Food Addict

Can one be addicted to food just like they are to drugs and alcohol? Yes, it's termed food addict and that's me. I've this compulsive, excessive craving for and consumption of certain food and it comes in waves. When I'm hooked on a food, I'll keep eating and eating and eating... and this can go on til the next food addiction comes along. Once, there was Nutella (and I can just hold the BIG Nutella bottle and a spoon, sit on the sofa watching TV while scooping from the bottle and eating directly from it), then came 7D dried mangoes (which of course, I had no prob finishing the whole big pack in 1 attempt), then came Craisins cranberry (which I'm still hooked on to currently). I MUST have them at home and in the office. I'm eating in lightning speed I MUST stock up every week. And if they run out in the supermarkets, I'll get frenzy! and yogurt! Home-made yogurt! I MUST have my dosage of it every day. I've a big bottle kept in the fridge in office and I MUST eat a bowl every day. Yummy! So every weekend, I'll prepare a big bottle to bring to office at the start of the work week (& best of all, it's pretty easy to make for cooking-idiots like myself):-
1) Sterilize glass bottle and cap, tablespoon and a bowl by pouring boiling water over, then wait for 5 mins, then pour water away
2) Add milk (I use HL / Meiji) to a pot and boil till warm (when you see smoke coming out, before it starts to boil)
3) Add 3 big tablespoons of yogurt set in bowl and add some warm milk to smoothen it out
4) Pour yogurt set into the rest of milk in the pot and stir
5) Pour the pot of milk into glass bottle, cap it up and leave in thermal flask for 12 hours.. and presto! yogurt's ready! :)
(Optional: Pour boiling water surrounding the glass bottle to keep temperature warm)

The Flyers

We had a ride on The Flyers last Saturday evening. It took 1/2 an hour to go 1 round and before entering, they actually took a pic of us superimposed in the capsule. It was pretty much a bird's eyeview and we got to see places like the F1 track, Marina Barrage, Katong etc.. Given a chance, I'll take the night ride again cos I thought the lightings will make the ride pretty romantic. Too bad our special-priced tickets can only allow for 6pm ride latest. I think Randall was slightly uncomfortable of the height though, as he clung onto Daryl and refused to be carried by anybody including my bro or bel, as the capsule rose. Nonetheless, Randall was more excited about the Halloween decorations than the ride itself. And luckily for him, the day we went was the second last day of the Halloween theme so he got to see the humongous "Jaggedy Lantern" (What Pooh Bear calls the carved Halloween pumpkin by), the skulls and bloody hand deco at the bottom of the ride itself.

Hugs, Kisses & Praises

I love it when Randall suddenly comes hugging or kissing me whilst playing by himself. It feels really good and makes my day without fail! A few days ago while he was seated in his car seat, he held my hand and then kissed it. Then, he demanded that I kiss his hand too, which I was more than happy to oblige. :D
Sometimes, he'll start praising us, like, "Dad dad, you're happy and good and I love you!" or "Mummy, you're so good and I love you!" Only then I realise how good it feels to be praised and it reminded me that we should praise him more in return as well :)

Egg & Rice Only

Yes, Randall is in a food jag since a few months ago. He has been eating eggs and rice only (and nothing else!) for his lunches and dinners if he has a choice. Give him any kind of eggs - sunny-side up, hard boiled, half-boiled, and a bowl of pure white rice, and he is in heaven! :) Sometimes, I wonder if it's just a phase he's going through, or he takes after my eating habit. I, for one, can eat alot of certain food I like over and over again, and it can lasts me through a looonnnggg time. I have no problem eating the same thing for breakfasts every morning and I seldom get sick of food cos of a lack of variety. So, I can never understand why Daryl has to squeeze out all his brain juice every morning just to think of what to have for his breakfast. Haha.. Anyway, Randall's food jag makes our dining out pretty easy cos we'll just boil an egg to bring out to restaurants which don't serve eggs. Other times, eggs could be pretty easily available everywhere. Thanks to my mil, he has a wider variety of food in the weekdays. Besides the egg and rice, he is into fried fishes too. And if I cook over the weekend, I will steam some shredded broccoli/ carrots/ cauliflowers together with his rice which he has no complaints so far. So I guess his food intake is still reasonably nutritious.

Cute Cute!

The things Randall say nowadays are so adultish.. It's rather cute coming from a small guy like him.
1) While on our way to Clementi to see Daryl's games and buy Randall's MacDonald's lunch last Saturday, he brought up a suggestion, "Dad Dad and I go see game game, Mama quickerly quickerly (with his hands in motion when running) go buy MacDonald's for me". (Hee.. I realise his 'quickly' and 'chimney' are pronounced as 'quick-ker-ly' and 'chim-mer-ly')
2) I was talking to Randall about some of his favourite Star Wars characters and he suddenly applauded and complimented, "Clever Ma ma!" hahah... Nice to be complimented though
3) Daryl and I were laughing at Randall for trying to say some stuff which are adultish again. He asked me, "Why you laughing at me?" hmmm..
4) This morning, Randall & mil saw an old lady collecting cardboards. MIL pointed out to him and said poor old lady still need to collect cardboard. Randall said next time mah mah (ie MIL) also become old lady, but Randall will take care of her... That's sweet!

North South East West

Is it a guy thing? Cos Randall seems to have a great sense of direction, to the extend that I start to wonder if he has a better sense of direction than me! Incidences:
1) Ever since he started to blabber, he would ask us "go where?" everytime we went on a different route home
2) Now that he's older, he could direct us to Toys 'r us in Vivo city, after bringing him there once
2) We brought him to a 'new' petrol kiosk 2 nites ago and the following morning, we passed by from another direction on the way to fetch him to mil's house. He pointed out to my side of the window and asked, "This is the new petrol kiosk or not?"
3) On the same morning, Daryl detoured on another direction cos the usual way is jammed up. Randall, drinking his milk in his car seat, asked me, "where we going first?" I didn't understand him at first and told him that he was going to mah mah's house. He asked again, "where we going FIRST?" that was when daryl explained to him that he was driving a detour to mah mah's house since the usual route was jammed. Randall seemed to be satisfied with the reply and continued guzzling his milk.

I was totally amazed by this skill of his and obviously, it doesn't come from me, the direction idiot :P

PlayTime!

It's really fun to see Randall play with my bro and his girlfriend cos they play the darndest games, like throwing some toy bowling pin and 'firing' at each other, and putting his foot on my brother's lap and demanding cheekily, 'SMELL my SMELLY feet!'. Haha.. Just last evening, he played fetch bone with my brother's dog, Mambo. After fetching, the dog obviously couldn't stay still for Randall to catch hold of and it also refused to let go of the rubber bone. Randall had to swerve with that dog to get the bone. In the end, with my bro's help, he shouted for Mambo to sit, and on his own accord, tried to hold his paw down by stepping on it so he could yank the toy bone out of Mambo's mouth. It was really hilarious to see him play like that.. :)

Farewell to Beloved Zui Zui

Randall has been into this love-hate relationship with his pacifier since 2 yo in last year's CNY. I still remembered him feeling tremendously upset when relatives started to "shame" him for wanting to suck on his pacifier. Daryl & I, being the soft-hearted parents, assured him that he should feel free to suck on his "zui zui" (that's wat he called his pacifier by) anytime he felt like it. At home visits, he'd put his beloved in his pocket and was happy to know that he could have it anytime he wanted. Since then, he learnt to remove his beloved with relatives/strangers around, and only sucked on it when he was with us. About a month ago, we noticed that his zui zui was tattered and offered to change a new one. He kicked a big fuss and even picked his zui zui from our empty dustbin, attempting to put straight into his mouth. We warned him that he would then have no choice but to stop sucking when it was really in a bad condition. He agreed. Recently, his addiction for his zui zui was so great we almost lost hope of him weaning it off any time soon. But alas, just yesterday at his usual naptime, MIL noticed that the rubber part of his pacifier was torn and then told him that he shouldn't be sucking it anymore, or else he'd be sucking in air and the 'wind' would make his tummy ache. He agreed that sucking in air would make his tummy pain pain. MIL asked if he wanted a new one. He said no. MIL then place his pacifier by the side of his pillow, telling him that he could have it if he wanted, but he did not take it. He had great difficulty falling asleep though, fidgeting and yawning like a man suffering from withdrawal syndrome. That afternoon, he managed to nap but 1/2 an hour lesser than usual. Come night time, Daryl & I was worried he'd make lotsa noise looking for his pacifier, especially since he asked for his pacifier the moment he was put into his car seat on our way home. I had to remind him that it was torn and offered haw pieces for him to munch on. Surprisingly, when it's sleep time, he did not even once asked for his pacifier. He started asking me to sing him X'mas songs (It'd been some time since I needed to sing him to sleep) and drank water many times. Although it took him double the time to fall alseep, he didn't wake up in the middle of the nite to ask for his zui zui (which we expected he might). We were so proud that he actually persevered and succeeded in weaning it off! Hooray! :D

Happy 3rd Birthday!

We celebrated Randall's 3rd Birthday in Tung Lok Seafood in The Arena Country Club on the eve of his actual birthday with both sides of the family. Then on the day itself, both Daryl & I took leave to bring him to Changi Airport T3. It was the first time we went there since it's opened. There're many shops but we didn't get to shop much, only bought Randall's CNY new shoes from Cholette. We then took the Skytrain to T2 for lunch @ Swensen's. We received a free Firehouse ice cream upon showing the waitress Randall's birth cert. Birthday boys/girls get Firehouse for free on their birthdays! :D Randall had his junk food of fries and ice cream. Then we went home for his nap time. After he woke up from his nap, we went to IMM. Packed our dinner of Old Chang Kee fishballs, sotong balls and Poh Piah, and 3 small cupcakes from Four Leaves, and had our "picnic" by the koi pond in the open space. I thought it was quite a nice spot to have a leisurely picnic cos it's not very crowded, and since it was about 7pm, the sun was not glaring and hot, plus the fact that it was quite windy. We enjoyed ourselves so much that all 3 of us are suffering from our "Monday blues" today ;)

cheeky boy

Randall is getting cheekier nowadays, which makes him so adorable and fun to be with. Last Saturday, we had dinner at a Jap restaurant with my family, he suddenly laughed so excitedly no one knew what he was up to. Then we realized later that he stuck a Car sticker on my brother’s back without his knowledge. He’s also into hiding stuff from us. But when he has something up his sleeves, we’ll be sure to know cos he’ll be laughing in that “up-to-no-good” manner and running away as fast as he could to other spots of the house.. ha..

sticky sticky

I always hear people who have a son and a daughter say that boys are closer to their mummies while girls are closer to their daddies. I don't know how true this is, but I believe that the former statement is pretty true. When Randall was younger (about 1 yo), he clinged on to me like a plaster. To the extent that he was being nicknamed "koala bear" by Daryl's relative. Now that he's 3 days short of 3 yrs old, he's back to his stickiness. When I reach MIL's house, the first thing he does is to pull me along to his room and asks me to play with him. It'll usually take some persuasion/ negotiation (like I'll play with him again after my shower) before I can go for my shower. Sometimes while showering, he'll lose his patience and start banging on the shower door. I'll have to take a quick shower then play with him a while more before I can have my dinner. He will linger around to wait for me to finish dinner and when he sees tat i'm done, he'll immediately pull my hand and asks me to play with him. Like what happened in the past, he wants no one to sleep with him except for me. Generally, I don't mind him wanting to involve me in everything he does, since I think he must've missed me the last 12 hrs I'm not around with him. But it gets abit mundane after a while, cos I practically do not have much time to do my own things like watching shows. Often than not, I'll end up falling asleep with him at 9+pm. Fortunately, hubby just bought a LG portable DVD player as my V day present (Thanks, hubby!). Now, I can watch my shows on the way to work!