Leading by example

This is a reminder to myself that I should really really mind my words going forward.

A few days ago, QianNing and I were at the living room. She was playing while I was doing something (can't remember what).

I dropped something and "Shit!", the word slipped my mouth.

QianNing continued to play with her toys as if she did not hear me. Relieved.

BUT barely 30 mins later, her color pencils rolled off her table and she said "Shit".

*slaps forehead*

A mother first, above everything else

Life has changed tremendously since the birth of QianHui and my change of job. I hardly have time for myself. My new phone, after 2 weeks in my possession, is still using the default ringtone is the perfect proof of that. The old me would've downloaded tons of fancy ringtones and stuff into the phone. Of course, the old me did not have to take care of a fussy baby, losing sleep and at the same time trying hard to adapt to a new job.

I've to admit that I'm still struggling in juggling my priorities while trying to not sacrifice things that matter...

I happened to watch an episode of The Oprah Winfrey's show and came to know about a tragedy where a mother left her toddler in a car and totally forgotten about it, causing her to die of heat stroke more than 8 hours later. The mother blamed it on her hectic lifestyle and the desire and pressure to be the perfect mom. Sounds like an excuse?... But no excuse in the world could change the fact that the mother has indirectly caused the death of her own child and nothing could be more heart-wrenching that this, especially to the mother. I could not imagine the amount of pain that she has to live through for the rest of her life.

But one thing I really like from watching that show, was something one of the viewers said. She was asking, who set the yardstick of the perfect mom? Why do people expect us to live up to the perfect mom standard; with the most tidy house on earth, the most well-behaved kids, always happy and probably having a good job too?...

Having 2 kids had really changed my lifestyle. There are many things that I won't be able to do anymore. But there are also many things that I wouldn't be able to do if I did not have 2 kids. Like getting all excited when QianNing learned a new skill. And not being able to stop a tear when she learned to speak a new word...

I guess life is like that. You lose some, you gain some...

You know you're a mother above everything else when you get so excited looking at an apple that doesn't look like an apple and can't stop snapping pictures of it, just because your child drew it...

I drew the face and the ears, and QianNing added the eyes and the skinny arms LOL!

Baking buns

I came back to work today with an aching body, sort of like the after-effect of too much physical exercises... just that mine wasn't from any exercises.

I got this from baking buns.

The calories I burnt from kneading the doughs, was probably more than the calories I normally burn in a month!

Oh well, but I had fun and I guess that's what truly matters.

I made sausage buns on Sunday.

Looks can and do deceive. These buns looked kind of appealing (Hubby disagreed though. He said they looked kinda sad, which roughly told us how they'd taste with just a look... bleh!). Anyway, these buns were so dense I could probably kill someone with them if I threw them off a high-rise building.

And with those sarcastic remarks from hubby, I set off to redeem my dignity with another batch of buns on Monday. I made some cinnamon rolls which turned out surprisingly good, although there is still room for improvement. But with these, you'll probably survive if they get thrown onto your head... :)

Yippeee!

Image: http://www.gsmdome.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/sony-ericsson-c901-greenheart.jpg

Yup, this is my latest toy. A 'be-earlied' birthday present from hubby... ^_^

Sony Ericsson C901. Mine is not the Greenheart version I think, but nevertheless still looks very hemsem...

Keypad with blue lights... yummy!

And it has a 5MP camera. *winkz*

With macro mode somemore! Sweeeet!

*grinning ear-to-ear*

Sample picture taken with the phone:

Now, everyone will be happy for a veeery long time, coz mama is veeery *happy*! LOL!

Behavioural Study on Children: The Genetic and Environmental Factors

The Genetic Factor:
QianHui, a 5 months old baby, likes to pull up her shirt and scratches her tummy despite never having seen the daddy pulling up his shirt and scratches his belly like a grizzly bear.

The Environmental Factor:
QianNing, a two years old toddler, starts to breastfeed her Mashimaro...

... T_____T ...

QianHui's Look-alike Meter

I was browsing through my own blog dated around December 2007, to see if there's any blog post on QianNing when she was 5 months old.

QianHui is around 5 months old now, am just curious to see the similarities/differences between the 2 sisters.

Then, I bumped into this.

So I decided to make one for QianHui too! :)

And here's the result, which I can't really agree or disagree as I still did not manage to figure out who she looks like (although people have been commenting that she resembles me more than her daddy...):



How about the 2 sisters themselves?

Makan-makan

Am kinda busy to blog much, so just posting up some photos of food from our kitchen, coz I'm feeling kinda hungry now...

We made some burgers over the weekend. Hubby has always wanted to cook some of these... after watching too much of License To Grill on AFC. The burger patties were made from scratch... quite yummy...
Tried to make roasted chicken few weeks back and we got hooked to this recipe ever since. Really a must-try from Jamie Oliver!
Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chips, recipe adapted from here. Use Hershey's chocolate chips, it makes *all* the difference! Yummmm...
Soy sauce chicken, one of hubby's greatest recipe and my favourite too! Ask him for the recipe.

Broken record

And I mean my clean record on the road.

Last Monday morning, I had my very first accident on the road involving another car.

(You see, "accidents" I had before this mostly involved my car with anything but a car eg. toll booth metal bars, side walk dividers, roundabout etc etc... okay okay, my record ain't *that* clean after all *rolls eyes*...)

Someone banged onto the rear of my car along LDP.

It was one hell of an experience, but the lucky part in this unlucky incident was that the owner of the car who banged me was quite a reasonable person. So we settled this off the record with him paying for the repairs.

Case closed.

A hill is a hill no matter how many times you ask

Went back to my hometown over the weekend. The journey itself wasn't a bed of roses, with a toddler and a baby to be taken care of at the back.

*And* especially when it involved a very curious and troublesome toddler.

In the car...

QianNing (pointing to a limestone hill): Mommy, pa-pa (translation: am scared)...

Me: No need to pa-pa. That's a hill.

QianNing (pointing to another limestone hill): This?

Me: That's a hill too.

QianNing (pointing to yet another limestone hill): This?

Me: Hill.

QianNing (continued pointing): This?

Me: Hill!

QianNing (still pointing): This?

Me: HILL!

... continue repetitions for n rounds...

QianNing (not yet done pointing): This?

Me: *_*

On a separate note, QianNing now knows how to count to ten.

It goes like this: One, two, five, six, ten.

Lots of numbers missing in between, but at least they're in a correct sequence LOL! :P