Starting Over?

Should I start blogging again? This is the million dollar question I have now. I guess simply by writing this post, I have kinda made my decision. Why the sudden urge to blog again after so many years? 

A couple of days ago, I was on the phone with RH (my husband) and he told me he was reading my old blog. He was looking for a favorite link on his computer, saw the bookmark on my blog and decided on a detour. He asked me why I stopped blogging and how he really enjoyed reading my blog. He said he laughed out loud as he read it and he rarely laughs out loud when reading anything. RH then told me to start again as it would be nice for our children to read it one day. And so, being as sentimentalist like myself, I found myself starting my blog again. 

It is rather hard work trying to maintain a blog (hence why I stopped, I simply had no time). You gotta have time, effort, inspiration and you need to be interesting. Isn't that why people blog? To make it interesting enough for others to follow? Well, I have decided that this blog is going to be semi-private. Am not trying to be interesting but rather just charting my journey and significant moments so that my children one day will know what I grow through. 

As I read my old blog, I realized that I have changed or grown a lot in the past couple of years. Being a mother has really shifted my perspective. I am now more mature, more confident, more practical and definitely also more mature in my faith. 

What has changed since my last blog? C is now no longer a toddler but a little child. He is K2 now, going on to Primary One next year. Time flies, doesn't it. RH is now working in a different country and so travels back and forth Indonesia and Singapore. There is also a new addition to the family. Baby K who is eight months now. Here she is....our answered prayer after waiting for two years. 

K and my sister D

Do follow this blog if you want. Will be posting more soon. 

Love, C

Life starts at 30!

Finally go to celebrate my birthday yesterday. We had loads of relatives in from China and Indonesia over the weekend and so instead of having dinner outside, Mom cooked a huge feast for me.

It was great. Loads of fantastic food, noodles, crabs, money bags, fish...the list goes on and on. The best thing were the cakes. Yep, you got that right. It is "cakes", not "cake. Cos instead of a traditional big cake, I got seven mini ones, each one measuring no bigger than 3 inch in diameter. Each cake represents each family member and the design of the cake represents them and me or least they were suppose to be.

It was a whole lot of surprise to see the individual cakes.

{Seven Mini Cakes}

{Look how small the cakes are!}

{My Main Cake, look at the big 30}

{Mom and Dad's Cake for me, with a longevity peach at the top}

{Ron's Cake to represent our holidays together}

{Luggage at the top and map at the bottom tier}

{SK's cake for me, graphic design all the way. She is the main designer and baker for the cakes}

{BX's cake for me. A storyboard about how much we look alike and how many times people mistake her for me}

{rather complicated cake, this one}

{XD's cake for me, a representation of his love of food}

{Last and least (by size), C's cake for me, a representation of his love for bus and taxi and also his fave song "Shing a ling a ling"}

{And he drew a picture for me.....}

{What's inside? }

It is my birthday today...

Big 30.....yes it is finally here. I am officially not a young girl anymore but a mature lady or so people like to think.

Am I still busy? You bet! It is my birthday today and I still gotta go to Alpha Course tonight and re-schedule my birthday dinner to the weekend. No complains though (or maybe just a little) since RH is working late and my family is also more free on weekend.

C is now chattering and chattering and chattering.....sometimes just pointing out things around him within his limited vocabulary or sometimes just baby talking. He used to be such a quiet guy, where did he go? I want him back. It is so hard to get a moment of silence now. Hahaha.

I have been taking C to Julia Gabriels for classes once a week for a month now. I would not say that I see tremendous improvements mentally but I do find that he is less timid now and is more willing to try out new things and explore new environments. He is also understanding more things and is able to relate real items to pictures or drawings of these items. For eg. he is able to say "Bus" when he sees a real live bus on the road and also say it again when he sees a cartoon version of a bus on tv.

"Bus" and "Taxi" are now his favorite words in the car as he looks out his window. He gets so excited over them. Although he can name items in English due to the flashcards, he communicates mostly in Indonesian which is good because I do delibrately teach him more Indonesian words as he would not get to learn or use the language in school.

By the way, he hugs, kisses and bites all soft toys now.....

Anyhows, here are some pictures of him. Hopefully I get to update this blog more often.

{Playing in my baking room while we are preparing an order}

{"Act Cute", meaning to put both hands under his chin}

Update Time

Have not posted anything on this blog for the longest time. The past few months have been so busy for me. It has been really hard to get a few moments to catch my breath. Sometimes, I wonder if I should just give up one of my avenue of busyness and then I can relax a little. But what can I give up?

1. Family Time

2. Church Ministry

3. Work

4. Baking Business

Hmm, it is really a tough decision and I think at this point in time, I am unable to yet let go of any of these things. Yet, I have to reconcile and admit that it would mean, I have to sacrifice my sleep and also any leisure time for myself. Well, at least for a few more years.

C has been growing up since the last time I blogged and I mean, he really grew upwards. He is quite tall now and also leaner too, losing some of his baby fats.

{C at 2 months old}

{C at 17 months old}

He is speaking up more and is more daring but this baby of mine is still a scaredy cat by nature and would always shun anything new and mysterious.

He likes to contradict himself as well though, always staring at new things for hours and yet afraid and refusing to go near and touch the thing. For example, my sister bought a cute furry cow soft toy that makes a "mooooo" sound when you press its tummy. C was so scared of the toy that he cried the first time the cow made the "mooooo" sound.

Never give up on the first try, I say! So, I first hugged and kissed the cow to show C that the cow will not harm him. Then I tugged on the cow's tail and said "buntut" which means tail in Indo. I then kept repeating the word until C said the word himself. He calls it "bu-tut" by the way. I followed it with praises and then asked him to show me where the buntut is. He would timidly reach out his hand and point to the buntut at a distance. I reapeated the whole procedure and he managed to actually use his fingers to touch the cow's tail for a second and retreated really fast.

After a few tries and me hugging and kissing the cow, he finally decided that he could also hug the cow and remain unscathed. So my timid little baby threw his arms around the cow for a brief second, then pushed it away saying "n-mau" meaning "I don't want it" Hahaha, he is such a funny little guy.

C went for a haircut on Saturday. The moment that hairstylist whipped out her electric razor, C cried and cried and cried. He did not stop crying until we took him to the window and pointed out the bus, the cat, the imaginary dog, cece......

It really did not stop him crying for long and after 1/2 an hour of crying and lots of fallen hair, here is the result of the cut.

{before}

{after}

Guess, he did not like either of them.

This little guy is always picking up things around the house. Remote controls, pens, papers, newspapers, books, bottles, toys, boxes, his bamboo chair (yes!). It often seems that he does not know his own size and strength.

{picking up things again}

{this time an item twice his size}

Cupcake Pops

After reading Bakerella's blog, it so inspired me to make cake pops. And since there were leftover cupcakes from a customer's order on Saturday, it was the perfect opportunity. The cake pops were easy enough to make, you do need to practice a little because the first batch that I made were horrible.

{Cupcake Pops}

So, I tasted the cake pops and decided that I should just stick to regular cupcakes. The cake tasted horrible, all compressed into a mound and covered with choccolate. They are absolutely cute and adorable though, I must say.

{see how small they are compared to the spice bottle}

For the last one, there was not enough cake to make a mini cupcake so I racked my brain and came up with this. Do you know what this is? When I showed C my end products, he just picked it up and tried to whack it onto anyone who carried him.

{Guess what this is suppose to be?}

I understand, Mama

We brought little C to Jacob Ballas Children's Garden on Sunday but because it was an impromptu outing, we dis not prepare any spare clothings so he was not allowed to play in the water. It was so sad, looking at him watching the other kids play with a longing in his eyes. So, we had to quickly bring him away to other parts of the garden.

{wistfully looking at other kids having fun}

{C had to walk and walk and walk}
{miniature chairs everywhere at the garden}

It was a very interesting place and I am glad that the government thought to invest in children. I believe that C will probably enjoy it more as he grows older too.

Its amazing how much C has developed mentally. Physically, he has grown a little taller and leaner with more teeth in his mouth but he has really grown mentally. He is able to concentrate on individual items better, spending longer periods of time exploring how to open containers with screwed on tops versus those that just pop open. Exploring how my keys jingle together on my key chain. All animals are called "goog goog" now. We taught it to him to imlpy the sound dogs make when they bark but I think we overdid it cos ALL (fish, bird,bug, elephant, cat, turtle, etc.) animals are "goog goog" now.

He loves to open and close containers and I mean any containers. Powder cases, biscuit jars, his toy box, even glass covers. He is also able to repeat quite a substantial number of words. When he is in a good (learning) mood, he is able to repeat almost every word from his flashcards. What amazed me most is how much he is understanding without speaking it out.

Yesterday morning, I told him to get his shoes (spatu in Indonesian). When he did not repeat after me, I thought he did not get it, but he trotted right over to the shoe rack and picked up his own shoes and brought it over to me.

Yesterday evening as we went through the flashcards, I said the word "piglets" but he said "bobok" which means sleeping because the picture showed a mother pig lying on its sides while the piglets are suckling on her tits. He said "koko" instead of blanket because the picture showed a baby covered in a blanket and said "goog goog" instead of turtle, naturally. Hahaha!