Kung Fu Swim

I am sure you have heard of Kung fu Soccer made popular by Stephen Chow, the actor which was a hit many years ago. Have you heard or seen Kung fu Swim then?

I certainly have and the star of this unique style of swimming is none other than our boy, Ryan Looi. Yes, he loves swimming and he adores kung fu, the fist fights and the kicks. And the best moment he enjoyed the most during his twice a week swimming lessons with his coach Mr Lee, are towards the end of the session where he gets to play and have fun with his coach.

Look mommy, I am flying .....

At the end of each session, his coach will reward him by tossing him high into the air and letting him do his stunt before splashing into the water. He is quite a sensation, I must say at the swimming pool each time, they do this because, many parents would be staring in disbelief and and marveled at how agile and daring this tiny little boy is, having no fear, as it were of the water or the height.

The Eagle stance flying through the air ...

The Bruce Lee's high kick ....

Just a couple of days ago, I took him for his usual swimming lessons. We were a little early. His trainer was still teaching another kid. The moment, Ryan changed into his swimming costume, put on his cap and goggle and the next thing he did, was jumped straight into the deep end without any hesitation.

Jumping into the pool with style ...

There was another mommy who was there watching his daughter swim, and I could see her mouth gasped as she pointed at Ryan. I could see her disbelief and concern, I am sure, thinking that Ryan was reckless. Then I can see that her facial expression turned into one of envy the moment Ryan's head popped up from the water and started his first breaststroke lap.

She came over later and asked if Ryan was our son and how old he is and how long he has been swimming. 

Words cannot described how proud we were, when we happily declared that he is and he is only 5. 

A Tree For His School

Ryan's school had a Christmas party just before Christmas and the school closed for the Christmas season recently. Parents were invited and were requested to bring some food or drinks to the party. We were scratching our heads as to what to bring for the party. I am definitely not one into baking and hence baking Christmas cookies was definitely out of the question. We were thinking of buying some fruits but we were uncertain as to what fruits we should be buying and who is going to cut it for the kids. Moreover, we were quite certain that there would already be fruits at the party.

Then, the idea of presenting the class with a Christmas Tree and some ornaments came upon us. We made a quick call to the school as to whether that would be OK. They more than welcome the idea.

We believe that the tree would be a more 'lasting' gift because they could use it for several years (hopefully) and it fits in nicely with the theme and festive period of the season.

Ryan, Mommy and Chenya enjoying their snacks ...

Hence, we rushed back to the vendor where we got our own tree. She was too happy to see us when we told her that we wanted an exact tree and four boxes of shinny ornaments. My wife, of course was the negotiator and by the time, she finished with her bargaining, the vendor (she) and her were practically best of friends. The vendor was an equally shrewd businesswoman herself. I guessed that they finally found someone to match their wits and crossed swords and were happy and satisfied at the end of the day.

The children taking part in the unpacking the tree ....

The children at the class were all excited when they learnt that they were getting a Christmas Tree. Ryan, of course, was running up and down telling everyone that his mommy and daddy were the ones would bought the tree and he has one similar one at home. Everyone took part in the unpacking of the tree and took turns to put up the ornaments with some help from the teachers and some parents.

"Now, how am I going to organize this and get them to work together without fighting ??????"

All in all, it was interesting to see how the children came together to get it done without crashing the tree, and helping each other out with the taller children decorating those parts of the tree where the younger ones could not reach.

With them putting up their ornaments, the tree somewhat became `their' tree and that sense of belonging.

The children all taking part in putting up the ornaments to decorate the tree ...

We actually suggested to the teachers if they could just get each student in the class to write their name and year on an ornament and put them on the tree, hence, leaving behind a mark that they have been there before. Over the years then, one could see all the children who have had a hand in decorating the tree every Christmas as way of remembrance.

Ryan with Jeff, the Santa Claus and Grace, two of his favorite teachers in the world right now ....

I certainly hope that our little gift has somewhat made this Christmas more memorable and exciting for Ryan and his little friends in his class.

Putting Up The Tree

We will be spending Christmas this year in Beijing and I certainly hope that it would be a white Christmas. The temperature has already plunged below zero but snow is slow this year. However, Christmas is still a week away and there is hope yet.

I packed my 7 foot Christmas tree from Malaysia when we shifted over to Beijing last year and we opened up the box to put up the tree last year, we  found that the stand for the tree was damaged in the shifting. Hence, we have not tree in Beijing last year.

The new Christmas tree that we put up this year in Beijing ..

This year, since we are staying put in Beijing for Christmas and no Christmas is complete without a tree, we went out to buy a new one. We were told that they were much cheaper here but we have no idea how cheap they really were until we got ours. We bought a new 5 footer with fiber optic lights, just like the one we had, for only RMB150 (RM75)!!! I remembered that we bought ours back in Malaysia for RM400 (RMB800) at a special discount and we had to drive all the way to Petaling Street to get it!

This would be the first year that Chenya could help in decorating the tree and she had fun, both helping and fighting with her brother while helping of course. Daddy was busy in putting up the ornaments while mommy was busy with the camera (or busy figuring out how to use the camera).

We also bought a Christmas wreath to hang on our door for the very first time. I have always wanted to buy one and hang on our doors for so many years but they were so so expensive back in Malaysia that I could not bear to pay the price to buy one. After much bargaining, of which my better half is pretty good at, we managed to get one that we like for a steal. Only RMB70 (RM35)! 

In fact, when Ryan had a Christmas party in school last week and we were asked to contribute some food, we contributed a similar tree instead of food, so that the children could put up the tree and hang up the ornaments themselves. And the tree can be used for a few years to come and we told the teachers that it would be a cool idea to get the kids to write their names and year and hang it up on the tree. Hence, over the years, they can actually see ornaments belonging to different kids who have been to that class previously.

More of that and pictures in the next post.

The Legend of Kung Fu

As far as I can remembered, Ryan has always been interested in kung fu and has been demonstrating and posing with his self taught moves in a lot of his pictures as far back as when he was only two. He was agile, flexible and above all, focus and passionate for the art.

Ryan, his friend Slevin and his head coach posing with the performers on stage after the show 'The Legend of Kung Fu'

Hence, as I have posted in one of my earlier post, we wasted no time, in registering him to one of the Shaolin kung fu classes for children his age when we finally found one bear our place. He has been practicing and learning his Shaolin kung fu for a couple of months now and had learnt quite a number of impressive moves which include his signature eagle, tiger and snake stance, all of which he is just too eager to demonstrate whenever he has a chance. Chenya is picking up her kung fu `moves' too, imitating his brother, watching from the sidelines.

Ryan going through his kung fu moves during training every Sunday afternoon.

His head coach seemed to have a special liking for him and at times, pushed him to practice with some older kids or used him to demonstrate some moves to the younger ones, all of which Ryan was just too please.

Ryan with his kung fu stance, taken during our holiday trip to Club Med Bali in 2011. We had always wanted him to learn wushu properly. Little did imagine, that he is now learning Shaolin Kung Fun in BEIJING, CHINA!

Recently, his class organized an evening to watch the well received 'The LEGEND OF KUNG FU' performance at the Red Theatre in Beijing (www.redtheatre.cn). Ryan was over the moon. Honestly, so was I as I have always, always been amazed with the`seemingly super human' feats that this monks could do. It was a family affair. We got special discounts for our seats and only had to pay RMB260 (RM130) for the RMB325 seats and it was 90 minutes performance.

Right from the word go, Ryan was sitting at the edge of his seat, eyes glued to the stage as the monks of all ages, leaped, jumped, somersaulted and `flew' with amazing flexibility and ease, occasionally yelling in recognition, some stance that he could identified with... "Tiger!!! Monkey!!! Eagle ...!!!"

Pictures from The Legend of Kung Fu website

The show was spectacular both as far as the stage production is concerned as well as the high quality of performance from the performers, bringing forth the message of the true value and meaning of practicing kung fu, their quest in training their body likened to rock and steel, as protectors of peace.

And where was Chenya in all this? Silently being cuddled by her mommy, hanging on to her trusty napkin, her thumb comfortably in her mouth, and her eyes peeled, constantly on a lookout for performers dropping from the ceiling or coming out from the side doors.

They must have been impressed by the performance. Why? Because I caught Chenya that night, smiling and with her eyes still closed, laughed and yelled "Very good (in Cantonese) and clapped" and continue sleeping.

And Ryan? He now inspired to be as good and wants to be able to break a metal bar over his head!!!!!! Not wanting to disappoint him, we told him that he could do that in due time and he need to practice harder and eat more to build up enough muscles and strength.

I just found out that they organized special tours to visit the Shaolin Temple. Emmmm...that would sound interesting, don't you think?   

2013 Halloween In Beijing

We can definitely feel it this year as Halloween approaches. Unlike back home in Malaysia, where Halloween was only celebrated by a handful, parents here, especially coming from the States were already busy preparing for their children's Halloween party, trick or treating and celebrating weeks ahead. There were loads of bright orange pumpkins  stacked up at the grocery shop at the apartment where we stayed (nothing of course compared those we found when we were in USA last year where pumpkins were everywhere and the entire Disneyland was celebrating Halloween).

As the fever of Halloween picked up, I was tempted to try my hands to make this Halloween a little special for the little ones - carving our very first Halloween pumpkin. I have seen so many such carved pumpkins before and always wondered how difficult and messy it would be to carve one ourselves. However, I was hesitant, not knowing whether it will turn out right until the very last night before Halloween when I finally took the plunge and went out to buy myself two medium size pumpkins. But I was still unsure how to get started and what is the best place or resource for information? The internet of course. Armed with some basic knowledge, I told the children that we would do it as a family project. With the images I wanted to do in mind, I drew the outlines on the pumpkin, cut off the top and told the children to dig out the seeds with a metal dinner spoon.

Me and the kids goofing around with the two medium size bright orange pumpkins I bought before we started our quest to carve our very first Halloween pumpkin.

First step is to have the initial design I wanted to carve and trace out the outline on the pumpkins.

Being totally immersed in the experience is the most important key to carving out a successful Halloween pumpkin and I am sure you could see how `immersed' I was in the process ....

Ryan, deep in concentration, digging and digging, working very hard to spoon out the seeds of his Halloween pumpkin.

I had to wait till both the kids were asleep before I could start the real carving because I knew that I would never be able to do it in peace and with the consideration, especially not with two very eager `assistants' bugging me. Once they were in lala land, I took out a small sharp carving knife and a little thin saw and started out my quest.

Two hours later, I have two rather impressive carved Halloween pumpkin staring back at me. I was rather pleased with myself.

The final masterpieces ....The ones on the right and the left were those I carved on the first night. The middle...that is a different story ...

I must said that I outdo myself this year because I did not stop at two. We registered ourselves to participate and attend our apartment's Halloween's party and we were given another two pumpkin as part of the goodies. I had to carve one more and since Ryan would be dressing up as BATMAN to his school's Halloween party, I thought that I would be rather cool if he could bring an EVIL BATMAN HALLOWEEN pumpkin to school. 

The evil Halloween Batman .....

Ryan has a new costume this year. His mommy bought a new costume for him during her recent visit to the States. It was Sulley from the Monster Inc. movie. Chenya was not left out in all this. This would be her first Halloween, one that she could participate (since she was too young to remember or participate in the first one when she was one year old). Mommy got her an extremely cute red and black Ladybird costume complete with a very attractive head gear.

Mommy goofing around with her two most favorite characters of Halloween, Sulley and the Ladybird

As much as we love the Sulley costume, Ryan very much prefer his Batman costume and insisted to wear that for his school Halloween's party as well as the party held by our apartment. He only wore the Sulley costume at home for some pictures and a short while walking around the park.

One of the lobbies of our apartment turned into a Halloween party grounds, complete with hanging pumpkins, spider webs and creepy spiders.

The party at the apartment was packed and all the children came out in full force, all dressed in their cute and some, rather scary costumes. It was a night where little Iron Man fought with Spiderman, Superman holding the hands of Cindrella and Batman was seen having fun with some witches.

Mommy with the two superheroes of her life, the Batman and the very cute Ladybird

Our pumpkins on display .....

"This pumpkin is MINE ...."

Batman striking up his pose .....

Our Batman surrounded by pretty ladies .... I definitely need to dress up as the DARK KNIGHT next year ...

It certainly was a fun night for the children and an exhausting one for the adults, but a definitely an interesting Halloween for me.

Breakfast with Minnie Mouse

Disneyland is famous because of her STARS! Yes. There would be no Disneyland if there was no MICKEY MOUSE to start it all years ago. What is Disneyland without the lovable Minnie Mouse, the amusing yet irritating Donald Duck, the pretty Daisy Duck, the ever faithful Pluto and of course the forever goofing around Goofy!

 Pluto got hold of Mommy and Ryan ...

Ryan goofing around with who else ....GOOFY!

Over the years of course, we grew up with the seven dwarfs (Can you name all seven??), the charming Snow White and her wicked step mother. Then there was Dumbo the flying elephant and the ever youthful Peter Pan and his arch enemy, the sinister Captain Hook. Of course there was the tiny Thinkerbell.

 Ryan managed to `cornered' Captain Hook as he made his round from table to table

We grew up with so many fairy tales in our childhood and they all live happily ever after. Never mind if that is far from the reality that we lived in but these are the very stories that formed our childhood dreams. As a boy, we dreamt of being that hero, while the girls dreamt of being Snow White, being swept off their feet one fine day by their Prince Charming riding on his white stallion. 

As more Disney's movies rolled out over the years, we have Shimba and the wise baboon Rafiki from the Lion King, the characters from Madagascar and Winnie the Pooh and his friends.

 Ryan with Rafiki, the baboon from Lion King

On nights that we were lonely, how many of us secretly wished for a visit from the ever doting Fairy God Mother, who would take away our tears and make all our wishes come true.

 Ryan getting his hug from the Fairy Godmother ..

Therefore, it is not surprising that a visit to Disneyland would NEVER be complete without hugging one of your favorite characters.

How about having your breakfast with them as they drop by one at a time, giving you a hug and taking time for you to pose for a picture with them.

 With the bouncing and ever joyful Tyger from Winnie the Pooh.

Ryan even got the Big Bad Wolf to practice Chinese Kungfu with him ..

With Pinocchio, the mischievous puppet that always wanted to be a boy

Yes, we did exactly that. We had a breakfast with Minnie and her Friends at the Park Inn within the theme park. Although the price for that buffet breakfast was rather expensive, at USD35.99 (RM120) per person, but it presents the opportunity for the little ones to hug and interact with the different Disney characters that drop by. Expensive it might seemed, but if you are thinking of doing this, you got to ensure that you make your reservation as early as possible because the restaurant is constantly packed to the brim.

 Even mommy can not resist the temptation and the chance to realise her childhood dream, having her picture taken with Minnie Mouse ...

 Getting a hug from Dale, one half of the ever joyful to watch chipmunks, Chip and Dale

This probably has to be one of the most expensive buffet breakfast we had but judging from the smiles, grins and laughter we all had, especially from Ryan, I must also said that this is also one of the HAPPIEST breakfast we had.

And of course, how can Ryan leave Disneyland, the Happiest Place on Earth without having his picture taken with the that one iconic STAR who had started it all, MICKEY MOUSE himself.

 And he is, the main STAR of Disneyland, MICKEY MOUSE himself in person and this is the icing of the cake as far as the trip to Disneyland is concerned ...

Ryan is already asking when he is going back to see his `friends' and Chenya is asking when she is going to "Ikneeland" to see "mikey moose".

I am foreseeing another trip to the happiest place of earth somewhere in the horizon and honestly, this daddy is looking forward to, to once again walk through her magical gates and be transformed and transported yet again .....