Teleconversation

I was talking to my cousin over the phone just a while ago, thanking her for the dress she got for Trenyce. She very "you xing", bought dresses for Trenyce every CNY, since last year. We were having a mandarin teleconversation. Not expecting Trenyce to understand a single word, I passed the phone to Trenyce asking her to say 'thank you yi yi (auntie in mandarin)' to my cousin. Much to my amaze, she blurted out:"Thank you yi yi for the dress". Wow man, she understands what we are chatting about? And I am really impressed she can speak so well!

New Blog

I have just started a new blog on cooking :P Not that I can cook very well but I am very inspired to cook well haha...Yeah, to also prepare myself to be a full-time SAHM in the near future (actually duno when hahaha :P)

I may be very slow in updating this blog in the beginning as I only have weekends to work on my recipes but I suppose if I dont ever start this blog, it will take forever for me to do something that I like (I suppose I am a person with plenty of interests but no hobbies :P). Ok, do give me your support so that I can continue this cooking journey yah :)

At the moment, I am using blogspot to host that blog though I find blogspot getting very "jammed" (sometimes having problems updating my blog and in the process wasted alot of precious time to wait or even rewrite) but I havnt got time to look for other blog providers. I wanted this blog to link with my parent blog so perhaps I will just stuck with blogspot if its gonna be very complicated to link up with other blog providers.

Ok, pls welcome *drums roll* MOMMY CAN COOK!

Visit to Ikea & ToysRUs

(1) Ikea
Brought Trenyce to Alexandra Ikea last night. She was so busy posing at the lighting display area and kept asking me to "take photo here" ;D





There were also some very nice children's room decorations. We were so tempt to buy the furniture to decorate Trenyce's room. Well, unfortunately she doesnt has a room now so we get to save our pocket hehe :p We put Trenyce up onto one of the beds. She was admiring the little stars on the tent...


(2) United Square
We went to United Square this afternoon. Trenyce seems bored at home and become really restless, so we brought her to ToysRus. Of course, that would mean we would burn a small hole in our pocket :p Ater walking around for a while, Trenyce (a girl being a girl) becomes very interested in the kitchen section with all the cooking wares and etc. What caught her attention was the Macdonald set and Pizza Hut set. She hung around the area, looking intently at every piece of Mac and PH cute little miniatures, couldnt bear to move herself away. And finally, she broke out:"I want Macdonald plsss...." pleading us to get the toys for her. I was talking to hubby, deciding which set to get for her:

Me: (handing over the PH set to hubby) Mac set has too many paper pieces, she will spoil it in no time. PH set is better.

Hubby: (took the PH set and glanced thru the details) same lah. PH set also got paper pieces and Mac set seems to have more toys than PH set.

Me: (looked at the PH set again then Mac set) Oh yah hor. Ok loh, get the Mac set.

While we were discussing, Trenyce was already holding the PH set observing the little details of the pizza toys. By the time we made the decision to get the Mac set for her, which she wanted originally, she has already been "convinced" to get the PH set. She told us:" This one better (pointing to the PH set), that one too many paper (imitating me, referring to the Mac set)"

Really buay tahan this girl, hahaha...Nowadays, she can really imitate us very well :D

See this, she looks like she really can play piano yah? That's just a kiddy piano at ToysRus :p

Mood: Amusing

Bolster Case

I wanted to get new pillow and bolster cases for my girl for this coming CNY. The current ones are actually passed-downs from her cousins. It seems simple but mind you, this is not an easy task as you think hor.

My little girl has this strange affection for strings since young. The bolster case she uses must come with strings and she will declare war with you for that by refusing to go to bed if you change hers to one without the strings. Nobody, including the grandparents, can make her sleep and she will wail and wail till you give in. It is not that I like to defy her wishes but the problem is you can hardly get bolster case replacements with strings nowadays as it mostly rubberized. What adds on to the tedious task of searching the stringy bolster case is because my little girl is using her baby bolster! (Well, actually she has 2 bolsters – the small baby bolster and big baby bolster. Eventually, I hope to upgrade her to the toddler bolster.) I have been searching everywhere, Robinsons, John Little, Kiddy Palace, Aussino Kids…etc almost anywhere selling babies/kiddies’ stuff that I passed by while shopping…

So one fine day, I really cannot tahan already and complained to my mother. Guess what she suggested? She advised me to retrofit the cases and sew the strings myself haha… My mother is an experienced seamstress so complaining to her is a wise decision! :p Actually would be better if she volunteer her services lah but then now is her peak period preparing for cny, better not "ka-jiao" (meaning disturbed in cantonese) her... So, last night I bought the cases from Kiddy’s Palace and started removing the rubberized thingy and replacing it with the strings. It took me 2 hours just to complete one small baby bolster and there is another big baby bolster waiting for me to work on tonight. I would say this is some work lah but not exactly very tedious, I am just glad that I manage to get replacements for her really-old bolster cases :)

2007 Haircut

It is time for the usual hair-cutting rituals for CNY. I went to my hairdresser on wednesday night and chopped off about 5inches of my long wavy hair which I have kept for about 2yrs... some responses from the people I know on my 2007 look :p

My colle who went with me: “hmm…...very nice.”

My sister (a little skeptical): “wow, you cut so much hair away, grow so long already leh.”
(She seems to be more sayang about the hair than myself :p)

When I got home, my little girl looked at me and said: “Mummy’s hair so messy. Comb your hair!” LOL

My MIL: “Look younger and more cheerful.”

My hubby was indifferent to my new hairstyle: “chey, looks about the same.” Guys seem to be only able to differentiate betw long and short hair, anything in-between is like no difference to them! Buay tahan!

Anyway, I am very pleased with my new hairstyle. Its lighter and easier to manage :D No longer late nights' waiting for the hair to dry....yeah!!!

Fruits-phobia

I had problems getting Trenyce to take fruits nowadays. Not sure what exactly has happened. She use to take apples, oranges and bananas when she was younger and she enjoyed those fruits until she was about 18mths old...she refused fruits entirely, even her favourite daily dose of orange juice. We had to resort to feeding her (with spoon) in front of the television, as that diverts her attention away and makes our feeding job easier. Otherwise, the cup of orange juice would remain untouch.


Her refusal of the fruits coincides with the period after she recovered from a major flu/fever/cough (I called it 3-in-1 illiness), so I am not so sure if the fruity medicine has got anything to do with it. I really suspect that as we would usually coax her into taking medicine by saying the strawberry syrup (which is the medicine) very nice and sweet...blab blab....perhaps we have made things worst by making those statements?


I truly hope that this is just another phase of her toddlerhood and she will get over her fruits-phobia soon..... I am now trying to see how I can make fruits look more interesting and appetitising so that at least can tempt her to take some. Wokkingmum has just given me some tips to make mushroom apple :) Need to get the moulds to start working on it soon. Maybe I can also try making her favourite animals heh. Where can I get those moulds leh? hmm.....

Mine Birthday

Yeah, I am 30 Y.O. officially......hahahaha....

Hubby bought me a really nice bouquet of flowers and I cant wait to put it on the blog to show everyone....but your heart will 'bleed' when you hear the price...Well, that's normal for married couple isnt it...trying to spend more 'wisely' especially if you have kids and/or elderly parents at home....but sometimes we gotta turn a blind eye to what's your partner doing otherwise marriage life will be very boring right?

Here's my beautiful bouquet and the card (the tiny clips are so cute!)...hehehe...






And to those who's having birthdays in the month of February: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY! May all your dreams come true! Many happy returns to you!"

A birthday letter

Received a 'birthday letter' from the immigrations office last week, asking me to change my identification pass aka IC. I didn’t know that I had to change my IC when I turned 30 y.o. so imagine the look on my face when I held the letter in my hand! Well, if you wondered why I had to change my IC…this is part of Singapore's regulation. The last time (when we converted from paper IC to card IC)that I obtained my IC when I was 14 y.o. (So you can still spot some baby fat from the picture on my IC…hahaha) so for those who had their IC before 18 y.o. then will have to change when they turn 30 y.o. loh. My sister didn’t have to as she was the last batch to get her IC changed when turn 18 y.o.… Aiyah, this Immigrations office, I know I am going to be 30 soon but don’t have to remind me of that mah. Women are very sensitive when it comes to age right? Sob sob…..feels so old suddenly ;p

Anyways, gotta submit the application for change within a month. Better do it fast before I forget……... hahaha..

A. B. C

Is it me, myself, a 1st-time mother's anxiety? Or is it Trenyce being naughty for not being cooperative? Or because kids are simply like that and I am over-reacting? I should be more patient with them? I get really worry over Trenyce recently. She does not have much problems identifying pictures like animals, fruits etc but not with numbers and alphabets. She does not cooperate with me when I tried to teach her alphabets or numbers. She will snatch the flash cards from me after I finished my 1st round of introduction and she will imitate me, trying to ‘teach’ me. Most educators suggest that we should repeat whatever we are teaching for minimum 15mins daily, it can be more than once per day. Well, I can barely survive thru the 5mins not to mention the 15mins. Perhaps it’s really me, I got to be more patient. Afterall, last night was the 1st formal session I had with her. I have to try a few more times for at least a month or so. I think by then I should be able to see some results.

Besides this, Trenyce is also unable to identify the colours. We have been exposing her to different colours since she starts blabbering but she can’t seem to remember them. The only colour she can remember so far, without fail, is the colour of her daddy’s red car ;p

I think I have to blame myself partly for putting the responsibility to my in-laws as they are the full-time caretakers and I leave it to them what they like to teach her (also because they are retired teachers mah). On weekday nights when I returned from work, I would usually play with her for a while (not much energy left after work ah). On weekends, we would bring her out jalan jalan (poor thing has been caged at home for the past 5 days). I should really put more focus on educating her now.

I have been delaying making some flashcards for her, it’s time for me to put words into action now!

Our Sitiawan Trip

If you have been to Sitiawan, you would know that you cant leave this place without tasting these 2 popular food items there - FuChow Lor Mee and 'Gong Piang'. If you have not heard of it or been to the place. No worries, I had pictures for you to drool :p

This is the FuChow Lor Mee. While at the shop waiting for our noodles to be ready, I saw this really interesting container. I suppose its meant to keep the flies away from the spoons and chopsticks. Very environmental friendly idea right? Well, we dont get to see much of this in S'pore mah so I took a pic as souvenir and also for Trenyce as keepsake...hehe. Hubby said I "mountain tortoise", container also want to take pictures but I just do it anyway...hehehe...Even the people at the background of the pic were staring at me while I was taking the pic hahaha :p





This is Trenyce demonstrating how to enjoy a nice piece of gong piang. To be honest, the gong piang is kind of hard but Trenyce loves it alot. I think she must have got the FuChow DNA from her grandmother :)

I took some pics of the bakers making the gong piang from the car when MIL was trying to get some on our way back to Singapore. Unfortunately, we didnt manage to get any as most returned back to the hometown around this period so pre-order is required so those that you seen displaying on the shelves are not meant for walk-in sale. Just too bad! :'(

Finally return from break.....Malaysia holiday...

Its been a long 3 weeks…. I have finally rested well enough to start penning for my blog :p Quite a few things to update but I suppose they are all considered good news!

Firstly, we finally went to Sitiawan to visit Hubby’s maternal grandmother despite the rain and floods on the 29th Dec 06. A neighbour of PIL came back from KL the day after we decided to call off the trip. She announced that the roads are passable so we decided there and then to move on. Afterall, we have already planned to travel there. I am sure MIL would have missed her parents very much and would wanted to see them. We stayed for 3 nights and I finally got the chance to visit the Pangkor Island. The ferry trip to the island was about 30mins and I must comment that they have very good frequency, about 30mins interval. The only transport for tourists to get around the island is to charter the “mini-van” Taxi. The charges is RM40 for a 3-hr round island ride regardless of the number of people taking the Taxi. I think it can load around 8-10 pax maximum. We also took the speedboat which cost us RM60 for a quick detour round the island (about 30mins).

(Pic on the left) This was the first time Trenyce wore a life jacket! (Pic at the bottom) Trenyce looks like she really can drive it isnt she? :)


Secondly, I managed to squeeze some time from hubby to make a day trip to Ipoh, my mummy’s hometown! Its been a long 8 years since I last visited the place. It changed a lot with many mega shops around now. The last time I visited the place, there’s only Parkson and Jusco. Now there are Giant, Tesco, Makro ….etc and of course, I get to eat my Ipoh Hor Fan! I even bought 6 packets home to cook and I meant my Singapore home! I also got the usual stuff like the famous ‘hiang biang’ and the pomelos. The only thing I couldn’t bring back is the delicious Ipoh beansprouts, you cant find that kind of fat beansprouts anywhere….I am gonna to miss it again…

Thirdly, SIL and family have finally returned from their one month vacation at Perth. They brought along a piece of unexpected news – They are migrating back to Perth by July this year. We were not really caught surprise by their departure becos we know that someday they will eventually move back to Perth. Its afterall, BIL’s hometown. But we didn’t expect it to be so fast. It could also mean that we wont be able to see each other as frequent as now and meet upon special occasions like CNY celebration or PILs’ birthdays. I understand from SIL that schools in Australia commence in February so this could very well be the last gathering during CNY! Well, all the more it is going to make this year CNY gathering more memorable!

Here are some pics...
Cousin brought us to this place for the famous Ipoh Hor Fan.

Ipoh railway station, I heard its one of the biggest in Malaysia. Its an all white building, looks abit like our newly renovated National Museum, dont you think so?

Trenyce with her Malaysia cousins at the "ji le dong" (translated in english, I think should be called Happy Valley :p).