Swimming like a Fish

Although Ryan has always wanted me to stay through his hourly swimming lesson, I have often opted not to, because the indoor swimming pool tends to get rather stuffy and hot (even in winter) since the pools are heated and I always ended up with a splitting headache after staying there for 30 minutes.

Ryan doing a backward flip into the pool for me to take this picture...

He was his usual self, asking us to stay behind after dropping him off at the pool for his lessons. Since my wife and Chenya came along, we decided to stay to watch his progress. After all, this would be his 58th hourly lesson since we started him off one year ago with Mr Lee, his coach. We knew that Ryan has learnt much and came a long way but seeing him swim that evening was simply awesome.

The moment he changed into his swimming suit and had his cap on, he jumped right into the adult pool. His coach was already there waiting for him. He put Ryan through some simple warm up exercises in the pool and then sent him off to practice his breaststroke, which was the very first swimming style that Ryan learnt.

Ryan coming up for air as he did his breaststroke ...

I sat there, watching him swimming from end to end of the pool, each lap measuring 50 meters. Ryan is a small size boy and it is rather cute to see his tiny frame floating across the pool with his tiny head, popping up every so often for catch his breath before it disappeared again into the water ...

I started to count the number of laps that he is doing while his coach urges him on, screaming instructions and corrections, to make sure that his technique is right. Second, third, fourth, fifth and so on. I started to realize that the coach is now not just ensuring that Ryan knows how to swim but having the right technique to swim the breaststroke to maximize speed, as if he was being trained for Olympics. To my disbelief, he actually swam TEN laps of 50 meters each continuously without stopping. That was an amazing 500 METERS for a 5 years old boy. I can't even do three continuously but then again, I can't swim!

Then, after a short breather, he was put through his paces with his free style and then his backstroke, all of which he demonstrated with such ease and little difficulties.

Ryan doing his freestyle ....

Ryan doing his backstroke ....

It has always been our dream to see our son swim like a fish and whenever we see a child swim the entire length of the pool, we wish that Ryan could do the same. Sitting there, that evening, I realized that our dream has been realized. There he was, swimming the entire length of the pool, not once but ten times, and not just in one style but three.

Finally, the coach took Ryan through his paces on his most current technique, the butterfly. Although his timing and his coordination is still not exactly right, I can see his determination to learn and to master it and that was exactly, what his coach sees too.

"He is a very determined child. He does not have the physical strength but his mental strength is amazing." Lee shared with us.

Ryan with his coach whom he adores....Lee

Well, Ryan, as parents, we believed that this is one of the best gift that we have given you, apart from all the toys that you have been receiving...the skill to swim like a fish, a skill that will last a lifetime, a skill that we hope will strengthen your self confidence.

Ryan in The BeijingKids Magazine

The much awaited December 2013 issue of the Beijingkids expat magazine is finally out. We have been eagerly waiting for it because Ryan would be featured in it, promoting a Northeastern Chinese cuisine restaurant known as Liulaogen located at Dongcheng District.

Ryan featured promoting a Northeastern Chinese cuisine Restaurant in the December 2013 issue of the BEIJINGKIDS

He was invited by the magazine to be photographed, promoting this restaurant last month, after we wrote in with pictures of both Ryan and Chenya, informing that we would be glad if either one of them could be given opportunities to be used as models for their magazines. Our sole purpose is to provide them with the commercial photography exposure and experience.

I did not think that the invitation would come so fast but came it did, one month later.

Well, I must said that Ryan was a super easy child model to work with because he was just super friendly and obedient on set and did everything that was asked of him, without raising a fuss. On top of that, he actually enjoyed tasting the food that was put before him and that made the photographer's job so much more easier.

He was enjoying his food so much that the writer wrote in her column "During the shoot, our photographer had to stop to let the model finish a piece because he found it "too yummy to concentrate on the camera."

It was certainly a `First' for everyone at home. Hopefully, he would get more invitations in the future, not so much for the money (that would be good too) or the free stuff (I would not mind having any of that) but more so, for his own personal exposure and experience.

His First Commercial Photo Shoot

Ryan has always been photogenic even when he was a little baby and with his easy disposition, he basically can get along with almost anyone (except with his little sister most of the time, although most of the time, it is no fault of his).

He was once spotted by a talent hunt when we were still in Malaysia at KL Hilton just before we left for China and as requested, we have sent in his details as well as some pictures of his to them.

So, when we are in Beijing, my wife actually wrote in to BeijingKids, an expat family magazine to express our interest to have our children do photo shoot for their magazine if there are any opportunities.

And to our surprise, they actually replied and asked us to sent in some sample pictures and details. I sent in for both Ryan and Chenya and we got a call last week that they were interested to have Ryan do a photo shoot, to promote an upmarket family friendly Chinese Restaurant.

We were definitely excited since this will be Ryan's first commercial photo shoot. When we told him that, he was excited too and told us to give his hair a trim to make sure that he looks NICE! (He actually told the hair stylist to cut it to make him looks nice!)

We took him from school earlier, get him to have an afternoon nap, ensuring that the gets enough rest and off we went in the evening to this restaurant for his shoot.

The staff writer for the magazine turns out to be a real looker and Ryan as usual was in his element, chatting her up in no time and holding her hands like he has known her for the longest time.

When it was time to do the shoot, they laid the food before him, told him to relax and enjoy the food and looked up to smile at the camera. AND he actually enjoyed the food!! We have so much trouble getting him to eat anything at home, and here he was, in his sales and marketing element, selling himself, giving thumbs up for the food, saying how nice and delicious they were.

The photo shoot was over in 30 minutes because he was so so so ready to smile and pose and do whatever the photographer asked him too.

It was a good experience for both us and him. He has done HIS COMMERCIAL PHOTO SHOOT!!! And we are looking forward for more to come, for his sake. Do we have a model and star in the making????

42 seconds

Ryan finally completed his first 36 hours of swimming lessons with his coach yesterday and he is on to the next 36 hours that we have signed up.

Over the last couple of months, from not knowing how to swim, he has made tremendous progress that we can only be proud of. For one, as I have posted earlier, we had registered him in a swimming competition 2 months ago, and he did his first 100 meters breaststroke in an impressive 2 minutes 22 second (1 minute 11 seconds for 50 meters). That was not his best time then as he has done 55 seconds for 50 meters before during his lessons.

From then, the coach has also started him on freestyle. 

With the completion of the first 36 hours of lessons, his best time for 50 meters breaststroke is 48 seconds while he did an impressive 42 seconds for his 50 meters freestyle.

Not bad for a 5 year old boy considering that both his mommy and daddy are NOT good swimmers at all.

The lessons have not only taught him a lifetime skill set but also the encouragement given by his coach and his determination to do better, has motivated him to eat better and develop a keen interest in food and building more muscles, so that he can swim better and `fight' better in his weekly kungfu classes. (More on that in the future)

We are proud of you son...Keep it up. Soon, we hope to see you doing butterfly too .....:)

Chenya is Now Two

Time flies and almost at the blinking of an eye, Chenya has just celebrated her second birthday. We have seen much changes in our lives in the last one year. For one, the entire family has been relocated to Beijing in November 2012 to start a new life in a new environment and new adventures.

From the moment she arrived, I knew that she is going to be a handful and a fierce one too and that is exactly how she has turned to be.She is as active as her brother Ryan, attempting every single move that her brother is doing. Her favorite toys so far are guns and cars (Pengsan!)

She is not afraid of anyone at home right now and had almost everybody twirling round her fingers. I am trying very hard to be the one to discipline her and instill some fear and respect in her at this age, else she would be absolutely uncontrollable.

She is demanding and when she wants something, she want it instantly and can be rather persistent in her demands. She is almost everything that Ryan is not. She can cry for long period of time with real tears when she does not get what she wants and smile just as fast, the moment she gets it. She is possessive and would rather put her stuff aside, even though she does not play with them instead of sharing them with another, including his brother.

She can also be rather manipulative to get grab attention. There were instances when she would just walked past her brother who was sitting innocently on the sofa watching TV, purposely let her hand  touched his legs and the before you knew it, she would be crying and running towards us, crying ...."Kor Kor knock knock Chenya!"

Her brother would look baffled, confused and would vehemently denied having anything to do with it. "No! No! I didn't touch her! She came and use her hand to touch my leg ... like this ..like this..." he would defend himself.

I must said poor Ryan received several rounds of warnings from us before we wised up to this manipulative girl's tactics.

She loves singing and grandma has taught her Theresa Teng's songs that she would sing whenever she feels like it. She will automatically moves and shakes her bump whenever she sees dances on TV.

She loves clothes and would choose her own clothes even at this age and she loves shoes and constantly changes and alternates between the several pairs she has adopted from Ryan.

At the age of 2, she is a fast learner. We are constantly amazed with the new words that she picks up either from us, her brother or TV. She is able to form sentences and recently even knows how to talk back to us! (Really Pengsan!) With us being in Beijing right now, she is getting on very well with at least three languages, namely English, Cantonese and Mandarin.

All in all, to sum it up, Chenya is after all, a GIRL in every sense of the word.

Chenya with her picture taken with mommy, brother Ryan and her grandmother with her tiny Angry Bird cake when mommy came back from her business trip in Atlanta to have another round of celebration with her.

First 100 meters breaststroke Competition

We have been wanting to registered Ryan for some formal swimming lessons even when we were back home in Malaysia but unfortunately, either they said that he was too young or they could not find enough young children to be grouped together to start  a class or the venue was simply too far from where we stayed.

Hence, we we arrived in Beijing, we made sure that the apartment that we stayed has a club house with good swimming facilities and Park Avenue seemed to be the perfect fit. They have a bright Olympic size pool with good trainers and training program. We wasted no time in enrolling both Ryan and Chenya for 36 hours of private lessons each (with an option that the total combined 72 hours can be used by either one). It was rather painful (financially) when it came to making payment as it cost us something like RM7000 each. The only consolation is that the lessons are hourly one on one basis by a professional well trained coach whose credentials include being one of the National Swimming coaches, among others. Lee, was exceptionally good with children and having a son of just one year old (swimming like a fish) truly helps him in understanding how to motivate and encourage little ones to learn and have fun at the same time.

We certainly have seen how fast Ryan, who already loves the water even when he was one year old, learnt and progressed.

The biggest milestone and challenge was when after just 27 hours of lessons, he was asked to take part in the recent swimming competition held by the club. We were not sure but his coach has full confidence that the competition will do him good. So, we went ahead to registered him under the 5-6 years old category (since he will turned 5 by the date of the competition).

To our surprise and horror to an extend, we found out that he was actually registered in the 100 meters (2 laps of 50 meters) breast stroke in the 5-6 years category. His trainer as usual was full of confidence and told us not to worry. When his turn came, his coach came over and simply told him to swim his heart out and that there is nothing to worry about. Ryan simply smiled and got into the water. 

He was the youngest and simply the smallest in size among all the competitors. When the whistle went off, he just kicked away. Everyone was cheering. He started strongly and for the first 25 meters, he was neck to neck but clearly we could see him tiring as he approached the 50 meters mark. Our biggest concern was NOT for him to win. All we wanted was for him to finish the race no matter what because that would boost his confidence level and motivate him even further, knowing that if he put his heart into it, nothing is IMPOSSIBLE.

I can see the determination in his face as he surfaced each time to take a deep breath before pushing himself for another couple of strokes. By the time he made the turn, the others were already half way back. He kept on nevertheless, pushing and puffing. The entire crowd was cheering and clapping to urge him to go on.

When he touched the wall of the pool, everyone cheered. He DID IT! In 2 minutes and 22 seconds, Ryan completed his first 100 meters breast stroke competition. This was definitely NOT his best time as he has clocked 55 seconds for 50 meters before, according to his trainer but THAT is NOT important to us. We are the proudest parent there, because at the tender age of 5 years old, after merely 27 hours of lessons, our son COMPLETED his very FIRST SWIMMING COMPETITION!

The trainer came over and said “He might not have the physical strength but what he has is far more important, mental strength and determination.”

We could not be happier! Well done Ryan. When you read back this post when you are older, always remembers, NEVER QUIT nor GIVE UP in whatever quests you undertake. Just like your first 100 meters, with every stroke and every puff, you are getting nearer to your finishing line and everyone, especially your mommy and daddy will always be there to cheer you on! GO GO GO!