Homemade Play Dough

Play dough is one of my favourite toy during my childhood. But those play dough I used to have last time were those plastersin use by my parents to ‘seal up’ water leaking in the house / sink which will left an unpleasant smells on the hands after getting in touch with them. They don’t came with an attractive colour too. In present, there are a lot more choices of play dough in the market for kids which comes with all sorts of equipments to do any shapes. However, although it stated toxic free in most of the play dough but I am not sure how safe were the play dough for sensitive skins like Angel so to be safe, I have decided to let Angel make her own homemade play dough instead. She is so happy that mommy is letting her getting involved in another ‘project’ after her previous cake baking sessions few days ago and it was really such great fun as the busy-body daddy was also eager to ‘help out’ in the kitchen. What an unusual family activities there :P

^ ^ Mixing and stirring ….. Angel is having such a great time in the kitchen! Her water pouring skills has improved so much!
Ingredients:
2 cups of flour
4 tbsp cream of tartar
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 cup salt
2 cups water
Food colouring

Method:
1) Mix all ingredients in a saucepan (except food colouring), stir over medium heat for 4 – 5 minutes until mixture become dough like texture.
2) Knead into a smoother form and add in food colouring.
3) Store in air tight container

^ ^ We only manage to settle with these colours due to mommy's fault in getting the right food colouring :P :P
When I try to mix my yellow colouring into the play dough, only I realise that it comes with a very pleasant smell …… ghee!! When I read the label, It’s not yellow colouring but butter milk flavouring instead *smack head*. So Angel has to settle without the yellow and green colour for her play dough due to mommy’s fault. She was extremely excited and even showing me the gesture of putting the dough into her mouth and eat. Hahaha ….. my girl would put anything into her mouth!! She didn’t manage to shape anything out from the dough yet but she was having such a great time kneading and pinching the dough and also destroying me and hubby’s work!

^ ^ Watching and learning from mommy and daddy’s. My cookies cutters were make to good use that day :)
So we did something for Angel that night …… the Sun + Moon and the horrifying looking Bear is from daddy :) Not bad for a start and to kill the boring night :) I think with more practice, Angel will be getting the idea of playing the play dough instead of trying to ‘eat’ them all the time :)

^ ^ Daddy and Mommy’s 'Not-So-Presentable' creations :P

Something Wrong With Those Fingers?

Oh ….. there she was again, standing before me twisting and gazing into her fingers as if something was wrong with them and dare not to meet my eyes ……


While I talk to her, she would act as if her fingers really hurt that she could not hear me, examined more closely into her fingers, from the thumb, index, middle, ring to the little pinky over and over again, still not answering me or what so ever, which made me felt for a second that ‘maybe’ her little fingers was really hurt just now??? (If I have not known.)

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That’s how she normally acts when she did something wrong. That day, she accidentally ‘snap’ one of the leg of her study table while she tries to do her ‘little stunt’ standing on the table and jump on it. Then suddenly one of the leg bend inwards due to the force and her entire face and body was sticking onto the glass doors like a glue with both her legs up in the air and crying for help! I can’t stop laughing when I find her in that position but I was more eager to know that she is ok (so no picture)! I have always keep an close eyes on her but lately, she seems to always manage to find a good timing and a good spot / a good piece of furniture to do all sorts of stunts!! Most of the time, my legs really go numb when seeing or before I could stop her from doing whatever she is doing at home. Our 2 year old little girl currently is in her extremely fearless and mischievous phase, and sometimes I do feel how nice if I could have a second pair of eyes at home LoL

Currently I am taking up the role as ‘Superwoman’ at home, always on the watch and listening to her ‘signal’ of distress closely, and forever on the stand by to perform my rescue mission 24/7!!

Oh boy, both of us are starting to have so much fun!! *what else can I say ^_^III*

Innovation?

I was onto something in the kitchen when Angel came asking for “Bread~~! Mommy, Eat ~~ Bread~~!”.

So I asked my ‘Trusty Helper’ (a.k.a. darling hubby) to help Angel with those bread and reminded him to put on the bib for her as these few days, I could see ants crawling all over the house searching for food and the last thing I wanted to see is to attract more ants into the living room.

When I return, I saw Angel is happily munching on her bread! But when take a closer look …

What the ....... !!??
The ‘unsterilized’ bib pocket which was supposed to catch any food spills has become a food container for Angel’s bread. *eyes opened wide @_@III*

How hard is it to actually grab a bowl or a plate for that purpose??????? Is this innovation or what? Hahahahaha *speechless*

p/s: I can't help but start wondering how hubby normally serve food like fruits and porridge to Angel when I am not around ....

p/s: My computer went dead again :( So might not be able to online for don't know how long :(

What An ‘Unforgettable’ Father’s Day :(

The sunny Sunday starts off just fine and we celebrated our Father’s Day in Safari World here in Bangkok where 3 off us are having so much fun and excitement. We return home quite late so we decided to have our dinner at home instead. So I asked hubby to bath Angel and keep a close eye on her in the living room while I can rush for dinner preparation after a tiring day.

Everything was almost done, so I pour the hot soup into 3 individual bowls, placing them at the very inner corner of the kitchen table top letting them to cool down a bit before moving them onto the dinner table in the living room. Angel has been extremely active lately and would climb onto our table and disturb whatever we placed there. I heard Angel’s voice coming out from the bath room after her bath so I continue with the cooking and then I was a bit surprise to hear that hubby was in the kitchen washing up the dirty dishes leaving Angel all alone in the living room. I don't feel right to leave Angel alone without knowing what she is up to coz she has been quite 'active' lately and would do almost anything that we forbidden her to do. So I worriedly ask hubby "Where is Angel? Why are you in the kitchen again? Don't leave her alone in the living room .... I think you better go out and keep an eye on her coz she has been pretty mischievous lately and .....” while turning around looking for her holding onto my cooking spatula still. OMG!!!!! I can’t believe my eyes when I turned and saw Angel is standing behind me in the kitchen reaching for her bowl of hot soup on the kitchen table top already. While I scream “NO!!!!” trying to stop her but it was too late, she got hold of the soup and the soup was already spilt all over the floor and also onto her hands!!!!! She was screaming helplessly but still trying her very best to balance her bowl of soup in her hands with more hot soup keep pouring onto her so I quickly grab the bowl and shout at hubby, “QUICK!!!! COLD WATER!! RINSE HER HANDS IN COLD WATER!!! FEET TOO!!! FEET TOO!!!” and hubby still MCC but still, grabbing the crying Angel to the toilet and rinse her hands while I keep saying “LOOK AT HER CHEST??? HER CHEST??? TAKE HER WET CLOTHES OFF HER SKIN!! IS HER CHEST HURT???” We quickly sat her down and check her all over. She was crying and shouting “BAO BAO!! MOMMY BAO BAO!!” with tears pouring down her face!! I was so terrified but my heart was a bit relief to find that her clothes is not wet at all …….. but both her hands, both feet and also a small patch of her lower chin turn so red after getting in touch with the hot soup. I quickly check again, no blisters and no skin peeling and I know she hates ice packs so I quickly ask hubby to grab for the minty toothpaste and apply sparingly onto both her hands and feet hoping that it will sooth her burns. Hubby rush to the pharmacy while I make the 2nd round check to make sure she do not need to be rush to the emergency ward ….. She was sobbing in pain and I can see that both her hands are still shivering uncontrollably and so are mine! I hug her close to me and I think I feel the pain more then she could feel it in her hands …….

Angel’s hands are still shaking when we apply some minty toothpaste on her hands, feet and a small patch on her chin while checking on her condition. From the picture, can see that the redness on her hands become less visible after ½ an hour, phew!

We are so relief to see that the toothpaste does cool down the burning sensation in her hands which stops her crying. We decided to clean her up and surprisingly, she doesn’t seems to feel the pain anymore and starts moving around and grabbing things again which I am so relief. So we apply the Aloe Vera Gel which hubby got from the pharmacy onto her hands and feet and also her chin again and again until she went to bed. The next day, the redness on her hands and feet are healing very well and living no sign of redness at all. When I pressed her hands and asked her if it's still painful, she said "No~~!" shaking her head ….. what a relief!!!! The red patches on her chin is also fading but I think the delicate facial skin will take few more days to be fully recovered. I hope it will not leave any marks and I really thank God of watching over Angel!

We covering her up with toothpaste on both her hands and feet and make her sit still on the chair watching her cartoon to calm her down. I think that is probably the one and only time that she is sitting there so quietly without making a move.
I think the soup must have been cool down a bit while sitting on the kitchen top after some time. And also maybe Angel is holding her soup bowl on both the ear of the bowl extending them far away from her body and not ‘pulling’ the soup down from the kitchen top which it will come pouring all onto her face and body if she does that. What a relief!!! Sometimes I really at wits end when it comes to letting hubby taking care of Angel even for a seconds as this is not the first time things happen when Angel is under his care, but I am more angry at myself for not being able to pay full attention to her every minutes and every seconds without help!!! Sigh!! Angel’s accident this round might seems to be just a minor one but the after shock which I go through really is such a nerve racking experience coz the moment when I saw the soup was pouring down at Angel’s direction, I really felt as if the hot soup was pouring down on me and felt the pain and it’s still there and will be there for quite some time. I don’t know how hubby is taking all these but I certainly feel so guilty for what had happened and I promise myself that this will be the very last time that this kind of accident carelessness is going to happen ever again!! I think hubby feels the same way I do too …….

What an ‘unforgettable’ Father’s Day we had :(

Bento#4: Starry Night Bento

This is a very quick and simple bento I prepared for Angel. She loves the Tomato + Mince Chicken Rice which I made for her earlier so I have decided to use tomatoes in her rice again. So to make things quick and simple, I decided to do a very simple Starry Night bento for her. I love starry nights :)

All set! The yellow colour stars was cut out from using bananas and Mangoes, Moon is from Water Apples and decorated with nori stars over the Mince Pork Tomato Rice
I lightly stir fried some rice with one freshly chopped tomato, mince pork, finely chopped yellow onions and few stalks of spring onions, cut up some bananas and mangoes and shape out some of the remaining with my cookie cutter, punch some nori with the star shape puncher I bought from Daiso and also do a simple and nice crescent moon out of the water apples from the fridge and it’s done! Simple isn’t it? Although it’s a easy bento but it still take up more then normal required time for me to get it ready. *blush* Oh well, I just need to keep practicing then :)


So here is Angel’s extremely simple Starry Night Bento with a few animals gazing at the sky :) Angel did perform her “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” song before she digs in, hahaha. I have a very happy ‘baby’ happily enjoying her meal today :)

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

While me and hubby were still busy with our own stuffs, suddenly Angel calling to me with her soft voice “Mommy ~~, Mommy~~, See ~~ See~~!! ” while gazing upon the sky and I thought she spotted another aeroplane again. So feeling a little disturbed with what I am doing, but still .... I went over to her while stroking her soft hair and look up ….. oh my! it’s a very pretty rainbow after the rain. This is also the first time she saw a rainbow coz normally she didn't have the chance to really see the rainbow (she would now pronounce it was 'Meh-Mow' instead of rainbow LoL) and now that she spotted her first rainbow, so I took out her little book with the rainbow pictures in it and starts showing her how pretty the real one is compare to the one in the book. Yes .... it definitely looks different .......

And when I look closer, it’s not only 1 rainbow but 2 rainbows actually …. It’s so breathe taking!! It makes me think that sometimes we who living in the city are really too occupied with our daily busy life routine and the fast pace of things around us (work, chores, errands, etc). It seems that the older we gets, the more that we are holding our heads down - busy (while kids will always look up and around) and concentrate too much on what’s piling before us, on our table or in our mind. And sometimes with the presence of a ‘cutie pie’ in our life and attending to their call, it gives us a chance to see things at their level and through their eyes, sometimes wanted us to slow down and pay attention to things that we have long forgotten, share their little world of curiosity, …… and also head raised looking up once in awhile and we might be surprise to notice something beautiful too ……

Can you spot the 2nd Rainbow on top? Isn't it so pretty?

Hhhmmm …. This reminds me of a story I once came across. I think it’s something like this …… there was a man who brought a snail for a walk and how he complains the snail is crawling too slow and delay his every steps. And along the way while he walked slowly, he starts to notice the beautiful scenery along the way, smells the flowers and feel the breeze, etc and at the end, he only realised that it’s the snail who brought the man for a walk, wanted him to slow down once in awhile, so that he could enjoy the world and see the world in from different perspectives :) How true it is ....

** Thank you my sweet little Angel for showing Mommy your first little 'Meh-Mow' (rainbow) up there :)

Today is 'His' Day??

Tonight was just a normal Sunday night until ......... the clock strikes 12am midnight (means Monday is starting), hubby who was watching TV sitting beside me (normally he would sit on his own seat) suddenly gave me a pat on my shoulder, show me a very sad and pity look on his face with all the nose sniffing stuff and also the upside down U shape mouth while looking at me …….

H: ......... (sniff sniff)
M: What? Why??

H: You don’t know??
M: Know what? What??? *head scratching*

H: (pause) ……………… Actually today supposed to be ‘my’ day ……
M: Huh?? Why is it ‘your’ day? What day? *Mong Cha Cha*

H: …………. *making an even pity and double upside down U shape mouth and sniff even louder*
M: Don’t make me think la, I don’t understand ….. tell me!

H: Actually today is FATEHR”S DAY!! (sniff sniff) Now it’s already pass midnight (sniff sniff)
M: *laughing non stop* Oh …. You purposely waited until it’s 12am to tell me I forgot ah? Hahaha, it’s next week la dear ~~~, so you wanted to celebrate today or next week?

H: Ya meh? Not today meh?? *happy*
M: Hahahahaha ….. so can you get a good night sleep now??

I was laughing until I can’t open my eyes when I think of hubby’s pity look just now. He sure is very kan-cheong (anxious) about “HIS” day as compare previously. Hahahahaha …. I guess I must make sure I think of something special on behalf of Angel for her daddy or else, sure daddy will be very disappointed …… poor daddy!! Must motivate him a bit la this year :) Hahahahaha! But it’s really funny coz normally hubby don’t really remembered special occasions such as these until I told him or reminded him every year. Somehow this year, he seems to be so anxious about Father’s Day which means he really takes his position as a father seriously this year :) *smile* I think he deserves a special Father’s Day celebration for his hard work in helping with our 'Queen Angel' at home la :)

So ....... Did your Man also expected the same on this coming Father’s Day?

How She Became ‘Bad Girl’.

^ ^ Angel ready to go Shopping!

I find that I hardly post about Angel’s outing here. Maybe because I am a lazy mommy, lazy to sort out the tonnes of pictures which I normally took. So if we out travelling with Angel or going out for the weekends which I will take ‘more then 1 or 2’ of Angel’s pictures, I will transfer them into my external hard drive and told myself that I will sort them out and upload in my blog ‘tomorrow’ which never happens often LoL I think I have come to around 40 - 50Gb of Angel’s picture at this moment (most pix is only 5m of resolution only just to save space in my SD card, and I even deleted similar poses too!) so I don’t know whether that’s a lot. I wonder how many pictures you mommies have taken for your little ones at this moment?

^ ^ Angel is Happily waiting ... then Patiently Waiting ... then Tolerably waiting ... and then Annoyingly waiting for her meal! She must be thinking how come it takes so long for the food to arrived??? *LoL Kids!!!

^ ^ Oh ... Angel's FIRST taste of hot dogs!! But too bad she was only allowed to have 2 bites only, bad mommy!! But she don't really like the taste and make a funny face after eating, maybe it's too salty for her?

^ ^ Snack and drink which she don't get to see and eat very often but is absolutely crazy about them! Her beloved French Fries with Ketchup and Coke!

^ ^ Thomas and Train Rail Tracks!! She just can't gets her eyes and hands off those! :)
So after our tummy was filled up, we brought Angel to the toy section to purchase something and she was extremely attracted to this Thomas and Friends gigantic rail track! (Nope, we didn't get that for her if that's what in your mind now :P Too bad .....). I am still surveying around for a smaller and decent size Thomas Train Set. When it’s time to leave, she is cry, shouting, kicking and even lied down on the floor and throw tantrums as normally would again showing us she don’t want to leave YET!! After a few “OK, 5 more minutes ya ok?” and/ or “We will come back next week.” .... etc and still, she would turned a deaf ear to what we said, we have no choice but to “carry” her out from the store again as usual.

^ ^ Familiar scene isn’t it? When we are out, that’s hubby normal mission or normal ‘exercises’ :P :P That’s already around 10 minutes after we left the toy section and already walking to the other end of the shopping mall but still, she keep retaliating and insisted that she wants to walk herself back to the store LoL
So back home when I do the transfer and sorted out Angel’s pictures in my computer with Angel sitting beside me (she likes to look at her own pictures) that night, this particular picture ^ ^ above appears on the screen. I find it so funny and start teasing her with, “ Nah .... Angel 坏蛋 (huai-dan / naughty)!! See???” and continue with the other pictures. When I scrolled back on this picture again, suddenly Angel pointed on herself at the computer screen and said, “Noh~~坏蛋!!!” *Slap forehead* I didn’t realized that she actually remembers what I said earlier! I feel a little bit sorry about teasing her as '坏蛋' hoping that she would forget about what I said the very next day!

The next day when I do the transfer of the pictures from my computer to my external hard drive and came to this picture again, I show it to her and she remembers it actually and pointed at the pictures and said, “ Noh ~~ ......” *long silent .... and think hard for the right word* and obviously she can’t remember the word '坏蛋' (huai-dan) anymore and what a relief!! Just seconds before I smile in relief at her, suddenly she said, “NOH ~~ BAD GIRL!!!” loud and clear pointing at the picture of hers! Oh my, she actually kind of knows the meaning of 坏蛋 = ‘bad girl’ to my surprise!!

So if you asked her who is 'Bad Girl' or '坏蛋' now, she will be pointing to herself on the chest giving you a big sweet smile!! *LoL* Kids are just so straight forward, so sweet and so naive :)

She Was Stuck!!

When Angel woke up from her afternoon nap yesterday, she was calling “Mommy~~! Mommy~~!” as normally does so I didn’t attend to her immediately as usual, and continue to prepared my dishes for our dinner. Somehow, I heard that she starts crying with a very strange tone so that’s when I start rushing to the bedroom and check her out. I see she is sitting on her crib like she normally does but didn’t stop crying when she saw me *feeling strange* So I pay closer attention and then I saw her leg ….. Oh, no wonder, I think she was stuck!!

I find it really funny at first so I quickly took a few pictures of Angel’s (When she saw me with the camera, she cried even louder :P) as to show her daddy how mischievous his little girl was even while taking a nap and then trying to release her legs from the crib bars. Then there’s when I see the problem. Her legs were stuck in a position that she can’t move even an inch to left or to the right! I tried to straighten her feet so that I could release her lower calf but I can’t as the movements of her thigh was blocked by the side crib bars and also her chubby thigh was stuck in between the crib bars too! I start to worried a bit so I try to hold her up and see whether it will straighten her legs a little and release her from the leg locking position, and then there is when Angel starts to cry even louder in pain! I quickly put her down and to my horror, she can’t get back to a sitting position anymore and if she does, those bars will press on harder on both her ankle and thighs!!


Gosh …. That’s when I start to get panic while holding her entire body weight with her in the half squatting position and me bending half way down her crib! Moving either way will makes her screaming in pain and I started thinking how to reach for my phone at the other end of our room to call hubby back to the rescue. I even starts feeling regret not to have a saw or something like that at home just in case for emergency but then when I look at how thick were those bars …. I know even I have one at home, it won’t help much either :( (Silly me!!) With Angel still screaming in pain trying hard to free her legs and I am still thinking what to do, then suddenly I notice the mattress underneath her legs! Without hesitation, with one hand still holding onto my half squatting Angel, I start pulling and pushing her mattress with the other hand and then suddenly, she legs was set loose with the extra space by removal of the mattress. I carried my poor baby out from her crib and she is still crying and holding onto her ankle with red bruised mark telling me “Pain Pain ~~” with tears still pouring down from her face, poor thing!

I was just discussing with Mommy Esmeralda the other day that we have to be very careful with our kids who normally will be so ‘keen’ to stick their heads out in between those safety handrails / staircase safety rails because when I was still a naughty young toddler, this phenomenon is a very common ‘hobby’ among our friends and we will talk about who and who got their head stuck in between those rails again and how the firemen will come to the rescue by cutting those rails apart, or XX mom have pour cooking oil onto XX hand to release his/her hand which got stuck inside a vase, etc…. while having a good laugh about it. Now that I know not only the head will get stuck so easily, even Angel’s own legs will got stuck in between her own crib bars too! But I really don’t understand how she managed to lock her legs into that locking position in the first place and can’t get them out after that? Is that what we call ‘Naughty’ or is it once of the very common “Unavoidable Experiences” of growing ups which will have more to come in the future??

Anyway, me and hubby did have a good laugh about it while Angel pointing at her own pictures and tell me “Noh~~! 哭哭(crying)~~!!!” :P Oh, Life is full of ‘surprises’!! I do hope that my ‘heart’ will be strong enough for all these unexpected events :)

Random Daily Meals 2

I am glad that Angel is back to her normal healthy eating habit again FINALLY. So I think it’s good for me to jot down some of Angel’s favourite new menus here just in case I will ever need referring to them for my next ‘battle’ again which I hope is not going to happen ever!! it is really killing a lot of brain power just to think of new food combination for her everyday! Really can’t trust my poor memories to work as efficiently as before especially after giving birth to my darling Angel, the memory brain cell is just dying fast!! I must said that I am thankful that I still can remember my own name at this moment :P Well, as long as I have a happy, healthy and active little girl at home, I don’t think I will have more to ask right? *smile* Ok ok …. Back to Angel’s new daily meals and here are some pictures taken to share.

^ ^ YUK CHUK SOUP: This is Angel’s favourite soup :) Yuk Chuk + Red and Honey Dates Soup served with Rice, Chicken Drumstick and some finely chopped Lettuce for her daily veggie intake.


^ ^ SPINACH SOUP JAPANESE NOODLES: Pork Ribs Broth cooked with Spinach, Chinese Wolfberries, Cubed Chicken Breast served with Spirulina Japanese Noodles.


^ ^ CHINESE LETTUCE SOUP PASTA: Pork Ribs Broth cooked with mince pork, Chinese Lettuce, Red Dates and serve with Angel's favourite ABC pasta


^ ^ MIX VEGGIE PORRIDGE: A very healthy porridge. Porridge cooked with Mince Pork, and lots of finely chopped Green Veggie, Carrots, Corn and Green Peas


^ ^ SILK SQUASH (丝瓜) PORRIDGE: Silk Squash Porridge With Chinese Wolfberries, Mince Pork and a beaten Egg was added just before the heat was turn off.


^ ^ (Left)SILK SQUASH (丝瓜) OMELETTE: She definitely love this dish. Silk Squash Omelette served with Carrot + Chicken Breast Porridge.
^ ^ (Right) BEETROOT SOUP RICE: Another favourite soup of Angel. Beetroot soup boiled with Red Dates + Pork Spare Ribs Serve with Rice.


^ ^ FRENCH BEAN PORRIDGE: Introducing French Beans to Angel. This is one of the meals that I would normally take together with Angel coz it’s yummy. We are having Porridge in Pork Ribs broth with French Beans, Taufu Pok (both finely chopped and leave some chunk for Angel's chewing exercises), and mince pork.


^ ^ CHINESE CHIVES (韭菜) OMELETTE: Chinese Chives Omelette served with Pumpkin and Pork Meat Porridge. She seems doing fine with the taste of Chinese Chives :)

Drinking Water and A Cup Of Milk

Can you believe that Angel do not like plain water since she was born until now that she is 2Y2M old? So normally her drink will be home boiled sweet soup (without sugar), pure homemake fruit juices or very diluted apples juice. We have tried feeding her plain water with spoon, with sippy cup and with straws but she would only take few sips the most then starts making a terrible face as if she has drank something horrible or worst, she will choke on plain water (plain water only)!! We constantly trying various ways to make her likes water but she just doesn’t fancy water at all. So normally I will feed her with pure queeze fruit juices or the ready to drink fresh crushed apples juice in the carton, and then diluted 1 - 2 oz juice with 8oz of water and surprisingly, she loves and won’t reject the almost tasteless apple juice at all. I guess she just want to have some taste in her water to cover up the ‘water’ taste.

Until lately when Angel’s grandma trying to give her the straw cup with plain water in it, surprisingly she drank it for the very first time without making any noise / choke :) Although it’s only 1 – 2 oz for a starts, at least it’s a good start. Currently, her intake of plain water is increasing to almost 6 oz per day with us constantly reminding her to ‘drink water’ which she would take few sips at a time. So at this moment, plain water has become 1/3 of her daily water intake (not including milk) and I must say that I am please with that :) Well ….. better be late then never :)

I love to see how she hold and use her straw cup :)
However, yesterday I tried to give her with her beloved formula milk in her drinking cup which she normally uses to drink her juices and unexpectedly after a few sip and taste the milk, she refused to drink them at all. She even makes a 'want to puke' act when I force her to take another sip! But when I pour them back into her milk bottle, she finished it happily again ….. hhhhmmmmmm, I wonder why? Sigh, I really have no idea on how to train her to drink milk from her normal cup *scratch head* :( Anyone having the same problem?

Her Bolster Is So Tiny

Time to change Angel’s tiny little bolster I guess ….. can you see how little is her first bolster comparing to her new one? Although she doesn’t use them that often but still, hubby feels that his little girl would be more comfortable with a bolster by her side so I finally got a bigger one for her :) Although we have got her a new bolster but ironically, she still prefers her small old bolster more and you would see her tuck the tiny little bolster in between her legs where I could hardly see it anymore ….. she really is growing up so much by comparing the size of her 1st old bolster to her size now :) Oh …. How time flies :) :) I know kids are kind of addicted to the smell of their old belongings such as bolster / pillow / blanket / nappy, etc but seems like Angel does not have this addiction so far apart from her daddy who is constantly taking a sniff on Angel’s old bolster every night when he tuck her in. Opppssss …… LoL

‘怕怕’(scared) Part 2

Since my 1st post of Angel’s '怕怕' (scared) behaviour, I can see that she is getting better and braver day by day she gets older. Somehow, when she does feel scare again, she will normally says ‘不怕! 不怕! ’ (Not afraid! Not afraid!) most of the time with a fearful look still on her face while tapping her own chests just like the way we comforting her. It’s so funny to see that she is feeling afraid and also comforting herself all at the same time :) So what’s her latest fear these days ………

Chopping sound from the chopping board
Yup! She is afraid of the chopping sound from the chopping board! In the pictures, she is having her dinner at our dinning table where hubby is chopping up our dinner – the roasted pork! As she was on her high chair having her meal, she can’t make a move so she covered her eyes to a degree that she is not looking at hubby who is doing his chopping while leaving a gap so that she could see her porridge :P. And when the sound went on until unbearable for her, suddenly she burst out into tears and cry out so loud with her hand still covering her eyes. Oh! my poor baby ....

She really tried very hard to be brave by cover up her eyes not to look at what daddy's doing while reaching for her meal

I guess the sould was just too awful to the ears of my little Angel

So in normal days whenever she heard the chopping sound from the kitchen, she would zoom into the kitchen to see what I am up to again and when she saw me doing my usual chopping, she will brave herself up while trying her very best to make sure her fuzzy eyes stays open while pointing to the chopping board and say ‘chicken’ (or whatever I am chopping) from a distance away. Slowly she would started to get uneasy and finally she would go behind me hiding her face in between my legs (yup!!!), pulling my pants with all she might and stumbled on the floor, whining and crying telling me that she is '怕怕' (scared) while shaking both my legs with all her strength asking me to stop! And once I finished, she will come out from between my legs and put on a big bright smile and say, “Oh …. OK! OK! Fi-nish!~~ ” and left the kitchen happily. I thought after I have explain and show her what mommy is doing she won’t be so nervous anymore ......... which does helps a bit but still, she just have this phobia of the sound and motion from us doing the chopping. But when she is doing those cutting and chopping with her own chopping set and creating so much noise pollution from them, she doesn’t seems to show a tiny but of fear in her face at all wor …………. ????

Bento#3: Anpanman Tomato Rice Bento

When talking about fixing a bento for young toddler like Angel’s, it really is quite challenging for me due to the reasons:

1) Angel’s solid are porridges still. (Anyone came across a porridge bento before?? LoL Maybe I should try it someday …. Ya! I think I should :P)
2) I am trying not to use process food as much as possible in her daily meal.
3) Angel is allergic to all diaries, nuts and seafood which means food like cheese / fish balls, etc is out of the question.
4) She is a meat person and don’t really fancy veggies, raw or cooked unless I hide them inside her food.

So I guess I am left with not much of a choice to pack a variety of bento for her for the moment being. But somehow, I feels that I need to start now so by the time that Angel attended kiddy, I would have gotten a better idea on how to fix a proper bento and will not take ‘forever’ just to fix her something simple and nice. I am pretty slow in preparing bento at this moment and absolutely no idea on what to make for her most of the time. Some very dedicated bento-ing mommies really are extremely creative and very talented ….. I am pretty amazed!

So after some thoughts, I think I should start with the cute Anpanman! Anpanman is one of the most popular anime cartoon characters in Japan at this moment and I think his chubby face looks very cute! This little superhero dedicates himself to the cause of justice and will allow those hungry and in need eat his face which is make of anpan (bread fill with bean jam) which can be restored. Oh …. Yummy yummy!!! :) So in order to get the orange colour of Anpanman’s face, I have decided to make Tomato + Onion + Mince Chicken Rice using fresh tomatoes for Angel’s dinner. And at the sides, I have added some diced cucumber to fill in the gaps, some water apples decorated as flowers, half of a banana underneath those flowers, and some steam carrots as butterflies and on the cheeks. So that’s Angel’s Anpanman bento for dinner.

Angel’s Anpanman bento with Tomato + Onion + Mince Chicken Rice, Dice Cucumber, Water Apples and Bananas at the bottom.
When Angel opened up her meal, she was squealing with delights and dance a bit on her high chair until hubby asked me whether she normally behaves that way when she got her bento meal :) It’s such rewarding just by the look on my little girl’s happy face …… She kept looking at her bento and show me the eyes, nose and mouth until I need to asked her to ‘eat’. I did reminded her to eat the fruits (those flowers) very last but when I turned around, she quickly shove them into her mouth and pretended not to let me saw her munching on her fruits LoL Half way enjoying her meal, hubby took away the food picks and baran thinking to wash them and she scream and cry so loud until hubby put them back to where it belongs *laugh* I am glad that she likes her bento and polished off her meal in no time – all by herself without asking me to feed her that night.

Something Girlie Finally?

Angel loves practicing her football kicks and playing with her Thomas Train and toy cars at home most of the time. And now that she is getting expert in riding her bicycle, sometimes people will mistaken her for a boy when I actually dressed her up in T-shirt and pants :) I do notice activities which attract her interest longer and better would be boys’ activities and toys such as cars and moving vehicles, etc. She doesn’t fancy dolls at all and even if she was given one, she would just touch them here and there and then leave them at the corner after awhile and never look at them ever again.

But few weeks ago, she has got herself interested in something girlie to play with finally – the wooden vegetable cutting set! I think this is one simple yet interesting toy to have, and it can even polished up her motor skill too. It is so funny that the first time I handed her the cutting set, she really thought those are eatable stuffs and actually take a bite of the wooden apple and use the knife as if it’s a drum stick and hit on the wood veggie to make sound from it. She must have thought the toy is played that way *laugh*. When she saw how I cut those vegetable into half and then quarter, she actually exclaimed in a very high pitch “Wahhhh ~~” and then can’t wait to do it herself :) The looks on her face is simply adorable and worth every single penny spend :)

So these few weeks, I manage to keep her busy with her cutting set where I can do the real cooking in the kitchen. After she separated those vegetables piece by piece she would connect them back into their original form. These activities certainly is a very good trainings for her little hands and little brain. Apart from playing it the normal ways, I think she starts to throw them onto the floor and kicks them like a ball …….. ^_^III *sweating* I thought it suppose to be a girlie toy and play it the girlie way? @_@