Crossing our fingers...

Well after more than two weeks, it looks like grandpa will be coming home from the hospital soon. He's had five procedures performed at two different hospitals during that time. We would like to send our thanks out to all the wonderful staff at Surrey Memorial Hospital, they've all be so great. In the meantime here is Malcolm's recent stab at poetry. We're not exactly sure where he learned it all.

Twinkle, twinkle... from Obiwanhavanese on Vimeo.

Malcolm and Tracey sharing a laugh.
Malcolm in his self-proclaimed, Wintertime Hat.

Grandpa.

Grandpa is still in the hospital and will probably remain there for a few more days. He certainly gave us a scare. He has had significant improvement in the last few days, but is scheduled for another procedure this morning. We've all been quite worried about him, but his spirits are high and his sense of humor is back. We're not sure Malcolm really understands what's going on, but he's been pretty good about all the hospital visits. Hopefully Papa will be back home soon. Here are some pics from the past week:

A wonderful shot of the crescent moon and Venus.
Malcolm showing his pearly whites, Malcolm puts us a quite a struggle when we're trying to brush his teeth. He insists that he wants to do it all himself. "Malcolm do dit, Malcolm brush teeth". Both Roger and Malcolm have been fighting colds, but they both seem to be on the mend.

Thumbs up...

We had a bit of a scare today when Grandpa had to be taken to the hospital. From what the doctors have told us he had one of his lungs collapse all of a sudden. They performed an emergency procedure and he's resting at the hospital now. It's scary to have a family member be taken away in an ambulance not knowing what is exactly wrong. I've been on pins and needles all day. Like Grandma Janey used to say, I'm a bit sensitive. All this stress wreaks havoc on my stomach, I vomited while playing in the backyard this evening. Malcolm was unaffected by it all, he was puzzled as to why everyone wasn't home so late in the evening, but went to bed without a hitch. Here is a short video of some of his latest antics...


Thumbs up... from Obiwanhavanese on Vimeo.

Valentine's Day et al...

We had quite a nice Valentine's Day here at the house. Malcolm gave out his gifts and received some pretty nice ones too. He got a couple new Valentine's Day books and a pair of boots that we have since returned (too bad they were really cute Thomas the Train ones). So we ventured out downtown to the library and went for a walk to enjoy this beautiful sunny weather we've been having. All in all, quite a nice weekend. Here are some pictures.

Malcolm making his most popular dish, Cinnamon Carrots. He loves shaking cinnamon on all his creations.
Down the steps of the Vancouver Public Library.
Enjoying a good 'choo choo' book, a classic "The Little Engine That Could".

Back to normal, for now.

Thankfully Malcolm's sleeping schedule has gone back to normal. The technique of getting him to bed earlier has worked. Now's he's sleeping from 7:30pm and waking up 7:30-8:00am every day. His speech is developing everyday, we're all very amazed at how much he is learning. Here are some pictures from this past weekend:

Malcolm exploring the jungle greenery of Dr. Sun Yat Sen's gardens.
Obi in the backyard, enjoying the sun.
Malcolm working the bubble mower.

Malcolm and his books.

Roger and Tracey have tried to instill the importance of reading books at a very early age. They make it a point to read to Malcolm multiple times a day. You can see that all this exposure to books has effected Malcolm in a positive way. Through all the repetition he has memorized many titles and lines in the books that are read to him. At almost 27 months of age he has demonstrated that he has great recall capabilities. We are all often amazed at the things he remembers. Malcolm can recite many more lines from the Very Hungry Caterpillar book, but here's just a taste of what he does almost everyday.

Very Hungry Caterpillar from Obiwanhavanese on Vimeo.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year.

Time to wake up!

Wow, so recently Malcolm has decided that he's had enough sleep very early in the morning. He's been waking up anytime between 5:45am - 6:15am every morning. Despite our constant efforts to get him back to sleep his will to get up is too strong to fight. His early waking changes our household schedule dramatically as it means that Roger and or Tracey have to get up way earlier (especially on weekends) than normal. On weekdays it means that there is less time to get ready, have showers, prepare for work, take me for my morning walk, etc... We're hoping that it is a phase and that he'll go back to waking up at 7:30 or 8:00am again soon. I guess it wouldn't be so bad if he had a longer nap, but these days we're lucky to get an hour in the afternoon. Grandma and Papa have had to keep him entertained for longer periods of time. The life of a toddler is sometimes unpredictable.

Eating and stuff...

Eating can sure be a challenge for a two-year old toddler. From day to day it's hard to know what to expect, but there are definitely some foods that Malcolm enjoys more than others. For the most part Tracey and Roger do their best to try and get Malcolm to eat new and nutritious things. Here are a list of things that he enjoys on a semi to regular basis.

Rice, whole wheat pancakes, bread products (buns, toast, french toast), scrambled eggs, noodles, turkey dogs, thinly sliced honey ham, yam fries, cheese pizza, grilled cheese, grapes, muffins, ice cream, multigrain Cheerios, yogurt, frozen juice popcicles, milk, diluted juice, mandarins, crackers, pretzels, cereal bars, apples, bananas, keembap (sushi), mandu (dumplings), edamame (soy beans)...

Here's a picture of Malcolm eating lunch, he's enjoying some chicken mandu, sushi, buns, grapes and ham. Don't know if you can tell from the picture, but he's saying: "Cheese."
Mmmm.
Malcolm's new pajamas, fire engine ones.
Happy 1st Birthday to Camila.

Learning to mimic everything: "That's not good."

It was a really great weekend. The snow is starting to finally disappear and the rain and warmer temperatures are back, definitely back to normal for Vancouver. Malcolm has been his same cheery self and has settled back into the normal routine quite nicely. It is truly amazing to watch the development of a child. We've seen vast improvements in his motor skills and language capabilities. In fact, you really do have to be careful of what you say around him because he starts to parrot every thing you say. The other day Tracey said, "That's not good" and after that point Malcolm has been copying the phrase repeatedly. It's definitely true, this is a fun age. Here are some pictures from the past week.

Malcolm wearing his new Vancouver Canucks Jersey.
We were invited to Ty's house for a brunch on Sunday here are some pics from the event. What do you think of Malcolm's new haircut, Roger did it himself (saved $20).
Malcolm, Melan and Ty working making jewelery, sweat shop child labour... just kidding.
Here's Ty and Janey looking at pictures on the iPod.
Picture of happy baby Asia.

Happy New Year!

I just wanted to wish everyone a healthy, happy and prosperous new year.... happy 2009 from all of us at Obiwanhavanese. 2008 was a great year and hopefully 2009 will only get better. Some pretty big milestones for my little bro this year... walking and talking topping the list.

With all the recent snow it's been quite an amazing sight. The only problem with all this snow is a condition we call "snow-berries". My fur is quite susceptible to clumping and it takes some work to get them thawed. Here are some pictures.
Here's a recent picture of happy Malcolm.
This is a robe that Auntie Leah gave Malcolm when he was a baby. He recently tried it on and this is the photo of him dancing around the living room.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

It has been quite a Christmas for us here; with the dumps of snow we've received it was a truly a white winter-wonderland. Roger has been shoveling snow 2-3 times a day, that's a record for sure. Here are some video and pictures from the past week.


Christmas 2008 from Obiwanhavanese on Vimeo.

Malcolm put out milk and cookies for Santa. We won't tell Santa that he ate one.
"Hey, I put out the Milk and Cookies, where are my presents?"Here's one taken with Roger's new lens. Malcolm sure became good at ripping the paper off of the gifts.
Some beautiful scenery with all the snow.

Whoa, lots and lots of snow!

We've had lots and lots of snow this week and there's still more to come. I don't remember being this much snow in Vancouver ever! Tracey and Roger finally convinced Malcolm to come out and play, surprisingly enough he had a great time. The only real problem is that he absolutely refuses to wear gloves, so for obvious reasons we can't stay out very long. We've already seen over 20cms of snow in the last two days and the weatherman says that there's more to come. It looks like it's going to be a white Christmas.


It's snowing, wintertime! from Obiwanhavanese on Vimeo.

Will it be a white Christmas?

We'll we finally got some snow in town. It's been so chilly the past few days. Temperatures are supposed to stay below freezing for the next week. I personally love the snow, but Roger says that the people in Vancouver don't do so well reacting to the fluffy white stuff and driving can sometimes become quite scary. Here are some pictures from the past week or so. Aren't our Christmas lights pretty?Joseph, Nicole and Malcolm at the Christmas brunch. The kids play so well together don't they?Tracey and Roger took Malcolm to the Festival of Lights at VanDusen Gardens. I don't think Malcolm enjoyed it very much, perhaps it was too cold.

Bright Nights at Stanley Park

Roger, Tracey and Malcolm made their way down to the Bright Nights at Stanley Park event the other night. They said it was chilly, but worth it. They were lucky to get on the 5pm train just minutes before ticketing was over. Malcolm enjoyed being on the train, but Roger and Tracey said that Malcolm was impressed by the lights. They went during the week to avoid the crowds, last year they waited such a long time in line. Here are some pictures from the event.

Malcolm looking at all the lights while enjoying his pretzel.
Thank you to Auntie Wendy for Malcolm's warm Nemo blanket. It sure came in handy that chilly night.
This is Roger's favorite tree at the event, pretty blue LEDs.
What a difference between years, Malcolm's third Christmas coming up... and he's only two! He was a bit reluctant to sit with Santa (we had to bribe him with a gingerbread cookie this year), can't even imagine what he's going to be like with the mall Santa. It's Tracey's strategy to back him into Santa for the photo, we'll keep our paws and fingers crossed he doesn't freak out too much.
Here's mine:

Happy Birthday Carol!

Malcolm and family helped wish Carol a happy birthday yesterday by taking her out for a pizza dinner. Malcolm even sang one line of the song, "Happy birthday to you." It was very cute. Here are some more pictures from the past week. As you can see, the Christmas lights and tree are up at the house. Now we'll have to wait for all the presents to come from Santa.

"Hey Frosty, what else you got?"
"Mmmm... Gingerbread".
"My favorite cousins".
Our house:
Beautiful sunset.