Play-doh (Mummy’s Sharing)

Play-doh has been a popular modelling craft for all the children since my generation. I remember when I was young, my parents always get me some play-doh from supermarket to play with to make different shape of animals. Nowadays more and more interesting play-doh toy sets have been created for the kids, some even have the “machine” to make play-doh burger or hot dog!!

When I started to serve in children ministry in Australia, I was shocked to know from one of the teachers that they actually made their own play-doh!! After that I realised a lot of moms that we know here actually made their own play-doh for their children as well! According to them home made play-doh is 100% safe even the kids accidently eat it, it is economical and super easy to made. I was told that I can get the recipe to make play-doh from Cream of Tartar bottle.

Recently I see Esrene getting bored with all her toys around so I decided to try making some play-doh for her to play. She actually has some simple play-doh toys we got for her last year which she used it as her cooking toys. It surprised me that actually it is super easy to make and only took me less than 30 min to finish the whole play-doh with two colours! And I think the whole ingredients cost me less than $1!!!

Here’s the result

 

The texture of play-doh is something new to little Esrene, so she doesn’t really know how to play with it. Evenafter I show her she is a bit reluctant to “mess” the dough with her hands, just using her play-doh cutter to poke on the dough. I hope soon she will learn how to enjoy playing this fun toy.

If you are interested to try out your home made play-doh, here’s the recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups plain flour

4 tbs Cream of tartar

2 tbs cooking oil

1 cup salt

2 cups water

food colouring

Method:

Mix the ingredients in a saucepan, stir over medium heat for 3-5 minutes or until the mixture congeals.

 

I actually separate the colouring from the ingredients, after the mixture congeals, I separate until 2 portion, and knee the colour I want into each mixture.

“Hua” (flower) I made for her using play-doh which she loves it so much, keep holding on it.

Great bargain!!

Few months ago we have been considering whether we should get a stroller for Esrene while letting the little jewel use her pram or we should get a double pram instead. After talking to a few friends who has 2 kids or more with close gap, we decided to go for double pram. Reason mainly due to Ida’s convenience when she has to go out alone with the kids to buy groceries, go clinic or run errand. It will be close to impossible for her to carry the new born in the carrier while dragging Esrene along and carry her shopping + Esrene is very active, refused to hold on to our hands when outside. Another benefit of double pram is we can put both of them down for their nap when we go out.

So now come down to double-decker double pram or side by side.  Some review shows that double-decker is unstable and the heavier one needs to always be at the bottom. Our concern is whether Esrene is willing to sit at the “bottom” of her sibling! Will she kick her sibling? So we focus on side by side pram. The only concern we have with this type of pram is the weight and size. During the long new year holiday, we took some time to go to a baby shop to try out their side by side pram and there’s not many brand available. The one that attract us is Baby Jogger City mini. It is quite a compact double pram and the lightest among the double pram (9kg).

Esrene happily sitting inside her new pram. She was trying to smile at the camera!

However that’s the most expensive in the store!!! Around AUD900!!!!! While we were trying out Baby Jogger, a grandma approached us and told us that we should check out ebay or online shop as she saw an online US seller selling for close to half a price even after include shipment.

This become Ida’s assignment to look for a good bargain online after that day!! Due to the restriction from Union to protect the retailers in Australia, not many international sellers are allowed to ship their goods which already in Australia market to this country. So it didn’t take long for Ida to find this US seller who sell Baby Jogger double pram and qualified to ship to Australia. And the price as told by the grandma is very good! Includes shipment we only paid around AUD560, that save us close to AUD400!! Strong AUD against USD also helps this purchase.

We were very surprised to receive the pram courier right in front our door step 1 week after the purchase!!! Very fast shipment with a nice compact packaging.

 

Esrene was so excited to see her new pram too! We have to keep telling her that she has to share the pram with her baby “mei mei”, which she noted “ya ya”.

This is how the pram looks like after collapse down. It has two easy pull handles in the middle to collapse the pram. Compact enough for us to put inside our car boot. We hope that this double pram will serve us well like our mountain buggy swift. Of course we also hope the kids will feel comfortable sitting and sleeping on it.

Thank you “ma ma” for sponsoring us this pram!

Big girl in process (Mummy’s Journey)

Few months ago a church friend of us passed us a toddler bed for Esrene after knowing that we are expecting the 2nd child. We are so blessed with all these blessing given to us even before we think about it.

We know that once she sleeps on the toddler bed she can get down from the bed easily and mess up with the things in her bed. So we started to put on all the safety locks on her wardrobe and cabinet drawings, moved out the changing table to baby room to avoid her from messy up with anything she is not suppose to touch or play with.

Daddy even made a garden bed in front of Esrene’s window and plant some nice flowers on it so that she can enjoy looking at the flowers from her room. Esrene loves it, she kept shouting “hua hua” (Mandarin for flowers) whenever she saw the flowers from the window.

Our friend advice us to transit Esrene to her toddler bed few months earlier for her to get used to it before the little sibling comes. So we took the opportunity to change her baby cot to toddler bed on the day when we came back from Malaysia. We were told not to make a “hoo-haa” of the new bed so that she won’t get too excited and can’t sleep on the bed. Of course she noticed the different, keep climbing up and down the bed since she can do it now easily. But this only last for few days.

She is doing very well sleeping on her toddler bed except for the first night she came down from the bed, laid down next to the door and cried for us. She fell off from her bed once also from the gap (even we try to put the bumper on it but it doesn’t seems to help). But after that she sort of learn the lesson and sleep closer to the wall, never to fall off from the bed anymore. Now after she wakes up from her sleep or nap she will take off her sleeping bag herself, walk around the room a while or play with her toys a while before she goes to the door and knock on it to call for us. Daddy taught her well to knock the door each time if she wants to open the door :D

We are very proud of her able to be able to adopt to the new bed so easily. Maybe her new toddler bed make her feels that she is a big girl now. Now then we can to get ready her previous baby cot for her sibling.

Christmas in Penang

This year we have the opportunity to spend our Christmas in Penang again! I spent my 1st Christmas in Penang last year too but I was just 8 months old and I was down with HFMDs.

Thanks to Pak Pak who bought us the tickets to fly to Penang this year. As daddy has to work, we only have 10 days there, however we had a very enjoyable time there.

We did a lot of things within these 10 days…

I had my 1st salon hair cut there with daddy’s favourite hair dresser!!

Of course we also did a lot of shopping there.

Daddy mummy bought 2 boxes full of nappies for me and “mei mei”!!! We did so many shopping until we have to go back to Melbourne with 5 checked-in luggages and 1 hand carry!!

Enjoy myself with the beautiful Christmas decorations in the shopping malls. The Christmas decoration in Penang are more beautiful than those in Melbourne!!!

We met up with daddy mummy’s friends, aunties, uncles and some little friends in Penang like Shanna, Caris, Clement, Su Yin etc. I am so happy to be able to see Jie Jie Shanna again - get to hold her hands and give her big hug. But I am too rough until caused jie jie to topple over and hit her head of the floor. Sorry Jie Jie Shanna!!

Spending time with Yea Yea, Ma Ma, Pak Pak, Ah Ma, Ee Poh, Ee Ee and Ku Ku

Enjoying myself playing at the playground with Pak Pak

With Yea Yea and Ma Ma With Poh Poh, Ee Poh, Ku Ku, Ee Ee and Ah Diao

Daddy mummy enjoyed eating their hawker food everyday and I get to join them to taste some of the yummy food too!!!

Enjoying the pure fresh apple juice without sugar and salt especially ordered for me

 
Trying out some tosai given by daddy….I like it!!!

On Christmas day I was spoilt with lots and lots of gifts from everyone!

See how expert I open the gifts! I even helped daddy mummy open theirs!

This trip I get to attend Huay Chin Ee Ee’s wedding too!

I suppose to be the flower girl with cousin Jie Jie but when the bridal march started I refuse to walk. So only Jie Jie alone become the flower girl. Sorry Ee Ee, too many peoples, I was shy!

  

The flower girl dress shi ee poh made for me, nice?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos with daddy mummy during the reception

Huay Chin Ee Ee and Roy Uncle cutting cake that mummy made for them

Happily playing with cousin Jie Jie. Jie Jie miss me a lot since the last time she came to Melbourne to visit me. She always ask about me.

Photo with poh poh, and ee poh……spoilt by ku ku

Our 10 days in Penang were very eventful!!

The highlight of our trip was the flight back to Melbourne. Pak Pak got us the business class seat. For the first time, daddy mummy and I get to enjoy the luxury treatment with business class. We were served with big meal even during Penang to Singapore flight.

Enjoying my welcome drink in the flight while sitting on daddy’s seat 

My kid’s meal at Silkair– fish fillet with spaghetti (surprisingly they served me kid’s meal when I am just under infant ticket)

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mummy daddy’s tom yam grilled fish and baked chicken on tomato sauce

While waiting for our transit at Changi airport for 7 hours, daddy mummy rested at Silver Kris lounge and I took my afternoon nap in my pram. Daddy mummy surfed net and had some drink while waiting for me to wake up from the nap. I slept for 3 hours in my pram!!

After that we had our free dinner at the lounge and even took our shower there!

See how much I enjoyed myself at the business lounge

We boarded the flight around 11.45pm. We were surprised to find out that only us and another passenger in the whole business class. So we have the luxury to choose any seat we want. Because of that I was blessed to even have my own seat instead of sleeping in the bassinet.

After a big nice “supper” on the plane we all went straight to sleep!!

The seat can be fully recline so I sleep very comfortably on the seat until daddy mummy had to wake me up when the plane about to arrive Melbourne!!

Thank you so much Pak Pak for such a nice treat!!! I really enjoyed my flight and of course the time spent with you!!!

Thank you everyone for spending their time with us when we were in Penang. We miss you all a lot!!! Hope to see you soon in Melbourne!! Happy New Year!!