Happiest outdoors

We spent more and more time in the garden now that it is warmer. The retaining wall is done but not finished. The last bit of work (pipe behind the wall has no where to go) always takes the longest. Work is progressing but quite slowly. We will be planting a few more bushes and plants in the garden in particularly near the retaining wall. Looking forward to plant-hunting next weekend!

Tiger mother

I just finished an interesting book called 'Battle hymn of the tiger mother' by Amy Chua. I reserved this book for $2 from our local libray about 2 months ago and got it last Tuesday but only had two weeks to read it because there were other people waiting to read the book. I wasted no time and started straight away, and as it turned out, I finished the book in 3 days.

This book was supposed to be about how a "Chinese" mother(also a Yale law professor) raised her kids, the main focus being her daughters' music education (piano & violin). The are a lot of stereotypes in the book, which I found hilirious. Maybe I can relate to the stories because I remembered growing up wishing I had a 'tiger mum' sometimes (Mum used to tell me not to study too hard!). I admire Chua's perseverance towards her daughter's music learnings even if I wouldn't do what she did under the same circumstances.

Education theories of today advocate freedom and let kids be kids. To a large extent, this is also what I adopt. But does that mean the parents should do nothing and let their kids decide and do whatever they want? Parents are so scared of discipline their kids these days(me too) for various reasons - worried they'll hurt their kids feelings, kill their imaginations or cause some sort of psychological damages. I feel the kids of today are not as strong and can't take as much as the kids of yesterday. This book challenged me to think more about what I do as a parent, not just follow the latest theories or what everyone else is doing.

The 'birthday card' incident in the book resonated with me the most. As a parent, I do want my kids to try their best whatever they do. Let's face it all kids (us included) have the tendency to do less if you let them(or yourself). I had a first-hand experience about this. Lara used to get very frustrated when she couldn't draw something and I told her the drawings didn't have to be perfect. Now the pefect came back to bit me. She showed me some half-attempted scribbles she called 'rainbows' and said 'but you said it didnt' have to be perfect'! when I questioned her. I agree with Chua that kids need to know you expect better of them and sometimes you have to push them a little just beyond their current abilities so they can improve. What people can't agree on is how much is too much. I was looking at Chua's eldest daughter, Sophia's blog the other day and thought she had not done too badly with her daughter-Sophia seems to be a well-adjusted kid who is accepted to go to Harvard. She had no problem with her upbringing, so why should anyone else?

"...one of the worst things you can do for your child's self-esteem is to let them give up. On the flip side, there's nothing better for building confidence than learning you can do something you thought you couldn't.." page 62

Monday night dinner

I work on Mondays now so Simon's in charge of the cooking on Monday nights. He made a nice stew last week. I came home earlier last night so this dinner was a joint efforts - grilled chicken wingettes, fried potatoes, stir-fried garlic baby spinach and crispy fennel.

I got a fennel in my vege bag and was wondered what to do with it, then I found a nice fennel recipes that both Simon and Lara liked (well ... Lara ate it).

This is how I do it. Trim fennel bulbs and remove outer hard layers. Cut fennel into half then cut each halves into threes or quarters. Boil for a couple of minutes until just tender. Dip fennel segments into an egg/milk mixture then a bread crumb/parmasen mixture. Shallow fry until crispy. Yum!

This post was written on 12/07, I didn't process the photos until a couple of days ago.

Sam is one!

I remembered vividly the day I went into hospital to be induced and how fast everything happened at the end. I still remembered holding Sam straight after his brith, feeling his naked, sticky bottom and thinking how bony it felt (compared to Lara's). I also remembered falling asleep with him lying on top of me the day after. Now Samuel's walking and babbling and a whopping 11 kg! We had a small family birthday celebration for him the Sunday before his birthday. Lara helped me decorate his birhday cupcakes.

Sam learned to shake his head in response to a question. He would wait for me to finish the question, he would pause for a minute as if he was thinking, then he would shake his head like crazy. Sometimes he shook his head so hard that he fell over. It was hilirious to watch. The more we laughted, the more Same did it.

Sam wants to be in the midst of everything. Mum and I were pointing to a crochet block and discussing the colours. What did Samuel do? He walked over and pointed to the block and started "babbling". He also likes to watch 'Ninja Warrior' and 'Unbeatable benzuki' (SBS from around 7:30pm on Sunday) with Lara and us. He clapped and made all the right nosies when we did.

Sam was fored to stand in a corner for the first time the other night because he would not stop hitting Lara! We joked that we should have a corner reservered for him becuase at this stage it looks like he'll be spending a lot of time there!

Sam loves his food and always wants to try our food. Typical meals in a day for him would be :weetbix with fruit in the morning, bread with vegemite and avocardo for lunch, rice (congee) with veges or meat/fish for dinner. He also has what we have sometimes. He still has 3 formula feeds a day. More and more, Sam only has one sleep in the middle of the day, usually from around 12:30pm to 3pm.

Sam started showing stranger/separate anxiety. He's weary of people he didn't know well and took some time to get used to Mum. Sam loves his Grand-dad the best.

New door

Father-in-law working on the door frame.

When Simon organised a guy to come and cut a great big hole in our family room, we didn't know we would get pouring terrential rain for days afterwards, thus delay in starting work. The timing wasn't great either with this work started the day after Mum arrived and with Sam's birthday celebration(families coming) in the midst of it. Father-in-law worked hard to get the door in after the rain stopped (he's a perfectionist so work wa not fast-going). It's almost finished now.