Tarzan

minibeanie is 16 months old today. While he has limited his verbal communication to grunts (and babble that only he could understand), it was amazing that we are nonetheless communicating. The grunt "ugh!" accompanied by a heave of the shoulder signified "yes" to the question I was asking. And if he really really wanted the banana/teddy bear cookie/watch Sesame Street, it would be a vapid bounce up & down :D

He's also keen to exert his growing independence by wanting to feed himself. Hence, I've adjusted my mindset on 2 fronts. #1, it's ridiculous to expect him to use a spoon - fine motor skills is still somewhere in the distance. So, he now feeds himself most of the time with both hands a la Tarzan. #2, the natural consequence is that he makes a royal mess each mealtime. (the Baby Bjorn rubber catch-all bib has paid itself back many times its Euro 11 investment!) I've therefore stopped being anal because I'm hoping that with all this practice he'll soon learn how to feed himself and besides, my capable Ayi, who comes 3 times a week, simply makes all the grease and crumbs vanish :)


On the Chengdu front, it has been nice. We visited a couple of hotpots recently. One of which was 粥底火锅 ; basically, instead of a broth, everything's cooked in a base of porridge. At the end of the meal, the porridge steeped full of flavours and nutrients is eaten. Wonderful... if not for the lack of baby chairs in the restaurant so I guess the chances of us heading back there is rather slim :P

We also tried a fancy restaurant, 8 Trees, owned by a Singaporean. It boasts of a good selection of wine and a menu with entries like foie gras etc. But we went for its selection of Singapore food - chicken rice in particular. It was good! ..... but they've only got the taste 90% right. The chicken was juicy and done just right. But the rice wasn't aromatic enough and the defining chili lacked that garlicky punch. It was ok by chengdu standards but at SGD44 (ok, we also had a Thai beef salad that was way off the mark & a glass of house red), it must be the most expensive chicken rice meal we had. Again, I don't think we'd return. Not just because of the chicken rice but because they didn't have baby chairs!!! What's with these restaurants?!

Eating out with a toddler has now made me view restaurants entirely different. Obviously, imho baby chairs should be de rigeur but if they've got baby-friendly utensils such as melamine plates, that's a huge plus. And a really big plus will be if they've a play area in the corner for parents who wish to indulge in a little coffee after the meal. No no, I don't mean parents drinking their coffee in the play area but little tykes being let loose there; thought I'd clarify that. And I'm already beginning to look at McDonalds' and KFC in a different light ;)


minibeanie is 1 year & 4 months old