muffins galore

This is an exceptionally quiet night. Hub is working late and there is only me and JD at home. Nothing unusual, except for the fact that I have cooked, eaten the dinner and washed the dishes all by 7pm considering we only got home an hour ago. I couldn't figure out what to make for dinner tonight but the leftover roast duck from the night before gave me an idea. We had kway teow soup with roast duck simmering in some light chicken soup and serve that with some fresh kai lan. It was simple, delicious and easy.

And after sending JD off to bed, I thought I had better do some work, but alas, I got distracted. To do what, I went to bake some banana and blueberry muffins (sorry vege!).

1st of many to come

This seems a bit early, but we have already been invited to the very first Xmas party last Sunday. This was organised by JD's daycare with all other kids from many other daycare. So as you can imagine, there were many kids, many parents, lots of fun and games for the kids, and lots of opportunities for parents to catch up. It was great fun, there was Santa, of whom JD showed very little interest in as he was far too busy being entertained by the bubble man! I dragged hub along to this one, hee hee, as I knew he was dying to make a run if given a chance.

Just one thing that JD does and which always frighten the hell out of me was catching him swinging like a monkey (which he is really, ha ha) on top of the slide before plonking his botton the slide and go "wheee"...arggh, kids, they are so fearless but scare the hell out of me each time.

father n son

There is something very special about the bond between a father and child.

I see that in my hubby the day JD arrived in this world. He never got tired of the infant cries, holding him, cuddling him till he settled. He is one of those dads that never got tired of changing those weeey and pooey nappies, and one that never failed to think of ways to make his child laugh. Hubby was the one that invented this thing called "tummy train" when JD was about 3 months old. And if you want a tight abdominal muscle, this thing is sure to work. Pretty much hub would lie himself down on the floor, with JD lying tummy down on his daddy and hub would use his abdominal muscle to create a ripple which tend to bounce JD up and down! That can go on for hours and all I could hear was the happy chuckles from the then 3 months old baby. Now that JD is 2 yr old +, and weighing close to 15kgs, that option is really not quite recommended!

And while strolling along the beach this evening, I saw the bond of a father and son that have been there again from the very first day.

mini break - day 2

I was spoilt this morning. Hub got up to cook me breakie, played with JD while I got to sleep in. I should have taken the picture of the yummy breakie he made me, but because I was such a pig, I ate the whole lot before thinking about it, doh!

The rest of the day was pretty fun, bringing JD to another animal farm for a bit of play. JD loves animals, and get excited when he sees a bird, or a dog, or a cat or duck or sheep or cows and even gets pretty excited with insects these days in particular, spiders and ants. I have seen JD spending hours in the garden looking at ants migration, and talking to the ants "Hello ants, what you doing, bye bye ants, see you ants!". Kids are funny!

No doubt JD was pretty excited when he saw the little joeys and mama Kangaroo today and was hopping around everywhere, pulling out grass and gave it to the roos...hee hee, too cute!

mini holiday

I have far too much leave building up, and hub has been working long hours and accumulated a bit of extra leave. So what could be better than taking a short break down to Yallingup, with long walks along the beach, letting JD run freely among the fields of wildflowers, sampling some wine, dining at some of our favourite wineries, waking up to a full cooked breakie and the fresh aroma of coffee. So, off we are on a holiday!

Oi, JD, mommy wants to take pic with you, but you are too busy drinking "coffee"!

you know you had...

You probably know you have had too much pizza takeaway, when you hear this from a 2yo kid.

Just the other day while having my dinner, I heard JD around the corner playing with his phone.

And here's his little role play that I overheard.

JD: Hello, Hello, Hi
Pause..
JD: I, (pause)...Order ice cream
Pause
JD: Ummmm, one, please
Pause
JD: Thank you, bye!

It was very cute, very funny but thought was the smartest thing a kid can think of. I mean how cool is that, you can dial for an ice-cream. I will have that any minute.

engineer in the making

JD's fascination with trains or automobiles or anything that has a got a wheel and move is unstoppable! Yesterday arvo while busy with the ironing, I heard him busy in his toys room. It didn't bother me until I felt a quiet silence in the house and to me, that means trouble, the "get into no good" kinda trouble. I stuck my head out from the lounge room and to my surprise, I saw this 2yo toddler on all fours in the room quietly and studiouly putting his railway tracks together. Now, while he may not have constructed it according to the books, he "implemented" his own little construction, and make it into a big long track. That to me was impressive and my heart glee with joy to see him playing alone by himself and getting such fulfillment out of it.

let's celebrate

Well, why are we celebrating? Tuesday is actually my MIL's 60th birthday! Now, 60th to me is a big thing, only come around once in a life time and should be celebrated. Now, my MIL is
strange little person. She comes in a small package, but full of characters, some I admire, some drives me totally insane, some I just scratch my head but many more I go along with and accept. Afterall, we are all different individuals.

Now before we talk about the celebration, here's a conversation with my MIL a few days ago:

Me: Hi mum, is your brithday on Tue, 60th leh, must celebrate eh!
MIL: What for? Nothing to celebrate one.
Me: Oh why? Is a good thing, celebrate where you have been and the future ahead wah!
MIL: Don't want!!!! I don't way anything!!!
Me: Ok ok, what upsets you now?
MIL: Nothing, you know, I tired you know...wake up 4am do this to that.
Me: Errr, ok, I call back later yah!
MIL: Ok ok, you guys want to celebrate, then celebrate lor, do what you like, I don't care!
Me: Puzzled look over the phone..

Hung up!

Feeling puzzled and confused, talked to hub, and he said "Mum getting old, sometimes a bit strange". Ok but 60 is not that old.

So, waited a while, I was brave enough to ring back (deserve a bravery medal for this ok) and thought I would do it another way...

Buzz!!!!

Me: Mum, hey, you know, is your brithday next week and we just want to celebrate for you ok. And you don't need to be so angry, we just want to do something nice for you. Is that ok?

Funny enough, she changed her tone

MIL: Ok then, thank you.
Me: Good, I will see you at the restaurant.

My MIL is not the easiest person to please. She has a high expectation of people around her and for herself. She came from HK some 30 years ago and was brought up in a difficult environment when they had to fight for a basic survival. That became her, and instilled in her a "never say die" attitude towards life till this day. She strive for the best, for her family when they were young, making sure there is a stable and comfortable road ahead of them. She keeps herself constantly busy, and dislikes sitting still. Sometimes I wish she could take a breather and chill out! Sometimes I wish she could take some time out and do meditation or tai chi, but to her that's "sai hei" (in Cantonese - wasting away your energy).

Bringing her out to a restaurant is also a challenging task, coz she can a bit of a food critic. So, as you can imagine, I was squeezing every bits of my head trying to think of a decent Chinese restaurant but with not an exorbitant price tag to it. MIL won't be happy if we bring her to an expensive classy place. I think that's because she feels bad to see us spending lots of money to bring her out more than the fact that it is a classy and expensive place.

Finally I settled for a Chinese restaurant called Foo Gwai that is reasonably price but with good food. We had...

- Snow crab with black pepper
- Steamed fresh barramundi with ginger and shallots
- Long life noodle with chicken and chinese mushroom
- Fragant chicken with chilli and vinegar sauce
- Kai Lan with garlic

Now, I am quite relieved to say MIL was pretty happy with the meal and did not whinge a bit. Then, I also bought her a cake from her favourite HK cake shop. So, she got to be happy with that.

Hallelujah, for once MIL is happy, ha ha ha, I am laughing! And I have done my bits as a DIL! Mission accomplished!

shhhh, he is still sleeping

Psst...it's Friday morning, already half past 8 but my little man is still sound asleep...I have been to the gym this morning, work out to a good sweat which felt great. I washed my hair then had a poached egg and toast for breakie.

I am now thinking of a nice lunch by myself today, hee hee.

JD will be off to daycare this arvo but I have a few things to fix up for the house. My sis is coming over to Perth in Dec and I want to get the house all nice and ready for Xmas and for her too.

A few things lining up for the day, I will be back later to write more.

Well, I didn't get a chance to pop into Freo for lunch coz too many things I wanted to do. But I settled a for a yummy bowl of curry laksa, ha ha! Well, not the calories-friendliest thing to eat, ah, but what a heck, I have worked out hard enough in the morning.

I instead spent my afternoon shifting the furnitures around. The front lounge room is now the dining room and my previous dining room is now my reading room. Then I spent a considerable amount of time vacumming and putting stuffs away in the shed. It looks really roomy now, quite proud with the end result.

And you know it's really good when the first thing my 2yo toddler said was " hey, nice!" "nice mommy" "nice"! Ha ha! And I know I haven't stuffed it up when hub kept saying "ummm, I like it" and turning on and off the light again and again to look at the change. Ha ha, so funny.

Ok, now on my previous post when I whinged about hub working late and etc. Well, yes, I know he is a hardworking man, but you know, I am a bit of a whinger at times. No doubt I love him to bits...but he can drives me crazy at times, ha ha!

i am whinging, i know

Tonight I feel blessed and lucky to have a child like JD! He is a breeze most of the time (touch wood eh!). He is a good eater, never fusses, whatever I cook always taste good to him. He says "thank you" when I put dinner on his little table, he even get me organised in the morning by getting my shoes out from the cabinet, he misses me when I am not around and jumps with joy when he sees me at the end of the day. He knows Sunday morning is our special walk around the suburb, when we detour to the bread shop, then the newsagent, then to a nearby park before heading home. He asks for me to read his favourite story every night, and a kiss and cuddle before he goes to sleep. He even tried to put a hair clip on my hair to make me look pretty, ha ha. He is a good kid, full of love around him.

But then I also felt like a grumpy old bum today. I don't mean to sound bitchy at all, but I am getting tired by the long hours hub puts in at work. I keep telling myself that too shall pass...and try to be supportive coz he needs to do well at his work and if I whinge and carry on, that's going to affect him...then he gets stressed and etc etc! But how about ME? Who cooks my dinner when I come home from work? Who washes and dry my clothes when I am tired? Who irons my clothes? Who helps me to tidy up the house? Who organizes all the bills to be paid? Who showers the kid in the evening? Who puts him to bed? Who drives the kid to and fro from daycare? Who organizes all the special festivals, birthdays at home? ... the list can go on and on...but the truth is women are stuck with the majority of home tasks. Yes, I choose to work, that's an important part of my life, but I need help, I need support, I need the tasks and responsibilities to be shared and I need my husband to help me.

Long hours at work might be a common thing these days but sometimes I feel like running a single man shop!

Words fall on deaf ears too sometimes. I made my point but I can't change a person.

And deep down I want to feel appreciated, I want to feel loved...and maybe I am not hearing enough of that...and I feel rotten...I feel taken granted of.