Toddler's drawing

I've read that over the last several months of a toddler first year, the child's fine motor skills improved steadily. since Gracia is now physically ready to grab hold of a colour pencil and start experimenting,we had converted one of our unused coffee table for her to draw. She has already scribble vigorously on the paper mummy paste on top of it. She seems to enjoy dragging and scrawling all around on the paper, of course what she draw seems unrecognizable for us now. We just want to kick start her interest and hopefully her writing and drawing skills will improve in tiny incremental steps throughout the toddler years eventually.

Chicken With Oats.

Much more delicious than chili crab, lobster or abalone. That’s my confession of the dish my wife cooked for me yesterday, “Fried Chicken With Oats”.
I am telling you the truth because the dish is painstakingly made from the love of my sweet heart and is marinated with affection and fried with flame of devotion. The tenderness of her is felt when I bite onto the meat, and the way she wanted to pamper me I can smell it from the smoke. What an appetizing dish I haven’t eaten for a decade. I just want to thank my wife for the effort, time and scarify considering that she still need to look after Gracia while making this heavenly chicken. Thank you so much my dear, I truly appreciate your contribution and had pleasurable moment from you. Thank you.


The Ingredients:
200g boneless chicken drumstick
50g tapioca flour
1 egg white
Marinade:
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tbsp lemon juice
50g plain flour
1 tbsp egg yolk flour.

Method:
1. Beat the egg; rinse chicken and cut into same sized thin slices, remove to drain, add in Marinade and set aside for 1 hr.
2. Coat chicken meat with some tapioca flour, egg white and oats.
3. Heat up oil in pot, add in chicken meat and fry over low heat for 5 mins. Remove and drain.
4. Heat up oil in pot, fry chicken meat again until golden brown, remove to drain and cut into pieces. Serve.

A toy from mustafa center.

Mummy always wanted some building material to engage her with more creativity and motor skill activities. Daddy hasn’t found any affordable one(not that we really can't afford, we're just being very thrifty) until I went Mustafa center and saw this Lego similar building toy but for a quarter of it price I guess. Perhaps the quality might not be as fine as Lego, but it’s good enough since Gracia is still too young to really appreciate this kind of architectural toy. Most of the time, it’s daddy or mummy who construct one for her hoping that she will see and learn from us. We build her a plane recently and we are quite happy she can recognize it.

The wave.

She reminds me of Shine.

We brought Gracia to the beach again, this time trying to let her over come her fear of the gigantic ocean. It turn out that, the sound and force of the wave still tremble her much. When daddy try to bring her closer to touch the sea water, she will back off and cry when ever the wave sets in, that reminds me of Shine, my previous dog. But today, she did much better than the time she had with Julian, at least she manage to seat very near the sea for a short while when daddy saw the current not too strong and escort her there. Like Shine, I believe after a few more trips and she will definitely buildup her courage and soon she’ll find amusement in the wave instead of terrifying. But we decide not to visit ECP or Pasir Ris Beach anymore because the beach is never clean, every time we went there, we’re quite disappointed with the rubbish floating near the coast. We will try visiting Sentosa the next time, heard many reports and comments that the environment and the quality of the sea and sand there is much better.





One thing she truely enjoy much, is the sand.

Playground Gracia Like The Most.

The same day we bought the $49 shoe for Gracia, we brought her to the playground she enjoy playing the most. Daddy had discovered this place a couple of weeks ago with her so it's not new for us, instead it's mummy who has never been there and wanted to take a look having heard many times daddy mentioning about it.


The 3 of us using the self timer from my digital cam.


Gracia showing off her new shoe.

Baby Shoe That Cost Too Much?

This question is something that me and Lina has been asking since we leave the baby shoe shop at United Square. $49 for a pair of baby shoe we did not intent to buy initially. Actually we had on eye another pair which cost $20 lesser, but it seems that Gracia does not have enough fate for that beautiful pair. First it was the size that run out of stock, but when we finally got the similar pair transfered from another outlet, we realise the design at the bottom seems a bit crooky for little Gracia to walk steadily. After trying a couple more shoes for her, we end up buying this $49.90 pair.

Egoistic Or Just Highly Sensitive.

Recently I've been reflecting on my own personality if i am a egoistic man or if there's something else i need to address.

The reason i wanted to find out if i am a egoistic person is because friends and family who love me have always told me that it's very difficult to give comments, esp negative comments on me. Well, i checked on the dictionary and it translate ego as someone who acts and thinks that he is "extremely superior". I sat down for a while, calmly recall all the incidents, quarrel and my behaviour i had in the past. Honestly, as a man, when i see myself doing and helping out on house chord i don't feel i am superior(but i am happy). I wear simple and drive a broken van i don't feel superior either, (but i am also happy). I don't think i am self-centered or selfish when there are many occasion i allow and permit my wife to go ahead with her decision even though i had a different point of view from hers. ( that's because i love her give her respect) . So, from all these sacrification and contribution, my conclusion is, i am not as egoistic as anyone might think. But if it's not of my great ego, why is it that i am so easily agitated when receiving comments?

Well, I remember reading this book call "HIGHLY SENSITIVE PERSON" or HSP.

Highly sensitivity is not a flaw but a gift from God, but without knowing how to handle your sensitivity correctly, it may lead to many unpleasant experiences and will cause you your job, friends and even your spouse. To know if i was a HSP, I'd to take the test below.....


.Do you get overwhelmed by stimuli such as lights, noises, and smells?
.Do other people’s moods and emotions deeply affect you?
.Are you easily startled?
.Are you aware of other things in your environment that most other people are not aware of?
.Do you enjoy delicate tastes, scents, sounds, soft fabrics, or beautiful works of art?
.Have you always been labeled as shy or sensitive by other people?
.Are you sensitive to certain foods such as foods containing caffeine, sugar or alcohol?
.Do you become unpleasant when you are hungry?
.Are you attracted to the deeper things such as spirituality, self-development and philosophy?
.Are your feelings easily bruised?
.Do you have a vivid imagination?
**

The answer i got are mostly "YES", drinking coffee makes me so awake. Light and sound disturb my sleeps much too easy and considered i do not even have a proper professional training but have a good sense of music and act. I guess most likely i am a HSP than a egoistic man. Being a HSP means you can see, feel and listen more deeply than non HSP. It has it advantages and disadvantages which can be taxing at times.
One of the downward side of being HSP is "you can't handle comments well" esp negative comments. You will tend to take things very personally whenever someone ask you a negative question which might not necessary direct to you. For example, if my daughter is not feeling well after i took care of her for a day and my wife came back asking me what happen. Instead of confidently and unguiltily explaining to her the actual reason, i have the urgency to feel she's blaming me, that's how sensitive i am.

It has been estimated that 15-20% of the population or 50 million people are highly sensitive. Among this population, there is a scale of sensitivity levels since some people are slightly sensitive while others are extremely sensitive.

Highly sensitive people have been around forever, but they have been mislabeled as shy, timid, inhibited, or introverted. However, Highly sensitive people tend to be extraordinarily creative and productive workers. In relationships, if the other party know how to strike a balance and not do or say words too sensitive, they are usually attentive and thoughtful partners with acute listening skills and compassionate hearts. Most are also intellectually gifted individuals. HSPs could contribute much more to society or relationship if they received the right kind of attention.

So, my final conclusion is that, since i considered myself as a HSP instead of being a unreasonable, irrogant, egoistic macho man. I ask that those who love me, my friends and family, please read and understand more about HSP and help me overcome and make good use of this remarkable ability. Just talk to me tactfully and care for my sensitivity and i believe, i strongly believe i will not be as timid as i had been in the past. In fact, i am prefer to be a loving husband, a caring father and a sincere friend for many and it's because of my sensitivity that i am able to read, write and take many nice picture for this blog even without education or training.

If you're willing to help me, talk to me tactfully and reduce the impact I'll have from my nervous system, i am willing to improve and not use my sensitivity as a excuse to get the way i want. Love all of you and may peace be with us forever....