Latest Posts

1st week of Junior 1

Published by

*sigh*
20130916-082102.jpg

My V all smiles inside his classroom for Junior 1.

I asked him if he’ll stop kissing Mama in front of his friends because his in grade 1, V replied with a hug and wet kiss telling me I will never stop kissing you Mama. ( I will come back and show him this post when his a teen and refuse to give me a kiss!)

We have survived 1st week of school and I admit I was the one nervous that I won’t wake up early enough (bus pickup at 6:13 am) and that I won’t pack enough food for him.

I’ve been crazy searching the stores for the perfect lunchbox since V complained that the Sahara Tiger lunchbox is too heavy but hey it keeps his food warm even after 6 hrs!

20130916-083706.jpg

Vs week 1 school lunchbox feedback is that I send him way too much food. Too much? He comes home complaining he’s soo hungry! He explained that he doesn’t want to go potty #2 at school that’s why he doesn’t want too much food.

How was your 1st week of school?

V beat the claw game machine!

Published by

I won Mama! For the first time I won!

20130829-082602.jpg
Beaming with delight with a screaming LittleMiss beside him.

After the claw game drama which broke Vs heart, I was hesitant to make him play again but he would insist every time we see one.

I finally gave in when he insisted that he wants to do it for his LittleMiss. He maneuvered the claw from left to right and finally settled above the toy pressed the red button. Viola! Claw grabbed the toy and dropped it.

V won!

Ginataang Munggo

Published by

I am talking to my sister via facebook, she’s in the office and even though storm Maring has left Philippines it still is raining back home. The recipe I am sharing today is perfect to give warmth to a rainy season.

Ginataang Munggo is a mix of glutinous rice and green mung beans cooked with coconut milk and sweetened with either sugar or condensed milk similar to ginataang mais.
Ginataang Munggo

 

It’s 9 am and the kids are still sleeping. I am enjoying a little bit of “me quiet time” while reading the newest addition to our bookshelf – Momofuku Milk Bar. I am planning to prepare at least three recipe from the book every month.

Ginataang Munggo Momofuku

The husband has been giving me hints that he likes ginataang munggo, the dish was suppose to be a surprise for him to enjoy for afternoon snack but then the nearby grocery delivered the wrong item and didn’t bother to come back for my glutinous rice. My dear husband had to go down and buy me glutinous rice a key ingredient to enjoy his merienda.

Ginataang Munggo (Mung Beans and Sticky Rice Pudding) 

  • 1/2 cup  Mung Beans
  • 1/2 cup Glutinous Rice, washed
  • 3 cups  Coconut Milk
  • 6 Tbsp Sugar  (or 2 Tbsp condensed milk)
  • 2 Tbsp Milk

Procedure:

1) Toast mung beans on skillet until brown

2) Cool mung beans and crack using a blender or almeres (mortar & pestel)

3) Simmer 2 cups of coconut milk

4) Add rice and let boil. After adding the rice make sure you give the pudding a good mix every 5 to 10 minutes.

5) Once you got the rice & coconut milk boiling add Mung beans.

6) Simmer till rice is soft and mushy and the mung beans still has a little bite to it.  If the rice and mung beans still not cooked to your liking pour in the remaining 1 cup of coconut milk, and if you ran out of coconut milk don’t worry you can add either whole milk or water till the pudding texture you like is achieved. *We like our ginataang monggo with a little texture that’s why the mung beans are a tad bit under cook.

7) Stir in your preferred sweetener.

8) Serve warm with a little bit more of milk.

Enjoy!

Car seat outbursts

Published by

This is not the usual cutie patootie posts about our LittleMiss.

I don’t drive so I always sit at the back with the kids, C and I find the seating arrangement convenient so I can attend to whatever request V and LittleMiss needs (water, food, tissue, breastfeed – yes I’ve found a way to feed LittleMiss while both of us are buckled in the back).

We bought V his car seat when he was around 3 years old and he never had a meltdown while seated. LittleMiss however started fighting getting strapped on to her car seat, carrier and stroller at 11 months. Most of the time I give in and end up letting her sit in my lap. Why? She starts crying, screaming and vomiting that we end up not having a fun family day. Once she ended having a mild fever from her car seat outburst from Al Qusais to Dubai Mall.

Photos below taken while we were waiting for Dad C to come back.

CarSeat Outburst

As soon as I put her down this happens.

CarSeat Outburst2

And when I still refuse to get her she vomits.

Her outbursts has cause me stress whenever we go out. I’ve tried offering her toys, singing favorite songs, and breastfeeding (this usually works) but as soon as she unlatch we’re back to crying.

Any advise? Should we change her car seat? Ignore her completely? (ignoring her is really hard for me)

Food we ate along Nathan Road

Published by

One will never go hungry along Nathan Road, Hong Kong. Sharing with you some snaps of food we enjoyed during our 5 days stay.

Gong Cha – We ordered Taro and Black Tea. C and I thinks that it needs a little more flavor and sweetness, but it might be just us asking the wrong mix? They speak very little English we had to give our order fast (long queue behind us).

GongCha Tea Hong Kong

 Almost everyone walking with us had this particular bubble tea in hand.

Food Corner – Located just a block away from our hotel this food stall was a busy one, they had siomai, fish balls, beef tripe, pork innards, octopus meat and a whole lot more.
Food Corner Stall Nathan Road

  Busy Food Corner Hong Kong

V’s favorite food place along Nathan Road.

 We had a long walk to reach Nathan Congee & Noddle place for breakfast.

20130820-080514.jpg

 

I ordered Congee with Pork Liver

20130820-080555.jpg

 a complimentary sweet bread in every table

20130820-080635.jpg

 Hubby C ordered Beef Noodles

Food on Stick – We passed by this place and it had a long queue which tempted us to join the crowd as well. Sold here are Squid/Octopus and Pork innards on stick served cold with mustard and what I think is hoisin sauce. Taking photo was not allowed, good thing I was able to snap a photo of the stall name before they opened.

20130820-080730.jpg

20130820-080800.jpg

 

Cafe de Coral – We discovered the restaurant on our last day located in the 2nd floor of a building across the Food Corner.

20130820-080857.jpg

20130820-080919.jpg

20130820-080944.jpg

20130820-081023.jpg

 

As much as I want to explore the food scene along Nathan Road it was quite challenging with a baby who refuse to sit on the stroller or carrier and who was not happy on a crowded place. When the kids are older we will go back and try to eat at each food stall along Nathan Road.

 

*photo taken using my iPhone 5

World Breastfeeding Week 2013

Published by

Happy Breastfeeding Week! All milking mama’s

20130801-164035.jpg

Breastfeeding week starts today till August 7. Here in Dubai though we celebrate it in November because the country observes Ramadan this month.

20130801-164122.jpg

LittleMiss turned 13 months and still breastfeeding. I weaned V from the breast weeks before he turned 2 years old, this time though I have no plans of weaning her by that age.

20130801-164855.jpg

I would like to thank my MIL for staying with us when I gave birth and for my husband C for the support and always cheering that we can do it.

20130801-165003.jpg

Thank you also to Breastfeeding Q&A UAE Group for the listening, advise and stories that accompanied me on the wee hours while I feed my baby.

Read more abouth this years theme at World Breastfeeding Week

Reach out and share your breastfeeding journey Mama’s!

Giveaway: Smurfs 2 movie tickets

Published by

*Giveaway close. Winner has been notified.

It has been a week since we got back from vacation and I’m slowly getting back to our usual routine.

We missed a lot of events here in Dubai while having a grand time back home, so happy though that we are back just in time for Smurfs 2 movie!

I’m giving away two movie tickets to watch Smurfs 2 from “Build-a-Bear Workshop”

Who is your favorite Smurf?
Leave a comment below to win the tickets!

Winner will be announced Saturday, August 2, 2013.

20130730-113546.jpg

Skylanders Limited Edition for E3

Published by

LittleMan V requested that we put his collection on the blog, so here it is.

TheCaidoy's Skylanders Collection

We give V rewards whenever he does good in school (he was perfect in all his dictation sheets in class and passed school entrance exam), and he would always ask for toys and on that particular toy store trip he was looking for the Trash Pack toys but it was not available.  Good thing it was not available!

Daddy came home one night with the Skylanders PS3 Starter Pack and from then on Vs collection has reached to 30 characters.  He’s watching videos and reading about them. He made a video about them which I recorded using my iPhone.

We followed Skylander gamers on youtube and he learned about the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) and asked us to go the expo. He felt really bad when he learned that those who went to the expo got limited edition Skylander characters. I told him that one of Mama’s friend was in the E3 expo, both V and Dad exclaimed that Mama has cool friends. I even became the coolest Mom when I told him that our twitter Dahlink Nick got a Limited E3 Skylander character. V asked if he can visit Uncle Nick and get to see his Skylanders Bronze Hot Dog E3 Release.

Before I got a chance to ask Nick if we can see his Skylanders E3 release I got a message inviting us to drop by his office for some E3 goodies. So we did right after Vs graduation, and we were in for a big surprise.

Limited E3 Skylanders Collection with Uncle Nick

Uncle Nick handed him goodies from the expo and also gave V two Limited Skylanders E3 release – Silver Spyro (E3 2012) and Bronze Hot Dog (E3 2013). He was beaming with happiness and declared to his Dad that Uncle Nick gave him the best gift of his life.  THANK YOU Uncle Nick!

 

V with friends

V’s friends declared him the coolest!