the family's first hand-made mug

alan's school organised an outdoor activity on one weekend last month, and we went to a pottery workshop in the city.  we made a mug and a bear during a short 1.5 hours.   they were then taken by the staff to colour in and made dry for us.  it wasn't until almost a month later, that we received them back today.

chloe's new hair style

it's getting so hot and chloe's long hair was making her very uncomfortable, so i shaved her head yesterday.  does she look more like a boy like this?  em... i think she still looks very much a little girl.

she sleeps much better during the day after the hair cut.  i probably should have cut it earlier, but her hair was so beautiful!  i saved her hair in a red pocket.

A New Baby is Born

i started feeling some contractions at about 5am 17th January 2012, and we went to the hospital at 7.30am.  baby girl didn't want to come out until just before 8pm.  so although it was my 2nd time giving birth, it wasn't as fast as i expected.

baby girl weighted 3.1kg, 49cm and head measured 33cm.  she came out very clean, with eyes wide open and looking very calm.

this blog has to have a new name now!

mother-toddler bonding

just read on dr. ducan jefferson's blog that poor mother-toddler bonding was linked to teenager obesity, because these kids lacked a secured pattern of attachment, which may develop an unhealthy way of response to stress later in life (read his post here).

i must make sure this does not happen to us.

HK Ocean Park

we went to the hk ocean park in september, and i forgot to record it here.  it was a very nice day.

alan can say the names of most of the animals, like "monkey", "penguin", "dolphin", "panda"... all those two syllable words.  he just copies whatever we say!  so cute!

lucy's 29th birthday

it was my birthday last wednesday, 28th Sept and to my big surprise, bryan got me a kindle!  whoa!  i'd been wanting to get a kindle ever since its release like almost 2 years ago.

alan grabbed the knife with lightening speed and tried to cut my cake.  but i, the birthday girl, had to do the first cute!

here's alan enjoying mom's birthday cake.  he loved it!

and after he made a mess on his face, everyone wanted to have a picture with him.

as far as i could remember, this was the first time i spent my birthday with my mom.  

reaching 1 year

time flies.  alan's one year old.

and this is him a year ago, when he was born.  he was so tiny then.  look how much he's grown!

now he eats his birthday cake!

thank god day

on the 26th december 2010, (the west's boxing day, although we didn't celebrate here in china, and we didn't have any presents to unwrap), we went to the huangdaxian temple to thank the gods for their blessing in year 2010.  it's bryan's family tradition.  his mom does it every year.  since we were in china this year, we went along, too.

this is me on the steps leading to the main building.

and here's alan and his mom in front of the main building.

can you see the big incense burners behind alan in the far background?

bryan and his younger sister, praying.

i'm not sure what these red stripes are for.  good luck, most likely.

okay, that's it for the day.

facing death

after reading about dan's dream on single dad laughing, i decided to also write down a dream i had two nights ago.

in my dream, i had the ability to foresee death's next victim in my dreams (yes, it's like "inception", in my second layer of dreams).  in my dream of dream, the next victim would be eaten by a huge group of leopard cats.  people from my primary school and junior highs started to die, one by one, accurately predicted by my dreams.  

one night, myself was eaten by the cats and i knew that it was my turn.  i also knew that death would only focus on killing you for the month i had the dream, so if i could survive this month - which was september, the month of my birthday - i would be able to live on.  i also knew that death was only able to "take" you away if you were alone.  with those in mind, i tried to stick with others.  

first, i went shopping with my dad, helping him choose a medium sized jacket.  he told me at the end of our shopping trip, "well, don't worry, it's already 28 september, just a few more days.  you'll be alright."  by the way, 28/9 was my birthday.

next, i was walking on the street with a girl from my primary school class.  i was grabbing her tee and wasn't going to let go as i told her, "i won't let you go, as death will come take me if i'm alone."  but i was very tired trying to stay awake all month, and finally i fell asleep.  

i was in bed, covered by a mosquito nest.  i suddenly felt death approaching from my right hand side.  i pretended to be asleep and when i felt that he was on my bedside table, i raised suddenly and hit him with my right elbow.  then i turned around to face him.  i saw his face - it was very skinny, white, old and winkled.  i then swung my right arm at him with full force to punch him in the face.  he said angrily without moving his lips, "how dare you fighting me!"

then i woke up.

my living doll

when I was a child, I would do anything to have a living doll, or a living teddy bear, one that would talk to me, play with me, hug me and love me back as much as I love him (or her).

now I have alan.   he's my dream come true!

keeping our family intact

anything can happen with a broken family.  anything.  really.  no matter how impossible it may seem, but it can happen.

both coming from broken families, bryan and i must do our very best to keep our own family intact.

dear alan in autumn

it's getting cold now.  and we put on a long-sleeve top, a pair of long pants, and a pair of mommy-knitted socks!

just want to share a few new pictures of alan,

and his mommy.

my first birthday with alan

these photos aren't very good due to the lack of natural light, but i want to share them with you anyway.  they were taken a while ago, on my birthday night, 28 september 2010.  

it was my first birthday with alan!

he had a tiny bit of my cake, too.

we eat and we read

alan loves food!

not only does he eat every puree i cook for him, he stares at adult's food every time we eat - breakfast, lunch, dinner or snacks.

i was having my plum and he demanded to taste it.  it was a bit sour, but alan didn't seem to mind at all.  my grandma found it very funny that alan loved food so much.

here's some of the books we're reading.  all chinese so far, but i'm getting him these two english books from amazon.com: "the very hungry caterpillar" and "brown bear, brown bear, what do you see".

they have very good customer reviews on amazon.  i'll be collecting my books from the post office tomorrow.  can't wait!

tough alan & his cheesy fish cake dinner

yesterday, alan let me cut his fingernails when awake.  it was the first time he let me cut his nails when being awake!  he didn't struggle or even move much, he just looked at the nail clipper as if it was a toy.  so good!

can you see the drop of tear just below his lower eyelid?  

that's because he fell backwards and his head landed on the glazed tile floor.  i didn't pick him up right away.  a boy has to be strong.

  

a big smile soon returned to our chubby face!  that's right, alan's a tough boy!

this is what alan had for dinner last night - cheesy fish cake

ingredients:

1/2 potato, 1 tbsp cheddar cheese, 2 tbsp fish, 1/4 onion, 2 tsp olive oil, some water

how to make it:

1. finely chop everything;

2. heat the olive oil in a small pan;

3. add the onions, simmer for 5 minutes;

4. add potato, fish and water, and cook for 10-15 minutes;

5. turn off the heat, and add the cheese, stir to mix;

6. pureed using a liquidizer.

nutrition:

calcium, vitamin c, vitamin b6, omega 3 & 6

alan loves fish.

let's blog about being together

i was having a facial at a local salon the other day, and somehow i started chatting with the girls about being a mom and raising baby alan.  it seems i do have some “expertise" on this topic!

so i decided to blog about being a mom and being with alan.  it should be fun.

for starters, if i want to be in the photo with alan, it's more often than not that i have to hold the camera myself.  em... wonder why...

and here alan was caught grabbing his great-grandpa's mouth (and nose, too).   doesn't he look a bit startled, "oh sugar, mommy caught me being naughty!"