Weekend

I took Megan to Mall after school last Friday, to have good time and play.
We ate some thick toast at Ta Ya Kun, then PLAY!!!!

Past, Present and Future

I got message from my best friend, which said: ' it's amazing that we think we're smart but end up like this.'

yeah....I used to think that I'm smart. I'm educated, quite up dated with almost everything: current news, political, economical, fashion, technology, health, etc, have good income and have many friends. I'm trustworthy and I don't do drug. My schedule full of social events and tea invitations, so full of life.

At some point, I became a bit snob and felling superior. I enjoyed myself so much and consider myself on right path, make right choice.
But I was wrong,ignoring my instinct, my marriage end up like this, broken to pieces and most of my friends choose to fled away.

I'm a fool actually, since I was pregnant, I already saw how those would happened. I just tried to fool myself that everything will end up okay, he'll change with the arrival of the baby.I felt into my own 'hope' trap just as many cliche stories that i heard and consulted before.

I learn hard lesson from my mistake.
I'm feeling blessed ,still, cause God still love me, even all my saving was gone, cheated by my trusted one and I worked still my bone ache and break my back just to pay the still debt and groceries, I have my little girl.
Also I still have home to live, to stay, have healthy and hearty meal everyday, have car to drive and most important having parents and families (sisters, cousins uncles and aunties) who care for me and Megan, love us very much.

Thank you GOD.

Sabbe satta bhavantu sukhitatta

Lunch at Trattoria

My cousin and I decide to have some relax time and lunch together without kids together. We choose Trattoria Italian Restaurant cause it's quiet and the foods are good.
We ordered Lasagna, grilled pork stuff with mozzarella cheese - mushroom and Ravioli with bolognase sauce.
All are sinfully delicious.

Megan toe inflammation-3

Megan's bug bitten toe is healed, no more swelling only a few red scars left and also some itchy.
But....there are 3 more new red dots on her leg. Mum said my baby look like chau-kar-phor.... now we're positive it's mosquitoes bites cause we open n close the front door too often and we've small garden. Have to plant mosquitoes ward-off plants
Thanks you Esperson.

Recipe: Scramble Kidney bean with tomato cheese sauce

This recipe is very easy to make,suitable for busy mum who practical recipes like me :) need. Almost all kids love it including my very picky niece.
I got this recipe from my sister and I want to share with all of you.
It's healthy and nutritious. Try them!

Ingredient:

* 150 g kidney bean
* 3 large eggs, beaten
* 3 cloves garlic
* 5 Tbsp tomato ketchup
* 150ml water
* 1/2 Tsp each salt and pepper
* 1/2 - 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
* 1 Tbsp oyster sauce
* 1 Tbsp vegetable oil (we use olive oil but you can use melted margarine too)

Method:

* boil beans in water for 15 mins until soft but still firm, drain (preserve 150ml of water)
* add half of cheese into beaten egg, mix well
*heat half of oil or margarine in medium sauce pan, add in eggs and scramble into small pieces, put aside
* in the same pan, put in remaining oil and saute garlic until fragrant, add in cooked kidney bean and scrambled egg, tomato sauce, water, salt, pepper, and oyster sauce.
* simmer until the sauce thicken and absorbed
* add in remaining cheese, stir until mix and melt (better off fire).
* bon appetite

Megan-inflammation toe 2

Megan toes still inflame but the swelling already reduce and not as painful as last night. She can walk tip toeing on left leg.
Urghhhh can't slept well last night cause each time her toe touched something such as pillow or bolster she cried :(

I brought her to mall, and lift her spirit. She's happy and even able to run a few step before complaining her foot was pain.
Poor baby....

Fettuccine Bolognese

How did mommy ate her fettuccine bolognese? With alot of veggies, please :)

Megan-inflammation toe

Megan toes was inflamed because of allergic reaction of bugs bite. Don't know what kind of bug.

She scratched it and said itchy in the morning. I've applied some ointment on it which was then a small red dot.

But it was getting worse, it was enlarging and swelling.

My poor baby cried and said her foot was pain, she even can't walk because each time her left foot touched the floor, she cried of pain

If you know my Megan, she usually has a very high pain tolerance, and seeing her in pain like that, make all of us stress.

My doctor aunt ask me to apply so corticosteroid on the wound to reduce the inflammation, the best was hydrocortisone but I only have Esperson, have to apply it tonight and hope the inflammation will reduce tomorrow.

Recipe: Quick Whole Grain Banana Pancake

I tried this recipe this morning, I downloaded them from web. They were delicious! Megan devoured them with a smear of peanut butter and a glass of fresh grated apple juice.

• 1 large overripe banana
• 2 egg
• ½ cup (4oz) skim milk sweetened with 2 tb of honey
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• ¾ cup (90g) whole wheat flour
• 2 tb all purpose flour mix with 2 TB of cocoa powder

Mash the banana in a medium bowl. Add the egg and milk. Whisk until frothy.
In a smaller bowl, add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and nutmeg. Sift into the banana mixture. Mix until just blended.
Melt some margarine on non-stick skillet or griddle. Pour batter in over medium heat. Cook about 1-2 minutes a side, small bubbles will form but not as many as traditional pancakes. I just peaked underneath for a light brown color, then flipped.
Smear some peanut butter or jelly as you wish or even chocolate syrup. Serve warm.

Ps. I prepared the batter night before, covered and put them into the fridge. In the morning, just let it sit a few minutes on the counter and stir a bit then ready to fry. I used ¼ cup measure cup

Megan’s New School Schedule

I've change Megan's class from 10.30 to 8.30 for a week now. All because after 1.5 semesters at school, mum and I found out that every time she's back from school, she's already very tired and sleepy because it'll be after 12.30. She would throw tantrum when we feed her lunch and bathed.

Her new schedule work well, she wake up on 6.30 with me (as usual), have 80ml of milk then I hurriedly fix her breakfast and mine (usually will be oatmeal and grated fruits) while mum look after her.
Bi Mis will arrive around 7.30 and feed her and I zoom like flash Gordon to prepare myself to work in 30 mins.

We'll leave house on 8.00, arrive at Megan school around 8.15-8.25 (depend on the traffic), play with her on playground for a while and left her on 8.30

At her school, I'm famous as being a late mum, what can I do, I've works to do, usually I'll arrive school on 10.20 to fetch her home (err…. sometime even 10.30) because too many works to do in so limited time and traffic jam.
But Megan's a darling, she's good and sweet (around teachers only) and she get all attention from them and having good time at school.

The only set back of this new schedule is I have no time to do my daily 15 minutes morning prayer anymore ….should think out how to add more time in the morning.

Megan-Shape and Color

Megan ability to recognize shape and color improved a lot. Now she can do the shape puzzles all by herself (with a lot of encouragement and cheering of cause)

But I don't know why, she can pair the color (that mean she isn't color blind) but she can't name the difference between each colors such this is red or blue or yellow. But she knows half of red circle must pair with another half of red and so does the other color of shapes.

Wonder why? How to teach 2 years old color? Kindly share, please....

Naomi

How did Naomi slept on hot weather these days?
Like this

Megan and Alphabet

Megan now able to arrange all the character of her alphabet puzzle and recognize most of the alphabet.
But, she seem can't memorize the word A,J,K,L (except we stick out our tongue and make el-el sound)M,N,S (unless we make ssss sound)and T.
Others are OK, known by heart.

On numbers, she always forgot number 2,5 and 7. Oh, she can spell them out, but if you showed her, those number and asked what was it, she would went ga..ga.. and asked you back, "what?"

Recipe: Very Easy Tuna Fish Patties

I've very picky eater niece, who is very challenging to feed her. But this tuna patties is one of her favorite * until now, knock the wood*

I got the original recipe from Women's Weekly magazine years ago and modify some of it.

It's tasty and very easy to make.

Ingredients:

• 1 can tuna fish chuck blended in olive oil (180g)
  
• 4-5 big potatoes
  
• 2 finely chopped garlic
  
• 2 tsp fried shallots
  
• 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
  
• Salt and pepper to taste
  
• 1 egg beaten
  

Method:

• Boil potatoes until soft , then mash
  
• Mix with tuna ( omitted oil ) , garlic, shallot and cheese
  
• Salt and pepper to taste (remember, cheddar cheese is salty)
  
• Mix all the ingredients well
  
• Scoop a spoonful of mixture and roll it into 5cm balls
  
• Flatten them up into patties
  
• Heat the non- stick pan with olive oil
  
• Coat both sides of patties with egg and put gently into the pan
  
• Fry until golden brown
  

Recipe: Beautiful Beetroot Soup

This soup is so easy to make and with little ingredients, suitable for busy days and most important is very healthy and delicious especially if you're Anemic like me.

Remember, we're using 3ltr deep casserole pot. \

Ingredients:

• 2-3 gloves of garlic, crushed
  
• 1-2 ripe tomatoes, quartered
  
• A few chicken or pork to taste
  
• 1-2 stalk of Sweet corn, cut into 5cm pieces
  
• 2-3 Beetroot, cleaned, peeled and cubed ( 2 cm)
  
• 2 liter of water
  

Method:

• Bring water to boil
  
• Put it crushed garlic and boiled
  
• Put in chicken, boiled
  
• Put in beetroot and corn and tomato, boiled
  
• Simmer on low fire for 1.5-2 hours
  
• Done

Hurrayyy

Hip Hip Hurray.... They are in season again!

The Right One

A friend asked me if I've found new boy friend yet and I said nope. Well, because of having my hands full all of times also I don't have any spare time for social outing. Thinking about it, I have really few men surround me.
Well, She kindly offered to matchmaking me with one of her single friends, oh yes…she is a very pleasing girl with a lot of friends, and asking for my basic criteria.
I quickly said, without thinking, no more in thirties please, because mostly, they're still boyish and my tummy already full of emotional roller coaster that I've been going through which gladly has passed.

I long for a mature man, who can provide me a balance and security life and emotional, A man who's also willing to be father of Megan. She needs a father figure in her life and I just hope I can give her that.
My friend said, ahhhh mature one, it's hard to find, and mostly they already be father of someone.
Being a family man, force a man to grow up and be a real man because all of responsibilities and tolerance he must faced daily.

Well, then I must look for widower then :)

Love This

I could have never enough of this. Really in love with it's crunchy texture outside mix with cold and creamy ice cream blend with red bean inside.
Japanese ice cream are very sinfully yummy.

Is this right?

My nephew, 25 month, was in the same class, book 1 playgroup class, with Megan in their school before. They learn simple phases such as: I love my mummy, I can jump, etc which the main point is to help children to understand the meaning of pictures and words such as drink, bath, jump, etc.

But start from this semester while Megan are learning alphabet and continue the book 2, he was move to book 3 class, this poor boy has to learn sentences and simple math such as 1+1=2. His classmate are range from 2.5-3.5 years old and he's youngest but not the smallest cause he's tall.
The most irritating was, they didn't even discussed this with the parents, they just decide it by themselves so my cousin just accidentally knew about this a few days ago.

When she phoned school and asked about it, they said he is already 29 month so he need to mingle with kids that already able to talk well to influence him to talk and they said he's tall and big so will fit up better (of cause la with 3 years old kids).
They also added that if he is not able to catch up, they'll moved him to book 2 class later.

For me, the reason is quite stupid because, in class room, children not only learn to talk but many others skill. Also the school didn't considered the psychological effect on the boy now he refuse to go to school which was never a problem before.
I always thought that if a child is exquisitely smart, he can be moved to a higher grade depend on his/her brain ability so he/she will be continuously challenge and learn a lot.
But this concept seem does not apply in this school.
My nephew is not one if them, he still can't speak in age of 25 month (although he understood almost every words) and he has concentration problem.

Maybe because of administrative works, they refused to move him to book 2 class right when my cousin asked for it. But isn't they caused all this by themselves for being arrogant and ignorance?

Is this normal in preschooler? please advice.....

Recipe: Healthy Tofu-Seaweed-Mushroom Soup

This is my family favorite weekly soup from my mum, not only healthy and yummy, but also chock full of nutrition.

Megan also loves it and keeps asking for more soup, tofu or seaweed.

We always are using Pyrex 3.5l deep casserole for cooking soup.

Ingredients:

• Chicken with bones to taste, cut to small 5 cm pieces
  
• Seaweed, cut to 3-4cm stripes
  
• 1-2 Shiitake mushroom, sliced thinly
  
• 4-5 Ear mushroom, cut to 3-4 cm stripes
  
• A few Shi Chuan preserved vegetables from Can
  
• 2 Carrots, julienne
  
• 3 garlic, crushed
  
• 3-4cm ginger, crushed
  
• 1 block of Tofu, cubed 3-4 cm
  
• Celery, chopped
  

Direction:

• Bring half pot of water to boiled
  
• Put in garlic, ginger, boiled
  
• Add mushrooms, vegetables, carrots and seaweed, boiled ( you can skip this step by adding them with onion and ginger at once)
  
• Add chicken and boiled then simmer with low fire until chicken and all are tender around 1-2 hours
  
• Add 1-1.5l of cold water into the soup, add celery and tofu at once to get silken and soft tofu
  
• Boiled and add salt to taste
  
• Done!
  

Easy peasy and Yummy!

Megan's imporovement

Megan now able to force herself or maybe will herself to concentrate for 5-10 mins to lace lots of beads all by herself and able to arrange the puzzle of shapes which are quite difficult (with a bit help)and a lot of cheer leading form mummy or kong-kong :)

Ching Wan Hung: magical ointment for burnt

A few days ago, my fingers were burnt but just boiled hot water when I was making yogurt. Oh my...it hurt so bad specially my thumb was tomato red, almost cooked, I thought.
I was not able to think out the first aid for burnt but I remembered that do not put tooth paste or oil on the wound cause it'd 'fried it' so I just immersed my fingers in ice cold water for 15 minutes.
It soothed a bit, but when I took them out, oh hurt so bad (pssssst. my pain tolerance is very low)
So, with teary eyes, I ran to my mum, asked for help and she wisely brought me this Magical Ointment : CHING WAN HUNG

I apply them on my finger, thickly and in 30 minutes, phewwww, the burnt really healed and the redness and pain gone!
Mum said the effect would be quicker if I applied them right away instead of repeating immersed my burnt finger into cold water