New Beginnings

The real Master of the house

Above are pics of Tobey in his new Tigger jacket. He outgrew the China jackets. This is the only jacket he willingly tried on, just because there's Tigger on it.

We've been here for 2 weeks already and loving it. Enjoying the open spaces and the safe, child-friendliness quality of the village. That explains the high birthrate here. He now attends 2 music classes, 2 playgroups and will enrol him in a Tumbletot class for after Christmas. They are all 5-10 mins walk from our house. Tobey just blended in. It helps that he's used to these classes and playgroups from his activities back in Northampton. Honestly, I was abit worried on him settling in. But kids adapt really well! I have made many new friends too from all these activities, which has really been good for the soul :)

SK on, what must be the most photographed spot, the bridge over the canal

In the new Grand Arcade

Ventured into our new city centre over the weekend. Weather was wet and windy, but we persevered and managed to get a feel of the place, such as the city boundaries, the wheres and whats. The city centre basically comprises of two shopping areas ( an upmarket one and another standard one)separated by a lovely park. Of course there are the grand old buildings Cambridge is famous for.

Wearing his paper hat and smooching himself in the mirror

I haven't got Internet access for the last 2 weeks, me and Tobey have been spending alot of time trying new things. I've started some Arts and Crafts activities with him. We tried collaging and cutting. He was more interested in the material and equipments used rather than the end product...haha....

Lighting mad

I like the round one in the last pic...

New Home

Fan Pics ;P

The New President

Something amongst the sea of post-election news stood out to me today. It was a scene of President Barack Obama's paternal grandma and brother celebrating his victory in Kenya, East Africa.

America has indeed been united.

5th November 2008

SK has been overseas for work for a couple of days now. As expected, Tobey misses his daddy and best friend. On the first night he's away, Tobey asked for his daddy before bed. It's part of Tobey's bedtime routine for SK to play chase with him a little in his bedroom before saying goodnight to him. The nights after that he stopped asking.

Instead, during the days he reached out for his daddy's framed picture (that he can reach and grab from the book shelves)

stares at it for the longest time, point at him in the picture and says "tati"...

...And then KISSES the picture.

To distract him from missing his dad too much, I've been bringing him out daily after his nap. SK told me to shower him with toys :)

Few weekends ago, we saw this from mothercare that has a price tag of £54.99.
We liked it as it has got a parental steering bar. It gives us the option to push him around during our walks. Since, Tobey still can't really reach the pedals yet, we decided to wait for the January sales, hoping to get it on discount.

But as I was loitering in Tesco today, looking for a small ride-on toy (he's been sitting on his remote control cars and pushing himself with his legs), I came across this. It was on half-price, only £17.50!

Can't wait to open the packaging

Happy! (look at where he placed his legs)

There were just 3 left and I grabbed it straight away. Brought it home and promptly assembled it all on my own! It was a bargain!

********

5th of November is also Bonfire night. The fireworks have been going off in the neighbourhood since 5 pm till now. I carried Tobey out into the front and back garden to look at some. He was mesmerised. But I realised later on that he's actually afraid of the loud noises they make, as he cried frightfully when I went off to do some chores.

Evening fireworks over lake originally uploaded at flickr by fensterbme

Autumn Snow and Winter Hat

I've never seen snow in October before until a few days ago

28th October 2008, back garden

Tobey hates wearing a winter hat. The usual beanies or knitted ski-caps for children wouldn't work for him as he pulls them off straight away. SO, here's the solution;

warm and toasty in another "made-in-China" jacket and winter hat

He's will only wear it out in the FREEZING cold.

Updates

cheeky boy

Lately I've been spending alot of time eyeing Tobey. He pulls out new tricks overnight. For the past week, we were stunned to see him climbing on the dining chair and sat on it as if he's been doing it all his life.

Look! I don't need the high chair anymore!

Then the next day, he climbed onto the dining chair to get onto the dining table, where we kept all the dangerous stuff away from him. I screamed inside when I caught him on the table holding a cake knife, before I swiftly took it away from him. Now we stacked away the dining chairs.

The following day saw him raiding the book shelves.

Hello there!

I wonder what tomorrow brings.

Chubby feet

my little darling

Chinese Steamed Sponge Cake

Stumbled upon this super baking blog and tried one of her recipes today. Chinese Steamed Sponge Cake is SK's all-time favourite. Everytime we were back in Malaysia, he would go to SS2 Medan Selera and buy tonnes of them.

Ingredients:
250 gm top flour
250 gm caster sugar
2 tbsp milk powder
6 large eggs
60 gm corn oil

Method :
Sift flour and milk powder together.

Beat the eggs and sugar together till light pale in color and the ribbon stage. (If you lift the beaters up and do a figure of eight on the batter, the figure of 8 must be visible for about 3 secs. before disappearing).

Gradually fold in the flour mixture and oil and batter till well mix using a spatula.

Pour batter into a 8" square baking pan lined with greaseproof paper.

Cover the top with aluminium foil.

Steam on high heat for 30 mins and check if skewer comes out clean.
If not steam for another 5 to 10 mins.

Both SK and Tobey loved it (it's a very very satisfying feeling to see Tobey stuffing his face with what I baked). I was generally quite happy with it a tad bit disappointed as it didn't came out as fluffy as I hoped for. After reading the comments on the blog, it's confirmed that's because I used normal self-raising flour and not "Top" flour. Maybe next time I'll add additional baking powder and cover the cake tin with a looser foil lid so that the cake can rise more.

Obsession

His craze for "driving" is out of control! Every time he sees one of these coin guzzling machine, he would get on and wouldn't get off! Even when we refused to slot coins in, he still steered and accompanied his action with "vroom voom" noise for ages. We literally had to dragged him away, with him crying and screaming, when there were other kids waiting for their turn!

Actually, it's my fault. The first time he encountered and noticed one of these was a few weeks ago. It was a Barney themed one. I popped him on and slot a coin it just to see how cute he looked. It was only on for 10 seconds, but he was taking his "driving" very seriously throughout. That experience was enough to send him to car heaven. An unforgettable car heaven.

I think in a long run it would be more sensible to get him one of these ride-ons.

Happy shoppers!

This cool car-trolleys are new to my local Tesco. This is the second time Tobey got to ride in one. They've got like 5 in total. The first time was on a weekday, we chanced upon it by luck. It was right in front of the 'parent and child' parking bay that we parked. Today being Saturday, we thought no way we could get hold of one. As SK drove into the parking area, we happened to saw a parent vacating his groceries and kid from one. Immediately, SK screamed "Go get it!". He stopped the car midway on the road and I hopped down and RAN towards it! But unfortunately, I was 3 steps too late. I lost to a toddler with a dummy in her mouth. She was too short, I didn't realised she was running faster than me. We were so disappointed. SK gave me a look from the car as if saying "How can you loose to a kid?!!!". But I lingered in the trolley bay a little longer, hoping to spot another and lo and behold I saw one parked right near the main entrance, around 20 metres away. I made a dash for it. I look silly when I run fast. Several shoppers around me stopped to make way for me. They probably thought I was being chased by someone. I was not bothered. Then I got hold of it!!! When SK brought Tobey towards the store after parking, both of their faces lighted up. Tobey quickened his steps which soon turned into a sprint towards the toy car. I felt so proud and happy. SK gave me a pat on the back saying "well done". We were actually there just to buy some sandwiches and snack for our picnic at the park on the day. But we strolled around more in the busy supermarket anyhow, just so that our little F1 driver get to take his toy car for a good spin around the aisles.

Sigh, Parenthood makes us do the silliest things.

Noodle reading

After a long day out, we were both dead tired

Me: can you fry-up those leftover noodle for dinner?
SK: Sure, tell me how.
Me: Just fry garlic, throw in some cabbage and prawns, fry-fry, then add the noodle with a round of dark soya and light soya. 5 mins job. Then we can rest.
SK: Ok.

30minutes later, this was the result

It tasted so darn good. Instead of just cabbage, he thinly cut carrots, capcicums, AND cabbage.
This plate of noodle says alot about my dear husband. He's unlike me, he's unable to do it the easy way.

16 Months Old

Pictures taken on the move by SK. He was running around the house wearing his wellington boots and bib (was eating biscuits)

At 16 months, Not sure how tall is he now. He just can't stand still for 1 minute for me to do so. Must try again tomorrow.Measured: 80 cm. Weight wise, it's stabilising. He's probably around 13-14 kgs. He sleeps on his own in his darkened room. Still wants me to give him his milk before he sleeps at night. I prefers it that way, as I love watching him fall asleep. Sleeping pattern changes every few months. But he mostly sleeps from 2-3:30pm for nap and night sleep from 9pm-6am, have his milk, continue sleeping till 8am. Can feed himself pretty well, but still needs lots of practice. Eats everything. Still takes 20-21 oz of milk everyday. We (as in me then him) brushes his teeth every morning. He loves washing his toothbrush under the tap and putting it back into the holder.


Understands us more. For example if I say "Tobey, please can you get mummy the fish from the box on the table?" and I'll get the fish, or "Can you check whether there's a bird on the tree?", he would try to do so. Learning to drink from a normal cup. Loves to dance to any music and still big on self-congratulating (clapping after he's successfully done something) He is getting more daring in his play. For example, he would overturn a stool and sit in the hollow part, as if it's his little boat. Any round lid will be turned into a steering wheel complete with him humming the car "vooom-mmmvroom" sound. Loves playing with my pots, pans and wok , usually imitating me cooking, complete with invisible pinches of seasoning. Also beginning to be the one that initiate play with other toddlers. If a supermarket cashier did not notice his goodbye waves after I've paid for groceries, he would scream "Ei!" to get his or her attention to his Queen of England waves.

Vocab wise, still babbling tongue twister words. Recent semi-proper word is "mato" (for tomato) and "uh-oh" when something fell on the ground. Tried potty training him. Took off his nappy and sat him on the pot. He kept shaking his head, and wanted to get up. As soon as I put his nappy on, he would immediately do his business. SO, my boy is not ready yet. Now the potty is just another toy. He sits on it like another chair. I am allowing that, so that he won't associate it as something to be afraid of. Can be bribed. Before I take him out, I would insist that he help me put his toys back into the toy box, and he would do so. Reading, getting more interested. We are still visiting the library on a regular basis.

Made in China

This winter jacket is part of the 2 jackets given to Tobey as a gift, from a relative who bought it from China. It was handed to me even before he was born. I remember thinking to myself "No way my kid gonna wear such a Chinese looking garment". Yup, I snubbed it. I was heavily pregnant and grumpy, so deserves forgiveness. They were way too big for a newborn, so I kept them away deep in the cupboards.

For the last few weeks, I've been looking for a winter jacket for him but couldn't find anything suitable. I am not fussy. I just want something that is soft, warm, doesn't come with cold metal zips, not jeans material or plasticky windbreaker material, and most importantly not restrictive to his movement. Looked in all the high street shops. NOTHING!

Then I thought of those Made in china jackets I snubbed before. Took one out and put it on him. PERFECT. Just what I wanted. It's like being wrapped in a duvet. Although I still thinks it looks like a marshmallow, so what? Comfort comes first! (spoken like a true old-fashioned mother ;P)

Lessons learned. No more snubbing.

Meet Little Henry...

..Tobey's miniature (of "Henry") Vacuum Cleaner

Price: £12
Batteries: £9 for 12, (needs 4 "C-type" batteries, didn't know they exist)
Usage: Every chance he gets. Every . waking . moment .

I can even hear the humm of the vacuum in my sleep. He turns it on even when he's watching TV or having his meals and hisses at me if I even attempt to turn it off.

BUT

the silver lining is that it actually vacuums up small particles along the way. SO move aside the all singing and dancing Fisher-prices and ELCs, make way for the only USEFUL (for me) toy in the house.

Here's a video of him in action....

26th September 08 : Recorded

I was reading Karen Cheng's latest blog entry where she recorded what happens in one of her weekday. I thought it would be nice for me to record down in detail what happened today in my life as a SAHM.

8 a.m: The boy was all awake and ready to go. I made breakfast for him . Banana and oats. Fed him breakfast and went on to cook his meals whilst he watched some children tele on CBeebies. Took the box of paper out so that the recycling truck can pick it up.

9 a.m: Showered and dressed Tobey. Gave him my bag to rummage through in my room whilst I showered.

9:30a.m: Brought Tobey to music class which lasted an hour.

10:45 a.m :Vacuumed the floors. Upstairs and downstairs. Tobey helped. Fed Tobey his multi-vits.

11: 15 a.m: I ate brunch. Maggi Assam Laksa. Yummm.

11:30 a.m: Spent time with Tobey. Drawing, reading, playing chasing, hide-and-seek, etc.

12 noon: Fed Tobey his lunch.

12:30 p.m: Cleaned up after him. Food on the floor, on his clothes, hands, face, etc.

12:45 p.m: Tobey played on his own, whilst I tried to read. Played with him when he wanted to engage with me (or when he pulled the book out of my grip).

1:20 p.m: Tobey started his afternoon nap.

1:25 p.m: I made some pasta for my late lunch. Folded clean laundry. Sun was shining, so washed a load and hung them. Ironed SK's work shirts. Arranged for a plumber to service our boiler. Surf net a little.

3:20 p.m: Tobey woke up. Gave him his afternoon milk.

3.45p.m: Drove out to post a letter (and bought a euromillion ticket which I didn't win...again)and got some groceries.

4:30 p.m: Brought Tobey to a playground. He made several new friends.

5:30 p.m: Made dinner. Steamed pork with preserved vege, broccoli and tried a new dish with salted vege "ham choi" and tofu. Turned on TV for Tobey, but he rather hang around the kitchen willing me to carry him so that he could 'help' me cook as well.

6:30 p:m: Fed Tobey dinner. Sk came home from work (phew!).

7-8 p.m: Showered Tobey, then Sk and I took turns to shower. Dinner for the adults. Tobey ate all our broccoli.

8-9:20 p.m: Play time with daddy! (That boy has so much of energy!!!) whilst I tried to read and watch some tele.

9:30 p.m: Tobey took his night milk and finally sleeps. SK spent the next 10 minutes packing toys back into toy boxes whilst watching X-Men 2.

...and now I am typing this. Will sleep soon. SO tired!

Concentration

Tranferring...

...and drawing...

Funny to watch when he concentrates hard and spend ages doing his "activities" again and again. Occasionally, he would look up and smile proudly at us. Another favourite is reading (believe it or not)...fingers crossed...hopefully this will continue.

Almost a Break-In

At 2 am this morning, I heard a strange noise. Bionic ears SK was snoring away (I am the Magnificent nose ML by the way as I can smell betterl). It sounded like someone was shaking the handle of the french door at the back of our house vigorously. I woke SK up. He looked out the front window which faces the front of our house and I looked at the back, which faces the back garden. I saw no one, it was too dark. SK saw a youngster in front of our house, staring at it.

SK : "Oi!!! What are you doing here!"
Guy: "It's a...errr...I am knocking for Adrian" (in a low voice as if making it up as he went along)
SK: "Huh??"
Guy: " I am knocking for Adrian!" (in a louder voice)
SK : "No such person here!"
Guy: "Alright then" and walked away

SK then went downstairs to check. When he shined the torch into the garden, I was also looking out from the upstairs window. When he shined into the middle section, I saw a pair of legs moving away, running to the left. I immediately checked on Tobey. He was snoring away and there weren't any thieves in his room. Phew! We carried on looking and checking but no one was around by then.

Here's what we gathered. Two hoodie thieves came on a mission to steal my laptop (which is located in the dining table. One went over the garden fence and another one kept watch at the front of the house. When SK was conversing with the "guard" thief, his partner (s) in crime must have hidden himself.

I was bemused. My laptop is not visible from the kitchen window (the only window passer-bys can peep in). So how in the world did those scumbags know that the back door is the nearest to the lappy? Then again, they could be just trying to get in just to do a general robbery, not targeting anything specific.

Earlier in the day, the estate agent brought along a couple in their 50s to view our house (as we are currently trying to sell). This couple looked scruffy (think gypsies who lives in caravans) and basically "just not the type that would make us an offer". They were really friendly. But at a point during the viewing, I noticed from a distance that the husband was looking at my back doors really closely, as if examining it. I thought maybe because we are one of the few the street who still having our original wooden windows and doors and not the UPVC double glazed ones (UPVCs keep more warm in during the winter months, hence making the house more desirable).

Now that I think of it, that couple probably told their son and his mate(s) about the inside of our house and they decided to rob us. What they didn't know is that we have a million other latches on each door which we diligently make use of each night! So Stoooopid.

I am actually very angry that they got away with it. I was thinking whether we could have handled things differently. For instance,

1) If SK were to answer : "Oh yes, you wait, I'll get Adrian for you" Then quickly run to catch hold of that "guard" thief while I call the police. Would it be better? He would probably be bashed up and then get robbed. As there were more than one of them in the operation.

2) If SK just kept quiet and secretly alert the police. They might have managed to break-in somehow and again we would get bashed up and robbed.

The ideal is for us to own a gun. No need a real gun, a bb gun or an air gun would do. We would just need to shoot them unconscious and then get the police on them. Since we don't own a gun of any sort, I think I will keep a few rocks in my room tonight.

Siew Pau

I tried a recipe on Sukye's blog today

Oil Dough

• 340g plain flour
• 220g shortening / lard - used butter

Water Doug

• 550g plain flour
• 150g caster sugar
  
• 160ml vegetable oil
• 240ml iced water
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp golden syrup - Substituted with vanilla extract as well
  

Glaze

• 2 egg yolks

Method:

1. Process the oil dough ingredients in a food processor. Scale it into 20 gm balls.
2. Process the water dough ingredients in food processor. Scale it into 40 gm balls.
3. Wrap oil dough inside water dough.
4. Roll it flat. Then roll it up like swiss roll. Repeat this 3 times.
5. Repeat step 4 with all the pieces of dough.
6. Cut each piece of dough into 2.
7. Roll out each pieces and put in filling.
8. Preheat oven to 190 C and bake 10 mins
9. Remove from oven, glaze with egg yolk and bake another 20 mins.

For the filling:

• 300 gm Char Siew, finely diced - I used cubed pork shoulder and added 1 tbsp of Lee Kum Kee's Spare Rib sauce.
• 3 tbsp sugar
  
• 1 tbsp flour
• 3/4 cup water - 1 cup = 240ml, so do your own calculation
• 1 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp dark soy sauce - omitted this one, didn't have any
• 4 chopped shallots
• 1/2 cup green peas - I substituted with potatoes instead as I didn't have any peas in my freezer
  
• 2 tbsp oil

The Steps:

1. Saute shallot in oil.
2. Add flour, cook until browned.
3. Add Char Siew.
4. Add water, all sauces and sugar.
5. Cook until gluey.
6. Add green peas.
7. Cool it before wrapping the Pau.

I halved the recipe above hoping to get 28 paus but I ended up with only 12! And the dough was too thick. Why? Because I forgotten to cut each piece of dough into 2!!!!!! (I think it's my cold that has been causing my blurriness *excuses* *excuses*)

The end result was tasty, but the filling was abit too watery. Most probably because I omitted the peas. So during baking, some of them managed to ooze out of the dough causing them to look messy.

SK came back and ate one and said "Hmmm nice BISCUIT dear".

15 months old

My little boy has got 4 teeth now. The 5th one is currently breaking through. He can eat most of our food but his tolerance to spicy food is still very low. I still cook especially for him each day. Just to make sure he has the essentials before dabbing into the adult food (which can sometimes be really unhealty..hehe).

He loves going out. He will spend ages trying to open the front door with my set of house keys. Patiently, he will try a key at a time. When one actually fits, he would quickly stand back as if waiting for the door to open itself. Also, sitting still for longer than 2 minutes is a hard task for him now. So it has been nightmare in the new term of music class. Instead of walking in a line with other kids, he would break free and stare at the line from afar and smirk.

I am abit worried about his speech development. He understands most of what we say to him and what we are talking about. But he just simply refuses to copy us! The usuals so far are just "there", "mum-mum", "da-di", "mama", "nen-nen", "na-na" and the most complicated one "tiger". No improvement from a couple of months back. Grunting and pointing are his preferred way of communicating. I am not rushing him, but just wondering whether if there's something I am not doing enough to motivate him. Oh well, hopefully one day he'll change his mind and decides to pick up talking more seriously.

He's into imaginative play now which can be quite funny to watch. For example, when I give him a small stainless steel pot and a ladle, he would spend ages "cooking" all his small toys in it, transferring them into another container and back into the pot and vice versa (When I am cooking he would also "help" by passing me endless supply of potatoes, garlic and ginger).

Now that he rather play on his own for quite a long period of time, I found myself having more spare time on my hand. It's so weird, I just do not know what I should do with it!!! It's been a long while since I don't feel like collapsing into a pile and rest whenever I have any spare time! So I've more or less decided to go back to work to feel more useful and send Tobey to a nursery once we settle in our new place. It would definitely crush me to be away from my son, but I genuinely believe that the time has come for him to learn to socialise, be independent, and learn the ropes of surviving amongst other little people and adults. It's very true that his standard of care will drop. No one will be there to instantly squash a spider that tries to get within 3 metres of him or frequently sniff his nappy to see whether he has done a poo. But, knowing his personality, I believe that he will have so much fun, learn faster and thrive amongst a fixed set of peers.

No doubt I will get peanuts back after paying for his nursery, but as long as he benefits from it, everyone wins.

The Smoked House

Today we went house-hunting again. One of the houses we viewed looked really promising from the advert. When we drove up to it, it looked really charming from the outside. It faces a huge park and is located in quite a posh location, which is within the catchment area of a primary school with fantastic Ofted reports (Grade 1s). However, the price was slightly lower than what is expected out of this area. We just thought that since the housing market is so bad now, this probably belongs to another desperate seller.

Once we stepped into the house. We knew the real reason.

It hit us like a slap in the face. The smell of stale cigarette smoke just enveloped us. At that point the estate agent rep said " I am not going to lie to you, this house does need a lot of renovation" He must have been kidding. It needed a complete rip-out-refit transformation!

The whole house has a tinge of yellow to it. I could see that the walls were not painted yellow, but of various other colours, but somehow it had a yellow coating to it. The ceiling, the 1960's carpet, the blinds, the window panes, even the air was yellow! It spelled years of enclosed smoking by someone that loved inhaling his own smoke back into his system. I nearly puked.

Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against smokers. Some of the closest person to me smokes. But at least he or she has the sense to make sure the house is well ventilated, the windows are opened before smoking or smoke outside of the house.

Me: What happened here???!!!
Estate agent rep (EAR): The previous owner smoked alot.
Me: Where is he now?
EAR: I am afraid he past away.
Me: What? Did he passed away in this house????!
EAR: No , he didn't

YEAH RIGHT!

Alarm bell started ringing in my head. "I got to get my boy out of here!"
So after just glancing at the ground floor, I excused myself and Tobey, saying that I just couldn't stand the smell. SK on the other hand, dared to venture upstairs as he could see the investment potential of this house. Let's just say, he could see beyond the yellow tinge. Also because his nose only works part-time.

So what if we managed to revamp the house with a completely new interior. Every time I smell (or think I smell) any ciggie smoke, I would definitely think that the previous owner is paying us a visit.

No thanks.

Lamb Stew

Lamb shoulders were on price reduction in my local Tesco. So I've decided to try this recipe.

Recipe:
Half a lamb shoulder
one leek
3 carrots
3 tomatoes
3 stalks of celery
5 medium red onions
half a bulb of garlic (skin on cut across in half )
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
2 stock cubes
1 teaspoon of black pepper corn
2 teaspoon of salt
3 dried bay leaves

Add lamb, roughly chopped vege, and spices into pot. Cover with hot water. Bring to boil and simmer on low fire for 3 hours until meat is falling off the bone. Nice eaten with rice or on it's own.

End product

Gymboree Free Play

Through our first visit to a Gymboree class , we discovered that there's actually a free play session for £3 an hour on Sundays. We've been (actually SK is the more dedicated one here) bringing Tobey there for the past month. He's now so used to the equipments and structures that he would just charge as soon as his socks are off. SK would set an obstacle course for Tobey each time, based on the equipment arrangement on that day. Tobey would then climb, slide, jump, run, go through tunnels, and lie down whenever he needs a rest, take a sip of water and go through his obstacle course all over again.

Every Sunday, he can do it faster than the last.

I can now see the advantages Gymboree. It's like a padded playground and it's specially designed structures really works to encourage the physical development of toddlers in a fun and safe way. I am glad we gave it a second chance.

The Biker