Baking with Nicole

The last time that Nicole came to our house to play, Yee Yee got creative and decided that we should do baking with the two kids. It doesn't require a lot of effort. Yee Yee went to search for a very simple butter cookie recipe and she prepared the dough in advance. We covered the floor with newspapers for easy cleanup, brought out a little table and kiddie chairs and lined it with baking paper. Then we put on aprons for the kids and they were ready to start.

They basically helped to flatten the dough and used cutters to cut out the cookies. Yee Yee bought a bottle of playdoh cutters which comes in shapes like cars, trucks, train etc. Nic and Caleb loved the cutters and were very excited about using them.

The kids helped to roll the dough and press down the cutters onto the dough. We helped to separate out the dough nicely. After that, the kids got to decorate their master pieces with rainbow chocolate rice and raisins.

Here's the kids in the baking process

And here's their masterpiece! Looks a bit burnt coz the oven was a bit cranky but the cookies turned out to be quite nice. We concluded that the cookies may be a bit too sweet and heaty for the kids though, so they didn't get to try any. Anyhow, the experience was quite good for Caleb and made quite an impression on him. If he sees the cutters or the oven, he'll associate them with baking cookies.

Oh and here's photos of the two of them playing together after that. It's one of the rare times when they're not fighting with each other coz they each got a toy to sit on and a cap to wear. Nic is at the age where everything she sees is hers and Caleb is catching on and starting to say that the toys that he is holding on is his and he doesn't want to share them with anybody. Sometimes, he'll go to the extent of hoarding them coz he's afraid that other children may come and snatch them from him. I read that such behaviour will go away when they're about 3yrs old. That's like another one and a half yrs more for Caleb. Nic's going on to 3 this yr so hopefully she'll start to share. But then again, there's Nat Meimei who will soon join in the fun. I guess it'll be a riot when Meimei starts to get more mobile and want a share of the toys too!

More cheeky poses

1... 2... Stop

Mummy's efforts at disciplining Caleb are finally paying off. For months now, we have been enduring crying bouts from Caleb which may arise from any situation that he doesn't like, e.g. if we tell him it's time to bath and he wants to play, he'll say "No!" or "I don't like!". We will continue to insist that he does it (although we don't forcibly enforce it on him, but continue to insist that he does it), and after a while, when he sees he can't get his way, he'll start to cry.

We have decided very early on that we will NOT give him attention when he cries, and not carry him. So we will just put him down and perhaps sit down somewhere and wait for him to finish crying, hoping that he'll realise that crying doesn't get him anywhere. After a while, he'll come over and while still crying, he'll ask to be carried, and we'll say "No Caleb, you gotta stop crying first". It was tough at the beginning, with bouts lasting up to an hour. We would also tell him to stop before we count to 3. That started working a few months ago and he would stop after we go "1... 2...". The crying duration slowly got shorter and it finally paid off a few nights ago.

I insisted that it was his bed time and it's time to rest, but he still wanted to go to the Living Room to play. I closed the bed room door and he started to cry. I followed the usual routine of ignoring him and went to the edge of the bed to sit and just look at him. Even before I made myself comfortable on the bed, he had already started walking towards me, amidst sobs, and then he stopped crying himself and said "Stop".

I was filled with a sense of overwhelming love for that sensible boy at that moment and immediately jumped out of bed and took a piece of tissue to clean his eyes and face.

Mummy's efforts are paying off. Good job Mummy!

I Don't Like

Since our Sabah trip, Caleb has picked up the phrase "I don't like". More often than not, I think he means "I don't want" but there are times I think he really means he doesn't like something. Well, this is like the hot phrase for the month and I hear lots of "I don't like" from him throughout the day.
Here's the more common "I don't likes" from Caleb.

"I don't like dinner"
"I don't like Mummy bathe you(me)"
"I don't like Mummy tired" (this is when it's bedtime and I tell him I'm tired and can't play with him any more)
"I don't like Mummy sleep"
"I don't like eat medicine"
"I don't like Mummy carry you(me)"
"I don't like drink milk"
"I don't like sit sto-ler (stroller)"
"I don't like sit po-perly (properly)"

Actually the list goes on, as long as it's something he doesn't want to do for that moment, I'm sure to hear "I don't like".
Here's the classic ones.
Last night Daddy was playing with Caleb. Caleb was stacking his toy cars on top of one another. Daddy joined in and stacked a car on top of Caleb's. Caleb immediately pushed Daddy's car away and said: "I don't like Daddy put car on top Caleb car!". That's like one of the longer sentences that he has put together and the contents of his sentence is actually quite complicated!
And this morning, before Daddy left for work, he gave Caleb a hug to say good bye and turned to give me a hug. Caleb stared at Daddy hugging me and said "I don't like Mummy love you Daddy". We burst out laughing and proceeded to give Caleb a hug. Only then was he pacified and smiling again.

This boy is really saying strange stuff nowadays!

Where's Caleb's photo?

It dawned on us recently that Caleb sees Daddy, Mummy and Caleb as 1 family.
A few nights ago I was carrying Caleb and we walked passed the display cabinet in our room. Caleb wanted me to stop so that he could look at the photos in the display cabinet.

Caleb: (points to photo of Daddy) Daddy photo there!
Mummy: yup, that's Daddy's photograph
Caleb: (points to photo of me) Mummy photo there!
Mummy: yup, that's mummy
Caleb: (pauses for a while and frowns) where Caleb photo?
Mummy: ....eh... oh, we forgot to put Caleb's photo there. Another day Mummy look for Caleb's photo and put in there ok?
Caleb: k... (after a while) I want go outside (to the living room)...
Mummy: go outside for what?
Caleb: take Caleb photo put in there!
Mummy: ..........................

Daddy told me yesterday that Caleb walked passed our shoe cabinet where we've got more photo frames. He stared at a photo frame which has got a collage of photos of Daddy and Mummy and he asked Daddy "where me?"

It seems that whenever we put up photos at home now, we must make sure that Caleb's photo is included so that he doesn't feel left out!

Remaining photos of our Sabah trip

Waiting for 6th Uncle to pick us up at Tawau airport


The rustic house in Sabah


Ah Zor and Caleb when we first arrived


Weiwei Ah Gor drawing with Caleb


Grandpa and Caleb's daily activity - cat watching


One of the 6 stray cats roaming round the house


Grandpa's Mercedes. An antique. Unfortunately, it can't start anymore.


Caleb posing with Grandpa's Mercedes.


The Hair Salon. Daddy got his hair cut here for RM$3! They thought that he was a student so charged him student rate. The normal rate is RM$7! Daddy was quite satisfied with his haircut, except that his hair was a bit long at the back. I told him he can go back and pay another RM$3 to trim it shorter since it's so cheap!

Grandpa and Grandma catching up with old friends.

Caleb with Grandpa, Grandma, Ah Zor and Yi Por Zor


The Familee photo with 4 generations!

City Boy to Kampong Boy

During Caleb's trip to Sabah, he has changed from being a city boy to Kampong Boy. Ah Zor stays in a rustic, kampong style house with a large compound so Caleb had lots of space to run around. See the kampong boy in action here.

Caleb taking a walk round the compound with Grandpa. This is a daily affair.


Caleb checking out the compound on his own.


Caleb getting more hands on in being a Kampong boy



Caleb posing at the stairs leading to the compound


Check out these videos!
Caleb got tired of walking around the compound and decided to kick off his slippers and sit on the concrete floor to pick at the dirt on the floor.


He later proceeded to walk onto this puddle of muddy rain water barefooted, in the middle of the compound. And then, "wash" his hands in the water. I was extremely horrified coz the water was very DIRTY and after a while, he started squealing and splashing the muddy water around. We had a VERY DIRTY boy. He had muddy water on his face and all over his body. I'm not sure whether he drank any of the water but the only thing that we could think of was to give him a bath IMMEDIATELY.

Sabah here we come!

Famileez was away in Sabah, Tawau together with Grandma and Grandpa to visit Caleb's Great grandma (Ah Zor), Great Grandaunt (Yee Por Zor), Grand Aunty (Kor Por), Grand Uncle (Chek Kong) and family. We had a great time meeting, catching up with Daddy's extended family and eating the delicious Sabah dishes that Yee Por Zor prepared everyday.
Caleb definitely enjoyed himself tremendously. The house in Tawau had a big compound for him to run around everyday. There were cats for him to chase and Grandpa to play with him every minute of the day. He had so much fun that it was difficult for us to get him to sleep, nap or eat coz he can't stop thinking of playing.

We had been quite worried about Caleb getting on a plane coz the last time that he sat on a plane was when he was about four months old. That's more than a year ago. And recently he seemed to be quite sensitive towards loud noises so we had been preparing him for quite a while that he was going on a plane.
Here's a typical preparation conversation with him.

Mummy: Caleb, where are we going next week?
Caleb: sit air-lo-plane!
Mummy: Sit aeroplane to go where?
Caleb: Sa-BAH!
Mummy: Go Sabah to see who?
Caleb: See tortoise!
Mummy: ??? (we still can't figure out where he got that idea from. Anyway, we slowly reinforced that we may or may not see tortoise but we're going to visit Ah Zor and Yee Por Zor)
Mummy: And what sound does the aeroplane make?
Caleb: (swings his hand into the air) Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!

Well, here's Caleb at Senai airport. He was in a very cheery mood and took a couple of nice photos with Chek Chek.

Daddy and Mummy before boarding.

Caleb with Grandma before boarding the plane. He kept pointing to the aeroplane and shouting out "sit air-lo-plane!" and seemed fairly excited about it.

Caleb's change in attitude the minute we started walking to the plane. The sound of the engine was really loud and he didn't take it too well. He started to grab onto my arms really tight and when I walked up the steps to get onto the plane, he started wailing and screaming "NO! NO! I don't like!" Well, it lasted about 15min past take off and he was so loud, nobody dared to sit near us. No photos for this coz we were all quite flustered by his screaming and wailing. Thank God, he started to quieten down after a while and fell asleep on Daddy for about 45min. But poor Daddy, by then was all wet in persperation.

Here's Caleb, after he woke up from his short nap. Thank God for Grandma and Grandpa who started entertaining him with his favourite James the Red Engine story book.

Cheerios helped too.

Another photo of Daddy and Mummy (happy that Caleb is being entertained by Grandma and Grandpa)

And we survived! Mummy with Caleb. And after this, we asked him whether he wanted to sit aeroplane again, he said yes and on the way to Ah Zor's house, he started saying "I want sit air-lo-plane!"

That's our first installment of the Sabah photos. More to come!

More presents!

We're lagging behind quite a bit on our blogging coz we were away. Anyway, here's one of Caleb's latest craze - vacuuming the carpet. Mama bought him this Barney vacuum cleaner and he immediately sprang into action with it. See how enthusiastically he's vacuuming our sofa. Maybe it time for me to give him the real thing so that I can sit back and relax!


And this is the trainset that Grandma, Grandpa and Chek Chek bought for Caleb. Caleb is REALLY into trains now. Grandma and Grandpa dug out this book which is part of the Thomas the Train series. Believe it or not, it belongs to Daddy so the book is much, much older than Caleb. Well, Caleb can make us read the book again and again and again. And we bought this vcd that has Thomas the train. Well, he's demanding to watch it everyday. It's a very short story, about 10min but he will make me play it again and again and again. He'll watch like 5 times of the same story until I tell him to stop. Wonder how long this will last.

Here's Daddy playing with Caleb's trainset. Yah, actually the toy is not for Caleb but for Daddy. He actually took it out to play when Caleb was sleeping!



Daddy's 30 year old book. According to Grandma, Daddy loved this book as a child so they had kept it. Apparently Caleb shares the same likings.

Lego Truck

Over the Christmas period, Godma Mei and Uncle Mian came over to our place for lunch to celebrate Godma's birthday and Christmas. Godma Mei and Uncle Mian bought Caleb this Lego truck set that he absolutely loves. Actually, we all love the present. For Uncle Mian, coz he got to piece the truck together (according to Godma, Uncle Mian used to win Lego competitions!) For Mummy and Daddy, coz Caleb is quite intrigued with it and can spend a far bit of time playing with it. For Godma, well, I guess she's happy that she bought something that Caleb likes.

Caleb getting very excited over the truck


Uncle Mian giving Caleb a chance to have a go at the truck


Caleb getting tired of waiting for the truck to be setup


Godma supervising the boys in putting the truck together