Sail, Sail Boat…
Just can’t wait till tomorrow. See you guys on Monday.
Have a nice weekend and I sure will. 🙂
Jonathan’s Meal #3
Darling loves bitter gourd so he thinks his Junior has too favour bitter gourd like him. He has been pestering me to let Jonathan boy try out bitter gourd. I was a bit reluctant cause from the name you already know it’s bitter so do you think a baby would like it? I, myself don’t like bitter stuff. I only take bitter gourd if it is cooked with scrambled egg, tau chu (fermented soya beans) or deep fried (for banana leaf rice). They say bitter is good. That’s the reason all medicines are bitter especially chinese medicines.
So here, I bought the baby bitter gourd. I cut into thin strips so that at least if Jonathan boy dislike it, I can put aside the bitter gourd but give him the porridge only instead. I put in some diced carrot and wolfberry for the colour. I also added red dates to give some sweetness to the bitterness. Since this is a first try, so no fish is added otherwise some fish or meat will provide additional nutrients.
I tasted the porridge myself before giving it to Jonathan. Bleeek…it’s bitter. For that moment I thought the porridge will go to waste. First try…give him the porridge first and he swallows it. Second try…give him the bitter gourd and he chews it. Lastly…he finished everything as though he has lost his taste bud.
Since Jonathan boy can accept the bitter gourd, I chopped the bitter gourd on my next try so that it mix well with the porridge and I added some fish too.
I read from some articles that to reduce the bitterness, the bitter gourd is salted and exposed to direct sunlight for few hours. After few hours, its salty, bitter water is reduced by squeezing out the excess by hand. Then rinse with water a few times. I’m going to try this method on my next cooking. So, happy trying!
Can’t Wait Till Christmas
Crossing away each box on my table calendar. Looking forward to reach the box with number 19 in the month of December. Yup, that should be my last day of work before I go off on Christmas holiday (that is if my boss approve my leave. *finger crossed*).
I am so excited that it’s November now. And that gives me a good reason to shop and spend.
HE: Why are you buying this, Darling?
ME: Oh, for the kids’ Christmas present!
HE: *Nod his head indicate can buy*
So now you get what I meant by good reason to shop and spend? I have a collection of stuff which I bought over the time whenever I spotted a good bargain and nice stuff. So when it comes to someone’s birthday or Christmas, I don’t have to shop at the last minute. I rummaged through my collection yesterday and fulfilled almost 60% of my gift list. Leaving the remaining 40% as a reason to shop. Hehe…
My Christmas gift list is getting longer each year as we have new addition in the family each year. Gifts for my Darling, Jonathan boy, my parents, 5 sisters, 7 BIL, 8 nieces, 3 nephews, MIL, 2 SIL, 1 SIL-to-be. One family needs to buy for almost 20 person and so I have 6 of us (my sisters & me) in the family, that makes 20 x 6 = 120 gifts. The foot of the Christmas tree will always overflow with lots of presents and some hanging on the tree.
That was our 7 feet Christmas tree last year.
That reminds me that I need to shop for a Christmas tree this year as I gave away my Christmas tree to my sis. I’m looking for a much bushier tree. I know there are names to different kinds of trees. I’m also thinking of a fiber optic tree. Any recommendation?
A Sand and Sea Time…
Praise the Lord for the good weather. It was a bright and sunny afternoon. All set for a great beach time. Sis and I each prepared some snacks and finger foods.
Baked chicken wings, baby potatoes & broccoli salads, fresh fruits from me. Vietnamese spring roll, inari and guacamole as the dipped for nachos from sis.
We headed to Pantai Morib which is the nearest beach from Klang but ended up at Pantai Kelanang about 5km from Morib. It is a mangrove swamp which the Selangor government turn into a major seafront 4 years ago. We had been there 2 years back so this time was a revisit.
All set to swim but it did not materialised because the beach water is too murky as it’s a mangrove swamp. So the kids ended up playing with sands on the soft sandy beach.
I put Jonathan to stand in the water but he got scared seeing the waves rushing towards him. He had a great time playing with sands and the beach toys. He is smart of not putting sands or fingers in his mouth.
It pays to gain some fun and so we ended up with itchy legs from the sandflies bites till today. *scratch…scratch…*
For Egg & Burger Lover
My Darling is an egg lover. He can’t live without eggs. His favourite is half-boiled egg but funny thing is he himself could hardly done up a perfect half-boiled egg.
Let me share with you my Darling’s own recipe of burger with egg. For those of you who are health concious, this is definitely something you are not interested in. But no harm trying it once, who knows you may fall in love with it.
First, place a piece of burger meat in a bowl.
Then, break the egg on top of the burger meat. Tap some pepper and/or soya sauce. Put it to steam until the burger meat is cooked which is approximately 10 minutes.
Here, serve with chilli or tomato sauce and mayonnaise.
I’m not a professional photographer so the pictures don’t look so great but the taste sure are! But we find that the burger meat is not as tasty as before.
Fun Fair in Town
There’s a fun fair in town just beside Aeon Bukit Tinggi shopping mall. Euro Fun Park they called it. Since my SIL and her daughter was here last Saturday, we decided to bring the little ones there. Moreover it’s Jonathan’s first time so we want to see how is his reaction towards the whole event and rides. I just can’t remember how long ago since my last entrance to a fun fair.
We have to pay for an entrance fee and it’s not cheap…RM3 per adult and RM2 per children. I don’t remember we have to pay to enter during my time many years ago. RM2 for each token and the minimum token per ride is 2 tokens. Truly, it’s expensive…maybe…comparing to my time.
We headed first to the Ferris Euro Wheel and that required 3 tokens per person so that was RM6 per ride just for a few circles of round and round and don’t know how may rounds. But it was all for the sake of Jonathan so we were willing to pay for it…just for this time!
While on the Euro Wheel, he behaved well. He looked around up high in the sky but he was very quiet.
OMG, look at this timid boy. Again, scared like a kitty cat.
He clinged to us most of the time we were at the fair. He is not used to the bombastic sound and music with scarry witch voice. I hope he don’t do that to his girlfriend next time…memalukan.
We headed to Super Jet, another children ride. It is sort like jets on the tentacles of an octopus where it brings you up and down and round and round. Shy to say, both of us (what a big kiddo huh?) sat on the same aeroplane. With Darling’s weight, I can feel the whole thing is going to tumble on our side. The most secure person is Jonathan who we placed in between us. He was so calm. I guess he was shock with Mommy screaming beside him.
That was all we had. After all, I was felling a bit nausea after the Super Jet ride so we headed home and my lunch and dinner just went all into the toilet bowl.
The fair will be here till 31 October 2008. We may go there again with my “Children Next Door”.
Hope you enjoy your weekend, folks! I definitely am cause we are going to the beach. Praying for a good weather.
“O”…for Orange
Jonathan boy is up on the October 2008 issue of Parenthood magazine’s “Baby’s First Meal” photo contest sponsored by Milna. It’s not easy to have your photo selected so I was blessed enough this time and the previous time. Just doing it for fun only when I am free to get those photos printed and post them out on time.
This pic was taken in the ferry on our way to Pangkor Island for my grandma’s birthday. The oranges were so sweet and Jonathan boy just couldn’t resist it and sis managed to snap a candid of this big eater.
Got the Comment Fixed
Only realised that something went wrong with my comment box until one mommy blogger highlighted. Got it fixed by my Darling cum 24 hours tech support. continue reading…
Jonathan’s 1st Birthday Celebration
A good job from Jericca - Pretty Frosting.
Jonathan boy in his birthday pyjamma and shoe.
Just a simple celebration at home with my sis and her kids. Besides the cake, we had KFC for supper.
All his! Nobody can touch the cake or spoon. Big boy already...
Presents time!
Yeah, all for me! And a special present, "First 100 Words" book from my friend, Philip.
It is not a grand one as many would have thought it would be for a child’s first birthday. We are so tempted to have one for Jonathan boy after seeing many parents out there were talking about and making plans for their child’s first birthday party. We think he’s too young to understand all the fun, perhaps we’ll consider a party for him next year when he knows better what birthday is all about. So long there is a cake with candle and Daddy, Mommy singing birthday song, Jonathan definitely a happy kid.
A Complete 12 Months
Everyone says time flies…Jonathan boy is one year old now. As I was swaddling him one night, I suddenly realized how big he is now. No longer the fragile baby I was holding 12 months ago. No longer can fit into my folded arms. From a 4kg baby to a 10kg boy. From 53cm to a height of 72cm. No longer a baby but toddler. We are putting more efforts in nurturing him as he is understanding things-you-do and things-you-said. He is getting more demanding and starts to show his temperament so therefore our instructions have to be clear and more stern now.
He could take one or two quick steps depending on his mood but has yet to walk or I can say refuse to walk. Whenever we hold his hands to guide him to walk, he gets agitated, pull his hands away, sit down and ask us to carry. This is call a “ho mia” (in Hockien) baby, an old aunty was telling me. Few days ago, I noticed that he has started crawling on four instead of combat crawling.
The spoon is his new interest now. There was once I brought him to shopping mall, he sat quietly in the stroller playing with the spoon without disturbing me or asking me to carry. He is most happy when you give him a spoon with a cup/bowl. Once, he refused to eat until I let him conquer the spoon. I only let him practise self-feeding occassionaly as I hate the mess after that.
He is excellent in sipping from straws and also feeding cup. He could now hold his bottle and feeding cup high up. Time to wean him off bottle? Perhaps I should start weaning him off pacifier? Or wean him off my breast? But that’s so convenient…I don’t have to carry milk bottles, milk powders and hot water everywhere I go.
Jonathan boy started to say “ma ma ma ma” or sometimes it sounded like “mum mum mum mum”. He is either referring to food, his pacifier or Mommy. So Mommy is the happy one now. Worth all the effort I’d put in for him. *Big grin*