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Phitus
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Name: Lac-Hong
Country: United Kingdom
Metro: London
Interests: music of so many styles... been on a Damien Rice kick for awhile, animation (traditional, 3D, anime, you name it...), art, movies, languages and world cultures, martial and marital arts, FOOD... i'll stop it there...
Expertise: making mistakes...
Occupation: Education/training
Industry: Education/Research
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
9/10/2005
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| Tien-Long's first ever
professional photoshoot was on Wednesday at a beautiful house in
Streatham, in S. West London. the photographer for the shoot was Debi
Treloar (http://www.debitreloar.com),
who specialises in pictures of interiors. there was a host of
staff present, including Karen from the casting agency, and Claire and
Stacey from John Lewis. two other babies (Bonnie and Isabelle) were
also there for the shoot. both had perviously done other jobs, and we originally met
Bonnie at the casting--her mum, Lisa (?) had given us friendly advice
regarding the industry (see the June 14 entry).
our baby was very restless during the two-hour shoot. we're not sure
why. perhaps all the commotion? we think it might have had to do with
not eating enough. the bottom line is that he was very shaky, fretfully
reluctant
to sit down, whereas normally he is happy to
sit on the floor. the first time he sat down was next to
Bonnie for a polaroid shot to test the lighting conditions and the
composition. once on the floor, he tensed up and fell back, hitting his
head on the carpeted surface and bursting into tears. later on, when he
had calmed down, he sat down next to the other babies, and just when he
was about to play with the lovely toys on the rug, Bonnie grabbed a
fistful of his hair and pulled hard, causing him so much pain that his
face turned red, and the tears came flooding again. it broke my heart
to see him, already fragile from bumping his head, then finally calming
down though still shaky, only to be unexpectedly attacked and caused so
much pain. when he had recovered from this assault, he sat next
to Bonnie for the shoot (around the time this first picture was taken),
only to have her repeat her earlier performance, again drawing cries of
pain. i always thought the modelling industry was cutthroat, but
this was ridiculous...
we don't know if our son
has the right temperament to be a baby
model, but we still think he is gorgeous, and we're so proud of him for
doing the shoot under hostile conditions. i suspect that simply sitting
still without toys or a book is
too boring for him (it would be for me!!!). well, we hope that you like
the enlarged scan of the polaroid. thank you to Debi for taking such
lovely photographs, and thank you to the rest of the staff for being so
warm and kind to Tien-Long.
this evening was International Evening at Kristin's school, where there
were loads of ethnic foods, games, face painting, a bouncy castle, and
live entertainment and music from both students and professionals. the
highlight was dancing with Tien-Long and Kristin to a fantastic Cuban
trio in the evening sun. the weather was beautiful as was the
company--absolutely magical. we cannot wait to dance with Tien-Long at
Summer Folk or other festivals in Canada. tomorrow, England vs
Portugal in the FIFA World Cup quarter-finals, and more importantly,
Thomas's birthday party and CANADA DAY!!! xx
| | |
| this will be a short entry.
we're still struggling to get the little dragon to sleep through the
night, and lately he has been fussing at bedtime, but at least he's now
settled in really well at the nursery. the staff say that his fine
motor skills are quite remarkable, and they suspect that he will
probably learn to walk before he crawls. he's learned how to clap, and
often claps to music and in response to one of us clapping, and today,
for the first time, he waved in reply to my good-bye wave, when i was
leaving to teach cello!
on the 12th, Kristin attended her citizenship ceremony so now she has
dual-citizenship (passport still needed). Tien-Long was really
well-behaved during the whole affair, and when Kris turned around to
smile at our son, he burst into laughter. please pardon the poor focus.
a highlight of our evening was an impromptu invitation to a barbecue
with some lovely Macedonian acquaintances (Radoslav and
Emilia--spelling?)
and their friends. they have a four and a half month old daughter,
Miastella. the
food and company were lovely, and it was so nice to have homemade
barbecue seeing as we have no facility or space to barbecue at our
place. next time we go to theirs, we will try to barbecue my
interpretation of Korean Beef Bulgogi and Vietnamese Thit Nuong (bbq
pork)... yum! we
then stopped by a street party organised by the South American owners
of the local pub. some neighbours were out with goods to sell, and
there was live Irish and then Samba music playing as well. the
atmosphere was incredible, and it was great to see so many families
(many of whom we'd never seen around) with children from the area
present--there was a true sense of community in the air. we were
befriended by two very cool children, whose father is apparently Keb
Darge, a Deep Funk DJ. we also met a photographer named Neil Wilder
(check out his
work: http://johnparkinsonagency.co.uk/main_menu.html), his wife Tania and their lovely kids. the pub is still playing
Latino music on their stereo, and there are still people in the street
enjoying the atmosphere. what a really magical moment in our
neighbourhood--felt a little like Sesame Street... so many interesting
people living near us.
finally, as promised, here are a couple of pictures from Tien-Long's
interview with Urban Angels Agency. sweet dreams, everyone...
| | |
| allow us to introduce the
newest member of the Urban Angels Modelling family: Tien-Long Nikosis
Phi! they called to express their interest in representing our baby
shortly after the interview/photoshoot. less than a week later, Jenny
called to say that he had been offered a casting opportunity for a John
Lewis baby catalogue! John Lewis is one of the big national department
store chains (think 'The Bay' but much more upmarket). our favourite
grocery store, Waitrose, is also part of the 'John Lewis Partnership',
known for its worker co-ownership, and its increasing practice of fair
trade with food producers. for castings, a casting agency browses
through photos from different modelling agencies, then draws up a
shortlist from these photos. the chosen finalists are then offered a
casting call, where a polaroid is taken of each child. from this
casting, the actuals for a shoot are chosen.
Tien-Long went to Code London (specialists in catalogue
design) for the casting, which unfortunately was at 10am, pretty much when he is due
for his morning nap. we had the pleasure of meeting some of the other babies and
mums there. it was interesting hearing which agencies the babies were
from, and who had done which work. all of the babies were interesting
in their own way. some had piercing eyes, others could speed crawl or
stand up. one waved at Tien-Long, and Tien-Long laughed to another boy.
one mum, who was leaving the casting as we were arriving was kind
enough to give us some tips. her daughter did a shoot for Cow&Gate
(a major baby formula brand) and she said that often casting sessions
are impersonal, where a baby is quickly ushered in for the polaroid,
then sent on his/her way after only 2 minutes. she also kindly
mentioned that we should not take any rejection to heart (which easily
happens) because often there are hundreds of candidates for just a few
places. well, Tien-Long sat up for the casting agents a couple of
times, but was clearly restless, and didn't want to stay upright for
long. on top of this, the flash wasn't working on the polaroid camera,
so if i'm right, the picture they took of him was a little unfocused.
and after a couple of minutes, that was it: "thanks for coming in.
we'll let you know..." we left and gave Urban Angels a call to let
them know how the casting went. the whole, brief experience was over
before we knew it, leaving us with question marks, and as soon as we
stepped outside, Tien-Long nodded off to sleep.
later in the day, we received a call from Alysia, the director of Urban
Angels just to inform us of the outcome of the casting. apparently, the
casting agents liked Tien-Long, and they picked him for the shoot!
Tien-Long's first casting, and he was selected for the job!!! we are so
excited and proud we are of him... sniff!... more importantly, i had
the chance to chat with Alysia a little, and the overall first
impression we get from Urban Angels (including our experience at the
initial interview/photoshoot for Urban Angels) is that it's a friendly,
family-run business, with people who are genuinely interested in how
their models are doing, and not just the professional success of their
models. if our hunch is right, that should make the collaboration all
the more fun and enjoyable. Urban Angels will be giving us a few pics
from the 'interview' session, and as soon as we get them, we will try
posting one for you to see--watch this space. for now, here's a pic
of our friend Julia with Tien-Long in Regents Park, and slightly older
pics of our dear friends 'Auntie' Collette and 'Uncle' Srboljub, who
adore Tien-Long, and without whose support we might not have made it
this far. last is one of the dragon posing during his 'pre-modelling
days' in April. enjoy. xx
| | |
| well, the 7th June was Kristin’s birthday and Tien-Long and I made pork-stuffed mushrooms with rice for dinner, and for desert, we bought watermelon. the weather’s been really nice recently (finally), and the melon really hit the spot... it’s really starting to feel like summer. it’s hard to believe that Kris and I have been together for nearly 8 and-a-half years! and now we have our little dragon… Happy Birthday, Mummy!
both of Kris’s parents had visited Tien-Long within two months of his birth. mine, living in different parts of the world, never had the time to come see our son, until recently. my parents are currently doing the long-distance relationship thing, until this summer when my father retires from his job as a professor in Canada, and joins my mother in China, where she has been teaching at a Canadian school. the only time they get to spend together is during holidays, and they chose to spend their most recent one-week holiday break with Tien-Long here in London, UK… I originally feared that Ong Ba’s (Grandfather and Grandmother in Vietnamese) delay in visiting was down to lack of interest, as my two nephews already live in the same town as my dad. perhaps once you’ve met one grandson, you’ve met them all, so you’ve become somewhat desensitised? I needn’t have worried. it was wonderful to have my parents over for the week, despite the cramped one bedroom accommodations of our flat. Ong Ba look really well. Ba brought over some truly lovely gifts for us, especially Tien-Long—he got a beautiful two-piece Chinese outfit with a dragon on it, and some squeaky trainers (sneakers for you those of you in North America!). it was wonderful to let Ong Ba play with our son, and Tien-Long really took to both of them. seeing my father laugh out loud and be so excited playing with our son really put my dad in a different light. not that my father was mean when I was younger, but I don’t remember him being so joyful (well, with the exception of some instances when my younger brother was a toddler), so carefree. guess that’s down to not having all the responsibilities of parenthood. anyhow, I was very sad when they had to go back. one cannot truly appreciate all the emotions and sacrifices parents make for their children until parenthood is experienced first-hand. that said, thank you, Ong Ba for everything you did and are still doing for your sons.
two weeks later, Kris’s Mum (Deb or Grannie) and Grannie (AKA Great-Grannie or GG) came to visit. Deb had already been over twice since Tien-Long was born, and GG once. despite GG occasionally reliant on a push chair, she is such an amazing trooper, and has never failed to tackle the flight of stairs leading to our flat. it was amazing to see how much Tien-Long how grown since the last time GG was here. also, at least this time it didn’t take a whole week for Tien-Long to greet Grannie Deb without getting upset. unfortunately, both family visits didn’t coincide with any of my holiday time, so I didn’t get to spend much time with everyone, although we’re hoping to make up for that this August. it has to be said that having four generations of a family in one room was quite a significant experience for us.
our little baby continues to develop. he’s really building up his repertoire of vocal techniques, squealing and screaming in delight, calling out, cooing, and use of consonants such as ‘B’ and ‘M’. it remains to be seen whether or not he’s deliberately trying to say words resembling Mama or Bo (Dad in Vietnamese), however we are convinced that when we say ‘Bye Bye’ he tries to mimic the ‘B’ sounds. his manual dexterity is really coming along, and he enjoys banging cups together, slapping tables with his open hands, and holding and drinking from his bottle. being a baby, of course he loves stuffing things into his mouth, including spoons and even other people’s fingers. unfortunately, since his two sharp middle lower teeth have come in, gnawing at fingers can be unbelievably painful (I feel sorry for Kris when she breastfeeds him…). he also loves drinking from cups, and has started eating apple flavoured rice cakes and baby pasta (non-pureed foods!). he also loves tugging at my face, yanking my lower lip here and there… ouch. he still hasn’t shown much interest in crawling, although he’s got really strong legs and keeps trying to push himself up. the past few weeks, he’s really learned how to sit up straight unassisted, and he LOVES being pushed in swings.
this past Tuesday, whilst at Waitrose (our local grocery store), one of the young cashiers, to whom I’d never spoken, was speaking to her colleague, and mentioned that she had been working at the store ever since Tien-Long was a newborn. it was wonderful to know that people recognise our son, and that he was being used as a reference point in someone’s life.
last week was half-term, and it was great to spend some quality time with my family, going to Regents Park, and catching up with close friends, including Tien-Long’s friends Charlotte (and parents Bec and Neil) and Connor (and mum Clare). we also played host to a family friend, Julia, who is the daughter of friends from our old residence. Julia, however, is no longer little, and is now entering her last undergrad year at Harvard!
Tien-Long had a special rendezvous on Tuesday 30th May. in my overexcitement about our little dragon’s looks, I decided to send to send some pictures to a few baby modelling agencies in London. I have to admit that this was purely a matter of satisfying my own ego, and Kristin had absolutely NO interest in doing this. I know that my opinion of Tien-Long’s looks is COMPLETELY objective and unbiased (yeah right…), and that parents are programmed to love their babies’ appearances (otherwise, there’d be a higher rate of rejection, I suppose). an agency expressed interest and invited our son for an interview, which would consist of a short photoshoot and a chance to ask questions. when we arrived at Hungry Tiger studios in South London on the last of four days of shoots, Tien-Long’s name wasn’t even on the list! however, the members of staff were great, and Jenny, the agency rep fit us into their busy schedule without even blinking. Michelle, the baby hair and make-up specialist, cleaned up his face and decided that Tien-Long’s spiky hair needed no tampering. Tien-Long got to practise his sitting skills on hard white concrete, whilst Dan, the photographer worked his magic and took some gorgeous digital pictures of Tien-Long which we could then see on the nearby laptop. Tien-Long was brilliant and so interactive, and the experience was lovely. regardless of the selection outcome, it’s exciting to think that our son is the first (?) Packer/Phi/Barnett family member to be considered by a modelling agency! and no, it’s not some dinky unknown company—they had four of their children feature in a recent Burberry worldwide campaign… we’ll let you know the outcome soon… stay posted.
this week has been very trying for Tien-Long. Kris has had to return to teaching from maternity leave, and so our son has had to attend nursery for the first time. this change of routine was quite traumatic at first, but he seems to be settling in better each day. however, he definitely knows when mummy’s leaving him in the nursery, and bursts into tears without fail. perhaps it is more upsetting for the parents. we are fortunate that Tien-Long is cared for by brilliant staff members, and that the brand new nursery is actually at Kristin’s school. this week, I’ve been rushing home ASAP in order to catch my son on his way home. and when I leap out from behind a wall with a ‘Boo!’, inevitably I am greeted by a huge grin. after a gruelling day at work, there is no better feeling than being greeted by your child with such love.
Thursday night I experienced a first: Tien-Long weed on me not once, not twice, but THREE times in the space of half an hour… first time was when I was preparing his bath, and he was sitting on my lap. the next time was when I came back with him to test the bath water. thinking myself clever, I decided to join him in the bath to clean off the wee, only to have him pee in the bath a few minutes later… ugh…
well, this entry has definitely gone on for far too long. I am off to bed, but first I shall do my nightly tradition of kissing Tien-Long’s ‘meaty cheeks’ as I affectionately call them. May you all get to experience the same unbelievable joy… | | |
| Easter break is nearly over, and it's been incredible to spend a
good two weeks with Tien-Long and Kristin. i cannot believe that it's
been at least two months since my last entry, and so much has happened
in that time. our son keeps developing at a quick pace. still not walking or
crawling yet, but he's such a chatterbox/noisy baby. of course we don't
want to jinx ourselves, but so far our son has a pretty happy
personality, and is fairly low maintenance, not that we don't do all we
can to keep him entertained.
the holiday break has been particularly amazing for me because i've had
the chance to participate in some of Tien-Long's daily routines. going
to music and movement, meeting some of Kris's mum friends and some of
Tien-Long's baby friends, also getting to meet and hang out with
some of the fathers--a highlight was walking through Bayswater and
Kensington Gardens with Tien-Long in my BabyBjorn carrier alongside
Neil carrying Charlotte (who i affectionately refer to as Tien-Long's
girlfriend, as they share birthdates) in his BabyBjorn. Neil is also
the only other EDGE (gaming magazine) reader i know!
the thing Tien-Long seems to dislike the most is being indoors and at home for
too long. that's when he's most restless, and so we've made it a point
to get him out and about as much as possible. of course it doesn't help
that we live in a one bedroom flat, which doesn't leave us much room to
move. speaking of little room, we had the pleasure of hosting Kristin's
eight-year old
cousin/goddaughter Maja for three weeks. Maja and her family live in
Perth, Australia, and Aunt Tanya had to do
some work in Aberdeen for two weeks so we had Maja's company during
that time, and then Tanya stayed with us for a week, joined by Uncle
David for the last two nights. it was wonderful to get to spend some
quality
time with such a wonderful family that we had not seen in eight years,
and for Kris to
get to know her goddaughter properly.
During Tanya's stay, we decided to work on Tien-Long's sleeping
routine. we had been feeding him each time he'd wake, but we wanted to
try and get him to sleep through the night, and settle him down without
a feed when he wakes at night. at first we'd pick him up and bounce him
whilst he cried. this worked, but the first few nights, he'd cry for at
least 1.5 hours or more before falling asleep again. on the third
night, he slept through without stirring once--that was a one off.
Tanya was a ROCK when it came to supporting us through his crying. a
baby sleep expert suggested we not pick him up if we wanted quicker
results. it's been a week, and for the most part, Tien-Long goes down
between 7:30 and 8pm, stirs occasionally in the night, then wakes at
around 4:30 for a few hours, and has not stopped crying. we've somewhat
decided that if he sleeps till 4:30, that's a good start. if by 6am,
he's not stopped crying, we'll feed him. it's a compromise... how do
you get him to sleep till 6am without waking up at 4:30?...
i will admit that it's been great giving him a routine. we try to feed
him at around 6pm, followed by a bath, which i've been giving him. he
then stays up happily for awhile and just around 7:30, he gets a little
breast feed, followed by a night time story (usually 'That's Not My
Dragon!'), then is put into his crib with a little light show, and as
not fussed to sleep. it's a great feeling.
we've been feeding Tien-Long a variety of pureed fruit and veg to go
with his baby rice or baby porridge. my personal favourite (i know it's
got nothing to do with what i like) is pear or apple. blueberry's quite
nice, and squash, carrots and parsnips are good as well. the one i'm
not too keen on (and i think Tien-Long agrees with me) is
courgette/zucchini (funny thing, type in zucchini into google, and the
first listing is for chocolate and zucchini recipes?!?!?!?!?...
hmm...). even stranger will be when we will have to feed him protein:
pureed chicken or beef anyone?
Tien-Long loves to stare at strangers on public transport. not to
mention he keeps getting loads of smiles from strangers. of course,
being a baby, he loves putting things in his mouth, including spoons,
books, blankets, the fingers of absolute strangers he meets, and he
even tries to chew the laptop! he has learned to shake rattles, but
hasn't much control so he flails his arms wildly. yesterday Tien-Long
took his first shower ever when he joined me. of course initial
concerns are that he would kick up a storm, but other than flinching
when the waterfall hit his face, he really seemed to enjoy himself.
Tien-Long also did something this morning during breakfast, which he's
only done once before: he FELL ASLEEP (picture included)!!! his head
slowly edged nearer to the table until it finally touched down.
other developments, we've decided to move back to Canada in August for
Tien-Long to grow up close to family. the quality of life he will get
to experience will be much better. there are SO MANY sacrifices we are
making (some professionally, but mostly personally, culturally), and
despite the difficulty of the decision (and some heartbreak), we think
we are making the right choice. i submitted my resignation for the end
of August last week. here's hoping Kris and i will be able to find work
as teachers and musicians for the coming school year... yikes!
now if anyone asked me if the parenting 'honeymoon' period is over, i
can honestly say it's just getting more and more exciting... i am still
loving every moment of it, and staring at our little dragon still takes
my breath away...
Hard Day At Work...
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