Apple craft

he cut the little pieces of paper and glued them onto the apple.

he actually cut his pants -____-
i think out of curiosity?
or just cheeky?

so i took away the scissors gently. no sound from him.
so means he is not that into cutting?

 glue. sticky fingers.

gluey gluey he says

he hates sticky slimy things?
just like how he can't play with slimy soft dough (flour+water)

each time his fingers touches the glue, he wants to wipe off.

 write A....and a....

 Apple craft activity

 dot a dot.

'D' for doughnut.

'D' for duck.

'D' for dinosaur! he brightens up!!

he roared and i laughed. and he kept doing it. joker like his dad

pressed hard and long.

smeared

this teaches the child that he needs to apply the correct pressure

be gentle.

do it gently, i said.

mummy see i gently.

note the selection of colours.

quite apt i would say.

 in the midst of clearing up this activity,

he could stop at this stage and play with the bottles.

bring them out of the 'case' and shuffle and place them back.

:)

 watch me and you will have your turn later.

this is a spoon. this is a bowl. this is a tray. later your turn ok?

ting dao ma?
li hai ma? li hai leh

this is a transferring activity under Practical Life.

he has been doing this so this time i substitute the ingredients.

its chickpeas last night.

and check out the above photo.

he hold and tilt the bowl so that he could scoop the remaining peas?

no one teaches him that.

in montessori classroom,

we are not allowed to correct.

and if im not wrong, he should not do it that way.

but i personally think its fine.

as long as he can transfer all the beans.

we did all the above activity in the store room last night.

haha.

cause daddy is watching EPL in the bedroom and matty's sleeping.

took us about 1 hour.

i should be more enthusiastic in conducting play school for him!

thats the term that we use.

he'll say mummy can we play school?

the house is in chaos and things are badly organized and im hating this.

wish i could freeze time and quickly move in.

their 'sensitive period' wont wait

:(

i also feel quite miserable that I need to go back to work soon.

not sure if i can handle everything.

play school. nursing matty. housework. laundry. cooking. making smoothies.

24 hours aint enough!

credits must be given to the father of my children for he does most household chores now.

thank god for that.

:)

Aug 2013

playing with pom pom

 mini pompom from Daiso

Note: i think he is not suppose to sit on the mat - montessori style.

montessori says children should be sitting outside the mat. not in.

but i actually thought him to sit INside.

so that he knows his play space.

at this age, he knows where to get the mat and he always chooses this orange round mat.

he refuses to roll the mat.

he will ask me to do it -_____-

and i did.

hardwork pays off i tell you :)

he began rolling the mat and bring to the basket (mat's home) few months back. woohoo!

 i kept quiet and watch him play.

 sorting

then i try to sort...

he ignored me.

he is not into sorting despite my hint.

gah.

do what u want to do.

:p

Nov 2012

do u know which is cilantro and which is parsley?

 this is SOURSOP aka durian belanda.

i love this fruit!

google it if u dont know how it looks like.

sorry forgot to snap a picture before tearing them apart :)

best to purchase ripe ones.

because sometime the unripe wont ripe, or they will over-ripe if didnt check constantly.

soursop is ANTI CANCER fruit.

ha! tu-dia!

everyone will now run to grab this fruit! :D

i love its sweet and sour taste.

what i do now is that i buy and freeze them for later use.

storing fresh cilantro and parsley

btw, the picture above is how we should keep them fresh.

check out the experiments here on the best storage method.

i copy this site on how to keep the herbs fresh.

was confused which is which.

Left: parsley. Right: cilantro (daun ketumbar)

better view here.

have always thought cilantro is parsley is this while.

-_______-

 soaked goji  berries (or wolf berries), 1 apple, 1 aus carrot, 1 green apple, a big bunch of parsley

 with one banana (as thickener) and almond milk

 the colour of the smoothie.

2.5 cups frozen soursop, 1 green apple, 1/4 lime, cilantro

kj must drink all the smoothies that i have made.

those that i think are delicious he'll have a bigger cup.

less palatable ones he'll get half cup.

there was only once, yesterday, i have no idea what was i blending. i did not think and i just chuck them in. was running out of fruits.

well, it turned out quite horrible so i had mercy.

he was spared.

haha!

First purchase in iHerb

my first purchase from iHerb in Nov last year, 2012.

 the main reason that made me browsed through iHerb was Childlife Liquid Vitamin C.

i bought one bottle for RM 67.90 from GNC. 

and i managed to get 15% discount using a friend's membership.

after that i found out that the SAME thing was sold in iherb for USD 6.

after conversion would be about RM 24 maximum? say using a conversion of 4.

O.O

of course i have to buy from iHerb!

and i stopped visiting GNC ever since.

cost of shipping from iHerb is also cheap!

what are u waiting for ?

a shopping spree!!

Avalon Organics shampoo

'good' shampoos usually do not give lots of suds.

so it might take a little get-used-to.

yeah im losing my hair..getting bald. sobs

no idea why i bought a Volumizing conditioner.

think i must have clicked on the wrong one!

when i was at Taiwan, i saw Avalon Organics in Watson too! :)

there are just lots of things that u can buy from iHerb.

they sometimes do offer free international shipping as well.

be on the look out people!

also, do inform me when there is such promo.

i love free shippings!

New to iHerb? Use coupon code WHH623 for up to $10.00 off your first order.

Bubble play

all kids love bubbles don't they?

 we have a warm neighbourhood here and the road here leads to a dead end, so presto!
very few cars will pass by as we are at the end.

the 'lau da' (big bro) demonstrating.

i like this look.

the look of concentration, seriousness.

there are many DIY recipes available online for this soap bubbles.

homemade bubble solutions

can even be creative and come up with the 'wand' as shown here,

or here or this blog using pipe cleaners.

pipe cleaners are available in Daiso or tailor shop which sells buttons and threads and etc.

happy face. happy kid.

= happy mom.

kids learn through play!

hence i will always release him from home once the sun reaches the horizon.

he has to GET OUT of the house.

and sometimes he'll go back in to someone else's house. sigh.

i will still try to pull him out though.

i dont blame him.

sometimes it will only be him alone outside and im not exactly a nutty cracky play person so he feels bored.

Oct 2012

family first

wearing his father's glasses.

yes so he learns an extra vocab : glasses / spectacles.

he would kindly help to fetch his dad's glasses in the morning.

VERY cheeky

back in ipoh attending his Uncle's wedding.

being the youngest in the family,

he gets to be the KING!

upsets his popo by rejecting her and being nasty to her.

family comes first.

yes, im a family person.

im glad that hubs has a huge extended family and they are close to one another.

we flew home many times last year for joyous celebrations and those are the times that KJ gets to bond with the family.

worth it :)

Nov 2012

Two months old update

1 month old

GASP!

spossies? = disposable diaper?

of course not! :)

we are a cloth diaper  (CD)  family.

this disposable acts as a cover.

you can DIY. soaked a used disposable in water until all the gel swells, then remove the gel leaving only the cover.

this cover can be washed and be recycled for a good couple of times.

Matty is currently using lampins/prefold 80% and CD 20%.

when we were in mom's house in his early days,

it was 90% lampin and 10% disposables.

disposables are for nights only.

it will be difficult washing CDs in few pieces so i closed one eyes and let mom have it her way.

back here in my own home,

i rule of course ;)

i sub the disposables with CDs and therefore washes them every 3 days.

it is quite difficult for my washing machine to spin if i don't have one amount of diapers in a load.

usually i wash the diapers on its own. i do not mix.

reason is because diapers need its own detergent.

and they have special cleaning cycles.

currently the frequency of his poo has reduced.

from almost every 2 hours to about every few changes of diapers once.

he changes lampin every 2-3 hours.

this was 1 month old.

3.1kg

vaccination:

just this monday 19th aug when i brought him to KKIA for his 2 months old vaccination, DTap

evening after the jab,

he was slightly feverish.

37.7 celcius when i checked.

i dilly-dallied and by the time i was about to administer paracetamol, the temperature drops.

hence no pcm for this little chap.

next day fever gone.

growth:

he weighed 4.1kg,

growth chart on the line

 he can lift his head!!!

one crazy strong kid!

his brother loves him to bits. i hope?

KJ, u want to be gege or koko?

i want to be ge ge

he likes me oh mommy!

didi likes me.

he is so cute!

still jaundice.

eyes and skin yellow.

feeding:

cluster feeding until last weekend.

over the weekend he started becoming drowsy and feeding decreases.

diaper change reduces too naturally.

i complained that he becomes inactive.

bothers me that he is not hovering for my boobs.

but according to our doctor friend,

he says he is fine.

when he is awake, he looks active. -_____-

anyway, we have got an appointment for him with Vasan next week in paeds clinic.

kj 3 y 6 m

Matty 2 m

What we eat at home

despite being independent,

no moms or inlaws or relatives here,

we thrive to be on our own.

ever since we fired our part time maid a year ago,

we have been doing household chores ourselves.

we also cook whenever we can.

green tea ice cream with adzuki beans

mushroom bacon risotto

can prepare this in a jiffy!

doesnt look appealing but it tastes good! :p

hawaiian chicken pizza

all the above were cooked at home.

if u still dont know me,

i prefer to eat at home.

what more if you are living in Kota kinabalu.

there are not much choice really.

especially in the weekend when i have my children home with me,

all the more i'd want to serve them HEALTHY home cooked meals.

Green tea ice cream recipe:

ingredients

150g sugar

15-30g green tea powder (i use 15g)

50g unsalted butter

2tsp vanilla extract

100g milk

500g cream

4 eggs

method

1. mill sugar 15 secs/ speed 9

2. add butter and vanilla + sugar. 15 mins/ varoma/ speed 1

3. add cream, milk and whisk . 30 sec/ speed 5

4. add egg one by one through the hole , at speed 4. time? just keep the blade running

5. add green tea powder, also at speed 4. cook for 5 mins/ 80 degrees

6. pour into cold metal tin and freeze

7. after 8 hours when it is partially frozen, transfer into ™ bowl again and blitz at speed 10/ 1 min.

8. return to cold tin and continue freezing until ice cream is formed.

9. all done. thaw for few minutes before serving.

Push Pin Activity

 found a box of push pins so i remembered this push-pin activity in Confession of a Homeschooler Blog.

 get a piece of paper,

write an alphabet,

ask the toddler to poke along the line.

this activity can strengthen 3-finger grasp.

it can also enhance letter recognition and patience building.

KJ truly needs the latter.

i did asked kj to put the poked page on the glass door so that he can see the holes clearly, as shown here.

raw goat's milk

Raw Goat's Milk

the trend now is that raw milk is best!

better than pasteurized.

unhomogenized is better than homogenized.

read is raw milk safe?

why is homogenized milk bad for you.

bought this from Happy Goat in Penang.

they also have Facebook.

do contact Ivan.

i bought frozen ones.

thaw them overnight in the fridge and u can drink them once they have melted completely.

although the bottle states to warm before drinking but there is no such need, really.

they are safe for consumption.

i cannot quite accept the taste if they are warmed!

the smell of the goat was amplified and make me feel like puking!

they definitely taste better when chilled.

nevertheless, chilled or not chilled, 

i still need to hold my breath when drinking.

:p

just because they are healthy and good to my body,

i have to drink it.

im helping KJ to finish up the milk.

we both share, half a bottle each day.

he seems fine drinking this.

but given a choice, he would still go for pasteurized, homogenized, cow's milk :)

this kid has never consumed Formula Milk Powder.

with the current hoo-ha over the contaminated formula milk powder,

i am glad he drinks fresh cow's milk - pasteurized.

not raw cow's milk.

i would subscribe to raw cow's milk if they are available here.

once in a while i do buy goat's milk - pasteurized for him.

too bad, we dont have any raw milk here.

a bottle of 250ml costs RM6.00

if you buy in litres, it will be cheaper.

If you want to drink raw milk, it would be best if you can visit the farm and get to know them to ascertain good hygiene.

not convinced about drinking Raw?
i like the info in this blogspot.