Oven & Kitchen Time!

On weekends, I try to cook or bake something really simple? Why simple? Cos that is the only thing I am confident of ... wuakakakaka! So it has been fried rice or spaghetti for lunch/dinner. Else tapau chicken rice ... nyek nyek nyek. And oh! Tried baking some chicken wings too!

Baked 2 types of muffin last week. One is the plain type (cos I dont wanna waste my ingredients while trying out a recipe for the first time!). It worked out well, so for the 2nd batch, I added some cream cheese cubes & choc chips. Yummy!

I also tried my hand at steaming a tray of 9-layer kuih. I tell ya, taste and look was really good. But was wondering why mine so hard sampai so difficult to cut with my plastic knife (yeah, for this kuih have to use plastic knife to cut one .. why .. i dunno ... i find out and tell you in my next kuih post, okay). Thinking and thinking then I realised, oooh I forgot to add 500ml of plain warm water in addition to my coconut cream .. ahh no wonder lah! Bau so fantastic but cannot cut nicely leh. Nevertheless, good 1st try. At least I tried mah! So next week, i am more confident of attempting it again ... yeah!

Still hunting for kindy!

Its been quite a while but in between the past 10 weekends, we have had so many things to do and places to visit.

As you know, we have put in so much time and effort in shopping for the new house. We did not do any major renovation, but still, even choosing a sofa, you need to visit at least 5 outlets or so before deciding on one right? So imagine lah, we have to buy EVERY SINGLE THING for the house, and imagine lah, HOW MANY SHOPS we had to visit .... now I think back, I wonder how we managed.

Now, all dust have settled, and its seriously time for us to "shop" for a kindy for the brat. By hook or by crook, he HAS TO GO to school on 4 Jan. Why? Because I know mom is tired of him ... physically tired of him ... cos he is like a bee! Buzzing around every where and any where and all the time! And on most times, you have to be behind him, cos, just give him 3 seconds, and .. and ... sure something will happen. Either he open the fridge and screw something up, or inside the toilet playing with water, or in the living room banging on his portable DVD player or throwing the remote control aiming at our brand new LCD TV or banging his bicycle at our sliding door .... so no choice, have to guard him like a hawk!

And every Sat & Sun, its my turn for 24 hrs non-stop guarding. So I am tired. Really tired. Hopefully school will "mellow" him down a bit. Some of the teachers I met told me, dont worry, when he is here, he will see other kids eating, he will follow. He sees other kids drawing, he will follow. So I do hope you are right teacher!

We have been to Mayter, Little Inventor and Shining Stars. This week I hope to cover Lovely Star, QQ Alam and maybe UCSI but I think this one is a bit too far. But whatever it is, we need to make a decision. Actually, we dont have an issue with the kindy itself, but its the transportation arrangement that is lacking. There are a few independent "aunties" who fetch and send kids here & there .. but I am not sure if this is a good option. Some thinking to do this weekend. And a decision has to be made!

I tried

I really tried but equipped with just the camera from my Nokia E66, can't really expect much. Anyhow, hope you can "see" our first ever tree!

The brat is sick if it already (since the 3rd day .. oh well). But I am still enjoying it. MIL & SIL dropped by last night and they liked it too!

Spent a total of RM180 for this. I think it can be good for a couple of years, so I hope it will be money well spent.

Next on my to-do list, X'Mas dinner menu planning.

Too much?

Being my first time, I had no idea what I really needed or how much. So I ended up with 2 large boxes and 4 smaller boxes of ornaments and 4 packs of lights. I ended up using only 1/3 of the ornaments and all 4 packs of lights.




This is, of course, the in-progress pic. Too tired to take pics after it was ready. Will do so in a few days.

I'm cooking!

I can't believe it myself! I actually cooked 2 meals!!!! Actually it was 3. Cos the very day we moved in, we had to cook a meal for ourselves (so as to "wong" the kitchen la), so I ended up doing a simple one-pot bak-kut-teh and fried vege. Simple and nice. Chewah! My ILs came for dinner too. Have not heard any complains or tummy ache, etc, so I guess it went well.

Last weekend (Friday off mah), I masak spaghetti cos I won a free pot mah. So try using it lor. It was pretty easy but my first time mah, so a bit kelam kabut in the kitchen lah. But still ended up both hubby and I sapu till almost habis lah. So I think it went ok as well lah. Hehehehe. For the spaghetti night, I also tried to make some fresh prawn + mango wantan, deep fried till crispy. It was yummy to me, but hubby said a bit funny taste ... guess its the mango lor. He not used to having menu that has cooked fruits in them, so thats why lor.

On Sat, we went to Petaling Street to get our first X'Mas tree, so ask hubby to tapau a small portion of duck for our dinner. Got home, I fried some cabbage + tri-color bell peppers & also fried 3 eggs with some (immitation) crab meet + corns! Trying to be a bit adventurous cos if it was our moms, dont think they will use that combination! Overall, good also. Edible lah.

Dont ask me for recipe yet ok, me test test kitchen only.

Bryan's Room

2 weeks ago, hubby decided that we should get Bryan his own bed. A normal sized single bed and not just a kiddy bed. So off we went to Ikea (where else!) to scout for one. We liked this particular one we choose as it fitted the needs of the room. It has 3 sides covered up which works perfect. A mattress from Dunlopillo and a bedsheet from Parkson, and it was all ready for his use!

To complete the look of his room, I had earlier ordered some really super-cute wall decals from Jundeco! When I first bought them, I was wondering if they would be easy to use and apply on walls. But on the day I started pasting them on, I tell ya, it was super easy. And it looks really cool. Bryan loves his room alot! Even I love it. Its my favourite room in the entire home!

Here are some pictures to share.

Did I tell you that Bryan is crazy over flowers and butterflies??? It's crazy. Every single night and every single time he gets hold of a pen or pencil, he will ask the one nearest to him, to draw flowers and butterflies! And one session can end up making you draw at least 10-20 butterflies ok! So I decided to give him lots of flowers and butterflies in his room! The curtain supplier thought that I am decorating the room for my daughter .. hehehe. Nevermind. I am wondering if he will turn out to be a gay .. but again ... nevermind. I heard gays are much more caring and have higher disposable income!!!! And again, I dont have to deal with all those daughter-in-law issues .. wakkakakakaa! Tell me I am thinking too far ahead.

Is it Christmas time?

The moment month of December comes, we can instantly feel Christmassy! The lights have been up already along Ikea/Curve (now only Nov wor ...) when we visited last week. Its a nice feeling towards the year-end .. especially bonus time ... hehehe.

I have all along been planning for a tree for our new home. I intend to purchase a tree and light it up in the month of December. And its for Bryan's sake. He loves it when we visit shopping malls (the past 2 yrs) checking out all the extensive decorations while we mall-hop!

So this year, we will have one in our home sweet home. Complete with a Christmas dinner (fingers crossed!). And visits from my long-time buddies from Penang & Singapore would make it so fun! Miss them so much. Been ages since we sat down to chat. So looking forward for Christmas this year.

So Petaling Street will be my next destination - once I settle in this Nov. Heard you can find some good & very reasonably priced trees there. But tipu one lah, not the "real" tree. Here I come!

All in a days work

Last Friday and Saturday was such a busy day. The renovation contractors were working at our place in full force. They had to get it ready that weekend as we will be moving in this week.

There was such a huge buzz around the house. Just a word of thanks for all their hard work, just to ensure we, clients, have a comfy home as per our requirements.

Some social life

Hardly had it since Bryan came along. I cant put into words how active and curious he is at ALL things. Like I have said before, even walking is not in his dictionary. Only jumping or requesting to be carried around like a royal highness!

At home, the things that he does or does not do, makes me so tired. I really dont know how to describe his terrible-2 stage. Terrfying-3 stage is beginning. I mean, since he was born, he wakes up twice a night for milk, another one or two sessions of nyek nyek nyek and its time for me to get up for work. So I look very much like an Ah Soh now, after 2.5 years.

Nevertheless, one evening Mom decided not to cook since Sis wont be back for dinner. And she being alone, does not make sense to cook. So decided to take her out for a meal at a nearby newly opened western food restaurant. Bryan enjoyed his time running around every where. If you dont stop him, he will already be in the kitchen just 2 mins after we enter the restaurant.




Anyway, just some blaberring from me in this post. Feel tired even by just thinking about him. Hahahaha.

Perfect gift and right on time!

I'm so delighted! Its a small thing but means a lot! I was so pleasantly surprised this morning when I logged on to my Hotmail account and saw an email that had the word "Congratulations" in the header! Now, I was very careful to ensure it was not a spam or junk mail .. and I checked on the sender and ..... yeaaah! It was Sue Sue!

Sue Sue hosted a pasta pot giveaway and I decided to participate with the intention of learning. I dont know and never cooked pasta before and her post had lots of contributors with great pasta recipes for kids .. which is great for me cos Im moving to my new house next week and will have to start cooking on weekends .. and pasta is indeed a wholesome meal and totally easy to prepare. Perfect right?

Thanks dear for the perfect new gift for my new kitchen :-)

Note: Photo taken from Sue Sue's blog.

Own land on Moon!

I really dont know what else these people are going to come up with next! Read today in The Star online that there is this lady - a dumb, crazy, siow-char-bor lady that actually buys a piece of land each year on Shah Rukh Khan's birthday as a gift to him!

It sure does sound acceptionally unique! And yeah, it caught my attention and probably a million others, and yeah, a good marketing/pr effort indeed.

But land on moon? I dont know lah.

Really cool contemporary lights

If you do have a contemporary look for your home and are looking out for some really cool looking lightings, you should visit Tsen Gallery @ Kota Damansara. I got to know about them by chance.

After visiting Homedec after Homedec, I just didnt see anything that I liked at regular exhibitors like Alfo & GDO. Or they were a bit over my budget. And since it was best we have all the lightings in place while the electrical contractors were still working on our new home, I decided to give one more try to look for another lighting shop. Googled and ended up with Tsen.

I choose a round chandelier light for our living room. It was affordable but of course, they were made from China crystals lah. But I must say, quality and design wise, China is coming with a bang! For a moment, I thought they were from Egypt or even Europe! Im sorry I dont have a good pics of it cos I dont own a DSLR mah ... see.

Glad to have made a purchase. One down and a few other stuff more to buy and that's it.

Taking it a notch higher!

The past weekend was the worst! I feel really exhausted having to keep up with my terrible-two! He ah .... aiyoh, I dont know how to describe. Dont understand where they get all their energy from. And not only the energy I am amazed at - its their creativity too! Climb here and there, take this and that, run up & down, sleep on the grounds of the car porch, every single thing on the desk - once in his hand, sure will be broken in the next 5 seconds, makan also jumping around like a monkey, mandi time wanna sleep on the bathroom floor - only then can let me scrub him!

Mom said to be patient and maybe about 3 or 4 yrs old, he will be all well & good. Oh mom! I know you are right but its just too much now. Too tiring.

Fungates - the right choice?

Last Saturday, 2 Fungates operators hosted "Open Day" at their centre. We took Bryan there for a visit and to see if he liked the environment there.

When we first arrived at Centre A, he saw quite a few people and immediately turned to me and asked me to carry him. But the moment I told and showed him the room which was filled with lots and lots of colorful books, arts & crafts, learning apparatus, etc, he forgot about us. He was in his own world. Running up and down the entire class, fascinated by so many things that he gets to touch and mess up! He kinda got excited that even the washing area was so low (child's height) that he could easily turn the tap on & off as he pleased! *pengsan*.

Hubby checked on the rates and other information while I monitored my dear boy. I cannot leave him out of our sight cos the whole centre would have *terbalik* if I turn my back for 5 seconds!

Not very impressed by the look, quality of the english spoken by the centre staff and the location of the centre (it was inside an intermediate shoplot with no playground or space to run about) - but 5 mins from our new home, we headed to Centre B.

Centre B was a total opposite. It was housed in a HUGE bungalow and had good English speaking staff and teachers. They also conversed in Mandarin but it will only be taught in Year 4. The only drawback for us is the distance from our new place.

Again, Bryan was all over the place. The teachers here knew better how to interact with the kids ( managed to get his attention on one particular activity which he followed accordingly but we could see clearly that he was the "tai kor" amongs the others *double pengsan* trying to dominate - almost snatch the apparatus from the teacher!)

Both the centres told us that they would start with teaching the kids basics (of course lar, what else right) like recognizing ABCs and 1-10 ... but Bryan already kn0ws all that. On good mood days, he can count till 30! Both in English & Mandarin!

He can spell all the words he sees on the billboards on our way home each night! He reads out all the alphabets he seens in the newspapers or those that are printed on my T-shirt! I am getting worried that he will be bored in a Year 3 class .. but we still will have to start him there.

I wish to check out Montessori next but there is none near my place. It has to be a bus journey of about 30 mins at least each way! So, what shall I do? Compromise on education system or compromise on this travel time? I think he is too young to travel so far everyday.

Safety Gate for Bryan

We hoped over to Babyland @ SS2 to check out some safety gates. Lindam's was going at RM50 off, so it only cost RM149.90 for a basic unit instead of the usual RM199.90. We had to add on an extension to make it up to 110cm in width cos my staircase is pretty wide.

If I really want to be extra safe, I need 4 sets of these cos I have stairs that are going both upstairs and downstairs.

We have also decided to add clear polycarbonate sheets to my staircase railings, so that my "hero" wont have any opportunity to put his foot on those railings and try to be super or spideyman!

He is in the "jumping" phase now. Jump from bed to the floor, jump from one chair to another, jump from first staircase to the next and all the way down to the last staircase. Jump even when walking. Meaning he does not walk step by step. He jumps step by step. *pening*