The unfazed fashionista wannabe

Alicia has been able to remove her own clothes for quite some time already - unfortunately I forgot to note down when she managed to do so exactly for the first time. But anyway, the milestone chart from babycenter states that the minority of toddlers will be able to remove a piece of clothing at 16mths on their own (it's considered an advanced skill) and it's a skill that most toddlers would have acquired by 20mths...

As for putting on a loose piece of clothing, the milestone chart states that only a handful of toddlers will be able to do so at 22mths. So far, Alicia hasn't been successful in putting on clothes, but you can be sure she's already trying to do so. They say practice makes perfect - and I'm sure Alicia is abiding by that good old adage. Here are her unsuccessful attempts that I've managed to capture:

Here's Alicia some time back, trying to put on her pants...

This is a more recent video of her trying to put on her singlet!

Claypot Rice

Claypot rice served in the tingkat!

I haven't cooked claypot rice in almost two years according to my hubby's recollection. It really doesn't seem that long to me though, but I really can't remember if I've cooked it anytime recently so I just have to go with his memory.

Ok, claypot rice is really quite difficult to grasp - it's always the texture of the rice that's the problem - and I don't always get it right either. Oh well, failure is part of the learning process, isn't it? Anyway, yesterday was one of those days that my claypot rice kinda failed me and I was pretty upset about it because I promised to bring my mum and aunt their portions before bringing them out to the Night Safari.



Nevertheless, after thinking through the cooking process and troubleshooting, I think if I had added less water to the rice it would be better. I'd find out the next time I cook it! Would it be another two years later? :D

Anyway, this is the recipe:





Claypot Rice (serves 2)

Ingredients:
3 chicken thighs (deboned and skill removed)
salted fish (amt according to your preference) - dice
2-3 cloves shallots (slice finely)
6-8 mushrooms
1 tablespoon sugar
2 cups rice grains

Seasoning (for the chicken):
1 tablespoon hua diao jiu
(about) 1 tablespoon ginger juice
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
chicken marinade (or 1/2teaspoon salt AND 1/2 tablespoon light soy sauce)
sesame oil
Tiger's dark soy sauce
ground white pepper
xiao bai cai

Preparation:
Soak mushrooms in water (with 1T sugar) for at least an hour.
Remove and marinate together with chicken.
Marinate chicken with the seasoning for at least half a day.

Method:
Cook rice on medium heat in a claypot with lid open. (The ratio of rice grains to water I used was 1:1 but it was too wet, so cut down on the amount of water)
Meanwhile, deep-fry shallots (fry this first as oil won't be so hot as to burn it immediately). Remove and place on kitchen towel.
Using the same oil, deep fry the salted fish.
Keep the oil for drizzling over the rice later.
Once the water in the claypot boils, stir the rice. Cook on low heat for 5-8min with lid on.
Put in the chicken and mushrooms. Cook on medium heat for about 12 min (or until chicken's cooked) with lid on.
Meanwhile, parboil the veggies.
After the chicken is cooked, pour in oil, put in the salted fish. Cook on low heat for 2 min with lid on.
Drizzle the oil and add fried shallots, dark sauce and pepper to taste.




Tip for getting really crisp shallots:
Soak finely sliced shallots in salt water for awhile. Drain the shallots and leave on kitchen towel to dry fully before deep frying.

Cream of Chicken Soup

I was intending to cook the cream of mushroom soup again yesterday because I still had some whipping cream left and it has to be used within 3 days of opening but my friend suggested that I should cook something else, like cream of chicken soup. And so I decided to take that suggestion up.

It was good too, like the cream of mushroom - though I think I prefer the mushroom soup I cooked the other day simply because I love the mushroomy taste. My hubby shares my sentiments. :)

Anyway, if you are health conscious or into calorie-counting, you can very well do without the cream and the milk and just go for a clear chicken soup (and add noodles or spaghetti for chicken noodle soup!).

Here's the recipe:

Cream of Chicken Soup (serves 2)

Ingredients:

• chicken meat (I used about $2 worth of chicken fillet)
• the white portion of 1 leek (diced)
• 1/3 of a large carrot (diced)
• 100ml milk
• 100ml whipping cream
• homemade chicken broth
• 1/4 white onion (diced)
• 1 clove garlic (diced)
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• cornflour
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste (optional)

Seasoning (for chicken)

• chicken marinade
• ground black pepper

Method:

1. Marinate chicken for at least 30 minutes.
2. Dice garlic, onion, leek and carrot.
3. Steam marinated chicken. Retain gravy.
4. Dice/shred cooked chicken. Set aside.
5. Melt butter and fry garlic.
6. Add diced onion, leek and carrot.
7. Pour the chicken meat, chicken broth and the gravy from steaming in and simmer for 30minutes.
8. Whisk in milk and cream.
9. Add cornflour to thicken to desired consistency.
10. Add salt to taste.
11. Add a dash of pepper (if desired).

Jackfruit

Today Alicia tried a new fruit - jackfruit! I thought she'd dislike it because of its strong flavour and smell but she ate it with relish! In fact, she liked it better than her favourite longan and watermelon... she kept picking out the jackfruit from the bowl and pushing aside the rest of the fruits... :D

It's really funny but I've never bothered to even stop to ponder what the nutritional benefits of jackfruit are when I pop jackfruit into my mouth all these years!

Here's what I gathered about the health benefits of eating jackfruit (from http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/jack_fruit.html):

Health benefits of jack fruit

• The fruit is made of soft, easily digestible flesh (bulbs) with simple sugars like fructose and sucrose that when eaten replenishes energy and revitalizes the body instantly.

• Jack-fruit is rich in dietary fiber, which makes it a good bulk laxative. The fiber content helps to protect the colon mucous membrane by decreasing exposure time and as well as binding to cancer causing chemicals in the colon.

• Fresh fruit is an excellent source of Vitamin-A, which has powerful antioxidant properties and is essential for vision. Vitamin A is also required for maintaining integrity of mucus membranes and skin and to boost immunity. Consumption of natural fruits rich in vitamin-A known to protect from lung and oral cavity cancers.

• It is also rich in antioxidant flavonoids like β-carotene and lutein. These antioxidants are found to be protective against colon, prostate, breast, endometrial, lung, and pancreatic cancers.

• It is one of the rare fruit that is rich in B-complex group of vitamins. It contains very good amounts of vitamin B-6 (pyridoxine), niacin, riboflavin and folic acid.

• Jack fruit is also good source of antioxidant vitamin-C. Consumption of foods rich in vitamin C helps body develop resistance against infectious agents and scavenge harmful free radicals.
  
• Fresh fruit is a good source of potassium, magnesium, manganese and iron. Potassium in an important component of cell and body fluids that helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure.

Watermelons!

Alicia used to dislike watermelons when she was younger. She always gave me the disgusted look while spitting it out. Somehow recently she has decided that she likes it and when I fed her some the day before yesterday, she kept coming back for more. Even though today's watermelon wasn't as sweet as the other batch I bought two days ago, she still ate it happily.

That's one more fruit to add to the list (and grocery bag)! :)

Here's what I gathered about the nutritional value of watermelons (from http://www.dietaryfiberfood.com/nutrition-watermelon.php):

• Watermelon is rich in carotenoids. Some of the carotenoids in watermelon include lycopene, phytofluene, phytoene, beta-carotene, lutein, and neurosporene. Lycopene makes up the majority of the carotenoids in watermelon. The carotenoid content varies depending on the variety of the watermelon. Depending on the variety, carotenoid content in red fleshed watermelon varies from 37 – 121 mg/kg fresh weight, where as lycopene varies from 35 – 112 mg/kg fresh weight.
• Carotenoids have antioxidant activity, free-radical scavenging property. Several researches have reported an association between dietary lycopene consumption and lower incidence in diseases such as prostate and oral cancers. Lycopene may also help reduce risks of cardiovascular disease.
• Watermelon seeds are excellent sources of protein (both essential and non-essential amino acids) and oil. Watermelon seed is about 35% protein, 50% oil, and 5% dietary fiber.
• Watermelon seed is also rich in micro- and macro-nutrients such as magnesium, calcium, potassium, iron, phosphorous, zinc etc

Strawberry Moment

We've tried feeding Alicia strawberries for months without success - she even rejected the super sweet ones! The first time she decided that she'd sink her teeth into one and swallow it (that's quite a crucial point), was at Cameron - which we affectionately refer to it the "Strawberry Land". Perhaps she was inspired to try it since she was involved in the strawberry plucking at EQ Strawberry Farm.

Here she is, self-feeding fruit and oh, look out for the strawberry ball we bought for her from Cameron! She loves to kick and throw it about!

Some information about strawberries (from http://www.organicfacts.net/nutrition-facts/fruits/nutritional-value-of-cherry-and-strawberry.html):

Nutrition Facts and Information about Strawberry:

Strawberry is an excellent source of potassium and magnesium. It contains very good amount of phosphorous, sodium, calcium, copper and manganese. Strawberry is a good source of iron.
Vitamin Content: Strawberries are an excellent source of vitamin C. Infact they have more vitamin C than citrus fruit. Strawberry is also a good source of folate, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E, vitamin A and vitamin K.

Calorie Content of Strawberry:

Strawberries contain 32 calories/100g, which are mostly carbohydrates. They are a very good source of dietary fiber and iodine. Strawberries also contain an array of beneficial phytonutrients, including flavonoids, anthocyanidins and ellagic acid.

Health Benefits of Strawberry:

Strawberries have numberous medicinal properties includings its ability to lower the risk of cancers of the gastrointestinal tract due to presence of Vitamin C. Strawberry is an excellent anti-oxidant. It is also packed with flavonoids; these flavonoids help keep bad cholesterol from damaging artery walls. Strawberries can significantly decrease blood pressure, which may reduce the risk of heart disease. Strawberries are found to enhance memory function and reduce rheumatoid arthritis.

Sinfully Sumptuous

Food. Glorious food. Sinfully sumptuous.

I found the motivation to climb 73 storeys yesterday (twice up the 30 floors plus another 13 up to my unit) instead of my usual 60 before I cooked dinner. Must be the guilt that was building up even before I had dinner.

Here's the food that made my hubby sing my praises continuously!

Spaghetti with home-made sauce:

Home-made cream of mushroom soup with home-made garlic bread sticks:

A closer view!

While waiting for her porridge to be cooked, Alicia had some spaghetti and garlic bread sticks too! :D

To be honest, this is my maiden attempt at making home-made sauce (for adult consumption), creamy soup and garlic bread sticks. I came up with the recipe for the home-made spaghetti sauce and the garlic bread sticks on my own. The recipe for the mushroom soup is from Brenda's blog :) and you can view my adaptation of the recipe here.

The Christmas ball

If you think you've seen the largest Christmas ball of your life, think again. The huge Christmas ornament at T3, Changi Airport, which opens up playing some music every half hour interval from 6am-midnight (if my memory does not fail me), releases some balls for children to play some game at the end when it closes and becomes a huge ball again, is quite a sight (at least when it opens), though it doesn't seem that big in contrast to the vast space at the airport. I thought it should play some Christmas carols when it opens, but it doesn't - or at least when it opened at the time I was there, it ain't Christmas carols I heard. Nevertheless, Alicia had quite some fun there and I captured some videos of her (and the ball - but mainly her):

The ball's opening!

Climbing up the platform (which is what is disallowed actually, but we only realised it later)

Playing with the balls after the end of the game

Boxing Day dinner

Alright, there's nothing really significant about Boxing Day for us to have a special dinner. I just decided that "Boxing Day dinner" sounds better than just "Dinner" as the title. :D

Anyway, today we had Chinese food. I cooked stir-fried xiao bai cai in abalone sauce, prawns with hei bi hiam (made by my mum), assam and garlic and herbal chicken soup. The dinner was just heavenly especially on a cold, rainy day like today. Who wouldn't fancy a plate of crunchy, savoury greens and a spicy and sour dish to perk up one's senses and a piping hot bowl of herbal soup on such a day? =)


Here're my dishes!

Herbal Chicken Soup

Stir-fried xiao bai cai in abalone sauce

Prawns fried with hei bi hiam, assam and garlic

These are the herbs I used for the herbal chicken soup:

You can cut down on the amount of ginseng roots if you don't like it too bitter.

I've always loved herbal chicken soup and I went through a phase of searching for herbal chicken at every foodcourt I went to. During the craze, I took note of the herbs that I found in the food and so, here's my concoction and I believe it's a rather common combination of herbs! :)

Herbal Chicken Soup

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken thighs (skin removed, washed and visible fats removed)
• ginseng roots (人參)
• chinese yam (huai shan - 淮山)
• Solomon's seal (yu zhu - 玉竹)
• dried red dates (cored) (紅棗)
• wolfberries (枸杞子)

Method:

1. Soak yu zhu in room temperature water before cooking.
2. Blanch the cleaned chicken thighs in boiling water.
3. Put all the herbs (except the wolfberries) and the chicken into a claypot and put enough water to cover all the ingredients.
4. Boil on high heat for 1 hour.
5. Simmer on low heat for 1 more hour after that.
6. Add wolfberries in at the 1.5hr mark.
7. Add salt to taste.

Chicken chop with mixed veggies and yummy mashed potato!

Chicken chop with veggies and mashed potato

I had a sumptuous dinner tonight and decided that this was blogworthy (well, in my opinion at least =) ). Hubby and I simply relished the food tonight - hmm, not sure if it's the rainy weather that made this dish extra delightful or because it happens to be Christmas day, or perhaps today's food was really yummy... My hubby says that the food was really good today so I guess it's nothing to do with the weather or day. At least the person that I cooked for appreciates the food and really, that's what makes a chef's day (oh gosh, i just claimed to be a chef! oh well, chef of my kitchen...), isn't it?

Anyway, it's not really difficult to make... :)

Ingredients

• 4 chicken thighs (deboned and skin removed)


• 1 broccoli
  
• 1 small carrot


• 1 clove of garlic


• 2 potatoes


• 1 tablespoon heap of unsalted butter

Marinate chicken with (I use the method of guess-timation when I cook so figures stated here are all estimates):

• 1-2 tablespoons Lee Kum Kee Chicken Marinade
  
• 2 tsp sugar
  
• 2 tsp cornflour
  
• 1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
  
• a dash of sesame oil
  
• 1/2-3/4 tablespoon crushed black peppercorns
  
• a dash of ground black pepper
  

Method:

Preparation:

• Clean chicken thighs and remove tendons and fats.
• Marinate the chicken thighs with the above seasonings and let sit for at least 30minutes. The longer you marinate it, the nicer they are.
  
• Cut broccoli into bite-size pieces (I used only the florets) and slice the carrot. Rinse.


• Mince garlic.
  
• Scrub potatoes clean and put them to boil till they are soft (poke a chopstick through and if it goes through easily and comes out of the potato with ease, you can remove them from the water).
  

Cook:


Vegetables

• Steam the broccoli and carrot for 5 minutes. You may wish to parboil them but I prefer to steam them as steaming retains more nutrients.
  
• Fry the garlic till fragrant then add in the veggies and briefly saute them and add in your favourite sauce. This is optional - you may serve the steamed veggies as they are for a healthier version.
  

Chicken

• Preheat the oven to 200degC.


• Bake the chicken thighs at 200degC for 15min - they'd be cooked thoroughly but still nice and tender.


• Reserve any extra marinade for mashed potatoes (optional).
  

Mashed potato

• Peel off the skin of the cooked potatoes (it should come off very easily) and remove any blemishes/ eyes. I remove the skin only at this point as I feel that there is minimal wastage of the potato using this method.


• Push the potatoes through a sieve to get a super fine texture (like that of baby's food) - do this if you love really smooth, melt-in-your-mouth type of mashed potato like I do! It's really worth the effort. Alternatively, if you have a potato masher, that'd work too. A word of caution on the use of a mixer for this purpose: the potatoes may be 'overworked' by the mixer and may end up gluey.


• Set aside the finely mashed potatoes.


• Melt the butter (do not burn!) and pour the hot butter over the mashed potatoes.


• Using the same saucepan, put the leftover marinade from the chicken to boil then pour over the mashed potatoes.


• Mix the mashed potatoes evenly with the melted butter and sauce.


• If you like it even creamier, you can add cream - but I think the butter's sinful enough and the mashed potato is already creamy enough with the amount of butter I mixed in!


• If you like, you may add herbs, black pepper or anything else you fancy to the mashed potato. We love it as it is though. :)

Well, from the photo of the chicken chop, you probably noticed that there was chicken chop gravy but I didn't mention how to make it. That's because this time round, I used the leftover sauce meant for the roast beef from Christmas eve dinner. But trust me, the delectable food today didn't hinge on the use of that sauce. When I do make a gravy that I really fancy (so far I'm still experimenting for my favourite), I'd definitely post it on my blog! Stay tuned! :D


For toddler's consumption:

• Cut chicken chop into small pieces for the tot. Serve with or without gravy - depending on how health-conscious you are.
• Cut the broccoli into small florets and carrot into small pieces.
• Cut down the use of butter in the mashed potato if your tot is 'weighty' :)

Our Christmas presents to Alicia!

We've no Christmas tree at home this year to put Alicia's presents under so we just unveiled them to her last night. We bought her a few items from a blogshop: a cute duck backpack (which I saw being sold at Tom & Stephanie for a higher price), two tops and a romper. :)

Alicia carrying her new bag:

Duckie's in a christmassy mood too!:

Christmas ramblings and Alicia's advance gifts!

Christmas is and always has been my favourite festive season for as far as I can remember. I just simply enjoy the christmasy mood that seems to fill the air - well, that's something that somehow only my olfactory senses can detect! I always love the days leading up to Christmas and I'd feel sad once Christmas is over coz I guess that signals to me the end of another year. Somehow the year seems to come to an end for me when Christmas does. :)

What exactly do I love about Christmas? Hmm, I can't really put my finger on it. But I guess it's the general sense of kinship and love in the air. But I'd have to admit that when I was young, I loved Christmas because of all the presents that I was showered with. Now as an adult, and more significantly, a parent, gone are the days of receiving. Giving has become and is the word of the day. It is Alicia's turn now to be on the receiving end, a concept which I think she hasn't really come to fully understand, yet. But when she does, I'm sure she'd love Christmas too, as much as I do.

Has Christmas become too commercialised? Perhaps to some extent (yes, I do notice that I can't seem to decide on the extent - something I used to penalise students for in their essays). Well, I can't deny that all the shopping centres have started their Christmas sale weeks ago and "the joy of giving" seems to be some fixed tagline - and it seems that if you're not giving something to someone (i.e. buying something off the shelves), you're missing out on something, the quintessence of Christmas. That's how Christmas seems to be portrayed. But if you do have time to attend any Christmas service at church, you may realise that Christmas is still well, very much Christmas - a time to remember that God gave us the best Christmas present ever. :)

So much for my rambling... and speaking about presents, Alicia was asked to pick her Christmas present on Sunday by my mum and aunt. So off to Kiddy Palace we went (since we were at Jurong Point). She picked a BIG plush Tigger - she spotted a Tigger sitting on the carousel on display and started exclaiming "tat! tat! tat!", and when we walked past a Tigger that was just minding his own business on the shelf, she lunged towards it and hugged it. And so, I had to carry two babies of almost the same size around Kiddy Palace after that. I offered her other plush toys like Pooh, Piglet and Stitch. But she wanted only Tigger and refused to let go of him. When I put her down on the ground to walk about on her own, she continued to hold on tightly to Tigger. And so, Tigger it was. She wasn't going to compromise on that. :D Other Christmas presents we picked up alongside Tigger were a motorised toy, a new Piyo Piyo water bottle (her pigeon magmag's spoilt and we decided that it's time she had a toddler-like (i.e. cool) water bottle to bring out) and a new Strawberry Shortcake soup spoon (which she refuses to trade with me for any other spoon now). Well, amazingly, she loves her new waterbottle so much that she hasn't thrown it about at all - she threw her Pigeon magmag around till it was spoilt!

We brought home all the Christmas toys in advance except for the motorised toy which my mum wants to wrap and put under the Christmas tree so that Alicia will receive something during the family gathering on Christmas eve.

Here're some videos of Alicia with a couple of her newfound loves.

Alicia with her new waterbottle!

Playing with Tigger!

Alicia trying to tie Tigger's "hair" :D

Egg noodles soup

I cooked egg noodles soup for my dinner yesterday (it was really a last minute decision as my hubby decided that he wanted to go wash his car and asked me to have dinner first). I was lazy to go downstairs to buy food so I just scavenged around in my fridge and found some simple but nutritious ingredients to make my dinner. Since it was so yummy, I reserved some for Alicia. It's really simple and easy, just like instant noodles - but without the MSG! :)

Ingredients:

• Stock - this is a MUST to make the noodles tasty!
• egg noodles
• cauliflower (or other veggies of your choice. I used this coz Alicia usually has broccoli for lunch and cauliflower for dinner so I always have these two veggies in my fridge)
• egg
• fresh shitake mushrooms
• a pre-packed portion of chicken fillet (optional since there's already egg. Feel free to interchange the two sources of protein)

Method:

1. Soak the egg noodles in water for awhile to soften slightly.
2. Rinse the shitake mushrooms, remove the stalk and slice them.
3. Wash the cauliflower and remove any brown spots.
4. Bake the pre-packed portion of chicken fillet and cut/shred into small pieces after it is cooked.
5. Set the stock to boil in a saucepan.
6. Once the stock boils, add in the cauliflower and egg noodles.
7. Once the noodles have softened (you can pick a little strand to try if it's soft enough for the toddler), add in the shitake mushrooms.
8. Crack the egg and add it to the saucepan. I like to have my egg in small pieces when I eat noodle soup so I will stir quickly (but not too hard in case the yolk disappears into the soup totally).
9. Add the baked chicken pieces/shreds in and voila! the nutritious meal's ready. :)

Add a small amt of salt/sauce if preferred.



As my darling's not really a soupy girl (yet), I gave her the noodles without the soup. Although she didn't drink the soup, the soup's a crucial ingredient as it makes the noodles tasty! And most importantly, in her bout of fussiness about food recently, she ate this dish!

It's really a very convenient dish to make since it's something that the whole family can eat for lunch/dinner so there's no need for additional work! Hurray! :)

Herbal tonic soup for hubby

My hubby's been having backache for a few weeks now and so he's been visiting the chinese sinseh more often and eating the prescribed chinese medicine, either in powder form or herbs to be brewed (by me, of course). When he's not taking the chinese medicine, I'd brew this herbal tonic soup for him as the ingredients are supposed to help 补 and heal his backache problem.

I dunno what I should call the soup as I got this list of ingredients and the instructions from my mum who's been reading about herbal soups and my eldest aunt who's an expert on chinese herbs. Anyway, here's how to brew it:



Serves 1

Ingredients:

• 1.5L of water


• du zhong (杜仲) (about palm size)


• jin mao gou ji (金毛狗脊) (2pcs)


• huai niu qi (淮牛膝) (3 pcs)
• ba ji tian (巴戟天 ) (3 pcs)


• black beans (a big handful)


• dried red dates (紅棗) (6)


• dried black dates (3)


• a handful of wolfberries (枸杞子)


• pork rib/loin (optional) - if cooking it as a soup, then add the pork rib/loin; otherwise if drinking it as a drink, you can omit this

Method:

1. Rinse the ingredients.


2. Put the pork into a small pot of water and wait for the water to boil. Once the water boils, you can remove the pork. This is to cleanse the pork of the bloody taste and the dirt.


3. Fry the black beans with a pinch of salt till the beans are completely dry.


4. Place all the ingredients into a pot of water (with the exception of the wolfberries) and put to boil on high heat.


5. Once the soup boils, turn the fire down to low and simmer for 2hours.


6. At the 1.5 hour mark, put the wolfberries in.

Suitable to be drunk every day if necessary.



I try to cook this either as a soup or drink for my hubby on alternate days whenever the backache is really bad. He always says that it makes him feel much better the next day!

Toddler's chicken rice balls

Recently Alicia doesn't seem to like to eat her rice on its own as she used to do in the past. So I decided to mix in a bit of her baked chicken fillet (which she loves) and shape the mixture of rice and chicken into balls. I guess this is the first step towards being less of a purist. :)


I usually marinate the whole batch of chicken fillet when I buy it from the market before storing them in smaller packs to be frozen.


Handling the Chicken Fillet:
Prepare:

• $2 worth of chicken fillet meat: clean and remove any tendons

Marinate the whole batch of chicken fillet with:

• a dash of sesame oil
• a bit of oyster/ abalone sauce or teriyaki marinade
• a bit of chicken marinade
  

Pack into 1 tablespoon portions to be stored in the freezer.

Baking the chicken fillet:

• Place the defrosted chicken fillet on a small piece of aluminium foil.
• Bake at 180degC for 7min.

The chicken fillet will be nice and tender.

Sometimes my Alicia picks up the baked chicken and just munches on it till she finishes the whole piece of chicken, as if it's meant to be eaten that way! :)

Toddler's Chicken Rice Balls

Have with you:

• a piece or two of baked chicken fillet
• a bowl of cooked rice

Lightly mince the baked chicken fillet (fillet's the softest part of the chicken so it mashes really easily between your fingers).

Take a small amount of rice, add in the chicken and shape into a ball or any other shape. I do this for every ball so as to ensure that there's chicken in every rice ball - that's coz I have a picky eater. If you find it too tedious, just mix all the chicken fillet with the rice and shape the rice balls from there. For me, I find it ok because I just take the time after she's just popped a rice ball into her mouth to shape the next ball! :)

The bumbo re-visited

It's been quite awhile since we managed to get Alicia to sit down nicely on her bumbo. Today I brought out the bumbo and told her to sit down and she obediently walked over to me and sat down in her bumbo. Surreal isn't it? :) Well, that's just coz I was holding her pink bowl of snacks and she wanted to eat her wholegrains. So here's Alicia sitting in her bumbo with her blue tray and pink bowl of snacks, watching tv. Just in case you're wondering why I'm not using the original tray, well, she hates the tray because it's too restrictive (she can push away the blue tray when she wants to get up but she can't do that with the original tray!) and I've definitely got a gal who literally, doesn't like to be tied down.

In the past, she used to hate to sit in bumbo. We surmise that it's because she had difficulty getting out of it in the past. Now that she's so adept at climbing out of it, she doesn't view bumbo as a threat to her freedom anymore. In fact, we see her climbing into bumbo to sit down ever so willingly at times even when we didn't ask her to do so!

Stir-Fried Ee Fu Noodles

Here's another food adventure with Alicia - fried ee fu noodles.

I'd been meaning to cook fried ee fu noodles for some time and I finally got down to doing it. I made this for dinner for hubby and myself and gave Alicia a bowl of it. Since it was her first encounter with ee fu noodles, I think she was trying to get used to the taste and texture so I didn't really have high hopes that the whole bowl would be finished. As long as she ate some, that's already an achievement. :)

I referred to the Fried Ee Fu noodles recipe from a food blog but adapted it to suit my own preferences.

Ingredients (serves 3 adults (or 2 very big eaters - that's us) + 1 toddler):

• 1 pack of Ee Fu noodles


• 1 packet of Xiao Bai Cai (or other leafy veggies)


• 1 carrot (shred finely)


• 1 chicken breast (deskinned and deboned)


• Shitake mushrooms


• garlic


• 1 small onion

Seasoning (you may choose to omit or cut down on the seasoning if just cooking for the toddler):

• 1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce


• 2 tablespoons soy sauce


• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce


• a dash of pepper


• sesame oil

Method:

1. Marinate chicken breast with chicken marinade, sesame oil and a dash of oyster sauce for at least 30min. Steam the chicken breast till cooked (about 30min). Shred/cut the chicken breast into pieces. Reserve the gravy in the plate that was used to steam the chicken.


2. Rinse mushrooms. Soak mushrooms in warm water and add a bit of sugar. Slice mushrooms after they've been soaked sufficiently. Reserve mushroom water.


3. Shred carrot. Pluck leafy veggies to appropriate size. Dice garlic and onion.


4. Cook ee fu noodles till soft. Set aside.


5. Fry the garlic and onion till fragrant and the onion has softened. Throw in the shredded carrot. After that put in the mushrooms. Fry for awhile then add in the leafy veggies and fry till the veggies turn dark green. Put in the shredded chicken meat. Put in the cooked ee fu noodles and toss and mix the ingredients. Add the seasoning, the chicken gravy (from steaming) and mushroom water. Add more seasoning if necessary.


6. Serve hot.

Polie and Stitch

Alicia simply loves soft toys, whether they be big or small. As long they are soft and cuddly, that's good enough for my darling. :)

This huge polar bear - which we have affectionately named Polie - was given to her by my students when she was 1 month old but we've only taken him out about a month ago for her when we did spring cleaning of the storeroom. We'd thought he was too big for her to handle but now we decided she was ready for him. She adores him and would frolick in bed every night with the bear and the rest of the soft toys!

Stitch is my hubby's gift to me on our wedding anniversary this year coz he'd been wanting to get me a Stitch soft toy all along but couldn't manage to find any that was ideal. Finally he managed to find it this year and now, Stitch is part of our happy family :)

Spaghetti in simple tomato sauce

I tried giving Alicia spaghetti in simple tomato sauce today (and yes, I forgot to take photos again). She didn't quite like the tomato bits but I think she enjoyed the taste.

Ingredients:

1 tomato
1 tablespoon of Maggi less-salt tomato sauce
A dash of all-purpose Italian herbs
Garlic (sliced)
Pasta
Olive Oil

Method:
Set pasta to cook. Make a few gentle cuts on the tomato skin. Blanch the tomato and remove the skin. The skin should come off easily. Remove the seeds and dice the tomato.

Heat the olive oil. Add in the garlic and fry till fragrant.

Add the finely diced tomato. When the tomato's cooked, add in the tomato sauce and a dash of herbs.

Toss the pasta in the simple tomato sauce.

Serve with side dishes or simply toss in some veggies and cooked meat to make a complete meal for the toddler! :)

Aglio Olio - the toddler version

Her pan-fried cod's missing from this picture coz she ate it already!

I made spicy aglio olio with prawns for dinner for my hubby and myself a couple of weeks ago and I prepared a non-spicy version for Alicia and it was a hit with her.

Baby Aglio Olio is really easy to make.

Just have:
lots of garlic
some olive oil and of course
your choice of pasta
a pinch of salt (optional)

Method:
Slice garlic into thin slices. Set the pasta to cook.

Heat the oil (but not too hot such that garlic will burn immediately).

Put in the garlic and fry till fragrant but not browned as it will become bitter. Once the garlic oil is done, remove the garlic slices and pour the oil over the cooked pasta.

Toss to coat the pasta with the garlic oil evenly.

Serve with side dishes or simply toss in some veggies and cooked meat to make a complete meal for the toddler! :)

A tale of two utensils

Alicia has decided that she wants to be independent recently and insisting on self-feeding is one of the most obvious ways of demonstrating this desire. Fortunately I had the foresight that this day was nearing and I bought a set of utensils for self-feeding from Toys R Us on the same day that I bought the reindeer hairband for her. I thought that it would be expensive but it's really a great buy coz it only costs $1.90! The fork and spoon are angled so that the toddler can get the food into the mouth easily.



Here's a pic of the fork and spoon:

Alicia has amazed me by being able to self-feed some meals so far. Her best attempt thus far I must say was the day that she self-fed a bowl of noodles for dinner when we came back from Cameron. She sat herself on the edge of the sofa at my mum's place and ate skilfully: there was hardly any spillage despite the fact that it was the first time she was using a fork! And after she was done, she just put down the fork and went to pick up the newspapers to read. Toddlers are really amusing!

The milestone chart I got from babycenter states that a handful of kids at 14mths will be able to use a spoon or fork, 50% of toddlers would be able to use a spoon or fork by 16mths and most kids at 19mths will be able to use a spoon and fork. Well, so far it seems that she's already able to use both the spoon and fork and honestly it's quite a surprise to me because I don't actually let her self-feed all that much!

It's great to be a mummy!

This is really a random post of mine. I thought that I would just write about how I feel being a mummy to Alicia. It's been a fairly bumpy ride so far and in fact, it was quite arduous at first as I was plagued with breastfeeding problems at the beginning and the postnatal blues in the first month. Fortunately things picked up since then and I really began to enjoy motherhood after that...

Now that Alicia's a toddler, she just amazes me every day with all the new things she picks up so quickly and her fast-expanding vocabulary and most importantly, how she has learnt to show great affection towards people she loves over the past few months, especially towards me.

Recently, I was really annoyed with her on one of the days during the Cameron trip as she really tested my patience by not eating proper food for almost the whole day. Actually her rejection of food started before the trip and it just worsened during the trip. I was really sick and tired of feeding the "unfeedable" one. And her grouchiness was really intolerable. I felt so negative towards her for that half a day when she misbehaved. But something that happened last night has made me feel remorseful for having harboured such bad feelings towards her.

We made a video of our trip using the VAIO Movie Maker and we were watching it on the laptop with her late last night. She was very absorbed in the movie and when there were pictures of me in the video, my hubby asked her, "who's that?". My little darling looked at the picture of me and then at me. We have no idea what was being processed by the little one but something in her thought process prompted her to lean over to me to hug and give me a sweet little wet kiss on the lips and subsequently, she leant over a few times during the course of the video to hug me and each time she called me "mamma" softly with her cute little voice. I was so touched by her display of affection. Just thinking about it makes my heart melt. :)

I feel so close to my little one now and I often marvel at the wonderful bond between parent and child, and how parents can give the child such unconditional love and feel so loved in return, just by showering the child with love.

All I can say now is that it's really great to be a mummy.

Alicia's "mamma".

Nothing on earth comes close. :)

I love my little Alicia soooo very much.

Cameron Trip (10-13 Dec 09)

We went for our first overseas trip with Alicia in tow! It was very challenging for us as Alicia had to endure the 9-hour trip up to Cameron as we took the newer, longer, but supposedly safer route. It was very difficult as we hardly disrupt her schedule on normal days and so, besides having to cope with the loss of her afternoon nap (she refused to sleep in the car), she had to handle the winding path and the pressure building up in the ears as the car climbed higher. She was fussing so badly that she even refused to nurse so we had to endure a crying, fussy baby for more than an hour. I kept coaxing her to nurse as that would make her feel better but she simply refused! It was a relief to finally have Hotel Equatorial in sight and we all clapped for Alicia as she had survived the trip up to Cameron! I must say that fortunately we had my mum and aunt together on the trip or we really wouldn't have survived the homesick toddler. She cried two out of three nights there, where she insisted that that wasn't her room and our bed. I had already packed along some of her soft toys so that she would have a feel of home, but I guess it just wasn't good enough for her. I even brought along her usual food she has at Singapore so that she wouldn't have to adjust too much. Unfortunately, my hubby who was in charge of packing the slow cooker forgot to pack in the heating element and so we spent the first evening searching Brinchang town for slow cookers. In the end we couldn't find a slow cooker small enough like mine to cook the small amount of porridge Alicia eats so we decided to go back to the hotel to ask for assistance on this matter. The receptionist told us that we could ask the chef of the restaurant at the hotel to cook Alicia's porridge and so it was settled. Every night, we would pass the organic brown rice grains, organic green lentils and stock to the chef and my hubby would collect the porridge the next morning. On the second day, she finally learnt to sleep in the car. That meant some peace for all of us - well, at least for awhile. Somehow, during the trip, she mastered the art of telling me that she wants to nurse - something that I've been teaching her prior to the trip. She would climb onto my lap, point at my breast and say "milk milk", then get into position when she wanted to nurse. And when I ask her if she wants more, and she doesn't, she'd say "no" and shake her head. That certainly makes things a whole lot easier! We took the shorter route (the more winding and dangerous one) down Cameron as the jam towards the route we used to go up Cameron was phenomenally bad due to the fact that it was the weekend. Fortunately I managed to nurse Alicia to sleep and she slept all the way down the highlands and only woke when we were nearing Tapah town (that's at the foot of the hill). Thank God for the very good timing. Also, we actually intended to eat Hokkien Mee and Char Kuey Teow and of course the very yummy strawberry cheesecake from T-Cafe but it was closed. It was really a blessing in disguise as if I had managed to eat all that food from the cafe, I would have most certainly puked everything out on the way down the hill. Luckily I didn't puke; I only felt nauseous and the minty mentos and the medicated oil my mummy brought along saved the day! We really enjoyed the trip...! :) Alicia woke up this morning looking for my mum and aunt. When she couldn't find them, she gestured and said "no more". Such a darling. :) Here's a photo album of some of my favourite photos taken during the trip.

Make a Smilebox photobook

And here's a photo journal of some of the places we went to for our meals.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Gearing up for Christmas'09!

This year, as Alicia's walking and running about, and still trying to mouth everything she sees, we decided that the Christmas tree should not make its appearance this year in our home. Otherwise, she'd be pulling off the leaves, breaking ornaments - which is really dangerous! and basically tearing the whole tree apart.



So instead of putting up a tree, we decided that we'd celebrate Christmas in other ways: bring her to see the Christmas lights in town, buy her a couple of bric-a-bracs just for fun, and of course, there's the usual Christmas family get-together with my family later in the month.


We took a few photos of the Christmas lights in town while we were in the car, but the phone camera didn't do any justice to the lights so I shan't post the photos here. Alicia did enjoy looking at the lights though.



We also brought her to Vivocity where there's a big Christmas tree. Here are some photos we took with hubby's phone:

We got her a reindeer hairband which all of us can wear! Somehow it fits her little head and ours nicely! We got it at Toys R Us for only $2. Here's the pic of it and a video of Alicia playing with the hairband. Initially she put it on nicely on her own but by the time I took out my phone to take the video, it was almost off her head already... well, what's new...





And oh, that's her fiddling with her newest 'toy' in the video too: the keyboard we bought for her from Giant for $20! Now I can sit her down properly without worrying that she'd fall off my lap - which is my main worry when I play on my piano with her on my lap.

Here's the other knickknack we got for her: a Christmas bag from Daiso.



We put the Sesame Street toys in it for her and she had great fun taking them out one by one. Here's a video of her with the Christmas bag and Bert from Sesame Street (look out for her waving at and kissing Bert):

Christmas 08

For last year's Christmas, we still took out our Christmas tree and decked it up as usual since Alicia was young then and wasn't very mobile so she couldn't go disturb the tree and the ornaments.

Here are some photos of her (and us) with our Christmas tree last year (note how chubby she looked then compared to now... sigh):

We had a hard time trying to get a good family photo with the tree!

"Hmm, what's this?"

"I want that ball!"

Quietly eating her breakfast

Recently, as Alicia has rejected other breakfast items like pancakes, bread and fried egg (probably coz it's teething season), I've been giving her a mixture of whole grain healthy snacks which she eats like toddler cereal in the morning (but without the milk). She has her milk later from me after she finishes the bowl of whole grains. :)

I've been giving her the whole grains in this pink bowl so she has already come to identify the pink bowl with her yummy whole grains. Once I 'set the table' for her (i.e. put the pink bowl on the blue tray), she'd just sit down and eat her breakfast quietly. Sometimes after sitting down for awhile, she gets bored, so she shifts herself, and the bowl of course, to the coffee table, where she would stand and continue eating. Almost every time, she will explore what happens when she tilts the bowl or turns it upside down. I try not to be annoyed and will get her to help to pick up the pieces of food and return it to the bowl. When I sit down with her to eat the food, I will give her a spoon to try to self-feed. Well, it's easier to start getting her to self-feed 'dry' foods definitely as it's less messy!

Here's a video of her quietly eating breakfast on her own:

A ride on the carousel!

A nice lady approached us one nite when we were hanging out at Vivocity to ask if Alicia would like to have a ride on the carousel for free. Since she asked, we were glad to let Alicia have a go on the carousel.

Alicia used to reject sitting on the carousel (even when it wasn't moving) but this time, she was glad to ride on it and even waved "hi" at the little boy while she was on the ride but he didn't respond... haha... :)

More fun rides at Vivo!

We went to Vivocity again and so we let Alicia play at the machines after we were done with our shopping at VivoMart. This time, she chose to play in the following machines:

Look at my cheeky little gal peeking at us!

Observing her surroundings while in her train...

Playing Peekaboo!

Alicia loves to play peekaboo these days becoz she's been watching Brainy Baby's "Peekaboo" and also coz of the repetition of peekaboo games at Julia Gabriel class. She'd cover her eyes/face then open and then clap happily and chuckle. :) What a darling I have! I just love playing peekaboo with her...

Here are a couple of short clips of her playing peekaboo just a couple of nites ago!

Alicia lazing in bed while playing peekaboo

Playing peekaboo on the go

Snoopy House

This was taken quite recently when we went to Harbour Front Centre. The building has two floors with such machines and they are really very attractive, even to adults. Here's Alicia in Snoopy's house. Watch her cute little dance moves (I say little coz the larger, more obvious dance moves weren't captured on this clip) as she dances and giggles to the hip music from a nearby sweet dispensing machine:

Elmo and Big Bird

Here's another super backdated post...

Elmo's Alicia's favourite Sesame Street character so she was extremely happy to see this machine at Vivocity. She immediately wanted to sit in it and here's a photo of her with her favourite character:

Ernie and Bert

This is a super backdated post. Now that I look at her in this video, I find that she looks so baby-ish!

Alicia loves Ernie and Bert from Sesame Street so you can imagine how she was absolutely taken when she saw Ernie and Bert at Vivocity. She would want to sit with them every time we go to Vivocity.

Well, since she was a good girl that particular day, we decided that we'd treat her to a real ride by slotting in a coin. Hahaha.. She actually doesn't crave for the real ride; just climbing into the machine and fiddling around with the steering wheel and the buttons here and there are sufficient to make her day!

Kitchen Play Set

We'd bought this from the toy fair at Taka some time in the middle of the year and since she's starting to play pretend more these days we decided that it's time to take it out for her. It's a really small set and we may consider buying her a toddler-sized one later on...


Here's the picture of the toy (I took the photo with Alicia around and I couldn't get her hands off it long enough to take a photo as you can see....)

Here's Alicia playing with it:

Play time at Terminal 3

As Alicia usually wakes up late from nap and takes dinner late, most of the time we can't make it to normal shopping centres for a walk. Hence, sometimes we end up going to the airport as it has a vast space for her to toddle around and it's generally safe because we can easily find a huge space for her to toddle and there's hardly anyone else around to bump into.



Here's a video of her toddling around wildly while we took a rest at the seats provided:

There are a few water features at T3 which she likes and so far we've captured her reactions to a couple of them. It also has a playground for toddlers up to 5 years old. Unfortunately, there are too many over-aged children running around and playing there, and they are totally oblivious to the little ones who are also playing at the playground. Well, the worst thing is that the parents of these children do not even bother to stop their children from being hazards to the little toddlers - for whom the playground is built! Having a playground at the airport terminal's a great feature really; it's inconsiderate people who spoil all the fun.


Here's what she did the other day when we brought her to the airport (T3).

Checking out the water feature then running to the playground:

Trying to climb into the water feature!:

The JG Lessons - Sat (28/11)

As Friday was a public holiday, the last day of the holiday class was held on Saturday. That meant that most parents could join their kids for the lesson - but not that many turned up though. Anyway, my hubby went along that day to experience the lesson for himself.

That day, as it was the last day of the course, there was no art segment but we had a puppet show in place of it. It was fun for the kids who love soft toys like Alicia (those who didn't ended up crying through the whole puppet show) and at the end of the puppet show, they were allowed to go up and play with the puppets. Alicia, if i remember correctly, took the baby owls and trotted back to us happily.

After that was snack time and they had crisp brown rice. This was a new snack to her but she still ate it rather happily. She ate so slowly though and she was last to get ready for water play. As we were afraid that she would catch a chill if she were to only wear her diapers and play with water, we let her participate in the activity with her dress still on. She had a whole tub of water with toys to play on her own as not many children wanted to participate in the water play that day.

Here's Alicia playing at the end of the water play session:

The kids weren't supposed to enter the tubs of water but since alicia had the whole tub to herself, when she climbed in, the instructors were ok with her doing so. She even helped to keep the toys in her tub. Haha...

We really had an enjoyable time that week at Julia Gabriel and we're looking forward to PlayClub next year! :)

The JG Lessons - Thurs (26/11)

The fourth day at JG was another challenging day for me - outdoor play that day was SWIMMING. I've never handled her alone when she swims so I was a bit apprehensive about how I would cope. Anyway, she was the only one who was donned in full swimwear for the outdoor play session. I was afraid that she would catch a cold if she wore just her swim diaper in so I let her wear her thermal swimsuit (which she usually wears when she goes swimming). Anyway, she was more reserved than usual during the swim session - I guess it's due to the fact that she had to share the tub with a couple of other kids. She usually has a large area to wander around in the baby pool but that day, it was just a simple tub with toys which she could play with. Handling Alicia after the swim proved to be ok after all as the instructor helped me while I changed her. Yet another exciting day at JG!



Art that day was challenging too. The children were asked to paint with their bare hands and the main task that day was to blend the colours with their hands. Earlier on in the course, they used the sponge and a feather, but that day, they were asked to use their hands so that they could have a new sensory experience. It was a HUGE mess - and I guess no one needed a crystal ball to foretell that. But well, I let her do it. She did well I must say and she blended the colours really nicely on the pre-cut flamingo. Here's a picture of all the art pieces she did at JG for the holiday course (and as you can tell already, the flamingo's my favourite):

The JG Lessons - Wed (25/11)

The 3rd day at JG holiday class was the most exciting day of all as it was an excursion to Jurong Bird Park! Unfortunately, my hubby couldn't get off from work that day so I had to bring Alicia on my own. That was quite a challenge for me as Alicia is kinda difficult to handle these days. As she doesn't like to sit still in the stroller for long, I decided that I'd fare better without it - otherwise, I'd have to carry Alicia and the stroller, and that would be a real nightmare. And so I set off with a big Deuter bagpack on my back, a baby carrier dangling in front and a mischievous toddler in my arms.

That morning, hubby sent us to JG @ Evans Rd early in the morning so that we could follow the schoolbus to the Bird Park and he went off to work after that. The bus trip was enjoyable for Alicia as the instructors sang songs and it so happened that the guitarist sat right behind us so she had a great time watching him strum on the guitar. There were also quiet moments where she just sat quietly in her own seat and looked out of the window at the vehicles zooming by. It has been a long long time ago since I last brought her for a bus ride. The last time I brought her on a bus ride was on the shuttle bus to Plaza Singapura and she fussed quite a bit on the bus - and that was the first and last time I took a bus with her, until that day. As you can imagine, I was quite apprehensive about the bus ride to the Bird Park but things turned out fine. Phew.

Then the next hurdle came. I tried to put her into the baby carrier before we alighted from the bus but I had a difficult time trying to buckle her in as it was too tight. Finally I managed to squeeze her into it but I think it was too tight so she made noise after awhile - we were still waiting to enter the Bird Park. And so it was. I had to carry her for almost the whole time in my arms as I was not confident of her ability to walk properly with shoes yet. But as it turned out, a couple of days later I tried letting her walk on her own with shoes and she did very well. Darn. Should have just let her walk more that day. Hahaha.

Anyway, first stop was to take the panorail to see the Lories. Taking the panorail's not just a new experience for her, but for me as well. However, the panorail wasn't that fascinating after all and it was quite difficult to get her to see the birds from inside the panorail. Here's a photo of us in the panorail - the only one we took together for the whole of the JG holiday class - taken by a nice grandpa.

She looks so serious here...

The Lories happened to be the first stop on the panorail line so we alighted quickly. I didn't manage to capture any photos of the Lories as I was busy with Alicia but here's a pic of a lory I downloaded from the web:

Lories are quite small actually! And they make really loud squawking sounds.

We were allowed to purchase food to feed the lories at $3. As I had my hands full already, I decided not to feed the birds so we just took a walk around the treetop walk and admired the lories which were flying around and some were eating the food which others had purchased. I allowed her to walk on the safe areas (safe areas = floor that would not cause cuts if she fell) and she was happy to roam about and watch the birds.

After that, we went back on the panorail and headed back to where we had come from and we were given some time to take a look at the flamingoes before joining the group for snack time at an open area near the flamingo park. Alicia didn't eat the teddy puffs provided that day but she did eat the muffin which I had packed along for her. After snacks, we gathered round to sing the usual songs. I tried to take videos of Alicia during that time as she was following what the instructors were doing. However, every time by the time I took out my phone, she would have drifted off and was off to do her own thing. Rather disappointing actually.

Anyway, here are a couple of really short videos of her wandering about that day:

After the songs, we went to see the penguins and Alicia had a great time looking at the big Emperor Penguins which swam by as she stood watching by the glass panel. We happened to choose a great spot to view the penguins so Alicia had a really good view. She waved and said "hi" to the penguins when they swam by. Too bad I didn't have any free hands to take a video of her coz i had to hold on to her.

The bus trip back to JG was a bit more challenging as most of the kids were tired out and napping on the bus so there was no singing. That meant that I had to keep her entertained somehow. Fortunately, the instructors played with her and so time passed quickly and we were back at JG in no time. While waiting for hubby to come pick us up, I brought her to the outdoor play area where she thoroughly enjoyed herself. Somehow, after that day, she totally warmed up to the place and she was very much her usual self thereafter for the rest of the lessons at JG. :)

What a tiring day it was for ME!

The JG Lessons - Tue (24/11)

On the 2nd day of JG class, Alicia was still behaved and slightly less wary of the surroundings. She sat still during story time and was friendly with the puppet of the day - three little blue birds in their nest.

Art for the day was painting with a feather. This was messier than Day 1 as I was splattered with paint by both Alicia's feather as well as other kids' feathers. Nevertheless, I let Alicia fiddle with both colours and do some painting before bringing her to clean up in the toilet next door. She splashed some paint on her face and lips even but becoz the paint's non-toxic, I wasn't worried at all. I just had to clean her up a little more than the day before. :)

Outdoor play was sandplay and this was a new experience for Alicia as we have never let her touch sand before. The instructors had prepared 3 sand pits (of varying textures of sand) for the children to play in. Since Alicia was new to sand, we went to the sand pit for beginners. Even then, Alicia didn't like the sand and after sitting in the sand for awhile, she climbed out of the pit and clung on to me. I put her back in several times but each time she climbed out and clung on to my neck. Finally she cried so I decided to let her just watch the others play with sand. We have decided to bring her to the beach some time this December to let her experience sand again...

Overall, the second day at JG was less stressful for me than the first day as I knew exactly what to expect. I really like the lessons at JG!

Organic Happy Baby Puffs

Alicia, as you can already tell, is into eating puffs of all sorts. We discovered this range of organic puffs at the pharmacy across Cold Storage at Great World City. So far, we've bought the banana puffs and just today, Alicia tried the spinach ones at my friend's place. This has half the amount of sugar in Gerber Puffs so it's definitely healthier!

Gerber Puffs

Alicia used to eat the Strawberry Apple flavoured puffs since she was about 9 months old and only recently we bought a new flavour for her - peach - and she is in love with it. Well, this is probably one of the least healthy snacks she has due to the corn syrup but I think it's still acceptable coz it's not like I allow her to consume a large amount each time.

Nowadays, she gets an assortment of healthy wholegrain snacks for snack time and at breakfast sometimes, where she eats them like cereal.

Teddy Puffs

Alicia started eating these Teddy Puffs when she was 10mths old and she's been going through phases of loving and hating it since. Just last week she was re-introduced to this during class at Julia Gabriel (after a few months of not eating it) and she loved it for a grand total of two days where she stuffed herself silly with the puffs. Subsequently, she started to show signs of rejection again.

I guess it's becoz she's teething again (I just discovered a new tooth two nights ago - I believe it's part of a molar) and coz these puffs are rather hard, they may actually be a bit painful to eat with sore gums....

Are these teddies yummy? Hmm, I think they are and one of my friends simply loves snacking on this - and she isn't a toddler! :)

Crisp Brown Rice

I discovered this new healthy snack for Alicia when she attended class at Julia Gabriel. It's crisp brown rice! The brand of brown rice crispies she ate at JG was Erewhon (which is available at VitaKids) but coz it was out of the way for me to go to a VitaKids outlet, I just settled for another brand of crispies for her.

Here's the pic of the Crisp Brown Rice I bought from the organic store at Harbour Front.

What I love most about this healthy snack is that there's only one ingredient used to make the snack - brown rice! How much healthier can it get? :) And the most important thing is that Alicia likes it!

Mini Applesauce Muffins

I finally baked a new batch of muffins for Alicia. Initially I had intended to make banana muffins this time round but I didn't manage to get the bananas I wanted so I just stuck with applesauce instead. In any case, she's a great fan of applesauce and when she saw me preparing her applesauce that day while she was having dinner, she insisted on having the applesauce before she continued with the rest of dinner. I gave her 2 tablespoons of applesauce but after she finished it, she asked for more but I refused to give her more coz if not she would not have space in her little tummy for the rest of dinner...


Anyway, here's the pic of the new applesauce muffins:



And here's the recipe:



Mini Applesauce Muffins


Wet ingredients
200ml homemade applesauce
50ml olive oil
1 small egg (lightly beaten) (I use Seng Choon's First Born eggs and they are really quite small)



Dry ingredients
50ml Origin's organic raw sugar
150ml self-raising flour (sifted)
50ml whole wheat flour (sifted)
2 tablespoons Origin's raw wheatgerm (for extra nutrition)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt



Directions
Mix the wet ingredients and dry ingredients well separately.
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients.
Stir in the wet ingredients, until just combined.
Spoon into lightly greased mini muffin tins. (I used mini silicon muffin cups I bought at Daiso and the muffins came out so easily!)
Bake at 180degC for about 17min, or until golden.


Freeze up to 3mths.



With this amount of ingredients, I made 19 mini applesauce muffins. I had experimented earlier on two other batches of muffins: the first I made with 100ml sugar but they turned out to be too sweet. The next batch I made I added baby oats on top of the rest of the ingredients and cut the sugar totally but the muffins turned out too hard for Alicia and it was too bland - virtually tasteless. And so, the third batch I made, I removed the baby oats and halved the sugar and voila! Perfect for Alicia's palate: soft and moist and most importantly, not too sweet or tasteless!