Dear Bubs: 26 months

Dear Bubs,

I'm in awe of how fast you're picking up things from us and the people around you. When you see other children doing something, you immediately want to do the same. We were at a book store and you saw a little boy perched at the edge of the magazine rack reading a book. You picked up a book, sat next to the boy and stared at him, imitating him so perfectly that we wanted to giggle.

Your memory can put Daddy's and mine to shame. Daddy charged your iPod touch and left it somewhere in his study but couldn't find it. You were asking for it but we kept fobbing you off with excuses while we were searching high and low for it for days. I jokingly asked you, "Bubs, did you see where the iPod was?" We stared in disbelief when you went to the recliner and dug it out from under a pile of cushions even though you hadn't seen it in 2 whole days!

When you were a baby, I read forums about how babies on a balanced, fruit and veggie heavy diet grow up to eating any kind of (healthy) food on their plate, they eschewed sweet stuff to the point they actually spat out ice cream because it was too sweet for them. So I embraced this concept and made you lots of fruit and veggies purees when you were weaning. Even the very first food you ate was a mashed up avocado.

Ironically, you despise most veggies now. When you see something suspiciously green in your bowl, you say "Mai veggie (no veggies)" and push the bowl back to us. It takes a LOT of coaxing to get you to eat anything green and leafy. Spit out ice cream? Hah. You fight with us for it like there's no tomorrow when we share a bowl together.  Food wise - you inherited my sweet tooth for sure.

Before you were born, Daddy and I agreed that we'd speak to you in English and Por Por and Gong Gong (paternal grandparents) would speak to you in Mandarin so you could pick up a couple of languages. While we know that you can understand when spoken to and you can speak short sentences in each language, you surprised us by being able to do simple translations. You asked Por Por for a glass of "soya bean milk" in English. When Lau Mah (Great Grandma) who speaks no English asked what were you drinking, you replied "tau chooi" (soya bean milk in Teochew).

Once I asked you in English, "Where does Uncle How live?" I didn't quite expect you to know the answer because I've never told you where he lives but you answered swiftly "ket lah poh" (Kuala Lumpur). I'm still a little astounded that you managed to translate what Por Por has been teaching you in Mandarin to be able to understand my question in English. I think you're bilingual (still on the fence about that) but you are very used to us speaking a fixed language to you. I tested you the other day by speaking to you in Mandarin. Though you understood, you gave me a mummy's-being-very-weird smile.

You now recognise all the letters of the alphabet, know most of your colours and count from 1 to 10. Your favourite thing to do now is to push the buttons on the lift and you're quite adept at holding onto your ring float in the pool while kicking your legs to move around fearlessly. Hoping that you'd take to swimming a lot faster than I did!
 
You can sing the alphabet, a few nursery rhymes like Baa Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and of course, your own variations ;) Your favourite song currently is Jason Mraz's I Won't Give Up which you call as "Daddy's Song" because Daddy has been playing this song repeatedly and you occasionally shout out smatterings of the song "skies get rough", "I won't give up". What you lack in tune, you definitely make up with gusto.

Now that your hand eye coordination has improved, you really enjoy having us sit next to you and build stuff with Duplo. You can now fix the blocks together. I'm still undecided if we should add more Duplo blocks for you or if should we get Lego for you (please don't eat them). We've also tried stringing wooden beads together. I'm terrible when it comes to arts and crafts so I'm hoping it's something we can learn together along the way.

You've lost most of your baby fat and the only squishy thing left are your chipmunk cheeks. My heart sings each time I see them wobble when you run and sometimes I wish you weren't growing up so fast. I love how you look at Daddy and me with wonder in your innocent eyes and wish we could freeze frame time for a little longer.

Love,
Mummy.

Rainy Day at the Chew Jetty and an Icy Dessert

Ching, Hub's sister, is a huge photography enthusiast so I sweet talked her into taking a family portrait at the Chew Jetty.

There are a handful of century-old clan jetties left in Penang on stilts in the sea. The pier, jetty and houses are all primarily made from wood, forming tiny clusters on narrow, well weathered walkways. On the outside, the houses remain untouched by time but look a little closer and you'll spot modern amenities like LCD TVs, Astro satellite dishes, fridges and air conditioning.

I was terrified that, Bubs who's a whirlwind on two chubby little legs, might fall into the muddy sea.

Me: "What if he falls in?"
Hubs: "You jump in and save him."
Me: "But I'm a poor swimmer. I only know how to swim in a pool, not the open sea!"
Hubs: "Same wan, it's all water right?"
Someone remind me again why did I marry the useless fella?

We only took a couple of photos before it started pouring down so heavily that we decided it'd be better to stay put under the awning and wait for the rain to stop. Bubs had a blast - it was like an adventure for him. Playing in the rain with an umbrella, reaching out to touch the rain drops, strong wind blowing in his face, thunder and lightning crackling above us. Glad that at least one of us had fun that day!

After that wet and muddy ordeal - pot holes, rain and cars splashing are never a good combination, I figured we all deserved a sweet treat at Tong Pak Fu, Gurney Plaza. Asian dessert bars are mushrooming all over in Penang which the sweet tooth in me is rejoicing.

We had a plate of black sesame sticky rice balls. Not a huge fan of this as it tasted slightly bitter to my uncultured taste buds (to me, lots of sugar = GOOD) and it was served steaming hot. We left this to Hubs who polished this off.

The durian icy desserts are touted as the must have and subject to availability. There were two types offered: D24 and some other durian type which they ran out of so we had the D24 durian snowy ice something. I was fascinated by the shaved ice which was served in intricate lacy folds - sooo pretty! The snowy ice thingy was nice for durian lovers (Ching, Bubs and me) but a turn off for Hubs who took one mouth, scrunched up his face and pushed the plate away.

Birthday Lunch & a Stroll Along Love Lane

I'd planned in my mind what I thought would be the perfect birthday ever for Hubs this year.

Plan: Wake up early. Decorate the place with Happy Birthday banners that I'd make the night before. Babysit Bubs so Hubs get to sleep in longer. Pay the delivery guy that will send the birthday cake to our place.Wait for Hubs to wake up so we can surprise him with perfect decorations + cake.

The night before, we went out for a pre-birthday dinner, got back late, Bubs went to bed late so the handmade birthday decorations were scrapped.

It's ok, I reasoned, I can still wake up early to babysit Bubs, get the cake from the delivery guy and still surprise Hubs.

Reality: I woke up to Hubs chasing Bubs around the place trying to get his diaper changed (Bub's diaper, Hubs is toilet trained already). The phone rings and Hubs asked if I ordered a "surprise birthday cake". Ooops. I ran to my wallet and realised I didn't exactly had enough cash for the cake either. Begged Hubs to go down with Bubs, pay for the cake first and then bring the cake back.

"You want me to pay and collect my own birthday cake?" Hubs looked incredulously at me.

'Errrr ... yes, please? By the way, happy birthday!"

Bubs was soooo eager to sing the birthday song though his version went "eh-pee burf to youuu" and I was equally eager about having cake for breakfast.

We went to Steak and Frites again for lunch. This time around, I asked for extra salad instead of the fries and a glass of house wine to go with the steak which was a fantastic combination. The steak was done to perfection and I cannot stop raving about how tender and juicy it was. Bubs, on the other hand, looked longingly at the fries and the glass of vino.

Since it was a nice day, blue skies and fluffy clouds, we decided to head back to Lovelocks for more coconut ice cream. We spotted lots of people taking photos of these cool metal rod artwork describing Penang road names. I'm nothing if not a joiner ;)

I found this little souvenir shop - 41 Living Story at Love Lane selling kitschy and one of a kind stuff. The fabric bunnies in white and blue were my favourites but too bad Bubs isn't that interested in stuffed toys.

Not too sure if these pair of slippers were for sale but then I'd probably need the matching door as well to make our place look this old school!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream ;) The deliciously creamy dessert was such a welcome treat on a hot, sunny day.

Happy Birthday, Hubs, I promise I'll pay you back for the cake!

Sweet Partings

It's been a week of partings. 

EL, my uni bestie, the girl that taught me how to walk in high heels, consoled me after each broken heart, sat next to me on a 9 hour long bus ride and kept laughing as we saw cow after cow, is moving back to Sydney with her husband and Little H :( I'm happy for their new start but will miss her terribly.

We dropped by to say good bye. Can't believe EL and I graduated at the same time, got married at the same time and had our kids within 6 months of each other.

Lil H enjoying her chauffeur driven ride ;)

At the workplace, it was L's last day at work and coincidentally, we were both wearing blue!

Sigh ......

It was the perfect excuse to bake some cookies just to cheer myself up ... and of course Bubs loved every single bit of cookie baking from helping me stir the batter to rushing me to bake them "faster, mummy" and then scoffing them down.

Molasses cookies are practically health food aren't they? I mean look at molasses, they're practically a superfood and spices are full of antioxidants.

I made a couple of variations: substituting ground cloves and ground ginger because each McCormick bottle would cost at least RM9 each (!) and I was more than happy to find this Mix Spice at Tesco for only RM5, yayyyyy! Also substituted margarine with butter (the holy grail of baked goods, mmm ...) and white sugar with brown sugar for a fudgier taste.

I usually get lazy when following recipes and omit steps on whims but pretty glad I followed this one: chill the dough in the fridge for at least an hour, roll them into balls and dip them in sugar. They resembled sugar crusted lumps of poo at this stage and I was wondering if they were even going to be edible :(

Voila! After 8 minutes in the oven, this was what greeted us - chewy, freshly baked molasses cookies. Bubs took 1 bite and gazed at me with his mummy-you-are-the-best look on his face. Totally worth the effort, I tell you ;)

Steak Frites at 23 Love Lane

Steak lovers, look no further for your fix of a nicely done steak. Newly opened Steak Frites is part of the boutique hotel 23 Love Lane and specialises in, well, steaks and fries.

The restaurant is elegantly restored with a lot of old fashioned wooden furniture, marble topped tables and an authentic bar at the back. Orchids in heavy glass bottles add a cheery vibe to the place. The staff are extremely friendly and welcoming.

Steak Frites offers nothing but Australian grass fed tenderloin steak (RM49 for 150gm and RM60 for 200gm), bread, a side serving of salad and fries. The salad and fries are nice, nothing extraordinary but the steak, oh my ... that juicy, beautifully grilled steak. Forget your black pepper sauce and other what nots, this steak is perfect with two simple medallions of Cafe de Paris Butter.

We peeked around 23 Love Lane, the boutique hotel housed in a heritage mansion next door and it looked amazing.

Steak Frites serves steaks past 5pm on weekdays and 12 noon on weekends. A definite must go to place for all steak lovers.

Steak Frites
23 Love Lane, 10200 Penang
Tel: 04 2621323