Reese Matthew's Secret Isle: September 2008

2nd Birthday Celebration

Yesterday (Sunday) we had a simple birthday celebration for Reese in advance. Reese will be two on 30th September. Mmmm.. so fast and he is a big boy now. We had a good time and of course Reese was the centre of attention. He was so excited and happy when my parents, sister and two aunties came for dinner.

He had fun playing with them while daddy took some pictures and I was busy preparing dinner. I cooked curry pork ribs, fried balacan kangkung, fried curried prawns, a pot of soup(sai yong choi) and a mince meat taufu. My mum bought half a steamed chicken and some fried vegetables.

We all had a satisfying meal. Even Reese was happily sitting next to his Gong gong and my sister fed him some soup. Throughout the meal, he was quite happy to just sit with us and 'chit chat' with us. :)

After dinner, more playing with his grandaunties and aunt and later we took out his birthday jelly cakes. My sister bought a little bear jelly cake and early in the day we bought two small jelly cake with the face of Pooh bear and Mickey Mouse.

Reese was excited to see the candles and can't stop saying candle and wanted to touch the flame! He was amused when we sang him a birthday song. It was interesting to know that he actually ate some of the jelly cake! I think his taste bud is changing, he does reject sweet drinks as often and willing to try new sweet and salty food too. But still choosy when it comes to actually consuming his meals.

It was a good evening for all of us. Will have a special threesome do on his actual birthday...heheh...

Some photos for you to view...

Waiting for the guests to arrive...

Distracted by mummy...

Pretending to feed himself...

He likes to play with spoons

Playing with 'big' grandaunt

Busy showing off his drumming skill

Playing with 'Small' grandaunt

Food prepared by yours truely....me :)

Everyone enyoing the meal including Reese...

Birthday boy and his jelly cakes

Singing Birthday song to him...

Mummy and Son

Happy family

Popo feeding jelly cake to Reese

Everyone enjoying the cake

Hong Kong Holiday

So we survived! One thing for sure, we won't be traveling on a plane until we are sure Reese is ready! Ok, let me tell you what we did and our experience in our first family trip overseas.

Saturday 20th September

We left Reese at my parents place for a couple of hours to do some last minute shopping before the trip. We bought some toys to entertain Reese on the plane. Got him a helicopter and a car.

We have a quiet evening and boy, we were so excited that both hubby and I couldn't sleep. At the end, I think we both slept for less than 3 hours each! hehe...

Sunday 21st September

Hubby got diarrhea. Took some medication and couldn't sleep after that. So by about 2+ am we were both awake and did more last minute packing. At about 4.15am I carried Reese and took him to the car, he was fully awake! So we had a slow ride to the LCC Terminal. Reese was happy and hubby and I were happy too. When we reached the airport, we changed Reese's diaper and clothes. Next went to check-in our luggage and hang around the airport. At first Reese was excited looking at planes and all then he became restless, whiny... I guess he was sleepy..gave him some honeystars...but didn't help much...started to cry... then after much struggling with him, he felt asleep on my shoulder for a while. Then it's time to board the plane.... he was excited..but as we approach the plane... he started to whine and protest...wanted to get away... on the plane... started to cry and struggle...didn't stop until the plane is high up in the sky and when we were allowed to turn on the PSP for him to watch his cartoon! Phew..that was probably a good 20 minutes or so!!! He was still having runny nose so you can imagine the mess from all the crying...thick mucus all over his face...gave him chocolate also didn't work... messy messy messy... the rest of the flight was ok. He watched his cartoon, ate some snacks, played a little and felt a sleep (30 minutes) and as the plane started to descend... he started crying again..this time.. he said "ear pain pain"... again.. cried all the way till we walk out of the plane!! Phew...we were just glad that we got thru. :)

Next, took the airport express to Tsing Yi MTR station and then another train to our hotel. That went smoothly..Reese enjoyed the train ride. Check in to the hotel(5 stars), it was a great hotel... good service, large room (HK standard) with two queen beds at only HKD560 per night. I made the booking through Asiatravel.com. Our room faces the waterfront/harbour and a park. We opt to stay away from tourist places partly because it's cheaper and also we got to see how Hong Kong people live daily.. opposite our hotel was a public market and across the street was a new shopping mall. It's a great place to stay.

Took a short walk around the neighbourhood. Bought KFC for Reese and congee and wantan mee for ourselves for lunch. Surprise surprise...Reese likes the congee (porridge)!!! He even ate wantan mee... He didn't like HK KFC... It's actually worse than Singapore KFC....heheh...

After some rest, we went to Yung Kee to have the famous roast goose and century eggs. Yummy but very pricey. We had roast goose(1 quarter) and century eggs and seafood noodles. Guess how much? It's about Rm150!

Next, we walk around a little and tried to find out way to the Avenue of Stars to watch the Light show... along the way... when we stopped for a drink at MacD, we lost our google map! We got lost and missed the show....so we headed back to the hotel. Day one accomplished as planned except the light show.

Monday 22nd September

Woke up early and we went to the next famous eating place. This time we tried congee at Sang Kee. Took us sometime to find it. It was a really small shop. Reese felt asleep and while daddy carried Reese I ate my fish congee. Daddy had a mixture of pork, liver, intestine congee. He likes his but as for mine, it's ok... I can find better fish congee here. Hehe....

After our breakfast, we went to Disneyland. Reese likes the Mickey mouse train.... on the same train were some Chinese tourist, gosh... they were so loud and the moment the train stopped, these people literally ran to the Mickey mouse train!!! So silly...not that there were alot of people.... Didn't want to discriminate...but somehow, alot of mainland Chinese are just rude, loud and lacks civic consciousness. My experience in China was terrible the last time. Anyway...

Hubby and I were very disappointed with Hong Kong Disneyland. It's very small, not many attractions, lacks the 'magic', very few characters and lousy parade. We were in Orlando Disneyworld a couple of years back. So naturally what we experienced in Hong Kong was a far cry from Disneyworld. :)

A warning, never go to HK Disneyland during summer!! It was sooooooo hot....very very uncomfortable... Reese enjoyed meeting his favourite Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Snow White. He just cannot stop smiling and calling their names when they greeted him! Whatever we went through so far...it's all worth it when we saw him smiling from ear to ear.... Reese had two naps while in Disneyland... We had a hard time carrying him around too... I mean.. he is not light... about 15kgs! Food is expensive and crappy..but that was expected... We drank alot of water...bottle after bottle.... Reese had two bottles of water and a bottle of juice... That's a lot for a little boy! We went to Small World, Reese as usual was scared and reluctant initially but then...later on...he asked to go back for another ride! He got to see his favourite hot air balloon, giant butterfly and many more. I must say...this Small World is better than the one in Orlando..mainly because this is brand new.

Reese had some fun at the fountain area where children can play with water. Then we saw the parade, and this old lady from China... just went in front of us and shove her butt in our face! She was trying to take pictures.... gosh.... she's got a big butt.... One of the staff had to shoo her away.... it's kinda funny... hehe

Did some shopping, got two t-shirts for myself and a Mickey Mouse for Reese. By evening... I suddenly felt unwell, headache and all. It's definitely the heat. So had some food and then went back to the hotel, I couldn't wait for the fireworks. Sorry Reese.

Later in the night, hubby went to buy Mos burgers for us for supper... yummy.

Tuesday 23rd September

Woke up early and took Reese to the park and after that we had breakfast at the same shop we bought lunch the first day. I had chicken congee with century egg... yummy...hubby had wantan mee again. Reese enjoyed the congee...had half a bowl and a little bit of wantan mee.

Went back to the hotel and babysit Reese while hubby went to Fortress Hill to get his premium Zoids... after two hours, he came back with 3 big boxes of Zoids!! He was obviously happy.... he actually saved about Rm150 by buying them from Hong Kong. After that we went to SOGO... again..was disappointed, didn't get any clothing for Reese because all the clothing is meant for colder weather. Most t-shirts are long sleeves... hai... then went to look for Legos...again..it's not really cheap...so didn't buy any. Next wanted to head to Tung Chung to the factory outlets..but it's kinda far and still very tired from the day before...so went back to the hotel. Then it started to rain as we walk back to the hotel...hubby had to carry a 15kg toddler and ran all the way to the hotel...that is a good 3 minutes walk..haha... the rain did not stopped and around 5pm... I decided to get us some dinner since we can't go anywhere... took my faithful umbrella from college days... yeah..it's probably close to 12 years old. :)

As I was buying dinner, I over heard that the Tropical Storm Signal No. 8 warning was out. No wonder earlier in the day I saw people taping their glass windows with masking tapes...I was wondering..what's going on...renovation? hehehe... So after that... we just stayed in... and watch from our hotel room...super strong wind, flying objects, rain and people struggling to get home... hubby even went down to film and took pictures. Wind was really strong, and we constantly hear howling of the wind... Reese slept well all three nights... he had a whole bed to himself with four long pillows surrounding him.

Wednesday 24th September

Check with the airport to make sure that our plane was not effected by the storm, took a taxi from the hotel to the airport. Did some shopping at the airport and bought Reese a t-shirt and khakis from Kingcow...cute clothes.... Later we had to dash to the departure gates..cause it was our first time at Terminal Two (new)....gosh..we panicked... We ran all the way to the departure gate and just made it...but later found out that the plane was late...hai... Reese felt asleep before we boarded the plane..which was a relieve... then he woke up as the plane started to take off... as usual..whine...cry.... untill we were allowed to turn on the PSP.... this time... the plane ride was not so pleasant... harder to control Reese, hubby had ear pressure problem and then headache... and towards landing... Reese really cried and struggle all the way to immigration... he was pulling my hair and when I let him down..gosh..he jumped and stamped like a crazy horse...no kidding..screaming and crying...everyone was staring at him...and even in the plane.. you can see the very unhappy looks of other passengers...hehehe... hubby was really angry with Reese...but later over dinner at home... we had a good laugh over his tantrum display at the immigration...

It was a good holiday filled with great memories and bad experiences. Definitely no plane rides till Reese is 100% ready. We can forget about going to Australia next year...hahha...

Some tips for parents:

1. Don't go to Disneyland during summer.

2.If you have to bring the stroller, be ready to carry it up and down long flights of steps... We were glad that we didn't bring ours.... it's definitely not stroller friendly and everywhere is always crowed.

3. Bring enough milk powder! Bring extra.... We didn't have enough milk for Reese on the plane home... He was really unhappy....

4. Bring alot of snacks for the kid....

5. If you are traveling budget airline like us, a PSP really helps...or even a laptop.... 4 hours ride it's quite long.

6. Build up your stamina and be ready to carry the baby/toddler alot. Glad we did that 2 months in advance...

Some photos of our trip.....