Wonderday day =)

It didn't start off promising. Woke up and then discovered V's diapers leaked yet again *sigh* so changed her and let her sleep on top of the towel. She made us smile with a cheeky remark though ...

My nephew and niece came over today to play as they wanted to baked the yummy butter cookies. Well, I got flattered so of course I agreed :P I tested out the new stand mixer (didn't want to use my kenwood major chef else the kids will be yelling away and I can't hear them) and it was pretty good. I made 1 batch and the kids quickly got bored (what else) so they went off to make a ruckus in the bedroom while I patiently shaped the dough into logs and put them into the fridge. Given then I am in the chocolate mood, I made another batch, adding 1/2 cup of cocoa powder to the mixture. The verdict? We all loved the chocolate ones. So much so that my sister swiped more from the tray as she made me packed more for her to take away. I barely have more than 30 for the chocolate ones. The butter ones I still had another 50 or so, but I can always share the "fats" with my colleagues or V's teachers. I'll probably make another batch tomorrow and some cakes on Sunday. I have some sour cream I have to use up.

V was upset that her cousins left while she was asleep, but nothing my newly minted fabulous chocolate butter cookie couldn't fix. She had 2 and was all smiles again.

#2 on the other hand, didn't see much of me today, and was crying out for me at every time he saw a glimpse of me (if I wasn't carrying him). In fact, he gave his happy smile when I kissed him on the cheek. I spent some time with him alone too, tickling him and he laughing away merrily. I feel terrible that #2 almost seems neglected since V takes up most of our time and she sleeps with us. But the bonding that we did in Hawaii remains intact, and he still wants "mama". Yes, he can call me quite clearly now and when he's in the cheeky mood, he will just shake his head when we ask him to call me.

Speaking about shaking head, he likes the "rap" that the cartoon network plays for the "Adam Lion" trailers - the one that goes "funky monkey funky monkey, who's the funky monkey" (I think!). I would sing out to him at times and he would happily bounce on my lap, and his latest "act", with his head shaking away. Today, he was merrily grooving to Madonna's music as I was catching up on Glee's episodes.

Ya, it's nothing short of wonderful, and thinking of him grooving to Madonna's music has got me slightly worried, but it sure bring on the smiles!

Chocolate Bread? Chocolate Cake? Chocolate Muffin?

What's with the confusion? Not that I couldn't decide what to bake or what to eat, but rather, the final product that I actually baked.

See, I had this sudden brilliant idea about a chocolate bread and I finally tested it out. It's not that brilliant as in other bakers couldn't have done it, but it's brilliant in that sense my brains FINALLY thought of it. It was just a variation of the basic bread recipe that I had working for me. Sounds duh? Ah well, that's how "sad" my baking are these days =(

Anyway, I threw the ingredients into my breadmaker before I slept and I did wake up a few times in the middle of the night, woken up by the wonderful smell which had practically invaded the house. I was wondering who was cooking something really yummy, but I was way too groggy to remember that it could be the bread. My hubby tried waking me up and I was mumbling about that I was only getting up later when I remembered about my bread and almost jumped out of bed. He must have been astonished why I got up suddenly and was so awake.

When I opened up the breadmaker, my heart sank a little. The load wasn't really high, and I was thinking if I had messed up on the yeast, and if it was just going to be a tough HARD loaf that was going to break my teeth (inside family joke). I turned the pan upside down onto the board and the loaf slide out BEAUTIFULLY. I tried to slice it, and I went "wow" as my knife went in smoothly without any resistance. And finally, the taste? See the title. The texture was unlike a bread. It was a cross between a cake and a muffin, because the texture was really FINE. And yah, it was crumbly, probably have to add another egg or 2 to the recipe. Needless to say, I'm happy. VERY happy. This was probably the best BREAD I ever had baked.

Machine: Carrefour's Blue Sky Breadmaker

Setting: 900g Load, Light Colour

Cycle: Basic

Time started: 9:30pm

Time checked: 6:30am

Ingredients

(starting from items to be placed inside the pan first)

300ml milk (warm)

1/4 cup butter or 1/2 stick butter or 75g butter

1 egg (probably will increase to 2 the next time I try it)

400g flour

50g dutch processed cocoa powder (tudor or van houten brand)

6 tablespoon of sugar (if you like it a little sweeter, then add 1 more tablespoon)

3/4 tablespoon of instant yeast

1/2 teaspoon of salt

To add: 1 cup of couveture dark chocolate drops when the machine beeps/ or after the machine has finished kneading the first round.

If you want some resemblance of chocolate chips in the bread, add only during the final kneading stage. Couveture chocolate melts very easily, and is unlikely to have some bits left, so you may want to try adding normal semi sweet chocolate chips instead.

Bon appetit!

V is angry with her KM teacher!

For today's class, she was supposed to have drawn a map of where she stays and the surroundings. The hubby asked me to do, and I told him just print it off the street directory!

In anycase, we forgot all about it and turn up empty handed. We were there earlier got #2's class but we forgot about it until we saw her classmates bringing their maps. Argh. I had to get some paper and drew a rough map and was panicking until I realised, we were NOT the only parents who forgot! WAHAHAHAHA!

There were about 3 or 4 of us drawing away in the class, and I was frantically just drawing ugly cars and houses (ok my drawing is BAD) and adding some splashes of colours here and there. Time's up and we had to hand in "our homework".

After that, the class started so I went to do my grocery shopping for #2's porridge and then went for lunch. The hubby came back with V and he was smiling. Apparently V threw a fit when she realised the game they had to play involves standing on the maps that they all drew. She refused to step on her map, she refused to step on other student's maps. She was so upset that she even refused to say good bye to the teacher. She was sulking when I saw her with a brand new piece of paper (guess that didn't make her any happier) and she refused to eat what we had for lunch. In the end, she gave in to her hunger pangs and had some of the pizza. She ended up with the meal smiling, so here's hoping she won't remember what happened this week, and refused to participate in the class next week!

and al it took was ...

2 gummy bears (vitamin gummy bears) to be exact.

V threw a tantrum with the hubby last night and refused to allow him to switch off the bedroom light. The hubby was tired and sleepy as it was the tail end of his required yearly duty to the govt and he wanted to sleep. Me? I was blissfully hiding in the shower when the "discussion" went off.

In the end, V cried and shouted when he refused to give in and switched off the lights. The hubby gave her an ultimatum to stay in the bedroom or stay outside of the bedroom. Well, she choose outside when she saw me sneaking out the laundry from the bathroom. She followed me to the backyard, crying that she wants the lights to be on, yadah yadah for at least 5 minutes. I tried distracting her with her new blinking LED toothbrush and toys but it didn't work. In the end, I spied my Karihome goat milk sweets on the table and offered one to her if she would stop crying. She stopped crying almost immediately and agreed. She picked the white one and then went "I want 2!" Then I thought about it and went, how about the gummy bears? She immediately threw the sweets back into the can and smiled. The change was almost instantenously and start chatting to me about how red the gummy bears were and etc etc. We went into the bedroom and she had her milk happily. She even went "wo ai ni baba mama" "wan an" "zo tao" and "bon noo la la mi" (bon nuit mon ami). It took her almost 30 minutes before she fell asleep and I snuck out to do some household chores.

It's been a long long 2 weeks, at least to me (well, yes, including my birthday, but it was seriously a utter non-event, although it was quite eventful).

Let me see ... some of the events...

1. Maid went home to attend a funeral, back next week.

2. Hubby started his annual obligation to the govt, just ended on Friday.

3. The kids' paternal great grandfather passed away the week before last.

4. V had loose stools over a week and mysterious rashes on her hands and arms. Thankfully not HFMD!

Weekends were burnt needless to say so I didn't really get a chance to rest over the weekends ... went to work really exhausted and it's like a 7 day work week.

There were bright sparks too ... V has started voluntarily speak chinese to me. The other day, she pointed to the banana and said something. I couldn't quite catch it and made her repeat. It sounded like gibberish until I realised she was speaking chinese! She said "我要这个".

Good, at least I don;t have to worry about her chinese now!

Don't call me Jiejie!

V has this irritating habit lately - don't call me XXX, I am YYY, and the variation can change almost instantly. For eg,

Mummy: Good morning, sweetheart.

V: Don't call me sweetheart, I am baby.

Mummy: Good morning baby then.

V: Don't call me baby, I am Jiejie!

Mummy: Fine, good morning jiejie.

V: Don't call me jiejie, I am baby!

Mummy: ARGGGGHHHHHH

Then very recently, this was added to the variation.

V: Don't call me jiejie, I am TEACHER!

and when I was assigned to be the "STUDENT", I couldn't stop giggling.

My favourite "TEACHER"'s phrase:

"Don't look at your toes, TEACHER is not there."

mama!

My #2 has been making noises like baba, mama, ber ber, jer jer and he could even cough to amuse himself (he is coughing quite badly though).

So I thought nothing about his baby noises until this morning, the hubby carried him into our bedroom and he went "ma ma ma ma" when he saw me. Then I realised recently he has been making the "ma ma ma ma" sound when he wants me.

So ya, I think my boy knows I'm "mama" and does that count as his first word?

Tiring weekend

It's the weekend, and with the Sat as a PH, it guess it felt like a long weekend, even though it wasn't.

#1 was whiny beginning Fri night and throughout Saturday. I kinda gave up on her and just let the hubby deal with it.

My boy was having the sniffles but both of us were busy at work so I couldn't take time out to bring him to the doctor. He is starting to cough too - I am not sure if it's wheezy but it's definitely phelgmy. So I decided to nub him - he wasn't used to it at all (the last we nub him was 4 months ago) and he cried non-stop. By the time we were done, he was literally wet with tears and mucus! Anyway it seemed to do the trick and he seem to breathe much better. I wanted to bring him to the doc on Sat but yes, they're closed cuz of the PH. I can imagine the super long queues on Monday and I'm definitely not looking forward to that.

Then ... I woke up with a really bad tummy ache on Sat - and it got worse. I couldn't even pump without crouching in agony as my intestines merrily twisted away. To top it off, I had this buzzing headache that stayed with me for the entire day. So I slept most of my day away - and poor #2 was missing me (he could see me but I was in no shape to carry him). I finally got around to having my dinner at 9pm and #2 accompanied me to watch Glee for a while - he just sat on my lap and watch them sing their hearts out.

On Monday, the hubby goes for his ICT and I sure hope I can deal with both of them ... I hate the driving part most - in the morning traffic, the evening traffic and worse, if it's raining.

Time to go out ...

#2 is learning fast - when he sees me with a bag on my shoulder, he knows I'm going out ... and without him. So these days, if he sees me with a bag, he will immediately wail and try to jump into my arms, and then cling on tightly, refusing to go to anyone else.

So .... we kinda trick him .... someone else will just carry an empty bag on their shoulder and offer to carry him. Most often than not, he falls for it and leaps into that person's arms and then ... oops ... why is the person putting the bag back on the seat?

Mostly I try not to "trick" him unless I really to go to run some errands or to use the loo. I quite enjoy the new "attention" he is lavishing on me now ... I bring him along with me if I can, but I can't I will just give him his favourite biscuit as compensation.

He can't say 'no' yet but he sure knows how to shake it. In fact, when he is in a deliriously happy mood, he can shake non stop for a minute or so. But now, he seems to be able to associate "shaking head" for "no". The other day someone offered to carry him, and he took a look at that person and promptly shook his head.

Yes, he's a choosy sorta fellow too ;P

One of my favourit pics of #2

Isn't he cute???? Taken at 6 months old.

#2 updates

His 5th and 6th teeth are coming through the top now - he doesn't look as cute with 2 and 2, but I guess I'll get use to him.

He's quite happy to be carried by me these day, but even more so by the hubby. He also enjoys his KM classes, especially if there are lots of pretty babes to look at.

He's learning to stand without support and fighting for toys with the sister. Gee, he's really loud and fierce too.

One of his favourite toys these days is my water bottle. He's fascinated by it - he will laugh when he touches the wet surface (condensation) or when the water swirls in the bottle.

Yup, he's 10 months too, soon to be 1 year old! wow ....

a nice weekend

This weekend was relatively nice - managed to have time to bring the kids to the pool. We had an early start yesterday, brought them at about 11 am and they refused to get out of the pool. However, once they were out, showered and fed, they both knocked off for a nice long nap - #2 about 3 hours and #1 about 2 plus hours.

In the evening, we had to return some very overdue-d library books and so we brought the kids out, #2 was on the spur of the moment. He already had his porridge and was playing on the mat when he saw us trooping out and started crying and crawling frantically towards me (how dramatic!). So I scooped him up, grab some diapers and his water bottle and we were out of the door. Yes, I was praying frantically he wouldn't pooped or throw up all over himself or us! Then we stopped at Macs to get some ice cream. This #2, he kept staring at this pretty girl at a table about 5 oclock position from us, so he kept his body twisted and ogling at her! Even as I fed him some bread, he just kept his head and body locked in that position, and just opened his mouth for me to feed him. He was very happy, laughing away and occasionally look at our table to check on us. Girls, beware of him ok?

Today, #1 refused to sleep the entire day, and I have no idea how she kept up with it. She finally slept at 9:30pm, after much coaxing. I brought them out to swim in the evening too - this #2 laughed so loud when I asked him "Swimming?" #1 was jealous as she was somewhere else when I asked #2. She heard it from the helpers and was calling for me. When she finally found me, she went " Didi go swimming? Mummy bring him?!?!?!" I told her, yes, but with her. So she was quite happy and went "NOW NOW NOW????" I wanted to take a short nap but gave up so got them to change and then went down to the pool. I was freezing away in the cold water but the 2 kids were happily playing with the water. #1 is now less scared of the water jets and would ask me to bring her nearer to it. #2 would just happily splash his way around with his tongue sticking out. Then we had to go out so that the hubby could get his hair cut - #2 spotted my bag on my shoulder and went crying, and trying to cling on to me. Too bad for him, I cannot manage both of them as #1 would definitely be cranky. In the end he had to stay at home while #1 got to go out with us. Normally #1 will complain about hot food, but I bought this OCK carrot cake for her - it was so hot that I had difficulty holding on to it, but she insist she would be careful and she chomped it all down within 5 minutes!

I really need to get the aircon fixed - i set it at 20 degree C and it's barely even cool! time to spend $$ again =(

SplishSplashSplosh time

Brought the 2 kids to the swimming pool TWICE today - once in the morning and once in the late evening.

V was OK since she has at least 3 to 4 swimming gear to choose from, but for Ian, I had nothing other than the disposable swimming diapers. Anyway I decided he wouldn't know what I dress him in as long as there's no photographic proof ;P So this cheapskate mummy dug out V's swimming bottom with in the built in "guard" (which was BRIGHT pink and flowery) and one of her short slip swim top. One parent actually called my boy "mei mei" but I just kept quiet. In the evening, I managed to dig out another one-piece pink and purple swimming suit. OK, I will get around to getting proper boy color swimming attire for him soon :P

Well, the #2 kinda went crazy in the pool. He was splashing around happily with his tongue stuck out all the time. The 2 kids were just screaming away as they were splashing away at each other. I managed to find the older yellow float, so both kids had a float each (V refused to share her pink hello kitty one). I am going to take lots of photo next time, they looked so happy and cute as they were splashing each other silly!

Trusted and Tried recipes ... con't (cakes II)

With the pound cake ring recipe, I also made a chocolate version.

Using the exact same ingredients, reduce 50g of the self-raising flour and add 50g cocoa powder, though I think the result would be just as great if I had added just the 50g cocoa powder without reducing any of the self-raising flour.

What I did with this recipe was to put 1 oreo cookie at the base of the cups and then add the batter on top (think we made about 24 cupcakes with half of the batter). With the other half, I added 1 cup of coveture dark chocolate drops and then baked it as a 7inch round cake (butter the cake tin and line it with baking paper) (the final product as the top picture).

Trusted and Tried recipes ... con't (cakes)

This recipe is taken from All-Colour Baking Book (1983) and most of the recipes in this book are winners - no matter how badly I screw up the job. I even won a consolation prize for a baking contest held in a school fair some *erm* 20 years ago.

Anyway, this recipe is also my all-time favourite recipe that I go to when I need a good, solid, buttery cake.

Pound Cake Ring

(modified slightly only)

Ingredients

250g self raising flour

225g butter (I used a 250g block/ 1 cup of salted butter)

350g caster sugar (I used only 250g sugar)

4 eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla essence

grated zest of 1 orange (or you could use lemon)

225g sour cream (they only sell 215g cups in the supermarket so I used only 215g)

Icing sugar to dust

Method (using stand mixer)

1. Preheat oven to 175 degree C.

2. Cream softened butter with sugar on medium speed for 5 to 7 minutes.

3. Add eggs, one at a time. If you cannot stand the curdling that will definitely happen, add some flour (1 tablespoon or so).

4. Divide flour into 2 portions. Add 1st portion of flour and beat till well combined. Add sour cream. Beat till well combined. Add 2nd portion flour and beat till well combined.

5. Batter will make about 40 cupcakes (base of cupcake liners/ cups 1.75 inches - just enough to fold 1 oreo cookie). Fill to just slightly over 1/2 halfway.

6. Bake for 30 minutes to 45 minutes - why the discrepancy - my oven doesn't have a fan so it takes MUCH longer to bake. For ovens with fan, it would not take so long. In anycase, do the skewer test to make sure it's done.

7. Cool, and then dust with icing sugar to decorate. Ice with frosting if you wish.

Trusted and Tried recipes

For V's birthday cakes, I used a total of 3 recipes for the cakes and 2 recipes for the frosting/ icing. I'll post the 2 cake recipes I liked, of which one was a new recipe and the other was tried and trusted recipe.

New Recipe Tried, Modified and Passed

Brownie Cupcakes

Adapted from: http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Brownie-Cupcakes

Original Ingredients and comments:

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (aka plain flour)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (I omitted it since I was using salted butter)
• 4 squares unsweetened chocolate chopped (I assumed = 4 oz)
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter cut into pieces (assumed = unsalted butter - I used SCS salted butter)
• 1 cup granulated sugar (original called for 1.5 cups)
• 4 eggs lightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons clear vanilla extract (I forgot to add but it was still good)
• 2 cups pecans chopped (optional) (didn't bother to add)
• Added: 1/2 cup cocoa powder (Van Houten or Tudor brand is a good choice)(adjust to own taste - see notes)

Since I made a variety of sizes, I am not sure how many standard cupcakes this would have made - the recipe says 20 though.

My Method using a stand mixer:

1. Preheat oven to 160 degree C.

2. Melt butter (I used microwave oven) and pour it over the chocolate. Stir until chocolate melts and well combined.

3. Pour into mixing bowl and add sugar. Mix on low to medium speed until sugar has slightly melted and mixture has cooled slightly (otherwise if it's too hot, your eggs will cook when you add it in).

4. Add eggs one by one - mix on medium speed. Add vanilla essence.

5. Add flour - mix on low speed else you get white clouds mushrooming from the mixer, until well combined.

6. Fill cups 1/2 to 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes or so, depending on the size of your cupcakes (note: my oven doesn't have a fan, so it usually takes longer to bake. Do the usual skewer test - no crumbs stuck to your skewer when poked into the cake and taken out.

7. Cool on rack and then iced with your preferred choice of icing.

Note about the original ingredients: I generally don't like my cakes too sweet, so I normally reduce the sugar based on sight. I like my shortcuts too, so I normally use salted butter. I added cocoa powder because when I tasted the batter, it was lacking in the chocolately "oomph" so I just add cocoa powder until the batter tasted right. I estimated that I added about 1/2 cup of cocoa powder since I used at least 3 very heaped tablespoon of cocoa powder. Given that I normally don't do well with brownies, this is a good and forgiving recipe. It was really good to eat - better if I had added nuts.

Important note - this recipe is good if using paper liners - it doesn't detach itself from it so it won't tumble out from the paper cup, unlike the other butter cake recipe I tried.

HFMD??

The sunday music class called up and informed that one of #2's classmate had HFMD. *argh* the last time we had such a scare, it wasn't fun. The only 'good' thing is that it's already past V's birthday.

I'm concerned as #2 was feverish a few days ago, and he had some rashes on his belly button. In anycase, I told the helpers what to look out for and I'm really crossing my fingers that the kids would be safe. The incubation period is 5 to 7 days and so, yes, the kids are still at risk so we will just have look out for any outbreak/ signs this weekend (there goes my nice restful weekend again).

Giggly #2

#2 seems to be back to normal, as in his "on and off" relationship with me.

I brought him for his class yesterday and 5 mins before the class ended, he was sound asleep. He just fell asleep without making any complaints and even adjusted himself for a comfortable position!

In the afternoon, he didn't mind me carrying him when he woke up from his nap and even "chose" me ;P In the evening, I was trying to read him a book and well, I read the book, he licked the book and attempted to chew a piece off it. V came in to join us and she quickly caught on she was to "share" since mummy shared things with #2 if she didn't!

By his bedtime, #2 was doing his giggle and kick trick - see me or V, he would start giggling out loud and kicking his legs furiously. I hope he didn't have any nightmares last night!

It was a nice ending to the weekend ... and I hope of more such times with my kids to come ...

Vanessa's Birthday cakes

This year, for some strange reason, I decided to bake V's birthday cake - I had no clue what I wanted to do, and I didn't plan beforehand since by the time I had to bake, I had to bake it (time past too quickly!).

For her school's party, I decided to try 2 new recipes - I didn't hear any complaints from the school so it should be ok? The cake decorating was also on the fly - whatever it seemed nice on the spot!

For her birthday party at home, I vaguely planned for cupcakes with a small cake on top, and I didn't want to spend money on a cupcake display stand (yes I am a cheapskate!) ... so I improvised with Wilton's cupcake holder as the "stand" and I bought 2 cake board as the "plates".

Even as I baked the cake, it was touch and go, since I was *erm* still improvising away! I end up having 60 cupcakes - 1/4 as pound cake with a touch of orange zest, 1/4 as the former with added chocolate chips and 1/2 chocolate pound cake with oreo biscui

ts as the base. The 7 inch cake was the same chocolate pound cake with added chocolate chips.

Then ... came the decorating :P I still no had idea what I wanted to make, so I made it up as I decorated it. The end product? Scroll to the end to see :P

The recipes will follow in the next few days ...

This was the cakelettes for V's party at school.

The variety of cupcakes offered ;P

The cake closed up ...

Cake with the pooh candle

V was out when I was doing up the cake - she came back and zoomed straight to the cake. She then went "WOW!!!"

Needless to say, it was one of the proudest mummy's moments =)

Happy Birthday Princess!

Ok, the "big" party was today - she had one in school yesterday but today was with the family.

I'll post up the pictures lately, but I think I am quite done with baking for a little while. The next cake for Sunday would be a cheesecake / cakelettes, so it wouldn't be such a "pain" (due to lack of storage, I have to empty out my oven everytime I bake).

For her school, it was quite experimental - the good, the brownie recipe kinda worked but I had to add at least 50g of cocoa to it to make it taste chocolately. The butter cake recipe ... well it worked but I didn't like the taste. And I should have bought the cupcake cups *darn* I ended up with 4 different sizes of cupcakes for her class and school mates. It should be a "success" since all the containers came back empty :P I also decorated it with some help from Vanessa, but it was a "hack" job and I just did it like a mad artist out of creative ideas :P One of the major bloopers was the buttercream icing - let just say one big tub (over 1 kg of icing) went to waste because the recipe didn't say to add when the chocolate is cooled *sigh*

For today's party, I went back to the basic, my favourite pound cake recipe which has never failed me. I tweaked a little by making it a chocolate pound cake too. So one batch was "spiced" up with orange zest and some chocolate chips (for those who didn't want chocolate or chocolate overdose), the other batch was overdose on chocolate. All in all, I made 60 cupcakes and 1X7inch cake. Would I have saved money by ordering the cakes instead? I might :P since I bought new "kachang" to use but it was FUN :P

I still had my good buttercream icing from the day before so it saved some time to make more icing. I only made 1 batch of glaze for the chocolate cupcakes since the chocolate cupcakes were way too *short* to do much.

I actually managed to complete decorating her cake and cupcakes without any disaster so I am quite pleased with myself. I just hope the hubby has some nice pictures since I didn't take any!

Using the sugar butterflies and flowers from BIY was a breeze and time-saver! One of my nieces liked it so much she swiped 4 of the figures from the cupcakes before it even started! I think at the end of the party, she had 10 of them, in her tummy!

At the party, one of the daddies liked the cake so much he ate mostly cake and nothing else. It was so funny, because everytime I saw him, he was eating a piece of cake. His wife actually sampled all the different variations I had. I'm glad I found some fans for my baking!

We didn't cater in this round but we made most of the food:

1. Laksa (enough for 30 bowls)

2. Vegetable Thai Green curry

3. Ngoh Hiang

4. Chicken soup with fishballs (for the kids)

5. Chocolate dip with fruits and marshmallow

We bought some packed chicken nuggets/ fish fingers and baked them (healthier choice!) and ordered in satay and bee hoon.

It was crazy doing all the stuff but we survived. Now everyone is sleeping to regain their energy while I am doing my usual mummy duties.

I'll post up recipes with the photos!

Quick updates on #2

1. #2 top 2 teeth erupted about 1 week ago

2. #2 can now pull himself up and stand in the crib

All while mummy is not around ... I feel so ... sad =( not to mention now he doesn't need/ want mummy anymore.