Boy or girl?

Whenever I go out walking with daddy, people always ask him this question. Unless I'm wearing a dress. It was worse when we went to Thailand, everybody said "oooh, handsome boy!". Daddy's daddy got fed up of everybody saying "pretty girl" about daddy when he was my age, because he had long ringlets. Daddy got taken to the barber's. I'll just have to wait.

Leaving it late for a haircut again

Long hair is nice, but typical temperature in our living room is around 30C - clothes and thick hair don't help anybody stay cool. Daddy is still offering to do my hair with his clippers, but mummy insists I go to a hairstylist. Daddy says I can have hair as long as I want when we live somewhere chilly, but he doesn't like to see me red-faced and sweaty all the time.

This picture is from the end of April 2008.

Oliver at 2 months

He's still growing - though mummy and daddy are mystified by his bottle size. He still only drinks about 125ml of "tastes just like powder", just 3 times a day. Mummy is still giving him her milk, but his bottles have been the same size since he was about 3 weeks old. He has started trying to talk, and daddy has long, silly conversations with him in the evening where they both gurn at each other and make funny noises.

I don't pay Oliver much attention at all - he's not very interesting.

The workbenches are getting smaller.

Daddy made our workbenches from the old doors that were in our house before we decorated it. Once I couldn't reach the worktop, but now I don't fit under it! They're quite deep, so I love to hide under them, especially if daddy is chasing me and saying "don't touch". I post things through the holes where the door locks were too. Daddy does make a fuss when he has to move everything to get something important back!

I like to site next to daddy while he's typing and draw. My favourite thing at the moment is to draw around the outline of my hand. Daddy will only let me have a pencil. When I ask for a pen, he takes me on a tour of the house and shows me how I've used a pen in the past. If I see daddy using a pen, I hold out the back of my hand and ask him to draw a star on it. I've often got stars drawn in pen on the back of my hand when daddy picks me up from kindergarten. I don't think daddy approves.

Oliver's shirt and tie

Nanny sent the shirt in the post, so here is Oliver, wearing Nanny's shirt. Oliver's bigger than I was at his age, but daddy says that he slept better when I was a baby. Oliver always wants to eat, and wakes us all up at night.

I want the camera!

Daddy won't let me use the camera, but there are some signs that he might. He gave in a couple of days ago, after I'd cried for a while. I know he says he doesn't give in to emotional blackmail, but that's not my experience. Do I look triumphant? I was trying for 'satisfied'.

I'm not quite sure how we managed to make this photo, but I had my hand on the camera when it happened! Daddy says he might let me use the camera again soon. Next time I'll blow my nose, and try to catch daddy soon after he has had a shave.

Too young to vote

My little brother Oliver's eyes are clearing up a bit. They've been stuck shut with yellow stuff a lot of the time since he was born. Mummy and daddy clean his eyes with cotton wool buds and warm salty water. He is gradually sleeping more at night and less during the day. Everybody is pleased!

I don't pay much attention to Oliver, at least when mummy and daddy are looking. While daddy was checking my uncle's registration for the election this weekend, I jumped off the sofa and swung a playful slap at Oliver while he was wriggling on his bed. I don't think daddy saw.

Daddy has started complaining about Malaysian websites again. He usually does, especially if he has been trying to access government websites. He often asks me "how can they be so bad?". How should I know? Anyway, it seems that the website for checking registrations for the election is becoming very slow as the date draws nearer. He said something about a hastily set-up second server, and used a lot of extra words that only daddy uses. I recognised some of the words: the ones he always makes a nasty face for. I can't wait to learn them!

Anyway, as far as I can work out from what daddy was saying, if you're planning to vote this weekend, and you want to check your registration at the Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (Election commission) website, don't leave it to the last minute! I'd vote, but I'm 19 years too young. I have to wait until I'm 21 in Malaysia. Daddy would vote, but he's too foreign (he does grumble about mummy being allowed to vote in the UK). I don't think Oliver will ever vote, he's either asleep or eating mummy.