JD is now 2.5 yo and I have always been quite happy to give him the opportunity to become more independent and learning to do things for himself. He shows great interest in our daily activities, brushing the teeth, washing his hair, doing the dishes, washing the vegies, cooking, getting in and out of car himself, mixing his milk formula and etc etc. He gets terribly upset with us if we try to help him doing something that he has great interest in, such as mixing his milk formula.

He would rush into the kitchen when he knows it’s time and firmly exclaimed “I do, I do, I do it!”. Next he will pull the stool around so that he is tall enough to reach the bench top and make his formula. It can be messy, but he is getting better. And if I stand in the way, he will politely say “Excuse me please!”.

I am happy that he is quite a little independent kid and carers at daycare have also mentioned that do me. But the line also needs to be drawn somewhere, such as holding my hand when crossing the road, not touching the electrics or anything dangerously harmful.

And since he was hungry this morning and wanted a sandwich, I thought I would guide him to make a sandwich for himself.

First you get a bit of butter,
Then you spread it on the bread,Next you fold it in half,And now you EAT it, yum!

I went to the nearby Asian grocery shop today and came across some cute looking jelly mould. And since it’s been a warm day, I thought of making some agar-agar for dessert tonight.

So, here it is, some orange flavoured jelly in the new mould. JD loves it coz it has shapes of ball, bears, cat, butterflies…for me, I just like eating the jelly, wahahaha!

We were also watching the 2005 Winter Olympics while having the dessert, and JD found the figure skating funny to watch. And when I tried to take picture of him in his new Buzz Lightwear pyjama, that was what he did when I said cheese.

Yesterday we had a rather eventful day, where I managed to get lots of things done and spending some really nice time with hubby and JD.

In the morning, hubby set off early to help his brother sourced the fruits and vegies from Canningvale market. They do this every Saturday morning. My BIL runs a lunch bar and it is apparently a lot cheaper to buy in bulk from the market than buying it through the supplier.

I started off with the garden, clearing the unwanted weeds, cleaning up the yard, washing the outdoor furnitures, giving JD’s outdoor toys a big wash. All this while, JD was happily picking up the little tiny bits of leaves from the ground, throwing into the big bin, using his spade to do some digging, looking for snails in the garden and calling them snake, talking to ants that were busy migrating, and at the same time having a ball mixing sand and water!

I personally think outdoor play is one of the best education for kids. We get to look at the plants, picking fresh strawberries from the patch, spotting planes that fly across the sky, talking about the activities we doing, have some early exposure to science, ha ha, i.e. mixing sand and water, riding bike and running around without a worry in the world. That’s the best experience for kids.

Just for your entertainment…this is what JD does each time he sees ants in the garden.

JD: Hello ants, hello
Ants: No reply, still busy migrating
JD: Hey ants, what you doing? Hey!!!
Ants: Still no reply
JD: Ohhhhh

Funny!

And when he has exhausted with the digging, talking to ants, he decided to do some painting.

He started off rather attentively, putting big brush stroke on the paper until he started to muck around with the colours.

I am a pao-fan. Char siu pao, tau sar pau, lotus paste pao, vegetable pao, xiao long pao, I LOVE THEM all! Last night on the way home from dinner, hub asked if I wanted to takeaway some pao for breakfast for the next morning. Without hesitation, I bought myself a ta pao (big bun). Honestly, I love ta pao. I remember having them as a kid while growing up in Brunei. My dad would go to the pasar each Sunday morning after his jog and buy us ta pao for breakfast. The filing inside is so juicy, with nice chunky pieces of chicken, mushroom and quarter of an egg. That was what I looked forward to when I was a kid on a Sunday morning.

And I love char siu pao too. I still remember my dad buying those steaming hot char siu pao from a then very famous Hong Kong restaurant in Brunei - The Lucky Restaurant.

Now, with JD, I also discovered that he is a bigger fan like me. After waking up this morning, I heat up the ta pao I bought last night in the wok and we were both literally fighting for it. Ha ha. I should have bought 2…maybe I will go back and get more tonight, hee hee.

Here are some shots of JD savouring his ta pao bits by bits.

But, if there is a favourite ta pao…it would have to be those from my hometown in Batu Pahat.

This is how I found JD tonight as I came out from my shower.

He has gone into my room, pulled off my comfy duck down quilt, my pillow from the bed and set himself up in a nice chilled out position…watching The Wiggles.

He sure knows how to have a good time

After over a decade with me, my good old faithul alarm clock has decided to go into retirement! Yep, kaput, stop and ain’t going to do its job anymore. Sigh, I adore this handy little alarm clock of mine. It has an illuminator light so I could actually see the time in the dark. Very cool then! My sis got it for me from one of the little shops in Northpoint Shopping Centre in Yishun when I first started work in Singapore.

I have given it a second go as hub very kindly tried to fix it for me the other night after another late one in the office. But, it moved for 5 minutes and mati again.

I guess time to get a new alarm clock…

Yesterday JD got a presie from daycare. It was a toy watch but he loved it so much that he wouldn’t even take it off even when going to bed at night. And he was so pleased with the watch that all he could tell me on the way driving home from daycare was “I showed it to my daddy!”

And when I wanted him to pose a few shots for me, this cheeky monkey could only afford to do this for me! And he didn’t even want to put a shirt on becoz it was “a hot day” according to him. It was 38 deg yesterday but dropped down to 27 deg today! And it is raining now. Crazy!

Note - All these pics were taken while JD waited patiently for dinner to be ready!

Creamy chicken and mushroom penne pasta bake!

Yummy! And there is leftover to bring for lunch tomorrow

Wah, I got my roses for Valentine’s Day! Ha ha, so cute, after more than 10 years of being friends and marriage all added together. I honestly thought there would be no more Valentine’s Day. Well, hubby proved me wrong!

There was man standing in the front door with a bunch of roses! Sweet!

Yes, hub, you do suck in housework and gardening, but you do bring back lots of surprises when I least expected it! Thank you! You are off the hook this time,wahahaha!

While I have previously arranged to have a Valentine’s Day lunch with hub today, it got a bit hard as we were both busy with work. But since I had the rare luxury of working from home today, I was able to make something a bit different for dinner tonight - his fav loh mai fun!

And I actually got the idea when I woke up at 5 this morning! Crazy!

The last 2 months at work have been hell! It sucks big time! It’s been horrible! There was a new boss on the block, though short term, but it feels like I have been to hell and back!

My colleague sent me this cartoon this morning, which pretty much summed it all up.

Nothing u do is ever right
Everything u suggested was dumb
You life and death at work depending on your boss’s mood
You get the cold shoulder for no reason
But everything she said you HAVE to do
Never mind if she has been rude,
Not to say the least bitchy
And you must do NOW

Bloody hell, it’s been terrible…at least I am not the only one…but I need to venge my anger somehere. Or as some bloggers called it, kanasai!!!!

But, not to worry, it’s not long to go, and someone else out there might have an even more terrible day than mine! Like this!