I finally can decipher Mal’s doodling, though not completely.
Mal’s astronaut, with his mouth above his nose! We thought it is very obvious that the nose will come below 2 eyes, but to Mal it is not so. He had the position of the nose and mouth all mixed up!

Mal’s plane with numerous engine on each wings.

Never have I thought that I will do it or I can do it or I will be desperate enough to do it myself. But I did it. After almost 2 years of being away from home, my craving for food which I took for granted back home drove me to desperation and I make my own rice dumplings for the very first time.

I used to watch my mum or Mal’s ?? spent hours washing, cleaning, dicing the ingredients needed. Frying in huge wok, standing for hours wrapping and finally cooking them in huge cooking pot. She would make batches and batches of dumplings each year for the family, relatives and friends. Most of the time everyone in the family would just sit and watch her take her time prepare the ingredients and do her stuff. She would start days ahead to do the preparation as it is not a simple feat making a hundred or so of dumplings all alone. I only realised this now, after making them myself, and I only made like 1/2 of what she used to make!

The toughest part in making rice dumplings is not the wrapping part, but the pre-wrapping part which include soaking, boiling and washing the bamboo leaves, dicing the meat and mushrooms, peeling and cutting the garlic and shallots. It took me half the day just to do that. Now I believe when people say that making dumplings is a lot of effort but the satisfaction you get when you sink your teeth into them, make the effort all worthwhile.

The aroma that fills the house reminds me of home, reminds me of ??. I called and we talked, just on how we make rice dumplings.

the raw ingredientsthe cooked ingredients

the fruit of labour

try some? I love it!

My sling site is finally up again, after being down for almost a week. What happen? The price to pay for being cheapo. My host’s server exceed bandwidth and there was no way for me to access my site, my files and everything that I have on the server. I had problem contacting the person in charge who was actually a friend of mine from Singapore. Luckily I had most of the stuff backup. This is the time when I am thankful that I went on an extra mile on normal days to update and backup files.
So since the day my site was down, I had been searching frantically for a reliable webhost. I remember chancing upon some webhost recommendation on Doris’s blog and I am glad that I settle on Hostgator. They claim to provide 24/7 support and so far, at 10 bucks per month, I told myself is money well spent, the peace of mind I enjoy is priceless. I think their live chat is one of the best features so far as you get to speak to the expert live while you are troubleshooting. It tends to be easier for me to describe the problem through writing, in this case, via online chat than to explain to them verbally over the phone.
Will be exploring more features offered by the webhost and I hope everything will be easier now for me to revamp my site, with all the tools available. Meanwhile, if you are looking for a reliable webhost, do check them out

Mal loves seafood. He especially loves prawns and crabs. So when Daddy came back from Alaska with 5 pounds of Alaskan King Crab legs, he was delighted. I have never seen such huge crabs before and same goes for Mal. So on Father’s Day, just a day after Daddy returned from his 2 weeks plus trip from Alaska, we had humongous Alaskan King Crab legs for dinner after Mal showed off to Daddy his new water noodle trick.

Mal showing off Daddy his new skill and new toy, the Water Noodle

watch me let go of the noodle…

hmm…but I have a little problem getting it back…

can we try 1 more time??

after a good swim, time for good food

hmmm…look at this
it’s HUGE!
can I use it as a toy gun??
watch me wrestle with the crab
think this crab’s leg is longer than my armthis is going to be a feastwatch Daddy wrestle with the crab

finally … it’s out!

look at the meat!
time to tuck in…wanna try some?! YUM!

Yippee! Daddy is coming back tomorrow ! Mal is so happy, so am I. We were counting down the days together. Think anything more than a week is too long for him. We did the count down together and it usually goes like this…
“Today is Sunday, tomorrow is Monday, then Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday! Daddy will be back!”
When I have to repeat Sunday, Monday blah blah blah again, he will start whinning and complaining that it’s too long!

So since Sunday, counting down has been very pleasant especially when each day seem to past briskly as there is usually something planned. We had a wives’ pot luck coffee at one of the wife’s house and the kids had loads of fun! They had so much fun in the backyard that comes equipped with a huge playground and a huge pool. We didn’t plan to swim as Mal was having a runny nose this morning, but the cool water was too tempting under the hot sun and what’s makes it even harder to resist was when the girls were urging me to join in…was even contemplating to swim in my undies like what the girls had suggested. Glad I didn’t, will probably lose my bra in the pool, with all the kicking and splashing. Instead I borrowed a pair of over sized shorts and shirt from the owner. It was fantabulous! and with all the sumptuous food waiting for us after the swim…it was just puurrfect. What a way to spend the afternoon.

Here’s what I brought for the pot luck…it’s chocolaty choco chip muffins. Mal loves it! Another recipe from auntie Jessica, also can be found at 101lifestyle.com

Chocolaty Choco Chip Muffins
Ingredient :
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Method :
Preheat oven to 400 F
In large bowl, combine well eggs, oil, milk and vanilla.
In a smaller bowl, combine well flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, salt and chocolate chips.
Combine wet and dry mixtures and fold together gently until just mixed.
Spoon into prepared pan.
Bake at 400 F for 20 minutes.
Remove from pan and cool on rack.

I used to have an affinity for boys as I thought they are tougher, thus easier to discipline especially when you need to bring in the rod. We have a friend that lives a few houses away from us with 3 boys. 2 of the elder boys were close to Mal’s age. They came over one night and I was surprised by how well the 3 boys could play quiet games such as Lego and blocks together. Was actually expecting them to bring down the house. I guess not all boys are rowdy…hmmm…maybe because they all have tails

look at our tatoos

It is the 2nd week that Daddy is away and I have been feeling kind of depressed these few days. Last week was an eventful week. We went out almost everyday. Every day is packed with programs and by the end of the day, we were all exhausted and looking forward to a good night rest. This left me with little time for myself. I was thinking maybe Mal was more sensible than me for once, as simple gestures of him missing Daddy on our ride back home, shows that he is more in touch with his feeling amidst all the activities going on. I am not so sure what is causing the frustration and depression but I think apart from missing Daddy, it got to do with me not doing the things I want to do and doing the things that need to be done. The price for letting oneself go is to go through the struggle to brace up and pick up from where one has left. It is always easier to continue to laze and bump around and it takes alot of effort to break out from this cycle. It is almost like climbing out from a deep trench after falling into it.

Laundry is piling, clothes are unfold, floor needs mopping, bathroom needs brushing, toys needs to be kept, just to name a few. The kitchen was closed for almost a week since Daddy was away as we were out most of the time and meals were settled outside. These few days that we were at home, even cooking a simple meal for the 2 of us was a chore, a pain and I would take leftover food for days if not for Mal. This is so unlike me, cos I hate leftover food. Just yesterday, I had instant noodles for dinner and for Mal, I heated up some udon from the day before, added a sausage and some mushrooms. I just felt bad for not treating Mal well during times like this.

I wasn’t so sure what has gotten into me. Maybe I am just too stress up. There was a whole list of things that I told myself I wanted to do during this period that Daddy is away, and to date, seems like nothing is achieved, and on top of that, there were household chores that were piling up, thanks for my negligence. It doesn’t help when I had been sleep deprived for the past few nights as I had been staying up late working on a new project. What’s worse was, I see no result, at least no result to meet my expectation, so to put it plainly, I have been wasting my effort. And then there was the workout at the gym that I had been missing…all these just stressed me out and I know it’s a vicious cycle that I need to break out.

I woke up telling myself this morning that I need to brace up and fight the demon! After breakfast, I cleaned, brushed and washed the 2 bathrooms, I changed and washed Mal’s bedsheet and blankie. I cooked ourselves a nice lunch. I did some good reading while Mal was napping which really is ‘chicken soup to my soul’. By afternoon, I was feeling much better. What gave the final uplift to my spirit was an hour workout at the gym in the evening, wrapping off with some fruitful shopping for some fitness outfits. I am feeling much much better now.

I think I had done well for the day as I had bashed up the demon in me, purging it out from my system as I write. I am all ready to take on a brand new day again.

“Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm”

Auntie Jane has a lovely backyard. Kinda rural, wholesome, very natural, with a ‘back to the good old days’ feeling. The soil in the backyard is so fertile and is literally reap what you sow, she practically can grow any seeds she sowed. It is not surprising to see a wide variety of vegetables and plants growing there which thus make it a perfect science classroom for the kids. There were pumpkins, chilli, carrots, sunflower, tomato, roses and different kind of vegetables. I would be happy if my garden is half as fruitful. Almost every seeds we sowed fail to grow. We blame it on the quality of the soil, which I seriously think so, then again, it is always easier to say that

Mal had some gardening fun the other day at her house. He had the chance to help dig out a tiny weeny carrot from the soil, sowed some new seeds in a little corner of her garden. We had ‘borrowed’ the little corner to let Mal grow some vegetables. Not sure what seeds he sowed, but I think we will find out pretty soon. It’s only like 3 days and Auntie Jane was just telling me that there were already some seedlings sprouting out in Mal’s little vege corner. I am sure he will be very thrill to see it for himself.

beneath here, lies the little carrot…

teamwork…she digs the soil, he pulls the carrot arrrghh…

there u go…

Mal and the baby carrot
first I choose what I want to plant
then you need to dig a hole
Annie has a little corner to plant her seed as well
next is to sow the seeds
and cover with soiland more soil
cutesy Annie and the cutesy little seeds
shall we cook it?!

Mal loves spring rolls especially those deep fried ones which can be easily found in Chinese restaurants. This was sometime back when we had a small spring roll session at Auntie Jane’s house and Mal tried rolling spring roll for the very 1st time. The best thing is….HE ATE IT…FRESH! Thanks to Auntie Jane and a little peer pressure from her littleone, Grace.

first you spread some sauce …

then you put in the vege with mushrooms and meat…

next you sprinkle some eggs…

roll it up…and you are done!

now…should I eat it?shouldn’t taste too bad since it is so fun to make
hmmm…
it’s chewy…
and good
especially if you eat it with friends!

One of the place we frequent nowadays is the gym . We have been going to the gym quite regularly especially now that we have so much free time on hand with Daddy away. Mal has already gotten quite used to the childcare. He used to give excuses like, the childcare has no Lego for him to play so he rather stay at home but now, this excuse is no longer valid as recently the childcare had added Lego toys to their huge collection of toys. I know he still misses me when I go off and I can tell from his eyes that he is glad, happy and relieve to see me back from my hour or so of workout but at least now, he doesn’t tear when he sees me leave and he is fine saying goodbye with me at the entrance and walking into the play area by himself. It is however me which sometimes can’t resist the urge to join him in the play area for a while, to give him more hugs and kisses before I leave.

Mal is still missing his Daddy very much. Though I tried to let him meet up and play with his little friends as often as I can, when it comes to quiet time, like during the ride home or before bed time, his mind will subconsciously creep to Daddy.
Just the other day, after a night of fun at Auntie Jane’s house, while on our way home, he suddenly murmured from his car seat ‘I miss Daddy!’ with the tone that could almost break my heart. Upon reaching home, he looked at his little piece of artwork, some tracing and colouring he did at Auntie Jane’s house, and told me
‘I like this tracing’
‘this tracing makes me happy’
and repeated this a few times, as if trying to console himself that it is ok that Daddy is not around, it is ok that I miss Daddy, it is ok that I feel sad…at least I have this piece of paper to make me happy.
That night, we hung the tracing just below his night light, right above his little bed while he goes to sleep.