Hao Lian Sleeping Pose

When his dad saw him in this position he did not hesitate to comment :" Wahh sleep also so hao lian must kiao ka." (so proud, sleep also must cross leg) hahahahh.  He continued to remark that he took after my hao lian (proud) attitude as there was once in the midst of my sleep I suddenly smirked very loudly. :p

I so "ke lian..." baby temper bad = take after me, baby impatient = take after me, baby hao lian also take after me....

 

Egg Custard

On Sunday morning, my first attempt at trying to make an egg custard for Declan failed. So embarrassing... It's such a simple thing to make and I failed!! Lao kui...

I followed the instruction stated in the recipe faithfully. It said :
Add 100ml of formula / breastmilk to 1 egg yolk, beat with a fork for about 1 to 2 mins. Steam the mixture over medium fire for about 5 mins. Cool and serve.

So simple right?? and yet I failed leh! I follow the instruction stupidly. When I off the fire and remove the cover, I saw that the bowl of custard was still watery. I naively thought that I should let my concoction cool and it will somehow solidify. I waited and waited and waited. 45mins passed and it's still a bowl of watery concoction.... My mil took a look at it and declared it a failure. She lectured me and said :" How can you steam your breastmilk??? It'll cause your milk supply to stop you know??"

Issit? *shrugs*

I am not convinced that my culinary skill is really so bad that even when I followed the recipe so closely I could still fail. So I asked permission from mil to let me try again and she gave me the go ahead with some suggestions such as adding in less milk.

So, on my 2nd try I added only 50ml of milk into the yolk and beat it for 1-2 mins again. This time, instead of the suggested 5mins I steamed the concoction for about 15mins. TaDA!!!! Success!! *smirk smirk*

Not sure if it tasted nice. Fed it to Declan together with a bit of green bean soup. He ate it readily without much fuss except in the evening when he coughed he expelled abit of the eggy stuff. Not sure if that's considered fine though.

A mum's broken heart

It's not about my broken heart, but it's that of another mum. I'll like to add on what my sil Fannie wrote in her blog entry Mommy=Zero Value. Read the link first to get the broken heart mum's story before reading my add on.

On top of what she did to her mum as described in Fannie's entry, she also did this to her mum...

They went shopping one day, her mum was in sort of a daze and nearly walk into a glass panel. Fortunately her sil pulled her back and warned her of the existance of the glass panel. Instead of comforting the mum or warning the mum about the glass panel, this little girl actually said :"hahahahah very good! 活该!! Very good very good hahahahah!" After hearing her lamenting that to me, my heart felt so cold... how can a little girl do that to her mum...

When I tried talking to the little girl. she actually said :" wah lau 很麻烦 leh! all of you know about it!" and she just stormed away without hearing me out....

This girl is really out of hand... The poor mum was so traumatised by her that she actually fell ill and the girl didn't show a least bit of concern nor remorse.

I felt so heart pain for the mum, when she related her story to me, she teared.. I really didn't know how to advice her as I'm also new in parenting. Let's just hope that the girl will learn to treasure the love and effort her mum is putting into her.

New Food for Baby

I'm always game to let my boy try new food. I love it when he enjoys what I feed him. Feeding him cereals is easy like a breeze, he'll gobble up the whole bowl of cereals in under 10 mins and usually it's within 5 mins. If you can't keep up your pace of spooning to his pace of swallowing the cereals, be prepared to hear some music from that impatient babe. (Mil and his dad claim that he inherited his impatience and bad temper from me.....)

Presently I've fed him Baby Bites biscuits, "wang wang" little buns, avocado (usu puree with banana and milk), banana, papaya, bits of bread and sponge cake. What else can he eat? I've just bought a box of Rusk Teething biscuit yesterday and will give it to him as snack later.

I've read in a lot of sites and books that yogurt is good for a baby. I thought of giving some to Declan but am not so sure what type of yogurt is suitable. Are those Magnolia (or issit Marigold??) kind of plain yogurt fine? I'm so worry that he'll get stomach upset if I feed him the wrong kind.

Another new item which I hope to feed him is cheese. Then again, what kind of cheese can I use? Those normal KRAFT? or??

Yesterday at the polyclinic nurse advise us to starting introducing egg yolk to him. I'll go steam some egg yolk pudding for him later. So excited!

I welcome suggestions on interesting baby receipes but do bare in mind that I'm a lousy mum who do not have any culinary skills let alone baking skills. The beauty is I am willing to pick up some simple culinary ideas for the sake and health of my little one. That's the wonder of mums ain't it? They are always willing to scale new heights for their child. ahahahha "pasting gold on my own face".

Should I Stop Breastfeeding?

"Breastfeed your baby as long as you can. Your baby's urine plus the alkalinity of his stool can cause skin irritation, which may make him more prone to diaper rash. Breastfeeding can be helpful because it lowers the ph of your baby's stool, making it more acidic. Breastfeeding also boosts your baby's resistance to infection, in general, and makes him less likely to need antibiotics, which can also contribute to diaper rash."

The above was taken from an article in BabyCenter. Now that adds another reason to the one whole list of the benefits of breastfeeding. It was never a difficult decision for me to decide to breastfeed. I didn't even need to consider. The moment I knew that I was expecting, it's already imprinted in my mind that my baby would be breastfed.

The difficult part lies in deciding when to stop breastfeeding. Some mums may advocate not to stop. I'm into my 9th month of giving my baby breast milk. With my last job, it was easy. There's a fridge in the office and my 2 male bosses were kind enough to let me have some private time in the afternoon to express my milk. Now that I've reported to a new work place, I no longer have a fridge in the office. In fact, I don't even have a proper work station to start with and I didn't bring up to this new boss that I need a little time away for me to produce food for my son...

Currently, my boy's milk intake has dropped too. He only take about 4 feeds of milk daily while I expressed 6 feeds daily. The extra 2 feeds will be thrown away... so waste... I wonder whether any hospital accept donation of breastmilk for those premature babies, I really don't mind contributing. Oh course that is dependent on whether the mum allow her baby to take another woman's milk. Frankly speaking, if I am the mum I won't feel comfy.

I'll see if I can cut down to express 4 feeds aday and at the same time maintaining the supply. If I can't, I'll have no choice but to stop being a milk cow....

Battle of the Babies

Seem like one house cannot contain 2 botak and crawling babies. My mum bought the toy baby for Declan many months back. However, the first time the 2 babies met, Declan was very afraid of the toy baby. The moment he plucked out the toy baby's cap and see his botak head he wailed real loudly, as if the other party's botak head really scared the daylight out of him... It's not as if he himself got much hair then....

Few months passed (can't really remember for how long) and after banishing the toy baby into a drawer to collect dust for scaring Declan, I finally remembered it's existence and decided to release it to Declan again.

This time he didn't wail. However, he eyed the moving and singing chap suspiciously with a deep frown. For awhile he was amused. I guessed after a while, he find that toy irritating because of it's repeated singing. So he crawled towards the toy and pushed it over before plucking out it's cap again.

So hostile lah my son. I think I should let him interact with this toy more often and see if he learn to be friendly towards it.

I wonder how he will react if he's in the company of another real life baby his age?

First Hair Cut

Ever since I shaved Declan’s hair when he was 4 months old, it took his follicles nearly 4 months to sprout a decent layer to cover his head. During Chinese New Year, mil kept nagging us to bring him for a hair cut. No matter from which angle I look at my little boy, he doesn’t seem to need a trim at all. There’s only a thin layer of hair with just a few strands slightly growing over the ears.

I really don’t see the need of spending another 8-10 bucks just for a few snips of the scissors. It cost me $8 to shave his head that time and with the CNY inflation rates at all hair salon, I bet a few snipes will cost equally much.

We manage to brush her aside but she did not give up wor…every now and then she’ll remind us that her precious little grandbaby needs a hair cut….

So happen, one day when I was at my dad’s place, one of his auntie friends was also there. I mentioned about cutting baby’s hair and she happily volunteered to snip for him. She said she loved cutting hair for her own grandsons, son and husband at home. The best thing was, she happened to have the hair cutting scissors with her! How nice! So I quickly said ok and gave permission for my boy to “go under” her scissors. One snip, 2 snip, 3 snips, 4 snips and my boy got a neat hair line at the back of his neck. No hair for her to cut in front though. Heheheh. I saved a few bucks! No more bugging from mil too!

1st Attempt to Bath Declan

Kiat’s at reservist, mil went out to pay respect to her ancestors, left me and Declan home alone. This time, I’ve got no more excuses to run away from the sacred task of bathing my boy unless I want to hug a smelly baby for half the day until mil comes home.

Surprise hor? Wondering what kind of mum I am right?? My boy is turning 9 months old soon and since Day 1, I’ve never bathe him.

But hey folks! I survive the ordeal! I bathe him successfully and I didn’t drown him! Thank god! He seems abit frustrated when I shampoo him, probably the way I hold him somehow differs from how he was held by his grandma and dad. He doesn’t look comfortable. But it’s my first attempt mah… so of course will be abit “ar ka ar chue” (duck leg duck hand).

Mission accomplished! 成功! lai lai "pa pok" for me and give me some kind words of encouragement! I’m sure I’ll be able to do a better job the next time round.

Floor Time

Finally, I have the courage to let Declan roam on the floor, with the consent of his grandma, of course. I risk him flattening his nose and “aborting” his “new born tooth” and let him come into contact with the cold hard floor for the very first time ever since he learn to “drag” himself around.

To me, confining his activity areas to just the beds and mattresses at home, ain’t doing him justice. He deserves a bigger space to stretch his limbs and exhaust his ever excess energy.





In order to lure him into motion, I place the “crawling ball” from Fisher-Price on the floor and let it roll around. I’m sure the busybody baby will not just let the “crawling ball” go just like that. He’ll definitely intervene its path. It works! He happily mops the floor for his grandma using his tummy, chasing after the toy.

After awhile, he got sick of chasing the toy and shifted his attention to the newspaper under the table and a snoopy coin bank at the base of the TV cupboard.

All this while, he did not try to smash his face onto the floor. Phew! Maybe babies are not so 不懂事 after all. After this attempt, there will be more floor time for him to exercise his muscles before it all turn into flab in years to come.

Single Tooth = Ask for Clothes???

I headache... now my grandma says, if baby just sprout a single tooth, I'll have to ask the 姑姑 to buy my baby a set of clothes and not shoes...

So is it shoes or clothes?? 2 against 1 now.

Single Tooth = Ask for Shoes

If I am not wrong, most babies when they sprout teeth, they will usually sprout 2 at a time. Mine only sprouted one. My mil says, if baby only sprout 1 tooth, then he’ll have to ask for a pair of shoes from his 姑姑. My mum said the same thing. I ask my mum what will happen if we don’t ask from his 姑姑 for a pair of shoes? She simply replies :” Ohh then it’ll not be good for the baby.” She’s actually not quite sure what is the rationale behind this tale.

I related this to Kiat and he asked :” Aiyoh.. how to go and ask from people a pair of shoes??” That’s exactly my sentiments…… so paisay….Anyway, I’ll just relate this thing to my mil and leave it to her to ask on our behalf.

First Tooth

Did u see that?? Did u see that?? See what I see??? Yeah! Declan’s first tooth has sprouted!! Now, he gotta officially “step down” from the position of “toothless baby”.

Yesterday evening, when I got home after work, mil announced to me that Declan had sprouted a tiny little tooth. She was not aware of the emergence of the little tooth until she got a bite from the literally itchy mouth baby. Her first reaction was – SHOCK! She thought:” Ouch!! Die die!!! Got fish bone stuck in baby’s gum!!!” She quickly laid Declan down and forced open his mouth to search for the stuck fish bone. No sight of fish bone, in place was a cute little incisor. That was a pleasant surprise for her and for me of course. To think that, I just lamented to Mama Jessie on Thursday that my baby is still toothless at 8 months. Heheheee.

I’m not sure what got into me but when I heard that my boy had got a tooth, my heart skipped a beat. I felt so excited. Don’t ask me why hor?!! I also cannot explain. What’s so exciting about a little tooth right??? *shrugs* I was practically smiling from east to west. I picked up the little boy, head towards our room, laid him down on our bed and got obsessed in trying to ply open his mouth to take a peek at my new found amusement. At first he kept giggling, thinking that I was playing with him. After awhile he got agitated at his crazy mum as he had no idea why his “siao siao” mum keep attempting to ply his mouth open and keep aiming her handphone at him. Needless to say, I failed to take a photo of his new pearly white as he kept trying to clamp his mouth shut and also kept grabbing at my phone. I gave up….

For the rest of the evening, I did nothing much except announcing to whoever step through our door that Declan had got a new tooth.

His dad only hear about his new tooth this morning as he was out clubbing till the wee hours of the morning. Wanna know what was his first reaction upon hearing the news? Here it goes ;-

Me: Hey baby got a small little tooth liao!
Kiat: Really ahh?! 白色的啊?
Me (without thinking answered): Yah loh.

Then after awhile I thought to myself:” Chey! Fei Hua!!! Teeth of course are white colour lah.. then wat???!! Blue colour?? “Lum Gay”? Blue tooth?” wahhahah maybe daddy really got so affected by the technology nowadays that he thought he’ll have a “blue tooth” baby since he didn’t own a “blue tooth” phone.

Oh yah, and I manage to snap a pic of the cute little white thing with Kiat's help.

Old Man Declan

Few weeks ago, there was a period of time where my little boy got hook on playing "old man Dec". He'll suck in his upper lips and make alot of funny muffled noises to catch our attention.







I really enjoyed looking at him play toothless old man. This trick always makes me laugh like hell cos he really look so comical!!

*sigh* unfortunately it ended as abruptly as it started..... no signs of "old man Dec" for so long already....

Luckily I manage to snap a few pics for my own viewing pleasure from time to time when I need to laugh.

New Mummy Link

Hey Folks, I've added a new mummy link in my mummies link column. This mama Phoebe got a very very cute baby boy Tim Parry. So chubby, so cute, so handsome!!!! Cannot take it!!! see his picture always feel like squeezing his cheeks!!!

Do drop by and see for yourself yeah!

Kow Tow

Huileng was sharing that she prefers to leave baby on the floor to work out the muscles. Actually I do agree with her. I very much wanna leave my baby on the floor and lure him with toys so that he’ll learn to crawl proficiently. Now, his crawling skill is very “half past six”. However, my baby has developed a weird habit of slamming his own face onto whatever surfaces he comes across. It’s as if he’s “kow towing”. He doesn’t just slam down on his face gently ok??!! He’ll smash it right into the surface of the mattress and it’s not just once, he’ll repeat it a few times. Does he really hates his face so much?? His face is so cute mah? Why does he hate it?? Hmmm??



The above pic was taken right after he slammed his face onto the front bar of his pram. He’ll cry for awhile and after that he’ll seem to forget that such an act will bring him pain and he’ll repeat it all over again.

Yesterday night, he just slammed his face into my knee cap. OUCH!

Imagine if I leave him on the floor and he decide to slam his face onto the cold hard floor? My GOD! That’ll be a disaster!! He’ll probably end up rearranging all his features!!

So for now, he’ll just have to contend with crawling or should I say dragging himself around on the bed or on his ah kong’s mattress and if he so wish, he can slam his face into these cushioned surfaces minus the “ouch” factor.

Step n Play Piano

Some months back, I was contemplating whether to buy a Fisher-Price’s Step n Play Piano for my boy instead of a walker. However, we are worried that Declan may not like to be confined in it, thus, we never really get down to buy him one. We thought of letting him try it out on a display set and if he likes it then we’ll purchase one. Unfortunately, we never come across a display set until yesterday.

We were at takashimaya’s Baby Fair and we spotted the Step n Play Piano. I plonked him in and he seems happy in there.





The sign stated that the original price was like $300+ and now after discount we need only to pay $179. We think think think and at the end of the day we left the Baby Fair without the Step n Play piano…. as his dad is now concern that he might out grow the toy very fast……. poor baby….he seemed to really like that new piece of toy.

Come to think of it, it’s also wise that we didn’t buy it as it does take up quite a lot of space and if my boy gets bored of it, then it’ll really be a big white elephant and it’ll just add on to our clutter at home.

Bamboo Chair

See how happy the boy look in the chair? I've been hunting for a similar chair for the longest time but can't find it anywhere. This is on loan from 大姑. Kiat's sis spotted the chair at 大姑's place while we were there for a CNY gathering. She suggested borrowing it from her and return it once Declan out grow the chair.

Phew!! Finally something which can "contain" my boy. I tried putting him in his pram and on high chair but he can't sit still for long in both. However, he seems to like sitting in the bamboo chair. Maybe it's because it can produce a lot of noise when he use his hands to slap the table in front of it. There was a period of time when MIL keep bugging me to get a walker for Declan, but I refuse to give in to that request for obvious reasons.

Now feeding him is so much easier. I'm still interested to purchase one for him. Anyone who knows where I can get one do let me know.

Review on Hou Ning Powder

This powder works! Just a bottle and my boy got no more phlegm! It's expensive but it's effective. So mamas, if your kid got phlegm, just pop by to Eu Yang Seng and get a bottle of this miracle powder.

Weird sleeping habit

Got baby sleep like that one meh?? GOT! The one at my house loh... This is an "inherited bad habit" Both Kiat and me got the habit of covering our face with pillows when we sleep. Somehow, baby also inherited his weird habit of ours.

Skill and Character Development Update

Over the past weeks, I’ve observed that Declan had acquired some new skills and behaviors.

1) Kick Kick

When someone hold him in a sitting position with his back facing the person and his bum resting on the person’s arm and you say :” Kick kick” , you’ll see this little boy happily swing his legs with all his might.

2) Jump Jump or Dance Dance

Let him stand on a surface (with our support of course) and say “dance dance” or “jump jump”, he’ll move his body and attempt to jump. Of course he can’t really jump; his action will resemble squatting and then stand upright more than jumping.

3) Lantern, flower and “pip blok pip blok”

Bring him under the doorway leading to our bedroom where 2 tiny red lanterns are hanging and ask him :”baby lantern, where is lantern?” and he’ll raise his head to look at the lanterns with a smile. I’m really not sure what is so amusing about this, but he’s always smiling when we ask him to identify the lanterns.

Bring him near the alter and ask him :” baby, flower, where is flower?” and he’ll look at the flowers at the alter. Though sometimes he’ll miscue and look somewhere else.

Just tell him “pip blok pip blok” (resembling the sound of fire crackers) and he’ll look at the fake fire crackers (aftermath of CNY) hanging from the ceiling.

4) Learning the meaning of ownership

When he’s younger, you can take anything from him and he’ll be ok. Now, if you take whatever he is playing (especially if it’s a new toy which he first lay his hands on) away, he’ll cry and wants you to give it back to him.

We first observe this behavior during CNY, when he was given his first ang baos. He started chewing on the ang baos, so I took it away from him and he kept crying and crying until someone else gave him another one...and BINGO no more cry…..

5) “Diminishing” Stranger Anxiety

Previously, he’ll wail whenever a stranger or a seldom met relative tried to carry or talk to him.

Nowadays, things have improved. This vain pot even allows a complete stranger to carry him while we were traveling in the train. He can even play peek a boo with a fellow train commuter. What a flirt!!!

My mum is no longer a “stranger” to him. He no longer fears her and she can now carry him around with ease and peace.

6) Weird drinking habit
This boy refuses to drink water from the bottle. He prefers his water to be fed through spoon….

7) Tell tale signs of crawling

This boy started off like a little missile. He’ll “borrow footage” from whatever his feet land on and push with all his might and launch himself forward suddenly. He’s able to leap quite a distance in such a way. This lasted for awhile and now, he’s able to do leopard crawl. Dangle an object a distance from him and you’ll see him half crawl half drag himself on his tummy to reach the object.

I guess in a few weeks time, he’ll be able to lift his tummy up and crawl properly.


But this lazy boy ahhh still can’t sit very stably. He prefers to slump against his chair and to lie on his tummy then to sit upright.

Wrestling

Play with me?

Whack!!

Bite

Won!!

Welcome!

Hi people, let's welcome Mama Stacey and Mama Fannie on board. They've both join the club of blogging mummies.

Mama Stacey is a friend with a 4 months old girl - Claudia.

Mama Fannie is my sister in law, our hubbies are Twins! She got a 3 month old girl - Ethylyn.

Do visit them often at their page and share advice and experiences with them!! I've added their links in the right column.

WELCOME WELCOME!!

喉宁powder

My aunt recommended me 喉宁 (hou ning powder) from Eu Yan Sang to help ease my boy’s phlegm. She warned me that it’s expensive but effective. According to her it’ll cost me about $30-$40 per bottle. I thought if $30-$40 can relief my boy of his phlegm, it’s pretty worth it.

Just now, after lunch, I dropped by Eu Yan Sang to pick up the “hou ning powder” and my god!! It’s so expensive wor!!! It cost me $58.60 per tube. 1 box only consist a tiny tube which can be separated to 3 dosages. For a 7+ months baby, he should be fed 2 dosages per day for a span of 3 days for it to be effective. Which means, I have to purchase 2 tubes. After obtaining 5% discount with my Citibank Visa, I have to pay $111.34 for a 3 days course of 2 dosages per day.

What an expensive baby I have!! Hope that this powder can really help him to reduce his phlegm. I shall monitor and post the results of the powder in a few days time.

*keeping my fingers crossed*

Unsung Hero

My little boy is near full recovery. In this whole sickness episode, there is an unsung hero whom I’ve yet to mention and say thank you to. That unsung hero is none other than Daddy Kiat.

While baby was ill, I was also down with flu virus. Thus he gotta shoulder the task of nursing the baby plus giving in to my demand of water lah, tissue lah, medicine lah, on the fan lah off the fan lah etc.

Not that he only take care of the baby when he’s ill or when I’m down. In fact, he has been very participative in bringing up Declan since he’s a newborn. He’s a daddy who will do and knows how to do everything for the baby, unlike me. I’ve never bathe my baby before. Yes… you heard me right… till this day, Declan’s already 7+ months and I’ve never attempt to bathe for him. In the initial month, mil didn’t allow me to bathe the baby as she’s worried that I might drown her precious little grandson, after that, I dare not attempt as the baby grew more figety and heavier by the day. So, till now… I only watched him get scrubbed down and never participate in his bath time.

Back to our unsung hero. While Declan was ill, he could not breathe properly as his nose was clogged up by mucus. We could hear his laborious breathing, especially during night time. Guess what the 二十四孝老爸 did? He actually used his mouth to suck out the mucus for baby prior to us obtaining a nasal passage clearing pump. So 伟大 right? I’ll never be able to do that.

Let’s join me and applause for this Daddy. Well Done Kiat! Declan is so fortunate to have a dad like you!

Moments as Espirit Mannequin

Saturday, we went Marriot for high tea. Sitting behind our table were Quan Yifeng, Bryan Wong, Lin Zhengrong (not sure whether I got his surname right) and the hairstylist Eddie Lee. Ohhh man Quan Yifeng was sooooo skinny and her hair was a fiery red!

Anyway, I really enjoyed my food. Not sure about daddy though. I tried to give Declan tiny pieces of kueh lapis but he could not really handle them and seemed to keep choking. So to play safe I stopped my attempts.

After a delightful tea with a relatively well behaved baby, we thought we might as well try to catch a glimpse of chingay live since we were already in Orchard. The moment we stepped out of the hotel, we immediately disposed that thought as the weather was really so warm and humid… So we ended up shopping. We strolled to Wisma via the underpass and ended up in Wisma Isetan. When we were at Espirit (Level 3) Kiat noticed that we could actually viewed Chingay from Espirit display windows hahaha. Its full length glass and it overlooked the main road. Hhehehheeh so we chanced upon a “cool spot” to watch the show!! We waited there since about 6.30p.m, the show was supposed to start only at 7.00p.m. On and off you’ll see curious shoppers joining us at the display window. Ended up, if you were to be at the balcony of lucky plaza, you might notice that out of a sudden, Espirit had a lot of additional “moving mannequins” hahahhaha. If you look carefully at Kiat’s pic, you would be able to see an escalator full of viewers in the background. That happened to be the escalator just outside Wisma.






So how do the 3 of us fare as Espirit’s Mannequin??

But sigh…. The only action we managed to catch was the Harley Davidson bike squad….. cos Declan started to fuss and we were also running late….

Like Mother Like Son

Then it was Like Father Like Son.



Now it's like mother like son.



Daddy snapped this pic while I was busy blogging and baby was busy meddling with his ang bao. Though I'm caught in the most undemure pose... neverthelss I still decide to share this with all here. *sigh.....* can't daddy just warn me and ask me to move my legs a little closer to each other before snapping the photo???? Don't laugh ok??! Don't even snigger!! Otherwise next time I don't share with u guys liao!

My Belated Valetine Pressie

As Declan was ill till 不清不楚 for the past 1 week, we did not really plan for Valentine's Day. So nothing romantic happened that day unless you consider a trip down to KKH as a romantic trip lah. Anyway I'm not a lomantic person in the first place. I dread mushy stuffs. Cannot tahan cos my hair will all stand heheheeee.



See? That was how I spent the first part of my Valentine's Day. Doozing off in the waiting area of KKH with baby in hand. Got caught red handed by Daddy. All 3 of us had not been sleeping well ever since Declan fell sick. So ahh whenever I have the chance, I'll try to catch my ZZzs. Don't worry for Declan, I will not drop him. I didn't really drift to dreamland, I just closed my eyes for a few seconds to rest my eyes.

Today when I came back to office, Daddy sent me an email titled "a present to u" with this photo attached.



Can you see the little message he created? I don't think you guys can see the words right? Anyway it says :"Hi Mummy, Happy Belated V-day. Hope you and dad will be lovely forever." and it's "signed off" as Love Declan. hahahah so cute, but dunno why my little Declan's pic looked so stretched. I guessed he meant "loving" instead of "lovely". So folks! That's my belated V-day present.

Fever Came Back

Fever came, fever went... Cough came, not yet leave, sneeze and running nose arrived.... cough, sneeze, running nose not yet leave, fever came back.... Those are my baby's CNY guests. Persistent guests who came and refuse to leave even though today is the 6th day of CNY already...

These "unwanted visitors" set us back by 100+ bucks on "ang bao". Within the span of 6 days, we brought him to the doctor thrice. The most costly was today's visit to KKH walk-in clinic. The moment we register, we had to pay $65 consultation fee. So steep right?! I should have gone to our PD... I thought our PD would be more expensive... who knows... Anyway... cost is not our main concern now.. we are more worried about the little one's health...

His milk intake further dropped to 40ml...yesterday night was worse.. his usual 40-50ml night feed dropped to 10-20ml.... I put in effort to make mash potato, carrot, and half an hard boil egg yolk and mixed it with a little cereal for sweetness, tried to feed him but he just refuse to eat....

I told the KKH doctor about his lost of appetite and he told me I'd better try to feed him otherwise he'd admit Declan and put him on drip..... Let's hope that all will be well for this young man soon.

Cough Cough

I thought all was well again when Declan's fever subsided... How wrong I was... He woke up yesterday morning with a mild cough, so I sent him to a GP clinic and was prescribed a cough syrup. His cough elevated from mild to bad cough by night time....

He coughed the whole night, unable to sleep. So poor thing. Just when he's about to fall asleep, he'd cough... causing him to wake up again... and as he was about to doze off again, he'd cough again... The equation went like this - baby couldn't sleep = daddy and mummy also couldn't sleep..

This morning, the 可怜宝宝 woke up with a running nose on top of the cough... sigh...

Does anyone has any tested cough remedy? His appetite is really bad too.. Should I still continue feeding him his cereal? I did not feed him any thing unusual, where does the cough comes from? Can it be due to my diet? Any suggestion on a suitable recipe to boost his appetite? His milk intake is still at about 60ml per 2.5 to 3 hr feed...

Feverish New Year

Declan fell ill on CNY eve…. The day before CNY eve, he was exceptionally cranky. He was basically screaming throughout the whole day. For no reason, he’ll shriek in a high pitch voice to show his displeasure with god knew what. Kiat grew impatient with him, thinking that he was merely throwing tantrums. But I told him that something was obviously bothering this little baby for him to behave so unusually. It’s just that we really did not know what was wrong.

Nothing seemed to be able to soothe him. Carried him – didn’t want, let him lied down on bed – he didn’t want, put him in sarong – he didn’t want, gave him toys – he didn’t want, talked to him, sang to him – he didn’t want…… All he did was cried and screamed…. The worse thing was he didn’t want to take his milk, nor his porridge or cereal….. Before this episode, his milk in-take had already dropped quite a bit ever since he started on solid. For a 7 months old baby, his milk in-take was only about 100-120ml per 3 hours feed. He had lost much of the chubbiness accumulated over the first 6 months. Many friends and relatives noticed that he kind of trimmed down. I was not too bothered about him trimming down so long as he’s healthy and active. This time, his milk in-take dropped to a sinfully low of about 60-80ml….and he rejected his porridge and cereal as well…… That really got us so worried….

CNY eve day, he woke up pretty “warm”. I hugged him and thought that he was running a fever. Kiat tried to take his temperature with an ear scan thermometer, he refused to keep still and kept whirling his head and screaming, making it impossible to register an accurate measurement. We let it go, bathed him, fed him a bit of milk, let him continued screaming and put him back into his sarong for him to sleep again. When he woke up again, I touched him and still thought that he feel slightly “warmer” than usual. So, we decided to send him to see a doctor. We looked at the time… sharks! It’s past 12p.m….. and it’s CNY eve… where got doctor??!! Still, we tried our luck and checked out at least 4 clinics but all closed. Finally, we went to a 24 hour clinic at clementi central. The doctor measured his temperature to be about 37.3 degrees Celsius and declared that he’s not running a fever but nevertheless prescribed fever and stomach wind medication for him…. That made me felt like a kiasu and kiasee mother…..

But hor, I’m really not convince that he’s not having a fever… really felt warm leh…. Anyway, we let him sleep again once we reached home, the next time he woke up; he was “steaming hot” on the head! AH HA! See??!! I was right!! He’s really running a temperature. I quickly fed him the medication with Kiat’s help and slap on a piece of “OK pok” on his forehead. At first I was worried that he might not like the feeling on a piece of thing across his forehead and might tear it down but luckily he seemed pretty at ease with the “ok pok” and could still manage a smile
when I teased him.





His temperature only subsided this morning. He ended up with a piece of “ok pok” slapped across his forehead throughout CNY eve and first day of CNY. As for me…. I ended up with a bad bout of flu on the first day of CNY… what a way to welcome the new year….

Code REd

Somehow this year‘s Chinese New Year there is extra emphasis on red clothes. My mil has been harping us to wear red this year but I really do not wish to be a walking ang bao, so I bought pink for myself instead.

I keep thinking that the “wear red” rule only applies to us adults until yesterday, when mil says:” New Year is coming, must wear red red for baby, don’t wear dark colours for him.” OOPS! I didn’t buy any red clothes for Declan. The closest is an orange t-shirt. How HOW???!!! Sure kanna nag…..CHam!

Declan's New Cap

Came across this bandana cap while shopping for Little Dec’s new year clothes. I thought it looked really cool so I bought it without realizing that it’s actually a bit small for my little boy’s head. I tried it on for him at home and after awhile, he’ll pull it off…..waste my money…

When will he learn to sit?

My boy is 7months old now. The Chinese old folks always say baby will sit at 7 months, crawl at 8 months and “sprout” teeth at 9 months. Now at 7 months, my baby can’t really sit up straight without support for too long. He preferred to be propped up and have something to lean against. Lazy fellow….You sit him upright, he’ll obliged for awhile, after that he’ll cry out for help. If no one comes to his rescue, he’ll just relax all his muscle and let himself topple over. Hahahha.






I guess if he put in enough effort, he can actually sit on his own now. Anyway, I’m not taking any chances. I don’t wish to see him topple and land on the concrete floor, so I usually let him sit on cushion surface and only with adult supervision.

Let’s see how long he’ll take to be able to sit on his own for extended period.

Retreat of Mozzie Clan

Yesterday my ever helpful and caring SIL bought a bottle of Johnson & Johnson Baby Clear Lotion and a bottle of medicated cream for Declan and brought it all the way to MIL’s house for us, after hearing Little Dec’s encounters with the mozzies. So nice of her.
I’ve never seen the J&J lotion before. It came in a clear green bottle and it was stated on the bottle that it could help keep mozzies away.

Before Little Dec turned in, we applied the J&J lotion on areas which he could not reach with his mouth and hands. We were so Kiasu, we even applied some on his head, rubbing it into his hair as if its some conditioner. No choice! Somehow his botak head seem to attract the mozzies alot. I’ll rather he lost all his hair then to have him contract Dengue Fever. A Plus point was the lotion actually gave off a pleasant flowery sweet smell.

For double protection, we lighted the mozzie coil also.

The double protection seems to work! This morning when I checked, no more new mozzie kisses on Dec!! None on me either! Kiat didn’t complain, so I suppose he’s alright too!

Mozzies had retreated!! Yahooooooooooo!

To play safe, I’m gonna do the same tonight plus RU YI YU on his tummy as suggested by bolasiow. Triple protection tonight for Declan!

Death to the mozzzzzzzzieeeeeeeeesssssss!!!!!!!!

Return of the Mozzies!!

In a bide to protect his little son, Kiat went into a murderous mood yesterday night. Before we called it a day, he took out a can of insecticide and sprayed under our bed. I didn’t allow him to spray anywhere else as I was worried that the insecticide might settled on Declan’s toys, sarong, pillow and any other thing which he might pushed into his mouth.

I guessed, shortly after he did that, those mozzies which were hiding under the bed all fled and showed themselves! Out of nowhere, I suddenly heard a lot of loud “Piak Piak” sounds coming from the bedroom while I was in the kitchen. I walked into the bedroom and saw Kiat whirling about trying to kill the flying mozzies with bare hands. What a sight! Hahahah He managed to “finish off” only 2 miserable mozzies. We kept the light on for a long while and put ourselves out as baits, trying to lure the mozzies out so that we could kill them. Not much luck… mozzies were not taken in…. We thought since they did not appear, they might had left for good. So, we happily off the lights and off we went to dreamland.

I couldn’t quite get to sleep. Kept turning and tossing and just when I was about to fall asleep, Little Dec wailed… We on the lights again, picked him up from his sarong and were very upset to see that, he had been attacked by those hideous mozzies again!!!! This time, they attacked his face and head! Poor boy got 1 big bump just under his right eye and another 3-4 huge bumps distributed on his head. Kiat went frantic and started swearing at those mozzies!! He turned on his murderous mood again! He searched the room with his “bionic” eyes and HA! detected 1 mozzie lazing on the wall. He “Piak” with all his might and shouted 给你死!!!! So mozzie died. But he only managed to kill that one… I guessed the rest had already “turned in” after feasting on baby Dec….

We continued to fume for awhile, before Kiat decided to place BaBY Dec between the 2 of us and with him placing his hand on Dec’s head to protect his scalp from being attacked again. We wrapped him up with his “towel blanket”. That’s the least we can do for him now…..

I must get in all sorts of mozzie repllent, mozzie net, mozzie coils and whatever could keep mozzie away today!!! I can’t continue to let them bully my little baby like that!!!

Death to the Mozzies!!!

One day, after I entered my “Mozzie Kisses” entry, I woke up in the morning and found another huge mozzie bump on Little Dec’s upper left thigh and one more strategically planted on the top of his “sparsely haired” head…..

ARghhhhhhh Fed up!!! I swear that if I don’t kill u mozzie I’m not MAMA SEAH!!!!

But yesterday went pass uneventfully. In fact most of the day I was out so… Mozzie could just leisurely cruised around the flat without me threatening to drain it’s blood or my boy’s blood so to speak.

My mum went frantic after seeing Declan’s “bumpy” legs, he urged me to send him to the clinic. She’s worried about dengue fever. In fact I’m worried too and it didn’t help that there was report of rising Dengue Fever cases recently.

All these while, we were wondering how come Mozzie so clever, only kissed Declan and not the rest of the adults at home. However, this Mozzie was overcome by greed! Drinking from Declan could no longer quench it’s thirst and kill it’s hunger. It shifted his target from soft and tender Declan to tough and thick skinned me! 没死过!!!! I woke up with an itch on my right foot. I scratched scratched, open my eyes and wahhhh there was a huge bump on my foot! That really made me fume!! At the same time, I felt a sense of relieve because this meant that Mozzie had finally got sick of tasting Declan’s blood and decided to savor on his mama instead.

I was still lying in bed thinking about how I should declare war on the Mozzie Clan when I detected a black being perching quietly on my pillow. AH HA!!! It’s none other than MOZZIE!!!! I got overexcited and forgot that I promised to poke it with a needle. Instead I extended out my hand and *PIAK* hahahahah victory!!!! Mozzie was reduced to a little black mess. There was no “blood shed” leh…. It was just a black mess without any hint of blood…. uh-oh… did I malign that poor little mozzie?? Maybe it’s not him/her?? Maybe its it’s friend who was the culprit??!! Anyway I don’t care! For my baby’s sake, I’ll rather 宁可杀错不可放过 (rather kill wrongly, then to let the real culprit off)!!!! That’s an expression of motherly love, I suppose.

DEATH TO THE MOZZIESSSSS!!!!!!

Mozzie Kisses

Stupid mozzie!!! Kissed Baby Dec ssssoooo many times!!!!! Look at his poor little limb.





So 可怜hor???!! I see liao so heart pain… Of all the 6 human beings at home… this idiotic mozzie gotta choose to sting the one with the least “catchment area”!!!! Not once but 7 times!!! All congregated on his left leg!

At least if mozzie choose to sting any one of the adults, we can locate the itch accurately and scratch it to sooth the itch… but for a baby he do not have the right motor skill to aim specifically at the little bumps and scratch them! Imagine how irritating it’ll feel if u are itching all over but unable to scratch it! Poor boy….

This mozzie better pray with all his available limbs that I dun see him!!! If i do I'm gonna use a needle to poke him and drain him of all my boy's blood!!

Anyway chaps, I’ve uploaded about a few new pics on little Dec, you can see it here.

Chic Mama's Blog

I've deleted the sideblog to make things look less cluttered. So, if you wanna read about my views and thoughts on issues other than baby talk, you may skip over to Chic Mama

From now on, I guess Multiply will be use for me to post photos instead. See ya!

Formula Rejection

It took Declan 6 over months for him to decide that he really doesn’t like formula milk… Prior to starting solid food, he seemingly loves formula; always drink till the last drop. Of late, he refuses to drink a single drop of formula when we are outside. He’ll rather wait till we are home so that he can savor on his favorite Mama’s brand milk. The wonderful thing is, he won’t fuss wor, not even when its way passes his feeding hour…. Hmmm weird…. What’s happening??

Tough Diaper Time

Nowadays it’s so tough to change diaper for Dec… By the time we manage to slap on a piece of fresh diaper on his butt, we’ll be so tired as if we just walk out of WWF wrestling ring…..This boy just refuse to lie on his back for even 3 seconds.. The moment you place him on the changing mat, he’ll flip over faster than how Mr Prata Man can flip over his prata. How to change diaper with him on his tummy??

So whoever changing him will have to wrestle with him. We’ll try to keep his butt on the mat and he’ll try to lift his butt off the mat. End result -> You have a screaming baby and a frustrated plus exhausted and sometimes “dirty” care taker. The “dirty” will take effect when he poo. Imagine the mess he’ll create when he keeps trying to flip over with his backside full of his excrement and then the “changer” will have to try to hold him down… My god…. Won’t the situation be worse when he learn to crawl??? Somebody! Save MMMMEeeeeeee……

Declan on TNP

Hiya! Declan appeared on yesterday TNP's "What's your pic" column with this pic


Cute hor??!

Declan's 1st Puree

Ingredients used:
2 small potatoes (really small ones which I can easily contain in my fist)
¾ of small carrot
20ml of breast milk

Preparation:
- Skinned potatoes and carrot
- Cut each potato into half, cut carrot into 3-4 equal sections
- Throw potatoes and carrots into a small pot of water and boil till soft and let them cool for awhile before putting them into the blender.

When blending, scoop a few tablespoons of the water used to boil the potatoes and carrots and add it into the blender. After pureeing the content, add in the breast milk and let the blender turn a few more rounds to mix the puree with the milk. You can choose to add more milk depending on how your baby likes his/her food consistency. Mine don’t seem to like his food too watery.

The above will give you approximately 2 small servings of potato and carrot puree.

I tried feeding Declan the first puree of his life and it’s also the first puree which I attempted. He seems to like his first few spoonfuls but within 10 spoonfuls he has lost his interest and started to spit it out….. Again… I wondered whether the puree is too blend… After contemplating for awhile, I pluck up my courage to taste a little with the tip of my tongue. Mind you! It contains my breast milk ok??!!! Eeeeeeeeewwwwwwwww… I got to squeeze my eyes shut and try not to remember that the milk comes from me…. If my baby can thrive well for the past 6 months on this holy liquid I guess it won’t kill me…. Hmmmm… indeed the puree tasted kind of blend..

To save the day, I added 3 tablespoons of Nestle plain rice cereals to the remaining serving of the puree plus about 70ml of warm water. He likes it! He manages to finish everything! Thank god! A sense of satisfaction washes over me! Ha!

I’ve got another serving of the puree in the fridge. Will add it into his porridge this evening.

Skills update

Just few days ago, I was lamenting that Declan could not flip over from tummy to his back on his own. This evening, when I came back from office, Kiat happily announced to me that he had finally learnt to flip himself over!

I’ve also noticed that he had become really “mobile” nowadays. Placed him at one location and with a blink of the eye he’ll have “wormed” his way to another location. It’s no longer safe to place him on the bed without keeping a watchful eye over him.

At this stage, he can only move backwards. Place him on his tummy, he’ll raise his bum a little and put himself on his knees. He can’t crawl yet, still way too early, so he’ll just shove his bum this way and that and somehow he’ll end up moving backwards.

Oh, I also forget to add that, this little bundle seems to be able to sing his own lullaby! I guess, he’s very use to hearing Kiat’s monotonous and out of tune lullaby every night, so when his dad is not around to sing for him or when dad too lazy to sing, he’ll hum on his own…. tunelessly of course…… he’ll just go “arrrrrrrrrrr………arrrr………arrrrrrrr…….” sounds like an irritating mosquito buzzing around refusing to go….. The funny thing is, u can actually con him into “singing duet” with u!! When someone sings for him, he’ll stop his “mosquito like buzzing”, shortly after u stop; he’ll start “buzzing” again. U stop, he start, you start, he stop. I’ve got 2 Jay Chou at home!!

6th month statistics

Forgot to update Declan's latest statistics taken during his injection last week.

Length = 66cm
Weight = 8.170kg

I purposely sneaked to the polyclinic to meet up with Kiat and mil who brought Declan there for his jab. My objective was to be there as an angelic mother to hold my baby close and comfort him after the jab. I had been a bad mama, cos for his last 2 jabs, I was not there with him so I must atone my sin.

"deeeee" the Q number jumped and reflected our number. I picked up baby, went in, nurse measured baby then proceeded to "interrogate" us and ok! time for jab! I chose to let Kiat be the bad papa who would be sujecting the baby to the jab. My plan was like this : I'll let Kiat hold baby while nurse administered the jab and when baby brawl, I'll take over to comfort him. hehehhehehe so evil of me.

So ok, Kiat held baby, and nurse adviced :" ok mama u hold this toy and distract baby" Being the obedient angelic mum, I did as I was told and played clown to distract my boy. Nurse poked the needle in, I held my breathe and waited! No sound.. No reaction.... YET. ok well! I'm sure he gonna brawl when the vaccine is administered. Nurse injected the vaccine in! Again I waited, anticipating his loud screams. Waited.. waited.. waited ... and then Nurse said :" Wow what a brave boy! no tears no screams!"

Aye??? Sala leh?! He supposed to cry wor... I went with him on his first jab and he cried like no body business wor... His dad said he cried on the following jabs also leh... how come this jab no reaction one? aiyah... spoiled my plan of wanting to play angel mama... chey! wet blanket.... But I came out a proud mama! My boy didn't even flinch! Baby with Big GutS!

New Skills

Dec has acquired some new skills

1) “Kok Kok” Skill

When you carry him, bring him up to eye level, push forward your own forehead, aiming at his and say :” kok kok” he’ll knock his forehead on yours. It is SIL who teaches him to do that and this baby is pretty selective in who he wants to perform this act with.

SIL can attain almost 100% success in getting him to perform this little act. Me? Depends on his mood…. Success rate is about 50% only….

2) High 5!

Put your palm forward facing him and say “High 5!” in a high pitch voice and he’ll attempt to place his palm on yours. Sometimes, when he’s feeling lazy, he’ll simply just touch and go. When he is in high spirits, he enjoys “high fiving” with people and it will make he smile. Do it too many times at one goal and he’ll get bored and stop responding.

It’s his aunt, Jessica, who teaches him this. Success rate is about 80% when he is not fussing and of course the percentage declines with each successful act. Beware, novelty does wear out!

3) Peek-a-boo

Instead of me “peek-a-booing” him, he now knows how to be the one hiding. Put him in his sarong when he is not sleepy, throw in his smelly bolster and peek a boo a few times with him, he’ll then hold his bolster up and place it in front of his face waiting for u to pull away the bolster and “find” him. When you “find” him, it’ll make him giggle and he’ll repeat the act.

4) “Mum Mum Mum”

He’s calling me?? Fat Hope! We noticed that whenever mil is cooking and he’s in close proximity to smell the cooking, he’ll go “mum mum mum”. Hmmmm seems like he can relate smell to food and in term relate food to “mum mum mum”. He will also go “mum mum mum” when he’s crying for milk especially when he is extremely hungry in the wee hours of the morning.

One thing which I hope he’ll learn soon is how to roll over back to lying position when he is on his tummy. Before he learn how to roll over, we keep wanting him to learn, now that he has learnt to roll onto his tummy, we hope he’ll learn how to reverse his action.


At first, all smiles



In no time, he'll start crying, expecting someone to help him flip over....

It’s kinda weird that he can’t reverse his action right?? Nowadays after lying on his stomach for awhile, he’ll cry out for help, wanting us to either pick him up or to help him turn onto his back. I tried ignoring his pleas, hoping he’ll learn on his own accord out of desperation but that only invited louder screams from him… This is a fierce baby I have….

Milk and Porridge Issue Again!

I always thought that by feeding babies cereal and porridge, it’ll last them longer before they cry for their next feed. This is not the case for Declan though… hmmmm I’m confused!

Yesterday, about 1 and a half hours after I fed Declan porridge, he was whining and crying persistently. I thought he might be sleepy, so I put him in the sarong. It didn’t comfort him and he didn’t fall asleep. He kept on whining. So I took him out of the sarong and tried patting him to sleep. That didn’t work either. By then he’s fussing more fiercely. It suddenly strikes me that he might be hungry. So I warmed up a bottle of chilled milk and gave it to him. His eyes brighten and he happily sucked on the teat and displayed a real satisfied look while drinking. At the rate that he was drinking, one might think that this baby was left hungry for hours! But the fact was, he just finished one whole rice bowl of porridge! He finished up the milk in no time.

So, he was hungry! I wondered where the porridge went.

After feeding him, Kiat sat him upright and patted his back, suddenly he just puked up a river of porridge plus milk! It’s been a long time since he last puked that much! It used to happen to him when he was a newborn and doctor said that it was normal. I was shocked and couldn’t respond for awhile. Then I rearranged my thought and grab a hanky to clean him up. I took over him and comforted him, thinking that he must be feeling unwell. However, he was all smiles. Other than the soiled shirt, you couldn’t tell that he just puked that much from his face. He didn’t look unwell. Instead he looked cheerful and he had stopped fussing.

That’s really confusing!! So was he hungry? Or wasn’t he?? Did I overfeed him??? Did he puke because he was too bloated? If he’s feeling bloated, why did he cry for milk? Or was he crying for milk in the first place? If he was hungry, then why did he puke after finishing the milk? Aaaarghhhhh! How I wish he can talk! So that he could tell me what he want.... It pained me to see him puke that much……

Look Alike?

Initially I thought of adding this post in my Multiply and share my friends' views here after they voice their comments (if any). However, there seems to be some problem with Multiply.com and thus I keep getting an error message. So *shrugs* bo bian, I shall just post it here first and when Multiply.com decided not to "hang up and sell" then I'll put it there too.




I was just looking through my archives of photos and was showing my colleague my baby pics when Carol commented that this particular pic resembled Declan. So I itchy hand, put both of our pics together and decided to let you all decide if we really resemble each other.

Kiat said that our eyes and nose look like each other but not the lips. Obviously he looked more "well fed" then I did. If I'm not wrong I think that pic of mine was taken when I was about 3yrs old. So.. If we do look alike, then I guess Dec will look more or less like that when he is 3 years old, minus the hair of course.

Milk and Porridge Issues

Uh-oh… milk supply drop again these 2 days... Nowadays my milk supply is like charts in stock exchange… seesawing up and down… The last time I notice a drop in milk supply was during Christmas. However it picked up the next day. Now it drops again… after 30 mins in the office’s loo, I can only get 240ml… short 60ml…. I suspect the drop is due to my foul mood these 2 days. Feeling real frustrated over some things, so maybe unknowingly my mood affects my milk supply? Anyway, time to eat more fish and drink more papaya milk I guess.

Luckily Dec had started on solid, but the solid feedings are not really regular though. He’s only fed cereal whenever I am around and free to feed him. His grandma didn’t feed him in the afternoons, his dad won’t feed him in the evening when I’m not around unless being instructed… So much for initiative from the 2 child bearing advocates…….

Dec doesn’t seems to be particularly enjoying his solid food anyway. I think he’ll rather live without it for the moment. He eats only a small quantity at a time.

Last Sunday, I tried cooking some carrot porridge for him and of course I got interrupted in the kitchen. Instead of ME cooking the porridge, my mil took over and insisted she’ll cook. I know it’s all done in good intention but if she don’t allow me try, how will I ever learn????

I’m also stupid enough to try introducing new food to my baby in the presence of my super panicky mil AGAIN! I’ve did it once while introducing cereal when she’s around and I did it again this time!

She suggested adding some soy sauce into the porridge to which I objected because I read somewhere saying that we should delay introducing such flavorings to babies. I also naively thought that the shredded carrot would make the porridge “sweet”. She didn’t persist. Ok, porridge done! Got baby out, tied a bib and proceeded to feed him. He “test water” the porridge with the tip of his tongue and then his face got all crumpled up and he sealed his lips tight! No matter how I and my SIL tried he just refused to eat… SIL suggested heating up the porridge a little since it’s already cooled.

Ok! Porridge heated up to lukewarm. Kiat held baby, I tried feeding again. Still no go… He just refused to swallow any… arghhhh. SIL took over to try. By now MIL was screaming away saying he did not know how to eat so don’t force him. In the first place, ain’t she the one who said she wanted to feed him porridge when he was only 4+ months old? Always double standard! Angry!

Now I really wondered whether the porridge tasted lousy. I tried a little, YUCKS! It’s so blend!! Like plain water! No wonder baby refused to eat. Hmmmm who is the smart alec who inculcate in me the idea that just adding carrot to the porridge will make it sweet and savoring for a baby?? SIL suggested adding 1-2 tiny drops of soy sauce… relentlessly…. I gave in…

OK! Soy sauce added. I carried baby, SIL pushed a small mouthful of porridge towards Declan. He eyed it suspiciously and opened his mouth a little. SIL seized this opportunity and push the little spoon in. The moment the spoon went in, wahhh Little Botak’s eyes lighted up! You could literally see him widening his eyes as if he just tasted some heavenly delicacy. His face became “crease free”. So funny!! He was wide eye from that mouthful onwards and readily swallowed the following spoonfuls. Now that we succeeded in feeding him porridge with presuming 2 tiny drops of soy sauce, MIL was still jumpy and kept screaming for us to stop feeding him in case he got too bloated….. She then went on to smirk at me saying :” Just now I already told her to add soy sauce, she say don’t want mah! I brought up 7 babies in total liao you all think I still ignorant ah!” blah blah blah…

Although Dec seemed to enjoy his first few mouthfuls of porridge, he lost interest in it very quickly. He finished only about half. We thought he was full so we stopped. Shortly after, he was crying for his milk… Ain’t solid food supposed to last longer? Aiyoh…. Never mind… I’ll trial and error and hopefully I’ll get the feeding routine right….

Pray for my baby! In case I starve or overfeed him.