Piglet and the Princess

Well yes, the smile does look quite reluctant but hey, Mummy didn't force her into the Piglet costume!!! I would like to think that Charis enjoyed every minute at the Center for Creative Play, an indoor "play world" for children that is especially wonderful during winter =)

First snow... the real ones...

Went out of our home the other day and had a problem finding the car. Then we realised that the sky painted part of our car white.

So we had our first experience with snow... actually we didn't get to see much. By the time we went out, most of the snow had melted - of course, except for those on our car.

Anyway, Elaine and Charis had some fun making ice kachang balls with the snow that I scrapped off the car. Next time will bring a can of condensed milk along with us...

Person:Monitor

Number of persons in my household: 3
Number of monitors in my household: 4

If you want to multitask, do it in style...

Thanksgiving

It's a snowy day today, a day after Thanksgiving. Although we don't have a tradition of celebrating this occasion, we've decided to join the Americans in giving thanks to our good Lord. Being at their thanksgiving service on Wed evening and listening to their thanksgiving gave us lots to give thanks for as well.

- For keeping us safe and well in this foreign land
- For giving us one another to share in the new experiences
- For helping us to settle down here and adjust to the cold
- For helping TK with his workload and stress with his studies
- For watching over Charis as she grows each day
- For leading us to a church for worship and fellowship
- For love and prayers from family and friends back home
- Most of all, for His bountiful love, grace and mercy!

There was no turkey or pie, but we had one another and a nice warm meal in our new home. Thank God for that!

"See, my gingerbread man!"

Yesterday, during the preschool class in the library, Charis decorated a gingerbread man!

The theme was FOOD and the children got to dip their little hands into real food... assemble a simple oreo pudding with gummy worms, finger painting with chocolate, and decorating their very own gingerbread man. It's probably a class that Charis enjoyed most... there was food throughout the hour-long lesson... and she ate everything. When we got home, she devoured her gingerbread man too!

FoOd, fOOd!

Not trying to show off my culinary skills here... just wanting to share my little truimph in the kitchen. Came across a blog of a full-time mother of two (a Malaysian living in Colorado) where she posted lots and lots of photos of mouth-watering Asian food she cooked for her family. Inspired by her photos and feeling a little restless that day, I decided to embark on a cooking spree... heh. Made some orange-dark chocolate cookies with Charis (since I've been wanting to use up the one orange in our refrigerator), and chicken curry for dinner, to compliment the prata that I've bought in the Asian supermarket (the same "Chinatown" brand that can be found in NTUC!!). The curry is something I've put off for quite a few weeks although I've bought the dry ingredients after some coaxing from a friend, but had no courage to try. Glad these came up all in one day :)

Well, TK thinks it's a little too coconuty and not spicy enough (so not quite up to standard) but a good first.

Snow flakes falling on my head!

The weather forecast says that it's going to be cold today... with wind chill, it doesn't hit more than 3 deg C throughout the day. But my darling girl wants to go out!!! Since she woke up really early this morning, I know that I cannot keep her entertained if we stayed home all morning so I gave in. As we stepped out, she let out a child-like laughter when the cold wind swept across our faces and I could see from her beaming smile that she really adores the cold. How unlike me... well, but seeing how she enjoyed herself made me feel like I liked it too :)

Being in Walmart was nice and kept us warm for about two hours. Then we had to step into the cold again... argh. This time, it felt colder and my hands felt frozen and numb. After packing our groceries and Charis into the car, I saw some tiny white flakes floating down from the sky. For a moment, they looked like fine dust.... haha... then it dawned upon me that they were snow flakes! It wasn't supposed to snow until 7pm this evening but I guess Pittsburgh can be rather unpredictable when it comes to the weather. That was pretty fun but we didn't stay... I wouldn't want to be caught in the snow with just me, Charis and the car.

Introducing... Dr Charis Koh

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" Well, well, Charis exclaims, "I want to be a BIG girl!"

Really, it does not matter to us what career path or job she chooses when she grows up. What is most important is that she lives a life that is pleasing in God's eyes... bringing love, light and joy to people around her.

Anyway, here's a preview of Dr Charis Koh (if she ever chooses this path) :)

"Hypnotized"

Just to share a hilarious incident that happened two days ago.

Though obviously sleepy, Charis twisted and turned in her bed for a long time (possibly almost an hour) during her afternoon nap time, unable to fall asleep. She got really frustrated and asked to get out of bed. It was 3.50pm. However, we told her to stay in bed until the alarm clock rings at 4pm. Still hoping that she would catch her nap, TK suggested to her to keep her eyes on the red second hand that is ticking by while waiting for the ring... well, who knows, she may just get "hypnotized". 5 mins passed and all was quiet. We tiptoed to the bedroom door to peep and found her fast asleep!!! Our best guess was that she really got herself "hypnotized" while watching the second hand ;p

Putting this down in the journal so that we can share this tip with her, in years to come, when she has her own baby... haha.