Bento making!

I had thought about it for a while, but not having the necessary skills needed for it, I had not dared to try it out.  I mean - it is something seen natural for someone for the fairer gender, having being coerced to pick it up in school too.  What am I talking about?  Cooking, and in my case, bento (meals in lunch boxes) making.

My friend and ex-colleague Nancy had triggered the interest in me.  Being an enthusiastic individual for life and always aspiring to do the best for her two boys, she let me in on how fun it was and how she enjoyed making bento for her sons when they went to school.  Though I had admired her for doing so, I did not think I would have the time and culinary skills required.  So, I smiled and listened to her stories.

Not too long ago, I saw this book on character bento-making sold in one of the Popular bookstores.  Something made me pick it up and bring it to the counter.  I wanted to try it out, sometime.  Being written in Chinese, a language that I had gradually forgotten how to read, did not help too.  Ha.

The past week, when my wife told me that she would be clearing leave the following week, I popped the idea of making bentos together to her.  I always thought that it could be an activity for us to share and enjoy in together.  Not to mention that she would be a great help to do the cooking.  She seemed interested with my idea, and nodded.  Yes!

This day, we went to Daiso in Vivocity (where I had read in a bento-making group on facebook that bento-making tools were sold) to pick up some apparatus to help us get started.  We were greeted with the different pieces of moulds and lunchboxes available there.  We picked a few that we thought we could put to good use, and also proceeded to a supermarket to pick up some ingredients the next day.  We seemed set for our first bento, but were we?

I decided that we would try out making one (in case it failed) for ourselves.  I was not sure if the food could stay in the lunchboxes long enough, for one.  Yen picked a manageable-design from the book - one of three little pigs - and after making sure that we had the necessary ingredients, we started our journey on making our first bento.

Yen ensured some cutting of the carrots into shapes and making the rice into the round-shapes were done, while I took up the role of the Creative Director, trying my best to make the pigs look like what they were, using cheese and carrots for the ears, eyes and snouts.  Boy, it was hard work!  This was the end result:

Simple, but it was a springboard for more to come for us.  We enjoyed the process and our trio loved the product - tomato mixed with rice was yummy for them!

Planning for Rachel's birthday celebration - the night before

The day of Rachel's birthday celebration in school finally beckons.  Even as her parents, Yen and I feel so excited about the event that was going to take place - Yen had verbalised this to me before and I find myself waking up at 3.30am, probably due to the great anticipation of what was going to take place later!

I can imagine Rachel's would-be excitement of the details of what was to happen - she probably would not be able to sleep well and be in wild anticipation too!  Fortunately, we have continued to keep details as a surprise; she only knew that we were going to celebrate, like previous years, her birthday with her in school - with a cake in the previous years.

Although Yen and I know the details as we had tied up the event coordinators, we cannot wait to see the joy that it will bring for Rachel and her classmates in her play-school too!  I will write about the event proper (with pictures) after the event is successfully carried out later!

A new year of illnesses

The year 2012 has started with a flurry.  Right off the Christmas festivities, we had a few days' holidays when the children stayed away from play-school.  Quality time, bonding time with them.  As much as we could have done so, given our limited energies and piling workload.

Not forgetting getting ready for the beckoning Lunar New Year, which happened to be a few weeks away.  We tidied the house whenever we had a chance, put up some decoration to immerse our tots into the occasion.  Compound that with the sudden extra load in housework.  You see - my mother had been helping us with the washing, ironing, cleaning and cooking on weekdays and she had a minor operation on her hand this time round which put her out of action for some time.  How untimely!

Against all odds, we braced ourselves for the Lunar New Year.  However, Rachel had to start falling ill and having a fever a couple of days before Lunar New Year Eve.  Her temperature had not been especially high and we put her on medication at home, hoping that the problem would run off by itself and she would be in the pink of health soon.  Little did we know...

"Sob...  sob..."  On the first day of Lunar New Year, Rachel came staggering into our room in tears.

"Very painful...  I can't walk..." she bawled, pointing to her calves.  She managed to be in high spirits for our visit to Yen's grandmother's that morning, but had not got a lot better that evening.  Yen and I took her to KK Women's and Children's Hospital that evening to get her seen by the doctors.  It turned out that her temperature had returned by then, but they could not diagnose anything immediately.  The doctor who attended to Rachel got a blood test bone with stronger medication given to our poor girl.

We had to stay an hour for the medicine to take effect.  We went for dinner at the only restaurant open there on the first day of the holidays, McDonald's.  By then, our elder jewel had started joking and smiling again.  She had visibly got better and after dinner, we returned to the doctor for a quick review.  The doctor discharge Rachel as she could not conclude if the problem had been dengue.  She only told us to continue to monitor our girl and get a second blood test done a week later if Rachel did not get any better.  Thankfully, Rachel did.

But that was not the end of the spate of problems we had.  Felix had started to run a temperature and had influenza by the time we sent Rachel to hospital too.  Although he got a little better soon, the buck was passed on to Kayleen.  Kayleen found time to fall off our bed when Yen made her sleep on our bed before she caught the illnesses, injuring her left cheek slightly.  Just when we thought all was fine and dandy, Felix complained of leg pain yesterday and had a slight temperature.

I crossed my fingers for the best for them, health-wise.  At least they managed to report all well this morning when we woke them up for play-school.  I am beginning to loathe the long holidays as it takes the swing of things from children, and illnesses find this the most opportune time to invade their little bodies!  There is little I can do to avoid this, it seems...

My wishes for them in 2012

Children grow up fast.  Way faster than I sometimes can cope with.  But they do, as the days pass us by.  Sigh.  I seem to have little choice as I wage a battle against time daily.  I hope I am doing enough to equip them with skills and knowledge they would need before they need them.

They have done well, if you ask me, this year.  Rachel has proved to be a good teacher-helper in school - helping to continually 'point out' her friends errors and asked by her teacher to help her friends with reading and some work.  She displayed her nerves and capability when she performed a few times near the end of the year and did not show any sign of stage-fright.

My hope for Rachel in 2012 would be to continue to learn well and learn fast - everything that is thrown in her way.  She will be facing yet another new experience in 2013 - starting primary school alone.  Being the eldest child, she is a little disadvantaged - there are no siblings to ease her into each new experience / situation.  I hope that she will be able to come up above the odds again, like the other times she had earlier.

Felix has improved in terms of concentration and had less frequent mood swings towards the second half of the year.  Though he continues to test my wife and me in terms of patience, we forgive him, like always.   In the new year, I hope he can be a more independent worker and improve more on his volatile mood.  An important area where he needs to improve in too is his frequency of bed wetting!  Enough said!

Kayleen has been getting rave reviews from her teachers in play-school almost everytime we meet them to speak about their progress.  They have been commending her on how much a leader she is to tots of her age. However, she is very dependent on the adults around her when she needs her simple everyday chores done, e.g. taking her clothes off, bathing, eating.

I hope she will take a renewed look at getting things done by herself in the new year.  She needs to cross the seemingly insurmountable hurdle of visiting the washroom to get her business done and step relying on her diapers.  That helps us, as parents, in cutting costs and the need to buy her diapers!  Also, I hope her passion for learning (in terms of reading and writing) can be miraculously ignited.  She is the only non-reader at home and I hope that can change in the coming year!

As their father, I am sure that our children have hopes for us in the new calendar year.  I reckon they will hope for us to be more patient, as well as spend more time with them!  I must keep this at the back of my mind as I approach tasks this year with them!