Walk the talk

minibeanie is walking!

When we noticed that he was becoming more gungho at cruising about 3 weeks ago, we made a trip to Ikea to buy him a push cart. It was a good buy :) He now prefers to walk around the room instead of going '4-wheel drive'.

He's ahead in the area of gross motor skills but doesn't seem too inclined in the linguistics department. He's quite adept at calling 'da-da'; on a few occasions, he has even called me da-da :D I guess any 1 parent is 'da-da' for minibeanie.

Different takes on privacy

Our concept of privacy is culturally tinged. What is sacrosanct or impolite may not be viewed by someone else in a different culture. I've lost count of the number of times a 'well meaning' person on the street has remarked that minibeanie ought to put on a pair of shoes or socks. Nevermind that it's sweltering summer in May and June. I used to reply politely that "it's ok, he's not cold" but there had also been moments when I retorted, "it's no business of yours". Not proud of those times but really, it's NOYBB! More often these days though, I play dumb and not dignify it with a reply.

Privacy, or the sphere of personal space, is a cultural thing. It's a well-known joke that when an Arab and a Finn is standing in a conversation, the pair will 'dance' around the room. The Arab with his much smaller notion of personal space will inch towards the Finn. Then the Finn, who is known for not even wanting to see his neighbour's cottage while in his own, will inch away from the Arab. Hence, the dance. Joke/anecdote aside, I've had many strangers besides proffering their advice, pinch or touch minibeanie. I appreciate the compliment but he's not a slab of pork in Carrefour to be tested for freshness.

The latest incident that spark this tirade is receiving a mail from Haagen Dazs' marketing department. I signed up as a member online but I did not recall anywhere where I check I want to be kept notified of Haagen Dazs promotions. No biggie because there's the "delete" button. But what really raised my heckles was the moron who put everyone's email address on the cc list. My email is private and even though, in all probability most people on that list do not give a hoot who I am, I still don't appreciate my email address being circulated out in the open. And no, there isn't even an 'unsubscribe' line in the mail. This will NOT be happening in Europe or the US so perhaps in a densely populated country of 1 billion, the concept of privacy is a foreign one.

minibeanie is 11 months & 1 week old

Finger food

I've been giving minibeanie finger foods. Besides its too obvious nutritional value, there are 2 other more sublime intentions. It is good practice for perfecting his fine pincer grip as he chases a soft piece of pumpkin around his bowl (bringing together one's index finger and thumb together neatly is a milestone for babies! :D). Leading from that, there's the hope that in the hopefully not so distant future, he would be able to feed himself. Yikes, which brings me to another 'babyism' -

Mantra for new mothers: Crumbs are your new best friends. Repeat again.

There's a third reason for finger food. Entertainment. It is something for minibeanie to do while in a restaurant. Alas, its entertainment value is short-lived as we often find out. Last week, minibeanie turned our Anniversary dinner in a nice restaurant into fast food. Two courses is as much as we can manage and even that is stretching it.

Speaking of the Anniversary dinner, _I_ forgot our Anniversary last week! I couldn't believe it! I'd been so busy with the humdrum of daily life and planning minibeanie's 1st year bash that it slipped my mind. Thank God there's backup in the form of DH, my better half :)

minibeanie is 11 months & 5 days old

grumbles

There are many challenges on living in China. Here are some of the recent incidents that had me tearing my hair in frustration, surrendering or just plain amused -

• a transfer from our Singapore bank account to our account in China of the same bank has taken more than a week to effect. The reason? The transfer form listed only 1 of the account holders as beneficiary. Hellooo? does anyone in China know what a JOINT account means?
• a friend booked both the BBQ areas in our condo for a big party one friday. On the day itself, it was discovered that 1 of the areas had been mistakenly double-booked. This came as no surprise because the management office's booking system was crap. Bookings were all manually written on a piece of paper based on when the booking was made rather than when the booking was for.
• to be kind to the landlord, instead of banging a couple of nails into the walls to hang our pictures, we used 3M's wall hangers which can be removed without removing the paint as well. Well, not so sure if we did any good because when we cleaned the wall with an alcohol swab to rid it from minute particles, we cleaned off a good layer of paint as well! :D so much for Chinese paint....
• paying for items in departmental stores entail taking a bar-coded tag to the cashier, paying for it, then taking the receipt with the tag back to the sales lady where your item is located Before she would hand over your purchase. It's such a Soviet style convoluted process.
• DH was playing ball with minibeanie one evening when he bounced the ball in our living room. No biggie except that the bounce managed to implode the sealant between the floor tiles. There's now a 3cm long gap between the tiles. Chinese quality.
• there's only ONE model of baby gate in the whole of China. I kid you not.
  

minibeanie is 10 months, 4 weeks & 1 day old

Bye bye!

minibeanie waved "bye bye" for the first time today! This comes after weeks of hugely exaggerated arm movements whenever one of us leaves the room :D

It's strange, this arm thing. For weeks now, he's been using his arm to beat to music - any music, from a catchy commercial tune and Sesame Street to mummy's 'ABC' song. This is usually accompanied with the bobbing of his head. (I tell you, he's a rapper in the making!) Recently, a new variation has emerged. He sways sideways to music.

minibeanie is 10 months, 3 weeks & 5 days old

First step

This is a moment to be remembered. A couple of moments ago, minibeanie took his first unaided step towards me!

minibeanie is 10 months, 3 weeks & 3 days old

Happy Birthday, dada!

On Saturday, it was DH's birthday :) The whole family was up at 0630 because minibeanie refused to return to bed after his 0500 feed (one of those). And so it was that a bleary-eyed DH came down with minibeanie to find a tray of birthday cupcakes with a lit candle approaching him.

Hummingbird cupcake with Limoncello cream cheese frosting

It was a strange name for a cake but I think the cake had southern roots and it was characterized by pecans, banana, pineapple with a hint of cinnamon. The end result was a wonderfully moist and delicious cake. And at 7 in the morning, it wasn't quite a healthy breakfast but at least we were having our fruits, nut and dairy! :D

I decided to give the traditional cream cheese frosting a touch of Limoncello, a lemon liquer from Southern Italy, since there's a bottle of it in my fridge. Besides, it would set off the citrus-y flavour in the cake. Unfortunately, the frosting had too little of the taste of Limoncello. I found myself in a situation where I'd to add a lot more icing sugar than I wanted just to keep the consistency suitable for piping. The icing sugar then masked the taste of Limoncello and also made the frosting a tad sweet. It was a catch-22 situation! After awhile, I decided to go with more cheese than sugar so I removed half the frosting from my bowl and beat in the remaining cream cheese I had. I now have a container of cream cheese frosting in my fridge waiting for me. Perhaps a carrot cake?


All in though, it was a wonderful recipe :) Thanks to chockylit!


minibeanie is 10 months, 3 weeks & 2 days old

zombied

At 10 months, you thought that night wakings are for newborns or finicky babies. But for the past few nights, minibeanie had been waking up at 4am and seemed to take forever to return to sleep. He would have a huge appetite for milk, as much as 50% of his daily intake, and be wide awake standing by the crib railings and calling out to his comatose parents. And when he didn't get any attention, his babblings quickly became a shrieking crescendo. Finally, one of us would break. Last night, it was DH who stumbled out of bed at least 4 times to feed him twice and to pick him up. I was feeling the beginning of a cold with a sore throat and felt bone tired.

On Saturday night, we let him 'cry it out' which was a sleep training method. We decided that it was too cruel and heart-wrenching so we changed track and last night, we tried the PU/PD* method which would work in principle if the baby wasn't hungry! And judging by the amount of milk minibeanie drank, I'd say he was ravenous. Which begged the next question, how/why did his feeding schedule become so warped that he started consuming most of his milk at 5am? It could be that we were subconsciously giving him less milk during the day because we were now on powder formula. Previously, we had the convenience of 'pret-a-boire' formula milk - just open the packet and pour. I'd try stuffing him silly with milk today and see how it goes. Then again, one couldn't keep a baby that hungry during the day - could it be a growth spurt?

Night wakings appear to be a common 'affliction' among 10-month-olds. I read of similar experiences and 1 explanation of it could be separation anxiety brought on by their increasing independence.

*Pick up/Pick down

minibeanie is 10 months & 3 weeks old

little Houdini

For a (not so) limited time only - catch the little Houdini getting out of tight situations!

Yesterday, I placed minibeanie in his Stokke high chair & turned my back for a minute. The next thing I saw was him sitting on the dining table looking smug at me! In that span of a minute or less, he'd wriggled out of the Tripp Trapp's safety bar and climbed out - something which I didn't think possible. That proved he had to be put under maximum security watch ;)

And as I put him on the bedroom floor today, hitherto a safe place, while I busied myself with the blankets and his diapers, what do I see? In a flash, he was perched precariously on the edge of the bed. Man, he had just climbed up the 40cm-high bed. On hindsight, it shouldn't have come as a surprise. minibeanie had been climbing up our staircase of 18 steps without any problem so what's one bed? I'm constantly having to revise my expectations of what's impossible for this little Houdini of mine.

minibeanie is 10 months, 2 weeks & 2 days old

The little barbarian

I've said it a dozen times - it's amazing how fast little babies grow! 2 weeks ago, we could actually have a real game of hide-&-seek. I'd start the game by saying, "where's mummy?" before scrambling off on all fours round the sofa or into a room. minibeanie picking up on the cue would then crawl pitter-patter to look for me. The reward when he found me would be a most delightful squeal of pure joy :> Sometimes, I'd be mean and climb onto a bed or to the sofa and he wouldn't find me where he expected. Then, there would be a cry of half panic half frustration and whose heart wouldn't melt at that point? Ooohhh......

We installed our baby gate over the weekend because we found out that he could climb the stairs. He also has an insatiable curiosity on what lies inside drawers and cabinets. He first started pulling open drawers especially those with handy handles when we were staying with our friends (the "commune") in their house. That was in mid May. Yes, we are a little tardy in childproofing the home :P I think it's high time we buy a couple of baby locks for our drawers and cupboards.

And boys will be boys. minibeanie has an unholy fascination with remote controls. Anything with buttons. He grabs it first before letting his mouth examine it then proceeds to chew & stomp on it. As a result, our tv and air-conditioning unit goes on & off intermittently :D

minibeanie is 10 months & 1 week old

A green-less salad

I had a couple of not-so-new potatoes that I wanted to use up so I thought I'd make a simple salad for dinner. In my fridge was a bunch of chives bought yesterday that would be 'Stir-fry Chives with Pork' one day next week. There was also a batch of natural yoghurt that I'd made last night destined for Chicken Briyani tomorrow. Perfect!

I love the taste of chives - very garlicky and pungent, so it would complement the bland potatoes well. For a twist, I thought I'd add an apple for that extra dimension in flavour. Hey, didn't that make it the Waldorf salad, I wondered. Some research later, I learnt that technically, a Waldorf salad comprised of apple, celery and walnut combined by a mayonnaise dressing. More trivial on the Waldorf salad. It was supposedly created in 1893 in New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel. One can only imagine that it was a salad served to the upper echelons of New York's society. Imagine Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence.

So here's my Waldorf-Potato Salad.

• new potatoes, boiled whole, cubed
• eggs, hard-boiled, cubed
• chives, julienned
• apple, cubed
• pine nuts, lightly roasted
• ground black pepper

Dressing:

• natural yoghurt
• olive oil
• salt

Place all salad ingredients except pine nuts into a large bowl. Make the dressing by stirring in the olive oil well. Add salt to taste. Pour the dressing into the salad and toss well. Sprinkle on pine nuts and freshly ground black pepper before serving. Enjoy with generous slices of bread with camembert.

Tips: mayo may be used in place of yoghurt but the latter can be a healthier choice / if chives are not available, perhaps spring onion? / substitute pine nuts for walnut in the true spirit of Waldorf / I may substitute apple with moist chopped figs in a later version


minibeanie is 1o months & 6 days old

First word

minibeanie said his first word today! He repeated after DH, "Da-da". I think minibeanie was a little taken aback from the rapturous clapping and exclamations after that.


minibeanie is 10 months and 5 days old

Cupcakes vs Muffins

I'm totally smitten by cupcakes. Yes, I know I'm a tad behind the cupcake craze in Singapore but I'm catching up!

First off, ever wondered what's the difference between cupcakes & muffins? Well, I did. I tried searching for the answer and the quick answer seems to be that cupcakes have frosting whereas muffins don't. Another difference (technically) is that cupcakes are well, mini cakes and muffins are errm, bread. I think the line is a little blurred on the last definition because honestly, haven't we all had a choc muffin that's more cake-like than bread?

Regardless, I don't care if they are cupcakes or muffins as long as they are yummy!

Anyway, as I mentioned, I'm bitten by the cupcake bug. Not so much as in eating them but in creating them. I found a wonderful shop in SG that solely sells baking paraphernalia - a baker's heaven! It's aptly called B-I-Y for Bake-It-Yourself.

Lemon Cupcakes with Bitters, Sorrel, and Toasted Meringue (from cupcakeblog)

Then, thanks to the thousands of crazy cupcake lovers out there who have made it their life mission to create perfect cupcakes, I found a couple of totally cool sites that are good enough to eat.

http://cupcakeblog.com Without a doubt, the QUEEN of cupcakes.
http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com


A little update on minibeanie. The little imp has learnt how to climb stairs! A little easier to go up than come down, I must say.


minibeanie is 10 months & 1 day old

Food rambles

• minibeanie had durian today! And he seemed to love it :> We are so glad he's a gourmand like us.

• An egg yolk makes for a very messy finger food.
• I just bought a book - Healthy meals for Babies & Toddlers - today. They have recipes such as 'pasta with roasted red pepper sauce', 'couscous with lamb & apricots' & 'stuffed mushrooms'. Wow! I can't wait to be able to have minibeanie at the same dinner table as us.
• Having started with fruits such as banana, mango, apple & papaya, minibeanie scrunched his nose at the berry mash I offered him. Great, I'm now left with at least 20 jars of berry mash from Finland. I think I'll blend them into smoothies, bread and muffins when he's able to eat those.
• A slice of bread is a great take-along snack. It will keep him busy, entertained & fed at the time we are sitting in a restaurant or cafe. Always wholemeal or rye, of course. BreadTalk has wonderful wholemeal/rye bread with cranberries.
• minibeanie wants his breakfast always around 7am. And he lets me know by pouncing on me, sticking a wet tongue into my face or having his thumb in my nose and twisting it like a knob.

minibeanie is 9 months, 4 weeks & 1 day old