Family bonding is a piece of cake

Big Sis A Loving Mother

Mini cupcakes are awesome when you have a toddler. You do not need to crack your brains to think about what to offer him as snack, and you have control over how much he eats, receiving no screaming just because you have given him only half of the cake.

Today was a Saturday where I was home alone with my two-year-old as dear Hub SH was working. I decided to let my Cherie Ethan experience something new at home. We were going to bake mini cupcakes!!

I have always been longing to baking cakes or cookies with my daughter (if I were to have one) in my kitchen one day. But hey, it could also be fun to do it with my dear son! So we were going to experience the FUN then!

Let me introduce to you our ingredients today. I chose a very simple recipe since my helper aka trouble-maker is only a 2-year-old. So simple means good :p

Ingredients:

125g soft unsalted butter (take out from fridge and place at room temp for it to become soft)

125g castor sugar (you can reduce the amount if you prefer something lighter for kids)

2 medium eggs

125g sifted plain flour, sieve in 1/2 tsp baking soda and 2 tsps baking powder

3 tbsps fresh milk

Things you need:

Oven, mixer, weighing scale and paper cups (I bought the cups which are 3cm in diameter at the bottom and 6cm in diameter at the top from Daiso)

To do:

1) Prepare all the ingredients based on the amount needed.

2) Preheat the oven to 200degC.

3) Pour everything to the mixer and blitz until smooth. You can do this in such sequence: butter, caster sugar, eggs, flour, milk.

(You should get the mixture as in picture 3 at the end of the day.)

4) Divide the mixture into all cupcake papers, filling 2/3 up the cups.

5) Bake in oven for 10mins (bake longer if your cups are bigger). They should have risen and be golden on top. You want a little peak if possible.

6) Let them cool a little.

7) Sit back and enjoy!! Easy right?

I let Ethan choose the cups he liked and he chose the pink one (as expected)!

That's Ethan helping to distribute the paper cups on the metal tray.

He looked expert in scooping the mixture into the cup in this picture.

But, in fact he was creating a mess for me. Note that the above filled cups were actually done by me. Haha.... So, I assigned this little "helper" another job, that's to throw the used tissue to the dustbin. He's good at this!

Ethan requested me to place the filled cups once again on the floor to let him have a look before I placed them into the preheated oven. As you can see, we could make 2 dozens of cupcakes here with the amount stated above.

Ethan was curious about the cupcakes being baked inside the oven and was observing and waiting patiently in front of the oven. (I was beside him to prevent him from touching the hot furnace)

Side track a bit...

Annabel Karmel, is the influential author of 14 best-selling books on nutrition and cooking for babies, children and families. She believes the key to bonding with children is to treat them as equals and friends, as opposed to establishing a parent/teacher relationship with them. 

I agree to her recommendations of choosing recipes that are easy enough for the kids to make without too much help from grown-ups, as they love to be part of the adult world. Furthermore, as children have short attention spans baking mixes or simple mixes make the process simple, with no over complicated measurements. The social function of baking teaches children a sense of independence and achievement. It is the perfect way to be creative and have fun at home, which will in turn bring us closer together as a family.

Tick, tock, tick, tock .... while Ethan was playing in the living room with his toys, the mini cupcakes were done.

Look at them, didn't they look yummy and beautiful? Don't forget that these are the masterpiece of mummy & son!

Me: Darling, the cupcakes are done!

Ethan: ......

(ok, maybe he just had his milk and showed no interest to cupcakes)

1 minute later...

Ethan: Mummy, eat cake, eat cake.

(Wow, this proved that the cupcakes were still in his mind)

Wah.....This is the cake mummy and I baked...So amazing!

It tastes GOOOOOD!!!!

Please do comment and share with me if you have other simple and nice recipe :)

A day in the S.E.A.

Big Sis A Loving Mother

I always try to let Cherie Ethan have a little touch with the Nature's lovely creations like the animals and the greens. Living in the hustle and bustle in city Singapore, I always believe we should have all the city ways of doing so. 

That's why Hub SH (first time appearing here, my hubby) and I always try to bring him to parks, the zoo, bird park etc.

S.E.A. was one of our most recent trips.

Sea? No. It's the SEA Aquarium in RWS, Resorts World Sentosa Singapore :) 

See how beautiful SEA is!!!

Cherie Ethan was very excited seeing the colourful fishes and sharks!

It was a great time for him pointing out all the different colours that he'd learnt from his books, this time on these moving living creatures: Gin (Green), Oran-chhhh (Orange), Boo (Blue), Yennow (Yellow)...

We also tried to touch the star fish, while Cherie Ethan kept mumbling "star star" "star star"...

He didn't quite get attracted by the jelly fishes, but he did keep calling these "ball ball" "ball ball" (I wonder why a kid always has to double the word that he says... haha...):

And we saw these very beautiful and elegant jelly fishes. Cherie Ethan was very much amazed! And so were Hub SH and myself!!!

I must say, it's really quite mind-relaxing looking at these wonderful sea creatures:

We also saw this very cute, spiky thingy which I loved very much :)

By the time we reached this big aquarium which accommodated this super giant stingray-like fish, Cherie Ethan started to feel very sleepy and was getting to fall asleep already. There he started to become uneasy and request to leave the place. 

Well... Darling... You've missed this very moving and shocking scene of the swimming giant escorted by all the little fish.

Although the trip ended a bit abruptly, it was a very wonderful and full-of-learning-fun trip. We just gotta plan our time better next time!

See you SEA!

SEA Ticket Fares

1-Day Pass

Adult (Age 13-59) $29

Child (Age 4-12) $20

Senior (Age 60 & Above) $20

We bought 1-Day Passes. Cherie Ethan's entry of course was free :)

Find little helper to clean!

Big Sis A Loving Mother

This is a brand new year, and CNY is just around the corner. Have you spring-cleaned your house?

We did it a few days ago ;) Started with getting rid of some unwanted or outgrown clothes to send to Salvation Army; also sorting out some perhaps to keep for the next baby? 

* Ha.. No concrete plan yet of course.

'Each time something is recycled and re-used, it is a positive step towards the conservation of our earth's resources and also help The Salvation Army to continue caring for the needy.'  -- Salvation Army

Salvation Army collects clothes, bags, shoes, books, toys and household items that are still in good condition!

Here are where their donation booths are located. It's very simple. Just drop your items there:

• The Salvation Army Red Shield Industries

       309 Upper Serangoon Road, Singapore 347693 

• The Salvation Army Praisehaven

       500 Upper Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 678106

• The Salvation Army Hope Centre

       7 Upper Changi Road North, Singapore 507705

• The Salvation Army Headquarters (open car park)

       20 Bishan Street 22, Singapore 579768

• The Salvation Army Haven

       350 Pasir Panjang Road, Singapore 118692 

• IMM (open car park)

       2 Jurong East Street 21, Singapore 609601

I got my little helper in sorting out the outgrown clothes. It was such a good time to tell him about the value of sharing.

Me: This one baby cannot wear already...

Ethan: Cannot... Wear... Cannot...

Me: Some babies need it. We give it to babies who need, OK?

Ethan: OK. OK. OK.. (He loves to keep on repeating what others have said.)

He seemed to understand the great meaning behind. And he enjoyed helping out too. 

* Although most of the time, he's just playing with the clothes...

I try to get Ethan in the habit of being Mama's -- and Papa's -- little helper early on. I'm glad that he enjoys it (at least for now.. haha..)



After 2 hours of work, we finished clearing Ethan's, Mama's and Papa's 'outgrown' clothes. Hope that my little Cherie does learn to LOVE and SHARE :)

When the 2-year-old meets numbers!

Big Sis A Loving Mother

Little stories that brighten up my days to share with you all :)

...STORY ONE...

We were walking on the street while Ethan was crying asking me to carry him from his daddy's arm. I was thinking of strategies to distract Ethan so that I could free myself from dragging my legs with the extra 11kg load.

Ethan: Mama, carry, mama carry.

Me: Ok, you count from 1 to 30 first.

Ethan:

Mon (One), two, three, four, fi (five),

six, seven, eight, nine, ten,

e-we-wen (eleven), twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fiveteen (fifteen),

sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty,

twenty-mon (twenty-one), twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-fi (twenty-five),

twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty!

*Wow, The 2-year-old Ethan did it. I am so proud of him!

Ethan: Mama, mama carry....

Me: Ok, come.

...STORY TWO...

Ethan has been asking me to read him the "Learn with Thomas 1 2 3" these two days. He loves the book! I think I have read him thrice.

During our bedtime chat last night:

Me: Darling, who's number 1?

Ethan: Thomas!

(Hmm... That's correct! Not bad!)

Me: Number 2?

Ethan: Edward!

(Wow, he really can remember!)

Me: Number 3?

Ethan: Henry!

(Wow, wow... Ok, let me ask him the next one and hopefully he really did remember all.)

Me: Number 4?

Ethan: __Don

(Ok, I knew he meant Gordon!)

Me: Number 5?

Ethan: Jame!

(Bingo! JameSSSS!)

Me: Ok, it's James.

Me: Number 6?

Ethan: Cheeky Percy!

(He even remembered the adjective the book used to describe Percy! Well done my Cherie!)

Me: Number 7?

Ethan: Toby

(That's amazing!)

Me: Number 8?

(He was thinking hard, maybe "Steamie Duck" doesn't come easy for him to remember. So I decided to tell him the answer.)

Me: It's Steamie Duck!

Ethan: Steamie Duck!

Me: Ok, then who's number 9?

Ethan: Donald!

Me: Number 10?

Ethan: Donald!

Me: Hmm... it's Douglas even though Douglas is Donald's twin brother...

(Ethan has been insisting that Donald and Douglas are the "same same" "same same"...)

Me: Yay, Darling, clever boy, let's clap hands!

*Clap clap clap!

*I did not expect him to memorise the names of the engines in sequence. It's a surprise to me indeed! I was so proud of him! Well, by the way... I have never expected myself to remember the names of the engines in sequence too! Haha...

...STORY THREE...

I let Ethan stand in the basin so that I could clean him easily before bedtime (Of course I was holding him with my left hand while my right hand cleaning him).

Ethan was covering the tap of running water with his palm and the water shot out to everywhere.

Me: Stop it Ethan! 
(Firm & loud)

*Obviously, my firm and loud tone didn't do any magic on the terrible-two.

Me: If you continue doing this, I am going to turn off the tap.

(While talking, I turned off the tap)

Ethan: Water! water! water! 
(Screaming and stretching in my arm)

*In order to prevent him from slipping off my arm, I turned on the tap again and said:

Me: Ok, Ok. I count from 1 to 10 and I will turn it off.

*Ethan smiled

Me: 1, 2, 3, ....10! 
(I finished the counting in 3 seconds and I quickly turned off the tap and carried him away from the basin.)

Ethan: 鱼尾纹 (yu-wei-wen)! 鱼尾纹! Mama, 鱼尾纹!

Me: What's 鱼尾纹? Mama don't have 鱼尾纹!

*I was thinking hard what he meant by 鱼尾纹. I swear I've not taught him saying 鱼尾纹.

Ethan: ........

Our conversation ended.

After a while.... I was laughing non-stop myself as I finally figured out what he meant by 鱼尾纹..... It's ELEVEN!!

This cheeky boy was asking me to count to 11 instead of 10!

Me: Mummy ask you, just now you said 鱼尾纹, did you mean eleven?

*Ethan nodded his head....

Hand make an organic-cotton fitted bedsheet

Big Sis A Loving Mother

Ethan just fell asleep beside me. I was wondering if I should take a little nap with him or I should make use of maybe a 2-hour free time to do something that I have been thinking to do.

OK, let's just do it since CNY is coming and I have been thinking to let Ethan sleep comfortably on a new 100% organic cotton bedsheet with car prints on the new year day!!

Let's see what we need to sew an organic-cotton toddler fitted bedsheet:

2 yards of organic cotton fabric (choose your Cherie's favourite prints!)

2 yards of 1/4" elastic

* Yard is the common unit of length used for fabric and textile.
1 yard = 3 feet = 36" (inches) = 0.9144 meters



How?

1. Cut a piece of fabric 65" x 40".

2. Lay the fabric flat. Cut out 6" squares from each of the four corners.

3. Sew up the sides of the corners with a 1cm seam allowance. See picture below. Finish the seams with a serger, or trim with zig zag scissors. But I will just leave it as it is :p

4. To make the casing for the elastic, fold over the edge of the sheet 1cm and press. Fold over another 1cm and press.

5. Sew around the edge of the casing, leaving a 2 to 4cm gap for the elastic. You can choose to sew the elastic all around the edges or leave the 2 longsides (28" each side) of the fabric undone. I chose the later as I did not have sufficient elastic :p

6. Mark the start & end points of the 2 elastic on the fabric.


7. Use a safety pin at the end of the elastic to thread it through the casing. Be careful not to get the other end of the elastic sucked into the casing.


8. Sew the 4 ends of the elastic at the  points you marked earlier, or match up and sew the two ends of the elastic together securely if you choose to sew elastic all around.


9. Sew up the 2 gaps.

While I was sewing the last piece of elastic, Ethan woke up from his nap. 

Standing behind my back with his hands around my neck, he patiently and curiously observed his mummy sewing up his bedsheet. He was happy to see so many cars prints on the bedsheet and kept saying, "Mama, car, car, car...".

And Tada....! He loves it! And that's the smile I want to see at the end of the day!

Why Organic Cotton

Sis 2 A Loving Oneself

I first came across organic cotton after we realised my lovely nephew had real sensitive skin. He has Eczema (like how Big Sis shared in the first post) as well as very delicate skin. How sensitive? A small mosquito bite can easily turn into an oozing wound. That’s how!

I used to ask ‘Do we need to be so cautious over choices for the baby?’. Looking at how fragile and delicate a baby can be, I began to understand why mothers only want the best, not for themselves, but for their babies. Unlike adults, babies can never speak out or self-help.

I studied more about organic cotton, and figured out that there are actually well thought-out reasons behind providing organic clothing to babies these days. Not just for babies, but for everyone and the Nature.

If we are already using shopping bags instead of plastic bags, bringing along our own travel chopsticks instead of using disposable ones, and classifying garbage for recycling purpose, then well, why don’t we start learning about organic cotton?!

* The learning process was indeed an eye-opener to me :) *

I first found this video. Although I knew nothing about the brand, it introduced me to the concept of organic cotton.

What’s the problem with conventional cotton?

Most cotton is not as environmentally friendly as we might expect.

• Cotton is the second most pesticide-laden crop in the world (after coffee) and number one in the United States.

• Conventional cotton occupies only 3 percent of the world’s farmland, but uses 25 percent of the world’s chemical pesticides and fertilisers.

• Conventional farming devours up to 1/3 pound of pesticides and fertilisers to produce enough cotton for a single shirt.

• Five of the top nine pesticides used on cotton in the U.S. (cyanide, dicofol, naled, propargite, and trifluralin) are known cancer-causing chemicals.

• All nine are classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as Category I and II- the most dangerous chemicals of all.

Not only do these chemicals pollute the air, water and soil, they’re also retained in the crops as they’re grown. The cotton which is then processed into fabric tends to cause skin irritation and problems!

What makes organic cotton different?

It's the farming process that strives to be in balance with the Nature!

According to the Organic Trade Association, organic cotton is grown without the use of toxic pesticides or fertilisers. Methods such as beneficial insect releases, strip cutting of alfalfa and new weeding machinery help reduce the environmental impact of cotton crops.

It also does less harm to the farmers. Imagine, the young woman who picked that cotton in India with her toddler on her back does not have to worry about what’s been sprayed on the crop.

* Hmm… We always balk at the premium of organic cotton. But deeper thoughts, I believe it does worth the extra couple of bucks if we opt not to be too indifferent to what’s happening out there? *

Gentle to babies

Babies and little kids have sensitive skin. That’s why we see baby skincare products always have to be hypoallergenic.

Without the loads of harmful chemicals, organic cotton helps baby skin to breathe better and reduces the scope of irritation and problems.

It seems like organic cotton is not a fad, but an environmental concern.

I’m wondering how I should pay more attention to organic farming as a whole. How ignorant I was at loving our Home? Hmm..

It’s rather challenging to our lifestyle nowadays. But just like the ending line in the video above, I believe it would be real great if we could say YES to health world, to clean air, to clean water…

I believe every little bit counts!

Ref: aboutorganiccotton.org, greenbabies.com, natural life magazine, parenting tips 365