My Little Surf Turtle

In his 2-piece swimsuit

Testing out the lockers himself (I cut his back hair, too straight as you can see)

Yesterday, I brought him swimming for the first time. We don't own any club membership, so it was in a local leisure centre (public pool).

He was all cheery and happy when we I told him that "we are going swimming, OK. Play with lots of water". Still OK when we were in Tesco purchasing his arm band, inflatable waist ring (which came with an inflatable beach ball as well). He was his usual self, waved at cashier and smiled at anyone that smiled at him.

Once in the changing room, he didn't protest and let me changed him into his special swim nappy and swim suit. BUT, as soon as the arm band was on. He knew something was wrong.

I first placed him standing on the shallow part of the water. He was stoned for literally a minute. Looked around, looked at his feet, looked at me. Then I carried him into a slightly deeper side so that he can float his arm band and felt warmer. He started CRYING! That was not the response I was expecting from him. I thought he would be overjoyed to be given a chance to play with so much water.

For the next 20 minutes, he clinged on to me and whimpered and cried in between observing the kids around him having fun.

Me: Tobey, you don't want to play water?
Tob: (shake head vigorously)
Me: You want to go home?
Tob: There, there, there (whilst pointing at the direction we came from)

So I took him out. Maybe because I waited too late (only after all his immunisation jabs) to introduce him to the pool, or maybe because there were too many people and echoed in this indoor pool.

Maybe we should join a club after all.

(Side ranting: my locker key -which was a magnetic coin on a band- was faulty. Being the first time using it, I thought the locker was faulty when it wouldn't lock when I used the band to touch it. So I shifted lockers TWICE. In the midst, I dropped my clothes and the coins in my jeans pocket fell down. A kid pretended to help me pick up a £1 coin and pass it to me. But instead of actually letting go of the money, he retracted his hand and ran off! Yes, he stole my money! If I have a free hand and not in the midst of shifting locker, holding on to Tobey, and trying to get an attendant to help me, I would definitely ran after him and ensure that his parents know of his vice...GRRRRRRRR)

ActiveTobey

Maybe I should explain what's going on first:

Tobey has this tendency to sink his little nails into SK's knee operation scar. SK would then pretend to scream in pain and Tobey would find that funny. I was trying to capture this in the above video, but it turned out to be a mixed one :))

By the way, this is his usual active-self in the evenings.

Sticky Pan Fried Lemon Chicken

After salivating over Tsu Lin's Pan Fried Mango Chicken dish. I came up with a pan fried chicken dish of my own- Sticky Pan Fried Lemon Chicken. It's so easy as it's all done on the same pan :P

Recipe:

1)Marinate chicken pieces( I used 2 skinless thighs and 2 drumsticks with skin on) with salt, white pepper and cornflour.

2)Pan fry them till brown on all sides

3)Add slices of 1 lemon, 3 garlic cloves and 3 tablespoon of sugar .

4) Switch to low fire. As the sugar melt, keep turning the chicken ensuring they are well coated with the sticky sauce.

5)As the sauce thicken, add 2 teaspoon of light soya sauce and 1 teaspoon of rice wine and stir till the chicken is cooked.

Tasted not too bad (I liked it), will probably use brown sugar instead of white and add a cinnamon stick in the pan next time.

August Bank Holiday Weekend'08

Monday this week is the last Bank holiday in Britain till the Christmas break. Although it was a 3 days weekend, it still felt too short for us.

Saturday:

We went for out first Cambridge house hunting trip. Looked at Soham and Ely. We targeted these two as they have schools with really good Ofted reports. Looked at Barratt and Persimmons newbuilts.

Soham was disappointing. It has next to no shops. NO TESCO. The nearest Tesco is 4.5 miles away. Just imagine. The village that call themselves a "town" has a very messy layout and the atmosphere is stale to say the least. Maybe that's why we are not cut out to live in a village. Ely was ok. It has a huge cathedral right in the town centre. Typical of Cambridgeshire. Unfortunately, the plot of newbuilt we saw was still in major construction for at least another year.

Anyway, it's back to the drawing board.

Sunday:

We brought Tobey to Gymboree free play in the morning. There were literally 3 kids there which was fantastic as he went on his favourite elevated planks (which was good to curb his fear of height), slides, and tunnel to his heart content. Worth every penny of that £3 an hour spent. After lunch and grocery shopping, we went back to do some DIY and gardening.

Monday:

More DIY. And an outing to Tobey's favourite place in the world- The Park, with his favourite person in the world- His Daddy. Here's some pics taken.

Tobey and SK (I love this pic as it captured how happy they are together)

On his favourite slide

A spot of footie (whilst I sat on the bench and chill...bliss..!)

Tobey with mommy

Tired after football, playground and running around

Going home

The weather has been rather kind to us, heavy rain at night and sunshine in the day time. In fact, this has been a rather pleasant Summer. September is creeping up. That spells non-stop rain and chilly wind...brrrrr...hopefully it's not too harsh.

Growing pains

I am busy teething. Can't put it off any longer. Don't feel like eating anything at all. I just want my milk. It's tough being a baby.

Tobey and the apple

Playdates

Here's my son exploring the cafe where we went with cutie baby S and his mom J

With all the unavailability of his usual activities due to Summer break, I've been racking my brains trying to keep him and myself from being too bored at home. Therefore, I've arranged several playdates for him this week. Basically, we just visited my friends who have a toddler around the same age as Tobey. That way, Tobey got to play with his peers whilst I got to chat to with my friends to my heart content. It was great to be able to have some adult conversation with other mothers over a cuppa and just chat about everything and anything. Must do this more often.

14 Months Old

On this day, Tobey had a good time running around the almost empty kampung Northampton town centre. He chased pigeons and played with automated shop entrance doors (going in and out many many times, just to test run the sensors). For his many fans out there (especially his grans), here's some glamour pics ;P



Tobey's daddy bought him his second remote control car (the first one was daddy's and not that suitable for a toddler). It was fully charged and ready to go right after his dinner. This car is super cool. He played with it the whole evening.

Concentrating hard

It has 2 sides. It can climb wall and flip on itself.

And the best part.....wait for it....

Awesome!

Turning 30

What happened in my 20s?

I got my degree, moved to another country, worked in several professions, got married and have a baby. On a more personal note, I've stop striving to be who I am not meant to be. With self-acceptance, come my acceptance of others.

What will happen in my 30s?

Only time will tell. I am more at ease with who I am now. Plan to focus on project happiness and proceed with faith and positiveness.

Library visit

Tobey's first library card and set of library book

Tobey is not much of a book person. The best he could do is to sit till I finish reading him the story and then would proceed doing other things. Very rarely he would choose reading over other toys. We are ok with that. But just incase he decides to take up reading more seriously, which is not a bad thing at all, we've signed him up at the local library. His library card can borrow up to 20 books for 6 weeks until he's 5! There are 3 library within 2 miles radius to choose from. Plus the books we buy him, I am sure there's enough book exposure for him. The selection of books is very important as well. I am hopeless at that. But am trying to select based on what he might like and not what I feel he should be reading. I think I am getting there. Recently I bought him a "In the night garden" book and he seems to like it and kept wanting it to be read to him.

His first set of library books includes several DK Animal Feel n Touch series, and two other animal themed books. They were new (the library branch I chose is pretty out of town)!. I also got him a "In the night garden" DVD for £1.50 per week. Got myself an Annabel Karmel's recipe book for toddler.

Here's him trying to figure out what so special about this little plastic card that mommy has been making such a fuss about...

Sweet for my sweet

...to my hubby, Tobey's daddy, my best friend and soulmate. You'll always be 23 to me even when you reach 131 ;)

Surprise

A special card from my family back home for our birthdays. Thanks Mom & Pa!

Food Exploration

After a session of feeding himself some chocolate oats

As part of his route to Independence, I am suppose to let Tobey feed himself and explore food at his own pace. I am suppose to lay a huge mat under his high chair during meal times and just let him go crazy. Wanna squash some peas? Sure. Wanna massage the mash potatoes? Of course you can my dear. Wanna pour water into the porridge that mommy has been making for the last hour? Why not, go ahead.

The mother (and Chinese) in me shy away from that idea as I know that if I let him take control of his spoon, only 25% of the food will actually be eaten. But "I want my child to be well nourished" and not share the other 75% with the floor, his high chair, his hair, my hair, his face and our clothes.

Dilemma

So the compromise is that I make sure I let him have several messy meal times a week. Mostly for breakfast as he has oats for breakfast. If the consistency is right, the chances of it dropping off his spoon on the way to his mouth is less. I once gave him steamed carrot sticks, fish fingers and a cup of water. He stirred carrot and fish fingers together in his cup of water then scooped that murky water into his bowl of fish fingers. You get the picture. Another time, I gave him a bowl of rice crispies. He fed himself, his soft toys, fed me and crushed the rest between his fingers, his toes and embedded them into the carpet. Thank God for vacuum cleaners.I dunno whether he learned anything or not.


But all is worth it simply because he had a fantabulous time every single time and sure felt super proud of himself and his achievements.

City Break

Since both our birthdays are looming, we decided to take a last minute overnight trip to Birmingham. We chose this hotel as we got a good deal on it. I am very picky about hotels. From experience, hotels in Europe always fell short on standard compared to the ones in Asia. Even if it's freezing outside, a hotel that is worth the money MUST have good and silent air-conditioning. With city trips, opening up windows for fresh air also meaning letting traffic noise pollution in. Anyway, this one is perfect and it provided us a restful and quiet retreat even when it's smack right in he middle of the city centre.

Tobey loved the changed of surrounding.

He's definitely not afraid of height at this point in time. Kept pointing to the cars at the roundabout below.

Here's my little boy looking adorable for mommy.

We started of our day with Dim Sum with BIL at our usual Birmingham chinese haunt Wing Wah. Tobey only took TWO scoops of the lunch I made for him! But I let it go to teething. He eventually ate two bear biscuits.


After that, we brought Tobey to the National Sea Life Centre. We made use of a Buy-One-Get-One-Free Voucher from Tesco and only paid £15.50 for 2 adults and a toddler. It was educational..really, both for Tobey and for us. Who knows a Barracuda is the next most dangerous predatory fish after the Shark.

One of the many aquariums with colourful fishes

We tried our hardest to scare the puffer fish just to see it double in size, but it remained calm..hehe.

SK and Tobey, string-ray spotting

This is the Sting-Ray section. Not very clear from the pic, but string-rays were popping their heads up at the surface of the water above. The caretaker actually told the visitors to not touch them as they are capable to bite fingers off! When you look at the bottom of string-ray, you can actually see a pair of eyes and a smiley mouth. I found that so cute.

Here's the Jelly fish room. Tobey found it awesome when his beloved muslin started to glow.

Then we also visited the Otters, Turtles, Sea horse and a mirror maze area.

We ended Tobey's sea life introductory session with some souvenirs. Mr. Crab can crawl sideways when it's winded up. Tobey kept running away from it. Ms. Fish feels very real and can be stretched in all direction without breaking.

After that we walked around more and went back to the Hotel for a rest. Then we went for dinner in Chinatown.
By end of the dinner, it was way past his bedtime and he was getting really cranky at the restaurant (as you can see from the pic above).

So did we went down for a drink in the bar when he's finally sleeping on the bed in the darkened room? Hell no! We both read quietly in front of the only light source in the room, coming from the bathroom! Cheers to parenthood!

Diarrhea

It all started on Thursday dinner time. We've decided to try giving Tobey normal rice with soup, instead of softer food (another moronic parental decision on our part as he's teething, hello!!!). Because of his teething pain, he didn't want to chew and hence just swallow without breaking down the food. Then he vomited (that's how we realised he didn't chew). I suspected that upseted his digestive system and causes the subsequent diarrhea on that night. Whenever we gave him his usual formula, he suffered a bout of diarrhea, and at times vomited. The hot Summer weekend (up to 28 C) didn't help as well. It's normal for toddlers to have temporary Lactose Intolerance during these times. He was like that too when he was down with Rotavirus. So we swapped to soya based formula and gave him mushy food again. My MIL told me that there is a Chinese believe that Diarrhea happens during teething. Maybe lack of chewing is the cause.Hmmm... Soya milk smells really bad. Can't wait for him to be back to his usual formula.

On Friday night, Sk and I decided to have some takeaway kebab. The next day BOTH of us were down with diarrhea as well!!! It was horrid! I vomited till there wasn't a possibility for my body to have anymore liquid, then I vomited again! It was a task just to walk from the room to the loo, let alone look after an active toddler! But parental instinct kicked in and we managed somehow. I remember telling myself at 2 am on Sunday morning, when I needed to check on Tobey, "You can do this, just one step at a time, move your legs damn it!" That's another major disadvantage of not having family around. SK suggested maybe we should never eat the same food, just like pilots and his co-pilots ;P

Today, SK is back to normal, I am 90% there and Tobey is as normal but I will still put him on soya for a few more days, just to be sure.

Teething

Teeth number 3 is making it's way out now. As with teeth number 1 and 2, it's not a pleasant experience for all of us. Sleep gets disrupted as he wakes up whimpering in pain and has to try to put himself back to sleep again and again. Appetite is low. Enthusiasm to practice chewing became non-existent, hence back to soft and mushy food. Activeness during playtime remains the same, with occasional complain or cry of pain whilst putting his finger in his mouth. When it gets too bad, we administer paracetamol and Bonjela (nearly got our fingers bitten off many times). All we can do is to try our best to make him comfortable. Not easy being a toddler.

3 down, 17 more to go...JOY!

Cheeky

(Click on image to see wording)

Lately he's been making us laugh

*On a hot summer evening, he was sitting 2 feet away from SK, who was sweating profusely. He whispered, so SK had to go near to him to listen and he quickly wiped off SK's sweat from his face and gave this Cheeky Nose Crunch (CNC) (as in pics)

*He often come to me when he found rubbish on the floor for me to throw, be it a small oat piece or a scrap of paper. But sometimes he would pretend to pass something into my hand,and it would be NOTHING, then he would give his infamous CNC and walk away.

* Whenever he managed to do something for himself i.e; putting his shoes,nappies or bottles away, he would pause and give himself a 5 seconds clap. Now, when I managed to put his shoes, nappies or bottles away, he would clap for me as well accompanied by a CNC, as if saying "See mommy, if you put your mind to it, you could do it as well!"

*He knows I get hysterical if he starts chewing stones from the garden. So at times, he pretended to chew just to see me panic. His acting was as real as it can get.

*This morning, whilst SK was getting ready for work, Tobey was next to him staring as usual. But this time, he copied. SK swiped his hair on both sides, and he did the same whilst CNC-ing.

Funny little teething boy.

Meet Mr.Ssssssssssss...

...Tobey's new pet.

He gets dragged around the house, pretending to chase his master all day long.

Tobey Today

Looking more and more like daddy...

Spinning around...

Head held high...

Here comes the wind again...

makes me feel like dancing.....

The Frappuccino or me? We are both are in the same colour hues :P

The First Certificate

When it was his turn to go get his cert, I was half expecting him to make a zoom for his teacher's glass of water on the table edge, but he went up and accepted his cert with both hands and a smile instead. Phew!

What did he learned from Music Class?
He learned about taking turns, sharing and the joy of music .

Even though, every kid in the class got a cert, I was so proud of him nevertheless (nearly shed a tear...hahahah!). My boy's first certificate.

*Hullabaloo*...

...is an activity centre for kids of all ages. It consist of large frames of play structures, slides and all sorts. Right in front of the structures, there is a large restaurant area, where parents can mingle and have some food. I drove (hehehe) Tobey there for the first time today. Paid £2.95 (which include drinks and biscuits) , handed over his shoes to be stored and was given laminated number to retrieve the shoes later.
Firstly, I put him in the "under 3" section. There were a ball pool, tonnes of rubbery Lego and several lovely little kiddos. I still need to monitor him so that he don't graze his wound further. Managed some small talk with a few parents. Tobey enjoyed himself. He dipped into the ball pool and threw balls out. There was a nasty little kid that was probably 3 kept throwing the balls back at Tobey's head. Since my son still does not know the evil of this world, he thought it was a game. I told the kid (brat) nicely (with a stern nursery nurse face nevertheless) "That's not very nice of you, throw the ball back into the pool, not at the boy, ok". Miraculously, that worked and I gave him a hesitated "Well done!". In my head, I was slam-dunking him headfirst into the pool.
Then there was those Lego blocks...he just tried stacking them up and destroying them the next second just when it's knee high.

After another 20minutes there, and many more kiddos getting in later, he got bored. I gave him something to eat and drink then we ventured into the "Over 3" area. That's when the fun began. There were many slides which reminded me of a mini Mimaland of my childhood. Knowing that Tobey loves slides, I braven myself up and took him to one of it. When right at the top, I nearly chickened out (fear of height and being stuck halfway and being laughed at), but Tobey kept trying to wiggle out of my grip to get down on his own! No choice. I just held tight to him and slided down the wavy slide which was like 3 storeys high. My heart popped out. But he totally enjoyed it.

After that, whilst I was catching my breath, I just let him explored the many corridors, corners and frames whilst standing way back.
We went home for lunch after 2 hours. £2.95 well spent I would say.