1st class at Julia Gabriel Forum - Bilingual Playgroup

After weeks on waiting list, I have finally gotten a vacancy from Julia Gabriel (JG) at Forum and I must also say thank you to Aunty Eunice for passing on this vacancy to me.


Mommy woke me up as early as 730am to prepare me for my 1st official weekend enrichment class and everything seems so rush.


We reached Forum around 845am and had our breakfast at McDonald's before heading up to Julia Gabriel on the 4th floor. My class is at Studio 7 and today's lesson started with Mandarin. My teacher's surname is Tu and we call her as 涂老师 and her assistant is 张老师。


Today we are learning the Number 3. I painted the Number 3 with 3 different colors as part of my tabletop activity for today, of cos with some help from Kakak Tati as Mommy couldn't sit in the class with me due to sprained back. Snack time is here and I enjoyed the cornflakes, sausage and apple juice.

Next is English class and my Teacher is Pix with his assistant Cui Ting. He is a very funny and friendly guy. I love the way he narrates a story - very interesting. After story time, it is fun time cos we can have outdoor play and wow... there are a wide selection of toys for me to play. I tried from 1 toy car to another one.

Oh.. time's up to go in for singing and say Good-bye.. I hope I can do better the next lesson, that is crying less and able to sit down to enjoy my class instead of exploring and wandering about.

Trial Class at PMI

I went to attend the Playful Beginning trial class at Preschool for Multiple Intelligences (PMI) with my friend - RJ & Ziv.

The class is conducted in Mandarin and I think today's topic is on colors. We started the class with self introduction done by our parents and sung a Chinese song named 合拢放开 with actions.

Next, Teacher took out a spray bottle with water and told us to close our eyes while she sprayed water onto each of us.. It was fun and all of us had an enjoyable time with this water play.

After water play, Teacher taught us the names of 3 different colors - Yellow, Green & Blue and we learnt that we can mix the colors together to get different colors. We also learnt how to DIY bubble with hand soap and colored ink, and after mixing them well, we get to play with our bubble creation during play time. We did a painting session using the 3 colors we have learnt together and I enjoyed this cos I can use my creative imagination to brush whatever I like.. haha..

Here comes the fun part, hurray, we can play with the bubbles solution which we did earlier on in class... Teacher brought us to the playground and let us have fun with bubbles blowing. But I was more interested in the swing, slide and see-saw on the playground as I have never play them before...

Soon 45 mins lesson was up, we sung Good-Bye song and gave Teacher a hug before leaving the school. Click here to see more photos taken during our class http://photos.pmi.com.sg/v/layful+Beginning/

Mommy taking candid shots of ME

My 1st home made movie

I got hold of Daddy's mobile phone and dunno how I manage to switch on the Video function.. and here I present my 1st maiden movie.... haha

Mommy's Bakery - Corn Bread

Mommy seeing her Apple Crumble a success, decided to bring on her bread maker (another 'white elephant' collection of hers) which she only used for less than 5 times. We bought the bread maker from Carrefour Suntec under their housebrand "BLUESKY" after Mommy heard from Aunty Joy how convenient it is to bake our own bread & kaya with this maker.

Today Mommy is using the Corn Bread recipe that Aunty Joy has shared with her quite some time back, with slight variation on the ingredients & methods.

Ingredients: -

1. 220g milk (Mommy used my Enfagrow Milk Powder cos she forgotten to buy fresh milk)
2. 1 tsp salt
3. 45g unsalted butter
4. 400g bread flour
5. 45g castor sugar
6. 2 tsp instant yeast
7. 200g frozen corn (Aunty Joy's recipe called for canned sweet corn)
8. 1/2 tsp bread softener (this is optional - for sweet bread)

Methods: -

1. Measure all the ingredients and pour into the bread pan.
2. Insert bread pan into bread maker.
3. Select setting to Sweet Bread (this is based on the bread maker "BLUESKY" we had).
4. Select crust to your preference.
5. Press Start to begin.

Notes: -

1. For the sweet corn, do remember to dust a bit of bread flour to it to prevent it from lumping together.
2. You can replace the Milk with either fresh milk or water. On 1st attempt, Mommy used my Enfagrow formula milk and the color of the bread is more yellowish and taste better. On 2nd attempt, she tried with fresh milk and the bread is slightly lighter in color and not strong taste of formual milk.
3. If you like the bread to be sweeter, you could try to add another 20g of castor sugar.

Happy Baking!

Our 1st BBQ Gathering at God-ma Jo's house

Finally we are doing BBQ at God-ma Jo's house rooftop garden.

This BBQ is quite a hassle-free one cos God-ma ordered the raw & cooked foodstuff from BBQ Wholesale Centre (recommended by Aunty Ros). We have quite a range of foodstuff like: -
- sambal stingray
- sambal squid in foil
- salmon fillet
- chicken satay & ketupat
- chicken chipolata
- black pepper chicken steak
- buffalo mid wings in 2 flavours
- butter corn
- russet potatoes
- chicken nuggets (cooked food)
- fish ball (cooked food)

Of cos, we did not missed out the yummy otah-otah that Aunty Kelly buys from Jalan Kayu to eat with plain bread.. It is simply delicious.

Aunty Valerie & Uncle Rayant bought 1 juicy big watermelon plus 1 yummy honeydew, while Aunty Marene & Uncle Raymond bought a lot of sweet sweet lychees & longans. Not forgetting the mangosteens from Aunty Amy & Uncle Pon.

Thank God the sky turns bright and sunny when we about to start our BBQ if not we will have to BBQ next to God-ma's dearest fish pond.. haha..

Sorry for the limited photo shots as Mommy was busy BBQ-ing and eating.. haha.. Never mind there will be another BBQ gathering in Sept to celebrate Mooncake Festival.

Me at 19 months old

Wow, how time flies! I am turning 19 months old today.


My latest stats: -
Weight: 11.5 kgs
Height: 83.5cm


Mommy got a shock that I suddenly grew taller by 4.5 cm within a month. At least now Por Por will not say I am a "katek ayam"(literal translate from Bahasa is "short chicken' as I am born in the year of Rooster).


From my last update, I still speak very limited words and here are the updated list of simple words I can speak: -

* pour
* bubble
* kor-kor
* jie-jie
* Mbak (in Bahasa - aka Sister)
* 抱我 (means carry me)
* dont want
* Hi-5
* drop
* fish
* bird
* book
* sock


Hope to have more and longer words to add on to the list in my next update. So far, the longest sentence I ever uttered is "Flower no more".. haha..


Now I am sleep on my own at night time with my new found 'lullaby' - the bed conversation held by my parents nightly. Maybe it is because I don't understand the contents so it is kinda of boring to me, I rather go to my dreamland instead of listening to them.



At times they failed to make me sleep with their bed conversation, they have another secret weapon - fake loud snoring to rush me off to my dreamland.. Haha.. What a set of brainy parents I have!


Now I will hold my parents or my closed ones' hands whenever I want to show them something or to take something that is out of my reach. And I love bullying Daddy on this, during daytime I hold his hand and ask him to walk with me to Blk 662 Buffalo Road to take piggy ride, and after finishing, I ask Daddy to walk or carry me back home... Por Por praise me for doing the right thing by making Daddy to exercise.


And as I grow older, I have learnt that I must keep my toys properly after each playtime is over. Even for the real pots and pans from kitchen cabinet, I will return them to the proper and correct place after finishing my imaginary 'cooking class'.. haha


Mommy has been complaining that I am a bit affectionate towards other babies, i.e. I will go hug my babies girl-friends whenever we meet up and some stranger jie-jie / mei-mei. Ok, Mommy, I will learn to self control my affection towards others.

Whenever we go out, I also join in with Mommy to flag down a taxi to stop..


Hope to have more updates soon!

Baby Julian's Full Month Gift Package

Mommy brought home a very well presented full month gift package from Aunty Samantha who is celebrating the Full Month for Baby Julian. It is from D'bun and it comes in 2 dim sum trays which can be recycle for steaming.

This gift package is better than the usual one with butter or marble cake plus few red eggs and ang ku kueh.

After tasting it, Mommy has been recommending this 'lobang' to few of her preggie friends.. She always believes good things are meant to be shared and not kept secretly especially FOOD! haha

Mommy's Bakery - Apple Crumble

Mommy came across a simple recipe from Mother & Baby July 2007 issue and she decided to give it a try since it requires very minimal ingredients and easy to prepare and bake.

Finally today being a Sunday, she finally moves her lazy bum and decide to give her hibernating electric oven some baking work to do.. haha...


After tasting, I quite like Mommy's Apple Crumble as it has a combination of sour (from the puree green apples) and sweet (from the crust), very shiok leh.. Next recipe I heard Mommy saying she wants to try the Shepherd's Pie from the same magazine. Stay tune.. haha

Here is the recipe for the Apple Crumble (from Mother & Baby July 2007 issue): -

Ingredients:

• 3 green apples (actual recipe called for 5 green apples)
• 1-2 cinnamon sticks
• 70g brown or white sugar (we used brown sugar)
• 70g unsalted butter (actual recipe called for dairy-free margarine but Mommy cant find it at store)
• 100g gluten-free flour

Methods:

1. Skin, core and dice the apples and place in a saucepan over low heat with the cinnamon sticks. Cook with the lid on for about 15 minutes, and stir occassionally to prevent sticking. The apples should cook to a thick, chunky consistency.
2. Meanwile, rub the butter/margarine and the gluten-free flour until it resembles like breadcrumbs. The more you rub the mixture, the more moist and granular it becomes, so do this until it reaches a texture you like. If you like yours chunky, do it until it reaches the consistency of small pebbles.
3. Mix in sugar.
4. Pour chunky apple puree into a baking dish / round aluminium tray, smooth over with the back of a spoon.
5. Spoon the 'breadcrumb' topping over the apple puree and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 deg C for 40 minutes, till the top is golden brown.
6. Serve in individual dishes.

Happy Baking!