Want some kaya?

I know it look unappetising, but you don't know what you're missing here!

I was getting pretty upset lately of missing home food. I think must be from the fact that most of a pretty good friends are far away; back in their home country or working in others. Plus its been a year and a half since I was last at home. *sigh....

Oh well! If only I've won that Euro Million thingy - CHF 88,000,000.00 JACKPOT WOR!! *sigh... Never mind lor! Will try again next time. Next jackpot is CHF 112,000,000.00!! Who knows huh? hehehehe....

So as I was missing home so much, I decide to make something that reminds me of my childhood. Kaya. I remembered when mum used to make kaya, she lets us lick clean (I literally mean CLEAN!) the pandan leaves after she takes it out of the pot, of course! As kids we just LOVE it. And I still do it even now, all grown up and a mother myself!!

As I was stirring the mixture, another memory floods back to my mind. Grandma (mum's side) will let us buy bread from the next door baker - who only makes those big size kopitiam bread, and then keep the rest of the change!! Back then a mare 20 cents were like a million bucks for us. 20 cents can get us a pack of sweets (5 pieces), 1 stick of ice pops, a pack of crakers and 3 pieces of pound peanut cookie (my fav). She then slice up the bread, toasts it, slap on some butter on one piece and kaya on the other piece. She even let us have kopi-o with our roti bakar!! BTW we were about 5 or 6 then!! LOL! Imagine what my mum would have said if she found out about the kopi-o!! Too bad grandma died of diabetes as she loves her kopi-o very, VERY sweet...

Every time I make kaya now, it brings back fond memories of childhood. The carefree days of running, playing around with my cousins and or neightbourhood kids. Oh! How I wish I could go back to live it once again.... *sigh.... But Owen is pulling by my leg. He wants kaya too! OR wants to be kaya (rich in Malay)?

T'was my birthday

Was my birthday on Sunday. Yup! A year older and hopefully a little more wiser. So what did the men in my life did for me?

He sat around waiting for his lunch and then watch TV - its the Games remember? While the other little one is also waiting for his food, play around with my plastic containers and then nap time. Owen was being very well behaved on that day - THANK GOD! In fact I wish for nothing more on my special day that he being well behave and not make mummy really MAD. And for once he did as I wished. :-)

After all the baking, eating and cleaning up, I finally have the time to actually laze around and read a book. That is until Owen wakes up 2 hours later. Then its another round of "built & destroy", "flip & tear", hide & seek (not him - the cordless phone!) and, of course more cuddles & kisses.

Then we went out for dinner at the nearby Chinese restaurant. We can really seldom eat out now ever since Owen started walking. No. Make that ever since he was born!! The reason being; restaurants aren't made for babies and little kids. As soon as he gets bored or the hunger needs has been fulfilled, he'll be wanting to be let out from either the high chair or the stroller! If not he'll make loads of noise by crying or screaming!!

Gifts from June! YAY!

Close up of the needle pouch

So that was for Sunday, but TODAY I received some thing extra. Our door bell rang early this morning. It as the postman and with him its a parcel from home. I didn't wear my glasses - blind as a bat without them, so I didn't see who was it from, until I saw the name. It was from June of NNC!! She was my secret Birthday Exchange partner (organised by BJ).

The lovely work done by June...


The underside (do we call it underside?) of the Love Cube

So what's in the goodies bag? There's a red bag with a Love Cube lovingly stitched by June, a Cottage Patch needle pouch kit, a really cool Chinese paper craft book, some cute baby themed buttons (mental note: must think of where to sew it onto!! Its just too cute to be sitting around) and last but not least, a really COOL cardboard book for Owen. Its so cool that it caught his attention IMMEDIATELY!! WOW! Even the cardboard book we bought him were put aside...

My 1st try. Will get it to go ROUND the next time! ;-)

OH!! There's also a sushi making mold: we place the rice and other filling into it, then pop it out onto the nori! I've made a sample sushi using this and it came out just right: round and all ready to be warped in nori! Too bad hubs aren't into Japanese food, otherwise I'll have a sushi eating partner. Hmm... Which reminds me; perhaps a sushi party with my girlfriends? Since I don't work, can not do bento party right? hehehehehe....

Its POTTY TIME!

Hahahahahaha..... I guess you might be wondering if I spelt it wrongly.... But the truth is, I did not. I'm trying to potty train the little man in the house. Well, trying really hard.

I know, I know it takes lots of patience, silent cleaning up, creative ways to make it happen etc etc. Hubs isn't any help either. He'll go like; Errmmmm... I think he just poop! ARRGGHHHH!! Why can't men take proactive approach like keeping his mouth shut and change the poopy diapers for once when we're busy doing other chores?!? I seriously don't think poopy diapers are out there to get fathers who changes them.

I asked my 1st SIL about potty training her boys. She was like; But its too early to be training him now. Hm.... And so does the other advices online say; Its too early to potty train under 20 month old baby unless they show signs of readiness. So should I follow what they say? Or should I go ahead to get him to make "acquaintances" with Mr Potty while slowly getting him to make ngee ngee and shee shee in it? For the moment it seems like he's toying with the sitting on Mr Potty with his diapers on and knows where shee shee comes from (trust me, boys have a weird way of knowing!). So is this the sign that I should be looking for? Man! Am I confused!

WOW! Its been that LONG??

Since my last post! So what have we been up to.... Well I can say that there's nothing much but enjoying the summer and JP got his job back. Long story short; he was let go due to economic reasons of the company - AKA company in the process of a buy over. Then suddenly his old company find out that they could rehire him and so they did.

Eh! Where did the birdies went?

Which was great, as it meant that I won't be as worried and stressed out about him being unemployed with a family to feed. Which also means that he can get out of my hair while I do my stitching!! :-) I'm really WAY behind my stitching schedule at the moment.... He will sometimes complained that I'm neglecting certain things when I stitch. Well HELLO? What is that? The only time I stitch now is when the dishes are done, Owen's asleep and toys being put away. So I don't think its fair that I can't do my hobbies while he lingers almost every hour of the day with his precious bonsais!!

There they are!

It was pretty sunny on only a few days with lots of rainy spells for the month of July. So we had to stay indoors, which was a drag since summer is the only time of the year where we get to enjoy being out doors.

Ooooo...

But still we managed to bring Owen to a zoo and the next door tropicarium (well both small ones and fairly recent establishments) nearby one partly cloudy Saturday, and he seems to like it. I think its the space that he likes; all the space to run and wander about as he wants to! What impress him most were the birds what run freely in the bird park: he tried to run after them! The fast swimming African penguins, some swimming tortoise & goldfish (don't ask me why there's goldfish there), the very BIG bear and cub and last but not least the domestic goat! Must be from the pictures of his bedtime story book.

Wah! Look at hos fast they can go mama!

YEAH! Papa look! Got teddy bear!

He happily clapped when he saw the bear, which was funny because all the other kids were like "Wow! A big mean bear!".... The big cats (tigers, lions and lynx) did nothing to him. Or it may be that they were cat napping? But we did hear the tiger roar! And still he didn't pay attention to it unlike towards the bear.

The not so "dangerous" teddy?

At the end of the zoo/tropicarium visit, he just fell asleep within 5 minutes when we hit the road back home. Guess its all the bear excitement and running about that does it. Thank goodness all animals were well fenced in, otherwise he'll be seen as live easy bait to the cats, wolves and bears!

Despite the not so wonderful weather on the month of July, we got to enjoy the seasons cherries. All big, red, round, firm and juicy. Hmm... Now I sound perverted!! Well a picture says a thousand words!

Next we get to finally enjoy bicycle rides we JP got Owen his seat (fixed on my bike - for obvious reasons) and his very own cycle helmet! We took him for a spin to the local swimming pool. And boy did he enjoyed the ride - with the wind blowing on his face and the great scenery to match. He almost fell asleep on our way back. I didn't realised how heavy he was and unstable I handle my bike till I ride and paddle with him on the seat!!

Handsome or not? hehehhehe...

OH! Did I mentioned that he really likes to wear the cycle helmet? He refused that the helmet be taken off even after having reach home an hour! Once its on him, its on him. So now I don't have to worry about him taking the helmet off while I'm cycling OR even refusing to put them on, eh? hehehehe...