Toddler's book: 好饿的小蛇 A very hungry snake by Miyanishi Tatsuya

This is a very very cute book by a Japanese author Miyanishi Tatsuya 宫西达也. If you're just starting to read to your young preschooler (as young as one year old), this is a good one. This is short but engaging. It touches on the concept of colors and shapes and also numbers. It is a very interactive book. Whenever J sees this book, he will make that 'eating' sound effect (啊呜”“咕嘟”) that I always do whenever I read for him. 

Miyanishi Tatsuya has written a lot of good books for little ones. Some of the ones I have been wanting to get include: 你永远是我的宝贝　and 你看起来好像很好吃。　Knowing that these books were originally authored in Japanese, I have always have this preconception that I wanted to get them in Chinese, so the translation doesn't run too far apart. Don't mind me. This is just me.

He is a very passionate author. Once, when being interviewed, he shared this with his readers, first, never erase whatever that you feel is imperfect, continue working on it and make it perfect; Secondly, be truthful, especially on what you're writing about (translated by myself). Here's the Chinese version: 他与学生分享了两个原则：第一，不要用橡皮擦去你认为不完美的画，要用笔在不完美之上继续创作；第二，要真诚，让笔下所有东西都与自己有一种情感关联。

One of his quotes that resonates with me is this: The recognition of the fact that the world is imperfect, is amazing. 知道了这个世界的不完美，　这本身就已经很美妙了。So let's not continue to dwell in our own or the world's imperfection, instead, let's work out something to make it perfect. 

Whenever, I think about this quote, I get reminded of the other book, which you MUST get, which is Leo Lionni's "A Color of His Own", a book that can be summed up with these few words by Lao Tzu, 

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. 

Get this book if you have an infant or a toddler. Don't worry even if he is 5 or 6. It is a book that encourages your child's imagination and curiosity to blossom.Encourage him to contribute to the story, ask him what happens next. Let him makes the sound of eating. After a few read, encourage him to retell the story or his version of the story, or get him to add a new ending. Remember, there is no right or wrong to fantasy and imagination. 

After reading this book, enjoy yourselves with the free printables that comes along with the purchase of this book. I have made time and effort to create these fun printables that would encourage active learning. Many of these printables are perfect for "one-to-one correspondence" at home. If you're new to this phrase, check this out, the concept is so fundamental that we often don't put much thought to it. One-to-one correspondence is the ability to match one object to one (corresponding) number or object. 

Example: Placing 2 stars on the mat, when recognizing the number 2 displayed in column. 

This is a foundational math skills for preschoolers, or even those in kindergartens. I place emphasis on this as many children may have started knowing numbers from rote counting (memorizing numbers by counting from 1 to 10), but this is just like singing a song, and have no meaning or sense to them. Therefore, engaging in activities with these printables encourages hands-on learning and also promote problem-solving skills. 

In addition, I create plenty of crafts and coloring activities for lil J. Recent research demonstrated that arts and crafts in early childhood benefits: 

• Visual processing skills (eg pattern recognition, detection of sequences etc) - important skills for math and reading 
• Fine motor skills 
• Attention span, improves focus and working memory skills 

I now have 15 new and genuine copies of "A very hungry snake" 好饿的小蛇 in Chinese (全新正版精装版）available for sale. It's for sale in the form of "Book & Activities Pack RM35" including the following: 

• 1 x genuine hard-copy of "A very hungry snake" 好饿的小蛇 in chinese (new) 
• 1 x Soft copy of A very hungry snake printables (16 pages) including printables for race to 10, 20 and 30, color recognition, add, cut and paste, shape recognition, beginning letter clip cards and counting puzzle (to be emailed to you)
• 1 x pattern roller brush + a pot of toxin-free toddler-friendly water color (any color)  
• 1 x sheet of coiled snake coloring page + 1 pair of googly eye for your snake 

Price is not inclusive of postage. 

Painting snake with a pattern roller brush

My toddler is not going to write at 3 (Numeral felt cards by ibabiesclub)

Earlier on this year, I was asked, 

'How old is J?'. 

'He's turning 3 this year', I answered. 

She asked again, 'Why aren't you sending him to a nursery? So he can learns to write and read.' 

Now, that's exactly the reason why I wasn't sending him to a nursery, I did not want him to write yet, at the tender age of 3!! Or 2 ish to be exact.

I myself only started going to school when I was 6, and that was probably the time I started learning to write. I remembered I knew how to spell 'Elephant' and I thought I was the smartest girl in class. At that time, no one told me I wasn't. 

Few weeks later, I met a friend with a son at about J's age. I casually asked, 'How's little K doing in nursery?'. She answered, 'He's good. He loves it there. But the teacher told me he hates writing!'. She continued to say, 'The teachers let him bring home some homework, and they are mainly tracing and writing sheets'. 

Exactly! How can a three year old loves writing when he is not developmentally or physically ready as yet? I am not too sure about this, but personally I am not going to force J to write before the age of 3. At the early stage, he won't be using the right force and strength from his fingers or even hands to write, majority of the force may be from the shoulder or the arm and it can be physically strenuous to the little one. 

At this stage at home, J is still doing mostly things that work on his fine and gross motor skills that would strengthen his little fingers and improve his dexterity, like scissor cutting, glue and pasting, water-painting (he is not keen on coloring with color pencils nor crayons, but he loves painting with water colors), play dough, scooping beans, jigsaw puzzles etc. Most importantly, these are 'FUN' to him! He barge me for these 'fun stuffs' everyday. My hubby is also quite stern that he does not want the boy to remembers his childhood being bogged with 'writing' and 'tracing' torture, because both of us grew up in 'kampung' with lots of outdoor fun stuffs, playing with dried leaves, muds, frogs in the drain and making cicak (lizard) ditch their tails. 

I strongly believe that he will come to a 'writing explosion' phase when he will yearns to write and trace. I later on met a Glenn Doman advocate dad who told me the same thing, 'Your 3 year old can read, but he doesn't need to write as yet, 'cos writing is an expression that will come much later on'. At the moment, he expresses himself through colors. 

Painting with sponge rollers

Painting with wheels

Fixing 3D animal puzzles 

*************************Few months later ******************************************

I am suspecting the 'writing explosion' phase is coming. But I am not rushing yet. I am just following his lead most of the times He has been gripping his pen and asking me to hold his hand to trace. He has drawn a few circles and semi circles quite orderly. At this point of time, I know exactly what he needs. He needs his tactile numerals and letters to play with (they are the very fundamental part of any Montessori curriculum that provides them with the sensory foundation, preparing them for writing).  See here to understand better. 

Each time he uses his fingers to trace the number or letter shape, a 'muscular memory' is developed and reinforced. This will translate to confidence during later attempts to write, as the hand and mind are both familiar with the movements required to form the numerals or the letters. 

I am very fortunate cos a mommy friend of mine from Johor had developed these for her daughter and they are also made available for sale! You see, that's the best thing about making new friends who are moms, especially when the kids are about the same age. I am sure we wouldn't have crossed path if it wasn't because of our little ones, we knew each other when the little ones was ready to embark on the 'eating solid' phase. 

This is what I do when I presented these 'Numeral Felt Cards' to little J. 

1. Place the numeral felt cards in order. If your little one is new to numerals, then introduce 3 numerals on each day. 
2. Sound out the numeral. 
3. Demonstrate to him the way it is written. 
4. Place the little cuties (cute lady bugs, owls and pegs are provided as part of the set) on the round slots and count out loudly. 
5. Then proceed with the next numeral. 

J traces the number 3. 

J counts. 

The set also comes with counting cards for the little ones, allowing them to work until 10. It comes together with the wooden pegs (not marked with numbers). I have used my own wooden pegs (as seen here in these photos) which I have previously marked with numbers for reinforcing number recognition. Again, playing with the wooden pegs is another activity that practices on the fine motor movements. This comes in especially handy when the little ones had been introduced to numerals using the felt cards and this would be an activity to reinforce the concept of counting and quantity. 

To know more about these goodies for your little curious toddlers, hop over to YJ's online blogshop here. There are also other busy bag items available for sale. There's another one that J owns and he absolutely loves it! It's the wooden blocks, somehow he calls them colorful lego. I will blog and share about that in another post. Give her facebook page a like. YJ and her partner (who's also a mom) are constantly sharing ideas on games and activities for their little cutie pies. 

First visit to fun fair

So there was a fun fair in town, kinda like a temporarily put up mini theme park with rides and games booth. We pass by it every morning I send the lil' fella to his nanny's. He's been telling us, let's go there and have a 'walk walk'. I've been telling him, yea yea.. we will go there, one day. But deep down inside, I felt reluctant to bring him there, cos it's a temporarily made up fun fair, how flimsy are the rides and frames gonna be? Oh well, we had to go cos we still have to fulfill our promises. So we thought, we will just bring him for a walk-around. 

Ahhh... seeing these photos, you'll know we didn't just go in for a walk-around. He went onto the rides, alone. I wasn't too sure how my hubby felt, my heart was pumping fast cos for G sake, there were no height restrictions sort of rules and there wasn't any safety belt on the rides (Okay, for I have allowed him to go onto the rides, I shouldn't be complaining at all.. but .. just saying..). With his height, I doubt he would be allowed to go on. Oh well.. he loved it! It was heart-warming seeing the beam and grin on his little face. I hoped there was fear in him (cos that was his first ride, even though it wasn't a fast spinning one, but it did felt fast to me.. and knowing there was fear in him would make ME felt much better cos there was surely fear in me, worrying that he would stand up half way, wanting to be let out...) .. ah .. but again, maybe I was wrong. He held onto the rail obediently throughout the ride and was seen enjoying every second every moment of his entire ride. He even let go one of his hands half way through the ride, and the worrisome me had to remind him to place his hands back onto the rail. Bless him. 

Twas just a short visit. But it surely was a good one for him. We bought him an helium balloon on way back. He held on tight to the balloon even when going to bed. So the spiderman balloon was floating right next to my pillow at night. Nice!  

Last night, I also found out that my gym acquaintance from back then when I was in KL, Eileen Khoo has passed away at the tender age of 37. I hadn't got the chance to know her properly but she was a lovely and bubbly lass. I'm glad that she now doesn't need to suffer anymore. Eileen babe, rest in peace. 

They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then the entire life to forget them. You'll always be in our memmory, dear Eileen. 

Marble butter cupcake / Butter cake

Josh turns two today! :) 

2 years ago, I woke up at 7am, got myself ready for my routine check up with my gynae at the hospital. Little did I know I was gonna be pushed into the OT that day, and I would meet the lil' fella that day itself. 

A year ago, I woke up at 5am, if not earlier, to prepare for the lil' fella's first birthday cake, I made chocolate cupcake decorated with owl for his halloween-themed birthday party. 

Today I woke up at 6:15am. I made a simple but delicious butter cake, marbled, in a log form (topped with plenty of sunflower seeds) and 2 cupcakes. We're not gonna have any lavishing celebration this year, it's just gonna be a simple one with the family. I prepped his lunch (spaghetti with creamy mushroom sauce), I boiled him some red eggs and got his breakfast ready (steamed bun). Yea, it does seem too much of a breakfast spread for a little two year old. This is my wish for him, that he shall have nothing to worry about, his tummy shall be filled and he'll always be happy in his future years to come. 

I made this very good butter cake few months ago, here. It has gotten very good review from many bloggers so far. So I have decided that I would make it for the lil' fella's birthday cake. I was initially gonna make the easier Steamed Moist Chocolate Cupcake, but I couldn't get unsalted butter. And the only recipe that would go well with the savory butter would be butter cake. And no regrets. It was good! This time, I didn't drastically down the sugar level, cos I used salted butter, worrying that reducing the sugar may affect the ultimate taste. 

Ingredients: 

• 230g butter, soft 
• 80g brown sugar 
• 1tsp vanilla extract 
• 1/8tsp salt (I omitted this, cos I used unsalted butter in this recipe) 
• 4 egg yolk
• 1tbsp fresh milk
• 200g cake flour 
• 1tsp baking powder

• 4 egg white
• 80g brown sugar

For marbling effect: 

• 1tbsp cocoa powder
• 3tbsp hot water

Topping: sunflower seeds (optional) 

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 170degC. Line a loaf tin. (This time I baked mine at 155degC) 
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 
3. Add in yolks, one at a time, and beat until fluffy. 
4. Sift in flour and baking powder and mix well. Set aside. 
5. Beat egg white with sugar till turns to soft peak in another bowl. 
6. Fold egg white meringue into yolk batter. Mix well and fold in the rest. 
7. In a small bowl, combine cocoa powder and hot water until there is no lumps. Mix into 3-4 tbsp batter in another bowl. 
8. Pour yellow batter in lined tin, followed by brown cocoa batter. 
9. Sprinkle generous amount of sunflower seeds on top of batter. 
10. Bake for 40min (for cupcakes, I baked for 20min) or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. 

Steamed savory cupcakes - tomato and cheese

 

 

Since I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes when I was pregnant with the lil' fella (which has left me after I gave birth), I'm no more a big fan of sweet stuffs. I tried not to drink my coffee with sugar, and also stopped indulging in cheesecakes from the shops. Instead, I make my own sweet indulgence, so I can control the amount of sugar I add in.

 

This steamed muffin is something I always make, sometimes 2-3times in a week, cos it's sooo easy and convenient to make. No mixer no oven needed. It only requires about 5-10min to prepare and put everything together, and it only needs 8min to steam them. It makes soft and fluffy cupcakes. Best of all, it's a recipe that makes about 4-6 cupcakes, which is great, cos we don't have lots of us in our household to finish them.

 

When I prepared these, I thought to myself, these are gonna be savory, no sweeteners added into them at all, a person has to be quite mature in terms of their palate to appreciate them. I hope the lil' fella will like them.

 

Recipe, adapted from my previous ones.

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour with 1.5tsp of baking powder (I used natural b.p. cos they are aluminum free)
• pinch of salt
• 1tbsp of grapeseed oil
• 2tbsp tomato puree, homemade (you should be able to use store-bought or ketchup)
• 2tbsp grated cheddar cheese
• 2tbsp fresh milk
• 1 egg

1. Beat the egg with milk, oil and salt. Add in tomato puree and grated cheddar cheese. Combine.
2. Sift in all purposed flour and baking powder.
3. Divide the batter between 4-5 cupcake liner and place into a silicone cupcake liner.
4. Steam for 8-9min.

Verdict: Yes!! The lil' fella has complicated tastebud! He eats them. These are good. I love them myself. They are quite a good compliment if taken together with a hot a creamy soup.

 

Note: The batter was pink in color before steamed. The pink or red color goes away after steamed. It's quite common with all dish involving red-color fruits or veg, came across info that the anthocyanin (the natural food colorant) loses its color after steaming, something like that.

Seaweed omelette with tomato and pasta

 

 

 

 

I dressed the lil' fella in jeans and sneakers today. I'm in awe of how fast baby grows. This time last year, he was still a little baby using only cries to communicate. Now, he can do much more than that, but at the same time, he also gives me more time to spare to prepare sumptuous food for him.

 

He has just turned 13mo yesterday. At 13th month, I'm quite flexi with what he can or cannot eat, and am gradually adding seasoning (like salt or Bragg's liquid amino) into his food.  I also let him eat more than just porridge, especially on weekends. He has pasta, roasted vege, cheese, steamed muffins as snacks, and he had baked frittata for dinner last night. I'm not sure if he appreciates them, but all I know he eats his food. That's what matters.

 

I ran out of meat at home, no fish, no meat. All I have is egg and cheese. I can still make delicious and pretty looking meals out of them.

 

Recipe

• 1 egg, beaten with about 2-3tbsp fresh milk, seasoned with dried herbs, salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp. of cut up dried seaweed, unseasoned ones
• oil to cook
• 1/2 cup of homemade tomato puree / passata
• pasta, cooked
• grated cheddar cheese to serve

1. Beat the egg with milk and season. Add in seaweed.
2. Heat up 2tbsp grapeseed oil in a frying pan. Pour in the egg mixture. Cook on one side (abt 2-3min) flip to the other side to cook.
3. Slice the omelette.
4. Heat up the homemade tomato puree using the same pan.
5. Serve the omelette with the tomato puree and cooked pasta, top with grated cheddar cheese.

 

 

 

My best choco-banana cupcakes

 

The accidentally crushed M&M created an even better effect.

 

Cutie mini oreo on sticks and marshmallow pops

My favorite cupcake topper - witch's broom

 

It was Josh’s first birthday cum Halloween party and I wandered on a few recipes for his birthday cupcakes. I needed a recipe that is fairly simple and straightforward, yet delicious enough to be served to all guests. I needed to bake 60 of them so it can’t be something too complicated.

Initially I wanted to use a sponge cupcake for the base. Tried out a few times, and I realized it wasn’t as ‘simple’ as I thought it would be. The yolk and white separation and beating needs to be quite precise and done well to make good cakes. So I ditched the idea after failing on a couple of attempts making good sponge cakes. My buddy Kim then suggested why not I bake chocolate cupcakes. I considered on it, and thought, why not, it’s chocolate and everybody loves chocolate.

I tried out a few different chocolate cupcake/muffins recipes and finally I chose this. This is highly rated by Ann. I tried it out about two weeks ago baking it for Karen. I realized the cupcakes were super moist and soft a few hours out of the oven. After about a day, it turned quite dry. I couldn’t understand it, cos Ann said that it remained soft and moist even after a day, and it was better after chilled.

On the actual day of baking, I made slight adjustments to it and I knew the slight adjustments shouldn’t ruin the cupcakes. I changed the milk to chocolate milk, reduced the sugar (cos I ran out of sugar), added mashed banana to the recipe and some other minor details (see below for my recipe). It turned out to be the BEST chocolate cupcakes I have ever done! It was still soft and moist even after a day, in room temperature or chilled.

I baked 60 or a little more, I didn’t count. I knew I had more than 60. Baked about 40 standard size and over 20 mini ones. I made two different types of toppings for the cupcakes. Most of the standard size ones were decorated with cute owl-face using mini oreo (which was not easily available in Malaysia, I bought them when I was travelling back from Bangkok at Bangkok Don Muang Airport), mini M&Ms and chocolate ganache (a recipe by Martha Stewart). The mini size ones were frosted using the same chocolate ganache, but whipped and topped with chopped blue M&Ms (to fit in the theme) and some were topped with my DIY witch’s hat and broom (my fav!)

Here’s my recipe for 60 choco-banana cupcakes (make your own adjustment to bake the amount you want)

Recipe modified from Ann’s must-try chocolate cupcakes

• 300g butter, at room temperature
• 500g sugar
• 6 eggs, at room temperature
• 1tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 2.5 cup chocolate milk
• ½ cup of whipping crème/ heavy cream (if you don’t have this, you can just replace this with milk or chocolate milk)
• 3 tsp baking soda
• 580g superfine flour (or cake flour)
• ¾ tsp salt
• 3tbsp baking powder
• 50g cocoa powder (I forgot to tripled this from the original recipe, that’s why my cupcakes didn’t appear as dark)
• 1tbsp chocolate emulco (optional)
• 9 banana, ripe (I freeze the bananas whole, cos they were too ripe 3 days before the actual day, and on the night before I defrosted them in the fridge)

Instructions:

1.     Sift flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa powder in bowl. Dissolve baking soda in chocolate milk.

2.     Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add vanilla essence and eggs, one by one, continue beating.

3.     Add in the mashed banana and the rest of the ingredients, chocolate milk and flour mix. Beat till smooth.

4.     Bake in a preheated oven at 160deg (fan-forced) for about 15min (for standard size) and 12min (for mini size). Adjust the temperature for your oven. My oven is a little on the strong side.

5.    Leave to cool on rack before decorating/ frosting.

The owl-decorated cupcakes didn’t need to be chilled but the chocolate ganache frosted cupcakes must be chilled or else the frosting may melt in our temperature.

Note:

1. The Oreos turned soggy after getting in contact with the chocolate ganache.

2. Love it that it was themed Halloween. I got quite messy when decorating or frosting the cupcakes. But it was okay to my own standard, cos it's Halloween, it's supposed to be messy, not neat :p

3. Make all the preparation ahead, this is a doable recipe, I made and decorated all in about 4-5hours.

Read more about the party here:

• Early pre-party planning
• Pre-party preparation
• Actual night of celebration

 

Soymilk cheese omelette

Soymilk is such a versatile ingredients. Since I have some unsweetened soymilk in the fridge and I need to use it up as soon as possible, cos soymilk turns bad quick, I have been using soymilk replacing milk in almost all cooking and baking this two days. I have done soymilk oatmeal, soymilk pumpkin pau, and now even soymilk cheese omelette. The good thing about it is that it is very fragrant but not too overpowering. And most importantly, it's so nutritious for the little tummy. Kudos to Mich from Piece of Cake for hosting this month's Little Thumbs Up with soybean as its theme.

 

The lil' fella must have been exhausted after returning home from the babies play date happening at Vivian's house, he drank a bottle of milk and konked out for almost two hours. I accompanied him on the bed blog-hopping with my phone, and when he woke, it was almost dinner time. I hadn't got much time to prepare porridge. So I just quickly prepared steamed-soft-brown rice to go with soymilk cheese omelette and cut into thin strips for him. Now that he's quite good with firm food with textures, I am gradually turning his usual porridge into soft rice (more like risotto or rice stew).

His brekkie: Soymilk oatmeal with pumpkin and red bean

His dinner: Stripped soymilk cheese omelette served w soft brown rice

Ingredients:
*2 eggs (I used two eggs cos my pan is big. It seems a waste to be just cooking with one egg, so this recipe made two portions for him)
*small chunk of Japanese cucumber, finely minced
*1/4 onion, finely minced
*half a cup of unsweetened soymilk
*2tbsp of grated cheddar cheese

Instructions:
1. Beat the eggs with soymilk. Season with black pepper or other seasoning.
2. Heat up 1 tbsp. of grapeseed oil in a wok.
3. Stir in finely minced onion and Japanese cucumber, when soft, pour in egg-soy mix to cover the whole pan and turn heat to low. Cook one side on low  heat. Sprinkle grated cheddar cheese. Flip to the other side to cook.
4. When slightly cooled, cut into thin little strips and serve with brown rice.
5. Drizzle over 1/2 tsp of organic flaxseed oil prior to serving.

I am submitting this humble dish of mine to the Little Thumbs Up "Soy Beans" event organized by Bake for Happy Kids, my little favourite DIY and hosted by Mich of Piece of Cake. You can link your soy recipes here.