2 year-old candy

Like a hamster, Silver Bullet loves hoarding his food, and as a result we hardly would ever run out of food or snacks and such whenever we feel like doubling up our waistlines. Not surprisingly, sometimes, we do forget what we have in our food storage.

This is a box of candy Silver Bullet discovered just a few days ago which has incidentally been in our pile of food storage for more than 2 years, of which we have forgotten about...

Thinking that he could do with a snack since he loves these kind of fruit candies, he opened it up only to find it looking like this:

Every single piece of candy had hardened and somehow fused together, hard as a fossilised rock! You should have seen the disappointed look on Silver Bullet's face...

 Not surprisingly, it ended up in the bin. It expired more than a year ago!

I wonder what other expired items we'll find in our pile of stashed food. :p

Open-door policy

The cats are a happy bunch again since we re-introduced the “open-door policy” to our bedroom when Spud began sleeping in her own room.

They don’t seem too bothered that they have been banished from Spud’s room, but every so often, they try their best to sneak in whenever we try to get to Spud’s room. But at least they have become slightly less needy in the day, as they can now come and go into our room as they please during the night.

I have, several times, woken up at night only to discover that Fudge and Donut had took turns to crawl underneath my armpit or curled up next to my head to snuggle up with me whilst I’m fast asleep. Forget about Andy – she only showers her affection to Silver Bullet.

It’s nice to have them snuggling back with us after all this while. I guess for them, it is a long time coming.

Here's Ah-Nut snuggling away with Silver Bullet - a rare occasion, indeed!

Bad mom no more

A colleague of mine has kindly MMS me a picture she has taken of Spud when we attended her birthday brunch a few weeks ago. She thought it was the cutest picture ever.

All this stemmed out from the time when I shamefully admitted that as a mother, I have, to date, failed to have any pictures of my child in my mobile.

Thanks to her, I now have a shot of my own baby in my phone. I guess it's about time...

Funnily enough,  it "only" takes another person to snap a picture of Spud using her iPhone, of which then she willingly shoved it to me without me having to ask for it. No, actually, come to think of it, she insisted that I have it and could I please have at least ONE picture in my mobile phone.

That's Spud and her "Huh?!"  curious-looking face.

I guess it was not a bad picture after all.

Uproar in SG

I'm a few days late behind this one, but I reckon the recent news of LKY urging Muslims to be "less strict" may have caused quite a bit of an uproar within the local communities.

When I read the article though, I thought it was a little bit out of line...especially when it comes from a very well-respected man of a high stature.

I am not about to comment on the grounds of religion as I think that is something extremely personal. What anyone does with their own interpretation of God is between the individual and God alone. Whether the fellow Muslims want to exercise how strict they want to be in practising the religion is not for me to judge.

What appalled and caught me off-guard, as well as had me shaking my head were the following quotes:

1. "A poll says 90 percent of Chinese Singaporeans say they will elect a non-Chinese as PM. Yes, this is the ideal. You believe these polls? Utter rubbish. They say what is politically correct," he stated.

I cannot believe he said that! I mean, this was the guy who used to preach racial harmony, and as a nation, we grew up learning to respect the beliefs and traditions of those who are different from us - "regardless of language, race and religion" to quote from our pledge. While I still do believe racism still exists deep beneath the surface of the society to a certain extend, such words from a man of influence should never come out of his mouth. It becomes a means to propagate racism. What he said will, in my mind, further instigate already the deep-seated issue of Racism. It will very well slight the presence of minority Malays, Indians and those defined as "others".

What he effectively had said is that, unless you are a Chinese (and I guess that includes those from the Republic of China who become a Singapore citizen ), there is no space for you to be a PM.

That is just very unhealthy.

2. He also defended the policy of promoting marriage between highly-educated Singaporeans, a policy seen by critics as a form of social engineering, and dismissed the notion of love at first sight.


"People get educated, the bright ones rise, they marry equally well-educated spouses. The result is their children are likely to be smarter than the children of those who are gardeners," he said.

"It's a fact of life. You get a good mare, you don't want a dud stallion to breed with your good mare. You get a poor foal."

This, to me is very disheartening. It tipped the big insult scale more than anything else. I resent the fact that he thought "children of those who are gardeners' " cannot be any smarter than the "highly-educated" ones. If everyone thinks like that and actually embraced what he said, I wonder what kind of society we will be breeding as our future generations. (I see snooty, ill-mannered, selfish, social retards). It is an unjust sweeping statement.

I personally do think that the job of a gardener is NOT less noble. In fact, the likelyhood of a gardener's child actually working harder to get himself educated to earn the priviledge would potentially make him a better human being, Or that this gardener child could be a "highly-educated" individual who just chose to be a gardener. Either way, it hardly makes this person or his future brood less intelligent, me-thinks. If anything, more deserving. Being smart is subjective.

I respect that man for building Singapore as to where it is now, but I cannot subscribe to his values and ideals. At this point, it feels wrong. I can see how his speech will become a cause for concern for it will spark off a greater divide between race and religion, rather than bridging the gap.

For now, I choose to ignore it. It is hard to take a smart old man, given his current age at present, too seriously.

I am a bad mom

I am probably not the most baby-crazy mom I know. That being said, I am simply not the kind of person to rave about my baby, offering to show everyone her pictures or volunteer information about me and my life in a casual everyday conversation especially with an acquaintance or a stranger I just met. I don’t even do this with my friends, unless they specifically asked for it.

I’m with the notion of why would anybody be interested in my baby? My baby is a cranky pooper-trooper like everyone else’s and it’s like the most boring topic ever!But I digress from my story.

Recently though, a few business-related acquaintances asked me about Spud. And true to its form, they wanted to see a picture of her.

Guess what! I don’t have anything to show for it as there and then, I realised that when I am away from my laptop and digital camera, I actually do not have a single picture of Spud in my phone!

No, ma’am.
Not a single one.
Just only a few of my cats, and perhaps just one of Silver Bullet’s.
Him together with the cats, actually.
And perhaps, some photos of food I'm eating taken mainly for my blog,

And I'm ashamed to admit that I don't really like putting up her photos on the wallpaper of my desktop for the world to see.

For that, I got supremely funny looks. They all must have thought I am weird. After all, what kind of mother doesn’t have a picture of their precious child in their phone?

Yikes! Don’t ask me why I don’t have any pictures of Spud in my phone, I just don’t. Is that really a bad thing?

I do know that I don't love her any less, though! :D

My Sister's Keeper

So I am about a few years late.

The only reason I bought this book was because of the rave I heard about the author. I just had to find out for myself what the rave was all about, and so decided to pick up this very title out of sheer randomness on one of my book-shopping spree a long while back. (I also heard that the author tend to go for heart-breaking and gut-wrenching content)

I must have had this book for at least a good 3 years by now, but somehow have never been compelled to read it. I would inevitably wound up fishing for other books instead.

It has obviously been collecting dust on the shelf for quite some time, and since Spud came along, I hardly ever had time to do any reading at all. That is, until last week when I had a small window of opportunity to read while on a flight to upcountry on a work-trip for a day.

The book was a pretty easy read, with a story of a young girl who was conceived and genetically engineered to save her sister’s life. Her mother is hell-bent on not losing her sick child; her father is struggling to do ‘the right thing”, her brother is quite the rebel in the family, while this young girl is trying to define her being within the family and her “outside” life.

I did think the book was average initially. For a while I did not think the book was as poignant as other readers made it out to be. The gut-wrenching sadness I have heard about eluded me as I was reading the book…until I got towards the end. Without giving too much away, I must say that the ending came as a shocking surprise.

So unexpected the ending was, that when I started reading those sentences in the book towards the end, I actually had to pause, put the book down and take in a deep breath just to take in all the moment which happened in a split second. As soon as my eyes glazed over those words, I had this huge lump in my throat. Tears rolled down my eyes soon after

[I kind of feel cheated though…I mean, I was cruise-reading for several days, a few sections at a time; all the time thinking there’s nothing so sad or powerful in the way it was being written, and then BAM! I crumbled just like that]

I guess I would not understand the big hullabaloo behind this book had I not been a parent myself (probably the reason why I put off reading the book for so long).

I know that this book is made into a movie. However, I don’t think I’m going to watch it as, apart from the fact that I don’t really like Cameron Dias, I somehow think that movies tend to  always bring great injustice to the content of the book.


*Image from Google Images

Why mothers kiss their babies

I stumbled upon this (of what I thought as an interesting) article by sheer randomness. It was nicely written, and I didn't see the need to try to re-write it as my own:

“There's a natural, instinctual phenomenon among, not just humans, but all mammals to kiss or lick their babies faces. This seems normal, right? After all, we love our babies! But all mammals? Do they really understand the societal connection between loving someone and slobbering all over them? Maybe, but the fact is, they do this, they have the instinct to do this, because they make milk.

You probably know that breast milk contains antibodies. You probably also know that it can contain antibodies tailored to germs the baby is exposed to because the mother makes antibodies against germs she's been exposed to, and since moms and babies spend so much time together, these are typically the same germs their babies are exposed to. But what happens if your baby is exposed to germs you haven't been? These germs, if they're going to make your baby sick, would be entering through the mouth or nose. So the rational thing to do, of course, is to ingest a sampling of the germs on your baby's face so your body can start to make antibodies to those germs! Or maybe it doesn't seem that rational, which is why the instinct is there. So all you have to think is "Awww, you're so cute. I'm gonna kiss your cute little nose!" Betcha didn't know that kiss could be protecting your child from illness!”

Source: Live Journal

Well,as it turned out, I didn't know either!

Egg tart

KFC Thailand has recently launched their version of egg tarts.

Who would have thought that KFC would go for such a thing. I mean, fried chicken and tarts are like 2 worlds apart and egg tarts would be the last thing I associate KFC with! But lo and behold! There they go producing egg-tarts in massive numbers, selling them at 25 baht per piece. Could it be a chicken and egg situation? We live in a funny little tartlet world.

To be fair, they taste pretty yummy, and in my opinion, taste quite similar to the Portuguese Egg Tarts I used to be crazy about.

It is of no surprise that these egg tarts are now in my repertoire of must have food. At this stage, I just can’t have enough of them. They are so heavenly and check out the top; all crusted out ala Crème Brûlée.

I know I always have the tendency of over-eating something I like way too much. I wonder how long before I’ll get all egg-tarted out.

Thai names

One of my new staff goes by the name of “Meaw”.

Now, I never really thought much about that when I hired her, but when I started calling out her name, I felt that it sounded kind of weird to my ears; especially if I have to call out to her several times from my desk. (She is not seated too far away from me, but sometimes I am too lazy to walk over as I need her to come over to my desk and see what I have on my screen).

The name does not mean anything in Thai, apparently ( I asked!).  It just means meow;  like a cat’s meow. So, try calling  “Meaw” out loud for about 3 times to get her attention.

Then I had a retarded thought – my cats all meow, but they each have a name! How bizarre is it to be calling a human “meow”?

Thais and their nicknames, I swear!

Sleeping Through the Night

[Silver Bullet was not too keen with my plan of sleep training Spud initially but he went along (uncomfortably) with me on this one in his support to *try* to get Spud to sleep through the night. Luckily for Silver Bullet (or for me!), he had to go on a business trip on the 3rd night of our sleep-training session. And so, he was pretty much spared the doses of Spud crying bloody murder and the intensity of her heart-wrenching wails]

The decision to embark on this technique, officially called “controlled crying”, was nothing but a calculated one based on my own observation in demystifying Spud's cues.  Indeed, I am aware that this may sound brutal and that there are people who may strongly disapprove what I ventured. However, while it might not work for (or approved by) everyone, I certainly can attest that it worked for us. Hence, I am just sharing what I did, and I hope I will not be judged for my (lack of) parenting skills in getting my child to sleep through the night.

Let’s just start with a list of essential ingredients:

• A bagful of persistence
• A ladle of consistency
• Truckloads of patience
• Sheer willpower the size of Mount Everest
• A dash of heart-wrenching sobs in between
• Sprinkles of hope to get through (the night)

Night #1
Spud was in bed before 7pm per her usual bedtime routine.

She was given a smaller feed where we just shove a bottle with about 60-70 ml of breast milk while she was still asleep at 8pm and a big feed (about 120 ml) at 10.30pm before we hit the sack.

At exactly 1.30 am, she cried. It was agreed that Silver Bullet was to ignore her cries and not pick her up immediately. I let her whimper for about a minute or so and then went to her cot to pat her, stroke her back gently and shushing her till she calmed down. About 5 minutes later, she went back to sleep. No feed.

She kept this up till about 3.30 am every 10 minutes. Every time she whimpered, I let her cry a little bit more before going over to her cot and did the same thing. (and oh! My back!) No picking her up. No feed. And each time, she calmed down and went back to sleep.

It was tiring, but also encouraging that she was able to get back to sleep with the way I was comforting her. (That surprised Silver Bullet to no end. If only you can see his surprised reaction each time she went back to sleep after I tried calming her down!)

At 5am, she started crying again. This time a loud angry cry which sounded like a hungry cry. I nursed her and after a good proper feed, she was lulled back to sleep.

She woke up crying again at 6am and after another feed, she went limp and continued slumbering. She finally woke up at 7.30 am, smiling away when she saw me. I gave her big slobbering kiss!

She was in a pretty good mood throughout the day, and showed no signs of distress from last night’s ordeal.

Night #2
Continued giving her the 8.30 pm and 10.30pm feed.

At 3 am (this was extremely encouraging! 3 am, not 1.30 am (!) since she last went to bed at 7pm and her last feed was at 10.30pm!!), she started her cries, and we repeated what we did the night before. When she wouldn’t stop, we would let her cry and then go over to her every 10 minutes and leave her again. Both Silver Bullet and I took turns to calm her. She finally went down after 45 minutes.

At 4.30 am, she let out a real loud hunger cry. Convinced she was hungry after a 6 hour stretch, I nursed her and she walloped everything in 15 minutes before going into a deep slumber.

She woke up at 6am for another feed and ready to start the day.

Night #3 (The night Silver Bullet was out of town)
Last feed at 10.40 pm.

This time, she “woke” up at 4.am where she fussed a little. I was able to calm her down doing what I did in the last few days. No feed.

She went down at 4.40 am and slept though till 6.30 am!

I can’t help but gave her a big cuddle, and loads of slobbery kisses before I nurse her in the morning,

Night #4

Last feed at 10.30pm. No fuss.No whimper. No feed. (Extremely encouraging!)

She slept thru till 5.15am with a hunger wail. I fed her, she fell back to sleep and woke up 2 hours later!

Night #5
Last feed at 10.30pm

She fussed a little at 2.30 am but managed to get herself to sleep soon after. I did not even have the time get out of bed to soothe her.

At 4 am and 5 am subsequently,  she started whinging and whining in her sleep. Both times, I let her whimper herself to sleep while I kept vigil in my own bed.

She slept pretty soundly thereafter, but I thought I’d wake her up at 6am for a feed. She took it all and fed ravenously.

Night #6
Still last feed at 10.30pm.

At 1.30 am, she started fussing away intermittently for an hour before falling back to sleep.

No feed.

She seemed restless throughout the night, whimpering constantly. She then went full blast at 3 am and somehow, my technique of calming her down did not work very well this time. Nothing I did could calm her down as she wailed her loudest wails in angry, ear piercing screams.

This little imp threw me a curveball again. I thought the last few days went pretty well! What happened?!

I bade goodbye to having some decent sleep and after about 45 minutes, I teetered on the brink. This time I felt the strain.

I was alone, I was tired and I was a wrecked. (and I have an 8 am training to start my day the next day. Super fantastic!)

My back suffered and it felt like it was breaking in two as I had to bend over to her cot over prolonged period of time so I could comfort her without picking her up.  I cried along as Spud cried. I was a total mess and I was almost convinced I could never ever get her to sleep through the night. I thought I had failed and I am such a bad mother for starving my child at night!

I almost buckled and little voices in my head told me I should just frickin' feed her. At the same time, another voice told me that we have come this far --- I had no reason to bail now since she emerged unscathed in the last few days. (Yes. I tend to talk to myself alot these days!). In my mind,  if this had worked before, it can work again. I had to persevere.

She continued fussing, whining and crying. I continued the soothing, the comforting and (my) sobbing. She did this for 2 whole hours till 5.30 am.

I changed her nappy instead and battled through her cries till she went limp.

At 6 am, she woke up and breastfed for a good 20 minutes. She greeted me with her megawatt smile. ( I could offer a weary smile back, eyes barely open, exhausted as hell!)

Night #7 (The night Silver Bullet came home)

She slept through till 2.30 am. We left her to her fussing which lasted 20 minutes while I kept vigil in our own bed. She continued sleeping till 6am, woke up for a feed and slept again.

She finally was wide awake at 7am. Still flashing me her contagious toothless grins.

Night #8

Another curveball. She decided to fuss every hour from 1am – 3am. No crying. Just fussing away. So we left her to her fussing again before giving her a change of diaper.

At 5.30 am, I fed her as she woke herself up with a hunger cry. She finally woke up at 6.30 am after falling back to sleep from her last feed.

Night #9

Fussed for about 10 minutes at 1.40 am and 4 am - No feed!

6.30 am - Wake. Feed. Sleep.

Full alert at 7 am. All smiles!

Night #10
Slept thru till 6.20 am!

(She had a 4th month vaccination the day before, so I wondered if that was the reason she slept through)

Night #11
Slept through till 6.15am!

Night #12 onwards (until now more than a month later)
Despite small whimpers at least 2x a night, she manages to get herself back to sleep without any intervention from us and only waking up at 6 am for a feed. (She may or may not go back to sleep after her first morning feed)

We were on to a nice start. She is finally able to sleep through the night!

This took us all, but almost two weeks of perseverance.

It was also at this time (12th day onwards) that I started wondering if our upcoming trip to Singapore then may just screw up her sleeping through the night routine (strange place, strange bed). Fortunately for us, she kept it up and since then, she pretty much manages to get through the night without any feed.

Fast forward today, she fusses less and less at night, waking up earliest at 5.30 am for her first feed of the day (of which usually, I will nurse her and then put her back in her cot and she’ll go back to sleep again for at least another half an hour - Spud permitting). Other times, she is able to sleep though till 7.30 am.

So, is everything all fine and dandy now that we get Spud to sleep through the night and we finally have uninterrupted sleep at night? Well, not entirely as she still has her bouts of night waking from being stuck in the bars of the cot or perhaps, a nightmare.

Call me paranoid, but what you don’t know is that I have also seen her smiling her cheeky grins in her sleep (I’m not making this up!) and I reckon she might already have some tricks up her sleeve, too.

This method is certainly not foolproof. I’m sure she’ll be throwing us another curveball sometime soon!

Pumping Ritual

With Spud being so predictably unpredictable, it did take a while for me to establish some sort of routine. The clock literally revolves around her. Being the early riser that she is, I know that 10 minutes of her waking up too early is enough to screw up the entire morning routine. It was a lot of trial and error on my part to get some sense of “our-things-to-do” in the morning before I can even begin to start having some form of ritual so I won’t end up being late for work!

As a result, my morning is nothing short of a mad scramble. It is usually a case of me “beating her to it”. Loosely explained - I’m forever rushing to get me ready first and foremost before she wakes up for the day!

Ideally, I’d like to get up at 6.30 am where I’ll first shower and get myself ready before moving on to prepare her bath (all in takes about 25 minutes). Then I’ll breast feed her while Silver Bullet showers. Once Silver Bullet is done, Spud would have been awake and Silver Bullet will take over to bathe her, while I pump the remaining leftover milk for my stash. We’ll get her ready for when our Nanny arrives to take over by 7.30 am.

But, this is Spud we are talking about and there is no such thing as ideal. She wakes up anytime between 5.30 am – 7 am and like I said, my mornings are such mad scramble.

The real Monday-Friday deal goes more or less like this:

Alarm goes off at 6.10am. No more snoozing like I used to. Instead, I rush to the shower and get myself dressed.

If she wakes up while I am showering, Silver Bullet will pick her up and put her in our bed to distract her. (she usually is all smiley in the morning). After I’m done showering and sometime semi-properly clothed (depending on her wails), I will then breastfeed her first. This is Silver Bullet’s cue to go shower. Once Silver Bullet is done, he will prepare her bath to bathe her and take over from me.

By then, half an hour would have passed us by and it’s my turn to pump and do all the things I need to do with pumping and creating the very first stash of the day.

[If she wakes up wailing away at 5.30 am, we will either try to get her to go back to sleep, or I ended up breastfeeding her first. Chances are, if she gets the breast, she’ll fall back to sleep for another half hour before I begin my mad scramble to “beat her to it”]

Sometimes, Spud does not want to immediately feed when she wakes up before our alarm goes off, preferring to first play and snuggle with us in bed before we have the chance to get ourselves ready. This is when we take turns to shower and mind the baby.

I will usually pump at the same time while minding her while waiting for Silver Bullet, Once Silver Bullet is done (he takes longer shower than I do!), he will go on to prepare her bath while I shower. I will then attempt to breast feed her again before I go off to work, otherwise she’ll have to have the bottle. (I’m beginning to wonder if she really prefers the bottle now).

Like I said – mornings are a mad scramble. They are hardly ever consistent, and very much dependent on when and how Spud prefers to wake up that day. I can’t remember how I managed when Silver Bullet was out of town, but somehow I just did!

Things are a little more predictable once we walk out of the door. For the rest of the day, I’ll just pump every 3-4 hours:

Once at 10.30 am

Another time at around 2 pm

Depending on the quantity from the last pump, I sometimes do another short session at 5.30pm.

I’ll breastfeed Spud when I get home before she goes to bed and so will skip one pumping session. If she can’t wait till I get back, I’ll pump when I’ve put her to bed.

My last pump for the day is usually around 10 pm, coinciding with her last feed at 10.30pm.

While we wrap up the day with sterilizing all my pumping equipment (Silver Bullet is such a gem helping me with washing the bottles and sterilizing my stuff!), I can’t help but think what kind of morning will be in store for us the next day.

We seem to live in Spud’s world of constant wonder. How our day turns out is always a surprising mystery.

Jamie Oliver

This TV personality apparently is worth a cool £65million despite his more than generous charity work!

I like Jamie Oliver. I like him even more after reading this article.

Despite his popularity and wealth, he seems just like the boy next door. He also seems so down to earth, and I admire his commitment to his believes concerning food. I applaud his cause on Jamie's School Dinner and Food Revolution. I can imagine it is not an easy task.

I wonder if he is ever interested in the type of amateurish food I cook-up in my humble home. (I can dream right!) They might not be the healthiest, but at least they are home-cooked. At least I know what goes into my food, and while I admit they may not be the healthiest sometimes, they certainly are not as bad as buying food from outside which is usually made from a whole lot of junk.

But I digress.

Parenting "Chinese-style"

This article on "Why Chinese Mothers are Superior" left me dumbfounded.

Now, I am all for tough love parenting style, but I am not sure if I could ever subscribe to such a high-handed manner such as that. It is a little bit too extreme in my opinion, leaving a bad taste in my mouth. To term it "superior" is a little too over-rated as well (and by whose standards?) This is definitely a classic case of an over-achiever in the making.

I think it really is OKAY if my child does not play at the Carnegie Hall at any point in her life, unless of course, she desperately wants to herself. (Of which, she'd have to work hard for it). I don't ask for much, just an honest, happy, healthy child will do.

Either that, The Wall Street Journal is just trying to stir up some controversy to get more hits on their website.

Sayur Lodeh

One of my favourite vegetable dishes is the Sayur Lodeh, a gravy for lontong (rice cakes), although I much prefer it to be eaten with rice (I'm not lontong's biggest fan). It is some sort of a vegetable medley...a coconut based vegetable stew which is quite popular in Singapore, Malaysia as well as Indonesia.

The recipe I have is taken off the Asian Cookbook, but true to being me, I have to modify it. The original recipe requires the use of shrimp paste (belachan) as well as small dried shrimps, which, had I use it in any of my dish, Silver Bullet will definitely avoid it like a plague! And because I modify it as I go along, I might , once in awhile miss some ingredients...

Anyhow, here's my version without the use of any shrimps/shrimp paste if you are willing to give it a go.

Ingredients:

• 4 red fresh chillies, sliced
• ½” turmeric root or ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 5 shallots, sliced
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder
• 1 (pref. beef) stock cube
• 500 ml very thin coconut milk
• 1 slice galangal root, bruised
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 carrot, cubed
• 1 cabbage, sliced
• Tofu, cubed (lightly fried)
• Long beans, sliced
• Mung bean vermicelli
• ½ teaspoon brown sugar
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. Blend chillies, tumeric,garlic, shallots and coriander powder. Set aside.
2. Heat oil and fry the blended ingredients until browned and fragrant.
3. Add in the stock cube. Then the coconut milk, galangal and bay leaf.
4. Stir and bring to boil.
5. Add in the vegetables in the order they require cooking (in this case, carrot, long beans, mung bean vermicelli and toufu)
6. Add sugar and salt to taste.Return to boil. Add water if you want a thinner soup.
7. Serve hot with rice.

Baby swimming

Spud started her very first swimming lesson last Saturday at the Bangkok Dolphin's Infant Centre.

My first thought of putting her to a swimming class was what kind of diapers would she need? I mean, what if she pees or worse, poops in the pool?! Especially when her current diaper ain't that all waterproof! A question I asked Silver Bullet of which he did not have an answer to at that time.

I guess the Baby Swimming Centre must have had dozens of questions like that before. It was of no surprise that when I asked them about it, I was told that I could easily get swimming diapers from them. Besides, (apparently!) babies don't normally do a pooper while they are in the water. (I did not quite buy that as Spud has done a few poopers in her baby bathtub as she was being bathed at the same time).

It turned out that the swimming centre would only allow Huggies Little Swimmers diapers in their pool (this was plastered boldly on the signboard) and interestingly, we were told that we could re-use those diapers up to 2-3x! (I didn't know that)

Given my not-so-high level of confidence when in the water, it was decided that Silver Bullet would have to pick up my slack on this one . He obviously did not mind it all. In fact, he thoroughly enjoyed the session with Spud. Spud on the other hand, seemed a little unsure if she actually liked it or not. But if she had not liked it, then she definitely did not show for it.

What struck me most was how energetic the Infant's Swimming Instructor was. He was a bountiful of energy --- he was singing, he was bouncing, he was talking, he was splashing and he was engaging with both babies and parents as well, throughout the entire time. And get this: he was doing back-to-back classes, easily for a 2 full solid hour. I reckon, he must have at least a few more classes to go after our class ended. It was like he was on a constant sugar high. Either that, or he's got himself a lifetime supply of a supercharged, rechargeable Duracell batteries injected into him.

My juices could never have lasted that long.

I'm looking forward to the next class as I'm excited to see how Spud progresses. For now, I'm happy to watch Spud learn how to swim with her Papa from the sidelines.

I think I'll need a little bit more confidence to get into that pool with a baby in my hands, as I don't want to pass on my nervousness to Spud. I don't think I'll do her a whole lot of favour if I were to do that. In this case, she really is better off with her dad.

Road Rage

The recent road rage shooting fired by an SUV on a Bangkok motorway reminded me of a near-harrowing incident on one of our trips back to Bangkok from a weekend getaway a few years ago. Thinking about it still sends shivers down my spine.

It was sometime in the early afternoon, and Silver Bullet was cruising at an acceptable, but leisurely speed on a highway heading towards Bangkok when suddenly, a beat up pick-up truck started tailgating us. It was not a very busy road that day, but somehow, this little prick of a pick-up decided to also start driving dangerously, zig-zagging in and out of the lane in which we were in. They were cutting corners and over-taking dangerously. It almost seemed like they had a death wish.

They were at it for a while, almost causing Silver Bullet to crash onto them.  That was when a super annoyed Silver Bullet (and a very stressed out me sitting next to him!) flashed his headlights and honked rather loudly at them. Within seconds, the driver overtook us and the 2 guys who were sitting at the back of the pick-up truck gave us angry stares, ready to fight. As a passenger sitting next to Silver Bullet, I saw everything clearly as the pick-up was not driving too far from us. We were probably less than a meter apart.

I recalled that one of them started to quickly rummaged for something from underneath his side, his enraged stares never quite leaving us  I was unsure of what was happening, but soon enough, the other guy sitting next to him was seen, almost as quickly, trying to restrain the other guy by putting his hand on the other guy's hand. All that time, Guy #2, was making a "calm down gesture" to the other guy who seemed adamant to  want to retrieve something from where he was.

It was at that point that my heart started palpitating, convinced that he was about to pull something on us.For all I knew, he was about to pull out a gun and get trigger happy at us while we were still driving.

That image and action threw me off and I shrieked to Silver Bullet in horror to slow down and lose them. I must have said it a hundred times in 2 seconds. I was not sure if Silver Bullet saw what I saw at that time,  as Silver Bullet's main concern then was making sure that he was still driving safely and checking his mirrors and his blind spots amidst such an encounter with frickin' morons of the nation.

I was, on the other hand, scared shitless.

It is after all, Thailand and we all know too well what could happen if one offends a Thai - even if the person in question was clearly in the wrong.

I could not imagine, for the life of me what might have happened if...and all I could think at that time was for us to lose them. And quickly. I don't think I have ever felt so scared in my life before. I was still quite traumatised way after we lost them.

That was when I realise: In Thailand, life is cheap.

Finally, a nursery!

We did it.

All it took was less than 2 hours over one weekend in the last month to get rid of one bed in the guest room, stick a cot in there, re-arrange the furniture a little, plaster on some instant colourful pictures on the empty wall and voila! The long-awaited nursery is done.

While Spud started out in our room in her own cot when we left the hospital (frequent night nursing and new parents anxiety as main reasons), we did have every intention to move her into her own bedroom at a later stage.

And now, 5 months later, the deed is done. We think the time has come for her to get acquainted with her own room so her parents can finally have some privacy. It is also especially timely since we have been able to get her to sleep through the night sometime last month (Yay! Yay! Yay!)

Now, Spud has a room to call her own. Or should I say, now Spud finally has a room to call her own after her parents spent months and months procrastinating doing up her nursery, simply because they could not be bothered.

Actually, more my fault than Silver Bullet’s! [Silver Bullet was more excited than I was about doing up a proper nursery] In fact, I shoulder all the blame as despite the incessant nagging I got from Aunty Antsy who kept bugging me about Spud’s nursery since my 2nd trimester of pregnancy, I somehow just could not find the motivation to do it. The thought of other parents spending a lot of effort, not to mention tons of money for the baby’s nursery is beyond me. It was just  too tedious to put into action. Simply put, I just could not be bothered to start decorating the room.

But Spud’s sleeping through the night (on most nights) in the last month was a big factor to have her move out of our room. Hence, we finally got on to our arses and did it!

In fact, we both were pleasantly surprised at how well the room turned out (by our standards, of course) with such a minimalist approach to the interior design. I am really proud of our work. Proud that they were all done in record’s time! Prouder still (and dare I say) that her room actually does look and feel super cozy. It actually looks like a proper room – more proper than our boring master bedroom!

Me being the half glass empty person was initially expecting some drama from Spud with the room switch – at least in the first few days. However, I am glad to say that there were no violent meltdowns during the transition.

Apart from screaming her head off in the very first morning she woke up alone in a strange room, she has otherwise been able to act civil by falling asleep rather quickly when she was tucked in after her daily bedtime ritual. It has now been almost a month of Spud sleeping on her own, and it does seem like she is getting used to her sleeping and waking up in her own room.

Some mornings, she wakes up without a peep and when we finally enter her room, she would be on her stomach, cooing away while flashing you her brightest megawatt smile.

While it may appear kindergarten to some (I mean, what is the big deal of moving a baby to another room when she is not supposed to be in the same room in the first place, right?), for us, her moving to another room and away from us at night marked an achievement. For us, it depicted more than just baby steps - it was another milestone into parenthood. (Hey! What do you know...we grew up too! :D)

I have to say though, while we both are glad to have our privacy back, and some nights, a break from the usually broken sleeps, we, in fact do miss having her around in our room!

Strange what parenthood does to such fragile human beings like us.

Here's a peek of our handiwork:

Ok. It's a frickin' zoo alright. Nothing girly. And that's the way (aha aha) I like it (aha aha).

Quote of the Day

"A baby? A motherfucking rolly-poly, chubby, cheeked, shit machine? Are you kidding me?"

" I've never heard it described in quite those words before, but yeah"

Quote taken off "Dexter" - Episode: The Lion Sleeps Tonight (2008)

Simply hilarious!

(I apologise for the use of vulgarity here, but I did not feel like it is right to mess with the original scripting...)

Sitting up

If Spud can talk...

Ok. So that loony woman made me sit up.



:

:

:

:

:

(15 seconds later) Ooooooh...I'm still sitting up!

:

:

:

:

:

(10 seconds later) Hmmm...losing a bit of equilibrium here

:

:

:

:

:

 

Uh Oh...

:

:

:

:

:

I'm trying, I'm trying but I think I'm...

:

:

:

:

:

Thud! What now.



 Ah! She tried.

And I'm just having a blast watching her different expressions in trying to stay upright.

Getting into the groove of pumping

There were so many different tips and advice from the internet on creating stash of expressed milk with a breast pump when I was due to go back to work that I got all confused and muddleheaded when I first embarked on this journey.

I first tried to work out the routine in my head but for some reason, it was almost impossible to mind-map and visualised it. I am hardly a gut-feel person, but in this case, I really just went with my gut to see what works for me.

It took me a few days to get the stash going while I continue to breastfeed exclusively. Basically, these were the things I did:

• Pump both breasts after each and every feeding session for 10 – 15 minutes. Hence, if Spud feeds every hour, I’d pump every hour after the feed to empty off the breast. (It was one of the most tiring things I have ever done and I felt like I was forever pumping). If I remember correctly, it took me at least a week to create enough supply to last for one day at the beginning of my pumping career.  
• As dumb as this may sound, getting Spud back on the bottle was one of the most important (and most difficult!) thing to do! .Once Spud took the bottle like a champ, I replaced the day feeding with a bottle of expressed breast milk.
• However, I made sure that I pumped in tandem (within the hour) every time Spud was being bottle-fed. It took me almost another week to collect and gauge the amount of milk Spud needs on daily basis vs. my pumped volume.
• I recorded everything – how much Spud fed from the bottle, and how much I pumped per time. ( I swear I never was this schizo or so anal retentive!) 
• During this time, I continued nursing her at night.
• As soon as a one day supply was established, I stopped pumping in tandem at every time she fed. Instead, I pumped 6x-8x a day (almost every 2 hours) up to 10 minutes thereafter (I usually don’t have the patience to last 15 minutes!), to ensure that we have adequate supply for the day when I am away at work.
• Gradually, I reduced the number of pumping session to 4x-5x (every 4 hours) per day – which is currently enough to last Spud for the time that I am gone. Now that the supply is established, I have a separate routine to ensure the continuity of supply as well as giving Spud some boob time.

The above start-up routine however, does not allow me to have a freezer full of frozen milk. This is because I work on the concept of pumping today for tomorrow’s stash. It works for me since I personally prefer that Spud gets a fresh supply every time without having to freeze it first. Not only does freezing take a longer time to thaw (and Spud is not the kind of baby who would patiently wait for her milk without screaming your ears off!), I was also told by the lactation consultant that more nutrients will be lost from thawed frozen milk.

Essentially, I work on the ideals of fresh is best. Besides, Spud has rejected thawed frozen milk quite a few times before. I suspected she does not really like the taste very much as (mostly according to Silver Bullet) they do taste a little different!

It helps that I started on this at least a month before I went back to work.

I only have 2 days worth of expressed milk supply – none of them is being frozen. They are good to keep for 3 days and I try to contain the freshness by keeping them in a sealed container.

Pumping is a part-time job I sometimes wish I didn’t have! I caould never have imagine this to be my life and that it did take some time to get things going, and then little bit more to get used to the extra work I have to do just so my kid gets her nourishment.

This is when I thank the breast pump I now have for making pumping so much more bearable!

I have heard of new moms having to pump only 2x a day while at work and apparently, that is enough. They must really have a lot of milk, for I can never get enough supply after just 2 pumping sessions!

The body is again truly amazing! Each time I look at my own produce (and at the risk of sounding like a true bimbo), I still have a hard time registering that the quantity of bodily fluids I pump out  is actually enough to feed my child. She is actually growing just from my milk and that is all she ever needs in  her 6 months of her life. Isn't that just truly awesome!

Quote of the Day

"Life is a divine chaos. Embrace it"

Demystifying Cues

While I know that every baby is different, I can’t help but feel envious when I hear of other mothers saying that their babies have been sleeping through the night since they were born. Or, that their newborns start sleeping through the night when they get to about 8 weeks old. It made me all hopeful at one stage that just one fine day, (in my mind, latest, latest by 12 weeks old), Spud too, will sleep through the night just like any other babies.

That hope quickly disappeared as at 3 months old, Spud was still showing no signs of being able to sleep through the night. She was still waking up and crying up to 3x a night for a feed. I mean, no matter what time we dream-feed her before midnight, she would, without fail wake up and cry between 1.30am – 2.30 am and another time between 3.30am -4.30 am every night. She really can't be THAT hungry as she was fed once at 8.30 pm and then another time at 10.30pm!

It took me a while but it was only later (at about the 3.5 months mark ) that I suspected Spud could just be waking up in the middle of the night out of habit.

I soon realised there was a pattern. Up until 3.5 months, we were conditioned that each and every cry in the middle of the night had meant that Spud was hungry and needed a feed. And so, we went on an autopilot mode:

Spud cry.
Silver Bullet picked her up from her cot, passed her on to me.
I feed.
Passed her back to Silver Bullet to put her back in her cot when she was done feeding.
And we all zonked out again till the next cry about 2-3 hours later.

We were doing this however many times that were required throughout the night; conditioned to think that she was hungry.

One other cue I had leading me to suspect she was doing it out of habit was that night feeds became sloppy – she did not latch on properly, preferring to suckle lightly and then she would fall right back to sleep within less than 5 minutes of feeding. Most times, she fussed at the breast without properly feeding for more than 10 minutes, and even after checking that everything was alright (dry diaper, no gas or tummy ache), she will be in a half asleep mode and it will take us another hour or so for her to fall back to sleep.

That meant more broken sleep and certainly not a great start to an intense work day at the office the next day. Her habitual night waking was driving me insane! I was sleep deprived, I was perpetually tired, I was irritable and I was stressed from the sheer multitude of broken sleeps. It was a feat to get myself through to lunch, let alone for the entire day. I’ve got crazy people to deal with and it all became too intense to bear. I could hardly be described as a functional human being.

I thought about it for a while. If anything, they seem to be cues for me to start doing something about it before I go mental. It was then I decided to embark on little bit of tough love by "sleep-training" her sometime end November last year.

It was hard, it was exhausting (emotionally and physically), and it was heart-wrenching.

Only after 2 intensive weeks did we manage to stop the night feeds. The fussing at night still happens from time to time, but at least the broken night sleeps were minimised.  Spud has shown that she is capable of waking up till the next morning between 6 am – 7.30 am, (on some occasions 5.30 am!) usually with a little cry to let us know she is ready for the day. As soon as she opens her eyes and see our faces, she’ll go all wide-eyed and bushy-tail again --- ready to take on the day with as little naps as possible to keep her parents/nanny occupied!

Spud is quite a piece of work in the day, but I’ll take that anytime over the frequent night wakings and broken sleeps.

Watch this space for more "brutal" details on doing away with night feeding in our attempt to get Spud to sleep through the night.

5 minutes chocolate cake

The microwaved chocolate cake recipe came through my inbox courtesy of Vicvanvinkle whom , in my books, has upped the ante in baking. She has, single-handedly perfected the art of laziness in baking in its purest form! I like! :D

I'm no expert but I'm a big believer of doing things from scratch (ok, so I admit I'm a retarded cooking snob) .I just believe they taste better. In this case, that means I'd rather work with proper baking time using a conventional oven. But, out of curiosity I might just try this instant 5-minute cake one of these days.

Here is the recipe if you are curious and want to give it a go:

Ingredients:

• 1 large coffee mug (Vicvanvinkle used a ceramic soup bowl)
• 4 tablespoons plain flour (do not use self-rising)
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons baking cocoa
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
• Small splash of vanilla
• Chocolate syrup (optional)
• Whipped topping (optional)
• Cherries (optional)

Directions:

1. Add dry ingredients to mug, & mix well .
2. Add egg & mix thoroughly.
3. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
4. Add chocolate chips (if using), vanilla, mix again.
5. Set mug in the microwave & cook for 2آ½ to 3 min at 1,000 watts.
6. Cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Some report that 2آ½ minutes works best. It depends upon your microwave. So, watch carefully to not over do it!
7. Remove from microwave.Allow cake to cool a little, then tip out onto a plate, if desired.
8. Drizzle with chocolate syrup and top with whipped topping and cherries, if desired!
9. This can serve 2 if you care to share!

Have fun trying, folks!

5 months

This is what some parts of Spud looked like when she was about 5 month (21 weeks old foetus) in my stomach...

Funnily enough, we could never get a good image of her whenever we did an ultrasound. She'll have her hands covering her face all the time, legs kicking and kicking,  making it impossible for our doctor to scan us a good image of her. All we knew throughout my 41+ weeks of pregnancy and told by Dr. Ah-Chai was that the baby has an egg-shaped head, big belly, long limbs and large feet.

When I described that very sentence to Aunt Antsy when she asked for ultrasound updates, she remarked that I just described an alien to her. She promptly sent me an image of one: blue in colour with one eye on the forehead! (Only good friends takes the piss out of you!)

At 5 months now, Spud is fortunately looking nothing like an alien. She's still considered rather large when compared to our neighbour's almost 7 months baby girl, but we know that she's healthy and getting to her baby milestones.

She can now sit (very) momentarily without assistance. She's got quite strong legs and able to stand pretty solidly for a while, and if she's supported from under her arms she'll bounce up and down. Everything she grabs goes into her mouth. Recently she's discovered that she can reach the tab of her diapers and pull them off every time she's being changed...and I realised I have started saying the word "No" more than necessary.

She's also taken to purposely coughing away just to get a reaction. Her squeals are getting louder and her toothless smiles, contagious. She is Spud at 5 months in flesh, and is enthusiastically learning something new everyday

I can't wait to go for her first swimming lesson and introduce her to solids in the next few weeks!

Small talk

Overhead Silver Bullet's morning chatter with Spud as he was bathing her :

"I've got a runny nose again. It is going to be running a lot. I hope it's not going too far; otherwise I'll have to find it again." 

All this said with a big huge smile in a sing-song manner, soft spoken voice while talking to a squirmy baby as he was about to start her morning bath routine. Raising an eyebrow, I literally had to do a double take and ask him to re-confirm the content of what he said after hearing what I thought I heard he said.

My husband has got a weird sense of humour.

Microwaved Chocolate Cake

Here's the low-down courtesy of Vicvanvinkle:

This is a microwaved Chocolate Cake in a Chinese Soup Bowl. All in 3 minutes!

It looked quite yummy that I was genuinely amazed and intrigued that this was baked in a microwave oven. I wonder if it takes a special type of microwave to bake a cake ( I 'm that outdated as I don't know of any microwave that has a baking function) or how much modification to the recipe is required for it to turn out like it did.

Now, that is what I call creativity!

Rollin' Good Times

Gone are the days when Spud hated to be on her tummy. These days, she would rather be on her tummy than in any other positions. The moment you put her down on a flat surface, she rolls over!

She rolls over when her diaper is being changed.

She rolls over when she’s being dry cleaned (i.e sponge bath)

She rolls over when she’s playing on her play mat.

She rolls over when we put her to sleep.

She even practices her rolling (and semi-crawling) in her sleep!

We have given up turning her over on her back every time we find her on her tummy when she’s fast asleep. She rolls around so much in her sleep that we never could find her in the same position as when we put her to bed. Most times of late, she wakes up crying in the middle of the night because she keeps getting her feet and/or arms stuck in between the bars of her cot! (I guess this is the bit where both parents and baby find annoying).

Now that she can roll, she painstakingly attempts to crawl. Basically, she just keeps on rollin’ and rollin’ and rollin’, arms and legs all over the place and uncoordinated while attempting to practice her new skills. She sometimes sleeps with her butt in the air and one knee on her stomach. You can tell she is trying really, really hard to master the skills!

Spud’s like an inchworm these days. She hardly can ever keep still!

Here are some shots from last weekend as we watched our little girl go red in the face from frustration in trying to inch her way round her little play mat island, and still not going anywhere!

Patience little girl, patience...

Small talk

A conversation with some random, but friendly stranger recently shed some light on the realities of life, when he, an expat currently living in Bangladesh exclaimed the following about the country he lives in:

“It's a public toilet!”

..is his take on how it is like to be living there.

I guess in that respect, we probably are better off in Bangkok.

That remark, accompanied with a matter-of-fact incredulous look on his face had me in stitches for a bit that I just have to share it.

Lunch and Babies

With the arrival of Spud and hardly having the time to cook anymore these days, I was rather bummed at the thought of not being able to do a cookout with some of our close friends for New Year’s Eve like we always do in the last few years.

While having the time to cook was one of the key issues, the other challenge was to actually find people to invite! I know that sound kind of pathetic, but, really, since a few (and I mean pathetically very few!)of our close friends have left the country in search of greener pastures, our circle of friends has sort of dwindled south since. Well, not that we have many to begin with, but, regardless of that, unlike the previous years, we have no one from abroad visiting us this time for me to find an excuse to have my big great cookout for close friends who are willing victims to devour some home-made dishes before we hit the town for a countdown party.

It has been a while since I go on my cooking frenzy and boy! do I miss cooking! So it was decided literally just a few days before New Year that come rain or shine, hell! I .am.going.to.cook.

I ended up cooking up a storm: A Roast Turkey dinner on New Year’s Eve for both Silver Bullet and me; and like last year, I also decided to serve up the festivities dishes and invited a few moms’ friends whom I knew from my pre-natal pilates class over to our place for a casual, chill-out lunch session on New Year’s Day.

With Moms, Dads and Babies (coincidentally, all are baby girl!) making merry in our apartment, I have forgotten to take any pictures of my cooking on that day. Okay - forget about the pictures of my dishes for a second. Having been immersed in all the excitement in finally having people over, bird-brained me had even forgotten to take any pictures of our guests and the babies! Oops!

Who would have thought that I’d host a lunch session with babies as part of the deal, right? The thought scared the crap out of me and until the 1.1.11, I’d never believe that I will ever do such things. I mean, 4 babies in my own home – tell that to me a year ago and I’ll be saying that you are a frickin’ nutso!

Funny thing is, I obviously just did! We had such a great time hosting it, too --- wailing, cranky, needy babies and all (mostly my baby!). At the same time, it felt awesome to be able to casually catch up with other Moms/Dads whom I think are cool people where we get to trade stories, baby wisdom and things non-baby related (i.e Food! amongst other things)

I am glad at least from the looks of it, they enjoyed my cooking too! We had such a fabulous time that I reckon such lunches may just be here to stay.

Here's how my turkey  turned out this year...
 

 
and here is what was left 2 days later ...
 

(From left to right: Beef Rendang, Sayur Lodeh, Sambal Prawn and Chicken in Red Sauce)

 

And of course, not forgetting Silver Bullet's omnipresent Oliebollen

 

 
Great food, great company makes for a great New Year's Day, indeed.

Our New Year's Eve into 2011

It is Sunday night, it is quiet and all I’m already dreading the thought of having to go back to work already the next day.

Then, it dawned on me that it is actually the New Year’s weekend and hey! Monday is a public holiday still. We have Monday off!

For such an eventful 2010, the New Year’s Eve was one of the most uneventful ever! Spud was in bed by 7pm as always, and we both stayed in like it was a school night. We spent a quiet night – just the two of us, on the couch twiddling our thumbs, wondering what to do till midnight and ended up watching a movie , drinking tea and looking forward to having some friends over for lunch on New year’s day.

I could barely keep myself awake and felt completely mangled out from exhaustion courtesy of Spud. I was ready to go to bed by 10pm, like I always do on any other day. But, as Silver Bullet put it, this was not any other day. It was new years’ eve and, could we please try to make it for the countdown. And so, we had our countdown accompanied by an online atomic clock, and enjoyed the 15 minutes less than spectacular fireworks from Central World from our balcony.

If there was one thing that kept me going, it was the sheer willpower I borrowed off Silver Bullet to make it through the night into 2011. I lasted no more than 25 minutes after midnight. Then I completely zonked out! I guess our partying days are now officially over.

That was as eventful as it could get to welcome 2011. And that my friends, was certainly something!