Being independent

JD is now 2.5 yo and I have always been quite happy to give him the opportunity to become more independent and learning to do things for himself. He shows great interest in our daily activities, brushing the teeth, washing his hair, doing the dishes, washing the vegies, cooking, getting in and out of car himself, mixing his milk formula and etc etc. He gets terribly upset with us if we try to help him doing something that he has great interest in, such as mixing his milk formula.

He would rush into the kitchen when he knows it's time and firmly exclaimed "I do, I do, I do it!". Next he will pull the stool around so that he is tall enough to reach the bench top and make his formula. It can be messy, but he is getting better. And if I stand in the way, he will politely say "Excuse me please!".

I am happy that he is quite a little independent kid and carers at daycare have also mentioned that do me. But the line also needs to be drawn somewhere, such as holding my hand when crossing the road, not touching the electrics or anything dangerously harmful.

And since he was hungry this morning and wanted a sandwich, I thought I would guide him to make a sandwich for himself.

First you get a bit of butter,
Then you spread it on the bread,Next you fold it in half,And now you EAT it, yum!

Say cheese

I went to the nearby Asian grocery shop today and came across some cute looking jelly mould. And since it's been a warm day, I thought of making some agar-agar for dessert tonight.

So, here it is, some orange flavoured jelly in the new mould. JD loves it coz it has shapes of ball, bears, cat, butterflies...for me, I just like eating the jelly, wahahaha!

We were also watching the 2005 Winter Olympics while having the dessert, and JD found the figure skating funny to watch. And when I tried to take picture of him in his new Buzz Lightwear pyjama, that was what he did when I said cheese.

One little artist or doodler

Yesterday we had a rather eventful day, where I managed to get lots of things done and spending some really nice time with hubby and JD.

In the morning, hubby set off early to help his brother sourced the fruits and vegies from Canningvale market. They do this every Saturday morning. My BIL runs a lunch bar and it is apparently a lot cheaper to buy in bulk from the market than buying it through the supplier.

I started off with the garden, clearing the unwanted weeds, cleaning up the yard, washing the outdoor furnitures, giving JD's outdoor toys a big wash. All this while, JD was happily picking up the little tiny bits of leaves from the ground, throwing into the big bin, using his spade to do some digging, looking for snails in the garden and calling them snake, talking to ants that were busy migrating, and at the same time having a ball mixing sand and water!

I personally think outdoor play is one of the best education for kids. We get to look at the plants, picking fresh strawberries from the patch, spotting planes that fly across the sky, talking about the activities we doing, have some early exposure to science, ha ha, i.e. mixing sand and water, riding bike and running around without a worry in the world. That's the best experience for kids.

Just for your entertainment...this is what JD does each time he sees ants in the garden.

JD: Hello ants, hello
Ants: No reply, still busy migrating
JD: Hey ants, what you doing? Hey!!!
Ants: Still no reply
JD: Ohhhhh

Funny!

And when he has exhausted with the digging, talking to ants, he decided to do some painting.

He started off rather attentively, putting big brush stroke on the paper until he started to muck around with the colours.

Love affair with "pao"

I am a pao-fan. Char siu pao, tau sar pau, lotus paste pao, vegetable pao, xiao long pao, I LOVE THEM all! Last night on the way home from dinner, hub asked if I wanted to takeaway some pao for breakfast for the next morning. Without hesitation, I bought myself a ta pao (big bun). Honestly, I love ta pao. I remember having them as a kid while growing up in Brunei. My dad would go to the pasar each Sunday morning after his jog and buy us ta pao for breakfast. The filing inside is so juicy, with nice chunky pieces of chicken, mushroom and quarter of an egg. That was what I looked forward to when I was a kid on a Sunday morning.

And I love char siu pao too. I still remember my dad buying those steaming hot char siu pao from a then very famous Hong Kong restaurant in Brunei - The Lucky Restaurant.

Now, with JD, I also discovered that he is a bigger fan like me. After waking up this morning, I heat up the ta pao I bought last night in the wok and we were both literally fighting for it. Ha ha. I should have bought 2...maybe I will go back and get more tonight, hee hee.

Here are some shots of JD savouring his ta pao bits by bits.

But, if there is a favourite ta pao...it would have to be those from my hometown in Batu Pahat.

Chilled out

This is how I found JD tonight as I came out from my shower.

He has gone into my room, pulled off my comfy duck down quilt, my pillow from the bed and set himself up in a nice chilled out position...watching The Wiggles.

He sure knows how to have a good time :)

Gone into retirement

After over a decade with me, my good old faithul alarm clock has decided to go into retirement! Yep, kaput, stop and ain't going to do its job anymore. Sigh, I adore this handy little alarm clock of mine. It has an illuminator light so I could actually see the time in the dark. Very cool then! My sis got it for me from one of the little shops in Northpoint Shopping Centre in Yishun when I first started work in Singapore.

I have given it a second go as hub very kindly tried to fix it for me the other night after another late one in the office. But, it moved for 5 minutes and mati again.

I guess time to get a new alarm clock...

Half monty

Yesterday JD got a presie from daycare. It was a toy watch but he loved it so much that he wouldn't even take it off even when going to bed at night. And he was so pleased with the watch that all he could tell me on the way driving home from daycare was "I showed it to my daddy!"

And when I wanted him to pose a few shots for me, this cheeky monkey could only afford to do this for me! And he didn't even want to put a shirt on becoz it was "a hot day" according to him. It was 38 deg yesterday but dropped down to 27 deg today! And it is raining now. Crazy!

Note - All these pics were taken while JD waited patiently for dinner to be ready!

Dinner tonight

Creamy chicken and mushroom penne pasta bake!

Yummy! And there is leftover to bring for lunch tomorrow :)

Valentine's Day special

Wah, I got my roses for Valentine's Day! Ha ha, so cute, after more than 10 years of being friends and marriage all added together. I honestly thought there would be no more Valentine's Day. Well, hubby proved me wrong!

There was man standing in the front door with a bunch of roses! Sweet!

Yes, hub, you do suck in housework and gardening, but you do bring back lots of surprises when I least expected it! Thank you! You are off the hook this time,wahahaha!

While I have previously arranged to have a Valentine's Day lunch with hub today, it got a bit hard as we were both busy with work. But since I had the rare luxury of working from home today, I was able to make something a bit different for dinner tonight - his fav loh mai fun!

And I actually got the idea when I woke up at 5 this morning! Crazy!

Shit happens!

The last 2 months at work have been hell! It sucks big time! It's been horrible! There was a new boss on the block, though short term, but it feels like I have been to hell and back!

My colleague sent me this cartoon this morning, which pretty much summed it all up.

Nothing u do is ever right
Everything u suggested was dumb
You life and death at work depending on your boss's mood
You get the cold shoulder for no reason
But everything she said you HAVE to do
Never mind if she has been rude,
Not to say the least bitchy
And you must do NOW

Bloody hell, it's been terrible...at least I am not the only one...but I need to venge my anger somehere. Or as some bloggers called it, kanasai!!!!

But, not to worry, it's not long to go, and someone else out there might have an even more terrible day than mine! Like this!

All about JD

Well, I have been a bit slow in blogging lately...not that I intentionally want to, but I just haven't found time in the last couple of weeks. Hub has been really busy with work, JD has had a cold and a tummy bug at the same time, my work is also getting busy with some killer timeframe, and trying to get on top of all other things at the same time. Unfortunately nights when I could sit myself comfortably in front of my computer reading and surfing blogs have been spent looking after a sick child sleeping on my lap and other hand typing away my report...it's been crazy!

So, after a crazy few weeks, finally I could breath a sigh of relief this weekend as hub's work has slowed down and I have a bit of a helping hand.

This would have to be a 'bumper' issue and I would try my best to recall everything that has happened:

JD's belated Xmas pressie

Ok, this is a bit sad, sad because we have taken so long to put his trike together. First, when when we got his trike for Xmas, hub only realised one of the parts was missing from the box after we got it. Then there was the Xmas break and we only got around to get an exchange sometime after the new year. Then we all got busy with other things and never got around to assemble it. And after a few nags, hubby finally put JD's new tricycle together and I couldn't see a happier little boy! It only took him a few attempts to figure out the pedalling bit and he was off...JD has a funny game when he rides on his trike, he will ride off and tell me he is off buying apples. Then he would hop down from his bike, run to other side of the wall pretending to buy apples, eat it all up, before riding off on his bike again. It was quite amusing to watch the imagination of a nearly 2.5 yo.


JD's little music concert

Another of JD's fav past time is playing up a storm with his xylophone, flute, maracas, drums, home made shaker (i.e. bottle filled with uncooked rice). Each time I put on a Wiggles DVD, I would see JD rushing into his play room, puling out all his musical instruments and lay them on the coffee table, banging away happily on his drums, piano etc before turning around and announcing, "Mommy, music concert!" Ha ha, that's classic. Honestly, no offence JD, it's a bit noisy, but hey, we all have to start somewhere...afterall most great music player started off in the backyard garage :) Keep going matey, I will just put on my ear plugs :) and one day if you choose to be a rock star, make sure I get the front seat and a signed autograph!

Child's best time

Since hubby had been busy, he has had little time with JD. Likewise, JD misses his daddy terribly when he is busy. So to compensate for all the lost time, daddy set up a tent in the backyard and both boys (the big one no doubt still considers himself young at heart) camped overnight in the backyard! JD loves sleeping in the tent and they have been doing this boy stuff since JD was about 6 months old! That's their time together, while I sit back, relax in the house and have the whole bed to myself, muahaha!

And last but not least, here are some shots of JD's yoga poses. Actually, I think it was more of him mucking around like any boy of his age. Seriously, I have been showing some baby yoga poses to JD, and so far he has mastered the child's pose, cat stretch and dog pose. It's great fun when we can do a few yoga stretches together.

Mari memasak

Mari memasak part 1

Since having a bit more time this weekend, I have also been able to plan the dinner at home a bit better. I guess partly becoz I am not running around from one place to another and I could actually leave JD at home with hub on Sat arvo to concentrate on doing a proper groceries shopping without worrying JD tearing down the whole aisle of jams or fruits and vegies...

Last night we had a feast, well, feast becoz I quite usually just made one or 2 dish. So, with all the fresh groceries, I was able to make a stir fried cauliflower with carrot, steamed Tasmanian salmon steak with some chilli and corriander, chilli pepper pork and prawn crackers (little treat for everyone :) And you know what's nice about it all, that we were all able to sit down as a family for a nice relaxing meal. As we have all been busy, the last few weeks were pretty much just me and JD having dinner together, with hub either still stuck at work till past midnight or me feeling completely exhausted after a full day of work trying to get dinner ready and trying to hurry JD with his dinner, getting him showered, changed, strories telling before tucking him into bed all by 8pm! It's military style sometimes in this household, hee!

JD loved the steamed fish! He couldn't have enough of it which I thought was pretty cool for a kid. He pretty much just had fish with rice that night!

Mari memasak part 2

Tonight while I was thinking of making American baked ribs, hub wandered out from his room asking if we could have steamed rib with black bean sauce instead! I thought why not, it's less work and I love anything steamed!

This dish is pretty easy to make. Just get hold of some pork ribs, marinate it in some LKK Black Bean Garlic Sauce, throw in some cut chillies, season it with some salt, sugar, soy sauce and a bit of corn flour to thicken the sauce.

Steam for about 25-30mins and then dinner is ready! Easy! Oh yes, if you wish, you can garnish with some chopped spring onions or corriander.


Mari memasak part 3

Sis also asked me what sort of pastry I used when I made the curry puff previously. The pastry I used was puff pastry. To make the curry puff, I first cut the pastry into shapes of circle according to size of the mould. Next put in the filling (must cool to room temperature) and brush the edges with egg before sealing it with the mould. Once that's done, I brush the top with some eggs and put in the oven for about 20-25 mins (at 180-200 deg c) till the pastry rises and browned.