Cindy And Her Fave

Kyra's Little Gallery

2009-09-06T05:49:00.000-07:00

Kyra has been working very hard lately,...hmm...to become a young artist! When she first started, she just scribbled, then she drew shapes, no, she drew only circles.She is good at drawing circles, big ones, small ones, slightly oval shape &...

One day, when i came home from work, my mother-in-law (who is also Kyra's daytime babysitter) showed me this drawing which she drew that afternoon. I was like: Boy!My girl is no more baby, she can draw now!

Isn't it look a bit like Barney??

Her drawings always start with a big round head, then big round eyes, then big round body. So, i taught her to add in nose, mouth, ears,arms and legs. But she was quite forgetful in the beginning, often left out some of the parts :-)

I guess i must have watched too much Aliens' movies during my pregnancy,LOL! But note, she has remembered all the body parts!

Then i realized, i forgot to teach her draw hair!Well, she is a fast learner, no sweat!

And i know, she will draw like these in no time, LOL!

Welcome to Kyra's Little Gallery!

Happy Birthday my little princess!

2009-07-31T08:40:00.000-07:00

Kyra celebrated her 3y-o birthday today. She was thrilled to see her Barbie Doll birthday cake and this very special movie clip that i made for her.

She kept asking "who is this baby?" at the beginning, then after a while i asked her back "who is this baby?" and she said "it's Kyra" very embarrassingly...

By the way, i love this song ~ A You Are Adorable, hope you like it too!

Tribute to Yasmin Ahmad ~ A local talented filmmaker

2009-07-26T07:16:00.000-07:00

I am sure the locals have come across her masterpieces very often from the television. For those who still don't know her, well, any of the Petronas TV commercials during festival season ring a bell to you?

Yasmin Ahmad, a highly acclaimed film director, award-winner both locally and internationally, passed away after suffering a stroke. Simply love her creations, below are a few which are in my must-watch list (the first went to "Funeral" that i posted on 14 April).

Tan Hong Ming In Love ~ this is cute!

Family ~ this is touching!

Chinese New Year (Our children)~ oohhh, such good reminder to us!

Greetings

We will miss all these TV commercials in coming years festival season. Yasmin Ahmad, R.I.P...

The Standup Egg

2009-07-06T07:22:00.000-07:00

Does everybody know that you can actually make an egg to stand up by its own on a specific day and time every year? Yes? No?

My niece took these pictures on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month of the Chinese calendar, aka Dragon Boat Day aka Dumplings Day, or Duan-Wu (in Chinese). She tested it out at 1200 noon sharp and it stood up for about 60 seconds (just enough time for her to dance around and took these 3 photos, LOL!)

Old people said that you will be lucky for the coming year if you can make an egg standing up on this particular day.But young people like us try to look for the scientific explanation(heehee!), such as below:-

The egg can standup easily is because the Dragon Boat Day is close to the summer solstice, which is the longest day of the year. The summer solstice occurs when the Earth's axis tilts the most toward the sun, causing the sun to be farthest north at noon. Sun reaches to the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere on the day of summer solstice. Before sun travels back to the southern hemisphere, it seems as if the sun stands still. When the gravitation between sun and earth are pulled each other to the most, an egg can stand up easier.

Well, this certainly sounds Greek to me, any other easier, more creative and less jargon way to explain this to a 3 year old??

TV commercial of LOVE - so touching!

2009-04-14T21:52:00.000-07:00

Share with you two TV ads which are meaningful and touching...

E for Egg, B for Bird, N for Nest

2009-04-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

A week ago, when i was just back from work, Kyra pulled me to the garden and showed me something very exciting - a bird nest on a small plant in my garden! There were two tiny eggs inside the nest, and what made us thrilled was who on earth would think there would be a nest built on a small plant in a flower pot!

I didn't manage to snap the photo of the eggs. Frankly, i didn't think the eggs would make it, i mean incubated. Nevertheless i explained to Kyra that the eggs would turn into small birds, the birds would grow bigger and bigger until they are able to fly away - just like her bedtime story for the week "Soar, Eagle Soar". Two days later, the eggs turned into these small creatures.

Due to the heavy pour, one of them didn't make it, leaving the only one struggles hard to live. Today, we saw him resting steadily inside the nest, waiting for his mother to feed him and it has grown lovely black feathers.

Kyra will be busy monitoring its progress and updating me in these few days, and i am not sure how will she react when she finds it fly away and never get back to its nest one day. But one thing i am very sure is she has learnt well on Egg, Bird and Nest after this experience.

Baby or no baby??

2009-03-29T23:54:00.000-07:00

Cindy & Kyra (2 mth)

March'09 is "shopping for baby shower gifts" month for me. I spend almost every weekend to shop for the gifts and visit my best friend and ex-colleague and their newborns. And today i came to know my favourite blogger Karen, had delivered her third son, Liam as well (read her story at Karen Cheng's Snippets of Life). Oh, babies!

Kyra will be three in this coming July, and i have been thinking of having a second one. You know, to accompany Kyra so that she won't feel lonely, don't want to spoil her because she's the only child and bla bla...Ok, the truth is i wanted a boy so badly! Ya, ya in term of this, i admitted that i'm a typical old chinese lady with old-fashioned thinking. But don't you think one is too less and two is just perfect (especially it's a boy)?!

So, my question is when do you know it's time for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th baby...?
Do you consider financial factor (nursing care & education), emotional factor (family and sibling's feeling towards the new member), physiological factor (high/low risk of pregnancy, previous complications during giving birth), or you just know it's time and just do it?

For my case, well the biological clock is ticking, i don't want to be a high-risk pregnant lady and needs to go through procedures. I kind of miss the feeling of being pregnant, ya know everyone treat you extra nice, you are responsible to eat good and eat more (with not feeling guilty), you are told to rest more (just leave the house chores to your hubby, haha!) &...

My mother-in-law babysits Kyra for me while i go to work. So, the next question is who will be looking after the second one? I will probably need to hire a helper at home so that she can help my mother-in-law to babysit both of them or one of them will need to be sent to nursery or babysitter. Of course this will incur some costs, and economy is bad now!

I have asked Kyra whether she liked the idea of having sister or brother, her first answer was no. But after visited my friend's newborn baby, she changed her answer to OK. :-) Now, the only person to persuade is my hubby! He once told me that one is enough, and he seems so contented with just Kyra. People said, daughters were fathers' lovers in their past lives, i kind of believe it now...

So, Mommies and Daddies out there, any great advice?

Earth Hour - Malaysia is in the list!

2009-03-24T00:50:00.000-07:00

Well, 4 more days to go before we have the global event of Earth Hour 2009, 28th March 2009, 8.30-9.30p.m. Proud thing is Malaysia is officially listed among the participating countries this year.

It will definitely be an amazing experience to see those important landmarks and buildings go dark in the city.Imagine some of the shopping malls, hotels, restaurants,KLCC, KL Tower, Penang Bridge will switch the lights off for that particular meaningful hour, can't wait to see "the scene".

For those who are interested in participating~Vote Earth by switching off the lights, here are some suggestions that you can do during Earth Hour:-

10 Things To Do During Earth Hour

1. Gather family & friends for a night picnic
2. Dine in one of the many Earth Hour participating restaurants by candlelight
3. Organise a family night playing board games
4. Throw an Earth Hour street party with your neighbours
5. Arrange a house party lit by torches
6. Take the dog for a night walk
7. Hand write a letter to loved one by lantern
8. Sit in the dark and share stories
9. Read a book using a book light.
10. Share a romantic night in with your loved one.

Still can't decide whether to vote or not? Watch this commercial, it sure motivates you to do so!

Kyra's new year fashion...

2009-03-18T21:56:00.000-07:00

I know Chinese New Year is sooooo OVER. Just want to share with you my little princess mini fashion show...fyi, i only bought her one, the rest were picked and paid by her grandparents :-)

Long Lost Penpal-Found!!!

2009-03-17T07:59:00.000-07:00

Gee, it was such a long break since i last updated. Well, there were so many things to blog about since beginning of 2009, mostly work and home stuff, but got so little time to write them down! So, i'm going to write something good as the first 2009 post.

I received a message in my facebook inbox from an unfamiliar sender one day. By the time i finished reading her message, there were tears in my eyes, and they were tears of joy. The message brought back so many sweet memories of my teenage life... it was from a long lost penpal.

I remembered i used to have quite a number of penpals, from all over the world. It was the time my stamp books started to increase :-) and the feeling to see a filled mailbox had never been so great!

I couldn't remember how long have i been penpalling, probably 5-6 years, and then the mails just get lesser and lesser, lesser and lesser...Also couldn't really remember what had kept us from writing, was it studies? exams? boys? parties? ... and finally, people just don't write on papers and get them posted with stamps anymore! And we lost contact!!!Life goes on... study, graduate, work, get married...no time for "pals" who don't meet!

Becky Lowe - Thank You for remembering and searching for me! You took the initiative to search for me through facebook, and Facebook really works wonder!It got us back!!!...after 16 years... now we can continue our 'penpalling' through emails, it sure helps to save us some fortune on the stamps and fancy papers :-)

Becky, you reminded me that friendship never fades away, and this is for you...

Gifts from HK Disneyland

2008-12-18T18:10:00.000-08:00

While we took Kyra to Langkawi Island for a short break, her grandma (my mother-in-law, Kyra's full-time nanny) and her aunt were actually having their vacation in Hong Kong at the same time. Ya, ya, grandma went to HK Disneyland while Kyra got to visit some historical and cultural places.

But, she was given so many gifts from her grandma and aunt when they returned. Guess they felt guilty of not bringing her along huh? LOL!

Kyra is Mickey's and Minnie's big fan ( i think practically every kid is their fans). She has a unique way of calling Mickey, it's "Mi-Mao" (without the "key" and the "s" sound of the mouse), kind of cute huh?!

I like this T-shirt, it has almost all famous Disney characters in one shirt, no need to buy several which have only one character each, save $$, haha!

Kyra just came to know this character when her cousin sister passed her a Toy Story VCD. Well, Mr Buzz Lightyear over here is actually a popcorn container!

After pouring out all these presents from the luggage and with Kyra hopping around of joyfulness, my mother-in-law said to me:" You are bringing her to HK Disneyland next year!"

Okay, okay, will consider about it...

Cuti-cuti Malaysia - Part 3

2008-12-11T21:04:00.000-08:00

This post is about our last vacation of year 2008. We finally made it as planned to Langkawi Island last weekend. There were several "first" things happened during this trip, to summarize:-

1. First trio trip (Daddy, Mommy & Kyra, we were being accompanied by my mother-in-law in the past few trips)
2. Kyra's first fly experience! (though it was just half an hour flight)
3. Kyra's third visit to an aquarium but first time seeing penguins live!
4. Kyra's first night out at the hotel lounge! (her orange juice cost more than her dad's beer!)
5. Kyra's first time seeing crocodiles live!
6. Kyra's first time splashing water at the pool by her own!

and this is going to be my first long post (in terms of pictures, haha!)

Waiting excitedly for the plane to take off. Mommy, i am scared yet can't wait for the plane to fly!

Phew! We landed safely and Kyra showing no uncomfortableness during the 30 minutes flight. What a relief!

We spent 2 nights at Awana Porto Malai Langkawi Hotel, 4 star hotel with splendid seaview.

A sunrise view from our hotel room.

One of the major activities in Langkawi Island is island hopping and snorkeling. However we excluded this activity as Kyra is still small and can't swim yet. Anyway, we had a great time swimming in the hotel pool.

She used to be quite afraid of water and would hold on me very tight, but this time she just enjoyed playing with water by herself!

Well, we let her have the big, soft, comfy bed during her daytime nap. At night, she was being sandwiched in the middle by hubby and me. I did not sleep well for those two nights as she streched and kicked me most of the time!

It was not the first time Kyra been to an aquarium. Her first visit was to Penang Aquarium ( a small aquarium at hometown), her second was to KLCC Aquaria (world-class) and now The Underwater World Langkawi.

Both mommy and Kyra were so excited to see penguins live!

It took us about thirty minutes drive from our hotel to the Crocodile Farm. Can you see the crocodiles at the back?

We were lucky to reach the farm at the right timing where we got to watch the show and crocodile feeding.

Kyra posing at the Petronas Quay.

Mommy and Kyra posing in front of the giant eagle statue at Dataran Lang.
Kyra:" Mommy, the eagle is not going to fly away?"
Mommy:" No, dear, this is her home."

Daddy and Kyra on their way up to the waterfall at Seven Wells. We didn't manage to climb up to the seven wells (45 minutes of this steepish staircase!), just compromised with the small waterfall in 10 minutes walk.

Kyra posing with her jumbo lollipop.

Kyra's first night out at the hotel lounge. She loved the singing and her drink as well. Her glass of orange juice cost more than her dad's Heineken! (Langkawi Island is a duty free island, beers and liquor is normally cheaper than juices and mineral water, haha!)

Mommy and Kyra posing at the Porto Malai pier.

Daddy and Kyra strolling leisurely at the Porto Malai pier.

Being a "Couch Potato" lately...

2008-12-04T05:42:00.000-08:00

I used to be a "couch potato", it's just that i wasn't overweight, and never lied on the couch with a bowl of potato chips :-) I watched all sorts of TV programs and movies: sitcoms, series, game shows, Hong Kong series, Japanese series, Taiwanese series & ...

Then, i started to have lesser and lesser of time to enjoy this~ get married, changed job, pregnant, babysitting and etc etc, spending much of the time in readjusting my life between a happy married woman and a busy working mom.

I couldn't imagine i actually missed out the last two seasons of "Friends", watched only a few episodes of "SATC" and "Desperate Housewives". But recently, i am back to catch up with all those "can't miss" series.

So now, should i finish "Friends" and complete "SATC and "DH"??

Latest Christmas Carol

2008-11-26T03:02:00.000-08:00

My colleague forwarded this to me during work the other day. It saved me a few minutes of relaxation from those "x files" that i had on my desk. I could not help but hummed the song to myself, it was humorous, yet it was so true and sad. This is going to be the saddest Christmas song ever...

(For those who want to try sing this, well, it works perfectly on "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" tune)

Latest Christmas carol for 2008,

You'd better watch out
You'd better not cry
You'd better keep cash
I'm telling you why:
Recession is coming to town.

It's hitting you once,
It's hitting you twice
It doesn't care if you've been careful and wise
Recession is coming to town

It's worthless if you've got shares
It's worthless if you've got bonds
It's safe when you've got cash in hand
So keep cash for goodness sake, HEY

You'd better watch out
You'd better not cry
You'd better keep cash
I'm telling you why:
Recession is coming to town!

Finance products are confusing
Finance products are so vague
The banks make you bear the cost of risk
So keep out for goodness sake, OH

You'd better watch out
You'd better not cry
You'd better keep cash
I'm telling you why:
Recession is coming to town.

Love it?! Hate it?!

2008-11-19T02:16:00.001-08:00

Well, anybody out there having the same feeling? Love it because of the features and at the same time hate it because it eats up most of our time!!!

When i first joined, i was quite embarrassed of the number of my friends. Then the number slowly increases and my social network expands, from friends, family members, colleagues, schoolmates (primary & high school), course mates and even strangers!

I feel connected to the world. I keep up with my friends without writing a lengthy email (sometimes just a short message, uploading photos and video, share links, send a poke &...). I get back in touch with long lost friends (can't believe i can still have those guys sitting around me in first grade in my friend list!). I make new friends who share the same hobbies ( blogger group, parenting group, philatelist group &...)

Everyday there must be something you do with your facebook, either you add friends, upload photos and videos, change profile photo, share links, send messages, add comments to friend's photos, play games & quizzes, chat with friends, send flowers, gifts, hugs, bears, coffee, designer bags, cookies, keep a pet, keep an aquarium, keep a garden & bla bla bla... zillions of them. That's why hours being spent.

And guess what, my optician is also in my friend list, and i just ordered my contact lenses by sending him a facebook message, it's that convenient, LOL!

So, haven't got a facebook account? Get one! Want more friends? Click on the above facebook logo and add me!

Come, bake with mom...

2008-10-31T21:10:00.000-07:00

I have been planning some activities that i wish to do with Kyra, for example: kids yoga, play piano, craft, cook and bake. But she is just 2+, maybe it's still too early to let her explore all these, right?

One fine afternoon, i planned to bake banana muffin (for the very first time). While i was getting ready for the ingredients, Kyra was beside following in and out, staring and asking me "mommy, what are you doing?"

So, i put her on her baby chair and let her watch. She is never that quiet when she is on her baby chair, never even when she is eating. She looked curious and interested. Seeing that, i let her help me clean the utensils, pour the ingredients into the mixer and place the muffin cups. Hey, she was helpful indeed!

When it was done, she counted the number of muffins on the table, "1, 2, 3.....10", "mommy, 10!" but actually there were 14 of them. Apparently, she only learned until 10, haha!

DH in the kitchen...

2008-10-27T07:35:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, my hubby has the "mood" to go inside the kitchen and make us some special meals, particularly seafood.

Today, he went out to hunt for some crabs and made us some "roast crabs".

Well, the whole kitchen was covered by the 'roast=yummy' smell during his cooking, and we were already waited eagerly by the dining table.

The meal was perfect, though we should have bought more crabs...

Transformation of Lanterns

2008-09-16T21:48:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder what a Chinese lantern can be turned into?

Chinese accordion lanterns, made by paper and water colours, lit with candles.

During my childhood, i played a lot with this type of lantern. Made by transparent coloured paper and poster colours, still lit with candles.

Now, my daughter plays with this type of lantern. No longer paper-based, no longer lit with candles and furthermore it can move and sing!

Durian & Mooncake

2008-09-14T07:52:00.000-07:00

During the third trimester of my pregnancy, it was durian season. Being a durian lover, you could not have imagined how much durians have i eaten until my doctor gave me a STOP sign. I was ballooned and gained about 25kg!

Kyra loves durians just like her mommy does. She can swallow two pieces (provided the durian is good = "branded") I wanted to stop her from taking too much due to its sweetness and heat but her dad just kept buying. The whole house is durian craze!

Last week, Kyra explored a new type of food ~ Mooncake. At first she was attracted to the colourful packaging and when she saw the cakes, she requested one. Frankly, i am not into sweet stuff and mooncake is no exception. So, my eyes were like gold fish by the time she finished a quarter! Kids eat mooncakes?! I think i'm going to self-introduce her to some ad agents for mooncake advertisement next year, haha!

Cuti-cuti Malaysia - Part 2

2008-09-13T03:51:00.000-07:00

Enchanting view from Sungai Palas Tea Centre

Our second destination was Cameron Highlands, Pahang. Although we had brought Kyra to CH before (Sept,2007) but we decided to revisit this place as we just loved the lower temperature, fresher air, calmer atmosphere & ...an ideal place for rest,relax and recharge.

During this visit Kyra could pronounce Cameron Highlands, ate lots of strawberries, plucked strawberries by herself and...oh yes, walked on the tea plantation, flower farm and strawberry farm by herself! (she was still at crawling stage during her first visit)

We will continue our Cuti-cuti Malaysia plan at Pulau Langkawi, probably end of this year. Other destinations in mind are Sungkai Hot Spring and A Famosa. Any other good suggestion?

Kyra's first experience of plucking strawberries

This basket of strawberries cost RM25 (not including labour cost yet!) :-)

Yummy!

Kyra's cousin brother - Ming Ray

2008-09-12T02:01:00.000-07:00

I'm not a good swimmer, just know how to swim backstroke. Luckily, my husband can swim better. So, we always want Kyra to start her swimming lesson early. But hey, look at her cousin brother, Ming Ray, he was actually snorkeling already!

Ray is two years older than Kyra. He was being thrown into the pool when he was about seven or eight month old, and since then he swims with his parents almost every week.

This video was taken when they went snorkeling at Pulau Redang in July. It was amazing to see Ray snorkeling alone, what a brave boy! I think he is our future Malaysian Michael Phelps, don't you think so?!

Enjoy the video...

Cuti-cuti Malaysia - Part 1

2008-09-11T21:09:00.000-07:00

My husband and i love travelling and we have not been doing so for almost two years ever since little Kyra was borned. So, we decided to go Cuti-cuti Malaysia with our little princess this year. The reasons for travelling within Malaysia was partly due to the recent dramatic hike of oil price (which has caused inflationary effects on so many things!) and more importantly, i always think that being a Malaysian, it's always good to know the beauty of our own country better than other countries first.

Our first destination was Genting Highlands, Pahang. Kyra was still asleep and enjoyed her sweet dreams when we took off early in the morning. She woke up two hours later and was surprised that we were in the car and having a long car journey. We were worrying that she might not be comfortable in a long journey but it turned out to be okay, she just enjoyed singing the nursery songs while looking at the scenery from the window!

Kyra at Genting Highlands

Kyra was almost shouting at me when she saw the merry-go-round, at the minute i held her on the horse, she was scared and wanted to go down. Of course i didn't let her, we had paid for it, girl!

Kyra & Cindy were merrying-go-round

Kyra actions in Genting:-

Gee, mom, give me a hand...

Looking out from the caterpillar train

Kyra & Mickey

Mother's Day ...

2008-05-23T21:40:00.000-07:00

After a sumptuous dinner at a Thai restaurant, we continued our Mother's Day celebration at one of our favourite spots ~ H*agen D*zs. Both mommy and daughter love ice-cream very much, and when daddy said:"Let's go for ice-cream," we were sure that we were going to "HD" brand ice-cream kiosk :-)

Last year Mother's Day, Kyra was about ten-month old, could only call Mama and eat ice-cream but this year, she said "Happy Mother's Day, mommy!" and "H*agen D*zs". I wonder what she can do for next Mother's Day, probably a hand made card with some help from her daddy?? (Daddy, get my hint or not??)

Children Fun Club

2008-05-11T07:22:00.000-07:00

I started a club called "Children Fun Club" at my company early of the year. The main objective of the club is to provide a place and environment for the parents and their kids to mingle around and have fun. Six pair of mommies and children (including myself) turned up during the first session. Before that, mommies voluntarily took their parts in preparation, some arranged the room layout, some prepared for the refreshment and etc...

Since i was the "founder" of the club, i led the first session. I planned for the activities and played the teacher role. During the session, we sang, we rhymed, we had fingers play, we did origami, we read stories, we ate and we made friends...The kids seemed shy and nervous in the beginning, but after warming up with them with some songs and movement, they started to show interest.

Each mommy is supposed to take turn to play the teacher role, then we will have a variety of activities, ideas and styles of leadership. From here, parents can share their parenting skills. Besides, I think the kids will enjoy even more when they see their mommies (the adults) singing, reading and playing with them and also their friends.

Sad to say, we have not been continuing the activity since then (always so muck work to do, so many places to go, bla bla...). Well, I shall just start sending out the 2nd session invitation email real soon!

A Star Student Quiz Contests

2008-05-09T03:53:00.000-07:00

During Feb'08 & Mar'08, i got myself tighted up with quite a few of activities. Besides work and family, i helped organizing a quiz contest for kids aged 11-13. I was the Quiz Master in this event, so i was the one who came out with all those "funny" yet meaningful questions. I spent a lot of time googling as i wanted the quiz to be different from any other typical quizzes. I set questions from various aspects:general knowledge, mathematics and science, languages, IQ, technology, games, sports & etc...

Well, trust me, it was not a simple task. You got to think questions accordingly to their standard (if too low a standard, they feel no challenge, if too high a standard, they feel hurt). You got to think questions which are of their interests, otherwise their concentration will swing away (so some pop singers, hit movies, PS games questions is a must). You got to be well prepared and confidence with your suggested answers, just in case some whiz kids challenge you??

By the end of the preparation, i myself who gained a lot, in terms of knowledge, creativeness and interpersonal skill. And the feedback we got was surprisingly favourable and above our expectation.

Thanks to the team members' (we called ourselves the Humanity Team) hardwork and effort. We managed to attract approximately 80 kids in the first contest and collected around RM1000 for Tzu Chi Buddhist Centre. Due to the great responses received and the requests to have the quiz again, of course, when there is demand, there is supply, we had the quiz for the second time in Mar'08.

It was so fun and satisfied when you heard some of the kids saying:" huh, this type of question also got ah, but what is the answer huh? school never teach leh..."...And i had a good time laughing when the kids had to pass the movement challenges (balancing a book, throwing ball into box & ...) for them to qualify to answer questions set in the final round...

I am thinking of organizing some other fun learning activities, maybe... Fun English Day Camp ??

Creative way of attracting kids to like vegetables

2008-05-08T07:58:00.000-07:00

In one of the early childhood education classes that i attended last month, the lecturer asked us to bring some vegetables such as carrot, cucumber, eggplant, beans, potato and etc...
At first, my coursemates and I were so curious what was the lecturer planning to do with these vegetables-" We are not going to have cooking class, are we?"

Well, it ended up we have to use our imagination and creativeness to do some "craftwork/artwork" on the vegetables, and the objective of this lesson is to attract kids to like eating vegetables.

So, we decided to work on the theme "Fun Park". In about one hour time, we managed to "set up" our Fun Park with vegetables-made swing, seesaw, slide,fountain, benches, flowers and birds.

This is a good idea, isn't it? If your kids at home don't like vegetables, use this method to test it out!

Buddies...

2008-05-03T00:29:00.000-07:00

(From left: Ping,Heidi,Cindy & Kyra)

A sunny morning at Penang Youth Park, Ping and her husband brought their sweetie to join us to have a short "mothers-fathers-daughters" gathering. Ping has been a buddy since we were in kindergarten, then studied at the same primary school for six years, same secondary school for another consecutive six years, to be exact, we were in the same class for twelve years!

Ping got married 4 months before me, and of course i was her bridesmaid. And coincidentally, we were both pregnant and became mothers in the same year. Kyra (22 mth) & Heidi (20 mth), looking equally charming and loving, we wish you two can be best buddies, just like your mothers...

Kyra's Home Library

2007-08-21T07:01:00.000-07:00

I came across an article about "home library" from the newspapers the other day and was very much into this idea of creating a little home library to my daughter,Kyra. Hence, I went to the small sticker booth and ordered a couple of hundred pieces of stickers with the wording:" This book belongs to Kyra Lee's Home Library, Dated.........". So, from now on, whenever she has a new book, we will help her stick it on until she is big enough to do this by herself.
I hope by doing so can help to cultivate her interest in reading books and fostering good habit of taking care of her books. What do you parents think? You can even practise this if you are a book lover, or collector :-)
If you wish to know more about home library, you may go to www.myhomelibrary.org

First touch of sand...

2007-08-20T00:50:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, we brought Kyra to the beach with the intention to let her have her first touch of sand. She was so scared when i let her sit on the sand and cried when i let her stand on the sand and the wave splashed to her tiny feet. It took us a while to calm her down.
She started to enjoy playing with the sand when she saw other "che che" and "ko ko" buiding sand castles around her.
She fell sick the next day, i guess because we washed her with the cold pipe water :-( but this will never stop us from taking her to the beach again 'coz she just started to love it!
P/S:Never think she could get tanned so easily, i should have put sunblock on her :-)

Kyra turned 1!

2007-08-20T00:04:00.001-07:00

Kyra finally turned one year old on the 31st July 2007. We dressed her up with the T-shirt specially embroided "i'm 1" (a gift from her Aunty Susan) and her first pair of shoes from the Clarks (a gift from her grandma). In the morning, we had a small praying ceremony and the interesting part was to let her pick the first thing from several items (book, calculator, egg, angpow and pen).
Guess what did she take as the first item? She picked up the book, then followed by the calculator. Haha,her grandma interpreted that she would be good in studying in the future :-)
We had a small birthday party for her in the evening. She was so curious and excited to see so many people turned up with gifts and of course a big Winnie cake placing in front of her.

Homestyle Cucuk Udang

2007-07-16T02:06:00.000-07:00

Never in my life would I imagine Cooking to be one of my favourite pastimes. Since married and stepped into Motherhood, it really changed my style of living. From a “tomboy” since young, all of my time was spent in studies and sports, catching me cooking in the kitchen or doing other household chores is a difficult task!

Now, becoming a mother, almost everything changes. Of course still considered not good at cooking, but at least have interest to improve my cooking skills. Surely, I wish my little girl can be like Chinese proverb saying, “入得厨房，出得厅堂” (direct translation: presentable both inside the kitchen and outside the living room), hence, I would better set a good example myself :-)

Here, I wish to share with you my mother-in-law’s recipe - “Homestyle Cucuk Udang”. It’s quite simple to prepare (comparing to her on hand recipes like Curry Fish, Hokkien Mee, Laksa & …) and I’m sure you will have a great time preparing and enjoying the yummy cucuk udang with your love ones.

Homestyle Cucuk Udang

Ingredients: 500g oat flour (1 pkt 1kg cost around RM1.80, so use half of it)
600g small prawns
2 eggs
½ tbs of salt
bean sprouts (around RM0.30)
1 bunch of Chinese chives (Kuchai in Hokkien)

Preparation: Wash and drain the bean sprouts. Wash and drain the chives, and cut into strips. In a big bowl, add the oat flour, prawns, eggs, salt, bean sprouts and chives together. Add some water and stir the mixture. Keep on adding water and stir the mixture until it becomes half liquid. (just like pic.1)

Add oil to the preheated pan, scoop out the mixture (portion by portion) using a soup ladle and fry it. When it turns golden yellow colour, you may scoop out another portion and fry it until you finish all the mixture.

Saurce Ingredients: chillies, garlic, sugar and lemon.
Preparation: Blend the chillies and garlic. Add some sugar and lemon and stir it.

Enjoy and hope to hear your feedback on this recipe!

Little Puppet Show

2007-07-03T22:06:00.000-07:00

Hi Parents,

I wish to share with you some very interesting art & craft activity which i've learnt from my best friend, Swee Lin. Swee Lin organises activity class at her taska every Saturday, and this was what we did together with the kids last Saturday - a Puppet Show.

Kyra had a good time watching and listening to the elder Ko Ko and Che Che presenting their puppet shows. We had a good laugh when a British kid, Kai presented his show, he had so many puppets (all his family members, including his grands and his dog!) with his house as the background. Another Japanese boy, Yuki showed off his beetle dinosours fighting each other (too much of Ultraman, i think).

Anyway, i sincerely think it is a good activity that can let your kids' creativity and imagination flourish.

Find a good weekend and do this activity together with your kids, they will love it!

WHAT you need:
1. A box ( any size of box, eg. shoe box, milk powder box & etc...)
2. 2 pieces of paper
3. Colour pencils or crayon
4. some cloth
5. Needle and thread
6. Scissors
7. Glue
8. Sticks

HOW to do:
1. First, let your children draw the background using colour pencils or crayon by themselves.
The background can be anywhere, under the sea, in a garden, your house, anywhere!

2. Then, ask them to draw the puppets, it can be people, animals, cartoons, dinosaurs!!

3. Next, cut the front side of the box and the top part of the box (so that you can put your puppets inside)

4. Paste the background to the box, cut the puppet and glue it on the stick.

5. Cut the cloth into two pieces, sew it to the box and... you're done and ready for the show!

Kyra's Birthday Gift

2007-06-27T23:58:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! This is me and my little princess, Kyra, having a great time in our 'super' big pool at home. Guess what? Kyra is having her 1st Birthday on this coming 31st of July. I'm thinking of giving her something very special as her 1st Birthday gifts. Here's my plan:-

a) a T-shirt with " I'm 1" (anyone can tell where can i print/embroidery the wording)

b) a 12-month calendar with her photos taken monthly right from her birth till she's one (starting from July'06 - July'07)

c) a winnie the pooh b'day cake (her first soft toy)

Any interesting ideas from you?