here i am, all the boys and hubby are sleeping. i'm tired too, but i just want to have some time alone. Christmas just over...2009 is going to be over soon too. what have i done?

anyway, just a little update abt what i've been doing for the past one month....in summary.

toilet training 2 boys
don't know what on earth am i thinking...toilet training ian and nathan concurrently after we moved in to our new home. anyway, nathan's toilet training is half success...he will go toilet when he feels like peeing, but there're times i do need to remind him to go. this boy will tend to hold his pee when he's having fun playing, then holding his bird to tahan. so whenever i see him hold his bird, i know....it's time for him to go toilet. there's accident every now and then...i'm no longer the patient mama cozai, reward stickers when success and encourages him to do better next time when he wet the floor, nowadays...or most often, i WHACKED!!! coz nathan would step on it and run ard...my jonathan is like a koala bear, stick to me all the time, i carry him 80% of his wakeful moments...so having to carry that koala bear and clean the mess is really no joke to me. i scold and scold....but my dear nathan is a very 'forgetful' boy, will run away smiling after all the punishment after that.

ian? i want him to go diaperless at night. so which mean i gotta wake up and carry that sleepy boy to pee in the middle of the night. 1st 2 weeks, many accidents...wash bedsheets and sun the mattress till jem so fed up. and finally he can't tahan, want ian to wear diaper at night again but i'll continue to do the bringing him to pee every night. oh well, since he hasn't finished all his diapers, i'll wait till no more diaper to wear then start to REAL training again. this time, i bought waterproof mattress protector from the forum...protect the mattress.

i guess that explained why i'm so tired...and falling sick more often recently. last to sleep...then wake many times at night for that koala bear, and 1st to wake up everyday, and then no nap. thankfully i'm a live to eat person...FOOD is my reward for all my hard work.

christmas celebration
my hubby bought me christmas presents!!! *hugs* he bought me wmf pots. am the lousy wife, didn't buy him any....
opened up our home for christmas gathering last night. jem 下廚(with grand in laws supervision) made cheesebaked minced beef spaghetti, grand in laws made scones, salad, chicken wings and sausages. the chongs brought agar agar and chips, sin yee made lemon cheese cake, i made molten chocolate. i kept forgetting to take out my camera to capture all the food and people...if you guys (esp bern! you took a lot of photos during the dinner) have some nice pictures, send them to me, and i'll upload here. i can't seem to upload the photos from my camera, macbook memory almost full :P

i tried out the molten chocolate for the 1st time. prepared the ingredient the night before, try out to bake a few the next day in the afternoon, trying to find out the best timing to achieve that outer layer is set and ooze out when cut open that cake. i have leftovers after pouring the chocolate to the molds, my boys lick so shiok till the whole body and face full of chocolate, and the table, the floor, the cabinets!!! and thaaaaaaat triggers the volcanic eruption in me....but i hold it!!! coz....i need them to eat the failed cakes for me :P

1st round - overbaked. cake all set, no lava come out. they ate
2nd round - underbaked. the bottom is not even set...they ate happily
3rd round - my boys are napping, bathed and cleaned up the mess (plus scolding for running ard)...i let jem to try out...the result was just nice...could be better if bake 1 min longer.

so after dinner, the ladies get to eat the almost perfect molten chocolate...the guys...ended up eating the already set cake...they play ps3 shiok shiok till my cake all set liao, but it's ok, still can eat. sin yee's lemon cheesecake is very nice! ian ate 2 big serving the next morning.

unwrapped presents was fun! papers all over the floor...how come ah? i remembered those days when we celebrate christmas at nat's place, we unwrapped 'politely', haha...those days we have no kids...and even have kids, they're too young to open...but here, tear tear tear....man...anyone of you captured that mess?

tv
oh finally, we bought it TODAY!!! our home will have a new tv this coming monday.

cleaning
so that was it...moved in to new home for almost 2 months. thank God for in laws, i take care of the boys and settle their meals in day time, but night time, we'll go up and have my in laws yummy dinner. each day, i'm trying to think of ways to minimise cleaning...coz that's seems to be the task i spent most of my time doing each day and feel bad for not spending enough time with my boys. spilled food and drinks and urine..there's no end to it. the boys have their own set of plates and bowls...as for me, i eat straight from the pot...nathan thought that's my bowl and asked me to transfer the food BACK to the pot whenever i'm eating their leftovers.

school and brush teeth
one more week to go, ian will be bk to school..nathan will start his N1 (nursery 1)....don't know how life would be....school starts at 8:30am...i cannot imagine that hectic morning...having to carry jonathan with me and rush that 2 bros to get ready to school.

brush teeth is a dreadful routine to me. each morning makes me blood boiling. nathan doesn't like to brush teeth. there's a period of time, i was so fed up that i hold his face and brush his teeth forcefully....violent right? yeah...i think so too, so i changed, make him stay in the toilet, and let him cry till he opens up his golden mouth himself. it works the 1st 2 days, but recently it's not working again. he's more stubborn than me...and i feel embarrassing to let my neighbor hear a crying boy crying so loud and so long in the toilet every morning!!! must be the horror experience done by me :P
so how? jem is on leave for 2 weeks recently...i let him bring nathan to brush teeth. and ngiao!!! it's a breeze ok!!! no struggle whatsoever!!! nathan brushes his teeth willingly!!!
i don't know how....when school starts, jem's bk to work and i'll be the one who make him brush teeth again. unlike now...i can let him stay in toilet whole morning coz no school...but time is tight when school starts....oh God, please give me wisdom and patience!!!

next year is an exciting year to me...will have a new cell group, and bk to church! yay!!! new year, new beginning!

good night...very late now. 2:35am..

Do laundry

Baby is ready to be cleaned

We were walking up the stairs to my in laws place. Ian was ahead of me, i was carrying jonathan and a bag, then...
Ian: "mommy!!! Do you need help?!!!"
Connie: "yeah, can you take the yellow bag?"
Ian: "No, You take yourself"

sound helpful only.

Oh Christmas Tree

Dear Kelvin and Candy,

Thank you for giving us a christmas tree!!! Thanks for fulfilling my wish. I've been wanting to have one (you can ask jem for this) but there's always one reason or another, there's no christmas tree in the end.

Looking at the christmas tree makes me feel so happy!!!

Thank you so so so much!

*hugs to my hubby to carry it home.

Jonathan's kiss

This is how jonathan kisses me everyday. Mouth opens wide and 'bite' my chin till all wet.

If you noticed some of my entries has different font and size, that's because i post it from my phone.

Duck drumstick

This is one of the things which ian is like me....eat till the bone clean clean.

Still

Don't know what are the latest christian songs, been singing all the old songs repeatedly especially after scolding the boys :p, very 'mang zang' (agitated in cantonese) and i seriously need to listen more songs to calm my nerve down. Oh well, actually it doesn't matter whether it's new or old songs. It's the words that is in it speak life in people's heart.

Nathan got hooked to ligtning mcqueen's movie. The first thing he asks when he wakes up is to watch the movie every morning. We've been watching it day in day out for the past 1 month. So finally i got the chance to watch what i want when at in laws' place today.

The song titled 'Still' from hillsongs. The moment when i play that song in youtube, there's this electrifying feeling goes through my body and tears welling up my eyes. Is the presence of God so strong that...can touch ppl's heart thru media? Or simply my spirit is so low that any songs can touch me?

Time to feed nathan dinner now.

random pictures

trying out a free online photo editing website. i like this frame :D

celebrated my birthday with jem and jonathan @ this nice restaurant called spruce. was hoping to go out paktoh with jem alone...but jonathan was stuck with me coz of breastfeeding. anyway, back to this restaurant, great ambience, relaxing place...the food is great! i had steak and it's the best i had ever eaten, soft, juicy and tender. their starter and dessert are very nice too...highly recommended

a glimpse of our living hall area. it's the familiar furniture from sengkang, still in good condition. new stuff for the boys, that green ikea table & chairs...2nd hand for only $50...good deals huh :D. left with tv...you guys are asking what's lacking in this house....wanna contribute some $$$ as house warming gift? (just kidding)

4 generation of liang household went to botanic garden last weekend. thank God for good weather :D our boys were wearing sport jerseys with the name 'david beckham'. grandma bought for the boys while overseas. maybe i should buy 3 sets of liverpool jerseys next time...jem's favourite....steven gerrard?

when my man said "this is the best cake i ever ate for the past 5 years."...then i better blog abt this.

finally managed to bake a thumbs up cake and got praises from jem :D and he rated 4/5!!! can you imagine what he has to go through (come to think of it...it's what COZAI has to go through) whenever i baked a not-so-nice-cake for the past 5 years in sengkang? either finished it all by myself or uncle dustbin ate it. anyway, must thank the well reviewed aunty yochana's banana cake recipe. been thinking about baking a banana cake, but don't know which recipe can achieve that 'soft, fluffy, moist' effect. the last banana cake i baked back in sengkang days was quite dense...so i decided to give her version a try today.

measured all the ingredient before all the boys are up this morning...ian likes to get involved in the cake making, so i let him help me (with supervision), nathan's not interested so i let him watch lightning mcqueen, thomas train from youtube. and jonathan...of course, i waited for him to have his 1st nap and quickly start the baking journey.

here's aunty yochana's banana cake recipe

Ingredients:
180 gm. Butter
180 gm. Fine sugar (i used 160gm, find it a bit sweet for my taste but jem said just nice, ian said good!)
2 nos. Extra large Eggs - beaten lightly (i used 3 small eggs and weigh till exactly 130gm)
250 gm. Cake flour (i used self raising flour and omitted the baking powder)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. Bicarbonate of Soda
220 gm. Bananas - mashed
50 gm. Dairy whip cream (i substituted with evaporated milk)
1/2 tsp. Banana essence (i used vanilla essence)
2 bananas - slice (ehh...didn't use, use walnuts instead)

Method:

(1) Cream butter and sugar till light and creamy.
(2) Pour in eggs gradually and beat till creamy.
(3) Add in whip cream, mashed bananas and banana essence and mix well.
(4) Add in cake flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and beat for a while only.
(5) Pour into an 8" round tray, and arrange sliced bananas on top.
(6) Bake at 175C for about 50 to 60 mins. or until cooked. (mine took abt an hour or slightly more)

tadaaaa!!! my 8" cake tin can't fit all, so i poured some to make muffins. baked abt 20 mins.

jem said "it's not dry, the taste is just nice, not too sweet, moist"

pardon the 'holes' at the center of the cake...i don't have stick to test, so used chopstick :P but look cantik cantik yeah :) during that 1 hour, i used aluminium foil to cover it...else the top will cracked n turned dark brown. but the outer layer of the cake was bit crumbly and some texture is loose...don't know why...maybe bake too long or oven is hotter...but still taste good.

if you want to try, try this recipe...a person like me baked for 5 years with all the failures can come up with this...am sure you can do better.