No no no

No no! Don't want to wear this hat!

Pick some nice hats, Mummy

No no! Don't want to wear hat!

Jo Ern doesn't talk yet but she does indicate 'No' clearly these days.  She shakes her head, waves her arms, screams or all of the above!  What she says no to mostly are:

1.  Her food.  Her food strike is ending and she does eventually finish her solids now.  But she will shake her head before that.

2.  For hubby to carry her.  Hubby does like to annoy her so my theory is that's why she doesn't want him to carry her.  But she will laugh happily once he plays with her.

3.  Having anything extra on.  Hats or hankies on her head get torn off immediately.  If I put socks on her, she will keep trying to pull them off.  She refused blankets as a newborn and still doesn't like anything covering her.  Good thing she doesn't try to take her clothes off, hehe.

4.  People trying to remove what she is playing with.  I put a pack of Vitagen on her stroller in a supermarket, she grabbed tightly onto it and screamed whenever I tried to take it from her.  Had to forcibly take it away and endure her loud screeches when it came time to pay!

Universal Studios

Sure got a lot of people walking around this place
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Woke up bright and early.  But by the time all of us got cleaned and fed, it was after 11am when we entered Universal Studios!  That turned out to be fine as there was enough time to see everything.  So... how was it?  Overall aiyo it was scorching HOT!  Genting has the advantage in its cool weather.  Not easy to enjoy yourself when you're melting from the heat! 

OK the park now... it was pretty small and there weren't all that many attractions.  My personal opinion is the props looked a bit cheap - expected more since Universal Studios is a known brand.  Of course we have to skip most rides (which is fine by this scaredy-cat mummy).  Hubby went for one while I waited with Jo Ern.  I looked at the after-ride photo and had to laugh at his extremely-tense face!  He tried to persuade me to ride as well but no way I was going to torture myself hehehe.



Everyone took picture with this yellow car so we also take

Mummy!  There's a funny-looking person up there!!

Hey, there a funny-looking person here too!

No, this wasn't the ride Papa went on. His wasn't so scary

Since the day pass wasn't cheap at SGD66, I was determined to go on all possible attractions.  But by 2pm I couldn't take the heat anymore and gave up.  We had lunch and went back to the hotel room for a shower and snooze.

This place, I tell you, is full of strange people

Strange animals too.  And their eggs

We resurfaced at 5pm and ahhh it was MUCH cooler.  Should have gone into hiding earlier and come out earlier!  We enjoyed the shows at Shrek and walked around until the park closed at 7pm.

Some things here are quite cute

OK took a lot of pictures already. Can we go back now?

Trip to Singapore

Jo Ern had her first overseas trip last weekend.  :)  It was quite a breeze, really.  First I had wondered how on earth she was going to get her photo taken for the passport.  She doesn't sit still on command and how to get her to tilt/straighten her head as required? But she was so good during the photo shoot that it took no time at all!  Then hubby took her to the immigration office and managed to get her passport done very quickly.  He thinks he fluffed up part of the procedure but luckily they give priority to small children.
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So it was all systems go!  I brought along 5 portions of Jo Ern's food in a Coleman insulated box - 2 for the day and 3 taken directly from the freezer.  The 6th was Cerelac which can be just mixed with water.  Also brought cheese, a portion of oats for breakfast and sticks of celery for her to munch in the car.  I had actually planned more food, but ditched some in view of her recent poor appetite.

With hubby's driving, we reached the Johore checkpoint in 2h 45mins.  Then we stopped for lunch at the Plus highway stop.  Jo Ern surprised me by eating her food without fuss.  Wow, first time in WEEKS!  From the Tuas causeway, getting to Sentosa was fast and easy.  We stayed at Festive hotel... hmm I'd expected a bigger room from the photos on the net.  Ah well, it was still a nice room.  There was a king-sized bed, a sofa bed and a cozy single bed up a ladder.  I'd have happily slept on this bed if I'd come alone!

Hello hello! I am way up here

Can I climb up myself? OK must wait until I'm bigger

Pom-pom in the sink

Hotel guests get a complimentary monorail pass.  Just nice as we'd arranged to meet hubby's relatives at Vivo City.  We had a nice duck dinner (forgot name of shop) and Jo Ern ate up her meal without fuss again.  She was probably hungry - it's hard to keep to her normal meal-times when travelling.  Maybe that's the secret to getting her to eat her food!  She had her first bottle of Vitagen which she loved and sucked up in double-quick time.

So this is what an MRT is.  Not bad, not bad

At the harbour. Pardon my grumpy face, I was a bit hungry

Mummy said, if I were bigger I could go play in this fountain

There was a sounds/light/water show at the 'Lake of dreams' that night.  Quite good especially since it was free.  Jo Ern was tired out and KO-ed already in her stroller. Oh the day wasn't yet over for hubby.  He visited the casino where he won some S$.  Next day, Universal Studios! 

Creative feeding

Got bit of oats everywhere. Never mind, papa is bathing me soon

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.  Of course not a really 'tough' approach or Jo Ern would just start crying and there goes any chance of slipping anything down the hatch.  Currently relying on the following tactics:

1.  Letting her dip another spoon (plus her hands too!) into the food.  Might as well let her play with the food since otherwise it would go into the bin.  Managed to feed her quite a bit in the meantime.  :)  It gets pretty messy though!  Sometimes she runs her food-covered fingers through her hair too.

2.  Bringing different containers for her to dip her hands in, fill some with water. While she's busy playing, slip food into her mouth.

3. Using chopsticks instead of a spoon for noodles. She waved the spoon away but accepted feeding from chopsticks.

4. Feeding her with various spoons. Each spoon only 'works' a few times. This tactic doesn't work anymore

 

What? Little bit messy only

Hubby thinks I'm spoiling her and making things difficult for later.  But my priority is to get food into the kid.   And these tactics do work, sort of.  She's eating SOME (maybe half to 3/4 of her usual portion) food compared to NONE.  Teaching of good habits can wait till when she's eating normally!  *fingers crossed that happens soon*

No food, please

Jo Ern... don't keep making up new challenges for Mummy, can or not?  I actually woke up thinking longingly of the days when I sent 2 portions of food with her every morning!  These days it's VERY difficult getting her to eat anything.  She shakes her head even before tasting the first spoonful.  Do some skillful spoon piloting and sneak the food into her mouth, she spits it immediately. 

What is THIS?  Well whatever it is, I don't want any

I thought tangy tomatoes might tempt her, but no, bolognaise sauce was rejected.  Likewise cheesy pasta, and steamed silky eggs.  All my painstakingly-planned-n-prepared food... straight from her plate to the dustbin.  Sighhh.
 
Luckily she is fine with milk so she gets 1 extra milk portion a day.  And she still likes cheese.  Looks like I just have to wait out this phase.  My no salt/no sugar/no seasoning food policy?  Out the window already.  As long as she eats SOMETHING, I'm fine with it.

(The photo?  Actually she's not looking in the bowl. She's thowing a little tantrum not wanting to eat her food.  Therefore CRYING into that bowl)

Trip to Tanjung Sepat

Ladies and gentlemen, behind me you can see some of the famous 'pow's

Finally Jo Ern gets to go somewhere besides Genting. :-)  This trip almost didn't happen as she developed fever the day before.  And my bro had already decided not to go since Jensen was sick.  At least one person couldn't make it on all subsequent weekends until my sister's due date.  Eventually we decided to go since Jo Ern's temperature wasn't too high and as hubby said, we could easily drive back to KL if necessary.  

I didn't set expectations too high and had a good time.  We were typical tourists and visited the famous 'pow' shop, mushroom farm, birdsnest place, Lover's bridge, chips factory, longan farm, small fish stall, dragon fruit farm.  It was funny... we would drive all the way to some stop, go in, comment that the things weren't that cheap/nice/special/fresh, yet happily come out with bulging shopping bags!  I'm quite sure the owners make a killing since there were busloads of tourists who buy-buy-buy.  But it was good that salespeople were welcoming and were generous with samples.  My favourite place was the chips (keropok) factory where products were fresh and cheap. 

Photo only for illustration...you don't get to pick the passionfruit

Jo Ern had mild fever on and off, which wasn't too bad. Her 'food strike' is continuing though. Sigh. She only had half a portion of solids a day when she used to have two.

It's been a while since we had a family holiday and oh, actually it's the first for Jo Ern. We stayed in a bungalow which was great as a base to chat, eat some of our loot, drink wine, smoke cigars etc.

Chilling out with Ah Kong on the patio

Pom-pom in a pail since my bath-tub didn't come along

I am looking forward to the next family holiday, though that will have to wait quite some time.  Then we will have two additions to the family, a new baby and maid.  Logistics would be a nightmare!  Hoo-hoo.

Picky picky

Bring on my meal-time entertainment!

(Sigh) Meal-times with Jo Ern is getting challenging. She has always disliked fish, fine. Then she decided to dislike millet too. And then banana. And bread. And last week she rejected practically all her tried-and-tested food. She would stick out her tongue to push food out. Luckily she likes cheese and one trick is to sneak spoonfuls of food into her while giving her her Edam cubes. The maid is also pretty patient and brings her toys to play, puts her on her car etc to distract her.

I have been busy trying out new food to make her eat. 

1. Red bean soup – I agonised over whether the sugar would be bad and decided it should be fine. Soaked the beans overnight, cooked them, added sago, let the whole thing cool and then pureed some for her. Gave her a spoonful and received her answer within one second…. BLEKK tongue out, food out. FAIL

2.  Made her cheese pancakes.  BLEKK tongue out.  FAIL.

3. Added Marmite to her porridge. Shake head, tongue out.  FAIL.

4. Added ikan bilis. Tongue out.  FAIL

5. Pureed her food (she’d been fine with coarser textures for a while). Limited success… she still shakes her head and waves her hands to block the spoon, but at least she doesn’t go BLEKK once the food is in her mouth.

6. Fed her all kinds of food. Butter cake, durian, bread with jam, BLEKK. Ice-cream and biscuits OK.

I sure hope this is only a phase.  Paed measured her at the bottom 10% weight percentile (dropped since the last visit) during her MMR vaccination so I'm anxious that she doesn't drop even more.