Milk time

Warm milk is part of Gracelle's bedtime routine. Having said that, it does not mean she will go to her dream land immediately after her milk. More often than not, she needs to finish her milk at one go, once the teat is out of her mouth, she will not have "second serving".

What do you do with the leftover milk?

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Gracelle thinks her friends need some warm milk too.

Milk milk time!

I feed you!

There goes my 55ml of leftover milk = 1 scoop of milk powder =  waste of $$

Mini cheese cupcakes

I love baking, but not the cleaning up. Sunday afternoon, I was in a mood to bake. I wanted to bake a simple tuna buns, but I ran out of bread flour, and so, I needed something that needs very simple ingredients and little preparation. I baked mini cheese cupcakes.

Recipe adapted and modified from Happy Flour. I modified it due to limited ingredients available at home. The recipe call for parmesan cheese, I replaced it with cream cheese instead. And, I added cream cheese in the middle when filling up the cupcakes. The cupcakes smell so good when they were baking. Is a right choice, the cupcake tasted just nice! I flopped many times attempting to bake a muffin, I am glad I got it right for my cupcake at the first attempt!

This is the first time Gracelle eating home baked stuff, and many more to come, I hope. I have baked quite a fair bit of stuff in the past (before the arrival of Gracelle), various buns, japanese cotton cheesecake... I love home baked bread and cakes, it's fun, easy, and heathier to make them from scratch. And the aroma from the oven that fill up the whole house!

Verdict:
I love it. Gracelle loves it. Daddy said is good (he was afraid is another failure muffin product).

Late boomer

Gracelle is a late boomer in terms of teething. At 11-12 months, she still has no sign of teeth in sight. We totally enjoyed her toothless grin. She didn't cut her first tooth until 13-14 months. At 18 months, she has just 4 teeth (2 top, 2 bottom). Her milk teeth is developing at her own pace and I guess she won't have a mouth full of teeth by 24 months. Nothing to worry about, she is fine with it, so does the mummy, as she is eating almost anything, everything with her 4 teeth.

Maybe she is a late boomer in speech too? When she had her health assessment at 15 months, the pediatrician asked the parent:"Can she speaks 3 meaningful words?" We paused and said yes, if you consider "no more" as 2 separate words - "no" and "more", and  her favorite "cheese". I think the pediatrician is not very satisfied with our response. The pediatrician gave Gracelle a tick in the "No" box :(    Oh well, it doesn't matter, as the health assessment was meant to be completed between 15-18 months.

Every child is different when it comes to milestones. Some babies are just naturally early boomers and some late boomers.

When Gracelle was younger, the uncles and aunties in our church group were quite amazed whenever Gracelle say "no more" .Gracelle's first word is "no more", and not the usual "papa" or "mama" or "neng neng (milk)". She picked up the word "no more" because every time when she finished her bottle of milk, we will say finished and no more.

At 17 months+, coming to 18 months, she can say, bye bye, papa, mama, "gai gai" (baby language - meaning: jalan-jalan [in Malay]),  dog dog, etc... Her bye bye will melt your heart! Check out the video! [specially dedicate this video to uncle Andrew in Melbourne who is my faithful reader]

I believe everything has its own time. I am always thankful to God for baby Gracelle good health and everything, the big and the small ...

Bishan Park

A full time working mom = A full time stay-at-home child [after office hours]

The above "formula" applies to a typical weekday for me and Gracelle. Typical weekdays morning are spent in rush hour. Weekend and public holiday are my "sabbath day". No need to rush and am able to enjoy a morning walk at the park or the beach. I am glad there is a park in the vicinity of our "pigeon hole".

Our wonderful weekend usually kick off with a morning walk in the park. The fresh air, the space [instead of being confined in our "pigeon hole"], it just feel so much relax and ease. Gracelle loves to walk and run around in the park, pick up dried leaves, look at the dogs (nowadays, she can point and said:" dog dog.") and wouldn't mind sharing a McDonald breakfast with mum and dad. For the McDonald lover out there, YES, there is "i'm lovin' it" here in Bishan Park. [Did I just gave you one more invalid valid reason to come to the park?]

See the various activities at the park. The old lady was reading Bible devotion to her partner, the elderly enjoying the relaxing view of the revamp riverbank, the elderly and toddler relaxing at the suntan benches like swimming pool type, the children on bicycle rides, the jogger (training for the upcoming marathon?), the interest group having breakfast, the inline skating group, the badminton team, the little kid on scooter, the couple walking the dog, the brisk walker, and the loving daddy walking with daughter.... and many many more activities.... e.g., the Bishan Park Tai-Chi group exercise (sorry, not in the picture, I was late and they have dismissed :( ), etc.





Great are the works of the Lord. I hope Gracelle loves the green green grass, the blue blue sky and the cotton candy clouds. By the way, it is the Parks Festival 2011, join in the celebrations at a park near you!

Enjoy!

Brush my hair

Gracelle is coming to 18 months and I can't brush her hair. It seems like she doesn't like her hair to be brush. I tried letting her brush her MESSY hair; sometimes, she takes over and brush on her own, sometimes, it just goes haywire; sometimes, she just ran away.

I tried giving Gracelle a dolly and explain to her about brushing hair. Thanks to Gracelle's generous uncle 舅舅 (my brother), she got her first Barbie doll. Shh...Barbie is mummy's childhood dream doll. Uncle's generousity blessed not just Gracelle, but also all her cousin sisters; sorry, the boy don't get it. Ooops.. sorry, diverted. Back to her dolly, one of the accessories that comes together with the Barbie is a hair brush. The Barbie has long straight blonde hair. Since the addition of Barbie, Gracelle learnt how to brush her "her" hair, I mean "her" - the Barbie, not her - Gracelle . Look, Gracelle is brushing Barbie's hair.. brush brush brush...

She got carried away and started brushing her daddy's hair with her Barbie's hair brush. HAHA! (laugh out loud)

With the way Gracelle brush the Barbie's hair, one day (I mean sooner rather than later), I might have to google and search how to fix or detangle Barbie's hair.

Rabbit Farm @ Bukit Tinggi

A BIG thanks to my bro-in-law for the free accomodation in Meranti Park Suite (not recommeded unless you are on low budget). Because of the free accomodation, we went to the famous Bukit Tinggi for the first time! This is our first family trip with my 9 adults and 6 childrens (age range from 62 years old to 15 months old baby). A family trip with elders and young children is tiring but memorable.

Bukit Tinggi is just an hour's drive from Kuala Lumpur and lies some 2,500 feet above sea level. Other than the famous Colmar Tropica, which is a replica of a collection of buildings from a north-eastern village in France dating back to the 16th Century. Is a relaxing attraction with great weather.

One of the main attraction is the Rabbit Park. The entrance fee to the Rabbit Park is RM3/person, children under 2 is free. There is an open area which the rabbits are allowed to hop around. Is fun to bring the kids here. You get to feed the rabbit and touch the rabbit. Baby Gracelle is too young to feed the rabbit, she is not afraid of the rabbits, she is daring enough to touch the rabbit. See my daring baby Gracelle "sayang" the rabbit. [I think the rabbit is more afraid of baby Gracelle, haha..]

We spent almost 2 hours+ at the rabbit farm including feeding the childrens. By then... the 3 youngest children were so tired and doze off.. Zzzzz....

两个不同时代的童年 - 我的童年，我孩子的童年

我的童年的梦想。。。曾经那么期待拥有一个芭比娃娃（对芭比娃娃的印象 – 漂亮，高挑，长腿，一头金黄色飘逸的长发，亮丽的衣着（还有那许许多多穿也穿不完的华丽的衣裳），五颜六色的高跟鞋）。

过世了的父亲只有中学学历，是一名“吃不饱，饿不死”的公务员，以往称之为“铁饭碗”。家里的经济能力有限，哪有能力买这么昂贵的芭比娃娃？芭比也许只活在我们的童年记忆中。对娃娃的期待只能转移到我们熟悉的纸娃娃。有玩过纸娃娃的请举手！对了，就是那个由硬纸皮勾画出的纸娃娃，拥有不同的衣裳（衣着上都有至少两个折着的“小勾勾”以便“穿”在美丽的娃娃身上）。除了纸娃娃，如果还有一个眼睫毛长长，蓝眼睛，胖胖的，金色卷发的中国娃娃（就是那个躺着就会关上眼睛的蓝眼睛娃娃）就已经很满足了！

时代不同了，娃娃的风采，真是今时不如往日。就拿芭比娃娃来说吧！现今的芭比有宠物医生，滑雪高手，工程师，等等。。。如今的小孩，不再是玩家家酒，跳绳，弹珠，飞机棋，纸娃娃。。。 我的孩子的童年好想都是 Ipad 不离手。说说我3岁的小侄女，馨惠。一早起床上幼儿园，出门前就叮咛父亲说：“爸爸，等一下把 Ipad 放在楼下的桌子上哦。我放学回来要玩。”

时代的进步带来了什么样的改变？小时候，爸爸妈妈会拿起图画故事书和我们一起翻阅；现今，只要手指动一动，掌上电脑的某个软件就会替爸爸妈妈代劳，说故事给孩子听。以往掷塞子的飞机棋，须一步一脚印慢慢地迈向目的地；现今，只要手指动一动，触摸控制弹弓，就能让愤怒的小鸟一飞冲天，完成射击。

如今，亲子关系似乎是建立在了掌上电脑 （tablet PC）。爸爸无意识不停的拨弄智能电话，孩子也一样无意识的拨弄掌上电脑。我们都不需要和孩子沟通和互动吗？我不抗拒科技发达所带来的便利，我善用科技与孩子建立亲子关系。我善用会说话的汤姆猫 （Talking Tom Cat）鼓励宝贝敏绚说话，我先说一句，汤姆猫仿照我所说的，接着宝贝敏绚也有意识想跟着说。很有趣吧？善用科技的进步，建立而不是疏远亲子关系。

我的童年虽然和孩子的不同，但我与父母共同度过欢乐时光的童年是不可磨灭的，更盼把这份温心互动的时光传承下去。

I WANT to SLEEP!

Sleeping, is not something you can force a baby into. Forget about "sleep-inducing" methods to get baby to sleep better. Just remember 1 important thing: start a bedtime routine. Having a routine would help make sure that baby gets into the routine of going to sleep each night at a certain time on her own.

Here's a simple routine:

1. Warm bath
- warm bath is soothing and calming, this gives baby some time to relax, during and after the bath

2. The requisites to promote sleep - quiet, dark
- block out distracting noise, turn off the television
- dim the lightings or turn off the lights

3. Familiar or security object
- place baby's familiar or security object on the bed, be it a teddy bear or a blankie
- security object can have a calming effect on baby

I cannot force baby Gracelle into sleep, but I can set her up to feel that sleep is expected to follow after all the above routines.

Our joyous moment when we see baby Gracelle "posing" like this.

Can you guess what is she doing?
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No! No! No! She is not posing for the camera! She is "saying" - I want to sleep! Every night, she will switch off the television on our behalf (assuming everyone is going to bed) and "tell" (with her sign language) - I want to sleep!

Good night! ZZzzz...

Talking Tom 2

Tom is your cat that responds to your touch and repeats everything you say in a funny voice. Is it so cute and hilarious, no wonder this app is one of the top app to download.

I love it, so does Gracelle! I never thought that Talking Tom can be educational. Talking Tom taught baby Gracelle what it means by "No! No! No!" (touch his feet) and encourage baby Gracelle to speak.

Gracelle is a baby just starting to learn to talk. She enjoys Talking Tom Cat 2, because the "copycat" mimic her voice or "word". See how engross she was!