Ring around the rosy

Missy's current favorite. She has started to appreciate Mother Goose these two days after being a hard core of Ping Fong series. All these while, she has been loving Old McDonald to bits as early as 2 months olds, followed by If you are happy and you know it, Head and Shoulders and Hokey Pokey just to name a few of her top favorite lists and still loving them.

                   

Home Alone

Last week marked Missy’s first home alone, literally with the in-laws. Despite she had her home without mommy (or daddy) since she was barely three months old, and more when she was older but one of us would be there for her. This time around, I had a course to attend at Kinrara Resort for 5 days on the 19th – 23rd October 2015. Coincidentally, her papa was off to China for a conference the same day. From my observations all these while, I noticed that she would acquire new skills or achieve new milestones each time during my absence. This time around; in just a few days, I noticed that she smiles a lot. Prior to this, she smiles only to those she knows and see on a daily basis and shun away from any attempts when my colleagues trying to touch or pinch her cheek. She tagged along AIL when I was picked up at the airport and slept all the way home in her carseat. The moment we touched down, she opened her eyes and shoved me a sweet sweet smile immediately when she sees me with her eyes half opened. As usual, I nurse her immediately and she took such a long time to get her business done. When I attempted to pull her off, she deliberately fasten her tongue and chuckled happily, smiling away :). Not to mention, she is getting a lot generous with her smiles, she would shove her sweet smiles (whenever she was asked to) besides waving ‘hello’, ‘high-5’, clapping her hands whenever people surrounding her are clapping theirs or whenever she sees something tickles her fancy like colorful balloons/balls and also blowing kisses willingly.

Playing at Ah Tai's room

During our two night stay at Ah Tai’s, she seemed a little restless and expecting me to leave Ah Tai’s place after waving goodbyes, shake hands and blowing kisses (her night routine before leaving Ah Tai’s place) to everyone by pointing at the door. On the first night, I handed her my phone when the boss called. She quickly held the phone and place them behind her earlobe with the loud speaker mode on. She listened attentively but I am not sure how much she could understand but did not respond nor utter a single word. Only after we ended the call, she would like babbling (or nagging?), blow kisses towards the phone. Lol. On the second night, the Whatsapp call line from my side was rather bad where I couldn’t hear the boss at all despite him hearing us clearly. It could be a coincidence but she refused to sleep so I asked her ‘deh-deh’ to send voice messages instead. After playing goodnight voice messages from her ‘deh-deh’, she finally lied down beside, nurse with her eyes closed (yes, if she nurses with eyes  opened, I have to be prepared that she might spring up  anytime and started playing again).  

On another note worth penning down, she is willing to sit in her carseat again. She has been on a carseat strike whenever I (only me) tried to put her in since my last outstation trip. The last few months had been a struggle even to drive her home from the in-law’s, which was only a few stones throw away. She would cried her lungs out pitifully. Since then, the boss had been driving out with my car with me carrying her and he has to walk home to get his car before driving for work on a daily basis.  I had to work the next day after I got back and since I had to be early (when the boss was still outstation and we camped over at Ah Tai's), I decided not to wait for FIL to drop by Ah Tai’s to pick Missy up. I sent her to the shop instead. She was all good when I placed her into carseat and was still as calm when I carry her out to the shop. But the moment I waved and kissed her goodbye, her face gradually turned red with glassy eyes but she did not fuss a wee bit. I can see droplet of tears at the corner of her eyes, about to roll down her cheek. Ouch, it was heartbreaking. These days, occasionally she would still cringe a little bit with slight hesitance but eventually settled down to her usual self within seconds. Good job, baby girl! 

Fast forward to the next morning on the 25^th Oct, we woke up bright and I made up my mind to bring her along to pick up the boss after a full day of observation. Instead of dropping her to the shop, I brought her home and get her dressed up. While walking up the stairway, she pointed at our wedding photo and call out ‘deh-deh’. She has been calling her ‘deh-deh’ lately but I have never seen her pointing yet. For reassurance, I asked her about her ‘gung-gung’ (grandpa), ‘po-po’ (grandma) & Ah Tai (great grandma) and she can point to them with her index finger accurately. Yay, another milestone checked at 1y2m5d :) 

Abby's first porridge

This is my maiden attempt in preparing porridge for my girl. My SIL handed me a packet of baby grains during my last visit to her place after my course sometime in March 2015. I first introduced her to puree when she was in her 7th month. And, she had her first taste on porridge at 9th month old (May 2015). After much research and read ups, I finally feel motivated and decided to start her on plain porridge before introducing meats or other vege in her diet. This is how I cooked her porridge (after asking around/ doing researches from the Internet on how to cook porridge in a small portion):

Baby grains containing organic calrose white rice, organic pearl black rice, organic Thailand brown rice, organic long grain rice and sweet millets.

The recommended consistency is 1:5 (rice : water) ratio. Thus, I measured a half of a 2/3 cup with 5 halves of water of the same cup.

Rinse the grains and soak them with filtered drinking water, best for an hour before cooking. But I skipped this stage after 10 minutes or so due to time constraint.

Since I didn’t soak the grains long enough, I used boiling water to soften as well as to accelerate cooking process.

 Once cooked, I pureed them with my Ladyship essence extractor, which to me was a gem. It is not only sturdy but safe to blend even when the porridge is still piping hot. 

Verdict: I didn’t expect my girl to take the plain porridge so well. I am a happy mommy! I will make it a point to restock after this :)

My first bake

This is my first bake with my new oven and I think I have never successfully baked for once with my mom’s oven except for a failed attempt, once long time ago. I have been coaxing the boss to get me an oven and he finally agreed to redeem one for me with points accumulated with his credit card. The oven arrived when I was still pregnant with Missy so it has been sitting on the shelves like a white elephant for months before my aunt in law offered to teach me in baking my current favorite blueberry cheese tart after seeing me ordering them several times from my colleagues for church activities and home services.

We quickly sealed a date on a public holiday and I brought my oven to Ah Tai’s place so I could get myself familiarize with the functions and temperature of my oven. The result was good, but not as appealing as expected. I even tried to make a batch on my own to be brought to the church for Sis Nancy’s farewell party. I was flattered that it was among the fast-going food and as witty as she is, Nancy commented that the tart isn’t pretty but taste as good as those outside bought and patted me on my shoulder and said ‘you have passed’ Lol :P The recipe isn’t anything mind-blowing and is available with just a click a way with Mr Google. From what I have gathered, they are pretty much alike from one to another. But, on a personal note, I am still not very satisfied with the crust and I am still figuring out on how to make it crispier to a perfect crumble, and of course to improve the appearance of the tart :P 

Second Anniversary ❤

For the longest of time, I have been someone many could account to when it comes to date remembering, be it birthdays or anniversaries but NO longer after I forgot mine. As dumb founded as it sounds, I suspected n-o-t-h-i-n-g, not at all and dressed in my home wear after shower and went to Ah Tai’s house (we have started to call the boss’ paternal grandma Ah Tai i.e great grandmother since Missy started to socialize). It was almost 6pm when I dropped by Ah Tai, and she was asking me if the boss is home and asked what time will we be returning that night, worrying that her great granddaughter would past her bedtime hours if she tags along. 

Not long after, I received a Whatsapp message from the boss mentioning that he was stucked in a massive congestion and it was almost 7pm by then and asked me to wait for him. I did not sense anything unusual because I was the one who mentioned to him earlier that I will be heading to Ah Tai’s and wait for him with little missy before heading for dinner together at my in law’s, where we gather for dinner almost every other night. Next, was my SIL who asked me what was her brother’s surprise for me this year and with my BIL asking me why weren’t we out yet when it was almost 8pm. Only at that moment, that has evoked my memory that it was 19th May 2015 (after checking the date on my watch) - our second anniversary! That has certainly left me with so much embarrassment and tad guilty but feeling mushy and loved :)

Nothing fancy this round, we made it a point to visit the same restaurant during our anniversary, but this time with missy tagging along. She was not in her jovial mood as he has just developed a slight cough with runny nose which took over after her fever subsided. She refused to nurse (how I usually keep her calm and ‘spell’ her to lala land). She was able to sit still on our lap only when we fed her with mashed potatoes and bread crumbs. But, that does not keep her for long before she wailed her lungs out and could only be coaxed when we walked her out. Not to mentioned, the restaurant has only one single high chair to offer and it was occupied by a toddler who went earlier. Thus, we gave up and take turn in finishing our meals and totally forego the thought of ordering more side dishes :). Thanks hon for being so thoughtful and happy cotton anniversary.