Update on My Girls

I realized I haven't update on my girls progress for awhile and so here it is.



My eldest girl just turned FOUR. She is learning to read and spell. So far she has done very well. We have started her on reading Dora's books. Once she learned the full page, she will be rewarded with a Dora sticker and once she finishes the whole book, she will be rewarded with a BIG Dora sticker. So far this method works very well, she finished one book already. The power of Dora! She can write A-Z, with problem with J and S, and 1-10, with problem writing 3 sometimes. Since she knows how to spell a few words, she can write a few words too. On Valentine's Day, she presented us with a card that she wrote on herself without help that read, EVY (insert love shape symbol) MOM, EVY (love symbol) DAD and EVY (love symbol) EDDA. Oh yeah, even her little sister got a card from her. Not only that, she can draw and color very well and she just finished a Kindergarten level activity book that I bought for her at Barne & Noble. Just got her two more books and she was so excited and did at least 20 pages per day. I had to set a 20 pages limit, if not she would probably finish the whole book in three days. She also knows how to do easy plus and minus already (1-10). I think we have prepared her well for kindergarten next year. With another year to teach and train her, she will be well prepared. By the way, we didn't send her to any pre-school, all home-taught. Not to say she is also conversing in Mandarin and English. Read and recognized up to 40 Chinese characters (from learning cards).



As for miss little Edda, she has turned into miss whiny!!! Oh my Gosh! This girl can whine, every little thing not her way, she will make me that face and start whining, got ignore, turned into crying. OMG! I need to train her to stop whining because I can't stand it! I would tell her, mommy doesn't like whining and you stop whining! I would ignore her whining and crying when I'm doing stuff and it would ease. She has all her 20 teeth already and eating excellent by herself. I didn't have to feed her since she turned one, I gave her a bowl and a spoon/fork and asked her to dig in. She does that in a restaurant too, give her her share and a spoon and she help herself. She is well developed on her motor skill, understood us and does what she is told. But very slow in her speech development. No new word since she turned one. Whereas, her sister could say 40 words already and kept adding new word every week at this age. This girl uses action to let us know what she wants instead. I'm not worry about it now but I expect her speech level to increase after she turns two later this year. If not, then I will start to worry. Finally she is almost sleeping through the night. Sometimes she will still wake up once a night and that's it, down from 4 times a night. One thing though I really need to wean her before she turns two. She is not into cow milk and Milo which makes it harder to wean. Still come to me and pull up my shirt every time she is thirsty or wants to nap. Aiyo! But since she is not taking any full milk, I had to give her the best milk a mother can give to a child right? *sigh* Oh yeah believe it or not, this little one knows how to set a table too. Like helping to bring her sister's rice to her sister and her own rice. She is still too short to get the spoon yet but she sures try. One way she letting me know she wants some cookies is she would open the drawer, bring a bowl and give it to me and when I ask her what is this bowl for, she would walk towards the kitchen. Smart right? If my pantry door is open, she would help herself with cookie bag/ cookie jar that she could reach at the bottom and bring it to me to open. Same thing, she would open the drawer and bring me the sippy cup when she wants water. You see, action speaks louder than words, probably that's why she doesn't see a reason to speak yet! Adoi!

Good thing is now they play together. Evy will talk to her, hug her and carry her around. Sometimes it's really cute to see them together, either playing, watching t.v. or reacting to each other. As expected, playing together also brings on fighting together.

CNY Gift from a Friend :o)

Less Sweet Teh Tarik 3 in 1 and Pandan Kaya.


Assortment of Delicious Looking ChanHong Brand Products. BTW, I loved this brand!


OK, this is my favorite group because I'm a cookies & snack junkie!! Can't wait to try the Beloved Biscuit because it looks so different. But first of all, need to open the Chicken Biscuit now!


Hmmm...first time seeing this type of Chicken Biscuit! Had a bad experience with the previous chicken biscuit that I ordered from myTOA.


So fat fat one!


WOW! I Loved it! I loved this type too, very fragrant and even my hubby gave a thumb up. Ok, only got six in a packet, so order more if you like this biscuit. Hubby said, "3 for me and 3 for you". I said, " Then what about the kids?" LOL!




Thank you so much for your generous gift. You got the heart, we got the tummies! :P

For my readers, you can always order it online at myTOA.com. Just a click away to sample all these M'sian goodies yourself at home! ;o)

A Moment Captured!

I was busy preparing dinner and Edda came looking for me. She wanted me to carry her but I told her, mommy cannot carry you now because she needs to cook dinner, why don't you go where your daddy is. And when I turned around and I saw the scene below. I though what a moment and quickly grabbed my camera and took a few shots.

How sweet right?

I am really amaze at how much she understood me. Even though she only know how to say mama, papa, paopao (carry) and make the sound of lion roar, sometimes dog and cat but she can really understand me very well. Whatever I told her to do, she will do it for me. For example, when we were at my friend's A house, I was telling her Edda seem to understand what I said and to illustrate, I took out a jar and a cup from the playset and asked Edda to pour me some water (this was at 13 months). She would take the jar and pretend to pour the water in the cup and set the jar down. Then I told her to bring the cup for me and she did just that. How impressive was that for a 13 months old to do? My friend A said Edda is the most advance toddler she had ever seen, because not only she understood, she acted upon it with precision. I was like really, that's good to know. I was complaining that she hardly say much and then someone said the 2nd one would speak later because the 1st one tends to speak it on her behalf and thus making her least likely to talk. It does make sense or because this mommy didn't read for the 2nd one, that's why! *blush*

Edda, look here! As for daddy, need to censor a little bit....LOL!

Look Who's Walking!

My little girl is finally walking at 12.5 months. She started taking steps at 10 months or so. Evy only started walking at 14.5 months so she is considering fast compared to her sister. I also think that the second child tends to develop faster, not sure whether to keep up with her sibling or what? The development from taking steps to walking is sort of intriguing. When she started to take steps, she would prefer crawling, for example, I put her in a standing position and asked her to walk to me, and she would just sat herself down and crawled to me instead. But as the time went by, some how in her mind it must registered to her that she can walk. As now, she would prefer walking than crawling. She would stand herself up and walk every times she fell down. It is really cute to see little toddlers walk, as they walk like a duck, waddle around the house in their little height. Hahaha... Try playing hide and seek with them waddle behind...hahaha....

Edda's Birthday Party (Part 1)

My little girl turned one year old few days ago. I had a birthday party for her because turning one is special for Chinese. So, I invited a couple of my friends to celebrate with us. Sharing some pictures of what I cooked with my readers here.

I learned a lesson from Evy's birthday. That is not to wait until the last minute to stir-fry because I was still cooking when my guests showed up and I had to finish cooking and setting the table in front of my guests. So, for this I told myself I got to get everything done before my guests arrived. So this time, I got everything cooked two hours prior and keep warm in my oven ready to bring out 5 minutes before the designated time. However, I also learned a new lesson with this arrangement, will spill in my part 2 post when I show the close up of my dishes.


The spread without the cheese pizza (still baking in the oven)


Another view of the spread


Dessert section: pandan cream cheese pound cake, strawberry butter cake, brownie (can see from the 1st. picture), kuih bingka ubi and mixed fruit konnyaku jelly.


Party table with goodies bags for the kids, red eggs for each family to take home and snack.


The red eggs gift bags for adults


Mixed fruit konnyaku jelly in assorted fish molds. My girlfriend A got this for me from M'sia, nice right? :)


The Pandan cream cheese pound cake. Recipe here, just used pandan paste instead of green tea powder. And yes, thanks for the tips from my readers, my cake turned out beautiful from the bundt pan.


Edda's birthday cake. I used this for the chocolate cake and as for the frosting, will post it in another post. Stay tuned!

Edda's Birthday Party (Part 2)

Stir-fried Udon Noodle Asian Style with Chinese Mushroom


Fried Spicy Mee Siam Malaysian Style


Delimas Chicken Curry with Potatoes. You can buy the Delimas Chicken Curry Paste here. Very easy, just add chicken, potatoes and coconut milk. Taste just like the Malaysian curry without all the work.


Claypot Beef Rendang, can also see it here. Oops! I forgot to add kaffir lime leaves. Anyway, you can buy it at MyTOA. But I think it's currently out of stock since I couldn't find it. Just check back often for new stock. For this, even easier, just add beef! I simmered this for a tad too long and some of the beef were broken into pieces. Well, at least it showed how tender the beef is.

Mixed Vegetable. I made a mistake of putting it in the oven to keep warm for 2 hours. Why? Because my broccoli turned soft instead of crunchy (the way I like it) and also it lost the vibrant green color and turned a bit yellow. Learned a lesson here, never put your veggie to keep warm in the oven. Half an hour should be fine, just not two hours. So, this is the new lesson learned.

Easy Stir-Fried Shrimps with sweet soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil and black pepper. I just sprinkled some dried parsley for decoration. This dish which I whipped out while cooking, just an okay dish for my standard. I think I shouldn't add rice wine since the smell is pretty strong.

Lastly, Edda smiling for the camera before lighting the candle and singing the birthday song. Happy One Year Old my little girl! Ugh, why she got rabbit ears? :P

A Gift

I received this as a gift from a friend from China. Guess what it is?


This is how the inside looks like. It's like a glutinous rice dumpling. But it is wrapped like a huge log (first time I have seen this, thus not sure whether it's common in China). The filling is a tiny bit of pork wrapped with mung beans and then the glutinous rice.


And the way to enjoy it is to cut it into slices and then pan-fried until crispy.


Very interesting hor? Taste wise, not too bad because it is well seasoned and when it's pan-fried, it gives the crispiness to the bite. Good with Sriracha chilli sauce!


Look at her enjoying herself to a piece! Yummy!


Update: Edda can walk a few steps by herself now. It will be soon before she takes off. :) Hopefully!

Ground Pork & Mushroom Dried Noodle

I organized an annual potluck picnic in the park this past Saturday. It's an event where we meet and eat in the park where the kids can enjoy some outdoor play time. The weather turned out to be so cooperating and nice, and we had a fun time eating a variety of food. Too bad, I don't have a picture of the spread because I didn't bring my camera out. But I did take a picture of what I brought to the picnic before we left the house.

Look what I found

Ooh...ooh...got caught!


Mom, I'm just tasting sister's cookie.


It's yummy, mommy! Sorry for the mess ya!

This is what happen when her sister lay her cookie around and she found it. Often time she would knock over her sister cup of water/juice/Milo too! What a "tham jiak" little girl I have! :) She just want a taste of everything.

Edda Update

Little Edda is now crawling every where in the house. She loves to explore every thing by touching and tasting. Her current obsession is standing with the help of an object. Ever since she discovered that she could stand on her own with help, she has been standing up in her crib calling me to wake up. It is a sight to be seen every time I open my eyes to see her standing there with her head pop out looking at me. I caught her climbing up the stairs the other day, she was on the third stairs before I realized it and she just gave me a big wide smiles, like telling me, look mommy, look at what I have accomplished!

She now has three teeth on top and two teeth at the bottom, making it five. With the new found teeth, now she is eating cookie like a pro. She realized that she could actually bite the cookie into pieces as well as chocolate. I gave her some spaghetti with meat sauce the other day and she loved it. She just slurping the noodle away. She loves to eat by using her fingers, and yes she finally achieved pincher grasp and can pick up thing as little as a rice grain. What a mommy nightmare! She is drinking through her sippy cup, mommy glass and even surprised mommy the other day by drinking through a straw cup! *only happen once though*

She claps her hands when she is happy. She would lean on our shoulder when we asked her to. She also loves to sing along with mommy whenever she hears the alphabet song "ABC". It is too cute to hear her sing along with her baby voice because I never realize baby can sing too! Now I am teaching her how to wave bye-bye and can't wait to hear her utter her first word preferably "mama". ^0*

Look at her trying to play with her sister's notebook. LOL!

Edda Update

I asked her to smiles for the camera and this is the best she came out with.


Snacking on her fingers food. No pincer grab yet!

Look at her two teeth at the bottom! Finally smiling for mama.

She is still not crawling yet, but it will be soon. She can sit up by herself from a laying position. I just found her sitting at the end of her crib playing with her toys this morning. And I thought she fell back to sleep because she was so quiet, later I learned that she was actually eating on toilet paper that I put in a basket! Adoi....she loves chewing and eating paper. Yeah, I forgot to look at the end of the crib and totally missed her sitting there happily chewing on the toilet paper. *Duh Mommy!*

She can also scoop from one place to the other. Mostly going backward because she still hasn't move forward yet. She will be on all four, even hands moving forward, but her legs just stay there, and then she just scoop back to a sitting position again. And somehow by doing that, she can shift herself from one place to another.

Update: She crawls today! (June 16th, 2007)

Beginning of Crawling

Why is my baby still not sleeping through the night? She is still waking up 2-3 times at night to feed and sometimes won't want to sleep right away and prefer some playtime. I got fed up when I'm tired and sleepy and my baby wants to play. Luckily her father is a night owl, so often time I can just carry her downstair and leave her to her daddy. Evy slept through the night at 3 months, but got up and fed once a night from 6-9 months and slept through the night again at 9 months. With this Edda, I just don't see the time coming soon. I would be so happy if she just wake up once a night but no, she has to wake up every so often, sometimes up to 4 times!! :( Why huh?


Edda just finished her lunch of green peas, some Gerber puffs and a teething biscuit. Sometimes if mommy is lazy, I will eat what mommy eats, like rice with tiny pieces of chicken/meat and veggie.


Edda begins to show sign of crawling at 7+ months. And finally she is flipping over.


Gives mommy a smile!


Evy saying, "Hi!"

Sisters

Just sharing some pictures of them posing for the camera. How sweet to see them all lovey together. :o)

Update on Edda:

Edda is growing teeth! I can feel and see a tooth at her left middle bottom gum and another one on her right. Two at 6+ months!! Evy didn't grow her first tooth until 9+ months. So, this is early for me.

She started drinking from a sippy cup since 4 months. Never on pacifier and bottle (only on bottle for the week when doc. asked not to breastfeed her because of her jaundice). Good for me because I don't have to hide the pacifier or worry about keeping the bottle from her later on. Oh, I gave her water or sometimes diluted apple juice during or after meals.

I also started her on Gerber fruit puffs. I split it into half and let her self-feed herself on her high chair while I cook. Also to let her practise her pincher grab, thus far not too bad, half went into her mouth and half on the chair. Hahaha...

Edda is Sitting

Edda is sitting at 6 months. She turned 6 months today but she started sitting at about 5 and half months. Currently basically got a taste of what we were eating during meals (she loves everything we eat!). Her main meal is oatmeal cereal or/and squash/green beans/ sweet potatoes. Just because her mommy is too lazy to cook porridge for her. LOL! Of course sometimes I will include some fruit like strawberry, banana or pear. I will only cook her fish porridge if I feel like it for now. :P

As usual, Evy wants a piece of the action too! :o)