Friday, February 25, 2011

长大

♥Zara♥
Finally, 6 years and 3 months old, she had a shakey tooth (lower central incissor).

As she has 2 new teeth sprouting (her 1st permanant molar), and caused the gums to be pushed back and bleed (she spat out blood when she was brushing her teeth this morning! Gave me a shock!), I brought her to the dentist to have a look.

Since we were there, I got her shakey tooth extracted.
Zaria poking belly button

As for the bleeding and pushed back gums, it's common when the permanant molar sprouts. And to think all the teething problem is over!

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♥Zaria♥

Just the other day, I called her mei-mei, and she told me "Don't call me mei-mei. I'm not small any more. I'm 5 years old." o.O"

This girl has grown up. Yup. Since she was able, she has been sleeping with 1 finger in my belly button.
Zaria poking belly button

Zaria poking belly button
Daddy has been reminding her that she's older and has stronger fingers now, and she shouldn't be poking my belly button any more, or she might actually puncture my belly button and blood will start gushing out like a fountain.

That did deter her a bit, and slowly, when she's concious, she'll retract her finger, and then, just leave her hand on my belly when she goes to sleep.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Cheese Sticks

I made these for Chinese New Year, and my eldest absolutely loved it. She told me these are like home made Cheezles, very healthy. Ha.

We all know using best ingredients is key to baking, but sometimes, we just thought.. what if??

That's what I did this round. The first batch I baked, I used parmessan cheese in a block. It cost about RM30 for a 200g block, very expensive. Then the 2nd time, I thought, what if I used powdered parmessan, which is RM20 for 500g. More than half the savings!

Anyway, here is the recipe. If you could, use the good parmessan, that way, you can really taste the fragrant of the cheese.

♥Recipe for Cheese Sticks♥
Adapted from 在家亲手烤饼干by中村佳瑞子
Make 30 pieces
You'll Need 100g unsalted butter(soft to the touch)
20g castor sugar
1 egg (room temparature)
60g parmessan cheese (use the ones in a block and grate yourself if you can)
160g low protein flour sifted


Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Beat butter until soft and fluffy (I used a hand whisk).
3. Add it sugar and further beat until well mixed and mixture becomes pale.
4. Add in the egg, and beat until well corporated
5. Using a spatula, mix in the parmessan cheese, and then stir in the flour.
6. Wrap the dough in cling wrap, and leave in the fridge for 30minutes.
7. Cut or roll the out the dough into desired strips. Place strips on a baking sheet.
8. Bake for 15 to 18mins.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Connected Tots


In this post, I mentioned about how brain cells need to connect for learning to happen.

Here is a video that shows you a connected tot in action. It is an interactive video, watch it, and you can choose the different ‘answers’ at the end to see what the little girl did to help her mom.



The girl in the video has learnt about magnet, and she had made a connection between magnet and metal, and apply that learning to help her mom. This is a connected moment.

If you want to read more about connected tots, and brain connection, do go here to understand more.

My girls, are extremely good in applying what they have learnt or heard from us in our daily conversation.
Here is one example. Zara (6yrs 2 months) has seen me frying frankfurters for her. I’d always asked her to stand far away, because the oil may splatter while the frankfurters are sizzling. See what connects me with the frankfurters?

Zara's drawing

What a connection.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Sisterly Love

At times the girls get along beautifully, at times, they fight like they are the worst enemies. I guess this is the same in most housewhole.

Girls Sharing an ice cream

We notice that Zara sometimes can be a big bully. When she wants something Zaria is holding, she'll snatch from her, without asking. She doesn't do that to her friends, this 'rudeness' is only reserved for her sister.

Zaria on the other hand, blames Zara for everything!
When she fell once in the living room, immediately she said, "Jiejie make me fall."
I went o.O" because I saw the whole thing. I asked her how could have Zara caused her to fall as Zara was siting on the sofa far from her.
She replied, "Just because jiejie moved the sofa, so I don't know where to step." (Zara repositioned the sofa earlier on, but the sofa was far from where Zaria tripped and fell on her own). o.O

Another time, Zara accidentally stepped on Zaria's feet. Immediately, the accusation began, "Jiejie stepped on me." Then she checked her toes. "Jiejie stepped on me now my toes cannot straighten already." o.O"
(actually, she's born with a toe slightly crooked, but she now blamed Zara for that)

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When one of the girls are naughty, and we want to punish them, the other would quickly search for the cane, bring it right to us.

When Zaria is the naughty one, Zara happily fetch the cane for us to punish Zaria. However, she won't allow us to carry out certain punishment on Zaria.
Once Zaria was really naughty, i.e. she smacked Daddy when Daddy scolded her, when Daddy smacked her, she kicked Daddy repeatedly, and then she wailed loudly non-stop.
I wanted to put her outside the house (within the compound), and Zara blocked my way, claiming, "Even when Zaria is naughty, you cannot put her outside of the house. What if bad people catch her?"
I pushed past her and got Zaria to stand outside.
Zara was standing at the door, watching and guarding over Zaria, and kept turning to glare at us. She got so upset and angry, she didn't want to talk to us for a while after that.

When Zara is the naughty one, Zaria would somehow behaved really well, and then tell us something like jiejie is so naughty, but she's so good girl. o.O"
When we punished Zara, and Zara started crying, Zaria will be fetching tissues to wipe Zara's tears, and then will be hugging Zara.

This is the way they show their sisterly love.