xavvy-licious

Mosaics fun !

2012-01-13T23:17:00.004+08:00

Here's another fun craft which Xav loves to do ! Knowing that he likes things small and tiny, I knew that he will love this !

Mosaics fun ! Make a hippo paper holder !

A good way to train their patience and their fine motor skills, by picking up and sticking the mosaics one by one.

I just love it when he is concentrating hard in completing the project !

Grilled Prawns with cheese

2012-01-13T22:27:00.006+08:00

For the prawn lovers !

The first dish which I made using Happycall Pan, grilled prawns with cheese. A super tasty yet easy dish to make.

Method:

1. Wash and drain prawns. Cut each prawn lengthwise in half. Brush prawns with olive oil and place cut side up on grill pan.

2. Mix garlic, butter, salt and pepper in a bowl and sprea mixture over each prawn.

3. Grill prawns for 5 mins or until meat turns pinkish. Sprinkle with grated cheese and return to the grill for another minute.

4. Place in a serving platter and garnish with chopped herbs. Serve with lemon wedges.

All ingredients are based on estimation.

School "Out" - 16 Nov - 31 Dec 2011

2011-12-08T22:24:00.006+08:00

It's school "out" ! Been feeling pretty bad, not being able to take leave for this school holiday cos I have no more balance leave ! This is the period where I really feel like just not working and get fully engaged with him !

6 Weeks of school holiday basically I try to make sure at least once a week he gets to get out of the house and have some hands on.

Week 1 :

1. He continues on with Mindchamps till the end of November.
2. We went for Wowart Open House and he was simply enjoying himself to the max. Being his first visit to the school, he has no anxiety at all when I told him that I have to leave him with the teacher and go over to next door to attend a briefing. He acknowledged and I went back after the session to see a happy Xavier, spontaneously working on his project happily !

This was his completed project; Christmas Wreath

Week 2 : Started his holiday programs at Wowart. Did his clayframe making (I have yet to see the final product though) and did his Batik Painting. Thanks Jas for the pics !

Week 3 : Have signed him up for "Lights, Camera, Action" @ Zoophonics ! No problem with leaving him there as he has on and off asking me to bring him back to the school. He remembers that he used to attend classes there and the teachers remember him too ! Feedback given to deardear are very positive !

Week 4 - Week 5 : He shall continue with the weekly holiday workshops with Wowart. I may consider signing him up for term lessons in Jan 2012.

Apart from holiday workshops, as usual he has his fair share of going for Meet and Greet sessions in the malls. His latest craze was Hi-5 after Toybox Singapore. Yes even the daddy joined in and got "high". Imagine dear waited for the crowd to clear, went up to the cast manager and requested for Hi-5 cast to pen their signatures on the photograph !

He went to catch Chugginton @ Marina Square too !

Angry Bird @ Taka and of course now awaiting his favourite "Thomas and the fat controller" from 14 Dec onwards.

Next friday will be bringing him to Babies Prom 2011 ! Hope he appreciates better this year !

Last two weeks of Dec gonna be a busy one ! With two wedding dinners, two gatherings @ our place and several other meet up with dear's friends and mine as well !

Looking forward to the boys' christmas shoot this weekend !!

Standard Chartered Marathon 2011

2011-12-05T22:01:00.010+08:00

This year, Xav participated in a world class marathon together with daddy. Daddy went for his 42km while Xav went for his 750m fun dash under my accompany.

The lil' marathoners !

Ready to start !!

He's all ready !!!!

He ran and ran non stop !

Though I saw that he was tired but he didnt give up nor ask me to carry him ! I spurred him on telling him he was doing great ! On and off I encouraged him by holding his hand and ran together ! He was thrilled that I told him that he is going to reach the finishing line !

He gave the supporters who were cheering by the sides a "Five" when he ran past them !

My champs who completed their 42km and 750m dash !

See how he negotiated for more 100 plus after the run.

They are trying to tell you, if they can do it, so can you ! Am proud of them to have completed the run ! Looking forward to the next SCM in 2012 !!

Cold Storage Kids Run '11

2011-11-30T22:55:00.013+08:00

A superlong overdued post and finally I'm getting done with it after almost 5 months ! That's how busy I can be when I need to work and spend time with Xav after I knocked off ! But life pretty fulfilling when I get to meet up with friends for meals more often now that with a presence of a helper.

Back to the post, this is Xav's first race ever !

A 800m fun race (equivalent to 2 rounds of a stadium) and this sunshine, sporty little lad, totally loves it !

We were there pretty early and we got involved in "catching" mascots for photo takings, taking part in mini obstacles course.

This is the Mamil Boy !

Totally enjoying his race !

Reaching the finishing point !

Everyone is a CHAMPION ! And he got his 1st medal !

Met up with the Ongs after the run ! One with Owen !

And found the Chewys too !

Our next run will be on this sunday ! Standard Chartered Run 2011 ! Looking forward !!

My 1st Fluffy bread making class !

2011-11-19T23:06:00.011+08:00

Weeks back, attended a fluffy bread making class from Uptownsweets conducted by Joys.

Pretty interesting class, loaded with theories, hands on and lots of laughter !

I learnt to mix the dough by two techniques, either by machine or by hand. So those of you who don't have a bread machine, this class is good for you !

I learnt how to prepare the really heavenly tasty vanilla pastry cream too !

These are the sweet buns. They tasted real good with the blueberries Jam !

Oreo Bun ! Hot favourite when I brought it home ! Xav even gave me a thumbs up !

The round and pretty Egg mayo pizza !

I even brought my home made Hay Bee Hiam for the fillings =p

Sausage Buns

This is what we have learnt and produce from the class !

French Beans with Olive vegetables

2011-10-19T22:13:00.005+08:00

This is one of the most simple and fastest dish one can cook.

Some may not like the taste. I would say that it's based on each individual preference. I bought the Singlong Brand though and thankfully, Xav is not fussy and ate up the veg !

Baked Fillet with BBQ sauce

2011-10-19T21:43:00.005+08:00

Last friday, I attended my department bbq event. Was quite surprised with some of the food prepared by the male colleagues ! Some made satay, some marinated fillets and my boss cooked her highly sought after by all - curry chicken !

Got to know the recipe for the fillets, so I went back to try.

Ingredients used for marination are as follow :

1. orange juice
2. apple vinegar
3. lemon juice
4. a dash of salt

Instead of BBQ-ing it, I tried to bake it. Afterwich, I spread some bbq sauce on both sides of fillets and continue to bake till cooked. It could have taste better if I did not over baked it as it tends to be a little dry. But on the whole it tasted pretty good with the sauce and salad.

One of the easiest and time saving dish !

Da:ns Festival 2011 - Footwork Twinkle Toes

2011-10-18T13:18:00.007+08:00

It's time to groove ! Together with some friends, we registered for a hiphop dance workshop "Baby Pop" @ Esplanade. Xavier enjoyed himself to the max! It was a great opportunity to bond with him but unfortunately, at the beginning of the class, I actually injured my lower back nerves and have to lie down with an ice pack to relieve the intense pain. But I realised, for the first time, Xav did not mind that I am not with him and was happily grooving to the music with his other friends !

Here's the fun loving instructors !

I asked Xavier at the end of the workshop if he loved the class, he replied YES !

I have checked with them that currently they dont have a class for 3 year old kids. But should we are able to form a group to start a class, we can email them. So should if any of you are interested, can drop me a mail ya ! We can form our own private class !

To call it a day, we went to lunch at Thai Express. And the little boy got his once in a while treat ! Lollipop ! It's a lollipop day !

School Holiday Assignment - Lantern Making

2011-09-12T22:56:00.019+08:00

Xav has been tasked with a school holiday assignment on Lantern Making for the school celebration today.

Jo gave the idea of making a pomelo bear lantern (Click on "Pomelo Bear lantern" to play the video). I am super lazy and I want to make sure that Xav is involved too ! Hence, decided to just draw and cut out stars all around the pomelo.

This is how it looks like when it's done !

For the start, dear dear and Xav traced the stars using my cookie cutters onto the pomelo.

*Laughs* I intentionally gave Xav a pink pen so that he cant mess up the tracings. =p Eventually, he got angry hahahaha because he can't see what hehas traced !

Then, we cut away the top and the bottom base of the pomelo and remove the flesh.

Then, dear dear cut out the stars.

While Xav helped to dry the pomelo by blowing it with my hair dryer ! He's so happy to get involved !

Before the school holidays, we had a Raya- Lantern Party @ my place. We had potluck and each contributed food stuff related to the festive season ! We had nasi lemak party !

After the dinner, we went down to the pavilion for our lantern walk instead of the roof garden as it was drizzling.

Here's the wonderful 3 year old toddlers, sitting in a row to have the group pic taken !

The super happy XAv, wishing all a Happy Mid Autumn Festival !

Art Garden @ Singapore Art Museum

2011-08-21T14:54:00.007+08:00

Interactive Comtemporary Art for Children from 3 June 2011 to 30 August 2011. Bring the lil' ones there if you have not done so ! There is one huge colossal bunny, Walter, extending you its warmest welcome right at the entrance of the musuem.

We started visiting the Fruit Market first and created our paper banana ! You can keep it as a souvenir or exchange it for a real fruit.

Superhigh - Play with colours and shapes in this toddler's playroom installation, inspired by the magical, mystical qualities of the rainbow that reflec hope and happiness.

Mummy Dearest - In a fantasy candy-coloured world of giant dolls, complete with a wardrobe of clothes, shoes and an enormous three tiered cake. The children can help dress up the dolls and decorate a cake !

Go ! - Climb onto this giant installation and form a huge picture using colour discs after you have planned it out.

To be continued .......

An Ocean Tale - The Rainbow Fish

2011-08-21T10:37:00.009+08:00

A simple story but full of fun and a morale behind it ! An Ocean tale - The Rainbow Fish !

Minus the 1/3 of screaming and screeching during the play and the not so good sound system, I think this play delivered the moral in the play well ! It's about how the rainbow fish shared its scales eventually and got itself many friends !

This has message has been successfully been conveyed to Xavier as each time, he doesn't want to share, I will ask him if he wants many friends like the rainbow fish or he would like to be alone with no friends. He will tell me "yes, I want friends like the rainbow fish. The rainbow fish shares ... " and on National Day itself, he willingly though still having a little reluctance, shared his favourite green car wih Edna !

How proud am I to see that my lil' friend here is learning how to share despite how much he likes the car !

Before this play, I brought him to watch "Rocky, the baby Panda"

and I was thinking if Esplanade Playtime is getting too childish for him as I find the plays pretty simple and silly at times. Probably next year, he shall graduate from Playtime and more musical theatres shall he be expose to !

Here's the lost frog who has also watched "Todd, the big green frog"

One of the very nice musical plays was "Under the Baobab Tree"

One of the plays that Xav got emotional and cried when the crocodile caught the baby ostrich ! He was shouting and crying "No ! No ! Dont catch the baby ostrich, don't bite the baby ostrich ! " He sort of empathised the characters.

The next Playtime coming up is "What a noisy Zoo " and we have purchased tickets for "Mickey's Music Festival" !

Pinnochio Holiday Workshop

2011-08-17T22:18:00.017+08:00

During the June holidays, Xav went for his first drop off workshop at Act 3 !
Thought that the theme was pretty fun as they could learn to act out partial of the story lines of Pinnochio. It's really fun to go for classes with a group of friends !

Taken during one of the teabreaks.

The future stars rehearsing on the stage of their own !

Day 5: Finale

And they acted to be sleeping and this was the segment that Xav looks so real ! He was typically lying motionless and relax, no movement at all ! The director of the school, Ms Ruby, actually spotted him at this segment and told me that he did well here !

The kids played several roles. From a child, they became donkeys ! And this was when the donkeys were made to practise walking on the balacing rope.

They even transformed into sharkies !

Each student were presented a certificate of completion of the workshop @ the end of the performance. Good job kids and teachers ! They have staged up a fabulous performance !
One pic taken with Teacher Priya after the performance ! She's a really nice teacher !

And one with the staff of the school who talked to Xav every time he sees him ! haaaha ! Nice chap !

Looking forward to new workshops in december to fill the holidays !

My little astronomer

2011-07-22T21:02:00.009+08:00

Ask Xav about planets ! Yes ! He will name you the 8 planets or 9 if Pluto is included, in their sequence !

Just realise that he is super interested in planets after I borrowed a book from NLB on " What is the moon " and one of the science book I bought for him, "What is in the sky"

He learnt all the planets including basic facts on their characteristic of each individual planet. Or make him guess which planet is which by giving some descriptions and he will tell you which is which !

The liking in planets spurred him on ! He hardly likes to colour but this time round, not only he coloured them and he even attempted to draw the solar system !

First, I drew a sun for him then he told me he wanted to draw the orbits first !

Minus the sun, he drew the entire solar system himself and he is so proud of his work !

I even asked him hwo to draw the craters in Mercury planet. He replied "Dots dots can be the craters ! "

and certainly I didn't forget to make some kits to reinforce his learning ! Space words as well as Spelling cards

Planets sequencing cards

and his new solar system puzzle ! Its a 60 pieces giant floor puzzle ! Yes, he loves it to bits !

Natural Literacy Activities

2011-07-22T20:17:00.003+08:00

Just to share these pointers I got from Mindchamps - Joey Parents workshop. I must say what makes Xav almost an independant reader by the age of 3 and being able to read up to Level 12 of the graded books from Mindchamps reading assessment, is from the activities I did with him. Infact right now, he can actually read out some unfamiliar words which I did not show him before. Not sure if he uses sight word reading or his phonics. But surely am sure he combined both method.

As per the handout given to us :

Here are some natural literacy activities that create the best readers and writers :

1. Read to your children everyday - This exposes them to multiple language structures, a wide vocabulary and the sheer joy of language.

As far as I can, I try to read to Xav twice a day, before his nap and at bedtime.

2. Engage in conversation with your child frequently - This expands their spoken vocabulary. Research shows that strong verbal skills are linked to strong reading skills.

I'm still trying to improve on this though. Right now I try to get Xav relate what did he do in school to me daily.

3. Point out written language in your environment - For example, point out writing on things such as street and traffic signs, packaging and posters. This connects the written word with useful and important information.

What Xav normally did was, he always get me to read out to him the signs on the train cabins. No durians, no smoking etc. On the lift, he loves to read the numbers and level indicators. Even on the lrt platform, he will ask me what's reflected on the screen and I will guide him into reading " There is no train service on this platform ... etc "

4. Arrange play dates with friends - This encourages interaction and will expand your child's vocabulary through negotiation, discussion and role play.

erm .. This only happens during school holidays perhaps or PH when the kids meet up for playdates.

5. Play letter, sound or word games - Games such as scrabble, Memory or Snap increase exposure to letters, sounds and common words in a fun and playful way.

6. Ensure your child observes you reading - when you read infront of your children you are being a strong role model., communicating that you value reading.

7. Make your home a "literacy rich environment" - Ensure plenty of reading materials available at home such as a bookshelf of age appropriate books, in addition to other forms of reading materials such as magazines, newspapers and brochures.

8. Engage in activities with your child that involve reading - For example, read and make recipes together and create shopping lists.

I will get Xavier to try and read out the recipe I wrote on the easel.

9. Have a set of magnetic letters on your fridge - This encourages your child to spontaneously manipulate letters and begin forming words.

10. Take your child to the library - Make trips to the library a regular exciting outing with your child.

Parents who engage in natural literacy acivities find that their children spontaneously recognise letters, sounds and words, and sometimes report that their child seemed to start reading independently !

So if you have yet to start reading to your children. Start now !

Cheesy Frittata Cups

2011-07-10T21:27:00.006+08:00

I would recommend this easy and fuss free savoury treat for the afternoon teabreak !
Came across this from one of the magazines and hence, I decided to give a try !

Ingredients as follows:
6 eggs
1 cup of mixed vegetables
1/2 cup of grated cheese (I used cheddar)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Just mixed the above together and fill the cups to 2/3 full.
Heat up the oven at 170 deg and bake for 20 mins.

The mixture in the cups should be firm and not wobbly when ready !

The Lion King Musical !

2011-07-09T22:50:00.007+08:00

We brought Xavier for his first ever musical - The Lion King @ MBS Sands Theatre, as well as to celebrate dear's birthday.

The Lion King musical won over 70 major international theatre awards, explodes with glorious clours, stunning effects and enchanting music including Elton John and Tim Rice's Academy Award-winning "Can you feel the love tonight".

Both Xav and Dana were fantastic as they sat through the whole show. The only time Xav got emotional and cried was when the King Muffasa passed away.

All of us including dear, enjoyed the musical thoroughly ! A musical worth watching ! Get your tickets if you have yet to !

Xav @ 39 months !

2011-07-04T19:47:00.005+08:00

This young lad here started his music lessons with Seimpi M.S in early April this year and he has been making good progress.

Thankful to porpor for getting him the keyboard, such that he could practise on it every morning.

He is able to play his first piece of melody without looking at the scores and my help. His encore piece was "The Muffin Man". Keep up the good job Xav ! We're definately proud of you !

and of cos not forgetting to thank the Sims for helping us around to get the keyboard and Yan for helping to deliver the keyboard to us. Really blessed and thankful to have this group of helpful friends around. =)

Roasted Pandan Chicken

2011-06-23T23:44:00.007+08:00

My first attempt in roasting a bird ! Roasted Pandan Chicken and it's superlicious yummy! The whole bird is all wiped out !

Just clean the bird and rubbed with one tablespoon of salt. Stuff as many pandan bundles into the bird as you can and seal the cavity with a toothpick.

Preheat the oven to 240 deg and roast the bird for an hour and the result was a yummy roasted chicken with crispy, golden skin.

Singkids Playsystem !

2011-06-02T13:50:00.018+08:00

Recommended to me by a friend, there's a new playground for kids @ T3 ! It's slightly costly but I crazy love it too not to mention Xavier !

Peak period (School holidays), it's @ $18 per hour. Non peak (Mon -Thurs) is @ $14 unlimited worth of fun while fri-sun is $18 for 2 hours !

It will be good if I can bring Xav there on a non holiday season.

The wheel which could turn him upside down !

The really gentle see-saw with the bears.

No worries about letting Xav climb all the way up ! The structure is all padded !

We loved the Dancing balloons most ! The enclosed area where you can catch, toss and hug the giant latex ballons !

There is another area where there are smaller balloons, meant for younger kids.

Should I name this trampoline ? Xav would love to have this as his bed I guess hahaha .. see how comfortable he is !
The mini slide
The roller racer !

Using the arms to facilitate the moving of the cart by swaying left and right.

The Mini jumping castle !
The merry-go-round
Another one of Xav's favourite !

There is another outlet @ Vivocity ! Be sure to bring your kiddos there for a try ! Guarantee loads of fun !

Opening hours: 11 am to 11 pm.

Parrrrty Month !!!

2011-05-27T23:37:00.005+08:00

An overdue post from April.

It's party month of March and April ! Party month normally kick off from mid march all the way to end of April ! It's like a marathon ! Attending almost a party a week ! Cool heh !

For the year 2011, bashes for the little party goers as follows:
The list starts here :
1. Issac's party @ Polliwogs

2. Summer's Build-a-Bear ( On MC )
3. Dana's Party @ Once upon a milkshake (On MC )
4. Elliot's Party @ Chewys' Residence (Mummy attended)

5. Dominic's @ SOL Cafe (Mummy attended)

6. XiangXiang's " Blast off " @ Compassvale Link

7. Julian's Toy Story Theme Bash @ Beary Fun Gym

With the most amazing cake oozing with creativity to end the bash for April. The cake actually can emit smoke from it's engine ! And not forgetting indulging in the company of great friends !

8. Rayden's Party @ Timezone Arcade

Though hectic to attend every week but it was fun to catch up during the parties and have fun !

Xav @ 38 months

2011-05-17T15:43:00.010+08:00

My lil' preschooler is growing up fast and gaining more knowledge from his school and enrichment classes.

He amazes me with his really superb memory ! He self learnt on spelling the tens; 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 ... 90 ! He is still learning 100 though.

He interlinked twenty and one and spelt twenty-one ... twenty-nine and did it for other tens.

He had also self learnt his times tables from Tables 2 to Tables 12 through the catchy songs. Please don't say that I am stressing him because I have never made him sit down and listen to the songs or read the tables. He played the disc himself daily and sings to the catchy songs happily!

So right now, am making more kits to reinforce on his learning. Aren't they cute ?? We love them !

Btw, this kits are open for orders should you be interested =) I have a few orders on hold so please be patient and bear with me.

He can't understand the concepts for sure at his age. But I would feel that it's a good memory training for him.

After he attended school, he is able to converse much better than before ! More expressive and is able to comprehend simple questions that we have for him.

As his school is much pretty focusing on Mandarin, I think I wouldn't have any worries on his mandarin. He is able to converse in simple mandarin and he is at the same time learning "San Zi Jing", "Di Zi Gui" as well as "Qian Zi Wen" as per his request. He is totally in love with these and has been reciting them to me whenever he can and wherever he goes !

To balance up, I signed him up for MindChamps - Joey Reading Programme.

Not that he can't read, inface I brought him for the reading assessment and the result was he was tested and could read up to level 12 of the graded books used by Mindchamps, which at this instance, kids of age 3 normally can only read up to level 4.

However, he was pretty bad in the listening and comprehension part. He couldn't really understand the questions posed to him. In terms of writing, he couldn't write too.

At this stage, he only knew how to write "A, H, L, I, T, O and X" and number 1, 4, 7 and 10. But he actually attempted to write his name during the assessment as he knows how to spell his name !

Hopefully, through this programme, it can help to improve on his listening and comprehension skills, as they use stories and related activities to relate to the kids. It's a 2 hour drop off and hereby, I got my precious 2 hours of "ME" time !

Out of academic, we signed him up at Seimpi School of Music - MIM IN ME Programme. Curriculum is planned to enhance whole brain training, encouraging early note reading, rhythmic training, aural training, concentration training as well as memory training - photographic and audio, recognition of keys and perfect/ relative pitch training. They also learn to play the kepboard !

After a month, he knows the four note values and is able to read some notes. He could play using C, D, E notes too on the keyboard at the same time singing along.

and here I am with my own flashcards for music ! And I am loving it as I learn together with him right from scratch !

Thank you, my son for giving me a chance to learn something which I yearned to learn since young. =) Isn't it a blessing ?

Butter, Sesame Bread Toast with Seaweed

2011-05-10T19:57:00.004+08:00

Recently, Xav had a bad habit ...He has preference for texture of food ! Cannot be too chewy nor too soft ... I have been having problem feeding him with bread and cheese esp !

Hence, decided to make this toast for him which I vaguely came across while browsing through a recipe book.

Cut of the bread crust, spread some butter and cheese powder. I replaced the cheese powder with slice cheese as I do not have it at home. Sprinkle some sesame seed and top with some shredded seaweed.

I don't have a microwave at home too. Hence, I popped it into the oven and "toast" the bread. It was kind of crispy and flavourful ! He ate it up without giving me any problems ! Do Try it !

Easy broccoli dishes !

2011-04-21T14:53:00.005+08:00

One of the easiest dish that you can try "Stir fried broccoli with pacific clams. I stirred fried the broccoli with some minced garlic and add in the pacific clams at the end with some stocks left in can. No seasonin is needed as the stock is slighly saltish. Do dilute with little water to make it less salty.

The second one I did was stir fry mix veg, using broccoli, corns etc. Just add whatever veg you would like to have ! This dish, I used the vegetarian "Mien Jin". Same as the one above, no seasoning is needed as its flavourful enough after adding in the whole can.

The Ginger bread Man !!!

2011-04-11T20:56:00.005+08:00

A delightfully sweet musical and Xav enjoyed it for the first time inside a theatre !

As usual, he was reluctant to go into the theatre (Which I think he is scared of the dim lightings or the dark when the lights are dim off) But after ths play he is no longer afraid of entering the theatre when brought him for Playtime @ Esplanade watching Todd, the big green frog !

The Ginger bread Man was directed by Christina Sergeant, written by Brian Seward and Music by Bang Wenfu. It's catchy tune caught Xav's attention and he enjoyed it tremendously ! Before the play started, the nice beautiful props on the stage caught his attention and he requested for a pic of him to be taken with the huge milk carton !

He sat through the whole play and was really enjoying chasing the gingerbread man round the theatre with his eyes !

By the end of it, he even stood up and applauded !!!

We'r indeed looking much forward to attend more of such plays in the future !

Next play would be Todd, the big green frog. What a shame that we didn't get to buy the tickets for the Ugly Duckling ...

An Official Preschooler !

2011-04-11T10:29:00.011+08:00

Just 2 days before Xav turns 3, he started school in the new term ! He's been promoted from toddler to an official preschooler ! He has been bugging me before that, telling me at least thrice a day "I like to go to school" ! Ultimately, my plan to send him to school when he's 4, was brought forward !

This is Day 1 : He was sure excited about going to school !

First activity on every Monday morning is Bible story. He didn't start looking for me until halfway through. Quite a goodstart for Day 1 !

Afterwich was playground time ! Love the way how the kids were disciplined during playground time. They need to stand in a straight line, apply the insect repellant on their hands and legs and can only stepped into the playground after green light is given by the teacher.

Rest time after playground !

Was so glad that he was able to play along side with his classmates. Here'e him with Davien, his regular playmate who is now his classmate too !

During music and movement

I was like having daily morning blues during Week one ! Being too attached to me, he was a bit difficult for the first week ! Take his own sweet time to eat his breakfast, don't want to wake up but caught him lazing in bed ! Ran off at the sight of me going to him with his uniform and refusing to change into it !

Super big resistance when we mentioned school, teachers and friends ! All the answers we got from him was "Don't want, Don't like and Don't want to go to school " hahhaa .. all the devastating answers from him ! But he only cried when I handed him over to the teacher other than that, the teachers feedback that he was alright after they distracted him !

And he relly think of ways and means to have an excuse for me to be with him. He had slightly wet nose for the first week. I told him Xav, if you need tissue, go get it from your bag. His reply was "Go get from mummy, mummy hold the bag !" Smart of him heh ! But eventually, I see a smiling and happy boy at the end of the day ! Thank you to the teachers and staff of YCK Chapel ! I knew Xav will be in good hands with them !

Day 2 - Cried at the first sight of daddy !
Day 3 - Was crowning his birthday crwon ! Silly me, I thought that I would like him to get adjusted to school without my presence faster. I actually left him and the cake with the teacher and I went home ! Forgetting to ask if I can stay behind and take some pics for him celebrating his birthday in school for the first time !

Day 4 - With more smiles from him after school !

Day 8 - Xavier was saying to me "Bye bye mummy ! See you later " ! when we reached the entrance to his classroom !

Day 10 - Excursion trip to the zoo !

Day 13 - He requested to visit his "friend" on the 19th floor before going to school and here he is !

Day 14 - A new breakthrough ! I was lazing in bed when he came to me and tell me "I like to go to school " Immediately, I jumped up and told me "okay ! Lets get changed and GO !! " Mummy was super happy here ahhaha !

Day 15 - Am a lil' flower ! Horsing around when I tried to change him into his uniform !

Am so happy now that he is adjusting well to the school. To the extend that sometimes when I went to fetch him, he is reluctant to go off with me ! Infact, he took a much shorter time than I expect to adapt to it. I actually set to give him a month to "cry" hahaha .. Am proud of you, Xav!

One advice from the principal was "Don't let the child feel your anxiety and learn to let go. You must trust the school and the teacher and they will be fine after a while" and yes indeed !

Xavier's TERRIFIC 3 Birthday !

2011-03-30T21:02:00.011+08:00

Here's a new milestone for Xav ! Goodbye to the Terrible 2 stage as he steps into his TERRIFIC 3 ! Happy Birthday, Xav !! Have plannned a Mickey Mouse Theme Party for him this year as he was kind of into Mickey's craze. Guess what ! He was really excited and looking forward to his party ! Almost everyday he has been bugging me for his Mickey Mouse Cake and telling me that his party is on Saturday !

Due to space constraint @ home, I have scaled down the list for the invited guests. I mainly invited his closer friends, no daddy and mummy's friends. Highlight of this yr's home party was the huge Mickey and Minnie Airwalkers ! We were seriously excited over it ! Thanks Jo for helping to collect the mice and the cake.

Adding a touch of red and black to the party theme.

On top of that, I ordered Mickey Mouse Design Polariod films from Christopher to give away as a keepsake for the little guests !

Thank you Rebecca for being the Polariod photographer and Christopher for sending the films all the way down for us ! For me, I made some embossed cards to hold the pictures before giving them to the guests.

As for party packs, I wanted more fun this year since most of the todds have started school. I packed Crayola Pip Squeakers, cryaons, Mini Stamper, Play dough, stationery and some fun stickers, with a Mickey Headband, one scratch fun sheet and two packs of snacks ! I always believe that less junk food is better, most of the time, I hardly allow Xav to snack ! So if I dont give Junk to my boy, I wont give it to other kids too !

The party began !! Xav seriously loved the airwalkers as much as the todds ! He was playing with them for days after his party ! His new found dancing partners !

All the kids were instantly attracted to the cake ! It's really a sight to see them crowd around it and singing the birthday song together !

We were happy to hear that the kids love the party packs and had enjoyed themselves that evening ! We would like to thank all of you who have graced this special moment with your presence, blessings and gifts !

The first change before Xav turns 3 was, he is now officially a preschooler ! He has started school 2 days before his birthday !

On the eve of Xav's birthday, dear bought him a mini Percy Cake to celebrate at home for he has got to work on the next day.

We wish our precious here again a Happy 3rd Birthday and be always bless with good health !!

Lotus Seed Soup with Solomonseal Rhizome

2011-03-10T23:19:00.005+08:00

Been quite sometime I boiled soup for dinner if you have noticed, I hardly post up recipes nowadays. Been so difficult to cook only for two person or should I say one and a half ? The dadddy is always on duty else it will be coming home late !

Anyway, this recipe is from my recipe book.

Ingredients:
Solomonseal Rhizome, 8g
lily bulb, 3 slices
lotus seeds, 4
red dates, 2
chicken, 2 pieces (I used 2 drumsticks)
water, 100ml (adjust yourself if you want more)

Add salt to taste.

Function of this soup: it strengthens the spleen and heart; treats insomnia and it's good against cardiac palpitation. Functions for lily bulb and solomonseal Rhizome can be found here.

Xav @ 35 months

2011-03-01T20:46:00.009+08:00

Less than a month to go into his Terrific 3s !

Yes !! He's turning 3 soon and soon formal schooling will come by although most of his friends have started attending schools while he is still stuck with me at home ! Best part was, there isn't any enrichment classes for him at the moment ! Meaning, he's idling ?! hahaha .. Well, this is where, homeschooling comes in and plays a part.

This boy can be full of ideas at times ! Just yesterday, he woke from his nap, came into my room, saw me napping and he goes "Hello, hello , ni2 hao3 " ...

I replied him and continued to sleep. Guess what he did to make me wake ? He went to pull up the blind and brighten up the room !!! So I got no choice but to wake right ! Lil' rascal !!!

Speech wise, Xav is still blabbering !!! Though he can hold simple conversations with me.

These are the few scenarios :

Scenario 1 (Rainy weather)

Xav : mummy, I want to go out ...
Me : but it's raining Xav ...
Xav : I can wear rainboots and raincoat !
Me : but it's really too heavy to go out ... After it stopped ok ?
Xav : ...... (defeated) hahahaha

Scenario 2 (Shower time) :

Xav : bathe and go out ...
Me : but mummy needs to buy vegetables and cook lunch. Where would you like to go ?
Xav : Go NTUC !

Good one Xav ! At least you know where to buy vegetables !

He started to ask questions like:
- what is this ? (in mandarin too)
- whose picture is that ?
- where is daddy ?
- are you sure ?

Am waiting for him to ask me "why" hahhahhaha ....

And he knows where the swimming pool and the fish pond is ! He will tell me "mummy, go Farmway (The nearest lrt station). He loves water for sure ! But normally I will only go swimming when the daddy is around, else I'll bring him to feed fishes when am alone.

Just recently, we brought him to NEX where there is this water park.

Other than that, he is doing good in learning mandarin @ home.

He's currently reciting "San1 Zi4 Jing1" with me and he loves it ! Every now and then, he will just recite to me whenever he feels like it. As for me, I'm learning too together with him. I need to remember and know what they mean before I can recite without the book with him and explain the meaning of each phrase when he is able to apprehend.

I'm trying to teach him the basic strokes though.

As for English, he started to get interested in learning to spell words ! He kept asking me "how do you spell ... "

and apart from being able to spell his name "XAVIER CHUA", he learnt his first 3 spellings ! He could spell ZERO, ONE & TWO !

This lil' boy here I would say he is ehem ... over friendly ... ? It's good to be sociable but I feel that it's kind of dangerous to be so friendly to strangers !

Xav most of the time will greet guests who came to our house "ni2 hao4". He does this too sometimes when I bring him down to the void deck, he will greet people who walked by and really amused them !

I brought him to the park one afternoon and he saw this group of students sitting on the ground and he went to join them happily ! He made the jie-jies so happy with his cheerful personality !

And guess what ... when they started to leave, Xav held onto their hands and refused them to leave and started crying ! Wanting them to play with him ! Tell me what to do with this boy ! And he can tell me "bye bye mummy" and hold onto their hands !

I hope he could be like this when the term starts for his school on the 21st March ! Wish that there won't be any separation anxiety and happily embark on his new learning journey !

B for B.E.A.R

2011-03-01T19:20:00.004+08:00

B for B.E.A.R ! Printed out this bear like almost a year ago ! Finally, it's out from my folder !

From this craft, he learnt different sizes of the circles as well as some shapes (Circle, oval, heart and crescent ) that the bear was made up of !

and one last thing he learnt for sure ! He told me that the heart is the flag of USA ! Well done, Xav !

Button Me Up !!

2011-02-28T08:39:00.005+08:00

Check out these cute lil' button me up !

Specially handmade for Xavier some time back to let him play matching and exercise his eye hand coordination.

I didn't really want to open up for orders as they were pretty time consuming to cut out !

Until, yesterday I received a requested order. Time to get my hands busy ! It's officially opened up for orders. Drop me an email ya or a msg in my cbox.

For those who got the learning kits, hope your lil' ones had benefited and enjoyed it !

Paper Magic

2011-02-28T08:31:00.004+08:00

Try this with a white crayon !

Use a white crayon and draw the pictures you wanted on a black piece of drawing paper.

Afterwich, paint over the picutures and you'll see the pictures "magically" appear ! Kids will love this !

Xav had a fun time discovering the pictures !

Bambino LUK Early Learning Series

2011-02-28T08:25:00.005+08:00

My latest investment for Xav's home learning. A complete set of Bambino LÜK early learning series which reinforces early childhood developmental skills:
- Visual perception
- concentration
- critical thinking
- beginning math
- fine motor skills
- eye hand coordination
- self esteem
- everyday knowledge

It's a total of 15 books in a set with a controller.

Saw this at United Square in one of the shops that sells Brain Training kits and it costs a dear $300 plus for a set. Hence, found this on Amazaon and it was much cheaper than it is sold here.

Hope I will be discipline enough to spend some time everyday to go through the learning journey with him.

Happy Valentines' 2011 !

2011-02-24T09:58:00.004+08:00

A little sweet surprise this year as I was expecting deardear not to "celebrate".
The conversation goes :

dear: V day coming soon ...
me: yah I know but you don't celebrate one what ...
dear: yah lor, I don't celebrate V day one ...

On 14.02.2011 evening, after our dinner, I came out from shower and went back to the tv screen. Suddenly, deardear came out from the kitchen with a mini heart shaped chocolate ice-cream cake from Swensens !

I was like "wow ... how come got cake ? "

dear: Today is Valentines' Day and I expect you'll be out but who knows you're at home !
me : of cos at home lah, cos you told me you don't celebrate ! (Heart was filled with sweetness of course) and the two of us gobble down the cake together despite my nasty, bad cough !

Thank you dear for the lil' sweet treat surprise =)

Happy Bunny Year !!

2011-02-21T11:03:00.011+08:00

Here's wishing all of you a Happy, Prosperous Bunny Year !

This year seems busier than the last ! With much more dinner gathering catching up with ex colleagues and schoolmates !

Plus I have been coughing my lungs out for the past 3 weeks ! Nasty bug ! and had to take antibiotics to curb it. This has stopped me from cooking and washing as it was pretty tiring. And with all the dinners and gatherings gave me another reason not to cook.

Coming back to CNY 2011, we had our family pic taken before we went out for house visiting !

Celebrating my father-in-law's 67th Birthday

and joined in the gathering with my poly cca mates @ Ryan's place after that.

With my poly classmates from SMA @ Canto Wok

Dinner @ Canto Wok with my kakis from Orchard NPC. Deardear was asking me if I want to become Canto Wok's member hahahaha but seriously their food is really nice !

With deardear sec school budds @ our place

The second Lou Hei for April 2008 mummies @ Sakae - Holland V

Had this funfair opposite Compasspoint. Brought lil' Xav over for some rides.

Made me felt that my baby has grown ! He is all ready to take the rides by himself and he was sure enjoying them !

In a flash, 15 days of CNY were over ! Back to reality now and gonna start sourcning for a class for Xavier as I guessed he is gettign bored at home ! He keeps telling me that he wants to go to school !

Looks like I better start doing my work !

KL & Penang Trip (14th - 21st Jan 2011)

2011-01-25T22:43:00.053+08:00

First trip of 2011 was a 5D4N stay in KL with the main purpose of attending one of my cousins' (Hong Mun) wedding. Followed by a getaway to Penang for a 4D3N stay.

It has been 6 years since I last came into KL and the little girl who was just 4 years old when I last saw her is already in her Pri. 3 now ! Xav met the little friends for the first time and he hit off with them immediately !

From the left (Jun Yong, Jia Ying and Jia Xin). The girls are pretty good with Xavier, each time, they gave in to him and really taking good care of him, holding his hands while shopping in mall. And this is the first time, Xav allowed himself to be hold on to for so long !

The jiejie's entertained him with peek-a-boo while we were still at our meals.
We stayed at Melia Hotel this time round with Times Square just directly opposite us.

As usual, we allowed Xav to have bathtub fun @ each shower and he loved it !

Dinner was at Klang and two rabbits were spotted in a cage.

The kiddos loved them !

On our way back to the hotel, we visited I-city. A place where all the tress were lit up with lights ! Admission fee is required. I forgot if it's by per head or per car though.

Next morning, had a surprise call to my hotel room ! Because I didnt switch on my mobile !! hahaha... Got a shock when my mum told me that my uncle and her were waiting at the hotel lobby and they were denied access by the staff as they were not the guests staying there ! Thumbs up for their security heh !

Uncle drove us to this coffee shop @ Selangor for lunch. Recommended by him as he told us that this is one of the nice yong tua hu with thick fish meat fillings !

One of my cousins whom I didn't see for years !

Dinner was on the following evening @ Heng Loy Deng, a less than 10 mins walk from our hotel. Congrats to Hong Mun & Ann ! Finally, tied their knot and here we wish them eternal bliss !

A fast catch up with the Wongs

He's one of the cousins am closer with. Had always stayed over at his place and played together whenever we went into KL during our childhood days.

One of my aunts
An uncle whom I have really not seen for years !

With Jo's god papa and god mama

Next day, was really a F&E day for us. We wondered on our own. While waiting for deardear to be out from the bathroom, Xav posed with his newly bought devil's headband. Just nice to match the caption on his shirt ! "I'm a Handsome Devil" wahahhaa

We shopped around the vicinity of Sungei Wang Plaza, Times square and went to Pavilion as well. One of the latest mall there.

Drumming for PEACE

Surprisingly, we didn't really do much shopping in KL. Seriously, nothing much to buy and things were not relatively cheaper than in Singapore. We spent mainly on eating and going for services instead. Deardear went for their massage services which was of course about $20 cheaper than comparing to Singapore. For me, I gave my hair a new shade ! Seriously worth it @ RM 155, using Loreal products. It's like less than $80 SGD !

Can't really go out much together with deardear this time round as Xav would wake to "look" for us. He has been in a rather cranky mood for this trip. Not sure if it's his molars are erupting. He kept complaining of pain on his left cheek which was a bit swollen even before we left for the trip.
Only managed to get out for a fast lok-lok along Jalan Alor @ the usual truck which we normally patronize whenever we are in KL. An unforgettable one for this time, half way dipping my sticks into the hot pot, I heard an explosion and saw through the reflection that the truck was on fire !

Soon got to know that the gas actually exploded and caught fire. Luckily, it was nothing major. But we were still cautious about standing too near the truck to consume our sticks. A fast one and off we went, back to our hotel.

After a 4 days spent in KL, we departed for Penang next.

We booked Traders Hotel, which was near to the heart of George Town.

George Town went through tremendous transformations over the last two centuries, from a swampy frontier, to a bustling trading post, to the present city of living history, filled with nuances in every corner.

Day 2 in Penang, we booked a taxi @ RM 40 per hour. Our first stop was to Kek Lok Si Temple, the largest buddhist temple complex in SEA.

After walking through an arcade of souvenir stalls, we reached Ban Bo Thar or the Ten Thousands Buddhas Pagoda.

This seven storey pagoda has the influenece of Chinese, Burma and Thai Architecture. The striking white statue of Kuan Yin, Goddness of Mercy stands nearby.

Made some donations to contribute to the construction of the temple by purchasing the tiles for the roof.

Spotted a ribbon wishing tree.

From the base of the statue, you can have an overview of Penang.

But we went the reverse, the driver drove all the way up to the statue of where the Goddness of Mercy Statue as I was not well then. From there, we slowly made our way down by car to Kek Lok Si and the Pagoda.

From the seventh storey of the pagoda, we get to see Penang Hill infront of us.

Our second destination was Pinang Peranakan Mansion.

The Peranakans, also known as Babas and Nyonyas, are a community of acculturated Chinese unique to this part of the world. They are also known as the straits chinese, having settled along the British Straits Settlements of Penang Malacca and Singapore. The Peranakans adopted the local Malay ways and the British Colonial Lifestyle. These influenced its rich culture, customs, cuisine, Language and lifestyle that are still evident in Penang today.

The Pinang Peranakan Mansion, typical of the home of an affluent Baba a century ago is re-created to allow visitors a glimpse of the opulent lifestyle, customs and traditions in those days.

The mansion was built at the end of the 19th century by local history's famous personality, the Kapitan Cina Chung Keng Kwee.

The central courtyard with an open airwell leads to the dining hall with a "Tok Panjang" hosting festive occasions.

There are some galleries decorated with beautiful glass panels.

In one of the rooms, a table set up for a game of Cheki

The Chung Ancestral Temple adjoins the Pinang Peranakan Mansion through a hidden passage between the two buildings.

The Ancestral temple is ornately decorated with intricate Chinese wood cravings embellished with gold leaf.

On the walls above, ceramic figurines in tableaux casting dramatic scenes from Chinese legends peer down at the visitor.

The second floor houses galleries of bridal chambers of three different eras from 1900s - 1950s.

A dazzling display of exquisite glass epergnes is also being showcased.

We visited Penang Butterfly farm, located at Teluk Bahang. It's the world's first live tropical butterfly sanctuary featuring a Nature Farm and a Museum of Asia Artefacts. Four thousand live butterflies live in their natural habitat in the Nature Park. The Museum of Asian Artefacts consists of an Insect Museum, an Art Gallery as well as a Gallery of Asian Artefacts.

Thrilled by the thousands of butterflies fluttering around him !

The staff even showed us a pair of butterflies mating. After which, both butterflies flew up to the top and continue with their mission.

Something which I find it interesting and never seen before - Gray's Malayan stick ! It's an insect which looks like some twigs or mini branches ! And the lucky daddy got a butterfly landed on his collar. May good luck be with him always !

If you can tell me what's so special about this plant below before you read on. This is known as the Moving Leaf. the largest leaf insect walking on planet earth ! Spot that piece of leave on the middle left, with some "spots" on it. It's an insect ! The females of this insect looks strikingly similar to a leaf while the males are thinner.

Xav seriously enjoyed himself @ this farm !

If you see the below pic of Xavier trying to hold the butterfly. He actually caught the butterfly later on by the wings and was so thrilled by it ! We were so afraid that he might squashed the lil' life !

After the butterfly farm, we visited a Tropical Fruit Farm located within the same vicinity as well and got to have a fruit buffet after the visit.

After that location, we went back to our hotel and called it a day. By evening, we wondered out to look for food again! We went to Macalister Road and indulged in their hawker food after feeding Xavier.

Last day in Penang, we went to Gurney Drive. Shopped at Gurney Plaza befoer we headed to Gurney Drive Hawker where you can find mouth watering food ! Try these if you ever get to Penang !

Hokkien Mee : It has a strong, spicy and flavourful prawn taste. It is normally served with slices of hard boiled eggs, fried shrimp, slices of lean pork and sprinkled with crispy fried shallots. Costs about RM 3 to RM 3.50. It's the most popular hawker food locally.

I am totally in love with their prawn mee soup ! The soup base is really sweet and tasty !

Asam Laksa: A must try ! This is Penang's signature dish ! It is noddles in fish broth, garnished with alot of different vegetables. It's soup base is spicy hot and sour (because of the large quantity of tamarind used) . Broth is made from mackeral fish, which is first poached, deboned and added to the soup together with lemongrass, chillies and tamarind to boil.

Noodles used are thicker rice vermicelli, placed at the base of the soup, after which chinese lettuces, chopped pineapples, finely shredded cucumbers and onions and most importantly fresh mint are added. Piping hot soup is poured over, followed by finely chopped ginger buds.

Some stalls pour out the soup and rescooped the soup into the bowl again to make sure that the noodles are piping hot. Before serving, a thick, sweet and salty shrimp paste is swirled on top of the dish. (To further enhance the taste of the dish) Each is around RM 2 to RM 2.50

I had my cravings satisifed when I finally got to eat the fried intestinal porridge, They added the "Sheng Chang" in as well !

Their rojak's nice too !! Somebody pleae help to get me the rojak paste if you are going to Penang ! I missed it !

Chee chiong Fun : This is really different from the ones we ate in HK dim sum restaurant or in any of the dim sum stores in Singapore. The sauce for the chee chiong fun is what that makes this dish special. The rice noodles in Penang are served together with a mixture of chilli sauce, shrimp paste, thick red, sweet sauce and sprinkled with roasted sesame seeds.

The shrimp paste is a smooth black paste made from prawn stock and salt and had a fishy flavour but it does not leave a lingering smell in your mouth. A plate costs about RM 2 to RM 2.50.

To conclude about the trip, Penang is a nice place for their delicacies but if you want to shop, I wouldn't recommend it.

Am hoping to go Bangkok for the next trip ! To shop, shop and shop !!

Meet Pooh and Friends Session

2011-01-25T18:41:00.006+08:00

Another "crazy" activity in the month of Dec ! We went to NEX, spent a $150 at NTUC just to be eligible to get that adorable Pooh Bear Umbrella ! hahaha.. so much for the Pooh Bear Fan heh !Thanks daddy for joining in the craze !

We too went to queue up for the Meet Pooh & Friends photograph session !

How thrilled was Xav as he was shouting out for Pooh bear and Tigger in delight when it was our turn to go up on stage for the picture taking.

It seems like suddenly he wasn't afraid of mascots ! Strange isn't it !

Christmas 2010 !!

2011-01-25T15:53:00.006+08:00

Another overdue post. Christmas 2010, we had a little party @ Sherin's place.

Spot the three reindeers !

Daddies had a nice catch up too !

The kids had their fun playing in the house full of toys !

and Angie's cupcakes always spice up the parties !

We had a simple celebration at home, with my first attempt of making a logcake on my own. Not a very successful attempt though, with a big hole at the left bottom. Think I didnt freeze it long enough.

But the boys loved it =p

Hope all of you had a blessed Christmas !

Shane's 1st Birthday Bash !

2011-01-12T21:19:00.010+08:00

It's still a 2010 post ! =P

Birthday boy, Shane, held his 1st Birthday bash @ Riders Cafe ! Highlight of the great party was it comes along with pony rides for the lil' guests !

Xav was indeed lucky to get the first ride without having to queue and guess what ... Each turn was 2 rounds and he had his 1st four rounds, cos we arrived there pretty early and he was " "addicted" to the ride !

I was really surprised that my brave little boy did not even protest when I didnt went with him, he gladly allowed the uncle to carry him up the pony and off he went !

Look @ how he enjoyed !

Still reluctant to remove his helmet !
Here's the birthday boy, Shane and mummy.

The beautiful cake for the pony theme party ! Happy Birthday, Shane ! May you be bless with good health, intelligence and happiness !

Deevali 2010

2011-01-12T13:30:00.008+08:00

Another overdue post ! Think I still have quite a number on hand !

On Deevali PH, we had planned to bring the todds for a beach outing @ Sentosa. However, the weather hadn't been too kind and we changed our venue to Marina Baraage ! The rainy weather didn't deter us from going continuing to have fun !

Thank you to David for some of the wonderful pics below.

Capturing the future soccer star !!

Next, he changed his mind to be "Yeo's" spokesperson.

After the rain was gone, we had our first attempt in flying a kite !

Am sure Xav was enjoying himself too !

After kite flying and off he went for water play before we went back to the mats for our lunch.

Looking at the pic below, I wish they could be friends for life just like how their mummies would be.

Universal Studios Singapore

2011-01-03T20:59:00.023+08:00

This is another post which has been lagging behind for the longest time !

The first outing we had for the month of November 2010 - Universal Studios Singapore !

Love their child swap program ! This really benefits parties like us with a small child. This allow the first partner to queue and go for the ride and swap with the other partner thereafter without having the second partner to requeue for the ride. They can just utilise the ecxpress lane ! Cool isn't !

While waiting for daddy, we waited around the vicinity of Hollywood Blvd.

First stop, we visited the Madagascar ! A crate adventure was not ready yet when we went.

Went to King Julien's Beach Merry-Go-round for our first ride. Being first time on the carousal, Xav was a little frightened initially. But after that he was enjoying himself !

Next, we went to Far Far Away

where the Shrek 4D Adventure was. A really nice show but Xav was afraid of the dark. But we still managed to sit through the show though.

Moving on to the Lost World to catch the performance @ Water World.

This is where you'll get to watch death-defying feats, awesome explosions and ocean of thrills as giant balls explode in the air and a seaplane swoops towards you, skidding across the water to crash explosively just inches away in the finale.

The hosts preparing to "warm up" the audience with their splashing and squirts !

Deardear was drawn into their world !

Lunch was next @ Discovery Food Court !

Thumbs up !

Next destination was Ancient Egypt.

We went to queue for the Treasure Hunters

, which took about 30 mins before we hop on for a ride.

This was how crowded it was !

Entertaining young master Chua during the queue.

And alas !!! Our turn !

One quick self pic !

Revenge of the mummy was a mini coastal ride. My heart almost popped out as I have not been taking this kind of rides for more than a decade ! Plus, I went in alone without deardear ... no hands to grab hahahaha

We walked around taking turns to go for rides when lil' Xavier was asleep.

I went to "New York" vicinity and went into the Lights, Camera, Action, hosted by Steven Spielberg, where an empty sound stage becomes the setting for a major hurricane about to hit New York City - right before my eyes !

@ The Brown Derby where they have the fun, silly and crazy hats and accessories for the young and the young at hearts !

Went back to Madagascar but too bad Xav was napping. So here we are without him in the pic.

Climb onboard a junior roller coaster ride @ Enchanted Airways.

Spot me in the pic !

Bought a tall and cool bottle drink !

Here's the waking of Xav transformed Shrek !
@ The Magic Potion Spin when deardear went for his Canopy Flyer and caught us in time before it's our turn for the ride.

Eeeeeyore ... Here's Xav with donkey !

and he loves the bottle so much that he walked and drank at the same time !

My turn for the canopy flyer ! Feels so shiok that I don't need to queue for the ride ! It's a long 45 - 60 mins queue !

We managed to catch the last screening of Donkey performed "Live".

Next stop was to Jurassic Park, Rapids Adventure ! A thrilling river raft ride through primeval dinosaur habitats. The last part was where I was drenched despite donning on the "protection" !

After dinner, we went to catch the last ride on the carousal @ King Julien's

We shopped along Hollywood Boulevard, making that as our last stop before we end our trip !

Hope to come back again the next time with the opening of other rides which were not ready when we came !

BOOMers Annual X'mas Gathering 2010 !

2011-01-03T15:40:00.007+08:00

How time flies !! It was like I just had this gathering last year with the gang @ The Rice Table and it's a year !

This year, I opened up my place to host this gathering ! It was great fun to meet everyone again ! This is our big family since poly days ! We have been maintaining the precious friendship for exactly a decade ! This year's gathering was the biggest compared to the recent years as we managed to get Eric, Mingxin & Stanley to join in ! But too bad, we missed David, Meiqi and Zhizhong this year to have a complete family picture.

The brought some board games for entertainment !

Got the pressies from Christopher from the gift exchange !

Thank you all for coming, we had fun.

Merry Christmas to all and look forward to see you guys again during CNY !

X'mas Cake Making Workshop

2011-01-03T14:08:00.006+08:00

2010 Christmas I would say its something different ! Because I learnt to make my own logcake with my group of baking kakis !

It was a private class with the 5 of us learning two hands on recipe with Chef Amy.

We learnt Strawberry shortcake, which was my all time favourite

The interior of the shortcake

and Passion Chocolate Bananaia Logcake ! The combination of the two is really yummy and am kind of hook on just making the passion fruit swiss roll ! It's easier than making cupcakes !

We're so delighted to have Lil' Dana joining us @ the end of the class to help in savouring the cakes ! =)

And my lucky group of friends who were at my place on the same day, in the evening got to taste these two wonderful cakes !

Phuket - JW Marriot Vocation Club

2010-12-23T23:13:00.038+08:00

Had an awesome 5D4N stay @ Phuket - JW Marriot Vocation Club (Mai Khao Beach) with the Hans and mummy ! Thank you my dear for giving me an official break. I'm off for the trip without my boys !

Day 1 - Free and easy as we went around exploring part of the club.

Welcome by the nicely folded towel elly. We couldn't help but take pictures with it.

Well, something that made me "WOW" was the bathroom in the masters was like bigger than my room with a jacuzzi tub !

The Hans upgraded the suite to the ground floor hence we had our very own swimming pool !

For lunch we had an Eat-all-you-can Ribs buffet.

Had a game of pool in the club before we went for dinner. Looks pro heh ? hahaha ...

Just next to where we stayed is Turtle village, where we can dine and do our shopping.

Day 2 - Discovering Phi Phi Island !

The adventure started at Boat Lagoon Marina. But weather hasn't been too good until we reached our last stop @ Khai Island when Mr Sun decided to come out !

Edna's gearing up herself !

Our first stop ! Gear up and snorkle ! The water here is not as clear as the next few stops which we went to later. Anyway, half way @ the beach, the rain came again =S

This is Viking Cave, where you will see traces from a very distant past, when Vikings were the master of the seas. Now, it's the swallows' bird nest empire !

@ our next stop (I forgot the name of the island hahaha)

Our tour guide gave us some bananas to feed the fishes ! How excited we were ! To be swimming among the fishes and the close encounter with them is really a memorable one.

These fishes are pretty smart ! They ate the bananas but not the skin hahaha

We get to see pretty nice corals under the sea !

Mummy doesn't know how to swim so both Edna and her fed the fishes with bread crumbs from the boat.
Took a rest and some pics before we left for the next stop.

Thai and International Lunch @ Beach Front Resort

@ the hidden natural paradise - Pileh Cove

Yay !!! I made it up the rope !

Jo is still trying hard !

Next stop was to Monkey Beach but due to the sea condition, it was pretty dangerous for us to go onshore. Hence, that stop was skipped.

On the sunny Khai Island after lunch ! 150 baht for 2 chairs and an umbrella ! and going to the washroom was sure pricey ! 20 baht ($1 SGD) !!! But I gotta go ! hahahha

Guess whose feet ?!

How sweet ! Am sharing coconut juice with Edna !

Day 3 - We went to the town area where the most happening Patong Beach is.

Had our lunch @ Le Siam before we hit the streets !

Busy beach filled with activities and the bustling streets just across the road !

Sending our greetings with Ronald Macdonald !

We went to Phuket Old Town as well.

It gives me a feeling like as if I'm in Malacca. They have more Chinese community staying in that area.

Pretty happening in school ! I wish I can go in and buy from the vendors !

In the evening, we went to Bypass Restaurant on our way back to the resort. The setting resembles so much to that restaurant which we dined in @ Hokkaido. Difference was, we had the pacific ocean facing us back then !

This is real nice ! It's fresh and sweet tasting !

We went back after a day of "sight seeing" and continued with our "shopping" at Turtle Village for that evening.

Day 4 - We spent some time in the morning at Mai Khao Beach.

Silly Edna loved to rub her head and mine together and laughed heartily ! Silly gal !

Went picking seashells

My usual practice ... drawing my own beach hahahah

This is "Serene's beach "

and spent the rest of the time suntanning by the poolside

and dipped in our private pool.

Day 5 - Its time to go back to reality and face my challenging Xavier ! How I miss him and daddy ! Was really hoping that he could join me in this trip !

And the two cousins were so happy and excited to see each other , that they hugged and hold hands with each other the moment they spotted each other !

and I guess Xav was the happiest upon my return as deardear told me, he was not bahaving in the usual manner he used to be during that 4 days ! Thank you to my dear for keeping the house spick and span and keeping Xav in good hands !

Am looking forward to our short holiday soon ! This round with the boys !

My Gingerbread Boy !

2010-12-23T22:19:00.004+08:00

Been a busy month for december !! Which explained the lack of posts !! Imagine how many backlogs I have been accumulating since Nov !!

First week of December - A bulk purchase done with our sales of Bibs and socks !
Second week of December - My retreat to Phuket without my men !
Third week of December - Baking my christmas cookies order which is gonna be on this post.
Fourth week of December - Parrrty time !! Looking forward to the mass party !!

Coming back, this was what I came up with for Sherry. I suggested to her to have pinky stars for the girls while the guys can have the gingerbread man.

Made half a dozen of blue ones and came up with this pink gingerbread gal with the stars imprint on it. I kind of like this as it stood out from the rest.

This was the blue gingerbread man. Each and every piece are personalized with the receiver's name ! Was so happy that Sherry likes them so much !

Slots are open for 2011 should you want to get any to include in the kids party pack ! Email me or drop me a tag at the cbox !

Fried Chix Wings

2010-12-05T23:36:00.004+08:00

This is the most simplest dish you can ever whip up !

I wanted to make soy baked wings but I ran out of ginger. Alternative was to make lemon wings, then again, search through my fridge and realise I used up the lemons too.

Then, tumeric powder came to my mind as I used this to pan fried the leather jacket fish. Just simply rub the fish or wings with salt and tumeric powder, pan fried them till golden brown and serve !

Trust me its really yummy !

Winter Wonderland

2010-12-02T00:24:00.001+08:00

Christmas is coming !! I have always love December ! A month month always filled with fun and parties !

Got an order from Sherry after making Sonia's Fairy wand fondant cookies.

I suggested this cakester to her as I find it pretty cute and I can actually personalized the recipients' name on it.

Slots still available if you want to get some as X'mas gift =)

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Babies Prom 2010

2010-12-01T10:35:00.001+08:00

Realised that I am back dating all the plays and performances I brought Xav to !

Been a busy month for the month of Nov and gonna be a busy one for Dec too !

Just brought Xav to Babies Prom 2010, conducted by Peter Moore, who is a Basson player and it's presented together with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO).

Great thanks to Lifeng who helped me got her friend to help us get the tickets ! Best of all was, it was the first four rows from the front !

Xav doesn't seems to like it as he took quite some time to settle down. The moment we stepped into the concert hall, he was urging me to go out !!!

Near to the end of the concert, the kids were allowed to go up to the stage and mingle around with the musicians, but parents are strongly encourage not to go up as the stage has a weight limit.

Initially Xav was alright without me. Suddenly I heard his cries and saw one of the ursherers carrying him back to look for me !

He wanted me to go up onto the stage with him. Luckily, when everything was over, the staff allowed me to go up with him while the musicians were still on the stage. How happy he was when he managed to touch and feel the violin and cello !

After the concert, managed to catch Owie and mama for a pic !

Looking forward to Babies Prom 2011 !

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Toy Box Play - Bigger Better & Live !

2010-11-30T15:22:00.001+08:00

The 4th edition of TOYBOX's year end show ! It's open to the public for the very first time ! We really enjoy their songs featuring from their debut album. Great company with Edna and Jo, both cousins really enjoyed themselves. Great thanks to Jillian for the tickets !

It's casted by Reuben Tupaz & Mark De Silva with the beautiful stage backdrop put up by Art Boot Camp !

After bring Xav to The Babies Prom 2010, The magic Island as well as the Sesame street, I concluded that Xav enjoyed himself most at this play! He was like immersing himself into their play as he followed and danced to the catchy tunes together with Edna !

Though the place is abit secluded for me who is not driving, but I wouldn't mind bringing him there again for their next show !

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Simply in Love with Thomas !

2010-11-28T13:17:00.001+08:00

Thanks Jo for the early X'mas gift ! A pair of Thomas & Friends shoe ! And Xav simply goes gaga over it ! He wants this pair of shoes only after he gets them ! And he even pose for me to have his pics taken !

Xav: Thank you, yiyi ! I love 'em !!

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Morning walk @ The Swan Lake

2010-11-28T12:30:00.001+08:00

A nice Monday morning to the Botanical Gardens with the Chias @ The Swan Lake, feeding the swans. We had an enjoyable morning !

We had arrived first and Xav mingled into the group of kids who were there on an excursion, and managed to get near to the swans. How excited he was !

He got his fair share of feeding the catfishes as well. The swans actually went into hiding when the sun came out. Sherin managed to bring us to another side of the lake where there were another 2 more swans hiding at the rear.

The kids had fun watching and feeding the swans. Lookig forward to more outings !

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Chinese word search

2010-11-28T07:43:00.001+08:00

Sounds fun ?! I printed out the Chinese word search

for Book 1 of 四五快读 and got him to stamp on the words after he managed to find them.

I used a different stamper for a different word. For instance, I used a yellow star stamper for the word "一", Xav will be using the yellow stamper to stamp on all the "一" he finds.

Realised that it could be too difficult for Xav as there are too many words.

I covered the paper into half

And he is more confident looking for the word by himself. Else I would be getting this expression "where, where ?"

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Xav @ 31 months

2010-11-27T22:03:00.001+08:00

Xav @ 31 months seems to start behaving better as he understands instructions better. But at times, he will still go against our instructions and do the opposite !

Sometimes, he gives in to Edna and sometimes not. He wants whatever she has ! He saw her minnie mouse head band and wore it on himself ! See the handsome minnie here !

He attempted to help Edna wear the band on her head ! He did it ! And meimei got her hair messed up !

Start of learning a new skill ! Chopsticks ! Luckily there is such a thing called training chopstick, otherwise I wouldn't know how to teach Xav to hold the chopstick in a correct way as I, myself , is holding it the wrong way.

Wanted to get Pororo for him. A much cheaper choice as compared to Thomas & Friends, who knows he saw the 2-in-1 Thomas pack ! He gave me back Pororo and told me "I don't like, I want Thomas!

And insisted on the pack with stage 1 & 2. Cost a bomb of $27 for two pairs of chopsticks !! Ex !!
But he had fun feeding himself with the chopsticks and finished the whole bowl of dish given to him by himself !

He can even pick up the bit size and dipped into the tomato sauce ! How he enjoyed !!

I'm sure he's looking forward to feed himself during meal times with his new chopsticks.

He recognises numbers and can read out to me to the 40s now.

New word he learnt at Zoophonics and understood that "Bee" in mandarin is 蜜蜂, butterfly is 蝴蝶, ant is 蚂蚁,

And he learnt how to join the dots for numbers and alphabets. He learnt this from the Iphone so I thought it's time to let him try on with a pencil on the paper !

As he goes joining, he will say for instance "after A is B, after D is E ". Surprisingly, he uses the word "after" himself ! So at times, I will randomly test him by jumping the alphabets and numbers, getting him to tell me the correct answer.

And now if you asked him the sounds made by different animals, he will make the sound made by that animal.

He knows these when asked ;

1. Cat - meow
2. Dog - woof woof
3. Frog - greebit
4. Cow - moo moo
5. Sheep - baa baa
6. Duck - quack quack
7. Horse - neigh neigh
8. Pig - oink oink

Recently his new favourite reads are "Super Duck, Doctor Ted and Jeeper creepers"

He attempted and can read the very first sentence " Sheep and frog are looking for goat" for Super duck ! Well done baby ! And it seems like he really likes it ! See the after effect of the story, he becomes Super Xavier !

I hope that Xav could continue to keep his interest going in reading !

I had even ordered a set of Bear Collection from The book people as his X'mas gift ! Am trying to hard to stop myself from giving him the books !! Can X'mas come earlier so that this little reader can get his gift ???

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When you wish upon a star ...

2010-11-20T00:16:00.001+08:00

I named them "when you wish upon a star". Made this for Sonia's 1st birthday to go with her "Touch of Pink" theme party.

Thank you Vanessa for having so much confidence in me. I'm honoured !

I did a trial bake with one butter cookie recipe I found online. Not too bad for the taste but the dough is pretty hard to handle. I got to add more flour to make it more managable. I used the dough to make some Disney cookies as well as some animal cookies.

Welcome Pooh Bear !

Welcome Mickey !

Welcome Minnie !

And welcome the cute little animals, cut out with the cookie cutters from Angie. Thanks for the cutters !

Xav had his fair share of fun helping me with the bakes ! He helped me to imprint the names on the cookie dough.

Thanks Jo for the early X'mas gift too !

The really mini pieces ! Great kit to personalize ur cookies or fondant !

For actual bake, I used the recipe which Angie enclosed in the box of cutters.

Used Wilton colouring paste "Red rose" to mix with the ready rolled white fondant to get this pink.

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Hands on Cheese Cake Baking Class

2010-11-16T11:21:00.001+08:00

Yippeeee !! It's NY marble cheese cake and Japanese cotton cheese cake hands on Baking Class !

Another session organized by Thai Express for their members. Thank you Angie for registering me. Really benefited from these classes.

First, we were taught the marble cheesecake.

Laying the base

Whisking the batter

Chef Amy showing what is soft peak.

The final product ! Chilled before you consume !

Next is the Japanese Cotton cheesecake !

We were taught how to line the parchment paper properly in the tin.

Baked with the oven door slightly ajar

And there you go ! Fresh from the oven ! Really cottony soft !

Ready to eat !

Looking forward for more class by Chef Amy !

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Zoophonics Term 4 - Lesson 9, 10, 11 & 12

2010-11-14T13:58:00.001+08:00

I had a one week break ! Daddy was on leave so he accompanied Xav for his classes for this week.

Not sure of what they really covered. But I saw a butterfly craft and a policeman craft.

Lesson 11 -

A rainy Tuesday ! Xav was decked out in his boots and his chic & cheap raincoat from Daiso ! How happy he was ! I always loved his smiles !!

Chinese class taught them dragonfly (蜻蜓). They did a jigsaw puzzle and

A pasting craft.

English class covered Fire Truck

Craft for the day

Went to Somerset to deliver some of my orders and upon reaching, there was a slight drizzle ! And Xav is the happiest ! Because the raincoat can be worn again !

Lesson 12 was also a super duper late day for class !

Giving Elizabeth his sweetest hug !

They were introduced to ants ( 蚂蚁).

English class is still on community workers - Fireman

They did a dress up on fireman

And did a helmet craft to end the class.

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Flip Mino HD

2010-11-12T00:35:00.001+08:00

This sleek and cool, Flip Mino HD, can capture high quality HD videos !

Why is it cool ? Cause we can:

1. Record ( Just press the red button) and when you finish,

2. Connect ( Using the flip out USB plug straight into the PC or Mac. It's FUSS FREE, no cable, no memory card as it has a 4GB of built in memory) and

3. Share the videos in just a click ! ( The Flipshare software automatically installs the first time you used it which then allows you to email your video as a simple link or an MP4 file, plus you can upload it into the Net, including Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and more ! )

More bonuses !! You can edit clips, create greeting cards and movies, add a soundtrack and even capture a snapshot from the clip !

I can't wait to start using it ! This would make great x'mas gifts especially for mummies and daddies who would like to capture those special moments you would never want to miss !

Available in three models:
1. Flip MinoHD (2 hours) - 8 GB of internal memory

2. Flip MinoHD (1 hour) - 4 GB of internal memory

3. Flip Ultra HD (2 hours) - 8 GB of internal memory, it's rechargable or AAA battery powered !

Where to get them:
1. Best Denki (Parkway Parade, Junction 8, Vivocity, Ngee Ann City and Great World City)

2. Juzz1 ( Esplanade Xchange & Funan IT Mall)

3. Parisik

4. South Asia Computer (Funan IT mall)

5. Sprint Cass at T1 & T2

6. Dufry @ T3

7. Tangs Orchard Techno Bay

Readers who are interested in this product, please feel free to drop me your email address so that I can pass to the relevant person to tell you more about it !

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Steam stuffed layered tofu

2010-11-10T16:16:00.001+08:00

I tried this recipe out yesterday. simple enough, as the dish contains meat and veg.

Cut as many layer as you like. I only managed to cut two or three.

Had cooked a simple soup to complete the meal. No meat involved. Just clearly tomatoes and eggs and some spring onions to garnish with. Fuss free and minimal cooking time.

Zoophonics Term 4 - Lesson 8

2010-11-10T16:10:00.002+08:00

Lesson 8 covered 蜜蜂 and 蜂巢.

They did a bee craft during the class and I could tell that Xav really love his bee !

They sang 小蜜蜂 and he was happily dancing around with it !

But during the break time, he was happily playing with his bee when one of his classmates just went over to him, snatched the bee from him and crushed the craft !!!

I must admit that I was really upset for the whole of the remaining lesson ! Imagine the favourite of your child is just destroy right in front of his eyes !?

Firstly, I was upset with Xav as I have told him to keep it in his bag and go for his tea break. But he didn't want to listen to me.

Secondly, with the boy who crushed the craft. Yes, they may be young and ignorant but that doesn't gives him any reason to just damaged things that doesn't belongs to him ! But anyway, I think he's only a child, I can't be upset with him for long =)

Poor Xav told me " bee is spoil, mummy make one more"

During the English lesson, they were taught on what traffic cops does.

They did a simple craft. To me it's seems more like different transportation kind of theme. I will just reinforce the learning in his transportation lapbook using this.

Double chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting

2010-11-08T12:45:00.002+08:00

These are my first official cupcakes ! I baked them for Jo's birthday this year as she is always the one who baked for us on out birthdays !

Must thank Angie for her help in providing me with a really easy and nice recipe at my last minute request no doubt I still failed though.

I didn't beat the batter enough and as a result, the cupcakes are pretty dense and it broke into pieces easily.

As for the frosting, failed too.. If
you noticed that the frosting is a bit watery and you can see curds in them.

Advice was I should beat the buttercream longer.

To spice up the cupcakes, Angie sent me these sweet, beautiful toppers !

Thanks for your help, Angie !

And the poor birthday girl had a sleepless night after the choc effect ! So sorry this is the easiest recipe that I can do within the short three hours for a green baker !

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Thomas & Friends - Sodor Island Set won !

2010-11-06T18:45:00.001+08:00

How lucky am I to have won this set of Thomas and Friends - Sodor Island Set from Young Parents Magazine !!

This is the 2nd time I won from their giveaway ! I only buy the magazine on certain topics and I have clean forgotten that I have sent in ! Was so happy to receive this letter when dear got it back from in-laws' place.

And Xav is the happiest of course ! Beaming at his prize !

Can't wait to open the set !!

And it's pretty space consuming !! But he really loves it !! Thank you Young Parents for the advanced x'mas gift !

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Xav @ 30 months

2010-11-04T10:06:00.001+08:00

My backlogs are piling !!! Been sick and pretty busy with the recent orders. Hence, the time to blog has cut down !

An update on Xav's development !

Exactly half a year more before he turns 3 !

Becoming more and more curious and more and more naughty but on the other hand, more and more lovable at times !

He is kind of starting to go into imagine play! He sees me wearing a mask when I had flu, he came to me and said " mummy, sick sick" and follow by, he will come to me with his sethescope and start to "check" my lungs and heart !

Then, went to take his syringe and tell me "mummy, eat medicine" ! So I will just play along with him !

He got a shopping trolley lately from my sil.

Xav will pretend to go shopping and put everything into his trolley !! I made use of the chance to get him to "buy" the things that are all over the floor, to help to clear the mess !

And here he is pretending to drink after buying a bottle of soft drink.

Arranging the items neatly in the shelf

Next, he becomes a builder ! All the sawing and hammering ! Now he differentiates what is a saw, a plier and a hammer.

And probably one of his dreams, a singer ? He pretty much likes to sing ! He is now learning one of the oldies "Oh Carol" from me and seriously I didn't know where did he learn from, he just took his markers and pretended that they are the mics ! It's quite entertaining to see him perform ! Probably I shall just dig out my chord sheet and learn to play this song and sing together with him !

Last but not least a model ?! Got some tops for him and he is all ready to try on for me to see if they fits him and even pose for me ! Shirt 1 :

Shirt 2 :

Lol lying down pose !

So much about play, his language development. Yes, he talks more now although still blabbering at times. He speaks in short full sentences! Not only in English but in Mandarin too ! Am really happy that he is ever so willing to learn mandarin despite that we rarely speak to him !

I am using Book 1 of 四五快读

And these are the characters he could recognise and read from this book.

He started to form short sentences to describe things in mandarin. For instance, if he sees:

1. A yellow car
He will tell me "黄色的汽车"

2. Blue taxi - "蓝色的德士

3. Red flower - "红色的花＂

And he can count from 1-20 in mandarin. Looks like he is learning the two languages pretty well.

As for numerals counting in English, he counts from 1-60 now ! Sometimes with minimal help, he counts to 100 while we made our way to the train station. He needs a little help at the tens part (70, 80, 90 )

He is forming more sentences now to express his needs or wants. He tells me "Xavier is thirsty, I want to drink water"

On one occasion, I asked him to wear his shoes ( forgetting that I didn't bring it in). I was surprised when I heard him telling me in one full sentence "my shoe is missing" ! So he is starting to link words up to form basic sentences !

The use of "and" ! He uses this pretty well ! He will count from (1-10) 1.... 9 AND 10.

I guess he knows how to use "and" between the last two objects.

He knows his A-Z in both upper and lower case, as well as the sound made by each letter !

Looks like zoophonics coupled with leapfrog letter factory works pretty well !

And he starts to "lecture" me !! Hahahaha ... I was surprise when I was working on my orders with my stuff lying all over the floor and he came over and tell me "SO MESSY" ! Must have learnt from me when I always told him off that he is always messing up the place with his toys !

And he is all set to tell people after saying bye ... "see you again" !

Scoot away !! We got this for him

And he is getting the hang of it ! Sometimes, we brought him to the park and sometimes I will just allow him to play along the corridor !

Less than half a year to turn 3 !! Time flies ! And probably it's time to plan for his party !!!

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Brown bear Learning kit

2010-10-30T21:19:00.002+08:00

Following up on Eric Carle's " Brown bear, Brown bear, what do you see ?"

I made this shadow matching game for Xav. Can you imagine how well he knew the story ? By just looking at the shadows, he pointed to each and every animal and named me all correctly ! And this is including the colour of the animals as read in the book ! Well done, boy !

I realised he is pretty good in shadow matching, even when Hr is in school !

This is the shadow matching game.

Follow by, he learnt the colours, heads and tails from this activity below:

It can be played as a two piece puzzle as well.

Cheap and nice as compared to the puzzles as sold in the shops. I doubt I'll be getting him anymore puzzles as I bought one Kumon workbook " My first book of jigsaw puzzlel". That book should be able to sustain him for quite some time at the same time he has a box of A-Z puzzles too.

Third activity for this story is Learning shapes.

This is actually a mini flashcard booklet.

But I modified it myself in a way that Xav can play matching game with the shapes cut out from the picture. In way, u learn the words and shapes while playing with the matching game.

I used together with the table flipchart which Jo got for him and he learnt the shapes in mandarin from the chart. I made him read out the names of the shapes and put the corresponding cut out shapes onto the chart.

So far so good, he knows the following in mandarin:
Circle - 圆形
Triangel - 三角形
Oval - 椭圆形
Square - 正方形
Rectangle - 长方形
Heart - 心形
Star - 星形
Diamond - 菱形

Fourth activity:
Sorting the bears in ascending or descending orders. I have yet t start him on this though but just made for fun !

Last but not least will be the dot -a-dot page for the animals. Again , I allow him to use the stampers to train his fine motor skills.

Have fun making the kit ! All downloads can be get from HERE !

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Stampers fun !

2010-10-30T20:53:00.001+08:00

This is the set of stampers which I used to reward Xav whenever he goes to the potty or let us know that he wanted to poo or wee.

I found these little activity and decided to print out and let him stamp for fun ! Just the nice size for the stampers !

A good way to train their fine motor skills !

See how carefully he is doing it to ensure the stamps goes into the circle !

Delighted when he got it in !

After this, I used this activity sheet together with the Hama beads I bought previously. I actually asked him to place the beads onto the circles as found on the printed numbers. This allow him to count as he places the beads onto the just the nice size circles !

Am still thinking if I should laminate the sheets to last longer !
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Kailan with mushroom

2010-10-27T18:53:00.001+08:00

A last minute dish which I cook for the folks. Just blanch the veg, stir fry the shiitake mushroom slices with butter, add in abalone sauce and drizzle over the vegetables and serve !

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Hama Beads

2010-10-27T18:50:00.001+08:00

Got two boxes of Hama beads for Xav to try. This is good in training their fine motor skills as well as their concentration and observation skills.

And he's good ! E actually sat through and completed the project.

The next day, he tried the second set.

And completed it himself with minimal help. A great set to keep the little hands busy !

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Zoophonics Term 4 ~ Lesson 6 & 7

2010-10-26T11:16:00.001+08:00

Lesson 6 taught them to differentiate which is 白云 and 乌云.

They were given an activity to look for the raincoats and umbrellas to stick onto the picture of thunderstorm.

And Xav did his umbrella craft.

Stick on some circles while the paint is wet for deco and add a straw as a handle !

English class covered "parcel".

They are supposed to hand the parcel collection slip to Teacher LJ to collect their parcel.

Waiting to collect his.

And they did a postcard for the activity. Pasting on the stamp,

Receiver: Justin

And did a colouring behind.

Lesson 7

Today, the teacher went through 晴天 and 雨天 and the activities we can do on a sunny day !

It's the kids favourite ! 冰淇淋 !

He's sure happy ! Even when it's just pretending to lick the ice cream !

English class taught them - Doctor and the equipments that are used by doctors.

Did a shadow matching game

And they are to choose the equipment used by doctor from the mixture of the equipment used by Police officer.

Last but not least a cute little doctor craft !

And he held the ice cream cone all the way home !

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Fig fruit Soup (无花果汤)

2010-10-20T21:12:00.001+08:00

A simple soup that I got from one of my recipe books, Fig fruit soup. Quite appetizing ! A must try !

These are the ingrdients used :

Mainly; wolfberries, red dates, solomonseal, huai shan, fresh fog fruits and chicken drumsticks.

Xav drank two big bowls for his dinner !

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Zoophonics Term 4 Lesson 5

2010-10-19T13:31:00.002+08:00

Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mister golden sun. Please shine down on me...

The Chinese class taught them 太阳, 阳光, 月亮 and 星星.

Had an actitivity of placing the sun and moon according to day and night.

Did a craft work on Mr. Sun !

Community workers is the new theme. They were taught postman in today's lesson.

Sorting and putting in papers into envelop according to their sizes.

Not an easy task for them !

And did their very own mail bag and their own letter to send out with a fake stamp of course. One thing I don't like is to show the kids things that are fake. I prefer to show them the real thing !

Making his own mail bag.

Trying to thread in the strand of yarn.

Complete !

And he ran off with his mail bag !

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Life cycle of a frog

2010-10-19T00:45:00.002+08:00

Not too long ago, Zoophonics covered on the Life cycle of a frog in class and the kids made a wheel on the stages of the frog.

I prefer something brighter and more colourful as compared to the black and white. So here I am with this !

Not only Xav can learn the different stages, this is a shadow matching game too !

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Transportation Theme

2010-10-18T13:18:00.001+08:00

This has been taught before in Zoophonics. But I added more to this theme.

I made use of the magnetic book which Jo got for him and utilizes his toys ( mainly his trains, cars, buses, taxi and daddy's helicopter)

This is where his toys come into good use. He plays matching games with the slips of paper I gave him.

And he can recognise and read out words like bus, car, police car, fire engine and taxi.

Would be making him a transportation learning kit soon !

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Zoophonics Term 4 Leason 4.

2010-10-18T13:08:00.001+08:00

Lesson 3 was a repeatation of Lesson 2.

Lesson 4 taught them 白云，天空 and 乌云.

The completed craft.

The English lesson covers dolphine and they did a puzzle on the parts of a dolphine.

And dressing up the diver with equipment like oxygen tank, life vest, goggle, flippers etc.

And did a stick and paste craft on marine theme to conclude their lesson.

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Early X'mas bakes !

2010-10-15T01:11:00.001+08:00

Just went for the Christmas Cookies Decorating class with Angie and Pearl.

Something which I had always envy how people made them and I had always wanting to learn so that I can make them with Xav at home. And my wish came through !

Thank you to Angie who helped me to register for the class. Had a great time learning coupled with the great company !

The four hours, we learnt techniques like outlining with royal icing. Before that, we got to learn to fold the parchment paper. The end must be sharp enough !

I did it twice because the first round, I "dragged" the icing and as a result it was flattened. The rounded outline is to prevent overflowing when doing the flooding.

This is flooding using the thinned royal icing prepared using the 10 seconds rule.

Then, comes decorating with fondant !

We made a Christmas tree

an ice cream

a stocking

a snow flake

With the addition of shimmer dust

and a snowman as seen above.

My completed project !

Hope to be able to make some for this christmas this year !

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Zoophonics Term 4 Lesson 2 (Make up )

2010-10-12T10:51:00.001+08:00

Make up class for lesson 2 which Xav missed on last Thursday for his mild fever. Thank god, he recovered after one day. Guess his immunity is stronger now.

The teacher went through 树,花 &草 during the mandarin class.

They did hand and finger painting for the craft. Can u imagine at the table of 6 kids, Xav is the only one who is willing to touch the paint ! Not only on his fingers but he allowed me to paint on his palm ! Am proud of him in a way that he's always ready and willing to get "dirty" to get his work done. Not to mention the fact that he runs away at the sight of cotton balls or wool !

The independant him spreading the glue on his craft.

Strawberrry porky sticks for treats for being a good boy !

During the English class, they were introduced to Octopus as one of the sea creatures and how the other sea creatures protect themselves from their enemies !

Examples like, the puffer fish which will blow itself up, having spikes around it's round body.

Clown fish will camouflage itself among the anemones and the octopus will give out the black ink to cloud the water before escaping to it's dent.

They did shadow matching for the four different sea creatures. Pretty easy for him I guess as he did it all correctly at his fingertips !

They went around the class, gathering the tentacles and piece them up according to their shape and length to form an octopus.

Last but not least his octopus craft ! Gotta teach him to roll the strips of paper and glue them to form the tentacles.

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Chinese Campaign starts @ home!

2010-10-12T10:23:00.001+08:00

These while, I have been slowly exposing Xav to mandarin. I think he picks up the 2nd language pretty well. To capitalise on what he has been learning, I got him
to play a mix and match game with the pictures and Chinese characters.

Out of the 18 cards, he knew how to read these 14 cards and of course understands the meaning of it as well.

The set somes with 72 cards. With 18 cards of English, 18 cards of Chinese characters,18 hanyu pin yin and 18 just picture cards.

I will not be showing him the Han yu pin yin first though to prevent confusion in him.

This set of cards can be used to play snap or memory game by matching the picture cards.

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Fried rice in egg bowl

2010-10-09T15:43:00.001+08:00

A very last min decision to cook this. I cooked the rice in the noon as I didn't want Xav to eat the overnight rice. Threw in some chopped green pepper and sweet corn and added some Chinese sausages.

Infact I wanted wrap up the rice with the egg like how wokking mum did it. But I think my egg is not big enough. Hence, I lined the bowl with the egg to form an egg bowl and scooped the ready fried rice in.

And I got the "wow" from Xav again ! Heee heee...

And made some spinach drop egg soup to go with. Fast and easy !

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Steamboat time !

2010-10-09T15:29:00.001+08:00

Held the ever first steamboat at our place for this group of friends.
We didn't intend to go for catering for our house warming as we find that going by different groups makes it easier to catch up rather than having a mass made of different groups.

I bought this for the stock as recommened by Jo.

And I made some wantons and fish paste for the steamboat.
Bought the ready made fishpaste
from Sheng Shiong, added minced parsley and chillies to it.

And I got a capable kitchen assistant ! He assisted me to peel all the 15 quail eggs while I was doing other preps !

He really sat through until he finished peeling everything ! Great job, Xav !

And by the end of the meal, I made Chocolate Lava cake for dessert. A little surprise for Cindy and Valent for their coming anniversary ! Hope this pair stays blissfully loving always !

This time round, I added two scoopes of Ben & Jerry vanilla ice cream to go with.

Happy Anniversary guys ! Catch up again !

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Eric Carle Doodle

2010-10-08T14:28:00.001+08:00

Today, Xav did "The very hungry caterpillar" after Teacher Jamie went through one of the familiar Eric Carle's book, The very hungry caterpillar.

And got Caden to join in the class for a trial today.

After the class, we went to Killiney Road for lunch and guess what, on top of his very own bowl of porridge, he ate almost 3/4 plate of my steam rice rolls and he loves the crunchy fresh prawns as he keeps telling me "prawn is nice" !

Brought him back to my former working place to pass some books and he got to saw the real policeman this time !

Shall see when they would have an open house or road shows on the vehicles used by the police, think he would be thrilled to ride in there just like the fire engines !

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Zoophonics Term 4 Lesson 1

2010-10-08T00:57:00.001+08:00

It's Term 4 and the programme is coming to an end in no time ! Am still considering if I should adjust Xav's routine or look for another school with morning classes for him.

Anyway, start of Term 4, they learnt about 花 (flowers) in the Chinese class.

We were pretty late for this class hence, no pics taken for that big, red flower.

They learnt about the sea and the things we can find at the sea. For instance, ship, seashells, sailboat, speedboat etc.

They played shadow matching game for the three types of transportation on water and I would say his observation skills on shapes is pretty good as he always got them right !

Another activity to allow them to walk around to look for seashells before sitting down to start on their sea and sailboat craft.

Sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle ! Something which he learnt from Abrakadoodle last week.

A little treat from Teacher LJ with the cute lil' shapes of sea creatures.

After his class, we met up with Amy and Yanyan for lunch and some shopping !

Dear dear was telling me, Yanyan has grown up!

A train ride to reward for being good children ! *laughs*

We went to the playground after that and saw one inconsiderate parent, allowing his child to go into the playground without taking off his shoes !

Luckily Amy went up to him and told him that foot wear needs to be remove for hygiene purpose and saw that the child had mucous all over his nose !!!! If you child is sick, why be so inconsiderate and allow him to go to the playground and spread the virus to other kids !!

Without much delay, we immediately dragged the poor kids out of that place when they were just starting to have fun !! Sorry children, we just don't want you to get sick.

But seems like too late ! Amy was telling me that the princes started to have dry cough and was coughing the whole night !

As for Xav, he woke on a wednesday morning telling me "mummy, nose blocked" I was thinking that it could be allergies as mine was blocked too !

Today, he was warmer than usual and he was running a temperature !!! Drats ..... Hope it doesn't escalate into any cough or cold.. Virus please buzz off !!

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Our "Rusty" golden friendship !

2010-10-06T11:34:00.001+08:00

Recently, got met up with some long time friends as long as 18 years ! Am so happy that we are still connected ! Thanks to Facebook heh !

It was on Eileen's big day that I met up with Huifen, we were once classmates for a year but she is one of my closer pal. Though we were busy with our own schedule, we were not distant ! Still the same old us ! The friendship of 15 years is still running !

And yes, before the dinner, we went for something which we love to do when we were students ! NEOPRINTS !

And next comes Josephine, the beautiful emcee for Eileen's dinner. Both of them were my primary school classmates ! A toast to this long 18 years of friendship.

We didn't forget each other and still clearly remember who each other were.

And I got a surprise from a friend request in FB. Yet another long lost friend found !

Keryn is also my primary school classmate. Was so so surprise that she managed to locate me ! It was really years back since we saw each other at the bus stop.

She invited us over to her place for a meet up while the boys played and had their fairshare of fighting over toys !

Thanks Keryn for having us over and we look forward to meeting up again !

Zoophonics Term 3 Lesson 25

2010-10-04T00:29:00.001+08:00

Lesson 25;

Mandarin class covered "长胫鹿＂- giraffe

And they did a giraffe craft by tearing up some brown paper and sticking on to the spotless giraffe.

During the break time, the boys had a mini "Porky stick party". Thank you Jin Hann for the treat!

Teacher LJ covered the topic on "Rainforest" and the kids had a little mathematics activity, matching the correct animals to the correct number after counting.

completed ! I feel this is quite fun ! Probable shall make him a set soon !

They too did a craft, which was Xavier's fear ! Cotton wool ! He was not the only one infact 2 or 3 of the kids doesn't like the texture of it.

They are supposed to stick on "hair" for the gorilla. End up he painted the hair gray after I sticked on for him.

Can anyone advise me on how to make him over come the fear of cotton wool ?? The moment he sees them, he ran off ! A new challenge for me I guess !

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Just for the princess

2010-10-04T00:13:00.001+08:00

Since Edna has a set of dot-a-dot paint markers, I thought making her a set of dot-a-dot kit would be nice !

A personalized made with love kit as Edna's Children's Day pressie !

Inside looks like;

Happy dotting !

And I got my children's day gift from Jo.. Hahaha for the old kid !

A set of numeral punches ! Thanks Jo !

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Happy Children's Day !

2010-10-03T14:18:00.001+08:00

Good news for this children's day as I brought Xav back to Dr Yeo for review after his Art Class.

Conclusion was Xav's lungs are cleared and is stronger after the intake of singulair all these while as I told the doctor just two weeks ago, he had on and off cough and sometimes phlegmy. I didn't bring Xav to any doctors but just gave him Kaloba. Thank god, the cough just went away without escalating to a more serious condition like before.

And his two monthly review was extended to three monthly from now on.

Just to share for kids who are have cough and have sensitive airways.

There are two ways to improve their condition:
1. Boil millets and allow the kid to consume the fluid. This helps to prevent asthmatic and good for kids who are always coughing.

2. 川贝 powder
Give a little teaspoon of the powder and mix with a little water or you can just take the powder itself.

I tried on Xav, just once, his phlegm and cough went off.

I bought the sulphur free 川贝 which is of the better grade and got the staff at the medical hall to grind them into powder for me.

After the review, I brought Xav to SBG for lunch at the food court and at the same time we get to view the rainforest exhibition.

Met the Hans for dinner

before we went for some goceries shopping to prepare for steamboat the next evening.

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Pan fried Smelt Roe (Shishamo)

2010-09-29T12:32:00.001+08:00

It's always the best to cook this at home because I find that its so expensive to eat at Sushi Tei or Sakae Sushi. It's like $5 or $6 bucks for a plate of 3 ? We got the frozen packs at Giant for $6.90 per pack of 10.

I rubbed some salt before i coated them with egg mixture and Kentucky flour (supposed to use tempura flour but I didn't have it at home)

Pan fried till it turned golden, drizzle it with a dash of lemon juice.

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Zoophonics Term 3 Lesson 24

2010-09-29T07:11:00.001+08:00

Lesson 24:

Peacock (孔雀）was introduced and it's favourite fruits; apples and bananas.

I learnt something new too, when the peacock opens up its beautiful fan, in mandarin it's known as "kong3 que4 kai1 ping2".

The kids were taught how to make a peacock. And here's Xav's new pet.

Singing along with his "pet"

During the english class, they were taught on the life cycle of a frog.

They were given the picture cards to form the sequencing of the life cycle.

Then, played a Frog Ball game

Before starting their project on "The life cycle of a frog" with a turnable wheel.

And the teacher ended the class with the bubble session.

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Bourgeois Spider Doodle

2010-09-27T00:23:00.001+08:00

Last week, Xav did a spider doodle for his class. Seems that "The very busy spider" by Eric Carle is quite nice. Got most of the titles but not this.

Xav was in a pretty good mood that day. He was willing to stand infront of the class but comes to Q&A, he kept mum ! How to make him talk ......

But he did have fun in this session though to me it's kind of messy *laughs* probably that's him, he likes to play with paint !

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Zoophonics Lesson 22 & 23

2010-09-23T21:39:00.001+08:00

Lesson 22, dear dear brought Xav to school as I'm on "mc" for runny nose ! But he himself is not spared from a cough bug ! So ended up he gotta wear a mask to school.

If am not wrong, they did a bear craft during the Chinese class and I can't seem to locate Xav's work today... Case of a missing bear here !

Got back his macaw craft from his tuesday craft. Teacher LJ went through rainforest topic with them.

Lesson 23, during the Chinese class, they were introduced to Tiger " 老虎"

Activity was they were to look for printout of tigers around the classroom and place them in the correct picture on the floor. The teacher had pasted a picture of a lion and a tiger.

And he painted a tiger !

During the English class, they did jigsaw puzzles on the different rainforest animals, mainly the Jaguar, the monkey and the macaw.

And arranging the rainforest animals to see which ones should be up in the trees or on land.

And did a monkey craft using yarns.. A super time consuming craft !

And I tried to take a bus instead of train today. Walking distance shorter as compared to walking to the train station but walking to our block seems a little further.

Nevertheless, it's another option to choose when it comes to transportation. But at least I don't need to change train when I reach SK !

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Xav @ 29 months

2010-09-23T20:15:00.001+08:00

One more month to reach 2 1/2 years old ! My little boy is growing fast and getting a little cheekier, naughtier and of course more fun !

Sometimes really can't help but ask myself if I should be angry with him or smile and act as if nothing happened, cos he makes my heart melts by giving me a generous big hug after I scolded him and he of course softens my heart too when I gave him a hug after scolding him, explaining why I did that. He really sobs quietly and you can really see the tears flowing down. Tell me how to be harsh further ?!

His current weight should be about 12kg, height about 86 cm (estimated) still a super shortie !!

Xav learnt how to jump, this time round with two feet off the ground.

Speech wise, he can speak more proper sentences now and sometimes I can even hear him using prepositions.

But so far only I can understand what he is talking about. Not even the daddy.

His vocabulary in both languages has expanded ! And he is learning a little Japanese as well
I have been occasionally teaching him.

He knows the following trilingual (English, Mandarin & Japanese) when asked:
1. Yummy, 好吃, Oishii
2. Good night, 晚安, Oyasuminasai
3. Good morning, 早安, Ohayoo

The bilingual (English & Mandarin) for colours
1. Red , 红色
2. Green, 绿色
3. Orange, 橙色
4. Blue, 蓝色
5. Yellow, 黄色

Bilingual for animals:
1. Fish, 鱼
2. Dog, 狗
3. Pig, 猪
4. Cat, 猫
5. Rhinoceros, 犀牛
6. Giraffe, 长胫鹿
7. Elephant, 大象

Bilingual for numbers which he can read and speak:
1. One, 一
2. Two, 二
3. Three, 三
4. Four, 四
5. Five, 五
6. Six, 六

Bilingual for fruits:
1. Strawberries, 草莓
2. Kiwi, 奇异果
3. Water melon, 西瓜
4. Apple, 苹果

Bilingual for occupations:
1. Doctor, 医生 ( This one I caught him by surprise as I have yet to go through with him)
2. Policeman, 警察

And he knows a little about things associated with the Police like:
3. Police car, 警车
4. Handcuff, 手铐
5. Revolver, 手枪
6. Walkie Talkie, 对话机

As I made him some flashcards with removable Chinese characters, to show him the real equipment the policemen are using.

Hope to find one day, I bring him to look for the friendly police officers to show him the real thing !

Bilingual on transportation:
1. Aeroplane, 飞机
2. Bicycle, 脚踏车
3. Train, 火车

Latest word he learnt was 圆型 (Circle) and he likes to form circles with his fingers and wore them as glasses.

Thanks to Wink-to-learn, he learnt words like 动物 & 颜色 and some of the above.

I made some mini flashcards to teach him and only for that once I showed him, I was surprised that he recognises and can read the word 妈妈.

He understands when I talk to him in Mandarin like "过来，抹手，喝水 "and occasionally he can tell me 大便 when he wants to poo poo. It was like huh... Suddenly change and talk to me in mandarin and I have to really switch it fast and understand what he is trying to say.

And this is what the boy can do in the playground. My heart almost pop out when I see him swinging himself, afraid that he might lose grip and fall. Think I am a bit protective of him ? Probably I should be more easy and tell myself that my baby has grown up.

Its really different when he knows how to talk and express himself !

He went through the menu when I brought him for tea break at Secret Recipe, saw the ice -cream pic and his nagging skills starts ! "I want to eat ice-cream" all the way until I placed the order and told him that he gotta wait and he gave his "wahh..." when it was placed right infront of him..

Something which has been puzzling me. Whenever we reach Fernvale Station, Xav will say out loud "saddy" and insisted it to be saddy when we corrected him. Going further if we insist on Fernvale, he will get angry over it ! Funny isn't ? Probably "Saddy" is his own world ?

Comes to reading and am just so happy and glad that he likes his books ! Sometimes, he can be spotted in the studyroom, sitting on the floor and flipping through his books when am busy to read to him.

Standard timing he knows that I will be reading to him before nap time and before he goes to bed at night.

And it is really a challenge to put him to bed now as he is older. He sleeps lesser ! He can go napless the whole day or just nap for that 15 mins. Max is 1 hour. Sometimes I off lights at 9pm, he falls asleep at 10pm and wakes as early as 6.30 am !!! Kill me pleeeease !!

As of till date, he is partly potty trained. Hopefully, he can say bye to diapers soon !

Am looking forward to his growing up as days goes by as we are constantly learning together !

Fishmaw & Seafood Soup

2010-09-22T17:05:00.001+08:00

Tried making this myself yesterday.

No specific recipe because I added what i wanted. I used fishmaw, kanami chunks (crab legs), black fungus, shrimps, beaten eggs and mushroom.

Soak mushroom, fishmaw and black fungus before hand.

Cut into the sizes you want, boil everything for about 25 mins except for kanami chunks and shrimps. Add them probably after 15 mins as they are easily cooked. Add soy sauce to taste.

Stir in the beaten egg slowly and add cornflour mixture to thicken the soup.

Top with parsley and a dash of pepper before serving. It goes well with vinegar too.

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Paper rolls Doodle

2010-09-22T16:55:00.001+08:00

We were pretty early last friday and Xav was like doodling around on the paper while waiting for the class to start.

He did paper rolls for that class and he gets to decorate using different medium.

This is the completed project.

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中秋节快乐 !

2010-09-22T14:14:00.001+08:00

The Chuas take this opportunity to wish all a Happy Mid Autumn Festival !

This year I learnt to make some custard fillings.

Thanks to Jo's recipe. Can't post it as this is her selling recipe. And I made two boxes yesterday one for my best pal whom I have not seen for the longest time this year due to her busy schedule and one for my neighbour.

A mixture of green tea, white lotus as well as custard fillings.

Hope she can get to gobble them down for tea or supper if she is camping in her office again =p

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清水蛋糕

2010-09-20T21:53:00.002+08:00

Finally !!! Did my ever first bake on cuppie ! To be frank, I don't dare to bake on my own because I am afraid that it might flop ! I waited and waited till I found this really simple recipe !

This is known as Clear Water Cake (Sponge Cake),清水蛋糕.

It's really soft and Xav couldn't stop eating ! I made this for him for his teabreak.

Came across some new terms which I learnt at the same time.

Frothy: Foamy or bubbles forming in the egg white mixture.

Stiff peak: Egg white mixture stands up straight when beater is lifted up from the bowl while it is still moist and glossy.

Pour them into the cups

and ready for the oven !

It will sink a little after it has been cooled down and I like it as it's not too sweet yet it's so soft.

Give this a try !

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Fireman Learning Kit

2010-09-17T19:15:00.002+08:00

Finally, it's done ! Took me about a month or so to do it and waited until we visited the Central Fire Station then I enforced the follow up with Xav !

This folder contained mini flashcards on the fire fighting equipment and a pocket to hold the cards.

I am still trying to plan where should I position the pocket.

On top is a row for "Making Patterns" with the cute little fireman and fire extinguishers. Each row has 10 blanks and can add more if you wish to.

Next, is a mini colouring booklet where Xav can colour on.

There are about 11 different colouring pages where he can colour on. Am still thinking if I should laminate them and let him use the washable markers or just let him use colour pencils or crayons as the feel of using different medium is really different !

Am still trying to develop more activities in the folder as he learns.

Behind the folder, he can play shadow matching game and am glad that he is doing well ! He managed to get all in the correct places.

Last but not least is the "Spell your name" folder. I have yet to cut out the alphabets to stick on. This can help them to spell their name by rearranging the letters !

This is a good site to visit for making your own Fireman lapbook !

Stay tuned for the next learning kit ! It sure keeps the little ones occupy !
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Banana prawn rolls

2010-09-16T23:52:00.002+08:00

Chanced upon a recipe here and it's definately a good way to use up the remaining super ripe bananas.

Made this for dinner and was certain that it's a hit for Xav. He loves it.

Marinate the 300g of shell and deveined prawns with:
1. Half a chicken stock cube (I use the knorr chicken powder instead as I don't have chicken cubes)
2. Pinch of sugar and salt
3. 1/2 tsp of tapioca flour or corn flour
4. 1 tsp sesame oil
5. 1/2 tsp Hua tiao wine

Other ingredients:
1. Vietnamese rice paper
2. 2-3 ripe bananas

Method:
1. Marinate the prawns until mixture becomes elastic and bouncy, leave aside for 10-15 mins.
2. Gently mix in banana

Wrapping:
Was told to soften the rice paper in lukewarm water.

But the skin broke very easily.

Was given a tip that use wet cloth to wipe instead of wetting it with water so retain the springy feel of the rice paper.

Ready to be pan fried for a healthier choice and remember to eat it piping hot ! It's definately juicy and tasty !

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