"But Da But Da But Da ..."

All the chew chew chew, drool drool drool of the last 10 months have finally led to CLM's top tooth peeking through!  Poor dude though, he's been so miserable.  Couple that with having a two-day fever, cough, runny nose and throwing up will get you a full-blown grouchy, whiny, clingy, koala bear CLM!  What a way to spend his 14-month birthday huh.  A couple of days pass and we notice the bottom tooth cutting through too!  Good thing the fever's gone and he's back to his albeit clingy but cheerful self this past week.

Top and bottom teeth coming in at the same time.  No wonder CLM was so grouchy.

Life's been pretty uneventful lately and I've been exceptionally lazy since I'm so behind with scrapping my P365 pics.  When I'm only one or two weeks behind schedule, I can at least sit myself down and get somewhere but when I thought about the 3 months worth of layouts I cringe.  With CLM koala-ing me a lot of the times, I'd be lucky to even go to the washroom without him crying his eyeballs out let alone sit down at the computer.

I'm enjoying discovering his new-found skills (aka developmental milestones) though.  One day he reached over to hug me and then gave me a pat on the back, then cracked me a big smile!  OMG, I so melted on the spot!  He's no longer afraid of the Roomba, but sometimes will actually listen to me when I tell him not to touch it.  Meaning the rest of the time he just ignores me and gets a kick out of getting it to start.  He points to things he wants us to give him, recognizes his BB兔 and his 含蓄的 moosey.  I love it when we tell him to 錫錫, he gently head-butts us.  That's his idea of 錫錫.  Haha~  跳舞舞 is the funniest as he swings his arms from side to side like an orchestra conductor.  He doesn't bob to music, just swings his arms.  I'm actually surprised that his bye-byes are still very 含蓄.  I have a feeling he's associated that type of wave with the term "含蓄".

跳舞舞!

Took CLM to the Sears Portrait Studio - March 23, 2013

CLM's definitely more vocal now and we're trying to teach him how to say certain things.  Although I always refer to myself as 阿娘, mom's been teaching him 媽媽.  I don't know if it's me but I hear "mum mum" all the time, especially when he's cranky and wants me to hold him.  Then it's "mum mum mum mum mum mum muuuuuuummmmm..."  His speech development comes in phases I noticed.  He'll go through a set of sounds one day, and completely move on to another the next.  By the time we catch on to his babbling sounds, he's already miles ahead of us.  Who's teaching who eh?  Sometimes we tease him and still imitate his "but da but da but da" sounds (one of the earlier phases).  We're so old school, lol.  A few weeks ago, we took him to see the Ultimate Dinosaurs exhibit at the ROM and he kept saying "woh woh ar!".  Yes BB, those are very big woh woh's!!

I'm here to see...

... woh woh's!

I'm not a fan of cleaning up messy food off of babies (or the floor) so I don't really let CLM feed himself.  I'm not worried that he won't learn how to eventually stick things into his mouth but one time we put a container of blueberries in front of him and he basically "chipmunk'ed" them all into his mouth!  Wah!  Where did he learn that from?!?  See, I'm not worried at all...

Good Friday 2013

 Okay, verbal diarrhea over...

Annin Dofu

Mar Mar used to make 大菜糕 for us all the time when we were little.  No one seems to know what I'm talking about whenever I mention 大菜糕 because it's better known as 杏仁豆腐花 or annin dofu.  It must be the easiest dessert to make (even easier than lychee panna cotta) since you can't possibly screw it up.  Well, you can, but it's fixable.  Puts macaron-making to shame, lol...

Note to myself: never follow the recipes on the packages.  They are so wrong, especially when the Chinese instructions asks for half a pound of sugar and the English counterpart asks for 120g.  I ended up using only 80g.  *facepalm

Making the whole 7g package of agar agar with the suggested 900mL of water resulted in a medium so hard that even yeast won't culture on it.

Epic fail.

But here's where it gets fun.  Unlike gelatin, which turns into a big mess of guck when reheated after it solidifies, agar agar can be left to set, reheated to liquid form, then set again at room temperature!  Needless to say my science experiment ended up looking and tasting like dessert after all!

Annin Dofu 杏仁豆腐花

7g package of powdered agar agar (if using agar agar sticks, I suppose you can weigh it, but haven't tried it yet.  I've always eyeballed it.)
3 cups water
4 cups half and half cream (I used a 370mL can of evaporated milk and the rest was water and I found the 大菜糕 not creamy enough)
10mL pure almond extract
80g sugar

1. Stir agar agar into water and heat until no traces of agar agar is left (especially when using the sticks, otherwise the 大菜糕 will be lumpy).  Add sugar and stir until completely dissolved.
2. Remove from heat.  Add cream and almond extract and stir until combined, being careful not to make bubbles.
3. Let cool gently and pour mixture evenly into serving dishes.  大菜糕 will set at room temperature so don't wait too long.  Chill in refrigerator (optional, but it'll taste better).  To serve, garnish with plenty of seasonal chopped fruit or if you're lazy, use canned.

Slurp away.

and yes, I don't normally keep mint at home so that green stuff is a piece of lettuce from my box of spring mix.  Stop laughing.

Testing Waters

It's been a while since I've posted!  Yes, I've fallen behind on P365 2013 which means I haven't done much since coming back from HK.  What I finally ended up doing late last night though, was catch up on the photo-a-day for CLM.  I took the photos, just had to put them into the digital album.  Now that that's done and up to date, maybe I can tell myself to get cracking on the 8 weeks of layouts that I'm sort of dreading to do, haha...

CLM is finally walking!  That little bibibak is always practicing by walking round and around the kitchen island, stopping by the Roomba every once in a while to stare at it and wondering if he should go touch it.  When CLM was still crawling, he used to go touch the Roomba all the time despite us scolding him not to.  One time he pressed the button and the Roomba started "coming at him" so I told him urgently: "你仲唔快啲走啊!?!  Wuwu 機來咬你喇!!"  He would go "test the waters" and touch the Roomba and quickly scoot off to see if it'll actually come after him and since the Roomba attempts to re-dock itself after it gets moved, it'll start making noises which freaks CLM out even more so now he knows not to go near it.

Still no teeth, but adorable nonetheless!

However, he still tests me by going to my computer, pressing the keyboard and throwing my mouse.  We've told him so many times over NOT to go near my computer (he once picked up my portable hard drive and whipped it across the room, while it's spinning).  Last night, I was working on my computer and he would come around every time I walked away to do something, just to see what he can do and get away with.  After shooing him away a couple of times, I noticed him quickly walk by, nonchalantly press a key on my keyboard and quickly ran off!!!  That little sneaky CLM!  Giggling the entire time!  Babies nowadays are just too smart!

Spoiled?

Oh dear, CLM has been up every hour tonight since going to bed... it's going to be a looooong night..... *yawn*

Taipei Days Two and Three

Jan. 30, 4:19pm, 屯門市中心
Curtasee turned one! Omg, my little boy, one already! *tears

I'm one today!! (well, the day this pic was taken at least)

Where's my present Mammie??

*cackle*

Unfortunately, not only is his birthday present lacking (from me only as one of our tour buddies, Hans, got him a Mashimaru doll) but he was continuously sleep deprived! Although morning call was a little later, 6:45am, I still had to wake CLM up from his already scarce sleep.

Breakfast was really impressive as it was in a banquet hall type space with rows and rows of hot tables. I still don't get how people can have salad at 8 am though.  It's not the first time on this trip that I see salad offered for breakfast. I mean with Italian dressing too... go figure. As usual, I was running short if time so I quickly gobbled down some congee and we had to gather up to leave for our final guided tour day in Taipei.

Pretty much my breakfast every morning while in Taiwan

The tour guide made sure we visited everything on the itinerary by Monday so that we can have all of Tuesday to explore on our own. 文生's mom was pretty miserable from the pain so I'm guessing she'll have nothing good to say about this trip. My guess is she definitely didn't enjoy the last two days as I haven't seen her whine and complain so much, sigh.

Our first stop for the day was to check out some deer embryo (tastes like 豬肉鬆, lol) and 赤靈芝. This time we actually wanted to buy 靈芝 so their sales pitch didn't bother me as much.

鹿胎 before being ground up to a fine powder, so appetizing... uh, yeah...

Feb.1, 1:22am, at home under covers
Geez, this post is taking way too long to write!

I don't think I've ever put so much money on my credit card! Omg, crazy amount, sounds worse when we're taking Taiwanese dollars, lol.  So we got them to throw in some freebies, like royal jelly, keke.

Afterwards, we went to 圓山大飯店 to 門外拍照. Omg, I didn't know that was considered something to do, Lord. Well, we actually went inside to see some salt sculptures and look at the interior but still, I thought this stop was retarded.

Lunch was next and we went to a restaurant that specializes in group lunches. Quite an interesting concept, but food was still just meh. You get what you pay for I guess.

More interested in watching these guys make a batch of 蔥油餅 than listen to a broken record of a sales pitch

View from 九份舊街

Before heading up the mountain to visit 九份, another sales stop. This time, tea shop. Honestly, these people cannot sound more bored. But I guess if you recite the same speech 5 times a day, you'd sound like a broken record too. At least they tried to get the audience involved, but I was more interested in the 蔥油餅 making next door. Lol. Didn't buy anything so wallet saved!

I fell asleep going up to 九份 and good thing too because the ride was apparently pretty freaky. We lucked out and it wasn't raining there but it was definitely chilly. I wandered into 九份舊街 by myself, as mom wanted to rest and keep CLM warm, so I checked out all the yummy food stalls alone. There was a booth selling shaved peanut candy with 2 scoops of ice cream wrapped in a 糖蔥餅 wrapper. Quite good and not too sweet. I really wanted to get some taro dumplings but couldn't see myself finishing it if mom didn't want any. At least I sampled some. It was very Q (as Taiwanese calls it), yummy! Then I bought the worst tasting 檸檬愛玉 I've ever had. Tasteless, yuck. By the time I got to the end of the street, it was time to go back since our 活動時間 was only just over an hour.

A big batch of tea eggs brewing.  How I wish there were people around to share all the foods I WANTED to try... sigh

Yet another sales presentation was lined up, jade this time, before we left to check into our nasty dirty hotel in 西門町. CLM was fussy for a nap so I took the opportunity to walk away from the stupid 風水 lesson and sales pitch. CLM fell asleep and for the first time ever on the trip, he was able to nap properly during the day, albeit the short half hour.

Our hotel room for the final night was by far the worst I've ever stayed in. Floors were filthy and not vacuumed. Sheets were dirty, there were coffee stains on the cabinets and the closet reeked.  I should have complained.

Mom stayed in with CLM while I ran out to buy dinner. I finally got to get my 大腸包小腸, picked up 阿宗麵線, bitter melon juice for mom and bbt of course for me. I wasn't full, and I wanted ramen, but didn't want to leave mom alone with CLM too long in case he freaked out or something. Dinner was good, can't complain!

What's a trip to Taiwan without eating at 鼎太豐

No morning call the next morning, yay, but CLM didn't sleep well so I really didn't get to sleep until mom watched him and gave me half an hour to nap after breakfast. Yet I'm not the one who complained most about the lack of sleep *rolls eyes*.  I packed up everything, checked out at noon and left to go to 鼎太豐 for 小籠包! The restaurant wasn't too busy, the service was good and the servers were all really pretty. Only problem was CLM couldn't sit still and pissed me off.

Look who hijacked my pic? Get that hand outta there CLM! Really liked these dishes. Too bad they don't sell them!

Mar Mar rarely takes pics!  Lovely smile!

OMG, these were soooo good... all three dozen of them!

By the time we finished our 3 trays of 小籠包, it was time to head back to the hotel to meet up with the rest of the tour to go to the airport. When we got there I thought I would use the washroom but omg, of the 8 unoccupied stalls, none of them were useable! Damn, no one flushes their crap and no one cleans! I was so grossed out. Good thing I found another secluded unadvertised washroom and it was actually clean. So much for an international airport. Sheesh.

So that was my last impression of Taipei, crappy, lol.

Such cute key chains, but so expensive!!

For no known reason, our luggage took forever to come out when we arrived back in Hong Kong and poor 阿叔 and 阿嬸 waited for an entire hour before we came out. Went back home for dinner (10pm already) and then took a really grumpy 太上文太 back out to take a taxi before going home and calling it a night. 

My much needed beauty sleep, aiya. Embrace me! (2:23am)