Cupcakes

Another foray into the baking world today, this time for Maddie's 1st birthday tomorrow!

We got a couple batches going, and will frost them tomorrow morning. Will upload more pics then!

Anyhoos! For those who haven't been following the drama on Twitter and Facebook, we got burgled on Tuesday. The day before my operation, to remove a bone that's been growing behind my ear for about 1 1/2 years now.

What? you say, A bone? Growing out behind your ear?! And a break-in?!

Yes. An osteo mastoid. But it's been successfully removed, I'm still recovering, but as you can see, am up and about running the house as well as my chores as per normal. But as if preparation for major surgery wasn't nerve-wrecking enough, we had to have money and my wedding jewelry stolen too. :-(

My new favourite photo...

You can see more if you add Aidan as a friend on your Facebook!

Some new vidz

Happy 18 months!

Yes how amazing! We finally hit this great (semi-)milestone, and I'm so proud of him. And us. We did it!

Anyhoos! Here're the photos I promised about our trip to the Children's Farm!

FARM TRIP

The little one is growing up

Today's Labour Day here in Melbourne and we decided to spend the day having a BBQ in Studley Park with our good friends, The Chews, the Khoos, the newly-wedded Lims and the Chuas.

Anyway, as usual, we would sit there eating while Aidan runs amuck getting his hands in the dirt. Incidently, he's getting really good at calling people's names. The current list includes, Amy (Ivy's sister), Ivy, Steve and just tonight, Ellie. Pronounces them quite well too. I digress...anyway, he came over to me after a whole afternoon of running around and I picked him up and told him to sit still to rest for a awhile. Well, he got upset and actually smacked me on the face. So I decided to discipline him. I told him sternly that because he was misbehave he was to sit on the bench and not be allowed to get off.

I proceeded to go and play ball and he actually sat there (though unhappy) and not get off his seat, and periodically yelled to me "DAH DAH!" "Peeeaasse!" while making the sign for please. It was soo funny but at the same time it showed me that he understood my instructions and followed it. He also kept stretching his hand out to anyone that walked by to carry him. Well, he sat there till I came and picked him up.

Our little one is growing up quick and as he learns we too need to learn how best to discipline him.

Dentistry

Hooray! After much reisistance, A has decided he'll give brushing his teeth a go. He's currently got 10 teeth (I think!) - 4 top front, 4 bottom front, and 2 top molars on either side.

He'd never let me get near his mouth with his toothbrushes - I'd bought plenty to try (the ONE thing he has to put into his mouth, he refuses). But today, after watching me brush my own teeth, and ONLY after I propped him up to the mirror so he could see he'd be doing the same thing with his own toothbrush, he popped it in. And we have blast off. Brush brush brush!

He hasn't quite got the hang of it yet, but at least it's IN HIS MOUTH! We had great fun after rinsing our mouths, and spitting out water into the sink. Too much fun. Methinks a sign of portent - will he never swallow and drink his water again, forever spewing liquids out in a perfect plume?

Aidan's Pigeon Toothbrush Training Set
He's got another one from my dentist, but uses it as a plunger because of its suction base. Hmpf.

For the love of beeswax! And other random stuff...

Lots have been happening lately with us over the last few days, so let's get right into it! In reverse chonological order...

Today (Wednesday):
We just made banana and choc chip bread together, and it's baking in the oven. How cute! Aidan helped me pour the ingredients into the bowl. He also helped mash the bananas too! Then we chanted "mix mix mix" (he's SO clever at repeating words now, even the 'S'-sounds which are typically hard to master) as we stirred the batter, and poured it into the loaf pan. Mmmm....the smell wafting out of the kitchen is delicious! All right... shan't be a food flirt, here's the recipe! It's really easy, got it off May Q, no butter!

Banana Choc-Chip Bread
2 large ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 C sugar
1 1/3 C self-raising flour
50 ml milk
50 ml olive oil
2 eggs
chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts)
chocolate chips (or chopped choc pieces)

Mix them all up in a large bowl, pour into a greased loaf pan, bake at 180 degrees C (160 if using fan-forced oven) for 20-40 mins till outside is golden brown, and a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Serve warm and eat! (If you're really indulging, add a scoop of vanilla-bean ice cream. TO DIE FOR!)

(Sorry if the pictures are a little fuzzy...took it on my 2MP camera-phone.)

Er...the Ribena doesn't go into the cake...it's for the baker's stomach...

He tried to lick the wooden spoon, and got a face full of batter...

The cake should look like this. If yours doesn't, well, maybe baking isn't right for you... ;p

Yesterday:
It was time for childcare again, and neither of us was really looking forward to it particularly. It's always so hard to leave, watching him cry, but necessary. I do believe he needs that interaction with other kids, and plus I need some ME-time! So for the sake of both our sanities (and development), he goes in once a week, while I'm at class.

Turns out, he's adjusting a lot better - less crying, and getting better each time, say the people who work in his room (Pre-kinder one). I can't remember if I've blogged about this, but, he was bumped up to the Pre-kinder class 'coz of some admin error (they thought he was still in Babies), and seeing how there wasn't room left in toddlers, he got bumped up (plus he was close to the right age anyways).

Last week, he was such a little scrapper, pushing back against this other big kid who kept pushing him (in a 'duh...i'm a big giant, hello little thing. Whoopsies, you fell! Duh...whad happened?" kinda way). He kinda reminded me of a feisty chihuahua who won't stand at being bullied, the way he barked back and flailed his arms about as if in a girlfight. This week when the other kid came by, A just ignored him. Haha... well, you gotta preserve yourself somehow when you're smaller and younger than everyone else in class!

As for me, I learnt "i bicchieri va nel'armadio" and "no, non gioco mai tennis". I think I conjugated that correctly...


The day before:
We went to the Collingwood Children's Farm! It was great, we got to see sheep, goats, pat horses, watch chickens cluck and geese and ducks, and a big fat black pig with her little piglets. Aidan had a ball of a time, even though he fell over into the dirt, which got into his nose and mouth. Eww. But other than that, no real anima poo incidents that I had to clean up. Although A seemed more interested in dirt and rocks - kept picking one up after another and wandering around with them. Funny boy! Pictures will come soon in FB.

Another milestone - he's really able to feed himself with a spoon now, quite accurately in fact. He's quite adept at spooning yoghurt into his mouth, although rice, porridge and pasta tend to me messier.

He's also developed a fondness for the blue Ikea kid's chair I've been using to sit on while bathing him. He can actually carry the whole thing, and has been doing so from room to room. He'll even turn it upside down to sit IN it. It's just like how instead of sitting on his Pooh-bear walker, he STANDS on it! Quite proudly too, with a ta-daaaah face! The things toddlers do...

New words spoken: eyes, nose, ear, mouth, amen, chicken!!

As for me: Another celebrity dream - this time, John Mayer called me up, we had a great conversation, and he invited me over to hang out! EG came home and helped me pick an outfit with whatever I had there and then (a black top and a puffy skirt which did NOT go together), and I got into the car. Woke up before arriving. Dang!


The day before the day before:
Aidan found a Forever Sharp knife on the edge of a table in church (& if you've seen those knives, they're really long and serrated at the edge, with twin prongs!), which we had used for cutting a cake. He'd actually reached over and above to grab it. Started wandering around brandishing it, which thankfully a horrified friend discovered and removed before A hurt himself. Or worse, stabbed the Pastor (although at the rate his sermons have been dragging on...doodeedoodeedooo... nahhhhh.)

Pretty eventful first half of the week!

Lexicon

I'm watching the Oscars in the background as Aidan totters around, getting up to his usual mischief. He managed to STACK BLOCKS - isn't that a developmental milestone??! - scatter cracker crumbs around the living room, drool on the floorboards, and insert, eject, then re-insert the CD into the Nintendo Wii. Pretty nifty!

Oh hang on a tic. Gotta get him away from the X-Box now, before his Dada gets upset again.

Anyways, he's been articulating heaps lately, saying "pease", "tankoo", and "khock" a lot. It's hilarious! The little young'un is well on his way to verbalising his wants and dislikes ("noooooooooo"), even while dripping snot 'coz of his cold. Poor bubba! So far, his vocabulary consists of:

Boh-beh-ba! = STRAWBERRIES
Awwww-wah! = ORANGE
Gape = GRAPES
Pease = PLEASE
Tankoo = THANK YOU
Khock = CLOCK
Dada = DAD
Mama = MUM (he can also say por-por, dan-dad (grandad), ahn-na (his cousin Anna))
Ahmo = ELMO (he pointed to the Elmo packaging at the supermarket and said "AHMO"!! Amazing!)
Oh-pehn = OPEN
Beh! = PRESS (the Button)

When I can remember more, I'll add to this list. Still waiting on him to string words together to form sentences...

He's also developed a delightful habit of wiping surfaces, like the table, floor, windows, his face, etc... Yes, who needs a housekeeper when the creator of the mess cleans up after himself? ;-)

Happy Engagement Anniversary!

Today marks 6 years since EG and I got engaged. He'd proposed on the spur-of-the-moment at a church camp (Equipping Weekend), hemming and hawing as I stifled then released uncontrollable fits of laughter, protesting "No! Don't ask me don't ask me!!" while he half-kneeled off the dorm bunkbed for half an hour. Classy.

Sadly though, the place where all this occurred has been largely destroyed. Marysville has been obliterated by last Saturday's bushfires, one of the worst in Australia's history, surpassing Ash Wednesday and Black Friday. Yesterday, some of the survivors returned for the first time to view the wreckage they'd once called home. Where EG'd proposed, El Kanah lodge (which had changed management and been renovated since we'd gotten engaged), no longer exists.

Charred remains of a fuel station in Marysville

Aerial view of the township

Closer look at the carnage, from above

More devastating scenes can be seen here, as well as a video from a survivor's point of view.

I guess we won't be able to bring Aidan to see the place where his parents got engaged :-( Our prayers are with those in need.


If you'd like to give towards the effort, you can do so through the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal.

I swear it's true...

I've never really won a significant competition in my life so far. Yes, there was that Christmas-card contest in church, some lucky draw, and most recently, a Border's gift-card for creative feedback. So it's to my chagrin that I'm awarding the Worst Mother in the World prize to myself, for successfully locking my son in the car, WITH my car keys, AND my bag, AND my mobile phone.

It felt like something out of a movie, or a poorly written sitcom at the very least. I stupidly handed my keys over to Aidan to play with after I parked in the garage on Monday arvo. As I got out of the car, the door shuts behind me (which I doesn't usually matter since I'm holding the car keys, right? Ohwaitaminit!!), and just as I reach Aidan's door, I hear a "phoomp", the doors are locked, and I'm standing there flabbergasted as my son looks at me gleefully through the car window. He'd clicked on the remote and LOCKED HIMSELF IN!

The next few minutes see me coaxing and pleading with him to press the "unlock" button on the car remote. He doesn't get it. He then drops the key. Then wails at me. I try not to panic. I call EG frantically, several times, but he doesn't pick up 'coz apparently he's on his bike returning to the store from the coffee roaster's. I call Chris, whose home number is saved on the house phone, and she starts looking for numbers to locksmiths on the internet. Finally, I get through to EG, he leaves the shop to come home with the other key. And I wait.

In the meantime, A is getting cranky (rightfully-so) at being trapped in the car, while I am standing outside singing silly songs and pulling funny faces, in between sprints upstairs to upturn every box I have looking for the spare manual car key (the type you insert directly into the car door).

Alls well that ends well though. EG finally got home, A was released from his prison, and I'm convinced not to let him play with valuable objects no matter how much he whines. The little bubba clung onto EG for dear life though, and shook his head violently whenver I reached for him. Serves me right I guess!

A couple of things I'm grateful for though:
1) The weather wasn't too hot - thank God it wasn't the 47-degree day! A was still pretty sweaty though, after being in there for half an hour.
2) We'd reached home when this had happened, and the door from my garage to the house wasn't locked, so I could call for help.
3) We'd JUST found our other car key the night before (hidden in the TV cabinet for some unfathomable reason).

What a day.

And the winner is...

Big thanks to the few of you who wrote in with a caption for this post, either or FB or on the blog.

And I declare the winner to be... Deadpoet!

Motorists wondered about the sudden downpour.

As the winner of this leg of the race, Deadpoet as received an all-expenses paid treat to a restaurant of his choice, valid in Melbourne or Singapore.

If you've missed out, don't worry, we'll run another contest again soon... ;-)

Water feature

Busy little bee

Sarah Soh's lesson in vacuuming around the house:
Step 1. Pick the dustbuster up from its charger.
Step 2. Unplug the top bendy bit, pluck out the 1 or 2 pens stuck into it by Aidan, and attach the bendy head back.
Step 3. Vacuum as per normal.

WRITE A CAPTION contest!

Can you think of a fitting caption for this picture? Winner gets a prize!

Missing the family

I don't think that you ever really know what it feels like to miss someone until you've had a child.

As some of you might already realise, I'm back in Melbourne while Sarah and Aidan are still in Singapore till Chinese New Year. That means that I'll be apart from them for over 3 weeks. We did this last year but I don't remember really feeling as lost as I do now. Especially since I've had their company everyday for over 2 weeks straight and now to not have them around is torturing.

I think that when Aidan was 3 months, he hadn't really started to respond so much and wasn't very interactive, therefore I had not fully developed my relationship with him. But now that he's so chatty and loving, I can't help but feel like a part of me is missing. Coupled with that, not having Sarah around has kinda made me lose my bearings. To not have her by my side when I sleep or when we are watching TV, is really...can't find the right word, but you know what I mean.

3 weeks is such a long time apart and after only a few days, I'm really not sure how it's going to be. The house feels empty, the room feels empty and worse of all I feel empty.

Come home soon...