OUR ATRINA JOURNEY

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The 8 month old girl!

Wow what a surprise I actually remembered today is the 30th. Ya lazy Mummy who usually don't bother much about the actual day of the month. Anyway, happy 8th month Bean. Daddy has a new present for you tonight :)

Monday, March 29, 2010

The rolling Bean

It's getting harder and harder to take pics of my little girl now. She's forever moving around. Even sleeping also moving. Just last night i caught her open her eyes for a few seconds during night sleep and the next thing she did: slam her beanie up and down with eyes closed. Sleeping also can abuse the beanie leh. Power not!

Here's the girl doing her favourite activity - Rolling on parents' bed (under supervision of course). Yes, very cheeky.
















Saturday, March 27, 2010

Beanster family outing March 2010

The family went to Ikea Tampines in search of children furniture but decided to hold on to the idea till we sort out the logistics issues.

Dinner was at the cafeteria. Man, this was the first time I'm so loving this place. I brought along the leftover cereal and mashed carrot that Bean refused to eat at home. No choice, had to leave the house since it was already quite late. So Daddy went to buy dinner while I sat there with Bean. Thought I would try my luck by taking out Bean's dinner. Guess what??? She finished it up in no time. By the time Daddy got back, she already finished it ages ago! Daddy said maybe she felt embarrassed to let outsiders see her "special" eating patterns (which can easily stretch on up to 1 hour) so she decided to show-off how well she can eat. Therefore I concluded Ikea cafeteria the most condusive eating environment of all. In future whenever Bean has any eating problems, I will reminisce the moments here. Well, sometimes when she refuses to eat properly, I do click on her past videos too. Poor Mummy, need to find some happy past memories to hypnotise herself temporary.

And there was this cute incident that happened when I was busy cutting up the chicken thigh while Dadddy went for his mandatory smoke break. I knew Bean was happily sitting on the highchair and blabbering away so I left her as she was. After a while I heard some girls' voices laughing and saying "cute". Thought nothing of it and continued eating. Took me a while to realise my Bean had turn her body to the back row and smiling, blabbering to a bunch of pretty ladies. 4 of them. So there was actually some interaction going on literally "behind my back" and I was oblivious. This came as a surprise to me cuz Bean is not usually so socialable. Yeah I've encountered countless times that nice and friendly people talk or play with her in the lift or MRT but she is so dao and no reaction. Very embarassing for me ok. I had to keep saying "Darling, Auntie/Uncle talking to you." When all else fails, I'd come up with "Oh she's sleepy" or "She just woke up". Haha. This incident shows that my little girl has grown up :)

Anyway I managed to snap this shot on my hp cam.
Darling smiling to the 4 pretty ladies :)

Breakfast at Mac Donald's

Had a wonderful time catching up with my GEHC girls last Sunday. All 4 of us left years back but we all had babies at a close gap :)

Um... most of the pics are featuring my little XY though...

2nd time on highchair outside. Damn happy!








































XY trying to be friendly to little Chloe.
























But she ended up offering her yummy fingers to Chloe instead.
















We had a group pic. Guess who is the 大姐大of the lot? Ya man it's XY since Lee Peng's boy wasn't around.

From left: Baby Alden (end Nov 09), Baby Chloe (mid Oct 09 I think) and Baby Xiang Ying (end July 09). Both pics were blur so I uploaded both :)































The one with the most action belongs to me!













Friday, March 26, 2010

First time on highchair

This happened 2 Sundays ago... but only posted now. Forgotten to bring camera and used hp cam to take. You see the problem is, I can't be bothered to find the cable to download the pics so I had to mms to Daddy for him to email to me. Complicated huh. This is lazy ppl way of doing things. *LOL*

Mummy was having this crazy crave for chocolate fondue and pestered Daddy to Anderson's for it. Sorry if sounds like act cute but this was exactly what happened and turns out that Daddy was in a good mood due to Mummy behaved really well so we went... Again sounded act cue right but is the fact I have to say it la.

This is what we had. Seriously I can do it on my own. No need to share with anyone but 礼貌上have to let Daddy taste taste a bit if not he sit there watch me eat meh?


















I decided to put little XY on highchair since she can sit independently already. Of course the Daddy had lots to say - dangerous, she might lean forward, blah blah. Don't care I insisted want to put her in one. Oh boy! She loved sitting inside soooo much and couldn't stop giggling. She did get to eat banana, strawberries and a dip of chocolate on Daddy's dirty finger. Um... gross hor...

















































Happy till use middle finger!!! Don't know who teach. Not me ok.

Bath time happiness

Silly girl chuckling away when daddy taking a bath for her.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Play time!

Sorry for late updates. Feeling lazy these days *LOL*

Little XY has a new rattle ball.
But she still remembers must torture Miss Bunny.
(Bunny is gone. XY threw it out of her pram when I wasn't looking the other day. Boohoo.)































XY: "Hey Mummy, I can bite anything. Rattle ball is soft and chewy :)"
















Last year's Christmas pressies from Aunties D and Y: Leapfrog activity table.
















Exploring the fixture rattle.
















In case you can't tell, she's attempting to bite some part of the activity table.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

And the conclusion is...

AJ can only do one-dish meal!

My first attempt in pumpkin rice. I did not put seasoning in the rice since XY was also eating it. She loved it man. For my own portion, I mixed in dark soy sauce.
















Proud of my pumpkin rice.
















My very "koyak" version of Rosti.
















With whatever was leftover in the fridge.
Steamed sweet corn and broccoli and tuna salad.
















Fried udon which is worth a mention.
Little XY loved it. She kept opening her mouth for more and at some point even pulled my hand towards her mouth, indicating quick Mummy! Of course la I fried with dark soy sauce.









Saturday, March 13, 2010

Breastmilk overload

No, my supply did not increase. Some days it even dip, especially the days nearing the day of the month. My little XY seems to be drinking lesser these days. She's loving her solids quite a bit these days.

XY's daily schedule for the past few days has been:

830-9am - Wake up. 1 milk, usually 80-100ml with cereal added. (That's the time I usually wake up so that's the time she gets her first milk but I do not know what time she wakes up cuz she will roll around in her cot quietly.)
915am - Bath time.
930am - Breakfast, usually about 1/3 slice of wholemeal bread. Drinks about 100ml water.
1030am - 1 milk, about 80ml, followed by first nap (during this time I go for my shower, surf a bit, prepare our lunch).
1pm- Lunch. We had steamed broccoli/carrots and boiled potato with butter today. Drinks about 60-80ml water.
2pm - 1 milk, very very little. Maybe 50ml only. Play/Sing, free time.
3 or 4pm - Second nap.
6 or 7pm - Wake up. Dinner. Drinks about 60-80ml water.
8pm - Bath time followed by winding down time.
9pm - 1 milk, about 120ml with cereal added. She rolls in her cot for 10-30min before falling asleep.
12am+ - Dreamfeed 1 milk, about 100ml with cereal added.

This is a rough guide but there are days when the schedule goes haywire like if I oversleep then everything will be pushed back by 30 min-1 hour. Nowadays there is no way to make her drink milk during lunch time as she will drink only a little and turn her face sideways. Put her in her bouncer she will make some noise and seems like looking for something. The moment I bring out her feeding bowl/water bottle and put on bib for her, she gets all excited in full anticipation. See? This clever girl knows that there is no such thing as only drink milk for lunch. Anyway it's another 45 min - 1 hour gone while feeding her. That's the reason why I'm not that keen to go out around this timing. And I can't leave the house before she gets her lunch.

Well, anyway since XY started drinking lesser it has become a little problem for bm storage. It makes no sense to freeze such little volume but if don't freeze then taking up a lot of space and have to label the date of expression to avoid mix up.

Pic taken this morning after my second expression.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Last dose Hexa (6 in 1) jab

Done on Sat. I realised this doc is not very good in giving jabs. Why I say that? Cuz I had my Hep A+B jab at my gynae's clinic and they were both totally painless and when I had my 3rd dose by the same GP, it actually felt a little painful and my whole arm was aching for about 2 days. Not very serious aching. Is the kind of 酸feeling. Till today still can see and feel the jab mark on Bean's thigh so I confirm it was quite painful for her. But anyway it's over cuz we are done with the Hexa. Pneumococcal jab will be done at another clinic which the doc is very nice to massage the thigh area for some time and on Barney song for Bean to distract her.

Bean's first taste of 粿条汤

You are supposed to concentrate looking at Bean's great slurping skills and not at the unglam mummy's unglam actions!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

In the search for good custard buns (流沙包) in Singapore

We only tried 2.
The one at Victor's Kitchen cannot be categorised as 流沙包. Is just a normal custard bun.

Recently we tried the one at Bosses, 黑社会. Was very flowy. So flowy that if you are not careful enough, the filling will leak. I find that the salted egg yolk taste was too heavy though. Not ideal. Bean had a few bites and she loves it. Hehe

From 黑社会:






















P/S: Still can't forget the ones we had in HK. *slurp slurp*

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

The importance of a bumper

You see, we only have 1 set of bumper for the cot which I'm very lazy to change. Didn't use it that much till this cheeky little girl was able to flip and turn (roam about) in her cot. So finally I put it to the washer on sat.

And this is what happened on Sunday!
Fat thighs trapped inside the bars. Or is it poles? Bars sound like jail. *LOL*































Ya lor trapped there still can do push-ups. Should have left her there longer since she enjoys it so much!























Lastly, my little girl sitting on the sofa :)))

Mummy Jo is still cooking (occasionally)

Done over the past weeks...

Old cucumber pork rib soup, silver fish omelette and tofu with broccoli.
















My humble and not so authentic version of Hiyashi Chuka.
I spent like 1 hour just to julienne all the ingredients though not a very good job.
It was actually quite nice except that not cold enough. The next time I will pre-prepare in the ingredients and refrigerate them at least 1-2 hours before eating.
















Tiny gets to chew on a stick of carrot. This is much better than the lousy teething rusk in my opinion.
















Minced pork omelette, stir-fried veggies and corn/carrot pork rib soup.
















One-dish meal: Chicken stew with rice.
This is so easy to prepare and you don't have to put any seasoning cuz it just tastes great on it's own. I do add half a teaspoon of salt or miso paste though. Would have been much easier if just cook the chicken without first stir fry it before stewing. As in the kitchen would have been less oily so less cleaning need to be done.
















Grilled chicken with rice. Not sure if I should attempt it again. Made the whole kitchen damn oily and also very very hard to get the middle part of the chicken thigh cooked.















The little girl posing with my new grill pan. Wondering what to do with the pan now.
















Convenience food - Pasta with instant sauce.
Poor XY eating convenience food as this young age but I can't make fresh tomato sauce ma so I cooked this for our lunch. Yes, she eats mostly whatever I/we eat. Anyway I consoled myself that sauce from Marks & Spencer can't be that bad. The label said: Made in Italy in small batches with blah blah... You know those assuring text? I must be the most optimistic Mummy around. Hehehe...

P/S: XY ate about 30 pcs of macaroni. That is very good progress for her! Except that she only opened her mouth for first few mouthfuls while the rest I squeezed them inside her mouth. Inside, not into. And this girl is strange. I used a spoon to give her that and she refused to open her mouth. Used my fingers to feed her the exact same thing, she opened her mouth big big. So now everyone knows when I say I'm feeding XY, I'm using my fingers.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Presents from Daddy

Daddy got some reward from his office and so we get rewarded too!

Rocker cum walker for the little one who... didn't really know what's happening at first.
Don't know how to relax her legs. *LOL*























A few seconds later... exploring the activity table.























Kinda lost interest. XY: Silly pink thing. Mummy, pls carry me out.
















Swimsuit for me! Hello never seen a 1 pce swimsuit before huh?
What what?? After the horrible c-sect *blaming the c-sect* cut I can no longer wear 2 pce. Don't give that lump of fats a chance to show-off! Next thing is to go for my BW then we can go for a swim.

Colour is actually fuschia pink. Considered lucky still managed to find a 1 pce at Roxy. Ripcurl is so biased towards fat people. They don't even stock tankinis ok. Not that I can wear tankinis either. Hahaha. Hello baby. Goodbye bikini.

Stocking up on baby food

Yes, XY doesn't like her cereals nor porridge but I mix the cereal into her milk for almost every feed. Not much, maybe 2-3 teaspoons or 1 tablespoon. It's not that much since Healthy Times cereal is so so flakey. Yeah, I forgotten how flakey it was till I opened the box. Still remembered the first time I opened the first box my reaction was never to buy this brand again but look, here I am searching high and low for it. The Fairprice near my place doesn't stock this and Cold Storage sells it at a higher price (this is already quite expensive on its own!). The flakiness is like... ok imagine bonito flakes. Something like that but in bits size. So can you imagine the mess we go through when scooping the cereal out? I usually hole my breathe for a second when I'm doing that. Haha, just a joke but I really used to do that initially. I don't mind giving Cerelac cereal to XY but I see that they contain milk and I want pure cereal since the purpose of it is to mix with ebm for XY. Oh another thing is change to Cerelac she willing to drink or not? Anyway few days after I got Healthy Times, I saw that Cerelac does have cereal that does not contain milk. Still contemplating whether to try or not.

The Heinz biscuits were great. XY actually eats it on her own and she eats almost 90% of it. Poor Mummy of course had to clean up the mess after she's done with it. But it's really great to see that XY is capable of eating finger food by herself. In fact I gave her one piece to distract her while I'm busy in the kitchen but when I returned few minutes later most of it was gone. I actually searched under her butt and clothes to see where the rest of the biscuit has gone to. Haha... And she loves the Gerber puffs very much now. Just that she still doesn't know how to self-feed that since the puffs is kinda small to aim inside her mouth at the moment.


Friday, March 5, 2010

The girl can sit!

We never realised she can actually fall into the "sit" position till about 2 weeks ago Yvonne put her in upright position. Now she's getting better at it but still need to be supported at times. If not she will Humpty Dumpty.

Shocked face - super look like daddy.
















Act lady face.
See the spaghetti straps on her dress?
That's a new trick she did that day - pull the ribbon and attempt to bite the strap. I even saw her aiming at her shoulders to lick the strap.
As pointed out by Y, XY has a case of nipple slip here. Hahaha... evil mummy even post her NS pic. 露一点!!!























Cheeky face.
We were at Tiong Bahru Plaza where I supposed to meet my buyer and we went up to the food court to have my lunch. This little girl got very interested in my 高记酿豆腐 so I gave her some noodles and tofu. Boy, she loves it. I know I know, it's bad eating habits right but right now good eating habits to me = opening your mouth when the food comes to you and then swallowing the food and repeating the same process. Shouting for Mama to give you more food is also good eating habits to me. Can see how desperate I am to get her to eat ANYTHING at all?























Another cheeky one.
Yes, the pacifier is her favourite toy. She can play with it and suck it front/back/sideways, any way. Daddy loves it when she does it on handsfree mode.
NOTE: This pic is not posed. This is a just one of the proof that she is a cheeky girl :P