18 months today

Hannah is exactly 18 months old today. At her last doctor's appointment for her 1st booster triple antigen jab on Tuesday, the doctor said everything was fine, and if no issues, she would only see her again when she is 6 years old for the next injection. I still remember carrying her there when she was a teeny baby for her jaundice check-up. Now she is a cheeky, chatty toddler running everywhere.

At 18 months, Hannah has learnt many things. Her favourite thing nowadays is to repeat everything you say, therefore beware of saying any $%&# as she will be quite likely to repeat it after you! She also makes sure that all attention is on her when she is talking. For example, she recently has this obsession with buses, and she will say "baasss, baass" whenever she sees one. If nobody pays attention to her, this is what happens, "Mimi, MIMI, baasss, BASSSS!" And you have to respond, "Yes Hannah, clever girl, that is a bus". Of course, it doesn't only apply to buses, it goes for everything else that she says too! Full attention must be given to her at all times :)

She can say plenty of words now, and she can count up to four and say ABC up to "C" :) She knows how to address all our family members (I am "Mimi" and not "Mami" by the way :p).

She also now knows the difference between a swimming pool and the sea. Previously whenever she saw the sea on our way to work along the Jelutong Expressway (Oops, it is now the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway), she would say "pool". Now she says "sea" and she adds on to it "nice" :)

Well, it has been indeed very "nice" having Hannah as part of our family for the last 18 months. You are half way to 2 years old little Hannah, Mummy (or Mimi) and Daddy love you very much!

Places to eat at Gurney Drive

There are two places we like to go to eat at Gurney Drive. The first is Zealand Cafe for their really good fried "tau chiam" (some sort of noodles). This was Hannah's second time, the first time she was too young to eat grown-up food.



While waiting for the food, she had a good time banging on the plates and tables with her utensils. Note the look on her face :p



Hannah came to Gurney Drive almost exactly one year ago, when she was 6 months old. See how she looked like then:



And how she looks like now:



Any resemblance?



I like this picture very much..she's looking out to the sea and admiring the beauty of God's creation :)



The other place we like to go is here:



This is definitely a place for those who like to indulge their sweet tooth :) I have known of this place for quite some time, but have not been for some years now. Hubby recently discovered it, and since all of us love sweet things (Hannah included!), this was a good place to come for dessert. Be prepared to wait for some time though, as the food takes quite a while to arrive.

The walls of the place are painted bright yellow and red, hence the picture taken below looks like it was taken in a studio :)



Here's what we had, don't you think it was worth the wait? :)
From left, clockwise: Plum and Strawberry Crepe, Traffic Light (with mango, strawberry and kiwi), Hot Apple (my personal favourite) and Mango Cup (Hubby's favourite).

Of course, the three of us did not polish it all off on our own, we were there with Hubby's sisters and nieces. As expected, Hannah thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the ice-cream. She says it as "ai-king" :)

Hannah at the beach

Last Wednesday was a public holiday, so Mummy and Daddy took me, Jie Jie Zhen Yi and Jie Jie Candice to the beach! We went to the Hard Rock Hotel beach. The sand was a bit wet because of all the rainy weather lately, but that didn't stop me from having fun!

I had a little bucket of beach toys which Daddy bought for me some time ago, so I was all set for a time of fun at the beach!



Besides playing on the sand, I also enjoyed looking at the sights. I was pointing to the people doing parasailing. Of course, I don't know how to say "parasailing", so I said "fly, fly!"





I also wanted to ride on the horse (I can say "horse"), but Daddy wouldn't let me. It is too dangerous, he said.



Daddy helped us to build a nice sandcastle using my little bucket:



This is how it turned out :)



I was initially playing with the two Jie Jies, but since I am the "little destroyer" (this is what Daddy and Mummy call me), eventually both of them ran away whenever they saw me coming! See this video that Mummy took; she thinks it is quite funny! :)



So in the end, Mummy had to play with me because the two of them kept running away!



Anyhow, it was a lot of fun. It was so much fun that the next day when Daddy and Mummy dropped me at Ah Mah's house on their way to work, I insisted on carrying my bucket of beach toys with me. Maybe just perhaps I could go there again :)

Hannah's new clothes

My grandmother came last weekend and brought Hannah these:



Aren't they lovely? My seventy year old plus grandmother made these herself and did the cross-stitch too! Look at the detail on the dress:



And the smocking:



Hannah trying on the dress; the blue one is still too big for her, but the orange fit her just nicely. It was really sweet of my grandma to make these for her, it reminds me of the time that she used to make clothes for me when I was a little girl. And now she is making them for my own daughter.



This t-shirt was given by my aunt a few months ago when she was back from the Philippines. I had thought of saving it for Christmas or Chinese New Year, but Hannah now knows how to choose her own clothes and the other day she insisted to "wear, wear!". Probably it's for the better too, since she may outgrow it soon. She likes the elephant on the front of the t-shirt and calls it "eh-fan".

Long weekend photos

This post is a bit out-dated because I have been really busy lately, no time to update the blog! :) These photos were taken during the long Deepavali weekend.

Hannah at home:



Her mouth is open because she wants the mini M&Ms :)



Hannah at New World Park, having a ball on the little toy cars:



Hannah at Youth Park on the swings:



She wanted to climb on the monkey bars by herself, but Daddy said "no", she has to be held.



Riding on the dinosaur:



Hannah and Mummy:



Family photo, but Hannah was distracted by some other thing!

Daorae Korean BBQ restaurant

On Deepavali day, Mummy and Daddy were off from work, so Daddy decided to take us to try something new. We went to Daorae Korean BBQ restaurant at Bayan Baru. Daddy had never tried Korean food before and this was only Mummy's second time. We ordered two types of BBQ dishes, pork and chicken, and some sort of pancake.

Besides the main dishes, there were also lots of small dishes with different types of vegetables.
Here is the pork cooking on the grill:



I was very curious to see so many things on the table.





Daddy and Zhen Yi Jie Jie:



This was the pancake with vegetables and seafood which I enjoyed very much. I ate a lot that day, on top of my rice and chicken. The manager was very nice to even cut up the chicken into little pieces for me so I could eat it. And when we left, I got a nice Hello Kitty lollipop! :)



By the way, we had Korean food twice within one week. The second outing will be another blog post. In any case, the verdict is that Mummy and Daddy are not very fond of Korean food in general after tasting it at two restaurants. So looks like we won't be going again for a while. Sigh..no more free lollipops! :p

Hannah complains

Hannah is nowadays very vocal in her likes and dislikes. She recently also displays big emotions, big hugs or big wails; she can for no reason throw her arms around you and give you a big sloppy kiss, and then cry and scream in the very next minute. I suppose this is a phase all toddlers go through. Looking back at some old photos, I came across this video from when she was about 8 months old. She had just learned to crawl and pull herself up on furniture and she fell on her backside when trying to pull herself up to a standing position on the sofa.

Even then she already knew how to complain - I thought it was pretty funny how she complained - and this lousy mummy just continued to take the video without comforting her poor baby. But the expression captured was priceless :)

Longan jelly

Being the lousy cook that I am, I made a very simple snack over the weekend - longan jelly! :) I did not make the usual soya-based jelly that is usually used for longan jelly, since hubby cannot take soya, so I used the normal clear agar-agar instead.

This is one recipe that probably cannot go wrong, since it is very simple to make. First, I put the longans in cups. I did not use sugar in the jelly, and instead subsituted it with some of the syrup from the longans. I did not want to make it too sweet, as Hannah would be eating it, and too much sugar is not good for babies and toddlers.

After boiling the jelly powder, syrup and water in a pot on a low fire, the mixture is then poured over the longans in the cups. After letting it cool, put it in the fridge and it's done!



Look at how Hannah enjoys her "lee" (that is what she calls jelly :p). I gave her a cup and and spoon since she mostly insists on eating herself nowadays.



Once she discovered she could not really get much jelly on the spoon, in went her whole hand!



And now the other hand as well. What a mess on her face :) She was watching TV as well which is why she looking towards that direction.



And there goes the jelly into her mouth. Once she reached the bottom where the longans were, we helped her break it into smaller pieces so she could eat the longan.



I am glad that she enjoyed even a simple snack like this, even thought I don't really cook. Perhaps I should learn more simple recipes, because seeing your child enjoy what you make for them is really satisfying!