Happy Birthday Anna

We were very late today. Melur has another birthday party to attend – Anna’s birthday party at Telus Science World. The last time we were here was to celebrate Yasan’s birthday back in February. We took the #99 to Main St, and then the #3 bus to the Science World.

When we arrived, everybody called out Melur’s name. I guess she’s a big part of the gang. I left her at the party (these things are usually just for the kids anyway), and headed towards Pacific Centre Mall to rendezvous with Mommy and Arman. Mommy wants to do a little shopping. Anyway, since we were late to the party, and the party isn’t that long to begin with, I didn’t end up spending a lot of time with Arman and Mommy at the mall. Soon it was time to pick up Melur again from the party. I headed back via Sky Train.

When I arrived, the party was just over, and the kids were wandering around inspecting the various science exhibits. The kids were very interested in this one bicycle contraption that makes a little ball float.

Anyway, the Science World is a pretty cool place to take the kids. There are many interesting exhibits, and I don’t think you can see them all in a day anyway. You can get a season pass, and visit here as often as you like. I find it a little expensive. We were hoping to get season passes for the Vancouver Aquarium, but that hasn’t happened yet.

After the party, Melur and I took the Sky Train to Pacific Centre Mall to meet with Mommy and Arman. We rendezvoused at Starbucks. Soon after that, we headed to the bus stop to take the #17 back home. Here’s a video of the kids waiting at the bus stop.

Thanks, Anna for having Melur over for your party. I hope you enjoyed you present (from Melur). And Happy Birthday!

Raspy Arman

I took the day off today to take Arman to see an Ear Nose Throat (ENT) Specialist at the BC Children’s Hospital. It seems like we take Arman here a lot. We've never taken Melur here to see a doctor though... We have an early appointment. Arman’s old speech therapist has been trying to get Arman to see an ENT for the longest time. We’ve just been too busy to arrange it. And after all the usual going back and forth with referrals and whatnot, we finally got Arman an appointment.

Arman’s appointment was quite early in the morning. I took Arman by bus from home, while Mommy took Melur to school. We were expecting Mommy to join us at the hospital after sending Melur, but our meeting with the doctor was quite brief, and we were done before Mommy could make her way here. It was a quick trip. When we arrived, we met with a lady doctor who prepped Arman by performing some checks to his ear. Then we met the specialist, who was extremely nice. I think paediatricians are generally very nice to want to work with kids all day long. He has apparently been to Kuala Lumpur too.

Anyway, as you’ll see me try to get Arman to explain in the video, the doctor inserted a camera into Arman’s nose to see the vocal chords. He confirmed that he has calluses called vocal chord nodes. We all saw it on a large TV screen in the room. His calluses are apparently quite normal, and sometimes takes years to heal if the child doesn’t allow the vocal chords to rest and heal. So I guess we’ll be trying to get Arman to speak a little softer at home.

I took the whole day off expecting to spend a fair amount of time at the hospital. But barely midway through the day, Arman and I were already home with Mommy. Later, I took Arman to pick up Melur at school. Arman got the chance to describe his morning to Jamie and some of his other friends at Kinderclub. He seems pretty excited by it.

We like your raspy voice, Arman. But try to rest your vocal chords a little bit. I think it’ll be good for you in the long run.

Happy Birthday Papa

Many things are happening today, as we mentioned in yesterday’s post. We start with Mommy’s Fall Classic 5K Run early this morning. She’s been training for it, a little bit. And today she gets to put her hard work to the test. Mommy finished in 00:36:58, 2 seconds shy of 37 minutes. That’s a WHOLE SECOND faster than her 2007 UBC Longest Day Run, at 00:36:59. Good Job, Mommy!

After the run, it was time for Arman’s gymnastics class. And right after that, Arman went to attend Aidan’s birthday party. I was surprised to learn that Aidan’s party coincided with my birthday, but as it turns out, his actual birthday is on 19 November. Happy Birthday, Aidan!

As with Melur’s birthday party at the UBC gym, Aidan’s party started with an hour of gym. I left Arman there by himself, and rejoined him at the second portion of the party… the food part. The kids were pretty organized. I was surprised that Aidan’s mom prepared some pretty healthy food (fruits and vegetables) appetizers for the party. I think we should do that too, in the future. After the pizza and cake was served, it was time to open the presents.

Aidan got a lot of presents today. All the kids crowded around to see. Arman got Aidan 2 Transformers. We hope Aidan enjoys them. The kids were very rambunctious, running around with balloons, and rather physical with their play. There were only 2 girls there. And the remaining boy… Well, boys will be boys.

Later in the afternoon, it was time for Daddy’s birthday party. We invited the Malaysian students over for some cake over tea. Mommy got me a nice mocha cake from True Confections. Some of the guests arrived late, so we started a head.

The late guests actually came bearing gifts. I really wasn’t expecting any. I had a wonderful birthday celebration yesterday, and the gift Mommy got for me was excellent! But today, I got a leather strap for my guitar. Thanks, guys! I love it. I spent part of the evening showing off my new net book to the other Malaysians. And that was pretty much our special birthday Sunday, which included a run and another birthday party.

Happy Birthday Papa

Prelude to Tomorrow

So tomorrow will be filled with many activities. Mommy will be running the Fall Classic. After gymnastics, Arman will be attending Aidan’s birthday party. And tomorrow is also Daddy’s birthday. And in preparation for tomorrow, we have a whole bunch of things to do today. We start with a trip to Toys R Us. Since we didn’t manage to get a gift for Aidan last weekend, we had to make a quick stop today. Arman managed to pick something quickly, and after that we were on our way to the Running Room.

We walked about 5 blocks west to Running Room. It’s getting cold with winter just around the corner. Mommy needs a light running jacket for tomorrow’s race. Arman and Melur had a blast running around the store.

The trip to the running room was quite short too. Right after, we decided to have a little –pre-birthday dinner at Hime Sushi, to celebrate Daddy’s birthday. But seeing as we arrived quite early for dinner, we decided to drop by the public library just next door. We sat down and looked through a few books.

Arman loves the Otto books by Todd Parr, as you see in the video above. We’ve borrowed quite a few of his books in the past. He’s even thought about writing to him. Soon, it was time to dinner. I love this place, as I know the kids do. We ordered a LOT of food. It’s my birthday, after all. You can see for yourself.

After dinner, we felt like desert. But unfortunately, Hime Sushi doesn’t have a desert menu, at all. So we dropped by McDonald’s on the way home, for a fudge sundae.

When we got home, Daddy opened his presents a day early. Well, in my defence, it’s only a couple of hours early in Vancouver. It’s already by birthday in Malaysia, if you really think about it. Mommy got Daddy a new net book – the Acer Aspire One. I love it… And like always, Melur made me a special present for my, all by herself – her very own special brand of artwork made with tender loving car. Thank you Melur.

Now that the prelude is done, let’s see what tomorrow brings.

Longest Day

I think today is one of the longest days for Melur and Arman, and it all started with being a little late to watch a movie. But before that, let me describe the preceding events.

Sunday is Arman’s gymnastics day. He’s been going for a few weeks now, with only a couple of weeks to go. I thought I’d take some pictures, since he seems to have so much fun here. Arman has gymnastics from 11:15 am till 12 pm.

Anyway, after lunch, I thought I’d take the kids out to see the new Madagascar Escape 2 Africa movie that came out recently. Mommy is very busy today with schoolwork, and I’m sure she can use a little alone time. There’s a show at 3 pm, which I thought we would be able to catch.

But as usual, despite our best intentions, we managed to just miss the bus we intended to take, and had to wait another 15 minutes for the next #99 bus to Metrotown. We had a Booster Juice smoothie while we waited.

And then it was onward to Metrotown. We arrived at the Silvercity movie theatre about 15 minutes before the movie started. But by the time we got to the counter to buy tickets, we were told there weren’t that many seats left, and that we’d have to sit upfront. I wasn’t very enthused with the prospect of having a giant movie screen just a few feet from my face, so we opted for the next showing at 4:45 pm. The first thing the kids wanted to do with the extra time was to get some food. They are always hungry, especially when the weather gets cold. I know I do. And so it was off to the food court for some Souvlaki. Yummy…

After that, we decided to do a little shopping. The kids need some new clothes, and so we headed to Zellers, which as you’d know by now, is our favourite place for kids stuff. It’s quite inexpensive. They look so mature walking together to Zellers.

We thought we’d stop by Toys R Us to get a present for Aidan (Arman is invited to Aidan's birthday party next weekend), but again we were falling behind schedule. And so we had to rush back to the movie cinema. The movie itself was awesome. Animated movies these days have a little something for everyone. It’s entertaining for kids, but also has some mature themes that keep the parents interested as well. It was after the movie that the real craziness began.

I didn’t know that the mall closes early on Sunday, at about 6 pm. When we left the cinema around 6:15 pm, which was inside the mall, the mall was officially closed, and was in the process of closing up. And as we were about to leave the mall, Arman had to go to the restroom. Aw, man! Kids can’t hold their pee very well. And I frantically searched the mall for a restroom. The ones close by were already closed off. We finally found an open toilet way back near the food court. Believe me, it’s a ways away from the cinema and the main entrance to the mall.

And when we got out of the rest room, the main concourse of the mall was already partitioned off. Which means, we can’t go out the way we came in. I had to just find an exit, and hope that we can find our way back to the train station from the outside. The empty corridors leading outside were a little scary, but I kept my cool. I think the kids found it more interesting than anything else. Mommy would’ve probably freaked out (Sorry Mommy!).

So we made it out to a parking garage, walked around Zellers, then along a main road, toward the train station. It was dark and cold. The kids were kind of tired (I was too). And so I offered to drop by our favourite Hime Sushi for dinner tonight. That kept them going. And on the bus trip home, the #99 we were on was involved in a collision with another vehicle. How strange is that? Nobody got hurt, but the car that the bus nudged hit a poll by the roadside and was totalled. The kids were more curious than anything else. But the accident caused a traffic jam, which only meant that our trip home would be delayed even further.

We managed to get on the next #99. People were abuzz with the accident. But we just waited for our stop. And when we got off at Point Grey for Hime Sushi, we discovered that the restaurant was closed. They close early on Sundays too. And so we had to walked down a block and settled for some other sushi restaurant. Not as good though, as we later found out. But I didn’t have time to cook anyway.

So that’s was our longest day ever, which started with missing our bus, catching the later movie, needing to go to the bathroom while in a mall that was closing, and then having to find another way our of the mall, getting on a bus that was involved in an accident, and settling for another sushi restaurant after discovering our favourite place was closed. What an experience. So how was your day, Mommy?

Dentist Time

Okay, so it’s been a little over 7 months since Melur and Arman went to see a dentist. The last time we saw Dr Moy was some time in March. During the last check-up, Melur was cavity-free, and Arman needed some fillings. This time around though, Arman is cavity-free. Melur however, has some cavities on her newly erupted molars. Apparently, there are some deformities, or dents, on her new teeth, that make it easy for food to collect.

Anyway… we came straight from swimming classes, and we forgot to bring the camera. So we have to make do with pictures from Daddy’s camera phone (which needs to be upgraded BTW). Since Melur’s cavities are on her newly erupted molars, the dentists won’t be able to perform any work on it, until it matures a little more. Melur will have to come back in a month to check on the progress of the tooth. In the mean time, she’ll have to live with the cavity and brush well, so that it doesn’t spread too much further.

That’s pretty much the dental update from Melur and Arman.