Belated Valentine

A beautiful cat done by L. Noticed all the heart shaped? :) I love this pic! She is very happy with what she did :)

Bento #9

Instead of waking up early to cook & prepare for her bento today, I baked pandan chiffon cupcake using Elaine's recipe last night. Thank you for sharing Elaine :)

L loves it! She asked for more when she got home :) Daddy thinks it was not soft enough... Wondering what's wrong... Z didn't want it for breakfast but in the afternoon, he ate 2 of it!

He Is Jealous

Lately, my boy tends to get jealous easily... I don't think I show him less attention.... He is 'fighting' for attention with jiejie, not that he has never done it before but lately it has been more frequent. Probably he speaks so well nowadays. Hehehe...

When we pick jiejie from school, L is always very excited to tell me the happenings in school. Hence, Z doesn't get the chance to talk to her or me. L will go on and on.... He tried to interrupt, but I told him nicely that he has to wait for his turn to talk. He was pretty upset.... "Why I don't get to talk to mommy?". I explained to him that since I pick him up first, he had his turn to tell me what he has been doing in school and it is only fair that jiejie get the chance to tell me too. It is good that he always cool down very fast, sometimes within seconds or minutes :)

When he heard jiejie telling me that she is the leader in class, he told me he is too :)

So I asked him

Me: So my handsome is a leader too? :)
Z : Yes! I am always the first in line and Ms B said I am the leader! Everyone has to follow me.
he looks so cute when he was saying this :)

When we go shopping, he complains when we look at girl's stuff too often.

Z : Not again! Why we always look at girl's stuffs. Girls girls girls!

or

Z : On man! Why here only have girl's things? Where is the boy's things?

My reply?
Me : Not true! We look at boy's stuffs too. Remember.....
I will have to name him those times when we look at his Thomas & friends and also cars.

Note : "Oh man!" is the words he loves to use :) When complaining, when I ask him to do something etc.... :)

Sometimes I think he finds it fun to 'fight' for attention with L :) He loves to see jiejie getting mad. He loves it when jiejie says "ZZzzzzzzz!" when he interrupt her. I know no matter what, he loves his jiejie :)

It is never easy to balance my time for my 2 kids.... But I try my best. I make effort to spend time with each of them. Sometimes, I get L to do some silent reading while I spend time with Z. And I get Z to play with his Thomas train while I spend time with L. Anyway, I think it is pretty common kids get jealous right? :)

Memories

There is so many things I want to blog about.... But I can't remember..... :( Oh dear! I am getting old...

I have to make effort to note them down.
I want to remember everything that we did together
I want to remember our conversation, our little silly talks....
I want to remember why they make me proud....
I want to remember what they make me angry
I want to remember what they did that make me laugh
I want to remember everything little thing that make them happy
I want to remember what we fun we had
I want to remember what we silly things we did to daddy
I want to remember their dreams, what they want to achieve and I will do my best to help them
I want to remember their milestones..
I want to remember what are their favourite food, how they praise me when I cook it for them

I want to write down everything about my little ones, before they grow up and have a life of their own.

Swimming Updates

L has been learning swimming from this coach for a looooong time and yet to go for her test. Finally now they are preparing for it.

For the past 2 weeks she has been complaining tired and was reluctant to go for her lesson. It must be the coach's sudden change... Well, recently we have pushing the coach to be more firm and we question why our kids yet to go for any swimming test. Now I think he can sense some of us were not happy.

For this lesson, L enjoyed it better coz they are learning how to make a float with their pajamas. I may stop her lesson with him soon if I don't see any progress in her swimming skills. Her stroke is wrong and he doesn't make any attempt to change her. The only thing he did was telling her verbally. Haiz....

Now It Is My Turn....

I remembered when I was young, my sister and I was fortunate to have my Mom to wash and clean our school shoes. It has never cross my mind that I will have to do this one day. Now, I know how my Mom felt, dirty but enjoy doing this for our children :)

I know nowadays most families have maids to do this on their behalf. Would you do it once for your kids? I feel great doing this for L! Silly right? I am sure that when Z goes to primary school, I will feel the same way too.

Now I wonder when will it be LZ's turn..... :)

Chocolate Sponge Cake

I baked this late last night. This morning LZ helped me to decorate it with their favourite, M&Ms :) This will be their dessert for the day and breakfast too.


Chocolate sponge cake with whipped cream frosting

Hot Air Balloon

For this week, Z drew and painted this. He has been talking about the hot air balloon for a while. Every time we pass by Beach road, he & L will will excitedly say "look! I wish we can go inside the hot air balloon."

Did he say That?

While I was showering for Z, I 'nag' at him about something that I can't remember what was it. The only thing I remembered was what he said

Z : GIVE ME A BREAK! he said it very casually

I was shocked!

Me : Where did you learn that from?

Z : Hehehe.... I don't know.

I gave him an angry look.

Z : Sorry mommy.... I will not say that again.
Whenever he knows that I am angry with him, he will have the initiative to apologise

Haiz... I can't imagine what he will say next....... Nevertheless, he is my charming boy who never fails to bring a smile to my face :)

Responsibility

L told me that besides being a monitress, she is also English & Chinese group leader. Wow! She told me that she was selected as a leader for English is because she is very well behaved and has been doing well for the subject. For Chinese, her teacher also thinks that she is good with her Chinese too, especially her hanyupinyin.

Like any mommy, I am of coz very proud of her :) But at the same time, I hope she will not be too proud of herself. After praising her, I reminded her to be humble and set a very good example to her peers. I also told her that anytime if she misbehave, I'm sure the teacher will not let her be a leader anymore.

Sweetie, mommy is very proud of you :)

Bento #8

This is what my girl had for her recess. I passed it to her today while I was in school for my library duty. For Wednesdays, I will prepare snacks for her as she wants to finish fast so that she can spend time with me in the library. So sweet right? :) On other days, I will prepare for her upon her requests or when I am not lazy :p

Ham & cheese sushi roll with wholemeal bread & strawberries.

School Dental Visit

L has been complaining toothache for the past few days. My friend, Michelle reminded me that she can visit the Dental in school instead. Thanks Michelle for telling me that :)

She told one of her teachers and she arranged for her to visit the dentist during recess today. I was disappointed.... That is the time that she needs to have a meal. My poor girl came home feeling very hungry. Anyway, they did not pull out her tooth as it is not shaky enough to be extracted. They didn't give her anything to ease the pain too. My sweetie will have to bear with the pain :(

She was very happy with the dental visit :) They gave her set of tooth paste & toothbrush. They also gave a card, every she brushes her teeth, she will have to colour it. When she has complete the ccard, they will reward her with stickers.

Emergency Drill

The school had Emergency Drill on Friday (15th Feb). The school has asked PSG(Parent Support Group) mommies to help out and I am glad to be involved :) It is the time for the teachers and staffs to practice the drill. Some of us were distressed parents, reporters and others were onlookers. I was acting as 1 of the mommies who's child was seriously injured.

By 0735hr, 4 mommies, including me arrived at the school. L was wondering why I was in her school so early :) I was not supposed to tell her but I couldn't contained the excitement. Hehehe... I briefly explained to her what will I be doing but I think she didn't understand till later.

We were to meet the students (1 class from P6) and the teacher in charge. I thought we were supposed to meet them (our so called children) only and didn't expect we need to apply BLOOD for them. I never know applying paint on the students were fun! Some were reluctant to put on and told us we can't apply on their faces. But most of them were ok with it, they even told me "Auntie, I am seriously injured and I don't think I have enough blood on my body". The boy who acted as my 'son' was one of the seriously injured too. I think we put on make up for at least 20 of them.

After that, we were to leave the school and wait for the call to tell us when to 'action'. Meantime, we met with the rest at the hawker centre. It was a good time for me to mingle with the rest.

The call came, we went in groups to the front gate of the school and made a scene and making calls to the school. By then, the students were evacuated from the buildings, L and the rest of the P1s were right in front of the main gate where I was. That actually attracted the real onlookers! I must say that some of the mommies acting were so real. They climbed over the walls and gates! We also tried to force our way in, banging on the gates etc.

Then another mommy and I were 'invited' in to find out what happen to our 'sons' . We were brought into their counselling room and waited for the news. All these time, we had the school's media club filming us. Wow! We had 3 minutes of fame. Hahaha....

Overall, I think the school is quite well prepared but of coz things could be worst in real life situation. The staffs in the general office could have handled the situation better.... When we made the calls to the office,

they said : Errrr... This is just a drill.
Me : I know and I am not XXX's mommy too. We are from PSG and we were told to make calls to you this is a drill for you too.

They took quite a while to call us back to updates parents and they hung up some of our calls too. The school also realised that they need to have more staffs at the side gates to handle parents who were trying to break in. As for the P1s, I think they enjoyed it coz they were like watching a movie. Hahaha...

My duty was over by 11am when it was time for me to pick Z up. Before I leave, I managed to talk to L and her classmates. Poor kids, they were thirsty by then and it was water rationing on that day too (that means no water at the cooler) . I was glad that L brought her water bottle to school. She told me that they were given a drink coupon for the day but the P1s thought it was something very precious that they didn't utilise it :) She also said that they know more abt the drill after the assembly and that's when they got to watch the clips. See? I am famous in her school now. Hahaha....

MoST

Before we went to my auntie's house, we visited MoST - Museum of Shanghai Toys, interesting to see toys from 1910s to 1970s. LZ had the opportunity to see some of the toys I played with when I was young and I saw the Donald Duck piggy bank that I used to have.


The 1st level is a retail shop, 2nd & 3rd level are the museum. There is a entrance promotiom going on now. LZ were very excited to see the toys but were disappointed that most of them were in the showcase.
What I like most was the room that was decorated in the 1960s or 1970s. That's where they display toys that we, Singaporean used to play with. They have 2 tricycles for the kids to ride too and LZ had lots of fun riding it.

Saturday

We attended Javier's 2nd Birthday Party and we were late! By the time we arrived, they have already cut the cake. My fault.... I wasn't feeling too good. The weather was hot and I was glad my friend decided to have buffet instead of barbecue. With this kind of weather, I think I would be the one being barbecued. Hehehe....

We went to my aunt's house late afternoon. My cousin is an 'expert' when comes to games and he has LOTS of PSP games too. Besides that, I love spending time with my auntie's family like LZ. I am so glad that LZ get to spend time with Justin. L loves to play with him..... When we were all talking and Z was playing Xbox, she was playing him.

Surprise!

SLIM & LITE PSP (PlayStation Portable)- Felicia Blue

Pic from Sony

Daddy surprised me with THIS!!! And I bought him........... NOTHING! I thought we both have agreed not to spend money on Valentine's Day. THANK YOU, MY LOVE!

He knows I spend lots of time waiting whenever LZ go for classes and most of the time, I read story books. Now with this, I can do more than just reading :) LZdaddy is a very sweet man.... He never buy himself expensive gift after we got married but he is willing to buy it for me. If he likes something that is expensive, he will says "That can wait.... " . When I see something nice that I thought of buying for LZ or myself, he will say "Don't need to ask me, go ahead". LZdaddy, I appreciate what you have done for us and thank you for being such a wonderful husband, daddy, friend etc.... :)

Now, I will have to keep this away from LZ. Hehehe...

Dong Dong Chiang!

Finally LZ completed their dragons for the New Year :)



Watch them playing with their artwork :)

Updates From Teacher - L

Today while waiting for my friend to pick us up from L's school, L's form teacher approached me. I have seen her many times as I have been picking up L from school, I have been helping out in the library once a week and we have spoken on Orientation Day.

She told me that L forgot to bring Chinese storybook today and she was asked to stand up throughout while waiting for assembly to start. I felt so heartache.... It was partly my fault that I forgot to check her bag last night. I wasn't the only one who feel this way, her teacher told me she felt heartache too. You see, everyday the children are told to bring a storybook to school, so that they don't waste time doing nothing while waiting for the assembly to start. And every Thursdays & Fridays, they are to bring a Chinese storybook. Hmmm... I think Ms Liang likes her a lot to feel heartache too right ? Hehehe....

I took the chance to ask her how is L's progress. She gave very positive feedback :) She said L is very eloquent, smart and knows her work (I think I missed out something and I can't remembered what was it). She also said that L's English is very good and her Maths too, except that she tends to make careless mistakes for Maths.

I must mention that Ms Liang is very pretty and very nice too. No wonder L likes her so much :) L told me she once drew a pic for Ms Liang, saying that she likes her :) That's has always been one of L's way of expressing her liking for someone. So can you imagine all these years how many drawings have I received from her? Hehehe.....

Sidetrack... (I want to write this down before I forget) The other day (11/2), L told me she was the only one (chosen by her teacher) who told her classmates how she celebrated CNY. I am very proud of her! Besides being the only one, she is able to speak out loud in front of her classmates :) I think her old school, show & tell sessions helped... Back then, she probably had 15 classmates compared to now.

Before Ms Liang leaves, she asked me if I have a handphone number and told me to call her anytime if I have things to discuss/feedback to her. So sweet right? After she left, I praised & hugged L for doing well. That is something I will not forget to do when someone praise her :)

Now, I better remind L to bring a Chinese storybook or she will be punish again....

Family Gathering

Our niece, Shirley will be going back to Australia tomorrow to continue with her studies. Before she left, she decided to give us a treat :) How sweet! As it is a working day, many of them can't make it to the gathering :( but we still have 24 of us who can make it. LZ love family gatherings, especially when they get to see their cousins. :)

It was another round of yusheng for us :) The service was very slow that day and we had to remind them to serve. It was close to 10pm when we left and they yet to serve dessert. We had no choice as both of them need their 'beauty' sleep. They usually sleep at 8.30pm....

Today's Bento

Bento for L : (from left, clockwise) jam sandwich sushi, jelly & hard boiled egg.

Simple Chinese New Year Cupcake

I baked more than 40 cupcakes last night, most of it for Z's classmates & teachers. The rest for L's snack box, ourselves and 2 of L's best friends. This year, I didn't even make an effort to dress him up in the Chinese Costume :p I tried asking to wear the old costume top with his jeans but he insisted no (the bottom was too short). Like I said before, he make his own decision what he wants to wear :)

I think I was half asleep by the time I was packing the cupcakes into their individual containers. Z's teacher requested me to pack it this way so it will easier for the kids to bring home. Thank goodness I wasn't doing any fanciful design :) and I don't think I can do it that well :p I have a hard time searching for the container. I was lucky I had these containers that I used to make jelly for their old school then.

I must also mention that this is the 1st time LZdaddy likes it with the icing. I hope Z's classmates enjoyed the cupcakes as much as LZdaddy :)

Day 3 & 4

Day 3

Decided to rest at home in the day as L was still not feeling well.

In the evening, we went to their godparents' house to surprise Godma with a birthday cake. Knowing that she doesn't fancy cake, we bought her an ice-cream cake instead. I think LZ were happier than her! :p It was supposed to be a surprise for her but L was too excited that she blurted it out.

Godma has not been feeling well too.... Hope she will recover soon....

Day 4

We were supposed to go to a few places but all of us were very tired. We only went to my cousin's place in the afternoon. LZ had fun playing with my cousin's hamsters. And I thought those were her children's pets! :) L loves it and I know if I do buy hamsters for them, she would takes very good care of it. Z felt ticklish initially and he slowly warm up to it. One of them poo poo on him and the other fell asleep on his lap :)

2ND Day Of CNY

L had a slight nose bleeding, must be the heatiness and it has stopped. Other than that, she is feeling much better. Poor girl... She wanted to eat the new year goodies but she can't. I promised her once she is feeling better, she can eat whatever she wants.
We went over to my Aunt's place as usual every year on the 2nd day of CNY. LZ enjoyed their cousins and youngest uncle's company the most. It seems like my youngest cousin's room is a playroom for the kids. Hehehe.... He has computer games, Xbox, PSP and a cosy bed for the kids. Besides that, he love kids! He never says no to the kids ;)

LZdaddy & me enjoyed chatting with the rest and I was busy taking pics with the little ones, baby Clare and baby Justin. This is the 1st year they are celebrating CNY with us :) Another person that I was very happy to see was my dear cousin, Fonia. Having her and Justin around is simply great! :)

Baby Clare with L.

My Aunt prepared lots of yummy food but poor daddy can't enjoy it at all :( He has not been enjoying all the food since New Year's eve.

In the evening, we had more than 20 guests in our house! LZdaddy & me, being the youngest for both sides of the family, we decided to invite our nieces & nephews to our house. It will be weird to invite our older siblings over when we are supposed to be visiting them. I heard it is good to have guests visiting during CNY period and they came over so that they can gamble too :p To our surpise, our siblings and my mother-in-law came too! The more the merrier! :)

LZ enjoyed the most! They have so many gorgors and jiejies playing with them. They did their part as the hosts, serving snacks to everyone. This gave them a chance to remember every one's name, especially Z. There were lots of laughter and fun!

Hours later, it was time for them to go home, except 3 of our niece & nephews, who were playing mahjong with me :) LZ were very well behaved, or they were probably very tired. They fell asleep as soon as they have showered, leaving us to continue with our game. The game didn't last long :( After abt 2 hours, they meet up with the rest at Zouk. Being the 3 oldest ones, they had to be there to make sure the rest will return home safe & sound.... At the end of the day, I realised I forgot to take pics of everyone!

Eve & 1st Day Of CNY

CNY Eve
LZ have been looking forward to CNY (Chinese New Year), the gatherings and unlimited of snacks, bak kwa etc.... Things didn't turn out the way L hope for though.... She was down with flu & slight cough last night.

Last night, reunion dinner was a rush for us. In fact every year, it has been like that for us. We had to rush to finish our housework (but this year was so much better coz daddy helped A LOT), then rush to my mother-in-law's place. Spent 2 hours or more with them and we had to rush over to my dad's place. My parents simply refused to do it earlier... Haiz...

Anyway, how often do you get to eat different kind of meal in a night? :) Steamboat at my in-law's place and my favourite chicken rice (& other food too) at my parents'. When we arrived at my parents' house, I thought LZ were too full to eat (like last year) but I was wrong. They had another full meal again! L ate lots of abalone & Z had a BIG drumstick too! Seems like I have someone to fight over the drumsticks with from now on ;) Poor LZdaddy..... There were so much food that he can't enjoy... I only remember that he ate lots of vegetables, fish balls and chicken.

After the heavy meals, we rushed home to finish up the last minute cleaning.

Day 1
This morning, L vomited and had slight fever AND conjunctivitis. She probably got conjunctivitis from me as I just recovered from it. We thought she would be better after a nap but we were wrong... She woke up and vomited 3 times. We decided to bring her to the clinic. Thank goodness the 24hr clinic near our house was opened. Fever, flu, cough, gastric flu & eye infection..... For all these, she has 5 kinds of medicine and the price is doubled for the first 2 days of CNY.

Z with 2 of their favourite cousins

When we arrived at my in-law(MIL)'s house and after having a very small bowl of porridge, we sent L to my brother-in-law's room to nap again. Z may have all the attention from everyone but I sensed that he missed jiejie being around with him. He asked a couple of time how was jiejie and wanted to go up and see her. I missed her while she was napping too...

They had fun!

L didn't wake up till it was time for yusheng. I was glad when she told me she feel like eating :) Finally she was able to join in the fun :) I thought the younger generation was messy when they had the yusheng and I never thought that our generation was just as messy as them! :)

Look at the mess!

My dad chopping up the chicken for the waiting guests. I think since yesterday, he has cooked at least 3 whole chicken!

After that, we went over to my parents' house. By then, L was so much better but still feel weak. I was surprised to see my childhood friend that I have not seen for ages! She is married and has a cute little boy who is 1 yr younger than Z. My Dad prepared a sumptuous meal again :) Chicken rice (again), mutton soup, duck etc.... I had to say this again, LZdaddy did not get to enjoy most of it....

新年快乐

LZfamily would like to wish you a very Happy New Year :)

祝您有

"鼠"不尽的快乐

"鼠"不尽的收获

"鼠"不尽的钞票

"鼠"不尽的笑容

"鼠"不尽的幸福

"鼠"不尽的美满生活

Z's Bento

Most of time when L has her swimming lesson, I will have to pack Z's dinner along. This is one of the dishes that I love preparing and Z loves it too :) I will usually pack a drink and some fruit too.

Ingredients used in this bacon pasta (I got the recipe from a magazine years ago):

• macaroni
• garlic
• back bacon
• parsley
• capers
• cherry tomatoes
• capsicum

Methods :

• fry bacon first
• use the same frying pan to fry the garlic
• add in tomatoes and capsicum
• add bacon
• add macaroni
• add salt (optional as bacon is salty)
• add in parsley & capers
• mix well and serve