Feeding Jo Ern at 2yo

She had a milk strike at 3 months, went back to consuming less-than-average amounts of milk and after solids were introduced, pushed food away after a mere few spoonfuls.  She went on a food strike at about 12 months.  We had to crack our heads figuring out how to get food into the kid. Then another eating strike occurred at 15 months.  At 16 months I blogged on what it took to give her one small serving of milk. She was underweight according to the paedi charts.  I count myself lucky to have a maid who had enough affection for Jo Ern to spend hours daily feeding her and to try different ways to get her to eat.   

The turning point only came around 20 months when she started showing interest in food.  Her weight slowly improved.  At her recent visit to the paedi for vaccinations, hubby reported that paedi said her weight was good (I was super-busy at work and couldn't go. I would have checked HOW good, heh)  Anyway, after two years of worrying about her food intake, I'm happy to see her EAT! 

Eat grape

No problem getting her to eat fruit.  She gets two servings a day, once at breakfast and the other with everyone else in the evening.

Ahmm all by myself!

OK this one needed work... put a bit of sauce on the rice, give her the spoon and then say "Jo Ern eat and show Mummy, show Mummy", then say "Good girl"'.  Followed by "now show Papa", and then "Good girl!" again. Worked for quite a few spoonfuls.

Ahm mango dessert... no sweat

That's hubby reaching across the table with a spoonful of my mango dessert.

More, Papa!

She is more interested in food that is NOT hers.  For her breakfast/lunch/dinner food, must still coax and pamper her with books, toys and other distractions. The open mouth in the last picture is extremely rare.  I was thrilled to have captured it on camera, heh.

There... I hope this post wraps up the difficult period in feeding this kid!

Personal commentator

Me: Sits down on the throne
JE:  (Comes over) What Mummy do?
Me: Starts doing small business
JE:  Mummy pee-pee!
Me: Sort of finished
JE:  NO more
Me: Empties out last few drops
JE:  Oh GOT.

Hehe... how many people have their own commentator?

How to climb, by Jo Ern

First, locate an interesting high surface. Then:

One leg up and pull body weight up on knee

Swing body onto surface

Push up body using legs

Adjust to sitting position

 

Voila!

And yes, she climbs like this everywhere and all the time!

Genting trip 13

Ok... another trip up to Genting. I had leave to clear, hubby had a free room so why not? And yay, got a suite again! Kinda ironic after the post merely 2 weeks ago about that probably being our last luxurious trip.  Heh.

Anyway better not have Jo Ern getting used to high standards.  The moment we stepped into the room she asked to eat fruit - already can remember a welcome fruit basket is provided!  As usual hubby disappeared.  Me and the kid helped ourselves to the chocolate and fruit in the room.

Me good girl. Give Mummy a-ket (biscuit, or in this case a Kit Kat bite)

For dinner we headed to Ming Ren as hubby wanted lamb steamboat.  The waiter said he didn't recommend the steamboat as the hot surfaces would be dangerous with a young child.  What must he have thought when we eventually ordered not only steamboat but with spicy 'ma la' soup as well!  Our plan was to wash off food before giving to Jo Ern. Worst case we'll order another dish (steamboat already serves 2 so another dish would be too much).  And we ordered a bowl of Xinjiang rice - steamed with garlic/shallot/turmeric/lemongrass, this was rather good.

Well Jo Ern was perfectly fine. Our plan to wash food didn't work as she specifically demanded to drink the soup.  Granted this wasn't considered spicy for us, but for a 2-yo I'd say it was.  Hubby was worried she'd have diarrhoea from the chilli... but no, she was really fine.  She liked the rice and feeding her was a breeze.

Some spicy soup for me, please

After dinner and continuing on to the next morning, Jo Ern made use of the theme park. My annual pass has already expired so hubby got the honour of taking her on the rides. Heh. She asked to go on some rides a few times too.  Half of my pics show poor hubby looking bored!

Yay this is fun! 

Hubby: This is not so fun...

This was a nice break, especially with the weather being so hot in KL.

Glitched birthday celebration

And she is TWO!
Friday, her birthday: I took leave and we went out to Ikea.  She had fun messing with the things there, as I thought she would.  Bought her a birthday toy snake.  :)  Err not too sure now whether that's a good idea (I am paranoid of snakes) as it started looking... well, rather snakey lying on the sofa at home.  Had both lunch and dinner out, plus of course gave her lots of TLC.  Heh.

Eh my birthday issit?

Saturday: The plan was dinner at a restaurant with my family. I'd made the booking weeks earlier and the cake was to be collected on the way to dinner. Fuss-free, yet things did not go well. Hubby went out drinking with his buddies. He wasn't back by evening and my increasingly-frantic phone calls went unanswered. After over an hour, and past the time we were supposed to leave, I was convinced something must have happened to him. Was wondering what to do... should I go without him? But I'd be so worried throughout. On the other hand, the guests would already be at the restaurant and I couldn't very well NOT go?

Eventually hubby called. Apparently the drinking venue was noisy and he didn't hear his phone ringing. It was late, it was raining and he was still pretty far away. He claimed to have forgotten we needed to collect the cake. Also that he thought dinner was later. Sigh. We started off immediately after he reached home. Traffic was heavy. What can I say... it wasn't a pleasant journey. We drove on the emergency lane, cut queues, made illegal turns. No way we were going to make it on time.

We finally arrived at the restaurant, with cake, 45mins late. Food was cooling on the table while everyone waited for us. This was not how I planned it! Sighh.

On the bright side, the strawberry millecrepe cake was yummy. Jo Ern was perfectly happy playing with her cousins. And it was a good thing hubby turned out safe. But I am not happy with him right now!

Strawberry cake

Genting trip 12 - Days 2&3

Day 1 went well, days 2 and 3 not so coz Jo Ern decided to cry a lot.  And my mild sore throat kept threatening to develop into fever.  Stuffed myself with buffet breakfast at Coffee Terrace as usual.  Then while hubby went about his usual absences, I had to deal with a crying toddler who had lots of perseverance and time on her hands.  Decided to let her cry it out... but had to SOS hubby after the crying got onto my nerves! Luckily I felt better after a nap.  That night we dined well on the voucher Genting kindly provided.

Suckling pig, steamed cod, half-eaten abalone soup

Not in pic: mixed veg with macademia, tapau-ed roast duck

Jo Ern ate a bit of cod with rice. Then devoted her whole attention to digging through the basket of veggies n macademia, hence no pics of that dish.  There was value left on the voucher so packed a roast duck to go.  Packed the piggy leftovers too, part of which became my oh-so-sinful supper that night.

Little girl still refusing to take photos:

No wan!

No! No yike!

After dinner I wanted to watch 'Little Fockers' on Vision4.  Hubby went out.  Jo Ern cried wanting to follow hubby out.  I decided to ignore her and watch TV (bad Mummy).  Crying went on and on. Hubby came back eventually, turned off all lights and all went to bed. Peace at last! 

I wan play baby frog, angry bird, bear go walk-walk...

Next day, after dimsum breakfast at Genting Palace, she spotted the iPad in the bag and asked to 'play Angry Bird'.  Then was fully occupied for hours.  Now why didn't I think of bringing out the iPad earlier??  *smacks self hard* We didn't have much time this day as we planned to make it for cousin Jensen's birthday lunch.

Overall a good trip, except for me being a bit sick and Jo Ern crying a lot.  This is probably our last 'luxurious' Genting trip - no suites and suckling pigs (well ok this one maybe) if using own money!

Genting trip 12 - Day 1

After working straight through 2 weekends and then 1 of training, I was looking forward to some R&R!  March being hubby's birthday month, we had 2 nights at the Maxims suite again.  Yayy!  (Of course hubby being hubby, I had to ask - are we having normal room or suite?  Oh, suite...)

I eat apple first. Later hassle Mummy for pear

We had tickets for the show Freeze as well.  And wow, front row seats!  It's my first time there *happy grin*.  Our plan was simple:  bring Jo Ern along and if she fusses or cries at being in the dark, we just leave.  I was equipped with snacks for her too.  But no, she sat there totally entranced for a whole hour!

See cheh-cheh and koko all dance

It was only after an hour that she started fidgeting a bit.  No problem, let's break out the snacks.  The Indian family beside us brought out sour cream-flavoured Pringles for their kid.  I brought out plain cornflakes for Jo Ern.  *snooty grin at providing my kid with superior nutritional value*  Heh heh.

Eat biscuit and watch dancing cheh-chehs

The show ended at 10.20pm, just nice for bedtime after making our way back to the room.  As usual hubby went out for his own R&R - alcohol, food, casino - while Jo Ern and I went to bed.  Woke up shortly after coz Jo Ern was squashing my space... and just had to go grab the camera when I saw how she was sleeping!  First arrow shows the space I vacated, second arrow shows the space for hubby when he returned. Hmm his space looks wider than mine!  Little girl doesn't like blankets and sleeps this way every time we go on holiday. Her feet does get cold but she refuses socks.

Oi-oi time! ZZzzzzz