Precious long weekend, Part Two

Random shots from today, the last 25% of this lovely extra-long long weekend. Here in Victoria, the public holidays are rather stacked in the first few months of the year, then there's a severe drought till November. Meanwhile, the lovely Kyla Rose Wong continues to enchant as well as occasionally frustrate. She's really talkative now and is very responsive, but her eating and sleeping routine still leaves a lot to be desired.

Wei and Paul's Degustation Dinner

After a rather long break, this amazing event continued last night with a Spanish theme: we started off with jamon and tapas (meatballs, chorizos, mushrooms, prawns, lamb, tomato salad, spanish omelette) before moving on to a chicken paella, finishing with churros and fruit over a chocolate fountain as well as Grand Marnier oranges. Thanks for hosting another lovely night, Wei and Paul! Gotta head to the gym tomorrow...

Precious long weekend

I don't get to see much of lil' Kyla on an average weekday, so it was nice to have a Friday off. And a Monday too, woohoo!! Took the opportunity to snap a few more shots of her, and here they are. Took some of her mum too, but those got vetoed...

Mother and Daughter

Just thought I'd share a lovely shot of my gorgeous wife and daughter. Don't they look absolutely beautiful? Love you both very much, Babes and Kyla Rose Wong!

Some of Paternal Grandpa's Masterpieces

As you can see from the pictures below, Dad kept Bubs happy with lots of Malaysian hawker delights. For the non-Malaysians out there, it's Beef Hor Fun, Hainanese Chicken Rice, KL-style Hokkien Mee and Crispy Roast Pork. Thanks, Dad!

KRW at three months

After having lots of family around for the last couple of months, it's just the three of us now. Again, a big thank you to both sets of grandparents and other family members for all their help. Meanwhile, our dear Kyla Rose is getting more and more talkative, and she's cuter than ever. I say that with no sense of bias whatsoever, of course.

Congratulations, Marlene and Jag!

They (finally) got married last weekend, and are now in Malaysia for the remaining legs of the Mars and Jag Wedding Roadshow. All the best, guys, God bless you both!

KRW Day 83

We haven't really had time to update the blog in the past week, due to Marlene's wedding. The Melbourne festivities have now ended, so here are a few more photos...

Career change?

After 14 years in advertising, I've decided to try something different. You might henceforth find me on the building sites of Australia, toiling manfully over freshly-laid concrete.
Yeah, right. We were, however, on the Southern Hemisphere's largest construction site, getting a feel of the 'atmosphere' there for one of our clients. I must say I looked totally out of place in high-vis apparel and a hard hat!

More pictures from Grandma

Grandma continued her shooting spree in the last couple of days, and here are another few pictures from her collection. Thank goodness for digital images! Meanwhile, the lovely Kyla Rose Wong continues to grow, entertaining her parents, grandparents, uncles, aunties and friends with her funny noises and antics. And she absolutely loves the Fisher-Price Sensory Selections Bouncer we got her. Nope, they're not paying me to say that, but it's definitely a good way to give her parents (especially her overworked mum!) some time to do other things.

Shutter-happy grandma

Kyla's paternal grandmother is notoriously shutter-happy, and having a granddaughter has made her even more so. Here are just a few of her pictures of the absolutely adorable Kyla Rose Wong. That's 3 out of 345 to date, with hundreds more to come, no doubt...

Grandpa and Grandma are here!

A very excited pair of paternal grandparents have arrived, eager to see their first granddaughter. And since then they've been a great help cooking, cleaning and looking after Kyla. Of course, Grandma and Grandpa arrived just in time to see her practise more and more smiles, such as that Buddha-like one below. They also helped replenish our supply of Asian pastes and mixes. And a big thank you also to Yee Ma (Bubs' mum's sister) who made that quilt you see in the last picture.

The Smile

The day after KRW's first smile, we managed to capture her expression in all its digital glory. Unfortunately, we took her for immunisations an hour later, and there were no more smiles for a while. The poor girl developed a fever, which is a common side effect of the jabs. Ah well. We look forward to many more smiles and much more laughter!

Dodgy car yards

Our office in South Melbourne is surrounded by used car dealers. A few weeks ago, one of them backed a car off his truck and slammed straight into my workmate's precious HSV as he was driving home. And then yesterday, this happened:

SHE SMILED!

This morning, for the first time ever, Kyla Rose Wong rewarded her parents with a big, beaming SMILE. Finally, after 8 weeks and 1 day. And what a gorgeous smile she has! Unfortunately there are no pictures to mark the landmark occasion as I was too busy admiring her...

Oh dear, what kind of parents are we?

Before you proceed any further through this post, I should probably warn you that the photo below is a somewhat rude one. The lovely Kyla Rose surprised (shocked?) us a couple of days ago with a certain gesture that's not particularly acceptable in conventional social circles. Needless to say, we'll be monitoring her actions even more closely from now on. Tsk, tsk...
NOTE: no fingers were manipulated for the purpose of this photograph.

KRW Day 56

After a couple of days of coughing, sneezing and throwing up, as well as Mum's tender loving care, Kyla seems to be well on the road to recovery. And she's sleeping much better as well, which means Babes can get a bit of rest too. Unfortunately poor me hasn't been able to see much of her this week as I've been extremely busy at work. Never mind Kyla, I'll manja you this weekend!

Under the weather :(

Poor Kyla isn't feeling too good. She's been coughing and sneezing since Saturday night, with the occasional bout of chucking for good measure. We took her to the Royal Children's Hospital yesterday evening, waited almost two hours and were told she has a 'low-grade fever' and there isn't a whole lot we can do but wait it out. She kept her exhausted mum up most of last night by being extra manja, hope she gets some rest today. A big thank you to Mama (maternal grandmother) for all her help yesterday and today, and lots of love to Wifey for her strength, stamina and patience in looking after our gorgeous daughter...

KRW Day 50

Last night was Kyla's first Chinese New Year's Eve dinner. I didn't take any pictures as I was way too busy stuffing my face with the yummy food at Tong Lok in Ashburton. Aunties Amanda and Simone have got some pix, will try and get 'em from them. Tomorrow night's another big dinner, including the annual Yee Sang feast! And speaking of CNY, have a look at Kyla's new headband. Babes cracked herself up putting it on her after we bathed her tonight. Anyway, Gong Xi Fa Cai to all our friends and loved ones... may you have a joyful, prosperous year ahead!

KRW Day 46

Close to seven weeks on, Kyla Rose keeps growing and delighting her parents with her cuteness (despite being a bit of a monkey and refusing to sleep for much of the day, as babies often seem to do). A very big thank you to her gorgeous mother for all her patience and strength, especially during the week when I'm at work. There are so many different opinions and theories on how to get her to sleep, we're still trying to sort it out. On a separate note, a very happy birthday to Godma Wei whose birthday we celebrated (somewhat early, it's actually in just under two weeks time but she'll be skiing in Japan) along with Michelle and Gin this afternoon at Paladarr Thai Issan in Alphington. Lovely Thai food, by the way...