First step to potty training...

...is to be a member of the National Library!
Finally, we brought Miss K to the library, and she now has a library card.

I had a slow start to potty training and the only thing I have achieved so far,was to successfully made her sit on her potty....for 10 seconds.

A colleague advised me to go get potty books, so that was what I did.

I was at Toa Payoh Library and was impressed at the amount of Baby Books available! Those who go to the library often to borrow books for your kids must be thinking that I'm really a suaku but seriously, I was impressed!

Alright, Miss K will have mummy reading her Potty Books when she does Potty Time this coming week!

Spargel

'Spargel' is the White Asparagus. Apprently, its in season now. J came home with 2 bundles of 'Spargel' from Germany. I think the Germans love these white asparagus to bits as they even have a 'Spargelfest' - Asparagus Festival once a year!

Well, I guess the fact that it is only available once a year makes it extra special. 

Miss K was rather perplexed with that bundle of asparagus, she was scrutinising it for a while, then turned to me and said "draw?" (I disrupted her drawing session, so she must have thought that they were new sets of crayons) - I told her no, its asparagus and its for dinner. Then she immediately said "mummy cook". Yes, well done.



A slightly different preparation was needed for these white guys, so it took me a while to search the web for the proper way to cook them before it ended up on the dinner table! Such a shame I totally forgot to take a picture of my creation, but it was yummy!

These white guys are definitely much better than their green counterparts!

My Little Food Connoisseur

Last weekend, we decided to have our yearly buffet at the Bar & Billiard Room.
The little one was oh-so-eager to sample the yummy range of food on display.
They still have a very good spread of entres and mains, but the dessert spread this year was rather disappointing.
So what did our little food connoisseur think about the buffet spread?
Below is Miss K's review:

She totally enjoyed the duck, she had 3 servings of it!

The duck was indeed delicious, such a shame I could not remembered the exact description of the dish, but the little one was definitely contented with her duck. The white bits on her plate is Black Cod in parchment. That was a little bland but the little one loved it too!

The wild mushroom and prawn spaghetti was rather tricky as she refused to have them cut into bits (tell me about the terrible twos!) She decided to ditch the fork and spoon; I guess they taste better this way!

 It got rather messy, so I tried to convince her that the spoon with chopped up spaghetti bits was a better option but she just gave me this cheeky grin. I conceded defeat! Argh!!

Our little food connoisseur insisted that she tried the dessert selection I had on my plate. Guess which dessert she liked best? Yup, guessed it right, the chocolate looking one. She ignored the rest!

J insisted that we should give Miss K some fruits to prevent her eating "more junk" i.e. chocolate looking desserts. I'm so glad she still love her fruits as much as she loved her duck, cod, spaghetti and choc-walnut-torte.

Ratings you say? Well, I'm not too sure about Miss K but I guess I will still give it a 7/10.

Cake Pops & Cupcakes

My newfound obsession or hobby rather, is baking.
I stumbled upon Bakerella's blog and that got me really inspired to try making Cake Pops.

Decided to make a small ensemble of cupcake and cake pops for a friend's birthday this Tuesday.

Here are a few of my creations.



Dark Choco Swirl, White Choc Heart Sprinkles & Dark Choc Mosaic Cake Pops



Mosaic Tree Cup-cake-pop



 Heart Sprinkles Cup-Cake-Pop 



My first try at making cake pops and am glad both Miss K and J loved it!

My past recollections...

... has been restored - at least for the selected few.

Some of you might know the 'birth story' of this blog. At times, I still mull over what happened, however, I shall let bygones be bygones and bring on the future!

That being said, I truly miss reading and sharing my past entries on Miss K when she was tiny.
I miss looking at the baby photos and how those photos reminds me of how fast time flies and how much Miss K has grown.
I have to admit that managing this one blog is one too many already, really.
So, assimilating the past with the current is all that I can do...for now.

GiGi is 6 years old today!

Our little Westie came into our lives 8 months after we got married. She was 3 months old.
A very lively (and at times hyper) pup who taught us much about responsibility.
Since the birth of Miss K, we have been neglecting her - so much so that she now has no more weekends at the dog run, no evening walks at the park and I cannot even remember when was the last time I played fetch with her around the house...

Last week, I told Miss K that we will bake a cake to celebrate GiGi's birthday, and so we did.
The little one is still nursing a cough and fever, but was in good spirits, and happily helped out.

Gigi is now on a strict vet-prescribed-diet as she has some skin allergies, so I ditched the idea of making dog cupcakes.

We made vanilla cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese frosting and mango centre.



Miss K have been 'practising' the Birthday song in childcare, so she was all excited when I lit the candle and told her that we will be singing happy birthday to Gigi, then we will blow out the candles together.



There wasn't any decent pictures of Gigi with the cake as Papa's travelling and Miss K did not know how to handle the dog nor the camera, so this is the best picture of the dog with the cake (with the two humans trying to get the dog within the frame for the camera at the background).

Gigi, we will bring you out for a nice outing this weekend when your master returns!

Happy 6th Birthday!

Family Portrait

Drawn by Papa with Miss K's magnetic (magic) drawing board this morning.

Can you spot the teary faced little girl?

Miss K decided to try her hands at drawing the family portrait too.

Mother's Day with Love

Last year, for my first Mother's Day 'present' from Infant Care, Miss K (who was 9 months then) came back with this piece of artwork.

On it was written these words:

To my dearest mum,

Sometimes you get discouraged

because I am so small

and always leave my fingerprints and

footprints on furniture wall

But everyday I am growing

I'll be grown someday

and all those tiny prints

will surely fade away

So here's a little footprint

just so you can recall

exactly how my feet looked

when I was very small

After reading it, I teared; I felt so blessed being a MUM.

This year, Miss K came home with a Love Scribbled Balloon attached to a laminated picture card.

It is a very simple gift but being able to get to "see" the makings of this 'Mother's Day gift' definitely made the gift extraordinary~!
We get updates in the form of a blog written by her teacher-in-charged every week.
These photos are courtesy of Miss K's teacher, Cynthia.

On one side is  written 'Happy Mother's Day' and on the other, a picture of mum and daughter with a really nice quote from A little Spoonful of Chicken Soup for the Mothers.



The hubby brought us to this highly rated Greek Restaurant along Bukit Timah Road - Blu Kouzina for my Mother's Day Dinner.

We had the Spanakopita as starters which was really yummy, Miss K loved it.

For the mains, we had a Salamaki Souvlaki, a 800g Red Snapper which was really fresh and grilled to perfection and grilled jumbo prawns.

Ended the meal with a nice homemade Baklava.

That meal brought back memories of our courtship years in Europe and of our visits to Greece.

It was a wonderful Mother's Day :)

My toddler learns to SHARE

I am glad that Miss K has somehow grasp the concept of sharing.

During the recent playdate, I was pretty proud to see her sharing her snacks with her friends. This somehow surprises me as she has been behaving rather spoilt lately.

Miss K sharing her alphabet biscuits with her friends

Then again, there was also a moment of  'Mine, its all Mine!!!!' behaviour which was captured by Koala.

Stuff'em in before they are gone!

Playdates does give my toddler an opportunity to share with others her age, especially if the todd is the only child.
I am also sure that her teachers at childcare have been infusing the concept of sharing with her everyday and for all I know, she could have been sharing with her friends at childcare, but its nice to be able to witness her sharing moments during playdates.

I find this article really helpful in reinforcing my idea of teaching miss K how and when to share, especially around toddlers her age.

Playdate at Sheryn's

Miss K is blessed to have so many friends of the same age.
This long May holiday weekend, we were invited to a playdate at one of the most amazing (and tidy) toy-filled home ever! Little Chloe has a huge collection of toys.

Sheryn and Chloe were great hosts.
All five mums (two dads) and todds thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
This is one picture which had the adults clowning around, behaving like monkeys, trying to get them to sit and look at the camera. And finally, thanks to Koala, we managed to get this shot.







What was the attraction of the day? The Playground! 

Miss K loved climbing up the 'ABCs' onto the slide (refer to last collage below). The slide was just right for our toddlers as it wasn't too high and steep. The kids definitely had lots of fun at the playground.

Climbing Up and Sliding Down

Miss K and her friends on the slide - such fun!


Thanks Koala and Sheryn for the lovely photos! (Didn't bring a camera and the phone wasn't reliable)
Here's to more playdates! Woohoo!
I am definitely not a Tiger Mother in the making - I allow Miss K to go on playdates.

On a Bicycle

Would (she) be scared? or have any kind of bicycle phobia?
Will (she) like it?
Will (she) sit still?
Will I manage the bicycle and a toddler in FRONT of me?
(* she is in brackets because it applies to both child and dog)

Miss K and I totally enjoyed our first cycling experience together!
She was not scared and sat rather still, holding onto the handle bars, sometimes fiddling with the bell but most of the time, she sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the sea breeze.

She constantly turns her head behind to make sure her furry friend and Papa are close by....or will hasten me to pedal faster if Papa and the little furry one is ahead.
Well, the furry one enjoyed herself too! We were glad she's just right for the basket!

At $7 for each bike fitted with either a basket (for the dog) or a bicycle child seat (for Miss K) for a duration of 2 hours, I think its really reasonable!
Looking forward to more cycling at East Coast Park.