Lamb shank in its various forms is one of our favourite family dish. I usually make it western style, slow cooked in red wine and balsamic vinegar.

But it is also delicious as a curry. For this dish, I used M-I-L’s curry chicken recipe and replaced the chicken with the lamb.

The lamb is so tender the meat falls off the bone, and the sauce is absolutely lovely with rice!

The English football season has started again. The only reason I know this is because suddenly CY has started hogging the TV at night, and I no longer can have the smirky repartee of NCIS in the background while I Bejewel Blitz my brain to death.

So CY must be trying to start his son early as he caught these amazingly cute photos of Sean playing with a ball.

This one below rivals Keira’s famous Eskimo baby shot.

Look at that smile!

After having a daughter and then a son, I’ve noticed that I do treat them differently. I coddled Keira more and was (still am) very protective of her. But with Sean, I think of him as being tougher and stronger, and will probably encourage him to do more sporty stuff.

Quite sexist aren’t I? And I thought I was quite a forward thinker. What if Keira wants to play football?

In other news, my phone got stolen today while I was shopping at the Ramadhan pasar near our house. Not a nice experience to find a hole in your bag and something taken.

Luckily I can still use back my old phone and same number. Just have to get a new sim card in. The stolen phone was very problematic anyway. Didn’t have a very stable system and it was quite faulty.

Will wait awhile to get over this loss before looking for a new (i)Phone.

Time really goes by sooooo fast. Just a few posts ago I was complaining about this baby kicking and kicking me inside the tummy. Now he is a big, strong boy and unfortunately still kicking and kicking.

He is adorable though. Sean has the cutest smile ever. He is so cute I’m tempted to enter him into some baby contests… Haha, yes I am a besotted mother.

The little dimple that appears when he breaks into a grin is irresistable. All of us, including Keira jie jie can’t help but smile back.

At five months old, Sean just learnt how to rollover. So now, everytime we put him down, he will flip and pop his head up, big eyes looking around alertly.

He is learning how to grab things too. Reaching his chubby hands out to grab whatever comes within reach. And of course, stuff it into his mouth. He can actually play with toys. i say this like I sound surprised because Keira was never into baby toys. This little tiger is tho.

Today, he also did something quite cute. Well, if you aren’t a parent of a baby you wouldn’t find it very exciting, but I thought it was very amusing. Sean reached out to me and patted me on the arm over and over again. As if trying to get my attention.

Quite advanced behaviour (says the besotted mother ).

From what I can tell, he is developing faster on all points compared to Keira at the same age.

The one thing he is slower at is sleeping longer at night. He is STILL on a 2-3 hour cycle, whereas Keira at this age I believe was only waking up once at night.

I’m still breastfeeding, but starting to teach him to drink formula from a bottle. Maybe he will sleep longer with formula.

I think he is also actually ready to start eating solids. Cos he stares and stares at us when we eat. And when Keira cheekily tries to offer him something he wants to eat it.

So time for me to start puree-ing food again soon!

His daytime naps aren’t very long. At the moment he is having four 30 min to 1 hour naps in the day, then sleeping from 9.30pm to approx 8.30am (he will wake up for milk then go back to sleep again).

And he’s trying to talk. Mostly “Aaah, aaah ooo”. Sometimes “Aa ge” and other sweet cooing sounds.

That’s Sean boy’s 5 month old update. Can’t believe he is almost 6 months old and can start eating real food soon. Slow down boy, slow down!

At three years old, our little girl is:

- finally toilet trained (in the day time)

- going to kindergarten

- playing games like a pro on the computer

- taking photos and changing settings like a pro on the camera

- talking about everything

- spelling out her own name

- so playful, so cheeky, so naughty

- loving her little bro with his “cute little round head”

- and I quote “the prettiest girl in the world!”.

So we didn’t have a big party for her this year, but we had several little ones spread out over a few days, which was great as it was like she had a brithday every day for almost a week!

First, Japanese buffet with Ah Gong & Ah Ma:

Then a simple lunch at home with a tiramisu cake, which was just another excuse to let her blow out the candles

Presents from Ah Gong, Ah Ma & Granduncle were opened another night. She loves the shopping trolley!

And finally celebrating at kindergarten with a proper cake:

Keira specially requested this ABC cake from Secret Recipe quite awhile ago, and she finally got her wish.

Happy Birthday Keira!

Keira reading a book to little bro:

And I made pau! Following this recipe.