An Early Birthday Party for Maya

After much thought, we decided to celebrate Maya's birthday slightly earlier due to time constraint. This time around, we were a bit more ambitious and cooked everything by ourselves. Luckily, Harry's mum was ever so kind and offered to cook the fried rice, salted egg crabs and some pickles. Other items made by yours truly on the menu were; vinegar pork trotter, BBQ pork ribs, honey drumsticks, quail eggs mung bean dessert, steamed prawns, garlic boiled pork belly and hello kitty strawberry konyaku jelly. The madness and whirlwind rush to get everything ready in a day reminded me of the days when I was still working in Pavilion but just that, this time it revolves around Maya's nap time, and breasfeeding demands.In the kitchen, every single stove top had pots boiling, the steamer was in use, the oven always had food cooking and the blender was whirring until the motor was hot, but all the effort was worth it as every guests went back with smiles on their face and a full tummy. Thank you to everyone who came and made Maya's birthday an extra special one! Happy birthday to my dearest daughter, mummy and daddy love you!

Jkids at Paradigm Mall, Kelana Jaya

Mummy finally needed a little time off to do pedicure and daddy became the babysitter for Maya. We decided on the new mall at Kelana Jaya; Paradigm. So far, we are loving it. Maybe it has partially to do with their great baby rooms and nice tenant mix, though they do need to brush up on their operations and visual merchandising.

So, mummy went to the "Nail Parlour" while daddy and Maya checked themselves into a very nice looking indoor park. I must add, this park looks quite whimsical and packed with loads of fun! Mummy was a bit apprehensive in putting Maya in Jkids at first as there were lots of mechanical moving parts but daddy had no qualms about it. Thanks to daddy, we found out Maya is indeed ready and a little bit more grown up already. :)

Baby Girls and Blythe

Maya has been sick these few days. Actually everyone in the house is sick. To cheer her up, we decided to introduce Maya to mummy's small collection of baby girls. Her interest in them grew a little more each day and we ended up getting her a few mini Blythe dolls from "The littlest pets" collection. The great thing about these dolls, they keep her in the trolley while mummy does grocery shopping.

Expressive Balloons

We decided to do a quick and fun activity a few days ago. Initially, it was supposed to be facial expressions on the balloons, which then turned into doodling on balloons. Maya kept asking daddy to blow more balloons for her. She had fun, and daddy.... well... out of breathe. :P

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

My first ever attempt at red velvet cupcakes!

 

Hokkaido Cake

This is Maya's favorite cake. A little on the sinful side, but definitely a recipe to keep. I was in such a rush to clean up after baking, that I forgot to clean the sides of the cupcake before taking a picture of them. I have to admit I was dead nervous about making them as this is my first ever attempt. As usual, I got everything from JADI, our favorite baking shop. http://jadi.westrock2u.com/601867354/index.html

 

Maya's Balls Collection

Like most little kids, Maya loves balls. So while I was out shopping in a new craft shop near my house, I came upon something called the Pom Pom maker by Clover. Fascinated by the many possibilities these devices can make, I bought one set. Maya and I have made a few pretty colorful Pom poms from normal wool already. Out of habit today, we stopped by our favorite shop, Daiso. Maya saw these pretty interesting yarns, grabbed a few of them and gave them to me. She said, " Make. Balls." I guess, this will be the start of Maya's humble collection of balls.

 

Edible Finger Paint and Colorful Pouches

I have been really busy these past few days with cleaning and reorganizing the craft area and our walk-in wardrobe. After uncluterring the mess, and as I have promised Maya, we made edible finger paint. The ingredients are as shown in the picture above. Don't worry, this is a very simple recipe that does not require one to be a rocket scientist.

Sieve all the dry ingredients together. Mix the water into the sifted ingredients, and stir until there is no longer any lumps. To ensure that the mixture is lump free, strain the mixture through a sieve.

Cook the mixture on stove top until it has formed a gooey paste. I separated the goo into different containers and added candy oil coloring. If your child still puts things into the mouth, do use natural coloring instead. Such as, tumeric for yellow, cocoa for brown, blue peas flower for blue and spinach for green.

I took out half from each container and put them into zip lock bags, small size. Two zip lock bags per color to ensure that they won't spill. These are nice color pouches to learn about colors, for interactive dancing activities, and imitating game. Maya was having fun putting on her nose, head, tummy and etc.

As for the other half, these can be used as finger paint. But since Maya didn't like the gooey texture on her fingers, we had fun doing texture painting instead. Still lots of fun!

Paper Bag Alphabet Monster

I have to admit that this craft was unplanned but on the spot activity. It was about time for Maya to go to bed when she went to mummy's stash of craft supplies and said she wanted to make something. Tomkeep this a short and simple activity, I took out some googly eyes, sticker, paper bags and markers.

It melts my heart to see my little girl so happy and absorbed in the things she do. After she was done with the paper bag monsters, with her energy all zapped up, she's now in deep slumber. :)

 

DIY Suncatcher

As promised, here is the tutorial for DIY Suncatcher. Very simple to make. :)

Items: Glass paint, transparent pp or plastic sheet, scissor, sketch pad, paint brush and pencil.

Method: Sketch on the sketch pad. Lay the pp or plastic sheet on top of your sketch. Trace the outline of the drawing with the glass paint.

Leave to dry. Once dried, cut the outline of the drawing on the pp or plastic sheet. You can punch a hole in the middle so that it can be hung with a string later.

Press out the glass paint on a palette and start painting.

Maya waited since last night to have a go at painting these. A very brief but fun activity. To prevent the sun catchers from moving around while painting, I placed wet wipes under them. The plastic sheets used are normal plastic sheets used in book binding and can be bought from stationery shops.Do try and get the thicker sheets but not too thick so that a scissor can still run through them.

 

Bed Time Activities

It has been quite a while since Maya last played with her wooden puzzles. Today, we decided to play with them and I am glad she had a great time putting them back into a complete piece unlike the last time. We did some flash cards as well. Inspired by the flower flash card, Maya requested to wear one of the flower head pin mummy made for her to bed. :) Sweet dreams my sweet angel.

Freeze Dried Strawberries

Maya found a new favorite snack; freeze dried strawberries. She finished half a packet in one sitting. Got these darlings from our favorite baking shop called "Jadi." I must admit, these are actually quite good and the price is very affordable.

Sinful Tarts Fun

Items: Tart shells, whipped cream, graham honey teddies, candied cherries, Reese peanut butter chips, stars sprinkles and cheddar cheese.

Method: Fill each tart shell with whipped cream and start decorating. :) That's how simple this activity is. A little sinful on the ingredients, but I guess if it's a once in a blue moon thing, it should be alright. Maya had lots of fun making these tarts. She was so proud of her little tarts she kept telling mummy she made them. And with her daddy's gene, she just couldn't help eating the ingredients while she was making them, especially the cheese.

Peekaboo, I See Stars

Another bed time activity before story book session. Got these stack up cups from Ikea at a reasonable price, and the chain stars from Daiso. Yes, Daiso again :P Love this RM5 shop to bits. We played peekaboo with the stars and also demolition fun by stacking up the cups. After a while, girls will be girls, Maya started "cooking" the stars and pretending to feed them to me. Took a long while before she finally waved good bye to them; her way of showing she is done with something.

Magic Counting Wand

Items: Wooden pegs, glow-in-the-dark stars, 3M double sided tape, scissors and disposable chop sticks.

Method: Cut the double sided tape into small strips and stick on one side of the wooden pegs. Stick the stars on the double sided tape. Peg the pegs onto the chopstick, and let the counting fun begins.

Some chopstick can have a star, some have three so on and so forth. And some can disappear and there you have your subtraction; and some chopsticks can add more stars, and there you have your addition. We decided to hang the additional stars on Maya's chair, and pretend it's a fairy throne. Endless fun, and they glow in the dark as well!

 

To Increase Milk Production

For mothers who are breast feeding and want to increase their milk production, I would like to introduce this product by Sendayu Tinggi, a Malaysian Company. The ingredients contained inside are : dates, fenugreek, coriander, fennel, star anise and black caraway. These supplement can be found in shops that sell Malaysian beauty products, such as Widuri and Ugie. Per bottle, it should be RM 43, the recommended selling price. I highly recommend this for those who needs a boost in their milk production. Plus point, this actually tastes good.

Microwave Potato Chips

I was browsing my usual recipe hunting site when I stumbled on to this. Out of curiosity, I attempted it and it worked. Delicious too! Well.... A bit sinful though. The actual recipe can be found here : http://allrecipes.com/recipe/potato-chips/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=potato%20chips&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Recipe%20Hub

The only difference is, I followed one of the commenter's advice and coat the chips individually. :)

Home Made Playdough

The original recipe can be found here : http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Playdough-Play-doh/

 

Items needed : 2 cups flour + 1 tablespoon cream of tartar = sieve together . 2 cups warm water + 1 cup salt = mix in together and stir to dilute as much salt into the water. 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil and a non stick pan.

Mix in the sieved ingredients, salt water and vegetable oil together. After the ingredients have been thoroughly mix, sieve them to remove any lumps.

Heat up the pan and pour in the mixture. Remember to stir constantly to prevent burning. It will harden into Playdough pretty fast. Remove from pan and leave to cool. You can add in coloring if you want but I decided to leave mine plain this time so that I can mix into my original Playdough which are already partially harden. :)

 

 

Sakae Sushi IOI Mall

Today, we went to Sakae Sushi in IOI Puchong for our dinner. This is one of Maya's favorite place. She calls it, frog frog. She absolutely loves the combination of Japanese Calrose Rice, Sakae Chawamushi and Sakae Miso Soup. I, on the other hand am getting quite tired of this place. For one, I think this must be the branch with the most horrendous customer service with servers so slow, I had to get my own iced tea. But since Maya loves the food Sakae, I have taken a solemn oath to not ever make a big scene here. * grunt*

So today, seeing how busy all of them are, I decided to not order anything for myself and take anything that is offered on the conveyor belt instead. But sadly, the rice, miso soup and Chawamushi are not items that are available there. As usual I proceeded to order via the computer. Everyone who came much later than me, and ordered way more complicated things, their food arrived. I was wondering, how could my 3 simple order not arrive yet. From one server to another and to another and God knows how many servers I asked, all of them just did lip service but never bothered to really check in the kitchen. Luckily I finally stumbled onto my usual server and Maya's rice and miso soup arrived. And good that he took note that Maya is a child and she gets a free children platter since it's first Sunday of the month. After much waiting and more waiting, and everyone around me got their Chawamushi, Maya's, never arrive. Maya was of course sadden by this but I managed to distract her. Luckily the supervisor apologized and struck the Chawamushi off my bill. When I brought this matter up to the cashier, she nonchalantly keyed in my bill and not even offered an apology. Next time, I will drive to Sunway Pyramid or Pavilion for their Sakae Sushi. IOI Sakae Sushi, I have never experienced such horrible customer service in my entire life!