Cook & Bake

Ever since after CNY, my oven seem to have gone cranky. My bakes all FAILED. They turn out either too hard or too soft.
My brain also turn cranky, some of the new receipes that I tried have the weirdest taste I ever come across

But of course, it can still give me my decent baked rice (AGAIN??)



and my Puff Pastry Soup. Yes.. Puff pastry soup done in cheater's way.. ready made puff pastry... wahaha...




And I did manage to churn out Roti Boy... taste quite close to the real ones




And I finally manage to bake a decent sponge cake.. this is a testing product to get ready for my mum's birthday cake next week. Of course, this time I did it with a pre-mix flour. So maybe that is why I got a almost perfect cake




I did a no bake Oreo cheesecake.. Luvs it.. I replace the Oreo base with Digestive biscuit base.. I luv the smell & taste of Digestive.. heaven!!

2 Years Old Birthday Celebration

He is 2

I discovered you in August 2008. I was filled with happiness & anxiety. Happy as I have a new life growing in my womb. Anxiety because it was barely a month that I started on a new job.

I shared the good news with your daddy and he appeared as nonchalantly as he ever could. Heartbreak was the only word I could use as that was the least expected response from him.
As usual, I just turn into a blacked face mute. :)
Shortly he asked me to get it confirm at a clinic, not even want to volunteer to accompany me.

I showed the doctor the test kit and he said the 2 lines are very clear & precise. :D
Gave me some advice and vitamins and off I go in search of my gynae.

But daddy did changed, helped me with housework as I am always so tired for no reason. Sleeping become my hobby. Lazing around and eating non-stop is my daily activity.

First few months were not easy as I am spotting and the fear of losing you was so great that I didn't know what to do (other than taking the painful hormones jabs) but to talk to you and touching my big round tummy. Hoping you will be a safe & sound in there.

5th month of pregnancy was when we discovered that you can't wear pink!! From then on, I am constantly hopping that the gynae did not made any mistake on this as I am shouldering big pressure from family members in regards of your gender.

9th month of pregnancy gone and out you come! That was the most wonderful & touching moment in my last 29 years on earth. I was very relieve to see you arrived sound & kicking. The pain and wait you given me was a great lesson learnt as now I had learnt to treasure your grandma alot alot more.

This also marked the start of me turning into a milking cow and my sleep-deprived days.

With you around, time is always so little. Mummy is forever tired (again) and there's no 'me' time. All I am faced with was Baby Lucas, feeding, diaper changing, milk pumping, Baby Lucas, feeding, diaper changing, milk pumping and it went on for the next 3-4 months. I turned into a witch and your Daddy saw the great change in me as he was always being picked on. But that did not prompt him to pick up the skills of helping me to change your diaper or feed you.

From the day you are born till now, he changed & feed you for not more than 10 times :)

Taking pictures of you become my hobby and there are endless photos of you in the memory card. But very sadly, the soft copy photos of your 1st year are all gone due to external hard disk crashed. Blame it on me and the corrupted card.

You learnt to roll over by your 5th month. That's when we were all so thrilled & excited. Soon you even learnt to rock your little bum and amused your Daddy greatly.

9th month was when you learnt to crawl and by 10th month you were able to sit up on your own.
Before you learnt to walk, you actually started you baby language with makes everyone laughed & teared.

1 year old birthday bash was the biggest celebration that I had ever done. From planning, deciding the theme, getting the decoration and food, I put into 101% effort. It went on great but sadly not much photos taken with friends & relatives!

15th month came and you learnt to walk. At that point in time, we were so glad because that would meant no need to carry you on our hands. But we are greatly wrong.
You turn into a very active boy who wants to run non stop and with no sense of direction & without any boundaries
Chasing become our activity as you are always running away from us.

18th month you learnt to hum & sing with your highest pitch and the softest tone. You dance to music whenever you hear them and clap your hands excitedly. You also learnt to pick up our mobile phone & pretend to be talking to someone over the other end.

22nd month was when I discovered that you love to play Lego. You know how to stack them high up into a tower. Though they don't represent any buildings or animals, but to me they are the most beautiful creation that I ever seen.

Today is the day you turn 2.

You had learnt many things and there are alot more for you to discover down the road.

With you in my life, I have lesser energy, freedom, money & time to do things that I use to indulge (like KTV, movies & shopping with girlfriends/sisters).
However, in exchange I have a wonderful, fun-loving boy wanting to be hug and kiss everyday and can't go to bed without me by your side (*grin*). What more can I ask for.

"Daddy & Mummy would like to wish you good health and stay happy & cheerful forever. May you be blessed & loved by everyone.
Happy Birthday Sweetheart"

At some point.....

You just think life SUCKS!! Sucks a big time...

There are problems waiting to be resolve and yet actions are not taken despite giving all suggestions & support.

Old problems still hanging around and new problems arises.. finance, living habits, childcare..career...and the list goes on.

At some point, it just makes one feeling so demoralised and feel like leaving everything behind..

At some point, it makes one wonder if you are a life partner or just a co-tenant.

At some point, it makes one wonder if the decision previously made was correct.

At some point, it makes one think if we should make a BIG decision to correct the wrong one previously made!!

Updates on Lucas Growth

As mentioned in my previous post, we were pretty concerned if Lucas is growing fast enough.

So we brought him to the Pediatrician for a check up and also to get some advice on his feeding.

The doctor did some plotthing on the growth chart found on the health booklet. The conclusion is, Lucas is indeed one small baby.

First of all, his birth weight is already below average. Next, both me & hubby are not of avergae height either. So more or less, Lucas height & weight will be much affect.

However, the doctor did mentioned that though small, Lucas is actually growing consistently, which is a good sign. She also recommend us to slowly increase his food & milk intake to compensate for the energy loss given that he is an active kid at this stage.

I am trying my best to make him grow bigger. If he's active & happy.. well I guess we should be fine :)

Here are some dishes that I made for Lucas.. you know how boring it can get with all the porridge & rice with steam fish everyday... So during weekends I make it a point to make something nice for him...

2010 Chinese New Year

Daddy's 33rd Birthday

Is Hubby's 33rd Birthday.. as it was just too close to CNY, I got absolutely no time to bake him a cake. So instead I bought him a small little



CARE BEAR Cake!! Wahahahaha

Why Care Bear??

Cos whenever he sees care bear.. he will says "Care Bear Shines!!!" I was so amused when he first said that.. he actually remembered the cartoon.. :)



So from there I reckon he loves Care Bear...



Other than the cake, I also bought him a wallet.. His first authentic branded one I guess :)

Initially I thought of buying him a Dupont lighter as a replacement for the one he lost (it was a gift from his 3 good poly buddies & he almost go bonkers when he lost it), but that would cost me a bomb!! So I settle for a wallet instead and it's on sale.. What a good deal! :)

2010 Mini Getaway #1

Hee.. looking at the title.. meaning I am planning for #2, #3 #4......... etc... haha

Back to this trip, we went to Malaysia over the last weekend to attend my cousin's wedding.
The Malaysian customs is such that the bride's family will host a dinner on their own and there will be another dinner host by the groom.
We were there to attend the one hosted by the bride.

Is a foodie trip, there's nothing to do except eat eat eat and eat!! Not a single minute was I feeling hungry.. haha..
We also visited my eldest cousin's new house. It's a big & nice bungalow!!

Let the photos do the talk.. and to the bride & groom
May you have a wonderful, everlasting & blissful marriage forever!!

Help!!!

As I mentioned in my previous post, Lucas's weight seems to take forever to increase and I am struggling very hard to pile it up.

So I decided to measure him and see where he falls under the WHO growth chart.
Length for 22 months: 81 cm = 5th percentiles!!!!!
Weight for 22 months: 10kg = 15th percentiles
Weight for Height (Length) = 25th percentiles

Oh NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is truly very very very small.
At this very moment I am really at a loss, as to me, I think he is eating normal and enough (I hope).
6.30am - 7 oz (210ml) of milk
9.30am - 1 slice of bread
10.30am - 5 oz (150ml) of milk
12 noon - 1 full bowl of porridge with meat / fish & vegetables
3.00pm - 6 oz (180ml) of milk
3.30pm - 2 pcs of kids biscuits
6.00pm - 1/2 bowl of rice with meat / fish & vegetables
7.00pm - Nibble a few mouths of Mummy's & Daddy's dinner
8.30pm - 1/4 of apple or a few pcs of biscuits or some cereal (like honey star / cornflake / coco balls)
9.30pm - 8 oz (240ml) of milk

I am considering if I should bring him to a specialist. I spoke to one of our friend, Joyce, who happens to be working in such a clinic at KKH and her boss is in this specialisation. According to her, the routine for the 1st consultation would include X-ray on hand and blood test. The fees can sum up to S$300 plus.

Upon hearing that I am rather put off, not by the fees but the blood test!! I yikes blood test and more so when it has to be done on my little one. Sigh!!!
Joyce's advice is that even if we were to go to normal PD, ultimately they will refer us back to KKH.

Being a very sweet and helpful nurse, Joyce actually asked her boss to help us plot the growth of Lucas to determine if he is growing healthily.
So right now, I am still thinking if I should go for the consultation...

In the meantime, to all my readers out there (I hope there are.. hehe), if you have any tips in this area or if you find that my feeding has some problem, please let me know via the comments box or chat box.

Thanks


PS: I nearly got to cancel my trip to Malaysia as Desmond's passport was expiring and we only realised it on Monday night. Lucky he got his new passport this morning, if not I think I will be Bao Gong over the weekend!! :)

1st Post for 2010

Yes I know, it took me so long to get a post out.
Sorry, pretty tied up lately, simply no time to blog and there’s nothing much to blog about anyway.
No no, not FB games but with all the spring cleaning, cookies baking experiments. There's so much to do with so little time.

We did celebrate New Year, over at Eve & WJ's place together with a few close friends.
No cake this time, had enough of it since Christmas and I am conserving my energy for Chinese New Year haha.

Lucas is doing well except for that sickening diarrhea which he had it since 2 week of December last year and it was on off kind of thing and lasted for almost a month long!!

On the first occurrence, after the anti-diarrhea medication, it did help, but came back again after 3 days. The same goes for the 2nd occurrence. I noticed that if he eats too much, he will poo alot and it became diarrhea.
We knew that no FM allow during diarrhea, it's best to take soy milk as it does not contain lactose, so better tolerance for his little stomach as compare to normal formula milk.
But GP also advice that if we don't want to use soy milk, we can actually dilute FM.
However this time round, we decided to put him on soy milk since it's been going on for quite some time. Oh boy, soy milk STINKS! Thank god, my little one still took them as usual.

We went to GP thrice, but it was still the same and he keeps giving him Lacteol Fort (Acidophilus in powder form).

Finally we brought him to PD, upon hearing the whole situation, she pointed out that we shouldn't do an immediate switch of diet once we see that Lucas's poo is back to normal.
In fact, we should switch it back slowly. Since he's on soy milk, we should slowly change it back to FM by introducing 1 feed each day and increase it as days goes by making sure the poo is consistent.
Do not give him too oily & rich food, no roots vegetables & fruit juice (as they have a higher sugar content which is currently intolerable)
After all these tips, Lucas finally recovered.

Now I am struggling to pile up his weight. He looks like a miserable tiny baby. He eats as usual even during days when he is not feeling well. Yet his weight seems to take forever to increase.
Not too sure where went wrong, Diet? Too active? Still not eating enough?

I am still sourcing help and advices and hopefully he can grow up stronger and BIGGER!!

We will be busy again for the next few weeks.
This weekend we will be travelling to Port Klang to attend my cousin's wedding. I am looking forward and getting excited because we are travelling together with extended family members as well!!!

After that we will be back to our CNY madness of cleaning, baking, cooking & SHOPPING!!!