Holidays with a 1 1/2 year old

..Or possibly a non-holiday.

Jellybean went on a holiday-conference trip with us recently and good-golly is she a chase?! 

The lovely bunch in Holiday Inn gave us a great upgrade. So good - that Jellybean decided it would be her new home and she lurved staying in there, sitting on the sofa and closing the doors on us.

Exhibit A: Oooh slippers!!!Why don't I get these at home?! ...Note the holiday tummy she got from eating everything too!

Exhibit B: Now you see me now you dont...

Exhibit C: Look at the view mummy...

Exhibit D: Ooh space mummy, space!! Mind you, this was our second hotel stay which she hearted.

On occasions when she liked being out...we spent alot of times on cars. Car rides. Alot. Her photos were all in cars and the hotel. Very exciting. 

...Or..she would be doing her exploring and we'd need to hunt her down.

...And for 2 weeks- we chased her. A great diet scheme I tell you.

Rice Dumplings

'Duan Wu Jie' is fast approaching- a day when rice dumplings adorn. The last time I made rice dumplings was most probably in my uni days. By making- I only mean 'wrapping' the odd few. My mum makes our family recipe pass down every year- and seriously, I should learn form her soon.

To be frank, I don't know if these are exactly Hakka dumplings or just the way my grandmother and her ancestors made them. They're the only ones I grew up with.

Mum's version includes glutinous rice with peanuts. Well, nowadays she also makes the non-peanut version- only because some of my siblings don't like nuts.

Grilled pork dosed with a l o t of garlic. Don't be alarmed though, it takes great in the dumpling.

Boiled mushrooms and gently fried shrimp.

I'm very biased. Despite all the versions out there, I still love my mum's version. Have a great 'dumpling day'.

Dear Jellybean- May 2012

Hi baby,

You're such a toddler now that you're walking everywhere. You do things that make me question how I should react as a parent.

Somewhere along the line, you must of noticed grandma, grandpa, mimi, baba and other guests left their kitchen slippers along this area. So one evening, you decided your shoe belonged there too- and sure enough, you brought each one along and placed it with the others. I found it funny and quite honestly, stunned by your ability to 'group' things. However, they were your dirty shoes that belonged outside.

Do I tell you dirty shoes belong outside? Or acknowledge you did something 'wow' in my mind? I chose to acknowledge it was your shoe... and left it.

Then one morning, you decided the Grecian off-the-shoulder was a good look for you. It was a cold autumn morning but I commend you on your braveness to pass comfort for fashion.

Mind you, you have also mastered taking off your pants and find it entertaining. I'm not commenting on that. At all. Daddy will deal with you.

Mummy's also given you a new fashion sense- here you are donning your 'spring onion' hair style. The very one grandma gave me when I was a kid. Its forever trendy I tell you. Really.

Ok, I'm just having second thoughts about cutting your hair again- so this is the transition stage.

You love being outdoors- and the weather has been perfect for you to be out in the garden everyday and at parks on the weekend. Here you are, telling daddy you MUST go on that slide. The one you probably went down four hundred and fifty seven times. Nearly.

Ahhh...and your beloved bittergourd. You've learnt this is 'Ku ah' - as you are yet to pronounce 'Ku Guah' properly in chinese. Every afternoon, you will chant 'ku ah ku ah ku ah' in the garden, pick the bittergourd with grandma or mimi and walk around with it like it's gold.

Problem is, you like baby ones. Probably cos they fit your tiny hand that bit better. But baby, they aren't ripe yet.

Oh..you also love putting on your giraffe- it looks like you're going on a school excursion and makes me laugh. But I let you get away with it cos it's great for photos.

You really make our lives so much brighter.

xoxo

Mimi's Day (Part 2)

..thankfully, all was good. He asked for a invoice and took off with the card.

On mother's day, I was presented with this...

and this...

Yes. My own husband asked me to make a card for myself. So I charged him. Fair? H was also quite chum he found a cheap florist. Details he needed to share with me. [We do have such a loving and understanding relationship don't we?!] I give him full credit for applying the stickers on the envelope.

He reasoned I'm glee when I make stuff. Uh huh. So, second mother's day and we've already resorted to me, making my own card. I'm not quite sure what to make of it. You tell me. I'm quite sure H is waiting for the day where he can ask Jellybean to draw something.

H, if you're reading. You still owe me money.

On a more serious note, we had a lovely celebration. The night before we were out with my parents, my sister and her inlaws, H took me to breakfast and I prepared a steamboat dinner that night for my family.

Hope you had a good one too.

Of Late

I bribe my kid. Serious. It's bad, I know, but I do it.

You see, Jellybean has started to walk- sometimes by herself, sometimes falling all over the place and sometimes wanting us to walk with her. When we take her out, she chooses the later. So if you've ever been stalled by kid traffic- I apologise profusely as my bub does it too.

So sometimes, just to make a sit a little while before she leads us somewhere else, we buy her a food or drink. Her favourite is juice. Watermelon juice. Smoothies. Boost. Babycinos- where she only eats the froth.

Come weekends when we want a small coffee break, we have our drink and she has hers. Bad habit- cos one day, it's gonna bite me back. I know it. She will whinge for some sort of food and throw a tantrum to make me buy it. I can see it already.

But meanwhile, just to give us that 5 minutes of non-chasing time. We bribe.

Our First Family Road Trip

I was reading back on old posts and realised how much I miss blogging. It also made me realise why I started blogging in the first place- to pen (well, type) down snippets of my life. ..so here I am, letting you know about our first road trip- with Jellybean.

These photos don't do justice to how much we enjoyed it. They don't even document many of the places we went to. It just registers a brief description of our trip.

It was basically a 3 days 2 nights getaway to Margaret river with one of my bestie and her family- The Chongs. They were such great company!- It was H's first ever real road trip in Australia and The C's were not only great guides but really accommodating- making sure H got to see, taste and experience the highlights of Margaret River and things 'Down South'. We wouldn't of done the trip any differently-thank you! 


Margaret River is well known as a wine region and a surfers paradise in Western Australia. With thanks to the tourism industry, it now also boasts some gourmet eats and annual events. I personally love it for its cooler weather and lushy greenery (as compared to other Australian counterparts). Using Bussell Highway, it's around a 3 hour trip away from Perth.

We used around 5 1/2 hours to get there- stopping in between Bunbury and Busselton for meals and breaks- mainly to accommodate our little bubs- getting their tooshies off the car seats and letting them wriggle a bit.

I love watching H and Jellybean play- it just makes me go all warm and fuzzy inside. Naww. H has been away for a tremendous amount of time for the past few weeks and this break really just let them bond. I also missed the mass blues and vast greens- *deep breath in* *exhale*.

Jellybean loved the trip. I don't know whether it was just being out or doing something different, but I have to admit she was very well behaved- sleeping in the car, doing her own things and letting us disturbed her routine-constantly.

Could this be any more Australian?! H's first Margaret River wineyard stop- the first of many many....at Voyager Estate.

One of my favourite photos ...of their backsides. Yes, I perve, but I think it's cute. More importantly, I like seeing Jellybean being piggybacked.

Isn't this a nice stop? Geez I forgot the wineyard's name- someone remind me!! All I remember is that Mrs C. told me they had awesome toilets- which they did...oh! Lauren!!!!!....thats it! And just between you and me, I took photos of the toilet, but I shan't degress from the main objectives of this trip.

Gnarabup Beach-White Elephant. Breakfast by the beach before our trip back. I made the whole crew come here just so I could kill two birds with one stone- letting H see the beach- and eat a decent breaky.

Another sight I loved watching. Jellybean and Miss C just frolicking in the open greens. Coincidentally, we brought similar outfits for our girls to the trip!

..And this is truly one shot I love of H and Jellybean- at Yallingup...I don't know why. They both weren't smiling...but it makes me want to go on a road trip already.

Holiday encore...anyone?!

Happy Easter 2012

Happy Easter! About time I blog huh?!

If you look closely, you can see a vague outline of my toddler crawling up the stairs. 

...Where did my baby go?!

...This is going to be a jumbled post about my bemusements of Jellybean. Again, I'm a biased mother- being in love and awe of my child. Forgive me.

Jellybean's at that stage of character independance- she shows what she likes and more importantly doesn't like. She will gesture me to do things, mumble alot of words and understands easy instructions. Yet, she can also be terribly clingy- resulting in the absence of doing my other housewifely chores. 

I love the way she wakes me up in the morning- in a good mood- she will take strands of hair away from my face and smile when I open my eyes- in a cheeky mood- she will just stick her little chubba fingers in my nose and laugh. Grose and annoying! Sometimes I purposely fall back asleep, to which she'll crawl near my face and yell, then grasp one of my fingers, tug it and yell 'GOGOGO!!!'- to which she means she want's to get out of the room. 

Another mother's 'aww' moment- when she finally started playing with her push-pull along toys. [Though in this pic she's really using her ride along as a push-along!] Jellybean finally has enough courage to play and push these toys without any assistance from me. If she's somehow jammed the toy against something..she'll also yell 'GOGOGO!' as if to instruct it. So here she is, pushing her pig and holding her plum.

I also believe H's heart warms everytime he knows his little girl misses him. She'll hand me my mobile and say 'Baba'. If I don't call, she'll whinge and sometimes have a pout. If I do and we Facetime, she'll give him a wide grin and offer him her most prized possession- her stinky cloth. After which, she fails to be amused and goes elsewhere. -Atleast it lasted for a few seconds right?!

- And why am I writing all this? So I can remember it in times to come.xoxo I love you child.

My food, your food

On good days, I make myself a nice lunch and give something adequate for Jellybean's snack. By the time I have my lunch, Jellybean is usually well fed and had a period of rest before this 'snack' is given. Sometimes she's hungry, sometimes she's not and sometimes, she's just picky.

So today I made myself a nice Vietnamese Chicken Baguette- something I've yearned to try ever since I got this month's issue of Donna Hay. By golly, I loved the lemongrass, galangal...ginger..daikon ....everything.

..And I gave Jellybean this- bread and cheese- something which she regularly eats. Today, just for novelty's sake, I even shaped it- ships, trains,..cars and all. She's going through a 'brrooommm brrrooom' stage, very un-ladylike, but it doesn't bother me- not now.

What did bother me was that she placed all her 'transportation' on the floor, came up to me and asked for my food.  ...And when I didn't give it to her fast enough...she started picking off my plate!

What happened to baby food? She's growing up too fast.

Lunar New Year 2012

Chinese New Year has always meant a lot to my family. It's the biggest celebration we'll unite together throughout the year. In my school days right up until I was married, every Lunar year eve and Lunar new year was without my family without doubt. We'd either have big family cook offs or go for a family vacation. After marriage, it was only fair that I also celebrate with H's family.

This year, our family reunion was held in Perth. Previously, my mum would slave for days as the New Year approached- so this year, we thought we'd organise a semi-potluck - each sibling cooked! Though I must say, I could feel my parents tense up as the meal got closer- it was always a feast...and this year, it was all beyond their control! But hey mum, we didn't do that bad.

 

My vegetarian noodles in the making...

My 'Luo Han Zai' in the making...this is basically a vegetarian dish that is cooked with fermented tofu. A part of this dish has to be left, to be eaten for breakfast the next morning- the 'New Year'. Chinese auspiciously believe that certain dishes have to be left-over to signify the year before was an abundance and thus, in the coming year we still have aplenty. 

My sister's first attempt at Steamed Lotus Leaf Chicken- which tasted pretty good!

 My Abalone + Mushroom dish...don't ask me why, but my mother always cooks this for the eve of Chinese New Year and I just followed. Towards the rear is my Sis's inlaws scrumptious Roast pork!

 Also her inlaws Tempura Prawns.

 My Steamed Fish- also auspiciously believed to be 'good' indication theres an abundance every year.

 ...Coming together with my 'Lou Sang' and Shark Fin soup. Slurps.

What the photographer missed out on were the vegetarian dishes and my Sister-In-Law's Pork chops. And who is the photographer you ask? Ask H.

LOU AH! FATTT AH!

A very belated Gong Xi Fa Chai to you!

H's THREE O!

H and my birthdate is exactly one week apart. So, a week later..we had more celebrations. I had this big plan- at the stroke of midnight, I'd appear with a candle on his cake to surprise him. Later that day I would surprise him by driving him to lunch and his present. But...err.. it didn't quite work that way. All of us fell sick a few days beforehand- I had spent the previous nights holding Jellybean to sleep as she had a bad fever..and the rest is history. So by the time it was H's actual birthday, we were all pretty tired and just wanted good rest.

This is how it was spent...

At the stroke of midnight, all weary eyed and just minutes after putting bub in her cot, I presented H with his ice cream cake. He blew the candle, didn't even cut the cake..and we went to sleep. Yes, pretty anti-climax aren't we.

But I do have to stress I made a cake. Despite it being a no-bake, just combine an freeze..I made it k. I made it! ...With a sick hubby, sick baby and viral me! ...Here's presenting a Connoissseur ice cream cake dolloped with Lindt chocolate and berries.

Oh..I did present my hubby with a card and present too. It was all aeroplane themed this year..in conjunction with his birthday present.

Another take on a easy 3D card. Told you I had a thing for these. Again, pretty good effort for a ill-feeling family k. Please clap. [I'm very encouraging aren't I?]

Lunch was spent in Nobu. Superb. A post about this another time but here's a peek to get your taste buds going...

Even Jellybean wanted to steal some!

H has a obsession with planes. Seriously. He can tell you which seat numbers are next to emergency exits, the seat configuration of different planes, which airline just bought how many planes and so fourth. ..So, I got him a flight simulation package and if I must say so myself- It was so cool!! He got to be a pilot for a day, got a real co pilot and flew Jellybean and myself as his passengers. Jellybean wasn't too chuffed though- she wanted to push all the buttons and destroy the headsets. Hmm.

And here it was- his first flight ever and he delayed it. Ahem.

..And here's the entrance to his plan of the day- uber cool!

He loved it...totally loved it! Yesss!!

And err...saving the best for last- we ate cheap takeout that night and went to bed. I'm a good wife aren't I?

Hope you had a lovely day love...