Blessed (and warm) Christmas!

This year, we celebrated Christmas in the warmth of Singapore. It was good to catch up and fellowship with many friends, having being gone for 2.5 years. We also got to see many new faces and make

No matter where we are and who we are with, we worship the same Christ, the same Savior.




Josiah's first Christmas... observing and learning the expert at work...


But still easier to get extra hands to unwrap his presents...

more durians

Durian party!

Some folks love it...

Some folks don't...

durian

1st durian in 3 years. Packed and sealed, but the aroma is still beyond description...

places and friends

Spent the first week visting some relatives. Also managed to catch up with some friends and drop by Chinatown.

Chinatown shophouses:

Gorgeous day in Chinatown. Bright and sunny... a great contrast to the cold and snowy weather in Pittsburgh.

Charis' friends...

journey to the east...

The toy man.... Almost brough the entire toy shop on board....


Waiting to check in the luggage and start the 30hrs jouney to the east...

flight services...

Inflight entertainment for the kids....

Airline food...

baby's laugh

all ready to go for our Thanksgiving dinner

knock it down!

and give me 20! As you can see, we run a very tight ship here.... military training starts at a young age...

Actually, Josiah was having a bad constipation for 2 weeks. Very bad. Gave him more pear puree, prune, etc... nothing worked. In the end, we gave him some suppository - but he pushed it out and refused to let the suppository stay where it is supposed to stay. But as he pushed the suppository out, he also pushed some of the aged you-know-what out as well. Slowly and steadily, he was clearing the passageway. And the best position for him seemed to be the push-up position... which he voluntarily got into....

counting down to an important decision....

MySpace-Countdowns

counting down...

curry fish head. sambal kang kong. roti prata.
mee siam. bak ku teh. katong laksa.
wanton mee. hokkien mee. ba chor mee.
char siew bao. ba bao. ang bao.
prawn-paste chicken. chicken rice. fried rice.
durian. char kway tiao. chai tow kway.
tao huay. grass jelly. yu char kway.
fish head bee hoon. satay. otah otah.
satay bee hoon. cheng teng. bo bo char char.

Roadtrip: Washington DC

Went to DC over the weekend 2 weeks ago. The weather was bad and wet as we hit the road on Friday, and it continued that way for the next 2 days. It only became nice and tourist-friendly on Monday, the day that we headed back home to Pittsburgh.

There were two strategic objectives for the trip. The first was to visit many of the museums, monument etc. Due to the bad weather, we only managed to view some, but not all, that we planned to.

The second, and perhaps the main, objective of this trip was to eat good food - our theme was Eat Asia! We are pleased to report that we did well in meeting this objective. We had Pho, Cantonese Roast Duck, Beef Ho fun. We also had quite a bit of Korean BBQ, seafood pancake, BiBim Bap... The drives to these eating places were pretty long, but no complains.

Well, since we didn't meet the first objective, I guess we have to make another trip there again... to visit both history and food that we missed....

Here are some pixs from the trip:

Smithsonian station. This is the stop to get to National Mall, where many of the museums, galleries, and monuments are located. We travelled by metro when we went to the mall area.

Taking in the nice fall colors and weather (when it didn't rain)...

The kids...

Washington Monument

Some background about the monument...

The monument from across the Reflecting Pool.

This pool seats between Washington Monument at one end, and Lincoln Memorial at the other end. It not only reflects the historical structures around, but also the history of times.

World War II Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

National Gallery of Art

Artworks and art-appreciators looking at each other...

Claude Monet, the French Impressionist Painter. "The Walk, Woman with a Parasol."

Two art pieces...

Josiah - 8 months old

Can start to multi-task... holding one shoe to the mouth with one hand and pushing the door open with the other, while standing up and striking a pose....

Josiah in the box...

more of us

Josiah @ 7 months... pulling himself up at every opportunity, no longer content to be in his Exer Saucer (it's like a baby walker without the wheels)!

Charis @ 4 1/2... Can't believe she's so grown up! Sang with the church children's choir during the evening service on Sunday... looking like a big girl. She's so happy that she is finally old enough to join the choir and be on stage.

cool head gears...

Josiah has been wearing the cool-looking helmet for about 3 weeks now. He got used to it very quickly after one or two days... He is supposed to wear it for 23 hours per day for the next few months.

The helmet is to help correct the shape of his head, which is relatively flat on one side. Charis wanted to stick some Barney or Snow White stickers to make the helmet look "nicer". Thankfully we managed to make her drop the idea. I was thinking of air-brushing it into the Steeler Helmet. It would have been quite cool since the football season is just getting into way.

It is actually good for him to wear the helmet now. He is starting to crawl, stand, and tumble.. The helmet gives him extra protection. The only problem is that the helmet (and his head) stinks! We gave him a nick - Mr Cao Sng. Hopefully he will be done with the helmet by year end before we go back to Singapore. Otherwise, he will become Super Cao Sng... hahaha....

Anyway, he is not the only one who looks cool with a helmet...

saying goodbyes...

This morning we said goodbyes to Daniel and Christine, and their children Elizabeth and Emmanuel. They came to Pittsburgh the same time as us, and for the last 2 years we worshipped at the same church. Over time, the friendship between Charis and Elizabeth grew (even though they are 2 years apart), and they would play with each other after worship or during gatherings. Holding hands, running around, having fun....

In the evening as I was preparing dinner, Charis started to cry for no obvious reason. Usually we would stop her and get her to calm down. But this time we let her be. We tried to get her to tell us why she was crying, but she just kept to her crying. Finally we asked her was it because her friends left today - and she cried even louder... Saying goodbyes to friends is sometime so emotional, even for a 4 year old.

Eventually, after almost an hour of grieving, she managed to calm down a little for dinner. We talked to her about her feelings, the separation with her friends etc, as she sobbed and tried very hard to keep herself from crying again.

"How about this: God willing, at the end of the year, we go back to Singapore for a visit? Maybe for a few weeks?" I offered.

"No, I don't want to go back for a visit. (sob) I want to go back after you finish your work," she replied.

"But why don't you want to go back for a visit?"

"Because I don't want to say goodbyes again.... (sob)...." as a teardrop rolled off her cheek. Our hearts melted.

After a few spoonfuls of porridge, she asked "Daddy, why does your work take soooo looong?"

I offered an explanation: "Hmmm... because Daddy is stupid...."

"Hahahaha... that's soooo silly.... Nobody says they are stupid. That's being rude to themselves."

Hmmm... food for thoughts....

"Then why do you think Daddy is taking so long to do his work?"

After a few seconds of thought, she proudly replied "Because you are working on breathtaking, earth-shattering research!"


No, actually that's not what she said (although it would have been very nice if she had said that). What she really and proudly said was:

"Because you don't work hard."

See, there's no way you can deceive a 4 year old. From tomorrow, I will add 2 more hours to my current 14 hours workday. Or maybe 3.

downtown chicago

Just returned from a 6-day trip to Chicago... thanks to a Conference held there. The crowd was a little overwhelming at first, having arrived from quieter Pittsburgh, but it soon felt nice... a little like Singapore. :)

TK took a walk in the early morning, while Elaine and the kids snoozed away in the hotel room, to enjoy the quiet of the city before it woke. Here's a mini photo-tour of downtown Chicago (and more in following posts).

Down Michigan Ave towards the Chicago River that cuts across downtown Chicago. A city rebuilt after the great Chicago fire in the 1871.

the Trump International Hotel and Tower

Chicago Riverwalk

and river tour of the skyscrapers