Black box

I finally started mountain boy on television, limited and supervised time. So far i am sticking to Gymboree and Leap Frog.

Mountain man started complaining why we keep showing the same programs over and over. I told him that kids like predictability and they feel smart when they know what's coming. To which mountain man said,"no wonder i used to watch Top Secret a 100 times"

Hello Aunt Corsage!

"Thanks for the lovely coat. I am finally big enough to wear it..."

Menu for 1

Crossing 1 is a big milestone when it comes to dietary needs. There is this arbitrary line drawn between 11 months 29 days and 12months on the dot- before 1 milk is main, after 1 food is main. And after 1, a child supposedly can indulge in salty/oily/msg laden food, imagine how their little kidneys suddenly grow turbo engines to break down the additional "seasoning".

^^joking. the kidneys don't really grow turbines.

Anyway, i attended yet another nutrition course but for toddlers this time. A few cool things i learnt so i thought i'd share.

1. Swear to not fight about food with your child. Read properly, not fight for food, but fight about food. The bigger the deal you make about your child's lack of appetite the bigger a deal eating becomes. A parent should respect their child when they say enough is enough.
2. No short order cooking. When your child does not want what is being served, don't offer alternatives. Because these smart little alecks will soon learn that if they don't like the food they can always have something else. Tough luck you clever tots!
3. It's not about that last bite. It's very asian to wipe our plates clean, but our plates is not the same size as our stomach. Very often our plate serving is 30% more than what our stomachs can take. So again, listen to the child. Don't do the... "come on, last one..."
4. It's important to build a healthy relationship with food. Food is just food. It's not for comfort.
5. Don't use food as rewards. Often we hear parents say, "you finish your porridge u can have chocolate". This will have 2 side effects- you elevate the importance of chocolate in your child's mind(see point 4), and you open the door for endless negotiation with your child. But rewarding food can be used in rare circumstances like after a vaccination, or finishing passing an exam.
6. Healthy eating habits starts in-utero. So pregnant ladies better eat healthy!
7. Don't feed when they are off the high-chair. Or rather, don't chase them around with a bowl. You'll never get your child to sit on a table for the next 5 yrs!
8. Give them a multivitamin if it puts ur mind at ease. Some parents worry their kids are not eating well enough.

I am definitely guilty of breaking some of the cardinal rules above. I always let Mountain Boy eat a bunch of snacks if he finishes his milk. Whoops it's time to undo those habits. But those points above does make me relax abit about Mountain Boy's diet. I'm always worried if he's eating enough, drinking enough, and i'm always wondering why he doesn't drink as much milk as he used to.

Just going back to adult food. Today i made dinner for the three of us for first time in a long long time. I hardly cook these days, even when i do it goes straight into the mouths of a hungry husband and child so i never get to take pictures anymore.

So here's my creation for today. The mouthwatering Beef Gumbo- a fancy south american name for a very watery stew mixed with rice. I first had it at a New Orleans restaurant called NOLA, and i've been wanting to make it since. I just love a good stew.

Papa and Mama's Dinner. Full of extra seasoning.

Baby's dinner. I blended the stew before adding the rice.

Autumn in Beijing

I missed Autumn last year due to the dreaded confinement. Now that Mountain Boy is walking and demanding to go out all the time, I'm glad that the weather has finally turned cooler. Hopefully the evil mosquitoes will disappear as the temperature drops further.

Here are some adorable pictures of Mountain Boy. I've accumulated close to 10 sweaters for him in the last 2 months, of course mostly from taobao.

His snorty grin, again.

He was dragging my shopping bag everywhere.

Old pictures

I found an old SD card lying around in one of the boxes lying around on one of the trays lying around on one of the tables...

To my delight i found these pictures of my wedding gown fitting!! Not that i have a poor self-esteem (if anything i'm probably more narcissistic), I don't know why i always thought that i could lose a couple of kilos, now i'm way beyond that "couple of kilos". *grunt*. How to lose weight without exercising and cutting down food, someone pls tell me.

Do you think he's pinning on a mannequin? Or me? Why would he fit the dress to a mannequin, but then again where are my arms?

I like the bangs. Should i cut it again?

Tot loves CAKE

Honestly since moving to China i've been kinda behind when it comes to music. It's due to a combination of an overall lack of inspiration to listen to new stuff, as well as being isolated to the english speaking world.

Last weekend we went out to a pub and they had an electronic jukebox with a great selection of bands we like- oldies but goodies. Cake was one of them. Their Fashion Nugget album was the top of my playlist in junior college. I first liked their remakes of I Will Survive and Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps, but then i slowly grew to love their originals.

Here's Mountain Boy rocking to Cake's Daria. This boy has the groove.

1st Yr: Actual birthday

I intended to post this on his actual birthday but i couldn't find the card-reader for the longest time so i couldn't upload the pictures. Mountain Boy has taken the habit of swiping things from us, we've just recently discovered where his secret hiding place is so we found a bunch of important stuff there, including the card reader. Naughty little boy... need to start smacking his little butt. JK.

Anyway, his birthday started with an early present. CAKE!!! Yummy carrot cake for breakfast. He kept wanting more but of course i had to limit cos of the sugar.

nom nom nom...

Went downstairs for a walk and he met not 1 not 2 but 3 cute little dogs. He wanted to kiss a dog but of course the dog wasn't willing.

Kiss me so i'll turn into a prince...

The toy poodle puppy was extremely friendly! He kept wanting to play with Mountain Boy who was scared and excited at the same time. It was just adorable watching them both.

We took him out for his birthday lunch at a yunnan restaurant. It was a hot sunny day, complete mistake to dress him in long sleeves. He was perspiring soo much he looked like he had a bath.

I'm ONE!

I think this picture captures his playful "i'm going to laugh because i did something naughty" expression.

This is when he is actually laughs...

I felt very emotional throughout the day. I didn't look or feel fabulous that day but i wanted a picture at 7+pm to mark the exact 1 year mark with my boy.

Mountain Man took leave to play with his little boy. so sweet them two. Mountain Boy likes to "mount" the both of us when he sees us lying down. And then we must jiggle like a human horse. It drives him completely wild.

1st Yr: Letter from Mama

Hi Mountain Boy,

today has been a very emotional day for Mama. Every minute of today i was reliving what happened exactly a year ago. A few times today i secretly shed some tears of joy, I feel so much love for you i don't know if you'll ever understand, maybe when you have your own kids someday you will.

You've turned out to be an incredibly lovable boy. Not just to us but also to the ayi and people who have come into contact with you, even strangers. Do you know that you are famous in our estate for being the earliest walker/most active boy? Our neighbour keeps telling me that you are constantly being mentioned during their dinner conversations because you are extremely clever and advanced. Mama tries to be humble by playing down your developments but truth is both Daddy and I are bursting with pride. We are so proud to be your parents.

I wish today didn't go by so quickly. I wish the year didn't go by so fast. But at the same time I also look forward to you growing up and being a man of your own. We have absolute faith that we will remain proud of you no matter what you do or become.

Remember to always thank the Lord Almighty and rely on Him all the time. Momma and Daddy have always prayed for you and with you every single day for the last 1 year and He has never failed us.

Hope you had a great birthday my dear son...

xoxo

Mama

Happy first birthday my boy!

1st Yr: Actual Day

Weather wise, i couldn't have asked for a better day. The sky was clear, the air was good, not too warm, not too chilly. Autumn is really the best time for alfresco events, the restaurant where the party was held had a huge veranda where the kids could play. I was so excited about the party because i had put in so much effort in making Mountain Boy's first birthday a special one.

There was ONE major glitch... The party was from 330pm to 6pm, Mountain boy had been napping pretty badly the past 1 week so i was really afraid that he would be grouchy at his own party. He struggled during his afternoon nap and slept late so he only woke up at 4:10pm, and then we were held up by a very bad jam enroute so we arrived at the party at 5:10pm! We missed a huge chunk of it, i felt so upset... Luckily Mountain Man was there to hold the fort and the party must go on. The guests had arrived and everyone was already chatting and eating and the kids were running wild.

I was like a madwoman bouncing here and there twisting balloons, blowing bubbles, eating, chatting, and then herding everyone into the restaurant to cut the cakes, and then herding them out again to play zero point, and then packing up by 6:15pm. Kind of like my wedding day, 2 yrs to plan and it was over in just 1 day! I wish i can go through the party all over again in slow motion.

Here are some pictures from the party..

Mountain Boy was very well behaved. He didn't cry, he didn't fuss. He just played along. I don't think he knew he was the star... But when he sees this post he will someday.

T-shirt from Rock Your Baby.

Mountain boy was pretty stunned when everyone sang the birthday song. He must have been wondering why everyone was staring at him and clapping and smiling. First timer at this birthday business.

A nice family picture for keepsake!

After the cake cutting, we adjourned with the Zero Point Championship. See me in action... I was doing the "five times" but i failed miserably my back almost broke. I used to be able to do "five times" 20 times no problem okay. It's the age and the extra weight. The Zero Point Champion turned out to be a man, and he kept insisting that boys played Zero Point too *roll eyes*. Anyway he was a real good sport and i sincerely thank him for humouring the crowd.

Just wanted to say a mega THANK YOU to all the lovely guests who attended the party. Sorry we were late but i hope u had fun regardless, if you didn't i hope u enjoyed the food at least. Mountain Man and Boy and I love u soo very much. Hope to see you again next year.

Click here for the rest of the photos.

1st Yr: Preparations!

The birthday post is WAY too long so i have to split it up.

About 2 weeks ago, we began intensive planning of Mountain Boy's first birthday party. The concept, decor, invite, party favours, games to entertain the little ones, the bigger ones and the adult ones.

Mountain Man and I have one key hygiene factor to meet when it comes to planning parties... if all else fails, the food must at least be good so the guests won't go home unsatiated. So we chose Nyonya Kitchen, a restaurant quite far from our home but serves very decent Singaporean/Malaysian food.

Here's the invite we sent out to our guests.

Games:

Given that the celebration was held at a rustic singaporean restaurant, we thought it would be fun to prepare some traditional games for our guests. I made the zero point and 5 stones, and bought a couple of "chateks" and marbles. The kids were easier, long twisty animal balloons and a bubble gun should do the job.

Birthday cakes: Technically i didn't prepare this, my friend did. I only bought the candles. She was so sweet to bake 2 birthday cakes, one for me and one for Mountain Boy- Lemon cake and Carrot Cake. I love love love her them.

Decor/Party favours: A friend recommended a company that prints stickers and banners so this was easy. But you know these black paper bags? I accidentally bought 200 of them even though i only wanted 20. I'll have to use the same bags for the next 10 yrs!

Well quite a lot of work went into today's event. I think we've also pretty much used up our budget for his second and third birthday!

Anyway stay tuned for more party photos.

Daily Snippets: He's just not that into you

I just happily clicked on an interesting article written by match.com on 5 reasons why the men don't call you back and I started wondering how many single ladies are still reading my blog, helloooo are you still out there? I'm sharing my dating secrets and you don't want to miss this.

I came up with my own 5 theories of why the men don't call you back. Now mind you i've no diploma in dating but i do speak from personal rejection experiences and have friends who wondered why the men stopped calling.

Sometimes i talk to Mountain Man and ask him why men are such jerks and he'll tell me that men often suffer in silence and take the blame when actually it's the girl who was responsible. Can't expect a man to continue dating a girl he finds out he doesn't like right? How else to let her down gently except to just, stop calling. Of course i told him that an expensive offering such as a handbag or shoes would be effective in taming an angry rejected girl.

Anyway, here's the 5 in order of equal importance.

Reason 1

You have BO or your breath stinks. Sometimes it's simple as that...

Reason 2

You are desperate. Sadly, men like to pursue, not be pursued. And by desperate, i don't mean holding a bowl under your chin to catch your drool. Don't try so hard to impress him because chances are he is already impressed with you tht's why he asked you out. If you asked him out, good for you cos if he agreed to go out with you and in that way he is also impressed.

Reason 3

You are not interested in him. Pay genuine interest in his life- army stories, taekwando championships, xbox games. It's OK if you are not interested in these topics, but be a good listener. Say how you're not into xbox, it is OK to disagree. But don't write off his interests...

Reason 4

You know everything and is right about everything. I think men prefer boring women (who looks pretty) to women who has an opinion about absolutely everything (and looks pretty). If you know everything how can the men add value?

Play the game of the modern damsel in distress so the men get to be the knight in shining armor.

Reason 5

You have no self-awareness. There's a fine line between confidence and arrogance, knowledgable and "talk too much too loud". Know your flaws and try to hide them till date 15.

Good ways of leaving opportunities for future dates is to make them during the date. Like "Hey so you like the chicken wings at East Coast right? Let's go next week!". And if agrees but then he still doesn't call maybe he's just not that into you.

Well good luck single ladies...

Perfect companion

Mountain Boy hasn't been napping too well recently. Usually he can do a stretch of 1hr15mins at least in the morning, and then again in the afternoon. I suspect that he is adjusting to a 1 nap schedule and entering what is called the "yuck" zone where 1 nap is not enough, 2 naps are too much.

Because of his botched nap in the morning, i didn't want to bring him to the babygroup in case he got grouchy. So i took him to lunch instead. It turned out to be a very delightful afternoon.

He likes feeding himself now. He can't scoop properly but i normally put the food on his spoon and he does a decent job of putting it in his mouth.

After lunch he went off wandering on his own, he had absolutely no regard for me and didn't follow my lead. When he came to this huge flight of stairs, he didn't even turn to me for help, he decided to squat, turn his butt towards the stairs and crawled down all the way by himself. I was next to him screaming out "Leg first, leg first!". Of course when he completed the steps he looked mighty proud of himself.

After all the hard work, i rewarded him with a car ride at the supermarket. He was a champ at the steering wheel. Only thing was he decided to grab an avocado and sunk his teeth into it, with the skin intact and all! How dare he pick one of the most expensive fruits!

It was just a perfect afternoon. But i do hope that his naps would regulate soon. He isn't sleeping alot these days. about 12 hrs each day, way too little for his age. Good news is his milk intake is up.

Stacking

I didnt buy stacking rings or cups for him for the longest time. I figured it wasnt that fun, no music, no lights, boring.

Turns out he is a stacking genius! He can do the stacking rings over and over and over.... I only accidentally found out when we went to this coffee place and they had a bucket of toys to entertain patrons and their children.

Daily Snippets: I need to unjinx my hair

Two friends complimented my hair on separate occasions last week. I agreed with them that my hair did look kinda good recently, i even sold my hairstylist saying that she did a great perm that lasted me almost a year. BOY did i jinx myself with that. I've been having such bad, no terrible, hair days that i want to pull it all out and start over.

So here. I officially say that my hair is sooooooooo unruly and frizzy. unjinx unjinx unjinx...

Enthusiastic little shopper

I bring mountain boy out shopping quite alot, he is always curious about everything. He wants to rummage through clothes, supplies, diapers, vegetables, fruits... tosses stuff out of shelves and racks like a chief inspector. i sometimes find him sitting by himself somewhere in between the aisles with bags of stuff he surrounding him. Funny at first but after a while he slows you down by quite a lot!

It gets very chaotic when i'm alone because i cant watch him, do my shopping and clean up after him all the time. In fact one time at the supermarket i got so tired of repacking his stuff that i decided to throw all of it into the shopping bag, as a result i came home with close to 10 rolls of trash bags!

Something funny happened today though. We were making a quick run to the nearby supermarket to get some veges and he insisted on unpacking the babyfood shelves. I thought oh dear here we go again. But surprisingly, after he unpacked he repacked! He was so busy rearranging the glass bottles, moving them from shelf to shelf. And then he proceeded to the candy bar section and did the same thing!

We then brought him to muji and i was so surprised he didn't rummage through the knee high displays, he merely touched them and walked off.

So grown up isn't he.

My baby is a megastar!

Today we went for a walk at the mall and we saw a roadshow for the Kindermusik company that we did the photoshoot for. I wanted to see if there were any goodies (read: free) I could get my hands on and i came across this poster...

Mountain Man insisted we both took a picture with it. There was only 1 other picture of a eurasian toddler girl and that was it. I feel so proud of my Mountain Boy.

SALT

Did anyone catch SALT? Was Angie gorgeous or what? She definitely did something to make her lips poutier than usual.

I am quite a big fan of Angie's movies but i must say she disappointed me with SALT, it ended before anything even began. We saw the dvd with very low volume and without subtitles so it took us a while to understand the rather twisty plot, but when we finally absorbed what was going on it was the end. We felt so cheated when the credits came up, like that's it? It felt like there was supposed to be a part 2, is there? does anyone know?

Daily Snippets: Of magazines and farmville...

Funny incident last week. We met a guy friend (American) who commented that female magazines are "shallow". Like DUH. If i wanted something deep i'd go read the newspapers or something. The point of female magazines is pictures grazing, short beauty snippets, nonsense things that help you escape the really boring world. Sorta like Farmville but ironically Farmville is even more boring than the real world because all u can do is plant vegetables and fruits, harvest and redecorate the barn.

Seriously, why is farmville addictive? anyone?

P.E.T

I signed myself up for a Parent Effectiveness Training course sometime ago. Like i said i know zilch about parenting so i could really use some professional help. Last night was the first session and it was PRetty interesting.

I've always thought that it's important for parents to maintain a united front when it comes to conflict management. But i learnt that it's not always true. Children can feel dissent between parents and instead of putting up a false united front, it's ok to come clean to our children. We can say something like this... "Dear son, you know i don't disapprove of your actions, however it bothers your mother and her feelings are very important to me, so we must respect her."

So there, lesson number one.