Dayout with Mama

Dayouts will be over soon before I realise it. That is, if I manage to find a job soon. Which, by the way, I have started applying for a few positions under Jobsdb. I should be more active you know but heck, I'll just laze around for 2 more days and buy the Sat papers for Recruit.

My sweetie in her new GAP dress. This was given by our nice Jap neighbour cuz her daughter couldn't fit in it and since it was a sale item, she didn't manage to exchange it for a bigger size. She was totally nice about it and refused payment from me. I'm not aware how much it is after sale price but definitely nowhere "cheap" like she mentioned. I've kept it for over a month now. Simply can't find any occasion to dress her in. This is the 1st time Bean is wearing black. Such a matured-looking dress... but I love it. By the way, she broke that nice "Daddy's Girl" brooch pin even before we left home. Sigh...

Bean with TV Garfield and Mama's beautiful nose. Do we have the same nose? :D

Posing outside ION.

"Innocent" look. Not bad. Got "magazine quality". Maybe can pose for United Colours of Benetton?? Ok, just kidding.

Fav pic of the day!!!! Dreamy eyes + mucus = perfect match. LOL Max!!!

Good top view pic which I'll try to take more often now.

Xiang Ying's 1st time at funfair

I don't know what is this called but I call it the "inflated castle". She had super lots of fun on the 1st day of CNY. Cried and refused to leave when time's up. We had no choice but to buy another token and extend her play for another 10min and that wasn't enough for her either but we left anyway. K decided to bring her again the next day and she was very satisfied after 20min of play :)

Happy Valentine's

D asked me who bought it. Me: "I bought it for the family!" LOL.

Swinging at the playground

Sorry for blurry video. Taken at night.

Why the Hiap family can't have a decent meal at a nice restaurant

The video pretty much sums it up :D

我的小姑娘

Another trip to a heartland mall near to home. Yeah took the train to avoid parking issues.

The topic today is about hair. This pic is to show the girl in her "normal" hair state and yawning in tak-glam style.



See how much better she looks after Mama tied up her hair? I've been fantasizing how to tie up her hair for days and finally found a small shop selling cheap hair accessories and I had to do it immediately. *By cheap, I really mean it. 6 pcs of those shiny round clasp things cost $1.20 which makes each one $0.20.*

See? Even trying to be cheeky can look so cute.

This is the back. Hehe very pathetic few strands of hair but at least still can tie you see...

Crying also cute! She was running away from Daddy and banged against glass door hahaha.

Act cute also cuter! She loves climbing inside walker for fun. We were inside a shop selling kids' stuff and maternity clothing.

Back to her old-self when hair put down. Looking normal again. *She climbed up the marble stool on her own in the MRT platform. Garang or not?*

湘颖要上学了

Girl at play during the half day trial.

We are going to enrol her in a full day daycare very soon and so it's almost time for me to look out for new job. God, pls give me the strength and energy to finally update my resume after 5 years and I hope I can still answer very well the interview questions. It's been 5 years since I started looking for jobs!

Recent cooks

It will be solely Bean's meal pics this week. Why?? Because Mama and daughter ate the same food so there is no need to cook our meals separately!!! Hooray no need to wash extra pots and no need to kill brain cells to think of what to cook!!!

Cabbage stew over rice.



Another cabbage stew but with variations. The egg was still runny when I scooped the stew out but then it was too late so I gave it to her anyway. Another round of "boosting" her immune system hehehe...

This is my favourite combo - fried rice with cauliflower soup. I even cooked extra for K eventhough he already informed he will be home very very late.

Her first "Bento" dinner. She already had non-homecooked food for lunch so I packed this to go with us to NEX. 1 of the rare times she has meatless meals but I think it's nutritious enough since now she can bite better and I can introduce more variety of veggies to her. Not saying that meatless is not nutritious but I usually give her lots of fish and chicken in her diet to balance the nutrients.

CNY: Day 6 - The ultimate disgrace

My long time buddy cum might-be-soon-to-be-neighbour (not Bean's Godma) popped by for a while and before she and Mr Ah Bui left, my dear daughter tore open the AP to reveal what's inside!!!



*Thanks Mr and Mrs Tan for the generous AP*

CNY: Day 5 - Ang bao from Godma

Generous AP from my long time buddy cum neighbour cum my daughter's Godma :D

Recent cooks

Not much of cooking since it's the CNY :D

Cooked extra stock for steamboat so that Bean can have her favourite noodle soup for lunch the next day. She is not a fan of bee hoon though. More of a macaroni girl.

Oh long time no eat porridge so I thought cook fish porridge for her after feasting on junk food for the past 5 days. It seems like she had forgotten how to appreciate toddler porridge :(

Inspired by my SIL's stir-fried oyster mushrooms with butter, I decided to replicate it at home. I added scallops but my version was nowhere near my SIL's! Can't believe it. And I'm the SAHM who cooks very regularly while she probably cooks once in a blue moon. K refused to touch the oyster mushroom (ditto my SIL's version) and barely touched the veggies. He survived that night's dinner mostly on 四神汤 (not pictured) with rice.

Did Aglio Olio ala scallop the next day (just to test of K will repeat his everything don't eat attitude). Don't forget he is the ultimate PASTA HATER!!! Well, he probably didn't dare to pick on the food anymore. Not since he was ignored for the past 24 hours for wasting my oyster mushrooms. *me beams* And I also realised I had undercooked the scallops about 4 days later. *LOL MAX* If not for the day during steamboat session my sis pointed out how a fully cooked scallop should look like, I would still continue serving half-cooked food to my family. On the bright side, Bean was fine after eating it. On the brighter side, hey I just further built up her imunne system which is already by the way very good! *me double beams* On the brightest side, let's say I have just proven myself half-sashimi eater since I can eat half-cooked seafood without realising it. *me triple beams*

Tea eggs. Tea bag courtesy of my neighbour. Actually I snatched it home cuz I realised it would be better for me to cook it and distribute some to her than the other way round. Besides following the packet instructions I also added in 3 cloves, 1 cinnamon stick and many slices of 当归. The flavour wasn't very intense and there was no 当归 smell. Probably I should crack the shells more and simmer for a longer time instead of just 2 hours per the packet instructions.



1 of my favourite combination of dishes. Crispy pork belly with bee hoon.

Know how to make the bee hoon taste extremely good? After frying the roasted pork, don't discard the oil. Use that oil to fry the bee hoon. There is a risk of clogging up the arteries and stretching my waistline further but I took the risk anyway. I don't think it's my imagination but my new wok-pan really works better and makes the food tastier. It also require minimal oil and much easier to wash up. I can't stop praising my new kitchen equipment hahaha.

CNY: Day 4 - The soya bean drink girl

The family re-visited MBS on this day. Wow it's much different than our 1st visit 9 months ago where most shops aren't open yet. Nothing really fascinating but the Mama got to go into the big boutique to "molest" and model some yummy bags. Yummy as they are, they are wayyy out of my league now. What was Bean doing all this while? She slept for a good 2 hours in the pram which means she didn't even know we have reached MBS and gone back to Marina Square hahaha.

After dinner, K bought a soya bean drink and she held on fiercely to it!



Yes, very have the initiative to self-hold and sip.



Oh... I can understand how "tiring" it must be for her that she had to sit down in the middle of nowhere to rest.

CNY: Day 3 - 开年饭

At my place with the Loke family :D

I must say I am very very proud of my 1st attempt at steamboat. I used stock boiled with dried scallops, 玉竹片，淮山片and carrots. No chicken bone available at the market (not even opened!). At the end of the session, the soup was delightfully sweet and nice. My sis and I, with the help of my bro, literally finished up all the soup. First time ever I've seen anyone done this!

*Steamboat pot courtesy of my nice neighbour.*

CNY: Day 2

As per usual, we always go to K's uncle's place on day 2. I've been going with K even before we were married (we dated almost 10yrs before marriage). Last year Bean was only a 6 month old baby and this year she could run around the whole house which left me quite breathless trying to catch up with her!

The family took a ride in the Mini Cooper of K's little cousin. Yeah, his uncle splurges on automobiles for all his 3 children. Anyway the folks wanted to play MJ and the youngest cousin was arrowed to buy the paper and it was ME who wanted to go with him. And K shamelessly followed. He lugged his daughter along.

The suaku ppl first time on board an open-top car!
So sunny...



Cousin Roy who is wayyyy too matured in his thinking for a 21 year old boy. I like him :)

The boys went to buy the MJ paper while Bean and me sat in the sun. That was the chance for me to adjust the white balance. Very nice. This is the real time colour.

On the way back, thankfully Roy put the "top" back. Actually the convenience store was just across the street. Hahaha.

How can I not picture the stairs which caused Miss Bean to be very obsessed about going and down repeatedly many times?

兔年快乐

At my 2nd uncle's place - the last destination of the day.
Miss Bean was in a pleasant mood for the day eventhough she ate very little lunch, missed her pm nap, had only about 5 or 10min doze in the car journey and missed her pm milk.

There is no ang gong gong (red and loud) clothing for her nor those satiny cheongsam (traditional Chinese outfit). I prefer to dress her in "wearable" clothes.