RAWR!!!!!!!!!!! Happy Tiger Year!!!

Wishing everyone a very happy and blessed Tiger Year.

Meet our NEW addition...

So my pregnancy ultrascan said I was due on 6 Feb 2010, but A decided to meet us on Auckland anniversary .
He was born at Middlemore Hospital and I shall write the 'birth' story once I am up to it.

I am currently under confinement. Fortunately, 15more days to go. I am enjoying the nice soups and drinks but not the no-shower bit.
N is coping well. He wanted to touch and cuddle his little brother all the time.

9 more sleeps

i have been incredibly slack this time round in updating my pregnancy.
my first trimester has been similar to when I was having N. probably being 2nd time round, I was more aware so I felt slightly nauseous in few ocassion but no vommiting. With regular (healthy) snacking the slight nausea went away.

Last time, I had cravings for laksa, noodle, spicy curry, hamburgers. This time, I don't remember any specific craving.

I chose to use my last midwife. She's the bestest :)

my pregnancy is pretty similar to when I had noel except this time we involved N in the process. He attended most of our appointment with L, my midwife. He loves to listen to the 'doppler'. My colleague S also suggested we read him book on preparing him to be a big brother.

Above pic were taken on 2nd day of New year, (35 wks) at the beach. I've never seen Maraetai beach so crowded before. every car park is practically taken...

***Hot Cross Bun***

So we bought N a coat rack. He's more interested in the coat rack as a microphone with the aid of his piggy stool.
The song he chose to sing on his new 'microphone' is Hot Cross Bun.

The lolli battle

I am in my room and overheard this.

MIL: Who gave you the lollo??

N: I found it.

MIL: Ask mommy if you can have it.

N ran into my room and said:

N: I am eating lollo.

Me: Who let you eat them?

N: Ah Ma.

Me: >_<

Bread and Butter Pudding

Each year I received a hamper from my company for Christmas consisting mostly of company products.Anyways, some of them were short-dated, so I either gave them away or have to do something with them. Above is the bread and butter pudding which I made. I made two of these coz I had to use up the 1lt of the cream. the B&B pudding is pretty easy to make, but darn fattening and creamy. Not recommended for those watching their diet.

Since I rarely make them, I decided to use the 'unhealthy' version. The only healthy twist was I added raisins.

Here's my recipe:

Ingredients:

10 slices of white bread (butter double sided) I sliced them into triangles or 4 squares

3 eggs

1/2 cup caster sugar

500ml thick cream

butter for spreading and greasing

Extra sugar for sprinkling (I used raw sugar)

cinnamon (i sprinkled them very liberally)

Preheat oven. Butter baking dish.

Arrange one layer bread. Sprinkle raisins and cover the remaining bread. Dust with cinnamon.

then I pour the wet mixture over and make sure it soaked nicely.

Repeat the process until all the breads are used.

Bake for 30 -40minutes until golden on top.

Result: Would just butter one side of bread next time.

Christmas pt 2

We didn't really go to check out the lights at people's house for Christmas this year. We did check out the Smith & Caugheys dept store window display on Christmas eve. The theme is mouse family i guess.. it was cute and very nicely done. N was pretty enchanted by the whole thing..

Next day, we had sausages and baked beans and eggs for breakfast. After that, Chef Jake set out to cook the big bird (turkey) ..we used the glutinous rice stuffing this year..it turned out very nice...it's like having the 'bak zhang' minus the bamboo leaves inside the bird's cavity..
We had turkey for the rest of the day and the next !!!

Here, N devouring the drumstick. (well, he took a few bites)...

Below N playing with Noah's ark. He has started to have a real interest in pretend play.One of the question he asks was Who's this (referring to the red and blue figurine)when he plays.. I can only tell him they are Mr and Mrs Noah.Here he's putting the animal down to sleep while Mr and Mrs Noah watches. After a length of time, he declared that the animals are awake and poured them all out.


After lunch, we opened our gifts...

Here, N immediately played with his Christmas present.

A visit from Auntie Susan and Uncle Bob

Overdue post.....

Suz and Bob stayed with us for a few nights in Nov and it was great having them :) They were great with N and one of the adventure we had together was bringing N to the A&E clinic to remove splinteers from N's palm. He had about 5 of them (possibly more) and won't let any of us touch it (we only have blunt needles at home)

Above pic was taken when we went to have dessert at Goode Brothers.

Below is a collection of photos that Bob took at the park. We promised N that we would let him go to the park if he gets his splinters out by the Doctor.

Christmas 2009 - Hope has Hands

Merry Christmas from us. Us at the Christmas Eve Service.

Service started with barbershop performance by the young girls. They sang 3 songs. Lovely harmonies.

Then, Hope has Hands started. The cantata run for 35 minutes (thereabouts).We have been preparing this for the last 7-8 weeks. Praise the Lord, the cantata went well.

The casts in the cantata (Rae, Clive & Wanita, Carl)

After service, Choir posed for a group photo :)

Kite Flying and Face painting

I finally upload pics from multiple source into my laptop hence the delayed post.
On Labour day, we went to the park near our place to fly kite and also to watch some kites put up by various organisation. The day was perfect for kite flying...


Us with our kite.

Then we found out there's face painting booth. Can you see who N has turned into!?!?!

What does N read?

For those of you with kids, how do you go about choosing books for your littlies?

For me, it's pretty random. I picked up the book and looked through the pictures. If I liked the pictures I would borrow them. I usually try to borrow 2 from the same author. I find that if N likes one of the book, he would like the other one.

I recently discovered Judith Donaldson and Nick Sharratt in their books Toddle Waddle and One Mole Digging a Hole.

Took him a few days of getting used to. Now he would recite some of the contents when he sees the book.


Toddle waddle has minimum words but allow lots of interaction between N and myself. He would even comment that the daschund dog in the book looks like Prada (my brother's dog).
In a page where everyone is busy doing something at the beach, he spotted that an auntie is eating an apple, a boy is drinking orange juice, there's a red crab on the beach etc...



One Mole Digging a Hole is hilarious. I think I liked it more than N.
One page has a number plus the description of the picture next page. Eg
One Mole digging a hole. Two snakes with garden rakes, Three bears picking pears ....and so on..
In between reading the book, he would ask, what colour is that (point to the flower or butterfly)
I also picked up a version that comes with the audio cd. It's pretty fun to hear while we are inside the car.

N turns 2!

N turns 2 and we had a party at home. This year, we got him square chocolate mudcake from Cheesecake shop with pics of Winnie the Pooh and friends.

His favourite song for the last 1.5 months prior to his birthday was HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

He had a visit to Plunket nurse on his birthday and below is his latest stats:

Height: 85.5cm

Weight: 10.8kg

Favourite question: What colour is this?

Conversation first thing in the morning

N﹕ 媽 咪 肚 子 有 甚 麼 ﹖ (What is inside mommy's tummy?)

有 弟 弟 ﹗ (Baby brother!)

爸 爸 肚 子 有 甚 麼 ﹖ (What is inside daddy's tummy?)

大 便 ﹗ ﹗ (POO!)

Me: @_@

Above occurs last week..

Playing the piano

N now helps himself to the digital piano :S he knows exactly which button is the on/off button and he also knows the button to which the collection of pre-recorded songs are located. His absolute favourite is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I think we never go past song no. 3. he immediately plays Twinkle Twinkle again. *argh (pulling hair out)

above is an old video taken in May.

biatch!!

I was dressing N on Sunday morning for church.

N: Biatch, papa Biatch!

Me and Jake looked at each other. Our face tried to contain the laughter and at the same time horrified at where he's picked up this colourful word. As far as we are concerned, we don't even use this term.

I picked up his belt to use on his jeans and he got even more excited.
Biatch!!! he exclaimed.

SO........BIATCH is BELT~!
*PHEW!!!!!

To confirm, I asked him, what's this (showing the belt)

N: Biatch, Noel Biatch.

So I quickly correct him "B-ELT".

Drumming

This must be my 10th attempt uploading this drumming video. I had to change to another clip as the previous ones was slightly bigger. *Annoyed.

Here's N with his 'real' drum. He has drummed on biscuit tins, on books, on dvd boxes, anything.

17.05.08 to 18.05.08

Back in action now with my travelogue. Feel a bit ashamed that I might not finish this on time for A.
From Florence, we continued our journey to Rome via Vatican City. I am excited to visit the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. Our tour guide told us of long queues to the Vatican museum and we were truly blessed as there was hardly any queues when we went. The vatican museum is vast and extended ..it went from marble statutes to ornate paintings, sculptures and even the ceilings were beautifully painted. I wish I had a tour guide that could bring me through the museum.



We took so many photos and it's been incredibly hard to trim down to just a few to put on a blog. The collage consisted of my favourites:The painting of "the Creation" by Michaelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. Jake got told off by the security guard for taking the picture. The corridor of the museum and another tapestry of the resurrection of Jesus taken in the hall of Tapestries. Below is the Spiral staircase in the museum.

Soonafter, we grabbed a quick pizza from a trattoria outside Vatican City before walking to St Peter's Basilica.What can I say...the whole complex is ginormous, and I keep watch for the Swiss Guard. I read about them in Dan Brown's novel and make a mental note to look for one when I am in Vatican City.

There were masses held in the Basilica and it was THE biggest Cathedral in the whole world. Dress code was very stringent and we had to pass through security before being allowed inside the Cathedral. We also visit the tomb for the popes within the complex. The cathedral is just awe-inspiring.

After St Peter's Basilica, we met up with the rest of the group and had a walkabout tours for the attractions in Rome. We had a quick walk to the Pantheon, the ancient Roman temple before it was converted to a Roman Catholic Church. As it was nearing dusk, the church was closed. The special feature of the Pantheon was the dome with a opening or oculus (aka a hole) so all year round, the church can be filled with puddle of rain water and shine. I also inserted picture of the 'opening' and the altar of the church which we took the next day. We then walked to the famous Trevi Fountain and finally at Piazza Navona. We then walk into the alleys along the piazza to find our dinner.

As we were in Rome, of course we wanted to have PIZZA and PASTA:P We had sausage pizza (the most unappetizing pic in the collage but still tastes good). Jake went for the seafood rigatoni and I went for the vongolle spaghetti. The servings were pretty big but we were hungry , we finished the pasta and pizza and went for gelato at the gelattria.

We headed back to the campground after that.

18.05.08
Below is some random pic I took of the campground. The Laundry facility and bar/internet cafe were situated very far away from our cabin. By that, I meant they were situated on top of a hill and we were downhill, so it's quite a bit of a distance to walk there. Ditto with the toilet/bathroom.

The next day, we took the train to the city of Rome. Apparently Rome's really notorious for pick pocket. One of our groupmate was pick pocked in the daylight by a small kid. He brushed her off and she attempted to steal his wallet the 2nd time in bright daylight.

Today it's a real rainy day. We had to buy umbrella from street hawker since our previous ones were mutilated by the torrential rain in Barcelona. The places we went today were the Spanish steps. Then it was pretty much free day and we have to catch the train at a certain time so that the coach can send us back to the campground. We were given a list of attraction. We decided to visit the Capuchin Church of the Immaculate Conception (1645), located on Via Veneto, near Barbarini Square. The church has a crypt with bones decorated in all sorts of ways and the bones belonged non other to the monks from the Capuchin order. I have attached the link to the photographs of the crypt.

Rome also has many 'water' fountains and we were told they have existed since the ancient roman civilisation day and it is okay to drink from it. The dark church pic belongs to the Capuchin church.

We went back to the Trevi fountain and threw more coins to ensure our returns to Rome someday in the future before going to the Colloseum. We had a guided tour by a very knowledgeable lady today. Before the tour started I grabbed a takeaway pizza from the train station. It was a ham and mozzarella pizza. It's probably about 6inch wide and the shopkeeper just fold them in halves before wrapping them up for you.

Our tour started at Roman Forum. The rain has since stopped and now the sun is scorching hot. I remembered using my umbrella to stay away from the heat. One of the fact that I remembered was the Roman Forum was at its prime around AD 50 and by AD 500 it was abandoned, plundered, in ruins and forgotten. It was amazing to see many centuries later, excavation and restoration work was done and the place reemerged.

Then we went to the famous colleoseum. It's another gigantic roman attraction. It is also the place the gladiators fought. You could see where the gladiators (slaves before they became gladiators) and animals were kept on the bottom level. The spectators can sit as high up to near the roof.

After the colloseum, we caught the train and shuttle back to the campground. According to my diary, we missed our tour coach so had to use the paid shuttle to head back to the campground.

Dinner that night was very nice. However, I stopped my practice of taking pictures of my meals on campgrounds. We had roast chicken with pasta, salad and icecream for desserts.

O Sunshine, where art thou???

I could really do with some warm weather at the moment. We have had clear sky since Saturday but it's freezing cold. Each morning, my lawn's covered with frost and my car has a sheet of ice on it. It spelt "BRRRRRRR"...

Above is a photo taken on Stace's balcony in sunny Brisbane. I really miss the goodtime we had and of the sunny warm weather..I am sure N had a blast too.

15.05.08 to 16.05.08

I am back in action with my travelogue.

15.05.08

Following Venice, we went to Pisa and Florence. Pisa was just an afternoon stopover. There's also the Baptistry and cathedral besides the famous leaning tower. They were all built with white marbles. I did the obligatory cheesy photo shoots then wander around with Jake and got ourselves Pinocchio as our souvenir.


We then reach Florence. I am a bit gutted that I didn't take any picture of my accomodation. I managed to google the accomodation online though. (see inset of collage below)We had our own couple cabin this time. It comes with ensuite, 2 bedroom (1 with double bed and 1 with 2 bunk). Space was real tight though. I remembered I had to put my luggage on one of the bunk bed and jake's luggage was on the corridor. Our chef cooked us the most delicious lasagna and we also had salad and bread.



That night our coach took us to Florence. Some ppl went to the Red Garter for karaoke while Jake and I opted to walk around and went to the internet cafe.

16.05.08
Next day was a full day to explore Florence.
In the morning, we visited a leather house. Most ppl bought some sort of leather products from the shop.

Then we had a guided tour. I forgot our guide's name but she's excellent. I learned about the statutes and the palace in Florence. (see collage below).

More statues below sculpted by geniuses such as celini, Michaelangelo, Da Vinci etc.

Can you spot the 'fake' statute?

There were also statues to commemorate all the geniuses that live in Florence during the Renaissance period.

We then walked to Ponte Vecchio (the bridge). Its most striking feature is the multitude of shops built upon its edges, held up by stilts.

Below were some interesting thing I took of the city. A little electric car, electric bus, the forum, and the wild boar at the market.

Below is the crypt of the Florence Cathedral. If you have read Dan Brown's book, he mentioned of crypts and subterranean level of churches where chapels are used and bishops have been buried etc. The crypt in the Cathedral was excavated in the 60s from the result of a flood. It shows tiles from long before the Cathedral was built.

We had a standing lunch today of pizza and calzones. There were markets everywhere.
Oh, legend has it that whoever that touch the boar's nose will one day return to Florence. I am waiting to see if I am making another trip there.

We then went back to the Florence Cathedral. Weather was going to rain so we canned our idea of climbing the duomo as the queue was very long.
Below is the interior of the cathedral.

More shots of the cathedral that boasts the largest brick dome ever built. Dinner tonight was an excursion to some tuscan restsaurant. Entree were bread with cold meat and pate of some sort. Then there's ravioli and pasta and meat.