The cake is in the oven

I told myself that I will not be making anymore cakes until the end of the year. But I was too bored, so today, the mocha chocolate cake is now slowing baking in the oven.

I feel a bit worried, about the cake. Everything's a bit strange. No need baking powder. Hmm.

And a couple of weeks ago, I made apple crumble. A long forgotten recipe, the last time I made was in 2007 (I think).

Not working for almost a year now. Makes me feel very detached from the real world. In a way, I'm very fortunate, not to have to worry about financials, but probably have to return to work one day, since cannot sustain the housing loan. But life is like that, it's really up to oneself to keep oneself happy.

Children and TV

The daughter is addicted to Sesame Street. Every morning, when she wakes up, she walks to her cabinet and if it's not shut, she'll take out the cds and goes 'elmo elmo, papa elmo'. Until you switch it on for her, and she'll be so gleeful and really pays attention for at least half an hour.

And we will have a peaceful breakfast.

I'm not really pleased with this scenario, but I have no choice because I have to make the breakfast. Maybe I should assign my maid to make the breakfast, but like I said before, she doesn't get my drink right. Till December ... *sigh*

How much TV would you let your child watch a day?

Updates 3 - The kids

The kids have grown bigger and stronger and naughtier. Or you might say cuter. I'm not so amused but that's because my keyboard shift key is kinda stuck, and it's kinda annoying when I want to use it. Yep, the daughter got her hands on the laptop, and now we try not to use it in front of her. Then again, her reaction to laptops nowadays is to slam down the lid and 'mummy, stop playing with the laptop and pay attention to me!'

My cute 15th going on 16th month old daugher can walk, can almost run, and can't talk very well yet. She loves vending machines, because the one at the babyroom at a certain shopping centre gives out her favourite drink - Yakult, and whenever she sees a vending machine, she gets attracted to it like a drunken fly, and goes kult kult and starts fiddling with it.

During the lantern festival, we bought both kids lanterns - those with the lamps, and they enjoyed themselves very much. The son had a doraeamon lantern - he's into doraeamon currently, after the grandpa showed me some of the cartoons.

The daughter enjoys her lantern very much. See the brother's lantern in the background?

The hubby has bought a new toy for himself, a new Digital SLR camera. It's kinda hard to sort through a few thousand photos. :P That's what he's doing. Taking photos by the thousands. But the photos sure are well taken! I'm tempted to buy a new small idiot-proof camera, something which is easy to carry around, but after seeing what the SLR can do, I'm not sure ...

The daughter has 8 teeth! Now she has 10, her left molars just popped, one on top and one below.

The son and his bike.

Blogger's slow. More photos over at FB when I'm free!

Anyway, I'm starting the son on Kumon workbooks. Call me kiasu, but those stuffs are actually quite colourful and interesting, and the son isn't the most hardworking when it comes to doing work. One letter and he'll be full of stories, ranging from: hey mom, what is this person doing? why is this and that like this and that? or something like: my hands are very tired. i need to rest. And it's only one letter. While he can go on for hours fixing his lego. I'm actually quite impressed with this lego fixing. After watching transformers, he'll fix a robot with his lego and transformed it into a vehicle. cool!

Our lessons so far are rather relaxing and happy. No canings yet, and I try to keep my temper in check. Usually I'll let him off after one or two letters a day, or one or two numbers, and depending on his mood too. We'll do the writing while the daughter potters around the room, playing the brother's toys, after which I'll read them some books (usually three, since the son insists that a 3 year old boy needs everything in 3s). Sometimes I'll play a bit of the piano with my daugther accompanying me as bass, or sometimes she'll try to climb up onto the top of the piano. After that I'll get the girl to sleep first, then it's the son's turn. But I still have to build up on the discipline to do this everyday. ah well ...

Updates 2 - baking

The month of August and September to early October saw a frenzy of baking. Lots of baking.

First I made white chocolate cake.

Then I made blueberry muffins.

Then I made lemon sponge cake.

Then I made lemon sponge cake again.



Then I made white chocolate cake with dark chocolate glaze for PM's birthday.

Then I made Banana cinnamon loaf.

And finally I made the cheesecake. The one I've been dying to make for ages. Not that I'm crazy about cheesecake, actually I don't like cheesecake very much. But it was fun to make.

Hot from the oven.

So I finally close the chapter on my baking exploits. Till the end of the year. Maybe. :)

More photos if I can find them!

Updates 1 - Trips

I haven't been writing for a long time, but I just got sidetracked a lot. Mom went to Perth and she complained that she was bored to death. I told her why then did she go there for one whole week? *rolls eyes* And she bought me raw macademia nuts (when I specifically asked only for honey roasted ones). So what am I going to do with 1 and a half bags of nuts when they're going to expire end of this month? Mom got herself 2 bags of that too. She said her sisters all said the raw ones were better (of course they were also cheaper!). I guess I'll have to honey roast them myself soon.

Then the parents went Hong Kong & Macau after that and I was really left without any help. Parenting sure is a crazy thing. We'll talk about that later. Apparently they went to some nice high class restaurant, but they didn't enjoy a 100% of it, because there was no dim sum. The brother complained to me later that there wasn't any dim sum for dinner, and I went like huh, when was there ever any dim sum for dinner? And they ended up didn't order much because everything was like so ex. Yep, that is my brother for you. Such poor planning. *rolls eyes again*

I guess overall they had fun there, except that the parents were complaining that their hotel was so ex (holiday surcharge what, what did they expect, going during such times), and it was very crowded, and everything was very ex. *sigh* The brother who wanted to go HK to shop for stuffs ended up not able to buy anything. So what did he expect?! Quality comes with a price. My father complained that they ended up accompanying him through lots and lots of shopping but did not buy anything. Yep, that is definitely my brother. Hahaha. Good grief.

Be zen, I just listened and smile, and leave my thoughts here.

After that the parents went on a cruise. That, they had fun. I packed my son with them and he had fun too. And so did I, I'll write about that later. Yep, all the eat and sleep and casino and eat and sleep and doing nothing. And they're going again this weekend. Yep, the son is going too. *grins*

Hubby asked me if I felt guilty sending the son away like that, but I guess it's a break for both of us. He enjoyed himself and I could spend more time with the daughter. We went to have fun together and shopped together. Darn, my girl loves to shop too. You should see the way she chooses what she wants to buy. And her very pleased look when you pass her the loot in a shopping bag! Definitely like her mummy! :)

But at the end of the shopping trip, the son ended up with quite a lot of goodies. I bought him one sticker book, two pairs of chopsticks (the ones with the fingerholes), and a 'board' game. The daughter ended up with one toy phone only, and Auntie Min's present of the teacup set, which the son is now hogging it for himself. It's not that I'm being bias here, but whatever I buy for the daughter will end up with the son, and whatever I buy for the son will be what the daughter will like. LOL.

Parents are planning for more trips. China in November, Japan in Feb (CNY), maybe we'll close and go with them, and mom is planning to go somewhere in March. They have definitely been bitten by the travel bug. And me the sour grapes me who can't go anywhere will always complain to my mom that when I was still young and single, she didn't allow me to travel. Humf.

Catch up with my daughter.

Almost 14 months. Time to write a few things about her, so that I can remember what she does when she was 14 months. Heh. Yeah, I'd been lazy.

She can walk already, but she doesn't like to walk. Crawling is the fastest mode of transportation around the house.

She finishes her big bowl of porriage in ten minutes. Then she proceeds to eat her brother's food. And she opens her mouth the widest when she is fed her brother's food.

The brother, on the other hand, takes at least half and hour to finish his meal.

She can eat rice. Don't ask me how she chew them. She only has 4 front teeth on top, and 3 and a 1/2 teeth at the bottom. The half is because it came out long after the other three and is still very tiny, as compared to the rest.

She doesn't like her porriage nowadays as much as she likes our rice.

When she wears her brother's hand-me-down ORANGE pyjamas, and the brother wears his grandma-buy-from-china ORANGE pyjamas, both of them look like jailbirds who just broke out from prison. I should post a pic of them in the setup! Heh.

She can say these words: papa, mama, gorgor, jiejie, dark dark, ball, book, car, card, cart? She doesn't call her brother by name anymore. She calls him gorgor. Definitely less words than her brother. She doesn't really talk a lot. But she really understands what you say. I was quite amazed too. When I tell her to put her head on my shoulder, she knows to do it! When I ask her if she wants something, and she wants it, she'll nod her head, otherwise she'll shake her head. I'm reeling from amazement.

She likes books. From day 1, she likes books. She likes turning the pages and looking at the photos in the book. She likes playing the piano. She likes climbing up the piano too. She likes climbing up and down the stairs. She likes climbing up and down the bed. She likes playing with water especially at the fountain. She found that she can also play with water when she is being bathed, as opposed to mummy always car-wash-style-quickly-bathe-her, so she has made known her displeasure when she finishes her car-wash-style bath. She likes to swim. Kisses were fashionable for a few months, but no longer now. Morning greetings are fashionable right now. She can hold her own when she fights with her brother. She is learning that the voice can be a weapon of terror. She can get up and down the bobby car without help, but she is still going backwards on the bobby car. She is much better going out now, but she wants to shop as well, and will grab things off the shelves. She can fit her brother's lego. Not too successful yet, but getting there ... somewhat.

She is still super cute and cuddly. Happiness is when I hug and kiss her. Heh. I love her so.

The son is learning to ride a real bike. 2 wheels plus 2 training wheels. He needs lots of motivation and encouragement though. I've stopped violin lessons for him. Maybe continue when he's older. Haiz.

Me? I feel like learning the violin again whenever I listen to my cds. Just more dreams. haiz.

P.S: Now I understand what it feels like to be on autopilot when driving. Heh.

What do new moms need?

After reading this, I thought I would just write something. :)

What do new moms need? If you ask me, and I think back to when I had my first kiddo ... hmm.

Top 5 things for the mother, she'll need:

1. Electronic Breast Pump. Forget about the manual one. I was recommended the Medela one, and until now, I'm still using it. A bit noisy now and a bit creaky, and a crack on the motor part, but it's still surviving well. Heh. Of course if the mother doesn't intend to breastfeed, then don't bother with a pump.

2. Nipple cream. Putting your breastmilk on sore and crack nipples doesn't quite moisturise them, it only helps the healing.

3. Massage. Preferably hot stone massage and the therapist coming to your place. Wrap is optional. For my 2nd kiddo, it was too hot to stay wrapped. So my poor tummy is still budgling. Arrgh. The massage helped with all the tight shoulder and neck muscles from carrying the baby. And it is relaxing to have at least one hour to yourself for the massage. Mine was really good, she even massaged my blocked ducts! Better then being manhandled by those err ... lactating consultants at the hospital!

4. Bottles. Even if you are breastfeeding, you will need to express your milk and get your hubby or anyone else to do the 3am shift. I'm so fortunate that my 2nd kiddo sleeps through the night right from day 1. For the 1st kiddo, when I was a new mom, I just couldn't handle the graveyard shift. Fortunately, sometimes the hubby helped. But I still have to get up, warm the milk, prepare the bottles, express ... what a horrible memory! How did I survive!?!?!!

5. Baby clothes, baby booties, baby mittens, baby blankets, baby towels etc. Trust me on this. When it is your first born, you would want to get the softest bath towel for your kiddo, nice baby clothes, warm baby booties and mittens, and a baby blanket. Hmm, the 2nd one was sharing bath towel with us. Yikes. And she was using her brother's oh-too-big socks for booties and for a while I was searching desperately for her brother's mittens too. I remember I forgot the baby mittens for my 1st kiddo and had to desperately call my girlfriend to buy some for me. Heh heh.

:P

Masak masak

So the hubby relives his second childhood by buying lego. Lots of Lego. We now have pirate set, house set, train set, lots of star-wars and god knows what else.

Me? My second childhood is starting, since having a cute daughter gives me excuses to buy some toys for her, which the hubby didn't think the son should play too much with. But what's wrong with boys playing with cooking? Duh.

So, the kids now have 3 sets of plan toys. Fruits and Vegetables, cooking utensils and vegetable set. I plan to get the tableware set, the breakfast set, the tea set etc ... hmm, that makes almost everything! hahaaha.

Well, the kids love them so far. MM is putting all the food stuffs into her ELC pots and pans (that Min gave), and opening and closing the lid (playing peekaboo with her food!). The son is cooking stuffs for me now. All they need is a stove, a sink, an oven ... whoops.

I prefer plan toys than ELC stuffs, but I must say ELC looks good too. Maybe get the small wooden stove set from ELC ... hmmmm .....

Okie, I seriously like the dolls from The Better Toy Store, but I think my girl doesn't appreciate dolls. heh. Err, can I buy one for myself? :P