Lo Hei!

We were invited over for a great chinese new year lunch yesterday at our Singaporean friend's new place, C. They just bought a great big new apartment in Chinatown. Bibou was all excited to be visiting Claire (who’s about 1 year older than she is) and her younger sister. All in all, we had 9 kids and Bibou had a blast! Most of the girls were all dressed up in their Chinese gear, it was just too cute! It was a potluck lunch and we had a scrumblious meal! C made her famous Beef Rendang (and once again, it was as delicious as we remembered it to be!) and a wonderful yu sheng - which, for those who don't know our tradition, is a rather elaborate raw-fish salad, made from strips of well, raw-fish (normally salmon) , and finely shredded vegetables such as white radish, carrots etc and lots of condiments like chopped peanuts, ginger, daun limau nipis (leaves from lime tree), Chinese parsley, toasted sesame seeds, five spice powder and a special dressing sauce mostly made from plum sauce. We eat this during the first 7 days of CNY – it’s really delicious, but it is the preparation and tradition that most important. Everyone gathers round the table with their chopsticks and we toss the salad as high as possible (without making a mess of course!) while wishing each other good luck, prosperity etc for the new year. All the kiddies joined in, even Bibou. MF made some well made makis (we were all saying we need to get some maki session from her), Rani had some stir-fry veggies but it was her gorgeous dessert that hooked me! It was a coconut jelly dessert, made from guala melaka (a kind of sugar made from palm sugar). It had been a long time since I had it, and I was in 7th heaven! I made some fried noodles and a black sauce chicken. Oh we ate and ate and ate.

Poor Angel – by the time we left yesterday, her cheeks were burning up and all red – she’s teething again, her 5th and 6th teeth (top gum) have started to appear. She seemed to be in a lot of pain (yes, I didn’t sleep much the past few nights again – but then, what else is new). The pain, however, hasn’t stopped her from eating. Oh yes, our little Angel loves to eat and gobbles everything in sight. As she has teeth, I’d also begun letting her eat straight from a banana. Boy did she have fun! On Saturday, she even chomped down on some bean sprouts. I think we can make her vegetables less pureed now!

I had a bit of a fright the other day when my cell phone rang and it was Bibou’s teacher. Did I go into panic mode (either Bibou made a bad mistake like beat someone up or something, or she’s hurt!). She was hurt – she had a very slight cut on her eye but because it’s in the eye area, they’d preferred to be more prudent. Fortunately, Daddy was on his way home already(that’s why they couldn’t get hold of him – in a tunnel or something) so off they went to the hospital where they also preferred to give her the tiniest stitch. Have to say that I’m glad that I wasn’t there as I’d be too upset to be of any good! Bibou’s all fine now, showing off her boo-boo.

Seeing the girls together made me so glad that we didn’t stop at one (well, OK, I’m sure that this statement will come back and bite me in the ass in a year or two when Angel is old enough to ‘fight’ with her sister). They just adore each other so much. Now Angel recognizes her big sister’s voice, and when she hears her voice indicating that Bibou is nearing her, she immediately looks around in search of Bibou and would let out a huge peal of giggle as soon as she sees her! Bibou is still a little too rough with her – she wants to hug her to bits!

Here are some videos of the both of them together. I think Bibou’s been celebrating a number of birthdays at school, as she’s taken to singing the birthday song frequently.