Mosquitos, Buzz Off!!

This morning I woke up to find tiny red spots on Grace's face. After observing the spots for a while, I realized that they are mosquito bites. It's not just 1 or 2 bites but all together 7 on the face and 1 on her left hand. Aaw.....my heart hurts.....

I immediately take revenge on the mosquito and killed 2, hurting my right thumb in the process. Silly me.

Now, I have to remind myself to browse through the room, especially those dark corners, before lights off every night. Usually I have my room windows closed during evening time for fear to inviting mosquito. But still, they have some way to get into the room! I will need to be more careful moving forward.

While I was browsing through the room tonight, I immediately thought of what my mom used to do when I was young. She will do the same in our room (sharing room with my 2 sisters) and my brother's room. Sometimes if she's busy and could not do it before we go to bed, she will do it after we have all set in to bed. I could still remember certain nights, I woke up (but pretended am still sleeping) to find my mom shooing and killing those mosquito.

Parents is always the same, no matter it is in the past, now or future. They will care for their children in every single matter, making sure that they are save from any harm.

What my mum was doing, I am doing it now and I am sure Grace will be doing it in the future.

Bravo to all mothers!

Argh.....feeding Grace solid

Feeding Grace solid had never been easy!

I started her on rice cereal (+breast milk) when she was 6 months old. Her first reaction was (I think) quite encouraging. She seems to like being fed in a spoon and couldn't wait even for a second for me to scope the thingy. May be it's just her excitement towards something new after being offered just the breast for the past 6 months (**blush blush**).

Well, after several meal of rice cereal, the nightmare begins. Grace only accepted fruits like apples, pears and bananas. All other things (errr......except yogurt and ice-cream) is a big "NO" by shaking her head. Feeding her porridge and then rice was also a disaster. I used to get really mad and stressed during meal time.

I don't know since when, the stress reduced and she begins to take a little more porridge and/or rice (when she has something else to attract her attention while I feed her). Good, now I can at least enjoy what I eat (have not been enjoying my food). THINK AGAIN!!

Recently her behaviour towards food change again. First, she begins to love bread (thanks to the bento tools), especially when it is with bacon or loin. Then, she begins to love vegetables and then meat (any meat). What did I do during meal time? I had to let her feed herself with vegetables and/or meat, while I intervene with porridge or rice. Argh.....I need to be on the look out whenever her mouth is empty, so that I can stuff the porridge in. Porridge is always better than rice, as porridge is a little sticky and dissolve easily once in the mouth. While she can immediately reject rice.

What happened today? During lunch we had noodle. Not much of a problem cause Grace love noodles. But during dinner, it was rice for today. She refused to take the rice no matter how hard I tried to distract her. In the end she had just 3 mouthful. Then I ask her if she would like to have bread with ham, she node her head. So I prepared the usual bread and her milk. What did she do? She pushed it away then demanded "nen nen"! I got so furious, I scolded her and refused to let her breastfeed.

What happen next? She cried and cried and cried (I noted that she's just screaming with little tears). I refused. Then she started to shift attention. She asked for a toy and then to watch Hi-5. While watching Hi-5, she slowly feed herself the bread but still refuses to drink the milk. I transfered the milk to a cup (initially it is in a trainner cup) and there she was sipping from the cup until the very last drop. Not a drop on the floor!

Bravo to mummy!!! Winner of the day! Whom benefit from this? Grace herself!

Room 312

On Saturday morning, I went to Adventist hospital to visit a friend whom had just given birth to a baby boy. As I was walking towards her room, Room 312, I was thinking, could it be the same room that I stayed in 2 years ago when I gave birth to Grace. Sure enough it was the same room that I stayed in. What a coincidence! As we were chatting later on, we even joke that next time it will be Phaik Sim (sister-in-law) on the ward bed while Moh Herng (brother-in-law) sleeping on the couch!

This short trip back to Room 312 really brings me down memory lane. This is the room where excitement, joy, anxiety and worry, all different feelings came to me.

Grace decided to join us on the evening of November 26, 2006 after a long labor process which ended up with C-section. As such, I don't get the chance to nurse her immediately after birth, which I wanted so much. After the operation, I was given time to rest and to recover fully from the anesthesia. I only get to see my precious little one (after the short encounter in the operation theatre) during midnight when the nurses brought her to me for breastfeeding.

I could still remember my feelings when I first nursed her. It was a combination of excitement and nervous. As I don't have any breastfeeding experience (obviously none cause Grace is my first child), I found it tricky and hard. I tried my very hard, even though it hurts (I just had my operation, remember) to sit upright so that I could feed nicely. In fact, I insisted. I guess that's the first time I actually felt the power of love!

While I was nursing Grace, I overheard the nurses said to each other, "this baby is a hypo". Question mark! What hypo? Then I thought, may be they are saying that my baby has high potential in breastfeeding. I was suppose to have my baby roomed in with me, but was wondering why they push Grace back to the nursery. I don't know why I didn't ask.

Morning came and hubby needs to rush off to the Registration Department for Grace's birth certificate and then head of to work in the afternoon. I was left alone while waiting for my parents to come.

When I was alone, Dr. Pang the Pediatrician came to talk to me. Telling me that Grace has low blood sugar, hypoglycemia and needs to be on glucose drip until further results to show that her blood sugar is under control. Doctor also told me that Grace will need to be put under close supervision and that she will need to be fed with formula milk to ensure that she receives the necessary glucose level. He told me this need to be treated carefully as severe or prolonged hypoglycemia may result in seizures and serious brain injury. I was dumped! Now I know why the nurses were saying "hypo"!

So, the rest of my stay in the ward was filled with anxiety and worry. As Grace needs to be on the drip, she could not be pushed often to my room. So, even though my wound still hurts (quite a lot), I make myself walk as often as possible to the nursery so as I could see and nurse my little one. I couldn't sleep well at night, waking at 2-3 hours interval, walked to the nursery, breastfeed Grace. I cried everytime I saw her bandaged little hand. Praying and whispering words of courage to her everytime I carry her.

On Tuesday morning, another not so good news came. Grace has jaundice and needs phototherapy. Making my trip to the nursery more frequent.

Give thanks to our God. After being put on drip for 3 and a half days, Grace's blood sugar came back to normal and was under control. Her jaundice level also reduced, allowing her (and her mommy) to go back home.

Today (I mean on saturday) as I was walking in the corridor leading to the nursery from room 312, I couldn't help but Thank God for His blessings and care towards Grace. Two years ago I was making trips to the nursery anxiously, but today Grace is walking happily with me thro and fro in the corridor.

Country vs City

I don't know what had gotten into me! Kept thinking of country lifestyle. Today I re-called what we did many many years ago when I was still a little girl.

Like I said earlier, I was raised in a very adventurous family. Mom and dad (I must say especially dad) will always engage us in fun activities during our school holidays. Other than going cycling and fishing, we did have a "Tour around Peninsular Malaysia" in I can't recall if it was 1 or 2 weeks. Then there was picnics, sight-seeing, and many more.

During my schools days, we will travel to many places (within Malaysia, off course). Pangkor Island was one of the most often visited places. Why Pangkor Island? You see, that's my mom's hometown and we still have uncle and grandfather staying there. In fact, that's the place where we had a whole lot of fun with cousins and friends!

I must say that my dad is a very creative man. He could make a whole lot of things out of scrap. There was once he made a bench out of wood under a tree, in front of my uncle's old house. It was a great multi-purpose bench which we played on. It's a place for relaxing during evening, a place to rest your head during cloudy days, a stage for performing, a platform for child play, and most of all a place for fellowship among relatives.

It was such a memorable bench that we even had opening ceremony to launch the bench. All the kids dressed up nicely for the ceremony. The Opening Ceremony of the bench

Me and elder sister on the launching day

Other than that, we had once build walls out of banana leaves on the bench. Pretending that it was our house, we played all sort of role-play games. Role playing - some act as parents, others as the children; cooking. It was sad that in the end, our banana leave house was "stoned" by some "terrorist" (rude kids in that area). Anyhow, we did have lots of fun.

Today, it is hard to provide Grace with this kind of a lifestyle. Nevertheless, I will not give up. I will strive my best to introduce some of these activities to Grace when she's older. As for building banana leave house, it will be a little harder. We are now staying in high-rise condominiums, thus spaces is a concern.

Why had I chosen "Country vs City" as my blog title? Well, though we don't have the outdoor space to build banana leave house, we do have Pop Up Panel house (see below) which we could keep or "build" at any time and any where we want. That's the difference between country and city!

Nevertheless, Grace still had a good time playing in this little pop up house. Here are some photos of her enjoying her play.

Country lifestyle.....

I remembered there was a time when I was teaching children in church and I realised how city kids missed out so much on the fun of country side living. I asked them if they have ever watch people fish or fishermen fish. The answer was "No". Have you see fishing boats? The answer was "No" again! Oh dear, oh dear, they missed out so much fun!

I am not sure how other parents think, but as for me, I will definitely give Grace, if not all, most of the "kampung" (country side) lifestyle that I went through when I was young. You see, I was raised in a very adventurous family. We will go cycling, exploring the places in the little town that we stay. Go fishing at anywhere that we can fish. And many many more.

Nowadays, kids are too adapted to the civilization and high technology that some of this nature adventure was totally wiped out from their lives. This was worsen with extremely busy parents. Though civilization and high technology is important to us, but I think mother nature is even more important to us. These activities help us to love the nature, also teach us to be more aware!

Today, we put another new page in Grace's book of life experiences. We (my sis, my dad, my mom, me and Grace) went fishing. There's this very long unused (quite good condition) jetty at Teluk Kumbar for us to fish. Wow! FUN!

Grace, off course, joined in the fun too. She could spent a whole one half hour there. We went at evening time, so no concern on sun burn! She started off with a fake fishing line in the sea. Then when we caught some fish, she fish from the pail. Then she wants the real fishing rod. So dad let her sit with him. When they caught a fish, Grace helped pull it up! She enjoyed it very much.

This is definitely a new experience for Grace. I will say that it's a good one. We will surely do it again.

Here's the display of fishes that we caught today:

Pretty girl....

Last week, during our usual afternoon routine, I was looking at Grace playing and rolling on the bed, when I suddenly realised what a pretty girl Grace is! It's not that I want to boast about it......sure she is pretty BUT very very mischievous and naughty too. Not to mention that she's also very demanding, for stuff that she wants and for attention too. I guess it's just the process of growing up, the terrible two's. Really hope that she will grow pass this stage soon.

Well, here's some of her very cheeky photo shots:At my Dad's church, after my Dad's Ordination

At The Golden Triangle Restaurant




Having fun at the playground

Posting for photo shot at home

My Favourite Great American Seafood

COME stand a chance to WIN a trip for two to New Orleans, United States. Prize package includes two Southwest Airline roundtrip tickets, hotel accommodations, dining experiences and many more. All you need to do is to VOTE for your favorite American Seafood Cook-Off recipe. This chance of a lifetime is in conjunction with the 5th Anniversary of The Great American Seafood Cook Off. The Great American Seafood Cook Off is presented by the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board. It features top-chefs from around the nation cooking with domestic, sustainable seafood from their home state.

5 finalists had been named for the 2008 Great American Seafood Cook-Off and were given several challenges in completing their final dish in the competition. First, their recipe must contain either one of the two mystery ingredients, Southwest Airline peanuts and selected brews from Michelob Brewing Co. Next, keeping it healthy and simple. This means that their dish should include ingredients from all five food groups (grain, vegetable and fruit, milk, meat and bean, oils) and be a dish that even the most harried home chefs could prepare. Not forgetting that they should use domestic seafood. You would ask, why domestic seafood? It’s for their freshness, great taste and most importantly it’s local!

Now, the voting process is just as simple as 123. All you need to do is to (I’ve included print screen for even easier identification):

First, visit www.GreatAmericanSeafoodCookOff.com.

Secondly, click on the red box (see below) “Vote and Enter to Win a Trip to New Orleans: RECIPE CONTEST”.

Thirdly, browse through the top five recipes listed and then make a pick.

Fourthly, Click on the red box (see below) “Enter to Win”.

And finally, fill up the simple GASCO Recipe Contest form (see below) and click Submit.

It’s just a 5-step process to give you a chance in winning a trip to New Orleans.

As for me, I had just casted my vote for "Pan Roasted Glazed Rockfish with Peas and Carrots" by Chef Tafari Campbell from Maryland. By looking at this dish (though it is just a photo), it gives me a mouthwatering impression. Besides, it combines 2 types of seafood in a dish, rockfish and crab or shrimp. All these are my favorites and my daughter’s too. Delicious! A study through the recipe and I noted that the ingredients can be easily acquired and it looks simple to prepare, meeting the “healthy and simple” requirement of the competition. Although, I may want to alter a little of the recipe if I were to try out this recipe. May want to exclude or substitute the Shock Top beer with something else, because both my daughter (just 2 years old) and I (breastfeeding) could not take alcohol. What’s the substitute? Can’t think of it right now, will update further when I try out the recipe.

So, why wait and loose a chance? Take action NOW. Visit www.GreatAmericanSeafoodCookOff.com

My new found interest...

Recently I browsed through a friend's blog and saw that she's making scrapbooks to store up photos and journals on her toddler daughter. This friend of mine is a working mother! I was exclaiming, "Gosh.....she's working and taking care of her daughter and still have time to do all this!" It really brings me to re-look into my life and daily routine. Ever since I resigned from my previous position to be a full-time mother, I had not engage myself in anything of my interests except for my church children ministry. Almost all of my time were dedicated to my daughter. During her nap time, I will take my time relaxing in front of my laptop, playing games. Sigh, sigh, sigh...waste of time.

Well, I used to love crafts a lot. Though I'm not good in drawing, I'm interested in making crafts and gift wrapping. So, after giving it a real thought, I started to look into scrapbooking. Scrapbook is an album filled with pages of layouts of photo and journals. I thought that it will be a good idea to store selected masterpiece of Grace's photos in a scrapbook so as both of us could ponder on it at a later time. All this while I have been storing photos in digital form.

And so be it. I started to source for scrapbooking stuff online. I found 2 online stores and a store in Penang Island. Great! Orders are made, items delivered and there I was creating layouts after layouts when Grace is having her afternoon nap.

To date, I have created 1 album, 1 Maze Book and an Exploding Box which I learn from Glitter Adventure. The album and Maze Book are constructed on behalf of Grace. Maze Book is given the title "My Cousins" while the Album carries the title "Shanghai 2008". The Exploding Box is given a title of "My First Times" and is a gift to a friend, whom will be giving birth to her first child real soon.

I enjoy the scrapbooking sessions a lot and will be sure to make many more albums.

Here's some photos of my creation, Maze Book and Exploding Box.

The Exploding Box

The Maze Book

Long Live Bento Tools!

I really want to thank whomever that have invented the bento tools, particularly the cookies/vegetable cutter. Long live bento tool!

Grace used to hate bread. Grace's menu for breakfast for most of the days would be bread, milk (just a little) and yoghurt. Then she will take porridge for lunch while dinner she will have rice. As she hates bread, she will take only a little in the morning. I was worried that she has not had enough food.

Through tv advertisement and also from browsing friend's friend's blog, I learned about this bento tools where we as parents could use moulds to make interesting looking food for our kids. So I decided to give this a go. I search in ebay and some other sites to purchase some of this tool. It cost quite a bit but I think it was worth the price.

I bought a pair of Hello Kitty vegetable cutter (which can also be used on bread/ toast) and a few other shapes like star, tree, house, elephant and etc. I started using these tools 2 weeks ago. The result: Grace just love it. She will say “猫”(means cat) everytime she wants to eat bread.

Now every morning she will at least eat 4 two-layered hello kitty face. Which is approximately 1.5 slice of bread. I think that is a good start. She would even have the bread without jam or butter!

Imagination!

Grace, even at this age, is already very good in imagining things in most of her play. Recently, there were a few birthdays in our household and Grace has already picked up that, when there's a birthday cake or a present, there will be singing of Birthday Song and blowing candles. So, whenever she sees cakes, presents or even pictures of cakes and presents, she will clap her hand and demand that we sing the Birthday song.

Yesterday, I was playing blocks with her and was arranging the blocks on the barrel cover. Then all of a sudden Grace clapped her hands and asked me to sing the birthday song! Indeed our creation (right) looked somehow like a cake with candles. As soon as I finish the song, she will pretend that she's blowing the candles. There was once, she says “拿拿”(means take). I asked her what does she wants to take. She told me “花”(means flower). Oh my gosh.....she had somehow picked up from somewhere that the birthday person will get flower when he/she is celebrating birthday! How cute!

A little present for Grandma!

It was my mom's birthday on Monday. I bought some Clinique stuff for my mom as presents. As there are a few items, I thought of using a nice paper bag as the gift wrapper. So, I bought one pink paper bag from Gama (a supermarket in town) when we went there with hubby's grandmother and mother.

When I was making my selection, Grace was very eager to participate and wanted to carry on to the bag. I have to let her take it, while letting her know that it is for her "fofo" (Grace had started to pick up calling her grandma "婆婆" which sounds "popo" but she kind of missed the pronunciation a little).

We went back home and have the stuff nicely in the bag and Grace drew a birthday card for her "fofo" (off course with my help and instructions).

Our dinner with mom and the rest was at Golden Triangle Restaurant which is in Queensbay Mall. When we reached there and was getting down from the car, Grace again insisted on carrying on to the paper bag. So we let her and told her it is for "fofo". Grace walked happily with the paper bag and keep on reminded us that it's for "fofo'.

I've never been to the restaurant before, so was looking high and low for the restaurant. When we finally found it, mom and the rest also reached the restaurant. And there at the entrance of the restaurant, Grace did something that surprised everyone and warmed the heart of her "fofo". She walked straight up to her "fofo" and hand over the paper bag to her while calling "fofo". Ow.....it was so sweet.