The Unusual Palate & Conversations of a 2 year old.

Matthew really has the most unusual palate for food for a 2 year old. Here are some of the types of food he LOVES.

pickled ginger,

Ikura salmon roe (we just call them eggs)

Roquefort cheese, from France no less.

Olives, any kind either green or black, marinated or spiced it doesn't really matter.

Balsamic vinegar

Serrano Ham
Coffee/Tea (he has the froth on top of Duncan's latte as the tiniest bit of caffeine sends him crazy)

I can't think of a single food that Matthew won't eat, even a bit of spice in a curry doesn't bother him which is great as it means we can dine pretty much anywhere.

Post Birthday lunch just the 3 of us, complete with Matthew's favourite Japanese foods.

I know I've mentioned in the past that Matthew vocabulary is expanding rapidly, and in fact we'd been warned that this is expected around the 2 year mark. But it's still very surprising and shocking to us that Matthew has suddenly gone from speaking 2 word sentences, babbling incoherently the rest of the time and singing random words to tunes he knows to conversing with us in 3-4 word sentences and sometimes more virtually overnight. Honestly, Duncan and I would tell you that it happened sometime overnight on Saturday right after his birthday.

Matthew said on Sunday morning;
'Mummy open the fridge'
and
'May I please have Jellybeans Mummy?
For a longest time, Matthew has been referring to himself as 'Moo Moo' which is my nickname for him and I'd thought that he had difficulty saying his name and words beginning with the letter 'M' but a few weeks ago managed to say 'Marshmellow' very clearly. On Saturday evening, on our way out to dinner, Matthew was not only say his name properly, but was singing 'Happy Birthday to Matthew' over and over again. When the parenting books say that kids can change overnight, they really mean it!

Happy 2nd Birthday!!!

Pictures from Matthew's 2nd Birthday party available HERE

Wishing a very Happy 2nd Birthday to our gorgeous Matthew. Much Love Mum & Dad xx

All about the cake... Matthew 2nd Birthday

I am I must confess obsessed with birthday cakes. Duncan will tell you that I hate missing out on a piece of cake and when asked if there's anything I needed picked up from the shops on his way home from work my answer to his question is almost always 'cake'. Growing up, every birthday before the age of 12 was marked with a big birthday party and the centrepiece of that happy occasion was always the birthday cake. Leading up to the big day my sister and I would pour through my Mum's cake decorating books to select 'the one'. Whether it be Garfield, a doll/princess or Strawberry shortcake shaped cake, the event of celebrating a birthday began with the selection of the cake in the weeks leading up. Celebrating Matthew's birthdays so far has been no different and happily for me it brings back memories of my childhood. Not knowing Matthew's likes and dislikes, the decision for Matthew's 1st birthday cake was solely ours. This year however with Matthew's continued obsession with Buzz Lightyear it was an easy choice to settle on a Toy Story themed party and hence an equally themed birthday cake. For Matthew's 2nd birthday, I'm attempted to make a Buzz Lightyear rocket cake.

My criteria for any birthday cake is simple, it must look good AND taste good. The basis of a good cake is a yummy cake recipe and nothing is better than a chocolate mud cake, though Duncan would argue it's my vanilla cake recipe. There was a heated debate in the car on the way to school last week as to which type of cake and ganache to use. In the end, the chocolate mud won... as it always will ;)

Some weeks before Matthew's birthday...
I started off the process by scouring the internet for a picture of the Buzz Lightyear rocket. This was the closest picture I could find.

Buzz Lightyear Rocket Inspiration

From that I created a template for the shape of the cake (using much creative license here I might add) keeping within the limits of a 16 inch round cake board. You have to use your imagination to picture it as a 3D cake.

From there I had to figure out how much cake I needed to form the cake based on the size of the template I'd drawn up and then from there you have a rough estimate.

Cake template

Day 1
The mud cake recipe that I chose is the one from the 'Planet Cake' book by Paris Cutler. I knew it would be good as it's the one used for Matthew's 1st birthday cake. If you want a copy of the recipe please PM me. This particular cake if you follow the recipe exactly is super rich, for the purposes of a Matthew's party, I omitted the coffee granules. It's not for the feint hearted either, it's got so much choc and sugar in it, it'll send most kids and adults hyper! But boy does it taste good. For Matthew rocket cake, I used a 30 x 30 cm square tin AND a 20 x 15 cm tin and basically made 2.5 times the quantity asked of the ingredients in the recipe book spread over both cake tins. Before working on the cake it's essential to let the cake cool completely, so leave it to rest for 24 hours.

Crust of please!

30 x 30 cake

20 x 15 cake halved.

Day 2
Ganache is essentially cream and choc, in our case semi sweet dark choc and cream. I mixed 1.2 kg of dark choc with 600ml of pure cream ... I warned you, this cake is not for the feint hearted! (Did I mention somewhere that I'm at risk of gestational diabetes?!?!).

Using the layers of cake and ganache I formed the basic shape of the cake. Oh, by the way, you need to cut off the top crusty layer of the cake, so that the texture of the cake remains consistent throughout. It's also a good idea to use syrup (eg. apricot conserve diluted with Grand Marnier) and brush all the cake surfaces to seal in the moisture. Once you have the basic shape sculpted, finish with the ganache. Take your time with this part, as this is the most crucial part of decorating using fondant, the smoother the finish you have on the ganache, the smoother your layer of fondant will be. A ganaching tool is your best friend here, I picked mine up from Planet Cake during my cake decorating class last year, but you can pick one up from a good cake supply shop. A good one will be metal with a nice clean edge on one side and a curved edge on the other. You want a metal one because it helps to dip it in hot water to heat it so your can run the edge over cooled ganache to get that perfectly smooth edge.

As we now live in a country which averages 32 degrees all year round with high humidity, I wasn't sure how the fondant and ganache was going to cope, so in between working on the ganache and fondant I rested the cake in the fridge. It's generally not the best idea to place a fondant covered cake in the fridge as it can dry out and crack but it was the lesser of two evils.

Day 3
Now the fun bit, decorating with fondant. I didnt want to risk making my own fondant as handling it in humid hot weather can be tricky. So last weekend I bought a 2.5 kg tub of white vanilla 'Satin Ice'. The lady at the cake supply shop assured me that it tasted good and that it handled well in the Singapore weather. While the little Birthday Boy to be was asleep I started rolling out my monster piece of white fondant to cover the entire cake. Once again be patient. Using the correct cake making tools helps, like an acrylic rolling pin and fondant smoother. Looks pretty good I think. The rest is pretty straight forward and fun. I coloured the fondant and cut and attached the individual pieces free hand, like I said, you need to exercise a lot of creative license.

 

Voila!

The end result is a monster of a cake, to be finished at the party venue tomorrow complete with Buzz Lightyear figurine and '2' candle in the centre. Pictures of the birthday boy with his cake to be posted in the next update! I hope he likes it ...

Picture added 28th May :)

Maid? No thanks.

Since arriving in Singapore I've lost count of the number of times I've been asked if I have a 'helper'. A helper essentially is a live in maid that help with chores and pitches in with the care of children. I've seen helpers pushing kids in prams around the shops while Mum browses through the shops and helpers feeding the kids at mealtimes while Mum and Dad carry on with their own meals. Once I fell pregnant, the frequency of which this question is asked since has doubled. What's even more surprising to the person asking the question is my answer: 'no, we don't have a helper nor do we intend to hire one in the foreseeable future.'

I don't object to hiring a live in helper to help with domestic chores, however I do think that as a stay at home mum (SAHM) that a part-time cleaner or house keeper once or twice a week is a perfectly reasonable solution to help stay on top of the cleaning. Helpers are very common here in Singapore and hiring one is inexpensive, approximately SGD$750 a month, which means that she won't get a hell of a lot out of that once the government get their hands on their portion of their wages. What I do object to is the way some helpers are treated (not all fortunately). For example, it is considered the norm for helpers to be roomed in what is in most cases the storage room or the bomb shelter. Every Singapore apartment has one of these, they are windowless tiny rooms barely large enough for a single bed, that are often located in the 'yard' which is open air outdoor area attached to the kitchen. I wouldn't sleep in one, nor would I expect any person to do the same.

Yes I have no doubt that raising 2 children on my own without hired help or family nearby and with a husband that works ridiculously long hours will have it's challenges but I feel that for us it's the natural thing to do. Many many mums manage perfectly fine with 2, 3 and even 4 kids, so will I. I know that the last 2 years with Matthew has just breezed by and I have to acknowledge how lucky we have been to have had such an easy time of being first time parents. Perhaps if the learning curve of being new parents had been steeper I might have a different view point and jump at the chance of having a helper?

One thing is for sure, having the opportunity to be a SAHM is a wonderful once in a life time experience to bond with your baby/toddler and if circumstances allow, I would highly recommend it to any Mum. This opinion is also in line with my own personal views on natural birthing and water birthing, positive discipline, attachment parenting, and extended breastfeeding. I think being out of the corporate environment is turning me into a hippie.

Phuket Pictures & bye bye Nanna and Pop

I had a teary Matthew in my arms when Nanna and Pop left in the taxi for the airport this afternoon. Bye the time Nanna and Pop rang from the airport to say they were about to board their flight home bound to Sydney, Matthew was yelling 'See Ya Nanna, See Ya Pop!'. He was still a little bit teary at bedtime though... very sad little guy. It's one of the downsides to living in a different country to family, especially grandparents. But I'm sure they are thankful that we are only an 8 hour flight away and not 20 hours.

Matthew has been a delight of late, even his teachers have commented how well behaved he's been in class. I'm sure that this too is a passing phase!

The trip away was very relaxing, most days were spent relaxing at our Villa punctuated by day trips out to the nearby islands for a bit of sightseeing and snorkeling or golf (for the boys) and massages (for the girls) or trip around Phuket island to visit some of the popular beaches and tourist spots. 

Here is one of my favourite pictures from our trip away to Phuket.

Kamikaze Matthew in the pool with Daddy and Uncle Tim (Unki Thim)

Matthew is pictured here being tossed to Daddy by his Uncle, he loved it and insisted on it about a dozen times by swimming away from his Dad to his Uncle with 'more please' until both had very sore shoulders and arms.

As a side note, Matthew's 2nd birthday party planning is in full swing. I'm making the cake again this year with the same chocolate cake recipe with choc granache, but this year it'll be in the shape of a rocket to go with the Buzz Lightyear themed party we have planned.  Matthew's party is on Saturday 28th which falls perfectly on his birthday. There will be plenty of pictures posted no doubt.

One last thing, Matthew is rapidly learning to speak in sentences and carry out conversations. I've been asked how many words Matthew has in his vocabulary now and I honestly can't tell you. He'll repeat or at least have an attempt at pretty much anything you ask him to say and is particularly cute at saying 'Marshmellow' and 'Octopus'. 

23 Months ... almost 2 years old.

May' 11 issue of Motherhood Magazine.

Matthew has just been gorgeous these few weeks which have just flown by. As most of you may already know, his magazine cover is out on the newsstands at the moment and it's a little strange seeing his little face at the gas station, at 7Eleven, at the grocery stores and at the book shops. He is another little look at his cover...

We had a busy Easter break, Good Friday was spent picnicking and playing at Pasir Ris Park where there is a huge children's play area. It's a great place for children (& adults) of all ages. We were exhausted by the time we got home. The rest of the long weekend was spent hanging out with our with our good friends either at brunch or eating a lovely claypot crab.

Good Friday@ Pasir Ris Park

Alyssa, Abigail & Matthew

The following weekend was another long weekend because of Labour Day and we kicked off the holiday with play date with Matthew's good friends, Abigail & Alyssa. Matthew has been friends with them since the first week we arrived in Singapore and we catch up whenever our schedules allow. It's wonderful for us Mums to see them play together and compare all the little changes we've seen in our children over the past year.

In preparation for his 2nd birthday at the end of the month we also been on a toy shopping spree. We bought him some new toys as is customary when little boys have birthdays. The big present he's received us is a scooter. He's still getting used to scooting around the apartment and is quite tentative on it. But he likes yelling out 'SCOOTA!' We've also bought him new Buzz Lightyear toys, a whole lot of new bunch of books and additions to his Thomas the Tank Engine train set.

In readiness for the inevitable transition to a 'big boy bed' we've also got a new bed on order and it should be arriving early in June.

Mother's card from Matthew

Matthew's Nanna and Pop also arrived on Wednesday this week and they've been busy getting re-acquainted. We are all off to Phuket for an 8 day holiday shortly. I'm sure there will be plenty of pictures to post after the trip.

As it's Mother's day tomorrow, Matthew made me a lovely Mother's day card. There's a picture of Matthew in the middle holding a sign which says 'I love you Mommy'. He also bought be a beautiful pair of pearl earrings care of Duncan which I love.