Adorable. Cute. Love Him To Bits.

Two Failed Attempts

I baked Orange Chiffon Cake twice. Sad to say, it was two failed attempts.

I only have one word for my first attempt in baking chiffon cake - DISASTER!
My Orange Chiffon cake cracked at the top and then sank and shrank & wrinkled like a prune when I removed it from the oven. And the bottom of the cake was dense.
However, it was edible, just that it did not taste like chiffon cake at all. It tasted like normal orange flavoured cake.

1st attempt - cracked top

1st attempt - wrinkled like a prune

My second attempt was better.
I followed a different recipe which calls for the egg whites to be beaten to the soft peak and not stiff peak. However, I think I still overbeat it as it takes seconds to reach from soft peak to stiff peak. By the time I stopped to have a look, I think it crossed the soft peak stage. Blueks.

Anyway, my chiffon cake shrank too, but not too bad as my first attempt. The cake was nicely browned all over although it did not rise as much as I hoped it would.
Therefore, my cake was only a few inches high and was not as fluffy. But it was light enough and taste was even better than my first attempt. And there were NO big holes in it. Yay!

2nd attempt - nicely browned all over

2nd attempt - did not rise high enough and thus only a few inches high

2nd attempt - no large holes which is good but then not fluffy enough to pass as a chiffon cake

I finished baking the cake at about 3.30pm. In less than 3 hours, the whole cake was gone. So I guess even though it is considered a failed chiffon cake, it was not too bad, huh? :)

He Was A Beautiful Butterfly

Shern continues to learn. Shern continues to demonstrate what he learned.

As mentioned in my previous post, Shern likes the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. This book ends with the words '.....he was a beautiful butterfly!' on its last page.

I used to lift both of Shern's arms to flap it like the wings of the butterfly to end the story.

photo source: http://determinedtoshine.files.wordpress.com

Starting last week, he amazes me by flapping his arms by himself everytime I turn to the last page of the book.

Shern listens. Shern sees. Shern demonstrates. *proud mummy* :D

Sucking From A Straw

We just realized Shern knows how to suck from a straw about a month ago. We were in QBM and we bought a cold drink there. Shern made a fuss and wanted to have it too. So we offered the drink with the straw in it to him, thinking that he would not know how to suck from a straw.

Boy, we were wrong! After a moment or two, you can see the water rising up through the almost-transparent straw. Shern was sucking from a straw!

And today, Shern is drinking diluted Vitagen using a straw. Btw, he has this tear-stained face because we went to dilute the Vitagen with water (to make it less sweet) and he thought we were taking the Vitagen away from him. So he was wailing away there for a minute.

But after giving the Vitagen back to him, he is back to his smiley, cheeky face.

After drinking the Vitagen, we were rewarded with a wide smile from Shern!

Remote & Hello

Shern can understand what a remote and a phone is for.

I was trying to get him to say hello by asking him to put the remote near his ear. He responded by aiming the remote at the tv and pressing it, showing me that the remote is for the tv.
And when I passed him my handphone, he knew and put it near his ear to indicate 'hello'.



OMG! My boy has been observing what we are doing!

On the other hand, I am so happy that my little baby is learning!

Pail vs Walker - 11 Months

Shern is already an expert in crawling and can cruise pretty well. He can even stand up on his own for awhile without holding anything for support.

At 11 months, Shern is now learning how to walk.

Let the videos do the talking:

This is a video on Shern using a pail as his walker.

This is another video on Shern using the pail again as his walker. Look at how he managed to 'manuever' to the direction he wants go.


This last video is Shern walking using his real walker.

I guess a pail is just as good as the V-tech walker! :)

His legs are now getting stronger and stronger. Looks like it won't be long 'til I need to RUN after him, huh?

20 years ago...a little card for me

I found this card when I was cleaning my stuff to be moved to the store room downstairs.

It is a card from my little sis, Wen.
She should be just a little girl when she drew this card for me. She drew it on a piece of normal white paper using colour ink pens. She was trying to write in cursive. Hehe.

The card should be more than 20 years ago.

front of the card

inside of the card

It's a little heartwarming when I see this.
It reminds me of how we two used to play all sorts of games when we were little.

Now Wen is in South Africa. Choosing the life she wants. Choosing her own path in life.
She is a big girl now. But she will always be my little sister.

I miss you!
(more than when you were in Malaysia :P)