I’m having a really long break from work this new year. I’m only going back to work after Chap Goh Meh, isn’t that just great? I love it! 
But of course it comes with a very good reason. I’m taking time off to help my little boy settle in at the new babysitter’s when he starts going there on Monday. I plan to stay for a while when I first drop him there and check up on him off and on through the day for a week. I truly hope it’s not going to be difficult for him.
Anyway, how was your new year? It’s been a good break for us. We’ve visited most of our family members by now. The boy has met many of his cousins, aunts and uncles, grandaunts and granduncles too. He’s very well behaved when in other people’s homes, so much so that they think he’s a real gentle little boy whereas at home, he’s the king of the house and is very loud! It has been fun watching his antics when mixing around with other kids and adults alike.
He’s also learned some new words in the last one week. We taught him to greet people Gong Xi Fa Cai; he can pronounce “ang pow” very well; he also learned the word “botak” when we used it while showing him a picture of him as a bald baby! But most impressive of all, he learned how to count 1 to 10! I don’t think he understands that he’s counting numbers, he just knows the sequence of the words one, two, three…etc. For that, we’re already extremely happy and proud of him!
While the little boy learns all this during the new year, I’ve been putting my cooking skill to use during this period. You see, he doesn’t quite want to eat his porridge as main meals anymore. For a while now he’s been loving steamed white rice which I sometimes feed him when we eat. Seeing that he doesn’t want his porridge and asks for rice, I decided to cook him rice and steam fish and vegetables for him. The daddy went one step further, pan frying fish and eggs for him. Unfortunately, our efforts in the kithen didn’t pay off that much. He ate a little bit and would rather food that we didn’t cook! Sigh, are we bad cooks or what? I guess so.
Speaking of cooking, I also got to witness for the first time how the famous Hakka dish of abacus is being made. During the new year, my PILs were trying the dish out for the first time and it was actually pretty good. Here are some pictures of the process in shaping up the abacus. Sorry, no pictures of the completed dish because my camera battery ran out by then! 
The yam all rolled up into little balls
They were gently flattened down with a chopstick
Here they are, ready to be soaked in water
Don’t they look quite like “tong yuen” too?
Fishing out the soaked yam, ready to be stir fried
How was your new year? Any good stories to share? I bet you have, so share your new year time with us.
By the way, I’ll be running a giveaway soon, and if you are headed towards a holiday in the US or live in the US, stay tuned for it!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I loved to eat the abacus!
Me too, but dunno how to make it!
i have a sad new year lar. Everyday get to enjoy on their holiday but i get to work =.=”"
Oh no!
I hope you are nicely compensated for your hardwork!