I only love Marcella :)

Dear M and M,

A couple of things this week, Matt surprised us again last Sunday, on the way to the car after Matt’s golf lesson and lunch we found ourselves debating which floor we parked the car, your mother said 3rd, and I said 5fh.

Out of the blue Matt shouted out 4, at the same time jumped and slapped the number 4 button, landed with a thud then went silent staring at the both of us. Your mother and I looked at each other and laughed, we let the lift took us to the fourth floor.

Let just say we were both quite embarrassed, because you ‘little monkey’ was right on the money :), your mother took a peek out of the lift and the car was right there on the fourth floor :)

This morning we all woke up late so we had to rushed a little, no play time before shower and breakfast, after Matt was dressed in his school uniform and we were about to leave the apartment, he leant back against one of the wall and said. “I don’t love Papa anymore and I don’t love Mama anymore, I only love Marcella (huge laugh)” then put his shoes on and left the apartment with another huge laugh. He went back to apologise afterwards once your mother had threatened not to be there when he comes home after school :) (“under her thumb, both of you are, she has” it only make sense if you say it in Yoda’s voice :) ).

From the picture above and the way Marcella behaves around Matt, I can see that he will have a lot of influence on her :)

Father and Mother are the hit words at the moment, well, it started off with Papa and Mama, then changed briefly to Dad and Mum, now he had gone all proper on us with Father and Mother… all very strange, he loves to read and I am betting it’s from one of the gazillion books he has in his room that is having this influence.

Center of Everything :)

Dear Marcella,

You are now the center of all attention, from my extensive side of our family, as well as from your mother’s side, and you are showing your good nature self (when stomach is full, haa haa haa) by loads of smiles after smiles :)

And you are much more responsive to all of our attention now, smiling, laughing, looking around and so on. Soon you’ll be crawling, I already have a video of you rotating yourself, we were all cheering you on like a bunch of lunatics :)

M & M: Hello Bob, Hello Marcella :)

Dear M & M,

A couple of weeks ago it was ‘dress up as your favourite character day’ at Shrewsbury, of course judging by the last ‘dress up as your favourite animal day’ I could already tell that there would be some totally awesome costumes walking around, and I wasn’t wrong :)

First of all I didn’t expect it to be such a big event, as it turned out, it wasn’t just Matt’s year that got dressed up, it was the entire school (and a school parade too), including teachers, and oh, they were totally excellent! I just couldn’t stop smiling, there were a million princesses, but only a few prince, some went as character from ‘Car’, one teacher was a mummy (10 points) there were even a couple of Harry Potter in the running around. But to my knowledge there was only one ‘Bob the Builder’ and that was Matt! :) :) :)

 

I didn’t know why Matt had chosen ‘Bob the Builder’ rather than ‘Handy Manny’, essentially they are the same character but on the opposite side of the Atlantic :) but Handy Manny is always on the telly and Bob wasn’t, who knows, but ‘Bob the Builder’ it was. As it turned out your mother was first class once again, my mother got you the tools while Gio found a small dungaree, it was perfect :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matt’s belt kept falling off, just like a pit crew at F1 I had to dashed in, tightened up the belt several times. Ms. Rachel (head of class) was a witch (no, just her costume) and I believe her assistant was a ‘Cat’. In class seeing a princess playing with a pirate was a laugh :)

I am sorry but I can not post pictures of Matt’s friends simply because I have not obtained any permission from their parents yet :) but I have loads, Best and Otto were so adorable :)

Your mother wished she had come, the only reason she didn’t because none of us knew (even other parents) that this was such a big event.

 

 

I was away for the entire week last week, Berlin was freezing and I did miss you all terribly, due to the current schedule finding time to hold Marcella was a bit difficult, usually Matt and I would leave  before she was up and by the time I was home she would have already been tucked up in her dream land :) So I never pass up a chance to hold her whenever I could :)

I hope you two get along well as you do now, Matt totally adores Marcella, and I so hope that she doesn’t give him too much trouble, lol.

 

All together in Pattaya :)

Dear M & M,

This past week was Matt’s half term break, so it was the right time to find something fun for the both of you to do, we were a little apprehensive at first because Marcella is so very young, even with Matt, he was at least nine months before we took our first trip to the sea.

Your mother decided to go back to Centara Grand, Matt managed to have a fantastic time there (so many moons ago) even though he had a bit of a run on his tummy :) the water park is superb for children.

Your mother booked a bigger room this time, so all five of us (Pui came too) could be together. The room was fantastic, spacious with a huge balcony and an amazing view. There was a bunk bed for Matt, of course he bagsied the top bunk as soon as he saw it.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Not long after our arrival in the room, Matt disappeared behind the wardrobe’s door without my notice. By the time I heard the ‘beep beep beep beep beep, aaarrrrrrr, clunk’ it was of course too late! He had already locked up the room safe… I wanted to be cross, but from the conversation that we had I ended up laughing my $%@# off :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me:        Matt can you tell me which numbers you’d pressed? (assertive voice)
Matt:     I don’t know Papa
Me:       Come on Matt, you must remember, what was the first number you’d pressed?
Matt:     Zero…
Me:       And then?
Matt:    eight, five, two, one, three, four, fi…
Me:       No, that is too many, let start again
Matt:    Ok Papa, zero, eight, two, four…
Me:       Ok, tell me again which number you’d pressed?
Matt:     zero, eight, four, five…
Me:       ??? tell me again ???
Matt:    zero, two, one, three…
Gio:     Haa, haa, haa, haa, haa (from somewhere outside the room)
Me:      Come on Matt, let start again… (with a huge smile, which was a sign of defeat)

I ended up pressing different set of numbers each time until the safe locked itself for fifteen minutes, of course I gave up and called the engineer, who promptly came with this huge machine, Matt was impressed :) but he promised not to touch the safe again (and he didn’t too :) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The long weekend was wonderful, Matt ate well and virtually lived in the water park, especially the tunnel water slide, he just couldn’t get enough of it, but surprisingly he wasn’t too keen on the sea though.

We had pretty much spent all our time in the resort, so that Matt could have as much water time as possible, but after about two hours or so he would request to go back to the room, to further play in the huge bath.

Marcella had her first real dip for the first time, and didn’t even cry, the weather was very hot from the searing sun, but the small pool was in the shade, so it was quite cool. The water was warm, just right for Marcella, she looked absolutely adorable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately most of the photos were not of us by the pool, I had decided not to take the camera but to actually join in the fun with the two of you (the pics below was taken using your mother’s BB).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the drive back, we stopped off at this great restaurant, ‘Moom Aroi’ (a direct translation would be ‘Corner Delicious’, well, ‘Delicious Corner’ would make more sense) (your mother’s choice again, ten stars for you, Mama), more than highly recommended. On the GPS, there were two ‘Moom Aroi’, so we picked the one by the sea and we were not disappointed, the service was fast and professional, the food was great and the most important thing for me… there were plenty of parking :) We didn’t arrive in BKK until five, of course my parents were there waiting to see you two.

Thousands of these… :)

Dear Marcella,

Using a camera with a left hand, sounds easier in words than in practice, trust me I should know, I have thousands and thousands of this exact shot of just you and me :) (with different mirrors though, and I am sure there will be thousands and thousands more :)

I was thinking of creating a Yoga class for photographers, I sure could have used it here :)

By the way, your mother and I now know exactly when to catch you smiling. So simple, all we have to do, to be guaranteed with a beautiful huge smile, is to make sure that you are full of milk. ‘Stomach Full of Milk’ = ‘Mogwai’, ‘Stomach Void of Milk’ = ‘Gremlin’.

 

Just got back from Vietnam, lovely place and people, and just found out today that I have to go to Singapore the day after tomorrow… so be a good girl and keep you brother in line, ok. :) Missing you already…

What can I say :)

Dear M and M,

When you grow up, life will throw you ‘responsibilities’ whether you like it or not and it may not even be just. But however good or bad it gets, we hope it will be us who you think of first in the best and the worst of times.

Matt, I wish you could remain this happy forever, that is all we ever wanted for you and little miss M :)

Missing you, see you both in a couple of days.

Our M & M, one can’t stop talking and the other won’t keep still :)

Dear M & M,

Soon Little M will be 3 months old, we keep forgetting how quickly you all develop at this stage. For the past three weeks, the most noticeable thing with our Little M is that you like to have a bit of a chin-wag, nothing deep like the latest round the cabinet reshuffle (what was our first ever lady PM thinking?), in fact any topic will do as long as we make it sounds soft and gentle, Little M will always join the conversation with very insightful thoughts such as, ooohhh aaahhhhh and back to oooohhh again (by the way, if we don’t talk to you, you’ll start crying :)

As for you Big M, last Saturday your music teacher asked me (right after your morning lesson) what I fed you for breakfast? She thought I must have given you sugar cubes (and about a ton of it too) because you were like a very bouncy bouncing ball for the whole forty minutes.

I don’t know why all the scientists are spending so much time researching into ‘fusion’ as a new form of clean energy, all you have to do is to construct a humongous hamster wheel (link it to a generator), and chuck in just a few three year old kids, and voila, clean energy at a cost of a couple chocolate cookies and a glass of milk. Honestly, I don’t know where you get your energy from, my camera is now permanently on S (shutter speed priority) instead of the usual A (aperture priority) simply just to keep you in focus while you were dashing around :)

Life is amazing with you all :)

Preparing for the next best thing :)

Dear M and M,

Your mother said I am up to my old tricks again :), I’ve been pining for a DSLR since the previous one was stolen, the Nex 5 was supposed to be just a ‘halfway house’ of a camera before moving on to yet another Nikon.

But I never did move on to another DSLR, Sony Nex5 turned out to be a mistress I never wanted to leave, never wanting to get back to the Mrs., in fact there was one crazy moment when I thought I wanted to remain with her forever, then came along the D4.

Totally not worth the price and just a tad over qualified for just taking a few snap shots of you two running around. But right now all forms sensibility have left the building, only remained are the hazy impetuous of pure ‘tech lust’, lol.

 

So you both may be wondering ‘what are my old tricks’? Passing on current ‘gears’ to a family member in hoping your mother will give me the nod to get the next greatest and latest (often it doesn’t work, so I think I’ll need to change strategy here).

As you can see here, I am literally forcing Matt to use the camera, well not quite, he came up with the camera wanting to take a picture of me, of course it was a too good of an opportunity to just let it pass, it has lots and lots of buttons and dial that all three and a half year old child could only love, perfect, I began to teach (exaggerate) how each button is so much more awesome than each of his button on his simple point and shoot. Soon he will be running up to his mother asking if he could keep the Nex5 forever… leaving the path open to the almighty D4 and then taking over the world… haa haa haa, all I need now is the ‘ka-ching’ to get the darn thing.

(While reading through the post correcting all the mistakes (there are probably loads left), I came to wonder how on earth did I take this photo, I am sure it will come back to me soon)

Got a new Freezer :)

Dear Marcella,

Got a new freezer, well, just couldn’t find room for the peas and the chickens ;) You have no idea how much your mother is determined to give you the best :)

She is up in all strange hours, mostly half asleep “pumping out”, and the result is what you see here. She is determined to b-feed you for as long as she could, so after your meal she collects the extra and stores them away, at the expense of my peas and chickens… :)

By the way, after reviewing the stock last night, I am already looking for another (huge) freezer, lol.

Got it… <3

Dear Marcella,

Finally today I got a picture of you smiling :) believe it or not I am typing this post one handed while the other is holding you tight, you are looking somewhere to the left probably thinking when I am going to give you the bottle, lol, the answer is 15 minutes.

I carried you to City Viva this afternoon (swapped role today, me & you and Mum & Matt), needed to get some sweets for your brother’s stocking, he kept asking if Santa can come ‘tonight’ (for the past 3 nights) and was always a little frustrated that our answer have been steadfast on the 25th… (awkward now, just turned you around so I am now typing with my left hand… sod this, shall finish later).

City Viva is just a short walk away, I think I made a mistake in putting you in a bright lime green trousers, while your body suit was a very loud candy pink, luckily we weren’t arrested by the fashion Gestapo.

You had a great time, new environment did you a world of good, besides the weather was perfect, seeing you trying to turn your head this way gave me a huge smile, so happy to have a full time role with you today :) (you are fast asleep in my arm, one tiny left hand stretched out palm down & open, resting on my left shoulder, <3 <3 <3).

What a smile :)

Dear Marcella,

Swimming and no afternoon nap was the perfect combination for Matt to fall asleep right in the middle of his after supper dessert (his favourite, Jack fruit of course).

That gave me the time to properly help out your mother and cradle you in my arms, after a while it felt like I was carrying a pregnant whale, my old arms were not what it used to be :) Your eyes were closed, your body was still, then suddenly you gave me not one but two huge smiles :) I wished I had caught it on camera… :)

Are we being watched?

Dear M & M,

Angry bird is still all the rage around here, Matt chose this one after his first trip to the Funfair, and your mother took this pic (probably bored out of her mind) as it was left to float on the ceiling in the living room.

I really, really like the pic though (no cropping).

So, how was it?

Dear Marcella,

So, how was your first month? Well, you have been complaining a lot (really a lot) about the slow service, apparently we just can not serve you milk fast enough :) And you also have complained quite a bit about the sleeping arrangement, for as soon as we put you down, you simply started complaining and complaining and complaining, in fact you don’t stop complaining until we pick you up again.

At least you like the milk your mother serves, she has to do a lot of work in all hours of the night to keep you happy, but of course she does it all with a smile :) (unless it was three in the morning, lol). Welcome baby, we are just simply over the moon to have you in our arms :) really looking forward to all the months ahead, hopefully you will stop complaining soon, lol.

Must try harder…

In two days Marcella will be a month old, and to be honest this past month have been tough, especially on Gio, Marcella is, shall we say ‘sensitive’ and needed to be hold pretty much all the time, only this morning I had her sleeping in my arms (actually more like on my huge tummy) from three to six am. Truth be told I haven’t helped that much, instead concentrating on looking after Matt, and that in a way is making us living separate lives, just like a couple with one working the night shift while the other working the morning shift, simply we are trains running on separate tracks.

Mismatching of schedules means we don’t communicate as much as we used to, and that is so important for us. After a quiet reflection this morning, it looks like the ball is in my court :) lol, Gio is already pretty tired out all day long, so I’ll have to step up a gear... like how I did this morning, hope I can keep this going... :) lol.

Scratching our heads :)

Dear Matt,

Since the arrival of Marcella, we have been trying hard to balance our attention between her and you, and to be very honest I think we are doing an excellent job :) Auntie Tip is now here to help out in the morning as well as in the evening, she totally adores you and often take you for a swim (which is by far your favourite activity).

However, during this past few days you begin to make this single, very specific request which is breaking our heart, because we could not give it to you. Not because we are not capable of giving it to you, but simply because we can not for our very lives $%$#@#% make sense of your request :) The request seems simple enough, you want to go to a ‘living room’ (and it is not our living room, that would have been a too simpler task :), and it comes every second of the day. “Papa I don’t want to go to school, I want to go to living room”, “Papa, can I go to the living room today, please, please Papa”.

You: Papa can you take me to the living room today?
Me: Of course, can you tell me where the living room is?
You: It is very far away (then you would point out of the window, sometimes you would answer “India”, I am still waiting for “China” to appear in our conversation.)
Wait ten minutes, repeat above.

Your mother and I are scratching our heads most nights trying to decipher what or where this elusive ‘Living Room’ could be or mean, and as of right now we are still totally blank :) Just for laugh, I am thinking of putting you in the car and just let you point the way, should be an interesting experiment, lol.

Not tired anymore :)

Dear Matt & Marcella,

Your mother just sent me this pic over the whatapps app, and it instantly recharges my battery :) still at the office now, see you both soon :)

(from Blogger App - iPhone)

Guess where we are going?

You are only 9 days old and this is already your second ‘real’ visit to the hospital (the first visit was only for check up). Previous visit the Dr. said your tear duct was blocked in your left eye (your mother noticed there were a lot of gunk in the left eye, so that was the prompt for your first real visit).

For this second visit, we were to see an eye specialist, it was painless enough (for us, lol). The specialist only spent a few minutes with you, apparently the symptoms for blocked eye duct and an inflammatory eye are quite similar, she told us to increase the frequency of the eye drop to once every two hours instead of three times a day. The Dr. said to try this for a week then come back again next week... Fingers crossed, hopefully it will be better soon :)

Life is wonderful (touch wood)

Dear Marchella,

I have totally forgotten how small you all are at the beginning, tiny and absolutely adorable :)

Your mother told me how you made her miss the time when your brother was at your age (5 days old :)

Before you left the hospital a surgeon did a tiniest of operation on your tongue that made you suckle so much better and at the same time it doesn’t hurt your mother so much. So after you got home you were crying quite a bit, but we weren’t sure if it was due to the operation or that you were hungry.

You seemed to be hungry all the time :) by the way you have been a fantastic baby so far, touch wood :)

The above photo was taken on the eighth, you were one day old, to see your brother sleeping on the couch and you sleeping in your mother’s arms is something very special to me :) However, getting your brother to go to sleep needed more cunning than one of Blackadder’s most cunning plan, but strangely he is so gentle around you and really behaves himself.

Yesterday out of the blue he told me “Papa, I like hospital, Papa” (repeat three times)... that gave me such a smile, people around us thought that your brother and I were absolutely crazy :) While at the hospital, he loved to take all the visitors to see you in nursery, after which he would dashed back to the main room.

Your grandmother and her sister (Grand Auntie?) now come to visit you every evening, you would be totally still in your cot and the two of them would just sit next to you doing nothing but looking, I could tell they were dying to hold you but sleep is so important at this stage... Don’t worry they were more than willing to wait :)

From three became four :)

Dear Marcella,

You came home today, and I thought we were well prepared this time, lol. Found out that I had forgotten a vital part of your mother’s pump, had to get on to a motorcycle taxi and rushed to Central Chidlom...

It is now coming fast to seven in the evening, you are fast a sleep in your cot that is sitting next to me, Matt is enjoying his supper, and your mother is scoffing down my mother’s cooking... lol. My mother is working overtime preparing food for your mother (which would then be delivered across the city to us), we (Thais) have our belief that certain food help the women to produce more milk after delivery... lol.

Unfortunately your mother’s parents are now in Chiang Rai (to the North of the country), to escape from the flood, the last time your auntie was at their home, the water was just about entering the house, but that was a week ago, we are all still hoping for the best.

Having difficult time choosing which photos to post, in four days I had already counted almost 500 photos... and 450 no one on earth would find interesting apart from me and you mother, haa haa haa, lol.

Love you,


Dad.

Lost for words...

Dear Marcella,

At this very second you are behind that wall being looked after by the nurses. There are crying coming from all side, and I am sure you are an owner of one of those cry.

I only saw you briefly (but took enough photos to write 50 billion posts :), and I was completely lost for words... Another most important person in my entire universe had just arrived not more than 30 mins ago... Can not wait to hold you!

You started crying as soon as you felt the air touching your face, wow strong lungs, I'll sure wake up when you cry at night :)

Got to go just been called to come and see you........ :)