Day of cooking

On a weekend morning, we usually wake up an hour later than usual. Most of the time, I will wake up earlier than CT and go to get Caleb to join daddy in bed. Caleb does enjoy playing on our bed. He would roll, stand up and attempt to jump, would touch daddy and try to wake him up. Of course, CT would be awake by then but just lazing in bed. So CT would grab Caleb and play with him. That's the usual weekend mornings.



This morning, woke up to make breakfast for the family. Prepared sausages, scrambled eggs, baked beans, tomatoes (mixture of raw and grilled) and bread. I still prefer bacon!



Caleb usually has his morning bath at about 9am. Just before his bath today, Vicky cut his hair to prepare him for my sister-in-law's wedding tomorrow. I used to cut it but since Vicky doesnt mind doing it, I played the role of distracting Caleb instead and taking pictures.



As you can see Caleb getting itchy from the hair on his body.



Recently, my mum gave me fried ikan bilis. The type I love- the thick ones which you can find in the bowls of handmade noodles.

So for lunch, I taught Vicky how to prepare (even though it was also my first time cooking but at least I have eaten before to qualify to teach Vicky since she has not tried it before). I bought the "handmade" noodles from the supermarket but I realised its not so nice. So in future, I shall make my own. But anyway, the result was fabulous!! The soup was the kind of taste I had in mind and I added lots of veggies, minced meat and of course, with an egg (yolk still intact and runny)



It's really easy to make. For the soup base, I just put dried anchovies(ikan bilis) and soya beans. Then when you add in the minced meat, vegetables, egg and the salted ikan bilis, all of these will add to the flavour of the soup which makes it perfect!

I will definitely make it next time when I have the ikan bilis again!

Day without Vicky

Today was a good day because I felt like an accomplished mummy, taking care of Caleb with CT the whole day without Vicky. Whenever Vicky is around, she does most of the work because it would be tiring for me to do so. But today, it was nice to see CT taking care and playing with him.

We went to Hougang Mall to return and borrow more library books for Caleb. After that, we had lunch at this La Mian shop which surprisingly sells a small bowl pumpkin porridge- just the right size for Caleb at only $2! In the porridge, there were a few small glutinuous rice balls with some sweet filling that tasted like red bean. Quite interesting.



I ordered a beef la mian while CT had pork rib la mian. We also ordered a xiao long bao to share. I was quite satisfied with the food. One bowl of noodles only costs us about $6 each.





Caleb also had his share of entertainment in the shop where he observed the chef making la mian.



After lunch, we went to the top floor where they had an open air playground.



Throughout the day, we managed to put Caleb to sleep twice- in the late morning and in the afternoon. I really felt a sense of achievement since Caleb chooses who to put him to sleep.Both times I succeeded in putting him to sleep by closing the bedroom door so that he doesnt run out. And I sleep on the bed while he makes himself busy playing with the things in the room and eventually, when I woke up to check on him, he actually slept on the bed beside me all by himself. So, I concluded-no use forcing him to sleep. He would sleep eventually. Just ignore him. Haha.

At night, I cooked a simple dinner for me and CT. I prepared grilled sirloin steak and a waldorf salad (without walnuts, but with sunflower seeds as I had them in my fridge already)



CT and I really enjoyed the sirloin steak as it was so juicy and tasty! I cooked it slighly burnt to give the nice smoky flavour...but didnt taste burnt at all.



All in all, it was a perfect day in my eyes. Thank God. *relieved* :)

Celebrating Dad's birthday

Went to Imperial Treasure, Crowne Plaza Hotel again for dim sum lunch to celebrate my dad's 61st birthday!





Here's Caleb and Janine enjoying the joy ride on the 'lift' in my mum's van!



And here's Caleb with grandma! (Caleb donning that clothes for the first time)



Think he looks good in this clothes.



We ordered lots of food-Dim sum and ala-carte. The appetizer we had on our table was so yummy that I finished 2 plates of it! Its a dou gan szechuan vegetable kind of dish!




The first dish was this soup which we each had one bowl. Its like a big huge xiao long bao in a vegetable broth. Very nice!



And of course, we ordered the must-haves when I eat dim sum- chicken feet, char siew bao, and steamed pork ribs



We also specially ordered roast goose from their kitchen before we arrived at the restaurant.



Its more tender than duck but taste almost the same.


Here's our table filled with food!



The mee pok noodles was very nice and unique...not the usual ee-fu noodles with chives.



The meal costs us $315 for 10 of us. Not too bad. I would definitely recommend this place if you want a nice, Chinese meal!

After a heavy lunch, we went back to my parent's place for cake as a friend gave my dad an ice cream cake!







You can imagine how I full I was after this!

Farewell Chinese Swimming Club

Having been a member of Chinese Swimming Club since I was about 3 years old, got me all sentimental today when I finally sold my club membership. The reason is that there are times when I just have to be more practical than sentimental.



I have been paying about $50 a month and do not make use of the club facilities at all. So, might as well sell since I could save $600 plus a year. Moreover, the club now is so far my place. In the past, I wanted to keep the membership for my children to train swimming here when they grow up just like how I started off...but then again, as I thought, I do not have to go to CSC for my children to be trained. And lastly, my parents and brother are still members. So, I can still go back as and when I want.

Anyway, after selling off my club membership to this seller, I had dinner there with my parents. CT didnt join us as we had an early dinner and he had reservist and didnt know what time he would end. So, I bought takeaway for him.

We had a very good cze char dinner at the club. It was very cheap and healthy. There were 6 of us (including the helpers), and we ordered 6 dishes ( 2 of which were their yummy chicken wings ) and the total bill amounted to $50! (and this amount included CT's takeaway!)

Before dinner, I actually took Caleb to the children's pool to dip his legs.

Quite a nice, and fun pool! Cant wait for my daughter to pop so that I can take him swimming here!

Mid-Autumn Festival at my block

Tonight, went downstairs to celebrate the actual day of the festival down at my block. Many children were playing with lanterns, fire sparklers and candles.



So here's Caleb enjoying the atmosphere and lights!







Back at home, we ate mooncake, given by someone and made tea. Just for the fun of it.

Visiting friend

I have a friend who recently just gave birth to a baby girl, Zion. So, today, I finally decided to go visit her since she stays just near my block.

Its amazing how after one year of bringing up Caleb, CT and I quickly forgot how new borns are so small and tiny! We kept commenting how tiny Zion is...forgetting how small Caleb was a year ago!

The whole time we were at the house, Caleb actually couldnt be bothered with the newborn...only until we pointed her out to him and pull him to sayang the baby, then he would just oblige for a second before running off to play.



CT feels it is good because then at least, he wouldnt disturb his mei mei (younger sis) when she is borned.

Zion has an older sis, called Ain who is 5 years old. So both Caleb and Ain were playing. Here's their play house.





And finally, here's Caleb putting on Ain's sunglasses all by himself. He didnt want us to take it down. That's the vain side of Caleb which I am slowly beginning to see in him.

"Strange" behaviours

Caleb has a very strange sense of play. If he is not so young, I would think he might have a screw loose somewhere...But since he is still a baby, whatever he does now is still considered as cute and innocent.

Anyway, here's what he does during his playtime. He loves to play with this stool from Ikea.



Another strange behaviour is to get near the mirror and kiss himself.



One thing he loves doing is either to push things around like the laundry basket or the pail. He would find things to push around. Here's what I mean...





Another funny behaviour he is up to is when he hears the KFC advertisement on Channel 8 TV where there will be the KFC number to call and he finds it rather amusing and will try to imitate...this video was taken when playing peek a boo with him but coincidentally, this KFC advert came on while playing that he got distracted and started to imitate the chinese tel number to call for KFC.



Another strange behaviour he is picked up so far is to dig his nose when we ask him to point to his nose. Sigh...Oh well, I shall find it amusing at this point in time.

Imperial Treasure, Crowne Plaza Hotel

Tonight, went to Crowne Plaza Hotel, Terminal 3 for food tasting as my sister-in-law will be getting married in about 2 weeks time at this hotel.



I was definitely looking forward to it as I have been to Imperial Treausure once at Great World City and the food was quite good.

Anyway, here's what I had!

The combination platter was quite nice. I enjoyed it very much. So nice that I forgot to take a picture of it!



The braised seafood soup was nothing we expected. As you can tell, we didnt expect such a colour! It looked like some kind of pumpkin western soup, but the taste was chinese. So it felt kind of strange...and moreover, there was too much seafood going on in there that after drinking the soup, I got a little sick of seafood for a while.



The poached "live" prawn was just some normal steamed prawns. The only special part was that the dip for he prawns was similar to the usual steam fish superior soya sauce. The prawns was nice and fresh. Nothing unusual.

The next 2 dishes were quite good- steamed soon hock and braised spinach beancurd.




Even the usual roasted chicken dish was good. The skin of the chicken was not fatty and more importantly, it was crispy!



The braised ee fu noodles tasted common. So nothing spectacular.



We had orh nee (yam paste) for dessert. One look, you can tell its dry. Most restaurants would add pumpkin with some coconut sauce. But they didnt. So it was just a bowl of healthy orh nee, which means it felt like that was absolutely no oil.



I was definitely bursting once I finished the dessert. It was way too filling.

Nevertheless, I would still recommend this place for good Chinese food!

By the time we ended, it was about 10 pm already.

Celebrating Mid-Autumn with family

Tonight, mum invited us over for a steamboat dinner and at the same time, celebrate mid-autumn festival where the kids can play with laterns.

Went there slightly before dinner time to play and spend time there. So here's the cousins together on the swing, who both look absolutely bored or bo chup (not bothering) about each other.



As I was going down the stairs of the roof top garden, I saw how nice the sky is. So I just simply took a picture of the sky with Caleb!



The steamboat dinner was enjoyable and yummy with Yong Tau Foo, Corn,


Beef slice, chicken, liver, yellow mee and the thick bee hoon noodles, 3 different kinds of vegetables,


fishballs, fish slice, prawns, scallops and mussels. The thing that made it so yummy were the sauces- yong tau foo sauce and chincalok sauce.



Caleb and Janine had a wonderful time playing with the lanterns as well as the sand pit till they got all so dirty and sweaty!