26th April 2010

SK spent some time this evening trailing the boy around the garden. He managed to capture what the boy usually does when he's hanging out in the garden. He does and is encouraged to get out there to play and be adventurous whenever the weather permits.

Plucking some blossoms of the tree for mummy & making sure no cat is messing with mummy's vegetable patch :)

Peeping Tom

Half-time

I have to mention this here. Today, the helium balloon he got from his friend's birthday party over the weekend flew off his hands and up into the skies. We both looked at it flying upwards helplessly for a few minutes.
He asked me to 'rescue' it for him. If I could fly, I would fly up there to get it for him, but I couldn't. So I explained to him that the balloon has 'gone home to God'. He accepted it but ran to hug me and cried for a little while, totally devastated. "My love my yellow balloon" he said. A few hours later, an airplane flew past and he said (looking very hopeful) that the airplane will rescue his yellow balloon. I had to break it to him that it's not going to happen and that his balloon will not be coming back anymore. It's heartbreaking knowing that I can't protect him completely from sadness however careful I am. I guess being there to hug and explain things to him is the best I could do. Not easy being a parent. Now I feel like getting a tank of helium to fill up a room full of yellow balloons for him.

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On a separate note, trees and plants are starting to bloom;

Cherry Blossoms

Apple tree blossoms

Plum tree blossoms

Rhodendrum flowers- We got 2 of these last year and waited for them to bloom, but they didn't. This time around, blooming it did, but only from one plant. The other one needs to be replanted to a more sunny spot.

Pics updates

Weather has been fantastic.Tobey has been busy playing with friends and spent most of his time imagining different adventures in the garden. The other day he told me he's building sandcastles on the seaside (we have to bring him to the beach soon)..hehe...the last pic shows our attempt in planting vege seedlings into the ground. Tobey helped me with his new set of tools. They are choi-sums and pak-chois cultivated from seeds. We've also planted courgette seeds in pots to cultivate into seedlings, but they have yet to break through. Last weekend, we sowed salad and chives seeds directly into ground (it's possible to do so according to my friends' experiences). So fingers crossed. It's definitely won't be as good as FIL's vege patch last summer. But one can only try. Plus I found pottering around the garden is very therapeutic for both Tobey and me. SK does alot as well. But he's more interested in keeping the grass healthy, moss free and scaring cats away with some ultrasonic box, gel repellents, etc. He actually checks the perimeters for cat poos twice a day. Yup. TWICE.


I've been busy in the kitchen too. My firsts lately were mamak mee goreng and garlic loaf. The bread dough actually doubled in size after some waiting time, but I forgot to take a pic of it as I was busy punching the air out of it. Very satisfying. Highly recommended.

Easter break'10

Easter break starts on Friday (Good Friday) and stretches until Monday.

On Friday, SK needed to work from home and needed some ultra-quiet work time, it was raining cats and dogs, so I brought Tobey to this play centre to make use of his excess energy. Being a public holiday, the place was heaving with older kids. With my pregnant tummy, I could no longer trail him in those structures as certain section requires me squeeze my whole body through 2 rollers, like pan meen rollers. So I told him to fend for himself, make sure he stay away from rowdy kids. I parked myself at a table nearest to the structures so that I can still keep an eye on him. We had lunch there too. After like 3 hours I had to drag the boy out.

On Saturday, we went to town, came home, he still got the energy so we went cycling to the nearby playground.

On Sunday (and Monday), we went up to Birmingham to stay a night and to help BIL view a few apartments. That morning, I was the first to wake-up because going to Birmingham also means visits to Malaysian Delight Restaurant. I dreamt of their Assam Laksa the night before....slurp...

Anyways, in between viewings we had lunch there with BIL- Super gorgeous Assam Laksa, Wa Tan Hor (another one for ta-pau as well), Braised pork belly with yam and Char keow teow. Then after more viewings (all the shops were closed because it was Easter Sunday) we chilled out in the hotel club lounge eating canapes and helping ourselves to free drinks (ahem..that's the advantage of having BIL working in a hotel) but all I can think of is dinner back in the same place. So dinner time came and for dinner we had -Butter Prawns, Belachan Kang-Kung, Claypot seafood with tofu, Sizzling pork chops....just your average dinner food when eating out in Malaysia right? nothing to shout about. But having authentic Malaysian dinner served in this country is really a rare treat. Very often in chinese restaurants, you'll find Hong Kong cuisine being served instead. We've also tried several other restaurants that serves Malaysian food, but nothing as authentic as this one.

Anyways, here are several pics
Tobey and I chilling out in the room. Tobey is playing Jelly Car on the iphone (he is laughing to himself in the picture above) and I am playing his DSi.


Yes the boy is a gamer. We had to confiscate Wii from him because he was refusing to do anything else whilst playing it. "Tobey time for dinner", "wait 1 minute mummy". We kept it in the cupboards and told him that it's spoilt and being sent for fixing (sorry boy, but it was too overwhelming for you). To cater to his geeky gaming genes from his daddy, plus to further nurture his concentration skill, we substituted it with a DSi game console instead. It works. He enjoys it moderately whilst still rather go out for cycling, football, crafts activities, playing with his friends, etc. Lately, he's been surfing the Internet on my laptop too. He can't read or spell yet, but he can navigate and click on fixed links at the top of the window using the touch pad. Usually he'll click onto the BBC link and look for CBeebies website. He will then look for games to amuse himself. To avoid him being obsessed over it, we only allow him some time on the laptop after dinner/lunch. Both SK and I are trying to let him enjoy these moderately and not deprived him from it altogether. Because the last thing we want of him is to become stuck in his room, gaming his time away into his teens. Honestly, it's not exactly the route to a balance healthy lifestyle. It has to be one of the activities that he enjoys amongst others.