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.