Mrs Kong's Banana Tea Cake

Fresh out of the oven just an hour ago..

There is something very comforting about the smell of a cake in the oven. Especially when it is your own oven! We have not baked in ages and finally (with the support of Mr Kong and Popo in minding JW), the above turns up in our oven just an hour ago. It still smells lovely downstairs, and hopefully will taste just as good tomorrow morning for breakfast.

Its always handy to have a banana cake recipe on hand to use up all those over ripe left over bananas. This one involved honey, which Mrs Kong thought sounded a little too much initially but is a little more luxurious than plain old sugar. In line with the Kong household "Kempen Jangan Membazir" we have used up 4 very ripe almost transparent bananas, soon to expire flour and some of the orang asli honey we bought from Cameron Highlands (don't ask us when). All local ingredients - so does this count as environmentally friendly as well?

Picture of the Day

Mrs Kong's boys

A Mother's Well Being

They say the maternal instinct kicks in as one becomes a mother. The urge to care for young infant or child is so strong that very few can deny such an instinct. It is an emotion so strong that "self sacrifice" is often mentioned to described this infinite love of a mother for her child.

Right ... self sacrifice.

Lying in the shadows of the mother's 'sacrifices for her child' is a mother's well being. Or does this even exist anymore after tending 24/7 to your child? The Mother's Book of Well Being, by Lisa Groen Brauner, stresses the importance of caring for one's self to be able to care for one's child (albeit an infant - it does apply to all mothers and not those of infants only).

This is the central theme of this book, and though this message begins to sound repetitive after awhile, it does hold a truth so commonly denied by many mothers out there: that their own happiness is just as important thing for their children as food and love.

To share an excerpt from The Mother's Book of Well Being (page 55):

"Our children are directly affected by us, and indirectly affected about how well we care for ourselves. When we are healthy, our interactions with them are healthy. When we are troubled - with relationships, work, or otherwise - we are not the only ones who endure it. Becoming a mother causes us to think beyond ourselves, but we cannot forget ourselves in the process. It is not in the best interest of our children to deny our own needs. The act of self nurturing is not selfish; it is essential to us and to the health of our families."

Hence, in our child centric'/ 'put-the-needs-of-the-ones-you-love-first' society, it is important to remember one's own needs. As a mother, remember the importance of your own needs and do not deny them - and it will indeed do wonders for your family.

Mother's Day and Mrs Kong's mother's day present

JW at Mother's Day lunch. They ran out of spoons for kids..

A hectic day for restaurants and shops selling all Mother's Day it was. JW, Mr Kong, Mrs Kong and po po braved the crowds for a mother's day brunch at Oriental in Jaya 33. The restaurant floor was extended out towards the escalators and still there was a queue for tables after we arrived. Although we were lucky enough to get a table without much fuss, we soon encountered another problem - the shortage of dim sum - kid you not.

Nevertheless, it has been a great Mother's Day weekend, Mrs Kong would like to report; catching up on lost sleep, time for R&R and just breathing space - all for Mrs Kong that is. Mr Kong voluntereed his services as nanny, maid and driver! (pretty sure Mr Kong is now ready for Father's Day)

As for Mrs Kong's mother's day pressie for the day it has to be the little wave goodbye from JW as he hopped and skipped out of the house at 8am with his father to check out the digger at the end of our street. No fuss, just a quick turn around and wave ... "bye bye mummy". He hesitates and looks back as he hears the words "Bye bye JW, I love you", as if to say 'I will miss you' but quickly turns back to his father as the digger awaits!

Our little boy is growing up - happy, healthy and strong. Best mother's day present ever.

Happy mother's day, mummies out there!

Last week of Freedom?

Its been 4 months of joy and happiness - being "help" less. Our last helper left in December 2009 and Mrs Kong has been spending her days alone with JW. It has seemed longer than 4 months, but it has been good overall.

Over the last 4 months, we have seen a very unsteady JW (on his feet) to a little toddler who rarely sits still. He has learned a whole lot more independence and self reliance. He has also learned how to load and start the washing machine, though his effectiveness still needs working on. He seems to be developing in the direction we want him to be. He has learned that there are times when he will have to entertain himself (though he does not necessarily do so all the time). As a family, we are more spontaneous and candid. We have had so many more laughs, just the three of us.

All that aside, it is time now to consider additional domestic help. Mrs Kong cannot help but wonder how this will affect our family and JW's development. How will things change? Or do we already know. ...

Mango face

Happiness is a boy and his mango

The importance of being updated

And here is where we have to start off with a very very familiar apology. Apologies for not updating our blog... as an old friend has just reminded me today. It is not intentional of course, as these omissions are rarely intentional.

Rather, we would like to think that we have just been caught up in the process of raising a toddler.

So here we are now, with our chatty 21 month old, who has moved beyond parrot -ting what we have to say, to cheeky retorts, whether intentional or otherwise. He is able to remember instructions and reprimands, but does not necessary follow them.

As a matter of fact, our terrible twos just started TODAY. :)

Speaking in sentences...

JW is speaking in sentences!

The first ones - "I want milk" and "Mummy, spin the puzzle" both to Mrs Kong.

Slightly scary how quickly his vocabulary is developing. He tries to repeat everything anyone that's within earshot says, so we have to be extra careful what we say.

Also, Mr Kong got a big "GOOD MORNING PAPA!" (1st time JW has said that) before work yesterday. What a nice gift to end the week and begin the CNY celebrations.

Looking forward to the Year of the Tiger. Roar!

New Toy

Waiting for the results from Mrs Kong's new toy to decorate this blog...

Quick update - 4 and almost 5 syllables...

Mr & Mrs Kong have really been crazy busy these past few weeks so just a quick update on JW's progress:

He is saying words of up to 4 syllables now and almost 5! Won't be long before we're stringing sentences together. He is copying everything that everyone says and babbles non-stop sometimes. Definitely the most talkative one in the house!

Selection of what JW is now saying:
- Tissue paper (1st 4 syllable word! At least the first that Mr Kong heard)
- Strawberry
- Broccoli
- Elmo's song (while pointing at the computer - his current favorite on Youtube)
- Hot-hot (followed by blowing sound - 'phssshh')
- Bubbles! (during bath time)
- Camel
- Walk-walk or Car-car or Kai-kai (when going out)
- School bus
- Abacus

Still favourite words:
- Water bottle
- Buddha (or Buddha-buddha-buddha-buddha...)
- Milk
- Book
- Lorry or truck

His vocabulary is growing by the day. Mr & Mrs Kong are very happy and amused sometimes but also a little afraid of what words might come out of the little fella...

O!

Foooood Hall, The Gardens Midvalley

2 Sundays ago, Mr + Mrs Kong took JW to The Gardens for lunch, a bit of shopping and to check out the Christmas decorations.

Imagine our horror when on arrival we realised that we had forgotten the boy's stroller! We'd never gone on a trip of more than hour without it before. It felt like we were jumping out of an aeroplane without a parachute.

Anyway, we were there so we thought we'd make the best of it, thinking we'd have to carry the boy most of the time. To our surprise and delight, not only did he not need to be carried (much), he loved toddling around - looking at the decorations, window shopping, going up and down the escalator (and up and down, and up and down again)!

It really made Mr Kong realise how much JW has really grown. He's definitely not a baby anymore...

One of the best parts was after lunch at the Garden's food court when JW played in between the seats in the form of letters at the front and started saying the letters out loud. The pictures below say it all:

"O!"

The month of December

Much of life comes to a some sort of standstill in December. Its the school holidays and Mr + Mrs Kong are just becoming newly acquainted with. Its a life outside of mainstream commercialism, and a life one would know only too well if one were a student, parent of a student, or teacher.

Of course, JW is not of school going age yet, but the simple venture of finding a play group for JW is something clearly new to us.

Sure it is a month for family, Christmas celebrations, meeting with friends and holidays. Mrs Kong never imagined that even play groups took a break! Oh well, we will just have to wait until next year!

Happy Birthday Po po!

We love you and won't ask how old you are!

How to Boil an Egg

The title of this post probably sounds a tad bit patronising. Apologies in advance. (and feel free to click elsewhere on your browser)

However, Mrs Kong finds that perhaps too many, including the present, have forgotten how to boil an egg. Given that very little goes wrong in the process of boiling an egg, perhaps a more apt title to this post is "How to boil the Perfect Egg". All should be done before JW wakes up from his afternoon nap!

At the risk of sounding like Deli@ Smith, here is how it should be done...

How to -

1. Take the egg out of the fridge a while before cooking.

2. Bring the water to boil and turn the heat down to the lowest setting.

3. Lower the egg into the water. Keep the heat at a level below simmering or boiling point. A few rising bubbles is ok.

4. Guidelines on how long the egg should be boiled for: For a runny yolk, 5 mins; For a part runny yolk, 7 mins; For a hard boiled egg (but still moist), 10 - 12 mins. After 12 mins, the egg yolk will start getting dry.

Trouble shooting (when the egg is less than perfect) -

Egg shell cracks as it is submerged into the boiling water
Possible cause - egg is not at room temperature, or the water is too hot/ boiling too vigorously.

An unappetising greenish layer forms around the yokes (where the eggs have been hard boiled)
Possible cause - residual heat has continued cooking the egg after it has been removed from the water. Solution for this is to submerge the egg into cold water after it has been removed from the pot to stop the cooking process.

End Note

Once an egg has been hard boiled, it is also possible to tell of the freshness of the egg, from the position of the egg yolk within the egg white. If the egg yolk appears right smack in the middle of the egg white, we have a fresh one. If you see the egg yolk is visible from the outside of the egg (ie off centre) this is a clear indication that the egg has been sitting around in the fridge or the supermarket, prior to being cooked.

Head Shaking

We don't know where and how JW has learned this, but our boy now shakes his head to indicate "no"!

He does it mainly to refuse his dinner, and we are truly baffled.

Its a little cute but at the same time, quite alarming. Mrs Kong is raking her brains ... where did he learn this from? The "no" head shake genetically coded into our DNA?

How to Sew a Cloth Diaper

Now... if only Mrs Kong had a sewing machine!! :) (*hint hint Mr Kong!)

Other great links for homemade diapers:

free diaper patterns
how to replace the elastics on a worn out cloth diapers (Mrs Kong will be attempting this soon..)
cloth diapering for the frugal

Playtime at 16 months

With our 16th month fast approaching, Mr + Mrs Kong has been raking her brains on how to occupy our little JW. Fast moving to just one nap a day, we have more alert time to work with! Even Mrs Kong is getting bored of reading the same old books and playing with the same old toys.

So we have been told that we need not buy more toys at this age. Instead we have created a temporary play area in our living room for JW, with a cardboard tunnel (to decorated by Mrs Kong) and a little hill (aka bean bag). There is mount "sofa" which leads to fantastic views out the window overlooking the washing machine outside!

JW loves looking out the window and gladly climbs mount "sofa" to do so.

Good bye neat and tidy living room, hello play zone with tunnel and all!

Sizing diapers for a prewalker and worn out cloth diapers

I suppose this question is of less consequence if one were diapering on disposables but a little more important for cloth diapering, given the huge "sunk costs" involved in cloth diapering. Hence, the incentive to get it right.

So it seems, as we have discovered in the past couple of weeks, that pre-walkers slim down after they start to take their first steps. Mrs Kong did not realise this when she wrote the blog post on getting larger diapers, but is glad now that we did not jump the gun into buying more in the larger XL size. JW, which we anticipated would hit the XL soon, is now hovering at the L size since starting to walk. His is now trimmer, looks taller, though not any lighter. The conclusion is really to avoid sizing up a chubby pre-walker because there is a high possibility that they will slim down!

We have however worn out our Cloth Diaper Wholesale diapers, which have run loose on the elastics. It really is about time as these diapers have worked overtime since we got them in May this year. They don't even "rest" for 24 hours after they dry before their are pulled off the clothes line, and put onto JW's bum. The same goes for the fitted diapers in our stash, now that the CDWs are out of commission. Suffice to say the CDWs have paid for themselves many times over.

Meanwhile we are surviving on the minimal number of diapers, supplementing with the traditional white nappy when it rains, or we just plain run out of cloth diapers.

Our workhorse diapers:

4 Dream Eze fitteds;
2 Baby Beehind Bamboo fitteds;
2 My Precious Baby by April fitteds;
3 Bum Genius one size pocket diapers.
1 Starbunz AIO (which we really don't use at all);
2 wool covers.

As you can imagine, they are getting worn out real fast given we use an average of 5 diapers a day. More if we are on the traditional cloth nappies. Time to break out the new diapers!

The boy's new favourite word...

... is ''water bottle'', pronounced "wotterbotter".

Yup, its as cute as it sounds so its Mr & Mrs Kong's current favourite word also.

Standing on his own

picture from a month ago!!