Mothering Corner

My kids are quite picky in Bangkok as they are still adapting to Thai food. Not all Thai food is spicy, but my children don’t have a lot of variety to choose from when we are eating out. So, I would normally prepare some simple dishes with rice or pasta for them, but there is nothing fancy.

After seeing so many mothers getting involved in bento, I decided to give it a try this morning. Thus, this is my first bento attempt…

Frankly, the cooking part is easy but I am clueless on how to make them cute. LOL! I haven’t collected a lot of fancy bento stuffs, so there is still a long way to go. Besides that, my gal doesn’t quite fancy the rice as it’s too dry by the time she ate it. Maybe I still need to prepare some gravy or soup, so let’s see how. But both of them like the chicken balls in teriyaki sauce. It’s so simple to be prepared with minced chicken meat.

I think I will try pasta or sandwiches some day. Preparing bento is so much fun. Oh ya, maybe I should prepare a set for hubby too huh? That will definitely help him in controlling the cholesterol and he won’t need a blood pressure monitor so soon. LOL!

We go out a lot in the weekend, so we will eat out mostly. However, I might want to start preparing bentos for my children, individually. Previously, I will prepare the food and put it in the thermos container to keep it warm. It’s nothing attractive but it keeps the food fresh. But to build the interest in eating healthily, I think those cute Hello Kitty or Batman bento sets might help.

I’ve bought some tools, but I’m clueless on how to use them. I can’t read the instruction in Japanese and I can’t seem to find any blogs that show how to use them correctly. Maybe I still have to search more blogs for the proper instruction on how to make those cute shape eggs and rice balls!

I guess I might prepare myself a set of bento too. At least I don’t have to worry about over fat burners later.

SIL has stopped breastfeeding her 7 months old. She only planned to do so for 6 months, so she has achieved her goal. I won’t encourage a mother who intended to stop to continue breastfeeding, even if I think that it’s best to do so as long as possible. It’s a personal choice so if she thinks that she’s had enough, she can stop if she wants to. Now, she’s eager to try out all those diet portions like Ephedrasil Hardcore to get back to her prenatal shape as soon as possible. She can’t take any when she’s breastfeeding, so she’s eager to speed up her diet plan.

I try hard to remember those days when I stopped breastfeeding. After 17 months, I had a hard time telling myself that it’s over now and my gal had no longer needed my milk. It was an emotional separation to me, maybe I’ve done it longer so it’s not easy for me to let go.

Anyway, I don’t think I want to breastfeed again as I don’t have plan for another child. I’m too occupied with my 2 kids now and a new life in Bangkok.

I can’t leave without my laptop. I used to rely a lot on it when I was blogging frenzy. These days, I am still using it but not as frequent as before. I still like to bring it around when I’m traveling and I like to be connected at least once every few days. It’s nice to chat with other mothers online and getting in touch with my friends.

My laptop is one year old now, and sometimes, I wonder if I should get a new one? LOL! Too bad I can’t join the Charter Laptop-a-Day Giveaway as 30 HP Compaq Presario C770US Laptops will be given away to those who buy one of three great Charter services online. Of course, not everyone will get it but you will still get a free Shell gas card of $100, and I would love to get it. LOL!

Anyway, I’m not in a hurry to get a new laptop now as my Dell is still working well. As long as I can still MSN my friends, I don’t mind using it for a little more longer.

After years without alcohol, I started drinking again when I went out with my friends last week. It’s farewell gathering for us before we came back to Bangkok on our break. I didn’t take a sip of the wine of the month club but I went for Kampai. Frankly, I didn’t drink much as I didn’t want to get drunk. I really can’t remember how I “survived” those clubbing days when I was still single!

Some of my married friends still enjoy their clubbing life. They have someone to watch over their kids, so they can go out most of the time. I stopped doing so after getting married and I really don’t miss it at all. Maybe I’m getting older now and I can’t stay up that late anymore.

Furthermore, I need to get permission from my kids if I’m going out at night. They want me to tuck them to bed, and we have been doing so since they are babies. It’s hard for them to fall asleep without crying, even though MIL can help me out back home.

Thus, mommy can only go out when my kids are old enough. But by then, I will be too old for clubbing. LOL!

We went back for a short break, and now we are back in Bangkok again. I’m glad that we didn’t bring too many hand carries like our previous trip. It’s not easy to handle 2 active kids and have our arms fulled of bags and stuffs. Hubby insisted that he had to bring his Ping Golf set on top of our 2 big luggage bags and 2 strollers! We traveling with so many stuffs again. Sigh…

Maybe we won’t be bringing that much on our next trip as most of our things have safely arrived in Bangkok. Furthermore, Bangkok is a shopping heaven, so it’s not too hard to shop around.

Most importantly, my kids have started to treat our house in Bangkok as their home and they are eager to be back home. It’s nice to know that they are adapting well.

I’ve been staying with MIL for about 8 years, if I’m not mistaken. We don’t have much problem staying under the same roof, but of course, we had some disagreement before, but it’s nothing serious at all. Since the day we came back to Ipoh, MIL has been sharing lots of tips about cooking and preparing food with me. She knows that I cook most of the days for my children, so she’s eager to teach me how to speed things up. She’s a bit worried that my kids can only have dinner as late as 9pm once in a blue moon as we leave work rather late. I can tell that she’s concerned and worried about our children.

Nonetheless, she praised them for being more independent after staying in Bangkok for 2 months. We can’t help it as my kids have to learn how to take care of themselves when mommy and daddy are busy. They have changed a lot, and I noticed that too. MIL seems to be very proud of my kids now, considering that they are only 3 plus and 2 years old each.

Anyway, it’s nice to share her experience. She complains that raw food is getting more expensive, but she still bought some dried food for me to bring back home. I guess I won’t need any budget software to know that I can save up a lot on food for the first few weeks. LOL!

My friend’s family is going to Disney next year, but we won’t be going along with them. At first, we planned for a trip together last year, but things didn’t work out. We can’t go along with them next year either because our business has just started and we can’t afford to take so many days off.

Anyway, I know that their children will surely enjoy the trip. Their parents have planned so long for this, and they even got the discount Disney World tickets ahead of the trip. Most importantly, they will be spending quality family time together, and that counts the most!

Previously, some people I know doubted about our decision of sending our kids to a Thai preschool, so I wrote a lengthy post about it. I understand that some parents are concerned about how much their children will learn academic wise, and that’s why more and more kindergartens are giving a lot of homework in preparing the children for primary schools.

If I’m still staying in Malaysia and have plan to send my kids to Chinese primary schools, maybe I will be stressing as much about their education too. It’s not easy to “survive” in a Chinese school without tuition, extra classes, lots of homework and etc, unless your kid is brilliant. But I’m glad that my children have another chance to learn in another environment now, so they don’t have to go through those stressful moments until much older. Most schools in Thailand still practice learn through play, and the homework is not as much as those given locally.

I check my kid’s homework everyday, and he doesn’t have to repeat the same letter or number for more than 5 times, but there are extra sheets of revising the letter or number he learns on that day. It’s much easier for him to finish his work and he enjoys school more. As for my little toddler, she doesn’t have homework. She tells me that she plays all day long.

I won’t know if our decision is right until our kids are older. But I’m sure about this, they are happy and eager to go to school. Maybe that will trigger their hunger for knowledge too huh?

My new car was hit by a truck just now. It was a hit and run but no one was hurt. We have to repair the car, but since we will not be around, we need to get SIL’s help to send the car for repairing. It’s so dangerous driving in Bangkok, that’s why we bought boaster seat for my gal yesterday. Now, my kids will be buckled up all the time when we are on the road.

It’s pretty stressful driving on the road. To avoid my skin from an outbreak and going for acne scar treatment later, I insist on buckling up my children, even if they might cry or fuss about it sometimes. I would rather have them crying but keeping them safe on the road.