LiL’deviL’s LittLe famiLy

I’ve been planning for this day for about a month, mostly about the food. I originally wanted to have it outdoor so I could invite more people but the plan failed. So we just had it at home and invited Eddie’s friends. The morning started as a usual Tuesday morning and we went for swimming class. On the way I stopped to buy some party accessories at The Party Superstore. At the class everyone sang the birthday song for Ethan (Eddie wasn’t there at that time so no pictures taken, he came back after the song). After swimming we went home and Ethan took his nap while we prepared the rest of the food. We had some done last night. Before we finished, Ethan woke up and I quickly turned on a dvd to keep him occupied while we continued our job and this is the result…

Last year Eddie cooked lots of heavy food and there were lots of leftovers. So this year I thought we just make finger food, easier to eat and also if there were any leftovers they will be easier to finish. We had:

Spring rolls and samosas (bought frozen, just need to bake in the oven)
Teriyaki chicken rice paper rolls
Prawn and avocado rice paper rolls
Sardine sandwich
Cheesy pastry twists
Aussie mini pizzas
Quesadillas with ham, cheese & tomato
Fruit salad and mangoes

I just wanted fruit salad then Eddie pandai pandai went and bought mangoes which ended up in the bin down the week. I’ve picked the most of the recipes, from the Women’s Weekly Fresh Food for Babies & Toddlers. Of course they wouldn’t have been done without Eddie’s help.

And here is the birthday boy, eating the mini pizzas (which he spat out later).

My ‘masterpiece’ of the day, lemon sponge cake…muahahaha…

…maybe if I hadn’t write on it it will look better. I baked this from a ready-made cake mix. Unfortunately the ‘bake’ feature of my oven doesn’t work so I ‘roasted’ the cake. It took soooooooooo long for the bottom part to get ‘roasted’ while the top part got burnt. I had to cut the top part off. Thank goodness for icing! Not that I did a very good job there too… Oh well, it’s going to end up in the stomach anyway.

Here is the photo of the day…

Everyone was looking at the camera and smiling. We sang the birthday song and asked Ethan to blow out the candles. He tried, but he was blowing down instead of front. Some of his ’spits’ might have gone on the cake…yum?

Pressies time!

These were given by Eddie’s friends, an activity centre, a jacket and a pair of Elmo’s pyjamas. More huge toys to fill our small house.

Clockwise from top left: Sesame Street garage from Eddie’s friend as well (Annabelle and Anthony); Little People blocks wagon from us; Cookie Monster’s t-shirt from Alice and Darrius; and a t-shirt and Travis toy (of Bob the Builder) from Johnny and family.

Thank you everyone for the lovely gifts.

Finally the leftovers…

Pretty good I’d say, good job eating everyone! I had these leftovers for lunch for the next few days and chuck the rest away. I finished the spring rolls and samosas, teriyaki chicken rolls, cheesy twists, mini pizzas, quesadillas and the fruit salad. Well done myself!

Also don’t forget to check out Ethan celebrating his birthday at playgroup.

I apologise for my 4-week absence on my blog and my non-reply on all your much-appreciated comments. I’m using the pc more than the laptop now because it’s so much faster. I’ve got too many files crammed up in my laptop that I have yet to delete/burn out. I do all my blogging on my laptop as the photoshop is here. Also my blog dashboard and PPP are two of the three homepages on my Internet Explorer so once I open the explorer I will automatically receive updates.

Thank you for all your concerns about my diet and Ethan’s speech development. The diet is not going very well for me yet as I’m not consistent and there are still a lot of snacks left in the cabinet, if you know what I mean. As for Ethan, we went for the blood test (horrible, blood drawn from the back of hand) and the iron level turned out to be normal. On the other hand we also found out that his red blood cells are a little smaller than normal and that he has a mild thalassemia. It’s not affecting him now but when he wants to have children in the future he needs to make sure that his partner does not have the same condition. As for his appetite the doctor recommended to use a multi-vitamin to help increase it, I think he needed the supplement too since he’s not eating much veges or fruits. We got a call back for both the hearing test and the speech therapy. First available appointment for hearing is in April, and first for speech is in four months. We’re not that worried so we can wait (also because our private health insurance does not cover speech therapy and I was told private therapist could be really expensive). I know he’s got no trouble hearing and with his speech, he’s babbling a lot more these days. Believe it or not, he learned those from his tv programs and also his alphabets phonics magnets.

I have also been busy searching for a house. I really want to move asap. Been to quite a few inspections but still haven’t found one that both of us quite like and within our budget. We’re thinking to build now but a good-sized land with a good-sized price in a good location is not that easy to find as well. Won’t be going to any inspections this weekend as I will be busy preparing for the big boss’ birthday. I can’t even invite my mummy friends over because the house is too small. It’s either Eddie’s friends or mine. Since I was only going to invite 3 friends with kids, I thought I’d do it when we do own a house. Also we’re closer to Eddie’s friends.

I will try to update the blog after Ethan turned 2. I will be filling up most of the missing dates from this month so watch out for new posts below this. But don’t expect too much, I don’t want to dissapoint! hahaha…

Baked beans on soy and linseed toast - YUM.

Morning snack: Fruit cup, peach - YUM.

Chicken and pasta bake - YUM.
Red apple

Afternoon snack: Greek style passionfruit yoghurt - YUM.

Two slices of grain toast with ham and grilled cheese - YUM.

Morning snack: Red apple

Shepherds pie - Ok.
Fruit cup, two fruits - YUM.

Afternoon snack: Vegetable fritata - YUCK.

Cheesy creamed corn on soy and linseed toast - YUM.

Morning snack: Red apple

Chicken and curried rice salad - YUM.
Red apple

Afternoon snack: Citrus, sultana and oat biscuit - Ok.

Grain toast with strawberry jam - YUM.
Greek style forest berry yoghurt - YUM.

Morning snack: Orange

Spicy chicken laksa - YUCK.
Orange

Afternoon snack: Yoghurt date bread - Ok.