29th Month Old [2Y5M] (Part 2 of 2)

Learning and Speech

♥ Still not talking much (but trying to) apart from some short sentences which forms maximum 3 words mostly. But I think it’s a great achievement as compare to previously and would sometimes surprise us with a long sentence. I think she is just very lazy to talk :(

♥ She speaks mandarin. But somehow she sounds really sounds like an ‘ang-moh’ talking mandarin and that is so funny ^_^! Maybe the reason was that the first language that we teach her was English and all the cartoons that she watched is all in English but we do speak to her in mandarin at home. We will try to expose her to more Chinese Vocabulary and also 三字经, mandarin children songs, etc in the future to polish up her pronunciation.

♥ Everyday after waking up from bed, she would never fail to say this same old phrase “妈咪 抱抱Angel Please ~~” (Mommy please carry Angel out.)in order to come out from her crib! It is trained by Angel’s grandma and seems like she is very good in making Angel speaks :P

♥ She can name us all!!!! Finally she is able to say out everyone’s name in our family. Sometimes she would even call us by our name too @_@ There was once when she saw me coming back and she shouted at me at the gate “K~LO~LINE~~~!!!!” @_@

♥ She is able to recite Monday to Sunday and also January to December. *Will post the video soon if possible * ^_^

♥ Her favourite phrase is - asking us to ‘look’! Everyday I would hear her telling us, “妈咪, 看这边!” … “Ah-Ma, 看这边!” (Mommy look here! Ah-Ma look here!) showing us the drawings she did or asking us to watch her favourite cartoon on the television. Or sometimes she would call to us and say, “Mommy, Come-on!!”, “Mommy, Make that!!”, “Mommy, Take this ah!!” etc.

♥ Can read quite well. She is able to relate those in the books with those objects that were around her. She even will point out what is an Island and tell us just that when we drive pass the harbour. But her reading is still constrain to picture books only and no luck on reading words still. I have tried teaching her with words but I guess she is not ready yet as she would still pronounce all the alphabets to me instead of reading them in words *scratching head*

♥ Can read out loud 11 – 50 in English (skipping the 16 >"<), and 100. Still working on teaching her to recognize the numbers as related to those she reads.

♥ Able to count simple maths. She is able to count out the objects that she saw and then pointed out the correct numbering on the page. Sometimes she would asked herself, "How many flags? 1, 2, 3! 3 Flags!" So far she only loves to count flags ^_^

♥ Learning great in Opposites. She is able to identify a lot of opposite terms and use it in her daily life including clean from dirty, fat from thin, and even heavy and light, etc.

♥ She can identify right from wrong. For example when we told her that the red traffic light is green in colour, she would tell us “No~~! This red!” (yes, she would use ‘This’ then ‘Red’ without the ‘is’ :P”


Likes and Dislikes

♥ Starts loosing some interest in Barney (still watch it), Not sure whether she still loves Mr. Bean.

♥ Refuse to watch Thomas and Friends. She finds Thomas cartoons quite horrifying these days :( :( Luckily she still loves her Thomas Train toys *phew*

♥ New found love ---->>>>

- Mickey Mouse Club House (Angel super duper love it!!!!!!!!!!) I think she is crazy about it and can even name most of the character in it such as Mickey Mouse, Minnie, Donald Duck, Daisy, Goofy, Pete, Pluto, etc. When she is watching this, never ever talk to her coz she won't hear you at all LoL

- Little Einstein (she is so into this lately!!)

♥ Guess which Character in Mickey Mouse Club House that she adores? PLUTO!! @_@ (Pluto is Mickey’s pet dog who is yellow in colour).

♥ A fans of MANGOES!! She is totally fallen in love with the fruits. She has not been asking for her favourite bananas as normally does anymore but instead, she would asked for mangoes and can’t stop looking at the mango tree at our backyard.

♥ Hates medicine and even Woodward’s Gripe Water! The only supplement that she loves so far is the one and only Scoot’s Emulsion Original Flavour!

♥ She loves to blow bubbles. She would noticed the bubbles on the supermarket and tell me she wants them @_@

♥ She loves to fly. Whenever I asked her whether she wants to board the airplane again, she would always answer me with a firm “yes!” :P :P And also she insisted to have her own hand luggage at this age and would take care of her own trolley bag all the way till we reached home ^_^ Of course she would still left her luggage once she saw something interested her then few minutes later only asked me to find her luggage back for her (>"<).

♥ Going Kai Kai is her all time favourite! Now she even refuse to get down from the car once we reached home @_@

29th Month Old [2Y5M] (Part 1 of 2)

She is still a very active little kid running and jumping all the time, weighing approximately at 13.6 kg and Height = didn’t take any measurement. And just when I thought that the terrible 2 stages has started where she would throw tantrums everyday while I have run to the bookstore to get more books on parenting, she somehow suddenly stop showing all her bad temper and back to her old self again ….. so I take it as a good sign? ^_^

Act and Behaviour

♥ She is extremely loving and caring! When she saw us being sad, she would be very concerned and would go forward and kiss us in order to make us smile again. She loves the word “Happy” and when she heard that one of us is “sad”, she would quickly approach us making a funny face or making funny action (making herself shivering with all her strength) in order to put a smile back onto our face saying “Happy!”. Even when she saw a baby, she would asked for our permission to touch him/her and then stroke the baby gently on the face and smile happily :) When I asked her to hit daddy (while playing), she would refused instantly and say “No! Don’t want! 不要!” firmly while shaking her head, frown her eye brow making a dilemma look *sweet*

♥ Start to have fear of “Thunder”! When she heard a thunder during the rainy days, she would run so quickly sometimes even shivers, jumping towards me shoving her face at my chest telling me “怕怕!! 怕怕!!” (afraid!).

♥ Start keeping her promise. For example we told her that she has to take her nap after finish watching 1 episode of her favourite cartoon, she did just that without making any more fuss! ^_^

♥ Will not eat the food when we say ‘No!’ to her. When she knows that she couldn’t have them, she would pointing at them and told us, “辣辣!” (Spicy) *laugh*

♥ Started to realize what is smelly! And she would cover her nose with one hand and mouth with the other, standing at the far corner of the bathroom face sticking to the wall, peeping us cleaning up her poo poo and cry for us to take her soiled diapers away coz it’s so smelly *rolled eyes* There was once she stick her face near her grandma’s chest then suddenly she turn to her grandma and told her “Ehhhh ….. 臭臭! *LOL*

♥ Calling “Mommy~~~” or “Ah-Ma ~~~” (grandma) a thousand times in a day still. Whenever she needs us, she need something or even when she feels boring ….. ^_^ I still enjoy hearing her calling mommy all the time ^_^

♥ Not afraid of the sand and the sea anymore. Last time she use to be afraid of the feeling of standing on the sandy beach bare footed or even watching the waves splashing near her but not anymore! So I guess she starts to enjoy digging sand at the beach now! ^_^

♥ Likes to play “monster”! She would cover her entire self with a blanket and then walk towards us lowering her voice raising both her hands up wanted to catch us, saying “Monster ~~~!!! Monster ~~~!!!” LoL Sometimes my clumsy little girl will knock onto the cupboard walking blindly inside the blanket but still wanted to do this trick all the time, sigh!

♥ She is a little vain pot! That day I bought her a set of accessories with the necklace, rings, etc. I didn’t expect her to wear it and then suddenly give me this brightest smile of hers and even moving her body left and right in delights showing how excited she was being accessorized!!

♥ Talk softly to Mommy. I find that she would use her very soft voice when talking to me / calling me as if afraid that she would give me a shockl, hahahaha! When she talks to the rest of the family members, she would use her normal tone and sometimes would even shouted for them. I didn’t realized that until one day Angel’s grandma asked me how come she speak so differently when she is with me. (just in case you are wondering, nope, I am not a soft speaker myself :P)

♥ Likes to mimic whatever we are doing. There was once in the restaurant, a kid was sitting on his daddy’s lap playing with his daddy, this little girl of us saw it and insisted to sit on my lap, eyes glued to the father-and-son and basically did whatever the kid is doing to her daddy (i.e. the boy lie on his daddy’s chest and she follows, the boy poke his daddy’s eyes and she follows, the boy laugh and she laugh too, etc) while asking me to do the same as well ^_^ I was laughing uncontrollably when I saw what she did that day :P :P

♥ Loves jumping on the bed!! She would jump on the bed while saying “跳! 跳! 跳! 跳! 跳! 跳! (Jump! Jump! Jump!)” then suddenly let herself fall free sitting down on the bed and normally the bed would bounced back where she nearly bounced off the bed onto the floor each time! That really makes me almost have a heart attach watching her does that! @_@

Feedings & Sleeping

♥ Having 9 oz of formula 3 times per day. Meal time twice and no tea break at grandma’s.

♥ Still very much a bread lover. But she tends to get tummy discomfort when she eats bread everyday :(

♥ She loves Baby Bean Sprouts (豆苗)!! Finally we found the 1 and only veggie that she is willing to eat!

♥ Still loves porridge as much as rice. Now she is taking rice more then porridge and would be eating whatever the family is having for lunch but all dish will be lightly rinsed with warm water in order to get rid of some access oil and salt in our adult food before giving it to her.

♥ She would normally goes to bed way pass midnight and waking up around 11am in these days, just like her mommy :P :P

Angel 的 (Angel’s).

She is very particular about which belongs to whose lately. Everyday, we would find her telling and distinguishing while pointing at whatever it is in front of her, whether it’s a plate of rice, books, clothing, bottles or even toys, etc.

A: This Ah-Ma 的 (grandma’s)! This Mommy 的 (mommy’s)! This Kung Kung 的 (grandpa’s)!

And her favourite phrase is non other then

A: This Angel 的 (Angel’s)!

Normally those that she distinguished as not belong to hers, she wouldn’t dare to touch them and she understands that they don’t belong to her. For those that she marked as “this is Angel 的 (Angel’s)”, she would claim full authority against them and whenever she picked them up, she would tell us again this belongs to hers and do whatever she likes with them and we cannot say a word :P :P

Of course when it comes to things that is not hers, she sometimes insisted that it is hers and would be crying until we agree that it belongs to her :) So when we refused to let her play with her toy some of the time, she would tell us loudly that it is hers meaning we cannot forbidden her to play with it (>”<). The other day she was holding 3 lollipop and we asked her whose lollipop is that, she divided them one by one but there is 4 of us, and at that point she really got into such a dilemma that the lollipop is not enough for 4 of us but still, insisted that one of the lollipop must belong to her. We joked with her that it is not enough for all of us, she cry out so loudly telling us that “This Angel 的 (Angel’s)!” and running away with all the lollipop in her hands.

I think this would be a right time to expose her to the idea of ‘sharing’ things with others. Normally I would sweet talk to her but still sometimes she would share them but most of the time, she still insist to keep them. I would love her to share things if she really wanted but not turning her into this little person who would give everything out just to please others. Any good ideas on how to teach young toddlers to share??? Mind to share??

Zen*tel

Lately Angel kept pointing at her anus and fuss while saying “Mommy make!! Mommy make!!” asking me to take away what ever is bugging her there! We took off her diapers and saw nothing but she would keep pointing there and asked me to “make”! We never think of de-wormed Angel until she really shows sign of discomfort on and off. Furthermore, Angel’s grandma suspected that the worm might be coming from the mangoes that she took everyday …… eeeeuuuwww!!!! That’s grossed!!! So I have decided to resort to Zen*tel once and for all for the very first time.

Of course our little Angel struggled when she saw the syrup and cover her mouth with both hands while running away and crying at the same time refusing to even come anywhere near to the spoons. Actually it taste sweet and nice just like those sugary syrup which is white in colour. Once we pour it into her mouth, she would push them all out with her toungue but finally, we manage to suspend 3/4 of the syrup into her mouth while the remaining 1/4 was spilled all over the floor.

We checked her poo poo the following days but really couldn’t seems to find any sign that there is any ‘wiggly looking thing’ there too ……. Ohhhhhhh, so smelly while Angel herself was covering her own nose and mouth standing far far away watching us doing our job *LoL* I can’t believe that we actually examine her poo poo that way as I am having this phobia about looking or touching bb’s poo poo before I am married. But I guess after a few times of Angel puking milk on me and having to wash her bottom everyday, everything grossed from our little ones seems to be not so ‘horrifying’ anymore "at that point" as long as our little one is staying happy and healthy :)
.

p/s: pls seek medical advices from your health professionals before feeding your babies with any form of medication.

Roof Tumbling Down

No no! It’s not that we are having earth quake or typhoon here but that’s how the situation at home at the moment when Angel’s ‘Terrible 2’ symptoms starts to kick in lately. I can hear Angel’s grandma raising her voice more and more everyday until the whole neighborhood could hear her voice (as she herself put it :P :P) while at the same time Angel was screaming on the top of her voice crying and fighting back in order to get what she wants. She has been such a sweet-sweet girl for the past few weeks then suddenly, she starts throwing tantrums very often and making these fake weeping which eventually turned into a real cry! Or worst she would scream-crying on the top of her voice to the point that her face turning red just because someone clean away her plate of rice that she has left behind for hours, or she wants to blow bubbles inside the shopping malls but we told her to wait instead, or she insisted to hold her plate of rice and walk with it then suddenly the rice tipped over and all spilled on the floor :( Distracting her attention seems to getting tougher as she could recalled quite well what she was ‘fighting’ for and doesn’t seems to be easily distracted by other stuffs as previously would! She wants it means she wants it now and it can last for a good 10 – 15 minutes while she will still be crying terribly for that particular things that she wants.

Sometimes she would called us and before she could get a responses, she would hit us hard in frustration then only realized what she did and then cry out loud in frightening, frustration and feeling sorry all at the same time. Sometimes out of a sudden, she would whipped for no reason (or reason that we couldn’t identify) and try seeking for our attention and if we do not attended to her immediately, she would be screaming at a horrible voice as if she wanted to scream out loud in anger but still controlling her frustration by lowering her voice. When we asked her what happened she would gave us her pity look while pounding on the floor as if she is feeling mad but don’t know how to express herself.

From my observation, she is certainly entering into the terrible 2 stage where a lot of if not all kids her age are going through at the moment. They wanted to do things following their way and their will but yet, they have been constrains with their limited abilities and also the massive DOs and DON’Ts for some reason that they might not want to accept the fact that things are doing it that way. Their world are still evolved in the “individualistic” stage but the true fact is, it’s not and it’s still too hard for them to actually understand. Hence most of the time, they would meltdown in response to frustration and resulted in a crying and angry kid in the making. Any cure for that? At the moment, I find giving her a big loving hug and stroking her head telling her everything was OK and then trying to reason with her after she has calm down seems to work better on her. Of course apart from that, mommy also trying to take a few more then a few deep breathe in order to control the blood pressure :P Any other better ‘magic tricks’ to all mommies who have been through this before???

On the other hand, Angel’s grandma seems to think that this naughty little girl bad behavour simply due to a lack of few good ‘lessons’ already and need a good ‘yelling’ in order to teach her to behave!!! She even said that she would have heart attack soon if there were another Angel no. 2 for her to take care. *laugh* Oh well, I can’t deny that her yell-scolding works wonders some times too (and she totally belief in that) but like I have said, the roof might be tumbling down soon from the yelling and crying in the house lately.

Angel, Angel, when can you be less naughty + fuss lesser and be a happy smiling little Angel again????

First Figurine Painting [2Y4M]

We walked pass this figurine painting area in CT mall when Angel spotted the kids tables and chairs at the side and refused to make a move! The shop assistance came forward and show us the choice of figurines that we can buy and paint on the spot but Angel’s grandma smiles and told him politely,

“I don’t think she knows how to do it yet ….. still too young!”

and hesitated in getting Angel the figurine. But since Angel doesn’t want to make a move, it’s not that nice that we let her play there without getting anything from the shop so I decided to get the smallest figurine for her just for fun. For worst, I am going to do the painting myself then :P I asked Angel to choose so she pointed at the sheep.

^ ^ Left: The sheep figurine she chose

^ ^ Right: Waited anxiously for her turn

The shop assistant is so kind enough to help Angel set up the colour palette with some colours and when he wanted to ‘help’ Angel with her painting further, our naughty Angel actually started to wail saying

“不要(don’t want) ~~ 不要(don’t want) ~~”

pushing the shop assistant’s hand away and signaling him to leave her alone instead *laugh* Kids~~!!!

^ ^ Angel at work!
And then she makes her first stroke on the sheep and she giggled happily then her second stroke, she giggle even more! She is really happy and we were totally surprised that Angel could actually do the water colour painting very well despite that's her very first encounter with water colour!! *surprise* Then half way through, we try to instruct her to paint the face of the sheep and she could follow our verbal instructions very well too and requested for “Yellow ah~~ ” for the sheep's face *another surprise* We are laughing unbelievably + still can’t believe that Angel could actually painted the figurine with minimum assistance (but we help washing her brush) and complete the entire figurine all by herself.

^ ^ Left: She looks so concentrated :)

^ ^ Right: Painting the 'hair' on the head of the sheep
After she was done, I just quickly do some white outline for her (without altering any colour that she painted), painted the leg of the rainbow sheep black and also do the necessary features on the sheep’s face. When I handed the figurine to the shop assistance for the final shine spraying, he was amazed too and told me “Oh, that’s pretty good!!”

^ ^ Left: Angel's painted her sheep in rainbow colour

^ ^ Right: Final outcome of Angel's Rainbow Sheep
When Angel grandma finally saw the final outcome of the figurine, she asked “Eh, how come it’s becoming so pretty already after the shiny spray??” and I just smile. Then suddenly she said, “Then tomorrow we could bring her to do the large one again loh …..” Hahahaha …. Who is the one saying that Angel is still too young for the figurine painting initially? *giggle*

I do think that the rainbow sheep looks very nice after the shinny spray :) Sometimes I am pretty amazed by what a young toddler is able to perform at such young age :) I am glad that Angel enjoyed the painting process so much which is priceless to me and now we have Angel’s first Happy Rainbow Sheep sitting on our computer desk :)

Spinach Meat Balls & Steamed Hairy Gourd

I love to prepare Spinach Meat Balls for Angel because she doesn’t fancy vegetables that much so I have to hide it somewhere or make it ‘attached’ to her favourite meat dish so that she has to either eat them or leave them which is not a choice for her. In that, I can add in lots of veggie in her diet without any protest from her and so far so good :)

The preparation is very simple, just finely chopped up the spinach (or lettuce, chinese leaves, mushrooms, carrots, etc) and mixed them up with the mince meat (chicken/ pork), lightly seasoned with some soy sauce which is totally optional for younger toddlers. Also add in an egg (omit if you were to have any extra egg dish that day), tiny bit of white pepper, few drops of sesame seed oil (optional too), some corn starch for thickening and decorated with some Chinese wolfberries. That goes into the steamer for 20 minutes and the wolfberries will definitely bring in some extra sweetness into the meat balls.

Apart from that, I would also make the same Spinach Meat Balls in some other days and heaped it onto the Hairy Gourd (毛瓜). It does taste very refreshing eating that alone or serve with porridge / rice. For a more ‘tasty’ and less healthy version, I will finely chopped up some ham / bacon which I make a gravy out of it (use the water from the steaming …… but not the water you use to steam the food though :P :P) and drizzle on top of the Steamed Hairy Gourd when it’s done.


And this is the interesting part, you can even make a clown face out of the Steamed Hairy Gourd with an extra fried eggs at the bottom and 2 raisins + some ketchup! With an extra ordinary touch on her meal, Angel did polish up her bowl of rice in no time :)


Angel's clown face rice

Speaking Thai

After such a long period staying in Thailand, Angel has mastered the Thai greeting ritual few months back. She would greet everyone while being asked to where she would stand properly, putting both her hands together, bow a bit and said

"SaWaDee ka~~!" (greeting in Thai language) in a very happy and jolly tone :) I love to see her doing that as she looks extremely polite and cute :)

Also that day when we was travelling in the car, Angel's grandma is talking to Angel

G: Angel, see .... the car is going up! Nah .... going down!

A: (watching without making a sound)

G: See .... tell mommy to steer the steering, turn turn turn left~~, turn turn turn right~~ .....

Then suddenly we heard

A: Dong-Bai Ka ~~ka ~~ ka.......... Kwa-Ka ~~ ka ~~ ka......... (while pointing to the front showing me the way :D)

We paused then laughing non stop!! Oh dear, Angel must have learn that from us while we was talking to the taxi driver in Bangkok :)

Actually Angel starts to give me directions but it's in all in Thai words!!! :D

Dong-Bai ka = Go Straight Please, while Kwa-Ka = Turn Right Please both in Thai language. We didn't expect that the first language that she learn in giving us directions (only directions so far) is actually in Thai :D Even back in Malaysia, she would also give us directions in her Thai language :P :P

Bento#7: The Chicken Family Bento

This is the most complicated bento that I have ever done *wipe sweat* It all started with a bowl of fried vermicelli which I have no idea of what bento to fix for Angel. Then suddenly I noticed that the vermicelli looks like a ‘bird nest’ hence decided to make a 'Chicken' barn out of it coz I don’t know how to fix birds :P :P So here it is, a bento with the Rooster Papa, Hen Mama, 1 newly hatched Didi chick and 1 MeiMei chick with another not-so-happy egg which is still waiting to be hatched *hehehehe* At the side was 2 very kepoh (busy body) Uncle Tree and Aunty Tree watching the happy chicken family welcoming their little chicks :)


^ ^ Angel is having fried vermicelli + sliced pork + cabbage, few quail eggs, 2 stalks of broccoli with funny looking face which I got the idea from one of the japanese bento magazine, some mix vege at the bottom left, 3 cherries and some carrots decorated as flowers.
Angel can’t wait for her meal and get ready her high chair automatically when she saw me taking out her bento during lunch time. When I asked Angel what did she see in her bento, she told me, “Egg~~” and I said “No, It’s Chicken Family ..... Papa chicken and Mama Chicken!” but she insisted that they were eggs!! She finished everything including the fruits but only took 1 of the broccoli after much persuasion and refused to eat the other one :P For me it’s good enough :)

The Lacing Beads

This is the newest addition I bought for Angel last month. The wooden beads are Thailand made (I bought in Bangkok) and very good quality too. They were made from soft rubberwood and painted in soy ink which is definitely safe for young toddlers, and comes with different shapes and colours with a tiny hole in the middle of the beads. Kids were required to thread the laces through the beads in order to make necklace or anything out of their imagination. I love the fact that it’s a very good toy for exposing young toddler to a new motor skill - Treading that is as I bet Angel didn’t get to do that quite often in her daily activities. Also, I think it’s also very good in showing young toddlers the logic of sequence as well as a good training for their hand-eye coordination.

I just couldn't have enough watching her looking 101% concentrated in getting the laces to pass through those beads but so far, she only manage to get few done before asking for help! It should be a good training for Angel’s patience as well because it’s not an easy task wanting an active kid like Angel to be able to sit still on her high chair and doing the treading process without making much noise or big movements. Once she is having enough of her treading which is only 5 - 10 minutes as a start, I would let her come down and start exercising her little muscles :) So far, I can only say that she is getting better in that area day by day ^_^ Way to go Angel!!!

Angel seldom looks so serious in playing with her new toy :) Can see that she is trying very very hard ^_^ Oh ..... I love the look so much!

My Son n My Daughter

Sometimes …. or I should say most of the time when I bring Angel out for a quick groceries shopping with her normal home wear t-shirt and pants, people will come up to me and told me I have a cute little boy still :) Sometimes people who don’t know us well will think that we actually have a boy back home and they were so surprised to see we brought Angel out wearing a skirt later on the day LoL

^ ^ Doesn't Angel looks just like my cute little ‘Son’ ^_^

I will always try to tie her hair up when we went out during the weekends but sometimes, half way shopping, she will pull her pony tail off her hair or simply pull down her hair clips and told me to “keep” them away @_@ I think she just doesn’t feel comfortable with something on her hair.

^ ^ All set and let's go shopping!! The picture in the lower-middle (with red flowery dress) is her most recent picture, she does look younger then her previous picture ya?
Although she is not really a 'skirt' person but I am glad that I still managed to dress her in those pink little cute dresses I bought. At home, I think her dresses alone are more then the total of me and hubby’s @_@ But not all skirts that she would wear especially those below knee length skirt, fluffy skirt and also those with lots of laces ones. If I ever put on one of those dresses for her, she would cry and wail non stop and even refused to stand up until I take them off her.

^ ^ She can looks very girlish too :)

There was one incident that a friend of Angel's grandma "insisted" that she saw her (Angel's grandma) carrying her 'grandson' despite we told her that she is a girl and show the nicely dressed Angel in front of her, hahahahaha!!! I think she looks girlie when she is in her skirt and also, I won’t be getting the ‘You have a handsome boy!’ type of comments from others too :) I don't mind people mistaken her for a boy actually ^_^ No matter which look, she will still be the sweetest Angel in mommy and daddy’s heart ^_^ Sometimes when people comlemented that I have a handsome boy, maybe I should introduced her as Angelo - my SON :P :P

^ ^ My Sweet little Angel

Homemade Bread / Buns

^ ^ My first bake of Ham & Cheese Buns and our all time favourite Sausage Rolls
These are my first few attempts in bread baking ever and since then, I am crazy about these homemade bread / buns totally! Initially I was thinking to make a mini bite size sausage bun for Angel after looking at those I got from the bakery is either too large to hold or to fit into her tiny mouth while she 'struggle hard' to push the huge buns into her mouth!! I really didn’t anticipate that bread making can be so addicting!! The bread kneading part is really the torturing part (or should I say the most interesting part?) but I guess that doesn’t stop me from bread making either :P I think I really need to go get myself a bread maker soon, or a cake mixer cum bread maker will be even better!!! Errrmmm ……. there is right??

^ ^ Western Style Char Sau Bao (Barbeque Pork Bun)
^ ^ Plain Butter Bun and Raisin Bun
Normally it take around 2 ½ - 3 hours before the bread is freshly out from the oven. I just love the house fill with the aroma of freshly baked bread / buns. Hubby and Angel certainly loves those bread a lot! They are the happiest when they saw me kneading the bread dough again :) But due to my sensitive hands, I will have to stop for 1 week + before I can make another round of bread for my 2 sweet ‘babies’ at home :) But when I look at the happy faces of daddy and Angel while munching on those bread, a house filled with aroma fresh from the oven while i watched my 'hard work' vanished one by one in a day ……. I think that’s my perfect picture of my ordinary yet simple happy family moments, and a place where I call ‘Home’ :)

^ ^ Angel’s Super Mini Size Cocktail Sausage Rolls and Sesame Seed Bun
^ ^ “Come! Come! Aaaaammmmm ~~~~!”
She looks so happy everytime I gave her the mini bun fresh from the oven. It's made to a super-mini toddler bite size to suit her small hands and appetite ^_^

P/S: Sorry ya .... I didn't have time to put up all the recipes as usual as I am pretty busy house moving lately ;) But if you were interested, you can refer here for a Chinese version of the sausage rolls recipe (for the bread dough) I normally used :)

Bento#6: Little Brown Bear Bun

The other day I baked some raisins buns for Angel and suddenly think of fixing her a cute Little Brown Bear Bento. I am not good in drawings so normally I have to do a sketch in advance just to make sure the bear will looks like a bear and not a dog :P It’s really hard to cut those seaweeds using freehand and wondering how those Japanese mommies managed to come out with all the difficult shapes and forms in their super nice looking bentos.

This is definitely Angel’s most favourite bento so far as it’s packed with her favourite homemade raisin bun, her beloved quail eggs (don’t asked me whether it’s a dog or a bear there coz I wish someone could tell me too :P :P) and also packed with all her favourite fruits! I can see that she really enjoyed her bento so much so that she polished everything off until I couldn’t even find a tiny piece of bread crumb inside the box nor on the table. But the funny thing is Angel doesn’t recognized the decorated quail eggs in her bento at first and refuse to eat them until I have to wipe clean one of the quail eggs just to show her it’s actually an egg *laugh* I am glad that she loves this combination of food very much and I am hoping that I will get to pack more of such bread/bun bento apart from the normal rice bento for her. I am really so happy to see her gobble down her food that day (and also have to keep a close eyes on her with those quail eggs) until I forgot to take a picture of her enjoying her bento :P

^ ^ The Little Brown Bear was made from home baked raisin bun, serve with 2 quail eggs and tightly packed with red grapes and pineapples. She just loves every single food inside this bento box!!! ^_^

Portuguese Egg Tart [pix updated]

I am not going to share about my egg tart baking tips this time but instead, I would like to jot down my first ever hilarious moment in my baking journey :P

In order to make sure that the pastry (outer skin of the egg tart) to be well cooked, some did advised us to pre-baked the skin for 10-15 minutes, then only add in the egg liquid in the middle and into the oven once again. I follow just that, prepare the skin nicely into the greased mould (I use the aluminium cupcake foil mould which is a BAD IDEA) and it took me quite an effort to make sure the skin stay put, pop it into the oven and baked with so much anticipation waiting for the next step to be done i.e. adding the egg liquid! As I was checking on those egg tarts, to my horror I saw that the pastry doesn’t wish to stay on to the side of the mould and instead, starts ‘shrinking’ in the oven, immediately my heart was screaming “Noooo !!!! Ohhhh Nooooooo !!!” but I can’t do a thing but to watch my nicely shaped pastry keep shrinking from a cup shape into a smaller circle shape pastry lying flat in the middle of the mould when it’s out from the oven!!! Oh ..... GREAT!!!! *Feels like bagging my head on the wall*

What to do, since it’s already shrunken so much but I told myself to be POSITIVE, at least the pastry still fit nicely at the bottom of the mould so I guess I will just have to settle with the tarts with pastry only at the bottom but not the side then (some sort like a cheesecake where the crunchy base only at the bottom) So feeling a little motivated again, I start working with the egg liquid and praying that my tart will still look ok without the pastry on the
side and start pouring the egg liquid one by one carefully into the mould. 1st mould done, 2nd mould done, 3rd mould done and when I came to the last mould …… suddenly I noticed something strange happened to my 1st tart coz it doesn’t look right!! OMG ….. what the ....... guess what, the pastry at the bottom decided that it doesn’t want to stay at the bottom either, and floated up to the top of my egg liquid instead!!! That goes the same with the 2nd and 3rd and the rest of my tarts!!! Some pastry even do a 45 degree or a 90 degree vertical float in the middle of the egg liquid!!! Uurrrghhhhhh …… !!!!! What have I done???!!!!!! How to bake the egg tarts with the pastry half floating on the top??? Tell me ~~~??!! #$%^& *head banging hard on the wall* Hubby still with a cheeky smile walk into the kitchen and asked me what’s that on my tray …… auurrggghhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!! I really feel like biting him at that point :P However, the tarts turned out quite tasty although a bit too sweet apart from the indescribably ugly 'different' looks (have you seen an upside down egg tarts before??) :P

^ ^ My disastrous 1st attempt >"<I can't believe that I am actually posting these pictures up here ;P
So for my 2nd attempt, no more greasing on the cups and I make sure that the pastry sticks to the cup like a glue before I pre-bake them and once I saw they starts shrinking, I quickly pull them out of the oven and pour in the egg liquid :) The final outcome is as the picture above, looks ok right?? The tarts taste great after I have cut down more then half the sugar stated in the recipe. I am glad that my 2nd bake turns out pretty well as hubby was having one egg tart after another :P :P.
I wonder is it only me who has such disastrous experience in the baking history? Hahahahaha …… Happy weekend everyone :) :)