The mouse under the table

He was having his snack-corn chip under the table. Why? Like other kids, he was afraid we would share his snack. Hehe. However, He asked us later, 'mama, you want some? Do you still want more?' in mandarin.

My first attempt of bread

I had been wanting to make our own bread. But being a procrastinator, I didn't do it until last night, after having the mixer for 3 weeks. Hehe! Ivan likes raisin bread. I got this recipe from a friend. I changed the recipe a little, I didn't use egg. It still come out good. However, since it was my first time, the crust came out a bit hard, a little over-toast. I followed the instruction exactly on the temperature and time. I think I will cover the top with a pc of aluminium foil next time. Ok recipe will follow.

Bow to Amazon for our Kitchenaid Mixer

I ordered from Amazon a Kitchenaid Mixer on Tuesday and received it by Fedex on Wednesday with no shipping charge. Muahahaha. A bow to Amazon. Great Service right? But after I ordered, John told me that http://www.newegg.com/ is shipping and tax-free. Duh! OkOk.. anyway, Now I can use our oven more often. John joked, lets see how often you will make something in a month. Ok.. let's see.

With this mixer, we can knead dough(pizza, cookies, bread, bao skin) which we used to do it with hands(yuckieee) hahahaha. Plus it is very energy consuming. That's why I seldom make. Not only that, we can make cakes. With an additional pc of accessory, we can make homemade noodle. Hehe. So useful. What I am going to make first, hmm.. I am still thinking.

Homemade Nasi Lemak

Came home late yesterday at 9pm++ but still manage to make a simple nasi lemak meal as I have promised John. Hehe. So we ate our dinner at 10:30pm. Simple as we didn't have peanut, 'ikan bilis'. But we were still very contented. I told John, even with the sambal chili and hard boiled eggs, I can have 2 bowls of rice. Hehe.

Yummy! Hm... no coconut milk, very healthy. Hehe. John mixed brown and white rice.

I used shredded cabbage to replace onion. Hehe.

My little model

I am ready to go on CatWalk. Plz turn on the music!

I am walking out. Clap.. clap.. plz clap...

I am turning...

tq tq... see ya...

Three-word Chant (三字經 - 第一篇 )

If you don't know what he is reading, here is it in chinese.

人之初，性本善。
性相近，習相遠。
苟不教，性乃遷。
教之道，貴以專。

If you were chinese educated you will sure know this chant. I started to recite to Ivan not long ago, and last Saturday he could recite page 1 by himself.

So, what is 3-word chant? It was actually the well known ancient poem for kids. It educate kids to have good values like filial piety, propiety...etc to become a good person. As we know, kids are like a sponge before 5 years old, learning things very quick at this stage. So it is very important to teach them the good values and morals and let them understand so they can become decent persons as they grow. You might be wondering why we want to speak mandarin or chinese to him when we are leaving in the States. Ok the answer is because we dont want him to forget chinese after he goes to formal school. After he goes to pre-K, we are sure he will come home and speak english with us. And we are not worried that he will not speak english. We are worried that after we send him to school(4 years old) he will nto speak chinese at all. It is very common here to the ABC where their parents or family speak chinese to them but they answer in english. In another words, We don't want him to be a banana man. Hehehe!

You can find the whole poem here.

Can anyone tell me why my text is not aligned properly? You can see that the last words of every line are broken.

Al Oerter Recreation Center

For $75 a year, you can swim, ice-skate, go gym, ball sports like squash and maybe some other I don't know yet, will you join? No question about it right? Not only that, seniors above 55 only pay $10 and kids under 17 are free. John has joined. I am going to join later too. I am sure you would ask why so cheap. It is by the New York City Department. We went there, everything looks new and clean. The indoor pool is Olympic-Sized and the ice rink is NHL regulated. Check it out here, Al Oerter Recreation Center.

Learn and Play at Gymboree

I am not the 'kiasu' type of mom but since they have free trial for the first time, why not give it a try and see if 'I' like it. Hahaha! Apparently he likes it so much but to me, I think it is too expensive. $99 for 4 classes, and each class 45 mins only. Ya they have gym time on weekdays but we work nobody is going to bring him there. So 45 mins costs $25. What they do mostly is play although the teacher also sing and have the kids do some simple work like, giving them an envelope and stamp and lead them to drop in the mailbox. Of course, the kids get to play in that friendly environment with other same age kids. Ok, after all, it is still costly. Hehehehe! Unless he is not going to daycare them I will consider. Ok we will save the money for 'Your baby can read' DVDs.

Pooh just poo poo

The other day while Ivan was playing with his pooh in the living room, he suddenly ran into the bedroom and brought out his diaper. Yes! He wanted to wear it for pooh. I quickly snap a few pics..heheheeh..!

Happy Birthday My Little Piggy - Part 2

On his birthday, it was a Tuesday. We didn't throw him any party..just ourselves at home. Bought a cake for him but he didn't eat(he is not a fan of cake, I wonder why). He loves the happy birthday song and blowing the candle and absolutely has no idea what these mean.

I wanted to blog about the day when he was born but I am just too tired now. It is 12:15am. I think I better go to sleep. The next blog will be our water park trip this Sunday and Camping next weekend. Hehe. Stay tune!