Bible Verse of the Day

Emma Turns One!

March 13, 2014 in Celebrations, Emma, Milestones | 1 comment

Last weekend, we had a small family event to celebrate Emma turning one.  Can’t believe it has already been a year since she was born!

We decided to invite our guests to a lunch buffet at Sarkies in the Eastern & Oriental Hotel, so that meant I would only need to work on the birthday cake. 🙂

I’d been researching possibilities for a cake for baby Emma, but only decided after I finished baking Hannah’s cake.  Daddy suggested a cake in the shape of Mommy since Emma is totally attached to me, but I could not bring myself to make such a cake.  In the end, I decided on this adorable cake which had piqued my interest.

It’s a … Cute as a Button Cake! …for a little baby who is as cute as a button 🙂

I had so much fun making this cake, especially crafting those cute lil’ buttons!

Emma enjoyed some fruits from the fabulous buffet spread.

She enjoyed being carried around, and thankfully, she was rather okay with other guests at the party, giving me a little bit of time to fill my tummy.

There was also evidence of trying to tempt Emma with pretty purses! 😛

Read the rest of this entry »

Hannah’s First Soccer Training

March 11, 2014 in Exercise, Growing Up, Hannah | 1 comment

After a hiatus of about 3 months, Ethan’s soccer training finally resumed at a new location, nearer to where we live.  Ethan was thrilled of course, and was looking forward to the commencement of the session.  However Hannah also expressed an interest to participate in the training.  The facilitator said she could come and try to see if she likes it, so yesterday was the first session.

Daddy was hesitant too, about Hannah’s participation…Hannah being a “princess” and all, but we decided to let her have a go at it, at least for the first time.

She seemed to enjoy the session yesterday because there weren’t many kids then.  She “scored” a few goals herself too, and the senior coach commented that she was rather good.

We’ll see how it goes this Friday.  There’s another session coming up and she says she wants to go again. 😀

(Sorry about the blurred photo – I took them using my phone from quite a distance away)

Conquering His Fear

March 11, 2014 in Ethan, Growing Up, Milestones | No comments

He did it with style just a couple of days ago, when we were at AdventureZone with some of the kids’ cousins.  Years ago, when he first visited AdventureZone, Ethan would only get on the Rainbow Slide, the least intimidating of the three.  Sometimes he would attempt the blue one, but most of the time he will only stick to the Rainbow Slide.

Then last month, when we were there, he went down the Blue Slide (Double Drop Slide), which leads straight into a pool of balls.  He shied away from the (very scary) Demon Drop Slide (red one), which is a 24ft vertical drop!  Very very scary…trust me.

This time though, he said he would go on the red Demon Drop Slide and he really did.  He conquered his fears and even went on the higher of the two options for the Demon Drop Slide.

Bravo Ethan…I’m very proud of you!

Hannah Turns Five!

March 3, 2014 in Celebrations, Hannah, Milestones | No comments

Two days before her actual birthday on March 2nd, we had a little birthday celebration for Hannah in school with her classmates.  As was always the case pre-birthday, Hannah was rather undecided on what kind of cake she’d wanted.  I would say she changed her mind almost every month leading to her birthday, so when she told me she finally decided, I had to ask her a few times to really confirm it.

Here’s my birthday girl with her Sofia the First inspired dress and tiara cake.  She chose the design herself after looking through tons of ideas on Pinterest.

The entire cake is edible, even the fondant and gumpaste tiara, but I had to make some last minute modifications because errr….. there was a slight cake decoration mishap.  But my little girl was happy nonetheless… 🙂  I had tremendous fun baking and decorating this cake too, the highlights being the tiara and the floral designs on the skirt.  Not bad an effort for my first two-tier cake 🙂

I even painted an airbrush glimmer sheen on the tiara to make it sparkle!

Read the rest of this entry »

Hannah Reads

February 25, 2014 in Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones, Parenting | No comments

My little girl Hannah is just about embarking on her next beautiful journey: learning to read.  The fact that she cannot read as fluently as her brother Ethan did when he was her age last time does not bother me one bit.

Ethan was a fast reader and could already string words together before he was 3.  Hannah on the other hand is doing a great job sounding the sounds alphabets make, but at one point, she was frustrated because she could not put these sounds together to form words.

I’m not concerned because as long as I know she is healthy and having fun learning stuff, I’m happy too.  But lately I realized that Hannah could pick up reading more easily and readily when she reads a story repetitively, or when the story is read to her repeatedly.

Here, she is reading one of the books she borrowed from the library.  With fun graphics and easy-to-read words, it’s an excellent start to boost her confidence and jumpstart her on the reading bandwagon.

I love her expressive words!


Emma at 11 Months

February 24, 2014 in Emma, Milestones | No comments

Scrap Credits
Spring Is In QP freebie from Delicious Scraps
Blue Valentine element from Lisete Scrap

Weight

Probably around 9 kilos

Height/Length

Not measured.

Teeth

4 teeth: 2 bottom incisors and 2 upper incisors.

Motor Skills

  • Emma loves to stand with support, especially with her hands on the couch or chair.  She loves banging her hands on the surface of the couch.
  • Cruising a little.
  • Can stand unsupported for like 3 seconds.
  • Emma can clap her hands upon request, for example when we say, “Clap your hands”
  • Sometimes she will open and close her hands when we say “Bye bye”
  • Can manipulate objects better now with her hands and fingers (but everything still goes into the mouth)
  • Very quick in grabbing stuff we are holding, especially drinks and food items.

Communication and Social Skills

  • Calls me “Mama..” or “Mameh” quite often now.  We’ve also heard he saying “Baba” and blowing raspberries too.
  • Loves the remote control.

Others

  • Not sleeping through yet.  SIGH. Wakes up like once a night but stays up for 2-3 hours!! :O
  • Working hard to cure her eczema once and for all.

Food and Feeding

Her diet is mostly 100% on Mommy’s milk, and she eats mostly fruits at other times.  Her favorites are papaya and banana.  We’ve introduced the following to her thus far, not a lot but she does seem to be curious with new foods, which is a good sign:

  • Beef – she’s not too keen on this though
  • Pumpkin

I intend to introduce wheat grains to her sometime this week, so that if she’s ok with it, I can give her teething rusks.

Emma’s getting more and more adventurous with her eating.  She loves to grab the spoon and attempts to feed herself with it.  She also loves to grab my cup and drink from it.  Of course I only allow water 🙂

Birds and Bees Question #33

February 20, 2014 in Ethan, Funny Moments, Growing Up, Hannah, Parenting | No comments

Hannah: Ethan, did Mommy peepee Emma out when she gave birth to her?

(Note: My kids were actually there in the delivery room when I gave birth to Emma)

Ethan: Hahaha…no Hannah.

Mommy (putting on Mommy-the-educator hat): No Hannah, when we peepee, the peepee comes out from the urethra.  But the baby comes out from the vagina.  Those are two different openings.

Hannah: Huh?  Peepee in the winter?

Mommy: Haha…no sweetie.  Not in the winter. Peepee from the urethra, NOT winter.  Baby from the vagina.

Ethan: What?  Baby from China?

Mommy: From the vagina, Ethan.  NOT China.

Laughter all around.

*Another edition of Morning Funnies on our school run*

Welcoming The Year of The Horse – Snippets

February 10, 2014 in Celebrations, Emma, Ethan, Hannah, Parenting | No comments

Now that we have all welcomed in the year of the horse with all the neighs and brays, and the cookies in the jars are dwindling fast, here are some shots taken during our recent Chinese New Year “balik kampung” extravaganza.  From Penang to Taiping to Ipoh and then back to Penang, all in the sweltering heat that is reminiscent of Chinese New Year.

Some photos were taken by photographers on the scene, at times when both my hands were full; usually one holding a 10-month old and the other a cookie or two. 😛  Heaps of gratitude goes out to these kind photographers…you know who you are 🙂

We had a simple tea ceremony when we were back in my hometown in Ipoh.  We served tea to my parents and the kids served tea to their grandparents, whilst getting ang pows at the same time.

Some pictures of Emma…she’s only recently become more camera-friendly.

One of the many Hannah pictures.  She wore this bright yellow summer dress on the 2nd day of Chinese New Year.  It’s hard not to smile when I look at her. 

I wanted to make some cookies this year but could not find the time before Chinese New Year.  So I figured it would still count if I did so during the 15 days, yes?  My kids helped me bake these easy-peasy German cookies…so crumbly, so melt-in-the-mouth, so more-ish….well, actually I HAD to bake these because I almost finished eating the German cookies my Mom gave!

And lastly, as a tradition and also just for laughs, here are our several attempts at obtaining a good family picture. 🙂

Gong Xi Fa Cai to all!  How was your Chinese New Year this year?

A Lego-Inspired Party

January 30, 2014 in Celebrations, Entertainment, Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting | 2 comments

About a month ago, Ethan had asked if he could invite some friends over for his birthday party.  We were hesitant, but since he rarely asks for anything, we obliged.  Well, Pete was a little concerned about pulling off the party and all so soon after we had moved, but I decided to go ahead with it because Ethan was really looking forward to it.  So last Saturday, we had a small do for Ethan with a few of his friends.  We decided to have it about a week earlier than his actual birthdate because the actual birthday falls on the 1st day of Chinese New Year this year.

In deciding a theme for his party and after taking like 5 minutes to decide between a Diary of a Wimpy Kid party or a Lego party, Ethan decided on the latter.  He left most of the party planning to me, but he was very specific about the cake.

He asked for a cake shaped like a Lego 4×2 brick, where he could put a candle in each of the studs,given that it is his 8th birthday and all.  When asked for the color of the cake, he wanted red.

It was a good thing baby Emma decided to nap a couple of hours the day before the party, allowing me some time to bake and decorate the cake.

I prepared birthday invites in a Lego theme and tried to make everything as Lego-like as possible.  If I could, I would have created a Lego minifigure costume for Ethan..haha.

On the day of the party, Daddy hung up the birthday banner I made. Had to tweak the Lego font a little but it was well worth it.  Printed out the letters on white paper, cut them out carefully and glued them onto red colored paper, which was glued onto black paper to achieve the black-outlined effect.

When the guests arrived, they were treated to some Lego Star Wars movies on the telly.  This was Ethan’s idea.  Took me a while to get the little guests away from the TV and to start on the games.

Oh, and we also asked the guests to participate in the “Guess the Number of Lego Bricks” game.  Some adults wanted to participate in this one too.

We had some “Lego” food, made with love of course, such as Lego sandwiches, Lego pizza and errr…fruits cut up to spell the word Lego 🙂 (Sorry, I had no idea how to shape fruits like Lego without making a mess of them all!)

I also made Lego chocolates and Lego ice cubes with a Lego mould I borrowed from a dear friend.

Read the rest of this entry »

Emma at 10 Months

January 28, 2014 in Emma, Milestones | No comments


Scrap Credits
One Perfect Day QP freebie from Blagovesta Gosheva

Weight

8 point something kilos.

Height/Length

Not measured.

Teeth

2 bottom incisors, and 2 upper incisors growing too.

 

Motor Skills

  • Emma loves to crawl around now, and will usually target her siblings’ toys especially their Legos.  Ethan and Hannah will dramatically announce, “Oh NO!!!  The giant baby is coming!  Hurry, run!!!”
  • Opens and closes her palms often, sometimes playing with her fingers.
  • Likes patting our hands when offered to her.
  • Learning how to stand for longer periods.
  • Tries to squat with support.

Communication and Social Skills

  • Calls me “Mama..” quite often now.  At other times, she just cries in a pitiful manner.
  • Can play for longer periods on her own with some of her toys, sometimes buying me some time to do work, like cleaning and cooking.
  • Loves to move her body to music as if dancing.

Others

  • Not sleeping through yet.  SIGH.

Food and Feeding

Her diet is mostly 100% on Mommy’s milk, and she eats mostly fruits at other times.  Her favorites are papaya and banana.  We’ve introduced the following to her thus far, not a lot but she does seem to be curious with new foods, which is a good sign:

  • Chicken
  • Pork
  • Garoupa fish (she didn’t like this)
  • Salmon (so far, she only liked playing with it)

« Older entries § Newer entries »