The Beach House in Elwood

We spent a leisurely Sunday afternoon at the Elwood Beach House, enjoying the food and company while enduring the, well, shall we say 'indifferent' service there. I won't go into any details, but suffice to say they've got a fair bit to learn in terms of customer service. We had a good time anyway, and Bubs took dear Kyla Rose for a quick walk in the sun along the beach.
Of course, Babes (as mums do) spent a fair bit of time before we left the house finding the right outfit for Kyla, and getting Aunty Manda to 'style' KRW's hair. That last shot there is a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to get our lovely daughter ready for a day out. Looks like pre-outing prep time is going to take even longer from now on... just kidding, Babes!

Mum's photos

Kyla's mum has been snapping a few photos of our lovely daughter, including these shots of Kyla Rose in beautiful PJs given by her Aunty Joose. Babes describes that second shot as KRW's 'caught in the act' pose. That may well be, but we certainly hope there won't be too many of those in the future. After all, what could our little angel possibly be looking guilty about? Wishful thinking, I'm sure...
In other news, dear Kyla doesn't seem to be eating as much as she used to, but fortunately she's still growing. She's now 57.5cm long (tall?) and weighs 4.875kg, an improvement of 3cm and 0.565kg respectively compared to a month ago.
Also, congrats to Irvin and Sharon on the birth of Christian Heng, as well as Kenneth and Jennifer on the birth of Mia Chieng! Well done, guys!

Kyla Rose Wong - three new developments

Bubs received a progress report from Kyla's proud mum today: KRW is now: 1) touching her toes, 2) able to turn herself around (on her back, pivoting around using her hands like the hand of a clock), and 3) attempting to turn over. Unfortunately we only have photographic evidence of one of these. Anyway, not long now till her first Wimbledon...

Kyla Rose Wong after 101 days

Now that all Kyla's grandparents have gone back to Malaysia, it's all the more important for us to keep the blog updated so that they can watch their granddaughter grow. It's hard when Bubs is busy at work and Babes is busy looking after KRW and keeping her fed, rested, occupied and stimulated, but we'll try our best!

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...