Deepavali

A few friends and I went for a walk around Little India in Georgetown the night before Deepavali in the hopes that we would find something festive to do.  However, while we had a good time, there wasn't much in the way of festivities for us to partake in - at least not in the normal Penang sense of the word.

We checked out some sweet scooters . . .

Saw a few monks . . .

 A few shoppers. . .

 and borrowed a rickshaw. . . we returned it promptly.

But aside from a few fireworks there wasn't much out of the ordinary going on for Deepavali.  But as always there were a few gems to admire during our walk.

Emily is 2 Years Old

This happened over a month ago and although it took us this long to write it up we actually even celebrated a day ahead of schedule.

It feels like this little girl has been with us all our lives yet she's just barely turning two years old. Needless to say she's the light of our lives and we're completely in love with her. She is a very loving big sister and rarely gets jealous when we have to tend to Arves' needs.

Until about a month ago she used to be this shy little girl who refused to say hi to people even if we asked her to. Ever since my mom came to help us for Arvesito's arrival, Emily has broken out of her shell and is now a completely different girl. She is much more talkative and friendly to everyone.

Here are some of the things to highlight:
- Talking talking talking...Emily can say anything she wants or needs and very rarely we struggle to understand her.
- She has a great memory and can remember things we've told her only once
- Emily loves to run, she likes us to chase her around, or run after balls and has a little circuit at our house that she does over and over again
- At school she continues to learn Bahasa (local Malay language) and is still exposed to Mandarin through her friends
- Loves music and singing. She had the chance to see a live band during dinner a LOVED it. She clapped and danced all night and did not stop smiling for a second
- English is still her primary language but she still understans everything in Spanish and sometimes talks to me in Spanish

Since I'm writing this now that she's a bit over two I get to highlight some of the new accomplishments that come with being two - Tantrums. She's been doing them for a week now and boy does she have stamina. She can go for over 30 minutes of intese screaming, kicking, and just plain frustration.

We had a great birthday celebration with our Penang friends and Emily had a blast. Here are a few shots from the party, pool party in November thanks to Penang's awesome weather.

Arvesito's idea of a pool party

Opening a few presents