Find out baby's gender

When I was pregnant, I told my Hubby that I didn't want to find our the gender of our baby. I wanted it to be a surprise. However he told me that he wanted to know because we coordinate the colors and thus making cloths shopping easier. I told him we could get neutral colors that can fit for box genders.

But one day we went shopping at BBRU and I was just looking/browsing for the babies' clothing. Honestly, there are not too many 'neutral' colors clothing available. And they are very plain and not much characters on them. Most clothing are genders specific with nice and cute design on them. I would say only 1 rack that is neutral while there were rows and rows or gender specific clothing.

So I ended up knowing my baby is a boy before he was born. Actually I saw "it" on the ultrasound without needing the radiology technician to explain to me. Can be said that I found out by accident but it sure did help with our baby's cloth shopping.

End of Music Class

Last last Thursday was our last toddler's music class for the summer semester at Torrance Adult School. The next semester, the fall semester, will begin on Sept 10th. By then, my boy will be 18 months and I may sign him up for the 18 to 36 months toddlers music class instead of the one we've attended, which was for 9 to 18 months.

I am still thinking if I want to sign him up for the music class which is 1.5 hour or the parenting class which is 3 hours long. The music class for this age group starts at 10:45am and the location of the school is the same as our previous class. The parenting class for 12 months to 2 years old is located at another facility which is a farther drive from our home. That class starts at 9am and ends at 12pm.

But there is no obligation for the any students to stay the whole 3 hours class. We can leave whenever we want to. Parenting class will have more than just music. Was told that there'll be a weekly topic of discussion, a music time, art time and even outdoor time where students and teacher walk to a nearby park and play. That sounds fun right?

Most probably I will sign up for the parenting class for next semester, but I am just too lazy to drive that far away, about 15 minutes drive instead of 5 minutes. I get tired lately as I wake up in the middle of the night to take my boy to the potty. I've not been going out much with him lately.

Diaper Laundry

Been doing a daily diaper laundry at night after Brandon went to sleep. Started doing a daily evening wash for the diapers since two weeks back when I realized the diapers get dried faster in the morning, especially the pocket diapers (not the inserts though). Before, I did the wash in the morning and hanged them outdoor in the sun when they were ready. They wouldn't be ready until the late evening. So one day without cloth diaper. Now, by washing them at night, I take out the semi-dry cloth diapers outdoor the next morning and only takes 1/2 to get dry and I can put it back on my boy the same day.

This evening I am washing (in the washer now) 5 fitted Kissaluvs diapers and 4 pocket diapers. All these he wore today. There was a period in the afternoon where he wet 3 fitted diapers in less than 30 minutes. He had just finished his lunch. I changed the pocket diaper as soon as I realized that is wet, though it may able to take up more, but I rather have a clean and dry diaper for my son.

2nd week Music Class

This week at music class, Brandon didn't seem as interested as last week. All he wants to do is to play outside the class. We only sang a few songs at the beginning of the class and then he wondered off, to the gate and kept pointing to the outside. We didn't go out immediately, so he walked around the room, we weren't participating with the other parents/kids.

I also noticed that he didn't interact with other kids, when other kids come to touch him, he stayed very still like a "stoned". So funny ... hopefully the more we go out, the better he will get in socializing with others.

Baby's toothpaste - Orajel

I went to BBRU this past weekend and got this toothpaste. Brandon doesn't have much teeth but I thought I want to start him off with brushing with toothpaste. I saw some yellow films, (tartar or plague?) on his teeth next to the gum. I used the wash cloth to brush/wipe off the films. His tooth brush can't really work that well with that area so near to the gum. Furthermore, his toothbrush looks like flower now because of his constant chewing on the brush.

There are only a few different type of baby's toothpaste on the shelves. Gerber's brand, Orajel and there is another one with Baby's Einstein picture on it (probably its own brand?). I got Orajel instead of Gerber because the price is lower at $3.99 while the Gerber one is priced $4.95.

We have yet to try using it. I only brush Brandon when he is bathing and that is always before his dinner. Because after his bath, he will take his cereal/porridge dinner. We'll have to wash again afterwards then? I think probably when he knows to stand in front of the sink then may be I can have him start using the toothpaste, what do you think?

Games for Toddlers?

I've found some online games my son can play when he is sitting in front of the computer. Instead of just clicking the keyboards, he can interact with the games.

There are two games most suitable for his age of toddlers (12-18months). Both games are Elmo games.

1. Elmo Keyboard-O-Rama (this one they are learning about the alphabets and numbers)

2. Elmo, Zoe and Big Bird Peek-A-Boo

Try these games, they are fun for my boy and hopefully they will work for your kids too.

Now whenever he wants to play the Peek-A-Boo, he will put both his hands covering his face and then said "BOO!". Then he will point to my computer or laptop whichever is in the same room.

A Whole New Scrapbooking

I love to do scrapbooking but being a busy mom I sometimes can't think too well, therefore it will lack in designing creativity. When we started planning for Brandon's Birthday Party, I know I want to print the scrapbooks out to hang around our dining area on that day. When I went through my older projects, they didn't look presentable. So I had to redo all my scrapbooking projects. It felt like forever to get them redone. I am slow (still new with Photoshop) and also very picky about how they must turn (must impress guests mar).

Then I found this blog that really helped me to improve on my PS skill. From there I learn a lot of new techniques. There were nights, I stayed up till later than usual just to play around with the lessons learnt. A little a day and in one month plus I was able to improve and create better scrapbooks. Thank you so much Jessica for your easy to follow PS and scrapbooking lessons.

Beside learning the techniques, I also browse and surf other blogs (Mom2Ashley, Irfan Adam, Jazzmint) for idea and inspiration. Thank you so much, all of you.

To compare, see below my older projects.


Here are two of my new scrapbooks ready to hang on the BIG DAY.

Free Digital Kits from www.twopeasinabucket.com
Free Digital Background Papers and WordArt from www.digitalscrapbookplace.com

Baby's Porridge

I only manage to find time once a week to prepare baby porridge for Brandon. The one time cooking provides Brandon two consecutive days of porridge. He loves porridge. I love it too!

I don't have many baby porridge recipe, but manage to create a few. I used the Rival slow cooker / crockpot for making baby porridge. Usually I prep the ingredient in the evening and throw everything into the pot at night and let it boil on high until midnight (a good 3 hours of boiling) and turn it off. Then I turn it on early in the morning (around 6am/7am) on low until lunch time. I've tried turning low for overnight and turning on high in the morning for shorter time, but both ended up with a sticky pot bottom and a thinner consistency porridge.

For lunch meal, Brandon will have it hot and fresh out from the pot, but for dinner time, I will scoop enough porridge into a small pot to reheat it and feed to baby. By doing so, I don't have to reheat the whole crockpot of porridge. The rest of the porridge will be cold enough to go into the refrigerator for lunch and dinner the next day.

Main ingredients:
Water (fill up to 3/5 of the crockpot), Rice (1 cup), - cooked porridge will be approximately 3/4 of the crockpot

Here are a few of other ingredients I've used in my recipes:
Chicken Breast, Carrots
Chicken Breast, Potatoes
Pork Loin, Carrots, Tomatoes
Pork Loin, Carrots, Celery
Ikan Bilis (Anchovies), Carrots

We are not in the season for bayam (chinese spinach). I like to use carrot and it helps to make my porridge very sweet as I do not add any salt to my porridge. Sometimes, I also have the porridge for lunch myself.

Haven't try any fresh fish porridge yet. Not too easy to buy nice and fresh fish here. Most of the fish sold at the Chinese groceries stores are frozen varieties from China. They do have fresh swimming fish too but haven't try those in porridge. I only buy those and steam it for Brandon to eat FISH only meal.

More baby's stuff

Our friend, Joyce sent us an email asking us if we need any of baby's stuff her sister, Jennie wanted to get rid of. I replied immediately asking if the Little Tikes Roadster Toddler Bed plus a crib mattress & cribsheet and Peg-Perego Prima Pappa Highchair were still available. Joyce replied right away letting me know they were and she would even deliver them to my house. That's so nice of her. Earlier, we were planning to drive SIL's SUV to pick them up, but Joyce said the toddler bed could not fit into the SUV. Her sister had rented a minivan for her vacation in Las Vegas and would drop by my place with the furnitures before returning it to the car rental company. Thank you so much Jennie!

On top of the two furnitures, Joyce gave us her Jeep Walker. Thank you Joyce for the Jeep Walker!

For the first two days, Brandon only sat in the walker and playing the steering wheel. We encouraged him to move around in it but to no avail. Then suddenly, he surprised us by kicking off and walking around our dining area and living room. Now that he can go around the house, he can touch whatever he is able to see and reach. We have a new mission to accomplish which is to secure all of our stuff around the house to prevent any unwanted accident.

Here are pictures of Brandon with the new stuff.


Jeep Walker w/ steering wheel that has clicking noise and battery operated musical buttons
Peg-Perego Prima Pappa High Chair - brought over to MIL's house
Little Tikes Roadster Toddler Bed

Honey Bunches of 2006 Babies

WOOOH HOOOO!! Here are the many many 2006 Babies.

Jan 6th: Kevin
Jan 9th: Izac Chan
Jan 27th:Marcus Teng Lit Ean
Feb 26th: Dylan Tse (Joyce and Tze's 3rd baby)
Feb 25th: Ian Ky-ren
Feb 28th: Ashley
Feb 28th: Mika
Mar 2nd: Ernie
Mar 3rd: Eugene Peh
Mar 3rd: Brandon Wong
Mar 4th: Ethan Fock
Mar 4th: Irfan Adam
Mar 5th: Zachary
Mar 7th: James Ryan
Mar 11th: Jayden
Mar 18th: Ryan Chua
Mar 18th: Zi Yang
Mar 21st: Shermaine
Mar 21st: Jayden Chan
Mar 23rd: Dexter
Mar 27th: Little HH
Mar 20th: Yi Xuan
Mar 31st: KiKi Fong
Apr 10th: Jaslyne Tam
Apr 18th: Loh Yen Shine
Apr 22nd: Malaika Xiao Yu
Apr 23rd: Isabelle
Apr 25th: Rowena Kaur Kler
May 20th: Terry Pang
May 26th: Isabel
May 27th: Phoebe Michelle Lee
June 10th: Vyktore Hon
June 13th: Jeremy Soo Hoo Yang Shan
July 6th: Malcolm Wong
July 12th: Chloe 恺仪 (Kai Yee)
Oct 2nd: Ryan (Merry and Ben's 1st baby)

Sorry, I was only able to update till July as I hardly have anytime to surf to find more babies to add on my list since then. If you know anyone that was born in 2006 but not on the list, please leave me a comment about their sites and I will add them to the list. Thanks and Happy New Year!!!

New Baby Munchies

Got a few new finger foods for Brandon to play and eat. A very good way to try to teach him to feed himself. We also find feeding him these finger munchies gives us some time to enjoy our food when we are dining out.

We bought a few different types including Gerber's finger foods (puff - like honey stars but softer and easier to melt in the mouth) and two different type of Japanese crackers/cookies. We didn't buy the Hello Kitty rice cracker (picture below), it was included in the favor from a kid's birthday party. But I saw it selling at the local Japanese store if we needed to get some in future.

The Gerber's finger foods puff come in different type of flavors, Sweet Potatoes, Strawberry & Apple, Banana, Cherry and their latest flavor - the Vegie Puff. We've tried the Strawberry & Apple, which we brought back to KL and shared with Ethan. Last Tuesday I took Brandon with me to the groceries store and saw these were on sale for $1.98 each. I couldn't decide which flavor to get for Brandon so I let him made the choice. I placed the Strawberry & Apple and the Vegie Puff (since it's their newest flavor) in front of him and guess what Brandon did? His two hands held out and each grabbed one of the bottle. Aiyo, he so greedy. But then I told him PLEASE only choose one. I wasn't expecting for him to understand me, but he amazed me by releasing the Apple & Strawberry bottle onto my hand. Well, that helped so I didn't have to buy two bottles. =)

The Japanese Rice Crackers we just bought yesterday. Went to Marukai, a Japanese market place and saw this item on sale for $1.38 a pack. On the bag, it says GANBARE YASAI KAZOKU CRACKERS (BAKED RICE CRACKERS). It has 15 individually packed with 2 rice crackers each - very convenient. I tried one piece before giving to Brandon and it has very very little salty & sweet taste to it. But Brandon likes it and the first time he finished 1 pack of 2 rice crackers.

The other Japanese food was the baby biscuits. These are hard round cookies like biscuits but they melt in the mouth too. These are sweet, even Ethan's mommy loves them very much. I purposely brought one pack to KL for Ethan to try. I don't remember how much they were because it was a long while when I bought it but didn't give Brandon to eat as it was hard. But now he likes it. It is harder for him to pick up these by himself as they are round. So sometimes I have to help him by tucking these into his mouth one by one.
Japanese rice crackers, Gerber's Vegie Puff
Japanese biscuits/cookies, Hello Kitty rice cracker

ONE MORE Funny Moment

A long over due post.

It was Saturday (9/16) morning and we were in our bedroom, Daddy had just finished shower and walking out from the bathroom (fully dressed). Mommy and Brandon still on the bed.

Conversation took place in Cantonese.

Mommy: *speaking to Daddy*Hey, you have to pay for the things I've just orderred online. (bought 2 packs of the eva foam floor mats from amazon.com)

Daddy: *jokingly*You don't have money meh?

Mommy: Moh Woh. (NO in Cantonese)

Brandon was crawling towards the edge of the bed where Daddy was standing.

Daddy: *asking Brandon*Lay Yau Moh Chin Ah? (you got money?)

Brandon: *looking at Daddy and very slowly mumbling* Mo...ooh ...

DADDY and MOMMY: *lol*

Diaper Bags

Bought two diaper bags recently. One online and one at Target store. One for Hubby and one for myself.

Diaper Dude Diaper Bag: Got this together with Brandon's new umbrella stroller. Cost: $54.00 - no sales tax and free shipping. Color: Gray. Size: 15.5"W x 11"H x 4.5"D. This is Hubby's new messenger 'diaper' bag. He likes the style as it doesn't really looks like a diaper bag at all. Pretty stylish and hip for a guy to be carry this bag. He loves it. The bag does come in several designs and colors. We like this gray bag as it has attractive ORANGE zippers. There is another one we like - the Camouflage, but it was a little more expensive than the gray one.

This diaper bag has three front zipper compartments for bottles, diapers, wipes, sippy cup, baby food and utensils or anything you like. There are two different sizes pockets at the back for daddy's stuff. I've used the bigger pocket to store the diaper pad. There is a side pocket for one milk bottle. Inside the bag has only three compartments, one padded zipper pocket against the center back of the bag, a padded open pocket and a big center compartment for jackets, cap, toys and everything else. Lastly, there is a cellphone pocket on the padded adjustable shoulder strap.

Mandalay Accessories Miniature Diaper Bag: Came across this diaper bag for myself while shopping at Target for infant formula. Cost: $10 - tax included. Color: Black. Size: 12"W x 9"H x 4.5"D. This miniature diaper bag feels and looks like just a regular handbag but with all the compartments for baby's stuff inside and outside. I love it so much that I thought about getting a second one just in case this one falls apart later. At least I have a back up.

The exterior has 4 compartments. Two side compartments good to store bottles. Back and front comparments can store anything and have velcro closures (a little big noisy if needs to be opened when baby is sleeping). The interior has two bottle holders on the sides, a zipper compartment, another open compartment for 1-2 diapers (no diaper pad) and a large center to hold purse, camera, cellphone and in my case - a coupon book.

Bibs Bibs Bibs

Bibs everywhere. Living room, dining room and bedrooms. We go through at least 3 of them everyday. He plays with his drools a lot and the bib gets wet so easily. Most of these are gifts from friends and families. Let's count and see how many bibs we have for Brandon.


The towel material bibs, say "I love my mommy" and "daddy's little boy"
Two Pumpkin Patch BIBs from Singapore
The misc BIBs
The "kaikai" (goin out) BIBs from Carter's
More kaikai BIBs from Carter's
The BIBs from Walmart
The plastic BIB from BBRU for feeding
Two more plastic BIBs from Old Navy, Made in Malaysia (see below)


All together we have .... TWENTY (20) BIBS!!!