September 8th

Bloomin' 'eck! Wiyots been a right little busy boy these last few days! I was going to combine the last three days until I realised that the post would probably take a day to read. lol I don't know where all this activity has come from, but I suddenly find myself running to keep up. Don't get me wrong, I am far from complaining... It is amazing! <3

So for Thursday he started the day with a little colouring:

Postman Pat Colouring Book.

I know some people probably hate colouring books as it doesn't allow for much creativity... I agree in some ways, but for Wiyot it seems a great way for him to practice his pen skills. I think I've mentioned before, but it is a real pleasure to see that his colour choices have moved on from red... red hair, red shoes, red trousers, etc... I don't know whether you can make it out, but he has also added a little spider and a sun shinning through the window. Bless!

Here's some follow ups of the "I luv yoo mum" picture:

DAD i -------- Luv yoo

The blue character is Wiyot (as Sonic the Hedgehog) Daddy has a unhappy face as he is smelling some stinky shoes apparently! lol. Oh and the line between the I and Luv represents Sonic running really fast!

I Luv Shonee

Shone is on the left with the brown and black hair (her hair is slightly lighter than Wiyots) and he is on the right. The dotty line represents Shone running around the lounge, which is what she was doing while he was drawing.

Straight after breakfast Wiyot got out his LeapFrog Tag system. He spent the next however long going through 3 of his books cover to cover, even doing the exercises included in the back. I really need to link the pen thing up to the internet so I can get the rewards for him!

For the afternoon I had some cooking planned for us. I asked him if he wanted to help me in the kitchen, but he initially refused. Thinking he'd just done a pretty hardcore session with his books I decided to leave him playing with his Lego. A few days ago I found a recipe for steamed buns (mantou) and couldn't wait to try it. I began making them myself and soon found I had a little helper! Mainly I think because I called him into the kitchen to see the yeast producing bubbles.

I forgot to take photos of the early stages, but this is pretty much were Wiyot joined in (plus I was lazy and mixed the dough in my food processor!)

Rolling out the dough

Wiyot loved the texture of the dough, it was lovely and soft and also still warm from the water we dissolved the yeast in.

The second rolling out and getting ready to brush with water.

The recipe was quite specific on the size you should roll your dough out to... A great opportunity to get the tape measure out and do some measuring! BONUS! :D

Wiyot enjoyed cutting the baking paper squares for the buns to sit on and I even let him use the 'big knife' to cut the rolled dough into separate buns. I think he did a pretty good job, don't you?

Rising in the steamer.

Excited and slightly floury :D

Let the steaming begin!

All done...

and ready to eat!

:9

I had to change the recipe slightly to the one I linked to. I used 400g of plain flour and 100g of corn flour  (I didn't realise I was short of the plain flour until it was too late!) and added some milk as well as water (I read here that is helps to make the dough whiter... Not sure it worked, guess I'll have to try again without milk to compare! ;D) The buns tasted really good, pretty authentic I thought. The kids ate 3 each and wanted more... I guess they liked them too! lol! I did find the texture slightly heavier than commercial buns, could be the recipe alterations though.

Lastly, a little message written on our scrabble board:

DOO YOO THINK SANTA WIL GET THE LIZ A BA - Do you think Santa will get the lightsaber?

Lets just say he's looking forward to Christmas this year! lol