The forgotten birthday

It's been three years since activation day. We had our ups and downs in this hearing journey. But it's been very interesting. Rhianna never fails to amaze me with her verbal abilities and her never ending chatter.Her listening skills are pretty awesome too.

We actually forgot her hearing birthday until the day arrived. Luckily, we had planned to take her to watch the Hi5 show the next day.Yes, the Hi5 people were here for three days live show. Rhianna saw the advertisements and went crazy.She loooves Hi5 and she'd spend hours watching their dvd if I'd let her. So we thought why not...let's get those tickets and dance with Hi5.

So she was on her best behaviour the whole week,doing her homework , reading her books and ticking off the calender in anticipation of the big day. It was very funny.

The show was fun and interactive and the children loved it. Rhianna enjoyed the dance and the songs immensely and didn't have any problem with the sound system whatsoever which amazed me. I guess in the end, watching the show was a pretty good way of celebrating her hearing birthday.
The avid fan got to watch her favourite group performing on stage. Mom and dad got to giggle at the amazed look on her face and got to marvel over and over again at the life changing technology called cochlear implant.

Five in the air..let's do it together 

Before the show 

She loves the shirt 

Recent trip and (not much) photos

So we went to Langkawi Island to spend some times with our family.Rhianna had a blast with all the activities but what she enjoyed most was spending time with her cousins,aunts and uncles and grandparents.
We stayed at Four Point by Sheraton hotel.We loved the hotel.The room was beautiful and enormous and the view was great.

Our balcony view

We went on a boat for mangrove tour and eagle feeding session.We were supposed to go island hopping to the small beautiful surrounding islands but the weather was not very cooperative so we decided to skip the trip.I was actually hoping that we could go fishing ( the last time we did it, we caught a big barracuda )
but we figured safety first since we had children and seniors on the boat (sorry dad!).

Enjoying the mangrove tour

The eagles coming down to feed.The locals said that we could see more eagles if we came in the morning.Since it was already in the afternoon,we just saw maybe 10-20 eagles.Pretty amazing sight.

We also visited the Underwater World where they have a lot of exotic fish (no pictures-you should have figured out that I'm not much of a photographer.These photos were taken with the blackberry only).We spent some times at the animal farm where we fed the deers and rabbits.

Rhianna and Lucy the Australian pony.

The animal lover and her bunny friends.The rabbits all had fat bellies when Rhianna had done feeding!

We all had fun in this beautiful island.Rhianna got to do a lot of swimming in the hotel's gigantic pool.The aloksak works great.Rhianna was singing the whole time she was in the pool.It was lovely to see.Her hearing in the pool also makes my work a lot easier.I had to do a lot of bribery and threat to get her out of the pool,remember?

See that look? Know what I mean?

Hotel / swimming

We were in Malacca the historical city of Malaysia last weekend.Rhianna has gone on quite a number of short trips since she was old enough to walk.But this trip was more meaningful since she now has the words to all the wonderful things that she saw.She could also demand ask for things or activities that she wanted to do.

All the way on the 2 1/2 hour drive,she was clutching the map to the hotel studying the hotel picture and the swimming pool..Oh,she was also holding on to the fully inflated turtle ring float (she was so ready to jump in the pool!) and hugging her baby doll (her current best friend).The first half hour was fine as she was asking me the names of the new things she saw on the map.The next 2 hours was a different story altogether.

As she was getting more and more impatient, all vocabulary seem to vanish from her lexicon and her answer to any questions asked was only one of either words.

Hotel / swimming

"You want to nap first?"  - "No,swimming"
"You want to come out with me and buy drinks?" - "No, hotel"
"Why don't you put down the float?"  - "No, swimming"

When nobody asked questions,she started whining using the two words alternately repeatedly...We had to endure that for 2 hours straight...

Beside the nightmarish car ride,we had a wonderful time exploring new things and providing her with new words.Now, if I only I can find time to turn the photos into an experience book...

The beautiful hotel at night

Fun and free spirited girls..Of course when the ride was over,the littlest one cried.

Then, she got to ride a pink scooter..solo this time

With the well travelled best buddy having lunch

The one thing that could make Rhianna eat her vege, pick up her toys,take afternoon naps and do all the impossibles..SWIMMING!

Trip to the airport

We went to the airport today to meet my brother (whom we have not seen for many months).He was on his way back to Langkawi Island from his training work in Bali Island (imagine flying from one exotic island to another..how much luckier can he get?).Since he had 3 hours transit time to kill in the airport,we thought that it would be fun for Rhianna to see her Pak Ngah again.
She made some paper flowers in the afternoon and decided to bring one for her uncle.She was quite shy at first but they ended up buddies as always.She spent most of the hours bullying her uncle into drawing for her and making her some origamis.
The airport was very noisy (of course) so I switched her freedom into noise program.I didn't think that she would hear much of what we were saying but she seemed fine.She said "aeroplane go up,up,up"
when I took her to see some planes taking off.
She explored around and heard me when I called her from about 3-4 metres away with all the noise.So I guess she's getting better at listening in noise.
She ate chocolates and ice cream and spilled some on the floor (and on daddy!) then she kept telling me "ice cream tumpah" ( spilled).When the cleaner came to clean,she said "sorry" and "thank you".So I know that she knows some social pleasantries.
It was a lovely outing and the girl was dead tired and fell asleep in the car (much to mum's relief).

p/s: Pak Ngah if you're reading,hope to see you and your boys in mid June!