The beast

The beast has just been feasting on the blood of....

CHERRIES!

His boat

This styrofoam box is Liem's boat. He likes sitting in it and fixing the "lights" on it when they are broken.

He fits in a box too!

I'm not sure how he managed it but Liem managed to squeeze himself into this box as well.

Santaland Express

It's certainly difficult going Christmas shopping with a child. You really don't get much of a chance to browse and you can forget about him waiting patiently with you in the queue to pay. Myer in Sydney has this little train which goes around in a little circle three times for the kids. Liem loved his little train ride, he was still clutching his ticket long after he'd got off.

He fits in his toy stroller!

Well, here's Liem squeezing himself into his toy stroller. He even straps himself in!

The god-grandparents

People over here in Australia often mistake what I mean when I refer to my godparents. Over here, godparents mean people who look after your religious education. The Chinese version of godparents mean the people who look after you should anything happen to your parents. They are in effect a second set of parents to me, especially when I've been over here in Australia.

My godparents have absolutely loved looking after Liem whenever we've required baby-sitting. Life would have been much harder without them around to give me a break or to let Khiem and I have a day out together. They bring things with them to entertain Liem. They bring food! They are also trying to speak a bit of Mandarin to Liem so that he may pick it up too. Liem, of course, shrieks with excitement and jumps up and down with glee whenever he sees them coming over.

What Liem learnt from Daddy

Liem used to cry every time I washed his hair. No matter what I did, how careful I was not to get water or soap on his face or ears, he would still cry. Every time. It got to a stage where I avoided washing his hair if possible so he sometimes went a week without a hair wash. I had to get used to ignoring all the crying and hoping that the neighbours didn't think we were abusing a poor child in the house.

Then Daddy got into action. Liem's hair got washed in a very thorough manner with water splooshed on his head to get rid of all the soap without any thought of water going onto Liem's face or ears. The screams of outrage could be heard in the next state!

After several sessions of this, now whenever Daddy or Mummy gets ready to wash Liem's hair, Liem directs us to "wash hair with face washer". Not a peep out of him. What an angel...