Mama wasn't really anticipating this to happen because they were few times talk of such courses and it always never happened so I always took it easy when K told me yet again another such course. When this was confirmed, I seriously freaked out a little. I was used to be with XY 24/7 on my own for the past year but eversince I returned to work, I seem to have lost touch. Plus she's older now = less nap time + more demanding than before.
It turned out not as bad as I thought. I actually enjoyed the week so much. So much! There was ample time to bond with my little girl. We had lost so much time eversince I returned to work 4.5 months ago. What a good chance to make up for it. Well I did need to send XY to school in the morning and fetch her back in the evening, do the daily household chores, do my work (remember I was working from home?) and prepare dinner. I managed to juggle all of it though it was really tiring especially the sending/fetching part which I did via public transport + walking some distance each way. And XY wanted to be carried most of the time. However the good thing is: she didn't really know what was happening and behaved extremely well except for the first night she had major problem falling asleep.
Here's a brief recap of our days together...
Day 1: After sending K off at airport, we went home for a nap and went to a birthday party at Harbourfront Gymboree.
Ok she wasn't very enthusiastic about the activities but she did enjoy some parts where we all held the huge pce of fabric to act as a parachute. And of course we had the birthday cake :)
Dinner was at Swensen's Earle at Vivo. We shared a Fish & Chips meal. There was a free flow salad bar too and XY had her feast of corn up to her heart's content. I love the salad bar idea. I think she somehow knows Daddy is away after that cuz she had problem falling asleep at night. Kept wanting me to carry her and cried for a looong time. Finally fell asleep at 1am+.
Day 2: Heavy downpour morning but we finally made it to school at about 11am.
Mama cooked bacon+cabbage rice and old cucumber soup for dinner.
My best pot of old cucumber soup so far. Yums!
Roast pork sold out at the market so I used bacon as a substitute. Was a great idea. Delicious!
XY loved the food so much. She ate happily.
Day 3: We did a little better. Reached school earlier than Day 2.
Made a cheater seafood pizza using pita bread as a base with toppings of tuna & shrimps for my lunch.
Chicken noodle soup for our dinner. XY loves it and she now loves the quail's egg so much thinking that those are fishballs. She goes "ball ball" while pointing to them. I gave her a 2nd helping after she finished her serving.
Day 4: It got even better. We reached school before 10am! The truth is - I had a call at 8am AND 10am so right after the 8am call ended, we had to rush to school so I could do the 10am call. Ha not! The 10am call was cancelled but a few of us weren't informed. Angry! Wasted my time to call in and waited 15min.
So I had the leftover noodles for lunch coupled with my good ol' CP shrimp wantons. Really satisfying lunch.
Was wrecking my brain what to cook for dinner when pasta came to my mind. Unfortunately the clumsiness in me accidentally spilled the whole pack of angel's hair on the kitchen floor. Took me more than 10min to clear it away.
This little lady striked a "nice" pose on the way back on train. LOL.
So this is my new creation of angel's hair with bacon and seared scallops. Secret ingredient is the lemon juice. Half a lemon worth of juice. A comfort food to me but all that searing and frying made the kitchen oily and I had to wipe the kitchen floor late at night. I added 2 "ball ball" to make her happy :) Yeah she asked for more after finishing her portion.
This is XY eating her pasta - spilling it all over the floor, herself, bib, chair, table.... I had to use soap to wash the entire area after her every meal. Yeah that happens when your toddler doesn't really know how to eat properly yet but insists to self-feed, refusing your help to scoop the food to her spoon.
Day 5: School routine is a breeze by now.
She constructed this on her own when self-playing. Mama only noticed it much later. I think it's cool!
Thanks to K often teaching her new ways to explore her toys. Mama could never get her to do this kind of things. I think her coordination skills is much better these days. She could recognise the picture side of the lego pce to put it to face the front of the "car". Clever girl!
Took a dear friend's suggestion to cook porridge for dinner to ease the cleaning process :) Success - she likes it too. 2 combi bowls worth of thick chic porridge for her dinner. I cut the chicken breast and carrot really small and stir in together with the porridge to avoid her use her hands to pick them to eat. Yes, her fine motor skills "very good" these days. A pity she uses them at the wrong occasions always.
Day 6: It's finally Friday. Mama bought an expensive apple for my little girl who loves apples a lot these days. Ah... but Mama ended up eating almost all of it because little girl overate at dinner time and too full for it. So much for trying to be nice eh?
I think she misses Lego times with her Daddy. Looking bit lonely there.
Yong tau foo soup for dinner. Of course this is for show. Mama cut the food into smaller pcs before actually giving her. Of course she used her HANDS to pick and eat all the ingredients before using her spoon to eat the kway tiao. Of course it was messy and Mama was frustrated. And of course she finished everything in the bowl. And she asked for more!! She seemed like having super good appetite for the whole week. Extra half bowl serving, no problem she finished it all too. That's why when Mama gave her apple she was too full from dinner (super bloated stomach) and could only eat 1 slice of apple.
Day 7: Shopping with Mama finally!! Been months since mother and daughter went out together. As usual she behaved very well on the train journey.
Though a bit restless...
Brought her to my favourite spot at Taka.
READ: Low human traffic + huge space for pram + ample space between neighbouring tables.
There was no highchair available initially so she sat on the chair temporarily. Well behaved so far.
Japanese curry for lunch. Yeah she loved it. Ok she eats anything from her bowl these days. In fact the waitresses were standing near our table in awe when they saw her sit there patiently self-feeding her own lunch. Mama of course felt PROUD you know :P
All was going well. Till the waitress brought the highchair and she started dragging her pace of food intake. A little frustrating but there was nothing I couldn't manage.
Ah after lunch and a bit of walking (rocking her in the moving pram), she fell asleep. Yeah it was amazing cuz she hasn't slept inside the pram for months. Relieved she still can do it.
So it was a good opportunity for her mum and mum's dear friend to go for our tea. My tea to be exact since I already had my lunch. It was Yvonne's lunch!
Although we didn't dress very chio that day but that doesn't stop us from camwhoring ok.
My lovely white tea with rose.
After a good nap of 2hours she woke up and we had a sampling walk at Taka's mooncake fair. Too squeezy or else I would have gone for more.
OCD girl who loves to wash her hands. Ha!
1st time trying out the toddler seat mounted on the wall within the washroom cubicle. Quite useful leh.
Dinner was beef stew from Soup Spoon. I added some pasta for carbs. She seems to like to quite a lot. I realised the stew was mildly spicy afterwards and quite shocked she ate without complaint. When it was Mama's turn to eat, she came begging for more.
Day 8: Daddy comes home! Single parent duty ends here.
Sucky dinner at T3's Xin Wang Cafe. Each time I ate there I swear never to go back. I swear this is the last time I need to swear.
A scene of 父女重逢.
The happy couple :)
They have so much to catch up!
Sing song at public place!
我们回家了！
Perhaps the next round Daddy goes for some course, Mama and girl should tag along. That is, if we can bear to fork out a $3k+ ticket for Mama...
Thanks to K often teaching her new ways to explore her toys. Mama could never get her to do this kind of things. I think her coordination skills is much better these days. She could recognise the picture side of the lego pce to put it to face the front of the "car". Clever girl!
Took a dear friend's suggestion to cook porridge for dinner to ease the cleaning process :) Success - she likes it too. 2 combi bowls worth of thick chic porridge for her dinner. I cut the chicken breast and carrot really small and stir in together with the porridge to avoid her use her hands to pick them to eat. Yes, her fine motor skills "very good" these days. A pity she uses them at the wrong occasions always.
Day 6: It's finally Friday. Mama bought an expensive apple for my little girl who loves apples a lot these days. Ah... but Mama ended up eating almost all of it because little girl overate at dinner time and too full for it. So much for trying to be nice eh?
I think she misses Lego times with her Daddy. Looking bit lonely there.
Yong tau foo soup for dinner. Of course this is for show. Mama cut the food into smaller pcs before actually giving her. Of course she used her HANDS to pick and eat all the ingredients before using her spoon to eat the kway tiao. Of course it was messy and Mama was frustrated. And of course she finished everything in the bowl. And she asked for more!! She seemed like having super good appetite for the whole week. Extra half bowl serving, no problem she finished it all too. That's why when Mama gave her apple she was too full from dinner (super bloated stomach) and could only eat 1 slice of apple.
Day 7: Shopping with Mama finally!! Been months since mother and daughter went out together. As usual she behaved very well on the train journey.
Though a bit restless...
Brought her to my favourite spot at Taka.
READ: Low human traffic + huge space for pram + ample space between neighbouring tables.
There was no highchair available initially so she sat on the chair temporarily. Well behaved so far.
Japanese curry for lunch. Yeah she loved it. Ok she eats anything from her bowl these days. In fact the waitresses were standing near our table in awe when they saw her sit there patiently self-feeding her own lunch. Mama of course felt PROUD you know :P
All was going well. Till the waitress brought the highchair and she started dragging her pace of food intake. A little frustrating but there was nothing I couldn't manage.
Ah after lunch and a bit of walking (rocking her in the moving pram), she fell asleep. Yeah it was amazing cuz she hasn't slept inside the pram for months. Relieved she still can do it.
So it was a good opportunity for her mum and mum's dear friend to go for our tea. My tea to be exact since I already had my lunch. It was Yvonne's lunch!
Although we didn't dress very chio that day but that doesn't stop us from camwhoring ok.
My lovely white tea with rose.
After a good nap of 2hours she woke up and we had a sampling walk at Taka's mooncake fair. Too squeezy or else I would have gone for more.
OCD girl who loves to wash her hands. Ha!
1st time trying out the toddler seat mounted on the wall within the washroom cubicle. Quite useful leh.
Dinner was beef stew from Soup Spoon. I added some pasta for carbs. She seems to like to quite a lot. I realised the stew was mildly spicy afterwards and quite shocked she ate without complaint. When it was Mama's turn to eat, she came begging for more.
Day 8: Daddy comes home! Single parent duty ends here.
Sucky dinner at T3's Xin Wang Cafe. Each time I ate there I swear never to go back. I swear this is the last time I need to swear.
A scene of 父女重逢.
The happy couple :)
They have so much to catch up!
Sing song at public place!
我们回家了！
Perhaps the next round Daddy goes for some course, Mama and girl should tag along. That is, if we can bear to fork out a $3k+ ticket for Mama...
