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.

Less than a month before Christmas.

Excitement is mounting, Christmas is coming soon. Malcolm's development has been quite good with respect to his communication and vocabulary. He's started to join words together to form longer phrases and sentences. Roger and Tracey recently bought him some new shoes online and when they arrived he said: "NEW SHOES INSIDE BOX". We're all quite amazed at his memory and recognition of objects and pictures. Also, he's beginning to use his imagination and creativity more as well. One of his favorite snacks right now are organic cheddar rabbit crackers and when ever he eats them he pretends that they are jumping along and then the rabbits jump right into his mouth, it's very cute to watch.

The past week.

It's been a busy couple of weeks for the family with the Madonna concert, Malcolm's birthday bash, daylight savings time change, Canucks game, whew! Here are some pictures from the past week.

I don't think Malcolm liked this song much by the look on his face.Here's some Thomas the Tank toys Malcolm received for his birthday on Wednesday.
Here's an action shot of me running down the hallway playing fetch with my pink octopus.
Malcolm loves his cousins very much, here's Malcolm giving his cousin Joseph a hug good-bye.
Can't forget cousin Nicole, or "Coola" as Malcolm calls her.

Malcolm's Birthday Party

Malcolm was so good at his party this past weekend. I think having a party in the morning eliminates the usual crankiness that emerges. We had close to forty people in attendance at his first ever Birthday Brunch celebration. All the kids played so well with each-other, it was very impressive that all were so well behaved. Here's Malcolm blowing out the candle on his cake. His real birthday isn't until Wednesday, but his weekend party was a great success.Roger and Tracey made Malcolm a special birthday cake, it was their first attempt at a Fondant cake, I think it turned out yummy... too bad I couldn't have any.