Chinese New Year Eve Dinner

Every family has their own traditional dishes when it comes to Chinese New Year dinners. Thought I'd share what my family had this year.







What is missing? There was also soup. Not "Lian Ngau" (Lotus Root) though, but ABC soup. There was also suppose to be "Siu Bak" (Roast Pork) but mom forgot to bring that out. In the past, there would be "Tau Yew Bak" or Tau Yew Kay" but not this year. Why two dishes of prawns you may wonder. Mom wanted to try out this oat prawns that she had eaten earlier at someone else's place. She was testing out the dish. Since she is testing out dishes and there were left over prawns, I also tested out my prawns in mayo+thai chilli sauce.
The Ayamas chicken, obviously purchased, don't seem to gel with Chinese New Year but I guess it's a quick way to reduce the cooking load.

Well, I had to attend to baby when the dinner started and so, was the last one left eating when everyone else had finished. Then it was like "why don't you finish this," "there's only a little bit of that left" etc.... Therefore, this year I earned the title DBKL, DBPJ, MPS... whatever you call those people who clears off leftovers. Plus with breastfeeding, I was able to eat and eat and eat too.

Anyway, it was a good dinner. Thanks mom for cooking.

Get Paid for Blogging

Here is an opportunity for blogging mamas and papas to earn a little pocket money. It's called Blogsvertise.

How do you earn the money? After registering with Blogsvertise and getting your blog approved, you will be given assignments to blog about certain products or services. If they like how and what you've written, you get paid.

Worried you won't know how to write? Well, let's just say you don't have to write a 1000 word essay glorifying the product or service. I'm sure you can muster up 60-100 words right? Plus you don't have to endorse it. And they give you a free hand how you want to write it e.g. compliment it, critisize it, review it, talk about how it may relate to you etc.... Everyone has an opinion about everything. So just share yours and get paid!

How do you get paid? Through paypal. So for us here in Malaysia, that may not be a good thing coz' we can't cash out the money. But that does not mean you can't use the money. You can still buy stuff online using your paypal funds. Virtual money is still money.

So if you are game for it, get yourself to Blogvertise now and sign up.

GONG XI FA CAI

GONG XI FA CAI!

Chinese New Year is here again. Everybody welcome the year of the golden pig. Talking about pigs, check out my little "fei chu" (fat pig). He should have been born in the year of the pig coz' he is getting so fat, fat, fat. Thanks to #1, best in the world breastmilk. But because he was born before the Chinese New Year, he is still under the doggy year.
And what is everyone going to do for Chinese New Year? My family, we are pretty laid back. Back when I was younger (meaning still in school, free and single), Chinese New Year included golfing. Shows how popular we are with visitors. Usually, people stay home the first day of New Year to receive guests. My family... well, my dad more specifically, says its the best time to play golf coz' no one is on the course.
Chinese New Year has lost a lot of it's hype. For me anyway. The reunion dinner is the only woo-hoo thing. Even then, with everyone married, sometimes not the whole family is there. It's different. Like this year one of my brothers will be missing as he will be with his wife's family.
Plus, the whole family don't hang around together very long too. Another one of my brothers always goes home after the dinner. And me... have to leave for my in-laws house the first day of New Year, except for this year. So Chinese New Year in my family has now been reduced to just the reunion dinner. Everyone comes back a few hours before the dinner, then many of us are gone after the dinner. If we stayed behind, it would only be overnight. We don't do the chinese prayers and rituals thing, so Chinese New Year has become... sad to say it, but it's quite boring.

Activities in the Lim family during CNY eve:
- Eating and snacking
- Collecting 'ang pow' (red packets with money in them) ... well for children this is still the kicker.
- Napping (like my little "fei chu")
- Watching DVD's to pass time
- Cooking and whatever needs to be done to prepare for THE feast (usually done by the women folk)
- Cleaning up

Well, here's wishing everyone a happy and prosperous Chinese New Year. Safe driving.

Another Nursery Rhyme Question

Tom, Tom the Piper's Son
Stole a pig and away did run
The pig was eat and Tom was beat
And Tom went howling down the street

My son asks "who did he steal the pig from?"
Aiyah son, you're not suppose to analyze these rhymes lah. Suppose to just sing, be happy and unconsciously learn about words that rhyme. But good, good, you ask question. Only thing is mommy don't know the answer.

Wonders of Email

Are you all familiar with the 3 R's? Reading, writing and arithmetic. This is what we usually focus on when teaching our young kiddos. Well, K is doing pretty good with her reading and not too bad with maths. But writing... we need more work there. The two things we've been working on are:
1. Handwriting
2. Spelling

For handwriting, I have her do copywork like copying nursery rhymes or an informational paragraph from a book. Not only trains her in handwriting skills but also observational skills like when to write capital letters, inserting commas, how to write a question mark, starting sentence on a new line etc.... Initially she would write 2 sentences and tell me her hand was tired. Well, of course it was tired coz' she was pressing down so hard when she was writing. K is the kind of person who is not very meticulous about her work. She likes to finish things off as fast as she can with no thought for producing quality work. So, I have to constantly remind her that she needs to give her best work. I try to make it fun for her like giving her the freedom to choose what she wants to copy. Also, suggested she add some illustration to her work, but so far my suggestion has not been taken up. Guess not so fun for her afterall. Oh well, no matter how she may hate it, I will have to persist on this activity as I'm sure there will be copy work when she starts school i.e. copy from blackboard.

Spelling has been a headache for me. I've tried to encourage her to learn how to spell numbers, days of the week, months of the year etc.... No interest what so ever. If she wants to write something, she will ask me how to spell instead of trying to figure it out herself. I've been working with her on phonics, segmenting sounds and blending sounds. My goal is for her to learn to spell by paying attention to the sounds in the word and not just memorizing the whole word. I don't care if she spells it wrong. Anyway, we were like an airplane that could not take-off or a car engine that would sputter and die. UNTIL... it struck me to create an email account for her. Everybody LOVES to get mail right? Well, not spam lah. She got excited about the idea. I said she would have to reply my mail but I couldn't help her write her messages. Well, these are some of her mails to me. See if you can decipher them:

1hoio mommy i got a mash for you.

2i oasl love you.

3i oas be wiff you.

4i love you and you love me.
5mom you see wat i do.

do you no nas august is my boday and damus boday to .
the fas day is a sasu day and is a hap nun yun

Hahahah. Good effort I say. Can you figure it out? Here is some help:
hoio = hello
mash = message
oas = always
nas = next
boday = birthday
fas day = first day
sasu day = saturday
hap nun yun = happy new year

She absolutely loves checking her mail, except almost no one writes to her at the moment. Anyone want to be her penpal? I wonder what kids her age would write to each other. Well, if you are interested in making a new friend (for yourself or your child), you can reach Karina at karinalsy@gmail.com
I'm sure she would be thrilled to make new friends.