Mojito

Hubby used to shake up cocktails in the evenings, as a way of winding down the day. Instead of pouring a glass of wine (which we love too), mixing the liquors with the right amoung of sour and sweet seemed a little bit more interesting. We continued this ritual after we had Kodi. We would sip cocktails (not every night though) after we put her down to bed. In fact, it became an even more important symbol that the busy day of work and parenting/child rearing was over. 

Cocktails disappeared after we moved to the tropical island. 

Recently, the cocktail shaker is out of the cupboard again because we had become unanimously disappointed by the quality and value of cocktails at dining venues across town. Hubby decided that the only way to have "authentic" not the water-down semi-juice like cocktails is to do it by yourself!   

We started out our all time favorite Margarita and now we are making Mojito! The sour and refreshing lime mixed with the grassy mint, balanced by the sweet aroma of Rum,  tickles your throat with the bubbly club soda. It's perfect in this hot weather.  We made a big pitcher of Mojito for our Christmas BBQ party and it was a hit among friends. The drink was gobbled down with the chips and salsa, literally in minutes! 

What should we mix next? 

The advent

The advent period toward Christmas has never been this much fun and hectic in my life. 

I grew up in a family where holidays are mostly about a big meal together, and a good spring cleaning beforehand.  There was some decoration but few. I somehow have been adept to this simple style of celebration and have not been a big fan of deck the tree, baking cookies, and not even buying gifts. For the ten years we have been together as a family, hubby and I rarely bought anything for each other for Christmas. We didn't feel like it's necessary and all the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping just seemed silly.  Call us anti-holiday people?  You may.

Things started to change last year when we celebrated our first tropical Christmas in Singapore. Kodi was completely hooked on the idea of Christmas trees and lights after the trip to Tokyo in November 2011. So we got a tree and wrapped presents for her to open on Christmas day. We did a Christmas Day brunch, tropical and monsoon season style, open air on a raining morning, in shorts and sandals.

This year the holiday temperature rises exponentially. 

We took out the Christmas tree on Deepavali day (Nov 13) because Kodi kept begging. I couldn't believe that we gave in because it wasn't even Thanksgiving yet. 

In late November, we started to work on lots of Christmas or winter-themed crafts, hand-made greeting cards, and played Christmas carols all day long. I even sewed an felt tree and made an advent calendar out of it.

We also hosted a Christmas BBQ party at our house, let the kids play bingo and cracker games and the adults did the white elephant gift exchange. Lots of cooking, planning, shopping, and of course, lots of laughter and fun.

We are going to another Christmas party this week, more cooking and gift exchange. 

I will have my sunday school kids do a shopping day this Sunday to spend the sticker points they have been collected during this fall. Lots of shopping.

I am going to Kodi's school next week to help them with a jingle bell craft. 

I am planning a family brunch where we can hear live caroling.

It has been a lot of fun during the advent period, in expecting the day of Jesus' return and his birthday. BUT BUT BUT it has also been exhausting because my brain is constantly filled with ideas that I'd like to do in preparation for the holiday. There are simply too many !!

For example, Kodi was in school at 9am this morning and I chatted with her new teachers for about 15 minutes. They had just moved to a new classroom with brand new teachers earlier this week. I was then off to Starbucks to get hubby the gift card and get myself a mocha while studying Japanese lessons. 

At 10:15am, I went to get a small gift for Sophia, the wonderful teen who has been helping in hubby's Sunday school class, at a stationary shop. Done! I stopped by Mark and Spencer to look for a toiletry bag for hubby but didn't fine any that suits him.

At 11am, I was shopping at Daiso, looking for materials for the jingle bell craft with Kodi's class. I also got some rolls of wide ribbons to make pretty bows. 

At 11:40am, I stopped by the newly opened Vietnamese eatery to pick up a sandwich for myself. 

At noon, I picked up the car and fought Orchard road traffic toward Bukit Timah. I munched on the sandwich while driving. Yum but super spicy! 

At 12:15pm, I pulled over the car by the curb, and jogged my way to pick up the holiday photos, parking coupons, and quick groceries. 

At 12:40pm, I picked up Kodi from school and finally the whirlwind morning of running errands was over!

A few minutes ago, Kodi just asked what we should do with the empty Cheerio box. Well... I said that maybe we could decorate it into a nice looking mailbox of our own to put in Christmas cards for each other. Yes, more crafting!

Gong gong 公公

My grandpa passed away six years ago. 

He is dearly missed although we don't often talk about this. Only grandmom does. I guess we don't really know how to express "missing" in a calm and sensible way?! 

I was very close to him since my childhood. I cried often and dreamed about him a lot in the first days and months after his passing. In the dream we did ordinary things we did as a family, eating, riding in the car, chatting, and he was with us. The dreams stopped after 6 months or so. Recently, I started to dream about him again. This time he is in my updated life.

He was a quiet man but a few things he said and taught me proved to be significant and I always keep them on my mind. 

He taught me always start from the bottom rack when unloading the dish washer. This is so that any residual water from the dishes on the top rack would not drip over to those at the bottom. 

He taught me to always organize the kitchen and put away the dry dishes before cooking. A not so common teaching from a grandpa, is it? In my mom's family, he (and now my uncle is) was the one who cleaned the kitchen.  It totally makes sense to start with a "blank" drawing board,  as cooking can be a bit messy and chaotic at times, at least in my kitchen, and you need to find the knives and spoons in their usual place.

He also taught me to put the kitchen towel under the choping board when slicing a water melon. "Otherwise, the juice will run down the board, over flow the countertop and drip down the floor." Isn't it true? 

Oh... how cutting a water melon reminds me so much of my dear grandpa. How I wish that he was saved by Jesus before passing so that I could see him again in heaven! This has become one of my most agonizing thoughts after I became a Christian. I pray that God will save the rest of my family everyday so we are not just an earthly family, and that our relationship will be eternal in Jesus Christ. 

Thanksgiving 2012

Definitely a year with lots of thanksgivings. 

It's our second year of living on this tropical island. We are more accustomed to the weather and the culture, and it feels more like home to us. Our community has been expanding, we made more friends (although said good bye to a few too), got more involved at church, hosted more dinner parties and play dates, traveled to see family and friends, and explored more places in and around Singapore. 

It's also a year of growth and change. 

Kodi started school early this year.  It was initially 2 mornings a week and became 3 mornings after 6 months. She likes school and often talks about the things she did and learned from school. I am very thankful for her loving teachers and her lovely friends. 

I joined BSF to study Acts this year. I benefited a lot from regular bible study and devotions, and made local friends through this group. 

Joy, our loving and wonderful babysitter, who became an integral part of our family. She plays with Kodi every week and they enjoy each other's company. 

I also started Japanese lessons. Learning Japanese has always been something I would like to do, part for the culture that I am interested and in some ways adore, part is to support hubby because he has to learn Japanese as an unofficial job requirement. Matsuyama San is a great teacher who is creative and effective in her teaching. I actually look forward to the class on Wednesday evening. I feel like it's something I do just for myself! 

It's a year of peace. 

The year started out with the lingering sorrow of a miscarriage. I was not sure whether we should have another child, considering that I often felt overwhelemed with hubby's constant traveling, and I sometimes have doubts about whether we are good parents. Thanks to God that He used Kodi to remind me that yes, in my heart, in hubby's heart, we would like to have a second child. Kodi has been praying regularly for "baby sister and brother" since she turned three. She wanted to be a big sister, taking care of the baby, sharing her out-grown clothes and toys with them, and teaching them the various tricks or little things that she knew. She has been so confident that a baby is going to come, albeit she doesn't know the timing. Her sheer faith makes me ashamed that I don't surrender to God and His plans.  We have been praying with her for God sending us a baby as a family. We don't know if God would grant us our wishes, but we decided putting forward our request before Him is all that we could and should do.  

Another exciting thing about this year is that I am getting back to cooking! 

Well... the statement isn't exactly true as I am always cooking. What I meant was the passion for cooking, to make something that tastes yummy and looks good, and to try new recipes. 

Well, my first ever home-made apple pie didn't turn out so great. The apple fillings were tasty but the crust was hard as rock! 

3Y5M Bye to size 8

Kodi hit a growth spur in the past six months. Her feet have grown from size 7 to 8 during late spring and again out grown her size 8 around late October. I let her hang on to these lady bug sandals because the two pairs of size 9 shoes I got for her seemed too loose on her, and the adjustable straps seemed to provide some leeway. I noticed today, however, that after a trip to the library to get pre-school science books, there was a patch of redness around the back of her left foot. I asked if it was itchy (perhaps was a mosquito bite) and she said no. Instead she said that the shoe is getting tight. 

So here it goes. We said bye to size 8. Another minute milestone that she is crossing over. 

One down, lots more to go!  

3Y4M Chopping zucchini

Kodi has been super interested in being a "super little helper" 超級小幫手, as she put it. 

She would help put away groceries, wash rice and vegetables (which she's been doing for about one year now, on and off), snip the ends of the green beans, beat the eggs and stir liquidy things, and her recent favorite is chopping! 

She started using a "knife" around 2 and half years old with her baby cuttlery. Of course, the "knife" wasn't meant for real slicing so she often ended up severing the pancake or vegetable by the counter pulling and pushing from each hand. 

Now she uses IKEA's children cuttlery and the knife has the serrated edge that makes slicing easier. She is also more able to pronate her forearm and her wrist is getting stronger so she is able to hold the blade down. I found that cucumber, zucchini and mushrooms are the easiest for her to work with. She enjoys practiving this new skill and she could almost make the chunks even size. And, the chunks are also less mushy now. 

What are you thinking my little sweet girl? 

There are her finished chunks. Not bad, isn't it? 

3Y4M love bouquet

It was a Sunday school activity with my class, helping the children to practice how to love like Jesus. Everyone were to make as many as pospsicle flowers as they'd like by cutting out flower shapes, print a phrase or word about showing love(something like, be kind, help others, share toys), and fasten them to a stick and then tie the flowers into a bouquet. They were encouraged to give the flowers to family members, friends or others to whom they would like to show God's love. 

I thought it would be fun for Kodi to do this too. But I improvised the activity to make it simpler for her. She would just color, cut and paste, and tell me to whom she would like to give the flower. For each flower, she would cut two flower shapes, and I would write the name one one side and "Jesus loves you" on the other side. 

We made many flowers, from mommy, daddy, friends to her teddy bear. We also made many for our family members in Taiwan because we are going to visit them at the end of the month. It was a lot of fun, and a great way to practice how to show love to someone you care about! 

Go hiking

We discovered the McRitchie Reservoir when my parents visited us 2 weeks ago. We had a short hike and ran into a bunch of wild monkeys and giant (but slow) lizards. The place offers a vast open space and walking trials from easy to moderate difficulty level. 

We woke up this morning to a beautiful weather. So we packed our own trial mix and water, and put on hiking shoes and mosquito patch for a walk in the tropical woods at the McRitchie. Kodi was very excited about this and she walked for half of the trip. We chugged in about 7 kilometers! We will definitely do this again and on another Saturday! 

Sunday school teaching

Hubby and I both started teaching Sunday school this fall. 

It's my second experience teaching kids and his first. He teaches the grade 1 kids while I take the grade 2. It's been a exhausting, chaotic, but at the same time joyful and rewarding experience for both of us. 

The two first weeks hubby came home defeated, telling me that he was not sure whether he could serve in this direction. Things simply didn't work! He had a bunch of handfuls on top of one with ADHD. These few always find a way to create a scence, somewhere, and somehow. Starting the third week he got an assistant to literally "shadow" the ADHD kid, and things were turning better. He felt like he finally saw hope that he could survive in that room. The fourth week, however, the class grew from 9 to 15 and the chaos came back again.. alas. 

I am co-teaching with an experience teacher and she took on the first two weeks so I just flew through being a dedicated assistant, handing out materials and snacks, maintaining the needed classroom order, and taking kids to bathroom or water break. The third week Traci was away so I started solo teaching. It was the day we talked about loving your enemies. I had them do a word scramble to fill in the blank of verses, listen to Jesus teaching about love, and work on a cross with two hearts craft. The idea is to bring the two hears together through the cross, and reconcile any issues with Christ. LH, one of my lovely students, made the above and said she wanted to give this to me as a present. Also on that day, J, my student with peanut allergy and always comes in with his inhalers and custom snack, told me that he loves his sunday school teacher, who is standing in front of him, when being asked who are the people you love. They also talked about the kind of people they find hard to love, such as one's brother, and the bully kids at school. Lovely, isn't it? 

Today was focused on the great banquet parable Jesus told the Pharisees. I had them each make a cone shaped party hat, which took a lot longer than I had planned. We all put on the party hats while listening to the bible about being invited to a feast. I paused and asked them questions to make sure they were listening, which worked! We had a bit of discussion about being inclusive/exclusive and what party Jesus was referring to after the story. Last but not the least, I had them do a short play of the parable. I was the director, and I had the name tags (big ones that they wear in front of their chest) and the lines for my casts, the master, servant and the three guests that each gave their own excuse. 

It was a big hit among the kids! The volunteer response was so great that we did the play twice to make sure those who were interested in acting would get a chance. N, the restless, independent (aka do not make me do anything I don't care for), and chatty kid did a great job acting. I made sure that I mentioned this when mom came to pick up. 

Hubby is away today, fishing at sea with the guys, a fun trip organized by the men's ministry. Not having someone to remind me I guess, and I was so focused on the Sunday school teaching today that, I forgot, completely slipped my mind about picking up Kodi from her first sunday school classroom. I was doing the last minute prepping when I heard "Mommy!" and saw Kodi and teacher B standing by my classroom.. Needless to say, I sincerely apologized to B about my forgetfulness. 

Give myself a pat on the shoulder for another week of teaching. This is really a lot more fun than my old days where I would go through a hundred slides and sometimes got lost in my own class... 

乾燥

Kodi really loves the ground pork sauce cooked with soy, sugar and garlic（肉燥). It's like the Taiwan style Bolognese sauce without the tomato in it. I love it too as I grew up eating it with rice or noodle. She calls it 乾燥. "Mommy I want more 乾燥".

She loves tofu too so the two cooked in one dish will guarantee a good appetite.

Two mommies

Hubby is on business trip this week. I have noticed that Kodi tends to need more company when daddy is away and tonight was no exception.

She had a busy afternoon and was still sick from the cold. I gave her a TV break after dinner while I cleaned the kitchen. She picked Barney and Mother Goose. She asked me a few times if I could join her in watching Barney. I sat down with her for about five minutes and told her that I needed to get back to cleaning. She looked at me, making a V gesture to represent two and said, “有兩個媽咪 一個陪我看電視 一個洗碗“

It made me feel bad about not being available to her when she felt alone and did not want to sit by herslef. I gave her a little bit of M&Ms, hoping to cheer her up. Little did I know, she held onto the M&Ms until I finished the dishes. She told me that she wanted to eat the M&Ms with me, which didn't mean that she was going to share them with me because these were really a rare treat for her. She just needed me to be with her while she enjoyed her favorite candies. She was cheerful afterall, because of the M&Ms and having mommy back.

This is what we did at 7:30pm tonight, munching M&Ms while singing Mother Goose songs, together on the couch.

3Y2M More color!

We continue to play with color.

Kodi was sick today with a runny nose and a low grade fever. I suspect that she got a cold from the swimming playdate a few days ago. Luckily she was purky and cheerful despite coughs and constant sniffing. 

We were going to host a playdate with friends but I ended up canceling it. Just didn't want to pass germs to other kids even though I think she just got a common cold. So I thought about a great idea to keep her busy. 

a bowl of orange color ice cubes.

Container of different size and shape.

The setting meant an hour of playing by herself! 

The aqua blue container was supposed to be the swimming pool for the eggs. Those were the plastic, hide-the-candy kind of eggs she got from Easter. We tried to sink those eggs by filling them with water and marbles but it didn't work. Those eggs really wanted to float! 

It happened so that the balcony was due for a good scrubbing. So I carried a bucket of soapy water and scrubbed the floor while she played with the color water.  It was really fun that we could each be working on different things while at the same time share the space and some commonality. Water, of course, was the theme. 

Later on she decided that she's had enough of color water and floating experiment. She joined me by splashing the floor with water. There's always something magical about kids and water. Getting the water out of the bucket with different scoop or container was her big thing today. 

She also cleaned the chairs that have been sitting on the balcony collecting dusts and air pollution. 

She had a warm shower in the big bath tub when we were done. I decided that we should "picnic" since the balcony is sparkling clean now. 

Dinner grace.

Eat! 

3Y2M play with color

Lately we have been experimenting food coloring. 

I found a packet of animal shaped pastas (in fact, there were only four kinds of animals, elephants, lions, turtles, and giraffes) and on that afternoon we dyed 5 different colors.

I happend to read online about coloring your own pasta and the very next day a friend talked to me that she's been doing just the same. It literally took one minute to get the color on and how much ever time to let it dry. Easy! Why didn't I think about color before? It immediately donned on me that I could color water, ice cubes, rice, beans, play dough... oh you name it. 

Here is the how to.

Simply use a take out container or a ziplock bag for the process. I used the same one for all the five colors as the color was easy to wash off. I just rinsed and paper towel dried the container in between colors. You'd put in a bit of food coloring (both gel and paste worked fine), add a teaspoon or so of rubbing alcohol to dilute the food coloring, add the pasta, close the lid and last but not the least, SHAKE! Kodi helped with the shaking motions and she loved it!

 Orange and red worked the best while green somehow was hard to stick to the pasta. Purple and blue turned out to be a few shades darker than what I'd in mind. Nonetheless, colored pasta just look so much more fun and attractive than the plain kind. We lined them on recycled magazine papers to dry. Afterwards we just packed them up in individual ziplock bags and they are now ready for necklace/bracelet and paper plate crafts. 

This is one finished rainbow made of color pasta. We also made a necklace and a fall wreath with the orange ones. 

I also played with color water and Kodi was thrilled! She played with the big bowl of green water in the bathtub and kept saying "This is going to be fun!"

The ice cubes didn't work as well in this climate. They just melted too quickly at the balcony facing the afternoon sun! We will try to play with them indoor next time. I guess you could add these to a glass of water and drink it.. Honestly I thinkithey are fun to play but may be no to the mouth.

3Y2M Swimming lesson

Kodi attended five swimming lessons at a nearby swimming school. She made significant progress over the five weeks and we are just so proud of her overcoming fear.  

Splashing water on the face is fun! She's even started to show her friend Momo (who has not taken any swimming lesson and does not like water on her face, just like how Kodi was a few months ago) that splashing and pouring water from top are fun things to do! 

She is still a little intimidated by the idea of putting her head completely in the water so this is the best she is willing to do when she swims with us. 

Jumping over the edege of the pool was unthinkable prior to the lesson, and look how she is ready to jump now! 

A bit of swimming with face in the water (she calls this "diving"), which she is only willing to do with the coach. 

 Chilling out after half an hour of swimming. 

We are going to take a break from the lesson for two months. In the mean time, we will practice the skills she's learned at our pool! 

Busy July

July was a busy month. 

In the first week of July, we traveled to Beijing to visit daddy's family. Kodi had a blast with Adam and Tina. She was completely spoiled by Nai Nai and ate many many dumplings and bao-zhi's.

At Summer Palace. 

First time getting a Jianzhi, and first time in a long time since we kicked one when hubby and I were kids.

At Beijing Zoo.
Saw the giant panda of course, and visited the Lion-tiger Mountain, the place where daddy and  uncle had fond memory from their childhood.

We had many delicious meals there too. This braised pork was by far the most unforgettable dish. Alas it was Sze-chuan style though.

We visited daddy's alma mater, Peking University. There was a a big college reunion the day before and daddy partied until mid-night. The campus was pretty, with lots greenery and a misty lake rimmed with weeping willows. They pretty much kept its original landscape as a garden of the then royal family back in the Qing dynasty.

There was a little hiccup with daddy's passport at departure but luckily everything was fine. We came back with loads of food and a yogurt machine. We have been making yogurt at home ever since and I will likely never get another container from the grocery store. The home-made yogurt tastes so much better! 

Kodi on the air plane, having fun dipping the gold fish crackers with the strawberry jam and butter.

After returning from Beijing, we decided to cut short Kodi's nap so that she could keep her bed time schedule in the evening. In order to make the transition easier for both of us, I planned lots of play dates and outings and that's why we have been busy (playing) for the rest of the month. I am very happy that she has claimed a few close friends, which includes not only girls but boys too.There is nothing else so satisfying than seeing my baby blossom into a little person!

Kodi and her ice cream craft. 

She and Shermaine are officially the best friends, and it helped that we have been going to the East Coast to let them play together regularly.

Another big news this month was that Kodi finally found water on the face is not such a scary thing.

For her "entire" life up to this point, the face has been a sacred territory that no water, not even a droplet, could touch. She likes water and swimming but she HATEs to have water splashed on her face, not to mention putting her head in the water. She got so mad and almost walked out of the shower the first time our baby sitter helped wash her hair because there was, of course, water streaking down her cheeks. This is partly our fault as we were always careful about keeping her head up and back when we bath and shampoo since she was a little baby. 

Now that she's got friends who could dive and swim a few strokes, Kodi is more than ready to do the same. Her first attempt was to purposefully splash water on her face. There she was, walking through a water tunnel at the zoo water park, giggling nervously initially but later turned into big laughs and " a-ha ha ha ha".

At the Children's Garden. She completely ditched sand pit  (which she used to love very much) and just went for the water play.

Guess it's time to send her to a swimming lesson. 

3Y1M helping to clean

We had a cleaner the first year we moved to Singapore. She would come to wipe, vacuum, scrub, mop, and iron for a few hours weekly. It was great having her help so that I could spend my time elsewhere. However, her cleaning job became sloppy over time and Kodi (who was 2 at the time) started to associate mops and brushes with her. She thinks those are used exclusively by the cleaning lady. 

As a concerned mother and housewife, I decided to let her go and started a new routine on Saturday afternoons. That is, all three of us roll up the sleeves and get the bucket out!

Kodi has been very interested in helping out various housework. She doesn't think of them as "hard" labor, but part of her everyday play. She likes washing and squeezing water out of the small piece of rag we give her to wipe her furnitures (although we always need to help her squeeze again to get rid of the excessive water). Later we got her a very cute stand-by-itself pink lion shaped duster/rag. She loves to waive it around and claims that she is the "super little helper".

The cleaning time has become a great team building exericse (if you are up for the fancy term) for us. We would each take up a share of the load, rotate between different rooms and comment on the fruit of our labor after the job is done. I would not say that it's the most fun thing we have ever done together, but absolutely a nice way to take care of our home. And for the record, the Saturday cleaning lasts about 1 to 1.5 hours. I scrub the bathrooms and Kun irons his many shirts on a different day.