CNY

  

This was Xy last CNY. Her hair was short and she still had those chubby hamster cheeks.

Recently, I thought about Xy and how our CNY would be like in 30 years’ time when she gets married. If we only had daughters, wouldn’t KJ and I be horribly lonely during the festive period when they are away with their families and in-laws? Guess what my husband said?

Even better! We’ll just pack up and go for a holiday! No hassle!

For every woman, one of the things that inevitably changes upon marriage is the way CNY is spent. For some of us, we have to get used to eating reunion dinners with our in-laws instead of our own parents. We visit our 娘家 on the second day of the lunar new year and some of us spend the first day visiting families from our husband’s side. You meet people whom you have have no idea who they are. Sometimes you even wonder how they can be related to your husband. It can be both eye-opening and daunting at the same time.

I come from a small family and in my own home, we used to spend these dinners huddled around a stone hotplate that my parents lugged back from South Korea from one of our family vacations, grilling bulgogi pork. After dinner, we play cards and take turns losing money to each other. It was just a few dollars but has become our yearly tradition. After my father passed away, we spend the morning of 年初一 paying our respects to him at a temple and spend the rest of the day chilling, eating and playing more cards. When KJ comes over on the second day, we chill, eat and play some more. 

The reunion dinners now with my in-laws are simple too, but they are bigger in scale since there are more people in the family. The first time I had reunion dinner with my in-laws, I kept thinking about how much lonelier it was for my mother and brother back at home. I still feel a slight tinge of sadness now but we try to make it up when we visit on 年初二 by chilling, eating and well, what else, playing cards!

I wonder how our traditions will change by the time Xy grows up. Will people still visit on CNY? Will reunion dinners be a thing of the past?

What’s your CNY tradition?

Bedtime routine

Things have changed since our last report on this front. Because Xy is now tipping the scales at 11kgs (sometimes she feels much heavier), for the sake of my arms, I try not to carry and rock her at night.

Owing to her recent interest in Pokoyo, I have started to tell her stories of her 4 year old hero at bedtime. These ‘stories’ are really just my half-baked narrations of the videos that we watch together but still, you’d be surprised how excited she gets. She’d listen attentively and chip in details, so much that it sometimes gets counter-productive. Instead of settling down, she gets more amused and wired up. Still, it is something I enjoy doing so I shall continue until this phase is over.

Most nights, I tell an average of 3 stories then proceed to ignore her pleas for one ‘last one’ and sing lullabies while I pat her to sleep. Eventually her eyes become droopy and she’d finally drift away in her dreams. Even then, she would sometimes mumble in her sleep, snippets of the stories she’s heard. What a chatterbox.

On to the not-so-good news, she is STILL waking up at night. On good days, it’d happen once but recently it is an average of 2-3 times every night. KJ usually takes the first 2 waking while I only manage to wake up at the 3rd (when he’s totally spent). It will pass – I just wonder when.

I love..

this picture.

Pocoyo

Sometimes you stumble upon certain things by sheer happenstance and they just turn out to be such gems.

One such thing I came across recently on Youtube was Pocoyo, an adorable cartoon that Xy absolutely loves.

Image taken from Pocoyo.com

Pocoyo is the name of the main character of the show, a cute little 4 year-old boy and the 7 minute episodes show his various adventures with his friends. There’s a dog named Loula, a duck called Pato, an elephant called Elly and a sleepy bird named well, Sleepy Bird.

I like that the cartoon is simple and yet in every short episode there is a lesson to be learnt. Sharing your belongings, celebrate friendship, caring for others, all of which are things which I would like Xy to learn. At the end of each show, everyone breaks into a happy jig. It is so much fun to watch!

Round and round the flyer we go

We pass by the Suntec/Marina area almost every weekend and without fail, Xy will see the Singapore Flyer from afar and say in Mandarin, “Tall tall!”

I have been telling Xy that we will all go on mummy’s birthday so when that day came along, we dressed up and bought ourselves tickets to the Singapore Flyer.

Frankly, I was underwhelmed.

I suppose we should have gone at night when the lights are all lit up. But actually I thought that it was more because the 2 of us were so busy chasing the toddler around the capsule and keeping her away from the doors, we saw little of the scenery. It’s ok, there’s always a next time.

 

Oddly Xy was only interested with the tiny rivets all over the floor of the capsule. It reminded me of the part in Wall-E when he found a diamond ring in the box and threw away the diamond. Totally missing the point. For the moments when she looked up though, I think she enjoyed herself. And for me, it’s all that matters.

The search for turtles

The first time we visited the Botanic Gardens with Xy, we saw swans, turtles and fishes in the Swan Lake. We watched as the other visitors toss pieces of bread into the lake. We didn’t have any food to offer, so despite Xy’s eagerness to join in the fun, we could only watch.

Early this month over the New Year holidays, we thought we’d bring Xy out to feed her little hard-shelled friends. As a child, I remember seeing turtles at MacRitchie Reservoir so that was where we headed for our feeding adventure.

Xy eating the bread that was meant for her turtle friends.

I guess 20 years (since my last visit to MacRitchie) is a long time and there are no longer any turtles at MacRitchie where I remember.

No turtles..

Not long after our search, it began to rain. So we left with our bread intact (almost, after what’s left from Xy).

We arrived at the Botanic Gardens a few days later and am glad to report that we have achieved our objective this time.

   

Though, I have to say that the fish and turtles at Swan Lake must’ve been quite well fed. They didn’t seem to be very interested in our bread. However Xy, always the trooper, was undeterred and just continued to drop pieces of bread into the lake.

Our feathered pals are more enthusiastic about the bread.

Last weekend we decided to go over to the less crowded Symphony Lake. We even brought a can of store-bought fish feed to make sure that we get the lake inhabitants’ attention this time.

 

I spent the whole time holding firmly onto my enthusiastic daughter whom I was afraid would jump straight into the lake; and a picture of Father and Daughter. 

The fish feed were a hit!

Botanic Garden is truly a gem. We are certainly making it a regular place to go from now.

Baking : madeleines

After days of feeling moody last week, I decided on my birthday to do something that I enjoy – baking.

I dug out Rasa Malaysia’s madeleine receipe and made a batch of these cute little scalloped shaped cakes.

The recipe is easy to follow and the batter took very little time to prepare. A few tips if you are attempting this :-

• Follow David Lebovitz’s advice – freeze the baking pan and chill the batter. It really does help in giving your madeleines that cute bump
• Don’t be lazy and fold in the flour and butter by hand with a spatula. I did a second batch today and it failed THOROUGHLY because I got complacent and did everything with the mixer. It was a complete waste.
• If you prefer your cakes to be less sweet, use 4 oz of sugar instead of 5 (I was using Rasa Malaysia’s recipe). I used almost all the zest and juice from 1 lemon and it gave a stronger aroma.

I am going for a 3rd attempt next week. Wish me luck!

A change

It is that time of the year again when I get tired of my hair and am itching to do something drastic to it.

I was thinking if I should chop it off like 2 1/2 years ago, but was irrationally afraid that Xy will not recognise me. So I thought a perm was the next available choice. 

One of the things I can never do is to stay still at one spot (unless I am glued to the TV). This is one of the biggest reason why I will never go back to doing facials. Once they’ve got the mask slapped on you you’re supposed to lie on the bed for 40 minutes with your eyes covered. No chance of watching TV there. Not to mention the endless loop of spa music or cicadas or trickling water that’s suppose to relax customers but does the complete opposite for me. Drives me nuts and makes me want to go to the toilet.

You can imagine my dread for a 4 hour perm. Luckily I went to the salon prepared. At 11am yesterday, I turned up at Elaine’s, armed with my mighty iphone, a book, the recent Golden Globe awards synced to KJ’s ipod and snacks.

So the wait was not nearly as painful as I thought. I watched as my hair stylist, Elaine patiently trimmed my hair down and applied an assortment of solutions and gels. I had a good laugh at myself too, looking like part of a science experiment when the perm started, and a wet poodle once the rollers came off.

 

  Left : Mad scientist, Right : Some Korean auntie per KJ

Elaine was attentive through the perm, checking on me constantly and making sure that I was comfortable. She even offered to buy me coffee.

At the end of the 4 hours, this was how I looked. Two words : big hair.

Xy was momentarily confused when she saw me with my new hair. Her smile froze when she realised mummy looked odd so it was quite funny to see.

I am very happy with the results and feel very fresh!

32

Last Sunday, I had my 32nd birthday.

The thing about having a birthday so early in the year not only means that you seem to age faster than your friends, I’ve come to realise that it does not seem to give you time to let things ‘sink in’.

Absurd, I know. But try to understand where I am coming from.

The year has just begun. For us office rats, it means new projects or old projects picking up speed after the disruptive year-end holidays. For parents of older kids, it means sending the kids back to school. Everything is just beginning. Out of nowhere, even before you had a chance to settle down and let your mind catch up with all the activity, bam! Your birthday’s here! Well, just a random thought although it does not really bother me.

I brought my mother and brother out for a seafood dinner at East Coast the day before my birthday. It was nice to have a good meal and joke about things, like how my soon-to-be-30-year-old brother always uses all his fingers to eat a crab.

On Sunday, Kj, Xy and I went for a ride on the Singapore Flyer and we had dinner at Outback after that. For the benefit of Xy who has a candle-and-birthday-song fixation lately, we bought a slice of cake, sang the obligatory song and let her blow out the candle.

It was a particularly great way of ending the week since Xy had been down with viral fever the whole time and I had undergone an emotional rollercoaster. In a way, it was meaningful to me that with the birthday, I am hopefully leaving all that is bad behind and starting fresh.

Funny how much thoughts a birthday can trigger, although it is just a regular day.

Once again, I am grateful to you, my family and friends who are so generous and kind with gifts, texts, tweets and FB messages. Thank you for keeping me in your thoughts.  

The Sweet Life in Paris

I am an avid fan of food blogs and by sheer happenstance started reading David Lebovitz’s blog. I was surfing around for madeleine recipes and he wrote an interesting post about it. The rest of his blog are equally funny and insightful, and are filled with delicious pictures of food.

His latest book, The Sweet Life in Paris, as the name implies, talks about his life in Paris. I added it to my long wish list on Amazon and vow to read it one day.

What do you know, KJ surprised me with the book on my birthday. I mentioned it to him once but never thought he’d remember.

I am almost half way through and it is one of those books that you wish you will never finish because it is so entertaining. It made me laugh out loud a few times, reading about David’s encounters with the French. The chapters end with recipes throughout the book and I have already noted a few to try.

To everyone who is visiting Paris, or is just simply looking for an entertaining read, I highly recommend The Sweet Life in Paris.

Bon Appétit! (in my best Julia Child impersonation – incidentally thanks to Julie and Julia, I am now a fan of Meryl Streep.)