Genting trip 5

I'm beginning to like holidays!

So off we went to Genting again since they called hubby to collect a gift before end-Feb.  It's all a conspiracy to get customers up there, of course!  Anyway since I happened to be on leave, we got a room on Sunday when rates are much lower.

Jo Ern was a happy baby this time.  The moment we arrived at the room, she was just chuckling away and playing around on the bed.  I think she's getting the hang of this thing called 'holiday'!  Hubby put her in the jacuzzi again.  (I am too lazy to fill it up!)  She warmed up to it eventually and even sat by herself a while.

Lots of bubbling water but I am not scared

We went to the theme park again with our annual pass.  Where Jo Ern decided to be scared of clowns.  Previously she had waited patiently for balloon animals from them but this time, she was crying for such a long time.  We tested her with a second clown and same reaction.  Poor girl seemed so traumatised!
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Hmm what is this person doing?

Oh no it's a... a monster! 

Waaaaa!  Sscared!  Mummyyyyyy!

New skillz

See Mummy, I can stand!

Baby Jo Ern is well on the way to becoming a toddler.  She is crawling about now (though I think it's cuter when she's zipping around flat on her tummy!).  The other day, I left her in the living room while I went to wash her Avent cup.  Came back to see her head coming up over the 5th step leading to the dining area.  Almost gave me a heart attack - I didn't even know she could climb stairs and there she was at the top! 

She can pull herself up to stand.  Her favourite place to check out is our coffee table where hubby typically has placed some snack.

Then she can open cupboards and drawers too.  She loves to rummage around and helps herself to whatever she finds interesting.  Found her at my kitchen drawer happily taking out my beehoon. 

What are these things mummy keeps in here?

What I really like though, is when she comes over and leans her body or head on me.  Can't get enough of this display of affection at the moment!

Feeding Jo Ern

Mum-mum time... what is everyone else eating?

A post now on a topic dear to me... food. :)  Jo Ern's approximate feeding schedule after waking up is milk, milk, food, milk, food, milk.  Timing is about 2-3 hours apart, more if she has a nap.  That takes her to evening, then it's milk and usually some fruit before bedtime.  She wakes up once (ok sometimes twice) in the night for milk. 

She doesn't quite like milk now but luckily we can just add unfinished milk into the next solids feed.  Not going to waste any breastmilk!  (Unfinished formula milk must be thrown away)

Food-wise now.  I started with steaming baby-friendly food, puree-ing and freezing into cubes.  Then I mix and match the protein, carbo and veggie cubes for the day.  Now that she eats more, the required cubes don't fit into my Avent cups, what with all the spaces in between the cubes.  So I cook porridge and freeze directly in the Avent cups.  Porridge would be rice or millet, with minced pork and assorted veggies.  But wait... very few meals are identical.  Books say variety aren't important to a baby but who says variety is bad?  :)  I still do the cubes so a meal would be basic porridge plus salmon and spinach cubes, or chicken and sweetcorn cubes, or sweet potato cubes, etc.  And her two daily meals would be different - if one is green, the other would be yellow/orange/white. 

One thing though, all this baby food processing does take time.  I used to try new recipes or bake on weekends, now that time is taken up by baby food. I don't make fixed quantities and some weekends we have places to go, so sometimes there is a glut of food and sometimes a shortage!

Protein - chicken, pork, fish, egg yolk and most recently, beef

Carbo - brown rice, potato, millet, oats, lentils, barley

Veggie - anything goes!  Most recently, onion and tomato

  

Frozen food - seen here are millet, brown rice, broccoli and pumpkin cubes

Frozen milk in one-portion servings 

Ang pows

Look, I got all these angpows! 

Let's see how much this che-che gave me...

Jo Ern is very good with angpows - she has been taking all that are offered!  I know many young kids don't accept a proffered angpow or some even run off.  Jo Ern looks at the sender a few seconds, looks down and takes the angpow, and eventually will put it into her mouth.  Hehe. 

Erm her dress is on backwards.  Hubby put it on while I nipped out to the market.  I thought it looked a bit funny and later found the label was in front!  Hubby thinks buttons shouldn't be at the back... 

CNY 2011

Do I look nice in red?

This CNY I'm more excited than usual since it's Jo Ern's very first. Bought a few dresses for her. But a week or so before, she started having red spots on her face - rashes and mosquito bites. And there were new bites every day. Aiya, like that how to look pretty in all her new clothes? Luckily Papa bought a mosquito repellant, no new bites after that and my little model looked decent enough!

I have an orange! But Mummy didn't let me eat coz it has chemicals

For the first time, I was cooking reunion dinner.  The menu for 10:

1.  Appetiser: Pai tee top-hats (my mum made the hats and the chilli sauce)

2.  Steamed fish with choy poh and garlic

3.  Prawns with wine in claypot
4.  Roast chicken with dipping sauce
5  Stir-fried mixed veg - broccoli, cauliflower, pumpkin, carrot and sweetpeas with razor clams

(Prepared by hubby)
6.  Lotus root-peanut-pork ribs soup

(Contributed by guests)
7.  Yee sang from Eu Yan Sang
8.  Waxed meat rice

9.  Roast pork

10. Lettuce wrap

Plenty of food! As usual, quality was lower than normal with bulk cooking heh. The fish tipped over in the kuali and lost some of its topping, I completely forgot the garnishing, the veg was slightly undercooked, the prawn was slightly overcooked by the time the fish was cooked... but overall, everything was edible, phew.

Some of the food
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Jo Ern can creep fast already and was happily zipping about.  She enjoyed the extra attention from Koo-koo, Alicia che-che and Kingsley kor-kor.  And although she must cry at the sight of Dickson kor-kor, she just loves to look at him anyway.  Err... and then cry some more.  

 I zip here, zip there in my little red dress