Monday, July 26, 2010

Just the 3 of us

My hubby can be pretty sentimental at times. The words he spoke to me surprises me and his actions would sweep me off my feet. Hah! Talking about the sparks that keeps the relationship burning :p That's him, the man I vow in the eyes of our Lord to love and cherish till death do us part. He's still calling me at least twice a day just to say Hi. This has been going on since our dating days friendship days and it has turned out to be a habit for us until this very present day.

Talking about calls from him...here's one..

Hubby called me at work and that's what he said "Eh dear, I realised that we've not taken a family photo for a long long time!". I started counting and counting... Oh yes...the last proper family photo taken was during CNY 2010 and Baby J was about 4months old! Hubby continued saying "We usually take photos of her alone, me and her or you with her... we hardly take any photos of the 3 of us together". So sad eh! Mmm...Hubby insist that he wanted to bring out the tripod yesterday evening to snap a photo of the 3 of us but I wanted to postpone the photo shoot until this coming weekend because I look very tired on a weekday evening. *Oh I'm so vain :p*

I promised my dear hubby that we'll be going for a proper family photo session at the studio when baby J celebrates her 1yo birthday.

At times, we spoke about going to zoos, play lands and fun places for little kids in the near future. We planned trips back to hometown, what's for dinner, teasing each other over the phone and sharing a joke we just heard or read.

I realised every 5-10 minutes conversation during office hours with him could brighten my day, keeps me going and looking forward to reunite with my SUNs....just the 3 of us! *Smiles*

Sunday, July 25, 2010

When there's no playpen in the house....

Daddy placed me in a plastic container with my favourite toy and I love my new 'play area' :D

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Just 1 hole and we can now go back to sleep in peace :D

After 3 days of fussiness at night, a drop in her appetite and discomfort on her gums, a tiny little hole was seen on her lower gums. She bleed a little and I believe its the teeth trying to cut its way through. Today, a white rough dot was seen. Praise the Lord, since that day...we can now go back to sleep peacefully at night :)

A quicky meal: Pea & Potato mash

A lazy mummy like me will always think of short cuts :p...especially when we've to run errants or to do some SHOPPING during weekends. Today, hubby thought instead of going to 1Utama (as frequent as 2-3 times/month...*yawn*), we decided to head down town to The Gardens, Mid Valley.

To save more energy shopping time, I've done a very easy lunch for baby J today. It's mashed P&P.

Boil and mash 1 tiny little potato.


 Boil some sweet baby peas


Once the baby peas are cooked, I've blended the peas until smooth. Add into the mashed potato and mix them up. I did not add any water into the mash because my baby loves it thick & gooey. You may add abit of water or milk into the mixture depending on your baby's preference.


Scoop the mashed P&P into the vacuum food container and we're ready to go! Its fast, its healthier and wayyyyy cheaper than bottled baby food ; )



Tuesday, July 13, 2010

3 restless nights

                                 That's how hubby & I looked like right now as I'm typing this post for the day! :)

My sleeping beauty no longer sleeps through the night. For the past 3 nights, she woke up a couple of times complaining with her eyes closed. She's mumbling and grumbling while chewing on her pacifier. She even call out "dada" & "mama" as she rolls in her cot trying to fall asleep. I know lah... teething is a normal process but it wasn't a happy sight to see my precious little one in pain. She's still a bubbly and talkative little baby during the day. I believe the pain and irritation is worsen at night.

Her lower gums are slightly swollen now with rough surface on the lower gum. I pray that her teeth will come out fast so all of us can have a peaceful night rest once again.... Errrr...how many milk teeth does a child develop? 20 ?!? *faint*

Friday, July 9, 2010

A nursery that provides parents their child's weekly progress (8mths 1 wk)

I've no choice but to send my precious gal to a nursery as young as 3 months old. After 2 months being with her 24/7! Argh ..it was truly a torture for me especially the first few weeks of transformation. Often times, I tried to wake up early in the morning just to spend more time playing with her before sending her to the centre because baby J sleeps at 8:30pm every night! Though the separation is only from 8:30am-6:00pm, Monday - Friday, I often felt that time passes so slowly at work! It took me weeks to get used to my new schedule and guess I was facing separation anxiety back than :D



Anyway, 8 months and 1 week has passed. Baby J is indeed very happy at the centre because my little social butterfly loves learning & playing with her little friends at the centre. A happy baby makes ME a happy MOMMY :)With all the fun & learning she had at the centre, no wonder she's so tired whenver she returns from nursery.

The nursery also provide parents a 'Progress card' via emails. The mail arrives in my inbox every Saturday morning. A good way to start my weekend :)  I just got to know from a friend that in New Zealand, all caretakers are required to go through courses to qualify to be an infant care giver. Not only that, they're also required to provide a "progress report" to parents once a week. WOW...a requirement? Guess the infant centre baby J is going to now practises the same method.

Here's the teacher's weekly progress report for Baby J. From now on, I'll be keeping her progress report her for keepsake :)

              A photo taken by her teacher when Baby J was at 5 mths+. Photo is abit blur but I love the smiles of the 2 girls having a fun during play time :)

-verbatim-


Observation (Behaviour/Sleeping/Milk Intake/Others)
Receptive/Expressive Language Skills
Janice’s learning to smile and vocalizes to mirror image.  She is also learning to babble speech sounds and understands basic words (“bye-bye”). Extremely alert little girl, she turns her head fast towards sound. Noticed Janice enjoys two-way verbal exchanges and can imitate facial expressions like sticking out her tongue and trying to roll it too. She is beginning to combine syllables like “da-da” or “ma-ma”.  Suggest you also teach her some words like da-da (daddy), ma-ma (mummy), por-por (grandma) or kung kung (granddad).
Thinking/Cognitive Skills
Ha, Janice can hold arms out to be picked up when in her cot or stroller.  When she is in the toddler’s room, she loves to explore big and small items (especially those that rolls and makes sound).
Self-Help Skills
Janice is now sitting in a high chair for her lunch, a bit difficult but still trying. She is distracted easily with the environment, turning her head left and right, trying to get up too. To distract her from moving, have to give her a small bowl and spoon with some porridge in it.  She seems to enjoy it but very messy though.

Gross and Fine Motor Skills

Janice can transfer objects from hand to hand and rocks back and forth on hands and knees.  Now she is learning to stand up. Bears almost all weight while standing supported. Even learning to sit down after standing but can see the fear in her eyes. Well, she seems to get it right but will ask for help if she is stuck.

Socio-Emotional Skills

Janice is always a bubbly and cheerful girl.  Smile to everyone she sees including parents. Smart girl, she can sense moods of others, like when I am angry with her.  She will either put her head down or on the cheeky side will try to smile and show funny face to make me laugh. 


Tuesday, July 6, 2010

8 months old!


Yay! As I'm writing today's post, Baby J is already 8 months and 1 week old. How time flies...  I remembered during these time of the year in 2009, I was only 6 months preggy!



Taking care of baby J has becoming more and more challenging now because she's a very active and curious baby. Hubby & I literally keeps an eye on her like a hawk. Just a blink of an eye, she would've crawled towards the kitchen, touching the TV buttons or even chewing on something that she isn't supposed to chew! She is now standing with support, crawling EVERYWHERE around the house and she can now stand with a little support. At times, she will stand with just 1 hand holding on to a table. Daddy has made the house BABY PROOF.


She is eating 2 solids a day, 1serving of fruit puree and at least 5 bottles of 6-7oz of milk per day! She's still very petite and I'm wondering where did all the food go!

Baby J could say "DADA" when she wants daddy and lift both arms whenever she wants a cuddle. Her favourite colour is now green. She used to like white when she was younger. 



Lately, there's lots of noise and merry making at our little home. Baby J will be throwing her toys from her highchair to the floor and the next thing you know, she'll be searching for the toy. You picked it up for her, she will do it again and again. It's amusing for her and a pretty good exercise for us...so no complains :). She hits her toys on the table and giggles when you turn on her favourite Baby Einstein CD. She loves it when we start to sing "TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR" to her. The minute you say STAR, she will start repeating the word "TA TA TA TA TA" like a broken record.

There's so much love around the house. Pretty tiring but FUN!

Monday, July 5, 2010

Mash potato with fish & Spinach

Baby is currently on 2 meals of solid a day. Her nursery will serve porridge for lunch while mummy prepares her dinner. Here's my recent experimental recipe I made and baby J loves it to bits.

 Wash baby spinach leaves. I usually soak fruits and vegetable with a few drops of vinegar.


Chop chop chop until super fine



Cube 1/4 of a russet potato and boil it in very little water until soft. While waiting for the potatoes to cook, I've steamed a piece of fish fillet in another stove. For this recipe, I've used a match box cut size of a Marbled Goby (soon hook). You may use Kurau or any other fish fillets.


Mash the potatoes and returned the mash into the sauce pan. Add in the chopped spinach and cook for a few a minute until the spinach is cook. Juice from the steam fish was added to the sauce pan.



Lastly, the steamed fish was mashed and added into the mash potatoes and spinach. 

Dinner's ready :)

Apple & Sugar Apricot

We went marketing last weekend and saw some cute little sugar apricots at RM9.90/box. Since baby J has a sweet tooth like me, I believe she's gonna love the fruit.

Mini sugar apricots. They're as big as a ping pong ball  & they tasted like sugar! Yumsss


I diced 1/2 a gala apple & 1 sugar apricot


Throw the cubed apples & apricot into the blender. Stop the blender when the fruits turned into puree.


Steam the fruit puree for 5 minutes and baby J's dessert is ready :)

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Daddy can cook!

Baby J has started  solid 2 meals a day since 7.5mths of age. I've been rushing like a headless chicken on weekdays, leaving office at 6pm, picking my baby J from her nursery, rush home to give her dinner latest by 7:30pm!

To cut down on cooking time, I'll usually set the timer to boil the soup base in the slow cooker the night before. The next morning, I'll remove the meat from the soup and pour in the rice, reset the timer to start cooking in the late afternoon. By the time i arrive home, I'll just add in vegetables to the pot, give it a quick boil and "Abracadabra", dinner will be ready for baby J. Sounds easy isn't it? Its actually T-I-R-I-N-G!! It would be even more tedious if I wish to serve her fish or vegetables that I'm not able to add into the pot too early.

One fine evening, my dear hubby decided to take over the kitchen to cook fish porridge for baby J. Can you imagine... a man who can't differentiate between a Bombay onion and spring onion said he wanted to cook for his daughter leh!! He gave me a call to ask for the recipe. I gave him a simple step-by-step instruction and hope for the best :p. The minute baby J and I arrived home that evening, to my surprise..........this is what I found in the crock pot!!!


Woahhhhhhhhhh Pumpkin & Tread fin was cooked to perfection sitting on a bed of brown rice porridge!!!




That evening, dinner for baby J was served 30 minutes earlier because now DADDY CAN COOK!


Thank you dada! Yumssssssss

L'abeille said : Hey loukong!  When are you going to cook for me eh? :p