Finally! Heong .....Pneah???

~ Heong Pneah~

I love these brown sugar filled little delights. I call them "wong tong peng" (Cantonese)... but on the box it's "Heong Pneah".. Can anyone please teach me how to pronounce the "pneah" word? I remember having trouble finding these favourites of mine back in Singapore.. and surprise, surprise, I found them here! Honestly, the picture of oozing black stuff from tumour-like skin-coloured-nips isn't really appealing but wait till you eat it... MAN!

Bryan Supporting Fight Against Breast Cancer... Or He's Just Plain Hiau!

Pretty eh?

I was out doing a bit of grocery shopping, leaving the kids at home with Mother. When I came home, Bryan bounded towards me, excitedly, holding out his hand, saying "LOOK! LOOK AT MY HAND!" What I saw almost stopped my heart... It wasn't that my son has learnt how to open my "child-proof" bedside naughty drawer.... it wasn't that my son decided he liked having his nails painted... but the fear that he may have spilt the nail polish on the WHITE CARPET! I made a frantic dash into the room. Suddenly, a sense of calm overcame me... it must've been the inhalation of the pungent stench of the nail polish in the room.... He was so tickled with the whole incident! He's still got them on now... I'll remove them tomorrow.. or Monday.. JUST before school begins.

The Last Week of Holidays..

Term 1 of school starts next Monday for Caitlyn and Tuesday half day for Bryan. He will get staggered school times for the first 2 weeks to ease him into school. If only the teachers know how full his days are after school.

Today was Bryan's first day of 2 hours with his Case Manager and for the first hour, he behaved very well, did all his tasks. When the second hour came, he got fidgety despite giving him his play time and snacks. Adoi..... I wish I could scold him and reprimand him for his temper tantrums and his thumping on the table... but I have to follow orders to 1) keep calm, 2) ignore the tantrums and not to react, 3) very importantly ... NO PUNISHMENT............... So help me God.

Question... what if it's THE time of the month and I am all hormonal? Then what? How to keep calm you tell me?

Whaddya Think?

Ohmmmm..............................

Zen or not? I like this. The pebbles, the paving stones... all I like. I intend to do up a side of the house like that. I've always liked the idea of a pebble covered part of the garden to walk on.. like reflexology.. The only part about the picture which I don't like is the lalang-looking hardy grass at the front... Yuck

HAPPY NIU YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Dear relatives and friends,

Here's wishing you all a happy and Ox-picious Niu Year.

Leen leen kou sing.

And for the children: Fai kou cheong tai.

Couldn't wait for midnight last night, so slept early, after a very full reunion dinner. Angie and Sam came over for dinner too. Yes, we get to Loh Hei in Australia too and it's in the middle of the table. See? The kids had a full day yesterday so they slept soundly last night. Bryan was the first one to wake up, at 7am. Boy oh boy, I was too tired to get up... slept on for another hour but woke up with a headache. Made tong yuen for the family... what a sweet way to start the new year. The kids had fun making the tong yuens. Bryan calls them "dinosaur eggs". He didn't eat them, of course. After a bit, Caitlyn decided it was too "stretchy" for her to enjoy.

In line with tradition, we all decked out in red today. Even Mother's PJs are red! Bryan is all in red too... including his jocks.. he got bitten by mosquitoes while they were out playing with bubbles... so it's double redness for him.

My 3rd Cheque

After 1 long years' wait, I finally earned my USD52 cheque. I earned it from one of those online survey taking websites. Not bad for doing a few clicks for my opinions, a few times a month. This year's pretty packed. Will try to do up a daily schedule for the kids... if time permits, I'll start blogging for money for real... if not, then have to postpone it to the next year. Ouch!

Bertungkus-Lumus

++Deep concentration++

Don't let him fool you... this is just a freeze frame showing him calmly at the table, quietly going about his tasks.. All these while I have been stopping him from using the scissors so much so he hasn't developed that fine motor skill yet. Now that he needs to learn to write and cut stuff, I have to start letting him use the scissors at home. He holds his pencil as though he's writing chinese calligraphy. It's going to be a looooong process which I believe will improve with time.

Bryan's ABA therapist and Case Managercame by today for his first session and he responded well to her. Well, she IS young and pretty, for one.... She will be scheduling another therapist to come to the house for another 2x2hrs per week! I'm so happy... So for this year, he'll get 2x full day ABA (13hrs) in school and further 6hrs at home per week which comes to a total of 19hrs. Ideally it should be about 40hrs per week but hey who's complaining! Other than that, he still gets his 1hr speech therapy once a fortnight, weekly Occupational Therapy and I'm looking for Social skills sort of therapy for him as well... Well, he only has this year to get free services. So I'm just going to pack him!

All God's Creatures Big and Small..... and Colourful....

Zoo In The 'Burbs

Bryan getting ready to mind a chick

All set!
Since Boxing Day's zoo outing was such a disaster, the mini zoo came to us instead. The Forrest Lakes Shopping Centre in Thornlie has the most amazing exhibitions. Once a year they have the snakes and reptile show (you'll be able to read it from my previous blog) and now, a mini animal farm... I didn't know it existed... I thought of going out shopping at Coles and thought of taking Bryan with me..... When we arrived there, Lo and behold the smell of animals greeted us.. Man you should have seen the look on his face! He behaved very well during the entire outing.... UNTIL.... it was time to leave the mini petting zoo.. he didn't want to leave, so I had to grip his arm really firmly and took him away to wash up at the toilet. But luckily he regained composure really quickly. Phew!

I'm going to catch yoooooooooooooooou!

He loved feeding the chicks by hand, loved covering the guinea pigs with straw and telling me that "the guinea pigs are hiding!", loved to stroke the lambs' butt and at one point, looked up the calf and wonder what the dangly hairy bit was..... I'm just glad he didn't pull it although he did grab the tail once. Got them eating out of the palms of my hands
He was tickled pink when he saw this..... I guess he didn't remember seeing chickens this colour... I guess I can't fault him if he coloured his chickens pink and blue...

I wonder if they glowed in the dark too.........
After shopping with Bryan, we went home and since it was only 1230, I figured since the mini zoo closed at 2pm, I'd rush Caitlyn there for some fun. So within 30mins, I was out again, in the 40deg heat, battling hot winds... with Caitlyn. She didn't really stay very long but she had a go with feeding the chick, brushed some lambs, stepped on some poo.... For the LAST time, I'm an ALPACA.. not an ASS... now stop poking me THERE!

Things Are Looking Up

Things are beginning to look good.... The ABA teacher from ISADD called today to say that she will start Bryan's home-based ABA next Thursday! She will come by weekly from 1-3pm. That would mean that Bryan will have ABA 2 full days on Mon and Tues and 2 hours on Thurs. For the rest of the days, he attends mainstream at the same school. I am so happy that he has the support he needs over here. Honestly, I don't think he'd be able to get the same free support if we were back in Singapore...

Haircut Day!

Today, was my first time buzz-cutting Bryan's hair. I was fast, I was efficient and I had a good assistant. It was over within minutes and voila! I armed Bryan with his toy shark and a cedok of water for him to play with.. and when his hair fell in there, he called them "sharkie swimming with seaweed"...

That's it.. since he's alright having haircuts now, I'm so sending him to a barber. I bet if I weigh him now, he'd be a pound lighter. SO proud of him... must be growing up.

Self-Imposed Exile

One is a lonely number......

Bryan cut a lonely figure one day out at The Foundry Pub and Grill. We were seated 2 tables.... er.. barrels away but he refused to sit with us while waiting for his food. Absolutely refused to look at us too. Turned out Daddy didn't allow him to go into the pet shop to have a look at his mates.....So I took him there and he had a good time looking at his "fish with legs" (axolotl), birds, mice etc.... and he came back happy and enjoyed his big platter of nuggets and fried sans the nuggets..... See? All it takes is a little understanding ... this boy is not so complex after all..

I'm Bryan, Mess O' Plenty

Check out the mess!

I'm Bryan,

Creator of mess,

No one can beat me,

But I'm considered blessed.

....................................................

For I am the one,

Very rare species,

Who can turn a half eaten bun,

Into a million tiny pieces.

......................................................

I can't help it cos I love texture,

Sand, hair, water and dough-play,

How much I love them? You can't measure,

Cos Autism made me that way.

Le Freak!

Can you hazard a guess what or who Bryan is trying to be? No, not "hantu" or "pontianak"...Here's a hint.. Ben 10..........

A Day Out At SciTech

BRYAN the Builder

These photos were taken on Aimee's 8th birthday party held at SciTech in Dec 08. It's about half the size of Singapore's Science Center. The kids had a lot of fun trying out different stuff. I even got a robot to draw me...This is how I look like according to it......See the vajayjay looking thing right at the bottom of the pic? It's actually my collarbone... I'm so skeletal!

When I snap my fingers, you will start chirping like a chick
Bryan wouldn't leave the incubator. he spent quite a bit of time looking at the chicks and talking to it.

You talking to me? YOU TALKING TO ME?

Angelic Bryan

Check out my candy!
I found this photo of Bryan. It was St. Emilie's Christmas party and the organisers were looking for some kids to put on costumes to do the Nativity scene. I asked Caitlyn to take part but she said she was too "nervous" to do it... Then surprisingly, Bryan kept pulling on my sleeve, saying "i want to wear the gown..." over and over again.. Since he asked, I wasn't about to pass up the chance ... thinking "wow.. he's finally trying to take part spontaneously, trying to belong to a group and trying to fit in". Then I dressed him up as an angel.. after that, he asked "I want my crown". So I gave him his "crown" (halo). After that, he pretty much stayed with the group, sat together but of course, didn't know the lyrics to the Christmas carols. I was very happy that he managed to "take part" willingly and behaving well... UNTIL Santa started giving out candy which gave him a sugar buzz... oh man..

Christmas Light up at 35 Darwinia Loop, Canning Vale

I took my Brother in law and Caitlyn back to my old house since my ex-neighbour took part in the Christmas Light up competition again. As usual, the house was illuminated. A few neighbours had their lights up as well and the whole street looked spectacular, as usual. Brian and Mark managed to create yet another year, a very bright and wonderful atmosphere. The top photos were taken using my LG990. Didn't do the lights justice, did it?

Peek - A - Boo!

My first organic grapes!

I was clearing the dense foliage a couple of days ago and guess what I found? Yup! My very first couple of green grapes... Honestly, I wanted to trim down the er... tree? bush?... well.. grape plant cos honestly it was growing well into my neighbours' garden.. yes it's an "'s'"- The one next to me and the one behind and the one next to the one behind... that's how wild the vines have grown. I accidentaly spilled some fertiliser during spring and it hasn't stopped wild-vining since. The problem is that the leaves all get caught in my laundry, there's lots of cocroaches there and the vines... oh man.. can they creep into crevices and take hold! I can swing on it and it won't even break.. Tarzan being able to swing on a vine?......... Not a myth. I'm just going to take photos of it for keepsakes... don't think I want to eat the grapes.. honestly, there's way too many creepy crawlies out there and no, I've not used any pesticides on it at all. Very organic hor?