Eating or not

Loves it that u can make many food from simple ingredients in the pantry...if only Eliza eats most it and eats it fast.

I've been hooked on reading recipes and choosing those which I can cook, doesn't require too fancy equipments like blending (but I'm trying that out soon) and steaming (cos I don't have the equipment other than a microwave steamer). And also food that doesn't require fancy ingredients so I don't have to buy new things with my grocery budget starting to burst and it is only the mid month. I have been mystified by how my muffins never turn out right with this oven...


So far some 'adventurous' food I've tried is making bread and pizza base.

 

These which require rising has been tricky with Emily when she's awake and when I'm alone with the girls. I tried the bread when my mil is around and that worked quite well. The first time I tried the pizza base it was...so so. Last night I tried it again and it gave a nice soft base wooo! I tried avocado cream cheese dip which was tad too sour (I followed the recipe!) tried salsa, and sushi which eliza will eat with gusto. The fastest she can eat which is out of the normal.

I hate getting her to eat. We tried with the tv but at some point she would be so caught up watching that she would take 1.5hrs to eat!! I would find myself nagging at her or feeding her which i do not want. Ww's much more patient but on one night he also got quite upset at how long she took to eat....and when she did not finish, she said she's hungry and asked for snacks instead. So we switched back to eating at the table. She was eating at the table but that's another long story.

So the rule now is to eat at the table and no getting down from the chair till she finishes. And i also help by letting her choose a bit...as in letting her just have rice if all she wants is rice and not the rest of the veg/meat. Yesterday was rice and seaweed..and that WAS fast.

So far it has been good and i'm trying out more breakfast varities for her soon since she no longer has her powdered milk to drink. So her calcium intake will be through yoghurt, her chocolate milk and cheese. When she had her 'old' milk to drink, she'll be full enough such that she will juz graze the rest of the morning till lunch. Now she doesn't i've got to give her more for breakfast and a good healthy one too. It doesn't help that she's sloooow (and distracted) at eating other than sweets/chocolates/salty stuff.

We have always sparingly given her these stuff until....she started school and those food in party bags are all the junk food! potato chips, cheezels, sweets, chocolates, twisties...we'll always hide the forbidden 'foods' when we get home and give her some 'approved' ones. Of course we do let her indulge and that's as much. somehow she'll forget the rest that we have hidden.

So hello cooking! I have discovered the joys of experimenting...and choosing foods that Eliza will eat. Plus cooking at the right time! (like at night) or in the morning so i don't have to cook the rest of the day, or freeze foods. 

2 months on

Today

Meals:
Made sweet and sour chicken and stir-fry veg (broccoli, cauliflower, baby corn & carrots). Eliza declared she liked all (except the broccoli) so she ate really fast.
Still trying to figure out the best time to cook...some stuff are good to cook at night but i prefer cooking before we eat. And with Emily's naps to consider oh well we'll go with the flow... Today i tried frying the chicken before Ww left...phews..emily had to scream for milk. (didn't she drink like 1.5 hrs ago?)
We have found a nice balance to having Eliza eat cooperatively. She watches her dvds and eats. Not the most perfect scenerio but oh it works for us. She is happy watching and eating..no complaints, no rolling around on the chair, no us nagging her...though she can't sit on her chair either...but that's her...my mil says her butt has needles..can't sit still.

Sleep:
Eliza is sleeping on her own in her room. It is better since my mil left cos she's not scratching as much. weird how my mil's presence seemed to encourage the scratching. But we have her crying when she wakes up in the middle of the night but as long as she doesn't call us we don't quite go to her. After 2 weeks she's doing better, though not perfect. She also falls asleep faster..partially cos she doesn't nap if we don't go out or that...hmm i dunno.
Emily seem to improve on her length of her naps...else her 15min nap was driving me nuts with her having to sleep in 2hrs b4 she gets overtired and give me more problems. We also have whispering time (with Eliza when Emily naps) so that Emily doesn't startle awake. Eliza has been really cooperative. sweet jiejie. These few nights though, Emily hasn't been able to settle well to sleep...or more like taking longer to settle to sleep. I'm wondering if it is cos i was stretching her bedtime later or she's teething(?) or what??? I have been getting her to sleep frm 6pm, with a feed (a looong one cos that's the time she's the least distracted) and then 1/2hr to settle. On good nights she sleeps till 3+am and then 6+am...on some nights she'll wake at 1+am which means she'll wake again 3hrs later and not sleep(!!)..like last night. yawnsz. Oddly she hasn't been up for her 'dream feed' and if she isn't, i don't quite want to wake her though...so even though i warm her milk in a bottle before i go to sleep...she hasn't been drinking it. I'm suspecting that she's not enjoying drinking from the bottle. :S just like how she doesn't take to the pacifier.

Others:
I have spots in the house to pack and sort...still not done...wardrobe in a mess generally (my version of mess = not sorted out yet)

I love grocery shopping :P

I love how the cherry blossoms are everywhere

Weekends are for going out too...with Ww, exploring the lake side places, some markets, etc. Sat a kids train ride last week.

Went to a family cell group and enjoyed the company (me mostly with Emily though, cos she had to nap) and the food :) Our church has mainly chinese people from all over, Sg, Msia, PRC, TW...We wanted to go there cos when my inlaws are here they can attend the church too and go to the chinese service (cos the one we go to is an English-speaking service). Enjoy the sermons there though. :)

Eliza:
Eliza has been crazily cutting paper and creating interesting stuff from it...like coins to buy things, made a dress, diapers for her Elmos & her...all from paper. She also creates her super interesting Lego cities and whatever...like a movie theatre. That's her 'work'.

We have started on some number writing without the guides.
We have started on learning sounds of S, T, A, I, N, P. I think she's still getting the hang of the alphabets coming together to make a word.
We have been reading some chinese books, just to enjoy them.
We have been singing MORE songs & nursery rhymes

Emily:
Has been rolly polly. :P
I hardly see her skin cos she's so wrapped. Recently I found super dry skin around her arms :( so gotta moisturize 3-4times a day and she has been much better.
She's the one who bathes the least often...cos she cries when i lower her to the bathtub, and cos she hardly really gets that dirty anyway. But i do wipe her down everyday in the evening or late afternoon.
Love her burst of smiles and mini dance when she opens her eyes and see me in the morning.
Love to hear her ee ee ehh ehh at me in a conversation only she knows.
Love to watch her watch Eliza play and her inquisitive eyes as she looks at things.

Sydney weekend

This is a backdated post.. I have much to write just haven't got down to it

We are in Sydney! Like a little holiday for us even though we are sending my mil back to Singapore. Gonna miss her dearly, for her company, her food and her help with our girls. For once we'll feel what ut is like to be on our own. The real thing! Scary but also a great learning experience. The good is also that we can have lesser influences on how we bring up our kids and the habits that come along. Things like getting Eliza to do her toilet business on her own, something my mil will do for her and something I'll 'dictate' her to do and praise her for doing it all on her own after that. It's slower but a important step to independence. Actually she was quite on auto run back in SG at my Mum's place to the extent that I didn't even know she went to pee. Here, there's no potty and so a toilet cover, a stool she needs to bring in, 3 layers of pants to pull down, a tap that's not easy to turn on when she needs to wash her hands...

Anyway, coming to Sydney made me feel like the city is so crowded and busy, and that I liked the space, peace and quiet in Canberra. Although temperatures here are 10deg more at night which is soooo comfortable. Finally I can see my skin! And bathing is enjoyable. Eliza played water with her toys in the huge corner bathtub which is loads of fun for her.

Enjoying the delicious Chinese kinds of breads and food here. Mmmm. We ate so much during lunch we almost skipped dinner.

Anyway our hotel is wonderfully spacious ad Eliza absolutely loved it though she's sleeping with my mil tonight. We turned in early...like at 7pm cos Emily was tired already and Ww and I had time to chat for abt almost 1.5hrs..in the toilet mostly, geee cos our snacking was getting a little too noisy for sleeping emily...sigh this girl needs ear plugs! Ww cough quietly and she woke up crying (time like happened twice back home at night). No wonder she can't sleep in the day?

Anyway we'll enjoy the warm weather while we can.

Meanwhile I'm gonna sleep and shift Ww so that he stops snoring!!

Monday record

Weather: rainy so it was cold. Colder weather this week after fantastic warm weather last week.

Morning: woke at 730am cos Emily was up at 520am for milk n took a while to sleep after that. I woke up to find myself still carryig her upright as her head on my shoulder. And Ww still asleep!
Did some tracing and cutting activities with Eliza and read a story with her while Emily took her short 15 min nap in the rocker.

Lunch: oyster sauce bok choy, abc soup frm last week (it was frozen), butter chicken frm last week.
Eliza was watching Playschool DVD on e computer borrowed from the library

Afternoon: me trying to get Emily to sleep. The schedule is all haywire when I let her oversleep. Tried to get Emily to sleep on her cot, which after the fifth attempt she finally slept a good half hour. Else I'm back in the room attending to her cries in 2mins from the time I left the room with her asleep.


Eliza was creating all sorts of stuff with her Lego and was later watching Sesame street before going to bathe.

Evening:
Ww went to do a pick up of toys from Theodore via freecycle which was sort of a let down. But we had a few toy animals, balls, an empty doll house, some books.
Emily was at her usual feeding earlier but kinda took till now, 845pm to zz...from 615! Grr. Actually she slept by 7pm but kept waking up to burp or complain. Sometimes I dunno if she is still hungry but is so tired she falls asleep drinking. Gee..gonna fall into the trap of nursing her to sleep. So I'm expecting her next feed at around late 11pm before I sleep. Bottle feeding her at that time is the only way she'll sleep a longer stretch, so much for not expressing milk. I still do twice a day (in the morning to 'drain' the excess and at night b4 I sleep)

But love the quiet evenings, especially when Eliza sleeps early. My mil will be playing angry bird (it's a daily entertainment especially when we don't have tv). It's also the time Ww and I get to talk, do our stuff, do the misc household stuff etc.

What to do

Yes! What to do on the days that Ww goes to school to work? His timing is flexible but generally a 8am-530pm schedule, unless he has work. He car pools with his friend who stays in Queanbeyan so I also gotta try to sync our going out in the afternoon time with him and the weather!
We are hoping to go out tmr but the weather threatens to rain. So hopefully the sun comes out and theres's no wind cos we're gonna walk 20+mins to the city centre...and depend on Ww to drive us home. :)

So on days like today with no outdoor activity, we did some craft making a rabbit out of the toilet roll, read one book, did some drawing with Eliza improvising on her cutting to make a boat for her rabbits. Else she is playing with the iPod touch and I'm downloading some new games for her ("spell some games for me" she'd say). My mil cooked today and I was mostly carrying Emily while playing with Eliza. We try to put her down once in a while but she usually wakes up in seconds. At one point she slept 6 mins on the sofa. Which was good cos it gave me some ball playing with Eliza. I slinged Emily in The aftnn so that she can sleep and my hands will be free to do some things where we ended up looking at photos n videos.

I have more to get used to. The days when we are stuck at home and ensuring that there's food for lunch and dinner. Even if it is frozen food to heat up.

Our 10 boxes of things aren't here yet and we'll be quite busy when it is. And I will also remember what i have packed!

Looking forward to the weekend markets to go to There's a Baby and kids market in Aug! Yay! Cheap shopping for me.
Looking forward for sprig and summer to be here. Spring will bring on the beautiful Floriade which have seen in photos and hopefully the weather is better so we can go to the nature parks.
Looking forward for emily to grow up so that hopefully it will be easier(?). There are times when I do feel that comig over with just one kid is easier but we had wanted Emily so much and we love her despite the usual baby issues (sleep issues for me!). The age old problem of dividing my time between the two of them. Sometimes Eliza will ask me to put Emily down so I can play with her. And I have felt that I have grown less patient with Eliza and less appreciative of her because of the stress of handling both of them when Ww was not around for a month. Trying to scold her less and be more understanding of her.

Getting the hang of things

We have more or less settled these two weeks here. There is the cold to get used to

1. Layer inconvenience.
We r in at least in 2 layers at home, 3 when we are out. Emily's in at least one fleece layer so that I'm sure she's warm. So many layers mean that sometimes I take longer to dress n undress Emily. Prefer all in ones to two pieces but changing diapers is such a chore! In sunny Singapore she doesn't even wear a pants over the diaper. Here there's 2 layers to uncover the diaper lurking inside..and if she does a poop that overflows (esp if i don't snap the disposable diaper tight enough) it leaks at the back and gets all 2-3 layers pooped. ewwie!

2. Cold water
Having to wash hands in cold water (even if it's hot) and then touch Emily! oops! she'll surely scream :O Water is generally icy. But the upside is that there's hot water which according to my mil is great for soaking clothes and washing the dishes. Water is free for this unit so somehow we don't quite care much about saving water and just let the water run...especially when we bathe. I don't want to always adjust the water temperature!
This also means that the water left out cools really fast so if we want any warm water, it's from the thermal flask or to boil more or just get from the tap! Now i understand why they have those kids thermal flask...it just doesn't make sense having those in SG.

3. Dry dry air
I have dry skin which is quite ok in humid singapore. Even so, my left hand fingers and my feet are really dry and cracked. Fingers are dry due to the detergent and feet/heel are dry if i wear slippers and open heels. It is worse here...so my fingers are so dry they..well...split. I mean my heel hard dead skin does that sometimes but here...they just have fun splitting. The feet part is managable cos i slap lots of moisturizer and plasters. The fingers...argh...it splits at those tips where i use most...so i need to cover it up with plasters else it's difficult to snap those pesky buttons on Emily's rompers.

4. Going out and about
There's not much of nature i enjoy when it's so cold...there are some nice good days when it's not windy but still i'll rather be at home. Then again...with the decision not to get a tv..we're usually left with not much to do :P Our 10 boxes are not here yet so Eliza's generally busy with her playdoh, her dancing and listening to music, playing the ipodtouch cooking, eating and recently playing a ball and box with Ww.
And if Ww's not around we have tried walking to the centre for some grocery shopping. Else the rest of the area is kinda quite far without a car. I will someday learn to drive.....

5. Cooking
I am a recreational cook...so which means i don't cook much..at least not on a daily basis. Over here eating out is really expensive...and not guaranteed to taste good. There's so much good food back in sg that is sooo cheap u can live on not cooking at home. Also many of our fav asian ingredients are more expensive here, wanted to cook yongtauhu but...ahh...no fishballs..none of the ingredients and the ikan bilis is so ex!!
I'm trying to do freeze cooking so that on days when i'm with the kids, i don't have to cook but just heat up the food. I've tried meatball spaghetti, mashed potato, pizza, beef burger (still frozen in the fridge) and cheese balls. But then none of the usual chinese stir fries that is so delicious. Most of the recipes for freeze food is very meat based. Plus fish is so expensive here! and very little varieties...no wonder they sell a lot of fish oil supplements. Gonna miss my steamed pomfret. else baking fish is really easy and nice.
Super expensive stuffs are tomatoes...6 tomatoes for $6! *cough cough* and ginger is $13 per kg. Bananas are like about $17 per kg. sigh...
Still trying to figure out and try out more freeze foods while my mil's still here so i can experiment.

6. Early to sleep
Because the sun sets about 5pm..and cos it's winter...somehow we all retire to sleep very early...eliza at her usual bedtime if she naps and earlier if she doesn't which is about the same. But for Ww and me...i'll go to zz at 10pm (also cos my mil sleeps with Eliza for now). Emily has an early bedtime too at about 7-8pm (now i understand those UK or US books talking about baby routines and bedtimes at 7pm...which is not that easy in SG cos of how awake the city is and how much activities there are after 7pm)
Ww has not been feeling well these few days and has also been retiring early for the nights. wow.

7. God
God is good...He has led us to find a church that we feel comfortable in and where my mil can go to the chinese service while we go to the english service. The children's sunday school has been quite good for Eliza even though she had said she didn't want to go, she still did and i believe enjoyed it plus her teacher Ruth was really great and encouraging. Have been reminded in today's sermon from James 3 & 4 on seeking wisdom from God. Especially when i have felt my expectations of Emily to not sleep in my arms really a stressful one...and when i have sought for help from God I may not have let him step in to take over. Still the Holy Spirit is working to help me let go and let me understand Emily better, to take it easy a little more and yet try to cultivate a ok sleep habit and routines. Our routines are a little off on some days when she wakes at 7am or 8am or 9am...but she's generally on a 3hr routine...can sleep 15mins without me carrying her and then wakes up for another round of trying to sleep (except when we are out). So I'm learning to let God take over...to listen out to Him, to read His word more regularly and to pray.

It's not easy starting out here like that....I'm still adapting and Eliza's enjoying it. :P I still miss many things in singapore but we'll see we'll see...i'm looking forward to spring. ;) 

Touch down

It's just end of day 2. I'm exhausted by the many things to be done and somehow not doing much cos I'm carrying Emily all the time. Thankfully these's Weiwen and my mil to do all the other things.

Ww has done a great job in getting the house ready in like 2-3 days. So much to do. The furnitures, matresses, the fridge, washer, kitchen stuff, microwave, dining table, sofa...the list is never-ending. He only got the keys on Tuesday n we arrived on Friday early morning. He also had to drive 3hrs to Sydney to pick us up at the airport at 5am and drive that 3hrs back.

Really thank God for His grace as He showers His blessings by providing a house before we arrived. Even though it is so close to our arrival date. And thank God Ww's car is big enough to squeeze in all our luggage, with one of the luggage behind the front passenger seat. And Eliza sitting behind. Eliza slept most of the journey in the car and so did Emily, thankfully.

The airplane flight wasn't that fun with Emily refusing to sleep without me walking her up and down the aisle. Eliza fell asleep after her milk. And really I wouldn't have been able to manage without my mil's help, mainly because Emily demanded so much of our attention. Emily eventually did sleep and she was so knocked out I couldn't wake her up to nurse as the plane descended. She continued to sleep so soundly when we cleared customs n picked up luggage.

Anyway, I'm still adjusting. And falling sick, I'm not sure due to the lack of sleep, tiredness from carrying Emily all the time (including slinging her when we go out), the cold and dryness, the donut I ate...having a sore throat now thar hurts everytime i swallow.

More updates when I can!