Bought buns from Pullman Bakery for breakfast, lunch and teatime. Yep I said before, Yang could have buns all day long. Feeling like a "Bun-ny"... Hop, hop, hop! Opps... been getting 小雨 to learn hopping these days.

I still love one of my top favourites - Moshi Mushroom from BreadTalk of course, but I had learnt it doesn't get baked till afternoon at the outlet near our new home. So I gotta find some new a.m. loves.

Here you go...

... new additions to Yang's Favourite Thing #6 - Moshi mushroom, milk pan & more!

Watched a cute video on "How to cook a perfect pork chop!" by the kitchn. I almost drooled at the word "juiciest" when she said it. So I tried this today with my oven-safe skillet and sliced pork loin. But things didn't turn out as well, with a poor first attempt at brining. Guess my sliced pork loin were too thin (compared to the pork chops in the recipe), so they became over-salty after brining and seasoning. As instructed by the recipe, I seared the undersides of the pork loin, flipped them and transferred the oven-safe skillet to finish cooking inside the oven. I didn't have an instant-read thermometer, so it was pure but poor judgement with my eyes. Eventually, I seared the undersides of the pork loin to golden brown over the stovetop as well.

O before searing, I did an extra step to lightly dredge the pork loin (after brining and seasoning) for some crisp...

Nicely seared sliced pork loin...

I had half a pack of Shanghai green left over from last week. Surprisingly, they still looked fresh and green. So I decided to have a 2nd try at pan-frying carrot sticks. This time I did it like the way I dredge my meats, rolling the lightly seasoned steamed carrots in a thin layer of cornstarch on a shallow plate. Too thin a layer though, but at least the coating didn't disintegrate from the carrots like my previous attempt. Guess a little more cornstarch would add a desired amount of crisp to the carrot sticks.

It's true that a cook's mood dictates the quality of the dish. A sickly and lethargic Yang cooked a well-seared but over-salty dish of pork loin, and repeated a dish of pan-fried carrots with Shanghai green from last week (with no added innovation). Rather disappointed with dinner tonight.

Consolation - I had my 小雨 to surprise and cheer me up with new words in her burgeoning vocabularly bank.

"How about this?" 小雨 pointed to the picture of a giraffe on the play mat. My girl said a sentence of 3 words today! And then without waiting for an answer from me, she said "Giraffe!".

As she watched me hang Kirin's shirts from the clothes washer, I asked "How about this?"
"衣服!" she replied excitedly.

"Help you" she requested for help to spoon up the last bit of Marigold low fat natural yoghurt in her bowl. 小雨 loves this healthy after-dinner dessert as much as mama does.

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Planet Saturn and its moons make up the art-in-Yang's-yoghurt tonight. Yep, Yang's still in the mood for planets, stars and the moon, from the Hi-5 episode last night.

And this song in the soundtrack album to the film - Twillight Saga: Eclipse, is ringing in my ears right now. The 2nd march-in song of our wedding banquet...

I was searching
You were on a mission
When our hearts combined like
A neutron star collision

I had nothing left to lose
You took your time to choose
Then we told each other
With no trace of fear that

Our love would be forever
And if we die, we die together
And lie, I said never
'Cause our love would be forever

♪Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever)♪ - Muse
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Sometimes, I feel old and slow, like Saturn. When people on Earth have completed 29.4 orbits around the Sun (in 29.4 Earth years), I have orbited merely 1 round. But never mind its slowness, it's a consolation for Saturn to have so many moons and moonlets revolving around it.

Old and slow, but never alone.

♪Yellow! I see something yellow
Yellow! I see something yellow
Yellow yellow I see something yellow♪

Sickly Yang has been quite a fan of custard lately.

Had Smart Aleck from BreadTalk, a long bun filled with custard cream, for breakfast on Monday. A custard pau for teatime at the Kopitiam for two consecutive days. And now I'm having a cream pan for breakfast, while waiting for the doctor to settle in at the clinic.

Maybe soft and mildly sweet custard helps to soothe an irritated, inflammed throat. Somehow I'm glad these bakery buns don't come in packagings printed with a nutritional content. Health-conscious Yang shall feign ignorance and not think about calories and fat for now.   

As a 11th-month-old Stay-At-Home-Mom (SAHM), Yang had "progressed" from generally 无语 to inquisitive. I hadn't noticed this change in me until Kirin said people had to fight for "airtime" with me in a conversation?! So here's Yang asking and sharing lots, even when she's sick and coughing away in the doctor's room. Being the first patient of the day at 8.30am, our interactive consultation probably gave the doctor an effective "perk-me-up" dose.

My Nescafe intense 3-in-1 premix coffee tasted different today - more bitter. It happens when you are down with a flu.

Read about establishing a bedtime ritual for your toddler, from babycenter. Yep, very often, 小雨 needs to let off some steam before we prepare her to settle for a night's sleep. This could mean running to and fro the living and bedroom or sometimes, intense fussing and screaming. Both are equally energy zapping.

Our bedtime ritual - I usually wiped her with a wet washcloth, change her into a sleep suit, brush her teeth, then get her to switch off the lights in the bedroom. However, on days when she ain't tired enough (usually on nights when she hadn't let off enough steam), she would leave to find papa in the living room or her toys on the playmat.

Perhaps I could sing or play the ♪Sweet Dreams (Goodnight Song)♪ to 小雨。Hmm... perhaps not. Whenever Kirin plays this song on his iPad mini, her eyes turn forlorn, the corners of her mouth twitch and sink, and she starts sniffling. The peaceful melody of two loving bears not only calms her down. It leaves her with a tinge of sadness.
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The coughs attacked me again, when I lay down to nap. This time, I didn't break out in cold sweat after two rounds of mom's secret remedy - 葛根汤 (I usually do and feel much better after that). Which kind of affirmed the doctor's diagnosis that my sickness wasn't due to internal cold but a strong, external viral infection, which caused a productive cough, a runny nose and an inflammed throat.

♪Yellow! I see something yellow
Yellow! I see something yellow
Yellow yellow I see something yellow♪

A Wolveminion pieced from LEGO bricks... how innovative!! Spotted this at "My Little Brick Shop" in the mall, after dinner. Hmm... I wish my idol - Hugh Jackman could be here for eggs and kaya toast again soon...

We watched a first Hi-5 episode in this new home, with 小雨 hugging Gloria the Giraffe and Zebra on each arm.

♪Yellow! I see something yellow
Yellow! I see something yellow
Yellow yellow I see something yellow♪

The theme of this episode was astronomy, about the pale yellow planet Saturn.

Read some interesting facts about the Planet Saturn, from Space Facts by Chris Jones. Learnt that Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun. Of all planets, It has the most spectacular ring system, of billions of icy particles. Saturn has a nickname "Lubadsagush", which means "oldest of the old", due to its ultra slow orbit around the Sun, once every 29.4 Earth years. Check out the 62 moons of Saturn and other planets from Go-astronomy.

Reading up about Saturn reminds me of an interesting General Education Module I took during my university days - Heavenly Mathematics & Cultural Astronomy, taught by professor Helmer Aslaksen. Where we observed the Milky Way galaxy of orbiting stars and planets during lectures, from a projector screen, Where I first learnt about the Equinoxes, which together with the Medianox flower, inspired my recent art-in-Yang's-yoghurt #30 : Epinox.

First torrential rain while alone in this new home. Amid the raging thunderstorm, we lost several trees which had shaded us and beautified our streetscape. Some held firmly to the ground, with fallen trunks or branches in the gusty wind; some were completely uprooted.   

The little windmill of floral prints spun fast in the wind at the balcony. We bought the toy for 小雨 over the weekend. She had been holding it against the fan and watch it spin.

Kind of missed my Kirin and 小雨. Guess I understood why the little girl couldn't bear to part with me this morning. It was probably because she wouldn't get to dawdle in school, I thought initially. But I was wrong. Long weekends simply bind a family together.

终于听见 下雨的声音
于是我的世界 被吵醒
就怕情绪红 了眼睛
不舍的泪在 彼此的 脸上透明

♪听见下雨的声音♪, 魏如昀
作词：方文山
作曲：周杰伦
编曲：陈君豪

Today wasn't just Yang on the strider and Yang in the mirror. Someone else was working out on the stationary bike. More of watching a cartoon from the attached TV screen, as she rode leisurely, in a pair of sandals. I blasted 93.3 FM from my iPhone anyway.

小雨 walked over to me for a hug when I was in school to fetch her. I could tell she had a pleasant day whenever she's more loving to me. Despite raining "小雨滴" this morning, as if to herald the impending thunderstorm.

She ate much noodles for lunch, her teacher told me. I should have asked, as I wonder what kind of noodles it was, that could whet 小雨's highly-selective taste buds. I could remember pouring away a saucepan of depressed chicken soup mee sua, of which she barely took more than one spoon. A bowl of kuay teow soup at the restaurant suffered the same fate. She's a milk and soup lover. Hence, we were quite sure the problem lies with the noodles.

小雨 enjoys playing the musical toy more these days, swaying her body and tapping her feet to the tunes. "Sit down!" She pulled me to join her on the playmat, to jiggle along. We got sick of the musical toy and started deflating air bubbles in a bubble wrap. A "toy" which my siblings and I used to fight for, from a box of newly-opened Van Houten chocolates or a tin of Julie's Love Letters during Chinese New Year.

That's our nightlife at home, without the TV.

小雨 sat down on my crossed legs, as we waited in anticipation of the first TV show! in our new home. While Kirin mounted the TV on its stand; while the toy windmill and its shadow spun quietly in the wind, out at the balcony.

Art-in-Yang's-yoghurt tonight: A toy windmill. No buttons to be pressed, doesn't light up, doesn't play a song. It simply spins, quietly, in the wind; Or stays stationary, when the air stands still.

白色的風車 安靜的轉著
真實的感覺 夢境般遙遠
甜甜的海水 複雜的眼淚
看妳傻笑著 握住我的手
夢希望沒有盡頭 我們走到這就好
因為我不想太快走完這幸福
很可惜沒有祝福 當愛妳並不孤獨
不會再讓妳哭

♪白色風車♪, 周杰倫

作詞：周杰倫
作曲：周杰倫

A simple toy of an amazing mechanism, that converts the energy of wind into other useful forms of energy.

Of stationary sails set in the mourning position (uppermost sail fixed counter-clockwise past the vertical, like the windmill in art-in-Yang's-yoghurt above), as the remains of Dutch victims from the Malaysia airliner MH17, arrived in Netherlands on 23 Jul.

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My cough always got serious when I tucked myself in bed, under the blanket. So bad that I was coughing every 5 seconds, disturbing Kirin and I couldn't sleep. Glad that 小雨 had drifted into a slumber, deep enough to not hear mama coughing.

It got a teeny bit better when I sat up higher. Coughing at slightly longer intervals - every 8 seconds. Well, the improvement was almost negligible I know, but at least I managed to fall asleep within that 8 seconds, before the mucus pooled and peaked at the back of my throat for the next cough.

小雨 said "pictures", then "Ivi!" as she held up the camera and pointed to her 2nd BFF in a photo taken at the Gardens by the Bay, on Parental Involvement Day. This best friend of hers is a Eurasian, who calls 小雨 by her Chinese name, according to her mom. They came from a country where trains always arrive and leave on time; where cows wear bells that ring as they moo;  where Frey, my 78% extra dark bittersweet chocolate is made in; where the plane carrying Kirin and I on our first Europe trip landed.  Switzerland - a beautiful and memorable place of our honeymoon trip.

Explored the new housing estate we are staying in. The little girl played at a outdoor playground where a bunch of other heartlander kids were having fun. Somehow, we felt foreign in a part of Singapore where we hadn't stayed in before. Not like Singaporeans in Switzerland, but passers-by and even the heartlander kids looked and behaved a little differently, we thought.

小雨's more confident climbing the stairs on her own now, after much practice whenever she could find a chance to. Still with a hand on the railing of course.

♪"Banana!"♪ She sings and chuckles when she meets a Minion at the mall.

小雨's a real dawdler these days. It's hard to get her to leave the soft, cuddly toys at Kiddy Palace or the brightly-coloured apples and oranges at the Supermart. She loves to touch and feel them. While this problem wouldn't have arose if she had sat in a stroller, 小雨's one who detests straps and buckles. From as little as 8 months' old? Kirin and I had been persistent, but decided to not be insistent.

＂Mommy 吃!" It's the first time she nudged my hand, getting me to 开动 together with her, at the dining table. Sweet. (*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)

小雨 could name a lot of animals! Elephant, zebra, giraffe, monkey, pig, cow, sheep...

But she didn't know the pinkie-red flamingo. Today at the same dinner place in the college, I taught her this new word, from the picture of a flamingo on a glass façade.

And the elegant wading bird has got to be art-in-Yang's-yoghurt tonight.

As little Yang, I was intrigued by the pinkie flamingoes at the zoo and excited to colour them pink in my art drawings. Well I could colour a shirt, a hat or a balloon pink, but rarely or never an animal, logically (pigs are beige, not pink). I wonder why these birds are startlingly pink and could hold their weight gracefully on one superthin leg?

Read about why are flamingoes pink? from Causes of Color, one of several exhibits in the WebExhibits online museum. It seemed they owe their rosiness to a carotenoid-high diet, of crustaceans like shrimps.

From BBC - Earth News, scientists believe that flamingoes more often stand on one leg in water than on land, to conserve body heat which gets drawn away by the cold waters. It was also found that most flamingoes seem to be right-headed, preferring to rest their heads to the right, but showed no preference for standing on the left or right leg.

O and standing on one leg isn't a trait of just flamingoes. Ducks, storks and geese have been known to perform one leg-balancing in water too!

A rare Sunday lunch with friends and their kids at the ever so crowded VivoCity.

小雨 pointed to the ship and said "airplane!". Yep, they are both white and big, with passengers looking like tiny ants in them. They do look similar.

小雨 got expressive with emotions today, at the Artbox store. Holding up a pouch of a bunny face gritting its teeth, she exclaimed "Angry!" as she stomped her feet.

Holding another pouch with a gray face and a blue droplet by the side of its forehead, she said "Cry!" . With a sad face, she "sayanged" it.

Eh you know I know that blue droplet is a drop of sweat, not a tear drop. And this isn't a sad look but a *........ look*. Hmm... I wonder what's the appropriate word to describe this look? 

I asked Kirin. He said this meant 无语 in Chinese or "Deln" in English.

*Gives the ........ look* I'll use the word "speechless", the next time I need to describe this look.

So... what's a word to describe 小雨's own emotion for today? Not happy but Elated ! She sang lots of songs and rattled endlessly. Kirin said she must have practised every single word in her vocabulary bank today, including new, rare Chinese words like "眼镜" as she pointed to the glass showcase of frames from outside an optical shop. 

Somehow, it reminded me of sneaky little Yang putting on her Mom's 眼镜 and treading carefully in the house, when nobody's around.
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Art-in-Yang's-Yoghurt tonight - a flower that blooms at 12 midnight, like the medianox at the greenhouse in the film - The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, but just once a year on the 20th of September. Yet another inspiration from my walk in the enchanting Cloud Forest two days ago.

A flower of a deep blue pistil and pure, cream petals with a tinge of pinkiness at the petal tips. To represent my little innocent snow white, who blushes with pinkie cheeks.

The September/autumnal Equinox occurs around the 22nd when the plane of the Earth's Equator passes the centre of the Sun. So I'll call this "Epinox", a flower which blooms about 2 days before the Equinox, on every September 20, to herald the arrival of 小雨 and celebrate her birthdays thereafter.

Sore throat improved slightly, from worse to bad.

小雨 finished a slice of raisin bread from a loaf for breakfast. Usually she only picks out and eats the raisins, then cast the "pitted" bread aside.

Water play with 小雨 at the wading pool Again, followed by chillaxing on the suntan chair by the lap pool. Yep, our girl laid on one too... Lol.

Zebra saucepan's reunited with its kitchen family. Sorry Yang almost forgot about you. Her homemade chicken stock can't do without you.

Got my 消魂 pan (milk pan) for teatime! You have been missed.

Then off we went "Smiggling" ... one of 小雨's favourite indoor activity.

Kirin smiggled some stationery for a friend's daughter (whom we were meeting for dinner tonight). We also got a rainbow-coloured alphabet keychain for 小雨's school bag, which often got mixed up with her school mates' (almost everyone's using that same bag which came with the orientation package). Yep, Kirin once headed back to school for a bag exchange as we were handed the wrong bag to bring home.

Well, the bold colours and animals at Smiggle had lightened the mood of a cranky 小雨 on several occasions. We should show a little appreciation. So here's 小雨's first Smiggle possession from papa and mama...

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Inside 阿福。I told 小雨 my throat pains, so I'm drinking this blackie drink - 罗汉果。

"Drink, drink" she pushed the bottle to my mouth and encouraged me to finish much of it, as she drank her bottle of plain water, with me.

A couple of years down the road, when you have to take 罗汉果 for a sore throat, I'll let you read this first, then drink my glass of plain water with you.
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Dinner place was a Chinese restaurant tucked away in the basement of a college. There's a fish pond and flight after flight of stairs for 小雨 to explore.

小雨 enjoyed the company of our friend's daughter, a 7-year old girl. With a 1-year old baby sister, she's trained at playing with little girls, lightly pinching 小雨's cheeks, gently bumping her forehead against 小雨's and tickling her.

Perhaps 5-6 years is an ideal age gap for siblings? Didn't I have a great childhood under the love and care of my elder sister who's 5 years older than me? A sister who often played the role of a "mini parent", bringing me for short walks in the precinct when our Mom couldn't stand the head-splitting nonsense from 3 cranky toddlers within the 4 walls of a small, cramped flat; tying beautiful hair plaits for me on Saturday mornings; fetching me after school when I was in Primary One. Sometimes we took longer than usual to reach home, as we waited a while for the Malay fishcake seller to arrive at the void deck on her bicycle. We would walk the stairs sharing a fishcake, then wiped off the grease from our lips to destroy all evidence our witty Mom could uncover.

Shhh... this was one of those little stuff we got away with.

A good read from BabyCentre on Sibling age gaps. Guess I prefer to take things slowly, to enjoy the innocent baby and toddler years of each child. The get-it-over-and-done-with mentality might not be as manageable for someone like perfectionist Yang.  

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I told Kirin of my little discovery as we slept facing each other tonight. I used to sleep sideways towards my left on the left side of the bed, while Kirin sleeps towards his right on the right side of the bed. With some reconfiguration in the new bedroom, we switched sides so that 小雨's mattress would be next to my side of the bed, like before.

And so we stopped sleeping away from each other.

Very often, I seek consistency in things so as to feel safe and secure. As much as I could, I would try to avoid unnecessary changes. However, a change could be positive, bringing small, simple discoveries which Yang wonders why she had never thought of.

Sore throat's getting from bad to worse.

Parental Involvement Day at Gardens by the Bay. Kirin's busy at work, so it's just 小雨 and mama. When all her school mates were having fun with splish-splashing water and basking in the sun at the Children's Garden, 小雨 was happily playing catching with mama in a shaded tunnel garden made of woody, arched branches and leaves...

.... just like Alice in Wonderland.

Disappointed that I couldn't convince a clingy 小雨  that water play's fun and nothing to be afraid of, I was relieved to find this place. At least my girl didn't miss out all the fun the Gardens by the Bay could offer to a preschooler.

It wasn't easy as the sole caretaker without a stroller (To 小雨, a stroller's for little babies only, and she ain't a baby anymore. So I didn't bother to bring.) for more than half a day out in the sweltering sun. And I hit the clinic right after. True that the teachers were there too, but it didn't feel right to involve them on a Parental Involvement Day, agree not? Told Kirin we'll either go together, all three of us, or skip it the next round.

The two things, however, that made the event worthwhile were:
1. Catching (not just watching a recorded video from the teachers) 小雨 and her 2nd bff hugging each other affectionately not once, but a few times. Awww... friendship at below 2 years old. I could see the same glow in my eyes mirrored in theirs (bff's mom and dad) each time the little girls locked their arms together. Her 1st bff was sick with fever at home, by the way.
2. Visiting the misty, whimsical Cloud Forest. Utterly impressive.

The flowers and leaves were so enchanting that they didn't look real, like in a fairytale. As I walked on in the Cloud Forest, I recalled the kissing scene of Jace and Clary at the greenhouse in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, where the medianox bud bloomed into a flower at midnight. It felt magical. A pity that I didn't have my lover with me but I did have a 小雨 sleeping soundly in my arms... aching arms to be exact. Yep, she's my love too, of course.

Visited the Flower Dome too. But I was tired from carrying 小雨 and only took one picture. 

These looked like part of a celestial garden where you might see a fairy dancing around... I mean hovering around in an episode of 孫悟空 or... maybe a snowy-white, icey-cold 小龍女 in The Return of the Condor Heroes. Yea... more for 小龍女.

Just learnt that I missed a 1,000-year-old olive tree in the Flower Dome! I wonder why I didn't see it?
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Kirin asked me some weird questions over dinner:
" What's her (小雨) religion? What does she believe in?"
That's My hubby and his out-of-the-blue questions. And my answer, without much thought:

"Nil nilk, nil nilk & more nil nilk."

Now every color is blue to 小雨, and every princess is "Sofia!"
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Art-in-Yang's-Yoghurt tonight:
A flower I saw at Cloud Forest today? Nope, but an enchanting leaf.

Explored the veggie section at the hypermart. There were really so much variety of veggies to choose from. Saw this Shanghai green and Japan green which looked like broader and shorter siblings of baby bok choy to me. Got a pack of Shanghai green to cook tonight.

Just as I felt a little lonely yesterday, a friendly aunty told me thinner, younger spring onions are softer and taste better, while I was choosing a pack of it. And I kicked off a conversation, an ultra short one though, with the BreadTalk staff, asking about my Moshi Mushroom. Lol. Learnt that it only gets baked in the afternoon.

So my morning started off with talking to 2 strangers. Some improvement from yesterday. Not too bad.

Loved the changing shades of the chopped spring onions from white to green... 

Gotta add something new to today's dinner. I have some carrots left in the fridge and an egg yolk from velveting later. How about some pan-fried carrot sticks to add on to the Shanghai green?

Don't like tough carrots. So I softened them by steaming for 8 mins first, then marinated in the egg yolk and cornstarch mixture. But I ended up with stir-fried carrots and some scrambled eggs floating around the greens. Haha...

I wonder how I could get the egg coating to stick? Maybe like the way I dredge meats using a shallow plate of cornflour instead of sprinkling it in? Yep gonna try that next round.

By the way, Yang's feeling weak and lethargic hence the 2nd dish was the uninnovative Kung pao sliced fish (which I had cooked for a few times). Only difference was using Toman fish, instead of Batang as the latter was not available at the supermart. Boring good.

Kirin bought me a Moshi mushroom, which I had been missing for a week and 1 day. He went for a late night dip at the lap pool again. Feeling freezy-cold at the thought of it.

As promised last night, Art-in-Yang's-yoghurt tonight is made with pinkie water color from the juice of cherry slices.

A little faint, but I had coloured 2 flowers, some small leaves and signed off on the right...

I wonder why cherries have such abundant juice, compared to grapes, strawberries etc. So curious Yang did a quick google about cherries. Learnt from The Georgia Gardener by Bob Stewart that one of the trees that frequently displays bleeding symptoms and invokes fear in the tree owner is the flowering cherry.

The exuding of gum from plants is called gummosis. And I felt a real pain in my gum now. From an ulcer.

Ya I know they are two different things..

My father keeps some small potted plants outside our corner HDB flat. My father-in-law too. It seems like the in-thing for the Boomers Generation daddies. I haven't kept any plant in my life but it must be really painful to see one you seeded bleeding, not to mention a big tree.

I wonder if they would turn pale and anaemic, like the way I was whenever I had a low red blood cell count. Yep, Yang had a history of anaemia.