Practicing Writing

Monkeying around, playing toys, irritating me (lol) after his bath when he suddenly pull out the numbers writing book I bought for him some time ago. He decided to practice his writing. He did some "Count & Write the number" exercises too =)

Do Not Disturb I am concentrating... ...

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Swimming Lesson#2

We missed last week's lesson becoz of the mild stomach flu. It rained heavily this morning, I thought we have to miss today's lesson again, but the sky cleared in the afternoon. We were late for class.... again... Next week we shall leave the house 15mins earlier.

Coach let Little DinoEgg do the usual; practice blowing bubbles while lying chest down at the edge of the pool but this time he insist he put his face further into the water, at one point he was pushing his head gently into the water. And today he uses the kick float! 1 step further :)

I did not stay there to watch as it was a hot day and the sun rays are at EVERYWHERE ! Even at the shelters :( I escaped to MacMac for a cold drink and air con, even though I have to pay for the $2 entrance fee again.

Before I knew it, its time to head back to the pool to fetch Little DinoEgg, who evidently had a fun time.

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Lotus seeds & white fungus soup

Few weeks ago I was reading a soup recipe book I bought many many years ago. There are a few soups that I told myself that I will boil it as its good for daddy & Little DinoEgg. I was out doing groceries shopping couple of weeks ago and I saw a packet of dried lotus seed. I bought it, thinking to use it in some soup. I did not have the chance to refer to that soup recipe soup since that day but yesterday I thought I should try to cook the lotus seed.

I consulted mum since we were at her place for our weekly dinner. She suggest that I cook it with white fungus and some pork ribs. White fungus is said to be effective in nourishing the lungs, healing dry cough and clearing heat in the lungs. Well, good for daddy & Little DinoEgg who are prone to having cough. Mum says lotus seed is "heaty" but I read from the net that it is suppose to clear heat. Hmmm... so who is correct? Anyway I still went ahead to cook this soup :) This picture is taken from the web, I forgot to take a photo of my soup as I was in a rush. Little DinoEgg was bugging me with his "Mummy, are you ready? I am hungry."

I did not search the web for any recipe, I just add whatever I think should be inside.

Ingredients

• Pork ribs
• A handful of dried lotus seeds
• A small handful of wolfberries
• A small handful of Nan xin Bei xin
• 1 clove of white fungus

Methods

1. Soak the white fungus for 30mins then wash
2. Rinse the wolfberries, Nan xin Bei xin
3. Boil a pot of water, throw in the pork ribs and blanch it for a few minutes

I throw all the ingredients into a pot and boil it for about 2 and a half hours. We had a tasty Lotus seeds & white fungus soup to go with fried eggs and potato+meat in black sauce. Little DinoEgg love the soup, he finished almost half a big bowl of soup.

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Lantern Festival 2010

Last year we did not go anywhere for this festival coz it was raining. This year, the sky looks ok, no thunder no rain so I asked Catherine whether she wants to go downstairs with our kids & their lanterns for a while. We meet shortly after dinner, expecting only a handful of kids walking around with their lanterns in the playground but we were wrong! There are so many kids downstairs with so many different type of lanterns!

Here is Charlotte & Ultraman (modern lantern) and Little DinoEgg & Dragon (traditional lantern)

We walked around the estate looking at the lanterns n the older kids arranging the lighted candles in some sort of pattern or shapes. Both me and Catherine have no idea why kids like to do that hahaha~ Soon, the 2 kids got distracted... ok ok I admit, its Little DinoEgg who got distracted first. He casually n politely ask me to carry his lantern then asking permission (while running away) to go up the slide =.= Charlotte follow him too. I think Little DinoEgg is a bad influence to good girl Charlotte, she only goes crazy when ever she is with Little DinoEgg.

Lets go for a Dinosaur Ride!

And so they ran amok in the playground while me & Catherine stood there holding to their lanterns. So who is enjoying the fun of holding lantern? Definitely not our kids! hahha~

Happy Mooncake Festival! 中秋节快乐！

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Stomach Flu virus

2 days ago the school alerted us that some of the N1 kids were vomiting in the morning. The school was afraid that it may be a virus going around.

This morning Little DinoEgg woke up complaining about tummy ache, I thought its coz he is hungry; cannot differentiate hunger n pain, but when I hug him, he feels warm. Took his temperature and its 37.7deg. After that he says tummy pain and wanna sleep :( He then walk into his room and lie down on the bed.

I decided to bring him to Dr Ivan, before we step out of the house he vomited at the toilet bowl. As he did not eat anything earlier, all that comes out are water :( While on the way to the clinic, I called the school to inform them. The teacher informed me that a mum called earlier saying her kid vomit too. Seems like the virus has spread to other classes.

There were alot of people in the clinic, Little DinoEgg complained abt tummy pain, very cold (he was shivering) and want to go home. Finally its our turn, Dr Ivan checked his tummy, its very bloated. When he listen to his intestine he says the intestines are very active, making alot of noise. He prescribe anti vomit n fever, he did not give me the anti-colic med as I told him that we still it. Later while waiting for our medicine, Little DinoEgg told me he needs to vomit and we ran to the toilet instead of purging in the clinic.

He vomited again when we reach home, this time on the sofa. We were resting in the living room, he was lying down on the sofa n it came suddenly. Luckily its only water so a quick change of clothes and clean up to fix the mess. However he threw out his med. No choice, cant give him another time but to wait till later.

I hope he gets better tomorrow and not escalate. Its his 1st arts class tomorrow, hope he can attend it.

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Lotus Seeds

Went NTUC to grab some carrot for my lunch after I went to see doctor for my swollen gum n sore throat. Thought I walk around abit before I head out to the hot sun again. While walking around aimlessly in the supermarket, I chance upon the lotus seeds :) I grabbed a packet, gotta start gathering ingredients for my soup from the recipe book I've been reading.

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Art Class

We have been looking around for art class for Little DinoEgg but nothing catches our eye till Catherine suggest the community centre. Even so, there were no new class for begginers at that time. Finally there is a class but it started ytd :( Nevertheless we decide to sign up, missing the 1st class shouldn't lose out anything.

Amongst a list of things that we are supposed to get and bring to class, there is an item "china marking pencil". In my mind I think I know what it look like but couldn't be sure, thus I did a search which confirms my guess :) This is the marking pencil. I used to play with this when I was young, love to do the peeling hehehe~

We told Little DinoEgg earlier that we are going to sign up drawing class for him, guess he still does not know what it is yet. I believe he will be happy there, even if he does not turn out to be a Picasso, it will be a place where he can "make a mess with colors" to his heart content.

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Emily's Birthday Party

We dash down to MacMac @ AMK after our swimming class for Emily's 1st Birthday Party! She is holding it together with 2 friends at MarMac. We were running late as the party starts at 5pm, swim class ends at this time, and by the time we were sitting in a cab flying towards AMK its already 5.30pm. I think Lady Luck decides to stand at our side coz when we reached the party has not started yet. Turns out that CTE has a bad traffic jam and some of the guests were caught in it n thus was late.

This is the 1st time we attend a MacMac birthday party. Its very interesting n very relaxing for me n Daddy. This is becoz the kids are all inside the party area while the adults sits outside chatting n eating. The MacMac party planners entertains the kids with games, balloon sculpture etc. There were a few parents inside the party area to be with their kids, they were so nice to help take care of the other kids too. Whenever I find a chance to squeeze pass the entrance, I will pop in to check on Little DinoEgg. He was handling the new friends and aunties well. Once I saw him asking 1 mummy politely to help him take out the straw for his apple juice.

I went in to check on him again when they serve the cupcakes. He got 1 yellow cupcake with jellybeans on it. Of coz he attacked the jellybeans first, I left him to enjoy his yummy cupcake. About 15 mins later, while every one was queueing to get the MacMac goodie bag + balloon, he was still sitting at his chair holding to the cupcake. Daddy commented that perhaps he was afraid to move since he did not finish it so I went in to check on him. Turns out he doesn't like the cupcake (after the jellybeans are gone), I saw he only bite off 1 small bit so I told him to leave it on the table if he does not want it any more. I allow him to do that coz I think the cupcakes are too sweet. I ate one and the iciing is too sweet to my liking and the cupcake abit dry. Should have taken Emily's pink birthday cake instead hehehe~

Nic told me that when they were singing birthday songs Little DinoEgg was standing on the chair, hands on the table n talking at the top of his voice. Being a drama king, he told the rest to "be careful! I am here!" etc etc while shaking the table. Nic was so afraid that he will topple the table n land all the cakes onto the floor that she has to try to calm him down. I only know this after everything was over. Luckily he did not cause any "tragic death" of some beautiful cakes.

I have always thought MacMac birthday party are messy with bad organizing n coordinating work. Well, it is better then I thought. At least the parents need not bother much on their kids (perhaps for the older ones) and I am sure the kids enjoy themselves to the max too, in the midst of chaos.

I saw a different side of Little DinoEgg too. Within 5mins he made a new friend, Matthew; older brother of 1 of the birthday boy Marcus. I was sitting down resting while Little DinoEgg explore the area n pple. He came back to me with Matthew and told me "His name is Matthew." I thought he is his school mate, when I ask him how come he knows, he told me "I asked for his name." oooo~~ Very good! So he is actually not that shy as what he has shown me when we meet up new friends, all those are just him pretending to be shy, haha~ now I know.

This is the only birthday party post that I do not blog about the birthday kid coz the kids are all together while the adults "minded their own business" eating, chatting n making their own new friends, just like any other gathering. To me, it does not feel like a Birthday Party coz the focus was not there :P Regardless, it is still a good party.

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Splish Splash n BBBrrrrrr

Little DinoEgg went for his 1st swimming lesson WOOT! He was shouting "YEAH! Swimming!" when he know that he is going for a swim however we were afraid he will refuse to go into the water as he had did that before when we went for swim with friends.

It was a hot hot hot day! Our 10mins+ walk fm our house to the swimming complex is a torture! Next time I will carry an umbrella coz there were practically no shade, the trees were too small to provide any cooling shades on the path way.

We went searching for the class, there were so many pple at the pool, either there for lessons or trying to cool off from the heat. We managed to locate our coach 10mins after the class time and I sighed a sign of relieve when I see the coach hahaa! Coz its a young chap, not some old uncle coz from what I observe, they are usually fiercer n more stern :P I would think Little DinoEgg would not want to go for 2nd lesson if the coach is a fierce one *phew*

He did well for his 1st lesson :) Went into the water without much protest or much coaxing from the coach. He even blow bubbles in the water..... surface (lol) *play cheat* He was very good at kicking water while sitting at the edge of the pool but once in the water he did not kick as hard. He even lie floating on his back n kicking his feet, of coz with coach holding him at his back. I think he is brave coz I think for a 1st timer to lie back on the water requires alot of courage and he must feel very comfortable with the coach to put all his trust on him.

An hour passes very quickly and soon its time to go home, surely to be back for subsequent lessons.

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Bubble fun

To ensure that we go for our swimming lessons today, I decided to bring Little DinoEgg out for some exercise in the morning. However the heavy rain ytd puts off my idea of going to the Botanic Gardens as I was afraid the grassy fields will be muddy. So I thought of getting Catherine & Geraldine to bring our kids downstairs for some bubble fun.

With Geraldine at work, Catherine has to take care of Alexavier n wow~ she is (in her own words) "going crazy" and welcome the idea. So 3 happy kids blowing bubbles, chasing after bubbles, spilling bubbles solutions, squealing, screaming, laughing, running n having great fun under the void deck. Me and Catherine thought we could just sit back, relax while they play. No such luxury. We have to blow the bubbles when the kids are tired of blowing.

In no time, little Alexavier is tired n is looking for mummy. We decided to head home for rest n perhaps a nap. For us, its back for a quick lunch of noodles soup then off to bed for his nap. He knocked off within 20mins of hitting the sack, so swimming, here we come!

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Daddy's cooking today

I went groceries shopping ytd planning to do some cooking today but instead Daddy is doing it (^^,)

Cheese sausages with eggs

Ok the eggs are ugly (I'm sure a certain person will be really happy to see this result n announce to others that she found some "uglier eggs" then hers LOL) coz we have a poor quality pan that makes things stick to it in seconds :( However that does not affect the taste of the eggs. We practically licked the plates clean!

Udon miso soup

Catherine taught me this; miso paste from supermarket, udon, silken toufu and crab stick. Daddy decided to grill a chicken breast, cut in small stripes n add into the udo. Wow~ the udon tastes so yummy.

Little DinoEgg always drink the soup for any noodles soup we serve him. He took a sip and says YUCKS but continue to eat the udon, crab sticks, seaweed, chicken AND drink the soup. I wonder he says that just to makes us angry or otherwise. Perhaps the miso soup tastes different from those we drink in Japanese restaurant which are usually very salty. Daddy did not put a lot of miso paste as he does not want it to be too salty.

Anyway we realised that recently he's been saying YUCKS whenever he take the 1st bite of any food that we give him. So can I conclude that he is doing this to challenge us n make us upset with him? Well, today he is not succeeding haha! Both of us ignore him.

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Doo-doo Doodling

"小猫坐下来吃它的鱼、喝它的水"

"This is me, I am holding a Bakugan"

"Mummy with a (big) slice of orange"

"This is mummy's bag"

This is how the whole picture look like

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Trying to solve a problem

Bed wetting issue has been a problem since we started night toilet training few months ago. We wake Little DinoEgg up at 2am+ to get him to visit the toilet, sometimes he goes obediently sometimes he cry n protest. Most of the time if we managed to get him to visit the toilet at that hour he is able to wake up dry.

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Toilet Training again

This is the dunno-how-many-times we are starting to toilet train Little DinoEgg again. Daddy woke him up at Saturday morning 2am to get him to visit the toilet, later that morning he woke up dry.

We were too tired to do so this morning and Little DinoEgg came out of the room holding on to the corners of his shirt crying. His shirt and underwear are wet... I comfort him abit and told him that he has forgotten to wake up to go to toilet thats why his shirt and underwear are wet. He disagree by saying "No, its daddy! He did not wake me up to make me go toilet."

Oh dear! He thinks its our job to wake him up instead of him waking up on his own to visit the toilet. Must try to change his thinking otherwise this is going no where.

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A new camera

Recently I bought some clothes fm Taiwan sites, the package arrives with a little gift in it.

Its a small "traditional" camera! Its been donkey years since I last use a camera. that need to load a roll of film. Waterproof camera comes with a casing tt allows you to take picture underwater, cool~~ It look like a toy camera, so I am doubtful about its functions and ability. Perhaps I should try it out, but 1st I must buy a roll of film and ensure that I can develop the photos at some where otherwise money wasted on the film.

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Everything went wrong

I have no idea what is wrong with Little DinoEgg today, disobeying and disrupting his routine.

We are going for his 1st swimming lesson, so I started to cook lunch early. Serve his porridge at 11am, hoping that he will finish in 30min, rest a while and head off for his nap. However 1 hour later and he is still eating! No amount of threats, scolding, nagging or what so ever is able to make him eat faster. He will put the food into his mouth, chew a while n then his mind wanders off with a dazed look in his eyes. Getting frustrated, I decided to remove his lunch, that sends him crying n whining but I stood firm. Told him that I have given him many chances and long enough for him to finish off his food, I remove it since he is not interested to eat.

I told him to rest for a while and take a short nap before going for his swimming lesson. Warned him that if he do not sleep then he will not go for the lesson. He was very excited about going for the swimming class when I told him ytd. I thought I could make him take his nap without any fuss.... I was wrong.... He refuse to nap!!! Makes me hopping mad n I decided to take a nap myself, totally ignoring him.

Daddy came back at 2.30pm, came into the room to ask me when are we leaving house to the swimming lesson, told him what happened n say NO SWIMMING TODAY! And so he went off to make Little DinoEgg nap, finally at 3pm he was napping there goes our swimming plan.

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Swimming Class

Finally Daddy agrees to let Little DinoEgg start swimming lessons!

Few days ago I asked my sec. school mate Daniel on swimming school recommendations and he gave me SwimLab contact. 1st coz his son is also learning to swim there, 2nd coz they conduct class at our neighborhood swimming complex.

I dropped them an email few days ago and received a reply yesterday. After discussing the daddy, we decided to go for it. I called Charmaine earlier and was glad to hear that currently they have a new class with only 2 kids :) I immediately told her that I will put Little DinoEgg in the class too. With only 3 kids instead of the normal 8-10 kids in 1 class I know they will get the coach's full attention.

And with a school fees of $240 for a term of 12 lessons, its still within our budget :) Hope Little DinoEgg will fare better then his mummy when it comes to swimming.

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Cooking a simple lunch

Its Teacher's Day today and Little DinoEgg's school is close, I took leave to accompany him. Since we will be at home whole day, I decided to cook lunch :) This morning I went to the market nearby to do marketing.

Food for today's meals @ $15+

• lotus root
• fresh pig's liver
• french beans
• 6pcs chicken wings
• ginger
• spring onion
• pork ribs
• kai lan

After an hour plus in the kitchen, here is the result.

Lunch for me & Little DinoEgg (daddy's working)

*I took some cod fish for Little DinoEgg before I took the photo tts why it look like this

1. Stir-fried french beans with fish cakes
2. steam cod fish
3. lotus, pork ribs & peanuts soup

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alpha sign

In June, Little DinoEgg learn this Alphabet Song and last week he sang this again but with alphabet sign language. Initially I thought he is using his fingers to write the alphabets in the air (not really paying attention at that point) then as he repeats the song and the "writing" it strike me that he is actually signing. Well the fun begins as I too know how to sign these but I forgotten a few of it. However, with a little bit of refreshment reference found in the WWW, we are happily singing and signing together.

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