Surprise party

On Thursday, we had a surprise birthday party for two boys, age 2 and 3 - Kota (Jap) and Tarek (Hk/Pakistan)

Here's the link to the photos

http://s272.photobucket.com/albums/jj168/carisbay_album/BirthdayBash/

Two mums baked 2 cakes - cheese and chocolate, yummie. We had biscuits and other snacks. The best part was games time. The children had a fabulous time. Nathan wasn't in the mood at all, so I just took the shots.

At his age, he is still very much in a world of his own, o boy.

Boy Model

My dearest Boy wearing my nike cap. I have several caps brought over from Singapore in the cupboard. but each time Nathan lays his hands on them, he would always pick the same one - this blue one. He would try to put it on his head and run up to me to have a look. He always wears a cheeky smile on his face each time he does that. He knows we like to see him in it. And so he poses for these shots.

I love Plum

Plum is another favourite fruit, especially when they truly ripe, inside and out. He wasn't used to eating fruit with their peel on, now, he's cool at it.

I'm trying to get him eating blueberries. We are blessed with reasonably priced berries here - blueberries, strawberries and raspberry. Unlike Singapore, where tropical fruit are cheaply available, berries are good when they're in season, like now - winter.

Fix it - Puzzle

The card board Cartoon character puzzle was given by my Japanese neighbour friend. She has two daughters and have probably out grown it, so Nathan had it. For a month, he needed alot of help with it. Now, he has completely mastered the art of finding each piece and fix it up all on his own.

I think puzzles can be great fun, besides the fact that they do train up certain part of the brain. Another benefit is, he spends a good amount of time doing them, most of the time, until he finishes up everything - and we will all applaud him for his accomplishment.

I managed to persuade daddie to buy most puzzles - 3 wooden ones for nathan to play (buy 3 for the price of 2) hee, costs us 12pounds.

Hide-out

These photos were taken today! I was doing my reading, and saw him playing by himself under his high chair. he is developing his own games these days, and it is really amusing to see him there.

Some pictures have him pointing to his body parts - head, nose, mouth, ear, hands ... He can do cheeks, hair, stomach and legs too.

Chong and I remind each other that we should watch what we say, though Nathan is not actually talking yet, he knows more than we know.

Frozen river

This was the second time River Cam was frozen, and poor ducks had to waddle on that without any water to drink or swim in to keep them warm.

Quite a sight to behold.

But colder days are over, and warmer days are near. Today's temperature hit over 10 degrees, yeah, makes me happier with that warm... and nathan too, cos it means more outdoor playground time.

Cheerios

Show time ....

Sometimes we take a video of Nathan and then show it to him. When he looked at himself, he would smile or laugh even. Chong says we should do less of that cos that could possibly turn him into a 'performer', him being more 'monkey' next time, seeing that we actually enjoy him like that.

But for now, we will just share with you!

Chocolate Marmalade Cake

It was Chong’s 35th birthday on Thursday. I had a surprise planned for him. Quite a simple one. I had the help of a friend to come over at 1-3 to bake a cake with me. Chong would be in class then. Perfect timing. We did up the cake in time, but, failing to keep a close watch of time, it got slightly burned. Still tasted fine.

I even invited my Jap neighbours with her girls to come surprise him with me. They brought party poppers, how nice. So, we were all waiting in the dining hall for him to return. The moment we heard the door, we hushed. And out went the party poppers, straight at his face. We sang a song, and ate the cake. Turned out just fine.

Cookie party

I am never good at baking, tried a couple of times before, but my efforts have not seen results, except for using pre-mix like Betty Cocker, which many 'baker' mums would declare it very unwise, loaded with SUGAR.

So, I thought up a plan, to have some experience mums over to bake together. I 'stole' the receipe from a belgium friend, who kindly came over an hour earlier to help me the with dough. She did the measurements, and gave me step by step instructions, how nice, and the best part, it worked!

An hour later, other mums came with their kids, 6 mums and 7 children in all. The older one, 3 yrs old had a jolly time playing with the dough, making biscuit shapes, which was one of Nathan's shape sorter toy. All turned up perfect, you can tell from the pictures.

Chong said it was a brilliant idea. Well, I had fun. Most of all, it built up my confidence to make more cookies in future :)

Visit from a friend

Two nice pictures of our dear friend, who visited us on Monday and stayed one night.

We went for Pub lunch at The Mitre, which served good fish and chips, didn't manage to persuade her to drink sweet cider, and my tummy wasn't quite up to it. We had ice water and lemonade instead.

Though the visit was short, we had a good time, catching up on friends back home and updating her on our little 'happenings in cambridge these past 5 mths. Meeting up with friends from singapore is always a heart warming experience, bringing us nearer to home.

Chinese New Yr 2008

Chinese New Year 2008

This yr's new yr is particularly special mainly becos we're not home, and we don't have the usual 'must do' stuff, like reunion dinners, visiting relatives and preparing red packets.

We initiated a few parties at our place, of which, the one we had most fun was the CNY tea party on the 3rd day. We had 3 different families - German, Jap and China. So, I felt quite chinese having to explain some new yr things to them, such as wearing red, hanging writings on the walls, and eating CNY cookies, finishing up with jasmine tea. I also prepared some craft for the kids, we made mouse masks, quite a success.

So, it was nice. Wherever you are, so long as you make an effort to make the best use of what you have, you can make something happen, we did. Praise God!

A New Game

Although nathan gets giddy with these rounds, he never bumps into anything, quite an expert now, i wouldn't have managed that on my own. I think little kidos have a special balancing power within them, and also explains why children learn skating and skiing better than clumsy adults, besides the known fact of having lowing centre of gravity?

Time to clean up boy!

In the past, nathan is always swiping his mucus all over his face, thus causing his cheeks to turn really patchy and red, and that is not good looking at all.

Becos mum and dad often have running nose in the mornings, he had also learnt to blow his mucus into tissue, not quite getting there yet, but making good progress to cleanliness!