A Meaningful Event

Charlotte's school sent out an invitation to all parents of the 4yr old to attend a short 1.5hr event last Saturday. We were told to bring the child and they were asked to be in their uniform with tidy hair and clean socks. I was wondering why when I read the invitation because it was on a non-school day but then some parents told me that they will be presenting a little performance, that's why. Luckily it was a holiday replacement for her ballet class, otherwise I will be struggling which event should I send her to.

So everybody woke up on Saturday morning just like any other weekday morning instead of the usual lay back, sleep-in Saturday. Charlotte was very excited about the performance and was happily getting ready for school. We were greeted with warm welcome and respect when we arrived and once we got ourselves seated we read the agenda of the event projected on the screen, and yes the first agenda was a performance by the 4yr old! Then a series of updates by the teachers and principal. I thought I was "kiasu" as I made sure my camera was charged and memory card was not fully loaded before I left the house, but when I was at the school I noticed that almost all parents were prepared with cameras and even video cam! Of course, we were talking about our kids! So I guess no "kiasu" is too "kiasu" anyway :)

They presented a very nice song named "感谢" (Grateful) with sign language:

感谢亲爱的爸妈，给我挡风遮雨的家，
为我做香喷喷饭菜，陪伴我长大。
感谢亲爱的老师，教导我无穷尽知识，
指引人生迷惘方向，陪伴我长大。

感谢亲爱的朋友，分享生活苦辣酸甜，
一起探索这浩瀚世界，陪伴我长大。
感谢路边的小花小草，妆点风景诗篇，
感谢经过的大风大雨，增加我勇气。
感谢流动的水，伟大的高山，
感谢上天和大地，
我们拥有平安的每一天。

After the song, the children returned to their classroom while the parents received a full update from the school principal and teachers about their daily activities in the school since the semester started in Jan. There were video clips of what the children did in the school from the moment they arrived in the morning, the classroom activity, lunch, afternoon nap, lessons and other fun activities. I was very pleased with this type of update as we usually don't get to know or see what happened to them once we said goodbye at the gate. Although the teachers were always very kind to answer us when we have any concern or question about our children's well-being at school, nothing compared to a short video clip that you get see for yourself!

We were then presented with another surprise when we told that the children were going to serve us (parents) with snacks that they prepared. The kids were lining up with a tray on their little hands and they walked very gracefully towards their parents and served with great pride! It was not about showing off how well they present the food, it was all about gratefulness. They were taught to give thanks and appreciate the effort of people who helped them. I tell you, so many of us had tears of happiness in our eyes that moment!

Oh ya, the children had their snacks before they serve us. I didn't know it until we were home and was asking Charlotte if she was hungry. She told me "I eat triangle bread (sandwich) already in the school". Thank you very much to the teachers for being so thoughtful!

One thing that I am most pleased with the teaching is the values, the disciplines and the character building that they coach, and everyone in the school lives the teaching including the teachers, principal, and even helpers. The children are the reflection of ourselves and it is very important to live as example for the little ones. I am also not objecting the basic independent skills of life that the school is including it as part of the teaching. Things such as they are encouraged to make their bed themselves (for the afternoon nap), fold their laundry (the dirty uniform after lunch), clean up their own utensils after meals and etc. To me, these are important discipline in life besides academic achievements. Some may think "Doesn't matter! We have maid at home, why should my children do all this thing?" or "Why the school is wasting time teaching that while they are suppose to teach all the ABC and 123?". This was why the school took the effort to visit the new students before the academic year started, to ensure the parents understood the difference between this school and those commercial kindies and the expectations are calibrated. They do have academic focus and the teaching syllabus are according to the government's requirements, it's just that the balance is different. We appreciate the basic discipline, values and independent skills very much and we are committed to reemphasize the school's teaching at home too. We think that these are some of the very important "human" values that money cannot buy.

Towards the end of the session, there was a video clip sharing by the Master Cheng Yen and one of the many elements shared which I couldn't agree more was when she mentioned that it will be a waste if the smartness of someone is not guided with wisdom and goodness. We saw many high tech and highly sophisticated crime cases at this century, aren't they all smart people? A fundamental of goodness and wisdom is an important seed to plant in young children.

Some of you know that I am a Christian and you probably are surprised by my description in this post. I am still a Christian, but I am not against Buddhism and I am not against good elements of living for sure. Religion is something that someone realized for themselves but it is not something that encourages you to go against the others.

Moving

No, no, I'm not talking about us moving to new house. It's Charlotte's school, sadly to say.

The school is just within the walking distance from our house currently and it is VERY convenient for us. Charlotte loves to walk to school every morning. In fact, she prefers to walk to school instead of us driving her when we are also living for work. Unfortunately, bad news came last few weeks that the school is considering of moving. One of the many reasons behind this decision is that they are unable to get the license from government as one of the requirement is that the nursery has to been either a semidetached house or a corner unit of terrace houses. They are occupying 2 intermediate terrace units at the moment and this is the 6th years they have yet to obtain the license. There are many other reasons too.

The new location is very far and it is out of the way for both my husband and I. Although we are trying very hard to influence the decision, it is pretty much confirmed that they are going to move. My biggest headache now is how to get Charlotte to and from the school. Luckily the school recommended someone who is willing to fetch the children from the area that I am staying and she is also currently helping a few other parents to send the children to this school. Although I have secured a place for Charlotte, I am still trying if there are other options to consider.

Preferably not to change school. I am very happy with this school and the teachers. I expected the worst when Charlotte was starting full day school here but it turned out to be the best ever experience. I also try not to have someone to send Charlotte, considering safety issues and such. I will have to workout the work schedules with my manger if necessary.

We are also thinking that if the arrangement didn't workout somehow, we will need to send Charlotte to the one we considered before. Both Pat and I think she is ready now and this is definitely one of our options to consider.

Last night, Charlotte said a prayer before bed. She said "Jesus, please help me don't move my school!". I knew what she meant but I just couldn't help laugh out loud when I heard it.

Well, we'll see how it turns out.

Haircut

Charlotte had another haircut session together with daddy at a salon last Sunday. We were not prepared for her to get her haircut session but just right before we entered the salon her daddy asked her if she would want to join him. She told her daddy that she just wanted to get her fringe trimmed, but not the back. Her daddy agreed to her, but then told the hair dresser to trim her back too... *shh*

Haircut sessions have been very pleasant for us and Charlotte probably enjoys it too as she behaves so well every time. I did not bring my camera along so I took the pictures with Pat's phone camera. I just thought it was just a very nice scene to capture.

Isn't she an angel?

Happily posing after the session :)

We Voted Earth

28th Mar, 2009 marked the first global election between earth and global warming and we, a small family also did our part to vote for earth!

As usual, I knew we will be out for dinner at this hour so I had all our lights set to off from 8.30pm-9.30pm that night. I also told Brenda to do the same and she did! We were home around 8.45pm and the whole house was dark and quiet. I only lite up the candles for the aroma burners, and Charlotte was very curious why we didn't turn on the lights.

She was very excited about all this, it was quiet and calm, no TV, no music, no laptops. Charlotte is too young to understand what global warming is about, so I turned the subject into "appreciation" instead. The story I associated her was "long long time ago, people's house had no lights, no air conditioning, no TV, no fan. We need to be thankful for what we have now, and thus when not using it we need to make sure to switch them off." She understood that very well, and the example she gave me was "Like Tarzan hor?" *LOL*

That night, she said her thanks in her prayer and we were all happy that we did our part in this small voting activity.

First Field Trip

Charlotte's first dental visit was in Oct last year, and we have been making dental appointment for her every 3 months for regular check-up since then. You can imagine how pro she is by now when comes to dentist.

Her school sent out a notice just before the holiday started saying that they will be bringing the children to visit a dental clinic as well as getting their teeth checked during the 1st week of the new term and asking for parents agreement. Why not? It is free, and it is almost time for Charlotte's dental check-up anyway. So I signed the agreement and submitted.

I agreed to the school teachers that I will help to drive some of the children that day but I did not tell Charlotte that I will be there. So, she was VERY happy to see me when I showed up in her school! Her teacher arranged 3 of her best friends to go with her and she had the biggest smile ever! She kept asking with a big grin on her face "mommy, why my friend friend all go with me?"

They had a short briefing on proper ways of taking care of their teeth and proper way of brushing. Everyone was so well behaved and focused on the briefing.

One of the many things that I am very pleased with the school's teaching is they really teach and remind the children of good manners at ALL time! Each one of them was asked to greet the dentist before they proceed with the check-up, and to say "thank you" when it is done. Every little one did exactly as told. The teachers didn't forget the children's drinking bottles even for that short 1.5 hour event. The teachers brought all the bottles in a basket to the clinic.

After the briefing, they moved into the dentist work area and introduced all the tools and equipments used by a dentist to the children. I think it was a very good strategy to let the children know what those are and how it is used to minimize the anxiety one may feels.

Then the examination started, the children were called one by one for the check-up while a teacher prepared with a story telling to keep the rest occupied.

One small observation I made was, see the gloves the dentist wore and the paper towel on the kid? The dentist changed to a new pair of gloves and new set of tools after each child's checking (yes, he should right?), no big deal but he also changes new paper towel for each child even though the checking was a VERY "dry" process. There were about 16 of them, I bet the nurses had the most to throw away and clean up/sterilize (the tools) that day.

That was not all, before they left the clinic gave each of them a small pack of present. It contains a Oral-B kid's tooth brush, a pack of drink and biscuits. Can you imagine that it was all FREE? I think the dentist has done a very good contribution back to the society. I appreciated his effort and willingness to do that and very thankful to the school for making such a meaningful event for the children.

p/s: The clinic is located at Sunway Tunas, "We Care Dental Clinic".

Holidays! (Part III)

Well, it was a spontaneous trip as we were not planning for it before hand. But this last event of the trip was planned after we got to know that we will be going to KL.

photo credit

Yup, it's the Disney On Ice event! The timing was just right and how can I give it a missed? We told Charlotte that we will be taking her to Disney On Ice this trip and bought our tickets at the Tower Record, Gurney before we left. All she knows about, cares about this trip was the Disney On Ice but it didn't happen until the very last day of our stay. Now you know why she was asking of "what's next?" everyday before.

It was our first experience to Disney On Ice, definitely it was Charlotte's first too. It was so crowded when we arrived at Stadium Putra, Bukit Jalil. So crowded that they didn't even bother to check for tickets but only seating. I could have bought only 2 tickets instead of 3.

It was only a 90min show, with a 15min break in between. Personally, it was rather short and brief but I guess they don't expect kids to stay on the seat for longer than that. The theme was "Princess Wishes" and it was presented by all the Disney 6 popular princesses that Charlotte could probably remember the stories by heart. She definitely enjoyed the show very much, only a little disappointed when she didn't see something that she was expecting. During the Aladdin presentation, there was no magic carpet on sight when the song "A Whole New World" was presented and she asked me "why no magic carpet one?". Then came Beauty & The Beast, the song presented was "Be Our Guest" instead of "Beauty & The Beast". It didn't occur to her until the grand finale when Bell was dressed in the signature yellow color ballroom dress and she asked "where is the beast?", "why no beauty & the beast song one?". She also asked where are the mice when it was Cinderella's story. Overall, I think the show was just ok, not as great as I expected. I probably will not pay for another show again.

We grabbed a quick lunch on our way back to the hotel and tucked Charlotte in for her usual afternoon nap before we leave for our flight in the evening. Overall, this was a very flexible trip for us and Charlotte was behaving like a big girl, very understanding and cooperative throughout the entire trip.

Holidays! (Part II)

It was Friday, that means it was still a working day for daddy. We had breakfast together with daddy at the hotel before he left for work and I already had plan for the 2nd day *evil grin*

Daddy let me had his car and the GPS, that means I will be able to get around anywhere!!! Then again, I am a paranoid person, more so when Charlotte is with me. So we didn't get too far, I took Charlotte to 1-U. Shopped around, had lunch and went back to hotel for a nap.

I was planning to go over to IKEA that afternoon but Charlotte woke up from nap asking for Skechers Mirages that we saw at 1-U earlier. I have to admit that it is a very nice pair of casual mary jane, plus the light flashing outsole. I didn't buy it earlier because I thought Charlotte has just too many pairs of shoes already. But after considering the fact that it was on 50% SALE, so soon after a light snack Charlotte and I went back to 1-U for it *guilty*.

Daddy called when we were about to leave 1-U *oops, caught in the act* and I was crossing my fingers not to get scolded for buying another pair of shoes for Charlotte. Luckily he too agreed that it is a very nice pair of shoes to add to the pool.

We had dinner at the Bavarian Bierhaus for daddy's favorite pork knuckles and linguine pasta for Charlotte. I like the restaurant very much, and no question on the food quality by just looking at how much Charlotte ate.

We strolled around for a short while and headed back to the room. Charlotte was asking "mommy, what is after dinner?", I told her that we'll call it a night. She kept asking the same question for the next day, and I'll tell you why in my next post.

Day 3 was a family reunion day. We first went to KLCC for another shopping spree and had lunch there before we prepared ourselves for a family reunion in Seremban. We drove down to Seremban after Charlotte's nap to visit Pat's eldest sister. There were a total of 11 of us coming from different directions and met in Seremban. A very nice meet-up but nothing much to blog about, it was all the talking and eating. By the time we went back to hotel was already past 11.00pm. We had to make sure that Charlotte had enough rest for the next day, a special agenda for her.

Vacation! (Part I)

With the current economically challenged situation we really have to watch our spending, that means no expensive, luxury holidays for awhile *sob*. Pat called me from work 2 weeks ago invited us to join him to go to KL from 18th-22nd Mar. I wasn't really prepared and anticipated a holiday but I guess I could use my 2 days unpaid leave that I entitled for Mar. So, I agreed to the plan. I had to purchase flight tickets for Charlotte and myself though (got it at a very good price from MAS though, all in only RM64 each!) Pat will only come home mid of this week.

We left Penang last Thursday morning and I prepared a snack for Charlotte.

By the time we arrived in KL was already past 1.00pm, daddy had to rush for an business appointment after we settled lunch. As usual, we stayed at the Royal Bintang Damansara as we find it very convenient. Charlotte and I of course had a nice shopping time after daddy left. Our first stop? Daiso, again! The last time I made it there was Dec, I just had to pop my head in to see what's new. Bought quiet a load but the stuff are still in KL, Pat will only bring them back this week.

I then let Charlotte spent a short 10min at the playground at the 2nd floor as a small reward for her well behave. As I was about to leave The Curve, we went into one last store (big mistake) and Charlotte found this...

Call it a fair set. Charlotte was asking for "butterfly wings" for quite some time already and I promised her that I will made her one but had been procrastinating. It is a simple craft to do, all I need is just the right materials. Well, since there is a ready made and it comes with a wand and a hair band and only cost RM24.90, why not? So I bought it and she insisted wearing the set out for dinner that night! She caught all the attentions while walking along The Street as we were heading towards Tony Roma's. I bet daddy will feel very uneasy if he was with us (daddy had to attend a business dinner that evening). A scope of vanilla ice-cream (comes with her meal actually) after dinner was another reward for her for being such a good girl that whole evening! We had a good mother-daughter time :)

That was a very smooth shopping & dining first day.

You Made Me Proud!

A week before I was very worried if Charlotte would let me leave for work everyday this week as it is a school holiday week. I started to prepare her for what's coming, explained to her what school holiday is, and the most important message is "mommy has to go to work". I am very proud to say that her response and supportiveness was way beyond my expectation.

Not only that she is good to let me leave for office every morning without any fuss, she also been behaving very well at home. She did her home work, voluntarily. Her school doesn't have home work for them but those are simple worksheets that I prepared and have asked Brenda to make sure that she spends some time with Charlotte for simple learning instead of watching TV all day.

When I went home on Monday evening Brenda told me that Charlotte switched off the TV herself soon after I left for work and asked for her homework. The worksheets were very well done and she had not watch any movie that day. Same thing happened yesterday (Tuesday).

I have been very busy with work and have teleconference on most weeknights recently. I am usually exhausted after work and have not been emphasising in Charlotte's academical learning, shame on me. I only started to teach her simple spelling a week ago. Simple words (3 to 5 letters), as we came across them. It was spontaneous. I also started her on spelling the numbers, like "O-N-E", "T-W-O", and the last one was "T-H-R-E-E". Yesterday, I asked Charlotte "now, do you know how to spell four?" and she replied softly and slowly "hmm...F-O-U-R"! Guess who has been teaching her...Brenda! I am thankful that Brenda is very sincere and helpful too.

Charlotte is definitely showing her maturity and understanding more now than before. When I have night teleconferences and daddy is not around, I usually give her advance notice and that she will have to let Brenda to tuck her in bed (I used to sneak out when she didn't pay attention, and hide in my room at least 1hour before the meeting time for her to finish her screams and cries before the meeting starts). Now, I just need to make sure I have my work schedules planned ahead of time. She doesn't react very well with last minute notice though, then again, don't we all too? It's all about respect, even with the little ones.

Both Pat and I are very thankful that we are blessed with such a wonderful daughter!

Preview

Remember the crochet dress that Brenda (our maid) made for Charlotte? It didn't occur to me that I have a "sifu" (teacher) available 24x7 that I can take this opportunity to learn this skill until lately. When my company announced pay cut in Jan, we are entitled to get 2 days off every month and I started to wonder what I can do with this extra free time that I have.

While chatting with Brenda one day about the crochet workshop available at one of the mall nearby she said why not I go learn up this skill with the 2 days every month and I seriously think that was such a great idea! But I didn't go sign up the workshop, instead I went to a book store and started to look for books on crochets. I studied the instructions and I think I am able to interpret at least 70% of it. I was thinking, it doesn't matter even if I don't understand the instruction as Brenda is definitely able to figure it out. So I bought this 2 books, but they are in Chinese.

I started to look for a simple pattern, with simple instruction to start with. It has been months since I started my 1st piece of work. You must be thinking, "she is too free ah?", "she no need to work meh?", but the truth is I have been spending a lot late nights doing it. I can only do a very small portion at a time because I am not familiar with the work and I need to watch the time so that I will not take too much time off from my sleep hours.

It is not complete yet, but here is a sneak preview as I tried it on Charlotte today. Actually, Brenda has been making a lot of corrections, repairs and additional rows when I was away at work. Otherwise, it will take another few more months if I do it all by myself.

I think it looks great on Charlotte!

A Little Token Of Appreciation

This is my 2nd time baking Cranberry cupcakes and this time it is for Charlotte's school teachers and every helpers in the school just right before the school holiday starts. I didn't quite satisfy with the result earlier, I thought it was a bit dry. So I made some adjustments to the recipe this time.

I don't really have a complete recipe but what I had in mind was maybe to add a little bit of milk to improve the texture. I used my usual butter cake recipe and added some milk. I have been wanting to make orange flavor but again I don't have the recipe. So I just followed my instinct and added a small amount of orange juice. And the result?

It turned out very well! The cake texture is very fine and moist, and the orange flavor gives it a very fresh feeling as it melts in the mouth. So I packed as many of it in the Correll French White oval bake dish and bring to Charlotte's school this morning as a small token of appreciation.

More Bento Tools

I know, I said no more bento tools Dec last year but aren't they just irresistable? They came in just the right time as next week will be school holiday week and we will be going out of town for a few days. I will be making more interesting bento for sure :)

Determination

We noticed that Charlotte has strong determination since young. If she decided to get something done, she will not stop trying until she gets it. We first noticed her strong determination when she learn to drink from a regular cup (without the sipping cover) and she mastered the skill at around 18months if I'm not mistaken. She also insisted to wear her own shoes (with Velcro) and she got it before she turned 2 too.
* Each child has unique development milestones and I'm not saying that she is ahead in her motor skill development. I am saying about her "determination" in getting things done, especially things that interest her.

Lately, she takes interest in buttons. She wants to get every button on her dress done, all by herself. She will be fuming mad if we try to help her. Once I lost my patience and I thought I get 3 out of the 4 buttons on her school uniform done for her and let her work on 1 to shorten the time. She broke into big tears and started to make a big fuss out of it. To calm her down, I had to unbutton it all and let her work out all the 4 buttons. She is now able to get bigger buttons done, but smaller ones are still tough for her.

Nice Dining Out With You Lately

Pat and I decided to bring Charlotte to Victoria Station for dinner last weekend as we recalled the last time we took her there she was probably under 1 year old. We stopped going there for quite some time now because the food isn't really great compared to the price they charged. But we made an exception last weekend just for the lil girl.

I made simple pancakes with a Hello Kitty pan that I bought and decorated it a little bit. It also has been a long time since I made pancake for Charlotte and I knew she will be thrilled having it again. I also made a couple of cheese cutouts with Hello Kitty face to balance the diet and I felt much more assured going to somewhere without having to worry if we can find something suitable for Charlotte to eat.

Charlotte was very excited when we showed her the train and we spent the first few minutes taking photos outside before we make our place into the restaurant.

I usually like either steak or lamb and I never order combo meal. After I ran through the menu I ended up ordering a combo meal because I wanted to try my luck of getting Charlotte to eat the food served by the restaurant. I ordered a combo with lobster and chicken but before the food was served she already asking for her bento. I tried to delay her by offering her a sticker book, with stickers of course but that didn't last. So, I pulled out the bento box and her reaction was "Wow! Pancake!"

She emptied the box before our food was served. That was the last thing I wish when we dine out because the experience told me when she is done with hers it is assumed that we are done with ours too. Luckily when I offered her the cheese baked lobster she ate almost half of it! So, it was just another nice dinner!

The next day we went to an Italian restaurant, I didn't prepare bento. Charlotte had half of my spaghetti! No, I am not complaining. I have been waiting for this day for the last 3 years and it is here finally!

I Love Veggie!

Well, this was what Charlotte told us lately when dinning with us in the evening. Does that means she really loves veggie? Not quite.

I think getting our little ones to eat veggie is one of those big challenges most mothers get, and so do I. Charlotte takes veggie but only selectively and most of it are "bean" types. She takes long beans, ladies fingers, snow peas and she also loves beans like edamame but when it comes to green veggie, especially the "leaves" type veggie she will pick out even the smallest piece that we hide in the rice. I gave up trying to force veggie down on her but instead make her take more fruits as her source of fiber.

Her willingness to take veggie improved since she started school (her school only serves vegetarian food) and I am very pleased to hear she says "I love veggie!", "Mommy, I want veggie" at the dinning table. She doesn't really meant what she said all the time, she may just took one bite and said "Enough already, I eat already" but at least she is willing to try now then totally reject it.

She is now willing to take broccoli, cauliflower, choy sum, and even spinach! We had spinach last night and as usual I don't scoop veggie for her assuming she already had that in school but she asked for it after awhile. So I happily gave it to her and I was mentally prepared that that could be the first and the last bite of the spinach. I was wrong! She said "Mmm, it's delicious!" and she ate quite a big portion of spinach for dinner!

I don't know what is the right word for it but I am just very pleased and relieved that I have found a right school for her. I am very thankful to all the teachers and helpers in the school that in many aspects they take care of our children like their own.

Fairy Bread

I learn about "fairy bread" from here and I thought it was an excellent way to prepare a simple sandwich which often perceive as boring. Especially for Charlotte, I immediately thought of preparing it for her to lure her to eat sandwiches and breads.

I first tried that about 4 months ago and I let Charlotte brought that to school which she was attending back then. What a big mistake! She only took the hundreds and thousands but returned me the sandwiches untouched. I tried that the second time about a few weeks later but the same thing happened! So I stopped preparing the "fairy bread" since then.

Yesterday, as usual we are eating out on weekends but we were running out of idea of where to go. So to be on the safe side, I decided to prepare simple bento to bring along, just in case...since I was not online, I couldn't refer to my bookmarked bento examples I thought of just cutting simple sandwiches with strawberry jam that Charlotte loves. But as I was preparing the bread, I remembered the hundreds and thousands that have been sitting on the shelf since few months back. So, I thought maybe I should try the fairy bread again since Charlotte is a much more mature "eater" now then before but I kept it very simple just not to be disappointed again.

Did she eat? Oh yes! You should see her big smile when she saw what's inside the box and she did not pick on the hundreds and thousands only this time. She emptied the box while we were still cracking our head of where to eat!

That Was Amusing!

Charlotte picks up Mandarin at a very fast pace, at times I was surprised when she blabbed out something that was totally unexpected and other times she got herself confused by all the new words and sentences she just learned.

A very amusing incident with her last night:
Charlotte was playing at the living room when I was trying to get some work done with my laptop. She suddenly decided to give me a kiss and so she ran towards me but she couldn't stopped and knocked herself at me as she was running too fast...

Me: Ouch! That was so painful!
Charlotte: (looked at me, feeling guilty)
Me: What must you say to me? (while rubbing my head in pain)
Charlotte: Mmm...不客气! (you're welcome!)

My Bento Attempts

I stopped making bento ever since Charlotte started with her new school in Jan this year. Since she is attending a full day school and I do not want to make her feel neither she is different/special nor she has a choice when comes to food, she has to have food prepared by the school. I only make bento when we are dining out and the food may not suits her or when we are meeting with friends and we can't make people/food to suit her.

Although I made a lot of investments in bento tools, I'm not as creative and artistic as most bento making mothers out there. I usually just made simple food with those cute cutters and molds I have without taking the extra miles of decorating it. Now that I have more time and able to prepare bento in advance whenever we are having an event I try to make Charlotte's bento a little bit more interesting than before.

I recently follow a very creative, artistic and hard working bento making mother's blog and I looked through her bento archives and picked something simple whenever I need to prepare one. Even that, it always takes me a lot of time doing what she had done for her kids and yet the results were never any close to hers :p

Here are a few I did very recently. One was at the Valentines Day when daddy and I decided to dine at a Korean restaurant. I know nothing at a Korean restaurant is close to Charlotte's taste buds so I had to prepare something that she would enjoy and yet filling. I know she loves to have ham sandwiches, and to make it more interesting I copied the idea this mother used to make 2 simplified happy face ham sandwiches with the soft buns that I bought from a bakery and some dried cranberries.

It is important that I prepare food that Charlotte loves so that I will have a peaceful time enjoying my meal and don't have to worry about her empty tummy issue. She finished the bento just like I expected!

This other one was prepared last weekend when we had a dinner meet-up with some friends. In fact, I did 2 bentos that evening, the other one is filled with small treats and snacks like marshmallows and mini pretzels as I knew we were going to hang out till late night. She saw me when I was preparing it and I had a tough time holding on to her bento until the food was served at the Thai restaurant. You may ask why didn't I give it to her earlier? Well, I need to make sure the timing is right otherwise when my food is served she will be asking to get out from her chair.

It took me quite awhile getting the Hello Kitty face fixed. I finally found a shop selling the kamaboko and many other Japanese specialities in Penang. It is located in Kelawai Road, it's called the Meijiya Mini Market. If you are looking for any of the Japanese ingredient for your cooking, this is the store to look for.

Pretty Little Chef

Two weeks before CNY I received a message from Charlotte's school that they are going to make peanut cookies for CNY! Coincidentally, I made a dentist appointment for Charlotte that day and thought of sending her to school only after the dentist appointment. I then asked what she wanted to do, see dentist and probably missed the cookies making session in school or join the cookies making and see dentist other time. She said she wanted to make cookies and so I called up the dentist and changed the appointment time.

I didn't get any update after the cookies making but each of them brought a small box of peanut cookies back just before they break for CNY holidays. It tasted great! (didn't take any picture of the cookies)

Last Friday, as checked into her message bag (she brings back message bag every Friday) and as I flipped through her files and updates I saw this...

I almost couldn't recognize that the girl in the picture is my Charlotte! It was taken during the cookies making session. It was so cute! I'm sure they had a lot of fun and learning through the lesson.

The tiny little note the teacher wrote says:
Pretty Little Chef
See! You need to slowly roll it to make a perfect round peanut cookie!

No wonder she could made the 汤圆 so well!

My First Scooter!

If I'm not mistaken, Charlotte started to ask for a scooter before Christmas last year. I had no idea how she got the scooter idea but she seemed so consistent asking for it and I promised her that it will be her 2009 Christmas present as I thought she was not ready for it.

When she started school in Jan, she asked for it again and again and one day I saw there is 1 scooter lining among the bicycles, tricycles and cars in front of the school playground. "No wonder she remembers the scooter!" I thought to myself.

3 weeks ago, daddy promised Charlotte a toy (I forgot what was the deal) and off we went to the mall. Charlotte as usual looked around, didn't know what to get. She then saw a preschooler learning computer and insisted on it. She already has one at home, another one at her grandma's house so we didn't think it is a choice. I then remembered the scooter but then again I thought she wasn't ready for it. So I told her we are going to check out the scooter and instantly her sad-dying-for-a-computer face changed to a big grin! I told her unless she knows how to maneuver the scooter, we are not buying it and she agreed (this is my girl, we need to define the deal before hand).

She spent the first few minutes getting herself comfortable with the scooter as we got her one to try on. We thought no chance she's going to make it and we might get to save the few hundred bucks and get her a cheaper toy instead. She started of moving even slower than a walking pace, then she slowly trying out her coordination, and then she was able to move a little bit more, and a little more and then...she got it!!! Well, not exactly how you should play a scooter (what do you expect, she is only 3 years old!) but she was able to do more than we expected! That means, there goes our $$ and she got her scooter finally!

It has been a few weeks and she's getting better with her new toy. She spends a lot of time exploring the scooter inside the house, from the living room to the kitchen, then to the bedroom and out to living room again. Other time we also took her to the park and let her experience on the real track. But when we were at the park, she preferred her bicycle, I guess because she was able to move faster with it then her scooter :)