I said yes, and she smiled even more.

This year, instead of the usual Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day celebration in school, we had a Family Day celebration in Golden Sands Hotel outdoors instead.  So 2 Sundays ago saw us all making a trip to Batu Feringghi.

The kids were, of course, excited about the whole thing, because part of the program was a play session in AdventureZone!

The event was themed Batik Beach Day, so I got them all to dress up in batik attire:

Weather that day was slightly threatening, and we were treated to intermittent showers during the event.

Nevertheless, we all had a lot of fun, as can be seen in the pictures I managed to capture below:

Getting ready for…

Every Limbo boy and girl
All around the Limbo world
Gonna do the Limbo rock
All around the Limbo clock

Jack be Limbo, Jack be quick
Jack go under Limbo stick
All around the Limbo clock
Hey, let’s do the Limbo rock!

Initially, our little princess was feeling restless and rather sleepy…

…but soon warmed up and participated in the fun activities (although some were quite haphazard LOL)…

Daddy also participated in the tug-o-war on the beach…look at Daddy go!

The tug-o-war event was divided into 3 categories: Daddies, Mommies and kids… let me just say that it’s not very flattering to be pulling hard on a rope when you’re dressed in a sarong pareo.  Good thing Daddy forgot to use the zoom on my camera

We then adjourned to AdventureZone for a little while (no pictures, sorry!) and then moved on to another fun activity which we all enjoyed: The Sand Castle building competition.

It took some practice to get the ratio of sand to water right in order to erect structures on the beach.  The kids had a blast helping to collect water, pat the sand into buckets and then create our sandcastle.

We had no plan in mind whatsoever what to build, but ended up creating a fish-shaped castle.  Can you see the fish?

It was a truly fun-filled Family Day and the kids especially had a whale of a time!  We were all exhausted but everyone enjoyed themselves

While I was busy sewing the tooth pouch, Ethan decided to write his first book.  Yeah, no kidding.  All his own ideas and words, with no help at all from us.

He finished the book on that day itself, and I’d asked him if he would like to color his illustrations too.  He agreed.

So after a few days of coloring, he finally completed his first masterpiece: Fire Trucks.

Here’s Ethan reading the book he wrote:

I love how detailed he was, for instance his book is from the Baby Kids series, and he even wrote the recommended age group for this book on the cover (2-4); according to Ethan, kids older than 4 might find this book a little bit boring (LOL!).  On the back, he wrote a personal message to the readers: “I hope you love my first book!”

Yesterday, he started on Baby Kids Cars, his second book; and he told me he would be working on a  Bumper Issue next!  He’s wondering if anyone would buy his first book now…Anyone?  Anyone?

I got the kids involved by getting Ethan to write the birthday message on the presents.

Pete was supposed to touch down in Penang that very day, so I single-handedly brought both Ethan and Hannah to the party.  They were absolutely excited and kept asking me when it would be time to change into the pirate “costumes”.  I even added a little shell necklace for Hannah (after I took the photo below) - she claims it contained pixie dust! - You’ll catch glimpses of the pixie dust necklace in some of the photos below.

All in all, the kids had a splendid time, as the pictures below prove.  I didn’t bring my camera along, so most of my own pictures were taken with my iPhone.  The others were *borrowed* from someone else…

One of Hannah’s favorite snacks of the day: sliced orange pirate ships on blue jelly water!

Kids being briefed on their first game, by a very gracious party host, Tess, Max’s Mom.  Notice Hannah is multi-tasking by listening AND snacking on yummy popcorn too!

Ethan trying his VERY best to burst the balloon, to get the promised “treasure” captured in the balloon.

…and VICTORY, finally!!

Hannah and Ethan taking their turns at “Pin the Sword on Jake” (a la “Pin the tail on the donkey”)!

Walking the Plank…

Getting ready for the next game: Passing the Parcel…incidentally, Ethan won this game and he was ever so proud of it

Birthday cake time, and it’s a beautiful pirate ship with candle canons at the side.  Awesome!

Can you tell she’s totally enjoying her cake?

She finally got her turn on the swing!  Patience definitely pays

Non-watermarked photos credited to Picsy Studio

Well, that’s when I chanced upon a very interesting Playdough recipe from How Does She?.  It claimed to produce the squishiest Playdough ever.

And I couldn’t wait to try it out.

This recipe had one ingredient I did not have in my original Playdough recipe, and that’s cream of tartar.  Cream of tartar helps to smoothen the texture of mixtures in baking and cooking, so I assume that was the secret ingredient.

With this new recipe, the kids could also choose their Playdough color, which added to the excitement.

You will need:

1 cup flour

1 cup water

1/4 cup salt

2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 Tbls. vegetable oil

Food coloring (I used 4 drops, or mix two colors to make a new color!)

How to do it: Just mix everything together in a pot and stir well.  Cook it over medium heat on the stove, stirring constantly till it thickens and forms a Playdough paste-like mixture.  It’s all edible so it doesn’t matter if you use your good ol’ cooking pot.

Remove from the pot and place on a plate to cool down.  My kids wanted neon blue for the first batch, so that’s what they got.

Now, let it cool down for about 10-15 minutes and knead it to the consistency you like.  It is absolutely SQUISHY and SOFT and kids just love to work with it.

Ethan happily announced, “Mommy, this Playdough is WAY better than the one you made the last time!”  :)

I had some flour left, so I made another small batch of orange playdough.

Guaranteed smiles, guaranteed fun!

Going crazy with creativity, and the kids will TOTALLY, absolutely LOVE you for it!

Happy weekend, everyone!!

]]> http://duhbulats.giddytigers.com/2012/04/27/tried-tested-squishiest-playdough-recipe/feed/ http://duhbulats.giddytigers.com/2012/04/24/time-to-be-prepared/ http://duhbulats.giddytigers.com/2012/04/24/time-to-be-prepared/#comments Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:20:19 +0000 joyce http://duhbulats.giddytigers.com/?p=5779 It’s inevitable. We all know it is.

It’s merely a matter of when.
And Ethan is as excited as ever…for whatever reason, I have absolutely no clue.
He has, on occasion, in an ecstatic manner, announced, “Mommy, I think my tooth is wiggling! Come check and see!”

Of course, they have all been false alarm after false alarm.  But we know the day will come when we will see a fallen tooth.

And it could be any day now.  Or week….. or month.

So.

To prepare ourselves for that momentous occasion, I decided to get a Tooth Fairy Pouch ready for him.  Ethan knows all about the “Tooth Fairy” (although he did ask rather skeptically, “Mommy, how will the Tooth Fairy know where to get the tooth?”)

Anyways, it’s all for fun…and my googling led me to a site that provided instructions on how to make/sew my own tooth fairy pouch!  Very very cool.  Hey, I only had a small plastic box when I was a little girl, ya know…

It was also something Ethan could relate to at some level, because he told me a classmate of his brings a tooth pouch to school in case her tooth dropped in school.

I got this done in about an hour (including kid interruption time) and well, now we are *prepared*

Hannah has a habit of biting on straws when she drinks from them.  Obviously the straw will become flat and eventually she won’t be able to drink from it anymore.

This conversation took place just now when I was helping her “unflatten” her straw from her Vitagen drink.

“Mommy, I cannot drink from the straw…”
“Here, let me help you…now Hannah, you need to remember to try not to bite on the straw when you drink, okay?”
“But…but….”
“..otherwise the straw will go flat and you won’t be able to drink from it anymore…”
“But Mommy…I cannot!  My teeth are in the way!”

Priceless reasoning?  You bet.

**By the way, I have no idea where she learnt how to pose like that.  She just wanted a picture with Ronald McDonald and came up with it herself!***

To keep the kids *occupied* at home, her class teachers prepared some *work* for them to complete at home.

What?  Work?  Homework?  At her age?

Well, it was more like arts and craft stuff for her to have fun, but Hannah was very eager to do her *homework*, because she always sees Ethan doing some homework, when she has none.

So yesterday morning, I guided her in her *homework*, and we had so much fun too!  See how she would smile and pose for the camera?

On Friday, the day after she was diagnosed with HFMD, I told Hannah I was taking her to the grocery store for a quick trip to get some stuff, among others, yogurt.  She was interested, of course…and while we were there, she personally requested for jelly, so I bought her 2 small tubs, which she happily ate, to my delight!

She would only drink a bit of Milo and milk and nothing else, however.  She looked very weak, which added to my distress.

The next day, she would not eat anything for lunch, none of the soft “pau” and none of her favorite fish balls.  It was worrying.

Then I suggested we make some milkshake, with some ice cream and milk.  And I offered to let her shake the shaker.  Her eyes lit up in excitement and she eagerly participated in the making of the milkshake.  And to my utmost relief, she drank the entire cup of milkshake…

She even asked for a second cup!  She complained of slight pain while drinking though, but persevered throughout.  I let her use a straw, which I think she finds easier on the ulcers in her mouth.

That evening, we went out for dinner at Old Town.  My Mom was around, so she was also eager to make sure that Hannah ate something, at least.

While we ordered the food and as the food was served, Hannah was busy scribbling on her paper, oblivious to her surroundings.  I then decided to order ice kacang instead of my usual teh tarik.  And while I was halfway eating my meal, Hannah suddenly looked up and spotted my bowl of “pink ice”.  She immediately asked, “Mommy, what’s that?”  and came over to have a look.

I asked if she would like a taste, and she did!  But she winced in pain a little, and I thought she would not want anymore.

But she asked for more.

Soon my girl was feeding herself from my bowl of ice kacang, leaving only the red beans for me!

What was even more surprising was that in between those spoonfuls of ice kacang, Hannah asked to eat the chicken koay teow!  And she finished about 3-4 small bowls all on her own!

Her appetite is surely returning, yay!!!  And I pray that she will only get better and better from now on…

So yeah, caring for a sick kid ain’t easy, but loving her is absolutely rewarding.

Tonight as I held her in my arms to sleep, she smiled and said, “Mommy is my VERY best friend!”

Then suddenly Hannah complained of pain in her mouth, and to my horror, I discovered an ulcer just behind her lower lip.  Thinking (and hoping) it was just a one-off, I advised her to drink lots of water.

Unfortunately that evening, I checked her mouth again, and discovered more whitish spots, on her tongue and at the back of her throat.  She was very irritable and it was a good thing I still had some Daktarin Oral Gel, so I applied that to her mouth and it gave her some comfort.

Another disturbing finding was that I noticed some isolated red spots on her palms, and while she didn’t complain much, I knew I had to take her to the doctor’s the next day.

So this morning, the doctor confirmed my worst fears.  Hannah was down with Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD).  He prescribed the same oral gel to be applied, some Vitamin C, antihistamine and a diluted Potassium Permanganate bath soaking solution for the lesions.

She’s very irritable now and can hardly eat anything, let alone drink much.  Tried ice cream just now, but she screamed out in pain, poor girl.

Thankfully, she finished the lollipop from the doctor and a little bit of Old Town roti bakar.  Still, she cries and whines ever so often now, it’s so unlike her.

…but still can give a cheeky pose like this…

Here’s a sneak of the spots on her hands:

So she needs to steer clear of school for the next few days, and Ethan will need to be monitored closely as well, since incubation period is about a week.  I have given Ethan strict orders not to kiss Hannah or share utensils with her.

Adults can contract this virus too, but the majority of them would act only as carriers, without displaying any symptoms.  We’re praying it won’t get any more serious than this!

Get well soon, baby!

I made the starch mixture about an hour before craft time, to allow it to cool down, and then proceeded to demonstrate to the kids.  Just look at them having a blast.

It turned out to be rather goo-ey and sticky, but I reassured them that it’s okay and they could wash their hands afterward.  Ethan wanted to do everything himself, but Hannah asked for my help.

This is Ethan’s first attempt…a little bit loose on the winding, and he decided to redo the whole thing again later.

…and the finished product, all being air-dried.

The big one is the one I made.. LOL.

Unfortunately though, the 2 smaller ones’ balloons shrank before the threads could properly dry out, so we could not get a nice egg-like shape.

The next day, I removed the balloons from the structure and the kids were overjoyed with their creations.

There was a problem with mine though; I found it very difficult to remove the balloon from inside.  Perhaps there was too much glue stuck on it.