Something Different About This CNY

With a blink of the eyes, CNY for 2010 was already over.

We had our usual family re-union dinner, with the usual 'lou-sang' and family get together.


The CNY eve midnight fireworks was as noisy and colourful as usual. The whole family stayed awake till midnight and watched the splendor of our neighbours' firework display without paying a single cent, as usual.

Relatives and friends came and visited us and we counter visit them as any other previous CNY. Updates and gossips were exchanged.

The activities were like any other CNY, filled with colour, joy and get-together. But there's something different about this CNY. Nothing big, nothing extravagant, but Dad and Mum can tell alright. It's the presence of Justin in the family. Our family was filled with Justin's laughter, Justin's cooing, and also his mid-night cry.

Dad was grinning from ear to ear all the time, having his grandchild in his arm almost the whole day (Great, now Justin demands us to carry him every single moment in between his two hours sleep).

Mum was excited too, to see her two-and-a-half months old grandchild able to coo and responded to her voice. Again, Justin was either at grandpa's arm or grandma's. He's a gem to them. Justin is not the only grandchild in the family, but mum and dad was extra happy to have Justin, after waiting for 5 years on our marriage.

To Justin's dad. It's another different story. It's about Angpow. :-P
My wife and I used to give away angpow on every CNY. This year, we received (or rather it's Justin) angpow, lots of them.... One hundred... two hundred.... three.... four...... seven.... eight..... and still going up (another 8 days to go before CNY ends)...

Yah, it's different now. Justin's presence changed our life, and our family's too. But it's a very much welcomed change.

Aaaauuuuuwwwww............

I sang a song to Justin one early morning. To my amazement, he responded rather amusingly, hitting the right note at the right time.

Good morning, good morning, good morning to you,
Good morning, good morning, good morning to you.

"Aaauuuuuuwwwww......."



Now THAT is PRICELESS. That auuww drew smiles on my face for days, and even now. :-D

Bigger, Bigger!

I'd shifted to a bigger room recently. Yah, it's nice to have a bigger room, but somehow it doesn't matter much to me. I still love my much smaller room, where i can grab whatever documents i need by simply extending my hands, without leaving my seat :-D

The bigger the room, the bigger the responsibilities that comes along. I'd been loaded with piles of managerial work. I don't mind doing those works, but because of that i got to let go things that i enjoy much: lecturing, communicating with people, swabbing ideas with students, indulge in research, etc....

My work had taken too much of my time, really. With wife and baby Justin at home, sometimes i felt sorry for them. I reach home around 8pm almost everyday. Hm... I'm grunting again :-P . Perhaps this is yet another training for me, to prepare me for greater challenges. It's about time for me to pick up some management books and start reading them. Perhaps it's also time for me to be more disciplined and take good care of my health, so that i can be more alert, more focus and more enthuse with my work.

Well, at least now that I got baby Justin as my another source of strength, I'll try my best, for our future.


Justin, papa loves you so much.

Silver Penny From Uncle Dan

Justin received this mail from UK two weeks ago. It's a special card with a Silver Penny inside.

The silver penny was enclosed in a cute bag, placed inside the card. Uncle Dan wants Justin to be a healthy and happy baby boy.


Indeed Justin is a happy boy. He would smile sweetly when we talked to him, or stroke him gently.


Dah letih Justin tunggu. Bila Uncle Dan nak balik tengok Justin nih?

Traditional Remedy for Baby Rashes

Justin got rashes on and off ever since he was born. The rashes were especially obvious around his neck and his back. Being new in parenthood, relatives and friends gave us many opinion and advices. I find it particularly interesting to use herbs as remedy.

I got no idea what species is this plant, but it's a common herb among kampung folks. The fruits of this herb look like lantern. I remember playing with this plant while i was very young.

Beside this plant, some even suggest to use bitter gourd plant. Just dry them under the sun so that we can keep them. When we want to use it, just boil them in water for about half an hour. Wait until the extract to cool down, then use it to bath the baby.


Indeed it was quite effective. The rashes were gone in a day or two. As the rashes re-occur, just bath the baby with the extract again. Interesting isn't it?

Thanks to my mother-in-law, we got all sort of traditional knowledge on parenting.

Meeting, workshop, meeting, workshop....

I'd just came back from a workshop at Genting. Nothing fancy about the stay, it's Seri Malaysia at Gotong Jaya... sigh... (hehehe). The three days two night workshop had flooded my brain with too many things. What follows will be night mares for me: more paper work, more documentation, more administrative work.....

This is the view i got when i open my hotel room's window.


Nothing much to show during the workshop. Fifty odd people were 'imprisoned' in a seminar room to crack their head and hopefully, squeeze some juice out from their brain. So, lets see some jalan-jalan pics instead. Actually, we didn't really have much free time. We had a couple of hours of free time and we took the chance to leave our foot prints on top of the hill. We spent an hour there. Here's a shot with Puan F, in front of a merry-go-round.

I 'merajuk'ed as we got to wait for the cable car, 15 minutes standing. hahahahahaha....


I was reluctant to attend the workshop in the beginning. My wife can't seems to be able to cope with the house work and taking care of Justin all by herself. Luckily mother-in-law came and stay with us. Still, i felt sorry for being unable to be there when she need extra helping hands. I miss Justin too.

Back to my work, the fact is, doing admin work is never my preference. I love research and teaching instead. The promotion 6 months ago had changed my career path tremendously. I'm contemplating to resign from the post.

Lullaby to Justin

I sang 'Silent Night' to Justin on the night of Christmas Eve. I had to sing for almost 30 minutes to help him gain the sleepy mood.


It's not easy to be parents. Lots of sacrifices needed. Sleepless nights are common. Changing yuckifying daipers are routine. But my wife and I are enjoying every single second of it! :-D

Justin's Full Moon

Time flies. Justin is one month old already. To the Chinese, it's customary for the parents to held a full moon get together for relatives and friends. Or at least give away some goodies (red eggs, traditional chinese kueh, cakes or roasted chicken) to relatives and friends.

I was advised to cut Justin's hair (a bit) just as many other daddy do during full moon. It was kinda difficult so we waited until he's fast asleep.

We didn't have the time to send the goodies from house to house, so we had organised a Full Moon Thanksgiving on 20th December at church instead.


We were overwhelmed with joy when more then 180 guests turned up that night. Indeed there were so many things worth thanksgiving. God is gracious and kind.

Justin was quietly sleeping in mummy's arms throughout the service. It was his first 'out door' trip.

A simple dinner was served after the service. We were truly thankful for our friends, relatives and church members' supports.

Mum flew in from Kuching just for the occasion. And mum was in great joy to see her grandson. And baby Justin slept soundly after the service as mum sang him lullaby.

Over the pass month, relatives and friends came over for a visit and had a glimpse of Justin. Each visit had added up the gifts that had occupied much of our small house's space. Thanks for the gifts my friends.



Hmm.... what am i gonna do with those gifts??

Justin Sunbathing, Naked

Baby Justin was jaundiced on the forth day of his birth. Jaundice is a common yellow discolouration among newborn, due to the newborn liver's inability to break down bilirubin fast enough. More info about jaundice for newborn can be found here.

Some simple treatments can be done by parents. Among the treatments are encouraging the baby to drink more (so that the bilirubin level in the body can be reduced via urination) or sunbath them. So, we stripped him naked, put on my chest, and let him enjoy the morning (8~10am) sunbath beside the window for roughly about 10 minutes. :-D

The fact is, Justin's prolonged jaundice worries us. But after thorough readings, only to find that breastfed babies tend to take longer time to subside. However, as a precaution, we took him to the pediatrician for some check up (including blood test). We prayed to God, hopefully nothing serious.

Other then jaundice, Justin is growing healthily. Older generation strongly recommends that we should protect Justin's hand with glove. But after reading some informative articles, experts were actually recommending not to wear them too frequent to allow the baby's hand to develop the sense of touch faster. Indeed, it works. Justin learnt how to grab within a week. He'd even tried to explore with his hands by touching, grabbing or even swinging actively. That brought smiles to our face. :-D


Our life had changed. Everything is about our son Justin for now. May God give us strength and wisdom to bring him up to become a healthy and fine gentleman.

The Best Birthday Present Ever!

My wife felt the labour pain on 22nd Nov night. We thought it's just a normal contraction. We went to the gynae to do simple check. The gynae adviced my wife to be warded for observation. Since the due date is still another three weeks to go, we didn't even suspect anything and 'checked in' together. We stayed in a suite with a patient bed and a queen size guest bed (for me! hehehe). The nurse checked my wife's pelvic opening, it was merely 1cm. For delivery, the opening need to be around 8 to 9cm.

At 5.00am of 23rd Nov, the nurse came and checked the pelvic opening again. It's 4cm. Huh?? Panicked, we eagerly asked the nurse whether the baby was ready for delivery. The nurse replied matter-of-factly, "Yes, in another few hours". Aiyooo.... lagi la panic.

At 7.00am... opening expended to 8cm. Aiyoooo.... so fast one! My wife was immediately moved to labour room for delivery. At 8.00am, the contraction was very frequent and intensed. It's TIME!!!

At 8.33am... Our baby boy was born.

I was at the labour room with my wife, and had witnessed the greatest pain a human could ever bear! But because of the women instinct and motherly love, my wife braved through the pain rather courageously (that's why women are great). At one hand, I was trying to comfort her by holding her hand, and on the other hand, trying to snap photos of the whole process of delivery... I can't hold my tears of joy the moment the baby was pulled out from my wife's womb. I cried...

Holding his tiny hand while the nurse cleaning up the baby, I praised God with thanksgiving. The joy was overwhelming, I cried again, and again... and again.

Coincidently, there were another 5 babies were born within that 24 hours. The specialist centre was so MERIAH with babies.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Justin, our beloved baby boy.

My birthday is only another couple of days to go, and Justin has been the best birthday present for me, ever. With that, I wanna thanks my wife. I love you so much, honey.

We didn't expect to have normal delivery. Due to my wife's age, and other factors, we were told to get ready for Ceaserian (operation) by early December. Instead, God listened to our prayer and allow my wife to give birth normally. The labour pain was very intensed, yet short. We spent another night at the ward before discharged the next day.

Our baby Justin gave us a beautiful smile when we arrived home.

We'd truly witnessed God grace and love. Thus giving our baby the name "Great grace" in Chinese. And as for the English name, it's Justin, a person with justness.

Thanks and praises be to our God.