Mommy being tagged by Aunty Sin Mei - 4 of this & 4 of that..

My Mommy has been tagged by Aunty Sin Mei (Cathleen's Mommy) in Sept to write this tagging but she postpone till today then decide to write.. Mommy, I lent you my blog to write at no charge..

Four jobs I have held in my life:
1. Part time Receptionist
2. Secretary in law's firm (just worked for 2 weeks and resigned)
3. Asst Admin Manager (a company that I have worked from 19 years old till now)
4. Don't think I will look for another job unless my bosses decide to retire

Four places I have lived:
1. Old Airport Road aka Tai Sing
2. Ang Mo Kio aka Tomato Town
3. Buffalo Road aka Little India
4. Hope we can shift to a bigger flat in near future

Four countries I have been to on vacation:
1. Bangkok, Thailand (Nov 2004)
2. Taipei, Taiwan (Nov 2007)
3. Hope can visit my eldest sis-in-law in California USA
4. Hope to visit my dream vacation country - Switzerland

Four of my favourite foods:
Aiyoh how to just put 4 favourite foods here, I just love eating.. haha
1. Butter Crab (from Mellben at Blk 232 Ang Mo Kio Ave 3)
2. Teochew Minced Pork Bee Hoon (from Tekka Market)
3. Fried Bee Hoon with beansprout (home cooked style)
4. Curry Chicken

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Switzerland
2. USA
3. Japan
4. New Zealand

Four moms I am going to tag next:
By now I am too late to tag our regular MSN Dec mommies to write on this topic since most of them already contributed except me.. Haha

EnEn darling, thanks for lending this space to Mommy.. Muack Muack

My 2nd Birthday Celebration

Another year has passed, and here I am celebrating my 2nd birthday with my family & closed friends.

Mommy has ordered a very beautiful Birthday Cake from Aunty Imina (who is a home baker - Strawberry Shortcake Bakery) and catered yummy buffet spread from Neo's Garden. Maria jie-jie & Jill jie-jie helped Mommy to bake some cornflakes cookies to be served to our guests during the party and all very snapped up very fast.

Thank you to my lovely parents, Por-Por, Uncles & Aunties, my dear cousins & my dear friends for turning up at my 2nd Birthday Party and your lovely presents for me.

Our 1st Family Holiday Trip to Taipei

Hurray, we are going for holiday from 06 to 09 Nov 07 and it is TAIPEI! And we are going on Free & Easy though we are all first timers to Taipei! Mommy booked our airtickets thru Renaissance Travel (Ms Joriah) and we paid in total S$2,460.00 for 3 adults and 1 infant tickets. We decided to 'invest' more to fly by Singapore Airlines to enjoy quality air travel.

Mommy's friend - Aunty Seow Wei has recommended a very informative travel forum Trip Advisor to Mommy where she found and hired a great local taxi driver who provides guided tour service. His name is Uncle Meeky Yang and his HP # (886) 9219 15586 (Taxi Licence Plate 589-NT). We paid him S$150.00 per day for full day guided tour service, and it is really worth the money as he really provides very personalised and professional service especially after seeing my Daddy's walking condition.

With great recommendation by Aunty Seow Wei, we have decided to stay at Neijiang Hotel which is within walking distance to the popular tourist spot Ximending as the other popular TS Hotel is fully booked. We have booked their Family Room with 2 Queen sized beds at S$110.00 nett per night inclusive of daily breakfast.

It took nearly a week for Mommy & Kakak Tati to pack my personal luggage & handcarry bag and they got to re-check on the eve of our departure to make sure they never miss out anything for me. Great job!

On the day of departure (06 Nov 07) we left home around 10am to give ourselves ample time to do check-in & window shopping at the Changi International Airport Terminal 2. Wow this is my very 1st time stepping inside the Departure Hall and it is really huge.

At 1125am we walked to Gate E12 to board Singapore Airlines Flight # SQ878 and we are seated at Row 31D, 31E & 31G. This is also my very 1st time onboard a real aeroplane and it is so gigantic. As soon as the plane took off, I have fallen asleep and did not make much noise. I started waking up half-way thru the flight journey and got curious with the surroundings. Kakak Tati brought me for a walk and I stood near a small window and oh boy, all I could see is white clouds all around. Due to the air pressure I started to get cranky when we were about to land at Taipei Taoyuan International Airport, a pretty SIA stewardess handed me a cup of Fox sweets to calm me down and without much hesitation, I quickly sucked and bite finish all the sweets.. Hahaa...

Thank God we finally arrived in Taipei and the time was 455pm, but the whole sky was already so dark (like 9pm in Singapore) and drizzling. We went thru quick Customs clearance and managed to find a private car (BMW) taxi driver Mr Jeff Wang who charged us S$60 for a single trip from Taoyuan International Airport to Neijiang Hotel.

We took nearly an hour to reach Neijiang Hotel and the counter staff very helpful and approachable. Our room located on 2nd floor and we took their 'mini' lift to reach our Room # 202 which is just next to the lift lobby. Wow... it was a very spacious room completes with 2 Queen sized beds, a 2-seated black colored sofa, long dressing table with 21" CTV, pantry with a mini bar fridge, Tiger Airpot n water flask, mini wardrobe, a nice toilet/bathroom with bath tub and a full length window to watch the busy traffic downstairs and good for us to reckee for eatery places.

After unpacking some essential items, Mommy, Kakak Tati & I went to opposite street to search for dinner. We managed to find a small humble shop that sells yummy beef noodle, wanton noodle, minced meat rice etc. Shop name is 温州面家 with 30 odd years history and they are just like 7-11, open 24 x 7.

Next day 07 Nov 07, we woke up around 8am to have the breakfast provided by Hotel - sandwich with chicken floss, ham & egg and a packet of juice. We left our room around 10am and met up with Uncle Meeky for our 1st day trip round Taipei.

First stop, we visited Taipei 101 World Building but we did not go in for shopping as we find it too high end for us. Next, we went to 中正纪念堂 and it was a beautiful place. We only managed to take a few snap shots as it was raining heavily and the wind was very strong. Uncle Meeky next brought us to 总列祠 and we were just in time to watch the hourly guard changing ceremony. The whole ceremony very solemn and the tourists all busy snapping photos of the smart looking guards.

And next we proceed to 士林官邸公园 (CKS Shilin Residence Park) located just behind CKS Memorial Hall whereby an impressive monument was built in memory of their former President Chiang Kai-Shek. At the CKS Shilin Residence Park, it is a beautiful garden with lot of flower beds around. Mommy just cant stopped taking photos with the beautiful flower beds.. haha

Uncle Meeky initially thought Daddy will be interested in seeing those antiques from old history. So he brought us to 故宫 where it housed a lot of those antiques from many many decades ago unfortunately all of us don't know how to appreciate. So we just took a few snap outside to tell our family and friends that we have been here...

Finally our last stop before lunch was the famous 杨明山(Yang Ming Shan) and it is really very high. The tallest peak, Qixingshan (Seven Star Mountain), has an elevation of 1120 meters, and its peak is the highest point in Taipei City. But too bad, today rained quite heavily in Yang Ming Shan and was badly fogged so we cant see much of the scenery. The wind is super strong at the top of the peak and we quickly came out from taxi to take a few snap shots and our umbrellas all too weak for the powerful wind!

Because of the bad fog, we cannot proceed to another famous spot in Yang Ming Shan called 小油坑. One thing for sure, Uncle Meeky's driving skills superb! He can drive steadily thru the thick fog. Impressive!

From Yang Ming Shan, we came down to another famous tourist spot 金山(Jing Shan) to visit 金包里老街 and when Uncle Meeky parked his taxi, Mommy bought a bundle of their famous 太阳笋 which happened to be in season while we were there. In this 'old street', they have a lot of shops selling local delights and in the heart of this 'old street'　广安宫庙口 has got a very famous duck meat stall which we tasted and it is really very different from the braised or roasted duck that we get to eat in Singapore.

After filling our stomach with the yummy food that Uncle Meeky has ordered, we hopped on to our next destination - 淡水　(Dan shui) to visit their famous 渔人码头. Again it was strong wind blasting across and it was freezing cold. We quickly took a few shots at the 情人桥 and dont dare to walk up the bridge cos it is too steep. Opposite of the bridge, we can see whole stretch of seafood restaurants with quite a lot of customers too.

On our way down, Uncle Meeky decided to give all of us a treat to something which we never tasted before. He stopped his taxi at a roadside and a quite sexy dressed lady came forward to give him a packet of 槟榔. Wow.. thank God I am still a toddler and got exempted from taking this fruit. Daddy was my hero he finished eating the whole fruit without spitting. Phew!

Though it was about 6pm yet the whole sky turned super dark. So the next best place to visit will be their Night Market - 士林夜市 (Shihlin Night Market). We did not queue up for the famous XL Chicken chop as the Q super duper long but the fragrance of their chicken chop fabulous when we drove pass. Instead we ate their fresh fruit - Strawberry and we were 'surprised' by the sweetness. It turned out that the fruit seller has added syrup to the Strawberry to make it sweet and we got fooled.. Haha.. We got to try another stall selling Chicken Chop and we found it to be yummy to.. (or were we too hungry to differentitate).

After exit from Shihlin Night Market, we passed by Miramar Ferris Wheel and we quickly came out of taxi to take a snapshot with the gigantic Ferris Wheel. We did not go into the Miramar Ferris Wheel itself as my Daddy & Mommy both got height phobia so we dropped the idea of visiting.

Our last stop of the day is 深坑 (Shen Keng) where they are the origin place of 臭豆腐 (Smelly Beancurd) in Taiwan. We went to this restaurant (forget to take note of the name) and ordered a Smelly Beancurd set meal that comprises of braised smelly beancurd, steamed smelly beancurd, 1 kampong chicken, 1 stir fry bamboo shoot, 1 soup with smelly beancurd, artificial crab meat and egg. It was everyone's 1st time to try the smelly beancurd except Uncle Meeky, frankly I supposed I quite enjoyed eating since I finished my bowl of rice with smelly beancurd. Haha.. After dinner, we walked along the street outside the restaurant and Mommy bought 4 tins of 贡糖 (peanut cookies) as gifts for our family & her boss.

We ended our Day 1 full trip at 930pm with Uncle Meeky and cant wait to go lie on the comfortable beds in our Hotel.

Rise & Shine! 08 Nov 07 our Day 2 full trip begun at 930am instead. Uncle Meeky brought us to Wanli （万里） to visit 野柳地质公园 (Yehliu Discovery Geopark) to see unique geological features. Fantastic rock formations here are sculptured by nature, with beautiful names that echo their shapes, i.e Queen's Head and Fairy Shoe. Unfortunately we did not have the chance to witness these 2 beautiful rock formations as it was raining pretty heavily and the wind were very strong thus made us difficult to proceed. We stopped at a resting place and saw from far the performance by the sea lions, dolphins etc at the opposite 野柳海洋世界 (Yehliu Ocean World).

From Wanli, we drove up the 九份 (Chiufen) which is located up in the hills of northern Taiwan and it is also the filimg site of "City of Sadness" (not sure if it was a movie or serial show). It is a very old-fashioned way of living here. Uncle Meeky recommened to eat Dou Kou beef noodles and Chiufen yam ball dessert in 1 shop located at the beginning of the old street. Both dishes were superb recommendations esp the Chiufen yam ball dessert which was hot dessert in soup and it helped to warm our body due to raining.

After our lunch, we continued our explorations in this old street of Chiufen and Mommy has bought many packets of 'muah chee' from this shop call 阿信. And next Daddy and Uncle Meeky were seen busy tasting Chinese tea and Daddy fell in love with their tea leaves, he bought 3 boxes of tea leaves. We came across a shop at Unit 51 that sells hand made indoor slippers and Mommy bought 2 pairs for Por Por to use at home. Next one to make a purchase is not ME but Kakak Tati, she brought a scrapper meant for body massage purpose.

Spending nearly 2 hours in this old street, I started to get hungry and Mommy bought me yummy bread roll with cheese and I love it a lot. On our way coming down from Chiufen, Uncle Meeky stopped by at 黄金瀑布 to let Mommy take photo as Kakak & I were sleeping in the taxi and Daddy lazy to come. This waterfall really amazing and you can see the water flowing very rapidly.

After this amazing waterfall, we came to the famous 阴阳海 (Ying Yang Sea) where 2 colors are mixed near the shore - blue salt water from the ocean and gold run-off from the Keelung River. Mommy did not manage to take a nice shot due to the strong seawaves hence the 2 colors are not so obvious as compared to normal days.

From Ying Yang Sea, we drove over to 鼻头 which was just a few minutes drive away and located near to the fishery port. There we saw lot of natural rock formation and the sea waves were beating so strong. We could hardly stand properly with the strong wind. Daddy & Mommy were having fun posing here and there and they even saw a black color sheep at the hilltop when Uncle Meeky was trying to snap photos for them. Driving out from there, we passed by another natural scenery spot 南雅奇岩 (Nanya Peculair Rocks) to see yet another amazing natural rock formations.

We headed down to 五份铺 (Wu Fen Pu Wholesale Centre) a fashion district where we can shop for low-priced clothes from the wholesalers directly. Mommy managed to buy 2 long pants for me at 1 of wholesalers who does retail business.

Uncle Meeky drove us to where he lives 永和 and he did not invite us to go up to his house as his apartment do not have lift access and he is worry that Daddy will need to climb up all the way to 4th level. After viewing, he drove us to eat 世界豆浆大王 (World Famous Beancurd King) situated at Yong He Road. We have ordered their famous 咸豆浆， 牛肉馅饼， 小笼包， 葱饼 and

what to say but YUMMY!

Final stop of the day 华西观光夜市 (Hua Xi Street Night Market) and we got to eat a lot of live snakes and we even saw 1 of the restaurant performing killing of live snakes which scared us off. On further exploring, we found 1 shop that does creative art painting using water colors to form interesting Chinese characters and English greetings. Daddy decided to ask the lady to draw our surname 饶 and all of us were very impressed by her beautiful yet creative art painting.

We ended our Day 2 trip earlier at 830pm and Uncle Meeky has been a very great tour guide to us for the past 2 days. On parting, we paid him his due fee with tips and a box of Wu Long Tea Leaves bought at Chiufen.

Rinse & Shine! 9 Nov 07 our last day in Taipei and we woke up around 10am. We self roamed around Ximending area and had our final lunch at 温州面家 before heading back to Hotel to wait for Mr Jeff Wang to pick up at 3pm.

In summary, we really enjoyed our 4 days 3 nights stay in Taipei and we surely return to Taiwan in near future to explore other parts which we have not visited. Here are our photos taken during our trip.

Mommy's Mango with Pomelo Dessert

Mommy got this recipe from Aunty Kelly few months ago and decided to try out this recipe since Pomelo is in season due to Mid-Autumn Festival.

Ingredients: -
* 1kg Mango (without the seed)
* 4000g Pomelo (removed seeds & skin, break them into small pieces)
* 500ml Mango juice (Mommy used Fruit Tree's brand)
* 1/2 cup of evaporated milk
* 250ml water
* 150g sugar (to suit Por Por's taste)
* 1 tbsp cornflour with 1 tbsp water - mix well

Methods: -
1. Boil water and sugar till sugar are dissolved. Add in the cornflour mixture and stir till it is smooth. Leave aside to cool
2. Cut the Mango into cubed size, approx 700g. The remaining 300g put them into a blender with 250ml Mango juice and liquified it.
3. When the cornflour mixture is cooled, you can switch on low fire and add in the liquified Mango, Mango cubes, remaining 250ml mango juice, evaporated milk and last to add Pomelo.
4. Stir well and chilled.

Enjoy!

Children's Day Gift from JG Teachers

Today all of us received a nice pair of socks presented by our JG Teachers in celebration of Children's Day which falls on 01 October yearly.

Thanks a lot for this lovely pair of socks!

Mommy's Home Made Cream of Mushroom Soup

After months of talking about it, Mommy finally did some homework to surf for online recipe on how to make cream of mushroom soup.

She sought help from Aunty Judy(Malc's mommy who is good cook & baker)and Aunty Judy recommended Mommy to try out the recipe found at Wokking Mom's blogand Mommy found another recipe from Cook UK

So she decided to combine the 2 recipes and make her own version of Cream of Mushroom Soup which turned out to be quite yummy... Good try, Mommy!

Here is Mommy's version of Cream of Mushroom Soup: -

Ingredients: -
* 5 Fresh White Button Mushroom, sliced
* 5 Fresh Shitake Mushroom, sliced
* 60g Unsalted Butter
* 60g Corn Flour
* 100ml Evaporated Milk
* 350ml Chicken Broth
* 1 clove garlic, chopped
* 2 small onions, chopped

Methods: -
1. Clean the fresh mushrooms by rinising them in water and cut away the stems, and sliced thinly.
2. Heat up the butter in a pan, and slowly add the chopped garlic & small onions to fry till they are soft and not browned.
3. Next, to add in the mushrooms and cook over high fire for 5 minutes and must stir constantly to prevent sticking onto the pan.
4. Add in the 60g corn flour gradually and slowly pour in evaporated milk while stirring.
5. The mixture will become dough-like and you can add in the chicken broth and keep stirring till it become creamy.
6. You can add a pinch of salt to taste (but I did not add salt)
7. Pour the soup into a blender/food processor, and blend till it is smooth.
8. Last, pour the blended soup into the pan and reheat till boiling.

Bonjour!

2nd Class at Julia Gabriel Forum - Bilingual Playgroup

Today it is my 2nd class at Julia Gabriel and it is also the "Meet the parents" session plus group photo taking.

I learnt about the word CAT today and I have done a cat head-gear art piece by rolling Grey color paint over the art piece and pasting some knitting wools over it to look like the cat's ears.

Our First Outdoor Photo-taking Session

Mommy has managed to secure a slot with Uncle Benjamin Loo of Foto-U to have 1-hour outdoor photo taking session in Kampong Java Park and we shared this 1-hour shot with Aunty Megan and RJ kor-kor.

We arrived at the park around 11.20am and we already saw Aunty Grace, Uncle Eric & Jayden di-di were having fun with their photo-taking with Uncle Benjamin. Soon it was Aunty Megan & RJ kor-kor's turn and I quickly tagged along with them to find out what I need to do when our turn come next.

I find Uncle Benjamin very approachable and friendly, and he brought along some toys to act as props as well as to entertain us during shooting. He is very professional with his work and we are so happy that he has taken a lot of nice family photos of us. On normal days when we passed by this park on our way home, we find it very plain and yet Uncle Benjamin can make the park look so beautiful and charming on his photographs.. Thumbs up for his great photography skills!

Hope we can have a chance to do at least 1 session of indoor photo taking with Uncle Benjamin soon.

We shared some of the wonderful moments that were beautifully captured by Uncle Benjamin at Kampong Java Park. Please visit to view our album at http://www.ngauhappyfamily.shutterfly.com

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!

My 18 months old celebration

14 June 2007 marks the day of me turning 18 months old, in another 6 months time I will be celebrating my 2nd birthday... cant wait for that day to come.. haha..

Mommy was busy at work, so she cant take leave to celebrate with me. Actually Mommy wanted to buy a small cake for me today but she dropped the idea after God-ma Jo 'nagged' at her. And Mommy changed her plan and went to visit Constance mei-mei who was admitted in KKH since last Sun for viral fever and to give her moral support to Aunty Doris. Thank God, Constance mei-mei has since discharged from KKH on Father's Day 17 June 07.

We had my belated 18 months celebration on last Sat 23 June 07 at Swensen's Suntec branch. Mommy ordered their famous Chicken Baked Rice for me to eat as lunch, and I got to try their Hot US Fries & Dips too.

Instead of the usual cake, Mommy ordered their "Firehouse Happy Birthday" for me and it has a little candle ontop for me to blow. And I get to taste chocolate, vanilla & strawberry ice-cream and they are simply yummy.

Today is Daddy's Birthday

Today, we have a good and valid reason to have a feast! It is Daddy's 41st Birthday.

As usual, Daddy goes to work as his company dont practise giving off day on birthday and he is saving up his pathetic annual leave.

Mommy decided to have a hassle free mini birthday celebration for Daddy. She ordered the famous Geylang Lor 9 cze char thru www.dabao.com.sg: -

1. Fried Hong Kong Noodle (to symbolised longevity)
2. Deep Fried Baby Squids
3. Coffee Ribs
4. Fried Cereal Chicken

As for the cake, Mommy ordered a 600g Chocolate Fudge Cake thru www.getelcakes.com after reading Aunty Doreen's email recommendation.

Glad to see everyone enjoyed the food & cake.

Happy Birthday To My Dearest Daddy! Love you forever!

Video: Music Room @ Pat's Schoolhouse

Mommy captured the active me running all over the class during music & movement time.. Too bad Mommy was not quick enough to capture the part of me hugging my girl-friends Gezann, Shanice and Fybie..

Trial Class at Pat's Schoolhouse

Today is my 2nd time attending trial class since my first trial class at Kindermusik in last Sept when I was only 9 months old.

We went to Pat's Schoolhous at Claymore Road and attended their Pat's d'Story Club's trial class together with my friends - Cathleen, Fybie, Gezann, Shanice and Jayden (aka Yang Yang).

Our teacher is Pamela and I find her very nice and caring. We were given some time to cool ourselves down in preparation for the class. Before we start the story telling, Teacher Pamela taught us to sing a song call "Good Morning" (same tune as Happy Birthday song).

As today's theme is Caterpillar, she showed us a toy caterpillar and she told us that she will perform a little magic when the story finished.

The storybook for today is called "The Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. Wow.. this storybook is pretty big in size and it contains a lot of cute animations with simple narration. However, I was too engrossed playing with the toys I saw on the rack and did not pay much attention to the story. Mommy said my buttocks are sharp-pointed which makes me cannot sit still to listen and enjoy the story.

When the story telling ended, Teacher really did the magic and her toy caterpillar has became a toy butterfly. With this, we ended the story telling with a song (PS: Mommy cant recall the title or lyrics of this song)

We proceeded to do finger-painting at the sitting area. Teacher showed us how to dip our little fingers to the 3 plates of paints to do finger painting of a caterpillar, and she used a marker pen to draw the head and legs of the caterpillar. Now is our turn to be the little artist and let our imagination runs wild while creating our own caterpillar with the help of our parents.

Mommy held my 2nd right-hand finger and dipped it to the yellow paint and started to dad 9 parts of the caterpillar's body onto the white paper. Out of curiosity, I soon helped myself by trying to use the paintbrush and added some blue paints to my creation, and I enjoyed so much that I started to mix the paintbrush stained with blue paint to the plate of red paint, and I got another different color - purple. Hmm.. Mommy realised that it is getting a bit out of control, she quickly drew the head and legs part for my caterpillar and handed my drawing to Teacher before I create a havoc. I was quickly rushed off to the toilet to wash away the paints on my fingers before I can enjoy the snack time.

We had Milo with either cheese sandwich or jam sandwich. I enjoyed drinking the Milo from the cup and I cant helped but had 2 servings of Milo.

Next, we headed to the veranda and have a fun time playing with hula hoop, balls and of cos the bubble blowing. This is my 1st time seeing so many bubbles in the air and I love catching the bubbles and seeing it disappearing in the air. Teacher even let me try to blow the bubbles but it was unsuccessful.

The next activity is my favourite - Music & Movement. We went to the Music Room and Teacher gave us some time to settle down. While everyone are busy, I caught them off-handed by giving Gezann, Shanice & Fybie a big hug each and oh dear, Mommy was so embarrassed by this action of mine.

Anyway, we had a fun time listening to the music, playing with the wooden sticks and dancing all over the Music Room.

I really enjoyed the interaction and activities that we had today. A big 'Thank You" to my parents for bringing me to this trial class. More information can be found on this http://www.patschoolhouse.com/dstory.asp

PS: I overheard my parents discussing to let me go for another round of trial class at a branch nearer to our house. And if I really like it, they are considering to sign me up for a term.

Craze on Shrek-3 Ears

Yesterday Mommy had a good excuse to buy the Shrek-3 Ears for me, as she badly needed a cup of Coke to cure her super bad headache from McDonald's. And she took the chance to order the Fairy Tale Feast and need to pay $2 for the Shrek-3 Ears.

Candid Shots Taken with Daddy

After going shopping with Por Por and Mommy this morning, I am dead tired and had a 3 hours power nap. I felt so recharge after this power nap.

When Daddy came home after work, I decided to act 'manja' and pretend to sleep on the bed. Too bad, Daddy seen thru from my poor acting skill..

Walking in Boots

Mommy has forgotten to post this video clip taken in Apr 07 showing me walking in boots. Here it goes....

The Origin of My Name

Mommy heard from her MSN kakis (Dec mommies) that tagging is now the latest trend, and she hope either 1 of her kakis will tag her so that she can start writing. Finally someone tag on her and this super blur Mommy's 1st thought was Aunty Grace when she saw the word Jayden appeared, without seeing that it is Jayden Tang. Haha... So it was Aunty Lily (Yang Yang aka Jayden Tang's Mommy) who has tagged this super blur Mommy of mine...

How did I get my chinese name?
As soon as Mommy found out that she was pregnant, she told Daddy that she wants the chinese word 恩 to form part of my chinese name. The reason why she chose 恩 was she strongly felt that I am a miracle from God and we should give thanks (感恩) for His Mighty Works.

Somehow it was a confirmation from God when my Por Por (AMK) also mentioned to Mommy that she wants 恩 to be 1 of my chinese name character. Por Por has been praying fervently to God that Daddy & Mommy will have a child soon, and now God answered Por Por's prayer.

During the routine gynae's visit at Uncle Fong Yang's clinic, I have been using my back to face my parents & Uncle Fong, so my parents did not find out my gender. They came out with 2 names - 恩齐， 恩泓 if I am a boy and 恩琦 if I am a girl.

Finally my gender was known after Mommy gone for her amnio test. So 恩琦 shall be KIV if my parents decided to try for 2nd baby and if it is a 'mei-mei'.

Daddy has been searching for a book about calculating the strokes of chinese name to determine if it is good or bad names, as his current one was a old edition. After much searching, he finally found the new edition at a bookshop in IMM Jurong. He was so engrossed in calculating the strokes for the 2 names he had earlier on. After much calculation, he told Mommy that these 2 names are no-no for me as there are considered bad when combine with Daddy's surname 饶.

Daddy has to re-calculate to find the most suitable name for me and finally after days of calculation, he decided on 维恩 as this name combined with 饶 fits to a T and it bring forth good things in my life.

Why Ernest?
The reason is very simple because Mommy wanted a Christian name that rhyme closely to 恩(En), so she chose Ernest.

Why Wee An?
Also very simple reason. Daddy feels that we should not forget our roots and he insisted that I should have a dialect name on my BC and not just a hanyu-pinyin name after my surname. After discussing with Suk-Suk Marcus, "Wee An" is the closest match to Daddy's dialect group - Khek.

I supposed all of you are used to hearing or calling me EnEn. Let me present my full name to everybody. I am Ngau Wee An Ernest (Rao Wei'En - 饶维恩）.

Now it is my blur Mommy's turn to tag on Aunty Eunice (Ziv Ziv's Mommy).

**Start Copy**
Proposition: What is the meaning of your kid's name?
Requirements: write about what or how or why you giving the name to your kids.
Quantity: FIVE PEOPLE.
Tag Mode:
1st - You leave their blog and post link and add to the list below.
2nd - Let the blogger you want to tag know they been tagged by comment in their blog or etc.

Xilly - Yi Yi& Tung Tung

Mummy in Vain - Zi Wei & Zhen Nam

Immosdaughter-The Ryan & Nicole

Kelly - QianYi

WorkingMum - Warren & Trenyce

Wenzel'sLittleNotes

Ju - Malcolm

Sel - Megan

SM - Cathleen

Grace - Jayden

Lily - Yangyang

Sandy - EnEn

I love to 'feed' my 'pig-pig'

Long time never share any video on me. Here is a video captured by Mommy of me putting coins into my cute little Piggy Bank.

Every morning, I will ask Mommy for coins (50cents & S$1) to 'feed' my 'pig-pig' without fail and I will plant a small kiss on my 'pig-pig' before putting it back into the drawer.

My parents will give me round of applause whenever I managed to slot the coins into my 'pig-pig' (trust me.. it took me some time to perfect this skill).

Daddy always reminds us that being thrifty is a good virtue and our savings will come in handy on rainy days...

Me at 17 months old

Hello everyone... Do you MISS me?? Haha...

It has been a super loooooong time since Mommy last posted here.. She is busy at work plus super busy MSN-ing with her 2 groups of kakis...

I am into my 17 months 2 days old as I m posting, and soon I will be 18 months and me now classified as toddler and not baby..

Here are my latest stats: -
Weight: 11.3 kgs
Height: 79 cm

Shorty after I have turned 1 year old, I can walk. After few months of mastering, now I can walk freely on my own in our house or out at shopping malls, but still prone to falls at times.

I love climbing up & down at our sofa settee and my parent's comfy bed. I love playing with my toys and sitting on my Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Musical Learning Chair.

I can speak simple words like: -
* Papa (this is the 1st word I uttered)
* Ma Ma (a long wait for Mommy)
* Por Por
* Gong
* Flower
* Ball
* No more
* Bye
* Hi
* Throw
* Mum-Mum (aka eating)
* Hot
* Milk
* Cat
* Mm-Muai (in Khek - aka No)
* Kakak
* Nana (aka banana)

I can understand what the adults are saying (though I cant speak much now): -
* Kiss your bear bear
* Do you want to drink milk
* It is milk-milk time
* Wave "good-bye"
* Send your "Flying Kiss"
* Give me a "Kiss" & "hug" me
* Do you want to poo poo
* Let's go to Music Room
* Let's go to Papa's shop
* Pom-Pom time
* Where is the flower
* Where is the ball
* Time to feed piggy
* Show us how you dance

So far, I have tried so many types of food and I quite like most of them: -
Baby Food
multigrain cereals, baby oats, rice krispies, cornflakes, cheerios, baby biscuits, fruit juice, delrosa rose hip syrup
Fruits
strawberry, cherry, golden kiwi, banana, green & red apples, china pear, green pear, durian, mango
Veggies
baby spinach, brocolli, brussel sprout, carrot, cauliflower, chinese spinach, jap sweet potatoes, pumpkin, sweet peas, US potatoes
Meat
minced beef, chicken & pork
Seafood
cod fish, ngor fish (aka threadfin fish), red garouper, sheng yu (aka snakehead fish), bit of prawn & crab meat and many more food to add on... haha..

Mommy also let me tried some adult food like chwee kueh, chee cheong fun, fried bee hoon, hotcakes, waffle (home made), mango pudding, sponge cake etc. These are definitely more tastier than my food!

Ever since sleeping with my parents, I can now clock-in at least 12 hours of sleep at night w/o waking up, except when I am hungry. And daytime, I can sleep for a total of 4 hours during my morning & late afternoon nap. My PD Dr Lee is very happy with my current weight except she finds my height a bit below average.... haha

I will continue to update whenever my 'typist' is free.... Happy Reading!

Celebrating Mommy's Birthday

Mommy has been telling Kakak Tati that she will bring us to the Underwater World at Sentosa as I have missed the previous gatherings with my friends in March 2007 (I fell sick lor).

So TODAY is the day that she is bringing us.. and my Por Por (AMK) is free to join us today as Valentia jie-jie has gone to Taiwan for holidays with her parents. This is also Por Por 1st visit like Kakak Tati & myself to Sentosa...

And today is my Mommy's 35th Birthday and she got two (2) birthday kisses from Daddy and my on her cheeks.

We left our house around 1015am and we took the NEL line from Little India MRT Station to Harbourfront MRT Station. After we alighted from the MRT station, we walked with the directional signs to Vivo City and took the lift to 3rd floor to connect to Sentosa Express (1 of the mode of transport to enter into Sentosa - replaced the monorail service).

Shortly, the Sentosa Express came and it was very spacious with lots of seats available, maybe today is a weekday so not so many visitors to Sentosa.

We alighted at Beach Station, and we walked over to take the Blue Line Bus to fetch us to Underwater World. It was my very 1st time riding a bus and I don't quite like the bumpy journey.

Wow.. this Underwater World is a very big place. At the main entrace, we saw a lot of tanks containing different varieties of fishes and sea creatures. Their tanks are so beautifully decorated and I guess they must have enjoyed staying there.. seeing them swimming from one end to the other so freely. Oh.. forget to mention that we got to touch the stingray and even to feed them. The stingray are pretty cheeky, they will purposely come near the tank and makes a lot of noise, and splashed water on us.

Wow.. we saw this super tiny fish call Sea Angel.. it is very beautiful but very tiny to see. We went on to see fishes again, and crabs, jelly fishes and also the soon-to-extinct Dugong.

I most enjoyed was going on the moving travellator which bring us round to see the happy sea creatures swimming over our heads..

We did not stay to watch the Pink Dolphins' performance as it was near to my lunch time. So we headed back to Vivo City to find a restaurant where I can take my porridge, where Mommy, Por Por and Kakak Tati can also take their lunch.

We shopped for awhile at Giant before taking a taxi home. As soon as we boarded the taxi, the sleep bugs came and I slept all the way till we reached home. It was a fun but tiring morning for me.

Tonight, God-ma Jo, Aunty Kelly & Aunty Valerie will be coming over for a simple dinner to celebrate Mommy's birthday. God-ma Jo has already placed order for Butter Crab from No Signboard in Geylang thru www.dabao.com.sg and Mommy has asked Kakak Tati to cook curry chicken and fried bee hoon.

Finally, it is the most exciting part - cake cutting session. The birthday cake was ordered from Prima Deli and it was yummy and delicious.

Happy Blessed Birthday Mommy! I LOVE YOU FOREVER!

Kakak Tati's Birthday

I just found out from Mommy that both Kakak Tati and her birthday are just 4 days apart.

As Daddy needs to work on Kakak's actual birthday 15 Apr, so we went to celebrate a day earlier. We had a simple meal at a Thai restaurant located at Suntec City and did some shopping before heading home.

Mommy - the faithful supporter of Prima Deli @ Tekka Mall bought a Strawberry cake for Kakak to cut on her actual birthday. And Por Por (AMK) came over to celebrate with us at home.

Happy Birthday To You, Kakak!

Chinese New Year Celebration @ Da Yee Ma's house

Today is the 8th day of Chinese New Year and Mommy brought me to Da Yee Ma's house at Ang Mo Kio for a mini celebration.

I met up with my cousin Xinyi jie-jie and both of us have a fun time exploring the master bedroom & guest room.. trying hard not be caught by the adults.. haha

Da Yee Ma made steamed white radish cake and deep fried fingered food. Por Por let me tried some white radish cake and it is more yummy than my porridge... too bad Por Por said I am still young cant eat too much white radish - as it is believes to be too cooling for me.

My dearest Da Yee Ma was busy capturing both of us with her new camera and she was quite pleased with her amateur photography skills.. Let me shared some of her works with U...

My First Professional Photoshoot Session

Today Mommy 'eat snake' again and decided to bring me for a professional photoshoot session at Kids Cover Looks in Stamford House. And we met up with Aunty Eunice, Kor-Kor Ziv and his grand-ma at the studio.

You may ask why is the purpose for this? Haha.. Let me tell you.. Both Aunty Eunice & Mommy are entering Kor-Kor Ziv and my name to the Dumex Baby Contest.

Not forgetting to mention that my dearest God-ma Jo also turned up at the studio to give me support and to make me smile more radiantly during the photoshoot session. (God-ma, sorry to make you waited so long, and missed your lunch time).

And we have a surprise guest... guess who.. It was Aunty Bel who was running errands nearby and thought of popping over to see if we are done with our photoshoot.

After much waiting at the studio (at least 45 mins), finally it was our turn and Kor-Kor Ziv was the first to go. Thank God that Mommy remembered to bring my favourite toy car & Similac Bear for the session, as the studio has limited nice and attractive toys for us. So Mommy quickly took out my toy car and Similac Bear to attract Kor-Kor Ziv's attention so that Uncle (the photographer) can capture the smiling moments of Kor-Kor Ziv.

And now it is my turn and I can sense that Mommy is nervous that I will be grouchy during the shoots as it was my napping time. Instead I was so co-operative with Uncle and gave a lot of smiling and cool poses for him to capture. However, after awhile I become distracted and being to wander away from the focus point, and Uncle still managed to capture some of the poses where I was trying to play "Peek-a Boo" with the white styrofoam board.

Finally our session are done and now is the time to choose our best shots for printing. After much delibration, Mommy has taken up the 8 shots print package plus the 2 shots for Dumex Baby Contest, and overall Mommy, Kakak Tati and myself are very pleased with the shots.

Tell you something, Mommy still have not make up her mind to use which 2 shots from the 10 shots to send in for the Dumex Baby Contest... Maybe you can give her some feedback after seeing my photos here... Thanks in advance! Happy Viewing!

Celebrating Por Por's 67th Birthday

My lovely Por Por is turning 67 on 06 Feb 2007. And Mommy decided to invite Por Por to a simple chinese meal at Soup Restaurant @ United Square on 04 Feb 2007.

The food at Soup Restaurant is really not that fantastic for the price we paid for. So it is going to be the first & our last time dining there.

We bought a pandan kaya cake from Bengawan Solo and brought home to have a cake cutting session with Por Por.

Happy Blessed 67th Birthday to you, my dearest Por Por!

Grand 70th Birthday Celebration for Por Por (Tekka)

After few months of preparation work, today we are celebrating Por Por's 70th Birthday with a bang!

Por Por's 70th Birthday celebration is at Waterfront Terrace of Shangri-La Hotel Singapore. It is a small yet cosy private event with closed relatives and friends.

Wow... Por Por looks so pretty & stunning. She is dressed in a blue kebaya top with matching sarong, clad with black evening bag and a matching black sandal.

For myself, Mommy has bought me a smart long sleeve t-shirt top with matching pant from Osh Kosh. Daddy wore a smart suit (last worn during their wedding n 2003) plus a new business shirt bought by Mommy from G2000. And Mommy went to custom made a mid-length evening dress for this special occassion.. Not forgetting my Kakak Tati, she too wore a new polo-t from Hang Ten.

At the dinner, I have the privilege to be sitted at the VIP table. And of cos, I get to taste some of the yummy dishes on the menu like longevity buns, small bites of lobster meat, steamed fish and noodles. Oh.. how can I forget to mention the delicious yet not so sweet Tiramisu birthday cake.... just one word to describe MARVELICIOUS.. haha

We have a little surprise for Por Por prepared by Tai Yee, Ee Yee & Suk Suk. It is a slideshow presentation with a collection from Por Por's childhood - youth - her wedding - parenthood - witnessing Tai Yee, Ee Yee & Papa's weddings - her holiday trips with my late Gong Gong. I can see that Por Por was smiling as each slide is being presented, surely all these bring good old memories especially those times with my late Gong Gong.

Por Por, I want to wish you 长命百岁， 添富添寿！

Happy Birthday to You

Happy Birthday to You

Happy Birthday to Por Por

Happy Birthday to You!

Latest Update: Tooth Fairy is at work again!

After my previous post of my tooth development, my dearest tooth fairy has gone MIA (missing in action) despite many attempts to page for her to return to work!

Suddenly this morning while playing with Daddy, he saw two white spots at my lower gum and quickly called for Mommy to confirm that I am teething.

Hurray... finally I have 2 bottom lateral incisors coming on the way.. But my parents are worried that I wont have my 2 bottom central incisors till I am around 6 or 7 years old, as they have extracted my 2 bottom central incisors when I was around 3 weeks old and 1 month plus...

My dearest tooth fairy, please visit me more often and dont forget about me, ok?