Super Nap!

Tuesday 19 June 2012

He stayed up late last night coz he had a good nap and woke up early too. After lunch he asked me if I could go upstairs with him coz he wants to take a nap. He even asked me to read him a book when we got there. But after the story he asked to borrow the iPad and he watched the alphabet train for several times. After this he asked to come down. Grrrr, I really wanted him to take a nap!

I asked him if he wants a bath and he said yes. He played in the bath for a while then asked for a shower. After that he went to the sofa and asked if he can watch the Thomas movie, Day of the Diesels. Not long after the movie started he was yawning, and soon enough was fast asleep! Kaloka! 

I knew he was tired and sleepy, pero like most kids, mas gusto pa yung pinapahirapan ang sarili! I was able to cook dinner, wash the dishes and he was still asleep. Papa E and I even finished dinner and he was still asleep! Super tired talaga ang bata.

Sarap ng pwesto! 

Alien Crab!

Monday 18 June 2012

Poj was playing with his toy piano and there was a drawing of a crab. I'm sure that he knows what a crab is but for some reason he told me that it was a drawing of an alien! I don't know where he heard the word alien to be honest. But I told him that the drawing was of a crab.

It was good timing that it's a Monday. Every Monday there comes a truck of seafood that sets up a stall in town. They are usually there for only 2-3 hours from about 6pm. It has been a while since we were able to buy seafood from them. Papa E usually works in a hospital which is 45minutes drive from town.  So by the time he gets home to change to go back, they'll be long gone.

I told Papa E about my "alien" conversation with Poj and he said he'll be able to make it home early coz he'll be coming from a different hospital. We let Papa E choose his fish and crab while Poj and I went to the park. He called us when he was at the queue so that Poj could look at the live crabs. He was fascinated with the small crabs! He also walked around and asked me for the names of all the other fish. We bought 2 crabs, 2 Sea bass and 12 mackerel.

Unfortunately, when Papa E cooked the crab, Poj didn't want to eat it =( Hey ho, he's still young, I'm sure he'll love it too when he gets a bit older...

We enjoyed our cooked crab with some fresh salad and cucumber salad =)

Father's Day

Sunday 19 June 2012

Celebrated Father's day at the Common. We were blessed with a sunny day and had a lovely day out.  Poj really liked the lake and was jealous of the people that were out there fishing. 

Happy Father's day to a wonderful friend and husband. Poj could not ask for a better Ama. We love you very much ♡♥♡♥

Leap Frog, Tag

Saturday 16 June 2012

These are some of the pressies that Poj received for his birthday. (Thanks Kuya Cayden and Kian).  He loves his books kaya super patok sa kanya ito.

I love the weekends coz Papa E is here and I can spend more time with Poj when he plays. The Leap pen works by reading out the words on the page or emitting the sounds on the page i.e. train whistles or the sound of the engine. You only need to download each book from the website and your good to go.

I rotate his toys so that he gets a chance to play with all of them. But when he's in the mood to read, I try to drop what I'm doing and sit down with him. I find that he tends to stick to the book more when I sit beside him. 

He loves all of them but I'm sure you know which one's his favourite. The junior leap books are more age appropriate too so I would buy him a couple more just to get used to it more and then move to the Tag books. Hay, my baby is growing up fast! 

I love weekends =)

Homemade Salmon Fish Cake

Friday 15 June 2012

Napansin ko lang na ang dalas kong magpost ng food dito ah! We've been trying to steer clear of take away restos at the mo kaya eto kaylangang magsipag sa pagluto, hehe.

At since hindi ako kasing sipag ni Papa E sa pagluluto, I always go for quick and easy recipe. We used to buy these fishcakes in the frozen section but we found this easy peasy recipe that I know I'll never buy those frozen ones again. I paired it with Egg and prawn soup, yummy!

Salmon Fish Cake Recipe

1 Tbsp dried dill

Thumb size ginger

2 Salmon fillet

2 Spring onion

Chop spring onion finely and add to a bowl

Grate ginger into the bowl with the spring onion

Cut the salmon fillets into mince sized pieces and add to the bowl

Add the dill and mix all the ingredients together trying to make sure that they are evenly distributed.

Separate the mixture to 4, squeeze into a ball in your hands and then shape into a fishcake.

Cook in a non-stick pan or spray the fishcakes with oil spray and cook for 3 minutes on each side. 

The recipes that I usually find for fish cakes have mashed potatoes inside and is breaded on the outside. But I find that this recipe is much simpler to make. 

When we ate out before and ordered Salmon fishcake, the restaurant gave us a similar looking (a bit flatter than the usual) fishcakes. We were going to complain but when we tasted it, it tasted better. You can taste the fish and the spices and that's it. There's non of the mash that masks the taste of that wonderful salmon. Yummy indeed! 

Feeling Much Better

Thursday 16 June 2012

I'm happy to share that Poj is feeling a lot better today. Papa E still took the day off, unfortunately had to miss an important meeting at work, but we weren't sure how Poj would be today.

They spent the day at home, and I know that times such as these where it's just the two of them are precious.

And since parehong mahilig sa noodles ang mag-ama, ito ang hinanda nilang dinner for today, Chicken noodles with pak choi. It was delish!

Thank you po at magaling na si Poj namin. He just told me when I tucked him to bed that he needs to go to nursery tomorrow coz his bestfriend Imogen misses him =) Haha! I'm pretty sure he means he miss her, lol.

Soup for Little Poj

Wednesday 13 June 2012

Poj is still poorly, bless him. He's been coughing the whole night and still had fever. =(  I stayed at home with him today. He didn't have any appetite but I managed to talk him to eating misua. Buti na lang mahilig sa noodles ang Poj ko.

It must be the changing weather or baka nahawa nung naglaro sya, I don't know. Hay, I'd rather be at work and Poj at nursery as long as he is fine.

Pagaling ka na Poj...

My Little Helper 2

Tuesday 12 June 2012

Little Poj is not feeling well. He's got cough and colds and raised temperature. Kaya ang gusto the whole day is cuddle. Kailangan magkasama kami sa lahat ng lugar. Kaya naman when I said I need to cook, sabi nya sama daw sya ang mag-cook din sya. 

I let him near the cooker when it was still cold and ask him to stir for me. I knew he would get bored eventually, and he did soon enough.  He agreed to sit in a chair and watch me finish cooking.

I hate it when he's sick and the feeling of being helpless. Pero minsan kahit anong gawin mong pag-alaga they still get sick =(

I hope little one is better tomorrow...

Halogen Oven

Monday 11 June 2012

Back home in the Philippines we call this the turbo broiler. I'm not sure if it was invented in the Philippines but it was pretty popular. I certainly know that we have one and have enjoyed a lot of roast chickens & other delicious foods from it.

I started seeing it advertised here about a couple of years ago but called Halogen oven.  We decided to get one when we went to Costco. And now we find ourselves using it a lot. Since we bought it we'ce already roasted 2 chickens, baked a cake and grilled veggies and fish. We should have bought one as soon as they became available here! Now that our oven is becoming temperamental (ancient na po sya), this little oven is just perfect for our needs. 

Hay ano ba? Puro na lang pagkain asa isip! lol

By the way, today is a great day! Finally naayos na rin ang boiler namin! After one week of enduring the cold and cold water, may heater na rin sa wakas. =)

Playshack

Sunday 10 June 2012

This photo was taken from the Playshack, our favourite play gym for Poj. He calls it "My Playshack!"

We went here yesterday after grocery shopping etc, and were told that they are closing in 20mins! Huwah! Imagine my little man's disappointment! I apologized profusely and promised to take him here the next day. You should have seen his face in the car =(

But not to worry, Papa E came to the rescue and took him to the local park instead...

But today is the day to keep the promise. We were more organized and took him here in the afternoon. See the photo? Di naman masyadong galak, diba? lol

He played for over 2 hours until we were able to convince him to go home. He had lots of fun going up and down the obstacle course and the slides. There were a lot of kids there today, but he didn't mind at all. Papa E and I took turns at accompanying him (some areas are still too high for him)... hmmm, we probably need to take him there more often, exercise! haha =)

And the best part? He was in bed early tonight! Yup, we definitely need to take him here more often! =)

Garden Salad

Saturday 9 June 2012

Hooray! Mababaw, I kow! I love my greens and love it when I could bring salad for lunch with my homemade dressing. But like everything here in the UK, even salad leaves are expensive. But that shouldn't not stop one to eat what she fancies, right? You just have to know where to find good quality with good price foods.

And a big hooray to garden salads! They are not always available, but I love it when they are. Preparing your salad straight from the garden - hey, it doesn't get any fresher than that! These are also cheaper from the prepared salad leaves that you can buy and keeps fresh for longer. So you can imagine I got too excited and bought too much! Haha.

Love spring & summer, everything is so much nicer & fresher! Specially the food!

Kiddie Pizza

Friday 8 June 2012

We're on a high spirits today even if we still have problems in the house simply because it's Friday! We even got home early today yay! And soon enough we were at the kitchen preparing our dinner. 

Normally we would go town on a Friday, in our fave Chinese restaurant maybe or would buy a take away somewhere. But we are trying to be good so we head on home and prepared dinner ourselves. Poj wanted pizza so I made him pizza by lightly toasting 2 slices of brown bread and topping them with ready made pasta sauce in the fridge and grated cheese which I baked in the oven until the cheese melted, yum. He loved it and finished his four slices in no time. (one of the slices didn't even make it in the photograph, lol).

As much as we love to eat together, sometimes allowing him to eat before us works. He's tired today and wanted to go upstairs early whilst we still have to cook our dinner. 

Poj is now so active at nursery that some days he would eat lots for tea at nursery and would sleep straight away when he gets home. Even though it is nice to have a bit of quiet time, I do miss chatting with him in the evening and seeing his antics, but some days, like today,  all he really wants is to crawl to bed...

No Show si Mr Boiler

Thursday 7 June 2012

This week is definitely not our week. I am on annual leave this morning coz I've booked for the boiler man to be here at around 9am. But past 9 I received a phone call from someone from their company telling me that their engineer rang in sick and they don't have anyone in my area that they could send. Grrrr. Di ba sayang ang annual leave? And that means another day of no heating! Hay...

So I rang work and told them that I'm coming in to work early. I took the bus and found out that they have changed the bus routes. Medyo nalito ako ng mega coz super major changes ang ginawa nila. From the bus number, time and route, kaloka! Anyways, it meant that we passed through this part of town, the Bargate. This is a building in the Southampton city centre that was constructed in Norman times. It was part of the walled city. The statue in the middle is of George III. And the bell on the southwest corner of the building was added in 1605 and was used as the city's curfew and alarm bell. The upper room has been used for different purposes,  but it is now an art gallery.

I rang the company and even if they can reschedule me for Friday, neither Papa E nor myself can take any time off so it is now booked for Monday... So for the next few days we'll have to keep on boiling water using big pots and just use thick duvets to keep us warm.

Fingers Crossed

Wednesday 6 June 2012

It's day two na wala kaming boilier. It means walang hot water at di makapag-on ng heater sa bahay. So here's a not so happy Poj as we makes himself comfy. He keeps saying na "the man" needs to come to fix our boiler! How I wish may 24hour service sila!

Buti na lang we're back to work this week and Poj is back at nursery. Kakaiba diba? We're actually glad to be at work when usually wish mo nakavacation leave ka, lalo na kapag umuulan. But staying at home would just remind us that we have issues that we can't fix ourselves. 

I called the boiler man and was scheduled for the next day. Buti na lang pumayag ang manager ko na mag-half day ako bukas. =) I reckon it's only a 40minute job so I'll be at work in no time na rin. Kaylangan lang talaga ay dumatin sya... fingers crossed!

My Yellow Rose

Tuesday 5 June 2012

It's the last day of the holiday (yes it's still a non-working day because of the Queen's jubilee). But unfortunately it was not a good day for us. Our gas meter was faulty and because of this our boiler switched off. And even after the engineer fixed the gas meter, he was unable to switch on our ancient boiler. So it means we are out of hot water and house heating until we are able to get someone to switch it on for us.

Since it's a holiday, there's absolutely no one that could come to fix it for us. We're lucky that it's not one of the colder months, otherwise we'd be in trouble. We simply have to layer up when we sleep and boil water in big pans when we go to the shower. We're just hoping that we get someone to fix it for us soon.

And to make it worse, in the evening the cupboard under the sink collapsed! It was due to a leaking pipe that was hidden behind a plywood so were not aware of the leak. The water weaken the laminate wood and made it too heavy that the bottom layer collapsed! Stress to the max!

When I saw Papa E he was in the brink of tears coz we are faced with two problems in one day! But I think we were able to calm and reassure each other that we can sort this out. We are hoping that it's not too big of a job and it's something that we could sort out ourselves. Fingers crossed!

I took this photo in the afternoon and I posted it here coz I want to cheer myself up. I know that yellow is for friendship (thanks Sey of 14th Street for the info) but the colour cheers me up a bit and clears my head and stop me from worrying and panicking too much.... 

Good Breakfast

Monday 4 June 2012

It's Bank Holiday Monday so it means Papa E is off work today! Woot woot! Poj was happy to find his Ama when he came down for his breakfast. It threw him a bit but he was happy that he's home today.

In our quest to be better with our food, this is what we had for breakfast. We had sunny-side up cooked oil free in a non-stick pan and a slice of grilled turkey breast teamed up with coffee with skimmed milk and splenda.

On the week that we were off, we were so lazy that we ate out every single day. So it's only right to be better this week. We just hope that we are able to keep it up (i'll keep you posted, lol).

The day was uneventful and was spent indoors. It was good though to have the chance to Skype with my mom & dad coz they miss Poj loads. At syempre super aliw naman sila sa apo nila and panay ang parinig at tanong kung kelan daw kami uuwi... hay, kelan nga ba?

Loving Instagram

Sunday 3 June 2012 I'm addicted to Instagram! I'm finding myself browsing so many amazing photos around the world, it's almost mind blowing sometimes. I know I may sound a tad too excited and exaggerated but I really do love it! It's so simple. Take a photo and post it. It could be of anything you want, you may or may not write a description of your photos and what's more exciting for me is the freedom to be able to view so much talent and creativity.  Some photographers even share their methods/ techniques and which editing app they've used. And this is what I find so cool. Right from the point that I fell pregnant I have lost all interest in photography. I wouldn't say that I was good at it but I love looking at photos. But Instagram inspired me take my own photos and to share them, as well as to view those beautiful photos out there and more importanty to learn from the experts.  It's a lot like Twitter, I think. But you post your photos instead of your thoughts. I hope it stays simple, straight forward and add free!

Steamed Sea Bass

Saturday 2 June 2012

I have been saying it for sometime now, and I think that it's time to actually do it - to be better with our food. It's no secret that we love to cook/bake and we love our food. I think we love it too much that we sometimes end up eating way too much! So now we've decided to be better...

We're still going to eat the food that we love but would rethink how we prepare them and how often we eat them. Today we've decided to have steamed Sea bass with onions and ginger and a little light soy sauce. Papa E steamed it in our bamboo steamer with banana leaves. It gave the food a nice hint of flavour which was very pleasant - and the smell reminded us of home too.

How about my baking? I'm still going to bake, most definitely. It's the actual making of the cake that I love more than actually eating the finish the product. I can alter my recipes to make them healthier and could eat a small piece each time and share the rest to friends. My colleagues are always happy whenever I bring them cakes so that's not a problem.

Here's to good food and healthy eating =)

1st Day of June

Friday 1 June 2012

It't the first day of June, we're almost halfway through the year, unbelievable!

We initially planned to keep Poj at home with us but we know he missed his friends yesterday so we decided to take him to nursery in the end. It freed us to do some chores and to do the grocery shopping. We also went to meet some friends and gave them some of Poj's birthday cake. 

When Poj got home he was still energetic and was in the mood to play with his art stuff as well as with his other new toys. 

I still can't get over the fact that my little baby is now 3 years old! Ang bilis naman....