Goodbye VIOS, Hello Wish!

After waiting an extra 2 days (coz our sales engineer was not in town over the weekend), we finally collected our Black Beauty.

We had our lunch @ Nanyang Poly after I met Daddy at YCK MRT, then we went home to change into something more comfortable... and off we went, feeling kinda excited.

While waiting for our sales engineer to meet us, we went in search of our new car. We finally found her, still being cleaned up for us.

==> There's our car!

So we hung around the lounge area while waiting for the guy to come down. Of course, we took the time to take photos with our trusty & loyal VIOS.

<= With our VIOS =>

Daddy was feeling a little sentimental.... I don't blame him cause the car is with him most of the time. Finally, our Black Beauty arrived at the parking lot.

===> Our new car......

We went through the checklist and made sure everything's in order and moved Baby G's car seat over. We said our goodbye to VIOS for being with us through rain & shine for the last 5 years. We got into Black Beauty and drove off into the sunset........

Oh.. when we picked Baby G up from school, he was really excited to see the new car. Kept looking around the interior and said "new car... new car". Then when we were on the road, all black cars that he saw, he said "new car.. new car".... hahaha....

San
Enjoying her ride

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Since last week I did not have the chance to bake my chocolate chip cookies, I decided that today would be the best time to try it out.

The receipe I had served 48 cookies which I think is a bit too much, especially this is my first try. So I halved everything and came out with 24 cookies, although it could have been more if I had scooped lesser amounts per cookie.

==> Getting ready all the ingredients just before whisking them.

==> The dough after whisking with my xmas gift (electric whisker)
==> Just before baking

==> Dough's getting bigger & bigger

==> Final product.. cookies are a bit large but luckily not humongous.

As usual, my self-appointed taster had the first bite.

First reaction :- "Mmmm.. Not bad" ( can be interpreted as 'he likes it'.. hahahaha )

Delayed reaction :- "Cookies a bit soft" ( but I told him it's supposed to be crumbly & not hard )

My own reaction :- I kinda like it. Best part is that it's not that sweet (maybe cause I put lesser sugar than what was in the orginal receipe).

San

Happy with cookies

IKEA

We decided to go down to IKEA for breakfast today since my card is expiring next Wed (no more free coffee... sob sob). Before that, we went to Giant to pick up our weekly groceries. Supposed to only buy milk powder & bread and we ended up spending $120.... whahaha.... That's the problem with these huge hypermarts.... so many things available, tempting to just buy.. buy... buy.....

I also wanted to get those chilli flakes (that one would normally put on pizzas/pasta), but it cost $5.85 for a small container... so expensive! So, in the end, I decided to get those dried red chillies and grind them up instead and it only costs me $0.25!! End result, it tasted almost similar but slightly more spicy than usual. So from now on, no more ready-made chilli flakes for me. It's simply not worth it.

After loading our stuff into the car, off we went to IKEA for breakfast. At 945am (breakfast starts at 930am), the place was jammed-packed. Lucky Daddy managed to find a seat while I went to collect the vouchers. I managed to borrow the kid's card from FMY but we did not realise that kid's meals were only available after 1030am. So we still went ahead with the normal breakfast and took our time to eat. I was determined to wait til 1030am just to get the kids' meal for Baby G even though he already shared some of our breakfast.

My 2 boys enjoying their breakfast

At 1030am, Daddy went to order the fish burger & fries Kids Meal for Baby G. By that time, Baby G was feeling very sleepy, but he was just as determined to eat his food. He also started to get a little cranky and didn't even want to share his food with us.

<= Falling asleep yet still wan to eat =>

In the end, we quickly packed up (including the small burger) & I carried the wailing boy out of the restaurant. He cried all the way until we brought him to the slide to play. Here, he was much happier and forgot about his burger.

Baby G slept all the way back home.

San

hugs & kisses

Ouch! Ouch!

Yesterday, Baby G got another bite from his classmate. This time it was on the right arm. According to the teacher, he snatched the powder from Student NN and she retaliated by biting him. Lucky this time it's not a bad bite, leaving only a slight bruise. Not as bad as the previous incident by the dreaded Student Z. Anyway this time, it was Baby G who started it all, so I can't really blame Student NN. I told Baby G that he's not supposed to snatch things, but he explained to me that he wanted to "keep NN's powder". So I told him that if he wants to keep things that do not belong to him, he has to ask his teacher first. He told me "ok, mummy".

==> Very mild bruise as compared to the previous incidents.

San

hugs & kisses

Sembawang Shopping Centre

In the morning, I decided to make breakfast, idea courtesy from Hot MaMa's sister's blog. I guess I did something wrong somewhere, the toast was kinda burnt and the egg was not fully cooked. It was kinda runny instead, however, Baby G enjoyed his toasted bread. Looks like it's back to the drawing board.

===> Baby G looks really happy with his toast...



Actually wanted to bake chocolate chip cookies, receipe from EL's friend's blog, but Daddy had to go work and I had to catch up on housework and ironing... so perhaps it'll be my next baking assignment for the next week.

In the evening, we went down to the newly renovated Sembawang Shopping Centre. We met up with Mama, Grandpa & Yee Yee there. The place is sooo different from the previous time, can hardly recognize it. It's become so bright and not so dreary as previously. We had our dinner at Wan Chai (coz the rest of the place had a long queue). After dinner, the main highlight was the 'Splash City'. It was kinda like a water park for kids to play.. they had a dry area and a wet area. The wet area had poles spurting out streams of water (simulating rain) where children can run around and get wet! The dry area is like a normal children's playground with slides, see-saws, etc.


Guess where Baby G was? Of course! The dry area! He just doesn't like to get wet. Hahahaha.


==> Baby G hanging on for dear life....

===> Baby G didn't like this... made him giddy.....

=> Ahh... he prefers the see-saw & the slide.=>
==> Daddy showing Baby G what to do....

San
hugs & kisses

Happy Birthday Ah Goh!

Today we post-celebrated Ah Goh's birthday at our humble abode. We decided on a simple dinner with durians for dessert.

Dinner consisted of :-

Tiong Bahru Market : Chwee Kueh & Siew Mai

Shunfu Market : Hakka Soon Kueh, Glutinuous Rice & Yam

Kovan : Durians & Mangosteens

Instead of writing about it, let me simply show you the pictures....

==> Ah Goh & his "Awfully Chocolate" cake

==> Blowing the candle.... ps. look at where Baby G's eyes are...
==> Cheeze everyone!

<== Durians Galore ==>
==> 1 durian for u, 1 for me & 2 fingers for Alastair.

==> Baby G & Chloe

<== 2 demure-looking sisters ==>

Happy birthday Adrian!

San

hugs & kisses

Chocolate Eclairs

Now that Baby G is HFMD-free, life is back to normal. Since we did not plan any activities for the weekend, I decided to try out another new receipe... Chocolate Eclairs.

The Chocolate Eclairs had 3 main portions; the dough, the cream filling and the chocolate topping. My initial worry was the dough would not turn out well, but surprisingly, the dough was the best among all. In fact, it was the cream filling that 'failed' as it was too sweet for my liking. I think the cream that I bought was not really suitable because after whisking, the sugar still has not melted and the cream became too hard.

(L->R : Melting the butter, Making the dough)

(L->R : Piped out dough filling, After baking)

The final product.

As usual, I appointed Daddy as my taste tester. Here are his comments :-

Dough -> A bit too hard but tastes just like eclairs

Cream Filling -> Also too hard, not smooth & creamy enough

Chocolate Topping -> Okay only

Overall -> Presentation definitely needs more improvement

Post Mortem :-

(1) Use lesser sugar

(2) Buy the right type of cream (perhaps not so thick)

(3) Do not bake too long (keep to 25-30mins)

(4) Work on presentation

Daddy, thanks for the comments.... I will improve on my next try.

San

hugs & kisses

HFMD - Day 7 to Day 8

Day 7 (Thurs) : Today Mummy is back at work, leaving Daddy together with Baby G. As reported from Daddy, they went for a quickie breakfast at Tiong Bahru market after dropping Mummy off at work. Played ball and did some art & craft work. Of course, watched his favourite shows on MioTV. Actually, we think Baby G is HFMD-free but we intend to let him rest one more day and then let him go see the doctor tomorrow for confirmation.

Day 8 (Fri) : Daddy & Baby G sent Mummy to work again and this time, after getting Baby G registered at the doctor's, Daddy took Baby G to Blk 308 for breakfast. He had half-boiled egg & milo for breakfast. Yeah Yeah, doctor certifies that Baby G is finally HFMD-free... woooo.... the doctor gave a letter for us to give to the childcare centre. Oh Oh.... I forgot to mention that there were 5 cases of HFMD (including Baby G) at the childcare centre. All the cases were Baby G's friends but most of them were pretty mild according to the principal.

San
Thank God!

HFMD - Day 6

Day 6 (Wed) : Today Baby G was being more of his usual playful self. We started the day doing the Barney jigsaw puzzle that Mama bought, actually it was more like me passing him the pieces & telling him where to put them. After that we did some colouring activities on his Thomas Train colouring book, also courtesy from Mama. I noticed that Baby G can't really sit through an entire colouring session as compared to doing other games he played. I see visions of me nagging at him to sit down and finish his homework... haha... but that's a story for another time. We also played soccer, ball courtesy from Ah Ma. I even managed to squeeze in some ironing while Baby G quietly watched his Barney VCDs. All in all, I think Baby G is really getting much better. Tomorrow, Daddy will be looking after Baby G. Will try to update again when I get details from Daddy.

San
Thank God for Baby G's quick recovery

HFMD - Day 4 to Day 5

Day 4 (Mon) : The morning started out pretty well. It was about 1am when Baby G called out to me, asking for his milk. As he didn't have much to eat at all, I made about 120ml coz I was afraid he couldn't finish it. Within minutes, he gulped down the milk and promptly fell back to sleep. It suddenly occured to me that he was not in pain. I was pretty glad about as it means that he's on the road to recovery. At about 6am, he called out again for his milk. This time, I was feeling a bit more confident and made 180ml and he finished it too. However, during the day, he started to complain that some parts of his mouth were still in pain and he didn't feel like eating.

Day 5 (Tues) : Glad to say that Baby G is on the road to recovery. He managed to finish 1 entire bowl of porridge that I cooked for him. He also doesn't complain any more about the pain in the mouth. The only 'pain' is from the injured gums caused by him continuously pressing on it when he's trying to 'scratch' out the itch. He was also very active today. Played with his Grandpa, Mama & YeeYee and making them laugh.

San
Praying Baby G recovers

HFMD - Day 1 to Day 3

The dreaded HFMD strikes Baby G.

Day 1 was on early Friday morning on 27th Feb at about 4am when Baby G woke up crying, saying his mouth was itchy. We switch on the light to examine and that's when we found 3 small blisters on the inside of his lower lip. The day before he was down with high fever and Daddy brought him home. Luckily, I was on leave, so I looked after Baby G. I took him to see the doctor in the afternoon when he complained of pain and more 'itchy mouth'. Doc confirmed the presence of HFMD.

Day 2 (Sat) : More blisters appeared and some even formed ulcers on the inner sides of his cheeks, making eating or swallowing all the more painful. Baby G only had water & milk. It was so heart-rending to see him suffer and yet can't do anything to make him feel better except hugging him. At night, he started to feel hungry and asked for milk, but even drinking milk became a painful experience for him. He would take a sip and cry again, cover his mouth and kept trying. I'm really impressed with the way Baby G continued to take his milk even with the pain he must have felt. He's really a brave boy.

Day 3 (Sun) : He was cranky the entire morning. I think the pain is making him feel really uncomfortable. There was a bottle of milk from the previous night that he asked for but didn't finish (at about 1am) so we just left it there and slept. In the morning, he woke up and saw the milk, he took it and didn't want to let go. We had no choice but to snatch it away from him coz it was overnight milk and we didn't want him to drink it. We made a fresh bottle but he insisted on the other bottle and even when we poured the new milk into the same bottle, he still insisted on that bottle. I let him be and ignored him coz he was showing temper and no matter what we did, he didn't listen. Daddy managed to calm him down by distracting him with some toys and balloons to keep his mind off the pain. After he calmed down, he felt hungry again and asked for bread... we peeled off small pieces for him to suck on it and swallow and this time, it worked, he ate about half of a hamburger bun.

--> Rare time when Baby G is calm & relaxed & could smile for me.

San
Poor Baby....

She's so pretty.....

Baby G's hair is getting longer and longer and we have had some instances where Baby G was mistaken as a girl. I've had comments like "她真美".."好漂亮" on some occasions.

In one of those "nothing else better to do" days, I tied up Baby G's hair with my bands while he was watching Teletubbies on YouTube on my laptop. We had a good laugh.

In the end, I cut his hair. Not too bad, i think. Hahahaha....

--> Baby G doesn't like his look

The next day, it was Baby G's turn to have a turn at Mummy. He pasted all the Thomas Train stickers on my leg and said I couldn't remove them. So I had to walk around with them the entire evening.

--> Baby G busy at work....
--> Baby G looking very happy with his masterpiece.

--> His masterpiece and my leg.

San

hugs & kisses