But recently, he learned something new.  Doing what we don’t want like touching or TV.  Or turning knobs on our stereos. We try to be stern and let him know we don’t like it with words like ‘Don’t touch’ or ‘Too close to the TV’ (although since both his parents are blind bats, it’s inevitable that he would be donning his first pair of glasses soon).  Well, tonight when daddy’s out, those same words somehow meant the opposite to him.

Maybe it’s his way of playing or getting my attention, but after 5 times of telling him not to touch the TV, he ran back and pushed the screen that it almost toppled over.  Quite a douchey move.  I was not happy.  So I took the hand that pushed the TV, told him again, ‘Don’t push the TV, you’ll hurt yourself’.  He didn’t get it.  So I opened his palm and slapped it.  Not too hard but it wasn’t gentle either.  He knew I meant business.

He looked at me and stared at me hard.  Then he turned away in a way that showed he didn’t want to look at me.  So I just stared back wondering what he was feeling.  Then he broke free of my grip and ran to the gate by the stairs.  He just stared down the stairs and I knew that he was looking/waiting for daddy.  I called his name and he looked at me but it wasn’t with love.  He was upset at me.  He had the look of holding back his tears because his lips were quivering.  He turned back to continue staring down the stairs.  Then I walked over and called his name again and he turned around and ran towards me crying.  I felt relieved thinking he wanted me to comfort the pain that I caused.  Except that he ran past me.  And the pain I felt was more than his.

Just like his dad, I realized that he’s got pride.  He didn’t want me to see him cry when I slapped his palm. He didn’t want to show fear or pain.  Instead, he held it in as long as he could until he couldn’t hold it anymore.

By now, I’ve already forgotten what had happened 10 minutes before.  Instead, I held him in my arms and kept kissing the palm and telling him ‘Mommy loves you’.   He was fine and continued playing and trying to touch the TV.  And I continued with my half-ass ‘Don’t touch’ warnings.

This is my first attempt at disciplining my son.  After Patch got home, I told him what happened and he told me I shouldn’t have slapped his hand.  He was probably right and I feel like I failed somehow because I did it the wrong way and it surely didn’t feel like Little Patch learned his lesson.  Except to make me feel resented.

Finally, I am experiencing my first steps in parenting.

Little Patch was invited to a birthday party there on a weekend where it’s open to the public as well but it didn’t pose as a problem since the play area is huge.   But you have to watch your stuff and shoes as it’s a busy public place and the adults are busy watching their little ones, thefts do occur.

Kerrisdale play Palace - Corner of East Boulevard and 41st, behind McDonalds

Free parking is plenty by the rink and on the street. 

Safety rules. Entrance fee is $3.00. Free if you are invited to a party. Since no one checks and anyone can walk in as if they are attending a party, they rely on the honour system.

Back to back parties. Lots of kids, but lots of space.

Long tables are set up by the bleachers. Bring your own food, cutlery and everything else.

A couple of bouncy castles and bouncy slides.

Basketball nets, ping pong tables, toddlers climb and tumble areas... there's something for every kid. I didn't notice someone monitoring the safety of the children so it's probably best not to leave them alone.

Overall, I think this is a fun place for an afternoon with your child.  My friend who held the birthday party there said it’s cheap, and she didn’t have to worry about entertainment, just food and cake for the guests.  I brought Little Patch to the toddler area and he loved it.  At first glance, this place looks pretty ghetto but there’s a reason why the kids love it here.  At $3.00 for an afternoon, I would much rather bring LP here than a crowded mall’s indoor playground.

]]> http://ecogreenbean.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/kerrisdale-play-palace/feed/ 0 mochan00 IMG00051-20110528-1556 IMG00047-20110528-1555 IMG00048-20110528-1555 IMG00041-20110528-1505 IMG00043-20110528-1509 IMG00040-20110528-1505 http://ecogreenbean.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/bak-kut-teh-meat-bone-soup/ http://ecogreenbean.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/bak-kut-teh-meat-bone-soup/#comments Mon, 25 Jul 2011 07:44:07 +0000 mo http://ecogreenbean.wordpress.com/?p=1917 ]]> Bak Kut Teh is a chinese soup that I think originated from malaysia although different sites online could argue that it’s true origin is anywhere from Malaysia, China, Thailand, etc.  It’s a strong potent yet flavourful soup.  I discovered it recently when my mom made it and unknowingly drank it and fell in love with it.  When she made it before, I thought it was chinese medicine so I stayed the hell away from it.  It ‘s dark and muddy like chinese herbs (which most of the ingredients are chinese herbs) and it makes your house smell like a chinese house (like going into an east indian’s house and smelling garlic/curry).

My mom recommended BKT packets that you can get from chinese supermarkets.  I got mine from T&T for about $3.  There are different types of packets from powder to actual dried ingredients.  The thing with these packets is that different brands all taste differently.  So if you like a brand, stick with it.

Packet from T&T - $3.50

I wouldn’t say this is my favourite but it hits the spot when you’re craving for something like this.  Just a warning – this will make your kitchen smell and the taste is not for everyone.  However, if you’ve never tried it before it’s worth a try.

I drink it like a soup or a hot beverage but it can be a hot pot soup base or a noodle soup.

These are the ingredients in the packet. Please don't bother reading the ingredients as most ingredients sound like a dictionary in a medical office. It's better to be naive and just not bother. It looks like there's some dates, anise, and there's a stick that looks like gingseng (but it's not). The white packet is powder herbs where most of the flavour and smell comes from.

Add whole cloves of garlic and pork bones which I don't have so I used pork meat that I usually use for soups. Cut the pork in half.

Bring 3 litres of water to a boil, then add all the ingredients. I rinsed some of the dried ingredients under cold water first before tossing it into the pot. Turn down the heat to medium for 3 hours (with the lid on).

Don't taste test it while it's boiling as it will taste bittery like chinese medicine. After 3 hours, add some salt (makes a big difference) and serve. You'll have about 1 litre of soup left and the bitterness is gone. Discard the stuff in the soup.

It's strong in flavour and it looks like chinese medicine which isn't very appealling. The BKT with pork bones that comes with noodles are usually lighter in colour and in taste.

I’ve been with the same dentist for 23 years.  In those 20 years, he has fixed numerous cavities (it’s not an exaggeration to say about 20 times), had 3 root canals and one crown done.  It may not sound like it’s a lot in a span of 23 years if you average it out, but most were done in the past 10 years when I started having… dental benefits.

I feel duped and taken advantage of especially when my family kept telling me that it’s odd how every teeth cleaning, he finds something to fix.  It was just recently that he planted the seed by telling me my tooth is cracked and that I would need a crown to fix it.  I asked my questions and every answer he gave me pointed towards - the crown is the only solution.  That was probably the most expensive job he’s done on me, maybe not as much as all my root canals and follow ups combined though.

I’ve been thinking about not going for check ups as often as I’ve been going because everytime I go, there IS always something. So I tried to leave after one appointment but his receptionist wife would give me the next appointment date before I could set another foot past her desk.  As hard as I make my excuses for not being available, she would make sure to give me a date and call her if I really couldn’t make it.  I couldn’t even get away with ‘I’ll go home, check my schedule and call you back.’   At my last appointment, she stepped away from her desk and I managed to get the other receptionist (who normally does not handle the apppointment stuff) to cancel my upcoming 3 appointments (that’s how chained I am to them) for the rest of the year.  I told the other receptionist that I would call back to reschedule and left knowing that I had no intention of doing that.  I felt guilty for doing this all the way home.

On the other hand, maybe I do have bad teeth and if I were with another dentist, I would still need to do the same work. Because right now, I am feeling some sort of separation anxiety, I’m afraid of what will happen if a filling falls out, or if there’s an emergency.  As much as I dislike how much unneccessary work I have done, my dentist has made time for me whenever an emergency arises.  I’m just so afraid that if something happens, no one else will see me.

There’s a part of me that wants to stay strong and move on and there’s another part that wants to call him first thing tomorrow to apologize and beg for him to take me back.

Instant Chocolate Pudding - $1.99

There are days where I just don’t have time to make something good.  But not all good things require a lot of time like this Chocolate Pudding from Trader Joes.  Since we don’t have a TJ in Vancouver, it’s not like you can skip out of the house and pick this up.  It’s something that you may want to get while you head south for some shopping.  The closest TJ to Vancouver is in Bellingham (check website for address and directions).

This chocolate pudding has no artificial flavours or colours and preservatives.  On the ingredient list of 6 things, I actually know 5 ingredients – cane sugar, corn starch, cocoa powder, vanilla extract and salt.  The only ingredient that sounds chemical-y was the ingredient used for thickening (how I know if that they actually wrote that next to it).  Try reading the ingredient list for other bigger brand puddings.  More unknown stuff on the ingredient list.

Pour 2 cups of cold milk into the powder mix. It's a small bag of powder but it serves 4.

Mix slowly with a wire whisk for 2 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes and re-beat briefly with a fork.

Although the package didn't have a lot of powder, but with 2 cups of milk, it made exactly 4 servings of this size.

It tastes really chocolate-y and not grainy, overly sweet or fake tasting (the fakest tasting pudding I’ve had was Jello’s Pistaschio pudding… gross).  It’s air-y even after a day and a half in the fridge.  It’s Dutch chocolate and we all know that Europeans don’t mess around with chocolate.  For $2, this is indeed a good buy to stock up on.

]]> http://ecogreenbean.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/quick-recipe-dutch-chocolate-pudding/feed/ 1 mochan00 DSCN8850 DSCN8852 DSCN8854 DSCN8856 http://ecogreenbean.wordpress.com/2011/06/04/treats-for-mommy-and-friends/ http://ecogreenbean.wordpress.com/2011/06/04/treats-for-mommy-and-friends/#comments Sat, 04 Jun 2011 22:13:18 +0000 mo http://ecogreenbean.wordpress.com/?p=1889 ]]> I don’t go shopping frequently (except when I’m vacationing) but with a baby now, it’s even more rare that I go to a mall.  So this is where the internet saves the day.  I love to computer-screen shop.  Forever 21 is one of my favourite online shops to browse mainly because they have to many items offered at such a cheap price.  That though comes at the cost of the quality as well.  Tonight I bought some accessories that I can wear to work or even at home when I want to feel dressed up in sweats and a hoodie.   Their accessories also make decent gifts (well, if you have friends that think F21 accessories are too cheap for them, they probably don’t deserve a gift from you!).

Isn't this bracelet just gorgeous? For the pearl lover... the flower comes in ivory colour as well $7.80

I think turquoise is a beautiful colour especially on jewellery, it really stands out without because too flashy. A cuff that looks like you've bought it from a South American street vendor. $7.80

Leaf and flower earrings, it seems like feathers and mother of pearl are in this season. Love the colour and the different textures. $4.80

Classy style that goes well with the little black/red/silver dress. $5.80

Trimmed feather earrings $5.80

Another classic design are cut-outs especially if done delicately. But then this is Forever 21 so this is pretty for $5.80.

I find that a lot of the earrings from F21 are pretty big so you have to look at the additional photos as they would have an image of the earrings next to a ruler or read the description.  They carry hundreds of earrings so you’ll need to spend some time to go through them.

I didn’t end up getting every thing I liked because I don’t think I’ll make use of the pieces but I think that’s are great as play jewellery and it’s not as painful if you lose it or break it.

Creekside Community Centre bathrooms

Don’t you hate it when you enter a public womens’ bathroom and you can smell that someone took a bad number 2 and you try to figure out which stall the smell is not coming from… then you walk into the stall and it smells even worse in there? Happened today at Creekside Community Centre. Ew.

Also, when you’re in line waiting for the bathroom (ie. after a movie in Cineplex or a mall) and you’re next in line, when someone comes out of a stall, do you take your time going in?  I have this fear of lingering butt smell of the person before me so I try to take my time and hope the butt smell goes away by the time I get there.   I have this image of a fat lady squatting and her butt was where my head would be breathing in her butt smell.

This is probably old news but I’ve read recently that Marc Jacobs has their own line of Sharpies.  Ok, who doesn’t like sharpies?  Then you can stop reading now.    After some online digging, I realized that Sharpies customized their pens for with designers name for Fashion Week.  That makes more sense.  But I still want one of these because having cool stationery at work makes me a lot more happy and productive.

Of course Marc Jacobs sharpies are better than regular ones

On the Sharpie website, there’s an option to customize your own sharpies with your company name.  I think that’s a fantastic idea especially for Patch’s business.  If you get a hundred, it comes to $1.50 each which is about the same price as a good customized pen.  And not everyone likes the same type of pens.  I like mine fine and gel ink but I always get the medium point from promotional products.  And like I said, who doesn’t like use sharpies?

You get to choose your font and get to write up to 2 lines.  You even get an option to pick a cute little image is you want. But overall, it’s a great deal for a custom promotional product.

Finally, this phrase means something to me.  Recently, I’ve been contemplating on changing my life’s path.  Four weeks to be exact.  In those weeks, I have pinpointed what makes me happy and what makes me crazy and borderline depressed. 

So why not change? I’m afraid of risking not being able to give Little Patch what he wants in the future.  It’s not following my dreams per se, but in order for me to be happy, there will be a  long term financial cost .  Not a loss that would put us out on the streets, but it would definitely set us back from pursuing our family goals.

I’ve always needed stability in order to feel… stable. And possibly secure.  But since having Little Patch, my priorities have changed.  Things that I thought were important, I don’t even have a mild passion for.  I just know what makes me unhappy and I’m constantly swimming in that pool of poo-poo-ness.

I just wish I have the strength to not freak out about the future and just go with the flow.  But I’m not that kind of person.

]]> http://ecogreenbean.wordpress.com/2011/05/17/and-if-not-now-when/feed/ 0 mochan00 http://ecogreenbean.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/sushi-popper/ http://ecogreenbean.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/sushi-popper/#comments Wed, 11 May 2011 20:27:05 +0000 mo http://ecogreenbean.wordpress.com/?p=1870 ]]>

Photo taken from Sushi Popper's website

I saw this on Food Network’s Unwrapped.  It’s sushi on a stick.  It seems… so… wrong… could be worse than wrapped sushi from 7-11.  I looked at their website to see how they deal with raw ingredients and apparently, there are none.  Their raw fish flavours are just flavours which makes it seem even more wrong.

Perhaps this is popular in the US where ppl in some states have never seen a japanese before… who knows?  All I know is that this won’t fly in Vancouver when you can get fresh (but not necessarily good) sushi from every other block.

This is a solution to a problem that shouldn’t exist!