National Day 2011 & Discplining Tufeil

Tuesday, 9th Aug 2011

What a relief to finally have a Public Holiday after a dry season in Jun and July! HAHA Badly needed sleep. Me and T slept till 11am after our pre-dawn meals for the fasting day ahead.

I made a double batch of Sarang Semut (Literally: Ant's Nest), a cookie made of castard flour and Chocolate Rice. Somehow, my second time of making this turned awry. (Read my first attempt here - includes recipe.)

It was very very dry!!

The last time I made it, it was extremely soft!! This time around, I bought the normal Bird Eye's Custard Powder. I dont have the weighing scale at home and I think somehow my conversion from gm to cup is wrong.

200 g castard flour = 1 2/3 cup?
100 g plain flour = 3/4 cup?

Before baking

See.. I hardly needed to grate them, it crumbled on its own! haha. I baked 3 full trays before calling it quits. I saved the dough. Am thinking of adding more butter but not sure how (Like should i melt it first or something?) and how much. Thankfully, my sisters said it still tastes nice, it just doesnt stay together.

Because Tufeil had woken up late this morning, I had a thought of not letting him nap so that he could sleep early that night, so I took him out to the playground. We went from one to the next to the next until we ended up at a a Woodhaven condo showroom across the next street (quite far) because T saw this intriguing snake balloon.

*SQUEALS!!!*

We reached home close to 6.30pm. He scraped his knee just a few metres from home on the way back. and became very cranky... he was sleepy I know. So I let him watch the National Day Parade which was just starting.

Finally, he saw real soldiers marching

 I don't know why everytime I see a contingent of soldiers in the parade, my heart will swell and my throat choke with pride. LOL



LIfe-sized Food Costumes

 Even till today, Tufeil still asks me, "Mana soldier nye?" (Where are the soldiers) "Oh dia dah marching eh?" (They've marched away?)
We were so engrossed by the show that we missed iftar by a few seconds. Astaghfirullah!!!

These canons looked impressive on this vessel

But somehow it kinda disappointed me. The sound was very faint!!! *Yawwwwnnn*

By 8pm, Tufeil was already asleep! But at 10pm he woke up and was FRESH!!! He wanted to play and play. At 1am, I decided enough was enough. He had to sleep, or else! So i took away the iphone and commanded him to lie down and sleep. He cried hard. So I left him in the room in semi-darkness and closed the door. And waited about 5 seconds before entering again.

He still asked for his hippo (and dog) on youtube and I said NO, YOU MUST SLEEP! IT'S LATE! When he started crying again, i left him in the room again. After yet another 5 seconds, I came into the room again. I gave him an ultimatum, he could stay in the room alone or nurse to sleep. He cried for a few more seconds while I lied down shutting my eye... and then suddenly he snuggled up beside me and promptly fell asleep. It was 2am. But only after 3am did I finally sleep myself, on the floor, due to a hardcore blocked nose. (Am still having one as I type now 3 days later!)

I can tell you that this is quite a bold move from me. I'm learning to be a FIRM mother by reprimanding Tufeil when need be. I used to just ignore his wails and tantrums, tuning it all out. But I realised that this won't help Tufeil in distinguishing what's good and what's bad as he is in the phase of testing boundaries.

So I consulted with my 11 Besties (on whatsapp as we've been for the past 3 months or so) and we exchanged ideas on parenting and disciplining children. I feel much better now and in control of the situation, sort of, instead of being bullied by my own 2 yr old!

Wish me luck in discplining Tufeil!