Moments in My Life

Mommy: Brandon, don’t ‘kacau‘ (disturb) Mommy lar. Go play with your own toys.

Brandon: Mommy, ‘ngor mo‘ (I don’t have) toys.

Mommy: What? You got so many toys lar. See here, this one, nah, this another one nah. *showing him all his toys*

But I could see he wasn’t interested in those.

We set out his toys in the bins on a shelf. We have books, trains & train tracks, big & small cars & all kind of vehicles, helicopters, animals, buildings, blocks, tools, xylophone, doctor kit and a few more others. I didn’t think about it until a friend enlightened me, “… may be he is bored with his toys?”

Actually, I didn’t think about that. Because a child can be creative and play with the same type of toys for very long. But not my boy. Then I thought about some older toys in a toy chest which I put away because they were no longer in his age range. This morning, I opened it up and asked him to play with them. He had fun with them, but he still played with a few of his favorites. I can see he is getting bored with them already as he has been asking me to clean up the toys back into the toy chest. Oh well … it worked for almost half a day.

Here is a picture of him playing with the old toys in his bedroom.

Sites I found interesting and would like to keep them available for future use:

Moms Like Me Los Angeles

Dynamic Learning & Listening Center

Just for Kids Catering

Piccolo Chef (Kids Cooking Classes)

The Kids Cooking Place

Horipro Music Academy

Lenny Krayzelburg Swim Academy

Thing that happened when he didn’t listen.

Scenario 1
When giving him a bath and washing his hair, I asked him to tilt his head backward so the water will not drip towards his face. I know that his neck may be tired so I support his head with one of my hand while running down the water with the other hand. He pushed my hand away, I was fine, but his head kept moving back in front, thus the water dripped towards his eyes and he cried and screamed. If he would have listened and let me hold his head he wouldn’t have water running into his eyes.

Scenario 2
I told him to walk. He didn’t listen, he ran and he fell. He cried. If he would have listened to me.

Scenario 3
I can tell his cue for bathroom. I tell him is time to go to the bathroom but he said no. A minute or two later, he said that he wet his pants a little. If he would have listened to me earlier then his pants would not be wet.

We are going to have a lot of rain this week.  It has been raining probably since very early in the morning today.  I love the rain but unfortunately living in sunny Southern California, we don’t get much rain and most of the places only have outdoor parkings.  So I had to cancel my plan to do grocery shopping this morning due to the heavy rain.  I was planning to make pot roast for dinner, but missing a few ingredients and since I couldn’t go out, I have to postpone our pot roast dinner.  Now I have to think of another dish to make for dinner.

Got a haircut for my new look. My hair has been so flat. I have very thin hair and no volume. And with winter coming, I need something short so I don’t have to take too long to dry the hair after washing. The last hair cut I had was when I was in KL, so it was like 3 to 4 months ago.

I’ve decided to go back to the Korean Hair Salon in Torrance on Sepulveda. Their hair cut is at $35 plus tips including washing. I like it because I don’t really need to make appointment. I can just walk in and ask for a hair cut which will take about 30-40 minutes. I am not picky about which hairdresser I use anyway. I just need a nice hair cut and for the last three times I’ve been there, I like it although is a bit on the pricey side.

*drum roll* please …

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… here is my new hair cut! A before and after picture.

Happy Thanksgiving!! We’ll be having dinner at MIL’s house tonite. So I thought I will bring some dessert over for the dinner.

I was into a mood in making dessert/snack/pastries lately. Today I made Kuih Lapis. Bought a box of flour mix - Kruathip Coconut Layer Cake (Kuih Lapis). From the picture of the box, the dessert looks very delicious. I checked out the method and it was not difficult to make at all. The package has a mixture of rice flour, tapioca flour, vanilla powder and sugar. It is a product from Thailand. All I need to add is 230ml of coconut milk. I also bought a new bottle of pandan paste/flavoring/coloring. The price for the box of flour is $0.99 and the pandan paste is $0.99.

Ingredients

Two bowls of mixture - one pandan and one normal white

Steaming the pandan layer

Pandan Kuih Lapis / Coconut Layer Cake

Verdict: It is very easy to follow the instruction and I was able to finish all the steps in 30 minutes. The package didn’t indicate what size of pan we should use for steaming. I used a 9″ baking pan and could only manage very tightly to get 4 layers. The texture is not as smooth as seen on the picture in the box. The taste is OK, it is chewy, unlike the 9 layers kuih we used to eat in Malaysia. I wonder if I should add more coconut milk to it next time to make the texture smoother. May be I will try making this kuih recipe from scratch if I have the time.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Dirt Devil. All opinions are 100% mine.

As quick as you can, visit the Dirt Devil Holiday Buying Guide. Why? Because Black Friday is coming up in less than a week and you would need all the tips and strategy to shop for that big day. Do you know beside Black Friday, there is also Cyber Monday? It will be the Monday after Thanksgiving (11/30). This is the day that you would want to hunt for online deals and good buy. These deals are only available online and not at the retail stores. There are specific websites that will give you flyers as well as listing the best buy from each store. To find out more, read page 2 on the above pdf file link.

I enjoy buying my products online. A lot of times, the prices may not be a big different from what you pay at store but you get to save a bit here and there. For example - free shipping. A lot of online stores offer free shipping. It is much better than you drive to store and line up to pay for your items. It would save you time, something money can’t buy. Another reason I would buy online is that I can avoid paying sales tax. Other reasons may include rebates, cash back from certain websites, special online deals and etc. There are over 300 ways to save with online shopping and you will find all these inside the Dirt Devil Holiday Buying Guide.

For example, you may have to pay full price for a Dirt Devil Vacuum Cleaner when you buy it at a B&M (brick and mortar store). But if you purchase it from their website, you may have the same model for slightly cheaper through their online specials. Hop to their website and view their Holiday Deals. May be you can find a nice and powerful vacuum cleaner for your home to start the new year with a cleaner home.

I wish I weigh less than 50kg, but that is not what I am going to talk about.  I am actually counting the days to our new year - 2010!  Yes, believe it or not, we are less than 50 days away from the new year of 2010.  Actually, it will also be our 10th wedding anniversary on the new year eve.  Can’t believe we’ve been married for almost 10 years.  I don’t feel it as long. 

Anyway, it will be busy for us from now till the early Jan 2010.  We have Thanksgiving coming up next week.  Brandon will have no school the whole week and I have to plan something to keep him busy and out of the house.  Then on Friday after Thanksgiving will be the big shopping day for us.  

Brandon’s last day at the preschool will be on Dec 2nd.  They do not begin another term until mid of January.  It will be a long holiday for them and again, I have to put together a new schedule for him.  I might sign him up for other class (music/gym?) if it is available. 

Then we have the Christmas week.  Hubby has the whole week off and we may visit Las Vegas again this year, but I haven’t made any booking yet because he still not sure which day he will need to be back at work for one day.  Oh ya, almost forgot, my dentist appointment should be in that week as well.  We are going to be very busy! 

I am not really ready for 2010 yet … are you?  

Have you watched Mamma Mia the Movie?? It brings back memory of my childhood when my parents were listening, singing and dancing to songs like Dancing Queen and Take a Chance on Me. I wasn’t sure about the lyrics but I was sure I could sing the songs by heart. Imagine a 4 years old little Chinese girl who was singing these English songs loudly in the little village. She probably didn’t even know and speak English. But at that time, everyone knows about these songs even though we do not live in America.

When the movie came out, I knew I had to watch it and I love it. If the movie is so magnificent, what do you think of a live show on stage?? This is your chance to enjoy the live Mamma Mia, the musical. Now in Sydney, at Lyric Theater in Star City, and only for 15 weeks (23rd Oct 09 to 7th Feb 10). This may be an excellent choice of holiday gift to present to your parents to reminisce their young time. Mamma Mia! Live musical will continue in Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane.

You definitely will not want to miss this funny and timeless musical. Hop on to the link above and read the worldwide reviews. And then make your booking through Ticketmaster for one of the best musical performance you will never forget.

Christmas is here early for us. We had our Christmas tree and other holiday decoration up in the house. It was the Sunday (11/8) afternoon when I had some free time to clean up the house and had the Hubby take out the Christmas tree and set it up. Last year, we bought several boxes of nice big ornaments during the after-Christmas sale and now we have them all up.

It took my Hubby several days to perfect the tree in his liking. Now it is all done. I may add a few family pictures on the tree (from previous years Christmas cards). And I will post up a picture of our tree later when I have time to clean up my memory card in my digital camera for some new pictures.