Merry Xmas & Happy New Year!

We made a last minute decision to bring the kids to KL for a short holiday last week. On Sunday night, hubby made online reservations for our hotel stay at Sheraton and Tuesday morning, we set out to KL after having our breakfast at home. The reason for this trip was to bring the kids to the Berjaya Times Square Cosmo World for the indoor theme park but the push factor was that my in laws won't be around during Xmas and New Year and thus we won't need to be around to keep them company for the holidays.

The kids had great fun at KL and besides Cosmo World, we also brought them to the big big playground at Mid Valley City. I had suggested to bring them to Sunway Lagoon but it turned out that the crowd there during Xmas was so horrible that we decided that we will give it a miss and go back another time instead. Besides, Min was too young to ride the rides or play in the water park and it will be rather wasted to get ticket for me to get me in and not being about to enjoy it with Min. The kids were a little disappointed but they were still quite alright after we promised to bring them back the next school holidays.

Surprisingly, the drive up to KL and back was rather uneventful. The kids behaved reasonably well during the 4 hours journey and only made minimal noise about the long journey. It was also fortunate that I packed snacks and stationeries to keep them occupied.

My days are so fulfilling!

I have never thought I could be a stay home mum to 3 kids alone. Even though I've stopped work since Feb, but I had the help of my mum most of the time and my main duties was to care for the kids while she did the cooking for me. Of course I still have to do my own housework, which wasn't too bad as the boys are chipping in their help by clearing their own things and toys around the house.

Now we rarely go over to mum's place and I've been coping with the kids, cooking, marketing and housework all by myself - my working hours are 7am to 12mn! I didn't know if I could do a good job but after all these time, I think I am doing good! My days are busy but so fulfilling! Everyday I get to be with the kids and cook for them etc...it's really what I truly enjoy. Hao is a really great help around the house and I am beginning to think that I couldn't have cope without his help! He can take care of himself as well as Ee and Min (Yes he can help to babysit Min even!), do simple cleanup (He's very neat if he really wants to..) and even want to help cook and bake at times. Although most of the time he has the nonchalant attitude but don't be deceived by that, as he can be really good at housework!

School is going to reopen soon and I think I'm gonna miss the time spend with them once they starts school but definitely I am also looking forward to getting some ME time at home with them in school :P

Keep on Walking...

Min has finally mastered the skills of walking! After one week of intensive "training" on himself, Min is now quite proficient in walking around the house. At first he could only walk a few steps, but these two days, he walked further from our living room right to the masterbed room and even mastered walking in the squeaky shoes that he loves so much. I had meant to take a video of him but didn't had time till today after dinner...

Talking about dinner, I made my first attempt on Char Siew today. No special recipes, just my own gut feel and added sauces and spices according to my own guess :P Turned out it was a little tough but not too bad, and a little too sweet. I had intended to keep some Char Siew for the Chee Cheong Fun that I wanted to try making but ended up the kids (and me) managed to finish the whole bowl of it. I guess I'll have to wait a little while before making that for my CCF attempt!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I got this recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies from some magazine few months ago but didn't get to make it till recently. I've always loved to bake but didn't really master anything in particular. Most of my bakes are touch and go, meaning I only managed to make the same thing once or twice and even when they didn't really turn out well, I didn't have any chance to do them again due to my busy schedules with the kids. After shifting to the new house with better equipment and space, I started to pick up my baking again with selective recipes that I thought the kids will like.

Before I tried this Chocolate Chip cookies recipes, I've also tried the Coconut flavoured drops, which turned out quite nice (too bad the kids doesn't seemed to like coconut so it wasn't well received). After that sis and I tried the Orange Cranberry drops, which turned out too soft and chewy...

I did sat down to think what went wrong in my bakes that didn't turn out right the way it should be and realised that maybe I didn't really know how to work on my new oven. True enough, the last time I baked this few weeks ago, I got the same chewy and flat cookies similar to the Orange Cranberry drops in the first batch that I baked, and then subsequently, I adjusted the time and temperature suggested in the recipe according to my hunch and finally got it right on the third batch. The kids loved the cookies and finished it rather fast.

Just today, they ate the last few cookies left in the morning and pestered me to bake it again for them. Feeling encouraged, I decided to bake another round of this for them tonight. Altogether this recipe is enough to get me about 80 cookies in all. This will be enough to last them for at least 2 weeks.

Visit from the Tooth Fairy...

Hao first noticed his wobbly tooth 2 weeks ago. He told me one fine day that one of his lower front tooth was "wobbly" - his exact word, and that it came loose when his friend accidentally hit him in school. I tried to touch it and it really wobbled a little and told him not to bite on that tooth and avoid hard foods just in case. It occurred to me that his last visit to the dentist was about 6 months ago and he was due to go back for a check in December before he starts primary school. I made a mental note to make an appointment with the dentist soon.

Today was his dental appointment and I didn't alert him earlier as I was afraid he might resist going there and only told him about it as we were all leaving the house to the dentist. I had brought along all 3 of them there as I intended to let the dentist have a look at Ee's teeth while we were there. It was a long wait of about 45 mins before we were called into the room and Hao was already fidgeting and showing his fear.

Dentist Teoh was very nice and having seen her before, Hao was about to talk to her and she know how to deal with him on the dentist chair. I told her about the wobbly tooth and she immediately spotted it and told me that she could see new tooth coming up from below the tooth. She was working on Hao's teeth and at the same time told me that his teeth spacing was a little tight and it would be better if she were to remove the wobbly tooth and the tooth next to it so that the new tooth could grow straighter and nicer. It would also avoid him having to put on braces to straighten his teeth in future. She worked on it real fast and before we know it, she had gotten the teeth loosen and attempted to pull it out. Hao let out a sharp cry and struggled a little, but she was very patient and told him that it would take a few more seconds to get it out. In a few moments, Hao's teeth was out (amazingly both at the same time) and gauze was put in to stop the bleeding. Hao cried for a few moments and felt a little better when Dentist Teoh told him that an ice cream will make him feel better as a reward, and that the tooth fairy will visit him tonight to get the teeth and give him a reward. Both Ee and Min was also in the room with me and Ee was a little traumatized by the process and wasn't too willing to get onto the dentist chair for a check. Nevetheless, Dentist Teoh coaxed him to open his mouth and let her count the number of teeth he has. Min was quite amused by the commotion and looked at Dentist Teoh going through her rituals with big and curious eyes...

After all was finished, we proceeded to McDonalds for a Strawberry Sundae as advised by Dentist Teoh, which could help stop the bleeding and swelling of the gums and also as a reward to Hao for being such a brave boy. Hao is back to his old self now, although he's quite cautious of biting on hard foods and eats slower so that he'll not hurt his gums too much. Even with that, he managed to gobble down 1 grilled chicken bun, 1/2 a McChicken, 1/2 cup of corn and 1 big cup of ribena for dinner...

Look Mum! I am flying!

Last Friday we (Hao, Min, mum and me) followed Ee's Kindy out for their excursion to the Hippo cruise (river taxi) and The Singapore Flyer. The kids really enjoyed the trip as they got to ride on the river taxi, which they've been pestering me to go for a long time, and also we boarded the Singapore Flyer, which they loved tremendously! As I am afraid of heights, I sat on the floor of the cabins all the time and avoided looking down...the kids went all crazy and jumped all around, including Min, who crawled all over the cabin :P