Caylan's birthday party

We went to Caylan's birthday party a few weeks ago at the water park in Sugar land. It is not really a water park but rather a park with water spraying from nozzles and fountains for kids to play with. Boon Hong refused to appear in photo so the following are just photos of Meredith and some Malaysian friends.

Meredith with birthday boy Caylan and aunty Sze Lock.

Meredith eating chicken nuggets.

Caylan cutting Sesame street cake.

Meredith finally got to play with the water park part of the birthday party.

Poor parenting skills

We have poor parenting skills. This was demonstrated by the moon cake incident recently. We bought a box a mooncake from Welfarm. Normally, we would wait till mid-autumn festival is over and buy our mooncake when it goes on sale for buy one get one free. But this year we bought the moon cake earlier because we found a cheaper brand at $10. The most expensive brand is "Yong Wah" from Hong Kong and they sell for about $24 and rarely get discounted even after mid-autumn festival.

Anyway, the story is not about the mooncake, it is about how easily we give in to Meredith's demand. She wants to feed her bear with mooncake. Initially, we refused and she started crying.

Her initial reaction when I refused to give her the box of mooncake.

Level 2 of crying.

Level 3 of crying with tears streaming down her cheek.

Back to pre-crying level in a matter of seconds and the tears vanished as she got hold of the mooncake and started feeding the bear.

Enjoying the mooncake. Parent lose, child win!

Beauty before the storm

DSCN2281, originally uploaded by Meredith Sugar Land.

Quote from Houston Chronicle newspaper today:
"Tropical Storm Humberto rapidly spun into existence off the Texas coast Wednesday and forecasters said the system poses a dangerous flooding threat to the Greater Houston area as it moves inland Thursday."

I stood outside our backyard and saw one of most beautiful evening sky ever. I remembered the last few times when Houston was hit by major storms or hurricane, the sky always turned to a beautiful golden glow. I took both photos as it is without any color adjustment.

Meredith, I am sorry!

As most of you know about this, I am again pregnant with our second baby. This pregnancy is much worse than the first pregnancy while bearing Meredith in 2006. Vomiting and not being able to sleep through the nights, and dealing with Meredith have left me the worst experience bearing a kid. I constantly remind myself and Eric she would be our last baby, even though how adorable babies are.

During this unbearable weeks, thanks Eric for picking up the slack, and be a fun father playing with Meredith every possible minute. I don't usually praise others. Most of my former students in my class know about my stingyness about praising others. For me, this is part of each individual's reponsibility to perform these tasks. So, Eric, please understand your dearest wife, she does know that you have been doing well.

I know you long for a good conversation while we are driving around in town with Meredith. However, the minute I talk to you, I have again instructed you to attend to Meredith's needs. I know you long for a good home cook meal. However, I only cook for Meredith nowsaday. I know you have been neglected. Bear with me, Eric! When all our children attend college, I will make it up for you. I always thank God for providing me an "average" husband.

Photoshop

DSCN0899, originally uploaded by Meredith Sugar Land.

I am learning how to use Photoshop. Meredith and Boon Hong showed up as dark shadow in this photo because I forgot to turn on the flash against a bright background. I used "fill flash" function to lighten up Meredith and Boon Hong face. This photo was taken at Pisa leaning tower. Boon Hong was applying sun block for Meredith before letting her out in the sun.

Duomo of Florence

Beware of The Limited Store at Westoak Mall

This is an older post from last month that I forgot to post:

I (Boon Hong) was out shopping with Meredith today at WestOak Mall on Highway 6. I found a purse in the fitting room at the Limited Store. I opened the purse and I saw a punch of cash inside the purse. I turned the purse over to the cashier quickly, hoping that she will return this purse to the owner when someone come back to look for the lost item. On my way out of the store, I overheard the cashier telling the other store sales pesron how much cash she counted, and they would split the cash among themselves. I was shocked and then felt angry with those girls. How could they blatantly act like this when someone turn in a purse to them!
I thought about turning back to them and tell them to give back the purse. Then, I overheard one of the lady said,"she know!" and glanced at me.

I deliberated for a little while but ended up leaving without confronting these girls at Limited.

Cool toilet seat

Switzerland is a lot more advanced than the US in many ways. We went to a monastery (like Shao Lin Xi) in the small town of Engelberg. This is a christian (Dominican) monastery. Boon Hong went to the toilet in the monastery and immediately came out waving her arms with excited looks on her face. She said she just saw the most amazing toilet seat. So I went in and was really impressed by the toilet seat as well. Even a humble monastery has such toilet seats, I wondered what kind of toilet seats could be home in the home of Swiss people.

Reading to Meredith

I spent maybe about an hour or less with Meredith each day after coming home from work. One thing that I enjoy is reading to you. She's an avid reader and she would demand that I read the same book to her over and over again. During our 14 days staying in hotel, I ready to Meredith on most nights. We only brought two or three books with us so I had to read the same book to her over and over again. She didn't seem to mind.


These photos are taken in a hotel in Luzern, Switzerland. We were all really tired but Meredith wanted to hear a story book before she sleep. I guess reading stories to is a way for her to maintain a routine everyday regardless of where we are.

Freenamewee

I stumbled on this blog. Go show your support.

http://freenamewee.blogspot.com

Train ride in Switzerland

We used the train a lot in Switzerland. Train in Switzerland is clean and always on time. But the most awesome part is the scenary. Switzerland is a mountainous country. The alpine view from the rain generated a lot of "ohhh" and "wahhh" from both of us. This is a lot nicer even compare to Colorado.

Ice Skating in Galleria

DSCN2060, originally uploaded by Meredith Sugar Land.

We took Meredith ice skating a few weeks ago with some Malaysian friends. We overestimated Meredith's ability. Kwuannie had called ahead to confirm that there is size 5 or 6 infant skating shoes. So we thought this means 1.5 years old can skate. We strapped the ice skates onto Meredith. She was kinda excited initially that she was wearing new "xiae-xiae" shoes. But the real challenge came when we had to put her on the ice. I couldn't even hold myself steady for the first 5 minutes and let alone make sure Meredith is okay. This is my first ice skating experience too. So Meredith and I ended up sliding up and down the corner of the ice rink for a few feet while Boon Hong took a lot of photos. After a while, Meredith kept saying "pah-pah" meaning that she is afraid because she could not stand up straight on the ice skate without losing balance. Boon Hong ended up holding her on the sideline for the rest of the afternoon. I skate around a little bit with our friends.

Island of Murano

I thought Murano is a name invented by Nissan for their stubby SUV. Then, I found out about Murano island. We stayed on the island of Murano when we were in Venice. Fifteen minutes from Venice by boat, Murano is the world famous producer of fancy glasswares and all things made out of glass. Many tourists will travel to Murano for a few hours to tour the glass making factories and the rows of glass shops lining Murano island.

Murano became very quiet at night as the tourists started going back to Venice. The locals will come out and hang out in the square. There are only two hotels on Murano island and like Venice there's no road, just water everywhere.

If I have to live in Venice, I will live on Murano island. It is very serene and peaceful after the tourists left. The town people came out and strolled around the island. It is actually a good size island with its own soccer field, three groceries stores and rows of neat houses. Murano at night. Sometimes the silence is broken only the local residents strolling around or the speedboats returning to Venice island which is 15 minutes away.