Bye bye busy days......or has it really ended?

Phew......the busy days are over now!!!! OR is there more to come? This I don't know....

For the past days...or I should say weeks, all of us had been busy with two very big events of the year. One, Christmas! Second, Moh Herng (my brother-in-law) and Phaik Sim's wedding!

Christmas.....we were busy buying gifts, practicing for the Christmas celebration events, Christmas party. Moh Herng's wedding.......there's even more to do. Completing the favor baskets, table arrangements, attending to friends and relatives.

Though tired, these days were filled with laughter and joy! Grace enjoyed it too. Her days were filled with fun and play with her cousins. She event completed her "flower girl" duty without any fuss! Bravo to her!! (will post her beautiful photos later)

The days were also filled with food! For the past few days...it has been "eat, eat, eat and more eating"! Eating will continue for another 2 days! Cousin wedding and the new year eve gathering!

Woo..hoo...

Woo hoo.....my new laptop today!

I can now get back to blogging. Noticed the decrease in the number of posts posted during the last month? Major part is I was handicapped without a computer, the other was that we were moving house. Now that we had settled down in our new home sweet home, and with my new laptop, I do hope I can get back to my post numbers.

Another thing that I would like to catch up on is Scrapbooking! Had not been scrapping for the past 2 months! Wow! That's very long...LOL!

Let's hope that I can find spare time after Christmas and after brother-in-law's wedding, to catch up on those!

Realistic girl!

This really made me slap my forehead!

Today (I mean Sunday) we had our Sunday Service at church and directly after that we had a series of activities going on. As Christmas is just around the corner, many of us are busy with the preparations. Some of the elders had the bi-monthly meeting today too. So, it was just left the little kids (Sarah and Grace) whom are free to roam around the church.

There's this brother, Yi Hong who like (I think) kids a lot. He took Sarah to the supermarket downstairs and bought a puzzle, which Sarah played with it immediately they are back in church. My daughter, saw the puzzle and also went to play along. As you know, kids at this age could not still understand the meaning of sharing, so there's a little of argument there. While other sisters commenting that Yi Hong did not also buy one for Grace.

Yi Hong said that Grace didn't want him to carry her. So no puzzle for her. Almost immediately, Grace stood up, walked towards Yi Hong and asked him to carry her. Oh my goodness! She could understand and knows very well how to get herself the puzzle. No choice, Yi Hong had to take Grace down to purchase another set of puzzle.

Role playing

Wow! Grace is really growing up fast. She now wants to do every single thing that adults do.

Yesterday night, we were having some family time in our new room. Like I mentioned in my earlier post, she's hyper-active during the night. Performing lots of actions. I was lying on the bed pretending to be crying. She came by and kissed me, then persuaded me not to cry. Then she stood up, walked away. While walking away, she commanded that I cry. When I start to cry again, she ran to me, took a cloth (she used a pillow case), wiped my face and nose, then kissed me then say "ah b 乖" (pronouced as "guai", means baby, be good). Oh my, oh my. These are little actions that we do when she cries. For the next 10 minutes or so, I was being a baby and Grace being the "mummy". Hmmm.....

New home....

Yup....the new house is ready...We had been progressively moving our things in since last Wednesday and had officially moved in on Saturday.

Grace is re-acting quite ok to the move. We initially fear that she will not be able to settle down on the the first night in the new home. But due to a friend's wedding, on Saturday Grace was drained out of energy. So she was already sleeping when we reach home that night. However, during midnight, she woke up requesting to "回家" (pronounces as "hui jia", meaning go home). Oh dear. She could recognise the room even in the dark! Nevertheless, we were able to settle her down.

During the day, she seems excited with the new home, especially our room. We had a platform with a queen size bed and a single bed. But during the night (even till tonight), she seems to be acting a little strange. She seems to be extremely active and unable to rest. Her normal bed time is around 10pm, however these few nights she had been sleeping at 11.30pm! She will say "回家 nen nen" (means drink nen nen at home). It seems that she had not treat this as her home yet. I guess we will need to give her a little more time.

Happy Birthday Grace!

Oh dear.....I can't believe this is a belated post! I'm too busy, plus handicapped cause my laptop is down!!!!!

My dear daughter is now 2 years old! How time flies!

This year we are not able to hold a birthday party for Grace, as we are busy with new house renovation and packing up for moving in soon. Real sooooon....So, we had a simple family dinner (both Moses' family and my family) at Food Loft Gurney PLaza on Sunday. It was a fun dinner. Grace enjoyed every moment of it, especially the time when we sing her birthday song and her cutting the cake. After the event, she kept on asking to cut cake.

Well, today (this post is suppose to be a few hourse earlier) is Grace's birthday, but due to the hectic of moving in to new house, I could not be with Grace for whole day. I sent her to my parents house so as I could be free (from her) to settle the moving in.

Nevertheless, Grace enjoyed the whole day. It was full of events and activities for her. Thanks to her grand parents! Thanks mom and dad!

Hopefully I will be able to give Grace a birthday party on her 3rd birthday!

Cry that woke a fainting mom!

Really praise and thank God that I can still type this post. Something really shocking happened this morning. I was at home, alone with Grace when this incident happened.

This is not the first time I fainted. Many years ago, I cut my finger while peeling off potato (or it is something else? I can't remember) skin. Got a small cut, went to deal with the cut, but ended up fainted in the toilet, with my shocked sister calling after me.

Well, back to today's incident. I was with my daily routine, getting Grace to "poo" and then bath her. However, this little girl refuse to sit on her potty. So I let her sit on the toilet bowl, which is, off course too big for her. So I squat down and hold her. The process took quite a long time. When she's finish (in fact, she also refused to "poo"), I put her down to stand on her own, before standing up myself. I used to have this problem of dizziness whenever I get up to standing position after squatting. After I stood up, I felt very dizzy, thus I hold on to the basin. Then there was a sudden black out, followed by a messy flash through of numerous scenes before me.

Then I felt myself swaying a little, then heard my daughter crying. The cry really woke me up, confused, and having a pain on my face. After a while only I recalled what had happened. I quickly attend to Grace whom is now sitting on the floor and claiming that she's in pain. I remember very clearly that she's standing when I stood up. Guess I must have knocked her a little. Thank God that no one was hurt.

Later on, I checked my glasses, and saw a slight scratch. Must have knock slightly on the glass panel near the basin.

Guess, I really have to get my blood pressure checked!

Cry cry baby....

Like every other toddler, especially those aging 2 to 3 years, Grace LOVES to cry (and a lot too). On every single "NO" or scolding, she will definately brust into tears. However, I know on certain situation, she's just pretending to cry, so as to gain our attention and to get what she wants. And if her crying does not help, she will end up asking for "nen nen"! Oh dear, oh dear.....

Well, here's some photos of her crying. Note that, even when she's crying, she's very much aware that I am taking her photo.

你和我 (You and Me)

Nope, this is not on Olympics 2008 team song. It's just Grace.

I have heard many of my friends saying that kids will always get confuse between "you" and "me". Thus, when teaching and talking to Grace, I tried my very best not to confuse her. But in the end, I confused myself. Haha....so off course, I have a confused daughter.

There was once I was looking through Grace's baby photos. Grace was with me and she kept on pointing to the photo and say "baby", not recognizing that it was her. Then I told her, "That's you" in mandarin (你来的). After some time, when she flip open the album again, Grace points to the photos and say "你" (means you). Oopps....I tried to correct her, but after several times she still says the same.

In several other occassions when Grace wants to perform task by herself, she will point to herself and say "你". Oh dear....she's confused. When she says "你", I will tell her it's "我", thereafter she will immediately say "我" and raise her hand.

Nowadays, Grace will point to herself and instead of saying "你", she will say "韵韵" (pronounce as yun yun, her chinese name in short).

Timid Grace

I didn't know Grace can be so timid.

Yesterday, like every other Wednesday, I went over to my parents' place. Grace, as usual enjoy the time there, until around 3pm when my dad came home. Why? Cause he didn't came back alone! My aunt (my dad's sister) came home with him. Now, Grace seldom see this grand aunt (I think yesterday was only the 2nd time). Grace has never show such fear to anyone before. She has been very friendly to many of our friends and relatives.

I don't know what's with this aunt of mine that Grace fear so much. Grace dare not even look at her. After which Grace became very very sticky (yeah...like glue) to me and asked me to go into our room. All of us tried to calm her, but in vain.

Later in the afternoon, I took Grace to the kitchen and made her ribena. She took her ribena and walked towards the living room. I let her walk by herself and I proceed to sit in one of the sofa. To my surprised, Grace stopped at the door separating both rooms. Stood there, turn her back towards living room, and continue drinking her drink, peeking at intervals. After finishing half of her drink, she put her cup on the dining table but dare not walk over to me. She stood behind the door, peeking at us. After a while, she cried out loud! Oh dear, she's still afraid of my aunt.

In the evening, I talked to her, hoping to calm her and let her accept her grand aunt. Initially she refused, but later on during dinner, she started to accept her grand aunt. She even cheers with her. Making a progress.

Moody Grace

On Sunday, we were back a little late from church as there's this quiz going on. As we fear that Grace will be too tired if we join others for lunch, we decided to "tar pao" economy rice and eat at home.

But to our surprised, though getting up quite early in the morning, Grace seems recharged when we reached home. So we all sat together and have our lunch. Grace even finished a bottle of Vitagen. After lunch, we told Grace to go into the room and have a nap, but Grace has other agenda on mind. She wanted "书" (book). Hubby persuaded her to take her nap and promised her that we will take her to the playground at Youth Park later in the evening. She finally sets in and have her "nen nen" of course. A few minutes is all it takes for her to doze of to dreamland! She was indeed very tired.

Upon waking up from her nap, we quickly get her changed and sets off to Youth Park. But, somehow Grace thought that we were going to take her fishing. When we reached Youth Park, she doesn't seems to be excited. In fact, she was moody. She rejected most of the playground rides, and only slit down the slide once and a few seconds on the swing. After which she demanded us to take her for a walk. I could see that she's not feeling happy. Must be feeling disappointed.

After walking for a while, we went to the big field where groups of youngsters are playing football, caption ball, etc. Grace wanted ball, but we had forgotten to bring ours. No choice but to borrow from others. She played a while then demanded "nen nen". What choice do I have? When to the car and hubby took us for a car ride. (we could not leave the place yet as we are waiting for mother in law whom had went hiking). After the ride, Grace seems to heal from her moody-ness. She told us that she wanted to go to the playground. And this time she doesn't want to leave. She must have realised that if she continues to be moody, she will also loose the chance of having fun.

I am surprised that a child this young could show us her moods. Have to give her a big lecture.

Argh....potty training

It's been a while since I started potty training on Grace. For her big business, I had in fact started to train her (for about a year now) to get used to "do it" in the morning before her morning bath. She refused at first, but now she had more or less get used to the routine.

As for her wee wee, I had only started the real potty training in the past 2 to 3 months. I had always let Grace on nappy (with a plastic pant) rather than diaper whenever we are at home. But this little girl don't really mind if her nappy is wet. She will go on and on with her play. So around 3 months ago, I started to remove the plastic pant, which means that there will be possibility of her making a puddle on the floor. However, I found that the method is not really good in training her to use the potty. After a month and a half, she's still a puddle maker.

Well, it's time for next step. I had always monitor the frequency and the interval of her wee wee. So with this information on hand, I started to drag her to the potty and demand that she wee wee on specific timing. Being Grace, she off course, refused at first. She will scream and yell every time I asked her to sit on the potty. But eventually she started to understand the purpose.

Even so, she's really a stubborn girl. Sometime, she will sit there with no "output". So I told her nicely, "Let mee ah know if you want to wee wee, ok?". She will node her head. Moments later, puddle on the floor! Even worse, there are occasions where she wee wee a few minutes after I asked her if she wanna wee wee and her answer was no! Imagining me cleaning puddle after puddle every day! Really stressed me out!

Recently, Grace had learnt even more. I notice that, though she had not learnt to tell me whenever she wants to "pooh pooh", she will make some kind of a funny sound to signal to me that it's nearly time. So whenever I asked her, she will node her head. Now, that's some progress.

Whereas on her wee wee part, though she will always say no whenever I ask her if she wanna wee wee. But she will try to wee wee whenever I drag her to the potty. She will say "有" (means, got) if there's output. Some progress too!

I could see that there's still a long way to go, but at least now I don't have to clean up puddle on the floor so often.

Born negotiator or cheater?

I have this norm of going over to my parent's house every week on Wednesday. I will be there for almost the whole day (normally till after dinner) so that Grace could spend some quality time with her grandparents. So, every Wednesday morning I will get Grace ready, take our breakfast and off we go. She will normally be very excited. Why? Cause she had somehow linked fishing to “公公，婆婆，阿姨”(means grandpa, grandma and aunt). She will always say "gong gong, po po, yi, then 鱼". I will need to explain to her that we will not go fishing on every trip. But still she will say "gong gong, po po, yi, 鱼".

Anyway, today's post is not about fishing. It's something that Grace did on last Wednesday that make me slap my forehead.

As usual, on Wednesday (the one that just past), Grace get ready eagerly, anticipating to go over to her grands place. (She normally don't like to hang around the house after she had change into "kai kai" (means outing or go out) clothes. So when I asked her to take her breakfast of bread and milk, she was kinda reluctant. But I told her she will need to finish her breakfast, else no kai kai for her. I also mentioned that both "ma ma" and "po po" want her to finish her food. No choice, she hastily finish her bread and drink her milk. But this time she never finish her milk. I told her to, saying that no going over to "po po"'s place if she did not finish. She refused. I told her the same story again. She refused. I told her the same story again. It went on for a while and she still refused to finish it.

Then she started to shift the tension. She told me to pour the remaining milk into her sip cup. Then I asked whether she's going to finish it in the car. She says yes. Ok with me as long as she drinks her milk. So I pour it into the other cup and let her hold on to it.

Once in the car, I asked her to drink her milk. She shake her head. Half way through, I demand her to drink but was rejected. Gosh...I'm cheated by my 2 year old daughter! How shameful.....

Never underestimate a child

Yesterday night Grace was playing with her set of toys, which include a Play-Doh cooking set. While she was playing, she saw one of the Play-Doh "recipe" card. I noticed that she stared at it for some time, then she lift her head and say "roll" then node her head.

A little story on what "roll" means. Now, she had another Play-Doh fun factory barrel set which I kept in the wardrobe. Why did I keep it in the wardrobe? To avoid Grace seeing it and asking to play with it all the time. Why "roll"? When playing Play-Doh I taught Grace to roll the "doh" and make things (i.e spaghetti) out of it. So whenever she wants to play it, she will say "roll".

Ok, now back to the story. As it was quite late last night, I told her, "Not tonight, we play tomorrow, ok?" She node her head.

Morning came and I was thinking (to myself) that I will let her play "roll" later in the afternoon. But Grace thinks otherwise. After finishing her breakfast and one of the Hi-5 episode, she ran to me and say "Roll". Gosh....she still remember that I promised her last night. What choice do I have? Let her play lor....

Once a mother, forever a mother

"Once a mother, forever a mother"...this is such a true notion. Being a mother is really a lifelong journey. Hmmm... thanks to hubby...I need to correct this notion. "Once a parent, forever a parent!

In our everyday lives, we could see that once a person become a mother, she will sacrifice her everything for her child/children. Her body shape ~~ being pregnant for 9 months, her time ~~ spending almost all of her time teaching and playing with her child, when she's not with her child, spending her time thinking of her child, her sleep ~~ waking up at night to tend to her baby, her favourites ~~ forgo eating tit-bits, letting her child take all the good things, and many more other things. These are things that any mother (parent) will do.

A mother will always be caring for her child even after they are married or even after they are with kids. This same mother, will then become a grandmother, caring for her grandchildren. This grandmother will then become a great-grandmother and caring for her great-grandchildren. The cycle goes on and on and on.

Today mother-in-law and I went to meet up with the interior designer. And YES, we are renovating our new home and will be moving in very soon. Anyway, as both of us will be actively involve in the discussion, I asked the favour of my mom, whom willingly agreed, to help with taking care of Grace. So for the whole 2 hours mom was there entertaining Grace with lots of stuff. She took Grace window shopping, then back to the show room. In the show room, they did quite a lot of things. Mom showed her those drawers in the kitchen cabinet and then tell her what those drawers are for. Then she test her, asking her which drawer is for which. Grace had a great time pointing out drawers. After being bored with the game, they played cooking game with the display of pots and pans. Grace sure had a great time!

See, a mother raised her own daughter, and now taking care of her granddaughter, with ultimate joy! Thank you mom!

Throwing rubbish

It's always important that we teach our children to cultivate good morale from a very young age. We have been teaching Grace on manners and morale. One of which was to throw rubbish in the correct place.

You see, we are living in an apartment where elevators are the most important thing for us, for if there's no elevator, then we could not get in or out of our home. Sad to say that, in such moderate class community, there are still people throwing their trash as and when they like. We could see that there are rubbish near the poolside, in the elevators not to mention corridors and car parks!

There are times (in fact almost every time) we could see pieces of paper, food wrappers, cigarette butt being thrown in the elevators. Whenever we see that, Grace will point to these pieces. Mother in law will then tell Grace that those are "垃圾" (pronounce as "la ji", meaning rubbish). Then she will tell Grace that we should not throw our rubbish every where. It should be thrown into the rubbish bin. And walla, Grace learnt immediately. She will point to the rubbish, say that it's "垃圾" then shake her hand, signalling that we should not throw it in the elevator.

Subsequent to that lesson, Grace learnt that one should be throwing rubbish into rubbish bins. She will insist of throwing her own diaper, little pieces of paper, cotton butt and etc.....Good for her!

Obstacle course

It's always amazing and full of surprises when you have a young toddler with you. I don't know about others, but as for me, Grace really fill my days with laughter, joy, fun, tears, anger and madness. She's capable of doing anything at all. Give me surprises when my usual boring days go by.

On Monday this is what she did:

Scrapping mom, scrapping daughter

Every time Grace saw me scrapbooking, she will definately want to join in. I seldom let her join for fear that she will make a mess on my layouts. Sometimes I will let her play with my collection of ribbons. She enjoyed it though.

Today I did something different. She saw me putting glue on pieces of paper and then stick in on my layout. She insisted that she also do the same. Thus, I let her use the glue stick. But then, what to glue? Then I thought that maybe with the little piece of colour paper I have.

I taught her how to apply glue on the little piece of paper and then stick it on to her drawing pad. She loves it. Initially she is satisfied with the glue stick. Then she saw me using the scissors. Then she wanted more. She insisted on using the scissors. Off course, using scissors is a little too advance for her now. Nevertheless, good training for her.

Here's some of the photos taken and the final product:

Mosquitos, Buzz Off!!

This morning I woke up to find tiny red spots on Grace's face. After observing the spots for a while, I realized that they are mosquito bites. It's not just 1 or 2 bites but all together 7 on the face and 1 on her left hand. Aaw.....my heart hurts.....

I immediately take revenge on the mosquito and killed 2, hurting my right thumb in the process. Silly me.

Now, I have to remind myself to browse through the room, especially those dark corners, before lights off every night. Usually I have my room windows closed during evening time for fear to inviting mosquito. But still, they have some way to get into the room! I will need to be more careful moving forward.

While I was browsing through the room tonight, I immediately thought of what my mom used to do when I was young. She will do the same in our room (sharing room with my 2 sisters) and my brother's room. Sometimes if she's busy and could not do it before we go to bed, she will do it after we have all set in to bed. I could still remember certain nights, I woke up (but pretended am still sleeping) to find my mom shooing and killing those mosquito.

Parents is always the same, no matter it is in the past, now or future. They will care for their children in every single matter, making sure that they are save from any harm.

What my mum was doing, I am doing it now and I am sure Grace will be doing it in the future.

Bravo to all mothers!

Argh.....feeding Grace solid

Feeding Grace solid had never been easy!

I started her on rice cereal (+breast milk) when she was 6 months old. Her first reaction was (I think) quite encouraging. She seems to like being fed in a spoon and couldn't wait even for a second for me to scope the thingy. May be it's just her excitement towards something new after being offered just the breast for the past 6 months (**blush blush**).

Well, after several meal of rice cereal, the nightmare begins. Grace only accepted fruits like apples, pears and bananas. All other things (errr......except yogurt and ice-cream) is a big "NO" by shaking her head. Feeding her porridge and then rice was also a disaster. I used to get really mad and stressed during meal time.

I don't know since when, the stress reduced and she begins to take a little more porridge and/or rice (when she has something else to attract her attention while I feed her). Good, now I can at least enjoy what I eat (have not been enjoying my food). THINK AGAIN!!

Recently her behaviour towards food change again. First, she begins to love bread (thanks to the bento tools), especially when it is with bacon or loin. Then, she begins to love vegetables and then meat (any meat). What did I do during meal time? I had to let her feed herself with vegetables and/or meat, while I intervene with porridge or rice. Argh.....I need to be on the look out whenever her mouth is empty, so that I can stuff the porridge in. Porridge is always better than rice, as porridge is a little sticky and dissolve easily once in the mouth. While she can immediately reject rice.

What happened today? During lunch we had noodle. Not much of a problem cause Grace love noodles. But during dinner, it was rice for today. She refused to take the rice no matter how hard I tried to distract her. In the end she had just 3 mouthful. Then I ask her if she would like to have bread with ham, she node her head. So I prepared the usual bread and her milk. What did she do? She pushed it away then demanded "nen nen"! I got so furious, I scolded her and refused to let her breastfeed.

What happen next? She cried and cried and cried (I noted that she's just screaming with little tears). I refused. Then she started to shift attention. She asked for a toy and then to watch Hi-5. While watching Hi-5, she slowly feed herself the bread but still refuses to drink the milk. I transfered the milk to a cup (initially it is in a trainner cup) and there she was sipping from the cup until the very last drop. Not a drop on the floor!

Bravo to mummy!!! Winner of the day! Whom benefit from this? Grace herself!

Room 312

On Saturday morning, I went to Adventist hospital to visit a friend whom had just given birth to a baby boy. As I was walking towards her room, Room 312, I was thinking, could it be the same room that I stayed in 2 years ago when I gave birth to Grace. Sure enough it was the same room that I stayed in. What a coincidence! As we were chatting later on, we even joke that next time it will be Phaik Sim (sister-in-law) on the ward bed while Moh Herng (brother-in-law) sleeping on the couch!

This short trip back to Room 312 really brings me down memory lane. This is the room where excitement, joy, anxiety and worry, all different feelings came to me.

Grace decided to join us on the evening of November 26, 2006 after a long labor process which ended up with C-section. As such, I don't get the chance to nurse her immediately after birth, which I wanted so much. After the operation, I was given time to rest and to recover fully from the anesthesia. I only get to see my precious little one (after the short encounter in the operation theatre) during midnight when the nurses brought her to me for breastfeeding.

I could still remember my feelings when I first nursed her. It was a combination of excitement and nervous. As I don't have any breastfeeding experience (obviously none cause Grace is my first child), I found it tricky and hard. I tried my very hard, even though it hurts (I just had my operation, remember) to sit upright so that I could feed nicely. In fact, I insisted. I guess that's the first time I actually felt the power of love!

While I was nursing Grace, I overheard the nurses said to each other, "this baby is a hypo". Question mark! What hypo? Then I thought, may be they are saying that my baby has high potential in breastfeeding. I was suppose to have my baby roomed in with me, but was wondering why they push Grace back to the nursery. I don't know why I didn't ask.

Morning came and hubby needs to rush off to the Registration Department for Grace's birth certificate and then head of to work in the afternoon. I was left alone while waiting for my parents to come.

When I was alone, Dr. Pang the Pediatrician came to talk to me. Telling me that Grace has low blood sugar, hypoglycemia and needs to be on glucose drip until further results to show that her blood sugar is under control. Doctor also told me that Grace will need to be put under close supervision and that she will need to be fed with formula milk to ensure that she receives the necessary glucose level. He told me this need to be treated carefully as severe or prolonged hypoglycemia may result in seizures and serious brain injury. I was dumped! Now I know why the nurses were saying "hypo"!

So, the rest of my stay in the ward was filled with anxiety and worry. As Grace needs to be on the drip, she could not be pushed often to my room. So, even though my wound still hurts (quite a lot), I make myself walk as often as possible to the nursery so as I could see and nurse my little one. I couldn't sleep well at night, waking at 2-3 hours interval, walked to the nursery, breastfeed Grace. I cried everytime I saw her bandaged little hand. Praying and whispering words of courage to her everytime I carry her.

On Tuesday morning, another not so good news came. Grace has jaundice and needs phototherapy. Making my trip to the nursery more frequent.

Give thanks to our God. After being put on drip for 3 and a half days, Grace's blood sugar came back to normal and was under control. Her jaundice level also reduced, allowing her (and her mommy) to go back home.

Today (I mean on saturday) as I was walking in the corridor leading to the nursery from room 312, I couldn't help but Thank God for His blessings and care towards Grace. Two years ago I was making trips to the nursery anxiously, but today Grace is walking happily with me thro and fro in the corridor.

Country vs City

I don't know what had gotten into me! Kept thinking of country lifestyle. Today I re-called what we did many many years ago when I was still a little girl.

Like I said earlier, I was raised in a very adventurous family. Mom and dad (I must say especially dad) will always engage us in fun activities during our school holidays. Other than going cycling and fishing, we did have a "Tour around Peninsular Malaysia" in I can't recall if it was 1 or 2 weeks. Then there was picnics, sight-seeing, and many more.

During my schools days, we will travel to many places (within Malaysia, off course). Pangkor Island was one of the most often visited places. Why Pangkor Island? You see, that's my mom's hometown and we still have uncle and grandfather staying there. In fact, that's the place where we had a whole lot of fun with cousins and friends!

I must say that my dad is a very creative man. He could make a whole lot of things out of scrap. There was once he made a bench out of wood under a tree, in front of my uncle's old house. It was a great multi-purpose bench which we played on. It's a place for relaxing during evening, a place to rest your head during cloudy days, a stage for performing, a platform for child play, and most of all a place for fellowship among relatives.

It was such a memorable bench that we even had opening ceremony to launch the bench. All the kids dressed up nicely for the ceremony. The Opening Ceremony of the bench

Me and elder sister on the launching day

Other than that, we had once build walls out of banana leaves on the bench. Pretending that it was our house, we played all sort of role-play games. Role playing - some act as parents, others as the children; cooking. It was sad that in the end, our banana leave house was "stoned" by some "terrorist" (rude kids in that area). Anyhow, we did have lots of fun.

Today, it is hard to provide Grace with this kind of a lifestyle. Nevertheless, I will not give up. I will strive my best to introduce some of these activities to Grace when she's older. As for building banana leave house, it will be a little harder. We are now staying in high-rise condominiums, thus spaces is a concern.

Why had I chosen "Country vs City" as my blog title? Well, though we don't have the outdoor space to build banana leave house, we do have Pop Up Panel house (see below) which we could keep or "build" at any time and any where we want. That's the difference between country and city!

Nevertheless, Grace still had a good time playing in this little pop up house. Here are some photos of her enjoying her play.

Country lifestyle.....

I remembered there was a time when I was teaching children in church and I realised how city kids missed out so much on the fun of country side living. I asked them if they have ever watch people fish or fishermen fish. The answer was "No". Have you see fishing boats? The answer was "No" again! Oh dear, oh dear, they missed out so much fun!

I am not sure how other parents think, but as for me, I will definitely give Grace, if not all, most of the "kampung" (country side) lifestyle that I went through when I was young. You see, I was raised in a very adventurous family. We will go cycling, exploring the places in the little town that we stay. Go fishing at anywhere that we can fish. And many many more.

Nowadays, kids are too adapted to the civilization and high technology that some of this nature adventure was totally wiped out from their lives. This was worsen with extremely busy parents. Though civilization and high technology is important to us, but I think mother nature is even more important to us. These activities help us to love the nature, also teach us to be more aware!

Today, we put another new page in Grace's book of life experiences. We (my sis, my dad, my mom, me and Grace) went fishing. There's this very long unused (quite good condition) jetty at Teluk Kumbar for us to fish. Wow! FUN!

Grace, off course, joined in the fun too. She could spent a whole one half hour there. We went at evening time, so no concern on sun burn! She started off with a fake fishing line in the sea. Then when we caught some fish, she fish from the pail. Then she wants the real fishing rod. So dad let her sit with him. When they caught a fish, Grace helped pull it up! She enjoyed it very much.

This is definitely a new experience for Grace. I will say that it's a good one. We will surely do it again.

Here's the display of fishes that we caught today:

Pretty girl....

Last week, during our usual afternoon routine, I was looking at Grace playing and rolling on the bed, when I suddenly realised what a pretty girl Grace is! It's not that I want to boast about it......sure she is pretty BUT very very mischievous and naughty too. Not to mention that she's also very demanding, for stuff that she wants and for attention too. I guess it's just the process of growing up, the terrible two's. Really hope that she will grow pass this stage soon.

Well, here's some of her very cheeky photo shots:At my Dad's church, after my Dad's Ordination

At The Golden Triangle Restaurant




Having fun at the playground

Posting for photo shot at home

My Favourite Great American Seafood

COME stand a chance to WIN a trip for two to New Orleans, United States. Prize package includes two Southwest Airline roundtrip tickets, hotel accommodations, dining experiences and many more. All you need to do is to VOTE for your favorite American Seafood Cook-Off recipe. This chance of a lifetime is in conjunction with the 5th Anniversary of The Great American Seafood Cook Off. The Great American Seafood Cook Off is presented by the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board. It features top-chefs from around the nation cooking with domestic, sustainable seafood from their home state.

5 finalists had been named for the 2008 Great American Seafood Cook-Off and were given several challenges in completing their final dish in the competition. First, their recipe must contain either one of the two mystery ingredients, Southwest Airline peanuts and selected brews from Michelob Brewing Co. Next, keeping it healthy and simple. This means that their dish should include ingredients from all five food groups (grain, vegetable and fruit, milk, meat and bean, oils) and be a dish that even the most harried home chefs could prepare. Not forgetting that they should use domestic seafood. You would ask, why domestic seafood? It’s for their freshness, great taste and most importantly it’s local!

Now, the voting process is just as simple as 123. All you need to do is to (I’ve included print screen for even easier identification):

First, visit www.GreatAmericanSeafoodCookOff.com.

Secondly, click on the red box (see below) “Vote and Enter to Win a Trip to New Orleans: RECIPE CONTEST”.

Thirdly, browse through the top five recipes listed and then make a pick.

Fourthly, Click on the red box (see below) “Enter to Win”.

And finally, fill up the simple GASCO Recipe Contest form (see below) and click Submit.

It’s just a 5-step process to give you a chance in winning a trip to New Orleans.

As for me, I had just casted my vote for "Pan Roasted Glazed Rockfish with Peas and Carrots" by Chef Tafari Campbell from Maryland. By looking at this dish (though it is just a photo), it gives me a mouthwatering impression. Besides, it combines 2 types of seafood in a dish, rockfish and crab or shrimp. All these are my favorites and my daughter’s too. Delicious! A study through the recipe and I noted that the ingredients can be easily acquired and it looks simple to prepare, meeting the “healthy and simple” requirement of the competition. Although, I may want to alter a little of the recipe if I were to try out this recipe. May want to exclude or substitute the Shock Top beer with something else, because both my daughter (just 2 years old) and I (breastfeeding) could not take alcohol. What’s the substitute? Can’t think of it right now, will update further when I try out the recipe.

So, why wait and loose a chance? Take action NOW. Visit www.GreatAmericanSeafoodCookOff.com

My new found interest...

Recently I browsed through a friend's blog and saw that she's making scrapbooks to store up photos and journals on her toddler daughter. This friend of mine is a working mother! I was exclaiming, "Gosh.....she's working and taking care of her daughter and still have time to do all this!" It really brings me to re-look into my life and daily routine. Ever since I resigned from my previous position to be a full-time mother, I had not engage myself in anything of my interests except for my church children ministry. Almost all of my time were dedicated to my daughter. During her nap time, I will take my time relaxing in front of my laptop, playing games. Sigh, sigh, sigh...waste of time.

Well, I used to love crafts a lot. Though I'm not good in drawing, I'm interested in making crafts and gift wrapping. So, after giving it a real thought, I started to look into scrapbooking. Scrapbook is an album filled with pages of layouts of photo and journals. I thought that it will be a good idea to store selected masterpiece of Grace's photos in a scrapbook so as both of us could ponder on it at a later time. All this while I have been storing photos in digital form.

And so be it. I started to source for scrapbooking stuff online. I found 2 online stores and a store in Penang Island. Great! Orders are made, items delivered and there I was creating layouts after layouts when Grace is having her afternoon nap.

To date, I have created 1 album, 1 Maze Book and an Exploding Box which I learn from Glitter Adventure. The album and Maze Book are constructed on behalf of Grace. Maze Book is given the title "My Cousins" while the Album carries the title "Shanghai 2008". The Exploding Box is given a title of "My First Times" and is a gift to a friend, whom will be giving birth to her first child real soon.

I enjoy the scrapbooking sessions a lot and will be sure to make many more albums.

Here's some photos of my creation, Maze Book and Exploding Box.

The Exploding Box

The Maze Book

Long Live Bento Tools!

I really want to thank whomever that have invented the bento tools, particularly the cookies/vegetable cutter. Long live bento tool!

Grace used to hate bread. Grace's menu for breakfast for most of the days would be bread, milk (just a little) and yoghurt. Then she will take porridge for lunch while dinner she will have rice. As she hates bread, she will take only a little in the morning. I was worried that she has not had enough food.

Through tv advertisement and also from browsing friend's friend's blog, I learned about this bento tools where we as parents could use moulds to make interesting looking food for our kids. So I decided to give this a go. I search in ebay and some other sites to purchase some of this tool. It cost quite a bit but I think it was worth the price.

I bought a pair of Hello Kitty vegetable cutter (which can also be used on bread/ toast) and a few other shapes like star, tree, house, elephant and etc. I started using these tools 2 weeks ago. The result: Grace just love it. She will say “猫”(means cat) everytime she wants to eat bread.

Now every morning she will at least eat 4 two-layered hello kitty face. Which is approximately 1.5 slice of bread. I think that is a good start. She would even have the bread without jam or butter!

Imagination!

Grace, even at this age, is already very good in imagining things in most of her play. Recently, there were a few birthdays in our household and Grace has already picked up that, when there's a birthday cake or a present, there will be singing of Birthday Song and blowing candles. So, whenever she sees cakes, presents or even pictures of cakes and presents, she will clap her hand and demand that we sing the Birthday song.

Yesterday, I was playing blocks with her and was arranging the blocks on the barrel cover. Then all of a sudden Grace clapped her hands and asked me to sing the birthday song! Indeed our creation (right) looked somehow like a cake with candles. As soon as I finish the song, she will pretend that she's blowing the candles. There was once, she says “拿拿”(means take). I asked her what does she wants to take. She told me “花”(means flower). Oh my gosh.....she had somehow picked up from somewhere that the birthday person will get flower when he/she is celebrating birthday! How cute!

A little present for Grandma!

It was my mom's birthday on Monday. I bought some Clinique stuff for my mom as presents. As there are a few items, I thought of using a nice paper bag as the gift wrapper. So, I bought one pink paper bag from Gama (a supermarket in town) when we went there with hubby's grandmother and mother.

When I was making my selection, Grace was very eager to participate and wanted to carry on to the bag. I have to let her take it, while letting her know that it is for her "fofo" (Grace had started to pick up calling her grandma "婆婆" which sounds "popo" but she kind of missed the pronunciation a little).

We went back home and have the stuff nicely in the bag and Grace drew a birthday card for her "fofo" (off course with my help and instructions).

Our dinner with mom and the rest was at Golden Triangle Restaurant which is in Queensbay Mall. When we reached there and was getting down from the car, Grace again insisted on carrying on to the paper bag. So we let her and told her it is for "fofo". Grace walked happily with the paper bag and keep on reminded us that it's for "fofo'.

I've never been to the restaurant before, so was looking high and low for the restaurant. When we finally found it, mom and the rest also reached the restaurant. And there at the entrance of the restaurant, Grace did something that surprised everyone and warmed the heart of her "fofo". She walked straight up to her "fofo" and hand over the paper bag to her while calling "fofo". Ow.....it was so sweet.

Dancing and singing queen!!

I had this captured on last Wednesday, but was too busy with the preparation with Dad's ordination that I found no time to post about it. Finally, now I'm sitting in front of my computer doing this post.



No words or phrases could best describe this funny clip of Grace singing and dancing. Let the video clip says for itself. Enjoy!

Puzzles for the little one

Grace has a number of puzzles which some of them are still too advance for her. There's this Bible Puzzles, which I saw from Christianbook.com, which contains 3 double sided puzzles with 12, 24 and 36 pieces respectively. Though this is too advance for her, I will put the puzzles together myself, in front of her and then teach her on the bible stories that the pictures depict.



Other than the bible puzzle, we have 2 early Puzzles set which we redeemed using our Bonuslink points. Each of this set has 4 puzzles ranging from 3 pieces to 6 pieces. Earlier on when I obtained the puzzle, I would put it together for Grace and tell her stories of the picture. This:



About 3 weeks ago, I started to teach Grace to put together the 3-piece puzzle which assemble to a fish. Initially, Grace would just bring me the pieces randomly and asked me to put the puzzle together. When I ask her to put it together herself, she would need my help to bring her the correct piece.



We abandoned the puzzle activity for about 2 weeks cause I was so busy with the Church Children Holiday camp. Today, Grace saw the puzzle in her cupboard and requested to play with it. I took the 3 pieces out and shuffle it. Then to my surprised, she could put it all together, needing some help in securing the joints. What a great pace children are learning at!

I will start to teach her another 3-piece puzzle which assembles to a car next.

THANK YOU, HUBBY!!!

Our church Children Holiday Camp had just ended yesterday night. It was a great time with the kids there. Though tiring (I had been sleeping over 2am in the past few days too), but joyful to see so many children learning together. I am especially glad and proud of my group of dancers, 5 girls (one 7-year-old girl, three 8-year-old girls and one 10-year-old girl). All of them did a good job yesterday night in performing the dance, though they only have 3 days (not full day) to learn and practice. I taught them the Hi-5 T.E.A.M song dance and it was a great success!

While I was busy with the teaching and things, I was so glad that I have hubby and my mom to help with looking after Grace. Grace is still too young to join in the fun in the camp, and we are also afraid that she might get knocked down by the kids accidentally. On Thursday, my mom followed me to church and looked after Grace through out the time there. Thanks mom!

On Friday, hubby took the day off just to look after Grace. I leave home earlier in the morning with mother in law to the camp, while Grace and hubby stayed on at home. They only joined us later.

Friday night I slept at 3am as I was rushing with the video clip editing for the graduation night. So it was a little hard to get up on Saturday morning. Hubby was so good in bringing Grace our for breakfast while I continue to sleep. Later I was still busy with completing the video clip and hubby continued to look after Grace. Our camp starts at 4pm and hubby also continue to look after Grace at home while mom (in law) and I headed to church. They joined us later in the evening for the graduation night.

All in all, I am glad that Grace can now be away from me for longer duration. And after these days, the bond between father and daughter has grown a lot!

Great job done, hubby and Grace way to go!!!