set of Playdoh for her. Much to our delight, a surprise gift to Meredith (not from us) actually contains the kitchen set that we wanted to get her.

Isaac tried to play with the new kitchen set. He didn't last very long at the new kitchen set, he got elbowed by his big sister very soon after the photo was taken. Meredith got a red card (scolding) for the offense against her brother.

Isaac's present is a story book which he will be able to read in a few years time. In the mean time, Meredith will have an extra story book.

Barcelona

2008-12-25T07:09:00.000-08:00

Barcelona winter is pretty mild. It is almost like Houston with some days in the 50F range and a few days in the 60F range. So, it is easier to take the kids outdoor, not having to dress them in three or four layers of bulky clothing. Isaac in his stroller outside of La Sagrada Familia, the most famous of Antonio Gaudi's work, a perpetual construction project that started in the 1900s and is still several decades away from completion.

Isaac and Meredith playing outside of Parc de Montjuïc near Catalunya museum of art. Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia region, which pride itself with a distinct culture, language and heritage from the rest of Spain.

Outside of Parc Guell, another one of Gaudi's creation.

Running stroller

2008-12-21T05:05:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to buy a running stroller that can carry both Isaac and Meredith for a long time. Both Boon Hong and I have not run or exercise in any form at all since we moved to New Orleans. Since we returned from Netherland, Isaac has been more and more comfortable staying put in a stroller. Before that, he will burst into tear the minute he sat into a stroller. So for the last few weeks we started running with Meredith and Isaac in two separate umbrella strollers. The umbrella strollers are too short and I had a hard time bending down to push them while running. Last week, I finally made a plunge for the running stroller. I wanted the $550 BOB Revolution stroller which is built like a high end bicycle. However, practicalities and cost consiousness got hold of me and I finally bought the much cheaper $230 Schwinn running stroller. One penny one ounce worth(a chinese expression), the cheaper stroller made a lot of creaking noise and the link arm broke soon after I put it together. However, we started our running routine immediately and we have been running with this stroller with the two kids several times a week.

Isaac can now endure one hour long run. Meredith is the one that always wants to come down from the stroller and run with us.

I found a route that leads to the levee that protect New Orleans. The levee is seen in the background of this pic. It is a constant reminder that we are living below sea level.

There is a playground on our running route. Meredith and Isaac take a break from sitting on the stroller to play on the slide.

The stroller has built in screen which I used when the temperature gets below 60F to block the wind from getting to the kids.

Trick or Treating

2008-12-13T06:20:00.000-08:00

Meredith and Isaac went trick or treating on Halloween night last month. We have never gone trick or treating before nor did anything special on Halloween. It was fun to watch Meredith going door to door asking for candy and chocolate. In the first few houses, Meredith was shy and didn't know what to do and just stood still at people's front door. She eventually got the hang of it after going to about 10 houses or so. She started knocking hard on people's door and then she spoke in half chinese english, " tick or tick". Then people dropped a few candies in her candy basket (rather than buying a real Jack o Lantern basket, we let Meredith use a rattan basket- Dayak style- that we brought from Sarawak). Isaac enjoying the candy that big sister worked hard for

His- turtle costume by Children Place, $20. Hers - chicken costume by leftover from last year, $unknown.

Boon hong fought with the kids to take control of the pile of candy

It looks a lot like Christmas in New Orleans

2008-12-11T21:10:00.000-08:00

Snow fell on New Orleans today. New Orleans winter is pretty mild and it very rarely snow in New Orleans, maybe once in a ten years.

I heard that when snow fell in New Orleans, it is an omen of big hurricane to come the following year. The last time it snowed in New Orleans was in 2004 and then in 2005 Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. Anyway, everyone is so happy to see snow in New Orleans today. I can see the rooftop of French Quarter being coated in white from my office in downtown New Orleans.

This is the first time Meredith has seen snow. She was so excited and did not want to go to school. She wanted to remain outside to feel the snowflakes falling on her.
In the end, Boon Hong had to save some snow for her in a ziplock bag (which we then kept in the refrigerator) in order to persuade her to go to school.

Outside our home in New Orleans

The snow that Boon Hong saved for Meredith in a plastic bag in order to persuade her to go to school.

Barcelona

2008-12-08T20:56:00.000-08:00

The view of Barcelona from Parc Guell. Barcelona has to be one of the most beautiful city in the world. There's the sea, the mountain, vibrant culture, and the architecture.

Isaac trying to play ball with the big boys

2008-12-07T08:40:00.000-08:00

Isaac tried to hang out with the big kids (Meredith and Ian) when they played ball.

Isaac got roughed up and kept falling down despite efforts by parents to keep him in the game.

Isaac fell down again!

Finally, Isaac gave up. He realized he is not ready for that advanced level of ball playing yet. So he resorted to play with his own toys.

2008-12-07T08:06:00.000-08:00

A diiferent kind ofThanksgiving....with New Orleans style lion dance

2008-12-06T05:33:00.000-08:00

We spent our first Thanksgiving in New Orleans last week. In the years past, we had always spent our Thanksgiving in the warmth of friends and church family in Houston. I was looking back in our blog and the posting from our Thanksgiving in 2007 didn't even feel that long ago. We didn't do much in our Thanksgiving this year in New Orleans. We invited a few people from the chinese baptist church in New Orleans over to our house for lunch. Then at night, we went to see a skit performance. The skit was very well put together considering the resources available to a small church. They even rented lighting instruments for this performance. From what I understand, the chinese church in New Orleans do this every year to reach out to the chinese community here since most people work in restaurant and only get off on Thanksgiving and Christmas day.

The day after Thanksgiving, we went to invest some money in the mall like everyone else in America to help ease the economic crisis. Then we went to Westbank New Orleans to get grocery at Hong Kong market. Westbank has a large vietnamese community. We were delighted to run into a vietnamese thanksgiving celebration with lion dance and vietnamese song performance. The lion dance was fantanstic, the lion came and prance around Meredith and she can even touch the lion's head. In Houston, it will so crowded whenever there's a lion dance and there is no way we could have even got close to the lion.

The baby room at New Orleans chinese church.

Lion Dance in Westbank New Orleans, day after Thanksgiving

Meredith eating cassava (yuca) kuih. We bought this from the Vietnamese lady selling kuih muih at the lion dance performance, it taste just like the a type of kuih that you can find a typical pasar malam in Malaysia.

CS, Pearly & Ian visiting from Houston

2008-11-29T05:09:00.000-08:00

Meredith is still jetlagged from our trip overseas and fell asleep when we were eating out.

This the living room of our new house in New Orleans. No, I'm just kidding. I wished our living room looks like that. I took Isaac to the W Hotel in downtown New Orleans to change his diaper. This hotel lobby looks incredibly nice and I just have to take a picture.

Chee Seang, Pearly and Ian came to visit us last weekend. Ian and Meredith had a lot of fun playing together. We enjoyed their company here and wished they had stay till Thanksgiving day because we ended spending Thanksgiving day just like any other day, without much special celebration. Credits to Chee Seang for supplying a lot of the nicer photos in this posting.

Brussels

2008-11-22T08:38:00.000-08:00

Brussels is a beautiful city, even more so than cities in Netherland. Actually, it resembles Paris to a certain extent. Half the people speak French and the other half speak some dialect that resembles dutch. There are a lot of chinese too in Brussels, a lot of the Belgium chocolate shop are run by chinese, I just have to wonder if those chocolates and truffles are really made in Belgium as they claimed or is it made in China.

Belgium school children on their school outing. It is quite cold in Belgium during our visit and the temperature is about 7-8celsius. Quite a few of the Belgium school kids are wearing shorts.

The statue in the background of this photo is called the "Manneken Pis". It is a tiny statue of a little boy urinating into a fountain. This little statue is the national symbol of Belgium and I don't understand it. I think it is more of a scam to attract the tourist. We walked a few blocks away from the statue and the chocolate shops are selling much bigger version of the "little boy urinating" statue made out of chocolate or various candy. See photos below

Belgium waffles, this stuff is good and almost every street corner has a waffle stall. This stuff is served piping hot and it is really good. Much better than waffle or pancake in IHOP or Dennys.

Eating Indian kari in Brussels.

masala chicken in the Indian restaurant

Taking the train to Brussels, Belgium

2008-11-22T08:05:00.000-08:00

We took the train to Brussels one weekend just for a day trip. Brussels is the biggest city in Belgium and it is only two hours away from Den Haag. Europe is so well connected by train compare to US, it is quite feasible to just hop on a train and be in a different country for the weekend.

Waiting at the train station

There is no reserved seat on the train, so sometimes it is hard to find a seat. The good thing is kids ride for free, so we only have to pay Euro 68 for two adults return ticket to Brussels.

Isaac and Meredith

2008-11-20T20:38:00.000-08:00

Isaac and Meredith started out smiling and playing happily..... but not for long....

Big sister wins! Meredith owned the bed now after parents removed crying little brother.

Daily life

2008-11-20T19:46:00.000-08:00

Since we were in Netherland for two weeks, we took a lot of photos of just everyday life. Meredith is tired of posing as model quietly when we want to take her photos. She will run around in order to avoid having her photos taken. I need to play some silly tricks with her in order to make her stand still for photos. So the latest trick is for her to cover her eyes with a key chain before we can take her photos.

We stocked up on the refrigerator very quickly when we got to Netherland so it feels like home.

The dutch people eat a lot of Indonesian food. This is great for us because we can find all the regular Malaysian food that we miss in their supermarket. Keropok udang is a staple on every supermarket shelf and we even find a lot of Kuih Lapis (they spelled it as spekoek lapis pandan) in most supermarket.

Boon Hong tried her best to take Meredith and Isaac out since I am working most of the time.

We moved to another apartment unit (owned by the same chinese lady) on ground floor during our second week in Netherland. It is easier for us because the staircase in Netherland is very steep like those you see in a ship.

The townsquare near the apartment where we were staying at.

Apartment

2008-11-20T19:19:00.000-08:00

Meredith fell asleep on the stroller as we were out and about
Isaac crawling around in the apartment. At first, he had trouble moving around because the floor is very licin but then he got used to it.

During the weekday, we only went out a few times and only to the places closeby because it is quite difficult to lug around a baby and a toddler on the tram. I am glad we are staying in an apartment with kitchen, living room, bedroom rather than a regular hotel room. The apartment is owned by a chinese lady who also owned a hotel across the street. There is so many chinese in Netherland and they speak dutch, which is quite amazing to hear Dutch words coming out from fellow chinese.

The apartment has enough room for the kids to roam around and it is very nicely appointed. I think apartment is the way to go for people with kids because it costs the same with hotel room but there is a lot more room and comfort.

Netherland

2008-11-20T19:01:00.000-08:00

Chinese Temple in Amsterdam

Netherland is quite cold compare to New Orleans and it is always raining and there is only a few hours of sun light everyday

I have been bringing Isaac and Meredith to downtown Den Haag for the past few days when we were in Netherland. I strapped Isaac on my shoulder and cruised Meredith on a small stroller. It wasn't very easy because Isaac is about 20lbs and then we have to ride the tram with a stroller. We need to take a 5 mins tram ride from the apartment that we staying in to the Passage shopping centre. We didn't stay long every time when we were there, we only stay there for three hours maximum in order to avoid Meredith needing to go the toilet and Isaac needing a diaper change because it is hard to manage both at the same time by myself. It seemed pretty fun for Meredith because she liked hopping into the tram with me. I would say Meredith is a mature girl, she would help me hold the stroller in place while I stand next to her inside the tram. She also tried to move fast when the tram arrived, she managed to hop onto the tram withhout any problems for the most part. Most Dutch are very friendly and they will help me carry the stroller in and out the tram. There was even a chinese Dutch guy who helped me carry the stroller down the tram even though he is not getting off at the same stop, he helped me moved the stroller and then quickly jump back into the tram before it moved on again.

More Photos from Cindy & CW Wedding

2008-09-18T20:46:00.000-07:00

The wedding singer

Meredith walked down the aisle as the flower girl, this time she is carrying a bear rather than flower

Meredith's partner in the wedding ceremony, called ring bearer (not flower boy) is little Ian of Penang

Video Clip from Hurricane Ike

2008-09-18T20:20:00.000-07:00

I took this video clip from the second floor of Ho's residence around 7am on Saturday. At this time, the wind and rain have diminished quite a bit but is still quite strong.

Two Hurricanes in Two Weeks Part II

2008-09-15T20:42:00.000-07:00

We finally made it back to New Orleans today after Houston airport reopen on Monday. We evacuated to Memphis because of Hurricane Gustav two weeks ago but we never seen the full fury of Gustav as it was ripping through Louisiana. This time, we got to witness the full force of Hurricane Ike in the middle of the action. Although Ike weakened to a category 1-2 hurricane by the time it reached Houston, it was quite a hair raising experience to have 90mph wind howling outside and rainwater whipping the window until it rattled. We stayed on the second floor of Ho's residence as the peak of the hurricane wind passed through that area around 3 am. Everyone of us including Meredith, Boon Hong and Isaac are awaken around 2am as the wind noise started to become too loud. I tried to put ear plugs in Meredith ear so soften the noise. At one point, I tried to put Meredith in the closet because I thought the windows were shaking. Meredith was arguing with me that it is not a hurricane and it is only raining hard outside. She was wide awake from 2 am onwards. She was oblivious to the danger outside and was having fun walking around with torch light (we lost electricity around 2am) and also wearing ear plugs. I think she was so riled up by the windnoise and me pacing back and forth that she did not sleep the whole time. Well, thank God we made it through this without any harm. We based our decision to stay on the government issued order to take shelter in place and not have to evacuate and also all of our friends stayed behind in Houston. If we have to do it over again, I think we will evacuate for a category 2 storm.

Photo taken in New Orleans after Gustav- Car crushed by falling bricks from the apartment building.

Trampoline being blown onto a tree top right outside of our apartment in New Orleans.

For some reason, more Shell stations lost their signboards than other gas stations that I came across.

Garage doors being crushed by the high wind right outside Golden Food supermarket near Bellaire Chinatown in Houston

There are downed power line and cables everywhere, some dangling dangerously close to the street.

It was very hot and sticky after we lost power due the hurricane. On the second night, Issac slept without cloth on and he actually slept better that night than we have AC on.

We finally made it the wedding. It was worth the wait and going through a category 1-2 hurricane. It was a wonderful wedding, more to come on this.

The wedding was conducted with candlelight and illuminated with love since there is no power in church the day after hurricane.

Meredith (and mom) is very excited to be Cindy's flower girl after waiting many months, perhaps close to a year.

Meredith guest starring in Ian's blog

2008-09-12T20:39:00.000-07:00

I just found out that Meredith photos have been used by some papparazi on their website. But credits to the papparazi, the photos are very well taken and the male character is very handsome. Click on link below.

http://madeinhouston.blogspot.com/2008/07/little-love-drama-part-i.html

Waiting on Ike's Arrival

2008-09-12T20:24:00.000-07:00

It's about 9:30pm now. Hurricane Ike is supposed to make landfall at 1am tonight. We are sitting in elder Ho's house and reading story books to Meredith. Nothing much to do, just watching TV and waiting on Ike to arrive. The wind outside is about 40mph, not too strong yet.

Not Again! Running Away from Hurricane Ike, two hurricanes in two weeks!

2008-09-12T12:34:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Ike approaching Houston. 8 hours to Land fall.
We are staying with elder Ho family and enjoying lunch (three cup chicken, a popular taiwanese dish) before the hurricane strike tonight.
This is the photo from last week in New Orleans. Hurricane Gustave blew away the chimney on top of our apartment block and maintenance crew are reerecting the chimney. The repair hasn't even been completed and we already stumbled upon another hurricane while visiting Houston.

It seems like we are running away from hurricane every week. A week or so ago, Hurricane Gustav struck New Orleans. We had to evacuate to Memphis and we spent five days on the road. We got back to New Orleans last Wednesday night and we barely got back to our normal routine before we flew to Houston this week. I had to attend some work related meetings during the week and then all four of us are going to Cindy & CW wedding here in Houston.

Then out of the blue, Hurricane Ike that was supposed to struck South Texas changed course and is about to strike Galveston/Houston area tonight. So here we are in Houston, two hurricanes in two consecutive weeks. It is a category two hurricane right now with windspeed of 110mph. Meredith is supposed to be the flower girl at this wedding. Our friend rescheduled their wedding to Sunday in order for the hurricane to pass through on Friday and Saturday. We debated and struggled quite a bit on Thursday afternoon whether we should stay to attend the wedding or flew out early on Thursday night. In the end, we decided to hunker down in Houston to ride out the storm. I think we felt that we are here for a purpose and if we go back early our trip will be a complete waste and our friend's wedding will be without a flower girl (they already have enough disruption to their wedding due to the hurricane so we don't want to add to their frustration). Anyway, we checked out of the hotel and now we are at elder Ho's house to stay for two days to ride out the hurricane. Tonight at about 1am the hurricane will make land fall, I hope we make the right decision and the storm will not be so bad that we endangered the safety of Meredith and Isaac by staying.

Friends from Houston

2008-08-31T21:51:00.000-07:00

Johnny & Gina & their two very cute daughters came to visit us from Houston several weeks ago. Johnny came because of business trip so Gina came along with the two girls.

Meredith had fun following around Jenny and also Christine. She also got one day off from school to play with Jany and Christine.

"Huat Tan Ho" in Memphis, Tennessee

2008-08-31T20:48:00.000-07:00

Kevin (from Sabah but living in Memphis) told us that they have the best "huat tan ho" (fried kueh tiaw with soup) here in Memphis. I didn't believe him at first. After he took us to this chinese restaurant, I have to agree with him that this is one of the best kueh tiaw I have had outside of Malaysia. Of all places, who would think that the small city of Memphis has a good kueh tiaw place. He took us around to quite a few places. Kevin likes to eat, so we ended up eating a lot of good meals this few days in Memphis. Meredith and Isaac hang out in the hotel room while we are on the run from Hurricane Gustav.

Isaac smiles a lot now. He get distracted very easily, everytime he hears a noise, he will turn his head around to see what is going on.

The kueh tiaw place in Memhis
Huat Tan Ho, it is very good
Meredith at the river park near downtown Memphis
River park, downtown Memphis

Memphis has a lot of live bands playing around the downtwon street.
Kevin knows how to eat very well, he took us to Bosco, a great Italian restaurant.
Meredith eating ice cream at Bosco.
Meredith licking the ice cream plate to clean it up.
We slept in a different hotel tonight, all the hotels in Memphis area are sold out so we have to keep changing hotel in order to get a room.

One week ago, life was normal in New Orleans

2008-08-31T07:48:00.000-07:00

We visited the aquarium in New Orleans downtown last Saturday. Meredith had a blast. She was fascinated by sting-ray, lobster and penguin. She spent at least 20 minutes in front of the lobster aquarium just observing the lobster. However, Meredith is not very courageous when it came to petting the sting ray. We lined up at the sting ray area and they let kids touch sting ray. Meredith would not touch the sting ray when it comes to our turn.

"You need to be scared and you need to get your butts out of New Orleans right now," New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said

2008-08-31T05:28:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Gustav is forecasted to hit New Orleans-Baton Rouge area on Monday. In typical dramatic fashion, Mayor Ray Nagin said this is the MOTHER OF ALL HURRICANE. Bigger than Katrina, bigger than Betsy. Right now Hurricane Gustav is a category 4 storm with 150mph wind. Get your butt out of New Orleans right now! This is the message being repeated over and over on radio and tv for the past 24 hours. See www.nola.com for more detail. This weekend was supposed to be holiday weekend. Our friend from Houston canceled her trip to New Orleans. The last flight out of New Orleans is scheduled on Sunday, beyond there, no more flight from New Orleans.

So we starting packing up on Friday night, and we didn't know where to go until the very last minute because hotels in 200miles radius north of New Orleans were totally booked up. In the end we decided to go to Memphis, Tennessee, the land of Elvis Presley. We drove 380miles yesterday (7hours) to Tennessee and only managed to get hotel reservation for 2 nights. Hotels were sold out after that and we will probably have to stay with friend.

Military planes started flying into New Orleans as we sit in heavy traffic trying to drive to Tennessee to escape Hurricane Gustav.
We arrived in Memphis, tomorrow we will go see Elvis Presley home. But we first we are eating BBQ ribs that are famous in Memphis.

The ribs are so good! It is worth the 7 hours drive.

Recent Photos

2008-08-02T20:34:00.000-07:00

Between work, school, families and driving to Houston on weekends,I've been so busy recently that I hardly have time to post. Anyway, just want to share some recent photos of Isaac and Meredith....

more Isaac and Meredith photos

2008-07-06T05:11:00.000-07:00

Houston trip and the bread makers club

2008-07-05T21:41:00.000-07:00

We drove to Houston last weekend. Boon Hong's mum left for Malaysia after spending more than a month with us in New Orleans. She flew out of Houston airport. This trip was very busy since we had to do some maintenance work in our old house which is still for sale on the market.
Luckily, Meredith is there to lend a helping hand. Here is Meredith helping to change out the air filter in the central AC system in the attic.

Our old neighbor came by to visit us.

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Boon Hong's mum went back to Malaysia. I know that Boon Hong missed her a lot.

Another end result of our trip to Houston is the bread making machine. All the aunties in Houston (quite a few of our friends with young children from WHCC church have purchased breadmaking machine) are into homemade bread now, they exchange recipes and exchange their homemade breads. So Boon Hong caved in to the peer pressure (actually, the homemade bread tasted very good and is more healthy) and have been shopping for breadmaking machine since we came back from Houston last Sunday. Finally, we bought a breadmaking machine yesterday for $40 plus. We made our first loaf of honey wheat cranberry bread today and the end result is shown below.

Back on Malaysia soil in US

2008-07-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

Boon Hong and I have not been back to Malaysia since 2006. We miss home a lot. So when we went to the Malaysia embassy for Isaac's paperwork, I would like to think that we have technically step on Malaysia's soil again. I heard that an embassy is technically a country's sovereign ground even though it is on foreign soil. Anyway, Malaysia embassy in Washington DC is quite nice and the people there are very courteous. The Malay guard even came out to chat with us and then took these photos for us.

More Washington DC photos

2008-07-05T20:51:00.000-07:00

I finally have some free time to post some more photos from our trip to DC.

Self portrait with Isaac to kill time while waiting for Boon Hong to shop

Boon Hong's mum and Meredith in front of Washington DC Chinatown street.

We went to Smithsonian museum during our last day in DC. We went to the museum store to look for the tiger hair band. We took several photos when we visited in 2006 (Meredith was 7 months old at that time). I remembered those photos very fondly and wanted to recreate the shot. But I don't think I captured the same effect this time.

Photo s taken with Meredith at the same place in Smithsonian museum in 2006.

Washington DC Trip

2008-06-25T20:43:00.000-07:00

We went to Washington DC about two weeks ago. We went there to register Isaac at the Malaysia Embassy so he can become a Sarawakian in future. This is also a chance for us to take Boon Hong's mum for sightseeing while she is here in the states. So all five of us flew up to DC and spent four days at the nation's capital. It was a fun trip overall. The logistic of going through airport and clearing security checks etc were challenging. At the security check point, we lug around our carry-on lugages, diaper bag, one toddler, one baby, laptop, stroller and at the same time take off our shoes, fold up the stroller, shoved everything onto the conveyor belt towards the X-ray machine while the TSA agent yelled at the top of her lung "no liquid more than 4 oz!", "shoes off!'', "move faster!","have your boarding pass out!" . Instead of making flying safer, I think all the TSA agent contributed is more chaos at the airport and unneccessary delay at the security line.

Isaac knows how to smile now!

Annapolis, Maryland 30miles from DC (unlike Xiao Niu Niu, Isaac enjoyed being carried around in the suspended baby carrier)

Now that we live in a very "Ulu" place like New Orleans, we take every chance we have to eat good chinese (or Malaysian) food when we go to big city. This is taken at Penang restaurant in Dupont Circle, Washington DC. This place is pricey, $11 for chay kuay tiau. The clientele is mostly American and business is good. I think Malaysian food has gone mainstream in many cities.

Isaac resting after shower

Rumah putih

Lincoln memorial

We miss Houston

2008-06-07T20:32:00.000-07:00

We miss Houston, we miss our friends, we miss our church http://www.whcchome.org/, we miss good Chinese food and I above all miss $2.99 hair cut. I have been enjoying cheap $2.99 hair cut by vietnamese barber in Houston for years. Although the styling may be less than desired, it is very hard to argue with the good value of having your hair cut for less than the price of a cup of coffee. I went to Walmart in New Orleans yesterday to get my first New Orleans hair cut. I have not research extensively but I figure Walmart saloon has to be among the cheapest in New Orleans. However, the price for men's haircut is $14. This is the first double digit hair cut that I had in America!

Photos from our last few days in Houston

2008-06-07T19:45:00.000-07:00

Our farewell dinner with friends in Houston

We stayed at Tuck Leong and Sabrina house after the movers empty our house.

Infant dedication for Isaac the week before we move.

More New Orleans photos

2008-06-07T19:36:00.000-07:00

Cafe Du Monde

2008-06-07T19:18:00.000-07:00

Meredith enjoying the powdery sugar in the beignet. We pulled the plate away from her but when we were not looking, she was digging into the powdery sugar again.

We've been to French Quarter in New Orleans three weeks in a row. We don't know anyone in New Orleans yet so our weekends suddenly seem so empty. In Houston, there's always a baby shower, bridal shower, bachelor party, wedding, bbq, party at someone's house on weekend so the weekends agenda are usually packed. Actually, all three of us (Boon Hong, Meredith and myself) miss Houston a lot. Now, we don't know where to go and who to talk to. So we ended up taking Boon Hong's mum to French Quarter several times. She happened to like French Quarter too especially the area around Jackson Square. We went Cafe Du Monde in French Quarter. This coffee house is a very well known in New Orleans and has been in operation more or less since 1860. Cafe Du Monde is famous for their beignet which is fried donut dipped in powdery sugar. Meredith is a big fan of beignet. She finished the entire beignet and then she devoured the powdery sugar on the plate bit by bit.

New Orleans

2008-05-31T21:51:00.001-07:00

Despite being devastated by hurricane two years ago and having the highest crime rate in the entire America, New Orleans is still a beautiful and charming city. This is especially true if you look at French Quarter. Tourists are back swarming this crown jewel of New Orleans. We took Boon Hong's mum to French Quarter in downtown New Orleans for sightseeing and we chanced upon this beautiful wedding party in Jackson Square.

Settling into our apartment in New Orleans

2008-05-31T21:39:00.000-07:00

We moved into a two bedrooms apartment in New Orleans. It is smaller than our house in Houston. After unpacking for 3-4days, we still have about 20-30 boxes that we stacked up in every space we can find including the closet.

Moving to New Orleans

2008-05-31T20:45:00.000-07:00

We moved to New Orleans several weeks ago. This is a very big change for our family. We left our home in Sugar Land and Houston where we lived for past seven years for a completely new and unknown city.

My parents left to go back to Malaysia after spending several months with us in Houston. Boon Hong's mum came to Houston a few days before my parents departure in a last minute trip.

Moving is not an easy task.

My parents left on Sunday. The packers from moving company came on Monday. The two packers are extremely efficient and they worked like robotic vacuum cleaner. They packed everything that they saw into boxes without much discretion. We didn't have time to throw away some paper thrash and these were packed into the boxes as well in nice wrapping paper. Moving company was very concern about having to compensate for breaking any of our items. So they packed only a few items in each box and each item was wrapped in multiple layers of packing paper. It is funny when we unpack a big box in New Orleans and only find a small plastic thrash can and a few small photo frames occupying the entire box. When the packers are done, we ended up with 90+ boxes being stacked up in our house.

On Tuesday, the movers came. The movers started about 9am and by lunch time, our entire house and everything that we accumulated in the past 7 years of our lives are gone and tightly stashed in a big eighteen wheeler truck. They took our car too. Tuesday was the hardest time during the entire moving process. All the chairs were gone. Boon Hong had to breastfeed the Isaac by sitting on the toilet seat. Meredith was running around the whole time while the movers were hauling heavy furnitures. One mover was taking away her "tan pui" (potty toilet for small kid), Meredith screamed at the mover in Chinese asking why her "tan pui" was taken away. Of course, the mover did not undersand her and her "tan pui" was stashed away along with everything else.

Boon Hong, her mum, Isaac and Meredith finally had to go to mall for a few hours because there are nothing left in our house and it was too chaotic. I stayed back to clean up for a few hours. We went to a church friend house to spend the night on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, we waved goodbye to Houston and flew to New Orleans

Goodbye, Sugar Land and Houston!

Why am I different?

2008-04-08T11:44:00.000-07:00

I was bathing Isaac yesterday morning with Meredith's help. She was my helper holding the towel while I was bathing Isaac. When I clean up Isaac's private part, Meredith asked me what is that and why didn't she has it. I paused for a few minutes and quickly told her that Isaac is a Didi and Didi is a boy, and she is a girl. God made us all different and unique.

She just passed her 2 years old birthday in February. How am I supposed to handle her future questions!

Kenny Sia's election decision generator

2008-03-07T19:17:00.000-08:00

According to the 100% accurate kennysia.com Who-To-Vote-This-Election Decision Generator™, I am voting for...

DEMOCRATIC ACTION PARTY!

Who Should You Vote For This Election?

Malaysia election tomorrow

2008-03-07T18:54:00.000-08:00

Malaysian will vote in the general election tomorrow. There's not much I can do as a Malaysian residing oversea. I do hope for a voice of dissent to be heard in the government. The government has taken the people for granted for too long.

Colorado in January

2008-03-02T18:46:00.001-08:00

I had to go up to Colorado one last time in mid-January for work related trip. It was very cold, at least for someone who is used to warm weather. We commissioned some equipment and as usual the equipment failed in the middle of the night. We went outside with the contractor to fix the equipment and the temperature was -15 F ( -29 celsius). My face was hurting from the cold after just five minutes.

I went to some pretty remote part of Colorado. I can feel a sense of solitude enveloping my whole being just like bone-freezing air in the surrounding. Sometimes I had to drive for miles before I see another fresh track in the snow. Contrasted with the seemingly unchanging and eternal landscape, our life, joy, pain and sufferings are just fleeting shadows on the face of this earth.

Isaac is going home tomorrow

2008-03-02T13:22:00.000-08:00

Isaac has been in our world for two days now. If everything goes as planned, we will be discharged from the hospital tomorrow. Boon Hong is also getting better. She can finally urinate after after two days. A lot of friends came by last two days. Their prayer, support, and continuos concern for us really touched our heart throughout this pregnancy. This hospital, Sugarland Methodist Hospital, is also pretty good. The staff, doctor, and nurses have been very friendly and helpful the last few days.

Isaac has been labelled a "high touch" baby by the nurses here, meaning that he likes to be held all the time. In fact, I am holding him in one arm and typing this blog one handed right now.

Chinese New Year in Houston

2008-03-01T06:47:00.000-08:00

We have celebrated the past seven chinese new year in Houston. Most of the time, Chinese New Year falls on working day, so there is not much going on the actual day. This year my parents are here. We went to Elder Ho's house for chinese new year eve's dinner and then there are several more gatherings over the weekend. We also went to Tanh Tanh restaurant in Bellaire chinatown to see lion dance. As in past year, Tanh Tanh spent big bucks on their lion dance and it was quite a nice show with tonnes of firecrackers and almost 2-3 hours of lion dance. We got there after the firecracker display but managed to catch a good bit of the lion dance.

Isaac is born healthy!

2008-02-29T14:06:00.000-08:00

Dear all,

We want to share a good news with you. Isaac is born at 12:12pm today. The pediatrician just examined him and said he is a healthy boy. He has a lot of hair like Meredith and he weighs 8lbs 8oz. Praise God for this good news and thank you all for your prayers and support throughout this pregnancy.

Waiting on C-Section

2008-02-28T20:38:00.000-08:00

Today is February 28. Tomorrow morning I will go to Sugar Land Methodist Hospital to have my c-section. It felt like ages since the doctor informed me about Isaac’s dilated kidneys in my 20th week of pregnancy. As I recall, when I received the news from Dr. Starr, I was in the midst of teaching in my class room. I couldn’t remember what lesson I was teaching, but I remember telling my kids that I needed to make a phone call to my husband at that time. I have a trainee teacher from Austin High School in my class at the time. I asked her to take over my class and helped me to conduct the lesson. All I can remember was searching frantically on the web for more information about dilated kidney (pylectasis). I was shaken and terrified upon reading that dilated kidney a soft marker of down syndrome. During lunch hours and off periods, I locked myself in my room and cried helplessly.
The following weeks were tough as I cried everywhere I had been. I cried when I was driving to training center, school, church and even in front of Meredith. It felt like I lost the bearing in my life. I even quit my job in December 2007 because I was so stressed out. I was very careful about my prayers to God and I also make sure that Eric is praying not for God’s will, but only our will. Our will is for Isaac to be healthy and God must not let anything bad happen. I read about Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane shortly before he is crucified. Jesus asked God if he could NOT go through the immense suffering on the cross but ultimately he chose to let God’s will triumphed over his will (which means he has to die in the most painful way on the cross). I was stunt. I don’t have faith or courage to pray for His will to be done in my life if it means Isaac might be unhealthy. What if his will is for the worst fear in my life to happen.
However, prayers have slowly changed my mind, I finally have faith to pray for God’s will be done in my life. I came to realize that it is not easy to ask someone to pray to seek for God’s will. It might be cruel to pray for God’s will be done in someone life without first asking how he or she would feel during the period of suffering.
I had detail ultrasound exams every month following that. Thank God that my 28th and 32nd week ultrasounds results did not break my heart into pieces. They did not see any other soft markers of down syndrome in addition to the dilated kidney. God has strengthen my heart through all the people around me. People in our church poured out their love and support for us throughout all this. Their prayers and love sustained my hope through this period. I also developed a closer relationship with God due to this. I am uncertain about how I will feel when Isaac is born tomorrow. Deep down my heart, as a mother, I want him to be a healthy and normal boy. I want him to be just like any of the kids we see in Sunday School. If something negative happen, I think my heart will freefall into a dark place for a while. I am not sure how long the suffering might be. But I am certain that God’s love is amazing and sufficient for everything that we might encounter and we will be able to live through anything with God’s grace.

Gullible Parents Overspent on Portraits

2008-01-26T16:41:00.001-08:00

Meredith portrait 2 Jan 2008, originally uploaded by Meredith Sugar Land.

Meredith's Portrait Jan 08

2008-01-26T16:37:00.001-08:00

Meredith Portrait Jan 08, originally uploaded by Meredith Sugar Land.

Confinement Helper Needed

2008-01-23T21:11:00.001-08:00

There is a high demand for confinement helper and nanny in the chinese community in Houston area. Boon Hong started looking for a confinement helper since a few months ago. We thought that we found one good candidate. She was recommended by a number of our friends that used her service before. Unfortunately, there's a baby boom going on. There's another Malaysian couple from Penang that's also interested in this candidate. This friend's due date is only two to three weeks before Boon Hong's due date. Some compromise/agreement was reached so that both parties can have the service of this sought after confinement helper. Anyway, as a back up, we decided to run an advertisement (highlighted in green in attached photo) in local chinese newspaper. There are many people (at least ten) that responded to our advertisement. Right now we shortlisted to four candidates. We went to visit several "auntie" at their home just to see how it is. Anyway, some at stay at home housewife looking for a short term part time job, some are actually running professional confinement center from their home. For about $2,500 to $3,500, they will let you go stay at their house for one month after the baby is deliver. Then they will take care of you, the baby and also cook confinement food for seven days a week for one month. One person that responded is a professional confinement auntie from Los Angeles, she is asking for return air ticket to LA on top of the confinement pay. Anyway, we will probably stick to a local candidate who will stay at our house for 5-6 days each week to help out. But still, this will be a back up and the preference is still to have the candidate that our friend used before.

Amsterdam photos

2008-01-19T22:39:00.000-08:00

Windmill near Amsterdam city limit

Amsterdam has so many canals. It is different from Venice because there are roads parallel to the canals. In Venice, the canals pretty much hug the buildings.

Toilet in Anne Frank House.

Ice skating rink near Leidseplein

Middle eastern market in Amsterdam

They also call this Tut Tut like in Thailand but I think in Amsterdam it is more of a novelty for tourist vs. real transporation.

Amsterdam- so many bicycles!

2008-01-19T21:58:00.001-08:00

I went to Amsterdam in the first week of December. I was shocked to see many bicycles. Everyone rides a bike no matter rich or poor or big or small. The weather was in the low 30F range and it rained almost the entire week. But yet, people still get around their business riding bicycles. I saw some mum bundled up their toddlers and just placed them in the wooden carriage in her bike and then ride around the entire town. Amsterdam is also very dense and compact. It is well suited to bike commuting with abundance of bike lanes on every street. I wished we can do that here in Houston and not get run down by a car or pick up truck.

Parcel from Malaysia

2008-01-19T21:22:00.000-08:00

Boon Hong received a parcel from Malaysia today from her parents and sister. We were about to leave for Hsing's bridal shower when a pick up truck dropped off the parcel. The postage from Malaysia shocked me. It costs RM 379 to send this parcel from Johor to here. With this amount, one can fly from Kuching to KL and back. But Boon Hong and I are very happy to receive this parcel. Boon Hong was kind of down because her parents couldn't be here last time and this time when she gives birth. She was happy to see the parcel. After all, it took quite a bit of effort to buy everything and then the put together the parcel to mail it. We opened the parcel and there are various mushroom, dried fish, and herbs inside.

Meredith playing "Little Pirate". We went to race go-kart today for Joseph's bachelor party and we got the black hoodie to line the rental helmet.

Meredith at Hsing's bridal shower. She borrowed the head decoration and the bouquet from Hsing. She can't wait to get marry!

Colorado trip

2008-01-17T21:31:00.000-08:00

I traveled to Colorado in December to my project site. It's very remote. With the snow storm in Denver area, it took me one full day to get to the site. The area is call Piceance Creek. The natural beauty of the winter landscape posed a nice contrast with the various industrial activities taking shape in the area due to the oil and gas boom.

Dressed by father or dressed by mother

2008-01-17T20:45:00.000-08:00

You can tell quite easily whether Meredith is being dressed by me or by Boon Hong on a particular day. I tend to dress her quite casually or actually sometimes in a more sloppy manner. In this first three photos in this posting, I took Meredith to Sugar Land city square to see the Christmas tree and the toy soldiers on display. This was back in 3rd week of December. Boon Hong wasn't feeling well so I put on a sweater for Meredith and took her out to see the Christmas display. You can see a tissue paper tucked into Meredith shirt, her shirt got wet before we went out. I taught her how to layer it with a tissue paper underneath so we can avoid changing cloth at the last minute.

Several days later, we went Christmas shopping in Galleria. Boon Hong dressed Meredith in the same sweater this time but with slightly different outcome (the last three photos in this posting). She looked less sloppy.

Boon Hong Last Day at School

2007-11-30T20:07:00.001-08:00

BoonHong's farewell card from her students

Meredith said "Dii Dii tekk" meaning that she knows these toys are for her brother. But she already started playing with some of the toys.

DSCN2812, originally uploaded by Meredith Sugar Land.

Time went by very fast. Two and half years ago, Boon Hong was applying to be a teacher after she became certified. She started teaching seventh grade math at Jackson Middle School. This school is an urban school in downtown Houston. Almost all her students are hispanics and many come from low income families. There are problematic students but there are also some good ones that made her think it's worth it. She struggled a lot initially but this year her students result have been improving and she is even made a lead teacher this semester. Today is the last day at school. Today she officially became stay home mom and begins next chapter in life. She originally planned to quit next January or February (1 or 2 months before her due date) but a few things happened that prompted her to quit earlier. The primary reason is she is rather stressed about a complication that has arise in the pregnancy. Another reason is this pregnancy seems to be a lot tougher for her than last one. She is always out of breath and breathing heavily and constantly tired. Today I went to picked her up and help her clear out her classroom. Teachers in her cluster (her team) had organized a baby shower for her on the last day. She received a lot of diapers, a big frog and many other cute things. Some gifts are from her students. Anyway, Meredith learnt to say that "Isaac tekk" and "dii dii tekk" when she saw all those gifts. But she is not shy about playing the toys first even though she said those gifts are for Isaac.