Thursday, July 31, 2008

All grown up!


Aww.. love this photo of my boy who looks all grown up. Taken on the Singapore Flyer.

He wants to be a big boy so that he can go to big school, like all those kids in his school who graduate every term. He kept asking if he could go to big school too and what would it be like. Every few days, he would remark that his legs are all big and fat now, that his arms are strong and big now, so he must have grown up. He looks at bigger boys with awe and wonder in his eyes, as if they have more fun and life is better. He has indeed grown so much. Every night when I kiss him goodnight, I pause to admire how much he has grown and try to appreciate his "smallness". Like what a taxi driver told me last week, before you know it, your boy will be enlisted into the Army. So I cherish him in his childhood now.  

Backlog of photos

I have finally gotten E to upload all the photos that I took with my Casio Exilim. A backlog of 2 months' worth of photos.

So mum/dad, do scroll back to old posts for lots of photos which I just added.. Err.. scroll ALL the way back to early June!

I know, I should do it myself, but I hate the whole idea and process of learning the steps and actually doing the uploading. With Macbook, I still have to import the photos onto iPhoto which is an almost impossible step for me. My fried brain just can't and refuse to cope with the additional demands, so I happily delegate it to E who is also happy (and kind and helpful) enough to do it uncomplainingly. I think he knows the risks of me messing up his previous imports of all the other photos. :)

My Piiiiiiggy!!

Chipsy cannot be any more affectionate towards his Piggy. He carries Piggy everywhere around the house and even want to throw Piggy into the bath with him, if I were to allow him to.



Some days, he is lucky enough to go to bed with both. A funny photo I took one day during naptime when I found him falling asleep with the labels of both piggies in his mouth. Hee hee! He has been sucking the labels nowadays, an upgrade from his previous feast on the ears and limbs.



He saw the small Piggy at a shop at the airport. Stared at it for a brief moment while in my arms, and the moment he kicked himself free from me, dashed over and picked it up and never let go till it was paid for.



His two favourite toys!

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Protective Big Brother



Few days ago, E took the boys out and Chipsy refused to walk and sat on the floor outside a store. After some time, E threatened to leave the store with M, leaving Chipsy behind. M quickly told papa not to leave his baby brother behind as he loves his brother very much. Aww... 

At the playground yesterday, I realised M was getting more protective of his baby brother too.

Another boy came by and snatched a shovel that Chipsy was holding but I didn't intervene as I wanted to watch Chipsy's reaction. M walked over from the other side of the playground and protectively told the boy to return it to his brother and looked ready to snatch it away from him if he refused. The boy did and all went back to play harmoniously. From then on, M would glance at Chip's direction occasionally as if checking on him. 



Monday, July 28, 2008

Sandplay





There is a playground near us which we pass by almost daily but never go to as it is surrounded by sand. Nicholas doesn't mind sand, but Marcus hates it. For some reasons, I always find other things to do and places to go if I am alone with Nicholas, so we never go there either. 

Today, we went as a family and the boys had so much fun. Marcus had the brilliant idea of bringing his Megabloks dump truck and digger. So we did, with a few more toys. Towards the end, Marcus even agreed to take his shoes off and walked around cautiously. The boys spent 1.5 hrs there and reluctantly left at 7pm after much persuasion. 

Once home, Marcus announced that he loves sandplay now. In fact he loves it so much that he wants to go there everyday forever! Whoa haha! I consider this a minor victory. :)

Alone with Marcus

It was always so enjoyable to take Marcus out alone and I can imagine that it will be even nicer in future when we can do more things together. 

I took Marcus out to Tanglin Mall yesterday, in search of some new shoes. Did a quick grocery shopping at the Marketplace and introduced him to some imported vegetables and explored some interesting aisles of frozen food and cheeses. 

I pointed out the different countries of origins and explained that some cheeses come from goats, cows and sheep etc.. Then he informed me in a matter-of-fact tone that "cheese also comes from mice!" Haha!  I don't know how and where he got that info from. 

When I told him that E likes the vegetable swede, he asked sweetly, "Shall we buy it for daddy then?". 

Then we came across the biscuits/cookies aisle and Marcus pointed excitedly at Oreos and said in the sweetest voice, "This is my favourite biscuit, so can we buy this today please?". Makes me laugh really as he tends to use this line so often nowadays to get us to buy him something. I couldn't resist. 

After that, we shared a hot fudge sundae at McDonald's and he ate most of the ice cream while trying hard to avoid licking the fudge. He thinks the chocolate is yuck for some reasons but yet savoured the Oreos. Funny boy! 

It was so fun to hold his hand and stroll down Orchard Road to catch 2 buses home. Full 3 hours of just me and my boy and tons of fun and love exchanged! Marvellous! 

Meals

Just quick note of what M ate yesterday for his 3 meals.

Breakfast: Smoked salmon (2 strips) with scrambled egg (kampong egg)
Lunch: Steamed Alaskan cod (150g) with stir fried veg and rice
Dinner: Tiger prawns (6 pcs) pasta with peas

N ate the same for lunch and dinner, just smaller portion. But he is not a fan of the breakfast fare. He is still carbohydrate fan who eats large portion of potato, sweet potato, rice and pasta. With the exception of avocado which he finishes greedily, he eats no other fruits. He is unpredictable when it comes to meat, sometimes he laps them up, or they just end up on the floor. He favours fish and chicken though and will try selected vegetables. Definitely not an eggy fan which is so funny since M ate only eggs when he was this age.  

I do have a hard time meal planning sometimes since my 3 boys have very different likes/dislikes. Some days, I ended up preparing different dishes for each boy and something else for us adults. I am hopeful though that it will only get better and a year from now (fingers crossed), N will eat a wide variety like M does now. 

We will get there! 

Sunday, July 27, 2008

My Ma and Pa

My mum is a typical housewife of her generation, but definitely a very hardworking and virtuous wife and mother, by our society's standards. My memory of her is full of how she would wake at 5am and worked non-stop at home cleaning, washing, cooking and caring for us kids. With a household of 4 small kids, we kept her really busy and she often had to stay up till 1am to finish up laundry which she hand washed in those days. We were too poor to even afford a washing machine.


I remember nights when mum would iron our school uniforms though dad told her not to bother as we were kids and wouldn't care whether we had neatly pressed clothes or not. I guessed he was partially right as I would have cared since I was already self-conscious at very young age, but my 3 siblings probably wouldn't. Mum wouldn't listen and just pressed on with the ironing though she was tired. She often said how she couldn't understand why some mothers would let their kids go to school with wrinkled clothes or white uniforms that were full of stains. She would painstakingly scrubbed our white uniforms every other day till they looked as good as new. So I grew up with neatly pressed clothes though we were poor. To mum, how a child is dressed and looked after, reflects a lot on the parents. By that, she never meant expensive clothes, but never shabby either. So by October every year, she would have taken us shopping at the neighbourhood shops for new dresses, shoes and bags for the Lunar New Year. We ended up admiring our new clothes for a full 4 months before we could wear them.


Few weeks ago when I was ironing the kids' clothes late one night, I recalled an incident when I was small in our tiny rented AMK flat, sitting on the floor watching mum ironing our clothes. That nostalgic feeling almost choked me and when I quickly recovered, I felt a sense of warmth and realised how my mum had shaped me in this way and many others into the mother that I am today. Though I was tired physically from caring for the boys, there are some things which I won't compromise. I know E will probably say the same as my dad did, that the kids won't care and I know it is true. But like my mum, it matters to me that my boys are appropriately attired and would never let my boys out of the house wearing their pajamas, or stained clothes. Definitely no wrinkled clothes (of course, emergencies are exceptions)!


I also have this thing about clean floors. I realised today that it must be my dad's influence. I shudder when I think of the dust and germs on dirty floors and always make sure that my kids are playing on clean floors, even when at home. So I uncomplainingly clean the floors daily in a very self-motivated manner. It is silly to some, I know, but I care about it and that is it. Dad used to go nuts over how my siblings and I were shabby in our efforts to mop the floor and insisted that we cleaned the floors daily. Mum used to say that a clean house must have clean floors, so of course a dusty house with not-so-clean floors reflect poorly on the wife/mother in the house, that she must be lazy and/or unhygienic or just not bothered enough.


There are many other influences which I won't go into tonight. But unknowingly, because of Ma and Pa, I ended up being quite particular about many aspects of the housekeeping and upbringing of my kids (and hence giving myself more work, especially now). If I were not, I guess I could just let things go and have a messier house, dirtier kids (someone told me recently that kids don't need baths everyday or change their clothes everyday, yikes!) and piles of dirty laundry and dishes etc and still feel good about myself.

I am definitely no Stepford wife material. I can't clean the house and bake muffins for neighbours and still wear my pearls and always appear in dresses and pencil skirt (think Bree in Desperate Housewives). But I am house-proud and take pride in being a good mother and hopefully, also a good spouse.


I can't helped but wonder what of my qualities will I impart onto my sons and how they would end up being influenced by my idiosyncrasies. I hope they will be grateful like I am.

Funnies

Recently I bought a loaf of delicious looking bread from Cedele Pot which I thought was orange-flavoured but turned out to be cinnamon-flavoured. They either put up the wrong description tag or the wrong loaf in the bag. 

Anyway, I toasted a slice in my toaster the next morning and the aroma (or not!) of cinnamon quickly filled my kitchen and living room. Marcus who was playing in the living room then raised his head and shouted "Oi mama! What is that smell in the kitchen? YUCK! YUCK! You have to wash the kitchen now! It is too smelly!"  Oops.. 

And... something of a more encouraging note..  I made my special lasagne again on Monday and informed Marcus that I had made some special pasta dish and it would be yummy. He took a quick peep at what was sitting in the oven and nodded, adding "Hmm.. that looks like yum yum!". It was pretty funny to hear him say something like that. When it was ready, he rushed to the dining table and sat at his usual seat, looked at the plate like an excited puppy, and kept going "Eat! Eat!" with his cheeky grin. 

I was all prepared for him to spit out his first mouthful since he had never ever swallowed a spoonful of lasagne (homemade or award winning restaurant fare) since he was weaned. So when he began to chew and his bright eyes lit up with his accompanying smile, I sighed my relief and smiled my megawatt smile. He concluded after a few more spoonfuls that "Mama's lasagne is Yum Yum Yum"! He happily polished off his plate and ate another leftover portion the next day with the same verdict. That was indeed a pleasant surprise.  

Friday, July 25, 2008

Baby chipsy and the guitars


My baby who still has his babyish charms. Aww.. I can't kiss him enough.








During one of E's guitar sessions with his friend in the condo's AV room. Only geeks will take pictures of their guitars in that fashion. :P


Banana and chocolate muffins

Marcus helped to mash the bananas and scatter the chocolate buttons and watched excitedly while I filled the muffin cups. He couldn't wait to eat them when they were fresh out of oven and kept insisting that I blow them to cool them down. After eating a muffin each for 3 consecutive mornings, he finally had enough of it.




Smoked salmon please

Scrambled egg with smoked salmon is definitely his all-time favourite breakfast choice. Marcus orders it and chef Papa cooks it. Papa favours a particular pricey Norwegian brand of smoked salmon which costs $14 for a tiny 50g pack of 5 thin strips. The boy appreciates the good stuff and can consume easily 1.5 pack a week. He likes it in his particular quirky way - the smoked salmon must be cut up into bite size and placed at the side of the scrambled egg and fed separately. A spoonful of egg followed by a spoonful of fish. Never mix together.

When he is cranky, he fusses less when we offer him a snack of smoked salmon. Well, papa thinks nothing is too expensive for his boys, so I reason that we are paying for the premium taste in addition to the DHA goodness in the tiny package.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

A LONG short week

Just want to blog to remember this week.

A brief few days, but for all the people concerned, it must have felt like an awful long time. It is a good feeling to know that Chipsy falls asleep easily tonight with me patting his back and I admire Marcus' Lego creation of his dump truck with newfound pride. As I hugged Piggy to sleep the past 2 nights, I am reminded of the blessings that I possess and yet insufficiently cherished. I should be thankful of the close shave and remember this week. I can and will be forgetful, unless I consciously remind myself of the details which currently are already fuzzy. Everything happens for a reason, and perhaps this is the turning point. It can only get better.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Goat cheese salad

Once in a while, I will be reminded of the beautiful goat cheese salad which E's friends made for us when they invited us over for dinner 7 yrs ago. Yes, long time ago when we were still living in London. I made the yummy salad the following week just to remind myself again of the wonderful taste and loved it so much that I even dreamt of it a few times after. But since we were back to Singapore, I've never made it ever again. For full 5 years. Wow.. time flies. 

Anyway, I couldn't resist and bought a nicely packaged piece of goat cheese from Medi-ya recently when I was there to hunt down my recent favourite dessert, the Japanese soft cream cheese which is so incredibly delicious. A quick shopping trip that was, but I ended up $86 poorer. And my basket was full of food and really good quality ingredients to whip up fanciful dinners. 

After chucking the goat cheese into the fridge with my stash of other goodies, I promptly forgot about it till today. I re-created the salad which I served with grilled salmon and boiled new potatoes. Even E was full of praises for the dinner. That makes me happy. 

Ingredients (Serves 2)
200g of cherry tomatoes 
5 cloves garlic, crushed
30g to 50g goat cheese (depending on portion you want to serve per pax)
olive oil
50g wild rocket

Place first 3 items in an dish and drizzle generously with olive oil. Bake 10 min in 200 deg cel oven and when done, arrange them loosely on top a platter of rocket leaves. Yummy on its own or serve with seafood like grilled salmon or prawns like I do. I am craving for more goat cheese already.. hmm.. 


Random pictures

The zealous boy couldn't wait to begin drawing once he got out of bed.



Laughing at Tom & Jerry cartoon, his current favourite. I wasn't supportive of him watching cartoons of this sort at his age, but after seeing him laugh so much, I relented.


Bathing together.


Toys galore. "Traffic jam" created by the boys.


One digs and the other dumps. Boys playing together harmoniously.




Marcus reading a book he borrowed from the library. A weekly "outing" for us these days.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Big Wheel





We finally went to satisfy our curiosity. The Singapore Flyer that is. We told the boys they are going on a big wheel this morning and they were so excited. Nicholas kept going "big wheel, big wheel" as he paced the living room though I am sure he has no idea what and where we are taking him. Marcus has seen the Flyer from a taxi many times, so it must be so meaningful to him to finally board the capsule and be on the slowly moving wheel. 

Half hour on the wheel is mighty long time to me and I got bored about 15 min after, but it was an experience nonetheless. It was more exciting for me to be on the London Eye though as I could examine the unfamiliar skyline and landscape of the British capital from that impressive height. Looking at Singapore skyline isn't very exhilarating for me, but of course we did it for the kids. E has been on it before during one of his work functions but he said it is better in daytime. 

Typical of kids, Marcus was all mesmerised by the scenery from up high and spent a lot of time exclaiming about this and that and trust his sharp observation to spot all sorts of things that I didn't spot. It was fun explaining stuff and answering his questions from that height since we get to see things from different perspective and even to little Nicholas, it was special as he dashed around inside the capsule and pointed to clouds and ships and diggers and trucks that he noticed from time to time. 

After about 20 min, when we were at the highest point of the wheel and our capsule was on its way descending, Marcus announced "Ok, I have enough now. I want to get out now" which promptly drew laughter from all the adults with us. We shared with a Caucasian family (complete strangers). Luckily, he didn't fuss at all when we explained that we can't just get out as we please but have to wait till it reaches the bottom of the wheel. 

Right after we exited, Marcus said "ok, I want to go on the big wheel again". :) Evidence that he enjoyed it. 

After a quick lunch, we headed back for a 2 hr playdate with K's 2 gals. It was a slight pity that Marcus fell asleep just minutes before they arrived, so it was only Nicholas enjoying the company of 4 gals. Well, K and I got to chat quite a bit, which was nice. 

It has been another busy week and with a full plan for tomorrow and the weekend, I am looking forward to a more restful Monday before I catch up with my darling Z who is hailing from New York. Gosh! I can't wait! 

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

I love you

One of the things that makes me happy is watching my boys play.

I stood by the kitchen and watched both boys play independently and separately for about 10 min this evening while E was busy with his toys in the study. Marcus was creating a new Lego truck at the dining table with full concentration while Nicholas sat on the floor nearby playing with a Lego structure that Marcus had built earlier and observing how all the different parts move and work.

It is really nice to watch them playing quietly and purposefully on their own. Out of the blue, Marcus looked up and said to me "Mummy, I love you.".... Aww... I often ask him if he knows I love him a lot and his reply is always "I know mummy, I love you too". I told my baby chip too that I love him and I say that to them both several times a day, accompanied by plenty of kisses on their cheeks and forehead.

It brings a certain tenderness to my heart whenever I think of how much I love them and that they are aware of it.

My favourite uncle

J was really kind to accept my invitation to take the boys to Explorerkid today and we took the MRT there for the kids' benefit and spent 2 hrs there. J was to follow Marcus around and I watched Nicholas since he is younger and more risks of falling or hurting himself. It was really funny to watch Marcus dashing around the whole gym, climbing up and down the climbing frames while J tried to catch up with him. After an hour or so, J was visibly slowing down and I could hear him asking Marcus to take a rest. The little boy didn't need any rest; he was still bursting with energy and just kept going till he finally announced he was hungry and needed to eat lunch. Fed them brunch before we left home at 11am so we had a late lunch at 3pm.

Even little Nicholas had such a great time. He did take breaks from time to time as he sat or stood for a while to take in his surroundings. He was very daring and kept wanting to go down the slide on his own. Being the cautious mum, I refused to let him since it is a wide slide and of considerable height, so for a small tot like him, I do consider the risks too high if he ventures alone. I offered to sit him on my lap and slide with him, but he made clear that this was a "I go alone" or "I'm not interested" deal for him, so in the end, we didn't use the slides at all which was fine by me.

The boys snoozed in the cab on way back which is always a good sign that they had fun. When J left, Marcus woke up from his nap and cried that he wanted his favourite uncle (referring to J). Made me laugh really but it is heartwarming that he is warming up to his uncle, who was endearingly holding on to his young nephew's hand all the time. It reminded me of the times long ago when I held J's hand when we were kids and now my brother is all grown and holding my son's hand. Aww..

Monday, July 14, 2008

School Holidays

Yesterday was the start of Marcus' month long school holiday. With two kids at home all the time will require some good planning for our happiness and sanity. In a way, I am glad there are two of them at home, so they can have playmates all the time, though they do have plenty of conflicts. But it is a good way for them to learn how to play socially, communicate their needs and wants and resolving conflicts among themselves. 

Besides playdates, swimming and daily playground visits, I am planning to take them to parks and gardens, gym facilities in town, Sentosa and Science Centre. Perhaps a visit to the zoo and day trips to the farms too. It will be quite a challenge to take both out for a long stretch of time by myself but I guess the fun and satisfaction at the end of the day will be more than enough to compensate for the frustration I feel from time to time when both run in opposite directions. 

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Conversation

A conversation we had recently when Marcus asked me the first question out of the blue. 
Marcus: "Where is your daddy?"
Me: "He died before you were born." 
Marcus: "Why did he die?"
Me: "Because he was sick."
Marcus: "Did he die in the hospital?"
Me: "Yes."

He told E today when they were out that "Mama's daddy died long time ago, before I was born". 

A funny conversation this evening while he was sitting on the toilet seat and I was waiting for him to finish. (Got to remember this in future that we often chat when he is on his toilet seat)
Marcus: "Mummy, why didn't your papa and mama buy you toys?" (he remembers that I told him recently that I didn't have much toys when I was small)
Me: "Because they were very poor. They didn't have much money."
Marcus: "My daddy has big coins so he can buy me toys."
Me: "Do you have big coins too?"
Marcus: "Noooo.. I am a child! I have no money."
Me: "Well, when you grow up and become an adult, you can go to work and earn money. Then you can buy yourself toys."
Marcus: "Mummy, you are an adult. You can go to work."
Me: "Yes I can. But who will look after you and Chipsy if I go to work?"
Marcus: "You can go to work and daddy can look after me and Chipsy."
Me: "Oh.. you prefer daddy to look after you? Not mummy?"
Marcus: (adding very quickly) "Oh, it is also very nice when mummy stays home to look after me and chipsy." (I can sense that he is becoming more sensitive to my feelings and as he said this, he watched my expressions closely)
Marcus: "But there are 2 adults in this house. You and my papa. Both of you can go to work."
Me: "Do you want both of us to go to work?"
Marcus: "Yes because there are not enough toys in this house!"

Hahaha! That cheeky boy! 

Thursday, July 10, 2008

eXplorerKid

We don't usually squander E's day off away by idling much at home. So off we went to Pasir Ris and checked out the ExplorerKid and Ferris Wheel at Downtown East after Marcus' school. Two hours at the playground and a ride on the insignificant Ferris Wheel, we headed back and both boys dozed in the cab. We will be making frequent appearance there for the coming weeks when Marcus has his school holiday. 

Family only

It has been a month without the maid and I simply love it. I love the feeling of having our privacy back, no more nonsense to deal with and just having a family-only environment ALL the time. 

I guess it would be less demanding if Nicholas was smaller (or older), but at this age and with the age gap between the boys, it can get pretty hassling and challenging at times when both demand some attention from me while I need to get other things done, especially cooking. I still insist and manage to cook 2 meals for the boys daily and dinner for us on most days.  With a routine mapped out, it is all manageable without much stress. The housework gets done, the kids are still fed well, I still get to play and bond with each kid at certain times of the day and we still do stuff together. Ironically, I am more motivated to cook fancier recipes on weekday evenings now than before when I could have left it all for the maid to wash up. 

Having to handle the kids and household without domestic help does remind me once again, of the demands placed on mothers of previous generations. However, as a SAHM of modern times, I guess I expect more of myself that includes nurturing our offsprings and developing their talents, in addition to the traditional job description. My days are busy but fulfilling. An old friend noted recently after reading this blog, that I seem to enjoy motherhood. I do. Very much indeed. 

Monday, July 7, 2008

Memory game

Played the Picture Pair memory game from ELC with Marcus when Chip was napping earlier and we had lots of laugh together. His memory is amazing and out of the 54 cards which made 27 pairs, he managed to collect 14 pairs without any help from me. So he emerged the winner and got to snack on Hello Panda, a yummy treat that makes appearance in the house once in a blue moon. :) 

This is only the third time we play this game and he understands the rules very well and enjoys the triumph of collecting the cards when he picked the similar cards. It's certainly time to progress to more advanced memory games. 

Innovator







It is no longer a simple dump truck or cement mixer, but some vehicles with new purposes and names we have never heard before, such as towpik (note: he deliberately spelt it "pik" as it is special, so according to him it is not typo) truck, fire taxi truck and ear truck. The names are odd and sometimes hilarious and seem meaningless, but Marcus will tell us otherwise. He has little stories for each and every of his invention and they all serve different purposes. The towpik truck can tow other vehicles and also pick up rubbish and a fire taxi truck can carry people during and through a fire. Hmmm... he sure has some good imagination there. I couldn't really fathom his explanation of what an ear truck does though. 

He doesn't just draw them, but also build different models of vehicles with his mega blocks and Lego and would explain at length and with conviction what he is doing and how and why everyone is so special. We call him our little innovator.







Saturday, July 5, 2008

Little readers

During our parent teacher conference with Marcus' teachers 2 weeks ago, both the English and Chinese teachers told us how excellent Marcus' memory is for a child his age. For kids his age, they would usually be exposed to 3-letters word in school, before progressing to 4-letters and those with 2 syllabuses by age 4 to 5. But Marcus can already read very long words and even those up to 5 syllabuses. He tries to read new words with ease and confidence and if stumbled, he only needs assistance once or twice and can remember it easily. It can be a challenge to maintain his interest when they teach phonics and word blending, as he usually just read the word instead of trying phonetically. We were told that Marcus takes only a few minutes to read packs of 20 word cards when others may take up to 20 minutes. Now he is already picking up books in the library corner and reading the whole book himself. An activity which only the older 5-6 y.o. are doing. So of course we are very proud of the little boy's ability and confidence.

The Chinese teacher said similar stuff about the boy's memory and ability to interpret and understand her spoken Mandarin. He seems to understand a lot more than what he is willing to express in Mandarin and when shown Chinese word cards, he is able to match words to pictures with ease and point out the correct pictures if asked in Mandarin. Right now, he is working with teacher on lots of nouns and just strengthening his Chinese vocabulary. At home, I manage to sustain his interest with plenty of chinese story books and after just reading a few times to him, he is now able to read quite a few books on his own. I do wonder if he is looking at the hanyu pinyin, so I shall test him by writing the words out on paper to see if he can read them.

Just the other day, he read the word "Minneapolis" to E when they were reading a book together which resulted in E's exclaiming excitedly to me. The little boy had a proud smile on his face when I peeped in the room. And yesterday, he read some of the books he picked up from the library and without any guide, he read "extraordinary" to me. My jaw dropped and he laughed.

Even little Nicholas is now attempting to read a wide array of books. His current favourite is Little Cloud by Eric Carle, Chocolate Mousse for Greedy Goose by Julia Donaldson, The Duck Quacks, The Very Hungry Caterpillar also by EC, amongst a few others. He is already reading some of the words excitedly, so there is definitely some great potential in that little tot too.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Baked Scallop and Chicken pasta

Very pleased with my dinner creation tonight. It is very easy and yet absolutely delicious with one of my favourite ingredients -scallops! 

Baked Scallops: Mix 6 large scallops with melted butter, minced garlic, shallots, sea salt, breadcrumbs and olive oil. Transfer to oven dish and sprinkle more breadcrumbs and drizzle more olive oil. Bake in 220 deg cel oven for 10 min (depending on quantity of scallops). 

Roast chicken pasta: Melt butter and stir fry more minced garlic, chopped onion and broccoli with chopped roast chicken and stir in cooked angel hair pasta till pasta is all coated with the mixture. 

Cheese sauce: Stir in milk to melted butter and flour and then grated cheddar cheese. 

To serve: 
Pour cheese sauce onto roast chicken pasta and top with scallops and plenty of minced garlic and olive oil from the oven dish. Tuck in while it's hot! 

I'm a baby owl. Hoot Hoot!

That is what Marcus says on some days. Makes us laugh when he climbs into our bed at 630am and whispers that into our ears while he makes himself comfortable on our bed and arranges the quilt neatly over himself.

He asked what do owls eat, how do they sleep and other questions about them. He insists he is a baby owl and not the adult ones, as presumably the babies are cuter and he is comparing himself to Chipsy who is a baby. He tells us sometimes that his favourite food is rats, not the bread made in a mouse shape that I offered to bake for him, but the "real rats in Ratatouille". Yikes! 

I just asked him if he would like to eat jacket potato with avocado and prawns for dinner and he said "no, I'm an owl so I only eat prawns and avocado. No potato". Told him owls don't eat prawns and avocado and he said "I'm a special blue owl that eats prawns. I love prawns but not potato". 

Yes, he loves seafood and can eat plenty of Alaskan king crab and bbq crabs, prawns and fish at one sitting, so it always makes me feel good when we take him for seafood buffet. Luckily, he is not a fussy eater anymore and despite asking for prawns on daily basis, he still eats his meals if the menu features the "lesser meat" like chicken and pork. 

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