Ben's Daily Activities...

~ Posted on Monday, April 4, 2011 at 5:20 PM ~

Wondering what my 2 year old does every single day when we're at home?

Following are pictures taken on what Ben does on daily basis, although of course not all on the same day! There are some days when I'm too tired to be doing drawing and coloring activities with him or some days when I could even play in the water pool with him... but nevertheless, pictures below  (in no particular order) for you to enjoy and have a brief glimpse on what my boy does on daily basis...

Color painting at our balcony (click on the link for more pictures!)

(oh well, basically Ben just holds the brushes, wet it with water and color on the pages)

Playing in his water pool at our balcony... (click on the link for more pictures!)

Ben has lately developed a new hobby to 'cook' and 'boil' food and drinks for himself and me!

Jamming with his guitar...

Normally with John Mayer songs or when he hears Rascal Flatt's 'Life is a Highway' (one of the soundtrack in Cars movie)

His new activity which is playing with daddy's DIY playmat! (click on the link for more pictures!)

Scribbling on his art book... (click on the link for more pictures!)

Every now and then, I teach him to draw certain shapes and at the same time teach him about colors...

Chasing him around the room to bath him - normally after his water pool time...

Stickers time! My balcony door is taking the biggest hit now... but it's OK, it's Ben's 'artwork' heheheh...

We currently have 2 sticker books which I bought from the night market near my house - Toy Story and Cars, both are Ben's favorites!

I just started playing this fruit toys today with Ben. Trying to get him to familiar with the types of fruits and also the colors of it as well.

He kept sniffing (we always get him to sniff the real ones when we go grocery shopping) and biting the toys!

Reading his books... (click on the link for more pictures!)

Ever since Ben saw how his 2nd uncle fixes car (he's a mechanic), Ben is always trying to emulate the same thing.

Watching Sesame Street videos on Youtube...

Picture below of Ben holding this DIY 'binocular' I made out of an empty toilet roll which I cut half and masking tape all over to make the 'binoculars'

Watching and dancing along to bible action songs... (click on the link for more pictures!)

Other than the above, Ben also occassionally play with his Mega Bloks though definitely not with me nowadays, I really can't bear to scoop out each and every blocks and put them back into the storage box, though yes, everytime Ben plays them with his daddy, I end up most of the time cleaning up the mess afterwards... but oh well, at least I don't need to crack my head to build a sword, a jeep, a tractor, a robot and etc etc from those Mega Bloks! You can see more pictures from this post of mine: Ben the Engineer?

Of course, with all the above activities, Ben has to eat to keep up at all times! So pictures below are those I managed to take of him eating during lunch and snack times... and he watches his favorite movies such as Cars and Toy Story (1, 2 & 3) during his meal times. I had to watch them with him so much that I can tell you the errors and mistakes I discovered in those movies! So anyway, pictures time!

Ben munching on a VERY sour strawberry, and not even batting an eye over it! Weird...

Other than strawberry, I normally feed Ben grapes or mangoes we get them more often during our grocery shopping.

Ben breastfeeding - this photo is taken very recently, about a few days back,

and yes, I'm still breastfeeding him during my pregnancy now.

Ben munching on his 2nd slice of cheese, other than the fish crackers and a piece of banana on his plate.

Ben drinking his yogurt drink while having his lunch of a slice of bread, a cracker, some jelly and mangoes slices.

So there you go... pictures above are what Ben does during his daytime activities most of the days...

What about your child? What did they do on daily basis?

Daddy's DIY Playmat for Ben!

~ Posted on Friday, April 1, 2011 at 3:34 PM ~

Whoaaa... Despite his hectic schedule, I'm impressed my hubby took his time to come up with this! Take a look...

Pictures sourced from Google and I don't know what other image sharing websites out there, printed using hubby's color printer onto recycled A4 papers.. I helped along with cutting out the roads, houses, trees, clouds, etc.

Yeap... hubby made the base out of the recycled cardboards in his office. And meticulously glued in those pictures I cut out earlier and he added in a tunnel and a bridge and also a garage for Ben to park his toy cars - all made from cardboards as well !

Ben loves it and wanted to include his tractor toy as well, but oh boy, that is too big for the playmat!

Ben enjoying the playmat and keep playing with the garage...

So kudos to my creative hubby for a good job done!

Vanilla Flower Cookies

~ Posted on Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 9:21 AM ~

I have not been posting about my baking adventure for sometime, so few days back, I attempted this recipe which was adapted from a cookbook I bought from Borders. Although the title said Vanilla Flowers, mine doesn't turn out flowery looking as I don't have the piping tools to squeeze the batter out into flower looking shaped cookies. Anyway, without further ado, here goes:

VANILLA FLOWER COOKIES

PREPARATION TIME: LESS THAN HALF AN HOUR

* About 10 minutes to mix & prepare the dough
* 15 minutes for baking process 

Ingredients / Tool Required:

* 150 g all-purpose flour sifted (I used wheat flour)
* 50 g cornflour
(sifted)
* Few drops of vanilla essence

* 200 g butter (I used salted butter instead)
* 50 g icing sugar
(sifted)
* Semisweet chocolate chips
* A bowl to mix ingredients in
* Kitchen scale
* Spatula, piping tool (I used a plastic bag with one end snipped  a bit)
* Baking sheet & paper

What to Do?

* Preheat oven to 180℃.
*
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter & icing sugar together. Pour a few drops of vanilla essence as well.
* Sift together bit by bit the cornflour and wheat flour into the mixing bowl.
* Put the batter into the piping tool and squeeze out the flowery shaped dough on the baking sheets/tray, spaced slightly apart.
* Decorate with icing flowers (I used chocolate chips instead). See picture below...

BAKING PROCESS

* Set oven to 180℃ and bake for 10-15 minutes until light golden brown.
*
Remove from sheets to cool on racks.

THE RESULTS

REACTIONS FROM MY "GUINEA PIGS"

ME
"Yummy! But super crumbly!"
BEN

"Want! Bikut (aka biscuit)! Cookie! More, more! Ahhh, ahhhhh! Give, Give!!"

(I had to feed him after he accidentally squashed the cookies when he grasp it... ooppss)

HUBBY
"Hmm.. nice!" 
NIECE
"Delish!!~ XD"
COUSIN
"Delicious, with more practise your cookies can beat those butter cookies outside!"

So there you go.... my VANILLA FLOWER COOKIES! Overall, I'm very happy with this attempt! I leave you with some cute snapshots of my cheeky little man trying to get hold of the cookies...

To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info! Brought to you by:  Mama Baker wannabe aka