Easter Cupcakes

I mentioned in my previous post that I had been busy with cupcake making for Ning's school's Easter party as well as for our Church's Easter Sunday.

I thought the kids will like cupcakes since it is such a sweet pastry. And making bunnies will be fun for them to eat too.

I've attached some pictures of my work. Looks yummy... but like I said before, cupcakes are loaded with loads of sugar. So eat it at your own "risk".

MIA Again

Ok ok... I admit, I haven't been diligent enough to update this blog for a very long time. Its almost 20 days since the last update. For those faithful readers who log in on and off to see new posts, I apologize. I have been busy with other things. And really, updating this blog became the least priority in my list of "to-do" things.

So what I have been busy about? Lets just briefly say, every weekday if I am not working, I have this window of free time. And this window runs from approx 1030hrs to 1230hrs. A pathetic 2 hours for a stay-at-home mum (SAHM), you exclaimed. Ask any SAHM and they'll tell you, this job is tiring, no life, no freedom and no pay. I shan't go into details of what I do the other 22hours. But this 2 hours is when Ning is at school and Zhi is having his morning nap. I get to enjoy free time when BOTH kids are away/asleep. This also explains why I am writing this entry at 2300hrs.

Here are just some of the list of things I have been doing that caused me to neglect my blog:
- Baking cupcakes for Ning's class and church on for Easter celebration.
- Attending baking lessons.
- Searching for designs to put on Zhi's 1 year old birthday cake.
- Reading and planning our US trip in end April.
- Booking all the necessary transport and accomodation in New York and Omaha.
- Catching up on my reading (my latest read is "The Diving Bell & The Butterfly).
- etc etc....

Lastly, I haven't been able to upload pictures because my laptop is signalling its "retirement" every now and then. I don't quite like to use our Mac desktop to upload photos, thus I rely very much on the windows-run laptop to organize my pictures. And it is not making my life very easy by hanging up as and when it likes.

Bad news is, this week I won't have my 2 hours of freedom anymore. Three of Ning's clasmates are down with HFMD (Hand Food & Mouth Disease) and I am not sending her to school in case she gets the disease and spread to Zhi. Its a painful suffering, even for adults. Just ask WF.

The Big Sister

Initially when Zhi is born, Ning wasn't quite receptive of her little brother. She was rather jealous and was doing sneaky acts and throwing tantrums often to attract our attention. Timing wise, it also coincide with her "Terrible Two" stage.

I did what most experts recommended. Like buying a gift when she visit her brother at the hospital and tell her that this gift is from her brother. Then it would lessen the rivalry they have as siblings. I would say, this is whole lot of bullshit. It doesn't work. And I did a check with other mums, most of them don't find this strategy work for them too.

Other strategies like getting the older child more involved by asking her to help out in little tasks like bringing/throwing the diapers etc didn't work on Ning too. She tells me to get it myself.

Of course, WF tells me that what these expert said does not apply to ALL children. So I should take it with a pinch of salt. Yah, I've become so cynical of these authors that sometimes I wonder if they are parents of more than one child themselves.

Anyway, one year had passed and March is Zhi's birthday month. Things are improving between the two kids. Ning has grown more affectionate towards her brother and her brother is getting used to be hugged and bugged by Ning. Of course, there is still the occasional jealousy syndrome showing out but compared to the initial months, its much lesser.

I've put up a clip of how Ning was pacifying her brother, patting him to comfort him and mimicking WF's "orh la orh la". Quite sweet.



loving ning.mov