Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Baby's diet

I've been doing research on the Macrobiotic diet. It was developed by a Japanese guy where 60% neutral whole grain foods (like brown rice) 30% vege and 10% meat. Also recommended for cancer patients.

I learned how to do this from my mother in law's maid who has been cooking the porridge for my niece who was always at the top of the height and weight chart for her age group. She not overweight by any means. She's got a little belly becuase she's always hungry but she's very tall, healthy and intelligent.

Here's the recipie:

A handful of brown rice & "gei-ji" (wolfberry--good for eyes). About a cup of water. Bring to a boil for half an hour.
Then put in a small slace of lean pork or beef (about 1/4 of your palm and 2cm thick). Turn the fire down to simmering.
2 hours later put in chopped root veges or green veges of choice (I just use about the same as the rice) and a piece of fish.
A dash of really good quality, low sodium soya sauce to bring out the taste of the meat.
Take out the meat before serving. The fish should dissolve.
All the nutrients should have gone into the "soup". No need to strain because the whole thing will become like cantonese "djok" porridge. The rice will swell and the veges will become soft and mushy.

I bought a very small slow cooker. If done in the slow cooker, I just put in the rice first thing in the morning on high setting. Then I just leave it on that setting and let it bubble away adding the meat once the rice has boiled. By noon, the porridge is ready. I serve it for lunch and dinner.

Okay, I know it takes forever but the resulting porridge smells so tasty.

Baby's still very fussy about food but I'm happy to report that she no longer sees me as her major food source and can now fall asleep on her own. I just feed her in the morning to clear my milk supply and once more in the evening before bed. However, I pull away while she's still awake and she then tosses and turns till she's asleep.

She's super interested in whatever we adults are eating. This is good because if we eat healthy, she will too. I just worry about the amount of salt in the food sometimes.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Urine & Singing in the car

Baby's sick again! She's been having a fever on and off for the last 3 days. It's so sickening. Luckily it's not a high fever.

Becuase the suspects a urinary tract infection, she made Baby wear a pee bag which is this small bag with a sticky mouth to be taped to the skin of the pokey. Poor Vin spent the entire morning at the doc's office just waiting for our daughter to pee. In the end, he gave up and came home. She refused to pee. Then when she did, the pee wet the whole bag which moistened the sticky part thereby dislodging when she moved. Apparently, you're supposed to hold her upright all the time so you can "catch" the pee. Whoever invented this system of collected a toddler's urine is a moron because which toddler stays still for that long? Anyway, I returned home from work to find a frustrated husband and a baby whose urine, up till now, remains ellusive. We'll try again in the morning to hunt for the pee. However, all three of us (yes including the maid) are in disagreement over how to ensure that Baby either pees into the plastic bag or into a plastic cup. I say we let her run around the balcony without her nappy and watch her really closely then when she gets the shivers rush in with the plastic cup in hand. Vin says that won't work because she'll only shiver post-pee; not before. We can't even lay a plastic sheet on the ground to collect the urine as we have to make sure the sample is uncontaminated. Sigh, only being a parent could make a person so obsessed with urine.

Oh, we were in the car just now and I started singing to Baby. I realised that it's a wonderful way to introduce vocabulary. I'll sing and she'll watch my mouth really intently. I'll go "When you're happy and you know it ..." She'll then clap her hands, shake her head and raise her arms at the appropriate part of the song.

I made little word tags so that I could tape them to everything and show her words of things around the house. She was more interested in throwing the tags in the air and pushing them around on the floor. Oh well, one step at a time. Vin held up the word "Cat" and she immediately said "Kaaa". "Cat" is her first real word because we point the one that lives at the base of our block out to her almost every day. Perhaps its fitting since we both love cats. Not really sure if she really was reading the word since she says "Kaa" or "Paa" to almost everything. Unless, that is, when you ask her a question in which case she'll immediately shake her head.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

5th year wedding anniversary

Been cracking my head what to get Vin for our 5th year anniversary which was over 2 months ago. He gave me a diamond pendant. Didn't tell me about it and it was a total surprise. I totally melted.
 
The problem is, it's so difficult to shop for men. Plus, with baby to take care of it's not like I have tons of time to go shopping. The thing is, I want something that lasts a really long time, maybe another 5 to 10 years. Not something that will break down after 3 or 4 years like a laptop or a handphone. Vin's complained that I haven't bought him anything yet. Seriously, I just haven't had the time to really look for anything special and I can't think of anything worth getting him that he would appreciate. Having said all that, I think I've just been tired and I haven't taken time out for myself or for getting Vin a special gift.
 
Sigh

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Flying Kiss

2 days ago Caity finally did a flying kiss. I've been doing it for 2 months on and off now. I did it one night repeatedly while b-feeding her using her hands on my mouth and then doing it with my own hand. "Flying kiss (hand covering my mouth)...Muah! (flourish when hand comes off the mouth)"
 
So the next evening, I think on Monday, when I said "flying kiss" she raised her hand up to her open mouth and let it fall again. Ahhh! I got so excited. I was jumping up and down squeeling in delight. Ahh...the miracles of learning.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Musical baby

Caity likes music. Vin's singing "Lips" on his xbox and Caity's sorta dancing to the music. She shakes her head and sways from side to side. She'll also wave her hand round and round.