New Camera!!

I promise this is the last blurry pic from my phone camera

Was at the IT fair yesterday afternoon and i think perhaps a million others were there too. There was hardly any parking space and boy it was like 2pm!! Where did all these people come from?? No need to work?

There were a lot of bargains and you can see many lugging trolleys of printers, laptops, even plasma and LCD TVs!? Strange, they don't do delivery anymore during fairs?? I don't know how they are going to drive their big TV back.

I got a Sony camera and indeed i was quite thrilled with my new toy. No more blurry pics for the blog! And i can take nice pics of my little 娃娃! YAY! There was this "smile shutter" feature. Once activated, the camera will click itself away once it detects a smile! Wonderful!! Perfect to capture baby smiles which are ever so unpredictable!

The IT fair is now on at Suntec Convention Hall till 15Mar. Rush down if you need anything cos there's good price and goodies too. And not to forget the million people ^_^

New Dish

Broccoli and minced meat in egg ... ready to jump into the 蒸笼

It's lunch and i said "Put the minced pork into the egg and steam. Steam the broccoli also".

Came back again to the kitchen only to find a brand new dish created by my dear maid.
"Mum said steam egg and broccoli"

Well ok, so my instructions were unclear. It was quite a hilarious situation to me. I looked at the new concoction wondering how it will turn out.

Ah not too bad. We steamed the whole thing for about 8 mins and it did come out tasting quite good. In fact, the veg became a little soft and the whole thing was mashy and fit for my toddler in time to come. Now we've got a new creation added to our menu hehe ^_^

Bitten by a Big Bed Bug

Ok, enough of twisting the tongue. We've indeed got attacked by bed bugs recently. Not sure how it all began, but anyway one night we started to get bitten and at first we thought it was mosquitoes. But this went on for many nights and one time i got up to check only to find a murderous bug crawling on my bed!!

We tried spraying the bed frame for abt a week with insecticide but the problem did not go away. In the end we have to call the pest control company.

One company charges $450 for two visits and will fumigate the whole place. It takes around 4 hours for the entire operation and you need to wash all your clothes and clean up the house after that. Sounds more frightening than the bugs!

Called another company and it is $500 for three visits. They will spray a very deadly (to the bugs) water-based odourless chemical around the affected areas and the skirtings of your house. Takes 1.5 hours and then life goes on as usual.

Took the latter option cos it seemed to have less impact on the little baby. The bug man was here yesterday for the first spray so we shall see how it turns out in a month's time.

Pray for us!!

Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge

Royal Copenhagen crockery are all hand painted

Chocolate brownie .. soooooo sweet!

Danish butter cake: thought i should order something "local", but too sweeet

Hot chocolate in a nicely painted cup

Happy baby not sure of what's happening

Have always taken a peek into this tea lounge on Taka Level 2 and seems like a atas kind of place to me. Arranged to meet up with Karen to experience a taste of being a tai-tai sipping fragrant hot tea with tasty hot scones on a lazy leisure afternoon hehe.

Indeed the place is full of tai-tais!! Fashionly dressed with set-toh hair and bling bling stones on the ears, neck and fingers! There were many ladies bringing their babies, probably on maternity just like me.

We ordered cakes but they were too sweet for my liking. First time i left >70% of the cakes untouched ^_^ Maybe the food is better. I shall try it next time.

Verdict: come to this place in the afternoons because it's quite empty and quiet. You get a feast on your eyes on all the beautiful people and babies too. Good place to chill out with friends or just come alone to unwind or read your fav book.

The First Intelligible Sound

Young Eric

Don't i look like daddy? I even know how to call PA PA!

Recently, baby has developed a somewhat "crying cycle": she would fuss and cry before going to sleep, cry suddenly during her sleep, and cry upon waking up. She always needs someone to pacify her and sayang her before she can calm down.

This morning, as usual, she woke up around 7am and started crying again. She made a lot of noise as if telling us she was frustrated about something. Just when eric and i seem totally helpless, baby said "PA PA"?!?! Loud and clear, both of us looked at each other and laughed despite the poor crying baby.

Ok, the verdict is out - her first words, even though she may not make sense of it. Woahaha ~~

Crisis

Lord Jesus, i pray that i'll like the bottle!

Maternity leave is going to end in a month so it's time to start transitioning baby to a post start work routine.

First of all, we must get baby to the bottle so the helper can feed baby the expressed milk while i bury my head in work. we have been feeding baby by the bottle on/off in the first 2 months and she had no problems taking it.

I just tried giving baby the bottle last week and to my horror, she rejected it and cried so hard and bitterly! Gave me a fright and upon regaining some sanity i think i have a real crisis. We have been treating her to the bottle every day for the past week and each time a big crying battle begins and of course the winner is NOT ME :(

I thus have this advice for new mothers: you may want to express your milk and feed baby once a day so baby can get used to both direct and bottle feeding. I have been pretty faithful in this practice until 2 months but got lazy and went onto complete direct feeding in the past month.

Really praying hard for her relectance to wear off quickly. It's heart wrenching to see her cry, but it would be a more terrible ordeal during weaning if she doesn't take bottles. Let me know if you have any great way to manage this situation.

Cooking on Mondays

Apple soup - tastes very refreshing and i love to eat the apple!

Hubby loves bean sprouts!

Of course there's ALWAYS my fav chic :)

Pork rib with bean paste ... i'm getting quite good at this already ^_^

Steamed pomfret with salted veg - tasty and nutritious!

Eric is off on Monday, thus i usually will cook when the whole family comes together to eat (haha whole family = eric + me + maid). It's a good time for me to practice my so so culinary skills, and also to explore new recipes because hubby aka guinea pig is here! Woahaha ~~~

I'll always plan for a chicken, fish, meat, veg and soup. For soup, my guru neighbour taught me this apple soup. Initially i was quite puzzled: huh fruits can also cook soup meh?? But after adding some herbs, it did turn out very refreshing! It's very nutritious too!

For a long time we hadn't eaten bean sprout with salted fish. The first time i cooked this it was such a big flop: the sprouts turned out very soggy, i think i cooked it too long :( This time was better, and the taste of the salted fish was really fragrant! i must put in more spring onion next time as the dish would look better :) YAY!

I must say i'm getting quite an expert preparing the chicken wings and bean paste pork ribs. Have been doing this for quite a while so at least now i have something in my drawer in case anyone does a surprise visit haha.

Ok friends, visit me on Mondays. You'll get to do a good deed becoming my guinea pig. Cheers! :)