First you bring a spoonful of rice close to your mouth

Then put your little hand under the spoon so the rice won’t spill onto your clothes

Then chomped it down like this

And then have a piece of cucumber to aid digestion

PS – Chloe was eating a homemade Hainanese Chicken Rice for lunch.

They make me happy.  Seeing them happy make me happy.

What make me happy was in the last week a few strangers have walked up to me in the supermarket and said “Your kids are beautiful, they are such good kids”.

I think that was because they saw my kids admiring the row of lollies, chocolates and biscuits on the shelf, but did not once bug me to buy.  But what tickled me was my kids have got used to the idea of “hands behind your back” when admiring stuff, ie. no touching, no sniffing the chocolates or lollies, and when I said it was time to go, they happily moved on!  I think it was my lucky day   My kids have their ugly moments too.

Then again in a cafe, the waitresses just kept playing, chatting to my kids, perhaps because they were just so happily sipping their hot chocolate with marsmallows, have their choc chip bicuits while I have my cup of coffee abd muffin.  Then a lady came to me and said “You are such a good mum with your children.”  Awww, that was very kind, and it touched my heart.

Hahaha, perhaps it’s also because of my frequent hanging out at cafes, that my kids have been trained to sit with me for coffee or hot chocolate from the time they were newborns!  Hiakhiak! 

That makes me feel all happy and warm.

Chloe was adamant she wanted to eat a whole gourmet beef and mushroom pie all by herself.  So I let her be.

Many passerbys looked at her, then said to me “The pie is as big as her face!”

She ate almost three-quarter of the pie.  My daugther is an eating machine.

This is the last week of school term 3.  JD usually spends the whole Wednesday in kindy, and I must pack for him his morning tea and lunch.

Both my kids love food, and they can eat.  Lunch must be rather filling.

Guess what’s inside his lunch box this week?

It even brought a smile to my own face.  The bread was a green bean paste bun bought from a bakery.  Pasta was a tuna and mixed vegetables pasta I quckly made in the morning.  And he finished everything that day like he always do.

And by the time we get home by 3.30pm after school, there’s another round of afternoon tea of fruits, yoghurt, sandwiches.

Not forgetting this kid still eats his dinner again at 6.00pm!

But of course, there’s a lot of running around in the backyard, practicing his handstand, cartwheels, bike riding between afternoon tea and dinner time.  All that make him very hungry.

A few weeks ago, the company my husband works for held their annual conference at a resort.

While I was expecting that I would be spending my weekend alone with our 2 kids, I didn’t realise that his company has also invited all the partners to be there.  And. With kids in tow.  The main function I had to be present with him was the dinner on the first night of his conference.  And before I had a chance to think of what to do with my kids while we attended the dinner, my husband’s work had already arranged a babysitter for us! 

So Friday night after work, I packed the kids in the car, and drove off to the resort.  The babysitter was already there when we arrived.  She played with the kids.  I had a nice long shower.  The I ordered room service for the kids and the babysitter.  We chatted briefly.  Then off we went to dinner. 

I had a great time, eating, drinking, chatting, meeting new people knowing my kids are fine.  When we go back to our room around midnight, my two kids were sound asleep in the resort, each in their own bed.  Nice!

In the morning, we all slept in while my husband went on with his conference.  We had a long and lazy breakfast.  My kids were just fascinated with all the breakfast they could have.  Toasts, cereals, baked beans, grilled mushrooms, hash browns, sausages, bacon, fruits, yoghurts, croissants…I think they had a bit of everything.  JD being his independent self, just helped himself, and Chloe just needed to name what she wanted, great!

I love this shot of Chloe, very attentively trying to use a butter knife to cut a strawberry.

Our resort room directly overlooked the golf course!  It was a beautiful morning, and I sat in the balcony, read my book, have my cup of tea, watched the kids ran and rolled around on the grass, collecting sticks and leaves, another wonderful moment.

Unfortunately it wasn’t pool weather, so skipped the pool this time round.

But it was great weather for taking photos of my kids.  I love these shots of JD and Chloe.

It was a lovely weekend, a weekend getaway me and the kids very much needed, and thanks to my husband for including us all though he was away in his conference most of the time.

My kids love pegs!  They peg everything.  Peg clothes.  Peg their paintings on the drying rack.  They even have their own “pegging” system when it comes to play.  The pegging system is such that only kids with a peg can be allowed in the play house at the back of our garden.  Since the play house isn’t exactly big, and could really take a max of 3 kids, the pegging system works really well.  Then after a while, all the little ones take turn to put a peg on the other one, and their turn taking with the pegging system works brilliantly!

The other fun thing to do is put 10-15 pegs in a container or bucket.  Then let the little ones place pegs around the edge of the container.  Great for their fine motor skills and a quick and cheap fun for kids of all ages.  The best thing is these are things we all have readily available at home.

It is one of Chloe’s favourite past time and even for JD till now.  Except JD now constructs aeroplane with pegs!  Another great fun for the 4-5 year olds.

A week ago I went into Northbridge to stock up on my meat supply.  Sometimes I prefer to go visit my chinese butcher because their cut of meats are a lot better, leaner, fresher!  Not the same compared to what I get from my local supermarket giant.  The quality is very obvious.

Then I hopped across the road and visited the local fish market too.  The kids came along with me, and were all excited by the look of the all the fresh fish, prawns, crabs…it was fun for them.

I picked up some of my favourite fish, salmon in particular, barramundi, silver perch!  My son loves steamed fish!  If we visit a chinese restaurant for dinner, he would never fail to request for steamed fish.  But when we eat out, the steamed fish is usually double the price of the fish! 

So, I tried my  hands at steamed fish this weekend, and I chose silver perch!  Oh, it was so yummy!  So quick and easy too.  I got the fish shop to clean the fish for me, then I stuffed some sliced ginger, garlic, spring onions into the fish cavity.  Then I rubbed a bit of seasalt onto the fish. I then drizzled a little bit of soya sauce around the bottom of the plate were I placed my fish.  I also diluted the soya sauce with a bit water.

Next I waited for the water to boil in my steamer.

Once the water is boiled, I put my plate of fish into the steamer and steamed for 5-8 minutes (maximum 8 minutes as the fish wasn’t too big).

Just before the fish is cooked, I quickly heated up about one tablespoon of oil in the pot.  Then set it aside.

Once the fish is cooked, I quickly put some corriander leaves over the top.

Lastly, I quickly poured the hot oil over the corriander and the fish to give it a bit of crisp and gloss.  This was a trick taught by my late father-in-law as he used to own a chinese restaurant and he knows his stuff! 

Oh, it was soooo yummy!  It tasted very similar to the fish we had in the restaurant, my kids were eating spoonful and spoonful of rice with the fish, and I am so going to cook this more. 

I also made this quick clear chicken soup ( 枸杞鸡汤) this afternoon when the kids were sleeping.

Ingredients:

- 4 chicken drumsticks

- 2 carrots, chopped into big chunks

- one potato, chopped into big chunks

- 3-4 slices of fresh ginger

- a handful of Goji (Chinese wolfberry)

In a big pot, I boiled some water.  When the water is boiled, I put in the drumsticks, the carrots and potato and boiled it on high for about 5-10 minutes.  Then I reduced it to low, and the soup simmer for another 20-25 minutes.  Seasoned it with some sea salt if you wish to.  And just before I turned off the stove, I throw in a handful of Goji (Chinese wolfberry) into the soup. 

Oh, it was so yummy too.  My kids loved the soup, and each finished two bowls of the soup!  The soup was so full of flavour, the freshness and sweetness of the carrots, the Goji, the tender chicken…oh it was good.

They like to goof around a lot.

Their latest game is “Is this funny?”.  JD will do something, usually like a burp, a funny face, then asked “Hey Chloe, is this funny?”

She will then laugh out loud.

Then it will be her turn, pull a monster face, make a roaring sound, then asked “Hey gege, funny?”

Hahaha, honestly, they played that all day, all night, at the back of the car, at dinner table, at the corner in the playroom, at restaurant …

To be honest, I find them very funny and crazy.

Chloe celebrated her birthday a month late because I had too many things on my plate a couple month ago. 

I looked through all my pictures and I had to write about it this time.  She is at this wonderful age that everything is fun.  Big or small, old or new, more or less, she is happy.  I can take out an old toy from the cupboard and she thinks it’s gem.  She thinks it’s her birthday everyday, and quite often she sits at the table, with her party hat on, yes, we still have lots of them around, singing “Happy birthday to Chloe” and do a big blow of the candles, great dramatic play for her age, ha!

I didn’t bake her a cake, but I bought her one!  It was fun!  She got a big farm toy set because she loves “Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o”.  She loves it!  What I love about this set is her imagination that went with it.  In this farm toy set, there was a farmer, farmer’s wife, farmer’s son and daugther.  The moment she saw the 4 figurines, she lined them up, and said “This is daddy, mummy, gege (JD) and Chloe!, Yay!”  I was shocked because I didn’t think she had the concept of family or man vs woman at this age!  Great!

And then not so long ago I saw Chloe showing her dislike to someone playing with her farm toy set in a big sentence.  Usually she might just squeal with a big “Eeeee, mine!” when someone try to touch some of her toys.  That day she said “No, this is mine, my birthday present, my mama buy!”  I stood there shocked once again, before I acknowledged to her that it was indeed her present, and her friend could sit next to her and watched.  But not long later, she happily let her friend joined in.  That was good. 

Now, she is also into dress up!  She loves wearing my shoes, holding a handbag like me, totally girl!  When she goes shopping with me, the first thing she picks up isn’t a toy, but SHOES!  Yep, you got it, and not a normal pair of flats like I usually wear, but a 3 inch-stilleto- silver -glittering- sequined-party shoes!  Even her mother hasn’t owned or worn a pair like that yet!  She is into shoes, big time!  My husband thinks Chloe takes after my youngest sis, hee!

So, I got her this cheap ballerina dress for $10 from Red Dot.  Oh she loves it!  She would sleep in it if I let her!  But if she is thinking about ballerina as a career in future, I guess she needs to go easy on the cakes!

The last week has been a bit of a hump week for us all to get through.  First I had a cold, which then led to a sinus infection which gave me one of the worst headaches that went on for a week.  When I started to feel better, JD fell sick from a gastro bug.  The vomiting were free flow, sip water, vomit, ate a cracker, vomit, had a slice of apple, vomit..but we mastered the art by the 2nd vomit episode.  I had a bucket, salad bowl strategically placed, and if he couldn’t get to the toilet, at least we were assured that the vomits wouldn’t land on the floor.

On that same day at 3pm, Chloe started to vomit.  So I had a “syncronized” vomiting session going on all afternoon and night. 

On the way to the doctor, eventhough I knew there was nothing a doctor could do, the two started to do yet another syncronized vomiting session this time in the car.  Unfortunately, I only had one bowl in the car, but the little one was smart enough to hold her puke with her 2 cupped hands.  Chloe, you are a darling!

By late that day, I probably was looking like a wreck myself.  I was tired.  I had to call all my parents to pick up their children.  I had been wiping vomits.  I had been washing towels all day.  I have had to look after other children while tending to my 2 sick little kids.  And everyone looked at me very symphatetically when I walked into the surgery with 2 sick kids in tow.  One was pale looking, walking with a salad bowl in his hand.  The little one was clinging onto me for life, with her security blanket in tow.  And I was wearing an old pair of jeans that was almost falling off my hip.  It didn’t look good. 

Like all gastro bugs, it’s lethal!  By next morning, my body felt like it weighed a ton.  My head hurts.  I could hardly move.  By lunch time, I was the one holding onto the salad bowl.  By then, my kids were well and boucing around like a rubber ball, which they do! 

I then announced to them “Mummy is sick, I am going to sleep” and when they overheard the gagging, horrendous vomiting from the bathroom, they knew mummy was really sick! 

I pretty much drifted in and out of sleep that whole day and the next.  My husband rang once in a while just to see I hadn’t passed out.  Most of the time JD picked up the phone, mumbled at a few things to the other recipient, hung up the phone and walked into my room to say whom have just rung.  Son, you are my champ!

Chloe on other hand was happy to follow JD around, and when she missed me, she just put herself to sleep next to me.

But you know, good kids do happen when situations require them to.  And I am thankful for my 2 good kids when I needed them to.

In between being half comatose from all the vomiting and dehydration, and trying to remain just a tiny bit awake so I know what the kids were up to, I felt the silence from the living room had gone on just a bit too long.

So I dragged myself out and I saw these.

The older brother was sitting quietly at the dinner table, practicing his writing, drawing dinasours, writing numbers, finishing up his numbers worksheet….

The little sister was at a corner in the playroom, quietly trying to solve an animal puzzle…

They had no idea I was there watching them.  And I went back to sleep not long later.  Later that evening when they accidentally overpoured cereals into their bowls, the two of them got the dust pan, brush to clean up for mummy.  Everyone say “Awwwww”

I also heard some noise from the kitchen, someone opened the fridge, pulled open the cutlery drawer, moving around of the kitchen stools…and I later found out it was JD making himself a ham sandwich.  Then not long later, I saw this little 2yo, oh yes, my 2yo daugther walked into my bedroom with a slice of bread, a tub of butter, a kidsafe spreading knife because she was hungry, and wanted me to spread butter on her bread.  I did that, lying on bed, eyes barely opened, but hey, they still got fed.

Okay, so they did get into some mischief.  At one point when I came out, I saw that my 2yo daughter had stripped off all her clothes, minus the nappy.  Because her brother decided to give her a “sticker tattoo”.  Nice and she had all that stickers on her body for at least half a day.

They found some cheese crackers in the pantry, and stuffed themselves silly with it.   I didn’t see it, but they told me they finished half a box of those cheesy biscuits. 

Then, my 5yo son also decided to give his sister a long needed trim of her fringe.  I was beside myself when I saw all the hair in the bathroom room, with a pair of their craft scissors lying not too far from the crime scene.  My first question was “Who cut whose hair???” Then out peered this little 2yo, with a rock chick looking fringe, ah, at least it didn’t look too bad.  The fact was I have tied up Chloe’s hair into 4 pig tails because she wanted to, and that 1.  helped JD to just cut her fringe easily BUT most importantly, I repeat very importantly 2.  Thank goodness he didn’t just cut off the 4 pig tails!   And she was a happy customer!

But it was all good.  We survived.  We still laughed.  We kept our humour or otherwise I wouldn’t have taken pictures of their good and mischief when we were all unwell.

We are okay!