Magic Pot

Many months ago, I had this idea to get a “magic pot”. Had been surveying in the market, and saw few good brands have such pot that I want. Talked to my mother about the pot, and she told me to save my cash, she has one at home, and she seldom use. So, she gave me her energy saving magic thermal pot! Since I have the pot, I begin to make soup during weekdays too. It is so much convenient. However, for me, a soup base is nice if it is boiled long enough under the fire. I always believe that by using fire to make soup, it will taste much nicer than cooking it with any electrical pot. Because soup taste good if it has enough “for hei” (should I say 火气 ?)
No doubt the magic pot can make my life easier, I still has some dissatisfaction of the end result. Not due to the ingredients, but due to the “FIRE”…

So, in order to make the soup taste good, I will prepare my soup ingredients at night. What I do is to put all ingredients and water into the stainless steel inner pot, then boil under the stove. It takes about 15-20mins to boil.
Then I transfer it to the outer thermal case, which can keep the heat in the inner pot and let it continue to cook overnight.
Then I go to sleep. The next morning, I take out the inner pot, it is still hot. So I reboil it on the stove again, it takes about 1-2 mins , then transfer it back to the thermal case. After that , I go out to work. When I reached home after work and once I open the inner pot, the soup is still hot, and all the ingredients are well cooked and soft. The quality of the soup can be considered not bad. It is still lack a bit of “uuooomph” , but at least most of the working evenings I have healthy, non MSG home cook soup for dinner.

Hair or Chubby

Recently I noticed that Bb-G's face has no longer as chubby as she before. Maybe she has lost her baby fat?
But her legs and hips still look meaty.
Then I realised it is due to her hair. Nanny's husband told me this before, " in order to see or can see Bb-G's face, her hair should not be long, if her hair cover her cheek, her face will look very small...."

His words are really true. These few days when I tied Bb-G's hair, I saw her chubby face again....

Her small thin face, hair cover her hair


Her chubby cheeks appeared after I tied her hair

Now I am having a dilemma. I want to keep her hair long, but then I cannot see and squeeze her chubby face (yah, i enjoy pinching her cheeks very very much!). But then, with long hair at this age, it is hard to manage and could be hot for her. Weather now is hot and humid too.
Maybe this weekend, I shall bring her to the salon and tell the hair stylist to trim her front and side fringe, but mantain the length?, Hmmm ,let's see how...

Now, her hair is long enough for 2 pony tails

Swim & Chicken

I have always wanted to bring Bb-G to our condo baby swimming pool, however , the swimming pool water is very cold, and the area always hit by strong wind. Most young toddlers could not stand such environment. Previously Papa-M’s friend bought his son to our place to swim. I saw the poor little boy (I think he is one year older than Bb-G) shivered and cried when the water touched his body. Therefore I never wanted to bring Bb-G to the pool, just to avoid her from catching the cold.

However, part of me really love to make Bb-G swim and play with water or rather, not scared of water. I love swimming very much. I so hope one day I can swim together with her in the pool or beach. Recently during weekends, I take quick evening shower with her too. It was fun!

On Saturday, around 5pm, I pumped air into her “swimming pool” and poured warm water into it. Sister helped Bb-G to change to her cute swimming suit which was a gift from my friend during 2010 Chinese New Year.


She was wearing a swimming diaper, which supposedly would not plump when it contact with water.

It was tiring to prepare her swimming pool and water, but worth the effort when I saw her enjoying herself.

I did not only pamper Bb-G, but I pampered my family (Papa-M and siblings) by cooking steamed salted chicken with herbs for dinner.... yum yum...

Antique?

Bb-G has two “antiques” passed down by both of her parents.
One of them is the baby cot .It is used by Papa-M when he was a baby. I must say that the quality of this baby cot is very good despite it is more than 30 years old. The wood used was solid and hard. During my pregnancy, I searched around for wooden type of baby cots too, however I found that they were less superior in terms of the wood used compared to the one that we have. And of course there are good quality cots in the market but they cost a bomb!

Then the second “antique” Bb-G owns now was passed down my ME…
My pair of red sandals , more than 30 years old too. My mother has kept them in good condition, and gave to Bb-G recently. The sandals were made with latex. I must say -- good quality of latex, which till today, they are still durable. The sandals look hard but they were soft on tiny feet. Mother’s wish is let me wear when I was a toddler, then pass to my daughter and my daughter pass too her daughter and so forth….Therefore, I must keep them in a safe place once Bb-G cannot wear them anymore.

18th month

1st March 2011 marked the date whereby Bb-G is fully one and a half years old. Time flies REAL FAST! Another six months to reach 2-year-old.
Some of the things she can do and speak now, would like to jot down here to remember…

1) Nowadays, whenever she asks for something (milk, bolster, pacifier, toys, etc..) I will teach her to ask from me (or from someone else) politely.
Eg., if she wants to drink milk, she will say : Mami, pissssssh nen nen, ang cute (mummy, please, I wan nen nen, thank you)

2) She helps me to throw rubbish in the dustbin in the kitchen, eg., her soiled diapers or something that she picks from the floor . I do not need to follow her, she knows where to go and where to throw.

3) If my handphone on the dining table rings, but I am sitting on the sofa, she will help me to take the handphone and pass it to me. She is tall enough to reach the edge of the table, so, if I know I may need her to take some light items from the dining table , I make sure I put near the edge of the table in advance.

4) When she has a handphone, she will put by her ears and talk like this “ ha-o… arrr….arrr….ha-o …aa..aaa….mmmm.. aa…mmmm” I always feel very funny when she talks on the phone.

5) When she does not want anything, she say “mai” and shake her head . I think she learned the word “mai” from Nanny’s place. (mai = don’t want in Hokkien). I never talk to her in Hokkien, but then suddenly she knew how to say “mai”

6) When her face or hands dirty, I shall pass her a wet handkerchief. She will wipe on her own, and says “ mak mak mak” (mak = wipe in Mandarin). Think she learns this from Nanny’s house too…

7) When she sees I wear dress, she will say “mei mei” (mei = pretty in Mandarin). Anyway, if she sees those lanterns, lightings and decoration in the shops or by the roadside, she will shout ‘mei mei” too

8) Everytime when Papa-M reaches home after work , she will run towards the wooden door and BANG!BANG!BANG! This is to show her affection to Papa-M, she welcomes him home. Papa-M also entertains Bb-G, before he enters into the house, he will BANG!BANG!BANG! the door too. Father-and-daughter’s loving way of communication in between a wooden door ^_^

9) When she knocked herself and fell down, she will beat the floor , or chair or table, or whatever that made her had the fall.

10) I just noticed this yesterday, she no longer lie down on a big pillow to drink her milk. She passed the pillow to me, then sat like an adult, finishing her milk.

Meat

There were some leftover of roast meat (chicken and pork) in my fridge. Don’t feel like eating it with rice, as I was quite lazy to cook some other dishes too. Therefore last night after finished taking the dinner tapao by Papa-M., I cut the meat chunks into tiny pieces. Chopped some garlic and simply fried the meat by adding some soy sauce and sugar.



Let it cool and then poured in some mayonnaise. Mixed well and keep in the fridge.
This morning, I made sandwich using burger bread for breakfast, one for me, one for Papa-M. Easy and nice. If I add some fresh mushroom, it think it would taste even nicer…

Little Sun

I recently get to know of a channel in Astro, specially meant for children - Astro Xiao Tai Yang （小太阳）
I didn’t actually watch the program but just simply turned to the channel and put Bb-G in front of the TV. Surprisingly, she enjoyed a lot. I am not sure what are the shows in this channel , so one day, I took an opportunity to watch together with Bb-G. There are lots of children’s educational show from Taiwan and Singapore, local programs are included too. Some shows were too deep for her, however those like singing, dancing , or short story telling from cute puppets can make Bb-G sit tightly in front of the TV. Sometimes I even noticed she sang and danced along with the kids in the TV…

I really appreciate this “Xiao Tai Yang” . I believe it is my savior. Instead of repeating the same children’s DVD for Bb-G, she can watch different types of show every day. Moreover, I can save some extra cash for not buying her new DVDs. ^_^
Nowadays, when we reach home after fetching her from Nanny’s place, I switch on the channel and put a small chair in her play pen. Then sometimes, I shall pamper her with some nice beverage (example Ribena). I could then take my own sweet time to bathe and prepare simple dinner without any fuss…..

She knows it’s time for Xiao Tai Yang, happily went into the playpen


She was clapping her hands, mimicking the action by some kids in the show

Enjoying her Ribena at the same time

Watch till never blink-blink her eyes

This was the nice show she watched.