Cassandra's Life Blog

I always believed photos needs to capture that candid natural moments we were in. The emotion we experienced in the photos can be carried in the future when we saw the photos again and re-live that experience again.

This photos was taken when we all are just being ourselves. I LOVE THIS PHOTO. It is plain US enjoying each other company and loving every moment of it.

Of course, all credits goes to my best buddy. She was back in PG couple of weeks ago and we cracked out our bz bz schedule to meet. (we have our mothers watching the movie together so that we can sneak out and have some time :)

Check out more of Cass' photos here :http://xiyi.smugmug.com/gallery/4970153_HHBRb#300533729_wUqvd

This was taken by xiyi too when Cas when 1 year old.

While we were snapping photos away in the Taiping Zoo last weekend, Cass decided that she wanted to do the same too.

Armed with the Zoo entrance ticket, she made believe it as her camera and pretend to become a photographer !

And check out the photos, she meant business, seriously. :)

The weather has been quite hot and dry around here. Cass has been asking if she can go for a swim. Well, there we go again, bringing out the 'pool', pumping the air, filling in water and making snacks. (mini pizzas) Check out chicky Cass at play.

Cass tripped and had a slight bruise on her knee when we were in the zoo last weekend. She cried so loud and her dad promised her ice-cream when we reached the zoo central (resting area). Unfortunately the store only have the big cone type ice cream and fortunately for Cass, she get the whole ice-cream cone for herself.

She was so surprise and happy about it. When i saw the ice-cream started to melt, i asked Cass to have a bite. She gave me her ice-cream and i deliberately took a big bite. Cass watched it in disbelief and said : "那个是一口吗 ?＂（is that really just one bite ?).

She was eating the ice-cream so slow and i can see the sides are melting. again i ask for another bite, she gave it to me again but in hesitation this time. After i took another big bite, Cass protested with a sad voice and said : "ice-cream 变小小了＂(the ice-cream became so small now)

i try my luck again about 5 minutes later and ask for another bite, she doesn't want to give me anymore ! hahaha

It was Mother's day last sunday. I was wishing my mom happy mother's day and was shaking her hand. Then Cass stretched out her hand and shake mine, murmuring '.... mother's day'.

AH, that's GOOD ENOUGH for me, in fact it feels GREAT, AWESOME, FANTASTIC, to receive a mother's day hand shake from my-gal. thanks Cass !

With Cass watching more and more of those "Disney's" cartoon, i noticed there are violence everywhere. Not everything is sugar coated and those "princess" movies are not exempted. There are dragons, witches, monster, giant cobra, serious barbarians all needed to be stabbed, burned, drowned and fell down the cliff.

See how Cass grabbed the color pencil in one hand and holding her fist in another, all ready to fight the villain with her heroes in the movie of course.

It's interesting to know that Cass actually has very intense emotion when watching those 'Disney's' cartoon. She will shout 'NOOO000oooo' very concernedly when the main character of the movie is in danger, like when Aladdin is going into the Cave or the snow white is about to bite the poison apple. This photo is one of those "NOO000ooo" moments :)

The first time Cass helped out baking is when we were making birthday cakes for hubby. Now, whenever she saw me preparing the ingredient and the oven on, she will wish her dad happy birthday :) She thinks all cakes are for her dad's birthday.

It was may day holiday and we made some for tea-time. She loved to participate and of course, make a big mess out of the kitchen.

I was having meeting after meeting till 2 am last nite and Cass woke me up at 6.30 am (as usual). With my eyes half open and frizzy hair, i crawl and sleep next to Cass trying to ask her to sleep more.

Cass look at me very concernedly and say : "mommy, 头发笑查膜了, 眼睛不能开了." Then she bend towards me and gave me a kiss.

thank you Cass, you're my loving angel. Things are starting to be much better since this morning :)

Usually Cass woke up first in the morning and she is 'responsible' to wake us up :).

Last Thursday
Cass (pointing outside the window) : "wake-up, wake up, the sky's lights are ON (开灯了)！＂　

Last Sat
Cass : "wake-up, wake up, the sun is up already (太阳起来了) !＂

Ｅveryday is a new day for her and i think we all can learn the joyous attitude she has every morning by waking up in full energy. :)

At our place, it usually rains around 8pm (just near Cass's bed time) and through out the night. We usually have bright sunny morning the next day. Last weekend was especially blessed with good breeze and warm sunlight. We got a new play set for Cass and had a wonderful golf morning ;)

Hubby was out of town last couple of days and i've been telling Cass that daddy went to work. She run around the house, search the rooms and didn't see her dad. So, she confirmed and say : "dad went to work (做工), and will buy something for shu-weih". I nodded and say yeah, that's right.

Later near bed time, she sat on her bed and say very loudly : "weih-weih friend papa where ?" She meant to ask me where is her dad aka her best friend ? LOL i told her since her dad is not around, i'll be her friend. She thought about it a while and finally nodded and say OK :)

I found this photos while i was housekeeping my hard disc. it was actually photographed last month as you can see Cass still sleep on the mattress.

We've bought her a bed on her own and she's now sleeping in a big girl bed now (Haven't snap photos of her new bed yet). She's now very protective of her own place, she doesn't allow me or her dad to share the bed. She declared it as 'MINE' :)

So i guess scene like this (they are sharing drawing) will only be remembered through photo like this.

If you haven't seen the 11th hour, i urged you to do so as soon as you can. The movie was intended as awareness campaign for our earth, the only place we call home. No matter which county you choose to be in, we are all living in the same planet.

Our earth has reached it's 11th hour, we all have to act NOW and act responsibly in order to continue living more.

Some of the tips that we can contribute everyday :
-- print less, 1 tree can hold 54K gallons of water !
-- use energy saving bulbs, energy saving equipments (like laptop)
-- use less plastic/paper grocery bag
-- recycle
-- turn to bio-diesel, carpool or public transportation

Purchase, download, borrow, pls get one. you will know my urgency once you've watch the movie.

Here's how you do the monkey dance :)

Interesting drawing from Cass last nite. The 3 red circles are actually balloons and the rest are up to imagination !

we went to a restaurant for a quick set lunch last weekend. It came with a bread roll, mushroom soup, main dish, coffee and dessert. Cass enjoyed the soup so much that she insist on feeding herself and finished up 1/2 of the bowl.

Yesterday i saw we had some leftover Portobello mushroom in the fridge and thinking that since Cass loved mushroom soup so much, i'll made some for dinner.

Wah-la, the mushroom soup is ready, main dish is ready and i put the soup in a fancy bowl for Cass to entice her to have more (she has been quite skinny lately). She took a sip and then turned to me an say very sternly, 'IT's NOT GOOD'. Yikes, my heart just sank and cannot believe my ears.

I tried to let her take another sip, she just say no. I told hubby about what happen and he said that he trusted Cass and don't want to try the soup !

Here you have it, my biggest critics (whom really tell me the truth) is my gal.

Cass has demonstrated more and more of her personality to us and keep reminding us that she's no longer a baby. She can now take off her pants, sit on the potty and wear her pants again. The first time she did it on her own, we can see the pride beaming on her face.

She show more of her preference lately and she chooses her own dress. Everything with rounded skirts and ribbons !! She's not shy when she wanted food. She will just walk over and reach for the cookies or scoop the food from the dining table when she wanted one. She demanded her own set of cutlery during dinner time and insists on cleaning her table when done. She takes reason more now and know her way to negotiate her tv-time with me (yikes !)

Just last nite, hubby called her baby and she replied say "no, not baby, it's Shu-Weih (her chinese name)". Yes dear, we know you're slowing growing up. It's just that we missed the baby Cass !! i started to learn and feel the emotion of letting go ...

Cass is having more of her personality shown lately. Yes, it's year 2 and here's a picture of Cass 'argue' with me about not to take her photos. i know dear, you've had enough of me pointing camera at you. But hey, even when you're making that face, or argue with me, i can never be angry at you, you still look cute to me ! :)

You think she has a more rounded cheek with her new sets of molars ?

Cass developed a set of her lower jaw's second molar this month. i bet the teething process is not comfortable for her because she keep telling me '牙齿坏了' (toothache). Worst of all, she has been very picky on her food. She doesn't want to take anything that i prepared for her.

She started to have a more 'chubby' cheek now with the new sets of teeth erupted. :)

more teething infor at : www.umanitoba.ca/outreach/wisdomtooth/tooth.htm

Cass has developed the viral fever, my guess it's from me :( Her fever shoot up to 39C during the weekend and even after she started the medication, her fever is still doing the pendulum swing and keep coming back.

Partially because i wanted to believe it's because of the sickness, she has been acting very very agitated during the weekend. i had trouble keeping my patients and keeping my calm. It's like she's testing my limit every 10 mins. She demanded TV the moment she woke up and doesn't want to shut it down. Everytime i ask her to leave the TV, we will have tug-of-war and ended up with her crying. *sigh*

check out latest creation by Cass, those drawings are cute or what ? :) she single handedly complete the drawing without any help and she even draw out with different expression and faces, go for it Cass !

this is how Cass loved her 'nice' :) she goes everywhere with it, even have her princess blanket (aka nice) while watching princess movie.

Cass usually play the keyboard for a while, then she will turn on the demo songs and dance. Here she's doing the spin. Spin away Cass !

It has been a rainy weekend and we all snug in most of the time at home.

I went shopping for sanders with Cass last weekend. Cass saw this pair and loved it instantly. She tried it on and never wanted to try any other pair. This is her favorite shoe rite now, she keep saying it has 'rainbow' and won't go anywhere without it. :)

After watching the lion dance show, i caught cass performing the drum routine from the lion dance using her color pencils and her chair.

I took my camera to Cass's baby sitter's place when i went to pick her up last week. Here, she's playing with the baby sitter's daughter nicked name 'ah-bui' :). That's Cas's new hair band she got during Chinese new year from the KL cousins. She loved the hair band so much n have insist to keep it on for the next 2 days until she finally snap the hair band into two, about 3 days later.

Every new year, the lion dance team will visit my in-laws place. This year, the lion dance team were a bit late so Cass and i waited even after our afternoon nap time. She had watched the lion dance before that but was not as exciting as she was this year around.

She was a bit scared of the lion as you can see from the photo... but soon after, she asked me where is the lion ? and if the lion went back to sleep already ? hahaha

This Chinese New Year, we've asked Cass to wish Kong-Xi Kong-Xi whenever we meet our friends and family. She is very sweet in the morning with complete kong-xi-fa-chai. Near the after noon, poor Cass has wished at least 50 ppl already. So, in the evening, she got so tired, the weather is so hot and i believe she had enough of the wishes. She is like 'kongxi-kongxi LAAA' :) in the evening.

Here's a funny photo of Cass taking a bow after her dance routine :)

Here's a photo of Cass at 26 months old, holding & admiring the cupcake i made for her. She usually just nimble to top and return the whole thing to me. Now she asked for cupcake every morning now !

Cass loved Circles. She does a lot of drawing in circle and will draw anything using circle. A flower, a snake, a whale are all represented by circles. HAHA.

I finally get Cass to combine multiple circles into a whole picture of a caterpillar.

Starting year 2008, i've planned out a craft sessions for Cass to keep her occupied. This is from the origami book that i've found from the MPH bookstore. She liked the origami dog very much and has insisted that she draw the eye, the ears and even the dogs hair at the back of the paper.

Cass is getting crafty of late and this is the project she completed this morning. She completed the flower project first and then proudly showed it to her dad. Then, she insisted on complete another project (the fish) and again showed it to her dad. I asked if she wanna complete the 3rd one, she must have had enough of it and say no.

Yesterday morning before we went out for breakfast, Cass picked up a 10 cents coin from the floor and told me to put it into her pant's pocket. I asked her what she intend to do with the coin she has, she just smile and ran away playing her things.

After that we went to McD for breakfast and as we were q-ing and discussing what to have for breakfast, Cass suddenly told us she wanna pay for breakfast and repeatedly says : "一块钱, 一块钱, 蔚有一块钱 !!" (one dollar, weih got 1 dollar) and she keep reaching for her pocket.

haha, it was so funny. I told her to keep the 1 dollar and daddy's gonna pay for the breakfast that day and she will go home and keep the money in the piggy bank. She can pay for her breakfast some other time. Oh, i hope you do that too Cass :)

Cass helping out folding her hanky last nite :) I have to say, she's a fast learner. i showed her once and she can already do it the 2nd time successfully without my help. She is also repeating the instruction when folding, 放下来, 关起来. so cute ...

We were waiting in the car yesterday morning to go to the babysitter's place. Our neighbour's son was preparing to go to school and wiating outside the house. I make a comment to Cass and said that : 'koko is going to school'. Cass turned to me and said : 'koko 乖 lor, 去上学. " I'm both amazed and glad that she associate school with 乖.

Then i tried my luck and ask Cass if she wanted to go to school. To add to me surprise, she shooked her head and said : "no-la, go khai-khai' (play).

hahaha ! There you have it Cass, nothing is more important than go out and play !! :)

i've loved the song Bubbly lately by Collin Caillat and has been listening to it for the last couple of weeks. i was sharing with Cass this song on Monday and she started to love the song as well. She requested the song before she sleeps everynite now :) Song is contagious ! You can find a lot of other variation for the song in You-Tube. Here i present to you the variation performed by Cass :)

We started our spring cleaning plan this week. Ar, you see, it has to be a plan, because we do not have a lot of time before chinese new year (4 weeks), i have only 4 weekends to prepare everthing and that include all the cleaning, baking, shopping, running to and forth parents and in-laws place.

Yesterday i took out the ladder and clean the ceiling fan. While i was climbing up the ladder, Cass shouted at me from the ground, "小心,小心 ! 跌倒 !" and she hold out her hand getting ready to catch me if i felt. Haha, it was a funny moment to see her to that, it confirm my suspicious that she had developed her emphaty towards others (one milestone in social development) by caring towards others. It's too bad i didn't have the camera with me (1/2 way up the ladder ...), but it's always happy to see that my gal shows some affections and appreciation toward her old folks once in a while :)

We spent christmas in Thailand this year. It was a fun-filling holiday for us. In the beginning we were worried that Cass will be having some difficult time, but, out of our surprise, she was enjoying every moment of it. She hasd so much fun that she asked to go to the 'hotel' when we were back home.

My mother has introduced this disc (Barbie As the island pricess in you-tube) to Cass. I wasn't aware that she bought the dvd and was surprised to see it. My mom had told me before that it is her role as grandma to pamper Cass and it's my role to discipline her. Ar .. i'm the bad cop here.

I was sceptical and don't want Cass to watch the movie ever. So, without making a big fuss, i shove the disc into the drawer and don't want to mentioned it again (don't want to encourage her too much). After 1 week, nothing happen, i thought she forgotten about it. However, 2 weeks later, she start humming the theme song and dance on her own !! I'm so surprise, does this mean she remembered ? and it took her 2 weeks to process and burst out the song and dance ??

It is inevitable after all i guess. All little gals loved princesses. My boss's 4 yrs old daughter dressed up as a sleeping beauty, my collegue's 5 year old daughter (who is from India) dressed up as mermaid princess, G's best friend's 4 year old daughter absolutely love the mermaid, my cousin's 3 year old daughter have EVERYTHING princess (including the book, bedsheets, shoes and etc). This princess thing is borderless !!

Cass is very sensitive about the whole show. When the princess is happy, she will be enjoying the movie (like melted in it), when the princess is in danger, she will run to me and say that she's scared. I think she somehow see herself in the movie and emphatise the princess danger. what's this magic about princess ? is it the same magic as Harry potter ? and star-wars for boys ? i wonder or is it just the wonder of imagination ? i wonder again ...

Cass has been helpful of late. She will offer her help whenever and whatever. There's no task too difficult or too hard for her. Early sunday morning, she looked out the front-door and saw some leaves on the ground. Straight away she walk out with a broom and start to swip it away.

The other nite when i'm making the kuih-ee, she came to help also. That's the picture of her showing me the resulted kuih-ee. The kuih is perfect :)

i was working from the living room yesterday because it was a public holiday and i was just checking my email quickly. Then i put down my laptop and walk to the rest room. When i came back, Cass is already sitting at the sofa 'working' on my laptop.



I was on a conversation with my team members the other day and i was telling her i hope i don't turn my gal in toa nerd like me. She told me bluntly says, "this is a loss case, she is learning what you're doing and she will most likely be turned into a nerd". Now i see it's becoming to be true ... yikes, what do i do ?? any ideas ?

After much delayed, i've finally found some time to put up the x'mas tree. It was early morning and one of my 1 hour meeting aws cancelled. I took the small window of oppurtunity to setup the x'mas tree with Cass.

It was fun as she's trying to hang the decorations with me and keep dropping it off. one of the decoration fell under that table and she was asking us to get it for her. G ask Cass to laydown, put out her hands to reach it. Cass looked puzzled and stare at her dad. Then she ran to the sofa, laydown there and hope to reach it using her hand. haha, i guess the floor is too hard to lay down afterall.

After about 30 mins, we finally got it standing and i turned on the lights. Cass has another 'AWE' moment when she saw all the lights. Then she started to sing 'jingle-bell' !

This afternoon after she came back from babysitter's place, she went and took off the decorations 1 by 1, put it in her box and ask me to put it back on the tree. It's a fun moment for us all over AGAIN !

Usually we will read bed time stories for Cass, but this time around, (just like any 2-yr old) would do, she wanted to do things on her own in her own way. So, instead of reading to her and/or let us correct her reading, she is reading her own bed time stories :), in her own tone, language, expression and imagination. Welcome to the reading club Cass.

Cass's singing debut in the CAR. The video is taken in the car from a cell phone, can't complain too much about the quality because it's as good as it gets. You can see she's really enjoying the song with all her expression and dance movement.
Enjoy !

Dear Cass has been performing in front of us these couple of months, singing and dancing in her favourite dancing dress.

Her favourite song last month was butterfly when she will flip her arms, running in the house and sing the song at the same time. This month's favourite is the 'hong-hong tai yang' (the red sun) and she will shook her head from left to right when it came to the chorus. Her all time favourite is dancing in her dancing dress together with the piano tune on twinkle-twinkle little stars. The most amazing this is she will take a bow when she has completed her performance.

Like a pro ! :)

It's interesting how ppl had came out with so many songs about animals for kids. the bla-bla black sheep, the butterfly, the ugly ducklings, the dragonfly, the mouse, the tiger, the horse and on and on and on. and the most impressive thing about all these is that, they are really timeless. How do you explain that the songs that we heard and enjoyed 20-30 years ago are still the favourites for our kids today. Do all kids (different generations even) all tuned in the same for the same type of songs ??

It's school holiday over here in Malaysia till Jan 2nd 2008. Our neighbor's kids came knocking on our door 2 weeks ago and ask Cass to come out and play.

There was some running, see-saw, slide and lots of swinging in the park opposite our house. And then everyone started to bring their bikes out. Cass was curious and happy to be able to ride on the "sport-truck" with the rest. It was fun and lots of laughters.

The kids played like they own the road and we parents basically is the traffic police directly the traffic flow of the whole road. Luckily there wasn't a lot of cars that day and they had a wonderful time.

After 2 hours of sweating, the kids finally settle down and cooling down in the swimming area. Now that's a grand finale ! Cass has a very good sleep that nite !

here's an updated photo of Cass at 2 years old.

Cassie the biker gal !

This is Cass's warm up activity before doing her actual drawing :) gotto make sure all colors are accounted for and in good shape.

i wanna slow down on this blog, after i get to know how the blog content has been mis-used. it was very upsetting to know how information can be used against you. But then i found out how Wei-Lih has been reading the blog and getting to know Cass better. So i thought, what the heck. the benefit of writing it is so much better.

Cass was down with stomach flu last week. She was admitted to the hospital because she cannot consume anything (not even medication) and need the IV.

poor Cass, pls get better and be brave now dear.