White Choc Chip Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

The recipe needs some tweaking. I cut down a little bit of the sugar but apparently that wasn't enough. The cookies are still damn sweet. So sweet that I felt immediately full when I caught the first whiffs of the aroma wafting out of the oven. So sweet that hubby's teeth ached after trying one.

In his words, "If these weren't so sweet, they'd be awesome!"

Right. Next time I will make sure to halve the sugar in the recipe. Before I get to the next batch though, there's the matter of this current batch to finish off.

Crunchtime

It never fails to happen. I ALWAYS leave my writing assignments till the last possible minute. Happened when I was in school, back in college, then in university and even now when I have writing deadlines.

Like now. When I should be researching and writing. What do I do instead? Distract myself with all manner of things on the Web instead.

It's procrastination central here. And I'll dearly pay for it when deadline rolls around the corner. Heck, it's already around the corner, short of tripping me up and sending me flying headfirst into a collision with oncoming traffic.

I'm doomed.

A Day of Firsts

Yesterday, we had a number of firsts in the household:

1. Sophie's new bed from ikea arrived
2. I made okomiyaki (and it was delicious!)
3. Hubby started his chicken breast diet

So, doing item 1 and 2 were fun. Sophie was beyond herself with excitement when I opened up the package from ikea and started to assemble the bed. She not only wanted to sleep in her bed right away, hence egged me on to hurry up and complete it, but she tried in her own way to help too. This means emptying all the screw, nuts and bolts from the package and at one point, throwing a couple to the far end of the room. Not climbing over the bed frames as Jona and I were assembling them was too much of temptation to miss out on. And finally when the mattress was put on the bed, she didn't want to get off for us to put the sheets on. When we were finally done, she went down for her nap about 2 hours later than usual, about 2.30pm.

Preparing and cooking okonimiyaki was just as fun, if not counterproductive. Instead of enjoying dinner at the dinner table, I ate standing up at the kitchen counter, munching on my kewpie-mayo and tonkatsu drenched pancake as I cooked more batches of okonimiyaki. The dish is best eaten hot off the pan or griddle, that's why most Japanese, when they have it at home, cook it on a portable hotplate on the kitchen table. Or that's how I remember my host family eating it anyway.

Hubby's dinner was more bland. And a tad weird, according to him. It was a recipe for chicken thigh that I took off Good Health magazine and incorporated into chicken breasts. There were lemons and oranges and lentil involved. So much for his diet though, as he had more than his fair share of okonomiyaki as well.

All in all, it was a good day. Small fry went to bed in her own bed and I got to sleep through the whole night in my own bed too! What a blast!

Thank goodness for affordable kidtastic ikea furniture and bedding.

Totoro Mania

Move over, Elmo! Totoro mania has taken over at our house, with no signs of letting up.

We've been watching Totoro (in Japanese) after her evening shower every evening for a little over a week now. She exclaims excitedly when any of the Totoros show up. "See, see! It's the Totoro!"; "Oh, ooooh! It's the Totoro!"; "Gasp! It's holding the umbrella, Mummy!". The Cat Bus too. "The Cat Bus! The Cat Bus!" She explains (to herself? To Daddy?) what happens in the cartoon. Her most averse reaction is when the closing theme song ends. Then she wails. This never happened with Elmo. She was always willing to go to sleep when the credits rolled around. Not so with Totoro.

She still clutches her little Totoro around with her everywhere. And is still stuffing it's ears into her nostril. Miraculously, it is just a very slight tinge of grey. I also wiped off a bit of pumpkin off it when she wanted it to share her lunch with her.

She does her Totoro puzzle everyday. It's actually a 4-part puzzle. There are four different puzzles, ranging from 15, 35, 54 and 80 pieces. She likes doing all three but reserves the 80-piece cat bus puzzle for me. She's designated it as Mummy's puzzle and nobody else can do it.

I bought her a Totoro picture book a few days back, only because she was asking for it and she likes reinforcing her love for her favourite characters at bedtime with books. Every and any time she mentions Totoro, there's a glimmer in her eye and delight in her voice, "Totoro! Totoro! The Totoro!"

At night before bed, singing the two Totoro theme songs are mandatory. "Mummy, please sing the 'arugo' song? And the flying Totoro song."

When she awoke from her nap this afternoon, the first thing she started babbling about was Totoro and the cat bus. I think she was telling me something about Totoro riding the cat bus, etc. She may have dreamnt about Totoro, it's most likely. In any case, she couldn't stop talking about Totoro and the cat bus.

Daddy wanted to get her a stuffed Totoro even though I know in KL, I have two - the grey one and the blue one. I just have to dig them out from where I stashed them. That might take some time. Luckily, a store at Vivo City was selling the Totoro merchandise for 50% off, so we got her one. She hasn't stopped hugging it and playing with it since we got it this afternoon. As testimony to how much she's been hanging on to it and swinging it by the arms, the seams on one of its arms are starting to show some wear.

This evening, she started singing along to the opening song, 'A Walk' (the arugo song). It was pretty impressive. And darned cute!

I'm just wondering why Totoro is fascinating her so much. Maybe it's the fact that all three of the Totoro look like blobs and are really cute. They just bob along, they fly and they do cool things. And they travel in the Cat Bus.

I wonder how long her fascination will last. Even though doing the puzzles everyday is kinda getting to me, I hope she stays fascinated for a while longer.

Playmates

Sophia and her classmate, Chiara, met up after class for a playdate. Actually, it was more like the mommies decided that the kids needed to play together while we sat down to chat. Chiara's 10-year old brother, Tony, joined us because Chiara's mom managed to 'bribe' him to babysit the girls. The price? A toy dart gun from Toys R Us.

We set up shop at Spinelli's and I brought out the markers, stickers, paper and books. Tony had fun drawing but insisted that he couldn't draw properly with a marker. Chiara had fun with the Thomas (Tank Engine) and princess stickers. Sophie hijacked part of my ginger cookie and was more intent on eating and lounging on my lap than socialising or drawing.

After hanging around the tables for a tad too long, we instructed Tony to play with the girls and to get them up and running. Sophia, who normally doesn't take to other kids, let alone boys, promptly followed Tony's lead and the two girls headed with the boy out towards a more open area to romp and play, the girls to romp and Tony to practice aiming at the wall with his little dart gun. To his credit, Tony was really good with the girls, entertaining them with the dart gun and not getting too carried away with it himself but paying the girls attention too.

It turned out the dart gun fascinated both girls, especially Sophia, who squealed in delight every time the foam dart left the gun. In no time, she took to following Tony around, 'assisting' him by picking up the darts, bringing them to him and intently watching him load the gun. When he sat in a corner to fiddle with the gun, she sat next to him, watching closely. Pretty soon, she figured out how to shoot it (!!) and when Tony disappeared back to the tables for a break sans gun, I could hear her hollering, "Tony! Where are you? Can you help me, please?" Turns out she had the gun and needed help with it.

"Wow, Tony. You're a popular guy," I told him. Tony turned to look at me and said, "She calls me 'Bony', y'know."

Oh dear.

Not only does my daughter now know how to handle a gun, albeit a toy dart gun, but she also seems to be taking liberties with names.

Of course, once one of the girls decides that holding the gun is fun, the other wants it too. So Chiara came by and took the gun from Sophia. When I told the small fry (Sophia) she had to share, she burst out, "Dowan to SHARE!" and promptly threw herself onto the floor into a temper tantrum.

This happened a couple of times. In the end, we took a break for lunch (chicken nuggets for the girls and wraps for mommies and brother), and after we had gotten their attention away from the gun, they started running around looking for pigeons.

All in all, a pretty typical playdate for the day, other than the fact that she took to 10-year old Tony so well and the major temper tantrums. But then again, she is only two.

Knowing Who To Milk It From

"Oh, babe. Looks like we're running out of puzzles to do," I tell Sophie as we are keeping her Mickey puzzle. We've exhausted her puzzle collection twice over in the day.

"That's why kong-kong and po-po have to buy new puzzles. Sophie has no more puzzles," she quips.

Consumerism starts at 2.

Puzzle Mania

Sophia loves jigsaw puzzles. LOVES them. Not a day goes by without her bringing out her Pooh, Mickey, animal or Totoro puzzles. Not just once a day, frequently three or four times a day.

The downside to having a puzzle crazy child is that I have to do the puzzles with her. Usually she doesn't require any help. She just wants you to sit with her and turn the pieces the right side around. Or she'll take out a puzzle for you to do while she does another.

We have a few sets of puzzles we recycle over and over and over again daily. Over. And. Over. And. Over. AND. OVER.

It's starting to drive me bonkers.

I think I may just go out there and get myself a 1000 piece puzzle just to crack the monotony.

A New Addition

I spent about 45 minutes at the office of Janome's sole agent just up the road from where we live, watching the sales engineer teach me about the sewing machine I was about to purchase.

It was a done deal. I just wanted to know more about the machine and how to thread the needle and other basic stuff I should know before I got it.

They took only cash. The machine cost $299 and I had $160 on me.

Since I lived close by and had no car, he endevoured to deliver both me and the machine home and collect the cash after delivery too.

Now I can start on those projects I've been eyeing in my craft books.

Another Milestone

Small fry has graduated from referring to herself as 'Popie' and "Popiah' to actually saying her name, Sophie and Sophia.

Right around the time that Eve and Genie left yesterday.

After her nap today, while I was cutting up pineapple and Jona was helping her with her taufufa, she hollered, "Momiiiiieeeee!! Can you please feed Sophia?"

Hm.

Tremors

So while the rest of the country were reeling from the tremor from an earthquake off Padang that shook buildings at around 6.15pm, I was at the Mac, groggy from a nap, wondering if my slight swaying left and right was because of my heartbeat pumping up a storm through my head. You know when it's really quiet and all you can hear is your heartbeat pounding in your head and it makes you feel like you're moving to its beat?

Meanwhile in the kitchen, Jona notices that the water in the bowls are quivering and the bunch of bananas hanging off the cupboard is swaying. She doesn't think to ask until several minutes later.

And then I look at her and go, "Oh, so it wasn't me feeling blur and groggy?"

"No! The water was moving and the bananas were swinging!"

Oh.