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!